Harmony of the Creative Word E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

In one of his most popular lecture courses - formerly published as Man as Symphony of the Creative Word - Rudolf Steiner presents an extraordinary panorama of spiritual knowledge centring on the human being. We are the harmony of creation - a microcosm - containing within us 'all the laws and secrets of the world'.Steiner begins by speaking about our inner relationship to three ancient and sacred representatives of the animal kingdom - eagle, lion and bull - and to the forces of the cosmos that form them. He goes on to deepen these themes by approaching the plant and animal worlds in the context of planetary and cosmic evolution. A new category is then introduced: the elemental nature spirits - the metaphysical beings who work with plants and animals. Steiner gives a unique and intimate description of them and describes the cooperation they offer to mankind. Finally, the human being - the 'Harmony of the Creative Word' - is placed at the heart of this spiritual celebration of life.

Leseprobe

RUDOLF STEINER (1861–1925) called his spiritual philosophy ‘anthroposophy’, meaning ‘wisdom of the human being’. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal ‘science of spirit’, accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking.

From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

HARMONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD

The Human Being and the Elemental, Animal, Plant and Mineral Kingdoms

Twelve lectures given in Dornach, Switzerland, between 19 October and 11 November 1923

RUDOLF STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Translation revised by Matthew Barton

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, E. Sussex RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2012

First published in English as Man as Symphony of the Creative Word by Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., London (no date) Second edition Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co. and Anthroposophic Press 1945 Third edition (translated by Judith Compton-Burnett) 1970, reprinted 1978 Fourth edition (revised by Anna Meuss and Karla Kiniger) 1991

Originally published in German under the title Der Mensch als Zusammenklang des schaffenden, bildenden und gestaltenden Weltenwortes (volume 230 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtamgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. This authorized translation is published by kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

Translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2001

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 308 0

Cover by Andrew Morgan Typeset by DP Photosetting, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Contents

Synopses

Introduction

Part One MAN’S CONNECTION WITH THE COSMOS, THE EARTH AND THE ANIMAL WORLD

Lecture 1,19 October 1923

Lecture 2, 20 October 1923

Lecture 3, 21 October 1923

Part Two THE INNER CONNECTION OF WORLD PHENOMENA AND THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE WORLD

Lecture 4, 26 October 1923

Lecture 5, 27 October 1923

Lecture 6, 28 October 1923

Part Three THE PLANT WORLD AND THE ELEMENTAL NATURE SPIRITS

Lecture 7, 2 November 1923

Lecture 8, 3 November 1923

Lecture 9, 4 November 1923

Part Four THE SECRETS OF THE HUMAN ORGANISM

Lecture 10, 9 November 1923

Lecture 11, 10 November 1923

Lecture 12, 11 November 1923

Publisher’s Note

Synopses

Lecture 1,19 October 1923

Man as a microcosm. The bird is essentially head. Its plumage corresponds to the power of thinking in man. In the bird breathing dominates and lightens all other systems. In the lion there is balance between breathing and blood circulation. All parts of the lion reveal the mastery of the rhythmical system. The cow is all digestion, and a sublime astral principle has become flesh in it. Man is a harmonious synthesis of bird, lion and cow, in which creatures he also sees soul powers reflected. Gandhi and the cow. Stages in the development of the butterfly in relation to the sun. These stages compressed in the case of the bird. Bird plumage corresponds to momentary thoughts, the butterfly to memories. An African fable illuminates the poverty of logic.

Lecture 2, 20 October 1923

The sun in relation to the outer planets. It works on the eagle in connection with these, and especially Jupiter. The lion is pre-eminently the sun animal. The sun in connection with the inner planets works on the digestive processes, exemplified by the cow. Its forces also work through the earth and produce the heaviness in cow nature. The cosmic urge today to separate the three systems in man. The alluring calls of eagle, lion and cow, and their dangers for the West, Central Europe and the East. Possible mechanization of the earth and its consequences for the planetary system. A wrong way of using the secret of the cow. The counterparts to the animals in the African fable. The fable retold for modern times. The right answer of man to the three alluring calls.

