Archetypal Themes in Anthroposophical
Medicine
RUDOLF STEINER
I. What are the intentions of our
new medical method?
The new medical method here imparted
to the world distinguishes itself from the old one through a different
understanding of man.
With the old method, based on the
natural - scientific conceptions of the modern age, we gain knowledge of man by
dissecting the physical organization and building
it up again in thought. But man is
not merely a physical organization. He is also a supra - physical one.
The latter reveals itself in the
experiences and activities of his soul and spirit.
As the physical organization is the
basis of the organization of soul and spirit, so the soul and spirit, in turn,
fashion and vitalize the physical organization.
Without insight into this
interrelationship, we cannot attain a real comprehension of the healthy or the
ill human organism.
Therefore, this new medical method
adds to the knowledge of the physical nature of man that of the supra -
physical.
The essential nature of the method
consists in the fact that it attains the insight that spiritual processes - developing in the human organism in
relative separation from
the physical ones- present the true nature of man, but become at
once detrimental if they enter into a wrong connection with the physical
processes of the human organism.
The physical organization of man, in
the course of his growth and development, arrives at a state that makes it
capable of bearing the soul and spirit.
It must not, however, enter into a
connection with these soul and spirit elements which exceed a certain measure.
If this happens, man be comes ill.
That man is subject to illness is
attributable to the fact that he is a being of spirit and soul.
Only through observation of the
spiritual in the physical do we attain knowledge of the nature of illness.
In the physical organization
abnormal processes are recognized only as changes that are subject to natural
laws in the same way normal processes are.
(That is, both normal and abnormal
processes are natural processes. Ed.) We recognize abnormal processes in their
particular nature as processes of illness only if we can pass over from the observation
of the physical to the supra - physical.
It may sound paradoxical, but a
human being becomes ill if something in his physical organization develops too
strongly toward the spiritual.
Only out of such a knowledge of
illness can real therapy arise.
All extra - human substances and
processes are in a distinct relationship to man.
If one introduces such an extra -
human substance or an extra - human process into man, then that which acts
physically outside of man acts supra - physically within man.
This is in contrast to the fact that
everything acting physically within man acts supra - physically outside of him.
On the basis of a real knowledge of
man’s relationship to the outer world, one can always find a substance or a
process in the extra - human world that transforms a wrong relationship of the supra
- physical and physical within man into a right relationship.
But such a knowledge can be attained
only through insight into the supra - physical aspects of man.
Therapy without a knowledge of the supra
- physical in human nature is not true therapy.
This is the reason for the
unsatisfactory character of customary medical practices which want to base
everything upon the physical human being.
Physical science is beneficial only
as the basis of lifeless technology; therapy needs a science aiming for the
spiritual.
The medical method recommended here
provides such a science.
Its essential nature lies in the
fact that it offers remedies that are based on a physical and a spiritual
knowledge of man.
And only through the latter is it
possible to recognize the curative forces of substances and processes.
By testing these remedies, one will
become aware of how the ill human organism changes under their influence, and
thereby one will gain faith in them.
II. Pathology and Therapy According
to the New (Anthroposophical) Method
The Nature of the New Remedies
Processes in the human organism are
not the same as those in extra - human nature.
We cannot, therefore, learn to know
them in the same way we learn to know the latter.
Only when the human being becomes a
corpse do the processes take place in him that can be known through sense
observation and the intellectual operations based on it.
As long as man lives, senses, and
thinks, he continually wrests his organism from mere nature processes.
Processes take place in him that cannot be comprehended by knowledge of
external nature.
To consider knowledge of external
nature as the only possible means of cognition is equivalent to renouncing
insight into man’s essential being.
This knowledge of external nature
may be contrasted to another one. It is based upon spiritual perception, which
needs to be developed in the human soul.
The capacities for this perception
are slumbering in everyday human nature in the same way that the soul forces
appearing in later life are slumbering in the young child.
A first faculty that may be
developed is the capacity of thinking and the force of memory.
Thinking and memory may, purely
spiritually, be enhanced through exercise, as muscular strength can be enhanced
through exercise.
This enhancement may be achieved by
inwardly concentrating, again and again, upon very clear thoughts.
In so doing, one imparts strength to
thinking itself out of the depths of the human being.
One must, however, direct all
attention to the inner thought faculty itself.
One must have thoughts not in order
to picture a thing or process of the external world, but in order to live in a
thought with all one’s inner strength.
One then experiences that thought
allows a force to stream into itself from one’s inner nature. Previously,
thought permitted this force to sink down into the depths of
the subconscious in order to contain
nothing in itself, and thereby to be able to receive the impressions of outer
nature into itself.
This submerged force can be
rediscovered in inner experience. Thinking becomes something that fills man
like the muscular force.
One senses a second human being
within oneself.
Once one has inwardly experienced this
“second man,” one has also experienced a “second world” within the entire
world.
Let us here call it the etheric
world.
*Here we shall speak only of man.
To be sure, one can learn much about
the human organism by observing the animal organism.
To begin with, however, here we
shall not take such observations into consideration.
Man stands within this etheric world
with his etheric organization as he stands with his physical organization
within the physical world.
The etheric, however, has laws
entirely different from those of the physical world.
The substances that man takes in by
way of nutrition are on the path to passing over into purely physical nature.
They may be, from the outset purely
physical substances such as, for instance, table salt.
But also what man consumes from the
plant or animal kingdom is on the way to becoming purely physical.
As a matter of fact, it is subjected
to purely physical processes by dissolving, cooking, and so forth.
This purely physical element must
then, in man, enter on the path to revitalization.
This happens as it is taken up into
the working of the etheric organization.
In the etheric organization purely
physical effects cease.
Growth, nutrition, and so on, are
supra - physical processes, taken care of by the etheric organization.
If the etheric part of the organism
is strong enough to carry out the transformation of the physical forces to a
sufficient degree, then it is healthy.
If the etheric organization is too
weak, the organism becomes ill.
It then contains substances and
processes that are appropriate to extra - human nature, but within the physical
organism they represent a foreign element.
The study of pathology consists in
the recognition of these foreign elements in man.
