Course for Young Doctors
Christmas Course
GA 316
Dornach, 9th January, 1924
Lecture VIII
It is, of course, only possible to give aphoristic indications here of what will have to be communicated in detail as time goes on, if your connection with the movement at the Goetheanum is to be continued in any real way.
It must be emphasized, above all, that in the very nature of things, one cannot heal in opposition to karma. The fundamental attitude of the physician must be that no healing is possible if it runs counter to karma. In his will-to-heal, the physician's attitude must, from the very outset, tend in two directions. First of all, there must be the unconquerable will that karma be fulfilled. The physician needs this above all for himself, for as you have heard, in a sense, he loses, so far as he himself is concerned, the effect of what he uses for his patients. It can, of course, be transformed so that it will also be effective for him, but all you need to know, in the first place, is what I have already said on this subject. The physician, too, is naturally subject to karma so far as his own health and illness are concerned. But when the proper attitude is present, when therapeutic knowledge penetrates deeply into the human soul, it can be said that the consciousness of karma becomes more and more an actual revelation of karma.
Karma has its two sides. You must regard karma in such a way that you relate your destiny to the earthly life immediately preceding the present one. Karma, in this aspect, is the expression of what the previously earthly lives have brought. But you have also to think of karma in the fifth or sixth subsequent earthly life, in the fifth or sixth life following the present one. Then you will have the results of what is happening now. If you carry this thought to its conclusion, you will realize that karma, too, is in the becoming, that what is happening now adds one thing or another to karma. It can also be said that here and there our deeds may give a turn to karma. Nobody who understands karma can ever be a fatalist.
The one direction of the physician's attitude is, therefore, towards karma. This leads to a sense of security and sureness in life, gives a firm standpoint. The other direction, however, is this; that the will-to-heal must always be present. This will must never, under any circumstances, weaken. It must be at work in therapy all the time, so that it can be truly said that everything possible is being done, even when one is of the opinion that the patient is incurable. You must suppress this opinion and do everything possible about healing. I merely indicate this, aphoristically.
What we have to do today is to deepen, in the esoteric sense, those things that may result in the awakening of soul forces in medical study. The content of the esoteric teaching must assume a particular form, must become a special activity, for the physician. The physician will not be able to content himself with looking at things as they are looked at in ordinary life. This is just what ordinary science does. Science does not call upon forces of soul which are not applied in ordinary life; on the contrary, science throws all its weight upon the side of not calling upon such forces. But the ordinary, current view of life does not enable us to know that some substance or process in the world contains healing forces. The healing forces are only revealed by things when we approach them with certain awakened powers of soul. It will be for you, step by step, to awaken these powers of soul in order that things may speak to you in such a way that in your work as physicians you are able to help human beings by their means. What is of importance is that what I have said to you about the attitude of the physician shall be infinitely deepened in your souls.
I will take a simple subject, to begin with, and treat it in the way in which it ought to be treated in medical study. It will seem aphoristic here, but when there is time, it will be developed.
Think of the form that is revealed to you in the bony skull. We can take this bony skull and draw it. Look at its form and contrast this form with what is revealed to you by a long bone—let us say the thigh bone. These bones are not quite on their own, for manifold physical forces play around the bony skull; equally manifold forces play around the long bones. But the reality of a long bone will only be revealed to you if you study it in connection with the whole universe.
Just think of a long bone. Its forces are such that they pass through its length, and when the human being assumes his true earthly posture, they actually go down to the central point of the earth. But that is not the essential. The essential thing about a long bone is that it introduces these forces into the connection that exists between the central point of the earth and the moon. Therefore whatever is placed in the body like the long bone of the thigh or the bone of the upper arm, or a muscle lying in a similar position, is really inserted into the forces which connect the earth with the moon. You can picture it like this. Here you have the earth. (See diagram below.)
Forces stream up to the moon from the earth and these forces include everything that is involved, let us say, in the position in which the thigh is when the human being is standing or walking.
On the other hand, everything that has a position like that of the skull-covering is membered into the Saturn movement. In the skull there are the rotatory forces which belong to Saturn. So that we can say: The human being is formed from below upwards through the connection between earth and moon. He is rounded off, finished off, by the rotatory forces of Saturn. But these two kinds of forces are counter to each other. In the forces which are contained in the connection between earth and moon there lies everything that gives the human being his plastic form, everything that builds him, plastically. One might say: There is a secret sculptor in these forces; whereas the other forces give rise to a perpetual process of demolition, in which the substances which build up the human being plastically are again disintegrated or dispersed. When you cut a nail, you with your scissors are in the Saturn forces; when you eat, this takes you into the realm of the forces working between earth and moon. All these latter forces are up-building forces. All the other forces pulverize the human being. In this interaction between pulverization and plastic up-building live the soul of man and the spirit of man. Therein they manifest themselves.
All that is connected with the etheric body of man both in the outer world and within man himself is connected with these peripheric forces. Silver is connected, in a certain respect, with the forces of up-building. So that when you notice in a human being that the up-building forces are being overpowered by the forces of demolition, you can as a rule correct this by means of some medicament derived from silver. But if you notice that the up-building forces are rampant, that they are maintaining the human being too strongly within his form, hindering as it were the process of pulverization, you will have recourse to the remedies that come from Saturn, from lead. When we know how the human being is built up, we begin to see how we must act.
What we have to do is find our way into this kind of perception. You see, my dear friends, the true world, the world of the spirit, has always been said, and rightly said, to lie on yonder side of a threshold. The human being lives on this side of a threshold. He has to pass over this threshold in order to attain true knowledge, true insight into the constitution of the world. Speaking generally, it is dangerous for the human being to cross this threshold without preparation. For if he carries with him into the spiritual world on yonder side of the threshold his ordinary sense-perception, permeated with thoughts as in ordinary life, he calls forth illusion, downright illusion before his spiritual eyes, because he then judges things on yonder side of the threshold just as he does here, in the physical world. Therefore there stands at the threshold that spiritual being from whom we learn that quite different concepts are necessary when we cross the threshold, that illusions paralyze our life if we pass over into the spiritual world with the ordinary concepts derived from the world of the senses. This Guardian of the Threshold warns us that we must first acquire the ideas that are needed in the spiritual world. People as a rule do not believe that the concepts which correspond to facts in the spiritual world are so very different from those which are suitable in the physical world. In the physical world, for example, the part is always smaller than the whole. This is an axiom. But it is not so in the spiritual world. There, the part is always greater than the whole.
We understand this from an example drawn from the being of man. If we think of a force which the human being has within him when, for instance, he is building up his body out of mineral matter and then think of the nexus of forces which one part of him contains, then, in the face of the cosmos, that which forms the organ—which is the part—is essentially greater than the whole human being. It is not easy at once to visualize the maxim that the part is greater than the whole because you are accustomed to the sense-world; but in face of the super-sensible world it is absolutely true. We must attain to the insight that in the spiritual world the part can be greater than the whole. Our laws of mechanics and physics do not hold for the super-sensible world, rather precisely the opposite. Here, in the material world, a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. In the spiritual world, it is the longest, because there, if we go in the straight direction, we have the most obstacles to overcome. Every other direction is shorter, there, than the straight one.
We must be absolutely clear that if we want to enter the spiritual world, ideas and concepts are needed that are quite contrary to what is a matter of course in the physical world. Courage is required so that we shall not enter into the spiritual world in confusion. We must have courage enough to pass over the spiritual threshold, over the abyss. If we cross over to the spiritual world, if we pass the Guardian of the Threshold and reach the spiritual world yonder in the soul and spirit, in astral body and ego, consciously, then all is well. But if we do not pass through this experience in the ego and astral body, illusion arises and when this illusion shoots back upon the human being, illness is the result. Whenever a man is ill, he really has the Guardian of the Threshold within him, but in a kind of demonic counterpart.
There again I come to the demonic element of which I already had to speak. When we look at a human being with ordinary perception, all his members are intermixed. On the one side there is the ego and the astral body of the man; on the other side there is the etheric body and the physical body. All seems to be intermixed when we look at him with ordinary sight. And what is essential above all is to learn to distinguish what is of the soul in a human being from what is of the body. When the soul is in the body, and you are looking at a human being, the soul does not appear as it really is. Indeed and in truth the soul is light. You must learn more and more to realize that the human soul, when we behold it in its absence from the body, is light. It belongs to what surrounds us as the etheric elements—it belongs to the light. The human soul belongs entirely to the realm of light. We see it rightly when we see it within light.
