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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Macrocosm and Microcosm
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Macrocosm and Microcosm
Schmidt Number: S-2199
On-line since: 7th July, 2002
SLEEPING AND WAKING LIFE IN RELATION TO THE PLANETS
The relation between man's waking and sleeping states has been broadly
described, and it was said that he draws from the latter the forces he
needs during waking life in order to sustain his life of soul. These
things are much more complicated than is generally supposed and today,
as the result of spiritual research, there will be something more
detailed to say about the difference between man's waking life and the
state of sleep. Let me mention in parenthesis that there is no need to
speak of all the hypotheses, some more interesting than others, that
are advanced by present-day physiology in order to explain the
difference between the two states. It would be easy to speak of these
theories but this would only divert us from genuinely
spiritual-scientific study of the two states. All that need be said is
that modern science concerns itself only with the part of man which,
during sleep, remains behind in the physical world. The fact that the
Ego and astral body emerge from the physical and etheric bodies when
man goes to sleep can be reality only to spiritual investigation, to
the eyes of a seer. The whole process is completely foreign to modern
physical science which need not, however, be severely
criticised on that account; in a certain respect it is justified in
asserting a one-sided point of view. Man's Ego and astral body are in
a spiritual world while he is asleep and in the physical world when he
wakes and comes down into the physical and etheric bodies.
Let us now consider the sleeping human being. Quite naturally, normal
human consciousness regards sleep as an undifferentiated state that is
not a subject for further investigation. The question is rarely asked
whether, during the time man spends at night in a spiritual world, an
influence on his body-free soul is exerted by several forces, or by a
single force only which permeates the spiritual world. Are we able to
distinguish various forces to which he is exposed in that world during
sleep? Yes, several quite different influences can be distinguished.
The influences do not, of course, primarily affect the members that
remain lying in bed, but they affect man as a being of soul when his
astral body and Ego have emerged from his physical and etheric bodies.
By considering certain familiar experiences and facts we will now
explore the different influences which are exerted upon the sleeping
human being. A man has only to be more attentive to what happens to
him when he goes to sleep and he will notice how the inner activity
through which, during the day, he moves his limbs and brings his body
into movement with the help of his soul, begins to flag. Anyone who
practises a little self-observation at the time when he is about to go
to sleep will feel that he can now no longer exercise the same control
over his body. A kind of lethargy begins to overpower him. First of
all he will feel incapable of directing the movement of his limbs by
the will; control of speech is then lost. Then he feels that the
possibility of entering into any connection with the outer world is
slipping away from him, and all the impressions of the day gradually
disappear. What disappears first is the ability to use the limbs and
especially the instruments of speech, then the faculties of taste and
smell, and finally of hearing. In this gradual cessation of the inner
activity of the soul, man experiences the emergence from his bodily
sheaths.
In saying this we have already indicated the first influence that is
exerted upon man as a preliminary to sleep; it is the influence that
drives him out of his physical and etheric bodies. Anyone who
practises self-observation will notice how a power seems to be
overcoming him, for in normal life he does not order himself to go to
sleep, to stop speaking, tasting, hearing, and so forth. A power is
now asserting itself in him. This is the first of the influences to be
exerted from the world into which man passes at night; it is the
influence which drives him out of his physical and etheric bodies. But
if this were the only influence to be exerted, the outcome
would be absolutely calm, unbroken sleep. This is of course known in
normal life; it is the state induced by the first influence connected
with sleep. But there are other kinds of sleep.
We all know the state of dream, when chaotic or clear pictures obtrude
themselves into sleep. Were only the first influence at work, the
influence that draws man into a spiritual world, sleep unbroken by any
dream would be the result; but another influence becomes evident when
sleep is broken by dreams. Two influences can be distinguished: the
one extinguishes consciousness inasmuch as it drives us out of our
bodily sheaths, and the second conjures the world of dreams before the
soul, thrusts this dream-world into our sleep.
