Warmth

From AnthroWiki
Revision as of 15:57, 5 May 2021 by Odyssee (talk | contribs)
Alchemical symbol for fire

Warmth, heat and fire (from Old High German: fiur; Greek: πῦρ pyr; Latin: ignis; Hebrew: אֵשׁ esch or נר nour, cf. ner, "candle, light(s)"[1]; Arabic النور Al-Nour "light, day, fire"), the fire element or warmth element, formed the basic substance of Old Saturn. It came into being through the sacrificial act of the Thrones who surrendered their will substance. In the Hebrew alphabet Shin (שׁ), the first of the three mothers, stands for the creative fire of the spirit from which this material basis of Old Saturn had sprung. At that time the physical body of man was predisposed as a body of pure warmth or heat body. w:Heraclitus' view that everything sprang from fire vaguely points to this origin of the evolution of our whole planetary chain. Old Saturn's fire can today only be compared approximately with that which flows through our blood as living warmth. Just as light is opposed to darkness, heat is opposed to cold as an independent force.

From a chemical-physical point of view, fire is based on the formation of flames associated with light and heat phenomena, which are caused by the hot, partially ionised gases produced by the combustion of suitable fuels. Heat, or more abstractly energy, still forms the basis of the whole material world. From the theory of special relativity published in 1905 by Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the equivalence of mass and energy follows according to the well-known formula E = mc2.

Warmth ether

→ Main article: Warmth ether

The other, etheric side of the warmth element is the warmth ether. For all heat processes, the constant transition from external sensible heat to etheric internal latent heat - and vice versa - plays an essential role.

Warmth of the soul

From a spiritual-scientific point of view, warmth is not only a state that appears on and through matter, but is itself of a substantial nature. But in contrast to the other three elements, heat permeates everything and can be perceived not only externally but also internally, i.e. soul-warmth. In fire and through fire, the material begins to become spiritual and the spiritual material.

„Fire was considered to be the fourth element. Today's science, as those who remember the basic physical concepts know, does not see in fire a thing that can be compared with earth or air or water, but today's physics sees in it only a state of motion. Spiritual science sees in heat or fire nothing but something that has an even finer substantiality than air. Just as earth, or the solid, changes into the liquid, so the air gradually changes, for spiritual science, into the state of fire, and fire is such a subtle element that it penetrates all the other elements. Fire penetrates the air and makes it warm, likewise water, likewise earth. So while the other three elements are dispersed, so to speak, we see the element of fire penetrating everything.

Now the old spiritual science and with it the new spiritual science said: There is another, a considerable difference between what we call earth, water, air and what we call fire or heat. - How can earth or solid be perceived? Well, we say, by touching it. We perceive the solid by touching it and it exerts a resistance. It is the same with water. It yields more easily, the resistance is not so great, but we still perceive it as something external to us, as a resistance. And so it is with the element of air. We also perceive it only externally. It is different with heat. Something must be emphasised here which the present world-view does not regard as significant, but which must be regarded as significant if we want to look into the real riddles of existence. We also perceive warmth without touching it externally. That is the essential thing: We can perceive warmth by touching a body that has a certain degree of warmth; we can perceive warmth externally like the other three elements, but we also feel warmth in our own inner states. Hence ancient science, even among the Indians, emphasised: Earth, water, air you perceive in the outer world alone, heat is the first element that can also be perceived inwardly. So heat or fire has, so to speak, two sides: an outer side that shows itself to us when we perceive it externally, an inner side when we feel ourselves in a certain state of warmth. Man feels his inner state of warmth, he is hot, he is cold; on the other hand, he does not consciously care much for that which is in him in the form of air, water, solid substances, that is, what is air, water, earth in him. He only begins, so to speak, to feel himself in the element of warmth. The element of warmth has an inner and an outer side. Therefore the old spiritual science and with it the new spiritual science say: The warmth or the fire is that where the material begins to become spiritual. We can therefore speak in the true sense of the word of an outer fire, which we perceive like the other elements, and an inner, spiritual fire within us.

Thus, for spiritual science, fire has always formed the bridge between the external material and the spiritual, which is only perceived inwardly by the human being. Fire or warmth was placed at the centre of all observation of nature, because fire is, so to speak, the gate through which we penetrate from the outside to the inside. This fire is really like a door in front of which one can stand; one looks at it from the outside, opens it and can look at it from the inside. Fire is like that among natural phenomena. You touch an outer object and learn to know the fire that flows in from the outside like the other three elements; you perceive the inner warmth and feel it as something that belongs to yourself: you stand within the gate, you enter into the spiritual. This is how the science of fire was pronounced. Hence, however, one also saw in the fire something where the spiritual and the material play together.“ (Lit.:GA 110, p. 31ff)

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. ↑ cf. for example Hebrew: נר שבת ner shabath, the "Shabbat lights".
Retrieved from "https://en.anthro.wiki/index.php?title=Warmth&oldid=3277"