On the other hand, the body belongs to heaviness. I have shown how heaviness is overcome, how the brain becomes much lighter than its external weight. But the physical body, in the form in which we perceive it, belongs to heaviness. Just as through chemical analysis you get hydrogen and oxygen out of water, so, if you want to behold man in his true being, you must member him into the soul with its power of radiance and the body with its might of heaviness. These two realities—the soul with its power of radiance, and the body with its might of heaviness—are interwoven in confusion when they are looked at with physical eyes. And because they are thus interwoven in confusion, we cannot see in the body, or in the human being as a whole, the essential nature of the illness. By so adjusting your soul that you can observe the human being in such a way that you see how the nature of the illness is revealed, then, gradually, when you look at lead, or silver, you will realize what healing forces are contained in these substances.
But you must take your medical life in tremendous earnestness. You must take the meditative life with such strength into your soul that through this meditative life you grasp the world differently. And that is why I want to give you now words which, if they are added to the others (see Lecture Four) and truly meditated upon, will bring you into the same relation with particular substances which these substances themselves have to the healthy and the sick human being. You must let the words, which I am now going to write on the board, awaken your souls to the realization that what you see of the human being in ordinary life is not the reality. When you vitalize your souls with what lies in these words, then you will perceive the truth, the true reality of the human being.
What I have said up to now will help you, in a general way, to understand the human being in his relation to the cosmos. Today I should like to give you something that will help you to meditative knowledge of, say, a tiny piece of gold. I hammer it into a thin leaf and when I look through it I see green. In its green appearance it awakens, not from mere vague analogy, the same inner experience as green meadows, the green plant covering of the earth; it does indeed awaken this experience if I look at the gold leaf with deeper forces of soul. If then I really steep myself, with all my forces of soul, in the tiny, shimmering piece of gold, the opposite power of soul is awakened. Then, as well as the green shimmering gold—as I look now towards it and now away from it—a whole world comes to me, a whole world shimmers towards me in a kind of pale bluish-red light. And in that moment I know that the whole world is present in that tiny piece of gold. This little piece of gold which, to begin with, has a green shimmer, is, in reality, a whole sphere. Every tiny piece of gold is a center of a whole sphere and I learn to live and weave in the bluish-red, the bluish-violet colors of a sphere. And then, if you learn to know other qualities of gold you will realize their living connection. For instance, you will experience, but fundamentally and basically, the known quality of gold, namely, that it will not combine with oxygen. Then, you will say to yourselves: The human being lives through having oxygen; he lives through perpetually working in oxygen. In the etheric body, as you know, everything is different. The etheric body is related to what is not anchored in the physical body. Gold is related to the etheric body because it refuses to be combined with oxygen. So that by virtue of this very quality, gold works as a healing power in the etheric body for what oxygen, for example, may give rise to in the physical body. For this reason, gold is, as it were, a remedy that works from the center of the human being.
Through this impression of radiance in the pale bluish-red light, you get at the inner truth of the saying: “Gold is sun; gold is wholly sun.” This one piece of gold reveals to you that in cosmic space, gold is the sun, and that this gold-sun is related to your etheric body.
But this means that you are led to those qualities of a substance that are needed in therapy. But you will only really come to this realization by taking the following meditation, not as mere words, but in all earnestness, and as an unceasing challenge to the soul:
See in thy Soul
Power of Radiance;
Feel in thy Body
Might of Heaviness!
But this must be a real exercise. You must practice with the aim of making your soul into something that really streams out into space and is like light, the power of radiance; and you must practice with the aim of making your body into something that through its own inner heaviness is connected with the inner being of the earth. You must have a real inner experience of this tremendous contrast, and then you separate your soul and body, as they should be separated. The verse continues:
In Power of Radiance
Rays the Spirit-I.
The human “P” rises up as an inner experience in the soul. It is a picture that you must understand. In the soul that is streaming out, radiating out into the universe, the “I” unfolds. To these words you must add:
In Might of Heaviness
God-Spirit wells.
The men of earlier times spoke, not merely in trivial analogy, but as something in profound correspondence with truth, of the human being, the human body, as being a temple of the Godhead. Just as it is true that the “I” is the ruler within the soul when the soul is conscious, so it is also true that the Divine, the Godhead, is the ruler in the body. You may not really speak of your body as your own, for the body is not of man, but of God. It is so indeed. The body of man grows out of the Divine forces. To man belongs only the soul that is within that body. In the instrument that is your body you must see the temple of God. It is of tremendous importance to know this:
In Power of Radiance [of the soul]
Rays the Spirit-I;
In Might of Heaviness
God-Spirit wells.
The Divine Spirit is mighty in the human body, just as the “I” is mighty in the human soul. And now comes the important thing:
Yet shall not
Power of Radiance
Lay hold of
Might of Heaviness.
When the human being is asleep it is clear to you that his soul is separated from his body. He has separated soul and body. During sleep the soul has not got hold of the body. But in waking life, too, the condition must be such that although the ego and astral body come down in the physical and etheric bodies, there must be an inner separation, and inner apartness between the power of radiance and the might of heaviness. Chemical combination between the power of radiance and the might of heaviness must not arise; these two powers must be inwardly separate. They must not mingle with each other mechanically nor be inwardly united in any way. The might of heaviness of the body, the power of radiance of the soul must work side by side, the former downwards, the latter upwards, within the same space. For that reason, the following words are important.
Yet shall not
Power of Radiance
Lay hold of
Might of Heaviness,
Nor may
Might of Heaviness
Permeate
Power of Radiance.
The last two lines merely express the opposite of the first two. That which our external, sense-knowledge continually mixes together, must, in reality, be separate within the human being. When you look at the human being with knowledge that comes from the senses, everything is intermixed; and if the human being were indeed what he appears to be to ordinary perception, he would be ill all the time. The human being can be healthy, but our material perception of him is a condition of illness. As we see him, the human being is perpetually ill, but such perception is, of course, Maya, illusion. In his true being, a man must never be as we see him. In his true being of man, power of radiance and might of heaviness must not be intermingled. They must be inwardly separate from each other. There must be nothing of what happens in water, where hydrogen and oxygen enter into a chemical combination with each other and, in themselves, really disappear. This is what ordinary sense-perception does; it has had the bad taste to adopt chemical ideas and to look at the human being as if he were a combination of the power of radiance and the might of heaviness. These two are separate and must so remain—just as if in water, hydrogen and oxygen were separate, although united.
For when Power of Radiance seizes
Might of heaviness,
And when Might of Heaviness enters
Power of radiance,
Then in World-confusion Soul and Body
Bind each other
Unto Perdition.
In perdition is illness. You must take this in full seriousness, so seriously that it forms your body that you can really look at the human being according to the power of radiance and might of heaviness and that you have the feeling when they take hold of one another, they are enemies. In illness they do lay hold of one another. When the power of radiance lays hold of the might of heaviness (weight), bodily illnesses arise; when the might of heaviness presses into the power of radiance, the so-called mental illnesses arise. Just think of it—in the body lives the Divine Spirit. If the power of radiance seizes upon the might of heaviness, the human being is wrongly appropriating the Divine within him.
If you learn to think about these things with the moral impulses that are necessary, to feel them deeply and then to will with what you have felt, you gradually begin to perceive the things and processes of the world in such a way that when the power of radiance has laid hold of the might of heaviness you realize how you can separate the power of radiance from the might of heaviness through something that gives support to the etheric body from out of the astral body, through some substances or else through some process in the human being. If you really feel these things, you will also understand the healing forces of curative eurythmy. The healing power in curative eurythmy is something that reckons very specially with the cosmic forces in the process of healing. When you do exercises with the consonants in curative eurythmy, you are within the moon forces. When you unfold the powers of the vowels in curative eurythmy you are within the Saturn forces. Through these two kinds of forces in curative eurythmy the human being feels his way directly into the cosmos.
Therapy, of course, is the essential thing in medicine, but there can be no therapy without absolutely useful diagnosis. Suppose we are able to confirm that the formative principle is too strong in a human being, that this formative power is coming from salts or carbohydrates which he cannot keep within bounds; there is too much form in him. If you really observe the more delicate workings of the organism—and the symptoms may be only very subtle—you will find that vowels in curative eurythmy which work against form will have an extraordinarily favorable effect.
