Sacrament, Cultus & the Priesthood

Glossary Collection · 8 Terms

The renewed sacramental life: the Act of Consecration of Man, the seven sacraments, the cultus and the work of the priest in The Christian Community. Part of Thalira's Anthroposophical Glossary of 833 terms, and companion to the in-depth guide Anthroposophy.

Mediaeval Alchemy

For Steiner, real alchemy was the last living conversation with the Nature Spirits, a Mystery knowledge of nature that died as the Cosmic Intelligences withdrew.

Metallity

Steiner's term for the inwardly felt quality of a metal, which vitalizes the soul and induces a specific, lawful condition of consciousness.

Planetary Forces and the Metals

Steiner's teaching that each planet's forces fill the whole solar system, let the soul take hold of the body, and live again in the seven healing metals.

Salt, Mercury, Sulphur

Three alchemical soul-processes Steiner recovered from Jacob Boehme: salt as thinking, sulphur as willing, mercury as the feeling that mediates between them.

The Antimony Process

Steiner's name for how antimony, through its sulphur affinity and ether-ward striving, works inside the body exactly as the ego-organization does.

The Lime Process

Steiner's name for the chalk-forming, de-animalizing force of the earth, whose arrested counterpart works in us as the polar partner of silica in shaping the head.

The Secret of the Metals

Steiner's teaching that the seven metals are the Earth's memories of its planets, lead recalling Saturn, gold the Sun, silver the Moon.

The Silica Process

A universe-wide formative activity, come to rest in siliceous earth, that shapes the human head and sense life and supports the ego in the limbs.