Esoteric Astrology and Human Development

Everything in the physical world have developed in accordance with the planets of the Solar System, and the field of the Sun, the Zodiac, as their corresponding powers were the ruling force behind the development up through the history of the solar system. I try to show the connection between astrology, esotericism and the physical world within various areas.

Astrology stand in many ways isolated from the esoteric and spiritual traditions, here I try to show its connection to the religious and esoteric traditions. Steiner have told about astrology from a number of different views, like the World Outlooks, the Calendar of the Soul, the Senses and the Animal Development and I use this as the central point from where I connect other spiritual and religious traditions.

Content

Our Solar System

The physical world is the result of a projection of the two dimensional seven layered Astral (Star) world through the form giving four layered etheric world. This reminds about string theory, that our universe in reality is a holographic projection of a 2D plane universe into a 3D universe. Astrology describes this threefold world. The planets was in old time called stars, so the astral world could as well be called the planetary world.

The most characteristic feature of this experience — I shall have to go into it more closely to-morrow — is that, because the whole thing is like a picture, one still has a certain feeling of space, but only a feeling. For the space now experienced lacks the third dimension; it is two-dimensional only, as with a picture. For this reason I call this cognition Imaginative — a picture-cognition that works, as in a painting, with two dimensions.
...
The truth is that when we go on from the physical to the spiritual, no fourth dimension appears, but the third dimension drops away. ... And we shall see how, eventually, we go back to only one. Steiner: Evolution of Consciousness I

A clairvoyant friend told how she could see all the outer walls of houses in the spiritual world, at the same time, so I guessed it was the astral world she talked about, as it must be a 2D world for us to see all the outer walls at the same time.

Each physical planet corresponds to a plane in the astral world, with Saturn as the deepest material layer. Each plane have different influences on the physical world, and the lower the plane the more heavy the influence. In the astral world Saturn is a plane, not a planet, and the physical planet Saturn is spiritually seen a boat sailing on the ocean of Saturn, that is the sphere with it's center in the Sun.

The outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto originates from earlier development phases than the human, and are outside the human development, so they are not part of our astral world, but they are influencing our development. What they then are part of is the obvious question.

I once thought that the 2D astral plane was a projection onto a torus, but I don't believe in it any longer, it's unnecessarily complicated. As the solar system and the galaxies are flat the torus seems to be wrong, but the solar system could easily be projected out from a plane holographic negative, the astral plane.

Here we see that the planets lie in a plane, with Pluto having the greatest difference:

Seen from the plane. It is quite interesting that all the planets are in the same plane, except Pluto.

The creation is a recursive process that expands the plane in three dimensions through time, more and more detailed. See The Golden Mean as the Key to the Universe, the creative interaction between the Three Logoi. This is visible in the galaxies.

Planetary Movements

It's interesting that the solar system move through space with the flat side forward:

The following, from the Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner, explains why the planets have this sequence in many documents: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, and Earth. Mercury and Venus changed identity when going from Earth centered astronomy to Sun centered astronomy by error or to hide the spiritual knowledge.

A teacher: Would you say something more about the planetary movements? You have often mentioned it, but we don’t really have a clear understanding about the true movement of the planets and the Sun.

Dr. Steiner: In reality, it is like this [Dr. Steiner demonstrates with a drawing]. Now you simply need to imagine how that continues in a helix. Everything else is only apparent movement. The helical line continues into cosmic space. Therefore, it is not that the planets move around the Sun, but that these three, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth, follow the Sun, and these three, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, precede it. Thus, when the Earth is here and this is the Sun, the Earth follows along. But we look at the Sun from here, and so it appears as though the Earth goes around it, whereas it is actually only following. The Earth follows the Sun. The incline is the same as what we normally call the angle of declination. If you take the angle you obtain when you measure the ecliptic angle, then you will see that. So it is not a spiral, but a helix. It does not exist in a plane, but in space.

Dr. Steiner: If the Earth were here, the axis of the Earth would be a tangent. The angle is 23.5×. The angle that encloses the helix is the same as when you take the North Pole and make this lemniscate as the path of a star near the North Pole. That is something I had to assume, since you apparently obtain a lemniscate if you extend this line. It is actually not present because the North Pole remains fixed, that is the celestial North Pole.

Dr. Steiner: I already mentioned that today. Namely, if you begin about seven thousand years before 1413, you will see that the angle of the Earth’s axis has shrunk, that is, it is the smallest angle. It then becomes larger, then again smaller. In this way, a lemniscate is formed, and thus the angle of the Earth was null for a time. That was the Atlantean catastrophe. At that time, there were no differences in the length of the day relative to the time of year.

A teacher: Why should the celestial pole, which is in reality nothing other than the point toward which the Earth’s axis is directed, remain constant? It should certainly change over the course of years.

Dr. Steiner: That happens because the movement of the Earth’s axis describes a cone, a double cone whose movement is continuously balanced by the movement of the Earth’s axis. If you always had the axis of the Earth parallel to you, then the celestial pole would describe a lemniscate, but it remains stationary. That is because the movement of the Earth’s axis in a double cone is balanced by the movement of the celestial pole in a lemniscate. Thus, it is balanced.

A teacher: I had changed my perspective to the one you described regarding the movement of the Earth’s axis. I said to myself, The point in the heavens that remains fixed must seem to move over the course of the centuries. It would be, I thought, a movement like a lemniscate, and, therefore, not simply a circle in the heavens during a Platonic year.

Dr. Steiner: It is modified because this line, the axis of the helix, is not really a straight line, but a curve. It only approximates a straight line. In reality, a circle is also described here. We are concerned with a helix that is connected with a circle.

A teacher: Can we derive the spiral movements of the Sun and the Earth from astronomically known facts?

Dr. Steiner: Why not? Just as you can teach people today about the Copernican theory. The whole thing is based upon the joke made concerning the three Copernican laws, when they teach only the first two and leave out the third. If you bring into consideration the third, then you will come to what I have spoken of, namely, that you will have a simple spiral around the Sun. Copernicus did that. You need only look at his third law. You need only take his book, De Revolutionibus Corporum Coelestium (On the orbits of heavenly bodies) and actually look at the three laws instead of only the first two. People take only the first two, but they do not coincide with the movements we actually see. Then people add to it Bessel’s so-called corrective functions. People don’t see the stars as Copernicus described them. You need to turn the telescope, but people turn it according to Bessel’s functions. If you exclude those functions, you will get what is right. Today, you can’t do that, though, because you would be called crazy. It is really child’s play to learn it and to call what is taught today nonsense. You need only to throw out Bessel’s functions and take Copernicus’s third law into account.

The Building Blocks of Earth Life

Life on Earth is very sophisticated, and it's possible because of the great amount of atomic elements available. These are created through many generations of stars since the Big Bang, where each generation of sun's added new atomic elements.

The star, named 2MASS J18082002–5104378 B, is an approximately 13.5 billion-year-old
tiny star in our neighborhood. Credit: ESO/Beletsky/DSS1 + DSS2 + 2MASS

Astronomers have maybe found one of the universe's oldest stars in our neighborhood, a body almost entirely made of materials from the Big Bang. The approximately 13.5 billion-year-old tiny star is part of the Milky Way's thin-disk, the part of the galaxy in which our own sun resides. It's possible that our solar system builds on materials created over a period at least 3 billion years longer than previously thought.

This means that the Earth have more different atomic elements available than many other planetary systems in the universe, without which it would have been impossible to create life on Earth.

The Zodiac and the Seasons

In Job 38:31, God asks Job, "Can you bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bonds of Orion? Can you bring forth the Mazzaroth in their seasons?" As Mazzaroth is the twelve signs of the zodiac in Hebrew, it connects the signs with the seasons.

Astrology describes the influence of the solar system on Earth. It's not about influence from stars far away that may even not exist anymore. The Sun is creating the scene where all the planets are the players, and the Moon is the instructor. The Zodiac is the periphery of the solar system. Spiritually the light rays of the Thrones in the Sun are sent out to the Cherubin in the periphery who returns them as the rays from the Zodiac. The Archangels of the seasons work tightly together with the Cherubim, the Cherubim is kind of the souls or parents of the Archangels.

..we can look up to the sun and say that when we stand here at a certain moment, the sun is between us and the constellation of Aries. That is the direction where these strong cosmic forces work from. It is not Aries itself, of course. This constellation merely indicates the direction where the strong forces come from.
..
You see, I can read the entire zodiac like a clock from which I can see what happens on earth. But I must always keep in mind that it is not the constellations that cause these events; they are only indicators. — Rudolf Steiner.

“You may have noticed that I have only spoken about four names of the zodiac. They represent the four principal expressions of the Cherubim, but in reality each of these cherubic beings has to the right and the left of it a kind of follower or companion. Thus we have twelve-fold forces in the Sun's periphery belonging to the realm of the Cherubim. They were already present in a rudimentary form on ancient Saturn. The twelve powers belonging to the realm of the Cherubim accomplished their task in the way indicated. - Foundations at the Periphery: Rudolf Steiner's Observations on Star Knowledge.

The star signs are connected to the seasons, not to the stars, and the seasons is an interplay between the planets, and especially the field created by the Sun. This is also the reason why festivals have been celebrated all around the world in connection with the seasons. The characteristics of the star signs are connected with the seasons, so it would be meaningless to move the star signs away from their seasons.

… as I described them to you — the Autumn Imagination of Michael, the Christmas Imagination of Gabriel, the Easter Imagination of Raphael, and the Midsummer, St. John's Day, Imagination of Uriel. You must really picture to yourselves how from all these Beings, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Michael, forces stream out through the cosmos and as formative forces stream again into man. In order to understand this, we must see how man stands within the cosmos in — I might almost call it — a purely material way.

There is a sine wave line on the map called the ecliptic or “path of the sun”. Every year the ecliptic passes between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, that you can see as the reddish curved lines north and south of equator.

When the sun passes over (Passover) the equator heading up to the tropic of cancer it gives us the spring and summer months where days are longer than nights, the “dark forces” of autumn and winter are defeated, the light of the world is here.

We have four seasons each split in three, giving twelve partitions of 30°. This is quite logical as it comes from the motion of the Earth around the Sun. It would be meaningless if it was based on the movement in relation to the stars, as the partitions would change with time as the Sun moved through space. The Zodiac based on the seasons is called the Tropical Zodiac.

The ancient Babylonians created the zodiac wheel by first splitting our sky into four sections designated by the yearly equinoxes and solstices (the turning points of the four yearly seasons).

Each of these four sections of sky were split into 3 sections measuring 30 degrees each. This gives us a full 360-degree zodiac circle with 12 equal sections of 30 degrees each. Each 30-degree section is one zodiac sign, for a total of 12 zodiac signs. These 12 zodiac signs are not star constellations. The zodiac signs are 30-degree sections of space that were mathematically calculated in a way that was, and still is, intimately connected to our yearly seasons.

The zodiac circle always assigns zero degrees of Aries (the zodiac sign, not the star constellation) to the Spring Equinox (Vernal Equinox,) the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere.

This zodiac wheel, also known as the tropical zodiac or western zodiac, is still accurate because we always align/begin it, as the ancients Greeks did, with the first day of Spring. This is not a mistake. The zodiac wheel is intimately aligned with our Earth’s seasons.

The ancient Babylonians used the constellations that appeared in the general area of each zodiac sign as placeholders. They designated 12 constellations to represent the 12 zodiac signs in the sky. The star constellations, with their varying degrees and sizes, are not the actual zodiac signs. These constellations were named after the zodiac signs they represent, not the other way around!

