Zodiac clock

The regular movement of the Sun through the zodiac signs in 25920 years, or some 2160 years per sign, can be regarded as a cosmic clock for the various consecutive cultural ages of development on Earth. This is related to the precession of the equinoxes and the movement of the apsides (re Vreede in references below)

From the Earth perspective, our solar system may thus be conceived as a great cosmic clock, and the expression of spiritual happenings and of the activity of spiritual beings behind it. What is happening in the starry spirit world is modulated by the movements and relative positions of the planets in front of the various constellations (1910-03-26-GA119).

The evolution of Earth and humanity can be 'calibrated' using such cosmic clock, whereby the Sun goes through the signs of the zodiac in approx 25920 years that correspond to one round. We can compare this with the hands of a clock. Once the small hand (the sun's vernal point going through the zodiac) has done one full round or circuit, the large hand (the evolutionary pattern) clicks forward by one step. We can contemplate this corresponding to a spiral movement (see Schema FMC00.549 below)

The discrete step change is symbolized by two intertwining spirals, as in the Cancer sign (1904-12-19-GAXXX), whereby the old gives birth to the new. See also Schema FMC00.169 on Overlapping evolutionary periods.

Aspects

the use of the zodiac signs as calibration points along the evolutionary developments (1908-09-10-GA106)
- the sun traverses the whole zodiac in 25.920 years, and so one sign takes somewhat 2000 years. The developments described in spiritual science are not on this timescale, as such period does not suffice for these changes to take place. The forward step only occurs after the Sun makes a complete circuit going through the zodiac.
- In earlier times it had to make the transit even several times before the forward step could take place. Therefore we cannot apply to more ancient epochs the familiar time-reckonings of post-Atlantean times.
regarding the direction of passing the zodiac signs:
- in terms of initiation, the sun proceeds in the opposite direction, not as it appears to our senses (Aquarius to Libra, so counterclockwise), and we have to look at the sun's path from Aquarius to Pisces (clockwise on Schema FMC00.029) (1910-12-12-GA124)
the current fifth Postatlantean age, since the 15th century, maps to the 'age of Pisces' (o.a. 1905-01-02-GA090B, 1921-10-28-GA208)

see also the great Cosmic year of Zarathustra of 12.000 year - as described by Rudolf Steiner and Sri Yukteswar, see topic page Sun
the way how the Sun's journey through the zodiac signs corresponds to the forming of the Human physical body, see Zodiac man
see also:
- Cosmic fractal#Note 2 - Using the zodiac clock for a view across epochs

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.029 provides a schema of the Zodiac world clock, showing the last ages of the Atlantean epoch upto the grey line, followed by the cultural ages of the current epoch.

Schema FMC00.029A illustrates with references from the original lectures, of which FMC00.029 provides a clean digital version.

Schema FMC00.544 provides a timeline for easy reference, linking the various ages to the zodiac clock and Yuga ages, since the beginning of 'time as we know it' currently, so since approx. 20.000 BC or around the middle of the Atlantean epoch. Before this one should not use current Earth years but use the zodiac clock instead, see more on Lemniscatory time and space.

Compare with Schema FMC00.451, Schema FMC00.373B.

Schema FMC00.264 shows Wachsmuth's three main prototypes, as mapped to the ages and epochs (see references below).

Schema FMC00.549 depicts how the zodiac clock can be imagined as a 2D collapse of a 3D spiral movement, which naturally causes a step change as an increment is taken along the third forward moving axis (re 1908-09-10-GA106: "The sun goes once through the zodiac, and only after this complete circuit does the forward step occur. In earlier times it had to make the transit more often before the forward step could take place. ... The sun has first to go completely around — in earlier ages even several times — before evolution progresses a step.")

Relate this to the spiral and step-change symbols as they appears in evolution. This is described on o.a. the topic pages for Overlapping evolutionary periods but more specifically The two halves of an evolutionary cycle. The latter page illustrates how this links to the cosmic breathing of the spiritual hierarchies, see also Spiritual hierarchies and their eigenperiods.

In the context of the Cosmic fractal, this picture and the above considerations can therefore be used to appreciate how the spirit world 'above' projects down 'below' in our reality experience of Lemniscatory time and space. On this 'above and below', Schemas FMC00.532 and FMC00.479A may provide an introduction and bridge with this Schema.

See also Schema FMC00.550 for another visualization.

Lecture coverage and references

1904-12-19-GAXXX

(published but some sources say not yet part of the GA, some state GA090F, GA092 or GA156)

In those ancient times men saw earthly events as a reflection of the Divine and of what had occurred in the great celestial vault of the heavens. If you study the Zodiac, you will find there the signs of Cancer, Gemini, Taurus and Aries. The vernal point of the sun advances according to certain laws so that in ancient times the sun rose in spring in the sign of Cancer, later in the sign of Gemini, then in Taurus, and still later in the sign of Aries.

At about the eighth century B.C. the sun had entered the sign of Aries, the Lamb.

In our age it has entered the sign of Pisces.

