Keeping the Light Alive!

Monthly articles demonstrating Rudolf Steiner’s  relevance to today’s world

Adrian Anderson Ph. D., author of books and articles on anthroposophy
 

August 2015: Spirtual-Soul: What is this? 

It is universally recognized that we human beings have an emotional aspect to our soul and an intellectual or logical aspect as well. But Rudolf Steiner adds a third aspect, which is called, in translation, either the ‘consciousness soul’ or the ‘spiritual soul’. But what is this? It is the name that he gives for the power that underlies our will, when it influence our consciousness. The will or volition is that aspect of our mind which has the capacity to make a resolution to do something, to carry out an action. But the will functions through intuition, not logic nor emotions; and it functions primarily behind our conscious mind, and thus is not easily accessible to our ego or self. Most of our will is subconscious, only a small part is consciously functioning in us. Do we really know why we are doing our jobs, or even in many cases, married to whom we are married, or living in this country?  And ultimately, do we know why we were born in these times? It is our intuition that has made these decisions.

But this intuitive capacity can become active in our conscious mind. It then becomes that power which gives us the capacity for wise insights, for those sudden flashes of understanding of spiritual truths. It is this intuitive capacity which is called by Steiner ‘the spiritual-soul’. We could also call it the ‘intuitive soul’. The capacity of intuition from which wisdom, and deeper poetry and understanding of esoteric truths arises, is in effect, the spiritual-soul. This is the third member of our soul, and it is the least recognized by us human beings, because it functions so discretely.

For more about the spiritual-soul, see my book: the Rudolf Steiner Handbook  (available from good book stores, Amazon/Book Depository, etc)

Books by Adrian Anderson on Amazon.com