The signs correlated with equinoxes and solstices are all Cardinal signs, here starts something new and powerful.

The inner wheel shows the tropical zodiac, which is aligned with the equinoxes and the solstices. The middle wheel shows the sidereal zodiac, which is roughly aligned with the constellations, being about 24 degrees off of the tropical zodiac at this point. The outer ring is a rough sketch of the constellations that fall on the ecliptic. Chris Brennan

This alignment of the seasons with the signs of the zodiac is important because astrologers made symbolic associations between the nature of the seasons and the nature or meaning underlying certain signs of the zodiac. So, it wasn’t just about the appearance of the constellations or the myths associated with them, but information was also derived from the specific part of the season associated with certain signs.

For example, the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn are thought to reflect the initiation of new activities and changes because they coincide with the beginnings of the seasons, just after the equinoxes and solstices, where there is a distinct change in the weather and the things that depend on it.

On the other hand, the fixed signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are said to reflect the stabilization of existing activities and circumstances since they coincide with the middle of the seasons, when there is a sense of stability in the heat and temperature.

The mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces are thought to reflect circumstances in which things are in transition because they lie at the end of the seasons, when there is a transition from one season to the next.

So, there are symbolic associations being made between the nature of different parts of the seasons and certain types of actions, circumstances or qualities that share a formal similarity. This is the basis of what is referred to as the tropical zodiac, which is measured relative to the seasons, with its starting point at the vernal equinox.

The Spring Equinox falls on March 20 and marks the start of a new astrological year when the Sun crosses the equinox into the Cardinal zodiac sign Aries, and here we prepare the growing of our corn and vegetables for the coming season. At the Summer Solstice we have the longest day of the year, and in the northern hemisphere it falls on June 21 and it starts with the Cardinal sign Cancer. The Fall Equinox falls on the September 23, on the cusp between Virgo and the Cardinal sign Libra. This time of year is connected with harvesting the fruits of our labor. The Winter Solstice occurs at December 21, the shortest day of the year, and the sun begins moving north in the Cardinal zodiac sign Capricorn. This is the rebirth of life.

The Masons have a symbol called the Royal Arch symbolizing the Mystical Lamb, the seven first signs of the Zodiac, from Aries to Libra, the body of the Cosmic Christ.

Calendar of the Soul Under Construction

Steiner describes the seasons in his Calendar of the Soul. We see here Aries at the Spring equinox and Cancer at the Summer solstice just as in the Masonic symbol for the Cosmic Christ. See RS Archive.

The Moon modifies the seasons as shown through the church year, where Easter is placed after the position of the moon. Easter Sunday is the Sunday following the paschal full moon date. The paschal full moon date is the ecclesiastical full moon date following 20 March, the spring Equinox. See Computus.

Man as a Projection into the Third Dimension

Following Steiner, man is a projection in the same way as the solar system, there is a plane inside man from where the rest of man is a projection:

And if to the question: Where are you? you want to find an answer, not in accordance with Maya, but in accordance with reality, then you must not point to the space where your body is standing and say: “I am here,” but you will have to say: “I am in the place where my left man and my right man meet.” From The Balance in the World and Man, Lucifer and Ahriman, Lecture II

It was necessary to create a 3D world to create independent beings, they should see themselves as separate from others, and there we need to touch ourselves. It's also interesting that space is not something the spiritual world have any experience with before, that they learn through our living understanding:

Imagine that you stretch out your left hand. The Divine lives in everything terrestrial. In your muscles, in your nerves, lives the Divine.

Now with the fingers of your left hand you touch the fingers of your right hand — this can only be done in Space. The fact that you feel your right hand with your left, your left hand with your right — this is something which the divine-spiritual Beings do not follow. They follow the left hand and right hand up to the point of contact, but the feeling that arises between the two is an experience which the faculties possessed by the Gods do not make possible; it is something that arises only in Space.

Just as little as the Gods behold Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth [periods] simultaneously but only in succession, in Time, so they have none of the purely spatial experiences known to man.

When you look with your left and right eyes and have the lines of vision from right and from left, the activity of the Gods is present in the vision from the right eye and again in the vision from the left eye, but in the meeting of the two lines of vision lies the purely human element.

Thus we experience as men, because we have been placed into the world of Space, something that is experienced in a state of emancipation from the activity of the Gods.

Man as an Upside Down Plant

Another thing is that man is upside down, which I thought was a little curious, but then remembered that Steiner once told that man was an upside down plant, which I never really understood before I made this drawing. The Kabbalah tree should be seen as the Tree of Knowledge growing downward, the creation happens at the bottom, and the Tree of Life growing upward, as the beings develop and raise.

The Avayata-tree of Krishna growing downward

If we observe this condition more clearly we come to a place in the Gita which, if we have already been amazed at the great and mighty contents of the Gita, must infinitely extend our admiration.

We come to a passage which, to the man of the present day, must certainly appear incomprehensible; wherein Krishna reveals to Arjuna the nature of the Avayata-tree, of the Fig-tree, by telling him that in this tree the roots grow upwards and the branches downwards; where Krishna further says that the single leaves of this tree are the leaves of the Veda book, which, put together, yield the Veda knowledge. That is a singular passage in the Gita.

What does it signify, this pointing to the great tree of Life, whose roots have an upward direction, and the branches a downward direction, and whose leaves give the contents of the Veda? We must just transport ourselves back into the old knowledge, and try and understand how it worked. The man of today only has, so to say, his present knowledge, communicated to him through his physical organs.

The old knowledge was acquired as we have just described, in the body which was still etheric, not that the whole man was etheric, but knowledge was acquired through the part of the etheric body which was within the physical body. Through this organism, through the organisation of the etheric body, the old knowledge was acquired.

Just imagine vividly that you, when in the etheric body, could perceive by means of the serpent. There was something then present in the world, which to the man of the present day is no longer there. Certainly the man of today can realise much of what surrounds him when he puts himself into relation with nature; but just think of him when he is observing the world: there is one thing he does not perceive, and that is his brain.

No man can see his own brain when he is observing; neither can any man see his own spine. This impossibility ceases as soon as one observes with the etheric body.

A new object then appears which one does not otherwise see — one perceives one's own nervous system. Certainly it does not appear as the present-day anatomist sees it. It does not appear as it does to such a man, it appears in such a way that one feels: “Yes! There thou art, in thy etheric nature.”

One then looks upwards and sees how the nerves, which go through all the organs, are collected together up there in the brain. That produces the feeling: “That is a tree of which the roots go upwards, and the branches stretch down into all the members.”

That in reality is not felt as being of the same small size as we are inside our skin: it is felt as being a mighty cosmic tree. The roots stretch far out into the distances of space and the branches extend downwards.

One feels oneself to be a serpent, and one sees one's nervous system objectified, one feels that it is like a tree which sends its roots far out into the distance of space and the branches of which go downwards.

Remember what I have said in former lectures, that man is, in a sense, an inverted plant. All that you have learnt must be recalled and put together, in order to understand such a thing as this wonderful passage in the Bhagavad Gita.

We are then astonished at the old wisdom which must today, by means of new methods, be called forth from the depths of occultism. We then experience what this tree brings to light. We experience in its leaves that which grows upon it; the Veda knowledge, which streams in on us from without.

The wonderful picture of the Gita stands out clearly before us: the tree with its roots going upwards, and its branches going downwards, with its leaves full of knowledge, and man himself as the serpent round the tree.

You may perhaps have seen this picture, or have come across the picture of the Tree of Life with the serpent; everything is of significance when one considers these old things.

Here we have the tree with the upward growing roots, and the downward-turning branches; one feels that it goes in an opposite direction to the Paradise-tree. That has its deep meaning: for the tree of Paradise is placed at the beginning of the other evolution, that which through the old Hebrew antiquity passes on into Christianity.

If we observe this condition more clearly we come to a place in the Gita which, if we have already been amazed at the great and mighty contents of the Gita, must infinitely extend our admiration.

No man can see his own brain when he is observing; neither can any man see his own spine. This impossibility ceases as soon as one observes with the etheric body.

You may perhaps have seen this picture, or have come across the picture of the Tree of Life with the serpent; everything is of significance when one considers these old things.

Man as a small Cosmos

Steiner made a horoscope analysis of two albino children during lectures on Curative Education in 1924 and it was made with the Tropical Zodiac of the European tradition. As man is a projection of the large cosmos, the tropical zodiac is used in the small as in the large. It was Astronomicon that made me aware of the children!

"The nature of our internal organs is truly such that a whole cosmos is alive in them. If we merely consider those organs the way they are presented in ordinary anatomy and physiology, this is maya to a much higher degree than the maya we face in the world around us."

"For this reason they called the spleen "saturnine," or an inner Saturn in man; and, similarly, the liver they called an inner Jupiter; and the gall-bladder, an inner Mars."

"The position is entirely different, however, when a man can see clairvoyantly inside himself by means of the sympathetic nervous system. He does not in that case see at all the same things that one sees when looking from the outside; rather, he now sees something which caused seers throughout the ages to choose such strange names as I cited in the second lecture. . . . He now gradually realizes why the seers of all times connected the activity of the spleen with the action of Saturn, the liver with the action of Jupiter, and the activity of the gall-bladder with the action of Mars. For what he sees in his own inner self is, indeed, fundamentally different from what presents itself to the external view. He becomes aware that he actually has before him portions of the outside world enclosed within the boundaries of his inner organs.

"For this reason occultists of all ages have seen in the Saturn forces that which secludes our solar system within itself, thus making it possible for the solar system to develop a rhythm of its own which is not the same as the rhythm outside the world of our solar system."

"The forces that are in the spleen isolate the circulation of our blood from all outside influences, and make of it a regular rhythm within itself, a system having its own rhythm."

"In the following lectures I shall have occasion to show you that the occultists have actual reasons for conceiving the relationship of the sun to Mercury and Venus as being similar to that which we must necessarily think of as existing between the heart and lungs and kidneys respectively, within the human organism."

“Pythagoras said that the universal Creator had formed two things in His own image: The first was the cosmic system with its myriads of suns, moons, and planets; the second was man, in whose nature the entire universe existed in miniature.”

The Cosmic Christ and the Zodiac Under Construction

From Steiner we have ".. there are ascending and descending forces — forces that are ascending to the Zodiac and forces that are descending from the Zodiac." The Ladder of Jacob is a symbol for this, just as the Kabbalah Tree of Life is.

The whole Zodiac represents the hierarchies that precedes the development of humanity, the steps necessary to create the needed environment for our development. Each sign represents a hierarchy under development and an Æon. They are projected down into detail development of everything on the Earth and of the single life of man, everything follows this development sequence. The development can be described in various ways, and this is a very interesting description:

The creative force of mankind is the Cosmic Christ, the Mystical Lamb, who is a seven layered being with the physical body in Buddhi. We also know Buddhi as Sophia or the Son, the feminine and masculine side of the Second Logos. This being is the etheric sun that gives wisdom and energy that drives our development. See The Cosmic Christ and the Etheric Sun (Steiner.)

The Trinity - The Three Logoi

The Cosmic Christ works within the Zodiac through the Trinity. The planets outside the earth sphere, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, is working on man from the outside and the planets inside the earth sphere, Moon, Venus and Mercury, works from within man. The Trinity is related to the six inner planets, except the Sun, as:

Saturn is also known as Brahma, Jupiter as Vishnu and Mars as Shiva. _{Incarnations of Earth}.

