The Pattern of Objective Mysticism in Action

Chapter VII of the Loom of Creation

by Dennis Milner

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The exposition that we have given summarises, as best we are able, the account of human existence as portrayed by objective mysticism. Our aim now is to try to perceive how the various features of existence can be interpreted in terms of objective mysticism, in such a way that we strive towards a working understanding of the etheric forces.

We have several times compared the development of children at school with that of mankind on earth. This is really more than an analogy; rather it is the same situation at a lower, more familiar, level in the evolutionary scale, since the same basic principles underlie all stages of development. We use the same analogy to illustrate the scheme of objective mysticism in action, with the Father-Son stream of evolution providing the ‘school of life’ for humanity.

The pupils in this school are initially inert and the purpose of the school is to bring them to life by stages, so that ultimately they become creative self-activating beings. In Stage I the Teachers impose stimuli on the inert pupils in an effort to stir them into activity. After a period of effort, during which the various pupils have become active to a greater or lesser extent, those of them who have evolved sufficiently are promoted by the Teachers to the higher class of Stage II of evolution. In this Stage, what was initially an externally imposed activity becomes an inner response. That is, every time the Teachers apply a stimulus the pupils ‘come to life’ and respond from out of themselves. Again those pupils that have evolved sufficiently advance to a further level of Stage III. Then the Teachers work on the pupils so that they do not just respond when the Teachers are active, but they stimulate the pupils to continue the pattern of activity, built into them by the Teachers, out of their own inner lives. The pupils who thereby develop adequately inner lives are then led into Stage IV, the current stage of human development. At this level they are stimulated to develop independent inner lives; i.e., instead of following built-in patterns of stimulus- response behaviour, they are encouraged to develop their own independent inner creative resources.

In terms of the activity of the etheric forces, the pupils are initially entities of inert Will (or warmth etheric force) which in Stage I are brought to various levels of activity, [fig. 30(a).]

In Stage II light etheric force enters into creation to bring about an inner response by the pupils to external light activity, thereby raising them to the level of stimulus-response organisms. In Stage III the interplay of the chemical etheric force enters evolution. This enables the pupils to develop inner lives of experience, or feelings, which then determine their response to stimuli. In Stage IV the individualising life etheric force enters into creation. Then the pupils no longer ebb and flow out of their inner experiences according to built-in patterns of behaviour, but they begin to lead individual lives out of their own Ego resources. 

The physical/etheric bodies of those pupils that are left-behind become the physical/etheric bodies of the solar system. In particular the three kingdoms of Nature lower than man that comprise the earth and its life forms arise out of these bodies. Thus the mineral body of the Earth comprises ‘block-heads’ i.e., ‘pupils’, or Will entities, that, while evolving various levels of Will activity, never evolved to full responsiveness to the external stimuli of the cosmic forces and thereby remained at Stage I of evolution. Likewise the ‘body’ of the plant kingdom arose from the ‘pupils’ left-behind at Stage II, i.e., those entities that attained to, but no further than, responding to the external influences of the Teachers when they were active. The ‘body’ of the animal kingdom arose from entities which evolved inner experiencing, fixed pattern of stimulus-response behaviour, bodies. The beings within each grade, or kingdom, of Nature range from entities, and their appropriate etheric force bodies, that have only just evolved above the kingdom below to, at the highest levels, entities and their etheric
force bodies that are beginning to exhibit the qualities of the kingdom above.

When each etheric force permeated the pupils who were sufficiently advanced to proceed to the next stage of evolution it also permeated through the left-behind levels of creation. In the advanced pupils the new etheric force became incorporated as, and thereby raised them to, a new level of activity. In the left-behind pupils the new forces acted in a negative capacity, opposing their further evolution with, in the final stage of creation, the negative-life etheric force becoming dominant. Thus the body of man, in which all of the etheric forces function freely, provides a vehicle for the development by the individual Ego of the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing. While at the other extreme the body of the mineral kingdom is dominated by the negative-life etheric force, so that it comprises the will (warmth), light and chemical etheric forces in an almost inert form, [fig. 30(b)]. All of these forces are ‘congealed’ in, and comprise, the individual elements. Thus the mineral world is almost inert, except for the slow and limited response exhibited in geological eras and in metereological phenomena. In the plant kingdom there is response to light etheric force and a subservient chemical activity takes place, but the chemical etheric force has been prevented from generating the organs of internal experience and feeling. In the animal kingdom the chemical etheric force has created organs of inner experience to various extents, depending on the species, but the animal entities have then been cut-off from further evolution, so that they have not been able to become vehicles for the activity of Egos. All of these levels of evolution are brought into being as the Earth kingdom, which is itself part of the larger ‘school’ of the Solar System, by a Hierarchy of Teachers. 

The Hierarchy organising and running the school comprise three levels. At the highest level are the highly evolved Creator-Educators who, having passed through many stages of development themselves, are now responsible for initiating the school and for providing its objectives and the basic materials with which it has to work. These ‘Creators of the School’ do not work in the school itself but act from around the periphery. At the next level are the Teachers. These comprise a central group of the ‘Headmaster and the Departmental Heads’ who plan, and provide the main stimuli for the course of development to be followed by the pupils. ‘Lesser Teachers’ organise the various materials and activities to which the pupils are to be exposed, as spheres of influence around the central ‘Headmaster’ Group. At the third level are the ‘Tutors’. These travel around with the pupils and their concern is the inner development of the pupils en masse, as smaller groups, and as individuals, in response to the various stimuli provided by the Teachers.

