LECTURE XII
Rudolf Steiner: Good morning, gentlemen! Perhaps
someone has a question?
Question: Why does lightning not come in a
straight line? — instead of zigzag. Should it not take a
straight line?
Dr. Steiner: So — the questioner thinks
that when lightning is released from the air, as I described last
time, it ought to come in a straight line. But it takes a zigzag form
and can that be explained? Yes, one can indeed explain it.
Let us consider again the explanation I gave of how
lightning actually comes about. I told you that lightning comes out
of the overheated air, the overheated universe, the overheated cosmic
gas. I said that there is no question of lightning arising from some
sort of friction of the clouds. Clouds, of course, are wet, and if
you want to produce miniature lightning with laboratory apparatus,
everything must first be wiped absolutely dry. It must not be
supposed, therefore, that lightning is a true electrical phenomenon
that comes about from the friction of dry elements. It is known that
when one rubs glass or sealing wax one produces electricity and so
people think that if clouds rub together — well, then there'll
be electricity there too. But that is not so. What happens is this:
As a consequence of the inner overheating of the cosmic gas, the
warmth living in the cosmic gas comes out in the way I have
described. Through the fact that the air exerts less pressure toward
one side or another, the radiation of the overheated force goes
toward that side and lightning flashes.
Now let us imagine that we have this happening
somewhere. In consequence of the greatly overheated cosmic gas —
not clouds — the lightning flashes out. And it is quite correct
to think that it should stream out in a straight line.
But you see, it is like this. Picture to yourselves: If
an accumulation of heat is present somewhere, it is generally not
alone; there are similar accumulations in the neighborhood. In fact,
if the earth is here, let us say, and one looks up there and
lightning begins where a concentration of heat exists, then in the
neighborhood there are other accumulations: they are not all at one
single place. You can imagine, of course, that these accumulations of
heat are connected with the sun's radiations to the various places.
Now there are these heat accumulations along the entire path of the
lightning and while it is streaming out it snatches up these other
accumulations in its course. So it shines here, then over there, and
so on. It takes all the other accumulations with it, and so it moves
quite irregularly, and gets this seemingly zigzag formation. The
lower it descends, the more it does move in a straight line. There
are no longer these heat accumulations; they were higher up. The
zigzag of the lightning comes about because it does not arise in one
single spot, but from where the heat accumulations are strongest and
then it carries the others along on its way. That's similar to when
you're out walking and you meet an acquaintance and take him along
with you, then the two of you pick up another one, and so on. So
that's the story of the lightning.
Now perhaps someone has another question?
Question: Could we hear something about the
origin of volcanoes?
Dr. Steiner: That's a question that can't be
answered quite so quickly. I will lead you to the point where you can
find an answer to it. For if you read present-day books you can
certainly find all sorts of ideas on the origin of volcanoes, but if
you read older books, lying farther back in time, you find other
views, and in still earlier books again other views. People have
never inquired into the real origin of the earth and so views on
volcanic phenomena have changed in the course of time. As a matter of
fact, no one has been able to form a true idea of how these
fire-erupting mountains originated.
One must go very far back if one wants to understand
this. Otherwise one cannot grasp how it happens that at certain spots
on the earth fiery, molten masses come out. One will be able to form
an idea of it only if one first of all rejects the dictum that the
earth was once a balloon of gas, that it became more and more solid,
and that there is fire in the interior which for some reason or other
comes out here or there. That is a convenient explanation, but it
brings us no nearer to an understanding.
I'll tell you a little story. It's a long time ago, more
than forty years, that we made a certain experiment in the laboratory
of the geologist Hochstetter
(see Note 26 )
of Vienna. He is long since dead.
We produced a substance that contained — among other things —
a little sulphur. We didn't put it all together, but this is what we
did: here someone had a bit of the stuff, there someone had a bit,
over there a bit, and so on, and we hurled, we shot the substance,
all of us, toward a certain point. In this way there arose a little
globe with all sorts of hills which was curiously like the moon seen
through a telescope. Thus at that time in Hochstetter's geological
laboratory an experiment was actually made by which a small moon was
created. The surface of the moon as it is seen through a telescope
had come out quite wonderfully. The whole thing looked just like a
little moon. Above all one could realize that a cosmic body need not
originate as gas, but can actually be flung together from all corners
of the universe. Nor can we explain our earth in any other way than
by its being thrown together out of the universe.