This diagram shows the Trinity in three octaves, the inner planets, Moon, Venus and Mercury working within in the daily cycle, the outer planets Saturn, Jupiter and Mars working on humanity from outside in the yearly cycle, and the outer planets Pluto, Neptune and Uranus orchestrating the century cycle:

These six planets interacts with our Sun that represent ourselves in totality where the houses represents our soul and our I AM. The planets interact with each other to create the needed effects.

Saturn, the Father, makes the large changes in the physical world preparing the work of Jupiter. The Son, Jupiter, goes in and work on the etheric bodies of man. Jupiter is the Logos, the Son, the power behind creation. He works with our opinions, habits, inspirations, courage and new ideas. Mars, the Holy Spirit, takes care of the details and feelings, like a scalpel he manipulates the world, the Wind in the Willows.

Æons - Planetary incarnations

Each hierarchy is created downward through an Æon. This picture shows where we are now. More on the planetary periods here Esoteric History of Man.

An interesting detail, the last half of the Earth period and first half of Jupiter period is called the Mercury Æon, and here the inside becomes the outside and the outside becomes the inside. This corresponds nicely to Scorpio who has to transform himself fully, turning the inner the out. More on the periods and the meaning of the seals here Spirits of Form and the Creation of Humanity.

The description of the creation of man exists in all religious and esoteric traditions as I have described here: Sophia Created in the Beginning.

The Planetary Seals

The seals describe the Three Logoi weaving through each other in our reality, to further the development, the creation.

Cultural periods

The major periods in the time of the current humanity is Taurus, Aries, Pisces and Aquarius, where we have lived in Pisces for a long time. This describes the ascend up through the Zodiac.

The Etheric Sun is the driving force of our development. The dark period Kali Yuga is the time where we are the farthest away from the Etheric Sun. We have now left Kali Yuga, and are beginning to move toward the Etheric Sun, with increasing speed.

Kali Yuga consists of two parts, the lesser and the darker Yuga. The first starts with the death of Krishna, the etheric gods don't walk the earth any longer, they become invisible to man. The second and darker Yuga starts with the death of Buddha, the angelic beings who had stayed back as human teachers of humanity, the Father's or Luciferic teachers, raised and became angels, they couldn't any longer incarnate as avatars, now humanity was alone on earth, but the spiritual world could still work through the old souls and pioneers of humanity. The twelve around Buddha, Christ and Christian Rosenkreutz are the leaders and archetypes of humanity.

The etheric sun is diametrically opposed the physical sun, it goes north when the physical sun goes south, and the etheric sun goes up when the physical goes down, the physical shines on us by day and the etheric sun shines on us by night, and in that way energy is sent down to us all around the clock. So midnight is midday in the etheric world, where the etheric or pranic energy is at its highest. It also explains why it is easier to sleep between 9 and 10 pm than from 10 pm and forward, the etheric sun rays are much stronger after 10pm so the energy we receive is much more intense and makes it difficult to sleep.

And it explains why its better to sleep at night, where our body can replenish its energies. When we sleep in daytime there is very little etheric energy available, so our etheric body don’t restitute correctly and it often leads to stress and depressions. Another thing is that certain beings use the darkness in the etheric world to gain access to our lone etheric body, some taking away the energy of the etheric body and others trying to get into the body, so we wake feeling weaker.

Hierarchies and the Planets

When the Sun came out of Pralaya it had the size of our solar system. It contracted and left what later formed Saturn outside. Saturn contained the beings with mineral consciousness. It contracted even more and left Jupiter outside, the beings with plant consciousness. It contracted again and left Mars outside, the beings with animal consciousness. Thereafter Earth was left outside, with human consciousness. Mars hit Earth and the Moon was created from the collision. The Iron on Earth came from Mars. The Moon was the origin of the Luciferic beings, Yang, and Mars the origin of the Ahrimanic beings, Yin. The Luciferic beings was the dragon cast down to man and the Ahrimanic beings was the dragon cast up from the deep darkness.

The Moon contained the Angels, they was a kind of cocoon around mankind, an eggshell, all influence from the Zodiac has to pass through the sphere of the angels before it reached humankind. When the Sun contracted again and left Venus outside, the Archangelic beings was staying with Venus. When the Sun contracted again and left Mercury outside, the Archai stayed with Mercury.

Thus the Thrones work into the sphere of Saturn—the total sphere, not only the planet. This concerns all the implications contained in the astronomical elements of the sphere, for instance, the lines of the nodes and perihelion-aphelion. The Kyriotetes work through the sphere of Jupiter, the Dynamis through Mars.

Sun-spots and the Current Michael Period

Steiner says that the more the power of Michael is influencing the world the fewer sunspots.

An attack from the adverse powers starts typically at the top of sunspot activity and ends at the bottom, when the energy have been taken out of the process, when karma have been understood. When it takes more than one cycle the second top is usually lower, as the energy is somewhat depleted.

Luciferic angels had formed a barrier to the spiritual worlds to keep human consciousness out of the spiritual world since 1250 AD. They were cast down to earth by the Michael forces in 1879. The new Michael period was starting in 1879, and the forces was slowly descending to earth, permeating earth.

The Luciferic forces tried to hinder the descent trying to win humanity over to their side through materialism. Until 1960 the powers of darkness was increasing, but from then their powers became lesser and lesser while the Christ powers was increasing.

The top tells where the dark powers are extremely active and the bottom where the Michael powers are strong.

Each sun-spot cycle is 11 years long and three cycles give 33 years, another known cycle.

Interestingly, Michaels's fight from around 1841 to 79 is at a local maximum. Goethe (1749-1832) has a local minimum from his fiftieth birthday to his death, and shortly thereafter starts Michaels's fight. The Napoleonic Wars starts on a top 1803 and ends in a valey 1815, but consists of more wars in the period. Both the School of Chartres and Scholasticism are placed in large minima. It's typically that there are minima where the cultural expression is big.

Examples of Major Historical Dates

1930-31 The return of Christ, where the Christ powers slowly began to permeate the earth, to take power when the new yuga starts. This was met with the great depression and the rise of Nazism.

In 1948 Korea was split into two states and the war started in 1950 and ended in 1953. Mao defeated the Nationalist Chinese in 48-49.

The Vietnam war started at the end of 1955 and ended in spring 1975, two cycles. The Vietnam war was aggressive in the first cycle, but the world grew weary in the second cycle.

In 1982 AIDS became known and we had the depression with the US Savings and Loan Crisis, the Falklands Island War and the Lebanon War.

Normally epidemics is starting at the top, but sometimes they are starting at a low, like in 2020, where they are not evil in themselves.

In early 1841 to late 1879 the adverse powers rebelled against the Michael powers, and they were thrown down to the physical plane.

The new Michael period was starting in 1879, and slowly descending to earth. The Luciferic forces tried to hinder the descent trying to win humanity over to their side through materialism.

The old Michael raised to Archai, a spirit of time and personality. He became the face of Christ, and this is the background for the return of Christ, he is the most powerful spiritual being in our reality, if not at all.

The Michael Principle and Sunspots

“My dear friends, that which goes on externally, which the astronomers describe, is after all only the outer side.

You know that approximately every 11 years we have a period of sunspots when in the shining of the Sun upon the earth certain places are darkened, covered with spots or blotches.

This was not always so. In very ancient times the Sun shone down as a uniform disc of light. There were no Sun-spots.

Moreover, after some thousands of years, the Sun will have very many more spots than it has today. The Sun is growing ever more spotted.

This again is the outer manifestation of the fact that the Michael Power, the Cosmic Power of Intelligence is still decreasing.

In the increase of the Sun-spots in the course of Cosmic Evolution is revealed the Sun's decay; the Sun within the cosmos grows increasingly dim and old.

And at the appearance of a sufficiently large number of Sun-spots, the other Planetary Intelligences recognised that they would now no longer be ruled by the Sun.

They resolved no longer to allow the earth to be dependent on the Sun, but to make it dependent henceforth on the entire cosmos directly.

This took place through the planetary Counsels of the Archangels. Notably under the leadership of Oriphiel, this emancipation of the Planetary Intelligences from the Sun-Intelligence took place.

It was a complete separation of Cosmic Powers that had hitherto belonged together. The Sun-Intelligence of Michael and the Planetary Intelligences gradually came into cosmic opposition one with another.”

Michael’s fight of the Ahrimanic Powers

“You have been given images which may serve to demonstrate the intentions of the spirits of darkness in the 1840s, 50s, 60s and 70s when they fought the followers of Michael.

These spirits have been down here among human beings from the autumn of 1879. They have failed to achieve their aims: spiritualism will not become the general human persuasion; people will not grow so clever from the materialistic point of view that they fall over themselves with their cleverness. The spiritual truths will take root among human beings.

On the other hand, the spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found.

The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present. For it makes no difference to their reality whether they are recognized or unrecognized.

It will be the main concern of these spirits of darkness to bring confusion into the rightful elements which are now spreading on earth, and need to spread in such a way that the spirits of light can continue to be active in them.”

1841 - 1879 Michael throwing the Spirits of Darkness down to Earth

The year 1841 was, in truth, the critical year in respect of the onset of the age of materialism, for at that time a very definite battle began in the spiritual worlds — a battle waged by certain Spirits, Spirits of Darkness as we may call them, belonging to the hierarchical rank of the Angeloi.

In the spiritual worlds they fought out this battle until the autumn of 1879. They were striving for many and definite aims, only one of which shall be mentioned today.

Between the years 1841 and 1879, decision was to be taken as to whether a certain store of spiritual wisdom could be made sufficiently mature to trickle gradually down to the Earth from the last third of the nineteenth century onwards, that is to say, to enter into the souls of men as a stimulus to spiritual knowledge, to the knowledge described today as that of Spiritual Science, which has only been possible since that time.

The aim of these Angeloi-Spirits between the years 1841 and 1879 was to prevent what was thus to flow down to the Earth, from coming to maturity in the spiritual world. But these Spirits of Darkness were defeated in the war they waged against the Spirits of Light during this period.

In the year 1879, on a smaller scale, an event came to pass of the kind that has several times come to pass in the course of evolution, and has always been pictured symbolically as the victory of Michael, or St. George, over the Dragon.

In the year 1879, too, the Dragon was overcome in a certain realm. This time the “Dragon” was the Angeloi-Spirits who were striving for but could not achieve the aim I have indicated.

In 1879, therefore, they were cast out of the spiritual world into the world of men — and here, in this world, they wander among humanity. They are present here, sending their forces into men's thoughts, feelings and impulses of will, egging them on to this undertaking or another."

The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness

“The event I have been referring to in the preceding lectures, the occasion when certain spirits of darkness were cast out of the spiritual realm and down into the human realm in the autumn of 1879, holds great importance.

We have to reflect again and again what it really means to say that a battle raged for decades in the spiritual realms.

The battle started in the early 1840s and ended when certain spiritual entities, which had been acting like rebels in the spiritual world during those decades, were vanquished in the autumn of 1879 and cast down as dark spirits into the realm of human evolution.

They are now among us and the effect of this is that they send their impulses into our view of the world, not only into the way we think about the world, but also into our inner feelings, our will impulses and even our temperaments.

Human beings will be unable to get even a partial understanding of the significant events of the present time and the immediate future, unless they are prepared to recognize the relationship which exists between the physical world and the spiritual world and take as much account of important events like this as they do of natural phenomena.

At the present time people generally give validity only to natural phenomena, phenomena of the physical world which are part of historical evolution.

They will have to give validity again to spiritual events, which can be perceived with the aid of spiritual science, for only then can the events in which human beings are caught up be really understood. ...

The Christ, who is to appear in a specific form in the course of the twentieth century, will know nothing of the ideals proclaimed by people today.

