Rudolf Steiner

“ At this age every idea must be spiritualised. One ought not, for instance, to be satisfied with merely producing a sense-impression of a plant, a grain of seed, or a blossom. Everything should seem as an allegory of the spiritual. A grain of seed is, in truth, not merely what it appears to the eye. Invisibly86 the whole new plant inhabits it, and that such a thing is more than what the sense perceives, must be absolutely realised with the perception, the imagination, and the feelings. ”

“ There is no sound thinking which has not been preceded by a sound perception of the truth supported by obvious authority. If one wishes to follow out these principles of education,100 one must not allow people, at too early an age, to fancy themselves able to judge, for in avoiding this, one will leave them the possibility of allowing life to work upon them from every side, and without prejudice. For by one such judgment, which is not founded on the precious basis of spiritual treasures, he who makes it will have placed a stumbling-block in the path of his life. ”

“ Here the question of education is quite a different one. If the child has the rag-doll to look at, it has to complete out of its own imagination the impression of a human being which the doll is intended to convey. This work of the imagination helps to build up the forms of the brain, so that it opens up as the muscles of the hand expand by doing their natural work. When the child possesses the so-called “beautiful doll,” there is nothing further for the brain to do. ”

“ But it knows, too, that for all things nascent there is a growth and a development. Therefore the germs for a transformation and for a future growth will appear to Theosophy in the existing state of things. It invents no schemes, it only calls them forth from what already exists. But that which is so called forth becomes in a certain sense itself a scheme, for it contains within itself the nature of evolution. ”

“ So simply, perhaps, might all this be done, under special circumstances, that the objection that circumstances allow of no development at all in this direction can never be valid. One can do much with the simplest means, if the right sense in this direction prevails in the teacher93 himself. The joy of life, the love for existence, the strength to work—all these arise for the whole being, out of the cultivation of the sense of beauty and art. And the relations of man to man—how ennobled and how beautiful will they become through this sense! ”

“ The great progress of natural science, which a true Theosophist must sincerely admire, has thrown our abstract vocabulary into confusion. Some of our biologists are ignorant of the characteristics of sensibility, and thus accredit it to beings who are devoid of it. Sensibility such as is comprehended by those biologists, can, it is true, be attributed to organisms deprived of it. But what is understood by Theosophy as sensibility is a totally different quality. ”

“ In order to create a right influence, one must believe in one’s similes oneself as if in realities; and that can only be done when one possesses the mystical tendency, and when the similes themselves are born of occult science.73 The real occultist does not need to worry about the above-mentioned simile of the soul going forth from the body, because for him it is a truth. To him the butterfly evolving from the chrysalis represents the same experience on a lower stage of nature’s existence as the going forth of the soul from the body at a higher stage development. ”

“ With the free outward development which follows, all that which is unfolded by the world of externalised perceptions, by one’s judgment and the unfettered understanding, will first rush inward upon the soul. It has already been mentioned that these faculties of the soul, hitherto uninfluenced from within, ought to be developed by the right management of educational means, just as unconsciously as the eyes and ears evolve themselves in the womb. But with puberty the time has arrived when the person is ready to form his own judgment concerning the things which he has hitherto learned. ”

“ Common phrases, such as, “the harmonious training of all the powers and talents,” and the like cannot form the foundation for a true system of education,45 for this can only be built upon a genuine knowledge of the human being. We do not mean to affirm that the above-mentioned phrases are incorrect, but only that they are as valueless as if one were to say with regard to a machine, that all its parts must be brought into harmonious working order. Only he who approaches it, not with mere phrases, but with a real knowledge of the particular kind of machine, can handle it. ”

“ The third principle of the human22 being is the so-called body of feeling, or astral body. It is the vehicle of pain and pleasure, of impulse, desire, passion, and so forth. An entity composed merely of a physical and an etheric body has nothing of all this, to which may be ascribed the term—sensation. The plant has no sensation. If many a learned man of our time concludes that plants have a certain power of sensation, from the fact that many of them respond to a stimulus, by movement, or in other ways, he merely shows that he does not know the essence of sensation. ”

“ Of what value is it from the highest point of view, if young people are shown all kinds of physical experiments in the mineral, vegetable and animal worlds, if with such a study one does not suggest the application of the sense allegory to the feeling of spiritual mystery? Certainly a materialistic mind will not be able to make anything of what has here been said, and of that the Occultist is only too conscious. Yet it is also clear to him that a really practical method of education can never proceed from the materialistic mind. ”

“ Each one of them has the faculty of saying to himself “I” for the “body of the ego” is existent in each of them. But the uncivilized savage gives way with this “I” to his passions, his impulses and appetites, almost like an animal. The more highly developed man allows himself to follow certain inclinations and desires, others he checks or suppresses. The idealist has formed, in addition to the original inclinations and passions, others that are higher. This is all due to the fact that the “ego” has been at work on the other principles of the human being. ”