Earthly events are determined by what occurs in spiritual realms.

Take the sign of Cancer, for example. Its true significance is not always known, but this sign, which consists of two intertwining spirals, when rightly understood points to the dawn of a new age. Whenever an important event occurs in the world, whenever one stage of evolution is superseded by another thereby bringing something new into the world, two such spiral movements intertwine. One spiral of the sign of Cancer indicates the end of the Atlantean culture; the other, the beginning of the Aryan culture. Our ancestors thus perceived in the heavens the outward sign for the rise of the new Aryan culture.

At a later time the sun entered the sign of Gemini, the Twins. This is the sign of good and evil, the sign that governed Persian thinking.

Then the sun entered Taurus. Here we have the third post-Atlantean period with its veneration of the Bull in the Egyptian Apis cult, the Babylonian cult of the Bull and its sacrifice, and the Mithraic cult of ancient Persia. Man brought the sacrifice of the Bull down to earth from the heavens where it was inscribed.

1907-04-22-GA104A

The concept of the zodiac clock goes back from very ancient times ..

We determine time according to the movement of the heavenly bodies. Was the method for calculating time always the same as today's? Important things have changed. If we look into the past a little we see the Atlantean culture before the great flood on earth. The Lemurian age preceded it.
If we go even further back into the past the earth, sun, and moon are still united in a single body. Back then time had to he determined differently than today. Day and night were entirely different. In Lemuria, conditions for the whole earth were the same as it is today at the north pole, half a year day and half a year night. When sun, moon, and earth were still one this unified mass moved through space.
Already back then this movement was calculated by occult wisdom, just as today one calculates time according to the sun which moves across the sky through the signs of the zodiac.

Eight hundred years before Christ the sun stood in the sign of Aries. Christ was originally worshiped under the sign of the cross, with a lamb lying at the foot of the cross. The cross with Christ upon it appeared only in the sixth century.

Before that the Bull, Taurus, was worshiped when the sun stood in its sign.

Earlier, it was the Twin, Gemini, that was worshiped in Persia. The team of goats that pulled Thor's chariot had the same significance.

Before that the Crab, Cancer, was worshiped, and so forth.

Before the Lemurian epoch the sun, moon, and earth, united in one body, moved forward in terms of the zodiac. Time was measured following this movement. For this reason, the twelve signs of the zodiac are characterized as the heavenly clock and drawn as such

1907-04-27-GA096

In the distant past, time could not yet be measured by external methods based on the way the sun moves around the earth. Early occultists thought of special regents for the orbit of the sun, and they were right in their thinking. The whole system was orbiting, and time was determined in relation to the twelve signs of the zodiac—Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Scales, and so on.
.
As you know, one cycle in the evolution of a cosmic system is called a manvantara, and this is always followed by a pralaya, a state of rest. They alternate like day and night, with both night and day of 12 hours duration. Those 12 hours correspond to the vast periods of time in the cosmic day that were regulated by the ancient rulers of the circling of the zodiac.

I would need to draw 24 masters of rotations around this sign. If I were to draw it for you, you'd have the heptagon here (Fig. 21), then the seven eyes for the seven stars, and the 24 ancient rulers, 12 for the night and 12 for the day.

1908-09-10-GA106

[Platonic year and progress evolution and link with time]
Now we must not imagine - and this must be emphasized - that after the sun had stood in the sign of the Scorpion, and then in the sign of the Balance, the hips immediately developed. This would show the tempo of evolution as proceeding much too rapidly. The sun travels through the whole zodiac in a period of 25.920 years. At one time the sun rose in spring in the Ram, earlier in the sign of the Bull. The vernal point was always moving, going through the sign of the Bull, and so on.

About 747 BC the sun again entered into the Ram;

in our time it rises in the sign of the Fish.

The time during which the sun traverses a sign has some significance, but such a period would not suffice for the change that had to take place in order for man to progress from sexuality under the sign of the Scorpion to the evolving of his hips under the sign of the Balance.
We should have a false picture of this, if we thought that it could have occurred in one transit of the sun. The sun goes once through the zodiac, and only after this complete circuit does the forward step occur. In earlier times it had to make the transit oftener before the forward step could take place.
Therefore we cannot apply to more ancient epochs the familiar time-reckonings of Postatlantean times. The sun had first to go completely around — in earlier ages even several times — before evolution could progress a step.
For those members that required a stronger molding, the time lasted even longer.