In earlier times Michael, the spirit from the hierarchy of Archangels was the representative of Yahveh; thanks to the functions given to him in 1879, he will be the earthly representative, the vicar, of the Christ, of the Christ impulse to create spiritual bonds between human beings which will take the place of the purely physical blood bonds.”

The Return of Christ - Meeting in the Etheric

“The great and momentous feature of the coming era will be that many human beings will experience this event. The Christ, now to be found in the spiritual sphere of the earth, will be perceptible to those faculties which, as we have said, will make their appearance.

When men become able to see the etheric body, they will learn to see the etheric body of Christ Jesus, as did Paul. This is what is beginning as the characteristic trait of a new age, and between the years 1930-40-45 it will already become evident in the first forerunners of human beings possessed of these faculties.

If men are alert they will experience this event of Damascus through direct spiritual vision and therewith clarity and truth concerning the Christ Event.”

December 2019 confirmed as starting point of the new solar activity cycle

“Over past years, the rather weak cycle that had peaked in 2014 has been progressively declining, heralding the approach of the minimum that marks the transition to the next cycle and is characterized by long fully quiet and spotless periods. Month-after-month, SILSO has carefully monitored the general trend in the activity.

In January 2020, the 13-month smoothed sunspot number rose for the first time since the maximum of cycle 24 (April 2014). Now, by September, this reversal of the trend was firmly confirmed, officially placing the minimum between cycles 24 and 25 in December 2019. The Sun has thus now started its ascending phase towards the next maximum. This date also sets the duration of the past solar cycle at exactly 11 years, as the last minimum occurred in December 2008, thus almost exactly the average length of all past sunspot cycles, which ranges from 9 to 14 years. ...

Another indication of the transition between the two cycles can be drawn from counts of individual sunspot groups belonging to the old and new solar cycles. While most sunspot groups belonged to the last solar cycle until September 2019, the dominance switched to groups of the new cycle in November 2019.

So, this transition in terms of the number of active regions falls in October 2019. This matches rather closely the above date of the lowest sunspot number, and demonstrates in a different way that the new sunspot cycle has definitely taken the lead since the start of 2020. This late-breaking upward trend is now expected to accelerate over the coming months. So, be prepared for a more eruptive and interesting Sun!”

NASA 25 Sun-Spot Cycle

NASA a decade of Sun-spots.

Esoteric Astrology

"He is made welcome and hears that in this house a brotherhood of twelve brothers lives in perfect seclusion.

These twelve brothers are representatives of different human races from all over the earth. Every one of these brothers is the representative of a different religious faith.

None is accepted here in the immaturity of youth. but only when he has explored the world, when he has struggled with the joys and sorrows of the world - when he has worked and been active in the world and won his way to a free view beyond his narrowly confined domain. Only then is he accepted in the circle of twelve.

And these twelve, each representing one of the world religions, live here together in peace and in harmony. They are led by a thirteenth who surpasses them all in the perfection of his human self. The thirteenth surpasses them all in his broad view of human circumstances."

Rudolf Steiner, The Secret Stream. Goethe's Rosicrucian Poem 'The Mysteries', December 25, 1907, Cologne

In Rudolf Steiner's Words before the Eurythmy Presentation of the “Twelve Moods” in Dornach, August 29, 1915 Cancer is connected to summer solstice where the sun is highest, so the moods uses the Tropical Zodiac.

If you take the mood in Cancer, for example, in which after the ascent there again follows the descent, where one has the feeling that the sun comes to rest for a moment…

World Outlooks

“Let us begin with Idealism, and let us mark it with the mental-zodiacal sign of Aries; in like manner let us mark Rationalism as Taurus, Mathematicism as Gemini, Materialism as Cancer, Sensationalism as Leo, Phenomenalism as Virgo, Realism as Libra, Dynamism as Scorpio, Monadism as Sagittarius, Spiritism as Capricorn, Pneumatism as Aquarius, and Psychism as Pisces. The relations which exist spatially between the individual zodiacal signs are actually present between these shades of world-outlook in the realm of spirit.

Signs	World-outlook	Definition	Virtues₁	Becomes₂	Connection to the Universe
	Idealism	Sole belief in ideas manifesting through reality and giving it purpose.	Devotion	Power of sacrifice	We take in the universe and look back.
	Rationalism	Sole belief in the ideas discovered in external reality.	Equilibrium	Progress	We look out into the universe. We take in its mobility.
	Mathematism	Sole belief in the mathematical ordering of reality.	Perseverance	Faithfulness	We grasp ourselves. (Touch ourselves.)
	Materialism	Sole belief in the crudest impressions, valid for the material world and its laws.	Unselfishness	Catharsis	We encompass ourselves.
	Sensationalism	Sole belief in sensual phenomena as the basic reality, with thought a mere addition.	Compassion	Freedom	That which fills us out.
	Phenomenalism	Sole belief in sensual phenomena as representing a world of appearance to be thought over.	Courtesy	Steadiness in feeling	Ripening.
	Realism	Sole belief in what can be perceived and thought about as the external world.	Contentment	Self-composure	Fitting ourselves into the inorganic world and seeking the balance.
	Dynamism	Sole belief in the power of external and internal forces in reality.	Patience	Understanding	Poisonous sting.
	Monadism	Sole belief in abstract spiritual monads with varying powers of perception.	Control of speech and thinking	A feeling for the truth	Hunter.
	Spiritism	Sole belief that material reality is only illusion and that all genuine reality is found only in the Spirit.	Courage	The power of redemption	Breeder of animals.
	Pneumatism	Sole belief that beings with ideas need to embody an active spirit able to do things.	Discretion	The power of meditation	Farmer.
	Psychism	Sole belief in the need for ideas to be embodied in beings to be real.	Magnanimity	Love	Trader.

The Psychic Moods

And the relations which are entered into by the planets, as they follow their orbits through the Zodiac, correspond to the relations which the seven world-outlook-moods enter into, so that we can feel Gnosticism as Saturn, Logicism as Jupiter, Voluntarism as Mars, Empiricism as Sun, Mysticism as Venus, Transcendentalism as Mercury, and Occultism as Moon.

World Outlooks and Senses

Senses show the development sequence of man together with the World Outlooks relating to the mental development, as the signs works on our development on all levels.

Sign	Sense of	Is'ms		Mythology	Nature	Elements	Modalities	Star sign
	Life	Idealism		The first Sign, Seed of the Zodiac	Inner - Physical	Fire	Cardinal Zilpah	Aries Gad
	Movement	Rationalism	Mathematics	Movement, walk to eat grass. Digestive system.	Inner - Physical	Earth	Fixed Leah	Taurus Reuben
	Balance	Mathematism	Mathematics	Balance between two persons	Inner - Physical	Air	Mutable Leah	Gemini Simeon
	Touch	Materialism	Modern Science	The Claw Holding things	Inner - Physical	Water	Cardinal Leah	Cancer Issachar
	Warmth	Sensationalism		Fire - Here the Sun is at home	Inner/Outer	Fire	Fixed Leah	Leo Judah
	Taste	Phenomenalism		I Analyze	Outer - Etheric	Earth	Mutable Leah	Virgo Zebulun
	Smell	Realism		I Evaluate	Outer - Etheric	Air	Cardinal Zilpah	Libra Asher
	Sight	Dynamism	Thrown out of Paradise	Eagle with Sight	Outer - Etheric	Water	Fixed Bilhah	Scorpio Dan
	Tone	Monadism	Half man half animal	Half man half horse - Gilgamesh Lyre - Orpheus	Outer/Higher	Fire	Mutable Bilhah	Sagittarius Naphtali
	Words	Spiritism	Sentient Soul	Materialism and Ahriman	Higher - Astral	Earth	Cardinal Rachel	Capricorn Benjamin
	Thought	Pneumatism	Intellectual Soul	First whole human starsign Free thinker	Higher - Astral	Air	Fixed Asenath	Aquarius Ephraim
	'I'	Psychism	Consciousness Soul	The Moon gods/Angels was Fishmen. Empathy and Healer.	Higher - Astral	Water	Mutable Asenath	Pisces Manasseh

It's interesting to see that the longest work was on the physical body into the middle of Leo, from then the work continues on the etheric body into the middle of Saggitarius, and lastly, the least development on the astral body. The physical body is the most complex body, have been worked on through three æons, while the etheric only have been worked on in two æons and the astral only in one.

Man as an Octahedron

I worked with the Platonic solids in connection with astrology to see if there was a relation, and I found out that I got meaningful results with the cube, octahedron and dodecahedron. Later I found out that it was known by the Hebrew. Especially the octahedron was interesting in connection with the senses, as the figure explained what the text didn't explain, but more later. That the signs fit into these figures was a little surprising, it shows their deep immersion into the physical world.

Or as the Foundation Stone

Date of the laying of the foundation stone for the First Goetheanum, Sept 20, 1913.

The foundation stone was laid when the Sun was in Virgo and Mercury at the start of Libra, where Mercury is the ruler of Virgo. Virgo is analytical and detail oriented where Libra can see things from above and from more sides, this hinders the opinionated. It was a shame the first Goetheanum burned. Calculations were done in the Tropical Zodiak. It was Astronomicon that made me aware of the laying of the foundation stone. See also Four Hares.

Table based on Modalities and Elements

This table is one of the central tables of Astrology, it is good for the understanding of the underlying structure of the signs.

The Universe and Human Development

In the lecture The Universe (1921) Steiner described the connection between the star signs and our development:

Today we shall study the human being in regard to his form, and from this standpoint widen and deepen what we have recently considered. If we envisage, to begin with, the fact that the human form, of course, depends in the widest sense on the whole life of man, we should then consider first of all man's life as a whole, in order to grasp the human form from within, in a concrete way. To begin with, the human being forms part of the whole universe, of the whole cosmos. And if you bear in mind that in regard to the formation of the head, the human being is in reality an image of the sphere, of the cosmic universe, you will find, as it were, that as regards the head, he is placed into the whole universe. But we can only understand the way in which he is placed into it, and is at the same time a self-contained being, by bearing in mind man's connection with the whole environing world.

Astrology and the Introduction of the Senses

"I explained that, as far as our senses are concerned, what is spread out over our nerve substance is organized according to the number twelve because the human being is in this most profound sense a microcosm and mirrors the macrocosm.

In the macrocosm the sun moves through twelve signs of the zodiac in the course of a year, and the human I lives here on the physical plane in the twelve senses. Things are certainly rather different out there in the macrocosm, especially in regard to their sequence in time. The sun moves from Aries through Taurus, and so on, and back again through Pisces to Aries as it makes its yearly course through the twelve signs of the zodiac.

Everything we have in us, even everything we experience in our soul, is related to the outer world through our twelve senses. These are the senses of touch, life, movement, balance, smell, taste, sight, warmth, hearing, speech, thinking, and the sense of the I.

Our inner life moves through this circle of the twelve senses just as the sun moves through the circle of the twelve signs of the zodiac. But we can take this external analogy even further. In the course of a year, the sun has to move through all the signs of the zodiac from Aries to Libra; it moves through the upper signs during the day and through the lower ones at night. The sun’s passage through these lower signs is hidden from outer light. It is the same with the life of our soul and the twelve senses. Half of the twelve are day senses, just as half of the signs of the zodiac are day signs; the others are night senses."

There are three places in the sequence where a sense is misplaced, touch is of course not the first sense, life, movement and balance must come before touch, they are self-centered, where touch is reaching out, having physical contact with other beings, just like Leo and Virgo. Movement is not possible before life, and balance is not possible before movement, and to touch others we need balance, coordination of our movements.

