Q00.010 - IAO and the Human and Cosmic I

From Anthroposophy

Question [1]

Nov-2023

From reading the IAO topic page, someone asked to get a copy of the book/text by Iwer Thor Lorenzen: The 'I-Principle (in Man, Earth and Cosmos)

.. my interests are personal, to "know thyself."  I am not writing a paper or anything public.

I am just seeking better to understand my I-being, the Christ in me, the I AM.

What is the distinction between these - if any?

How do I grow or strengthen my I-being?

I had never heard of Lorenzen before reading about him on your IAO website page. And while reading about him - something lit up inside me to follow up and read more. I have learned to trust that inner experience - when something fires up inside me.

follow up information

IAO VERSE

I encountered the IAO verse (shown below with drawings) for the first time through a webinar [...details removed]

It was a profound moment. The words echoed deep within me. I felt a past-life connection to them.

Since them, this verse has been an ongoing part of my prayer and meditation practice.

I A O goes into me, through me, out of me.

I A O creates forces in me, through me, out of me.

I A O lives weaving in me, through me, out of me.

Preliminary response

For now in this first response I wanted to share two elements:

1/ First, I don't know if you meditate, but there is no better way to go than to meditate until you're able to reach 'vacancy of mind'. This is, simply put, step 1 of Bardon's 'IIH' 'initiation' manual. I'm writing it because for myself and so many others it has been a life changing event. You are asking who you are, but today, with 'waking consciousness' you are looking into the mirror and saying I to the physical body. Now you can have that I-experience at the etheric level, and astral level, and soul level (eg after death), and when you reach vacancy of mind (no thoughts), you are actually knocking on the door of these higher worlds. You will experience that you are there also without thoughts and senses. It's simply put, but I hope you can see why I think this is the best advice, because it's experiential. Of course you may already have gone down this path, I don't know. It takes persistence and discipline, but VoM can be reached in some weeks, months, or years by most people, and we can talk about it if you want.

2/ Secondly, if you are interested to learn - like intellectual study - and have used the wiki site, in preparation for what I'll try to write (which works better than via email, that way it's referenceable and re-useable), then I would like to point out to some elements worth studying. I mean really seriously, so every link, every schema, every lecture reference .. it's not a small investment and it's not like reading, if you see what I mean. This has to be one's cup of tea, not everyone learns intellectually (re Kolb's learning styles).

[A] See the section below. There are two notes. I appreciate the first note is difficult, I wrote it for someone and it's maybe not good but still I think it's a basis for pre-work to check one's understanding on the whole

https://anthroposophy.eu/Development_of_the_I#Discussion

[B] the following page is pretty huge, but so is the theme, so it cannot be avoided, it's essential

https://anthroposophy.eu/Human_%27I%27

however, there are a number of things on that page maybe using as entry points (all could require a book on itself for each). These are like parallel threads, coming from different sides:

[B1] schema 128 I guess you know, but then there's 289 with variants A and B

I start with this as one has to take it together with

https://anthroposophy.eu/Human_%27I%27#Note_.5B1.5D_-_All_we_can_say_.27I.27_to

[B2] schema 290 explains what is our current consciousness, it requires one reads/studies all the lectures referenced on the schema. You will see the text with the schema points to eg 'waking consciousness' .. a page on itself .. and if we want to build one layer of bricks of understanding on another, one needs to make these one's own in terms of grasp and deep understanding when we mention that term and all that it encompasses .. all that is on the topic page

once that is clear, you also understand schemas like 391 on

https://anthroposophy.eu/Stages_of_clairvoyance

our experience and what we think/believe/experience as our I .. is using our lower bodies in some way as reflections, but it's not our true spiritual I

[B3] then we're ready to go a level up

I suggest you read Notes 3 and 4 on the page

https://anthroposophy.eu/Human_%27I%27#Discussion

I think they might already be a bit closer to the center of your question.

