I want to clarify a little how I see the world.
Imagine a coordinate system: the X-axis is time, and the Y-axis is consciousness. Along the horizontal axis, the past gives way to the future; along the vertical one, the material gives way to the ideal.
Consciousness always strives to move from the material towards the ideal. If the material is our perception, then the ideal is the soul.
That means our movement through time ought to be from matter towards the ideal.
Why begin with matter? Because it is the only thing we can explain rationally. Matter is what we stand on.
In this model, our starting point is field D: the region of the past and the material (X−, Y−). It is as though we evolve from matter towards consciousness and an understanding of the soul.
As we move into the future, the ideal becomes increasingly manifest. This is field A: the future and the ideal (X+, Y+).
But I see fields B and C as destructive. What is wrong with them?
Field B places the ideal in the past. Think of all those tales about Atlantis, how wonderful things supposedly were then, and how dreadful they are now. The myth that the future is somehow inferior automatically pushes our future into field C, towards degeneration into the material. You can see this today in all those courses about ‘successful success’.
But what if we do not degenerate? Then our movement through time takes place in the higher spheres, from B to A, automatically excluding matter. And why would a pure intellect need matter? To know and understand. Matter is our point of reference. Remove it, and we begin floating in the clouds. ‘Madness’, in the terminology of this article.
There is another possibility: materialistic development through time, a transition from D to C, leaving the ideal behind.
That means no development of thought, no hope. And what happens to us when hope is gone? Depression.
So what follows? We need to stand on something concrete and earthly without elevating the past into an ideal, so that our future can be bright and ideal.
We must not retreat into materialism, because in it there is no hope. Matter without spirit is dead and depressing.
We need a light at the end of the tunnel. It is that light which leads our soul towards the future. That is how I see our interaction with the world.