1910-03-26-GA119

quote B

.. our solar system may be conceived as a great cosmic clock or timepiece. Just as we infer from the position of the hands of a clock that something is happening, we can do the same from the relative positions of the heavenly bodies. Anyone looking at a clock is naturally not interested in the hands or their position per se, but in what this indicates in the outer world. The hands of a clock indicate, for example, what is happening here in Vienna or somewhere in the world at this moment. A man who has to go to his daily work looks at the clock to see if it is time to start. The position of the hands is therefore the expression of something lying behind. And so it is in the case of the solar system. This great cosmic clock can be regarded as the expression of spiritual happenings and of the activity of spiritual beings behind it.
At this stage the candidate for the Initiation we have been describing comes to know the spiritual beings and facts. He comes to know the World of Spirit and realises that this World of Spirit can best be understood by applying to it the designations used in connection with our solar system; for there we have an outer symbol of this World of Spirit. For the Elementary World the similes are taken from the qualities of earthly things — solid, liquid, airy, fiery. But for the World of Spirit other similes must be used, similes drawn from the starry heavens.
And now we can realise that the comparison with a clock is by no means far fetched. We relate the heavenly bodies of our solar system to the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, and we can find our bearings in the World of Spirit only by viewing it in such a way as to be able to assert that spiritual Beings and events are realities;

we compare the facts with the courses of the planets

but the spiritual Beings with the twelve constellations of the Zodiac.

If we contemplate the planets in space and the zodiacal constellations, if we conceive the movements and relative positions of the planets in front of the various constellations to be manifestations of the activities of the spiritual Beings and the twelve constellations of the Zodiac as the spiritual Beings themselves, then it is possible to express by such an analogy what is happening in the World of Spirit.
We distinguish seven planets moving and performing deeds, and twelve zodiacal constellations at rest behind them. We conceive that the spiritual facts — the courses of the planets — are brought about by twelve Beings. Only in this way is it possible to speak truly of the World of Spirit lying behind the Elementary World. We must picture not merely twelve zodiacal constellations, but Beings, actually categories of Beings, and not merely seven planets, but spiritual facts.
Twelve Beings are acting, are entering into relationship with one another and if we describe their actions this will show what is coming to pass in the World of Spirit. Accordingly,

whatever has reference to the Beings must be related in some way to the number twelve;

whatever has reference to the facts must be related to the number seven.

Only instead of the names of the zodiacal constellations we need to have the names of the corresponding beings. In spiritual science these names have always been known.
At the beginning of the Christian era there was an esoteric School which adopted the following names for the spiritual beings corresponding to the zodiacal constellations: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, SoW, SoM, SoF, then Archai, then Archangels and Angels. The tenth category is Man himself at his present stage of evolution. These names denote ten ranks.
Man, however, develops onwards and subsequently reaches stages already attained by other beings. Therefore one day he will also be instrumental in forming an eleventh and a twelfth category. In this sense we must think of twelve spiritual beings.
If we wanted to describe the World of Spirit we should have to attribute the origin of the spiritual universe to the co-operation among these twelve categories of Beings. Any description of what they do would have to deal with the planetary bodies and their movements. Let us assume that the Spirits of Will (the Thrones) co-operate with the Spirits of Personality (Archai) or with other Beings — and Old Saturn comes into existence. Through the co-operation of other Spirits the planetary bodies we call Old Sun and Old Moon come into existence.
[editor: see Schema FMC00.077A]
We are speaking here of the deeds of these spiritual Beings. A description of the World of Spirit must include the Elementary World, for that is the last manifestation before the physical world; fire, air, water, earth, must also be considered. On Old Saturn, everything was fire or warmth; during the Old Sun evolution, air was added; during the Old Moon evolution, water.
In describing the World of Spirit we must begin with the Beings. We call them the Hierarchies and pass on to their deeds which come to expression through the planets in their courses. And to have a picture of how all this manifests in the Elementary World we must describe it by using terms derived from this world. Only in this way is it possible to give a picture of the World of Spirit lying behind the Elementary World and our physical world of sense.

quote B - second extract

When the candidate in those ancient Mysteries, after long experiences ...
... It is now revealed to him that he can understand the order and harmony he perceives in that world only by realising that what these spiritual beings do is an external expression of the heavenly bodies in the solar system, of the relationship between the Sun and the planets in their movements and positions. Thereby these heavenly bodies give expression to what the beings of the spiritual world are doing.
It has already been said that our solar system may be conceived as a great cosmic clock or timepiece. Just as we infer from the position of the hands of a clock that something is happening, we can do the same from the relative positions of the heavenly bodies. Anyone looking at a clock is naturally not interested in the hands or their position per se, but in what this indicates in the outer world. The hands of a clock indicate, for example, what is happening here in Vienna or somewhere in the world at this moment. A Man who has to go to his daily work looks at the clock to see if it is time to start. The position of the hands is therefore the expression of something lying behind. And so it is in the case of the solar system. This great cosmic clock can be regarded as the expression of spiritual happenings and of the activity of spiritual beings behind it.
At this stage the candidate for the Initiation we have been describing comes to know the spiritual beings and facts. He comes to know the World of Spirit and realises that this World of Spirit can best be understood by applying to it the designations used in connection with our solar system; for there we have an outer symbol of this World of Spirit. For the Elementary World the similes are taken from the qualities of earthly things — solid, liquid, airy, fiery. But for the World of Spirit other similes must be used, similes drawn from the starry heavens.
And now we can realise that the comparison with a clock is by no means far fetched. We relate the heavenly bodies of our solar system to the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, and we can find our bearings in the World of Spirit only by viewing it in such a way as to be able to assert that spiritual Beings and events are realities; we compare

the facts with the courses of the planets but

the spiritual Beings with the twelve constellations of the Zodiac.

