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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…
SUFFER THE LITTLE ANIMALS…
Conservation in the Light of Spiritual Science
Good evening: this is the news. Scientists at the Save the Planet international conference today revealed that the beginning year of the immanent collapse of the globe’s ecological systems has at last been determined; it was 1940. This dire date is also acknowledged, by scientists of a different discipline, as the world’s darkest hour, but this time in human affairs. A predatory Third Reich was advancing like a plague unopposed throughout the Western Hemisphere, with its axis partner, Japan, doing likewise in the East.
The mighty war effort harnessed to confront these scourges created a point of critical mass where a history of nature destruction, which had proceeded virtually un-noticed (except by Rudolf Steiner!) since, and prior to, the industrial revolution, reached a threshold of no return.
An adviser on spiritual scientific affairs agreed; with the disclaimer that a soul awakening of mankind to higher worlds, along with the beneficent intercession of sublime beings of those lofty reams, might yet save planet earth form a nature-driven catastrophe.
A natural science spokesman when asked to respond to this stated, “As I know of no ‘higher worlds’, then there simply couldn’t be any. Besides, all solutions to the problems in the natural world, and in any other for that matter, are to be sought in the human-material context. Science will solve all.” he said confidently. He then went on to detail the global events that prompted today’s communique.
“Prior to 1940, world climate was, although still somewhat unpredictable, fairly stable. Moderating factors of carious kinds assured that a long-term harmony prevailed between rainfall, wind, and temperature.
Since 1940, however, meteorological records over much of the globe have indicated increasing randomness and intemperance in world climate. This was especially evident in a case study on our own eastern Australian climatic changes.
Firstly, there has been an increase in precipitation in the coastal regions over the last sixty years or so, with a similar decrease inland. Here, rainfall, where it does eventually come, is also more spasmodic and violent than previously, with long periods of dry weather, drought even, increasingly desiccating previously prosperous country.
Secondly, in the same time frame the wind patterns have also altered to a measurable degree. The previously brisk prevailing sou-easterlies have markedly less force than in the earlier decades of the century; yet the coastal regions are intermittently but increasingly buffeted by squalls and wild storms of damaging intensity.
Thirdly, the global warming scenario has now been recorded in detail in Australia generally, and in the east coast in particular. Mean temperatures have gradually risen, but as well, an immoderation in the range in both heat and cold has been starkly evident.” Our reporter then asked our obliging Natural Scientist why all this change has occurred.
“We may have upset the finely-tuned ‘balance of nature’ in some way. Orit could be just a natural cycle.” He replied.
When he put the same question to Spiritual Scientist, he curiously proffered that the change in the earth’s eco-stability had a moral dimension. To illustrate this, he began with two quates, the first by Francis Bacon, an unashamed materialist (or naïve materialist as Steiner folk call them!): In scientific experimentation, we must put Nature on the rack and force her to answer the questions we put to her.
The second quote, one on a completely different moral plane, was from Goethe: We must approach Nature as a reverent lover, and, perhaps, She will whisper to us her intimate secrets.
He then went on to state that “Heat patterns were largely determined by the forces slumbering in the mineral world, not just in an ambient physical way, but in a supersensible as well. This is the Mystery of the Tomb of Adam. As Rudolf Steiner escribes, world warmth (physical body) lives in the mineral element, just as a spiritual warmth, Divine Will, lives in the corporeal body of man.
Therefore, if we influence this mineral landscape in a dramatic way, a subtle but corresponding change will register in the temperature of a region – and beyond even. Since 1940, the greed-based mineral exploitation of Australia has been nothing short of breathtaking. Mile-long coat trains transport our precious black gold, violently wrested from its eons-old tellurian cradle, to feed insatiable furnaces overseas.
However, changes to the mineral earth are well within man’s spiritual charter “to conquer the earth”, as stated in Genesis. But the complementary demand in the very same tome enjoins us to “replenish the earth”. The moral dimension, yes? Alas, most mining, and quarrying is geared to the exploitation – plundering indeed! – of the riches beneath, leaving festering scars and open sores; a literal and actual pox across the country. This damage is lasting evidence of man’s contempt for the sacred mineral world. It is this lack of respect, or love even, which has, among other factors, created the unstable temperatures we suffer today. Of course, Bio-dynamic farmers also ‘conquer the earth’; but, in the spirit of Goethe above, creatively sculpting their land, improving soil and so on.
Their holy charter is to ‘leave it better than we found it’ – not worse!
