III
The
Formation of the Human Ear
Eagle,
Lion, Bull and Man
A
question was asked about the design that appeared on the cover
of the Austrian journal, Anthroposophy, showing the
heads of an eagle, a lion, a bull and a man.
Dr.
Steiner. Gentlemen, I think we should first bring to a
conclusion our explanation of the human being, and then
next time consider the aspects of man that these four symbols
— the eagle, lion, bull and man — represent. Before
we can say anything about them we must build a foundation, and
this is something I shall try to do before the end of today's
lecture. These four creatures, including man, spring from an
ancient knowledge of the human being. They cannot be explained
as the ancient Egyptians, for instance, would have done, but
today they must be explained differently. One can interpret
them correctly, of course, but nowadays one must begin from
slightly different suppositions.
I
would like now to direct your attention again to the way the
human being evolves from his embryonic stage. I would like you
to look once more at the very first stage, the earliest period.
Conception has occurred, and the embryo is developing in
the mother's womb. At first, it is just one microscopic cell
containing proteinaceous substance and a nucleus. This single
cell, the fertilized egg, actually marks the beginning of
man's physical life.
Let us
look then at the processes that immediately follow. What does
this tiny egg, placed within the body of the mother, do? It
divides. The one cell becomes two, and each of these cells
divides in turn, thus creating more and more cells like the
first. Eventually, our whole body is made up of such cells.
They do not remain completely round but assume all manner of
shapes and forms.
We
must now take into account something I have mentioned
before, which is the fact that the whole universe acts upon
this minute cell in the mother's body. Nowadays, of course,
such matters generally cannot be met with the necessary
understanding, but it is nonetheless true that the whole cosmos
works upon this cell. It is not at all the same if the ovum
divides when, say, the moon stands in front of, or at a
distance from, the sun. The whole starry heavens shed an
influence on this cell, whose interior forms itself
accordingly.
I have
said before that during the first few months only the head of
the unborn child is developed. (Referring to a drawing.) The
head is already formed to this extent, and the rest of the body
is really only an appendage. There are tiny little stubs, the
hands, and other small protrusions, the legs. As it develops,
the human being will transform its little appendages into
hands, arms and feet.
How
does this come about? How does it occur? The reason lies in the
fact that in the earlier embryonic stages the influence
of the starry heavens is greater. As the embryo develops and
grows during those months in the mother's womb, it becomes
increasingly subject to the gravity of the earth. When the
world of the stars acts upon man, the emphasis is always on the
head. It is gravity that, in time, draws out the other parts.
The farther back we go, examining the second or first months of
pregnancy, the more do we find these cells exposed to the
influence of the stars. As more and more cells appear and
millions gradually develop, they become increasingly
subject to the forces of the earth.
Here
is convincing evidence that the human body is magnificently
organized. I would like to make this evident by considering one
of the sense organs. I could just as easily take the example of
the eye, but today I shall speak about the ear. You see, one of
these cells develops into the ear. The ear is set into one of
the cavities of the skull bones, and if you examine it
properly, you will find that it is quite a remarkable
structure. I shall explain the ear so that you can get some
idea of it. You will see how such a cell moulds itself
while it is still partially under the influence of the stars
and partially under the influence of the earth. The ear is
formed in such a marvellous way so that man can actually
make use of it.
Let us
proceed from the outside inward. To begin with, each of you can
take hold of your auricle, the outer ear. We have sketched it
as seen from the side (1). It consists of gristle and is
covered with skin. It is designed to receive the maximum amount
of sound. If we had only a hole there, the ear would capture
much less sound. You can feel the passage into your ear; it
goes into the interior of the so-called tympanic cavity, the
interior of the head's bony system. This passage or canal is
closed off inside by the eardrum, the tympanic membrane. There
is really a thin, delicate, tiny skin attached to this canal,
which might be likened to that of a drumhead. The ear, then, is
closed off on the inside by the eardrum (2).
I'll
continue by drawing the cavity that one observes in a skeleton
(3). Here are the skull bones; here are the bones going
to the jaw. Inside is a cavity into which this canal leads that
is closed off by the eardrum. Behind the outer ear, the
auricle, you have a hollow space, which I shall now tell you
about. Not only does this canal, this outer passage that you
can put your little finger into, lead into the head cavity, but
another canal also leads into this cavity from the mouth. In
other words, two passages lead into this cavity: one from the
exterior that extends inward to the eardrum, and one from the
mouth that enters behind the eardrum, which is called the
Eustachian tube, though the name does not matter.
