Time & Place- 22nd April 1997

THE irrigation within the World's etheric complex occurs, in physical terms, through the production and combusting of carbon dioxide. The Phoenix of this World - the ever renewal and Spirit of Continuum - resurrects and retains all matter ... transposing it, transferring it, with an emanatory vitality, as etheric force is drawn into the physical form and carbon components become vaporously ensouled again.

It is via the carbon ash to which the mineral/crystalline manifests may enter; and it is further to this in anhydrous variety, that same carbon at the point of release and expiration will invoke the etheric vitalities and give harvest to yet further life. It is only fitting that this be so, for all things are imbued with an eternal continuum. Carbon and its emissaries retain, in worldly representation, such continuum in proper aspect - that which remains and goes on to create.

We have discussed oxygen and its relation to Time, and the perception of incremented time; saying that this sequential perspective is peculiar to the present world and not an example of the consciousness which spans the outreaches of further spheres. It is by the nature of oxygen that we are brought more deeply into the fixed conditions within the World; and conversely, it lies within the nature of the CO2 that we experience release and dispersal, and the opening vistas of spiritual content - the expanses beyond the time consciousness - with that which envelops the Globe and enhances all physical life - the Continuum life-force, in substance of the Sun.

Continuum embraces and contains time. 

 

This living principle respires throughout all phases of bodily creation. Entities everywhere pass in and out of their timely perceptions - from this world and all of its fixed conduits, out further into the defining spiritual; and, as souls incarnate we require both in order to maintain the flux and flow of manifestation.

By carbon dioxide production I come to relinquish my worldly self - and in that condition of referral I am enabled to draw in the etheric vitality. For it is only at the thresholds of life may we go to gather anew.

Salt is neither personalized nor ensouled (salt holds the lively forces, resisting compliance with other orbits of matter) - whereas the bodies of both water and carbon give over for beings to inhabit and do also have their own entity-born origin as well. The body of Water is primarily angelic and its nature complies with other natures that it accommodates.

The body of Carbon is that of the Sun, the solar aspect which has combined with the organic life and accredited its very prolongation. It too gives over to the natures of lesser beings which characterize its qualities; and these qualities in the case of CO2, depend largely upon the very way they are born into the world as well as from where they have come from in origin. Whether it be through burning, decomposing or through respiratory life, these three releases produce three distinct influences imparted into and out from the World. And so not all carbon dioxide is the same in its effects and in quality as regards to other living organisms and to Man himself. 

Firstly we can look to the luminescence within the body which is the host point for such etheric life. This etheric light is exchanging and renewing the exquisite circuitries of being. Our co-dependent systems are harmoniously regulated by its presence; it is the very priest at the door of all conjunctures to which we must pay our alms (the expired carbon atoms) - and by this 'continuum' elixir we are then furthered enough to live yet another day in time.

Now concerning the difference between the remunerative transaction of etheric life in respiration to that which occurs in decomposition and also burning, it can be said that although this is not readily distinguished, the properties are very different indeed. For in matter which is deceased and has lost the containment, the withstanding and the purpose of self, the vitality-life properties do not go on within that form to inspire renewal, but commit the natures inherent to those beings, back to their former conditions (wherever they are spiritually placed). And in the release as known by burning we find that the nature of that substance condensed astrally and ethericly alongside that carbon is also released into the World, and brings its influence upon it thereafter, quite markedly. Fuels which are burnt enter into the World their associate beings - and if these are from the dark unlit spaces of the Earth, those forces then entice and release lower beings of curious and often deleterious concern.

Returning to the respirative system one can begin to understand how it is that the physical matter goes through a sacrifice, a transformative release and renewal. The expiration of our selves and the renewal which does follow, is a living example of Christ's working throughout both spheres, bringing Life into this Physical World. 

Overall our conditions (personally and globally) need be reworked. Currently the physical bodies which men inhabit, cannot withstand the inflowing life from the etheric world to that degree which would support their existence for ever on (or for even hundreds of years) for the very force that this would require would violate their existing life - even the physical body inhabited by our Christ, born to its conditions and development so far, could not contain the vital life for an uncertain period without the whole complex breaking apart and dispersing about.

Infants are born with a greater etheric vitality (and ability to contain such) which shall decrease of its own as they come to assimilate the properties of the physical world, as they diminish their innocence; and eventually too as they are called back towards Heaven and begin to dissipate for want of the spiritual form once again.

This is not always to be however - as the condition of Man develops alongside his physical makeover, there shall come the time when his body may have renewed itself with such aptitude that it will not putrefy, or need, for that matter, to revivify to the extent that it does now. It is true to say that many conditions exteriorally will effect the efficacy of the etheric constitution. It is also the case to say that we are presently committed to an overall and larger system of conditions which will not apply in centuries to come. 

Added to this there is the necessity for each man to work over his own physical material (which during future lifetimes he will do) for these particles of nature have become peculiar to him and his responsibility, and though they may be shared or experienced by others, he will actually reincorporate time and time again that very matter which was formerly so used by him to comprise his body.

