Lecture VII

We know indeed that man has only reached his present condition in the course of a long evolution, that he has developed to his present heights through different planetary stages. We know too that he will lift himself to higher stages of evolution in the future. Now we are also aware that when the human being was still in quite a dull state of consciousness on ancient Saturn, there were beings already in existence who stood as high as man stands today. There were beings too who at that time stood far higher than man stands today. We also know that there are beings today who have already attained a stage of evolution which man will only attain in the future. So we can look up to hierarchies—as they are called in occultism—of beings set over man whose various ranks are ranged one above the other.