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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-4107
On-line since: 17th July, 2002
I drew attention yesterday to the fact that what is present in man
points to something correspondingly present in the Cosmos outside him.
What we have now to notice especially in man is the relation of the
head to a world beyond the Earth — a world that lies outside the
world upon which the rest of the human organism is dependent. The head
points clearly to the world through which we passed between death and
rebirth, its whole organisation being so modeled that it forms a
distinct echo of our sojourn in the spiritual world. Now let us look
for the corresponding phenomenon in the Cosmos.
We need only compare the behaviour of Saturn, who stands far out in
the Universe, with that of the Earth, to notice a certain difference.
Astronomy recognises this difference by saying that Saturn goes round
the Sun in 30 years, the Earth in one year. We will not now stop to
discuss whether these assertions are correct or whether they show a
superficial view. We will only point to the fact that the observation
which can be gained by following Saturn in cosmic space and comparing
the rapidity of his progress with that of the Earth, brings us to the
conclusion that according to the astronomical system of Copernicus and
Kepler, Saturn needs 30 years and the Earth only one year, in which to
go round the Sun. Looking at Jupiter, we assign to him a revolution
lasting 19 years. Much shorter is that of Mars. And when we come to
the other planets, Venus and Mercury, we find that they have even
shorter periods of rotation than the Earth. All these conclusions are
obviously well thought out, worked out on the basis of observations
made in one way or another.
I have pointed out that we only gain a clear insight into these things
by comparing what takes place in the far distances of cosmic space
with what goes on within the boundary of our skin, in our own
organism. Reflect for a moment and you will find that what is called
the period of rotation of the Earth round the Sun, corresponds to
something in yourself. In the foregoing lecture we showed that in
order to represent the daily series of events, we have to use a
certain curve, a certain line that turns back upon itself. In a
similar way must the curved line corresponding to the yearly motion of
the Earth be imagined. It is quite immaterial whether man's view is
that the movement of the Earth is at the same time a movement round
the Sun or no; for what have we here? Let us think. We have our own
daily cycle of life, which we will consider now, not in its
correspondence to the Cosmos, but as it presents itself in man, so
that we can also include those whose sleeping and waking do not
correspond with the alternation of day and night — idlers as well
as all those who do not live by rule! Let us consider this daily round
of man on the basis already established, that is to say, representing
it in thought as a line in which the points of sleeping and waking lie
upon one another, as I have pointed out. There are many reasons, but
one will suffice for an unprejudiced judgement to understand that we
are bound to place the point of waking over that of falling asleep.
Consider the remarkable fact that when we look back over our life, it
appears to us as an unbroken stream. We do not feel compelled to
regard life in such a way as to say: Today I have lived and have been
conscious of my environment from the moment of waking; before that all
was darkness; before that again, my falling asleep of yesterday was
preceded by life, I lived again, back to the moment of waking; but
then darkness again. You do not picture the stream of memory like
this, you picture it so that the moment of awaking and the moment of
falling asleep really unite in your conscious recollection. That is a
plain fact. This fact can be expressed in that the curve representing
the daily round in man comes out as a spiral, with the point of
awaking always crossing the point of falling asleep. If the curve were
an ellipse or a circle, then awaking and falling asleep would have to
be separate, they could not possibly be joined. In this way alone
therefore can we picture the daily round of man.
Now let us try to see exactly what this means in man himself. Your
waking time runs from your awaking to your falling asleep. During that
time you are a physical human being, and you are moreover a
complete human being, possessing physical body, etheric body,
astral body and Ego. Now consider your condition from falling asleep
until awaking. Then you have only physical body and etheric body. You
are physical man, but you are not man; you have only physical body and
etheric body. Strictly speaking, such a thing should not be. Your
physical body and etheric body become really an untruth, for a being
so composed should be a plant. It is the remainder of the whole man,
left behind when the Ego and astral body have gone away; and only by
virtue of the fact that these will return before the physical and
etheric bodies can actually reach the plant stage — it is only
because of this that you do not die every night.
Now let us examine what is left lying on the bed. What happens with
it? It suddenly becomes of the nature of the plant. Its life is
comparable to what takes place on Earth from the moment when plants
sprout in spring until the autumn, when they die down. The
plant-nature springs up and puts forth leaf in man, so to say, from
falling asleep to awaking. He is then like the Earth in summer; and
when the Ego and astral body return and man awakes, he becomes like
the Earth in winter. So that we may say that the time between awaking
and falling asleep is our winter, and that between falling
asleep and awaking is our summer. For the year of the Cosmos — in
so far as the Earth is part of it — corresponds with man's day.
