43. Consciousness – Life – Form

Saturn, in the times when it was on its physical level, thus represented a composite body consisting of fine etheric bodies; within it, the angels and archangels ruled as the life and nerve forces currently do in the human body. And just as the human body has sensory organs on the outside, so Saturn itself was covered with nothing but senses on its surface; only these senses were not receptive, but reflective. They reflected everything that made an impression from the orbit of the world body. There the luminous powers irradiated the surface of Saturn, and their light was reflected back many times over from the surface of the same. Sounds from the powers resounded, and these sounds were reflected back into space as a manifold echo; finally, the surface of Saturn was illuminated by the aroma of the powers, and it returned this in a manifoldly changed form. And the soul life of that marked Saturn being consisted in the perception of all these reflections. One can call this being the actual planetary spirit of Saturn. For there was indeed only one of its kind, just as in the human being there is a multiplicity of members, senses, etc., but only one self-consciousness. The whole of Saturn was the body of this planet spirit.