What we have now brought to our awareness by studying man, holds good

in some sense also for the animal. The animal, too, is polarized into

motion and sensation. (What makes the animal differ from man need not

concern us here, for it belongs to a dynamic realm other than the one

we are now studying. This other realm will come under consideration in

the next chapter.) Quite a different picture arises when we turn to the

plant. The plant, too, is characterized by a threefold structure, root,

stem with leaves, and florescence, which in their way represent the

three alchemical functions. Consequently, there is also motion in the

plant, although this is confined to internal movements leading to

growth and formation. And at the opposite pole there is sensation,

though again very different from the sensation experienced by higher

living beings. What we mean here by 'sensation' can be best expressed

by quoting the following passage from Ruskin's The Queen of the Air, in

which the dual activity of the dynamic which we seek to understand is

brought out particularly clearly.

In describing the forming of blossom in the plant as the climax of the

'spirit' active in it, Ruskin says: 'Its (the plant's) form becomes

invested with aspects that are chiefly delightful to our own human

passions; namely, first, with the loveliest outlines of shape and,

secondly, with the most brilliant phases of the primary colours, blue,

yellow, red or white, the unison of all; and to make it more strange,

this time of peculiar and perfect glory is associated with relations of

the plants or blossoms to each other, correspondent to the joy of love

in human creatures and having the same object in the continuance of the

race.'2

If we wish to understand why the same dynamic action working on the

physical and etheric organisms of the plant, on the one hand, and of

man and the animal, on the other, brings about effects so different, we

must turn to the realm whence this action originates in both cases. For

the animal and for man this realm is situated within their organisms

because in addition to their individual physical and etheric

organizations they are endowed also with an individual organization of

the higher kind. Not so with the plant. For the rhythms of its growth,

the successive formation of its various organs, the production of its

colours, etc., the plant depends on outer conditions.

What strikes us first in this respect is the plant's dependence on the

succession of the seasons. These in turn are an outcome of the changing

mutual positions of earth and sun. That which forms part of the

individual organism in higher living beings is located in the cosmic

surroundings of the plant. In fact, it is our planetary system which

provides the forces that stir the etheric and physical forces of the

earth to their various interactions, thus bringing about all the

manifold secondary polarities.

*

Before we embark on a description of further phenomena which testify to

the cosmic nature of the forces with which we are here concerned, it

will be well (following a principle applied before) to establish the

historical antecedents of the conception of the universe we are about

to develop.

We realize that the type of force with which we are here seeking to

become familiar is the one responsible for the existence of what we

commonly call 'soul'. The creation of a body-bound soul, however, is

only one particular form of the activity of these forces. Another is

the one which we have just seen manifest in the plant. In yet another

way the same forces function as movers and stirrers of the

macro-telluric processes of the earth, and beyond this of the

happenings in the body of our planetary system, including the movements

of the various planets.

This is an aspect which was by no means unfamiliar to ancient man. It

was naturally lost when the onlooker-consciousness awoke. In this

respect it is of historical significance that the same man, G. A.

Borelli (1608-79), a member of the Florentine Academy, who was the

first to inquire into the movements of the animal and human body from a

purely mechanical point of view, made the first attempt to deduce the

planetary movements from a purely physical cause.3 Through this fact an

impulse comes to expression which we may term Contra Animam, and

against which we have to put our Pro Anima, in much the same way that

we put our Pro Levitate against the Contra Levitatem call of the

Florentine Academicians.

*

It will help our further descriptions if we introduce at this point the

name which Rudolf Steiner adopted for the type of forces we are

concerned with here. In view of the fact that their origin lies in the

extra-terrestrial realm of the universe, he called them 'astral'

forces, thereby giving back to this term, also, its true and original

meaning. It is under this name that we shall speak of them henceforth.

To make ourselves more familiar with the character of the astral

forces, it will be well to observe them first of all in their

macrotelluric form of activity.

There is, as already mentioned, the rhythmic occurrence of the seasons

in connexion with the varying relative positions of earth and sun.

Alongside this we may put the rhythm of the tides, coincident with the

phases of the moon. Just as the solar rhythm manifests in an

alternating rise and fall of the saps in the plants, so also does the

lunar rhythm.4 (Note how this fact actually vitiates the usual

explanation that the tidal rhythm of the sea is caused by a

gravitational pull exerted by the moon's body on the oceanic water.) In

neither instance is the change of position of the relevant cosmic body

- in our examples that of the sun or moon in relation to the earth -

the 'cause' of the corresponding rhythmic events on the earth. Together

with all other rhythmic events of equal periodicity, it is itself the

effect of the activity of a force-sphere constituting the cosmic realm

to which the relevant planetary body belongs.

From this statement three major questions arise, which need to be

answered before we can carry on our description of the astral forces

themselves:

Firstly, by the way we have spoken of the varying relations of the sun

and moon to the earth, seeing in them the effects of certain astral

activities, we have treated them as if they were of like nature,

namely, resulting from a movement of the relevant heavenly body round

the earth. According to the Copernican conception, however, only the

moon rotates round the earth, whereas the apparent yearly progression

of the sun is actually caused by the earth's motion round the sun. This

raises the question of how far the Copernican, heliocentric aspect is

valid in a science which strives to embrace the astral realm of the

universe in its inquiries.

Secondly, what roles do the other members of our planetary system play

as compared with those of the sun and the moon?

Thirdly, if it is true that the essential solar and lunar effects - and

presumably the effects of the other planets - on the earth do not

spring from physical influence exerted by the visible bodies of the

planets concerned, but from certain astral force-fields of which these

bodies themselves form part, what is the significance of such a body

within the planet's dynamic whole?

Starting with the answer to the first question, we shall quote the

following passage from a lecture on theoretical physics given by

Professor Planck in 1909 at the Columbia University, New York:

'Only the hypothesis of the general value of the principle of

Relativity in mechanics could admit the Copernican system into physics,

since this principle guarantees the independence of all processes on

the earth from the progressive motion of the earth. For, if we had to

make allowance for this motion, then I should, for instance, have to

reckon with the fact that the piece of chalk in my hand possesses the

enormous kinetic energy corresponding to a velocity of about 30

km/sec.'

The implications for us of these remarks by an eminent physicist can be

expressed as follows:

In a science which knows how to deal with movement as an event of

absolute dynamic reality, the Copernican aspect loses its significance

as the only valid aspect of our cosmic system. For its application as a

means of describing the dynamic happenings within this system

presupposes the acceptance of Einstein's relativistic conception of

motion. Indeed, for the building up of a picture of the dynamic

structure of our system, the Copernican view-point is inadequate.

This statement must not be taken to deny all justification to the

heliocentric view-point. There is, after all, the fact that the orbits

which the heavenly bodies appear to follow when viewed in this way,

assume a particular geometrical character which cannot be accidental.

And more than that, when the heliocentric aspect is seen in its true

setting, it forms (as will be shown later) an extremely revealing part

of the script which tells us of the nature of the astral forces. All

that is required is that the heliocentric picture be taken for what it

is, namely, a purely kinematic aspect of the true dynamic ordering of

our cosmic system, which in itself calls for quite other means of

conceptual representation.

From the point of view of the astral order of the universe, the earth

appears in the centre of a number of force-fields which penetrate each

other and in their peripheral region extend beyond one another in

accordance with the respective orbits of the various planetary bodies.

How many force-fields there are, and what is the respective character

of each, will become clear from the following consideration, which will

also provide the answer to the second of our three questions.

As the originator of the secondary polarities in earthly nature the

astral realm must undoubtedly itself be structured polarically, one

part of it forming the cause of all the happenings by which levity is

brought into interaction with gravity, the other of all the happenings

by which gravity is brought into interaction with levity. There must be

a further part which is responsible for the establishment of the

'mercurial' mean between the two poles of the secondary polarity. This

leads us to a threefold aspect of the astral realm.

