Eighth sphere

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The eighth sphere, about which Rudolf Steiner has spoken in various contexts, is of decisive importance for the development of the Earth and humanity. It is not easy to grasp conceptually, for on the one hand it designates the sphere of the earthly activity of the creator gods, the Elohim, but on the other hand it is virtually identical with what is called "hell" par excellence in the various religious traditions.

The Eighth Sphere and Planetary World evolution

A glance at the spiritual background of human development alone can throw clarifying light on the riddle of the eighth sphere. Man has developed through the successive planetary world spheres of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon and is at present on Earth in his 4th stage of evolution. However, these spheres must not be thought of as merely successive, but their modes of evolution and their fruits of development interpenetrate each other at the present time. There are beings who are now on the Saturn stage, there are those who are now undergoing solar evolution, and so on. Even man himself is still standing with parts of his being in these spheres today, we carry a Saturn man, a Sun man and a Moon man within us. The spiritual Hierarchies, which project beyond man but are connected with him, are now already working in higher spheres, which man will only attain in the future through his expansion of abilities. Nevertheless, it can be said that man, in accordance with his overall disposition, already has a germinal share in these spheres:

Planetary World evolution and the Eighth Sphere
Planetary World evolution and the Eighth Sphere


Angeloi 5. Sphere Jupiter
Archangeloi 6. Sphere Venus
Archai 7. Sphere Vulcan
Exusiai 8. Sphere


Each of these stages of development is connected with a certain condition of consciousness. In the 4th sphere, man lives on the mineral solid earth, which he perceives with his senses and encompasses with his outer thinking. And only this sphere of the world can be perceived sensually at all - all other spheres are only accessible to a higher cognition. The objective sensual perception and the intellect associated with it are the basis for man's self-consciousness and freedom.

In the sensual world, man actually lives only through his head. And only the head originates from the straight line of development through which man now stands on the 4th stage of development. The senses themselves were already predisposed on Old Saturn. The head refers us to the past. This is true on a small scale, in that the head in its form refers to the previous incarnation, and it is true on a large scale, in that it has passed through the planetary stages of world evolution. If one speaks, as has become customary today, of man's descent from the animal, then this is valid - though only in a very limited sense - for our head, not for the rest of our organism. Michael does not have anything directly to do with this sphere at first; the head is the domain of Lucifer. Lucifer opened our senses, he brought us freedom and the knowledge of good and evil.

It is different with the rest of the human being, with the development of the chest and limbs. The limbs, in particular, were only newly added with the earth's evolution. The Spirits of Form (Exusiai, Elohim), the actual Creator Gods of our Earth, who for their part already work in the 8th sphere, work in them. And so we actually only live with our head in the 4th sphere, with the rest of our organism we live in the 8th sphere. We actually wade, figuratively speaking, with our whole lower organism in the 8th sphere as in a sea from which only the head protrudes.

That Lucifer rules in our heads is an act of Michael. He has freed the spiritual world from the Luciferic powers and cast the dragon down to Earth - into our heads. This is the fall of the spirits of light, of the Luciferic dragon.

In the 4th sphere, that is, in our actual earth world, we live together with Lucifer. He brings us wisdom and all our sensual daily knowledge has a Luciferian character and cannot give us any information about the actual divine world. Lucifer wants to spiritualise us as we are now - with all our imperfections. He wants to lift us above our head from the Earth into his sphere of wisdom, which, however, lacks love.

The lower human being should be an image of the higher hierarchies. He was to live on Earth in order to follow his path of evolution here, but in a very fine etheric corporeality. As a result of the Luciferic impact, the body was condensed to the point of sensual visibility - and this for the salvation of man. For this purpose the Moon was drawn out of the Earth, and the eighth sphere supplies those forces of attraction which hold the Moon in a certain proximity to the Earth. At the same time, however, these are the forces which protect man from being spiritualised too early by Lucifer. In this sense, the eighth sphere is the counterweight to Lucifer. It gives man more gravity and earthiness, it binds him to his lower organism, to flesh and blood - namely through the reproductive forces, through sensual-earthly love. And so the commandment of Yahweh is: Be fruitful and multiply! Up to the Mystery of Golgotha, it is about the incarnation of the spirit:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14)