Or suppose a child shows a slight tendency to stuttering. I am not, of course, going to make any dilettante statements about stuttering being due to this or that cause; naturally, all kinds of things may be wrong and so be the cause of it. But whatever the trouble may be, in cases of stuttering a predominating formative force is present, and therefore vowel exercises in curative eurythmy will be good, carried out in the sequence that is natural in the being of man, the true manifestation of the being of man. So that much can be achieved with children who have a tendency to stuttering by taking the vowel sequence: A(ah), E(ay), I(ee), 0, U, in curative eurythmy provided one has the necessary patience and love.
If you think about all these things, my dear friends, you will realize the importance of regarding the esoteric principles which I gave you a few days ago and have given today, as a kind of morality in medical study. By morality I mean the feeling of being bound to a duty, the feeling of being obliged, through meditation, to bring the soul into the necessary and lasting attunement for facing the world in the true and right way. If lectures could be given you for a whole year, a great deal could be said in detail and this would be of concrete use to you in practice. But as in these lectures we could only make a beginning, it has been of very particular importance to speak of the development of the medical and therapeutic powers which lie within the human being—to place these powers within your reach. For if, with these esoteric hints, you go to your medical studies, you will see that things become different. Maybe they will become more difficult. If someone of a rather dull intellect (and education makes the intellect dull today) takes up medical studies, a certain inner persistence will carry him through the first and second years and help to master things if, as the result of social circumstances, he feels a moral whip behind him. But he does not become a physician in the real sense. He becomes a person whom society appoints to play the part, but he does not become a physician.
If you let these things work upon you, a more delicate force of soul will develop in you. And in many respects the physiology, psychology and pathology on which medical science is based today will cause you pain. It will really be as though you were being offered stones instead of bread. But you yourselves will, nevertheless, be able to get something out of these stones. What is offered to you will, after all, not be without purpose. It will not be easy for you to learn. There must inevitably be difficulties, for the world with its materialism is still mighty and we must, in some way, find our place in it. Having found this place, it is for us to work our way beyond it. Thus we must certainly become physicians in the way the world demands and then medical studies must be permeated with what can be given from here.
Therefore let me say once again that opportunity will be given for you to link yourselves with us here in the way I have indicated. You must have complete confidence in the way in which the medical section of the Goetheanum will be led by me in association with Dr. Wegman. It is precisely medicine, as it can be pursued here, that can show you how human life can really be experienced—strange as this expression is. Therefore when you are once again out in the world and one thing or another occurs to you, write your wishes and your hearts' desires and an answer will be given to everybody in the monthly circular letter. And in this way—which is, to begin with, the only practicable one—external medical studies will be able to be permeated with what can be given here.
You see, there are extraordinarily few people yet—and they can only be the young ones really—who are able to build the bridge between the spiritual aims of Dornach and the materialistic science that holds sway in the outside world. At the present time it can only be a few, and really only those who are still at the stage of their studies. Why?
I once had to give a lecture about a particular chapter of therapy which was attended by medical students and also a professor, a professor of medicine. I was able to watch this man. He came to the lecture thinking that he would find confirmation of his belief that it would be the usual kind of superficial twaddle talked of by quacks. I was able to make a real study of metamorphosis in watching this professor, for on the one side he was inwardly resisting, but on the other side he was astonished. He was obliged to come to the conclusion that it was not rubbish, but naturally he could not say “Yes” to it, because it completely contradicted what he had regarded for decades as being true and correct. I spoke to him after the lecture and it emerged that he was saying to himself: “I would prefer to keep out of all that.” He could not have gone as far as this if he had really thought it nonsense.
If he had thought it nonsense he would easily have kicked it away in the usual manner. He thought he could kick it away, too, but in reality he could not, and the very most that one could have hoped for from a professor was that he should have said to himself: “I would prefer to keep out of all that.” One could not expect more than this. But a young person must have quite a different attitude. A young person has no antecedents and he, therefore, is still able to absorb things which can lead to the healing of humanity. And if this happens, my dear friends, it will really come to pass that gradually perhaps more quickly than we thinkGoetheanum spirituality will enter into medicine.
But what must happen first is that these things shall be continued with real earnestness, and that you go on doing as Dr. Wegman has told me you have done—that you go on coming to her to make the link in full confidence with the true kind of medical studies and with those things that must flow as time goes on, into the materialistic medicine of today. You can do much for yourselves and also much for the world and for sick humanity if you do not regard what you have now heard as something merely transitory, but as a starting-point for that with which such a good beginning has been made. In this sense we will remain united, my dear friends, remain so united that the center to which you adhere here in Dornach, at the Goetheanum, can work in the world, through you. That is what I wanted to say to you as a kind of warning. Then things will go well and much will be added to what we have spoken of here. It may be an ideal in your life of feeling, but it can become, in very truth, life. And as such we will maintain it, my dear friends.
See in thy Soul
Power of Radiance;
Feel in thy Body
Might of Heaviness!
In Power of Radiance
Rays the Spirit-I;
In Might of Heaviness
God-Spirit wells.
Yet shall not
Power of Radiance
Lay hold of
Might of Heaviness,
Nor may
Might of Heaviness
Permeate
Power of Radiance.
For when Power of Radiance seizes
Might of Heaviness,
And when Might of Heaviness enters
Power of Radiance,
Then in World-confusion Soul and Body
Bind each other
Unto Perdition.
Achter Vortrag
Meine lieben Freunde! Es ist natürlich nur möglich, manches aphoristisch hier anzudeuten, was ja im Laufe der Zeit in einer ausführlichen Weise auf die eine oder andere Art an Sie herandringen muß, wenn dasjenige, was sich hier für Sie abgespielt hat, eine entsprechende Fortsetzung findet in Ihrem Zusammenhang hier mit der medizinischen Bewegung des Goetheanums. Es ist ja vor allen Dingen zu betonen, daß selbstverständlich nicht gegen das Karma geheilt werden kann. Daß eben nicht gegen das Karma geheilt werden kann, das muß im wesentlichen des Arztes Gesinnung sein. Des Arztes Gesinnung muß tatsächlich schon bei der allerersten Frage des Heilenwollens nach zwei Richtungen gehen. Die eine ist der unbesiegbare Karmawille. Diesen Karmawillen braucht der Arzt ja vor allen Dingen für sich selbst, denn Sie haben gesehen, meine lieben Freunde, daß dasjenige, was er für seine Patienten anwendet, in einer gewissen Weise die Wirkung für ihn selbst verliert. Gewiß, es kann wiederum in Wirkung für ihn umgewandelt werden. Aber zunächst für Euer Wissen genügt, was ich darüber gesagt habe. Natürlich bleibt auch der Arzt in bezug auf sein Gesundsein und sein Kranksein dem Karma unterworfen. Aber gerade dann, wenn diese Gesinnung da ist, von der ich gesprochen habe, wenn das therapeutische Wissen eben so tief in die menschliche Seele eindringt, wie ich gesagt habe, dann kann gesagt werden, daß das Karmabewußstsein immer mehr übergeht in die reine Offenbarung des Karma. Karma hat seine zwei Seiten. Ihr müßt das Karma zunächst so ansehen, daß Ihr dasjenige, was für Euer Schicksal vorliegt, bezieht auf das nächstvorhergehende in den aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben. Da ist das Karma der Ausdruck für dasjenige, was die vorhergehenden Erdenleben gebracht haben. Aber direkt liegt doch einmal das vor: Ihr müßt auch an Karma zu denken haben im fünften, sechsten folgenden Erdenleben, in dem Erdenleben, das auf das jetzige Erdenleben folgend das fünfte, das sechste ist. Dann wird das, was jetzt geschieht, ein Ereignis sein, dann werdet Ihr das Ergebnis zuletzt haben. Wenn Ihr diesen Gedanken richtig zu Ende führt, wird Euch klar sein, daß Karma auch ein Werdendes ist, daß dasjenige, was jetzt geschieht, zum Karma das eine oder andere hinzufügt. Man kann schon sagen, daß das Karma in einer gewissen Weise da- oder dorthin durch unsere Taten gewendet wird. Fatalist kann derjenige, der das Karma versteht, niemals werden.
Die eine Richtung ist die nach dem Karma. Sie gibt Festigkeit und Sicherheit im Leben, sie gibt einen festen Standpunkt. Die andere Richtung ist aber diese, daß unbedingt der Wille zum Heilen da sein muß. Dieser Wille darf niemals eine Beeinträchtigung erfahren. Er muß restlos immer soweit therapeutisch wirken, daf® man sagen kann: Man tut alles, selbst wenn man die Meinung hat, daß der Kranke unheilbar ist. — Ihr müßt diese Meinung unterdrücken, müßt alles tun zu seiner Heilung. Das ist nur aphoristisch angedeutet.