Lecture 3, 21 October 1923

Physical and spiritual substance. Spiritual substance predominates in the lower organization of man (limbs), physical substance in the upper (head). Distinction between substance and forces. In the head, forces are spiritual, in the limb system, physical. Use of this knowledge in medicine. Man’s twofold debt to the earth in that he takes into death spiritual substance (of limbs) which the earth needs, and leaves behind physical substance (of head) that he has estranged from the earth. This causes pain and suffering for the earth; karma is created that will have to be rectified in future planetary epochs. But the eagle and the cow do what man is unable to do: through its feathers the eagle takes spiritualized earth substance into the world of the spirit, and the cow gives materialized spiritual substance to the earth through its digestive processes. Initiation science lives in the inner response to such knowledge. Rejoicing of earth spirits in the activities of the cow, and of air and fire spirits in the activities of the eagle. Criticism of a statement made by Albert Schweitzer. The lion creates the right balance between eagle and cow.

Lecture 4, 26 October 1923

Recapitulation of the four stages of Earth evolution: Saturn (heat), Sun (air), Moon (water), Earth (solid). Distinction between the upper nature of the first two and the lower nature of the second two. Each stage of evolution leaves its effects in later stages, e.g. Moon forces left in the earth work in magnetism and gravity. The butterfly is a creation of the upper cosmic forces. Its egg is under direct influence of the sun, the caterpillar of Mars, the chrysalis of Jupiter, and the freed butterfly of the sun’s light and Saturn forces. In Moon evolution the plant embryos came under the influence of Moon-Earth forces. The plant seed belongs to the earth, the leaf corresponds to the crawling caterpillar, the calyx to the cocoon, the flower to the freed butterfly. Influences of the lower planets—Moon, Venus, Mercury—supplant the upper planets which influence the butterfly. The butterfly is the freed plant, the plant the fettered butterfly. Their joy in each other. Artistic perception needed for true knowledge.

Lecture 5, 27 October 1923

Recapitulation. The butterfly continually gives spiritualized substance to the cosmos during life, birds only on death. Butterflies are creatures of light ether, birds of warmth. Warmed air penetrates bones of birds and makes up ‘air bird’; a bird’s physical body is merely its ‘luggage’. The butterfly takes light-filled air into its body. Both bird and butterfly overcome gravity, but bats have marrow-filled bones and do not overcome it. Bats dislike light; their flight can be explained on the basis of earthly dynamics and mechanics. Butterflies see things of the earth as mirror of cosmos, birds see what lives in air, bats perceive things of the earth but are full of listening fear. Butterflies are memories, birds are thoughts, bats are dreams. Bats give off spiritualized substance as a kind of ‘magma’ in the air. People used to feel the need to defend themselves against this, for, inhaled by man, it becomes the food of the Dragon. The Michael impulse protects man today.

Lecture 6, 28 October 1923

Man has the longest evolution, beginning with the head on Saturn, when butterflies also began to evolve. Man develops inwardly, the butterfly outwardly. The chest developed on Sun with the lion, which added head and limbs later. The beginnings of limbs and digestive system came on Moon, with the cow, which later added chest and head. Amphibians and reptiles pure digestion animals. Fishes appeared when man developed reproductive organs. Butterflies and birds are a metamorphosed memory, in miniature, of the beings of the hierarchies man knew on Saturn and Sun. They were thus rightly used to depict spiritual beings. Man is called down into a new incarnation by the ‘butterfly corona’ shot through with rays from birds, i.e. head nature. Fishes do not feel themselves to be water creatures, but etheric creatures that envelop water. They are aware of the ‘breathing’ of the earth. The frog is connected with the astral of the earth and responds to weather conditions. The cosmos creates frogs, toads, snakes, etc. using the same forces that are active in human digestion. Relation of toads to colon. Study of the mineral kingdom will reveal the future as study of animals has revealed the past. Formation of minerals. The pineal body.

