Lecture III
THE NEW CONCEPTION OF ARCHITECTURE.
Dornach, 28th June, 1914.
During the time
when the construction of our building is proceeding I think
it is a very good thing for us to try to grow more and more
into its meaning. We have already made a beginning with the
two previous lectures and we will try as far as we can, by
means of further study, really to become one with what is to
be accomplished here.
In the first
place I should like to remind you of what I said when we
opened the house dedicated to the work of constructing the
glass windows. The lecture referred to the evolution of
thought and conception underlying the art of building and I
will just briefly recapitulate what I was then only able to
indicate.
In regard to
the Greek Temple, I said that in a certain sense it formed a
unity with the whole countryside — the whole
countryside was one with it. The Temple stood there as the
‘dwelling place of the God.’ Nothing need be in
the Greek Temple save the spiritual presence of the God and
his physical image. The essence of the construction of the
Temple was the fact that every man engaged in his daily
pursuits on the land knew that within the region where he was
carrying on his work he was not merely alone with the earth
but united with the spiritual world. And the token for the
fact that man, as he lived on the earth, was also united with
the spiritual world, was the Temple standing there like an
altar in the land.
We then saw
evidence of progress in architectural thought, in that the
Christian art of building separated off the edifice from the
land. Everyday life and the mood of exaltation by which man
raised himself to the Spirit were separated from each other.
The Church of Christendom is no longer actually one with the
land; it serves the Spirit, apart from the countryside, and
expresses the fact that when man is to rise to the Spirit he
must leave the affairs of daily life, repair for a time to a
place set apart and there be united with the spirit. The
Church of Christendom, therefore, could no longer be what the
buildings of Greece and also of Rome were in their real
being. The Church of Christendom was in itself a duality, the
house of the community and the house set apart for the altar
and the priesthood. Man leaves the affairs of everyday life
and enters into the precincts where he feels himself gazing
upwards to the Spirit which comes to him from the chancel
where the altar stands.
This evolution
in architectural thought naturally implies the transformation
of the ancient Greek form of building (which was derived
purely from static and dynamic factors, the factors of space
and gravity) into the form corresponding to the conception of
the community being set apart.
Passing to the
Gothic Cathedral we have a still later form of architectural
conception. We have the striving of the community not only to
bear their own personalities into the sanctuary but also
their individual work, and this is expressed in the forms of
Gothic architecture. We feel as if the work performed in the
environment has passed into the architectural forms and rises
to the Spirit like a prayer, a folding of the hands.
I also said
that a real advance in architectural conception must come to
pass again in our times and that this is only possible if the
nearness to the Spirit which was achieved to an
ever-increasing extent from the period of the Greek
conception of architecture onwards to that of Gothic building
— if this nearness is gradually transformed into a
complete union with the Spirit. This means that buildings
which should now be dedicated to life in union with the
Spirit must in their very form express inner
correspondence with the Spiritual. We can indeed say —
if we try not to explain the thing in abstractions but to
grasp it with the whole of our feeling and soul —
‘All that is embodied in our life of soul through
Spiritual Science implies an actual penetration into the form
that is created. The Spirit is revealed in freedom, having
now descended to mankind.’ Whereas the Greek placed the
Temple like an altar in the land, the future and, inasmuch as
we are working from out of the future in our building, the
present, are placing a true expression of the Spirit in the
land as the result of what the Spirit expresses in its
forms.
A speech which
has a message for man of the present day will arise. But all
this requires that we endeavour to understand the Spirit in
its forms of expression. In order to understand the Greek
Temple, we tried, last time, to grasp the purely physical
qualities of space and of gravity. But the Spirit does not
only work according to the laws of mechanics and dynamics; it
does not only reveal itself in conditions of space and
energy. The Spirit is living, hence it must be
expressed in our building in a living way, a truly living
way. We shall not understand this any better by interpreting
the Spirit symbolically, but by beginning to feel that the
forms are living, that they are organs of speech flowing from
the spiritual world.
Is it possible
for forms to speak from the spiritual world? It is indeed
possible, in many ways. Let us take a thought that is
specially near to us because on the one hand it is the
expression of the highest, and on the other, in its Luciferic
aspect it is submerged in the lowest — let us take the
idea of the Ego, of Selfhood.
The mere
utterance of the word “I” or “Self”
does not as yet evoke much thought in man. Many epochs will
have to run their course in human history before a fully
conscious idea can arise in the soul when the word
“I” or “Self” is uttered.
