{"id":15,"date":"2020-09-02T01:34:02","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T01:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kheper.net\/?page_id=15"},"modified":"2020-09-15T07:13:10","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T07:13:10","slug":"steiner-etheric-world","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kheper.net\/topics\/anthroposophy\/steiner-etheric-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Etheric World"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Etheric World<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Etheric level is intermediate between the Physical and\u00a0 the Psychic world.\u00a0 Due to the gradational nature of reality, ac-cording to which everything can be conceived of as a vast\u00a0 spectrum or continuum, every vertical level or world can be con-sidered intermediate between the two worlds which border it on\u00a0 either side (i.e. above and below).<\/p>\n\n

Steiner referred to the most primary form of etheric substance, from which the original “Old Saturn” stage of the Earth was formed, as Warmth-Ether, that is, substance that consist of “heat” or “warmth”.\u00a0\u00a0 Now, according to physical science, there is no ac-tual substance called “heat”; temperature is simply\u00a0 the result of the motion or speed of vibration of\u00a0 atoms and other particles.\u00a0 The faster the particle\u00a0 vibrates, the “hotter” it is.\u00a0 According to Steiner,\u00a0 “heat” is an actual substance, which stands in the\u00a0 same relation to gas as gas does to liquid.\u00a0 It\u00a0 would seem that Steiner adhered to the old idea of pholidistin<\/p>\n\n

Now, I for one think we can take the word of\u00a0 physicists when they say there is no such substance\u00a0 as “heat”.\u00a0 This does not mean that Steiner was wrong though.\u00a0 It only means that he was not\u00a0 describing something which is actually physical, but\u00a0 rather something which preceeds the physical.<\/p>\n\n

On the scale of levels of being (table\u00a0 ) one finds that above the physical is the etheric level.\u00a0 Now, all these levels can be divided into sublevels, so we can speak of an etheric level which is just above the physical, and call this the heat- etheric.\u00a0 In fact, Steiner elsewhere does just that,\u00a0 for he distinguishes between the “four ethers”, the first and most primitive of which he calls “warmth\u00a0 ether”.\u00a0 The three other ethers evolve sequentially\u00a0 from this one.\u00a0 An important Anthroposophical\u00a0 writer, Guenther Wachsmuth, gives this table:<\/p>\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Spatial tendency<\/td>\ndirection of force<\/td>\nForm tendency<\/td>\nState induced<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Warmth ether<\/td>\nExpansive or centrifugal\u00a0
(radiating)<\/td>\n		\u00a0Spherical<\/td>\nHeat<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Light ether<\/td>\nditto<\/td>\ntriangular<\/td>\nGas<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chemical\/Sound<\/td>\nSuctional, centripedal (towards centre)<\/td>\nFluid<\/td>\nFluid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Life ether<\/td>\nditto<\/td>\nSquare<\/td>\nSolid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n\n

It is not often that experimental physical\u00a0 confirmation is found for subtle esoteric-occult\u00a0 concepts, but Dennis Milner and Edward Smart, work-ing with high voltage (Kirlian type) photography,\u00a0 not only detected “auras” of objects, but also, much\u00a0 more interestingly, the four Steiner ethers.\u00a0 These\u00a0 are described as follows:<\/p>\n\n

Warmth – formation of warmth spheres (spherical\u00a0 shape)
Light – raying out luminosity
Chemical – drawing inwards, circular, disc-forming
Life – individualising, planar, square or cubic\u00a0 forming<\/p>\n\n

Not all of the ethers were equally\u00a0 accesible:<\/p>\n\n

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“…because light ether devolves to warmth\u00a0 ether and warmth ether evolves to light\u00a0 ether, information has been obtained [using\u00a0 these high-voltage photographic techniques] about warmth ether activity.\u00a0 Since chemical ether\u00a0 devolves to light ether and vice versa it might be\u00a0 expected that under suitable conditions it would\u00a0 also register…and some of the results…suggest\u00a0 this.\u00a0 Life ether, being two stages removed from\u00a0 light ether, is less likely to register with the\u00a0 present photographic technique…”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

In any case, some of the results of this technique\u00a0 are shown in the following figures.<\/p>\n\n

