Reunion of Sun

The Sun separated from the Earth+Moon body in the second Hyperborean epoch, in order to obtain the appropriate speed of evolution.

When Man will have spiritualized himself further in the next great Sixth epoch, the Sun will re-unite with the Earth. At that stage:

Mankind will morally have overcome the destructive forces in his lower nature
Man will have overcome the Moon and its forces

However, after this physical Condition of Life (CoL=4), the Sun will separate and reunite again with Earth in the next two CoL (see Schema FMC00.298), to allow more souls to be saved before the final separation of good and evil in the third and final reunion of the Sun. This will be time of the full separation of evil in the Eighth sphere. Hence, the reunion of the Sun can therefore be seen as a process rather than a single event as the Sun+Earth spiritualize.

In the Book of Revelation, this process happens with the appearance of three animals or dragons, as there are three groups that don't go along in this merger of Earth with Sun:

first, the stagnating luciferic beings that have not developed on Earth to catch up what they couldn't on Old Moon
second, human beings that don't go further represent the second animal 'rising from the sea' (hence indicating the lower animalistic nature)
thirdly, black magicians that consciously and deliberately oppose the normal development (see also Sorat and black magic)

The fifth apocalyptic seal depicts this 'process' of the spiritualization of mankind with the conquest of (moon) and separation of evil (dragon) from the good (woman with sun).

Aspects

the timing of the reunion of the Sun
- "The sun separated during the transition from the second to the third epoch ... in the sixth epoch, the sun will again be joined to the Earth" (1905-05-25-GA093)
- in the Book of Revelation lectures this not clearly stated or explained , even though variois explicit statements are made the interpretation is not always easy given the formulations and meaning in mapping the symbolism of the Book of Revelation. Therefore see 'Note [1] - on timing and evolutionary positioning' in the Discussion area below
  - the reunion with the Sun will take place in current physical CoL and is most likely to take place in (at the end of, or thereafter) the Seventh epoch ("after the 'trumpets' ") (as described in 1904-05-21-GA090A),
    - the fifth apocalyptic seal is timed to the next astral Condition of Form of the current Condition of Life which already starts in the seventh epoch (1905-03-19-GA090B)
  - the separation of evil, described in the Book of Revelation, is described to take place in two steps, in the fifth and sixth CoL. In the fifth there is not yet a complete separation, but a decisive split. In the sixth the full separation into the Eighth sphere takes place (Rev 17,10) (1905-03-19-GA090B)
  - furthermore:
    - the reunion with the sun is stated to take place in the next fifth Condition of Life in quote B of 1909-05-20-GA104A below
    - the sixth CoL or round is when Rev 13,18: "here is wisdom" with reference to Babylon that was overwon with "five have fallen" (see the undated text of 1904-05-XX-GA090A). This confirms that the process concludes after the sixth round.
redemption of Lucifer: spirits go back into Sun that had been left behing on Old moon and have now succesfully 'caught up' their development on Earth in and with Man
- humanity will have redeemed the luciferic beings by purification of the astral body (from instincts, desires, and passions), see the Moon on the apocalyptic seal, and the first of the three animals ('in the sky')
- Luciferic beings that stall or stagnate, don't go onto Sun remain in original condition and appear as expelled into the evil lower astral world (electricity): all beings that don't go up have to go down. This appears as the first dragon when Sun and Earth merge: 'in heaven' and 'old snake' make reference to this Luciferic nature (1904-05-21-GA090A and 1909-05-20-GA104A)
in the Book of Revelation:
- fifth apocalyptic seal: the reunion with the Sun is symbolically represented in the fifth apocalyptic seal : the woman who bears the sun within her and has the moon under her feet (1907-09-16-GA101, 1907-05-21-GA284)
  - the animal with the seven heads represents what the leftover of the human race in the seventh epoch, the seven parts representing Man's bodily principles (whereby three hidden higher parts of the three Logoi) (1905-03-19-GA090B)
  - the woman with the sun carries in her body the state that Earth will go through then (in the astral globe) (1905-03-19-GA090B)
- relationship with Book of Revelation, 20:1-3 and the chaining of Satan. Following Schema FMC00.258, Chapter 20 would place this at the end of the Earth stage of evolution, before Future Jupiter. Not to be confused by the chaining of Satan/Anti-Christ during Christ's Three days descent into Hades during the Mystery of Golgotha. See also: Three days descent into Hades#.5B1.5D - On .27the bad guy below.27