Lecture 7, 2 November 1923

Mystery of plant life. Gnomes, which work around roots, are sense organs with immediate intelligence. They despise human logic. Through the plant they gather the ideas of the cosmos while remaining connected with the earth. This threatens them with the danger of becoming frogs or toads. Undines or water spirits work in leaf development and in the moist air. They dream the chemistry of plant life. Their fear is to become fish. Sylphs live in warmth and air, especially in air movements caused by birds, which give them a feeling of ego. They bear cosmic love through the atmosphere and are also light-bearers, creating the archetypal plant forms out of light that later go down to the gnomes. Salamanders or fire spirits live in light and warmth which they carry to the pollen in the flowers which then takes it to the seed. All this is a male process. Fertilization occurs in winter when the seeds meet the ideal plant forms guarded by the gnomes. Goethe’s instinctive feeling for this. Fire spirits feel their ego in connection with insects which actually live in their aura. Hence the power of butterflies to spiritualize matter. Gnomes and undines take gravity forces from the earth upwards to meet the light and warmth sent down by sylphs and fire spirits. Wonder of nature enhanced by spiritual science.

Lecture 8, 3 November 1923

Ancient powers of spiritual perception have withdrawn. Late evolved creatures have not developed the skeleton that evolved with the head principle; the gnomes are their spiritual complement. Gnomes create their bodies out of gravity; they are acutely attentive to the world. They are masked by images in our dreams. Undines support animals requiring a hard outer skeleton. They are hidden behind our dreamless sleep. Sylphs supply the limb system to birds. They lie behind our waking dreams. Fire spirits complement butterflies. Together with its fire spirit, the butterfly resembles a winged human being. Fire spirits are behind waking consciousness and thoughts. Malign gnomes and undines produce parasites. Relation of elimination to the brain. Malign sylphs produce plant poisons, e.g. deadly nightshade. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva.

Lecture 9, 4 November 1923

For the gnomes the earth is a hollow space and offers no resistance. They experience the different qualities of its substances. Their relation to the moon, and their different appearance at its phases. Their work in carrying over what is good in the solid structure of the earth from one manifestation to another. Undines assimilate the colours of phosphorescent water and offer themselves to the hierarchies. The sylphs carry the astrality of dying birds to the hierarchies. The fire spirits do the same with the gleaming of the warmth ether on butterflies’ wings. All four classes of elemental spirits are astonished at man’s lack of awareness in sleep. They speak to man in admonishment. Their sayings, which are part of the creative Word.

Lecture 10, 9 November 1923

Origin of the different systems of man. Limb system from the Earth, metabolic system from the Moon, rhythmical system from the Sun, nerves and senses from Saturn. All substances taken into the body must be transformed: mineral into warmth ether, plant into air processes, animal into water processes. Only the purely human may be saved. Carbon created in man disperses ether, which penetrates the sense organs and opens man to spiritual influences. Metabolic processes would cause illness if they were not kept in check by healing processes born on Sun. Breathing has a cosmic rhythm and restrains the circulation rhythm. Comparison with Saturn. Joy of the first two hierarchies in this healing process. Man’s spiritual activity in relation to healing. Inflammation caused by blood processes entering nerves; tumours by nerve processes entering the blood. Relation of education to health. World healing process in the function of metals. Human therapy a microcosm of world therapy.

Lecture 11, 10 November 1923

All food must be transformed in the human organism. Mineral substance is changed into warmth ether to receive forces for the building of the body. Children can only transform milk. Untransformed substance causes disease, e.g. diabetes. External temperatures also must not enter the body. What root and flower in the plant say to man. Roots laid down when moon was united with earth. Plant liberated when moon left earth. Earth-bound root and heaven-seeking flower reverse their position when the plant becomes an air-being in man. In digestion, pulses dull the powers of the head. Reversal of the plant cannot properly take place in animal digestion. Elemental spirits of fear run counter to the animal’s satisfaction in digestion. Kamaloka of carnivorous animals. Anthroposophy never fanatical (e.g. in diet) but only shows the truth. Milk for children, honey for the old; beehive a head without a skull in outer nature. ‘A land flowing with milk and honey’.

