Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
19. What is the Earth in Reality within the Macrocosm?
[ 1 ] In these studies we have contemplated the evolution of the Cosmos and Humanity from the most varied points of view. We have seen how man derives from the extra-earthly Cosmos the forces of his being, with the exception of those that give him self-consciousness. These come to him from the Earth.
[ 2 ] The significance of the earthly realm for man is thus explained. But in this connection the question must arise: What is the significance of the earthly realm for the macrocosm?
[ 3 ] In order to approach the answer to this question, we must turn our attention once more to what has already been described in these pages.
[ 4 ] The consciousness of the seer finds the macrocosm increasingly alive, the more his vision penetrates into the past. In the far distant past, the macrocosm so lives that there ceases to be any question of ‘calculating’ the manifestations of its life. Out of this living condition man is then brought forth as a separate being, while the macrocosm enters more and more into the ‘calculable’ sphere.
[ 5 ] But in this it undergoes a slow process of death. In the same measure in which man—the microcosm—arises as an independent being from the macrocosm, the macrocosm dies.
[ 6 ] In the present cosmic time, a dead macrocosm is existing. But it was not only man who arose in the process of its evolution. The Earth too came forth out of the macrocosm.
[ 7 ] Deriving from the Earth the forces for his self-consciousness, man is far too close to it in his inner life to perceive its nature clearly. In the age of the Spiritual Soul, with the full unfolding of self-consciousness, we have grown accustomed to focus our attention on the spatial magnitude of the Universe, and to look on the Earth as a speck of dust, insignificant compared to the great universe of physical space.
[ 8 ] Hence it will seem strange, to begin with, when spiritual vision unfolds the true cosmic significance of this alleged ‘particle of dust.’
[ 9 ] In the mineral ground of the Earth the other kingdoms of Nature—the animal and plant kingdoms—are imbedded. [ 10 ] In all this there live the forces which manifest themselves in varied forms of appearance through the seasons. Consider the world of plants. In autumn and winter it manifests the physically dying forces. In this form of appearance, the consciousness of the seer perceives the nature of those forces which have brought about the gradual death of the macrocosm. In spring and summer, forces of growth, springing and sprouting forces, show themselves in the plant life. In the growing, sprouting process, the seer's consciousness perceives not only what brings forth the abundant blessing of the plant life for the given year, but an excess. It is an excess of germinating force. The plants contain more germinating force than they expend upon the growth of foliage, flower and fruit. For the consciousness of the seer, this excess of germinating force flows out into the extra-earthly macrocosm.
[ 11 ] Now in the same manner a surplus of force streams out from the mineral kingdom to the extra-earthly Cosmos. This force has the task of carrying the forces from the plant-world to the right places in the macrocosm. Under the influence of the mineral forces, the plant-forces become a newly fashioned picture of a macrocosm.
[ 12 ] Likewise there are forces proceeding from the animal nature. These however do not work, like the plant and mineral forces, radiating from the Earth. They work in such a way that the plant-nature, which the mineral forces carry in clear formation into the great Universe, is gathered into a sphere, so that the picture arises of a macrocosm compact and self-contained on all sides.
[ 13 ] It is thus the spirit-seeing consciousness beholds the essence of the earthly realm, which stands as a new, life-kindling element within the dead and dying macrocosm.
[ 14 ] As when the old plant has died and fallen away, the new plant, however large, is formed again from the seed in space so insignificant and small—so while the old dead macrocosm falls asunder a new macrocosm is coming forth from this ‘speck of dust,’ the Earth.
[ 15 ] It is a true contemplation of the Earth-nature which sees in it on all hands a germinating universe. We only learn to understand the kingdoms of Nature around us when we feel in them the presence of this germinating life.
[ 16 ] In the midst of it man fulfils his Earth-existence. He partakes in the germinating life as well as in the dead and dying. From the dead he derives the forces of his thought. In the past, when the forces of his thought were coming forth from the still living macrocosm, they did not provide the foundation for self-conscious humanity. They lived, as growth forces, in a human being who did not yet possess self-consciousness. For themselves, the forces of thought must not have life of their own if they are to provide a basis for the free self-consciousness of man. With the macrocosm whose life has gone out, they for themselves must be the dead shadows of what once was living in the primeval Cosmos.
