View allAll Photos Tagged Perceptions
Facial Perception & Latino Identity Survey: Chance to win $20 gift card for participating in research.
Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.
--Miyamoto Musashi--
Body image refer to our perception, thoughts, feeling and reaction to our looks.
Each person holds an idealized image of the body, which he uses to measure the percepts and concepts of his or her own body.
The loss of a limb by amputation could lead to a long-term disorder in the individual’s body experience.
The project deals with a series of prosthetic arms each refer to a specific body image of amputees.
Technique - super sclpey
*School of Visual Arts, NY.
Course instructor - Allan Chochinov
24"x24" Perceptions (Waveform) . nails, resin, mixedmedia on wood.
exploring and in praise of the barely perceptible.
The world is full of magic things,
patiently waiting
for our senses to grow sharper.
~W.B. Yeats
(sold) Great Chefs Dinner contemporary art auction to benefit the Hayground School 2012
Leather Overbust Corset and Neck Corset. 7 sizes: Standard sizes XXS-L, plus special sizes M+ and Bx. Copy/Mod
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mint Tulip/24/203/22
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
At a university fair I found a mirror box made by an art student. The idea was to promote creativity by attracting kids who'd like to have selfies "like no other" :)) But as someone interested in the working of the mind I found it to be one of the best things at the fair. I've just couldn't resist taking a selfie in the mirror box, to show that right angles can make space distortions ... it's all about perception.
"The reality of life is that your perceptions -- right or wrong -- influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place." -Roger Birkman
Wallpaper Version Available: solefield.deviantart.com/art/Ten-439472743
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
One of my little side-projects: photographing doors, in a project I call "Doors of Perception" (yes, I am a fan of The Doors).
Bustier-Dresses in color with silver contrast are now up in-world!.
7 sizes, the five standard sizes plus special sizes M+ for very curvy shapes and Bx for top-heavy shapes.
:$285 each or L$985 per fatpack of 5.
Copy/Mod, No Transfer.
NEWS FROM CHOP ZUEY COUTURE JEWELLERY
SEARCH FOR THE SUMMER 2012 CHOP ZUEY GIRL IS ON!
We are on the hunt for the new Chop Zuey Girl.
Are you the next Chop Zuey Girl? Think you have what it takes?
The Chop Zuey Girl is Smart and Sexy, full of Life and Personality. Creative and Poetic - building her world around her as she likes it - yet keenly aware of the world as it is. Honest, Sympathetic and Kind to all, but you instinctively know she carries a sharp sword. You'll find her in your Favourite Van Gogh Painting - for she is a work of art. Fun and Funny in one breathe, you are amazed at how switfly her senses tune into razor-sharp perception and dead-on intiuitiveness. Women love her as much as Men and she is absolutely the kind of Girl your mother would adore. Loves Chocolate but swears she is a vegan, Protector of animal rights, adores sensuous fabrics, she is both a Lover and a Fighter, a Romantic and a Realist. The Girl you love to love. Does she sound like you?
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PRIZES AND HONOURS:
1st PLACE WINNER will recieve:
a) Honourable Tag: "Chop Zuey Girl" and one of a kind crown & jewels made exclusively by Chop Zuey for the winner.
b) 10,000L cash prize
c) 2000L Chop Zuey Gift Card
d) A Gift Set from Vero Modero
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vero%20Modero/126/140/28
e) Gift Certificate from Body Doubles for a Free Shape.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chop%20Zuey/128/135/25
f) 1000L Gift Card from Sascha's Designs.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coco%20Beach%20Kelina/226/...
g) Photo Shoot with esteemed Photographer and Magazine Owner October Bettencourt for October Magazine.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chop%20Zuey/128/135/25
h) Pixel Icon School of Photography Scholarship worth 10K
i) Photo Shoot with Belle Roussel for a Chop Zuey Ad in Fashion Magazine (TBA)
***************
1st RUNNER-UP will recieve:
a) Honourable Tag "Chop Zuey Girl Finalist" and one-of-a-kind crown & jewels made exclusively by Chop Zuey for Finalist.
b) 2000L cash Prize
c) 1000L Chop Zuey Gift Card
d) Photo shoot with Belle Roussel for in Store Ad (TBA)
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PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD will recieve:
a) 1000L Gift Card from Chop Zuey Couture Jewellery
***************
CONTACT PERSON: Belle Roussel (by notecard only)
FLICKR CONTACT: Eliza Mint ( for all Flickr Issues )
DEADLINE: Sunday July 22nd 2012 by Midnight SLT
ANNOUNCEMENTS OF 12 FINALISTS: Saturday, July 28th 2012
WINNER ANNOUNCED: Sunday, August 5th, 2012
ESTEEMED JUDGES:
BlackBarbie Bravin - CEO MVW Modeling Academy, BOSL Project Manager.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Renaissance%20Galler...
October Bettencourt - CEO October Studio & Magazine
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/October%20Enterprises/103/...
Ai Heinrichs - Fall 2012 Chop Zuey Girl Winner
Kimmera Madison - Owner/Designer of Tres Beau
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lace/120/133/23
Paisley Lancaster - Virual Worldwide Media, Scruplz & Peoplz Magazine.
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How to Join:
Step 1: The Jewellery you wear in your photos must be by Chop Zuey. (free gifts & members gifts are not acceptable - complete transaction must be shown). *Please see the list of acceptable collections from which you can choose your pieces. Each Photo must show different jewellery and preferably a different look, different style or different side of your personality (i.e. First photo natural and the second photo High Couture, Minimalist or Impressionist. Avant Garde' ect.).
Step 2: All Contestants must be a member of the Chop Zuey Couture Jewellery Group and list Chop Zuey in their Pics. If you are chosen as a finalist and Chop Zuey is not in your pics or you are not a group member, you could be disqualified.
Step 3: Take two photos.
a) Size 512 x 512 in TGA or PNG Format only.
b) Photos must be Full Permission.
c) Rename the Photos: Your Name + Pic 1 and Pic 2
d) Do Not put your name or the Photographers name or studio on the picture please. You can credit them in the Enrollment Card.
Remember: Your Photos should highlight and represent Chop Zuey Jewellery at its best, However we are looking for that Girl with the personality, light and heart that shines thru (see above description of the Chop Zuey Girl) - and of course - we are looking for GREAT PHOTOS. Photoshop touch-ups are acceptable. See Note ** below for Added Info.
Step 5: Fill out this Enrollment Notecard, put your name on it and send to Belle Roussel by deadline - Midnight SLT Sunday, July 22nd 2012. NOTECARD ONLY - NO FOLDERS PLEASE!
Step 6: VERY IMPORTANT: Please join our Chop Zuey Flickr Group and post your pics on our Flickr Account at:
www.flickr.com/groups/chopzueygirl-contest/
The Judges will choose the finalists & winners from flickr.
*ANY ISSUE WITH FLICKR PLEASE CONTACT ELIZA MINT - NOT BELLE
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By Submitting Pictures and application, you agree to give Full Permission to Chop Zuey Couture Jewellery to use them in store display, blog sharing, advertising, shop displays and ad events. Credit will be given.
Please follow directions completely. Any missing information may result in elimination of your application.
All decisions made by Chop Zuey Management shall be final and binding.
Good Luck!
Belle Roussel
Owner/Designer
Chop Zuey Couture Jewellery
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chop%20Zuey/45/137/26
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* You can choose your jewellery from the following collections. They cannot be free items or group member gifts. Transaction must be shown and will be double checked:
Spring 2012 Collection
Tomorrow's Son
The Bridal Collection
Brooches & Fibulae Collection
Love & Other Drugs
Animal Speaks Collection
Heart Flame Series
Sweet Moments
Nirmala
Vincent in Arles
Ikebana
Le Bolshvik Set
Twin Flame
Pagoda Collection
Moon Collection
Le Cousette
Equinox & Planets Series
The Queen's Collection
La Belle Bijoux
The Cupcake Collection
Trifles
My Twisted Valentine Collection
The Barking Bard
The Light of the World Collection
The Symphony Series
Autour du Cou Neck Dressings
Asiatica
Big-Ass Earrings Collection
Ed Hardy Edition
The Goddess Collection
Midnight Mocha
Moulin Rouge
Unisex Collection
Pocahontas
Any collection that comes out after the release of this notecard is also acceptable.
