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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…
THE COVENANT OF CREATION
The 12 Phyla Animal Zodiac
The Woman of High Degree sat on a bare, grassy knoll overlooking the sea. It was midnight, and a frosting of stars reflected the calm surface of the water. Small waves eddied among the rocks below as The Woman relaxed in her comfortable, canvas folding chair.
Mare than relaxed, really, her eyes were closed, yet she could still see the all-distant stars – even brighter than before her spirit had soared. She knocked softly on the door of Heaven, and it was opened.
Then she saw – no, wrong word, perceived the true awe and majesty of the glittering Zodiac, the timeless Animal Circle. She was invited in from the dark vestibule of Earth to a realm of spiritual luminescence, of sublime power.
“Yes?” queried The Voice at the door.
“Master, tell me of the wonderful world of animal spirituality” requested The Woman, quietly.
“Actually, few mortals ask that question” answered The Voice ruefully “Their new god, Natural Science, has lured them into the belief – and that’s all modern scientific theory is, belief – that all things zoological that need to be known are known – or will be soon. Because of their phenomenal observational and intellectual faculties, they have become overconfident. However, they are singularly ignorant of soul, the element that makes of animals sentient beings; that which actually moves individual or collective animalia – to “animate” means to move. What aspect of this phenomenon would you like elaborated?”
“Well, I’m familiar with the basic concepts of Spiritual Science (that which has nothing to do with ‘belief’, but with deep conviction based on objective, experience-based thinking). This contends, in the face of a century of ridicule and scorn, that man preceded the animals in the great tableau of evolution, not the other way round We teach that his physical body was created on Ancient Saturn, the very first planetary incarnation, and gradually descended through three more “planets” and four earth epochs, to emerge fully materialized on Ancient Atlantis.
The fossil record clearly shows an opposing picture, that lower forms of sentient life incarnated earlier, in the first epoch (of the fourth “planet”) actually, Ancient Polaria. These of course were the simplest of creatures, the multitudinous invertebrates. Of course, basis logic would dictate that he simpler the animal, the more newly created it is – naturally science “believes” the opposite! It has taken the higher animals, the mammals for instance, a far longer evolutionary journey to attain the physical and psychological complexity they enjoy today. In line with this inescapable rationale, we humans preceded animals spiritually, but they did likewise to us materially. Now my question is about the spiritual implications of this material evolution, so clearly writ in the fossil laminates all over the globe”.
“Ah, you’ve moved beyond the broad concepts, and want some juicy detail, yes?” said The Voice kindly.
“But before I take you on an odyssey round the Animal Circle, the meaning of the word zodiac, I should remind you of another couple of fundamental concepts in relation to the soul world.
Sentient beings fall into three broad categories, representing the three cardinal ‘states of being’ – body, soul and spirit. The invertebrates express, above all, body principles, displaying a minimum of soul qualities, like emotion; and yes, they even feel less pain even than their higher cousins. If an ant loses a leg, it barely pauses in its busy work schedule; but with a higher mammal …!
True soul is manifest in the vertebrate world, becoming more refined the higher one climbs the evolutionary ladder, from fish right up to those most ensouled creatures of all, the whales, and dolphins.
Spirit of course is the hallowed domain of the ego-blessed human being exclusively.
So, to the Zodiac, this bright circle of stars ministers to the earth in four ways. These relate to the incarnational principles of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. The physical body’s creative input into the world works on just that, the body of the world, whether human or animal; or the mineral body of the earth itself even.
As the old, spirit-inspired manuscripts portray, the Body Divine begins in Aries, in the hardness of the head, the first incarnational principle of Ancient Saturn. However, the etheric or life body begins in Cancer, with its, as Rudolf Steiner teachers, Quality of Initiative. All life or organic processes proceed from a Crab genesis; as do those from the astral or Cultural Zodiac, like education (Class 1 is a Cancer year).
