Dr. Anna Lups begins with a practical study of alchemical principles through her examination of a young child’s colorful drawings. As a Waldorf school physician, she began to realize that a “star child” had artistically conveyed a message worth investigating. Two decades later, she revisited those drawings and realized that this child had been able to convey his reservoir of past memories from deep consciousness.
Throughout these pages, the author expands on the child’s drawings alongside a key work of Hermes Trismegistus, the Emerald Tablet, and his terse observation, “As above so below,” a guiding principle for pursuing self-knowledge and one’s true purpose on Earth. She also explores the spiritual significance of numbers and vowel sounds, as well as embryogenesis, esoteric physiology of our major organs, spiritual and physical aspects of human development, gender, marriage, sexuality, and the unique blessing of being human on Earth.
Interspersed within this broad, accessible study of a child’s drawings is the author’s own biography as a woman and single mother practicing anthroposophic medicine in rural New York State for more than fifty years. Her experience, wisdom, and years of immersion in Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science contribute to understanding how we can each live fully in our vertical and horizontal realities as human beings and how we can eventually learn the most essential lesson there is for the future of humanity—to Love one another unconditionally.
Dr. Anna Lups, MBChB, MD, was born in 1936 and earned her medical degree in South Africa in 1959. Following a cardiology residency in The Netherlands from 1960 to 1963, Dr. Lups emigrated to the United States, where she finished another residency from 1963 to 1967. She moved to Upstate New York in 1967 and began private practice. Her background as a cardiologist and family practitioner allowed her to experience a wide range of clinical care motifs, and in 1979 she began a practice of anthroposophically extended medicine and integrative health. Dr. Lups continues to develop her understanding of patient care and alternative holistic medicine in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Prologue
Introduction
Gallery of the Child Artist
Process of Consolidation
DROP-formation
Gesture of Dispersion
Gesture of Consolidation
The Initiation of Kings
The Tabula Smaragdina
Quality of Numbers
One—the Sophia
Twofold
Threefold
Fourfold
Fivefold
Sixfold: Contribution of Speech
Sevenfold—Life on Earth
Sound A
Alchemy as the First Science
Processes in Nature
Threefold Function in the Human Form
Three Kings
Alchemical Equipment
The Path of Initiation for the Alchemist
Sound E
History of the Gnostic Myth
Soul Genesis
Evolution of the Soul-Psyche
Physical Incarnation—Soma
Embryogenesis: Incarnation of The One
Birthing of the Child
Sound I
Seven-year Phases in Child Maturation
Story of the Unbeliever
Story of the Believer
Prometheus
Sound O
The Experience in O for a Person on Earth
Gender
Sex, Love, and the Future of Humanity
Being a Woman
Being a Mother
The Act of Marriage
As Lover
The Credo
Being a Doctor
Sound U
The Physical Organization, Myth, and the Vertical Plane
Etheric Organization and Fairytales
The Liver
The Lung
The Kidney
The Heart
The Astral Organization: The Parable
The “I” Organization: The Legend
Epilogue
Cited & Recommended Reading
Index of Plates
Acknowledgments