“Today most people do not practice, it is their omission, a tragic loss which occurs because of lack of knowledge which damages the physical heart. All the more we should work on unfolding our heart organ which allows us to ascend to imagination and inspiration and to forms of cognition where we may experience our own, cognitive eye of the etheric heart in the Sun-Logos.”
 
These quotations come from a fascinating essay by Ruth Haertl. Her study “concerning the etheric heart touches on the most profound mysteries of the human being. It touches on individual processes in human life as well as on evolutionary changes which affect all mankind.”
 

“This drawing was taken from GA 190 April 5th, 1919. It points to the physical heart as it swims in the sac of the surrounding separated etheric heart. If we consider these ideas carefully there arises before our inner eye Rudolf Steiner's “Philosophy of Freedom (Philosophy of Spiritual Activity)” (chapter 9). There he talks about the emergence of ego consciousness through the physical body and the possibility for this ego consciousness to evolve because the Ego takes part in all spiritualised thinking. Further it says in the ninth chapter that the physical organisation has no part in the essence of thought, that instead, indeed, the physical withdraws and creates a space for thought. Man's thought is free!”
 
“We at the beginning of the 21st century stand at the focal point regarding the developmental process of the etheric heart. We may not fail to research all possible facts with the greatest clarity possible, we may not fail to practice, exercise and purify ourselves while searching for the truth. Yes, we may contribute to the right formation of the new etheric heart; Michael leaves us free but he expects, and he observes us. Today most people do not practice, it is their omission, a tragic loss which occurs because of lack of knowledge which damages the physical heart. All the more we should work on unfolding our heart organ which allows us to ascend to imagination and inspiration and to forms of cognition where we may experience our own, cognitive eye of the etheric heart in the Sun-Logos.”
 
“In Basel (Oct. 1, 1911 GA 130) Rudolf Steiner spoke about the etherisation of the blood, the facts are well known to students of Anthroposophy. Illnesses of the heart can predominantly be traced to a lack of spiritual activity. Moral characteristics affect the contraction and expansion of the capillary vessels, and our moral soul-life also influences the make-up of our blood.”
 
“Finally we might direct our glance at possibilities which this new etheric heart organ as sense organ or Sun-eye will be able to develop for the future. I have already indicated it. We hear in the lecture of the 6th of May 1922 that when we look into ourselves we can experience our etheric eye as a cognitive eye. It can become the organ for going into ones own depth. Here we experience the flaming, scorching and burning emotions, desires, passions and drives on the one hand, on the other that in us which does not connect with them, because it is our eternal being. It lives alongside of it. Therefore we can say that the new etheric organ becomes cognitive for our eternal being in the depth of the metabolism and will organization. While our head holds our soul as if buried within, we comprehend ourselves, our eternal being, in the dark depth of will purified from emotions and drives. “Now we enter the realm where the soul and spirit become one”, says Rudolf Steiner in his lecture of May 6th, 1922, GA 212. “In the head or brain man is physical. That which is soul-like has been buried there, it is like a corpse. This corpse is the area to which presently all natural scientific research regarding the soul is directed. But in reality the soul is true to itself and connected to the spirit below the heart. The new and wonderful sense organ which is as large as the blood organism finds the eternal being of man next to all that which arises from the depth of will as drives and emotions.”
 
The paragraphs above are only brief tastes of this study. Read the whole essay by Ruth Haertl at http://www.rsarchive.org/RelArtic/GoldM/etheric_heart.html
 
Further background reading can be found in Rudolf Steiner’s lecture The Human Heart http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/HumHrt_index.html  
 
May these ideas enliven all our Christmas Holiday endeavours.
 
-- John