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…
MAMMALS HAVE FEELINGS TOO!
The 12 Zodiacal Mammalian Orders
Chairanimal: Ladies and gentlemen – and others; humans over the ages have had a great deal to say about the animal world in general, and the various species in particular. We creatures not being blessed with speech – as you are – have been a chorus of wordless voices crying in the wilderness, the farmyard, and almost every other habitable place on earth for eons. Our worth is often measured merely by how we can serve humanity, whether practically or aesthetically. Well, we’ve already served – even if we didn’t raise another paw, fin, or feather to support a so-oft’ ungrateful mankind. Mankind?! (Not that you’d notice over the bloodstained millennia – animal blood, that is!)
AS such, you will forever remain in our debt.
You see, you ‘extruded’, to use a vulgar term, onto world fauna everything you didn’t want or need; all that was gross, all that hindered your relentless march up the stairway of evolution. In the most primitive sense, you did this through the 12 Zoological Phyla, unloading, through the divine medium of the Zodiac, all the lower or more bodily aspects of your nature. That’s why ten of the twelve phyla are invertebrates. Another extrusion, one based more on soul, took place through the beneficent ministry of the 7 Planets: through the seven vertebrates. Tonight, however, we animals are going to provide you with a peek into the Mystery of the 12 Placental Mammals.
Much that you owe us is clearly to be seen in the form and function of the 12 Mammal Orders. Naturally we don’t include the pre-placental monotremes and marsupials; they’re dealt with in the 7 Vertebrates.
Twelve true mammals? Well, there are really only eleven, the last of the 12 being man himself, who, thank the good gods, is not an animal: though he curiously often thinks he is – egged on by modern science in spite of all the evidence to the contrary … like speech!
So, this 12-fold Mammal Order irrevocably points again to the Zodiac for its inspiration and creation. Anything in the natural world with a clearly defined twelve expressions must have a zodiacal provenance: the word zodiac after all means ‘animal circle’.
In organic (not cultural) terms, the constellations pour their creative forces down to earth, starting with Cancer. As Rudolf Steiner confirms, The Crab has, aptly, the ‘quality’ of Initiative. Hence it is the beginning or primal sign in evolution. But perhaps I’ll let a representative of each of the 12 – er, 11 Orders speak for themselves. Man has been speaking for himself quite long enough! First I call on Fleetwing Bat.
Come in Fleetwing – ah, there you are, flitting around the back of the hall. He’s a shy little fellow all right; this most primitive of the placentals. All the bats are of the Chiroptera Order, meaning ‘hand wing’: not quite accurate of course, the wing being really a foot.
But Fleetwing; tell us what elements you, in the spirit of sacrifice, took upon yourself so that man could progress.
Fleetwing Bat: (squeak!) The clue is in our name, ‘hand-wing’; we burdened ourselves with the most sensitive sense of touch of any mammal. In spiritual science, touch is the Cancer sense. In our case, this is mainly expressed through the silken texture of our wing membrane and large, shiny ears. If you (squeak) humans experienced touch as we do, your life would be so consumed by it that you wouldn’t be able to do anything else – like think.
Our sense of touch is so acute that we can even touch sound!
We bats’ famous ultra-high-frequency echo-location skills actually relate more to touch than hearing (squeak). Our large, shiny dermal (the skin is the organ of touch) wing and ear ‘receiving dishes’ are like gossamer-fine silk; yet they are woven not from light, as is silk, but from darkness, from carbon. This Ahrimanic element derives from the gloom of earth. Hence we shun the light – blind as a bat, they say.
This hypersensitive touch factor could not function if our tiny eyes were constantly distracted by visual impressions, like goats…
Chairanimal: Hold it Fleet; you’re straying across the Zodiac! I think Surefoot Goat would like to speak for himself, or his own Mammal Order at least, the Artiodactyls. This world means ‘even toed’ and is applied to that great group of hoofed ruminants, like cattle, sheep, deer, antelope, camels, giraffes, and so on. I’ve invited Surefoot to speak because the ever-wise zodiacal semioticians designated the Sea Goat to represent Capricorn, the complementary sign opposite Cancer. Here he comes, trip-tripping down the aisle – take it away Surefoot.
Surefoot Goat: (baaa-aaaa) We ‘Artios’ have for millennia served humanity beyond the call of duty, as many of us have long been domesticated. But way before this we provided other enormous – soul – benefits. One of these was taking to too-acute sense of sight from man; sight is the Capricorn sense. Yes, we are actually opposite from the bats, not just in the zodiac circle, but also in the senses – those of sight and touch being both opposite but complementary.
Unlike the bats, we have a poor sense of touch (baaaa-aaa), but excellent sight; seen to perfection in the large, pool-like eyes of many of the deer. If you could see like us, you would never need to think either. And speaking of thinking, if we didn’t evolve horns (as most of us have) your thinking would have hardened – even more than it has!
