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Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 12:41 am
by AshvinP
AshvinP wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:40 pm
Anthony66 wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:32 pm Ashvin,

I wish there was some form of thumbs up mechanism I could use to let you know I have read your prior responses. Be assured I have and I thank you again for them. Note, it is not my intention at this stage to provide any significant push back - I'm in an understanding phase.

I think the next two points can be lumped together here. I'll push back a little in order to gain clarity.
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 3. Polar essence of all experience, i.e. Eternal-temporal, Unity-multiplicity, Universal-particular, Light-darkness, Warmth-coldness, and infinitely more.

4. Threefold essence of all experience - Willing-Feeling-Thinking, Body-Soul-Spirit, spatial dimensions, and many more (there are almost always threefold relations within the threefold relations, sometimes 3 sets of threefold relations to make nine-fold relation). Many other qualitative numeric relations are very important as well.

- Also note most essential relations are mirrored, i.e. they have relations with inverted qualities within spatiotemporal structure.
I guess the main thing that strikes me here is that these seem derivative, secondary, an abstraction, or conceptual schemes. They don't seem like primary phenomenal experiences. In meditative states, one is able for example to deeply experience the sense of warmth and perhaps break it down into greater levels of resolution perhaps by noting a vibratory aspect or the like. One doesn't juxtapose it with the phenomenons of coldness in these states.

I don't see a particular specialness of threefold. We have four-fold essences - the four winds, the four corners, the four-fold taxonomy of consciousness, the four aspects of the human being, the fourfold atman. Likewise we could look at a variety of seven-fold aspects.

All of the these twofold (polarity of One-many, etc.), threefold (W-F-T activities), fourfold (space-time dimensions), sevenfold (evolutionary stages), tenfold, twelvefold, etc. qualitative relations are very important. They are all pointing to the same spiritual realm of meaningful qualities from different angles and, most importantly, to our own thinking involvement in the phenomenal world. We must use abstract concepts to relate these things to each other with speech (although Cleric does a great job using more images of concrete experience), but that's just our own limitation here - the concepts should always be understood as pointing to concrete qualities of experience in every moment of our lives, and the qualitative history of humanity and the Cosmos as a whole. My recent essays on 4th epoch mythology are exploring the threefold and fourfold essences. I will soon be posting an essay on the latter, as it manifests in the space-time dimensions (which is really about as broadly concrete as we can get), and I think that will be very helpful to your questions/concerns above. I will notify you here as well when it is posted (hopefully by tomorrow).

Anthony,

I am circling back on this to make sure you saw the new essay which begins to discuss the fourfold essence. Here is the link - viewtopic.php?f=5&t=552

Much fewer modern thinkers, however, have thought to consider the fourfold quality of Wholeness. Martin Heidegger was one who, in his own unique phenomenology, incorporated the fourth dimension of Time into a threefold consideration of Being. Carl Jung is especially relevant for us today, since it was the images of ancient mythology which led him to consider the fourfold relation as critical to our psychic life; a relation which he found missing from the historic Christian theological world-conception. Jung identified the threefold relation with the conscious functions of the psyche - sensation (also will-desire), feeling, and thinking - while he considered the fourth function to exist within the 'unconscious' as "intuition".
...
Jung wrote:Since all cognition is akin to recognition, it should not come as a surprise to find that what I have described as a gradual process of development had already been anticipated, and more or less prefigured, at the beginning of our era. We meet these images and ideas in Gnosticism, to which we must now give our attention; for Gnosticism was, in the main, a product of cultural assimilation and is therefore of the greatest interest in elucidating and defining the contents constellated by prophecies about the Redeemer, or by his appearance in history, or by the synchronicity of the archetype.

In the Elenchos of Hippolytus the attraction between the magnet and iron is mentioned, if I am not mistaken, three times. It first appears in the doctrine of the NAASSENES, who taught that the four rivers of Paradise correspond to the eye, the ear, the sense of smell, and the mouth. The mouth, through which prayers go out and food goes in, corresponds to the fourth river, the Euphrates. The well-known significance of the “fourth” helps to explain its connection with the “whole” man, for the fourth always makes a triad into a totality. The text says: “This is the water above the firmament, of which, they say, the Saviour spoke: ‘If you knew who it is that asks, you would have asked him, and he would have given you a spring of living water to drink.’ To this water comes every nature to choose its own substances, and from this water goes forth to every nature that which is proper to it, more [certainly] than iron to the Heracleian stone.”