Closer inspection reveals a repetition of this threefold order within

each of the two polar regions. In Chapter XII we learnt to distinguish

the material happenings at the two poles of the secondary polarity by

observing their appearance in the plant as 'sublimation', on the one

hand, and 'assimilation' on the other. Of the former process, by which

matter is carried from its gravity-bound to its gravity-free condition,

we know that it takes place in three stages, of which the first implies

the lifting of matter from the solid to the liquid condition, the

second from the liquid to the aeriform condition, and the third to the

condition of pure heat. There are three corresponding stages by which

ether becomes susceptible to gravity. It is in their nature that they

are not in the same degree manifest as are their polar opposites.

Still, properly guided observation is able to detect them and enables

us to describe them as follows. At the first stage, ether, which in

itself has a purely peripheral orientation, becomes linked to some

all-relating point; at the second stage, the various ether-activities,

already point-related, are brought into some characteristic

interrelationship so as to become the cause of a particular formative

action in the material realm; at the third stage, the etheric aggregate

thus organized receives the impulse to link itself with some particular

portion of ponderable matter.

In these six forms of astral activity, observation, if guided by modern

spiritual science, recognizes the characteristics of the six planetary

spheres, known as 'Moon', 'Mercury', 'Venus', on the one hand,

'Saturn', 'Jupiter', 'Mars', on the other. In the same way the dynamic

sphere of the 'Sun' is found to provide the astral activity which

mediates between the two groups of planetary spheres.5 The following

observations may help us to become familiar with the different modes of

activity of the force-spheres.

Let us start with the astral forces corresponding to the three cosmic

bodies nearest to the earth - Moon, Mercury, Venus. Their activity can

be discerned, for example, by watching the successive stages of plant

development - the formation of the sap-bearing parts; the

flower-substance already partly transformed into aeriform condition;

finally the propagating processes which belong essentially to the

sphere of activity of the warmth-ether.6 In the human organism we find

the same sequence in the step-by-step transformation of nutriment right

up to the moment when earthly form passes into chaos, as we learnt

previously. The so-called enzyme action, ascribed by physiology to the

various digestive juices, is in reality the product of an activity of

the lower part of man's astral organization, for which the relevant

juices exercise the function of physical 'carriers'. In the field of

macrotelluric phenomena, the metamorphosis of the atmospheric moisture

extending beyond the different cloud-stages up to the stage of pure

warmth is an example of the activity of the same forces.

Within all three-stage transitions of this kind, the astral forces

connected with the Moon preponderate during the first stage, those

connected with Mercury during the second, those connected with Venus

during the third. We have already come across some examples of the

outstanding share taken by the Moon in the events of the earth's watery

sphere. To these phenomena, which show by their rhythm their connexion

with the Moon, we may add the fertility rhythm in the female human

organism which coincides, not in phase but in duration, with the rhythm

set by the Moon's course in the heavens. If we consider that the

formation of a new human body in the womb needs the play of formative

forces from out of the whole world environment, and that for this

purpose matter must be brought into a receptive condition for these

forces, then we can better understand the preparatory part played by

the Moon-forces. In order, however, that the substance of the female

germ should reach that condition of chaos suitable for embryonic

development, there is still necessary the influence of the supra-lunar

astral forces. Entry for these is provided by the union of the

germ-cell with the male sperm-cell.7

As the three sub-solar planetary spheres are responsible for events of

a 'sulphurous' (radial) character, so are the three supra-solar spheres

responsible for those of a 'saline' (spherical) character. For example,

we meet with Saturn-activity in everything which radiates from the

human head and brings about the hardening both of the head itself and

of the entire skeleton. Observation has shown that, even if the human

being, as usually happens, stops growing in the early twenties, so that

the skeleton undergoes no further lengthening, it nevertheless reaches

its final shape and its final hardening only between the twenty-eighth

and thirtieth years. This is the time in man's life when Saturn returns

for the first time to the position in which it stood relatively to the

earth at his birth, or, more correctly, at his conception.

If the activity of the Saturn-force is most clearly manifest in the

formation of the hard skull, that of Jupiter, the planet of 'Wisdom',

is shown in the formation of the complicated structure of the brain,

which enables it to co-ordinate the bodily and psychic functions of the

entire man. In the realm of physical nature, man's brain is indeed the

most perfect example of cosmic Intelligence at work in a manner

resembling that activity of human intelligence which one usually

understands by 'organizing'.

In order that Form should come about, the forces of Saturn are

required; for the formative process to take place in Wisdom-filled

order, Jupiter's forces are necessary. If form and order are to become

manifest in the realm of earthly substance, both require the assistance

of Mars. We can best form an idea of the part which Mars contributes to

the coming into being of the world of Form in nature if we observe what

takes place when we make use of speech as a medium for expressing our

thoughts. In order to be able to shape a thought we have to participate

in the formative force of Saturn. We depend upon Jupiter to bring about

logical connexion between the single thoughts. To announce them to the

world, we need the motive force of Mars, which enables us so to set

external matter in motion that it becomes a carrier and relayer of our

thoughts. (We here touch upon the field of the acoustic movements of

the air which will occupy us more closely later on.)

Many examples of the activity of the force-spheres represented by the

three exterior planets are to be found also in nature external to man.

From the realm of plant life we may take the woody and bark-like

formation of the trees as representing the operation of Saturn-forces.

Similarly, all that goes on in the organizing of the single leaf, and

particularly in the organization of the countless separate leaves which

make up the foliage of a tree into a unified whole, the characteristic

crown of a tree, is an example of the work of Jupiter. Both activities

are assisted by the force of Mars, which directs them from the cosmic

periphery toward the single physical object.

Between the two groups of astral force operating in this manner, the

Sun acts as a mediating element through its double function of

supporting the activity of the three lower planets by means of its heat

and of conveying to the earth, through its light, the forces of the

three higher planets. In the human microcosm the Sun-forces accomplish

a corresponding task by means of the influences which radiate from the

heart through the body along the paths taken by the blood.

*

In what follows we shall point to a group of phenomena which show the

astral interconnexion between earth and universe; we owe our knowledge

of them to Rudolf Steiner. It is due to him, also, that experimental

research into the relevant facts became possible. They concern the

reflexion of the various planetary movements, observable in the sky, in

the behaviour of certain mineral substances of the earth.

In connexion with our discussion of electricity (Chapter XIII) we spoke

of the special function of the metals as bearers of the 'mercurial'

quality (in the alchemical sense of the term). As one of the

characteristics which reveal this function we mentioned the peculiar

capacity of metals to behave as 'solid fluids'. This exceptional place

among the mineral substances of the earth, the metals owe to their

close association with the extra-terrestrial astral forces of the

world. In this field, too, modern spiritual investigation has recovered

something which was known to people of old - that among the metals

there are seven which have a distinctive character, for each stands in

a special relation to one of the seven planets (that is, the planetary

force-spheres) of our cosmic system. This is shown in the following

table:

Saturn Lead

Jupiter Tin

Mars Iron

Sun Gold

Venus Copper

Mercury Quicksilver

Moon Silver

As compared with these seven, the other metals are products of

combinations of various planetary forces. A comparison of the role of

Saturn as the outermost planet of our cosmic system with the role

played by its metal, lead, as a final product of radioactive

disintegration, leads one to conceive of the radioactive sphere of the

earth as being related especially to the planets outside the orbit of

Saturn, namely, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

Thanks to the work of L. Kolisko who, in following Rudolf Steiner's

indications, observed for many years the behaviour of the seven metals

singly and in combination by submitting their salts to certain

capillary effects, we know to-day that the" earth bears in her womb

substances whose dynamic condition follows exactly the events in the

planetary realm of the universe.8

*

The picture of the universe which has thus arisen before our mind's eye

is a startling one only so long as we keep comparing it with its

heliocentric predecessor. How wrong it would be to regard it as

something inconceivable for the modern mind, is shown by the fact that

the modern physiologist has already been driven to form quite a similar

picture of the human organism, as far as it concerns glandular action

in this organism. His observations have taught him to distinguish

between the gland as a spatially limited physical organ and the gland

as a functional sphere, and to conceive of the latter as the essential

gland. Seen thus, 'the spatial and temporal dimensions of each gland

are equal to those of the entire organism' (A. Carrel). In this way we

come to see the human organism as a realm of interpenetrating spheres

of distinctive physiological activities. Each of these activities is

anchored somewhere in the physical body by the anatomically discernible

gland-body, and the latter's relationship to the functional sphere is

such that a gland's 'physiological individuality is far more

comprehensive than its anatomical individuality'.

