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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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101. Myths and Symbols 21 Oct 1907, Berlin
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond

Truths of this nature are contained in the sagas and myths and even if a man does not understand them, he will surely glimpse something of their profundity and wisdom in the feelings which arise in him.
On the other hand the procreative organs as they are at present, are in the dying stage; they will harden more and more and sever themselves from the human body. We only understand man’s body when we know how the dying part is related to the progressive part in its evolution.
Thus do the spiritual worlds work into our physical world and we can only understand the latter by going back to its spiritual foundations. Just let us reflect how closely everything that has been said is connected with man’s happiness or suffering.
101. Christmas: A contemplation out of the Wisdom of Life 13 Dec 1907, Berlin
Translator Unknown

One who only grasps with his mind and understanding what is usually called the anthroposophical conception of the world has understood only the very least part of anthroposophy.
The flowing of blood from His wounds on Golgotha was an event fraught with meaning for the whole of the earth’s evolution. Nobody understands that event who has not the power of understanding that Christianity is built upon a mystical fact.
One who understands this saying penetrates deeply into the essence of Christian intuition and life, and understands why Christ also refers to it in the words: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!”
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture I 06 Jan 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

By this you can see, from a higher standpoint than could he presented in earlier lectures, how important it is to know about human nutrition from the aspect of spiritual science, to know the influences under which the various plants and animals are standing. You can gather, for instance, that one who knows that plants and animals standing under certain celestial influences flourish in a certain country, can also learn to grasp how a quite definite national character must arise.
You see, these things are not without significance and effect for practical life. When one understands life not as a blind materialist, but as a seeing man, then one can trace the spiritual influences everywhere—and if the influences are known, life is understood for the first time.
This has been known to those who have created out of the depths of art. Deep truth, for instance, underlies Richard Wagner's relation to mythology, and it has come to expression in his work in an artistic way.
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture II 27 Jan 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

Saturn itself was preceded by planetary evolutions in an age which, speaking in the sense of occult astronomy, can by no means be described as “time” as we understand time, for its character was rather different. But for the human mind today the concept is so fabulous that we have no word with which to express it.
He says: Everything that is contained in the Zodiac is under the sign of “Duration”; everything that is comprised within planetary existence is under the sign of “Time.” You can get an idea of what this means if you remember that not even the farthest reaches of the mind can conceive of changes having taken place in the Zodiac. Each single planet may have undergone considerable change through long and greatly differing periods of evolution; the forces working in the Zodiac remain, relatively speaking, fixed and permanent.
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture III 15 Feb 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

This will make it more difficult for the later-comers to follow; perhaps they are well able to follow with their understanding, but it will become increasingly difficult for them to regard as sound and reasonable what is brought forward from the higher sections of theosophy. Much goodwill, therefore, will be required of new-comers to follow these group-lectures with the understanding of feeling and perception. Yet we should make no progress if we had no opportunity of throwing light upon the higher realms of spiritual existence as well.
Now the intelligence of a student of theosophy would suffice for an understanding of what is brought forward in this way. But he goes somewhat further. It is clear to him that the physical forces of attraction and repulsion were not enough.
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture IV 29 Feb 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

The point is that man has an inner degree of warmth and he must think of some underlying force that creates it. This force is not water, not the solid, not air, it is an element for itself, and this element alone was present on ancient Saturn, the first embodiment of our Earth.
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture V 16 Mar 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

But the earthy, the solid, actually arose only in the latest period. Why was that? It arose because under the influence of densification—for everything was involved in a continuous process of condensation—the elements themselves had become more and more material.
That which has given man his ego was there at the very beginning. If you try clearly to understand what has been said today you can also very readily find the facts again in the first sentences of St.
Before anything organic, Spirit was there in the form of lines of force, then came the incorporation of the organic under the wonder-working of world music. Then only was the whole impregnated with mineral substance, solid matter, through the Word or thought.
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture VI 24 Mar 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

What weaves through the personalities as the enduring individuality, is born with the man, dies, is born again, again dies, and so on, that stands in a certain respect under the authority of the Spirits of Wisdom. But you must not treat this mechanically and say: So you state that the human individuality stands under the influence of the Spirits of Wisdom and the human personality under the influence of the Spirits of Love.
Then the rulership of these Spirits is again divided inasmuch as all that is personality stands directly under the control of love, and all that happens between birth and death stands indirectly under the element of wisdom.
All divisions must fall away under the influences of Christianity, and the Jupiter condition must be prepared under the influence of this principle.
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture VII 20 Apr 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

He will then himself have the consciousness of an Angel. Now you will readily understand that the Archangels have a consciousness that no longer reaches down to the plant kingdom but only to the animal kingdom.
They therefore brought those who were to be initiated under the protection of the Archangel Phanuel. He was the protector who was called upon by the candidate for initiation.
To one who knows this connection it is plain that what is called in general by the abstract word “Providence” is really guided. If one has undertaken the study of the spiritual worlds one should not be satisfied with general abstractions, but go into these details.
102. The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Man: Lecture VIII 16 May 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown

If they are to have something approaching physical substance it can only come about under powerful pressure, if external physical matter presses them together. Then their corporeality is so compressed that they lie in a congested mass and develop in the gruesome way I described earlier.
Where does this fourth species come from? I will explain this in conclusion. When you understand this you will be able to understand many of the secrets of surrounding nature. You know that when we trace man back in his evolution we come to more and more spiritual forms.
The progress of civilization rests upon man's penetrating with knowledge into the character of the hostile powers. Knowledge, when understood in the sense often expressed here, is something that will bring from the anthroposophical spiritual stream a certain saying to true realization.

Results 791 through 800 of 6552

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