Das Wichtigste ist heute dieses, daß wir gewissermaßen dasjenige, was zur Wirkung haben kann die Auferweckung der Seelenkräfte für das medizinische Studium, esoterisch weiter betrachten. Und da müßt Ihr daran denken, daß in der Tat für den Arzt auch der Inhalt des Esoterischen eine spezielle Betätigung, eine besondere Form annehmen muß. Der Arzt wird einfach nicht dabei stehenbleiben, die Dinge so zu betrachten, wie man sie im gewöhnlichen Leben betrachtet und wie man das heute auch in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft tut. Die Wissenschaft appelliert nicht an besondere Seelenkräfte, die der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Leben nicht hat, sondern im Gegenteil, sie legt allen Wert darauf, nur ja nicht an solche Seelenkräfte zu appellieren. Aber mit den allgemeinen Anschauungen kommt man nicht dahin, daß irgendeine Substanz oder ein Vorgang der Welt die Heilkräfte verrät. Die Heilkräfte werden erst verraten von den Dingen, wenn man an sie herantritt mit gewissen geweckten Seelenkräften. Es wird nun an Euch liegen, Schritt für Schritt diese Seelenkräfte zu wecken, damit die Dinge zu Euch in ihrer Art so sprechen, wie sie durch Euch, durch Euer ärztliches Wirken den Menschen helfen können. Aber da kommt es darauf an, daß dasjenige, was ich in diesen Tagen immer von der Gesinnung des Arztes gesprochen habe, noch weit, weit mehr in Eurer Seele vertieft werde.
Ich will zunächst nur einmal eine einfache Betrachtung so anstellen, wie sie eigentlich im medizinischen Studium angestellt werden müßte. Hier nimmt sich die Sache aphoristisch aus, wenn man aber dazu Zeit haben wird, wird sie sich nicht aphoristisch ausnehmen, sondern sie wird sich als selbstverständlich entwickeln vor der Seele des Medizinstudierenden.
Seht einmal hin auf dasjenige, was sich Euch der Form nach enthüllt in der knöchernen Schädeldecke. Wir können einfach diese knöcherne Schädeldecke uns schematisch hinzeichnen. Seht auf das, was sich der Form nach in der knöchernen Schädeldecke enthüllt, und stellt es einmal in Gegensatz zu demjenigen, was sich Euch enthüllt, wenn Ihr einen Röhrenknochen, ich will sagen den Oberschenkelknochen - ich will ihn schematisch andeuten - ins Auge faßt. Nun stehen diese Dinge nicht allein da, sondern die knöcherne Schädeldecke hat die mannigfaltigen physischen Kräfte, die sie umspielen. Ebenso hat der Röhrenknochen die mannigfaltigen Kräfte, die ihn umspielen; aber wenn Ihr auf diesen Röhrenknochen hinschaut, er wird Euch niemals anders seine Wesenheit enthüllen, als wenn Ihr ihn im Zusammenhang mit dem ganzen Weltenall betrachtet. Nun denkt Euch, hier ist der Röhrenknochen; seine Kräfte sind so, daß sie durch seine Länge hindurchgehen und eigentlich dann, wenn der Mensch die von ihm zu erringende irdische Lage hat, zum Mittelpunkt der Erde hingehen. Aber das ist nicht sein Wesentliches. Sein Wesentliches ist, daß er diese Kräfte in die Verbindung des Erdmittelpunktes mit dem Monde einreiht. Also dasjenige, was so gelegen ist wie der Röhrenknochen des Oberschenkels oder des Oberarmes, wie auch ein entsprechend in seiner Lage liegender Muskel, das ist eigentlich eingereiht, eingegliedert in die Kräfte, die da verbinden Erde mit Mond. Und Ihr könnt Euch das so vorstellen: Ihr habt hier die Erde, von der Erde lodern Kräfte zum Monde hinauf, und in diese Kräfte ist alles das eingespannt, was die Lage, sagen wir des Oberschenkels hat, wenn der Mensch steht oder geht. Dagegen ist zusammengegliedert alles dasjenige, was eine solche Lage wie die Schädeldecke hat, mit der Saturnbewegung. Da walten drin die Umdrehungskräfte des Saturn, so daß man sagen kann: Der Mensch wird gebildet von unten nach oben durch den Zusammenhang von Erde und Mond, er wird abgeschlossen durch dasjenige, was in der Umschwungskraft des Saturn liegt, aber beide Kräftearten sind einander entgegengesetzt. Wenn Ihr auf die ersten Kräfte hinschaut, auf diejenigen, die im Zusammenhang zwischen Erde und Mond liegen, so liegt in diesen Kräften alles dasjenige drin, was dem Menschen seine plastische Form gibt, was den Menschen plastisch aufbaut. Man möchte sagen, in diesen Kräften liegt ein geheimer Bildhauer drin, der den Menschen plastisch aufbaut, während in den andern Kräften, die so gehen, fortwährender Abbau liegt. Da wird fortwährend das Materielle, das den Menschen plastisch aufbaut, wieder auseinandergestäubt. Wenn Ihr Euch also einen Nagel abschneidet, so seid Ihr mit der Schere in den Saturnkräften drin. Wenn Ihr eßt, so ist die Komponente - die von der Erde weggehende Richtung gibt diese Komponente - in der Richtung des Mondes. Alle Kräfte in der Richtung der Mondrichtung bauen auf. Alle Kräfte in der Richtung der Saturnrichtung zerstäuben den Menschen, und in dieser Wechselwirkung zwischen Zerstäuben und plastischem Aufbauen liegt des Menschen Seele, liegt des Menschen Geist. Darin offenbaren sie sich.
Nun ist das, was draußen ist, und das, was der Mensch in sich hat, was mit dem Ätherleib verbunden ist, das ist mit diesen peripherischen Kräften verbunden. Verbunden mit den Aufbaukräften erweist sich in gewisser Beziehung das Silber, so daß, wenn Ihr bemerkt im Menschen, daß die Aufbaukräfte überwältigt werden von den Abbaukräften, Ihr in der Regel diese Gestaltung korrigieren könnt mit irgendeiner Arznei, die vom Silber her kommt. Merkt Ihr aber, daß die Aufbaukräfte wuchern, daß sie den Menschen in seiner Gestalt zusammenhalten, sozusagen verhindern das Zerstäuben, so sehen Sie stets, daß man appelliert an die Mittel, die vom Saturn kommen, an Mittel, die vom Blei herkommen, so daß, wenn man erkennt, wie der Mensch aufgebaut ist, man eine Anschauung davon bekommt, wie man sich zu verhalten hat.