It is most natural for all entities to gravitate to that which calls to them with the greatest affinity. The particles which we draw together to enable us to bodify, are comprised of many entities - all whom do recognize us, in their way, and cleave to our being upon every incarnation. We have all been allocated our set share of materials so needed; and as either dark gods or benevolent deity we influence the conditions in and surrounding all of our associated and incorporated beings.

Cellular renewal insists upon those particles which were formerly released to eventually reincarnate back again within the system; however with each return and reticulation there has been an advance (proportionate to the Man) in the complex and quality which it is comprised of.

The physical substance of a Man is signatory to him; right down to the ash that remains. By cremation of the deceased physical form we have released the man into the spiritual worlds instantaneously; whereas with burial the aspects of each particle are so involved that the astrality of the man is waylaid until disbursement is complete. The shift into carbon dioxide under these circumstances brings freedom to the ensouled man who is otherwise bound to his remains. So we can see that not only does the etheric force bring life into the physical world, but new life into the spiritual world as well.

And this is the case in day to day transaction similarly, for herein is the dual purpose, the 'dual carriageway' if you like, for this arterial existence. In the occlusion of emmisionary particles and reactive etheric combustion therein, are combined both the physical and spiritual renewal. Even the planet itself does breathe; and the etheric tide flows in and around the CO2 rises and falls - yet overall, the actual nature of that CO2 must be discerned, and its workings thus interpreted.

In an atmosphere with less CO2 there becomes a more stable and fixed environment, one with fewer influences impinging and permeating the World at large; also can follow however, a greater materialism and obstinacy. On the other hand, our planet becomes overrun by the 'old world' and its wraiths when we release mineral carbons of difficult periods of world history.

If the CO2 is lessened because there are fewer plant emissions, then we are depleted of our links to our own etheric heritage. The breathing of all is a combined intertwining of place and time. You may think of the etheric splendor as that paradise which supports our global garden here. The beings of the trees, the ancient ferns, the bright-faced flowers, the kernel and seed, fruit and flora; these happy and quite content fellows connect us, as men, back to that place which supports all subsequent time.

Our home of the immutable light exists with a thrill and a pleasure to live - chief residence for our beloved Christ. It is the Sun's realm right here within an earthly sphere; not committed to reaches exact from our Globe, but truly with us, and from which all things co-operate. It is the 'ever-new', and not ever a continuum of ghostly remains; enabling the future because it assists in the very dissemination of the past and its subsequent reformation. It holds power and presence beyond time, as it began this Globe and shall outlive this Globe, supporting its sproutings between.

Yet even that 'place', the Etheric World, can be a little unruly in its expression amongst itself - beings, like weeds, can try to mischievously dominate and wildly overgrow. His territory still needs some tending and further planning, for the Future runs untamed at times - carefree and uncomplaining He joins in the chase, with happy expectation for what might lay ahead...

Moss dross and ivy banter,
Leaves a'murmur, grassy canter,
Rose pose and onion humor,
Be my lover under cover,
Said the clover to the dew.

See Rudolf Steiner, Occult Signs & Symbols:

The two pillars [illustration above] represent the Tree of Life (oxygen- Hauschka calls biogen) and the Tree of Knowledge (carbon).

"In the fourth seal we see the Pillars, one of them planted on the sea, the other on dry land. These Pillars indicate the secret of the part played in human evolution by the red blood, rich in oxygen, and the blue of bluish red, rich in carbonic acid. The evolution of the I of man during the Earth epoch finds physical expression in the interaction between the red blood, without which there could be no Life, and the blue, without which there could be no Knowledge. Blue blood is the physical expression of those forces which give us Knowledge- forces which, however, taken by themselves and in their human form, are very nearly akin to Death. Red blood is the physical expression of Life- which however in its human form and by itself, could never give us conscious Knowledge. Together and in their mutual interaction they represent the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life or the two pillars on the foundation of which the life and cognition of the I can grow and develop to that degree of maturity where at long last man will be fully united with the universal forces of the Earth.

"The Initiate foresees a future condition of mankind in which the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life .... will be intertwined and united within man himself. At the present stage the aspirant to spiritual development should inscribe the message of the two pillars in his heart. Separated though they still are, they summon us to transcend the present state of mankind and to direct our footsteps to the place where through our widened consciousness the two will be interwoven - a secret that is indicated in the J-B. The verses inscribed on either pillar will bring home to us their meaning. Those on the first pillar relate to Knowledge, those on the second to Life itself. Thus at the former stage the formative, creative powers are revealed to man; at the latter he himself reveals them, magically. Progression from the mere faculty of cognition to that of magical activity in life is the significance of the transition from the power latent in the first inscription to that which is latent in the second."

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 "The human etheric body is bound to the physical body by oxygen." -Rudolf  Steiner in conversation with Georg Groot