These spiritually-informed earth healers have the same holy reverence for the earth as they do of their fellow man. Oh, and another quote, this time by George Bernard Shaw: In solving one problem, natural science invariably creates ten more. For true, permanent earth healing, we must have recourse to the Spirit.”
When our reporter sought a response from Natural Scientist on this contentious statement, he thought it complete nonsense, “Look at nuclear power!” he asserted “This provided limitless energy with no, with no …!” Spiritual Scientist obligingly completed the sentence, “…with no problems? – such as weapons arsenals, leaking or exploding reactors, waste disposal…!” He then continued with his exposition of the three elements of global desecration.
“Wind change is brought about, not by mineral dislocation as with temperature, but by the destruction of the floral mantle of the earth.
Plants and wind draw their mutual support mainly from, not the physical this time, but the etheric world. Plant cover, in all its resplendent variety, is both a wind moderator and generator.
Spirals of gentle updrafts from every tree caress the air as it moves past, modelling it as a medium for its holy task in supporting life.
Forest destruction has created impoverished pathways through which winds of violence and desiccation can roar – or the opposite, be not generated at all: the result here being a slowly asphyxiating earth.
Plants of all kinds are indeed the air-conditioners of the planet, both on land and in sea. IN the spiritual gloom and mania of World War II, an unconscionable exploitation of both minerals and forest products ensured; “Better to survive in a moonscape than die in a national park.” Being the over-weaning attitude used to justify this pillage. As well, technical advances in machinery due to military imperative made this predation even more efficient.
If respect and artistry is needed to ‘conquer’ the mineral world without destructive outcomes, then veneration, or love, is the human obligation to the plant world. Veneration being the moral quality Rudolf Steiner ascribes to the ether body. Yes, we do and must render changes to our floral environment, but again we are obliged to make it better; even as we exploit it – in the long run at least. And yes, we sadly admit that this wonderful living thing, a tree, has to be felled to provide timber for our house – a sensitive soul might even weep as it crashes to earth; but ten more even better trees are planted in its place.
Now to rainfall. To brutally assault the animal world, in some cases to extinction, as has been done relentlessly over the last six decades or so, has no spiritual vindication whatever. The soul life of world fauna, especially the vertebrates, very especially the placental mammals, sees the atmosphere with beneficent astral forces; those that manifest especially through the liquid element. To exterminate the animals, or indeed wreak violence in our misguided attempt to change or modify the sentient community, such as from wild to domestic, is to negatively influence precipitation patters. This is seen to tragic effect in Africa and China, but also in Australia, where droughts are the norm rather than the exception. Humanity’s obligation to world fauna is to sustain and nurture our fellow travelers in evolution; if for no other reason than to assure our own survival!”
As he left the stage, Spiritual Scientist seemed genuinely humbled by the standing ovation from the large audience.
It’s 7:15, now more on the Save the Planet conference.
A report was given by an eminent animal geographer on the formative forces at work in the creation of the seven continents; and of the legion animals that live on them. From ancient Polaria in the south, northward-streaming forces carry the life-giving Southern Ether.
This is seen to perfection in those most etheric of animals, the cats. Most felines invariably line in, or are, in an evolutionary sense, moving towards, the triangular underbelly of the large land masses: even Australia’s cat equivalent, the various quoll species, increases in both quantity and quality towards the south of the continent.
The classic example, however, is the luckless Tasmanian tiger, Australia’s most cat-like native creature. This world’s largest marsupial carnivore, prior to its extinction, unconsciously yearned to immerse itself in the pulse of the southern ether. It did this to such a degree that it literally stepped off the bottom of Australia in general, and the Apple Isle in particular, to oblivion – with a little bit of help from its white nemesis, of course! Actually, these beautiful animals were once much more widely distributed across the country, though still, it seems, mainly in the etheric south.
Even many non-feline creatures, like the fox family, are influenced to seek this southern angularity. Indeed, the word south literally means ‘sun’, the universal mansion of Divine Ether. In global terms, the most southern of foxes, the fennec fox, lives in the Middle East, the deep south of Europe/Asia. This cute creature is triangulated to the point of absurdity, with a tiny, pinched face and enormous triangular ears: whereas the mid-latitude red fox is only moderately angular.
The least triangle-like, however, is the lovely snowy-white Arctic fox, with its softly rounded forms. It is even thought of a teddy-bear-like in its physical-body-circle – a northern manifestation – features: the word Arctic of course meaning ‘bear’.
