TOWARD A ROSE CROSS MEDITATION PART IV – YOUR POWER TO ENLIGHTEN YOUR SOUL

TOWARD A ROSE CROSS MEDITATION – Part IV of IV

WHO AM I?

     Review the preparatory steps from previous posts.

“There is meaning in the fact that the symbolic picture has not simply been put forward as a picture that has in itself an awakening power, but that it was first build up by a sequence of thoughts concerning plant and man. . . . The pupil should however not be recalling the preparatory steps while engaged in the meditation, but have then merely the symbolic picture hovering before him in spirit, quick with life - letting only the feelings that were aroused by the preparatory chain of thought echo on within him. In this way does the symbolic picture come to be a sign, appropriate to and accompanying the inner experience.” – Rudolf Steiner

     A few additional points:           

     The cross, is crossing point from two directions, and is a symbol of order in nature, the cosmos and man. A cross has represented the compass, four parts of day, phases of the moon, seasons, kingdoms of nature, stages of life and cardinal points of the zodiac in ancient cultures around the world.

     Black as a color arises with the carbonization of plants. In Steiner’s color theory it is the most distant from the spiritual.

     Put all the preparation aside. Here is the meditation as Steiner offers it:

WHY AM I HERE?

      “Imagine you see before you a black cross. Let this black cross be for you a symbol for the baser elements that have been cast out of man's impulses and passions; and at the point where the beams of the cross meet, picture to yourself seven resplendent bright red roses arranged in a circle. Let these roses symbolize for you a blood that is the expression of passions and impulses that have undergone purification.
Some such symbolic thought-picture shall the pupil of spiritual training call up before his soul, and he can do this in the way as was explained above for a memory-picture.
Devoting himself to it in deep, inner contemplation, he will find that the picture has power to call his soul awake. He must try to erase for the time being everything else from his mind. The symbol in question, and that alone, should now hover before him in spirit, as livingly as ever possible.”  -- Rudolf Steiner

WHAT DO I WANT?

“The efficacy of the experience depends upon how long the pupil is able to continue in it. The longer he can do so, without allowing any other idea to disturb the meditation, the greater its value for him. It is, however, also good if, apart from time he devotes to the mediation as such, he will frequently build up the picture all over again, letting the thoughts and feelings rise up in him in the way we have described, that the mood of the experience may not pale. The more ready the pupil is patiently to continue renewing the picture in this way, the greater significance will it have for his soul.” – Rudolf Steiner

The above are from:

SOUTHERN CROSS REVIEW

http://southerncrossreview.org/29/rosecross.htm

Also on the subject:

ANTHROPOSOPHY FOR PRISONERS

https://www.anthroposophyforprisoners.org/inner-work/rose-cross-meditation/

© Copyright 2015, Jean W. Yeager

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https://goo.gl/AenxCR

TOWARD A ROSE CROSS MEDITATION PART III - PREPARING TO TRANSFORM OUR SELVES

TOWARD A ROSE CROSS MEDITATION PART III OF IV

     Preparation for meditation begins with these three simple questions – “Who Am I?” “Why Am I Here?” and What Do I Want?” Steiner urges us NOT to go ahead with the Rose Cross meditation unless we are really being truthful with ourselves. Do we want to change, or not?  Why be false with ourselves? If we are NOT really seeking to transform even a simple imperfection, come back to this later when we are ready. Self-deceit creates another imperfection.

     Clear?

     This is the preparation, the time to be honest. Don’t go into the meditation if you don’t want to do it. Read this section over until you are sure.

WHO AM I?

     Are you clear about the Three Simple Questions.

Step 1 – Visualize who you are as a human being compared to a plant. Visualize yourself next to the plant. Live with the visualization. Are you not way more complex, more “perfect” than the plant? The plant has roots and is attached to the ground. Has a stem. And leaves which sprout out of the stem and a blossom. And you? You are not chained to the ground. You have feelings and desires to move and then you turn your feelings into desires and then into actions – you move. What motivates you? Can anything motivate the plant to move?

Step 2 – The plant follows the pure laws of growth, follows the sun, and the seasons. In a way, the plant is chaste and pure – it lives its life without passion, anger, fear or desires. We have purchased our freedom by permitting passions and desires into ourselves. We can love and take noble actions or impure actions which sully our Human Spirit. We have choices and we have values and morals.

Step 3 – Visualize the green sap flowing in the plant. This is a passionless expression of the forces of growth. This is what plants do. Then visualize how the red blood flows through the human’s veins – through your veins. This is an expression of instincts, passions and desires.

     Who are you? Visualize yourself and the plant for a while.

WHY AM I HERE?

     The second phase – “Why are you and the symbolic plant here?”

     You are capable of free will. You choose why you are here. The human being is capable of evolution and change.  But, change requires that you, the human being, choose to change; to live at a higher, level requires we become purified, that we eliminate impurities in our action, feelings and thoughts.

     Impure feelings seem to arise on their own simply because we are free to have any and all sorts of feelings – as if to confirm we are free – an array of tempting feelings may arise. Like pride. Possible financial reward.

     Some feelings are familiar and we may have sought or struggled, to control them, and we may have eliminated these same impurities in our lives previously. They are part of our free life like the green sap is part of the plant life.

     The Rose plant transforms the green sap, its version of our  free feelings (which include impurities), into growth force which drive leaves and stem into the red of the Rose. The Rose becomes our symbol of transformation of feelings which may include impurities.

     Visualize the green sap transforming into the Red. The red is symbolic of the blood which carries our passions. You and the plant symbolically share the capacity for transformation.

WHAT DO I WANT?

     Phase three - we want the preparation to evoke in us deep feelings – “grave feelings” - as Steiner calls them.

