Eclipses por Rudolf Steiner
ATIVE A POSSIBILIDADE DE TRADUZIR O TEXTO, NA LATERAL DO BLOG
Human
Questions and Cosmic Answers
GA 213 - Sunlight and Moonlight, Eclipses and Man's Life of the Soul.
Rudolf Steiner
It is exceedingly difficult for modern consciousness to see any relation between the soul and spirit of man and the purely material, physical world around him; and there is, indeed, some justification for the failure to understand Anthroposophy when it says that the soul and spirit of man — that is to say, the astral body and ego — leave the physical and etheric bodies and continue to exist outside them.
Where,
then, are the astral body and ego? This is the question put to us by people who
draw their knowledge from the materialistic consciousness of the present day.
They naturally cannot conceive that an element of soul may find its place
within the bounds of space. At most they can recognise that somewhere or other
air exists and that space is pervaded with light — but the idea that soul and
spirit exist in space is, for them, beyond the realm of possibility.
This
impossibility is but a short way from that other impossibility of conceiving
whither the soul and spirit pass when, at the moment of death, they leave the
human body. True, modern man says he can “believe” in such things. The moment,
however, he begins to make use of his own powers of thought, he finds himself
immersed in endless conflicts. These conflicts cease when he strives upwards to
Spiritual Science. But the ideas which have then to be assimilated are somewhat
strange and unfamiliar to modern man, and he can approach them only slowly and
by degrees. At this point let us turn to the consideration of certain facts of
spiritual history which today are but little known in the outer world.
We know
that the old traditional conceptions, which were incorporated later on into
various religions and became matters of faith, may be traced back to primeval
wisdom. We know that in ancient times there existed the Mystery centres which
really fulfilled the functions alike of churches, places of learning and
schools of art. These Mystery centres were the source of all the knowledge
which flowed into the masses of the people, and of the impulses determining
their activities.
In these
centres the initiates dwelt — men who by dint of special training had attained
to higher knowledge. As a result of the tests through which they had passed,
they had entered into a definite relation with the cosmos — a relation which
enabled them to learn, by giving heed to cosmic processes, to the progress of
cosmic events, what they wished to know with regard to the world.
It is only
the later, more or less corrupt forms of such an understanding that have been
preserved for us in external history. You know that in Greek temples, where the
oracles were given, certain individuals were wont to pass into a mediumistic
condition, and when, at certain times, vapours rose out of the earth, these
individuals fell into a state of consciousness which at the present day would
be called “trance” by those who persist in maintaining a superficial attitude
towards spiritual things. No true knowledge, no knowledge corresponding to
reality can ever be attained through trance; everything is a confused jumble
and has no foundation in fact. But in times when the old methods of entering
into relationship with the cosmos had already deteriorated and become corrupt,
people turned to the oracles as a last resource. And all that was revealed from
this trance-like consciousness was looked upon as a revelation of the aims of
the Divine-Spiritual Beings behind all cosmic processes. Men ordered their lives
in accordance with the utterances of these oracles.
Now at the
time when men turned to the oracles, they had already lost the faculties which
had once been possessed by the initiates in the Mysteries. That was why they
relied upon other and more external means for regulating their actions. I shall
now try to make clear to you one of the ways by which, in very ancient times,
those initiated into the Mysteries penetrated into the secrets of the universe,
into secrets which expressed the purposes of the Divine-Spiritual Beings whose
mission it is to direct and govern the phenomena of Nature. Such initiates,
after they had undergone a long period of preparation during which they so
worked upon their whole being that they were able to observe the more subtle
life-processes, finally reached a point in their development when, gazing upon
the rising sun, they entered into a definite mood. This was a practice to which
the old initiate constantly applied himself. He tried to become spiritually
receptive to all that took place at daybreak. When the sun was slowly rising above
the horizon, a feeling of awe and intense inner devotion was called up in the
soul of the initiate. It is difficult today to form any conception of this mood
— it was a feeling of the deepest reverence combined with a yearning for
knowledge.