Lecture 12, 11 November 1923

Spiritual and moral swallowed up in convention today. Its true source is human love and understanding. Why do we see the opposite in life? Hatred and lack of understanding spring not from the spiritual but from the physical. Relation of bone to hatred and blood to lack of understanding and moral coldness. Terror in initiation in perceiving that the body is built of hatred and coldness; after death these are taken from us by the third and second hierarchies so that we may meet the first hierarchy at the ‘midnight hour’. The human form dissolves from the head down, and a new spiritual form is created that will be the head in the next incarnation. Thinking with the limbs. Rhythmical and digestive organs by second and third hierarchies. Hatred necessary for structure of bones. Hatred and coldness not fully absorbed by human beings today become cancer in civilization. Waldorf education the antidote. The need to come awake in the sphere of culture.

Introduction

As I write these words, spring gathers strength in this part of the world at last. Now that the lambs’ tails have shed their pollen, the hedgerow swells with a marvellously green geometry of growth. Every tender little plant presents its clarity of form and orders its own rhythm and tone comfortably within the generous scale of nature. Even the April rain, hardly fair after a year of sodden months, astounds with its elegance as it falls clean and spare, each slanted rod catching light from the sun. The countryside in spring has inspired artists of all kinds, and given poets the courage to declare an amiable, harmonious plan in nature, a well-regulated, intentional universe. Such thoughts, however, beg the question raised by other country scenes of which we in Britain have been particularly aware at the time of writing: news pictures, of heaped animal carcasses awaiting cremation or burial, bring home to us daily the tragedy of the thousands of victims of a rampant outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

Although this volume of lectures does not speak directly to the issue of animal health, nevertheless it helps to create a context within which all events of the natural world can be thought through intelligently, imaginatively and purposefully, establishing in this way a new basis for our treatment of the environment and the creatures in our care.

In the year 1923, when these lectures were given, Europe was in crisis. The economic disease of hyperinflation was demoralizing everyone, social disorder infected the streets and, in Germany, the first germs of National Socialism were beginning to spread. Social healing was desperately needed. Rudolf Steiner, a scientist and social philosopher from Austria, had made strenuous efforts after the Great War to influence government leaders with his ideas on a new model for society. In this he was unsuccessful, but he continued to address social concerns more obliquely in many other areas of his work. During the post-war years he was deeply engaged in founding a new system of education, as well as a radical approach to medicine, agriculture and nutrition, religion and the arts. In each of these specialist fields he was able to indicate, from his own spiritual research, how a more comprehensive understanding of the human being in body, soul and spirit could lead to a new perspective on the world in general and human life and society in particular.

The lectures that follow were given to a non-specialized gathering, and are a sovereign example of what has come to be called ‘holistic thinking’, which for Steiner was the only way of thinking with any relevance at all for civilization. Readers will discover how many and detailed are the ways in which the human being can be seen as microcosm, and how all kingdoms of nature have been guided into being by the wise dynamics of the cosmos. Here is an inspirational scheme of the world as a living flux of spirit seeking incorporation into matter, and matter itself seeking to be spiritualized; here is a world picture which has as its genesis and goal the idea of the truly human being, whose evolution has been carried spiritually by the creativity of cosmic forces since the very beginning.

Before the war, in September 1912, Steiner was walking the foothills of the Jura mountains above a small village in Switzerland, close to Basle and the German and French borders. Swiss friends had offered him a piece of land, hoping that a building could be erected there to serve as a centre for the movement which became, in the following year, the Anthroposophical Society. As it turned out, the final decision to build near this modest village of Dornach and not in Germany was a particularly auspicious one in the light of the turbulent decades which were soon to overwhelm Europe. The foundation stone was laid on 20 September 1913.

The building was of unusual design, with a double dome and constructed almost entirely of wood. It was called the ‘Goetheanum’ in honour of the German luminary J. W. von Goethe, and lent its name to the periodical mentioned in these lectures. Sadly, this first building was lost in a fire on New Year’s Eve 1922/23, before the finishing touches had been completed. Plans began immediately for rebuilding, and a new Goetheanum was dedicated at Christmas 1923 when, at the same time, the Anthroposophical Society was refounded. This second Goetheanum, shaped in steel-reinforced concrete and looking not unlike a craggy outcrop of the Jura, stands today on the Dornach hill, a busy centre of a worldwide Society, welcoming students, researchers and curious visitors from all over the globe.