     If the Rose can symbolically transform a chaste, pure, thorny past driven, by the natural forces of growth into a beautiful blossom of the Red Rose; is it not then possible for us to transform the impure or erroneous feelings in our free desires during such a symbolic meditation?

     Are we prepared to change?

We humans have freedom. We can evolve and overcome and eliminate some of our old, negative habits like harsh words or angry attitudes, or being too proud to acknowledge we are imperfect – or staying cold and distant. If we approach our transformations, no matter how small, with grave feelings of their importance, acknowledging they are what at once seems minor but has major implications for WHO WE ARE tomorrow; then, when we eliminate even the tiniest impurity we can feel “liberating joy” as Steiner says, that our red blood has become transformed into the bearer of inwardly purified experiences.

     Yes, this is possible for us!

     Visualize the green sap in the stem transforming into the Red Rose blossom.

     Before attempting the Rose Cross Meditation, we are asked to live deeply with these preparatory thoughts for some time. We are instructed to “confront” these thoughts because they are the architecture, the structure, of the meditation.

© Copyright 2015, Jean W. Yeager

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TOWARD A ROSE CROSS MEDITATION PART II - GODS ONCE SPOKE TO MAN – NOW SYMBOLS RESONATE IN US

TOWARD A ROSE CROSS MEDITATION PART II OF IV

WHO AM I?

I am a Rose Cross Meditation. I am based on symbols. My purpose is to take the imperfect elements, experiences, behaviors of your soul and your life, identify them, place them into my symbolic construct, and then transform them. My symbols are the architecture for change – an inner Temple within you.

     The Oracles of the Gods once spoke to man within the Temples of the ancient world. Then, man evolved, could understand and symbolize within. As man’s consciousness evolved, symbols – what were once were the words of the Gods - have remained as powerful triggers to release wisdom within you. They load icons with their power, give novels their depth and offer advertisers a short-hand symbology that make commercial messages powerful. (Aren’t you lucky!)  This is called resonance.

Meditations such as Rudolf Steiner’s (1861-1925) Rose Cross Meditation specifically use symbols because of their power to access and release, or transform what lies hidden within your souls.

WHY AM I HERE?

I am here to make messages live within you on the deepest levels – “in-sights”. Working deeply with symbols can lead you down a deeper path of thinking different from your daily thought patterns. But, you will have to work hard to not slip back into your daily, well-worn thought tunnels. If you can stay with the symbolic construct – the visualization -  and go deep, this may result in new feelings. (C’mon - if advertisers can use symbols in “resonance advertising” to successfully lead you to buy products, you should be able to use symbolic resonance to change your thinking and feelings.)

Here are a few symbols loaded with meanings:

Lion   Eagle   Red    Scarred
Seed   Blood   Black  Root
Scale  Gold    Green  Cross
Love   Hair    Flower Crown
Spirit  Leaf   Woman  Sun

The four major symbols in me, Steiner’s Rose Cross Meditation, are a plant – the Rose; a cross; the color black, the color green and the color red. He says we can build up our own meditations using other, self-selected symbols.

WHAT DO I WANT?

Be aware that the sequence in which the symbols appear in the meditation is as important as the specific symbols.

I hope that this pre-contemplation helps you understand the symbols, the construct and the sequence so that you feel prepared for the immersion into the symbolic visualization.

     Together we’ll just take this objectively, one step at a time, and we will build this up. So, in this instance, the separate, shorter blog posts may be helpful for isolating each step in what is otherwise may seem complex process.

© Copyright 2015, Jean W. Yeager

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TOWARD A ROSE CROSS MEDITATION PART I - VISUALIZING WHAT CAN’T BE VISUALIZED

TOWARD THE ROSE CROSS MEDITATION – PART I of IV

WHO AM I?

     In everyday consciousness we mentally “picture” or visualize many things. When you sew a pattern, and you are buying fabric, you mentally picture the pattern, and the cloth, and imagine how the garment will look when you are done.  Or, if we are repairing a piece of equipment, you mentally “picture” what you are doing before you disassemble, replace parts or assemble.

     Everyday visualizing opens the soul to quite definite thoughts and intentions. Like standing at the plate during softball – you watch the pitcher, visualize the pitch and how you may swing.

WHY AM I HERE?

     There are other thought activities – other KINDS of visualizations – which open the soul to a “higher order” of seeing. According to Rudolf Steiner (1871-1925) practicing visualization exercises like what is described here awakens certain “hidden faculties within the human soul.”

     One such exercise is called the Rose Cross Meditation.

     These exercises differ from everyday visualizing because they do not visualize what can be outwardly seen. And, they do not have an outward objective (such as hitting a pitch) but have an inner objective.

These exercises are about depicting something symbolic or emblematic. The objective is to free the soul from the physical. Because there is no outer link, trying exercises like these take some personal energy and commitment because, without the outer “purpose”, well, “what’s the point?” The point is allowing your soul to increase its energy and capacity inwardly because there is no outward object or process upon which to rest.

WHAT DO I WANT?

     Remember a tree.   Immerse your soul in the memory of the tree. This tree is a memory of an image you once had and the memory was created by sense perceptions of the outer world. Although this is based on what was once a genuine experience, your tree memory is no longer actually seen. You are visualizing a memory. This is a step toward being able to immerse your soul in something now not, perhaps not ever, connected with the outer world. Being able to immerse your soul with the symbolic or emblematic.

     Your tree memory is not a symbolic visualization, but we’re getting there. It is a way of freeing your soul from the physical. You’re visualizing what can’t be actually visualized, but you are allowing your soul to rest on the memory. By degrees you will move away from memory to higher level of visualization.

     Toward the Rose Cross Meditation.

 

© Copyright 2015, Jean W. Yeager

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