Lecture Two
IMPULSES OF TRANSFORMATION
FOR MAN'S ARTISTIC EVOLUTION I
Dornach, 29th December 1914
In the course of the following
considerations I shall be speaking to you about the important
impulses of transformation present in our era for the
artistic evolution of mankind. I would like to connect this
with what may occur to you as a result of your own
observation of this building
[ footnote 1 ],
or rather with that of which this building is merely a
beginning. But as a basis for these considerations it will be
necessary to establish a connection between art and the
knowledge we have gained about man and his relationship with
the world in general. I will begin today with these seemingly
more theoretical considerations and continue tomorrow with
our actual theme concerning the impulses of transformation in
artistic development.
Though I said
that I would begin today with a seemingly more theoretical
basis, in actual fact anyone who looks upon spiritual science
as something living will find these preliminaries very much
alive and not at all theoretical. They will, however, only be
quite clear to those for whom the ideas of physical body,
etheric body, astral body, ego, and so on, are not mere
designations in a diagram of man's being but the expression
of actual experiences in feelings and ideas relating to the
spiritual world.
If we
consider the different forms of art, it appears that
architecture is the one that has become most separated from
the human being as a whole. Architecture is separated from
the human being, because it is placed at the service of our
external impulses, either those of utility, which call for
utilitarian structures, or those having idealistic aims, as
in the case of religious buildings. We shall see during the
course of the lecture how other forms of art have a more
intimate connection with the real being of man than has
architecture. Architecture is in some way detached from what
we describe as the laws of man's inner being. And yet, seen
from the point of view of spiritual science, this external
character of architecture very largely disappears.
When we begin
to look at the human being, the part that first strikes us,
because it is the most outward, is the physical body. But
this physical body is permeated and penetrated and filled by
the etheric body. The physical body might be simply called a
space body or described as an organisation in space. But the
etheric body, which dwells in the physical body and, as you
know, also extends beyond the limits of the physical body and
is intimately connected with the whole cosmos, cannot be
contemplated without the aid of time. Basically everything in
the etheric body is rhythm, a cyclical rhythm of movement or
activity, and it has a spatial character only in as far as it
inhabits the physical body. For human imaginative perception,
it is true, the etheric body also has to be conceived in
spatial pictures; but these do not show its essential nature,
which is cyclic, rhythmic, moving in time.
Music takes
up no space, but is solely present in time. In the same way,
what matters with regard to the human etheric body in reality
(not in the imaginative picture we draw) is mobility,
movement, formative activity in rhythmic or musical sequence,
in fact the quality of time. Of course, this is a difficult
thing for the human mind to conceive, accustomed as it is to
relating everything to space; but in order to gain a clear
concept of the etheric body we must try much harder to allow
musical ideas rather than spatial ideas to come to our
aid.
In order to
bring to the fore another characteristic of the etheric body
it can be said: Occupying the physical body and extending, as
it does, its activity and rhythmical play into this physical
body, it is above all a body of forces. It is a flowing-out
of forces, a manifestation of forces, and we notice them in a
number of phenomena that occur during the course of a man's
life. One of these phenomena, to which not much attention is
paid by external science or from an outward view of the
world, but one which we have often stressed, is the ability
of the human being to stand upright. On entering the world at
birth we are not yet able to assume this vertical posture,
which is the most important of all postures for the human
being. We have to acquire the ability. It is true that this
is initiated by the astral body, which as it were transfers
its power of upward-stretching to the etheric body, but it
is the latter which in the course of time sets about raising
the physical body into a vertical position. Here we see the
living interplay of the astral and etheric bodies in the
formation of the physical body.
But this
acquisition of the upright posture is only the most striking
of these phenomena. Whenever we lift a hand a similar process
takes place. In our ego we can only contain the thought of
lifting a hand; this thought must at once act upon the astral
body, and the astral body transfers its activity, which lives
in it as an impulse, to the etheric body. And what happens
then? Let us assume that someone is holding his hand in a
horizontal position. Now he forms the idea: I want to raise
my hand a little bit higher. The idea, which in life is
followed by the act of lifting the hand, passes over to the
astral body; there an impulse arises and passes over from the
astral body to the etheric body. And now the following
happens in the etheric body: The hand is at first horizontal;
then the etheric body is drawn up higher, then the physical
hand moves, following what occurs first as a development of
force in the etheric body. The physical hand follows the
etheric.