So it came to be in the very down-to-earth setting of a makeshift lecture hall in a workshop on a building site that Steiner gave this cycle of twelve lectures, speaking on each Friday, Saturday and Sunday of four consecutive weekends in late autumn 1923. His listeners were all members of the Anthroposophical Society, which is why the lectures occasionally assume a familiarity with Steiner’s work. Readers must also keep in mind that the content is unrevised by the author.

The weekly rhythm of delivery has shaped these lectures into four groups of three, each group opening a different window on the phenomena of the natural world. Part One introduces us straightaway to the theme of the whole course: that human beings reflect in every way the laws and the secrets of the world within which they live. We are offered something here that contrasts very strongly with modern theories of the human being as a late and possibly temporary visitor to planet Earth; humanity is portrayed as knitted firmly and forever into the whole fabric of existence.

Steiner is quick to establish ground rules for this study: we must exercise flexibility of mind, a thoughtful imagination which he encompasses with the phrase ‘artistic perception’. He leads us through some examples of what he means and then, in case we begin to feel over-confident in the method, he sobers us with the task of transmogrifying in thought an eagle into a cow.

In exploring the ancient picture of the human being as a unity of Eagle, Lion and Bull, Steiner shows us how each of these three animal groups presents a certain temptation, and he modernizes an African fable to illustrate his points. For a long time I was mystified by this tale, but now I think that it is about our position in a world where awareness of a spiritual heritage has been destroyed by materialistic thinking. When a one-sided development of the intellect (hyena) recognizes only material reality, it will have to distance itself from the less substantial emotional life and shadowy world of unconscious motivations. Unacknowledged feelings (lion) and frustrated ideals (wolf) are thrown into confusion and they become self-seeking and mutually destructive. The intellect is left to grow fat on a decayed emotional life and a disintegrating capacity for initiative, and free to continue feeding on the physical matter (in effect the corpse) of the human being (antelope). Such fables are ever open to interpretation—so let us share our discoveries!

Throughout these lectures Steiner’s deep concern with the future of medicine keeps coming to the surface. Is he fishing the audience for those who might take up the work? A few weeks previously he had been in England speaking to a group of physicians, later more doctors were gathered with him in Vienna and there would shortly be similar meetings in Holland. Meanwhile he maintained his regular visits as adviser to a therapeutic clinic, founded by a colleague in the neighbouring village of Arlesheim. The breadth of his notion of healing becomes apparent as he describes the potential sickness of our planet, how it is caused by the very existence of human life, and how healing is achieved through the animal creation. He manages in every way to weave together earthly observations and spiritual knowledge so that meaning and purpose are brought once again into life.

Part Two of the lecture cycle continues to nourish our understanding with artistic thoughts. We come to see the butterfly first as a ‘fluttering plant of the air’, then as ‘enduring thoughts of memory’; birds become flying ‘thoughts of the moment’ and the bat a ‘flying dream picture of the cosmos’. Keeping thought processes imaginative and flexible in this way is of great help when it comes to following the metamorphic steps in evolution which are sketched somewhat broadly in this section. Certain passages may appear difficult to those who are unfamiliar with Steiner’s book An Outline of Esoteric Science, but they will reward patient study.

A piece on the ethers and the elements in Lecture 5 seems to me to need a diagram for clarification. If Steiner had used the blackboard at this juncture, I think he might have drawn something like eight concentric circles and marked them from the outside as ‘life ether, chemical ether, light ether, cosmic heat ether, earthly heat, air, water, earth’, with an indication that the two aspects of heat were continually interpenetrating.

The section ends with more examples of how ‘World and man belong together in every respect’. These words were followed by a diagram (unfortunately only verbal) that was intended for elucidation, but its description is still making demands upon the brain of this writer.