We need only translate this statement into its macrocosmic counterpart

to obtain another statement which expresses fittingly the relationship

of the visible body of a planet to the functional (astral) sphere

indicated by its orbit. Then we shall say that 'a planet's astral

individuality is far more comprehensive than its astronomical

individuality'.

It should be observed that the step we have here taken, by using a

conception obtained through microcosmic observation to help us to find

the answer to a question put to us by the macrocosm, complies with one

of the fundamentals of our method of research, namely, to allow 'the

heavens to explain the earth, and the earth the heavens' (R. St.).

* *

*

(b) HEARING AS DEED

In the introductory part of the last chapter we said that we have the

right to employ results of investigation carried out by higher

faculties of spiritual perception without contradicting our principle

of seeking to understand the phenomenal world by reading it, provided

our doing so helps to enhance our own reading activity, and provided it

can be shown that the acquisition of the higher faculties of perception

is a direct continuation of the training we have to apply to our mind

and senses to make them capable of such reading. As regards the forces

of astral character, the first of these two conditions has been

fulfilled by the observations we have already worked through in this

chapter. We have still to show that the second condition is equally

fulfilled.

The faculty of the mind which permits direct investigation of the

astral realm was called (spiritual) Inspiration by Rudolf Steiner, who

thereby restored to this term, also, its proper meaning. We have

already indicated that this faculty resides in the sense of hearing in

the same way that the faculty of Imagination - as we have found -

resides in the sense of seeing. In order to understand why it is this

particular sense which comes into consideration here, we have to

consider that the phenomena through which the astral world manifests

most directly are all of a rhythmic nature. Now, the sense through

which our soul penetrates with direct experience into some outer

rhythmic activity is the sense of hearing, our aural perceptions being

conveyed by certain rhythmic movements of the air. In what follows we

shall see how the study of both the outer acoustic phenomena and our

own psycho-physical make-up in the region of the acoustic sense, leads

to an understanding of the nature of Inspiration and of how it can be

trained.

*

Among all our sense-perceptions, sound is unique in making itself

perceptible in two quite different ways - via the ear as a direct sense

experience and via the eye (potentially also via the senses of touch

and movement) in the form of certain mechanical movements, such as

those of a string or a tuning fork. Hence the world-spectator, as soon

as he began to investigate acoustic phenomena scientifically, found

himself in a unique position. In all other fields of perception, with

the exception of the purely mechanical processes, the transition to

non-stereoscopic colourless observation had the effect that the

world-content of the naive consciousness simply ceased to exist,

leaving the ensuing hiatus to be filled in by a pattern of imagined

kinematic happenings - for example, colour by 'ether'-vibrations, heat

by molecular movements. Not so in the sphere of acoustics. For here a

part of the entire event, on account of its genuine kinetic character,

remains a content of actual observation.

In consequence, the science of acoustics became for the scientific mind

of man a model of the required division between the 'subjective' (that

is, for scientific considerations non-existent) and the 'objective'

(that is, the purely kinematic) part of observation. The field of aural

perception seemed to justify the procedure of collecting a mass of

phenomena, stripped of all that is experienced by man's soul in meeting

them, and of assembling them under a purely abstract concept, 'sound'.

Professor Heisenberg, in his lecture (quoted at the beginning of

Chapter II) on the way in which the scientific interrogation of nature

has deliberately limited itself, draws attention to the fact that a

full knowledge of the science of optics in its present form might be

acquired merely through theoretical study by one born blind, yet

without his ever getting to know what light is. Heisenberg could, of

course, have said the same of the science of acoustics in regard to one

born deaf. But we can go a step further by asking how far a deaf and a

blind person could get towards establishing the respective science. The

answer must be that, whereas the person lacking sight would not of

himself be in a position to establish a science of optics, it would be

well within the scope of the deaf man to establish a science of

acoustics. For all the processes essential to a physical acoustics are

accessible to the eye and other senses.

In order to make our experience of hearing a finger-post pointing the

way to an understanding of the faculty of Inspiration innate in man, we

must first of all seek to transform acoustics from a 'deaf into a

'hearing' science, just as Goethe turned the theory of colour from a

colour-blind into a colour-seeing science.

*

Following our procedure in the case of optics, we select from the total

field of acoustic phenomena a defined realm specially suited to our

purpose. As it was then the spectrum, so it will be now the so-called

quality of sound, or tone-colour.

By this term in acoustics is understood a property possessed by sound

apart from pitch and volume, and dependent on the nature of the source

from which a tone is derived. It is the tone-colour by which the tone

of a violin, for instance, is distinguished from a tone of equal

intensity and pitch produced by a flute. Similarly, two musical

instruments of the same kind are distinguished from each other by

tone-colour.

Tone-colour plays a specially significant part in human and animal

voices. Not only has each individual voice its unique colour, but the

colour varies in one and the same person or animal, according to the

prevailing mood. Moreover, by uttering the various vowels of his

language, man is able to impart varying colour to the sounds of his

speech. For the difference we experience when a tone is sung on the

vowel 'a' or the vowel 'e', etc., derives from the particular colour

given by the vowel to that tone.

Among the discoveries of the last century in the realm of acoustics,

there is one which especially helped to establish a purely kinematic

conception of sound. Helmholtz showed that tones which to our ears seem

to have a clear and definite pitch may be split up by a series of

resonators into a number of different tones, each of them sounding at a

different pitch. The lowest of these has the pitch which our ears

attach to the entire tone. Thus in any ordinary tone there may be

distinguished a 'fundamental' tone and a series of 'overtones'.

Helmholtz further showed that the particular series of overtones into

which a tone can be resolved is responsible for the colour of that tone

as a whole. Naturally, this meant for the prevailing mode of thinking

that the experience of the colour of a tone had to be interpreted as

the effect of a kind of acoustical adding together of a number of

single tone perceptions (very much as Newton had interpreted 'white'

light as the outcome of an optical adding together of a certain number

of single colour perceptions).

The picture becomes different if we apply to the aural experience

Goethe's theorem that, in so far as we are deluded, it is not by our

senses but by our own reasoning. For we then realize that sounds never

occur of themselves without some tone-colour, whilst physically 'pure'

tones - those that represent simple harmonic motions - exist only as an

artificial laboratory product. The colour of a tone, therefore, is an

integral part of it, and must not be conceived of as an additional

attribute resulting from a summing up of a number of colourless tone

experiences.

Further, if we compare our experiences of the two kinds of tone, they

tell us that through the quality or colour of the natural tone

something of a soul-nature, pleasant or unpleasant, speaks to us,

whereas 'pure' tones have a soulless character.

Resolving normal tones by Helmholtz's method (useful as it is for

certain purposes) amounts to something like dissecting a living,

ensouled organism into its members; only the parts of the corpse

remain in our hands.

*

Having thus established that the psychic content of aural experience

forms an integral part of the tone-phenomenon as such, we must seek to

understand how the kinetic process which is indispensable for its

appearance comes to be the vehicle for the manifestation of 'soul' in

the manner described.

To this end we must first of all heed the fact that the movement which

mediates aural sensation is one of alternating expansion and

contraction. Expressed in the language of the four Elements, this means

that the air thus set in vibration approaches alternately the condition

of the watery element beneath it and of the element of fire (heat)

above it. Thus, in a regular rhythm, the air comes near the border of

its ponderable existence. Purely physical considerations make us

realize that this entails another rhythmic occurrence in the realm of

heat. For with each expansion of the air heat is absorbed by it and

thereby rendered space-bound, while with every contraction of the air

heat is set free and returns to its indigenous condition - that is, it

becomes free from spatial limitations.

