In this most remarkable and in many ways unique course of lectures, Rudolf Steiner describes the inner experience of the states of consciousness known as the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth stages of evolution. Lecture by lecture, Steiner details the experiences of these states available to one who practices the spiritual scientific path of meditation. By this means, these stages and states gain an unexpected and existential reality: suddenly, we recognize what Steiner is talking about. Most remarkable of all, perhaps, is the description of the Earth state with its experience of death, which Christ knew on the Cross at Golgotha, transforming earthly and human evolution.