Now in connection with this I want to explain something
that is little spoken of today but which is nevertheless true. You
hear it said everywhere, don't you, that the earth is a globe, has
formed itself as a globe. Now actually it is not true that the earth
is a globe! I will explain to you what the earth really Is. It is
only fantasy that the earth is a globe. If we picture the earth's
true form as a regular solid, we come to what in science is called a
tetrahedron. I will draw it for you, naturally only in perspective. A
tetrahedron looks like this. [see diagram]
| Diagram 10 Click image for large view | |
You see there are one, two, three triangles and here in
front the fourth triangle. Can you picture it? It stands on a
triangle, a triangle is underneath; and on that triangle, the base,
are three other triangles; that forms a little pyramid. That is how
we picture a tetrahedron. We must be clear that four triangles are
joined to one another. We must stand it up on one triangle and the
other three range upward like a pyramid. That is a perfectly regular
solid.
But now imagine that I round out the surfaces of these
triangles a little, then it becomes a little different. Now it stands
on what has become rounded but yet is still free. And the sides of
the triangles which formerly were straight lines are now rounded too.
Can you picture that? So now there arises a form which is actually a
tetrahedron become round! And you see, our earth is actually such a
rounded tetrahedron.
| Diagram 11 Click image for large view | |
This can even be established to the extent of finding
the edges, the sides of this earth-tetrahedron. It is like this:
suppose I draw the earth as it is often drawn, on a flat plane —
then here would be North America, here South America, between them,
Central America; over here we have Africa; here we have Europe. And
there is Asia Minor, the Mediterranean, Greece, Italy, Spain, France,
in fact Europe. Up here we have Scandinavia. There is England and
over there is Asia. So we have Asia here, Africa here, Europe here
and America here.
| Diagram 12 Click image for large view | |
Now the South Pole is here, and around the South Pole in
particular there are many volcanic mountains. There is the North
Pole. And now it is like this: we can trace a line that goes from
Central America, from the Colima volcano
(see Note 27 )
down through the mountains that are called the Andes, down to the South Pole.
It is rounded, but actually though rounded it is this edge of the
earth. Then it goes on from the South Pole, goes over here past
Africa to the volcanic mountains of the Caucasus. Then the same line
comes over here, past Switzerland, over the Rhine and arrives here.
If you follow this line, which looks like a triangle,
you can compare it with this triangle here. And so, if you take this
portion of the earth, it is the base of a tetrahedron.
Just think, the base of a tetrahedron! Now: how do we
come to that point there? Well, we have to go through to the other
side of the earth. But I cannot draw that, I would have to make
everything round. If I were to make it round, I would come to the
point just over there in Japan. Thus if I mark the tetrahedron, here
we have Central America, here the South Pole, here the Caucasus, and
over there, which one cannot see, would be Japan.
| Diagram 13 Click image for large view | |
If we picture the earth in this way, we have it existing
in the universe as a rounded-out pyramid that sends its apex over
there to Japan and has its base here, containing Africa, South
America and the whole Southern Ocean. So the earth stands in the
universe, curiously, as such a rounded-out tetrahedron, as a kind of
pyramid. That, gentlemen, is actually still the form of the earth!
And now if you take these lines that I've drawn forming
the tetrahedron, you find that most of the volcanic mountains are
located along the lines. You have these frightful fire-belching
mountains of which you've often heard, over in South America, in
Chile and other places, then around the South Pole; and then you have
the mighty ones in the Caucasus. And when you come over here, we
don't have so many in our part of the continent, and yet it can be
shown that the fiery mountains were once here, but are now extinct.
For instance, when you drive along the stretch of road from northern
Silesia to Breslau, you see a mountain standing conspicuously alone
which is still feared by the people of today. If you examine its
rocks, you find this dreaded mountain standing there is simply an
extinct volcano. Similarly we have extinct volcanoes in many parts of
Germany.
