The Elementary Kingdoms

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The Elementary Kingdoms

The Nature of the Elementary Beings, Their Activities, and Influence

A Lecture given by

Rudolf Steiner

Munich, December 4th, 1907

This document is lecture 4 of 18 lectures in the lecture series entitled, The Working of Natural Substance and

Spiritual Essence in the Visible World.

What has been the generally designated as the Elementary Kingdoms, since the earliest times, is

not so easy to understand as we are apt to imagine after a superficial examination. For these

Elementary Kingdoms belong to what lies behind the world which we generally perceive behind the

world which forces itself immediately upon our senses.

We can understand such things in the best way, if we proceed from what we can perceive through

our senses from the kingdom of the sense-world, which are accessible to human observation. Here,

in the physical sense-world, four kingdoms are spread out before our senses: the mineral kingdom, the

vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the kingdom of man. This is common knowledge. Let us

now try to form some clear idea as to the precise nature of these four kingdoms; for this is by no

means clear to the average person. And for this same reason, it is also not so easy to gain an insight

into the first, second and third elementary kingdoms. It is precisely when we speak of such difficult

matters, that we must take great care, from the very outset, to realize that no true goal can be reached,

if we believe that a concept which we have, as it were, driven like a stake into the ground, can then be

left rooted in this place. This may still be possible within the physical sense-world, for here, things

stand one beside another; there is a division between them, just as this book, this piece of chalk, a

rose, etc., are distinct and separate from one another. It is possible, in this case, to apply a thought to a

single object, for when we have named something, we can be sure that we have before us something

distinct and limited. If, however, we send to the astral plane, that world which is immediately beyondour own, and permeates it, as the one nearest to it, we find that this no longer holds true, for, in the

astral world, there is eternal movement. If you observe the astral body of man, which floats around

him as his aura and is the expression of his passions, etc., you will see that this astral body of man is in

a continual movement it is an ebb and flow, a rise and fall of colors and forms, which change at

every moment, for new colors shine forth and others disappear, at every moment. This is what we find

in the case of man. But there are other Beings which whirl about on the astral plane. Their astral

bodies do not form part of the physical body, although at the same time they are nonetheless

changeable, for at every moment they have a different shape, color, or luminous force. Everything on

the astral plane is the continual manifestation of the inner nature of these Beings. We would, indeed,

find ourselves in a difficult position if we were to apply to the astral plane the rigid, unchangeable

thoughts of the physical world. We must learn instead to adapt ourselves to the mobility of theseshapes we must acquire mobile thoughts. We should be able to use a concept, once in this way, and

once in that.

This is true of the higher worlds to a still greater degree. If we consider the world from a higher

standpoint, we find that everything on the physical plane is an expression of forces emanating from

these higher worlds. In everything we see about us, such forces and beings lie concealed. It is precisely

this fact which explains the great variety among the beings of the physical world. Observe, for

instance, the mineral kingdom. All apparently lifeless beings, all minerals, belong to this kingdom.


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You are told, to begin with, that these minerals upon the earth have no etheric body of their own, no

astral body and no Ego. But this is true only within the physical world. We must know this, in order to

reach a clear conception of what actually takes place upon the physical plane. But let us now suppose

that someone were to say: The mineral is something which has nothing but a physical body. This

statement is exactly as false, as on the other hand it would be true, were someone to say: The

mineral kingdom is something which has, upon the physical plane, only a physical body. For, in the

light of a genuine spiritual method of observation, we find that here, upon the physical plane, themineral has a physical body, but nothing more. If we wish to find its etheric body, we must ascend to

the astral plane: there, its etheric body is to be found. The moment that a human being becomes

astrally clairvoyant, he is able to see the etheric body of the mineral there, on the astral plane and

here, on the physical plane, he sees merely its physical body. If we extend our observations still

further, we find that the mineral has also an astral body. This body cannot be found, however, upon

the astral plane, but must be sought in the lower regions of Devachan. Only in the higher Mental

plane, is the Arupa-Mental plane, do we find the Ego of the mineral and it is from here, that the

mineral is directed by its Ego. If you wish to form a rough picture of this, you must say to yourselves: I

will try to imagine a human being, whose clairvoyance reaches as far as the higher Devachan. To such

a clairvoyance, who is able to see into Arupa, the minerals will appear like the fingernails of the

human being nails of Beings whose Ego dwells in higher Devachan. It is not possible to think of thefingernails without the human being; the same thing must be applied also to the minerals.

Let us suppose that we are observing a rock-crystal here upon the earth. If we now look away for a

moment, our clairvoyant gaze discovers the etheric body, which gives life to the physical body, there,

in the astral world. Yet it would not be possible to perceive there, that any injury caused to the

mineral, also causes it pain. The joy and gladness, pain and suffering of minerals can only be found

upon the Devachanic plane but entirely differently from the way in which we usually imagine this. A

mineral's sensation of pain is not like that of an animal; we must not think that a mineral feels pain

when we hammer it and break it into pieces. When workmen in a quarry break stone, this actually

gives rise to a feeling of pleasure upon the Devachanic plane it is a true delight for the minerals.

Thus, in their case, we find the very opposite of what takes place in the kingdom of man and in the

animal kingdom. On the Devachanic plane, it is not merely one mineral which belongs, as it were, to a

mineral personality, but rather a whole system of minerals just as, imaginatively speaking your

fingernails do not each possessed a separate soul. If someone were to imagine that everything of an

astral nature must be found upon the astral plane, he would be under a delusion. It seems, of course,

natural to look for the astral element upon the astral plane nevertheless, the inner nature of a Being

must be distinguished from the environment in which it lives. Just as your Ego has no physical nature,

and lives nevertheless upon the physical plane, so the astral body of the mineral does not live on the

astral plane but in lower Devachan. We must not have delayed our thoughts according to a system, but

must rather work our way through, with the aid of a more precise analysis and understanding of

things.

Let us now observe the plant, just as we see it before us. Here, on the physical plane, it has itsphysical body and its etheric body. It has these two bodies on the physical plane but where are we to

look for the astral body of the plant? We shall find it in the astral world and the Ego, in the lower

Devachan. Let us now go a step further, to the animal. The animal has, in the physical sense-world, a

physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body but it's Ego is on the astral plane. That is to say:

just as, here on the earth, defined in the human being as an isolated person, as a single individuality,

so you will find the Egos of the animals, as complete, self-contained personalities, upon the astral

plane. But we must think of this in the following way: All groups of animals which have a similar form,

have also a common Ego. Man, therefore, distinguishes himself from the animals, owing to the fact


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that every human being has an individual Ego. On the astral plane, we find for instance, that the Ego

of the lions, the Ego of the Tigers, etc. There, they are single, self-contained Beings; the single animal

group-souls inhabit the physical sense-world. But in the case of the human being, he must recognize

the fact that the physical body, etheric body, astral body and the Ego have all descended as far as the

physical plane. This is true, however, only when the human being is awake when he is asleep it is

otherwise. The physical and etheric bodies are then in the physical world, whereas the astral body and

the Ego are on the astral plane. Thus, during sleep, the fourfold human being is separated into parts,and is to be found partly on the physical plane and partly on the one directly above this the astral

plane. On the physical plane, the human being is then of the same worth as a plant.

