INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS

ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

R.S.W.Bobbette

1998

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INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

Table of Contents

Preface 1
Essay Page #
The Scientific Study of Rudolf Steiner's Clairvoyant Observations 4
Star-Knowledge Old and New: Rudolf Steiner's Observations 8
Rudolf Steiner's Basic Celestial Influences Part I: The Zodiac 15
Rudolf Steiner's Basic Celestial Influences Part II: The Planets 19
Rudolf Steiner's Identification of the Zodiac 24
Rudolf Steiner's Identification of Mercury and Venus 29
Rudolf Steiner's Exclusion of Uranus and Neptune 33
The Cosmic Feminine: Steiner's View of Cometary Life 36
Celestial Movements: Some Hints From Rudolf Steiner 43
The Daily Round Zodiac: A Little Cosmic Mystery 48
References to Rudolf Steiner's Star-Knowledge 50
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

Preface

It is difficult to prepare an unfamiliar reader for the content of Dr.

Steiner's observations. These essays form an attempt to do that from the
point of view of astronomy-astrology, although they did not originate
from that impulse. Rather, in 1996 and 1997 I produced essays in an
attempt to show clearly Steiner's view on two topics in dispute or
confusion: 1) The application of the terms Mercury and Venus to the
night sky; and, 2) The identification of the signs or constellations of the
zodiac and their relation to the cultural epochs of man. These are
contained here in slightly revised form. Because I intended to help solve
an evident problem with these essays, as well as reflect the intelligible
picture given by Steiner, they fully mention, if not quote, all non-
redundant references I have found to date. While doing this, I noticed
that a few other topics could be likewise covered. Thus the essays on
comets, the `day-round zodiac', and the exclusion of Uranus and
Neptune comprehensively represent what Steiner observed throughout
the 180 - odd texts and lecture cycles reviewed. As is hopefully evident in
the essays themselves, the ones on old and new star-knowledge, celestial
movements and basic celestial influences are merely representative.
Steiner's many details on sun, moon - specific planets and constellations
- evolution, etc. require fuller treatment than possible in essay form, in
my opinion

The content of essays contained here, is the result of research work from
the point of view of gathering scientific facts. In this case these facts are
most accurately represented by the direct quotes of the observer -
Steiner. These facts can of course be expressed in terms other than
Steiner's, but their content has been so hidden and confused that
credibility and continuity become almost as important as content . . .

There is no intention here to promote any kind of mere `belief' in

Dr. Steiner's work; however, few others have provided points of view
on the possibility of intimate celestial effects on earth in clearly
scientific and holistic terms. We need to open-mindedly test the
pictures that emerge when his scattered facts are collected and
correlated.
Personally, I would like to thank Phillip Thatcher, Magdelene Warner,
and Sherry Wildfeuer. Their critical interest not only gave the initial
impetus, but aided greatly in supporting the will to finish an introduction
appropriate to the topic. The information in these essays has been taken
from a much larger survey called Foundations at the Periphery: Rudolf
Steiner's Observations On Star-Knowledge, comprising over four hundred
pages and currently in working manuscript form. The last essay in this
series, `References . . . ', is essentially a bibliography of the larger work.
The attempt has been to maintain the exact character of the edition
cited, so varying treatments of uppercase \ lower case and British vs.
American spellings (etc.), occur.

This larger summary of Dr. Steiner's observations was begun because I

can find it nowhere else . . . so I in it I organized, at first chronologically,
information that can aid in outlining both general principles and specific
relationships of stars, sun, planets and moon with earth and man. I have
tried to limit myself to the most direct references of celestial phenomena
or stages of human star-knowledge, with some purely methodological
observations that qualify the nature of the information given.

For whatever reason, the first, almost introductory, change in relevant

quotes comes with the year 1908. This could of course change, but what
I have found to date shows brief facts of solar system evolution, or
qualities and relationships of a few celestial bodies given from 1901 to
1907. Beginning in 1908, detailed descriptions and whole lecture cycles
describe the nature of the solar system.

As an introductory summary of Rudolf Steiner's view of the nature of the

solar system, observations he reported from 1901-1907 give a
provocative picture. Reading them will show that there is a depth to be
discussed; I would like to bring forward the following facts to aid in the
orientation of the reader:

1. The present solar system is the fourth incarnation of a pattern of

seven `great cycles' or evolutionary planets, called respectively (old)
Saturn, (old) Sun, (old) Moon, Earth, (future) Jupiter, (future)
Venus, and (future) Vulcan. The speed of evolution slows to the
point when the inception of human self-consciousness occurs,
during late Atlantean times of our Earth, and is now speeding up
again.
2. Mankind has been present at various evolutionary stages
throughout this pattern, and life in general is able to persist and
evolve forms in states of purely fiery and gaseous conditions.
3. The Zodiac is the creator of and exists beyond the physical
existence of the evolutionary planets, this fact being reflected in
the twelve daylight and twelve night-time hours.
 4. Civilization has epochs related to the occurrence of the vernal sun
in different constellations of the Zodiac. The governance of each
sign was revised to a then-consistent 2,160 years, with the sun
entering Aries about 747B.C. and entering Pisces about 1413A.D.
(see 3 & 8 Oct. 1905, June 1906, 25 Aug. 1906, 4 Sept. 1906)
5. Sun, moon and earth were united in one body, but the sun had too
fast, too dissolving a pace of evolution, so it had to depart the earth
and moon. (see 1904)
6. Sometime after the sun left the earth+moon, Mars penetrated the
fiery, gaseous mass and left astral iron. Mercury left etheric
mercury in mid-Atlantean times; thus occultists sometimes
designate the evolutionary planet Earth, as Mars - Mercury. This
had been incorporated into the naming of the days of the week.
(see 1 & 28 Oct. 1905, June, 1906, 30 Aug. 1906)
7. The moon departed because it had a too hardening, mummifying
effect on the early albumin; but its leaving also weakened the
reproductive forces of the earth and caused the sexes to arise. (see
1904, 31 Aug. 1906)
8. The movements of sun, earth and planets are actually spirals
within spirals.
9. Radioactivity has only existed for a few thousand years because
the Earth-evolution is on the decaying side. Rocks were formerly
softer and `more alive'; they are progressively hardening and
crumbling, including nuclear decay.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

The Scientific Study of Rudolf Steiner's Clairvoyant Observations

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

In the 1890's, while working on a compilation of the scientific writings of

Goethe, Rudolf Steiner crystallized the contrast between scientific
approaches appropriate for inorganic decaying nature, and those
appropriate for living organic nature. The crux of modern science's
problem, epitomized today by myopic scientific data fed into ever greater
computers, was summarized in a statement of Haeckel's, quoted by
Steiner (Readings in Goethean Science, 1972, pg. 50). If the psychic
mechanics were not so infinitely complicated, if we were in a position to
survey fully the historical evolution of the psychic functions also, we
should be able to reduce them all to a mathematical soul formula. Over
against this attitude (one that has exploded over the planet!) Dr. Steiner
had to insist on a method that more directly involved the human mind
and spirit - themselves derived from and representative of the infinitely
complicated. He pointed out that organic reality is not passively
determined by external circumstances, as is mechanical-physical
phenomena, ...but actively determines itself under their influence. This
fact requires the study and conception of ...a general form of the
organism which includes within itself all the particular forms. (Readings
in Goethean Science, 1972, pg. 52)

The ideal of inorganic science is to grasp the totality of all phenomena as

a unitary system, in order that we may approach each phenomenon with
the consciousness that we recognize it as a member of the cosmos. In
organic science, on the contrary, the ideal must be to have in the utmost
entirety possible, in the type and its phenomenal forms, that which we
see evolving in the series of the single beings.

Every single organism is the moulding of the type in a specific form. It is

an individuality which governs and determines itself from a centre
outward. It is a totality in itself - which in inorganic nature is true of the
cosmos alone. (Readings in Goethean Science, 1972 pg. 62)

Steiner's Work as Scientific Evidence

Anyone who is serious and doubts Dr. Steiner's understanding and

ability as a serious research scientist can be eventually reassured by
careful review of his early works on the methods of science and the
nature of knowledge. These will not be discussed here. When the time
came for him to begin reporting the results of his purely spiritual
researches, he was well aware of the scientific requirement. At the turn of
the 20th century, he noted: My knowledge of things of the spirit is a
direct result of my own perception, and I am fully conscious of this fact.
In all the details and in the larger survey I had always to examine myself
carefully as to whether every step I took in the progress of my perception
was accompanied by a fully awake consciousness. Just as the
mathematician advances from thought to thought without the
unconscious or auto-suggestion playing a role, so - I told myself -
spiritual perception must advance from objective imagination to objective
imagination without anything living in the soul but the spiritual content
of clear discerning consciousness. (An Outline of Occult Science,
1972,).Scientifically, I have spent decades researching, and producing,
detailed environmental surveys and reports of vegetation, wildlife, soils
and landscapes and this background makes it clear that (despite the
unusual to astonishing facts presented) Dr. Steiner was consistent with
the requirements - and limitations - that precise observational organic
science entails; except that supporting physical documentation was not
an option!

However, Steiner's work is open to testing, and he made his feelings on

this point very clear: Although the book deals with the results of
research that lies beyond the power of the intellect bound to the sense
world, yet nothing is offered that cannot be comprehended by anyone
possessing an unprejudiced reason, a healthy sense of truth, and the
wish to employ these human faculties. The author says without
hesitation that he would like, above all, to have readers who are not
willing to accept on blind faith what is offered here, but who endeavor to
examine what is offered by means of the knowledge of their own soul and
through the experience of their own lives. (Here is not meant the spiritual
scientific test by supersensible means of research, but primarily the test
that is possible by healthy, unprejudiced thought and common sense.)
He would like to have above all cautious readers who only accept what
can be logically justified. Yet concerning the communications given here,
it is not merely a question of communicating something, but that the
communication be in conformity with a conscientious view of the sphere
of life in question. (An Outline of Occult Science, 1972)

Representative Sampling

Rudolf Steiner is perhaps the definitive holistic researcher. Although his

few dozen books lay the foundation of this holism, the vast details
relating to all pertinent topics are spread throughout some 6,000
lectures. These lectures are a large data base of facts that are reported
(like environmental details) only when available to be observed, not in a
merely convenient way. Steiner described this scientific quality very
pointedly, on 22 Oct, 1915: It is very necessary to gather together
carefully the items of concrete knowledge that have been given and to
correlate them. And that is why - how shall I put it? - that is why it has
such a jarring effect (although this does not quite express what I mean)
when one who is trying to speak about the spiritual world with full
responsibility, is asked all kinds of questions about this or that point
after the lectures. These people want to know everything, but on the
other hand one has been endeavoring to speak only of what has been
thought through to the end. One is forced, then, to speak about a whole
number of matters into which there has not yet been opportunity for
thorough investigation. It is, of course possible to give some reply, for the
science of occultism is there; but when one has laid it down as a
fundamental principle to speak only of what has been tested and verified,
this kind of talking goes against the grain. (The Occult Movement in the
Nineteenth Century; 1973, pp. 130-131)
The scientific way to answer questions is to gather together and correlate
items of concrete knowledge. But the huge task of reviewing some 6,000
lectures is made impossible for us working in English, with about half of
these available in translation. Still, as a true data set, representative
sampling should be possible, and I believe that it is. Broad sampling is
also required because although lectures on specific topics were given, the
nature of Steiner's holistic vision meant that many facts on all topics
were related when pertinent to qualify any given topic. For example, a
search for astronomical-astrological data has currently reviewed about
170 books and lecture cycles, of which 60 % had directly useful
observations; and this group could not be predicted by main topic or
title.

Another reason for the need of broad, representative sampling is known

by everyone dealing with living reality in the open environment, and was
expressed by Steiner on 17 Apr. 1909: Taken superficially, you may find
a number of apparent contradictions in the one or other lecture cycle.
This is because in these lectures it is my task to speak not of speculative
theories but about facts of clairvoyant consciousness, which appear in a
different way when viewed from this or that angle. To use a comparison,
the picture of a tree drawn from one side will look quite different from
that drawn from another and yet, it is one and the same tree. (The
Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Physical World, 1970,
pg. 96).

Imagine counting all the trees along a survey line, and because they do
not look exactly the same on the way back, thinking they were different
trees! And yet, if two metals are not exactly the same, they are different
metals.

One important method, again sharing similarities with environmental

science, can be called Reading Past Facts. Just think of a walk in the
woods, how many different trees, shrubs, flowers, animals and their
signs are presented to consciousness. To absorb, identify and relate all
these quickly, or even eventually, is impossible. The species or events are
seen, but identification proceeds only over time from the known to the
unknown for each investigator or observer. If we stopped to identify every
unknown, we would never make it through the woods!

The student of Steiner's reports is confronted with a similar situation.

His holistic reviews contain many fruits on topics that may or may not be
recognized. The context for understanding can only be achieved by not
getting hung up, but by going forward to establish what is familiar and
develop a framework to understand what we do not yet recognize.
Rudolf Steiner described his methods of clairvoyant training on many
occasions, and for scientific purposes these supply the requirement for
an open and repeatable method - as these are in the study of a living
open environment rather than a dead, closed laboratory. These methods
are open to study and attempted duplication, but as shown here, Steiner
repeatedly noted that the directly important thing is to carefully study
the facts that he presented with our open minds and common sense. I
have found no more stark expression of this need than that mentioned
15 Dec. 1922: This is the agonizing experience that is the natural
corollary of the materialistic age for one who has true insight into
Initiation-Science today. He sees how men on Earth lapse into
materialism; but he also knows what this lapse means for the spiritual
life. He knows that it means the eradication of the eyes, that in the
existence awaiting them after death, men will only be able to grope their
way about. In olden times when there was instinctive knowledge of the
supersensible world, men passed through the gate of death able to see.
That old, instinctive supersensible knowledge is now extinct. Today,
spiritual knowledge must be consciously acquired - spiritual knowledge, I
say, not clairvoyance. As I have always emphasized clairvoyance too can
be attained, but that is not the essential here. The essential thing is that
what is discovered through clairvoyant research shall be understood - as
it can be understood - by ordinary human reason, healthy human
reason. Clairvoyance is needed to investigate these things, but it is not
needed for acquiring the faculty of sight in the supersensible world after
death......

However powerful a man's clairvoyant faculty might be in earthly life,

however clear his vision of the spiritual world, if he were too easy-going
to bring into the form of logical, intelligible ideas what he sees in the
spiritual world, he would still be blinded in the spiritual world after
death.(Man and the World of Stars, 1963, pp. 60-62) The emphasis was
given by Steiner.

The most meditative expression that I have found, of what is the focus of
this paper, was spoken 1 May 1920: What is of moment is to study the
conclusions of Spiritual Science, not to satisfy a curiosity for
clairvoyance. (Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pg. 144)

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE
 Star-knowledge Old and New:
Rudolf Steiner's Observations

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

One of the greatest breaks in human knowledge is that between what is

preserved of the old, traditional teachings about the nature of the
heavens, and modern astronomical understanding of the stars and
planets. On the one hand, adherents to traditional knowledge mostly
accept information of which they cannot know the original sources. On
the other hand, modern star-knowledge is based on the never-to-be-
experienced assumption that physical laws, demonstrated in recent
times in near-earth environments, extend forever through space and
time. The careful student can soon find many anomalies on both hands.

Rudolf Steiner was one of few serious scientific investigators to give full
credit to both the old traditional and modern astronomical views of the
heavens. As part of this full credit, he places the break in knowledge
noted above in its proper context as a critical feature in the evolution of
human consciousness. His research into the holistic nature of the
human experience had its principal public expression between 1900 and
1925, and I would like to quote two passages from early and late in this
time.

In 1901, he wrote: In the first decade of the sixteenth century, at Castle

Heilsberg in Prussia, the scientific genius of Nicolas Copernicus (1473-
1543) is erecting an edifice of ideas which will compel men in succeeding
epochs to look up to the starry heavens with conceptions different from
those which their ancestors had in antiquity and in the Middle Ages. To
the latter, the earth was a dwelling-place resting at the center of the
universe. The stars, on the other hand, were for them entities of a perfect
nature, the movement of which proceeded in circles because the circle is
the image of perfection. - In what the stars showed to the human senses
one saw something belonging directly to the soul or the spirit. The
objects and events of the earth spoke one language to men; another
language was spoken by the shining stars which, in the pure ether
beyond the moon, seemed to be a spiritual being that filled space . . .
Through Copernicus the earth became for man a fellow creation among
the heavenly bodies, a star that moved like others. Everything in the
earth which appeared to man as being different, he could now attribute
only to the fact that it is his dwelling place. He was compelled to stop
thinking in different ways about the phenomena of this earth and about
those of the remainder of the universe. His sensory world had expanded
into furthest space. What reached his eye from the ether he now had to
accept as belonging to the sensory world, like the things of the earth. He
could no longer seek the spirit in the ether in a sensory fashion.

All who henceforth strove for higher cognition had to come to terms with
this expanded sensory world. (Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern
Age, 1960, pp. 220-224)

The same fact, expressed in a slightly different direction, was spoken of

in a lecture on 2 Nov. 1924: Man confronts a world that was once
entirely divine-spiritual in nature, a world to which he belonged as an
integral part of it. The world of his belonging was then divine-spiritual.
But at a subsequent evolutionary stage this was no longer the case; the
world was a cosmic revelation of the divine-spiritual, its essential being
hovering behind the revelation. But that being lived, nevertheless, and
was active in the revelation. The starry world was already in existence,
with the divine-spiritual living and active as revelation in its shining out
and in its movement. It would be accurate to say that in the way a star
stood or moved was a direct demonstration of the activity of the divine-
spiritual.

