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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Occult Science - An Outline
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Occult Science - An Outline
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
Imaginative cognition is attained when the lotus-flowers unfold from
the astral body. As a result of the exercises undertaken for the
attainment of Inspiration and Intuition, movements and currents make
their appearance of man's ether- or life-body, which were not there
before. These movements are the organs that enable man to add to his
faculties the Reading of the Hidden Script and yet further
powers that lie beyond. The changes that are wrought in his ether-body
when a pupil has attained Inspiration and Intuition, reveal themselves
to supersensible cognition in the following way. Somewhere as if in
the neighborhood of the physical heart one becomes conscious of a new
center in the ether-body, which forms itself into an etheric organ.
From this center all manner of movings and streamings run out to the
various parts of the physical body. The most important of these go to
the lotus-flowers, flow right through them and through their several
petals, then turn outwards and pour themselves into outer space like
rays of light. The more highly developed a pupil is, the larger is the
circle around him in which these currents are perceptible. Under a
properly regulated training this center in the neighborhood of the
heart does not however develop right at the beginning. Preparation has
to be made for it. A preliminary center appears first in the head, is
then transplanted into the region of the larynx and finally comes to
rest in the neighborhood of the physical heart. If development is
irregular, it may be that this organ is formed in the region of the
heart form the outset. There will then be a danger that instead of
attaining calm and objective supersensible perception, the pupil might
develop into a fantastic dreamer.
As he progresses further, the pupil comes to the point where he can
release these currents and memberings of his ether-body from
dependence on the physical body, and make use of them directly,
without reference to the physical body. The lotus-flowers serve him
then as instruments by means of which he moves his ether-body. Before
this can happen, certain special streams and rays must have been
forming in the whole circumference of the ether-body, enclosing it as
though with a fine network, rendering it a distinct, self-contained
entity. Then there is nothing to hinder the movements and streamings
that are going on in the ether-body from making contact with the
external world of soul and spirit and from uniting with it, so that
what is happening without and what is happening within that is
to say, within the human ether-body are able to come when the
human being can perceive consciously the world of Inspiration. This
kind of cognition shows itself from the first to be of quite a
different character from the cognition that relates to the physical
world. Here, we receive impressions through our senses and then
proceed to entertain ideas and concepts about these impressions. The
acquisition of knowledge by means of Inspiration is not like that. The
knowing is achieved in one single act; there is no
thought-process following the perception. What in the act of cognition
by means of the physical senses is acquired only subsequently in the
concept, is in the Inspirational cognition given simultaneously with
the percept. This being so, the pupil would flow right into the
surrounding world of soul and spirit, would merge with it and be
unable to distinguish himself from it, had he not formed before in his
ether-body the network that has just been described.
The exercises that are given for Intuition influence not only the
ether-body; they also leave their mark on the supersensible forces
that are at work in the physical body. This must not be taken to mean
that changes are effected there, perceptible to ordinary
sense-observations. Supersensible cognition alone can form any true
idea of them; they are right outside the scope of a cognition that is
concerned with externals. The changes come about as a result of the
pupil's consciousness being so far matured that, notwithstanding his
having banished from it all that he has experienced in the past,
whether outwardly or inwardly, he is nevertheless able to have
conscious experience in Intuition.
Yet the experiences that come with Intuition are intimate, are tender
and delicate. Man's physical body, at its present stage, is quite
coarse in comparison; consequently, it offers stubborn resistance to
these results of the exercises for Intuition. If however the exercises
are preserved in with energy and patience, and with the necessary
inner quiet, they will at length overcome the formidable hindrances
that the physical body presents. The pupil will begin to notice that
he is gradually bringing under his control certain activities of his
physical body that formerly took their course without his being in the
least conscious of them. He will become aware also of a change of
another kind. He may observe that for a short while he feels a need so
to order his breathing or some other bodily process as
to bring it into harmony with what his soul is doing in the exercises
or whatever else he is undertaking in inner, meditative life. The
ultimate ideal is that no exercises of any kind should be done with
the physical body as such, not even breathing exercises; so that
whatever happens in the physical will occur simply and solely as an
outcome of the exercises for Intuition.
Last Modified: 02-Nov-2024
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