59. The Names of the Days of the Week and the Evolution of Man

The order of the days of the week reflects the evolution of our planetary system. It is important to be aware that esoterically, the Earth is to be replaced by the two planets Mars and Mercury. The first half of the development of the Earth, from the beginning to the middle of the Atlantean era (1st, 2nd, 3rd and half of the 4th race) is associated with Mars, and the second half (1/2 of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th race) with Mercury in an esoteric sense. When the beings that had developed on the moon emerged from the pralaya darkness (the first round of the earth), the following aspects of the human being had developed: 1. the physical body (from Saturn). 2. the etheric double body (from the sun). 3. the sentient body (from the moon). After all that had been laid down from the moon, the sentient soul could now develop in the first half of the earth (1st, 2nd, 3rd round) – without external influence – and merge with the sentient body. Thus, by virtue of the tendency in the straight line of evolution, man was predisposed to become ossified as a being that would have been structured according to the following pattern:

Should man now develop further, he would need a new impetus. During the first half of its evolution, forces had to be planted on Earth that had not yet been present on the three previous world bodies. The guiding beings of Earth's development took such forces from Mars during the first half of this development; they took them from Mercury during the second. Through the Martian forces, the sentient soul (astral body) experiences a refreshment. It becomes what is called the mind soul in my “Theosophy”. Through the powers drawn from Mercury, this mind soul is refreshed again in such a way that it does not remain at its own level of evolution, but opens up to the consciousness soul. And within the consciousness soul, the “spirit self” (Manas) is born. This will be the principle ruling man on Jupiter. It will be the same with the life spirit (Budhi) on Venus and with Atma on Vulcan. If we thus parallel the members of the human being with the planets and their forces, insofar as the latter have a part in the formation of these members, we obtain the following scheme:

Man was not on Mars; but his mind-soul has such an esoteric relationship to this planet that its forces have been brought down from it. In spatial terms, one has to imagine that the Earth, before it became etheric (and therefore physical) in its fourth round, passed through Mars, which was then etheric. Schematically, one has to imagine it like this:

This transition lasted well into the physical era of the Earth, and while it was taking place, the guiding beings took the kamamateria necessary for the mind soul from Mars. Since the physical vehicle of the mind soul is warm blood (the Ares blood of the warrior), the iron of the Earth, which is a component of blood, was added at that time.

Nor will man ever really inhabit Mercury, but since the middle of the Atlantean world he has been in contact with the kamamateria (actually Kama-Manas matter) of Mercury, and from it the guiding beings have endowed the human consciousness soul with powers. Mercury (quicksilver) came to earth as a physical vehicle through this influence of Mercury. After the development of the earth to a plastic state, Mercury will pass through the earth in spatial terms. The earth itself will then be astral, but Mercury will be etheric. — This is shown schematically below:

The initiates have now laid down this entire evolutionary path of the earth in the sequence of the days of the week:

1. Saturday = Saturstag = Saturday
2. Sunday
3. Monday
4. Tuesday = mardi = diustag (diu is the German Ares, Mars or god of war)
5. Mercury day = mercredi = Wotanstag (Wotan is the German Mercury; see Tacitus' Germania)
6. Jupiter Day = jeudi = Donarstag (Donar is the German Jupiter)
7. Venus Day = vendredi = Frejatag (Freija is the German Venus)
8. Vulcan Day is not formed because repetition, like octave repetition, is the prime.

Now in the secret schools another law of the days of the week is taught, which does not contradict the first, but is quite compatible with it. It is based on the fact that a day is divided into four parts and each part is assigned a planet. The whole is then based on the planetary sequence at the distance from the Earth, namely

So you assign the planets to the quarters of the day in the order Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn; then you start again: Moon, Mercury, etc. When you have gone around so many times that the Moon is in first place again, seven days have been exhausted.

This division is based on the ratio of 4 (tetragrammaton) to 7. The purpose of this is that during the first part of the day, one of the basic parts is assigned to the planet to which it belongs according to its powers.

From such a law it can be seen how man is constructed out of the macrocosm and thereby has the most diverse relationships to the constellations of the macrocosm's bodies.