{"id":988,"date":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","slug":"spiritual-hierarchies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/?p=988","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Hierarchies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spiritual Hierarchies & The Physical World<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ever since nature and consciousness were separated in the late Middle Ages, giving rise to a science of matter alone, the spiritual beings who are the universe have felt abandoned and unable to complete their work, for this work depends for its success on human collaboration. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, human beings have also felt abandoned, condemned to a speck of dust in an infinitely decaying universe. In these remarkable lectures, Rudolf Steiner reestablishes the human being as a participant in an evolving, dynamic universe of living spiritual beings: a living universe, whole and divine. And he does so in concrete images, capable of being grasped by human consciousness as if from within. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How is this possible? <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>Implicit in Steiner’s view is the fact that, fundamentally, the universe consists of consciousness. Everything else is illusion. Hence to understand the evolution of the cosmos and humanity in any terms other than consciousness is also illusion. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever we have to do with mighty cosmic facts, we have to do with states of consciousness. But states of consciousness never exist apart from the beings who embody them. Therefore, the only true realities are beings in different states of consciousness. In this sense, Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science is a science of states of consciousness and the beings who embody them. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, rightly considered, all science-physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, geology, psychology, astronomy, etc. is a science of beings. And the sensory perception, the physical trace, is but the outer vestment of the activity of beings in different states of consciousness. To describe these beings, Steiner uses the names made familiar by the wisdom tradition of the West. <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He speaks of the evolutionary states of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan; and the nine "choirs" of angels (Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; Principalities, Archangels, and Angels); as well as of elemental beings and nature spirits; and the elements of fire, earth, air, and water.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Synopses of Lectures by Rudolf Steiner<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 1<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The ‘Plan of the World’ always existed. Primeval world wisdom — The Holy Rishis. Mystery Schools — Stanzas of Dzyan. The Rosy cross. The Western Rishis. The Christ Impulse. Buddha and Christ. Explanation of Pain and Death — Healing. The Vision to the Stars and its meaning in olden days compared with now. Dionysius the Areopagite. The Hierarchies — Angels to Thrones and Saturn. The Bhagavad Gita.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 2<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Elements. Warmth<\/span><\/a> is 2-fold, inward & outward. Fire separates light from smoke. Light is invisible. Our duty and power to release the world bewitched. During human’s life he\/she is a place of transition for elemental beings. Bhagavad Gita does not refer to the human self, but to the elementals. Elemental messengers of higher hierarchies. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First Class: the fire elementals bound in air, water, earth.
\nSecond Class: day & night elementals released by man’s activity and chained by his sloth and callousness.
\nThe Third Class: elementals of the waxing and waning moon are released by optimism and chained down by discontent.
\nFourth Class: the summer and winter elementals are released by piety and chained by materiality.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 3 <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Warmth, the first element<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Earth, Moon, Sun, Saturn. Angels, Archangels, Archai. Saturn, a realm of invisible warmth. Herakleitos. On Saturn inner warmth becomes outer warmth. Production and dissolution of warmth; inhalation and exhalation of warmth; exhalation as fire; resemblance to expansion and contraction in breathing. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Rishis teaching: fire, sucked in becomes the Ego of the Archai. The Archai beginning to leave the exhaled warmth outside without re-inhaling leads to manhood consciousness, objective consciousness and consciousness of self. Saturn dissolved by the Thrones. Pralaya or night. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The karma of the Archai on Saturn brings ancient Sun into existence. Warmth divides into light and smoke\/air. Archangels appear on Sun and secure a habitation. They have an inner body of warmth inherited from Saturn which divided into an inner body of light and an outer body of smoke. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Exhalation: the Suns day. Inhalation: the Suns night. On Sun, the warmth eggs of Saturn are hatched and pictures with inner life are produced, the densest bodies used by the Archangels.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nLearned appreciating warmth after 2009 Ibiza cold<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 4<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Aspects of Warmth<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The eggs of warmth on Saturn were created by the thought of the Archai. Nowadays thought goes no further than the astral. Evolution is a system proceeding from taking to giving. On Saturn the Thrones gave their own warmth to the Archai, similar to the silkworms. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Archai gave personality to the warmth. The expansion of the Archangels. They are met by Cherubim. In the air of the Sun nights, when in the atmosphere light has left, the Cherubim reflect the figure which becomes the germ of the animal kingdom. The Zodiac.