The content of the third set of lectures concerns the astral-etheric beings known as elemental spirits, whose existence is rarely acknowledged today beyond the sphere of folklore. We discover how indebted we are to these beings, both benevolent and malevolent, for our continued existence. Steiner gives an account of their different levels of consciousness and, in doing so, throws light on some of the characters from traditional nursery tales. Many of us will be familiar with the wise but gruff dwarf, the water sprite or mermaid who tries to lure the human being into its own fluid consciousness-world, and the unearthly beauty of the fairy queen which would entrap men and render them powerless, as if they slept. The fact that the elemental spirits, like irresponsible children, might choose to sport with the unprotected human consciousness should not undermine the fact that these spirits ‘wish man to make a move onwards with his consciousness, so that he may be able to participate in their world’.

A series of meditative invocations from the nature spirits ends this section. If we would only listen in the right way, these might be heard sounding from just across the borders of our world. The words are redolent of the nature and endeavour of each group, but also give warning to men and women to take stock of their situation and develop their consciousness. To utter these trenchant words for the benefit of mankind is as important to the elemental world as any of its other work. But, as Steiner remarks: ‘Whether or not man does perceive such things depends upon his own free choice.’

The final trio of the lecture cycle looks again at how our life in a body gradually evolved and continues to evolve. We learn how each particle of food has to be utterly transformed before it can build the human body; we discover that a subtle transformation of carbon occurs with the human breath, allowing the influence of helpful spiritual forces to build a foundation for our thinking. Steiner compares the bias to illness within the digestive system with the inclination to healing of the blood circulation, contending that such facts need to be assimilated by any really modern approach to the arts of both medicine and education. Pedagogy and medicine are seen as two sides of the same coin. The new Waldorf education movement was demanding a lot of Steiner’s time both in Germany and abroad. The visit to England mentioned earlier had included an enthusiastic reception at a teachers’ seminar in Ilkley, but it would be two more years before the first Waldorf School in London opened its doors.

The health of the human body, soul and spirit depends on nutrition being led into healing, from there into spiritual-cultural activity and back again to healing. Now we understand why a Waldorf teacher takes an interest in his pupils’ circulation, and why the arts are renowned for their therapy. Less easy to understand is the story of the simple carrot which, when liberated from the shackles of earthly life, seeks out and penetrates the head organism and uses its activity as a springboard to the spiritual spaces it so longs for. In this extraordinary way, the human being becomes integrated into the evolutionary striving of the plant world.

References have been made earlier to Steiner’s preoccupation with social reform and in the last lecture he reaches the nub of all social issues: the presence or absence in society of mutual understanding and love. The lack of these he traces to a cause deep within our bodily foundation, for just as physical cold causes us to draw our body together, so it is the spiritual force of ‘moral coldness’ that is needed to contract our bones. ‘It is good for our bones to have a certain hardness’, however ‘... it is not good for our social life if our souls have this hardness.’

The description of mankind burdened with moral coldness stands in expressive contrast with the gracious understanding and loving care of the angelic beings who guide the soul on its transformative journey after death. The journeys of many souls through the spiritual world have created a superfluity of moral coldness which now invades the spiritual atmosphere of the earth and causes much malaise in modern life. The cure Steiner prescribes for this is the cultural pedagogy to be found in the Waldorf school method, but he fears that Central Europe might become so sick as to fight the cure. This concern was justified, for as Nazi power grew bolder so Waldorf schools were forced to close.

Rudolf Steiner died on 30 March 1925, and so did not live to see the closure of the schools, nor the subsequent spread of his educational methods to many far-flung regions of the world.

Steiner’s work was much and varied. He was able to be at ease with professional people or blue-collar workers, with artists and intellectuals, always tailoring his style to the nature or the nationality of his audience. In these lectures we catch glimpses of the rich soul moods that coloured this remarkable personality. He communicates his delight in beauty and his reverential awe before the marvels of the spirit world; he shares his feelings of wonder for the majesty of creation and his sober witness of those spiritual facts which are more difficult to bear. With animated soul he offers these closing words: ‘People are asleep. It is time, however, that we woke up.’

