The Four Seasons and the Archangels E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

These profound studies of the cosmic forces behind the four great festivals of the year provide a wealth of material for fruitful meditation. Rudolf Steiner presents great imaginative pictures which unite the heavens and the earth through a portrayal of the activities of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. In the course of the lectures he offers spiritual wisdom on subjects which include the alchemical processes of sulphur, mercury and salt in the cosmos, man and the plant, spiritual combustion processes, crystals, clouds, meteors, the movement of elemental beings in nature, and the conflicting efforts of the two great adversaries to divert the earth from its true goal.

Leseprobe

RUDOLF STEINER (1861–1925) called his spiritual philosophy ‘anthroposophy’, meaning ‘wisdom of the human being’. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal ‘science of spirit’, accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking.

From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

THE FOUR SEASONS AND THE ARCHANGELS

Experience of the Course of the Year in Four Cosmic Imaginations

Five lectures given in Dornach, Switzerland, between 5 and 13 October 1923

RUDOLF STEINER

Translation revised by Pauline Wehrle

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, East Sussex RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2012

Originally published in German (with six lectures) under the title Das Miterleben des Jahreslaufes in vier kosmischen Imaginationen (volume 229 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. This authorized translation published by kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

Translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 1996

The moral right of the translator has been asserted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 297 7

Cover by Andrew Morgan incorporating Russian orthodox icon, ‘Synaxis of Archangel Michael’ Typeset by DP Photosetting, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Contents

Foreword

Lecture 1, 5 October 1923 THE MICHAEL IMAGINATION

Lecture 2, 6 October 1923 THE CHRISTMAS IMAGINATION

Lecture 3, 7 October 1923 THE EASTER IMAGINATION

Lecture 4, 12 October 1923 THE ST JOHN IMAGINATION

Lecture 5, 13 October 1923 THE WORKING TOGETHER OF THE FOUR ARCHANGELS

Publisher’s Note

Five Reproductions in Colour of Blackboard Drawings made by Rudolf Steiner during the Lectures

Foreword

In these lectures, given to an audience largely familiar with Anthroposophy,* Rudolf Steiner speaks particularly to our hearts and to our active desire to participate in the life of nature. We are led out of our narrow selves further than we may ever have dreamed of, until we not only feel and share the rising life of spring but also make the acquaintance of the forces and beings active there. Yet we can feel these imaginations to be real in a deeper way than life on the surface, and we encounter as we go along many an insight into secrets of physics and chemistry and revelations about the origins and meaning of art. Indeed, we meet in these lectures many striking thoughts, one or another of which may well trigger a memory deep inside us.

If we are prepared to go along with the experiences described here, the changing seasons will never be a ‘dull round’ again, and we shall become more aware of the subtle differences in ourselves as we come closer to living nature in the spring and summer, and become more truly ourselves—within our own individual personalities—in the autumn and winter.

Pauline Wehrle

* See Publisher’s Note.

Lecture 1

THE MICHAEL IMAGINATION

Today I would like first to remind you how events that take place behind the veil of appearance, outside the physical, sense-perceptible world, can be described in pictorial terms. One has to speak in this way of these events, but the pictures correspond throughout with reality.

With regard to sense-perceptible events, we are living in a time of hard tests for humanity—and these tests will become harder still. Many old forms of civilization, to which people still mistakenly cling, will sink into the abyss, and there will be an insistent demand that mankind must find its way to something new. In speaking of the course that the external life of humanity will take in the near future we cannot—as I have often said—arouse any kind of optimistic hopes. But a valid judgement as to the significance of external events cannot be formed unless we also consider the determining, directing cosmic events that occur behind the veil of the senses.

When we look out attentively with our physical eyes and our other senses at our surroundings we perceive the physical environment of the earth and the various kingdoms of nature within it. This is the milieu in which comes to pass all that manifests as wind and weather in the course of the year. When we direct our senses towards the external world we have all this before us. These are the external facts. But behind the atmosphere, the sun-illumined atmosphere, there lies another world, perceptible by spiritual organs, as we may call them. Compared with the sense world this other world is a higher world, a world wherein a kind of light, a kind of spiritual light or astral light, spiritual existence and spiritual deeds shine out and run their course. And they are in truth no less significant for the whole development of the world and of mankind than the historical events in the external environment of the earth and on its surface.

If anyone today is able to penetrate into these astral realms, wandering through them as one may wander among woods and mountains and find signposts at crossroads, he may find ‘signposts’ there in the astral light, inscribed in spiritual script. But these signposts have a quite special characteristic: they are not comprehensible without further explanation, even for someone who can ‘read’ in the astral light. In the spiritual world and in its communications things are not made as convenient as possible: anything one encounters there presents itself as a riddle to be solved. Only through inner investigation, through experiencing inwardly the riddle and much else, can one discover what the inscription on a spiritual signpost signifies.

And so at this time—indeed for some decades now, but particularly at this time of hard trials for mankind—one can read in the astral light, as one goes about spiritually in these realms, a remarkable inscription. It sounds like a prosaic comparison, but in this case, because of its inner significance, it does not remain prosaic. Just as we find notices to help us find our way—and we find signposts even in poetic landscapes—we encounter an important spiritual signpost in the astral light. Time and time again, exactly repeated, we find there today the following message inscribed in highly significant spiritual script:

O Man,

You shape it to your service,

You display it according to the value of its substance

In many of your products.

Yet it will only make you whole

When it reveals to you

The exalted dominion of its spirit.

Injunctions of this kind, pointing to facts significant for mankind, are inscribed, as I have said, in the astral light, presenting themselves first as a kind of riddle to be solved, so that human beings may bring their soul forces into activity.

Now, let us contribute something to the solving of this inscription—really a simple inscription, but important for mankind today.

Let us recall how in many of our studies here we have surveyed the course of the year. One first observes it quite externally: when spring comes one sees nature sprouting and budding; one watches the plants grow and come to flower and sees how life everywhere springs up out of the soil. All this is enhanced as summer draws on; in summer it rises to its highest level. And then, when autumn comes, it withers and fades away; and when winter comes it dies into the bosom of the earth.