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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Man: Hieroglyph of the Universe
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Man: Hieroglyph of the Universe
Schmidt Number: S-4079
On-line since: 17th July, 2002
Let us continue our studies of yesterday. I then drew your attention
to the fact that at the present period in human thought we compress
the whole world within abstract lines of space, standing
perpendicular to one another and forming the three dimensions of
space, whereas in its life aspect this three-dimensional world proves
to be much more complicated and much more concrete. In order to gain
an adequate conception of all that this means, we must grasp it in
even greater definition.
We must ask the question: If it is true that our Thinking is to be
associated with the vertical plane which cuts through our axis of
symmetry, our Willing with the vertical plane which stands
perpendicularly to the thought-plane, while the plane of Feeling rests
at right angles to both — how is it that we do not experience
above and below, right and left, in front and behind, as three
directions distinct in quality from each other and not
interchangeable? How is it that we simply feel them as three space
dimensions of equal value? We certainly speak of length, breadth and
height, but if we form our three planes in this way, each one resting
vertically upon the other, we might place the line which was
horizontal in the first instance in a vertical position, and the other
two would then become horizontal. In short, we could make three
different arrangements. This only shows that the exactitude with which
these three dimensions are built into the human body, when it is being
used by man to describe and explain the whole Universe with the Sun
and the stars, is made quite abstract.
The question is important: How do we manage to obtain abstract space
dimensions from concrete ones? An animal could not do this! An animal
would always feel its plane of symmetry as a concrete
‘symmetry’ plane, and it would not relate this symmetry
plane to any abstract direction, but would at most, if it could think
at all in the human sense, feel the turning (from one plane to
another). The animal in fact does feel this turning as a
deviation of its symmetry plane from the normal. Herein lie important
and essential problems of Zoology, which will once again be
illustrated as soon as man studies them from the standpoint of their
impulses in reality.
The reason that animals can find direction, as is shown most clearly
of all in the case of the migration of birds, is because they do not
feel the three directions of space in a nebulous way, but feel
themselves as part of a quite definite direction of space, and feel
each departure from this direction as an angle, as a deviation.
Now, if we wish to understand how all this applies to man, we must
call to our assistance what we have already learned about the
organisation of the human body. We have heard that man is a threefold
being, consisting firstly of the characteristic head organisation,
which does not of course include the head alone but chiefly functions
there, and extends all over the rest of the body. Then there is what I
will designate as the ‘Circulation man’ — all that
belongs to lung and heart, and represents Rhythm in man. And lastly
there is the ‘Limb’ man, which also continues inward and
constitutes that part of man which is connected with metabolism or the
transmutation of substance.
It now behoves us to study this three-membered man more closely. We
will first think of him as Head man, Rhythmic man and Limb man. Of
these three, only the third with its continuation inwards is strongly
connected with the forces — not the substances, but the forces of
our terrestrial planet.
This does not apply to the Head man, for what is he? (We are not now
considering anything substantial but the forces, the formative
forces which condition him.) The Head man is the metamorphosis of
the Limb man of the previous incarnation. The forces that formed the
Limb man in the last incarnation, have, during the period between the
last death and the last birth — that birth which brought us into
our present existence — been in a world which we have often
described. There they were metamorphosed so that they could now form
the head. Thus the Head man and the Limb man are complete polar
opposites, and the central, Rhythmic man is the adjustment between the
two, balancing or reconciling them by means of Rhythm.
This antithesis between the Head man and the Limb man must be still
further examined. We shall, perhaps, be able more easily to approach
the matters it is necessary to understand in this domain, if we
examine the following example taken from another sphere.
Consider the plant — not, for the moment, a perennial plant, but
an annual which develops from seed to root and stem and during the
year forms its fruit and seed. Such a plant grows from the seed that
has been planted in the earth; out of the seed emerge the roots, then
the leaves and the flowers, in which latter, during the fruit stage,
is developed the new seed. This is the evolutionary cycle of the
plant.