As the reference to John 4:10 shows, the wonderful water of the Euphrates has the property of the aqua doctrinae, which perfects every nature in its individuality and thus makes man whole too. It does this by giving him a kind of magnetic power by which he can attract and integrate that which belongs to him. The Naassene doctrine is, plainly, a perfect parallel to the alchemical view already discussed: the doctrine is the magnet that makes possible the integration of man as well as the lapis.
The process of shedding Light on the collective subconscious is also the integral process of revealing the ancient Spirits who had previously been perceived from without and who were, in the fifth epoch, submerged within. According to Jung, this process was actually what made the field of "psychology" possible in the second half of the 19th century A.D. It is simultaneously the process by which we drink from the wonderful water of the fourth river Euphrates and also begin directing the water from that wellspring of Life to all of Nature; it is the process by which we receive the grace of the Redeemer and by which we also pay forward His redemption to the phenomenal appearances of the world. What we are trying to imagine here as we approach the Center of the Cosmic perfecting process in the 4th epoch - where we begin to transfigure the abstract quantity of linear time into the concrete quality of holistic Time - is how the fragmented souls of the modern world are integrated and once again made Whole. These are not far distant prophecies for us to simply envision and speculate over, but rather they are concrete realities which have already begun taking form in the world around us. Although we will see those concrete expressions in the images of various personalities and thought-systems as we move forward, we should always remember that these considerations only come to life in our own thought. We are not passive observers of these developments but active participants in them. In fact, the developments only reach their fulfillment in each individual's deep commitment to a sense of truth, a feeling of responsibility, and a need for Imagination.
Holderlin wrote:“I have seen it once, the one thing that my soul sought, and the fulfillment which we pose beyond the stars and push to the end of time—I have felt its presence. The most exalted was there—in this circle of human nature and things, it was there.”
This German poet of the late 18th century was a living example of how the four-dimensional 'aperspectival', 'time-free' consciousness began to manifest itself in the soul's Imagination. Aesthetics such as poetry and music are for the modern world what mythology was for the ancient world. In their images we find prefigured the holistic spiritual developments which will only later trickle down to the fragmented intellectual spheres of philosophy and science. Hölderlin, in particular, was quite conscious of this flowering consciousness within himself. He passionately contemplated Greek mythology and Plato's dialogues while many thinkers around him were forgetting the Reality of the spiritual altogether. In the verses above, we observe that he placed the subject ("It") after the predicate, ignoring the traditional division into linear sequential parts of subject and predicate. This simple inversion was an expression of his Imagination reaching beyond the limits of abstract space and linear time to perceive both as a unified Whole which could be freely explored, just as we may freely explore the objects in our room right now. The Imagination does not provide total spiritual freedom, but, relative to the abstractions in which the mere intellect imprisons itself, it provides more degrees of freedom than what most people speculate is possible. By way of his Imagination, Hölderlin illuminated the inner meaning of this elegantly simple observation - "Time is long, but the True comes to pass."

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 2:27 pm
by Anthony66
In your last response, you quoted Steiner where he offers a symbolic depiction of the unified configuration of reality. This parallels the blind men trying to describe the elephant analogy. The problem evident is that while reality may well be unified, the perspective of the individual appears constrained or at least myopic dependent on the technique or tradition they adhere.

Moving into the second half of the list, I get what you are suggesting in the latter part of this. But the first half is a bit opaque - perhaps you can riff a little on what you mean by "particular manifestations".
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 6. Philosophical realism - understanding how particular manifestations do not provide essential knowledge, but rather the qualitative principles and archetypes underlying all such manifestations must be sought via Thinking activity.

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:03 pm
by AshvinP
Anthony66 wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 2:27 pm In your last response, you quoted Steiner where he offers a symbolic depiction of the unified configuration of reality. This parallels the blind men trying to describe the elephant analogy. The problem evident is that while reality may well be unified, the perspective of the individual appears constrained or at least myopic dependent on the technique or tradition they adhere.

