LECTURE 2
Dornach, April 13, 1921
Today I
intend to discuss matters related to the vowel element in eurythmy.
We need only to recall — as it is known to us through spiritual
science — that vowels express more that which lives inwardly in
man as feelings, emotions and so on. Consonants describe more that which
is outwardly objective. When we remain within the realm of speech, these
two statements are valid: vowels, more expression, revelation of the
inwardness of feeling; we reveal ourselves to an extent in the vowel,
that is to say, we reveal what we feel towards an object. Through the
movements which the tongue, the lips and the palate perform, the consonants
conform themselves more plastically to the outward forms of objects
— as they are spiritually experienced, naturally — and attempt
to reconstruct them. And so basically all consonants are more reproductions
of the outward form-nature of things. However, one can actually only
speak of vowels and consonants in this manner when one has an earlier
stage of human evolution in mind in which in fact the evolution of speech
was given and in which — since the individual sounds were always
to a degree connected with movements of the body — the movement of
the whole body and of the limbs as well was self-evident. This connection
has been loosened, however, in the course of man's development. Speech
was removed more to the interior and the possibilities of movement,
of expression through movement, ceased. Today in normal life we speak
largely without accompanying our speech with the corresponding movements.
In eurythmy we bring back what attended the vowels and consonants
as movements and thus bring the body into movement again. Now we must
realize that when we pronounce vowels we omit the movement and make
the vowel inward, that previously joined in the outward movement to
an extent. We take something away from it on its path to the interior.
We take the movement away. Thus we restore to the vowel in outer
movement what we have taken away from it on its inward-going path. In
the case of the vowel, matters are such that the outward movement is
of exceptional importance in the search for the transferal of the effect
of the vowel, eurythmically expressed, onto the whole man. That is what
we must take into account here.
In speaking of vowels today, we will speak purely of the meaning of
that which is eurythmically vocalized in movement. Here it is very
important that one develops a feeling for what flows into the movement.
That one develops a perceptive consciousness which tells one whether
that which is happening in the respective human limb is a stretching,
a rounding, or such. One must decidedly acquire a specific consciousness
for this. In what pertains to vowels it is extremely important
that one feels the movement made or the position taken up. That is what
is important. Starting from here, we will transpose each of the vowels
from the eurythmic into the therapeutic.
Practically
demonstrated (Mrs. Baumann): a distinct “I” made by stretching
both arms. This stretching should be carried out in such a way that
one then returns (to the rest position; the ed.) and performs the same
movement somewhat lower, returns again, and does it with both (arms)
horizontal. Now we go back and, if you had the right forward at first,
now, as you go lower, you must take the right to the back, and now to
the front, now a bit back again, and then somewhat deeper. Now I don't
want to trouble you further with that, but if one wanted to carry it
out, one could make it more complicated by taking more positions; one
would then start with the “I”, return, do it a little further
on, go hack, a bit further on, and so forth, so that one has as many
“I”-positions as possible, carried out from above to below,
always returning (to the rest position; the ed.). When these movements
are performed, they are an expression for the human being as a person.
The entire individual person is thereby expressed.
Now we could
notice for example that some child, for that matter a grown up person,
cannot express himself properly as a person. He is somehow inhibited
in the expression of himself as a complete individuality. He might be
a dreamer in a certain sense or something similar. Or, if we think of
a physical abnormality — in the case of a child, for example,
that he doesn't learn to walk properly, he walks clumsily — or
if in the case of an adult we notice that it would be desirable for
hygienic or therapeutic reasons that the person learn to walk better,
this particular exercise would be very good for this. When grown-ups
step out too little in their stride, when they don't reach out properly
with their steps, it always means that the circulation suffers under it.
The circulation of the blood suffers under an insufficiently outreaching
gait. So when people walk in this way (lightly tripping; the ed.), that
has a consequence that the circulation becomes in some fashion slower
than it should be in that person. Then one must attempt to have this
person learn to step out again, and by having him do this exercise,
one will be certain to attain one's goal. Then the person will have
greater and more penetrating results in learning to walk properly. Thus
one can say that in essence this modified “I”-exercise furthers
those people who — I will express it somewhat radically —
cannot walk properly. It can be summed up approximately so: for people
who cannot walk properly.