The second is smell, it must come after taste, as taste is physical and should come before the non-contact sense, smell. The third is warmth, its Leo, it comes before sensing.

The third trinity are Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius, that are non-contact sensing, that is smell, sight and tones. The last trinity are Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, that is consciousness sensing: words, thought and 'I'.

Why the sequence is not accurate may be because Steiner didn't thought it was necessary to be precise or the referent couldn't remember the sequence fully when writing it down. The true sequence is self-evident with a little thinking.

Aries is life, this is where God enters the creation. Taurus is movement, walking around on the large green field. Gemini is a double sign, balancing between right and wrong. Cancer is touching or manipulating the world with its arm. Leo is the sun, introducing warms into the creation. Virgo is analyzing the world and taste is the most precise analytical sense we have. Libra or the Scales can smell if its good or not. Scorpio or the Eagle looks on the world with sharp eyes. Sagittarius introduces the sound, the lyre, the shift from animal to man. In Capricorn God become sentient, man acquires the spoken word. In Aquarius God become intelligent, become a thinker, intellectual soul. In Pisces man becomes altruistic, can sense the 'I' in others, consciousness soul.

Here a picture of the senses connected to the signs and the movements connected to the stars

Astrology and the Hierarchies

The Zodiac is a representation of the hierarchies from man an up to the highest conscious hierarchy. As human we consist of bodies in the hierarchies from Pisces up to Virgo. The highest being in the universe, the Sacrificial Lamb, goes from Aries downto Libra. This being is the energy source for all of creation. Here we also see the Senses in connection with the hierarchies, verifying the sequence I have described above. See also http://work.tree-of-life.dk/TheEthericSun.html.

The Zodiac in relation to the hierarchies, senses, world-outlooks, keywords and Steiner's pictures of the signs. Life started with Aries, the first consciousness. Aries created Taurus, Taurus created Gemini and so forth down to Pisces, the physical world. The Cosmic Christ have Aries as highest body, Libra as lowest body and Cancer as I. See Mystical Lamb.

"There are seven grades of human consciousness: trance consciousness, deep sleep, dream consciousness, waking consciousness, psychic, super-psychic and spiritual consciousness.

Actually these are in all twelve stages of consciousness; the five others are creative stages. They are those of the Creators, of the creative Gods. These twelve stages are related to the twelve signs of the zodiac.

The human being must pass through the experiences of these twelve stages. He ascended through the trance, deep sleep and dream consciousness up to the present clear day consciousness.

In the succeeding stages of planetary evolution he will reach still higher stages. All those which he has already passed through he will also retain within him." ~Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 1. 26th September 1905

Inner Movements and the Planets

“If the seven movements we have described are correctly understood, then with them are exhausted the inner movements of man. The others are outer movements. When man moves his feet or his hands, that is an external movement. The inner movements man brought with him when he came to Earth, though Earth has, it is true, changed them very much. And just as we had to refer the whole complete form of man to the fixed stars of the Zodiac, and connect the Signs of the Zodiac with the several members of the human form, so now we find that the several movements have their source in the entire planetary system. From our planetary system we have to derive these seven members of what we may call the man of inner movement. And since the relationship of these movements to one another corresponds to the relationship of the planets of our planetary system, we can also designate these several movements with the Signs that belong to these planets.”

“And now, when the pupil, as it were, steps forth out of his man of inner movement, he meets with seven forms. He makes the acquaintance of seven spiritual Beings, and he knows that these seven spiritual Beings correspond to his own inner movements in the very same way that Sun, Moon, and Venus correspond to what we spoke of yesterday.

He comes to understand that he himself has grown out of our planetary system, and that since the physical stars of the planets are directed by the Spirits of the planets, man is only able, for example, to lift himself upright through the fact that the Spirit of Saturn prevails in him, the Spirit who has his scene of action on Saturn as Lucifer has his on Venus.

He knows too that his movement of thought has connection with the Regent or directing Spirit of Jupiter, the movement of speech with the directing Spirit of Mars, the movement of the blood with the directing Spirit of the Sun, the whole movement of the breath with the directing Spirit of Mercury, all the glandular movements with the directing Spirit of Venus, and finally the whole movement of reproduction with the directing Spirit of the Moon.

He knows furthermore, that all these Spirits work with and through one another. They have their seat, their base of operations, in man, and one kind of movement works upon another. The Spirit of Saturn, for instance, while it works chiefly through the movement made by man in lifting himself upright, takes part indirectly in all other movements.”

The planets and chakras defines seven development steps for man, initiatory levels:

Senses Grouped in Three - The Three Pre-Earthly Deeds

Man has twelve senses, and the soul relates to them in three groups: Thinking, Feeling and Willing.

Willing - Movement into upright posture - First Logos, the Father ♄

The first four senses, the lowest, are called physical senses, or senses of the will because they are used to perceive one’s own body. These will be transformed to the consciousness soul when we are ready, as they are the most difficult to transform, the most physical.

Life Sense - Sense of overall wellbeing - We take in the universe and look back
2. Taurus

Sense of Self Movement - We look out into the universe. We take in it's mobility.
3. Gemini

Sense of Balance - We grasp ourselves, touch ourselves.
4. Cancer

Sense of Touch - Connection to the world - We encompass ourselves.

These four show the gradual process of man's formation from outside towards inside. We have, to begin with, the whole universe; but we are still outside. The imitation of the universe; but we have not yet reached our own being, for we imitate the universe. If we touch ourselves, we reach ourselves from outside. Only in the fourth stage we encompass ourselves.

These were the result of the first pre-earthly deed of Christ in the old Lemurian epoch. Here humanity gained upright position and was wrestled from the spiritual forces of Earth, Steiner calls it Astrology. Here humanity worked on the physical body. Here the Scythian god Ram or Rama was the creator, who ended the dominion of Shiva or Lucifer.

Feeling - Movement of thinking - Second Logos, the Son ♃

The middle four senses are the senses of feeling. Observations made with these senses arouse feelings. They are also reflected in our language: a tastefully furnished house, a sourpuss, hard to swallow, heart-warming, cold thought. These will be transformed into intellectual soul when we are ready. They are the second most difficult to transform, they are etheric in their functionality.

Sense of Warmth or Temperature - Includes emotional warmth/coolness - That which fills us out.
6. Virgo

Sense of Taste - Everything you eat becomes you - Ripening.
7. Libra

Sense of Smell - Fitting ourselves into the inorganic world and seeking the balance.
8. Scorpio

Sense of Sight or Vision - Poisonous sting.

This brings us to the point of absorbing what is outside. Consequently we began with the forming of man out of the universe, proceeded to the forming of man from within, and arrived at the point where his inner life develops by offering resistance to the external world.

The second deed of Christ, in the Atlantean period, gave humanity the ability to utter more than interjections. Here Humanity worked on the etheric body. This is related to Krishna, the flute player, to the etheric element, Steiner calls it Chronology. Here we also have Zarathustra with another name for of Krishna or Adam Kadmon, Zervan Akarana.

Thinking - Movement of speaking - Third Logos, the Holy Spirit ♂

The last four senses, the highest. These are the knowledge senses, and they are used in the observation of other people. These will be transformed into sentient soul as the first, as they are the easiest to transform, they are astral in their functionality.

Awake in

Sense of Tone or Hearing - Sound tells us the inner nature of things - Hunter
10. Capricorn

Sense of Words or Language - Breeder of animals
11. Aquarius

Sense of Thought or Concept - Farmer
12. Pisces

Sense of 'I' - Perceiving the 'I' of another person - Trader

Man's primary occupations are: Hunter, breeder of animals, farmer and trader. This characterizes man in regard to his form and the way he lives upon the earth as a hunter, breeder of animals, farmer, or trader. These are forms of human activities, of human occupations upon the earth.

The third Christ event, at the end of the Atlantean period, gave humanity the ability to create language, based on words, as a means of communication. Here Humanity worked on the astral body, giving the abilities for God to enter fully down into the physical. Steiner calls it Meteorology. Here the name Apollo stands for Krishna and Orpheus for Arjuna.

The Hebrew prepared the fourth deed of Christ through Geology, the descend of God into the physical. This is connected with the Sun, "Movement of the blood."

The Zodiac didn't consist of twelve star signs from the start, they came in three steps, starting with the four fixed signs in connection with the First Deed of Christ. The names for the constellations are between the oldest. In connection with the Second Deed of Christ appeared the cardinal signs, whose constellation names are younger than the fixed star constellations. Lastly, in connection with the Third Deed of Christ, the mutable star constellations became named.

The fixed signs are the foundation the creation builds on, the four elements of the Father. The cardinal signs are grown out of the fixed signs, and are the leading power behind the development and the archetype of humanity, the Son. The mutable are grown out of the cardinal and the fixed signs. The Mutable is the four elements of the Holy Spirit, the Third Logos.

The First Logos creates the physical world and the seed to Atma. The Second Logos fills the physical world with life, creates the etheric and the seed of Buddhi. The Third Logos ads movement to the physical world, the astral world and the seed of Manas.

Tamas, Rajas, Sattva are the three gunas, the three parts of the Third Logos. ~Steiner

• First, a, b and c are present.
• If a alone exists, it is Tamas.
• When a – the spiritual darkness or Tamas – combines with b – rajas, the absolute desire – darkness combines with desire, and it is a striving for the first logos.
• When a and c – Tamas and Sattva – are combined, we have created the image of the first logo out of the darkness.
• Likewise, we can combine b with c. It can each occur individually and be combined with one of the others.
• All three combined are what the first logo itself is.

The astral is the most flexible layer, most conscious, and therefore easier to transform. The etheric layers consciousness is not as flexible so it’s less easy to transform. And the physical layer is the least flexible and therefore most difficult to transform. Atma need all three layers (abc) to develop before it can be developed, and the consciousness soul is the channel developed.

ab • The soul is the result of the work between the physical (a) and etheric body (b).
ac • The Spirit Self or Manas is the result of the experiences of the physical body (a) transforming the karma of the astral (c).
bc • Life Spirit or Buddhi is our wisdom, the result of the transformation of our etheric body (b) our opinions by the speculative thinking of the astral body (c).
abc • Spirit Body or Atma is the result of the transformation of the physical (a) by the work of the Etheric (b) and the astral (c).

Through the work in the physical and the etheric we create the soul. Through the work in the physical and astral we create Manas, develop the higher I. Through the work in the Etheric and Astral we create Buddhi, wisdom. Through the combined work we create Atma, the resurrection body.

Senses Grouped in Four

The senses can be split in the four groups: personal senses, contact senses, contactless senses and sentient senses. Each group consists of one of the three Modalities: Cardinal, Fixed or Mutable.

Senses related to Animal Development

Senses in Octahedron

Steiner connects Inner Nature with Upper Nature like this [2]: Movement with Words, Touch and Sense of 'I', Life and Thought, ...

Willi Aeppli mentions it first in "The Care and Development of the Human Senses", but it wasn't explained very deeply, and it had no corresponding astrological relation, but this diagram shows the relation clearly, and that confirms the usability of this thesis :

Inner nature corresponds to first pre-earthly deeds of Christ, outer nature corresponds to second deed of Christ and upper nature corresponds to third deed of Christ.

Pythagoras, Alchemy and the Zodiac

Pythagoras used this well-known triangle to describe the major powers in the Zodiac:

The three qualities or modes corresponds to the elements of alchymia and to the three Logoi, the Father, Mother and Son.

