Esoteric Evolution - 5 

The Creation of the Astral Body

Conditions on Old Moon

From the primeval beginning of the creation, human evolution shows not only a line to a progressively more perfect corporeality, but also to constantly increasing consciousness. According to esoteric tradition this development of consciousness occurs in seven planetary phases, from an extremely deep unconsciousness in the Old Saturn phase, via an awakening consciousness on Earth, to a self-conscious, creative all-consciousness in the seventh period, Vulcan.

The seven planetary phases of development:

1. Old Saturn Basis of physical body:Deep trance consciousness						7. Vulcan Development of spirit man (Atma) Transformation of physical body: self-conscious creative all-consciousness
	2. Old Sun Etheric body added: Deep sleep consciousness				6. Venus Development of Life Spirit (Buddhi) Transformation of etheric body: self-conscious life-creating consciousness
		3. Old Moon Astral body added: Dreamlike picture consciousness		5. Jupiter Development of Spirit Self (Manas) Transformation of astral body: self-conscious picture consciousness
			4. Earth The I added, Connection between the three bodies and the Spiritual Self: Clear day-consciousness, self-consciousness

In Chapter 3, I related how during the Old Saturn phase unimaginably lofty creative beings, Spirits of Will, also called Thrones, let warmth substance stream out of themselves. With this they laid and formed the basis of the physical body of the human being.

In Chapter 4, the subject was the creation of the etheric body during the Old Sun phase. High creative beings, Spirits of Wisdom, also called Kyriotetes, released ether - spiritual substance that consists of "life" - out of themselves and let this stream into the then still hardly existing physical body. Thus arose the beginning of the etheric- or life body. It added the element of life to the previously not yet living physical body.

During the third planetary phase, Old Moon, human corporeality underwent another radical change by the creation of the astral- or soul body. How did that happen and what were the consequences? That is the subject of this chapter.

The development and addition of the astral body

When, after Old Sun and a period of pralaya, the Old Moon state appeared out of the darkness of eternity, first of all the previous developments of Old Sun and Old Saturn were experienced anew, albeit in a slightly different way. These repetitions of prior evolutionary conditions took place in co-called "cycles," sub-periods within the Old Moon state.

In the first "Moon cycle" the Old Saturn period was repeated; in the second the Old Sun state. In both cases the physical and etheric bodies underwent such changes in the old Moon period that they became able to receive first an etheric body and subsequently an astral body. The latter only happened during the third Moon cycle. At that time the astral body, or soul body, was created and added to the becoming corporeality (the becoming physical and etheric bodies). As the name indicates, this laid the basis for our later soul life.

This time it was the Spirits of Movement, the Dynameis, also extremely high creative spiritual beings from the heavenly hierarchies, who out of their own nature let "the astral," a "soul-like substance," stream into the becoming physical and etheric bodies. The Spirits of Movement, or Dynameis, belong to the second hierarchy of divine-spiritual creative beings.

The addition of the astral body to the physical and etheric bodies had important consequences in several areas. Physically, not only the senses and the larynx were further developed, but also the glandular organs that are needed for growth and procreation. In addition, the first beginnings were laid for the nervous system from which, during the Earth period, the spinal cord and the brain would come into being.

Toward the end of this planetary state, Old Moon, the further development of the larynx led to the capacity of the becoming human being to produce sound, at that stage still raw, inarticulate sounds or cries. Only during the Earth period, when to the whole of the becoming corporeality the I was added, the creative beings could extend the larynx in such a way that at one point we human beings became able to produce articulated sounds, well-formed words that have meaning.

Beginning of inner soul life

During the third moon node period, when the astral body was created, but also after that, the Spirits of Form worked on the astral body in such a way that it developed inner processes. These inner processes comprised movements and utterances in the realm of the soul which, in the case of animals and humans, we call passion, desire, and cravings. These fundamental, basic soul forces formed the basis for later soul life.

The Spirits of Form, also called Elohim or Exousiai, are form-giving, creative spiritual beings who, just as the Dynameis, belong to the second hierarchy of high creative angelic beings.

During the fourth and fifth Moon cycle worked, besides these, also the Spirits of Fire who belong to the Archangels, and the Spirits of Twilight who belong to the Angels. They developed the development of the soul another step further. The Spirits of Twilight planted the feelings of lust and aversion, and of joy and sorrow into us. At the same time, the Spirits of Fire laid the possibility into the astral body of perceiving the surrounding world out of lively movements of feeling. As a result of this creative work, from that time passionate pictures surged in the astral body of lust and aversion, joy and sorrow burning with affects and emotions like passion, hatred, desire, fear, sympathy, antipathy, and others.

Dominance of the astral - the animal human

According to Rudolf Steiner, we have to call the becoming human beings at that time, based on their astral character and outspoken animal-like properties, "animal humans." In some regards their soul forces were even wilder, less controllable than those of today's animals. And yet the becoming human beings were standing on a higher level of development than today's animals on earth. We can best place human beings of that time between today's animals and human beings.

Because at this stage of human development there is not yet any semblance of personal autonomy - for there is not yet an individual I - all these astral characteristics and emotions do not come from the human beings themselves. They are exclusively the result of the inworking of the above-mentioned spiritual beings, who let them stream in and out, which was needed to enable the first beginnings of an inner soul life to arise.

Only during the Earth period will the soul forces become human beings' own possession. They will then experience them as their own and will, through trial and error, learn to deal with them.

