The Forming and Creating of Beings by the Elohim The Aeons or Time Spirits

Recapitulation of Earlier Evolutionary Stages

The forming and creating of beings by the Elohim, the eons or time spirits. We have pointed out that in the Genesis account of the coming into being of Earth, there is first of all a recapitulation of those earlier stages of evolution which can only be reached today through clairvoyant investigation, which is what we recognize as the source of our anthroposophical world outlook. If we recall what we have learned about the conditions of evolution in periods prior to the existence of our Earth circumstances, we can picture that what later became our solar system was all contained in a planetary existence which we call ancient Saturn. And we keep very firmly in mind that ancient Saturn consisted solely of the interweaving movement of warmth.

If anyone from the standpoint of modern physics wants to raise any objections to my speaking of a cosmic body consisting solely of warmth, I must refer him to what I said two days ago: that I myself could raise all the objections of so-called science against the things said here today or at any other time. But there is really not the time in these lectures to touch on what this gullible modern science has to say compared with the sources of spiritual scientific investigation. The whole range of what has come from modern scientific knowledge seems pretty amateurish.

I intend one day to deal with some of the objections raised, probably beginning next spring at the time of my lectures in Prague, when I shall be speaking not only about the whole basis of anthroposophy but, in order to satisfy contemporary minds, also about the arguments against it. Therefore, my Prague lectures will be preceded by two public lectures, of which the first will be entitled “How Can Anthroposophy Be Refuted?” and the second “How Can Anthroposophy Be Substantiated?” Later on, I shall repeat these lectures in other places, and people will then see that we ourselves are fully aware of the objections which can be made against what is taught in anthroposophy and can say it all ourselves. Anthroposophy has a firm foundation, and those who think they are able to refute it do not yet understand it. This will be adequately shown in the course of time.

Ancient Saturn and the Element of Warmth

As to Saturn’s state of warmth, let me once more draw attention to several observations in my book titled “An Outline of Esoteric Science,” which may even help to satisfy those who are prompted by their scientific training to make objections. Having said this, I feel free to resume speaking about anthroposophy without further reference to objections, even the well-meant ones.

In ancient Saturn, then, there was an interweaving of varying states of warmth. Let us visualize this very clearly. According to Genesis, there is a repetition within the developing Earth of this ancient Saturn state: this interweaving of warmth, of fire. This is the first thing in the development of the elements that we want a picture. But note well in what way we speak of warmth or fire in connection with such an exalted condition as that of ancient Saturn. We shall not get anywhere near it by striking a match or lighting a candle and examining fire or warmth from a physical point of view. We have to think of what we are here calling warmth or fire as something much more spiritual, or more exactly as something of the nature of soul. Feel yourself as a warmth-bearing being, and this feeling of your own warmth, this experience of your own soul warmth, will give you a rough idea of the interweaving warmth in ancient Saturn.

Evolutionary Progression to Ancient Sun

Then we press forward to the second evolutionary condition of our planet, to ancient Sun, and speak of how in the development of the elements, warmth has condensed to what we call a gaseous or aeriform state. Here we have to differentiate between warmth on the one hand and gas or air on the other. However, we have already referred to the fact that alongside the condensation of warmth into air—that is to say, with the descent of the elemental state into something coarser—there is an ascent to something more rarefied, more of an etheric. So if we call the elemental condition below warmth “air,” we have to call the next one above warmth “light,” light ether.

If we then look at the elemental conditions altogether during the Sun evolution, we should say that in ancient Sun there was an intermingling of warmth, light, and air. And all life at that time clothed itself in the elements of warmth, light, and air. We must realize once again that if we direct our attention only to these elemental manifestations of warmth, light, and air, we are only, so to speak, seeing the outer aspect, the maya, the illusion of what is really there. In reality, these are spiritual beings manifesting themselves outwardly by means of warmth, light, and air. It is somewhat as if we were to put a hand into a heated room and say to ourselves, “The reason why this room is warm is because there is a being in there who is giving out warmth, and for whom this spreading of warmth is a means of manifestation.”

