The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. About the group Egos of Animals, Plants, and Minerals

[ 1 ] Certain facts that we recognize through secret science show us how the world becomes something completely different through theosophy or secret science. Let us first talk about the animation of the various kingdoms of nature, the world around us. Theosophy teaches us that human beings initially consist of four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego. The other three higher members are developments of these four members.

[ 2 ] When we say that minerals share the physical body with all lifeless nature, that plants have the etheric body in addition, animals have the astral body, and human beings have the “I am,” such an explanation refers to our physical world. In the mineral, even with the most highly developed eye of the seer, we can find only a physical body on the physical plane; in the plant, we find only the etheric body; in the animal, we find the astral body; and in the human being, we find the “I am” within the physical world. When we look at these beings in higher worlds, it is not the case that the plant has only a physical body and an etheric body; this plant then appears to us as a very complex being. When we examine the plant, we first find it underground with its roots, and it protrudes from the earth with its stem and sprouts leaves from the stem. When we look at the astral world above the plant with the eye of the seer, we see an astral glow enveloping the flower of the plant. If we can now also examine the devachanic world, something strange emerges. The plant is enveloped as if in a sheath that extends to the center of the earth and has its tip there. This is actually the whole plant. When we look at the entire plant cover of the earth, we see these glimmering lights in the astral world.

[ 3 ] The etheric body of the plant is a force body. It has a very specific task in plant life. Its task is to attach leaf to leaf in a kind of repetition. If only the etheric body were in the plant, it would never produce a flower. It would only develop leaf after leaf. The etheric body is the principle of repetition. We can also observe this in humans themselves. Humans consist of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego. Not all parts of the human being are involved in these four members in the same way. There are parts from which the astral body has withdrawn. It no longer intervenes in some of these organs; it has no power there. It has withdrawn from the top of the head, where only the etheric body works with repetition, producing the repeating hairs in the same form. In another place, we can see how the principle of the etheric body passes over into the principle of the astral body. The principle of the etheric body works in the vertebrae of the spine. At the end, the astral body intervenes and drives the vertebrae up into the hollow space of the head.

[ 4 ] The glowing light above the plant is also astral substance, but here it must be permeated by the spiritual power of the sun's rays. The force that surrounds and envelops the plant here is stimulated by the spiritual forces of sunlight and transforms the principle of repetition, of the leaves, of the etheric body, into the flower through the principle of the astral. Such an intervention of the astral is an inhibition. If we then trace the sheath of the plant into the interior of the earth, we find the plant's ego there. No one can object that there is not enough room for all plant egos in the center of the earth. In the spiritual realm, the principle of permeability applies. All plant egos are together in the center of the earth. When we look at the earth from this point of view, it appears to us not only as a sphere in space, but as something imbued with soul. The individual plants grow out of the earth like nails out of our organism. Only in the earth are many plant egos together. But not every plant has an ego; rather, whole groups of plants have a communal ego.

[ 5 ] The same is true of animals. There, too, entire groups have a collective self. It does not matter whether one lion is in Africa and another in a menagerie; they are members of the one lion self. Let us imagine our hand sticking out through an umbrella. We have to say to ourselves: the fingers belong to an I. In the same way, all lions on earth belong to a single lion I, all tigers on earth to a tiger I. All lions, all tigers are members of a collective group I.

[ 6 ] First, it is interesting to become a little acquainted with these animal egos. When a human being observes the world from a materialistic standpoint, he believes that he passes only through material substances. But that is not so. The animal group souls run around the earth like the trade winds in the most varied lines. They go in circles around the earth, passing through the spinal cord of the animal. The main characteristic of this group ego is the following: The astral plane has complete beings, but these do not have a complete body. But, for example, all lions belong to a complete astral being. These entities are like a population there. The animal group egos are much more intelligent than human egos; they are wiser. Everything in the animal kingdom that is wise comes from the animal group egos.

