235
Engaging in the Goethean Method
of air, we reach the cognitional attitude corresponding to the air element. An inner readiness is thus
created for that which manifests in the world to reveal itself in us, as an image which discloses a being.
Bockemühl (1985: 26)
It is the human faculty of inspiration that now offers itself to the phenomenon. Through your stillness, the phenomenon can present its real self, and this is often felt as a particular gesture, a gesture that somehow speaks or presents that phenomenon. The insights that arrive in this third stage
can seem strange to your normal ways of thinking. It can be exciting or emotionally moving, and
because what arrives seems foreign to yourself, this enhances the sense that it is given to you. It
should feel like something received rather than made. These received indications can be captured
and explored in some form of artistic representation where gesture and meaning are brought out and
the inner mood is expressed.
You might fnd that this inspirational stage is best expressed in emotional language, which is
paradoxical as it is far from the normal, self-absorbed emotional subjectivity. Working artistically
with colour can also help to deepen the indications that arrive. What should be expressed is the
being of the phenomenon, something of its essential nature. Again, do not be concerned about any
lack of familiarity with, for example, writing poetically or painting, it is the process of attempting
that is important.
Stage one gave us the solid facts that anchored our imagination to the phenomenon and allowed
us, in stage two, to enter into the livingness of the phenomenon, which in turn gave us enough familiarity with it to see through to and express its inner/fundamental gesture. This gesture of the whole
can push us into the fourth stage of being-one-with the object (Goethe, 1995: 75).
Make sure you have captured any insights into the gesture of your phenomenon. This can be hard
to record in language or image, but try to get something down. The process of writing, painting,
moving or singing etc. is not just representation of the insight, it helps you to live into the insight
and to feel it more deeply.
STAGE FOUR: BEING ONE WITH THE OBJECT
The frst three stages of the Goethean method involve different activities and ways of thinking, and
these could be characterised as frst using perception to see the form; second, using imagination to
perceive its mutability and, third, inviting inspiration to reveal the gesture. The fourth stage uses
intuition to both combine and go beyond the previous stages. Here we experience the ‘what it is’ of
the phenomenon in its full power and potentiality. It is here that the phenomenon can be understood,
and it presents itself to the human being as an idea or even a theory. Thus, in the Goethean process,
we do not start with theory and overwrite the phenomenon with our own thinking, instead we place
our human thinking and theorising capacities at the service of the phenomenon.
In terms of the elements, the shift in consciousness we now need is fre. This fourth stage is
also the most physically abstract, having the least connection to the outer appearance of the phenomenon. However, that abstraction from the specifc allows the perception of what is essential to
the inner nature of the thing. Bockemühl calls this an experience of the ‘being’s beingness’. He
expresses the fre stage thus:
We are here at the limit of what can be called a mode of observation. The warmth enters us – our inner
activity itself becomes an organ. We do not experience the outer expression of a being, we become
aware of its inner impulse. At these moments of inner identity, all outer manifestations disappear. They
are ‘burned up’.
Bockemühl (1985: 30)
Fire or warmth is also suggestive of another feature of this stage: the connection to the inner impulse
of the thing comes about through our own inner impulse to act. At this point, we are prompted to
Engaging in the Goethean Method
of air, we reach the cognitional attitude corresponding to the air element. An inner readiness is thus
created for that which manifests in the world to reveal itself in us, as an image which discloses a being.
Bockemühl (1985: 26)
It is the human faculty of inspiration that now offers itself to the phenomenon. Through your stillness, the phenomenon can present its real self, and this is often felt as a particular gesture, a gesture that somehow speaks or presents that phenomenon. The insights that arrive in this third stage
can seem strange to your normal ways of thinking. It can be exciting or emotionally moving, and
because what arrives seems foreign to yourself, this enhances the sense that it is given to you. It
should feel like something received rather than made. These received indications can be captured
and explored in some form of artistic representation where gesture and meaning are brought out and
the inner mood is expressed.
You might fnd that this inspirational stage is best expressed in emotional language, which is
paradoxical as it is far from the normal, self-absorbed emotional subjectivity. Working artistically
with colour can also help to deepen the indications that arrive. What should be expressed is the
being of the phenomenon, something of its essential nature. Again, do not be concerned about any
lack of familiarity with, for example, writing poetically or painting, it is the process of attempting
that is important.
Stage one gave us the solid facts that anchored our imagination to the phenomenon and allowed
us, in stage two, to enter into the livingness of the phenomenon, which in turn gave us enough familiarity with it to see through to and express its inner/fundamental gesture. This gesture of the whole
can push us into the fourth stage of being-one-with the object (Goethe, 1995: 75).
Make sure you have captured any insights into the gesture of your phenomenon. This can be hard
to record in language or image, but try to get something down. The process of writing, painting,
moving or singing etc. is not just representation of the insight, it helps you to live into the insight
and to feel it more deeply.
STAGE FOUR: BEING ONE WITH THE OBJECT
The frst three stages of the Goethean method involve different activities and ways of thinking, and
these could be characterised as frst using perception to see the form; second, using imagination to
perceive its mutability and, third, inviting inspiration to reveal the gesture. The fourth stage uses
intuition to both combine and go beyond the previous stages. Here we experience the ‘what it is’ of
the phenomenon in its full power and potentiality. It is here that the phenomenon can be understood,
and it presents itself to the human being as an idea or even a theory. Thus, in the Goethean process,
we do not start with theory and overwrite the phenomenon with our own thinking, instead we place
our human thinking and theorising capacities at the service of the phenomenon.
In terms of the elements, the shift in consciousness we now need is fre. This fourth stage is
also the most physically abstract, having the least connection to the outer appearance of the phenomenon. However, that abstraction from the specifc allows the perception of what is essential to
the inner nature of the thing. Bockemühl calls this an experience of the ‘being’s beingness’. He
expresses the fre stage thus:
We are here at the limit of what can be called a mode of observation. The warmth enters us – our inner
activity itself becomes an organ. We do not experience the outer expression of a being, we become
aware of its inner impulse. At these moments of inner identity, all outer manifestations disappear. They
are ‘burned up’.
Bockemühl (1985: 30)
Fire or warmth is also suggestive of another feature of this stage: the connection to the inner impulse
of the thing comes about through our own inner impulse to act. At this point, we are prompted to