Advancement to Ancient Moon

If we now advance to ancient Moon, there again we have warmth as the middle condition, and below it a consolidation into air or gas, and below that a consolidation into water. Light appears again, and then above light, so to speak, what is a finer, more etheric state. I have already said that we may give the name “sound ether” to this force which works within substances as an organizing principle, combining them and splitting them apart. We could also call it “numerical ether” because it is this spiritual sound which arranges all material existence according to measure and number. Human beings only recognize this force with their outer senses when it is transmitted by the air; yet spiritually, it is at the foundation of all existence.

So even though we say we ascend from light to sound, we must not confuse it with external sound conveyed by the air, but recognize it as something that is only perceptible when the clairvoyant sense is awake to it. Both in old Moon itself, therefore, and in all that works upon it from outside, we see the elemental conditions of warmth, air, water, light, and sound.

The Earth Stage and Elemental Conditions

When we advance to the fourth stage, the coming into being of the actual Earth, a further level of condensation and a further level of rarefaction are added: the earthy or solid condition below, and what we call “life ether” above, which is a still finer ether than sound ether. So we may describe the elemental consistency of the Earth by saying that warmth is again the middle condition, the denser ones being air, water, and solid matter, and the rarefied ones light, sound, and life ether.

To make sure that there is no risk at all of anything remaining unclear here, I will explicitly state once again that what is described as “earth” or “solid matter” must not be confused with what modern science calls “earth.” What is being described here is something which is not directly visible around us in an outer sense. What we stand on when we stand on the ground is of course “earth” insofar as it is solid, but gold, silver, copper, and tin are also “earth.” Everything of a solid material nature is “earth” from the occult point of view.

The modern physicist will of course say that this distinction means nothing: “Let us distinguish our various elements, but we know nothing about a kind of archetypal earthly substance that is meant to be the basis of these elements.” Only when the clairvoyant eye penetrates the external elements—some seventy of them—and searches for the foundation of solid matter, for the forces that make matter into solids, the solid state, does he discover behind sense existence the very forces which, in the occult sense, form, shape, and put together the solid, fluid, and gaseous elements. This is what we are talking about, and this is also what Genesis is talking about if we really understand it.

Testing Genesis Against Occult Knowledge

According to Genesis, then, we shall expect to find that of these four conditions, the first three are bound to repeat in some fashion, but that the fourth appears as something new in Earth existence. On the strength of this, let us test Genesis accordingly, and let us do so with the same methods we adopted for the earlier lectures.

In the coming into being of our Earth, we should expect to find a repetition of the old Saturn condition; in other words, we should expect to find Saturn warmth as the expression of soul-spiritual forces. And this is just what we do find if we really understand Genesis. I told you that the words that are usually translated as “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” really mean that the soul-spiritual essence of the Elohim spreads out, and that this very element of warmth—the kind of warmth we think of as radiating down from the hen into the eggs in the process of brooding—enters into the elements that were there at the time. With the words “The Spirit of God radiated as a brooding warmth over the elements of the water,” you have an indication of the recapitulation of the warmth of ancient Saturn.

Let us go on. The next condition ought to be one that represents a recapitulation of ancient Sun. For the time being, let us ignore the condensation process which proceeded from warmth to air and only look at the process of rarefaction: the element of light. That is to pinpoint the fact that during the Sun period, the light invaded cosmic space. Then the recapitulation of the old Sun evolution in Earth’s development will be the coming of the light. This is announced in the mighty words: “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

The third recapitulation ought to be that in the series of the more rarefied elemental conditions, what we call the organizing sound ether streams into Earth development. So let us ask ourselves whether there is in fact any indication of such a recapitulation of the Moon evolution in Genesis. What would we expect to find? We would expect sound to set to work to organize elemental conditions, more or less in the way we see Chladni sound forms arising when a violin bow is drawn down the edge of a metal plate covered with fine dust.