I will stop here for now, and just show what could follow and how the above fits in as the start of the exploratory path. To go further will be [C] .. and we can go there next time, it will require a grasp of concepts like:

https://anthroposophy.eu/Man%27s_higher_triad

https://anthroposophy.eu/Monad

but these fit into the below .. have you see schemas 141 and 141A on

https://anthroposophy.eu/Overview_Golden_Chain

these point to where and how we are a seed of the divine.

With these three blocks [B1] to [B3] we have prepared the terrain.

The question you ask will require to go more 'cosmic' in a next phase, let's say this could be [D], because schemas 327 and 329 on the IAO page are really cosmic.

On the way to go there and set the scene ... you may or may not have seen this

https://anthroposophy.eu/Cosmic_fractal

schema 532 on that page may be interesting, because the mantras and drawings you mention in your mail are pointers ' way up'

It may appear that the above does not relate directly enough to your quest and questions, but I wrote before that it's all this kind of stuff that Lorenzen and others take for granted once they go and discuss IAO or the 'I am', which is the cosmic version of the self-consciousness, how the divinity gets to know itself through the hierarchies, and so also through Man .. with certain characteristics which are universal, like in/out breathing, the self-consciousness itself (which is a cosmic I principle), and the faculty of thinking and creation (which is also a universal cosmic principle).

Well I hope I haven't flooded you with the above, the idea is not to try drinking from the firehose .. but I see such patterns of links more like a walk together through the forest or nature, whereby one explores and takes a certain guided journey together. I'm sure it comes across as daunting, but then for the soul in the desert or the wide forest any piece of paper with some kind of map is better than to have no map at all, in terms of something to points a way. I will try to start drafting a note on the theme, as mentioned. It is difficult to use words to do this, because they are so constrained, limited, sequential. But the theme is so beautiful, so wonderful, it fills my heart with warmth. I wish I could make it art, easier to affect, impact, appreciate. In fact this is a childhood vision I had while growing up.

Answer

Introduction

The narrative that follows will attempt to provide a guided walkthrough of topics to approach and try to comment on the cosmic consciousness, what is meant when talking about IAO, or the 'I am the I am', or 'cosmic I'. All these are difficult terms for our mundane Earthly waking consciousness to grasp or imagine.

Personal note

To write or think about IAO has something holy. The alpha and omega of creation, the highest divinity, the source of all and everything. If one truly approaches IAO for what it is, one cannot do so without feeling very small as a human being, in awe for what one is taking in scope of one's thought process.

Attitude - ingoing position

First. It is appropriate to fill our heart and soul will great humility and awe, when approaching the concept of the highest divinity with our limited human intellectual thinking. Contemplation may be considered a form of praying.

Secondly, ... In order to develop some kind of understanding of what this is all about, we should be patient and take a longer term perspective. Plant seeds, live with what we've learned, study and contemplate further, and integrate it as part of meditation exercises. Therefore the below will not be able to provide any answers in a few paragraphs. It's not by reading for a few minutes that you will break into the most difficult territory, please appreciate more will be needed. However, as with the lectures of Rudolf Steiner, you may have experienced that the more study background and insight you have, the deeper the contents of the threads that are laid out, even though you may be reading the same text now as for example ten or twenty years ago.

Process - method

A major challenge in trying to convey knowledge, insights .. is that any exposition assumes knowledge of what is used to build the exposition. So in what follows, one has to consider we'll start with a pyramidion statement, and then shed light on all underlying components following the pyramid principle (re Barbara Minto). This implies that the narrative may be difficult to grasp, or at first may not make sense, which however should not be considered a blocking point or problem. By studying and exploring the building blocks a level or two below, one slowly fill in more of the blanks and thereby goes through the process of constructing one's own knowledge representation or pyramid of understanding. Coming back to the whole then after such cycles, the pyramidion statement will be filled with more and more meaning.

This site follows the principle of systematic anthroposophy and uses wiki topic pages and FMC Schemas as pointers to such building blocks. Underneath are the so-called 'aspects' and strings of key lecture extracts which form the bricks and morter for the knowledge build-up.