Now we
come to a strange-looking thing — a veritable snail
shell, the cochlea. It consists of two parts. Here is a
membrane, and here is a space, the vestibule. Over here is
another space, the tympanic cavity. The whole thing is filled
with fluid, a living fluid, which I have described to you in
another lecture. So within all this fluid is something made of
skin that looks like a snail shell. Inside this snail shell,
called the cochlea, are myriad little fibres that make up the
basilar membrane. This is quite interesting. If you could
penetrate the eardrum and look beyond it, you would find this
soft snail shell, which is covered on the inside with minute,
protruding hair-like fringes.
What,
actually, is inside the cochlea? When one approaches the
question truly scientifically, one notices that this is really
a small piece of intestine that has somehow been placed within
the ear. Just as we have the intestines within our abdomen, so
do we have a tiny piece of intestine-like skin within our ear.
The ear's configuration, then, is such that it contains a
little intestine, just as in another part of the body we have a
larger intestine. The cochlear duct, which is surrounded by a
living fluid called the endolymph, is filled with another
called the perilymph. All this is extremely interesting. The
cochlea is closed off here by a tiny membrane shaped like an
oval window, and here, again, by another little membrane that
looks like a round window. Just as we can beat on a drum and
make it vibrate, so do the sound waves, coming in from both
sides, set into motion this little membrane, the oval
window.
The
oval window is a membrane set in the middle of the cochlea, and
it closes off the inside of the little snail shell, which is
filled with the slightly thicker fluid, the perilymph. The
fluid on the outside is thinner. Below the oval window is
another little membrane called the round window. Here we now
approach something marvellous. Two tiny delicate bones sit on
the membrane of the oval window. They look like a stirrup and
are called the stapes. People also refer to them as the
stirrup. So the stirrup sits on the little membrane,
protruding in such a way as to resemble an upper and a
lower arm on the membrane. Picture such an upper and lower arm
of the stirrup and then here, strangely enough, another
independent bone, the incus or anvil. The first two bones
of the stirrup are connected by a joint; the incus is
independent. These tiny bones are all in the ear, and since
materialistic science looks at everything superficially, it
calls the bone that sits directly on the eardrum, the hammer,
this other bit of bone in the middle, the anvil, and this
other, the stirrup — or malleus, incus and stapes.
Ordinary science, however, doesn't really know what these bones
are. What is found here in the two arms of the stirrup is only
a little different from an arm bent at the elbow. See, an elbow
joint is the same as this joint of the stirrup above the
membrane. And there is a kind of hand, on which sits an
independent bone. We don't have such a bone in our hand, but it
is comparable to our kneecap. So we can rightfully say that
this is also like a leg, a foot; then that would be the thigh,
that the knee (sketching), there the foot stands on the
membrane, and there is the kneecap.
You
see, it is most interesting that in the cavity of the ear we
have first a kind of intestine and then a real hand, arm or
foot. What is the purpose of all this? Well, imagine that a
sound strikes the eardrum and everything in there begins to
vibrate. Without being aware of it, the person is determining
within the ear what kind of vibration it is. Now think of this,
which you may have experienced at some time. You are standing
somewhere on a street when something explodes behind you. You
feel the explosion inwardly and may feel sick to your stomach
from the shock. But this delicate shock that vibrates through
the cochlea's “intestine” is felt by the fluid
within, which conveys the vibrations that are imparted by the
“touching” of the eardrum with a
“hand,” as it were.
Now I
would like to point out something else to you. What is the
purpose of this Eustachian tube leading from the mouth to the
inner ear? If sounds simply passed into the ear from the
auricle, we would not need it, but to comprehend another's
speech we must first have learned to speak ourselves.
When we listen to someone else and wish to comprehend
him, the sounds we have learned to speak pass through the
Eustachian tube. When another person is speaking to us, the
sounds come in through the auricle and make the fluid vibrate.
Because the air passes into the ear from the outside, and since
we know how to set this air in motion with our own speech, we
can understand the other person. In the ear, the element of our
own speech that we are accustomed to meets the element of what
the other person says; there the two meet.
You
see, when I say, “house,” I am accustomed to
having certain vibrations occur in my Eustachian tube;
when I say, “powder,” I experience other
vibrations. I am familiar with these vibrations. When I hear
the word “house,” the vibration comes from outside,
and because I am used to identifying this vibration when I say
the word myself, and since my comprehension and the vibration
from outside encounter each other in the ear, I am able
to recognize its meaning. The tube that leads from the mouth
into the ear was there when as a child I learned to speak.
Thus, we learned to understand the other person simultaneously
as we learned to talk. These matters are most interesting.
Now,
things are really like this. Imagine that nothing but what I
have just sketched here existed in the ear. Then you could at
least understand another person's words and also listen to a
piece of music, but you would not be able to remember what you
had heard. You would have no memory for speech and sound if the
ear had nothing more than these parts. There is another amazing
structure in the ear that enables you to retain what you
have heard. These are three hollow arches, which look like this
(sketching). The second is vertical to the first, and the
third, vertical to the second. Thus, they are vertical to each
other in three dimensions. These so-called semi-circular canals
are hollow and are also filled with a living, delicate fluid.