Anthony,

Yes, due to the constrained perspective, one must transition from the 'horizontal' axis of cognition to the 'vertical' axis (the three I's). That is a transfiguration of mere abstract intellect to the 'aperpsecitval' and "time-free" consciousness which Jean Gebser also writes about. For further detail on Imaginative cognition (the first "I"), I will quote Cleric's Deep M@L essay.

Cleric wrote:When we overcome thinking consisting of arranging mineral concepts in logical trains, thinking becomes a living organism, that can reshape itself, grow, shrink, merge with color, sound, feelings, etc. In certain sense our thinking becomes something like the octopus which can sense and repeat the shapes and colors of the environment through mimicry. Our thinking becomes both a metamorphosing activity and a sensing organ - much like the sense of touch depends both on activity and receptivity. Here's the place to dispel any doubts that what we are describing has anything to do wild fantasy. It's the exact opposite of fantasy. In fantasy we impose our will against reality. Here we use our will to touch and feel reality. We are only interested in our activity as far as it can confront something real, in a way similar to how the mathematician is interested only in proper relations of mathematical thoughts. Mathematical thoughts constrain and define each other.
...
Similarly, through our mobile and living spiritual activity we actually explore the constraints that shape our sensing, imagination, ordinary thinking, feeling, willing, etc. In this way we begin to sense how the processes and idea-beings (including other humans) restrict and shape our own perspective. In Spiritual Science this stage of cognition is called Imaginative consciousness. It is no longer dependent on the sensory organs but explores through liberated spiritual activity the inner idea-geometry of Deep M@L and our relations to the idea-beings. Here we no longer have intellectual thoughts about things but we are experiencing the constellation of idea-beings that shape our perspective, by merging our cognitive activity with their dynamic imprints, and thus becoming aware of them. Yet from these experiences, concepts can be condensed, which can be used for communication and intellectual understanding. As long as we always remember that the concepts point to realities and should not turn into an abstract framework, we are safe from illusions.
Anthony wrote:Moving into the second half of the list, I get what you are suggesting in the latter part of this. But the first half is a bit opaque - perhaps you can riff a little on what you mean by "particular manifestations".
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 6. Philosophical realism - understanding how particular manifestations do not provide essential knowledge, but rather the qualitative principles and archetypes underlying all such manifestations must be sought via Thinking activity.

In the modern age, we have the bad habit of looking at individual "things" in the world around us and associating them with an underlying Reality in a 1:1 correspondence. This occurs in materialism-dualism and idealism alike. For the latter, it is still felt like a single plant must correspond to some single unit of phenomenal consciousness, for example. This occurs with all manner of phenomena including our own desires, feelings, and thoughts. They are artificially separated out (subconsciously) for purposes of conceptual analysis, like we saw in that diagram of the cross shape Steiner provided, but then we forget that this artificial separation was carried out when attempting to understand the underlying Reality which gave rise to them. So we start confusing the fragmented parts of the cross shape, which we ourselves fragmented, for the whole phenomena to be understood.

And to further complicate matters, we focus on the quantiative properties of the fragmented parts instead of the qualitative (meaningful) ones, even though the latter are what we are always truly perceiving. So instead, we should remember that this artificial separation occurred, that the meaningful qualities are essentially what we experience, and therefore try to work back to the overarching ideal structures which make sense of all the particular manifestations we perceive around us. These are frequently referred to as the "archetypal" phenomenon, which Goethe really brought back into the modern world-conception (although only a handful of later thinkers utilized it properly). Here is a quote about that in relation to Goethe's understanding of the particular manifestations of the color spectrum:

Steiner wrote:The Goethean world view can acknowledge only two sources for all knowledge of the inorganic nature processes: that which is sense-perceptible about these processes, and the ideal interconnections of the sense-perceptible which reveal themselves to thinking. The ideal interconnections within the sense world are not of the same kind. There are some which are directly obvious when sense perceptions appear beside each other or after each other, and others which one can see only when one traces them back to some of the first kind. In the manifestation which offers itself to the eye when it looks at something dark through something light and perceives blue, Goethe believes he recognizes an interconnection of the first kind between light, darkness, and color. It is the same thing when something light looked at through something dark gives yellow. The spectrum which appears at the borders allows us to recognize an interconnection which becomes clear to immediate observation. The spectrum which manifests in a sequence of seven colors from red to violet can only be understood when one sees how other determining factors are added to those through which the border phenomena arise.

