a dawning consciousness of self, abides within the soul
through this union with the physical body. But the soul still feels the
process of absorbing air in an absolutely psycho-spiritual way, as an
image, which appears in the form of tone-pictures surging up and down;
these give form to the embryo which is being incorporated within them. The
soul everywhere feels itself in the midst of sound waves, and that it is
fashioning the body in accordance with those tone forces. Thus are human
forms developed at that stage of evolution. They cannot be observed in any
external world by our present consciousness. They evolve like vegetable or
flower forms of fine substance, therefore appear like flowers waving in
the wind.

During his Earth period, man experiences the blissful feeling of being
fashioned into such forms. The absorption of the watery parts is felt in
the soul as an accession of force, or inner strength. From without it
appears as growth of the physical human structure. As the direct influence
of the sun decreases, the human soul also loses the power of controlling
these processes. By degrees they are cast aside. Only those parts are left
which allow the embryo, above described, to mature. But man leaves his
body, and returns to the spiritual form of existence. (As not all parts of
the earth's body are employed in building up human bodies, we must not
imagine that during the earth's night period, it is composed exclusively
of disintegrating corpses and embryos waiting to be awakened. All these
are imbedded in other structures, which are formed out of the earth's
substances. The status of those structures will be explained later.)

Now, however, the process of condensing the earth's substance continues.
To the watery element is added the solid or "earthly" substance ("earthly"
in the sense of occult science). And when this happens man also, during
his earth period, begins to incorporate the earthly element in his body.
As soon as this incorporation begins, the forces which the soul brings
with it out of the disembodied state, no longer have the same power as
before. Previously, the soul had fashioned its body out of the igneous,
aeriform, and watery elements, in accordance with the tones which
resounded and the light-pictures which played around it. The soul cannot
do this with regard to the solidified form. Other forces now interpose to
shape it. What is left behind of man, when the soul withdraws from the
body, is n