Hence another way to see the lessons and narratives on this site, is that they are 'buildings' or 'constructs' that are made up of and use all the rest of the contents on the site. In that sense these represent some kind of upper layer stories that 'assume' deeper knowledge of 'all the rest'. Indeed the advantage of this wiki site is that links can be embedded in the narrative, as direct pointers for further study and exploration.

This can support what Richard Feynman described as an effective intellectual study process: After assimilating study materials, try for yourself if you can explain everything you read and studied to your own satisfaction. Switch to an active autonomeous mode and try different ways, maybe using and dependent on but also without any of your study materials, creating them a new as part of the process of 'bringing the contents' to see if and how you have integrated this for yourself. If you reach points where you doubt, go back and study again to fill in these areas so you master missing elements and links, until you cover the whole to your satisfaction.

Disclaimer

Finally, if the above was not a disclaimer already, please

  • bear with me that we are taking a step back here in order to try and jump further afterwards,
  • know that the narrative below will be tuned and improved further over time. It is currently just a first shot, putting a 'train of thoughts' to text. All feedback and questions are welcomed.
  • be aware and please appreciate that we'll have to 'go cosmic' (and conceptual) first, before bringing it all back down again to human terms, to a perspective we can relate to as a human being.

Structured narrative

We can distinguish three main angles of approach, and one will need good insight in all three in order to 'lay the puzzle':

pre-read materials

The narrative that follows is based on knowledge of what's on the following topic pages. This means that the meaning of the narrative will only come to live in full if one already knows, masters, what is on those pages .. because it builds on all this in many ways, implicitly. So the narrative is meant as a meta level above those pages, to provide context to bolt the content of these puzzle pieces together.

one

two

three

worldview

0 - introductory package includes

We'll assume we can use the above, and a good grasp of all these is available for building on.

God?

1 - the first then to start with is the highest divinity: God, the three Logoi, the Trinity, the Father of the Lord's Prayer and the Christ.

The Golden chain shows us how a stream of consciousness or energy, or whatever we want to call it, is streaming down, radiating down and being clothed through the various worlds, through the carriers of the spiritual hierarchies, into ever greater complexity.

Schema FMC00.141 depicts this, and we have learned how seeds from higher words are clothed in the higher and lower spirit worlds, the astral world, and finally the physical world .. so as to make up Man and the kingdoms of nature on Earth. In each 'layer' there in addition of substance and form, from archetypes to more specific embodiments.

Now we take that as a starting place, because through this way of looking at the golden chain, we want to 'look up' to the source of all this. It's only when we have a deep imaginative grasp of the above that we are ready to do this, to really 'look up' with our soul in meditation. One way to approach or test or prepare this, is to pray the Lord's prayer every day as part of meditation, and include all one knows and has learned about spiritual science.

It brings us to the place of considering the cosmic fractal, as far as we can grasp this .. and then knowing it comes from 'some source'. This source lies above levels of consciousness and energy we can imagine. Because our intellectual grasp, or understanding, is so much related to the physical reality experience around us, we can just not reach there.

  • We would have to (and we need, actually) to disappear with our current human 'I' personality and individuality to climb up and try to reach a higher perspective. This is what students of initiation do as they cross the threshold into the higher spirit world where time and individuality has to be left behind. Indeed with initiation such as Bardon's IIH one develops the faculties of higher cognition (as described under stages of clairvoyance) that lift us up into these worlds, from the cloud decks that veil the higher realities from our mundane waking consciousness. And to conclude, IIH step 10 is indeed a level on this staircase that allows one to connect to the divinity we are talking about here, see God experience, and to get some more concrete feel, eg God experience#Rawn Clark.

Nevertheless is it key to try and build some imagination for what lies higher, at the source.

Why?

What is self-consciousness as a cosmic concept

2 - the reason is that there is an essential concept called 'self-consciousness' or 'consciousness of self' we want to put forth. This as a concept, not directly as something stemming from our physical human world and experience. But rather, as what was described on this site as CoC=4. As part of the twelve levels of consciousness, the Condition of Consciousness level 4 is called the 'human stage' because it corresponds to what human beings are currently experiencing during the current evolutionary phase of the Earth planetary stage of evolution (as defined by a certain CoC, CoL, CoF - see Three dimensions of evolution).

