Initiation or Consecration

The conversation I often refer to, which Goethe and Schiller had about plants at the very beginning of their acquaintance, when they came from a lecture at the Natural History Society in Jena, has become famous. Schiller said that it was unsatisfactory to look at beings in such a way that one could not see their connection. Goethe replied that there could also be another way, where one could see the commonality, the spiritual bond that holds everything together. Goethe describes the conversation to us, and how he then took his pencil and sketched the image of his primordial plant with a few characteristic strokes. Then Schiller, the speculative poet, said: But that is not a fact, it is an idea, not reality. “Then,” said Goethe, “if that is an idea, I see the ideas outside with my eyes!” — The plant contains the life-giving force. Because of the deep insight that Goethe's spirit had into such a being, it was possible for his spirit to awaken that which creates in all animals and plants. There is a secret bond between the human interior and what is spread throughout the entire animal and plant world. When man conjures up the primordial plant within himself, he conjures up the form according to which plants were created. In this way, we feel ourselves to be spiritual participants in the productions of nature. For Goethe, it is a matter of immersing oneself in things and conjuring up the spirit that lives in things, in his spirit. This is what Goethe presents to human beings.