FOR ALL TIMES – FOR ALL PLACES
A Spiritual Lesson Preparation
Children audiences at afternoon matinees often get so excited at the hero’s ignorance of impending doom, that they impotently shout warnings at the screen. Of course the hero fails to hear them and – predictably! – blunders right into disaster. Rudolf Steiner describes a similar scenario for each of us on our own hero’s journey.
We too face unknown dangers, but instead of a near-riotous crowd of pint-sized helpers, there is one of numberless and nameless numinous Beings (though not of course ‘riotous’!). due to the metaphysical-material divide, a sadly impervious membrane for most mortals, the gods cannot directly communicate with us – not on a conscious level at least. However, they do speak to our psychic organs of perception; but we are usually deaf to even these silent promptings.
The Spirit speaks to man from the rear rather than to our front. Often we receive spiritually-inspired willimpulses of – as Stiner describes – a wholly unconscious nature in this way. We feel compelled to do something, though we don’t know why we did it!
A handy visualization of this conduit from heaven to earth is to imagine the “doors of perception”, as the eponymous rock group, The Doors, so cannily described them, tightly closed for most of us most of the time. If we imagine our own rea-entrance doors swung wide open we have made a first tiny step on the path to consciously receiving beneficial communications from higher worlds.
We follow this with a more practical application.
Many Steiner teachers and lecturers meditate on the class or course ahead prior to their actual content preparation. This is a kind of spiritual orientation. One method is to make a point of contact, tentative or otherwise, with specific realms of divine reality; ideally from the most remote to the most immediate.
If inspiration from a nominated spiritual source, of either a conscious or subliminal nature, is of benefit to the subject to be taught, there is more likelihood of this occurring if one has, even momentarily, beseeched one or other good gods for their blessing.
This is the truth behind that wonderful Christian aphorism, “Ask and ye shall receive.”. Jesus sure wasn’t referring to a new computer for your birthday! Then another, even more apt in light of the above, “Knock and the door shall be opened.”.
There are actually 12 ‘doors’ on which to knock in this supersensible preparation, the whole exercise taking no more (with a little practice) that say 15 minutes. This is a very small investment for the kind of help inspirational it can provide. Many of my best ideas for a lesson or lecture have come, not from dusty reference books, but this Cosmic Encyclopedia.
If one is giving a single lecture, then the spiritual preparation is an integral element of this one event. If however one is teaching a 3-week unit lesson, this initial 15-minute or so heavenly orientation is good for allsubsequent lessons in the unit. This of course implies modifications along the way for day, moon, zodiac and other changes.
The good thing about spiritual compared with earthly preparation, is that one is supposed to forget rather than remember the former. One commits one’s appeal to the gods, then simply trusts them to whisper their loving responses when the time is right; usually when you least expect it!
Therefore one does not enter a lesson, or settle down to one’s research, burdened with 12 sets of spiritual facts to add to the clutter of academic/artistic ones. Of course one has no idea which cosmic mansion will provide which kind of insight. This is why one briefly visits, mentally at least, all 12.
Beginning with the ‘most remote’ principle, we turn into Steiner’s Occult Science assurance that we are living on the 4th Planet incarnation, The Earth. The long-term mission of our current manvantara is to incarnate the Ego into the world and man. So I write on my clean, white, prep. Sheet: Earth – ego.
Even this simple beginning reminds me that, before all else, the development of selfhood is the foundation for both my life, and this lesson. If I am teaching English, the nominal ‘ego’ subject, I highlight this particular annotation. Earth-ego, Number 1, will be with us for eons, much longer even than the next potential spiritual inspirer, the 2nd, the Mercury Earth.
Steiner divides the Earth into the pre-Christ Mars and post-Golgotha Mercury Earths. We see its context in the names of the days: Saturnday; Sunday; Moonday; Mardi and Mercredi – the last two being the French equivalents of Tuesday and Wednesday. So we all live in a kind of perpetual, for the foreseeable future, and on a planetary level at least, Wednesday; a Mercury dispensation.
To synchronize with this profound spiritual power, we call on the Hermes/Mercury/Woden/Raphael (all Mercurial; in the same order, Greek, Roman, Norse, Christian) qualities, as depicted in various legends from the different cultures. We might choose to emphasize his “god of Trading’ status if we were preparing a lesson on Class 9 Small business; Mercury being the etymological origin of words like ‘mercantile’, ‘merchant’ and so on.