A last echo
of this mood can, I think, still reach us from the outer world when we read the
wonderfully beautiful description of the rising sun by the German poet and
writer, Johann Gottfried Herder. This description was, however, written more
than a hundred years ago, and it differs from anything that might emanate from
some of the insignificant modern poets. For Herder looks upon the sunrise as a
symbol of all waking life — not only in Nature, but also in the human soul, in
the human heart. The feeling of dawn within the human soul itself, as though
the sun were rising from inner depths — this was wonderfully portrayed by
Herder when he tried to show how the poetic mood entered into human evolution,
and how this poetic feeling had once upon a time been quickened by all that man
could experience when he looked at the rising sun.
Still more
intensely was the mystery of the sunrise felt by a man such as Jacob Boehme,
whose first work was called, as you know, Aurora, or the Coming of Dawn.
And the following words from Goethe's Faust: “Up, Scholar,
away with weariness — bathe thy breast in the morning red,” are not unconnected
with the secrets of the dawn.
The farther
we go back in the history of human evolution, the more wonderful do we find the
moods that were awakened in the human soul at the moment of sunrise, when the
first rays of the morning sun carried down on their waves the pulsating,
quickening light of the cosmos. And in the centres of the Mysteries, the old
initiates, when they had prepared themselves in a definite way, were able, just
at this moment of sunrise, to put their most solemn and sacred questions to the
cosmic spirits, and to send these questions, rising from the depths of their
hearts, far out into cosmic space.
Such an
initiate said to himself: “When the sun sends the first rays of light down upon
the earth, that is the best time for man to send his questions out into the
wide spaces of the cosmos.” And so the old initiates poured out into cosmic
distances the riddles which filled their souls and hearts. They did not,
however, look for answers in the trivial way that we are used to in our
physical science; they entered into a mood in which they said: “We have now
given over our riddles and our questions to universal space. These questions
rest now in the cosmos; they have been received by the gods.”
People may
think as they like about such things. They were as I have described them; such
were the practices in ancient times. Then the initiates waited, and again at
night-time they made their hearts ready. But now they did not give themselves
up to a questioning mood; they made themselves receptive, and in a devotional
mood they stood awaiting the rays of the full moon as it rose above the
horizon. They felt that now they would receive an answer from the cosmos. In
the older Mysteries this was a very usual procedure. At certain times,
questions and riddles were sent out into cosmic space, and the answers were
sent back to earth by the gods through the rays of light from the full moon.
In this way
man communed with the cosmos. He was not then so proud that he turned over
certain questions in his head, as a modern philosopher might do, and then
immediately expected an answer. He was not so conceited as to believe that he
could sit down with a piece of paper in front of him, and by means of the human
brain alone solve the great riddles of existence. Rather did he believe that he
must hold counsel with the divine-spiritual powers working and weaving in the
cosmos if he were to discover the answers to cosmic riddles. For he knew:
“Outside me, in the cosmos, I do not find merely the content of my ordinary
sense-perceptions. A spiritual element is everywhere living, working and
weaving. And at the moment when the rays of the sun penetrate to me, I can
myself send out to meet them the whole content of my will.” This secret has
been completely lost to modern research. At one time, however, such things were
understood by man and lived in him as true knowledge and wisdom. In Europe, one
of the last to reserve this tradition was Julian the Apostate. He was imprudent
enough to take these things seriously, and as a result he fell a victim to his
enemies.
Nowadays
men describe the sun by saying that it sends its rays down upon the earth. The
old initiate would have said: “That is only the physical aspect. The spiritual
truth is that men live upon the earth and upon the earth they develop their
will, and while the rays of the sun pour down from the heavens upon the earth,
man can send his will out into the direction of the sun — far out into cosmic
space.” On the waves of the will which as it were streams out from the earth
towards the sun, the old initiates sent forth their questions into the cosmos.
And while a man of today says: “There on the other side is the moon, and the
moon sends its rays down upon the earth” — the old initiate said: “That again
is only the physical aspect. The truth is that thoughts are brought down to the
earth on the waves of the moonlight.” Thus the old initiate entrusted his
questions to the rays of will which stream up, from the earth towards the sun,
and he received the answers from the rays of thought which come down to the earth
from the moon.