[ 7 ] When we see the birds flying south in autumn, when we listen to the beaver working on its lodge, we see the effects of the animal group egos. The individual beaver is not intelligent, but the group ego of the beaver is wise. We enter a world of wisdom and intelligence when we come to these closed beings on the astral plane. It is actually very good to talk to these beings. They know much more than we do about the wisdom of the world. The plant egos are located in the center of the earth. When we seek them out, we also learn about the joy and pain of plants. What the plant sends out through the surface of the earth, even though it is green and solid, can be compared to the milk that comes from animals. It is actually as if the entire earth organism sends something out of the earth like the milk that comes from animals. When we pick a plant, it causes a kind of pleasure in the plant's soul, similar to what a cow feels when its calf suckles at its udder. When humans put themselves in the soul of a plant, they learn to share the knowledge and feelings of the whole of nature. When we make ourselves co-knowers of the whole of nature, our soul is attuned to feel with other humans as well.

[ 8 ] When the reaper sweeps his scythe across the fields in autumn, mowing blade by blade and sheaf by sheaf, we learn to recognize that something like a breath of sensual pleasure is sweeping across the fields. It is a wonderful observation to notice, when the farmer is mowing, how something like a breath of sensual feelings wafts over the earth. When you pull plants out by their roots, you cause pain to the soul of the plant. What applies to our physical plane does not always apply to other worlds. When someone pulls out their white hair, it may correspond to their sense of beauty, but it still hurts. It also hurts the plant when you pull it out by the roots, even if you think it is right from a physical point of view. We must not believe that if we know that pain is being caused in nature here or there, we can prevent that pain.

[ 9 ] We have thus seen how human beings learn to empathize with their fellow beings through insight into nature. Even the souls of stones feel pleasure and pain. When we look at a quarry and see how the workers break off stone after stone, we might believe that when the stones splinter, this causes pain to the rock. That is not the case. Whole streams of well-feeling splinter off with the stones and pour out of the quarry. If you take a glass of water and dissolve salt in it, the seer sees that whole streams of well-being spread out as the salt dissolves. When we then cool the water and the salt becomes solid again, this causes pain.

[ 10 ] When we light a match, burn something, this causes whole inner streams of pleasure in a soul being that is active in this combustion process. Light that spreads throughout the universe does not spread only as physical substance, but also spreads streams of bliss. The spiritual beings who live in the light gladly give away the light; that is bliss. They feel blissful in the flow of life in the light. In this way we come to know the whole world inwardly. As we learn to recognize more and more of the life around us spiritually, we actually learn wonderful secrets of human development.

[ 11 ] Let us go back to earlier times. The earth was at such a high temperature that all metals and minerals were dissolved. We can look back to a state where everything was dissolved in the heat. At that time, human beings were connected to the earth as spiritual beings. How did the earth become the stage for present-day human beings in their present form? The substances of the earth had to become solid, to crystallize together. This process has been completed on our earth. In the future, the earth will undergo this process in the opposite direction. The earth and all human beings will become spiritualized. For physical life, spiritualization means “disintegration into the smallest particles.” When, after a long time, a world body has fulfilled its task, the particles of this world body gradually dissolve. The agglomeration of matter alternates with the dissolution of matter. We can already see in radium that the earth is beginning to disintegrate, to become spiritualized. Starting with the development of the Earth, we have the Earth in a fiery state, then the condensation into rocks, the agglomeration. The rock souls must go through pain there. Only when the world body moves toward spiritualization again does the feeling of pleasure and lust arise through fragmentation.

[ 12 ] The initiate has expressed this in profound words. “All creation groans in pain, waiting to be adopted as children,” says Paul; that is, waiting for that moment when everything passes back into spiritualization. This is the best way for the secret wisdom to teach us to understand the religious documents again. We then gain the right feeling toward these documents. Today's materialistic human being, who says, “How wonderfully far we have come,” knows nothing of this development. Today, Paul's words are often interpreted in an infinitely trivial way. But shivers of awe will once again pierce human beings when they view the earth in this way. Not only our earth, but all the individual members of the cosmos are not merely physical worlds, but are animated and spiritual worlds.