The basic qualities which are to be developed in the pupils are thinking, feeling and willing. The Teachers, who are themselves highly developed in these qualities, try to develop them in the pupils. They do this by exposing the pupils to them in a variety of combinations such as beauty, intelligence, wisdom, truth etc., with the aim that the pupils should acquire them for themselves.

The Solar System

Because mankind, the prodigal sons, has to find its way forward on its own account, the Creators, Teachers, Tutors, and the forces by which they create their spheres of influence, are invisible to the pupils. Only the materials from which the pupils are to learn their lessons are physically manifest. Thus behind the scenes of the solar system lie the invisible Spiritual Hierarchies who bring into being the solar system and then exert their spiritual influences in it as invisible etheric forces. This activity proceeds from centres, or regions, in the world ether [fig. 3 1]. Working from the periphery of the solar system are the ‘Creators of the School’ (the First Hierarchy, the Cosmic Creators). The physical manifestations of their activity are the stars of the Zodiacal system surrounding the Solar System. The activity of the central ‘Headmaster Group’ of the teachers is physically manifest as the Sun. This is, on the one hand, a life ether centre of attraction which draws together physical substance to form the physical body of the Sun and which keeps the solar system together. On the other hand the Sun directs etheric energy out, which on the earth we experience as a stimulus to life and activity. Only a small part of the Sun’s activity is physically manifest; the Sun is primarily a centre of invisible etheric force activity. The activity of the ‘Lesser Teachers’ of the Second Hierarchy in the world ether is physically manifest as the planets of the Solar System. These are again regions of attracting, individualising, negative life etheric force activity which draw together substance to form the physical planets while, like the Sun they are also centres of other invisible etheric force activity, but to a much lesser extent than the Sun. 

The Earth Planet

The visible stars and planets thus comprise only a small part of the Galaxy, and behind these is an invisible continuous interweaving of the four etheric forces brought about by the spiritual activity of the Hierarchies. This interweaving flow of etheric activity is encountered by the earth as it pursues its path through the solar system and it becomes physically manifest where it exerts an effect on substance. Without this etheric activity the earth would be in a static, dead state. The manifestation of the effect of etheric force is immediately observable in the movement of substance in meteorological phenomena and in the living activity of plants, animals and man. Likewise the phenomena recognised by science, such as gravitational fields, electromagnetic radiations, cosmic rays etc., etc. all arise from the activity of the etheric forces.

The earth, like the other planets, is a centre of negative-life etheric force activity under the control of a ‘Lesser Teacher’. The Lesser Teachers are members of the Second Hierarchy who have remained behind in their development in the primary Father-Son stream of evolution. As such, to provide the conditions necessary for the development of man, and for the sake of their own evolution they have grasped etheric force activity that has been left behind at the various stages of evolution. This is what the physical substance of the earth comprises – basic world ether that has become energised to varying extents by the mainstream Spiritual Hierarchy and has been left behind, and then grasped and condensed down to dense substance by the negative-life etheric force centre (manifest in this respect as a gravitational field) of a Lesser
Teacher.

The drawing together, condensing down, negative-life etheric force (gravitational) field provides the deadening, retarding, force which slows evolution on earth to a rate suitable for man. However, the negative-life etheric force is not the only force associated with the earth. In totality the etheric structure of the earth comprises the four etheric forces as 4 zones of activity which approximate to concentric spheres [fig. 32(a) p. 104]. There are two inner spheres, the negative-life etheric force sphere which condenses left behind etheric force down to the solid substance of the earth and a somewhat larger sphere of chemical etheric force. In the realm in which the latter force is dominant i.e., outside the negative-life ether sphere, the chemical ether condenses left behind etheric force down to the liquid state and brings into being the oceanic periphery of the earth. Permeating these spheres and opposing their contracting, condensing down, effects are spheres of light and warmth ether [fig. 32(a)]. These act to disperse substance outwards and where they are dominant, i.e., outside the solid-liquid body of the earth, they bring about the earth’s atmosphere. There is not a rigid boundary between the domains of the various etheric states, thus chemical ether which is primarily active in and responsible for bringing about the oceans also acts in the atmosphere to bring about its moisture content. Negative-life etheric force forms the solid substance of the earth, but also permeates right up through the atmosphere bringing about the condensed substance state in it. 

The etheric forces of the earth strive towards the state of four concentric spheres, but if this were the perpetual state of the earth nothing would happen i.e., it would be dead. However, the external influence of the Sun upsets this balance. The Sun exerts its two effects on the side of the earth exposed to it. Firstly, the strong, drawing towards it, life etheric field of the Sun draws the chemical ether sphere out of the earth[fig. 32(b)]. Secondly, radiations from the Sun press down as light and warmth etheric force onto the earth’s surface, creating light and warmth in the substance of the earth’s peripheral environment. At night when the Sun’s influence is withdrawn the earth reverts back to its basic configuration. In this way there arises a daily ebb and flow (a sort of breathing) of the etheric forces resulting from the action of the Sun. In Winter when the Sun’s action is weak there is minimal ebb and flow; then, as the Sun’s action becomes stronger with the approach of Spring, the etheric ebb and flow becomes stronger. In this way there arise the daily and seasonal rhythms which give rise to the phenomena of life on earth.