The simple border phenomena have joined in the spectrum into a complicated phenomenon which can be understood only when one traces it back to the basic phenomena. That which stands before the observer in its purity in the basic phenomenon appears impure, modified in that which is complicated by the additional determining factors. The simple facts are no longer directly recognizable. Goethe therefore seeks everywhere to trace complicated phenomena back to simple pure ones. He sees the explanation of inorganic nature to consist of this leading back. He goes no further than the pure phenomenon. In it an ideal interconnection of sense perceptions reveals itself which explains itself through itself. Goethe calls the pure phenomenon ”archetypal phenomenon” (Urphaenomen). He regards it as idle speculation to reflect further upon the archetypal phenomenon. “The magnet is an archetypal phenomenon which one only has to state in order to have explained it” (Aphorisms in Prose).

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:25 pm
by JustinG
Rejoice! Rejoice!

Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty I am freed at last 😁

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:33 pm
by Anthony66
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 7. The role of collective subconscious forces which drive human spiritual evolution (and therefore all cultural transformations).
We are in the home straight of fleshing out a few details of your original list! I actually feel I'm starting to grok Anthroposophy at a basic level and I thank you for your part in that.

Having read Mark Vernon's book, "A Secret History of Christianity" which derives from Owen Barfield's "Saving the Appearances", I'm reasonably familiar with the concept of spiritual/consciousness evolution at the collective level. I guess my main questions surround whether we can identify a single stream of evolution verses multiple. It seems like the questions and concerns of the East diverge from the West. Crudely stated, the East was inwardly focused while the West looked outward to the transcendent God. But I know Steiner thinks that one should be looking at the developments surrounding the mystery religions in the West which were much more inwardly focused than that which became orthodox Christianity.

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 4:23 pm
by AshvinP
Anthony66 wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:33 pm
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 7. The role of collective subconscious forces which drive human spiritual evolution (and therefore all cultural transformations).
We are in the home straight of fleshing out a few details of your original list! I actually feel I'm starting to grok Anthroposophy at a basic level and I thank you for your part in that.

Having read Mark Vernon's book, "A Secret History of Christianity" which derives from Owen Barfield's "Saving the Appearances", I'm reasonably familiar with the concept of spiritual/consciousness evolution at the collective level. I guess my main questions surround whether we can identify a single stream of evolution verses multiple. It seems like the questions and concerns of the East diverge from the West. Crudely stated, the East was inwardly focused while the West looked outward to the transcendent God. But I know Steiner thinks that one should be looking at the developments surrounding the mystery religions in the West which were much more inwardly focused than that which became orthodox Christianity.

Anthony,

No problem, I am glad you feel more comfortable in your understanding of it.

This is a massive topic, but I will try to summarize the problem with the "multiple streams" view. I have also been exploring this topic by way of the essays on integral mythology. I am not sure if you have read some or all of the Bhagavad Gita, but it is truly a remarkable poem in the Hindu spiritual tradition. Many of the verses could have come straight from the Psalms, Proverbs, or even the New Testament. I have read Vernon's book and really liked it, but I think it begins with the Greco-Roman axial age (if I remember correctly), and therefore one may get the impression that there is no continuity with spiritual tradition prior to that or at the same time in the ancient East and Persia. That is not the case at all. We find these same spiritual teachings even in the exoteric traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zoriastrianism, Babylonian and Sumerian, ancient Egpytian, etc. Of course there is no easy way to establish that other than writing lengthy essays. Steiner also establishes that in his numerous writings and lectures.

On a purely metaphysical level, if we hold to idealism or nondualism, it makes no sense for there to be strictly parallel streams of spiritual experience. If we envision that, then we come up with the same image we get if we envision a dualism of mind vs. matter or phenomenal realm vs. noumenal realm. It is like saying there are strictly parallel streams of physical evolution as well. I suppose some materialists actually hold to such notions, but they do not fit the facts of experience, biology, history, etc. at all. The inward (East) and outward (West) focus is a great point even though it should not be taken too rigidly - that also reflects the evolution of Thinking activity and perception of thoughts. When those are sensed as approaching from without and therefore moving inwards, we call that "inward" spiritual tradition. When sensed as generating within and moving outwards, we call that outward tradition. Again, the details are much more nuanced and fluid, but there is definitely a deep connection between how ideas are experienced and how we orient towards the spiritual (idea-beings).