You see, the Quality of Capricorn is Evangelism, proselytizing; or, as Rudolf Steiner called it, “putting thought out into the world”.
Just as Fleetwing Bat has the finest skin, we have the coarsest – pretty thick-skinned lot we are, like elephants and bullocks.
This skin factor concentrates even more in our horns; Capricorn literally meaning ‘goat horn’. Horns are in effect compacted skin.
In esoteric circles, horns are considered a form of materialized thought, the hardest of thoughts indeed. This cryptic verity is expressed in the cognitive power of the horned Pan; he who bonded thought to the earth. That’s all for now.
Chairanimal: Well done Surefoot! Mankind has a lot to be grateful for by our artiodactyls taking their matter-bound burden from them.
But now we travel round the Zodiac clockwise from Cancer and the Chiroptera to the next sign, Leo. Here we meet the enigmatic Edentata.
If So-slow Sloth could begin making her way to the lectern while I fill in a few of the Edent’s details. I guess she’s, well, speed-challenged due to her Order, the second in evolution, taking on most of the more primitive aspects of the ether body; those shared with the plant world, really. IN soul terms, the ‘no teeth’, as edentata means, are quite plant like. For instance, they move verrrry slowly.
As well, they have an incredibly turgid metabolism, munching away interminably before depositing one verrrrry large dung at the base of a tree – only every seven days! And of course, they’re green! Yes, green; just like the foliage in which they dwell – and eat. This almost unique color amongst mammals is caused by (non-rolling!) sloths gathering moss, and other primitive vegetative hitchhikers. All kinds of plant life thrive in the thick, coarse fur of the sloth. (Is So-Slow getting any closer?!) Indeed, these creatures move only about 10 per cent of their time; again, this reflects plants rather than mammals.
The edentata are almost only found in South America; no surprise then that this is the nominal plant-etheric continent! So, a concentration of life-body formative forces was embodied in these indolent creatures in order that man could rise from his etheric languor – could experience passion even. How unlike the sleepy armadillo, and … ah, So-Slow, there you are. Now tell the people how your over-compensated ‘life’ principles, those dispensed by Leo with its sense of life, cancel out your aquarian sense of warmth. Tell them how you’re actually an inverted ‘heart’ animal; your heartbeat being barely discernible.
Tell them … I’m sorry folks, the long journey from the second row has been too much for poor So-slow – she’s gone to sleep again.
Will someone carry her back to her seat?!
Sense of warmth? Then it must be time to summon the animal representing this wonderful faculty to the stage; someone who is the antithesis of old So-slow. This would be one of the Carnivores.
Now who would that be? Weasel? Wolverine? Jackal?
Ye gods!! I’ll just introduce him from up here in the lighting box! Welcome … Jaws Jaguar!
Jaws Jaguar: (Growwwl!) Happy to be here. (Gosh, if this wasn’t a goodwill conference, I’d have that stupid sloth for lunch!)
Anyway, if the edentata are the least animal-like mammals, we carnivores are the most. And I don’t expect an argument here!
After all, they have no teeth, and we have plenty – of the very best kind (growwwl). But what we have best of all is, not some moldy, fungi-infested mat, but fur, glorious, thick, silky-soft fur. Almost all of we meat-eaters, from seals, to bears, foxes, snow leopards, dingos, and minks – especially minks! – generically have among the most beautiful and warm coasts in animalia. This of course accords with our being Aquarius-warmth animals, the sign, naturally, opposite Leo-life.
We also enjoy warm food – okay, blood food to put it crudely (growwwl). Just as hair is externalized skin, fur is the equivalent with blood. After all, the blood is the dedicated organ of the sense of warmth. If we had not taken on, and perfected, our luxurious coats, humans would still be completely furred: though not as good a quality as mine I bet! Hmmm, all this talk about blood is making me hungry.
What’s for lunch anyhow? I could go a nice cloth burger …!
Chairanimal: Thank you Jaws. Just leap off to the right … ! Okay, over the first couple of rows, no problem! … Whew, it’s always a bit dicey dealing with the carnivores. But not so with the Insectivores; they don’t bother anyone; unless you’re a termite, ha, ha, ha!
I’d now like Ambling Anteater to come to the front. Ah, there she is.
Greetings Ambling; tell us about you Virgo animals, the third mammalian Order in evolution … um, would you like a microphone?
(Hss, whipp-hsspph) Sorry folks; the insectivores are a pretty quiet lot. Ambling might be as big as a rottweiler, but her mouth is only a centimeter wide! And so, it is with most of the insectivores, like hedgehogs and tenrecs. So once again I’ll have to fill in the gaps.
