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Alan speaks in a very symbolic and esoteric manner in some parts of his books. Although they can be read anthroposophically, passages speaking of Atlantis, archangels, gods, etc. do not need to be taken literarily to be meaningful. The more you read, the more you will realize he uses many different religions to express ideas in a symbolic manner and not in a religious manner. His writings are not religious. In some places his writings are meant to refer to religious events in a historical way. In some places he is using religious figures (from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Ancient Roman and Greek Religions, etc.) in a symbolic manner. However, at no point is he promoting a specific religion or speaking from a religious point of view.
I have kept the writing as close to one-hundred percent original so you will also find that he speaks of Australia often and some spelling or manners of speaking may be cultural. Any words I have changed are presented like this: <word>.
Also keep in mind that these books are written by a Waldorf teacher with decades of experience who also studied with a Steiner student himself, so he speaks to an audience that is dedicating their lives to the Waldorf method without exception.
Because of this, all of his views are not reflected in the Earthschooling curriculum and not all of them may be ones you want to embrace or are able to use. In all of Alan Whitehead’s writings the opinions are his own and may not align with Earthschooling or Waldorf Books. In some cases, we will be updating some of these chapters in the future with additional and/or updated information.
Ultimately, however, as I read through these passages I find I can distill wisdom from even those paragraphs that do not resonate with me.
We invite you to read with an open mind and heart and with eagerness to learn and discuss…
CHILD AWAKE!
Twelve Senses – Class 3 – Main Lesson
“See that Osprey – the fish eagle – he and his raptor relatives are a timeless symbol of The 12 Senses. From hundreds of feet in the air, they can spot a tiny, silver glint beneath the troubled surface of the water, betraying the presence of dinner.” Said Bird man. Idios, the Class 3 teacher, squinted up into the sun as the Osprey circled high above; she could see the broad markings on the underside of the wings – but he could see the whites of her eyes!
Idios had just made the journey to Bird Man’s cliff-top keep to deepen her knowledge on the mystery which is the human senses. She was shortly to teach a 3-week main lesson on the subject, as the Human strand of the 3-fold Science main lesson program. She began uncertainly.
“I understand that the eagle in particular, and the bird world in general, is a faunal expression of the ‘head’ forces, wherein the senses have their epicenter. Scorpio is the head quadrant of the Zodiac, formally known as Aleph the Eagle – that is before the esoteric mischief-makers got to it. The eagle is undoubtedly a more apt image for this ‘senses sign’ than a poisonous insect! Especially if one considers their perfect sense of sight.” Idios sat down on a large, flat rock, a sun-drenched platform high above the lazy rhythm of the white combers below.
Bird Man leaned over, peering into the green depths; the breeze tugged at his long, filmy beard. He was a tall, rangy man of indeterminate age, and wore only a pair of shorts. His skin was golden brown from his bastion’s exposure to the sun, and his feet were bare – as usual. With these he gripped the rock with invisible suction cups as he learned further over the precipice.
“Ah, do you mind stepping back just a little, said Idios, her voice calm but brittle “I’m finding it hard to concentrate.” The wind gusted and tore at her pretty floral frock, rocking her slightly – “NOW!!”
“Okay, okay; I just saw a school (?) of blue jellyfish down there that’s all; you can see them if you lean over …never mind. The jellyfish is a coelenterate, or ‘hollow stomach’; and they bequeathed the Sense of Movement to the world – and to man in particular. Look how they pulsate, even from way up here you can see it. How would you describe such kinetic perfection?”
“Visible ululations maybe? Let’s go back to the cottage.” The two walked down the narrow track to Bird Man’s tiny dwelling. It was made of stone, and looked as if it had grown out of its tumbled ligneous surrounds – perhaps it had? “I like it like that, for the senses to remain alert, they must have periods of repose. In here I cultivate that higher aspect of ‘head’ function, thinking – a nerve activity rather than sense. I suppose one must be aware of the origin of the senses before planning a lesson program.”
Bird Man stoke dup the glowing coals I the little wood stove and put the kettle on before continuing “The senses are the oldest possession we have, indivisible as they are from the original Physical Body. We were given the germ of sensory perception on Ancient Saturn. Naturally there wasn’t much to sense there, except warmth.
However, the senses were more active, in a precursory way on Ancient Sun. But it was on Ancient Moon that these inbuilt information gatherers were perfected. Even though there wasn’t a tangible world as we know it, the senses perceived a supersensible reality – our ‘ears’ heard the Music of the Spheres for instance.
Alas, on the present Earth, the human senses are in decline; that’s why we are so bankrupt of senses compared with the animal world. Not surprising really; in faunal evolution, the earth is where their senses were perfected – in a specialized way of course. The Bloodhound suppresses virtually all other senses to heighten his ability to smell – and smell he does, perfectly!”