Other times came. The starry world ceased to be a direct, immediate

revelation of divine-spiritual activity. Rather did it live and move in
continuation of such activity as had earlier been engendered in it. The
divine-spiritual no longer lived in the cosmos as revelation, but only as
ongoing effect. A definite split had appeared between divine-spiritual
being and the universe; they were now separated. (Karmic
Relationships, Vol. III, 1977, pp. 27-28)

I have collected about 400 pages of observations Dr. Steiner made

relating to knowledge of the stars and planets. This is not a
comprehensive collection, but it is representative. He reports again and
again, often in detail, the justification of the spiritual picture wisdom of
the ancients as a true, albeit instinctive, human perception at a more
creative stage of evolution. He also supports the justification of modern,
calculated star-knowledge as applied to what is now ongoing effect, but
as something that has validity only in terms of its concrete data, not in
terms of its extrapolated theories.

Here, I will bring forward a not entirely subjective collection of relatively

brief observations, in chronological order.

On 14 June 1906, Steiner discussed the nature of Chaldean astrology,

and then went on to say: Ptolemy's map of the heavens is usually placed
next to that of Copernicus and then the former is declared false. This,
however, is not true. He then explained that Ptolemy's map is of the
astral plane where the earth forms the centre and that of Copernicus is
of the physical plane with the sun at the centre.

Ptolemy's system will be rehabilitated in an epoch yet to come. (Reading

the Pictures of the Apocalypse, 1993, pg. 140

A little later, on 1 Sept. 1906, he pointed out that: In future times yet
another, quite different picture of the world will prevail. Generally we
hear that Copernicus taught only two things: that the Earth revolves on
its own axis and that the Earth revolves round the Sun. It is seldom
noticed that he taught also a third form of movement - that the whole
solar system moves onward in a spiral. For the present this fact will be
left aside, but in the future humanity will return to it. Copernicus stood
on a frontier, and the old outlook was strongly present in him. (At the
Gates of Spiritual Science, 1970, pp. 101-102) About a year later, on 16
Sept. 1907, this fact was further elaborated: Modern astronomy is
supported by two postulates of Copernicus, but a third has yet to be
taken into account. Copernicus said that the sun also moves. It advances
in a spiral so that the earth, following the sun, moves in a complicated
curve. The same is true for the moon that revolves around the earth.
These movements are far more complicated than is assumed in
elementary astronomy. You see here how the spiral has significance for
celestial bodies, and these describe a form with which men will one day
identify themselves. (Occult Signs and Symbols, 1972, pg. 57)

What is perhaps one of Steiner's most direct statements regarding our

topic was made 12 Apr. 1909: Before the Atlantean catastrophe the
spiritual eye of man swept the expanses of the universe and beheld
spiritual beings everywhere.

The physical centre, however, gradually became more clearly visible.

Thus, the spiritual counterpart was lost when the physical aspect
became manifest. The spiritual knowledge surrounding the stars, and of
the beings who dwelt in them, was preserved in the Mysteries and
spoken of by the Holy Rishis . . .

When the pupils of these Mysteries pronounced Moon, Mercury, Venus,

Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in their respective languages, they were
referring to a sequence of spiritual beings. Today, these words refer to
the coarsest physical substance of the planets, and the most important
aspect is thereby omitted. (The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection
in the Physical World, 1970, pp. 9-10)

From 3-14 Apr. 1912, Steiner provided some of his most extensive
descriptions of the nature of the heavens, which contain the following:
The whole physical system of heavenly bodies is a testimony of past
times, telling of past occurrences. Whereas we, on our earth, are
contemporary with the things which appear before our physical eyes,
what we see in the starry heavens is actually Maya, for it does not
represent an existing condition, but had its full significance in the past,
and has remained behind. (The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies
and the Kingdoms of Nature, 1951, pp. 135-136)

This observation echoes the thought of materialistic astronomy that most

stars are thousands to millions of light-years away. Therefor the qualities
revealed by their light shows how they were millions of years ago, and
certainly does not represent an existing condition. However, Steiner
means the comment more deeply, and includes the physical aspects of
planets, moons, comets, etc.

What amounts to an indictment of the Copernican view was given 18

Dec. 1912: Anyone who asks from the standpoint of occultism what
kind of world conception can be derived from the Copernican tenets will
have to admit that although these ideas can lead to great achievements
in the realm of natural science and in external life, they are incapable of
promoting any understanding of the spiritual foundations of the world,
for there has never been a worse instrument for understanding the
spiritual foundations of the world than the ideas of Copernicus - never in
the whole of human evolution. The reason is that all these Copernican
concepts are inspired by Lucifer. Copernicanism is one of the last
attacks, one of the last great attacks mode by Lucifer upon the evolution
of man. In earlier, pre-Copernican thought, the external world was
indeed maya, but much traditional wisdom, much truth concerning the
world and the things of the world still survived. Since Copernicus,
however, man has maya around him not only in his material perceptions
but his concepts and ideas are themselves maya. Men take it for granted
nowadays that the sun is firmly fixed in the middle and the planets
revolve around it in ellipses. In the near future, however, it will be
realised that the view of the world held by the school of Copernicus and
Kepler is very convenient, but as an explanation of the macrocosm it is
not the truth. (Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian
Rosencreutz, 1984, pp. 174-175)

We have already noticed Steiner's rebuff of the ellipse idea, with his
mention of the Copernican spirals - which corresponds with information
known to, but mostly hidden by, modern astronomy's publicists.

Still, the Copernican indictment deepened on 16 Nov. 1917: A different

physical view of the world prevailed in pre-Copernican times, a view that
may be called erroneous today . . . This world view did not yet result in
human beings becoming destructive in the earthly sphere after passing
through the portal of death.
Only with the abrupt entry of Copernicanism, with its picture that the
whole world spread out in space is also subject to the laws of space, with
its picture that the earth circles around the sun, only with such pictures
arising in the Copernican view is the human being chained to physical-
sensible existence and prevented from rising appropriately into the
spiritual world after death. (Geographic Medicine, 1986, pp. 44-45)

Several paragraphs from 1 Nov. 1919 contain this kernel: Even with the
help of accessible Egyptian and Chaldean lore, external evidence does
not carry us very far back in the history of humanity . . .

If this ancient Paganism is rightly understood, it will be found to contain

sublime, deeply penetrating wisdom . . .

This ancient star-wisdom was in no way akin to the arithmetical

astrology sometimes considered valuable today, but it was a wisdom
voiced by the initiates in such a way that impulses for individual action
and conduct went forth from the Mysteries. (The Influence of Lucifer and
Ahriman, 1954, pp. 7-9)

On 4 Nov. 1919, Steiner emphasized: This is something we must bear

particularly in mind - The human being living on earth within the old
Pagan world view felt himself membered into the whole cosmos. He felt
how the forces at work in the movements of the stars extended into his
own actions, or, better said, into the forces taking effect in his actions.
What later passed for astrology, and does so still, is but a reflection - and
a very misleading one at that - of the ancient wisdom gleaned from
contemplation of the stars in their courses and then used as the basis for
precepts governing human action. (The Influence of Lucifer and
Ahriman, 1954, pg. 34)

Shortly after, on the 9th Nov. 1919, the presumptive nature of a

foundation of modern astronomy is noted: You look up to the stars,
saying that something is streaming from them that can be perceived by
man's sense-organs here on earth. - But what you behold when you gaze
at the stars is not of the same nature as what you perceive on the earth
in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. In reality it proceeds from
beings of intelligence and will whose life is bound up with those stars.
The effects appear to be physical because the stars are at a distance.
They are not in reality physical at all. What we see is in reality the
working of will and intelligence which at a distance appears as light.
(The Influence of Lucifer and Ahriman, 1954, pg. 73)

Several details given on 29 and 30 Mar. 1920, began with the terse fact:
True, the connections of the whole universe are present in man: man is
related to Saturn, Jupiter, etc.; but the relations are concealed in the
depths of our organisation. At the risk of offending current modes of
thought, I would suggest that the astronomical affiliations form the most
deeply unconscious regions in man, they are transmuted into the most
secluded of his organic processes. (Spiritual Science and Medicine,
1989, pg. 121)

Ongoing discussions include, on 17 Apr. 1920: There simply does not

exist such a thing as mathematics calls `space'; but everywhere are lines
of force, and these are not equal, they vary, they are differentiated . . .

So when we are dealing with these various sections of space there is no

sameness, for we must realise that each of these directions exerts a
different influence upon us. (Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pg.
68)

And on 18 Dec. 1920: What is this Copernican picture of the Universe? -

It is in reality a picture built up purely on the basis of mathematical
principles, mathematical-mechanical principles. The rudiments of it
began, very gradually, to be unfolded in Greece, where, however, echoes
of earlier thought - for example in the Ptolemaic view of the universe -
still persisted. And in the course of time this developed into the
Copernican system that is taught nowadays to every child.

We can look back from this world-conception to ancient times when

man's picture of the universe was very different. All that has remained of
it are those traditions which in the form in which they exist today - in
astrology and the like - are sheer dilettantism. That is what has
remained of ancient astronomy, and it has also remained, ossified and
paralyzed, in the symbols of certain secret societies, Masonic societies
and the like. There is usually entire ignorance of the fact that these
things are relics of an ancient astronomy. This ancient astronomy was
quite different from that of today, for it was based, not upon
mathematical principles but upon ancient clairvoyant vision. (The
Bridge Between Universal Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of
Man, 1958, pp. 40-45)

Perhaps the most stark expression of the change from old to new star-
knowledge was given on 11 Jan. 1924: So that to have a correct picture
of the world, it has to be drawn in the old Ptolemaic sense: the Earth in
the centre of the Universe, and the other stars controlled and directed in
their corresponding revolutions by the Earth . . . In actual fact, however,
it is not so. It is not so on account of man's sin. Through man's sin, the
Earth has gone over, in an unauthorised, unjustifiable manner, into the
kingdom of the Sun; the Sun has become regent and ruler of earthly
activities. (Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation, 1982, pp. 62-63)
About a year later, on 4 Jan. 1925, we are warned about extending
modern calculations into the distant past and future: It would not have
been possible to make any calculations relating to the constellations and
star orbits in the ancient epoch; they were an expression of the free
intelligence and free will activity of divine-spiritual beings. In the future
they will again become incalculable. (The Michael Mystery, 1984, pg. 92)

As a holistic reporter, Dr. Steiner had to present his observations as they

related to the many topics of his concern. This places a great onus on
investigators to collect and correlate what he says into an intelligible
picture.

This sketch outline of Steiner's view of the contrast between, and natures
of, ancient astrology and modern star-knowledge needs to be qualified
with many more details, and to this end I append a list of pertinent
references. The need of our age is to, as individuals, observe facts and
draw our own conclusion in freedom. This is the reason for my form of
presentation, which may seem pedantic and inartistic.

Aside from the characterisations pointed to here, Steiner offered many

facts which build an essentially different star-knowledge than that
available otherwise. For those practically interested in applying star-
knowledge I would like to briefly list, without references, some of the
major facts that I have not found current, or even elsewhere:

The Zodiac begins with Aries on Mar. 29 and extends with

essentially equal divisions around the year, and is only vaguely
related to the star patterns.
The four principal Zodiac signs are Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius and
Taurus, with those on either side of these to be considered
companions.
The air and water signs of the Zodiac have been reversed - Scorpio
(originally the Eagle) is an air sign and Aquarius is a water sign.
This has to do with the roles they played at different stages of earth
evolution.
The names of Mercury and Venus have been reversed relative to
their ancient designations.
Uranus, Neptune (and Pluto) have fundamentally nothing to do
with our universe.
The actual planets are lens-shaped etheric masses and bounded
by the orbits of the physical planets.
Moons can be considered corpses - cast-off elements from
previous stages of each planets' evolution.
The Sun is not physical and does not generate heat, but acts as a
focal point for the reflection of cosmic forces. It can be considered
 essentially different according to the constellation it occupies, as
Aries-Sun, Pisces-Sun, etc.

Those who choose to pursue the references given below will find evidence
of the details just given, and much more. Steiner always wanted his facts
to be carefully tested, but anyone familiar with any of the current
approaches to star-knowledge can see that even the few hints just given
make for a very different approach.

Appendix

An Esoteric Cosmology, 1987, Spiritual Science Library, pp. 78-79

At the Gates of Spiritual Science, 1970, Rudolf Steiner Press, pp. 35-36

The Influence of Spiritual Beings Upon Man, 1961, Anthroposophic

Press, pg. 22

Egyptian Myths and Mysteries, 1971, Anthroposophic Press, pp. 41-42

The Being of Man and His Future Evolution, 1981, Rudolf Steiner Press,
pp. 69-71

The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Physical World,

1970, Anthroposophic Press, pp. 57-78

Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse, 1993, Anthroposophic Press, pp.

73,74&97

The East in the Light of the West, 1986, Garber Communications Inc.,
pp. 180-181 & 191-199

Metamorphosis of the Soul; Paths of Experience, Vol. I, Rudolf Steiner

Press, pp. 9-11

The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 1983, Anthroposophic Press,

pp. 130-131

The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of Nature,
1951, Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co., pp. 95-104

Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy, 1989,

Spiritual Science Library, pp. 137-138

The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity, Spiritual Science Library,

pg. 71
Christ and the Spiritual World and the Search for the Holy Grail, 1963,
Rudolf Steiner Press, pp. 74-76

The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, 1987, Rudolf Steiner Press,

pp. 17-18 & 235-236

The Karma of Untruthfulness, Vol. II, 1992, Rudolf Steiner Press, pp.
188-194

Cosmic and Human Metamorphosis, 1989, Spiritual Research Editions,

pp. 65-69

Three Streams in Human Evolution, 1965, Rudolf Steiner Press, pg. 100

Spiritual Science and Medicine, `1989, Steinerbooks, pp. 125-126 & 150-
152

Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, Rudolf Steiner Press, pp. 70-72
& 111

Old and New Methods of Initiation, 1991, Rudolf Steiner Press, pp. 23 &
25

The Cycle of the Year, 1984, Anthroposophic Press, pp. 4-5

The Evolution of Consciousness, 1991, Rudolf Steiner Press, pp. 31-33

Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation, 1982, Rudolf Steiner Press, pp.

55-56

Agriculture, 1974, Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Assoc., pg. 115

Karmic Relationships, Vol. III, 1977, Rudolf Steiner Press, pp. 88-89

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

Rudolf Steiner's Basic Celestial Influences

Part I: The Zodiac
 R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

If, as holistic ecologists or even as interested observers, we inquire about

the effects of celestial bodies and events on earth and its life, the
abundance of social opinion really only gives us two points of view.
Materialistic astronomy holds the sun far and away above all other
celestial bodies, through its influences of gravity and solar radiations.
These influences are recognised as prime motivators, but subsequent
details are to be determined from strictly earthly forces and matter. The
moon is admitted as the mover of tides, but influences beyond this and
its pale reflected light are not thought much of.

Astrology, in its many forms, really seems to boil down to collections of

statements. The array of celestial influence is expanded past sun and
moon to include the planets and constellations of the zodiac. According
to defined qualities, the influences of celestial relationships and aspects
are said to be directly causal or at least representative of events and
characteristics on earth. Proof is mostly in the form of looking back to
agreeable coincidences, with disagreeable circumstances ignored or
explained away. The predictive inabilities of this type of astrology are
notorious - on the other hand there always seems to be enough accuracy
to be tempting.

Astronomy sees no rational basis for the detailed, often humanly

personal, influence claimed by astrology; astrology can present no
unified front, no unifying view beyond various cultural traditions and
individual, usually dreamy or mediumistic, clairvoyant statements..

Dr. Steiner offers a point of view that illumines the seeming quagmire of
astrology with a clear-minded scientific approach to clairvoyance.
Although the cold intellect of modern materialism will consider it wildly
ironical, Steiner places astrology on a rational basis by reaching past the
snowstorm of half-proven and unproven theories of astronomy and
astrophysics to the view of our cosmos as a living, evolving whole.

It may seem trite to say that cosmic evolution is a complex subject, but
it's a fact that is too seldom considered. Steiner always emphasised this
point, and when trying to organise his observations, these themselves
lead in many directions. One main direction that I will not pursue is the
influence of the heavenly bodies on personal and collective human
destinies. This (all too often egotistical) aspect of astrology was placed on
a rational footing by Dr. Steiner's frequent descriptions resulting from
the relationships between the spiritual realms of the different planets
and zodiac constellations, and human souls between death and rebirth.
In this series of two parts, I would like to focus on Steiner's basic facts
concerning more general characteristics of respectively the zodiac, and
the planets. His facts speak for themselves - indeed, it is up to the reader
to decide their acceptability. For a variety of reasons, I prefer to present
them chronologically.