If the organism is unable to bring
about, through itself, the transformation described, it must be supported
through external means.
An example will demonstrate how this
can work.
Let us suppose that the etheric
organization is too weak to give to certain substances the constitution they
must have in order to incorporate themselves into bone formation in a way that
enables the bones to stand in a right relationship to the entire life process.
The bones then withdraw too strongly
into their own being. They withdraw their life from the organism.
If this is correctly observed and if
one introduces lead in very small amounts into the organism, the effect will be
that the forces of the etheric organism are strengthened in the very direction
in which they were deficient.
The therapeutic aspect of medicine
consists in the knowledge of the extent to which the foreign element in man can
be overcome, so that the transformation of the physical can take place in the
proper way.
One does not yet know man
completely, however, if one has grasped only the etheric organization besides
the physical one.
Beyond thinking, we can develop
other soul forces for spiritual perception.
If one has experienced strengthened
thinking leading to the ether world, one may then suppress it by the inner
force of the soul.
In normal life, such an inner
happening will produce sleep.
But through exercise one may succeed
in preventing the soul from falling asleep when it suppresses strengthened
thinking.
Consciousness then persists despite
the cessation of impressions from the outer world. To this consciousness a real
spiritual world reveals itself.
Perception of a spiritual world is
added to that of the ordinary world. In this spiritual world one recognizes a
third human organization, a “third human being”.
We call this the astral
organization.
In conscious or semiconscious life,
the sensations emanating from the organs, the dim feeling of life, the
indefinite sense of the organism in general, proceed from this astral
organization.
Hunger and thirst, the feelings of
satisfaction, fatigue, and so forth, also proceed from this astral
organization.
Furthermore, one recognizes not only
that this astral organism is the bearer of these conscious or semiconscious
conditions, but also that this is only one side
of its activity, namely, that which
is inclined toward the consciousness of the soul.
The other side reaches down into the
subconscious organic processes. The same astral body that, for instance, makes
man conscious of fatigue, lives in the organs producing fatigue. Now, however,
the proper relationship must be established between these two sides of astral
activity.
This can occur only if the etheric
organization places itself properly between the activity of the astral and that
of the physical organization.
If the etheric organization is too
weak, then it is incapable of keeping the astral sufficiently away from the
physical; the astral then interferes too strongly with the physical.
For normal human life it is
necessary that the astral be kept forcefully enough away from the physical and
that it act only as a soul element.
For if the soul element joins with
the physical too strongly, then processes in the physical will approximate the
extra - human processes.
The human organs themselves will
become foreign bodies that will then act like something foreign that penetrates
into man and cannot be transformed by the weak etheric organization.
Man owes to the astral organization
the lower part of his soul capacities; however, he is also exposed to illnesses
through it because, in certain cases, this organization is not separated
strongly enough from the physical organization and thereby, in a wrong way,
implants something foreign into the physical organization. One has to know the
extra - human substance or the extra - human process that drives the astral out
of the physical.
This substance or process
constitutes a remedy.
Accordingly, all healing rests upon
the ability to see into the connections of the physical and the supra -
physical in the human organization and, if these connections take on
an abnormal character,
to find in extra - human nature the
means to counteract the abnormal.
There is a polar contrast between
the purely physical and the etherically oriented processes in the organism, and
those processes consciousness depends upon.
The stronger the former, the more
the latter have to retreat.
The physical - organic element,
through its own forces and laws, suppresses consciousness.
The bodily processes that underlie
consciousness cannot continue to be active in their way and according to their
laws if consciousness is to arise.
They must be held back, somewhat
paralyzed in themselves, indeed, their intrinsic character must be destroyed.
What in spiritual terms is known as
astral organization paralyzes the etheric organization.
In order to shape the indefinite
semiconscious and subconscious experiences, the life processes dependent upon
the etheric organization must be subdued.
These elements still do not
encompass the whole human organization. Spiritual perception that takes hold of
the astral organization can proceed further.
Then a fourth organization, a
“fourth man” - the ego - organization -
arises before spiritual vision.
This ego - organization acts for the
physical organization in the same way that the astral acts against the
organization dependent upon the ether - organism.
In man, physical substance must
continuously take on a living shape. Thus springs forth the activity of the
physical and etheric organisms.
The etheric carries on its processes
by dissolving in the fluid element that which wants to take on solid forms.
The astral organization paralyzes
the life - producing activity. This takes place by transformation of the
fluidic into the aeriform.
An example of this activity is the
breathing process.
It carries the living fluid of the
organism over into the inhaled air and thereby subdues it to such a degree that
it may become the bearer of the semiconscious or subconscious soul processes.
The ego - organization participates
in these processes.
But it carries everything that
happens here still further.
It immerses all the processes taking
place in the solid, fluid and aeriform states into the differentiations of
warmth in the organism.
In the warmth processes taking place
in diverse ways in the organism, the ego - organization is constantly
transforming all the substances and all the processes of the organism in such a
way that the organism can become the carrier of a soul life conscious of
itself.
If the force bringing about this
transformation becomes too strong or too weak, illness occurs.
It is then a question of recognizing
through diagnosis how remembering oneself does one experience the continuity of
self - awareness and hence the self as such.
This element, spiritually developing, spiritually enduring, spiritually observing
itself, is not just a mere member of being, but at the same time also the very
center of being.
And only a being like this is capable of such human activities as
thinking and willing. Through the power of remembrance and of thinking -
something only a being with memory is capable of - such
a “center of being” may rise to a point that is god - like (plants cannot do
this).
Goethe has expressed this in the following words: “As soon as man
perceives the objects around him, he regards them in relation to himself; and
rightly so, for his whole fate depends on whether they please or displease him,
attract or repel, serve or harm him.
This quite natural way of looking at objects and evaluating them appears
to be as easy as it is necessary and yet man is subject to a thousand errors
which often shame him and make life bitter for him.
A far more onerous task is taken on by those whose active thirst for
knowledge drives them to observe the objects in nature by themselves and in
their relations
to each other; for they soon forget the standard which helped them when
as human beings they observed the objects in relation to themselves.