[ 13 ] When a person passes through the gate of death, they must dwell for a time in a purely spiritual world before returning to a new embodiment. Here on the physical earth, humans make their instruments, their tools, and so on. Is the soul of a human being between death and a new birth merely preoccupied with itself? — The soul is not inactive at all, nor is it in a world other than our own. The beings who go through this state are truly around us, and they are all working. When a human being dies and reappears on the surface of the earth in a new embodiment, this usually happens in such a way that they find the earth with a new physiognomy.

[ 14 ] One only has to realize how the earth changes its face. Just think of how different the climatic conditions, plants, animals, and cultural conditions are now compared to the time of Christ Jesus. Anyone who truly studies history knows how everything on Earth changes. Who changes the outer, physical face of the Earth? We ourselves do this between death and a new birth, albeit under the guidance of higher beings.

[ 15 ] The seer then sees the plants constantly surrounded by the souls of human beings preparing their bed for a new incarnation. Higher beings govern this entire process. But we ourselves also work on this transformation of the earth. Man is the worker, the transformer of the structure of our earth itself. Thus, when we view it as a whole, a wonderful life is structured for us on our earth. We also recognize how we live among higher beings who are connected with our earth but do not descend to physical embodiment.

[ 16 ] Our Earth undergoes incarnations just as the individual human being does. The Earth has passed through earlier incarnations and will pass through other incarnations in the future. If we were to mix our present Earth with the present Moon, we would get the old Moon. In an even earlier embodiment, the Earth was a sun planet. If we were to mix the Earth, Moon, and Sun together today, we would get the old sun planet. In later times, the Earth will be embodied as Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. Spiritual beings are connected with each such existence. The Earth passes from embodiment to embodiment. In the process, spiritual beings are always developed to higher levels as such a planet progresses to further embodiments.

[ 17 ] When the old moon developed, a body first appeared. Then two bodies came into being. When our Earth developed, a world body emerged from the darkness of the cosmos. Then the one world body split into two. Then the moon split off from the Earth, so that we have three world bodies: the sun, the moon, and the earth. Humanity was also connected to all these embodiments. The foundation for the physical body was laid on Saturn, the foundation for the etheric body on the sun, and the foundation for the astral body on the moon. Higher beings stand above human beings. They could no longer undergo their rapid development while the earth was still connected to the sun and moon. Therefore, they had to separate themselves and take out the best substances, so that the sun is now inhabited by sublime beings whom we call the divine creators of man. They inhabit the sun. That which streams forth in the light inhabits the sun. This is experienced as the bliss that is felt when the light streams forth.

[ 18 ] On the moon, however, there are initially lower beings. There were beings in earlier development who, so to speak, did not have the opportunity to rise up to solar existence. They could not endure it on the sun, for that was reserved for higher beings. But they could not be on the earth either, for it was too undeveloped for them. They could not live on either of these two worlds. Therefore, the sun had to split off two other planets on which these beings could live. These are Mercury and Venus. On Mercury live beings similar to human beings, but they do not know death. The life of the Mercury beings is such that such a transition is only like a transformation, just as we change our bodies between birth and death. This is how the souls of the Mercury beings live when they take on and lose their spirit bodies, but they do not know death. Beings that stand between human beings and the sun beings also live on Venus. They inhabit Venus and can even become effective on Earth. They become effective in the human body. We call these beings Luciferic beings. In a certain sense, they have their home on Venus. That is why Venus is also called “Lucifer.”

[ 19 ] When we look up at the stars, they reveal themselves to us in such a way that we recognize spiritual beings in them. We only know the world when we penetrate everywhere from the physical to the spiritual. How will we as human beings walk through the world in a completely different, conscious way when we learn to empathize with everything around us? This will make our lives infinitely richer. We ourselves will become co-workers in the spiritual realm. Knowledge only acquires its value when it becomes life, when we learn to live differently and not just know something.