The etheric forces of the earth strive towards the state of four concentric spheres, but if this were the perpetual state of the earth nothing would happen i.e., it would be dead. However, the external influence of the Sun upsets this balance. The Sun exerts its two effects on the side of the earth exposed to it. Firstly, the strong, drawing towards it, life etheric field of the Sun draws the chemical ether sphere out of the earth [fig. 32(b)]. Secondly, radiations from the Sun press down as light and warmth etheric force onto the earth’s surface, creating light and warmth in the substance of the earth’s peripheral environment. At night when the Sun’s influence is withdrawn the earth reverts back to its basic configuration. In this way there arises a daily ebb and flow (a sort of breathing) of the etheric forces resulting from the action of the Sun. In Winter when the Sun’s action is weak there is minimal ebb and flow; then, as the Sun’s action becomes stronger with the approach of Spring, the etheric ebb and flow becomes stronger. In this way there arise the daily and seasonal rhythms which give rise to the phenomena of life on earth.

The periphery of the earth, on which man lives, is thus a region formed from substance which, as a result of remaining behind, has acquired a degree of independence from the cosmic evolutionary process. Within this substance battle two opposing forces, the negative-life etheric force which seeks to compress or condense substance down to deadness and inactivity, and the warmth etheric force which attempts to disintegrate and disperse substance outwards. In between these opposing extremes the chemical and light etheric forces are active. The chemical etheric force acts in the same direction as the solidifying negative-life etheric force, but to a lesser extent, thereby creating a fluid state of coherence. The light etheric force acts in the same direction, but to a lesser extent, as the warmth etheric force to bring about outward growing forms. This interaction of the etheric forces thus brings about the active environment for the living existence of plants, animals and man in the independent substance of the earth. It is into this environment that man finds himself plunged, there to work out his own independent existence while experiencing around him, and within his physical body, the actions of these various forces.

The Plant Kingdom

 A spiritual entity, belonging initially to the world of the Spiritual Hierarchy, which travels to any extent along the path of independent evolution, has to make a connection with a physical body and experience the existence which this body provides. The simplest example to understand in this respect is the annual plant family, which, starting from seed, unfolds its life cycle and returns again to seed in the course of a season. In this case an invisible spiritual entity is experiencing, and manifesting, the development of the Will to respond in the physical world, by overcoming the deadening effect of the left-behind negative-life ether gravity field and raising substance up into plant form, in response to the stimuli of the warmth and light etheric forces in the environment. The plant lives in harmony with this stimulus because, through developing the Will to respond, it has acquired an active etheric force body which responds to the ebb and flow of environmental etheric forces. (The mineral world, by contrast, has remained further behind in evolution and responds little to the action of the environmental etheric forces. In the animal and human kingdoms, although the activity of the physical body is determined by the etheric force body, this has come under the control of astral forces and in the human, of the spiritual activity of the independent Ego and thus does not reflect directly the external action of the etheric forces in the environment.)

The basis of the plant kingdom was formed during the second, Old Sun, planetary stage of creation when light ether entered into evolution. Light ether activity first took place in the cosmic body that was later differentiated into the solar system. It caused ‘raying-out’ forms to begin to appear [fig. 24 p. 78]. Then the Sun separated from the remaining Earth-Moon and stimulated response and further evolution from outside. The raying-out formations then responded to the externally imposed activity of the Sun. In subsequent stages of evolution chemical and life ether entered into creation and the plant kingdom evolved, so that it is now a manifestation of the interweaving of all four etheric forces. At the same time the earth evolved to give rise to the environment in which the plant now lives.

The left-behind negative-life etheric, gravity, force acts to reduce the plant to dead, mineralised, earth bound, substance. The warmth etheric force acts to disperse the substance of the plant outwards to make it part of the earth’s atmosphere. These two forces thus bring about two extremes: on the one hand, a condensing, hardening, mineralising, and in-breathing of the plant, and, on the other hand, a vaporising or outbreathing of the substance of the plant. Thus, as a balance between these two forces, there rises up out of the ground the individualised form of the plant. The interweaving of the two intermediate etheric forces, light ether and chemical ether then plays a dominant role in the intermediate shaping of the foliage of the plant. The light etheric force acts to produce an outward growing, raying-out, form. As the chemical etheric field of the earth, under the influence of the Sun, is drawn up out of the earth in the morning it acts on, and carries with it, the fluid element of the earth. To this the individualised plant responds, i.e., within the outward growing light etheric form the sap rises and the plant grows.

The earth’s chemical ether and the light ether each produce their characteristic form and colour. Chemical ether produces blue, and light ether yellow, so that the plant world arising when they interact is chiefly green [fig. 32(b) p. 104]. (When the chemical ether withdraws into the earth’s surface in Autumn the blue is withdrawn and the leaves turn yellow – light ether – and/or red – warmth ether.) The action of chemical ether is to contract into two-dimensional circular discs, while that of light ether is to produce raying-out forms. The plant cells come under the influence of the chemical and light ether forces and take up a wide variety of combinations of circular and raying out forms, as in fig. 33. In past eras of evolution the action of the chemical and light etheric forces has produced the variety of leaf forms that we now observe. It is in response to these forces that the various leaf-forms appear in the individual growing plant, while the variation of chemical and light ether activity in the environment brings about adaptation of leaf-forms.

When the plant has reached the limits of its response to the chemical ether, growth of foliage ceases. Further development then takes place under the influence of the remaining forces of light ether and warmth ether. Warmth ether produces spherical forms and light ether the raying-out forms so that, whereas leaves are predominantly two-dimensional combinations of circular and raying-out forms, blossoms are more three-dimensional, spherical-raying-out forms. Blossoms are often yellow (light ether) or red (warmth ether) or some combination of these. But the situation is more complex than with leaves, both in form and colour. The kingdom above plants, the animal kingdom, arose when plant-like entities became sufficiently responsive to astral forces to take into themselves an astral body. Much of the plant world that stayed behind also exhibited some response to astral forces, although not enough to proceed to the next stage of animal evolution. Thus, as the plant reaches its highest point of development brought about by the etheric forces of form and function it comes to some extent under astral-spiritual influence, resulting in a higher level of form, colour, and beauty.