These softly-spoken creatures generously took, among other things, mindless movement off the human being, such as the freneticism of the shew; or the infuriating pace-pace-pace-pace, back and forward, forward, and back, of Ambling Anteater here. Actually, you can go back to your seat now (pace-pace-pace-pace) you’re making me dizzy.
Will someone escort her … no, not you Jaws!!
Virgo has as its sense that of movement. The center for this is located in the upper abdomen, the womb area aptly enough. As such, the Virgo-insectivores, the fourth mammalian Order, seen to be womb-dominant; especially the little tenrec, which has the largest number of babies at one time of all the mammals – up to 30! Now that’s multiple birth! The ‘insect eaters’ have taken upon themselves this aspect to save humans form being so genetics tyrannized, hence they have usually only a single offspring; their rapid soul progress being assisted thereby. They also don’t have to exist only on insects – ugh! But enough of insect eaters. Across the Zodiac we find the complement to the insectivore, the all-familiar Primates. Ah, here come Gripper Gorilla now, swinging down the balustrade.
Gripper Gorilla: (scratch) Happy to drop in! As you said, we simians, the monkeys, apes, lemurs, et al, are the Pisces mammals, having taken foot development to extremes, as we have. The feet are the region of The Fishes. Our feet are almost, but not quite, hands; we missed out on the opposable thumb though (scratch). As such, the hand remains the exclusive organ of man. If, over eons, we chose not to unburden man of his foot emphasis, he would still be walking around on all fours – as we generally do. Due to this, he would not have been able to unfold his individualized Ego, which of course is dependent on uprightness. The feet are actually an externalization of the womb of our across-the-zodiac insectivores; in the metabolic-limb sense that is.
Of course, again in contrast, we are one of the smallest breeders in the mammalian world. IN fact, my single baby …
Chairanimal: Thanks Gripper; but we must move on. I say, we must – er, I think that’s enough for the monkeys … Goodness; is that a bunch of bananas I see at the back of the stalls! … Good, he’s gone!
So on to the next Order of mammals, the fifth. This is a group that’s also pretty good at multiple births, the Rodentia. Ah, here comes their delegate now, from a hole in the skirting board … not just one … two, more even! Lots more!! A carpet of mice – yikes!
Multi Mice: Hellos, hello, hell, hell … ! What’s Chairanimal doing on top of the lectern? No matter; we’re more used to other animals chasing us! When they catch us, as they often do, it doesn’t matter much, as we are the most numerous of mammals, containing over fifty percent of all species. Within that, we have the largest populations.
We are also the Libra mammals, with it sense of balance.
To achieve our high degree of almost unbelievable equilibrium skills, we have excessively developed the middle ear, the organ of balance – a fit, young rat can even run up a greasy pole, impossible for most other mammals. If we didn’t take on that task in evolution (balance, not running up greasy poles), mankind would be constantly seduced by the desire to express his balance sense in the most hair-raising ways – much as acrobats do. Because of us, humans, or most of them at least, have become grounded. We also took over this tooth problem. Man’s teeth have a strictly limited exponential, while ours’ just keep growing and growing and growing – for our whole lives.
As a result, we are condemned to gnaw away constantly, whether it’s beavers with trees, squirrels, and pine nuts (now that’s a balance animal for you!) – or mice with your peace of mind! All this gnawing requires considerable physical and psychic energy, which man now uses for more cultural pursuits. Indeed, this dentile connection with humans can even be seen in the fact that rats are the only animals to suffer tooth decay. Some people may be rats all right, but no self-respecting rat would ever call itself a human! Another balancing act of the rodentia is that when food is abundant, we breed to suit the conditions. When scarce, we balance things out by having less babies; or like lemmings, by running off a cliff in them millions!
Chairanimal: Nice ending. Do mice, um, have a similar exit strategy? No? Pity. Now if you’d all file out … hey, stop gnawing that lectern, or I’ll call in the cat! Ha, ha, ha – that scared them.
Now to cross the Zodiac to find how the hardest bone, that found in the teeth of rodents, is complemented by osseous density.
Alas, the Aries mammals, the Sirena, can’t be with us today, as they’re all marine creatures. These are the sea cows, dugongs, manatees, and their ilk. Aries is the skull region, and only due to these mammals taking upon themselves the densest bone in the mammalian world, humans could remain as relatively light-boned as they are.
Dugongs are especially head-heavy; their skull being massive.
This is used like a diver’s weight belt to keep them under the water; big head downs slim bottom up as they happily graze on the swaying weed pastures of shallow tropical bays. The sense of word belongs to The Ram; that which, in song at least (the most primal ‘word’), expresses through the bones. Tone eurythmists use the upper limb skeletal elements to express their art. Sirenia means ‘siren singer’.
So, who’s this hopping up on stage? Why Runner Rabbit of course, he of the sixth mammalian Order, that of the Lagarmorphs.
