Astrology

Astrology was a true science in ancient times when human consciousness was able to 'read the stars' with clairvoyant inspiration, the sounding of the harmony of the spheres in the lower spirit world.

In the third Egypto-Chaldean cultural age, true astrology consisted of intercourse with Cosmic Intelligences. Man could perceive how harmony and melody in cosmic happenings are brought about by the courses of planets and stars, in the signature of their movements in cosmic space. (1913-12-31-GA149). This astrology disappeared in the fourth Greco-Roman cultural age after the rise of Christianity (though some still possessed the capability of having intercourse with the cosmic intelligences at that time). (1923-12-22-GA232)

What is called astrology today can not be compared with this at all. No one can acquire this astrology through thinking. What is called astrology today is merely a variant of astronomy (mainly calculation-based) combined with 'subconscious' interpretation that depends on the astrologers innate and untrained faculties to vaguely 'intuit'.

Rudolf Steiner lays out (1924-09-17-GA318) a relation between astronomy, astrology and astrosophy, whereby in general:

• -nomy relates to the rational (the science of today, ordinary calculation),
• -logy to the faculty of inspiration (as in ancient times, calculation rhythms as related to the harmony of the spheres, lower spirit world), and
• -sophy to the faculty of intuition ('knowing' of the higher spirit world, "a view of the organization of the world in numbers"), hence the being of wisdom or Sophia.

He mentions that ancient astrology and astrosophy brought "wonderful prophecies and wisdom", but that these faculties had disappeared nearly entirely by the time of the Crusades (11th-14th centuries) (1924-09-17-GA318). However, exceptions which such remarkable faculties existed, examples were Nostradamus and Tycho de Brahe, both in the 16th century. (1911-11-09-GA061)

Short explanation

Between death and a new birth, the human being lives in and belongs to the cosmos, connected with the forces of the planets and the stars. Each person has a unique relation with each planet and the starry universe, as related to what the person inscribed into the spheres themselves.(1913-03-12-GA140). This unique relationship of an individual to the cosmic system also determines which forces lead him or her back to Earth and determine to which parents and which locality we are brought. The birth horoscope reveals the forces are revealed that have led us into this life.

From this, knowledgeable people with the right faculties can “read” the forces that determine a person's path in his or her physical life.

Aspects

• No one can acquire astrology through thought, observation, empirical research. (1923-12-22-GA232)
• .. you really only need to know esoteric spiritual science and you have at the same time the root principle of astrology (1912-06-11-GA137)
• astrology as a symbolic language: planets and zodiac signs are symbols (representing soul moods)
  • example of lawfulness of (internal or) soul astrology with illustration of Nietzsche, not to be confused with (external) nativity astrology (1914-01-23-GA151)

development

• third Egypto-Chaldean cultural age:
  • symbolic concepts were now available and were applied by the Chaldeans in their study of the stars and in the founding of astrology and astronomy. What had previously been regarded as purely supersensible was now applied to things physically seen, so clairvoyant knowledge was connected to phenomena of the physical sensory world. (1910-11-07-GA124)
  • in ancient times like the third Egypto-Chaldean cultural age, real true astrology depended upon Man's attaining this possibility of understanding the Cosmic Intelligences. This astrology disappeared in the fourth Greco-Roman cultural age after the rise of Christianity (though some still possessed the capability of having intercourse with the cosmic intelligences. (1923-12-22-GA232)
• Contemporary current astrology
  • "Modern astrology is rather dilettantish and superstitious, and highly questionable" (1911-06-08-GA015)
  • "Whatever goes by the name of astrology today has fallen into the hands of utter dilettanti, who carry on all kinds of nonsense and abuses with it."(1917-01-02-GA292)
  • "There is no need for me to insist that astrology as pursued today is scientifically unacceptable" (1921-01-17-GA323)

Man is born out of the universe

• hence also the cycle GA201 with the title 'Man, hieroglyph of the universe'
• the real essence and the fundamental principle of true and genuine astrology .. has its source in nothing else than in the great and significant fact that Man is born out of the World-AII, that Man is in very truth an epitome, an extract of the whole World-All (1912-06-11-GA137) - see also Schema FMC00.257
• every human being has a different relationship with the planets and the stars
  • hence also a different birth and death horoscope (1911-06-08-GA015)
  • everybody has his own “star” or starry pattern (archangels and angels). The regions of the archangels and angels overlap with individual people, however, are never completely identical (1918-03-26-GA181). See also Schema FMC00.132 on Structure of Man between death and a new birth.
• death horoscope
  • When a person passes through the gate of death he dies under a certain constellation of stars. This constellation is significant for his further life of soul because it remains there as an imprint, and in his soul there remains the endeavor to enter into this same constellation at a new birth, to do justice once again to the forces received at the moment of death. The constellation of the later birth coincides to a high degree with the constellation at the former death (taking into account the person is born at another spot on the Earth that corresponds with this constellation) (1912-11-26-GA140)
• The human brain is a picture of the heavens at birth, the structural organization of the brain maps to the starry heaven above one's birthplace.
  • "our brain is really a picture of the heavens, and we each have a different picture depending on where and when we were born. ... No two people have the same brain. If we could take a picture of the entire brain with all of its details visible, we would get a different picture for each person. If we photographed a person's brain at the moment of birth and took a picture of the sky directly above his or her birthplace, the two pictures would be alike. The stars in the photograph of the sky would be arranged in the same way as certain parts of the brain in the other picture. (1911-06-08-GA015)

Historical examples

• the Three Magi or Wise Men of the East:
  • The magi who brought the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were, in the sense of the ancient wisdom, astrologers, they had knowledge of those spiritual processes that work in the cosmos when certain signs appear in the starry heavens. (1917-12-23-GA180)
  • "the Wise Men of the East had their knowledge through the ancient Science that had been handed down. Through this they knew of the relation between the Cosmos, the Heavens and the Earth. Through this they knew and could calculate, as it were - what was drawing near." (1917-01-02-GA292)

• examples of true astrology and astrosophy
  • Tycho de Brahe (see Individuality of Julian the Apostate) - prophecies based on astrology, see Stages of clairvoyance#1911-11-09-GA061
  • Kepler "not only was one of the greatest astronomers of all time, but devoted himself to astrological prophecy" (example of horoscope of Wallenstein) (1911-11-09-GA061 below)
  • Nostradamus - prophecies based on astrosophy (editor: statement by induction), see Nostradamus#1911-11-09-GA061 for comparison with Tycho Brahe

Various

• in the 20th century, people like Willi Sucher and Robert Powell used the term astrosophy again, inspired by anthroposophical teachings and the use of the death chart. However this has no relation with how Rudolf Steiner coined the term, whereby the term astrosophy and sophia relate to the wisdom of clairvoyancy into the higher spirit world as was the case in ancient times and certain exceptional personalities.

Inspirational quotes

1912-06-11-GA137

(SWCC)

.. the fundamental principle, the real essence of astrology

Man .. complete in his physical form .. with his threefold seven-membered form, is in connection and harmony with the spiritual powers corresponding to the cosmic realms.