[ 17 ] On the other side man shares in the germinating life of the Earth, from which he has the forces of his will. These forces are indeed life itself, but with his self-consciousness man does not take part in their real nature. Deep down within the human being they radiate into the shadows of his thought. The shadows of thought flow through them, and in the flowing of free thought as it unfolds within the germinating earthly nature, the full and free human self-consciousness enters into man during this age of the Spiritual Soul.
[ 18 ] The past throwing its shadows, the future fraught with the germs of a new reality meet in the human being; and their meeting constitutes the human life of present time.
[ 19 ] That these things are so, is clearly revealed to the consciousness of the seer the moment he enters that spirit-region which immediately adjoins the physical and in which the active presence of Michael is found.
[ 20 ] The life of all this earthly realm becomes clear and transparent when we feel at its foundation the germ of a new Universe. Every single plant and stone appears in a new light to the soul of man when he becomes aware that each of these creations is contributing by its life or by its form to this great fact: that the Earth in its unity is an embryo—the seed of a macrocosm newly rising into life.
[ 21 ] One should but try to make the thought of these things fully living in oneself, and one will feel how much it may signify for the human heart and mind.
(January, 1925)
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (in connection with the foregoing study: What is the Earth in reality within the Macrocosm?)
[ 22 ] 153. In the beginning of the age of the Spiritual Soul, it became the custom to turn attention to the physically spatial greatness of the Universe. Impressed above all by this immensity of physical appearance, men speak of the Earth as a mere speck of dust within the Universe.
[ 2 ] 154. To the consciousness of the seer this ‘speck of dust,’ the Earth, is revealed as the germ and beginning of a new-rising Macrocosm, while the old Macrocosm appears as a thing whose life has died away. For the old Macrocosm had to die, that man might sever himself from it with full Self-consciousness.
[ 24 ] 155. In the cosmic present, man partakes with the Thought forces that make him free, in the dead Macrocosm; and with the Will-forces, whose essence is concealed from him, in the germinating of this Earth-existence—the Macrocosm newly springing into life.
Was ist die Erde in Wirklichkeit im Makrokosmos?
(Goetheanum, Januar 1925)
[ 1 ] Das Werden des Kosmos und der Menschheit ist in diesen Betrachtungen von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus angeschaut worden. Gezeigt hat sich, wie der Mensch die Kräfte seines Wesens vom außerirdischen Kosmos hat, außer denen, die ihm sein Selbstbewußtsein geben. Diese kommen ihm von der Erde.
[ 2 ] Damit ist die Bedeutung des Irdischen für den Menschen dargelegt. Es muß sich daran die Frage knüpfen: Welche Bedeutung hat das Irdische für den Makrokosmos?
[ 3 ] Um der Antwort auf diese Frage näher zu kommen, muß man den Blick auf das hier schon Dargestellte werfen.
[ 4 ] Der Makrokosmos wird von dem schauenden Bewußtsein in immer größerer Lebendigkeit gefunden, je weiter der Blick in die Vergangenheit zurückdringt. Er lebt in ferner Vergangenheit so, daß jede Berechnung seiner Lebensoffenbarungen da aufhört. Aus dieser Lebendigkeit heraus wird der Mensch abgesondert. Der Makrokosmos tritt immer mehr in die Sphäre des Berechenbaren ein.
[ 5 ] Damit aber erstirbt er allmählich. In dem Maße, in dem der Mensch — der Mikrokosmos — als selbständige Wesenheit aus dem Makrokosmos ersteht, erstirbt dieser.
[ 6 ] In der kosmischen Gegenwart besteht ein erstorbener Makrokosmos. Aber im Werden desselben ist nicht nur der Mensch entstanden. Es ist aus dem Makrokosmos auch die Erde erstanden.
[ 7 ] Der Mensch, der von der Erde die Kräfte für sein Selbstbewußtsein hat, steht dieser innerlich viel zu nahe, um ihr Wesen zu durchschauen. In der vollen Entfaltung des Selbstbewußtseins im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele hat man sich gewöhnt, den Blick auf die räumliche Größe des Weltenalls zu wenden und die Erde wie ein Staubkorn, unbedeutend gegenüber dem physisch-räumlichen Weltall, anzusehen.
