Listening to the Future

by John Bloom

Hope and wisdom abound in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s verse Our Wishes Foretell:

Our wishes foretell the capacities within ourselves; they are harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish.

What we can do and want to do is projected in our imagination, quite outside ourselves, and into the future.

We are attracted to what is already ours, in secret.

Thus passionate anticipation transforms what is already possible

Into dreamt-for reality.

There are some essential presentiments woven into this beautiful verse. Imagination is usually thought of as a picture or picturing, but Goethe is saying that one facet of the imagination may be where we perceive an idea, a kind of projection screen. However, that perception is just a momentary way station for the imaginative impulse from within us to move out into the world. What are our wishes, our impulses, and where do they come from? What is their source? Are they soul manifestations? They are harbingers, indicators of our capacities, and keys to self-knowledge. And following the path of self-knowledge is a high calling if one is to be of service to the world.

In the seven lines above, Goethe deftly located the individual in space that reaches from the inner depths of our being through the boundless outside. The nature of the intermediation between inner and outer is dependent upon our consciousness, which, in and of the process, is part of self-knowledge. Further, Goethe located the individual in the flow of time, not at a fixed moment but rather in a continuum, as the individual is one who carries not only the present, but also the seeds of the future. Though Goethe does not specifically reference the past, it is certainly implicit within the evolution of our capacities. So, for Goethe, each of us as an individuality is an integral part of a cosmic space-time enterprise. To comprehend this takes an intuitive path of knowledge that data from a stopwatch or tape measure will not serve.

The idea of metamorphosis, how forms play out over time, was central to Goethe’s scientific work. His understanding was inspired by the observation of plants, but here in this verse the principle is applied to the power of imagination. Yes, our thoughts have the power to affect the world, but how do we see the imagination within those thoughts? In some ways, the entire history of visual art is filled with examples, which we would see immediately if we could but reverse the creative process and move from the materiality of the finished work back to the artist‘s inner originating process. This is a near impossibility of course, though a worthy exercise.

Instead, I would propose that we observe ourselves as a living work of art. How might we listen into the past? How might be gain insight into how we got where we are as individuals? Can we see into our experiences from the depths of our biographies? What do our hearts say? Can we listen to, hear, and see that truth? What does that truth reflect back to us as we shape our future?

Then: Listening into the future. Can we listen to and be present with our hearts voices to hear what truly matters to us as we learn from the past? What gives rise to warmth? Toward what are we drawn? Can we see into what that might look or feel like? We need not consider this seeing or feeling as an outcome, but rather as an impulse of heart such that we can create and govern ourselves out of a higher sense for what the world is asking of us. This soul condition is what Goethe was pointing to in his verse. He is painting the foundation for hopefulness and suggesting that getting there is a time-denominated process.

Fear links is us to the past; it is constructed out of what we think we know and do not know. Hope rather emerges out of a sense for the future, through aspiration and seeing real glimmers of ideals showing up in daily practices. Love, being fully present in the world, is both self-knowledge and world guidance; love is the bridge between past and future.

This love, this practice of presence, forgiveness, and vulnerability, is a work against the odds. It is the very work that we can do now knowing that it touches the depths and needs of every human being. At the same time, it is in service to spirit beings, particularly those from the other side of the threshold of death who need to connect with us now more than ever. Through passionate anticipation we cross the boundary between the spiritual and material worlds. Love is the key to this threshold, and the creative being of hope.

John Bloom (john.bloom@anthroposophy.org) is General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America (US).