Overview of the spiritual hierarchies

As an general positioning and introduction to the study of the spiritual hierarchies, please read the section on the topic page Cosmic fractal.

Below follows a copy (shortened extract):

The Cosmic fractal is a term to describe the evolutionary dynamic of continuous development of spiritual hierarchies in a coordinated interplay in which nothing is static, all spiritual entities are evolving and developing, and the whole takes place along a certain plan and with certain laws or patterns which characterize the whole, and through which we can gain an appreciation, understanding, insight into creation and the true nature of the cosmos.

With our contemporary Waking consciousness, Man perceives with his senses an emanation of a physical reality, which is but an illusionary view of the macroscopic manifestation of a 'cosmic fractal' underneath which is generating this reality. This is sometimes also referred to by the term 'maya'.

It is not that the 'cosmic fractal' is 'rendering' this illusionary view, rather it is Man's sensory perception and limited consciousness that causes him only to see part of the whole, and not the 'full story' of the spiritual realities, the way these can be perceived by the various stages of clairvoyance. Our waking consciousness is like a 'bandpass' filter limiting our view of the whole.

The buildup or make up of it all consists of spiritual hierarchies in various stages of development, with different structures across the various Planes or worlds of consciousness.

Rhythm in Man and nature is a display of the structures underlying (see oa 25920, Spiritual hierarchies and their eigenperiods, ..) and shows how Man as a microcosmos is an integral part of the macrocosmos, embedded in this complex whole of Cosmic breathing.

The deeper one studies the qualities and dynamics of the substance of reality in the language of spiritual science, the closer it brings Man to the spiritual hierarchies.

This is how Man can get to know them, not individually, but as the concerted interplay - like the manifold instruments that are individually lost but still make up the global sound effect on the soul in a performance of a complex classical symphony.

From the above follows that to study the spiritual hierarchies is extremely complicated with our current faculty of intellectual thinking, because we can not split one hiearchy from another and thereby get to know it, before we move to the next. Actually the whole of the cosmic fractal needs to be considered together, because all hierarchies are so intertwined and part of eachother, and they all work together simultaneously .. that we can only get to know them indirectly by their role and contribution in the whole.

A way to illustrate that is to listen to music sample Music#FMC-MS0001, and listen to this first as a whole, and then as a sum of interplay of voices.

Rudolf Steiner thus describes the characteristics of each hierarchy as appearing in the multitude of aspects described in spiritual science. However one cannot just group all these and then use them as a sort of definition or study book, because the descriptions only make sense in context and as part of the greater whole that is described.

Aspects

• the 'triads'
  • Third Hierarchy
  • Second Hierarchy
  • First Hierarchy
  • Trinity, the three Logoi
• links to relevant Discussion notes on the site (to be grouped still), for study:
  • Creation of solar system#Note 2 - Schema representations in language of the hierarchies
  • Man and the spiritual hierarchies
  • Man and nature's kingdoms in evolution#Note 1 - The relationship of Man with the different hierarchies in evolution
• macrocosm perspective
  • see Schema FMC00.274 below
• micro-cosmological perspective - the human being
  • see: Man and the spiritual hierarchies
  • Introduction to Man as microcosmos
  • Man and the macrocosmos
• the evolutionary process of the hierarchies as mapped to planetary stages of evolution (rolling off and 'passing the baton'), see oa:
  • The two halves of an evolutionary cycle, and a concrete example, Schema FMC00.413 on Old Saturn
  • Transition between 4th and 14th century
  • promotion Michael from archangel to archai, see Archangel Michael
• off-springs or children of the hierarchies, created in the various planetary stages of evolution
  • see Schema FMC00.069 on Spirits of rotation of time and Schema FMC00.142 and variants on Overview Golden Chain
• representation of the hierarchies in art (wings, baby-faces, ..)

various

• all the divine beings belonging to the Sun, to Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, have their eye in the Moon and are at the same time in the Moon .. the Moon is like their organ of perception (1924-05-30-GA236)
• the scope or realm of impact of the spiritual hierarchies was outlined by Rudolf Steiner as being as follows:
  • H1 (Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones) <-> outer planets, respectively up to Saturn, Jupiter, Mars
  • H2 (SoW, SoM, SoF) <-> Sun
  • H3 (archai, archangel, angel) <-> inner planets, respectively Venus, Mercury, Moon

Inspirational quotes

1923-05-02-GA224

taken from: Man and the spiritual hierarchies#1923-05-02-GA224, see also Cosmic fractal and Schema FMC00.305

.. reality is living activity, inwardly full and rich; and in this activity the spiritual beings of the cosmos, in realm's of body, soul, and spirit, are revealed. In the end one comes always to spiritual beings.

To beings one must come at last in all understanding of the world. For spiritual beings alone are real.

Anything comes into existence only through the cooperation of beings — presenting then an unreal appearance to unclear vision. Just as in the unreal grey cloud the gnats are the real, particular beings — everywhere in the world it is particular beings that are at work, and the rest is illusion, arising from the co-existence of beings.

Illustrations

Overview reference

Schema FMC00.273 provides an overview of terminology used in various teachings for the spiritual hierarchies.

Schema FMC00.274 sketches a functional view on how we can imagine the work of the first and second spiritual hierarchy in what we call the cosmos or the world of the stars and planetary systems.

Schema FMC00.305 gives a very simple 'four level view' for studying anything we know in the world or cosmos. Starting at the highest level of experiential observation, we can study the structural components of a kingdom of nature, be it Man, Plant, Animal or Mineral.

These bodily principles and subsystems are the result of the wise collaborative weaving of the spiritual hierarchies throughout the evolutionary process, using the available building materials or substance available at each stage. See also Cosmic fractal.

Interwoven nature

Schema FMC00.661: shows the interwoven nature of the spiritual hierarchies in the Cosmic fractal.

Rudolf Steiner's descriptions in the language of the spiritual hierarchies may be complex to grasp in their totality; this Schema aims to shed some light on (one of) the reasons why in order to develop a better understanding.

Imagine this picture representing one whole spiritual reality. The Schema depicts that each spiritual hierarchy 'participates' in a bodily principle with six other hierarchies of beings, whereby for each hierarchy any bodily principle (as individual structural member of that hierarchy) plays in a different realm of impact. So whereas spiritual beings are mostly considered as consisting of a sevenfold structure (‘vertically’ on the Schema) … each of the bodily principles also ‘lives in’ or constitutes other bodily members (‘horizontally’) of other hierarchies of beings.

This also illustrates how the human being is connected to and made up of the Third Hierarchy H3 as well as the Second Hierarchy H2, and how Man's work with the human ‘I’ is ‘food for archai’.

See also Schema FMC00.471A for positioning the Christ Impulse and archangel Michael in the same view.

Schema FMC00.661A: graphically illustrates some quotes on the interwoven nature of the triads of the spiritual hierarchies that allow one to 'feel' one's way into how the hierarchies are nested, with phrasing such as 'looking through .. from behind .. come forth .. grows into".

This view complements the description of the 'vision of the midnight sun' in 1924-06-27-GA236, see Schema FMC00.662.

The general view can be deepened by other lectures available on the topic pages of the different triads of each spiritual hierarchy, as well as Golden vessels interchanging and elaborated on Overview Golden Chain.

For example, from 1910-GA013 and 1923-11-25-GA232, that "during sleep, Man grows into the Third Hierarchy that are floating up and down .. in the air-fire body of the Earth; but this Third Hierarchy is continuously being permeated from one side by the Second Hierarchy, a stream that goes from east to west and follows the course of the sun during the day."

Schema FMC00.472: illustrates the relationship of Man to the third hierarchy of angels, archangels and archai, and the Spirits of Form. The concept diagram provides links to various processes on other topic pages through the Schema references given.

See also the related Schema FMC00.471 and Schema FMC00.471A, and Schema FMC00.661 and Schema FMC00.661A, that aim to visualize how Man is like the fingers (or leaves) of a larger spiritual being (see Group souls of humanity#Concept of group soul), also covered on 25920 with the metaphoric image that this great being (consisting of all spiritual hierarchies as making up the cosmic fractal) 'breathes in and out' a human life as part of cosmic breathing rhythm.

See also: Man's bodily principles, Jehovah, Group souls of humanity, Monad, Three meetings, Structure of Man between death and a new birth, Man's transformation and spiritualization

Various

Schema FMC00.667: shows an excerpt of handwritten notes by Frederik Willem Zeylmans who worked on a book on the spiritual hierarchies. In the biography by his son Emanuel Zeylmans, the latter mentions that his father F.W. never wrote the book he intended to write on the hierarchies, but that he did leave notes on the subject that could fill a small book. See Overview of the spiritual hierarchies#1979 - Emanuel Zeylmans. Note: the Zeylmans legacy is kept at the Ita Wegman Institut in Arlesheim.

The example shows the approach using the categories of Aristotle: doing / being affected - or suffering (Tun/Leiden), location in space / time - or where and when (Ort/Zeit), and quantity / quality - how much and of what kind (Quantität/Qualität).

This is given as an illustration of work that could still be done to compile these materials and make available what might be of interest, given there are hardly any books on the subject of spiritual hierarchies given the extreme complexity of the subject matter.

Metaphoric imagery

Schema FMC00.668: shows two illustrations of metaphoric imagery to contemplate and develop an imaginative feeling of the spiritual hierarchies.

The folding telescope image shows how one element is embedded into a higher one, but they operate as one whole. Each element that folds out is connected to and 'hangs on' another earlier one. This can be related for example to Christ's descent to Earth through the spiritual hierarchies.

The russian dolls image show this 'embeddedness' in a different way, that each small doll is fully embedded in a larger one. This can be related to the planetary spheres and the cumulative effect of influences.

Schema FMC00.403: depicts swarms of gnats (upper two rows) and of birds (lowest row), showing how apparent macroscopic densification takes place due to the perspective and 'type of perception' of the observer. With 'type of perception' is meant here the human eye or camera, but just as well the type of consciousness that is able to discern which of the various Planes or worlds of consciousness, see Stages of clairvoyance.

Rudolf Steiner often uses this image of the swarm, see more on: Overview of the spiritual hierarchies#The metaphoric image of the swarm

The swarm can look as a dense black or white cloud, but can also look as dots, or quickly moving particles. The lower left flock of birds is an example: the upper smaller image has been slighly diffused, showing an 'object', the larger picture below has sufficient resolution to show the dot pattern. Notice the beautiful cloud forms on display of the workings of the animal group soul of the birds working from the astral world.

Similarly in astronomy beautiful complex forms of deep sky nebulae also represent astral forms and not always an object of physical mineral nature.

In short: "What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning." (Werner Heisenberg, 1958)

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage overview in Rudolf Steiner's GA

Rudolf Steiner goes furthers than all the above, and then ever before in the open teachings on spiritual science. He explicitlys cover the spiritual hierarchies in depth, one could say in two main sections.

• First the period 1908-1912, with four main cycles (42 lectures) (and a few flanker cycles), see below:
  • 1908-GA102 - The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man
  • 1909-GA110 - The Spiritual Hierarchies - Their Reflection in the Physical World
  • 1910-06-GA121 - The Mission of Folk-Souls
  • 1912-04-GA136 - The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature

as well as 1908-08-GA105 - Universe, Earth and Man.

