“A common belief among both materialists and occultists like (Rudolf) Steiner is that man has been on a constant upward path of evolution. Spiritual Mystery schools tell a different story. They say that man devolved from spirit into a being of half spirit, half matter. Over time, we have become denser and denser, more and more material. The average human now is probably more like 90% matter.”
Harold includes the following quote in his article:
“The second of the great periods of evolution that have been mentioned, the ‘Sun period,’ effects the raising of man’s being to a higher stage of consciousness. … The higher stage which man reaches on the Sun may therefore be characterized in this way: the physical body, already formed in the germ-state on Saturn, is raised to a second stage of perfection by becoming the vehicle of an etheric or vital body. This last-named etheric body attains the first degree of perfection on its own account during Sun evolution. In order, however, that the second degree of perfection... may be reached, the intervention of still other spirit-beings is necessary during the further course of the Sun life.” ~Rudolf Steiner
Harold then adds:
“Moving to higher states of consciousness is indeed what it is all about. It is what the Pythagoreans were doing. It is what the Essenes were doing. The primary goal of all the mystery schools was to achieve higher states of consciousness. But this is not a form of mental development. Consciousness and intellect are not the same thing. There are people with degrees and very high IQ’s who are still operating at low levels of consciousness. That is because consciousness is more a spiritual thing than a material one. So developing higher states of consciousness means developing our spiritual faculties. And the current Sun Period is the best time to do that.”
Source: http://spiritsun.net/2019/05/sun-period-of-higher-consciousness-and-enlightenment/