{"id":67749,"date":"2025-09-17T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=67749"},"modified":"2025-09-15T20:49:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:49:36","slug":"light-is-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/light-is-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Light Is Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the Goetheanum Weekly 2\/2025<\/a>, Martin Rozumek and Hans-Christian Zehnter developed their view of how sensory phenomena invite us to read them as a Book of Nature. The central question was: What is \u201cmatter\u201d from a spiritual scientific perspective? Now, they turn their attention to light and develop guidelines for observing it in accordance with its nature.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We love light: sunshine, beautiful weather. The rising of the light, whether in the morning or in spring, fills us with gratitude and joy. We need light to read in the dark and to lift our spirits in difficult times. Light is essential to life. Without the miracle that the plant world performs, creating bodily form out of air and light, we could not exist. The history of the visual arts sings a song to light: Rembrandt, the Impressionists, William Turner, \u00d3lafur El\u00edasson, and James Turrell. Quantum physics, which so strongly influences our current conceptions of matter, began one hundred years ago with the aim of identifying the building blocks of matter by focusing research on light. During this same time, Rudolf Steiner wrote in his autobiography, \u201cI said to myself, light is not perceived by the senses at all; \u2018colors\u2019 are perceived through light, which manifests itself all around in the perception of color, but is not itself perceived with the senses. \u2018White\u2019 light is not light but is already a color. Thus, light became an actual being for me in the sensory world, but one that is itself suprasensory.\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In other words, when we experience light, we don\u2019t perceive it with our senses: light is a being that is present in the sensory world, but is itself suprasensory.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u201cLight\u201d is therefore one of the most significant and mysterious experiences we are privileged to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting Points<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How are we to fathom this great riddle? In the preface to his Theory of Colors<\/em>, Goethe asks, \u201cWhen speaking of colors, should we not first and foremost mention light?\u201d He then answers his own question: \u201cso much has been said in the past about light, and in such varied forms, that it would seem ill-advised to reiterate these statements or duplicate what has often been done before. In reality, any attempt to express the inner nature of a thing is fruitless. What we perceive are effects, and a complete record of these effects ought to encompass this inner nature.\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Goethe did not comment directly on what light itself is. Instead, he took a phenomenological approach based on color in order to arrive at a characterization of light that exhibits itself across the whole of color phenomena. Our attempt follows this approach. But we don\u2019t use colors as our guiding principle. Instead, we focus on the phenomenon of coming-into-appearance. This ties in with the starting points of a spiritual approach to the world, which we elaborated in our earlier essay in the Goetheanum Weekly<\/em>:<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Earthly reality is maya<\/em>, but one that is worth giving our attention to as a readable book. This includes two foundational ideas: sensory appearances are not underpinned by atomistic conceptions, and the inner life of humanity expresses the inner life of nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Thus, earthly reality takes place within human beings. Our \u2018I\u2019 is the place where the world unfolds, where consciousness and self-knowledge can arise. \u201cOut there\u201d appears to us as a material world, the content of which can reveal itself within us as a co-existence of spiritual beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. To complete the reversal of perspective, the physical world as a sensory phenomenon is the outermost emanation of a \u201cworld innerspace,\u201d or, in classical anthroposophical terms, a spiritual world. This world innerspace consists exclusively of spiritual beings.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Our earthly reality is an image of this spiritual inner world. Everything that appears sensory has its origin (its home) in this world innerspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light in the World Innerspace<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Just as only a fraction of our individual inner world of spirit and soul comes up to the surface, so too with the world innerspace: only a fraction of this spiritual world innerspace is perceptible to the senses, and this fraction is the physical aspect of the world. \u201cPerceptible to the senses\u201d means that something can be perceived by at least one of our twelve senses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further part of the world innerspace enters earthly reality but is not perceptible to the senses; it is present and effective here, but not graspable by the senses. This is the etheric aspect of the world. Finally, some things remain soul and spirit in the innerspace of the world, i.e., the astral aspect of the world, and are therefore neither perceptible to the senses nor directly present and effective in the sensory realm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light was also originally an astral being. A translation of Genesis 1:1\u20135 by Rudolf Steiner reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the primal beginning, the gods condensed the etheric and the astral. And the etheric was unordered; it was dark (for the light was only in the astral), and above the etheric was the divine spirit. And the astral revealed itself in the etheric as light, and those who could not come to the light came to the astral. The spirits of light made the day; the spirits of darkness, the night. Upper [and] lower beings separated themselves in the etheric.\u201d<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we are accustomed to calling light, therefore, has its origin in the spiritual (astral) world and not in a non-spiritual, point-like conception of matter or quanta. But how can we gain access to this true essence and being of light in the spiritual world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light of Thought<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One approach to this question arises when Steiner equates the inner experience of light with our thoughts. For example, in a note referring to his lectures that Marie Steiner wrote, \u201cLight experienced inwardly is thought, representation [Vorstellung<\/em>].\u201d<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Or in a lecture on December 5, 1920, he says, \u201cThe same experience that human beings have through the sensory perception of light in the outer world, they have in relation to the thought element of the head for the imagination. So that one can say: the thought element, beheld objectively, is beheld as light, or rather, experienced as light. As thinking human beings, we live in the light.\u201d<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
