The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. Man's Relationship with Nature

[ 1 ] Today we will talk a little about how, by accepting the theosophical worldview, humans not only learn something, not only become capable of recognizing something about the world and its entities, but also how the theosophical teachings, views, thoughts, and ideas can influence human feelings and emotions. It is rightly emphasized so often that theosophy should not be something that merely introduces us to higher worlds in theory, but that it should be something that penetrates deeply into our lives. Now, the opinion usually associated with this statement is something trivial, something inferior, and we must rather form an opinion about the meaning of such an opinion today. In the most intimate way, thoughts and ideas that we take in through theosophy gradually flow into our whole feeling and perception, so that in the true sense of the word we can become different people through theosophy. Of course, that trivial opinion often consists in forming a certain idea in advance of what a theosophist must be like, and when he is not like that, one says: I understand something completely different by a theosophist. But I think that only a theosophist can judge what a theosophist should be, and if others who are not yet theosophists always say that they imagine something else under the term “theosophist,” then in most cases this opinion cannot be very theosophical, because it cannot be very knowledgeable. We do not want to talk about such trivial opinions today, but rather about the intimate transformation of our feelings and perceptions when we truly take theosophy into ourselves. Let us consider the question: Can such thoughts that are communicated to us flow into all the powers of our soul and make us new people in relation to everything we experience inwardly? — They can.

[ 2 ] The world around us, the ordinary world through which we pass, can take on a different appearance at every step we take if we understand theosophy. Today, of course, we must try to penetrate a little deeper into a theosophical understanding of the world.

[ 3 ] Around us are lifeless beings that we call minerals, plants, animals, other human beings. We know that behind these beings there are spiritual entities, that behind our physical world there is a spiritual world. We know that we can perceive only a small part of the human being standing before us with our senses, namely the physical body; that this human being has, in addition to this physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an ego. We cannot perceive these latter three members with our ordinary senses. When we look at a stone, we say to ourselves: it differs from the human being in that, as a mineral, as a stone, it has no etheric body, no astral body, no ego in the physical world, but only the physical body. We know that plants have a physical body and an etheric body, and that animals have an astral body as well. And only the human being has the fourth member, the I. This is why the human being is the crown of our physical world, because he has a member, the I, that transcends all other beings. Only when we express it in this way is it correct. But if we express it just a little differently, it is already wrong. If someone says, “Here in the physical world, the stone or mineral has only the physical body,” then that is correct. But if someone omits just those few words, “here in the physical world,” then it is already wrong, fundamentally wrong. If someone says, “The stone has only a physical body,” then that is fundamentally wrong.

[ 4 ] What seems so pedantic must be said once, in order to spread a feeling for how precisely one must speak about these subtle things. Even the stone has its etheric body, its astral body, and its ego, only not in the physical world, just like plants and animals. And it is very good to keep in mind that we should view the stone from a higher perspective: as a being that belongs to something other than what we see before us. Take a look at your fingernails. Imagine that some tiny being were looking at these nails and, because it had no sense organs, could see nothing of the fingers; it would believe that these nails were something in themselves, and yet that is not true. These nails only have meaning when they are on fingers. It is the same with all our minerals. People look at minerals. They see their physical body. But just as nails belong to fingers, so the physical body of a mineral belongs to an etheric body, only this etheric body is no longer to be found in the physical world. The physical body of the mineral is in the physical world, the etheric body of the mineral is in the astral world, and for a being who looks into the astral world, it is just as if you were following the nails back to the fingers. For this etheric body in the astral world belongs to the mineral. Likewise, the mineral has an astral body, only this astral body of the mineral is in what we call Devachan. And finally, the mineral also has an I, and this I is in the higher Devachanic world, in the arupic world.

