LECTURE 7
Dornach, April 18, 1921
(held before physicians)
In respect
to particulars you will find it necessary to elucidate what I have to
tell you today about eurythmy through your knowledge of physiology and
so on. How that can he done will reveal itself to you as if of its own
accord, if I may say so. When we look into a spiritual-corporeal process
such as that which takes place in eurythmy, we may do no less than to
indicate the deeper spiritual-physical connections as well. Thus I would
like to draw your attention to the following.
First
we must contemplate that extra-human world process which one usually
traces only in its details and not in regard to what is actually inwardly
active. Just consider what earth formation is, in reality: a formative
tendency works from the planetary sphere inward. And furthermore, from
what lies without the planetary sphere a formative working into the
earth takes place: continuous, radiant cosmic forces revealing themselves
in the individual potentialities (“Kraftentitäten”,
entities of force) radiating towards the earth.
In this
connection we may conceive of these cosmic powers as working centripetally
and building up that which is on and in the Earth from without —
although they encompass all that I have said about such rays previously
as well. The fact is that the metals of the Earth as a whole, for example,
are not in essence formed out of some force or another within the Earth,
but are actually set into the Earth from the Cosmos. Now these forces
that work through the ether can be called formative forces, formative
forces working in from outside and not from the planets, for in that
case they would work towards the centre; the planets are there for the
specific purpose of modifying them, that is, the planetary sphere. Please
take note of them in precisely this context: the formative forces. In
opposition to them stand those forces in the human being and in the
earth which take up those formative forces and make them fast, which
assemble them around a point so that the earth can come into being.
Those forces which make secure we may thus call the consolidating forces
(“Kräfte des Befestigens”) (please see the following
diagram, and the one shown on page 81.)
| Diagram 12 Click image for large view | |
In the human being
they are present as the forces that build up the organs plastically,
whereas the other forces, the formative forces, have more to do with
propelling the organs out of the spiritual-etheric world into the
physical world. That is a process which becomes so tangible in the
contrast between the propulsive powers of magnesium and the rounding-off
forces of fluorine. It is a process active every-where: in the teeth
from below upwards and rounding-off at the top, but from front to back
as well and from the back forwards, from above to below, rounding-off
at the bottom. This process will become directly tangible if you picture
to yourself that, in association with the tendency to push something
spherical forwards, from without inwards, some-thing is formed which
is opposed by a process of spherical formation from below upwards (red,
in the following illustration).
| Diagram 13 Click image for large view | |
Between
these two processes is that which mediates: processes of secretion and
on the other hand, the absorption of what the other has secreted and
so on, that which can be called processes of secretion in the widest
sense; then in the final analysis absorption is dependent upon a secretion
inwards which is in turn re-absorbed. In between lies thus what can
be best called secretory processes.
Such a
secretory process becomes tangible when you picture to yourself that
on the one side lies what continually wants to secrete carbon (orange,
in the illustration) and that which takes it up through respiration
from the fore in the formation of carbon dioxide (white).
| Diagram 14 Click image for large view | |
Behind
this such a process of secretion is taking place. When you descend further
into the metabolic-limb system, you have a proper process of consolidation.
However, this process is present in the other direction as well. You
will be able to follow it most tangibly by studying the eye, which is
built inwards from without, as embryology demonstrates, but is consolidated
from within. The formation is internalized. That is the manner in which
the eye develops. It is internalized (see the following drawing:
orange).
| Diagram 15 Click image for large view | |
Thus,
as we progress to that which is of soul-spiritual nature in man, to
the organs of the soul-spiritual, to the sense-organs, we find that
the process of consolidation has become spiritualized, truly ensouled
and spiritualized in perception; that is, more or less, the descending
process which leads to the formation of. the organs (please refer to
the first illustration and to the chart which follows).
