Cinderella told the story of one tending the ashes, from whence came the elemental help that transformed and reunited her with the light from the spirit. The primitive would apply a face-paint made of ashes. The modern man will often collect and save the final remains of those he holds dear, in less than a handful of ashes. We adorn ourselves with diamonds, diamonds of resurrected carbon remains - and herein is the full cycle of evolution (8) resulting in the perfected gem. The crystal springs from the ash.
When organic matter dissolves from putrefaction and dissipates, where does it go? And what transformation of the material occurs when put to flame, rather than sporadic dissolution?
The actual character of the material at a molecular level is altered to a condition whereby the elemental world may imbue the material with mineral qualities. The mineral iron, for example, was never iron amassed within the Earth to begin with; it was however, ash which received those iron influences, taking on the characteristic of iron thereafter. The ash gives over as a vehicle to embody that given mineral influence which it receives.
The organic material which dissipates freely shall return to organic reconstruction, manifesting over and over where the impulse of plant, animal or man requires to gather the 'stuff' (stuffing) which is of the organic realm. The organic material which is transformed by flame or radiation, returns to the pre-organic condition as ash. A mineral 'blank' as it were.
The Earth ingests the lower mineral/elemental worlds regularly, ever in the process of assimilating and receiving their waves of influences, and this period of ingestion shall not cease until such time as the planet itself withdraws from manifestation.
Oxygen is a by-product of organic material, organic material is not a by-product of oxygen atmosphere.
The planet originally was one organic mass before the mineral realm was entered into. Our perception of the physical world today is of a mineral interpretation. Before the descent of the planet into mineral evolution, the manifestation and the subsequent life supported by the planet had worked from the highest realms down to the mineral realms etc. - now of course working back up through those conditions; transforming the lower realms with each cycle of respective evolution.
Just as the constitution of Man incorporates all realms into his constitution and manifests such representatives within their respective forms of manifestation, the organic realm has incorporated within its respective forms of manifestation in part, the evolution, the influences and the representative bodies, from that of the elemental mineral kingdoms. And so here we find that the plant becomes predominately influenced by a certain cosmic element, which in part characterizes and determines the formation of that plant whereby the mineral in trace-elements is found predominant and therefore attracting the influence of the respective solar bodies.
This requires a shift of perspective contrary to the belief that we are evolved of the lower kingdoms, whereas they are but offspring from the higher evolution, and as children of such, are totally dependent on their respective higher kingdoms, as well as their higher bodies, expressed and manifesting on higher connecting levels.
And so within the organic constitution of man, we also have incorporated the various mineral influences, and in small trace their relations which indeed require the vehicle of the 'ash' to embody in. Therefore Man himself contains the carbon compound as well as the living organic material, although the actual production of such carbon is effected internally, of the man's own making. Within his constitution is the combustive element and combustive capacity to transform that which is taken into his constitution as the 'stuff' of organic free-particles. It is put to the furnace, so to speak, in the digestion and transformed from such organic material into that of ash.
It is misguided to gauge the ashen substance referred to as 'lifeless' because of its inability to support organic life. Clearly this is relevant to organic life only, however there will come a time when the activity of life manifesting throughout the sub-mineral stratum permeated by the higher cosmic elements, shall be able to be not only measured, but in fact seen to be in and out flowing.
Magnetism and magnetic fields explain something of such existence, however the scientist needs to look to the extreme variants in given magnetic fields and question the influences from the viewpoint of the variation and its influences. This of course requires correct timing, correct material and the correct predispositions to certain influences in order to establish that magnetic fields can and do alter in dramatic ways. Here in part explains something of the nature of the experimental research being conducted with measuring the magnetic resonances within a given component of the human organism. Such experiments shall prove fruitful, as from these patterns one can determine the relationship between the organic man and his elemental mineral bodies.
