This page comprises one section of

"Steiner Static".

Do not confuse Present Earth with the Earth.

Present Earth is a period in time;

the Earth is a planet, a place.

[See "Planets".]

A quick recap may be in order. Skip it if you don't need it.

1) During the Old Saturn stage of evolution, we had been eggs of warmth, beings who were essentially at the mineral level of development. 2) During Old Sun, we became airy plant-like beings. 3) During Old Moon, we were soft-boned, gliding, leaping, animalish creatures. 

Old Moon then winked out of physical existence, taking us with it. We rested up (pralaya), getting ready for our next manifestation, one that will seem a bit more familiar: We came to Earth (i.e., the incorporeal solar system reemerged into a new form of physical manifestation, and as before we were part of this): We entered the period of evolution called Present Earth.

Here is an approximate overview of past and future, in diagrammatic form. (This is my own effort, supplementing the chart we saw previously.)

The largest stages of our evolution are the Conditions of Consciousness, starting with Old Saturn. Each of these stages (also called "Planetary Conditions") is an incarnation of the entire solar system.

Having evolved through Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon, we are now alive in the evolutionary period called Present Earth. Like other stages of evolution, Present Earth consists of seven sub-stages, which may be referred to as Conditions of Life.

We have evolved through the first three Conditions of Life; we are now in the Mineral Kingdom Condition of Life within Present Earth. Like all the other sub-stages in the pattern of evolution, the Mineral Kingdom Condition of Life consists of seven sub-sub-stages, which may be referred to as Stages of Form.

Having evolved through three of the Stages of Form in the Mineral Kingdom Condition of Life, we are now living in the Physical Stage of Form. Within this Stage of Form, we will evolve through seven Great Epochs.

The Polarian Epoch was the first of the Great Epochs of our existence "on" the Earth during the Physical Stage of Form in the Mineral Kingdom of Life during Present Earth; the Hyperborean Epoch was the second such Great Epoch; etc. We now exist in the fifth Great Epoch, the Post-Atlantean Epoch.

Within this Great Epoch, we have evolved through four Cultural Epochs. We now live in the fifth Cultural Epoch, the Anglo-Germanic Age.

Let's review the Great Epochs that, in a sense, constitute our lives here on the planet Earth during the Present Earth Condition of Consciousness.

At the beginning of our lives here "on" the Earth during the Polarian Epoch, we were still far less than solid — we were not at all physical as we understand the term today. (Neither, for that matter, was the Earth.)  Conditions then were still soft and fluid, and most phenomena of the solar system were still intermingled, so that the Sun and Moon, for instance, were still united with the Earth:

89) [Polarian Epoch] 

“Let us again call to mind that, in the beginning of its development, our Earth was united with Sun and Moon. At that point man had arisen once more out of the earliest germ which comprised physical, etheric, and astral bodies [i.e., we had preliminary versions of such bodies]; he appeared, so to speak, in his first earthly form — the only one possible to him while the Earth still contained both Sun and Moon. This period of Earth evolution, which man experienced in common with his planet, is usually called in the literature of spiritual science, the ‘Polarian’ period. It would lead too far to explain today why this period is called ‘Polarian’; meanwhile let us simply accept the term.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN (Anthroposophic Press, 1948), p. 66.

As members of the Polarian Race, we incarnated only to a very thin and insubstantial degree; we were primarily etheric bodies: 

90) [Polarians: Us] 

“In the so-called Polarian Race...the etheric body was the most important. Man's whole body [i.e., the combination of our various bodies] at that time consisted of fine etheric substance. Only later did the etheric body densify by permeating itself with physical matter ... [During the Polarian Epoch] man was not fettered to the ground as he is today. He hovered through the etheric earth, and his organs, too, were etheric.’” — Rudolf Steiner, “(On) Apocalyptic Writings” (transcript, Rudolf Steiner Archive), a lecture, GA unestablished. 