The first principle of human mineral incarnation begins in Cancer, the clavicles being the initial bones to calcify in the developing fetus; this is the nominal region of The Crab in the human being.
(The Spiritual Zodiac of course is rather concerned with the Ego and its eternal journey; its immortality. This also begins in Aries.)
So, you want to understand the organic life-path of evolution, yes?
We begin then at the sign of Initiative itself, the Spark of Life, Cancer – leave your body and come fly with me”.
Although the figure of The Woman was still, her Spirit soared to travel freely among the stars, borne on the wings of Imagination.
“Well, well, well; we haven’t had an earthly visitor for ages;” said a bemused Cancer in welcome, his young voice encouraging “what is it you want to know?”
“Thanks for talking to me, I just wanted to ask how the very first animals of the fossil record, the Protozoa(“first animals”), bacteria and the like, are related to zodiacal forces”.
“The secret, as with all 12 phyla, is in the senses – these are, above all, an expression of the physical body, and in this third planetary stage for evolving fauna, the Earth, the new ‘soul’ can only manifest in a carnal form. To understand the soul of an animal, you must study its senses. These ‘first animals’, the Protozoa, experience their incipient soul mainly through the sense of touch. If amoebas, drifting around in their watery environment, touch something they like, such as a speck of food, they automatically engulf it – with a kind of sympathy actually, the primal force of attraction. Whereas, if they touch something alien, like heat, the recoil; rather the instinctive force of repulsion or antipathy being activated. Your own sense of touch still works, through the medium of the skin, in exactly the same way.
The spiritual epicenter in man is the sternum. This, from the attached clavicii down, is the region of Cancer – the center of Life itself. In fact, the very Spark of Life incarnates here, protected by the sternum on the right side of the heart. This is in the cardiac vein known as the inferior vena cava – the center of the Cross of Man, where vertical soul and horizontal body meet.
Imagine yourself as comprising skin only, a skin bag filled with fluid; you would be exclusively a Cancer being, a protozoan. We call this the “gingerbread man” anatomy. This is an example where the world of life, prior to human descent, was a kind of divine experimental laboratory with animal forms emerging and vanishing in vast numbers, each perfecting one or other specialized boy form or function; all destined ultimately to become the Temple of Man.
You indeed have the humble single-celled animals to thank for your infinitely wisdom-filled sense of touch – without which you would not even be able to exist on earth …”
“Thank you Cancer,” said The Voice “but we’ve only got the short nigh hours before The Woman must return to the illusion of the waking world – we’d better move on to Leo. Hello Leo, I’ve brought a visitor.”
“I know,” Leo roared robustly “word travels fast among the stars. So, it’s animals, eh? Well, as you probably know, the 12 Phyla, the most fundamental categorization of world fauna (one agreed upon by both natural and spiritual science!) has as its second ranking of evolution the Porifera, the “pore bearer” sponges. My sign is centered a little further south than The Crab, in the lungs actually. Sponges are really independently existing ‘lungs’; lungs of the sea, filtering nutrients all day through their innumerable ‘pores’. The human lungs could well be called the sponges of man. Sponges, lungs, and Leo all minister to the sense of life. But how do we see this in a stationary ol’ sponge, you might ask. These deceptively complex and often highly colorful animals (those dry, brown sponges you find on the beach are only their skeletons) actually invented cloning in the animal world.
Sponges have such pure and powerful ‘life’ forces, that if a piece breaks off, it happily keeps growing into a new, complete animal.
This is quite unique in global fauna – through some animals can regrow body parts, like a lizard’s tail. The previous phylum, the protozoa, have little or no sense of life, responding merely mechanically or chemically to their small world. The single cells of these ‘first animals’ have, with the sponges, now become masses of as yet undifferentiated cells. Though sponges still have no separate body parts, comprising only a single organic substance; as do your Leo organs, the lungs. Indeed, even though not amorphous (“without form”) like the single cells, sponges are still pleasantly asymmetrical”.
