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An Outline of Occult Science by Rudolf Steiner

IV. THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD AND MAN

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In order to get a clearer idea of the human consciousness on the Moon, let us imagine human beings immersed in the vaporous environment described above. Most varied processes take place in this vapour-element. Materials unite, substances break asunder one from the other; some parts become condensed, others rarified. All this happens in such a way that human beings do not see or hear anything of it directly, but it calls up pictures in their consciousness. These may be compared with the images of our present dream-consciousness, as for instance when an object falls to the ground, and a sleeping man does not discern what has really happened but perceives it in the form of a picture; let us say he thinks that a shot has been fired. However, the pictures in the Moon-consciousness are not arbitrary, as is the case with such dream-pictures; although they are symbols, not representations, yet they correspond with outer events. A definite outer event can call up only one definite picture. The Moon-being is therefore in a position to regulate his conduct by means of these pictures, as present-day man does by means of his perceptions. We must nevertheless be careful to notice that conduct, regulated by perception, is governed by choice whereas action, under the influence of the pictures we have described, takes place as if prompted by some dim instinct.

It is by no means as though only outer physical processes become perceptible through this picture-consciousness, but it is through the pictures that the spiritual beings, who rule behind the physical facts together with their activities, become likewise perceptible. Thus the Lords of Personality become visible, so to speak, in the phenomena of the animal-plant kingdom; the Sons of Fire appear behind and in the mineral-plant beings; and the Sons of Life appear as beings whom man is able to imagine unconnected with anything physical,--whom he sees, as it were, as etheric-psychic organisms.

Though these pictures of the Moon-consciousness were not representations, only symbols of outer things, they nevertheless had a much more important effect on the inner nature of man than the images now caused by perception. They were able to set the whole inner being into motion and activity. The inner processes were moulded in conformity with them. They were genuine formative forces. Man's being became what those formative forces made it; it became, to a certain extent, a representation of the events of its consciousness.

The further evolution progresses in this manner, the more it results in a deeply incisive change in man's being. The power issuing from the pictures in the consciousness gradually becomes unable to extend over the whole human bodily frame, which divides into two parts, or two natures. Members are formed subject to the shaping influence of the picture-consciousness, and they become to a great extent a copy of that life of imagination in the way just described. Other organs escape such an influence. They are, as it were, too dense, too much determined by other laws, to conform themselves to the picture-consciousness. These organs withdraw from the human influence; but they come under another, that of the exalted Sun-beings themselves. A period of rest, however, is first seen to precede this stage of evolution. During this pause, the Sun-Spirits are gathering force to influence the Moon-beings under quite new circumstances.

After this term of rest, man's being is distinctly divided into two natures. One of these is withdrawn from the independent action of the picture-consciousness; it assumes a more definite form, and comes under the influence of forces which, though issuing from the Moon body, are only called forth there through the influence of the Sun-beings. This part of the human being shares more and more in the life which is stimulated by the Sun: the other part rises, like a kind of head, out of the first one. It is flexible, can move itself, and takes shape in conformity with the life of dull human consciousness. Yet the two parts are closely connected with each other; they send one another their vital fluids, and members extend from one into the other.

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