Now we have already learned to know, in previous lectures, the nearest ways in which the

expressions astral, etc. must be used. But we shall attain to a real penetration and insight into these

things, only if we realize clearly that we cannot push them about like the men on a chessboard. If we

study the human being, we must observe him quite precisely, in the following way: We find in him the

physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the Ego. It has often been emphasized here, how

very important it is to form a clear conception concerning the relation of these four members. It is

very easy to imagine that the physical body is the most imperfect and the lowest of these. From a

certain aspects, however, it is the most perfect of all for it has passed through four successive stagesof evolution upon ancient Saturn, Sun, Moon, and upon the Earth. The etheric body has reached its

third stage of perfection, for only upon the Sun was added to the physical body. In the future, it will

indeed rise to a higher stage although at present, it is not yet as perfect as the physical body. The

astral body was added to the other two bodies upon the Moon, hence it has reached only the second

stage of perfection. The Ego is the baby among the four members of man: for it was added only upon

the Earth, and is thus only at the beginning of its evolution; it works continually in a corruptive way

upon the other bodies. Anyone who studies, from an anatomical point of view, the wonderful

organization of the physical body, must be filled with wonder by the perfection of the heart and of the

brain. How imperfect, on the other hand are the impulses and passions of the Ego! The Ego craves for

wine, beer, etc., whichever destructive influence throughout life nevertheless, the physical body

with stands these attacks for decades! Let us now try to make clear to ourselves how the Ego was

inserted, as it were, within the physical body how it first arose.

To begin with, there was the ancient Saturn-evolution. This was the first stage of evolution for the

precursor of our present physical body. At that time man's physical body had the cosmic value of a

mineral. If you look at a mineral today, you will see in it a retarded stage of existence; it has remained

behind at the same stage which the physical body had reached upon Saturn. But you must not think

from this that the physical body had then the appearance of a mineral of today. this would be quite

wrong. The present minerals are the youngest forms in evolution. Upon Saturn, the human body was

not so dense; this density of the physical body of man was very slight indeed.

Let us now consider the relation between the various stages of matter. The first is what we call

Earth that is, everything which today may be called a solid body iron, copper, tin, etc. Everythingsolid is Earth. Secondly, everything liquid is Water for instance, quicksilver. Even iron, and a liquefied

state would be Water. From the third-place, if you convert water into steam it becomes Air. Occultism,

here goes still further, for it shows that the air may become still more rarefied may become thinner

still. In this case, we must transcend what is physical, in the modern sense and here the cultist

speaks of Warmth-Ether, or Fire. For the occultist, Fire is something distinct within itself, just like

Earth, Water, and Air whereas modern science merely looks upon the fire, or heat, as a state, work

condition of matter.


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Upon Saturn, heat was the substance of man's physical body. On the Sun, the physical body of

man was condensed to air; at the same time, an etheric, or life-body, entered into it, transforming this

physical body. We now have a physical body, with an etheric body consisting of one member, and the

physical body of two members. In the case of the physical body upon this Sun, we must distinguish a

more perfect than the less perfect part that is to say, one part was not as yet permeated by the

etheric body. When picturing to ourselves to physical body upon the Sun, they must realize that the

inner part of this physical body has received nothing from the etheric body; it has still the same valueas the physical body had upon Saturn. Thus, we have one part which has already attained to the stage

of a plant, and this part is at the same time permeated by another part, which is still upon the stage of

a mineral: nevertheless, these two parts completely permeate one another.

Let us now consider the physical body upon the Moon. Here, it is already condensed to water, and

the astral body is incorporated within the etheric and physical bodies. Thus, we must now distinguish

three different parts: One part is permeated by the etheric and astral bodies; another part is

permeated only by the etheric body; and a third part has remained at the mineral stage.

And now, let us consider the physical body upon the Earth. Here, the Ego is added. On the Earth,

four members are interwoven. One part of the physical body is permeated by the etheric body, astralbody and the Ego; a second part, by the etheric body and astral body; a third part, by the etheric body

only; and a fourth part remains at the mineral stage. It has the same value as has a mineral, and is still

on the stage of the Saturn. These four parts can be clearly distinguished in the physical body. The first

part, which contains all four members, consists of the red blood corpuscles. Wherever we find red

blood, these four members permit one another.

The nerves on the second part, or member. Where nerves are found, there the physical, etheric

and astral bodies permeate one another. Where clans are to be found, the physical and etheric bodies

interpenetrate. All the instruments of the senses, all organs which have the character of a physical

apparatus, have reached merely the stage of the mineral. They follow exactly the same laws as do the

minerals. The eye and the ear, for instance, belong to these mineral parts; also in the brain, we find

such mineral parts. Thus you can see for yourselves how easily one may be tempted at times to

become a materialist because of something mineral does actually permeate the whole body. If a

materialist declares that the brain is mineral, he is in part right that is, if he considers merely one

aspect of the brain. Particularly in certain parts of the frontal brain although these are, indeed,

permeated by others mineral forces alone are active. And were we to study the bones and muscles, it

would become still more competition. When the human Ego entered into man, it began to work upon

the sentient soul, the understanding soul, and the consciousness soul; and at the same time, it formed

the bones and muscles. If we wish to observe these things exactly, we need years of study, only to be

able to keep them distinct and separate. We must trace one thing after the other, with patience.

If we now have before us a sleeping human being, his physical body and etheric body lie upon the

bed. But this physical body is very complicated. When the human being is awake, the astral body andthe Ego work within his blood. But what happens when the physical body lies on the bed, in the

human being is asleep? The functions of the etheric body are indeed still carried on yet there can be

no blood, unless an astral body and an Ego are active within it. Hence, every night, the blood would be

doomed to death, since it is dependent upon the ego and the astral body. But these as we know, leave

the body leave it mercilessly. Also the whole nervous system is mercilessly abandoned, for the

nervous system is dependent upon the astral body. Thus, we have before us the strange fact that in

reality, the blood and the nervous system would have to die every night they would fall a prey to

death, if they would be obliged to depend entirely upon the human being. Other Beings must come to


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their aid; other Beings must take over the work of man. From other worlds, other Beings must pour

their activity into man, in order to preserve what he so treacherously abandons. We shall not try to

explain the nature of these Beings who become active when man is asleep, and to make it possible for

him to preserve his blood intact.

We can form an idea of these Beings, if we ask ourselves: where does the human Ego really live,

when it lives here, upon the physical plane? In which one of the three kingdoms does it live? And wemust ask ourselves further: how much can we really know, without clairvoyant perception? Without

clairvoyance, we can, in reality, gain knowledge only of the mineral kingdom. This is the peculiar

characteristic of the human being that he cannot even grasp the plant completely, as long as he is

not astrally clairvoyant. Materialists declare that plants are merely a conglomerate of mineral

processes just because they can see only the plant's mineral nature. When the human beings will

have progressed, in their work upon themselves, as far as the first stage of clairvoyance, the life of the

plants and the laws of life will then appear to them just as clearly as do now the laws of the mineral

world.

If you wish to construct a machine, or to build a house, you must do this in accordance with the

laws of the mineral world. Initiates constructive according to these laws of the mineral world; but youcannot construct a plant in this way. If you wish to have a plant, you must leave this work to those

Beings which form the foundations of Nature. In the future, it will be possible to produce plants in the

laboratory, but only when human beings will regard this as a sacrament, as a holy rite. Only one man

has become so earnest and purified, that he looks upon the laboratory-table as an altar, will he be

permitted to produce living substance. Until this time has arrived, however, not even the slightest

detail concerning the way in which living beings are constituted, will be revealed to him. In other

words: The Ego lives, as a cognitive being, in the mineral kingdom, but it will ascend, in the future, to

the vegetable kingdom, and it will learn to know this kingdom, just as today, it knows the mineral

kingdom. Still later, it will learn to grasp also the laws of the animal kingdom; and finally, those of the

human kingdom. All human beings will learn to know and to grasp the inner nature of plants, animals,

and of man these are prospects for the future. Whatever we really understand, we can also produce

for instance, a clock. But the human being of our day will never be able to produce anything

belonging to the sphere of living Nature, without the help of the Beings that lie behind nature, as long

as such a work has not become for him a sacramental rite. Only then will he be able to ascend from the

mineral kingdom to the vegetable kingdom. The human being is already a human being, at the present

time; but his knowledge is restricted to the mineral kingdom. The Ego of man lives within a human

form, but when this human Ego looks out into the world, its knowledge is limited to the mineral

kingdom. The Ego thus possesses only the capacity to vitalize the blood in a mineral fashion it is

unable to do more. Although the Ego lives within the blood, during the day dwelling within it and

vitalizing it nevertheless it does this merely in a mineral way.