“Freeform, eh? Not like Virgo’s animals” interjected The Voice “Whom, incidentally, we must now move onto … Hello Virgo, no doubt you’ve been expecting us; we’ve got a few questions about your un-freeform, mostly spherical, animal phylum, the Coelenterates”.
“Happy to oblige” the Virgin’s voice was gentle and inviting.
“This long word simply means ‘hollow stomach’; just like the one you left down on earth. The region of Virgo is traditionally the stomach, the upper abdomen. The creative breakthrough of my animals, jellyfish, bluebottles, corals, anemones, etc., is their hollow stomach – creation’s first. Unlike the sponges, seawater is not filtered, but taken into a cavity where the nutrients are removed, and the water expelled – all in a wonderful, rhythmic artistic movement. And the sense of Virgo, movement of course! Sponges are rather a sedentary lot, and the bacteria and so on merely react, much as does a mousetrap.
“Ah, how my precious jellyfish pulse along through the world’ oceans with their eurythmic Ps (P is the consonant of The Virgin); in the case of the jellies and corals, radial symmetry. In fact, the former look just like translucent bells; like the bell of the human diaphragm actually – which itself pulses away creating the low/high pressure breath process from cradle to grave. You humans have the gift of rhythmic movement on earth due to these divine laws being incarnated in my beautiful coelenterate. That is all. Oh, and when your sense of movement is offended, as in a fast elevator, or when seasick, it is your Virgo region that reacts – and you spew …!”
“Thanks Virgo, a moving conclusion! Now to Libra, you might not like this one,” said The Voice doubtfully “but you must have the full 12-fold picture”. The Woman, or her Spirit at least, looked pained.
“I’m aware of the highs and lows of the animal world. I know that the fourth phylum is the Platyhelminths, the so-called flat worms; these are represented by such unsavory – ugh! – characters as tapeworms and liver flukes, but …”
“Uh, oh; another human heaping disparagement o my unsung worms” Libra’s acerbic entry to the dialogue didn’t sound too encouraging. “And where are these creatures most commonly found?
In the lower abdomen of course, the region of Libra! Why, you wouldn’t even be able to stand up straight if it wasn’t for the Plats, as they introduced, not mere radial, but bi-lateral symmetry. You still have this in your paired anatomy – two arms, two legs, eyes, nostrils.
Our flatness allowed this balance to be perfected; and of course, the sense of balance is that of Libra. Your (lower abdomen) hips, epicenter of balance, are actually a set of scales. There’s a lot more I could tell you like our relationship to the middle ear, cell differentiation, and our 2-fold – again balanced – reproductive cells, but I won’t – goodbye”.
“Don’t mind her,” apologized The Voice “it’s not easy representing tapeworms and their slithery ilk. Who wouldn’t be defensive? But I suppose it’s the same with Scorpio. Hi Scorpio, got a minute?”
Her tone had just a little too much good cheer “I’ve brought a human up to ask a question or two”.
“I don’t talk to humans; they always give me bad press in the women’s magazine star columns. Oh, all right, what does she want?”
Scorpio glared balefully at the shrinking Spirit of The Woman, who replied uncertainly “It’s about the fifth phylum, the Nemahelminths, thread worms and so on. How do these, um, modest creatures fit into the Big Picture – especially into the Scorpio sense of smell?”
“Hmmph, my much-traduced animals are almost always found in the Scorpio region, the anus, where they sniff out, as it were, their, um, aromatic sustenance with the world’s first olfactory nerve. In fact, thread and hookworms are like tiny noses, or the S-shaped olfactory nerves within. Then there’s sex” The Woman blushed involuntarily.
“No, er, too much information, I hope!”