Thus we
find at the lowermost end the process of sensory perception, objective
perception. If this development continues, if it goes further in this
direction, then the process of perception encounters the consolidating
forces; should it become conscious in this encounter, it will become
imagination. If imagination develops further and becomes conscious in
encountering the process of secretion, it becomes inspiration. And when
inspiration develops further in the direction of the formative forces,
collides with them consciously and thus sees through these forces, it
becomes intuition. Thus Dne can develop this progression in the life of
the soul stage by stage from objective sensory perception to imagination,
to inspiration and to intuition.
Formative forces
Intuition
Secretory processes
Inspiration
Consolidation
Imagination
Perception
This
process which unfolds in the soul is based, however, on the process
of coming-into-being. It is in fact, as you can see here, only the inverse
of this genesis. One steps out to encounter what has already come into
existence, rising into this becoming in the opposite direction. Formation
takes place in the descending direction. The human being ascends in
the opposite direction; he advances to meet what is coming into being.
Thus, what one develops as powers of perception and cognition in
imagination, inspiration and intuition always has its counter-activity
in the creative powers which express themselves in the formative forces,
in the processes of secretion and consolidation.
From all
of this you will gather that what is active in the human organism in
the opposite direction, in its coming into being, is that into which
one ascends when rising in knowledge. You will perceive that in reality
what we attain in imagination are the same powers which, without our
being conscious of them, reveal themselves in the phenomena of growth,
in the plastic phenomena of growth. If we ascend to inspiration, we come
upon the forces which inspire man from without inwards in his breathing,
which shape him through and through as he breathes, which shape themselves
into the plastic forces as they work these forces through, to a degree.
And if we ascend to intuition, we rise in reality to the primal mover
(“Agens”) who enters into our plastic forms from the world
without as substantial being.
You see,
in this way we grasp the human being as he takes shape out of the Cosmos.
If we now apply the knowledge which we have gained in one way or another
through anatomy or physiology and illuminate it with what is given us
here, then we begin to understand the organs and their functions. This
is an indication of how to understand the organs and their functions.
Thus what is always at work plastically in the human being, what permeates
and shapes him, lives on the other hand in the movements for the
consonants, the unconscious imaginative forces which call forth a
permeation of the organism, as I said yesterday. Yesterday's lecture
should be of help. Here you can perceive how consonantal eurythmy takes
hold of deficient formative powers, deficient plastic forces in the human
being and transforms them into something truly sculptural.
[ 1 ]
Let us
assume we have a child before us and we see that he is insufficiently
formed,
[ 1 ]
that his growth
[ 1 ]
is rampant. What does it mean, when we say that something of a plastic
[ 1 ]
nature is growing uncontrolledly? It means that the plastic
[ 1 ]
is working centrifugally, thus making the head large, and, in doing
so, is no longer permitting the head to be permeated in the proper manner
with imaginative forces. These must be supplied. Therefore one will
let the child do consonantal eurythmy.
Here we
have a question about “a two-year-old boy with a large head, who
is nevertheless not hydrocephalic and is otherwise apparently
healthy.”
Here you
have the effective antidote, in properly applied consonantal eurythmy.
Here we have arrived at the point at which a thorough observation of
the morphology, of the more profound morphological facts, can provide
a direct indication for the eurythmic treatment.
Another:
“a twelve and three-quarter-year-old boy whose growth in height
is distinctly retarded, with no organic findings other than worms;
intelligent but intellectually quickly tired.” A most interesting
complex of symptoms, all of which indicate that the imaginative forces
are insufficent, that the plastic forces in the organs are running
rampant because of
a lack of inner fictile forces, of plastic soul forces. These plastic
forces of the soul are those which destroy parasites. It is no wonder
that when these forces are insufficient the child has worms. Thus one
should have him do consonantal eurythmy; therein lies the antidote.
These associations will provide you with concrete indications of where
you can employ eurythmy. Although the phenomena are somewhat camouflaged
here, eurythmy will have an extraordinarily positive effect even in
such cases, particularly if one complements it medicinally.
Here I
have an interesting question that has been presented to me. Naturally
I must answer the questions in principle. If complications of any sort
should appear, they can later be taken into special consideration as the
case demands. However, although it may be necessary to combine something
else along with it, the matter has nevertheless been thoroughly dealt
with from the side characterized.