Steiner always presented the zodiac as the perennial creative force of the
solar system. This influence was clearly described as early as 25 Aug.
1906: What was it, then, that people saw in this process? The ancients
saw it as an embodiment of the forces of nature. In the Winter these
forces were asleep, but in Spring they were recalled to life by the Sun.
Hence the constellation in which the Sun appeared in Spring symbolised
these reawakening forces; it gave new strength to the Sun and was felt to
be worthy of particular reverence. The ancients knew that with this
movement of the Sun round the Zodiac something important was
connected, for it meant that the Sun's rays fell on the Earth under quite
different conditions as time went on. And indeed the period of 2,160
years does signify a complete change in the condition of life on Earth.
(At the Gates of Spiritual Science, 1970, pp. 35-36)

Modern astronomy considers the movement of the sun through the

zodiac as an artifact of earth motions, but Steiner attributes this
movement a basic, if not ultimate reality extending well beyond the
physical existence of the earth itself; as on 22 Apr. 1907 . . . Before the
Lemurian age the sun, moon and earth, united in one body, moved
forward in terms of the zodiac. Time was measured following this
movement. For this reason, the twelve signs of the zodiac are
characterized as the heavenly clock and drawn as such.

A planet alternates between pralaya, a cosmic night, and manvantara, a

cosmic day, just as we alternately pass through day and night. The
planet passes through the signs of the zodiac during pralaya and
manvantara; for that reason the twelve signs of the zodiac are counted
twice, just as we also count two times twelve to equal twenty-four hours.
The hours symbolize the signs of the zodiac. (Reading the Pictures of the
Apocalypse, 1993, pg. 22)

Pralaya is the non-physical, highly spiritual seed stage of planetary

evolution; manvantara, the physical and lower spiritual; roughly
speaking!

On 27 Jan. 1908, as part of a broad discussion, Steiner gave a startling

description of our relationship to the zodiac, and of our ultimate
responsibilities: The following will seem grotesque, even preposterous to
those whose concepts are rooted in modern astronomy. Nevertheless it is
a truth of cosmic evolution that when a planet like the earth has risen to
sun-existence, when it has gradually achieved union with the Sun and
even Sun-existence is transcended, there arises, as a still higher stage of
evolution, something that in a certain way you can perceive in the
heavens: there arises what we today call a `Zodiac' - it is the stage higher
than that of the fixed star. Thus when beings are no longer restricted to
the form of existence belonging to a fixed star but have expanded their
evolution so powerfully that it extends beyond fixed stars and the fixed
stars lie like bodies in it - then a higher stage is reached, the stage of
Zodiac-existence. The forces which work from a Zodiac upon a planetary
system themselves evolved, in former ages, in a planetary system and
have advanced to the stage of a Zodiac. (The Influences of Spiritual
Beings Upon Man, 1961, pg. 22)

This staggering goal of our earth evolution is achieved through

progressive metamorphosis, and so views that see celestial influences as
eternally the same are not supported by Steiner. Indeed, following the
above quote the astrologically and astronomically unheard-of fact is
presented that: . . . The distribution of forces in our earth existence
may be conceived as follows: - on the one side forces are descending from
the Zodiac and, on the other, forces are ascending to the Zodiac.

As far as human understanding goes, these forces began to descend

during the Saturn-existence of our Earth and when Earth-existence
proper had reached its middle point, the stage had arrived when they
gradually began again to ascend. We have now passed beyond the middle
point of our evolution, which fell in the middle of the Atlantean epoch.

When, therefore, you think of the whole Zodiac, you must picture that
some of its forces are descending and some are ascending. We think of
the forces which are now involved in the ascending line of evolution,
collectively, as Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra - because
they actually belong to these constellations. The descending forces
comprised, approximately speaking, in the five constellations of Scorpio,
Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Thus forces rain down from the
Zodiac and ascend again: seven constellations of ascending, five
descending forces. The ascending forces also correspond, in man, to the
higher members of his being, to his higher, nobler attributes. The forces
which are in the descending phase of evolution have first to pass through
man and within him to attain to the stage at which they too can become
ascending forces. (The Influence of Spiritual Beings Upon Man, 1961,
pp. 25-26)

On 17 Apr. 1909 there were details given as to the character of previous

solar system evolution that has led to our earth, which he calls the old
Saturn, old Sun and old Moon stages. Old Saturn reached only the
density of fire, or warmth, and a particular influence on this stage of
evolution was exercised by the spiritual beings represented by Leo in the
Zodiac. Old Sun reached the density of air (gaseous), with the celestial
influence of Scorpio significant. And the old Moon condensed to water
(liquid), with a particular governance of the Waterman. All of these stages
peaked at the elemental densities mentioned, and then died into the
pralaya seed stage mentioned 22 Apr. 1907. Steiner then continues:

We now come to the earth, which represents the fourth stage of

evolution. The three earlier stages are repeated: A Saturn is formed; a
Sun is formed and leaves a Jupiter behind, which is a repetition of the
Sun; a Moon is formed and a Mars is left behind. Then the earth
emerges, as I have described it, severed from the sun and with the part
that is separated off as lunar slag. You recall that the first beginnings of
the ego took place in ancient Lemurian times when the present moon
separated itself off from the earth.

Again, however, that could only happen because an impulse was given
from the periphery that resulted in one rotation being completed.
Sufficient maturity had now been reached to receive the first beginnings
of the ego. This took place in ancient Lemurian time, and one pointed to
the constellation of the Bull. (The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their
Reflection in the Physical World, 1970, pp. 101-107)

The beginning of the ego is identified with the beginning of the solid
mineral condition called the earth element. Here we have the rational
basis for zodiac sign / element relationships, although you may notice
the reversal of air-water designations. A few days earlier (13 Apr.) while
discussing these beings from a different perspective, Steiner pointed out
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 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. (The Spiritual
Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Physical World, 1970, pp. 51-52)

The need to view celestial influences as spiritual, and a way to do this,

was pictured 26 Mar. 1910: And now we realize that the comparison
with a clock is by no means far fetched. We relate the heavenly bodies of
our solar system to the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, and we can
find our bearings in the World of Spirit only by viewing it in such a way
as to be able to assert that Spiritual Beings and events are realities; we
compare the facts with the courses of the planets but the Spiritual
Beings with the twelve constellations of the Zodiac. If we contemplate the
planets in space and the zodiacal constellations, if we conceive the
movements and relative positions of the planets in front of the various
constellations to be manifestations of the activities of the Spiritual Beings
and the twelve constellations of the Zodiac as the Spiritual Beings
themselves, then it is possible to express by such an analogy what is
happening in the World of Spirit. (Macrocosm and Microcosm, 1968, pp.
107-109)

Some specific thoughts on the structure of the zodiac were mentioned on

11 Apr. 1920: We cannot conceive of any other plane in celestial space
as being of like value with the Zodiac, any more than we could conceive
the plane which divides us in two and creates our symmetry, as being
placed at random just anywhere . . . In the same way we must imagine
that in the organisation of the Universe it is a matter of consequence
whether a thing is above or below the Zodiac . . . Now just as we can
think of this plane . . . so we can also think of another at right angles to
it. Let us think of a plane extending from the constellation Leo to that of
Aquarius on the other side. Then we can go further and imagine a third
plane at right angles again from this one, running from Taurus to
Scorpio. We have now three planes at right angles to one another in
Cosmic space.

If we think of the plane we have denoted as that of Will - the plane that
namely separates us behind and before - we have the plane of the Zodiac
itself.

If we think of the plane running from Taurus to Scorpio, we have the

plane of Thinking; that is, our thought plane would be coordinated to
this plane. And the third plane would be that of Feeling. (Man -
Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pp. 38-39)

And some basic facts of zodiac influences were spoken of a little later, on
17 Apr. 1920: There simply does not exist such a thing as mathematics
calls `Space'; but everywhere are lines of force, directions of force, and
these are not equal, they vary, they are differentiated. Man will not admit
this as long as he lives in the world of the senses; but as soon as he
ascends to the Imaginative life of the soul, he no longer experiences the
directions of space as the same when facing Aries or Cancer, but feels
their influence upon him as greatly differentiated. (Man - Hieroglyph of
the Universe, 1972, pg. 68)

Taking the case of an inhabitant of our part of the globe, we can see that
at any given time he has facing him one half of the Zodiacal signs, while
the other half are obscured by the earth.

Let us say, from the direction of the sign Cancer proceeds a certain kind
of influence. This would be opposed by an influence from Capricorn, but
the latter is taken away, is intercepted . . . the influence of Cancer is
thereby in a sense left in me, put into my hands, as it were. (Man -
Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pp. 70-72). Dr. Steiner gave many
descriptions of specific zodiac influences that weave into and expand the
briefer characterisation given here. The Spiritual Beings of the zodiac
sacrifice themselves to create our solar system through series of
planetary reincarnations. The planets come and go; the zodiac persists,
although the nature of its influence evolves. This basic fact conditions
the essentially spiritual influence they exert, working into the physical.
Thus the zodiac is in the background of all considerations we may have
of celestial influences.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

Rudolf Steiner's Basic Celestial Influences

Part II: The Planets

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

In Part I we saw the rational basis, from Steiner's point of view, from
which we can speak of a celestial influence of the zodiac. To put it
bluntly, the zodiac-Beings created the solar system out of themselves; as
noted before also, the manner of expression of their influence leads in
many directions, and a second direction that will not be followed up here
is the description of the Spiritual Beings of the Lower Hierarchies.
However, no abstract force or influence is ever meant by Steiner, but
always the living interaction of these many Beings with the elements,
minerals, plants, animals and men.

Dr. Steiner describes the primordial solar system as containing all the
planets, sun, moon and earth, all of which gradually separated to provide
proper fields for the evolution of various beings; as on 27 June 1909: . .
. Before the sun could withdraw, it became necessary for certain beings
to segregate special fields of action for themselves, and these places
figure today as the outer planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. It can
therefore be said that overall matter, which contained sun and moon,
comprised Saturn, Jupiter and so forth as well; and certain beings
withdrew from the beginning with these heavenly bodies, beings
requiring for their life precisely what these planets could offer . . . So the
separation of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars occurred before the division of
sun and earth, while later Venus and Mercury split off from the sun, and
finally the moon from the earth. (The Gospel of St. John and Its Relation
to the Other Gospels, 1982, pp. 71-72)

Steiner often includes the sun and our moon in the general use of the
term planets, and he also often includes the planets (but not moons) in
his general use of the word star. Some principal influences of sun and
moon were clearly described on 26 Aug. 1909:

. . . These forms have all developed as a result of the influence of the

Sun and Moon from without, and this was the purpose of the withdrawal
of these two bodies. The influence which worked upon the Earth from the
Sun and the Moon charmed from it, as it were, everything that has since
arisen upon it and all that surrounds us today. The outer forms of the
minerals, the plants, the animals and of physical man have all been
produced by the beings which work from the Sun; whereas the beings
which work from the Moon have stimulated the soul life of men and
animals. This is an approximate and broad sketch of evolution from the
so-called Lemurian epoch into that of Atlantis. It was during the
Atlantean epoch that, very slowly and gradually, the Earth began to wear
an appearance more or less similar to that which we see around us to-
day. (The East in the Light of the West, 1986, pp. 66)

However, we shall see that a progressive emancipation from the direct

influences of the planets (including our sun and moon) has occurred
throughout evolution, as exemplified by the moon on 9 Dec. 1909: Thus
man frees himself inwardly by making the external rhythm into an inner
one. He has long since freed himself from the rhythm which connected
his inner being with the moon. Hence we have emphasised that man lives
through the phases of the moon inwardly, but these experiences are not
caused by the moon in the sky. The course of the moon shows a similar
rhythm because man has retained the rhythm inwardly, though
outwardly he has made himself free and independent of it.

We are led in this way to regard the earth as a living being, but since it
shows us only its physical body, with no evident signs of life or feeling or
knowledge, its condition is nearer to that of the moon. Now we can
understand why it is wrong, even taking only the external facts, to speak
of a direct influence of the moon on the tides, and why we can say only
that the ebb and flow of the tides corresponds to the phases of the moon.
The tides, as well as the course of the moon are caused by deeper
spiritual forces in the living earth. (Metamorphosis of the Soul; Paths of
Experience, Vol. I, 1983, pp. 145-151)

From the 3rd - 14th Apr. 1912, Dr. Steiner gave extensive descriptions of
celestial phenomena, including the following clear picture of the nature
of the planets:
What I am saying is not mere theoretical idea or fancy, the fact actually
is that matter, not coarse physical matter but fine etheric matter, fills the
space within the orbit of Saturn in its lenticular, flattened ball-like form,
as drawn here. It is just as much a fact that a second smaller space for
Jupiter is filled with a different etheric substance which permeates the
first; so that there is simple etheric substance only between the two
orbits; within the two etheric substances permeate one another.

The spiritual beings which we call the Spirits of Form work as forces
within the etheric substance I have just mentioned; but they all have a
common centre, and this is none other than the Sun . . . That means
that the Spirits of Form corresponding to our planets, comprise, as it
were, a synod or council of Spirits, having its seat in the Sun, and from
there sets boundaries to certain masses of ether, so that what we call
occult Saturn, occult Jupiter, come into being.

But within the cosmos are certain spiritual beings corresponding to the
Spirits of Form, but who, as it were, are rebels against those of their own
class . . .

At an outermost point of this etheric globe, in opposition to the Spirit of

Form working from the centre of the Sun works the rebel, the Luciferic
Spirit of Form . . . and at a point through the combined working of the
forces working inwards from cosmic space, and those others working
outwards from the Sun, there occurs an `inturning', which finally
becomes detached, and that is the physical planet Saturn. Thus we have
to imagine that where our physical eyes see the planet Saturn, there are
two forces working together; . . . This produces an `inturned' structure;
the ether is notched and this notch appears to the physical eye as the
physical planet Saturn. Just the same occurs with the physical Jupiter,
and with the physical Mars.

The Spirits of Form working from the Sun extended the etheric
substance to a certain distance; there worked the abnormal Spirits of
Form in opposition, and caved the substance in, so that in reality a
hollow was made in the etheric substance . . . Our Earth itself, in so far
as it is an accumulation of matter, is a hollow in cosmic space,
something bored into cosmic space . . . In a physical sense matter only
exists when spiritual forms are broken up. Thus the planets out there
are also broken-up forms. (The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies
and the Kingdoms of Nature, 1951, pp. 95-104)

We must see the interpenetrating, lens-shaped etheric bodies of the

planets as the means by which their active influences permeate the
earth, and add this to the remembered' or internalized influences
mentioned earlier. The physical planets are to be seen as hands of the
cosmic clock, not causing the influences but indicating them. The
intimate way the relationships between the planets and the zodiac
differentiated the animal and plant worlds (called forth by the sun as
noted above) was then described.

Occult vision shows us that the cause of the varieties of the animal
species does not simply originate on the earth; rather does the animal
species receive its forms from cosmic space, and indeed the forces which
produce the one species come from a different part of cosmic space from
that whence come the forces which produce another. The forces which
construct the various animal-forms stream down upon our earth planet
from the other planets of our planetary system . . . Once upon a time, in
far distant ages, there were only seven principal animal forms; but these
seven forms were very mobile, determinable, so soft and plastic in their
formation that they could easily be transformed; . . .

The whole of cosmic space is filled with spiritual beings of the different
hierarchies working in different ways from various directions on to the
earth. And men were also aware that from certain points specially precise
and definite forces worked down from cosmic space, which were of quite
particular importance to the earth . . . Men did not then speak without
reason of the Zodiac or Animal Circle; they knew why it was so called. In
the heavenly spaces the case is as follows: The forces which worked
down from the planet Mars, for instance and brought about in the still
plastic substance, one of the seven principal forms, worked in a different
way according to whether Mars stood before one sign of the Zodiac or
before another . . . In this way the seven different forms were modified. . .
. you can see that there are a very great number of possibilities. (The
Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of Nature,
1951, pp. 159-161)

Certain plants are allotted to the forces of the Spirits of Motion who
work from Mars, others to those who are on Venus, others to those on
Mercury. They work in from their planet and according as they work in
from one or the other, they impart to the plant the movement expressed
in the coil of their leaves; it is the same movement which the
corresponding planet makes; the absolute movement it makes in the
heavens.

Thus we have to compose the whole plant out of that which grows
toward the sun or toward the centre of the earth and that which winds
itself round and copies in the stipules the movements of the planets.
(The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of
Nature, 1951, pp. 170-172)
And similar influences, at formative stages, apply to the mineral
kingdom: Now through the co-operation of what comes from the planets
for the minerals, what comes from the sun, and what streams in from
the universe from the various directions arises the possibility that not
only those basic types already mentioned come into existence in the
mineral kingdom, but all sorts of other forms, all sorts of differently
modified substances of the mineral kingdom been formed.(The Spiritual
Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of Nature, 1951, pg.
198)

Considerably later, on 26 Mar. 1920, Steiner gave a clear picture of this

formative influence of the planets on metals: . . . Suppose that a planet
in extra-terrestrial space is in an especially favourable position for
working on a certain portion of our sphere. Assume Saturn to be the
planet in question and that Saturn can best exercise its full influence
when the direction of other planetary influences strike the earth as far
away as possible from its own, and do not mingle with nor deflect them;
i.e., when Sun, Mars and other bodies are not in or near a line from
Saturn to the earth. Then the Saturn force impinges directly on our
planet. And if conditions are favourable in the portion of the earth
directly under Saturn's influence, that unmixed and undeflected
Saturnian influence causes a structure to be formed there, differing from
that due to the action of Mars under similar conditions.