This picture of the complete happenings during an acoustic event

enables us to understand how such a process can be the vehicle for

conveying certain astral impulses in such a way that, when met by them,

we grow aware of them in the form of a direct sensation. Taking as a

model the expression 'transparent' for the perviousness of a substance

to light, we may say that the air, when in a state of acoustic

vibration, becomes 'trans-audient' for astral impulses, and that the

nature of these vibrations determines which particular impulses are let

through.

What we have here found to be the true role of the kinetic part of the

acoustic process applies equally to sounds which are emitted by living

beings, and to those that arise when lifeless material is set

mechanically in motion, as in the case of ordinary noises or the

musical production of tone. There is only this difference: in the first

instance the vibrations of the sound-producing organs have their origin

in the activity of the astral part of the living being, and it is this

activity which comes to the recipient's direct experience in the form

of aural impressions; in the second instance the air, by being brought

externally into a state of vibration, exerts a kind of suction on the

astral realm which pervades the air, with the result that parts of this

realm become physically audible. For we are constantly surrounded by

supersensible sounds, and the state of motion of the air determines

which of them become perceptible to us in our present state of

consciousness.

At this point our mind turns to a happening in the macrotelluric sphere

of the earth, already considered in another connexion, which now

assumes the significance of an ur-phenomenon revealing the astral

generation of sound. This is the thunder-storm, constituted for our

external perception by the two events: lightning and thunder.

Remembering what we have found earlier (Chapter X) to be the nature of

lightning, we are now in a position to say: a supraterrestrial astral

impulse obtains control of the earth's etheric and physical spheres of

force in such a way that etheric substance is thrown into the condition

of space-bound physical matter. This substance is converted by stages

from the state of light and heat via that of air into the liquid and,

in certain cases, into the solid state (hail). To this we now add that,

while in lightning the first effect of the etheric-physical

interference of the astral impulse appears before our eyes, our ears

give us direct awareness of this impulse in the form of thunder. It is

this fact which accounts for the awe-inspiring character of

thunderstorms.

*

The picture we have thus received of the outer part of the acoustic

process has a counterpart in the processes inside the organ of hearing.

Hearing, like seeing, depends upon the co-operation of both poles of

the human organism-nerve and blood. In the case of hearing, however,

they play a reversed role. In the eye, the primary effect of

light-impressions is on the nervous part; a secondary response to them

comes from the blood organization. In the ear, the receptive organ for

the astral impulses pressing in upon it is a part which belongs to the

body's limb system, while it is the nervous organization which

functions as the organ of response. For in the ear the sound-waves are

first of all taken over by the so-called ossicles, three small bones in

the middle ear which, when examined with the Goethean eye, appear to be

a complete metamorphosis of ah arm or a leg. They are instrumental in

transferring the outer acoustic movements to the fluid contained in the

inner ear, whence these are communicated to the entire fluid system of

the body and lastly to the muscular system.9 We shall speak of this in

detail later on. Let it be stated here that the peculiar role played by

the larynx in hearing, already referred to by us in Chapter XVI, is one

of the symptoms which tells of the participation of the muscular system

in the internal acoustic process.

Psychologically, the difference between ear and eye is that aural

perceptions work much more directly on the human will - that is, on the

part of our astral organization connected with the limb system. Whereas

eye-impressions stimulate us in the first place to think,

ear-impressions stimulate us to ... dance. The whole art of dancing,

from its original sacred character up to its degenerate modern forms,

is based upon the limb system being the recipient of acoustic

impressions.

In order to understand how the muscles respond to the outer astral

impulses which reach us through our ear, we must first understand what

happens in the muscles when our will makes use of them for bodily

motion. In this case, too, the muscular system is the organ through

which certain astral impulses, this time arising out of the body's own

astral member, come to expression. Moreover, the movement of the

muscles, though not outwardly perceptible, is quite similar to acoustic

movements outside the body. For whenever a muscle is caused to alter

its length, it will perform some kind of vibration - a vibration

characterized even by a definite pitch, which differs in different

people. Since throughout life our body is never entirely without

movement, we are thus in a constant state of inward sounding. The

muscular system is capable of this vibration because during the body's

initial period of growth the bones increase in length to a much greater

extent than do the sinews and muscles. Hence the latter arrive at a

condition of elastic tension not unlike that of the strings of a

musical instrument.10

In the case of bodily movement, therefore, the muscles are

tone-producers, whereas in acoustic perceptions they are

tone-receivers. What, then, is it that prevents an acoustic perception

from actually setting the limbs in motion, and, instead, enables our

sentient being to take hold of the astral impulse invading our muscles?

This impediment comes from the contribution made by the nervous system

to the auditory process. In order to understand the nature of this

contribution we must remember the role played by the blood in seeing.

It was found by us to consist in the bringing about of that state of

equilibrium without which we should experience light merely as a

pain-producing agent. Similarly, the perception of sound requires the

presence of a certain state of equilibrium between the nerve-system and

the limb-system. In this case, however, a lack of equilibrium would

result not in pain, but in ecstasy. For if acoustic impressions played

directly into our limb-system, with nothing to hold them in check,

every tone we encounter would compel us to an outward manifestation of

astral activity. We should become part of the tone-process itself,

forced to transform it by the volitional part of our astral

organization into spatial movement. That this does not happen is

because the participation of the nervous system serves to damp down the

potential ecstasy. Hence it is more or less left to the sentient part

of the astral organization - that is, the part free from the physical

body - to partake in the astral processes underlying the tone

occurrences.

*

Our discussion has reached a point where we are able to answer a

question which first arose in the course of our study of the four

ethers, and which arises here anew.

In studying the chemical or sound ether we were faced with the fact

that part of the etheric realm, although in itself accessible to the

spiritual part of the sense of sight, offers supersensible experience

comparable to the perception of sound. Conversely, we are now met by

the fact that it is spiritual hearing which gives access to the

immediate perception of a realm of forces which is not only the source

of acoustic phenomena, but the origin of all that manifests in nature

in the form of sulphurous, saline and mercurial events, such as the

world of colours, electricity, magnetism, the manifold rhythmic

occurrences on the earth (both taken as a whole .and in single

organisms), etc. - all of which are taken hold of by quite other senses

than that of hearing.

At our first encounter with this problem we remarked that in the

supersensible no such sharp distinctions exist between different

sense-spheres as are found in body-bound sense-perception. At the same

time we remembered that even in physical perception we are inclined to

attach acoustic attributes to colours and optical attributes to tones.

In fact, it was precisely an instance of this kind of experience,

namely, our conception of tone-colour, which gave us our lead in

discussing the acoustic sphere in general. Our picture of the

particular interaction of the two polar bodily systems in the acts of

seeing and hearing now enables us to understand more clearly how these

two spheres of perception overlap in man. For we have seen how the

system which in seeing is the receiving organ, works in hearing as the

responding one, and vice versa. As a result, optical impressions are

accompanied by dim sensations of sound, and aural impressions by dim

sensations of colour.

What we are thus dimly aware of in physical sense activity, becomes

definite experience when the supersensible part of the senses concerned

can work unfettered by the bodily organ. Clear testimony of this is

again given to us by Traherne in a poem entitled Dumnesse. This poem

contains an account of Traherne's recollection of the significant fact

that the transition from the cosmic to the earthly condition of his

consciousness was caused by his learning to speak. The following is a

passage from the description of the impressions which were his before

his soul was overcome by this change:

'Then did I dwell within a World of Light

Distinct and Seperat from all Mens Sight,

Where I did feel strange Thoughts, and such Things see

That were, or seemd, only reveald to Me ...

'... A Pulpit in my Mind

A Temple, and a Teacher I did find,

With a large Text to comment on. No Ear,

But Eys them selvs were all the Hearers there.

And evry Stone, and Evry Star a Tongue,

And evry Gale of Wind a Curious Song.'11

*

We have obtained a sufficiently clear picture of the organization of

our sense of hearing to see where the way lies that leads from hearing

with the ears of the body to hearing with the ears of the spirit, that

is, to the inspirative perception of the astral world.