They do not have the yardstick of like and dislike, of attraction and
rejection, of usefulness and harmfulness.
They are to do entirely without this; as indifferent and more or less
god - like beings they are to search and examine what is, not what pleases.
And so the true botanist is not to be moved by the beauty or usefulness
of a plant, he is to examine its structure, its relations to the rest of the
plant kingdom; and like the sun who calls them forth and shines upon them all,
he is to regard them all with the same impassive eye, see them all together,
and take the standard for this knowledge, the data for evaluation, not out of
himself, but out of the world of the objects which he is observing.
”The god - like sphere which comes to life in man when he uses his
faculty of memory is that of the spirit.
By perceiving himself as a being, by being able to experience things
entirely outside himself which just are there, not merely pleasing or troubling
him -
in that respect man is a human being and not merely animal.
Spiritual comprehension of self leads to experience of the ego,
developing the sense of ego which is needed to comprehend the highest member of
man’s being.
It is through the ego that man is man. Just as a stone cannot be changed
by any process of death, nor the plant by a process of going to sleep, so the animal
cannot be changed by any process of forgetting; forgetting and remembering do
not determine its existence, but they do in man.
Summary
The processes of dying, of going to sleep, and of forgetting perform an
“analysis of existence” on the different forms of being on earth, demonstrating
that there are different “members of being.”
The mineral has a physical body.
The plant consists of a physical and an etheric body (life - body).
The animal possesses a physical, etheric and astral body (soul - body).
Man has a physical, etheric and astral body, and beyond this is a
spiritual world which may show itself to him when he develops spiritual organs,
just as the development of physical sense organs allows him to take part in the
physical sensory world.
To find thyself in the infinite, thou must differentiate, and then
combine.
Goethe, Wolkengedicht
Analysis should be immediately followed by synthesis, otherwise one may
well hold the parts in one’s hand, but the spiritual bond is lost.
After all, mineral, plant, animal and man are all in one common world,
existing together and for each other, intertwined and interwoven in a thousand
ways.
The purpose here is to show the healing relations between plant and man,
and therefore it is necessary to show up the synthetic power, the archetypal
unity, that which makes the kingdoms of nature into a whole, and archetypal
entity from which the individual beings in nature are derived as variations.
The key must be found which opens up the mysteries of the archetypal
relationship of all kingdoms of nature.
This archetypal being and archetypal motif of earthly existence is man
himself.
Just a brief outline shall be given of how the spheres of being below
man can be seen as variations of the archetypal motif of his fourfold nature.
In the ego, man comprehends himself as a spiritual being.
The ego is the impulse center from which he can unfold free
creativeness.
With this, he can develop spiritual powers of perception, to discover
and know the spiritual not only within himself, but also all around him.
Man can become a spiritual scientist.
In discovering the spiritual all around him, he first of all perceives
the nature of his fellow men.
(The starting point for such a faculty of knowledge is the power of
love, and the capacity for selflessness.)
If such a person directs the spiritual senses he has developed at the
animal, it becomes apparent to him that the animal, too, is not without
spirituality,
without a form of ego.
But this form of ego is not given to the individual animal, but is part
of a “group - spirit,” or “group - ego” belonging to all the animals of a
species.
The group - ego does not embody itself in the body of the individual
animal, and so this cannot become a true individual.
The group - ego remains in the spiritual realm.
In it lie the impulses, the instincts, the way of life of the group of
animals concerned.
To perceive this is the crowning achievement of a “study of animal
nature” truly deserving of that name.
The group spirit of animals does not go through life and death; the
birth and death of the individual animal therefore mean something quite
different to it than all these aspects of life mean to man.
In the animal body, therefore, physical, etheric and astral elements are
present; but not the group - ego, for that remains in the spiritual world.
For someone able to perceive spiritual entities in the way just
described, the plant, too, has both soul and spirit (astral element and a form
of ego).
But it is even less able than the animal to house these higher members
of being in its body; they remain worlds away from it, unborn, in the spiritual
realm.
But contacts and impulses are constantly passing to and from between the
physical - etheric body of the plant and its astrality as well as the plant
ego.
It is impossible to gain a fully comprehensive picture of the plant in
its relations with the fourfold human being unless one takes into account the
fact that the plant, too, is a fourfold being.
In this “relatedness to man” must be sought the causes for the plant’s
actions on all four members of man’s being.
It is not the intention here to develop a study of mineral nature, but
just to round out the picture it may be mentioned that to a natural science
which takes into account the spiritual aspect, the mineral, too, has connection
with etheric processes, astral actions, and a spiritual element.
But in the physical world we have only the physical body of the mineral.
The three higher members of its being remain, eternally unborn, worlds
away from it, in the spiritual realm.
But in the fourfold nature of the mineral lies also the reason why it
has such manifold relations to the fourfold being of man.
Out of this, one can understand why it is possible to influence the
total constitution of man with mineral remedies, and not only its mineral
aspects, or those directly related to the mineral.
From what has been given, the following aphorism, daring but
nevertheless justified, may be permitted: The whole earthly world is man.
It is built up in a fourfold way, according to the basic pattern and
archetypal motif of man.
And it is thanks to this structure that the different earthly beings are
able to exist together in one, common earthly world: at the same time with, on,
in and through each other.
The harmony of creation lies in this fourfoldedness.
From such a point of view, as
ancient Greek wisdom has also expressed it: Man is the measure of all things on
earth.
The Four Members of Man and the Four
States of Being Embodying them
The mineral, its body being dead
physical substance, finds the best expression of its nature in the solid state.
The crystalline form, definite and
characteristic for every type of mineral, can only exist in its richly
structured form because of the properties of the solid state.
A change to the fluid or gaseous
state will at once cancel this form.
The solid state alone makes it
possible for the mineral to have this form, fixed in three spatial dimensions,
laid down once and for all.
The plant, however, needs a further
state of being for its embodiment: the fluid.
It has to embody not only a
physical, but also an etheric entity.
Its forms do not arise from the
physical nature of the substances it consists of, but from the etheric nature
of the plant.
Because of this, it does not express
its being in permanent form, but in a constant metamorphosis of form - as
described in the first chapter.
