Man or Matter: Introduction to a Spiritual Understanding of Nature on the Basis of Goethe's Method of Training Observation and ThoughtLehrs, Ernst
Religion
Man or Matter: Introduction to a Spiritual Understanding of Nature on the Basis of Goethe's Method of Training Observation and Thought
Lehrs, Ernst
Anthroposophy; Cosmology; Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832
For the sky to appear blue by day a certain purity of the atmosphere is
needed. The more veiled the atmosphere becomes the more the blue of the
sky turns towards white; the purer and rarer the atmosphere, the deeper
the blue, gradually approaching to black. To mountain climbers and
those who fly at great heights it is a familiar experience to see the
sky assume a deep indigo hue. There can be no doubt that at still
higher altitudes the colour of the sky passes over into violet and
ultimately into pure black. Thus in the case of blue the field of
vision owes its darkening to a decrease in the resistance by which our
visual ray is met in the optical medium. It is precisely the opposite
with yellow. For here, as the density of the medium increases, the
colour-effect grows darker by yellow darkening first to orange and then
to red, until finally it passes over into complete darkness.
This shows that our visual ray is subject to entirely different dynamic
effects at the two poles of the colour-scale. At the blue pole, the
lightness-effect springs from the resistant medium through which we
gaze, a medium under the influence of gravity, while the darkness is
provided by the anti-gravity quality of cosmic space, which as a
'negative' resistance exercises a suction on the eye's inner light. At
the yellow pole it is just the reverse. Here, the resistant medium
brings about a darkening of our field of vision, while the
lightness-effect springs from a direct meeting of the eye with light,
and so with the suctional effect of negative density.
Our pursuit of the dynamic causes underlying our apperception of the
two poles of the colour-scale has led us to a point where it becomes
necessary to introduce certain new terms to enable us to go beyond
Goethe's general distinction between Finsternis (darkness) and Licht
(light). Following Goethe, we have so far used these two terms for what
appears both in blue and yellow as the respective light and dark
ingredients. This distinction cannot satisfy us any more. For through
our last observations it has become clear that the Finsternis in blue
and the Licht in yellow are opposites only in appearance, because they
are both caused by Levity, and similarly that the lightening effect in
blue and the darkening effect in yellow are both effected by Gravity.
Therefore, to distinguish between what appertains to the primary
polarity, Levity-Gravity, on the one hand, and their visible effects in
the secondary polarity of the colours, on the other, we shall
henceforth reserve the term darkness and, with it, lightness for
instances where the perceptible components of the respective colours
are concerned, while speaking of Dark and Light where reference is made
to the generating primary polarity.
*
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account