“I
have as a patient a five-year-old child who lost a great deal of blood
as the result of a bullet wound suffered in the outbreaks of violence;
two years ago a deformation of the joints set in. These are things which
could lead to anaemia and similar conditions in adults. How could one
help this child therapeutically?”
Here you
have a deformation of the joints. That is an outwardly-working tendency
of plastic forces that are unable to remain within. Thus these forces
ray outwards, leaving the human being instead of working within him as
they should. They will be reflected in the most effective manner precisely
through the practice of consonantal eurythmy. In doing consonantal
eurythmy you will call forth the objectively effective imaginations
which offset the deformations. As the manner in which the question is
placed quite correctly indicates, people in the future will in general
tend to deform in the most manifold ways, because they will no longer
be able to build up the normalizing human form out of the involuntarily
active forces. Man will become free; he will gradually become free even
in respect to the building up of his own form. However, he must then
be able to do something with this freedom. Ile must go on to engender
imaginations which continuously counter the deformation.
Now as
to the other; you see that we are here concerned with a dearth of objective
imagination. We could have to do with a deficiency of objective inspiration
as well, which would express itself in a deformation of the rhythmic
system, if I may call it that. In the case of a deformation of the rhythmic
system, the objective inspiration which goes inwards does not encounter
the circulatory rhythm in the proper manner. One can work towards a
normalization of the situation by practising vowels in eurythmy. In
eurythmy the vowels affect internal irregularities which are precisely
not accompanied by morphological changes, even as consonantal eurythmy
affects deformations and the tendency to deformation.
As I said earlier,
it may nevertheless be necessary to render aid when something appears
in particularly radical form, as in the case of the deformations of the
joints that we just discussed. There it would he necessary to come to
the assistance of the consonantal eurythmic process therapeutically.
This consonantal process works by stimulating through its imagination
the inner breathing of the organs orientated from without inwards and
lying on the far side, of the intestinal wall: the lungs, the kidneys,
the liver, and so on. When a person does consonantal eurythmy, it is
a fact that particularly the back of the head, the lungs, the liver
and the kidneys begin to sparkle and flash; something is really there
that indicates the reaction of the spirit and soul to what is _lone
outside in the consonants. Man becomes a shining being in these organs,
and the movements that are carried out are in continuous opposition
to the luminous movements within. In particular, there appears an entire
luminous reproduction of the excretory process of the kidneys, through
certain consonantal movements. One has a picture of the excretory process
of the kidneys in this luminous process which comes about as the result of
consonantal eurythmy. And that works over into the unconscious imagination.
The whole process in which this part begins to shine is the same process
that I described as being especially under the influence of copper.
It is the same process. Here one must draw the attention of the physicians
to the fact that there are people with particular forms of illness.
These forms of illness were brought to my attention again yesterday
when I was shown some painted pictures that were very much admired in
some quarters at least, and was asked whether they were particularly
occult. In a certain sense, of course, they are occult, but it is
extraordinarily difficult to speak to people about these things,
for they are an objectively-fixed
kidney-efflorescence; they are the objectively-fixed process of the
excretion of urine. When in the case of persons predisposed to this
illness the process of urinary excretion becomes an abnormal, luminous
process, that is, when the process of excretion falters — a purely
metabolic illness — the kidneys then begin to shine. When this
inwardly directed clairvoyance then sets in, people begin to draw wildly.
What they produce will be aesthetic, in an outer formal manner beautiful
in every case. The colours applied will be beautiful. But, of course,
people are not content when one says to them, “Yes, there you have
painted something very beautiful; it is in fact your obstructed excretion
of urine.” I can assure you that the obstructed urinary process
and suppressed sexual desires — which lead as well in a certain
manner to metabolic irregularities — are often presented by people
of particularly mystical nature as mystically profound drawings and
paintings. In much of what makes its appearance in the world in this
manner one should recognize the symptoms of pathological abnormalities
in the human being that are just bearable still.
