 Macrocosm
And Microcosm
11 lectures by
Rudolf Steiner
See
Summary of Contents
below.
In
Macrocosm and Microcosm, Steiner traverses a wide
range of esoteric spiritual subjects, illustrating in detail
many of the intricate relationships which exist between the
spiritual-cosmic world and human-sensory experience of
the world. Not only the subjects themselves are explored, but
also the transitions in consciousness which must be achieved
in order to arrive at concrete knowledge of the higher worlds
which are dimly reflected in the human subconscious on
the one hand, and are masked by external nature on the other.
Subjects covered
in this comprehensive examination include the spiritual
background to waking, sleeping and dreaming; somnambulism
(sleep-walking); Consciousness Soul, Mind (Intellectual) Soul,
and Sentient Soul; the Lesser Guardian and Greater Guardians
of the Threshold to spiritual awakening; Cosmic Thinking,
Feeling and Will; the Egyptian Mysteries of Osiris and Isis;
Rosicrucianism; the world of elemental beings (Elementary
World); human and planetary evolution; and much more. See the
summary of contents below for greater detail.
Trans. rev. D. S.
Osmond, C. Davy
11 lectures Vienna, 21 - 31 March 1910, GA 119
205pp; paperback
Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN 0 88010 200 4
Summary of Contents:
Top
Lecture
One:
The world
behind the tapestry of sense-perceptions. Ecstasy and mystical
experience. Waking and sleeping. The stream of forgetfulness.
Man's life alternates between Macrocosm and Microcosm. The
condition of expansion over the Macrocosm in ecstasy.
Experiences of the mystic in the inner life.
21st
March, 1910
Lecture
Two:
The
planets and their connection with sleeping and waking life. The
different forces and influences to which the human soul is
exposed during sleep. Dreamless sleep, dream-life, somnambulism.
The planetary system as a cosmic clock. Consciousness Soul,
Mind Soul, Sentient Soul.
22nd
March, 1910
Lecture
Three:
The inner
path followed by the mystic. Experience of the cycle of the
year. The sentient body as a boundary between inner and outer
experience. It screens from everyday consciousness what would
otherwise produce a burning sense of shame. The Lesser Guardian
of the Threshold. The cycle of Nature. The Northern Mysteries.
The sun at midnight. The ability to see through matter. The
Greater Guardian of the Threshold.
23rd
March, 1910
Lecture
Four:
Faculties
of the human soul and their development. The regions beyond the
two frontiers within which man's normal consciousness is
enclosed. Passing the Lesser Guardian of the Threshold through
conscious attention on waking. Experience of the three main
forces of the soul as an incoming stream from the Macrocosm.
Feelings of gratitude and obligation towards the Macrocosm.
Cosmic Thinking, Cosmic Feeling, Cosmic Will. Cosmic forces must
be replenished by the efforts of men to reach the higher
worlds. The outcome of sins of omission. The mystic vow.
24th March, 1910
Lecture
Five:
Egyptian
Mysteries of Osiris and Isis. Experiences of the candidates in
the process of Initiation. Preparation of inherited
characteristics. The "Upper" and the "Lower" man. Moving
backward in the etheric body to the frontier of the mineral
kingdom. The descent into the physical body. The priest of
Hermes as Guru. The Rosicrucian path. Mystics of the Middle
Ages.
25th
March, 1910
Lecture
Six:
Experiences of Initiation in the Northern Mysteries. Suppression
of the Ego, a necessity. Danger of loss of the Ego in the state
of ecstasy. Methods for strengthening the Ego during Initiation
in the Northern Mysteries. Experiences connected with the
seasons of the year. Helpers in the process of Initiation.
Conscious ascent into the Macrocosm. Passage through the higher
worlds: Elementary World, World of Spirit, World of Reason,
World of Archetypal Images. (See note on different terminology
at end of final lecture.)
26th
March, 1910
Lecture
Seven:
The four
spheres of the higher worlds. The process of union with the
Elementary World, to which the four temperaments belong.
Adaptation to the World of Spirit after balancing the
temperaments. At the threshold of the World of Spirit the
objective perception of one's own imperfection as an image
composed of all the Elements. Passing the Greater Guardian of
the Threshold and the vow to acquire self-knowledge and
self-perfection. Intercourse with spiritual Beings in the World
of Reason. Forces for developing clairvoyant consciousness in
the World of Archetypal Images.
28th March, 1910
Lecture
Eight:
Mirror images of the Macrocosm in man. Sense impressions arise
by a portion of the Elementary World being held back. The
nervous system as an inner solar system. Reflection of the
formative forces of the three higher worlds in the nervous
system, brain and spinal cord. Imaginative perception produces
the reflecting apparatus for the World of Archetypal Images in
the spiritual organs of perception. The image of the purified
blood and the conquest of the lower nature in the symbol of the
Rose-Cross. The staff of Mercury. The "lotus flowers": higher
organs of perception. The Rosicrucian path is the one best
suited to man's present stage of development.
28th March, 1910
Lecture Nine:
Spiritual organs of perception and the strengthening powers of
sleep. Formulae and symbols. The thinking of the heart. Three
stages of the faculty of judgment. Preparation for experience of
the higher worlds. The Ego to be viewed from twelve different
vantage points. Surrender of personal opinions. Experiences in
the higher worlds must be translated into clearly formulated
thoughts.
29th
March, 1910
Lecture
Ten:
Transformations of soul-forces and stages in the evolution of
physical organs. Reading in the Akasha Chronicle. Transition
from intellectual thinking to the thinking (or logic) of the
heart. Three stages of development. Transformation of memory
into another mode of soul activity, not in Time but in Space.
The relative ages of heart and brain. Circulation of the blood:
a symbol of the mobility of the consciousness of the spiritual
investigator. Four-dimensional space. Transformations of the
heart organ as symbol of the three successive phases of the
evolution of man and of the world. Transformation of the
Microcosm and also of the Macrocosm. Intellectual questions
have no meaning, when applied to states before intellect itself
existed.
30th March, 1910
Lecture Eleven:
Man and planetary evolution. Spiritual knowledge and the powers
of response to truth slumbering in the heart. Adaptation to the
various states of the Earth's existence. The physical is born
out of the spiritual. Transformations of organs from earlier
into new forms: for example, the Earth-heart as the outcome of
the Old Moon-heart. Formation of an organ as a germinal organ
for the future; for example, the larynx, through which we are
part of a spiritual order into which we must grow with our own
individuality. The spirit was breathed into us through the
larynx. Breathing as used in speech and song must co-operate in
the development of Spirit Man (Atma). Direct influence on the
breathing process should be practised only when knowledge
becomes prayer.
31st March, 1910
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