Post by Anonymous User
Greetings to fellow students!
It has been many years since I first encountered these two early gems of Steiner from 1911. And with the additional years more understanding of the themes has arrived thanks, in large part, to the work here in the RKI.
Just the mention of 'alchemy" prompts me to revisit Tazo series #8 - Cosmic Alchemy and #9 Alchemy of Man but there is so much more from those 1911 that has been expanded here at the RKI since those early talks that there could be a long journey through some more of those earlier Tazo series!
Steiner refers to the harmony of thoughts, of love and of deeds+intentions that transform us and result in some external effects as substance transformations. That might be considered one aspect of alchemy. And we have heard in the very recent RKI series how this sensitive interplay and harmony also transforms nature in a different way through the nature spirits; something that is only very indirectly mentioned in the 1911 talks even though the nature spirits were often mentioned by Steiner.
And the 1911 talks also show us how the Rosicrucian stream begins as a tiny unnoticed spring high up in a mountain. As it flows becomes a tiny brook, a creek, a small stream, a larger stream, then begin to joins other streams until it we can imagine it eventually becoming " The Mighty Mississippi" - or Amazon River or perhaps Nile- as they were in their true and untouched state.
Perhaps we see ourselves here in the RKI as if on a stepping stone in the flow of time? We watch the events of the world around us as they cascade past us as flotsam and jetsam ( so often) but the water flows and flows underneath it all, and carries it all to a destination it can determine even if that is a side stream.
And we have the observations by Geoffrey Hodgson for example, of some of the different elemental-beings which is another theme that is somewhat related, The brownies of England come to mind and some of the Scandinavian ones are different again such as the Jul-Tomten (the Swedish Christmas elf): it is a rich lore.
Someone here in Australia said our elementals tend to be a bit more 'wild' but the biodynamic preparations bring a quite different elemental into being on the land where they are used. That might be something to be considered in the context of the series here such as in 0114 ?
This whole area of nature spirits and elementals could become a very rich field for a pool of experiences and information?