Number 3 is yet a further time contraction, that of the Epochs.
Today we are enjoying the benefits of what Steiner calls the Aryan, meaning ‘noble’, the 5th of this Earth incarnation. The previous four were Polaria, Hyperborea, Lemuria and Atlantis.
This 5th indicates its mission as the age of the development of Spirit Self; the expression of our humanity through language and the word arts. In the same order of evolution as the above, we have physical, etheric and astral bodies, Atlantis ego, and Arya Spirit Self. I would put an asterisk on, and give further thought to, this if I were teaching a Drama Lesson.
The 5th Epoch further contracts to it daughters, the Civilizations. Again we are in the 5th, but this time counting from Atlantis, beginning Ancient India, Persia, Egypt, Greco-Rome. Steiner calls our 5th the Anglo-Teutonic – a kind of tautology, both meaning Germanic. I prefer Anglo-Nihon, to describe its global rather than mere Western significance. The time frames of the Civilizations is based on the precession of the Zodiac; which is determined by its vernal (Spring Equinox) risings.
Since 1413, the vernal sunrises for Northern and Southern Hemispheres are Pisces and Virgo respectively. As I teach mostly in the Southern, I am most concerned to call on the supporting presence of The Virgin. She has the Quality of Soberness, as Steiner tells us, and the Sense of Movement. So I mark this as special if I’m lecturing, say, on bird migration.
However, there is a second consideration with the Civilizations, the 9-fold cyclic development of the human being.
The Anglo-Nihon is the age of the Consciousness Soul; that which followed the Intellectual Soul of the Greco-Roman (Khan) era. Unlike the north-south Zodiac aspect of the cycle of Civilizations, this 9-fold man is global. Hence the whole world, whether it knows it or not, is under the spiritual benevolence of the consciousness soul – the “Semi-transformed physical body” as The Master called it. In short, we all live in an informed will age. Will is the fire of man, as Steiner describes it in his lectures on Revelations in 1924:
Human beings will perceive in themselves the intimate fire process which is bound up with the development of the consciousness soul…they will experience waking consciousness like a kind of fire process within them, consuming them. For the consciousness soul is something highly spiritual, and the spirit always consumes what is material. This is a process of transformation. …they will feel how certain intellectual activities consume them, like a fire in the soul.
English is the language of spiritual soul, little wonder then that it is the Lingua Franca of the age, and will be, we presume, for the life of this highest soul element, another 1500 years or so.
This awareness, whether the gods choose to illuminate this lesson, say on the History of Language, or not, will already add a dimension of interest which one would probably not have enjoyed otherwise.
Revelations calls this era “the Community of Sardis”, the 5th ‘community’. The invocation here is especially cautionary in light of the current environmental rape of the good earth: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die.”
Steiner specifically, in the same lecture above, calls Sardis a ‘star’ age, and warns that we must “bring the stars to earth” by recognizing spirit in nature. As a mirror of the ‘Astrological’ Egypt-Chaldean Civilization, the 3rd, our 5th also has this awakening to the constellations as a core imperative – and I don’t mean devotion to spurious women’s magazine star charts!
The 6th inspirational heavenly choir is the Time Spirit Since 1879, this has been Michael, the Archangel of the Sun elevated to Archai, of the Spirits of Personality, for his 300-year reign. Again, many aspects of this warrior deity can be meditated upon; one might see inspiration in his old-values-overturning role in a study of Biographies; Gandhi was a Michaelian soul.
The 7th, the Archangels, have regency over the Seasons. After looking out the window, I determine that it is Autumn – ah, the season of Michael! It is always interesting in these deliberations to observe a pattern, such as spiritual forces being weighted in one direction or another. We see here a double michaelian influence, so we give further scrutiny to his Sun – or love-courage-truth – benefits likely to enliven our work. Michael is equivalent to St. Matthew, the physical body gospel – or Aquarius, with its (physical body) sense of warmth or ‘inner fire’.
From the season to the 8th, the Month, as an expression of the Zodiac. I am writing this a week into Pisces, with its Quality of Destiny and Sense of Hearing. What a good time to teach Music.
We see there another bonus of this 12-fold cosmic inspiration understanding, structuring our curriculum throughout the year to take advantage of the various divine events.
