Rediscovering the wisdom of the heart
Over a century ago, Rudolph Steiner predicted that the greatest discovery of 20th-century science wouldn’t be in the realm of technology but in the revelation that the heart is far more than just a pump. He foresaw that the great challenge of our time would be to allow the heart to teach us to think in an entirely new way.
How does the heart speak?
The heart speaks through metaphor.
This wisdom is not new—it’s ancient. Early humans, long before the invention of language, communicated with their bodies: gestures, expressions, sounds, and movements conveyed meaning. They painted pictographs on cave walls and learned through sensing, seeing, and touching the world around them. For them, everything in nature—thunder, rain, wind, animals, plants—was a source of knowledge and connection.
As James Hillman observed:
“Metaphor was then the primary mode of knowing and understanding the world. The world was interpreted animistically—thunder was a God, and reality was structured in accordance with myth. Metaphor wasn’t understood to be a figure of speech; it was a vital means for understanding the world.”
Our next step as humans is to bridge the divide—between mind and heart, between the tangible world and the unseen, metaphoric world behind it. By embracing the transformative power of metaphoric images, we can reconnect with this ancient wisdom and allow the heart to guide us into deeper understanding and healing.
