Our People

Each man on earth has his own fate,
Each one his highway wide:
This one builds up, that one lays waste,
And that casts greedy eyes
O’er all the globe, to find somewhere
A land not yet enslaved,
Which he could conquer and then bear
With him into the grave.
From “A Dream” by Taras Shevchenko

Many Ukrainians interviewed since Russia’s attack say that the people of the country are united as never before. Many of us can recall similar responses when national tragedies or disasters struck our own countries. Even those of us who criticize our country’s policies and actions and feel various levels of discomfort at its aggressions and failures, will feel outraged when it is attacked by an outside force. Suddenly, we feel united with all our fellow citizens.

What is the source of this feeling? Why does the country in which we were born matter to us so much?

A few months ago, we discussed the work of the angels, especially that of our own guardian angels. Rudolf Steiner reminds us that humans are spiritual beings in physical bodies and that we are not alone in the spiritual world. Our physical body is our lowest aspect (as discussed last month) and our second aspect, the etheric body, is the lowest body for angels. Our third aspect, the astral body, is the lowest body of the archangels. So, only when we gain sight on the astral plane will we see archangels. Just as angels devote themselves to individual human beings, archangels devote themselves to groups of people – some of them to nations.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

“[Angels] are directly connected with the individual human being. They lead or guide him in so far as he needs guidance, from one earthly life to another and are his Guardians, his Protectors, whenever and wherever he needs their protection. Therefore, supersensible though they be and imperceptible to earthly sight, the Angeloi are directly connected with mankind's evolution.

In the next immediately adjacent spiritual realm, the Beings whom we call the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi, the Archangels, unfold their activity. The Archangeloi have to do with much that also plays a part in the evolution of humanity. They have to do, not with the individual human being, but with groups of human beings. Thus, as I have said in many anthroposophical lectures, the evolution of the peoples is under the rulership of Archangelic Beings.”

Excerpt from: The Mission of the Individual Folk Souls. Lecture I: Angels, Folk Spirits, Time Spirits: their part in the Evolution of Mankind. June 7, 1910, Oslo, Norway.

Let’s try to understand a little of what our relationship as a people is to the archangels from the work of Adam Bittleston (1911-1989).

“As the Angel gazes upon the development of an individual soul, the Archangel indwells the development of a nation. But just as a man may look at an event as one of his successes while the Angel may see it as a misfortune distracting him from his real task—so what seems a victory to the people of a nation may be a spiritual defeat for its Archangel. What the Archangel wants for his nation is not power, but ways of life which serve the great purposes of humanity. He works above all among the artists, the thinkers, and the reformers among his people… Just as a man’s pride in his own genius is a great hindrance to his Angel, national pride blocks the work of the Archangel, produces indeed an appalling caricature of it. Human beings do not support the spirit of their country by trying to be French, or Italian, or English, but by working for justice, or the freedom of the oppressed, or beauty in the arts and in the environment. The Archangel wishes to see what is achieved or hoped for by individuals pass over into general habits and customs which enrich life.” (Bittleston, Our Spiritual Companions.)

The truly frightening world confronting us today with war, poverty, disease, inequality, and on and on, can make us feel helpless, even hopeless. What can we do about any of these things? We need to prepare ourselves for our contemporary world by embracing a larger perspective of knowledge. We need to accept that the material world is just one part of the world not the whole world. We need to think more deeply than the words shouted to us from all sides (or one side). We need to think for ourselves. What would it mean to replace nationalism with a sense of what one can do within a nation for the good of all humankind? How does the culture of my people contribute to the good of the world? How do I contribute to the good of my people? If we look closely, we will see the people around us who are already responding to this question. After all, nations are built of individuals.

In our highest quest to “know thyself” we need to contemplate what belonging to a nation means to us and why. Certainly, the Ukrainians are doing that. And the war? And the wars yet to come? They will be fought until we wake up.

Enchanted Flowers

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour …

It is right it should be so
Man was made for Joy and Woe
And when this we rightly know
Thro the world we safely go

Joy and Woe are woven fine
A clothing for the soul divine
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

Fom Auguries of Innocence by William Blake.

Imagine all the joyful occasions like weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and so on without any flowers. Or, on the other side, the difficult occasions like funerals or hospital visits that would seem so barren without the beauty of flowers to offer hope.

In our day to day lives, flowers decorate our homes and yards, and cities with parks and botanical gardens are considered more desirable. And lest we forget, without flowers, we would have no fruits and far fewer vegetables. Flowers fulfill physical needs and psychological needs; what an amazing breadth of service flowers perform.

For our part, we make sure the plants for which we are responsible have all the earth, water, air and sunlight they need to thrive, but do they need anything else from us? We might wonder since everything physical has its spiritual counterpart—something invisible—what lies behind the flowers and plants we see. We might wonder if that spiritual part requires something besides the four elements.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

One who simply grows up into our modern civilization observes the things of the outer world: he perceives them, forms abstract thoughts about them, possibly derives real pleasure from a lovely blossom or a majestic plant; and if he is at all imaginative, he may even achieve an inner picture of these. Yet he remains completely unaware of his deeper relation to that world of which the plant, for example, is a part. To talk incessantly about spirit, spirit, and again spirit is utterly inadequate for spiritual perception. Instead, what is needed is that we should become conscious of our true spiritual relations to the things around us. When we observe a plant in the usual way, we do not in the least sense the presence of an elemental being dwelling in it, of something spiritual; we do not dream that every such plant harbors something which is not satisfied by having us look at it and form such abstract mental pictures as we commonly do of plants today. For in every plant there is concealed—under a spell, as it were—an elemental spiritual being; and really only he observes a plant in the right way who realizes that this loveliness is the sheath of a spiritual being enchanted in it—a relatively insignificant being, to be sure, in the great scale of cosmic interrelationships, but still a being intimately related to man.

The human being is really so closely linked to the world that he cannot take a step in the realm of nature without coming under the intense influence exercised upon him by his intimate relations to the world. And when we see the lily in the field, growing from the seed to the blossom, we must vividly imagine—though not personified—that this lily is awaiting something…

All about us are these elemental spirits begging us, in effect, Do not look at the flowers so abstractly, nor form such abstract mental pictures of them: let rather your heart and your Gemüt (heart, mind, soul) enter into what lives, as soul and spirit, in the flowers, for it is imploring you to break the spell.

Excerpt from: Michaelmas and the Soul-Forces of Man, Lecture 2, by Rudolf Steiner, September 28, 1923.

Steiner says quite specifically that the elemental beings of flowers are released to advance their spiritual lives when we human beings perceive them fully. It’s hard to imagine, right? It’s hard to believe that we are so connected to all that exists, right? And even harder to believe how deeply runs our responsibility to all of earth, of nature.

If we think about the help we receive from our guardian angel and other spiritual beings, we may get a sense of the relationship we are considering today between us and these elemental beings of flowers. We, too, are instruments of divine forces. Maybe we will look differently at the flowers attending our feelings of joy and woe knowing that when we do, we help to free them.

As we work in this our third year of the blog, we will continue to uncover specific spiritual realities such as this one… even though it won’t be “easy” to believe them. But if, additionally, we take up the work of acquiring spiritual sight, none of this will seem so fantastic; we will see all of it for ourselves.