Developing narratives

Positioning

Introduction

Ten years after starting study of Rudolf Steiner's teachings in 2013, and starting systematic study in 2014 and this small wiki site as a personal initiative in 2020, I want to provide a section with links to areas where I have started trying to write narratives.

The intention guided study materials previously also called essays. It connects to the tradition of what Maximilian Rebholz or Elisabeth Vreede published as Essays or newsletters. This was how it was done in the early 20th century. The narratives are a modern digital web version of this.

The trigger for trying to write a 'narrative' has always been a question.

Now that this FMC wiki site exists, it provides reference pointers to topics and schemas that one can easily point at to illustrate what one lays out, like a teacher does didactically, or a guide pointing at things in a tour. The FMC wiki then provides the pyramid of knowledge underlying the pointer statement or schema, eg various perspectives from different lectures referenced by quotes as entry-points. This is the basic idea of the narratives, and the use of the FMC wiki as a study tool.

A narrative is useful and even required because a question can go very deep, a question is an expression of a longing, a quest, deeper insight. And so no simple answer of a few sentences is a true answer. If one wants to help, one needs to do better than that. At least provide food for thought, challenge the thought process, evoke or trigger contemplation. In a way .. a narrative is an answer to a question that is like applause for someone who is running a sport competition .. it is a form of enthusiastic motivational cheering for the student of spiritual student: through the narrative one tries to help him or her forward.

When I was young I recall saying "it helps to understand .. " probably in context of "in order to accept" but not in a strict sense, more like "to live, make your way, be able to place things" .. to grow.

Goals

The vision has always been that the written-out hypertext is used as a basis for multimedia movies with a 'guided walkthrough' with voiceover over schemas and key contents sections, to facilitate a first exposure and thereby lowering the threshold. The written-out text remains as a study reference to come back to at one's own speed, investigate where, when and how one wants to deepen one's understanding.

Update on Work In Progress (WIP)

This section is under development

The 'lessons' have been integrated below (previously Study process and developing imaginations#Lessons)

The following (under development) are case instances of what is described under 'Study process and developing imaginations'. They are a set of proposal subjects that can be seen as 'lessons' for the student to investigate, attempts at a 'guided' integration of scattered pieces of the insight puzzle.

More examples exist on the site and will be added iteratively to this new section.

Narratives (prev. 'lessons')

Narrative 1 - On the development of the Human I

How come some people do not incarnate? This question came up in a facebook forum regarding the Earth population.

Context for the trigger was: Planets hosting beings at various stages of evolution#Note 3 - Earth's population and the process of incarnation

So I promised someone (who asked why not all people incarnate), that I would try to write something to that. He probably never read it, but to me what matters was that I had to give birth to trying to express something that could be seen and read. So that maybe someday it may help someone who passes by.

Needless to say it's a complex topic because it requires an in depth background knowledge. So as I started putting a train of thoughts to text, it became very complicated. However I am convinced it still makes sense.

As a self-reflection .. the fact it not simple just shows that I am not able to express it with that level of mastery, that I am struggling to show and express what I want to show, as a reflection of what I know and have seen and can point at, but that is the best I can do for now using the site and its pointers.

And, I am convinced that if one follows all the links, and invests in following the pathway of stones I have left in the forest, it will make some light go on in the soul of the person who invest time in study and contemplation.

If I would not believe this, I would stop writing. But the process of trying to write narratives clearly feels as a step in a process of maturing. After taking in and personal study and contemplation, it is now the start of trying to find a way to give something back to the world. One has no choice but to take the next step, and see where it leads.

Development of the I#Note 1 - Narrative to the Development of the Human I

using Development of the I#Note 2 - The metaphoric image of the ocean, droplets and sponges.

Narrative 2 - On the true Human I

Human 'I'#Note 4 - Once again: What is the 'I'?

after: Human 'I'#Note 1 - All we can say 'I' to

This lesson is about the true nature of Man as a spiritual being, by taking as the point of departure the study the true nature of our human 'I', or - put differently - tackling the question of 'Man, know thyself" or "who Am I, really?". This leads to an understanding of Man as part of the divine creation and how can experience this through the God experience as a result of initiation.

