As I discussed in my last stack, the imagination is a tool we all possess and that poets have used to create worlds and, well, work their magic on readers. My intention is to discuss how the imagination can (and is) exploited by “bad actors” in order to manipulate and control not only individuals, but also the masses. But first I think it would be helpful to describe how the imagination actually works as a property of the soul.
First of all, for illustrative purposes, let’s divide the human organism—and, for that matter, all of the cosmos, since the microcosm is unthinkable separated from the macrocosm—into two parts: the natural and the supernatural, or the material and the spiritual. Actually, I don’t think of these as discrete realities that can be separated from one another; I think of them more as polarities. Robert Fludd, the seventeenth-century Paracelsian physician and Hermetic philosopher, provides many useful diagrams of this in his work. Here’s one:
This diagram of two intersecting “pyramids” (Fludd’s term—suggesting multi-dimensionality) indicates the polarities of matter and spirit. At the top we can see the base of one pyramid at the edge of the empyrean and reflecting the base of the triangle representing the Holy Trinity; at the bottom of the image we find the base of a pyramid that is grounded in matter. The important thing to notice is that the apexes of each pyramid reach the bases of the other. The takeaway is that spirit is never entirely devoid of matter and matter is never completely lacking in spirit. Without digressing too much, let me just point to the facts that this concept was very current in Fludd’s day in arguments over natura pura (pure nature) that speculated whether or not there could be such a thing as a “pure nature,” a nature absolutely absent the grace of God. Fludd was in the “No” camp. (Incidentally, the work of the Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan amounts to an extended meditation on this idea).
Between these two polarities in this model are the various gradations of what we can call “the soul.” Notice how the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) are here represented as well as the planets and the celestial hierarchies. In another diagram, Fludd shows how these realities are reflected in the human mind/soul:
Note here the three “worlds” Fludd outlines: the mundus intellectualis (the world of ideas or intelligences), the mundus imaginabilis (the world of images or imagination), and the mundus sensibilis (the world of the senses). As you can see, it is not much of a stretch to connect the mundus intellectualis to the spirit, the mundus sensibilis to the body, and the mundus imaginabilis to the soul. I find Fludd’s way of thinking about the psyche enormously useful—but I would caution people from thinking overly concretely about the divisions represented in these diagrams. These are imaginative or poetic concepts—but that is not to say untrue. Rather, I would suggest that the idea here is to allow for a flexibility in thinking, a conceptual fluidity when considering these things. This is an eminently useful anthropology.
So, if we think of the imagination as a property—almost a kind of spiritual organ—of the soul, how does it work? In that, it would be helpful to consider that time of life when the imagination is (or is supposed to be) most active: childhood.
It is a commonplace that children have rich imaginations, but I would suggest that the imaginations of children have been seriously compromised and depleted by modernity. The strength of the imagination is in making images, a faculty, as we have seen, that is a central power in the making of poeisis. But, due to film, the internet, and electronic toys and media of every kind, the imaginations of children and (since most of us were children at some time) all of us are profoundly impoverished due to the fact that so many of the images that inhabit our imaginations come to us predigested. For example, when we read a book or tell a story to children, they quite naturally build the images in their heads as they hear the story; they participate in the author’s creation of a world. But, if they see a film or see a film of a book before reading it those images are provided for them—and the imagination has less to do. As Shakespeare writes in the prologue to Henry V, “And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,/On your imaginary forces work”—but, with less work to do, those imaginary forces will atrophy. Indeed, in my thirty plus years as a teacher and professor, I have watched the long decline of imagination in students as well as a reciprocal increase in anxiety disorders. I don’t think the two are unrelated. “For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings.”
As many of you might know, I used to be a Waldorf teacher, and a foundational principle in Waldorf education lies in strengthening children through a healthy nourishment of the imagination. This, among other things, is why Waldorf schools reject the use of computers in elementary education. Over one hundred years ago, Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, was profoundly insightful concerning the damage that was being done to the imaginations of children due to the onslaught of technology—and this was before the advent of radio and television, let alone the internet. This is why you won’t find textbooks in a Waldorf school. Instead, the children create their own textbooks from their lessons, some of which are of extraordinary beauty.
Steiner even extended his education of imagination to toys, and dolls in particular. Even in Steiner’s day, dolls were available that had clothing, eyes that opened and closed, that wet, and, later, could “talk.” This horrified Steiner, as all of these gimmicks only worked to hobble the imagination. Instead, he recommended little girls play with very simple rag dolls, with just a pair of sewn dots for eyes and a mouth, because thereby the imagination would have more work to do. (I will avoid the scandal of “Waldorf dolls” as they are marketed now at exorbitant prices—Rudy would not approve!—a dreadful dimension of the “boutique-ification” of Waldorf education).
Steiner’s pedagogical anthropology is one of the more practical aspects of Waldorf education—and also one of the most misunderstood—but he has much of value to offer mainstream pedagogical theory. Foremost in his pedagogy is the idea of the pedagogical law. But in order to explain that, I will need to explain some of Steiner’s anthropology.
Steiner’s anthropology has roots in the classical, medieval, and Renaissance world views (reflected in Robert Fludd’s philosophy) that speaks of different properties of the soul. First, for example, we have the physical body which correlates to the mineral kingdom. Next is the etheric body, which corresponds to the plant kingdom and is characterized by growth: this was often called the “vegetable soul” through the early modern period—as in Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress.” After that is the astral body, which corresponds to the animal kingdom and is characterized by movement and feeling. Finally, we come to the ego (or “I”) which is a uniquely human property, of which memory, thinking, and imagination are special qualities. That’s an outline, but now for a little detail.