But some people have yet a third kind of sleep. Although this third
kind occurs only rarely, everyone knows that it does occur; it is when
a man begins to talk or act in sleep without the consciousness that is
his in waking life. Usually he knows nothing the next day of the
impulses which have driven him to such actions during sleep. The
condition can be enhanced to the point of what is usually called
sleepwalking. While he is walking in his sleep a man may also have
certain dreams; but it is not so in the majority of cases; in a
certain sense he acts like an automaton, impelled by obscure urges of
which he need not have even the consciousness of dream. Through this
third influence he enters into contact with the outer world as he does
by day, only now he is unconscious. Such actions in sleep are
therefore subject to a third influence.
Three influences, then, to which the human being is exposed during
sleep can be clearly distinguished; they are always present, and
spiritual investigation confirms this. In the great majority of
people, however, the first influence predominates; most of their sleep
is unbroken by dreams. The second influence, giving rise to the state
of dream, takes effects at intervals in nearly everybody. But in by
far the greater number of people these two states are so predominant
that speaking and acting during sleep rarely occur. The influence that
takes effect in a sleep-walker is present in every human being but in
a sleep-walker this third influence is so strong in comparison with
the other two that it gets the upper hand. Nevertheless every human
being is liable to be exposed to all three influences.
These three influences have always been recognised in Spiritual
Science as distinct from each other. In man's soul-life there are
three domains, the first being mainly subject to the first influence,
the second more to the second influence and the third more to the
third influence. The human soul has a threefold nature, and it can be
subject to influences of three distinct kinds. The part of the soul
that is subject to the first influence which drives the soul out of
the bodily sheaths, is known in Spiritual Science as the Sentient
Soul; the part affected by the second influence which drives the
pictures of dream into man's life of soul during sleep is known as the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul; the third part, which in the case of most
people does not assert its unique character during sleep because the
other two influences predominate, is called the Consciousness or
Spiritual Soul. Thus three influences are to be distinguished during
the state of sleep; the three members of the soul which are subject to
these three influences, are: Sentient Soul, Intellectual or Mind-Soul,
Consciousness-or Spiritual Soul. When man is transported by one force
into dreamless sleep, an influence from the world into which he passes
is being exerted on his Sentient Soul; when his sleep is pervaded by
dream-pictures, an influence is being exerted on his Intellectual or
Mind-Soul; when he begins to speak or to act in his sleep, an
influence is being exerted upon his Consciousness-Soul.
So far, however, we have considered only one aspect of man's life of
soul during sleep. We must now describe the aspect of soul-life that
is the opposite of the sleeping state. Let us think of a man who is
returning from sleep to waking life in the physical world. What is
happening to him when he wakes? At night a certain force is able to
drive him out of his physical and etheric bodies because he succumbs
to it. In later stages of sleep he succumbs to the other two
influences those that are exerted on the Mind-Soul and on the
Consciousness-Soul. But when these influences have been exerted, the
man is different; he undergoes a change during sleep. The evidence of
the change is that at night he was fatigued but in the morning has
become able to cope with his life in the physical world. What has
happened to him during sleep has made this possible.
The same influence which makes itself felt in certain abnormal
conditions in the dream-world is present through the whole of sleep,
even when there are no dreams. The third influence, which takes effect
in a sleep-walker but in other cases does not operate, is the one that
is exerted on the Consciousness-Soul. When the influences on the
Mind-Soul and Consciousness-Soul have taken effect, man is
strengthened and energised; he has drawn from the spiritual world the
forces he needs for his life during the next day in order to recognise
and enjoy the physical world. It is primarily the influences exerted
on the Mind-Soul and on the Consciousness-Soul which strengthen man
during sleep. But when he is thus strengthened, the same influence
which drove him out of his physical and etheric bodies brings him back
again into them when he wakes in the morning. The same influence is
being exerted then in the opposite direction, and it is exerted on the
Sentient Soul. Everything connected with the Sentient Soul has become
exhausted by the previous evening. But in the morning, when we are
fresh again, we take renewed interest in the impressions of the
physical world colours, lights, objects which will
become causes of interest, pain or pleasure, inspire sympathy or
antipathy in us. We are given up to pleasure, to pain, in short to the
external world. What is it that is kindled in us when we are thus
given up to the external world? What is it that feels pleasure and
pain? What is it that has interests? It is the Sentient Soul. In the
evening we feel the need of sleep, we feel that our lively
participation in the outer world is exhausted; but in the morning it
is refreshed again. We feel that the same manifestations of the
Sentient Soul which flag at night, revive and reassert themselves in
the morning. From this we can recognise that the same force which bore
us out of ourselves brings the waking soul back again into the body.
