Ashton began this week’s conversation focused on Steiner's account of the Moon epoch of evolution by drawing on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's concept of “separative projection,” finding it useful in framing Steiner's discussion of polarity.
“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.”
"As we shall see more and more, a very special mission was reserved for the Earth, which had, during its evolution, passed through three earlier stages, Saturn, Sun and Moon. Do not imagine that the different planetary life-conditions can be considered as existing alongside of one another, one planet exactly equivalent to the other. Divine creation is not simply a repetition of something already existing. Each planetary existence had a very definite mission. The mission of our Earth is the cultivation of the principle of love to its highest degree by those beings who are evolving upon it. When the Earth has reached the end of its evolution, love should permeate it through and through. Let us understand clearly what is meant by the expression: The Earth is the planetary life-condition for the evolution of love.
In Spiritual Science we say that the ancient Moon preceded the Earth. This ancient Moon, as planetary stage of evolution, had also a mission. It did not yet have the task of developing love, but it was the planet or the cosmos of wisdom. Before it reached our earthly condition, our planet passed through the stage of wisdom. A simple and one might say logical observation will illustrate this to you. Just look about you at all the creatures of nature. If you do not observe them merely with your understanding but with the forces of your heart and soul, then you will find wisdom everywhere stamped upon nature. The wisdom of which we are here speaking, is a kind of spiritual substance lying at the foundation of all things. Observe anything you wish in nature, and you will find it there. Take, for example, a piece of the thigh-bone and you will see that it is not composed of a solid mass, but it is a fine interweaving of supports which are arranged into a marvelous structure. And if we seek to discover the law upon which this bone is constructed, we find that it follows the law which develops the greatest strength with the least expenditure of material in order to be able to support the upper part of the human body. Our engineering art is not yet so far advanced that it can build such a highly artistic structure as the all over-ruling wisdom has fashioned. Mankind will not possess such wisdom until later in its evolution. Divine wisdom pervades the whole of nature; human wisdom will only gradually reach this height. In the course of time human wisdom will inwardly acquire what divine wisdom has secreted within the Earth. Just as wisdom was prepared upon the Moon, that it might be found everywhere on the Earth, so is love now being prepared here in this Earth evolution. If you were able to look back upon the ancient Moon with clairvoyant vision, you would see that wisdom was not to be found everywhere at that time. You would find many things still lacking in wisdom. Only gradually throughout the whole of the Moon evolution was wisdom stamped upon the outer world. When the Moon had fully completed its evolution, everything was then pervaded by a wisdom which was to be found everywhere. Inner wisdom first appeared upon the Earth with the human being, with the ego. This inner human wisdom had to be developed by degrees.
Just as wisdom was evolved upon the Moon, in order that it might now be found in all things, so in like manner is love evolving. Love came into existence first in its lowest, its most sensuous form, during the Lemurian period, but during the course of life upon the earth, it will become ever more and more spiritualized, until at last, when the earth has reached the end of its evolution, the whole of existence will have become pervaded with love, as today it is pervaded with wisdom, and this will be accomplished through the activity of human beings if they but fulfil their task.
The Earth will then pass over to a future planetary condition which is called Jupiter. The beings who will wander about upon Jupiter, just as human beings move about upon the earth, will find love exhaling from all creatures, the love which they themselves, as human beings, will have placed there during their life upon the earth. They will find love in everything just as we today find wisdom everywhere. Then human beings will develop love out of their own inner selves in the same way that they are now little by little evolving wisdom."
On one side of me are my animal instincts, my passions and desires, my pain and pleasure, and especially my fear. They are sometimes problematic, and I know them all too well. On the other side is an experience that is quite different and difficult to express. I can best describe it as a longing to fly, to escape all my earthly defects and reach beyond them—to know that beyond and to exist with it—and to feel it exist in me. I regularly have those moments. Then (here it where it gets weird) in those moments, I eventually feel the desire to return to my corporeal bondage. I’m seemingly drawn to it for the sole purpose that I might feel the exaltation of breaking free once more. I repeat this coming and going, this back and forth, this dance, again and again. I’m moved by a cosmic rhythm that creates and recreates me with each “slippage” (as Ashton called it). With each turn and swing, each rising tide, each solar orbit, each earthly return, I intuitively know I have grown a little less instinct bound, a little less earth bound. I think that’s what wisdom is: that which transforms me, bone and cell, over time without my having to do much of anything except live and love. . . and maybe continue to dance to a beat that originates from someplace I’ve yet to discover.
I wanted to reiterate my appreciation for the question raised by Karsten, as I also find myself asking this while reading "Occult Science." The contemporary scientific materialist view projects present characteristics unique to the Earth phase of evolution, as described by Steiner, back to the origins of time. This approach unwittingly assumes a human perspective even when considering epochs preceding humanity, like those consisting only of plasma, atoms, and stars. It seems to me that, if we hope to understand the past at all, we must accept our implicit presence in these primordial times.
