Cosmic intelligence

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Cosmic intelligence, the world-thinking that gives rise to world-thought, is the original source of our thinking, our earthly-human intelligence. The spiritual hierarchies shape this world thinking in their interplay, which can therefore be characterised briefly as follows:

„Intelligence means the mutual relationships of conduct among the higher hierarchies. What they do, how they behave to one another, how they are to one another, that is cosmic intelligence.“ (Lit.:GA 237, p. 168)

Bearers of Cosmic Intelligence

According to the Christian view, nine choirs of angels, arranged in three hierarchies, form this community of cosmic intelligences. The Kabbalists also refer to them as separate intellects (Hebrew: שכלים נפרדים Sechalim nifradim), since they keep themselves completely separate from matter. In anthroposophy, the hierarchies refer to the spiritual beings involved in the world evolution, arranged according to their degree of development. Above them stands the Trinity as the highest source of divine creative power. The hierarchies have advanced in their spiritual development to the human being and have an essential share in his development as well as in the evolution of the Earth. According to their degree of spiritual maturity they can be classified into different groups. In anthroposophical language, the hierarchies are often referred to collectively when the spiritual beings mentioned are meant as a whole.

The thought content of the world

Through our human thinking we bring into our consciousness the thoughts which, according to their reality, belong to the world of which we ourselves are also a part.

„The materialist does not admit that the thoughts which we form in nature are previously contained in it. He believes that we put them into it.

The Rosicrucians of the Middle Ages placed a glass of water in front of the neophyte and said to him: 'In order for this water to be in the glass, someone must have put it in. It is the same with the ideas that we find in nature. They must have been put there by the divine spirits, the helpers of the Logos.

The thoughts we draw from the world are in truth found in it. Everything we create is necessarily included in it.“ (Lit.:GA 94, p. 34)

Thoughts are spread throughout the world, they are the forces at work in things. But they do not float about freely in the world, but are carried or streamed out by spiritual beings.

Laws of nature

Laws of nature are, as many physicists also emphasise, something spiritual. Walter Heitler, for example, who was instrumental in the quantum mechanical description of chemical bonds and also published a series of books on natural philosophy and criticism of science, in which he pointed out the dangers of a one-sided mechanistic-reductionist worldview, writes:

„A mathematically formulated law is something spiritual. We can call it that because it is human spirit that recognises it. The term spirit may not be very popular today, when an exuberant materialism and positivism is doing its sometimes quite nasty blossoms. But for this very reason we must be clear about what natural law and knowledge of nature is. Nature therefore follows this non-material spiritual element, the law. Consequently, spiritual elements are also anchored in nature itself. Among these is the mathematics necessary to formulate the law, even high and supreme mathematics. On the other hand, the researcher who is gifted to make a discovery is able to penetrate this very spiritual element that pervades nature. And here the connection between the human, discerning spirit and the transcendent elements existing in nature becomes apparent. We see the matter best if we use the Platonic mode of expression, although Plato did not yet know this kind of natural law. According to this, natural law would be an archetype, an "idea" - in the sense of the Greek word eidea - which nature follows and which man can perceive. This is then what is called the idea. Through this archetype, man is connected with nature. Man, who can perceive it, nature, which follows him as a law.“

– Walter Heitler: Natural Science is Spiritual Science, p. 14f.

The physical laws, which are accessible to the rational mind, form only the lowest layer. Higher laws shape the living. Heitler also includes the harmony of the spheres in this context:

„As far as we have seen so far, the world of transcendence is home to the mathematical and physical laws that we grasp with the organ of our understanding. It is infinitely richer, richer also especially in much that is not accessible to the rational, analysing mind - as we shall see in the following chapters. We have every reason to be modest before what we do not know; our present knowledge may be so great - what we cannot do is still much greater. Could it not be that the 'harmony of the spheres' also has its home in the world of transcendence (indifferent to Kepler's relations) and is not mere fantasy, but that today we lack the organ of knowledge to recognise it?“

– Walter Heitler: Nature and the Divine, p. 46

Laws of nature describe the one-sided spatial and temporal order of cosmic events, which is only a shadowy revelation of the much more comprehensive spiritual world order, which also includes a moral dimension. In reality, it is not the laws of nature as such that matter, but the spiritual beings who bring about the effects that appear to be natural law through their deeds. From the spiritual-scientific point of view, natural laws are thoughts of elementary beings who think on the physical plane but have their bodies in the astral world. These thoughts, however, are at the same time the effective forces in nature. (Lit.:GA 93a, p. 218) The actual directing spiritual beings behind the laws of nature are the Spirits of Rotation of Time. They belong to the hierarchy of the Primordial Angels and realise the directives of the Elohim. In the biblical story of creation they are called Jom (Hebrew: יום "day") or in the plural Jamim or Days of Creation, who weave in the light as servants of the Elohim. In gnosis they were called aeons. As spirits of time they regulate the lawful course of the events of creation. In doing so, they guide the elemental beings, who for their part act as natural forces, in their actions. (Lit.:GA 136, p. 44ff)

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.
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