Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge I

GA 90a — 22 December 1903, Berlin

VIII. Cosmology and Planets

As soon as we go beyond the conditions of the earth, all knowledge becomes somewhat patchy and complicated, even for those in the know. If I say anything today about connections that are outside of the sun and the earth and go beyond them, then it is possible that it will be one-sided in some respects – if only because they are little known and sometimes too complicated. But some things will arise that are illuminating for the question that Franz Seiler has asked.

We must hold on to the fact that for the consideration of our solar system, the most important point of view is that, with the Copernican system, the sun is moved to the center of our solar system. And present-day astronomy regards the earlier world system, the Ptolemaic system, as an outdated and, as such, downright false system. However, it is only a difference in perspective. Astronomy presents all calculations with respect to the Earth, and Copernicus presents them with the Sun as the center, as if one were to describe a region with respect to one mountain and the same region from another mountain. Things are entirely relative. What we call rest and motion is more correctly represented in the Copernican system. But as far as rest and motion in the astral is concerned, this is more correctly represented in the Ptolemaic system.

The Middle Ages are not to be understood in exactly the same sense as our present-day conceptions. When you find the earth in the center in Dante, and then the spheres of the moon, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and then the sphere of the fixed stars, this does not mean the same physical sense of space as that understood by astronomy in the physical sense, but rather it means spiritual, mental connections. By the physical the medieval astronomer, who was not really an astronomer but a theosophist, understood only a sensualization of the spiritual connection. He did not understand the same, did not give the rough facts as the modern astronomer gives them, but he wanted to understand them as a sensualization of the spiritual connection of the world. Only another point of view was put in the place of the old point of view.

And now a few words about the connections themselves. We must be clear that the planets the ancients spoke of are not at the same stage of their development. While the Earth presents itself to us from the standpoint of Kama-Manas, the planet Mercury is today in a far more advanced state. It has already reached the point where earthly development will have arrived when we have developed the Budhi principle in all of humanity, when the Budhi principle will set the tone within earthly development.

Mercury is completely immersed in Budhi. On Venus we have Manas, pure Manas, which plays the same role as Kama-Manas on Earth. Venus and Mercury are planets that shine ahead of our Earth. They are therefore models for earthly development. [...] The Venusian and the Mercuryan are basically present throughout the solar system. They do not need to work, but they can work. So that on our Earth could occur what we call the appearance of the so-called Venus Sons. They could become teachers for the Earth as in the third Lemurian race this took place because the Earth needed this influence. It only requires the opportunity from outside for the Venus Sons. If the Earth does not need the influence, it is not there, if it needs it, it is there. That is the influence between Earth and Venus.

Then there is the planet Mars. In a certain respect, it represents a state that the Earth had already outgrown before it entered the lunar epoch. But that would not be today's Mars. It is no longer in the state that the present Moon is in. The Moon represents an externally overcome state of earthly development. Mars was already a moon and has entered a new line of development, so that it once represented the state and today is, so to speak, only at the place where our earth went through its pre-lunar epoch, the epoch in which it was in the state of pure prana. The lunarian epoch in Kama, the Mars epoch in the state of pure Kama. Plants and human beings, who have now developed the pranic principle as the highest principle. This took on the same role for them as Kama-Manas does for us. It would be a false idea if we believed that this was linked to pleasure and displeasure. That only came in the lunarian epoch.

These beings were purely engaged in reproduction. Even before that, the earth was in a state in which it developed the physical, purely elementary principle. So at that time, before the Mars epoch had come, the earth, or rather the forerunner of the earth, was purely physical. At that time, the forerunner of man was also already present. But he was only changeable in the physical life. He was an automaton, an automatic human being. All spiritual life was above man. He himself was only an automaton. The world body that man inhabited at that time was so elementary that it had no cohesive force, so it shattered. And that formed the ring of planetoids: the many planets that circle the sun like a ring.

How is it that Mars was able to develop further, although the body was shattered? Mars already had the life principle within it and therefore continued to live, while the other was only physical and had to disintegrate. So we have the four stages of development before us.

