LECTURE 5
Dornach, April 16, 1921
Today
we will go over to some of those
eurythmic exercises more related to the activity proceeding from the
soul. Before we begin, however, it will be necessary to take note that
it is usually assumed when a person produces an expression of will or
when he arrives at a judgment, that these expressions are connected
with the human nervous system alone. This, however, is not at all the
case; one must make it clear to oneself that the judgments which the
human being passes, for example, are bound up with his entire constitution;
that man pronounces a judgment out of the totality of his being. Thus
when one makes the eurythmic movement corresponding to a judgment, here
again, the whole human being is influenced in a certain manner; it is
not only the head which will be subject to the influences of what arises
through judging eurythmically. Mrs. Baumann will show us the movement
which corresponds to confirmation, and then the one corresponding to
negation. Naturally it should be carried out several times without
interruption when used as therapeutic exercise. Now this confirmation
and negation is precisely that which can be called a judgment; when one
confirms or negates something one has to do with the nature of judgment
in its essence. When you give such a confirmation or negation, the movement
works, when it is repeated frequently, by way of a detour through the
etheric body very strongly on the respiratory system. One can by this
means counter a tendency to shortness of breath. You can for example
repeat the confirmation ten times consecutively, then the negation,
and follow this up with confirmation, negation, confirmation, negation
— both ten times consecutively. Whatsoever illness this shortness
of breath may be the symptom of, by this means one will be able to
counteract it in such a way that the entire constitution is affected as
the whole matter occurs by way of a detour through the etheric body. You
must only keep in sight what is being done here. One could interpret what
Mrs. Baumann has done touching upon what is essential in it as follows:
what she projects thereby into the world is a thought that has become
fleeting, a thought which has gained wings and gone over into movement.
When a judgment is fixed eurythmically — as a confirmation or
negation — then it is a thought which rides on the movement. And
because the thought rides on the movement one projects in fact on the
one hand, a part of this being outwards; on the other hand, because
the thought rides on the movement one takes a part more thoroughly into
oneself than otherwise. That is to say, one makes a movement through
which one becomes more awake than one otherwise is. Such movements are
actually movements that awaken. However, because one does not wake up
with the ego at the same time in the same manner, the activity of the ego
is in a certain way dampened. This dampening of the ego is not absolute,
however, but in relation to the organism. In fighting shortness of breath
by means of this detour through the etheric body this constitutes what
would be the first symptom reached and what is introduced into the whole
human constitution by means of the byway through the etheric body.
Now a
disposition of the will
[ 1 ]:
sympathy and antipathy.
Now imagine you make this movement repeatedly, one after another: sympathy,
antipathy, sympathy, antipathy, or only one of these two. When one does
this, in a certain sense one is setting out something which one carries
within oneself; naturally this can only be confirmed through observation.
It is a sort of falling asleep. The other movement (confirmation and
negation; the ed.) must be carried out quickly, and this must be carried
out slowly. It is indeed a movement which brings forth the imagination
of sleep in the observer; imaginatively one falls asleep in a way with
such a movement — not in reality, however, at least that shouldn't
happen. But because one in reality doesn't go to sleep while making
this movement, the “I” is more strongly active in relation
to the body than it usually is. And by means of such a movement the
circulation and the digestion as a whole are stimulated. The entire
digestion is really stimulated in such a manner that through such a
movement the tendency to belch, for example, can be counteracted.
Now we
want to express that which one could call the feeling of love towards
something (Mrs. Baumann). Take a good look at this, the feeling of love
for something. Imagine it carried out ten times consecutively and
accompanied by a powerful E between each of the movements. Thus, Love-E,
Love-E, and so on, one after another. You accompany the movements which you
have learned as expressing feeling in eurythmy — it could be another
feeling as well — with the movement for E. Here we have a strong
influence which proceeds from the human etheric to act on the astral
nature and which has the effect of warming the circulation. It is something
which really works on the circulatory system in a beneficial manner.
