 ALMOST THE END Wrapping It Up Our evolution runs in circles, sort of. (Bear in mind: You won't understand what follows, according to Seddon.) As we move ahead, we recapitulate where we've been, repeating (in altered condition) the past which is our future — until eventually we reach the final recapitulation in the final Condition of Consciousness.
But to get there, first we must negotiate the remaining Conditions of Life. R. Seddon relays the following summary of the Seven Conditions of Life: 1st Elementary Kingdom (shapeless being [sic], physical body), 2nd Elementary Kingdom (shaping beings [sic], etheric body), 3rd Elementary Kingdom (sentient beings, astral body), Mineral Kingdom (created forms [not be be confused with Stages of Form] — this is where we are now, Life-wise), 3-step pralaya, Planet Kingdom (living forms), Animal Kingdom (ensouled beings), and Human Kingdom (ego-beings [sic]). [1]
(There are several pralayas along our route. [2] Don't pay them much heed. They are just rest stations, periods when the physical relapses into the spiritual, and/or refreshments are served.)
Let's look a little more closely at the Kingdoms:
◊ 1st Elementary Kingdom. This consists of intentions that become forces that remain unshaped, such as fire, air, fluids... Our physical bodies belong here because they fall apart and blow away. [3] ◊ 2nd Elementary Kingdom. Tricky. Proceeding, in a sense, from the 1st Elementary Kingdom, what we get here are sort of Goethe's ideas about ideas. Plus there are gnomes, salamanders, and such. (These beings are found today in the depths of the earth, or in the water, or in the air... They are part of our past and present, and in recapitulation they will reverberate through the future.) The way is paved in the 2nd Elementary Kingdom for the glands. [4]
◊ 3rd Elementary Kingdom. Quick soul-stuff and -entities, shining out from within, real pretty and fast. Nerves. [5] Note: You may think I'm moving too fast, here, but R. Seddon crams all this and more onto a single page.
◊ Mineral Kingdom. Minerals and suchlike. This is pretty much where we stand now: "Only in our fourth (mineral) Condition of Life does there appear the world of nature all around us, which is grasped by our inorganic, mineral thinking and gives form to separate objects and our separate ego." [6] The reason you can't understand this is that you think with your brain, a mineral construct. (Of course, if you do understand, I apologize: You may have moved along to a higher, more "organic" consciousness.)
◊ Pralaya. A millennium or so of not much. [7]
◊ Plant Kingdom. Living forms. (Aren't soul entities, and gnomes, etc., living forms? Well might you ask.) "The fifth Condition of Life of the earth ... may be seen as a precursor of Jupiter evolution, without human beings having yet acquired the full angelic consciousness that can then be theirs ... Human beings no longer dwell within a body, but have it outside them." [8] Jupiter, in the sense Seddon uses here, is the next Condition of Consciousness, which we will consider on our next page.
◊ Animal Kingdom. Beings with soul (such as James Brown?). "In this sixth Condition of Life, which may be seen as a precursor of Venus evolution, there is no longer any mineral or plant kingdom. 'Earth and heaven have vanished' (Rev. 20:11)." [9] As a stage of evolution, Venus will come after Jupiter. Steiner sometimes denied that in using the names of planets he actually meant planets. Note that the future not only recapitulates the past but it also provides precursorial variants of more distant futures.
◊ Human Kingdom. The best of the best, flashing. "This last Condition, the fastest of the seven, in which only progressive human beings take part, may be seen as a precursor of Vulcan evolution ... Humanity then becomes a god...." [10] Vulcan will follow Venus. "Progressive" humans are not left-wingers but good humans who can and do evolve, unlike bad humans who cannot or will not. Sadly, in other words, when we arrive at the "Human Kingdom," Steiner's invidious discriminations will still prevail. There will still be bad, low races that must be kicked aside. As for notion that humanity will become a god, secularists may consider this unlikely, while followers of orthodox faiths may consider it sacrilege. ◊◊◊◊ In re kings: When a "king" issues a command, that's that.
— Roger Rawlings
We will conclude the story at "The End" (which will be a relief) http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/the-end
 You know who (Kessinger Publishing).  Waldorf student drawing, detail.
ENDNOTES
[1] THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER, p.132. [2] Ibid., pp. 132-133. [3] Ibid., p. 103. [4] Ibid., p. 103. [5] Ibid., p. 103. [6] Ibid., p. 104. [7] Ibid., p.104. [8] Ibid., pp. 104-105. [9] Ibid., p. 107. [10] Ibid., pp. 109-110. |