** Note:
Lets us give you some direction as to what the Chop Zuey Judges are looking for:
1.) Give Good Face - show us a beautful face that glows. that means you need to get in close enough when you shoot the photo.
2.) Make your Chop Zuey Jewellery look great!. Also, dont forget about the 3 P's - Prim Placement Please. Watch the way the jewellery would move or fall according to your pose - i.e. if you head is tilted to the left then reason says your dangling earring will do the same. Show that to us in your photo.
3.) Photoshop is allowed, therefore take advantage of this to make your Photo look as profession as possible.
4.) Don't waste your photo on body shots that are too far away. We want to see you and your jewellery. Do that in whatever creative way you see fit.
Thank you
Chop Zuey Couture Jewellery
Summer 2012 Chop Zuey Girl Contest
via Tumblr lawrence9gold.tumblr.com/post/107993948912
A T T E N T I O N:P S Y C H O A C T I V E______________________
INSTRUCTION IN THE SOMATIC ABILITY
TO DISSOLVE THE HIDDEN GRIP OF AFFLICTION
OR THE COMPULSION TO BE ANYTHING, IN PARTICULAR
— horse training —
— You’re the horse. | You’re the trainer. — Finding Ourselves Out
First thing: I should know about what I’m talking about. I’m an expert on identity formation, as I’ve been running and reforming this identity for years. One of these days, somebody’s going to find me out and we’ll all end up in show-biz.
In show-biz, to the degree that an actor/ess is free within his/her identity set and free to change, to that degree he or she can play different roles well.
(This could be a clue.)
No one of us has a single identity — and that doesn’t necessarily mean we all have Multiple Personality Disorder. It means that our identity changes (more or less), from moment to moment, and in the circumstances of the moment, as we resonate with our circumstances.
The one thing that persists in some way is the vague idea of “self” — the one to whom this identity purportedly belongs. People rarely talk about that one! (It’s our ‘sacred cow’ self — the one “outside it all” and viewing it all, the one who ostensibly never becomes hamburger, supra-Kosmic or otherwise.)
The expression of self changes, but the owner of it seems somehow the same: the secret identity. The Continuity of Memory.
But behaviors, and the provisional identity of the moment, fluctuate. Which one is the “real” identity? Ha-HAH!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~and now, a very important disclaimer:
That doesn’t mean that we’re the political flip-flopper
who flips and who flops with every passing wind
whose words are as passing wind
and whose meaning has no reliable connection to a functional outcome
whose integrity has big gaps, or lots of little gaps
whose principles are weak
whose equilibrium is easily upset
who takes an unstable stand
the dependent
who has too little active capacity to bring order,
who is not yet educated enough
to create forms with integrity,
who has too little capacity to reverse the course of entropy
in his environment and himself
who uses the word, “fight”, instead of “create”
the secret nature of a mediocre nincompoop
in a position of responsibility beyond him
whose primary interest is
to get rich and avoid getting into trouble
to avoid any kind of crisis, lest he flub his response
he, in a position of visibility,
who fears to look like an incompetent
— or worse — have to face consequences.
Maybe it’s what makes him a schlimazl
for whom nothing good ever seems to happen
since he can’t marshal all the forces needed
to make it happen.
or makes him a shlemiele
(closely related to a no-account fool)
not good at much of anything,
fallen back into being a good-for-nothing freeloader,
an imbiber by days
and something of a hapless dimwit at twilight
walking into lampposts
or, alas, maybe he’s just a poor putz —
a person who’s a total loss
uneducated
unperceptive
incomprehending
wrong and insistent.
Maybe he’s a shmoygeh,
or its sillier version, shmegeggie
whatever that is
a slob
a nudnick (dumb-kopf!)
or a no-goodnick in our eyes
but look!
He has a nice suit!
NO! This is a smart person!
a wonderful person!
He cleans up after himself.
He picks up his clothes.
He can read.
He’s nice.
He’s also a clever person, having learned a thing or two.
He knows the difference between
“flip” and “flop”
knows when it’s OK to be flip
and knows when his flippancy has flopped.
Oh, most unflappable one,
I see you keep your equilibrium pretty well —
— most of the time.
You are intelligently mindful of how we are unavoidable affected by each other
and inextricably interconnected,
with everything unified in the present moment,
not as an idea or ideal, but as a perception
of how things actually are,
feeling and observing how we are affected by this moment
in a resonant and moving equilibrium
continuous in moment to moment experience
participating and yet mystified,
faithful in nothing in this life made of change,
in which the currents of our own existence
carry murky, turbulent memories
that shape and color our times.
You sound like a wise man (or woman).
How did that happen?
~~~~~~~~~~
So, when I speak of identity, I’m not speaking of socialization or role. I’m speaking of something much more fundamental, something that explains human behavior, how we get stuck in behavior, and how we may deliberately grow or evolve through an “unhooking” or “unlocking” process.
To the point:Four steps are involved in identity formation:
experience: the emergence of the “present” from the unknown: self, others and things, the momentary and total condition of “now” | Without the gathering and coalescing of attention and aggregations of memory, experience is void, without meaning, without significance, without object, just movements of the unknown
memory : persistence of experience, the experience of “now” (immediate memory), meaning, recognizable events, holding on to experience and experiences, having experience “be in your face”
identification: choosing to stick with a certain experience at any moment : assigning importance, assuming memory (persistence) is reality : taking remembered experiences of self as self and our perception of other things as “the way they really are.” (The Myth of Actuality = “The Myth of the Given”)
perpetuation: intending, inviting, seeking to make more, or refusing, seeking to make less, all motivation, all “go”, all “stop”, all spin, all involvement with, all imagining
The four Stages of Things Becoming a Priority. Obviously, I have to define my terms, so here goes.
EMERGING EXPERIENCE: ” BEING”, BECOMING
(“the One” multiplied by becoming “the Many”)
At every moment, we have a sense of “how things are”. It’s our most obvious sense of the plain-old present.
It consists of our experience of our situation and our sense of ourselves. Most of this sense of experience is submerged in subconsciousness. But we experience it every time we meet a new person and visit a new place. It’s our first impression — which fades with familiarity, into the background.
This first impression, or sense of the moment, is, at first, of “unknown" (yes, I wrote that rightly). Our first impression is of "unknown". Gradually, with enough time and enough exposure, "unknown" fades-in into "something known" — a memory is formed. Until a sufficiently vivid memory is formed, no experience is being had.
The motions of experience inscribe upon memory an ongoing trail, movements of attention from one thing to another.
MEMORY : THE BASIS OF THE MOVEMENT BETWEEN HARMONY AND DIS-HARMONY
We resort to memory as a proxy for (approximation of) actual experience, so we can more easily focus on experiences that have that pattern, and look for what’s changing, moving, happening. It’s beginning from a presumed base of knowledge.
As we get familiar with anything, we form a memory of it. That memory constitutes our knowing of “how things are”.
Then, the experience of the moment is seen always in terms of existing memories, which grow in a moving, changing pattern. The growing edge of memory is experiencing what is emerging out of the unknown, clothing it in imagination so it may seem known, then forming memories and bridging them with other memories. Impressions form over time about the “realities” of life, colored by memories brought to life by imagination, imagination informed by memory and going beyond.
