Copyright Alan Whitehead & Earthschooling: No Part of this book, post, URL, or book excerpt may be shared with anyone who has not paid for these materials.
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…
The Beautiful Butterfly
CREATURE OF THREE ETHERS
Why is black such a common color in butterflies? Well, one property of black is its unmatched capacity to absorb warmth and light, in the case of the latter, all the colors of the spectrum. This is especially so with matte black, as usually found on butterfly wings (as opposed to, say, glossy black on beetles). When a butterfly chooses to rest, not necessarily when feeding on it favorite nectar, it invariably arranges its ridiculously large wings to face directly towards the sun. In fact, these sublime creatures rarely rest in the shade at all. A sun-facing position assures maximum absorption of energy in the form of warmth and light, the wings literally being incredibly efficient solar panels. This energy-gathering power is enhanced by the surface cells often being composed of iridescent, sometimes even metallic, crystalline scales.
The various non-black tones of the different butterfly species are finely discriminating collectors of warmth and light; with darker colors like blue absorbing more than, say, yellow. The unique pattern on the wings of every kind of butterfly determines that differing and highly specific qualities and quantities of warmth and light are taken in form the sun. Aerodynamically, butterfly wings are one of the lest efficient of the invertebrate world, but as solar energy collectors, they are without peer.
Of course, the underside of the wings is invariably dull in comparison to the top surface, there being no advantage here as solar panels, This tertiary palette rather assists in usually clever camouflage. As, when a butterfly is not dangerously basking for all to see in the sun, it rests with its wings folded, exposing to view only the dull underside to merge with the scattered leaves, bark, whatever, of its environment. So, which part of the wings absorbs warmth, and which light?
“Endeavor first of all to love not just individual animals, but to try to develop a living inner feeling for whole groups of animals. You will then gain an idea of the nature of the group soul.” Rudolf Steiner.
We need to have recourse to the Alphabet of Creation for a peek into this mystery. The Laws of Warmth were born on Ancient Saturn, or Archaea, to become physically extant in its later earthly expression, Polaria.
Warmth, or fire, manifests primarily through the sphere, or circle. We see this form, generically at least, in the two small, disc-like back wings of the butterfly. Actually, the Polarian gift to Creation was the elevating of primordial warmth to warmth ether; the supra-natural power behind all that embodies life-supporting ‘fire’ on earth.
Indeed, the whole invertebrate world has a Polarian origin – or Archeozoic (‘first animal’), as natural science calls it. Hence the patterns, not to mention the circular form, of the smaller back wings are often distinctly different from those of the larger front. These front wings, due to their usual triangular shape, confirm rather an Ancient Sun provenance; that which, after a pralaya, followed Old Saturn. AS the circle is the universal symbol – indeed reality – of warmth, the triangle, or angle generally, is the same for light – and its partner in Creation, air. Both light and the gaseous element were created on Old Sun, with Light Ether, an etheric manifestation, being a product of Hyperborea (Paleozoic – ‘old animal’), the Sun recapitulation epoch on earth. As such, the large, triangular front wings’ banks of solar cells are designed to absorb, not warmth this time, but light ether energy.
So, we have the shapes and figuring of the wings determining the kind of energy-ethers absorbed by the butterfly – but why all the wonderful colors? Color is astral in nature, just as darkness is Ancient Saturn-physical, and dark-light is Ancient Sun-etheric.
Being astrally inspired, the colors on butterfly wings relate to the Color Ether. With its two evolutionary collaborators, soul, and the liquid element, this was created on Old Moon. The most powerful soul component of most animals – even of the virtuous butterfly! – is the imperative to reproduce; to have sex to put it baldly. The earth equivalent of Ancient Moon was Lemuria (Mesozoic – ‘middle animal’). The colors on a butterfly’s wings actually absorb, in an even more cryptic process, Moon forces; those that simulate the sex drive. I saw this one day when watching a black and blue butterfly desperately trying to mate with an aptly-named blue butterfly-clip clothes peg on the line – in vain, alas!
Nothing in the living world, no shape, no color, is arbitrary. It is only by gradually learning, with the invaluable aid of Spiritual Science, the language of nature that we can make some sense of the seeming random and inexplicable. Rudolf Steiner once said that every invention of man already existed in the natural world, citing the paper-making wasp as example. Who would have thought that even that miracle of modern technology, the solar energy cell, would already have been invented by the humble butterfly!
FROM: Sacred Fauna: Zoology in Light of Steiner’s Spiritual Science
Four Kingdoms Companion volume to: Sacred Places Minerals & Land; Sacred Fauna Botany; Sacred Faces A Study of Man
Important Earthschooling Notes
Copyright Alan Whitehead & Earthschooling: No Part of this book, post, URL, or book excerpt may be shared with anyone who has not paid for these materials.
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.
END NOTE
Alan has presented dialogue in his writings in an expressive form, where he tries to capture the accent of the person he was with to give his writing more authenticity and to allow the reader to “be with him” in his experience. In no place in his writings is he using expressive language to make fun of or demean the speaker. So, as a person with a linguistics and anthropology degree I find this enriching and informative to me as the reader. Thus, we have made the decision to leave all expressive writing in its original form.
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