When using this site, you may have already studied the fact that every level fo the spiritual hierarchies develops 'up the ladder' of CoC, and passes through this so-called 'human stage' (a very unfortunate term, in a way, hence we've used CoC=4 for it). This is the stage of consciousness of self. When you study the archai on the Old Saturn stage, or the archangels on the Old Sun stage, you will find descriptions by Rudolf Steiner of how different this was, yet how this experience was a key stage of development for the hierarchy.

Schema FMC00.048 on Twelve Conditions of Consciousness provides a good support for contemplating all one learns in evolution about the spiritual hierarchies, and this is required to also position mankind as the tenth hierarchy in the whole. If we relate it to the Overview of solar system evolution it shows how the first three CoC levels are 'going down' to CoC 4 and then 'going up' again with the levels 5 to 7. In the future Man will spiritualize again, this Earth stage is a pivotal turning point in the evolutionary development process.

And to see this, check out the important Schema FMC00.400 on Cosmic breath of Brahma. Lorenzen makes this same point, that we are at a transfer node with the current Earth stage, where the Christ takes over from the Father. All the past is the result of an exhaling and a previous cycle, now a new cycle of creation starts. And it is this cycle that is described with the Earth becoming a future Sun, and mankind becoming Gods, the tenth hierarchy developing to act as divine creators.

  • before we move on, a parenthesis to expand on what was said above about CoC=4. Consider FMC00.077 and variants, as well as the Discussion Notes on Creation of solar system, and one appreciates the different role that a hierarchy plays as it goes up the CoC-ladder. The site contains quite some materials to help one approach this from various angles, to aid in going from an intellectual to an imaginative grasp, ao
  • the point being, that with self-consciousness something else is meant at each stage (it's not just CoC=4) .. and hence 'know thyself' is something that never ends, it 'rolls up' through all the stages of all the hierarchies at the same time, and in fact it rolls up all the way to the source and the three logoi or unity (see further below). [*]

Another perspective to include is the fact Man is the first hierarchy that has been set free from the chain of command of spiritual hierarchies. Man has freedom, as the basis to develop as the hierarchy of love. Love being selfless giving, sacrifice and creation.

Now you will also find that Rudolf Steiner says that evolution of mankind is not only about humanity, but also of the Gods themselves. That the Gods did not know about death, and so something very new happened in the cosmos when Christ went through death as a human being. Please keep this in memory, as the theme here is learning.

Human self-consciousness and the quest for the true nature of the human 'I'

So what is consciousness of self? When we look in the mirror we say 'I' to the image of our physical body. When going through the process between death and a new birth, we experience our 'I' etherically, in the astral world, and in the spirit worlds - see Human 'I'#Note .5B1.5D - All we can say .27I.27 to.

So this is a very relative experience. And we may wonder: what is our true 'I'. Well a few pointers.

The quest for our true spiritual 'I' leads us 'up the worlds' on Schema FMC00.141 and others.

  • sidenote: many interesting pointers and quotes when RS talks about 'where is the I? the I waits' .. or 'everywhere physically'

To focus and home into it, take the Schema FMC00.128 and Schema FMC00.289 on the Human 'I' page. The spiritual I is in the spirit world, as you studied also on the Man's higher triad topic page.

  • This is the point we could branch off - with Schema FMC00.468 on the Man's higher triad page, and go into the Christ Impulse, the seed of buddhi or christos, see Schema FMC00.481 on the topic page Love.

It is important to remain very much aware we always have the aspects of theoretical/conceptual considerations, study as this page .. and then the experiential reality (which we cannot put on this page, but you have to develop for yourself through initiation exercises such as the IIH path).