“Trust a human to get sill over just the mention of the word! My worms are the first creatures to have developed sex differentiation. There are males and females, as well as hermaphrodites – but the two sexes are still clearly separated. WE have eggs, sperm, and everything! And we developed vertical a-symmetry. We have a different top from the bottom, just like humans. Without our intervention in evolution, you would have had two heads, one at the top and one at the bott …” From the Woman’s drawn features, Scorpio realized that he had indeed provided ‘too much information’!
“Anyway, dwelling in the ‘bottom’ of man, so to speak, my Nemas also initiated the first bum in creation …”
“Enough!” snapped The Voice, as he noticed The Woman growing paler by the second “Sorry Scorpio, must move on. Time is of the essence. Now we’ve had the, um, inside story, we emerge into the light of Sagittarius, to the region of the thighs. Hi Sag; got an earthling here with some questions about your special animals (more worms I’m afraid!), the Annelids – the ‘circle worms’ as the word means.
“Welcome;” neighed The Centaur expansively “my worms, the sixth phylum, are both admired and despised by humans. Through they like earthworms okay, but leeches are not as well oved, so I’m told.
Can’t imagine why, they have the most developed sense of taste on earth! For instance, a mammal exudes air-borne water molecules all the time, especially in a humid environment, the leech’s happiest home.
These are carried on the breeze to the waiting taste buds of my shiny, black friend (who, incidentally, look exactly like human taste organs). By the time the unwitting animal draws adjacent, the leech is poised and ready to attach. And speaking of visual signatures, those common annelids, the tubeworms, when massed on a lump of flotsam or jetsam, look uncannily like the surface of a tongue.
Indeed, the more imaginative humans – the ones who make the best scientists – even see similarities between the bottle-shaped leeches and their own thigh, my region, of course. The thigh is the ‘first limb’ to develop in man and is still the simplest and strongest.
Beachworms (yes, they’re annelids too, tasting rotten fish swilling through the shallow wavelets) are applauded for devising the first limb in evolution. These are stubby ‘thighs’ near their heads with which they resist being pulled from the sand – as any beachworm gatherer knows! You don’t do that, do you?”
“Er, no” said The Voice in t=his friend’s defense “not for a long time, anyway. Not since humanity was awakened to compassion even for the world’ humble invertebrates. But on to Capricorn, in the region of the knees. Hi Cap, got time for a couple of queries from a human?”
“Sure; time certainly is not of the essence up here; when you represent the sense of sight anyway, as I do: The big sea Goat sounded friendly enough. “This amazing faculty arrived on earth with the seventh phylum, the Arthropoda, a word meaning ‘jointed limb’.
What an important advance this was (compared with all those worms!); here the simple thigh of the Annelida become, well, jointed, hence much more mobile. With joints we not only gained flexibility, but speed. And what is needed for speed? Eyes of course!
What remarkable eyes my manifold phylum has. Just look at the array, from the eight eyes of the Arachnida, the charming (to me anyway) spiders, to the 360-degree vision of the fly, to the oh-so convenient stalked eyes of the crab…”
“Thanks Capricorn; but I’d prefer if you refrained from listing the whole illimitable arthropods (as in ‘arthritis’, a disease largely of limb joints)” said The Woman of High Degree.
“Oh? Okay; our region is the knees, especially the patellae. These in one life become the eyes in the next, according to Rudolf Steiner.
Indeed, one of my many fly species covers the eyes of his mate with his ‘knee bones’ whilst, er, consummating their brief relationship. If she can’t see, she can’t fly – not that she’d want to, er I suppose!
My arthropods, the Capricorn animals are the most successful phylum on earth, with a greater variety of species, and sheer populations within species, than any other – to the power of ten!
Apart from the parallel advances of sight and limb joints, many have developed a hard carapace, like lobsters and beetles; the very first phylum to do so. The ‘corn’ in my name means horn or hard (L. cornu). Oh, and don’t get confused with another ‘horned’ animal, the goat of Capricorn. These animals, like bull, lion, and so on, are rather the symbols of the spiritual reality embodied in the Zodiac; while the phyla, which include every animal on earth, are rather the earthly manifestation Now, what was the question?”
