Steiner Online Library Spiritual Science for Human Evolution

The Foundations of
GA 93a

Schematic Survey of the Stages of World-Existence

With this audience Rudolf Steiner was able to take this knowledge for granted and it is therefore only touched upon or partially dealt with in the different lectures of the Course.

Seven Stages of Consciousness (Planetary Evolutions)

  1. Trance Consciousness, Universal Consciousness — (Old Saturn)
  2. Deep Sleep Consciousness, Dreamless Consciousness — (Old Sun)
  3. Dream Consciousness, Picture Consciousness — (Old Moon)
  4. Waking Consciousness, Awareness of Objects — (Earth)
  5. Psychic or Conscious Picture Consciousness — (Future Jupiter)
  6. Super-Psychic or Conscious Sleep-Consciousness — (Future Venus)
  7. Spiritual or Conscious Universal Consciousness — (Vulcan)

Each of these develops through Seven Conditions of Life (Rounds, Kingdoms)

  1. First Elementary Kingdom
  2. Second Elementary Kingdom
  3. Third Elementary Kingdom
  4. Mineral Kingdom
  5. Plant Kingdom
  6. Animal Kingdom
  7. Human Kingdom

Each of these pass through Seven Conditions of Form (Globes)

  1. Arupa
  2. Rupa
  3. Astral
  4. Physical
  5. Plastic-Astral
  6. Intellectual
  7. Archetypal or Primal-Pictorial

Every Condition of Form again goes through 7 x 7 stages of development; for instance our present Fourth Condition of Form (of the Mineral Kingdom, within the Fourth Planet, the Earth) goes through the so-called 7 Root-Races (ages or Main Periods of Time) and again through the Cultural Epochs of our present Fifth Root-Race (Post-Atlantean Age).

After every ‘Kingdom’ there is a short Pralaya (Sleep Condition) and after each Condition of Consciousness a long Pralaya.


According to Notes of a Lecture-Cycle held in Berlin, October/November 1904 — thus one year before the present course — Rudolf Steiner made the diagram (next) and the appended explanation:

Thus man goes through the following Evolution:

First Planet (Trance consciousness)

  1. Elementary Kingdom
    1. arupic form
    2. rupic form
    3. astral form
    4. physical form
    5. plastic-astral form
    6. intellectual form
    7. archetypal form
  2. Elementary Kingdom
    • Forms 8-14
    • Pralaya
  3. Elementary Kingdom
    • Forms 8-14
    • Pralaya
  4. Mineral Kingdom
    • Forms 8-14
    • Pralaya
  5. Plant Kingdom
    • Forms 8-14
    • Pralaya
  6. Animal Kingdom
    • Forms 8-14
    • Pralaya
  7. Human Kingdom
    • Forms 8-14
    • Pralaya

Long Pralaya

Second Planet (Dreamless Sleep Consciousness)

I. Elementary Kingdom (and so on, everything as with the first Planet)

Third, fourth Planet, and so on.

The 25th stage is always the deepest, densest, middle stage. We are now on the fourth Planet, on the 25th. stage, thus on the densest stage of all. On the seventh Planet, in the seventh kingdom, the human kingdom, and the seventh Form, the archetypal, the highest perfection of human evolution will be attained. Man will then have his archetypal form; he will be a god-like human being and possess an all-embracing spiritual consciousness.

(Berlin, 29th October 1904)

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Quotes

"You can see from this, my dear friends, what mischief will be set on foot if the truths of Spiritual Science are withheld. For man will be exposed to the forces of evil, and he will only be protected from it by giving himself up to the spiritual life of the good. To withhold the spiritual life of goodness from men is to be no friend to humanity. Whoever does this, be he Freemason or Jesuit, is no friend to humanity. For it means handing men over to the forces of evil. And there may be a purpose in doing so. This purpose may be to confine goodness to a small circle, in order by the help of this goodness to dominate the helpless humanity who are thus led by evil into the follies of life."

—Rudolf Steiner,
Spiritual Science Notes On Goethe's Faust, Vol. II, No. 273-8.

Spiritual Exercises

Calendar of the Soul

In 1912 Rudolf Steiner offered a “calendar of the soul” with weekly verses that express how the changing seasons in both the outer natural world and our inner lives help humanity evolve. Download and read the verses in four translations with commentary by Eloise Krivosheia of the Los Angeles Branch of the Anthroposophical Society.

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2022-2023 Calendar Dates