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…
SACRED ANIMALS OF AFRICA
The Animal-Astral Continent
My pilgrimage to Africa began in the north. As a spiritual scientist preparing for a teaching course on the Animal Mysteries, I thought that a visit to the heartland of World Animalia would be the best place to receive inspiration. Africa is a classic example of the 4-fold formative processes of continent creation. The “beginning of worlds” physical body forces, expressing a circular forms, have formed the great round top of Africa, hence my entry point. The southern etheric body forces have sculpted – an apt term, sculpture being the ‘art of the etheric body’ – the triangular Cape area. The easterly creation flow carved (from much softer primeval matter) the east coast astral shapes; and the great right-angled coastline of the west was formed by the forces of world ego pouring in from the realm of the setting sun.
I also wanted to peek behind the veil of the mystery of Africa as, of the seven continents, that expressing the Astral Body; in a global sense of course. The animals are the highest expression of earth astrality (below man that is) and no exploration of this massive land mass can avoid this recurring bestiary. (South America is the ether ‘plant’ equivalent; Australia the physical ‘mineral’.) It was with such idle musings that I stood in one of the many Ancient Egyptian temples open for inspection. I wandered past the ubiquitous mummy cases and panels of hieroglyphs – then I saw her, Taurat, the hippopotamus god (or goddess, actually). She drew me to her with an irresistible took of benevolence and warm humor. But on closer inspection there was more, much more. Her eyes seemed to look beyond the material world, across the dusty cluttered gallery, out over the flax fields, beyond the shimmering Nile even – right into my soul!
At which point she began to speak – or rather, ‘converse’ with me.
“Well, we’ve waited around for over five millennia for you to turn up; one of the few humans with whom we can communicate, to tell one’s story.” Needless to say, I was taken aback by this silent overture; still, I looked round to see if any stickybeak tourists had overheard. None did; because suddenly no one was there!
“Um, what story’s that?” I replied deferentially.
“The one you came here to learn, the Astral Mysteries of the astral continent. Take me, for instance: I’m a hearth divinity, very close to the soul of the common man – and woman! I am a Moon Being, one present at the birth, and subsequent nurture, of children. I’m jolly and rotund, rolling lazily around in the warm African rivers with unexpected grace. Naturally we hippopotami don’t really like the land.
As Shakespeare said, the moon is the “watery star”; water is the element of the astral body; perfect for a lunar divinity; in fact, we …”
“That all sounds very reassuring; but the facts tell a different story,” I interjected “the hippopotamus (“river horse”) is regarded as the most dangerous animal I Africa, being responsible for more attacks and deaths per year than any other. What say you?”
“We all have a darker side, especially we animals that swell on the “Dark Continent”. Actually, we’ve never forgiven man for burdening us with that ridiculous name. For a start, we’re not ‘horses’. And why can’t we be called something with, prestige or elan, like leopard, black mamba; gazelle – even insects have better names, take scorpion …”
“Okay, I see the point; please continue.”
“… or praying (preying?) mantis; or osprey! Who can blame us for wanting to get even! Sorry, where was I? All seven astral planetary beings are under the aegis (meaning ‘lion skin’ – my friend Sekhmet doesn’t abide this phrase!) of The Great Herdsman. It is he, the collective presence of this astral continent soul congregation, who orders our lives; even empowering us to speak to and through the human astral body. In fact, The Great Herdsman authorized we seven planetary beings to speak with you today – before it’s too late!”
Taurat paused for some time to let this sink into my sorrowfully inadequate consciousness. “Too late?” I thought, “For what?”
Then the specter of wholesale animal slaughter in (and even beyond) Africa froze my blood! What would happen to earth and man if we destroyed the world’s wild creatures?!
“your souls would shrivel” answered Taurat, her tone heavy with sadness, “The animal world took upon itself the unenviable mission to inherit the detritus of human soul life. It is we who embody what you no longer want or need. This was done so that your continued spiritual progress could be assured. And all we ask in return is love.