The Symbolic Approach

Another approach to astrology could be called the symbolic approach, which considers the planets and signs to be symbols of cosmic processes and universal principles. As an example of this approach to astrolory, the following outline is derived partly from Ebertin's (1960) attempt to correlate the yearly rhythm of the seasons with the signs of the zodiac. - Stephen Arrayo

Astrology and Animal Development

Here we look at the animal development and what animal groups connects to what development. We again have the three groups based on the three pre-earthly deeds of Christ.

Sign	Sense of	Animal Group	Animal Development	Elements	Modalities	Star sign	Subplanes - Work needed
	Life	Protozoa	The cellular system is developed. Reproductive system dominates.	Fire	Cardinal	Aries	Physical
	Movement	Coelenterata	The digestive system is developed.	Earth	Fixed	Taurus	Chemical Ether, medium for assimilation and excretion
	Balance	Echinodermata	The rhythmic system is developed.	Air	Mutable	Gemini	Life Ether, medium of propagation
	Touch	Tunicata	A harmony of all the organs occurs however still at an embryonic stage.	Water	Cardinal	Cancer	Light Ether, medium of sense perception

	Warmth	Mollusca	The reproductive system dominates	Fire	Fixed	Leo	Reflecting Ether, memory of nature
	Taste	Vermes	Digestion process are the dominate process	Earth	Mutable	Virgo	Passion and low Desire - astral - repulsion
	Smell	Insecta	Respiration is the dominant feature	Air	Cardinal	Libra	Impressionability - astral - repulsion
	Sight	Pisces	The blood circulation is developed. Early stages of the heart exist and the harmony of all the organs is at a higher stage	Water	Fixed	Scorpio	Wishes - astral - repulsion

	Tone	Amphibia	The reproductive system again is highly developed	Fire	Mutable	Sagittarius	Feeling - astral - interest/indifference
	Words	Reptilia	The digestive process are again emphasised	Earth	Cardinal	Capricorn	Soul-Life - astral - attraction
	Thought	Aves (Birds)	The respiratory system is further developed	Air	Fixed	Aquarius	Soul-Light - astral - attraction
	'I'	Mammalia	Animals that have a true heart, warm blood.	Water	Mutable	Pisces	Soul-Power - astral - attraction

The twelve senses relates to the twelve lower sub-bodies of man in the physical, etheric and astral body:

Animal groups in Latin and English Correlated with Senses

Look at the star-fish. It has not this symmetrical form. It has five rays. Of course you can pass it by without any inner feeling. But if you perceive it feelingly, you could never say that the star-fish has a united feeling-life. The star-fish cannot possibly relate a right-hand to a left-hand side, or grasp a right-hand with a left-hand member. The star-fish must continually relate the one ray to one or two or three, or even to all four remaining rays. What we know as Feeling cannot live in the star-fish at all.

Octahedron with Animal Stages and the Senses

The octahedron with the twelse senses, the animal development groups and star signs.

Inner nature corresponds to first pre-earthly deeds of Christ, outer nature corresponds to second deed of Christ and upper nature corresponds to third deed of Christ.

The Alphabet

It may be said that if a Man could look through himself inwardly he would have to admit: I am an etheric body, in other words, I am the echo of cosmic vowels; I am a physical body, in other words, the echo of cosmic consonants. Because I stand here on the earth, there sounds through my being an echo of all that is said by the signs of the Zodiac; and the life of this echo is my physical body. An echo is formed of all that is said by the planetary spheres and this echo is my etheric body.

2. Etheric body = Echo of the planetary movements [The second pre-Earthly deed of Christ]

3. Astral body = Experience of the planetary movements [The third pre-Earthly deed of Christ]

Nothing is said, my dear friends, by repeating that Man consists of physical body and etheric body. Those are no more than vague, indefinite words.

If we want to speak in a real language, which can be learned from the mysteries of the cosmos, we would have to say: Man is constituted out of the echo of the heavens, of the fixed stars, of the echo of the planetary movements, of what is experienced of the echo of the planetary movements, and of what knowingly experiences the echo of the fixed star heavens.

Then we would have expressed in real cosmic speech what is abstractly expressed by the words: Man is made up of physical body, etheric body, astral body and 'I'. We remain entirely in the abstract by saying: Man is composed first of physical body, secondly of etheric body, thirdly of astral body, fourthly of 'I'.

But we pass into concrete cosmic speech if we say: Man consists of the echo of the Zodiac, of the echo of the planetary movements, of the experience of the impression of the planetary movements in thinking, feeling and willing, and in the perception of the echo of the Zodiac. The first is abstraction, the second reality.

When you say ‘I’, what is that exactly? Now just imagine someone had planted trees in a beautifully artistic order. Each individual tree can be seen. However at a distance all the trees resolve into a single point. Take all the individual things — all that resounds from the Zodiac in the way of world consonants, then go far enough away: Everything that is formed as inward sound, in the most manifold way, is compressed within you to the single point ‘I’.

It is an actual fact that this name which Man gives himself is really only an expression for what we perceive in the measureless spaces of the universe. Everywhere it is necessary to go back to what, as reflection, as echo, appears here upon earth. Thus, when the matter is seen in its reality, before Man's higher and inward experience, everything out of which Man builds himself up as a phenomenon, as pure experience, melts away. If we look upon Man and gradually learn to know his true nature, then his physical body actually ceases to be in the way it normally confronts us and otherwise stands before us, our vision widens and Man grows into the heavens of the fixed stars. The etheric body, too, ceases to be before us. Vision is extended, experience is extended, and we arrive at a perception of planetary life, for this human etheric body is a mere reflection of planetary life.

Kabbalah

The Tree of Life shown as an octahedron

Following Steiner Mercury and Venus was exchanged when moving from earth centric to the solar centric world view, and it means that we need to exchange Venus and Mercury in the old descriptions for it to be in accordance with today, and it's logical when we look at Netzach, Mercury must be in the pillar of wisdom. Besides that, when we look at the projection of the astral plane into the physical, the projection will only be right with this exchange.

The soul moods and worldviews placed in the Tree of Life

The Kabbalah Tree of Life is a central model that connect all esoteric traditions.

Astrology and the Hebrew Alphabet

Associations between the Hebrew Alphabet and the Planets

Planet	Hebrew		Keywords	Description	Chakras		Movement	Mood's
♄Saturn	ג	Gimel	Foot, Camel Gather, Walk	Fate, it brings the traveller steadily forward, from one place to another, linking places together. Links Kether with Tipharet.		Root Chakra Muladhara	into upright posture	Gnosticism
♃Jupiter	כ	Kaph	Open palm Bend, Open, Allow, Tame	Is the palm of a hand symbolizing the accept of whatever comes to you. Understanding that all is meaningful. Don't waste energy fighting the universe. Is also the divine force we receive.		Svadhistana Sacral Hara	of thinking	Logicism
♂Mars	ר	Resh	Head of man First, Top, Beginning	It's life everywhere and in everything. It's the movement of things by destruction and regeneration.		Manipura Navel Solar Plexus	of speaking	Voluntarism
☉Sun	ת	Tau	Crossed sticks Mark, Sign, Signal, Monument	The cross divides the universe into four directions, and encloses the universe. It symbolizes the absolute, perfection of creation, everything in everything. As the last letter in the alphabet it symbolizes the furthest development in the physical world.		Ahanhata Heart	of the blood	Empiricism
☿Mercury	ד	Daleth	Door Move, Hang, Entrance	A door to the inner light, to knowledge and wisdom, to a new foundation.		Vishuddha Throat	of the breath	Mysticism
♀Venus	פ	Pe	Mouth Blow, Scatter, Edge	From the mouth comes the breath of life, from where the light of the higher self shines. Here man perceives his higher being, from here a well of energy, knowledge and wisdom are flowing.		Ajna Third Eye Pineal	of the glands	Transcen-dentalism
☾Moon	ב	Beth	Tent floorplan Family, House, In	The house or dwelling of the body, protecting it against the hazards of the physical world. It contains the light, the etheric energy and form that give the physical body sustainability. It's the sanctuary, the temple (Holy Spirit,) it's Gnosis, knowledge.		Sahasrara Crown	of reproduction	Occultism

Associations between the Hebrew Alphabet and the Star Signs

Star sign		Hebrew		Hebrew Meaning	Sense of	Relation to the Universe	Nature	Elements	Modalities
	Aries	ה	He	A window ot to breathe, allowing air and light, to see and to breathe, life.	Life	We take in the universe and look back.	Inner	Fire Passion	Cardinal Active
	Taurus	ו	Vau	Is a nail or connecting hook, as used when the Tabernacle was assembled.	Movement	We look out into the universe. We take in its mobility.	Inner	Earth Act	Fixed
	Gemini	ז‎	Zayin	A sword, to defend, to attack, to cut into.Generating and ruling principle over universal movement. It learns to control its opposites by will.	Balance	We grasp ourselves. (Touch ourselves.)	Inner	Air Cognition	Mutable
	Cancer	ח‎	Cheth	A hedge, a fence, tailor, sewing, making of a garment. The soul has taken a physical body on. Equilibrium, reservoir of energy, breathing the vital breath, attraction and repulsion.	Touch	We encompass ourselves.	Inner	Water Feeling	Cardinal Active

	Leo	ט‎	Teth	Coiling of a serpent. Potential power. Spiritual awareness, divine origin. Contains potential for good and evil.	Warmth	That which fills us out.	Inner/ Outer	Fire Passion	Fixed
	Virgo	י	Yod	A hand with stretched fingers. Power of creative and directed energy that maintains individual existence. The open hand is the symbol of microcosmos and microcosmic hand. The closed hand of the center, the unity from where everything has emanated and everything revolves. As the smallest letter it refers to the point, the primal vibration of the universe.	Taste	Ripening.	Outer	Earth Act	Mutable
	Libra	ל‎	Lamed	An ox-goad. Knowledge of all experiences on the physical plane. Needed to attain detachment from the physical making a bridge to the spiritual by sacrifice. The central letter of the alphabet.	Smell	Fitting ourselves into the inorganic world and seeking the balance.	Outer	Air Cognition	Cardinal Active
	Scorpio	נ‎‎	Nun	A fish. Is one with its environment with a spherical way of perception. A reference to the astral. Universal life, constantly changing but always remaining the same, as flowing water.	Sight	Poisonous sting.	Outer	Water Feeling	Fixed

	Sagittarius	ס‎	Samech	A prop, a support. Both what strains the string of the bow and the humming of the string. The hissing of a snake, physical life force, the egoistic impulses and the seductive instincts. As a prop it is the life force that sustains everything, links the above with below. It's the spinal column with life fluidum, where the Kundalini serpent rises.	Tone	Hunter.	Outer/ Higher	Fire Passion	Mutable
	Capricorn	ע‎	Ayin	An eye. The source and the nothingness out of which everything has emanated. It's also destruction by antagonism. It's the principle of the individual's revolt through materialism and putting importance on sensory satisfaction.	Words	Breeder of animals.	Higher	Earth Act	Cardinal Active
	Aquarius	צ‎	Tsade	A small swath. Both hierachical distribution and matter in it's crystallization.The refuge of the being toward which the hopes are directed. The creation of the physical, the senses and the illusions.	Thought	Farmer.	Higher	Air Cognition	Fixed
	Pisces	ק‎	Qoph	Back of the head. When the last hindrance has been removed the Kundalini will rise to the back of the head. The Ax, especially the doubleheaded ax, used to indicate revelation or enlightenment.	'I'	Trader.	Higher	Water Feeling	Mutable

Octahedron with Hebrew letters and the Senses or esoteric astrological terms

Three Mother Letters

Art of Asha

"The Art of Asha" are the origin of chess and was introduced by Zarathustra as a kind of teaching aid describing the spiritual powers or hierarchies behind the physical world. Professor Edmond Bordeaux Székely have described the Art of Asha in "The Essene Book of Asha".

