Golden Blade

AN APPROACH TO CONTEMPORARY QUESTIONS IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY The Golden Blade Boundaries of Natural Science Ritdolj Steiner rÂTHS TO THE SpIRIT Rudolf Sieiner Two Lectures (hitherto untranslated) given at Dornach, Oct. 2 3, 1920 f'RANSLATlNG THE CoSPELS Adam Bittlcston r Bacon and Modern Science John Waterman The Heritage of Mani - Violet Plinclie Moving through Human Life - Olive Whicher Subud at First-Hand Katharine Treoelyan Studies of Threefold Man C. D. Feast of All Souls Isabel Wyatt Questions and Answers include: Exploring Space George Adams P r e s e n t i n g A n t h r o p o s o p h y - - - E r n s i L e h r s B O O K R E V I E W S The Practice of Meditation • - - Mildred RobcnsonNicolt The First Mystery Play .... Eileen Hmchins Looking at Nature - . - . IVaterman Out of the Body Adam Bittleston Dr. Westlakc's Pilgrimage .... Richard Hope Edited by Arnold Freeman and Charles Waterman 1962 PUBLISHED ANNUALLY P R I C E E I G H T A N D S I X The Golden Blade 1962 Boundaries of Natural Science R u d o l f S t e i n e r I Paths to the Spirit R u d o l f S t e i n e r 1 3 Two Lectures (hitherto untranslated) given at Dornach, Oct. 2-3, 1920 Translating the Gospels A d a m B i t t l e s t o n 2 5 Bacon and Modern Science fohn Waterman 36 The Heritage of Mani - Violet Plinclie 46 Moving through Human Life - O l i v e W h i c h e r 5 7 SUBUD AT FiRST-HAND Katharine Trevelyan 65 Studies of Threefold Man - C. D. 77 Feast of All Souls Isabel Wyatt 89 Questions and Answers include: - - 90 Exploring Space George Adams Presenting Anthroposophy - - - Ernst Lehrs B O O K R E V I E W S - - . | | 0 The Practice of Meditation - - - Mildred Robertson Nicoll The First Mystery Play - - - . Eileen Hutchins Looking at Nature John Waterman Out of the Body Adam Bittleston Dr. Westlake's Pilgrimage - - - . Richard Hope Edited by Arnold Freeman and Charles Waterman Price 816 {9/3 post free) from the Rudolf Steiner Bookshop, 35. Park Road, London, N.W.I. Natural Science and Its Boundaries ij This is the first of two lectures, hitherto untranslated, given by Rudolf Steiner at Dornach on October 2—3, 1920, in connection with the course entitled " Grenzen der Naturerkenntnis ", which had immediately preceded them.* rIATknowledge I have been of Nature saying should about have the given boundaries some indication of man's at least of the difference between the cognition of higher worlds, as we call it in Spiritual Science, and the cognition of which we speak in our ordinary, everyday consciousness or in ordinary science. In everyday life and in ordinary science we let our powers of „ cognition remain at a standstill with whatever we have acquired through the ordinary education that has brought us to a certain stage in life, and with whatever this education has enabled us to make out of inherited qualities and out of qualities possessed by mankind in general. What is called in anthroposophical Spiritual J Science the knowledge of higher worlds depends upon a man himself deliberately undertaking further training and development; upon Anthroposophy, a way of thought rather than a the realisation that as life continues on its course a higher form of body of dogma, springs from the work and teaching consciousness can be attained through self-education, just as a child of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). He spoke of it as can advance to the stage of ordinary consciousness. And it is to " a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the this hiêr consciousness that there are first revealed the things we otherwise look for in vain at the two boundaries of the knowledge human being to the spiritual in the universe of Nature, at the boundary of matter and at the boundary of ordinary consciousness. The aim of this Annual is to publish writings which It was of consciousness enhanced in this sense, through which realities at a level beyond that of everyday reality became accessible bring the outlook of Anthroposophy to bear on ques to men, that the Eastern sages spoke in ancient times, and through tions and activities relevant to the present time. methods of inner self-training suited to their racial characteristics and stage of evolution, they strove to achieve this higher develop ment. Not until we realise what it is that is revealed to man The title derives from a reference by Rudolf Steiner through such higher development can the meaning of the records to an old Persian legend. "Djemjdid was a king / of ancient Eastern wisdom be discerned. In characterising the path of development adopted by those who led his people from the north towards Iran, and sages, we must therefore say; It was a path leading to Inspiration. who received from the God, whom he called Ahura In that epoch, humanity was, so to speak, adapted by nature for Mazdao, a golden dagger, by means of which he was Inspiration. And in order to understand these paths of develop to fulfil his mission on earth .... It represents a ment into the higher realms of knowledge, it will be a useful preparation to form a clear picture of the essentials of the path force given to man whereby he can act upon and followed by the sages of the ancient East. At the ve^ outset, transform external nature ". however, let me emphasise that this path cannot be suitable for Western civilisation, because humanity is evolving, is advancing. And those who in their search for ways of higher development see I fit to return—as*From manya shorthand have report, done—^to unrevised the by theinstructions lecturer. Published given by by permission of the Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland. 1 ancient Eastern wisdom are really trying to turn back the tide of that it is an illusion to believe that understanding of the sounds of evolution, as well as showing that they have no real understanding speech is implicit in the sense of hearing, or in the organisation of human progress. which is supposed by modem physiology to account for hearing. With our ordinary consciousness we live in our world of thought, Just as we have a sense of hearing, we have a sense of speech— in our world of feeling, in our world of will, and through acts of a sense for the sounds of speech. By this is meant the sense which cognition we bring to apprehension what surges up and down in enables us to understand what is perceived in the sounds of speech, the soul as thought, feeling and will. Moreover, it is through outer just as the auditory sense enables us to perceive tones as such. perceptions, perception of the things of the physical world, that our And if some day we have a really comprehensive physiology, it consciousness first awakes in the real sense. will be known that this sense for the sounds of speech is entirely The important point is to realise that for the Eastern sages, for analogous to the other, that it can rightly be called a sense on its the so-called Initiates of the ancient East, a different procedure was own. It extends over a larger area wi&in the human organism necessary from that followed by man in ordinary life in regard to than several of the other, more localised senses, but for all that it is the manner of dealing with perceptions, and with thinking, feeling a definitely circumscribed sense. and wUling. We also have a sense, extending over nearly the whole of our * bodily frame, for perception of the thoughts of another person. Some understanding of the ancient path of development leading What we perceive in the word itself is not yet the bought it conveys. into the higher worlds can be acquired by considering the following. We need other organs, an organic apparatus different from that At certain ages of life we develop the spirit-and-soul within us to a required for the perception of the word as such, when we want to state of greater freedom, greater inde^ndence. During the first understand through the word the thought which the other person is years of infancy it works as an organising force in the body, until communicating to us. with the change of teeth it is liberated, becomes free in a certain We are also equipped with a sense that extends over the whole sense. We then live freely with our Ego in the element of spirit- of our body: we can call it the sense for the perception of the Ego and-soul, which is now at our disposal, whereas previously it was of another person. In this connection even philosophy has become occupied with harmonising and regulating the body inwardly. But childish in the modem age, for to-day one can, for example, often as we grow on into life there arise those factors which in the sphere hear it argued: We meet another person; we see that he has a of ordinary consciousness do not, to begin with, permit the liberated human form like our own, and because we know that as human spirit-and-soul to develop to the point of penetrating into the beings we are endowed with an Ego, we conclude, as it were by spiritual world.

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