Man, Nature and the Cosmos

GA 91 — 18 June 1905, Berlin

2. The Beings of Our Cosmos

Man, who is the center of our cosmos, has four stages, and they are: his being, his life, his feeling and his self-consciousness. One is right to distinguish these stages, because on earth there are beings that have only one stage, only being: the mineral; beings that have two stages, being and life: the plants; and those that have three stages: Being, life and sensation - the animals. The beings that are above man, the gods, have even higher levels in addition. Man has all these four levels on the physical plan. We get to know through sensual perception his being; when man moves and stirs, his life; when he feels, desire and dislike, his sensation; when he speaks: his self-consciousness. All this is on the physical plan.

For the other beings we perceive only the stages indicated for them. But it does not follow that they do not have the other stages. Only their consciousness is not on the physical plan as in the case of man, but it works down from a higher plan. The clairvoyant notices that the animal has its consciousness on the astral plane, and it is not one animal that has the consciousness, but a whole series has it together. This is called a group soul; it is a communal consciousness on the astral plane. It is the regulator, the regent for the whole animal species. The plants have similarly developed a self-consciousness, but on the lower mental plan. From there, like threads, go down the conduits, and these guide the individual plants. The minerals have their common consciousness on the arupa plane.

It presents itself, if we consider a genus of animals, as if threads were reaching down from the astral plan and directing the individual animals. But it is not that astral plan on which we are in the dream [- monkey is probably there]. But all the animals, which have separated from man before the moon split, have their consciousness on the lunar astral plan. Therefore the animals are in a certain relation to the moon. They change with the rising and waning moon. Our plants partly have their group soul on the sun, because they had separated from man when the sun separated from the earth. So that the sun gives not only light and warmth to the plant, but also the regulating consciousness. Thus everything is connected with the whole cosmos. Our solar system is a collective body that exerts magnetic force among itself. These are magnetic lines of force.

Some institutions of our earth can be explained only in an occult way. We find the living together reasonably regulated in the earlier people; this was implanted in them, they could not do otherwise. Then man became freer; what used to be instinct, he now regulates by reason. With the Iroquois this can still be traced in the formation of language. Still with the Mongols there was an instinctive consciousness of cohesion through eighteen generations; then two streams emerged, which in turn united and formed one tribe.

The Greek felt himself a link in the polis in connection with the others. The Roman felt himself a Roman and then a member of a particular race. It was not until the North Germanic peoples that such a strong emphasis was placed on the personal. The future will develop selflessness in community; people will form groups. The foundation was already laid when, at the time of the Lemurian race, people were gifted with manas. Manas, which rises to Budhi, is the society-creating principle. On our earth there are associations of great internal regularity, for instance, in groups of animals such as bees and ants, which build things up in such a way that the greatest human reason could not do better. The dog cannot grasp, where from that comes with the human being, what eludes his consciousness. It is the same with the man who looks at the bee-state: He does not see the associated BudhiManas principle; this seems reasonable. The Budhi-Manas principle, which descended to the Earth, has formed elsewhere, namely on the planet Venus. With the sons of Venus - Manasaputras - came down peculiarly beautiful group souls, namely those of bees and ants. That is the reason why these states are so special. They are merely the terminal members of higher consciousness, like the fingertips compared to the human brain. Our domestic animals are more individual, but their group souls are far behind those of bees and ants.

The Insightful One speaks so much of Maya and illusion because he thinks that things are opaque unless viewed from higher plans: They are here offshoots.