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I-22 The elementary states, the ethers and elements Genesis (GEN), Lects. 2, 4 and 7; Foundations of Esotericism
(FE), Lects. 5, 6, 9 and 28; The Etherization of the Blood
(EoB); On Nuclear Energy and the Occult Atom The elementary states within our Earth existence (i.e., Earth Consciousness- Mineral Kingdom-Physical Form, as per I-1) are as follows:
Steiner indicates that it is in the Earth that we have to look mainly for solid, fluid and gas, that warmth is shared by Earth and Sun, and that the three ethers are of Sun nature (GEN, Lect. 7). Lect. 4 ends with the following tabulation:
The form of the chart seems difficult to fathom. In Lect. 2, Steiner, speaking of the human being’s descent from the spiritual to the material world in a process of densification, points out that whenever there is a descent there is a corresponding ascent. “Thus, when we descend from warmth into the denser, we come to the gaseous condition; if we ascend, we come to light. Ascending still further, beyond the light we come to a yet finer etheric condition, . . . something which is not really recognizable in the ordinary sense-world. We get only a kind of external reflection of it.” He then discusses how the chemical/sound ether manifests in the “Chladni” sound-figure experiment when fine powder is placed on a metal plate and the bow of a violin is then drawn across the plate. This process of descent and offsetting ascent would seem to illustrate the principle of “Fission,” which is so amply demonstrated in scripture. I have constructed the following chart in an effort to more clearly illustrate the process:
As
can be seen, the process from Saturn to Earth is one of descent from
a state of warmth, which has required “Fission.” It would seem that
the reascent of the human being will require “Fusion,” a principle
also demonstrated in scripture.
But just as there are (invisible) elemental spirits below, as well as spiritual Hierarchies above, the human being, so also there are (invisible) conditions of matter below, as well as above, those we call gas, fluid and solid. Steiner refers to them (in EoB) as constituting the “sub-physical” world, which he sets out as follows: (click here to view) In the lecture he had pointed out that, just as a human being is in a state of growth until the 35th year and thereafter is in a state of decay, so also is matter in the same pattern. Up until the Atlantean Epoch, matter was in a progressive process, but decay has set in with the post-Atlantean Epoch. “Light is being destroyed in this post-Atlantean age of the Earth’s existence, which until the time of Atlantis was a progressive process. Since then it has been a process of decay. What is light? Light decays and the decaying light is electricity. What we know as electricity is light that is being destroyed in matter. And the chemical force that undergoes a transformation in the process of Earth evolution is magnetism. Yet a third force will become active and if electricity seems to work wonders today, this third force will affect civilization in a still more miraculous way. The more of this force we employ, the faster will the Earth tend to become a corpse and its spiritual part prepare for the Jupiter embodiment. . . [I]t is necessary for the Earth to be destroyed, for otherwise the spiritual could not become free.” In NEOA, Lect. 1, Unger, keying off Steiner’s EoB lecture, gives the following schematic of how the subsensible world is constituted:
Steiner’s EoB lecture was in 1911. Unger’s were between 1968 and 1978. In his Lect. 2, Unger expresses the view that nuclear energy, of itself, is not yet the “Third Force.” Rather, “there is embodied [in it], somewhat prematurely, some small part of the future forces which have been spoken of . . . the ‘tip of the iceberg.’ ” |
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 Schematic I-21 |
Schematic
I-23
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