In addition to the high creative beings mentioned above, during the Old Moon period the Spirits of Personality, who belong to the hierarchy of the Archai, were also working. It was their task, just as with the physical and etheric bodies earlier, to imprint forces into the astral body that would enable becoming human beings to experience themselves in the future. In this way, the insertion of the I, later on Earth, was prepared.

The higher spiritual human being

In addition to the spiritual beings mentioned so far, even more high spiritual beings worked on the human being at that time.

During the fifth Moon cycle, the immeasurably high Seraphim, who belong to the first hierarchy, imprinted into the astral body the germ for the development of the Spirit Self, or Manas. This enabled human beings later, on Earth, to deal with the surrounding world and themselves out of their own pictures and thinking. But most of all, the spiritual Self created the possibility for them to develop themselves spiritually out of their own self-consciousness. Thus, the way was opened to the future planetary phases of Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan, and the concomitant higher levels of consciousness and existence.

At the end of the Old Moon period the three higher, spiritual parts of the human being - Spirit Man (Atma), Life Spirit (Buddhi), and Spirit Self (Manas) - connected themselves with each other. This prepared the "higher, spiritual human being" at the end of the Old Moon era to connect later on Earth with the three bodies - physical. etheric, and astral - and the I.

Dream-like picture consciousness

On Old Saturn the human ancestor's consciousness was still extremely, deeply unconscious, "trance-like," much deeper and duller than dreamless sleep. On Old Sun consciousness had the character of our current dreamless sleep.

On Old Moon, by the addition of the astral or soul body and the work of the creative angels, consciousness reached a condition we can compare with sleep filled with dreams. Because of this, the third phase of consciousness on Old Moon is called "dream-like picture consciousness." At that time there was as yet nothing like open physical senses - eyes, ears, taste, etc. - and therefore not yet any awake day-consciousness. The germs of the physical senses that were laid into the physical body already on Old Saturn, and were refined in the etheric on Old Sun, could be used by the human being only in the Earth period.

The state of consciousness on Old Moon is called picture consciousness because in the inner world of the becoming human being at that time living images continually arose. Depending on whether these images were nice and good or harmful and bad, they had a certain intensity and color. When for instance, Moon persons came into the vicinity of an object that was sympathetic to them, a brightly colored picture would arise in their inner being. When something harmful approached them, they saw an ugly, dark image. These pictures put them inwardly into movement and determined their behavior; they went to the object or pulled back from it. In this back-and-forth movement, the basic movements of the astral body can be seen.

According to Rudolf Steiner, we find a remnant of this Moon- or picture consciousness in today's animals. Depending on the pictures that arise in their inner world when they are grazing, they eat the plants and things that are good for them and avoid what is harmful to them.

The basic substance of Old Moon

The "ground" of Old Moon consisted of a kind of thick fluid watery mass with a certain degree of heat. With their astral substance, the Dynameis had added the fluid, watery element to the fire, warmth, air, and light elements of Old Sun. While on Old Sun the plant kingdom had its first beginning, during the first cycles of Old Moon out of this primal substance a kind of "plant porridge" had appeared that was heavier and denser. This plant porridge densified here and there on Old Moon to form structures that could be compared with wood or horn.

Solid, mineral substance, such as existed later on Earth, did not yet exist at the time. That which would later become the mineral realm - rocks, mountains, solid ground - was at that time still a living, moving, bubbling peat- or boggy mass that Rudolf Steiner once compared with cooked spinach.

"Human beings" on Old Moon

The "animal-humans", the becoming human beings, consisted physically also of that porridge-like, thick watery mass. The air around them was permeated by a mixture of fire and smoke-like, watery vapor called "fire-air" or "fire-vapor." The animal-humans breathed this fire-vapor in through something like gills, such as the gills of today's fishes. Lungs did not yet exist.

The movements the animal-humans made in this fire-vapor and soft mass looked like a kind of jumping, swimming, or floating such as fish do in the water. They moved forward and backward, up and down. They pulled nourishment from the surroundings through a kind of tube. Fertilization and procreation were guided by high spiritual beings through the water-air. This took place at certain cosmic moments. All beings were still androgenous at that time, meaning male and female in one.

Toward the end of the Old Moon period the animal-humans were able because, as has been said, the larynx had developed to a certain point, to produce sounds for the first time, at first only in the form of raw cries. However, this happened only in the time of procreation. At other times silence reigned. A remnant of the combination of procreation and producing sound still exists today in the cries of deer when they are in heat.

Part of the plant-like porridge on Old Moon was transformed by high creative spiritual beings into the later plant kingdom on Earth. Another part hardened, sank down, and later formed the mineral realm. The mineral, the rocks, on Earth - think for instance of coal - comes from the plant-like substance of Old Moon. The animal realm also comes from the plant world, as it started on Old Sun and developed further on Old Moon. This demonstrates that in nature, in the mineral-, plant-, animal-, and human world everything hangs together.

When it had fulfilled its task, the Old Moon state ceased to exist. It passed over into a state of pralaya and withdrew back into the spiritual world.

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Sources

Rudolf Steiner:

Cosmic Memory, GA 11

An Outline of Esoteric Science, GA 13

Theosophy of the Rosicrucians, GA 99

Egyptian Myths and Mysteries, GA 106

Dankmar Bosse: The Mutual Evolution of Earth and Humanity, SteinerBooks.