„The eighth sphere consists in this, in one of its aspects, that man gets such a pull and inclination towards his lower nature that Lucifer cannot bring the higher nature out of this lower nature. Every time Lucifer made his efforts in ancient times to spiritualise men, they were too accustomed to the flesh to follow Lucifer. If they had not been inclined to the flesh, to the physical nature, they would have followed Lucifer. You see, this is one of the great mysteries of the existence of the world, that a divine element has actually been implanted in human nature, so that this human nature has, as it were, greater gravity than it would have had if this divine element, the divine necessity, had not been implanted. If it had not been implanted, the human souls would have followed Lucifer. If we go back to ancient times, we find everywhere that the religions set out to make men worship that which is earthly, that which gives earthly connection, that which lives in flesh and blood, so that man is hard enough not to be led out into the universe. And since for such things, where the human and the cosmic are already involved together, there is not only an earthly institution, but the cosmic institution must also be present everywhere, that happened which you will also find described in my "Occult Science - An Outline"; it happened that at a certain time, as you know, not only was the Earth formed and the Earth moved in its orbit around the Sun, but that the Earth got the Moon as its satellite. What does that mean: the Earth gets the Moon as its satellite? The Earth gets the Moon as its satellite means nothing else than: the Earth got a force through which it can keep the Moon close to it, can attract it. If the Earth did not have this power to attract the Moon, then the spiritual correlate of this power would also not bind man to his lower nature; for from the spiritual point of view the same power that binds man to his lower nature is the power with which the Earth attracts the Moon. So that one can say: The Moon is placed in the universe as an adversary of Lucifer, in order to prevent the Luciferic.“ (Lit.:GA 172, p. 207f)

This positive significance of the lunar forces under the direction of Yahweh and their relationship to the eighth sphere was often misjudged and distorted into the opposite in theosophical circles as a result of the erroneous presentation by A. P. Sinnett, which led to a rejection of Yahweh and consequently also to a tendency towards a non-Christian attitude, which Rudolf Steiner pointed out very clearly. (Lit.:GA 254)

The divine world reveals itself only from our lower organism. This was at first a night-recognition, for only the head has the waking day-consciousness. Yahweh spoke to men in dreams and dream-like visions, to which men were led by Michael - the Face of Yahweh. So with Moses, so with the prophets. This is the first Michael revelation, which includes the fall of the dragon.

Today, however, we must learn to combine the knowledge of the divine world with day-waking self-consciousness. The guide to this new spirit consciousness is again Michael. The right cultivation of the power of memory can be helpful in this. The words of Christ at the Last Supper point to this: "Do this in remembrance of me". Through memory we carry the sensual experiences we have with our head down into the depths of the rest of our organism, where they are revived by the divine-spiritual forces, and thus, transformed in memory, bring them up again into the bright daytime consciousness. Thus strengthened by the Michael-Christ power, man may go towards his spiritualisation:

„The incarnation of the Word is the first Michael-revelation, the spiritualisation of the flesh must be the second Michael-revelation.“ (Lit.:GA 194, p. 44)

The eighth sphere as a place of damnation

But this also gives the 8th sphere a completely new significance. It will become a decisive obstacle to development if it continues to work in the old way. New dangers lurk in the depths of the eighth sphere and they have become more and more apparent since the time of the second Michael Revelation, after the fall of the spirits of darkness. For here Ahriman has long been secretly unfolding his effects as the adversary of the rightful divine spiritual beings. Here he wants to create his own subterranean kingdom, which separates itself from the regular world evolution and into which he wants to draw as many human souls as possible. This is not Lucifer's fiery hell, but this is where the dark icy underworld comes into being, the realm of the Ahrimanic shadows, the true, the actual "hell" as a place of eternal damnation, of which many religious traditions speak.

Just as in a certain sense our present Moon is the dross left behind from the old lunar existence, in which all those forces condensed that could no longer take part in the further regular development to the present earthly existence, so similarly a dross will remain from our earth evolution, which will fall out of the progressive development, and precisely this is already preparing itself today in the form of the eighth sphere, which is permeated by the ahrimanic powers.

It must be stated very clearly that our present Moon is by no means identical with the eighth sphere, as has been falsely asserted in theosophical circles, but forms precisely the necessary wholesome counterbalance to the eighth sphere which is permeated by ahrimanic forces (see below). (Lit.:GA 254) The disposition for this is already formed today in the Devachan and leads to the state of the so-called Avitchi. This is where people who do not want to overcome their egoistic selfishness gather. Avitchi is currently already preparing the eighth sphere.

„Now, however, a being can grow together with what is actually to remain as dross. Something must remain from the Earth that is later to be what the Moon is today. Man must overcome this. But man can like it, then he connects with it. A man who is deeply interwoven with the merely sensual, the merely instinctive, connects himself more and more with that which is to become the dross. That will be when the number 666 is fulfilled, the number of the beast. Then the moment will come when the Earth must move out of the continuous evolution of the planets. When man has become too closely related to the sensual forces that are to emerge, then that which is related to it and has not found the connection to pass over to the next globe will go with the dross and become inhabitants of this dross, just as such beings are now inhabitants of the present Moon.