And now let us go further. We have only marked out the
base. Then we have lines everywhere that go over toward Japan. Yes,
and you see, along all these lines one would always be able to find
volcanoes on the earth's surface! You can see that if someone would
sit down and draw the most important volcanoes, not on a flat
surface, but so that they formed a solid, he would get this shape of
the earth. Strangely, the volcanic mountains give us the lines that
make the earth into a tetrahedron.
| Diagram 14 Click image for large view | |
So now, if you do not picture the
earth as originally a ball of gas which then became condensed —
that's the convenient opinion which people hold — if you
explain it as having been formed by substance flung from all sides,
then you must admit something else. If the earth is a tetrahedron, a
regular solid, you'll have to explain it by imagining that a great
master geometrician with plenty of knowledge had actually pushed the
earth together from outside, along the lines which we still see
today. Now imagine that I draw this tetrahedron, that I first fling
this triangle in here from the periphery, then this triangle, then
this, and then the one up above. I make it as small boys do: they cut
out four triangles, tilt them together from outside and then glue
them together to form a tetrahedron. And the earth too has originated
like that, it has been flung together as triangles from outside.
Now watch the boys when they paste the triangles
together: where they join the sides they must be careful to apply the
paste or the glue evenly. As to the earth, at the places I've shown
you — South America, then here toward the Caucasus and over
here through the Alps, and so on — there the earth was
originally “cemented” together! But one finds when one
examines the mountains that there it has, so to say, been joined
rather badly; the sides don't quite fit together. If in particular we
trace the mountains that go over here from the Caucasus through our
Carpathians and Alps, we can show from the form of the mountains that
they have not yet quite grown together. The earth actually consists
of four pieces flung out of cosmic space and joined together, four
pieces which then form a tetrahedron, and along the edges there are
still, as it were, places not tightly closed. At these leaky places
it is possible for the cosmic heat from the sun to get into the earth
more than at other places.
Now when the sun's power enters into these places
beneath the surface of the earth, they become hotter and get soft —
as is always the case when things, even metals, are consumed by fire
— and they make an outlet for themselves in the direction of
those places which are not properly fastened together. Then through
the combined cosmic action of the sun and the “cemented”
places of the earth there arise these regular volcanoes, the
fire-belching mountains.
However, volcanoes are found at other places too. Etna,
for instance, and Vesuvius do not, it is true, lie along these edges;
where they are, no such line passes through. In fact, the very
volcanoes that are not located along the principal lines are
especially instructive, for one can learn from them what causes the
eruptions to occur.
You see, it can always be shown that when things like
fiery eruptions happen on the earth, they are connected with the
constellations, the relation of the stars to the sun. An eruption can
never occur unless at some particular place the sun is able to shine
more strongly than usual because it is not covered by other stars. If
it is covered by other stars as is generally the case, then the
sunshine is normal. Starlight is everywhere; one must not think that
the stars are not up there during the day, it is just that we don't
see them. In the old city of Jena where people had time to do such
things, where so many German philosophers taught, where Haeckel
(see Note 28 )
lived too, there is a deep cellar with a tower
(see Note 29 )
above it, open at the top. If you go down into this cellar in the daytime
and look up through the tower it is all dark inside, but you see up above
the most beautiful starry sky. When it is daytime, and clear and bright
outside, you can see the most beautiful star-lit heavens, with stars
everywhere.
But when the stars are in such a position that the sun
can develop its heat to full strength, when they do not obstruct the
sun, then the sun's forces of warmth shine down upon some special
places. These are the places where, after the earth had been fastened
together, later volcanoes arose. They came about later. On the other
hand, those that lie along the edges of the tetrahedron are the
original volcanoes.
Now sometimes a man who has no place in the ordinary
life of science discovers quite useful things in this direction.
Perhaps you've heard, or at least the older ones among you, of a
certain Falb?
(see Note 30 )
He was neither an astronomer nor a geologist nor
geographer nor natural scientist, but a former priest who had given
up his calling — run away from it! He devoted himself
especially to a study of star constellations and whether they really
have an influence on the earth. He came to the opinion that
constellations are connected with volcanoes, that when the influence
of the sun is supported by the stars in a certain way, a volcano
erupts. He maintained further that floods also come about for the
same reason, because the situation attracts water: beneath, the
heated mass; above, the water.