M. W. Turner, The Evening of the Deluge<\/em>, c. 1843, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Light of Consciousness<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although mostly overlooked because it is so obvious, the first thing we encounter is \u201clight\u201d\u2014in the form of our waking consciousness. Our waking consciousness is borne by light.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Light makes it possible for the awake human being to perceive the world with their senses, and vice versa: the visibility of the world awakens human beings. What is revealed in this process is a spiritual world that uses sensory phenomena to make itself known; a world that we would otherwise sleep through. The awake, earthly human being is presented with a sensory image of a world that is imbued with light or spirit or even thought, a world that is to be understood spiritually and is not comprised of matter or objects. Light is a sensorial insight into the spiritual innerspace that would otherwise remain dark to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience that we refer to as \u201clight\u201d in the earthly realm is thus linked with the fact of something becoming visible. Goethe wrote at the beginning of his Theory of Colors<\/em>, \u201cNone will dispute a direct relationship between light and the eye, but it is more difficult to think of the two as being simultaneously one and the same.\u201d<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rudolf Steiner points out in a notebook entry, \u201cThe eye is light in its self-perception; behind our seeing there is no further essence of light; light, as it appears to us, is the light in its entire essence.\u201d<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When, in the morning, the colors and shapes emerge from the night, the world becomes visible, just as when we return home late and flip the light switch. The experience of light means that something else (something that I am not, initially) enters into the sensory experience and (only) then becomes conscious to me. Light thus allows something else to appear to us and makes itself noticeable within us as a brightening of our consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In accordance with its inner astral origin, we experience light as an illumination of consciousness, as an awakening.<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This (inner) experience of light is to be regarded as the primary experience. The everyday experience of \u201cseeing\u201d and the associated \u201cbelieving to be true\u201d of an objective world of things is to be classified as secondary in relation to the phenomenon of \u201clight.\u201d This secondary experience only came about with the seduction by Lucifer (the opening of the senses through seduction in Paradise)<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and thus is not true and primary. What is primary and true is the inner, consciousness-illuminating experience of light. Light is thus not something that illuminates a world of things-in-themselves (irradiating it like a shower), but rather something that awakens my consciousness to a concrete spiritual world that belongs to me and appears to me in sensory experience. Sensory experiences, for example, in daylight, are an expression of this luminous illumination of consciousness (and not the converse).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project<\/em>, 2003, installation, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom, CC by 3.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

My Light and the Light of the World<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This illumination of consciousness has two paths: one from within, one from without\u2014just as there is a spark of life within the seed in autumn that eventually opens up and joins the life coming from without in spring. Similarly, we humans possess an inner light: I can remain conscious even in complete darkness.<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Beyond this inner light, there is the \u201cworld light\u201d of the sun, coming from outside, which illuminates the otherwise dark, not-conscious world, and to which I can connect with my inner spark of light. In other words, I turn my consciousness, my attention, to the world that appears to me. The world light, which is itself invisible, makes itself known in three ways: as the sensory appearance of the world, as shining brilliance (reflection), and as a blinding glare.<\/span>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of these is associated with a particular quality of consciousness. The appearance of the world allows me and the world to enter into a free and awake relationship with one another (it is day). When we see a shiny reflection or brilliance, we see the effects of a connection with the light source.