This Classic work is now copyright expired and therefore in the public domain.

An Outline of Occult Science by Rudolf Steiner

IV. THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD AND MAN

page 28 of 63 | page 1 | An Outline of Occult Science - home

Thus the Moon human being experiences a change of consciousness. When the Sun period draws near, his pictured images become dimmer and dimmer, and blissful devotion takes possession of him; the harmonies of the universe resound in his peaceful inner being. Toward the end of this time the images of the astral body begin to be animated; he begins to be more conscious of himself and able to experience sensation. Man experiences something like an awakening from the bliss and tranquility in which he was wrapped during the sun period.

At the same time another important experience begins. With this new clearing up of the picture-consciousness the human being sees himself as though enveloped in a cloud, which has descended upon him like a being from the cosmos.

And he feels that being as something belonging to him, as a completion of his own nature; he feels it as that which gives him existence, as his "ego." That being is one of the Sons of Life. Man feels toward him somewhat like this: "I have lived in this being, even when I was given up to the glory of the universe in the Sun period,--only then he was not visible to me; now he is." And it is also this Son of Life from whom proceeds the force which, during the Sunless period, acts upon the body of man. Then when the Sun period again approaches, man feels as though he himself became one with the Son of Life. Even if man does not see him, he nevertheless feels closely united with him.

Now the connection with the Sons of Life was such that not every individual human being had a Son of Life to himself, but an entire group of people felt such a being belonging to them. Thus people on the Moon lived segregated into groups, and each group felt in one of the Sons of Life its common "group-ego." The etheric body of each particular group had a specific form, in this way these groups differed from each other. But as the physical bodies shaped themselves in conformity with the etheric bodies, the differences of the latter were also stamped upon the former; and the individual groups of human beings appeared as so many species of people. As the Sons of Life looked down on the human groups belonging to them, they saw themselves to a certain extent reproduced in manifold individual human beings. And therein they felt their own egohood. They, so to speak, mirrored themselves in man. This was indeed the mission of the human senses at that time. It has already been shown that the senses did not as yet transmit objective perceptions. But they reflected the nature of the Sons of Life. What those Sons of Life perceived through reflection, gave them their "ego-consciousness." What was aroused in the human astral body by this reflection was the dull dim pictures of the Moon-consciousness. By thus acting conjointly and reciprocally with the Sons of Life, the human beings laid the foundations of the nervous system within their physical bodies. The nerves appear, one might say, as continuations of the senses, directed inwardly into the human body.

It is evident, from this description, in what manner the three kinds of Spirits, those of Personality, of Fire, and of Life, act upon Moon-humanity. If we look back upon the most important, namely the middle period of the Moon evolution, we may say that the Sons of Personality are at that time implanting in the human astral body independence and the character of personality. It is owing to this fact that man can turn his attention inwards and work upon himself during those times when the Sun is not shining upon him.