What at night seemed to be dying away is as if reborn. The same force
is operating, but now in the one, now in the opposite, direction.
If we wished to make a diagrammatic sketch of what happens, it might
be done in the following way, but I emphasise that it is meant only as
an indication.
I have indicated by a dot the moment of going to sleep, when man is
drawn into the subconscious; and by drawing loops I have indicated his
surrender to the state of sleep and his awakening from that state. The
lower loop indicates the course of life during the waking state and
the upper loop the sleeping state. We can therefore say of the moment
of going to sleep that a force, working on the Sentient Soul from the
spiritual world, is drawing us into that world. This is indicated by
the first section of the upper loop in the diagram. The second section
of the same loop indicates the influence that is exerted upon the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul, causing dreams. And the third section of
the loop indicates the influence or force that is exerted on the
Consciousness-Soul. In the morning, the same force that has drawn us
into the sleeping state drives us out of it and into the life of day.
This is the force that works upon the Sentient Soul. The same applies
to the influences exerted on the Mind-Soul and on the
Consciousness-Soul. During the night man moves around a kind of
circle. On going to sleep he moves towards the region where the
influence upon the Consciousness-Soul is strongest. From that point he
moves again towards the force that works upon his Sentient Soul and
brings him back into the waking state.
Thus there are three forces which work upon man during sleep. Since
early times these three forces have been given definite names in
spiritual science. These names are familiar to you, but I beg you now
not to think of anything in connection with them except that they
stand for the three forces which during sleep work upon these three
parts of the human soul. It we were to go back to ancient times we
should find that these designations were used originally for these
three forces; and if the designations are now used in other ways, they
have simply been borrowed. The force which works upon the Sentient
Soul and at the times of going to sleep and waking drives man out of
his bodily sheaths and eventually into them again, was designated in
one of the ancient languages by a name that would correspond with the
word Mars. The force which works upon the Mind-Soul after
the man has gone to sleep and again before waking, that is to say, in
two different periods, was designated by the word Jupiter.
It is the force which drives the world of dreams into the Mind-Soul.
The force which works upon the Consciousness-Soul during sleep and
under special circumstances would make a man into a sleep-walker, was
designated by the name Saturn.
We may therefore say, using the terminology of ancient spiritual
science: Mars sends man to sleep and wakes him;
Jupiter sends dreams into his sleep; and dark
Saturn stirs into unconscious action during sleep a man
who cannot withstand its influence. For the time being we will think
of the original, spiritual significance of these names as denoting
forces that work upon the human being during sleep, when he is outside
his physical and etheric bodies in the spiritual world, not of their
significance in astronomy.
Now what happens when man wakes in the morning? He actually enters a
quite different world which he normally regards today as the only one
belonging to him. Impressions from outside are made upon his senses,
but he is unable to look behind these impressions. When he wakes from
sleep, the whole tapestry of the sense-world lies outspread before
him. But not only does he perceive this external world with his
senses; together with every perception he feels something.
However slight the pleasurable sensation may be on perceiving, for
example, some colour, nevertheless a certain inner process is always
present. All external sense-perceptions work in such a way that they
give rise to certain inner states; everyone will realise that the
effect of violet is different from that of green. It is the Sentient
Body that enables the sense-impressions to be received; it
causes men to see yellow, for example; but what we experience and feel
inwardly as a result of the impressions made upon us by the red,
violet or yellow colour that is caused by the Sentient
Soul. A fine distinction must be made between these functions
of the Sentient Body and the Sentient Soul.
In the morning the Sentient Soul begins to be given up to the
impressions of the outer world brought to it by the Sentient Body. The
part of us (Sentient Soul) which during sleep was exposed to the Mars
influence is given over on waking to the external world of the senses.