[ 5 ] So when we look at the minerals around us, they are advanced entities that protrude like our fingernails from the organism, that is, they protrude from the entities to which they belong and which are in higher worlds in relation to their I. Just as you have your nails here, these beings have their limbs, which they extend first into the lower devachanic world, then into the astral world, and then nails grow below them: the minerals on the earth. So when you look at a mineral, you must not believe that this one mineral has an I, but rather that many related minerals belong together to a communal I. There are few such mineral personalities on the devachanic plane. Plants differ from minerals in that they have their physical body on the physical plane and also their etheric body. In the astral world they have their astral body, and on the devachanic plane they have their ego. The I in plants is therefore one level lower than in minerals, so that on the lower devachanic plane we encounter beings whose lowest link is again the plant. In animals, the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body are all on the physical plane, here in the physical world, and the I is in the astral world. All animals belonging to a species, all lions, do not have an individual ego, but a collective ego. This ego is also called the group ego of animals. Human beings differ from animals in that they also have their ego on the physical plane.

[ 6 ] So when you look at an animal, if you view it with the eyes of a theosophist, the following feeling must arise within you: You find an ego in every human being, in every single human being; in animals you cannot find an ego on the physical plane, you have to ascend to the astral plane, where the astral plane is populated by these animal group egos. The lion ego on the astral plane is a completely different being from the individual lion, just as your fingers are a different being from yourself. There are group egos of animals that are much more intelligent than the most intelligent humans on the physical plane. These group egos are the guides, promoters, and designers of what the animal experiences here on the physical plane, and no one can ever come to a true understanding of animal life unless they know that what animals do here is only the expression of measures taken above by the animal group egos. Take the strange phenomenon that at a certain time of year the birds of the northeast begin to migrate in a line toward the southwest, and then return again in the spring. Each species migrates at a certain altitude, and you can imagine that these bird migrations are connected with important impulses in the animal world. The spring migration is a mating flight. If you ask about the wise mechanisms underlying this, you cannot understand them unless you realize that they are based on the group egos that direct and guide everything. Everything that happens in the animal world takes on a different aspect for us when we know about the presence of the group egos. Imagine you have a wall with various holes in it: a person sticks their hands through them. What a mistake it would be to believe that these hands are beings in their own right. Anyone who regards animals as beings in their own right is guilty of this mistake. It is wise beings that guide the flight of these birds. Thus, the animal world becomes an expression of a world of wise beings behind it. We get to know a wonderful world of beings and no longer pass by the events that immediately encounter us so thoughtlessly. In fact, these animal group egos can always be found in the vicinity of our Earth. These animal group egos constantly circle the Earth spiritually, like the trade winds or migrating birds or the electric and magnetic currents surrounding the Earth. Thus, spiritual currents and movements exist that represent nothing other than the actions of the animal group egos.

[ 7 ] If we now consider the plant world, it presents us with something similar. We see the outer plant. What we have before us as a plant is the physical body and the etheric body. But when we rise to the astral plane, we have the astral bodies of the plants, and in the Devachan plane we have the plant egos. For our earthly plant world, there is a large number of such plant egos. But all these plant egos have a common place where they are together; that is the center of the Earth. All plants are such that their essence strives toward the center of the Earth.

[ 8 ] Now see what becomes of the Earth itself when we view it from this point of view. It does not become the body that geology presents to us, but the Earth itself becomes a living being with an I. The individual plant has no astral body, but all plants are immersed and enveloped in an astral body, so that we can imagine the entire plant world of the earth something like this: All plants belong to the astral body of the earth, and at the center of the earth is the I of the plants. This makes the earth a conscious being for us. Just as your ego is in your body and sends out rays to your fingers, so the Earth has its ego at its center and sends out rays to the individual plants. Like our hair, plants are organs of the Earth's organism. Every plant strives toward the center of the Earth as its ego. In the spiritual world, countless beings can be intertwined in one place, in the same place. The spatial relationships in the spiritual world are different from those in the physical world. The plant egos can all meet at the center of the Earth. The weed has a different ego than the wheat. The two egos do not get along well, but they both have their ego at the center of the Earth. Such a truth must not only be understood with the mind, but must be felt with every step and breath in life. The plant cover of the earth becomes something else when we walk along with the feeling that these plants are the outer, physical expression of a spiritual content that is connected with the earth. The earth has its ego, but all of this lives out in the plants.

