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Engaging in the Goethean Method
STAGE TWO: EXACT SENSORIAL IMAGINATION
With the previous stage, you were attempting to capture what the phenomenon is presenting to
you right there in the present. The activity was about being exact about what you see, hear, feel or
smell etc. but the entity you are studying cannot really be captured in a frozen present. It exists as
a process, and so to get to what it really is, you are going to have to live into that process yourself
so that you can begin to accompany it in its being. We do this by using the human faculty of imagination, but not imagination as we often think of it in the human realm as distanced from reality.
Imaginative activity in Goethe’s sense is called by him ‘exact sensorial imagination’ (Bockemühl,
1985) and it builds on the rigour of the previous stage, but now it is set in motion. The aim of this
activity is to perceive the phenomenon as a dynamic entity. Just as the previous stage required a certain policing of one’s usual ways of thinking, our imaginations also need some schooling to allow
us to stick with the phenomenon, not as we have come to know it as an entity frozen in time, but as
a being in process. Working with a plant often draws us into this mode (observing growing, wilting,
etc.), so you may have already ventured into it and had to hold back.
There is something dreamlike about this stage. However, because we have already lain aside
our theories, our presuppositions and undergone a rigorous working in exact sense perception, our
dreams are in the style of the phenomenon and not drawn from our own personal fancies. These experiences need to remain dreamlike, because any fxing of them will put us back into the frst stage.
One of the easiest ways into experiencing this type of imagination, and seeing how it could lead
to understanding something about a phenomenon, is through Goethe’s work on the metamorphosis
of plants. It is here that we can see his use of exact sensorial imagination as a kind of shift in consciousness that now connects with the phenomenon in a new, but nevertheless still rigorous, way.
The most immediate easy experience of moving a plant imaginatively is through observing with
plants at different stages of growth. For example, you could be studying a particular wild carrot
(Daucus corota) but around it are others at earlier and later stages of growth or fowering or fading.
Thus, you can imaginatively take your wild carrot backwards or forward in time using these others
as indications of your plant’s process. It is also possible to enter into the plant as a process in a freer
way through what Goethe called its discontinuous metamorphosis. Many plants produce a sequence
of different leaves, often beginning with a simple shape, becoming more differentiated and then
contracting to a more pointed form and eventually there is a transition to the fower parts (Holdridge
2013:76). To school our imagination, we could imaginatively move through this sequence, as if
from the inside of our plant. We could even imaginatively produce leaf forms that could appear
in between those that are evident in the plant. This helps you to experience the plant as a dynamic
process of metamorphosis as opposed to recording only its visual form. (If your chosen plant does
not show any obvious aspect of this metamorphosis, you could practice with one that does, such
as mustard, buttercup or groundsel, to get a feel for these changes before returning to your plant.)
Jochen Bockemühl, whose work makes extensive use of leaf sequences, explains the process and
shows just how different this kind of watery perception is from the earthy style exact sense perception of stage one.
With the mode of observation corresponding to the watery element, it becomes possible to go beyond
the single elements of form and reach a realm not directly accessible to sense perception; here the
sequence of forms appears as formative movement, and the formative forces can be experienced. If
something is observed as an object, it is always seen from the outside, it is seen separately and seemingly from all sides at once. There, one’s own standpoint is unimportant. The object exists without me.
If, however, one begins to become aware of the formative forces in the way described, one’s own inner
activity (intentionality) and one’s own position within the whole becomes signifcant.
Bockemühl (1985: 21)
With any living entity, it is easy to move into this second stage because the phenomenon simply seems to require it. We cannot capture the livingness of a plant if we stick with exact sense
Engaging in the Goethean Method
STAGE TWO: EXACT SENSORIAL IMAGINATION
With the previous stage, you were attempting to capture what the phenomenon is presenting to
you right there in the present. The activity was about being exact about what you see, hear, feel or
smell etc. but the entity you are studying cannot really be captured in a frozen present. It exists as
a process, and so to get to what it really is, you are going to have to live into that process yourself
so that you can begin to accompany it in its being. We do this by using the human faculty of imagination, but not imagination as we often think of it in the human realm as distanced from reality.
Imaginative activity in Goethe’s sense is called by him ‘exact sensorial imagination’ (Bockemühl,
1985) and it builds on the rigour of the previous stage, but now it is set in motion. The aim of this
activity is to perceive the phenomenon as a dynamic entity. Just as the previous stage required a certain policing of one’s usual ways of thinking, our imaginations also need some schooling to allow
us to stick with the phenomenon, not as we have come to know it as an entity frozen in time, but as
a being in process. Working with a plant often draws us into this mode (observing growing, wilting,
etc.), so you may have already ventured into it and had to hold back.
There is something dreamlike about this stage. However, because we have already lain aside
our theories, our presuppositions and undergone a rigorous working in exact sense perception, our
dreams are in the style of the phenomenon and not drawn from our own personal fancies. These experiences need to remain dreamlike, because any fxing of them will put us back into the frst stage.
One of the easiest ways into experiencing this type of imagination, and seeing how it could lead
to understanding something about a phenomenon, is through Goethe’s work on the metamorphosis
of plants. It is here that we can see his use of exact sensorial imagination as a kind of shift in consciousness that now connects with the phenomenon in a new, but nevertheless still rigorous, way.
The most immediate easy experience of moving a plant imaginatively is through observing with
plants at different stages of growth. For example, you could be studying a particular wild carrot
(Daucus corota) but around it are others at earlier and later stages of growth or fowering or fading.
Thus, you can imaginatively take your wild carrot backwards or forward in time using these others
as indications of your plant’s process. It is also possible to enter into the plant as a process in a freer
way through what Goethe called its discontinuous metamorphosis. Many plants produce a sequence
of different leaves, often beginning with a simple shape, becoming more differentiated and then
contracting to a more pointed form and eventually there is a transition to the fower parts (Holdridge
2013:76). To school our imagination, we could imaginatively move through this sequence, as if
from the inside of our plant. We could even imaginatively produce leaf forms that could appear
in between those that are evident in the plant. This helps you to experience the plant as a dynamic
process of metamorphosis as opposed to recording only its visual form. (If your chosen plant does
not show any obvious aspect of this metamorphosis, you could practice with one that does, such
as mustard, buttercup or groundsel, to get a feel for these changes before returning to your plant.)
Jochen Bockemühl, whose work makes extensive use of leaf sequences, explains the process and
shows just how different this kind of watery perception is from the earthy style exact sense perception of stage one.
With the mode of observation corresponding to the watery element, it becomes possible to go beyond
the single elements of form and reach a realm not directly accessible to sense perception; here the
sequence of forms appears as formative movement, and the formative forces can be experienced. If
something is observed as an object, it is always seen from the outside, it is seen separately and seemingly from all sides at once. There, one’s own standpoint is unimportant. The object exists without me.
If, however, one begins to become aware of the formative forces in the way described, one’s own inner
activity (intentionality) and one’s own position within the whole becomes signifcant.
Bockemühl (1985: 21)
With any living entity, it is easy to move into this second stage because the phenomenon simply seems to require it. We cannot capture the livingness of a plant if we stick with exact sense