There would have to be a recapitulation which would tell us that sound ether sets to work and organizes matter in some way. What then are we actually told about the moment of creation which followed the coming of the light? We are told that the Elohim stirred up the masses of elemental substance so that a change came about in the way they were arranged, and some of them streamed upward and some of them collected together below. A force entered into the elemental masses and altered the way they were arranged, just as sound takes hold of the dust and brings about the Chladni sound figures. In the same way as the dust moves in two different places and forms a pattern, the elemental masses moved, and some streamed upward and some gathered together below.

The word “rakia,” which is used to describe what the Elohim introduced into the elemental masses, is difficult to translate, and the usual translations are inadequate to render it correctly, even when one takes into account all that can be contributed today toward its elucidation, including what philology has to say. One has to admit that neither the translation “firmament” nor any of its variants takes us very far. But there is something active, something rousing about it. A more precise philology would find that this word contains the very thing I am pointing to here: that the Elohim stirred up something in the elemental masses which may be compared to what is set going among the dust particles of the Chladni sound figures. When the sound alters the pattern, in the same way as the dust particles move into a different arrangement, the elemental masses move either upward or downward on the second “day” of creation.

So we see in Genesis the coming of sound ether following on after light ether, in absolute accordance with the facts of the second “day” of creation. This presents us with what, from a certain aspect, is a recapitulation of Moon evolution. You will readily see, of course, that these recapitulations cannot happen in an entirely unequivocal manner, but that, as it were, they overlap. So the apparent contradiction between today’s exposition and that of yesterday will easily be cleared up. The recapitulations take place in such a way that first there occurs what I am now telling you, and then there is a more comprehensive recapitulation as I described yesterday.

After the moment in the coming into being of the Earth when sound ether has brought about a change in the elements to the point where some rise upward and the others accumulate below, we ought to expect to find something becoming active which we have described as the rarefied substance of the Earth and have called life: life ether. Something can be expected to follow on after the second “day” of the creation which would indicate that life ether was pouring into the elemental masses of our Earth, just as previously light and organizing sound ether had poured in. There should be some phrase in Genesis to indicate that life ether burst in and brought about the stirring and unfolding of life.

Look at the Genesis account of the third “day” of creation. We are told that the Earth brings forth green and living things: herbaceous plants and trees according to their kind. Here is a vivid description of the pouring in of life ether, calling forth everything that is said to have come to being on the third day.

Confirmation Through Independent Research

Thus we find in Genesis all that occultism can bring to light through clairvoyant investigation, and that we should expect to find if Genesis itself really derives from occult knowledge. It confirms it if we have the will to understand it. It is a wonderful experience, after we have first done our research independently of any document, to find it confirmed in Genesis. I can assure you that when in my “An Outline of Esoteric Science” I was describing the way the Earth came into existence as a recapitulation of ancient Saturn, ancient Sun, and ancient Moon, I quite deliberately and scrupulously ignored anything which could have been found in Genesis. I only presented what I was able to discover independently of any external document. But if you then compare these independent findings with Genesis, you see that the latter presents us with a document which says just what our independent research has enabled us to say.

This is a wonderful harmony I pointed to yesterday, where what we can say of our own accord comes sounding back to us, as it were, through the spiritual faculties of seers who spoke to us millennia ago. Thus, in the first three days of creation, we see, as regards the more rarefied elements of our Earth, a successive activity of warmth, light, sound ether, and life ether. And in what these activities stir up and enliven, we see at the same time the unfolding of stages of densification: from warmth to air, then to water, and finally to solid matter, to the earth element.

In the way I have described, the processes of densification and rarefaction interpenetrate one another and together they give us a unified picture of the coming into existence of the Earth. Whether we speak of the denser conditions—air, water, earth—or of the more rarefied states—light ether, sound ether, and life ether—we are concerned with manifestations, with the outer garments of soul-spiritual beings. From the Genesis point of view, the first of these soul and spiritual beings to appear before the mind’s eye are the Elohim. And from another possible point of view, we feel bound to ask: What kind of beings are the Elohim, so that we may know where we are? We must be able to give them their proper place in the order of the hierarchies.

