Sun Steiner
    “Man now passes [i.e., passed] through his second stage of consciousness on the Sun [i.e., during Old Sun]. It [our new consciousness] resembles that into which today man sinks during a calm and dreamless sleep. This condition, which interrupts man's state of wakefulness today, is a remainder, as it were, a memory of the time of the Sun development [i.e., dreamless sleep today is a version of the consciousness we had during Old Sun]. One can also compare it with that dull state of consciousness in which the world of plants exists today. As a matter of fact, in the plant [i.e., any plant] one must see a sleeping being.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), p. 175.
    “What can be observed during the first Sun cycle [i.e., the first phase of Old Sun]...is the labor of the 'Spirits of Wisdom' (Dominions or Kyriotetes in Christian esoteric doctrine [gods six levels above us]). They have [i.e., had] intervened in the development of man around the middle of the first Saturn cycle [i.e., during the middle phase of Old Saturn] ... [They] now continue their labor during the first half of the first Sun cycle by repeating in successive stages the wise arrangement of the physical body [i.e., these gods worked further to develop our physical bodies, building upon the design previously laid out]. A little later this labor is joined by that of the 'Spirits of Motion' (Dynamis in Christianity, Mahat in theosophical literature [gods five levels above us]). Thereby that period of the Saturn cycle is repeated during which the human body received the capacity of motion.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959 ), chapter 15, GA 11.
    “[I]n Saturn [i.e., during Old Saturn], man's physical body had been formed [i.e., conceived; it would not become the physical body we know now until present Earth]. The latter was completely lifeless at that time [i.e., we did not yet inhabit our primordial physical body]. Such a lifeless body is called mineral by mystery science [i.e., “spiritual science” — in essence, Anthroposophy]. One can therefore also say that on Saturn man was mineral, or he passed through the mineral realm. This human mineral did not have the form of a present-day mineral. Minerals as they are at present, did not yet exist at that time.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959 ), chapter 15, GA 11.
“It can be seen that man ascends into a higher realm by thrusting a part of his companions down into a lower. We shall see this process repeating itself many times in the subsequent stages of development. It corresponds to a fundamental law of development."  — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959 ), chapter 15, GA 11.*
The Sun is the planet on which develops the second human condition of consciousness, that of dreamless sleep. The physical human body rises to a kind of plant existence through the incorporation of an ether body into it.
 This development passes through seven subsidiary stages (smaller cycles or “rounds”).
In the first of these cycles the stages of development of Saturn are repeated, with respect to the physical body, in a somewhat altered form.
At the end of the first cycle begins the pouring out of the ether body by the “Spirits of Wisdom.”
In the middle of the second cycle, the work of the “Spirits of Motion” on this body begins.
In the middle of the third cycle the action of the “Spirits of Form” on the ether body has its beginning.
From the middle of the fourth cycle onward, this body receives selfhood through the “Spirits of Personality.”
In the meantime, the physical body has advanced so far through the action of the forces which have been working on it since earlier periods that from the fourth cycle onward the “Spirits of Fire” can elevate themselves to humanity through it.
 In the middle of the fifth cycle the “Spirits of Fire,” which have previously passed through the stage of humanity, take over the work on the ether body. The “Sons of Twilight” are active in the physical body at this time.
Around the middle of the sixth cycle the work on the ether body is transferred to the “Sons of Twilight.” Man himself now works on the physical body.
In the course of the seventh cycle the animated monad has come into existence.
"The fact that humanity will be divided into those who stand on the right and those who stand on the left should not be regarded as unduly severe, as something unjust and uncalled for in the plan of Creation. Think of it rather as highest wisdom. Consider that though evil separating from good, the good will be immeasurably strengthened." — Rudolf Steiner, EVIL (Rudolf Steiner Press), p. 194.