Believe It or Not

On 25/02/07 David Fairclough wrote:
In the last few weeks, two new stars have appeared in the constellation of Scorpius. The first named Nova Scorpii 2007 was discovered on 6 February while it was only visible by telescope, then brightened until 13 February when it became visible to the naked eye. The star brightened further, but has since faded slightly although it is still (just) visible in the pre dawn skies in the southeast, just south of Jupiter.
The second star "appeared" on 21 February, a mere 3 degrees from the first. It is not as bright as the first "nova", but it is visible with binoculars.
The following text is from R. Steiner's The Festivals and their Meaning, No.3, Ascension and Pentecost). It is significant in that it shows the universe to be ensouled ('astral'), alive ('etheric'), and in close interaction with us, as was well known in earlier stages of humanity but is often regarded as unscientific or worse today.
"Every star that we see in the heavens is in reality a gate of entry for the astral. Wherever the stars glitter in towards us, there glitters and shines the astral. Look at the starry heavens in their manifold variety; in one part the stars are gathered in clusters; in another they are scattered far apart. In all this wonderful configuration of radiant light, the invisible and super-sensible astral body of the cosmos makes itself visible to us.
For this reason we should not consider the world of stars unspiritually. To speak of worlds of burning gases is just as though—forgive the apparent absurdity of the comparison, but it is precisely true—someone who loves you were gently stroking you, holding their fingers slightly apart, and you were to say that it felt like so many ribbons drawn across your cheek. It is no more untrue that ribbons are laid across your cheek when someone strokes you, than that there exist up there in the heavens those material entities of which modern physics tells. It is the astral body of the universe which is perpetually wielding its influences on the etheric organism of the Cosmos. The etheric Cosmos is organised for very long duration; it is for this reason that a star has its quality of fixity, representing a perpetual influence on the cosmic ether by the astral universe. It lasts far longer than the stroking of your cheek. But in the Cosmos things do last longer, for there we are dealing with gigantic measures. Thus in the starry heavens that we actually behold an expression of the soul-life of the cosmic astral world. An immense, unfathomable life, yet, at the same time, a soul-life, a real and actual life of the soul, is brought into the Cosmos. Think how dead the Cosmos appears to us when we look into the far spaces and see nothing but burning gaseous bodies. Think how living it all becomes when we know that the stars are an expression of the love with which the astral Cosmos works upon the etheric Cosmos—for this is to express it with perfect truth. Think then of those mysterious processes when certain stars suddenly light up at certain times—processes which have only been explained to us by means of physical hypotheses that do not lead to any real understanding. Stars that were not there before, light up for a time, and disappear again. For it is true indeed that in epochs when divine Beings desire to work in a special way from the astral world into the etheric, we behold new stars light up and fade away again. Illustration: V van Gogh, Night Sky