Physical-body dominant animals, like the bears above, perpetually strive to return to their northern physical-body home. The sphere or circle is the nominal form of the physical body, that of will.
This can be seen in the family ursa of all kinds, from grizzlies to polar bears; all of which are characterized by their rum-te-tum silhouette and rolling amble. This northern physical-body magnetism extends even to deep-south Australia. This most southerly of our many possums are highly triangulated, to round off gradually as latitude decreases – right up to the most northern regions, where the classic circular forms of the cus cus are an animal illustrator’s delight.
This physical body formation force, as in the etheric triangle, impresses itself in the overall shapes of the continents, and even in the larger global land masses. An imaginative eye can see the repetition of circles on the northern coasts on every continent. This of course must take the continental shelves into account; the actual shorelines being notoriously flexible. A contemporary aside:
In recent negotiations between Australia and its tiny northern neighbor East Timor over natural gas deposits, the former duplicitously insisted on drawing the sea boundary between the two countries at Australia’s (semi-circular) northern continental shelf, giving it a distinct territorial advantage. This is of course in defiance of international convention that states that the line would be, obviously, in the middle between the two countries.
Anyway, back to the physical-body circle: little wonder that the circular-in-form musk ox of the Arctic is so comfortable there; while its triangulated cousin, the zebu, finds soul succor in – excessively triangular! – India, the ether-south extension of Terra Asia.
From the west, the forces of the ego stream invisibly across the earth. The form here is the square, seen so dramatically in the western coasts of Africa, Australia, and South America. Animals searching for a west-ego existence are, for example, the block-nosed sperm whale, until relentlessly hunted relentlessly from Albany, Western Australia; and the llama of the ego-west Andes.
The best-know ‘western’ animal is the horse – of course. This classically square-form creature originated in the west of North America as a small rather primitive forest-dweller. At some time in the deep past, it emigrated westward across the Bering Straits to Mongolia; here even today the tough little plains ponies are relics of their even tougher and littler ancestors. This equine westward march continued until they reached the far-western shores of Europe. Finally, the doughty horse realized its evolutionary apogee in such horse-crazy countries as England and racehorse-mad Ireland.
Imagine the delight of the great Spanish (western Europe!) Andalusian (western Spain!) stallions when with the conquistadors, they found themselves back in America. Here, in time, they become the iconic symbol of the Wild West – the new Ego.
The aforementioned Llama, having been designed by God with a set-square, is almost a parody of the Ego form, living in the extreme west in the mighty Andes cordillera of South America, as it does.
This transition from west to east can be seen also in the forms of cattle. Western European animals, like the sturdy Hereford and Angus breeds, are blocky in the extreme; those of Asia being much more curved, like the yak and the water buffalo.
Which brings us to the last of the four-body creation directions, the astral-east-curve. This numinous sinuous line moves across the earth with the path of the sun, from east to west. A look at any world map will confirm that all the continents are invariably gently curved on their eastern flanks, and it is here that the astrally-curved animals live, or at least strive for. Typical of these are Australia’s multitudinous marsupials; the population density, species diversity and evolutionary advancement decreasing from astral-curved east to ego-square west.
This contrast can clearly be seen in two examples; the primitive squarish little quokka in the west – thought by the early Dutch mariners to be a rat! – and the beautiful curvy koala in the east. As well, the various kangaroo species are both smaller and thinner on the ground in the west than the east; where they are so prolific that they even support a huge – if reprehensible – pet food industry!
If the square-nosed sperm is the whale of choice in theist, then its aptly-named counterpart, the beautifully curved humpback migrates mainly up the east coast of the continent; a fact well known to the pitiless ‘greedies’ who manned the extinct (even if the whales thankfully aren’t!) whaling stations once dotting Australia’s east coast.
This astral east-to-west path is that which is most accommodating to the animal world. It is a kaleidoscope of invisible metamorphic colors along which many faunal families, to one degree or another, choose to, or indeed must, live. For instance, seals can only flourish in the ‘seal latitudes’; about the same in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Although it would appear that evolution ought to coax seals sun-ward from their northerly Australian limits at Seal Rocks in central New South Wales (about 21 degrees south latitude), it curiously never does. Under natural conditions, they would surely perish.
Of course, in the artificial astral circumstances of a zoo, many animals can survive – but that’ about all! – when removed from their latitudinal comfort zones. ‘But it’s only climatic’ is the over-confident assertion of the natural scientists. Alas, the monkey (among many other) disproves that over-simplification. The primate latitudes extend from tropical to sub-tropical (with a couple of rare exceptions).