The Elohim in the Hierarchical Order

You will no doubt remember from the various lectures I have given over the years, or from what you have read in my “An Outline of Esoteric Science,” that in the hierarchical order, when we begin at the top, we can distinguish first a trinity which we call Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. You know that we then recognize a second trinity which we call Kyriotetes or Dominions, the Dynameis or Mights, and the Exousiai or Powers (Revelations). When we come to the lowest trinity, using Christian designations, we call them Archai or Beginnings (Principalities) or Spirits of Personality, Archangeloi or Archangels, and Angeloi or Angels—those in this lowest group being the spiritual beings who are nearest to man. Only then do we come, in the order of the hierarchies, to man himself as the tenth member within our hierarchical order.

Now the question is: Where among the angelic hosts do the Elohim belong? If we look at the second of the trinities, at those beings we call Exousiai or Powers or Spirits of Form—this is the position that Elohim have. We know from what has been presented over the years that during the ancient Saturn evolution, the Archai, the Spirits of Personality, were at the human stage—the stage which we are at now. During the ancient Sun evolution, the Archangels were at the human stage; during the ancient Moon evolution, the Angels; and during Earth evolution, it is man who is at this stage.

The Spirits of Form, the Exousiai, the ones we call the Elohim, are one level above the Spirits of Personality. Thus they are lofty spiritual beings who had already advanced beyond the human stage when our planetary existence began on ancient Saturn. We get an idea of the sublimity of these beings when we realize that in the order of the hierarchies they are four stages above the human level. The force which was at work there, the force active in cosmic thinking which brought Earth existence into being, is in the ranks of the hierarchies four stages higher than that human beings can work creatively only in their thought forms. Whereas, because the thinking of the Elohim is four stages higher than human thinking, it cannot only shape form and create within the world of thought but can do so within the realm of being.

The Role of Spirits of Personality

Having been told this, you are bound to ask: What about the other beings of the hierarchies? First we should like to know what part those beings play in Genesis whom we have just named as the Archai or Spirits of Personality. They are, as we see, the next rank down in the hierarchical order. Let us remind ourselves again that the Elohim are highly exalted beings who, at the time of the ancient Saturn evolution, had already progressed beyond the human stage. They were among the beings creating and regulating evolution during the stages of ancient Saturn, Sun, and Moon, and they also contributed to Earth existence. Compared with this, what can we expect of the hierarchy which is immediately below that of the Elohim—mainly the Spirits of Personality? Does Genesis not tell us anything about them?

Since we know from Genesis what lofty beings the Elohim are, we actually should expect these Principalities or Spirits of Personality to be engaged in serving them, so to speak. After the Elohim had performed their mighty deeds of creation, does Genesis say anything to the effect that they relegated the lesser activities to their servants, the Archai or Beginnings? The Elohim performed the chief, most comprehensive tasks, but after they had carried out the broad sweeps, had displayed their tremendous creative powers, did they not, for instance, leave the Archai or Spirits of Personality to deputize for them?

To answer the question as to whether Genesis says anything about the Elohim availing themselves of beings such as those who were below them in rank and setting them to deputize for them, we have to discover what Genesis is really saying. There is a subject in Genesis which has been a veritable stumbling block to materialistic commentators, because for centuries these Bible commentators have completely ignored what occult research has to say about the actual meaning of the opening words of our Bible. If you are at all familiar with Bible criticism, you will know what difficulty this point has caused.

There is a sentence in Genesis which is rendered “And God divided the light from the darkness,” and we are then told that light and darkness alternate. I shall come back to a closer examination of these words. For the moment, I will make use of the modern version—it is not right, of course, and it is only being used for the time being. At a particular place it says “And the evening and the morning were the first day,” and then it says “And God called the light day.” This is a real stumbling block for the scholars.

The Meaning of “Day” in Genesis

What then is a “day” of creation? The naive mind regards a day as lasting 24 hours and alternating between light and darkness, as do the kind of days during which we go through awaking and sleeping periods. You all know, of course, how much scorn has been heaped on this naive notion of the world being created in seven ordinary days. You may also know how much trouble—you could say fruitless trouble—has been spent trying to identify the days of creation with longer or shorter periods, or as geological periods and so on, so that a day of creation could signify a longer period of time.

