LECTURE 4
Dornach, April 15, 1921
As
we have seen the vowels in eurythmy
always work more or less directly on the rhythmic organism. With the
consonantal eurythmic movements the case is that, although the rhythmic
organism is, of course, also affected, this is accomplished by way of
the limb-metabolic system. Naturally the first thing we must do today
is simply to take a look at the details; here one can only arrive at
a contemplative picture of what is involved when one can enter into the
details. We will now go through the most important consonantal movements
in eurythmy. Perhaps you would make a B for us, Miss Wolfram; and now
this B in walking as well. Try to walk in such a manner, however, that
one leg imitates the motion of the arm while moving; but repeat the
B. Now imagine that done more and more quickly and repeated to begin
with, let us say for four to five minutes. Perhaps Mrs. Baumann will
now do the P for us in the same manner. The difference is not very great.
Now you must attempt to do this with the legs as well. That brings about
a complicated leg movement which is very similar to the movements of
tone eurythmy. That must now be repeated frequently and in series by
the person with whom one hopes to accomplish something by means of the
P.
Now all
of the movements that are connected with the eurythmic consonants have
to do with that in the process of digestion which lies on the far side
of the activity of the stomach and intestine. We will now ignore the
actual intestinal space through which the food passes. When we consider
the outer wall of the intestine, however, where the chyme passes through
the intestinal villi and so on and then into the blood and the lymph
— thus from the other side of that comprised in the first digestive
activity — movement such as we have just made work back on the
inward digestion, on all that which is digestive activity in the blood
vessels, and moreover on what is digestive activity in the kidneys.
Thus if you should be concerned with regulating the activity of the
kidneys, you should have such movements carried out. Precisely the
movements which we have just done, B and P, are those which work
pre-eminently in the regulation of renal activity, for example in
regulating the elimination
of urine. These connections are certainly extraordinarily interesting
for someone who remembers how the whole circulatory being of man is
related to language, and how a connection thus arises between that which
pushes itself into the circulatory system from the metabolic system
and this particular manner of making sounds, of making consonants.
Let us
try to make a D. Now attempt to make the same movement with the legs:
you hop, and while hopping you bend the legs somewhat at the knee. Here
one must try to get the patients to bend at the knee and hop more and
more powerfully and have them jump. Perhaps Mrs. Baumann will demonstrate
the T for us; here the corresponding movement will be a hop forwards
with an attempt at making knock-knees.
[ 1 ]
Thus while stepping forward you make the attempt to hop forwards and form
knock-knees. That is what must be carried out. Our first concern is
to demonstrate these things. So we have D and T. When one carries out
the so-called soft sound one can remedy milder conditions, and with
the so-called hard sound, the more severe conditions of this sort. Of
course one must have the patients repeat them for several minutes until
they are quite tired — in these things it is really a matter of
carrying the exercise out until one is tired. And when one carries them
out to fatigue, the D- and the T-sounds in particular are a force which
works to strengthen the intestinal activity, particularly that activity
which comes to expression in constipation. In this manner one can
counteract constipation in many cases. Such a matter is unquestionably
evident to the person who knows the physiological connections between
the speech organism — which takes up the movement in the course
of learning to speak — and the metabolic-limb system.
Now perhaps
you will be so good, Miss Wolfram, and demonstrate the G-sound for us.
Here is a matter of trying again to move forward in a similar manner
while forming knock-knees. It would be the same thing with the K sound
(Mrs. Baumann). And now you must try to hop forwards with the legs spread
out sharply, with the Q as well; but that is the same thing again. Here
in the case of G, as well as of K and of Q we have a movement which
stimulates the forward motion, the inner mechanization of the intestine,
which thus promotes the movement of the intestine itself. The difference
in the physiological effect of D and T, G, K, and Q, is that in the
case of D and T the processing of the food itself is more affected while
with G, K, and Q the effect is more on the forward motion of the food
in the intestine when the intestine itself lags.
