The human
being as described has four bodies or sheath: the physical, the etheric, the
astral and the soul. The astral is the body of movement of which there are a
number of different movements. This short essay and the two that will follow will
describe and share a perspective on the three general type of movement that finds
their home in the astral body.
The first
type of movement is one that we are all very familiar with. It is generally
called: will. If we do a quick internet type research on the origin of the word
will, we find that it has meanings
that imply choice and also imply wish. Will, even as we understand it today,
continues to carry this in the background although some of us choose to ignore
that choice and wish may be connected to the meaning of will.
In the human
being, there are at least two types of will: conscious will (clearly if you
want to make a choice and you wish to achieve something) and unconscious will.
Unconscious will means will activities wherein we do not make a choice. The
digestion of our food, for example, is a type of will activity that we do not
choose or decide on what actually happens. I cannot, for example tell my
stomach to digest the apple first before the chicken both of which I ate. In
fact, if we were caught up in this willing, we would be unable to think of
anything else. Imagine a situation where we would have to will our muscles to
contract, then relax, then contract, then relax, just to walk! It is clearly in
our best interest, therefore, that some aspects of will better left unseen or
unnoticed.
On the
other hand, there are will activities, such as typing this blog, that require
conscious effort. The physical act of typing is not one of those. The willing
for which key on the keyboard to strike for example, or how to spell words
correctly and type them correctly is not something I do consciously. This will
activity is moved by the memory that lives in a way in my finders and my arms
that translate what I am thinking into this text. However, to create the
content of this blog, even before it appears in electronic form, required will
on my part. To build the argument, think it through, and imagine how I would
like to say it was deliberately willed on my part. I choose to write this blog with the wish to share with others, some of the thoughts that come to mind
having read various works of Rudolf Steiner. Unlike the actual typing activity,
the creation of this blog, consciously willed, required a very specific type of
movement. The movement may not have been visible outside of me but something
was “moving” within me.
When I play
a game, for example, there are movements that may be called schooled: memory
was developed and ingrained into my muscle mass so that my legs and arms would
know what to do. This frees me up to strategize what I am going to do during
the game. If I had to think about where to move and how to move during the
game, I would spend a greater deal of time on this then actually planning my
game.
Effectively,
for those will activities that flow from memory, even if I create the memory,
requires a close collaboration with the etheric body. As we know, the etheric
body has a very specific type of movement: it’s rhythmical. As a consequence,
repetitive activities that stream from memory arise in collaboration with the etheric.
On the other hand, will activities that arise from choices and hopes within me,
take on a different nature. It is ultimately this wish for a specific result,
in other words, this wish to create a future that differentiates conscious
wiling from unconscious willing.
Will is
about the activities in our lives. Some we are unconscious to; others, we do
consciously. The real challenge to us all is: are we doing the conscious ones consciously
and the unconscious ones unconsciously? Can we even tell the difference? To
succeed in telling the difference would me to understand the nature of will.
Sources: The Study of Man by Rudolf Steiner.
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