The expression of the plan of the plant in the physical world, under the influence of the ebb and flow of the chemical, light and warmth etheric forces, is then exhausted and the plant comes under the influence of the left-behind negative-life ether mineralising forces. The substance of the plant decays away to become part of the mineral world again. The plant then exists as ‘unmanifest idea’ in the etheric-astral-spiritual world lying behind the physical, except for a point of contact with the physical world in the seed. Within the seed the plan of the plant exists sufficiently to give it an internal order which will determine its response to the ebb and flow of the etheric forces the following season. In this way there is an ever recurring progression from the spiritual into the material, with the spiritual ever trying, through the action of the Sun and its associated etheric forces, to bring spiritual ideas and spiritual progress to manifestation, and the retarding negative-life etheric mineralising forces of the earth always trying to reduce the living manifestation to inertness and death.

If the flow of etheric forces were brought about only by the interaction between the Sun and the Earth there would be only one type of plant. But in addition to the daily and seasonal rhythms of etheric flow brought about by the Sun, the planets bring about subsidiary rhythms in the etheric forces. Response to these subsidiary rhythms produces variations on the basic theme of the plant, and thereby arise the multitudinous varieties that we observe in the plant world.

Many plants and particularly trees have developed a degree of independence and are not completely controlled by the ebb and flow of the etheric forces which determine the life cycle of the annual plant. Thus, for example, they are able to resist the deadening, mineralising dominance of the negative-life etheric force in Winter and they do not die off, except to the extent that outer layers are converted to dead bark.

The Mineral World

The periphery of the earth provides the environment in which man has to live and work out his evolution. This environment is brought about by the activity of the four etheric forces which, in the region of the earth’s periphery, are in continual mutual interplay. The concept of the earth’s etheric structure as four interpenetrating spheres as shown in fig. 32 (a), p. 104 is only an approximation. In actuality these zones are not truly spherical; in particular the life and chemical ether boundaries interpenetrate each other, so that at some areas the negative-life etheric, solid state protrudes up through the oceanic chemical etheric field, to provide the solid surface on which man can live. The light and warmth etheric states likewise do not act uniformly over the earth’s surface and are strongly influenced by the action of the Sun. Thus different regions of the earth arise, which correspond to the variation in the balance of activity of the different etheric forces.

Where the earth is hard, rocky, and comparatively devoid of water the solidifying, individualising, negative-life etheric force is dominant. Where, as in the region of the poles, there are massive ice forms, there is a strong fluid chemical etheric influence but it is in the grasp of the solidifying negative-life etheric force field. In oceanic regions the chemical etheric force is dominant. In temperate regions there is constant interplay between the chemical and light etheric forces giving rise to a world of vegetation. In sandy deserts, of the type where there are no substantial rock forms, water, or vegetation, warmth etheric force predominates. In all regions, however, all etheric forces are present to some extent and it is the interplay of these forces, brought about primarily by the influence of the Sun, that brings into being the phenomena of meteorology. 

The etheric forces manifest as the force fields of the earth. The force of gravity is the earth’s negative-life etheric force field. Super-imposed on this is the much weaker earth’s magnetic field. This arises from the less strongly condensing and contracting chemical etheric force field. As a result of an asymmetry in the earth’s structure and in the cosmic forces acting on the earth the chemical ether is drawn towards the North pole and away from the South pole. This disturbs the otherwise spherical distribution of the earth’s magnetic field and gives rise to the magnetic poles.

The light etheric force brings about the electrical phenomena of the earth’s atmosphere, the ionisation of the air and its potential gradient and the ionisation belts. The warmth etheric force brings about the warmth state throughout the earth and its atmosphere. As a result of the ‘breathing’ of the earth, arising from the action of the Sun in the daily rhythms of drawing out the chemical ether and pressing down onto the earth’s surface the light and warmth etheric forces, there arise corresponding daily rhythms in the associated pressure, humidity, temperature and electrical potential gradients of the atmosphere.

The earth is in constant interplay with the forces of the cosmos and, as well as receiving heat and light from the Sun, many other forms of radiation impinge on the earth. The earth is a planet of individualisation, so that as these radiations come into the earth’s life etheric field they become ‘individualised’. For example, light etheric force from the Sun becomes individualised or ‘particle-ised’ as a stream of photons. Life etheric force coming from around the cosmos becomes particle-ised as a stream ofcosmic ray particles i.e., high energy atomic nuclei. Many other streams of radiation enter into the earth, all performing their functions in its evolution. As these currents of etheric force enter into the earth and are particle-ised they contribute to the substance of the earth. Objective mysticism states that, particularly in the outer regions of the earth’s force field, helium, hydrogen, ozone and hydrogen peroxide are constantly coming into being. In this sense there is a continuous creation of substance. This occurs where etheric currents enter the earth’s negative-life etheric force field which ‘grasps’ and condenses down these etheric streams into substance. This grasping, condensing, action is opposed by the expansive, chaoticising action of the light and warmth etheric forces, so that where the life etheric force ‘over reaches’ its effect, as in some very dense substances, such substances disintegrate, giving rise to the phenomena of radio-activity.

