Christmas Imagination
The Christmas Imagination given by Rudolf Steiner describes how the image of Mary with the Jesus child is formed out of the cosmos out of the co-experience of the course of the year.
In midsummer, the Salt, Mercury and Sulphur processes of the Earth are more intermingled, in deep winter they separate from each other. At the time of St. John, the sulphur process in man is particularly strong. Man becomes inwardly luminous, especially the nervous organisation, and man is seized by the ahrimanic powers, which are closely related to the sulphurising substances. In autumn, the imagination of Michael shines forth, who, with the power that flows from his heart, melts the meteoric swarms into his iron sword, and with these iron powers that pierce the blood, defeats the ahrimanic sulphur dragon.
In winter, the alchemical process of separatio then takes place on a grand scale in nature outside, culminating at the time of the longest night, giving it its specifically Christmas character. At the time of winter, the Earth has breathed in its spiritual most strongly, it connects most with the Earth's depths. The salts of the Earth are permeable to this spiritual, but at first we have to do mainly with those lunar forces which remained in the Earth as a remnant after the moon was dissolved in the Lemurian period. In the saltiness of the Earth, these remnants of the lunar forces have a life-giving effect. They are the actual reproductive forces, which were still virginal and could rule unclouded until the time of the Fall and the associated separation of the sexes, but have since been corrupted by the Luciferic forces. That is why at Christmas we also commemorate the expulsion from paradise. The old, still virginal astral lunar forces were most aptly presented in the image of Isis. The new virginity to be regained meets us in the Christian image of the Virgin Sophia.
Above the saltiness of the Earth spreads the sphere of water, which also includes the winter snow cover, which tends to be spherical, so that the Earth appears like a large "drop of mercury" in space.
Literature
- Rudolf Steiner: Das Miterleben des Jahreslaufes in vier kosmischen Imaginationen, GA 229 (1999), ISBN 3-7274-2290-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
 |
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. |