You can extend
the exercise further, and, with the addition of a sort of resumée
of what Mrs. Baumann has done, it will be that much more effective Now
try to do the whole exercise without bringing the arms back (to the rest
position; the ed.) so that you reach the last position only by turning:
turning in a plane, quick, quicker and quicker. The
“I”-exercise as it was first demonstrated and described
can be intensified in this way and will benefit those people who cannot
walk properly. It will then be extraordinarily easy to bring them to walk
properly. One can admonish them to walk properly and their efforts to
walk in a different manner will bring suitable results as well.
Now
Mrs. Baumann will demonstrate an “U”-exercise for us.
The arms quite high up, and back to the starting position, now a bit
lower, back again, a little lower, now horizontal, back again, now below,
back again, and again below; that is the principle of it. And now do
it straightaway so that you start above maintaining the “U”
as you move downwards; and now do it increasingly quickly so that at
last you reach quite a speed.
Please keep this
in mind as the manner in which to execute the “U”-exercise.
If I were to summarize again in the same fashion as earlier, I would
call this the movement for children or adults who cannot stand. In the
case of “I” we had those who cannot walk, with “U”,
we have those who cannot stand.
Now not being able to stand is to have weak feet and to become very
easily tired when standing. It would also mean, for example, that one
could not stand long enough on tiptoe properly, or that one could not
stand on one's heels long enough without immediately becoming clumsy.
Standing on tiptoe or on the heels are no eurythmic exercises, but they
should be practised by people who have weak legs, who tire easily while
standing or who can't stand properly at all. To be unable to stand properly
is to be easily tired in walking as well. That is a technical difference:
to walk awkwardly and to tire in walking are two different things. When
the person is tired by walking, one has to do with the
“U”-exercise. When the person walks clumsily or when as
a result of his whole constitution it would be desirable for him to
learn to step out with his feet, that
can be technically expressed as being unable to walk. However, to be
tired by walking would be technically expressed as not being able to
stand. And for such people the “U”-exercise is especially
appropriate. This is interrelated with matters with which we must deal
once we have come a bit further.
Now please do the “O”-movement: quite high up and back (to
the rest position; the ed.) and now somewhat lower, back again, lower
still, and so on. Now do it so that you make the “O”-movement
above; feel distinctly the rounding of the arms within the movement
as you glide down. When you glide down with the “O”-movement
it must remain an “O”. Now increasingly faster.
You would
see this exercise complete in its most brilliant application if you
had here in front of you a really corpulent person. If a child or grown-up
becomes unnaturally fat, then this is the exercise to be applied. By
making the “O” so often and by extending it to this
barrel-shaped body at the end — then it is really a barrel that
one describes
outside oneself — that which forms the opposite pole to those
dynamic tendencies at work in making a person obese is in fact carried
out. One can apply it very well hygienically and therapeutically, and
you will be convinced that a tendency to become thinner actually appears
when you have such people carry out this movement, especially when they
practise other things as well which we have as yet to discuss. But at
the same time it is of special significance in this exercise that you
have the person practise only so long as he can without sweating heavily
and becoming too warm. If one wishes to attain the desired effect, one
must try to conduct the exercise so that the person can always rest
in between.
Now Mrs. Baumann will make an “E”-movement, quite high above.
It is a proper “E”-movement only when this hand lies on the
other so that they touch. Now return (to the rest position; the ed.),
then somewhat lower, the right hand over the left arm, and then, so
that it is really effective, we will do it so that it lies increasingly
further back and now again from above to below; then the “E”
must be done so that it penetrates thoroughly. And now, in bringing
it down, you must move (the crossing) further back, so far that you
split the shoulder seam at the back. Now this is the exercise that will
be especially advantageous for weaklings, that is to say, for thin people
rather than fat people, for those people in whom the weakness comes
distinctly from within, but is organically conditioned. It must be
organically caused.