Modern
science knows only one side of the picture. The scientist sees only the
physical properties of sun and moon. The old initiate said: “While the sun
continually sends its light down upon the earth, the earth sends its rays of
will — the combined will-forces of all the human beings living on earth — into
the cosmos. And when man allows the light of the moon to shine upon him, rays
of thought are sent down to him from out of the cosmos.”
The human
organism has undergone many changes. Anyone, therefore, who is today seeking
super-sensible knowledge cannot proceed in the old way. Man's power of
understanding is cruder than it was in ancient times. It is true, of course,
that even today the rays of his will stream out into the cosmos. But he no
longer feels that the rays of his will could carry his questions out into the
cosmos; they no longer burn within him, as once they did. He has become too
intellectual, and the intellect cools the intensity of all questions. We have
very little feeling or the insatiable yearning which once existed in man for
knowledge of the most sacred riddles of the universe. We are no longer
passionately eager for knowledge; we are merely inquisitive and would like to
know everything as quickly as possible without taking the trouble really to
understand the world around us.
In our
present age only lovers like to dream in the moonlight! Men of learning would
deem it frightful superstition if they were asked to believe that answers to
the most burning riddles of existence could be brought down to them by the rays
of the moon. For modern man, the world is utterly bereft of the spirit, and he
understands nothing of the spirit which reveals itself everywhere in the world;
or, if he speaks of the spirit he does so in a vague, pantheistic sense, with
no concrete knowledge of how, for instance, the rays of the will are related to
the rays of the sun, how human forms of thinking are related to the light
coming from the moon.
By means of
an initiation suited to modern times, however, we are enabled to enter once
more into relationship with the cosmos and with the spirit of the universe. The
only difference is that the modern intellect has to do it in another way. The
preparatory exercises leading to initiation are described in my books,
particularly in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment The
purpose of such exercises is to bring the man of today to a point at which it
is possible for him really to receive answers to his questions — not merely in
his modern pride to turn the questions over in his head, and expect answers to
arise from his own brain. The latter method may indeed result in exceedingly
clever ideas; but mere “cleverness” can never lead to true answers to the
riddles of life. This continual turmoil in his head shuts man off from the
universe.
The modern
initiate must also ask questions, but he must have patience and not expect to
receive the answers immediately. The modern initiate gradually reaches a stage
in his development at which he no longer merely observes the outer world in
order to satisfy his curiosity with the impressions received through his eyes,
ears and other senses. True, he receives external impressions by means of his
senses, but while he observes just as definitely, just as intimately as others,
all that is around him — the flowers, the sun, moon, stars, other human beings,
plants and animals — while he turns his senses in all directions, and allows
all these external impressions to flow through and into him, he sends out to
meet them a current of force from his own being. And it is this force which
represents the question he wants to ask.
Such a man
looks, maybe, at a beautiful flower. He does not, however, look at it merely
passively, but fixes his gaze upon its yellow colour, and allows yellow to make
an impression upon him, At the same time he sends his question out towards the
yellow of the flower; he plunges the questions and riddles of existence into
the colour yellow, or perhaps into the rosy colour of the sunrise or into some
other perception. He does not render up all the questions of his heart to one
particular impression — as, for example, to the impression of the rising sun —
but he pours them out into each and all of his sense-perceptions. Were he now
to expect to receive his answers from these sense-perceptions themselves, it
would be just as if an old initiate had sent his problems out towards the
sunrise and had then expected the answers to come from the sun, instead of
waiting, as we know he did, until the time of the full moon. The old initiate
had to wait at least fourteen days; for it was at the time of the new moon that
he put his questions to the rising sun, and he received his answers only when
the moon was full.
