Ideas worth building on

Welcome to foundation stone NZ, a personal blog for sharing thoughts, observations and ideas as they take shape. This is a space for the things I’ve been thinking about—one post at a time.

Browse the archives

Foundation letter eight

Cobalt and nickel are often found together. Cobalt gets its name from the German word Kobbold, meaning mischievous elemental spirit. It was found as a problem mineral ore, in ores of copper and caused problems. The nuisance factor of the cobalt ore was attributed to the activity of mischievous “Kobbolds”. Interesting how German miners happened to be working in Russian mines.

Cobalt is not one of the cheaper “brothers of iron”. It is used in applications where a quality of hardness and long wear are required, as in the blades of the scissors used by hairdressers. They pay up to $400 for a pair of scissors that look no different to the scissors available on a supermarket shelf for les than $20. There is a good reason why a hairdresser is prepared to pay $400 for his/her scissors. They stay sharp.

Naturally cobalt is a very useful metal. Industrial machinery finds a place for it.

Nickel is more widely known in the household. Coins, for instance have nickel in them. Americans even name one of their coins a “nickel” after the metal from which it is minted. Anyone with silverware almost certainly has a nickel vessel plated with silver. Nickel plates better than iron, and “works” [can be shaped] just as well as iron.

Tin and zinc are also in the same period, adjacent to the “brothers of iron.” Their use is mostly confined to plating iron objects. Tin plating gives us “tins”, iron cans plated with tin to make them “food-safe”. Zinc gives us “roofing iron”, which doesn’t rust. Well, not for twenty years at least. Quality zinc plating that is used for modern vehicles gives us steel vehicles that don’t rust. ... in my vehicles case, for nineteen years.

The important point I wish to make is that these “brothers of iron” act like a collection of elements that belong together. If you like the image that I am using, they are related to “spirits of form” who closely resemble each other. If you think of the image of Vainamoinen singing the world into existence, these spirits are members of a choir singimg the “brothers of iron” metals into existence. The result of their singing is the formation of elements that resemble each other, in the same way as they resemble in character their creators. This is a possible meaning of the line in the foundation stone meditation, “What from the East is fired and in the West is formed”.

The foundation stone meditation has a relationship with the first Goetheanum. Can I leave a more detailed conversation about this to a future letter?For instance consider how, for examle, the mighty pictures on the ceiling in the big cupola show the development of mankind up to now. In the small cupola, we see images of the present and future stages of our civilisation, from the events at Palestine on the Golgotha hill to the sixth post atlantean civilisation, the one that is to follow our present one. These paintings show the result of the intervention of the heavenly hierarchies in the development of humanity.

It is from these pictures as well as the story of the Kalevala that I have obtained insights into the material I am presenting in these letters. The content may seem far removed from the text of the foundation stone, but it is closely connected to it by the route I have just outlined.

“What is the connection of the elements to Ahriman, Lucifer and Christus?” That is the question I would like to move onto in the next letter “Foundation Letter Ten”

Christopher Bacchus

This is where our journey begins. Get to know our business and what we do, and how we're committed to quality and great service. Join us as we grow and succeed together. We're glad you're here to be a part of our story.

Letter 10

I have to beg forgiveness if these letters have, for the moment, turn into letters on the elements of the periodic table. This may seem that I have strayed a long way from the “Foundation Stone” of the title of this blog. Not so. Let me explain.

The Foundation Stone is connected with the First Goetheanum. This building of carved wood had two interlocking domes. On the ceiling of the domes were pictures. On the roof of the larger dome there were ten interlocking scenes. Just above the proscenium were three scenes, on above the other. On top was the scene called “God’s wrath and God’s melancholy”. Below was “The Round Dance of the Seven”. Below this was the scene entitled “The O motive. The Circle of the Twelve”, We have in the two lower scenes the numbers of the planets and the number in the Zodiac. The Zodiac twelve have six in daylight and six in the dark. In pondering these pictures I had a flash of light... “What of this is connected to the Table of the elements? Could it be?”