How does it do this? If you look out into the world, your cognitive forces will reveal to you the laws

of the mineral kingdom. Try to observe for yourself the peculiar quality of this human activity.Y

oulook out into the world through your senses; you grasp the mineral laws, and during your waking

hours, you impress these laws upon your blood you force them into the entire substance of your

blood, thus vitalizing it in a mineral way. This is the peculiar process each takes place during the act of

cognition. Now imagine to yourselves the human being, in accordance with the following diagram (it

cannot be produced here) ... the laws of the mineral world streaming into him from all sides. They do

not, however, remain merely within his sense-organs; but while the human being is awake, they

stream together with the blood, throughout the whole human body.


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Now, what does the plant-world do? You will understand what takes place in the case of a plant, if

you bear in mind the following fact: You have often been told that the Ego works upon the man's other

bodies and transforms the astral body into the Spirit-Self. In the same degree that this takes place, do

the laws of the vegetable kingdom stream into the human nervous system. When the human being has

reached the next stage of clairvoyance, the laws of the animal kingdom will permeate his glandular

system, and finally, when he is able to work upon the transformation of his physical body, the laws of

the human kingdom itself will flow into the human body. All this should be thought of as applying tothe waking state and to the various stages of a higher clairvoyant consciousness. Does we can say that

the human being has reached, at the present time, a stage where the Ego permits the laws of the

mineral kingdom to stream into the blood. But it is able to do this only during the waking state for,

the mineral laws can enter the blood only while man is awake. While he is asleep however, the blood

must also be cared for. And because this blood has been worked upon, throughout four successive

stages of evolution, three other powers must now step in with their activity. The first of these is a

power which is the most closely related to the way in which the Ego has worked upon the blood but

it is a power which has not descended as far as the physical plane. The blood would be given over to

death, did not another Ego work upon it, while the human being is asleep ... another Ego which has

remained upon the astral plane, and now intervenes by taking over the work upon the blood. If we

observe the human blood, this peculiar fluid, we find that while the human being is awake, the Egoof man is active within it, here on the physical plane. During the night however, the blood is worked

upon by an Ego which dwells upon the astral plane. For there are such Egos.

Now I have referred, only recently, to Egos living upon the astral plane namely, to the group-

souls of the animals. But in this case we are dealing with another species of Egos, dwelling upon the

astral plane, which work upon the human being and vitalize his blood, when the Ego of man has

abandoned it. By what means do they accomplish this? And what is it that they bring into the blood?

They bring into it that which, ever since the time of Saturn, must always be present in the human body

namely fire, heat. These are spirits which have never descended as far as the physical plane

spiritual Beings that live on the astral plane and have a body of fire. In the mineral kingdom,

everything appears to us endowed with a certain degree of heat. Heat is met with as a quality of solid,

liquid, and gaseous bodies. But now, try for a moment to think of heat, of warmth, quite

independently, quite by itself ... it does not exist as such upon the physical plane. But upon the astral

plane, you would meet with such warmth, or heat, streaming there and thither heat as an

independent being and within it, you would discover Beings embodied, such as we were ourselves

upon ancient Saturn. These Beings enter into the blood during the night, and vitalize it with their

warmth. But something else must also take place for the astral body also abandoned the blood, and

this body too, is indispensable to it. Dust it is not sufficient if these Ego-beings alone approach man

during the night and work upon him with their warmth-bodies but other beings as well are needed,

which work upon the blood in the same way as does the astral body. These Beings have their Ego upon

the Devachanic plane, and this Ego possesses a still higher body, which is not even condensed as far as

heat. The Ego which I described first, did not descend even as far as the astral plane for it has

remained in Devachan. It permeates the blood and carries on within it, an activity which correspondsto that of the astral body during the day.

Thus you may see how we are cared for and protected during the night by higher Beings which do

not live in the mineral kingdom. The human Ego has descended as far as the mineral kingdom, and

will later ascend to the vegetable kingdom, etc. These other Egos have remained behind the human

kingdom during the successive stages of evolution; they form the hidden kingdoms, the Elementary

Kingdoms, which lie behind our physical world, and which work down into it. The first Being which

works in our blood during the night, as a body of heat just as we have a physical body; it permeates


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the blood which heat and at the same time, lives upon the astral plane with its body at heat.

Through this warmth-body, it belongs to the third Elementary Kingdom. These Beings, belonging to

the third Elementary Kingdom, are the companions of the Group-Egos of the animals they belong

to the same region. And what are the capacities of these Egos? They need not have the same capacities

as a human Ego, which has descended as far as the physical sense-world; but they are able

nevertheless, to act as a substitute for the human Ego, from the astral plane. These Egos work down

from the astral plane, in the same way that the animal Group-Egos work down upon the animals;Souls of the animals. In other words, they fill man's astral body with impulses, desires, and passions.

If we have before us an astral body what lives within this astral body? In addition to the Ego, Beings

live within it whose Ego dwells upon the astral plane. These Beings permeates the astral body just as

maggots live in cheese. This is the third Elementary Kingdom: it is the kingdom which forms impulses

and passions of an animal nature.

But behind this kingdom lies another, namely the second Elementary Kingdom. This kingdom is

active within a purer element, for it moulds and forms the shapes of the plants. But it's activity

extends also to the human being to his many elements which have a plant-like character nails,

hair, etc. These are not permeated by the astral body, but merely by the etheric body; for this reason

they feel no pain. The hair and nails are products from which the astral body has already withdrawn it is possible to cut them, without causing pain. At an earlier time however, the astral body was also

within these. Many things in the human being are of a plant-like nature, and within all these plants-

like elements, the Beings of the second Elementary Kingdom are active. Hence, that which builds up

the body of a plant consists of the forces belonging to the second Elementary Kingdom. Within the

plant are active both the Plant-Ego,, which permeates the etheric and astral bodies and these Beings of

the second Elementary Kingdom. Whereas the Ego of the plants works upon the plant from within,

these other Beings work upon it from without forming it, making it grow and blossom. The whole

plant is permeated by an etheric body. But it does not possess an astral body of its own; instead the

entire astral body of the Earth forms the common astral body of the plants. The Ego of the plants is to

be found at the center of the earth. This is true for all plants. For this reason, if you pull up a plant by

the roots you cause pain to the earth; but, if you pick a flower, the earth will have a feeling of well-

being, as a cow has a feeling of well-being when her calf sucks her milk. It is also a wonderful

experience when the corn is moved in the autumn, to see how great ways of well-being streamed over

the earth! The Beings which work upon the plants, from out of the second Elementary Kingdom, and

help it to take form, fly toward the plant from all sides, like butterflies. The renewal and repetition of

the leaves, blossoms, etc., is their work. This is what acts upon the plants from out of the second

Elementary Kingdom.