Steiner's intent is to fully acknowledge this conundrum. If escaping our anthropic perspective is impossible, we must then embrace it to uncover deeper truths. Humanity’s current state, composed of physical, etheric, astral, and ego layers, is like a cake that has already been baked. Steiner is attempting to decompose this 'cake' into its fundamental ingredients, which have transformed significantly since their original state. The butter and sugar, etc., are totally different in the baked cake than they were when first being mixed into the batter. This transformation makes it challenging to directly observe the past as it was, a task Steiner admits is fraught with difficulty even for someone with clairvoyant perception.
Steiner invites us to develop a new organ of perception to accurately perceive and understand the past. This effort involves grappling with the formation of our current perceptive faculties in a recursive manner. It is undoubtedly challenging to maintain a phenomenological approach here, particularly because of our tendency to forget the discontinuities occurring during sleep (and death!), which parallel the transformative processes described by Steiner between different planetary epochs.
I suppose urphänomenologie is about transcending the divide between experience and idea. This calls for a rhythm, (thanks Everett), moving beyond everyday experiences into ideas with a potential to heighten and intensify our experiences.
I appreciated the comments people were posting in the chat responding to Karsten asking "what interests you with this content?" I did not post anything or get into the conversation at the time, but I have been reflecting on it these last few days. Karsten just mentioned Urphanenologie. I want to revisit the purpose of the whole Urphanomen initiative to share what is interesting to me currently reading and discussing this content here with you all.
First I am interested in how I am personally processing this book by Steiner that I am reading for maybe the fourth time -- I am observing my process and making some comments in my journal. Just overnight Monday to Tuesday I had a precognitive series of pictures of Old Moon in waking-sleeping -- at that time I had not re-read the assigned pages yet. This means to me that my inner faculties on the path are getting stronger and clearer. Normally I would just keep this to myself as my own spiritual research over twenty plus years, but since you asked, that is one aspect of consistent interest to me.
Secondly, I am appreciating how several learned and dedicated Anthroposophists are consistently sharing their processes. This of course is the stated goal of the Urphanomen Research Guild. We affirm and strengthen each others' efforts.
Thirdly, a group creative process of discovery is happening. We cross-fertilize and enrich not only the content of our own emerging thinking but also create a new plane together. Some write up what they currently find important, or have a recorded conversation to glean and share some of those new syntheses or new questions.
“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.”
― Goethe
About Ashton's question: How is the human I related to wisdom? I found this fragment clarifying (from Steiners comments on the Gospel of John, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA103/English/AP1962/19080520p01.html) :
"As we shall see more and more, a very special mission was reserved for the Earth, which had, during its evolution, passed through three earlier stages, Saturn, Sun and Moon. Do not imagine that the different planetary life-conditions can be considered as existing alongside of one another, one planet exactly equivalent to the other. Divine creation is not simply a repetition of something already existing. Each planetary existence had a very definite mission. The mission of our Earth is the cultivation of the principle of love to its highest degree by those beings who are evolving upon it. When the Earth has reached the end of its evolution, love should permeate it through and through. Let us understand clearly what is meant by the expression: The Earth is the planetary life-condition for the evolution of love.
In Spiritual Science we say that the ancient Moon preceded the Earth. This ancient Moon, as planetary stage of evolution, had also a mission. It did not yet have the task of developing love, but it was the planet or the cosmos of wisdom. Before it reached our earthly condition, our planet passed through the stage of wisdom. A simple and one might say logical observation will illustrate this to you. Just look about you at all the creatures of nature. If you do not observe them merely with your understanding but with the forces of your heart and soul, then you will find wisdom everywhere stamped upon nature. The wisdom of which we are here speaking, is a kind of spiritual substance lying at the foundation of all things. Observe anything you wish in nature, and you will find it there. Take, for example, a piece of the thigh-bone and you will see that it is not composed of a solid mass, but it is a fine interweaving of supports which are arranged into a marvelous structure. And if we seek to discover the law upon which this bone is constructed, we find that it follows the law which develops the greatest strength with the least expenditure of material in order to be able to support the upper part of the human body. Our engineering art is not yet so far advanced that it can build such a highly artistic structure as the all over-ruling wisdom has fashioned. Mankind will not possess such wisdom until later in its evolution. Divine wisdom pervades the whole of nature; human wisdom will only gradually reach this height. In the course of time human wisdom will inwardly acquire what divine wisdom has secreted within the Earth. Just as wisdom was prepared upon the Moon, that it might be found everywhere on the Earth, so is love now being prepared here in this Earth evolution. If you were able to look back upon the ancient Moon with clairvoyant vision, you would see that wisdom was not to be found everywhere at that time. You would find many things still lacking in wisdom. Only gradually throughout the whole of the Moon evolution was wisdom stamped upon the outer world. When the Moon had fully completed its evolution, everything was then pervaded by a wisdom which was to be found everywhere. Inner wisdom first appeared upon the Earth with the human being, with the ego. This inner human wisdom had to be developed by degrees.