Earth's substances are the combined result of forces from the stars. In
the case cited as illustration, the effect of such action is shown in the
production of lead . . . (Spiritual Science and Medicine, 1989, pp. 90-
92)

The next day, the fact that the outer and inner planets exert certain
influences in basically different ways was pointed out: . . . The earth has
its own lunar principal working outwards from within. Physical
manifestations such as the tides are not essentially telluric, but lunar;
nevertheless they are not directly due to lunar influence (as recent
theories claim), but to the lunar principle in the earth itself. There is an
apparent correspondence between these effects and the moon, but there
is, at least generally, no immediate connection in time. So when we trace
the influence of the inner planets, we must look for their counter-image
in the earth itself, so that the physical effect, the effect upon the
physical, comes via the earth. And on the other hand, to the outer
planets must be ascribed effects in the realm of soul and spirit.
(Spiritual Science and Medicine, 1989, pp. 103-106)

Prior to his description of the three planes of the zodiac (given in Part I of
this essay), Steiner described the three planes related to the sun, on 9
Apr. 1920:
If, however, we learn to describe Thinking, Feeling and Willing
concretely in these three planes, and to place ourselves thus in space as
psychic-spiritual beings, with our Thinking, Feeling and Willing - then
just as we learn to apply to Astronomy three dimensions of space, so do
we learn to apply to Astronomy the threefold division of man as a being
of soul and spirit. And it becomes possible if we have here Saturn,
Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury and lastly Earth, then it becomes
possible, if we look at the Sun, to observe it in its outer manifestation as
something separating, as a dividing element . . . So too I shall no longer
say of Mars and Mercury that the one is at such a distance and the other
at such a distance from the Sun, but I shall know that if I regard the Sun
as dividing partition, Mars being above must be of one nature and
Mercury below of another.

I shall now be able to place a similar plane perpendicularly through the

Sun . . . But if I study cosmic space concretely, as I must my own being
as a man, it is not a matter of indifference whether a planet is at one
time on the left and at another time on the right . . .

In the same way I make a third plane, and must again form a judgement
in accordance with that. And if I extend my knowledge of Man to the
Universe, I shall be obliged, as I connected the one plane with human
Thinking, and the second plane with human Feeling, to consider the
third plane as connected with human Will. (Man - Hieroglyph of the
Universe, 1972, pp. 14-19)

A month later, on 9 May, the differentiation of celestial influences was

further elaborated:

I described yesterday that we have on the one side the astronomy that
applies to the Sun - and also to the Earth. We ourselves are part of that
astronomy, for we are organised into it as organisms containing solid
substances. Lunar astronomy however, is different. We are organised
into lunar astronomy in so far as it is connected with our fluid
constituents. (Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pp. 174-175)

And on 20 Oct. 1923: The Sun maintains its power through the fact
that it comes into connection with the different regions of the universe.
Human perception of these connections has resulted in relating the
Sun's activities with what is known as the Zodiac, so that when sunlight
reaches the earth from Leo, from Libra or from Scorpio, this always
means something different. It also means something different for the
earth if the Sun's light is strengthened or weakened by the other planets
of our planetary system. And here different relationships arise in regard
to the different planets; the relationships to the `outer planets' - Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn - are different from those to the `inner planets', -
Mercury, Venus and Moon. (Man as Symphony of the Creative Word,
1991, pp. 28-31)

The last two extracts in this essay were given one month apart, on 9 Aug.
and 9 Sept. 1924, respectively.

It is quite correct to say that one planet has a particularly strong

influence upon one part of the earth, another planet on another part
So we find that each of the planets works particularly strongly upon
some specific part of the earth. They radiate their light from the various
places where they stand in the heavens. The light of Venus, for instance,
works quite differently upon the earth from the light of Mercury. This is
connected with the different formations of mountains, of rocks. (The
Evolution of the Earth and Man, 1987, pp. 145-148)

The sun has the most powerful influence of all. But it exerts its
greatest influence upon everything on the earth that is dead, that must
be called to new life every year - while the moon influences only what is
living The other planets have their influence upon what is of the nature
of soul and spirit

So the planets exercise their influence upon the more delicate conditions
of growth and of life. Hence we can say: When, like all the planets, Mars
comes near the earth, we must not attach primary importance to this
outer nearness. What is of far greater importance is how things in the
universe are connected with the finer, more delicate states and
conditions of life. (The Evolution of Earth and Man, 1987, pp. 155-164)

Here we have, as with the zodiac, a primary rationale from which to

consider planetary influences being effective on the earth - in earth's
primordial state all planets intermingled forces and substances, and as
separation occurred, remnants remained. Also, at the spiritual etheric
and astral levels, the physical planets become `special events' at the
outer circumference of the actual planets, which are lens-shaped, fill the
inner space bounded by the physical planet's orbit, and interpenetrate
one another and the earth.

It should be noted here that Steiner specifically excludes, again and

again, Uranus and Neptune (and therefor Pluto) from sharing in these
characteristics.

We are also given some general indications of how the physical planets,
as indicators of the spiritual realities, can be seen to have different
qualities according to their orientation in the three planes of the zodiac
and the three planes of the sun, thus lending significance to the idea of
`nodes' as the change from one plane to the other. Apogee and perigee,
on the other hand, seem to be not much thought of. Hints as to separate
astronomies for the `inner' and `outer' planets, the sun, and the moon,
are given; and the point made that each planet has a particular influence
on certain parts of the earth's geography, its flora, fauna and minerals

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

Rudolf Steiner's Identification of the Zodiac

R.S.W.Bobbette
1997

Much has been written and could be said about zodiacs, all referring to
the circle of the stars the sun passes in front of through its yearly
course. The number of different zodiacs applied to this one circle lend a
wonderful confusion to the discussion.

Rudolf Steiner reported a really staggering vision of the past, present and
future importance of this circle of creative beings indicated by the stars,
but I have not found a comprehensive definition of their division into
zodiacal signs in his works I have surveyed so far. On the other hand,
numerous facts he reported do allow a calculation of the zodiac signs he
was talking about. I would like to present the most pertinent of these
facts here in a chronological manner.

The first references to the zodiac I have found are on 26 Sept. 1905,
when Steiner stated that the twelve levels of consciousness were related
to the twelve sign of the zodiac; on 3 Oct., when the direct connection
between cultural epochs and the precession of the equinoxes was listed
such as on 8 Jan. 1918, below; and on 8 Oct. 1905, when he spoke of
the spring equinox entering the constellation of the Ram or Lamb about
800 B.C. and that of the Fishes about 1800 A.D., defining a zodiacal
period as 2,600 years. (These lectures are in Foundations of Esotericism,
1983)

By June 1906, Steiner had revised his zodiacal period to 2,160 years and
indicated consecutive ages of the same span going backward from the
Ram at 800 B.C. through the Bull, the Twins, and the sign Cancer. (in:
An Esoteric Cosmology, 1987) On 25 Aug., Steiner repeated the
approximate dates for the Twins, Bull and Ram. (in: At the Gates of
Spiritual Science, 1970)

The first indication of the eternal scale of the zodiac and of the time-
period governance of all signs came on 22 Apr. 1907; Before the
Lemurian age the sun, moon and earth, united in one body, moved
forward in terms of the zodiac. Time was measured following this
movement. For this reason, the twelve signs of the zodiac are
characterized as the heavenly clock and drawn as such.

A planet alternates between pralaya, a cosmic night and manvantara, a

cosmic day, just as we alternately pass through day and night. The
planet passes through the signs of the zodiac during pralaya and
manvantara; for that reason the twelve signs of the zodiac are counted
twice, just as we also count two times twelve to equal twenty-four hours.
The hours symbolize the signs of the zodiac. (Reading the Pictures of the
Apocalypse, 1993, pg. 22) Pralaya is the non-physical, highly spiritual
seed stage of planetary evolution; manvantara the physical and lower
spiritual, roughly speaking!

On 10 Sept. 1908, Steiner refined the entry of the equinox into the sign
of the Ram to ca. 747 B.C..(in: Egyptian Myths and Mysteries, 1972) This
will become a familiar date. On 15 Apr. 1909, he again gave the
beginning of the Bull age as about 3000B.C. and the Ram age about 800
B.C..

Dr. Steiner seldom reported the association of specific stars with zodiac
signs. One of the few instances I have found occurred on 18 Dec. 1910:
Take, for instance, the seven holy Rishis. The symbol of the Initiation
into the Sun-Mysteries is the picture of the sun in Taurus. When the Sun
stands in the sign of Taurus the spectacle in the firmament reveals the
mystery of the particular Initiation of the Rishis. This Initiation took
effect through the seven personalities who were the seven holy Rishis.
This is also expressed in the fact that the Pleiades, a cluster of seven
stars, shine from the same region of the heavens. That is, moreover, the
region where the whole solar system entered into the Universe to which
we belong. (Background to the Gospel of St. Mark, 1968, pp. 206-211)

On 19 Jan. 1915, Steiner stated emphatically, . . . the time interval

needed for the sun to progress from one constellation in the zodiac to the
next is approximately 2,160 years, and this is important. (The Destinies
of Individuals and of Nations, 1987, pg. 70)

Steiner reported on 17 Sept. 1916, that the fourth post-Atlantean age

began about 747 B.C. and ended about 1413 A.D., and that the fifth
post-Atlantean age will continue for 2,160 years after 1413 A.D.. This
thought was reinforced on 15 Jan. 1917: This ecclesiastical element of
cultus and hierarchy, which was a transformation of ancient Rome into
the Roman Catholicism which streamed into Europe, is one of the
impulses which continue to work like retarded impulses throughout the
whole fifth post post-Atlantean period, but especially in its first third.
You could, I might add, work out how long this is going to last. You know
that one post-Atlantean period lasts approximately 2,160 years. One
third of this is 720 years. So starting with the year 1415, this takes the
main period to the year 2135. (The Karma of Untruthfulness, Vol. II,
1992, pg. 114)

On 28 Jan., he explained: You know that the position of the sun on the
ecliptic at the spring equinox moves forward in the Zodiac. You know
that this point has been designated, ever since mankind began to think,
according to its position in the Zodiac. So from about the eighth century
before the Mystery of Golgotha until about the fifteenth century after the
Mystery of Golgotha, the sun of the spring equinox rose in the sign of the
Ram, though not always at exactly the same spot. During this time the
sun traversed the sign of the Ram. Since then, the sun of the spring
equinox has been rising in the sign of the Fishes. (The Karma of
Untruthfulness, Vol. I, pg. 178)

Steiner again referred to the vernal sun on 13 Feb. 1917: We know that
now the sun rises in Pisces. Up to the fifteenth century it rose in Aries . .
. (Cosmic and Human Metamorphosis, 1989, pp. 16-17)

On 13 Mar. 1917, Steiner threw some illumination on his lack of

reference to the connect-the-dot star patterns normally identified as the
zodiac. Referring to ancient man at the time of atavistic clairvoyance,
Steiner said: [Man] did not actually see the physical stars with external
eyes; but he saw the spiritual part of the physical stars. Hence we must
not look upon what is related of the ancient star-worship as though the
ancients looked up to the stars and made all sorts of beautiful symbols
and images. (Cosmic and Human Metamorphosis, 1989, pp. 60-61)

On 18 Sept. 1917 the time span of the Graeco-Latin epoch was given as
747 B.C. to 1413 A.D.

On 5 Jan. 1918, Steiner said of the initiates of the Osiris myth, They
meant to say the old life in the Imagination vanished when the setting
sun in Autumn stood in seventeen degrees of Scorpio and in the opposite
point of the heavens the full moon rose in Taurus or in the Pleiades.
(Ancient Myths, 1971, pg. 18)
The correspondence between the post-Atlantean cultural epochs and the
precession of the equinoxes is reported in detail on 8 Jan. 1918. The
Ancient Indian epoch is identified with vernal Cancer; Then the sun
entered the sign of Gemini, the Twins, at the Vernal Equinox. And then
as long as the Vernal Equinox continued to be in Gemini, we have to do
with the second post-Atlantean cultural epoch, the original Persian . . .
Then came the third; this was the age when the sun at the Venal
Equinox entered Taurus, the Bull . . .

Then came the Graeco-Latin time, the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. The
sun entered Aries, the Ram, at the Vernal Equinox . . .

But think of the great revolution that now comes with the 15th century
when the Aries culture passes over to the Pisces (Fishes) culture. What
the Pisces forces have become in the macrocosm are the forces in man
connected with the feet. There is a transition from head to feet; the
swing-over is an immense one. (Ancient Myths, 1971, pp. 51-57)

Steiner reported on 11 Jan. 1918, During the 2,160 years that followed
the great Atlantean catastrophe mankind can be said to have been
capable of development in a way quite different from what was possible
later. Two days later he noted, Twelve epochs ago the sun was in the
same position, so that towards the end of the Lemurian age there were
conditions similar to ours. (Ancient Myths, 1971, pp. 63-64 & 112-113)
The latter day also saw him repeat 747B.C. as the beginning of the
Graeco-Latin epoch. The dates for this epoch were again repeated on 11,
13 and 18 Oct.

On 19 Oct. 1918, Rudolf Steiner made this significant point: Considered

as a symptom, the French Revolution is extraordinarily interesting. It
presents - in the form of slogans applied haphazardly and
indiscriminately to the whole human being - that which must gradually
be developed in the course of the epoch of the Consciousness Soul, from
1413 to the year 3573, with all the spiritual resources at man's disposal.
The task of this epoch is to achieve fraternity on the physical plane,
liberty on the psychic plane, and equality on the spiritual plane. (From
Symptom to Reality in Modern History, 1976, pp. 49-50) Again, on 25
Oct., he stated that the epoch of the Consciousness Soul began in 1413,
and on 2 Nov. he said this date was the start of the fifth post-Atlantean
epoch.

In an extensive discussion on 16 Apr. 1920, Steiner pointed to the well

known fact that the sun moves backward (relative to its yearly course)
against the stars at a rate of about one degree every seventy-two years.
He has spoken all along of this movement underlying the sun's passage
through the zodiac, but this is the first specific mention of the detailed
rate that I have found. On 8 May 1920, he reported the duration of the
Graeco-Latin epoch as 747 B.C.-1413 A.D.

On 24 Nov. 1921, the Greek epoch was identified with the sun in Vernal
Aries, after the following comments: The changing position of the Sun in
the zodiacal constellations through the various epochs has been taken as
an indication of the different forces which pour down to man from the
world of the fixed stars. (Self-Consciousness: The Spiritual Human
Being, 1986, pp. 263-267)

The emphatic statement, In 2,160 years the Sun has progressed from
one Zodiacal sign into the next., was made on 29 Aug. 1923. (The
Evolution of the World and of Humanity, 1989, pp. 188-189)

The first specific date of solar movement into zodiac signs I've seen
occurred 1 Dec. 1923. You know that on March 23, the Sun enters the
Sign of the Fishes. I have told you before that the spring equinox is now
in the Sign of the Fishes. The Sun remains in this Sign `til April 20, then
passes into the Sign of the Ram . . . In the beginning of May the full force
of the Ram is working; by the end of the month the Sun is already in the
sign of the Bull. (Beekeeping - Nine Lectures on Bees, 1964, pp. 37-38)
All previous and subsequent quotes available to me show that the dates
and zodiac signs are probably mistranscribed, as does the sense of the
quote itself - the sun entering Pisces March 23 is already after the spring
equinox.

On 20 Jan. 1924, we are back on familiar ground: Now, you can look at
the vernal point of the zodiac, where the sun rises every spring. This
point is not stationary; it is advancing. In the Egyptian epoch, for
example, it was in the constellation of Taurus. It has advanced through
Taurus and Aries and is today in the constellation of Pisces; and it is still
advancing.. (Anthroposophy and the Inner Life, 1994, pg. 29)

The last two references I have found include a description of the Platonic
year on 17 Sept. 1924, and the following definite statement on 9 Sept.
1924: If in the present epoch we look at the point in the heavens where
the sun rises on the twenty-first of March, we find behind the sun the
constellation of the Fishes (Pisces). The Sun has been rising in this
particular constellation for hundreds of years, but always at a different
point. Going back a few centuries we find that the point at which the sun
rose in spring was still in the same constellation, but if we go back as far
as the year 1200A.D., we find that the sun rose in the constellation of the
Ram (Aries). (The Evolution of the Earth and Man, 1987, pp. 155-164)

This concludes my survey of Dr. Steiner's evidence. It is clear that he

does not relate the zodiac signs to any connect-the-dot patterns of stars.
 The zodiac signs represent relatively equal periods governed by the forces
of twelve different choruses of spiritual beings behind the stars. These
beings exist and continue to work beyond the physical existence of the
planet and solar system itself. Their forces are mediated by the sun, both
in the yearly passage through the seasons and in the Platonic year of the
precession of the equinox, through 12 times 2,160 or 25,920 years.

The spring equinox is the great definer of the ages, and from the oft-
repeated dates given by Steiner, we can calculate the approximate dates
when the sun passes from one sign to another, throughout the year.