• the forces of the Sun that work in Man correspond to ... , as the forces of the Moon correspond to the head Man, and as we have corresponding to the third Man the forces that are distributed over the whole human being, ... the guiding spirits of the planets are connected with the several members of the Man of inner movement
• similarly there is a correspondence between the several members of the human form and the fixed stars, so their signs can be ascribed severally to these various members of Man's form.

Now: the influence proceeding from the powers that work from these directions was not active only when the human form first came into being, it has continued so right through time and is active still.

And we see the working of this influence in the fact that Man's external destiny can be brought into connection with the constellations of the stars, just as we had to connect with the constellations of the stars what Man has already become.

For as what Man is today stands written in the heavenly spaces in the writing of the constellations of the stars, so stands written there too what is yet to happen with him. This is the ground of true astrology.

.. in the allocation of the signs to the several members we are already touching the fundamental principle of all genuine astrology. Recall the connections we have been considering, and you will recognise that there lies inherent within them the principle of true and genuine astrology, which has its source in nothing else than in the great and significant fact that man is born out of the World-AII, that Man is in very truth an epitome, an extract of the whole World-All

Take this statement and how this links to the faculties of clairvoyance as stated in 1924-09-17-GA318, and then compare with Schema FMC00.391 on Stages of clairvoyance showing the language of the spiritual alphabet of seven vowels and twelve consonants.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.257 illustrates how Man gets form and life from respectively (three groups of) zodiacal influences (see Zodiac man) and (three groups of) planetary influences (see Seven life processes)

Starting left, the embryo is formed in the womb, and the small child later rises upright as Man did in the Lemurian epoch.

On the right, quoting from 1921-10-30-GA208 how the soul life comes about:

Man develops an independent etheric life towards the head because they raise that part out of both the zodiac and the movements of the planets. Then the human astral body and human 'I' enter and are able to take part in the thought and idea activity of the ether body.

Lecture coverage and references

1910-11-07-GA124

By the third age, that of Egypto-Chaldean culture, concepts of supersensible realities were actually in existence. This again is difficult for the modern mind to grasp. There was no physical science but there were concepts of supersensible facts and happenings which had been acquired in a supersensible way, and these concepts could be expressed in forms of thought applicable to the physical plane.

In the third post-Atlantean cultural age men began to apply to the physical world itself what they had learnt from the supersensible world. This again can be compared with the third period in the life of a human being. In the second period he learns without proceeding to apply what he has learnt. In the third life-period most human beings have to apply their knowledge to the physical plane. The pupils of Zarathustra in the second cultural age were pupils of heavenly knowledge; now men began to apply to the physical plane what they had learnt. It may help us to picture this if we say that through their visions men learnt that the supersensible can be expressed by a triangle — a triangle taken as an image of the supersensible; that the supersensible nature of man, permeating the physical, can be conceived as threefold. Other concepts too were mastered, enabling physical things to be related to supersensible facts.

Geometry, for instance, was first mastered in the form of symbolic concepts. In short, concepts were now available and were applied by the Egyptians to the art of land-surveying, also to agriculture, and by the Chaldeans in their study of the stars and in the founding of astrology and astronomy. What had previously been regarded as purely supersensible was now applied to things physically seen.

In the third cultural age, then, men began for the first time to apply supersensible knowledge to the phenomena of the world of sense.

1911-03-19-GA069A

Only spiritual science or theosophy can argue something against it. We look back at the times of the aurora of natural sciences, at a person like Kepler. In his mind not only those outer laws of the celestial mechanics lived which we can study today as Kepler's laws, but also a real spiritual-scientific view of the harmony of the universe. From the spiritual penetration of the universe he got his laws of the celestial mechanics only. There the spiritual scientist can say, look how fertile it is if we turn the spiritual-scientific view to Kepler. Nevertheless, Kepler's laws almost prove a spiritual world. Nevertheless, Kepler can persuade us of a spiritual world.

An opponent may say now, just with such a spirit like Kepler you can realise that he had, nevertheless, some weaknesses. With him, you could convince yourself how bad it is for the scientific security if in his soul such a thing lives like a certain mystic contemplation of the cosmic relations; since there you come again to the medieval mysticism and with it close to rather doubtful spiritual operations as, for example, astrology is with all its outgrowths.

This arose just because one developed the idea of the general celestial harmony in abstract way and said, nevertheless, there must be a connection of the big world of the macrocosm and of that which happens in the single human being. Then the medieval astrology arose from it.

Now, however, astrology has a rather doubtful aspect. Nothing stirs up the human egoism as strong as just astrology if future events should be forecast using the constellations of the stars. If the human being wants to know them beforehand, it always has an egoistic reason.

Kepler knew this and it distressed him very much that he had to cast a horoscope of a lord on order of his prince. In a letter to a friend, Kepler informs of his pain when he had to forecast particular things for a high personality. In this case, he said, it would be bad to inform the personality concerned of something and it would be better if this person did not know it because he would develop, otherwise, no care and no energy. In another case he said, one had to call the person's attention to the possibility that a misfortune could approach.

An opponent may say, with Kepler the tendency of a doubtful morality also exists when he says, one must help in a way if one can determine the destiny of the human being from the spiritual world, one must not say the truth everywhere only, one has to consider whether the truth is good or harmful.

Briefly, you can see with Kepler himself that a neighbouring area of spiritual science, astrology, just goes to the bad. Tragically can be experienced just with Kepler how a way that leads on one side to the highest areas of spiritual life can lead on the other side to the biggest superstition. Kepler himself had to fight with the crassest superstition of the Middle Ages to save his mother from the stake because she was charged to be a witch. Here we stand in a point where we can close the chain completely between beholding into the spiritual world and the crassest superstition. Who does not know how easily people who want to get to know the spiritual world also want to do this comfortably today and rather want to call the spirits in a doubtful spiritistic way and to make them manifest, than to rise by spiritual development into the spiritual world. Thus, an opponent may say, we see a proof with Kepler how the theosophical way of thinking can lead as the astrological one into doubtful areas. We could bring in many examples. We want to point only to an example that can be characteristic for others.

1911-06-08-GA015

RSH

Spiritual science considers Christ not only as an earthly, but also as a cosmic being first of all. Man is also partly a cosmic being, because he is living between death and new birth in the cosmos. In a particular way appropriate to his individuality, every Man has a different relationship with the single planets or the entire starry universe. Accordingly, the horoscope of every person is different. It is the constellation, to which Man is led, before he enters the earthly existence. Modern astrology is rather dilettantish and superstitious.

quote

Yet, it would be wrong to imagine that having passed through the portal of death we do not belong to any forces at all, for after death we are connected with the forces of the solar system and the other galaxies.

Between death and rebirth we live in and belong to the cosmos in the same way as between birth and death we live in the earthly realm and belong to the elements of air, water, earth and so on.

After death, we enter the realm of cosmic influences; for example, the planets affect us not only with gravity and other physical forces explained by physical astronomy but also with their spiritual forces. Indeed, we are connected with these cosmic spiritual forces after death, each of us in a particular way appropriate to our individuality. Just as a person born in Europe has a different relationship to temperature conditions and so on than a person born in Australia, so each of us similarly has a unique, individual relationship to the forces working on us during life after death. One person may have a closer relationship to the forces of Mars while another is more closely connected to those of Jupiter and yet others may have a closer relationship to the forces of the entire galaxy, and so on. These forces also lead us back to the earth to our new life. Thus, before our rebirth we are connected with the entire starry universe.