Because all substances are etheric force activity ‘grasped’ or ‘congealed’ and condensed by the earth’s negative-life etheric force field, substances possess the basic configuration which the etheric forces confer. The substance units, or atoms, therefore have a highly condensed nucleus (life/chemical etheric force centre) around which there is an ‘atmosphere’ of electrical/light properties, i.e., light ether which has been grasped by the negative-life ether centre. It is the dominating negative-life etheric force centre which condenses down and individualises etheric energy to form the ‘mass’ of the atom, so that scientists have found that the primary feature by which individual elements can be characterised is their atomic weight, or atomic number. 

The elements ofthe mineral world exhibit a variety of different types of chemical behaviour, or chemical activity. Now, from the point of view of objective mysticism, mineral substances are states of development that were left behind when evolution progressed from the unformed world ether to the plant-like state of development. At this stage the forces of evolution were trying to bring about a response to stimuli, i.e. a response to changes in the etheric environment. The range of the elements thus spans from inert gases, i.e. close to the inert unformed basic world substance, through levels of activity, that is, the property of the plant kingdom. Then as the various stages of evolution progressed the plan became more and more substantial, or densified. Thus the underlying organisation of the mineral world is related on the one hand to degrees of activity and on the other hand to degrees of densification viz.,

It is thus on this basis of activity and densification that scientists have found that they can classify the elements, in the Tables and Periods of the Periodic Classification.

The activity of the elements arises from the ‘inner meteoreology’ of the atoms. That is, there is a flux of activity between the chemical etheric force (so called because of its predominant role in chemical activity) and the light etheric force in the atom, in much the same way that a flux of activity takes place in meteorological phenomena at the periphery of the earth. And as the balance of the etheric forces varies in different regions of the earth, so the balance varies with the elements. For example, among the gases hydrogen represents the ‘hot’ (desert) balance and oxygen the ‘cold chemical ether’ balance. Thus, when these two gases are brought together the liquid, water, state is formed, in the same way that it would be if an area of hot desert could be brought into contact with a polar glacial area. Some elements are negative-life etheric force dominated i.e., ‘rocky’ or hard and brittle. Most metals are ‘glacier elements’ i.e., strong in chemical ether but under the dominance of negative-life ether, so that they flow under high stress. Mercury, however, and other liquid elements, are ‘oceanic’ i.e., under chemical etheric force dominance.

The balance of the etheric forces at the earth’s periphery is such that living forms are raised up out of the substance of the earth. These living forms of plants, animals and mankind provide vehicles for experience of earth conditions and then they decay away again. A particularly important element in this respect is carbon, which is the central ‘organic’ element. The etheric balance of carbon is such that it is responsive to both the expansive, growth, and the decaying away, mineralising, action of the etheric forces. It is therefore the basic element on which the function of organisms is brought about.

Substances are storehouses of cosmic etheric force with which man can learn to work on his path to becoming a creator. In the outer atmosphere ofthe atom light etheric force is under the grasp of the negative-life etheric force centre. Thus energy released from this part of the atom gives rise to light and to other light-like, i.e. electromagnetic, radiations. When light etheric force within the atom is under the influence of the chemical etheric force field then it is able to ‘flow’ and it manifests as a flow of ‘electricity’ in the substance. This occurs particularly readily in metals because of their chemical ether dominance. In the same way that chemical etheric force is responsible for the earth’s magnetic field, so is chemical ether responsible for the phenomenon of magnetism in mineral substances. Where the life and chemical etheric force balance is such that the chemical ether can be impelled to flow within a substance, and where when the impulse is removed the negative-life ether grasps and maintains the state of imbalance, then magnetic poles arise in the material. As in plants there is an interplay between these two intermediate, chemical and light, etheric forces, so is there a similar interplay in mineral substances giving rise to the phenomena of electromagnetism. The negative-life etheric force dominated atomic nucleus is highly condensed etheric force activity, so that when the atomic nucleus disintegrates very large quantities of energy are released.

Basic to the large number of elements are the four states of warmth, light, chemical and life ether.* Each higher state can be reduced to the lower one. Thus electricity can be used to produce heat; chemical reactions can be used to produce light and heat; individualised substance can be broken down to less evolved states (closer to ‘chaos’) in atomic reactions to produce chemical changes, light and heat. Each change that is carried out uses up some of the ‘frozen etheric force’ and thereby carries the substance state towards the unformed chaos (increasing entropy). Since the etheric forces possess definite properties, clear and firm relationships are involved when changes and reactions are carried out. These are expressed in science in mass-energy, mechanical work-energy, electrical energy-heat, relationships and in the generalised laws of thermodynamics. These are the basic laws of etheric force behaviour and they hold regardless of the substances involved.

* [In this exposition, which relates all aspects of material existence to these four etheric forces, there is an obvious relationship to the Greek concept of four basic elements – fire – air – water – earth. This concept arose when mystical experience still dominated man’s understanding of life, and man had just begun to think and to reason and thus to formulate the fruits of his mystical experience. Mankind in Western Civilisation recapitulated this phase of development at the time of the Renaissance, so that the same concepts again emerged in Alchemy. However, at these times man had not yet developed the ability of abstract thought which has come about with modern science, and he was not therefore able to formulate and relate these concepts to the empirical facts of existence in the way that is now potentially possible.]