In the psycho-physical condition which is characteristic of our present

day-consciousness, the participation of our astral organization in any

happenings of the outer astral world depends on our corporeal motor

system being stimulated by the acoustic motions of the air, or of some

other suitable medium contacting our body. For it is only in this way

that our astral organization is brought into the sympathetic vibrations

necessary for perceiving outer astral happenings. In order that astral

events other than those manifesting acoustically may become accessible

to our consciousness, our own astral being must become capable of

vibrating in tune with them, just as if we were hearing them - that is,

we must be able to rouse our astral forces to an activity similar to

that of hearing, yet without any physical stimulus. The way to this

consists in training ourselves to experience the deeds and sufferings

of nature as if they were the deeds and sufferings of a beloved friend.

It is thus that we shall learn to hear the soul of the universe

directly speaking to us, as Lorenzo divined it, when his love for

Jessica made him feel in love with all the world, and he exclaimed:

'There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim, -

Such harmony is in immortal souls.

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.'

* *

*

(c) KEPLER AND THE 'MUSIC OF THE SPHERES'

'One must choose one's saints .. . and so I have chosen mine, and

before all others, Kepler. In my ante-room he has ever a niche of his

own, with his bust in it.'

This opinion of Goethe's must surprise us in view of the fact that

Kepler was the discoverer of the three laws called after him, one of

which is supposed to have laid the foundation for Newton's mechanical

conception of the universe. In what follows it will be shown how wrong

it is to see in Kepler a forerunner of the mechanistic conception of

the world; how near, in reality, his world-picture is to the one to

which we are led by working along Goetheanistic lines; and how right

therefore Goethe was in his judgment on Kepler.

Goethe possessed a sensitive organ for the historical appropriateness

of human ideas. As an illustration of this it may be mentioned how he

reacted when someone suggested to him that Joachim Jungius - an

outstanding German thinker, contemporary of Bacon, Van Helmont, etc. -

had anticipated his idea of the metamorphosis of the plant. This remark

worried Goethe, not because he could not endure the thought of being

anticipated (see his treatment of K. F. Wolff), but because this would

have run counter to the meaning of man's historical development as he

saw it. 'Why do I regard as essential the question whether Jungius

conceived the idea of metamorphosis as we know it? My answer is, that

it is most significant in the history of the sciences, when a

penetrating and vitalizing maxim comes to be uttered. Therefore it is

not only of importance that Jungius has not expressed this maxim; but

it is of highest significance that he was positively unable to express

it - as we boldly assert.'12

For the same reason Goethe knew it would be historically unjustified to

expect that Kepler could have conceived an aspect of the universe

implicit in his own conception of nature. Hence it did not disturb him

in his admiration for Kepler, that through him the Copernican aspect of

the universe had become finally established in the modern mind - that

is, an aspect which, as we have seen, is invalid as a means of forming

a truly dynamic conception of the world.

In forming his picture of the universe, it is true, Copernicus was

concerned with nothing but the spatial movements of the luminous

entities discernible in the sky, without any regard to their actual

nature and dynamic interrelationships. Hence his world-picture - as

befits the spectator-form of human consciousness which was coming to

birth in his own time - is a purely kinematic one. As such it has

validity for a certain sphere of human observation.

When Kepler, against the hopes of his forerunner and friend, Tycho

Brahe, accepted the heliocentric standpoint and made it the basis of

his observations, he did so out of his understanding of what was the

truth for his own time. Kepler's ideal was to seek after knowledge

through pure observation. In this respect Goethe took him as his model.

Kepler's discoveries were a proof that man's searching mind is given

insight into great truths at any stage of its development, provided it

keeps to the virtue of practising pure observation.

It has been the error of Newton and his successors up to our own day,

to try to conceive the world dynamically within the limits of their

spectator-consciousness and thus to form a dynamic interpretation of

the universe based on its heliocentric aspect. This was just as

repellent to Goethe as Kepler's attitude was attractive.

But by so sharply distinguishing between Newton and Kepler, do we not

do injustice to the fact that, as the world believes, Kepler's third

law is the parent of Newton's law of gravitation? The following will

show that this belief is founded on an illusory conception of the kind

we met before. As we shall see, Kepler's discovery, when treated in a

Keplerian way, instead of leading to Newton, is found to be in full

agreement with the very world-picture to which our own observations

have led us.

*

It is an established conviction of the mathematical scientist that,

once an observed regularity in nature has been expressed as a

mathematical equation, this equation may be transformed in any

mathematically valid way, and the resulting formula will still apply to

some existing fact in the world. On innumerable occasions this

principle has been used in the expectation of providing further insight

into the secrets of nature. We came across a typical instance of this

in discussing the basic theorem of kinematics and dynamics (Chapter

VIII). Another example is Newton's treatment of Kepler's third law, or

- more precisely - the way in which Newton's law of gravitation has

been held to confirm Kepler's observations, and vice versa,

It will be our task to analyse the Kepler-Newton case on the very lines

of our treatment of the two parallelogram theorems. This analysis will

give us insight into a truth which we have to regard as one of the

basic maxims of the new science. It says that whether a given formula,

derived mathematically from one that was first read from nature, still

expresses some fact of nature, cannot be decided by pure mathematical

logic, but only by testing it against truly observable phenomena.

Through Kepler's third law a certain relation is expressed between the

spatial dimensions of the different planetary spheres and the time

needed by the relevant planet to circle once round the circumference of

its own sphere. It says: 'The squares of the periodic times of the

planets are always in the same proportion as the cubes of their mean

distances from the sun.' In mathematical symbols this reads:

t12 / t22 = r13 / r23

We shall see later how Kepler arrived at this law. The point is that

there is nothing in it which is not accessible to pure observation.

Spatial distances and lengths of time are measured and the results

compared. Nothing, for instance, is said about the dynamic cause of the

movements. The assertion is restricted - and this is true also of the

first and second law - to a purely kinematic content, and so precisely

to what the earthly onlooker can apprehend. Now it is said that

Kepler's third law is a necessary consequence of Newton's law of

gravitation, and that - since it is based on pure observation - it

therefore establishes the truth of Newton's conception. In this

assertion we encounter a misconception exactly like the one in the

statement that the theorem of the parallelogram of forces follows by

logical necessity from the theorem of the parallelogram of velocities.

For:

(a) The law of gravitation itself derives from Newton's formula for the

centripetal force acting at a point which moves along a circle, this

formula being itself the result of an amplification of the formula for

centripetal acceleration by the factor 'mass' (as if the latter were a

pure number):

Centripetal acceleration:

a = 4(π^2)r / t2

Centripetal force:

P = am = 4(π^2)mr / t2

(b) The formula for centripetal acceleration - and the concept of such

acceleration itself - is the result of splitting circular movement into

two rectilinear movements, one in the direction of the tangent, the

other in the direction of the radius, and of regarding it - by a mode

of reasoning typical of spectator-thinking - as composed of the two.

This procedure, however, useful as it may be for the purpose of

calculation, is contrary to observation. For, as we have pointed out

earlier, observation tells us that all original movement - and what can

be more original than the movements of the planetary bodies - is

curvilinear. No insight into the dynamic reality of cosmic movement,

therefore, can ever be gained by handling it mathematically in this

way.

(c) The transformation of Kepler's formula which is necessary in order

to give it a form representing the nucleus of Newton's formula, is one

which, though mathematically justified, deprives Kepler's formula of

any significance as expression of an observed fact. The following

analysis will show this.

Kepler's formula-

r1^3 / r2^3 = t1^2 / t2^2

may be written also

r1^3 / t1^2 = r2^3 / t2^2

and this again in the generalized form:

r3 / t2 = c.

