Fall of the Trees, Yorkshire by J.M.W. Turner
On the Spirits of Form & the Christ Being (Elohim and the Governing Spirit of Form)
Having then said: "I am the Lord God of Abraham, the father and the God of Isaac," he adds: "Be not afraid," very consistently. For how can we any longer be afraid when we have thee, O God, as our armour and defender? Thee, the deliverer from fear and from every painful feeling? Thee, who hast also fashioned the archetypal forms of our instruction while they were still indistinct, so as to make them visible, teaching Abraham wisdom, and begetting Isaac, who was wise from his birth. For you condescended to be called the guide of the one and the father of the other, assigning to the one the rank of pupil, and to the other that of a son.
—Philo, On Dreams
Consequently in the Greek epoch, when the paramount manifestation is that of the Spirits of Form, man does not receive any direct influence as an inspiration. The influence of the Spirits of Form works far rather in such a way that man is allured by the outer world of sense; his senses are directed with joy and delight towards everything spread out around him, and he tries to elaborate and perfect it. Thus the Spirits of Form attract him from without. And one of the chief Spirits of Form is the Being designated as Jahve or Jehovah. Although there are seven Spirits of Form and they work in the different kingdoms of Nature, men of the present age have a faculty of perception only for the one Spirit, Jehovah. [Christ]
—Rudolf Steiner, Occult History: Lecture V
When the human being senses the Spirits of Form's creative influence upon him, he does not sense this directly through the faculties of his head, but indirectly through the effect of the rest of his body upon the head. You all know that breathing is connected with our blood-circulation, speaking in the sense of external physiology. But the blood is also driven into the head, creating an organic, vital connection of the head with the rest of the organism. The head is nourished and invigorated by the rest of the body.
—Rudolf Steiner, The Mission of the Archangel Michael
In which of the elements of Nature — we have said that the three elements of Nature, water, air and fire are connected with the Spirits of Will, the Cherubim and Seraphim — do the Spirits of Form manifest themselves? They are the nearest Beings and they dance upon the surface upon which we live, move and have our being. They come out of universal space, but only display their force in that which streams up out of the earth. To our observation they are concentrated in what we call the rays of the sun. Light, therefore, is the element in which in the first place the Spirits of Form weave and live.
—Rudolf Steiner, The Mission of Folk-Souls in Connection with Germanic Scandinavian Mythology: Lecture V