To be added: drawing in WIP deck (479B)

Narrative 3 - On the consciousness soul .. and the process of illumination

Written in the context of the Christ Impulse:

Human character - the I and threefold soul#Note 2 - On the consciousness soul

to link with the related

Kundalini#Note 3 - The process of illumination

this lesson is about enlightenment, self-realization, illumination from a more spiritual scientific 'technical' point of view. As opposed to the practical point of view, as in initiation exercises, it zooms in to the veiled topics of the pineal&pituitary glands, kundalini energy, the chakras, and elemental balance, to shed light on the process of spiritualization down to God experience. Different traditions have described this in different terms, and the goal is to connect physiological descriptions (such as glands, chakras, nadis and energy streams) to elemental balance of Man's bodily principles (purification of astral body and above) and terminology used eg in esoteric Christianity.
related topics are: Man's transformation and spiritualization and Stages of clairvoyance

Narrative 4 - Individuation and unification, separateness and connectedness

also draft initiated but not developed further yet

Unification#Note 1 - Narrative on the illusion of separateness and the reality of connectedness

linked with, as an introduction, the three sections under Unification#Individuation and differentiation

Narrative 5 - On the process of resurrection

Cleansed phantom#Note 1 - On the process of resurrection

this lesson is about the resurrection, the essence of the Christ as/and the future of mankind. It requires insights into a) the physiology of Man (physical body vs phantom), the luciferic infection, the double and formative etheric forces; and b) the process of elemental balance through initiation and Man's transformation and spiritualization (ultimately, after balancing the astral body, also cleansing the physical body's phantom). This also maps to the a projected timeline of the future evolution of mankind, with the step-up in the next sixth cultural age in the current epoch, to the main transformational 'harvest' sixth epoch, and the transition towards Future Jupiter.
All these areas are related, and a good coverage and mastery of the available knowledge of all these areas represents a first hurdle or challenge for the student. Once this 'package' has been 'acquired' however, the threads can be connected and the puzzle can be laid, for the insights to emerge from the image in the overall puzzle, holistically.

Narrative 6 - On Free Man Creator in the world

Spiritual guidance of mankind#Note 2 - Free Man Creator in the world

It is still a first draft in outline mode.

This is a 'compass' or 'gyroscope' story, building on Contemporary worldview war#Inspirational quotes.

And Spiritual minority in a materialistic world

The above sketches a frame or background against which to project Meaning of Free Man Creator and Meaning of life and Seeds for future worlds. It reinforces the messages on those pages, and is intended to help the conscientization, the progressive insight and growing consciousness, from awareness to responsibility, that drives our, also your, conscious free choices. What we choose to contribute to and how, what we dedicate our life time and energy to.

Narrative 7 - First and second half of a cultural age

The two halves of an evolutionary cycle#Note 1 - First and second half of a cultural age

This was triggered by something a friend reader of this site wrote about the middle ages representing a 1000 year transition between the Roman culture and a new start in the 15th century.

Narrative 8 - IAO and the Human and Cosmic I

This one was written in response to a question by someone who was intrigued by the IAO page and diagram. I could sense there was a karmic background to the person's quest.

The subject however felt daunting and intimidating to write about. Therefore the introduction is worthwhile and has some reflections on the study and contemplation process, on the quest for answers and insight, that are more generally valid.

It is still a first draft in outline mode, not finished.

Q00.010 - IAO and the Human and Cosmic I

To be linked/merged with

Creation of solar system#Note 1 - The IAO cosmic fractal

this lesson is about the spiritual worldview of Man as part of the cosmos, how we are part of creation and our I is part of the Logos. Starting with the Cosmic fractal .. requiring an understanding of the spiritual hierarchies and their Cosmic breathing. At the highest level, if one tried to grasp the nature of the cosmos and creation, this comes together in Cosmic breath of Brahma and IAO. On their own these topics individually may be hard to get a grasp on, they really belong together as part of the spiritual scientific worldview. Again many underlying and related topics 'branch off' underneath this high level thread, providing the foundational support: a) one such thread is about the three logoi, Creation by the three Logoi .. to be understood also from various angles such as the Force substance representation; b) another one is the view of how 'all we see' is made up of the spiritual hierarchies (eg Schema FMC00.305), with its various aspects such as Spiritual hierarchies and their eigenperiods c) and all this 'comes to life' completely only with an in-depth understanding of the Human 'I' as reaching through to the different words upto the monad. [see another lesson above], d) last, this then becomes foundational .. and connects with and supports the holistic overview at the highest level, see the schemas on the page Overview Free Man Creator.