This flowing change of form with its
laws of metamorphosis needs a state of being which is just as ready to take up
form as to give it up at once and without resistance, if the life principle
(the etheric body) should demand it.
This requirement is met by water,
fluid water, the main component of the plant body.
The solid parts of the plant only
serve to give contour to the liquid, to hold up the formative flow for a time,
to hold a shape for a short period, to emphasize it; but the solid element in
the plant does not produce any form of its own, it merely becomes the vessel of
the life - form and of the life – formative forces.
Where the plant grows too hard it
has previously used a process of devitalization, has withdrawn life and at the
same time water from its bodily substance, or brought them
to a standstill - for
instance in the formation of wood and bark, but also in the development of
seeds.
Man and animal also need the fluid
element, in so far as they, too, are living beings, in order to develop the
activity of the etheric bodies.
The more alive, the more fluid; the
more dried out, solid, the more dead: This applies to all forms of life, in
plant, animal, or man.
This “fluidity in all that lives”
is, of course, borne by the physical substance of living protein, but then this
protein is a colloid containing extremely large amounts of water.
Its marvellous properties,
impressionable from all sides, the plastic material for that inexhaustible
sculptor the etheric body, can only attain its burgeoning life in conjunction
with the watery element.
In every one of its physical
properties, creation has intended water for life.
On the other hand the plant is not
yet able to form its own air and warmth organisms.
It is aired through and warmed from
its surroundings, with its breathing, its warmth determined and regulated by an
external, cosmic process.
Making the gaseous, the airy element
part of oneself in an inner breathing organization is something that is only
possible -step by step, and more and
more so, from the lower to the higher-
to the animal, and fully so only to man.
The process has many aspects.
The most important one is that
together with the airy element the soul - like, the astral body, enters into
the body.
This gives rise to a world of
internal organs, an organic cosmos, which from the inside takes over actions
which the external cosmos performs for the plant.
Together with the air, an external
cosmos is incorporated and interiorized.
With the pneumatization of the body,
right into its finest ramifications, pneuma, the soul principle, enters into
the bodies.
The airy now enters into the fluid,
dissolving in it, combining with and separating from it; at the same time,
however, the actions of etheric and astral body
combine and separate rhythmically.
Lower marine animals with their
dulled soul - life breathe the air dissolved in water. Correspondingly the
etheric then has greater influence than the astral.
Insects must send their body fluid
outwards to meet the air; here the astral is still to a high degree in contact
with the outside world, not yet “tied off” in the individual animal as much as
it is in the higher animals.
Because of this, the insects are
still living in a very close relationship with the etherically determined plant
world.
The development of true lung organs
means an important step forward towards interiorization of the soul.
In the gaseous state of physical
substance, the supersensible soul principle finds the form and properties which
enable it to enter the physical body.
The gas has given up any formative
will of its own, it resists all limitation.
The force of earth gravity has been
overcome in it, levity has replaced it.
Infinitely open to light, responding
to every warmth impulse by expanding strongly, fully open to cosmic impulses,
and placed as an outer mantle (in the atmosphere) between earthly and cosmic
existence, the gaseous is a physical state to which the physical side of
earthly life adheres only in remnants, having been largely overcome.
Expansion and contraction, tension
and relaxation, highs and lows, storm and calm, wafting and slackening,
extending and compression: These express the nature of the airy element, but
also of the soul.
Only in the breath of an ensouled
creature does the being of air achieve full expression.
Its highest form and gestalt, the
sound of speech, is air gestalt, but at the same time the most perfect physical
expression of the innermost soul.
In the air, speech may become
expression of the universal word of creation, making known that which has
created the whole world.
Even more impossible than having an
air organization of its own is for the plant to gain possession of the warmth
element, as a warmth organization, an autonomous warmth - being.
The plant - being finds for itself
this or that condition of warmth and climatic zone, it exposes itself to
stronger or weaker warmth - impulses.
But the center of the warmth -
impulse always remains sun - like for the plant, worlds away.
The lower animals, too, right up to
the mammals, are determined by external conditions of warmth and bound to
certain regions of the earth by their nature, dependent on conditions arising
from the relation of the earth to the cosmos.
Man alone rises completely above
such conditions for warmth and this enables him to live anywhere on earth,
whatever the climatic conditions.
Man has gained ascendance over fire
within himself; because of this, he is the only being on earth who also rules
fire externally.
With the power of heat it is
possible to rule over every physical state of material substance, to form and
transform it at will.
In conjunction with the element of
warmth, the human spirit, the ego, finds the possibility to live in a material
body, rising above the captivity and fetters of the forces and laws of the
earthly world; for in warmth lies the power to overcome them, rule and master
them.
In man, this warmth is borne by the
blood process.
The polarity between blood pigment
and leaf pigment also indicates the opposite directions in which one must look
for human ego and plant spirituality, particularly also with regard to the
centers of their warmth - impulses.
(The blood process holds within
itself the blood temperature of about 37°C, or 98
6°F, and holds on to it hard; the
process of assimilation in the green foliage of the plant has to rely on
external conditions of warmth, but again it is most intensive at an external temperature of about
37°C).
The highest form of warmth, however,
is the warmth of enthusiasm, and this can inflame the human will.
In conclusion let us put once more
in tabular form what has been said, however briefly, about the four members of
being of the four spheres of earthly existence, and the states of being they
use to embody themselves.
Physical members of being, State of
Present in the spiritual, present in the sphere of the being supersensible
sphere senses
Mineral Physical
body
Solid Etheric,
astral, form of ego
Plant
Physical body, etheric body
Solid, fluid Astral element, form of ego
Animal
Physical body, etheric body
Solid, fluid Group - ego astral body airy
Man
Physical body, etheric body
Solid, fluid, astral body,
ego airy, warmth - like
“In - Between Forms” in the Plant
Kingdom
The plant has been represented from
certain points of view as an in - between being between the mineral kingdom below
it, and the animal kingdom above it.
This made the root organization the
member which grappled with the mineral, earthly sphere and overcame it, and the
flower organization on the other hand the member which grappled with animal
nature, and was clearly defined against it.