If we accept that the vernal equinox entered Pisces about 1413 A.D., then
it has moved at a rate of about one degree (day) every seventy-two years
for 584 years; slightly more than eight days past March 21. In its yearly
round the sun now leaves Pisces about Mar. 29. If we take these dates as
the midpoints of three-day gray areas or cusps, we can use Steiner's
reported equal zodiacal ages (2,160 divided by 72 equals 30 days
movement in precession) and extrapolate the following calendar for
Steiner's zodiac signs:

Aries, beginning March 29

Taurus, April 29

Gemini, May 30

Cancer, June 29

Leo, July 29

Virgo, August 29

Libra, September 28

Scorpio, October 28

Sagittarius, November 28

Capricorn, December 28

Aquarius, January 27

Pisces, February 27

The stars the sun stands in front of during these dates are the zodiacal
signs Dr. Steiner describes as representing beings and forces that
essentially condition the nature of the sun, so that we can think of
`Aries-sun', or `Leo-sun', etc. Readers familiar with any of the popularly
employed zodiac sign definitions will at once notice both dramatic and
subtle differences. However, we can only test the many facts Steiner gave
regarding the zodiac if we know, from his own work collected and
correlated, what zodiac he was talking about.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

Rudolf Steiner's Identification of Mercury and Venus

R.S.W.Bobbette
1996
Rev. 1999

The first mentions of Mercury that I have found in Rudolf Steiner's

lectures I've had access to, are on 1 and 28 Oct. 1905, in June 1906 and
on 30 Aug. 1906. Mercury and Venus are mentioned 13 Sept. 1907 and
on 8 Jan. & 15 Feb. 1908. There is nothing in these early lectures to
suggest that there may be some question as to Steiner's identification of
these planets discussed, and those of the night sky; but that situation
rather quickly changed. Indeed, we find ourselves facing the following
question that needs to be accurately answered: When Dr. Steiner
described beings, qualities and relationships of Mercury and Venus, did
he make it clear which astronomical body he was referring to?

Dr. Steiner himself indicated the method by which this (and other)
questions may be answered when he said, referring to his own work: It
is very necessary to gather together carefully the items of concrete
knowledge that have been given and to correlate them. (The Occult
Movement in the 19th Century, 1973, pp. 130-131) This is a huge task
and I would appreciate any additions to what follows.

The famous unveiling of the open secret of the Copernican reversal of

Mercury and Venus occurred in one short paragraph of an Apocalypse
lecture cycle (20 June 1908), which otherwise contained no direct
astrological or astronomical references: Here I come to a point where a
little secret, so to say, must be unveiled, one which may only be divulged
at this point. In truth if we wish to speak esoterically, as the writer of the
apocalypse has done, we must speak of Mercury as the morning star. By
the morning star he meant Mercury: I have given the direction towards
thine `I', to the morning star, to Mercury. - You may still find in certain
books of the Middle ages, which describe the true state of affairs, that the
stars of our planetary system are enumerated thus: Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, and then Earth is followed not as it is now by Venus, Mercury, but
by the reverse, Mercury, Venus. (The Apocalypse of St. John, 1943, pg.
71). This reversal was emphatically, but incidentally, repeated on 5
September, 1908, viz.: Here I would like to add one thing, because
misunderstandings have crept into the naming of the planets. In all
occult nomenclature, what astronomers call Venus is called Mercury,
and vice versa. Astronomers know nothing of the mysteries behind this,
because in the past it was not desired that the esoteric names should be
revealed. This happened in order to conceal certain things. (Egyptian
Myths and Mysteries, 1971, pp. 41-42).

The first scientifically important use of this reversal (in works available to
me) occurs in April 1909 in the cycle called The Spiritual Hierarchies and
Their Reflection in the Physical World (1970). The use of the planetary
pattern of Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun,,, etc. by the mysteries of the
ancient Greeks is presented by page 10. But consider the situation that
arose. Within the sanctuaries of knowledge one could speak of spiritual
beings who surround the cosmic bodies. Outside, people came to speak
more in terms of physical matter as sense perception became
increasingly sharper. When the Holy Rishis uttered the word Mercury -
they never actually used this word, but let us use it to make ourselves
clear - did they mean the physical orb in the cosmos? No, not even the
ancient Greeks, when speaking of Mercury implied the physical planet
but rather the totality of spiritual beings inhabiting it. When the word
Mercury was spoken in the sanctuaries of knowledge, it referred to
supersensible worlds, to spiritual beings. When the pupils in these
sanctuaries pronounce Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn in their respective languages, they were referring to a sequence of
spiritual beings. Today, these words refer to the coarsest physical
substance of the planets, and the most important part is thereby
omitted.

On pages 74, 76 and 83, three diagrams showing the integration of the
physical Copernican system with the astral-etheric Ptolemaic system all
depict Mercury as the planet closest to the Earth and Venus closest to
the Sun. The thought-provoking and careful discussion includes this
statement: You must picture the earth as the starting point and around
it a sphere of influence reaching up to the moon. This is followed by a
realm reaching up to Mercury, then one to Venus, and then one up to
the sun. Now you may be astonished at the sequence of the planets as I
have given it here. You might think that if this is the earth and this is the
sun, that I should draw Mercury in the immediate vicinity of the sun,
and then Venus. But that is not correct. The names of these two planets
have been interchanged by a later astronomy. What is called Mercury
today was known in ancient teachings as Venus, and the planet referred
to as Venus nowadays was always known as Mercury. We cannot rightly
understand what is said about Venus and Mercury in ancient writings if
we assume them to refer to the present planets of these names. At the
time when the world system was turned topsy-turvy, when the earth was
robbed of its central position, not only the perspective was completely
altered, but the opportunity was taken of interchanging the names of
Mercury and Venus. (pg. 75). Throughout the many pages of details in
these lectures, Rudolf Steiner is clearly using the terms Mercury and
Venus in accord with his diagrams and the reported fact of the reversal.

My next reference is in the 1910 cycle available as Macrocosm and

Microcosm (1961). Referring to the application of the many facts he is
presenting, Steiner says, The moon revolves around the Earth and the
planets usually called Mercury and Venus are nearer to the Sun and
revolve around it. I emphasize here that in the course of time a change
has taken place in the names of these two planets. The planet that is
called Mercury to-day was formerly Venus, and the planet called Venus
today was formerly called Mercury. Therefore you should think of these
designations reversed, so that they do not correspond with current
astronomical designations. The planet lying nearer the Sun must be
known as Venus and the planet lying farther away from the Sun must be
known as Mercury. (pp. 35-44). Slightly later (12 June 1910), the use of
the `Ptolemaic' Venus and Mercury pattern is listed without comment.

Discussions of Mercury and Venus on 3 September 1910 and 28 March

1911 are not decisively identified and must be considered in the context
of preceding and following lectures.

The next quite important scientific reference occurred in Apr. 1912 (The
Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of Nature,
1951). Here many important general facts about the planets are given,
but when the time comes to be specific we are again reminded of the
misapplication of the astronomical names. (Thus these normally
developed Spirits of Motion so work down from the planets that they
succeed one another in the process of human evolution, and reveal
themselves in the great civilization impulses in the evolution of the earth
which reach out beyond the sphere of the Spirits of the Age. Thus, for
example, from that Spirit of Motion who worked down from the planet
which present-day astronomy calls Venus, and which ancient astronomy
called Mercury (for these two names have been exchanged), from that
Spirit of Motion came originally the impulse of the civilisation which was
expressed in Buddhism. pg. 168). Indeed, here Steiner relates a most
telling fact: If we observe the planet Saturn in our system we find that
the life stream which permeates the earth directly from him is connected
with the substance we call lead: so we have a basic substance which is
inwardly animated by Saturn. From Jupiter we get tin as the main
substance; from Mars, iron; and in the occult sense, from Venus, copper.
With regard to Mercury we must take into consideration that he was later
confused with Venus. The life activity (in the sense of true occult
nomenclature) produced creatively by Mercury, on account of its greater
proximity when it penetrated the earth-organism, bears a still greater
resemblance to the planet itself, for Mercury stands nearer the earth
than the other planets. Therefor the substance has been given the same
name as the cosmic body itself, namely, mercury or quick-silver. (pp.
185-191).

On 11 June, 1912, specific use is made of the astronomical Venus which

by now we know refers to traditional, Ptolemaic Mercury: . . . employing
therefor in this case not the old terminology which was altered by Kepler,
but the names that are customary in the astronomy of today . . . (Man
in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy, 1989, pp. 173-176)
On 3 Nov. 1912, the use of the Ptolemaic (occult) Venus is again specified
to be the astronomical Mercury, and on 18 Nov. 1912, the Ptolemaic
pattern is used unqualified, as on 15 & 22 Dec. of that year. In the
lecture cycle Ancient Myths (1971), on 8 Jan. 1918, Steiner uses the
Ptolemaic sequence to specify planet-Zodiac sign relationships (pp. 51-
57).

The next unqualified use of the Ptolemaic sequence I have found is 26 &
27 Mar., 1920, (firstly; There are not only these two elements in co-
operation. Marshalled against them are the influences from the Moon
and the so-called inferior planets, Mercury and Venus. The Moon,
Mercury and Venus cause the earthward, downward tendency in the
plant. pp. 83-85. And secondly; The study of metals in particular, on
the lines indicated, leads to concrete relationships, so that we must
ascribe their formations as follows. Lead results from the unimpeded
action of Saturn, tin from that of Jupiter, iron from Mars, copper from
Venus, and what is now termed quicksilver from Mercury. pp. 90-92.).
On 8 Apr. both sequences are included in one paragraph, and in future
lectures we see that when discussing the inner planets collectively
Steiner does not give meaning to their order. These are in the significant
cycle Spiritual Science and Medicine, (1989).

The next day, Steiner's discussion again is given a Ptolemaic context:

And it becomes possible if we have here Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun,
Venus, Mercury and lastly Earth, then it becomes possible, if we look at
the Sun, to observe it in its outer manifestation as something separating,
as a dividing element.(Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pp. 14-
17), while on 2 May, Mercury and Venus are discussed as a group in no
particular order. On 5 May, 1921, there is an inconclusive use of the
Ptolemaic pattern. Someone might want to make a case for confusion out
of a subsequent, unqualified astronomical listing, but this would have to
ignore an introductory discussion that common sense says indicates
Ptolemaic usage: Just as this ancient astronomy was subsequently
obscured after the fourth century and physical astronomy took the place
of the old etheric astronomy in the fifteenth century . . . (Materialism
and the Task of Anthroposophy, 1987, pp. 54-58)

A lecture on 12 Nov. 1922 shows an explicit Ptolemaic usage of Mercury

and Venus: the soul descending to the earth through first the Venus and
then the Mercury spheres.

On 26 Nov. and 3 Dec, 1922, unqualified astronomical sequences are

given when Mercury Venus and Moon are discussed as a group, and on
10 Feb. 1923 a detailed description and illustration of the Copernican
system is given before a discussion focused on planetary-medical
relationships. However, this Copernican discussion does not revise
previous Ptolemaic meanings but prefaces the statement: ..and it was
only twenty-five to thirty-five hundred years ago that people looked upon
the planets in a completely different scientific way. (Health and Illness,
Vol. II, 1983, pg. 153)

On 27 July & 28 August, 1923, the Ptolemaic usage of Mercury and

Venus is explicit in an elaborated and clearly intended pattern, while on
20 Oct. 1923 the Copernican system is used in a clearly qualified way.
The statement, I'm drawing this in the sequence customary today in
astronomy; I could also draw it differently., does not indicate any
abandoning of what has been previously so forcefully stated and
consistently applied. (Man as Symphony of the Creative Word, pp. 28-31)

Now we come to the June 1924 Agriculture Course (1974) On pages 22-
27 Rudolf Steiner explicitly employs the Ptolemaic usage: . . . they had
this sequence: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
Without astronomical explanations I will now speak of planetary life . . .
. The juggling around of Moon, Venus and Mercury sequences in what
follows only shows that for his purpose here the actual pattern is not
important. For the significant listing of the pattern of planetary
influences relating to animal structure, the Ptolemaic sequence is used
(The animal organism lives in the whole complex of Nature's household.
In form and colour and configuration, and in the structure and
consistency of its substance from the front to the hinder parts, it is
related to these influences. From the snout towards the heart, the
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars influences are at work; in the heart itself the
Sun, and behind the heart, towards the tail, the Venus, Mercury and
Moon influences. pp. 35-41), while for the famous mouse-skin Venus in
Scorpio specification he clearly specifies the Copernican usage.

The last references available to me include 16 Aug. 1924, when Steiner

explicitly uses the Ptolemaic pattern to describe planetary influences on
the seven-year cycles of human development. And in September 1924
astronomical Venus is named in an explanation of the influence of the
morning and evening star during and after its transit of the sun every
hundred years or so. (The Evolution of the Earth and Man, 1987, pp.
178-182)

This survey is necessarily incomplete, but it does represent a careful

review of about 150 of Dr. Steiner's lecture cycles and books available in
English. I have tried not to quote carelessly or out of context, but
thoroughly and in a manner open to scrutiny. To act as an authority and
dictate a point of view is not in keeping with the task of the age of the
Consciousness Soul, which began when the spring equinox entered
Pisces in 1413 and will end when it enters Aquarius in 3573. This age
requires the mere enumeration of facts, allowing individuals to reach
their own conclusions. This is a foundation stone of Steiner's work, and
any judgments of mine that have crept in are from the requirements of
common sense and accurate context in so brief a review.

It does seem to me, though, that areas of doubt are so few and
susceptible to context, and areas of certainty so many, that we should be
able to go forward and build a picture of what Dr. Steiner observes of
these inner planets, confident we know which object in our night sky he
is talking about.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

Rudolf Steiner's Exclusion of Uranus and Neptune

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

Over several years of observing modern astronomy and astrology, the

outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had come to point to the
presumptuous for me. In astronomy, the calculated orbits of these
planets - never before documented by man - are presented as if equally
well known as long documented orbits, for example. In astrology, these
planets never indicated by the ancients are dressed up as equal partners
in the mythical astrological properties of the long known planets.

It was hard to get much beyond this feeling of the presumptuous, and
the logical consequence that these planets would not turn out to be as so
many people want to think. Then gradually through a larger survey, it
became clear that Dr. Steiner, in his spiritual research, explicitly
excludes Uranus and Neptune from the level of influence the other
planets have through being co-participants in solar system evolution.

I'd like to present the evidence of Dr. Steiner's point of view, in

chronological order.

13 Sept. 1907

Our present Saturn received its name in ancient times when the wise
ones could still give meaningful names to things. It was given its name
out of its very nature. Today, this is no longer done. Uranus, for example,
does not have such a justified name since it was discovered later.
(Occult Signs and Symbols, 1972, pp. 9-12)

15 Feb. 1908

Thus there were beings at the very beginning of our Earth who were
scarcely fitted to take part in further development, who were still so
young in their whole evolution that any further step would have
destroyed them. They had to receive a sphere of action, so to speak, on
which they could preserve their complete youthfulness. This scene of
action was the cosmic body which we call Uranus, and which therefor
has but slight connection with earthly existence. Uranus has become the
theatre for beings which had to remain at a very backward stage.

Then evolution proceeded. Apart from Uranus, all that forms our
universe was contained in an original pap-like mass.

18 Apr. 1909

. . . As Jupiter contracted, the beings who withdrew pressed together

something that has nothing to do with our evolution; it was essentially
related to the withdrawing beings. Thus, first Uranus was formed and
later, during Mars evolution, Neptune arose. The names Uranus and
Neptune were not appropriately chosen as had formerly been the case,
though some meaning remains in the name Uranus. It was given at a
time when an inkling of giving the right name still survived; everything
beyond our own planetary system was given the collective name Uranus.
Thus we see that the two planets, which our modern astronomy sets on
a par with the other planets, have in fact quite another origin and have
fundamentally nothing to do with our universe. They represent worlds
that came about because beings, who still had something to do with us
during ancient Saturn, withdrew and took up their dwelling outside our
world. Many other facts can be deduced from this, for instance, that
these planets have retrograding moons, and so forth. (The Spiritual
Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Physical World., 1970, pg. 126)

3 - 14 Apr. 1912

Let us take, for example, the planet which for a long period of time, has
been reckoned as the outermost one in our system; Uranus and Neptune
were added later, as we shall see; but to begin with we shall consider
Saturn as the outermost. (The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies
and the Kingdoms of Nature, 1951, pp. 95-104)

. . . It is to be noted that the two outermost planets now reckoned as

belonging to our system by physical astronomy - Uranus and Neptune -
did not originally belong to our Solar System; they came much later into
the sphere of attraction of our system: they then joined company and
remained with it. They cannot therefor be reckoned in the same sense as
the other planets as belonging to our system from Saturn onwards, for
they, so to speak, belonged to it from the beginning. (The Spiritual
Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of Nature, 1951, pg.
200)

30 July 1916

Then we consider yet another planet, one not known to the ancient
Hebrews, They were, however, aware of its sphere, which they thought of
as beyond the planets; they thought of it as the crystal sphere that
formed the vault of the heavens. Much later it was discovered that one
could speak of Uranus as being there. But we can consider Uranus, even
though it was discovered much later. The only difference is that the
ancient Hebrews thought of a sphere in the place where Uranus was later
located . . . (The Riddle of Humanity, 1990, pp. 18-23)

13 Mar. 1917

Now the ancients rightly considered Saturn the most distant planet from
our solar system; it is the farthest away. From the standpoint of
materialistic astronomy it is quite justified to add Uranus and Neptune to
our system; but they have a different origin and do not belong to the
solar system; so that we may speak of Saturn as the outermost planet of
our system. (Cosmic and Human Metamorphosis, 1989, pp. 65-69)
26 Mar. 1920

It is time today that the whole Copernican system was re-examined and
superseded by another. The so-called outer planets are Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn. (Uranus and Neptune are only members of the solar system
in an astronomical sense; they do not really belong to it by origin; they
are foreign bodies that have become attracted and attached to our
system. They are guests, invited to our planetary system, and we are
right to omit them.) (Spiritual Science and Medicine, 1989, pp. 83-85)

2 May 1920

Thus we may say that if we regard Saturn as the outermost planet (the
other two, Uranus and Neptune, regarded today as of equal standing
with Saturn, are really fugitives that have wandered in) . . . (Man -
Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pp. 151-156)

26 Nov. 1922

They appear to us in such a way that between death and rebirth we look
back in gratitude to the outermost planet of our earthly planetary system
(for Uranus and Neptune are not Earth planets; they were added at a
later stage). (Man and the World of Stars, 1963, pp. 10-13)

The `outer planets' seem to need to be put in their place, and this done
by watchfulness and lack of preconceived ideas. At least in terms of
exclusion, Pluto is certainly part of this group. And people who rush to
give occult symbols and meanings to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
probably tell us more about themselves than these - distant - visitors.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

The Cosmic Feminine:

Steiner's View of Cometary Life

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

Comets, as noted by astronomers themselves, are a bewilderingly

disparate group of objects. Comets have very long tails, or almost none;
they skim the sun within 300,000 miles (where temperatures vaporize
metals), or approach no closer than the cold space near earth; return
every 3 - 10 years, a few dozen or hundreds, or millions, or never; they
can have beautiful symmetry or are strangely asymmetrical.