Obviously, by each of these steps we diminish the reality-value of the

formula. In its original form, we find spatial extension compared with

spatial extension, and temporal extension with temporal extension. Each

of the two comparisons is a fully concrete one, because we compare

entities of like nature, and only then test the ratios of the two -

that is, two pure numbers against each other - to find that they are

identical. To compare a spatial and a temporal magnitude, as is done by

the formula in its second form, requires already a certain degree of

abstraction. Still, it is all spectator's work, and for the spectator

time is conceivable and measurable only as a rate of spatial

displacement. Hence the constant number c, by representing the ratio

between the spatial extension of the realm inside a planet's orbit and

the time needed by it to perform one round on this orbit - a ratio

which is the same for all planets - represents a definite structural

element of our cosmic system.

By this last operation our equation has now achieved a form which

requires only one more transformation to bring it into line with

Newton's formula. Instead of writing:

r3 / t2 = c

we write:

r / t2 = c (1 / r2)

All that now remains to be done amounts to an amplification of this

equation by the factor 4(π^2)m, and a gathering of the constant product

4(π^2)c under a new symbol, for which we choose the letter f. In this way

we arrive at:

4(π^2)mr / t2 = 4(π^2)cm / r2

and finally:

P = ... = fm / r2

which is the expression of the gravitational pull believed to be

exerted by the sun on the various planetary bodies. Nothing can be said

against this procedure from the point of view

of mathematical logic. For the latter the equation

r / t2 = c (1 / r2)

is still an expression of Kepler's observation. Not so for a logic

which tries to keep in touch with concrete reality. For what meaning,

relevant to the phenomenal universe as it manifests in space and time

to physical perception, is there in stating - as the equation in this

form does - that: the ratio between a planet's distance from the sun

and the square of its period is always proportional to the reciprocal

value of the area lying inside its orbit?

*

Once we have rid ourselves of the false conception that Kepler's law

implies Newton's interpretation of the physical universe as a dynamic

entity ruled by gravity, and gravity alone, we are free to ask what

this law can tell us about the nature of the universe if in examining

it we try to remain true to Kepler's own approach.

To behave in a Keplerian (and thus in a Goethean) fashion regarding a

mathematical formula which expresses an observed fact of nature, does

not mean that to submit such a formula to algebraic transformation is

altogether impermissible. All we have to make sure of is that the

transformation is required by the observed facts themselves: for

instance, by the need for an even clearer manifestation of their ideal

content. Such is indeed the case with the equation which embodies

Kepler's third law. We said that in its original form this equation

contains a concrete statement because it expresses comparisons between

spatial extensions, on the one hand, and between temporal extensions,

on the other. Now, in the form in which the spatial magnitudes occur,

they express something which is directly conceivable. The third power

of a spatial distance (r^3) represents the measure of a volume in

three-dimensional space. The same cannot be said of the temporal

magnitudes on the other side of the equation (t^2). For our conception

of time forbids us to connect any concrete idea with 'squared time'. We

are therefore called upon to find out what form we can give this side

of the equation so as to express the time-factor in a manner which is

in accord with our conception of time, that is, in linear form.13 This

form readily suggests itself if we consider that we have here to do

with a ratio of squares. For such a ratio may be resolved into a ratio

of two simple ratios.

In this way the equation -

r1^3 / r2^3 = t1^2 / t2^2

assumes the form-

r1^3 / r2^3 = (t1 / t2) / (t2 / t1)

The right-hand side of the equation is now constituted by the double

ratio of the linear values of the periods of two planets, and this is

something with which we can connect a quite concrete idea.

To see this, let us choose the periods of two definite planets - say,

Earth and Jupiter. For these the equation assumes the following form

('J' and 'E' indicating 'Jupiter' and 'Earth' respectively):

rJ^3 / rE^3 = (tJ / tE) / (tE / tJ)

Let us now see what meaning we can attach to the two expressions

tJ / tE and tE / tJ.

During one rotation of Jupiter round the sun the earth circles 12 times

round it. This we are wont to express by saying that Jupiter needs 12

earth-years for one rotation; in symbols:

tJ / tE = 12 / 1

To find the analogous expression for the reciprocal ratio:

tE / tJ = 1 / 12

we must obviously form the concept 'Jupiter-year', which covers one

rotation of Jupiter, just as the concept 'earth-year' covers one

rotation of the earth (always round the sun). Measured in this

time-scale, the earth needs for one of her rotations 1 / 12 of a

Jupiter-year.

With the help of these concepts we are now able to express the double

ratio of the planetary periods in the following simplified way. If we

suppose the measuring of the two planetary periods to be carried out

not by the same time-scale, but each by the time-scale of the other,

the formula becomes:

rJ3 / rE3 = (tJ / tE) / (tE / tJ) = period of Jupiter measured in

Earth-years / period of Earth measured in Jupiter-years.

Interpreted in this manner, Kepler's third law discloses an intimate

interrelatedness of each planet to all the others as co-members of the

same cosmic whole. For the equation now tells us that the solar times

of the various planets are regulated in such a way that for any two of

them the ratio of these times, measured in their mutual time-units, is

the same as the ratio of the spaces swept out by their (solar) orbits.

Further, by having the various times of its members thus tuned to one

another, our cosmic system shows itself to be ordered on a principle

which is essentially musical. To see this, we need only recall that the

musical value of a given tone is determined by its relation to other

tones, whether they sound together in a chord, or in succession as

melody. A 'C' alone is musically undefined. It receives its character

from its interval-relation to some other tone, say, 'G', together with

which it forms a Fifth. As the lower tone of this interval, 'C' bears a

definite character; and so does 'G' as the upper tone.

Now we know that each interval represents a definite ratio between the

periodicities of its two tones. In the case of the Fifth the ratio is

2:3 (in the natural scale). This means that the lower tone receives its

character from being related to the upper tone by the ratio 2:3.

Similarly, the upper tone receives its character from the ratio 3:2.

The specific character of an interval arising out of the merging of its

two tones, therefore, is determined by the ratio of their ratios. In

the case of the Fifth this is 4:9. It is this ratio, therefore, which

underlies our experience of a Fifth.

The cosmic factor corresponding to the periodicity of the single tone

in music is the orbital period of the single planet. To the musical

interval formed by two tones corresponds the double ratio of the

periods of any two planets. Regarded thus, Kepler's law can be

expressed as follows: The spatial ordering of our planetary system is

determined by the interval-relation in which the different planets

stand to each other.

By thus unlocking the ideal content hidden in Kepler's third law, we

are at the same time enabled to do justice to the way in which he

himself announced his discovery. In textbooks and encyclopaedias it is

usually said that the discovery of the third law was the surprising

result of Kepler's fantastic attempt to prove by external observation

what was once taught in the school of Pythagoras, namely, that (in

Wordsworth's language):

'By one pervading spirit

Of tones and numbers all things are controlled.'

Actually, Kepler's great work, Harmonices Mundi, in the last part of

which he announces his third law, is entirely devoted to proving the

truth of the Pythagorean doctrine that the universe is ordered

according to the laws of music. This doctrine sprang from the gift of

spiritual hearing still possessed by Pythagoras, by which he could

perceive the harmonies of the spheres. It was the aim of his school to

keep this faculty alive as long as possible, and with its aid to

establish a communicable world-conception. The Pythagorean teaching

became the foundation of all later cosmological thinking, right up to

the age which was destined to bring to birth the spectator-relationship

of man's consciousness with the world. Thus it was left to Copernicus

to give mankind the first truly non-Pythagorean picture of the

universe.

When Kepler declared himself in favour of the heliocentric aspect, as

indicated by Copernicus, he acknowledged that the universe had grown

dumb for man's inner ear. Yet, besides his strong impulse to meet the

true needs of his time, there were inner voices telling him of secrets

that were hidden behind the veil woven by man's physical perceptions.

One of these secrets was the musical order of the world. Such

knowledge, however, could not induce him to turn to older

world-conceptions in his search for truth. He had no need of them,

because there was yet another voice in him which told him that the

spiritual order of the world must somehow manifest itself in the body

of the world as it lay open to physical perception. Just as a musical

instrument, if it is to be a perfect means of bringing forth music,

must bear in its build the very laws of music, so must the body of the

universe, as the instrument on which the harmonies of the spheres play

their spiritual music, bear in its proportions a reflexion of these

harmonies. Kepler was sure that investigation of the world's body,

provided it was carried out by means of pure observation, must needs

lead to a re-establishment of the ancient truth in a form appropriate

to the modern mind. Thus Kepler, guided by an ancient spiritual

conception of the world, could devote himself to confirming its truth

by the most up-to-date methods of research. That his search was not in

vain, our examination of the third law has shown.

