Sense of smell
The sense of smell is one of the twelve physical senses Rudolf Steiner spoke of in his theory of the senses and mediates olfactory perception, the perception of odours with the help of the nose. The specific smell of certain substances or mixtures of substances is also called aroma (Greek: ἄρωμα ároma "spice, fragrance, perfume"). Like sounds and colours, odours, also called odor (Latin: "smell, stench, fragrance"), have their soul reality in the soul world in the so-called region of region of mobile sensitivity and spiritual beings live and work in them. The World Aroma is a revelation of the first Logos.
„The first Logos flows forth as a world-aroma, as a clearly perceptible odour. In every odour dwells a spiritual being of a higher or lower nature. Very high good entities dwell in incense; they draw us directly upwards to God. Beings of the lowest nature are incarnate in the odour of musk. In earlier times, when people understood more about these things, they used musk for lower sensual stimulation.“ (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 198)
Patchouli, for example, is also regarded as an odour in which lower spirits incarnate[1].
„That sublime being who is creative for our world as the second Logos, that is the creative light. That which passes through the universe as the highest revelation, that is the world-aroma. This is a still higher principle of creation than world tone and world light. World-sound is the third Logos. World light is the second Logos, and world aroma is the first Logos. This is the highest. When the highest creating turns into the opposite, then it is the destroying. Here we have the opposite of the world's aroma; when in folk tales the devil is given the bad smell, this is meant to indicate that the destructive nature of the world is being referred to.“ (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 210)
Literature
- Henning Beck: Faszinierendes Gehirn: Eine bebilderte Reise in die Welt der Nervenzellen, 2. Auflage, Springer Vergalg 2017, ISBN 978-3662547557, ASIN B0787SR655
- Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophie – Psychosophie – Pneumatosophie, GA 115 (2001), ISBN 3-7274-1150-3 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Aus den Inhalten der esoterischen Stunden, Band I: 1904 – 1909, GA 266/1 (1995), ISBN 3-7274-2661-6 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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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
- ↑ cf. Weltenäther - Elementarwesen - Naturreiche, Texte aus der Geisteswissenschaft Rudolf Steiners, edited by Dr. Ernst Hagemann, Oratio Vlg., Schaffhausen 2000, p. 159