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.374 depicts the fifth apocalyptic seal (left Levi, middle von Rettich, right Rosenkrantz): the woman who bears the sun within her and has the moon under her feet

Schema FMC00.374A shows some other illustrations. On the left by Giusto De Menabuoi (1320-1391), the right is a modern digital age rendering of the same, the middle one also seemingly inspired on von Rettichs version above. Note how they trigger different effects in the soul. For example (a) the size of the moon on the left versus right, (b) the glow of the 'sun inside' on the right is represented quite differently that in the middle or in von Rettichs, (c) the dragon is much more attention-calling in the pictures below, than in the esoteric ones above where the key point is the woman representing Man and having spiritualized to the 'sun inside' and stand above the moon and the dragon. The exoteric illustrations below make this much less clear.

Schema FMC00.374B shows illustrations (click upto three times to enlarge) of the fifth apocalyptic seal from the famous Beatus, the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana (8th century). There are about 30 illustrated copies of the Beatus that date from the 9th to the 14th century.

Examples are the Morgan (10th century, upper left) Gerona (10th century, lower left), Facundus (11th century upper right, and the Silos (11th century, right below). Click to enlarge, high resolution versions available on request. Compare with the Levi and Rosenkrantz versions above, clearly inspired on the below.

Note the chained figure below, see also Three days descent into Hades and Note [1] in the Discussion area below.

Schema FMC00.190 is a 'napkin' drawing that depicts (middle) the seven epochs, and the process of separation and reunion of Sun and Moon. Below the three divine interventions are shown with embedded Schema FMC00.185 (by Rudolf Steiner). In the current epoch, the Earth is held embedded in the Moon and Sun spheres. The divine being of Christ came across the spheres and the Sun to 'fructify' humanity on earth with an 'infusion of budhi', that is depicted by the metaphoric image on the right.

Schema FMC00.298A is a simplified version of the reference FMC00.298 (see Earth rounds perspective) to highlight the process of Man in context of the Meaning of Free Man Creator', his relationship with the kingdoms, and the aspect of recapitulation of CoC at CoL level.

It is added here especially for this last aspect, see Note 1.2 in Discussion area below.

Lecture coverage and references

1905-05-25-GA093

The conditions on earth were not always the same as today. The earth was once joined to the sun and the moon. The sun separated itself, as it were, and then shone upon the earth from outside. Later, the moon split away. Thus, in earlier times, the earth was quite a different kind of dwelling place for man. Man was quite different physically, at that time. But when the sun and the moon split off from the earth, the whole of man's life underwent a change. Birth and death took place for the first time, man reincarnated for the first time, and for the first time the I of man, the individuality, descended into the physical body, to reincarnate itself in continuous succession. One day that will cease again. The earth will again become joined to the sun, and then man will be able to pass through his further evolution on the sun. Thus we have a specific series of steps, according to which the sun and man move together. Such things are connected with the progress of the sun across the vault of heaven.
Now everything that happens in the world is briefly recapitulated in the following stages. Everything has been repeated, including the evolution of the global stages in the first, second and third epochs. [See scheme at the end of the notes to lecture 10]. It came about, then, that man descended into reincarnation.
The sun separated [from the earth] during the time of transition from the second to the third epoch, the moon during the third epoch. Now the Earth develops from the third to the sixth epoch, when the sun will again be joined to the Earth.
Then a new epoch will start in which Man will have attained a much higher stage and will no longer incarnate.