“And the Bat does likewise with hearing;” added Idios, warming her mind to the subject, and her toes at the stove “small bats hear the wing-whirr of moths and catch them on the air, at blinding speed (literally). They are directed, via their membranous ears, by sound alone – UHF sound!
“Yes,” replied Bird Man slowly as he poured the tea “even though human senses are in decline, we’re going to need them for a long time yet. In fact they’re the guideposts on the long road back to the Spirit. Nerve/thought urban life tends to hurry this decline. That’s why I live up here, it’s so … so stimulating. Though it’s still a long way to the New Jupiter earth incarnation, where our senses will have become completely redundant – this of course is due to there being no sense world to perceive.
Jupiter will in a sense – sorry – be a planet of spiritual substance … is that a contradiction? I think, thought story and anecdote, that these realities can be brought to children; it provides a context which opens a door to that wonderful enigma, the senses.”
“Ah yes, I’ve been working on a story draft – one sugar thanks – the senses inhabit the human ‘house’, the body – but only gradually. The newborn babe can hardly see, and the highest of the 12 senses, that of the Ego, is not fully incarnated until age 21. As there are 12 senses, my ‘house’ will have 12 rooms which our adventurer (the awakening sense consciousness of the child) explores one by one.
S/he/they enters each room on the assumption of sense ignorance and, after making the inevitable blunders, learns to harness the particular sense faculty – making the house her home so to speak. Take the first room; the Cancer sense, that of Touch. Our hero/ine enters in total darkness and, before ‘acclimatization’, crashes around, with even life-threatening situations being descried, like staggering around on the lip of a bottomless pit! (These children are now 9 years old, they can handle the heavy-negative – as long as the light-positive triumphs.)
Gradually, perhaps with the help of a guiding hand of some kind, the tactile lessons are learnt, and the room becomes reassuringly familiar. That is until a secret door is discovered, leading to the next room. This one is Leo of course, The Sense of Life …”
“I can imagine what follows; hey, that’s a long tale. I suppose you’d take an episode, or ‘room’, per day; a 12-day serial, perfect for a 15 day main lesson, with one day each for intro, and conclusion – and one for an excursion.”
Bird Man stared out the small window into the glare as he spoke “it seems that there is a strong thinking-feeling-will aspect to this content. The general class discussion and presentation of the factual material is the thought element; the story and artistic interpretation the feeling – and the will? Ah, what a fabulous opportunity to have the children experience each sense – one per day in an impactual and will-stimulating way. As a practical task, they might even create a Senses Path for the kindy!
The Sense of Touch; children could be blindfolded and have to identify objects – or to find their way through an obstacle course in a darkened room (with precariously balanced saucepans of water perhaps – to add the sense of danger!). Or, blindfolded again, find their way from down in the bush back to the classroom – accompanied by someone of course, to avoid accidents – and prevent cheating!). These games heighten sense consciousness, cultivating a level of sense awareness inaccessible in everyday life.”
“Many of the senses lend themselves to this experiential approach, like Taste for instance. Again blindfolded, they would have to identify tastes without the supporting senses – even smell. If your nose is clogged, you cannot tell the difference between cooked apple, potato – or choko even. These sense games can get harder further up the list. How would they experience the Sense of Ego?!”
“Not easy, but as the children are only 9 years old, with this sense at a seminal stage only, it’s not imperative either. They can participate on a basic level by, say, staff jousting. Relax – I didn’t mean during the weekly tournament, I mean a staff meeting! You know, like Robin Hod and Little John on the log bridge, with the poles. This activates consciousness in the shoulders, where the Sense of Ego resides. These two denizens of Sherwood Forest had the mentality of 9-year-olds now I think of it!?
“Okay,” replied Idios, wondering how her companion would fare in a joust, he certainly was well built “we’ve looked at three; what about the Sense of movement?”
Bird Man leapt off his chair to the alarm of Idios and prowled around the tiny kitchen like a black panther. “Imitate animals, perfecters of the Sense of Movement.”
“Ah, the Aborigines loved this kind of faunal mime, and so will my children – but I do wish you’d give me warning when you do something – er, dramatic – like that, you frightened me just then.” Bird Man adjusted his sun-hardened features to a mask of contrition before replying.
“Sorry, but the senses don’t get any warning, they respond instantly, like the Sense of Balance. The mat is pulled form under you, and bang – you either bring your Libra sense online in an instant, or …!”
“I see, perhaps I can bring in examples of the 7 different smells for instance – the Scorpio sense. And I’ll certainly make the children aware of the 4 taste types, slat, sour, bitter and sweet – for Sagittarius.”