Another exercise which can be considered parallel to this should be
applied with some caution as it affects the soul
more closely. It is the following: make an “E” to the rear
as well as you can and as far up as you can. That really hurts. It is
a movement that is in itself a bit painful and that is indeed the purpose.
It should be practised with those children or adults in whom there are
psychological grounds for becoming thin, such as being worn down and
so on. Since one must in principle be careful in approaching from the
outside with healing by such spiritual means, this too must of course
be applied with caution. That means that one must inspire a child who
has failed or who shows signs of depression so that he takes heart when
one will have him do these exercises. If one concerns oneself with the
child otherwise by comforting him and caring for his soul, then one
can have him do these exercises as well.
You can
see that in the case of all these things it is to a degree a matter
of extending what comes to expression in artistic eurythmy in a certain
manner. This is especially true in respect to the vowels.
Now it
is very important that we make the following clear to ourselves. You
know that the vowel element can be developed in this fashion, and that
it is in essence the expression of the inward. One must only grasp through
feeling and contemplation that which takes place. One must bear in mind
that the person concerned, the person who carries out these things in
order to be healed, must feel them; in “E” he feels that one
arm covers the other. In the case of “O” however, something
more comes into consideration. In “O” one should feel not
only the closing of the circle, but the bending as well. One should
feel that one is building a circle. One should feel the circle that
runs through it. And in order to make the “O” particularly
effective one should make the person doing it aware as well that he
should feel as though he himself or someone else were to draw a line
along his breastbone, thus by means of feeling, closing the whole to
the rear in spirit; as if one were to experience something like having
a line drawn on the breastbone by oneself or someone else.
Now we want to make an “A”: we return (to the rest position;
the ed.), now we make an “A” somewhat lower, return again,
make an “A” horizontally, back, make an “A”
somewhat lowered, back, an “A” very deep, back, then to the
rear; that you need to do only once, but return first (to the rest
positon; the ed.). And now make the “A” above and without
changing the angle bring it down, and, again without the feeling that
you change the angle, to the back.
This exercise can he really effective only if one has it clone frequently.
And when one has it repeated frequently, it is the exercise to be used
with people who are greedy, in whom the animal nature comes particularly
strongly to the fore. So if you have in school a child who is in every
way a proper little animal, and in whom the condition has an organic
cause, when you have him do this exercise, you will see that it has
for him a very particular significance.
In the
case of these exercises you can observe once again that if they are
to be introduced into the school it will be necessary to organize the
children into groups especially for them. You will soon become convinced
that the children do these exercises much less gladly than the other
eurythmic exercises. While they are eager to do the others, one will
most likely have to persuade them to do these, as they will react at
first as children often react to taking medicine: with resistance. They
won't be particularly happy about it, but that is of no especial harm in
the exercises having to do with “O”, “U”,
“E”, and “A”; in the case of “I”
it is somewhat harmful when the child doesn't enjoy it. One must try
to reach the stage where the children delight in the
“I”-exercise as we have clone it. In the case of
the others, “U”, “O”, “E”,
and “A”, it is not especially damaging if they carry out the
exercise on authority, and knowing that it is their duty to do it. With
“I” it is important that the children have pleasure in doing
it as it affects the whole individual, as I have said
already.
You will
profit further by coming to terms with the following: the “I”
reveals man as a person, the “U” reveals man as man, the
“O” reveals man as soul, the “E” fixes the ego
in the etheric body, it permeates the etheric body, strongly with the
ego. And the “A” counteracts the animal nature in man.
Now we
will follow the various workings further. If you have a person with
irregular breathing, who is in some fashion burdened clown by his breathing
and such like, you will be able to bring this person to normal breathing
by applying the vowels. You will be able to achieve in particular the
distinct articulation of the consonants by means of these exercises,
as that is greatly facilitated through the practice of the vowels. When
you notice that certain children cannot manage to form certain consonants
with the lips or the tongue — for the palatal sounds (Gaumenlaute)
it is less applicable, although for the labial and lingual sounds
exceptionally good — it will be of great help to the children
with difficulties in this respect, when one tries to have them do such
exercises as early as possible.