There we have the concept of the eighth sphere. Man must pass through seven spheres. The seven planets correspond to the seven bodies:

Saturn corresponds to the physical body
The Sun corresponds to the etheric body
The Moon corresponds to the astral body
The Earth corresponds to the I
Jupiter corresponds to the Manas
Venus corresponds to the Buddhi
The Vulcan corresponds to the Atma

In addition, there is an eighth sphere where everything goes that cannot join this continuous development. This is already formed in the devachanic state. If man uses life on Earth only to gather what serves him alone, to experience only an elevation of his own egoistic self, this leads in Devachan to the state of Avitchi. The person who cannot get out of specialness comes to Avitchi. All these Avitchi people once become residents of the eighth sphere. Avitchi is the preparation for the eighth sphere. The other human beings become inhabitants of the continuous evolutionary chain. The religions have formulated 'hell' from this concept.“ (Lit.:GA 93a, p. 112)

The eighth sphere as the dross of the mineral world

„In the first half of the fourth round man first acquires the ability to relate his senses to the mineral kingdom; in the second half of the fourth round he redeems the mineral kingdom. But a part of it remains behind, is eliminated, because it is no longer useful for man. This forms the so-called eighth sphere, which is no longer useful for human development, but only for higher beings. It can later serve them as material when it is dissolved into space dust and used for the new formation of other worlds. It is included in other streams of development; man cannot include it in himself.“ (Lit.:GA 89, p. 152)

Eighth Sphere and Buddhi Plane

Everything that had to be thrown out of the regular evolution of the sevenfold planetary chain becomes world dust, as a place of banishment, which can only be dissolved again with the beginning of a completely new evolutionary series by the creative consciousness of the first Logos, when it passes through the eighth sphere and thereby becomes a creative natural force, and is then taken along as the lowest being in the new evolution.

The 7 planes and the eighth sphere.

„The Buddhi plane is the absolute, loving surrender to the Divine. It has for its opposite the absolute renunciation of all that is divine. If the Buddhi plane has something blissful, its opposite is absolute unblissfulness. This is the eighth plane, the eighth sphere.

Imagine if some being had turned away from evolution on some plane in evolution, had gone its own way, then it would fall into the eighth sphere and would have to wait there until the whole evolution had gone round. It could only be taken along again in the next evolution as the lowest being. In this cosmic wind rose, the opposites are well expressed. - When we have reached the Nirvana plane, the being has reached the point where its Atma lies completely on the outside. We are then dealing with such a Logos, which we have called the Seven. They are the seven creative spirits, which is why we also have seven different races, [the so-called root races with their seven sub-races each].

The seven different spirits belong to the Ninirvana plane. Then, when we go through the Paranirvana plane and the Mahaparanirvana plane, we come to the first and second Logos themselves. On the Paranirvana plane the second Logos arises and on the Mahaparanirvana plane the first Logos arises. On the Nirvana plane the world system is completed by the 7 times 3 = 21 Prajapatis. The last of these is abc, the third Logos himself. Only the first Logos can take with him what has fallen into the eighth sphere. He takes it with the dust of the world. To be thrown up out of evolution means to chain one's life with something that necessarily remains behind, and to wait in it until evolution again meets the state in question. A savage inhabited by the soul of a savage is relatively happy; but think of an evolved being in the body of a savage or a dog, then it is banishment indeed. The higher soul has gone the way of a lower manifestation. In fact, "to go into the eighth sphere" means not to progress with evolution, not to be able to take part in the development of others, but to be thrown back to a lower level.

Consciousness is first a cognitive consciousness up to the Nirvana plane. From the Nirvana plane onwards, it is no longer a mere comprehension, but an inner creation. On the Paranirvana plane it is an outward creation. On the Mahaparanirvana plane it is the creative consciousness of the Logos. From there the consciousness of the Logos passes through the eighth sphere to the physical plane and there becomes creative forces of nature. In truth, they are the expression of divine thoughts which appear to us as forces because we do not overlook them.“ (Lit.:GA 89, p. 202ff)

The Eighth Sphere, Ahriman and the Asuras

Ahriman works from the eighth sphere and tries to bring egoism, the mere personal interest, into the wishes and will nature of man, thereby inoculating the organism with the forces of death. (Lit.:GA 194, p. 45ff)

The Asuras are also closely connected with the eighth sphere. The Asuras, who already missed their goal of development on the Old Saturn,

„... are the beings who strive towards the eighth sphere. They want to compress matter more and more so that it cannot be spiritualised again, i.e. returned to its original state. They are the sediment of the whole planetary evolution, which begins with Saturn and passes through the Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. The Asuras already populate the Moon and have an effect from the Moon on man, whom they want to drag down into the eighth sphere and thus snatch him away from the progressive development and its goal - the Christ. All those who strive towards the eighth sphere will finally find their existence on a Moon ([of the new] Jupiter).“ (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 205)

Animals and plants with a relationship to the eighth sphere

Animals with horny exoskeletons, such as beetles and spiders, have a relationship to the eighth sphere, and among plants, mistletoe in particular.

„Beyond development, for example, are the animals that have a skeleton on the outside, that are encased in their skeleton. Their inner development has dissolved, and from the outside they surround themselves with a layer of horn (beetles, insects). They are preparing themselves for the descent into the eighth sphere. The Old Moon also had an eighth sphere, a secondary moon. These beings have finished then, they have gone beyond their development and are now like an overripe fruit. In the eighth sphere belong, for example, the spiders, and among the plants the mistletoe. Goethe therefore attributes the realm of spiders and flies to Mephisto.“ (Lit.:GA 89, p. 134)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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