A modern
philosopher would hardly be prepared to wait as long as fourteen days. By that
time he would expect his book to be in the hands of the printers; or, let us
say, he would have expected this before it became so difficult to find a
publisher! Today, however, he must again learn to have patience. When a man
delivers his questions over to the impressions of his senses, when he allows
these questions to be plunged in all manner of things, he must not expect that
these same sense-impressions will immediately bring him anything in the nature
of a revelation. He must wait — and this is easy for him if he has carried out
the preparatory exercises for a long enough time — wait often for a long, long
while, until at last all that he has rendered up to the world outside rises up
within him in the form of an answer. Should you throw out questions at random,
in a haphazard kind of way, you might perhaps receive fortuitous answers of a
kind — answers which might afford certain people a measure of egotistical satisfaction
— but of one thing you may be sure: they would not be real answers. You must
cast your problems into flower and ocean, into the great vault of heaven and
its stars, into everything which comes to you as an impression from without —
and you must then wait until sooner or later the answers emerge from your
innermost being. You have not got to wait for exactly fourteen days; it is not
for you to determine, as the old initiates were able to do, the duration of the
period. You have merely to wait until the right moment comes, the moment when
all that was previously external impression becomes inward experience, and the
answer rings from your own inner being
The whole
art of spiritual investigation, of investigation of the cosmos, consists in
being able to wait, in not imagining that answers will be immediately
forthcoming. It follows also, as a matter of course, that definite questions
must be put if answers are to be obtained. Should you enquire from those who
have already obtained true knowledge, as this is understood in the sense of
modern initiation, you will hear the same thing from them all. Such a man may
perhaps tell you the following story: “When I was thirty-five years old I
became aware of this or that great problem of existence, and all that I had
experienced in connection with it entered profoundly into my being. At that
time I entrusted this problem to some particular impression which came to me
from the outer world; and when I was fifty years old the solution to the
problem arose from within me.”
In days of
old, the initiates placed their questions within the womb of space in order
that out of space they might be born again. The solar element passed through a
lunar metamorphosis. Today the riddles that man would fain unravel, all that he
fain would learn in converse with spiritual Beings, must first be laid by him
within the stream of time. The cosmic element must appear once more, born out
of the human soul after a period of time determined by the cosmic powers
themselves. But it is necessary for man to reach a point where he is able to
feel and know when a divine, cosmic answer stirs within him, and to distinguish
between such an answer and one that is merely human.
Thus the
real content of ancient initiation is still present, but in another form. It
is, however, necessary to be quite clear about the following. If a man desires
to penetrate into the great mysteries of existence, he must be able to enter
into a spiritual relationship with spiritual Beings, with cosmic Beings. He
must not remain a hermit in life, he must not try to settle everything to
please himself in his own egotistical way. He must be willing to wait until the
cosmos gives him the answer to those riddles and problems which he has himself
sent out into cosmic space.
It is
evident that if a man has once learnt to send the forces of his soul out into
the cosmos and to receive cosmic forces into himself he is much better able to
understand the mysteries of birth and death than he was before he had attained
to such knowledge. When a man has begun to understand how the element of will
inherent in the soul streams out towards the rays of the sun, how it streams
into all the sense-impressions he receives from the outer world — he also
begins to understand how his soul and spirit stream out into the universe on
the waves of a spiritual element, of a cosmic element, when his physical body
has fallen a victim to the forces of death. Moreover, he learns to understand
how spirituality is brought back again to earth by the moon, by the moonlight.
He realises that his highest thoughts are given back to him from cosmic space.
For although in this present age thoughts rise up from within man's own being,
it is, nevertheless, the lunar element in the human organism that generates the
thoughts.
In addition
to all this, a man who has had these experiences learns to measure the true
significance of certain transitory phenomena which stand, as it were, midway
between processes regarded as physical and cosmic in their nature, and those
which are cosmic and spiritual. The man of today, owing largely to his
materialistic education, describes everything from the physical point of view.
He says: “An eclipse of the sun is due to the fact that the moon comes between
the sun and the earth, cutting off the rays of the sun.” This is a physical
explanation, built up from physical observation and as obvious as if we were to
say: “Here is a light, and there an eye. If I place my hand in front of the
eye, the light will be darkened.” As you see, it is a purely physical, spatial
explanation, and that is as far as modern consciousness goes.
