Spirits of rotation of time

The Spirits of Rotation of Time (in short SoRT) is the term used by Rudolf Steiner to denote the spiritual beings responsible for the illusion of time in our physical reality experience with mundane waking consciousness (see more on Cosmic fractal).

The Spirits of Rotation of Time group the collection of astral beings distributed over the whole Earth that regulate the rhythms of Earth, daily as well as yearly, and are responsible for the Earth's rotation around its axis.

The SoRT are at the level of the Spirits of Wisdom (SoW) (1908-03-24-GA102), or more specifically luciferic SoW (1918-10-04-GA184), and this offspring of the SoW was formed in the Old Sun stage, when these SoW gave the etheric body to Man from their own substance. (1912-04-13-GA136)

Aspects

laws of nature relate to the effects from the Spirits of the Rotation of Time (1912-04-04-GA136, see Cosmic fractal#1912-04-04-GA136)
whereas regular Spirits of Wisdom (SoW) are working their influences in 'duration', backwards luciferic SoW create the time 'illusion'; see Lemniscatory time and space#1918-10-04-GA184 and Schema FMC00.472B
as a result, 'downstream' hierarchies below these luciferic SoW (operating at the SoF level) can be characterized in their influences by a certain time-effect too, as described on Spiritual hierarchies and their eigenperiods
the SoRT are an offspring of the First Hierarchy (1912-04-07-GA136)

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.069 positions the Spirits of Rotation of Time (SoRT) as underlying the natural rhythms and laws of nature.

For the offsprings, see also Schema FMC00.142

Schema FMC00.472B positions the backward luciferic Spirits of Wisdom (SoW) which operate at the level of the Spirits of Form and create the illusion of time in physical timespace. See more on see Lemniscatory time and space#1918-10-04-GA184.

The schema is another variant of the FMC00.472 Schema used to help imagine the various spiritual hierarchies and their relation to Man's bodily principles and experience of physical timespace with mundane waking consciousness as part of the cosmic fractal.

Lecture coverage and references

Main lectures are 1908-03-24-GA102 followed by 1912-04-07-GA136 and 1912-04-13-GA136.

1908-03-24-GA102

their origin as SoW is described:

Had the Spirits of Wisdom remained in evolution, Man would rapidly have developed to spirituality, burning himself up bodily through-out evolution. But the Spirits of Wisdom refrained from bringing Man to such a violent development. They went away from the Earth in order to circle round it — in order to regulate and modify the time-periods which would other-wise have rushed past so vehemently. One therefore says in occultism that these Spirits of Wisdom became the 'Spirits of the Rotation of Times'. The successive incarnations of Man were regulated in the successive revolutions of time which were again regulated through the course of the stars. The Spirits of Wisdom became Spirits of the Rotation of Times.

1908-04-29-GA098

If the Earth would really pass through those spaces in a straight line, then man would become old immediately.
As it is, the movement was amended in a wise way by the leading spirits. The absolute progress is being delayed through a different way of movement. As you can see, there lies deep wisdom in the cosmos—this wisdom is the expression of the leading spirits.
We have been given angels and archangels as governors of our evolution.
The forces that are working from incarnation to incarnation, that push man further, so that he will not become mummified, these are the governors of the future rotation times of Jupiter. Such Spirits that are standing above the human being and regulate his life, are therefore called the “Spirits of the Rotation of Time”, because their deeds will find expression later in the rotation times of the celestial bodies.
The way the stars move today can be seen as the results of what higher beings have done in former times. In today’s humanity you can already recognise the future times of rotation. With this a tremendous spiritual life enters the celestial space, when we learn to look at it in this way. Today, we only wanted to look at the characteristics of beings up to the Powers [SoF].