 

The Animal Kingdom

While the plant provides a vehicle for the experience and development of the Will to respond, its life is determined by the action of the etheric forces in the environment and it thus has no independent control over its own existence. The next stage of evolution was therefore to make living activity independent of an immediate response to the environment. To this end the plant-like entities which had developed a Will to respond to formative forces took this ability into themselves during the subsequent period of withdrawal. The plant possesses a body of etheric force which responds to the currents of etheric force in the environment. The chemical ether interaction gives rise to fluid flow and nutrition and the light ether to interaction with the light and air of the environment. The mutual interplay of these two systems then gives rise to the growth and development of the plant. In the animal these systems became more highly developed and came under internal control. They became manifest as an internally fed fluid flow system of nutrition, and a nervous system which, inwardly directed, gave awareness of the inner organs in terms of hunger, pain, sexual desire, while, outwardly directed, it gave awareness of the means in the environment by which these inner feelings could be assuaged. The mutual interplay of these two systems thus brought about entities with the potential for considerable independent inner control over their existence.

By the time of this third stage of evolution there were many entities at many levels of development. Those entities which had developed an inner system of organs and an inner life, but did not go on to become individually motivated human beings, gave rise to the immensely varied animal kingdom. According to objective mysticism the main branches of the animal kingdom were thus left behind at the main stages of development of the human being.

The objective in the creation of man has been the creation of a spiritual being who incarnates in a physical body and works out his destiny on earth. The body of man has thus to be such that, on the one hand it comprises an organ of the spirit – the brain and head system, while on the other hand it can live – the metabolic system, and act – the limb system, in the earth’s environment. The first stage of creation of the physical body was the beginning of the primary spiritual organ, the head. The head at first comprised a warmth ether sphere, which was acted on by the Spiritual Hierarchy to elicit a reflection of their activity from it. Part of evolution never progressed beyond reflecting the activity of the etheric forces in the warmth atmosphere, but took up an etheric body and an astral body in the further stages of evolution, thus becoming part of the animal kingdom. This gave rise to the fluttering, airborne butterfly family.

In the development of man, what at first was an imposed reflection of external activity became, during the period of withdrawal, an inner response giving rise to the beginnings of the head as an inner organ. The next stage of development was the addition of a breathing system. Here again the left behind principle entered, so that the beginnings of creatures arose which had heads and breathing systems but subsequently developed only rudimentary digestive and limb systems. This is the bird kingdom in which the head tends to be dominant, in that it is a large proportion of the body, and the wings are stunted limbs. Since this era of creation, which took place in the warmth and light etheric phases of evolution, birds have been more creatures of the air than of the earth.

All phases of development are present in evolution. There is a creature in which the breathing-chest system is dominant, with the head, digestive and limb systems subservient, or less evolved, and this is the lion. When the digestive system became incorporated in man it also became incorporated in the animal world – as the cow, in which digestion is predominant and head, breathing and limb systems subservient. The digestive system did not appear in toto, but as individual organs that became integrated into a complete system. These organs appear in the animal world as the reptiles; for example, the snake with its elementary head is the renal canal externalised in the animal world, i.e., the etheric formations which gave rise to the snake in the animal world appeared at the same time as the etheric formations that gave rise to the renal canal in man.

Man originated as a spiritual head-being formed initially of warmth and light ether. He ends his creation as a gravity-earth-bound being living on the land, unlike the butterflies and birds whose environment remains predominantly the air. To this end the mineralising forces of negative-life ether permeated and individualised the human body and gave man his solid content and his rigid skeleton. The same forces working in the animal kingdom gave rise to the gravity-bound, mineralised, tortoise family.

In some of the entities which were developing to become man these forces entered too strongly and there arose the apes, which are more earthbound than man in both posture and spiritual development and creativity. Similarly, in the final stages of the creation of man as he is now, intermediate forms were left behind which gave rise to ape-men.

This spiritual plan of the creation of man and, through the left behind principle, of the creation of the animal kingdom, was made manifest through the activity of the etheric forces. Two of these forces, the warmth and light ethers, are expanding and two, chemical ether and negative-life ether, are contracting. The entities that have arisen represent different degrees of balance between these forces. Thus in the animal kingdom (and likewise in the plant kingdom) there is a considerable variation in the size of members of the same species. The lizard and tortoise families for example show such variation to a considerable extent. Some species have died out because they were not suited to the changing conditions of the earth environment. For example, in the Dinosaur Age monsters appeared as vast digestive systems with small heads, before the contracting, condensing, negative-life energy principle had fully entered into creation. Thus they were large and adapted to a more lush and watery (chemical ether) environment, but they were not able to survive on into the more mineralised condensed phase of earth evolution.

This shows how, according to objective mysticism, the main animal groups came about; other creatures represent intermediate stages of development between the archetypal forms. The creation of man was the initial and first task in evolution and the animal kingdom represents features of man that were subsequently ‘left behind’. However, in the last Earth-planetary stage of evolution the most retarded, least spiritually active aspects of creation ‘materialised’ first, i.e., the mineral kingdom, the plants and then the animals in order of their development. This was in order to create an environment for man, the most spiritual being, to incarnate on the physical plane. Thus in this respect there is no conflict with the observations that have led to the modern theory of evolution. 

