Elementals - The Hidden Knowledge in Nature
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Everything we see about us, both beautiful and sorrowful, was once imagined, so if we can imagine our way into a seeming impasse, we can surely imagine our way out of it and beyond. It is from the levels of imagination and inspiration that the elusive idea of Oneness ceases to be just a useful meme, or an earnestly nurtured concept, but can instead flash forth into our souls as an inspired knowing and a deep connection to all. From these precious moments of profound connection (harvested from the very levels Einstein urged us to explore), real breakthroughs are born. Yet it is the integration of these illumined insights into the levels and language of the problem that really calls for our skill and vision. As more and more groups of talented and enlightened individuals join forces to (a) share the glittering fruit of their inspired imagination, and (b) grapple with the inadequacies of an old and jealously guarded network of infrastructures and institutions, the passion and tension between the old and new is fierce.
In the early 20th century, the innovative and gifted quantum physicist Neils Bohr introduced us to a quantum world where an infinite potential for reality exists. He described a dimension where photons only become 'real' when we observe them; indeed, he argued that it is the very act of looking which summons their position into existence. If this is truly a universal law, then what is it that is actively communicating, co-operating, messaging, transmitting, working... between the human decision to focus and observe, and the photons positioning themselves into existence?
For thousands of years, this dimension of potential, this enfolded world of universal intelligence and formative forces, has been regarded as the domain of the Nature Spirits and elementals, by initiates, shamans and indigenous peoples around the globe. In the West, great seers like the scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, and the author and co-founder of Findhorn, Dorothy Maclean, courageously delivered a learned and succinct view of this domain and its inhabitants. With his thorough training in the physical sciences, coupled with a highly developed ability to see into the etheric realms, Dr. Steiner was able to speak with great precision about what he observed in the subtle dimensions beyond physical form. He presented his findings in a powerful, spiritually-scientific language, which had the potency to hold its own alongside the language of material science in the European lecture rooms of the early twentieth century. Ms Maclean presented her investigations in a different but no less potent way; her rich, articulate and tender descriptions of the profound exchanges she experienced with the elemental kingdom strike deep into the soul. The beam of recognition and remembrance they bring forth has the power to shine through the heavy curtain of mockery, so often drawn across these precious views of the supersensible world.
Our ancient ancestors were in constant communion with the Soul of the Earth and her elemental helpers, and acted accordingly in response to their messages - be they weather anomalies, volcanic disturbances, unusual animal and insect behaviour, or plant disease. They knew how to read in the Great Book of Nature and they are urging us now, in dream-time and awakeness, to learn to read in this sacred book once more. It is time to consciously awaken and hone our lines of questioning and receivership in this great field of oneness.
Here in the West, the establishment line on the subject of nature spirits and elementals is relegated, for the most part, to children's fairy tales and sentimental art. Anyone openly discussing the elemental kingdom is often setting themselves up for some savage ridicule and scorn - and let's not minimise the potential damage unleashed by a relentless barrage of ridicule on the kind of sensitive psyche needed for this work. One of the greatest benefits to following a spiritual path of meditation and vipassana (rising into the witnessing consciousness) is to watch with ancient eyes how ridicule loses its power to wound and undermine. Truly, now is the time to get over this hesitancy to discuss the inhabitants of the supersensible, spiritual realms.
When we walk through a forest and revere what has been built up by the nature spirits, we are essentially opening a line of communication to them. It is the harmonic resonance of our reverence that eventually allow us access to their bandwidth of existence. But what of the elementals of technology? How can we work with these beings? The metals and crystals appropriated for the assemblage of modern technological hardware were once embedded in the earth. They were tuned to the north-south magnetic polar axis, infused with stellar wisdom, and enchanted into an ancient dance of unanimity with all the other substances of the earth's strata. Then, one day, someone detonated a stick of dynamite and someone wielded an axe, and the elementals were released from their intimate link with the body of the earth. These elementals then found themselves under the moral sway of human beings, whose vocation it is to transform these earthly substances through a process of design and manufacture. It is here in the potent cauldron of human morality, design and manufacture that the real crux of the matter lies.
Rudolf Steiner repeatedly called for the laboratory table to be treated as an altar, and for a moral science of the spirit to work alongside the material sciences. So, when we hear a distinguished scientist like Stephen Hawking declare that humanity faces an uncertain future if technology learns to think for itself and adapt to its environment, and that 'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race', the real questions hovering in the air are... Who is funding this technology? And who is presiding over 'the altar' in the laboratory?
As they have no free will of their own, the elementals are wholly dependent upon the morality they find before them. They can either be chained into the mis-creations of a ruthless and immoral conglomerate of multinationals, whose agenda it is to control the entire planet and all her inhabitants - or they can be enchanted into the emerging forms and systems which are lifting humanity into a new age of enlightenment. Every thought, word and deed we produce is either supporting or hindering our path to freedom and Dr. Steiner describes this in the following way, 'We can create elemental beings through our work which either disrupt the world process or serve it. This depends on the soul disposition of the one standing at the work bench...man's vocational work has to be raised consciously to the same level as ritual.'
Everything we do, say and think is a summons to unknown and invisible beings. Therefore we have to create an atmosphere of grace and reverence in the workplace, in order for these beings to feel at home in our laboratories. Only then will they begin to freely collaborate with us and tell us what we wish to know.
Many of the nature spirits on earth at this crucial time in human history wish to be of great assistance to us, but we have to reach out to them. In their shimmering domain of ceaseless movement and endless becoming they are poised for a dynamic and co-creative relationship with an awakened humanity. Yet how do we access their elusive bandwidth of reality? First, we must ask ourselves the following question: 'Who am I outside the traumas I have experienced, the judgements I have made and the constrictive beliefs I have inherited?' The 'you' that exists beyond these stubborn entanglements is a silent, serene, being-ness; a free, wise and child-like 'you' that has always known the way to the secret garden, and that has always recognised the nature beings with whom we share this gracious planet.
So what is the password to their secret garden? It is a direct and powerful one; it is simply... 'I believe in you!' Declare this on a breath of profound reverence and gratitude, and see for yourself.
Susan Raven is an author and long-time student of Anthroposophy (the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner). She regularly gives talks and workshops at festivals, conferences and venues around the UK.
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