Milner and Smart conceived of the ethers as being\u00a0 in a kind of sequence from the chaotic state of\u00a0 warmth ether, which is pure spirit, to life ether, which immediately preceeds matter (fig\u00a0\u00a0 ).\u00a0 The trouble with this theory is that one would expect warmth ether, being the most subtle, to be hardest to photograph, and life ether easiest, with the other two occupying an intermediate position.\u00a0 In\u00a0 fact, the exact reverse is the case.\u00a0 This would seem to support the position of Steiner, who seems to indicate (although for some reason he is never\u00a0 very clear on this point) a dual evolution, begin-ning with warmth and going on the one hand to solid matter and the other to life-ether.<\/p>\n\n

On a more occult level, Rudolph Steiner describes Etheric reality as the region of the “nature-spirits”, or “elementals”, to use the term coined by Paracelsus.\u00a0 Steiner sees the elemental spirits as dynamic forces intimately connected with biological forces and the rhythms of nature; and especially with the growth of plants.<\/p>\n\n

In this respect there is an interesting connection with the\u00a0 early claims by the Findhorn community; a “New Age” (in the posi-tive, rather than the sensationalist, sense) centre in Northern\u00a0 Scotland who based their work on the interaction between the\u00a0 human and the nature kingdoms, especially the nature-spirits or elementals concerned with plant-growth.\u00a0 Much of the early publicised Findhorn community material [e.g. The Magic of Findhorn by Paul Hawken, and The Findhorn Garden, a group work] is concerned with the interactions between the humans working on this project and the various nature and angelic beings.\u00a0 The na-ture spirits are considered directly responsible for plant growth.\u00a0 According to R. Ogilvy\u00a0 Crombie, one of the four founding figures of the Findhorn community: “The elementals or nature spirits…use the energy chan-nelled to them by the devas [angelic beings; the archetypes\u00a0 of species] to build up an etheric body or etheric counter-part for each plant, according to its archetypal pattern….<\/p>\n\n

Both Steiner and the Findhorn community would agree that when we move beyond physical reality, we come to a formative existence which is neither physical nor psychic, but rather something inbetween; the principle of Life, or the “etheric” principle as Steiner and the Theosophists term it.\u00a0 It is this formative reality which constitutes the locus of growth and life in the physical world.<\/p>\n\n

A great deal more could be said here regarding the nature of\u00a0 this reality.\u00a0 One could launch into a discussion on such\u00a0 phenomena as dowsing and earth energies, radionics, kirlian\u00a0 photography, acupuncture, and Reichian therapy, for all, despite\u00a0 their physical aspects, relate in greater or lesser degree to the\u00a0 Etheric reality.\u00a0 Even phenomena such as UFOs relate ultimately\u00a0 to the Etheric rather than the physical.\u00a0 Then there are the\u00a0 scientific hypotheses of Rupert Sheldrake regarding the subtle\u00a0 and non-energic formative fields, analogous to the “etheric for-mative forces” of Steiner and his successors; and physicist David\u00a0 Bohm’s distinction between the “Explicate” or manifest physical\u00a0 reality, and the “Implicate” or enfolded, latent, reality.\u00a0 For\u00a0 all these observations and techniques relate not to the purely\u00a0 physical world of matter and energy, nor the purely non-physical,\u00a0 non-spatial psychic world, but to an intermediate reality,\u00a0 neither physical nor psychic, which could be termed the Forma-tive, and which Theosophists and others call the “Etheric”.<\/p>\n\n

The Spiritual World<\/p>\n\n

back to\u00a0Rudolph Steiner main page
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The Etheric World The Etheric level is intermediate between the Physical and\u00a0 the Psychic world.\u00a0 Due to the gradational nature of reality, ac-cording to which everything can be conceived of as a vast\u00a0 spectrum or continuum, every vertical level or world can be con-sidered intermediate between the two worlds which border it on\u00a0 either side<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":18,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"yoast_head":"\nThe Etheric World - Kheper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kheper.net\/topics\/anthroposophy\/steiner-etheric-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Etheric World - Kheper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Etheric World The Etheric level is intermediate between the Physical and\u00a0 the Psychic world.\u00a0 Due to the gradational nature of reality, ac-cording to which everything can be conceived of as a vast\u00a0 spectrum or continuum, every vertical level or world can be con-sidered intermediate between the two worlds which border it on\u00a0 either side\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kheper.net\/topics\/anthroposophy\/steiner-etheric-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kheper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-15T07:13:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kheper.net\/topics\/anthroposophy\/steiner-etheric-world\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kheper.net\/topics\/anthroposophy\/steiner-etheric-world\/\",\"name\":\"The Etheric World - 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