Dying into Being

Why share this?

Because it speaks of the inner and outer
Because it speaks of being and non-being
Because it speaks of a rhythm I feel in the nature of my own being
Because it speaks of a pattern underlying the nature of us all
Because I love it....


Ernst Lehrs evaluates Goeth in Man or Matter and speaks of a natural principle he calls that of renunciation:

"In the life of the plant this principle shows itself most conspicuously where the green leaf is heightened into the flower.  While progressing from leaf to flower the plant undergoes a decisive ebb in its vitality. Compared with the leaf, the flower is a dying organ.  This dying, however, is of a kind we may aptly call a 'dying into being.' Life in its mere vegetative form is here seen withdrawing in order that a higher manifestation of the spirit may take place.  The same principle can be seen at work in the insect kingdom when the caterpillar's tremendous vitality passes over into the short lived beauty of the butterfly.  In the human being it is responsible for that metamorphosis or organic process which occurs on the path from the metabolic to the nervous system, and which we came to recognize as the precondition for the appearance of consciousness within the organism.

After achieving its masterpiece in the flower, the plant once more goes through a process of withdrawal, this time into the tiny organs of fertilization.  After fertilization, the fruit begins to swell: once more the plant produces an organ with a more or less conspicuous spatial extension.  This is followed by a final and extreme contraction in the forming of the seed inside the fruit. In the seed the plant gives up all outer appearance to such a degree that nothing seems to remain but a small, insignificant speck of organized matter.  Yet this tiny, inconspicuous thing bears in it the power of bringing forth a whole new plant.

Forest Filled, Megan Gallant, 2012

During each expansion, the active principle of the plant presses forth into visible appearance; during each contraction it withdraws from outer embodiment into what we may describe as a more formless pure state of being.  We thus find the spiritual principle of the plant engaged in a kind of breathing rhythm, now appearing, now disappearing, now assuming power over matter; now withdrawing from it again."

From the Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, pgs. 112-113