If we contemplate the planets in space and the zodiacal constellations, if we conceive the movements and relative positions of the planets in front of the various constellations to be manifestations of the activities of the spiritual Beings and the twelve constellations of the Zodiac as the spiritual Beings themselves, then it is possible to express by such an analogy what is happening in the World of Spirit.
We distinguish seven planets moving and performing deeds, and twelve zodiacal constellations at rest behind them. We conceive that the spiritual facts — the courses of the planets — are brought about by twelve Beings. Only in this way is it possible to speak truly of the World of Spirit lying behind the Elementary World. We must picture not merely twelve zodiacal constellations, but Beings, actually categories of Beings, and not merely seven planets, but spiritual facts.
Twelve Beings are acting, are entering into relationship with one another and if we describe their actions this will show what is coming to pass in the World of Spirit. Accordingly, whatever has reference to the Beings must be related in some way to the number twelve; whatever hag reference to the facts must be related to the number seven.
Only instead of the names of the zodiacal constellations we need to have the names of the corresponding Beings. In Spiritual Science these names have always been known. At the beginning of the Christian era there was an esoteric School which adopted the following names for the spiritual beings corresponding to the zodiacal constellations: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Kyriotetes, Dynameis, Exusiai, then Archai, then Archangels and Angels. The tenth category is Man himself at his present stage of evolution. These names denote ten ranks. Man, however, develops onwards and subsequently reaches stages already attained by other Beings. Therefore one day he will also be instrumental in forming an eleventh and a twelfth category. In this sense we must think of twelve spiritual Beings.
If we wanted to describe the World of Spirit we should have to attribute the origin of the spiritual universe to the co-operation among these twelve categories of Beings. Any description of what they do would have to deal with the planetary bodies and their movements. Let us assume that the Spirits of Will (the Thrones) co-operate with the Spirits of Personality (Archai) or with other Beings — and Old Saturn comes into existence. Through the cooperation of other Spirits the planetary bodies we call Old Sun and Old Moon come into existence.
We are speaking here of the deeds of these spiritual Beings. A description of the World of Spirit must include the Elementary World, for that is the last manifestation before the physical world; fire, air, water, earth, must also be considered. On Old Saturn, everything was fire or warmth; during the Old Sun evolution, air was added; during the Old Moon evolution, water. In describing the World of Spirit we must begin with the Beings. We call them the Hierarchies and pass on to their deeds which come to expression through the planets in their courses. And to have a picture of how all this manifests in the Elementary World we must describe it by using terms derived from this world. Only in this way is it possible to give a picture of the World of Spirit lying behind the Elementary World and our physical world of sense.
The Beings, the spiritual Hierarchies, their correspondences with the zodiacal constellations, the planetary embodiments of our Earth described by using expressions connected with the Elementary World-all this is presented in detail in the chapter on the evolution of the world in the book Occult Science — an Outline, and we can now understand the deeper reasons for that chapter having been written in the way it has. It describes the Macrocosm as it should be described. Any real description must go back to the spiritual Beings. I tried in the book Occult Science to give guiding lines for the right kind of description of the World of Spirit — the world entered when there has been an actual ascent into the Macrocosm.
...
Spiritual science has not without reason figuratively expressed this frontier of the world we have described as the world of the Hierarchies, by the word “Zodiac.” Man would be at the level of the animal if only the two worlds that have been described were in existence. In order that man could become a being able to walk upright, to think by means of the brain and to develop intelligence, an in-streaming of even higher forces was necessary, forces from a world above the World of Spirit. Here we come to a world designated by a word that is totally misused today because of the prevailing materialism. But in a past by no means very distant the word still conveyed its original meaning. The faculty man unfolds here in the physical world when he thinks, was called ‘Intelligence’ in the spiritual science of that earlier period. It is from a world lying beyond both the World of Spirit and the Elementary World that forces stream down through these two worlds to build our brain. Spiritual Science has also called it the World of Reason (Vernunftwelt). It is the world in which there are spiritual Beings who are able to send down their power into the physical world in order that a shadow-image of the Spiritual may be produced in the physical world in man's intellectual activity. Before the age of materialism no one would have used the word “reason” for thinking; thinking would have been called intellect, intelligence. “Reason” (Vernunft) would have been spoken of when those who were initiates had risen into a world even higher than the World of Spirit and had direct perception there. In the German language “reason” is connected with perception (Vernehmen), with what is directly apprehended, perceived as coming from a world still higher than the one denoted as the World of Spirit. A faint image of this world exists in the shadowy human intellect. The architects and builders of our organ of intellect must be sought in the World of Reason.
It is only possible to describe a still higher world by developing a spiritual faculty transcending the physical intellect. There is a higher form of consciousness, namely, clairvoyant consciousness. If we ask: how is the organ evolved which enables us to have clairvoyant consciousness? — the answer is that there must be worlds from which emanate the forces necessary for the development of this clairvoyant consciousness. Like everything else, it must be formed from a higher world. The first kind of clairvoyant consciousness to develop is a picture-consciousness, Imaginative Consciousness. This Imaginative Consciousness remains mere phantasy only for as long as the organ for it is not formed by forces from a world lying beyond even the World of Reason. As soon as we admit the existence of clairvoyant consciousness we must also admit the existence of a world from which emanate the forces enabling the organ for it to develop. This is the World of Archetypal Images (Urbilderwelt). Whatever can arise as true Imagination is a reflection of the World of Archetypal Images.