In like manner, there is a first Elementary Kingdom, which gives the minerals their form. The

animals received their shape, or form a form determined by instincts and desires from the Beings

belonging to the third Elementary Kingdom. The leaves, etc., of the plants are formed by the second

Elementary Kingdom; this work consists chiefly of repetitions. But performing, shaping forces of the

minerals, which workout of the formless element, are to be found in higher Devachan, in Arupa-Devachan. These three Elementary Kingdoms permeate one another, flow into one another. One who

imagines everything distinct and separate, will never attain to a living understanding. In the vegetable

kingdom, the vegetable and mineral kingdoms permeate one another. In the animal kingdom, the

animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms interpenetrate. And in a human being, the Ego is added to

these. For, with the incomes of the Ego, the human kingdom first arose upon the earth. It is the blood

which first makes man a human being; all the kingdoms are contained within it. But the Ego can for

the present, penetrate with its cognitive forces only into the mineral kingdom; it must leave the other

kingdoms to the Beings of the Elementary Kingdoms. The mineral kingdom contains, besides this


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mineral kingdom itself, also the first Elementary Kingdom; for this reason, it takes on a clearly

defined shape. The plant owes its form entirely to the second Elementary Kingdom for, without it, it

would be spherical. And the animal is endowed with instincts, etc., owing to the added activity of the

third Elementary Kingdom. Our world consists of interpenetrating regions; only if we are able to make

our thoughts mobile and fluent, shall we gradually be able to understand such things.

If we wish to form a concept of how the third Elementary Kingdom is connected with the animalkingdom, the following example may be helpful.You all know the migrations of the birds! The birds

take quite definite courses in their migrations; from the northeast to southwest and from southwest to

northeast. But who directs these migrations? It is the Group-Soul of the birds! In these migrations

instinct comes to expression. Essentially speaking, they are wedding-flights for the birds take flight

in order to breed in better climates. They are directed by the Souls of the Species, or Group-Soul, of

the animal kingdom.

On the other hand, the animals are given their form, which enables him to have certain instincts,

and which is the bearer of these instincts, by the Beings of the third Elementary Kingdom the

companions of the animal Group-Souls. If we wish to express this in a somewhat trivial manner, we

may say: Those Egos which constitute the animal Group-Souls form one company, upon the astralplane; and the Beings of the third Elementary Kingdom form another. Nevertheless, they must work

together in harmony. The one supplies the instincts, the other the bodies, forming and moulding

them, so that the instincts may live within them.

The physical forms of the plants originate from the Beings of the second Elementary Kingdom.

And in everything which molds and works upon the minerals, the Beings of the first Elementary

Kingdom are to be found. The forces of the minerals, active as attraction and repulsion, the atomistic

forces, proceed from the groups of minerals. But it is the Beings of the first Elementary Kingdom who

form the minerals.

Thus we obtain a perspective which reveals to us where we may seek for the activities of the

various kingdoms within our world. We must however, observe these things very accurately. We maysay to a plant: You are living being; this you owe to the Plant-Ego.Your form, your shape however, is

given to you by the Beings of the second Elementary Kingdom.

Thus we may sum up the four kingdoms as follows. The kingdom of man is the kingdom within

which and Ego can work formatively into the human world; the vegetable kingdom is the one within

which hands Ego can work formatively in the plant world; the mineral kingdom, the one in which an

Ego can build for itself forms in the mineral kingdom. The third Elementary Kingdom cares for the

blood during the night, and forms at the same time, the instinctive life of the animals; the second

Elementary Kingdom forms the plants; and the first Elementary Kingdom forms the minerals for

instance the crystals. From all this we can see that patience is necessary for the penetration into

Spiritual Science. The world is constructed in a complicated way, and the highest truths are not thesimplest. It is an utterly senseless way of speaking to declare that the highest things can be grasped

with the simplest concepts. This is due only to laziness. It is admitted of course, that it is not possible

to understand a clock at once, but the world, people believe, can be understood without any further

trouble. If we wish to grasp the Divine, infinite patience is needed for the Divine contains everything.

In order to understand the world, people wish to apply the simplest concepts, but this is simply

laziness ... no matter how reverently the soul may say it. The Divine element is profound, and an

eternity is needed in order to grasp it. Man dares, indeed, the spark of the Godhead within him, but


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the nature and Being of this Godhead can be understood only by collecting a knowledge of the facts of

the world.

The great patience and renunciation which knowledge entails, is what we must learn first of all.

We ourselves must gradually mature in order to form judgments. The world is infinite at every point.

And we must be modest enough to say that everything is, in a certain sense, only a half-truth. We must

transform everything into moral impulses, even the classification of man's being into ten or twelvemembers. Spiritual Science gives us pictures which we should unite with our feelings. For, Spiritual

Science is only of value when we draw from it not merely knowledge, but are filled with the noblest

feelings for the profundity of the world around us. All the greater then, will be the longing for the

Divine. The very fact that the Divine appears to man so far removed, in distinct height, should incite

him so much the more to become strong, in order that he may again find his way thither.

The Group Souls of Animals, Plants and Minerals

A Lecture given

by Dr. Rudolf Steiner

Frankfurt-on-Main, 2nd February, 1908

This is the 9th of 18 lectures given by Rudolf Steiner at Frankfurt-on-Main, in late 1907 through mid 1908. The

title of the series of lectures is: The Working of Natural Substance and Spiritual Essence in the Visible World

We have repeatedly to emphasize that knowledge of the spirit must become a living knowledge by

which we mean that a man should not simply come to know various things through spiritual science,

but learn to think, feel, perceive, differently about everything around him. This begins when, in the

right way, a man takes into him theosophical impulses. He must learn to feel with, and live with, every

being. This, certainly, must apply most of all to his fellowmen, but we learn to have sympathy with

other men when we can feel for the rest of the world. A man gradually gets to know the whole

surrounding world; gradually he learns that everywhere around him there are spiritual beings, that allthe time he is actually walking through them. He realizes this through his feeling, his perception. He

learns to recognize what surrounds us in the three kingdoms of nature, learns about the beings in the

mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms. Then as he goes about in meadows and woods, through the

ploughed fields and open country, he experiences it all in a different way from the man who knows

nothing of what spiritual science can tell.

Looking at the other beings it might at first be thought that those of the animal kingdom had no soul

such as man possesses. It is true that the human ego, the human soul, is different from that of the

animal. The human soul lives on the physical plane. When we study the animal as such, each single

animal has a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. Besides these members, each man

when awake has an ego within him. The animal does not have its ego on the physical plane; for that,

indeed, we must look deeper, into the so-called astral world. As here on the physical plane the

population consists of human beings, we find the astral plane to be populated by the egos of the

animals. And just as down here a man meets other men, the seer on the astral plane meets the egos of

the animals as separate personalities. We may picture it in this way. Imagine a man's ten fingers

thrust through a screen and in movement. We see the moving fingers but not the man, for he is hidden

by the screen. We cannot imagine that the fingers have come through the screen and move about on

their own. We have to assume the intervention of some kind of being. So it is with the animals in the

physical world. All animals of the same formation share a Group soul, a Group ego. Here on the


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physical plane we see the animals moving around, and each has a physical body, an etheric body and

an astral body. What physically we see, lions for example, are the outwardly projected organs of the

lion ego living in the astral world. The lion ego, the Group ego of all physical lions, is just as much a

separate entity as is the human being when on earth. Each group of animals has an ego on the astral

plane; on that plane is found the lion ego, the tiger ego, the ego of the vultures, and so on. The single

animals here on the physical plane are like the fingers thrust through a screen. When we watch the

single animals many of them appear extraordinarily clever, but they are directed from the astral planewhere the animal group egos are to be found. The astral plane is populated by beings who are far

cleverer than man; these animal egos are very wise beings. Look at the birds in flight, how they sweep

over the different regions, and how well-ordered they are; how in autumn they go off, in their flocks,

to some warmer climate, coming back again with the Spring. When we see the wisdom in this

ordering, it prompts us to ask: Who is thus in command behind the screen? The answer is the group

egos. If we watch a beaver building, we see there is more wisdom in what it builds than in the greatest

engineering feat. And the intelligence shown in the way the bees work has also been the object of

study. For instance, when given sugar in place of honey it is seen that, as they cannot take up sugar,

they fetch other bees and fly off to the nearest water. Each bee brings a drop of water to dissolve the

sugar, thus transforming it into a kind of syrup which is then carried into the hive. And behind this

work is the spirit of the beehive. The single bees all belong to one personality, in the way that ourlimbs belong to us only the bees are more spread out than our more closely connected, more

compact limbs. We are walking about all the time through beings we do not see, through the animal

egos invisible to our physical eyes.