The first difficulty arises, of course, when we come to the fourth day, when Genesis first speaks of the setting up of the Sun and the Moon to direct time. Every child today knows that the regulating of our 24-hour day depends on the relationship of the Earth to the Sun. But if this relationship was not set up until the fourth day, we cannot speak of that kind of day before that. So anyone who tries to adhere to the naive belief that we are dealing in Genesis with days of 24 hours would be transgressing against Genesis itself. There may be such people, of course, and they have to be told: By insisting that Genesis refers to days of 24 hours, they are certainly not supported by Revelation.

As to the vagaries of those who try to find a way out by giving geological meaning to these days of creation, they’re really not worth bothering about. For in the whole range of literature on the subject, there is not the slightest evidence that the word “yom” signifies anything resembling a geological period. So it is a very real question for us: What does this word “yom” mean, which is usually translated as “day”?

Only those people can form a judgment about this who are able to transport themselves with their whole feeling into ancient methods of naming things. To do this, you have to have quite a different kind of feeling and sensitivity than we have today. So as not to put you in too much of a quandary, let us take it step by step. Firstly, let me draw your attention to an ancient doctrine held by the Gnostics. They spoke of spiritual powers who played a part in our existence, entering successively into evolution, and they called these powers, these entities, “eons.” When people spoke of eons in a Gnostic sense, they did not mean periods of time but beings. What is meant is that a first eon acts, and having executed the work of which he is capable, is succeeded by a second eon, and after the second has exhausted his capacities, a third takes over, and so on. When the Gnostics spoke of eons, they meant beings guiding evolution in succession, one taking over from another.

It was only very much later that the purely abstract concept of time was associated with the word “eon.” Eon is a being, a living entity. And in the same sense as eon is a living entity, so is the Hebrew word “yom.” It has nothing to do with a merely abstract designation of time but is a living being. So when we are told about seven such yomim following one another, we are dealing with seven consecutive beings or groups of beings. We find the same thing elsewhere, concealed in a verbal resemblance in the more Aryan languages. There is a connection between “deus” and “dies”—God and day. There is an essential inner relationship. In earlier times, the connection between day and being was clearly felt. And when people spoke of days of the week, as we speak of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and so on, they did not simply mean periods of time but the groups of beings active in Sun, Moon, Mars, and so on.

Once we accept the word “yom” as a spiritual being instead of in its usual rendering as “day,” then we have the hierarchical beings one stage lower than the Elohim: beings of whom the Elohim availed themselves as subordinate beings. After the Elohim, with their superior powers of organizing, had actively brought light into existence, they then put in charge of it, according to Genesis, Yom—the first of the time spirits or Archai. Thus, the spiritual beings whom we call Spirits of Personality or Principalities are the same as those called periods of time, days, yomim. They are the servants of the Elohim, who execute, as it were, what the Elohim dispose from their higher vantage point.

Those of you who heard the lectures I gave recently in Christiania will remember that there I called the Archai “time spirits” and described the way they still work as time spirits today. These were the servants of the Elohim, and they appointed them, so to speak, to carry out the plans of which they themselves had prepared the broad outlines. Even as far as our understanding reaches, everything fits together in one large system. But of course, only when you have followed up over years what is being said will you acquire a real grasp of the way everything fits completely into place.

So we can say that, as beings on an exalted level, the Elohim intervened in the interweaving ethers of air, water, and earth, and appointed beings below them in rank as their servants—if we may use this everyday expression. They, so to speak, gave them orders. When they had poured light into existence, they transferred to these beings the elaboration of what they had set going. Therefore, we may say that after the Elohim had created the light, they put in charge of it the first of the time spirits in their service. It is this spirit who is concealed behind the customary words “the first day.” Of course, one can only understand the still deeper meaning of what is meant by the first day when we also understand the rest of the statement: “And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

It means that the first of the time spirits became active and associated with this what can be described as an alternation between erev and boker. Erev is not the same as evening, nor boker the same as morning. An appropriate translation would be “And there came about a state of confusion, and boker a state of order.” We should say: “And a state of disorder appeared, followed by a state of order or harmony, within which the first of the time spirits were active.”