Arekusandaa
Hello all,
I've detected an apparent contradiction within Rudolf Steiner's work in regards to the etheric forces. On the one hand, Steiner differed substantially from Theosophists and Rosicrucians in his later years in maintaining that the four ethers – which carry various names in various systems – are not the four higher conditions of the physical world above solids, liquids and gases, in fact going to the trouble to emphasis this differing on several occasions. See, for example, a passage in his The Education of the Child (http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/EduChild/EduChi_essay.html), published in 1909:
"We must not fall into the error of certain theosophical circles, and imagine the etheric and sentient bodies as consisting simply of finer substances than are present in the physical body. For that would be a materialistic conception of these higher members of man's nature. The etheric body is a force-form; it consists of active forces, and not of matter."
Four years earlier, however, in 1905, Steiner said in a lecture whose transcript now appears in the book Foundations of Esotericism (http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/FoundEsoter/19050930p01.html):
"In ordinary life we differentiate three bodily conditions: the solid, the fluid and the gaseous or airy. The solid must be distinguished from the mineral. Air and water are also mineral. Theosophical writings add to these, four other finer conditions of matter. The first element which is finer than the air is the one which causes it to expand, which always increases its spatial content. What expands the air in this way is warmth; it is really a fine etheric substance, the first grade of ether, the Warmth Ether. Now follows the second kind of ether, the Light Ether. Bodies which shine send out a form of matter which is described in Theosophy as Light Ether. The third kind of ether is the bearer of everything which gives form to the finest matter, the formative ether, which is also called the Chemical Ether. It is this ether which brings about the union of oxygen and hydrogen. And the finest of all the ethers is that which constitutes life: Prana, or Life Ether."
Therefore we have an apparent contradiction, and a glaring one at that. Further, the insistence that the etheric forces are not the four finer conditions of the physical world immediately produce other problems on a larger cosmic scale. For instance, Steiner maintained that the seven conditions of form of one condition of life (or the seven globes of a revolution, as the Theosophists and Rosicrucians would say) consist, on the descending arc, first of an upper devachanic, then a lower devachanic, then an astral and finally a physical form, with the descending arc being an inversion of this on a higher level, i.e. astral, lower devachanic and then finally upper devachanic once again. Now the problem here is simply this: if the etheric forms a separate plane, why no etheric condition of form? (Interestingly the Rosicrucians maintain that there are etheric globes or conditions of form as well as globes existing only on the lower three levels of the physical, according to their assertion that the four ethers are the upper physical; but that is neither here nor there.)
Further still, there are various reports of the human body becoming discernible lighter at the moment of death, a phenomenon ascribed, again, by Rosicrucians and Theosophists to the departure of the upper physical, the etheric.
I wonder if anyone has any thoughts regarding this?
I've detected an apparent contradiction within Rudolf Steiner's work in regards to the etheric forces. On the one hand, Steiner differed substantially from Theosophists and Rosicrucians in his later years in maintaining that the four ethers – which carry various names in various systems – are not the four higher conditions of the physical world above solids, liquids and gases, in fact going to the trouble to emphasis this differing on several occasions. See, for example, a passage in his The Education of the Child (http://wn.rsarchive.org/Articles/EduChild/EduChi_essay.html), published in 1909:
"We must not fall into the error of certain theosophical circles, and imagine the etheric and sentient bodies as consisting simply of finer substances than are present in the physical body. For that would be a materialistic conception of these higher members of man's nature. The etheric body is a force-form; it consists of active forces, and not of matter."
Four years earlier, however, in 1905, Steiner said in a lecture whose transcript now appears in the book Foundations of Esotericism (http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/FoundEsoter/19050930p01.html):
"In ordinary life we differentiate three bodily conditions: the solid, the fluid and the gaseous or airy. The solid must be distinguished from the mineral. Air and water are also mineral. Theosophical writings add to these, four other finer conditions of matter. The first element which is finer than the air is the one which causes it to expand, which always increases its spatial content. What expands the air in this way is warmth; it is really a fine etheric substance, the first grade of ether, the Warmth Ether. Now follows the second kind of ether, the Light Ether. Bodies which shine send out a form of matter which is described in Theosophy as Light Ether. The third kind of ether is the bearer of everything which gives form to the finest matter, the formative ether, which is also called the Chemical Ether. It is this ether which brings about the union of oxygen and hydrogen. And the finest of all the ethers is that which constitutes life: Prana, or Life Ether."
Therefore we have an apparent contradiction, and a glaring one at that. Further, the insistence that the etheric forces are not the four finer conditions of the physical world immediately produce other problems on a larger cosmic scale. For instance, Steiner maintained that the seven conditions of form of one condition of life (or the seven globes of a revolution, as the Theosophists and Rosicrucians would say) consist, on the descending arc, first of an upper devachanic, then a lower devachanic, then an astral and finally a physical form, with the descending arc being an inversion of this on a higher level, i.e. astral, lower devachanic and then finally upper devachanic once again. Now the problem here is simply this: if the etheric forms a separate plane, why no etheric condition of form? (Interestingly the Rosicrucians maintain that there are etheric globes or conditions of form as well as globes existing only on the lower three levels of the physical, according to their assertion that the four ethers are the upper physical; but that is neither here nor there.)
Further still, there are various reports of the human body becoming discernible lighter at the moment of death, a phenomenon ascribed, again, by Rosicrucians and Theosophists to the departure of the upper physical, the etheric.
I wonder if anyone has any thoughts regarding this?