That’s it, simple compassion. It is imperative that humans cultivate their now higher souls (thanks to us!) and create an ambience of love and respect for the tragic creatures so many of my fellow creatures have become. This is a Buddhist path; or in Christian terms, the Way of St. Francis; he who tamed the Wolf of Bubbio.” The garrulous goddess fell uncharacteristically silent, staring moodily into eternity.
So, I wandered on, not quite sure if I’d been dreaming this strange dialogue. The northerly gateway into Africa would place me squarely in the powerful north-south axis dominating all live and culture of this brooding continent. All exploration (both sea and land), subsequent travel, and even most animal migration, has been and is north-south: even the mighty Nile, one of the world’s longest rivers, accommodates itself to this vertical ‘corridor of power’.
But my attention was wrested from such lofty ruminations by a small voice issuing from an obscure glass case.
Inside was a mummy; no, not one of yet another forgotten pharaoh, but of a cat. “You almost went right past” said Bast the Cat Goddess with a tinge of rebuke “My story is even more interesting than old Tubby Taurat’s.” The cat, being a luciferic animal, was given to immodesty, I noted – pride even, the nominal Sin of Lucifer (meaning ‘light bearer’). “I represent Mercury in the soul pantheon of Africa” Bast continued unfazed, “As such, I move with unmatched grace and elegance. I am also credited with quick-witted intelligence; and can even be playful on occasions – especially as a kitten. All these and more are mercurial qualities. Would you like me to make a list? No?
I’m not here to talk about me – as interesting as I am – but about the Faunal Mysteries mankind is so hopelessly groping to understand!
No wonder we cats feel aloof; you humans don’t look so wonderful from up here … and some of you even like dogs! Being Mercury-Lucifer (the same spiritual entity) creatures, we hate clumsy old earth-bonded canines – and of course water. Hence we are air or breath animals. Our center of worship in ancient Egypt was Bubastis, a city with the same planet-star relationship to nearby mighty Heliopolis – ‘sun city’ – as (Occult) Mercury has to the sun; the air-light ‘planet’.
We are Lucifer, Lord of the Dawn, our Old Testament epithet.
We are the Morning Star.
But enough of me – as interesting as … anyway, my task is to enlighten – so to speak – you on a telluric etheric mystery; Mercury being the traditional ‘body of formative forces’ divinity. As you know, the four human temperaments rest on the luminous foundations of the etheric body. In fact, not just humans, but even continents (or any land area for that matter) have temperaments.
These express through climate. Conversely, the temperaments are a microcosmic expression of the inner climate of man. Whether in land or man, there are four combining elements, hot, wet, cold, and dry, which combine to create four distinctive configurations, hot-dry, hot-wet, cold-wet, and cold-dry.
The choleric geographic temperament manifests as hot-dry, as in tropical deserts; the sanguine is hot-wet, the climate that creates tropical rainforests; phlegmatic is cold-wet, like misty moorlands; and the melancholic is cold-dry, as in glacial environments.
Africa is essentially a combination of hot-dry and hot-wet. It is therefore a continent of choleric sanguinism; with a strong leaning to the former. Alas, much of the rainforest of central Africa is being cleared, reducing this mollifying, healing sanguinity, and increasing the continent’s choleric propensities. Hot deserts with their ever-attendant famines and other disasters, are spreading like pestilence across the Dark Continent. And the place just gets angrier and angrier!
As if it wasn’t choleric enough to begin with!
If this plunder continues, Africa will one day be so torn with conflict, aggression, and bloodshed, on a genocidal scale even, that a moderate existence will be well-nigh impossible. After all, the word temperament means ‘to temper’ – to moderate or make even.
Now, you have questions about, um, cats …?
I stood in front of the grimy glass case for some time, trying to evince from friend Bast some spiritual knowledge that didn’t involve felines: after all, I don’t really like cats much, killing birds as they do. But my silent plea was rewarded with even more silence. So, I strolled on; how strange that there were no tourists? It was as if the Great Herdsman had cleared the place of distractions so that I could commune with these ancient all-wise beings. I paused before a hieroglyph of Thoth, the ibis-headed god, and wondered what s/he had to say.