Nevertheless, Selfhood, Ego-hood, can be felt in form, and
above all when we pass from a purely mathematical conception
of form to a feeling in form we can acquire a perception of
Ego-hood, Selfhood, in the perfect circle. If you realise
this you will readily understand what follows from it. If the
true, living, sentient human being, confronting a circle,
senses the feeling of Ego-hood, Selfhood, arising in his
soul, or if when he sees a fragment of a circle he feels that
it typifies the independent Self, he is learning to live in
forms. And the characteristic of really living feeling is the
capacity for living in forms. If you keep this in mind you
will easily be able to pass on to other things that follow
from it.
The first
circle I have drawn here has an unbroken line. (1). This line
however can be varied so that it shows these wavy projections.
(2). Another characteristic variation is the
third figure. (3). Both figures are only variations of the
circle. What do these variations signify? The second (2)
expresses the fact that the Self, the Ego has entered into
relation with the outer world. The simple circle makes us
feel that nothing of the rest of the world is there, only
what is shut off within the circle. If we observe the circle
in variation we can no longer feel that what is expressed by
the circle is alone in the world. The variation in the line
expresses a struggle, a kind of interplay with the outer
world. If we really live into the form of the second
variation (2) we shall feel: “The inner is stronger
than the outer.” And in the case of the jagged circle
(3): “The outer has bored its way in and is stronger
than that which lies within the circle.” And now if we
go into any building containing fragments of circles or
rounded surfaces, and perceive variations of this kind, we
shall feel in the case of the jagged lines, “here the
outer has conquered,” and in the case of the wavy
lines, “here the inner has conquered!” Our souls
begin to live with the forms. We do not merely behold the
forms but in our souls we have the living, pulsating feeling
of “conquest and encroachment,” “victory
and mastery.” The very soul lives with the form. And
this union with form, this living in form is the very essence
of true artistic feeling.
But we can go
further. Let us picture to ourselves a less simple variation
(4). The form moves in one direction and becomes
action. If we live in this form we have the feeling
that it advances, that it moves. In the forms themselves we
find the quality of movement. I have here made a simple
sketch of something that will appear in a complicated form in
the building, but you will find that there is an absolute
correspondence. Passing from the entrance at the West and
thence towards the smaller structure (at the East) you will
find that all the forms in the interior will evoke the
feeling that the whole structure is proceeding from the West
onwards to the East. This is expressed in the forms. At the
West you will feel in thought that you are within a vehicle
that is bearing you to the East. The very essence and meaning
of these relief variations is that they do not merely appear
as dead, dynamic or mechanical forms; we seem to enter a
vehicle that bears us onwards. In a spiritual sense we shall
not “rest” in our building; we shall be led
onwards.
From this you
will realise that the basic character of the forms here is
quite different from the forms of the three stages of
architectural thought which I have described. Up to our time
architectural thought has been concerned with the qualities
of lifeless, mechanical rest. Now, however architectural
thought becomes the thought of speech, of inner
movement, of that which draws us along with it. This is what
is new in the whole conception, and the basic form must of
course correspond to it. In what way does the basic form
correspond to it? Now I have said that the most intimate of
all impressions is that of the Self, the Ego, as expressed in
the circle or sphere. Why is this? It is because the simple
circle or sphere is of all forms the most easily perceptible.
It is an absolutely simple matter to recognise a circle. All
that is necessary is the most trivial thought that everything
is equidistant from the central point. As soon as we picture
to ourselves points standing at an equal distance from this
centre, we have the sphere, or circle. It is the very easiest
process that can be carried out in thought. As form, then,
the circle is the simplest of all entities. This is also in
accordance with external reality, for the Selfhood in every
being, from the simplest cell to the complex human being, is
the simplest of all impressions, just like the circle or
sphere. Behind all this there is something much deeper and I
want you now to follow me in a thought that will lead those
who really understand it, to great profundities.
Now the form of
an ellipse is more complex than that of the circle. I will
draw the form of an ordinary ellipse. It need not be exact
but merely have the general character of an ellipse. The
simplicity of the thought is no longer there when we pass to
the ellipse. Although the ellipse is still spherical, we have
no longer the nature of equality as in the case of the
circle. Here I must ask those who have studied geometry
— although for politeness sake we will assume that you
all know a little of geometry though you may have forgotten
some of it — to try to understand the following ideas.
There is also order and regularity in the ellipse. Just as the
circle is related to one point, the ellipse is related to two.
The lines between any point of the ellipse and the two
foci will naturally differ, but the two lines
together will come to the same length
(a + b = c + d in diagram).