You will also notice that when people tend to chronic headaches, to
migrane-like conditions, these can be appreciably alleviated through
the practice of the vowels. So in the cases of chronic headaches and
chronic migrane symptoms, as well as when people are foggy-headed, these
things will be particularly applicable. Similarly, if you employ the
exercises which we have done today for children who cannot pay attention,
who are sleepy, you will awaken them in a certain sense to a state of
awareness. That is a hygienic-didactic angle of a certain significance.
It will be observed that sleepy-headed adults can definitely be awakened
in this way as well. And then one will notice that when a person's
digestion is too weak or too slow, that by means of these exercises
this slow digestion and all that is known to be connected with it, can
be changed for the better.
In certain
forms of hygienic eurythmy it would be good to have the movements —
which are carried out with the arms only in artistic eurythmy —
done with the legs as well where possible, only somewhat less forcefully,
as I am about to describe. Now you will ask how one can make an
“I”, for example, with the legs? It's very easy. One must
only stretch out the leg and feel the stretching in it. The
“U” would be simply to stand with full awareness
on both legs, so that one has a distinct
stretching feeling in both. “O” with legs must be learned,
however. One should really accustom the people with whom one finds it
necessary to do the “O”-exercise ih the manner that I have
described, to do the “O” with the legs as well. That consists
in pointing the toes somewhat, but only very slightly, to the outside
and then trying to stand in this manner and hold one's position. One
must thereby stand on tiptoe, however, and bend outward, remain so standing
a moment and then return to the normal position; then build it up again
and so on.
It is
necessary to take into account the relationship existing between the
possibilities of organically determined inner movement in the middle
man and the lower man. This is such that movement done for the lower
man should be carried out at only one-third the strength. Thus when
you have someone carry out the “O” movement as we have seen
it, you must have the feeling that what is done later for the legs and
feet requires only one-third of the time and thus only a third of the
energy expended. It will be especially effective, however, when you
place this in the middle, so that you have, let us say, A and then A
again, with B, the foot movement, in the middle (see the table); it
will be particularly effective to have them together.
one-third one-third one-third
A B A
Arm Foot Arm
It will also be especially effective to do the same
in connection with the “E”-exercise for the feet, by really
crossing the feet.
| Diagram 2 Click image for large view | |
But one must stand on tiptoe and lay one leg over the
other so that they touch. Again, one-third, and placed, if possible, in
the middle. That is something which it would be particularly good to
have done by children, and by adults as well, who are weaklings. They
will naturally be hardly capable of doing it, but that is exactly why
they must learn to do it. In precisely these matters one sees that that
which it is most important for various people to learn is that which
they are most incapable of doing. They must learn it because it is
necessary to the recovery of their health.
“A”
(with the legs; the ed.) is also necessary; I have already demonstrated
it to you yesterday. It consists in assuming this spread position while
standing insofar as it is possible on tiptoe. That should also be
introduced into the A-movement and it will be particularly effective
there.
Now one can also intensify all the exercises that we have just described
by carrying them out in walking. And you will achieve a great deal for
a weak child, for example, when you teach him to do the
“E”-motion as we have just done it in walking; he should
walk in such a manner that he always touches each leg alternately.
In taking a step forward
he crosses over first with one leg, then with the other, so that he
always crosses one leg over the other, so that he places one leg at
the hack and touches it with the other in front. Naturally he won't
move ahead very well, but it is good to have this movement carried out
while walking. You will say that complicated movements appear as a result;
but it is good when complicated movements appear.