Spiritual science again gives a special name to the whole of the
external sense-world in so far as it arouses certain feelings of
pleasure or pain, joy or sadness in our souls. But under that name we
must think only of the influence working upon our Sentient Soul from
the tapestry of the outer world of the senses; this force does not let
us remain cold and impassive but fills us with certain feelings. So
that just as the first influence exerted on the Sentient Soul after we
go to sleep is given the name of Mars, the influence which takes
effect on waking is called the force of Venus.
Similarly, an influence from the physical world is exerted during
waking life upon the Intellectual or Mind-Soul when it is within the
bodily sheaths. This is a different influence; it is the influence
which enables us to withdraw from external impressions and to work
upon them inwardly, to reflect upon them. Notice the difference there
is between the experiences of the Sentient Soul and those of the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul. The Sentient Soul has experiences only as
long as a man is given up to the outer world; it receives the
impressions of the outer world. But if for a time in waking life he
pays no attention to the actual impressions of the outer world, if he
ponders over them and lets the feelings of pleasure, pain, and so
forth, merely echo on within him, then he is given over to his
Mind-Soul. Compared with the Sentient Soul it has rather more
independence. There are influences which enable a man during waking
life not merely to stand gazing at the tapestry of the sense-world but
to turn his attention away from all that, to form thoughts whereby he
combines external impressions in his mind and enable him to make
himself independent of the influences of the outer world. These are
the influences of Mercury.
The influence of Mercury works during the day upon man's Intellectual
or Mind-Soul just as the influence of Jupiter works upon it during
sleep at night. You will notice that there is a certain correspondence
between the influences of Mercury and of
Jupiter. [* See,
Human Questions and Cosmic Answers, lecture 2.]
In the case of a normal person today the Jupiter influences penetrate
into his life of soul as dream-pictures. The corresponding influences
during waking life, the Mercury influences, work in a man's thoughts,
in his inner, reflective experiences. When the Jupiter influences are
working in a man's dreams, he does not know whence his experiences
come; during waking consciousness, however, when the Mercury
influences are working, he knows the source of them. In both cases,
inner processes are being pictured in the soul. Such is the
correspondence between the influences of Jupiter and those of Mercury.
In the waking life of day there are also influences which work upon
the Consciousness-Soul. What are the differences between Sentient
Soul, Intellectual or Mind-Soul, and Consciousness-Soul? The Sentient
Soul operates when we are merely gazing at the things of the external
world. If we withdraw our attention for a time from the impressions of
this outer world and work over them inwardly, then we are given over
to the Mind-Soul. But if we now take what has been worked over in
thought, turn again to the outer world and relate ourselves to it by
passing over to deeds, then we are given over to the
Consciousness-Soul. For example: As long as I am simply looking at
these flowers in front of me and my feelings are moved by the pure
whiteness of the rose, I am given up to my Sentient Soul. If, however,
I avert my gaze and no longer see the flowers but only think about
them, then I am given over to my Intellectual or Mind-Soul. I am
working in thought upon the impressions I have received. If now I say
to myself that because the flowers have given me pleasure I will
gladden someone else by presenting them to him and then pick them up
in order to hand them over, I am performing a deed; I am
passing out of the realm of the Mind-Soul into that of the
Consciousness-Soul and relating myself again to the outer world. Here
is a third force which operates in man and enables him not only to
work over in thought the impressions of the outer world, but to relate
himself to that world again.
You will notice that there is again a correspondence between the
activity of the Consciousness Soul in the waking state and in sleep.
You have heard that when this influence is being exerted in sleep a
man becomes a sleep-walker; he speaks and acts in his sleep. In the
waking state, however, he acts consciously. At night, in
sleep-walking he is impelled by the force of dark Saturn.
The influence which during waking life works upon man's
Consciousness-Soul in such a way that independence can be achieved in
conditions of ordinary life, is called in Spiritual Science the force
of the Moon. Here again, please forget whatever mental
pictures you have hitherto connected with this word. You will
presently understand the reason for these designations.
Thus we have found that man's soul in waking life and in sleep has
three different members, that it is subject to three different
influences. During the night when man is in the spiritual world he is
subject to the forces designated in Spiritual Science as those of
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn; his
threefold life of soul by day is given over to the forces designated
as those of Venus, Mercury and
Moon.
This is the course traversed by man in the 24 hours of day and night.