We form our memories from our experiences of the moving moment of life, the changing harmonics of life. All sensory impressions that go into memory refer to movements and harmonics of life, memories of persons, places and things. Our memories of “the movements and harmonics of life” flavor or dress up all of our sense-impressions of the moment.
A memory of “a movement and a felt harmonic” gets called up every time we recall something and every time we put ourselves in a situation to experience anything familiar. Memory creates expectation.
A way of finding the force of a memory is to notice how much it matters to you.
ASSUMING MEMORIES are REALITY, TRUTH or SELF
We give our memories the status of “truth”, and memories of our own state the status of “self”.
To the degree that something feels, “in your face”, that’s the degree that you take it for truth, for reality, or as self. That’s how solidly set your / my attention is in memory, how solidly fixated, how ingrained, how entranced. That’s how much experience has “got us” by the ….. (ooch!) .
PERPETUATING and/or REFUSING THE EXPERIENCES WE REMEMBER
Persistence and resistance (or intending and refusing) are two forms of the same thing: one is “wanting to make it more” and the other is “wanting to make it less”; the difference, only one of direction; both are “wanting”.
When someone “knows” something, they want (to some degree — strongly or mildly) either to reinforce/assert their knowledge or to minimize/deny it. They want to rely upon it or they want to forbid it. Either way, they want to do that for themselves, for their own sake.
By those acts, they form an attitude, a key part of the ability of identity to express itself, a felt memory.
Once a person has an attitude, they want to impose it upon the world. (Even the idea of “not wanting to impose it on the world” is an attitude.)
That’s the activity of identity, of self-propagation, the genetic imperative that distinguishes itself from others on the basis of memories.
A case in point: Take, for an example, ten year old Jimmy.
experience
Jimmy has never been to a baseball game.
His father comes home with tickets to see the Cardinals.
They go on a Saturday.
At the ballpark, Jimmy takes it all in, eyes open wide.
Dizzy Dean is pitching.
He winds up. There’s the pitch.
Foul ball. Into the stands.
Jimmy catches the ball.
memories
Now, Jimmy has a story to tell the guys in the neighborhood.
What does that do for his social status?
Jimmy likes the attention. He brings the ball to school, he tells the story at Sunday School, around …
The more Jimmy tells the story,
the more he reinforces the memory of it
and his place in it.assuming memories are truth, reality, or self
Jimmy takes credit for catching the foul ball,
lays claim to special status, reason for pride.
casts himself into a self-image that he takes for himself
and shows around.perpetuating what we remember as extended forms of “self”
Soon, Jimmy is a fan.
He’s read up on Dizzy Dean, knows his statistics,
roots for the Cardinals,
feels the glory when they win
feels the humiliation when they lose.
He’s even gotten into a couple of fights over it.
He can’t help himself.
But then, he’s only ten.
That was a long, long time ago.
Now, Jimmy’s a Republican.
another case-in-point:
George enlists in the army.
Goes to war. It’s his patriotic duty.
He’s sent to the front. Wounded.
Now he has a limp. And a medal.
He’s honorably discharged and sent home. He gets special recognition, special privileges. (This was an earlier time.)
He’s sent to an innovative form of therapy that promises he can walk, again. In fact, he’ll lose the limp.
But now, George doesn’t know “who he’d be” without his war wound. He’d seem ordinary. He also can’t imagine walking normally, again. He’s forgotton his “pre-army” state. His wound and his status as a wounded war vet, based in memory and the seeming permanence of his wound, have made him into something else.
The therapy doesn’t work.
He gets into politics. Eventually, he runs for political office.
Now, he gets some mileage out of being a wounded war vet. His wound is his badge of courage. He cherishes the identity of “War Vet”, keeps it low-key on the campaign trail. He imagines that it is some of the basis of the respect with which people treat him, that it’s a “trump card”: On certain topics, no one dares challenge his position.
And, of course, years later, he’s a Republican.
An identity is a standpoint and general ways of operating based on memories of experience, a standpoint that wants to reinforce (or perpetuate) its way of operating in the world.
Everything we know, we want to continue to be “right knowledge”. That’s why people dislike “being wrong” and why “being made wrong” is such a politically incorrect social impropriety. It’s about what “wanting to be right” means — not having to change.
So, first we experience something. And then, as we experience it, we remember it. Then, we assume that memory represents and actually says something reliable about either oneself or something or someone other. We carry all the accumulated memory patterns that form out of the interaction of the world with our memoried self. We act as if life exists in terms of those memory patterns — and so act accordingly — either to perpetuate and reinforce or to refuse or counteract.
That explains how we form behavior patterns, how we get stuck in behavior patterns (egotism, arrogance, “anything goes” or cold-fish authoritarianism), and also how we learn to grow and evolve. It’s a spooky business.
Just as we form innumerable memories from moment to moment, we form innumerable identities for each moment — and hopefully they’re all well interconnected, so we don’t get trapped in one.
The tricky thing about all this is how to avoid getting stuck in the sheer mass and momentum of accumulated memories.
One answer is, to reverse the process. What would happen for Jimmy if he imagined himself going back up the chain of identity formation?
I present The Gold Key Release ( which a New Age Flower Child might call, “The Somatic Crystal Decrystallization Process”, a soul brother: “Da Big, Divine Kosmic Kiss” (mmmWAH!) or, an academic professor, rather stuffily, “A Somatic Faculty”) —- viz:
(NOTE: vizier = one who writes, “viz”.
“Vizier” is Arabic for “wise guy”.)
"Somatic Awakening" is not an "awakening to" or "awakening into"; it’s an awakening as and then an awakening from.
It’s “awakening as” what most ordinarily IS,
scanning it with attentiveness,
feeling it, inhabiting it,
enfolding it,
assessing its “charge”: how one feels implicated (i.e., compelled to act),
the force of memory,
detecting imagination in memory,
then awakening from imagining,
releasing the sense of “something there”, feeling it dissolve into the formless root of attention, feeling attention as no-self.
There. Which is Here.
It’s going backward through
the stages of priority
"upstream" of the creative process,
to awaken, undefined, as self-source — the Natural State, the experience of which feels like A Big, Divine Kosmic Kiss, which we may symbolize by the word,
"mmmmWAH!!!"
which is also what it feels like, as we dissolve into the undefined Condition.
See? No? You will.
He feels his position, attitude, standpoint, or whatever he is stuck with or is perpetuating — his knowledge, his chosen identity, his refuge to the immunity of rightness. Whatever it is, it’s a sensation, felt bodily, with a location, size, shape, and intensity in the overall body-sense (kinesthetic body, subtle body, etheric body, dream body). Feel each term. Pretty similar, huh?
It may occur to him that he may have “bought in to something” — assigning the status of “reality” to his memory-shaped-colored perspective in the world: “the truth” or “The Truth”, “oneself” or “the Self”. It may occur to him that, that he does not “have” it, but that it “has” him. That he lives “inside” it and is subject to its limitations, which he takes as a product of Reality and not a product of his way of remembering and seeing things, his perspective. To him, it’s solid, real, and consequential. The mood is, “This is real." or "This matters" (to a greater or lesser degree— but note: If something makes a difference to you, you’ve bought into it and it has you.)
He feels how much of this sense of “solid truth” or “things mattering with consequences” feels like memory and how much of memory feels like imagination. It’s a “feel” thing, not an “answer” that he comes up with. He traces the feeling from the sense of solid truth to memory to imagination.
He imagines the appearance of a scenario that’s developing and has expectations that are informed, in part, by memory, and so his perception is shaped by memory.
Remembering is re-imagining something into our experience. The seeming persistence, the solidity or reality of anything you can put your attention upon is memory. Memory fades unless refreshed by imagining. The denser the memory, the more persistent it is.The way we do it:
We put attention on the feeling of having some experience.
We sense the feeling of experience without words,
as a sensation someplace within us
We feel its size, shape, intensity.