Just as this describes what we begin to feel with regard to these unsuspected beings, so it is where the

souls of the plants are concerned. The plant egos dwell in a higher world than the animal egos. The

separate group egos of the plants live on what we call the devachanic plane. We can even state the

place where they actually are in the very centre of the earth, whereas the animal group souls circle

round the earth like trade winds. All these plant egos at the centre point of the earth are mutually

interpenetrating beings, for in the spiritual world a law of penetrability prevails and all beings pass

through one another. We see the animal group souls moving over the earth like trade winds, and how

in their wisdom they carry out what appears to be done by the animals. Studying the plant we see that

its head the root is directed towards the center of the earth where its group ego is to be found.

The earth itself is the outward expression of soul and spirit beings. From the spiritual point of view the

plants seem like the nails of our fingers. The plants belong to the earth, and when we look at them

singly we do not see a complete entity, for the single plant is just one among the whole number of

beings constituting a group ego. In this way we can enter into what the plants themselves feel. The

part of the plant that springs up out of the earth, what from within the earth strives up to the surface,

is of a different nature from what is growing under the earth. There is a difference between the cutting

off of blossoms, stalk, leaves, and the tearing up of a root. The former gives the plant soul a feeling of

well-being, of pleasure, just as it gives pleasure to a cow, for example, when the calf sucks milk from

her udder. There is actual similarity between the milk of animals, and that part of a plant which

pushes its way out of the earth. When in late summer we go through fields where corn is being cut,where the blade is passing through the corn stems, then the whole fields breathe out a feeling of bliss.

It is an intensely significant moment when we not only watch the reaping with our physical eyes, but

perceive the feeling of contentment sweeping over the earth as the corn falls to the ground. But when

the roots of the plants are pulled up, then that is painful for the plant souls. In the higher worlds the

same laws do not hold good which are valid in the physical world. When we rise to the spiritual worlds

our conceptions become different; even here on the physical plane there is sometimes opposition

between the principle of beauty and that of pain or pleasure. It is possible that, impelled by a feeling

for beauty, someone might pull out their white hairs, that indeed would be painful. And it is like that


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in the case of the plants. When the roots are pulled up this may make for neatness yet the plants

suffer.

Even stone is without life only on the physical plane. All minerals have their group egos in the higher

worlds, on the higher devachanic plane, and these, too, feel pain and pleasure. Only spiritual science

can teach us about these matters; speculation is of no avail. Looking at a quarry, and watching the

splitting off of each block of stone, one might imagine this to cause pain for the stone ego. But it is notso. With the actual splitting of stone, there gushes out in all directions a feeling of pleasure. Out of the

quarry from which the blocks are being cut there streams deep satisfaction on every side. And if we

put salt into a glass of water so that it dissolves, then, too, a feeling of pleasure flows through the

water. We see this pleasure stream through the water if, with eyes of the spirit, we watch the salt

dissolve; but when the salt is becoming crystallized again the pleasure turns to pain. And it would be

painful for the stone ego were we able to remold the severed blocks into their original bed.

These mysteries have always been made known to the people by the seers, out of the secret writings of

their ancient religious records; but people have lost the capacity for understanding them. Let us think

ourselves back into long past ages of our earth evolution. We see rocky masses of mountains, heaped

up in layers of clay, basalt, and so on; and as we go further and further back we find everything onearth becoming softer. At length we come to a time when the earth was just one mass of fiery warmth,

when iron, all metals, all minerals in fact, were merged in the spiritual. At that time man also was a

spiritual being; if he was to go on evolving to his present form, these soft masses had to solidify. Thus

the mountain ranges came into being, the minerals detached themselves from the soft substance, and

the earth became the fit dwelling place for human beings as they are today. The mighty heaps of

lifeless rock crystallized out of the fire-streaming earth, just as dissolved salt turns again into crystals.

It has all been one great process of transformation, the passing over of the fluid condition into

solidified masses. That did not happen without suffering. The densification of our earthly globe has

been closely bound up with pain for the soul of the rock.

In the future the earth will become spiritualized again. It will be entirely broken down into fragments

as radium can already show us today. A process of dissolution will arise for the earth, a

spiritualizing process, a becoming divine in effect, the assuming of a childlike state. Let us hear

what the Apostle Paul has to say: how the whole earth and all beings groan in pain for the glorious

liberty of the children of God. In Romans VIII, verse 19, we read For the earnest expectation of the

creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God; and in verse 22, For we know that the

whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

In those words we are given a picture of what happens on earth, when the soul of the rock suffers pain

until the coming of the state of Children of God. It is enough to sadden one when those who

should instruct others concerning the ancient religious documents just allow their fancy to run away

with them, because they won't take the trouble to penetrate to the real meaning of what has thus been

handed down. This unwillingness to get to the heart of the ancient teachings is considered by theleaders of mankind to be an absolute violation of duty. Paul, the Apostle, recognized what such

processes on earth signify. In this later period of ours, spiritual science is destined to lead men into the

depths of these old records. It is indeed sad when those whose very calling should entail the upholding

of them, make no effort to study, and have no will to understand, their meaning. Present-day

arrogance, summed up in the words: We have made such wonderful progress this must all go.

How many people there are who believe that our forebears knew nothing! And there are those who

expound the epistles of Paul, and all religious documents, quite arbitrarily, with a feeling of pride that

they know more than their forefathers. But how then are we to take the words: the whole creation


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groaneth in pain waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God? And what effect does it have upon

us when we know how the soul of the stone suffers while awaiting that manifestation? People of

materialistic mind think that, there outside, they walk only through air, wind, mist, through oxygen

and nitrogen. But those who have spiritual knowledge realize, everywhere, that they are breathing

spiritual beings in and out merging with them.

Thus we have seen how the egos of the animals encircle the earth like the trade winds; how the plantegos have their common dwelling place in the center of the earth; and how the earth being in itself

alive, with a soul capable of feeling is affected by the uprooting of the plants. Everything outside is

ensouled and filled through and through with life. In the same way as the physical body is produced

out of physical substances and forces, do our spiritual members come forth out of the great whole.

From that we begin to perceive our self as a small world resting in the great world; and this arouses in

us a sense of being blessed. It is only when we learn to feel with the minerals, plants, and animals, that

we can also experience this feeling of being at rest within the whole vast universe.

And so we see how spiritual science leads us into the spiritual foundations of existence. It is something

which transforms our feeling and our will for life, so that, as men, we become different.

Anthroposophical conceptions are seeds, impulses of will on the road to true experience.

Answers to Questions after the Lecture

The Death of Animals

An animal's death is quite different from that of a man. In the case of man death has to do with the

bringing down of his individual ego on to the physical plane and the identification of it with his

physical body. A man speaks of his physical body as I feels himself to be I. When at death heloses his physical body it is a perceptible process, and he feels he is losing something of value. For

those accustomed to look upon the physical body as valueless, the loss is less severe.

