If you wish to understand yourself,
seek yourself in the wideness of the world;
if you wish to understand the world,
seek in the depths of your own mind.
Rudolf Steiner
Warmth ether: observing the impulse
Attitude
Warmth ether is characterised by impulse-creating and directional activity. Warmth as an ether was already discussed in the section on the mode of observation corresponding to warmth as an element.
The elemental quality of warmth is reflected in the process of building up images and then making them disappear again. This is a process that you control yourself and in which you see the past, that which is already known, pass through your mind.
The etheric quality of warmth is reflected in the appearance of the symbolic image and the orientation it expresses. This is a process you can't control: you have to open up your inner mind and then wait and see whether something will appear. The expression of the symbolic image reveals the potential options; the expression of the symbolic image contains the future. The number of these options will later be reduced again, as you learn more about the object's environment (after having studied the other 'contexts').
Warmth ether: the impulse to sprout