I shall
explain the whole process tomorrow. At the moment I simply
want to point out that the making of any movement involves a
development of force which is followed by a state of
equilibrium. In the life of our organism we are continually
dealing with a development of force followed by a state of
equilibrium. Of course the human being has no conscious
knowledge of what is really going on within him; but what
takes place is so infinitely wise that human ego cleverness
is nothing by comparison. We would be unable to move a hand
if we had to depend on our own cleverness and knowledge
alone; for the subtle forces developed by the astral body in
the etheric body and then passed on to the physical body are
quite inaccessible to ordinary human knowledge. And the
wisdom developed in this process is millions of times greater
than that required by a watch-maker in making a watch.
We do not
usually think of this, but this wisdom actually has to be
developed. It must be developed and it is developed as a
result of our being left to ourselves with our ego. But the
moment the ego sends the impulses of its concept into the
astral body we need the help of another being; unaided we can
do nothing here. We are dependent on help from a being
belonging to the hierarchy of the angels. For even the
tiniest movement of a finger we need the assistance of such a
being, whose wisdom is far in advance of our own. We could do
nothing but lie on the earth immobile, making concepts in
utter rigidity, if the beings of the higher hierarchies did
not constantly surround us with their activity.
Therefore the
first step towards initiation is to gain an understanding of
how these forces act upon the human being.
I have tried
to show here what is involved even in a movement as simple as
resting the head in the hand. We learn to know, in the form
of a spatial system of lines and forces, the exterior of our
being, that which happens to our physical body through the
activity of the etheric body. If we carry this spatial system
of lines and forces constantly active in us out into the
world, and if we organise matter according to this system,
then architecture arises. All architecture consists in
separating from ourselves this system of forces and placing
it outside in space. Thus we may say: Here we have the outer
boundary of our physical body, and if we push the inner
organisation, which has been impressed by the etheric body on
to the physical body, outside this boundary, then
architecture arises. All the laws present in the
architectural utilisation of matter are to be found also in
the human body. When we project the specific organisation of
the human body into the space outside it, then we have
architecture.
Now we know,
in our way of looking at things, that the etheric body is
attached to the physical body. Looking once more at any work
of architecture, what we can say to ourselves about it? We
can say that here, carried into the space outside us, is the
interaction between vertical and horizontal and between
forces that react together, all of which are otherwise to be
found within the human physical body.
In the same
way we can carry what streams from the etheric body into the
physical body, not outside ourselves this time, but down from
the etheric into the physical body. In other words we can
bring about something which we do not separate from ourselves
by placing it outside us, but which we only push down into
ourselves. This is the process by which the laws of the
etheric body, which it has received from the astral body, can
become physical, just as in architecture the laws of the
physical body are projected into the space outside us.
Through this process, sculpture arises out of the etheric
body, just as architecture arises out of the physical body.
In a way we push the laws of the etheric body down one
step.
Physical Body
Architecture
Etheric Body
Sculpture
Just as in
architecture we push the laws of the physical body into the
space outside us, so in sculpture we push the laws of the
etheric body one step downwards. We do not separate these
laws from ourselves, we push them directly into our own form.
Just as we find in architecture the expression of the laws of
our own physical body, so we find in sculpture the natural
laws of our etheric body; we simply transfer this inner order
into our works of sculpture. In architecture we transplant
into the space outside ourselves only the laws of the
physical body, its spatial lines and interplay of forces,
taking nothing of the etheric body, nothing of the astral
body, nothing of the ego. In the same way, where sculpture is
concerned, we take only the laws of the etheric body and
bring them down one step lower, using nothing of the astral
body and nothing of the ego except in so far as they send
impulses into the etheric body. This is why a work of
sculpture appears to be alive. It would actually be alive if
it contained also the ego and the astral body. So if we seek
the laws of sculpture we must realise that they are in fact
the laws of our etheric body, just as the laws of
architecture are to be seen in the laws of our physical
body.
If we do the
same in connection with the astral body, as it were pushing
what is in us of an astral nature a step lower down into the
etheric body, we are pushing down what lives inwardly in man.
Now nothing arises that could truly have a spatial nature,
for the astral body, when it moves down into the etheric
body, is not entering a spatial element: the etheric body is
rhythmic and harmonious, not spatial. Therefore what arises
can only be a picture, indeed a real picture, in fact the art
of painting. Painting is the form of art which contains the
laws of our astral body, just as sculpture contains the laws
of our etheric body and architecture those of our physical
body.