Steiner had a disconcerting way of distancing himself from his own words, as when he referred to the “so-called Polarian race.” What he meant, usually, was that words can hardly describe the amazing things he told us about. Anyway, during the Polarian Epoch the Sun was still a part of the Earth (or vice versa), which meant we lived in the immediate presence of certain gods (Sun deities) who gave the best of us special care and attention:

91) [Us, the Polarians]

“The Polarian human beings were very similar to four-footed animals, but they were formed out of a soft, pliant substance similar to a jellyfish, but much warmer. The human beings with the best forms, consisting of the noblest components, received at that time help of a special nature, for beings were still connected with the Earth who had earlier reached a higher stage [i.e., gods of the Sun were present in Polaria, and they helped the "best" and "noblest" proto-humans to evolve] ... When the Earth eventually emerged out of the darkness [after the darkness of the pralaya following Old Moon] the whole Sun-mass was united with it [the Sun and Earth were still a unified mass]. In that epoch the first or Polarian Race began.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 23, GA 93a.

92) [Hyperborea]  The second phase of life on Earth was the Hyperborean Epoch. Early in this Epoch, the Sun and Earth were still united. This gave rise to "Sun Men" — the proto-humans of early Hyperborea absorbed some of the Sun's divine nature into themselves. Among the Sun Men, there were a few proto-humans who attained an even higher solar nature: These became "Solar Adepts" who separated from the lower, less-evolved proto-humans.

“During the Age which preceded the Lemurian Age, we have the Hyperborean Age on the Earth, that of the Sun Men, of the Apollo-Men. They...had attained a certain high development. There were also Sun Adepts, who had progressed further than the other Sun-men. They passed over to the Moon [i.e., they left the Earth portion of the unified solar mass]...and they developed to quite special heights. They were the forefathers of the Earth-men, but had hastened much further ahead ... [T]hey created for themselves an upright form, completely transforming [their] Hyperborean bodies. This the other human beings were unable to do ... [T]the Sun was still united with the Earth ... During the Hyperborean Period the whole again divided [i.e., the unified mass divided, so that the Sun and Earth became separated].” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM, lecture 23.

93) [Hear, hear]  The process of devision and specialization was prominent in Hyperborea. Not only did proto-humanity devide into higher and lower strains, but the proto-human body started dividing into separate organs having separate functions. The ear developed, for instance, as a distinct sensory organ:

“One must imagine the perceptual world [i.e., the world that could be apprehended during the Hyperborean Epoch] of these ancestors of man [i.e., ourselves, before we became human] to have been a quite general and indefinite one. Only two of the types of perception of today had already become separated: the sense of hearing and the sense of touch. Because of the changes that had taken place in the body as well as in the physical environment, the entire human form was no longer capable of being, in a manner of speaking, an 'ear'. A special part of the body remained capable of reverberating to delicate vibrations. It furnished the material from which our organ of hearing gradually developed. However, approximately the whole remainder of the body continued to be the organ of touch.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), p. 114.

94) [Different as Day and Night]  The process of division permeated the environment of Hyperborea, so that day became distinct from night, and — following the separation of the Sun — various planets also separated from the central mass. By the end of Hyperborea, the Earth remained united with the Moon, but all the rest of the solar system had departed from the mass. Here is how one Waldorf teacher has described these things:

"In order that man shall not become too enmeshed in matter[,] his experience is designed to alternate between the physical and the spiritual. That is to say a rhythm is established [i.e., was established during Hyperborea] for the soul to be in the body for a certain time and then outside [it]. This is [i.e., was] the beginning of day and night experience ... The outside planets of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars [became] independent ... Venus and Mercury [separated] as habitations for beings at intermediate stages [of spiritual evolution]. Remaining [was] an Earth-Moon planet in which the forms of life [became] more and more differentiated ... Man's body [had] a substantiality almost like air." — Roy Wilkinson, RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2005), pp. 97-98.

(Whether Steiner would wholly endores Wilkinson's description is not, perhaps, terribly important. The key thing is to understand that Steiner and his followers believe these sorts of things, and some of those followers teach in Waldorf schools.)

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Use this link to go to "Steiner Static, Part I",

or use the following link to go to "Steiner Static, Part II".

For more indications about Polaria and Hyperborea, see "Early Earth".

For information about our lives on Lemuria, see "Lemuria".

For similar information about Atlantis, see "Atlantis".

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[R.R.]