• Secondly the period 1921-24, and especially the years 1922-23, where Rudolf Steiner integrates the hierarchies into the extensive coverage of the threefold being and the processing of karma. This time the coverage of the hierarchies are more woven into lecture cycles, and with individual lectures; rather than through specific 'named cycles' to cover the hierarchies (as in the period 1908-12). This second section of lectures is complementary and no less rich in depth and breath of contents.
  • Examples are
    • 1921-GA207 and GA208 - Cosmosophy Vol 1 and 2
    • 1923-11-GA231 - Supersensible Man

Building on the 1908 and 1909 cycles, especially the 1912 lecture course stands out as not just unique but also bewildering in terms of insights and images sketched for contemplation and imagination.

Introduction text

As shown on Schema FMC00.305 and other illustrations on Overview Free Man Creator#Illustrations, and also on the introductory page Cosmic fractal, the spiritual hierarchies are the most foundational element in the worldview spiritual science.

However this also makes them the most complex to study and understand, because they are other 'levels of being' ... like Man but only at higher stages or Conditions of Consciousness and bodily principles. With Man's contemporary waking consciousness it is extremely difficult for the human intellect to 'reason upwards' - see the example of the car axis on An intellectual trap#Aspects.

This makes the subject matter of the spiritual hierarchies the most complex to study, and it is not a coincidence that there are hardly any books on this, this is a normal consequence of the fact they are 'beyond' and 'above' Man.

The Cosmic fractal page therefore says:

The deeper one studies the qualities and dynamics of the substance of reality in the language of spiritual science, the closer it brings Man to the spiritual hierarchies. This is how Man can get to know them, not individually, but as the concerted interplay - like the manifold instruments that are individually lost but still make up the global sound effect on the soul in a performance of a complex classical symphony.

In other words we approach the spiritual hierarchies by immersing ourself into spiritual science first, and then also 'learning' about the language, the influences and role of the spiritual hierarchies in all things. Through this we can become familiar, but we should never expect to completely define, coin, box in or frame any level of the spiritual hierarchies in our contemporary language and concepts.

The approach therefore remains, as per the illustrations referenced above, to

• (1) start with hearing about the spiritual hierarchies as beings in constant evolution as part of the study of evolution,
• (2) then to study their influence in the kingdoms of nature and the macrocosm,
• (3) and finally home in on the relation of Man to the hierarchies.

This is also the approach Wilkinson takes below. This short text was choosen as an excellent introduction to 'feel' one-self into the subject matter.

Please keep in mind the below is an introductory text, part of Wilkinson's excellent booklet(s) covering a general introduction to Rudolf Steiner's worldview anthroposophy. So it is included here as a top level interface above the much more complex in-depth contents of the FMC wiki.

1981 - Roy Wilkinson

THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES

In ordinary everyday life we live in a world that provides us with a constant stream of impressions. There are innumerable physical objects around us of which we are dimly aware but of which we can suddenly become conscious if the occasion arises. For instance, we are much more aware of the car that nearly runs us down, the kerb stone that is out of alignment, the dog that snarls or wags its tail when we approach it, or the fact that so many people exist when we are trying to get through a crowd. The physical world is made very obvious to us in all the solid objects we encounter. But there are physical objects that have less solidity, as, for instance, water and air. Like solids, our awareness of water can easily be heightened—we need only fall into the river. The volatile air is a little more remote and our consciousness of it is perhaps increased when it is polluted or rarified as in a stuffy atmosphere or up a high mountain. Light and warmth are also more noticeable in their absence or abundance.

Thus a multitude of impressions from the natural world reaches us through our senses and affects us. But we are, in addition, subject to more subtle influences of which we are less aware. On a sunny day people are inclined to feel more cheerful than on a wet one. The geological structure of the environment, too, has an effect on health.

There is also the matter of human relationships. The people with whom we come in contact influence us and we, in turn, influence them, not necessarily consciously.

We can proceed further into a less definable world. Ideas and inspirations come into our minds. We are sometimes led to actions which we would not normally perform. It is not unknown for some tragedy to be averted through a sudden and apparently inexplicable intervention. In such a case sen­sitive souls speak of a guiding power or a Guardian Angel.

There are people who perceive beings in nature, in the earth, in the water, in the flowers and the trees. These nature spirits or elementals are known by other names, such as gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders. They are the 'little folk' of the Irish. Of people with such a faculty we say they are a little `fey', i.e. they have some primitive form of spiritual vision.

Bearing these matters in mind we can say that our normal consciousness of the world is partial. It can, of course, be developed, not only with respect to the material world but also beyond the immediate world of sense perception.

We can extend our survey. Even a cursory consideration of the natural or the human world will show that both are full of infinite wisdom. The way a plant grows, receives its nourish­ment, absorbs light, warmth and air, produces flower and seed, can be a never-ending source of wonder. The instinct that guides a bird to build its nest and care for its young is nothing short of miraculous. The human form is an astounding work of art and skill. Looking into the heavens we note that the movements of Sun, Moon and stars are obviously regulated. We can agree with Hamlet: 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'.

Wonder is the gate of knowledge. A deeper contemplation of nature can reveal some of its secrets. It may call forth some response in the human soul which is akin to a religious feeling. The question may arise as to what is expressed in objects and events since these are not always immediately explicable on their own ground. We may rightly ask after an agency which reveals itself in the phenomena, and, if there is such an agency, what its nature is.

Historically, except in relatively modern times, there has always been an answer. This was God or the gods. If we look back in history for a moment, we note that the ancient peoples had quite different faculties from modern man. They were familiar with 'gods'. Their minds were more attuned to a spiritual world and less to a physical and they were aware that in the spiritual world there lived higher beings.

All primitive peoples and all past civilizations have had their gods. The Hindus had a numerous array. The ancient Egyp­tians recognized that at one time higher beings had led them but withdrawn in favour of human or semi-human leaders. The Greeks and, to a lesser extent the Romans, looked up to their especial divinities. The Norsemen, the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons had theirs.

The names of the gods or divinities are as varied as the peoples and it is not proposed to list them here. But they also appear in the Christian tradition and certain of them are mentioned by name in the Bible. References to Angels are numerous. Isaiah had a vision of the Seraphim. It is the Cherubim who are set to guard the Garden of Eden. Jude refers to the Archangel Michael; St Paul speaks of Thrones, Dominions, Principalities and Powers.

In the western world the gods have receded, that is to say, with the development of thinking and its preoccupation with the material world the spiritual vision of earlier ages has been lost. (See vol. 1, chapter 3 of this work). This does not necessarily mean, however, that the gods no longer exist and for those who, like Rudolf Steiner, possess extended faculties of consciousness, the world of higher beings is still accessible. If we can consider the material world as an expression of the physical, then a greater understanding is achieved when the role of these beings is understood. Not only are we surrounded and influenced on all sides by physical events and objects but we are also continually surrounded and influenced by spiritual happenings and beings.

The title of this chapter contains the word Hierarchies. In its usual worldly sense 'hierarchy' is understood as a grade or rank in priestly government. In its derivation the word means `sacred rulership'. In the present context, Hierarchies refers to the ranks of higher or angelic beings.

Here on Earth man lives in the physical world with the three lower kingdoms of nature: the animal, plant and mineral. Above him, in the spiritual world, are three ranks of higher beings, reaching to the Godhead which is so far beyond him as to be incomprehensible in his present state of development. These beings have been active in the creation of the world and man. They have created the solar system and all that belongs thereto. They have developed Earth and man to their present state. Some have now withdrawn from active participation; others are still at work.

Each rank has three members. In the following schedule the various names are given, some of which are characteristic of the particular activity of that being.

• The Godhead
• First Hierarchy  
  • Seraphim, Spirits of Love
  • Cherubim, Spirits of Harmony
  • Thrones, Spirits of Will
• Second Hierarchy
  • Kyriotetes, Spirits of Wisdom,
  • Dominions Dynamis, Spirits of Motion, Virtues, Mights
  • Exusiai, Spirits of Form, Powers, Revelations (In Hebrew the equivalent of Exusiai is Elohim)
• Third Hierarchy
  • Archai, Spirits of Personality, Primal Beginnings, Principalities
  • Archangeloi, Spirits of Fire, Archangels Angeloi, Sons of Life, Sons of Twilight,
  • Angels

[Note: in what follows the text has been simplified for consistency and readability with the terminology choosen on this site]

Like man, the hierarchies are also engaged in a process of evolution. Like man, they evolve through their work and experience. Like man, they develop at different rates. At each stage of development some members of the hierarchies fail to reach the goal or purposely forego a normal development. There are thus a whole series of retarded beings who might be termed Spirits of Adversity. They are not evil in themselves but they provide adverse influences with which man has to deal.

The human being is, therefore, exposed to the forces of advancement and retardation, of good and evil, of God and the devil.

In the process of human development man changes from being a receiver to being a giver. As a child he receives; as an adult, he gives. The evolution of the Hierarchies follows this pattern. At first they receive; later they are in a position to give. Thus the highest Hierarchies can give of their substance to create the world and man. The lower ones work under their direction and in so doing further their own development.

The Work of the Hierarchies in Creation

Vol. 2, chapter 1 of this work deals with the development of the solar system, including, of course, the Earth. The agencies behind this development are the Hierarchies, who also create man.

As in a single life-span the human being first receives, then gives, so in the whole process of evolution man's path of development is from being created to becoming a creator. In very rough outline it can be said that the Hierarchies provide substance, then impulse and stimuli to awaken activity. The activity is transformed into inner life which then proceeds under its own impetus and becomes creative. Man will become `like God'.

An enormous flexibility and stretch of mind is necessary to I grasp these matters even in an elementary way. A fundamental thought to hold in mind is that in the world around us are the preserved thoughts of the gods.

Initially, the highest members of the First Hierarchy, the Seraphim, receive the impulse from the Godhead to create man and an environment in which he can evolve, i.e. the solar system. They contemplate the world-to-be but their con­templation is at the same time a creative act that brings a world into existence in a purely spiritual form. One might look upon it as an 'idea' world. The Cherubim have the task of transforming the ideas into workable plans and bringing them into harmony with other systems in the universe. The third group of the First Hierarchy, the Thrones, puts the plans into practice and provides the initial substance.

Although it sounds somewhat trite in view of the magnifi­cent work of creation, the members of the Second Hierarchy are the artisans of the solar system. The members of the First Hierarchy are so far evolved that they are in a position to be creators, i.e. to give or to sacrifice. What they give constitutes an initial stage. The Second Hierarchy takes over, to form a system according to plan, to maintain it and to begin work on the formation of the human physical body.

The members of the Third Hierarchy, under the guidance of the higher ranks, work on the human being-to-be. They mould and remould the prototype substance which will one day house an independent human spirit; they provide stimuli to awaken inner experiences such as feeling and thinking. The object is to create a being (man) whose goal of evolution is independence.

To understand this it has to be appreciated that by their very nature the higher Hierarchies merely reflect the Divinity. They have no freedom and the question of freedom does not arise. The destiny of man is different. He is to gain new and enhanced faculties by struggling with adversity caused by the left-behind members of the Hierarchies. At the same time this gives him the possibility of falling into error. It is part of the divine plan that he shall work out his own salvation, that he shall eventually evolve through his own efforts. In the course of aeons man will become the Tenth Hierarchy in his own right, because he will have earned it.

The work of creation is so remote from our present day thinking that it is very difficult to imagine. Two lines of thought may help to understand it.

