Inner Experiences of Evolution

Book excerpt: 5 lectures in Berlin, October 31, 1911-December 5, 1911 (CW 132) In this most remarkable and in many ways unique course of lectures, Rudolf Steiner describes the inner experience of the states of consciousness known as the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth stages of evolution. Lecture by lecture, Steiner details the experiences of these states available to one who practices the spiritual scientific path of meditation. By this means, these stages and states gain an unexpected and existential reality: suddenly, we recognize what Steiner is talking about. Most remarkable of all, perhaps, is the description of the Earth state with its experience of death, which Christ knew on the Cross at Golgotha, transforming earthly and human evolution. LECTURES: The Inner Aspect of the Saturn Embodiment of the Earth The Inner Aspect of the Sun Embodiment of the Earth The Inner Aspect of the Sun Embodiment of the Earth and the Transition to the Moon Embodiment The Inner Aspect of the Moon Embodiment of the Earth The Inner Aspect of the Earth Embodiment of the Earth Inner Experiences of Evolution is a translation from German of Die Evolution vom Gesichtspunkte des Wahrhaftigen (GA 132). These lectures were previously included as part of The Spiritual Hierarchies & the Physical World: Reality and Illusion (1996). A previous translation also appeared as Evolution in the Aspect of Realities (Garber).