We pump up our ability to sense our somatic state
with “attention maneuvers”.
We sense how much (not “what”) intention we have toward it
We notice how steadying attention solidifies intention.
We feel the whole package as a single, contained force:
the thing we are experiencing
and our intention toward it made solid by attention.
How intention + attention = memory.
Now, we feel how much it matters
in order to bring ourselves into the relationship
and acknowledge how much we are involved.
How much it matters has to do with our relation to the world.
Try it.
We may then own the intensity of the memory
even if we don’t know what the memory is
and we may sift that intensity
for the movements of imagining.
We feel how much it feels like “solid reality”, how much feels like memory, and how much of the memory feels a bit like imagining (or as we like to say, “daydreaming” or “being entranced”).
We feel “remembering” and “imagining” and alternate between them until we can zero in on each equally steadily and equally easily, and so can balance them. What makes it easier to alternate more to one side than the other is that we are more entranced by it. These words make sense with experience, but perhaps not before. Save yourself the brain-fog; instead of “trying to figure it out”, just do it. (Once.)
If you have trouble with this step, deliberately remember something. Feel what remembering feels like. Then imagine something. Feel what imagining feels like.
Now apply those distinctions to your sense of “solid truth”.
Feel the dissolution of his “fix” (or fixation) — the thing he has been perpetuating — as his discovery or sense of “how much of it is imagination” is “the little valve” through which the “air” that has inflated his sense of “solid truth” (and ego) escapes. Simpler if he just does Step 3. (Imagination is easier to let go than “solid truth”.)
He takes a breath, lets go and falls into his identity-less, natural state, at least for the moment. (Don’t do this while driving or try to understand this by reading it. Do the procedure. Do it well at least once.)
He checks the remaining intensity of the feeling. If anything is left, he starts at Step 1.
QUESTION: Would he quit being a Republican?
I ask you.
From here, we go to the first magical process for decrystallizing crystallized identity patterns:
The Gold Key Release
MORE:Other Magic Following Upon the Gold Key ReleaseThe Wish-Fulfilling Gem
Esoteric Somatics and Tibetan BuddhismSEARCH KEYWORDS:(to return to this entry again, later.
caring | | 42
harmony | 85 | 94
memory | | 89
identification | 7 | 148
perpetuation | 78 | 162
copyright 2014 Lawrence Gold
This writing may be reproduced only in its entirety
with accurate attribution of authorship.
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The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, includes a Rosicrucian current that sees the Rosy Cross as ‘the divine light of self-knowledge’ (Franz Hartmann, 1838-1912). Yet there are no commentaries specifically dedicated to the Chymical Wedding in the theosophical literature. Like Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), the co-founder of the Theosophical Society, the Austrian theosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was convinced that the mysteries of the Rosy Cross were ‘solely passed on through oral tradition’ (1906). Steiner became the Secretary General of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in 1902. He expected to discover authentic Rosicrucian rituals when he joined the Freemasons as his mentor Goethe had. But like the theosophers, he observed that the true spirit of the Rosy Cross was no longer to be found in the secret societies of his day. In 1906, the ‘Rosy Cross of the Theosophical Society’ began presenting the ‘Mystery of Golgotha’ as an entirely unique event in the history of mankind, at odds with the Theosophical Society’s custom of granting equal importance to all religions. In 1917, ten years after leaving Annie Besant’s Esoteric School and five years after founding the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner published a study on the Chymical Wedding in Berlin. The present article shows that this written commentary was a means for him to situate himself in the continuity of the Rosicrucian tradition of esoteric Christianity while introducing his own theosophy, which he called ‘anthroposophy’ or ‘spiritual science’, as the heir of the authentic Rosicrucians. The reference to the authoritative text allowed him to illustrate and justify his former assertions on 1) the actual existence of Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucian order, 2) the seven stages of Rosicrucian initiation, 3) Rosicrucianism as the best way of initiation for modern European man, 4) the “etheric vision” of Christ based on the action of Christian Rosencreuz’s “etheric body”. These ideas influenced a number of Western esotericists, including Neville Meakin (†1912), Max Heindel (1865-1919) and Jan van Rijckenborgh (1896-1968).
1 Chymical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz has been the subject of an important reception1 within certain modern Western esoteric currents2, in particular since the end of the 19th century. In a context of criticism of positivism and enthusiasm for spiritualism from the United States, occultism was on the rise in Europe around 1900, and the Rosicrucians were a fashionable subject. In France, for example, the Martinist writer Joseph Péladan (1858-1918) organized between 1892 and 1897, in Parisian art galleries, several Salons de la Rose-Croix in which symbolist artists known as the Belgian painter Fernand Khnopff took part. . In this contribution, I will focus mainly on the period from 1875 – the date of the founding of the Theosophical Society in New York by the Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott and a few others – to 1917, the year of the publication in Berlin of the Commentary on the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rose-Croix by the Austrian occultist Rudolf Steiner. The aim will be to understand Steiner's commentary from the inside, to reconstitute its internal logic from an emic perspective3, and to perceive in doing so the construction of the Rosicrucian myth specific to this esoteric4 vision of the world that is anthroposophy. . It will also be a question of resituating this commentary in the theosophical literature which preceded it and of bringing to light its influence on later esoteric literature.
Theosophical literature and the Chemical Weddings (1877-1902)
5 Franz Hartmann: Unter den Adepten und Rosenkreuzern (Leipzig n.d.). Berlin 1963, p. 96.
2The Theosophical Society is an international association teaching a religious syncretism of occultist and esoteric inspiration with a strong oriental flavor, particularly Buddhist and Hindu. Theosophical literature does not include a commentary dedicated specifically to the Chemical Wedding, but rather scattered reflections emphasizing the importance of Rosicrucianism as a Western path of self-knowledge leading to the knowledge of God. The German theosophist Franz Hartmann (1838-1912) states for example: “Es wird uns klar sein, daß es den Rosenkreuzern nicht so sehr um intellektuelle Forschung und Vielwisserei, als vielmehr um die göttliche Selbsterkenntnis zu tun war und um die Kraft des wahren Glaubens , der zu dieser Gotteserkenntnis führt. 5 The Theosophical Society does not regard any religion as superior to others; all express, according to her, an aspect of a universal truth. According to the famous motto of the Society, “there is no religion superior to truth”. According to Helena P. Blavatsky, the true spirit of the Rose-Croix no longer animates the Rosicrucians of her time:
6 Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: Isis unveiled. Key to the Mysteries of Ancient Science and Theology (...)
The Rose-Croix Brothers, mysterious practitioners of the Middle Ages, still exist, but only in name. They may 'shed tears over the grave of their revered Master Hiram Abiff', but they will search in vain for the true place 'where the acacia branch was placed'. The dead letter remains alone, the spirit has fled.6
3 This spirit is, according to her, much more preserved in literature – and Blavatsky explicitly quotes the famous initiatory novel by the British novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton Zanoni7 – than in the various lodges and groups claiming Rosicrucianism in his time in Europe and in the USA. None seem to find favor in his eyes. We can think of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, a Rosicrucian order founded in London in 1865 by master masons William J. Hughan and Robert W. Little, or L'Aube Dorée, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society (whose rituals are inspired by the Golden Rose-Cross, at least for the distribution of degrees) founded in London in 1888 by Samuel Liddell Mathers and William Wynn Westcott, both members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Note that Westcott later became theosophist. These groups multiplied at the end of the 19th century. In France, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix founded in 1888 by Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897) and Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918) had the role of perfecting the training of Martinists and included the French doctor and occultist Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (1865-1916), known as Papus, among its members. In Germany, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a para-Masonic organization oriented towards magic, was animated by a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Germania, the German-English occultist Theodor Reuß, who in 1902 obtained the right, with the German theosophist Franz Hartmann, to practice the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the Rite of Memphis-Misraïm.