see also FMC00.079 on Planes or Worlds of Consciousness

1910-12-12-GA124

(from extract on 'The being of Elijah')

Note on brackets .. if one reads 'Virgo to Libra' and then 'Aquarius to Pisces', both would be clockwise on Schema FMC00.029

With our senses we see the constellation of [editor brackets: of Virgo opposite] Aquarius, and from there the sun moves to Libra.
However, in terms of initiation, the sun proceeds in the opposite direction, not as it appears to our senses.

Thus, we have to look at the sun's path from Aquarius to Pisces.

1920-12-23-GA202

offers a description to help our imagination contemplating the zodiac

What the Magi possessed through an outer observation of the stars we need to obtain by an awakening of our inner life. Just as we must, once more, listen outwards into nature and hear the Angels singing as it were from external nature, so must we be able through Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition to bring forth an astronomy, a solution of the world riddle, out of the inner nature of man. It must be a spirituality, a spiritual science created out of the inner being of Man. We must found that which is really Man's true nature.
And the real nature of Man must speak to us of the world's ‘becoming’ through the mysteries of Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon, Earth, Future Jupiter, Future Venus and Vulcan. We must feel the arising of a whole Cosmos within us.
[editor - see also Schema FMC00.327]
All that man can experience as insight into the deepest mysteries of the world has been reversed since the Mystery of Golgotha.

[2nd cultural age] There is an old way of depicting the heavenly spheres, which existed already amongst the Persian magi. They gazed up to heaven and saw the actual zodiac constellation we know as Virgo, but looking into it they spiritually perceived what can only be physically seen in the constellation of Gemini. This wisdom was one that lived in people's abillity to hear or perceive a harmony between the constellation of Virgo and that of Gemini at right angles to it, in the quadrant position. [editor - cryptic statement, not explained further; for contemplation see also Schema FMC00.559A] Thus in place of the constellation of Virgo, the virgin was depicted with two earns of corn, yet also with the child – as representative of the twins (Gemini) and of the two Jesus children. This was an astrological perception particularly in ancient Persian times

[3rd cultural age] In Egypto-Chaldean times, people gazed up to the constellation of Leo in the same way as Persians had looked towards Virgo. But now, in the quadrant position to Leo was Taurus, and thus arose the Mithraic religion, bull worship, due to spiritually perceiving the constellation of Taurus in the physical constellation of Leo.

[4th cultural age] In Graeco-Roman times Cancer played the role that Virgo has played for the Persians; and now, gazing at the Cancer constellation, people spiritually saw the constellation in the quadrant position, that of Aries.

Then came the inversion and things took a different course.
Until Graeco-Roman times, until the Mystery of Golgotha, astronomy was something that could be developed as an outward science of discipline. In those times, human cognition was such that one could look into space and discover the secrets of the starry worlds, the secrets of time and space, and likewise one could live one's way into the human interior, and arrive at perception of inner secrets through piety of heart.
In Graeco-Roman times this turned around so what was formerly experienced inwardly now increasingly had to be experienced in perception of nature around us.

1922-08-02-GA347

see: Alphabet#1922-08-02-GA347

Concept of time as we know it today

see: Lemniscatory time and space

When can we say that 'time as we know it now' start? Only when an equilibrium was found between the Sun, Moon and Earth. Given the extraction of Sun and Moon bodies in the Hyperborean and Lemurian epoch, it does not speak sense of time as we know it today for periods before.

As referenced by Walther Cloos in 'The Living Earth':

In this connection Rudolf Steiner repeatedly observed that vital turning points in evolution, such as when 'time' in the modern sense of calculable rhythms began, are always 'connected with certain positions of the heavenly bodies' (1911-12-31-GA134).

Dr. Albert Richard Riedel (1911-1984) also known as Frater Albertus, put the start of time at the start of the third atlantean cultural age. He states in both his books 'QBL' and 'Men and the Cycles of the universe'

The beginning of this cycle is given at 19.717 BC. A point of utmost importance must be stressed here: time is only a man-made concept, as such it has no foundation in reality. Time, as a duration of consciousness, represents a mode of relating to passing occurences. Therefore, a date has meaning only when in conformity with accepted precepts. ... .. The date given here has proven itself with a great degree of accuracy in our investigations and tests.