[ 9 ] If we now look at the matter in this way and do not remain with the mere concept, then it comes to life, then we have grasped it in the right way, for then we know that what we do to the plant produces something similar to what we do to the human being. When we strike a human being, it hurts because they have an astral body. The etheric body cannot feel joy or pain. Individual plants do not feel pain when they are pressed, because not all individual plants have an astral body. But the earth has the collective astral body of the plants, and it feels pain when something is done to the plants. And at the center of the earth are the I-beings of the plants. There, what is done to the plant becomes conscious. If we grasp this teaching with all the powers of our soul, we walk differently on the surface of the earth. Every step in our life becomes an interaction with the earth as a conscious being, and we know that this earth feels pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow as a whole. We just have to feel it in the right way. One might think that when we cut a plant, we hurt the earth. That is not the case. Only those who can see into the way the astral body of the earth works can provide information about the details. When you pluck a flower, it feels like a calf suckling milk from its mother, which gives the cow a kind of feeling of well-being. What the earth brings forth in plants can be compared to the emergence of milk from an animal, so that you can pick flowers, and this gives the earth a feeling of well-being. But if you pull them out by the roots, it hurts the earth as if you were cutting into flesh. If you take this to heart, you will realize what a spiritual relationship you gain with the earth. When the scythe cuts through the stalks, the clairvoyant sees feelings of well-being sweeping across the earth, across the fields. As a field is mowed, floods of well-being sweep across the earth. Our relationship with the world deepens wonderfully when we live these truths. And when we tear plants from the earth, we feel how it hurts the earth, as if a hair were being pulled out of our head.

[ 10 ] One might object: yes, but sometimes it is a very good thing not to pick all the flowers, but to leave them in nature, and sometimes it is good to move plants and pull them up by the roots. That does not change the fact that pulling causes pain and picking gives a feeling of well-being. The moral aspect is different from the fact itself. A moral view that is justified in human life cannot be applied to the cosmos. Think about it: when someone starts to get their first gray hairs, it may be desirable from an aesthetic point of view to pull them out. They may become more beautiful, but it hurts them. Similarly, it may be desirable to transplant plants, but it hurts the earth. The question is whether it is necessary to cause such pain. Or: may or should one cause this pain? In many respects, pain is inseparable from existence. Humans enter the world through the pain of their mother. Whatever is born is born in pain. Even if it may be necessary to pull up plants, there is always pain for the earth. In this way, our concepts and ideas merge into our intimate feelings and sensations. We gradually realize how much we do not perceive in our environment when we know nothing about all these things. Our surroundings are always filled with feelings, sensations, and life; it is not just a mechanical process when the scythe cuts through the stalks, but floods of sensations flow across the field in autumn. In this way, we learn to empathize with the beings around us.

[ 11 ] And what about rocks? We have said that rocks have an ego just like humans, only in a much higher world. This rock ego and this rock astral body feel and sense just as the earth does when you pull up or pick plants. And it is not just a mechanical process when stonecutters chisel stone after stone in a quarry. What is blasted away in the quarry is seen by people who use only their senses as a process of the outer world. We learn that something similar is happening in a soul when we delve deeper into theosophy. But you must not judge by analogy; you have to proceed concretely. One might think that the hammering in the quarry causes pain. This is not the case. You cannot do the mineral kingdom a greater favor than by breaking a stone: this is its true pleasure. And it is an outpouring of pleasure when you blast a quarry and the stones are hurled in all directions. The stone has a true longing and passion to be split, shattered, torn apart.

