This is an extract from The Rosicrucian #82 (Nov, 2020).

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)..., philosopher, writer, poet, lecturer and mystic..., was the spokesman for a new American thought emerging in the mid-19th Century. Though he spoke clearly to his own generation, he speaks just as clearly to us today, and his thoughts and ideas are just as meaningful in a world much changed from his era. Through most of the 20th Century, Emerson was one of the most often quoted of all Americans, and his writings have been translated into many languages. His philosophy is widely respected and his ideas remain a regular and popular topic of discussion throughout the world.

Emerson was the chief spokesman for New England Transcendentalism, a system of thought stressing, among other things, the underlying unity of all things, the innate goodness of humanity, the transcendence of intuition over tuition for reaching profound truth, and the spiritual potential of the individual. While transcendentalism borrowed from both European and Eastern philosophies, its origin was in the hard-working New England area of the USA, with a generation of intellectuals seeking independence from traditional thought.

This transcendental view of life is particularly American…, practical, open, optimistic, full of vitality, encouraging people to question, think for themselves, and seek a healthy individuality. Emerson may have captured part of its spirit in the phrase: “plain living and high thinking.” Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, and Theodore Parker were all part of, or closely connected with, the Transcendentalist movement.

Nature stimulates us to observe. In our observation, we employ reason, thought, contemplation, creation.

Emerson believed in the potential of each individual. He stressed this idea throughout his writing and public speaking. Central to this idea of individual potential was his concept of the “Over-Soul”, a divine power of which all people are a part. In this concept of Over-Soul, social and class distinctions are nil because all men and women share in this great democracy of spirit. All are brothers and sisters on the path of life, all share a great potential. The highest part of self, the intuition, the “still, small voice within”, is part of Over-Soul. And each individual can reach for higher understanding of self and the universe through establishing rapport with the Over-Soul in him or herself.

But humanity is held back by a closed mind, by accepting without question or thought the ideas of others. Instead of listening to the voice within, following our own star, we too often put ourselves down, allowing others to tell us what to think and how to live. Emerson felt that the one thing of value in this world is the active soul. He encouraged us to establish rapport with our inner being and think for ourselves. To quote directly from Emerson:

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humoured inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.1

Throughout his life, Emerson sought a more complete understanding of profound truth. As the leading philosopher of Transcendentalism, Emerson believed in the innate goodness and spiritual potential of humanity, the active soul seeking higher truths about self and the universe. Seeing the human being as primarily a spiritual being within a physical body, Emerson encouraged each individual to become more attuned with the inner self, our spiritual nature. Profound wisdom comes to us through communication with our inner self (soul). In the human quest for higher understanding, Emerson saw nature as the great teacher awakening each of us to our inner self, instructing us about life, our potential, our spiritual destiny. It’s a lonely quest because most choose to live only in the outer world, and we live where our thoughts are.

Emerson felt that the one thing of value in this world is the active soul

ln a little book entitled Nature (1836), which challenged conservative religious thought of the day, Emerson put forth in lyric prose his personal experiences and realisations concerning nature’s many levels of instruction to man. Most of Emerson’s later writing reflects basic ideas put forth in this little book. At the outset of Nature, Emerson discusses the attitude necessary for truly observing and learning from nature:

The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part of his daily food, In the presence of nature a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.2

Nature stimulates us to observe. In our observation, we employ reason, thought, contemplation, creation.

Until this higher agency (reason) intervened, the animal eye sees, with wonderful accuracy, sharp outlines and coloured surfaces. When the eye of Reason opens, to outline and surface are added grace and expression. These proceed from imagination and affection.... If the Reason be stimulated to more earnest vision, outlines and surfaces become transparent, and are no longer seen; causes and spirits are seen through them. The best moments of life are these delicious awakenings of the higher powers, and the reverential withdrawing of nature before its God.2

"The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child"

Emerson believed that we create our own world through thought. We are instructed and guided by our observation of nature, but the world we create in our own mind is the world we inhabit. Through his or her creative mind each person will draw “beautiful faces, warm hearts, wise discourse, heroic acts.” Seeking a better world of beauty and truth, the human being creates, in form and in thought. The artist seeks beauty; the philosopher, truth. But the aim is the same.

The true philosopher and the true poet are one. And a beauty which is truth, and a truth which is beauty, is the aim of both.2

Emerson encouraged people to aspire to their highest ideals. Toward the end of Nature, he explained:

Every spirit builds itself a house and beyond its house a world and beyond its world a heaven. Know then that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. Build therefore your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit.2

Footnotes

1. “Self-Reliance” from Essays, First Series (1841) by R.W. Emerson.
2. From “Nature”, by R.W. Emerson.