You can add the distances of each point from
these two foci and you will always get the same length. This
is so simple in the case of the circle that there is no need
for an mental process. In the case of the ellipse, however,
we must make an addition. All lines to the centre of the
circle are equal, but in the ellipse we have to make an
addition. Now you will say: ‘Yes, but I do not
add when I see an ellipse.’ You yourself do
not, it is true, but your astral body does; what the
geometrician does consciously the astral body does
unconsciously. The astral body is a finished
geometrician. You have no idea of all the knowledge that is
contained in your astral bodies; in the astral body you are
all the wisest of geometricians, only of course the geometry
you know in the astral body can only be brought into
consciousness by the ‘sweat of the brow.’ You
must pardon this expression but it is permissible to-day
(... it was very hot on the day this lecture was given.)
Everything is there in the astral body and if those who teach
geometry, instead of using their wonted methods, could apply
a pump in order to extract what is in the astral body, they
would no longer need to teach — the knowledge would
well up of itself. We add, then, the two distances from the
foci and always get the same result. When an ellipse form
seems beautiful, what does this really imply? It implies that
the astral body is adding and the sum total is always the
same. And now picture to yourselves that you are adding
without knowing it and every time getting the same result.
You feel pleased. Now you go to another point and carry out
the same process. ... The same total again — oh! what
joy! This is the living experience of the ellipse.
In the case of
the circle there is no such feeling of satisfaction, for the
circle is so immediately obvious. The ellipse causes us
greater joy because there we have to be inwardly active. The
more one is inwardly active, the greater joy one has. What is
often so difficult to realise is that man, in his inner
being, craves for activity. If he wants to be lazy this is
merely an affair of his conscious life. The astral body is
not only wiser, but also more industrious and would like
always to be active.
Now there is
another line consisting, of course, always of two portions.
Those who have studied geometry will know that the
hyperbola consists of two symmetrical curves.
The hyperbola also has two foci which lie approximately here.
Again we can draw lines to these two points. The strange
thing here is that we do not add but subtract. We always get
the same result by subtracting the lesser from the greater.
Our astral body subtracts and is glad that the difference is
always the same. In this inner feeling of equality the astral
body experiences the source of the hyperbola.
Man is thus a
mathematician in the substrata of his consciousness and by
means of subconscious calculation we create for ourselves
regularity of form. We add and subtract, but we can also
multiply. Here again we have two points. Multiplying the one
by the other we again get a line that looks somewhat like the
ellipse but is not the same. This line contains an inner
process of multiplication.
This line has something mysterious about
it. The circle is a simple entity, the ellipse already more
complicated, the hyperbola still more so, for I do not think
that the ordinary person sees only one single line
in the two curves. The ordinary intellect believes there are
two curves. The ordinary intellect believes there are two
lines, but in reality this is not so. The other line is
mysterious for another reason, for according to what is
produced by multiplication the line is changed into this
curious form. It is the curve of multiplication, the curve of
Cassini, the lemniscate which plays so important a rôle
in occult investigations. The line can develop in such a way
that it assumes these forms. There are two lines, you see,
but in the inner sense there is really one line, and when we
feel it as one line in the astral world we know that this
form (o-o) is only a specialisation of this form ( ∞
). But now think — this form ( ∞ ) disappears
into the fourth dimension— then appears again and
enters the physical world. It is an unity because it ever and
again disappears into the fourth dimension. This
multiplication process has really three different forms.
We have
therefore a line of addition, a line of subtraction, a line
of multiplication. Someone may say that there must then be a
line of division, the fourth method of calculation.
There we must divide two distances instead of adding, subtracting
or multiplying. That is to say, it must be possible for our
astral body to determine two points — and also other
points if it takes the larger line — and to divide the
greater distance by the smaller. The astral body, then, must
be able to divide and when it does this it gets a line (see
diagram). All the points are so that their distances from two
points are the same in the division.
We add and get the
ellipse.
We subtract and get the hyperbola.
We multiply and get the curves of Cassini, the
Lemniscate.
We divide and get the circle.
Now we have
something very remarkable indeed. When we really try to
penetrate into the depths of nature they appear before the
soul in all their wonder. The circle appears to be an utterly
simple entity but it is, nevertheless, full of mystery. The
circle can also be understood by taking two points and
dividing, and inasmuch as the same result is arrived at, we
get the circle. The circle is thus something very remarkable.
It is the simplest of all entities and yet it is the product
of an occult process of division that is brought into
consciousness. It is just the same in the case of the self of
man: the ordinary self is the simple entity and the higher
self the mysterious entity resting in the depths of being
— a self that can only be found when we transcend its
limits and pay heed to the world with which it is connected.