<\/span>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span> With the brilliance, that which appears and I, the observer and awakened one, are brought into a higher state of consciousness. What appears shines out beyond itself; indeed, it appears \u201ctransfigured\u201d or \u201cglorified\u201d (the green of a leaf appears white, and a shiny, white spot on the green appears as a highlight). I, too, am then transfigured as the observer, lifted beyond everyday waking consciousness into a suprasensory experience: green and white are sensory, but the light (its brilliance) is suprasensory. Thirdly, when blinded by a glare, the overpowering, superior quality of light becomes all too clear. My consciousness is not (yet) able to withstand this superior power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etheric Appearance of Light<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The ability to be present and absent in the here and now belongs to this power of light. By showing itself to us as absent and present, light tells us about its otherworldliness or its presence here and now. The invisible light is present when the candle is burning (it is here); it is absent when the candle is extinguished (the light is then beyond, \u201cin the otherworld\u201d). It is absent on the Earth at night and present on the Earth during the day. Its presence on the Earth diminishes in autumn and winter, and the light shines out again in spring and summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call this property of light \u201cetheric\u201d; it is suprasensory (a being of a non-sensory nature) that can still be effective in the sensory world but is not itself perceptible through our senses. Its realm is not of this world,<\/span>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and yet it is effective, present, and active here, which brings us back to the quote from Rudolf Steiner\u2019s autobiography mentioned at the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soul and Spirit Manifestation of Light<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Light is originally an illumination of consciousness. So far, we\u2019ve considered this illumination in terms of the etheric effectivity of light in the sensory world. In addition to this etheric manifestation of light, there is also a soul and a spiritual manifestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Rembrandt paints a reflection of light on a golden helmet, or when we see a candle flame glowing in a painting by Gerhard Richter, these are (thoroughly convincing) soul experiences of light, but they do not enter sensory reality in an etheric way\u2014they remain within us. Neither the reflection from the painted golden helmet nor the painted candle flame illuminates my outstretched hand. However, this is very much the case with the etheric light of a candle flame or the shine of a metal surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we can have an experience of spiritual light, for example, in meditation, when our inner world becomes bright, while everything in the sensory world around us remains unchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Rembrandt, Der Mann mit dem Goldhelm<\/em> [The man with the golden helmet], 1650\/1655, oil on canvas, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In contrast to these two \u201cinner\u201d encounters with light, the encounter with the etheric light that is active (though invisible) in the sensory world can be described as \u201cexternal.\u201d We refer to these external experiences of light as \u201cearthly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light is a suprasensory being that cannot itself be perceived by the senses. It announces its presence in the etheric, soul, and spiritual realm, but is always the same light. So, there is only \u201cone\u201d light that manifests itself in a variety of ways and seeks out different \u201cplaces\u201d for its work (in me or in the world, in the sensory or in the soul and spirit). So, there isn\u2019t really an external light and an inner light, but only \u201cone\u201d light that approaches us in different ways, from different directions. Neither is there any such thing as \u201cphysical\u201d light. Light always remains supraphysical, that is, above or beyond the senses. \u201cThus, light became an actual being for me in the sensory world, but one that is itself suprasensory.\u201d<\/span>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sensory and Suprasensory Aspects of Experiencing Light<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sight is inextricably bound to the earthly experience of light. Seeing is initially pure sensory perception (light and dark, colors) and the experience of form and shape. This includes both the conscious experience of pure perception and the \u201cintervention\u201d of astral form and shaping forces within this pure perception. \u201cWisdom lives in the light.\u201d<\/span>19<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Without this wisdom in the light, pure visual perception (without form or shape) appears to us as brightness and color, and at the same time as a riddle. When the intervention of form or formative forces is added to pure sensory perception, our perception is clarified into a visual cognition; it becomes light. Classic experiences of this kind are conveyed by picture puzzles, where first only black and white spots are seen, but soon take on visible meaning through the gradual intervention or sudden illumination of formative forces. Just as the wisdom-filled light \u201clights up\u201d in the encounter with the pure sensory perception, bringing it to reality and cognition, so the invisible light of a candle flame \u201clights up\u201d in the encounter with something that we can capture as a dark material (soot) by holding a piece of white chalk in the flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the emergence of light, earthly reality arises,<\/span>20<\/sup><\/a><\/span> as expressed in the following three statements by Rudolf Steiner:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is within the human being is ideal appearance; what is in the perceptible world is sensory appearance; the cognitive interworking of both in one another is the real reality.\u201d<\/span>21<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerception is\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. not something finished or complete, but rather one side of total reality. The other side is the concept. The act of cognition is the synthesis of perception and concept. But it is the perception and concept of a thing that together constitute the whole thing.\u201d<\/span>22<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the depths of the world \/ The mysterious, rich abundance of matter \/ Imposes itself on the human senses. \/ From the heights of the world \/ The content-rich, clarifying Word of the spirit \/ Streams into the ground of the soul. \/ They meet in the inner being of the human being\/ to form a wisdom-filled reality.\u201d<\/span>23<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the astral forming or shaping forces that illuminate sensory perception, the spirit or essence of reality (emerging from the world innerspace) is simultaneously given as the content of thought, as its light; this brings the essence with which we are relating into sensory appearance. The being becomes the sensory image of itself; it shines forth in the sensory realm. As we developed in our earlier article, we are dealing with revelations of spiritual beings both in the sensory (pure perception; \u201cthe rich abundance of matter\u201d) and in the suprasensory (form or shape; \u201cclarifying Word of the spirit\u201d). The latter appears in a spirit-like manner, the former in a veiled manner.