The Four Ethers

1. The Four Ethers From Ernst Marti By Andrew Linnell

2. Planetary Lifecycles Planetary Conditions = Solar “Incarnations” Etheric Beings at the Human Stage First - Physical Element Archai Warmth Thrones Will Fire Second – Etheric Archangel Light Kyriotetes Wisdom Air Third – Astral Angel Tone Dynamis Movement Water Fourth – Ego Man Exusia Form Life • From Living Spirit to the lifeless • From formless life to the formed Earth

3. Air & Light Etheric Element Fire Warmth Air Light Water Tone Earth Life

4. Water & Tone Etheric Element Fire Warmth Air Light Water Tone Earth Life

5. Earth & Life Etheric Element Fire Warmth Air Light Water Tone Earth Life

6. Space and Dimensions • Old Saturn No space, no dimensions • Remnant: Time. Warmth ether as birth of time, fire its dying away • Old Sun Origin of space, one dimension • A 1-D entity cannot touch itself, e.g. line (from center to periphery) • Remnant: plant limb growth is linear, light & air (tension) • Old Moon Two dimensions • A 2-D entity that can touch itself, e.g. circle • Remnant: leaf form – working of water & tone • Right & Left – ability to touch self • Effect of water: growing together, folds form spinal cord • Effect of tone ether: separating, movement, prevents uniformity • Earth Three dimensions • A 3-D entity – Man! x, y, & z; r/l, a/b, f/r; • 3 centers of Man: head, thorax, lumbar • Only Man has skin (others have fur, feathers, scales, plates) – inner express

7. Forces • Centric: one point of origin, mathematical • Elements, physical, lifeless • Universal: escape mathematics because of infinity, origin at periphery • Ethers, etheric, alive (and they dissolve form) • Lift substance from earthly to cosmic - dissolution • Mutually interpenetrate • Universal forces are not the same as formative • Formative force NOT from periphery but from specific locations: e.g. sun, moon, Cancer, …

8. Double Cross from Middle Ages • Taught to Alexander • Man & Nature • Healing arts • Differentiating degrees • Over-extension led to rejection by science • See elements through secondary qualities – collaboration of two North cold Tone ether Life ether water earth East dry West Moist air fire Light ether Warmth ether warmth South

9. Double Cross from Middle Ages Combinations • Warmth & Light • Light: expanding, space • Warmth: ripening, time • = plant growth, size • Light & Chemical/tone • Segmentation, structure • Life & Warmth • Whole in time, age in life • Warmth & Tone • Processes • Light & Life • Building of form organs Tone ether Life ether age parts Warmth ether Light ether The ethers in their fourfold joint activity are the actual life forces size

10. Etheric Body • Consists of the four ethers • Is the life principle of all living beings • Life forces act generally within an etheric body • Four ethers act on: size, members, formation, processes • Formative forces are superior to etheric • Guide ethers to create a leaf, flower, plant, animal • Species specific forces • All of this comprises the etheric body of an organism • Body of formative forces

11. U-Forces (Fallen Etheric) • Forces of electricity, magnetism, and 3rd force • Opposites of the ethers • Not peripheral forces; rather centric • Ethers: from above – U-forces: from below • Cosmic – Earthly • Foundation for World includes U-forces with elements and ethers

12. Remaining slides are from other sources End

13. Fields • Magnetic Field • Iron filings to make visible • Etheric Field • Water drops or crystallization

14. Super- and Sub-Nature • Sub-Nature as “mirror” of Super-Nature • Light  Electricity • Tone  Magnetism • Life  Nuclear • Relationship of sub to super? • Light/Photon to Electron • Astral World • Etheric World • Life • Tone/Chemical (forming) • Light • Warmth • Elements • Fire • Air • Water • Earth • Fallen Ethers • Fallen Astral(?) combine Ahriman’s Incarnation

15. 7 Planetary Conditions Etheric Hierarchy = 12 Elements Saturn - Physical Vulcan – Atman Warmth Fire Sun – Etheric Venus – Buddhi Light Air Moon – Astral Tone Jupiter – Manas, Super- Nature Earth – Ego Life Water Jupiter – Sub-Nature Venus – 2nd depth Vulcan – 3rd depth Earth ? ? ?