“S/he?” s/he interjected “The gender business you humans seem so obsessed with isn’t of special importance in the Soul World; its quality not type that matters. A feminist mantra is ‘equal but different’; being hierarchical we prefer ‘unequal but the same’.
But to the question; whence the animals of Africa? (Actually, I didn’t ask a question, but no matter). From Polaria (the Archeozoic) in the south evolved the invertebrates. However, these ‘head animals’, due to their long sojourn on earth, have become global in their distribution, populating every possible environmental niche with their immense quality and quantity. From the north, Hyperborea (the Paleozoic), came the fish, amphibians, and reptiles. These too are of global distribution.”
“That’s very interesting; but tell me about yourself” I said encouragingly to my divine feathered friend.
“Oh, you don’t want to hear about me. Anyway, there is a stream of faunal expression coming from the east directly to Africa from Lemuria (the Mesozoic), from the Indian Ocean. Here we have mainly the birds. Strangely the other two great Lemurian Orders, the monotremes and marsupials, migrated east to Australia. Africa has a wonderful array of birds, with many of the European and Asian species migrating here each year – sadly to their peril of late! But something else came from Lemuria – the Land of Giants as it’s called in Genesis”.
“I’m sure, but what about you!?” I understand one of your numinous manifestations is as the mysterious White Night Heron, a symbol of the immortal human spirit. You are the “I was, I am, and I will be”, the ringing paean of redemption of Isis to the tragedy of incarnate man. Hmmm, is Isis a form if ibis?
“Yes; the S, the Scorpio consonant, in Isis indicates its higher cosmic-masculine-yang expression; the B (Virgo) of ibis the earthly-feminine-yin equivalent. But you don’t want to know about me.
As Genesis states, from Lemuria we have the perennial influence of bigness in the animal world. Almost all the largest animals on earth, climatic factors aside, are found around the Indian Ocean basin: name five African animals and it’s probable that they are the biggest of their kind on the planet – go on, try.”
“Five, eh? How about the largest land mammal? The African elephant of course; the bird? The ostrich; antelope? The kudu: the largest dog is the hyena – and the world’s biggest reptile is the Nile crocodile. How’s that?! Then there’s the lion …”
“I said five; don’t get carried away; though there is a long list of biggies indeed, all remnants of the Indian Ocean Land of Giants.”
Still pondering lions, my attention strayed to a wonderful statue of a female form with the head of a lioness. This was the noble Sekhmet.
I approached as if in a trance, awed by the majesty in the stony gaze.
“Who art thou?” I asked. The answer came, not from within my soul, like Taurat, Bast and Thoth, but without. I looked at her visage and saw – the sun! I looked at the sun, my inner sun, and saw the lion.
“I am the center of the Solar System, the heart of Africa, the pulse of the world. Africa is known to mole-like natural scientists as the Ethiopian Faunal Region. Happily, the spiritual scientists expanded this limited concept to call it, in animal terms at least, the Continent of the Sun – represented by myself, the lion. We lions, and all the other placental mammals, arrived on the African continent from the west, from Atlantis. The horn, symbol of Pan the goad god, perennially representing Atlantean consciousness, is no-where better expressed than in the millions of elaborately horned animals on this continent. Even rhinoceros and elephant prominences are, in form at least, horns. Naturally the red, black, and white of Atlantean fauna expresses through many African species. Animals, like people, tend to get more ‘yellow’, brindle even, as they put distance between themselves and their ancient Atlantean home.”
“But how did the Egyptians know these things? How could they represent this 7-fold planetary-animal mystery so accurately?”