Precession of the equinoxes and Spirits of Form

C.G. Harrison

Harrison (1855-1936) links the cycles to the hierarchies, and makes the connection to the precession of the equinoxes and the ice ages. In the last of his six lectures delivered in 1893, he describes the 'law of cataclysms', that is .. why each (root race) epoch cyclically ends in a major discontinuity:

.. they occur at the end of every 'root race' [epoch] because the Principalities (or angels of periods) [editor: archai .. Spirits of Time, in Steiner's nomenclature] of the succeeding one are then evolving at their minimum rate, having completed one-half of their minor cycle.
At such times, the centripetal resistance to the attraction of the Eight Sphere is at its weakest.
These periods coincide with the precession of the equinoxes, the last was the end of the glacial epoch in the northern hemisphere, and is preserved in the memory of a universal flood in the traditions of all nations

1910-12-31-GA126

discusses the law of evolution related to the eigenperiod of the Spirits of Form, and the fact that in the year 1250 there was the strongest possible penetration into the souls of men, whereas during the Atlantean catastrophe the SoF worked more on the Earth and little into the souls of men (so that the younger hierarchies held the field).

[The impact of the SoF]
The Spirits of Form manifest in a different way.
They manifest from below upwards as far more powerful Spirits who are not dependent upon using man merely as an instrument; they manifest in the kingdoms of Nature around us, in the configuration of the beings of the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. And if man would recognise the Spirits of Form in their manifestation, he must direct his gaze outwards, he must observe Nature and investigate what has been woven into her by the Spirits of Form.
Consequently in the Greek epoch, when the paramount manifestation is that of the Spirits of Form, man does not receive any direct influence as an inspiration.
The influence of the Spirits of Form works far rather in such a way that man is allured by the outer world of sense; his senses are directed with joy and delight towards everything spread out around him, and he tries to elaborate and perfect it. Thus the Spirits of Form attract him from without.
And one of the chief Spirits of Form is the Being designated as Jehovah. Although there are seven Spirits of Form and they work in the different kingdoms of Nature, men of the present age have a faculty of perception only for the one Spirit, Jehovah.
If we reflect on all this, it will be intelligible to us that with the approach of the fourth epoch, man is more or less forsaken by these inner Guiding-Powers, by the Angels, Archangels and Spirits of Personality, and that he turn his gaze entirely to the external world, to the physical horizon where the Spirits of Form are in manifestation. They were of course already present behind the physical world in earlier times, but they had not as it were yielded themselves to human recognition. In the period immediately following the Atlantean catastrophe, the Spirits of Form had been at work; they had been at work in the kingdoms of Nature, in the laws governing wind and weather, in the laws of the plants, animals and minerals. They had also worked in times more ancient still. But man did not direct his gaze to what then came to meet him externally, for he was inwardly inspired by the other Spirits. His attention was diverted from the outer world.
How is this to be explained? In what sense are we to understand the fact that these other Hierarchies, who are of a lower rank than the Spirits of Form, asserted their influence so dominantly over against the already existing activity of the Spirits of Form?
This is connected with a definite period in the evolution of the earth as a whole. To the clairvoyant vision which with the help of the Akasha Chronicle looks back into the past, these things present an appearance entirely different from the speculative pictures based on the geological data of the present day.
[Atlantean catastrophe <-> precession equinoxes]
When we go back before the activity of the Archai in the Chaldean epoch, before that of the Archangels in the ancient Persian and of the Angels in the ancient Indian epoch, we come to the period when the Atlantean cataclysm was at the height of its fury. We find our way gradually into the conditions then prevailing. This is the time to which the legends of the Deluge existing among the different peoples refer, but their picture of it was very different from that drawn by the hypotheses of modern geology. In still earlier Atlantean times, the picture was again quite different. Man was a being capable of transformation. Before this catastrophe the whole face of the earth was different from anything that can be imagined today. You can well conceive that at that time spiritual hierarchies worked into the earth still more strongly.
Between the old influences in the Atlantean epoch and those in the Post-Atlantean, there was a boundary-period filled by the Atlantean catastrophe — by those events whereby the face of the earth was totally changed in regard to the distribution of water and land. Such periods and changes consequent upon them are connected with mighty processes in the constellation, position and movement of the cosmic bodies connected with the sun. In fact, such periods in the earth's evolution are determined and directed from macrocosmic space.
It would lead too far if I were to attempt to describe to you how these successive periods are directed and regulated by what is called in modern astronomy the precession of the equinoxes.
This is connected with the position of the earth's axis in relation to the axis of the ecliptic, with mighty processes in the constellation of neighbouring celestial bodies; and there are definite times when, on account of the particular position of the earth's axis in relation to these other bodies of the cosmic system, the distribution of warmth and cold on our earth is radically changed.
This position of the earth's axis in relation to the neighbouring stars causes the climatic conditions to change. In the course of something over 25,000 years, the axis of the earth describes a kind of conical or spherical movement, so that conditions undergone by the earth at a certain time are undergone again, in a different form and indeed at a higher stage, after 25,000 to 26,000 years. But between these great periods of time there are always shorter periods.
[Ice ages]
The process does not go forward in absolute, unvarying continuity, but in such a way that certain years are crucial points, deeply incisive times in which momentous happenings take place.
And here, because it is of essential significance in the whole historical development of earthly humanity, we may point particularly to the fact that in the seventh millennium before Christ there was a very specially important astronomical epoch — important because, on account of the constellation brought about by the relative position of the earth's axis to the neighbouring stars, the climatic conditions on earth culminated in the Atlantean cataclysm. This happened six to eight thousand years before our era, and the effects of it continued for long ages.
Here we can only emphasise what is correct, as opposed to the fantastic periods of time that are mentioned, for these happenings lie much less far behind us than is generally believed. During this period the macrocosmic conditions worked into the physical in such a way as to bring about the mighty physical upheavals of the Atlantean cataclysm, which completely changed the face of the earth. This was the greatest physical transformation of all, the most drastic action of the macrocosm upon the physical earth.
-> Hence the influence from the macrocosm upon the spirit of man at that time was at its lowest; this epoch therefore provided an opportunity for the less powerful Beings of the Hierarchies to begin to exercise on man a potent influence, which then ebbed gradually away.
Thus when the Spirits of Form were working powerfully to revolutionise the physical, they had less time to work also upon the spirit of man, with the result that the physical vanished as it were from under man's feet. But an the other hand it was precisely during the time of the Atlantean catastrophe that men were transported most completely into spiritual realms and only gradually found their way again into the physical world in the Post-Atlantean epoch.
Now when you picture that at this time — six to eight thousand years before the Christian era — the least influence was exercised upon the human spirit and the strongest influence on the physical conditions of the earth, it will not be difficult for you to conceive that there may be another point of time when the opposite situation comes about: when those who are cognisant of such a matter experience the reverse of these conditions — namely, the least influence upon the physical and the greatest influence, precisely of the Spirits of Form, upon the human spirit. Hypothetically you can conceive that there may he a point in history where the reverse of the great Atlantean catastrophe applies. Of course it will not be so easily noticeable, for the Atlantean catastrophe, when parts of the very earth were blotted out, is bound to be a very striking event for people of our Post-Atlantean epoch, with their strong leanings to the physical.
[section on 1250]
When the Spirits of Form are exercising a powerful influence on the human personality and have only a little influence upon what is taking place in the external world, the impression will be less vivid. The point of time when this condition — in the nature of things, less perceptible to men — set in, was the year A.D. 1250 This year 1250 is of momentous importance in history.