Particularly
important and therapeutically fruitful is the S. When you do the S-sound
it is necessary to hop, to hop forwards keeping the legs continuously
in the O-form, and to make the S-sound. Because one continually sets
the legs down in this 0-shape, namely, this actually has a very inward
connection with the human digestive activity, and that is with the
metabolic activity as it works back upon the entire human organism. In
this movement one has something which one can have those children do who
show an insufficent digestive activity and, who therefore, have
headaches, since this movement
regulates in particular the formation of gas in the intestine. When
this is not in order, when it is either insufficient or too strong,
this movement in particular will have a most important effect.
Then we
have the F-sound. (Mrs. Baumann). One has to do here with something
psychic. One must try to perform the jump in the following manner: one
begins and tries to go forward; in landing one must come down hard on
the tips of the toes, however, and now bring the heels down —
once again, a jump onto the tips of the toes, then down on to the heels
again. In the case of the V,
[ 2 ]
it would be just
the same. Here we have a movement which should be practised when one
finds that urination is not in order. It has a stimulative effect on
the passing of urine. When it is necessary to animate this — for
whatever reason — here is the movement to be performed.
It is,
of course, entirely possible to combine the movements in the most varied
manners; one will find in giving treatment that one will have to combine
the one with the other — depending on the direction to be taken.
If we
make an R (Miss Wolfram) I must ask you to please make it in such a
way that in stepping forwards you always stretch distinctly, then with
the left foot thus (here Dr. Steiner demonstrated the bending and
stretching movement himself; the ed.), put the weight on the foot,
stretch and as you step forwards — continuing in this manner
to put the weight on the foot with the legs bent — you must try
to make the R. That would have to be developed in this manner. If one
were to practise this R with a person for a few minutes — one
would have to practise it frequently during the day, however —
it would regulate the rhythm of evacuation were that not in order.
That is something which works directly over onto the rhythm of evacuation
and regulates it.
Apart
from its being necessary to do these movements not in a dilettantic
fashion, but in a manner suitable to the matter at hand, in accordance
with the diagnosis, it will be important for the observation of the
whole dynamics of the human being to keep the connections which come
thus to light in view.
Now an
L, (Mrs. Baumann) here again together with the effort to place the legs
in the knock-kneed position and hop forwards — draw together —
now once again. It should be an effort to hop forwards, too. The forwards
motion is entirely necessary in such a case. This movement works especially
strongly on the peristalsis, on the movement of the intestine itself.
With this movement one can also have the patient move backwards in the
same manner. He will have much more difficulty in learning to do it,
but it will have a significant effect in regulating the movement of
the intestine itself, the peristalsis, as all these movements in fact
work in a regulative manner out of the limb-metabolic system into what
is in this connection a dependency of the limb-metabolic system (or
at least adjacent to it) that is, into the circulation and into the
respiratory movement as well.
A very
interesting letter is the H, which actually has the most vowel nature
attached to it. One should accompany the H in walking as follows: one
tries to stand with the legs together, to hop forwards, and in the course
of this hop forwards, to spread the legs and strike the floor with the
legs apart; one should always be moving forwards. That is a movement
which, I beg you to take notice, must be carried out thoroughly slowly,
however. In the case of the other movements it is important to carry
them out quickly; this movement, however, must be carried out slowly
and there must be pauses for rest between each of the jumps as well.
This must be taken into account with this movement as it has a very
strong effect on the regulation of intestinal activity in the area of
transition from the stomach into the intestine. Therefore, when one
notices that someone eannot get his food from the stomach into the
intestine, it will be greatly to his advantage to perform this movement,
but, as I said, tranquilly and standing still after each separate hop.
Now we
have the M. (Mrs. Baumann) This M must be made with the “peewit
step”. It is good to do one step with one leg and the next with
the other leg — forth and back. One can also do the peewit step
backwards and then with the other leg forwards again. This technique
of doing the peewit step backwards is something which one should really
master. It is in fact a movement which it is important to study, then
when the M is carried out in this form in movement it acts to regulate
the entire metabolic system and limb system and it is extraordinarily
important to practise it with the children during puberty. When this
exercise with M is practised at the time of sexual maturity it will
prove a strong regulator of over assertive sexuality. It will regulate
over assertive sexuality when practised during puberty. One must only
have developed an eye for whether it should be practised in this manner.