The periodic table is made up or two tables as I have shown here. There is a table of 44 in five lines of eight elements. Each vertical line is called a group. Each horizontal is called a period. I have separated these elements out from the original table, and we see a cohesive group of elements arranged much like notes in a scale. In Octaves, with an inert gas at the end of each octave. At the bottom corners of the table are four elements that are not actually part of the earth. They are so radioactive that they can only exist for minutes at a time. They are Polonium, 87; [half life of 138 days] Astatine, 85 [half life of 22 secs]; Radon, 86 [half life of 4 days]and Francium, 87 [half life of 22minutes]. These elements are included in the table, but they scarcely are part of the make-up of the earth, their existence is so fleeting. They make the table of elements look like picture whose far corners are blurred by old age.

There is a second table whose front row is the “Brothers of Iron”. Their number is 48. All the elements in this table are metals. They are all “mined”. That means they are dug out of the ground. They hide in the solid part of the earth. Each is very like its neighbor, yet each its own distinct individuality. One could characterise these elements as the ones that are hard to find, like to hide in the earth. If they could be compared in any way with the first group of elements, they are like night to the day of the first group. This you see on the Goetheanum ceiling. Six in daylight, six in the night.

Here is the periodic table divided into two.

Periodic table

Table One

H 1 He2

Li 3 Be 4 B 5 C 6 N 7 O 8 F 9 Ne 10

Na 11 Mg 12 Al 13 Si 14 P 15 S 16 Cl 17 Ar 18

K 19 Ca 20 Ga 21 Ge 22 As 33 Se34 Br35 Kr 36

Rb37 Sr 38 In 49 Sn 59 Sb 51 Te 52 I 53 Xe 54

Cs55 Ba 56 Tl81 Pb 82 Bi 83 Po 84 At 85 Rn 86

Fr 87 Ra 88

Table Two

Sc 21 Ti 22 V 23 Cr 24 Mn 25 Fe 26 Co 27 Ni 28 Cu 29 Zn 30

Y 39 Zr 40 Nb 41 Mo 42 Tc 43 Ru 44 Rh 45 Pd 46 Ag 47 Cd 48

La 57 Ce 58 Pr 59 Nd 60 Pm 61 Sm 62 Eu 63 Gd 64 Tb 65 Dy 66 Ho 67 Er 68 Tm 69 Yb 70

Lu 71 Hf 72 Ta 73 W 74 Re 75 Os 76 Ir 77 Pt 78 Au 79 Hg 80

Ac 89 Th 90 Pa 91 U 92

The number on the ceiling of the first Goetheanum is two times six, the elements that fill the table are 92 in number, [including the ones that have such fleeting existences. I am excluding the ones such as Plutonium, that does not exist anywhere except in a nuclear reactor.]

Just above the twelve on the Goetheanum ceiling, are the dancing seven. For each of the twelve is there a seven? And another seven for the thirteenth in the gospels? 13 times 7 is 91. When I saw that I was dumbfounded, After 92 there are no viable elements. 13 times 7! The periodic table and the pictures on the ceiling had a number connection. When I first pictured the choir of Vainamoinens, the 92 Vainomoinens singing in the choir of the Exusiai, singing the world into existence, it was just a picture. Now it was beginning to sing for me!

Think about it. Christopher Bacchus

This is where our journey begins. Get to know our business and what we do, and how we're committed to quality and great service. Join us as we grow and succeed together. We're glad you're here to be a part of our story.

About foundation stone NZ

Part three of the foundation stone letters.

The “secret” of the elements that I discovered through the story of Vainamoinen is an imaginative picture of a choir of the brothers [and sisters] of Vainamoinen assembled into a choir and singing their hearts out. Their song and the resultant harmonies gives rise to the elements, in particular of the “solid” part of the earth’s substances. This imagination then leads to a question... the greatest part of the substances of the earth are made of a combination of elements. Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. Methane of carbon and hydrogen, Silica is made of silicon and oxygen, hydrofluric acid of hydrogen and fluorine. This was a puzzle I had to spend some years with. However, what is helpful is this:- the relationship of the elements in any combination [compound] is always set. Exactly set. With water it is hydrogen to oxygen two to one. In carbon dioxide, one of carbon, two of oxygen. Carbon monoxide is of carbon one, oxygen one.