Physical Body
Architecture
Etheric Body
Sculpture
Astral Body
Painting
If we now
take the fourth member of the human being, the ego, and push
it with its laws down into the astral body, there allowing it
to move and act, then we obtain yet another form of art. This
art does not contain what works in the ego as something which
can be expressed in language or ordinary ideas; it is
something that has moved from the ego down one step towards
the subconscious. It is as though the horizon of
consciousness were to be moved down by the amount of half a
member of the human being; we take half a step downward, our
ego descends into the astral body: then music is born.
Physical Body
Architecture
Etheric Body
Sculpture
Astral Body
Painting
Ego
Music
So music
contains the laws of our ego, though not as they are
manifested in ordinary, everyday life, but pressed down into
the subconscious, into the astral body; the ego dives, as it
were, beneath the surface of the astral body, there to flow
and stream within the organisation of the astral body.
If we go on
to speak about the higher members of the human being,
starting with the spirit-self, we can refer to them only as
something which is still outside the human being. For, in
this fifth post-Atlantean epoch, we are only just beginning
to make this spirit-self one of our inner members. But if we
accept it as a gift from a higher sphere and sink it into our
ego, if we dive down, like a swimmer into the water, into our
ego, taking with us what as yet can only be dimly felt of the
spirit-self, then poetry is born.
Physical Body
Architecture
Etheric Body
Sculpture
Astral Body
Painting
Ego
Music
Spirit-self
Poetry
And
proceeding still further, one can say, though to a limited
extent: Round about us, in the environment of soul and spirit
which we shall absorb at a later stage, the life-spirit is
also present. Therefore one day the life-spirit may come to
be lowered into the spirit-self. But of course at the moment
this is something that will only reach a certain degree of
perfection in the very distant future. For when he tries to
lower the life-spirit into the spirit-self, man will have to
be living entirely in an element which as yet is absolutely
strange to him. So what we can say in this domain is like the
babbling of a child when compared with the later perfection
of speech. One can foresee for the far distant future that
there will be an art of great perfection that will stand out
beyond poetry, as poetry stands out beyond music, music
beyond painting, painting beyond sculpture, and sculpture
beyond architecture (this being a question not of
superiority, but of arrangement). You will guess, of course,
that I am referring to something of which we know only the
most elementary beginnings today: Something of which we can
only receive the very first indications: the art of
eurythmy.
Eurythmy is
indeed something that must appear in human evolution at this
time; but there is no call for pride, for at present it can
be a mere babbling compared with what it will become in the
future.
Physical Body
Architecture
Etheric Body
Sculpture
Astral Body
Painting
Ego
Music
Spirit-self
Poetry
Life-spirit
Eurythmy
We can now
begin at any point with a somewhat more extended view. But in
order to do so we must realise that the organisation of man's
being is not nearly as simple as we would like to imagine in
our intellectual indolence.
It is
incredibly easy simply to imagine that the human being
consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body, ego,
and so on. If one is able to enumerate these various members
and has an approximate conception of them, one may easily
consider this rather simple form of knowledge quite
satisfactory. But things are not so simple. Physical body,
etheric body, astral body, ego are not simply sheaths which
fit easily into one another; they are, on the contrary, very
complex structures. Take, for instance, the astral body. It
is not enough merely to say: This is the astral body and
nothing more. Things are much more complicated.
Words here
are only an approximation, but we could say that the astral
body, for instance, is in itself structured and consists of
seven members. Just as the human being can be said to have
seven members (physical body, etheric body, astral body, ego,
spirit-self, life-spirit, spirit-man), so the astral body has
a connection with each of these. There is as it were a
‘thinnest’ part of the astral body which could be
described as being especially moulded and fashioned for the
physical body. That is to say: there is a living system of
laws in the astral body for the physical body, a living
system of laws in the astral body for the etheric body, a
living system of laws in the astral body for itself, a living
system of laws in the astral body for the ego, a living
system of laws in the astral body for the spirit-self, for
the life-spirit, and for the spirit-man. Thus each member of
the human being has in turn seven members. So taking into
consideration that the human being consists of seven members
which are in turn each structured into seven members, we
already find we have a total of forty-nine members. This of
course sounds perfectly horrible to modern psychologists, who
like to regard the soul as a unity and would prefer to have
nothing to do with these things. But for true knowledge,
which must gradually arise in the course of the spiritual
evolution of mankind, it is certainly not without
significance. For when we know that the astral body is
sevenfold in its nature and that it is an organism of inner
living impulses, then we shall say to ourselves: Within this
astral body, with its sevenfold organisation, individual
activities must surely take place between the various
members. The part of the astral body that corresponds to the
physical body must have a certain interplay with the part
that corresponds to the etheric body and with the part that
corresponds to the astral body itself, and so on. These are
no mere abstract suppositions; it is quite possible in the
human organism for a man to feel inwardly — though more
subconsciously than consciously — a movement of that
part of the astral body which corresponds to the physical
body. And then something may produce another movement which
will have to start in that member of the astral body that
corresponds to the astral body itself, and so on. This is not
a mere theory; it really happens.