It is not without reason the M was regarded as an especially important
sound in the time when people still understood something of the inner
content of the sounds; it is the sound which closes the OM syllable
of the Orient. The OM syllable of the Orient is closed by M because
the whole human being is in fact regulated through the metabolic-limb
system by exactly this sound. Thus this movement is particularly
regulatory. In the ancient culture it was customary to have the younger
people perform such movements in order to educate them to be corporally
complete human beings and, at the same time, reserved persons.
Then we have the N sound.
The N-sound is accompanied by a jump in which the knees are bent from
the beginning. So, one keeps the legs, the knees, bent and then jumps.
That is a movement which strengthens the intestinal activity greatly
and in such a manner that it can be applied where there is a tendency
to diarrhoea. That can serve as a substantiation or as an indication
of how one can see the effect of the system of movement on the metabolic
system. That is something which one really only notices when one considers
the connections between the system of movement and the metabolic system
in the light of one's knowledge of the threefold order of the human
organism. This threefold order of the human organism sheds light in
fact on many things; in our present time where knowledge of the soul
consists almost solely of words, one can think out at length all sorts
of exercises in which one believes one has taken the soul element into
account — or one can develop gymnastics in which one takes only
the bodily physiology into consideration. One can talk at length around
and about these matters; without knowledge of the threefold order of
the human organism one will not attain to any clarity in them. It was
mteresting, in fact, to have a physiologist of the present day here
who listened to one of the introductions which I usually give at eurythmy
performances and then saw eurythmy as well. Now I normally say that
in education one will have to replace the sort of gymnastics that proceeds
solely from physiology with this soul-filled sort of gymnastics. Thereupon
the physiologist, who is also known as a very great authority in nutritional
matters, said that for him it wasn't enough to say that one shouldn't
overrate gymnastics; for him gymnastics was no method of education at
all, but a barbarism.
Now, you see, behind something
like this is hidden a very important Symptom of the times. It is, on
the one hand, just as correct to say that the gymnastics of today is
usually one¬sidedly conceived — since it is taken out of the
physiology and anatomy of the organism alone — as it is at least
one-sided on the other hand to say that gymnastics is a barbarism. Why?
Because when one develops gymnastics out of the physiology of the body
alone it becomes a barbarism. It is our materialistic education and
civilization that first made a barbarism out of gymnastics. In the manner
in which gymnastics is practised today, it is a barbarism. And this
conception of gymnastics is connected with some completely false notions,
is it not? For example, people believe — although the experts
don't believe it anymore, still many people believe that if one has
a person exert himself mentally (geistig) and then allows him
to recover, as they believe, corporally thereafter, that constitutes
a proper recuperation. But that isn't true at all! If a person does
arithmetic or gymnastics for an hour he will become equally tired in
reality; it makes no difference. That is known today, but people cannot
properly judge how soul and Spirit should be brought into gymnastic
movements, how the movements carried out are to proceed from the human
being as a whole. Now one will have to develop gymnastics gradually
in such a way that what we are developing as artistic eurythmy can unite
with what is thus developed as physiological gymnastics. And one can
make the transition from the eurythmic to the gymnastic quite well.
It will only be necessary to see that this sort of eurythmy which actually
takes the part of a sort of soul-filled gymnastics in the course of
instruction is done with humour; before everything else it must give
the children delight. It must give the children joy; that is a part
of it. To teach eurythmy like a grumpy, dried-out school-master would
be something which could really not be done at all.
Now we still have the
Sh. (Miss Wolfram) When it is accompanied by a small jump, then a larger
jump, a small jump, then again a larger jump, a smaller jump, a larger
jump, then one has a movement with a strong effect in the Sh as well;
however, it too must be carried out slowly. It is not necessary to slow
the N-movement down particularly, but with the H and Sh movement it
is essential to do them slowly and in the case of the latter to take
a short rest after every three jumps, at the transition to the next
set; thus a rhythm is brought into it as well: short, long, short —
and now one rests — long, short, long — and now a rest —
short, long, short, — now a rest. Thus one has in this a movement
which in the appropriate cases — one can combine movements, of
course — affects the beginning portions of the intestinal tract,
which pertains to the stomach. When someone has what is in itself such
a weck digestion that the food remains lying in the stomach —
I have drawn attention to similar matters on other occasions —
that will also be particularly the case where the H-movement is involved.
with the Sh movement, however, one must notice, for example, whether
stomach acid is easily produced and so on; then the Shmovement should
be carried out.