The Earth wakes in winter and sleeps in summer. The summer is the
Earth's sleeping time, the winter her waking time. Outer perception
obviously gives a false analogy, presenting summer as the Earth's
waking time and winter as her time of sleeping. The reverse is the
case, for during sleep we resemble the blossoming, sprouting
plant-life; like the Earth in summer. When our Ego and astral body
re-enter our physical and etheric bodies, it is as though the summer
sun withdrew from the plant-laden Earth and the winter sun began to
work. Thus the whole year is at different times represented in any one
part of the Earth's surface. The case of the Earth is different from
that of the individual man, but only apparently so. In respect to the
Earth, in whichever part of it we may dwell, a year's course
corresponds to the daily course of the individual man. The course of a
year in the Cosmos corresponds to a man's day.
Thus we have the direct fact that when we look up to the Cosmos, we
have to say: A year — that is for the Cosmos sleeping and waking;
and if our Earth is the head of the Cosmos, it expresses in winter the
waking of the Cosmos, and in summer its sleeping. If we now consider
the Cosmos, which as we see manifests waking and sleeping — for
the plant-covering of the Earth is an outcome of cosmic working —
we shall find that we have to think of it as a great organism. We must
think of what takes place in its members as organically fitted into
the whole Cosmos, just as what takes place in one of our own members
is fitted into our organism. And here we come to the significance of
the difference expressed by astronomy in the shorter periods of Venus'
and Mercury's revolutions as compared with the longer periods of Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn. When we consider the so-called outer planets,
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, then the Sun, Mercury, Venus and the Earth,
we find this apparently long period of revolution in the case of the
outer planets stretching beyond a year, thus beyond the mere waking
time. Let us consider Saturn with his 30-year period, the apparent
time of his revolution round the Sun; how can we express his 30 years
in the language of the Cosmos according to which its daily revolution
is a year? If a year is the daily revolution of the Cosmos, then the
so-called period of Saturn's revolution is approximately 30 days, a
cosmic month, a cosmic four weeks. Thus we may say that if we regard
Saturn as the outermost planet (the other two, Uranus and Neptune,
regarded today as of equal standing with Saturn, are really fugitives
that have wandered in), then we must say that Saturn bounds our
Cosmos; and, in his apparent slowness, in his limping behind the
Earth, we behold the life of the Cosmos in 4 weeks or a month, as
compared to the life it displays in the course of the year, which for
the Cosmos is like a falling asleep and awaking.
From this it may be seen that Saturn, if his apparent path is regarded
as the outermost limit of our planetary system, is inwardly related to
it in a different way from, let us say Mercury; Mercury needing less
than 100 days for his apparent revolution, moves quickly, he is active
inwardly, he has a certain celerity; whereas Saturn moves slowly.
To what exactly does this correspond? In the movement of Saturn you
have something comparatively slow, in that of Mercury something that
is very much quicker, an inner activity of the cosmic organism,
something that stirs the Cosmos inwardly. It is as if you had, let us
say, a kind of living, mucilaginous organism, itself revolving, but
having besides within it an organ which is revolving more quickly.
Mercury separates itself from the movement of the whole by its quicker
revolution. It is, as it were, an enclosed member; so too is the
movement of Venus. Here we have something analogous to the relation of
the head in man to the rest of his organism. The head separates itself
off from the movements of the rest of the organism. Venus and Mercury
emancipate themselves from the movement set by Saturn. They go their
own way; they vibrate in the whole system. What does this signify?
They have something extra as compared with the whole system; their
more rapid movement shows this. What is the corresponding thing to
this extra in our head? Our head has something extra, namely its
co-ordination to the super-sensible world; only, our head is at rest
in our organism, just as we are at rest in a coach or a railway
carriage, while it is moving. Venus and Mercury act differently; they
do the exact opposite as regards their emancipation. Whereas our head
is quiescent, like we are when we sit still in a railway carriage,
Venus and Mercury emancipate themselves from the whole planetary
system in the opposite way. It is as though we, sitting in the railway
carriage, were impelled by something to move all the time much faster
than the railway train itself. This is due to the fact that Venus and
Mercury, which show a much quicker apparent movement, are related on
their past not to space alone, but to that to which our head is also
related; only these relations take opposite courses — our head
being brought to rest, Venus and Mercury on the other hand becoming
more active. They are the two planets through which our planetary
system has a relation to the super-sensible world. They incorporate
our planetary system into the Cosmos in a different way than do
Jupiter and Saturn. Our planetary system is spiritualised through
Venus and Mercury, more intimately adapted to the spiritual Powers
than happens through Jupiter and Saturn.
Things that are real often appear quite differently when studied in
accordance with true reality instead of in accordance with generally
received opinion. Just as, when we judge externally, we call winter
the sleeping time of the Earth, and summer her waking time, whereas it
is the reverse; in the same way, judging externally, Saturn and
Jupiter might be regarded as more spiritual than Venus and Mercury.
