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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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122. Genesis (1959): The First and Second Days of Creation 23 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

In our efforts to understand existence it is our practice to trace the course of some aspect of its development up to the present time, and we have had many opportunities of becoming familiar with the idea that everything we perceive around us is in course of evolution.
It would be superficial to think, because the angels underwent their human stage on the Moon, that they must therefore have had on the Moon such a consciousness as man has today on the earth.
This is the significance of the word “beautiful” or “good.” Wordy explanations will not help us to understand the Genesis account, but only diligent search for the secrets which are really hidden behind the words.
122. Genesis (1959): Stages of Human Development up to the Sixth Day of Creation 24 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

When we have grasped this, then we shall understand why it is that in so many accounts of the creation the incarnation of man is represented as a descent from the periphery of the earth.
Today it is very easy to criticise the Bible, as long as one ignores the fact that the ideas under attack were only born a few centuries ago. Those who inveigh against the Bible the most vehemently are fighting a fantastic invention of the human mind, not the Bible; they are shadow-boxing. It is the task of Spiritual Science, by communicating its findings, to point once more to the true meaning of the Bible, and so clear the way for the tremendous impact it should make upon our souls when we learn to understand what resounds to us so impressively from ancient times. 1.
122. Genesis (1959): The Moon Nature in Man 25 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

From a certain point of time the earth is left to itself, and, because its finer, more spiritual forces have withdrawn with the sun, undergoes a certain coarsening. But man, such as he has become through the Saturn, Sun and Moon evolutions, still remained for a time with the earth.
Thus he has the disposition to be something other than a mere earth being. As men we have the earth under us; the moon had to be cast out of the earth, but not until the right dose of its nature had been injected into man himself.
By what name could they have called those Beings, who underpinned alike the creation itself and their own knowledge of it? What sort of word could they have had for them—unless it were one which filled their whole hearts in the moment of receiving this revelation of the world-creative powers?
122. Genesis (1959): The Harmony of the Bible with Clairvoyant Research 26 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

But it is very different if one approaches the matter from the point of view of philology. One must nevertheless understand clearly that, even as late as the early centuries of the Christian era, there was nothing in the first chapters of the Bible to mislead anyone into reading the text as it is read today.
But we must not conceive Jahve-Elohim as the entire hierarchy of the Elohim united; we must understand that the Elohim give up, so to speak, only a part of their Being to the moon-Being, and hold the rest in reserve; and that in this older part of their Being they continue their own further evolution.
Thus, as clairvoyant observation proceeds, within the picture which to begin with has to be understood as purely spiritual, the physical emerges like a crystallisation. It follows that at an earlier time physical eyes would not have been able to discover the human being.
122. Genesis (1982): The Mystery of the Archetypal Word 17 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

Whoever wishes to get an idea of what lived in the soul of the ancient Hebrew sage when he used this word should clearly understand that in those days there was a lively comprehension of the fact that our earth evolution had a definite meaning and a definite goal.
We should have to go into very many things to get anywhere near an understanding of these Beings. To begin with, however, we can come to know one aspect of them, and that will suffice to bring us at least one step nearer to the potent meaning of the ancient Bible words.
One of them could do this, another that. But we understand the nature of these Beings best if we realise that at the time we are now considering they were working as a group towards a common goal; they were moved by a common aim.
122. Genesis (1982): Ha'aretz and Haschamayim 18 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

How far has this brought us? We shall not understand the sublime process of the seven days of creation unless we bear these details in mind. If we do so, then the whole will seem a wonderful cosmic drama.
So we must not think of them as human, but we must certainly envisage that there is already in their nature a certain cleavage. When we speak of man today, we do not understand him at all unless we distinguish between body, soul and spirit. You know what great efforts we Anthroposophists have made to get a closer understanding of the activity and nature of this human trinity.
—a phrase which we must go into more closely if we would understand how the spirit of the Elohim permeated the other elements. We can only understand the verb racheph by praying in aid, so to speak, all the associations which it would have carried with it in those days.
122. Genesis (1982): The Seven Days of Creation 19 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

I will deal later with the question of how we should understand the “day” of creation; for the moment I am concerned with the irruption of light and of air from without, of the separation of water from solid.
You must clearly understand that no plants, as we understand the term today, sprang up at that time, but that out of a psychic activity, out of a cosmic, musing activity, sprouted species, in other words the group-souls of the plant kingdom.
Truly we need no historical proof, the words furnish their own proof. When we understand the matter in this way we realise that it was only after the fifth “day” of creation that anything new could happen.
122. Genesis (1982): The Aeons or Time-Spirits 20 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

We know that the chief, the most comprehensive activity is undertaken by the Elohim themselves; but after they had laid down the main lines, so to say, after they had exercised their great creative forces, did they not appoint other Beings such as the Archai to represent them on the spot?
In this way everything fits together into one great system, even for our understanding. But of course it is only when you have followed up what I am saying for years that you will acquire a real grasp of how everything without exception falls into place.
It is this Spirit who is hidden behind the customary phrase “the first day.” We shall only understand the still deeper meaning of this first day when we also understand what lies behind the verse: And the evening and the morning were the first day.
122. Genesis (1982): Light and Darkness. Yom and Lay'lah 21 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

If you read the relevant passages in my >Occult Science you will come across something extremely important for the understanding of all development—the fact that at each stage of evolution certain Beings remain behind. Only a certain number of Beings reach their goal.
And the others—forgive me for saying this—those whose knowledge of occultism would perhaps equip them to understand the essential nature of the Goethean theory, know too little about physics for me to be able to discuss the subject in detail.
But something else is also necessary as well as light. To understand what this is, we have to consider the rhythmic alternation of sleeping and waking. What does it really mean to be awake?
122. Genesis (1982): Elementary Existence and the Spiritual Beings behind it. Jahve-Elohim 22 Aug 1910, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

This is how we have to understand the underlying purpose of this course of lectures. We tried in the preceding lectures to form an idea as to how spiritual Beings, whom we know from Spiritual Science, are to be rediscovered in Genesis.
An appearance is precisely an appearance. As such it is a fact; but we do not understand it if we stop short at its apparition. We can only appreciate it and give it its proper value as appearance, if we go on beyond the appearance.
This shows how necessary it is to have recourse to occult sources if one wishes to understand things. What does the biblical criticism of the nineteenth century make of this? It says: “We find in one passage the name Elohim, in another the name Jahve.

Results 621 through 630 of 6552

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