One is to consider the different states of matter, i.e. solids, liquids, gases. On Earth we have a very common substance which appears in all three forms. Under the right conditions ice turns to water and water to steam. With four elements in mind we might imagine a further stage of attenuation, namely, warmth. Looking at the process the other way round, one would have a process of condensation—warmth, gas, liquid, solid. In the course of evolution an emanation of a particular kind of warmth became matter, i.e. spiritual substance crys­tallized into the physical.

A second consideration which might be helpful is to con­sider a plant. To form its roots, leaves, flowers and seeds, a plant needs physical substances; it needs light, air and water. But there is something in the plant that transcends all these, namely, that which gives it its particular form and shape but which is not ordinarily perceptible. Only one step is necessary to say that there is a spiritual entity manifesting itself in physical form.

The first stage of Earth development or the solar system is known as Old Saturn, or the Saturn-condition, and this can be imagined as a huge sphere of warmth in space which reached as far as the orbit of the present planet Saturn, taking the Sun as the centre. But it was not warmth in our modern sense. One might call it spiritual warmth. It was 'will' sub­stance, poured out by the third member of the First Hierarchy, the Thrones. They provided the initial substance already referred to, but again this 'substance' did not have sub­stantiality as we understand it today. It was into this substance of the Thrones that other beings worked in order to create a foundation for man's physical body.

Looked at purely anatomically and physiologically, the human being is a marvellous piece of work, but the physical body is the bearer of other attributes. It is endowed with a life force (etheric body); it is the physical expression of a soul (astral body); it is the instrument of the individuality (ego). In its construction, therefore, all these points must have been taken into consideration. In order that man could develop according to the ideas of the Godhead, the physical body had to be endowed with many potentialities. In fairy stories we have the picture of the fairies endowing the baby with various qualities. In the story of creation it is the Hierarchies who bestow the gifts.

In Old Saturn the human body was not physical as we understand it today. We can think of it as a prototype, mal­leable and flexible, still existing only in spirit. It had to be formed, shaped and worked into, so that it would be capable of bearing and using the gifts that it would eventually receive. Thus the various capacities were implanted into it in embryo form.

At this stage the members of the highest hierarchy func­tioned from outside the globe of warmth in the region we now call the zodiac. Old Saturn had an 'atmosphere' of spiri­tual beings. One has to imagine their influence radiating in from the whole circle but differentiated according to the direction from which it comes. That is to say, the influence was modified by the forces of the different regions of the zodiac.

These hierarchical influences laid the first foundation for the form of the different parts of the body, i.e. head, throat, heart, lungs, etc. Remnants of this knowledge were still cur­rent in the Middle Ages when it was considered that Aries (the Ram) and the head were connected; Taurus (the Bull) and the throat; Leo (the Lion), the heart, etc.

The Second and Third Hierarchies were active not from the outside but within the body of warmth. From among the members of the Second Hierarchy, the Spirits of Wisdom (SoW) had to translate the commands and impulses from their superiors into reality, the Spirits of Motion (SoM) provided the necessary continuity of activity and the Spirits of Form (SoF) maintained what was achieved. They had a task with regard to man.

It was stated that the physical body had to have the possi­bility of bearing an etheric, an astral and an I. The Thrones having provided the substance, it was the turn of the SoW who radiated their forces into it so that it could sub­sequently take up an etheric body. The SoM did the same for the astral and the SoF for the I. These were only preliminary steps.

The beings of the Third Hierarchy had other tasks. The Archai furthered the process of differentiation that resulted in a basis for personality. The result of the work of the Arch­angels was to produce the germinal organs of sense while the Angels worked on the germinal organs of nutrition and bodily function.

After a time a certain stage of completion was reached beyond which no further progress could be made in the given conditions. Hence the Thrones, who were the chief guides of Old Saturn, now dissolved it.

A new sphere had to be created with new guidance. Before  this could be constituted there was a period of rest, known as pralaya, the equivalent of sleep in human life.

To understand the next phase one might consider what happens when something burns. Heat is produced and the warmth splits into two elements. Something like this process happened to produce the next planetary development. The warmth of Saturn split into light and smoke (or gas). The reconstituted sphere was, however, smaller and forces were left outside which became the basis of the present planet Saturn. Its extent was from the present Sun to the orbit of Jupiter, and, because light was a feature of it, it is known as Old Sun or the Sun-condition. It was a radiant gaseous body. The SoW were the chief guides in this phase. They had been instrumental in condensing the substance of Old Saturn to Old Sun. The Spirits of Form, in their own evolution, were now able to relinquish their etheric body. The SoW worked this etheric substance, this life-force, together with a contribution from themselves, into the prototype physical bodies of man-in-the-making, having pre­viously prepared them to receive it. One could say that at this point the human being was in a sort of plant stage. Not all the substance of Old Saturn had been irradiated so that in Old Sun there was another kingdom, the prototype mineral world.

Thus at this stage there were two kingdoms of nature but not as we now know them.

It must be borne in mind that through their activity the higher beings also evolved. They had therefore the possibility of becoming more effective. What was achieved in Old Saturn on the making of man now had to be modified in view of the new conditions and the bestowal of the etheric. Thus all the potentialities that were implanted in the Saturn stage were now transformed to a new level.

Again there was a withdrawal period and again a re-awa­kening. The SoM transformed Old Sun to Old Moon and they were now the chief agencies. The gaseous substance of Old Sun was condensed to something of a liquid consistency. The contracted sphere extended as far as the orbit of Mars and it is known as Old Mars or Old Moon. Again a residue of forces were left outside which manifested later as the planet Jupiter.

(In speaking of gas or liquid it must be borne in mind that these are not the same as our present gases or liquids. One still has to think of them as of the nature of prototypes. The use of the word 'Moon' may cause some confusion. Old Moon is not in any way to be equated with our present Moon. It is possible that it derives this appellation from the fact that members of the SoM were at different stages of evolution and a division took place in the Old Mars—or Old Moon—sphere. The more advanced members formed one colony which could be called a sort of sun and the less advanced formed another, a satellite which revolved around it. Eventually the two were united again.)

As far as the development of man is concerned, the astral was now incorporated into the combined human physical and etheric bodies. The SoM now gave of their own essence together with the etheric released by the evolving SoF and the human-being-to-be was therefore now endowed with a third principle. Again in the changed environment and with the new powers there was more work for the Hierarchies in adapting and transforming.

One could say that the human being was now at the animal stage. Not all the substance received the astral and there was therefore now a prototype plant world as well as the mineral.

After another pralaya the fourth period of development began and this brought with it further contraction and con­densation. The Earth as we now know it was not in existence and the new sphere still contained what was later our present Sun, Earth with its Moon, and the minor planets. (See vol. 2, chapter 1 of this work.) Forces left outside the new sphere formed, in due course, the planet Mars.

A similar process to what had happened before now took place. The Hierarchies themselves had developed further, conditions had changed and all qualities and organs apper­taining to the human being had to be metamorphosed. It was during this period that what was spiritual now became man­ifest as physical matter and that the physical organism of man was created. The totally new endowment that he received  was the I, a gift from the SoF, a drop of their own substance.

Those entities not sufficiently mature to receive the I formed the future animal world.

Before dealing with this cosmic body of combined Sun, Earth and minor planets, it may be helpful to look back at the formation of what we now see as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.

The fact was already mentioned that certain beings do not complete their evolution. The normal Spirits of Form set the boundaries of the spheres, i.e. Old Saturn, Old Sun (Jupiter), Old Moon (Mars), but the abnor­mal ones are banished or remain outside and work from outside. Thus at each stage of contraction there is a dis­turbance at the periphery which becomes manifest in the course of further development as a planet. This then is the home of a colony of beings who have fallen out of the normal stream.

The undifferentiated cosmic body which later split into Sun, Earth and the minor planets became denser, but for man, whose further evolution was to be through contact with a material world, it was not yet dense enough. For some beings, members of the SoF, the environment was unsuitable and for their further development they withdraw, together with subordinate beings through whom they act, and formed what is our present Sun. Others were not sufficiently mature to accompany them yet were too far advanced to remain within the changing conditions. They were at an intermediate stage and the two planets Mercury and Venus split off as their habitations.

There now remained a contracted sphere consisting of present Earth and Moon combined.

The Spirits of Form (the Elohim of the Hebrews) are essentially connected with Earth evolution. Not only are they concerned with man but they are the ones who give the planet its configuration. It is at the beginning of the Bible that we read: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' But for 'God' one should read `Elohim', as it is in the original.

Those members of the Hierarchy who had made their dwelling place in the Sun now sent down their influence from that direction but, had there been no counterforce, this would have resulted in an unbalanced development in man's evolu­tion. To prevent this one of the SoF stayed with the Earth, and when, due to other adverse influences, the Earth was tending towards too great a densification, he took the grossest forces out, the result of which was the formation of our pre­sent Moon. The human being now lives in a state of balance between the promoting forces of the Sun and the retarding effect of the Moon.

(The roles of Christ and Jehovah are connected with these matters.)

At our present stage of evolution man has been endowed by the Hierarchies with physical, etheric and astral bodies, and an I. He has been given the Earth as his work place and a cosmic setting. The world is an expression of the thoughts and deeds of spiritual beings but the beings themselves are no longer actively engaged in creation although their influence is still effective in certain areas. The world is now, so to speak, complete. Man is responsible for it and for his own further evolution but he will receive help from the higher beings if he seeks it in the right way. This means a development of his own spiritual faculties.

The Third Hierarchy, those beings more closely connected with the human being, are still with us.

The Spheres of the Hierarchies

With our Earth-bound thinking there are always difficulties in trying to visualize conditions in the spiritual world. Yet earthly concepts must be used to try to attain some under­standing. A question which may arise is that concerning the dwelling place of the Hierarchies.

A short answer would be to say 'in the spiritual world'. But the spiritual world is a general term covering many regions. The regions can be equated with the planetary spheres.

In speaking of regions, however, and of spiritual beings, one  must remember that space in the spiritual world does not have the same quality as in the physical. Spiritual spaces, like spiritual beings, are interpenetrating and this is something to be remembered when what is described is given in spatial concepts. Spiritual realms do not exist side by side but inter­mingle with one another. If a human being can attain spiritual vision, the regions become progressively perceptible as his ability increases.

With our normal consciousness we look into the apparently endless blue sky by day and interminable blackness by night in which are scattered the innumerable points of light repre­senting stars and planets and we think in terms of physical objects. But perhaps we must call an imaginative faculty into play and picture these vast spaces inhabited by countless beings whose influence radiates down to us just as the warmth of the Sun.

Looking back a little into history we note that, at the time of the Middle Ages, a new concept of the universe came into men's minds. The centre of the universe was shifted from the Earth to the Sun and the planets revolved around it according to mechanical laws. Stars and planets became physical objects only. In still earlier times, in Atlantean or in the early cultures of post-Atlantean times (Ancient India to Greece), people had a different understanding. They were aware of spiritual beings in the cosmos, and when the names of the planets were used they were understood as centres or spheres of spiritual activity. As late as the time of St Paul, his intimate pupil, Dionysius the Areopagite, proclaimed that spiritual beings lived in space and that the soul could develop to a perception of them.

Since the time of Copernicus (1473-1543) we have come to look upon the Sun as the centre of the solar system, with the planets, including the Earth and its satellite, moving around it. The older point of view, commonly known as the Ptolemaic, is the one where the Earth is considered the centre, with the Moon, Sun and the planets circling around it. This is the apparent movement from our Earth. Thinking of the spheres of the planets in connection with the spiritual Hierarchies, the Ptolemaic view is correct. If one considers also the fact that the Earth is the present scene of man's evolution in the whole of planetary development, a central position may be accorded it.

