The Light
Light The light brings forth the life of the earth, makes the plants grow and gives us the sensory perceptions. The spirits of wisdom work in the light. "For we are to understand that we cannot see the Godhead in the physical rays of the sun, but that the Godhead is to be sought behind the rays of the sun in its high spirituality. The sun's rays are only the outer garment of the Godhead", (B015, 29.3.1911/A). Spiritual beings work in the light. These respective entities are the source of the light and according to their nature is also the effect of the respective light. "At the thought of the moon something contracts in man, hardens. At the sight of the sun one feels the spiritual working on himself. The sun's rays are the deeds of high-standing spirits", (B015, 5.4.1912). What shines from the Elohim's place of work, from the Sun to the Earth, is life-giving, what comes as Moonlight gives form. "The light that radiates from the Moon is not only reflected sunlight but it is forces of form giving. The light from the sun is not only light, but power to live, to hasten life, ...", (GA056,26.3.1908). Artificial light, in turn, is the carrier of Ahriman spirits. ("Note question:) Is artificial light also the garment of the spirits of form? Yes, but it is the garment of the Ahriman spirits of form who have become Ahriman", (B210, question answered 10.3.1913). Whereby one should consider this as a given of human life on earth. The earth is a sphere where Ahrimanic beings are active. It depends on the human being in what way he is aware of this and in what relationship he brings himself to the good spiritual-divine beings and their adversary beings, for example, Ahrimanic or Luciferian beings. The light is a carrier, a dress for these beings. What they produce, especially from the sun, is earlier moral effectiveness. It is wisdom, just as man today works on his ennoblement, on the ennoblement of his astral body, so did the spirits of wisdom work on themselves in earlier world times. "When the ego now works into the astral body and purifies it more and more in intellectual, moral and spiritual relationship, then this astral body becomes Spiritual Self or Mana. When in the distant future that which has hardly begun today will be completed, when man will have transformed his entire astral body, then this astral body will be "physically" luminous ... What is it that man works into his astral body? -then the answer is: it is what we call the good, the clever, through which man ennobles his astral body ... It's called "working wisdom into it." The more wisdom there is in the astral body, the more luminous it will be. ... As our soul relates to the body, so does wisdom relate to the light ... The light is indeed the body of wisdom. (B118, 13.9.1907). Beings live and work in the light as beings work in the darkness. So there are different strengths of light and different qualities of light, just as there are different levels of darkness. "One can therefore face the light-filled space and can call it qualitatively positive; one can face the darkness-filled space and can find it qualitatively negative with regard to the light conditions. But both can be addressed with a certain degree of intensity, with a certain strength", (B209, 29.12.1909). Natural light of the sun is radiating and carrying wisdom and moral deeds. "The effect of light on us is a communicating one, the effect of darkness on us is actually a sucking one. And so we must also distinguish between the light and dark colours. The lighter colours have something that goes out to us that communicates itself to us; the dark colours have something that sucks on us, to which we must surrender", (B209, 29.12.1909). The colours are something that arises from this light and dark. "So Newton said: The sun already contains all colours, we only need to get them out. But it is not like that at all. If the sun is to produce red through the dawn, it must first shine on the clouds, and we must see the red through the darkness. And if the celestial space is to appear blue, that is not from the sun at all, because the sun does not shine into it, it is black, dark, and we see the blue through the illuminated air of the earth. So there we see darkness through light = blue", (B211, 21.2.1923). What shines as light from the sun on earth, carries life in itself, what comes from the moon, gives form. Certain elemental beings can connect to this light and penetrate the plants with this light, make the plants take shape. "Sylphs are the supplier(s) of light... The flower spirits - sylphs = they are light spirits = in the flowers they carry the light to the plants", (B212, p. 20). These elemental beings are called sylphs, they are air spirits who live in the air and can connect to the light. "These sylphs, which live in the air-like warm elements, penetrate, however, because the air is permeated everywhere from the light, to the light, they become light-related, and are especially receptive to that which the finer, but greater movements within the air circle are", (B065, 2.11.1923). What shines in the Light as Life and Love from the high Elohim Beings of Sun and Moon to the Earth can now be absorbed by these Spirits of Light and given to the plants for their growth. "Just as the Undine is the Chemist, so the Sylph is the Light Bearer for the plant. It imbues the plant with light; it carries the light into the plant ... Out of the light, the sylphs weave an ideal plant form in there with the help of the substances that flow up there and are processed by the undines", (B065, 2.11.1923). What shines to earth in the light of the sun is love-bearing world becoming. The light as a carrier of wisdom and love. "But if you want to penetrate to the spiritual in the sunlight, then you have to look at it in the same way as if you got to know the inner being from the bodily side of a person. As your body relates to your soul, so does the sunlight relate to the Logos. In the sunlight a spiritual streams towards the earth. This spiritual is, when we are able to grasp not only the sun body but also the sun spirit, this spirit is the love that flows down to earth. Not only does the physical sunlight awaken the plants, so that these would have to wither if the physical sunlight did not act upon them, but with the physical sunlight the warm love of the Godhead streams down to the earth", (B035, 20.5.1908).
Download (german) from the book "Mensch"(PDF)