ngs have one still higher. And between the etheric body and the
Spirit-Man they have all the principles described in this treatise which
are also found in man: the astral body, ego, Spirit-Self, and Life-Spirit.
Just as our earth is surrounded by an atmosphere, so too was Saturn; only
in this case the "atmosphere" was of a spiritual nature. It really
consisted of the beings just named and some others. Now there was constant
reciprocal action between the heat bodies of Saturn and the beings we have
described. The latter projected the principles of their being down into
the physical heat bodies of Saturn. And while there was no life in those
heat bodies themselves, the life of their neighbours was expressed in
them. They might be compared to mirrors; only there were reflected in
them, not the images of the living beings mentioned above, but their
conditions of life. Therefore, although nothing living could have been
discovered in Saturn itself, yet it had a vivifying effect on its
environment in celestial space, because it reflected back into space, like
an echo, the life which had been sent down into it. The whole of Saturn
appeared as a mirror of celestial life. The very high beings, whose life
was reflected by Saturn, are called in occult science "Lords of
Wisdom."(10) Their activity on Saturn was not just beginning in the middle
period of that evolution, which has been described; in a certain way it
had even then already ceased. Before they could be in a position to
rejoice in the reflection of their own life from Saturn's heat bodies they
had to make those bodies capable of producing such a reflection. Therefore
their activity began soon after the beginning of the Saturn evolution.
When this happened, the body of Saturn was still chaotic material, which
could not have reflected anything.

And in contemplating this chaotic matter, one has transferred himself, by
spiritual observation, to the beginning of the Saturn evolution. What is
to be observed there does not as yet bear anything of the later character
of heat. If we wish to describe it, we can only speak of a quality which
may be compared with the human will. From first to last it is nothing but
"Will." Therefore it is an entirely spiritual condition that meets us
here. If we ask whence came this "Will," we see it proceeding from the
effluence of exalted beings, who brought their evolution, by steps only to
be dimly conceived, up to such a height that when the Satu