The unique relationship of an individual to the cosmic system determines which forces lead him or her back to Earth; they also determine to which parents and to which locality we are brought. The impulse to incarnate in one place or another, in this or that family, in this or that nation, at this or that point in time, is determined by the way the individual is integrated into the cosmos before birth.

In the past the German language had an expression that poignantly characterized the birth of an individual. When someone was born, people said that he or she had “become young” (“ist jung geworden”). Unconsciously, this expression indicates that following death we are first subject to the forces that made us old in our previous incarnation, but just before our new birth, these are replaced by other forces that make us “young” again. In his drama Faust, Goethe says of someone that he “became young in Nebelland (the land of mist)”; Nebelland is the old name for medieval Germany.

People who are knowledgeable about these things can “read” the forces that determine a person's path in his or her physical life; on this basis horoscopes are cast. Each of us is assigned a particular horoscope, in which the forces are revealed that have led us into this life.

For example, if in a particular horoscope Mars is above Aries, this means that certain Aries forces cannot pass through Mars but are weakened instead.

Thus, human beings on their way into physical existence can get their bearings through their horoscope.

[Contemporary astrology]

Before ending this discussion — which, after all, seems a daring one in our time — we should note that most of what is presented today in this area is the purest dilettantism and pure superstition. As far as the world at large is concerned, the true science of these things has largely been lost. Therefore, the principles presented here should not be judged according to the claims of modern astrology, which is highly questionable.

The active forces of the starry world push us into physical incarnation. Clairvoyant perception allows us to see in a person's organization that he or she is indeed the result of the working together of such cosmic forces. I want to illustrate this in a hypothetical form that nevertheless corresponds fully to clairvoyant perceptions.

If we examined the structure of a person's brain clairvoyantly and could see that certain functions are located in certain places and give rise to certain processes, we would find that each person's brain is different. No two people have the same brain. If we could take a picture of the entire brain with all of its details visible, we would get a different picture for each person. If we photographed a person's brain at the moment of birth and took a picture of the sky directly above his or her birthplace, the two pictures would be alike. The stars in the photograph of the sky would be arranged in the same way as certain parts of the brain in the other picture. Thus, our brain is really a picture of the heavens, and we each have a different picture depending on where and when we were born. This indicates that we are born out of the entire universe

1911-11-09-GA061

Kepler, the very distinguished and learned scientist, was not only the discoverer of the Laws named after him; not only was he one of the greatest astronomers of all time, but he devoted himself to astrological prophecy.

In his time — also during the periods immediately preceding and following it — numbers of truly enlightened men were votaries of this art. Indeed if we think objectively about life as it was in those days, we realise that from their standpoint it was as natural to them to take this prophetic art, this prophetic knowledge, as seriously as our contemporaries take any genuine branch of science.

When some prediction based upon the constellations — and made perhaps, at the birth of an individual — comes true later on, it is of course easy to say that the connection of this constellation with the man's life was only a matter of chance. Certainly it must be admitted in countless cases that astonishment at the fulfilment of astrological prediction is caused simply because it came true and because people have forgotten what did not come true.

• The contention of a certain Greek atheist is, in a sense, correct. He once came in his ship to a coastal town where, in a sanctuary, tokens had been hung by men who had vowed at sea that if they were saved from shipwreck they would make such offerings. Many, many tokens were hanging there — all of them the offerings of men who had been saved from shipwreck. But the atheist maintained that the truth could only be brought to light if the tokens of everyone who in spite of vows had actually perished in shipwreck, were also displayed. It would then be obvious to which category the greater number of tokens belonged.

This implies that a really objective judgment could only be reached if records were kept not only of those astrological predictions which have come true, but also of those which have not. This attitude is perfectly justified, but on the other hand there is certainly much that is very astonishing. As in these public lectures I cannot take for granted a fundamental knowledge of all the teachings of spiritual science, I must speak in a way which will convey an idea of the significance of the subjects we are studying.

Even a confirmed sceptic must surely feel surprise when he hears the following.

[example Wallenstein]

Keeping to well-known personages, let us take the case of Wallenstein. Wallenstein wished to have his horoscope drawn up by Kepler — a name honoured by every scientist. Kepler sent the horoscope. But the matter had been arranged with caution. Wallenstein did not write to Kepler giving him the year of his birth and saying that he would like him to draw up the horoscope, but an intermediary was chosen. Kepler therefore did not know for whom the horoscope was intended.

The only indication given was the date of the birth. There had already been many important happenings in Wallenstein's life and he requested that they too should be recorded, as well as predictions made of those still to come. Kepler completed the horoscope as requested. As is the case with many horoscopes, Wallenstein found very much that tallied with his experiences. He began (it was often so in those days) to have great confidence in Kepler and on many occasions was able to adjust his life according to the prognostications. But it must be said too, that although many things tallied, many did not, so far as the past was concerned and, as subsequently transpired, the same was true of the predictions made about the future. It was so with numbers of horoscopes and in those days people were accustomed to say that there must be some inaccuracy in the alleged hour of birth and that the astrologer might be able to correct it. Wallenstein did the same. He begged Kepler to correct the hour of birth; the correction was only very slight but after it had been made, the prognostications were more accurate. It must be added here that Kepler was a thoroughly honest man and it went very much against the grain to correct the hour of birth. From a letter on the subject written by Kepler at the time it is obvious that he did not favour such procedure on account of the many possible consequences. Nevertheless he undertook to do what Wallenstein asked — it was in the year 1625 — and gave further details about Wallenstein's future; above all he said that according to the new reading of the positions of the stars, the constellation that would be present in the year 1634 would be extremely unfavourable for Wallenstein. Kepler added — as well he might, for the date lay so far ahead — that even if this were a cause of alarm, the alarm would have passed away by the time of these unfavourable conditions. He did not therefore consider them dangerous for Wallenstein's plans. The prediction was for March 1634. And now think of it: within a few weeks of the period indicated, the causes occurred which led to the murder of Wallenstein. These things are at least striking!

1912-06-11-GA137

You will be able now to discern wherein the fundamental principle, the real essence of astrology consists. I have certainly not the intention of going fully into the subject of astrology in these lectures — there would not be time — but I want at this point to call your attention to its true nature. We can put it in a very few words.

You see, man, as he stands before us with his threefold seven-membered form, is in connection and harmony with the spiritual powers corresponding to the cosmic realms.

For as the forces of the Sun spirit that work in Man correspond to the Spirit of the Sun, as the forces of the Moon correspond to the head Man, and as we have corresponding to the third Man the forces that are distributed over the whole human being,

similarly is there a correspondence between the several members of the human form and the fixed stars, so that their signs can be ascribed severally to these various members of Man's form.

And we have before us — Man, complete in his physical form. But now the influence proceeding from the powers that work from these directions was not active only when the human form first came into being, it has continued so right through time and is active still.

And we see the working of this influence in the fact that Man's external destiny can be brought into connection with the constellations of the stars, just as we had to connect with the constellations of the stars what man has already become.