1906-06-14-GA094

When the Earth begins to recapitulate the previous phases of its evolution, there will first be a re-union with the Moon, and then of this Earth-Moon with the Sun. The re-union with the Moon will mark the culminating point of evil on the Earth; the re-union with the Sun will signify, on the other hand, the advent of happiness, the reign of the ‘elect.’
Man will bear the signs of the seven great phases of the Earth. The Book with the Seven Seals, spoken of in the Apocalypse, will be opened. The Woman clothed with the Sun who has the Moon under her feet, refers to the age when the Earth will once again be united with Sun and Moon. The Trumpets of Judgment will sound for the Earth will have passed into the devachanic [spiritual] condition where the ruling principle is not light but sound.
The hallmark of the end of earthly existence will be that the Christ-Principle permeates all humanity. Having become like unto Christ, men will gather around Him as the hosts around the Lamb, and the great harvest of evolution will constitute the new Jerusalem.

1907-05-21-GA284

Looking to a far future, you see expressed in the .. seal future cosmic conditions in which human beings will ascend higher in their outer form. We see that Earth and Sun will be united and the Moon will be eliminated.
Remember that Goethe calls the highest ideal to which the human being can strive, the "eternal feminine." That which overcomes the unusable material in human nature is designated as feminine. When the Earth will have united with the Sun, the human being will have brought about this union.
The unusable material is portrayed as the Moon, which will be trod underfoot. What must be eliminated when the Earth becomes Sun again is represented by the dragon. It will be overcome when the Earth will again be Sun.

1907-09-16-GA101

The time will then draw near in which great changes will take place in the cosmos.
When men will have attracted the sun power, the sun will once again be united with the Earth. Men will become sun beings, and through the power of the sun, they will be able to bring forth suns.
[Fifth seal]
Hence, the woman that bears the sun in the fifth seal.

Mankind will be so far along morally and ethically that all destructive forces resting in his lower human nature will have been overcome. This is represented by the animal with the seven heads and the ten horns.

At the feet of the sun woman is the moon, which contains all those base substances that the Earth could not use but had not tossed out. Everything in the way of magical forces that the Moon still exerts on the earth at present will then be overcome. When Man becomes united with the sun, he will have overcome the Moon.

1907-09-16-GA101, longer extract from other translation

That which moves through the world today as cloud will give up its substance in order to form the body of the human being. The forces that are with the Spirits of the Sun today will deliver to human beings in the Future the power that builds their spiritual forces in an infinitely elevated manner. It is to this Sun power that the human being strives. In contrast to the plant, which sinks its head (the root) toward the center of the Earth, human beings turn their head to the Sun; one day we will unite our head with the Sun and receive higher forces. This we see portrayed in the Sun-face that rests on the cloud-body on the rock and the pillars. Human beings will have become self-creative then; as the symbol of this completed creation, a colorful rainbow surrounds the human being in the fourth seal. You can find a similar seal in the Apocalypse of John. In the middle of the clouds, there is a book. The Apocalypse says that the initiate must eat this book. Here is indicated the time when human beings not only will receive wisdom from without, but will also permeate themselves with it as they do with food today—when they will themselves be an embodiment of wisdom.
.
Then the times approach in which great changes will occur in the cosmos. When the human being will have drawn the Sun power near, the Sun will again be united with the Earth. The human being will become a Sun-being and, through the power of the Sun, will give birth to a Sun; hence we see [in the fifth seal] the woman who bears the Sun. At that point, humanity will be so moral, so ethical, that all the ruinous powers that lie in the lower human nature will be overcome. This is portrayed by the beast with seven heads and ten horns. At the feet of the Sun-woman is the Moon, which contains all the bad substances that the Earth could not use and which it has cast out. All the magic powers that the Moon still exerts upon the Earth today will be over-come. When human beings are united with the Sun, they will have overcome the Moon.

