THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANKIND AND THE EARTH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF ROSICRUCIAN COSMOCONCEPTION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY
Mankind, as well as the Earth are incarnate - they go through planetary incarnations. The difference between a person´s incarnation and the incarnation of the Earth is huge. The Earth incarnates at a milliard (UK) or a billion (US) years intervals. The main incarnates - Saturn, the Sun and the Moon have gone successively through the Earth´s "incarnation" in the days when both our planet and the planets quoted above had not been in the current state. What the planets represent today are isolated, gradually materialized substances which, due to the influence of spiritual beings that have lived on them, have separated from the Earth (these planets used to be one body together with the Earth). In so called "Saturn epoch" our Earth´s body used to be just in a thermic form, which had been developed by compressing into an "air mass" during the evolution of the Sun. The parts of the air mass consolidated into a jelly substance (The four elements - fire, air, water and earth are related to this evolution as well). The thickest substance transformed into a solid form so the current Earth could arise and evolve itself. That was a turning point of the so called "Lemur epoch" followed by the age of fabulous Atlantis. The form of a human body was not the same or solid as today. Man did not have a physical body back then. He would perceive the world in a different way compared to the current humankind. His perception was not only sensorial. The dissipation of Atlantis (the deluge in the Bible) forced the rest of the population of Atlantis to escape. They brought about advancement moving to new continents. Many discoveries and phenomenons of the same sort that had appeared in different places at the same time or a high spiritual level of native American, Asian or Egyptian initiates could be explained by that. These are already attributes of the current post-Atlantis era in which mankind went through several cultural epochs. We can mention Rudolf Steiner Anthroposophy´s division as an example : 1. The Old Indian epoch (from 7 227 B.C.), 2. The Old Persian epoch (from 5 067 B.C.), 3. The Egyptian - Babylonian epoch (from 2 097 B.C.), 4. The Graeco-Roman epoch (from 747 B.C.), 5. The German - Anglosaxon epoch (from 1 413 A.D., current epoch). All these will be followed by two next epochs at 2 160 year intervals before another evolution will appear - 6. The Slavonic epoch and 7. The Philadelphian epoch.
It follows that our planet has progressively been gaining a "thicker mass". Human beings and their bodies have had a corresponding sort of evolution. Human embryo was on a distant Saturn milliards of years ago. It had only been a thermic organism back then who, in the subsequent epochs - solar and lunar ones, gradually gained everything it needed for its current physical body's formation. Man had even been given the embryo of his other bodies : an "ethereal body" on a distant Sun and an "astral body" on a distant Moon. (I do not mean a present state or appearance of bodies and planets using expressions like embryo and distant). Each segment was a gift from spiritual powers that had always given out something from their genuine essence.
The embryos of mineral, plant and animal kingdoms were created simultaneously with the planets. Therefore physical human body is inevitably connected to the minerals, ethereal body with plants and astral body with animals.( Animals have their own physical, ethereal and astral bodies. The last mentioned one is their highest segment and therefore, unlike the human segments, their mental-spiritual segments are of group character. They do not have their own independent "self"). By the evolution of human astral body´s embryo during the lunar stage, as well as male and female principles (Humankind had lived in the unity till the division), people could start to procreate and incarnate on the Earth´s surface. Therefore the main purpose of human existence here on the Earth is love. Its archetype - Jesus Christ - had to incarnate here on this planet for people (at least for some)to believe in his existence during the age of heavy materialism. The evolution has been returning since then (the crucufixion of Jesus), but at a higher level.
The present age is in accordance with The Old Egyptian in a way, but spiritual education is universally available nowadays. Mankind, despite great technical achievements, would have to gradually spiritualize its life to advance in its spiritual pathway.
Human primal base lies in his triplicity which he has had even on a distant Saturn - a body, a soul and a spirit. However it was not until the evolution of mankind on the Earth that man accepted his "self". Having done so he became an independent being and started developing himself.(He had a similar mental - spiritual configuration as animals until then).
He was given a free will to use, but it caused a possibility of making mistakes and the emergence of human karma (at the end of The Lemur epoch and its transition into the Atlantis epoch, decline down to materialism - biblically the expulsion from Paradise). As early as during the first human incarnations on the Earth each human being had its own "self", but conducted himself rather as an animal, because the higher segments of a human being were more or less at a low level. He was ruled by his astral body and his instincts and passions that are present within.
Therefore the oncoming task of human race is to transform its astral body, as well as ethereal and physical bodies later on. Everyone should work on taking control over his emotions, instincts and passions and to develop his mental and spiritual segments that have similarly another triple divisibility. Physical body represents the lowest, but the oldest and the most perfect part of human beings. Therefore it is basically developed for every human being with rather considerable differences between the stages of both mental and spiritual segments.
Many people still refuse spiritual foundation of substance, universe, as well as of humankind. Others erroneously teach about the inferiority of body and substance and about uselessness of other human incarnations here on this planet. They try to spiritualize humankind prematurely despite the fact that it is here on this planet where man can develop his general progress. Such ideas and acts are not an asset for a person. More incarnations will be necessary before man reaches another stage of developement, which will enable him to discard his physical body. The ethereal body will then become his lowest segment. Even after that he will have to carry on his development before he reaches his destination...
Remark: This is just a very brief description of the evolution. It is not possible to understand all the links. Those interested will find more contacts about Anthroposophy on relevant literature on the internet.