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Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner #CW 158
Our Connection with the Elemental World: Kalevala – Olaf Åsteson – The Russian People. The World as the Result of Balancing Influences
At the heart of this volume is Rudolf Steiner's commentary on the elemental forces responsible for our earthly nature as human beings--forces that influence us as members of a national or geographical group. When such elemental forces are not recognized and understood, he states, they cause conflict and chaos. Nonetheless, Steiner indicates, too, an important task that calls each of us to develop individuality emancipate ourselves from the earthly influences of national and racial groups.
These great themes are framed by Steiner's pioneering research into the two major Northern folk poems, the Kalevala and The Dream Song of Olaf Asteson. The former tells of the elemental spirits who created the conditions for our earthly incarnation, whereas the Dream Song has to do with the drama of excarnation--the journey of human souls after dying. These vast motifs are linked by Steiner's unique description of the mission and tasks of the Russian people, contrasting their destiny to the people of North American, who, he says, are "dominating the Earth for a brief period of increasing splendor."
Steiner explains how elemental beings, responsible for the balance of land and sea, have created conditions whereby various peoples are enabled to develop their gifts and fulfill their destinies. He speaks of Finland as the ancient conscience of Europe, Russia as the future bearer of the Christ-imbued spirit self, and the differing though complementary environments of Germany and Britain. Steiner states that "no souls on Earth love one another more than those living in Central Europe and those living in the British Isles."
Rudolf Steiner also speaks of the necessary work of luciferic and ahrimanic beings who collaborate to enable the solid spatial forms of our physical bodies. Likewise, they influence our etheric and astral bodies, facilitating thinking, feeling, and will to be imbued with life and consciousness.
These great themes are framed by Steiner's pioneering research into the two major Northern folk poems, the Kalevala and The Dream Song of Olaf Asteson. The former tells of the elemental spirits who created the conditions for our earthly incarnation, whereas the Dream Song has to do with the drama of excarnation--the journey of human souls after dying. These vast motifs are linked by Steiner's unique description of the mission and tasks of the Russian people, contrasting their destiny to the people of North American, who, he says, are "dominating the Earth for a brief period of increasing splendor."
Steiner explains how elemental beings, responsible for the balance of land and sea, have created conditions whereby various peoples are enabled to develop their gifts and fulfill their destinies. He speaks of Finland as the ancient conscience of Europe, Russia as the future bearer of the Christ-imbued spirit self, and the differing though complementary environments of Germany and Britain. Steiner states that "no souls on Earth love one another more than those living in Central Europe and those living in the British Isles."
Rudolf Steiner also speaks of the necessary work of luciferic and ahrimanic beings who collaborate to enable the solid spatial forms of our physical bodies. Likewise, they influence our etheric and astral bodies, facilitating thinking, feeling, and will to be imbued with life and consciousness.
284 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 14, 2016
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About the author
Rudolf Steiner
4,303 books1,059 followersAuthor also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
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