31. Life, Revelation, Wisdom, Love

The perfection of the physical body now also went through further stages, during which man secreted the plant and animal kingdoms out of himself as superfluous forces. On the second stage, he secreted the plant kingdom, the superfluous life force; on the third stage, he secreted the superfluous warmth and passion, whereby the animal kingdom was assessed. At each stage of the descent, the physical body of man was perfected by the addition of the other forces. From the second stage onwards, when the etheric body of man was endowed with the life force and the plant kingdom, the mineral kingdom also progressed towards perfection. From the third stage onwards, the astral body of man with the Kama and the animal kingdom were also formed. It was only after the human being's own warmth was drawn into him on the fourth stage that he could become self-aware and continue to work on his own perfection. On the fourth stage, his physical body reached perfection, and with his physical body, the mineral kingdom around him. His etheric body and astral body were still less perfect, and his I was the least perfect, which could only enter the fully developed physical body at the fourth stage. Of the natural kingdoms, the mineral kingdom, which corresponds to his physical body, was now fully developed. The plant and animal kingdoms were still imperfect and therefore had to go through further stages: the plant kingdom one more stage and the animal kingdom two more stages. But man has to go through one more stage to develop the still imperfect [etheric body], two more stages to develop the [astral body] and three more stages to fully develop the I. Then man will have become the full expression of the I.