“ But it gives information as to how one can open up for oneself a world in which these higher principles of human nature appear before the observer, just as the colors and light of objects appear before the blind-born person after his operation. For those who have developed the higher organs of perception, the etheric or vital body is an object of actual observation, and not a theory resulting from intellectual activity or a train of reasoning. ”

“ Nor can it be objected that such a proceeding would weaken the perception of pure sense; on the contrary, by a persistent adherence to sense perceptions alone, Truth itself would be the loser. For the complete reality of a thing exists in Spirit and in Matter, and accurate observations can be no less carefully carried out if one brings to the study not only the physical senses, but also the spiritual faculties. If people could only perceive, as the Occultist is able to, how both body and soul are spoiled by mere object-teaching,87 they would not then lay so much stress upon it. ”

“ Generally speaking, all learning is apt to be too much ascribed to the credit of the teacher—therefore the teacher ought to bear in mind that the child possesses half his world, namely, the spiritual (such as his moral and metaphysical ideas) , already complete and taught within himself, and that therefore a language composed only of concrete images can never impart spiritual ideas, but can only light them up. ”

“ Take the case of the man who is just raising himself above the level of the animal—when his “ego” flashes out he still resembles the animal with regard to his lower principles. His etheric or vital body is solely the medium of the living constructive forces of growth and propagation. His astral body only gives expression to such impulses, desires and passions as are stimulated by his outer nature. All the time that the man is struggling on through successive lives, or incarnations, from this degree of culture to an ever higher evolution, his ego is remodelling30 the other principles. ”

“ To Theosophy such a prospect resembles the view of a blind man who only takes into consideration those things that he can touch, and what he may infer from the touched object by reasoning, but who sets aside the statements of those who can see as being beyond the faculty of human perception. For Theosophy shows that man is capable of evolution, that through the developing of new organs he may conquer for himself new worlds. Around the blind man there is color and light, but he cannot perceive them, because he does not possess the requisite organs. ”

“ One cannot make amends in all the succeeding years for that which, as guardian, one has neglected during the first seven years. As the right environment for the physical human body is provided by Nature, before birth, so after birth it is the duty of the guardian to provide it. Only this correct physical environment influences the child in such a way that his physical organs mould themselves into the normal forms. ”

“ On the surface any other view is hardly possible, for there appears to be the most complete diversity between what is known as Occult Science or Theosophy, and all that the culture of the present day suggests as the principles for a healthy view of life. Only a deeper consideration104 reveals to us how entirely in opposition the views of the present must remain without these principles of occult science—how, indeed, they themselves call out these very principles and in the long run cannot remain without them. ”

“ One can also discern how differently the various mediums of civilisation affect the individual principles of the human being. The common factors of civilisation influence the astral body. They bring to it other kinds of pleasure, displeasure, impulse, etc., than it originally had. Absorption in a work of art influences the etheric body, for a man obtains through a work of art, the presentiment of something higher and nobler than that which is offered by the environment of the senses, and thus transforms his vital body. ”

“ Man learns a certain amount in the course of life, and when he looks back on his life from any point, he is able to say to himself: “I have learnt much,” but how much less is he able to speak of a change of temperament and character, of an improvement or deterioration of the memory, during life. Learning affects the astral body, whilst the latter transformations affect the ethic or vital body. ”

“ Science today, by means of intellectual observations founded on the facts of ordinary perception, has accepted the idea of a kind of vital force. But this is not the method of a truly spiritual research, such as Theosophy aims at, and from the results of which proceed the theosophical teachings. It cannot be pointed out too often, how Theosophy on this point differs from the current science of the day. The latter considers the experience of the senses to be the basis of all knowledge, and whatever is not built upon this basis it treats as unknowable. ”

“ When a man perceives that he must not do certain things, and when through this perception, an impression is made on him, deep enough to communicate itself to his etheric body, the conscience begins to be formed.
Now this work of the ego on the subordinate principles can either be one that belongs rather to the whole human race, or it can be quite individually a work of the single ego upon itself. In the first change of man, to a certain extent, the whole human race takes part ”

“ And here it is particularly well to consider the culture of the sense of beauty, and the awakening of the feeling for what is artistic. Music should supply that rhythm to the etheric body which then enables it to perceive in everything the rhythm otherwise concealed. ”

“ As a teacher works upon these four principles of the human constitution, one must, in order to work in the right way, penetrate into the nature of these divisions38 of man. Now it must by no means be imagined that these parts develop themselves in man in such a way that at any one moment of his life—say at his birth—they are all equally advanced. On the contrary their development takes place at the various life-periods in a different way. ”

“ During the time between the second teeth and puberty, the spiritually pictorial, or, as one might also call it, the symbolical representation, ought to be considered in yet another way. It is necessary that the young person should learn to know the secrets of nature, the laws of life, as far as possible through symbols and not by the means of dry and intellectual ideas. Allegories about the spiritual relation of things ought so to reach the soul that the law and order of existence underlying the allegories is rather perceived and divined, than grasped by the means of intellectual ideas. ”