Rudolf Steiner, the “Rose-Croix” of the Theosophical Society (1902-1906)
8 Gary Lachmann: Rudolf Steiner, a biography. Paris 2009.
9 Rudolf Steiner: Mein Lebensgang. Eine nicht vollendete Autobiography [1925], Rudolf Steiner Gesam (...)
10 Hartmann: Unter den Adepten, quoted by Friedrich Lienhard: Unter dem Rosenkreuz: ein Hausbuch aus (...)
4It was also in 1902 that Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian born in 1861 in a small village in Croatia (which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), became Secretary General of the German section of the Theosophical Society, multiplying the conferences across Germany and beyond8. Steiner states in his autobiography that he became close to the Theosophists because, like them, he was convinced of the existence of a “spiritual world”9. At the beginning of the 20th century, Steiner gave less importance to the Rosicrucian manifestos than to an oral Rosicrucian tradition which would have remained intact within secret societies. He asserted in December 1906 that nothing of authentic Rosicrucianism would be found in the Rosicrucian writings of the early seventeenth century. Steiner endorses the argument of theosophists like Franz Hartmann who describe the essence of the authentic Rose-Croix as "the divine light of self-knowledge"10 and who are convinced that the mysteries of the Rose-Croix are only transmitted orally:
But you can see how difficult it has always been to get to know Rosicrucianism from the fact that Helmont, Leibniz and others were unable to find out anything about the Rosicrucians. The Rosicrucian initiation is historically traced back to a book from the beginning of the 17th century, which states, among other things, that the Rosicrucians dealt with alchemical things, as well as with other things, for example with higher education and so on. So it is written in the Fama Fraternitatis. / Nothing can be found there either about what really is Rosicrucianism, because the mysteries of the Rosicrucians have only been handed down through oral tradition. What has externally attached itself to the name Rosicrucian is very little suitable for fathoming the nature of the Rosicrucians.11
5 Steiner is also nourished by another tradition, in this case German thought and its “great geniuses”, which, according to him, must fertilize theosophy. Steiner thinks in particular of Goethe, whose thought cannot be grasped, according to him, without a deep understanding of its occult foundation. After having studied philosophy in Vienna and read in particular Kant, Fichte, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, after having defended in 1891 a doctoral thesis in philosophy at the University of Rostock, Steiner worked in Weimar on the edition of the scientific work of Goethe, and gave numerous lectures on Goethe to members of the Theosophical Society. Thus, in the lecture “Die okkulte Grundlage in Goethes Schaffen” (1905), he refers to Goethe’s poem Die Geheimnisse (1785), which according to him expresses the mysteries of the Rose-Croix12. Steiner takes Goethe for a Rose-Croix initiate. In 1780, the German poet was initiated into Freemasonry in the Amalia lodge in Weimar, and received in 1783 into the Order of the Illuminated under the name of Abaris. Speeches and many poems bear witness to this interest in Freemasons, but also several passages from Wilhelm Meister, from Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth) as well as Das Märchen (The Fairy Tale of the Beautiful Lily)
6 Steiner attempts to revitalize the Rosicrucian tradition not only by relating himself to the Rosicrucian inspiration of Goethe, but also by concretely seeking authentic Rosicrucians and rituals; he thinks he can do this by joining Freemasonry, like his mentor Goethe. It was in 1904-1905 that Steiner began to participate in Masonic activities, hoping to introduce the occult teachings of Theosophy into them. In 1905, he was initiated by Theodor Reuß into the Rite of Misraïm, with his wife – which cost him dearly, as noted by the German historian Helmut Zander14 –, and in 1906 became President of the “Chapter and Mystical Temple” Mystica Aeterna, in Berlin. In January 1906, he obtained permission from Theodor Reuß to bring into this Freemason Chapter as many members of the Theosophical Society (and other people) as he wished15. But he is somewhat wary of Reuß: “Reuß ist kein Mensch, auf den irgendwie zu bauen wäre. […] Wir haben es mit einem ‘Rahmen’, nicht mit mehr in der Wirklichkeit zu tun. Augenblicklich steckt gar nichts hinter der Sache. Die okkulten Mächte haben sich ganz davon zurückgezogen. 16 According to Helmut Zander, there is no historical proof that Steiner belonged to another Masonic society. In 1907, Steiner was appointed Grand Master of the Rite of Misraïm and led initiation ceremonies in this capacity. The First World War, however, marked the end of Steiner's Masonic activities. Between 1902 and 1906, Steiner developed his Christology independently within the Theosophical Society without this posing any particular problem. His relationship with Annie Besant is excellent: he is part of her Esoteric School and comments glowingly on the German translation of his work Esoteric Christianity published in 1903.
The gradual break with the Theosophists and the founding of the Anthroposophical Society (1906-1912)
18 Steiner, “Die drei Einweihungspfade”, lecture given in Basel on September 19, 1906 before (...)
19 Ibid., p. 92: “der größte der Religionslehrer”.
20 On the action of the Buddha, carried out at the request of the servant of Christ, Christian Rose-Croix, see (...)
7 It was in 1906 that Steiner distinguished for the first time three forms of initiation: the Eastern path, which presupposes the absolute obedience of the student to a guru, the Christian path, which would no longer be adapted to modern man due to the evolution of science and culture, and the Rosicrucian path, which would be free from any enslaving master-disciple relationship18. Alongside this hierarchy of initiatic schools, the "mystery of Golgotha" was mentioned for the first time, at the end of 1906, a concept which would become central to Steiner's Christology: Christ, considered as "the greatest religious teacher"19, embodies in an earthly physical body the solar macrocosmic Christ principle. He gives "the greatest impulse that the soul is able to assimilate" by coming from other worlds to unite with the earth. The Christ impulse, what Steiner calls the "mystery of Golgotha", is for him a completely unique and exceptional fact in the history of humanity. It is no coincidence that in several of his lectures, Steiner emphasizes that the life of Christ goes further than that of the Buddha, since it reaches the resurrection while that of the Buddha ends in the transfiguration20. By focusing his thought on the figure of Christ, Steiner approaches European theological traditions which consider Christ as a personal figure; but he distances himself from the theosophists of Adyar who give equal importance to all religions and consider Jesus as a “great initiate” among others. It was in this context that Annie Besant was elected President of the Theosophical Society in 1907. The same year, Steiner left the Esoteric School of Besant to found an independent esoteric school, teaching a Rosicrucian path rooted in a specifically European esoteric tradition. .
8 According to Helmut Zander, it was above all in opposition to Annie Besant that Steiner increasingly sought, from 1906-1907, to situate himself in a Rosicrucian tradition and to “Christologize” his thought21. The fact that in 1903 Steiner did not mention Christian Rose-Croix in his list of great initiates shows, according to Zander, that the Rosicrucian tradition was built gradually. It is also with the aim of building this European tradition that Steiner would have integrated Christian Rose-Croix in a series of reincarnations: Lazare, Hiram Abiff, the Count of Saint-Germain, etc. When Steiner and Besant agreed at the Munich Congress in May 1907, it was decided that Steiner would teach the Western, "Rosicrucian" path, and Besant the Eastern path. According to Zander, this agreement is superficial and hides a settlement of power. The day after the Congress, Steiner begins the cycle of lectures entitled Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers in which he emphasizes the superiority of the Rosicrucian path, and therefore, according to the German historian, his personal superiority over Besant. Zander is of the opinion that in these lectures, in particular in the last lecture of the cycle entitled "Theosophy according to the Rosicrucian method", the Rosicrucian reference would be applied like a thin superstructure on specifically Theosophical themes and, given its vague in the occultist circles of his time, would serve as an empty frame that Steiner could fill as he pleased with content from Christian and European esotericism22. This theory only seems partly relevant because the reference to the Rosicrucians is present long before the break with Besant and anchored in the German tradition, in Goethe in particular. From 1903-1904, Steiner presented Christian Rose-Croix and Jesus as the "two great Masters of the West", thus minimizing the influence of the Eastern Masters. In 1906 Steiner described the seven stages of the Rosicrucian path23, also present or explained in other texts, as in the Science of the Occult (1910) for example.
