Federica wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 1:22 pmAshvinP wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 12:26 pm I also wanted to add one note on the above, which is hopefully helpful. Humans are the only be-ings with an 'I' on the physical plane. When we see another human, it is their 'I' which mostly comes to outer expression through expressions, gestures, speech, actions. For animals it is mostly the soul-astral life of impulses, desires, passions, etc. which comes to outer expression. For plants it is the etheric life forces which come to expression (also external astral forces in the blossom/fruit). And for minerals it is dense physical body which comes to outer expression. The animals, plants, and minerals also have group-souls or 'I'-centers on the astral and higher planes.
Yet there are even lower sub-sensible beings in nature's economy who are known as 'elementals'. We could say they have negative members of their organization, in the sense that their dense bodies are in retrograde stages of evolution which are lower than the minerals. Those bodies are so coarse that we can no longer perceive them with our physical consciousness (but we can easily discern the effects of their influences in nature, which generally relate to rhythmic processes). These are the beings we are generally referring to in terms of those which comrpise the natural functions of our organs and what not. These beings come into manifestation through our activity and can also be released from their 'imprisonment' through our moral spiritual activity, which has direct relevance to our health. It is true that all beings on the physical plane are related to an 'I' on some plane or another, but we shouldn't imagine that we are in direct control of these supra-sensory 'I'-centers.
Thank you Ashvin, your notes are definitely helpful. As I said yesterday to Eugene, I don't have direct knowledge of the hierarchies, therefore detailed illustrations are always welcome and helpful. Be assured, though, I was not imagining that "we are in direct control of these supra-sensory 'I'-centers." I think that an intuitive (in common sense) heartfelt knowledge is sufficient, in this case, to protect against such misunderstandings. As we said yesterday, a lung cannot decide to fly off of its seat, and the lawfulness it is submitted to, naturally applies to our direct relation to it, as being nested within our own being in organ-form. But again, the details you share are appreciated. For example, in my recent reading of the various types of elemental beings in Steiner, I had not realized their lower-than-mineral quality. Besides, I am glad you find Martinus' symbols inspiring! Although, for my own sensibility, nothing compares to Steiner, I am experiencing a true connection with Martinus' simpler wording and symbols, and I am grateful Eugene had this initiative to share this work with us.
Right, the principle you are elucidating, and Martinus as well, is exactly correct. There is a lawful nested structure of the Cosmic organism and we can only gradually illuminate any given part of that structure by considering it in the context of the Whole. We expand our aperture of that context through higher cognitive development, which requires spiritual training working on all fronts of our WFT life.
It is fascinating the rationalizations we come up with to maintain human consciousness at the apex of the nested hierarchical structure. Everything above us gets increasingly nebulous, atomic, and 'free', so there is no corresponding responsibility to serve the proper functioning of those archetypal organs and systems, like there is for our cells, tissues, organs, and systems to serve the proper functioning of the individual human organism. Eugene mentioned the Hermetic maxim, 'as above, so below', and this should be taken more seriously. The elemental/mineral forces are highly ordered and structured, yet so are the forces of the fixed stars and planets. The latter never deviate from their course and wreak havoc in the Solar system.
This should indicate to us that their 'freedom' is not like ours. In fact, the highest beings who behold the countenance of the Godhead cannot do anything other than execute its Will. The same is basically true for all the hierarchies down to the angelic beings. Even when these beings 'rebel' against the progressive guidance, it is inspired in them from without. They could not do anything other than rebel. With humans it is not the same at this stage - we genuinely have the freedom to choose service or rebellion in our thinking. That is precisely because our thought-consciousness has been isolated from the living currents of the Cosmos. Now it is our choice whether we will remain in rebellion or not, and each individual must make this choice over and over again - no beings will force it upon us during life or after death. Only we can enslave ourselves.
The “evil spirits” which deprive man of his freedom are not at all beings of the so-called “hierarchies of evil” or “fallen hierarchies”. Neither Satan, nor Belial, nor Lucifer, nor Mephistopheles have ever deprived anyone of his freedom. Temptation is their only weapon and this presupposes the freedom of he who is tempted. But possession by an “evil spirit” has nothing to do with temptation. It is invariably the same thing as with Frankenstein’s monster. One engenders an elemental being and one subsequently becomes the slave of one’s own creation. The “demons” or “evil spirits” of the New Testament are called today in psychotherapy “neuroses of obsession”, “neuroses of fear”, “fixed ideas”, etc. They have been discovered by contemporary psychiatrists and are recognised as real—i.e. as “parasitic psychic organisms” independent of the conscious human will and tending to subjugate it. But the devil is not there to no avail—although not in the sense of direct participation. He observes the law—which protects human freedom and is the inviolable convention between the hierarchies of the “right” and those of the “left”—and never violates it, as stands out in the example of the story of Job. One need not fear the devil, but rather the perverse tendencies in oneself! For these perverse human tendencies can deprive us of our freedom and enslave us. Worse still, they can avail themselves of our imagination and inventive faculties and lead us to creations which can become the scourge of mankind. The atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb are flagrant examples of this. Man with the possible perversity of his warped imagination is far more dangerous than the devil and his legions. For man is not bound by the convention concluded between heaven and hell; he can go beyond the limits of the law and engender arbitrarily malicious forces whose nature and action are beyond the framework of the law…such being the Molochs and other “gods” of Canaa, Phoenecia, Carthage, ancient Mexico and other lands, which exacted human sacrifice. One has to guard against accusing the beings of the hierarchies of evil to their detriment of having played the role of Molochs, these being only creatures of the perverse collective human will and imagination. These are egregores, engendered by collective perversity, just as there exist the “demons” or “evil spirits” engendered by individuals.
-Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism by Anonymous