Being chiefly determined by etheric
forces, the plant being stands between the dead mineral kingdom governed by
physical forces, and the ensouled animal kingdom which is determined by astral
forces.
However, if one allows one’s eye to
wander over the whole abundance of living plant forms one will find some very
strange in - between and transitional forms where plant life shows a tendency
towards the mineral, taking up the earthy element more strongly than usual; but
also forms where the plant combines more of an animal nature with its formative
forces -
mineral - plant on the one hand, animal - plant on the other.
Many of the succulents (Cactaceae,
Euphorbiaceae, Mesembryanthemum, Crassulaceae), which live on particularly
dead, mineral soil, have a form showing an almost crystalline rigidity.
The living, moving spiral
progression of normal leaf formation has here become a rigid rib - formation.
Some of these plants even look like
stones.
Another way in which mineral laws
reach across into the life processes of plants may be seen in many salt plants,
particularly those on the sea shore, such as Salicornia, Halopeplis, Salsola;
here the shoots look like swollen stems of blown - out roots growing above
ground which have never developed leaves.
In all these forms the life
processes, and with them the fluid organization, have been congested into
highly vital, but little - formed and differentiated structures which seem to
want to swell into spherical shape; the flowering processes are greatly
delayed, forced back, even atrophied.
The plant formation cannot separate
from the salt and root process, remains fixed to it.
In the first example it resembles
the dead, solid, crystalline element, in the second the dead, fluid, drop -
shaped element.
Another instance of mineral, earthly
laws entering into the plant element is the formation of trees with the
tendency to lignification.
According to an aphorism by Rudolf
Steiner, a tree trunk may be regarded as turned up earth.
The tendencies to tree formation
increase considerably towards the tropics.
Relations between Geographical Zones
and the Major Processes of Plant Life
Just as every physical plant, and
altogether the physical aspect of every living being, is based on an etheric
organism, a body of formative forces, so the whole earth is surrounded by a
huge sphere
of formative forces.
This enables the earth to be a place
not only of death, but also of life.
Rudolf Steiner has explored this
world of formative forces in many respects, and his followers have described it
in relation to the various kingdoms of nature.
This world of formative forces makes
the earth a member of the cosmos as a whole, for the formative forces are
cosmic in nature.
(Through the world of physical
forces, every bit of earthly substance is a part of the earth.) We can only
comprehend what goes on on earth if we see it all as
based on an infinitely varied
interplay between physical, earthly and etheric, cosmic forces.
The tropics:
Here the interaction between earthly
and cosmic forces is particularly close. In the tropics, the earthly element
proliferates towards the cosmic; the cosmic on the other hand is drawn down
into
the earthly, it is made earthly.
At the poles:
Here the early withdraws into itself;
the cosmic is pure and strong in its action, though not wanting very much to
combine with the earthly.
The earthly is just like a mirror
here, taking nothing in, throwing everything back.
In the temperate zones:
Here a balance has been achieved between
earthly and cosmic laws.
It is obvious therefore: With regard
to its organization of formative forces, the whole earth is just as threefold
in structure as the plant itself.
And it is due to this threefoldness
that the plants of the tropics, the polar regions and the temperate zones
differ so characteristically from each other.
In the tropics, the boundaries of
earth and cosmos dissolved into each other; the root element proliferates
upwards, giant trees develop, with wood hard as iron.
The earth does not stop with the
soil, and its forces rise up into the air; roots hang from branches; they find
their element in that air, an indication that the air there bears within it
something that
is “earthy.
”Many other plants wind upwards like
lianae”.
On the other hand, the cosmic sphere
and the flowering process connected with it penetrate deeply.
Certain plants become nothing but
flowers, their other organs being atrophied, and have to grow as parasites on
other plants.
In others the flowers break forth
from the stem, even from the root.
Scent and color, otherwise
properties of the flower, appear in leaf, wood, bark.
The colors of flowers become
strident, the flower - forms animal - like, the scents heavy and overpowering.
The number of poisonous plants
increases greatly. (In the poisonous plants - and this will be discussed in
more detail later - cosmic, astral spheres of being break overwhelmingly into
the physis of the plant concerned, breaking through the etheric forces.) In the
plants of the polar regions, on the other hand, the root element is strongly
bound to the rocky soil, the plant may be said to be creeping back into the
root, so that this is the largest organ of the plant.
Leaves tend to be tiny, but the
flower – forms are pure and large, with wonderfully dear and glowing colors.
What in the temperate zones is a
tree becomes a shrub here, often just a tiny, creeping growth; for instance the
polar birch.
But the aroma is incomparably strong
and noble.
(A similar contrast like that
between polar and equatorial regions exists between high mountains and lowland
country, and also between winter and summer.) The temperate zones again
represent the balance; in them the pure plant element is least distorted.
In the cycle of the year, spring and
autumn correspond to them, and it is only in these regions that these two
seasons develop fully.
The Evolution of the Earth and Its
Earlier Forms
The four natural kingdoms on earth
represent four stages of being.
According to anthroposophical
spiritual science these came into being through four acts of creation.
Not one, but four acts of creating
the world were necessary to obtain these four stages.
The symphony of the world’s creation
may be said to have four movements.
It took its origin in the decisions
and creative powers of high spiritual beings.
Every physical fact that is finally
open to perception is preceded by a purely spiritual cause.
How the evolution of the world is
described by anthroposophical spiritual science may be seen from the detailed descriptions
given by R.S. and his followers.
It is not possible to reproduce them
here, but only to give a brief outline.
A first, but very comprehensive
orientation may be found in Rudolf Steiner’s Occult Science.
In it, the four stations of world
creation are represented as the creation of the Old Saturn, of the Old Sun, the
Old Moon, and of the Earth.
The first three are preliminary to
the creation of the Earth, and without them the Earth could not have evolved.
As to the creatures of these four
stations of creation, a different natural being was created on each: on the Old
Saturn the human germ, but this only developed to the level of mineral
organization. The Old Saturn was a world of warmth.