The remarkable thing about it is that infinitely small crystals
are constantly forming from it. If you hear the word,
“house,” for example, or the tone C, tiny crystals
are formed in there as a result. If you hear a different word
— “man,” for instance — slightly
different crystals are formed. In these three little
canals, microscopically small crystals take shape, and
these minute crystals enable us not only to understand
but also to retain in our memory what we have comprehended. For
what does the human being do unconsciously?
Imagine that you have heard someone say, “Five
francs.” You want to remember what has been said, so with
a pencil you write it into your notebook. What you have written
with lead in your notebook has nothing to do with live francs
except as a means of remembering them. Likewise, what one
hears is inscribed into these delicate canals with the minute
crystals that do, in fact, resemble letters, and a subconscious
intelligence in us reads them whenever we need to recall
something. So, indeed, we can say that the memory for tone and
sound is located within these three semi-circular canals. Here
where this arm is located is comprehension, intelligence. Here,
within the cochlea is a portion of man's feeling. We feel the
sounds in this part of the labyrinth, in the fluid within the
little snail shell; there we feel the sounds. When we speak and
produce the sounds ourselves, our will passes through the
Eustachian tube. The whole configuration of the human soul is
contained in the ear. In the Eustachian tube lives the will;
here in the cochlea is feeling; intelligence is in the auditory
ossicles, those little bones that look like an arm or leg;
memory resides in the semi-circular canals. So that man can
become aware of the complete process, a nerve passes from here
(drawing) through this cavity and spreads out everywhere,
penetrates everywhere. Through this auditory nerve, all
these processes are brought to consciousness in our brain.
You
see, gentlemen, this is something quite remarkable. Here in our
skull we have a cavity. One enters the inner ear cavity by
passing from the auricle through the auditory canal and
eardrum. Everything I have described to you is contained
therein. First, we stretch out the “hand” and touch
the incoming tones to comprehend them. Then we transfer
this sensation to the living fluid of the cochlea, where we
feel the tone. We penetrate the Eustachian tube with our will,
and because of the tiny crystal letters formed in the
semi-circular canals, we can recall what has been said or sung,
or whatever else has come to us as sound.
So we
can say that within the ear we bear something like a little
human being, because this little being has will,
comprehension, feeling and memory. In this small cavity
we carry a tiny man around with us. We really consist of many
such minute human beings. The large human being is actually the
sum of many little human beings. Later, I'll show you that the
eye is also such a miniature man. The nose, too, is a little
human being. All these “little men” that make up
the total human being are held together by the nervous
system.
These
miniature men are created while man is still an embryo in the
mother's body. All that is being formed and developed there is
still under the influence of the stars. After all, these
marvellous configurations — the canals that produce the
crystals, the little auditory bones — cannot be moulded
by the gravity and forces of the earth. They are organized in
the womb of the mother by forces that descend from the stars.
The cochlea and Eustachian tube are parts that belong to man as
a being of earth and are developed later. They are shaped by
the forces that originate from the earth, from the gravity that
gives us our form and that enables the child to stand upright
long after it is born.
You
see, if initially one knows how the whole human being
originates from one small cell, and how one cell is
transformed into an eye while another becomes an ear and
a third the nose, one understands how man is gradually built
up. Actually, there are ten groups of cells that transform
themselves, not just one, but we may still imagine there
to be one cell in the beginning. So, at first, just one cell
exists. This produces a second, which by being placed in a
slightly different position comes under a different
influence and develops into the ear. Another develops into the
nose, a third into the eye, and so on. None of this proceeds
from any influence of the earth. The forces of the earth can
mould only those parts that are mostly round, just as in the
abdomen the earth organizes the intestinal system.
Everything else is formed by the influence of the stars.
We
know of these matters today because we have microscopes.
After all, the auditory bones are minute. Remarkably
enough, these things were also known by men in ancient times,
though the source of their knowledge was completely different
from that of today. For example, 3,000 years ago the ancient
Egyptians were also occupied with a knowledge of man's
organization and knew in their way just how remarkable the
inner functions of the human ear are. They said to themselves
that man has ears, eyes and other organs belonging to the head.
If we wish to explain them, we must ask how the ear, for
instance, was moulded so differently from the other organs. The
ancients said that those organs that are part of the head
developed primarily from what comes down to the earth from
above. They said, “High up in the air the eagle develops
and matures. One must look up into that region if one wishes to
observe the forces that form the organs in the human
head.” So, these ancient people drew an eagle in place of
the head when they were depicting the human being.