If it was auspicious for Man's organisation that his Sun forces co-operated with those members of his form to which we ascribed the sign of Leo, then it will also be auspicious today for certain qualities and characteristics in him if some important moment of his life, notably the moment of birth, falls when the Sun is in the Sign of Leo, that is to say, when the Sun covers Leo, so that these two forces mutually strengthen one another or in some way influence one another.

For as what Man is today stands written in the heavenly spaces in the writing of the constellations of the stars, so stands written there too what is yet to happen with him. This is the ground of true astrology. You will see at once from what we have been considering that you really only need to know occultism and you have at the same time the root principle of astrology. This will show itself all the more clearly as we now go on to describe the second stage of initiation.

... [example]

Having thus come to the recognition of how the guiding spirits of the planets are connected with the several members of the Man of inner movement, you will be able to follow me when I say that in the allocation of the signs to the several members we are already touching the fundamental principle of all genuine astrology. Recall the connections we have been considering, and you will recognise that there lies inherent within them the principle of true and genuine astrology, which has its source in nothing else than in the great and significant fact that man is born out of the World-AII, that man is in very truth an epitome, an extract of the whole World-All

1912-11-26-GA140

A twofold adaptation has to take place. We adapt to the whole cosmos and to our former karma. The fact that there is also an adaptation to former karma that must be harmonized in the cosmos came to me in an extraordinary way during the investigations of the last few months in connection with individual cases. I say, expressly, in individual cases because I do not wish to state thereby a general law.

[death horoscope]

When a person passes through the gate of death he dies under a certain constellation of stars. This constellation is significant for his further life of soul because it remains there as an imprint.

In his soul there remains the endeavor to enter into this same constellation at a new birth, to do justice once again to the forces received at the moment of death.

It is an interesting point that if one works out the constellation at death and compares it with the constellation of the later birth, one finds that it coincides to a high degree with the constellation at the former death. It must be remembered that the person is born at another spot on the Earth that corresponds with this constellation. In fact, he is adapted to the cosmos, members himself into the cosmos, and thus a balance is established in the soul between ...

1913-03-12-GA140

RSH

When in astrology we ascertain the positions of the planets and also their relative position to those of the fixed stars, this gives some indication of what we ourselves have inscribed. The outer planets are in this case a less important factor. What actually has an effect upon us is what we ourselves inscribed in the several spheres.

quote

Therefore, on the one hand, a man may lag behind his talents owing to laziness or to defects in character or intellect, but the other possibility is that he may not be able to carry out his intentions in small or important matters. Now there is something great in a poet who does not complete a work such as Pandora, but every imperfection in Man is inscribed by him into the Akasha Chronicle in the Moon sphere, and thus an abundance of shortcomings and imperfections come before the eye of the seer in the realm between Earth and Moon. Human imperfections, be they noble or no, are faithfully recorded there. Instances can be found in which, through physical health, through a bodily constitution, providing a good foundation for intellectual gifts, a man would have been capable of achieving certain things, but failed to do so. What he could have become but had not become when he passed through the gate of death — this is inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle.

Do not imagine that the end of Pandora is in some way inscribed in the Moon sphere. What is inscribed has to do with Goethe's astral body, namely, that he had conceived a great, far-reaching plan and only fulfilled a part of it. All such things, including trivial matters, are inscribed between the spheres of Earth and Moon. A person who forms a resolution but has not carried it out before his death, inscribes the fact of non-fulfillment in this sphere. A fairly accurate characterization can be given of what is disclosed to the eye of seership in this realm. A promise that has not been kept, for example, is not inscribed until later, actually not until the Mercury sphere is reached. An unfulfilled resolution, however, is inscribed in the Moon sphere. Anything that affects not only ourselves but also others is not immediately inscribed in the Moon sphere, but only later. Anything that affects us as individuals, that keeps us behind our proper stage of evolution and thus denotes imperfection in our personal development, is inscribed in the Moon sphere.

It is important to realize that our imperfections, especially those that need not have been inevitable, are inscribed in the Moon sphere.

It should not be thought that in all circumstances such an inscription is a dreadful thing. In a certain sense it can be of the greatest value and significance. We will speak in a moment of the meaning and purpose of these inscriptions in the Akasha Chronicle. First it must be emphasized that as the person expands into other spheres, all his imperfections are there inscribed. He expands from the Moon sphere into the Mercury sphere; I am speaking entirely from the aspect of occultism, not from that of ordinary astronomy. Something is inscribed by him in all the spheres, in the Mercury sphere, the Venus sphere, the Sun sphere, the Mars sphere, the Jupiter sphere, the Saturn sphere and even beyond.

1913-12-31-GA149

Then we come to the third post-Atlantean cultural age.

Yesterday I described it as the age in which knowledge was kindled in human souls by the forces which shone out from the stars; when the secrets of the world were no longer discerned only through the relations between the Rulers of Time in the super-sensible, for these were becoming manifest in the realm of sense existence.

In the courses of the stars, in the signature of their movements in cosmic space, men could now perceive how harmony and melody in cosmic happenings are brought about. This picture of the world I would like to call Astrology.

So Chronology is followed by Astrology. And everything that was disclosed by the true, authentic Chronology of Zarathustrianism, and by the true, authentic Astrology of the Egyptian and Chaldean Mysteries — all this was activated by the secret influence which had come into the world though the threefold Christ-event before the Atlantean catastrophe.

1914-01-23-GA151

The lawfulness of a spiritual soul astrology, and the difference to contemporary external astrology (nativity)

We have been concerned with the possible varieties of world-outlooks, of world-outlook-moods and so on, which can find place in the human soul, and, since I can take only single points of view from this wide field, I should like to illustrate one of these points of view by means of a special example.

Let us suppose that a person so lives in the world that among his natural predispositions we find the special forces through which he is influenced by the world-outlook of Idealism. We will say that he makes this world-outlook into a dominating factor in his inner life, so that the soul-mood which I designated yesterday as Mysticism, and called the Venus mood, flows towards Idealism and is nourished by its powers. Hence, if one speaks in the symbols of astrology, one would say that the spiritual constellation of such a Man, according to his natural predispositions, is that Venus stands in Aries.

I remark expressly, so that no misunderstanding may arise, that these constellations are of much greater importance in the life of the person than the constellations of the external horoscope, and do not necessarily coincide with the “nativity” — the external horoscope. For the enhanced influence which is exerted on the soul by this standing of Mysticism in the sign of Idealism waits for the propitious moment when it can lay hold of the soul most fruitfully. Such influences need not assert themselves just at the time of birth; they can do so before birth, or after it. In short, they await the point of time when these predispositions can best be built into the human organism, according to its inner configuration.