One thing, however, remains surprising - that Kepler announced his

discovery in the form in which it has henceforth engraved itself in the

modern mind, while refraining from that analysis of it which we have

applied to it here. Yet, in this respect also Kepler proves to have

remained true to himself. There is, on the one hand, the form in which

Kepler pronounced his discovery; there is, on the other, the context in

which he made this pronouncement. We have already pointed out that the

third law forms part of Kepler's comprehensive work, Harmonices Mundi.

To the modern critic's understanding it appears there like an erratic

block. For Kepler this was different. While publishing his discovery in

precisely the form in which it is conceived by a mind bent on pure

observation, he gave it a setting by which he left no doubt as to his

own conception of its ideal content. And as a warning to the future

reader not to overlook the message conveyed by this arrangement, he

introduced the section of his book which contains the announcement of

the law, with the mysterious words about himself: 'I have stolen the

golden vessels of the Egyptians from which to furnish for my God a holy

shrine far from Egypt's confines.'

1 We must here distinguish sensation from feeling proper, in which

sensation and motion merge in mercurial balance.

2 Note how for Ruskin the gulf which for the onlooker-consciousness

lies between subject and object is bridged here - as it was for Goethe

in his representation of the physico-moral effect of colour.

3 De motu animalium and Theoria mediceorum planetarum ex causis

physicis deducta.

4 Knowledge of this biological rhythm is still preserved among native

peoples to-day and leads them to take account of the phases of the moon

in their treatment of plants. A cosmic nature-wisdom of this kind has

been reopened for us in modern form by Rudolf Steiner, and has since

found widespread practical application in agriculture. See L. Kolisko,

The Moon and Plant Growth.

5 In the order of names given above we follow the ancient usage for the

two planets nearest to the sun, not the reversed order in which they

are used to-day. This is necessary in a cosmology which aspires at a

qualitative understanding of the universe, in view of the qualities

represented by these names. Note also the absence of the three most

distant planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. They are not to be

considered as parts of the indigenous astral structure of our cosmic

system - any more than radioactivity is an original feature of the

earth.

6 Note the 'Venus' character of Ruskin's description of the plant's

state of florescence quoted above (p. 336).

7 As to the time-scale of the processes brought about by Mercury and

Venus respectively, experience shows that they reveal the cosmic

rhythms less clearly than those for which the Moon-activity is

responsible. The same is found at the opposite pole. There it is the

Saturn - generated processes which show the cosmic rhythm more

conspicuously than those engendered by Jupiter and Mars. To learn to

recognize rhythmic events in nature and man as reflexions of

corresponding planetary rhythms is one of the tasks which future

scientific research has to tackle. A practical example of this kind

will appear in the further course of this chapter.

8 See L. Kolisko: Working of the Stars in Earthly Substances, and other

publications by the same author.

9 The close connexion between the ear and the motor system of the body

is shown in another way by the fact that part of the ear serves as an

organ for the sense of balance.

10 The muscle-tone can be made audible by the following means. In a

room guarded against noise, press the thumbs lightly upon the ears and

tense the muscles of the hands and arms - say by pressure of the

fingers against the palms or by contracting the muscle of the upper

arms. If this is done repeatedly, the muscle-tone will be heard after

some practice with increasing distinctness. It is easily distinguished

from the sound of the circulating blood as it is much higher. (As an

example: the author's muscular pitch, not a particularly high one, has

a frequency of approx. 630 per sec., which puts it between Treble D

sharp and E.)

11 Compare also the beginning of Traherne's poem Wonder, quoted in

Chapter VI (p. 110), where he says that everything he saw 'did with me

talk'.

12 For the particular reasons by which Goethe justifies his assertion,

see his essay Leben und Verdienste des Doktor Joachim Jungius.

13 The natural question why Kepler himself did not take this step, will

be answered later on.

CHAPTER XXI

Know Thyself

Our inquiries have led us to a picture of man as a

sensible-supersensible organism composed of three dynamic aggregates -

physical, etheric, astral. As three rungs of a spiritual ladder they

point to a fourth, which represents that particular power in man by

which he distinguishes himself from all other beings in nature. For

what makes man differ from all these is that he is not only fitted, as

they are, with a once-for-all given mode of spiritual-physical

existence peculiar to himself, but that he is endowed with the

possibility of transforming his existence by dint of his free will -

that indeed his manhood is based on this capacity for self-willed

Becoming.

To this fourth principle in man we can give no better name than that

which every human being can apply to himself alone and to no other, and

which no other can apply to him. This is the name, I. In truth, we

describe man in his entirety only if we ascribe to him, in addition to

a physical, etheric and astral body, the possession of an I (Ego).

Naturally, our previous studies have afforded many opportunities for

observing the nature and mode of activity of the I. Still, at the

conclusion of these studies it is not redundant to form a concise

picture of this part of man's being, with particular regard to how it

works within the three other principles as its sheaths. For in modern

psychology, not excluding the branch of it where efforts are made to

penetrate into deeper regions of man's being, nothing is less well

understood than the true nature of man's egoity.

*

In order to recognize the peculiar function of the I in man, we must

first be clear as to how he differs from the other kingdoms of nature,

and how they differ from one another with respect to the mode of action

of the physical, etheric and astral forces.

The beings of all the kingdoms of nature are endowed with an aggregate

of physical forces in the form of a material body subject to gravity.

The same cannot be said of the etheric forces. Only where life is

present as an inherent principle - that is, in plant, animal and man -

is ether at work in the form of an individual etheric organization,

while the mineral is formed by the universal ether from outside. Where

life prevails, we are met by the phenomena of birth and death. When a

living organism comes to birth, an individual ether-body is formed out

of the general etheric substance of the universe.1 The death of such an

organism consists in the separation of the etheric from the physical

body and the dissolution of both in their respective mother-realms. So

long as an organism is alive, its form is maintained by the ether-body

present in it.

Our studies have shown that the plant is not devoid of the operation of

astral forces. In the plant's life-cycle this comes to clearest

expression in its florescence. But it is a working of the astral forces

from outside, very much as the ether works on the mineral. As a symptom

of this fact we may recall the dependence of the plant on the various

outer astronomical rhythms.

It is only in animal and man that we find the astral forces working in

the form of separate astral bodies. This accounts for their capacity

for sensation and volition. Besides the alternation of birth and death,

they experience the rhythm of sleeping and waking. Sleep occurs when

the astral body leaves the physical and etheric bodies in order to

expand into its planetary mother-sphere, whence it gathers new energy.

During this time its action on the physical-etheric aggregate remaining

upon earth is similar to that of the astral cosmos upon the plant.

Again, in the animal kingdom the ego-principle works as an external

force in the form of various group-soul activities which control and

regulate the life of the different animal species. It is in the

group-ego of the species that we have to look for the source of the

wisdom-filled instincts which we meet in the single animals.

Only in man does the ego-principle enter as an individual entity into

the single physico-etheric-astral organism. Here, however, the

succession of stages we have outlined comes to a conclusion. For with

the appearance of the I as an individual principle, the preceding

evolutionary process - or, more correctly, the involutionary process -

begins to be reversed. In moving up from one kingdom to the next, we

find always one more dynamic principle appearing in a state of

separation from its mother-sphere; this continues to the point where

the I, through uniting itself with a thus emancipated

physico-etheric-astral organism, arrives at the stage of

self-consciousness. Once this stage has been reached, however, it falls

to the I to reverse the process of isolation, temporarily sanctioned by

the cosmos for the sake of man.