And he contended still more: that in the mines the
miners suffer most of all from so-called firedamp, that is, when the
air in the mines catches fire of itself. He asked himself how this
could happen. He decided that for this to happen the stars must aid
the sun activity by giving it full play. Then the sun shines too
strongly into the mine and the air in the mine ignites. Therefore,
said Falb, if one knows about mining conditions, one ought to be able
to say when firedamp may be expected in the course of the year. So he
made a calendar and indicated when according to the constellations
firedamp must occur somewhere. Those were the so-called critical days
which he marked in his calendar.
This calendar has been printed many times and Falb's
critical days are still there. Now what was to be expected when these
days were reached? Either the eruption of a volcano, or an earthquake
(an earthquake is a subterranean wave, subterranean overheating), or
a flood, or firedamp. Now, gentlemen, I was present once at an
amusing little incident. You see, this Falb was very clever, he had
been able to light upon these facts, but he was also very conceited,
frightfully conceited. As you know, to be learned is no protection
from vanity. And the following happened. About forty years ago I was
at a lecture given by Falb. He went with great pompousness and a
well-pleased expression up to the podium and began his address. He
said: Yes, this very day the stars are in a position from which one
can expect the occurrence of considerable firedamp. At that moment
the door opened and a messenger from the “New Free Press”
entered and handed him a telegram. Falb stood up there with his long
patriarchal beard and said: “It must be something important if
they send it to me straight to the lecture room!” He took out
his knife and cut the telegram open and read: “A terrible
firedamp has occurred!” Now you can imagine the publicity he
got! Falb had just said, “Firedamp could happen today”
and the messenger brings the telegram! “You see”, he
said, “one gets proofs laid on the table!” Those were his
words. But the whole thing smelled of show business. Falb knew quite
well that firedamp was due: that was correct. But he went early in
the day to the office of the “New Free Press” and left
word that if such a telegram came, they should send it immediately to
the lecture hall.
That is one of the tricks to which bad speakers gladly resort —
though usually in a milder form! I am quite pleased to relate
the story so that audiences may be warned to be a little cautious and
not simply to accept everything. The clientele that Falb had at that
time rustled with silk dresses and tuxedos: it was a very
distinguished one. But you should have seen how impressed they were
by his performance! However strongly he might have voiced his opinion
in words, the audience would never have been so convinced as they
were by the entry at exactly the right moment of the messenger with
the telegram. People would much rather be convinced through external
events than by what can be put into words.
So one can say that at certain places, namely, at the
edges of this tetrahedron, the earth is actually not quite joined
together. It is exposed therefore to the cosmic warmth of sun and
stars, and the consequence is that those lines showing active
volcanoes can be drawn. Outbursts of volcanic fire can, of course,
occur at other spots too.
But now does this imply that the interior of the earth
must necessarily be molten fire? That is what is constantly
maintained. Actually there is no other proof of it than the fact that
it becomes warmer and warmer the deeper one sinks a shaft into the
earth. Still one cannot go very deep. Moreover, with this increase of
warmth as one descends into the earth there is likewise an increase
of pressure. Whatever might be dissolved by the heat and become fluid
is pressed together again by the pressure in the interior. If the
earth were really molten inside then something else would not be in
accord. One can consider, for instance, the weight of the earth. It
is naturally hypothetical, since the earth floats freely in the
universe and cannot be weighed. In order to weigh it, one would have
to have it on top of another, gigantic earth, for if there is to be
weight there must be something that attracts, that develops gravity.
One could calculate how much it would weigh from how it attracts
other bodies; in fact, such a calculation has been made. But if it
were possible to weigh the earth one would find that it is far, far
heavier than it would be if it were fluid inside. Goethe
(see Note 31 )
for this reason vigorously attacked the idea that the earth was molten
fire inside.
Now when one knows how the earth has been created, when
one sees that it is really an incompletely fastened tetrahedron,
there is then no need to picture it as molten inside and to suppose
that at certain times, one wouldn't know why or wherefore, it must
suddenly erupt fire — like a moody, hysterical person! If the
earth were molten inside, one would have to fancy that it is actually
a little crazy — like a man who is insane and at any sudden
moment begins to rage; one doesn't know when the moments will occur.