[ 12 ] On the other hand, something else causes pain and suffering to the essence that underlies our rocky world. If you have table salt dissolved in a glass and this salt begins to dissolve, so that it separates as solid salt and settles, when the dissolved substance clumps together into a solid body, then the substance in question suffers pain. If you dissolve the clumps again, it experiences pleasure. If you were to reassemble the scattered rock fragments into the original rock, this would cause the rock soul tremendous pain. Consider that, in essence, our Earth was constructed in this way: it was a body of liquid fire. And in order for you to have solid ground beneath your feet, solid bodies had to group together from a wide variety of solutions and forms of water.

[ 13 ] Once upon a time, our Earth was such that all metals were molten. Then the first islands formed. This was accompanied by tremendous pain. The fact that the Earth could become our home was achieved through pain, and what is described in natural science — the gradual solidification of the Earth — also represents spiritual processes. When someone who understands these things experiences a volcanic eruption, for example, and sees the molten masses flowing out and solidifying, they see streams of suffering flowing down the mountain from the soul of the lava. When we know these things, the whole of nature becomes animated for us. But this is also what the initiates have always told humanity. The sayings of the initiates usually have deep meaning and deep value, and sometimes more than one meaning. Understand that the earth was once a fiery, fluid body, that this realm of rock solidified and condensed. Through suffering, the earth has developed into our place of residence. Only through the suffering of the realm of rock could we reach a certain stage of development. This suffering of the rocks will only cease when the final state of the earth comes, when the earth becomes softer again, when it becomes spiritual again. Put yourself in the place of the earth: fiery, liquid earth, with humans still spiritual within it. The rock masses solidify. Continuous pain and suffering for the progress of the human race in the lifeless rock kingdom. How can this be better expressed than: “For all creation groans in pain, waiting to be adopted as children.” One cannot go deep enough if one really wants to understand the statements of the initiated.

[ 14 ] All this shows that understanding the world is something quite different from abstraction. When the concepts are deepened, we experience the feelings through which we look into the soul-like qualities flowing through the world. Everything becomes an expression of the soul in some form. Then every step in our life becomes something different, because we enter into relationship not only with the beings before our senses, but with unknown beings on ever higher planes of the world. We only have to find our way into the thoroughly different way in which this is lived.

[ 15 ] In this way we also learn how to find the soul in plants, animals, and minerals. In this way we come to know the soul of an entire people. An entire people also has a communal soul, and what we call the soul of a people is not a dead concept, but something real. When a people comes into being, say the Goths, and then passes away, this is a coming into being and passing away just as with the individual human being. But something soul-like lives in the whole people, and the individual human beings are the members of this national soul, embedded in the substance of the national soul, which in turn has its own destinies, its sufferings and joys. We first gain an inkling, then more and more knowledge, that the world around us is permeated with pleasure and suffering, that old and young are everywhere in nature around us, as in ourselves. This is what theosophical teachings make us different from other people. This means acquiring theosophical understanding, putting theosophy into practice in an intimate way. It is as if the theosophical concept were a seed that we plant in suitable soil, where it sprouts and blossoms and bears fruit when it becomes feeling and sensation and we live ourselves deeply, deeply into our environment through feeling and sensation. When, through theosophy, plants and stones become not only objects of our observation but our friends and fellow beings, who become warm to us through the theosophical contemplation that we learn to love as we learn to love human beings, then little by little we will come to understand and see the tremendous educational value that theosophy will have for all the future. Imagine people in two, three, four, five centuries who will not only think about the concepts of karma and reincarnation, but will walk through the world with feelings such as those we have indicated. And how the whole of human life, all education, will then be different when human beings everywhere will be able to hear the pulse of beings. When they lay their hand on a tree and feel the pulse of the earth, when they break a stone and experience the feeling of well-being that passes through the soul of the stone, and when they become aware that the earth had to endure pain, then human beings will walk differently on this earth, then life will be different, and true compassion will prevail and be alive through human beings themselves.