This is not the case; for Venus and Mercury stand in more intimate
relation to something behind the whole Cosmos than do Jupiter and
Saturn. Thus we may say that in Venus and Mercury we have something
which places us outwardly, as a member of the planetary system, in
relation to a super-sensible world. Here, while we live, we are
brought into connection with a super-sensible world through Venus and
Mercury. We might say: When we are incorporated by birth into the
physical world, we are carried into it by Saturn and Jupiter; while we
live from birth to death, Venus and Mercury work within us and prepare
us to carry our super-sensible part back again through death into the
super-sensible world. In fact, Mercury and Venus have just as much
share in our immortality after death as Jupiter and Saturn have in our
life before death. It is really so, we have to see something in
the Cosmos which corresponds to the relation between the comparatively
more spiritual organisation of the head and the rest of the human
organisation.
Now let us suppose that Saturn pursues his movement also in a like
curve (lemniscate) — only, of course, his path is different
through cosmic space — with the 30 times less rapid movement than
the Earth; if we picture these two curves, we must realise that each
Cosmic body which follows such a path (lemniscate) is obviously moved
in this path by forces, but each one by forces of a different kind.
Then we come to an idea which is extremely important and which, if
taken rightly, will probably at once strike you as true. If it does
not, it is only because, under the influence of the materialism of the
last centuries, people are not accustomed to connect such things with
the facts of the Universe.
To the modern materialistic view of the Cosmos, Saturn is observed
merely as a body moving about in cosmic space; and the same with the
other planets. This is not the case; for if we take Saturn, the
outermost Planet of our Universe, we must represent him as the
leader of our planetary system in cosmic space. He directs our
system in space. He is the body for the outermost force which leads us
round in the lemniscate in cosmic space. He is the driver and the
horse at the same time. Saturn is thus the force in the outermost
periphery. Were he alone to work, we should continually move in a
lemniscate. But there are other forces in our planetary system which
show a more intimate adjustment to the spiritual world — the
forces that we find in Mercury and Venus. Through these forces our
path is continually raised. Thus, when we look upon the path from
above, we have the lemniscate, but when we look at it from the other
side, we obtain lines which are continually rising upwards; there is a
progression.
This progression corresponds in man to the fact that during sleep what
we have taken into us, though it may not pass over at once into
consciousness, is elaborated; during sleep we work upon it. It is
principally during sleep that we work on what we have absorbed through
our life, our training and education. During sleep Mercury and Venus
communicate that to us. They are our most important night-planets, as
Jupiter and Saturn are our most important day-planets. Hence the old
instinctive atavistic wisdom was right in connecting Jupiter and
Saturn with the formation of the human head, Mercury and Venus with
the formation of the human trunk, with the rest of the organism. These
things arose from an intimate knowledge of the connection between man
and the Universe.
Now I will ask you carefully to consider the following. It is first of
all necessary to understand from inner grounds the movement of the
Earth. We must recognise the influence upon it of the Venus and
Mercury forces, which themselves bear the lemniscate on further, so
that it progresses, and its axis becomes itself a lemniscate. We have
thus for the Earth an extremely complicated movement. And now I come
to what I wish to point out. Suppose we have to draw this movement.
Astronomy tries to do so. Astronomy wants to have a planetary system;
it wants to draw the solar system and explain it by calculation.
Planets such as Venus and Mercury, however, have relation to the
extra-spatial, the super-sensible, the spiritual, to that which does
not originally belong in space, but has, as it were, come into it.
Thus if you have the paths of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and, in the same
space, draw in also the paths of Mercury and Venus, you will get at
most a projection of the Mercury or of the Venus orbit, but in no
sense the orbits themselves. If we employ the three-dimensional space
to sketch in the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, we come at most
to a boundary, where we get something like a path of the Sun. But if
we wish to draw the others, we can no longer do so in the
three-dimensional space, we can only get shadow-pictures of these
other movements in it; we cannot draw the path of Venus and that of
Saturn in the same space. From this we see that all delineations of
the solar system where the same space is used for Saturn as for Venus,
are only approximate, they do not suffice for a solar system. Such
drawings are as little possible as it would be to explain the whole
being of man according to purely natural forces only. This shows why
no solar system is adequate. A non-astronomer such as Johannes Schlaf
could easily prove to quite well-established astronomers the
impossibility of their solar system by very simple facts, pointing out
that if the Sun and the Earth are so related that the latter revolves
round the former, the Sun-spots could not show themselves as they do,
the Earth being at one time behind the Sun, at another in front, and
then going round it again. That, however, is in no wise the case. No
drawing of our solar system that is inscribed into one space of the
ordinary three dimensions will be right. We must understand this. Just
as in the case of man, in order to understand him as a whole we must
pass from physical to super-sensible forces; so in the same way, to
understand the solar-system, we must pass from the three dimensions
into other dimensions. That is to say, we cannot delineate the
ordinary solar system in the three-dimensional space. Planetary
‘globes’ and so forth we have to look at in this way: If
here we have Saturn on the globe and there Mercury, then it is not the
true Mercury but its shadow only, its projection.