Whether one considers the attitude of the ancient peoples or of modern initiates, to both of them the cosmos is full of perceptible beings and within the planetary orbits are the spatial dwellings of the Hierarchies. The Moon orbits the Earth, and taking the Earth as centre and the circular path of the Moon around it one can visualize a sphere in space. This is interpenetrated by the spheres of which other planets form the orbits.

Thus there are a series of concentric spheres and it is here that the various higher beings have their habitations. The orbits mark out the limits of the realms of rulership of each member of each Hierarchy.

Although a certain sphere is the home of certain higher beings, it does not mean that they only function there. For instance the Spirits of Form have a common centre in the Sun sphere but they set the boundaries of the outer planets and also work within the spheres thus enclosed.

Sphere: Inhabitated by:

• Moon    Angels
• Mercury Archangels
• Venus   Archai
• Sun        Spirits of Form
• Mars      Spirits of Movement
• Jupiter  Spirits of Wisdom
• Saturn   Thrones

Beyond Saturn is the region of the Cherubim and Seraphim, in the zodiac.

(It should be noted that in the course of history the names of Mercury and Venus have been exchanged. What is called Mercury above is the present Venus and Venus above is the present astronomical Mercury.)

There are planets beyond Saturn, e.g. Uranus and Neptune, but these do not properly belong to the solar system. They were formed by beings who had already withdrawn from Old Saturn.

Hierarchies, Earth and Man

In the physical world we distinguish various natural king­doms. Below man, in descending order, are the animal, plant and mineral worlds, the three kingdoms of nature. In the spiritual world are the kingdoms of the Hierarchies. Above man, in ascending order, are the three ranks of higher beings. The nearest to man is the Third Hierarchy whose members are the Angels, Archangels and the Archai and who are essentially concerned with man's development.

One stage further developed than man are the Angels. They have no physical body and no need to incarnate. The Angels have the task of watching over man and guiding him in certain matters for which he himself as yet does not have the capacity.

One example is the fairly common experience that some unseen power seems to guide us on occasion. We do things unconsciously and yet, looking back on life, it can be felt that we were led in some particular direction that was not intended at the time. We speak of a Guardian Angel, or a Guiding Spirit.

Another is that in his present imperfect condition man is not yet master of himself. He has control of only part of his astral body, which is the seat of desires, urges and impulses. In the course of time he will transform it so that it becomes a higher member of his being and he gains a new faculty. It is one of the tasks of the Angel to help man in this work.

Normally a man is not aware of his Guardian Angel although a sense of the presence of this higher being may sometimes be discerned in the soul in particular circumstances. When, for instance, a human being fulfils a task out of pure love, entirely beyond egoistical interests, then he may become aware of some supersensible agency, which is in fact his Guardian Angel.

The Archangels are not concerned with individuals but with groups of people, e.g. nations. The expression 'folk-sour or `folk-spirit', although generally used in an abstract sense, can be taken to indicate a reality. The Archangels are the guiding spirits of particular nations or peoples. It is also their task to govern the relationship between individuals and the nation or people.

The next rank is that of the Archai, the Primal Beginnings, or the Spirits of Personality. Whereas Angels are concerned with individuals and Archangels with race, the Archai have the guidance of a whole cultural age as their mission. The expression `Spirit of the Times' can also be taken as a reality. The Archai have the task of guiding a particular period which is not restricted to a particular people. One can think in terms of cultural epochs such as those of Egypt/Chaldea/Babylon/ Assyria or Greece/Rome. The Archai influence the incarna­tion of certain personalities whose presence on Earth is necessary at these particular times.

In the course of history members of the above Hierarchy have had special tasks under special circumstances.

If we think back to ancient times before man received the I, humanity could be compared with children who need guidance. Before the Earth solidified into its present condition it went through other stages, where, in tune with its develop­ment, the human structure was less rigid than it is today. The period immediately preceding our own was Atlantis, and the one before that Lemuria. In these periods mankind was directly led by beings of the Third Hierarchy. Archai, Arch­angels and Angels acted through human agency. The people felt the influence of divine spiritual beings who inspired but did not directly incarnate. There were, however, other mem­bers of the Hierarchy who had fallen behind in their devel­opment and did incarnate, of which more will be said later.

In Lemuria there was no speech and no thinking as we understand it and hence no communication as we know it. Certain members of the Archai permeated particular human bodies and radiated an influence from the spiritual worlds that people accepted instinctively.

In Atlantis Archangels worked through human beings who were centred in the oracles and were the priests of the age. Manu (Noah) was such a one.

In late Atlantis and into the first periods of post-Atlantean civilizations, Angels were the main inspirers, although there are some cases of the presence of Archai and Archangels.

Although no longer active in creation, the higher Hier­archies still have tasks to fulfill. It has been described elsewhere 

how the Earth is one of a series of planetary developments. The Exusiai have the task of seeing that humanity passes rightly from one stage to the next. The Earth is the place where man works out his karma at present. It has a particular form. For this also, the Spirits of Form, are the responsible beings. But within the form there is continual movement. In the limited period of a lifetime the relative positions of land and sea may not change greatly but over a longer period the changing relationships are to be observed. An example is the change in the configuration of the Earth from Atlantis to the present time. Water and air are in con­tinual motion. Moisture is drawn upwards, clouds form and rain falls. The explanation of such matters as given by physics may be correct as far as it goes, but there are also more subtle influences. These continual movements in the planet may be likened to the etheric body of man. They are an expression of life and are brought about by the Spirits of Motion. Behind the form and behind the movement is a sort of awareness of what must happen. This idea, this consciousness, is invested in the Spirits of Wisdom.

The Earth, however, is not on its own. It belongs to the rest of the solar system and to the universe. It obeys certain laws and the agencies governing its path through space are the Thrones. To harmonize its movement with the rest of the planets is the task of the Cherubim, while the Seraphim, regulate the functioning of the solar system with other systems.

At all stages there are members of the Hierarchies whose development is incomplete and man lives both under the influence of the normal beings and of those who have remained behind. These were termed Spirits of Adversity but it must be remembered that they are not evil in themselves.

As man grows in strength by overcoming obstacles, the Divinity saw fit to make his path less straightforward than it might have been in order that he should develop new qualities. Certain members of the Hierarchies were prevailed upon, or allowed, to remain behind in their development. It was a sacrifice. Their action furthered the interests of man but at the same time introduced the possibility of evil.

It is the nature of Angels to reflect the activities of higher ranking beings, and when some of these renounced further development some Angels followed their example. They received an impulse to be free, to develop an inner life them­selves. They are known as Luciferic beings.

Owing to their changed condition they needed a different means of gaining experience and found that a closer connec­tion with man could provide this. This affected man in such a way that he received astral forces which he could not entirely control. Thus although his feelings can give rise to noble endeavour they can also be devoted to selfish ends. Unless checked and guided by a higher element in his being, man's passions, urges and impulses can lead to fanaticism and to a state of mind where he is not in control of himself. The power of the Luciferic spirits is thus strengthened. They would like to rule the world.

The Luciferic beings persuaded man that he could become independent of divine powers. They gave him a new faculty and he became aware of the physical world. His eyes were opened. Prior to this he had lived in a state of consciousness of the spiritual world and thus was unconscious of bodily func­tions. Now he became aware of the process of propagation, aware of sickness, pain and death.

There is a purpose for man in being influenced by abnormal beings but what at a certain time is progressive for him becomes retrogressive if continued into a later period under different conditions. For humanity's wider experience and development diversity was essential. Thus at one stage the Luciferic spirits divided mankind into races. For a time that was perfectly justified but if extended beyond a certain period then negative symptoms appear such as racialism and nationalism.

It was said earlier that in Lemurian and Atlantean times beings of the Third Hierarchy permeated human bodies and were revered leaders, but there were also some who actually fully incarnated. They were the ones whose development was incomplete and they held a middle position between man and Angel. They became humanity's teachers and founders of different civilizations.

In Lemurian times speech was prompted by the normal Angels and would have been uniform throughout mankind, but Luciferic beings incarnated into particular groups of people and taught particular languages.

Contact with the physical world brought another danger to man. Besides the Luciferic beings there are others known usually by the name given to them in the Persian age, Ahrimanic or Spirits of Darkness.

It is not the intention here to deal with the problem of good and evil or the matter of redemption which includes the mis­sion of the Christ, but some brief indication of these things must be given in the context of the general theme.

While the Luciferic forces would draw man away from the Earth, those of Ahriman would bind him closer to it. It is the object of the latter to persuade man that the material world is the only one that matters.

With these two powers man must contend. To help him to combat them a mighty spiritual Being came to Earth and incarnated in a human body, bringing revitalizing powers into the Earth's atmosphere whereby man can strengthen his I forces, purify his astral and recognize the physical world as a manifestation of the spiritual. This was the Christ. He did not seek to coerce. No higher power can force man to do good. Man is to rise and be free through his own effort and even­tually redeem his adversaries.

There is another very important connection between the Hierarchies and man, namely, their meeting which takes place during man's period of sleep and in the time between death and rebirth. There is, or should be, a mutually beneficial exchange of experiences.

A careful observer in these matters might discern occa­sionally a certain uneasy feeling on waking, something akin to a bad conscience. This may be due to an unsatisfactory meeting with the higher beings. The reason for this may lie in what has been spoken the previous day. Speech and its content are not only of importance in physical life but have far wider implications.

What has been spoken by the human being during the day re-echoes in the spiritual world in sleep and should bring joy to certain members of the Hierarchies. But slovenly speech and materialistic content bring no pleasure and this in turn inhibits the higher beings from giving certain invigorating forces. Thus the human being suffers a form of deprivation.

Furthermore, the Hierarchies themselves then suffer from a sort of undernourishment. What the human being takes into the spiritual world is of consequence for them. They cannot give if they do not receive and this is particularly important for man in his journey through the spheres after death. It is the task of the spiritual beings in the heavenly regions to trans­form human deeds and work the results into the new karma which will be experienced in subsequent incarnations. The Third Hierarchy is concerned with the formation of the body; the Second implants forces of attraction and aversion, which are a guide to find related human beings; the First Hierarchy helps to determine the path which leads to events and apparent happenings.

It must be remembered that what the human being says and does is not only his affair and that of the Hierarchies but it affects the world in general.

The Hierarchies in Nature

With our normal consciousness we live in a physical world, but this is only a half-existence. The physical world is a manifestation of spiritual forces. If our minds were sufficiently developed we should perceive these forces not as abstractions but as higher beings.

We speak of a physical Earth and physical effects but the Earth is subject to all sorts of influences streaming in from the cosmos. The effect of Sun and Moon are well recognized and certain planetary influences can be demonstrated, but we can now think a little further to whole ranks of spiritual beings in space who also radiate something into our Earth.

When we consider man, we see first his physical body. There is, however, something in the physical body which keeps it alive—a supersensible principle or body known as the etheric.

There is something further which is the seat of urge and impulse—the astral—and beyond that the overriding guide which we call the I.

With regard to the Earth, there is a similar arrangement but what we term principles or bodies are beings. These beings are the Hierarchies and their offspring or servants.

The Earth has an obvious physical existence. In so far as there is life in the physical, it has an etheric. Some force pro­vides impulses and stimulation. This is the astral, and there is a certain guiding power which we can equate with the I.