Nun handelt es sich darum, daß man in eine solche Betrachtungsweise hineinkommt. Nun, seht Ihr, meine lieben Freunde, die wahre Welt, die Welt des Geistes, die liegt eigentlich so, daß man mit Recht immer gesagt hat, sie liege jenseits einer Schwelle, der Mensch stehe diesseits einer Schwelle. Es ist schon notwendig, daß der Mensch, um zur wahren Erkenntnis, um zur wahren Einsicht in die Weltenkonstitution zu kommen, diese Schwelle übertritt. Nun ist es im allgemeinen gefährlich für den Menschen, diese Schwelle so ohne weiteres zu übertreten. Denn wenn der Mensch seine gewöhnliche Sinnesanschauung mit Gedanken durchsetzt, wie er sie hat im gewöhnlichen Leben und sie mitträgt in die geistige Welt jenseits der Schwelle hinein, dann ruft er vor seinem geistigen Auge dadurch, daß er die Dinge jenseits der Schwelle so beurteilt, wie man die Dinge hier betrachtet, hier beurteilt, ein Blendwerk, ein richtiges Blendwerk hervor. Und deshalb ist jene geistige Wesenheit an der Schwelle, von der wir lernen können, daß wir ganz andere Begriffe brauchen, wenn wir die Schwelle übertreten, daß uns eben Blendwerk lähmt für das Leben, wenn wir mit unseren gewöhnlichen, aus der Sinnenwelt entnommenen Begriffen in die geistige Welt hinüberkommen. Dieser Hüter der Schwelle ist eigentlich der Mahner, daß wir uns erst die Ideen verschaffen, die wir in der geistigen Welt brauchen. Man glaubt gewöhnlich nicht, daß die Begriffe, die in der geistigen Welt etwas taugen, ja außerordentlich verschieden sind von den Begriffen, die hier in der physischen Welt etwas taugen. In der physischen Welt ist zum Beispiel der Teil immer kleiner als das Ganze. Das gilt als Axiom. So ist es nicht in der geistigen Welt. Da ist der Teil immer größer als das Ganze. Das kann man am Beispiel des Menschen lernen. Wenn man eine Kraft annimmt, die der Mensch hat, wenn er zum Beispiel aus Mineralischem seinen Leib aufbaut, und dann den Kräftezusammenhang, den ein Teil von ihm hat, so ist dem Kosmos gegenüber dasjenige, was die Organe gestaltet, also der Teil des Menschen, wesentlich größer als der ganze Mensch. Ihr könnt Euch nicht so ohne weiteres den Satz vorstellen, der Teil ist größer als das Ganze, weil Ihr die Sinnenwelt gewöhnt seid, aber gegenüber der übersinnlichen Welt ist es durchaus so. Daher muß man dazu kommen, die Möglichkeit einzusehen, daß in der geistigen Welt der Teil größer sein kann als das Ganze. Unsere ganze Mechanik und Physik gilt nicht für die übersinnliche Welt, sondern gerade für das Entgegengesetzte. Hier in der sinnlichen Welt ist die Gerade der kürzeste Weg zwischen zwei Punkten. In der geistigen Welt ist sie der längste, weil, wenn man in gerader Richtung vorgeht, man die meisten Hindernisse zu überwinden hat. Jede andere Richtung ist kürzer als die gerade Richtung. Man muß sich durchaus klar sein, daß, wenn man in die geistige Welt hinein will, man entgegengesetzte Begriffe braucht für das, was in der physischen Welt gang und gäbe ist, daß man nicht in Verwirrung gesetzt wird, wenn man in die geistige Welt geht. Dazu gehört Mut. Man muß den Mut haben, über die geistige Schwelle hinüberzugehen, geradezu über den Abgrund hinüberzusetzen. Wenn man das Ganze durchmacht, dieses Hinübergehen zur geistigen Welt, dieses Vorbeigehen an dem Hüter der Schwelle, und dieses DrübenAnkommen, wenn man das durchmacht in Seele und Geist, in Astralleib und Ich bewußt durchmacht, so ist alles gut. Aber wenn man es nicht reinlich durchmacht in Ich und in Astralleib, so entsteht ein Blendwerk, und wenn dieses Blendwerk zurücksticht auf den Menschen, wird Krankheit daraus. Und immer wenn der Mensch etwas Krankes hat, so hat er eigentlich den Hüter der Schwelle in sich, nur in einer Art dämonischem Abbild.
Ich komme da wieder auf das Dämonische, über das ich schon sprechen mußte. Und worauf beruht das? Das beruht darauf: Wenn man mit gewöhnlichen Anschauungen auf den Menschen hinschaut, so kommt alles untereinander in Verwirrung. Auf der einen Seite ist Ich und astralischer Leib des Menschen, auf der andern Seite ist ätherischer Leib und physischer Leib; und das alles wirkt bunt durcheinander, wenn man so hinschaut auf den Menschen. Und vor allen Dingen kommt es darauf an, daß man dasjenige, was seelisch im Menschen ist, unterscheiden lernt von demjenigen im Menschen, was körperlich ist. Wenn die Seele im Körper ist und Sie den Menschen anschauen, erscheint die Seele nicht als das, was sie in Wirklichkeit ist. Die Seele ist in Wirklichkeit in der Tat Licht. Und Ihr werdet darauf kommen müssen immer mehr und mehr, wie die Menschenseele, wenn man sie in ihrer Abgeschiedenheit vom Leibe anschaut, Licht ist. Sie gehört unter den Dingen, die sie als Element, als ätherisches Element umgeben, eben dem Lichte an. Die Menschenseele gehört durchaus dem Reiche des Lichtes an. Man sieht sie richtig, wenn man sie innerhalb des Lichtes sieht.
Dagegen gehört der Körper der Schwere an. Nun habe ich auseinandergesetzt, wie die Schwere überwunden wird, wie das Gehirn furchtbar viel leichter wird, als es draußen erlebt wird. Aber der physische Körper in seiner Gestaltung, die von uns in seiner Wesenheit wahrgenommen wird, er gehört der Schwere an. Geradeso wie Ihr durch chemische Analyse aus dem Wasser Wasserstoff und Sauerstoff herausbekommt, so müßt Ihr, wenn Ihr den Menschen seiner Wesenheit nach anschauen wollt, ihn gliedern in die Seele mit ihrer Leuchtekraft und in den Körper mit seiner Schweremacht.
Diese zwei Wesenheiten, die Seele mit ihrer Leuchtekraft, der Körper mit seiner Schweremacht, sind verwirrend ineinandergeschoben, wenn sie mit dem gewöhnlichen Auge betrachtet werden. Weil sie verwirrend ineinandergeschoben sind, kann man dem Körper nicht ansehen, überhaupt dem Menschen nicht ansehen, worin das Wesen der Krankheit
besteht. Wenn Ihr Eure Seele so einrichtet, daß sie hinschauen kann auf den Menschen in der Art, daß sich das Wesen der Krankheit enthüllen kann, und wenn Ihr dadurch darauf kommt, wie das Wesen der Krankheit sich enthüllen kann, dann wird Euch nach und nach, wenn Ihr Blei anschaut, wenn Ihr Silber anschaut, eben aufgehen, welche Heilkräfte in diesen Dingen sind. Aber Ihr müßt ungeheuer ernst das medizinische Leben nehmen und das meditative Leben wirklich so kraftvoll in Eurer Seele gestalten, daß Ihr durch dieses meditative Leben eben anders sehen, anders die Welt ergreifen lernt. Und das ist es, warum ich Euch hier mitgeben möchte jetzt dasjenige, was, richtig meditiert, meine lieben Freunde, zu dem andern hinzugefügt, Euch nun auch dazu führt, zu speziellen Substanzen dasjenige Verhältnis zu gewinnen, das diese Substanzen nun selber haben zum gesunden und kranken Menschen. Ihr müßt nur das, was ich Jetzt als Worte auf die Tafel* schreibe, als weckend in Eurer Seele so anschauen, daß dasjenige, was Ihr im gewöhnlichen Leben vom Menschen seht, nicht die Wirklichkeit ist, sondern das, was Ihr sehen werdet, wenn Ihr Eure Seele belebt mit dem, was in diesen Worten liegt; dann werdet Ihr die Wahrheit des Menschenwesens in seinem Verhältnis des einen zum andern sehen.