16. Planetary Influences • Inner Planets: Venus, Mercury, Moon • Work through atmosphere directly • Sun • Outer Planets: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn • Work through earth indirectly Need Saturn 29.7 Nourishment Warmth Perennial Jupiter 11.9 Silica Mars 29.7 Earth Annual Reproductive Water Moon 1.1 Calcium Limestone Mercury 29.7 Venus 29.7

17. Diagrams 2-5

18. Planetary Influences Need Warmth • Above Earth: Venus, Mercury, Moon • Beneath Earth: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn • Nov & Dec what is beneath the surface becomes effective for plant growth • Then Jan.15 – Feb.15: strongest formative crystallization forces • Seed must go through Chaos to be imprinted with a cosmic constellation Saturn Blue Dead Warmth Color influence on flower from root Perennial Jupiter Perennial Yellow Mars Red Sun: Green Earth surface Annual Water Moon Living Warmth 1 Calcium Limestone Venus 0.67 Mercury 0.25

19. Cosmic and Earthly Forces Equisetum: • Draws the cosmic nature to itself • Permeates itself with the siliciousnature (silica) • 90% silicic acid • Cosmic is present in great excess, yet in such a way that it does not go upward and reveal itself in the flower but betrays its presence in the growth of the lower parts Potatoes: • Grow in silicious soil to keep cosmic used for blossoming and stemming below the surface Apple: draw the cosmic up for taste • Eating Jupiter (Plum is Saturn) Earthly Cosmic in color silica Sun limestone Cosmic in single form, e.g. beet Earthly in ramified roots

20. Alchemy of BD: Sulphur • Nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, & sulphur • People only recognize the last excrescence of nitrogen’s activities • Sulphur in protein is the very element which acts as mediator between the Spiritual that is spread throughout the Universe and the physical. Along the paths of sulphurthe Spiritual works into the physical domain of Nature • Sulphuris the carrier of the Spiritual, hence the ancient name, “sulphur” is closely akin to the name “phosphorus” • The name is due to the fact that in olden time they recognized in the out-spreading, sun-filled light, the Spiritual itself thus they named “light-bearers” these substances — like sulphur and phosphorus — which work light into matter

21. Alchemy of BD: Carbon Carbon: The Philosopher’s Stone, the great plastician • Bearer of the creative formative processes in Nature • Bears the Cosmic Imaginations out of which all that is formed in Nature must ultimately proceed • Man is not plant – excretes carbonic acid which is sign man is destroying these forms – otherwise stiff • Ego lives via the sulphur in the carbon as it forms itself and ever again dissolves the form • In the limestone form of the skeleton he has the solid Earth within him – like a scaffolding

22. Alchemy of BD: Oxygen Oxygen: Bearer of the ethereal into the physical body • With the help of sulphur, carries the influences of life out of the universal ether into the physical • Oxygen must be killed in us or it would stun us, benumb us – it is combined with carbon – breathing • Living oxygen within us and within the soil

23. Alchemy of BD: Nitrogen Nitrogen: Guides the life (oxygen) into the carbon-form, Astral • Mediates between the life and the spiritual essence which to begin with is in the carbon-nature • The bridge between carbon and oxygen is built by nitrogen • The ethereal principle of life would flow away everywhere like a cloud, it would take no account of the carbon-framework were it not for the nitrogen • The nitrogen has an immense power of attraction for the carbon-framework – wherever the lines are traced and the paths mapped out in the carbon, thither the nitrogen carries the oxygen — thither the astral in the nitrogen drags the ethereal • The nitrogen-man imitates to perfection whatever is there in the solid human framework, while on the other hand it flows perpetually into the element of life • In man, nitrogen is so essential to the life of the soul – for the soul itself is the mediator between the Spirit and the mere principle of life • A “nitrogen-man” actually exists like a ghost in the body – the nitrogen-man imitates to perfection whatever is there in the solid human framework

24. Breathing • Through it man receives into himself oxygen, the ethereal life • The internal nitrogen carries the oxygen everywhere — wherever there is carbon – wherever there is something formed and figured • Thither the nitrogen carries the oxygen, so that it may fetch the carbon and get rid of it • Nitrogen as mediator: oxygen → to carbonic acid and then exhaled • Around us is only a small proportion of oxygen, which is the bearer of life, and a far larger proportion of nitrogen—the bearer of the astral spirit • Day & night we have great need of oxygen in our environment • Do we need nitrogen in the air we breathe? What ratio? • It is precisely the nitrogen which has a spiritual relation to us • Plant has no soul within it but it could not flower if not touched by the astral without it – the astral is everywhere with the nitrogen • In the air, the nitrogen is dead but in the soil it is alive – as it is nitrogen in our senses, nitrogen is the bearer of sensation even of the mysterious sensitiveness which is poured out over the whole life of the Earth

25. Hydrogen • The substance which is so near to the Spiritual on the one hand and to the substantial on the other, is hydrogen • Hydrogen carries out again into the far spaces of the Universe all that is formed, and alive, and astral • Hydrogen carries it upward and outward, till it becomes of such a nature that it can be received out of the Universe once more, as we described above • It is hydrogen which dissolves everything away

26. Plant Principles • Carbon Principle: forms the scaffolding • Oxygen Principle: fills it with life • Nitrogen Principle: permeates it with inner life making it sentient • Sulphur Principle: “moistens” substance so it can take its leave of all structure and definition • Hydrogen Principle: dissolves, returns to cosmos • All combine to make protein. Wherever carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen occur — in leaf or flower, calyx or root — everywhere they are bound to other substances in one form or another • They are dependent on other substances – they are not independent • Hydrogen drives these fundamental substances of protein into the tiny seed-formation and makes them independent there • Chaos in the seed must interact with chaos in the farthest circles of the Universe – then the new being arises

