Spiritual consciousness

From AnthroWiki
Revision as of 11:06, 25 May 2022 by Odyssee (talk | contribs)

Spiritual consciousness, also called intuition (from Latin: intuitio "immediate contemplation", to Latin intueri "to look at, contemplate, see into", from in "into" and tuere "to see") or conscious all-consciousness, the most immediate non-discursive form of cognition, is an all-encompassing holistic consciousness through which, finally, the spiritual events in the whole cosmos can be experienced. It is the transformed trance-consciousness, connected with clear self-awareness, which man had on Old Saturn and which the minerals have today. Man will have it fully developed only on the Vulcan. Through spiritual training, intuitive consciousness can already be developed to a certain extent now, when the sentient soul is transformed into the intuitional soul. A preliminary stage to this is clear fully conscious intuitive thinking. Intuition corresponds to the "unio mystica", the "becoming one with God", experienced with full clarity of thought and not merely emotionally, which the mystics strove for.

Intuition

By no means should what Rudolf Steiner calls intuition be confused with the semi-conscious, dream-like gut feeling that is colloquially referred to as intuition and is only a last remnant of a very old form of cognition that is no longer contemporary today and that is ultimately based on the widespread gut clairvoyance of early times. In contrast, the spiritual consciousness described by Steiner is three levels above the present waking day consciousness in terms of clarity and degree of consciousness and is thus the highest and most conscious form of cognition accessible to man today - at least in his earliest beginnings.

„Here it should only be pointed out that what is called "intuition" in occult science has nothing to do with what the word "intuition" is often applied to in popular usage at present. It is used to describe a more or less uncertain "idea" in contrast to a clear, logical understanding of reason. In the occult science, 'intuition' is nothing unclear and uncertain, but a high kind of cognition, full of the brightest clarity and the most undoubted certainty.“ (Lit.:GA 12, p. 67f)

„Intuition is not that trivial thing which is usually understood by it today, where someone believes to be able to recognise something through dark feeling; that is a misuse of the word. In the initiate schools, intuition is used for the highest conceivable level of consciousness, where the soul is one, identical with the beings, where it is within the beings and identifies with them. In spite of the fact that the soul remains completely individual, it is within all the things and entities of its field of vision.“ (Lit.:GA 104, p. 196)

„There is the greatest confusion at the present time about the concept of intuition. One should realise that present-day science only knows the concept of the intuitive in the field of mathematics. But among our sciences, mathematics is a form of knowledge based purely on inner perception. But such an inner perception exists not only for spatial dimensions and numbers, but also for everything else. Goethe, for example, tried to establish such an intuitive science in the field of botany. His "Urpflanze" in its various metamorphoses is based on inner perception. This is reason enough for the fact that present-day science has no idea whatsoever of what Goethe was aiming at in this respect. For much higher fields, Theosophy brings about knowledge through inner contemplation. Its statements about re-embodiment and karma are based on this. It is not to be wondered at that people who have no idea of what Goethe is concerned with are quite unable to understand the sources of the theosophical teachings. It is precisely the immersion in such valuable writings as Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants, for example, that could serve as an excellent preparation for Theosophy.“ (Lit.:GA 34, p. 398f)

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.
Retrieved from "https://en.anthro.wiki/index.php?title=Spiritual_consciousness&oldid=10391"