Ich habe bisher so gesprochen, daß Ihr den Menschen allgemein in seinem Verhältnis zum Kosmos erfassen könnt. Heute möchte ich in Eure Seelen hineinschreiben, was Euch befähigt, ein kleines Stückchen Gold zu nehmen und dieses Gold meditativ zu betrachten. Ich schlage es in eine dünne Platte und bekomme, wenn ich so durchschaue, Grünliches. Es sieht grünlich aus. Es erweckt, indem es so grünlich ausschaut, nicht nur durch eine verworrene Analogie, sondern gerade, wenn ich mit tieferen Seelenkräften an dieses Goldplättchen herangehe, dasselbe innere Erlebnis, was die grüne Wiese, die grüne Pflanzendecke der Erde erweckt. Aber dadurch, daß ich mich recht vertiefe mit meinen Seelenkräften in das kleine durchschimmernde Goldplättchen, wird auch die entgegengesetzte Seelenkraft erweckt. Und ich bekomme, indem ich das grünlich schimmernde Goldplättchen hier habe, wenn ich überall aufschaue, überall hinschaue, wegschaue, ich bekomme- nicht wie der physiologische Physiker sagt, nur eine Kontrastwirkung, sondern in diesem allem liegt in der Kontrastwirkung eine ganze Welt- den Eindruck einer ganzen in sich schimmernden Welt, einer ganzen in sich schimmernden Welt, die da wie im mattrötlichen, bläulichrötlichen Lichte um mich herum überall schimmert. Und ich weiß in dem Augenblicke, in dem Stückchen Gold, das so klein ist, liegt die ganze Welt da. Und dieses kleine Stückchen Gold, das ich in der Hand habe, das hier grünlich schimmerrt, das ist eigentlich eine ganze Sphäre. In dieses kleine atomistische Stückchen, in das ist sie verdichtet. Ich kann nicht ein Stückchen Gold haben, ohne daß es eine ganze Sphäre ist, ohne daß es ein Knotenpunkt ist aus einer Sphäre, einer ganzen Sphäre, so daß ich gewissermaßen lerne, in dem Blau-Roten, in dem Blau-Violetten einer Sphäre zu leben. Und wenn Ihr dann andere Eigenschaften des Goldes kennenlernt, dann werdet Ihr lebendig verbinden diese andern Eigenschaften des Goldes mit dem, was Ihr so in einer Art von seelischer Schau erhaltet. Ihr werdet zum Beispiel die Euch bekannte Eigenschaft, daß das Gold nicht duldet eine Verbindung mit dem Sauerstoff, Ihr werdet dies in einer gründlichen, einer grundlegenden, prinzipiellen Weise erleben, denn Ihr werdet Euch sagen: Der Mensch lebt dadurch, daß er den Sauerstoff hat. Er lebt dadurch, daß er den Sauerstoff hat, daß er den Sauerstoff fortwährend verarbeitet. — Im ätherischen Leib - Ihr habt es gesehen - ist alles anders; er ist verwandt mit demjenigen, was nicht im physischen Leib verankert ist. Das Gold ist mit dem ätherischen Leib dadurch verwandt, daß es nicht in sich eine Verbindung mit dem Sauerstoff duldet, so daß gerade durch diese seine Eigenschaft das Gold im ätherischen Leib heilend wirkt für alles dasjenige, was der Sauerstoff zum Beispiel im physischen Leib verursachen kann. Daher ist das Gold gewissermaßen ein Heilmittel, das vom Zentrum des Menschen aus richtig wirken kann. Ihr bekommt durch diesen leuchtenden Eindruck in mattblau-rotem Lichte eigentlich die innere Wahrheit des Satzes: Das Gold ist Sonne. Es ist ganz Sonne. -Nun, da habt Ihr diesen einen Knoten, der hier einfach anzeigt, daß im Weltenraum Gold Sonne ist und daß Gold-Sonne mit dem ätherischen Leibe verwandt ist.
Seht Ihr, durch solche Betrachtungen kommt Ihr zu denjenigen Eigenschaften einer Substanz, die man für die Therapie braucht. Aber Ihr kommt nur dazu, wenn Ihr ernst nehmen wollt, nicht als äußeres Wort, sondern als fortwährende innere Aufforderung der Seele:
Schau in deiner Seele
Leuchtekraft
Fühl in deinem Körper
Schweremacht
Das muß aber wirklich Übung werden. Ihr müßt üben können, wie wenn Eure Seele etwas werden würde, was wirklich strömend in die Weite ist, strömendes Licht, Leuchtekraft, und wie wenn Euer Körper etwas werden könnte, was durch seine eigene innere Schweresehnsucht sich mit dem Inneren der Erde verbindet. Diesen ungeheuren Gegensatz müßt Ihr wirklich innerlich erleben, dann trennt Ihr Seele und Leib, Seele und Körper, die getrennt werden müssen. Dann geht es weiter
In der Leuchtekraft
Strahlet Geistes-Ich
Nur so werdet Ihr das Ganze verstehen. Denn das menschliche Ich geht als inneres Erlebnis in der Seele auf. Daher müßt Ihr auch das Bild verstehen, daß in der in das Weltenall hinausstrahlenden Seele, hinausleuchtenden Seele strahlig das Ich erwächst.
Das andere ist nun dasjenige, was Ihr hinzufügen müßt:
In der Schweremacht
Kraftet Gottes-Geist.
Wahrhaftig nicht bloß als von einem trivialen Bild, meine lieben Freunde, sondern als von etwas, was tief der Wahrheit entspricht, haben die Menschen früherer Zeiten immer davon gesprochen, daß der Mensch, der menschliche Körper ein Tempel der Gottheit ist. Und so wahr als in der Seele das Ich das Herrschende ist, wenn die Seele bewußt ist, so wahr ist im Körper die Gottheit herrschend. Ihr dürft nicht Eueren Körper als das Eurige ansprechen, denn der Körper ist nicht des Menschen, der Körper ist Gottes. Es ist schon so: Aus den göttlichen Kräften heraus erwächst des Menschen Körper, aber sein ist nur die darin befindliche Seele, so daß Ihr wirklich sehen müßt in Eueren körperlichen Werkzeugen Gottes Tempel.
Und das ist von ungeheurer Wichtigkeit zu wissen:
In der Leuchtekraft
- der Seele
Strahlet Geistes-Ich
In der Schweremacht
Kraftet Gottes-Geist
— kraftet in dem menschlichen Körper gerade so, wie das Ich in der menschlichen Seele.
Nun kommt aber das Wichtige:
Doch darf nicht
Leuchtekraft
Ergreifen
Schweremacht
Wenn der Mensch schläft, so wird Euch ohne weiteres klar sein, er hat getrennt sein Seelisches und sein Körperlich-Leibliches. Er hat sie getrennt. Da ergreift die Seele nicht den Körper. Aber auch wenn der Mensch wacht, so muß es so sein, daß zwar das Ich und der astralische Leib untertauchen in den physischen und den ätherischen Leib, daß aber dennoch eine innere Absonderung, ein inneres Getrenntsein der Leuchtekraft und der Schweremacht besteht. Es darf nicht so sein, daß chemisch eine Komponente sich bildet aus der Leuchtekraft und der Schweremacht; die müssen innerlich getrennt sein. Mechanisch dürfen sie sich nicht miteinander vermengen oder sich gar verbinden innerlich. Sie müssen nebeneinander im gleichen Raume wirken, die Schweremacht des Körpers hinunter, die Leuchtekraft der Seele hinauf. Deshalb ist der Satz wichtig:
Doch darf nicht
Leuchtekraft
Ergreifen
Schweremacht
Und auch nicht
Schweremacht
Durchdringen
Leuchtekraft.
Das ist nur der Gegensatz. Also es muß in der Realität, meine lieben Freunde, im Menschen das vorhanden sein, getrennt vorhanden sein, was unsere äußere Sinneserkenntnis fortwährend vermischt. Wenn Sie den Menschen äußerlich anschauen in der Sinneserkenntnis, so ist das alles durcheinander. Und wenn der Mensch das wäre, als was ihn die gewöhnliche Anschauung sieht, so wäre er immer krank. Der Mensch kann gesund sein, aber unsere Anschauung, unsere Sinnesanschauung vom Menschen ist immer die Krankheit. Man sieht den Menschen immer krank, aber das ist natürlich immer Maja, Illusion. Denn in der wahren Wesenheit darf der Mensch nie so sein, wie man ihn sieht. In der wahren Wesenheit darf nicht durcheinandergemischt sein Leuchtekraft und Schweremacht. Die müssen innerlich getrennt sein voneinander. Es darf also etwa nicht so sein wie beim Wasser, wo Wasserstoff und Sauerstoff eine chemische Verbindung miteinander eingehen, und eigentlich für sich verschwinden. Das macht beim Menschen bloß die sinnliche Anschauung; die hat die Abgeschmacktheit zustande gebracht, chemische Vorstellungen in sich hineinzutragen und den Menschen so anzuschauen, als wenn er eine Verbindung von Leuchtekraft und Schweremacht wäre - die sind getrennt und müssen getrennt bleiben -, wie wenn das Wasser so wäre, als ob Wasserstoff und Sauerstoff immer darin getrennt blieben, trotzdem sie ineinander sind.
Denn fasset Leuchtekraft
Die Schweremacht
— also geht wirklich Leuchtekraft in Schweremacht hinein —
Denn fasset Leuchtekraft
Die Schweremacht
Und dringet Schweremacht
In Leuchtekraft
So binden in Welten-Irre
Seele und Körper
In Verderbnis sich
— die Verderbnis ist die Krankheit.
Wie gesagt, Ihr müßt so etwas wie dieses nur ganz im vollen Ernste nehmen, aber so ernst nehmen, daß es Eueren Leib bildet, daß Ihr wirklich den Menschen anschauen könnt nach Leuchtekraft und Schweremacht und daß Ihr das Gefühl habt, die sind, wenn sie einander anfassen, einander feind. In der Krankheit fassen sie einander an. Und wenn Leuchtekraft die Schweremacht faßt, entstehen die Krankheiten des Körpers; wenn Schweremacht in Leuchtekraft dringt, entstehen die sogenannten Seelenkrankheiten. Denn bedenkt, was da ist. Bedenkt, daß im Körper Gottes Geist lebt. Wenn nun Leuchtekraft Schweremacht fasset, so eignet sich der Mensch widerrechtlich Gott, Gott in sich, an.
