Beauty

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Beauty is, according to spiritual science, the revelation of a spiritual entity in the outer sensual appearance.

„The beautiful is a manifestation of secret laws of nature, which would have remained eternally hidden from us without its appearance.“

Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Maximen und Reflexionen[1]

This is especially true for human beings themselves. To strive for beauty is therefore one of the three fundamental virtues of the initiate, along with wisdom and goodness. The expression of one's facial features, the gracefulness of one's movements, one's posture and one's entire outer conduct of life should thereby become more and more the expression of one's own inner being.

The cosmic origin of beauty

Beauty appears in the highest degree where the whole cosmos, the archetype of all beauty, is imaged in an earthly being with the help of the formative powers of the etheric body.

„But because a being is formed from the periphery of the universe, that which, according to the original meaning of this word, is the essence of "beauty", is imprinted upon it. Beauty is namely the imprint of the cosmos, with the help of the etheric body, in a physical earth being.“ (Lit.:GA 82, p. 57)

Cosmically, beauty has its origin on the Old Moon and will find its perfection on the New Venus.

„On the Moon then begins that which contains the aesthetic sphere. That will be completed on Venus. We can draw it something like this: Moon, Venus completed; so here we have the development of beauty. You see, this overlaps.“ (Lit.:GA 170, p. 88f)

Drawing from CW 88, p. 88
Drawing from CW 88, p. 88

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. Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Maximen und Reflexionen. Aphorismen und Aufzeichnungen. Nach den Handschriften des Goethe- und Schiller-Archivs hrsg. von Max Hecker, Verlag der Goethe-Gesellschaft, Weimar 1907. Aus Kunst und Altertum, 4. Bandes 2. Heft, 1823