The plant proceeds from the seed-formation in the Earth, grows until
it reaches the surface, when it receives the effects of the light
— from the Sun — and the effects of warmth. Under these
influences it grows still further and completes its cycle by returning
again to the stage of seed-formation. But now, when it returns to the
seeding period in autumn we have the plant not below in the soil but
above the Earth; and here it has been during the whole summer,
dependent upon extra-terrestrial influences. These influences helped
to promote its growth to the point of new seed-formation; it has
therefore grown to the point of a fresh seed-formation not under the
influences of the Earth, but while drawn away from these by
extra-terrestrial forces. It has become once more what it was before
and yet something different. In what sense different? The completion
of the new seed terminates the process of growth. Development
ends here, and the cycle cannot be completed unless we take the seed
from its own plane or region and return it once more to the Earth.
That is to say, if we follow that seed up into the sphere in which it
is beyond the earthly element, we must then bring it down again, under
the Earth. Then once more it grows up towards Heaven, and then again
we must bring it down again to Earth.
That is to say, further growth
depends upon bringing the seed down again to a deeper level — we
must return to the Earth that which has been generated by the forces
of Heaven. Therefore it is not sufficient to consider the cycle merely
from seed to seed. We are concerned with the fact that the plant in a
sense outgrows itself, and when it has outgrown itself to a certain
stage, we must bring it back again to its original place, where it is
once more received by the same forces and the cycle begins anew.
We can now draw the process in a diagram. If we have here the Earth
level, then the cycle of evolution for the plant must be drawn thus.
But the plant must again return to Earth, and so if we draw several
annual processes, we must advance a little further each time. There
you have the difference of level. We must again and again bring the
plant back to another level.
I have given you this as an illustration, and before we pass on,
something else must be considered in connection with it. Notice the
way in which the bean plant arises out of the seed. and you will
understand what I mean. You will realise it still better, if you
observe a plant with a twining stem, one that is naturally inclined
not to grow up in a straight line if certain forces are able to act
freely. The bindweed is an instance of such a plant.
Now let us pass on to consider this picture in connection with man. If
instead of thinking of the yearly cycle of the plant, we turn our
attention to that cycle which leads man from one earthly life, through
the spiritual world, to the next earthly life, we have there something
quite remarkably similar. Think of your limb organism in the previous
incarnation, and your head in this incarnation. The head is formed
through a metamorphosis, and it is only the visible change that
is interrupted by all that takes place between death and a new birth.
The head is formed in the same way as the new seed in the plant is
formed out of the old. But the whole of the intermediate life of the
plant lies between. So that we may say: From the point of view of the
organisation of his form, it is as if in man the root existed in the
previous incarnation, and out of this root has grown the head of the
present incarnation. The head, therefore, represents something
analogous to the seed. But in man all this takes place, one may say,
upon a higher level — in a higher region — and is, besides,
more complicated.
And now in order to complete this conception, think of the whole
metamorphosis of the plant. If you observe the bindweed, you will see
from the spiral or screw-like form of the stem, that the forces acting
from outside are not such as to cause it merely to grow in a straight
line, they induce it to grow in a spiral form. The plant has a
tendency to spiral formation. Only when the new seed is
developed, does the seed resist this tendency; it is entirely
concentrated in this small grain. The seed then withdraws from the
influence of the Universe. In the case of man the Limb man is most
under the influence of the Earth. (In the Rhythmic man the case is
different and we will speak about this later.) But the head is
something which withdraws itself from the Earth-forces and takes no
part in them, just as the seed takes no part in the extra-mundane
influences. Only because the head withdraws from the Earth-forces are
we men able to think in abstract thoughts. Were it impossible for our
head to separate itself entirely from Earth influences, we could not
think in the abstract.
This fact is indeed expressed in the form of man. Think for a moment
that your head actually represents the transformed Limb man. The
latter however walks upon the Earth's surface, not so the head. The
head may be compared with a man who is comfortably seated in a motor
car or in a train; he does not move and yet goes forward. The head is
in this position in respect to the rest of the organism; the latter
advances forward, and the head rests as though in a vehicle, not
taking part in any of the movements, but withdrawing itself in a very
evident way from the Earth forces. The head is like the man who lets
himself be carried forward by other people.