Hence the ordinary astrological “nativity” does not come into account here. But one can say: A certain soul is by nature such that, spiritually speaking, Venus stands in Aries — Mysticism in the sign of Idealism. Now the forces which arise in this way do not remain constant throughout life. They change — that is, the person comes under other influences, under other spiritual signs and also under other moods of soul. Let us suppose that a man so changes that in the course of his life he comes into the soul-mood of Empiricism; that Mysticism has moved on, as it were, into Empiricism, and Empiricism stands in the sign of Rationalism. You see, as I drew it in the preceding lecture, going from inwards outwards in the symbolic picture, that Empiricism stands in relation to Mysticism as does the Sun to Venus. With regard to its mood the soul has progressed to Empiricism and has at the same time placed itself in the sign of Rationalism. The result is that such a soul changes its world-picture. What the soul formerly produced, perhaps as a specially strong personality in the time when in its case Mysticism stood in the sign of Idealism, this will pass over into another nuance of world-outlook. What the soul asserts and says will be different when in this way its world-outlook-mood has passed over from Mysticism to Empiricism, and the latter has placed itself in the sign of Rationalism. However, from what I have now explained, you can gather that human souls can have an inclination to change the sign and mood of their world-outlook. (See Diagram 11.) For these souls the tendency to change is already given.

Let us suppose that such a soul wants to carry this tendency further in life. It wants to swing forward from Empiricism to the next soul-mood, i.e. to Voluntarism; and if it wants to swing forward also in the zodiacal signs, then it will come into Mathematism. It would then pass over to a world-outlook which in this symbolical picture leads away at an angle of 60 degrees from the first line, where Mysticism stood in the sign of Idealism; and such a soul, in the course of the same incarnation, would bring to expression a mathematical world-structure permeated by and based upon the will.

And now I ask you to notice how I work out this matter. It will be seen that two such constellations as are here present in the soul disturb each other in the course of time; they influence each other unfavourably when they are at an angle of 60 degrees with regard to each other. In physical astrology this a favourable constellation; in spiritual astrology this so-called sextile aspect is unfavourable. We can see this because this last position — Voluntarism in Mathematism — comes up against a severe hindrance in the soul. The soul is not able to develop, because it cannot find anything to lay hold of, since the person in question has no natural gift for Mathematism.

This is how the unfavourable character of the sextile aspect expresses itself. Hence this configuration, Voluntarism in the sign of Mathematism, cannot establish itself. The consequence is that the soul does not try to move forward in this way. But because it cannot take the path to Voluntarism in Mathematism, it turns away from the configuration it now has — Empiricism in Rationalism — and seeks an outlet by placing itself in opposition to the direction it cannot take. Such a soul, accordingly, would not swing forward to Voluntarism in the direction of Mathematism, but would place itself with Voluntarism in opposition to its Empiricism. The result is that Voluntarism would stand in opposition to Rationalism in the sign of Dynamism. And in the course of its life, such a soul would have as its possible configuration one in which it would defend a world-outlook based on a special pressing in of forces, of Dynamism permeated by will — a will that wants to effect its purpose by force. In spiritual astrology things are again different from what they are in physical astrology; in physical astrology “opposition” has a quite different significance. Here, “opposition” is brought about by the soul being unable to proceed further along an unfavourable path; it veers round into the opposing configuration.

I have shown you here what the soul of Nietzsche went through in the course of his life. If you try to understand the course he takes in his early works, you will find that the placing of Mysticism makes it comprehensible. From this period we have “The Birth of Tragedy”; “David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer”; “The Use and Abuse of History”; “Schopenhauer as Educator”; “Richard Wagner in Bayreuth”. Then the soul of Nietzsche moves on; a second epoch begins. Here we find “Human, all too Human”; “The Dawn of Day”; “The Joyful Wisdom” — all proceeding from the oppositional configuration. These are writings based on the will to power, on the will saturated with force, with power.

Thus you see how an inner conformity to law exists between the spiritual cosmos and the way in which man stands within it. If we employ the symbols of astrology, but taking them to express something different, we can say:

In the case of Nietzsche,

• up to a certain time in his life Venus stood in Aries,
• but when for his soul this configuration passed over into “Sun in the sign of Taurus”, he could get no further.
• He could not go with Mars into the sign of Gemini, but went in the oppositional position; thus he went with Mars into the sign of Scorpio. His last phase was characterized by his standing with Mars in Scorpio.

But one can sustain this configuration only if one penetrates into the lower position (below the line Idealism — Realism in Diagram 11) where one plunges into a spiritual world-outlook, Occultism or something similar; otherwise these configurations must work back unfavourably upon the person himself. Hence the tragic fate of Nietzsche. One can go through with the upper configurations if one is able, owing to external circumstances, to place oneself in the world in a corresponding way. The configurations below the line from Idealism to Realism can be sustained only if one dives down into the spiritual world — a thing that Nietzsche could not do. By “placing oneself externally in the world” I mean placing by means of education, by means of external conditions; they come into account for all that lies above the line running from Idealism to Realism. Meditative life, a life devoted to the study and understanding of Spiritual Science, comes into account for all that lies below the line.

In order to grasp the importance of what has been sketched out in these lectures, we must know the following things. We must make it clear to ourselves what thinking really is; how it enters into human experience.

1916-10-02-GA171

RSH

The human etheric body that combines with the physical body at reincarnation descends on the roads of the light, which are directed by the constellation in certain way. This is a mystery even today, because, otherwise, the parents would get an immense power over their progeny. If this power were abused, the descendants would be divested of the possibility to develop free personality.

1917-01-02-GA292

To begin with, it is important here, again, to realise that there is a certain underlying composition in all that the Gospels contain. The composition is always important. We need only faithfully follow the Gospel narrative. The Flight into Egypt appears in direct connection with the Mission of the Three Wise Men. It happens, as it were, on the basis of what was first undertaken by the Three Wise Men. This bears witness to the fact that the Gospel is taking into account the connection with all that was related about Egypt in the Old Testament. Moses was learned in the Wisdom of the Egyptians. Now we are told in the Gospel that the Three Wise Men of the East came to the birthplace of Christ Jesus, led by the Star which is really the Star of Christ. But it goes on to relate that something now had to take place which did not entirely accord, as it were, with the course of the Star; something which was not in the consciousness of the Wise Men themselves — for so the Gospel explicitly tells us. Here we are shown one of those cases where the astrological determination, as it were, of certain great events has to be broken through. How precisely the astrological determination corresponds to what is known of the historic facts — you could see this from the instance which we spoke of recently. Our friends drew up the Horoscope for that point in the course of Time which was indicated as the day of Christ Jesus's Death.

But we see that the Jesus Child, in whom the Zarathustra Soul was living, had to be taken out of the domain of this Star. He was taken into Egypt, and from Egypt He was then led back again into the realm of the Star. In this is contained the whole Mystery of the ebbing away of that ancient stream of evolution which had grown atavistic in the Egyptian Gnosis. The new Revelation had to enter once more into a certain union with the Old in order that it might free itself consciously.

These are the underlying Mysteries, and though they are little recognised, none the less they lie inherent in the composition. I may take this opportunity to point out once more, how important it is to pay attention to the composition when we read the Gospels. For the text is frequently corrupt and can only be read in its true form by those who are able to read with the help, if I may say so, of the Occult Text. Notably in the translations, naturally enough, the text is often quite unintelligible. But in the composition (compare my Lecture Cycle held in Cassel on the Gospel of St. John) — in the composition there is something which will strike any reader immediately, if he reads the Gospel carefully.