27. Principles in Animal and HumanDeep-seated Framework Earthly Nature Cosmic Formative Silicious element Carbon seeks support in silicon’s formative activities In Nature we behold the oxygen-nature caught up by the nitrogen and carried down into the carbon-nature. That which is living in our environment — kindled to life in the oxygen — must be carried into the depths of the Earth, there to find support in the silica, working formatively in the calcium or limestone Limestone depends on an in-breathing of N fulfilled by legumes and papilionaceae which tend to fruit even before they flower, retaining N-nature near Earth • Bony skeletal nature – limestone • Carbon seeks support in limestone’s formative activities • Carbonaceous formative activity rays out from the circulatory process into the calcium and silicon in man • Kind of vision we must unfold when we look out over the surface of the Earth, covered as it is with plants and having beneath it the limestone and the silica • We cannot look inside the human being; we must evolve the same knowledge by looking out over the Earth

28. Legumes and Papilionaceae • Everything that belongs to nitrogen lives far more inclined to the Earth than in the other plants, where it evolves at a greater distance from Earth • Observe their leaf color: not the ordinary green, but a darker shade • Observe the fruit: tends to be stunted • Observe the seeds: retain their germinating power only for a short time, after which they lose it • Organized so as to bring to expression, most of all, what the plant-world receives from the winter — not what it has from the summer • Tendency in these plants to wait for the winter • Their growth is retarded when they find a sufficiency of what they need — i.e., of the nitrogen of the air, which they can carry downward • In such ways as these we can look into the life and growth of all that goes on in and above the surface of the soil

29. Meditation • Retain in ourselves a little more carbon dioxide than we do in the normal process of waking consciousness • You grow into a conscious living experience of the nitrogen all around you – all becomes knowledge and perception —even that which is living in the nitrogen • Nitrogen can inform you of what Mercury and Venus and the rest are doing – all kinds of secrets that prevail in farm and farmyard, we suddenly begin to know them

30. Balance in the Soil Limestone Silicon Desires nothing for itself Comes to rest in itself Contrives to tear away what must be torn away from limestone • Cravings for • Active to obtain, absorb • Kernel of desire • Resistance to carbon Carbon Nitrogen • Once it could easily form as long as it had water below • Now limestone below disrupts carbon’s forming • It now allies with silica - clay • Mediates: lime-clay-silicious • Acts like astral between ego and etheric body

31. Silicon – Sodium • Healthy plant life has an equilibrium of these two • Silicious substances:quartz (silicon + oxygen) • Insoluble in water • Nearly 50% of earth’s surface is silica • Equisetum is 90% silica • Silicic acid for “pains” of the senses, medicines • If earth lacked silicon, then plants would have pyramid forms or look like cacti – fleshy thick stems • Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn • Sodium substances: potash, limestone • Creepers, twining stems, thin stems, useless spread flowers • Moon, Mercury, Venus

32. Nourishment – Reproduction • Reproduction: Moon/Mercury/Venus, limestone • Can influence of M/M/V or M/J/S be restrained or aided? • Sow seeds in or following rain just before full moon • Foodstuffs for animal and humanity: Mars/Jupiter/Saturn, • Silicious nature opens plant-being to universe, awakens its “senses” to M/J/S • Silica related to warmth • Saturn visible only for 14+ years, not seen for same period • Moon period is 28 days, Jupiter is 12 years • Periods of Mars important for planting oak trees (Oak “belongs” to Mars) • Forces “visible” in the bark and rind of trees and all perennials • Health value of fire depends on when the tree was planted • Nourishing value of plants diminishes as the cosmic rhythms are ignored

33. Earth as Organism • Connection to cosmos • Receives from cosmos • Rays it upward • Sand, silica – life ether • Chemical influence of soil • Maybe at depth from surface • Role of clay • Carries the cosmic upward • Body of Earth: head down • Belly – digestion – plant growth • Limestone carries digestion below surface • Outer warmth drawn to inner warmth by limestone, gives it vitality • Above: more oxygen, below: more carbonic acid. Why? Air permeated vitality when absorbed and drawn into the Earth Sun Mercury Venus Moon Limbs Dead Warmth Belly Diaphragm Earth’s Surface Sun Mars Jupiter Saturn Living Warmth Head

34. Mineral influenced by what works immediately above the surface but it emancipates itself to be exposed to cosmic • January 15 – February 15 minerals exposed to cosmic • Formative forces, crystallization strongest 1/15 – 2/15 • Longing by minerals to be crystal stronger the deeper one goes • Plant growth nearly ceases, but just before and just after strong plant growth