Before modern "science" relegated them to the archaism of
ancient Greece, the four elements, fire, air, water and earth,
were part of the common knowledge of the West. Today they are
generally seen only as a part of the history of humanity's advance
in "scientific" knowledge. We are told how the Greeks came, between
approximately the sixth and fourth centuries B.C., to conceive
of these as the basic four elements. But in truth that knowledge
preexisted the Greeks, going back to the Egyptians and Mesopotamians
and even before.2
When science speaks of elements today, it is speaking of their
proliferation as identified by chemistry or atomic physics.3
And having little use for the ancient concept of the four basic
elements, it looks condescendingly upon them as an anachronism
from the past.
That Steiner accepted them as fundamental and basic is beyond
question, and he did so for reasons of which modern science is
oblivious. It will help to remember that in ancient times the
priests in the mysteries were the sole source of humanity's knowledge
of both science and religion, which were one and the same. With
the fading of the ancient clairvoyance, the resulting decadence
in the mysteries, and the eventual institutionalization of religion,
religious matters were preempted by the Church. Consequently,
both science and religion have historically accepted their mutually
exclusive domains, thus spoiling the deeper conclusions of, and
precluding the higher reality from, both. Only when the two have
again become one can the deeper realities for which they search
be found. Indeed, the two cannot be separated. Ultimate reality
cannot be thus divided; see Mt 12,25; Mk 3,24; Lk 11,17. Both
need to recognize anew the same archetype with its amazingly fresh
and expanded parameters.
Even while he pointed to fundamental errors in widely accepted
scientific assumptions, most of which, as we shall see, prevail
to this day, Steiner repeatedly stated that science had given
humanity many marvelous inventions. Today we know that these have
exploded beyond imagination in areas of commercial utility, medical
discovery and the like. Doubtless they will continue to do so.
Steiner was no Luddite. He lauded these accomplishments and their
human value up to the point at which they begin to serve unworthy
purposes. But, sensitive to the demands of Christ's earthly mission,
he saw something badly amiss in the prevalent morality of his
time. Today it is probably even more aggravated. Pervasive inequity
among human beings has persisted with the materialism of our age,
even in the midst of great religiosity (1 Jn 3,17; Mt 25,31-46).
The increase in human intellect and skill has not been balanced
by an increase in sensitivity to, and sacrificial concern for,
human suffering and need. Privilege rather than sacrifice is still
valued, contrary to Christ's example and the ultimate meaning
of his Crucifixion.
Anthroposophy is like a marriage counselor dealing with obstinate
spouses, science (husband) and religion (wife). Only by bringing
them into oneness can they be fruitful. Just as much in The
Burning Bush may have seemed to stand conventional theology
(religion) on its head, in the essays that follow anthroposophy
seems to stand science on its head. Not an end in itself, this
results from the basic tenet in all Steiner's work that all phenomena
should be permitted to speak for themselves. They are, after all,
what are given from the spiritual world to humanity. The thinking
and reasoning capacity that has evolved in the human being is
necessary and natural. But it has been permitted, in one sense,
to overshoot its bounds, racing ahead of what patient and open
observation will reveal. The latter was the great verity behind
Goethe's approach to human existence. Doctrines, dogmas, principles,
laws, and the like that are not in accord with phenomena have
been set forth by both science and religion, and when propounded
have become so widely accepted that it is deemed heresy to seriously
question them.
If all phenomena were permitted to speak for themselves, there
would be no inconsistencies between science and religion, or indeed
between any of the human disciplines. The challenge to humanity
is to accurately observe, realistically interpret and courageously
accept and apply its message.
II
The classical four elements are part of that phenomena. Understanding
them and their provenance is a necessary first step in demonstrating
what has been said above. In the course of this book, we shall
see that the four elements, classically and esoterically called
fire, air, water and earth, are synonymous with
the more common and exoteric terms warmth, gas, liquid
and solid, and we shall also see that they interact and
interpenetrate or indwell one another while at the same time being
individually archetypal in character. This entire essay is really
just an introduction to the elements, since the rest of the book
will deal with them both individually and in their interrelationships.
A fundamental truth in the teaching of ancient wisdom is that
the four elements, in ways quite new to modern thought, are in
fact the building blocks of creation and the basis for all that
is perceived by the senses in earthly existence. In the course
of this book we will see how this is true inasmuch as these elements
relate directly to the four, and only four, etheric states-the
states the Prodigal Son (humanity) must traverse to reenter the
spiritual world.
The four elements are reflected in I-22,
partially reproduced in the Creation
essay, at p. 45 herein. They have their counterparts also in the
four Conditions of Consciousness of humanity's evolution (I-1),
Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon and Earth; the fourfold human being
(I-9, I-14);
the four ethers; and many other fourfold profiles (including those
in I-72 and I-73).
The sevenfold nature of the four elements and their four related
ethers is set out (in declining density) below:
Solid (Earth)
Watery
Gaseous
Warmth (comprising both Fire and Fire ether)
One notes there are three classifications on each side of fire,
the midpoint at which heaven and Earth touch each other.
In its descent from the highest regions of the spiritual world
to redeem creation, the Christ Spirit had necessarily to follow
the same path as the Prodigal Son into the flesh4
—starting from the highest heaven. The distance of Christ's
journey downward is suggested when Paul says he is "far above
all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every
name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which
is to come" (Eph 1,21; see I-6
and I-18). That
Christ had first come from that position is indicated by Paul's
saying that "though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men"
(Phil 2,6-7) and that "he had to be made like his brethren in
every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful
high priest . . . to make expiation for the sins of the people"
(Heb 2,17). He had to become flesh just as we did in order to
take human karma upon himself (see "Forgiven
Sins" and "Lord
of Karma" in The
Burning Bush).
Thus, leaving higher devachan (spirit world), his Spirit descended
through lower devachan, then the astral world, then the etheric
(sometimes called the "elemental world"), and finally into the
world of the four elements themselves, fire, air, water and earth
(heat, gas, fluid and solid). The four elements as they are known
from antiquity are the earthly reflection ("shadow" or "image"
in biblical imagery) of the four stages of the etheric world,
as shown in I-22.
It is at once apparent that even the descent through the etheric
world was thus a fourfold journey, from life ether to chemical/sound
ether, thence to light ether, and thence to fire ether. As the
descent continued from there, the fire ether manifested in earthly
fire (molecular activity), then molecular air separated from light,
and so on.
The above scenario is given only to demonstrate the relatively
late stage at which the four elements come into being, that of
Earth evolution itself.