Just as wisdom was evolved upon the Moon, in order that it might now be found in all things, so in like manner is love evolving. Love came into existence first in its lowest, its most sensuous form, during the Lemurian period, but during the course of life upon the earth, it will become ever more and more spiritualized, until at last, when the earth has reached the end of its evolution, the whole of existence will have become pervaded with love, as today it is pervaded with wisdom, and this will be accomplished through the activity of human beings if they but fulfil their task.
The Earth will then pass over to a future planetary condition which is called Jupiter. The beings who will wander about upon Jupiter, just as human beings move about upon the earth, will find love exhaling from all creatures, the love which they themselves, as human beings, will have placed there during their life upon the earth. They will find love in everything just as we today find wisdom everywhere. Then human beings will develop love out of their own inner selves in the same way that they are now little by little evolving wisdom."
About wisdom. . .
On one side of me are my animal instincts, my passions and desires, my pain and pleasure, and especially my fear. They are sometimes problematic, and I know them all too well. On the other side is an experience that is quite different and difficult to express. I can best describe it as a longing to fly, to escape all my earthly defects and reach beyond them—to know that beyond and to exist with it—and to feel it exist in me. I regularly have those moments. Then (here it where it gets weird) in those moments, I eventually feel the desire to return to my corporeal bondage. I’m seemingly drawn to it for the sole purpose that I might feel the exaltation of breaking free once more. I repeat this coming and going, this back and forth, this dance, again and again. I’m moved by a cosmic rhythm that creates and recreates me with each “slippage” (as Ashton called it). With each turn and swing, each rising tide, each solar orbit, each earthly return, I intuitively know I have grown a little less instinct bound, a little less earth bound. I think that’s what wisdom is: that which transforms me, bone and cell, over time without my having to do much of anything except live and love. . . and maybe continue to dance to a beat that originates from someplace I’ve yet to discover.
I wanted to reiterate my appreciation for the question raised by Karsten, as I also find myself asking this while reading "Occult Science." The contemporary scientific materialist view projects present characteristics unique to the Earth phase of evolution, as described by Steiner, back to the origins of time. This approach unwittingly assumes a human perspective even when considering epochs preceding humanity, like those consisting only of plasma, atoms, and stars. It seems to me that, if we hope to understand the past at all, we must accept our implicit presence in these primordial times.
Steiner's intent is to fully acknowledge this conundrum. If escaping our anthropic perspective is impossible, we must then embrace it to uncover deeper truths. Humanity’s current state, composed of physical, etheric, astral, and ego layers, is like a cake that has already been baked. Steiner is attempting to decompose this 'cake' into its fundamental ingredients, which have transformed significantly since their original state. The butter and sugar, etc., are totally different in the baked cake than they were when first being mixed into the batter. This transformation makes it challenging to directly observe the past as it was, a task Steiner admits is fraught with difficulty even for someone with clairvoyant perception.
Steiner invites us to develop a new organ of perception to accurately perceive and understand the past. This effort involves grappling with the formation of our current perceptive faculties in a recursive manner. It is undoubtedly challenging to maintain a phenomenological approach here, particularly because of our tendency to forget the discontinuities occurring during sleep (and death!), which parallel the transformative processes described by Steiner between different planetary epochs.
I suppose urphänomenologie is about transcending the divide between experience and idea. This calls for a rhythm, (thanks Everett), moving beyond everyday experiences into ideas with a potential to heighten and intensify our experiences.
I appreciated the comments people were posting in the chat responding to Karsten asking "what interests you with this content?" I did not post anything or get into the conversation at the time, but I have been reflecting on it these last few days. Karsten just mentioned Urphanenologie. I want to revisit the purpose of the whole Urphanomen initiative to share what is interesting to me currently reading and discussing this content here with you all.
First I am interested in how I am personally processing this book by Steiner that I am reading for maybe the fourth time -- I am observing my process and making some comments in my journal. Just overnight Monday to Tuesday I had a precognitive series of pictures of Old Moon in waking-sleeping -- at that time I had not re-read the assigned pages yet. This means to me that my inner faculties on the path are getting stronger and clearer. Normally I would just keep this to myself as my own spiritual research over twenty plus years, but since you asked, that is one aspect of consistent interest to me.
Secondly, I am appreciating how several learned and dedicated Anthroposophists are consistently sharing their processes. This of course is the stated goal of the Urphanomen Research Guild. We affirm and strengthen each others' efforts.
Thirdly, a group creative process of discovery is happening. We cross-fertilize and enrich not only the content of our own emerging thinking but also create a new plane together. Some write up what they currently find important, or have a recorded conversation to glean and share some of those new syntheses or new questions.
Warmth and thanks to all!