Yet along this highly varied girdle of the earth there is a great range of climate types, some determined by altitude, in which the many simian species thrive. These range from now to jungle to desert: as such, there is simply no logical reason why the highly adaptable New World monkeys, for instance, failed to migrate from tropical America to the pleasant temperate regions. There is, however, an astral one.
No monkey species will willingly leave its specific latitudinal ‘path or color’; albeit somewhat curved as it is, the classic astral form.
These supersensible chromatic pathways ring the globe, providing beneficial soul conditions for the existence of, for example, such similar flightless birds as ostriches in Africa, emus and cassowaries in Australia, rheas in South America; and the sadly recently extinct moas (named after the Moaris who rendered them thus!) of New Zealand.
There are none at all swelling naturally in the Northern Hemisphere. This highly unlikely latitudinal faunal distribution, one in which these obvious avian cousins are separated by vast oceans, is simply explained by zoologists as a case of a great single, giant flightless ancestor living in Gondwanaland prior to continental drift.
The largest of these birds is – was! – the moa, hence, according to the theory, the nearest relative to the original. (The kiwi, also endemic to New Zealand, ironically being the smallest) However, the Land of the Long White Cloud is a relatively recent geological phenomenon; not part of the eons-old continental drift process at all!
‘Straight’ science can only accept, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that one animal simply proceeded from another; that all sentient creatures (and plants for that matter) have a single – accidental! – protozoan ancestor – an utterly unbelievable scenario. Even the first simple animals, bacteria and the like, are so infinitely complex that hey just couldn’t ‘happen’. Like every other living thing on earth, they were actually created.
All have a divine supersensible rather than a physical origin.
The spiritual scientific view, in contrast, has the animals, in all their stupendous variety, gradually materializing over eons of time; endlessly experimenting in the laboratory of a planet in volatile flux-hardening, softening, advancing, retreating, descending, ascending, drying out, dying out, re-emerging …!
The group souls of the large, flightless birds have the very same supersensible home; one obviously on the Southern Hemisphere astral color path along with they all independently incarnated. Hence they are all related, but in the soul world, not the terrestrial. Of course, many other animal families enjoy life on their own specific latitudinal soul paths, like the felines, the crocodiles, the sheep, and so on.
The epicenters of the various astral paths, those that generate the seven ‘invisible’ colors that make up this soul spectrum, is known by zoologists as the Seven Faunal Regions of the Earth. Unbeknown to them, who only arrived at this self-evident reality through accurate if limited observation, the seven regions correspond to the seven forces of the soul, as embodied in all higher animals. Actually, the seven faunal regions essentially only describe the more advanced ‘soul’ animals, principally the vertebrates, very especially the furred animals.
The seven aspects of world soul are, of course, ministered to by the seven planets; collectively the timeless Soul World, as described by Rudolf Steiner. As such, in faunal terms, these powerful but invisible seven-fold planetary forces are specifically regionalized.
The first, the Australasian Faunal Region, comprises New Guinea and some adjacent island, and of course Australia. The animal community of these two areas is very similar, but amazingly dissimilar to all others in the world; thus, they form their very own faunal region.
This is in essence a Moon constituency, characterized by the kangaroo; the symbolic animal of Australia at least – though there are also tree kangaroos in New Guinea. The kangaroo is a creature composed almost exclusively of lunar shapes. This Moon-astral – or tone ether – form is very evident in many Australian animals, with furred and feathered examples being the two faunal emblems on our coast of arms, the kangaroo, and the emu. This astrality can even be seen in the curvaceous landforms these Moon creatures inhabit.
How puzzling then that the animals from the second, the Oriental Faunal Region, can island-hop all over the place, but not make the relatively simple step across to the Australasian, to New Guinea – or Northern Australia even? Take monkeys for instance: these engaging creatures flourish right through the Indonesian Archipelago and beyond; but, after millions of years of opportunity, there are none at all in nearby New Guinea – this, in spite of the climate and all other natural factors being perfect for them?
The spiritual reason is, however, obvious; they simply will not leave their Venus faunal region comfort zone to live in one governed by the Moon. The many primates great and small are perfectly content to remain where they are to be soul-massaged by the Venusian forces of love and beauty. However, it is the classic ‘stomach’ animals that are more commonly seen as symbols of this great region, one that extends from the Mediterranean eastwards to Japan, north to the Himalayas, and south to Timor; the epicenter being India. This is the sacred cow.
