The Sun, which is bound up with all life on Earth, will be partially eclipsed today by the Moon at its peak approximately 5:41pm (ADT)in Aries.
Rudolf Steiner offers this imagination; “the Moon is the character or symbol representing everything the human race has gathered by way of knowledge, the Moon is the symbol for when it comes to gaining higher insight such as knowledge, did not cast light on things but brought darkness. Just as the Moon darkens the Sun at a solar eclipse. Moon knowledge casts darkness on the higher message of the Sun.”
The Fifth Gospel Lecture II, Steiner, R.
The Sun that we look to the Heavens to experience brings vitality and life, a life of Spirit. The physical body may feel a deep connection to the Sun in the Heavens, when the Sun’s radiance is forcibly darkened by the Moon passing between the Sun and the Earth, the physical body may feel feeble and weakened. This outer natural event may bring a darkening of the inner human soul. How can we navigate through this natural, cosmic event? Spirit Radiance?
In Rudolf Steiner’s book “Human Thought Cosmic Thought”, there are many Ideas… One I would like to share speaks to this image from Lecture III of “Human Thought Cosmic Thought”.
Consider that this partial Solar Eclipse is happening in Aries where the North Node, Uranus, Sun and Moon are all closely connected. Aries is the dwelling space of the Spiritual Hierarchy, “Lamb of God/Logos”, the head of the whole zodiac circle, the archetype of Man. You see the line that runs through the center of this circle has Aries “Idealism” on one side and Libra “Realism” on the other. Above this line we find materialism, below this line we find Spiritism. My understanding is the Sun, in this imagination relates to Empiricism when not bought to balance, the Moon in this imagination relates to Occultism when not bought to balance. I wonder with the Solar eclipse and New Moon happening in Aries with Uranus and the North Node also close by what is being asked of Humanity? In Humanity’s Origin of creation “experiencing the dawn of an entirely new age of self-experience through the body and particularly of the new faculties to use the brain, at least, more than before.. That humanity did not favour too much “the other-world” aspects of existence. It was on the road to develop personality and independence. The aspect of the Ram, Aries, as a new beginning, a central focus of events of inauguration.” ( Sucher, W.) May we consider this as a Spiritual Ideal? What may this Solar eclipse/new Moon bring us as an Ideal from the Spiritual world to support our Humanity in its Origin, keeping us on the true path of our evolutionary ascent?
What may we contemplate as (Aries) Idealism? “And he did not want, as it were, to renounce comprehension just because the first attempts of this comprehension shatter upon the boundary of world freedom; he wanted to ascend to a comprehension of what the world of ideas holding sway in everything does not have within itself but can take up into itself. The ideas that want to know the world do not need to bow out just because mere thinking comprehension is inadequate for knowledge of life. One need not say: Because ideas, with what at first lies within their own being, do not penetrate into the depths of the world, therefore the depths of the world cannot be known. No, when ideas give themselves over to these depths and become permeated by what ideas do not have in themselves, then these ideas rise up from the ground of the world, newborn and wafted through by the essential being of the “spirit of the world”.
From the seventeenth century, the deeper heart of the German people in the Görlitz shoemaker Jakob Böhme, working on in Schelling’s philosophical spirit, arrived at a world view like this in the nineteenth century.
How are we able to support the higher message, the ideas rising up, newborn, of the Sun that ray upon us , through us , in us and out of us? What new beginning out of the depths can we bring into expression? Are we able to trust in what is behind the phenomena, the unseen, as a true experience?
What may we contemplate as (Sun) Empiricism? Empiricism is also one of the seven fundamental worldview moods that Rudolf Steiner distinguished and assigned to the seven planetary spheres, with empiricism corresponding to the solar sphere.
Empiricism
“A special mood of the soul is one which is not inclined to think or ponder much about whether there is anything behind the appearances, as the Gnostic mood does, for example, or the Logical or Voluntaristic mood does, but which simply says: I want to incorporate into my world-view that which confronts me in the world, that which shows itself to me, that which reveals itself to me externally. This can be done in all areas, that is, through all the spiritual constellations. You can do it as a materialist, taking only what appears to you externally; you can also do it as a spiritualist. One does not try to find a special connection behind the phenomena, but lets things approach and waits for what presents itself. Such a mood of the soul can be called empiricism. Empiricism means a mood of the soul that simply accepts experience as it presents itself. Throughout all twelve spiritual constellations one can be an empiricist, a person who views the world of experience. Empiricism is the fourth mood of the soul, which can pass through all twelve spiritual constellations.“ (Lit.:GA 151, p. 54)
What may we contemplate as (Moon) Occultism? Occultism (from Latin: occultus “hidden, secret”), essentially synonymous with the term esotericism (from Greek: εσωτερική), is the term commonly used in Western culture for the study of occult or hidden knowledge, so-called secret knowledge, which provides information about the sensually not directly experienceable – and therefore hidden – realms of the world. The law of universal brotherhood states that a spiritual researcher can independently re-investigate occult facts, which have already been explored earlier by other spiritual researchers, only if he has previously received knowledge of them by way of external transmission. This guarantees the unbroken continuity of spiritual research throughout the ages and explains why the extensive study of spiritual-scientific tradition must be the indispensable basis for one’s own spiritual research.
Occultism
As the Moon crosses between the Earth and the Sun, let us know in our soul we are Divine beings created in Love and Freedom. Let us trust that our Spirit Radiance from the Inner Sun that dwells with in our hearts may support the Light of the Sun, as we radiate our Light on Earth towards the Heavens truly illuminating Heaven on Earth. Even the darkness that the Moon brings may contribute to our evolutionary path of ascension by way of previous spiritual researchers. What new Imagination are you Inspired to bring? Where is your Intuition guiding you ?
I leave you with this verse by Rudolf Steiner:
Warm Blessings,
Kassandra