9 The fundamental disagreement concerns the theory of the return of Christ developed by Besant after the Munich Congress and explains that Steinerian Christology developed with increased speed after 1907. In 1908, Steiner clearly asserts the superiority of Christianity: “[… ] das Christentum ist größer als alle Religion! Das ist die Rosenkreuzerweisheit. 24 In 1911 he held conferences on Christian Rosicrucians at the newly created Rosicrucian branch of the Theosophical Society, where the disagreements appeared more and more evident. Unlike the Theosophists, Steiner considers Christian Rose-Croix as a personality who really lived in the 13th century, and the Rosicrucian order as an organization that really existed. The influence of the spiritual entity that is Christian Rose-Croix would be exerted mainly from his “etheric body”25, incarnated or not26. The action of Christ can take place according to Steiner only from the "etheric"27, that is to say from a subtle field of life forces made up of four ethers and located between the material and the astral plane. For Steiner, there can be no return of Christ to the physical plane, as the Theosophists assert. When leaders of the Theosophical Society believe they have found a new Messiah in the person of the young Hindu Jiddu Krishnamurti, Steiner separates definitively from the Theosophical Society to found, at the end of 1912, the Anthroposophical Society.
Rudolf Steiner anthroposophist: the role of the Chemical Weddings in the construction of a Rosicrucian tradition (1912-1917)
28 Rudolf Steiner: The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rose-Croix 1459, recorded by J. V. Andreae, Stud (...)
29 Rudolf Steiner: Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers, Vierzehn Vorträge, München 22. May bis 6. June 1 (...)
11 Steiner no doubt chose to comment on the Wedding because it was the Rosicrucian text he knew best31, but that is not the only reason. The importance he attached to this commentary is evident in the fact that, unlike many other things he has said about Christian Rose-Croix at conferences, it is a written study that he wrote himself. This is indicative of a change in initiatory method in modern times:
32 Bettina Gruber: “Überlegungen zu einer Begriffsdiskussion”. In: Moritz Baßler / Hildegard Châtel (...)
33 Aurélie Choné: Rudolf Steiner, Carl Gustav Jung, Hermann Hesse, Passeurs between East and West. (...)
As the written expression of the traditional teaching transmitted from master to disciple, the book increasingly replaces the oral transmission of knowledge within secret societies, and becomes what connects the instructor and the reader, or more precisely, the Real. and the reader. Reading thus becomes the occasion for a practice, that of a conscious relationship. This ‘self-initiation through reading’32 is a characteristic trend of modernity, perceptible as early as the 19th century. It is based on respect for the subject and his autonomy of thought, but in return requires significant self-discipline and a very firm will.33
30 Rudolf Steiner: Das rosenkreutzerische Christentum. Stuttgart 1950.
10 In 1917, five years after the foundation of the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner published in Berlin a study devoted to the Chemical Weddings28. A series of questions does not fail to arise: how to explain that Steiner felt the need to give a commentary on the Weddings when he did not comment on either the Fama or the Confessio? How to explain that he found it necessary to write a study insisting on the importance of this text eleven years after having affirmed that the oral tradition was more important than the Manifestos? Why did you publish this commentary precisely in 1917, more than a century ago, when he had already given several lectures in previous years on the Rosicrucian path, in particular ten years earlier, in 1907, Die Philosophie des Rosenkreuzers29 and in 1911-1912, on Rosicrucian Christianity30? And finally, for what purpose does he write this comment?
12 As secret societies no longer conveyed the authentic message according to Steiner, it no doubt seemed necessary to him, sensing the end of his life approaching, to write down what he knew of this original message. We will show that this written commentary was a means for him, at a time when he needed to affirm the identity of his movement in the face of the theosophists, to situate himself in the continuity of the Western tradition of Christian esotericism and to present anthroposophy as the heiress of the authentic Rosicrucians. If he appeals to an authoritative text, Les Noces Chymiques, it is to illustrate and justify his previous remarks:
on the real existence of Christian Rose-Croix and the Rosicrucian Order,
on the content of the Rosicrucian initiatory path,
on the superiority of the Rosicrucian path at the present time,
on the etheric vision of Christ thanks to the action of Christian Rose-Croix from the "etheric world".
The real existence of Christian Rose-Croix and the Order of the Rose-Croix
34 On this subject, see the article by Stefania Salvadori in this volume.
13 For Steiner, Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654) is the author of Les Noces Chymiques and he wrote the work in 1603, thirteen years before its publication in Strasbourg in 1616. It should be noted that these dates are roughly in line with the assertions of the most current researchers. Steiner does not seek to challenge by means of historical arguments the assertions of historians who hold the work to be “a kind of literary deception” (NC, 264). But he considers it impossible that a young man of seventeen had “the maturity required to ridicule the evaporated minds of his time, by presenting them with a phantasmagoria under the name of the Rosicrucian current”. Moreover, the spiritually very high content of Les Noces is not for him contradictory with the young age of the author. In his eyes, Andreae wrote under the dictation of “great intuitive forces” (NC, 269). Later, having become a pietistic theologian, Andreae would have lost this intuition, which explains why he was able to deny his story afterwards. Steiner points out that in transcribing the experiences of Christian Rose-Croix, the young Andreae encountered strong resistance, in this case “events similar to those which led to the Thirty Years’ War” (NC, 8). By comparing this situation to the one he knew himself, at a time when the development of anthroposophy was hampered by opposing forces, he clearly places himself in the continuity of the Rosicrucian current.
14 In his commentary, Steiner begins by explaining how the work should be approached, devoting several pages to the “method”, or rather to the attitude to adopt when faced with the text. Because it is precisely not an intellectual, scientific method in the usual sense of the word. Humility, self-knowledge and purification of the soul are the necessary conditions for the spiritual world to be able, through the text, to speak to the soul in the form of images, symbols, "secret figures" such as those of the Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer35. A rather similar attitude of attentive listening with regard to images (and the products of the unconscious) characterizes the psychology of the depths of C. G. Jung (in particular the active imagination): it is not a question of seeking to understand intellectually the image that presents itself, but rather to let it act, to mature in the soul, to brood over it in oneself, until its meaning becomes clear; this requires great patience and the awareness that, as in any deep esoteric text, the message is never completely unveiled, deeper layers always remaining hidden.
15 The key to Steiner's argument therefore rests on a precise method, which he claims to deduce from the attitude and mode of perception of Christian Rose-Croix himself, as described in the novel. The historical method seems to him inappropriate for clarifying overly complicated controversies. “Spiritual Science” is presented as the most adequate way to deduce from the text itself the authenticity of the experiences described, and therefore the reality of the existence of Christian Rose-Croix as well as of the Rosicrucian current. It is not for him an allegory, but a true story, which confirms what he affirmed in his lectures of 1911 on the historical, and not mythical, figure of Christian Rose-Croix.
The content of the Rosicrucian initiatory school
16 In his commentary of 1917, Steiner explains, through the lived experience of Christian Rose-Croix, the seven stages of the Rosicrucian path which he had already exposed ten years earlier, in Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers: the study, the imagination, inspiration, the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, the correspondences between macrocosm and microcosm, diving into the macrocosm and bliss. The seven days correspond to the stages of the initiatory path of Christian Rose-Croix towards the suprasensible worlds and reflect a process of alchemical transformation which leads him towards his spiritual rebirth.