  • The Schema FMC00.474 on Cosmic fractal by Bentov and Dubuis tries to talk about that, and in a different way Rawn Clark talks about that here in the following movie. Please consider Schema FMC00.532 on Cosmic fractal as, for those who don't have the experience, it is crucial to leave behind physical space-time and realize that there is no time and space in the higher spirit as we experience with waking consciousness. In the world of archetypes one therefore speaks of principles and (essential) 'meaning'. Which is also why Rudolf Steiner describes the highest faculty of clairvoyance (the higher spirit world) he calls 'intuition' - as 'understanding'.
    • To get a feel for the reality of the group soul, see Rawn Clark from an experiential perspective in the youtube movie 'Offerings: 19 - Greater selves'. (4'30-17'30). Rawn uses terminology 'greater self' for group soul (and/or Man's higher triad), and 'individual self' for 'Individuality'. In this movie he speaks with waking consciousness to comment whilst shifting his consciousness to the spirit world and visiting the world of group souls and archetypes of all kingdoms of nature.

The bridge to divinity - drop of divinity

However now comes an important point. With thanks to Maximilian Rebholz who put emphasis on it, see Schema FMC00.141A on Overview Golden Chain. It's important to realize that our true I, as we are taught, in the higher spirit world, in itself originates in still higher worlds. We are actually part of what is called the Monad, divine rays from the highest divinity.

Now this leads us into territory we can consider conceptually but which is has the danger of remaining empty husks, worlds without meaningful reality-contents we can relate to. This is cosmology as brought by theosophical teachings, but for the sake of completeness we have to follow this path for a while.

What follows is a bridge to the divinity. The Bible talks about the seven spirits before the trone, theosophy about the seven rays .. see Seven creative spirits as related to the intricate nature of the Trinity and threefold nature of the Three Logoi or threefold God.

Now the key induction step in this narrative, is to apply all we laid out before as a premise, to the highest levels of consciousness and creation. The key 'state' or 'faculty' of consciousness experience, which varies along the CoC-level, still has an dynamically evolving character, though it is very different for different levels of the spiritual hierarchies. The point being: we look in the mirror, all hierarchies have some way of getting to know an aspect of themselves, and thereby the whole of the cosmic fractal and creation. This is the symbol of the snake biting its own tail - see Schema FMC00.328 on IAO. It is the intention of Schema FMC00.329 on that same page, and why I put the circle on FMC00.077. The point of it is that we are part of a chain, of such a hugely complex cosmic fractal structure, that is in the continuous process of getting to know itself.

You will find this back in the fundamental properties in the teachings of the divinity and the logoi, see The three Logoi#Short introductory explanation and the longer explanation that follows it.

At this point we want to keep a pause and take stock of the journey travelled so far, and what it has brought us.

IAO is a very deep symbol

it relates to infinity (for us 'below')

About the snake .. and dipping

so what is happening when considering the snake biting its own tail?

contemplate the circle on Schema FMC00.329, over Schema FMC00.077A, and imagine that through the dynamic of the cosmic fractal, and as - on the left - sacrifice of the highest hierarchies above is passed on to create new branches below, it is passed on through the chain of cascading spiritual hierarchies, and together they create the seeds of new that will develop.

two digressions

  • by the way, that is what one learns when studying the evolutionary stage Old Saturn, but the same process can be discerned for each planetary stage like Old Sun or Old Moon .. and from there we can bring it to the Earth planetary stage of evolution where we ourselves play a key role as we reach self-consciousness CoC=4 and become an active creator through our faculty of thinking
  • note RS uses an extrapolated-meaning version of the term thinking also for other hierarchies at CoC=4 at other planetary stages, exactly to describe this faculty that - albeit taking totally different forms in different planetary stages of evolution and a different make up of the cosmos, still has an analogeous systemic impact or meaning in the larger process .. so just as RS uses the term 'human stage' for CoC=4, also the faculty of what self-consciousness triggers is called the faculty of thinking which creates these seeds for future worlds

that is why the 77 schema shows colours as it wants to point out these recurrent 'roles' that a hierarchy-in-development plays as it goes through a certain CoC level