The second station, the evolution of
the Old Sun, which arose after the death of Old Saturn as a new impact of
creation from the spiritual world, raised the human germ to the level of plant
being; it now had not just a physis as on the Old Saturn, but this physis was
given an etheric body; the building material at its disposal was a physical
substance condensed into an airy, gaseous state, filled with light processes.
As a second kingdom of nature, there
existed on the Old Sun a “remnant” of warmth - and - mineral being which had
remained at the level of the Old Saturn.
The next station of creation, the
Old Moon world, raised the human germ to the level of animal being.
The creative sacrifice of high
spiritual beings gave of their own substance of being to provide man with a
soul quality, the astral principle.
With this, the Moon substance
condensed as far as the fluid state.
As “remnants” of the earlier
creations, two natural kingdoms below that of man continued to exist, a plant
one and a mineral one.
Then came the creation of the earth.
By filling the human germ with
spiritual substance from the sphere of spiritual being itself, raised it to a
spiritual able to comprehend itself, a bearer of Ego.
As remnants of the three preceding
creations, the three kingdoms of nature below man have remained.
Man therefore is the first - born of
creation, its key – note - even though he is the last to make his appearance,
as the apex of humanity.
He never went through the mineral,
plant and animal kingdoms existing today; these are only remnants which could
not be transformed into human beings, cast - offs, one might say on the road to
human development.
Continuing the studies that are the
aim of this book it is necessary to study the evolution of the Old Moon which
immediately preceded the evolution of the earth.
The Old Moon had three natural
kingdoms.
From these arose the four natural
kingdoms of the earth.
Those three natural kingdoms of the
Old Moon world were of a peculiar nature, however.
They were not mineral, plant and
animal in the present - day sense, but in-between beings which were in -
between the natural kingdoms of today.
In them rested the germs of
development of the earth world lying ahead of them. Otherwise they would not
have been capable of true development.
The highest kingdom was that of an
animal - man—beings higher than the animal of today, but with no ego and
therefore lower than man of today.
The second kingdom represented an in
- between sphere between the plant and animal beings of today.
Here one must speak of animal -
plants and plant - animals.
The lowest kingdom on the Old Moon
was a mineral - plant or plant - mineral kingdom somewhere between the plant
and the mineral of today.
There was no dead, solid, stony
mineral ground on the Old Moon. “We have to imagine the whole ground and body of
the Moon consisting of this plant - mineral substance, just as the earth today
consists of rocks and stones, arable soil, etc.
As here and there rocks protrude
from the earth today, so in the Lunar mass, harder portions also were embedded.
These might be likened to forms made
of hard wood or horn. Moreover, as plants today spring from the mineral soil,
so was the ground of the Moon bedecked, and also penetrated, by a second
kingdom, consisting of a kind of plant - animal.
Their substance was softer than the
basic mass, and more mobile in itself.
Once one has come to accept the idea
of this Old Moon world with its “in - between beings,” it is possible to
understand how as relics of that ancient evolution the natural kingdoms of the
earth have within them the tendency to develop in - between forms, though now
only as abnormalities.
As we are primarily concerned with
the plant kingdom, this may help us to gain a better understanding of the half
mineral, half plant phenomena in plant life, as well as those showing an
interplay between plant and animal.
In marshy regions and swamps one
will see and comprehend forms reminiscent of the lowest kingdom on the Old
Moon, their consistency somewhere between solid and fluid: On those soils
actual animal - plants also tend to arise, like the carnivorous plants for
instance.
The many different parasitic and
semi - parasitic plants also bear reminiscence of the Old Moon world.
They are not able to grow on the
earthy soil of today, but only on a living or half - living basis.
On the other hand these plants often
tend to animal - like processes, they hypertrophy in this direction, producing
flower forms resembling animal forms.
Orchids, Bromeliaceae, Rafflesiae
are a few of these.
Another aspect which is illuminated
through this point of view are the numerous instances of symbiosis between
animals and plants.
Many bonds still exist where once
there was a complete life - unit.
Plants today have “their” animals,
animals “their” plants; at one time they were complete animal - plant beings.
Only the general principle is
outlined here, details will be discussed under the plant families concerned.
*In Sensitive Chaos (Rudolf Steiner
Press, 1965), Schwenk describes these dynamics in a different, but
complementary manner in relation to fluids.
He speaks of the tendency of fluids
to form a sphere and of the effect of gravity upon fluids.
When these two forces interact over
time, spiral and meandering forms arise.
[Ira Cantor]
Archetypes of Form in the Human
Organism
This article arose out of a
fascination for the forms and gestures of eurythmy, and their relationship to
various physiological and psychological processes.
This sparked an interest to discover
the forms and gestures within human anatomy, and then to attempt to build a
bridge to the eurythmy gestures.
In this article, I will limit myself
to discussion of the first part; that is, the archetypal forms within the human
organism.
Preliminary Thoughts
If one views the body externally,
there are certain simple, yet none the less striking observations that can be
made.
To begin with, we note a contrast
between the head, which is more or less spherical, and the limbs, which are
linear.
To understand the significance of
this, we must ask ourselves the question, “What are the typical qualities of a
sphere, of a line?” A sphere has the quality of being complete within itself at
rest, whereas a line implies directionality, or movement from one point to
another.
If we then view what lies under our skin,
we’re struck by the image of how the nerves from all the different parts of our
body are drawn together into a single organ, the brain.
The polarity to this is seen below
our diaphragm, where there seems to be a separating tendency, without any obvious
ordering principle, into the many different organs of our abdominal cavity.
We can see how the quality of
convergence appears in our nervous system, whereas separation, or divergence is
present in our abdominal organs.
Further light is thrown on these observations
if we ask the question of how different forms arise in the body.
The finished forms arise from
particular shaping tendencies.
From a certain viewpoint, we can say
that there are two different dynamics at work in the creation of forms.
These can be described as forces
which radiate in a linear fashion from a central point (centrifugal) and those
which come tangentially from the periphery and tend to form surfaces and
spheres.
The forces radiating from a center
push out and tend to separate things whereas those coming from the periphery
limit and force the form inwards and back on itself.
The study of physiognomy affords
numerous instances to see these shaping forces at work.
