60. The Development of the Earth

You know that the Lunar Pitris, the beings who precede man by one stage, have to bring their existence on the moon to a stage that is analogous to the stage of human existence on earth. Let us now consider the middle of the earth's development. You know that man absorbs the impacts of Mars and Mercury and thus strives towards his “Jovian existence” as one strives towards an ideal. Of the three parts of the astral body – the sentient soul, the mind soul and the consciousness soul – man brings only the first, the sentient soul, from the moon; the mind soul comes from the impact of Mars, the consciousness soul from that of Mercury. The consciousness soul can only unfold because the forces that will later come to full development on Jupiter are already casting their shadows, so to speak. The consequence of this casting of shadows is the unfolding of the consciousness soul, which, as described in my Theosophy, can only then become the bearer of the spirit self. Insofar as the human being develops 'Manas' today, he is already living into the Jupiter stage. The Jupiter stage is now followed by the development of Venus for all beings that belong to the seven-part human evolution. Just as the human being lives towards Jupiter, so the Lunar Pitris of the moon (the 'twilight spirits'), when they have undergone their normal development, live towards the Venus existence. And the “fire spirits” are already there. They live there towards their existence on Vulcan.