That it is not in the nature of the I to leave its sheaths in the

condition in which it finds them when entering them at the beginning of

life, can be seen from the activities it performs in them during the

first period after birth. Indeed, in man's early childhood we meet a

number of events in which we can perceive something like ur-deeds of

the I. They are the acquisition of the faculties of walking, speaking

and thinking. What we shall here say about them has, in essentials,

already been touched upon in earlier pages. Here, however, we are

putting it forward in a new light.

Once again we find our attention directed to the threefold structure of

man's physical organism. For the faculty of upright walking is a result

of the I's activity in the limb-system of the body; the acquisition of

speech takes place in the rhythmic system; and thinking is a faculty

based on the nerve-system. Consequently, each of the three achievements

comes to pass at a different level of consciousness-sleeping, dreaming,

waking. All through the struggle of erecting the body against the pull

of gravity, the child is entirely unaware of the activities of his own

I. In the course of acquiring speech he gains a dim awareness, as

though in dream, of his efforts. Some capacity of thinking has to

unfold before the first glimmer of true self-consciousness is kindled.

(Note that the word 'I' is the only one that is not added to the

child's vocabulary by way of imitation. Otherwise he would, as some

mentally inhibited children do, call all other people 'I' and himself

'you'.)

This picture of the three ur-deeds of the I can now be amplified in the

following way. We know that the region of the bodily limbs is that in

which physical, etheric and astral forces interpenetrate most deeply.

Consequently, the I can here press forward most powerfully into the

physical body and on into the dynamic sphere to which the body is

subject. Here the I is active in a way that is 'magic' in the highest

degree. Moreover, there is no other action for which the I receives so

little stimulus from outside. For, in comparison, the activity that

leads to the acquisition of speech is much more of the nature of a

reaction to stimuli coming from outside - the sounds reaching the child

from his environment. And it is also with the first words of the

language that the first thoughts enter the child's mind. Nothing of the

kind happens at the first stage. On the contrary: everything that

confronts the I here is of the nature of an obstacle that is to be

overcome.

There is no learning to speak without the hearing of uttered sounds. As

these sounds approach the human being they set the astral body in

movement, as we have seen. The movements of the astral body flow

towards the larynx, where they are seized by the I; through their help

the I imbues the larynx with the faculty of producing these sounds

itself. Here, therefore, the I is active essentially within the astral

body which has received its stimulus from outside. In order to

understand what impels the I to such action, we must remember the role

played by speech in human life: without speech there would be no

community among human individuals on earth.

An illustration of what the I accomplishes as it enters upon the third

stage is provided by the following episode, actually observed. Whilst

all the members of a family were sitting at table taking their soup,

the youngest member suddenly cried out: 'Daddy spoon ... mummy spoon.

... ' (everyone in turn spoon) ' ... all spoon!' At this moment, from

merely designating single objects by names learnt through imitation,

the child's consciousness had awakened to connective thinking. That

this achievement was a cause of inner satisfaction could be heard in

the joyful crescendo with which these ejaculations were made.

We know that the presence of waking consciousness within the

nerves-and-senses organism rests upon the fact that the connexion

between physical body and etheric body is there the most external of

all. But precisely because this is so, the etheric body is dominated

very strongly by the forces to which the physical head owes its

formation. This, too, is not fundamentally new to us. What can now be

added is that, in consequence, the physical brain and the part of the

etheric body belonging to it - the etheric brain - assume a function

comparable with that of a mirror, the physical organ representing the

reflecting mass and the etheric organ its metallic gloss. When, within

the head, the etheric body reflects back the impressions received from

the astral body, the I becomes aware of them in the form of mental

images (the 'ideas' of the onlooker-philosopher). It is also by way of

such reflexion that the I first grows aware of itself - but as nothing

more than an image among images. Here, therefore, it is itself least

active.

If, once again, we compare the three happenings of learning to walk, to

speak and to think, we find ourselves faced with the remarkable fact

that the progressive lighting up of consciousness from one stage to the

next, goes hand in hand with a retrogression in the activity of the I

itself. At the first stage, where the I knows least of itself, it is

alive in the most direct sense out of its own being; at the second

stage, where it is in the dreaming state, it receives the impetus of

action through the astral body; at the third stage, where the I wakens

to clear self-consciousness, it assumes merely the role of onlooker at

the pictures moving within the etheric body.

Compare with this the paths to higher faculties of knowledge,

Imagination and Inspiration, as we learnt to know them in our previous

studies. The comparison shows that exactly the same forces come into

play at the beginning of life, when the I endeavours to descend from

its pre-earthly, cosmic environment to its earthly existence, as have

to be made use of for the ascending of the I from earthly to cosmic

consciousness. Only, as is natural, the sequence of steps is reversed.

For on the upward way the first deed of the I is that which leads to a

wakening in the etheric world: it is a learning to set in motion the

etheric forces in the region of the head in such a way that the usual

isolation of this part of the etheric body is overcome. Regarded thus,

the activity of the I at this stage reveals a striking similarity to

the activity applied in the earliest period of childhood at the

opposite pole of the organism. To be capable of imaginative sight

actually means to be able to move about in etheric space by means of

the etheric limbs of the eyes just as one moves about in physical space

by means of the physical limbs.

Similarly, the acquisition of Inspiration is a resuming on a higher

level of the activity exercised by the I with the help of the astral

body when learning to speak. And here, too, the functions are reversed.

For while the child is stimulated by the spoken sounds he hears to

bring his own organ of speech into corresponding movements, and so

gradually learns to produce speech, the acquisition of Inspiration, as

we have seen, depends on learning to bring the supersensible forces of

the speech-organ into movement in such a way that these forces become

the organ for hearing the supersensible language of the universe.

Our knowledge of the threefold structure of man's organism leads us to

seek, besides the stages of Imagination and Inspiration, a third stage

which is as much germinally present in the body's region of movement,

as the two others are in the regions of thought and speech. After what

we have learnt in regard to these three, we may assume that the path

leading to this third stage consists in producing a condition of

wide-awake, tranquil contemplation in the very region where the I is

wont to unfold its highest degree of initiative on the lowest level of

consciousness.

In an elementary manner this attitude of soul was practised by us when,

in our earlier studies, we endeavoured to become inner observers of the

activity of our own limbs, with the aim of discovering the origin of

our concept of mass. It was in this way that a line of observation

opened up to us which led to the recognition of the physical substances

of the earth as congealed spiritual functions or, we may say, congealed

utterances of cosmic will.

Cosmic Will, however, does not work into our existence only in such a

way that, in the form of old and therefore rigid Will, it puts up

resistance against the young will-power of the I, so that in overcoming

this resistance the I may waken to self-activity. Cosmic Will is also

present in us in an active form. We point here to the penetration by

the higher powers of the universe into the forming of the destiny of

humanity and of individual man. And here Rudolf Steiner has shown that

to a man who succeeds in becoming a completely objective observer of

his own existence while actively functioning within it (as in an

elementary way we endeavoured to become observers of our limb actions

while engaged in performing them) the world begins to reveal itself as

an arena of the activities of divine-spiritual Beings, whose reality

and acts he is now able to apprehend through inner awareness. Herewith

a third stage of man's faculty of cognition is added to the stages of

Imagination and Inspiration. When Rudolf Steiner chose for it the word

Intuition he applied this word, also, in its truest meaning.

*

While through Imagination man comes to know of his ether-body as part

of his make-up, and correspondingly through Inspiration of his astral

body, and thereby recognizes himself as participant in the

supersensible forces of the universe, it is through Intuition that he

grows into full awareness of his I as a spirit-being among

spirit-beings -

God-begotten, God-companioned,

for ever God-ward striving.

1 The word 'body' is here used in a sense no different from our earlier

use of it, when in connexion with our study of combustion (Chapter XI)

we referred to the 'warmth-body' as a characteristic of the higher

animals and man. Such a warmth-body is nothing else but the

warmth-ether part of an ether-body. To use the word body for

aggregations of etheric or astral forces is legitimate if one considers

the fact that the physical body also is really a purely dynamic entity,

that is, a certain aggregate of forces more or less self-contained.