Let us consider the kingdoms of nature below man, i.e. mineral, plant and animal. The mineral is usually thought of as dead matter and from a certain aspect this is correct. But matter is something which has crystallized out of being, and if we think back to the origins of Old Saturn then we may appreciate that what has become matter is a part of the warmth substance that emanated from a member of the highest Hierarchy, the Thrones. In the case of the mineral the substance was not further vitalized but it still possesses form and inner being. Metals have definite characteristics; rocks are composed of various substances which give each a unique character. The plant world represents a further stage of development. It has an endless array of form and manner of growth. The animal world is further advanced and has equally a multitude of differentiations.

Once the Earth was created, it required a sustaining and maintaining element. The active forces that gave the mineral its inner being, the plant its unique shape and movement, and each animal species its particular characteristic stream down from the heavenly spheres, the dwelling places of the Hier­archies, but for their work on Earth the Hierarchies have assistants.

In the solid substance, in the rocks, in the metals are the so-called earth spirits. In the mist, cloud and spray are the water spirits. The latter are the beings whose task it is to draw the plant upward from the earth. Around the blossom and fruit of the plant hover the beings of air while a fourth category transmutes the warmth of the environment into the ripening forces.

It is the co-operation of all the nature spirits that forms the etheric body of the Earth and the nature spirits are helpers and offspring of the Third Hierarchy. As a plant puts forth seed, so the Hierarchies can produce other beings. The difference is that a plant will grow like its parent but the offspring of the Hierarchy does not attain the same status.

Behind the activity of the Third Hierarchy is that of the Second, which provides stimulus. The fact that everything has form, the world and all its inhabitants, was already mentioned. Of form there is an endless variety. Form changes, however, in the process of growth. We need only think of the metamor­phosis of the plant, how seed changes to leaf, leaf to flower, flower to fruit and fruit to seed. In animal and man there is change and growth but in all these developments there is innate wisdom.

In creation the Second Hierarchy was concerned with bestowing the astral on man and the Second Hierarchy have offspring in the astral world. These are the group souls of plants and animals.

(Group soul or group I may require a little explanation. In man we recognize an individual and attribute human individuality to the I. Each person is an individuality in his own right but this does not apply to the plant or animal kingdom. Although a single animal may have its idiosyn­crasies, we note that its nature and behaviour is very similar to every other animal of that species in fundamentals. Yet each species is individual and therefore one can speak of the indi­viduality of a species, known otherwise as the group soul or group I. The same applies to plants.)

Also in the astral sphere, giving directions to the nature spirits, are other beings who are the offspring of the First Hierarchy.

The First Hierarchy consists—so to speak—of directors, originators. As the human being lives in certain rhythms, for instance the rhythmical change between sleeping and waking, so does the Earth. There are forces that influence the blos­soming and withering of plants, the alternation of day and night, the changing seasons, the life-span of animals. These forces emanate from the First Hierarchy but they are admi­  nistered by their offspring, known as the Spirits of Rotation of Time. These beings govern everything that takes place in the rhythms of nature, everything that depends on repeated hap­penings.

We could summarize then the influence of the Hierarchies in nature as follows, remembering the intermediaries:

• In the forces of the elements      Third Hierarchy
• In the form and metamorphosis Second Hierarchy
• In the origins of laws and rhythms            First Hierarchy

When the human being uses his senses (i.e. sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch), he becomes aware of objects in the phy­sical world. He may make thoughts about these objects with regard to their forces, laws and even causes, but in the final instance objects have 'being' and this is a spiritual entity. At some future stage of his evolution man will develop new capacities that will give him an awareness of the Hierarchies while he is still an inhabitant of the physical world.

Reference extracts

1909-04-12-GA110

When Man looks at the outer space of the world and his physical eye sees only what is physical, the space is filled with spirit.

It was the most intimate pupil of St. Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite, who said in clear-cut words: ‘There is not only matter out there in space; there is, for the soul which rises consciously into the spaces of universal existence, the spiritual part which stands above man in the evolution of existence.’

And he used words which sounded different from the old ones, for if he had used the old words everybody would have understood them in the material sense.

The Rishis spoke of the spiritual hierarchies, they expressed in their language what the Greek and Roman wisdom still described when speaking of the ascending scale of worlds: of the Moon, of Mercury, Mars and Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

Dionysius, the pupil of the Apostle Paul had the same worlds in his mind as the Rishis, he repeated in clear cut words that here one had to do with spiritual realms, and he used words which he could be certain would be understood in their spiritual sense:

He spoke of angels, archangels, archai, powers, mights, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.

For now humanity had completely forgot what it once knew.

Had it still been able to understand the connection between what Dionysius and the Rishis had seen, it would have grasped,

• while hearing on the one side of the moon and on the other side of the Mysteries of the angels, that these were one and the same thing.

• It would have heard the word Mercury on the one hand and archangel on the other, and would have known they were the same.
• The word archai spoken by the one, and Venus by the other, were the same.
• And men would have understood that with the words Sun and Powers or Exusiai - Spirits of Form - the same worlds were meant.
• With the name Mars they would have felt that they had to rise to the Mights or Dynamis - Spirits of Motion.
• When they heard Jupiter mentioned, they would have known that it was the same as when in the school of Dionysius, Dominions or Kyriotetes - Spirits of Wisdom - were described.
• Saturn corresponds to Thrones; but in wider circles this was not known any more, it could not be known.

Thus there was on the one side a science of matter, which became ever more material, and the old names which once signified spiritual forces, were now used in a material sense. And on the other side, there was a spiritual life which spoke of angels and archangels, etc. which had lost its connection with the physical designations of these spiritual beings.

Thus we see how the primeval wisdom enters through Dionysius into the school which Paul had inaugurated, and how this new inauguration had to be penetrated by the ancient spirit. It is the task of modern spiritual science, or anthroposophy to form once more the bond which must unite the physical to the spiritual, the bond between the earth and the spiritual hierarchies.

1910-08-22-GA122

from RSH

The thrones on Old Saturn sacrificed the warmth substance and densified it in the subsequent planetary stages up to the solid element on earth. The watery element is the corporeality of the kyriotetes; the airy, gaseous one is that of the dynameis. The exusiai (= elohim = “spirit of God”, see Genesis 1:2) work in the warmth which penetrates the other elements. In the circumference of the solid Earth, the cherubim are forming the clouds; the seraphim are active in lightning and thunder

1917-12-30-GA180

not yet on rsarchive

from RSH

The outside world projects into the area of the (12) senses and is grasped by the etheric body and is brought to consciousness that way. Because the etheric body is, in the end, of cosmic origin, the cosmic seizes itself in the human being this way.

• The sense-perceptible world and the area of the planets are the outside of the exusiai and the beings of the second hierarchy serving them.
• The proper apparatus of thinking is a work of the dynameis (the front brain is regarded only as a transformed sense of smell) whose external side is the fixed stars.
• The glandular organs, which are connected with human feeling, are deeds of the kyriotetes whose external side cannot be perceived anymore, because it lies beyond the fixed stars.
• The organs of will are deeds of the thrones.
• The area of the cherubim and seraphim is already “not discernible in such a high degree that the imperceptibility is perceived again. It evades so intensely to human consciousness that the human being notices this evading consciousness.”
• The cherubim appear (objectively) in thunderstorm and volcanic forces,

• the seraphim in volcanic fire and lightning: “It is just the reverse, the absolutely negative, but the spiritual is so strong that just already its imperceptibility, its non-existence, is perceived by the senses.”

1923-05-02-GA224

see Cosmic fractal#1923-05-02-GA224

and Process of waking and sleeping#1923-05-02-GA224

1924-05-30-GA236

And so when we return into the body after having been outside it, we become aware that there, within the body, are beings of all the higher hierarchies. But this form of self-knowledge, the knowledge that the body is the bearer of the beings of the higher hierarchies, cannot be acquired in any other way than by having first been outside the body and then returning into it again.

This can be understood only when it is connected with another fact. I have told you that the many stars in the heavens are but the outer signs of colonies of gods. Where the stars sparkle in the heavens there are, in reality, colonies of spiritual beings.

But you must not imagine that these gods have their consciousness only in Venus, or only in the Sun, or in Mercury, or in Sirius. They have their main habitation, the focal point of their existence in these several spheres, and this is true of all spiritual beings of the cosmos who have anything to do with the Earth. But it is impossible to say of their existence in the cosmos that they have their dwelling-place only in Mars, only in Venus, and so forth.

Paradoxical as it will seem, I am nevertheless obliged to say that the divine beings who belong to the Earth and who people Mars, Venus, Jupiter or another of the planets—also the Sun—would be blind if they inhabited only one of these spheres. They would live, they would be active—just as we can walk about and take hold of things even if we have no eyes; but they would not see—I mean, of course, in the way in which divine beings ‘see’—they would lack a certain faculty for perceiving what is happening in the cosmos.

But this, my dear friends, will lead you to ask: Where, then, is the eye of the gods, where is their organ of perception?

This organ of perception is provided by the Moon, our neighbor in the cosmos—in addition to all its other functions. All the divine beings belonging to the Sun, to Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, have their eye in the Moon and are at the same time in the Moon.

1924-06-27-GA236

from RSH

Portrayal of an initiatory stage of the ancient mysteries: beholding the sun at cosmic midnight. The sun is experienced as the chief dwelling place of the beings of the second hierarchy whose revelation is the sensory world.

• The beings of the third hierarchy live during sleep in the thoughts and ideas people had the day before.
• The beings of the second hierarchy and those of the first hierarchy occupy themselves with the astral body and I that are detached from the other bodies during sleep.
• Their (first hierarchy) activity “strikes like lightning into the weaving and working of the second hierarchy, but striking right to the opposite side of the Earth….”

This experience is a germ of a cult (altar surrounded by initiates [priests] of higher and lower degrees). Cult as a reflection of spiritual realities.

1923-07-12-BD

from Beinsa Douno's talk: 'The disciple must understand'

We cannot study dead things, they have absolutely no [proper] appearance. That which is dead, it is ugly, and that which is beautiful contains life. Therefore, when we speak of studying Nature, it means understanding life in its primary relations, and life in its primary manifestations implies, encompassing all those beings who have come out of God.

They have not moved away from the aura of God, they have remained and they work for and with God. We call them the bright, pure spirits, the Spirits of Light.

Some of these beings have gone a little further than the Light itself has gone, because they are the spirits of the material world. They have gone out of the light and thus, have become darkness. When I say that they have become darkness, I understand that the light has remained outside, and the darkness got inside, and that is why they have remained dissatisfied with life.

Daskalos in Symbol of Life, Ch. 12

see p 493, and p 317, below SWCC

describes Authorities (SoF), Principalities (archai) and Thrones, and gives descriptions of the archangelic orders of

• Yiu-Ra-Els (Uriels) - lord of balancing the forces in creation of the other archangels [hierarchies]
• Ra-pfa-Els (Raphaels) - lord of etheric vitality (energy, electricity and magnetism, and the cosmic rays)
• Makha-Els or Maha-Els (Michaels) as lords of the elements of life: of light and of warmth/fire.
• Kha-vir-Els (Gabriels) as lords of elements of water [air] and all liquids

as well as:

• Se-Ra-pfa (Seraphim) [six pointed star]
• Khe-Ra-pfa (Cherubim) as lords of cosmic consciousness, formless intelligences [five pointed star] ... both working in the etheric doubles of the bodily principles of human beings

and:

• Sham-a-Els as lords of the element of gross matter [editor: re Luciferic / Ahrimanic]

1979 - Emanuel Zeylmans

in bio of his father 'Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven' (1893-1961)

Editor note: compare planned contents with Ewald Grether (1962) in 'Further reading' section below

The theme of the heavenly hierarchies was one which preoccupied Zeylmans from an early stage. It could hardly have been otherwise since Rudolf Steiner had invoked the three choirs of the hierarchies in the Foundation Stone. At the age of 35 Zeylmans gave a lecture on this theme at the opening of the new Goetheanum in 1928; and from then on it continually resurfaces in his work until shortly before his death. In his book The Reality in Which We Live, he says among other things:

For Dionysus the Areopagite the three times three choirs of the heavenly hierarchies are spiritual realities, just as they were for all initiates of ancient cultures, including those of the Old Testament. Modern man can in general only approach such ideas by regarding them as symbols and viewing them without personal involvement. He naturally has the right to do so, but this does not help him much further.