As you see,
anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is not mysticism as
mysticism is commonly understood, since it fosters no illusions about
matters such as we have just characterized. Quite the contrary: it
investigates just such matters. People take exception to one for doing
so, however. They resent my having gone so far in a public lecture as to
indicate that the lovely poetry of Mechthild von Magdeburg, for example,
or of Saint Theresa, are the inspirational reflexes of processes arising
from repressed sexuality. Here, of course, the things are not drawn or
painted, but poetically expressed. Naturally it is not pleasant for people
to hear Mechthild von Magdeburg or Saint Theresa described as personalities
with a strong sexuality which they restrained precisely because it was
too strong for them, that certain metabolic-circulatory processes resulted
from this retension, and that the reactions to this in turn appeared
in such a form that they were fixed in very beautiful poetry. Indeed,
this phenomenon leads extraordinarily deep into the mysteries of existence,
when considered in a higher light. However, one must be able to rise
to such an interpretation. And, therefore, one must have at least a
notion of these peculiar processes which light up as inward processes
when eurythmy is done outwardly. And in the moment when what is concealed
within the poetry becomes eurythmy, as I showed you yesterday —
when a beautiful poem is read and the eurythmy corresponding to it is
done as we saw yesterday in vowels or consonants — then the one
thing crosses the other; then an inward silent speaking joins what is
carried out outwardly in movements in the person doing eurythmy as well.
And when this process does not exude in sultry poetry but takes instead
the course of accompanying beautiful poetry as eurythmy, then that which
takes place in the human being does not become a recording of mysticism,
but a definite process of healing for the human being. Thus one can
say that when one lets the patients do eurythmy in such a manner that
one continually brings to his attention: listen carefully, bring intensely
into consciousness the sound that you hear, the relationships of the
sentence you hear, to which you are doing eurythmy; then one will initiate
his ascent to the outward formative forces, to the objectively intuiting
powers. When one wants to affect all that has remained in the human
being from what no longer took place between birth and death, but what
materialism calls inheritance — the greater part of which, however,
is carried over from the pre-existent spiritual soul-life — if
one wants to affect what can be called congenital defects and so on,
then one will do well to work — particularly during the course
of youth — again and again through eurythmy by challenging the
person doing it: make very clear to yourself what you hear outwardly!
By this method one can drive out all the tendencies to fix inwardly
what would like to arise and take form in something like mystical poetry
or mystical drawing. Precisely that will be connected to the beautiful
outer poem. It is the reverse process. A true mystic knows that that
of an abnormal nature which is reflected by the human being as beauty
always has a questionable side. By contrast, one cannot claim that,
when what is beautiful in the outer world is experienced inwardly, it
appears as a particularly magnificent and beautiful picture: on the
contrary, it becomes schematic and thereby abstract; abstract as if
it were sketched; abstract, as a drawing is abstract. That is precisely
what is healthy, however, and what is desired. The beautiful historic
process would not have taken place, but if for example Mechthild von
Magdeburg had been instigated to do eurythmy to good poetry, her entire
mystic fate would have been spared her. Naturally one can say here that
a point has been reached where in a certain sense good and evil cease
to exist; one enters into the amoral sphere of Nietzche, beyond good
and evil. Of course, one cannot be so philistine as to claim that all
the Mechthilds von Magdeburg should be eradicated. On the other hand
you may be certain that from the super-sensible worlds care will be taken
that the corresponding connections with these super-sensible worlds
nevertheless remain, when man attempts to prevent this tendency from
undue proliferation.
Although
it is quite late, I would still like to go into a few matters in order
to perhaps bring some clarification. I would like to start with the
following question:
“Couldn't
the therapeutic eurythmy exercises be reinforced by rational breathing
exercises? It needn't necessarily be Hatha-Yoga.”
To this
I would like to make the following remark. In our times, and within
the direction that the continually progressing human nature has taken,
rational breathing exercises, as a reinforcement of the eurythmic
exercises, can in fact only be treated in the following manner. It will
be observed that a tendency towards a modification in the rhythm of
respiration arises of its own accord under the influence of the vowels in
eurythmy. One will notice this quite clearly. Here one finds oneself
in the uncomfortable
situation that one should avoid stereotyping, avoid saying the one thing
or another in general, but should first observe what is to be done.