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:20 am
by Anthony66
Ashvin,

Just briefly in response to your last post, the single/multiple streams is indeed a massive topic and is something I intend to explore in some depth going forward. Christopher Bache's book, "LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven" had quite an impact on me. I'm not sure if you are familiar with that one but it describes in great depth and rigor, 73 high-dose LSD sessions conducted over the course of 20 years. Bache magnificently paints vast panoramas of the conscious landscape but with recurring themes. Such work must be part of one's data set.

I am quite familiar with the Bhagavad Gita. It remains one of my favorite religio/spiritual pieces of literate. To be honest I wouldn't automatically make connections the Hebrew scriptures.
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 8. Practical methods of bringing those forces into the Light of the Spirit.
I'm aware of some of the visual meditations and have been doing the red dot exercise each evening. Are there other "classes" of practice?

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:59 pm
by AshvinP
Anthony66 wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:20 am Ashvin,

Just briefly in response to your last post, the single/multiple streams is indeed a massive topic and is something I intend to explore in some depth going forward. Christopher Bache's book, "LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven" had quite an impact on me. I'm not sure if you are familiar with that one but it describes in great depth and rigor, 73 high-dose LSD sessions conducted over the course of 20 years. Bache magnificently paints vast panoramas of the conscious landscape but with recurring themes. Such work must be part of one's data set.

I am quite familiar with the Bhagavad Gita. It remains one of my favorite religio/spiritual pieces of literate. To be honest I wouldn't automatically make connections the Hebrew scriptures.
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 8. Practical methods of bringing those forces into the Light of the Spirit.
I'm aware of some of the visual meditations and have been doing the red dot exercise each evening. Are there other "classes" of practice?

Anthony,

I am not familiar with any of that, but I would also suggest reading Cleric's recent post on psychedelic use to explore the spiritual. I think we need to very cautious with such explorations and accounts derived from them. As Jung put it, "beware of unearned Wisdom".

re: Gita and scripture - it is actually more aligned with Christ's sayings in the NT. Spiritual science does indicate that Krishna is also the Christ-being (but not incarnate in his appearances to Arjuna), and even without verifying this connection via higher cognition, I am pretty confident in it via the remarkable scriptural parallels alone, as well as the broader integral mythic development occurring from the late 3rd to 4th epochs.

I will also refer your last question out to Cleric, as I am still exploring the basics of such practices myself.

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:00 pm
by AshvinP
AshvinP wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:59 pm
Anthony66 wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:20 am Ashvin,

Just briefly in response to your last post, the single/multiple streams is indeed a massive topic and is something I intend to explore in some depth going forward. Christopher Bache's book, "LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven" had quite an impact on me. I'm not sure if you are familiar with that one but it describes in great depth and rigor, 73 high-dose LSD sessions conducted over the course of 20 years. Bache magnificently paints vast panoramas of the conscious landscape but with recurring themes. Such work must be part of one's data set.

I am quite familiar with the Bhagavad Gita. It remains one of my favorite religio/spiritual pieces of literate. To be honest I wouldn't automatically make connections the Hebrew scriptures.
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 8. Practical methods of bringing those forces into the Light of the Spirit.
I'm aware of some of the visual meditations and have been doing the red dot exercise each evening. Are there other "classes" of practice?

Anthony,

I am not familiar with any of that, but I would also suggest reading Cleric's recent post on psychedelic use to explore the spiritual. I think we need to very cautious with such explorations and accounts derived from them. As Jung put it, "beware of unearned Wisdom".

re: Gita and scripture - it is actually more aligned with Christ's sayings in the NT. Spiritual science does indicate that Krishna is also the Christ-being (but not incarnate in his appearances to Arjuna), and even without verifying this connection via higher cognition, I am pretty confident in it via the remarkable scriptural parallels alone, as well as the broader integral mythic development occurring from the late 3rd to 4th epochs.

I will also refer your last question out to Cleric, as I am still exploring the basics of such practices myself.