Our moon will later have completely disappeared, and in its place a new world body will shine, which will fertilize the kamic principle in a different way. In this way we have advanced to the planetoids and now come out of the circle of the planets, where we encounter Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus. There is no reason to speak of Neptune yet. It occupies a special position. It does not belong to our planetary system alone, but to another as well. It is a border planet. In contrast to this, we have to look at Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. You may say that Uranus was not yet known at that time. It was only discovered in the eighteenth century. But it was known in esoteric teaching. The three outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, counted. The planetoids, however, represented the fragmentation of the elemental realm.

Everything else is the reincarnation of what was there before. Our entire planetary chain was nothing more than the re-embodiment of states that had existed before. Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus represent the three higher cosmic principles, which simply reincarnated, first in the elemental, then in the pranic and so on, so that in Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus we have to recognize the three principles Atma, Budhi, Manas - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus.

Now I will characterize Saturn. He represents this upper triad in a very special way. I characterize him from the point of view of the spirit of our earth. He presents himself as the desire to reincarnate in the earthly chain of planets. You can imagine that the upper triad harbors the desire to become the earthly chain of planets. Saturn represents this aspiration. Imagine that it says to itself, “I want to form a planetary chain in which Kama-Manas becomes the middle principle: elemental-physical, pranic, kamic - Kama-Manas, Manas, Budhi.

The earth will become a kind of Venus-Jupiter-Sun when it is in the Sun. This wish is essentially expressed in the configuration of Saturn in that Saturn contains all the principles laid out next to each other. Actually, there are not seven, but nine principles. This also helps us to understand the configuration of Saturn. Man is three times threefold. He consists of body, soul and spirit. Each part consists of three parts again. Let us take the body first. It consists, firstly, of the physical body, secondly, the life body, and thirdly, the bodily form. First, think of the physical body. You have the stomach as a chemical laboratory, then the heart, a pumping station, and so on. The prana must work in this. These pranic parts must then be joined.

Secondly, the soul: it consists, firstly, of the sentient soul; secondly, of the mind soul – it can understand what it feels; thirdly, it is aware as the consciousness soul.

Thirdly, spirit: firstly, All-Spirit; secondly, human spirit; thirdly, human self-spirit-self. What the human spirit is is expressed by Christian esotericism as follows: the angels proclaim the glory of God. The human spirit is only aware of the glory of God, it is not itself.

[Stage] 3, 4, 6 and 7 combine and form only one. This gives us one. At the time when it was decided to form the chain of worlds, there were still nine. Saturn represents this plan. It represents the Kama-Manas, which stands in the middle. So we have four principles in front and four behind. Therefore Saturn has eight moons. That makes nine in total, and these nine together represent the preliminary plan for the creation of the world, while the ring signifies the process of becoming unified into a single entity. These unified principles are the archetypal human being. The ring is therefore also called “spiritus mund”. Thus Saturn would be the preliminary sketch of the planetary system. It looks like our solar system set apart. It is the archetype of our entire solar system. Within the upper triad, only one remains as Atma. This is Uranus.

And now Atma as unity, as upper triad with the Tetraktys. This presents itself as a common sphere for the upper principles, which are grouped around below as the four exemplary moons that Jupiter has. They are therefore not yet moons in our sense, but they are the principle of the moon before the moon is there. Our moon is a precipitated part. The four moons of Jupiter are driving, which can only be absorbed into Jupiter. Our principles apply only to our development. The deva development is already such that we cannot say that it has the same principles. Kama is already so different that we could not use it. The manasic principle of the devas is quite different, has quite different characteristics, although it is allied with us and we are able to understand it.

These indications are to be observed under certain conditions. But much has come to our knowledge only through tradition. Even Masters know about such things only because records are available from times when these things were still known. In the middle of the Lemurian race, the great teachers had come. We can know something about the Dhyani-Chohans. The Secret Doctrine is drawn from these records. Originally, it was only the Dzyan verses. These were only available in ancient records, accessible only under special conditions.