Modern scientists are trying to accommodate comets as variations on a

theme - not an easy task despite the fact that everyone knows a comet
when they see one. Dr. Rudolf Steiner, in the course of his clairvoyant
investigations, made regular descriptions of the nature of comets. He was
not a theorist, and no unifying concept is intended. His observations
should be added to those of material science, avoiding modern
extrapolations and theories (itself not an easy task in this domain), and
of course understanding the spiritual basis of his method. For the
purpose of initial surveys of Steiner's facts, I prefer to simply list
pertinent references chronologically.

His first description of comets is of a strictly esoteric character, and given

on 2 Sept. 1906: A comet is an assemblage of Kama, desire-substance,
without the corresponding spiritual substance. The comet gets as far
only as the astral body. The visibility of comets arises from the powerful
friction caused by the astral body passing through etheric substance.
(At the Gates of Spiritual Science, 1970, pg. 146)

In the same year, Steiner predicted the occurrence of cyanides associated

with comets due to their reflection of a previous stage of solar system
evolution, but I have not yet had access to those lectures. The next
reference I have is from 5 Mar. 1910, and includes a reference back to
this prediction, which by then had been spectroscopically demonstrated.
This followed a comparative description of certain aspects of comets and
moon.

Is there perhaps something in our solar system that brings about, as a

kind of mirror-image on earth, the contrast between man and woman?
Yes, this higher polarity can be designated as the contrast between the
cometary and lunar natures, between comets and the moon. Just as the
contrast of sun - earth is reflected in our head and limbs, so in feminine
and masculine is reflected the contrast of comet - moon, (The
Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 1983, pg. 57) Then came the
comment on cyanides noted above, pp. 60-61.

We can also express it this way: as what is done by a woman out of

passion, out of feeling, is related to the dry, reasonable masculine
judgement, so is the regular, reasonable course of the moon related to
the cometary phenomenon that projects apparently irregularly into our
existence. Mark well - I do not mean the spiritual life of a woman but the
feminine spiritual life. There is a difference. The spiritual life of a woman
naturally includes masculine characteristics. (The Reappearance of
Christ in the Etheric, 1983, pp. 62-63)

The comets appear at great intervals of time. Let us ask: when they
appear, is their relation to human evolution as a whole such that they
stimulate, as it were, the feminine principle in human nature? There is,
for example, Halley's Comet, which now again has a certain actuality.
The same could be said of many other comets. Halley's Comet has a quite
definite task, and everything else that it brings with it stands in a
particular connection to this task. Halley's Comet - we are speaking here
of its spiritual aspect - has the task of impressing on human nature its
own special being in such a way that this human nature and essence
take a further step in the development of the I when the comet comes
near the earth. It is that step which leads the I out to concepts on the
physical plane. To begin with, the comet has its special influence on the
two lower members of human nature, on what is masculine and
feminine; there it joins company with the workings of the moon. When
the comet is not there, the workings of the moon are one-sided; the
workings change when the comet is present.

The comet works upon the physical and etheric or life bodies of man in
such a way that they actually create organs, delicate organs that are
suitable for the further development of the I - the I-consciousness as it
has developed especially since the embedding of the Christ impulse in
the earth. Since that time the significance of the comet's appearance is
that the I, as it develops from stage to stage, receives physical and
etheric organs it can use. (The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric,
1983, pp. 64-65)

Every cometary body thus has a definite task. Human spiritual life takes
its course with a certain cosmic regularity, as it were - a bourgeois
regularity one could say . . . In contrast to these events, there are things
that always bring a step forward, that are naturally distributed over
wider spans of time; these events occur under the influence of the
comets. The various comets have here their different tasks, and when a
comet has served its purpose it splinters. Thus we find that from a
certain point of time onward, some comets appear as two and then
splinter. They dissolve when they have completed their tasks. Regularity,
all that belongs to the common round, is connected with the lunar
influence; the entry of an elemental impulse, always incorporating
something new, is connected with the influence of the comets.

As when a new little child is born, so it is when, through the return of a

comet, something quite new is produced. We must remember, however,
that with certain comets the I is always driven more and more into the
physical world, and this is something we must resist. If the influence of
Halley's Comet were to continue, a new appearance of it might bring
about a great enhancement of Buchnerian thought, and that would be a
terrible misfortune. A reappearance of Halley's Comet should therefor
give us warning that it might prove to be an evil guest if we were simply
to give ourselves up to it, if we were not to resist its influence. (The
Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 1983, pp. 66-67)

On the other hand, is it not wonderful that cometary existence takes

hold of the depths of life, including the animal and plant life that is
bound up with human life? Those who pay close enough attention to
such things would observe how there is actually something altogether
different in the blossoming of flowers from what is usually the case. (The
Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 1983, pg. 68)

Slightly later, on 18 Apr. 1910, Steiner discussed these points again,

more briefly and from a slightly different angle: Just as the movements
of the planets circling the sun correspond to the regular events in the
evolution of humanity, so the appearance of a comet corresponds to an
influence that runs counter to the regular events. Rosicrucian research
has demonstrated that every comet exerts a particular influence on
human evolution. The present comet has as its particular influence an
intense impulse towards materialism. Every time Halley's Comet has
appeared, a new impulse toward materialism has taken place. Its
appearance in 1759 corresponded with the epoch in which Voltaireanism
was at its high point. The appearance in 1835 corresponded with the
materialism of Moleschott, Buchner, and others. In the same way, in our
time there will be a new impulse toward materialism, and the outer sign
of this is the appearance of the comet. Those who let themselves be
swayed by its influence will fall into the deepest materialism. (The
Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 1983, pg. 107)

Next month, on 10 May 1910, the 1906 prediction was again referred to:
There is thus a lunar body, the moon, which has gone too far in its
evolution, and such bodies as have remained at an earlier stage of
evolution, namely, the comets . . . A comet brings with it the laws of the
earlier Moon and therefor renews these ancient laws. It also brings with
it the cyanide compounds, as has recently been established by outer
science and has been known for a long time to occult science. Just as
oxygen and carbon compounds are necessary to us on earth, so the
cyanides were essential on the ancient Moon. In 1906 I enlarged on this
in Paris . . . (The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 1983, pg. 113)

From 3-14 Apr. 1912, Dr. Steiner gave extensive descriptions of the solar
system, which included these somewhat dramatic points about comets:
From man himself stream forth continually, erroneous, base, evil
thoughts; these are, as we know, realities, which pass out into the astral
world and continue to exist there; so that the astral sphere of a planet is
filled, not only by the normal substances of its psychic being, but also by
this out-poured substance . . . And in a curious way, the occult vision,
which for a time has had the opportunity of observing cometary life,
shows us that everything of a cometary or meteoric nature is ever
striving to collect round itself all the harmful astral products, and remove
them out of the planetary system.

Occult vision shows us, that, however, as a matter of fact, just about
when the comet disappears from physical sight, it dissolves, and
continues its way through a world not limited to the ordinary three
dimensions of space; it no longer exists in the ordinary world. It actually
disappears on the one side and appears again on the other. Thus, in
short, with the exception of a few comets which really have long-drawn
elliptical orbits, the comets for the most part are so formed that they
come in at the one side and disappear at the other, and when they
reappear they have formed themselves anew. Why? Because as a comet
approaches, it exercises a power of attraction - it is, at first, merely a sort
of spiritual force centre; this centre attracts all the harmful astral
streams, develops them around itself and thus takes on form. In its
journey towards the other side it draws this along with it, until it gets
beyond the region of the planetary system, when it casts it off into
cosmic space. Then the centre of force builds itself again at the other
pole without needing three-dimensional space, once more takes up the
harmful matter and throws it out the other side.

The sphere of the comets extends to the sphere of the Cherubim. We

must therefor first know what is the nature of the Cherubim and
Seraphim, in order to understand the substance and movement of the
comets. (The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms
of Nature, 1951, pp. 121-130)

On 4 Jan. 1921, Steiner began a series of comments on comets as part of

a fairly extensive review of astronomy.

Upon these two thought-pictures, - that the orbital planes of the planets
lie in the proximity of the plane of the Sun's equator and that the orbits
are eccentric ellipses, - Kant, Laplace, and their successors built up the
nebular hypothesis. Follow what emerges from this. At a pinch, and
indeed only at a pinch, it is a way of imagining the origin of the solar
system. But the astronomical system thus constructed contains no
satisfactory explanation of the part played by the cometary bodies. They
always fall out of the theory. This discordance of the comets with the
theories which were formed, as described, in the course of scientific
history, proves that the cometary life somehow rebels against a concept
formed, not from the whole but from a part of the whole. We must be
clear too, that the paths of the comets frequently coincide with those of
other bodies which also play into our system and present a riddle
precisely through their association with the comets. These are the
meteoric swarms, whose paths very frequently - perhaps even always -
coincide with the cometary paths. Here, my dear friends, taking into
account the totality of our system, we are led to say: A sum of ideas has
gradually been formed from the study of our planetary system as a
whole, - ideas with which we cannot do justice to the seemingly irregular
and almost arbitrary paths of the comets and meteoric swarms. They
simply refuse to be included in the more abstract pictures that have been
reached. (The Relation of the Diverse Branches of Natural Science to
Astronomy, undated typescript, pp. IV. 7-8)

And on the 8th Jan.: So for the comets: by spectroscopic investigation

and by comparison with the corresponding results for the planets, the
idea arose that the phenomena might be explained electromagnetically.
Such ideas will at most lead to analogies, which may no doubt have some
connection with reality, but which will certainly not satisfy us if we are
looking into it more deeply.

Yet as I said, leaving this aside, there was one thing which emerged
quite inevitably when the phenomena of comets were studied in more
detail. While for the rest of the planetary system they always speak of
gravitational forces, the peculiar position of the comet's tail in relation to
the Sun inevitably drove the scientists to speak of forces of repulsion
from the Sun - forces, as it were of recoil. The terminology is not the
main point; it will of course vary with the prevailing fashion. The point is
that science was here obliged to look for something in addition to - and
indeed opposite to - gravity.

In effect, with the comets something different enters our planetary

system, - something which in its nature is in a way opposite to the inner
structure of the planetary system as such . . .

. . . Yet in the early 19th century they had statistics purporting to

connect them with good and bad vintage years. These too occur
somewhat irregularly; their sequence does not seem to follow regular
laws of nature. And even Hegel did not quite escape this conclusion. He
thought it plausible that the appearance or non-appearance of comets
should have to do with the good and bad vintage years.

. . . Kepler said: In the great Universe - even the Universe into which we
look by night - there are as many comets as there are fishes in the ocean.
We only see very, very few among them, while all the rest remain invisible
either because they are too small or for some other reason. Even external
research has tended to confirm Kepler's saying. The comets seen were
recorded in olden time and it is possible to compare the number. Since
the invention of the telescope ever so many have been seen than before.
Also when looking out into the starry sky under different conditions of
illumination - that is to say making provision for extreme darkness - a
larger number of comets are recorded than otherwise. Even empirical
research therefor comes near to what Kepler exclaimed, inspired as he
was by a deep feeling for Nature.

Now if one speaks at all of a connection between the Cosmos and what
happens on the Earth, it surely is not right to dwell one-sidedly on the
relation to our Earth of the other planets of our system and to omit
heavenly bodies which come and go as the comets do. It is especially
one-sided since we must now admit that the comets give rise to
phenomena indicating the presence of quite other forces - forces opposite
in kind to those which we usually attribute the cohesion of our planetary
system. The comets do in fact bear something opposite into our system
and if we follow it up we must admit that this too is of great significance.
Something in some way opposite in nature to the force which holds it
together comes with the comets into our planetary system.

One more thing I will say today, if only to formulate the problem; we
shall have time to go into these things in later lectures. Now that we have
ascertained all this about the cometary bodies, let me compare the
relation between our planetary system and the comets to what is there in
the ovum of the female germ-cell, in its relation to the male element, the
fertilizing sperm. Try to imagine, try to visualize the two processes, as
you might actually see them. There is the planetary system; it receives
something new into itself, namely the effects of a comet. There is the
ovum, it receives into itself the fertilizing effect of the male cell, the
spermatic zoid.

Looking at the two phenomena side by side without prejudice, as you

might do in ordinary life when you see two things, obviously comparable,
side by side. Do you not find plenty of comparable features when you
contemplate these two? I do not mean to set up any theory or hypothesis.
I only want to indicate what you will see for yourselves if you once look at
these things in their true connection. (The Relationship of the Diverse
Branches of Natural Science to Astronomy, undated typescript, pp. VIII,
114-19)

Dr. Steiner always emphasized that accurate descriptions of reality from

various perspectives always entailed seeming contradictions - consider
the description of an insect from above, from below, from the front, or
behind! The discordance is only overcome by a view of the whole living
being. At the end of these particular lectures, 18 Jan. 1921, a rather
exceptional perspective on comets was given.
Truth is that in studying cometary phenomena we get into difficulties if
we conceive the cometary body too in the same way we are wont to think
of a planetary body. The planetary body (I refer again to the same
question of principle and method as in an earlier lecture), - the planetary
body you may represent as though it were a self-contained body moving
through on in space. You will not go much against the facts in so
conceiving it. Not so a cometary body. Again and again you will find
yourself in contradiction to the phenomena if you conceive it after the
same pattern as the planetary body. You will never understand the
cometary body, in the way it moves - or seems to move - through cosmic
space, if you regard it as you are accustomed to regard the planetary
bodies.

See what becomes of it on the other hand if you regard it as I shall now
describe. Take all the empirical facts that are available and try to thread
them on this line of thought. Imagine that in this direction - towards the
Sun, as we may say - the comet comes into being at every moment. It is
for ever coming into existence in this direction. It pushes forward its
cometary nucleus, or what appears as such. Behind, it melts away again.
In this way it thrusts forward - for ever coming into being on the one
hand, passing away again on the other. It is not a body in the same
sense that a planet is, - not at all. It is perpetually coming into being and
passing away again - renewed in front, accruing all the time in this
direction; losing the old in its tail. It pushes forward like a mere
effulgence, a mere phenomena of light; but please, I do not say that that
is all it is.

And now remember what we were saying a few days ago. There is not
merely the Moon up there and the Earth here, but every planet has a
certain sphere, and what we see is only a point at the periphery of the
said sphere. The true Moon is the sphere, bounded by the lunar orbit.
We, with the Earth, are in the lunar sphere. So also, in a certain sense,
are we in the Solar Sphere and in the spheres of all the planets. The
planets are not merely what is out there, moving in lemniscates, - what is
at yonder point or yonder at any given moment. The visible point is only
a specialized part of the whole; it is, as I was saying, like the area of
germination in the germinal vesicle of the human embryo.

If you remember this, then you will say to yourselves: Here now I have
the Earth and Sun. In fact, two spheres are interpenetrating, thrusting
into each other, - spheres which are really due to materialities of
opposite tendency and kind. The one comes from the centre of the Sun,
towards which negative matter is tending; the other from the centre of
the Earth, from which positive matter is raying out. Positive and negative
materialities are interpenetrating here. Naturally, the interpenetration
will not everywhere be homogeneous. Not even clouds that move through
one another would interpenetrate homogeneously. It is essentially
inhomogeneous. Imagine how, in this mutual penetration, the different
densities will impinge on one another. Then, in the penetration of the one
substantiality by the other, you have the requisite conditions for such
phenomena as comets to arise. Comets are ever-nascent phenomena,
perpetually coming into being, passing away again; and if we draw our
ideal picture of a planetary system, say the Copernican picture, with the
Sun here and Uranus and Saturn here, we have not to imagine that the
comet is arriving there from some great distance and then making its
departure. Out there - outside the system - we need not to imagine it to
exist at all. It is not there to begin with, but becomes; then, at the
perihelion, changes the gesture of its form, which is in fact ever-
becoming, ever-nascent. Out there at last it melts away again and is no
more. The comet comes into being and passes away; that is its very
nature. Hence it can sometimes have apparent paths that are not closed
at all - parabolic paths or hyperbolic, - for there is nothing moving round
such as would have to move in a closed path. All that there is comes into
being, and may well do so in a parabolic direction and then vanish and
be no more.