Time periods and zodiac signs

1904-10-14-GA092

Now there was a particular way of describing the point of time in which this dispassionate, dry wisdom separated itself from the all-embracing primeval wisdom. In the eighth century B.C., the passage of the sun through the sign of the Ram, which then took place, was experienced as the repetition of an earlier passage through the same sign thousands of years previously.
It is well known that the sun moves forward through the whole of the zodiac, through the Ram, the Bull, the Twins, through Cancer, the Lion, the Virgin and so on, so that it has already passed through the Ram many times.
The last time it had passed through the Ram, Man was in possession of a knowledge united with love, and thereby of the primeval wisdom. This primeval wisdom had now been lost, and had given place to a culture of external wisdom. The priests of the Greek.
Mysteries expressed this whole process in its occult significance through the profound symbol of the Argonaut saga, in which the ram is the symbol of the union of love and knowledge.

1905-12-03-GA092

internet translation, SWCC

The Knights Templar had brought the initiation wisdom of the Holy Grail from the Orient to the of the Holy Grail to the mountain of salvation, Mons salvationis, the place of initiation of Christianity. An initiation ceremony pointed directly to the future of the entire human race. It was said: "A time will come, when Christianity will experience a new phase."
The progress of human spiritual culture has always been consciously modeled after the progress of the sun.

Before the year 800 BC the sun passed through the constellation of Taurus for about 2200 years. Over in Asia, the divine was worshipped as the Bull, Taurus.

Before that, for the same reason, the twins Gemini were worshipped in Persia: good and evil, the duality.

Around 800 BC Christ, the sun entered the sign of the ram Aries or lamb. This is referred to in the legend of Jason and the golden fleece. Christ calls himself the Lamb of God because he appeared in this sign.

Today the sun is in the sign of Pisces.

The Knights Templar point to the next constellation; the sun will then enter the constellation of Aquarius. Then Christianity will really rise, paganism will be connected with Christianity. This culture will raise a new John . This time will come when the sun is in the sign of Aquarius. John is called Aquarius, he will be the herald of a new era of Christianity. .. that is the John that the Knights Templar are talking about
The last phase of Christianity, which came from the Initiate Lohengrin, has brought about the period of usefulness, which has now reached its climax. The theosophical movement wants to be the successor of such movements as the Parzival movement and the one that started from the Initiate Lohengrin. Modern materialism also owes thanks great initiates for its origin, but it must be replaced by a new phase, a new cycle. This is what Theosophy wants to bring about. But it is always the initiates who speak, who speak when a new cultural impact is to be given

1905-01-02-GA090B

The next thing is that righteousness does not remain on the outside, but takes hold of the inside: Kama, the water. We have the constellation of Pisces. Present moment. The theosophical movement [gap in the transcript] ... Then it goes on. Future: Aquarius, Sagittarius, Scorpio, and then comes Libra again.