“Er, I think you’ve covered everything for this brief exposition at least. Now on to Aquarius – there he is now. Hi Ganymede (the Greek interpretation); got a moment?” called The Voice his tone familiar.
“Certainly” The Water bearer’s timbre was young and fresh, positively adolescent even. The Woman squared her metaphysical shoulders and asked, “Natural science ascribes the Mollusca to the eighth phylum. This is a word meaning ‘soft’, as most mollusks are – or part of them at least. As such, they are the first true ‘flesh’ animals, having developed a rudimentary vascular system.
This works through a heart-blood process, circulating fluids from one ‘vase’ (as in vascular) embedded in a particular tissue to the next.
What a huge evolutionary step this was from the simpler chemical reactions of the arthropods, and all phyla below them. Blood infers a relationship to warmth, even though ostensibly the mollusks – seashells, snails, slugs – are still cold-blooded animals” The Woman’s voice was rising in the confidence that the young Aquarius would welcome such insights from an older, and obviously wiser, person.
“We spiritual scientists know that Aquarius is the governor of the sense of warmth. The mollusks, you may be interested to know, are noted as having the greatest sensitivity to temperature of any animal group. Some species die if the tolerance of their seawater home varies beyond one degree. Being ‘warmth’ creatures, most mollusks prefer to live in the tropics, or warm climates at least; where they grow bigger and better than in cool or cold. This vascular or ‘vase’ system is the expression of the symbol of Aquarius, The Water bearer. AS a column of liquid, we humans are vase-like aquarians. The region is the calves, the next stage south from the knees in the Zodiac-anatomy latitudes.
The calves are the archetypical ‘muscles’. Muscle tissue embodies the circulatory of vascular system. Your most celebrated member of the Mollusca, the octopoda … octopie? … octopussys …!”
“Octopuses”.
“Whatever – are muscles gone mad. In fact, their colossal cousins, the giant squids, are the first creatures on the fauna evolutionary odyssey to attain really large size. This is due to the efficiency of the muscle-vascular system. Some giant squids can be sixty feet long!”
“What questions did you want to ask?” inquired Aquarius politely.
“Er, I can’t think of any! We seem to have covered the ground: so, we’ll be off the; goodbye”. There was no answer, as Aquarius seemed to have vanished – if he was ever there at all?
“He wasn’t much help” whispered The Woman to her starry guide as they departed – as if a whisper would fool divine, if absent, ears!
“Must be his youth, he’ll learn in time, I guess”. The Woman of High Degree and The Voice then traveled clockwise to Pisces, the Twin Fishes of the Animal Circle, with its mysteries of the ninth phylum, the Echiodermata.
“I wouldn’t try to talk over the top of old Poseidon if I were you” warned The Voice. “There he is now. Greetings Pisces; a humble request from a mere mortal for a few precious insights into your starfish, urchins, and crinoids. Which sense do they exemplify?”
Pisces was huge, a towering sea giant armed with a formidable trident: his great head was bearded his eyes baleful.
“She’d better not misuse this divine inspiration (Aquarius told me what happens when you give a human too long a leash!); I might send down a tsunami to wash her away – canvas chair and all!
So, madam, have you heard of ‘hydraulics’?”
“Well yes. This is the energy expressed when pressure is applied to a sealed container of fluid. But what’s that go to do with – whoops!
I have indeed, thank you. The cochlear of the human ear woks on hydraulics – but starfish don’t have ears…”
“Starfish are ears!! Zounds, Waterbearer was right! Now it’s time to use your hopelessly inadequate ears! The thousands of ‘tube feet’ on all echinoderms (meaning ‘spiny skin’) are tiny hydraulics, listening in to manifold ocean messages, registering changes in resonance through pressure variants – all of course on a high if unconscious level.