One cannot say that it accelerates or retards the circulation; it affects
it in a beneficially warming manner.
We also
have something which could be called a wish: Hope. (Miss Wolfram) Look
at this and picture to yourself that one carries out this movement for
the wish repeatedly — always returning to the position of balance,
then carrying out the movement for the wish again — and always
alternating it with the movement for U. This means that the astral will
act very strongly upon the etheric and it can be said that a beneficial
warming effect on the breathing system will result. Naturally one must
take into consideration that all these things of which we have spoken
today occur by way of the etheric body and can, therefore, never show
what effect they have on the following day. Some effects may appear
after two to three days and are then, however, all the more certain.
Now imagine
that we make a bending and stretching movement with the legs and at
the same time a definite B-movement (Mrs. Baumann). That which I have
just shown you simultaneous with a decided B movement, now rest, B while
bending, ten times consecutively. That is something which people who
very frequently have migraine or other headaches should do. The time
for them to do it, however, is not when they have the headache, but
rather when they do not.
A particularly
effective movement is the following: bend and stretch the torso forwards
and backwards accompanying this movement simultaneously with the movement
for R. (Miss Wolfram) Bend forwards, bend backwards with the R; that
consecutively and often. That affects the whole rhythmic system, the
rhythm of breathing and of circulation, positively. When there are
irregularities present there, this will work extraordinarily well under
all conditions.
Now I
will ask you to take a look at another most effective movement which
consists in shaking the head to the right and left with the movement
for M. The head should not be turned, in so far as possible, but only
bent to the right and left, and that with the M-movement. That is something
which when practised has a very strong quieting effect on all possible
irregularities in the lower body, again by way of the etheric body.
Irregularities in the lower system which express themselves through
pains can be mitigated thereby. One must combat tendencies to such pains
when the pains are not present. That is the crux of the matter. While
the pains are present it cannot very well be carried out. The important
thing is to carry it out so long as the pains are not present.
Please
take note of the following: strike the knee with the foot, stemming
the movement of the foot against the knee; picture this accompanied
by an E movement with the arms. It is a very beautiful movement. It
can and should be carried out as an exercise with children in school,
as when it is done frequently it wages war against the most varied aspects
of clumsiness. The children will at least he well cured of their clumsiness
when they practise just this exercise. And when the children come and
say that their shoulders hurt so and everything possible hurts, then
you should reply: that is exactly what I wanted; you will be especially
glad about it once it's better again! Every pain that is brought about
in this manner combats clumsiness. Thus in respect to this one can deal
quite energetically with the children.
| Diagram 10 Click image for large view | |
Now we
will take a look at another variety (of movement). Imagine every sort
of E movement which can be carried out with the arms now projected onto
the floor. This movement comes into existence when this line crosses
the other at an angle. Now let us imagine it in this way: Mrs. Baumann
places herself here, Miss Wolfram there. Now walk and accompany the
whole thing with an E movement with the arms. Run so that you pass by
one another, but pay attention that you don't run into each other. So
you make an E on the floor and an E with the arms and you pay attention
at the same time that you don't collide. It is this taking notice of
the other person, this exerting of one's concentration on him combined
with the E-gesture which works together with the movement here. This
exercise can only be carried out with two people. It is — when
carried out by two people — essentially what one would call a
strengthening of the heart, all that which is connected with the phenomena
which one generally terms the strengthening of the heart.
Question:
Could one have this exercise carried out by one sick and
one healthy person?