And now we will think of a series of phenomena which belong to a quite
different domain but which for certain reasons can be studied in
connection with what has been said. These reasons will be made clear
as the lectures proceed. Please remember that many things said at the
beginning of this Course will be explained only at a later stage.
You are all familiar with the ideas held by modern astronomical
science of the course of the Earth around the Sun and also of the
other planets belonging to the solar system. What is said in treatises
of the usual kind represents, in the view of Spiritual Science, only
the most elementary beginning. What takes place in the physical world
is for Spiritual Science a symbol, an external picture, of inner,
spiritual processes and what we are accustomed to learn about our
planetary system from elementary astronomy can be compared, as regards
what really underlies it, with what is learnt by a child about the
movements of a clock. We explain to him what the twelve conventional
figures stand for, and what the rotation of the two hands one
slow and the other quicker means. The child will eventually be
able to tell us from the position of the hands when, let us say, the
time is half-past nine. But that would not mean very much. The child
must learn a great deal more, for example, to relate the movement of
the hands to what is happening in the world. When the hour-hand stands
at six and the minute-hand at twelve, he must know what time of the
day this signifies namely that at a certain season of the year,
if it is early morning, the Sun will be rising then. He must learn to
relate what is presented on the face of the clock to conditions in the
world and to regard what the clock expresses as a picture of them.
We are taught as children that the Sun is at the centre of the solar
system and that the planets revolve around it-first the planet now
called Mercury, then the planet now called Venus, [*In former times
the names of these two planets came to be reversed. See later
paragraphs of this lecture.] then the Earth plus Moon, then Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn. Astronomical maps of the heavens show us where
Saturn or Jupiter or Mars are to be found in certain months of the
year. When we have learnt to know the relative positions of the
planets at definite times of the year, we have learnt as much about
the heavens as a child has learnt about the clock when from the
position of the hands he is able to say that the time is half-past
nine.
But then we can go on to learn something else. Just as a child learns
to recognise what conditions are indicated by the position of the
hands of a clock, we can learn to recognise macrocosmic forces
penetrating invisibly into space behind a great cosmic timepiece. We
realise then that our solar system, with the planets in their
different positions and mutual relationships, gives expression to
certain macrocosmic powers. From this timepiece of our planetary
system we can pass on to contemplate the great spiritual
relationships. The position of every planet will become the expression
of something lying behind and we shall be able to say that there are
reasons for the various relationships in which, for example, Venus
stands to Jupiter, and so on. There are actual reasons for saying that
these conditions are brought about by divine-spiritual Powers, just as
there are reasons for saying that the cosmic timepiece is constructed
according to a definite plan. The idea of the planetary movements in
the solar system then becomes full of significance. Otherwise the
cosmic timepiece would seem to have been constructed haphazardly. The
planetary system becomes for us a kind of cosmic clock, a means of
expression for what lies behind the heavenly bodies and their
movements in the solar system.
Let us first of all consider this cosmic clock itself. The idea of the
planetary system having formed itself is easily refuted. You will all
have been taught in school about the formation of the planetary
system. You will have been told, in effect, that a gigantic nebula in
the universe once began to rotate and then the Sun, with the planets
around it, were formed by a process of separation from the nebula
itself. This will probably have been demonstrated by an experiment. It
is easy to rotate a drop of oil on the surface of water in a bowl.
Tiny drops separate off and rotate around a larger drop which remains
at the centre. The teacher will point out that this represents, on a
minute scale, the formation of a planetary system and nobody will
question it. But a sharp-witted pupil might say to the teacher:
You have forgotten something that in other circumstances it
might be convenient to forget, but not in this case. You have
forgotten your own part in the experiment because it is you who have
rotated the drop of oil! For the sake of logic the most
important factor of all should not be forgotten. It should at least be
assumed that a colossal power in cosmic space brought the whole solar
system into existence through rotation. The experiment in itself
points to the fact that there must be something behind what is
rotating; it points to the existence of forces which cause the
movement that is perceptible to the eye. In the same way there are
forces and Powers behind the great cosmic edifice of our solar system.