The stomach, or upper abdomen, the very essence of bovinity, is the nominal region of Venus in both animal and man.
Mercury is the regent of the third, the Oceanic Faunal Region. This takes in the whole North and South Pacific Oceans, including New Zealand and extending all the way down to Antarctica.
The most prominent animals in Oceania are the marine vertebrates, like seals, whales, turtles, and sea birds such as penguins. Being a mercurial zone, any of these could be used as an emblem for the region, and invariably are especially the playful quicksilver dolphin and the aptly named, wings of it’s heals, wanderingalbatross!
The Ethiopian Faunal Region, the fourth, is of the Sun; the very hub, the beating heart, of the Seven Faunal Regions solar system. The Ethiopian compasses the astral continent itself, Africa – unmatched Land of Animalia. The archetypal Sun animal, that which expresses the heart forces so powerfully, is the ‘king of beasts’ himself, the lion.
Moving westwards across the South Atlantic, we journey through the dim, dank jungles of the Land of the Jaguar. Even the mere mention of this savage, cryptic cat suggests a Mars-inspired soul.
South America is thus part of the fourth, the Tropical American Faunal Zone. This extends from the South American continent proper, north through Central America, the West Indies, into Mexico, and right up the Mississippi Valley – so it’s not strictly South American.
Even the climate has a Mars-type turbulence; the animal path curiously being the same as that of the notorious tornadoes. This is especially the case in the more northerly reaches of this fifth faunal region: one in which the jaguar once widely ranged. Another emblem could be thew howler monkey, which has the loudest call of any animal.
The anatomical regions of Mars is the larynx.
The northern counterpart of the Tropical American Faunal zone is inspired by, not Mars this time, but the creative power of Jupiter.
This is the sixth, the Nearctic Faunal Region, meaning ‘new north’; a region that embraces Canada and most of the northern and western United States. The region is invariably represented by the bear, which of course the word ‘arctic’ means. Other animals that relate even more strongly to the Jupiter ‘face’ region are the eagle and the owl.
The seventh and last of these global soul worlds is the Palarctic Faunal Region; this time meaning ‘old north’. The Palarctic comprises Europe, Scandinavia, and northern Asia. The mobile stag, a Saturn animal supreme, is most often employed to express this ‘head’ force; the region of Saturn being the skull, as it is. The mighty antlers of the males (the stag begin an especially Saturn-patriarchal animal) of most of the deer family are a cranial accessory to a very tidy package of head sense indeed, such as sight, hearing, and smell.
The seven soul color paths, today as in the deep past, are intensely if unconsciously perceived by all the higher animals. The super sensible luminous hues streaming from these holy soul centers eternally circling the world are:
Australasian-Moon, violet; Oriental-Venus, green; Oceanic-Mercury, yellow; Ethiopian-Sun, white (the combination, or spiritualization, of all the others); Tropical America-Mars, red: Nearctic-Jupiter, orange; finally brooding Palarctic-Saturn, blue.
Now for the weather: violent storms are expected later in the afternoon followed by heavy frosts, unusual in January. Then it’ll be hot and dry with …
I haven’t a clue what the weather’s going to be!!
ODE TO OLIVE
Teen Whale Activist
I leaned against the fence overlooking Byron Bay’s Main Beach on a soft, warm dove-grey afternoon. Many hundreds of people were milling around on the sand below; their intention being to make a huge, human 2-dimensional sculpture of a humpback whale.
“That chaotic mob of terminal individualists will never do it” I muttered, looking away to a cloud-crowned Mr. Warning in the distance. My scorn must have been a silent trigger, as just a few minutes later, there it was, a gigantic – and surprisingly accurate – whale; one which comprised a multitude of smiling, waving celaceaephiles. What an extraordinary power these gentle leviathans of the deep have for focusing the un-focusable. A wave of warmth surged through me as I watched this combination of compassion and artistry; all to serve the morally high purpose of banning whaling – hopefully absolutely; and proclaiming the whole Antarctic region, from 40 degrees latitude south, as a world whale sanctuary.
Another miracle of this gathering was that it was all organized by an 18-year-old girl, Olive Andrews; a mere stripling who had just left school. In fact, the proceeds of the day were to send the doughty Olive over to Mexico to campaign for an end to all whaling at the meeting of the International Whaling Convention (I.W.C.).
This small group, comprising some couple of dozen member nations, were to vote on the fate of the hapless mini minke whale once again in particular, and by illegal extension, all other large whales that the blood-drenched whaling ships happen to encounter. These include the besieged blue whales, largest animal that has ever lived, with only an estimated 700 left from an original population of a quarter of a million. At $1,000,000 a pop it’s worth bending the rules a little!
