The Space Between
Experiencing 3 Stages of the I Am on the Saturn Path
How do we recognise the space between each one of us as an active field?
This question touches the very heart of Rudolf Steiner’s Saturn Path. Finding this quiet core of the True I AM, the Christ Self, is the purpose of this work.
Before I can describe the fullness of this empty space, I need to touch base on two other stages (aspects) of the ‘I’ in daily life. In the Foundation Stone meditation Rudolf Steiner describes how this everyday-self that we mostly identify as, comes into being, goes into action, and finally gives way to the true I.
Every sense-impression creates an active response in us. Such “After Images” rise up and then die away again, each leaving a memory-residue. Like manna from heaven, these residues nourish the body-self so that our identity gradually builds up out of collected experience.
When we practise spirit recollection, we discover that conscious memory strengthens this inner self. Self-parenting becomes possible. We become like a tree: upright, steady, generous. Our unique gift to the world begins to flow more easily and more fully.
Through this flow we become increasingly involved in the world. Practise spirit sensing calls us to notice the hidden truths behind our sense impressions — the life within each experience. We all want to help, yet often our well-meant efforts stir up reactions or lead to outcomes we never intended. We may feel rebuffed or even “cancelled” by this. A kind of death of our delicate sense of self can follow. But this painful crossing point is also a gateway to the higher self. Resting quietly in this emptiness opens our awareness to the stream of spirit-wisdom always flowing beneath our noisy thinking.
Like a quiet prayer within us, the cosmic thinking opens us to an aspect of ourselves. We quickly notice that this universal self lives in everyone around us. Behind their personal self, we can sometimes glimpse this higher I — in moments of Spirit Beholding, when we receive their care, see their creativity or engage in profound conversation. At such times, this “Higher I” may come forward to fill the space between us. When two or more meet in a profound pursuit of Truth and Love, – the Name of Christ – we find this higher I also present with us.
Memories hold the past. Sensing-awareness holds this moment, the Present. Beholding this Parousia — the presence of the Holy Spirit, the True I of all humanity, holds the future. When we consciously hold this space, the best possible future begins to grow between us. Our individual destiny and the World Potential both become more alive.
Saturn Path groups seek exactly this. Each person there, out of their own silence, recollects their own being. From that inner silence, everyone present practices profound listening, sensing into this moment. An awareness of the pain that arises in our own being-and-becoming creates a gateway. The space begins to fill with a renewed quality of silence, within which one can behold a new quality of thinking.
This is the truth of the space-between: It is always open to the Holy Spirit. One has only to practice these steps and there it is, just like that. Yet, this practice is not simple. Saturn path gatherings give us an opportunity to come together with this shared intent — to support one another in this gateway of becoming, and to hold together the sacred nature of the space between.
I hope you will join us.
Here’s a link to our next gathering: Dec 30 – Jan first