1912-04-04-GA136

The SoRT are introduced:

.. not only the seasons of the year, and the growing and the fading of the plants, but also the regular alternation which, in relation to the Earth-planet, expresses itself in day and night, is brought about by these spirits, which are to be classed as belonging to the astral body of the earth. In other words, everything connected with rhythmic return, with rhythmic alternation, with the repetitions of happenings in time, is organized by spiritual beings which collectively belong to the astral body of the Earth and to which the name 'Spirits of the Rotation of Time', of our planet, is applicable. What the astronomer ascertains through calculation about the rotation of the earth on its axis, is perceptible to occult vision, because the occultist knows that these spirits are distributed over the whole Earth, and are actually the bearers of the forces which rotate the Earth on its axis. It is extremely important that one should be aware that in the astral body of the earth is to be found everything connected with the ordinary alternations between the blossoming and withering of plants and also all that is connected with the alternations between day and night, — between the various seasons of the year, and the various times of the day, etc. Everything that happens in this way calls up in the observer who has progressed so far that he can, with his astral body, go out of his physical and etheric bodies and still remain conscious — an impression of the spiritual beings belonging to the Spirits of the Rotation of Time.

1912-04-07-GA136

and described as an offspring of H1

The beings of the First Hierarchy have likewise offspring split off from them, and as a matter of fact I have already described from a different aspect these beings which are the offspring of the First Hierarchy. I described them at the beginning of this course, when we ascended to the so-called Spirits of the Rotation of Time, the spirits governing and directing what goes on in the kingdoms of nature in rhythmic succession and repetition.
The beings of the First Hierarchy detach from themselves the beings governing the alternation of summer and winter, so that the plants spring up and fade away again; that rhythmical succession through which, for instance, the animals belonging to a certain species have a definite period of life in which they develop from birth to death.

Everything which takes place in the kingdom of nature rhythmically and in recapitulation, such as day and night, alternations of the year, the four seasons of the year, everything which thus depends upon repeated happenings, is regulated by the Spirits of the Rotation of Time, the offspring of the beings of the First Hierarchy.

1912-04-13-GA136

Now in the course of these lectures I have stated that in the nature-spirits we have to see the offspring of the Third Hierarchy, and that in the group-I's we have to see the offspring of the Second Hierarchy.
Now we come, in addition, to the Spirits of the Rotation of Time, the rulers or regulators of the epochs. We have now reached a position in which we can allude to the functions of a certain category of such Spirits of the Rotation of Time.
At this point we can state that certain Spirits of the Rotation of Time unite the forces of movement coming down from the planets to the plants that work spirally with the forces which come down from the sun. Both these forces are brought together at a definite time by the Spirits of the Rotation of Time, and indeed at that time of the year when the plant progresses towards its fructification. The spiral principle of movement is united with the principle which works in the stalk.
Hence in the stamens we have the principle which works spirally, and the principle which is the direct continuation of the stalk, in the ovary, in the center of the plant. When the course of the plant is completed, that is, when the Spirits of the Rotation of Time appointed to the plants unite their activity—the activity of the planetary spirits—with the activity of the Sun-spirit—then in the now completed plant those organs which till then followed the planets spirally are arranged in a neat circle like the stamens, while the stalk itself elongates and terminates in the ovary.
These two are then united; the growth of the plant is complete when to the two spiritual activities of the offspring of the Spirits of Wisdom and of Motion, is added the activity of the Spirits of the Rotation of Time, uniting the two spiritual beings in a sort of marriage.
Thus in the plant kingdom we have had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the offspring of the Spirits of Wisdom. Further, as you may read in my Occult Science or The Akashic Records, we must assume that these offspring of the Spirits of Wisdom have been formed since the time when these Spirits of Wisdom themselves gave the etheric body to Man from their own substance. That occurred when the Earth was in the Old Sun stage; the etheric body of Man was then derived from the Spirits of Wisdom.
But now, since that time, the Old Sun progressed to the Old Moon, and this again progressed to the Earth stage. During the Old Moon stage the Spirits of Wisdom who had, during the Old Sun stage, been able to give man his etheric body out of their own substance, had already progressed so far that they no longer needed to develop the capacity of giving anything to Man. On the Earth they had progressed to still higher activities.
Now it is not exclusively characteristic of the offspring of the Spirits of Wisdom, whom we discovered as the group-I's of the plant kingdom, to give a direct impulse from the sun, that it seems to come not only from the planets but from the sun; it is also peculiar to the actual Spirits of Wisdom that they reveal themselves as coming directly down from the sun to the Earth.
Now how are the impulses revealed, which come down from these Spirits of Wisdom who have gone through their normal evolution?

Spirits of rotation of time

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