And now we will think of the outer aspect of this solar system. (See
diagram). The Earth revolves around the Sun
at the centre. I will leave out details. At a certain time of the year
the Earth stands at one point and at another time somewhere else. The
Moon revolves around the Earth and the planets usually called Mercury
and Venus are nearer to the Sun and revolve around it. I emphasise
here that in the course of time a change has taken place in the
names of these two planets. [* This change of names must be kept
closely in mind when references are made to the two planets.] The
planet that is called Mercury today was formerly called Venus,
and the planet called Venus today was formerly called Mercury.
Venus, (formerly Mercury) is nearer the Sun than the planet now
called Mercury (formerly Venus). Then, farther away than the Earth,
the diagram indicates Mars, Jupiter and Saturn revolving around the
Sun. The relative positions are not strictly correct but that does not
matter here. We will leave the other planets out of consideration
today.
Now let us assume that as it revolves the Earth comes to a position
between Mars and the Sun. This will very seldom be the case but we
will assume for the moment that it is so. Then, in the space between
Earth and Sun there will be the planets Mercury and Venus, and on the
other side of the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Leaving aside the
Earth, the sequence will be: Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, on one side;
Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, on the other. A looped line (see diagram)
drawn around the heavenly bodies is a lemniscate,
with the Sun at the centre of the loops-it is the same line as the one
indicating the cycle of man's waking and sleeping life.
Thus it is possible though not generally the case for
the planets to be arranged in the solar system in an order similar to
that followed by man in completing the cycle of waking and sleeping.
Taking the moment of going to sleep and that of waking as the centre,
the same spatial order can be indicated for the planetary system as
for the daily life of man.
The perspective here revealed is one of mighty forces underlying the
order of our planetary system, regulating the great cosmic timepiece
as our own lives are regulated through the course of 24 hours. The
thought will then not seem absurd that mighty forces are operating in
the Macrocosm forces analogous to those which guide our lives
during the day and night. As the outcome of such thoughts the same
names came into use in ancient science for the forces of the universe
as for the forces which work upon our own lives. The force which in
the Macrocosm drives Mars around the Sun is similar to the one that
sends us to sleep. The force in the Macrocosm which drives Venus
around the Sun is similar to the one which regulates the Sentient Soul
by day. Far-off Saturn, with its slight influence, seeing to resemble
those weak forces that work, in special cases only, upon the
Consciousness-Soul in people who are sleep-walkers. And the rotation
of the Moon around the Earth is due to a force similar to that which
regulates our conscious deeds in waking life. The spatial distances
signify something that comes to expression in a certain respect in our
own time-regulated life. We shall go into these things more
deeply and it is only a matter today of calling attention to them.
If we consider, quite superficially, that Saturn is the most
remote planet and has accordingly the weakest effect upon our Earth,
this can be compared with the fact that the forces of dark Saturn have
only a slight effect upon the sleeping human being. And similarly, the
force which drives Jupiter around the Sun can be likened to that which
penetrates comparatively seldom into our lives, namely, the
dream-world.
Thus we find a remarkable correlation between human life, the
Microcosm, and the forces working in the great cosmic clock, driving
the several planets round the Sun in the Macrocosm.
In very truth the world is infinitely more complicated than is
supposed. Our human nature is comprehensible only if we take account
of its kinship with the Macrocosm. Knowing this, spiritual researchers
in all epochs have chosen corresponding designations for the Great
World and the Little World the latter being the seemingly
insignificant bodily man enclosed within the skin.
I have only been able today to give a faint indication of
correspondences between the Microcosm (man) and the Macrocosm (the
solar system). But it will now be evident to you that such
correspondences do indeed exist. As though from afar I have alluded to
Beings whose forces work through space and regulate the movements of
our planetary system just as the movements of the hands of a clock in
the physical world are regulated. We have only so much as glanced at
the frontier of the region where we may hope that spiritual worlds
will reveal themselves to us. In the coming lectures we shall learn to
recognise not only the planets as the hands of the great cosmic clock
but also the actual Beings who have brought the whole solar system
into movement, who guide the planets round the Sun and prove to be
akin to what goes on in the human being himself. And so we shall come
to understand how man is born as a Little World, a Microcosm, out of
the Great World, the Macrocosm.
Last Modified: 02-Nov-2024
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