The forehead has, for instance, a
predominance of the peripheral, surface-forming forces, whereas the chin has a
predominance of the central radiating forces.
Of course, both chin and forehead
demonstrate the interaction between both of these forces.
What happens when these two shaping
tendencies meet in a rhythmical, repeating manner? In that situation
rhythmically oscillating curves arise.
First one is predominant, then the
other. The wonderful curves that one sees in the nose and ear arise this way.
The heart muscle is also formed in
this manner.
* In looking at the threefold
picture of the human being (nerve-sense, rhythmic, metabolic-limb systems), we
can make certain preliminary statements, based on
the above observations.
The head has a concentrating, or
converging tendency, and the predominant shaping force is the peripheral,
surface-forming one.
Our limbs, as a polarity, tend to
divergence or expansion, and have a predominance of the raying-out forces.
Our rhythmical system demonstrates
the rhythmical meeting of these two, and therefore develops oscillating curves.
We will now proceed to look at these
three systems in detail.
Our procedure will be fundamentally
the same in each situation.
In this way, the similarities and
differences will appear more clearly.
Nerve-Sense System
In looking at the skeleton, we
notice an interesting relationship between the skeleton and the organs.
In the head, the skull surrounds the
primary organ, the brain, which is located inside the skull.
In the limbs, the opposite
relationship occurs.
The chief organs, the muscles, lie
outside the structure.
What kind of movement tendency is
there is the nerve-sense system?
There is really very little actual
movement, but our previous observation of the convergence tendency can help us.
Our senses are always aware of our
environment.
This environment can be outside, as
in the sense of sight, or it can be inside, where, for instance, the sense of
the life processes is active.
One can perceive that these sense
impressions come into our brain from all directions.
They not only come in, but we can
have a sense that they’re drawn, almost sucked in, by our brain.
When we see an object, not only are
we drawn to it in our vision, but in order to cognize it, we “draw” it into our
consciousness, and thereby have a conscious, inward experience of it.
The nervous system is relatively
symmetrical (compared to the rest of our body).
Nevertheless, it is questionable if
we are ever completely symmetrical, or if complete symmetry is even possible
for a conscious earthly being.
This relative symmetry is connected
with what is the dominant form gesture of the nerve-sense system; the crossing
of nerves form one side, over the midline, to the other side.
These crossings, as shown in the
diagrams, are not only right to left or left to right, but also inside (medial)
to outside (lateral).
This is also shown by the fact that
in the brain, the gray matter (cell bodies) is more lateral, whereas in the
spinal cord, the situation reverses, and the white matter (axons) is more
lateral.
As with all things, exceptions often
help us to understand the rule, and there is an exception to this crossing
over.
This is seen in the reflex arc.
In this singular situation, the
nerves don’t cross over the midline.
What is of importance about this is
that the reflex arc doesn’t involve any conscious mediation.
The crossing over tendency must be
deeply connected to consciousness.
As an additional point, we should
look at the directions of front and back.
Indications of their importance are
seen in the spine and the brain it self.
In the spinal cord, we have the
anterior columns, connected with the so called motor nerves, whereas in the
posterior columns, we have sensory nerves.
In our brain, the area anterior to
the central gyrus is the motor cortex, while posterior is the sensory cortex.
Our relationship to language shows
this division as well, as our speech center is anterior, while our auditory
center is posterior.
Disregarding the question of whether
there is such a thing as a motor nerve, one can see that the structures located
posteriorly (posterior columns, sensory cortex, auditory center) have more of a
pure perceiving function, while those located anteriorly (anterior columns,
motor cortex, speech center) are intimately related to will and movement
activities.
In summary, we can say that the
nerve-sense system has a tendency to be enclosed, to converge, or be “sucked”
inwards.
It has strong relation ships to
directions in space, with crossings its most impressive gesture.
The posterior has a clear sensory
quality compared to the anterior, which has an intimate relationship to will
and movement.
Rhythmic System
In studying “form” in our rhythmic
system, we must realize that we can only understand a part of the reality.
This is because the element of time
begins to play an important role.
Whereas the forms in the nerve-sense
system are relatively fixed, our rhythmic system and metabolic limb system are
always changing, in very particular ways.
In our nervous system, we function in
three directions, while in our rhythmic system, time, the fourth dimension,
appears.
We will follow the same sequence of
observations as in the nerve-sense system.
We begin with the relationship of
our skeleton to the organs. We notice an alternating relationship, best seen in
our ribs.
First they’re outside the lungs,
then there’s an open space, then again a rib, an open space, etc., until
finally the ribs disappear, and the organs are on the outside.
We see a transition between the
situation in our head, where the brain is enclosed by our skull, and our limbs
and abdomen, where the organs are exposed.
The quality of movement in the
rhythmic system is one of alternately moving towards a center (as in the
heart’s contraction), and then to the periphery (as in the heart’s relaxation).
We should note that the dynamics of
the heart and lungs in these movements are very different; in fact, almost
polar.
The heart has an active contraction
and a passive relaxation, whereas the lungs are actively expanded and recoil
passively.
The difference between the heart and
lungs is understood more deeply by exploring the quality of symmetry.
Though the lungs are not totally
symmetrical, there is a tendency towards symmetry.
The heart, on the other hand,
deviates markedly from symmetry.
It moves out of the midline, lies at
an angle, and the left side is much more developed than the right.
Here we can see that the lungs are
related more closely to the nerve-sense system with its symmetry, whereas the
heart tends more towards the asymmetric metabolic system, those organs below
the diaphragm.
Our respiratory system begins with
our nose, where we note the curves we spoke of in the first section.
We then go through our pharynx,
which we share with our digestive system, and come to our trachea.
Here the rhythmic element shows
itself in our tracheal rings.
These are arranged in a regular,
somewhat fixed pattern.
This regular segmentation persists
until we come to the terminal bronchioles.
We then come to the alveoli, which
surprise us by their totally unexpected shape.
The form of the alveoli, as we shall
see, is very reminiscent of those shapes found in our metabolic system, in our
glands.
