43. Consciousness – Life – Form

In the third cycle of the earth, those human bodies that had not progressed far enough in the second cycle to have their image body supplied by the powers gathered on the sun, had to decline to a subordinate existence. They sank to the animal level from the animal-human level. Where could they now get the powers for their image body? They were no longer receptive to the solar powers of the perfected angels. But at every stage, beings fall behind in their development. They had fallen behind in their development until the third cycle of angels, and therefore could not find a place on the sun. During the second half of the third earth cycle they could not yet find the disposition to ascend to the sun. But they were also not made to continue to work on the image bodies of the perfecting human being. They had the gift of working only on such image bodies that had remained at the stage of lunar existence. Therefore, they withdrew from the earth's mass as the present moon. This is therefore a world body, which represents an earlier stage of the development of the earth in a hardened state, as it were. It is the dwelling place of those entities that did not want to become creators of the perfect human body. Their activity is found in the image bodies of animals; but they also continually direct their attacks at the image body of man, which is, after all, the sphere that has grown out of them. As soon as man strays even a little from devotion to his higher nature, which is revealed to him through the impressions of his senses, as soon as he falls prey to the powers that work in his image body, these beings gain influence over him. Their activity shows itself in wild dreams, in which the animal desires coming from his lower nature are reflected.