Steiner Predicts

To get a grip on Steiner’s accounts of the past and the future, we need to hear him out on the nature of various celestial orbs. So let’s hear from him about the Sun and the Moon and various planets, including our own Earth. All of this is straight from Steiner. I’ll resist the temptation to reply, if I possibly can. Here are some of Steiner’s teachings:
 
The Moon has proven to be a good habitat for humans, Steiner assured us. So has the Sun: “If, as he had developed on the Sun, man was called plant man, the man of the Moon can be called animal man...As the Sun man could only elevate himself into a plant by thrusting a portion of his companions down into a coarser mineral realm, so this is now the case with the animal man of the Moon. A portion of the beings which on the Sun still had the same plant nature as himself, he leaves behind him on the level of coarser plantlike-ness [sic]...The animal man of the Moon does not yet have firm bones. His skeleton is still cartilaginous. His whole nature is soft, compared to that of today. Hence his mobility too is different. His locomotion is not a walking, but rather a leaping, even a floating. This could be the case because the Moon of that time did not have a thin, airy atmosphere like that of present-day earth, but its envelope was considerably thicker, even denser than the water of today...At that time man was not yet developed in the form of two sexes, but only in one. He was made out of his water air. But as everything in the world exists in transitional stages, in the last Moon periods, two-sexedness [sic] was already developing in a few animal man beings as a preparation for the later condition of the earth.” [1]
 
I actually have no comment to make at this point in time—except to note the fascinating discovery that humans have completely different bodies at different stages and in different (including surprising) locales: on the moon, way back when, cartilaginous skeletons, soft bodies, floating through air thicker than water. How can I top to that? I don't reckon I can.
 
Next: “There were also beings who had detached Mars from the common cosmic substance and made it their dwelling place under the leadership of their most advanced member. A third type of human beings fell under their influence. These were 'Mars humans,' who also came into existence through interbreeding. (This information sheds light on the origins of the planets of our solar system. All of the celestial bodies in this system came about because of the various stages of maturity of the beings inhabiting them. However, it is not possible to go into all the details of these cosmic divisions here, of course. [sic])

“Human beings who perceived the presence of the exalted Sun-being in their life bodies can be called 'Sun humans.' The being who lived in them as their higher I—only in the generations, of course, not in individuals—is one who was later given various names as human beings acquired conscious knowledge of him. To present-day human beings, the Christ’s relationship to the cosmos is revealed in this being.
 
“We can also distinguish 'Saturn humans.' The being who appears as their higher I had to leave the common cosmic substance along with his associates already [sic] before the Sun’s separation from the Earth. In human beings of this type, both the life body and the physical body had portions that remained untouched by the Luciferic influence.

“Now, in the case of the lower types of human beings, the life body was too unprotected to be able to withstand the Luciferic influence.” [2]

A lot of that is pretty high-flown. Let’s get our feet under us again by considering the interior of a planet we all know and love, the Earth: “The fate of hundreds and thousands of people may be affected by an earthquake or a volcano. Does the human will influence these things, or is it all a matter of chance? Do dead, natural laws act with blind fury, or does some connection exist between these events and the human will?” [3] (Hm? We bring these disasters on ourselves?)
 
The Earth is comprised of nine layers. “You should think of the earth’s living body...as one great living organism. The proper question to ask is: ‘How did dead, lifeless matter, [sic] come about?’ To ask how the living came from the dead is one of the silliest questions, for life came first, and dead matter separated from it in fossils, in a hardening process...

“The sixth layer is the Fire Earth. Just as the Fruit Earth contains all that lives, so the Fire Earth comprises everything that exists as drives or impulses. It contains the original sources of all animal life, life that experiences pleasure and pain. You may think it strange, but it is true that the Fire Earth becomes sentient as soon as it expands...” [4]

“The Fire Earth is intimately connected with the human will. The Fire Earth produced the tremendous eruptions that brought the Lemurian epoch to an end. At that time the forces which feed the human will went through a trial which unleashed the fire catastrophe that brought the Lemurian epoch to an end...” [5] Apparently we DID bring disasters on ourselves. We willed them into being. This was probably a bad move on our part.

“The Fire Earth is made essentially of feeling and will. It is sensitive to pain and would cry out if stepped on. It consists entirely of passions.” [6] If I weren’t trying to hold my tongue, I’d have something to say here.

The Earth Mirror, the seventh layer, is also known as the Reflector Earth. “This layer gets its name from the fact that, if one concentrates on it, it changes all the characteristics of the earth into their opposites. If the seer disregards everything lying above it and gazes directly down into this layer, and if he then, for example, places something green before him, green appears as red. Every colour [sic: OK across the pond] appears as its complementary opposite. A polaric [sic] reflection arises, a reversal of the original. Sorrow is changed to joy by this substance.” [7]

The eighth layer is the Splintering Earth. “The essential thing is that this layer shatters moral qualities...Through the power it radiates up to the earth’s surface, it is responsible for the fact that strife and disharmony exist...” [8] Wait. Didn't we hear a different explanation, earlier?
 

 
Some people (in this case, Anthroposophists) will believe anything, apparently. It’s their right (to be wrong). But I think they should at least be truthful about the content and nature of their beliefs. Anthroposophy is a religion, although Anthroposophists almost always deny it, and what you’ve just been reading is a tiny sampling of its doctrines. To read my essay, "Is Anthroposophy a Religion?" please use this link:

http://homepage.mac.com/nonlevitating/34.html

ENDNOTES

[1] Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (SteinerBooks, 1986), from the chapter “Life on the Moon," pp. 193-195.

[2] Rudolf Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), pp. 238-239.

[3] Rudolf Steiner, THE INTERIOR OF THE EARTH: An Esoteric Study of the Subterranean Spheres (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007) p. 29.

[4] Ibid., p. 10.

[5] Ibid., p. 27.

[6] Ibid., p. 31.

[7] Ibid., p. 31.

[8] Ibid., p. 31.