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 5<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Old Saturn was as large as a globe, having as its centre the sun of today and reaching as far as present Saturn. Evolution from Saturn to Vulcan. The Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones come from an earlier solar system. They have been in the vicinity of the highest godhead of all, namely the Trinity. Seraphim receive the ideas of the Trinity, Cherubim ponder over them, Thrones transform them into action. These are called the first 3-fold Hierarchy. The work of the second 3-fold hierarchy described. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Spirits of Wisdom transformed old Saturn to old Sun and condensed Saturn to such a size that when it became Sun, it was of a size that would have its centre in the present Sun and reach as far as the present Jupiter. The planets are boundaries of the ancient worlds. The Spirits of Motion condensed the old Sun to a watery globe, called Moon, whose size from the present Sun as its centre would reach to present Mars. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The creation of Moon was different from the others, it implied later a splitting into two globes so that the Sun contracted and was surrounded by another body, in the orbit of the present Mars, and in the periphery of the original single body. The origin of Evil and the Fight in Heaven. The Planetoids.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 6<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Ptolemaic, self-centered, and Copernican, sun-centered, systems. <\/span><\/span>Uranus and Neptune are quite different from the others.<\/span> <\/span>The names of the Planets Mercury and Venus have been interchanged. The range and mission of the Angels, Archangels, Archai, Spirits of Form, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sons of Venus\/Mercury incarnated in Lemuria\/Atlantis to become the teachers of men. The Sons of Venus were Spirits of Personality, Dyani Buddhas, who guided humanity in Lemuria. The Sons of Mercury guided nations and races.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 7<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Habitations and nature of the Hierarchies. Physical body of an Angel is in water; its etheric & astral bodies are in air and fire Spirits of Personality. Angels descended to Lemuria and ensouled the physical body. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Archangels came from Mercury, descended into Atlantis and inspired the physical and etheric bodies. Oracles. Manu the Sun-Oracle. The Rishis in post-Atlantis: Angels descended from Moon and ensouled physical, etheric and astral bodies.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 8<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jupiter or Sun Eagle or Scorpion. Saturn’s rings. Mars or Ancient Moon. Aquarius the Waterman. Earth, Taurus the Bull, Chaldea, the ‘I am’, the voice and propagation.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 9<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Saturn, Sun, Moon are repeated at the beginning of the Earth. The Saturn and Jupiter of today. The Milky Way. Our World System is not round but bean shaped. The origin of a planet. The Zodiac and the animal forms of man’s body formed on old Saturn. The Giant Ymir. Adam Cadmon of the Kabbala. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To understand the center, investigate the circumference first. The formation of worlds is the preparation of karma. As in big things, so in small — so in the nations. The time described when one person takes on the karma of a nation. Hermes. This happens on every planet. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We advance from taking to giving. It is greater to give than to receive. Man’s development in Kamaloka. The astral must be spiritualized before we can see the spiritual worlds. When the astral body is completely transformed, the etheric body becomes a counterpart of it. This is Nirmana Kaya, when no remnants are left in the astral world. Zarathustra penetrated the astral body of Hermes Dharmakaya.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lecture 10<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper.’<\/span><\/a> Goethe. Cologne Cathedral. Matter contracts towards a central point and then disappears but reappears at the circumference. We cannot grasp this so long as our mind remains in the space of three dimensions. Uranus and Neptune have nothing to do with the creation of our world and their Moons are retrograde. Uranus, and later Neptune, withdraw during the Mars development. All that lies outside us was generically called Ouranos — the Heavens. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are the only beings that have the direct light of God, and have had it from the beginning. The second Hierarchy see God only in His revelations. Masked priests in the Mysteries endeavoured to test, frighten, and lure the Neophyte. Between Jupiter and Mars adverse Spirits of Motion create obstacles in evolution. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the Angels refuse to be tempted and they join with Sun. Luciferic beings impress into the astral body of Lemurians the results of the fight in the Heavens. The Angels are the first to have the possibility of error, evil and free will. The bull of Mithra. Michael and the Dragon. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nArchangel Michael killing the Dragon (Basilica San Marco)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Spirits of Motion were ordered to throw themselves athwart evolution. During Lemuria, Atlantis, and later, the Ego was in a cloud but assailed by Luciferic Angels. Other Angels, and Archangels then came to help and guide man. They descended into the physical, etheric and astral, and a being was prepared to receive the Ego. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Ego, the blood of Moses and Jesus of Nazareth. Christ never interfered with man’s free will. He did not propagate theory. He did not act by teaching but by His deeds and death. Lucifer cannot enter the Ego. The Advent of Christ. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The redemption of the Luciferic powers makes man stronger. It is the Truth that sets one free, from this comes Love. However, Love can only come through Freedom. Arch-messengers or Archangels perform the tasks allotted them, but man will fulfil his own task. Man will be the Hierarchy from the Truth, to Freedom, to Love<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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