NEUOFFENBARUNGMinerals, plant, and animals (6 March 1847)
1. The plant kingdom, about the origin of which we have just spoken, is in a certain way the transition point from the mineral and the ether, which descends from the celestial bodies into the animal kingdom.
2. In the very foundation of the matter, however, there is neither a mineral nor a plant kingdom; because both the mineral and the plant kingdom is in the most actual sense also a kingdom of animals, and each mineral consists of as many so-called infusoric animal genera as individual soul-property intelligences are discoverable in it for the spirit of wisdom, which is certainly something unthinkable for the ordinary intellectual man; but if someone possesses only something of the true wisdom and cleverness of the spirit, it will not be too difficult for him to find out in every mineral as in every plant the intellectual psychic basic propertys, namely by the way as it has been shown so far.
3. Would you be allowed to discover all possible properties in a mineral or in a plant, you will also find just as many basic propertya, each of which is very peculiar, and therefore only fulfills a certain purpose in the mineral with one intelligence.
4. But in order for a mineral to become what it is and should be, the various propertya belonging to it, must unite as if in one, in order to represent through this unification, precisely that mineral which must be represented in accordance with the order.
5. In order to see this quite well, we will proceed to an example.
6. Let us assume iron; how many propertya will be necessary for the production of this metal? By enumerating the individual properties of this metal, we will see what is needed to produce it.
7. First, iron is heavy; what causes this heaviness? Through a property that rises from the innermost chambers of the earth; therefore, even though it is bound to this metal here, it still directs it's intelligent pull to where it has been banished for so long. In this property it has, as it were, it's love downwards.
8. Furthermore, one notices the characteristic of hardness in the iron; this propertyity, which stands alone, contains in itself the vital intelligence of complete selfishness, and thus hardness and incorruptibility against any surroundings. This property is like the gravity from below.
9. Furthermore, we discover in the iron a supple flexibility; this is a propertyum or a soul-intelligence, which, tested in many ways, carries in itself compliance. This property is therefore already more powerful than the first two. They lose nothing in their peculiarity through the presence of this property, but nevertheless they must conform to this property, which contains a humble docility; Therefore the iron becomes all the more flexible and pliable when it is heated, and this pliability and flexibility of the iron in the heated state corresponds all the more to willing humility, because humility and the will become all the more pliable the more they have been tried or tested by the test of fire. This propertyum is still from below, but it is already of a good kind, because it conforms, since it has learned to conform through many trials.
10. Another characteristic property is the dissolvability; for you know that iron can be dissolved by acids, as by fire. In this property lies the intelligence of being free, which property takes all the previously named ones with it, when it has found the support in it's intelligence to make itself free and to become free. At the same time, this property corresponds also in natural respect to the centrifugal or expanding force, which, if it had no limitation, would expand into infinity.
11. But so that this does not happen, we immediately discover another characteristic beside it, or an intelligence propertyum, which in a way contains the unadulterated stoicism in itself. This, therefore, wants to be reduced to the most minute. This propertyum is therefore the controller for the former, and limits it in its' thirst for expansion; on the other hand, the former centrifugal propertyum also controls this latter centripetal propertyum.
12. Again we notice another characteristic of this metal; it is the slight glowing at the fire; this is a propertyum of anger in the iron, which is usually dormant; but when it is excited, it appears most powerfully, and devours all former propertya, and puts them into it's state. These propertys, which we have listed so far in this metal, are all from below, and would not represent the actual iron for a long time, if they were not saturated with the nobler propertys from the stars.
13. But how can one recognize these propertya? Just like the earlier ones by the even further enumeration of the various properties of this metal.
14. When iron is grated, it gives off it's own metal-acid odor; this odor is a property with an intelligence in which active love already expresses itself; for just as in all acid or in the actual oxygen the air of life known to you is present, so it is in spiritual terms the active love which, as you have long known, is life in the most actual sense. This property is the main unifying principle of this metal; for it not only permeates it completely, but also surrounds it like an atmosphere of it's own; hence the smell of iron.
15. Another characteristic of this metal is that it shows a great readiness to receive electricity. The cause of this is the same property in this metal; it is the intelligence of mobility, and with it, the thirst for social union. This propertyum is likewise not like the earlier ones a firmly bound one, but like the aforementioned, only one that penetrates and surrounds this metal; but since it is nevertheless more or less related to the earlier propertyums, it holds with them a kind of standing quarters, and is constantly endeavoring to make them free, and then to win them over for itself. It usually occurs in the appearance of rust, which rust, as you will have often experienced, in time turns all the iron in on itself, and gradually dissolves it completely.
16. The rust in itself is not the actual electric property, which remains continuously free; but these are the other earlier propertys already connected in a certain way to this free property, which strive, each in it's kind, to become equal to this property. Behold, this property is therefore also from above.
17. Another characteristic is the shimmering or shining of the iron, namely in a whitish-gray color; this propertyum contains the concept of rest; only in rest can everything balance itself out; and when everything is balanced, then an equal surface appears, and this is receptive to light, like the surface of a mirror. This property feature is inherent in all iron, but it is not firmly bound to it, but unites with it only when the surface of the iron is cleaned, polished and then smoothed. If, however, it's parts, which have entered into the greatest uniform rest on the surface, were disturbed by anything in it, then this property would already be gone, and if not completely, then at least partially; But from this it also follows that the soul of man in it's completeness is only capable of receiving light when it enters the rest of it's spirit; for the spirit is the main principle of rest, for which reason even the ancient sages desired nothing but rest and light for a soul in seclusion.
18. In order to find all the properties in this metal still further, and thereby to indicate the way of this important work still more, and to make the animal kingdom in the mineral and plant kingdom quite clear, and how then the animal kingdom emerges from this, we will pursue next the sidereal specific properties of iron still further.