Esoteric Lesson

On Saturn, the element of heat and fire was an element in itself, a fine material state of which we cannot form a physical mental image, finer than gas and air, a state like the warmth of our blood today. This was the basis of the human bodies of that time. Spiritual beings surrounded Saturn like a cloak, including the spirits of form. They also underwent a process of development. On Saturn, they had a lower limb, which can be compared to the etheric body of humans today. Then they had the astral body, the ego, the spirit self, the life spirit, spirit man, and a limb that is one degree higher than what humans can achieve. These spirits of form radiate fertilizing matter, life juices, from the Saturn mantle like a fertilizing, continuous rain. Saturn does not retain this radiation, but reflects it back like a mirror, just as the Earth collects rain and allows it to rise again as vapor. The spirits of form reflected their own image in the fiery mass of Saturn, and man already becomes an image of the deity there. The myth of Cronus and Gaia, his wife, tells us that Saturn devoured his children. The connection between the myth and the events surrounding Saturn is revealed in the following passage from a lecture given shortly before (Berlin, February 29, 1908) in “The Activity of Spiritual Beings in Man” (GA 102): "On ancient Saturn, the life-giving forces radiated out, were reflected back, and were taken up again by the mantle, by the atmosphere of Saturn. In ancient Greek mythology, the warm sphere of Saturn was called “Gaia” and the atmosphere was called “Cronus. Now consider the myth: the life-giving forces of Cronus continually radiate onto Gaia, onto Saturn, and then return, being absorbed. It is Cronus who continually devours his own children!”