[ 8 ] Daher wird es zunächst absonderlich erscheinen, wenn ein geistiges Anschauen die wahre kosmische Bedeutung dieses angeblichen «Staubkorns» enthüllt.
[ 9 ] In die mineralische Grundlage der Erde sind die andern Reiche, das Pflanzen- und das Tierreich, eingebettet.
[ 10 ] In alle dem leben die Kräfte, die sich im Jahreslauf in ihren verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen zeigen. Man sehe auf die Pflanzenwelt. Im Herbst und Winter zeigt sie physisch ersterbende Kräfte. Das schauende Bewußtsein nimmt in dieser Erscheinungsform das Wesen derjenigen Kräfte wahr, die den Makrokosmos zum Ersterben gebracht haben. Im Frühling und Sommer zeigen sich im Pflanzenleben wachsende, sprossende Kräfte. Das schauende Bewußtsein nimmt in diesem Wachsen und Sprossen nicht nur das wahr, was den Pflanzensegen für das Jahr erstehen läßt, sondern einen Überschuß, Dieser Überschuß ist ein solcher der Keimkraft. Die Pflanzen enthalten mehr Keimkraft, als sie für Blätter-, Blüten- und Fruchtwachstum verbrauchen. Dieser Überschuß an Keimkraft strömt vor dem schauenden Bewußtsein hinaus in den außerirdischen Makrokosmos.
[ 11] Ebenso strömt aber auch überschüssige Kraft vom Mineralreich in den außerirdischen Kosmos. Diese Kraft hat die Aufgabe, die von den Pflanzen kommenden Kräfte an die rechten Orte im Makrokosmos zu bringen. Es wird unter dem Einfluß der Mineralkräfte aus den Pflanzenkräften ein neugestaltetes Bild eines Makrokosmos.
[ 12 ] Ebenso gibt es vom Tierischen ausgehende Kräfte. Diese wirken aber nicht in dem Sinne, wie die mineralischen und pflanzlichen, von der Erde ausstrahlend, sondern so, daß sich, was in Gestaltung durch die mineralischen Kräfte an Pflanzlichem ins Weltall getragen wird, zur Sphäre (Kugel) zusammenhält und dadurch das Bild eines allseitig geschlossenen Makrokosmos ersteht.
[ 13 ] So schaut das geist-erkennende Bewußtsein das Wesen des Irdischen. Dieses steht neu belebend innerhalb des erstorbenen Makrokosmos drinnen.
[ 14 ] Wie aus dem Pflanzenkeim, der räumlich so unbedeutend klein ist, die ganze große Pflanze sich wieder bildet, wenn die alte ersterbend zerfällt, so wird aus dem «Staubkorn» Erde ein neuer Makroskosmos, indem der alte erstorbene zerfällt.
[ 15 ] Das ist ein wahres Anschauen des Erdenwesens, das überall in ihm eine keimende Welt schaut. Man lernt nur dadurch die Naturreiche verstehen, daß man in ihnen dieses Keimende empfindet.
[ 16 ] Inmitten dieses keimenden Lebens vollbringt der Mensch sein Erdendasein.- Er nimmt an diesem Keimenden sowohl wie an dem erstorbenen Leben teil. Aus dem erstorbenen hat er seine Denkkräfte. Solange diese Denkkräfte in der Vergangenheit aus dem noch lebenden Makrokosmos kamen, waren sie nicht Grundlage des selbstbewußten Menschen. Sie lebten als Wachstumskräfte in dem Menschen, der noch kein Selbstbewußtsein hatte. Die Denkkräfte dürfen für sich kein Eigenleben haben, wenn sie die Grundlage bilden sollen für das freie menschliche Selbstbewußtsein. Sie müssen für sich mit dem erstorbenen Makrokosmos die toten Schatten von Lebendigem der kosmischen Vorzeit sein.
