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An Outline of Occult Science by Rudolf Steiner

IV. THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD AND MAN

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And in contemplating this chaotic matter, one has transferred himself, by spiritual observation, to the beginning of the Saturn evolution. What is to be observed there does not as yet bear anything of the later character of heat. If we wish to describe it, we can only speak of a quality which may be compared with the human will. From first to last it is nothing but "Will." Therefore it is an entirely spiritual condition that meets us here. If we ask whence came this "Will," we see it proceeding from the effluence of exalted beings, who brought their evolution, by steps only to be dimly conceived, up to such a height that when the Saturn evolution began they were able to pour forth "Will" from their own being. When this effluence had lasted a certain time, the activity of the Lords of Wisdom described above was combined with this Will. Through this means the will, which had hitherto had no attributes, gradually received the quality of reflecting life back into celestial space. In occult science the beings who found their happiness in pouring forth will, at the beginning of the Saturn evolution are called the "Lords of Will."(11)

After a certain stage of the Saturn evolution had been reached, through the co-operation of will and life, begins the influence of other beings, who are also within Saturn's environment. These are the "Lords of Motion."(12) They have no physical or etheric body. Their lowest principle is the astral body. When the Saturn bodies have acquired the capacity for reflecting life, the qualities which have their seat in the astral bodies of the Lords of Motion interpenetrate that reflected life. In consequence of this, it appears as though expressions of feelings, emotions, and similar psychic forces had been cast out of Saturn into celestial space. The whole of Saturn appears like one animated being, manifesting sympathies and antipathies. These psychic manifestations, however, are by no means its own, but merely the activity of the Lords of Motion reflected back.

This also having lasted for a certain period, there begins the activity of yet other beings, that is, of the "Lords of Form."(13) Their lowest principle, too, is an astral body; but that body is at a different stage of evolution from that of the Lords of Motion; whereas the latter communicate only general manifestations of feeling to the reflected life, the astral body of the Lords of Form operates in such a way that the manifestations of feeling are flung out into cosmic space as if they came from individual beings. It might be said that the Lords of Motion make the whole of Saturn appear as an animated being. The Lords of Form separate that life into individual living beings, so that Saturn now appears as a conglomerate of such psychic beings.

Let us imagine, for the sake of illustration, a mulberry or blackberry, made up, as it is, of small individual berries. In a similar manner, to clairvoyant vision, Saturn, during the period of evolution now being described, is made up of individual Saturn beings, which of course have neither life nor soul of their own, but reflect the life and soul of its denizens. Into this condition of Saturn now come beings whose astral body is also their lowest principle, but who have brought it to such a high stage of development that it operates in the same way as the present human ego. Through these beings, the ego in the environment of Saturn looks down on that planet, and imparts its nature to Saturn's individual living beings. Thus something is sent out from Saturn into cosmic space, which has an effect similar to that of human personality in the present conditions of life. The beings causing that effect are designated "Sons of Personality."(14) They confer on the Saturn bodies the appearance of personality. Personality itself, however, is not present on Saturn, but only, as it were, its reflected image, the shell or husk of personality. The real personality of these spirits is in the environment of Saturn. As a result of these Sons of Personality letting their essence stream back from the Saturn bodies in the manner described, that fine substance is bestowed on those bodies which has previously been described as heat. In the whole of Saturn there is no subjectivity; but the Sons of Personality recognize the image of their own subjectivity, when it streams out to them from Saturn as heat.