So you
see the consonants as they are performed eurythmically are connected
with the formation of man in a totally different manner from the eurythmic
vowels. As we considered the making of vowels in eurythmy I had to draw
your attention to the manner in which the inward, that which lies more
to the interior, is related to movement. Here we have to do with the
effect on the third member of the threefold organism.
Now when
applying that which we discussed the day before yesterday in regard
to the vowels, it would be good to have the patient sound the vowel
of the exercise to be done, slowly, before the exercise as such is begun.
So that without singing — singing would be of less help in this
case — he very simply entones the sound at length, and when he
has done this for a time, when he has sounded it out loud, one would
have him carry out the movement for the vowel in question. When he has
done that one should try to call forth in him the impression that he
hears the sound that he has just carried out. You will find that in
the present day only very few people have the impression that they hear
the sounds inwardly in a soul-spiritual manner. Thus one must tell him to
enter into a state of soul such as if he were to hear the “I”.
It is particularly important to understand this matter. Then, you see,
when you have the patient speak the vowel, entone it, the organism as
such feels as if the sound were being induced. If he then carries out
the movement it appears to be the result of the spoken sound. And then
one listens. One entones the “I”, then does the movement,
and then in one's fantasy imagines that one hears the “I”
sounding. Then we have: the calling forth of the “I”, that
which arises through the movement of the “I”, the hearing
of that which has moved, the hearing of the sound once again. This is
something which brings a great deal of life into this human etheric
body; and in precisely those directions we have pointed out it brings
real life into the etheric body. In these matters, in these exercises
the intention is to bring movement into the human etheric body, to bring
an inwardly regulated movement into the etheric activity of the human
organism. It is particularly interesting to see how the movement, which
as a movement of the intestine progresses from the front to the hack,
releases a movement in the etheric body which proceeds from back to
front and then breaks on the abdominal wall — it does not actually
break, but disappears. This latter movement is in most cases where the
intestinal activity is not in order, in gross disorder as well. This
activity which counters the physical movement will be aroused particularly
by the R-movement, for example. Here there is a very lively vibrating
from back to front and that is the element in the R-movement which affects
the rhythm of elimination in a very specific manner.
It can
also be used pedagogically as the whole human organism is a unity and
everything in it works in a unitary fashion. If you were to survey children
in school, for example, you would find amongst them some who can hardly
pronounce an R, who are quite shocking in their pronunciation of the R.
Of course, the factors can be crossed and the matter may not be
self-evident — nevertheless, such children are always simultaneously
candidates for constipation: one does them a kindness, in fact, by doing
something such as I showed you yesterday with them: the R-movement, which
affects the rhythm of evacuation positively. It is indeed possible to make
use of these things pedagogically. One must only always have the
indications and one must not go too far. The physician, however, can go
much further as he will find that specific symptoms naturally appear when
the exercise is practised for days and weeks. But he is, of course, in
the position to counter these symptoms, which quite justifiably appear,
by other means. I want to point out that if the effect of the N-movement
were to become too predominant, one would only have to counteract it with
the D-movement and one would nevertheless have achieved that which was
to be achieved. Thus one can balance one by means of the other.
The only
other thing I wish to say today is that I really do not want artistic
eurythmy to be influenced in any way whatsoever by the discussion which
must of course arise when eurythmy is considered as a hygienic-therapeutic
discipline. I beg the artistic eurythmists to forget these things
thoroughly when they practise artistic eurythmy so that they are not
confused by their thoughts on digestive activity when they are involved
in artistic eurythmy. That would be most troubling. One must nevertheless
be entirely clear, however, that human art does have to do with the whole
human being and does not proceed from the head alone. And especially in
the case of an art of movement that must naturally be kept in view.
That is
what I had as yet to tell you. In the following days we will discuss
more what has to do with the evolution of man, with reference to what
comes to the fore after certain intervals of time, that is to say, what
occurs at a later age, as the consequence of an exercise affecting the
organism of the child.
Notes:
1. X-beine; literally, X-legs.
2. V is pronounced in the same way
as F in German.
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