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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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An Outline of Occult Science
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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An Outline of Occult Science
COGNITION OF THE HIGHER WORLDS. INITIATION.
Imaginative consciousness is attained through the development of the
lotus flowers in the astral body. Through the exercises that are
undertaken for acquiring inspiration and intuition, certain definite
motions, forms, and currents appear in the human ether or life body
that were not present previously. They are in fact the organs through
which man adds to the scope of his faculties the reading of the
occult script, and what lies beyond it. The changes in the ether
body of a human being who has attained inspiration and intuition
present themselves to supersensible cognition in the following manner.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of the physical heart a new center
becomes conscious in the ether body, which develops into an etheric
organ. From this organ, movements and currents flow to the various
members of the human body in the most manifold way. The most important
of these currents flow to the lotus flowers, permeating them and their
various petals, then proceeding outward, pouring themselves like
radiations into external space. The more the human being is developed,
the greater the sphere around him within which these radiations are
perceptible. The center in the region of the heart does not, however,
develop immediately at the start of correct training. It is first
prepared. There appears, to begin with, a temporary center in the
head; this then moves down into the neighborhood of the larynx and
finally settles in the region of the physical heart. Were its
development irregular, then the organ of which we have been speaking
might immediately be formed in the neighborhood of the heart. In that
case there would be danger that the student, instead of attaining
quiet and factual supersensible perception, would become a visionary
and fantast. As he develops further, the student acquires the ability
to free the currents and structures of his ether body from his
physical body and to use them independently. In doing this, the lotus
flowers serve him as organs through which he brings the ether body
into motion. Before this occurs, however, special currents and
radiations must have formed in the sphere of the ether body, enclosing
it like a fine network and making it into a self-contained being. If
that has happened, the movements and currents taking place in the
ether body are able to come into unhindered contact with the outer
world of soul and spirit and to unite with it, so that outer
occurrences in the realm of soul and spirit and inner events in the
human ether body flow into one another. If that happens, the moment
has arrived when man perceives the world of inspiration consciously.
This cognition occurs in a different way from cognition in the
sensory-physical world. In the latter we gain perceptions through the
senses and form from them mental images and concepts. This is not the
case with the knowledge derived from inspiration. What one knows is
immediately present in the act; there is no reflection after
perception. What sensory-physical cognition gains only afterwards in
concepts is, in inspiration, given simultaneously with perception. Man
would therefore merge with the environment of soul and spirit and
would not be able to distinguish himself from it had he not developed
the above characterized network in the ether body.
If the exercises leading to intuition are carried out, their effect
extends not only to the ether body, but right down into the
supersensible forces of the physical body. One should not, however,
think that in this way effects take place in the physical body that
are accessible to everyday sensory observation. These are effects that
only supersensory cognition can judge. They have nothing whatever to
do with external cognition. They are the results of the maturity of
consciousness, when the latter is able to have experiences in
intuition, in spite of the fact that it has excluded all previously
known outer and inner experiences. The experiences of intuition are
delicate, intimate, and subtle, and the human physical body is, at the
present stage of its evolution, coarse in comparison. It offers
therefore a strong hindrance to the success of intuition exercises. If
these are continued with energy and persistence and with the requisite
inner tranquility, the powerful hindrances of the physical body are
finally overcome. The student notices this by the fact that gradually
certain expressions of the physical body that formerly took place
unconsciously now come under his control. He notices it also by the
fact that for a short time he feels the need, for example, so to
control the breath that it comes into a sort of concord or harmony
with what the soul performs in the exercises or otherwise in inner
meditation. The ideal of the development is that no exercises be made
at all by means of the physical body itself, also no breathing
exercises, but that everything that occurs in the physical body in
this way should only come about as a consequence of pure intuition
exercises.
Last Modified: 07-Oct-2024
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