One
can readily do that, but one would perhaps have to have the healthy
person omit the E-movement with the arms. This movement is especially
intended for the clinical situation where one will, of course, have
two people in need of a strengthening of the heart; it really is better
if one has two such people.
| Diagram 11 Click image for large view | |
Now let
us imagine the movement so: one of the ladies stands here, the other
here, behind one another. When you arrive here, then Miss Wolfram carries
out the path which you have begun, but in such a manner that she is
always facing forwards. Then as the movement carries on, you take this
part of the path and you the other. You initiate the continuation of
your own movement in the other person and accompany it with the O position
of the arms. Now one must see that the people who do this begin at a
certain tempo; to begin with it must be slower, then become ever faster
and faster. This rapid tempo should then ebb out into a slower one. That
is then a movement which serves to strengthen the diaphragm significantly
and thereby the whole breathing system. Here again, when one leaves
out the O movement with the arms one can have a healthy person participate,
but it is of course best to employ two people who are in need of
healing.
Now I
will ask you, Mrs. Baumann, to demonstrate the H movement for us once
again. And now I will ask you to make this movement in such a way that
you hold the arms still and imitate the movement with the shoulders
alone as well as possible. In this case, however, one must accustom
oneself to doing this movement with the shoulders and making an A with
the arms at the same time, an A of any sort with the arms. That should
be repeated frequently. You see, that is what could be designated as:
“laughing eurythmically”. That is how one laughs eurythmically.
And when one laughs thus eurythmically that which one has in the curative
effect of laughing itself is really very greatly heightened. The curative
effect of laughing is well known. But when one practises laughing
eurythmically, this curative effect is proportionately greater. You
could do it otherwise as well, however.
Miss Wolfram,
please make an A movement of some sort. And now try to make the same
movement I spoke of before, the shoulder movement of the H, but do it
quite slowly as if you wished to do it thoughtfully. Thus into the A
movement of the arms one makes the shoulder movement of the 11. One
could designate that as follows: the whole organism is brought into
accord with the feeling of veneration. It encompasses all that which
the feeling of veneration actually effects in the organism. The effect
on the human organism of the feeling of veneration, when it is habitual,
is to make the organism as such actually more durable, more sturdy.
It becomes capable of greater resistance. People who really have the
capacity for veneration inherent in them become more capable of resistance
within their organism. That is why everything which brings children
to veneration, to the gift or capacity for reverence makes children
more resistant. And one can come to the assistance of this capacity
for resistance through this last eurythmic exercise.
One must
keep in mind that what we have demonstrated today as decision, expression
of will, hope, love, what we have shown in respect to certain organic
pains, what we have demonstrated as a means of combating clumsiness
and so on, all these things are related to man in such a way that the
human being is gripped through them in the innermost part of his organic
being and by way of a detour through the etheric body actually derives
the possibility of making this etheric body into a workable instrument.
The etheric body is a part of man which becomes stiff in most of those
people who sit out their lives, spend their lives without interest for
their surroundings. And it is not good when the human etheric body becomes
stiff; nor for the organic functions is it good. When one has the exercises
which we have described today carried out by children in moderation
and by the appropriate patients very energetically (one can see by the
indications given which patients have need of them), the etheric body
will become supple and inwardly flexible. And by means of them one will
do the children as well as the adults a good service.
These
movements are indeed such that one can give them priority over the usual
gymnastic movements; the usual gymnastic movements are taken in reality
from the physiology, from the physis of the body alone and they tear
the physical body continually out of the etheric body. Thus, the physical
body then makes its own movements which do not pull the movements of
the etheric body in the appropriate manner after them. For this reason
the usual, merely physiologic, gymnastics is basically a school for
materialism, since by means of it materialistic thought is transformed
into feeling. Eurythmy makes man capable of recognising himself within
increasingly and of gaining control over himself inwardly. Therefore
such exercises have a pedagogic-didactic value as well as therapeutic
and hygienic value. The attempt should be made to have these exercises
— those described today, I mean — carried out by adults
as well in moderation and to develop them in such a way that they could
be carried out by the sick in a clinical situation.
A question
has been put to me which could perhaps lead to something — and
some other questions as well. Here is the question: “The Chinese
cannot pronounce the letter R, they substitute L for it. Strawberries
thus becomes stlawbellies, for example. Does that have to do with their
race?”