One more remark I would like to make, before we go on to show the pictures. The materialistic consciousness of our age has altogether lost the point of view which would indicate such inner connections as underlie the revelation to the Three Wise Men. Whatever goes by the name of astrology today has fallen into the hands of utter dilettanti, who carry on all kinds of nonsense and abuses with it. Few people nowadays are in true earnest when they speak of that relation of the Earth to the Cosmos which finds expression in actual physical relationships — in the constellations of the Stars. On the other hand, for the official science of today, astrology of whatever kind is a mere antiquated superstition.

Nevertheless, the knowledge of these things did not decay or die out absolutely until the 18th century. Even as late as the 18th century people still spoke of something which is of extreme importance if we wish to understand the deep, deep truths that underlie the appearance of the Three Wise Men. In the 18th century, those who had still preserved some knowledge of the old Initiations spoke of the significance of the physical constellations. But not only so: they also spoke of the significance of invisible constellations. Even in the 18th century it was expressly stated in certain circles who possessed Initiation Knowledge. “There are also Stars which only the Initiate can see.”

This is a true statement, and this, above all, must be taken into account if we wish to understand why it was that “Imaginations” appeared to the Shepherds, while “Stars” appeared to the Three Wise Men.

Such is the indication:

• The Revelation came to the Shepherds inasmuch as they still had dreamlike clairvoyance in the old atavistic sense.
• But the Wise Men of the East had their knowledge through the ancient Science that had been handed down. Through this they knew of the relation between the Cosmos, the Heavens and the Earth. Through this they knew — could calculate, as it were — what was drawing near.

1917-12-23-GA180

RSH

The three magi of the Orient as experts of astrology expected the birth of Jesus at the night from 24 to 25 December for the year in which the sun should then stand in the sign of Virgo. In this sense, this birth is (also) virgin. The offerings of gold, incense, and myrrh symbolise the human knowledge of the divine guidance of the world (astrology), the readiness to make sacrifices

quote

Those who brought the symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the babe lying in the manger knew of the Christmas mystery of the virgin birth through the ancient science of the stars. The magi who brought the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were, in the sense of the ancient wisdom, astrologers, they had knowledge of those spiritual processes that work in the cosmos when certain signs appear in the starry heavens.

One such sign they recognized when, in the night between December 24 and 25, in the year that we today regard as that of the birth of Jesus, the sun, the cosmic symbol of the Redeemer, shone toward the earth from the constellation of Virgo.

They said, “When the constellation of the heavens is such that the sun stands in Virgo in the night between December 24 and 25, then an important change will take place in the earth. Then the time will have come for us to bring gold, the symbol of our knowledge of divine guidance, which hitherto we have sought only in the stars, to that impulse which now becomes part of the earthly evolution of mankind. Then the time will have come for us to offer frankincense, the emblem of sacrifice, the symbol of the highest human virtue. This virtue must be offered in such a way that it is united with the power proceeding from the Christ Who is to be incarnated in that human being to whom we bring the frankincense.

“And the third gift, the myrrh, is the symbol of the eternal in man, which we have felt for thousands of years to be connected with the powers that speak to us from starry constellations; we seek it further by bringing it as a gift to him who is to be a new impulse for humanity; through this we seek our own immortality, in that we unite our own souls with the impulse of the Christ. When the cosmic symbol of world power, the sun, shines in the constellation of Virgo, then a new time begins for the earth.”

This was the belief held for thousands of years, and as the magi felt compelled to lay at the feet of the Holy Child the wisdom of the gods, the virtues of man, and the realization of human immortality, symbolically expressed in the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, something was repeated as a historical event that had been expressed symbolically in innumerable mysteries and in countless sacrificial rituals for thousands of years. There had been presented in these mysteries and rituals a prophetic indication of the event that would take place when the sun stood at midnight between December 24 and 25 in the sign of the Virgin, for gold, frankincense, and myrrh were also offered on this holy night, to the symbol of the divine child preserved in ancient temples as the representation of the sun.

1918-03-26-GA181

RSH

Only because the human being has his etheric and physical bodies, his I and astral body do not merge into those of the other people forming a sort of psycho-spiritual 'primordial jelly' as it existed in previous conditions of evolution. The fact that this does not take place in sleep is due to the strong longing for the physical body Man has during sleep. During the postmortal life, people are separated individually through the fact that everybody has his own “star” or starry pattern (archangels and angels). The regions of the archangels and angels overlap with individual people, however, are never completely identical

1920-12-25-GA202

RSH

Two kinds of knowledge of the pre-Christian time, shown at the examples of the shepherds and the three magi of the Christmas story. Shepherds: perception of the spiritual of the earth, the human soul, and the animal life (germ-like, postmortal abilities). The sages from the Orient: perception of the spiritual of the starry heaven (astrology), the mineral and plant realms (prebirth abilities). The Jewish prophets developed the postmortal abilities especially; however, they were also filled with the prebirth ones in contrast to the shepherds.

1921-01-17-GA323

This is the way one thinks when failing to build a bridge between the natural world-order and the ethical. I have indicated on other occasions how the transition is to be looked for. It can indeed be found throughout Anthroposophical spiritual science. Here I would only draw your attention to a specific aspect of it, — for the rift between the natural world-order and the moral makes itself felt in diverse realms, and among others it affects our present subject. Here too, in the evolution of mankind the natural aspect and the ethical have in a certain way fallen asunder. The ethical has been cultivated in Astrology; the natural in an Astronomy bereft of spiritual values.

There is no need for me to insist that astrology as pursued today is scientifically unacceptable. I need not prove to you that this is an aberration on the one side.

Yet on the other side our Astronomical world-system, as we call it, also involves an abberaction. All these perspective lines — or if you will, projective lines — that are conventionally drawn to represent our solar system, are not to be conceived as realities at all.

1922-02-17-GA210

Towards the end of the life between death and new birth, the human being is tired of the universe what expresses itself in a kind of fear, timidity.

The human brain is a copy of the starry heavens. The soul, descending to the earth, goes to the brain that resembles to the starry constellation, in which the soul was living *).

The spiritual of man dies at birth and becomes the dead thought-world; on the other side, it continues working in the feelings toward the outside world. The timidity changes at birth on the one hand into self-feeling, on the other side into will.

1923-02-10-GA221

Astrology does not have a good name these days. However, when we think of it in the old sense, it has a more respectable name. People back then looked up to the stars, and that is where the Logos revealed itself to them. It worked through their thoughts, their imagination, and their language here on Earth. People participated in what made the formation of sounds here on Earth resound with the mysteries of the heavens by merely setting their speech organs into motion. The Logos, which is the intelligence ruling in the human race, appeared as an emanation of the world of the stars. People believed what happened down here on Earth was a reflection of the archetypal picture they knew through their astrology.

When we look at our modern knowledge, we realize that it has been gained through sensory observation of earthly things. Even our modern astronomy, as I explained yesterday, is only earthly knowledge projected onto the heavens. Human beings nowadays are gaining knowledge based on their senses, and, indeed, they are integrated into the world differently than they were in the past. I described this difference recently in the course of these lectures. As I explained in my book, The Philosophy of Freedom, modern intellectual people are characterized by their abstract concepts and their freedom, which has become possible only because of the development of abstract and intellectual concepts that are not in any way compelling, but provide moral commandments originating in human individuality. These intellectual concepts and the consciousness of freedom are a relatively recent development in human evolution. They appeared after the consciousness based on astrology had vanished - the consciousness that saw human beings as creatures that carry out the intentions of the gods. We modern human beings with our intellect and our freedom are cut off from the heavens; we have truly become Earth hermits and rely completely on the earth for all our knowledge. The way we gain knowledge explains why we have such a strong interest in and attachment to it.

