Enlivened images

From Anthroposophy
Revision as of 14:43, 31 May 2019 by anthrop>Diederik







further study topic: and example of how linking lecture references in a context of understanding can make new insights emerge. Whereas otherwise certain statements are left completely and utterly incomprehensible. PS Cologne cathedral is another such example.

In the lecture of 1920-05-16-GA201, Steiner refers to the principle of annihilation in man: that matter is destroyed in man, in the human head. It is nothing but a short and suprising reference here, to something which (to my knowledge) he never mentioned or explained before. He goes further:
In Cosmosophy Vol. 1 (*) he goes into this and dedicates two lectures (of 1921-09-23 and 1921-09-24-GA207) on this topic of the ‘inner centre of destruction’. The concept is not easy to grasp and may need some meditating upon.



The above is mentioned here because in that same 1920-05-16-GA201 lecture is explained how the MoG transforms this process into enlivened embodied pictures with inner reality for the life to come.

With pictures is meant, all that man has taken in as mineral substance on earth gets used and destroyed, so all that has taken place in earthly evolution. Man experiences this through the senses, and these astral images are then 'annihilated' or pass into nothingness.


Now the context of the Christ Impulse of the higher ether linked to the etherization of blood, with this context the 1911-03-23-GA128 can be the door-opener lecture in this matter, if we also consider this destruction of matter in the head, which is mentioned in the GA201 lecture. Just consider the picture once more.


Olive Whicher, in her book on the etheric, points to the empty sun-like ethereal space in the center of the head, surrounded by the brain and enclosed by the skull.

When one considers that picture of Whicher's empty sun-space .. in 1919-12-14-GA194 Steiner describes that the forces through which we finally die have their being in our head - are in our head, and he makes a sketch and points to: 'here is a void .. into this void, into what is being continuously destroyed, the soul and spirit enter .. in our head we are perpetually dying.


This is all about the same area in the head, and the process that takes place there with the astral sense impressions being imprinted on the etheric. Only: now this etheric has a higher ether as a 'carrier' (imagine carrier wave in radio transmissions as a metaphoric image).


It can resonate with eg the following extract from 1909-07-06-GA112:


Through the suffusion of the earth with the rays of a new force (being the first impulse for the transformation of the earth into a Sun), the possibility was afforded for mankind to be irradiated by the same force. What I described to you yesterday received then its first impetus — namely, the radiating of the Christ-force into the human etheric body.Thanks to this astral force streaming into it, the etheric body could begin to absorb new vitality such as it will need in the distant future. If you compare a future condition of humanity with the point of time at which the Deed of Golgotha was accomplished, you may conclude that at the time of Christ's coming the condition of the earth was such that it could not of itself radiate light into the etheric bodies of men. A short time after this event the etheric bodies of those who had found access to the Christ-impulse became radiant; having understood Christ, they absorbed into themselves that radiant force, that new illuminative force which has been in the earth ever since. They received into their etheric bodies the Christ-light. The Christ-light streams into the etheric bodies of men.
And now the Christ-light being always present, to some extent, in the etheric bodies of men ever since that time,


what is the consequence of this? ''''''What takes place after death in that part of the etheric body which has absorbed into itself the Christ-light? What is it that has gradually made its way into the human etheric body in consequence of the Christ-impulse?


'


Since that time it has become possible for something new to show itself in the etheric bodies of men, as an effect of the Christ-light; something which exhales life and is immortal, and can never fall a prey to death. But if it does not fall a prey to death (while man still continues being a victim of the illusion of death), it will be saved from death and will not participate therein. Since that time, therefore, there has been something in the etheric body of man which does not share in his death and is not subject to the earthly forces of dissolution. And that something, which does not die with the rest and which man gradually wins for himself through the influence of the Christ-impulse, now radiates back and streams into the world of space. In proportion to its strength or weakness in man, it gathers a force which streams out into space.