The process of deciding how much a one of carbon or a one of oxygen or a one of any element was, took scientists many years and many different investigations of many investigatioms of the the chemical compounds of the earth. Many attempts were made to array the elements in a plan that made sense over a number of years. It was a Russian teacher who in the middle of the nineteenth century who published what became the basis for the current model of the periodic table. His name was Dmitri Mendeleev.

He began by ordering the elements in order of their “weight”. Tyhis was not simple as carbon is a solid and oxygen a gas, for example, so the combinations of the elements was very important in this analysis. It depended on giving each element a number. Then each element was given a “valency” which was used to decide what number to write when writing the formula of a substance. Example H2SO4 , sulfuric acid. It was not simple. But Mendeleev’ investigations and analyses was accepted by other scientists and is still used today.

The question of compounds and their nature and origin is more complicated. The elements are rarely found in the earth as elements in any great amount. Although many can be found, they are not found in significant amounts Oxygen and nitrogen are two that are found uncombined or “native” in the air. Native carbon is known, for example as soot or graphite. Sulfur is also known as an element in nature, it can be found, for example in hot springs, where it can be found as a yellow powder. Of the metals, copper has been found in moderate amounts as elemental copper, so too silver and gold. The inert gases are found as elements as well, in trace amounts in the air even. All the rest of the elements are found mostly as compounds. This seems to contradict the image I used before of mighty spiritual beings singing the elements into existence. The elements don’t exist alone. However, there is another experience that can help.

As a musician I experience the intervals. If the interval is not in tune, not true it is unharmonious. If you read Robin Bacchus’ article about music intervals you will have read how the intervals arise when a string, for example, vibrates in quite distinct fractional ratios. When the vibrations that carry the sound through the air to our ears occur in set ratios to one another, we get harmonies. True harmonies occur when the relation between the vibrations are exactly mumerical ratios. So it is with chemicals. The compounds can only be formed from exact ratios by weight of the elements that they are comprised. We do not find H2.1 O1.7 but H2O1. [The explanation given by modern chemists includes a number of assumptions, so I will leave it aside.]

When we consider the experience of elements combining in set ratios by weight, we can compare it with music. Think of our experience of musical harmonies. We hear chords, or harmonies. Lets go back to the “Choir of brother and sisters of Vainamoinen” When two or three “stand” side by side and sing “harmony” with each other the compounds come into existence. The individual “singer” lends their character to the element they are singing and the “harmony” brings the compounds into existence.

I offer you this imagination of the origin of the elements and their compounds, for it has for me, original power, even after many years of living within me. It arises out of me feeling so strongly, the inadequacy of the current explanation offered by the scientists of our age, of the atom and its nucleus of protons and neutrons surrounded by a cloud of electrons. I can’t find in this picture, anything that leads to the “Character” of the elements.

By character, let me explain what I mean. Sulfur is an interesting element. It is a chameleon. Its physical is greatly varied. It CAN appear as yellow powder, but sulfur can also be found as “dirty” greyish plastic solid or as chrystals of a similar color. Its behaviour when heated is quite peculiar. When just melted, it is a runny liquid. As it is heated it congeals, losing its motiity, until it is a stiff plastic substance similar to bread dough. Then with more heating it becomes more runny again. It burns with blue flame. A cool color, which the flame certainly is not. With these few words I am trying to indicate what I mean by the “Character” of an element.

For example there is a group of elements who are listed in the periodic table in the same line as iron. They are Scandium, Titanium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper and Zinc. With the exception of copper, these elements are to a greater or lesser extent used in conjunction with or instead of iron. Titanium not as is used where tough but light metal is needed, such as in aeroplanes. Like a light and strong steel. It is not used as component of steel. Vanadium is used to make tool steel, the steel that is used in lathes to cut steel. Chromium is used in stainless steel. Manganese was used by Henry Ford in his “Tin Lizzy”. These cars used less steel than other cars of the era, and were virtually indestructable. Cobalt is used, for example to make the blades of scissors used by hairdressers. They are amazing for their ability to stay sharp. Nickel is a versatile metal with many applications, especially valued as it is not so expensive as, say, cobalt, and it doesn’t rust like iron and steel.

Copper does not work in conjunction with iron. Zinc is used as a coating on iron to prevent its exposure to moisture which cases uncoated iron to rust.

The whole gamut of elements in the periodic table is a cast of amazing characters. Each element has unique properties, and it would take too long to enumerate the lot, so I will not try but end here, with a plea to find out how interesting these elements really are.