I will add that I have recently started trying some of Steiner's suggestions for "preparation" in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds - https://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA010/En ... 2.html#001

Here is an excerpt:
Steiner wrote:To begin with, the attention of the soul is directed to certain events in the world that surrounds us. Such events are, on the one hand, life that is budding, growing, and flourishing, and on the other hand, all phenomena connected with fading, decaying, and withering. The student can observe these events simultaneously, wherever he turns his eyes and on every occasion they naturally evoke in him feelings and thoughts; but in ordinary circumstances he does not devote himself sufficiently to them. He hurries on too quickly from impression to impression. It is necessary, therefore, that he should fix his attention intently and consciously upon these phenomena. Wherever he observes a definite kind of blooming and flourishing, he must banish everything else from his soul, and entirely surrender himself, for a short time, to this one impression. He will soon convince himself that a feeling which heretofore in a similar case, would merely have flitted through his soul, now swells out and assumes a powerful and energetic form. He must now allow this feeling to reverberate quietly within himself while keeping inwardly quite still. He must cut himself off from the outer world, and simply and solely follow what his soul tells him of this blossoming and flourishing.

Yet it must not be thought that much progress can be made if the senses are blunted to the world. First look at the things as keenly and as intently as you possibly can; then only let the feeling which expands to life, and the thought which arises in the soul, take possession of you. The point is that the attention should be directed with perfect inner balance upon both phenomena. If the necessary tranquility be attained and you surrender yourself to the feeling which expands to life in the soul, then, in due time, the following experience will ensue. Thoughts and feelings of a new kind and unknown before will be noticed uprising in the soul. Indeed, the more often the attention be fixed alternately upon something growing, blossoming and flourishing, and upon something else that is fading and decaying, the more vivid will these feelings become. And just as the eyes and ears of the physical body are built by natural forces out of living matter, so will the organs of clairvoyance build themselves out of the feelings and thoughts thus evoked. A quite definite form of feeling is connected with growth and expansion, and another equally definite with all that is fading and decaying. But this is only the case if the effort be made to cultivate these feelings in the way indicated. It is possible to describe approximately what these feelings are like. A full conception of them is within the reach of all who undergo these inner experiences.

If the attention be frequently fixed on the phenomena of growing, blooming and flourishing, a feeling remotely allied to the sensation of a sunrise will ensue, while the phenomena of fading and decaying will produce an experience comparable, in the same way, to the slow rising of the moon on the horizon. Both these feelings are forces which, when duly cultivated and developed to ever increasing intensity, lead to the most significant spiritual results. A new world is opened to the student if he systematically and deliberately surrenders himself to such feelings. The soul-world, the so-called astral plane, begins to dawn upon him. Growth and decay are no longer facts which make indefinite impressions on him as of old, but rather they form themselves into spiritual lines and figures of which he had previously suspected nothing. And these lines and figures have, for the different phenomena, different forms. A blooming flower, an animal in the process of growth, a tree that is decaying, evoke in his soul different lines. The soul world (astral plane) broadens out slowly before him. These lines and figures are in no sense arbitrary. Two students who have reached the corresponding stage of development will always see the same lines and figures under the same conditions. Just as a round table will be seen as round by two normal persons, and not as round by one and square by the other, so too, at the sight of a flower, the same spiritual figure is presented to the soul. And just as the forms of animals and plants are described in ordinary natural history, so too, the spiritual scientist describes or draws the spiritual forms of the process of growth and decay, according to species and kind.

As well as some discussed in these lectures on Anthrosophy in Daily Life (I can only find the audio versions) - http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/anthr ... ylife.html

Re: Anthroposophy for Dummies

Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:22 pm
by Anthony66
We're nearly there! The question is whether I'll join team Steiner at the end of all this or join the ranks of Eugene and his fellow mystics. :twisted:
AshvinP wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:28 pm 9. The tendency of abstract intellect to be possessed by these forces and therefore ignore the need to develop higher Spiritual activity by reducing all experiences to its own abstract terms - practical ways of defending against that tendency.
What are the dynamics or causal mechanisms by which the intellect is "possessed"?

Apart from the "abstract" intellect, what other types of intellect are there?

What's in it for me if I develop higher Spiritual activity? What are the consequences if I don't?