But this is not true of the earth. You can always show where the
warmth comes from: that it comes from outside, that at this moment
such powerful heating occurs, not at all very deep in the earth, that
it forces an outlet for itself.
So the fire when Vesuvius or any other volcano erupts
originates only when the cosmic temperature has become fiery. It
always takes a little time before the effect is seen. The particular
constellation of stars, for instance, must first work upon the earth
for a time.
But that also follows from certain facts which I have
already related here in quite a different connection. Suppose here is
a part of the earth, the sun's rays strike upon it powerfully, and
underneath, something develops that later seeks an outlet through an
eruption or an earthquake.
You see, what I drew first, the powerful warmth going
down into the earth: people don't feel that because they don't pay
attention. At most, a few people go about the place where as yet
there is no hint of volcanic activity though the effects of the sun's
activity are already present in the air, and these few have violent
stomach aches, others have headaches, migraine, others find that
their heart is disturbed. But people put up with all that in a vague
fashion and take no notice. But the animals, as I have said in
another connection, which have more delicate noses, finer organs in
this respect, perceive what is happening and break away. The people,
in spite of their stomach aches and headaches, don't know why the
animals have become so restless and are running away. But after a few
days the earthquake comes, or the volcanic eruption. The animals have
fled because they already scented what was coming; human beings are
so coarsely organized in this respect that they are not aware of the
event until the whole business is on top of them.
You can see from this that something is already
happening a long time in advance before the final event takes place.
What is happening is the streaming in of a bit of cosmic heat. But
you can still put a question. You can say, this cosmic heat only
heats the ground, and where the earth contains substances that are
easily inflammable, there could of course be ignition ... but why
should it all flare up instantly? Here I'll tell you something else.
When one goes to Italy, to the places between Rome and Naples,
particularly to the neighborhood of Naples, and to the islands and
peninsulas on the coast, the guides always delight in showing one the
following experiment. They take a piece of paper and light it and
hold it so — in a moment smoke begins to come out of the earth!
The earth smokes — why? Because the air becomes warm from the
burning paper and so becomes lighter and expands. The warmth caused
by the sun's heat streams out of the earth as smoke. This is very
interesting to see. One lights a piece of paper and instantly the
earth smokes at that spot.
Now think of that enlarged to giant proportions: the sun
heating not only the ground below, but also the air above — and
you have Vesuvius. And when the latter has once established itself —
well, then the beginning has been made, and the process continues in
places that are especially favorable to it. It is interesting to
realize that those very things that take place on earth irregularly
are caused by the whole of cosmic space.
Now I told you that when we flung out that sulphur
substance during those days in the geological laboratory, we produced
something that really looked like a little moon. And so when one
observes the real moon, whom our little moon actually resembled, one
gets the idea that it too has been flung together out of the
universe. That is one idea one gets.
The other idea is established through spiritual
scientific investigation, namely, that the moon has actually been
thrown together in the cosmos, mainly from the earth. What does that
imply? Well, we did that too in the laboratory. First we threw
together such a cosmic body out of substances. Then we attacked it
from all sides, flinging material against it from outside, and lo and
behold — it became more and more like a moon. And what has one
got then? Well, one has the whole process. The main mass of the moon
was cast out from the earth, and once it was there, fine matter from
every part of space was flung against it. Fine matter is always
present in the universe — it falls down in the meteors —
it is always being flung out. And so one has the origin of the moon.
These things are all connected.
The development of science, you know, is sometimes
remarkable. A monument stands today in Heilbronn — certainly it
is rather dreadful as a work of art, but still it stands there and
represents Julius Robert Mayer.
(see Note 32 )
If you hear about him in science
today, you learn that he was a pioneering genius through his
researches in the 40's of the last century into the nature of the
action of heat. Julius Robert Mayer was born in Heilbronn, practiced
there as a doctor and went about without being particularly noticed.