so we can stand still and reflect on the human experience and what we learn about soul and spirit going through the various experiences in many incarnations .. but imagine from what preceeded that that is only a tiny piece of experience and evolution, compared to what was just described

on the right, after hierarchies reach the highest levels of the CoC-ladder, we can imagine they flow into the Unity highest godhead which through this process extends the CoC-ladder

through this description we wanted to invite the reader to take for contemplation the relation between the CoC-ladder, the spiritual hierarchies made up of triads, and the cosmic fractal snake of the schema whereby this hugely complex carrousel carries the whole cosmos along in something which is never at rests but continiously evolving in all its parts

to be done - maybe this is the place for

check: Creation of solar system#.5B1.5D - The IAO cosmic fractal

dipping?

what was described above can be seen as a cilinder going down and up again, as the godhead that breathes out and in again, and this cosmic breath of Brahma is the process of getting to know itself .. god gets to know itself through all its parts in this process

we can make the comparison with Man: the human being is alive because he's breathing, and the breath carries the faculty of thought through the CSF, for this digression we refer to

now the breathing is also an in and out, dipping into the world through the consciousness experience that is carried on the breath

similarly, we can see this dipping down in the process of sleeping and waking

and in the process of incarnating onto Earth into a physical body to learn all those lessons for the soul, and then up again

this is exactly what RS describes with what we've called the topic 25920. That this is something important RS wanted to get across, is illustrated by the fact there's at least 24 lectures where he describes this.

Schema FMC00.288 on the 25920 topic page illustrates this 'dipping' of the macrocosmos above, and the microcosmos below .. and through the above we have now come to see how they are part and whole, one and the same

what was described here is what is covered on the topic page 'cosmic breathing', whereby cosmic breathing is the term coined to describe this generic process that all the spiritual hierarchies go through

in the timespace experience we can discern this as their dynamic projects into time as what we've called eigenperiods, characteristic time periods related to the activity of a spiritual hierarchy

however this is no more a characteristic as a moving shadow of an object like a flame projected on a wall, the reality is of another dimension than its reflection .. though the metaphor is poor as the dimensionality of spiritual reality and hierarchies is of a different order as its projection in physical timespace

sidenote: this reasoning thread could branch off into explaining spirals in nature, mathematical characteristics such as pi or fibonacci, platonic solids, even the laws of physics .. they are all characteristics we find beautiful because they appears as universal in nature and contain something of an higher order. the reason is that they are side-effects from the cosmic fractal, golden chain, and spiritual hierarchies constitution of natures kingdoms in our physical world .. they are a direct consequence of the lens through which we human beings view reality with 'mineral' waking consciousness

Links one can make from here

1/ two divine interventions

the drop in us, Jehovah

christos in us

not me but the Christ in me

2/ symbolic properties (so, not earthly) at the highest levels

with symbolic properties is meant: properties which we know from our human earthly experience, and become symbols, symbolic descriptors we can use for describing higher realities outside of our human realm of experience, or thoughts or words to describe them

a few such terms are breathing, sacrifice, self-consciousness, thinking

breathing in out rhythmic character (thy kingdom come) .. <-> link with [*] and sacrifice & flowing back

I am CoC at highest level

principle of thinking as creation

3/

reviewing the schemas


Schema FMC00.327 meaning .. that all these planetary stages of evolution come from the same bosom

as they are part of the in and out breathing cycle of the cosmic fractal (the dynamic of all the hierarchies)

on the right is illustrated that this becomes a linear timeline with an alpha and omega, a start and and end, but the touchpoint of the worlds is the 'I'

for the sketch above .. there are other related drawings similar, eg Schema FMC00.511 on cosmic fractal

Afterthoughts - what's next

all this is very theorethical

man has faculty to think

and this can be a basis for praying

an extension of faith into belief and a sort of cosmic religious feeling

believing how it is

as an alternative to religions

and experience will confirm parts being truth

Further reading

for yet another angle of approach

the IAO verse <-> Durchgang

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