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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 131 through 140 of 262

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9. Theosophy (1971): Body, Soul and Spirit
Translated by Henry B. Monges, Gilbert Church

Let us call what shines forth in the soul as eternal, the consciousness soul. We can speak of consciousness even in connection with the lower soul stirrings. The most ordinary everyday sensation is a matter of consciousness. To this extent animals also have consciousness. The kernel of human consciousness, that is, the soul within the soul, is what is here meant by consciousness soul.
The poet, Jean Paul, says in his autobiography, “I shall never forget the event that took place within me, hitherto narrated to no one and of which I can give place and time, when I stood present at the birth of my self-consciousness. As a small child I stood one morning at the door of the house looking towards the wood-pile on my left, when suddenly the inner vision, I am an I, came upon me like a flash of lightning from heaven and has remained shining ever since.
129. Wonders of the World: The living reality of the spiritual world in Greek mythology 19 Aug 1911, Munich
Translated by Dorothy Lenn, Owen Barfield

When, out of this spiritual world, this whirling world of constant movement and changing forms, the archetypal mother of the human soul and of the fruitful forces of Nature appeared to him, what did he say? He said to himself, not in full consciousness, but as it were in the unconscious, ‘I myself have done nothing, I have gone through no inner development, as later ages will do, in order to see into the spiritual world.
Hence the whole picture of the world which the human being makes, the total content of his consciousness is a reflection of his ether body. Whether a man knows anything of the world depends upon his ether body.
40. The Calendar of the Soul (Riedel)

The Calendar of the Soul Inner life changes along with the changing seasons of nature, as the two are intimately connected. The verses commence in the spring, at the time of the vernal equinox, the full moon, and Sunday, which by definition is Easter.
And as always, the dating and significance of Easter and of Michaelmas create lots of discussion. “Human beings are able to develop the consciousness soul precisely through the exertion of energy required to penetrate such riddles”.1 The celestial equator and the ecliptic:2 —Translation by John Riedel MD - 6 May 2023 [IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW] Week 1 (Spring) When from afar the sun breaks forth To warm the hearts and minds of men, And joy springs to life again To unite with shows of light, Then drawn from self’s high hull Thoughts emerge in ranging space And bind together dimly Human ways with spirit being.
Week 38 I feel enchantment-freed A spirit-child enfolded in soul; It has within my heart in glory Inscribed the holy word of worlds, The hope-filled heavenly fruit, So that joy will resound in distant worlds Out of ways of God that are found in me.
82. So That Man may Become Fully Human: The Anthroposophical Research Method 10 Apr 1922, The Hague

And when one has created an empty consciousness by first having to extinguish an intensified power of thinking, then this empty consciousness does not wait in vain.
This is in contrast to the state when someone hallucinates and has visions, because in doing so, their entire consciousness is absorbed in individual visions. This is not the case with the consciousness I am talking about.
For when we have learned to expunge the imaginations and to have empty consciousness, then we can also expunge everything that fills us as an etheric body and look back at ourselves with empty consciousness.
125. Three Lectures on the Mystery Dramas: On the Rosicrucian Mystery, The Portal of Initiation 31 Oct 1910, Berlin
Translated by Ruth Pusch, Hans Pusch

Just as there are natural laws, so there are also artistic laws, and these cannot be manipulated by the ordinary human consciousness, for then only dry-as-dust allegories would be the result. Artistic laws must be handled just as Mother Nature handles her own laws when she lets a child, a plant, or an animal come into existence.
The exoteric, ordinary, outside world is always changing, too, and its own karma is connected with the environment of a person who wishes to develop himself.
A room for meditation. Benedictus, Johannes, Maria, and a Child. Maria I'm bringing you the child. He needs a guiding word from you.
41b. H. P. Blavatsky's, “The Key to Theosophy”: X. On the Nature of Our Thinking Principle

We have our own doctrine ready, and to us it offers no difficulty. The clue lies in the double consciousness of our mind, and also, in the dual nature of the mental "principle." There is a spiritual consciousness, the Manasic mind illumined by the light of Buddhi, that which subjectively perceives abstractions; and the sentient consciousness (the lower Manasic light), inseparable from our physical brain and senses.
It is only the former kind of consciousness, whose root lies in eternity, which survives and lives for ever, and may, therefore, be regarded as immortal.
Yet it is the Ego, the Manasic Entity, which is held responsible for all the sins of the lower attributes, just as a parent is answerable for the transgressions of his child, so long as the latter remains irresponsible. Enq. Is this "child" the "personality"? Theo.
174b. The Spiritual Background of Human History: Fifteenth Lecture 26 Apr 1918, Stuttgart

How much benefit is derived today from bringing the child to form its own judgment as early as possible, from educating the child in a different way as early as possible, as described in my booklet “The Education of the Child from the Point of View of Spiritual Science”. It is necessary that the child live above all in pictorial representations, that the intellectual approach comes to the child as late as possible.
Or let the child observe a plant in the garden in spring, summer and autumn, and then read to him Goethe's poem “Metamorphosis of Plants”.
96. Karma and Details of the Law of Karma 15 Oct 1906, Berlin
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond

From the materialistic standpoint it could therefore be said that in a young child the etheric body must be very small. And that is so. We must think of the etheric body more as a force which in certain circumstances may occupy a smaller space than what it actually creates.
A fourth member of man's being is what comes into manifestation in self-consciousness, in the ‘I.’ The other members are germinal only and are centred in the ‘I.’ In connection with karmic evolution it is these members of man's being that are of primary interest to us.
Or if you experience pain that with time disappears from your consciousness—these are things which can be seen lighting up in the astral body and then disappearing from it.
193. Some Characteristics of Today 12 Jun 1919, Heidenheim
Translator Unknown

Spiritual forces are there and we should make our decisions, our deeds, our whole thinking dependent on them. This is demanded of us to-day! Much is changing in the present time. Let me point to something symptomatic which also sounds strange when spoken of, but appears of the greatest importance when viewed spiritually.
It is not necessary that we should be conscious of these decisions; in our sub-consciousness we live through in the night what we can experience on the following day. Man has not yet got so far as to be able to survey it prophetically, but that is not the point.
But it appears as if this is being learnt with difficulty, for this nation is still inclined to condemn everything else rather than lack of consciousness of responsibility towards the spirit. The lamentable events occurring in this domain to-day show that men's souls are still asleep.
180. Ancient Myths: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution: The Getting Younger of Humanity while Advancing in Time 11 Jan 1918, Dornach
Translated by Mabel Cotterell

In a certain respect one can say that for humanity as such, the reverse is the case. A man is first child, then grows up and attains the age known to us as the average age of life. In so doing the man's physical forces undergo manifold changes and transformations.
This is connected however with something else. We are gradually developing a consciousness that what one can absorb through learning is really only of service for one's youth and that one gets beyond it later on.
We must absorb in another way, we must really have the feeling in the soul that one experiences something new, one is being transformed, and that one reacts to what one takes in just as the child reacts. One cannot do this in an artificial way, it can only happen when something is there which one can approach in later life precisely as one approaches the ordinary educational subjects when one is a child.

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