[ 17 ] Auf der andern Seite nimmt der Mensch teil an dem Keimenden der Erde. Aus ihm sind seine Willenskräfte. Sie sind Leben, aber dafür nimmt der Mensch mit seinem Selbstbewußtsein nicht an ihrem Wesen teil. Sie strahlen innerhalb des Menschenwesens in die Gedankenschatten herein. Sie werden von diesen Schatten durchströmt, und im Durchströmen des im keimenden Erdenwesen sich entfaltenden freien Gedankens lebt das volle, freie menschliche Selbstbewußtsein sich im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele in den Menschen hinein.
[ 18 ] Die Vergangenheit Schatten werfend, die Zukunft Wirklichkeitskeime enthaltend, begegnen sich in der menschlichen Wesenheit. Und die Begegnung ist das Menschenleben der Gegenwart.
[ 19 ] Daß sich das so verhält, wird dem schauenden Bewußtsein sofort klar, wenn es sich in diejenige Geist-Region begibt, die sich an die physische unmittelbar anschließt, und in der man auch die Betätigung Michaels findet.
[ 20 ] Das Leben alles Irdischen wird durchsichtig, wenn man auf seinem Grunde den Weltenkeim empfindet. Jede Pflanzenform, jeder Stein, sie erscheinen der Menschenseele in einem neuen Lichte, wenn diese gewahr wird, wie jedes dieser Wesen durch sein Leben, durch seine Gestalt beiträgt, daß die Erde als Einheit der Embryonal-Keim eines neu auflebenden Makrokosmos ist.
[ 21 ] Man versuche nur einmal, den Gedanken an diese Tatsachen in sich ganz lebendig zu machen, und man wird fühlen, was er innerhalb des Menschengemütes bedeuten kann.
Goetheanum, Januar 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 153 bis 155
(1. Februar 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Betrachtung: Was ist die Erde in Wirklichkeit im Makrokosmos?)
[ 22 ] 153. Man hat sich im Beginne des Zeitalters der Bewußtseinsseele gewöhnt, den Blick auf die räumlich-physische Größe des Weltenalls zu lenken, und vor allem diese zu empfinden. Deshalb nennt man die Erde ein Staubkorn innerhalb dieses physisch mächtig erscheinenden Weltenalls.
[ 23 ] 154. Vor dem schauenden Bewußtsein offenbart sich dieses «Staubkorn» als die Keimanlage eines neu entstehenden Makrokosmos, während der alte sich als erstorben erweist. Er mußte ersterben, damit der Mensch mit vollem Selbstbewußtsein sich von ihm absondern konnte.
[ 24 ] 155. In der kosmischen Gegenwart nimmt der Mensch mit seinen ihn befreienden Gedankenkräften an dem erstorbenen, mit seinen ihm ihrem Wesen nach verborgenen Willenskräften an dem als Erdenwesen keimenden, neu auflebenden Makrokosmos teil.
What is the earth in reality in the macrocosm?
(Goetheanum, January 1925)
[ 1 ] The development of the cosmos and of humanity has been examined in these considerations from the most diverse points of view. It has been shown how man derives the forces of his being from the extraterrestrial cosmos, apart from those which give him his self-consciousness. These come to him from the earth.
[ 2 ] This explains the significance of the earthly for man. The question must follow: What significance does the earthly have for the macrocosm?
[ 3 ] In order to come closer to the answer to this question, we must take a look at what has already been presented here.
[ 4 ] The macrocosm is found by the observing consciousness in ever greater vitality the further the gaze penetrates back into the past. It lives in the distant past in such a way that any calculation of its life revelations ceases there. Man is separated from this vitality. The macrocosm enters more and more into the sphere of the calculable.
[ 5 ] Thus, however, it gradually dies out. To the extent that the human being - the microcosm - emerges as an independent entity from the macrocosm, the latter dies out.
[ 6 ] In the cosmic present there is a macrocosm that has died. But it is not only the human being that came into being. The earth also emerged from the macrocosm.
[ 7 ] Man, who has the powers for his self-consciousness from the earth, is inwardly far too close to it to see through its essence. In the full development of self-consciousness in the age of the consciousness soul, one has become accustomed to turn one's gaze to the spatial greatness of the universe and to regard the earth as a speck of dust, insignificant compared to the physical-spatial universe.