One should concern oneself in each individual case with the breathing
of the person in whose healing one is attempting to be of assistance
by means of eurythmic vowel exercises (in accordance with the diagnosis
given, whatever it may be); one should observe the modification of the
breathing and subsequently make the patient aware that he can consciously
pursue this tendency himself. We are no longer human beings like the
ancient orientals, who would go the reverse route and influence the
entire human being by way of a prescribed method of breathing. This
is something which today leads of necessity, in every case, to inner
shocks, no matter how it is prescribed; it should really be avoided.
We just have to learn to notice what kind of effect eurythmy itself,
especially vocalic eurythmy, has on the breathing process. And then
we can consciously continue the tendency which arises eurythmically,
in the individual case. You will certainly observe that this respiratory
process will be carried on individually, continued in varying manners
in different people.
My esteemed
friends, those are more or less the things that it is possible to answer
at the moment. We have no real possibility of dealing with a number
of matters that have got bogged down due to the shortness of time. In
closing, my dear friends. I want to warn you that you must be prepared
that your medical colleagues in the world will wage their wars no less
intensely when they become aware of your bringing something of our sort
to bear, and that you will have need of the penetrating power of conviction
to weaken what will confront you. In no case, of course, may what you
are confronted with lead you to neglect these matters; we may permit
ourselves no illusions about those antagonistic forces we arouse.
At the
end of this course I would as well like to state that, in order to make
the movement possible, as it should now be inaugurated in the medical
field, I will adhere everywhere to the policy of not involving myself
directly with the patients in the therapeutic process, but will discuss
and consult only with the physicians themselves. Thus you will always
be in the position to refute any allegations that I myself interfere in
any way in an unjustified manner in the therapy. I have already mentioned
this at the end of the last course. This has been made extraordinarily
difficult for me even from the anthroposophical side — this cannot
he passed over in silence — as people naturally make all possible
demands in this direction. It is also definitely the case that among
anthroposophists the tendency exists, not only not to rise above egoism,
but sometimes to become even more egoistic than normal people are. Then,
when the occasion arises it is often a matter of complete indifference
to the person, what the welfare of the movement may entail; that the
welfare of the movement is dependent in each individual instance upon
a rejection of the practice of what the world outside terms quackery;
that a healing process should take place in the whole of medicine and
should not be disturbed by the demands arising from an individual's
personal aspirations. People will make it difficult, but it must be
carried through in this direction, since we will only be able to succeed
in this area when we can stand up to the outer world — as we are
otherwise able to, in the anthroposophical movement, insofar as matters
are conducted with understanding and not bowdlerized by people without
understanding. Simply by virtue of knowing what is going on in the
anthroposophical movement we must be in the position to say: what is
being said there
is certainly a lie, it is beyond doubt an invention. We must simply
always be in the position to say that, in certain cases. And we come
to be able to say that, when we are all inwardly initiated in the contents
of matters such as those to which I have drawn attention here: that
I myself do not intervene in the therapeutic process, but that within
the anthroposophical movement the doctors are responsible for the therapy
of the patients.
Having
said what was necessary, I want to add nothing more than the wish that
the stimuli — which, in this course in particular, have often
remained mere indications — may work on in you and become active
in the appropriate manner for the welfare of humanity. Hopefully we
will have the opportunity to carry on in some manner what we have already
twice begun; in any case we will make an effort to carry on with it.
With this wish, my dear friends, I will close these contemplations,
in the hope that our deeds in these directions may be in accord with
our wishes. It was very satisfying to see you here. It will be a satisfying
feeling to think back on these days here, which it was your desire to
spend together towards the enrichment of medical science. The thoughts
that hold us together will accompany you, my dear friends, on the paths
that you will wander, to transform into deeds what we attempted to
activate, to begin with here, as thoughts.
Notes:
1. Rudolf Steiner uses in every
case here the word “plastic”.
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