Waldorf News

The Stars Once Spoke to the Human Being

By David Tresemer, Ph.D.

How beautiful are these words! The “once” reminds us of “once upon a time.” That puts us into mythic time, which happened then and is happening now—it flows always. The twinkling stars once spoke to my grandmother, to my mother, and now to me. I can listen at any time. The stars are always there, comforting, embracing. Thus begins a verse from Rudolf Steiner.

The verse continues “…they are silent now”—ouch! Why? “It is world destiny that they are silent now.” That’s the focus of this article, for parents and Waldorf teachers who care about children – what that star silence means for human beings growing up in the “now,” and what it means for caretakers.

Here’s the first verse in its entirety: “The stars once spoke to the human being. It is world destiny that they are silent now. To be aware of this silence can become pain for the earthly human being.” Steiner used “Mensch,” translated to English as “Man,” which comes from Sanskrit “manas,” the thinking and imagining upright human being. Sometimes I say “human being,” sometimes “Humanity.”

Anthroposophy presents to us—and you can test this in your deep inner feelings for what ancient times were like—that, a millennium ago and further back in time, the great majority of humans were guided by spiritual beings.

Human perceptual systems worked, people made concepts of what they sensed, and they created complex systems of meaning and story that enriched their lives. But they didn’t have the same sense of being-here as we do today. It’s a mistake to look at the latest archaeological findings of ancient settlements and to think, “They were just like me, only without the clever technologies that make my life easier.”

No, they were not quite the same—competent, yes, and participatory, yes, but without the same sense of being awake and self-aware that each of us now bears. An ancient person could not say “I” in the same way, as in “I’m here!—now the party can start!” They could not relate to others with today’s genuine interest in the “I” of the other, as in, “My name is David, and who are you, and what is your purpose and passion on this earth?”

The stars were spiritual influences from the heavens, bringing qualities and competencies, speaking to the early peoples, and speaking through those peoples, guiding them.

“Silent now” means that human beings had to be set off on their own pathways as individuals, each to discover the “I,” which every parent and teacher knows takes time and many forays out of herd-thinking or non-thinking, into new levels of awakeness. The human being does not arrive with the “I” fully installed, but rather as hovering, as potential.

Without the guidance of the stars’ speaking, there are ever-more bumps and scrapes. Such is the education of all human beings and Humanity, paralleling the process of going through the grades of a Waldorf school.

“Silent now” may cause that feeling of abandonment that pierces every human heart, especially the young ones, when they complain, “You’re not my real parents!—Where are my real parents?!” Anthroposophic psychology understands this common unrest as more than irritation, rather as the evolution of human consciousness towards selfhood.

Steiner’s verse has a second stanza: “But in the deepening silence, there grows and ripens what the human being speaks to the stars.” The doors are not slammed shut. “Deepening” takes time. “Grows and ripens” suggests a plant lifting upward to the Sun. The goal is given: “what the individual human being speaks to the stars!” The verse finishes with a reward for that attainment: “To be aware of that speaking can become strength for the human spirit.” But what does it mean to speak to the stars?

Voyager 1 was sent aloft in 1977. It included a small record player and a vinyl record with greetings in 55 languages, 35 sounds including whale songs and human laughter, and some Mozart and Chuck Berry…. Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 had a gold-anodized aluminum plaque with symbols and pictures etched into it. These human attempts to speak to the stars are still plodding their way towards the edge of our solar system.

Much more potent and immediate are our individual thoughts and feelings, and impressions of our deeds—these human activities are projected out into the cosmos every moment. Most of what passes through our present consciousness is low-energy mumbling in all sensory modes. We use liminal self-talk in sight, hearing, smell, touch—all the senses.

You can participate in your side of the conversation more actively. “To become aware” is a key—when you are awake and aware, it is because you’ve had a rush of an act of compassion for another human being by fully occupying their situation and reaching out. Or you’ve articulated an insight that you’ve been working on for weeks. Or you have attained a conscious realization of that most difficult of experiences—an epiphany of beauty.

These highly-energized individual human experiences stream far into the cosmos, and speak to the stars.

Steiner’s two stanzas oversimplify the actual situation. Spiritual beings in the heavens are not entirely silent, though they lean towards the development of the human “I” by seeming to be so—until you are ready to awaken.

To an awake person, this is a time for conversation, two-ways, dialogue. How do you know that dialogue is happening? The stars don’t speak clear words in your language. You speak, and then you listen to what rises within yourself. It’s helpful to discuss how this works with others, but you can begin at any time.

One of the purposes of intelligent astrology is to identify how the stars speak and to identify those to which one could pay more attention—a birth chart can help direct one in this manner. A purpose of intelligent astrology is to assist in developing conversation.

We would like to train you to become a practitioner of Star Wisdom: training June 23-28, 2022. This and other courses in New Astrology at TheStarHouse.org (click on upper left of home page, on “Star Wisdom”). Anthroposophic psychology at Anthroposophicpsychology.org.