The plan for the structure of this book also contains the subtitle:

'On the nature and significance of teachings about the hierarchies, with particular reference to Rudolf Steiner's descriptions of the hierarchies.'

The content was planned as follows:

• Pre-Christian doctines about the hierarchies, explained through several examples: India, Persia etc., Egyptian-Chaldean teachings about the gods.
• Christian doctrines about the hierarchies: Dionysus the Areopagite—the problem linked with his personality from a historical perspective—Paul—the influence of this teaching on the philosophy of the Church Fathers up to Scotus Erigena—the school of Chartres—Scotus Erigena, the scholastics, Thomas Aquinas—the renaissance, Pico della Mirandola—how teachings on the hierarchies developed—loss of reality.
• Teachings about the hierarchies in Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy: The path of research. The stages: Imagination—Inspiration—Intuition- descriptions in Occult Science—descriptions in the lecture cycles on the hierarchies—description from the evolutionary perspective—life after death, in relation to the hierarchies—general observations about the importance of this teaching, dealt with objectively like natural forces, at the same time with the deepest reverence. Science and morality become one.
• Applications of teachings about the hierarchies to various fields of knowledge: Higher mathematics—physiology, organ functions etc.—psychology.

Simply elaborating the notes and lecture drafts Zeylmans left on the hierarchies would fill a small book. H

ere I would just like to refer to the chapter on the hierarchies and the essence of the Foundation Stone in his book on the Foundation Stone, and the study on the mysteries of Ephesus and Samothrace, the categories of Aristotle and the Foundation Stone verse, in which he deals with the hierarchies in relation, among other things, to the tree of Sephirot.

But what underpinned the plan for an anthology on the hierarchies, which very few were probably aware of at the time, was his motive for the book: to create a work for those not yet born, like a welcome greeting and way-finder for a generation of souls who will only feel at home on earth when they learn of the forces through which their human nature has been formed.

This unrealized book on the hierarchies does not stand alone: Zeylmans had other ideas for books which never came to fruition.

1981 - Stanley Messenger

Introductory text by Stanley Messenger (1917- 2013), adapted from text of spoken lecture, transcribed and edited by Marcus Tristan Heathcock, see full source text on archive of 'isleofavalon.co.uk'

The original text was shortened (SWCC) and worked because it thus provides an excellent introduction and perspective to study the spiritual hierarchies.

Note the paragraph with mention of egyptian symbols paragraph was not taken over, as checked against Daskalos' Symbol of Life book it was not correct.

Extracts also on:

• Development of the chakras#1981 - Stanley Messenger and
• Christ Module 14 – the counterforces: Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat#1981 - Stanley Messenger. .

Let's start by turning inward and forming the picture of the threefoldness of the Trinity.

[In history pictures through the ages various pictures exist] .. of a threefold countenance.

• The one, which usually is drawn on the left, is like a profile which looks backwards and upwards and inwards, towards the source of being.
• And opposite that, the other profile, facing outwards and downwards and to the right, is the profile of that being who turns outwards into Creation – away from God and towards the Creation.
• And between them is the face that which looks towards us and communicates with us.

Now, as we first form the picture outwardly, it’s divided, but, in reality, it is one. When, out of ‘non-being’, ‘being’ comes, then balance, or reconciliation, comes into being at the same time. We have to use the word ‘time’, but in that existence there is no time. There’s no sequence in that sense – Non-being to Being to Balance – these are simultaneous. And this experience of the Trinity, in consciousness, this is new.

... The whole mystery of the Trinity lies in the fact that when Being was born out of Non-being simultaneously, that which reconciled the paradox of this, to our minds, impossible situation, had also to exist. That which was brought into being was, at the same time, brought into balance.

Therefore the Son, between the Father-God, the Mother-God. We have existence by the Father, we have love by the Mother, so we return, reconciled, to God through the Son in freedom.

We have being through the Father, we create through the Son, and so we, inevitably, also awaken to the healing of understanding through the light of the Spirit.

This comes into being with the Father and the Son – just as Father/Mother/Son so Father/Spirit/Son.

So we have existence, we have love and, out of that, we have freedom to return.

We have being, we have, through the Son, creation, so we have awakening through the light of the Spirit.

[parenthesis]

Now, let’s take this into a meditation in which we see how, through the Father, we are conscious, how, through the Son, we are aware and how, through the Spirit, we are able to grasp and hold and understand – ‘begreifen’ in German – to grasp – is the same as ‘begriff’, which is a concept. So we understand by the same process as we seize. Let me give you what comes into the 'Act of Consecration of Man' in the Christian Community:

"Conscious of our humanity we feel the Divine Father. He is in all that we are, our substance is His substance, our being is His being. He moves through us in all our existing.

Aware of the Christ in our humanity we feel the Divine Son. He wields through the world as Spirit-Word. He creates in all that we create, our existing is His creating, our life is His creating life. He creates through us in all the soul’s creating.

Grasping the Spirit, through our humanity, we feel the Healing-God. May He shine through the world as Spirit light. May He shine in all that we behold. May our knowing exist in His life, shining with Spirit. May he graciously receive it into His life. May He fill the Spirit with all the ways of our human soul."

Can you see how, even in the grammar of this, we have an understanding of the nature of the Trinity? ‘Is’ comes through all the first part of that; ‘moves’ comes all through the second, and then we go out of the existing mood, the positive mood, into, even grammatically, into subjunctive – ‘may’, ‘May He’. This comes right into our language, the way in which existence, movement, and then possibility move into the language in that way. Even in our language the Trinity is there.

[end parenthesis]

Now, out of that, let us have a look at these nine spiritual hierarchies of Dionysus. As we said yesterday, non-being into being, the first beings who emerged out of non-being could only turn back towards the Creator and worship.

[First Hierarchy - H1]

This is the call of the Seraphim. These are the first of the created beings. These do not take part in the outward Creation; they are there, turning inward, to acknowledge the fact of the Creation.

And then, outwardly turning, are the Thrones. The Thrones are those who realise that the existence and essence of Creation is sacrifice. They give their own substance that existence may happen. That there should be existence at all out of non-existence is itself the substance of sacrifice.

So the love of the Seraphim is countered and balanced by the sacrifice of the Thrones.

And, as I said talking about the Trinity, inherently in that whole situation there has to be reconciliation. And there are the Cherubim. The Cherubim who sing the song of reconciliation. The harmony. ....

Now this first hierarchy – Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones – I’ve written here: Love – Harmony – Will – Substance – and I referred .. to the constant cry or theme of the poet Boethius: "Substance is Love, Love is Substance"? ... And between Love and Substance is born Harmony. But this first Creation, ... , this is in darkness and warmth. The Earth is without form and void – there is no life. This is the incarnation of the planet that Rudolf Steiner referred to as ‘Old Saturn’. It was nothing but the eggs of warmth in darkness which were the seeds for all future existence and creation. And its keynote is strength. This is the realm of the power of God.

[Second Hierarchy - H2]

And now we come, out of that, to the ‘Second Creation’ – and this is the Creation, the second in Genesis, where we come into the realm of Light.

"The Spirit of God moved on the face of the Waters".

And a whole new hierarchy emerged into being in the Light.

And the highest of them, just as the highest of the first three, turned inwards, so the highest of them once more turned inwards and made the tribute of the Light to those who had sacrificed their own substance that Creation might happen. And these were the Spirits of Wisdom (SoW). Wisdom is the tribute of Light to what is sacrificed in the dark. Wisdom is the non-visibility of Light.

And what opposes that, what comes out of that? Form. Form is Light made visible. And these, the Spirits of Form, are known in the Bible as the Elohim. Now this is very mysterious about the Elohim, and I shall say it but I’m not going to say that I understand it! The Elohim were seven in number, and because of the need to bring down into Form, in an indirect way first to prepare Mankind, one of the Elohim separated off from the realm of the Sun, where the seven Elohim were, and came into the Moon sphere and operated independently and, in a way, almost back into a kind of Darkness, the reflected Light of the Moon. This was Jehovah, who brought down the essence of the Light in this reflected way first.

And behind him remained the six – the six in the Sun, which is why the Christ-star had six points. Christ was not the Elohim but, as a Sun being, He manifested through these six beings, the six Elohim, and we see the wonderful six-pointed star, radiating out the Light of the Christ through the being of the Elohim from the Sun. And now, in our time, these six come, they approached the Earth, they incarnated on the Earth, they are now present in the etheric envelope of the Earth. So the seven are re-united for us in our time and throughout the future the Elohim are re-united.

So, we have Wisdom then, experienced, coming out of the sunrise paying tribute to the sacrifice and the substance of the Thrones and coming out into Form in the land of the sunset. The fact that we talk about Oriental wisdom is not the only reason why we feel that wisdom belongs to the East and Form belongs to the West. This is something inherent in the nature of Wisdom and Form. The East really is the ‘being’ of Wisdom; the West is the ‘being’ of Form. So we can say: ‘Fired out of the East and, in the West, taking shape’ – that’s the characteristic of the ‘Second Hierarchy’. Now its harmony we see in movement. Movement links Wisdom with Form, and the image is of the lemniscate (∞) – crossing over in the middle. A perpetual transformation between Wisdom and Form which takes place in movement. And this crossing is of the essence, this crossing where, out of Wisdom into Form, out of Form back into Wisdom – each time that crossing happens there is a Death process, and a restoration to life. So that life is seen as being inevitably involved in death. And Rudolf Steiner says, "In Christ, death becomes life."

This is not resurrection in the sense of the Holy Spirit, this is the death/life transformation that is perpetual and constant, and it is centred in the middle hierarchy of all the nine – the Spirits of Movement (SoM). It’s the realm of our rhythms – it’s where we breathe, it’s where our heartbeats are, the whole rhythm of the cosmos too, not only of ourselves, is there in this movement. And this is the central of all the hierarchies – it’s the one where we can come most into the consciousness of the present moment. Always, in dualism, we are caught back into the past, or we are caught up into the future.

...

So we have, in the First Hierarchy: ‘From the heights to the depths; as above, so below. Let there be formed in the heights that which, in the depths, has substance’.

In the Second Creation, we have this East/West dynamic: ‘Let there be fired from out of the East that which, in the West, takes shape’.

[Third Hierarchy - H3]

Now we come into the realm of the Third Creation. Now we’ve had that the Earth is without form and void. Then we come into the Second Creation to the realm where the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters and there was Light.