When
we observe the heart or lungs, we find that they look
completely different from the ear or eye. When we look at the
lungs, we cannot turn to the stars, nor can we do so in the
case of the heart. The force of the stars works strongly in the
heart, but we cannot deduce the heart's configuration solely
from the stars. The ancient Egyptians knew this; they knew that
these organs could not be as closely linked to the stars as
those of the head. They pondered these aspects and asked
themselves which animal's constitution emphasized the organs
similar to the human heart and lungs. The eagle particularly
develops those organs that man has in his head.
The
ancients thought that the animal that primarily develops the
heart, that is all heart and therefore the most courageous, is
the lion. So they named the section of man that contains the
heart and lungs “lion.” For the head, they said
“eagle,” and for the midsection,
“lion.”
They
realized that man's intestines were again organs of a different
kind. You see, the lion has quite short intestines; their
development is curtailed. The minute “intestine” in
the human ear is formed most delicately, but man's
abdominal intestines are by no means shaped so finely. In
observing the intestines, you can compare their formation only
with the nature of those animals that are mainly under their
influence. The lion is under the influence of the heart,
and the eagle is under the sway of the upper forces. When you
observe cows after they have been grazing, you can sense how
they and their kind are completely governed by their
intestines. When they are digesting, they experience
great well-being, so the ancients called the section of man
that constitutes the digestive system, “bull.” That
gives us the three members of human nature: Eagle — head;
lion — breast; bull — abdomen.
Of
course, the ancients knew when they studied the head that it
was not an actual eagle, nor the midsection a lion, nor the
lower part a bull. They knew that, and they said that if there
were no other influence, we would all go about with something
like an eagle for our head above, a lion in our chest region
and a bull down below; we would all walk around like that. But
something else comes into play that transforms what is above
and moulds it into a human head, and likewise with the other
parts. This agent is man himself; man combines these three
aspects.
It is
most remarkable how these ancient people expressed, in such
symbols, certain truths that we acknowledge again today. Of
course, they could form these images easier than we because,
though we modern people may learn many things, the thoughts we
normally acquire in school do not touch our hearts too deeply.
It was quite different in the case of these ancient people.
They were seized by the feeling emanating from thoughts and
therefore dreamed of them. These people dreamed true dreams.
The whole human being appeared as an image to them, and from
his forehead they saw an eagle looking out, from the heart, a
lion, and from the abdomen, a bull. They combined this into the
beautiful image of the whole human being. One can truly say
that long-ago people composed their concept of the human being
from the elements of man, bull, eagle and lion.
This
outlook continued in the description of the Gospels. One
frequently proceeded from this point of view. One said that in
the Gospel of Matthew the humanity of Jesus is truly described;
hence, its author was called “man.” Then take the
case of John, who depicts Jesus as if He hovered or flew over
the earth. John actually describes what happens in the region
of the head; he is the “eagle.” When one examines
the Gospel of Mark, one will find that he presents Jesus as a
fighter, the valiant one; hence, the “lion.” Mark
writes like one who represents primarily those organs of man
situated in the chest. How does Luke write? Luke is presented
as a physician, as a man whose main goal is therapeutic, and
the healing element can be recognized in his Gospel. Healing is
accomplished by bringing remedial forces into the digestive
organs. Consequently, Luke describes Jesus as the one who
brings a healing element into the lower nature of man. Luke,
then, is the “bull.” So one can picture the four
Gospels like this: Matthew — man; Mark — lion; Luke
— bull; John — eagle.
As for
the journal whose cover depicts the four figures that you asked
about, its purpose is to present something of value that can be
communicated from one human spirit to another. So the true
human being should be depicted in it. In rendering this
drawing, the eagle is represented above, then the lion and
bull, with man encompassing them all. This was done to show
that the journal represents a serious concern with man. This is
its aim. Not much of the human element is present in the bulk
of what newspapers print these days. Here attention was to be
drawn to the fact that this newspaper or journal could afford
man the opportunity to express himself fully. What he says must
not be stupid: the eagle. He must not be a coward: the lion.
Nor should he lose himself in fanciful flights of thought but
rather stand firmly on earth and be practical: the bull. The
final result should be “man,” and it should speak
to man. This is what one would like to see happen, that
everything passed on from man to man be conducted on a human
level.
Well,
I did have time after all to get to your question after looking
at those subjects I started with. I hope my answer was
comprehensible. Were you interested in the description of the
ear? One should know these things; one should be familiar with
what is contained in the various organs that one carries around
within the body.
Question: Is there time to say something about
the “lotus flowers” that are sometimes
mentioned?
Dr.
Steiner: I'll get to that when I describe the individual
organs to you.
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