Altogether, we must look upon the comet as a fleeting thing. In relation

to Sun and Earth, it is a phenomena of compensation between
ponderable and imponderable matter, - a meeting of the two kinds of
matter, which do not immediately balance-out as when light extends in
air. For in the latter instance too, there is a meeting of the ponderable
and the imponderable; here however they spread continuously,
homogeneously as it were, - do not impinge on one another. Take for
example air, with light of a certain intensity passing through it. The light
spreads homogeneously; but if so be the light does not adapt itself to the
air quickly enough, a kind of inner friction will ensue between the
ponderable and imponderable matter; only I beg you not to understand
this in a mechanical sense but as an inward process. Follow the comet
and its movement. It is a mutual friction of ponderable and imponderable
matter that moves through space. It comes into being at every moment
and passes away again. (The Relation of the Diverse Branches of Natural
Science to Astronomy, undated typescript, pp. XVIII, 9-12 emphasis
Steiner's).

Recall that I had to introduce this essay with the fact that even modern
astronomers consider comets to be bewilderingly disparate, and now
consider what Steiner felt compelled to say about them on 30 Sept. 1922:
Julius Robert Mayer, however, asked this question. He found that every
year a certain number of celestial bodies that are like comets fly into the
sun. You see, those are the food the sun takes in. Even to this day, when
we look up to the sun, we can see that the sun has a healthy appetite; it
consumes a large number of comets every year. Just as we eat and thus
develop energy, so the sun eats comets, so to speak, and thus develops
warmth.

Now, gentlemen, when comets have shattered and fallen down, we find
their hard iron cores. But these are only the parts of the comet that fall
down. We human beings also have iron in our blood . . . Since comets
disintegrate into meteorites, which consist of iron, people say that the
comets themselves are made of iron. But this is the same nonsense as
believing that the human beings consist of iron because they have iron in
their blood and a small lump of iron would be all that's left after they
disintegrate.

So, we find meteorites; they are the remains of shattered comets. But
the comets themselves are something quite different; they are alive! The
sun, too, is alive, has a stomach, and not only consumes comets, but
eats exactly like we do. (The Human Being in Body, Soul and Spirit,
1989, pp. 172-173)

On 7 July 1924, Steiner repeated his point of the evolutionary `youth' of

the comets requiring that they have prussic acid, as the earth did at an
earlier stage (Old Moon). (The Evolution of the Earth and Man, 1987,
pp. 45-46). Later, on the 13th Sept., he repeated the relationship of
comets to the quality of vintage, in company with sunspots. (The
Evolution of the Earth and Man, 1987, pp. 171-173)

Although it is not exactly a description of comets, during the 1921

lectures, while discussing the nature of orbits in a mathematical sense,
Dr. Steiner showed the mathematical basis for understanding his
provocative observation that comets `leave space' and reappear again at
the other side. After showing the progressive transformations of the
mathematical equation called the Curve of Cassini, Steiner sums up
with: So you see, mathematics itself provides us with facts which oblige
us to go out of space if we would preserve the continuity of the idea. The
reality itself demands of us that in our ideas we go out of space. Even in
mathematics therefore we are confronted with something which shows us
that in some way we must leave space behind, if the pure idea is to follow
its right path. Having ourselves set going the idea in beginning to think
the process through, we must go on thinking in such a way that space is
no longer of any help to us. If this were not so, we should not be able to
calculate all possibilities of the equation. (9th Jan., The Relation of the
Diverse Branches of Natural Science to Astronomy, undated typescript,
pp. IX 6-7 emphasis Steiner's).

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE
 CELESTIAL MOVEMENTS:
Some Hints From Rudolf Steiner

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

We all grow up with the tidy image in our mind of the nine planets,
following nice lines of elliptical orbits around the sun - some nearer,
some further away (Copernican view). Normally, we are told that this
view replaced the mistaken older version, shown as five planets plus sun
and moon following lines of circular orbits around the earth (Ptolemaic
view).

If we pursue astronomy further, we find that planets occasionally appear

to `pause' in their orbits, reverse direction briefly, and then continue on
their way. A long history of observations shows that the sun itself is
moving, so that following it, as it were, the whole solar system moves.
The fact that this requires the conception of spiraling orbits is seldom, if
ever, brought forward (except for the distant nebulae). For example, we
see the following statement of fact: Comparison of measurements of the
stars made over long periods shows that in the direction of the
constellation Hercules the stars appear on the whole to be getting farther
apart; in the opposite direction (the constellation Columba), they appear
to be drawing together. This indicates that the sun and the members of
the solar system are moving as a group with respect to the stars.
However, descriptions of the realities of orbits and celestial mechanics do
not even hint at spirals, but deal only with ellipses, parabola and
hyperbola. (Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1972, Vol. 21, pg. 414)

We see here a fact that is hidden by modern science - no elliptical or

circular orbit exists, they are all spirals. Far from hiding this fact, Dr.
Steiner elaborates it; along with several other challenging hints. These
are to be tested and followed up, in order to give mankind a more
accurate consciousness of heavenly motions now and for a few thousand
years to come. In later epochs, he noted, `celestial mechanics' will
become incalculable as they will revert to the free motions of spiritual
beings (The Michael Mystery, 1984, pg. 92)

I would like to present such of his hints as I have found, as referenced

quotes given chronologically. These represent a survey of about 170
books and lecture cycles.
The first observation of celestial movements I have, certainly sets a
provocative stage. On 13 Sept. 1907, Steiner noted: You know that the
earth revolves around the sun, that Mercury and Venus, as sisters of the
earth, also revolve, and you know that the sun itself moves. Now occult
astronomy has carried on exact investigations of this relationship. It has
investigated not only the movement of the earth and the other planets,
but also the movement of the sun itself. Here one comes to a definite
point in cosmic space that is a kind of spiritual centre around which the
sun, and with it our earth and all the planets, turn. The different bodies,
however, do not move equally fast. It is just this relationship of the speed
of their movements to one another that occult astronomy has
determined. It proceeded from the fact that when we view Mars, Venus,
and so forth, these heavenly bodies move at a certain speed, but the
whole starry heaven is seemingly resting motionless. In the sense of true
occult research, this repose is only apparent. In reality, this starry
heaven moves a definite distance in one hundred years, and this distance
throughout which the firmament progresses is designated as the basic
number. If you assume this movement and compare the planetary
movements with it, we find that Saturn's movement is two and one-half
times that of Jupiter's; Jupiter's is five times that of Mars; Mars', twice
that of the Moon. Saturn's movement, however, is 1200 times that of the
whole celestial dome.

Through the relationship of the different speeds of the planets, the

fundamental tones of the harmony of the spheres arise that sound
through the cosmos. The School of Pythagoras was justified in speaking
of a celestial harmony. With spiritual ears one can hear it. When you
spread fine powder as evenly as possible on a thin brass plate and then
stroke its edge with a fiddler's bow, the powder moves in a definite line
pattern. All kinds of figures will arise depending on the pitch of the tone.
The tone effects a distribution of the material. These are called Chladny
figures. When the spiritual tone of the celestial harmony sounded forth
into the universe, it organized the planets into their relationships.
(Occult Signs and Symbols, 1972, pp. 9-12)

On 12 Jan. 1909, something previously discussed was more briefly

reiterated: . . . The orbiting of a planet around its sun or of a satellite
around its planet is by no means mere chance, nor is it unconnected
with life, on the contrary it is regulated by those beings we have learnt
about in the hierarchies of spirits. We have seen that it is absolutely
untrue that the heavenly bodies rotate by themselves through merely
lifeless forces. (The Being of Man and His Future Evolution, 1981, pp.
69-71)

An extensive discussion of the heavens, ranging from 3-14 Apr, 1912,

gave this remarkable hint: When you see the forces developing in a
spiral in a plant from stipule to stipule, you then have the activity of
those forces which work down from the planets. And according as the
forces of the offspring of the Spirits of Motion work down from this planet
or that planet, does this peculiar line which puts forth the leaves vary.
This gives a certain means of studying the actual orbits of the individual
planets through their reflection; and when external science has once
recognised this fact, it will have to correct a great deal of former
astronomical systems. Certain plants are allotted to the forces of the
Spirits of Motion who work from Mars, others to those who are on Venus,
others to those on Mercury. They work in from the planet and according
as they work in from one or the other, they impart to the plant the
movement expressed in the coil of their leaves; it is the same movement
which the corresponding planet makes; the absolute movement it makes
in the heavens. (The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the
Kingdoms of Nature, 1951, pp. 170-172)

The complicated forms of movements implied in the last observation were

described in more detail, and included the sun and earth, on 1 Oct.
1916: But spiritually, things are otherwise. You see, to an observer able
to behold the spiritual, the following is presented, for example. He comes
upon a certain movement of the sun; it takes this course (lemniscate).
Seen from a certain point of view, it is the sun's course; but when I draw
this line here and bring the sun back again, the point does not fall
exactly on the earlier point; it lies somewhat above it. This is a real
movement of the sun that can be perceived spiritually.

But the earth, too, makes certain movements in the course of the year.
Observed spiritually, it describes this orbit (intercepting lemniscate).

You must picture it in three dimensions. If you picture the orbit of the
sun lying in a plane, then the orbit of the earth lies in this plane - seen,
that is, from the side. If here is the orbit of the sun drawn as a line the
earth orbit is so: (intercepting).

But, as you see from this, there is a point in the cosmos, where the sun
and earth are both together, but not at the same time. When the sun is
there on its path, or rather has left this point by a quarter of its path, the
earth begins its movement at the point where the sun has left. After a
certain time we are, in fact, on the spot in cosmic space where the sun
was. Together with the earth, we actually pass in space through the spot
where the sun has been. We sail through it. We do not only sail through
it, however, because the sun leaves behind results of its activity in the
space it has traversed, so that the earth enters into the imprints left
behind by the sun and crosses them - really crosses them. Space has
living content, spiritual content, and the earth enters and crosses, sails
through, what the sun has called forth.
There is a similar relationship with the other planets, too. At certain
times we are approximately at the place where Mercury was, etc. The
planets carry out quite complicated movements in universal space, and
they enter into the imprints of each other. We have now the external
picture, the purely geometrical picture. The other picture will be added,
and only from a combination of the two will a later humanity attain the
concept it must have. (Inner Impulses of Evolution, 1984, pp. 145-147)

. . . Twice in the year we are where the sun has been operative in space.
The first time it is as if the sun descended below the earth's path, and
the second, as if the sun ascended and the earth's path was
underneath. (Inner Impulses of Evolution, 1984, pg. 149)

On 26 Mar. 1920, Steiner again noted the relationship of plant growth

and planetary movement.

It would be quite mistaken, however, to reckon only with the vertical

upward impulse in plants, that depends on the sun . . . The solar force
is, however, counteracted to some degree by that of the outer planets, in
their spiral courses. For planets, as a matter of fact, do not move in an
ellipse; their orbits are spiral. It is time that the whole Copernican
system was re-examined and superseded by another. (Spiritual Science
and Medicine, 1989, pp. 83-85)

Steiner challenges the static, elliptical concept of celestial movement,

again and again; as on 10 Apr. 1920: An observer sees the Sun in this
direction. The Earth progresses, but exactly in a line behind the Sun.
When the Earth is here, the observer now sees the Sun in another
direction. The Sun advances still further, the Earth following, and once
again the observer sees the Sun in the other direction. That is to say, he
sees the Sun at one time on the right, and another time on the left, owing
to the way in which the Earth follows the Sun.

This has been interpreted as demonstrating that the Sun stands still
and the Earth revolves around it. In reality it is not so; the Earth moves
along behind the Sun. (Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pg. 33)

Slightly later, on 18 Apr., a different approach was taken to the same

fact:

Whither does all this lead? If we have grasped the fact the motion of the
daily metabolism corresponds to the motion of the Earth, we can no
longer, with the Earth here, attribute to any one point a circular motion.
On the contrary, we must form the conception that the Earth in actual
fact proceeds along her path in such a way as to produce a line like that
of a lemniscate. The motion is not a simple revolution, but a more
complicated movement; each point of the terrestrial surface describes a
lemniscate, which is also the line described by the metabolic process.

Now all this will certainly make it clear that we can certainly speak of a
daily motion of the Earth around her axis, but by no means of a yearly
motion of the Earth around the Sun. For the Earth follows the Sun,
describing the same path.

Were the Earth revolving round the Sun, we should expect her axis,
which owing to its inertia remains parallel, to point in the direction of
different fixed stars during this revolution. But it does not! If the Earth
revolved round the Sun, the axis could not indicate the direction of the
Pole-star, for the point indicated would itself have to revolve round the
Pole-star; . . . It is in a spiral, screw-like path that the Earth follows the
Sun, boring her way, as it were, into cosmic space. (Man - Hieroglyph of
the Universe, 1972, pp. 85-90)

Steiner's observation progressed another step on 2 May, 1920: Now let

suppose that Saturn pursues his movement also in a like curve
(lemniscate) - only, of course, his path is different through cosmic space -
with the 30 times less rapid movement than the Earth; if we picture
these two curves, we must realise that each cosmic body which follows
such a path (lemniscate) is obviously moved in this path by forces, but
each one by forces of a different kind.

To the modern materialistic view of the cosmos, Saturn is observed

merely as a body moving about in cosmic space; and the same with the
other planets. This is not the case; for if we take Saturn, the outermost
planet of our Universe, we must represent him as the leader of our
planetary system in cosmic space. He directs our system in space. He is
the body for the outermost force which leads us round in the lemniscate
in cosmic space . . . Were he alone to work, we should continually move
in a lemniscate. But there are other forces in our planetary system which
show a more intimate adjustment to the spiritual world - the forces that
we find in Mercury and Venus. Through these forces our path is
continually raised. Thus, when we look at the path from above, we have
the lemniscate, but when we look at it from the other side, we obtain
lines which are continually rising upwards; there is a progression . . .

Planets such as Mercury and Venus, however, have a relation to the

extra-spatial, the supersensible, the spiritual, to that which does not
originally belong in space but has, as it were, come into it. Thus if we
have the paths of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and in the same space, draw in
also the paths of Mercury and Venus, you will get at most a projection of
the Mercury or of the Venus orbit, but in no sense the orbits themselves.
If we employ the three-dimensional space to sketch in the orbits of
Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, we come at most to a boundary, where we get
something like a path of the Sun. But if we wish to draw the others, we
can no longer do so in the three-dimensional space, . . . .we cannot draw
the path of Venus and that of Saturn in the same space. (Man -
Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, pp. 151-156)

Beginning 1 Jan. 1921, Dr. Steiner gave a series of lectures in which he

dealt with the entire question of celestial movements. All the points made
over the last few years were pulled together with mathematical and
philosophical considerations. What I would like to bring forward for the
purposes of this essay is a rather remarkable summing-up:

. . . We have to draw the path of the Earth with the Earth tending, in a
sense, towards where the Sun has been, and then again the Sun towards
the place where the Earth has been. We thus get one half of the
Lemniscate - Earth, Sun, Earth, Sun. When this has been gone round,
then it goes on. They move past each other, as you see. Thus we obtain
the true path of Earth and Sun if we alternately imagine the Earth to be
at the place where in our usual drawings we are wont to put the Sun,
and the Sun at the place where we are wont to put the Earth. The fact is,
we do not get a true relation of movement as between Earth and Sun if
we assume either one or the other to be at rest. We must imagine both to
be in movement, whereby the one follows the other, yet at the same time
they go past each other. So then we have to picture it: seen in
perspective, the Sun is alternately in the middle point of our planetary
system and then again the Earth is where we normally conceive the Sun
to be. They change places, taking turns as it were. But it is complicated,
for in the meantime the planets too, needless to say, have changed their
situation, which brings in no little complication . . . You see, we are in a
way misled by the perspectives, to the establishment of an extremely
simple system, whereas in fact it is by no means simple. It is as though
with respect to the planets, Earth and Sun were taking turns, alternately
being in the centre of the system.

