Transcript Slide 1

A bracelet of gold upon bare bone...
IV. Imagination Becomes An Organ Of Perception
Then, this imagination becomes an organ of perception. You can develop it. I get the sense that when you
do it you are moving in another space, an imaginal realm. It is a movement. And it seems more real than
the outer world. I think it is more real because you are doing it. You are active. Goethe had an enormous
ability in that regard. The same is true for Picasso. The way he painted. When you look at his pictures you see
the metamorphoses.
Bortoft and Scharmer- Dialogonleadership project
As Goethe spoke of all living things. ‘They separate and seek each other again, and thus effect an endless
productivity in every way and in every direction. ‘
23rd December 2002
Copyright andrew campbell 2002
An example of Goethean Metamorphosis - The Leaf Sequence
The most well-known example of Goethean science is observation of the leaf types of plants, demonstrating a new intuitive way of
understanding plant development. This takes a number of different leaf morphotypes and puts them in a sequence, revealing a
hidden pattern of morphogenesis. The following is a series of growth stages in a leaf.
Leaf sequence of a musk mallow, from the book New Eyes for Plants, by Margaret Colquhoun and Axel Ewald
reproduced from Exploring Goethean Science at Schumacher College
We can fill the gaps between each leaf stage with the imagination, creating a smooth continuum. In the physical world the plant as
it stands frozen in one moment in time. But mental visualisation enables the linking of these disjointed "frames" (the different
morphotypes) into a smooth continuous metamorphosis from one form to another. In this way the movement of plant growth can be
experienced in the imagination. One can intuitively and non-invasively come to an understanding of how the plant grows. Goethe
called this way of seeing "exact sensorial fantasy"; an active process of merging ourselves with the phenomenon. This experience
reveals a unique "gesture", a movement characteristic of the plant, telling us 'who' it is as it dances its way into being. In
theosophical/New Age parlance one could say we are attuning to the "deva" of the plant. Goethe's science seeks this gesture of
organisms, and it is this quality which shows us the 'inner necessity' of the growing plant.