Of course one must use the new Zodiac designation in all these deliberations. This, due to the aforementioned precession of the equinoxes, has moved forward one sign from the previous. Hence March 21 to April 21 is not now Aquarius, as it was in the Greco-Roman age to 1413, but the Twin Fishes.
Then we have the Week. This 89th meditation is the four Moon phases. Different psychic influences stream into the earth realm from full, 1st and 2nd quarters and new Moon. These stimulate or inhibit our creativepotential in one way or another. For instance, full Moon can be a time of rich imaginative life, but can also descend into vapid fantasy; especially if we succumb to its romantic blandishments.
Further research on all the above, whether directly from Steiner, or through Golden Beetle Books’ 48-title opus, will provide further elaboration on the manifold effects of this most complex of subject.
As in all things, one can only take a step at a time – the vital thing here is to begin; no matter how humble one’s knowledge base. This of course increases logarithmically as time goes by.
So from the Week to the Day. I am writing this on a Monday – Moonday. Many Steiner teachers organize activities due to the potential invisible aid of the Seven Planetary Spheres. Most College of Teachers meetings in Steiner schools are held on a Thursday – Thorsday – Jeundi – Jupiter’s Day. This is because Jupiter/Zeus is traditionally the god of wisdom. Alas, he seems singularly absent, even on a Thursday, from many of these collegiate assemblies! Even a god can only do his best in the face of human intransigence.
From the Day to the Hour. For this inspiration we divide the day roughly into dawn to mid-day; mid-day to sunset; sunset to midnight; midnight to dawn. Here the four Elementals hold sway. If I am to teach a morning main lesson, I know that my words and actions will be perceptible, in their higher expression at least, to the Sylphs, or Dryads as the Greeks called them – English fairies.
These air/light spirits will be especially helpful if my presentation is likewise illumined. A joyous ambience should prevail; an ordered sanguinity spiced with humor – the lot mantled in love. Just the few minutes spent in preparation thinking of the morning as a Sylph time can tincture the lesson with the spirit of goodwill; something which may have been in short supply had one not thought of it at all.
We come to earth with a bump at the 11th Station of Preparation, the Place. Metaphysical influences abound in geography and geology, from the Southern Hemisphere imperatives, to latitude/longitude (I pen this at 33°South, a pretty special number!), to seaside or mountain (imagination – inspiration), to the mineral base (I’m on sandstone capped with red ironstone), to flora, fauna, weather and more.
Lastly, but certainly not leastly in these preparation meditations on the Holy 12, is the Subject. In the Subject Zodiac, a different community of sublime Beings minister to the 12 nominal learning areas, from Aries-Language, right around the circle to Pisces-Music.
If embarking on, say, a 3-week middle unit of the latter, why not tune in, as it were, to the higher creative planes which gave birth to, and sustain, world Music? All through the subtle and discriminating mystery of tone perceived through the sense of hearing.
At least no harm can come of this approach, and of any of the other preparation musings (again, no pun intended). In fact with the power of the mind alone, it can be self-fulfilling in outcome.
Another source for the Subject Zodiac is the Christian equivalent: the Patron Saint of Music is St. James; his feminine counterpart, St Cecilia. Or in Jewish astrology, Jonah-Miriam, in Greek, Tritonus-Pallas! Various perceptions of the same creative power.
Further ponderings can be fruitful on the Child; as viewed through the Educational Zodiac. This begins with Cancer in Class 1 – with their, aptly, Quality of Initiative – right up to, again apposite, Gemini Class 12 with its Sense of Ego.
What a synchronicity of positive influences is possible with a Pisces Music lesson to a Pisces Class 9. I had a most inspired Music unit, in 1982, with my class of 15-year-olds; one in which we conceived, composed, performed and recorded a stunning album of music for our film Phoenix and the Dove. And I taught it in the Pisces month! (Exactly 20 years ago, incidentally) This was a triple-barrel spiritual support.
Yes, even way back then I meditated on the 13-fold pre-lesson planning of: Earth; Mercury Earth; Arya; Virgo; Michael; Season; Month; Week; Day; Elemental; Place; Subject.
This Educational Zodiac is really a 13th; the students’ own spiritual reality. It is not included in the 12 Meditations, as it refers only to a same-age group of young learners. With an adult audience, there is no reasonable equivalent. This is so also with the child’s evolutionary disposition: are they in their Greek year, Class 5, with its Rational Soul implications?
The 12-fold path from Planet to Subject however is universal, for al
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