Today most knowledge of it's spiritual background have been lost, only names and a few comments about each piece is known today, and the movement rules of Asha is the same as for chess today.

As all religious and spiritual traditions describe the same reality I set myself the goal to find the relation to the Kabbalah Tree of Life, as the Tree relates to all spiritual traditions, and I have described my result here: The Art of Asha, an Analysis.

Trigrams and Western esotericism

The difference between the Trigrams of Taoism and other traditions is that Taoism includes the Earth, where other traditions only have the seven visible planets of the sky, and the reason may be that Taoism is more a philosophy than a religion, where the religions looked at the seven outer gods and especially in connection with astrology.

A more physical way to look at the planets shows how the Earth disappears in the projection:

The creation of the eight Pa Kua or trigrams at the root of the sixty-four principles, hexagrams, are ascribed to the legendary Fu-Xi, who ruled during the third millennium BC.

Tao gives birth to One,
One gives birth to Two,
The Two gives birth to Three,
The Three gives birth to all universal things.

All universal things shoulder the Yin and embrace the Yang. The Yin and Yang mingle and mix with each other to beget the harmony.

This reminds very much on the creation story around the Three Logoi. Here a drawing of the creation:

The trigrams are build from below, where the lowest line represents the First Logos, the middle line the Second Logos and the top line the Third Logos. Here another representation of the development of the trigrams, and related to western symbolism.

The Creative (☰ Qian) is heaven, therefore, it is called the father.
The Receptive (☷ Kun) is the earth, therefore, it is called the mother.
In the Trigram of the Arousing (☳ Zhen,) she seeks for the first time the power of the male and receives a son. Therefore, the Arousing is called the Eldest Son.
In the Trigram of the Gentle (☴ Xun) the male seeks for the first time the power of the female and receives a daughter. Therefore, the Gentleis called the Eldest Daughter.
In the Trigram of the Abysmal (☵ Kan) she seeks for a second time and receives a son. Therefore, it is called the Middle Son.
In the Trigram of the Clinging (☲ Li) he seeks for a second time and receives a daughter. Therefore, it is called the Middle Daughter.
In the Trigram of Keeping (☶ Gen) Still she seeks for a third time and receives a son. Therefore, it is called the Youngest Son.
In the Trigram of the Joyous (☱ Dui) he seeks for a third time and receives a daughter. Therefore, it is called the Youngest Daughter.

Trigram Octaeder

Here the trigrams shown in the previously used octaeder. See again the symmetries and opposites.

The Fano Plane

The trigrams can also be put into a Fano Plane (for the math inclined Wikipedia). Those who know the octal number system will see that all opposing trigrams add to Qian (☰). Like ☰= ☶ + ☱. This symmetry exist in all the diagrams.

The Fano plane is an interesting construct that have many interesting mathematical symmetries and transformations that give new symmetries, see Wikipedia and The Fano Plane:

Especially interesting is the summing of trigrams, two endpoints give the middle point. Thesis and antithesis gives the synthesis.

Duality in the Fano plane, each point corresponds to a line and vice versa, see Wikipedia:

Trigrams and Star of David

Cree Teaching - Tipi Structure

The following quotes are taken from "Cree (Nehiyawak) Teaching" by Elder Mary Lee, if not anythin is noted.

That is what the tipi is - it is the spirit and body of woman, because she represents the foundation of family and community. It is through her that we learn the values that bring balance into our lives. That is why, when you construct a tipi, it involves ceremony: because the ceremony of making a tipi represents the value of women’s teachings.

Tipi Poles

The Cree uses fifteen poles to build the Tipi. The first three are used to make a tripod, they represent the three creative powers of the universe: the Father, the Mother and the Son.

The three poles represent obedience, respect and humility and balanced properly they reinforce each other and are the foundation for the tipi, for the family of the father, mother and son.

Nidanas and the Zodiac

The twelve Nidanas are the karmic powers keeping man reincarnating on the Earth. This is an experiment where I test the thesis: “They are the powers of the Zodiac, but they are not following the same sequence around the Zodiac as the star signs.”

The twelve Nidanas consists of three groups, the first group of four is the Cardinal signs, the next group are the Mutable and the last group are the Fixed star signs. In the following tables and zodiac I have placed the Nidanas on the zodiac following these principles. The following paragraph is by Rudolf Steiner, the tables are extended by me and the figure is my design, and I had reformatted and added star signs.

Nidanas and the Signs

When man returns from Devachan, the astral, etheric and physical forces arrange themselves around him according to twelve forces of karma which in Indian esotericism are called Nidanas:

In Indian esotericism twelve forces are differentiated which draw man down again into physical existence.

These are the twelve Nidanas which work like strings, drawing us ever and again down into existence. (The meaning of Nidana is string, loop.)

The soul has three members: the consciousness soul as the highest member, then the intellectual or mind soul and the sentient soul. The first group of the Nidanas from Avidya to Namarupa is connected with the consciousness soul: the second group with the intellectual soul and the third, from Upadana to Jaramarana, with the sentient soul.
Vijnana is characteristic of the consciousness soul; Shadayadana of the intellectual soul and the last four are bound with the sentient soul. These last four are present in both animal and man.
…

Skandhas

A person can affect his Karma to the degree in which he himself possesses Intuition; or he must receive it from the high initiates in the form of great moral laws. Vijnana is the name used for the consciousness necessary for the overcoming of Karma. And now let us think of a man living in the world, carrying out his actions and dying. After his death something of him nevertheless remains here in this world which he has woven into it: Rupa, Vedana, Sanjna, Sanskara and Vijnana. These five are the balance of his account: his personal destiny as Rupa; the destiny of the nation into which he is born, as Vedana; the actual fact of his birth on this earth as Sanjna. In addition, working with Sanskara, the desire nature, and Vijnana, the consciousness. These are the five Skandhas.
What a man gives out into the world remains as the five Skandhas in the world. These are the foundation of his new existence. They have progressively less effect when he has consciously developed something of the last two. The more he has gained conscious power over Vijnana, the more does he gain the power of consciously incarnating in the physical body. In their essential nature the Skandhas are identical with Karma.

The Three Gunas in connection with the Creative Powers

In the Aurvedic tradition the three Gunas are the three principles of the world. The “trinity”, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, represent the gunas, or qualities of tamas, sattva and rajas.

Stations of the Cross Under Construction

The Spiritual Planes Under Construction

Modalities

The modalities, also called Quadruplicities, consists of three types: Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable.

They represent in reality three creative principles, the three creative Logoi: The Father, the Mother and The Son or The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father gives the idea, the Mother gives it form and the Son harvest the result, or the Father starts the creation, the mother creates it's antithesis, and the Son creates the synthesis.

In astrology it is also said that two consecutive signs are each others opposite, not the opposite sign in the wheel! The simplest example is Scorpio, both Sagittarius and Libra is clear opposites of Scorpio, everything that Scorpio takes oh so serious they take very easy, like sexuality and power.

In the start of the development there were only the fixed signs, Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio, but out of them separated the cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. And lastly the mutable signs separated out of the fixed signs. It can be seen from when they got named.

These four are also known as the four human group souls or the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Humanity is the result of four development streams, that of the human stream, Man, and the stragglers of the angelic stream, the Bull, and the stragglers of the archangelic stream, the Lion, and the stragglers of the Archai stream, the Eagle.

Each of the signs correspond to a hierarchy, to a Logoi, and out of one signs develops it's antithesis, and out of these two, a synthesis is developed, but it's more complex than this, the antithesis is also a thesis creating an antithesis, that creates a new synthesis, and so forth.

Cardinal: Beginning of a Season/process. Idealism. Freshness. Breaking new ground. Grappling with new energy. Kinetic action. Confidently bringing an element "out of hibernation." Optimistic. Forward moving.

Fixed: Middle of a Season/process. Fixity. Centerdness. Stillness. Individuality. Perspective. "Stand alone." Archetype of "the process" itself, being neither at the beginning nor the end.

Mutable: End of a Season/process. Grounding. Preparing for great change. Changeable, malleable, mutable. Sensing the highly energetic Cardinal "twin" on the other side of the Solstice or Equinox. Worldly. Experienced. Wise. Natural. Deeply grounding a particular element for "hibernation" as it will not be expressed during the following season.

The Twelve Senses and the Seven Movements

The situation of these powers of perception is different from the situation of forces that could be said to reside more deeply embedded within us. Seeing is bound up with the eyes and these constitute a particular region of a human being. Hearing is bound up with the organs of hearing, at least principally so, but it needs more besides — hearing involves much more of the organism than just the ear, which is what is normally thought of as the region of hearing. And life flows equally through each of these regions of the senses. The eye is alive, the ear is alive, that which is the foundation of all the senses is alive; the basis of touch is alive — all of it is alive. Life resides in all the senses; it flows through all the regions of the senses.

If we look more closely at this life, it also proves to be differentiated. There is not just one life process. And you must also distinguish what we have been calling the sense of life, through which we perceive our own vital state, from the subject of our present discussion. What I am talking about now is the very life that flows through us. That life also differentiates itself within us. It does so in the following manner (see diagram). The twelve regions of the twelve senses are to be pictured as being static, at rest within the organism. But life pulsates through the whole organism, and this life is manifested in various ways. First of all there is breathing, a manifestation of life necessary to all living things. Every living organism must enter into a breathing relationship with the external world. Today I cannot go into the details of how this differs for animals, plants and human beings, but will only point out that every living thing must have its way of breathing. The breathing of a human being is perpetually being renewed by what he takes in from the outer world, and this benefits all the regions associated with the senses. The sense of smell could not manifest itself — neither sight, nor the sense of tone — if the benefits of breathing did not enliven it. Thus, I must assign ‘breathing’ to every sense. We breathe — that is one process — but the benefits of that process of breathing flow to all the senses.

The second process we can distinguish is warming. This occurs along with breathing, but it is a separate process. Warming, the inner process of warming something through, is the second of the life-sustaining processes. The third process that sustains life is nourishment. So here we have three ways in which life comes to us from without: breathing, warming, nourishing.

Following the process of nourishing, the first internal process is the process of secretion, of elimination. When the nourishment we have taken in is distributed to our body, this is already the process of secretion; through the process of secretion it becomes part of our organism. The process of elimination does not just work outward, it also separates out that part of our nourishment that is to be absorbed into us. Excretion and absorption are two sides of the processes by which organs of secretion deal with our nourishment. One part of the secretion performed by organs of digestion separates out nutriments by sending them into the organism. Whatever is thus secreted into the organism must remain connected with the life processes, and this involves a further process which we will call maintaining. But for there to be life, it is not enough for what is taken in to be maintained, there also must be growth. Every living thing depends on a process of inner growth: a process of growth, taken in the widest sense. Growth processes are part of life; both nourishment and growth are part of life.

And, finally, life on earth includes reproducing the whole being; the process of growth only requires that one part produce another part. Reproduction produces the whole individual being and is a higher process than mere growth.

There are no further life processes beyond these seven. Life divides into seven definite processes. But, since they serve all twelve of the sense zones, we cannot assign definite regions to these — the seven life processes enliven all the sense zones. Therefore, when we look at the way the seven relate to the twelve we see that we have 1. Breathing, 2. Warming, 3. Nourishing, 4. Secretion, 5. Maintaining, 6. Growth, 7. Reproduction. These are distinct processes, but all of them relate to each of the senses and flow through each of the senses: their relationship with the senses is a mobile one.