These are thoughts that arise out of the consideration of the Hierarchies mentioned in the foundation stone meditation.

Christopher Bacchus

The Foundation Stone, laid in Dornach at the site of the burnt out First Goetheanum, was a significant moment in the evolution of the Anthroposophical Society. It took place at the Christmas Conference of 1923/24 and was attended by a large group of members of the Anthroposophical Society. It was the last Christmas Conference Rudolf Steiner attended. The following year he was bedridden and unable to attend.

How significant was this occasion in reality? Views will differ from member to member. Sergei Prokofieff was sufficiently convinced of its importance to write three large books, “Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Myasteries”, “May Human Beings Hear It”, and “The Foundation Stone Meditation”. I have read all three of these books [twice] and have found that he has invested a lot of time and thought to the texts. Amazingly, in the course of some more than two thousand pages he doesn’t repeat anything, unless it is to illuminate the topic from another side. He makes some rather startling assertions in the textsf these books. From the history of the creative geings who fashioned the earth, to hints about the kind of evolution of humanity after the Vulcan evolution [of the earth.]

After all this study, I am convinced it is still worth continuing. I do hope you will join me Mondays of July at 7pm in the centre.

Mondays 6^th, 13^th 20^th and 27^th. The four evening fit neatly into the available Mondays of July, so we could call this July a “Foundation stone Monday Month.”

Christopher Bacchus

There is opportunity for conversation on the website and comments are encouraged. The views expressed on the website are my own and I take repsonsibility for all errors and omissions. Howeve, I am open to corrections and extensions. I am always willing to add or alter what I have expressed. Christopher Bacchus, August 2026

Foundation Letter 5

In the last letter I compared the nature of the Exusiai, known also as “Spirits of Form”, who are named in the foundation Stone text as “Spirits of Light”. These ”Spirits of Light” are named as Kyriotetes, Dynamis and Exusiai or as “Spirits of Wisdom”, “Spirits of Movement” and “Spirits of Form”. I wrote of the character of the first transition metals as offering an insight into the character of some of the “Spirits of Form”, with the aim of indicating the origin of the metals in the Universe as from the second Hierarchie’s “Spirits of Form”.

This is vastly different from the world of elements as pictured be Ernest Rutherford and his brother scientists of the modern age. Their work is truly a work of genius and offer a map with which you can negotiate your way around the periodic table and find your way into the modern chemistry books. It must, however, remain a brilliant theory in my mind. In trying to follow the Goethean path to an understanding fo the world, the Atomic theory goes too far in suggesting atoms as the nature of matter. It would take a few more essays to go into all the arguments around this, and I won’t do that here. I want to remain in the field of observation in which the nature and character of the elements remains the central question, and this is the path of Goethe in his scientific investigations.

We come in our journey to an element with the name “Chromium”. The name from the greek for color. The scientists who discovered chromium as an element were impressed by the many colors in compounds of this new element and decided to give it the name “Chromium” to reflect this fact. Chromium as a metal has a relationship to light. It is the most reflective element and compares with silver in this respect.

You find chrome plated bumper bars on American cars of the fifties, where chromium was used liberally to decorate the cars with many add ons that shone brightly. It is used an enormous amount as an alloy with iron to provide a form of steel called “Stainless Steel” of simply “Chrome Steel”. This steel has a surface that is shiny and resistant to weathering. You can make a kitchen bench of Chrome steel that can be washed and wiped, spilled upon and wiped many, many times without compromising its shiny surface. It the bench were iron, it would soon rust away with that kind of treatment.

It is amazing that such a useful element is not scarce. In fact it is often found together with iron in the soil and is extracted together with it, so that a metal alloy of more than 50% Chromium is obtained. This cannot be used in this form, so this alloy is “diluted” with more steel until the percentage of chromium is around 18%. This gives a chrome steel that is easier to work and to form, as well as being less costly. Many thousands of tons of chrome steel is made in the world today. Compare that to the millions of tons of iron produced each year!! This industry us HUGE.

In the next letter I intend to write about a little understood brother of iron, Manganese [ not to be confused with Magnesium], and to begin a study of iron itself.

Christopher Bacchus