The Earth
THE NATURAL EARTH
- Chapter 24 -
The eye of the Earth
The third region of the air rests upon the second region like very pure etheric oil upon clear water. This oil will not mix with the water, but floats on it and imparts to its surface an even more beautiful luster. The third region of the air is, in its effect, like the etheric oil. This region is the "oil" for the two lower regions, and, at the same time, the etheric salt makes it pleasant-tasting for plants and animals.
All pleasant fragrances descend, with the light and the ætheric salt, from the third air region, to be led into the plants themselves by means of the electricity that has gathered in the proximity of the plants, and to confer upon the plants, through the "ætheric oil," their multifarious pleasant fragrances. On some plants these fragrance carriers may be seen with the unaided eye in the form of very small, highly transparent resinous globules, though of course they may be better observed through a microscope.
The taste, the fragrance, and above all the better part of the beautiful coloration of the flowers and fruits are pure ætheric substances. Hence these qualities can only have their origin in the place where they are adjacent to the tether, whence all of the countless specifica originate. These substances embrace themselves in the third region of the air and form a fluidum which, in the different kinds of rays arising from the countless stars, seeks its own particular chemical relation. The fluid unites with the rays and descends with these rays to Earth. On Earth it satisfies those plants and animals which have a relation corresponding to these various specific fundamental substances of light.
The third region of the air also corresponds with the external parts of every plant. These are the buds, blossoms and fruit, as well as the leaves with their electricity-absorbing tips. All these parts of the plant have an ætheric, pure appearance, which is why they correspond with the third region of the air. Their fragrance is usually extremely delicate. Some plants, however, have a repugnant odor which is a consequence of the preponderance of internal telluric fluids that cannot be covered by the pure heavenly substances.
In animals, you will find even more conspicuous substances drawn from the third region of the air, though certainly they are no longer ethereally as pure as they are in some plants. However, the medulla in the head usually absorbs the specifica out of the air through the hair. The very pure liquids in the eye, especially those under the first layer of the cornea, as well as the entire cornea itself, absorb the specifica out of the air through the eyebrows and the eyelids, and supply or pass these through to the eye. That is why the third region of the air resembles the eye, and I he reason for this is that, besides the aforementioned functions, it has the same function for the entire Earth, as the eyes of human beings and animals have for the bodies in which they exist.
This third region of the air is the actual eye of the Earth. If this region had not this visual faculty, there would not be one being on Earth with the faculty of sight. It is not only the Earth that has her panoramic eye in this third region of the air; every plant has a kind of eye through which it perceives the light in its corresponding part of this region as well. That plants possess their own peculiar faculty of sight is recognizable through the observation that almost all plants turn their calyces towards the sun in order to absorb the light from him. In a dark cellar, a plant always forces its shoots towards the light.
The Earth looks constantly at the space which surrounds her. This perception produces in all nature spirits that dwell upon the Earth a corresponding conception, from which every spiritual being obtains its intelligence of the outer world. This would be impossible without the great common visual faculty of the Earth. The Earth, as a body, certainly does not perceive anything which she views. Nor was it deemed necessary that the Earth should have her own self-conscious cognition, since she is not an autonomous being, although her being does consist of countless single intelligences. They are the ones which require the great earthy eye.
Only through this earthy eye may a human being see the sun, the moon, and the stars. It would be impossible for a human being with his little eyes to view the sun if the great earthy eye did not first take a miniature picture of the sun and introduce it to the human eye. And therefore no one sees the sun or the moon or the stars as they are in reality and at their true distance, bitt rather their images upon the surface of the great earthy eye, which is more scintillating than the surface of pure water and therefore most suitable for the reception of pictures from the immense celestial bodies that surround it.
At the same time, the earthy eye takes pictures of the surface of the Earth and projects them to the other celestial bodies, just as those bodies project pictures from their surfaces through their eyes to the Earth. The phenomenon called fata morgana, a "looking-glass in the air," as it were, which may be observed in tropical regions, may be explained as follows: in those areas, the third region of the air sinks at times below the intermediate mountain ranges. Wherever this occurs, especially in the mountains, you may frequently perceive pleasantly scented fragrances, an effect caused when the third region of the air sinks to that level.