Nun, diese Dinge alle mit dem nötigen moralischen Impuls zu denken, durchzuempfinden, durchzufühlen und dann mit dem, was Ihr da gefühlt habt, zu wollen, da lernt Ihr allmählich wirklich die Dinge und Vorgänge der Welt so anschauen, daß Ihr darauf kommt, wie man wiederum, wenn Leuchtekraft die Schweremacht erfaßt hat, wegbringt die Leuchtekraft von der Schweremacht durch irgend erwas, was den ätherischen Leib vom astralischen Leib her unterstützt durch irgendeine äußere Substanz oder durch einen Vorgang im Menschen. Seht Ihr, wenn Ihr so etwas in Eurer Seele richtig durchempfindet, dann werdet Ihr auch einen Blick bekommen für das Heilende der Heileurythmie. Denn das Heilende der Heileurythmie ist im Grunde genommen, ich möchte sagen dasjenige, was beim Heilen ganz besonders auf die kosmischen Kräfte rechnet. Wenn Ihr konsonantische heileurythmische Übungen macht, so seid Ihr drinnen in den Mondenkräften. Wenn Ihr vokalische heileurythmische Kräfte entwickelt, so seid Ihr in den Saturnkräften drinnen. Und der Mensch fühlt sich direkt durch diese zwei Arten von Kräften beim Heileurythmisieren in den Kosmos ein. Und es ist zum Beispiel so: Nehmen wir einmal an, man könnte konstatieren — denn das Wesentliche in der Medizin ist selbstverständlich die Therapie, aber es gibt nicht eine Therapie, wenn nicht eine absolut brauchbare Diagnose vorliegt -, nehmen wir an, man könnte konstatieren, daß beim Menschen vorliegt ein zu starkes Gestalten, daß er also in sich, sagen wir die Gestaltung hat von Salzen oder Kohlehydraten, die er nicht überwinden kann; es ist zuviel Gestaltung in ihm. Wenn Ihr wirklich die ja feineren Wirkungen auf den Organismus betrachtet - es können die Symptome nur als leise Symptome auftreten -, da wird die vokalische Heileurythmie, die dem Gestalteten entgegenwirkt, außerordentlich günstig wirken können. Oder man nehme einmal an, daß ein kleines Kind leise die Anlage zum Stottern zeigt. Nun, nicht wahr, ich will ganz gewiß nicht in einer dilettantischen Weise davon sprechen, daß das Stottern dieses oder jenes ist, es können natürlich die mannigfaltigsten Schädigungen da sein. Aber unter allen Umständen wirken diese Schädigungen beim Stottern so, daß eine prädominierende gestaltende Kraft vorhanden ist, und man wird gerade daher beim Stottern vokalisierende heileurythmische Übungen machen, und zwar gerade in der Reihenfolge, wie sie das Vokalische naturgemäß im Menschen, ich möchte sagen zum richtigen menschlichen Offenbaren bringen, gerade in der Form anwenden, so daß man in der Tat bei Kindern, die zum Stottern Anlage haben, heileurythmisch einfach mit der gewöhnlichen Vokalfolge a, e, i, o, u, wenn man die nötige Ausdauer und Liebe hat, außerordentlich viel wird erreichen können.
Wenn Ihr Euch das alles bedenkt, meine lieben Freunde, dann werdet Ihr Euch sagen können, gerade das muß für Euch wichtig sein, daß Ihr die esoterischen Untergründe, die ich Euch vor einigen Tagen und jetzt gegeben habe, betrachtet wie eine Art Moral des medizinischen Studiums. Unter Moral verstehe ich das Verbundenfühlen zu einer Verpflichtung, das Verbundenfühlen, wirklich die Seele durch solche meditativen Kräfte in die nötige fortdauernde Stimmung zu bringen, der Welt in der richtigen Art gegenüberzustehen. Nicht wahr, würde man Euch ein Jahr vortragen können, so würde man schon sehr viel über einzelnes sagen können, was Euch dann auch für die Praxis konkret da hineinstellen kann. Aber da wir ja in diesen Vorträgen alles nur gewissermaßen auf den Weg bringen konnten, meine lieben Freunde, so ist es von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit, zunächst, ich möchte sagen von der Entwickelung der medizinischen Kräfte in der Menschenwesenheit zu sprechen, Euch eben diese medizinischen Winke zu geben. Denn wenn Ihr mit diesen esoterischen Winken nun an Eure medizinischen Studien geht: Ihr werdet sehen, es wird anders. Allerdings, es wird vielleicht schwerer sogar. Wenn ein etwas gedankenstumpfer Mensch von heute - die Menschen werden heute schon durch die Volksschule gedankenstumpf, durch die Gymnasiumausbildung noch mehr, dann kommen sie an die Hochschule heran - wenn ein solcher gedankenstumpfer Mensch an die medizinischen Studien kommt, wird er das erste und zweite Jahr mit einer gewissen inneren Bockigkeit die Dinge überwinden, wenn er vielleicht aus irgendwelchen sozialen Hintergründen herrührend irgendwelche moralische Peitsche hinter sich fühlt. Aber Mediziner, Arzt wird er nicht. Er wird einer, den die Sozietät anstellt als einen, der den Arzt mimt, aber er wird nicht Arzt. Nun werdet Ihr ja natürlich eine verfeinertere Seelenkraft bekommen dadurch, daß Ihr solche Dinge auf Eure Seelenkräfte wirken laßt. Und es wird Euch manchmal die Art, wie heute Psychologie und Physiologie und pathologische Wissenschaft, auf denen die medizinische Wissenschaft beruht, auf Euch selber wirken es wird Euch manches wehe tun. Es wird wirklich so sein, wie wenn man Euch manchmal statt Brot Steine geben würde. Aber Ihr werdet dann selber aus diesen Steinen, die da sind, doch etwas herausholen können. Und es wird Euch das, was da gegeben wird, in einem gewissen Grade doch zielvoll sein können. Ihr werdet auf einem nicht leichten Wege doch etwas lernen können. Und das muß schon sein, nicht wahr, vorläufig ist eben die Welt mit ihrem Materialismus noch mächtig, und wir müssen uns zunächst in sie hineinstellen auf irgendeine Art. Wir müssen da heraus arbeiten aus der Lage, in die wir kommen, wenn wir uns eben hineinstellen.
Und so müßt Ihr schon so, wie die Welt es verlangt, Ärzte werden und Euer Arztstudium durchdringen mit demjenigen, was Ihr von hier aus haben könnt. Und deshalb möchte ich noch einmal sagen: Ihr werdet, meine lieben Freunde, durchaus die Gelegenheit haben, Euch hier in der richtigen Weise zusammenzuschließen, anzuschließen auf die Art, wie ich es Euch gesagt habe. Ihr müßt vollständiges Vertrauen haben zu der Art und Weise, wie von mir zusammen mit Frau Dr. Wegman die medizinische Abteilung des Goetheanums verwaltet wird. Gerade diese Medizin, wie man sie hier erforschen kann, kann Euch zeigen, wie man sie hier — verzeiht das paradoxe Wort — wirklich im Menschenleben erleben kann. Ihr werdet das empfangen können, und deshalb macht Ihr es so, daß Ihr, wenn Ihr wiederum draußen seid in der Welt, wenn Euch das eine oder das andere auftaucht, Ihr Eure Wünsche schreibt, Eure Herzensbedürfnisse. Und dasjenige, was der eine schreibt, wird dann eine Antwort erhalten, welche im monatlichen Rundbrief an alle mitgeteilt wird. Da wird auf die Weise, wie wir es zunächst nur machen können, das äußere Medizinstudium durchdrungen werden können von demjenigen, was nun eben einmal heute gegeben werden kann.