Now imagine
the seven members of the astral body to be interrelated as
are the tones of the scale: tonic, second, third, fourth,
etc. If you allow the effect of a melody to work upon you,
you will find that your human organisation permits this to
occur because the various tones of the melody are experienced
inwardly in the corresponding member of the astral body. The
interval of a third is experienced in the part of the astral
body which corresponds to the astral body itself. A fourth is
experienced in the part of the astral body which —
well, let us now be more specific — corresponds to the
intellectual or mind soul. A fifth is experienced in the part
of the astral body which corresponds to the consciousness or
spiritual soul. And remembering that when we divide the human
organism more exactly we find it contains nine members, we
must, accordingly, structure the astral body in the same way.
Instead of saying “the member of the astral body which
corresponds to the physical body” when enumerating the
various members, I could now say “the member
experienced in the tonic”. Instead of “the member
of the astral body which corresponds to the etheric
body”, I could say “the member experienced in the
second”. And instead of saying “the member of the
astral body which corresponds to the astral body
itself” I could say “the member experienced in
the third”.
You can now
also see that the existence of the major third and the minor
third really corresponds to the incorporation of the astral
body in our whole human organisation. If you look up the
relevant passage in my book Theosophy you will see that there
is an overlapping of what we call the sentient soul on the
other. Therefore what I described as an interval of a third
can correspond either to the astral body or to the sentient
soul: in the one case we have the major third and in the
other the minor third.
It is a fact
that our ability to experience a musical work of art depends
upon this inner musical activity of the astral body: only
while we listen to the music with our ego we immediately sink
the experience into our astral body, into certain realms
which are subconscious.
This leads us
to a very important fact. Let us look at ourselves as astral
beings, as possessors of an astral body: what is our nature
in this respect? As astral beings we have been created out of
the cosmos according to musical laws. Inasmuch as we are
astral beings we are musically connected with the cosmos. We
are ourselves an instrument.
Let us now
suppose that we do not need to hear the physical sound of
tones, but are able to listen to the creative activity of the
cosmos that has brought us into existence as astral beings
out of the cosmos: in such a state we should hear the
universal music, what has always been called the music of the
spheres. Let us suppose that we are able to dive down
consciously into our astral entity, developing its spiritual
strength to such an extent that we can hear the creative
activity of the cosmic music; we could then say to ourselves:
With the help of our astral body the cosmos is playing our
own being. This thought, which I have just expressed to you,
was alive in men in ancient times, really alive. And in
pointing this out one is also pointing to the way in which
right into the fifth post-Atlantean epoch human evolution has
become more and more materialistic. For we all know that this
thought is not alive in the external human culture of today;
humanity knows nothing about the fact that, so far as the
astral body is concerned, the human being is a musical
instrument. But this was not always the case, and the fact
that it was not always the case has been, so to speak,
forgotten. For there was a time when men said: A man once
lived who was called John, and this John was able to
transport himself into a state of spiritual consciousness in
which he could hear the music of the heavenly Jerusalem. They
said: All earthly music can only be a copy of the heavenly
music which began with the creation of mankind. And the more
religious part of humanity felt that by passing over into the
world of physical desires, man had absorbed impulses which
veiled and darkened the celestial music for him. But at the
same time they felt that there must exist in human evolution
— through purification from external and chaotic life
— a road leading to the goal of hearing the spiritual
cosmic music, as it were, through and beyond the external
music of the physical world.
In the tenth
and eleventh centuries, this relation between external,
materialistic music, of which the divine origin was pointed
out, and its heavenly prototype, was still beautifully
expressed: men were required to employ music as a form of
sacrificial or religious service and were expected to free
themselves of their connection with the purely chaotic and
— as it was felt to be — impure outer world when
they produced musical sounds. Life in ordinary external
speech was felt to be impure. People felt themselves
transported to spiritual heights when they lifted themselves
up from speech to music, which is the image of celestial
music. This feeling was expressed in the following words.