We must
strive once more for a true knowledge of such phenomena. They are not of
everyday occurrence, and on the comparatively rare occasions of their
appearance they should be studied not only from their physical but also from
their spiritual aspect.
At the time
of a solar eclipse, for instance, something totally different takes place in
the part of the earth affected from what is happening when there is no eclipse.
When we know that on the one hand the rays of the sun penetrate down to the
earth and on the other hand the forces or rays of will stream out to meet the
sun, it is possible to form some idea of how a solar eclipse can affect these
radiations of will which are altogether spiritual in their nature. The sunlight
is blocked by the moon; that is a purely physical process. But physical matter
— in this case the body of the moon — is no obstacle to the forces streaming
out from the will. These forces radiate into the darkness, and there ensues a
period of time, short though it may be, in which all that is of the nature of
will upon the earth flows out into universal space in an abnormal way. It is
different altogether from what takes place when there is no eclipse.
Ordinarily, the physical sunlight unites with the radiations of will streaming
towards it. When there is an eclipse, the forces of will flow unhindered into
cosmic space.
The old
initiates knew these things. They saw that at such a moment all the unbridled
impulses and instincts of humanity surge out into the cosmos. And they gave
their pupils the following explanation. They said: Under normal conditions the
evil impulses of will which are sent out into the cosmos by human beings are,
as it were, burned up and consumed by the rays of the sun, so that they can
injure only man himself, but can do no universal harm. When, however, there is
an eclipse of the sun, opportunity is given for the evil which is willed on
earth to spread over the cosmos. An eclipse is a physical event behind which
there lies a significant spiritual reality.
And again,
when there is an eclipse of the moon, the man of today merely says: “Now the
earth comes between the sun and the moon; hence we see the shadow cast upon the
moon by the earth.” That is the physical explanation. But in this case also the
old initiate knew that a spiritual reality was behind the physical fact. He
knew that when there is an eclipse of the moon, thoughts stream through
darkness down upon the earth; and that such thoughts have a closer relationship
with the subconscious life than with the conscious life of the human being. The
old initiates often made use of a certain simile when speaking to their pupils.
It is, of course, necessary to translate their words into modern language, but
this is the gist of what they said: “Visionaries and dreamers love to go for
rambles by moonlight, when the moon is full. There are, however, certain people
who have no wish to receive the good thoughts coming to them from the cosmos,
but who, on the contrary, are desirous of getting hold of evil, diabolical
thoughts. Such people will choose the moment of a lunar eclipse for their
nocturnal wanderings.”
Here again
we approach a spiritual reality in a physical event. Today we must not absorb
such teaching in its old form. Were we to do so, we should be led into
superstition. But it is very necessary to reach a point at which we are able
once more to perceive the spiritual which permeates all cosmic processes.
Eclipses of the sun and moon, recurring as they do in the course of every year,
may really be looked upon as “safety-valves.” A safety-valve is there to avert
danger, to provide an outlet for something or other — steam, for instance — at
the right moment. One of the safety-valves which makes its appearance in the
cosmos and to which we give the name of a solar eclipse, serves the purpose of
carrying out into space in a Luciferic way, the evil that spreads over the
earth, in order that evil may work havoc in a wider, less concentrated sphere.
The other safety-valve, the lunar eclipse, exists for the purpose of allowing
the evil thoughts which are present in the cosmos to approach those human
beings who are desirous of being possessed by them. In matters of this kind
people do not, as a rule, act in full consciousness, but the facts are
nevertheless real — just as real as the attraction of a magnet for small
particles of iron. Such are the forces at work, in the cosmos — forces no less
potent than the forces we analyse and investigate today in our chemical
laboratories.
Man will
not be able to free himself from the forces in his being which tend to drag him
downwards until he develops in himself a certain feeling for spiritual concepts
such as these. Then only will the path leading to a true comprehension of birth
and death be opened up to humanity. And such a comprehension and understanding
is sorely needed by humanity today, when men are plunged in spiritual darkness.