I confess that it is not at all easy for me to be telling you these things,
which at the present stage might still be thought fantastic. We cannot
now bring all the mathematical paraphernalia to bear on them, but I
assure you they can be calculated in all detail. (The Relation of the
Diverse Branches of Natural Science to Astronomy, undated typescript,
pp. XVII 7-8)

On the 4th June 1924, Steiner qualified his previous discussions of the
sun's movement in a rather dramatic way: Physical science speaks of a
movement of the Sun; and it can do so, for within the spatial picture of
the Cosmos which surrounds us, we perceive by certain phenomena that
the Sun is in movement. But that is only an image of the true Sun-
movement, - an image cast into space. If we are speaking of the real Sun
it is nonsense to say that the Sun moves in Space; for Space itself is
being radiated out by the Sun. The Sun not only radiates light; the Sun
creates the Space itself. And the movement of the Sun is only a spatial
movement within this created Space. Outside of Space it is a movement
in Time. What seems apparent to us - namely, that the Sun is speeding
on towards the constellation of Hercules - is only a spatial image of the
Time-evolution of the Sun-Being. (The Festivals and Their Meaning,
1981, pp. 313-318)

Here, Dr. Steiner has certainly identified a dormant problem of

astronomy. He explored extensively the issues of which I have only given
his hints, in Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, and The Relation of the
Diverse Branches of Natural Science to Astronomy.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

The Daily-round Zodiac: A Little Cosmic Mystery

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998

Scattered throughout his career, Dr. Rudolf Steiner gave peeks at what is
for me as yet, a little cosmic mystery. That is, he pointed to the idea that
the sun traverses the zodiac (or its `equivalent' or `echo'?) daily. If I
present the pertinent quotes, you will see what I mean.

On the 6th Dec. 1910, Dr. Steiner explained: If you follow the course of
the Sun in the daytime from the constellation of Aries, through Taurus,
Gemini and so on, to Virgo, you must follow its progress at night from
Libra on to Aquarius and Pisces. This is the direction of the Spiritual
Sun. (Background to the Gospel of St. Mark, 1968, pg. 73)

A few days later, on the 18th Dec., the point was made again: John the
Baptist had necessarily to receive and Aquarius Initiation, the expression
indicating that the Sun was standing in the constellation of Aquarius.
Try to understand it this way: On the day or light side of the Zodiac lie
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, then Libra. The constellations
on the night or dark side of the Zodiac are Scorpio, Sagittarius,
Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Since the last two lie on the night side,
the Sun's rays coming from them must not only traverse physical space
but they must send the spiritual light of the Sun, which passes through
the Earth, through spiritual space . . .

If we trace the course of the Sun in the heavens we find that as the
physical Sun sets the spiritual Sun begins to rise. In its day or summer
course the Sun progresses from Taurus to Aries, and so on; in its night
or winter course it will reveal to us the secrets of the Initiation of
Aquarius or Pisces. Physically, the Sun's course is from Virgo to Leo,
Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries; spiritually its course is from Virgo to
Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius to Pisces. The
spiritual counterpart of the course of the physical Sun is the passage
from Aquarius to Pisces. (Background to the Gospel of St. Mark, 1968,
pp. 207-208)

As I said, Steiner gave us only `peeks' (so far as I've found) at this idea of
a daily round related to or comparable to the zodiac. The next one I've
found was given 17 Apr. 1917: . . . Constantine therefor embarked
upon the ambitious plan to found Constantinople, and the work was
completed in A.D.326. He intended that the foundation of the city should
coincide with this turning-point in world history. He therefor chose to lay
the foundation stone at the moment when the Sun stood in the sign of
the Archer and the Crab ruled the hour. He followed closely the
indications of the cosmic signs . . . (Building Stones for an
Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, 1972, pp. 138-139)

Indications of this daily round are few and far between; the last I know
include, on 20 Jan. 1924: Now, you can look at the vernal point of the
zodiac, where the sun rises every spring. This point is not stationary; it is
advancing. In the Egyptian epoch, for example, it was in the constellation
of Taurus. It has advanced through Taurus and Aries, and is today in the
constellation of Pisces; and it is still advancing. It moves in a circle and
will return after a certain time. Though this point where the sun rises in
the spring describes a complete circle in the heavens in 25,950 years, the
sun describes this circle every day. It rises and sets, thereby describing
the same path as the vernal point. Let us contemplate, on the one hand,
the long epoch of 25,950 years, which is the time taken by the vernal
point to complete its path; and on the other hand, the short period of
twenty-four hours in which the sun rises, sets and rises again at the
same point. The sun describes the same circle. (Anthroposophy and the
Inner Life, 1994, pg. 29)

And a little later, on 14 June 1924: . . . We should really speak of Aries-

Sun, Taurus-Sun, Cancer-Sun, Leo-Sun, and so on. For the Sun is a
different being in each case. Moreover, the resultant influence depends
both on the daily course and on the yearly course of the Sun, as
determined by its position in the vernal point. (Agriculture, 1974, pg.
115)

The terse 1917 reference to . . . and the Crab ruled the hour., is also
reflected in a predictive discussion given later in that year, on 25 Nov.
1917: . . . what will matter will be whether one carries out a certain
process in the morning, evening, or at noon, or whether one allows what
one did in the morning to be somehow further influenced by active forces
of the evening, or whether the cosmic influences from morning until
evening is excluded, paralyzed . . .

It will be the task of the good, healing science to find certain cosmic
forces that, through the working together of two cosmic streams, are able
to arise on the earth. These two cosmic streams will be those of Pisces
and Virgo . . . The good will be that one will discover how, from the two
directions of the cosmos, morning and evening forces can be placed at
the service of humanity: on the one side from the direction of Pisces and
on the other side from the direction of Virgo.

Those who seek to achieve everything through the dualism of polarity,

through positive and negative forces, will not concern themselves with
these forces. The spiritual mysteries that allow the spirituality to stream
forth from the cosmos - with the help of the twofold forces of magnetism,
from the positive and the negative - emerge in the universe from Gemini;
these are the forces of midday . . . (The Reappearance of Christ in the
Etheric, 1983, pp. 195-200) The long passage from which the above was
extracted also indicates Sagittarius as the forces of midnight.

When I first noticed this reference to day constellations and night

constellations, I thought of an allegory to the yearly passage through
them, but there is definite reference to daily passage. The equally definite
indications of practical importance mean that this is a little mystery
worth pursuing.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
ON RUDOLF STEINER'S STAR-KNOWLEDGE

References to Rudolf Steiner's Star-Knowledge

R.S.W.Bobbette
1998
The following is a simple listing of those references of Dr. Steiner's books
and lecture cycles that I have found to contain what could be considered
star-knowledge (employing Steiner's use of the term `star' to include
planets), including relationships of the earth and moon. This also
includes a scattering of methodological comments by Steiner, that I think
useful or necessary; otherwise only the most direct comments I could
find are meant. This summary of Dr. Steiner's observations is begun
because I can find it nowhere else . . . I have tried to limit myself to the
most direct references of celestial phenomena or stages of human star-
knowledge; many indirect observations await collection and correlation
also.

For whatever reason, the first, almost introductory, change in relevant

quotes comes with the year 1908. This could of course change, but what
I have found to date shows brief facts of solar system evolution, or
qualities and relationships of a few celestial bodies given from 1901 to
1907. Beginning in 1908, detailed descriptions and whole lecture cycles
describe the nature of the solar system.

An introduction to Dr. Steiner's view of solar system evolution and the

consequent relationships between the heavenly bodies is necessary, or
many of his statements are quite unintelligible. I will therefore add
explanatory contexts that seem necessary.

As an introductory summary of Rudolf Steiner's view of the nature of the

solar system, observations he reported from 1901-1907 give a
provocative picture. Reading them will show that there is a depth to be
discussed; I would like to bring forward the following facts to aid in the
orientation of the reader:

1. The present solar system is the fourth incarnation of a pattern of

seven `great cycles' or evolutionary planets, called respectively (old)
Saturn, (old) Sun, (old) Moon, Earth, (future) Jupiter, (future)
Venus, and (future) Vulcan. The speed of evolution slows to the
point of human self-consciousness during late Atlantean times of
our Earth and is now speeding up again.
2. Mankind has been present at various evolutionary stages
throughout this pattern, and life in general is able to persist and
evolve forms in states of purely fiery and gaseous conditions.
3. The Zodiac is the creator of and exists beyond the physical
existence of the evolutionary planets, which is reflected in the
twelve daylight and twelve night-time hours.
4. Civilization has epochs related to the occurrence of the vernal sun
in different constellations of the Zodiac. The governance of each
sign was revised to a then-consistent 2,160 years, with the sun
 entering Aries about 747B.C. and entering Pisces about 1413A.D.
(see 3 & 8 Oct. 1905, June 1906, 25 Aug. 1906, 4 Sept. 1906)
5. Sun, moon and earth were united in one body, but the sun had too
fast, too dissolving a pace of evolution, so it had to depart the earth
and moon. (see 1904)
6. Sometime after the sun left the earth+moon, Mars penetrated the
fiery, gaseous mass and left astral iron. Mercury left etheric
mercury in mid-Atlantean times; thus occultists sometimes
designate the evolutionary planet Earth, as Mars - Mercury. This
had been incorporated into the naming of the days of the week.
(see 1 & 28 Oct. 1905, June, 1906, 30 Aug. 1906)
7. The moon departed because it had a too hardening, mummifying
effect on the early albumin; but its leaving also weakened the
reproductive forces of the earth and caused the sexes to arise. (see
1904, 31 Aug. 1906)
8. The movements of sun, earth and planets are actually spirals
within spirals.
9. Radio-activity has only existed for a few thousand years because
the Earth-evolution is on the decaying side. Rocks were formerly
softer and `more alive'; they are progressively hardening and
crumbling, including nuclear decay.

References that gave two to five pages of information are italicized,

whereas those that gave over five pages of information are in bold
type. The titles are listed in the order in which they were reviewed for the
survey. To date, an additional 61 books and lecture cycles have been
reviewed that had nothing to offer, directly, to this survey.

(1) Readings in Goethean Science, 1978, Bio-Dynamic Literature.

(2) An Outline of Occult Science, 1972, Anthroposophic Press.

(3) Foundations of Esotericism, 1983, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(4) At the Gates of Spiritual Science, 1970, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(5) The Occult Significance of Blood, 1967, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(6) The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone, 1983,
Anthroposophic Press.

(7) Occult Signs and Symbols, 1972, Anthroposophic Press.

(8) The Influence of Spiritual Beings Upon Man, 1961, Anthroposophic

Press.
(9) The Apocalypse of St. John, 1943, Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co.

(10) Universe, Earth and Man, 1987, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(11) Egyptian Myths and Mysteries, 1971, Anthroposophic Press.

(12) The Deed of Christ, 1954, Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co.

(13) The Principle of Spiritual Economy, 1986, Anthroposophic Press.

(14) The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Physical World,
1970, Anthroposophic Press.

(15) Rosicrucian Esotericism, 1978, Anthroposophic Press

(16) The Gospel of St. John and Its Relation to the Other Gospels, 1982,
Anthroposophic Press

(17) The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, 1983, Anthroposophic

Press.

(18) The Festivals and Their Meaning, 1981, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(19) Genesis, 1959, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(20) The Spirit in the Realm of Plants, 1978, Mercury Press.

(21) The World of the Senses and the World of the Spirit, 1947, Rudolf Steiner
Publ. Co.

(22) Reincarnation and Karma, 1960, Anthroposophical Publ. Co.

(23) The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of
Nature, 1951, Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co.

(24) Between Death and Rebirth, 1975, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(25) Life Between Death and Rebirth, 1968, Anthroposophic Press.

(26) The Effects of Spiritual Development, 1945, Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co.

(27) Occult Reading and Occult Hearing, 1975, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(28) The Balance in the World and Man: Lucifer and Ahriman, 1948, Rudolf
Steiner Press.
(29) An Occult Physiology, 1951, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(30) Chance, Providence and Necessity, 1988, Anthroposophic Press.

(31) The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century, 1973, Rudolf Steiner
Press.

(32) Inner Impulses of Evolution, 1984, Anthroposophic Press.

(33) The Karma of Evolution of Materialism, 1985, Anthroposophic Press.

(34) Ancient Myths, 1971, Steiner Book Centre, Inc.

(35) The Challenge of the Times, 1941, Anthroposophic Press.

(36) The Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman, 1954, Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co.

(37) Man - Hieroglyph of the Universe, 1972, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(38) Polarities in the Evolution of Mankind, 1987, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(39) Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy, 1987, Anthroposophic

Press.

(40) Man as a Being of Sense and Perception, 1958, Anthroposophical Publ. Co.

(41) The Human Soul in Relation to World Evolution, 1984, Anthroposophic

Press.

(42) Planetary Spheres and Their Influence on Man's Life on Earth and in
Spiritual Worlds, 1952, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(43) Man and the World of Stars, 1963, Anthroposophic Press.

(44) Health and Illness, Vol. II, 1983, Anthroposophic Press.

(45) Awakening to Community, 1974, Anthroposophic Press.

(46) The Cycle of the Year, 1984, Anthroposophic Press.

(47) Man in the Past, Present and Future, 1966, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(48) The Four Seasons and The Archangels, 1984, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(49) Beekeeping - Nine Lectures on Bees, 1964, Rudolf Steiner Publications.

(50) Agriculture, 1974, Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Assoc.

(51) True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation, 1969, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(52) The Evolution of the Earth and Man, 1987, Anthroposophic Press.

(53) An Esoteric Cosmology, 1987, Spiritual Science Library.

(54) The Mission of the Folk Souls, 1989, Spiritual Research Editions
Series XIII, Garber Communications Inc.

(55) Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age, 1960, Steinerbooks.

(56) Cosmic Memory, 1959, Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co.

(57) Metamorphosis of the Soul; Paths of Experience, Vol. I, 1983, Rudolf

Steiner Press.

(58) The East in the Light of the West, 1986, Garber Communications Inc.

(59) The Karma of Untruthfulness, Vol. I, 1988, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(60) The Karma of Untruthfulness, Vol. II, 1992, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(61) Macrocosm and Microcosm, 1968, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(62) The Gospel of St. Matthew, 1965, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(63) First Scientific Lecture Course, undated typescript, Goethean Science

Foundation.

(64) Evolution in the Aspect of Realities, 1989, Spiritual Research Editions,

Series XXXV, Garber Communications Inc.

(65) Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy, 1989,

Spiritual Science Library, Garber Communications Inc.

(66) Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosencreutz, 1984,

Rudolf Steiner Press.

(67) Human and Cosmic Thought, 1961, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(68) Toward Imagination, 1990, Anthroposophic Press.

(69) Cosmic and Human Metamorphosis, 1989, Spiritual Research Editions,

Garber Communications Inc.
(70) Building Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, 1972,
Rudolf Steiner Press.

(71) Geographic Medicine, 1986, Mercury Press.

(72) Earthly Death and Cosmic Life, 1989, Spiritual Research Editions, Garber
Communications, Inc.

(73) Three Streams in Human Evolution, 1965, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(74) From Symptom to Reality in Modern History, 1976, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(75) Spiritual Science and Medicine, 1989, Steinerbooks.

(76) The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of
Man, 1958, Anthroposophic Press.

(77) Cosmosophy, Vol. I, 1985, Anthroposophic Press.

(78) The Human Being in Body, Soul and Spirit: Our Relationship to the
Earth, 1989, Anthroposophic Press.

(79) The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets, The Golden Blade, Rudolf
Steiner Press.

(80) The Evolution of the World and of Humanity, 1989, Spiritual Science Library,
Garber Communications, Inc.

(81) Man as Symphony of the Creative Word, 1991, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(82) Mystery Centers, 1989, Spiritual Research Editions, Garber

Communications Inc.

(83) Background to the Gospel of St. Mark, 1968, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(84) Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse, 1993, Anthroposophic Press.

(85) The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity, 19.. Spiritual Science
Library, Garber Communications Inc.

(86) Christ and the Spiritual World and the Search for the Holy Grail, 1963,
Rudolf Steiner Press.

(87) The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, 1987, Rudolf Steiner Press.
(88) Self-consciousness; The Spiritual Human Being, 1986, Spiritual Science
Library, Garber Communications Inc.

(89) Karmic Relationships, Vol. I, 1972, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(90) Old and New Methods of Initiation, 1991, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(91) The Evolution of Consciousness, 1991, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(92) The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness, 1993, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(93) Curative Education, 1972, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(94) The Michael Mystery, 1984, St. George Publications.

(95) Fundamental of Therapy, 1983, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(96) Karmic Relationships, Vol. II, 1974, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(97) Karmic Relationships, Vol. III, 1977, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(98) Karmic Relationships Vol.. IV, 1983, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(99) Karmic Relationships Vol.. V, 1966, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(100) Karmic Relationships, Vol. VI, 1971, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(101) Karmic Relationships, Vol. VII, 1973, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(102) Karmic Relationships, Vol. VIII, 1975, Rudolf Steiner Press

(103) Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation, 1982, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(104) The Being of Man and His Future Evolution, 1981, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(105) The Riddle of Humanity, 1990, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(106) Pastoral Medicine, 1987, Anthroposophic Press.

(107) Anthroposophy and the Inner Life, 1994, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(108) The Origins of Natural Science, 1985, Anthroposophic Press.

(109) How Can Mankind Find the Christ Again?, 1984, Anthroposophic Press.
(110) Wonders of the World, Ordeals of the Soul, Revelations of the Spirit, 1963,
Rudolf Steiner Press.

(111) Angels, 1996, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(112) World History in the Light of Anthroposophy, 1977, Rudolf Steiner Press.

(113) Earthly Knowledge and Heavenly Wisdom, 1991, Anthroposophic Press.

(114) Colour, 1992, Garber Communications Inc.

(115) The Universal Human, 1990, Anthroposophic Press.

(116) Education for Adolescents, 1996, Anthroposophic Press.

(117) The Relation of the Diverse Branches of Natural Science to

Astronomy, undated typescript.