Such is the organisation of the head of man. It withdraws from the
Earth's influences, and we can therefore say: The head of man shows
itself — at least in this comparison — similar to the seed
that withdraws from the heavenly influences of plant-formation. But
with man it is not the same as with the plant. The latter grows from
the Earth upwards — towards the Heavenly influences. Man grows
downwards. When he arrives at conception or birth, he is in the first
place a head structure; external embryology affords absolute proof of
this. He brings with him his head as a transformed product of the last
incarnation. During this earthly life — through the forces of it
— the Limb man develops most especially. It grows on to the head.
It is less evolved than the head and entirely under the influence of
the Earth forces. The head on the other hand is entirely withdrawn
from the Earth forces. We can therefore say: When we observe plants,
we can trace, in the spiral or screw-like construction, whence come
the forces that give the plant its spiral form; they come from
extra-terrestrial bodies. But when we consider man, and see how he
grows towards the Earth, we must ask ourselves: What has given man
this potentiality to grow in opposition to the laws governing the
growth of the plant which grows upwards? For man grows downwards and
gradually succumbs to the earthly influence. How is all this
explained? This is a most important, indeed an essential question,
concerning not only Morphology, the study of the human form, but the
whole being of Man. You see, if we were obliged to live our soul-life
without a head, it would be entirely different; we should be incapable
of any abstract conceptions! Above all, we could not conceive of
three-dimensional space as abstract, but would strictly differentiate
between front and back, right and left, above and below. All these
directions would be for us quite distinct in character. This is, in
fact, what our organism does. As soon as you have advanced,
through the methods of Spiritual Science, to the imaginative
conception of the Universe, this comfortable three-dimensionality
ceases. Now you must discriminate, for you have performed
something quite remarkable — you have eliminated the ordinary
organism of the head and have gone back to the etheric organism
of man.
Now the etheric organisation is essentially different from the
physical organisation of the head. It is only through the completely
organised head, brought over to this incarnation from the previous
one, that abstractions have become possible. All abstract thinking,
all thinking on the plane of pure thought, is bound to this head
organism, which we attain only by leaving the spiritual world and
coming into this physical world, in order to make independent of the
Earth-organisation that which formerly was dependent on it.
This will show you that Man, like the plant, is embedded into the
earthly influences, but with this difference, that man makes himself
independent of them through his head organism. If the rest of our
organism were to think without the instrumentality of the head —
as indeed it can — man would at once feel himself one with the
whole organism of the Universe.
If it were possible to invent a very comfortable sleeping car —
it is at the present time perhaps unlikely — but a car from which
you did not look out and from which all noise and rattle were
eliminated, you might fall into the illusion that you were in a still
and silent room, for you would perceive nothing of its movement. But
upon looking out of the window, you would see that it is moving
forward, although you are sitting quietly in the car. Similarly, as
soon as you also release yourself from the illusion which your head
organism produces in you during the process of making itself
independent of the Earth-organisation, you observe that you are taking
part in the motion of the Earth. That is to say, it is possible,
through the transition from what, in my book
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
I have called the present-day mode of forming ideas to what I have
called Imagination — it is possible to feel the movements of
the Earth, because you are then ‘looking out of the
window’. You look into the spiritual world. In just the same way
as you look through the window of a train and notice the landscape
outside continually changing, so do you, when looking out of the
physical sense-world into the spiritual, perceive in the alterations
in the latter as you pass by, that you with the Earth are not at rest,
but moving forward. Hence we cannot arrive at a true astronomical
space-conception if we insist upon constructing it just with that part
of our organism which has made itself independent!