This Byron Bay gathering, in spite of the dark whisperings of a misguided few of a conspiracy theory of some secret brotherhood “hijacking the dopey Greens to further their own (unexplained) agenda”, was a-political in the best sense of the word.
But back to the real agenda: this was a multilateral one, based solely on ecological responsibility. It has been demonstrated that it is impossible to monitor the remote and arcane activities of whaling, the world’s cruelest and most barbaric industry. (It takes ten torturous minutes – minimum! – using explosive harpoon and electrocution to kill even a tiny minke whale – how long for a big Blue!?)
And on the cruelty issue; if the spiritual) truth be known, we should actually have sympathy for the hard-hearted whalers, as all pain, according to Rudolf Steiner, inflicted on an animal will have to be accounted for in Kamaloca; and that accounting could be very onerous indeed. To use his own words from a lecture in 1906:
“During his life, man’s actions are not governed merely by enjoyment; he lives here with other men, and the animal world all around him. Consciously or unconsciously, willfully, or unwilfully, he causes pain and joy to both men and animals. And these feelings will meet him as he goes through Kamaloca. AS he reviews his life he comes to the hour, the place, the moment, where and when he has caused grief or pain to another being.
As in that previous life he occasioned grief to another, now he has to feel that grief himself. He gets into the position or condition of that other man, or that animal, and learns to know and feel what that other has suffered through him and must undergo that pain and grief himself. There is no escaping it.” Serves them right, I say.
So, with unconscionable vote-buying by the Japanese, the I.W.C. will probably continue to allow ‘scientific’ harvesting of the minke.
As such, this body will be seen as the corrupt, discredited assembly it really is. All efforts must then be made – Go Olive! – to take the issue (of both whaling and the Antarctic Sanctuary) to the larger forum, the United Nations itself. In fact, the I.W.C. should be scrapped – consigned to the dustbin of irrelevancy.
These are global issues, not ones that merely concern a handful of whaling or ex-whaling nations. Indeed, much of the membership of the I.W.C. is comprised of countries that have never had the slightest interest in the whaling industry – like St. Lucia for goodness’ sake! – they have merely been brought in – and bought – by the Japanese, and their partners in crime, the Norwegians.
As I peered closer, I was proud to see my Steiner schoolteacher son on the beach with his joyous group of Class 1 children as they disappeared under an enormous ‘Wave the Whale’ banner.
My emotions surged again as I glanced northward and contrasted this heartfelt scene with one just three decades ago. Then we would have seen a dark, sinister vessel putting out to sea from the whaling station just meters from where we stood. What a difference in attitude there has been in such a short time. What a consciousness shifts, from the brutal greed of the near past to the growing compassion and altruism of the present. In the early 1960s, this same crowd would have cheered the whaler’s home – today they would be …
Well, who knows how far the locals, led no doubt by the intrepid Olive, would ago to prevent this beautiful beach from being stained with the blood of these most majestic of creatures?!
Perhaps Olive might add to her packed agenda by applying pressure where it counts to the establishment of a World Environment Court; one that can bring to book the legion criminal countries, organizations, and individuals tearing our fragile planetary heritage to pieces?
The crowd drifted off as the sun set silver on this wonderful day; while to the east, feather-soft, pink-grey cumulus framed the small rock island, Julian Rocks, about half a mile out to sea. To the imaginative eye, of which small children have a plenitude, this grey eminence bore an uncanny resemblance to a whale. There was also supposed to be kite-flying as part of the event, but the whale gods deemed that the focus should remain on the water, not the air – there wasn’t a breath of wind!
My wife and I wandered down onto the near-deserted beach in the twilight to see the many sand sculptures. How poignant this gallery of mostly sea animals was, replete with whales (of course), turtles, dolphins – and even a mermaid. All these were done by eager, good-hearted children in styles ranging from pre-modernist to pure minimalist. One lovingly-patted masterpiece of a very large but indeterminate whale had, as its blowhole, a single purple Beach Hibiscus. How symbolic; the new Flower Power perhaps?
One can only hope that, in spite of the I.W.C.’s backsliding re. ‘scientific’ slaughter – which the Japanese have deceitfully screwed from the new sanctuary agreement – the long-term outlook for the whales, and all the other precious creatures which a marine sanctuary should protect, will be one of safety and flourishing.
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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