Ut queant laxis
resonare fibris
mira gestorum
famuli tuorum
solve polluti
labii reatum,
S.J. (Sancte Johanne)
To translate
this we would have to say: “So that thy servants may
sing with liberated vocal cords the wonders of thy works,
pardon the sins of the lips which have become earthly —
one might say which have become capable of speech — O
Saint John.” It was to one who could hear the heavenly
Jerusalem that men looked up in this connection. Let us
extract certain things that lie hidden in such a verse:
Ut (this word was later replaced by do),
resonare (re), mira (mi), famuli
(fa), solve (sol), labii (la),
S.J. (si). So you find that ‘do, re, mi, fa,
sol, la, si’, the names of the notes in medieval
musical notation, have been carefully hidden in this
verse.
In such an
instance we can go back to what still lived in human minds
right until the eleventh or twelfth centuries through
atavistic clairvoyant cognition, and we see how it all
disappears in the flood of materialistic views and passes out
of the consciousness of men. But now we are living at a time
when through spiritual knowledge we must find it again and
recreate it. Everything points clearly to the way in which
evolution has made a descent so deep that a swamp has formed.
The muddy water of this morass is made up of all the ideas
originating in a materialistic view of the world. And now we
are about to struggle up again out of the swamp of
materialism, to ascend and rediscover what mankind has lost
in its descent.
I have
pointed out that properly speaking we do not sleep by night
only but that certain parts of our being also sleep by day.
At night it is principally the thinking and feeling parts
which sleep, while during the day it is more the willing and
feeling parts which sleep. It is in this will sphere that we
are submerged when we dive down with the ego into the astral
body. And when we hear a musical work, what happens is that
we consciously dive down with our ego into the part of us
which is otherwise asleep. When you sit and listen to a
symphony, the inner process which takes place is a dulling of
your ordinary, everyday thought life while you plunge with
soul and spirit down into a region which otherwise sleeps
during daytime consciousness. This brings about the
connection between the effect of music and all the
life-giving forces in the human organism, all that streams
with living force through the whole human being, letting him
grow together as one with the streaming volume of sounds.
And at night
we sleep; then our ordinary thought life is dulled in an
element which as yet is not present in our normal
consciousness. But if we succeed in bringing into ordinary
everyday consciousness that which awakens when we sleep; if
that in which we live when asleep dives down into our waking
experience, then . . . . Just in contrast: I have just said
that when we experience music the ego's awareness dives down
into a region which sleeps during the day. But when we
submerge what we experience at night into the consciousness
of daytime, then poetry arises. This is what people like
Plato felt when they called poetry a ‘divine
dreaming’.
When we thus
explore the connection that exists between man and the whole
cosmos, which we can do to a certain extent under the
guidance of art, we can bring a certain measure of life into
what otherwise remains a mere skeleton of ideas. Please do
realise that these things are not a mere skeleton! Some
people take such pleasure in arranging what I have described
in my book Theosophy in the pattern of a diagram; no doubt
they thought that it was from pure obstinacy that I deviated
from the pattern of earlier theosophical teachings, when I
described
three threefold organisations
that are not separate but interlaced. But
if these matters are approached through what one experiences
and what is absolutely real, then even the nature of major
and minor melodies will show that things are deeply rooted in
the whole structure of the cosmos. Only when things are taken
as living entities out of the whole structure of the cosmos
do they correspond to a true reality.
Of course it
was necessary in the beginning to say a number of things, the
reasons for which have only appeared by degrees during the
course of many years. This naturally involved the risk that
people would start to criticise, because they did not know on
what certain statements were based, nor how things of
necessity present themselves when the whole structure of the
cosmos is taken into consideration. This is still the case
with many matters. Many things that are said now are open to
numerous objections if they are approached with superficial
ideas. But in the course of years even decades they will
certainly be verified. And the knowledge gained through
spiritual science will become fruitful as soon as it is no
longer a theory but a living experience.
All depends
upon the capacity to surmount the first ideas presented by
the words: physical body, etheric body, astral body, etc., so
that these ideas can become alive; a real understanding of
the universe radiates from this process of bringing to life.
Those who are able to do this should now compare the kind of
aesthetics that have come to the fore during the last century
and a half, with what can be learned from a knowledge of the
human being in discovering the origin of the arts. Those who
make this comparison will see that, unless there is an
understanding of the human organisation, it is impossible to
reach a real comprehension of what lives around us and gives
us joy.
I want to
awaken in you a recognition of the fact that spiritual
science is itself an initial impulse that will continue to
grow and develop, that we are in a sense called upon to make
the very first steps, and that we can imagine what these
first steps will lead to, long after we have laid aside our
bodies in our present incarnation.
Footnotes:
1.
i.e. the Goetheanum.
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