the physical body of a mineral as an empty hollow sphere surrounded
by its etheric body, which works inwardly from without; its astral body
is seen as raying out through the etheric into cosmic space, from where
its group ego streams back in from the devachan.
In the formation of minerals on earth there is also the influence of
planetary spirits, an influence divided among the various planets, a no-
tion perfectly clear to Paracelsus. Streams of etheric life are described
by Steiner as pouring down to earth from individual planets to per-
meate the various earthly minerals with "inner being:" Saturn perme-
ates lead with its etheric currents, Jupiter does likewise for tin, Mars for
iron,Venus for copper, Mercury for quicksilver; silver itself is influ-
enced by the moon, as is gold by the sun.The actual forms assumed by
minerals are seen as being provided by the exusiai, spirits of form,
while subtly different substances in the mineral world are obtained
through the workings of the group-souls of minerals, offspring of the
thrones, who use rays to mod$ minerals in all sorts of delicate ways
from without.
Another example elucidated by spiritual science is the influence ex-
erted on the growth of plants by differing hierarchical beings operating
!from both the planets and the sun, as together they interweave the
forms of individual plants on planet earth. Steiner describes dynamis, or
spirits of motion, worhng down from the various planets of our plane-
tary system through their offspring, the devas of plants, providing a spi-
ral influence on the formation and growth of individual plants, bringing
forth the leaves in spiral patterns, which mirror their own planetary
movements.At the same time a different group of devas, offspring of the
kyriotetes, or spirits of wisdom, work down vertically from the sun to
draw up the stalk in a direct line from the center of the earth.
When these two forces-the spiral, originated by the spirits of mo-
tion in the planets, and the vertical, originated by the spirits of wisdom
in the sun-are united at the right season in what Easton calls a sort of
marriage performed by the spirits of the cycles of time, oflipring of the
First Hierarchy, the thrones, the plant on earth is complete. Thus, an
ongoing symphony is orchestrated by the spirits of the cycles of time
as plant and animal life become interwoven in complex and mysteri-
joyce
(Joyce)
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