The scientists of the time paid no special attention to him. And
although today he is described everywhere as a highly gifted pioneer
in physics, at that time when he sat for his medical examination at
Tubingen he failed it. If you made investigations, you would come on
the remarkable fact that the majority of men who later became
geniuses failed earlier in their examinations. And this was also the
fate of Julius Robert Mayer. By the skin of his teeth, he managed to
get through and become a doctor. But no one considered him remarkable
during his lifetime — in fact, quite the contrary. He became so
enthusiastic about his discovery that he talked of it everywhere.
Then people said that his mind was wandering and put him in an
asylum. His own generation put him in a madhouse while posterity
looks upon him as a great genius and puts up a monument to him in his
native town.
It was Julius Robert Mayer who as a result of thought
and investigation asked how it was that the sun which gives us so
much heat does not become cold. He said to himself that it does not
become as cold as it ought to become after always giving out warmth.
He thought therefore that comets, an immense number of comets, must
continually rush into the sun, hurled toward it from the universe.
They are very fine, tenuous bodies, but they rush into it. It is true
that they rush into the sun. The sun is very different from what the
physicists of today imagine. They would be very astonished if they
were to approach it: they would not find fiery gas but they would
find something that causes any earthly substance to be sucked in and
disappear. The sun is an empty space that exerts suction. It is not a
globe of gas. It resembles a pearl in the universe, a suction globe
with nothing in it that one looks for, but which continuously absorbs
this mass of comets. The fine etheric structures of the universe,
which are almost spiritual, are continuously being sucked in by the
sun as nourishment. We still see today, therefore, this dashing
against the sun. This should draw our attention, gentlemen, to
something important.
You see, when one arrives at the fact that the earth is
really a tetrahedron, — well, if one has been obliged to study
such forms and to note the number of sides and corners, one realizes
that a certain knowledge of geometry is necessary to understand how
to construct them. They don't come about so simply. Boys enjoy doing
it, making these tetrahedrons, cubes, octahedrons, icosahedrons,
dodecahedrons, the five regular solids. The boys like to put them
together from sheets of cardboard, gluing the pieces together, but
one needs geometry for it. Now the earth is formed in this very way
out of the universe — formed from knowledge of geometry, in
this sense, not formed through calculation, but with knowledge —
for it is regular! You can infer from this that there is really
geometry in the world, that everything is in accord with geometry.
That is true. Real science shows us something that I have always
stated, namely, that thoughts are spread out in the world, thoughts
are everywhere and only those people don't find them who have none
themselves!
It is very praiseworthy, is it not, to be a free and
independently thinking person? And yet it is slightly ridiculous to
find the expression “freethinker” which has appeared in
modern times, in the 19th century. Thinking independently: that is
very good, but many in their freedom have misused this expression
“freethinker.” And the men who have felt themselves to be
the freest thinkers were just those who had the fewest thoughts, who
simply repeated what other people had said. An Englishman made a
delightful remark: he said, “Free thought does not mean that
people have thoughts, but that they are free from thought” —
a remark that has been much quoted. What is a freethinker? A
freethinker is one who is free from thinking! Well, in science one
must endeavor not to develop such freedom from thought or else
nothing will be achieved. The actual form of the earth could long ago
have been discovered — the fact that it is not a completely
spherical cabbage-head, but that it has something of the shape of a
tetrahedron!
Knowledge of the earth is related to knowledge of man.
Man imitates the universe in his own form. He copies the universe in
his head, and so the head is round up above like the round universe.
Below, where the jaws begin there are quite remarkable structures:
they come from the triangular earth. In the jaw formation you find
triangles everywhere, they come from below, from the triangular
earth. With both, men copy the universe: they have more or less
rounded heads above, and the earth-forces reach up from below.
Look for it sometime. You will find in most varied ways
man's tendency (and animals) to triangular formation in the
jaws; this comes from the earth. Forces work upward from the earth
and imprint the triangle into him. And the universe works downward
from above and molds the rounded form. It is very interesting!
That is knowledge that may be gained if one penetrates
genuine science correctly. If one is free from thought, then one
talks all sorts of nonsense. And in our time all sorts of nonsense is
talked; that cannot lead to an understanding of what things are in
their reality.
So, gentlemen, let us speak further about this next
Saturday.
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