Here one of the great mysteries of
the lungs appears, as embryologically, the lungs develop as an outpouch from
our intestine, our primitive digestive system.
This mystery is revealed especially
in the shape of the alveoli, which are glands (as are all of our digestive
organs), secreting the substance surfactant.
If we further contrast the heart with
the lungs, we note the differences in how they move.
The lungs have no inherent ability
to move.
The muscles of the chest wall
expand, and the lungs passively follow. Then the chest muscles relax, and the
lungs passively recoil.
The heart, in contrast, has an
inherent ability to contract and relax.
Our respiratory system begins with
our nose, where we note the curves we spoke of in the first section.
We then go through our pharynx,
which we share with our digestive system, and come to our trachea.
Here the rhythmic element shows
itself in our tracheal rings. These are arranged in a regular, somewhat fixed
pattern.
This regular segmentation persists
until we come to the terminal bronchioles.
We then come to the alveoli, which
surprise us by their totally unexpected shape.
The form of the alveoli, as we shall
see, is very reminiscent of those shapes found in our metabolic system, in our
glands.
Here one of the great mysteries of
the lungs appears, as embryologically, the lungs develop as an outpouch from
our intestine, our primitive digestive system.
This mystery is revealed especially
in the shape of the alveoli, which are glands (as are all of our digestive
organs), secreting the substance surfactant.
If we further contrast the heart
with the lungs, we note the differences in how they move.
The lungs have no inherent ability
to move .
The muscles of the chest wall
expand, and the lungs passively follow.
Then the chest muscles relax, and
the lungs passively recoil.
The heart, in contrast, has an
inherent ability to contract and relax.
The lung shows two form tendencies -
one of somewhat rigid segmentation (tracheal rings) and the alveoli with a
budding form.
The heart shows totally different
forms.
These appear as spirals and
vortices.
Can we discover any other archetypal
forms in the rhythmic system?
We find lemniscates everywhere we
look.
Looking at the embryo-logical
development of the lung, we see the lemniscate appearing.
If we look at the spinal cord, we
note lemniscate forms in the nerve patterns.
The muscle fibers of the heart wind
around in the form of a lemniscate.
Lastly, if we take any circulatory
circuit, between the heart and any organ, this is always the form of an
irregularly shaped lemniscate.
Summing up our observations of the
rhythmic system, we see a rhythmical, alternating relationship between center
and periphery.
Curves, especially spirals and
vortices, are found.
The predominant form gesture is that
of the lemniscate.
The lungs are more closely related
to the nerve-sense system and show their rhythmical quality in somewhat rigid
structures, while the heart
tends towards the metabolic side and
shows its rhythmical quality in a more dynamic, flexible way.
Whereas the lungs still have polar
elements of the nerve-sense system (symmetry and rigidity) and the
metabolic-limb system (alveolar buds),
the heart has harmonized these to a
far greater degree.
Metabolic-Limb System
Our nervous system deals extensively
with the three dimensions of space.
Time becomes an element in dealing with
our rhythmic system.
Our metabolic-limb system is
involved with the transformation of substance, for example, the digestion and
metabolism of food.
In this process, the original form
of the substance is broken down, and a kind of “chaos” prevails, until a new
form appears.
This polarity of the “chaos” of our
metabolic system, in contrast to the fixed immobile structures of our
nerve-sense system, points to the difficulties in understanding “form” in the
metabolic system.
At first glance, one could despair
at ever finding a unifying principle of form, as there is such a diversity of
seemingly unrelated forms in our abdomen.
We’ll begin our observation, as
before, with the skeleton.
Except for the vertebral column, our
abdomen is almost devoid of skeletal structures until we come to our pelvic
bones, which partially enclose our reproductive
organs and lower urinary tract.
Here we have a sense that we must distinguish between those organs above
and below our pelvis.
We will return to this point in our
further discussion.
Our abdominal organs, therefore,
display a polarity to our nerve-sense system, in their being exposed, while the
nerve-sense system was enclosed.
The skeletal relationship is similar
to what we found in our limbs, where our muscles are exposed.
If we proceed to the question of
symmetry, we’re struck by the total lack of it.
The liver is on the right, the
spleen on the left; the intestine is incredibly asymmetrical.
Symmetry, however, begins to
reassert itself when we come to the genito-urinary system.
Here again, we see that the kidney
and reproductive system must be considered as organs very different from those
purely metabolic organs (liver/pancreas).
In the rest of the discussion, when
we speak of metabolic organs, we will be referring only to the latter.
The form of the kidneys and
reproductive organs betray, as is well known, their deep relationship to the
nerve-sense system in anthroposophical medicine.
(In this article we cannot go into
more detail regarding this relationship of the kidneys to the nervous system.
One can find a detailed discussion
in Wolff-Husemann, The Anthroposophical Approach to Medicine, Anthroposophic
Press; also in H.P. Vogel, The Kidneys.)
Regarding movement, we noted a
“sucking inward” in our nerve system.
In our rhythmic system, there was a
movement to and fro between center and periphery.
In our metabolic system, there is a
movement, taking place slowly over long periods of time, which can be best
characterized as budding, or sprouting.
We can understand this if we study
the embryological development of our metabolic system.
All our metabolic organs develop as
outgrowths from our primitive gut, our intestine.
They’re actually described as buds
(liver bud, spleen bud, lung bud).
All of our metabolic organs are glands.
What is a gland? A gland is an
amorphous structure that secretes substances.
Embryologically, when these
secretory cells increase in number, they separate off from the intestine, but
remain connected by a long tube, called a duct.
What is the typical form of our
abdominal organs? There is none! They simply fill the space that’s there.
The liver has its form because the
diaphragm is above, and limits it from outside.
The intestine, with all its winding,
is simply the best way to fit a long tube into the space available.
This changes somewhat when we come
to the kidney and reproductive organs which have more clearly defined
structures.
The surface-limiting force,
mentioned in the beginning of the article, is almost absent in the metabolic
organs.
One finds it to a small degree in
the peritoneal coverings, which, interestingly enough, are the sensitive part
of our metabolic organs.
Vorwort/Suchen. Zeichen/Abkürzungen. Impressum.