The region of the sole of the foot is that of The Fishes. Your Rudolf Steiner (brighter than most humans I’ve met!) correctly ascribes the sense of hearing to Pisces. He knew that the relationship between the feet and the ear was profound (a pointer dog will lift its foot to hear better), as is that between sound itself and La Mer. For instance, hearing is much more efficient under water due to the sound waves traveling about four times faster – hence greater distances.
So, enough! If you’ve any gumption you’ll regard this as a golden key to further spiritual research on areas such as the ear, the feet in relation to destiny, and the role of the ‘spiny skins’ in the evolution of human hearing. Now, off with you!”
“Whey! I knew old Pisces was a – ahem – thorny one. Thank the gods that Aries has a reputation for being more amenable. Hi Aries!”
“Welcome folks, how can I be of service?”
“See, I told you! My human companion would appreciate a few snippets of wisdom on the Aries sense of word.”
“Indeed; in fact, it is the first of the three ‘ego’ senses. But if you’re seeking an obvious relationship between my phylum, the Notochords (‘new nerve chord’) and this lofty sense, you may be disappointed.
No animal has a ‘sense of word; as such, let alone the humble brachiopods (‘arm, foot’), best-known of the notochordia. However, they did provide, in ages past, the resonating chambers for the expression of The Word. These little skull shells are one third hollow; unlike their similar, but in evolution term, vastly inferior, Aquarius counterparts, the mollusks. These hollows are the precursors of the speech hollows in man, like the larynx, pharynx, and sinuses.
Their greatest gift, if I may boast, is the ‘chord’ itself. This is the first true nervous system; the spinal cord actually preceding the brain.
Mind you, the sleepy little brachiopods don’t actually think with it, let alone speak, but use it mostly for food procurement. The equivalent in man is of course the spinal cord, that which enters the skull at the occipital bone. The region of Aries is the skull. IN fact, a brachiopod looks just like an occipital-only skull with its nervous chord hanging from it. In terms of the unsung notochords, common rock cunjevoi being one, it is an eternal truism that ‘because they were you speak’.”
“Well done Aries; but the night races on. We have to catch Taurus before dawn, and after him, the elusive Twins. Here’s The bully er, Bull now. No, don’t be afraid, he’s more roar than gore, being a fairly placid old thing, really. I guess you know why we’re here Taurus?”
“Sure do; and happy to help. My animals at last make the giant leap from those ubiquitous invertebrates to, well, proper animals.
These are the Seven Vertebrate Orders from fish through to the ‘great whales’, a Genesis, and fish, Rudolf Steiner made a curious statement in a lecture on Zodiac-animal studies; he said that fish were not mentioned in The Creation because there was simply no word I ancient Hebrew for the; being thought of as mere water-dwelling birds, as they were!
The vertebrates are the first ‘soul animals’; one can actually form a soul-to-soul relationship to them. And the sense? That of thought, the second ego sense. Naturally animals think only on an instinctual level, but thought it still is. The Taurus region is the vertebrae, no, not the spinal cord, but the bones themselves In the old zodiac-anatomy pictures (see below), The Bull is on the back of the figure’s neck, resting on that highest spinal expression of all, the Atlas Vertebra. This, like the eponymous Atlas, holds up the globe of the head – an image of the world, and on which it turns – (L. vertere, to turn).
The eurythmy gesture for The Bull (you have this wonderful movement art on earth by now, do you?) has one hand over the head, the other across the larynx. This results in the stilling of Aries speech and the directing of thought to the back of the head, to the spine, the more spiritual, or I modern terms, unconscious zone.
My vertebrata turned the shell-like exoskeleton of the lower animals inside out (with the exception of the skull) to create the miracle of the endoskeleton. You humans even have one of those. Thought can only manifest through this internal crystallization.