It has
to do with the organisation of the organism insofar as that is racially
determined, of course. Through the particular gift of one part of mankind
for one sound or another one can see what tendencies are inherent in
certain people by virtue of their race. I brought such things to discussion
just a few hours ago.
Other
questions have been put about exercises which could be used in relation
to conditions of indolence, insufficient reaction, lethargy and so on;
conditions which frequently have to do with an insufficient thyroid
activity. And here it has been brought to our attention that Fliess,
in his well-known book about the course of life, has placed this complex
of symptoms in the intermediate sexual category. How could a contemporary
author not do so? Everything about which he knows very little he chalks
up to the intennediate sexual category, or some other way. He puts the
left-handed, for example, in the same category. I want to emphasize,
expressly, however, that I have never recommended a eurythmic exercise
with a special right-left emphasis to anyone.
(Attention
was drawn to the exercises which one should begin either to the right
or to the left: iambus, trochee.)
That is
not in order to particularly accentuate an emphasis on the right or
left, but rather in order to call forth the feeling of the iambus or
trochee within the forward motion. That is thoroughly justified. The
fact is that it has less to do with the long-short than it has to do
with the particular movement. It is quite correct; it has to do with
the fact that what lives in the breathing system is reversed when it
is transferred into the system of movement. The upper man and the lower
man are the reverse of one another. Thus every imaginable iambus in
the breathing system, brought forth in speech, must of necessity become
a trochee in the movement of legs and vice versa. Eurythmy in its entirety
is based on this principle. You may test the whole of eurythmy in respect
to it: eurythmy does not follow the principle of similarity in its
execution, but the movement which is in keeping with the polar image. It
is all entirely in accord with the image formed as the other polarity.
This idea must be maintained throughout. But I have never recommended to
anyone that he do something especially right or left; that should be
left completely to the feeling. The question of whether a thing should
be done with the right hand or the left hand should be determined only
by those matters which would otherwise come into consideration. I do
not want people to have the impression that I would have suggested an
emphasis on the right in particular eurythmic exercises to any more
left-sided person whosoever. That is not the case.
In addition
I would like to emphasize the following. It is the case that when one
has to do with insufficient reaction or with lethargy this more general
indication will fall into some category which I have already given;
lethargy is a general expression and can be relegated to something or
other about which I have spoken. The appropriate movements should then
be carried out.
On the
whole one should see that with an exercise such as I have just given
in connection with judgment and expression of will
[ 2 ]
— that the appearance of indolence, of lethargy and so on can be
combatted very especially by that which I have given for the expression
of will. And if one should notice that this is not particularly
effective, one can alternate that exercise with the exercise that I have
given for judgment, but in such a way that one attempts to discover
— as it is here a question of trial — whether it is more
effective when one varies the expression of will and the expression of
judgment in a ratio of three to two or of two to three — one
shorter, the other longer. And since these things work by way of a detour
through the etheric body, one will find that one will first have to begin
and carry on with these exercises for two to three days and according to
the circumstances — when one sees that they are not having the
proper effect — make a change on the third day. But in general
one can say that the one exercise so well as the other will have an
awakening effect on man in both directions. The will exercise and the
judgment exercise are thus the ones that come into particular
consideration.
In order
that there be no misunderstanding, I emphasize that of course the opinion
must not arise that these exercises would have a very significant effect
after being carried out for two or three days. That would be an error.
In order to produce an effect, these exercises should be carried out
for at least seven weeks. Thus one can maintain — without necessarily
being mystically inclined — that the space of time necessary for
the beneficial effects just described to show themselves would be about
seven weeks.
That is
what I wanted to tell you today concerning these matters. I would like
to request that the corresponding session tomorrow follow the other
directly, after a short pause. Tomorrow will be the last eurythmy session
then, as it will be necessary to have two purely medical sessions one
after the other on Monday.
Notes:
1. Willenszustinnung
2. Willensäusserung
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