The Journal of Animal Consciousness Vol 1, Issue 2 Vol 1 Issue 2 | Página 13

“Human thought does not create an arbitrary
order and impose it on the things of the world. It is
rather an organ which reaches into the invisible
inner structure of the world itself, and, by deriving
thence the concepts, reconstitutes-from the
unrelated and chaotic detail of pure sense-given
perceptions-the original totality. The latter in itself
is full of inner relationships and
connections” (Poppelbaum 1928).
All of us are familiar with what we call the physical body,
yet many of us have at least a ‘suspicion’ that something
exists beyond this material physicality. After all, what is it
that enlivens the body; that gives it personality? Rudolf
Steiner understood this and developed out the principle of
the ‘four-fold organization’. This principle shows us the
different bodies of animal and human: physical, etheric,
soul (astral), and ego (ontic). In human, these bodies
descend – or accrue so to speak – generally in seven-year
stages13: the physical at birth as the body separates from
the mother; the etheric at the onset of the dental transition
from primary to adult teeth, generally about age 7; the
astral or soul body begins to incarnate around the age of
puberty; and the ontic/ego beginning at approximately age
21, which is typically the age of ‘majority’ – a coming of
age so to speak. It should be obvious that animals
incarnate both the physical and etheric bodies as we
humans do; beyond that significant differences occur, an
understanding of which is important in being able to
correctly perceive the animal’s emotional and cognitive
states, and therefore assess his wellbeing:
Ø The individual animal species share a
group astral/soul body; the soul forces
bring in the aspects of thinking, feeling,
and willing; in animals this is retained on
a group species level, not individualized
as it is in human.
Ø In human, the ego consciousness (spirit)
accrues into the soul body giving human
complete waking consciousness.
In
animals the ego consciousness is retained
at the group level.
It is said, at the
moment of death the spirit awakens in the
individual: “Anything like the beginning
of an ego-consciousness comes upon the
animal only at the moment of its
death” (Sch