To carry on looking at the inversion of the spiritualization of our planet; we cannot say when this will happen, only God knows this, but it is good to know and remember; re-studying -
Evolution of the Earth – Rudolf Steiner Occult Science (from pg 108)
The Earth - a past physical planetary condition, which became spiritual, and then material once more. Thus our Earth has passed through three previous planetary conditions with intermediate states of spiritualization in between. The physical proves more and more fine and delicate, the farther back Earths embodiment.
The evolutionary conditions of the past are preserved side by side with those stages of evolution / existence in the present.
The gradual evolution, during the earlier planetary embodiments, prepared man’s present form of his four members: physical body, life body, astral body and Ego, whom we may call in a certain respect the ancestors of man. Thus on the preceding embodiment of the planet, man’s ancestors had reached a certain degree of maturity in three members. With this he passed into the state of spiritualization out of which the new planetary condition that of the Earth – subsequently arose and re-appearing in a new form and having attained this height with the seeds within go beyond it by receiving in addition the I.
Earth evolution falls into two parts; in the first the Earth appears as a re-embodiment of the earlier planetary condition, although by virtue of the spiritualised condition has meanwhile undergone, this recapitulation represents a higher stage. Within it the Earth contains the seeds of the ancestors of man, the seeds evolve up to the level on which they were before. When they have reached it, the first period is at an end. And now, since its own evolution is at a higher stage, the Earth can bring the seeds also to a higher level; it can make them capable of receiving the I. Thus the second period of Earth evolution is characterized by the unfolding of the I in the physical body, life body and astral body.
Through Earth evolution man is thus lifted a stage higher in his development. Now this was also the case in the former planetary embodiments. For something of the human being was already in existence on the very first of these.
In supersensible research this first planetary embodiment may be called Saturn; the second may be designated Sun; and the third Moon; the fourth is the Earth.
Man, in the form and figure in which he is now evolving, does not emerge until the fourth of the above planetary embodiments – the Earth proper.
One thing, however, must be strictly borne in mind in regard to these designations. They must not, to begin with, be associated in anyway with the identical names as applied to the members of our present solar system. ‘Saturn, Sun and Moon’ are here intended as the names for past evolutionary forms which the Earth has gone through.
As to the relation of these pristine worlds to the heavenly bodies that constitute our present solar system – that will emerge in the further course of our studies. Then too the reason for the choice of names will become evident.
Nowhere, it might be said, is there a former Saturn, Sun or Moon condition existing side by side with the present Earth condition, still less a form of human being such as is here described as having existed in those earlier conditions. It is quite true: there are no Saturn, Sun or Moon men running about among Earth men. But within* the human being as he is on Earth these earlier conditions of mankind are indeed perceptible supersensibly.
Of the four present members of the human being the physical body is the oldest. Moreover it is the physical body which has attained the greatest perfection in its kind. Supersensible research shows that this member of the human being existed already in Saturn evolution. It is true, that the form it had on Saturn was utterly different from man’s present physical body. The physical body of man as it is on Earth can only exist in its proper nature in as much as it is connected with a life-body, and astral body and an Ego.
On Saturn, there was as yet no such connection. The physical body was passing through its first stage in evolution without a human life-body or astral body or Ego being incorporated in it. During Saturn evolution it was only maturing towards the stage of receiving a life-body, and before this could happen, Saturn had first to pass into a spiritual state and then be re-incarnated as the Sun. In the Sun embodiment of the Earth, what the physical body had become on Saturn unfolded once more, as from a seed. Only then could it be premeated with an etheric body. Through receiving into it an etheric body; the physical body was raised to a second level of its perfection. A like thing happened during the Moon evolution when the ancestor of man, having evolved from the Sun to Moon, received into himself the astral body. The physical body was thereby changed again, this time it was raised to a third level of perfection. The life body too was changed; henceforth it stood upon its second level of perfection.
(is continued)
As one that looks up to the heavens and sees the splendour of the stars, thinks of the Maker and searches, so whoever has contemplated the Intellectual Universe and known it must search after its Maker too.
What Being has raised so noble a fabric, and how?
Who has begotten such a child, this Divine Mind, this lovely abundance so abundantly endowed?
Plotinus