Initiatic Development and the Seven Planetary Embodiments of Earth

GA 94 — 8 July 1906, Leipzig

Lecture XI

The human soul can develop; its present state can be changed by training, especially of the etheric body. People who are ahead of others in their inner development are called initiates. The path they walk and teach is that of secret discipleship. Our root race, the Aryan, descends from the most highly developed sub-race of the Atlanteans, the Proto-Semitic, which last inhabited approximately the area of present-day Ireland. The island of Poseidonis mentioned by Plato can be seen as the last remnant of the sinking Atlantis. Manu, a leader of the Atlanteans, led the most mature people to the east. From there they migrated to the area of present-day India. An ancient culture arose there. This primeval Indian culture antedates the time when the Vedas originated by a long way. It was still somewhat dream-like and purely inward-looking. The state of mind of the ancient Indian was quite the opposite of our own today. He regarded everything external and visible as maya, as illusion, and reality was only the Brahman and what could be grasped by the Brahman.

A next culture emerged further west. This second culture is the proto-Persian, whose inaugurator and main leader was the great Zarathustra or Zoroaster. The Persians already reconciled spirit and matter and began to transform and reshape the material world through the human spirit.

A third culture emerged even further to the west, the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian culture. Here, people focused even more on the material world, the external sciences emerged, the study of natural forces and their laws. From time immemorial, this ancient science of our earth has said the following: The earth is also a being that is subject to re-embodiment. It has gone through earlier stages and will have further embodiments in the future. There are said to be seven planetary conditions or “planets” through which the earth develops. The names of these “planets” do not refer to our present planets, but to past or future states of the earth. These states are related to those of the planets from which they take their names. The first embodiment of the earth is called “Saturn”. Then follows the Sun, and after that the Moon. Mars and Mercury are the names given to the first and second halves of the development of the Earth. The remaining conditions are Jupiter and Venus. These seven embodiments of the Earth are intimately connected with the development of man and are therefore reflected even in everyday life in the names of the days of the week:

Thus, the world of stars was closely linked to everyday life. The ancient Egyptians were able to determine exactly when the Nile would flood and then recede after the Dog Star appeared, and they could organize their agriculture accordingly.

A fourth cultural epoch is the Greco-Latin one. The ancient Greeks and Romans not only believed in the laws of wisdom, but they also tried to impress this wisdom on things. This is how their works of art were created. The deed of Christ, the Mystery of Golgotha, takes place in the midst of this culture.

We ourselves live in the fifth cultural period of the fifth root race of the fifth Earth period. This is the Germanic-English-American culture. Its main task is the conquest of the physical plane. The subsequent sixth cultural period will have the task of leading the outer culture back to a higher spiritual life and that is what theosophy is working towards. The future task of the entire culture is to reconnect with the spirit. Each epoch has its special tasks. Present-day science has set aside Ptolemy's world system as false and recognized Galileo and Copernicus as true. For the astral plan, however, the Ptolemaic system is correct, since one has to start from completely different perspectives there. The sixth cultural period is still in a germinal state in Eastern Europe. It will be the bearer of the spiritual culture of the future.

There will come a time when man will have overcome the dualism of the sexes. Lower abilities, sexual drives, will be transformed into higher ones. It is not a matter of destroying the drives, but of ennobling them. For example, fantasy is a result of the ennobling of the spirit; it is an effect of the already purified passions. The higher development of the imagination leads to clairvoyant vision. As initiates can already do, so in the future all people will be able to perceive the soul content of their fellow human beings. Today, the word can pass on spiritual experiences through the air, later one will bring forth living beings through the word, and finally the word itself will be creative: then people will be magicians of the word.

The information about the occult training comes from a deeply rooted science. Two qualities are fundamental for this, which a person must have. He must be able to endure what is called great loneliness, and he must gain a certain basic mood of devotion. As for the first, loneliness in the midst of active life is meant for a few minutes a day, when one devotes oneself to meditation and concentration. This alone gives the soul inner strength. In the beginning, inner emptiness and sadness will arise, but these must be overcome. All people who have achieved a great deal have used this inner solitude for their concentration. The second main requirement is devotion, looking up with reverence to something higher. If you want to ascend, you must first be down and feel down. The Indian secret training requires complete submission of the disciple to his guru. The Rosicrucian initiation is the right one for the present-day man of the West. Before that, the Christian initiation arose. All three types of initiation are basically an expression of the same initiation, but the methods must change with the times.