“Sight testing presents lots of opportunities with lettercards, color circles and the like – and they’ll just love ‘camouflage games’.
This Capricorn sense is one upon which we most heavily depend in this day and age. However, unlike the Osprey, our task is to ‘ensoul’ sight, so that it doesn’t descend into irredeemable materialism – ‘I only acknowledge that which I can see.’.
No, in the future, sight must be related to beauty, to be elevated by artistry. WE don’t see merely to serve practical life but lift our seeing – or ‘seer-ing’ – so that we can take the first faltering steps to supersensible perception, to a clearer vision – to ‘clairvoyance’! The path of art is that which must be traveled to reach this sublime perception – your class can compare beautiful and ugly things to determine what the different visual essences are.”
“Thank you, I’ll make a note of that. And then there are the Aquarius games, for the Sense of Warmth – temperature guessing and the like. Oh, and the differences of the activity of our warmth receptors in various parts of the body – hot head, cold hand! Heat/cold perception lives in the blood, the organ for the Sense of Warmth. I’ll have to describe the perceptive organ of each of the 12 senses yes? Take the ear for instance, one of the most wonderful structures in the universe, organ of the Sense of Hearing.”
“When I did this lesson many moons ago – or in this case, many Pisces ago – I played sound games with the children based on this Sign of the Fish sense.”
Bird Man cocked his head “Did you hear that?”
“What, the sea?”
“No – the screech of the Osprey; quite a long way off really. That reminds me of one sound game, where the children had to indicate if they could still hear a Tibetan chime as it was rung at increasing distances. One little girl could hear it 9we had our ways of knowing) form over twice the distance of everyone else in the class.
This prodigy factor in any one sense occasionally brings great interest to the lesson – and in the talented child. In one of our balancing games, one boy – strangely inept in most other areas of schoolwork – could easily walk along the top of a paling fence. He was the Sense of Balance personified and warmed himself in the merit for months afterwards. More coffee?”
“Yes please – the Aries Sense of Word – you forgot the sugar – is a tough one, like all 3 of the top senses. Perhaps we could at least focus on the ‘language’ of the senses? Naturally the children, as in other areas of the lesson, would have broad input into the vocabulary: furry; rough; sandy … and the ‘life’ words: zest; healthy; well-being; ailing…”
“And what about my favorite, the ‘movement’ words: fleeting; amble; gyrate … and the ‘balance’: equilibrium; dizzy, steady; even …”
“I like the ‘smells’: perfume; pungent; putrid – well, some smells anyway! And then there are the ‘tastes’ – can I have another piece of date slice? – Mmpph, it’s delicious, so nutty and creamy … I can’t actually think of any taste words right now?”
“It’s the ‘sight’ words which impress me: astigmatic; optical; lambent … and the ‘warmths’: frigid; blood (this isthe organ for the perception of warmth); luke …”
“Luke? I can’t wait to get to the onomatopoeic or ‘hearing’ words: rustle; susurrate; roar. Ah, and now we’re back to the Sense of Word – how about language; orate; whisper? The 12 senses are divided into 3; of body, soul, and spirit, with touch/life/movement/balance the body senses; smell/taste/sight/warmth those of soul – and hearing/word/thought/ego the spirit senses.”
“Ah yes, the 3rd of the spirit senses is that of Thought – the perception of thought that is; all senses are perceptions, even the Sense of Life. one is actually perceiving one’s own inner constitution. Anyway, ‘thought’ words might be: conceive; ponder; concentrate … Finally we have the Sense of Ego, that of Gemini … um, I can’t think of any?”
“How about ‘idios’?”
Idios smiled sheepishly and walked to the door, where she watched fluffy, milk-white clouds scud across the cleanest of skies. The sea breeze moved auburn hair off warmly tanned face with its cooling hand. “With the Pictorial (astral) Aspect of the Etheric Body unfolding with 9-year-olds, it does seem to be a good time to bring the senses to consciousness, based as they are on the astral – aka ‘sentient’ – body. All senses are astral; non-sentient plants having no astral body.”
“Yes;” replied Bird Man joining her at the door “just as we stand in the house and look out on our world, so did the Ancient Persians for the first time – from the ‘house’ of their ever-hardening physical bodies. The 9thyear is that of Persian consciousness-recapitulation; the task of the Iranians, as they prefer to call themselves, was to incarnate the astral body into human culture. Your children will reenact that Mystery throughout this year, bringing a special awareness to the task in the Senses main lesson.”