Now I want to bring it to your attention that what we have said about
the vowel element should be sharply distinguished to begin with from what
we will practice tomorrow in respect to the consonants. The consonantal
element is such that it generally expresses the external, as we have
already said. In speech as well the consonant is so formed that a
reconstruction, an imitation of the outer form comes into being through
the formative
motions of lips and tongue. Now the consonants have, as we will see
tomorrow, very special sorts of movements and it lies within these forms
of movement to make the consonant inward again in a certain manner by
giving it eurythmic form. It is internalized. That which it loses in
the outward-going path of speech is restored to it. And, whether one
is contemplating them in eurythmy as art or performing them for personal
reasons, in the case of consonants it is particularly important to have,
not a feeling in the way one does with a vowel, a feeling of stretching,
of bending, or of widening and so on, but to imagine oneself simultaneously
in the form that one carries out while making the consonants, as though
one were to observe oneself.
Here you
can see most clearly that one must admonish the artistic eurythmists
not to mix the two things; the artistic eurythmists would not do well
to observe themselves constantly as they would rob themselves of their
ability to work unselfconsciously. On the contrary, when you have a
child or a grown-up carry out something having to do with consonants,
it is important that they photograph themselves inwardly in their thought
as it were; then in this inward photographing of oneself lies that which
is effective; the person must really see himself inwardly in the position
that he is carrying out and it must be performed in such a manner that
the person has an inner picture of what he does.
If you
would be so good (Miss Wolfram) as to show us an “M” as a
consonant, first with the right hand, now with the left, but taking
it backwards, now taking the right hand back, and “M” with
the left hand and now with both hands, that can be multiplied in various
ways, of course. Now an “M” — we will start with this
example; to begin with, what is it as speech? In speech “M”
is an extraordinarily important sound. You will experience its importance
in speech, and in speech physiology as well, if you contrast it with
the “S”. Perhaps Mrs. Baumann will make a graceful
“S” for us now, right, left, and now with both hands.
| Diagram 3 Click image for large view | |
Now to
begin with it appears that you have the feeling, or should have the
feeling when the “S” is done that you encounter something
within you — it is the etheric body namely (at this point Dr.
Steiner made the corresponding movement; the ed.); so that you have
a snake-like line. This serpentine may approach a straight line in the
case of a particularly sharply pronounced “S” and can even
be represented as a straight Iine. By contrast, when you look at the
“M” that was just performed, you should have the feeling
— even when the organic form is carried out inwardly — that
it is really not the same thing. And so the “M” is that
which counters the “S”-direction when laid against it and
that is in essence the great polarity between an “S” and
an “M”; they are two polar sounds. “S” is the
truly Ahrimanic sound, if I may speak anthroposophically, and the
“M” is that which mitigates the properties of the Ahrimanic,
makes it mild; if I may express it so, it takes its Ahrimanic strength
from it. So when we have a combination of sounds directly including
“S” and “M”, for example “Samen”
(seed) or “Summe” (sum), we have in this combination of
sounds first the strong Ahrimanic being in “S”, whose sting
is then taken from it by the “M”.
| Diagram 4 Click image for large view | |
Perhaps
you will make a “H” for us (Miss Wolfram). When you really
look at the “H”, when you feel yourself really within this
“H”, then, you will say to yourself: there is something in
this “H” which reveals itself as unequivocally Luciferic.
It is the Luciferic in the “H”, then, which comes to expression
here. And now try to observe yourself — here the feeling is less
important than the contemplation of it — try to observe yourself,
when Mrs. Baumann does it for us now, how it is when one does the
“H” and allows it to go over immediately into an
“M”. Make the “H” first and let it carry
over by and by into an “M”.
Now take a look at it. In this movement you have the whole perception
of the mitigation of the Luciferic, of its sting being taken from it,
brought to expression. The movement is truly as if one would arrest
Lucifer. And, one can also hear it if you simply think about it —
today's civilized man can actually no longer reflect properly on these
things. If someone wants to agree to something Luciferic, but immediately
diminishes the actual Luciferic element, the eagerness of his assent,
then he says, “Hm, hm”. There you have the “H” and
the “M” placed really very close to one another and you have
the whole charm of the diminished Luciferic directly within it.
From this you can see that as soon as one turns to the consonantal element,
one must immediately turn to the observation of the form as well. That
is the essential thing and tomorrow we will speak about it further.
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