These are things that must be brought to light by Spiritual Science.
They have quite disappeared. About six or seven centuries before the
Christian era, the ancient primeval wisdom began gradually to
disappear, until replaced by Philosophy from the middle of the
fifteenth century. But men such as Pythagoras, for instance, still
knew so much of the ancient wisdom that they could say: We dwell on
the Earth, we belong through the Earth to a cosmic system, to which
Jupiter and Saturn also belong; but if we remain in these three
dimensions, then we shall not belong in the same way to Venus and
Mercury. We cannot belong to the two latter directly, as we do to
Saturn and Jupiter; but if our Earth is in one space with Saturn and
Jupiter, there must be a ‘counter-Earth’ which is in
another space with Venus and Mercury. Hence ancient astronomers spoke
of the Earth and the counter-Earth. Of course the modern materialist
would say: “Counter-Earth? I see nothing of that!” He is
like a person who weighs a man, having first charged him to think
about nothing, and weighs him again when he has charged him to think a
specially clever thought, and then says: I have weighed him, but I
have not found the weight of his thought. Materialism rejects what has
no weight or cannot be seen. Remarkable things however shine out of
the atavistic primeval wisdom to which we can return by the inner
vision of Spiritual Science. It is of urgent necessity that we should
work our way through now to that which is entirely new and which has
yet been on Earth all the time, and has only now in these days to be
acquired in full consciousness. Unless we do, this we shall lose the
very possibility of thinking.
I called attention yesterday to the fact that in social thought men
strive for mono-metalism for the sake of free trade-and Protection
comes! No true social order will arise out of what is being striven
for on the foundation the thinking man possesses To-day; a true social
order can only come about through a thinking trained in a science
which does not draw a planisphere showing Saturn and Venus in the same
space. For the view of the Universe which we are giving here does not
merely mean that we hold something up before us, but also that, in a
sense, we learn to think. What exactly does this mean?
Remember what I have said: When our bodily organisation is remodeled
in the next incarnation, it not only goes through a change, but is
turned inside out; as a glove is turned from a left-hand to a
right-hand glove by turning it inside out so too what is now inside
— liver, heart, kidneys — becomes the outer sense-organs,
eye, ear and so on. It is all turned inside out. This corresponds to
another turning inside out: Saturn on the one side, and wholly outside
his space, Venus and Mercury. A reversal in itself. If we do not
observe this, what happens? It is the same, when we do not observe the
turning inside out in the case of the human head, or when we do not
observe the Universe under this law of reversal; we do something very
peculiar. We do not in that case think with our head at all. And this
is something to which the fifth post-Atlantean epoch is tending, in so
far as it is descending and not seeking to ascend again by means of
Spiritual Science. Man would like to wrest his head free and think
only with the rest of the organism; that mode of thought is abstract.
He wants to set free the head. He has no desire to lay claim to what
has resulted from the foregoing incarnations. He wants to reckon only
with the present one. Not only do men wish to deny the theory of
successive Earth-lives, but carrying their head as it were with
external dignity, they would like to set it as lord over the rest of
the organism, they would have it like a man riding in a carriage. And
they do not take that rider in the carriage in earnest; they carry him
about with them, but make no claim upon his innate capacities. They
make no practical use of their repeated Earth-lives.
This tendency has virtually been developing ever since the beginning
of the 5th post-Atlantean epoch, and we can only oppose it by adopting
Spiritual Science. One might even define Spiritual Science as that
which brings man to take his head in earnest once more! From one point
of view the essential part in Spiritual Science is really that it
takes the human head in earnest, not merely regarding it as an
addition to the rest of the organism. Europe especially, as it so
rapidly approaches barbarism, would like to free the head. Spiritual
Science must disturb this sleep. It must make its appeal to humanity:
‘Use your heads!’ This can only be done by taking the belief
in repeated Earth-lives seriously.
One cannot talk of Spiritual Science in the way that is usually done,
if one takes it in earnest. One must say what is; and to what
is belongs something which appears as sheer madness, belongs the fact
that men disown their heads. They would rather not believe this, they
prefer to regard truth as madness. This has always been so. Things in
human evolution come about in such a way that men are taken unawares
by the new.
And so they must of course be shocked and astonished by this emphasis
on the necessity for using the head. Lenin and Trotsky say: Do not use
your head, act for the rest of your organism. The rest of the organism
is the vehicle of the instincts. Men are to be led by instincts alone.
And they carry it out. It is their practice that nothing that arises
from the human head should enter the modern Marxist theories. These
things are very serious — how serious they are has to be
emphasised again and again.
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