In ancient times it would have been unthinkable to see religion and scientific knowledge as two different things. When people in those days arrived at a scientific insight, it immediately also gave them a religious feeling, showing them the way to the gods. In fact, they could not help being religious in the true sense of the word once they had gained knowledge. Nowadays people can learn the whole spectrum of current knowledge, and yet it will not make them religious. I would like to know whether anyone has become religious these days through having become a botanist, zoologist, or chemist!

People who want to be religious look for religion in addition to knowledge. That is why we have separate institutions for the cultivation of religious life besides those for learning and knowledge. In fact, many people think that knowledge diverts us from the path of religion and that, therefore, we must look for other ways to lead us back to religion. Nevertheless, in our lectures we have had to stress again and again the importance of modern knowledge. We have had to point out that recent insights and findings are indeed essential for modern humanity and its further development.

1923-05-27-GA276

On the constitution of the soul in different epochs of the post-Atlantean culural ages

Egypto-Chaldean epoch: consciousness for the world reigned by thoughts. Human thoughts are only scooped out of the thought ocean of the world (etheric body). Only weak connection with the cosmos: astrology. On the other hand, the concept of folk relationship is fully developed.

1923-06-02-GA350

The causes of volcanism: The astral element of the Earth is rarefied above the concerning place, so that the earth forces can erupt. Certain planetary constellations cause this rarefying.

1923-12-22-GA232

Traditionally, we find preserved right on into our own days something of what was known as astrology. Traditionally something was preserved of what was known as alchemy; but we know nothing today — and even in the 12th to 15th centuries very little was still known — of the conditions of true astrological and alchemical knowledge.

No one can acquire astrology through thought or empirical research, as it is called today.

If those who were initiated into the ancient mysteries had been asked whether by means of investigation and thought one can learn astrology, they would have answered:

You can no more learn astrology through thinking or empirical research than you can learn the secrets of a man by those means if he does not reveal them to you. Just imagine for a moment that there was something which one man knew and which no one but he knew; and that someone thought he would like as an experiment to try and find it out, or would think about it in order to discover it.

As you see, that would be absurd; and to experience astrological things through thinking, or experiments, or by observation would have seemed to one of those ancient men just as absurd as it would seem today that a man should seek to investigate by means of experiment the secret of another human being. For these ancients knew that the Gods alone knew the secrets of the stellar world: the Gods, or as they were called later, the Cosmic Intelligences. The Cosmic Intelligences know the secret of the stellar world, and they alone can tell it. Therefore the student had to follow the path of cognition which leads to an understanding intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences.

The real true astrology depended upon a Man's attaining this possibility of understanding the Cosmic Intelligences.

And a true Alchemy did not then depend as it does today on a man's experiments and calculations, but on his learning to recognize the spirits of nature in the processes of nature, so that he could have intercourse with them; so that the spirits of nature could tell him how the processes took place and what really happened. Astrology in the oldest times was not a spinning of thoughts; nor investigation by means of observation; it was intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences. Neither was Alchemy in those olden times an investigation through observation nor was it calculation; it really was intercourse with the spirits of nature. This it is necessary to know.

If we had gone to an ancient Egyptian, and especially to a Chaldean of very ancient times, he would have told us: “I use my observatory in order with the help of my instruments to be able to hold converse with the Cosmic Intelligences.”

A man who, being a medieval natural scientist, a pious scientist in the Middle Ages, stood before his retort and scientifically investigated on the one hand the inner being of man, and on the other the weaving and working of the great world of nature, this medieval investigator would have said: “I am experimenting because, through my experiments, the spirits of nature speak to me.” The Alchemist was one who evoked the spirits of nature. Everything regarded later as Alchemy is simply a decadent product.

Everything which in ancient times was astrology was the result of intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences.

In the epoch during the first centuries after the rise of Christianity this ancient astrology, that means, intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences, was already past; but there was still some tradition of it. Men then began to calculate when the stars were in opposition or stood in conjunction, and so on. They still possessed what had come over as tradition from those times when astrologers had intercourse with the Cosmic Intelligences; but, whereas in that epoch, a few centuries after the rise of Christianity astrology really had passed away, Alchemy still existed; and intercourse with the spirits of nature was still possible, even in later times.

1924-06-14-GA327

On the forces of the Earth for the plant growth that is increased to the force of reproduction especially by the moon and to a lower degree also by the lower planets.

Water serves thereby as mediator. However, the strongest effect is at the full moon, the force suffices also for the new moon time, so that sowings in unfavourable lunar phases can still come to maturity. One has to make the earth uninclined to the lunar effects to suppress the plant growth. The corresponding plants (weeds) get a "shyness" to grow on such a soil. Production of ashes of the seeds (“pepper”) of undesirable plants and scattering very small amounts of it on the farmland. One has to repeat this procedure up to the fourth year.

The skins of animal pests like field mouse can also be reduced to ashes (“pepper”), best of all when (the astronomical) Venus (important for animal reproduction) is in the sign of Scorpio. One need not pay attention to the lunar effects on the animal, because it bears these in itself and has emancipated itself from them regarding time (applies to higher animals).

The lower animals, insects, stand under another cosmic influence. Example of the nematodes of the root crops. They emerge if the region where the cosmic forces of circumference are absorbed (leaves) is pressed downwards below the surface of the earth (turnip, root). “These influences take place in periods of four years.“ They are also effective in the appearance of the cockchafer grubs every four years. The ashes of the whole insect must be produced when the sun stands in the sign of Taurus to control it. “For the insect world is connected with the forces that evolve when the sun is passing Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, and Gemini and onto Cancer. In Cancer it appears quite weak, it is weak again when you come to Aquarius.”

140-08

316-11

GA034-02

RSH

Astrological knowledge is accessible only to the highest levels of Intuition, “the knowledge of reincarnation and karma is still elementary compared to it.” Exoteric astrology is also traced back to occult teachers.

317-16

61-01

180-03

Positioning astrology and astrosophy

1924-09-17-GA318

about 'astrosophy'

One can be lost in wonder in pondering over this rhythm of 25,920 years. One is awed by what happens between the universe and the human being. And as one contemplates all this, one realizes that the whole world — including the human being — is ordered according to measure, number, and weight. Everything is wonderfully ordered — but it all happens to be human calculation! And at important moments when we are explaining a calculation — even though it is correct — we always have to add that curious word “approximately.” For our human calculation never comes out exactly right. It is all absolutely logical; order and reason are in everything, they are alive and active, everything “works,” as we say. And yet there is something in all of it, something in the universe that is completely irrational. Something is there so that however profound our awe may be, even as initiates, when we go for an afternoon walk we still take an umbrella along. We take an umbrella because something could happen that is irrational. Something can appear in the life of the universe that simply “doesn't come out right” when numbers are applied to it. And so one has had to invent leap years, intercalary months, all kinds of things. Such things have always had to be used for the fixing of time.