 

Objective mysticism would state that evolution first takes place in the world of spiritual ideas that subsequently become manifest in substance. As a result of the ‘left behind’ principle operating in evolution, at each stage of the spiritually conceived plan part of it has ‘crystallised’ out and has become manifest in matter. The spiritual planning does not proceed continuously, but as alternate stages of planning, external manifestation, and then withdrawal and re-planning. There have been four main periods of such manifestation, giving rise to the four kingdoms of mineral, plant, animal and man. Within these main stages there have been subsidiary periods of manifestation and withdrawal. After each period of withdrawal entities that have not evolved sufficiently to go forward to the next stage have been left behind. Thus we do not perceive a continuum of evolution but a series of discrete species which are as links in a chain. Once the ‘ideas’ become ‘crystallised’ as entities in substance their rate of development is retarded and becomes related to, and determined by, the slow rate of change in the ‘left behind’ mineral, plant and animal worlds that comprise the environment, i.e. evolution becomes adaptation. If the totality of evolution took place on earth, so that the development of each grade of entity were entirely and only due to material circumstances, then Nature would present a continuum to us. Then, instead of discrete species, there would be a continuous series of entities at all possible stages of development along the various ‘branches of the tree of evolution’.

Relationships Between The Plant And Animal Kingdoms

Correlations can be seen in the action of the etheric formative forces in the plant and animal kingdoms. It has already been pointed out that the form of the leaf arises from the interaction of the light etheric, raying-out, and the chemical ether, circular disc-forming forces. A similar balance of the same forces acts to produce ‘leaves’ on birds, but since the bird is more a creature of the air than the plant, the raying-out action of the light etheric force is more powerful. A similar balance of the same forces acting in the more powerful chemical ether circular disc-forming, environment of water gives rise to the scallop shell [fig. 34]

The way in which the same forces of evolution are at work at different levels of development in the plant and in the animal kingdoms is also brought out in the account which Steiner gives of the relationship of the plant to the butterfly. The butterfly is a creation of warmth and light ether origin into which chemical and life ether did not enter sufficiently to make it earth bound. But on the other hand it progressed to taking up an astral body, attaining to the development of an inner response to stimulus and thus becoming a member of the animal kingdom. The corresponding feature of evolution which became earth bound, but did not evolve an astral body, is the plant. Thus the plant (a) starts from a seed which roots in the ground, (b) develops upwards rhythmically, producing leaves, (c) at the cessation of rhythmical development contracts to form a calyx or bud, (d) the bud opens giving rise to the blossom [fig. 35]. The butterfly by comparison (a) starts from an egg which is not rooted to the ground, (b) develops the rhythm of a caterpillar, (c) this gives rise to the chrysalis, (d) the chrysalis opens to give rise to the butterfly or flying blossom [fig. 3 5]. Because of their common origins butterflies have a great affinity for flower blossoms. 

Man

The object of evolution is that man shall become an independent, spiritually motivated, individualised being who acts out of spiritual warmth, or love; who possesses spiritual wisdom, so that he can perceive and contribute to the pattern of evolution; and who possesses the power of creation i.e., of combining and dissociating to create what was not there before. For man to develop these qualities of Wisdom, Will and Love in Creation he has to possess them as innate potentials in the construction of his bodies, while to bring them to fruition he has to work with them in the materials and etheric forces of the world [fig. 36]. In the mineral world man experiences these qualities as inert activity, inert light and the inert properties of matter that become manifest in ‘chemistry’. Thus we experience how, by exerting our abilities to shape and form against the resistance of the material world, we develop our Will. We become aware through the action of sunlight, but we also learn to increase our awareness by using the light ether (electricity) of the mineral world, as in electric lighting, radio, television, telephone etc. We develop an inner life in response to outer stimuli and we express this inner life by ‘chemistry’ i.e., by combining and dissociating materials in arts and crafts, building, science, technology, the domestic activities of home making etc.

In between man and mineral are two stages of evolution: the plant and the animal kingdoms. These are, on the one hand, themselves further steps on the path of development. On the other hand, they provide man with the experience of working with, and learning from, the different levels of evolution. The plant possesses the properties of the mineral kingdom but they have evolved to a higher level, so that instead of being inert they are part of an organism that has developed an inner response. When we work with plants we are therefore experiencing working with inner responsiveness and we have to develop our own responsiveness. The animal incorporates both mineral attributes and plant responsiveness, but again these features have evolved to a further higher level of function and the animal responds out of an inner life of feelings. When working with animals we are thereby experiencing and developing responsiveness out of feelings. Man incorporates all of the levels below him, and also a higher level of functioning, as a being with the potential for acting out of his own individual creative spiritual source. When we work with our fellow men we thus experience the stimulus to develop our own inner creative potential. At the highest level man devotes his spiritual creativity to actions performed out of complete empathy for the needs of others, i.e., actions performed out of love.

 

 

Our inner life comprises thoughts, feelings and will impulses. Normally we are not aware of the processes that are involved in this inner life because we are submerged in, and dominated by, our sense experiences. However, the inner processes continue to take place when we are asleep and without sense experience and we can then, to a limited extent, become aware of the processes taking place during our sense-free sleep experience through our dreams.

According to objective mysticism the physical world is brought into being as the result of the spiritual planning and etheric activity of the Spiritual Hierarchy. We are low members of this Hierarchy, unaware of our spiritual origins, and we develop by undergoing experience in the physical world. During sleep we, as spiritual inner beings, leave our physical bodies and revert to astral and spiritual worlds where we are unconsciously stimulated to work out our experiences and problems. Research has shown two very different levels of the sleep state. In one level we are much more prone to dream and our eyes are moving rapidly as though watching a drama being played out. At the other level we are more quiescent and when wakened from it we feel rather that we have had the experience of thinking. The former state may relate to some awareness of the activity of the astral forces and of the Beings who, behind the scenes, impress these forces into the etheric world. The latter state may relate to our being in, and having some awareness of, the world of Higher Beings who are planning and guiding evolution, i.e., the primary ‘world of ideas’ on which creation is based, so that any dim awareness we bring back from this world gives us thoughts, or insight, into our experiences of existence.

