I'm reading a book of lectures by Steiner on his Waldorf schooling system. The lecture was given to a group of Anthroposophists, who were already familiar with his nomenclature. I am not clear on the difference between "soul" and "spirit", but I have some clues from how he talks about the ages of a child.
In his view, the education of roughly the first 7 years-- until the teeth change-- should be primarily an education of the body, letting the child explore what the like in a primarily sensory way. The second 7 years-- until puberty-- the focus should shift to feeding the soul, with "soul milk"-- exploration in artistic creativity, fairy tales, and legends, where all objects and facts are endowed with feelings and and the like. From puberty until 21, the shift would be to feeding the spirit, and "spirit milk". I haven't read far enough to know in depth what this entails, other than that this is where intellectual pursuits finally come into the fore.
[Shock quote: "Reading and writing as we have them today are really not suited to the human being till a later age--the eleventh or twelfth year--and the more a child is blessed with not being able to read and write well before this age, the better it is for the later years of life. A child who cannot write properly at thirteen or fourteen (I can speak out of my own experience because I could not do it at that age) is not so hindered for later spiritual development as one who early, at seven or eight years, can already read and write perfectly."]
I'm still grappling with these ideas; even accepting his basic premise for human development, I'm not sure I'm entirely on board with his approach to it yet. But I'll certainly keep on reading. I want to know a lot more about how these ideas are meant to take form in real life practice.
For now, I am just looking to get the terminology straight. Do you think it's correct to read this body/soul/spirit breakdown as a version of the same system you have laid out in the past, of Physical and Etheric Bodies, Astral Body, and a Mental Sheath/Body? Would you say that's probably a useful equivalence to Steiner's Body/Soul/Spirit breakdown?
Steiner on Body, Soul, and Spirit
I'm reading a book of lectures by Steiner on his Waldorf schooling system. The lecture was given to a group of Anthroposophists, who were already familiar with his nomenclature. I am not clear on the difference between "soul" and "spirit", but I have some clues from how he talks about the ages of a child.
In his view, the education of roughly the first 7 years-- until the teeth change-- should be primarily an education of the body, letting the child explore what the like in a primarily sensory way. The second 7 years-- until puberty-- the focus should shift to feeding the soul, with "soul milk"-- exploration in artistic creativity, fairy tales, and legends, where all objects and facts are endowed with feelings and and the like. From puberty until 21, the shift would be to feeding the spirit, and "spirit milk". I haven't read far enough to know in depth what this entails, other than that this is where intellectual pursuits finally come into the fore.
[Shock quote: "Reading and writing as we have them today are really not suited to the human being till a later age--the eleventh or twelfth year--and the more a child is blessed with not being able to read and write well before this age, the better it is for the later years of life. A child who cannot write properly at thirteen or fourteen (I can speak out of my own experience because I could not do it at that age) is not so hindered for later spiritual development as one who early, at seven or eight years, can already read and write perfectly."]
I'm still grappling with these ideas; even accepting his basic premise for human development, I'm not sure I'm entirely on board with his approach to it yet. But I'll certainly keep on reading. I want to know a lot more about how these ideas are meant to take form in real life practice.
For now, I am just looking to get the terminology straight. Do you think it's correct to read this body/soul/spirit breakdown as a version of the same system you have laid out in the past, of Physical and Etheric Bodies, Astral Body, and a Mental Sheath/Body? Would you say that's probably a useful equivalence to Steiner's Body/Soul/Spirit breakdown?