g earth-life, there had
also come about a change in the disembodied life. Up to this point of
evolution, man had had no independence in the spiritual world. Within that
world he did not feel himself a separate being, but as though he were a
member of the exalted organism which was composed of the beings superior
to him. The "ego experience" on earth now takes effect also in the
spiritual world. Henceforth man feels himself to be, to a certain degree,
a unit in that world. But he feels also that he is unceasingly linked with
it. In the disembodied state he again finds the Lords of Form, in a higher
aspect, and this aspect he had perceived in their manifestation on earth
by means of the spark of his ego.

At the separation of the moon from the earth, the disembodied soul began
to have experiences in the spiritual world which were connected with that
separation. To develop such human forms upon earth which could receive
soul individuality, only became possible through the fact that a part of
the shaping forces passed over from the Earth to the Moon. Thus human
individuality came within the sphere of the Moon-beings. And in the
disembodied state the reminiscence of earthly individuality could only
operate because, even in that state, the soul remained within the sphere
of those mighty spirits who had brought about the separation of the moon.
The process worked in such a manner that immediately after leaving the
earth-body the soul could only see the exalted Sun-beings as though in a
lustre reflected from the Moon-beings. And it was only when sufficiently
prepared by gazing at that reflected splendor, that the soul attained to
the vision of the exalted Sun-beings themselves.

The mineral kingdom of the earth also arose out of what was ejected from
human evolution in general. Its structures are what remained solidified
after the moon was detached from the earth. The only soul-element which
felt attracted to those structures was that which had been left behind at
the Saturn stage, and was therefore only adapted for developing physical
forms. All the occurrences treated of here and in what follows were
enacted in the course of exceedingly long periods. But the question of
chronology cannot be entered into here.

The events described, present the evolution of the earth from without.
Seen spiritually from within, the facts present themselves as follows: The
spiritual beings who drew the moon out of the earth and incorporated the