17 From the first day, it is a question of an “imaginative vision” that Christian Rose-Croix had seven years earlier, which announced to him that he would be invited to the “Chymic Wedding”. Another imagination has him “see” a young woman in a blue dress studded with stars – the “manifestation of an entity from the spirit world” (NC, 195) according to Steiner. Another imagination reveals to him a portal, the threshold of the suprasensible world according to Steiner, and a castle, place of spiritual experience. Then comes the fourth day, with the presentation to the Kings and their decapitation: these symbols are for Steiner “authentic imaginations, in conformity with the laws which govern the evolution of the soul” (NC, 243). The ordeals that kings undergo foreshadow what must happen to Christian Rose-Croix himself. He feels the tragedy of the royal hall “as if his own soul lived it: Decapitation is a stage in his own evolution. (NC, 244) According to Steiner, the whole alchemical process described highlights "the mystery of psychic metamorphosis" (NC, 263), namely "the way in which the forces of knowledge, developed by the organism in the ordinary course of life, are transformed into forces of supersensible investigation. (NC, 253) The term "power of knowledge" is imbued with the philosophy of life (Lebensphilosophie) present at the time of Steiner, but it is a question of directing this vitalism towards a spiritualism by transforming sensitive knowledge in supersensible knowledge, which is possible only on condition "of being penetrated by the forces of death." (NC, 247) Thus Christian Rose-Croix contemplates the death of the "kings" in his soul, namely the death of "his means of knowledge, such as they result from the metamorphosis of the material processes of his organism, without himself intervenes. (NC, 248-249) By passing from natural alchemy to the art of alchemy, he will be able to confer on his ordinary faculties of knowledge a particular character which the processes of organic evolution have removed from them. The purpose of the fifth day is precisely, according to Steiner, to complete the natural alchemy. Christian Rose-Croix directs his gaze towards the “laboratory” of nature, where it “gives birth to the vital element of growth” (NC, 249). In the Tower of Olympus, during the preparation of the Stone of the Sages, the inanimate forces of knowledge are brought to life.
18 The seventh day describes the accomplishment of the alchemical work and the promotion of Christian Rose-Croix to the rank of “Knight of the Stone of Gold”. The man whose forces of the soul – thought, feeling, will – are transformed, is as if born again: he becomes the “father” of his own faculties of knowledge. It is a true gnosis in the sense of knowledge, the birth of new forces of supersensible knowledge. This also explains the Steinerian interpretation of the end of the story: Christian Rose-Croix expects to expiate the "fault" of having succumbed to the temptation by looking at Venus naked on the fifth day, and to be condemned to the charge of guardian; but this is not the case, because this guardian turns out in fact to be only a part of himself that he is able to distinguish from himself; and here we are almost approaching a Jungian interpretation of The Wedding , except that the existence of a spiritual world is clearly posed in Steiner: “He becomes the guardian of his own psychic life; but this office in no way prevents him from maintaining free relations with the world of the spirit. (NC, 260-261)
The Rosicrucian path, the initiatory school most suited to modern Europeans
19 Steiner also explains in his commentary on the Marriage why the Rosicrucian way is the most suitable for modern Western man.
20 First, it does not involve blindly following a guru as in the Eastern path as Steiner imagines it, or having absolute faith in the personality of Jesus Christ as in the Christian path. The Rosicrucian path gives less importance to feelings than to facts that can be observed and studied. The first stage of the journey, study, demonstrates the importance of a scientific approach. Steiner emphasizes that Christian Rose-Croix was versed in the knowledge provided by the study of the “Liberal Sciences and Arts” of his time and that he sought to unite knowledge and faith. This is also, according to Steiner, the objective of anthroposophy and as he can situate it in the continuity of the Rosicrucian current: neither religion nor philosophy, the Science of the mind (Geisteswissenschaft) aims to know the worlds suprasensibles with the same rigor as science studies the phenomena of the physical, sensible world.
36 Steiner: “The mission of Christian Rose-Croix, his character and his task. The mission of Gautama Bu (...)
21 This is only possible through the knowledge of nature, the very object of natural alchemy. In his commentary on the Wedding, Steiner clearly opposes the paths of mysticism and alchemy: “The alchemist seeks a knowledge of nature which opens the way to a true knowledge of man. (NC, 214) as the mystic turns inward. According to Steiner, it is quite revealing that the Rosicrucian current was born in the 15th century – a very dark period marked, according to him, by the appearance of the materialist current, which played a major role in scientific theories, especially in matters astronomy; with the beginnings of modern science – Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo (1564-1642), Kepler (1571-1630), etc. – developed, according to him, “a vision of the world which saw in the macrocosm only an immense machinery composed of material globes”36. A new science must bring the necessary corrective to this materialistic tendency; and Steiner sees it represented in the Weddings through the figure of the Virgin whose name is Alchemy: "this suprasensible science comes from the spiritual worlds whereas the knowledge of the Seven 'Liberal Arts' is acquired on the sensible plane" (NC, 236).
22 In the same spirit, Agrippa von Nettesheim (1487-1535) and Paracelsus (1493-1541) sought, according to Steiner, to explore the laws of nature and access the superior worlds from the natural sciences, through the study of the five elements . The alchemist learns to know his soul as well as nature and discovers that the same forces act there. This is the fifth stage of the Rosicrucian path, the correspondences between macro- and microcosm. The contemplation of natural processes like dissolution and putrefaction becomes meditation, fervent prayer, and arouses a sense of devotion. According to Steiner, the sanctity of nature is at the center of Les Noces, the mission of Christian Rose-Croix being to discover the spirit in nature. As a Knight of the Stone of Gold, he will have to live in accordance with the two mottos inscribed on the medal he receives, as well as the other Knights, on the seventh day: "Art is the servant of nature" and “Nature is the daughter of time. (NC, 259)
37 Antoine Faivre: Access to Western esotericism. Paris vol. I 1986, vol. II, 1996.
23 Steiner presents the Science of the Spirit as the heir to the Rosicrucian current in that it seeks to rediscover the religious character that the study of nature had in the Middle Ages, to reveal the spiritual reality behind the veil of nature. At the same time, he seeks to show the evolution of the Rosicrucian teaching. Mainly based on the natural sciences in the Middle Ages, in connection with alchemy, it became in its time "Science of the mind" in connection with the natural sciences in the Goethean sense of the term. The great Rosicrucian meditation on the symbol of the cross surrounded by seven roses, described for example in 1910 in Die Geheimwissenschaft (Science of the Occult), is deeply linked to living Nature, one of the criteria of esotericism according to Antoine Faivre37, since it is first of all a question of representing a plant which opens out, its roots which plunge into the darkness, its stem which rises towards the light. It involves the transformation of the forces of life into spiritual forces by a process of transmutation of the "etheric" into supersensible energy: this inner alchemy constitutes the very essence of the new Rosicrucian mysteries according to Steiner.
38 Johann Valentin Andreae: The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rose-Croix. In: Bernard Gorceix: The bi (...)
24 Finally, Steiner wishes to show through the experiences of Christian Rose-Croix and his companions that the Rosicrucian initiation is a personal path at the service of society: “The presence of such men in the social order will be a leaven for those who it and will help clean it up. (NC, 261) On reading Les Noces, it clearly appears that Christian Rose-Croix will play a special role because he is led to see more marvels38 than his companions who "only perceive what is shown to them, without the intervention of their personal will. (NC, 230) By continuing to serve as a guardian after receiving the supreme reward, he does not return to his solitary life, out of the world; he sees himself obliged to link spiritual life and social life in the service of others (karma-yoga, one would say in the Indian tradition), which is characteristic of a modern initiation. Steiner situates anthroposophy in the continuity of this tradition by insisting on education for freedom and by showing the importance of the concrete societal applications of its ideas in fields as diverse as pedagogy, agriculture, medicine and science. 'architecture.