.

With a side note that could be added on: Lemniscatory time and space#physical reality as a projection as this touches on various aspects.

Addition: Cosmic I now added as Narrative 11 from another angle, the two could be merged.

Narrative 9 - Logoic principle

Logoic principle

This one tries to add something. One can study theosophy and anthroposophy and intellectually process what is there as information about the Logoi, and it is actually of no value.

However there is a way that this topic, if one is able to go to a level of imagination, is one through which so many things flow together. Things one has studied as many different scattered topics, pieces of the puzzle. The Logoic principle is something I wanted to try and write about in a way it can offer an integrative key of the Cosmic fractal to which one can connect so many different clues.

On a personal note

In all humility, unfortunately I fear this narrative or subject material is 'over the top' or 'over the head' for the majority of people or readers.

My aim is to try and be able to bring this story in a way the storytelling is able to reach a larger audience, in simple language.

Because it counters the materialistic mineral worldview and its incomprehension of whatever God may be, and the illusion of the big bang cosmology for a universe which consists only of physical mineral matter, where Man is just a 'speck' in the universe, as if arisen out of chance.

In a way it really 'explains' the Cosmic fractal and what is going on in the cosmos, let's say it offers the best explanation I have found and been given to date. For me it comes closest to the truth and reality of our cosmos which is spiritual in nature.

In the end, we can only take into scope for contemplation what we know, and this is our planet and the kingdoms of nature, part of a solar system.

The grand value proposition of spiritual science is that it offers a meta-representation, much beyond what contemporary traditional physics, cosmology, religion, and philosophy are able to offer, but in fact it can include them in a compatible way.

Side-note

I write the last sentence with reference to a year in my youth, at university, and discussions with a then-friend, as what follows was his core idea for his Ph. D. thesis. I read the thesis draft and went to his defense. The core idea is the following.

The concept of a meta-representation is required to resolve the dichotomies and explain the contradictions that any knowledge representation encounters as a natural consequence of the limitations of the language and concepts used in such representation.

So within physics, several branches of the natural science all bounce onto limits that seemingly cannot be resolved. One needs to step a level up in order to 'see' and resolve the contradiction. A simple explanation of a meta-representation is general relativity that can include and explain Newtonian physics but expand beyond it and explain more .. though this is however just a mathematical construct.

Narrative 10 - On 'Christos budhi', the Christ Impulse and 'Christ in the etheric'

to be developed, but first seed elements here:

Narrative 11 - Humanity and the Cosmic I

to be developed, only clear idea stage with some elements

Christ Module 12 - the cosmic 'I'#Note 2 - Humanity and the Cosmic I

Addition: Cosmic also in Narrative 8 from another angle, the two could be merged.

More Discussion Notes

Book of Ten Pages

This is a personally developed version of One to Ten. It is not really a narrative, yet.

It's my answer to, in remembrance of, my professor of Physics who, in the first year of University, showed the movie Powers of Ten.

As with the FMC wiki for integrated materials on anthroposophy and spiritual science, I was amazed that no such thing existed on the internet. It becomes high time.

Because I had no ambition to invest much in this to make something beautiful (as it could and should), at this point, I left this as a Note in the Discussion are. Needless to say this could be enriched greatly with illustrations and animations, movies.

Book of Ten Pages#Note 1 - One to Ten

Note on God in the world of media

This one was written so as to have a place to gather so much stuff that is available in today's digital world online about the existence of God, do you believe in God, etc. So many people give their opinions. It's a popular question to be asked to individuals who are seen as inspirational in society.

So this is not a narrative, more a place to connect various materials. The goal is it is entertaining and 'light' stuff for the student of spiritual student to get exposed to and test one's own maturity.

Christ Module 9: Trinity and Logoi#Note 6 - A lot to do about God

Study note on the beasts of evil

Some Discussion Notes are true study notes, eg

D00.004 - Book of Revelation#Note 2 - The three beasts of evil and corresponding counterforces

and the related False prophet