Love, Power and Wisdom
This article about the balance between power, wisdom, and love is especially relevant in this season and at this time in the world. While Steiner's terminology is fairly esoteric (he gives names to spiritual beings behind the impulses of love, power, and wisdom), the essential ideas illuminate how in this age we are given the task to find a path of love to overcome the tendency towards over-relying on either power or wisdom. We need both power and wisdom in our lives, but in their highest regard, they need to be tempered and guided by our capacity for love if we are to be in true service to the world and our fellow human beings. Enjoy.
| Notes on Rudolf Steiner's Lecture - Love and It's Meaning in the World
The older we grow, the more we begin to love the wisdom revealed by life. Love is the “moral” sun of the world. Life without love would be both dull and a danger for humanity. Without sense-born love, nothing material comes into the world; without spiritual love, nothing spiritual. Creative forces unfold through love. We owe our existence to deeds of love wrought in the past. As well as love there are two other powers in the world: might and wisdom. To these two, the concepts of magnitude and enhancement are applicable, but not to love. The all-embracing attribute of the spirit is not omnipotence, not omniscience, but love. Spirit is supreme love, not supreme might, not supreme wisdom. Wisdom and might unfold in the world, but love is a unique impulse developed by humanity. In our lives, we learn to accept and to understand love only when we begin to love out of ourselves. Real love cannot be understood by wisdom alone - one must experience it by acting from it. Without a lack of love, we cannot know what love is. As we grow and develop and seek self-understanding, real love becomes possible. The light of the sun that gives brightness to our days and gives substance and sustenance to the world can begin to be reflected back through our loving deeds. To read Steiner's lecture, go here. |