The human being, the living human being, must be pictured as having twelve separate sense-zones through which a sevenfold life is pulsing, a mobile, sevenfold life. If you ascribe the signs of the zodiac to the twelve zones, then you have a picture of the macrocosm; if you ascribe a sense to each zone, you have the microcosm. If you assign a planet to each of the life processes, you have a picture of the macrocosm; as the life processes, they embody the microcosm. And the mobile life processes are related to the fixed zones of the senses in the same way that, in the macrocosm, the planets are related to the zones of the zodiac — they move unceasingly through them, they flow through them. And so you see another sense in which man is a macrocosm.

And the life processes are even more spiritualised than these lower senses. More than a few persons who claim to represent a particularly lofty mystical point of view speak of the life processes as something ‘lower’. To be sure, they are low here, but what here is low is high in the spiritual world, for what lives in our organism is a reflection of what lives in the spiritual world. This is a very noteworthy statement.

Outside us in the spiritual world there are significant spiritual beings whose nature is reflected within us — within the bounds of the zodiac of our senses through which the planets of our life processes move.

So we can say: the four life processes of secretion, maintenance, growth and reproduction are reflections of what exists in the spiritual world — as are the processes of breathing, warming and nourishing. The fourfold process of secretion, maintaining, growth and reproduction mirrors a lofty region of the spiritual world. That region receives us after death and there we live and weave, spiritually preparing our organism for the next earthly incarnation.

Everything in our physical organism that is comparatively low corresponds to something that is high and can only be perceived through the faculty of Imagination. There is a whole world that can be perceived through Imagination, through imaginative knowledge. This world that is accessible to imagination is reflected from beyond the constellations of the zodiac into the senses of the human organism. To picture this, imagine that Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon are reflections of what exists beyond the limits of the zodiac: they have spiritual counterparts that exist there and the astronomical bodies we can observe within the bounds of the zodiac are only reflections of these counterparts.

And then there is yet another super-sensible region. It is beyond the limits of the human senses and perceptible only through the faculty of Inspiration. This is the world of Inspiration. The processes of breathing, warming and nourishing are a reflection of this world, just as Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are reflections of their spiritual counterparts from beyond the limits of the zodiac. Moreover there is a profound relationship between what is out there in the cosmos and what, as lower nature, is present in man. These spiritual counterparts of the life processes actually exist. And this is how we should mark out the boundaries of the human senses and life processes.

Steiner connects Inner Nature with Upper Nature like this:
Movement with Words, Touch and Sense of 'I', Life and Thought, ...
Steiner writes about the connection between Inner and Upper nature here:
The Riddle of Humanity, LECTURE FOURTEEN, Dornach, 2 September 1916

Now, I can assure you that a man cannot die as a result of the thoughts he forms under the influence of his inner zodiac — one certainly cannot die of such thoughts. Thoughts do not penetrate so deeply into the life processes. And the other case I just mentioned — I mean the hysterical pregnancy — cannot be the result of mere thoughts, any more than it is possible to die of the mere thought that you have blood poisoning.

Literature:

"On this website you will find information on Observing, Phenomenology (Goethean science), the Twelve senses, Rudolf Steiner's Basic exercises, Threefoldness of man and animals and Embryology from an anthroposophical point of view."

"The starting point for phenomenology is observing.
How to observe, how to make your observations richer, what is important in observing and what are your limitations are discussed."

And that observing is necessary for all studying, to see the patterns behind the physical reality.

Planet	Psychic Mood	Description	Chakras
♄Saturn	Gnosticism	The first psychic mood will render the greatest service for the healing of souls when the Gnostic frame of mind is applied to Spiritism, Gnosis is thoroughly at home in Spiritism, it's true home.		Lead Phys.	Root Chakra Muladhara
♃Jupiter	Logicism	The second psychic mood enables the soul to connect thoughts, concepts and ideas with one another.		Tin Etheric	Svadhistana Sacral Hara
♂Mars	Voluntarism	The third psychic mood, Voluntarism, the forces of nature, the hardness of a stone, have this character for him; the whole of reality is a manifestation of will.		Iron Astral	Manipura Navel Solar Plexus
☉Sun	Empiricism	Is the fourth psychic mood, an empian empiricist, a man with a world-conception based on experience.		Gold Soul	Ahanhata Heart
☿Mercury	Mysticism	But when the soul has become quiet and seeks inwardly for the divine Light, this soul-mood can be called Mysticism.		Mercury Manas	Vishuddha Throat
♀Venus	Transcenden-talism	The Transcendentalist has the feeling: 'When I perceive things, their nature approaches me; but I do not perceive it. It hides behind, but it approaches me."		Copper Buddhi	Ajna Third Eye Pineal
☾Moon	Occultism	This world is Maya, and one must seek the inner being of things by another way than through external sense-perception and the ordinary means of cognition. 'Occultism'!		Silver Atma	Sahasrara Crown

Sign	Star sign	Sense of	Keywords	Spirits of	Mythology and Comments	Relation to the Universe	Body
	Aries	Life	I Am	Ain Soph Existense	The first flame ignited, Seed of the Zodiac. Ain was non-existense. Became into being through necessity.	We take in the universe and look back.
	Taurus	Movement	I Have	Ain Soph Aur Limitless Light	Movement, the flame begins to move. The Bull moves after the grass. Digestive system.	We look out into the universe. We take in its mobility.
	Gemini	Balance	I Think	Love	Balance, it raises up on legs and needs to find the balance, thinking, nerves.	We grasp ourselves. (Touch ourselves.)
	Cancer	Touch	I Feel	Harmony	The crab can grab things with it's claw, it manipulates its environment.	We encompass ourselves.

	Leo	Warmth	I Will	Will	The second fire sign, hot red blood. Here are the shift from the objective to the subjective, the seed of the I. Sun at home here.	That which fills us out.
	Virgo	Taste	I Analyze	Wisdom	Virgo means self-contained, it contains humanity. The harvest, the result when the human development cycles has ended.	Ripening.	Atma
	Libra	Smell	I Evaluate I Relate We Are	Motion	Sophia or the Mystical Lamb. The element is Air!	Fitting ourselves into the inorganic world and seeking the balance.	Buddhi
	Scorpio	Sight	I Desire	Form	None have a sight as the eagle, none see the details as the Scorpion. We are thrown out of paradise. The Spirit of Form gives us his lowest body each time he raises to a higher level.	Poisonous sting.	Manas

	Sagittarius	Tone	I See	Personality and Time	Half man half horse. He is playing on the Lyre. The gift of Christ, Wordless thinking. The soul is related to sound.	Hunter.	Soul
	Capricorn	Words	I Use	Fire	Words are connected to the astral world, is the gift of Lucifer.	Breeder of animals.	Astral
	Aquarius	Thought	I Know	Twilight	Aquarius is the idealistic thinker and the first full human in the circle and thinking is the mark of humanity.	Farmer.	Etheric
	Pisces	'I'	I Believe	Humanity	Pisces is the healer of the zodiac, the one who sees the you.	Trader.	Physical

Planet	Movement	Psychic Mood	Initiation steps	Christian Schooling	Rosicrucian Schooling	I AM the	Chakras
♄Saturn	into upright posture	Gnosticism	Raven	Washing the feet	Study	Door of the Sheep		Root Chakra Muladhara	Earth, survival, grounding, stillness.
♃Jupiter	of thinking	Logicism	Occult	Flagellation	Imaginative knowledge	Good Shepherd		Svadhistana Sacral Hara	Emotional problems or sexual guilt.
♂Mars	of speaking	Voluntarism	Fighter	Crowning with Thorns	Inspired knowledge or reading the occult script	Resurrection and the Life		Manipura Navel Solar Plexus	Personal Power, anger or a sense of victimization.
☉Sun	of the blood	Empiricism	Lion	Crucifixion	Preparation of the Philosophers Stone	Way, Truth and Life		Ahanhata Heart	Lack of compassion.
☿Mercury	of the breath	Mysticism	Persian	Mystical Death	Correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm	True Vine		Vishuddha Throat	Pressure when you are not communicating your emotions properly.
♀Venus	of the glands	Transcen-dentalism	Sun Hero	Burial and Resurrection	Into life in the macrocosm	Bread and Life		Ajna Third Eye Pineal	Clairvoyance, psychic abilities, imagination, dreaming.
☾Moon	of reproduction	Occultism	Father	Ascension	Godliness	Light of the World		Sahasrara Crown

*Element*	Consciousness Soul	*Intellectual soul*	*Sentient Soul*
Fire	Avidya	Shadayadana	Upadana
Earth	Sanskara	Sparsha	Bhava
Air	Vijnana	Vedana	Jati
Water	Namarupa	Trishna	Jaramarana

Sign	Description
	Jesus Is Condemned to Death by Pontius Pilate.
	Jesus willingly accepts and patiently bears his cross.
	Weakened by torments and by loss of blood, Jesus falls the first time beneath his cross.
	Jesus Meets His Sorrowful Mother, who is filled with grief.
	Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross.
	Veronica steps through the crowd to wipe the face of Jesus.
	Jesus falls beneath the weight of the cross a second time.
	Jesus tells the women of Jerusalem not to weep for him but for themselves and for their children.
	Weakened almost to the point of death, Jesus falls a third time.
	The soldiers strip Jesus of his garments, treating him as a common criminal.
	Jesus’ hands and feet are nailed to the cross.
	After suffering greatly on the cross, Jesus bows his head and dies.


A 2D projection	Connection between octaeder and dodecaeder	Solids. The dodecahedron is also called Ether.

Sense Type	Cardinal	Fixed	Mutable
Personal senses	Life Sense	Sense of Self Movement	Sense of Balance
Contact senses	Sense of Touch	Sense of Warmth or Temperature	Sense of Taste
Contactless senses	Sense of Smell	Sense of Sight or Vision	Sense of Tone or Hearing
Sentient senses	Sense of Words or Language	Sense of Thought or Concept	Sense of 'I'

Signs	Season	Psychological Correspondence	Sense of
Aries	Germinating time, unfolding energy	The will, the urge toact, the spirit of enterprise, self-consciousness, the desire to lead.	Life
Taurus	Invigoration and strengthening, the creation of form	Perseverance, consolidation, the power to shape, sense of form.	Movement
Gemini	Vivification, blossom-time	Vivaciousness, versatility, superficiality.	Balance
Cancer	Fecundation and fertilization	Wealth of feeling, the feeling of fatherhood and motherhood.	Touch

Leo	The maturity of the seed	The will to create, self-confidence, all offspring.	Warmth
Virgo	The harvest, utilization of what has been grown	Diligence & care, tidiness, a domesticated nature, the critical faculty.	Taste
Libra	Balance & adjustment in nature's economy	Sense of justice, striving for harmony, communal sense	Smell
Scorpio	Life-terminating pro-cesses of nature, continuation of life in the seed	Endurance and perseverance, the ruthlesss truggle for survival.	Sight

Saggitarius	Winter sleep of nature	Cultivation of the inner or spiritual side of life, hopeful planning for the future.	Tone
Capricorn	Crystalization of forms in winter	Untiring struggle for self-preservation, patience, attachment to crystallized social forms.	Words
Aquarius	Waiting time, before spring	Expectant attitude,good powers of observation, wealth of plans.	Thought
Pisces	The swelling of the seed in the earth	First stirrings of new life within the remains of the old.	'I'

Tipi Poles	Definition	The Creators
Idealism	Sole belief in ideas manifesting through reality and giving it purpose.	The Mother - Form
Rationalism	Sole belief in the ideas discovered in external reality.	The Son - the Created
Mathematism	Sole belief in the mathematical ordering of reality.	The Father - Idea