During our conscious waking state we experience the forces of creation through their effects in the physical world, i.e., the invisible etheric forces bring awareness of their activity through the astral imagery they generate within us. During our dream state the same forces activate this imagery that we have now stored within us, so that there is some correlation, i.e., in many cases our dream experiences, while not direct observations of what is taking place, can be interpreted in terms of the forces at work. The dream reported by Jung, which has been referred to previously, where the person could not gather together his baggage to catch the train for his further journey through life, is clear and straightforward. But sometimes dream consciousness is more obscure and requires a deeper understanding of the forces working in evolution. For example, a colleague was researching in a field where there was a dearth of knowledge, and where he should therefore have been able to bring to light many valuable insights, but he was making only slow progress. He dreamt that he was driving a combine harvester through a field of ripe wheat but the machine, instead of producing a harvest of rich golden grain, produced a shower of snowflakes. Now, from the viewpoint of objective mysticism, the spiritual plan of creation has been realised through the action of the etheric forces, producing the earth environment in which man can flourish and evolve. The plant, and particularly wheat, is not just a symbol for, but actually is, the product of the balance of etheric force activity on which man can live and which he can come to understand, or harvest, and thrive on. Man is a thinking, feeling, willing, being and, for him to evolve, all these faculties have to work in harmony. It is a feature of modern education that it concentrates on the thinking capacity, turning people into intellectuals. Our colleague was experiencing the common problem that he was intellectualising his work, i.e., approaching it through intellectually conceived or ‘frozen’ ideas instead of reaping the harvest of fresh knowledge that was there for the taking. He was not sufficiently getting the ‘feel’ of what was going on and from this feel using his will experimentally to gain control of the situation and only then using his thinking to formulate the fruits of his experiences. 

Further examples of this type of dream are given by Dr. Ann Faraday, in a book on sleep states and the occurrence and significance of dreaming, in which she gives accounts of many of her own dreams. In one dream that she describes she had a vivid vision of a girl in blue wandering through a field of yellow corn which was waving gently in the breeze. The girl in blue is the basic spiritual part of her nature which has come from the world of the Spiritual Hierarchy to undergo experience on earth. Blue is the colour of spiritual activity as, for example, in the activity of the more spiritual aspects of the etheric forces which give rise to the blue sky (as opposed to the deadening left behind mineralising activity of the gravity field.) With this dream Dr. Faraday chooses to couple another in which she had a vision of a red dragon dancing in a square. In the past scientific/technological era man has learnt to think and act for himself out of his experience of the material world. Because of the success and preeminence of the materialist viewpoint it has dominated all aspects of existence, including man. Man for example is regarded, even by psychologists in many cases, as a physical being who has a mind or soul or spirit. However, according to objective mysticism, man is primarily a spirit which occupies a physical body to gain experience of the material world. It is now necessary for man, if he is fully to develop his potential, to become aware of his true nature as a spiritual, and spiritually creative, being. It is, on the other hand, the task of the materialist forces to provide a retarding resistance, against which man has to strive in order to develop himself, by prolonging the materialist view. Because the spiritual girl is just ‘wandering’ through the ripe corn and is not, for example, ‘harvesting’ dream experience by coming to a true realisation of man as a spiritual being, the dragon, i.e., the king ofthe reptiles, which are formed from the more gravity-bound aspects of the human make-up, is dancing in the square. The dragon is red because he is active (warmth etheric force) and he is dancing in a square because the square (or cube) is the effect exerted by the deadening mineralising materialistic forces at work in Nature.

What we experience as being our real individual selves, over which we have complete personal control, is the extent to which we develop and become thinking, feeling and willing beings. These are separate, almost independent, qualities. Thus it is possible to conceive of extreme types of human beings who are highly developed in one quality, but conspicuously lacking in the other two. A business man with great drive and energy, who determinedly built up a dynamic organisation, but who gave little thought to the human or social significance of what he was doing, and who neglected the feelings of his employees and family, would have highly developed will, but poor thinking and feeling qualities. An intellectual who was able to analyse and criticise lucidly, but made no effort to contribute creatively and positively himself, and who again had little awareness or understanding of the feelings of his family and associates, would be highly developed in thinking capacities but poor in will and feeling qualities. A woman who could not organise her domestic duties and who was slovenly and apathetic towards her chores, but to whom her children and friends could turn for unfailing warmth and kindness, would be strong in feeling, but poor in thinking and willing. 

It is possible to perceive steps in the development of the human being in each of the three basic spiritual qualities [fig. 3 7]. These steps span from animal-like levels, i.e., determined primarily by unconscious behaviour arising from our biological make-up, to becoming a fully developed spiritual contributor to the evolutionary system. Mostly, however, we centre around the contemporary level of development, thinking according to current concepts, forming feeling relationships according to established patterns of behaviour, and being active in the way expected of us in contemporary society. In those areas where we have not advanced to this level we learn from, and struggle to become established in, society according to these contempory standards. In areas where we are more advanced we develop some contact with our individual spiritual source, we think and act creatively and are able, through developed feelings of empathy, to form creative relationships with other beings.

Thus, by living in the environment of the periphery of the earth, in the midst of the various levels of evolution, and amid the inter-weaving activity of the etheric forces, the inner life of man is called into being to raise him from animal-like behaviour to that of divinity.