Oh, and the vertebrates of course have the first brain. This great faunal order demands a separate study, actually (later in this book, actually1), so I won’t go into detail here. Hmmm, I see the dawn has broken – you’d better go!”
As the golden sun rose from an indigo sea, it was clearly too late to visit Gemini. The Woman of High Degree opened her eyes, blinked in welcome to the new day, and sighed as she recalled her amazing journey.
Yet still she felt that her supersensible adventure was incomplete; what about Gemini?! In the old pictures The Twins are often seen peeping over the right and left shoulder of the image of man.
There are no animals above the vertebrates, in spite of the relentless propaganda of modern science insisting that man is an animal.
The 12th sign expresses the sense of ego, the highest of the high, that of man alone. The ego is the youngest faculty, hence the tender age of The Twins in most depictions. After all, no animal embodies this self-conscious ego principle. The ego sense, expressed primarily through the shoulders and upper limbs, has as its most perfect manifestation, the human hands; the sense of ego being one that serves the world as no other. So, from the Gemini sense of ego hands, arms, and shoulders, down through the clavicles to the sternum, to arrive back to the beginning, at sense of touch Cancer. The zodiacal cycle of evolution is complete. The Woman of High Degree folded her canvas chair, took a last loving look at the now-glittering ocean, and departed. The sun rose boldly with a blaze of divine promise, one of a Covenant of Redemption for every animal on earth – and for Man, of course.
THE BEST SIGHT – AND THE FASTEST MOVEMENT! – IN THE WORLD
A Capricorn-Sense of Sight-Arthropod Mystery
A wonderful confirmation of the relationship of the aforementioned arthropods (“jointed limb”) and the Capricorn sense of sight is the mantis shrimp. This crustacean, up to 38cm long, has by far the most complex eyes of all creatures. In fact, it is a kind of blueprint of sight to which all other animals, and humans, have had recourse over the eons of evolution, no matter their own specialization. Just some of the amazing properties of the mantis shrimp’s visual talents are:
They see the entire 12-fold spectrum from ultra-violet to infra-red; hence, they see more colors than any other creature. This is called hyper-spectral imaging. Uniquely, they see two forms of polarized light, linear and circular. Their eyes move independently on short stalks, with each compound eye seeing their colorful, tropical underwater world in 3D, or trinocular vision – with an almost 360-degree range! The most colorful (many even fluoresce) of the 400 or so species of mantis shrimp also, unsurprisingly, have the best vision; sight and color being so intimately connected, as they are. But why these wonderful eyes? Because they can move faster than any other animal on earth, that’s why – hence they have to see well!!
For instance, the strike acceleration of some members of this Order (Stomatopod – “mouth-foot”) is that of a .22 caliber bullet, allowing them to even break thick aquarium glass with their flying claws! They hit so fast that the water ahead of their strike actually momentarily boils (“cavitation bubbles”)! Aquarium owners dislike them due to the fact that being such speedsters, they are notoriously difficult to catch in a well-stocked fish tank.
The mantis shrimp is but one example where the wisdom of anthroposophical spiritual science – in this case the Capricorn-sense of sight-arthropod mystery – is confirmed by the discoveries of empirical science. The mantis shrimp is the archetypal animal for a study of this mystery. And while on Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual insights: “There are animals that still have no eyes (including all six phyla pre-arthropods), for eyes only have meaning when there is light, such light as streams to earth from the sun. Thus, we find that animals that formed eyes could do so only after the sun separated from this earth. Animals without eyes are relics of the time when the sun was still united with the earth (Polaria and Hyperborea – Archeozoic and Paleozoic).”
Details of the relationship of animal zodiacal evolution to fetal development can be found in my book, Hathor the Moon Cow. See Walter Johannes Stein’s, a contemporary of Dr. Steiner, confirming expression, identical to that in the foregoing article, of the 12 Senses in relation to the 12 signs of the Zodiac in my book, Child Awake!.
The amazing – ever-watchful – mantis shrimp.
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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