Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

Stegmann describes a number of factors that, more than in otherregions of the world, work to connect American humanity more stronglywith the forces of the earth below. In general, the metabolic-will nature ofthe human being, the psychosomatic aspect within which Americans tendby nature to live most strongly, is more closely connected with the physicalorganism and, thereby, with its earthly surroundings. The impulse ofthe pre-Christian Ahrimanic mystery center among the ancient Aztecs, asdescribed by Steiner, has united with the elemental forces of the westernworld and even today rises up out of the subsensible inner depths of theearth in America. 5 Another factor concerns the especially strong Americanpresence of the human Double, an Ahrimanic astral being with no ego thatlives below consciousness awareness within every incarnated human beingfrom just before birth until just before death. Although the Double had theoriginally beneficial task to help us as spiritual beings to harden and adaptto the earthly world, today the Double is completely penetrated by Ahrimanand works to make dense the human body and to bind human beings to thelower powers of the earth.The Double subconsciously opens human beings to those elementalearth forces to which it is intimately related, attempting to make humanbeings into materialistically-oriented beings not led by their own egos butguided from outside by Ahrimanic powers. In the depths of human souls, theDouble acquires ever greater power over the unconscious life of human will,binding souls with powers that derive entirely from the earth itself— rigidifyingforces of mechanization and subnature (especially gravity, electricity,and magnetism). Indeed, Steiner stated that in America those sub-earthlymagnetic forces that connect the human being more closely with the Doublerise up most strongly. These forces are connected with the fact that on theAmerican continents, most of the mountain ranges run in a north-southdirection. 6Of the three powers of the human soul (thinking, feeling, and willing),Steiner describes the will as the youngest and strongest. Thus, we canassociate Amasis, the youngest of the three magi, with the human will.Aside from the will’s generally instinctive and unconscious nature, todaythe human will is typically directed toward the earth and is more or less cutoff from the creative powers of the macrocosmic world will. It is one of thegreat tasks of the West to recognize the will in its true being. To rediscoverthe lost cosmic connections of the human will, it is necessary to undertakeinner cognitive-meditative work so that the will can be recognized as permeatedby the higher, spiritual ego. The will must be harnessed to thinking,and thinking to the will, in order to revivify and heal both faculties.13