“I suppose one must make the distinction between sense activity, sensitivity, and sensuality … er, I mean …” Idios glanced nervously at Bird Man, but he seemed not to notice; he went on, hoping she wouldn’t add ‘sexuality’ to the list.
“you might even make the class aware of the complementary nature of the zodiacally-arranged 12 senses – without mentioning the zodiac of course! This is the Law of Opposites, employed so effectively by teachers/healers in handicapped schools. When one sense is weak, nature, with the help of the teacher, can vitalize the opposite sense on the zodiacal circle in compensation. Take sight; if a person is blind – Capricorn – then the opposite – Cancer – sense of touch comes online. I have seen a blind girl creating, with the sense of touch alone, a lovely mohair shawl – and this was a profoundly retarded person!”
The two friends sat down again to ponder this marvel; and those of the other 5 sets of ‘opposites’. How much insight is received when considering the relationship between the two senses of warmth and life – of Aquarius an its complementary partner, Leo. How we can help the life forces return by a judicious application of warmth – both in the physical and psychic sense!
Then there’s Scorpio/smell opposite Taurus/thought; Pisces/hearing – Virgo/movement (music is in ‘movements’); Aries/word – Libra/balance; Gemini/ego – Sagittarius/taste. These are not only of general interest, but are bejeweled keys to both teaching and healing.
Idios turned to find Bird Man gazing at her; all 12 senses responded to the moment – were put on red alert! “Would you like to stay for tea?” he asked.
“Er, I hadn’t … I mean I don’t want to put you to any trouble. But there are still a few things to go over; like the comprehensive picture of the evolution of the senses through the 12 Animal Phyla. You know how earlier you mentioned the coal … coel … jellyfish! – with their sense of movement. For instance, which animal phylum introduced the sense of sight to a hitherto blind world?”
“The Arthropods actually; with the advent of insects, crustaceans and such, with their first with wings and jointed limbs (arthropod means ‘limb joint’), an incredible plateau of mobility was scaled. Hence the need to see – for vision. More information on this can be found in Alan Whitehead’s little manual, Hathor the Moon Cow; there we see the whole of evolution mirrored in the developing fetus. I’ll lend you my copy. How does a nice lasagna sound?”
“My sense of taste is beginning to salivate already!”
The door of the cottage closed as the osprey scythed over the clifftop – even he couldn’t see what subsequently took place!
Aristotle nominated not just four, but seven distinctive tastes, a fact agreed upon by quite a few Spiritual Scientists; these seven are: bitter; astringent; savory; hot; sharp; sweet; fatty. As such, they probably relate in their creation, as do the seven smells, tones, colors, et al, to the seven astrological planets.
As a child I had a de facto Steiner education, one example being a ‘sense of smell’ experience. My trusty fox terrier, Teena, used to accompany me everywhere in my bush ramblings: one day I snuck away while she was sleeping, and in a large paddock nearby, I ran a zig-zag path to the other side and hid. I then whistled her, and on cue she bolted into the paddock, visually searched for me, failed, and then picked up my scent trail; at a full run exactly following my zig-zag path, to find me in my shrubbery hide. Ten out of ten on the scent test, Tenna! This kind of thing ca easily be done, at home or school, with children enjoying their 12 Senses main lesson.
CHILD AWAKE!
Child awake, the stars seem to whisper,
Slowly the ark ship glides up to the beach.
Journeys are made, but journeys are broken,
Dawn brings a new world within your reach.
Turn your face away from the ocean,
Seek the house, and make it your home.
12 are the rooms, walk in with devotion,
Starlight is fading, a new day is born.
Far from home, and far from the garden,
House in a landscape, rugged and stark.
Touching through gloom, don’t let feeling harden,
Fingers are eyes in the veils of dark.
Living for life, as brave as a lion,
Courage is needed to venture ahead.
Moving through space and weaving through time,
You dance in the sunlight, you measure the tread.
Spinning and wheeling, whirling and reeling,
Standing in balance, feet firm and free.
Fragrance of roses, perfuming the air,
Taste salt from the spray of the seamless sea.
Blaze of light, of sparkling color,
Snow clouds hang heavy on frozen peaks.
Blue-cold with ice, white frost on the glass,
Red Fire-ember coals, warm heart, hands and feet.
Spiral pathway, sound beyond silence,
Murmuring oceans, the song of a bird,
Stories are told, from could land they’re sent,
They ride on the wave of the spoken word.
Thoughts are woven in all of creation,
Only one room left to open the door,
Who is the Man who’s living inside,
His head in the stars and his feet on the floor.
Full music notation in my book 33 Sun Songs.
Walter Johannes Stein’s, outline of the 12 Senses in relation to the 12 signs of the Zodiac, as expressed above comes later in this book.
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