The single animal has no such sense of I am. That is experienced by the group soul. The more a

being is individualized, and the deeper its descent on the physical plane, the more difficult its

regeneration becomes. The group soul feels the death of an animal as we should the loss of a finger

as something to be compensated for or replaced.

After long periods the animals on earth change. Species evolve. Darwinism has elaborated this

hypothetically, but the following is really the case. When an animal species changes there is also a

change of group soul; and when the species becomes extinct this, for the group soul, is similar todeath. For example, the seer today can discern a kind of death rattle in the group soul of the ibex. But

the group soul evolves and becomes, on the extinction of one animal species, the group soul of another

which is like a rebirth.

The Significance of Killing Animals

The higher evolution of the earth consists in killing ceasing altogether. Therefore the ideal from the

standpoint of spiritual science is to refrain from killing.


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The Effect of Transplanting a Yew Tree

It means terrible pain for the tree when it is uprooted. It is not possible, however, in the course of

world evolution, entirely to eliminate pain. All higher beings are born in pain, without which there

could often be no evolution. The spiritual leaders of mankind have allowed this suffering so as to

enable men to arrive at their present state.

Man's Relationship with the Surrounding World

It is lecture 3 of 18 from the lecture series: The Working of Natural Substance and Spiritual Essence in the

Visible World

Let me speak to you to-day of many different things which can easily be linked together and in

which you will readily discover a kind of relationship.

Let me speak to you above all of man's connection with the surrounding world, of man's feelings

towards this world, and how these feelings can be deepened through a spiritual-scientific world-

conception. Above all, I wish to awaken in you the feeling that a man with an average modern

education does not contemplate the world in the same way as a follower of spiritual science.

If spiritual science is to be raised from the level at which it is understood by so many, from the

level of a theory, or number of teachings, to something which fills our whole soul, purifying and

ennobling all our feelings, if it is to be raised to a real life-content, we must be able, as it were, to apply

to our daily life what we have received from spiritual science. We have received spiritual science in the

right way, if, for instance, we regard a plant, a field, or an animal in a different way from before, if we

have feelings that differ from those which we had before we acquired spiritual knowledge. We shall

enter more deeply into the meaning of these words, if we penetrate into the real nature of SELF-

CONSCIOUSNESS.

You are all familiar with the self-consciousness of man. You know that we distinguish four parts inthe human being: His physical body, his etheric body, his astral body and his Ego. What we call self-

consciousness arises from the fact that man grows conscious of his Ego. Self-consciousness does not

only enable us to gain knowledge of the surrounding world, but also of ourselves; it enables us to know

that each one of us is an independent being.

The question now arises: How do matters stand with the animal, the plant and the mineral?

Can we speak in a certain sense of self-consciousness in the case of animal, plant and mineral? People

who simply say: Why should not every stone also have an ego, like man, only that man does not

perceive it ... such people speak without any knowledge of things. For upon the plane which we call

the physical, only man is endowed with self-consciousness, with an ego, and the animal, the plant

and the mineral have no ego upon the physical plane. Man is distinguished from animal, plant andmineral by the fact that he has an Ego here, upon the physical plane, in the ordinary world.

But you must not think that my words imply a hard and fast alternative. You must realise clearly

that certain higher animals, particularly animals that live much in the company of man, such as

domestic animals, have a kind of self-consciousness, resembling that of the lower savages of to-day.

There are grades everywhere; we shall not speak now of the various grades, but of the main facts to be

found under average conditions. From this standpoint, we may therefore say that, generally speaking,

we do not come across self-consciousness in animals, here, upon the physical plane.


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What kind of self-consciousness do animals possess? You will easily come to an understanding if

you ask yourselves: Where is the self-consciousness of each of my fingers? There you must say: My

own consciousness is the self-consciousness of my fingers. It cannot be thought of apart from my

common consciousness. My ten fingers have their common consciousness in my Ego; there, they have

their common Ego. The same applies to the other members of the body. This constitutes my self-

consciousness.

Now transfer this concept to the concept of an animal species. There you must say: Everything in

the animal kingdom which has the same form, all the lions, bears, frogs, fish all, these lions

belonging together, are really connected in the same way as my ten fingers. Distance does not count. If

we were to ask each finger as to its ego, it would have to answer: It is the Ego of the man to whom we

belong. In the same way, if you were to ask a lion in a menagerie, or a lion in Africa, where its ego is to

be found, each would point to the common ego of the species, to the group-ego.

All animals having the same form have a common ego. Man differs from the animal through the

fact that each human being has his own Ego, whereas the animal has an ego common to his species, a

group-ego. You cannot find the egos of the animals in the physical world, for they live in a world which

we call the astral plane. There, you will find one Being comprising all the lions. Just as here, upon thephysical plane, you may encounter an individual human being enclosed within his skin, so if you

were clairvoyant you would encounter upon the astral plane the Lion-ego, the Bear-ego, as self-

contained Beings, as individual Beings, like the human being here on earth. Upon the astral plane,

they are intelligent beings, who are not in any way behind man. The single lion maybe inferior to man,

but his ego is a very lofty Being, who must understand and accomplish with penetrating wisdom the

whole task connected with the lions here on earth. These animal-egos are therefore highly intelligent

Beings.

If you were now to follow clairvoyantly these Beings who constitute the collective egos of the

animals, you would see that they exercise a very strange activity. The animals tasks are ruled and

governed by the Beings whom we call the animal-egos. These animal-egos constantly surround the

earth.

Let me select one example out of many, in connection with the task of these animal-egos. If you

study a well-known phenomenon, about which men have thought a great deal, if you study the flight of

the birds, you will find that the birds that live in northern regions begin to gather in the autumn; they

fly from north-eastern to south-western regions, and then southwards. They gather again in the spring

and return north. At the foundation of these bird migrations lies the breeding and hatching of the

young, etc. The spring migration is a kind of wedding flight. The regularity of these flights is guided by

the group-souls; they arrange everything. You may even observe the different forms of these flights:

One species flies in this way, another in that way ... some birds fly low over the ground, others high

above the clouds. You may find a deep wisdom in all these details. We may say: Everything that

constitutes the souls of the animals encircles our planet, encircles our earth. This example shows ushow the wisdom of the group-soul rules the flight of the birds.

How do matters stand with plants? They only have a physical and an etheric body. Individually,

they have no independent astral body and no independent ego upon the physical plane. If you could

observe yourself during your night's sleep, you would see your physical and etheric body lying on the

bed. What remains behind on the bed has the value of a plant; the plant always consists of this. What

lives in you during the day, when you are awake, what is contained in your physical body, is outside

your physical and etheric body during the night.


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In the case of the plant, the astral body and the ego, which you lift out of your physical and etheric

body during the night, are always outside. But this going out of the astral body and of the Ego is

connected with something else.

Let us suppose that you were all to go to sleep here which would, of course, not be very

desirable; in that case, all your Egos and your astral bodies would be outside. They would not be so

separated, as they are now separated from one another, while they live in the physical body: they would intermingle more, they would form a more uniform mass, as if they were to dwell in one

another; they would dissolve, as it were, in a common astral body of the earth, and out of this astral

body of the earth, which is mingled with that of the Sun, they would draw the strength which

eliminates fatigue. This is continually the case with the plants.

In the plant you see before you a physical and an etheric body. But the plant's astral body is

outside. The whole earth has an astral body in common, and that is the astral body of the plants. And

the earth also has a common Ego, so that you must look for the ego of the plants in the common Ego

of the whole earth.

And now all the plants on earth appear to you like your own fingers. The whole earth is an

organism, and the plants are literally its members, which share in the common consciousness. What

ensues from this, is literally true. You feel pain, when someone hurts you, or cuts into your flesh.