The circle is the same whether we say that it is the simplest
of all forms or that the product of division from two points
is always the same. Just as we have the same circle, so we
have within ourselves a duality: something that belongs to
everyday life and is readily perceptible, and something that
we only grasp when we go out to the whole universe,
conceiving of this entity as the most complicated product of
the great cosmic struggle where Ahriman and Lucifer carry out
the division and where our own higher self has to maintain
itself as the quotient if it is ever to come to
expression.
Portions of the
ellipse and of the hyperbola and also of the curves of
Cassini will be found everywhere in our building, and your
astral bodies will have plenty of opportunity to make these
calculations! Here I will only mention one instance: when
people go into our building and stand in the gallery where
the organ and the singers will stand, their souls will be
able to carry out this process of multiplication. The soul
may not do so consciously but it will feel this process in
the depths of its being, because this is the line of the
structure around the organ. This line will be found in many
places in the building.
After what I
have now told you about the twofold meaning of the circle you
will be able to realise that when you enter the building from
the West and feel yourselves surrounded by the circular
structure, by the cupola above, that here is the image of the
human self. But the other smaller space in the East is not at
first sight so intelligible. The smaller structure will seem
to be full of mystery because, although its form is also
circular, it must be conceived of as the result of a process
of division and it only outwardly resembles the larger space.
There are two circles, but the one corresponds to the life of
everyday and the other is connected with the whole cosmos. We
bear within us a lower self and a higher self. Both again are
one. Thus our building had to be a twofold structure. Its
form expresses — not in any symbolical sense but in its
very being — the dual nature of man. When the curtain
in front of the stage is open we shall perceive an image of
man not only as he is in everyday life, but as
complete man. The forms themselves express a
movement from West to East, the path of the lower to the
higher Self. All that I have told you can actually be felt in
the forms. The erection of a building of this kind reveals
how the spiritual form of nature and the higher spiritual
world can be expressed. Nobody who begins to think out all
kinds of ingenious interpretations will Understand our
building. It can only be understood by a living feeling of
the development and being of the forms. For this reason I do
not want to describe the building pictorially but to speak of
the mode of its development, how spiritual being itself has
become form and movement and has flowed into it. Suppose
anyone were to look at the interior and begin to speculate
thus: ‘Yes, two cupolas, two circular structures
— lower Self, higher Self; a lower Self, a higher Self
— a unity.’ This may be a neat interpretation but
it would be of no more value than if it were said that Maria
and Johannes Thomasius in the Mystery Plays are really one
being. This is a mere speculation, for it results in an
abstraction. The unity lies in the living
‘becoming.’ Naturally the living powers of
becoming can bring forth both Maria and Thomasius but only as
the result of a differentiation. Even in similarity the true
occultist will always seek for diversity, for it would be
false occultism to desire always to lead back diversity to
unity. Hence the example of the circle. The circle is the
simplest of all entities, where all points are equidistant
from the centre — but it is also the result of
division. In the circle we have something that is a unity in
the outer world and complex in the spiritual world.
These are some
of the remarks I desired to make. On another occasion I shall
speak further on these matters. I shall now speak briefly of
other things.
Man, as he
enters the world, is really a highly complicated being. When
he enters the world — as I have often said — he
cannot at first stand upright; lie crawls, and at the very
beginning of his existence he does not even crawl. Gradually
he learns to control the forces which make him able to stand
upright.
Let me try to make a diagrammatic sketch of this
process. Underneath we have the Earth. Man is at first a
horizontal being; then he stands upright — in the
vertical position. It is an achievement of man's nature
itself to attain the vertical position but he has the help of
all the hierarchies as he passes through the course of his
life. What is it that comes to his aid when he stands upright
and walks? The forces that work from the Earth out
into the expanses of cosmic space. These are the earthly
forces. To-day physicists only speak of purely physical
forces of the Earth — forces of attraction, of gravity
and the like. The Earth, however, is not merely physical body
but a being of spirit and soul and when, as little children,
we raise ourselves to the upright position and walk, we are
uniting ourselves with the forces of Will rising out
of the Earth. The Earth-Will permeates our being; we allow
the Earth -Will to flow into us and place ourselves in the
upright position — the direction of the Earth-Will.
