{"id":58908,"date":"2024-07-21T22:43:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T20:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=58908"},"modified":"2024-07-21T22:43:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T20:43:42","slug":"carbon-is-a-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/carbon-is-a-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon Is a God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s next in the \u201cfight\u201d against carbon dioxide? A change of thought.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We usually associate \u201cCO\u2082\u201d with the idea that a molecule of carbon dioxide consists of one atom of carbon (C) and two atoms of oxygen (O), whereupon the three little balls from the atom-and-molecule model of our schooldays hazily appear in our consciousness. But, originally, \u201cCO\u2082\u201d was nothing more than a quantitative ratio<\/em>: what we call carbon dioxide consists, when quantitatively analysed, of two parts oxygen and one part carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a Hypotheses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In an article titled \u201cWhat is a Particle?,\u201d New York-based science journalist Natalie Wolchover wrote: \u201cIt has been thought of as many things: a point-like object, an excitation of a field, a speck of pure math that has cut into reality. But never has physicists\u2019 conception of a particle changed more than it is changing now.\u00a0\u2026 \u2018We say they are \u201cfundamental,\u201d\u2019 said Xiao-Gang Wen, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. \u2018But that\u2019s just a [way to say] to students, \u201cDon\u2019t ask! I don\u2019t know the answer. It\u2019s fundamental; don\u2019t ask anymore.\u201d\u2019\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it\u2019s not a given that we should imagine the \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d of matter to be spheres. In fact, what they are exactly is still entirely open.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This clears the way for us to look at what we call carbon or carbon dioxide without relying on the concept of points or point-like objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualities of Matter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The elements of the periodic table are not atoms (in the form of the classical concept of points), but rather, they are qualities of material manifestation. They are different gestures through which the spiritual reveals itself in the earthly world and can be explored through the approach of spiritual science.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The specific gesture of a phenomenon is found by moving from the external sensory observation, through what Goethe called a \u201csensory-moral experience,\u201d into the inner soul-spiritual view. Following this approach in his Agriculture Course<\/em>, Rudolf Steiner characterised elements such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen as Beings, as divine entities. For example, in the latest edition of the German volume of lectures, it says: \u201cThis carbon, you see, is indeed [a god who has descended] in the modern age from a very aristocratic position to a very, very plebeian situation\u2014and many other beings in the world have subsequently followed this path.\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beings instead of Particles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These Beings (e.g., carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen) that are considered within the context of macrocosmic nature that is presented in the Agriculture Course<\/em>, when brought together, ultimately result in the human being. Rudolf Steiner explains this explicitly in his medical lectures: \u201cYou will see that just as the physical organisation is connected with carbon, the etheric organisation with oxygen, the astral organisation with nitrogen, so the \u2018I\u2019-organisation is connected with hydrogen.\u201d<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What appears in the world around us as hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon appears in human beings\u2014identical in regards to essence\u2014in the form of the members of our bodily organisation. Just as in nature, lime (from below upwards) and silica (from above downwards) join together, the human being is situated between forces of hardening (lime) and dissolving (silica). Steiner describes this middle position as follows (using carbon in plants as an example): \u201cDown below, the lime wants to seize [the plants] with tentacles, and up above, the silica wants to make them as fine and slender and fibrous as aquatic plants, but, in the middle, shaping our true plant forms, stands carbon, which orders it all.\u201d<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a lesson on December 17, 1911, about the so-called \u201ccognitive ritual work,\u201d Steiner describes the divine entities that make up our various bodies: the Spirits of Form (Exusiai) together with the Thrones form the physical body; the Spirits of Movement (Dynamis), together with the Cherubim, form the etheric body; and the Spirits of Wisdom (Kyriotetes), together with the Seraphim, form the astral body.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Greenhouse Gas to God<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, by way of this very condensed consideration, we have reached an understanding of \u201ccarbon\u201d as the interaction of the divine entities of the Exusiai and the Thrones. In carbon dioxide, the hierarchical beings of the Exusiai and the Thrones (physical body or carbon) enter into a connection with the Dynamis and the Cherubim (etheric body or oxygen). And this occurs in such a way that a quantitative measurement carried out by human beings on carbon dioxide results in a quantitative ratio of 1 to 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, our view has turned from a microscopic conception of points to a macroscopic conception of divine being. Steiner\u2019s consideration of carbon in connection with other \u201celements\u201d points to the task of agriculture: to cultivate the planetary spirit in its earthly membering into the physical (carbon), etheric (oxygen), soulish (nitrogen), and spirit-\u2018I\u2019-ness (hydrogen), in a healthy way corresponding to the Turning Point of Time. In other words, the task of agriculture is to build a macrocosmic human being in the free play between lime and silica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This also points in the right direction for dealing with what we are now inclined to dismiss, in our \u201cplebian\u201d way, as a greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide). \u201cCO\u2082\u201d is not an atom composed of little balls. It is a working of divine entities that are dedicated to the task of shaping the earthly world. Our task is to enter into a cooperative relationship with them, one that corresponds with the evolution of the world. We should not fight them as a greenhouse gas, burdened with an atomic misconception, and neither should we continue to cause them suffering out of the self-interest and ignorance of an unbridled consumer society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman
Photo <\/strong>Martina Stokow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s next in the \u201cfight\u201d against carbon dioxide? A change of thought. We usually associate \u201cCO\u2082\u201d with the idea that a molecule of carbon dioxide consists of one atom of carbon (C) and two atoms of oxygen (O), whereupon the three little balls from the atom-and-molecule model of our schooldays hazily appear in our consciousness. But, originally, \u201cCO\u2082\u201d was nothing more than a quantitative ratio: what we call carbon dioxide consists, when quantitatively analysed, of two parts oxygen and one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9211,"featured_media":57860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8825,8823],"tags":[11530,11506,8824],"class_list":["post-58908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-sciences","category-reflection","tag-english-issue-29-30-2024","tag-ausgabe-19-2024-en","tag-spotlights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}