And now we come into the Third realm. ‘God breathed upon Man and he became a living soul’. This is the Third Realm – the bringing of soul into this realm. And now the three faces are really fully separated from one another – we can hardly look at the Third Hierarchy as one; they are still one, but, for us, they become much more separated. We are now into the realm, not of consciousness, not of awareness, but now of grasp, of grasping the spirit through our humanity. And we have the three beings of the lowest hierarchy – the Archai. Now these are the time spirits, and they stand in the same relationship to the Spirits of Form, as the Wisdom-Spirits do to the Thrones. They stand on the same ground. The Thrones look out with their sacrifice and SoW look inwards with their wisdom, and now we have the SoF looking outwards into the realm of light-filled form, and we have the Archai who, in order to implement that, become the Spirits of Time. Time is born with the archai. The successive ages, the transformations from one spiritual age to the next, each of those is in the charge of one of these Archai beings – and ‘Archon’ is the singular in the Greek. An Archon – the Time-Spirit.

...

And so, turning inwards in the Third Creation, are the Archai, relating back to the formlessness, creating the spirits of the age.

And outwards, opposite to them, is the Spirit of Individuation, of coming down into the single being for the first time. The Angels are those beings who, with us, share with us the full individuality of single beings – so they become the messengers and representatives of the whole of the Nine for us. They are the ones who are the nearest – each of us has our Guardian Angel; that guardian angel is inseparably linked to our own higher being. They are messengers and guardians.

And, once more, as with the other two hierarchies, coming into being inevitably through this opposition of the two, the reconcilers – the Archangels, the 'Spirits of Association' I like to call them. Every realm where human beings come together and share their experience – nations, groups like this, societies, folk-souls – all these beings are Archangels. They are the ones who turn towards us and link us with this inward/outward process

Specific named spiritual beings

1909-08-26-GA113

from RSH

The Vedic god Indra as an example of the fact that spiritual beings also develop, change. He is the leading airy spirit, is active in the human breathing process and in the muscle system, has a beneficial effect in flash and thunder. Since the times of the Vedas, he has developed higher: Already before the appearance of Christ His light radiates on him and he reflects it since then (Moses calls this reflected Christ light Jehovah).

Indra himself passed through this contact with the Christ light. He did not of course become Jehovah. It is not correct to say Jehovah is Indra. But we can understand that as Indra manifests himself in lightning and thunder, even so does Jehovah manifest himself therein, because a being can only reflect in accordance with its own nature. Jehovah therefore was manifested in lightning and thunder.

1910-06-14-GA121

see: Ragnarok#1910-06-14-GA121 and Wotan Impulse#1910-06-14-GA121

from RSH, on germanic mythology:

• Odin or Wotan is an abnormal archangel who had renounced his higher development. He is the creator of human speech; people perceived him as working macrocosmically in the wind. Also his companions Vili and Ve are abnormal archangels.
• Thor, one of the loftiest angels, who had renounced the higher ranks as well, was seen active in the warmth and pulsation of the blood (Thor’s hammer) and macrocosmically in lightning and thunder.
• The Vanir were the gods perceived in Atlantis who were detached by the Æsir (archangels and angels), leading the Germanic peoples from the late Atlantis and during the post-Atlantean epoch.

1911-08-20-GA129

• The Greeks called the macrocosmic astrality, which finds expression in lightning and thunder, in the glow of sunrise and sunset, in the rainbow etc. Zeus. It is the same force, which flashes in the astral body as phenomena of consciousness, as thoughts.
• What finds expression in storm, rain, and in ebb and flow of the ocean, was Poseidon for the Greeks who expresses himself in the human etheric body as temperaments.
• The physical Earth forces and the willpower, effective in the physical body, were the forces of Pluto.

Historical coverage - various sources

Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite (ca 5th century) is the first main written source of teachings with 'De Coelesti Hierarchia' or 'The Celestial Hierarchy'   

• First sphere: 1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Thrones;
• Second sphere: 4. Authorities, 5. Lordships, 6. Powers;
• Third sphere: 7. Principalities, 8. Archangels, 9. Angels.

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) writes in 'Summa Theologica':

5. There are three angelic hierarchies. Each hierarchy hasthree orders. All the heavenly spirits of all hierarchies andorders are called angels. Thus the term angel is common and generic. The same name, usually with a capital letter, is the proper and collective name for the lowest order of the lowest hierarchy of heavenly spirits. We must therefore distinguish angel, which means any heavenly spirit from highest tolowest, from Angel which means a member of the lowest order of all.

6. The following hierarchies and orders exist among the angels:

(a) The highest hierarchy includes the orders of (indescending order of rank) Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones.

(b) The middle hierarchy includes (in descending order of rank) the ordersof Dominations, Virtues, Powers.

(c) The lowest hierarchy includes (in descending order of rank) Principalities, Archangels, Angels.

This classification is commonly, but not unanimously, accepted by learned doctors.

7. After the end of this bodily world, the angelic orderswill continue to exist, but their offices will not be altogether the same as they now are, for they will then no longer need to help human beings to save their souls.

8. By the gifts of grace, human beings can merit glory in a degree that makes them equal to the angels in each of the orders. Therefore, human beings who get to heaven are taken into the angelic orders. But these human beings remain human beings; they are not turned into angels.

Other sources and their terminology

The various sources illustrate the different terminology used, see also Schema FMC00.273 above for a condensed version

Clement of Rome in 'Apostolic Constitutions' (1st century):

1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Aeons, 4. Hosts, 5. Powers, 6. Authorities, 7. Principalities, 8. Thrones, 9. Archangels, 10. Angels, 11. Dominions.

St. Ambrose in 'Apologia Prophet David' (4th century):

1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Dominations, 4. Thrones, 5. Principalities, 6. Potentates (or Powers), 7. Virtues, 8. Angels, 9. Archangels.

St. Jerome (4th century):

1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Powers, 4. Dominions (Dominations), 5. Thrones, 6. Archangels, 7. Angels.

St. Gregory the Great in 'Homilia' (6th century)

1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Thrones, 4. Dominations, 5. Principalities, 6. Powers, 7. Virtues, 8. Archangels, 9. Angels.

St. Isidore of Seville in 'Etymologiae' (7th century):

1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Powers, 4. Principalities, 5. Virtues, 6. Dominations, 7. Thrones, 8. Archangels, 9. Angels.

John of Damascus in 'De Fide Orthodoxa' (8th century):

1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Thrones, 4. Dominions, 5. Powers, 6. Authorities (Virtues), 7. Rulers (Principalities), 8. Archangels, 9. Angels

St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) in 'Scivias':

1. Seraphim, Cherubim;

2. Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, Powers and Virtues;

3. Archangels and Angels.

Dante Alighieri (1308–1321) in 'The Divine Comedy'

1. Seraphim, 2. Cherubim, 3. Thrones, 4. Dominations, 5. Virtues, 6. Powers, 7. Principalities, 8. Archangels, 9. Angels.

Discussion

Note 1 - Literature on and study of spiritual hierarchies

Literature on the spiritual hierarchies

Given the complexity of the subject matter, very limited secondary literature is available and only introductory level texts and booklets were written, see 'Further reading' section below. There are not so many books on the spiritual hierarchies and even those will not allow one to get an overall satisfactory insight into this subject matter.

To date there is no published systematic coverage of all spiritual hierarchies in all the aspects covered by Rudolf Steiner, and how these hang together overall and in relation to eachother. This website offers this for the first time.

The spiritual hierarchies appear in spiritual literature though, but this is limited: examples are Dionysius the Areopagite, Thomas of Aquina and Dante Alighieri, but other than listing they are not really described and explained in a thorough and complete way, because it is beyond our current degree of human consciousness (and what it can take in scope) to do so (exhaustively).

Various angles of perspective have been used to approach the theme:

• intellectually and cosmologically: as in theosophy with the three logoi etc
• descriptively: Rudolf Steiner's use of the language of the hierarchies throughout his work and the Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA)
• qualitatively: through the categories of Aristotle
  • See Schema FMC00.667. Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven worked on a book on the spiritual hierarchies, but never came to finish or publish any of his writings on the theme, only (extensive?) draft notes exist.
• experientially - but this to a limited extent
  • In the experiential realm one finds coverage of the elementals of nature (oa see Schema FMC00.144) and the evocation of the spirits of the planetary spheres (oa see Franz Bardon's second book PME)

Study of the spiritual hierarchies

Introduction

How to 'study' or develop insight or a comprehension into the nature and workings of the spiritual hiearchies?

To gain insight in what is meant with spiritual hierarchies, this proposes to study spiritual science comprehensively as Body of Knowledge of universal eternal wisdom, and - through this - develop one's appreciation for the workings of the various hierarchies that appear in the descriptions and explanations of both microcosm and macrocosm.

Such foundation with a multitude and great variety of perspectives can then blend and be integrated through imaginative insight, only. That is: the premise is that it is useless or fruitless to try and conceptually integrate the available information.

This approach, epistemologically, as in how will we know what we know, is described on the topic pages Cosmic fractal and Overview Free Man Creator:

• Schema FMC00.305 (building blocks underlying other objects, entities, elements in our experience)
• Schema FMC00.101 and Schema FMC00.336A offer large study areas or modules, to segment the 'territory' for in depth study, knowing they belong together holistically

Main aspects

• evolutionary: how spiritual hierarchies emerge' and evolve through the stages of planetary evolution and along the CoC-ladder of conditions of consciousness
  • this is the main angle put forth by most authors. As a basis one can use Steiner's Outline of Esoteric Science
• study of the kingdoms of nature: how the spiritual hierarchies appear or are underlying characteristics in the kingdoms of nature:
  • Man - the human being, see Man and the spiritual hierarchies
  • the four elements, and how they appear in nature (and eg the weather)

Note 2 - Narrative on the spiritual hierarchies in the cosmic fractal

1 - Introduction

From the introduction text on the Cosmic fractal higher on this page, and further contents on the Cosmic fractal topic page itself, the point is made clear that 'all is beings', in other words that all macroscopic phenomena that we can identify ultimately can be brought back to the emanation and evolution of spiritual beings.

Schema FMC00.305 visualizes this idea that spiritual entities are the basic building blocks or essential elements that make up the cosmos.

And the other Schemas on Overview Free Man Creator#Illustrations present a helicopter view on how anthroposophy or spiritual science approached the holistic study.

However, now the student of spiritual science is faced with a problem, or a challenge:

The complexity of creation of the cosmos that we, as human beings, try to grasp and would like to understand, is the result of, or plays at, levels of being and consciousness above and far above our human level of being and cognition.

• In other words, Man's most important questions and questions around the Meaning of life that are underlying the worldview, include satisfactory answers to the questions of teleology, cosmogony, etc. For these terms, see: Meaning of life#Note 1 - Relevant concepts and terminology

Now in spiritual science this problem of challenge is expressed with the 'ladder' of twelve Conditions of Consciousness (or CoC). Humanity in the Earth stage of planetary evolution is at the level CoC=4, but as spiritual beings we are part of a cosmos consisting of multiple categories of beings far above, levels CoC=5 to CoC=12. And the crucial, essential point is that a lower level can not 'grasp' the complexity and true nature of being of a higher level.

This is illustrated with Schema FMC00.660 and what is described on An intellectual trap.

• Also on this site a metaphoric image of the car axis is used. Imagine a car axis would be conscious and wonder about the meaning and purpose of its experiences. It might undergo speed changes in the rotation of the axis, wheels turning left and right in patterns, etc .. but would not be able to grasp the fact there is a driver of the car who is using the car (an entity a level of complexity higher than the axis) for a certain goal, and how its own perceptions and sensations relate to that of the car, or the driver.

To feel oneself into what is expressed, study Schemas FMC00.661 and FMC00.661A and FMC00.668. These try to depict with a visual that Man is like the tip of a wave which is the result or expression of multiple waves that go much deeper, is 'woven' from the complex interplay of spiritual hierarchies that Man is not just connected to, but made up off. There are no words to describe this in an exact fashion, hence FMC00.668 tries to depict visually various forms of 'embeddedness'.

Implications

The consequence of what is described in the introduction, is that a different approach is needed to relate to the concept or idea or spiritual hierarchies.

First is the appreciation that spiritual hierarchies cannot be 'captured', defined, grasped with intellectual thinking. We cannot box in or nail down any spiritual hierarchy, because they are 'above us'. Due to the nature of what is described in the introduction, current human cognition will not suffice and another epistemological approach is required.

Secondly, only through the process of initiation, and advanced higher levels of cognition, see stages of clairvoyance, can one experientially go into the higher worlds to truly realize the 'domains' that are covered outside of the physical.

Notes

• this is also why there is no reference work or literature on the spiritual hierarchies, and there will never be a final or ultimate work on this. Literature can only re-hash what adepts have expressed about their experience at higher levels of cognition.
• it might be argued that spiritual hierarchies become like a belief system, that it's the ultimate make-up of the whole cosmos, but we 'cannot truly know them'. That is indeed the case, in spiritual science it is a working hypothesis that is postulated, and is then studied and validated in the consequences of how the theoretical framework is able to explain reality and all its phenomena.

2 - The metaphoric image of the swarm

Rudolf Steiner often uses the image of a 'swarm of gnats' or 'swarm of mosquitoes' (or 'swarm of mosquitos') to explain the difference between a macroscopic view (the world of the senses and mineral science) and the spiritual reality underneath with a finer view of clairvoyant cognition. From far one sees a cloud, only with higher 'resolution' does one see individual beings.

The following extracts are highly educational, and this metaphoric image is essential for building an understanding.

1923-05-02-GA224

You see—in this way, through the art that seeks out the reality in words, the Being of Man can be described once again. We get nearer and nearer to a real picture of this Being. Just as one might indicate on the blackboard the distribution of the figures in a picture by Raphael, say the Sistine Madonna, with a few characteristic strokes—the words physical body, etheric body, astral body and I are only an indication. The reality is living activity, inwardly full and rich; and in this activity the beings of the cosmos, in realm's of body, soul, and spirit, are revealed. In the end one comes always to beings.

If anything is described as if it were vaguely extended in Space or swimming in Time, or as a physical world, etheric world, and so on ... it is the manifestation which is being described. It is like describing a swarm of gnats seen in the distance, so that the particular gnats cannot be distinguished, only a grey patch in the air.

In the real world, what are at first called etheric body, astral body, are such grey patches. If one looks closely at these grey patches in the physical air, one discovers the particular existing gnats. If one looks closely at these spiritual grey patches, “etheric body”, “astral body”, one always discovers beings.

To beings one must come at last in all understanding of the world. For beings alone are real.

Anything comes into existence only through the co-operation of beings—presenting then an unreal appearance to unclear vision.

Just as in the unreal grey cloud the gnats are the real, particular beings—everywhere in the world it is particular beings that are at work, and the rest is illusion, arising from the co-existence of beings. Physical matter, too, is an illusion of this kind—something of the nature of a being underlies everything. Men must understand this again, in order not to speak of something that is not really there: of Matter—or (which is no better) of Spirit in general—in order to learn to speak about beings, individual beings of the universe.

1914-GA018 Ch 5.

The Riddles of Philosophy (1914 and 1916)

In a direction that is entirely different from that of Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) seeks the justification of the ego-consciousness in the actual world. His point of departure is like that of Giordano Bruno insofar as he thinks of the soul or the “I” as a monad. Leibniz finds the self-consciousness in the soul, that is, the knowledge of the soul of itself, a manifestation, therefore, of the I. There cannot be anything else in the soul that thinks and feels except the soul itself, for how should the soul know of itself if the subject of the act of knowing were something other than itself? Furthermore, it can only be a simple entity, not a composite being, for the parts in it could and would have to know of each other. Thus, the soul is a simple entity, enclosed in itself and aware of its being, a monad. Nothing can come into this monad that is external to it, for nothing but itself can be active in it. All its experience, cognitive imagination, sensation, etc., is the result of its own activity. It could only perceive any other activity in itself through its defense against this activity, that is to say, it would at any rate perceive only itself in its defense. Thus, nothing external can enter this monad. Leibniz expresses this by saying that the monad has no windows. According to him, all real beings are monads, and only monads truly exist. These different monads are, however, differentiated with respect to the intensity of their inner life. There are monads of an extremely dull inner life that are as if in a continual state of sleep; there are monads that are, as it were, dreaming; there are, furthermore, the human monads in wake-consciousness, etc., up to the highest degree of intensity of the inner life of the divine principal monad.

That Man does not see monads in his sense perception is caused by the circumstance that the monads are perceived by him like the appearance of fog, for example, that is not really fog but a swarm of gnats. What is seen by the senses of man is like the appearance of a fog formed by the accumulated monads.

Thus, for Leibniz the world in reality is a sum of monads, which do not affect each other but constitute self-conscious beings, leading their lives independently of each other, that is, I's. Nevertheless, if the individual monad contains an after image of the general life of the world in its inner life, it would be wrong to assume that this is caused by an effect that the individual monads exert on each other. It is caused by the circumstance that in a given case one monad experiences inwardly by itself what is also independently experienced by another monad. The inner lives of the monads agree like clocks that indicate the same hours in spite of the fact that they do not affect each other. Just as the clocks agree because they have been originally matched, so the monads are attuned to each other through the pre-established harmony that issues from the divine principal monad.

1914-02-26-GA063

Leibniz considers everything as a combination of monads. If we look into anything of nature, we find the underlying ensouled monads. What we see is for Leibniz in such a way, as if we look at a swarm of mosquitoes which appears like a cloudscape; if we come closer, this cloudscape disintegrates in the single mosquitoes, and the swarm of mosquitoes appears to us first only in such a way because we do not look exactly at it. I have to imagine the view of nature, Leibniz said, in such a way that the human soul can exist in it. He was able to do this only if he imagined it as a monad among monads. Hence, he differentiates monads vaguely living from day to day, then sleeping, then dreaming monads, then those as it is the human soul. However, everything else that originates because everything that we see originating appears to us only in such a way as a swarm of mosquitoes appears to us as a cloud. We could enumerate the most brilliant spirits until our days. We would find that the fight for the knowledge of the human soul presents itself compared with the modern view of nature in such a way that the human soul feels, I must be able to get an idea of that what can arise as a view of nature, and what does no longer offer any ensoulment of nature. Compared with this fight is that what appears as a more or less materialistically coloured monism only an episode that will pass by. Nevertheless, the human soul that is separated from its view of nature will strive more and more to gain contents in itself, that means to arrive at that what it extracted from nature in old epochs.

1915-04-22-GA064

For Leibniz, the world is composed entirely of monads, and if you do not see the world as monads, it is because you see it indistinctly – as it is with a swarm of mosquitoes, which, seen from a distance, appears indistinct and looks like a cloud, but as soon as you get closer, it dissolves into the individual mosquitoes.

So, for example, the table in front of me consists of monads, but these monads are seen pushed together like the individual midges in a swarm.

Thus, for Leibniz, the entire world consists of individual monads, and just as the individual monads are mirrored in the whole world, so they are a microcosm in the macrocosm. One must imagine that the entire world is mirrored in every single monad, and a harmony implanted by the original monad spreads throughout the whole.

1923-05-23-GA224

... if I can express myself by means of a trivial comparison, in order that we may be able to understand one another, but please be very clear about this, namely, that in doing so I refer, nevertheless, to something very exalted. If a little cloud appears somewhere in the distance, you say that it is a little cloud; but when you approach it, you become aware that it is a swarm of gnats. Then you are distinguishing the separate individuals. Well, in the spiritual world between death and a new birth, it is reversed: there you distinguish at first the single individualities of the spiritual beings; then the impression becomes a general one. What I mean is that the manifestation of the spiritual replaces experience of the spiritual.

3 - Ecce home - behold Man, the human being

to behold: see or observe (someone or something, especially of remarkable or impressive nature).

The human being also consists of different bodily principles and affects the cosmos differently with each

of course with the physical body, working on the mineral

but astrally .. creating elementals

and thoughts in the spirit world ...

That is the best way to work and feel oneself into what is on Third Hierarchy .. and the fact there are these different realms wherein the influences take place in such different ways.

Draft notes WIP (work area)

In the Body of Knowledge of spiritual science ...

• Why are there cultural ages? .. because they correspond to the lifecycle of the archai, projected down into our physical world experience of timespace. By extension, this goes for epochs also, see Spiritual hierarchies and their eigenperiods
• Why are there three dimensions of evolution? ... because they correspond to the prajapatis or seven creative spirits 'before the throne'
• why are there four elements and the spectrum of elements and ethers? ... because these have arisen through earlier stages of evolution, and still have the hierarchies underlying .. and hence they are now what is experienced by human beings macroscopically in the physical world as either substance or force - see Force substance representation. For a visualization, see Schema FMC00.194.
• why are there kingdoms of nature .. and how did all this come into being? ... this is subject of the study of evolution, but in short see also the combination of Schema FMC00.583 and Schema FMC00.147A on Man and nature's kingdoms in evolution#Illustrations
  • Note: things can quickly become complex, but relating Schema FMC00.147A to Man - the human being, see Man and the spiritual hierarchies#Illustrations a.o. the simpler Schema FMC00.630 and more complex Schema FMC00.666

Related pages

• Spiritual hierarchies
• Cosmic fractal
• Spiritual hierarchies and their eigenperiods
• Third Hierarchy

References and further reading

• Thomas von Aquino: 'Vom Wesen der Engel - de substantiis separatis seu de angelorum natura' (1989); with Latin and German texts
• Ewald Grether: 'Geistige Hierarchien' - Der Mensch und die übersinnliche Welt in der Darstellung grosser Seher des Abendlandes. Dionysius Areopagita, Dante Alighieri, Rudolf Steiner (1962)
  • 158 pages but old stencil type layout. Covers hierarchies as presented by Dionysius Aeropagite, Dante and Steiner. No further insights beyond high-level anthroposophy.

• Adam Bittleston: 'Our spiritual companions : from angels and archangels to cherubim and seraphim' (1980)
  • 128 pages
• Roy Wilkinson:
  • 'The hosts of heaven : an elementary study of the spiritual hierarchies' (1981)
  • Spiritual hierarchies (1980), Chapter in booklets later published as 'Rudolf Steiner: Aspects of his spiritual worldview anthroposophy'
    • 19 pages A5 so just an introductory text
• Willem Frederik Veltman:
  • 'Over de hemelse hierarchieën' (2012)
    • 110 pages
  • De Hemelse Hiërarchiën (1974, contents of three lectures on 1974-10/11, 69 pages)
• J.G. Sutherland: 'Symbolen der Hiërarchieën' (article in NL in De Christengemeenschap, nr 17, 6, p 179-196)
• Athys Floride: 'Der Weg zu den Hierarchien. Das Ziel der Entwicklung als vierte Hierarchie' (1996)
  • 190 pages

.

For more see also:

• Third Hierarchy#References and further reading
• Christ Module 10 - Tenth Hierarchy#References and further reading