This process is a union with the Earth-Will. But in
opposition to the Earth-Will there is a will that works in
from all sides of the cosmos. We have no knowledge of it, but
yet it is the case that as we raise ourselves to the upright
position, forces (from the cosmos) are working in from all
sides and we come up against these forces that are pouring in
from outside. This has no particular significance to-day, on
the Earth, but during the ancient Moon period it had a
tremendous significance. On the ancient Moon, conditions were
such that from his earliest childhood man had a different
orientation, in that he had to place himself in line with the
direction of the Moon-Will. As the result of this he acquired
the first germs of the skull formation. To-day we have
inherited them, but on the Moon it was a question of
acquiring them. In those times man worked in himself against
the outer will-forces somewhat in the way a locomotive works
when it has to push away snow. He pressed back the
will-forces of the cosmos and his soft skull formation
compressed itself into the hard skull covering. To-day this
process is no longer necessary. The skull formation is
inherited. It is no longer necessary to build up the skull
bones. In the etheric body, however, we still build them, for
as we rise to the upright position there is a densification
in the head, representing the result of the fight between the
forces streaming in from all sides of the cosmos. Thus, when
we observe the etheric body, we may say that in his two legs,
man builds up two lines of force and works against the forces
that proceed from without. The etheric body is densified and
this form arises (see next diagram). We raise ourselves
upright. The physical legs have their junction above, but the
etheric legs rise still higher.
As a result of this the
etheric head is densified and as a result of the formation of
the brain there arises in the etheric body, in our age as
well, the densified etheric body. This does not only take
place in childhood but as man passes through seven life
periods (from the first to the seventh year, from the seventh
to the fourteenth year and so on) new lines are formed, lines
of different forces which pass upwards. So that when we have
reached the age of full and complete manhood — when we
have passed the fiftieth year of life — we have added
new pairs of pillars to that first strong pair formed during
the first seven years of life. They appear in the etheric
body in different colours. We strengthen our etheric sheath
every time we develop these ‘life pillars’
— for so indeed they may be called. After the first
period of seven years the first pair of life pillars is
completed, at the fourteenth year the second pair, at the
twenty-first year the third pair, and finally, with the
forty-ninth year, the seventh pair. Each pair of life pillars
makes our etheric skull-covering more secure. Man passes
through his life and after every seven years raises within
himself different pillar formations which bear his skull.
When we have understood this we shall have a living
conception of the inner form of the larger section of our
building. We enter at the West and say to ourselves:
‘Up to the first pair of pillars we see how man
develops in the first seven years of his life; the second
pair of pillars denotes his development to his fourteenth
year, then on to the twenty-first year and so on.’ And
the etheric sheath of the head is always around us. Man, the
living being, is poured out into the forms as an etheric
being.
The advance
from Gothic architecture to that of Spiritual Science may be
described as follows: Gothic architecture contains the
prayer: ‘O Father of the Universe, may we be united
with Thee, in Thy Spirit.’ Those who know what this
prayer contains, who really understand the living development
of Spiritual Science, will solve the riddle of the evolution
of man. And then, when the forms of architectural thought
strive to be united with the Spirit—expressing this
striving in their very being — man will feel how he has
been permeated with the hidden Spirit and can have around him
a building which is a direct expression of the living, inner
development of his being.
‘We dwell
in the land, but the Spirit is among us.’ This is the
Greek thought of architecture.
‘We dwell
for a season in the sanctuary and the Spirit comes to
us.’ This is the thought behind Christian
architecture.
‘We dwell
for a season in the sanctuary, but we uplift the soul by
raising ourselves to the Spirit.’ This is the thought
behind Gothic architecture.
‘We enter
with reverence into the Spirit in order that we may become
one with the Spirit poured out around us in the forms —
the Spirit that moves and is active, because behind the
Spirits of Form stand the Spirits of Movement.’ This is
the thought behind the new architecture.
Existence thus
advances through earthly evolution and it is man's task to
understand the inner meaning and purport of this existence.
He only advances in the wake of true evolution when he
endeavours, in every epoch, to experience what the spiritual
world bestows in that epoch.
Why do our
souls pass through different, successive incarnations? Not
in order that we may repeat the same experiences, nor that we
may pass through re-birth, re-naissance, again and again, but
in order that we may assimilate, ever and again, the
new that pours into our souls from out the spiritual
worlds. We are standing at a definite point in the evolution
of humanity in the sphere of art and in many other spheres of
spiritual life — at a point where the Spirit speaks
clearly to us of new riddles. And just as in the time of the
Renaissance man was destined primarily to orientate himself
to the past in order to work his way through to the
new, so it is with our own external knowledge and perception
of the universe. All that has been produced by the modern age
since the sixteenth century is only the preparation for a
living experience of the universe in its forms and movements
which now stand before us as riddles.
This, then, is
all for to-day. In another lecture I will try to approach
questions of a still more intimate character —
questions relating to the living soul of nature in connection
with colour and the art of painting.
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