Within Man, unlike the beast or plant, we look to there being representatives of all of the mineral/elemental realm. However deficiencies in one or more and in their respective characteristics can occur for decades, not actually causing detriment to the whole organic structure of the man. Yet combinations of such deficiencies can inevitably lead to a terminal illness. Man may interpret it as a virus of the cells, when however it is a deficiency within the elemental/mineral nature of that man. One deficiency as such from birth is apparent in the system of the Albino man.
There is a predominant healer of this age who effectively passes on to those ailing, small quantities of a very special and complex ash.
The manna, as so described, was as ash, given to the people to sustain them when no means or organic material could be supplied. If one were to pry open the Ark of the Covenant, one should surely find this ash! (Much to the surprise of all!)
We are not suggesting that folk should go out and eat of the remains of their fireplace. However, there are specific and rudimentary values to be had working from the concepts above described.
We must learn of the relationships of the various kingdoms, and perceive their interconnecting representations on all levels of manifestation, in order to understand the functions and order of the whole.
In respect to the perception of beauty within the natural order of nature, one finds that one comes to know and love that which is reflected of our knowledge and love of ourselves. Thus Nature is pleasing to us as we come to acknowledge that which is of ourselves, apparent in all within the systems, realms and worlds, within and without.
*******
Rudolf Steiner:
We breathe out carbonic acid. We produce in ourselves carbon dioxide. We unite carbon with oxygen. The plants require carbon dioxide for their life; and this carbon possesses the opposite characteristic of gold.
Now, this substance of carbon played an enormous part in the ancient Mysteries. On the one hand, gold was referred to as being a quite special substance for the study of man, while, on the other hand, carbon was referred to in the ancient Mysteries in such a way that it was called the Stone of the Wise, the Philosopher's Stone. Gold and the Philosopher's Stone were very important things in olden times. Carbon was the Stone of the Wise.
Carbon appears on the earth in a number of different forms. A diamond is carbon, hard carbon; graphite is carbon; coke is carbon; anthracite is carbon. On the earth carbon appears before us in many diverse forms; but through those methods which were customary in the ancient Mysteries, men learnt to understand that there existed other forms of carbon, besides those we find here on the earth. And so another preparation was necessary for the Mystery pupils besides that of which I have spoken as the sun preparation. In addition to that there existed the moon preparation.
Now if we turn to these ancient Sun Mysteries, we find there in addition to what I have said above a kind of observatory wherein a man could open his soul and his physical vision to the moon forms. At certain definite times he did not merely behold the sun through a diminished light, but for a period of time lasting for weeks the pupil had to open his psychic vision, his soul-filled eye, to the different forms which the orb of the moon adopted by night. Thereby the pupil received a quite definite experience in his soul, an experience which led to knowledge. Just as the soul capable of exposing itself to the sun became endowed with the power of the sun, by so exposing it to the phases of the moon it became endowed with the power of the moon. He now learnt what metamorphoses the substance of carbon could undergo. On the earth carbon is either coal or graphite or diamond or anthracite; but on the moon that which we find here on the earth as diamond or anthracite or coal, is silver — and that was the secret possessed in these ancient Mysteries. Carbon on the moon is silver. Carbon is the Philosopher's Stone, and on the moon it is silver.
What in the ancient Mysteries was so profoundly impressed on the pupil was the knowledge that any substance, however it looks externally, is only this in one place on the earth and at one definite time. None but an ignorant man was then unaware that carbon is only diamond, coal or anthracite on the earth; for what exists on the earth as diamond or graphite, that, on the moon, is silver. If we could at the present moment take a piece of our ordinary black coal and as it were carry it over into the moon, it would there immediately become a piece of silver.
End of quote
888
Some folk have lost their capacity to marvel and see the mystery of the world; and with such individuals it is near impossible, for us for any system of teaching, to reawaken them if this is not their desire in the first instance.
If this was of imperial concern to us, we should have long worn away the fingernails, and taken an indefinite holiday! This woman would find fault with the quality of the paper, rather than open herself to gleams and glimmers of inner inspiration. You will get very used to such blindness, but despair not for it does but emphasize the enormity and great need for the work.