Nearly 80 years have passed and many do hear the groans of a creation whose harmony has been disturbed. But, as the smoking pyres of dead animals illustrate, there is still some way to go.

Ann Druitt

April 2001

Part One

Man’s Connection with the Cosmos, the Earth and the Animal World

‘We must be able to study the human being not merely by applying logic, but in a sense which can never be achieved unless intellectualism is taken onward into the artistic element in the world.’

Lecture 1

19 October 1923

It has often been said in our studies, and it has also been evident in the recent lectures on the four seasons and the archangels,* that in their form and structure, in the conditions of their life and indeed in every respect, human beings are a whole world, a microcosm as distinct from the macrocosm. All the laws and all the secrets of the world are to be found in them. This is of course an abstract way of putting it, and it will be far from easy to get at the real meaning of it. We’ll need to enter into the many secrets of world and cosmos, and then see how we find them again in the essential human being.

Today we’ll examine the world and then the human being from certain points of view, and we may then discover how the microcosm of the human being relates to the macrocosm. Anything we are able to say about the macrocosm can of course only refer to a small part of it. To present the whole of it, our studies would have to traverse the whole world.

Let us begin by considering what is immediately above us, the part of our environment where the animal kingdom lives in the air, and specifically the creatures that are most obviously living in the air—the birds.

It cannot escape us that the birds which live in the air, finding the essentials of life in the air, have quite a different form from animals that live either on or beneath the ground. Looking at a bird we will find, if we take the conventional view, that it too has a head, limbs, and so on. But that is a thoroughly inartistic way of looking at things. I have often drawn attention to the fact that, if we want to get to know the world, it will not be enough to grasp it with the intellect; we must develop an artistic way of seeing the world. If you do that, you certainly won’t consider the ‘head’ of a bird—so dwarfed and stunted when compared to the heads of other animals—to be a head in the true sense. Yes, if you take an external, excessively intellectual view you may well say: ‘That bird has a head, a body and limbs.’ But just consider how poorly developed are the legs of a bird in comparison, let us say, with those of a camel or an elephant, and how dwarfed its head when compared to that of a lion or a dog. There is hardly anything worth speaking of in a bird’s head; not much more, really, than would be the front part of the mouth in a dog or an elephant or a cat. I think it is fair to say that the bird’s head is only slightly more elaborate than the front part of a mammal’s mouth. As to the limbs of a mammal—they are completely atrophied in a bird. Certainly, if one takes an inartistic view one may talk of the forelegs of a bird as having been transformed into wings. But that is a thoroughly inartistic, unimaginative way of looking at things. If we really want to understand nature, really penetrate the cosmos, we must look more deeply—and above all to the powers that create and shape the things of this world.

The view that a bird, too, simply has a head, a body and limbs will never help us to get a true picture, for instance, of the bird’s etheric body. If we use imaginative perception to advance from the physical to the etheric aspect, the bird will prove to be nothing but a head in its etheric aspect. The etheric bird is nothing but a head; and from this point of view it is immediately obvious that a bird cannot be compared to the head, body and limbs of other animals, but must be regarded simply and solely as a head, a transformed head. The actual head of a bird represents merely the palate and front parts of the head, i.e. the mouth parts; the parts of the bird’s skeleton that look like ribs and spine must be considered to be head—though metamorphosed and transformed, it is true. The whole bird is really head. The point is that, to understand the bird, we must go a very long way back in the planetary evolution of the Earth.*

Birds have a long planetary history, much longer than camels, for example, which are of much later origin than any bird. More earth-bound types of bird, such as the ostrich, evolved later than those that have the freedom of the air-eagles, vultures—which are very ancient creatures of the earth. In earlier Earth, Moon and Sun epochs they certainly still had everything which then, passing from within outwards as far as the skin, later developed in birds of today into what you see as feathers and a horny beak. The outer parts of birds are of a later origin; this is due to the fact that birds developed relatively early as head creatures. When they had to live under the conditions that came later in Earth evolution the feathers could only be added on the outside. The plumage was given to birds by the Moon and the Earth; the rest of the bird comes from much earlier epochs.