[ 8 ] It will therefore seem strange at first if a spiritual contemplation reveals the true cosmic significance of this alleged "speck of dust".
[ 9 ] The other kingdoms, the plant and animal kingdoms, are embedded in the mineral foundation of the earth.
[ 10 ] In all of these live the forces that show themselves in their various manifestations during the course of the year. Look at the plant world. In fall and winter it shows physically dying forces. In this manifestation, the observing consciousness perceives the essence of those forces that have caused the macrocosm to die. In spring and summer, growing, sprouting forces appear in plant life. The observing consciousness perceives in this growth and sprouting not only that which gives rise to the plant blessing for the year, but a surplus, this surplus is one of germinating power. The plants contain more germinating power than they consume for leaf, flower and fruit growth. This surplus of germination power flows out into the extraterrestrial macrocosm in front of the observing consciousness.
[ 11 ] But in the same way, excess power also flows from the mineral kingdom into the extraterrestrial cosmos. This power has the task of bringing the forces coming from the plants to the right places in the macrocosm. Under the influence of the mineral forces, the plant forces become a newly formed image of a macrocosm.
[ 12 ] There are also forces emanating from the animal. These, however, do not work in the sense that they radiate from the earth like the mineral and vegetable forces, but in such a way that what is carried into the universe by the mineral forces holds itself together to form a sphere and thus the image of an all-round closed macrocosm arises.
[ 13 ] This is how the spirit-recognizing consciousness sees the essence of the earthly. This stands newly reviving within the dead macrocosm inside.
[ 14 ] Just as the whole large plant forms again from the plant germ, which is spatially so insignificantly small, when the old one first decays, so a new macrocosm is formed from the "grain of dust" earth when the old, dead one decays.
[ 15 ] This is a true contemplation of the earthly being, which sees a germinating world everywhere in it. One learns to understand the kingdoms of nature only through feeling this germinating in them.
[ 16 ] In the midst of this germinating life man accomplishes his earthly existence.- He participates in this germinating as well as in the dead life. From the dead life he has his powers of thought. As long as these powers of thought came from the still living macrocosm in the past, they were not the basis of the self-conscious human being. They lived as growth forces in the human being who did not yet have self-consciousness. The powers of thought must not have a life of their own for themselves if they are to form the basis for free human self-consciousness. Together with the dead macrocosm, they must be the dead shadows of the living of cosmic prehistory.
[ 17 ] On the other hand, man participates in the germinating of the earth. From him are his will-powers. They are life, but man with his self-consciousness does not participate in their essence. They radiate into the shadows of thought within the human being. They are flowed through by these shadows, and in the flowing through of the free thought unfolding in the germinating earth being, the full, free human self-consciousness lives itself into the human being in the age of the consciousness soul.
[ 18 ] The past casting shadows, the future containing germs of reality, meet in the human being. And the encounter is the human life of the present.
[ 19 ] The fact that this is the case becomes immediately clear to the observing consciousness when it enters the region of the spirit that directly adjoins the physical, and in which one also finds the activity of Michael.
[ 20 ] The life of everything earthly becomes transparent when one senses the germ of the world at its base. Every plant form, every stone, they appear to the human soul in a new light when it realizes how each of these beings contributes through its life, through its form, that the earth as a unity is the embryonic germ of a newly reviving macrocosm.
[ 21 ] Just try once to make the thought of these facts fully alive within yourself, and you will feel what it can mean within the human mind.
Goetheanum, January 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 153 to 155
(February 1, 1925)
(With reference to the previous consideration: What is the earth in reality in the macrocosm?)
[ 22 ] 153. At the beginning of the age of the consciousness soul, one has become accustomed to direct one's gaze to the spatial-physical size of the universe, and above all to feel this. This is why the earth is called a speck of dust within this physically powerful universe.
[ 23 ] 154 This "speck of dust" reveals itself to the observing consciousness as the seedbed of a newly emerging macrocosm, while the old one proves to be dead. It had to die so that man could separate himself from it with full self-consciousness.
[ 24 ] 155 In the cosmic present, man participates with his liberating powers of thought in the dead macrocosm, and with his powers of will, which are hidden from him by their nature, in the newly reviving macrocosm that is germinating as an earth being.