In Steiner’s model, after birth, the activity of the etheric body predominates. This is a period of rapid growth and development. Rhythms are extraordinarily important at this stage—bedtimes and mealtimes, for example, but also in the rhythms of the day, the week, and the year. Healthy rhythms make for healthy children; and, as is only too obvious, the life of the modern child is anything but rhythmic. The predominance of the etheric body permeates the first stage of life—from birth through age seven (when the adult teeth start to make their appearance), when the astral body starts, very gradually at first, to influence child development.
The astral body fully incarnates at puberty—and we all know what that means! Strong feelings—not only sexual, but also in the way of sympathies and antipathies—are a quality of the astral body. For a child with an arhythmical life, the coming of the astral body often proves tumultuous to say the least.
Finally, the ego arrives with what used to be called “adulthood,” often announced by the arrival of the wisdom teeth (they’re called that for a reason). This is at around the age of eighteen and corresponds to the moon node return in the heavens.
You can see how these stages Steiner outlines have direct correlations to human physical and intellectual development. So this isn’t some esoteric knowledge: it’s based in a solid empirical and phenomenological method of observation. That is, it’s science (which is why Steiner called what he was doing “spiritual science”).
In the Curative Course Steiner gave to teachers in June and July of 1924 (less than a year before he died), he offers a variety of pedagogical insights for working with students suffering from what we now might call learning or developmental disorders as well as other types of psychological challenges. Central to his approach is the pedagogical law. And this starts to bump into what I’ve been calling magic.
The pedagogical law is very simple: in order to help a child suffering from an ailment of one of the “bodies,” the teacher must work from his or her own “body” above that. That is, for example, if a child is having trouble in his or her physical body, the teacher will approach this from his own etheric body. In that kind of problem, it is often a matter of restoring rhythm to the child’s life or in using habit to produce beneficial physical results. Likewise, if a student suffers from a weakened or depleted etheric body (children who are often sickly, pale, lacking in resilience) the teacher would work through his own astral body by, for instance, showing interest in the student’s interests or other kinds of ways to show love for the child. And, without getting too deep in the weeds, if a student is feeling the effects of an overcharged astral body (visit any high school for proof), the teacher must work from the ego, from the authority of being and competence that used to be a feature of being an adult. (You can already see why our current educational landscape is absolute chaos).
Steiner offered the curative education course immediately after he delivered his revolutionary lectures on agriculture which inaugurated the biodynamic farming and gardening movement. During the agriculture course, one of the participants wondered whether some of the measures Steiner was recommending might “be steering to close to the sphere of ethics.” That is, he wondered if what Steiner was proposing might be considered “magic.” The same, Steiner anticipated, could be said about the pedagogical law. “Needless to say,” he told the teachers in the curative course, “these things do become black magic when they are not handled as they ought to be handled.” As we saw last time in the case of Novalis, morality is essential when working with the pedagogical law; as Steiner quite explicitly stated, “A high standard of morality is absolutely essential in dealing with these matters.” What this results in—or should—is a “deep sense of responsibility.” Unfortunately, what today passes for morality in most educational settings is not morality in the least. That means it’s a kind of black magic. As Steiner clarifies,
“The Gods use magic, and the difference between white and black magic consists only in this: in white magic one intervenes in a moral, selfless way, and in black magic in an immoral, selfish way. There is no other difference.”
Writing just a few years after Steiner (in 1928), public relations wizard (and nephew of Sigmund Freud) Edward Bernays described the essential role of teachers in a “democratic society”: “The normal school should provide for the educator to make him realize that his is a twofold job: education as a teacher and education as a propagandist.” Randi Weingarten, call your office.
My claim is that this understanding of magic in the manipulation of children is a basic assumption of the Archons running things, as is only too evident from even a cursory glance at what has been going on in educational circles and in schools in recent times. Just imagine the detrimental effects on the etheric bodies of children under the charge of teachers with an out-of-whack astral body (they/them pronouns and all the rest). This is just practical application of the greater project of the Archons. They like to experiment on children.
We also know all too well about the wicked experiments conducted on children in the CIA’s MK-Ultra program that “involved LSD, ESP, black magic, astrology, psychological warfare, media manipulation, and other subjects” (read more here). Child subjects in this program tended to be those inclined toward the autistic spectrum, “sensitive,” intuitive types, whom Steiner might have described as having porous etheric bodies (my wife often says if MKU knew about me when I was a child, they would have grabbed me). Éliphas Lévi describes the ideal subject in such a magical operation:
“All enthusiasm propagated in a society by a series of communications and practices in common produces a magnetic current, and continues or increases the current. The action of the current is to carry away and often to exalt beyond measure persons who are impressionable and weak, nervous organisations, temperaments inclined to hysteria or hallucination. Such people become powerful vehicles of magical force and efficiently project the astral light in the direction of the current itself; opposition at such a time to the manifestations of the force is, to some extent, a struggle with fatality.”
Clearly, the Archons have ever been interested in exploiting those of impressionable, nervous organizations in ways by which they might bend society to their own will, education being only one such vehicle for accomplishing this. But what in the past they confined to small, experimental populations they have more recently expanded to broader swaths of society. And to that we will turn next time.
Thank you for this wonderful series on magic. The irony of the Archons breaking us into nervous/porous beings is that there is more light able to shine through. We might be more susceptible to mind washing, but we are also more open to intuition. And by then, the Archons have left a vestigial footprint in us - so once we clear out their mess, we can track them down. Perhaps this is the archetypal story in Stranger Things.
I learned more about Steiner in 1/2 hour than I ever knew. My Freudian "friends" always said bad things about him so I knew he was a decent and creative thinker. The best to you and your family on this dark night of Solstice and during the Christmas season.