1907-10-21-GA101

see extract on Sorat

[coverage is about black magic and the Earth demon, the beast with the two horns] One apocalyptic seal is thus actually at the same time the seal for the overcoming of black magic through white. Human forces which are changed into sun-forces, which allow sun-forces to be brought to birth so that the moon-forces should lie beneath men’s feet – this is at the same time the seal for the path magic must take on our Earth. For the forces are rightly led through nine stages, indicated in the nine stars. …

1908-01-27-GA102

It is true that for a certain period of its cosmic evolution our earth has been separated from the sun. The sun and its beings advance along a more rapid evolutionary path. Our earth and the beings belonging to it take a different course. But these beings, and the earth as a whole, will one day have progressed to the stage where union is again possible with the sun — after a separate existence has enabled them to complete and perfect their present phase of development. For our earth will again unite with the sun. During the stage of Earth-existence itself, the earth will reunite with the sun, just as during the same phase of evolution it separated from the sun.

1908-06-26-GA104

If we now turn our attention away from the Earth itself and what is upon it, and consider it in connection with the whole space of heaven, we have arrived at a very important matter at the time of which we are now speaking. Earth and Sun comprised one body. The earth has developed out of the sun, and the moon has split off. We have said that this had to take place to obtain the right speed of evolution.
But now, when Man has passed through these stages of development, after he has spiritualized himself, he is ready to unite again with [the] forces upon the sun, he can proceed at the same tempo as the sun. An important cosmic event now takes place; the Earth reunites with the sun. While that of which we have spoken is taking place, the Earth unites with the sun.
We said that the sun-spirits descended to the Earth at the event of Golgotha, that this Christ-principle will be the means of bringing evolution to the point we have described. The Earth will then be ready to unite with the sun; and that which was necessary in order that evolution should not proceed too quickly, namely, the moon, will be overcome, for Man will no longer need it. The forces of the moon will be overcome.
At this stage Man can unite with the sun; he will live in the spiritualized Earth and at the same time be united with the force of the sun; and he will be the conqueror of the moon. This will be seen on examination to be represented by the symbolical figures of the fifth seal; the woman who bears the sun within her and has the moon under her feet.
Thus we have arrived at the moment when Man is spiritualized, when he reunites with the forces of the sun, when earth and sun form one body and the moon forces are overcome.
Now, we must remember that only the most advanced beings, who have been impregnated by the principle of Christ, have passed through this development. They have reached thus far; but those who have hardened in matter have fallen away and formed, so to speak, a kind of secondary planet of hardened, flesh-like matter.
Now remember what Man looked like to astral vision before he descended to the Earth as a physical being. We pointed out that he appeared in the four types of his group-soul, in the forum of the Lion, the Eagle, the Bull and the Man. These four types of the group-soul meet us, so to speak, before Man descends into the physical, before he is individualized. These four typical forms which Man had before he entered into the physical body are invisible in the present physical human being. They are in the soul-force, pressed, as it were, into the human form like india-rubber.
It is, in fact, the case that when man loses control over himself, when his soul becomes silent either by going to sleep, or otherwise falling into a more or less unconscious condition, then ore still sees today how the corresponding animal type comes out. But, on the whole, Man has overcome this animal type by having descended to the physical plane. When did he receive the power to overcome in the astral world the animal type?

1909-05-20-GA104A

in the image language of the Book of Revelation, see full quote on Sorat#1909-05-20-GA104A

quote A about redemption luciferic beings

When the Sun will have again united with the Earth, then human beings - through the fact that they will have purified their instincts, desires, and passions - will redeem the luciferic beings. The luciferic beings who do not go on to the Sun remain in their original condition. They then appear as expelled into the evil, lower astral world. This is the ancient snake and it emerges as the first dragon. Therefore, when the Earth enters the sun, a dragon appears.

quote B about timing reunion Sun

When the Earth began its existence as “Earth” it had to briefly repeat the Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon conditions once again. It went through recapitulations of those conditions before it became the present-day Earth.
Now, when actual Earth conditions prevail, it must prophetically mirror the future embodiments of Future Jupiter, Future Venus, and Future Vulcan. In this way the Earth goes through seven states during its actual Earth condition. These states are usually called Conditions of Life [CoL or rounds].

During the prophetically mirrored Future Jupiter stage [editor: that is, the next fifth CoL, see Schema FMC00.298], the Earth will actually unite with the Sun.

