What He Said. (About Animism, Occultism & Housekeeping, Part 3)

A final tidbit of What-He-Said (for now, anyway...)

“Everywhere we look is nature — thoughts of the gods. These thoughts — living elemental beings — had a relationship with human beings in the past. Now they want to enter into a relationship with human beings once again. If one takes some object seriously, one discovers that it arose through a process — it reveals a history. They're wonderful exercises for this. At lunch one can say for example: ‘The salt is now Mr. Salt. How does he look, this is Mr. Salt?’ One can approach the creative elements of imagination in this way.” 

--Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker

What He Said. (About Animism, Occultism & Housekeeping, Part 2)

More of what he said:

“How can the community within the home approach this elemental world?" 

"A beginning is made when someone makes it his task to take every object into his hand in as attentive away as possible and use it as if it were a living being. This is a long process. Mankind has become accustomed to viewing objects in a rational and functional way, which also influences how things are treated. This doesn't mean that one should become sentimental or sacrifice clarity. One can hit a nail with a hammer exactly and carefully and still express loving interest.”

--Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker

What. He. Said.

What He Said. (About Animism, Occultism & Housekeeping, Part 1)

"...(you/I/we) can't know..." The old adage of the Not-So-Little-Anymore Lad shot through my mind as I lifted this book from the shelf with more than a little bit of suspicion. But you must engage to know...

“The etheric world does not consist of solid, measurable, graspable aspects, but rather of processes, movement and interpenetration. It is thus not a world of things but of living beings. If one enters it one becomes aware that it is only in the physical world that things appear lifeless. For wherever material is handled, there are processes. Rudolf Steiner gave an often cited example: to the homemaker who complained to him that her household responsibilities gave her no time to read his lecture cycles he answered gravely, ‘When you clean your living room, you release elemental beings. When you read a lecture cycle, you release no elemental beings.’ This means that cleaning has an influence. Everywhere dirt gathers elemental beings are held fast. For them the moist cloth means release. This is practical occultism.”   

--Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker