play around him, but watery substance is incorporated into his physical
body. At the same time his etheric part changes: that is, it is now
perceived by man as a fine light-body. Previous to this, man had felt
currents of heat rising up to him from the earth: he had felt air
surrounding him through tones; now, the watery element also penetrates his
fire-air body, and he sees its ebb and flow as the alternate flaring up
and dimming of light. But a change has also taken place in his soul. To
the germs of the sentient and intellectual souls is added that of the
consciousness-soul. The "Angels" work in the element of water; they are
also the real producers of light. It was as though they appeared to man in
light.

The higher beings who were previously in the Earth-planet itself, now
influence it from the sun. On this account all effects produced on the
earth are changed. The human being chained to earth would no longer be
able to feel the influence of the sun-beings within him, if his soul were
unceasingly turned toward the earth, from which his physical body is
taken. A change now appears in the conditions of human consciousness. At
certain times the sun-beings wrest the soul of man from his physical body,
so that man is now alternately purely psychic, in the bosom of the
sun-beings, and, when united with the body, in a condition in which he
receives earth influences. When in the physical body, heat currents stream
up to him; a sea of air is sounding round him and water pours into and out
of him. When man is out of his body the images of the higher beings in
whose care he is, float through his soul.

The earth passes through two periods at this stage of its evolution.
During one of these it allows its substances to circulate around the human
souls and clothe them with bodies; during the other, the souls have
withdrawn from it, and only the bodies are left and the human beings are
in a condition of sleep. It is speaking quite in conformity with facts to
say that in those times of a remote past the earth passed through a day
and a night time. (Expressed in terms of physical space this means that
through the reciprocal action of the sun-beings and the earth-beings, the
earth is brought into a movement in relation with the sun; thus there is
brought about the alternation of day and night periods described above.
The day period is when the surface of the earth, on which man is evolving,
is turned toward the sun; the night peri