1921-10-28-GA208

I told you just now that we should adopt the standpoint of the Greeks, but today we can no longer set out from Aires; we must set out from the sign of Pisces. We now live for many centuries under the sign of Pisces. It is the sign which marks man's transition to intellectualism. But if you go back to the point where it was still justified to set out from Aries and it was possible to speak of the Zodiac in the old meaning, you will not obtain more than the callings represented by Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces; namely, hunter, breeder of animals, farmer, and trader. Everything connected with industrialism, etc., already pertains to the epoch of Pisces, and it is a repetition.
Consider the following:

We now live in the age of Pisces. During this age developed everything which constitutes the present civilization of machines.

But if we go back to the epoch of Aries, we still find the four honest callings, and although they had already become more complicated and modified, they placed man into nature.

And by going back still farther, to the epoch of Taurus, to the third, second, first post-Atlantean ages, to the last Atlantean epoch and to the last but one Atlantean epoch, etc., ...

we would finally come to Pisces [25,000 years ago]. There we would find that Man was a completely etheric being and that he had not yet come down to the physical world. In the age of Pisces, we find that he was an etheric being and in the present time he is really repeating what he already passed through at that time, when he developed into a human being. Since the middle of the fifteenth century, he is repeating this stage, but in an abstract way. In the past, he grew concretely into his human development. Since the middle of the fifteenth century, he is growing into his abstractions, for a machine is also an abstraction. Since the return of the age of Pisces, Man has really sailed into the forces which dissolve him.

And when he will reach Aquarius, this dissolution will have progressed in an essential way; he will then above all be unable to have the slightest connection with the universe unless he clings to the spiritual world.
Just because of this repetition, Man must penetrate into the spiritual world.

Discussion

Note 1 - Qualitative patterns in the different phases of evolution

The zodiac clock topic and the differences it causes for humanity that the zodiacal influences come from different orientations, as well as the start of time as we know it, were explored in early documents by DL called 'Qualitative patterns in the different phases of evolution' and 'The limits of sensible scope' available in the Essay section.

Note 2 - Twenty four masters of rotation of time

In the GA104a drawing of the Mystical Lamb, see Schema FMC00.068, the 'ancient rules of the circling of the zodiac' were drawn, in the GA096 these were referenced but not drawn.

Interpretation

Reference is made in 1907-04-27-GA096 to 24 masters of rotation of time, 12 for the night and 12 for the day.

Relevant extract from 1907-04-27-GA096:

As you know, one cycle in the evolution of a cosmic system is called a manvantara, and this is always followed by a pralaya, a state of rest. They alternate like day and night, with both night and day of 12 hours duration. Those 12 hours correspond to the vast periods of time in the cosmic day that were regulated by the ancient rulers of the circling of the zodiac.

However these days and nights were linked to the (planetary - my interpretation) stages of a cosmic system (solar system - my interpretation).

This could be interpreted as planetary stages in the evolution of solar system (especially because of the use of the terms pralaya/manvantara), but on the other hand the zodiac clock shows each period to correspond to a cultural age.

Note 3 - Platonic year and other time periods

The platonic year consists of 12 x 2.160 = 25.920 years, see the 25920 topic page.

On the Sun topic page, details are given of periods of:

24.000 years, the time period given by Sri Yukteswar for the Sun's rotation around a double, and describes the great changes in each period of 12.000 years
Zararhustra's great 'cosmic year' of 12.000 Earth years is mentioned by Rudolf Steiner in 1915-12-31-GA165
E. Vreede comes to cyclic periods of 21.000 years in her essays on the movement of the apsides (linked to ice ages and zodiac clock)

Furthermore, in 1907-05-29-GA099 is mentioned that

About 2.600 years are required for the passage through one constellation. The circuit through the whole twelve constellations is known in occultism as a Cosmic Year.

whereby 12 x 2.600 = 31.200 years.

Lazarides (see 'Further reading' below) discusses this oa in Chapter 14 (p 258-262), where he discusses the possible relationship between the periods of 12.000, 26.000 and 36.000 years.

Related pages

References and further reading

Elisabeth Vreede: Astronomy and spiritual science (essays from 1927-1930 published as newsletter, re-published in 1954 in DE and 1980 and 2001, modern EN version 2007)
Gunther Wachsmuth: The evolution of mankind (1953, in EN 1961)
Joachim Schulz: 'Rhythmen der Sterne' (1963)
Christian Lazarides: 'Vivons-nous les commencements de l'ère des poissons ?' (1990)
- see also the extensive literature list p 323-332