Lessons for the Participants of Cognitive-Cultic Work 1906–1924

GA 265a — 20 May 1913, Stuttgart

The Twelve Senses And The Seven Life Processes

Notes by Alice Kinkel For all degrees

The macrocosmic and microcosmic zodiac.
The macrocosmic and microcosmic planetary system.
The macrocosmic and microcosmic relationship between the sun, moon and earth.
The sun alone, macrocosmically and microcosmically.
The content of the lesson culminates in the drawing.
The signs of the zodiac act on the physical body, on our twelve senses.
We have seven upper or light senses and five lower or dark senses; these latter extend from hearing to smelling.
The planets act on the etheric body.
The relationship between the sun, moon and earth acts on the astral body. The sun alone acts on the ego.

The seven upper or light senses and the five lower or dark senses:

Sun Willing
Moon Feeling
Earth Thinking

Notes B from the estate of Elisabteh Vreede first degree

We should become more and more aware that we are the complete image of the macrocosm in our essence, that we are a small world, a microcosm. The wise masters of the East have again given the task of making this truth clear. (The five and the twelve senses are explained again, as they were on May 12 in Cologne.) The five are the dark senses, because through these - the senses usually so-called - man completely steps out of his soul-spiritual. All these senses have flowed into man from the macrocosm, and that from the twelve signs of the zodiac, mediated by the influence of the sun on each of the different signs. One can make this clear by means of a drawing.

The sense of self corresponds to Gemini because in this sense one has to take a twofold approach. One has to step out of one's own self and into another self. The sense of touch corresponds to Cancer because, with this sense, one turns inward, as it were. The sense of touch serves to perceive the resistance that objects exert on us. The objects themselves are neither heavy nor light, but the pressure that we have to overcome causes us to perceive them as heavy or light. The sense of life corresponds to Leo, under whose influence it is completely. When the Sun combines with the forces of Leo, we feel a sense of vitality. (Sense of movement – Virgo has been omitted.) The sense of balance is associated with Libra; this sense definitely determines the ability to find the right position in three-dimensional space. The sense of smell (Scorpio) is the most dangerous sense when we try to relate it to spiritual entities, because it immediately brings us into the realm of black magicians. (The sense of taste – Sagittarius was ignored.) The sense of warmth (Aquarius) is like flowing water that rises and falls in waves and fills everything. We feel the warmth rising up and permeating everything within us. The sense of hearing is connected with the sign of Pisces, and the occultists of earlier times gave this sign the name of Pisces also for the reason that Pisces are deaf and everything must be represented in reverse on the physical plane. - Sense of speech - Aries; sense of thought - Taurus.

When man was created, the powers came from the twelve signs, and we were connected to these powers. They were also the tools of the gods, who could hear, see and so on with the help of these powers. Now man has wrested himself from these powers, and he now stands on his own. This means that he can go arbitrarily from one sign to another, while the sun, which has not wrested itself free, has to go through the signs one after the other. If the gods on earth want to give or hear, they have to work through these powers.

Just as the twelve signs of the zodiac have brought about our twelve senses through the sun, so have the seven planets, as they relate to the signs of the zodiac and the sun, helped to create living human beings by giving us that which flows into our etheric body. If we had not moved away from the planets, we would now feel these forces at work within us. They are drawn here within a loop for the reason that in reality the course of the planets is not as astronomy has conceived it, as a great circle around the sun. Only later will astronomy come up with the more correct movements.

Besides the twelve and the seven, we also have a trinity in our astral body, which is indicated by the relationship between the sun, moon and earth. That we are human beings with intellect, feeling and will stems from this. The power of thought comes from the sun, the power of feeling from the moon and that of will from the earth. Only earthly people can have mind, feeling and will in such a way, arising from the mutual state of these three bodies. In their narrow-mindedness, scientists may talk about Martians as if they were similar to humans; only on Earth can these three forces be found in the way they are through the relationship of the Earth to the Sun and Moon.

And our ego finds itself in the sun, in unity; the certain independence that the sun has from the other planets is brought about by our ego.

If we learn to combine all this in meditation, so that we connect with all these forces that work in us, it can mean a powerful jolt in our esoteric life.