Consider for a moment what we as civilised humanity have done since
the beginning of this Fifth post-Atlantean epoch. We have thought
about the Universe with our head. And it is the head — that part
of us which has made itself quite independent of the Earth — that
has contracted the world-movements into the abstraction of the three
dimensions. We have the Copernican conception of the Universe,
designed for us by the least appropriate instrument, the head,
the essential characteristic of which is its emancipation from
co-operation in the world movements. It would be somewhat as though
you wished to obtain an idea, shall we say, of the movement of a
railway train in which you are traveling, from a picture of it you
draw with your hand, without reference to the movement of the train,
but solely according to your own ideas. You draw something; you make
yourself independent. But you cannot consider such a drawing as
depicting the movement of the railway train; it has nothing whatever
to do with it! And just as little to do with the world-process has a
picture of it that we have designed according to external spatial
astronomy, using for the purpose the instrument that is the most
inadequate for its conception.
Now just observe to what conclusion a really truthful and commensurate
conception of things leads us. We are compelled to admit that our
spatial astronomical picture of the world has been built up with the
most inadequate means. No wonder it contradicts the results that are
obtained when the proper instrument is used! Of course, for certain
purposes this conception is well adapted, because since the middle of
the fifteenth century, when the Fifth post-Atlantean period began, we
have had gradually to learn to form thoughts independently of the
Universe. We shall hear in the next lecture how that came about. But
we have thereby lost the capacity of really knowing anything of the
movements in which we have trained ourselves to feel concretely the
otherwise abstract dimensions of space. We shall come back to these
things again and again; for we cannot arrive at a complete picture in
any other way than by building up our ideas, as it were, in cycles.
After yesterday's suggestions Dr. Stein has taken the trouble to
construct a model showing the movements which result when we follow
Man together with the Earth, or in other words the movement of
the Earth taken in its absolute sense. If instead of following this
time the motion of plant-forces in spirals, I follow the movements
described by Man with the Earth, I again come upon a spiral, but one
which is progressive. This spiral gives us an illustration of the real
movement of the Earth, and at the same time a picture of that of the
Sun. Suppose for a moment that the Earth is here and the Sun there. An
observer sees the Sun in this direction. (diagram). The Earth
progresses, but exactly in a line behind the Sun. When the Earth is
here, the observer now sees the Sun in another direction. The Sun
advances still further, the
Earth following, and once again the observer sees the Sun in the other
direction. That is to say, he sees the Sun at one time on the right,
and another time on the left, owing to the way in which the Earth
follows the Sun.
This has been interpreted as demonstrating that the Sun stands still
and the Earth revolves round it. In reality, it is not so; the Earth
moves along behind the Sun. The observer sees the Sun to the right
when the latter has arrived at one point of the spiral path, while the
Earth is here. Next he sees the Sun to the left, then again right,
then left, and so on. All this gives the observer, who judges by
outward appearances and loses sight of his own movement, the
impression that the Earth revolves round the Sun.
From this you will realise how great a possibility of deception arises
when one judges by exterior appearances; for here indeed a relativity
of motion exists. We can really affirm that those who now calculate
the apparent motion of the Sun do not perceive their own motion, and
omit to take into consideration the relation between the Sun and the
Earth.
I should like you to try to form a true idea of what I have
said about course or motion in a screw-like line, because one must
visualise, in a model such as this, the fact of the Earth following in
the wake of the Sun; and then we shall be able to go on to what I
should like us to attain tomorrow, namely a true understanding of the
facts before us. Today I have intentionally given suggestions only,
and purposely left many questions open, but they will be answered
tomorrow or in one of the subsequent lectures. I wanted to show you
in a quite simple way the experiences of one who looks out through the
windows of the physical world, and observes the spiritual world
outside as it rushes by. In this way he can form an idea of the real
motion of the Earth and also of the Sun.
But I will show you first how to gain a conception of the true
relation of the Earth to the Sun — that the Earth actually
follows the Sun in its path — by searching for the one
thing that will show us this relationship, namely certain processes in
the human organism connected with the representative of the Sun in
man — the human heart. For it is by taking our start from the knowledge
of Man that we must seek to attain to a knowledge of the
Universe.
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Last Modified: 02-Nov-2024
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