g on which consciousness had but slight influence were
shaped in accordance with the harmonies of the universe. For the
Sun-beings worked in those harmonies. Thus this part of man was given its
form by the spiritual sounds of the universe; and at the same time the
alternation between the clearer state of consciousness during the Sun
period, and the duller one, was not so abrupt as was that between the
waking state and that of absolutely dreamless sleep in contemporary man.
The picture-consciousness was not so clear as the present waking
consciousness; but on the other hand, the other consciousness was not so
dull as the dreamless sleep of the present day.

Thus the human being had a conception, even though dim, of the play of the
cosmic harmonies in his physical body and in that part of his etheric body
which had remained united with the physical body. During the time when, so
to speak, the Sun did not shine on humanity, the picture-concepts replaced
these harmonies in man's consciousness. There was then a revival
particularly of those parts of the physical and etheric bodies which were
under the immediate power of consciousness. On the other hand, other parts
of the human being, now not exposed to the formative forces streaming from
the Sun, underwent a kind of hardening and drying up process. When the Sun
period again drew near, the old bodies decayed; they fell away from the
human being, and as though from the grave of his old bodily form, the
rejuvenated human being appeared, who even in this new form, was still
uncomely.

A renewal of the life-process had taken place. By the operation of the
Sun-beings and their harmonies, the new-born body shaped itself again in
its perfection, and the process described above was repeated. Man felt
that renewal as if it were the putting on of new garments. The kernel of
his being had not passed through an actual birth or death; it had only
passed from a spiritual tone-consciousness, in which it was given over to
the outer world, to one of a more inner nature. It had sloughed off its
skin. The old body had become useless; it was thrown off and renewed. This
then more clearly describes what has been characterized above as a kind of
reproduction, and which as has been said, is closely connected with
perception. Man's being has brought forth his likeness with respect to
certain parts of the physical and etheric bodies. However a being totally
different from the parent being does not c