“Well, Africa, the Astral continent, was selected by The Great Herdsman to be the development center of the next, higher stage of astral evolution, that of Sentient Soul. This quantum advance in human culture was charmed into the world by those most advanced Africans of all, the Egyptians (and in a lesser sense, by all contemporary civilizations around the Fertile Crescent). Sentient soul is, according to Rudolf Steiner, “semi-transformed astral body”. So, it’s little wonder that animal-human forms should be depicted with such artistic intensity and wisdom in old Egypt. Every god with a human body and animal head (hence semi-transformed) is an image of one or other aspect of sentient soul. In fact, knowledge of the Zodiac, or Animal Circle, incarnated for the first time in Ancient Egypt, as it did in the equivalent East, the ‘Han’. The oriental Zodiac, Year of the Rooster, Snake, Dog, etc., arrived in the same historical era. And yes, it too is commonly represented by sentient soul human-body, animal-head deities.
This is not mere coincidence, but separate similar responses to the spiritual imperative of the age (3907 to 747BV).”
I waited for a more on this West-East synchronicity from the mighty Sekhmet, but – nothing. So, I wandered into another dimly lit room of the old museum. Actually, I was starting to get a headache; these ‘death houses’ always do this to me. It is as if the leprous fingers of the past reach into my soul to corrupt the living spirit of the present – that is if one only perceives the physical relics, the corpses. This was certainly not so with my next encounter, with the falcon-headed Horus.
“I’m a Mars being – and don’t you forget it!” Horus asserted “I still resent the fact that Isis wouldn’t let me lay waste to Egypt in a glorious war of vengeance against Uncle Set over the Osiris dismemberment incident. And get her, or her Thoth equivalent at least, standing on the left side of my father, The Big O, at the altar of judgement. Here she recommends clemency for the wretched recently-departed human souls brought before it. The Venus softies – aahhgg!”
I didn’t really want to hang around the furious falcon any longer than necessary. This Mars entity was so confrontational. And just like his avian counterpart, which lifts it wings into the Mars zone – as seen in eurythmy – prior to its Stuka attack on some hapless dove (symbol of peace!), there was a glowing red aura over the fearsome statue. I asked one timid question though – just to avoid offence.
“What, er, characterizes the African animals; from a formative-force or etheric point of view, of course?”
“Are you stupid, or what?! Haven’t you notice that Australian animals (you’re an Aussie – typical!) are basically ‘limb’ creatures? – the classic being the kangaroo with its thirty-foot single bounds.
Then there are the belly-dominant mammals of Asia. Why, even the big cats over there, like the tiger and snow leopard, are extra low in the mid-riff. Over to the Americas, with their excessive ‘head’ development, as in the bison, and the moose – and the salamander even.”
“But I want to know more about Africa” I interjected unthinkingly.
“You’ll know what I want you to know!! You modern humans have such fragmented souls; you just want a little bit of this, a little bit of that. It’s the whole picture that’s important! Anyway, African animals are, not so much limb, abdomen, or head creatures, but express rather the chest, or rhythmic system; the lion being the best example.
Then there’s the hyena, the gorilla, the wildebeest – and the giraffe of course; his long neck really being an extension of the chest – hey, where are you going?”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got a lot of ground to cover. I’ll see you later.”
“As I said, ‘a little bit of this, a little bit of that’ …!!”
I hurried into the next room to escape Horus’s tirade, to find myself in – The Halls of the Dead! This was the gloomy realm of Anubis, the Night Jackal, guardian of wisdom, Egyptian counterpart of Jupiter.
At first I dared not approach, as his solemn voice, seeming to emanate from all 12 points of the Zodiac, echoed around the dim chamber. He held aloft the shepherd’s crook of the Wise Ones.
“you came to this ‘Dark Continent’, a land of unbridled savagery, to bring spiritual enlightenment. For this you must have knowledge.
I have remained silent for 5000 years waiting for a Michaelian soul, one with the courage to cross my threshold. So, to thou will I reveal my secrets. Ask.” (More details on these Astral-Africa Mysteries in my book Sacred Places.) this really got me, as I felt any question, even that old chestnut about ‘the meaning of life’, would actually be finally answered by this awesome presence. But the responsibility was too great, and my mouth went dry – I couldn’t think of a single thing! So, I fell back on that old Steiner favorite.
