I-34 The stages of universal evolution

The Influence of Spiritual Beings Upon Man, Lect. 2

Everything in the universe is connected. The stages of universal evolution from bottom to top are:

  1. Planetary
  2. Fixed Star (Solar)
  3. Zodiacal
  4. Sacrifice (to give birth to Planetary, as in Old Saturn)
Macrocosmically, the “heavenly ladder” of Gen 28,12 speaks of the fact that zodiacal forces “rain” down continuously into planetary existence, first descending, then ascending. When a planetary existence starts, there are no ascending zodiacal forces but all descend. At midpoint they are in balance (Libra = scales, the midpoint in Earth’s Planetary existence— see I-18). Since the middle of the Atlantean Age (I-1), or the middle of Earth evolution, there are now 7 ascending forces (constellations) and 5 descending, as follows:
Ascending Descending
Aries Scorpio
Taurus Sagittarius
Gemini Capricorn
Cancer Aquarius
Leo Pisces
Virgo  
Libra  

When, at the end of the Venus evolution (in the Vulcan Condition), the Earth itself will have become a Sun (Fixed Star), there will no longer be any descending forces; all will be ascending.

Our “Zodiac,” and indeed the universe of heavenly bodies as they exist today, came into being as a part of this evolutionary procedure. What today permeates all beings as warmth is known in occultism as “fire.” An “ocean of flame” had arisen through the Sacrificial stage of the prior planetary existence, and from this ocean arose the constellations of our “Zodiac” as they are today—but they were not the same during the Saturn existence. Everything that is contained in the zodiacal stage is under the sign of “duration,” whereas all comprised within planetary existence is under the sign of “time.” Not even the farthest reaches of the mind can conceive of changes having taken place in the Zodiac, because they are not measured in terms of “time.” Forces working in the Zodiac remain, relatively speaking, fixed and permanent, but these concepts are only relative. Planetary existence belongs to the sphere of the finite, zodiacal to that of infinitude—relatively speaking, but for our purposes sufficiently accurate.

A being who has just passed the midpoint of equilibrium in the receiving of zodiacal forces, where the ascending is just beginning to preponderate, is said to have an Ego. It is this condition that permits something to begin working from within, so that a receiving creature begins to radiate life into the universe. This is reflected in the biblical account from beginning to end. But it is apparent that even in the middle of the Atlantean evolution the stage had just begun where the Ego could start to emerge in rudimentary form from its prior group nature. It is not possible to understand the force of Ego development without knowing its relationship to the forces of the Zodiac and the Christ force, the Sacrificial Lamb, which stands above them (see I-18).
Schematic I-33
Schematic I-35