{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 13/l04/p031","lang":"en","edition":"AP1972","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":false,"text":"The second of the great evolutionary periods alluded to, the “ *Sun* stage,” effects the raising of man to a condition of consciousness higher than that which he attained on *Saturn*. Compared with the present consciousness of man, this *Sun* stage could, to be sure, be designated as “unconsciousness,” for it closely approximates the state in which the human being now exists during completely dreamless sleep. It might also be compared with the low degree of consciousness in which our plant world is at present slumbering. For supersensible perception there is no such thing as “unconsciousness,” but only varying degrees of consciousness. Everything in the world possesses consciousness.—The human being attains a higher degree of consciousness in the course of the *Sun* evolution because at that time his nature is invested with the etheric or life body. Before this can occur, however, the *Saturn* conditions must be recapitulated, as described above. This recapitulation has a quite definite significance. When the period of rest, of which we have spoken in the previous description, has come to an end, what was formerly *Saturn* issues forth out of “cosmic sleep” as a new cosmic being, the *Sun*. But as a result, the conditions of evolution are changed. The spiritual beings, whose activities on *Saturn* have been described, have now advanced to other conditions. The germinal human being, however, first appears on the newly formed *Sun* just as it was at the end of the *Saturn* evolution. It must first transform the various evolutionary stages that it had reached on *Saturn*, so that they conform with the conditions on the *Sun*. The *Sun* epoch, therefore, begins with a recapitulation of the occurrences on *Saturn*, but adjusted to the changed conditions of the life of the *Sun*. When the human being has developed to the point where the stage of his evolution acquired on *Saturn* conforms to the conditions of the *Sun*, the already mentioned Spirits of Wisdom, the Kyriotetes, begin to let the ether or life body flow into the human physical body. The more advanced stage that man attains on the *Sun* may be characterized by saying that the physical body, germinally formed already on *Saturn*, is raised to a second stage of perfection by becoming the bearer of an ether or life body. This ether or life body itself attains the first degree of its perfection during the *Sun* evolution. In order, however, that this second degree of perfection of the physical body and the first degree of perfection of the life body be attained, it is necessary in the further course of the life of the *Sun* that yet other spiritual beings interpose themselves in a way similar to what was already described for the *Saturn* stage.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"IV. The Evolution of the Cosmos and Man","site_heading":null,"date":null,"location":null,"word_count":456,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/13/l04/p031?edition=AP1972","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":null,"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["AP1972","RSP1969"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/13/l04/p031"},{"lang":"en","edition":"RSP1969","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/13/l04/p031"},{"lang":"en","edition":"AP1972","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":false,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/13/l04/p031?edition=AP1972","paragraph_aligned":true}],"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.13,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":46710,"original_word_count":41323,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"status":"unknown","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 13/l04/p031"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}