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Picture puzzle (Giraffe), from Henri Bortoft, The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe\u2019s Way Toward a Science of Conscious Participation in Nature<\/em> (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1996), p. 50.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Free of Conception<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is only possible to grasp the spirit on its own when one is free from pre-conceptions; this means that any auxiliary concept (e.g., force, energy, or the like) that still wants to connect itself to earthly standards distracts us from the actual essence of the spirit. Steiner repeatedly draws attention to this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the suprasensory world, humans want \u201cto perceive forms\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. if not in coarse matter, then at least forms that appear to them in a kind of veil of light; they believe that they must hear sounds similar to those of the physical world.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Now, this should not really need to be said, because the beings of the suprasensible worlds are, after all, above all that is sensory; they do not present themselves in their true form, in sensory characteristics, because sensory characteristics presuppose the eye, the ear, the sensory organs in general. In the higher worlds, however, perception does not take place with the sensory organs, but rather with the soul organs\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. And the misunderstanding that so often arises is that what the higher soul forces depict, and what one is able to describe in words, is sensorialized, whereby it is taken for the being and essence of the thing. That is not the being or essence of the thing, but rather through this, the essence and being of the thing must first be intuited and more and more beheld.\u201d<\/span>24<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One is dealing with Creators, with Willers, Feelers, and Thinkers, to which the concept \u201cbeings\u201d is applied. Light consists of creative beings, both in terms of their senses (or material aspects) and their form, in the speech of Rudolf Steiner\u2019s translation of Genesis quoted at the beginning, \u201cupper and lower beings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
James Turrell, Space That Sees<\/em>, 1992, installation, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, CC by 3.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Light is Weaving Being<\/span>25<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The earthly experience of light is thus an etheric testimony to the spirit beings bearing the world innerspace in and with our consciousness. In the illumination of our consciousness, we participate spiritually and soulfully in the world innerspace borne by spirit beings. \u201cLight\u201d is thus a far more comprehensive world of beings than the conceptions of a spotlight-like outpouring of light or quantum-like emanations of a materialistically conceived matter. In view of sensory, soul, and spiritual experiences of light, it\u2019s important to lift the presence and activity of light or world innerspace beings into our experiential awareness in order to bring forth a concrete and being-filled experience of light and thereby begin to do justice to the being of light, to experience it according to its own nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 8, 1911, at the Philosophers\u2019 Congress in Bologna, Steiner explained that the \u2018I\u2019 should not be conceived of as within the bodily organization, but rather that the \u2018I\u2019 is \u201cin the lawfulness of things themselves,\u201d and that we ought to see \u201cthe bodily organization [as] something like a mirror that reflects, through its organic activity, what lies outside the body in the transcendent [or the true world being].\u201d<\/span>26<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Exactly twelve years later, on April 8, 1923, Steiner gave lectures in Dornach on the mysteries of the cycle of the year. There, he describes how the people of ancient times tried to draw the divine self into their midst for a few moments through song and dance. \u201cBack then, there was a verse for midsummer: \u2018Receive the light.\u2019 The light was used to describe the spiritual wisdom: that within which one\u2019s own human \u2018I\u2019 shone.\u201d<\/span>27<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this respect, light is a witness to the presence of the spiritual world, of the world innerspace in earthly existence or in the seeing of human beings.<\/span>28<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Light is the seeing of the gods or God in our seeing. This is the content of what permeates our soul when we experience light, and for which we must awaken. Aurelius Augustinus wrote that God sees created things differently than humans do. \u201cThat is why we see the things you have made, because they are; but they are there because you see them.\u201d<\/span>29<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Previous article<\/strong> Martin Rozumek and Hans-Christian Zehnter, \u201cMatter Isn\u2019t Made of Matter,\u201d<\/a> Goetheanum Weekly<\/em> (Feb. 26, 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In the Goetheanum Weekly 2\/2025, Martin Rozumek and Hans-Christian Zehnter developed their view of how sensory phenomena invite us to read them as a Book of Nature. The central question was: What is \u201cmatter\u201d from a spiritual scientific perspective? Now, they turn their attention to light and develop guidelines for observing it in accordance with its nature. We love light: sunshine, beautiful weather. The rising of the light, whether in the morning or in spring, fills us with gratitude and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21415,"featured_media":67561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8825,8789],"tags":[11695,8798,11697],"class_list":["post-67749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-sciences","category-research","tag-ausgabe-36-2025-en","tag-deepening","tag-english-issue-38-2025"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67749","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\/21415"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}