“Er, why, um, does modern man think that he evolved from a long-lost pre-human ancestor in Africa, of all places? That the gorilla is our father’s father’s father?”
“Is that all you can think of?! Are you still struggling with that simplistic, naïve materialistic evolution stuff? The gorilla, like all animals (not to speak ill of my esteemed faunal colleague), was a side-track from the wide path of human evolution; much like the Neanderthals. Through all had common ancestors. The higher primates reveal their near-human identity when you look deeply into their sad eyes.
However, the differences between man and ape are much more important than the similarities. Gorillas, for instance, have a latitudinal pelvis; as well, their ‘hands’ (feet really) are neither free nor do they have an opposable thumb. But I thought you knew all that? Is this the best question you can ask!? Some ‘Michaelian’! You’d better move on to the last and innermost chamber – the first door to your right.”
I obeyed of course, feeling somewhat abashed at my curiosity shortcomings; but relieved to be o my way again. Perhaps there would be a cheerier welcome in the next room. I must admit, I’ll never look at a jackal in the same way again – nor a crocodile!
For that is what confronted me as I stepped into the gloom of the Saturn Room, as it was called. – more a crypt, really! This time it wasn’t even a voice I heard, rather a cosmic whisper, pulsing down to earth from distant space; a realm of abyssal darkness and great age.
The baleful eye of the enormous stone statue of Sebek, a crocodile-headed man, surveyed me without pity. I felt a deep, irrational fear in its presence – but stood firm.
“What do you know of me?” whispered the voiceless voice.
“What? Ahh, not much, alas. The crocodile in ancient mythologies was a hyper-prescient being, blessed as no other with prophetic powers. He was also the Ferryman, of a sort, for the conveyance of those passing from this life to the Great Beyond. Like Ancient Saturn/Cronus, the crocodile eats its own children, in some cases extinguishing life before it has barely begun. This habitual devouring is to assure that death, or its more hopeful subsequent after-life, may prevail I the great cycle of existence. Enigmatic Sebek is traditionally a ‘time being’, measuring off the centuries – of course crocodiles have great longevity – just as Saturn does, or his Greek equivalent, Cronus, a word meaning ‘time’, as in chronology.
The image of a being devouring time appeared I the story of Peter Pan; the tale of a boy who defied time and never grew up. The crocodile that swallowed the clock was of course a central character.
(How could James Barrie have known this? ‘tick-tock – tick-tock’!)
Typhon or Set, another cryptic Egyptian expression related to this crocodile god – this conveyor of death – ministers over all processes of senescence and decay. Crocodiles also love old, rotting meat.
This is a curious spiritual knowledge factor combined with a lack of compassion I this image. All the other planetary gods nourish life, to one degree or another – they couldn’t extinguish it. But the cosmic croc comes a-calling for young, old, sick, well, joyous and distraught with the same cold detachment. The ‘crocodile tears’ of common parlance expresses this heartless objectivity. But you don’t want to know what I know; I want to know what you know – with respect. So, mighty Sebek, tell me about yourself”.
The ensuing silence was especially eerie in that dark tomb. It seems that I still have a way to go before I can commune with the infinitely lofty and distant Saturn world. I was so much more comfortable with the other animal-planetary expressions of Africa, like chubby old Moon Taurat hippo, Mercury Bast the cat, Venus Thoth ibis, Sun Sekhmet lion, Mars Horus falcon, and even the dark soul of Jupiter Anubis jackal; so, I turned to retrace my steps. Actually, I had thought of a few more questions to ask, especially of Anubis – after all, what’s wrong with knowing about the meaning of life? But I got lost, and instead, after a fear-filled grope through dank and dark places, found myself out in the desert once again. To my surprise night had fallen – maybe I was dreaming!?
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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