Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/827/en

the swelling of the seed through capillary water rise; to the sides and from above, the seedling is surrounded by air and warmth in the finely crumbled soil covering. The germination of the seed is a process that does not presuppose the presence of the element of the earthy-solid, the earth — but it does presuppose the elements of warmth, air and water. This already bears witness to the fact that the growth of the seedling points back to an evolutionary condition in which the earth was not yet earth, and the plant was still a water-born being. This condition repeats itself at the beginning of the plant's own becoming as an earth-plant. Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) formulated this principle of repetition of earlier states in 1866 as a result of his studies of embryonic development in plant, animal and human being — as the «Biogenetic Fundamental Law», which states: «Ontogeny is a repetition of phylogeny» — or: «The development of the individual is a repetition of the development of the species.» Rudolf Steiner does not confine this insight to the becoming of the Earth and its kingdoms of nature alone, but extends it to three planetary conditions that preceded the becoming of the Earth. These are described as «Old Saturn» (in which the element of pure warmth arose), «Old Sun» (in which a part of the warmth condensed into the element of air) and «Old Moon» (in which a part of the air condensed into the element of water). Only in a fourth planetary condition did the element of the earthy-solid arise. On the third stage of evolution, the «Old Moon», the plant-nature lived — forming itself out of water — as a still barely differentiated living mass. At the beginning of Earth evolution, the condition of the Old Moon repeats itself as a whole, on a higher level, just as do the two preceding evolutionary stages. As the plant world differentiates itself into the «earth-born», as root, leaf, stem and blossom incorporate the element of the earthy into themselves, the delicate, watery seedling stands at the beginning of the «individual development» of the plant — in repetition of the time of the Old Moon.