Man, Nature and the Cosmos

GA 91 — 25 June 1905, Berlin

6. The Process of Incarnation in Connection with Heavenly Relations

If one follows the sun as it rises, one sees that it does not rise at the same point every day, but that it rises at a certain point in the spring and then gradually advances further and further. This [point] is determined according to a sign in the [zodiac]: Now the Sun rises in the sign of Pisces ♓, formerly it was in the sign of Aries ♈, still earlier in the sign of Taurus ♉, and if we go further and further back the circle we come to the sign of Gemini ♊, Cancer ♋, Leo ♌, Virgo ♍, Libra ♎, Scorpio ♏, Sagittarius ♐, Capricorn ♑, Aquarius ♒.

Around 800 BC, the Sun began to rise in the sign of Aries or the Lamb. The constellations are so far apart that they always make up about one-twelfth of the circle. From one constellation the sun passes into the other. Around the year 1800 the sun moved into the constellation of Pisces, so it took 1800+800=2600 years to pass from one constellation to the other. This is always connected with great transformations on the Earth. There are always significant cultural changes going on. The changes in the conditions of the earth are of course connected with the fact that the sun has great influence on the earth. Everything that is called mental in man is connected with the sun, everything physical with the earth. When man lives on the earth, [he is dependent on the earth, develops according to the earthly conditions]. 2600 years ago man took up different than now; then he was formed to be an athlete, for example, now he is formed to be a writer.

Also on the sun the conditions are changing. We can say that for the Sun, for the Earth the changes have great importance. When man is spiritually embodied, he lives in the conditions of the Sun, in Devachan. He is connected with the earth gravity as long as he is on earth. If he dies, he will be related to the solar gravity. The moon is in between, it is connected with the astral body, forms the intermediate stage between the earth and the sun - Kamaloka.

The incarnations have the purpose that man really goes through what he can go through. Not haphazard are the incarnations, but man is connected with the solar existence, so that he develops mentally just as the sun moves in its [ecliptic]. In 12 times 2600 years, that is in 31200 years, the sun goes once around through all constellations. This is also the time in which man goes through his mental development. He goes through twelve stages in a cycle, then he always meets different stages on earth, in which he learns new things. Female-male is occultly counted together, so that he has to go through twenty-four incarnations. This is the law of the interspace between new birth and death. This coincides approximately also with the race formations. Always between two such [constellations] a new race arises. In each race man has incarnated twice, as man and as woman. He finds different conditions and learns in different ways. Pedantic regularity in the incarnations does not exist; because it does not depend only on the inner conditions of man. [When the earth can use someone, then the law is broken.] So, on the whole, only in general this cycle of individuality coincides with the cycle of race. The intermediate time is also related to the laws of heaven.

Man comes to Kamaloka by the fact that his astral body is still connected with the drives and desires which he can satisfy only on earth, in the physical shell. As long as the human being has not gotten out of the habit of desiring, so long it lasts. Man has been completed in his present physique by the coming out of the moon. Therefore, his instinctive life is connected with the moon. The urge to the physical body is implanted by the moon and is connected with the moon forces. Therefore, man is embodied with the sphere of the moon as long as these drives last in him. A lunar cycle lasts eighteen years. This is also the time man must remain in the Kamaloka.

All these deeper truths are expressed in the religious-ritual formulas. Thus we have also the gateway to the so-called astrology.

A new cycle is the occurrence of the same conditions. The evolution runs along a spiral, so that each time it starts at a slightly higher point.