Similarly the whole earth may feel pain under certain conditions. But the earth does not feel pain

when you pick a flower or cut off a plant; this would not cause it pain. What causes pain to the earth

can be understood if we bear in mind the following:

The whole earth must be imagined as an organism and all the plants as members of this common

organism. The plants growing upon the earth are connected with it more or less in the same way as the

milk is connected with the human being, or with the animal. When the calf sucks the milk of the cow,

the cow experiences a feeling of well-being. The whole earth has this feeling when you pick a flower or

cut a plant. What the earth sends up to the sun, what it sends out of itself, is in a different form that

which lives in the milk. But if you tear out a plant with its root, it is the same as if you were to tearaway a part of your body, or cut into your flesh. The earth experiences something quite different when

we cut a plant which is firmly rooted in the ground then the earth experiences well-being , or

when we tear it out with its root. This should not be judged morally, but in accordance with the facts,

and these are the facts.

Now try to feel, and not merely to think such a truth. We can feel it in the following way: When we

go out in the autumn, and see a farmer mowing down the corn with the scythe, those who know how

matters stand can feel what is taking place, they can feel the feelings of well-being and of joy which

pass through the astral body of the earth, while the corn is being cut. When the reaper cuts down the

corn at harvest time, the whole earth really experiences joy. These kinds of feelings are experienced,

when we know how matters stand with the group-soul of animals, the earth-soul of plants, the group-Ego, the Ego of the earth: In the migrating flock of birds we can feel the wisdom; the wise influence of

the astral Beings who control them. We can even feel the wind of wisdom, like a current of air. And if

we know that in the plants we confront the soul of the earth, we experience feelings and sensations in

everything that takes place in the plants. We feel the cosmic Spirit in the environment of the earth,

when we observe the ego of the animals; and we feel the cosmic Soul, we experience the feelings of

Nature, when we regard the ego of the plants.


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This is indeed so. If we look upon the teachings of spiritual science not merely theoretically, if they

fill our whole soul, we can feel the presence of the God who always passes through Nature. When one

man faces another, he knows does he not? that a feeling heart beats in the others breast, that he

has feelings similar to his own, that he does not merely form thoughts about him, but also feels with

him. In the same way, we gradually learn to experience something resembling the warm, pulsing life,

the warm feeling of Nature. Nature becomes for us a living knowledge of spirit and soul.

Let us now imagine what it means to spiritualise Nature through this teaching. We feel as if

spiritual science enables us to bear ourselves quite differently towards everything, as if our feelings are

purified and ennobled. What an indifferent matter it is to an ordinary man when the scythe passes

through the corn, and cuts it down! And what a different experience this is to a spiritual investigator,

who follows the cutting scythe with his heart, and who know that there below, where the scythe

touches, is a living Being, that the astral body of the earth experiences pleasure. Thus Nature gradually

becomes full of life for us. This means that we must allow apparently abstract theories to grow into

living feelings and sensations. Every step in daily life changes, when we thus allow theory to become

feeling.

Now that we understand this, let us pass on to another subject, which we may already haveconsidered from another aspect, but which will appear to us in a new light.

We raise our eyes to the moon and to the sun. We have just heard that a knowledge harmonising

with the spirit may kindle in us feelings which enable us to participate in the feelings of our

environment. This also extends to lifeless objects, even to the stones.

It is very strange how we may learn to judge many things in our surroundings in a different way:

Very often we get quite a wrong conception of things. We think that we go out into the world equipped

with knowledge and want to see what is really taking place, when something happens in the world

outside. We may, for instance, come to a quarry: There, the workmen are hammering and quarrying

the stone. There we come to the ego of the stone ... which is not merely connected with our earthly

planet, but with our whole planetary system. The stone has its central point in that of the planetarysystem. The stone also has feeling, but you must not think that the stone feels pain when it is broken

up or destroyed; on the contrary, you may even notice immeasurable pleasure throbbing through the

quarry, when the men are working there. But when stone is joined to stone, pain is felt. It is

interesting to know this.

Once upon a time, the earth was a glowing, molten mass; you could not have lived there, until it

had cooled down. Everything was dissolved in this glowing mass; it had to consolidate, and this

process was connected with pain, whereas the earth feels joy, feels pleasure, when its surface is broken

up. The whole inanimate Nature suffers, so as to enable you to build your dwelling places, and men

who have insight are sensible of this and hear the sighs of pain.

One day Nature will again dissolve into its primeval elements. Lifeless Nature had to be drawn

together with pain, so that man might pass through his development. But when man has become so

spiritualised, that he no longer needs the solid earth as a foundation, then the earth will be redeemed

with him; Lifeless Nature longs for this. What the Apostle Paul said, is true: The Whole creation

groaneth and travaileth in pain. It will be saved, when man approaches a spiritualised condition.

It can be noticed that children, who have a certain feeling for the astral world, because they are

differently constituted from grown-ups, can feel something of the sensations of lifeless objects that are


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being destroyed. Not always for in many cases it is just naughtiness but sometimes children

destroy things so that they can participate in these feelings of lifeless Nature. Indeed, we can see that

they do not always destroy things through naughtiness.

Things often present an entirely different aspect from a spiritual standpoint. You can see,

therefore, that the whole earth is permeated with soul and spirit and that it is filled with feeling. The

wonderful part of spiritual science is that it leads us into a living Nature. Now you can easilyunderstand that those who view things from the standpoint of occultists, must also look upon the sun

and the moon as endowed with soul and spirit, like the human being.

Indeed, that part of the sun which we can see when we look upon it with our physical eye, is

connected with the sun's whole being just as man's visible part is connected with his whole being. The

body of the sun is the body of the Sun's spirit, and the body of the moon is the body of the Moon's

spirit. In a spiritual sense, sun, moon and earth belong together and this, to be sure, is a very

complicated matter.

A whole number of spiritual beings, are connected with the sun; their bodies, and not only their

spirits, are in the sun. When an occultist looks into the sun and perceives the sun's rays, this is notonly a physical phenomenon, but it is connected with something else.

You can have an idea of what he thus discerns, if you watch, for instance, the giving gesture of a

woman in the street, who raises her hand towards a child. You see the movement of her hand and

perhaps also the coin which falls into the child's palm. Yet this is only the physical aspect. If you were

to penetrate into the process which is expressed by the physical action, you would perceive

compassion as the impulse which causes the hand to move. In the child, too, you would see the

external process as the expression of a spiritual process, perhaps of gratitude.

He who only sees the sun's physical rays, has the same relation to the spiritual seer, as he who sees

only the woman's or the child's physical gesture has to one who also perceives the inner processes. He

whose power of vision has been trained through occultism to see the sun's rays coming towards us,also perceives how spiritual beings pour out their feelings in the sun, and how these feelings become

deeds. Their deeds are what they send down with the sun's rays. If you observe the astral body of the

earth, you will find in it something like gratitude which is felt by the whole plant-world, as it receives

the sun's rays.

Still more wonderful is the course of a whole year! When the plants open out, this is a heart-felt

psychic expression of the earth's inner processes, and at the same time it expresses the feelings of the

creative, gift-bestowing Spirits of the Sun.

Now we should note a certain contrast, but not an opposition, between the Spiritual Beings of the

sun and those of the moon. The earth, the sun and the moon belong together. In a very remote past,they were one body. In a remote past, the sun severed its connection with the earth, that is to say, with

the present earth and with the present moon.

Why did this take place? This can be explained in many ways. But to-day we shall only give one of

the many reasons. When the sun dissolved its connection with the earth, all the Beings whose nature

was of higher substance than that which remained behind, left the earth with the sun. For the sun can

be the dwelling place of far higher spiritual beings than man. Beings who far surpass man left the

earth and became the Spirits of the Sun, and the sun became their dwelling place.