What is offered by a well-developed astronomy that has deepened into astrology and astrosophy (for one can think of it in that way) is all destroyed for immediate use by meteorology. This latter has not attained the rank of a rational science; [This lecture was given in 1924.] it is more or less permeated by vision, and will be, more and more. It takes an entirely different path; it consists of what is left over by the other sciences. Modern astronomy itself lives only in names; it is really nothing more than a system for giving names to stars. That is why even Serenissimus came to the end of his knowledge when newly found stars had to have names. He would visit the observatories in his country and let them show him various stars through the telescope, then after seeing everything he would say, “Yes, I know all that — but how you know what that star's name is, that very distant star, that's what I don't understand.” Yes, of course it's obvious, the standpoint you've adopted at this moment when you laugh at Serenissimus. But there's another standpoint: one could laugh at the astronomers. I'd rather you'd laugh at the astronomers, because there's something very strange going on in the world as it evolves.

If you want to inquire into the old way of naming things, Saturn and so forth, you should think back to our speech course, and recall that in olden times names were given from the feeling the astrologers and astrosophers had for the sound of some particular star. All the old star names were God-given, spirit-given. The stars were asked what their names were, because the tone of the star was always perceived and its name was then given accordingly. Now, indeed, you come to a certain boundary line in the development of astrosophy and astrology. Earlier they had to get the names from heaven.

When you come to more recent times when the great discoveries were made, for instance, of the “little fellows” (Sternwichten), then everything is mixed up. One is called Andromeda, another has another Greek name. Everything is mixed up in high-handed fashion. One can't think that Neptune and Uranus are as truly characterized by their names as Saturn was. Now there is only human arbitrariness. And Serenissimus made one mistake. He believed the astronomers were carrying on their work similarly to the ancient astrosophers. But this was not so. They possessed only a narrow human knowledge, while the knowledge of the astrosophers of olden times, and astrologers of still older times, came directly out of humanity's intercourse with the gods. However, if today one would return from astronomy to astrology or astrosophy, and thereby have a macrocosm to live in that is rational throughout, then one would reach Sophia. Then one would find too that within this rationality and Sophia-wisdom meteoronomy, meteorology, and meteorosophy are the things that “don't come out right” by our human calculation, and one can only question them at their pleasure! That's another variety of Lady! In ordinary everyday life, one calls a lady capricious. And the meteorological Lady is capricious all the way from rainshowers to comets. But as one gradually advances from meteorology to meteorosophy one discovers the finer attributes of this world queen, attributes that do not come merely from caprice or cosmic emotion, but from the Lady's warm heart. But nothing will be accomplished unless in contrast to all the arithmetic, all the thinking, all that can be calculated rationally one acquires a direct acquaintance with the beings of the cosmos and learns to know them as they are. They are there; they do show themselves — shyly perhaps at first, for they are not obtrusive. With calculations one can go further and further, but then one is getting further and further away from the true nature of the world. For one is only reaching deeds from the past.

If one advances from ordinary calculation to the calculating of rhythms as it was in astrology for the harmony of the spheres, one goes on from the calculating of rhythms to a view of the organization of the world in numbers, as we find them in astrosophy. On the other hand one finds that the ruling world beings are rather shy. They do not appear at once. First they only present a kind of Akasha photography, and one is not sure of its source. One has the whole world to look at, but only in photographs displayed in various parts of the cosmic ether. And one does not know where they come from.

Then inspiration begins. Beings come out of the pictures and make themselves known. We move out of “-nomy” - but just to “-logy.”

Only when we push through all the way to intuition does the being itself follow from inspiration and we come to Sophia.

But this is a path of personal development that requires the effort of the whole human being. The whole human being must become acquainted with such a Lady, who hides behind meteorology — in wind and weather, moon and sun insofar as they intervene in the elements. Not just the head can be engaged as in “-logy,” but the whole human being is needed.

Already there is a possibility of taking the wrong path in this endeavor.

You can even come to Anthroposophy through the head — by coming from anthroponomy, which is today the supreme ruling science, to anthropology. There you just have rationality, nothing more. But rationality is not alive. It describes only the traces, the footprints, of life and it gives one no impulse to investigate details. Yet life really consists of details and of the irrational element.

What your head has grasped, you have to take down into the whole human being, and then with the whole human being progress from “-nomy” to “-logy,” finally to “-sophy,” which is Sophia.

1924-09-17-GA346

Up till the Crusades the spread of Christianity in a good sense through the repeated efforts of countless members of monastic orders and also in a more external and bad sense, occurred through the direct inspiration of the Palestinian stories. Of course, the gospels were only referred to by priests and not by laymen, but the things that happened were definitely influenced by what the priests learned from the gospels. The priests had the gospels and the cultic rites; the cult gradually became something that reflected the supersensible world in a sensory way. The priests looked upon the sacrifice in the mass as a direct portal to the supersensible world, and therefore they looked up to the starry heavens less and less for their divine, spiritual inspiration. All of the wonderful prophecies and wisdom which I mentioned this morning in connection with ancient astrology and astrosophy disappeared almost entirely by the time of the Crusades.

1924-09-21-GA238

This teaching was bound up with the deep and impressive knowledge of the constellation of the stars in the sense of the astrology or astrosophy of ancient times. All these things, the individuality of whom I am speaking, in her incarnation as a woman in that time, was able to receive because she had as her teacher in a sense, and as her friend, a man who was initiated into many of these doctrines of Asia Minor, and especially also into the Chaldean knowledge of the stars

Related pages

• Overview influences of the spiritual hierarchies
• Overview Golden Chain
• Alchemy

References and further reading

• Anthroposophy and astrology : the astronomical letters of Elisabeth Vreede (2001, original in DE 1954 as 'Anthroposophie und Astronomie')
• Wilhelm Knappich: 'Geschichte der Astrologie' (1967)
• William Lonsdale editor: 'Star rhythms : readings in a living astrology' (1979)
  • with contributions by: Dane Rudhyar, Willi Sucher, Dan Lloyd, Adam Bittleston, John Meeks en William Lonsdale
• Werner Bohm: 'Sternenwirken im Menschenschicksal : Die Kernpunkte der Astrologie' (1985)
• Heinz Herbert Schöffler
  • Das Lesen der modernen Sternenschrift (1990)
  • Gibt es eine anthroposophische Astrologie? (1994)
  • Rudolf Steiner und die Astrologie (1996)
• Gisela Gorrissen:
  • 'Astrologie aus anthroposophischer Sicht : Eine Einführung' (2000)
  • Astrologie und Astrosophie :
    • Band 1: Grundlagen der Astrologie (1993)
    • Band 2: Astrosophie des Tierkreises : Die Kulturen der Menschheit (1994)
    • Band 3: Spezielle Gesichtspunkte der persönlichen Horoskopdeutung (1995)
    • Band 4:Astrosophie der Planeten : Der Dreiklang des Sonnensystems (1997)

Contemporary astrology

• Thomas Moore: 'The planets within : the astrological psychology of Marsilio Ficino' (1990)
• Liz Greene
  • Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil (2011)
  • The Outer Planets and Their Cycles: The Astrology of the Collective (1996)
  • The Jupiter/Saturn Conference Lectures (Lectures on Modern Astrology) (1984)