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The light is just as little visible to the senses as the absolute darkness, which is polar opposite to the light. We only perceive the effects of light on objects - and these effects are the colours in which the outer sensual world shines for us {{GZ||110|33ff}}. That is why space, which is almost empty of air but illuminated by billions of stars, appears deep black to us.  
The light is just as little visible to the senses as the absolute darkness, which is polar opposite to the light. We only perceive the effects of light on objects - and these effects are the colours in which the outer sensual world shines for us {{GZ||110|33ff}}. That is why space, which is almost empty of air but illuminated by billions of stars, appears deep black to us.  
== The Supersensible Nature of Light ==
Light in itself is neither sensual nor material, but of a purely supersensible nature. In the [[etheric world]] it reveals itself to the spiritual observer as [[light ether]] and in the fifth region of the [[astral world]] as [[soul light]]. Of the two basic forces of the soul world, [[sympathy]] and [[antipathy]], antipathy has already been completely overcome. The soul light shines freely and widely through the "soul space". An even higher form of light is the creative [[spiritual light]], which [[Rudolf Steiner]] very rarely also referred to with the theosophical or gnostic expression [[aeon light]].
{{GZ|As the eye distinguishes light and darkness, as the eye distinguishes different colours, so the spiritual, the developed, open eye of the occultist distinguishes the higher, shining light of the spirit, which is not sensual light, which is a brighter shining light in higher worlds, in higher spheres, and this shining light of the spirit, that is reality for the occultist just as our sunlight is reality for our observation. And we see in individual things that the sunlight is reflected back. Thus the occultist distinguishes the radiant self-lighting of the spirit from the peculiar glimmering of light which is reflected back from the world of forms, as a soul flame. Soul means reflecting spiritual light, spirit means radiating creative light. These three realms are spirit-world, soul-world and form-world, for so they appear to the occultist.|52|348}}
{{GZ|The mystic lives into what lives and weaves around him and in him. He feels the creative light that works outside and creates inside. He is himself shining and sounding in a shining and sounding world. When he lives in the creative light, lives in the creative sound, then he has mystical life. Then something comes over a person that is different from the light from outside and the sound from outside. Once you have experienced this, you feel it to be the truth. The Gnostics, the Egyptian mystics, the mystics of the Middle Ages speak of the creating light. They call it the aeon light. It is a light which from the mystic awakens the objects around him to living life. This is the pleroma of the Gnostics. Thus the mystic feels blessed in the world-light. He feels blissfully interwoven with this aeon light. There he is not separate from the essence of things; there he is partaker of the immediate creative power. This is what the mystic calls his beatification in the creative light.|51|214f}}
In [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistic]] [[mysticism]], the undefinable and indeterminate boundless primordial light that emerged from nothing, from which, according to the teachings of [[Isaac Luria]], creation arose, is called [[Ain Soph Aur]] ({{HeS|אין סוף אוֹר}}), literally "the non-finite light", from {{He|אין}} ''ain'' "nothing", {{He|סוֹף}} ''soph'' "finite" and {{He|אור}} ''or'' resp. ''aur'' "light". In the beginning, everything was filled with the hidden essence of God, the boundless, featureless primordial being. Through God's self-limitation ({{HeS|צמצום}} [[Zimzum]]), an empty space came into being into which the primordial light shone as a flash of creation and brought forth the created world. 


== See also ==
== See also ==

Revision as of 06:49, 18 September 2021

Light (Latin: lux; cf. also Greek: λευκός leukós "light, white, shining"; derived from Indo-European: *leuk- "to shine, radiate, sparkle", from which the German word lohe "blaze, flame" also derives; Hebrew: אוֹר or or aur, related to אוֹרָה aura) is the necessary real condition for us to be able to see external objects by means of our sense of sight. The place from which the light emanates is called the light source.

The light is just as little visible to the senses as the absolute darkness, which is polar opposite to the light. We only perceive the effects of light on objects - and these effects are the colours in which the outer sensual world shines for us (Lit.:GA 110, p. 33ff). That is why space, which is almost empty of air but illuminated by billions of stars, appears deep black to us.

The Supersensible Nature of Light

Light in itself is neither sensual nor material, but of a purely supersensible nature. In the etheric world it reveals itself to the spiritual observer as light ether and in the fifth region of the astral world as soul light. Of the two basic forces of the soul world, sympathy and antipathy, antipathy has already been completely overcome. The soul light shines freely and widely through the "soul space". An even higher form of light is the creative spiritual light, which Rudolf Steiner very rarely also referred to with the theosophical or gnostic expression aeon light.

„As the eye distinguishes light and darkness, as the eye distinguishes different colours, so the spiritual, the developed, open eye of the occultist distinguishes the higher, shining light of the spirit, which is not sensual light, which is a brighter shining light in higher worlds, in higher spheres, and this shining light of the spirit, that is reality for the occultist just as our sunlight is reality for our observation. And we see in individual things that the sunlight is reflected back. Thus the occultist distinguishes the radiant self-lighting of the spirit from the peculiar glimmering of light which is reflected back from the world of forms, as a soul flame. Soul means reflecting spiritual light, spirit means radiating creative light. These three realms are spirit-world, soul-world and form-world, for so they appear to the occultist.“ (Lit.:GA 52, p. 348)

„The mystic lives into what lives and weaves around him and in him. He feels the creative light that works outside and creates inside. He is himself shining and sounding in a shining and sounding world. When he lives in the creative light, lives in the creative sound, then he has mystical life. Then something comes over a person that is different from the light from outside and the sound from outside. Once you have experienced this, you feel it to be the truth. The Gnostics, the Egyptian mystics, the mystics of the Middle Ages speak of the creating light. They call it the aeon light. It is a light which from the mystic awakens the objects around him to living life. This is the pleroma of the Gnostics. Thus the mystic feels blessed in the world-light. He feels blissfully interwoven with this aeon light. There he is not separate from the essence of things; there he is partaker of the immediate creative power. This is what the mystic calls his beatification in the creative light.“ (Lit.:GA 51, p. 214f)

In Kabbalistic mysticism, the undefinable and indeterminate boundless primordial light that emerged from nothing, from which, according to the teachings of Isaac Luria, creation arose, is called Ain Soph Aur (Hebrew: אין סוף אוֹר), literally "the non-finite light", from אין ain "nothing", סוֹף soph "finite" and אור or resp. aur "light". In the beginning, everything was filled with the hidden essence of God, the boundless, featureless primordial being. Through God's self-limitation (Hebrew: צמצום Zimzum), an empty space came into being into which the primordial light shone as a flash of creation and brought forth the created world.

See also

Literatur
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

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