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Consequently, if we look into the sun with trained occult vision, we can see the physical sun as a

body, as the field of action and the dwelling place of lofty spirits, of the Solar Spirits. For a while, they

continued their development upon the same planet upon which we now live, but afterwards they were

obliged to leave it, since, in order to continue their development in a corresponding way, they took the

finest substances away from it.

One of these Spirits of the Sun left the others, for he had been given a special task and remainedconnected with the earth. Later on, the moon also went out from the earth; the earth became

independent, and this Solar Spirit, this Spirit of the Sun, who first had quite another task, a task which

was not connected with the sun, is J a h v e, or J e h o v a, acting as cosmic intelligence.

Jehovah left the earth with the moon, so that when the earth was severed from the sun and from

the moon, certain lofty Solar Spirits live in the sun, and Jehovah in the moon. The soul forces and the

spiritual forces of these Beings shine down upon the earth with the light that comes down to us from

the sun and from the moon.

Man could not have developed as he did, had he been subjected to the exclusive influence of one of

these Beings. Man's development had to follow the course which it actually did follow.

If the earth had only had the sun, and not the moon, man would have been subjected to a constant

and rapid metamorphosis and would have developed very quickly. This would not have been good for

him; he would have hurried too much and passed over certain stages of his development. The best

forces for the development of man are assembled in the sun: but a quick pace was to be avoided. For

this reason, Jehovah separated from the others, thus retarding the whole pace of human development.

In the course of development, the forces of the sun and of the moon work together and produce

the right mean.

If only the forces of the moon had been active, man would have withered; withered, lifeless

natures, mere forms, would have lived upon the earth, instead of living human beings. If you gothrough a museum and look at statues, you see before you the image of what the moon would have

made of you: soulless forms, of great beauty, certainly, but without soul. The sun's forces bring life and

movement into these stiff and rigid forms, but under the influence of the sun's forces only, man would

have become spiritualised too soon.

The course of earthly development has been arranged in this wise way, and this is why the sun and

the moon, with their forces and beings, had to separate from the earth.

If a clairvoyant person could have studied the evolution of the earth from another planet, if he

could have watched its development, he would have seen a strange sight, Let us suppose that someone

follows the development of our earth from a distant heavenly body: He would, in that case, see notonly the physical body of the earth, but also its astral body. If he were to observe this astral body, he

would perceive in it all kinds of light-phenomena. He would follow these through thousands of years;

and then a moment arrives, when the astral body completely changes, revealing new Colours and

entirely new processes

There is such a moment, in the evolution of the earth, if we consider the earth as an organism.

Before this, the astral body reveals definite colours; these colours change and are quite different

during the two epochs before and after. And if the clairvoyant observer were to investigate this


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moment, he would discover that it coincides with Christ's death on Golgotha. When the blood

streamed out of the wounds of Christ-Jesus, the whole astral, body of the earth changed: This is the

cosmic mystery revealing the significance of Christ's death.

This should not be considered merely with the intellect; no occult training would suffice to feel,

the whole significance of this event. This event took place; the blood streamed out of the wounds of

Christ-Jesus upon the Cross.

What occurred at that time in our world-system? What brought about the change in the astral

body of the earth?

The change was brought about through the fact that from this moment onwards one of the Spirits

of the Sun united his astral body with that of the earth. We have already explained that there are

several Spirits of the Sun in all. One of these, whom we designate as the Spirit of Christ, united his

astral body with that of the earth, when the blood streamed out of his physical body. Since that time,

the earth has undergone an essential transformation, because it has become united with the body of

Christ.

The Christ-principle descended from heavenly heights; until the death of Christ Jesus upon the

Cross it lived in the body of the sun. Through Christ's death it became united with the body of the

earth. Since then, the earth, as a planetary body, is the body of Christ. He became one with the earth.

Now we can understand in a deeper sense the meaning of the words: He that treadeth (eateth?)

my bread, treadeth me underfoot. How infinitely deeper in its meaning is even the Lord's Supper, if

we know that the body of the earth is the body of Christ!

What is the bread that is baked from the grains of corn? How must the Spirit of the Earth address

this Bread? This is my body, words which should be taken literally. And how must the Spirit of

the Earth address the sap-forces that stream through the plants? This is my blood. Just as the

blood streams, through the veins of your body, so does the blood in the sap of the plants literallystream through the body of Christ, through the body of the earth!

Who would not own that this gives an infinitely deeper meaning to the Holy Supper? What do we

experience when we feel that the astral body of Christ first unites itself with the earth? What do we

experience when we perceive the meaning of the words which have just been quoted? What does the

human being experience when he penetrates into all this? How deep will be the significance of a

sacrament, such as the Mystery of the Lord's Supper!

Particularly through an occult study of these processes, we learn to consider the whole life round

about us in a different way. We learn to understand the religious revelations, by taking them literally.

And when we learn to grasp them in the way that is explained above, we begin to realise that allexternal interpretations of religious documents must disappear. For religious documents, which are

drawn out of the deepest facts, express these. Genuine religious documents contain nothing that does

not correspond with the great truths, such as the union of Christ's Spirit with the earth, when His

blood streamed out on Golgotha. How immensely our feelings deepen, when we gain an insight into

this mystery!

The task of spiritual science is to work in such a way that man once more learns to awaken in his

soul the feelings which once lived in his forefathers real feelings! In the past, the early Christians


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could feel what we have now tried to conjure up before our souls, through the teachings of spiritual

science. They could feel what we can now experience in our souls. They could feel it deeply! These

deep feelings continued to live in them until materialism came, with its intellectual judgments. Then

the spirits withdrew, as it were, for nothing exercises such an estranging influence upon spiritual

beings as the intellect. When the intellect dissects things and encompasses them in its caustic

criticism, it also drives away the spiritual beings from the human soul.

The myth of the good goblins has a deep meaning; they really existed, when as yet the light of the

intellect did not enlighten man. This light drives away the goblins. Such feelings existed, when the

critical intellect had not as yet permeated the human soul.

Spiritual science is there to give man again warm, living feelings, which penetrate into the whole

of Nature, in spite of the intellectual forces. The development of the intellect could not be held back;

the spiritual nature had to withdraw for a time. But the spirit will return. We shall keep our

intellectual powers, and in addition gain warm and glowing feelings, enthusiasm and compassion.

When we reach the sources of life, knowledge and feeling will be one. A new life will spring out of

religious documents, when that for which Goethe longed, comes about. For, many centuries ago, themajority of men could not read the Bible, although they heard something of its contents. When the art

of printing was invented, they were able to read the Bible. But to-day, they no longer read the deep,

mysterious documents themselves; they only read the opinions expressed on the Bible by critical

Christians. Goethe longed for an age in which men would once more learn to read the BIBLE, and not

books ON the Bible. For to-day, they read books on the Bible! For a few pence, one can buy books

proving that the Bible is a patch work of single documents, like the Old Testament. A book has even

been written, where every sentence, printed in different colours, shows what was written at an earlier

and at a later date, the additions, etc., etc. It is the so-called Rainbow-Bible!

These things are the outcome of the critical intellect, which can only perceive that these things

were written by one or the other author upon the physical plane, It cannot see that the authors of the

biblical writings were all of them disciples of great initiates, who possessed a direct insight into thespiritual world. The essential thing is to recognise the true spirit in the words, to penetrate into that

which lies behind them, to understand that the religious documents were written from the depths of a

true spiritual knowledge.

Thus we have seen in what way we should understand these things, for only then can we learn

what is important to us, so that we may rise to the right and true feeling, which means the right and

true life.

END

Documents

The Elementary Kingdoms