Runner Rabbit: Thanks Doc! Lagomorph means ‘rabbit form’. There actually aren’t many species in our Order, the fifth; just moi, hares, and pikas. But as a population, well, that’s a different matter – ask an Aussie farmer! Our success, especially rabbits, on this level could be because of an incredibly strong pelvis, in the Scorpio region; this being the main reason we can run so fast – or accelerate anyway.
A focus on the nether regions also gives us a big advantage in, er, procreation, a Scorpio faculty. Some misguided people think we’re rodents” not so thank heavens! We unburdened from poor humans something a lot of them don’t seem to appreciate, an unbridled interest in sex! If we lagomorphs didn’t exist, humanity would be obsessed with copulation, centering their whole existence around it, as we do.
Who knows, they might even feature sexual themes in advertising, films, media, fashion, sport, … A hand up in the audience; in the back row? What? They do already?! Well, it seems we haven’t done such a hot job of removing overt sexual interest from man’s soul. So, we’d better get going and do something about it – c’mon girls!
Chairanimal: Thanks Runner; but could you at least wait till you’re off stage! Looking across the Zodiac circle from Scorpio we find Taurua, with its very own, and highest of all, mammalian Order, the Cetacea. These bovines of the sea (male and female whales are known by the taurean ‘bull’s and ‘cows’) took on the overflow of the human brain. The Taurus ‘quality’ is, according to Rudolf Steiner, that of thought. Actually, there is an enigmatic higher transformation of the lower intestinal organs of the lagomorphs to the brain of the cetacea; even the convoluted form is similar if inverse.
If humans had the same size brain as whales, or lowly dolphins even, no self-realization would be possible, bombarded constantly as they would be by an avalanche of sense impressions – and more dangerous still, cosmic visions! A dolphin’s brain is so ‘aware’ of its environment that is a sea-world pool, it can perceive its trainer well before he comes into view, racing up and down it watery prison in expectation. Actually, it’s a pity we couldn’t have Diver Dolphin tell us his own story; but that is it as far as I know it.
Now onto the final Zodiac pair, beginning with the … I hate this word … Perissodactyl, the sixth Order of mammals. This means ‘odd toed’ (‘fingered’ in the literal sense). The person up the back again …?
No, not ‘odd toad’; and I know a toad is not a mammal (pretty ‘odd’ though!), but ‘t-o-e-d’. The odd toes refer to the perisso’s back feet.
Like the rabbits, etc., there aren’t a lot of them, just the extended horse family; the tapirs, and the old rhinos .. Ah, here’s Hippo Horse now … sadly for Hippo, Greek for horse, this word has been tacked onto the common name of the hippopotamus, ‘river horse’. This animal not being a horse – of course – at all, rather a member of the artiodactyls. Don’t take this as a neeeighsay Hippo – ha, ha, ha.
Hippo Horse: (Snort!) We too, like our artiodactyl neeeighbors in Capricorn, have the honor of being the symbol of the sign itself; of Sagittarius – well, half of it anyway. This is Chiron the Centaur; he of a man’s top half and a horse’s bottom – bottom half that is.
As such we always feel very close to man, horses at least being probably the most loved – and certainly respected – of all domesticated animals over the ages. In fact, our zodiacal complement is the sign of Man himself, Gemini; a symbol even here, in the ancient Greek period, being the twins Castor and Pollux on horseback.
We took upon ourselves the dominant leg, the region of The Archer being the thigh. This way man wouldn’t be tyrannized by the need to express his being though the lower limbs. Instead, he could sit down we can’t even to that!) and contemplate his Gemini hands, wondering how to serve the world around him (as if!). We horses are so leg-dependent, only rarely being off them as we are, that if we break one they shoot us, not matter how valuable the animal. They can even successfully splint the broken leg of a kangaroo; but not, sadly, of a poor horse. Even a prize stud stallion can’t be lame.
And what would have happened to man if he had retained his specialized leg? He would today be imprisoned I a kind of mindless resolve, the ‘quality’ of Chiron. This would render him hopelessly unable to adapt to changing circumstances. The rhinos suffer more here even than we horses, zebras, asses, etc. So, back now to Chairanimal.
Chairanimal: That pretty well sums it up. But just so that Gemini, with its sense of ego, is represented, I call on Man, just waiting off stage, to offer a vote of thanks to the entire mammalian world for taking on such a lot of this soul and body ballast.
The Gemini Order, the twelfth, with a single species, is Homo sapiens, ironically meaning ‘wise man’! The ‘quality’ is that of faculty, relating, as Hippo reminded us, to man’s world-serving hands.
Come on now Man – wise or otherwise! – don’t be shy. Is he coming, no? Can’t find him?! Maybe in the next planetary incarnation he might be able to express a little gratitude. Let’s break for lunch.
(Where’s that darn jaguar?)
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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