I

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Seal of the fourth mystery drama by Rudolf Steiner.

I (Middle High German: ich, Old High German: ih, Gothic: ik, German: Ich, Greek: ἐγώ / Latin: ego; from Indo-European: *eĝom "eĝ[ō]"; Hebrew: אָנֹ֖כִי ânochî, anokhi or אֲנִי âni[1] ) is in Modern English the personal pronoun with which every person can only refer to himself. In the deeper spiritual sense, however, it does not merely denote the earthly embodied personality, but the divine spark (Hebrew: נִיצוֹץ Nitzotz) in man, the spiritual core of man's being, his actual I-being. In the Indian theosophical tradition it is approximately called kama-manas, by which, however, the lower self, the ego, hardened in egoism, is more understood. With reference to Solomon, the I is also called Itiel (Hebrew: יתיאל "God is with me[2]; possessor of power") according to Rudolf Steiner (Lit.:GA 116, p. 83). Man's higher self, his spirit self, is the astral body consciously transformed by the I.

Awareness of one's own I is promoted in particular by the fourth subsidiary exercise, positivity. Rudolf Steiner shows a meditative way to experience the I-body or thought body in (Lit.:GA 16, p. 55ff).

Foundations

The I as such cannot be grasped as existing somehow and somewhere, but can only be experienced in its direct creative activity, through which it primarily creates itself constantly anew. Through his bodily shells, man is a creature of higher powers, but through his I he is a free creator of himself.

„The only reason why we can never be rid of our own I lies in the absolute freedom of our being, by virtue of which the I in us cannot be a thing, a thing capable of objective determination. Hence it comes about that our I can never be comprehended as a middle member in a series of conceptions, but always steps in front of each series again as the first member, which holds the whole series of conceptions: that the acting I, although determined in each individual case, is at the same time not determined, because it escapes from every objective determination, and can only be determined by itself, thus being at the same time the determined and the determining.“

– Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling: Philosophical Writings, First Volume, p. 168

When man incarnates on Earth, he forms the I-organisation (also called I-bearer or I-body) as the highest of the four fundamental members of man's being and as the source of I-consciousness. In the I-experience, the human being feels himself as an indivisible wholeness, as an individuality or monad, which forms the determining centre of his earthly embodied personality and from here not only directs the soul forces of thinking, feeling and willing, but also gradually spiritualises his bodily members and thereby integrates them into his immortal individuality. First the astral body is transformed into the spirit self - the I has become creative in the soul-astral and has thereby ascended to the higher I. Later the I learns to transform also the etheric body into the life spirit and finally even the physical body into the spirit man. Its creative power is then also fully consciously active in the living and in the physical.

Literature
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

  1. ↑ אֲנִי âni probably corresponds largely to the lower ego and אָנֹ֖כִי, ânokî to the divine I. However, as in most ancient languages, in [[w:Hebrew|]] the I is often not written on its own, but added to the prefix or suffix for grammatical marking of the 1st person to the verb. âni is the origin of the prefix [[w:Aleph|]], which is used to indicate that I am the doer in it; the suffix ni, also derived from âni, indicates that I am the passive object of the action, such as in the Psalms referring to Christ's word on the cross: Hebrew: אֵלִ֣י אֵ֭לִי לָמָ֣ה עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי Psalms 22:1 Greek: ἐλώι ἐλώι λεμὰ σαβαχθανί "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani" (My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me) (Matthew 27:46). Also significant is the Aleph prefix in the name of God that Moses hears from the burning bush: אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה "ähejäh 'aschär 'ähejäh" (I am the I-am) (Exodus 3:14); הְיֶ֖ה , "hejäh denotes "being" par excellence and becomes I-ness through the Aleph prefix." [1]
  2. ↑ cf. Strong's Concordance „Ithiel“
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