We must learn again what it really signifies when the sun sends its light
towards us. When the sunlight streams towards us, the surrounding space is made
free for the passage of those souls who must leave their physical bodies and
make their way out into universal space. When the sun sends its light down to
earth, the earth sends human souls out into cosmic space, where these souls
undergo many metamorphoses. Then, in a spiritual form, they approach the earth
once more, passing in their descent through the sphere of the moon, and taking
possession once again of a physical body which has been prepared for them in
the stream of physical heredity. It will not be possible for us to enter into a
right relationship with the universe until such time as we begin to feel and
experience these things in a real and living way.
Today we
learn astronomy, spectroscopy and so on. We learn how the rays of the sun
penetrate down to earth, and we fondly imagine that there is nothing more to be
said. We learn how the rays of the sun fall upon the moon, and from the moon
are reflected back again to earth, and we look upon the moonlight in this way
only, taking into consideration merely its physical aspect. By such means the
intellect is brought into play. Intellectual knowledge cuts man off from the
cosmos and tends to destroy inner activity of soul. This inner life of soul can
be reawakened, but man must first win back for himself his spiritual
relationship with the cosmos. This he will be able to do only when he is once
more to say to himself: “A man has died. His soul is radiating out towards the
sun. It streams out into the cosmos, traveling the path made for it by the rays
of sunlight, until it comes into a region where space has an end, where one can
no longer speak in terms of three dimensions, but where the three dimensions
are merged into unity. In this region, beyond space and beyond time, many and
various things happen: but later on, from the opposite direction, from the
direction of the moon, of the moonlight, the soul returns once more and enters
into a physical human body, is born again into earthly life.”
When man
learns once more that the souls of the dead go out to meet the light rays of
the sun, that the shining beams of the moon draw the young souls back again to
earth, when he learns to feel concretely how natural processes and phenomena
are everywhere permeated with spirit — then there will arise once more on earth
a knowledge which is at the same time religion; a truly devotional knowledge.
Knowledge that is based entirely upon materialism can never become religion.
And religion that is founded on faith alone, that does not spring from the
fountain of knowledge, can never be made to harmonise with all that man sees
and observes in the universe around him. Today men still repeat certain prayers
from ancient times. And if anyone maintains — as I have done in the booklet
entitled “The Lord's Prayer” 1 — that deep
spiritual truths are concealed in these ancient prayers, the clever modern
people say: That is mere visionary dreaming, mere fantasy. But it is not
fantasy; it is based on knowledge of the fact that these prayers, which can be
traced back to ancient times, and which tradition has preserved for humanity,
have been conceived out of a profound understanding of cosmic processes. We
must win back for ourselves once more a knowledge and an understanding that
will enable us to call up in our souls a feeling akin to religion whenever we
are confronted by great cosmic events. We must be able to say, with the men of
old: “O sun, thou sendest towards me the rays of thy light. These rays form a
pathway to me upon earth — and along this pathway, but moving in the other
direction, the souls of human beings, the souls of the dead stream out into
cosmic space.” And again: “O moon, thou shinest down with gentle radiance upon
the earth from thy place in the heavens. And borne on the waves of thy gentle
light from far cosmic spaces, are those souls who are on their way once more
into earthly existence.”
That is how
we can find again the connection between the light and radiance of the outer
world and all that lives and weaves in the inner being of man himself. We shall
then no longer say thoughtlessly: “Man is surrounded by the physical universe
and he can form no conception of what will become of his soul, when, separated
from the body, it passes out into this purely material universe.” On the
contrary, we shall know that while the piercing rays of the sun make their way
through space, they are all the time working towards the forces streaming out
from the human will, and preparing a pathway for them. We shall recognise also
that the moon does not shed its gently undulating light over the earth without
aim or purpose, but that a spiritual element surges and streams through space,
borne on the waves of the moon-beams.