25 In his commentary on Les Noces, Steiner particularly insists on the visions and imaginations of Christian Rose-Croix, which would be produced by the action of his “etheric body”. On Easter Friday, Christian's supersensible perception allows him to have the vision of the woman in the blue dress: "This activity of the etheric body can be compared to the bringing into action of a radiant light. (NC, 195-196) It is this activity that every human being is called upon to develop thanks to a daily meditative practice allowing the metamorphosis of his soul and the development of faculties of supersensible perception. Through this central practice in the Rosicrucian initiation as Steiner understands it, the student feels the influence of the etheric body of Christian Rose-Croix and can perceive the appearance of Christ in his own etheric body, that is, say realize the Christ in himself, the inner Christ, without going through a guru or other spiritual master. According to Steiner, all of humanity would be called to live this experience of the road to Damascus, and not only the circle of Rosicrucian initiates. The mission of the "Science of the Spirit" would be to divulge the Rosicrucian mystery to as many people as possible today.
39 On this subject, see Véronique Liard's contribution: “Carl Gustav Jung and the Chymic Weddings. Alc (...)
40 I refer here to chapter 10 of C. G. Jung's Psychological Types: Psychologische Typen. Zurich (...)
41 However, this interpretation should be qualified. Indeed, experience plays a very important role (...)
26We can see a certain affinity between the Steinerian commentary and the Jungian reading39 of the Wedding: in both cases, the initiatory journey of Christian Rose-Croix expresses the “mystery of psychic metamorphosis” (NC, 263). The big difference comes from the way of thinking of Jung and Steiner, and their opposite attitude towards reality. From a Jungian perspective,40 one could perhaps qualify Steiner’s philosophical temperament as “extroverted” and that of Jung as “introverted” (this is moreover how he saw himself); indeed, the anthroposophist links his thought closely to real objects while the founder of depth psychology is above all concerned with his inner world. Steiner is an idealist in that the spiritual world has for him a character of truth and absolute in the same way as the objects which are in front of him, without possible contestation, while for Jung, nourished by Kant, thought partially derives from subjectivity, which places all metaphysics beyond the reach of human understanding and establishes an empirical approach to reality. Jung needs to look within himself for landmarks to evolve in his inner world, without resorting to metaphysics to name things outside of him; he tends to see in him realities which, for the extrovert, are external.
42 We can think in particular of biodynamic agriculture – the processes of decomposition, putr (...)
43 See the third stage of the conjunction described at the end of Carl Gustav Jung: Mysterium conjunct (...)
44 On the comparison of these paths, see Aurélie Choné: Rudolf Steiner, Carl Gustav Jung, Herman (...)
27 Steiner considers the mystical path (introverted attitude according to the Jungian typology) unsuited to the materialistic modern age, and considers the alchemical path (extroverted attitude according to the Jungian typology) which passes through the knowledge of nature, as the most appropriate today. today. Could this be the reaction of an extrovert who does not understand the other attitude? Jung also uses alchemy, but more in the psychological sense of an inner psychic transformation; he emphasizes the writings that translate external experiences into symbolic processes revealing the archetypes of the collective unconscious, which he wants to find in order to shed light on his journey and that of his patients. But if Jung seems to be more interested in the interior side (oratory) and Steiner in the operative side of alchemy42 (laboratory), the fact remains that the psychiatrist also integrates a much broader dimension through the notion of unus mundus43, and that the anthroposophist pays great attention to inner processes, emphasizing the passage from natural alchemy to the Science of the mind. Anthroposophy, which seeks to develop our perception of the supersensible world, and depth psychology, which aims to approach the Self in order to reach the totality of our being, have important similarities in the journey they offer towards greater freedom. and autonomy.
28 If Les Noces has caught the attention of such different thinkers, it is undoubtedly because this writing offers a fine example of a balanced appreciation between the two points of view. The oratory is as important there as the laboratory. There is both the experimental side (Tower of Olympus) and the importance of moral purification (weighing test, vault of Venus). Extroverts tend to make it a laboratory affair by denying the other side, while introverts stress the projection of psychic contents onto matter and make it a process of individuation, neglecting the experimental side which is very vague in the definitions of the materials, which vary from one to another. But the secret undoubtedly lies in the right balance between extroversion and introversion, science and faith, laboratory and oratory.
Assessment and posterity of the anthroposophical reception of Les Noces until today
29 All the arguments deployed in Steiner’s extremely dense Commentary combine to demonstrate that the Weddings are “an objective relationship of an authentic quest” (NC, 263). Steiner felt the need to give a commentary on the Wedding - rather than on the Fama or the Confessio - because this story contains a wealth of images and symbols which make visible, in the form of evocative imaginations, the passage from sensitive to supersensitive. This commentary aims to anchor Steiner's theosophy, which he calls anthroposophy, in the Rosicrucian tradition of esoteric Christianity. Steiner thus stands out from the Theosophical Society and Eastern initiation by proposing a “Rosicrucian initiation” adapted to modern man in that it brings together faith and science, knowledge and contemplation of nature. Starting from the Manifesto, he seeks to prove what he has asserted in previous conferences and to give greater authority to his words through the exegesis of the source text itself. In doing so, he presents himself as the successor to the Rosicrucian current, which is supposed to express the quintessence of the great previous religions, and therefore the cutting edge of all spiritual teachings.
30 His reception of Les Noces will find an important echo in the anthroposophical milieu, among students and close friends like Michael Bauer46 (1871-1929), who was a member of his esoteric School. Today, the Rosicrucian reference is still very present among anthroposophists. According to the Dutch writer Jelle van der Meulen, for example, Steiner was initiated by Christian Rose-Croix47. The links between Anthroposophy and Rosicrucianism have been studied by engineer Viktor Stracke (1903-1991) and physician Peter Selg (1963- )48. Les Noces gave rise to a new commentary by Bastiaan Baan, director of the seminary of the Fellowship of Christians in North America, and former Waldorf school teacher. Overall, the interpretation of Les Noces is the object of a deepening in two main directions: meditation50 and cosmology51.
52 The outer order of the Stella Matutina was known as the Mystic Rose or Order of the M.R. i (...)
53 Crispian Villeneuve: Rudolf Steiner in Britain: A Documentation of His Ten Visits, 1902‑25, vol. 1 (...)
54 The Table Round (Ordo Tabulae Rotundae) is a neo-Arthurian mystical order that Felkin also exported (...)
55 Zander: Anthroposophy in Deutschland. t. I, p. 844.
56 See the contribution of Sébastien Gregov in this volume.
31 We also mention the influence of Steiner on the English doctor Robert Felkin, who in 1903 created the magical order Stella Matutina (Morning Star)52 in England, a splinter group from the Golden Dawn, and on Neville Meakin53, a member of the Stella Matutina. They saw in him an authentic representative of the Rosicrucian tradition, the missing link in the chain of the Rose-Croix dating back to the 17th century. Known by the initials EOL (Ex oriente Lux), Grand Master of the neo-Arthurian Order Ordo Tabulae Rotundae54, Meakin met Steiner in 1910 and 1912, received the initiation of adeptus minor in the Chapter Mystica aeterna and embarked in 1911 for Constantinople, traveling in the footsteps of the pilgrimage described in the Fama Fraternitatis. Steiner's ideas on the real existence of Christian Rose-Croix and his Order, as well as on the different incarnations of Christian Rose-Croix, will influence Max Heindel (1865-1919), who was vice-president of theosophy of Adyar in California in 1904-1905 and student of the Esoteric School of Steiner in 1907-1908. In 1909 Heindel created the Rosicrucian Fellowship in California. Steiner would accuse him in 1913 of having plagiarized several of his lectures55. Finally, let us mention the obvious influence of the Steinerian reading of the Wedding on the Dutch Rosicrucian Jan van Rijckenborgh, a former disciple of Heindel who founded the Lectorium Rosicrucianum in the 1920s.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.
[William Blake]