ng like
flashes of lightning in others. The Saturn heat bodies begin to glimmer,
to sparkle, and even to emit rays. This stage of evolution having been
reached, there again arises the possibility for certain beings to develop
their activity. They are those known to occult science as "Sons of
Fire."(15) Although these beings have an astral body, they are unable at
his particular stage of their existence to stir their own astral bodies;
they would not be capable of any feeling or emotion unless they could act
upon the Saturn heat bodies which have attained the stage of evolution
described. That action affords them the possibility of recognizing their
own existence from the effect which they produce. They cannot say to
themselves, "I am here"; but rather, "My environment causes me to be
here." They have perceptions, and what they perceive is the light-effects
in Saturn which have been described. These are, in a certain manner, their
ego. This gives them a peculiar kind of consciousness. It is designated
"picture-consciousness." It may be represented as having the nature of
human dream-consciousness, except that the degree of activity it enjoys
must be imagined as being very much greater than it is in human dreams,
and also that it is not a question of shadowy dream-pictures floating
hither and thither, but of pictures that have a real connection with the
play of light on Saturn.

During this reciprocal action between the Sons of Fire and the Saturn heat
bodies, the germs of the human sense organs begin their evolution. The
organs, by means of which contemporary man becomes cognizant of the
physical world, begin to shine in their first delicate ethereal outlines.
Human phantoms, displaying as yet nothing but the primeval light pictures
of the sense-organs, become discernible within Saturn to the clairvoyant
faculty of perception. Thus these sense-organs are the result of the
activity of the Sons of Fire; but they are not the only spirits who shared
in their creation. Other beings come upon the scene of Saturn at the same
time as these Sons of Fire,--beings so far advanced in their evolution that
they are able to make use of the germs of the human sense-organs for
beholding the cosmic events taking place in the Saturn life. They are the
"Lords of Love."(16) If they were not there, the Sons of Fire could not
have the consciousness described above. They behold the events on Saturn
with a consciousness which makes it possible fo