1910-GA013

.. during the Future Venus stage the Earth remains united with the Sun .. during the Future Jupiter state, however, evolution proceeds in such a way that at a certain point of time the sun departs once more from Future Jupiter and the latter receives its effects from the outside. After a time, the union of Sun and Future Jupiter' again occurs and the transformation gradually proceeds over into the Future Venus stage.

Discussion

Note [1] - on timing and evolutionary positioning

Rudolf Steiner was, in most books or lectures, hardly explicit about timing of the reunion of Earth with Sun. Though there are some explicit statements, the whole picture only comes together by studying all lectures on the Book of Revelation.

Key lectures in this are 1904-05-21-GA090A and 1905-03-19-GA090B.

1.1 - Timing of the 'first or physical' reunion of Earth and Sun

Physical hereby refers to the physical Condition of Life CoL=4.

It may be interesting to consider various speculative hypothesis that can be raised, with implications and reasons, in terms of the evolutionary pathway required for humanity to reach the stage of the 'speed of the sun'.

Hypothesis A: derived from a number of lectures, most probably at the end of the Sixth epoch, in the last seventh cultural age in that epoch mapping to the Gemini zodiac sign. See Note [1] - 'The Christ Impulse in the starry script' on Christ in the future cultural ages and next epochs. After the small pralaya epoch-transition, it would mean the seventh and last epoch before Future Jupiter would be a joined Earth and Sun, just as the first Polarian epoch (in an etheric condition).
Hypothesis B: the beginning of the seventh epoch.
- This is countered by the statement 'after the trumpets' (1904-05-21-GA090A), and "the seventh epoch that goes into the astral", as well as "what is left of the seventh race is the animal with the seven heads" (both statements in 1905-03-19-GA090B)
Hypothesis C: in a next astral Condition of Form CoF=5 in the same physical Condition of Life CoL=4.

1.2 - About the process

Two elements are brought forward here:

1 - The early lectures on the Book of Revelation (1904-1905 in GA090A and GA090B) are based on lecture notes by individuals, not by multiple stenographers. The problem that occurs is that they may be of lower quality, and also they originate from different people. Therefore the language is not explicit when talking about periods of evolution: epochs, CoLs, even planetary stages or CoCs. The exact meaning of the various lectures therefore can only be integrated into a consistent whole by careful parsing and assembly of the various pieces of the puzzle.
2 - At the same time, there are intrigueing relationships between the various level of evolution such as cultural age, epoch, CoF, CoL, CoC. This is discussed as the 'multi-level evolutionary dynamic' section of Evolution and the Three dimensions of evolution with characteristics also described on Cosmic fractal. A most obvious example is recapitulation. Please specifically consider Schema FMC00.298A above in the current context.

One aspect that remains open here is the fact that the 'process' of separation and reunion with the Sun that takes places in the physical CoL=4, and also (in the first, or both of) the next CoL=5 (and CoL=6), might have or actually should be be extrapolated to the planetary stages.

This consideration means that 'evil' will have to be further redeemed by the 'good' part during the Future Jupiter and Future Venus stages.

Though this (we believe) is also stated by Rudolf Steiner, the reason that this aspect (of considering the planetary stages) is not explicitly clear in certain lectures, may be due to the fact that it is not in scope of the Book of Revelation as covered in these lectures above.

About the Future Jupiter stage: and the corresponding pre-run in the CoL of Earth:

1910-GA013 see quote above
1909-05-20-GA104A
.. when actual Earth conditions prevail, it must prophetically mirror the future embodiments of Future Jupiter, Future Venus, and Future Vulcan. These states are usually called Conditions of Life [CoL or rounds]. During the prophetically mirrored Future Jupiter stage [editor: that is, the next fifth CoL, see Schema FMC00.298], the Earth will actually unite with the Sun

About the Future Venus stage

implicitly:
- 1904-05-21-GA090A the woman apocalyptic seal is described as a Woman because she represents the spirit of Venus, re: Future Venus
- see Schema FMC00.022 on 1915-04-03-GA161 on Christ Impulse at planetary chain level