When once
perceptions such as these enter into our consciousness, we shall no longer be
able to look with indifference on a plant, let us say, when it is bathed in the
light of the early morning sun. For at such a moment very special processes are
taking place in the plant. It is then that the juices in the plant are carried
up by its delicate vessels into blossom and leaf. It is then that the rays of
the sun, as they fall upon the plant, make way for the forces of will coming
from the earth. And it is not only the juices described by our modern
scientists which stream through the plant at such a moment; those forces of
will which have their seat in the depths of the earth, stream upwards also from
the root of the plant into its flower. And in the evening, when leaves and
petals close, when the rays of the sun no longer prepare a pathway for the
emanations of will streaming upwards from the earth, the inner activity of the
plant ceases for a time, and its life rests.
The plant,
however, is also exposed to the gentle light of the moon. The moonlight does
not cast its spell on lovers only — it has an influence too on the sleeping
plant. Interwoven with the moonlight, cosmic thought streams down into the
plant and works within it.
Thus in the
plant-world we learn to look for the combined forces of “earthly will” and
“cosmic thought.” And we study the form of many different plants in order to
discover how far each one is woven out of “cosmic thought” and of “earthly
will.” And when we learn how spiritual, healing forces spring up from these
cosmic thoughts, and from this earthly will, the healing properties of plants
make themselves known to us, and we learn to see in the plant the medicinal
herb. But it is only when one has attained to an intimate knowledge of cosmic
processes that it becomes possible to recognise the remedial potentialities of
the several plants.
We must win
this knowledge afresh. We must reach the point, when we can understand how the
human head is actually moulded in the image of the earth herself. In the human
embryo it is the head which first takes shape. It is moulded in the likeness of
the earth, and the rest of the body is joined on to it. When the human head is
bathed in light, and the sunlight penetrates it, then that which in the human
head is analogous to “earthly” will shines out into the cosmos with a living
power.
If, now, we
consider a plant whose root contains the forces of “earthly will” in marked
degree, we can be sure that the root of such a plant seeks continually to evade
the light of the sun; and we can be equally sure that it is specially subject
to the influence of the moonlight, which, feebly though its rays seem to us to
shine down upon the earth, nevertheless penetrates right through to the roots
of the plants.
If, by
burning the root of such a plant, we bring to it the element of light, and if
we preserve the ashes thus obtained and make a powder out of them, then we have
the means to prove how such a powder is able, by virtue of the cosmic processes
inherent within it, to work upon the human head, for the forces of will in
the head are similar in their nature to the forces of will in
the earth. The point is that we should learn to fathom the
connection which everywhere exists between matter and spirit — a connection
which does not differ whether we are dealing with the smallest particle of
matter or the greatest mass. Then we shall be able to do something which at
present holds good only for mathematics; we shall be able to apply to the whole
realm of nature truths which first come to us as purely spiritual
apprehensions.
A cube, we
know, is made up of six squares. Such a thing can be spun out of thought; it is
a thought-picture. In salt, in ordinary cooking-salt, we find the cube again in
nature herself, and here we discover the connection between a spiritual
principle — something “thought out” — and a material substance in outer nature.
But I ask you: — What does the average man of today know of the degree in which
spiritual forces — cosmic forces of thinking, earthly forces of will — are
present in the root of any particular plant? And yet the process is the same as
that which we carry out today, albeit in the most abstract manner possible,
when we first conceive of the cube, and then proceed to find it again in
ordinary salt.
What we do
today only when we are thinking in terms of mathematics, we must learn to do
again with everything that comes within the range of the human soul. The study
of mathematics does not, as a rule, give rise to a devout, religious attitude
of mind. Such a man as Novalis could, it is true, be rapt in devotion when
given up to the study of mathematics. For Novalis, the science of mathematics
was a great and beautiful poem. But one comes across few people who enter into
a devout mood of soul when studying mathematics!
When,
however, we go a step farther, when we conjure up the spirit from the depths of
man's being and bear this spirit out into the cosmos, where of course it
already is (one merely learns to recognise it again) — then science becomes
permeated with religion; harmony between religion and science is once again
achieved.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA213/English/APC1960/19220625p01.html