Denn seht Ihr, im Grunde genommen sind es Ja noch außerordentlich wenige Menschen - es können ja eigentlich nur junge Menschen sein —, nur wenige Menschen noch, die die Brücke schlagen können zwischen dem, was in Dornach geistig gewollt wird, und demjenigen, was draußen in der Welt matertalistisch die Macht hat. Es können ja vorläufig nur wenige Menschen sein, und eigentlich nur diejenigen Menschen, die in ihrem Studium drinnenstehen. Warum? Das, was man von Dornach zunächst hört in den verschiedensten Gebieten, wenn das wahr wäre, wäre es ja eine Narrheit. Als ich einmal in einem Kreise von Studenten vorzutragen hatte über ein besonderes Kapitel der Therapie, waren die Studenten da von der ganzen Fakultät und ein ganzer Professor, ein richtiger Professor. Ja, sehen Sie nun, meine lieben Freunde, ich konnte dem Mann ansehen, der kam in den Vortrag herein, weil er bestätigt finden wollte das, was er glaubte, daß da eben ein ganz gewöhnliches Geschwätz vorgetragen würde, wie es eben von medizinischen Dilettanten vorgetragen wird. Und da konnte ich wirklich Metamorphosestudien machen, indem er auf der einen Seite immer mehr innerlich unwillig wurde und auf der andern Seite aber eine Überraschung erlebte. Er mußte nämlich übergehen dazu zu glauben, daß es nicht Geschwätz ist, aber er konnte natürlich nicht ja sagen dazu, denn es widersprach vollständig demjenigen, was er nun schon seit Jahrzehnten als das Wahre und Richtige angesehen hat. Nicht wahr, das Äußerste, was man von diesem Herrn verlangen konnte, war - ich habe nachher mit ihm gesprochen, da stellte es sich heraus -, daß er sich sagte: Ich halte mir das am liebsten vom Leibe! - Nicht wahr, er hätte es sich nicht vom Leibe zu halten brauchen, wenn er eingesehen hätte, daß es Unsinn ist. Dann hätte er leicht die üblichen Fußtritte geben können. Er glaubte auch, er könne es leicht, aber er konnte es nicht, und da war das Äußerste, was man von Professorenseite verlangen kann, daß er sich sagte: Ich halte mir das am liebsten vom Leibe. - Man kann nichts anderes verlangen. Aber ganz anders muß sich wirklich der junge Mensch dazu stellen. Der hat noch nicht Antezedentien. Der kann also tatsächlich zum Heile der Menschheit die Dinge aufnehmen. Und wenn das geschieht, meine lieben Freunde, dann wird es schon dahin kommen, daß nach und nach - vielleicht schneller als man denkt — die Goetheanum-Spiritualität in die Medizin hineinkommt.
Aber es muß natürlich zunächst mit der Sache so sein, daß mit vollem Ernst so etwas seine weitere Fortsetzung findet, wie die Art und Weise — wie Frau Dr. Wegman gesagt hat -, wie Ihr zu ihr gekommen seid, um wirklich einzuleiten mit vollem Vertrauen die Verbindung mit demjenigen, was eigentlich ein medizinisches Studium sein soll, das in die allgemeine heutige materialistische Medizin hineinfließen muß. Ihr könnt viel für Euch dazu tun, aber auch viel tun für die Welt und für die kranke Menschheit, wenn Ihr das, was Ihr jetzt gehört habt, nicht als etwas bloß Vorübergehendes betrachtet, sondern als Ausgangspunkt für das, wozu Ihr ja einen so außerordentlich guten Anfang gemacht habt.
In diesem Sinne, meine lieben Freunde, wollen wir vereinigt bleiben, wollen wir so vereinigt bleiben, daß Ihr in Dornach hier im Goetheanum Euren Mittelpunkt behaltet und an diesen Mittelpunkt Euch wirklich haltet, so daß dieser Mittelpunkt durch Euch in der Welt wirken kann. Das ist dasjenige, was ich wie eine Art von Mahnung, möchte ich sagen, Euch mitgeben möchte, dann wird es gut werden, dann wird noch manches sich anschließen an dasjenige, was wir hier besprochen und durchgemacht haben, wovon Ihr in so schöner Weise ein Gefühlsideal haben könnt, was aber werden kann wirkliche Lebensgestaltung.
Nun, meine lieben Freunde, so wollen wir es halten.
Schau in deiner Seele
Leuchtekraft
Fühl in deinem Körper
Schweremacht
In der Leuchtekraft
Strahlet Geistes-Ich
In der Schweremacht
Kraftet Gottes-Geist
Doch darf nicht
Leuchtekraft
Ergreifen
Schweremacht
Und auch nicht
Schweremacht
Durchdringen
Leuchtekraft
Denn fasset Leuchtekraft
Die Schweremacht
Und dringet Schweremacht
In Leuchtekraft,
So binden in Welten-Irre
Seele und Körper
In Verderbnis sich. —
Eighth Lecture
My dear friends! Of course, it is only possible to hint at some things aphoristically here, which will inevitably come to you in one way or another over time, if what has taken place here for you finds a corresponding continuation in your connection here with the medical movement of the Goetheanum. Above all, it must be emphasized that, of course, healing cannot be done against karma. The fact that healing cannot be done against karma must be the essential attitude of the physician. The physician's attitude must actually go in two directions from the very first question of wanting to heal. One is the invincible will of karma. The physician needs this will of karma above all for himself, for you have seen, my dear friends, that what he applies to his patients loses its effect on himself in a certain way. Certainly, it can be transformed back into an effect for him. But for now, what I have said about this is sufficient for your knowledge. Of course, the physician also remains subject to karma in relation to his health and illness. But precisely when this attitude that I have spoken of is present, when therapeutic knowledge penetrates the human soul as deeply as I have said, then it can be said that karmic consciousness increasingly transforms into the pure revelation of karma. Karma has two sides. You must first view karma in such a way that you relate what is present for your destiny to the immediately preceding in the successive earthly lives. There, karma is the expression of what the previous earthly lives have brought. But directly, there is this: you must also think of karma in the fifth and sixth subsequent earthly lives, in the earthly life that follows the present earthly life, the fifth and sixth. Then what is happening now will be an event, and you will ultimately have the result. If you follow this thought through to its conclusion, you will realize that karma is also something that is becoming, that what is happening now adds one thing or another to karma. It can be said that karma is, in a certain way, turned this way or that by our actions. Those who understand karma can never become fatalists.
One direction is that of karma. It gives stability and security in life, it gives a firm standpoint. The other direction, however, is that the will to heal must be present without fail. This will must never be impaired. It must always have a complete therapeutic effect, so that one can say: one does everything, even if one believes that the patient is incurable. — You must suppress this opinion and do everything to heal them. This is only hinted at aphoristically.
The most important thing today is that we continue to consider esoterically what can have an effect on the awakening of the soul forces for medical study. And you must remember that, in fact, for the physician, the content of esotericism must also take on a special activity, a special form. The physician will simply not stop at looking at things as they are viewed in ordinary life and as they are also viewed today in ordinary science. Science does not appeal to special soul forces that human beings do not have in ordinary life; on the contrary, it attaches great importance to not appealing to such soul forces. But with general views, one cannot arrive at the conclusion that any substance or process in the world reveals healing powers. Healing powers are only revealed by things when one approaches them with certain awakened soul forces. It will now be up to you to awaken these soul forces step by step, so that things speak to you in their own way, as they can help people through you, through your medical work. But it is important that what I have been talking about these days regarding the attitude of the physician be deepened much, much more in your soul.
First, I would like to make a simple observation, as should actually be done in medical studies. Here, the matter appears aphoristic, but if you have time for it, it will not seem aphoristic, but will develop as a matter of course before the soul of the medical student.
Take a look at what is revealed to you in terms of form in the bony skull cap. We can simply sketch this bony skull cap schematically. Look at what is revealed in terms of form in the bony skull cap and contrast it with what is revealed to you when you look at a long bone, for example the thigh bone – I will sketch it schematically. Now these things do not stand alone, but the bony skull cap has the manifold physical forces that surround it. Likewise, the long bone has the manifold forces that surround it; but when you look at this long bone, it will never reveal its essence to you other than when you consider it in connection with the whole universe. Now imagine that here is the tubular bone; its forces are such that they pass through its length and, when the human being has attained the earthly position he is to attain, actually go to the center of the earth. But that is not its essence. Its essence is that it integrates these forces into the connection between the center of the Earth and the Moon. So that which is located like the tubular bone of the thigh or upper arm, as well as a muscle located in a corresponding position, is actually integrated into the forces that connect the Earth with the Moon. And you can imagine it like this: you have the earth here, forces blaze up from the earth to the moon, and everything that has the position, say, of the thigh when a person is standing or walking, is harnessed into these forces. On the other hand, everything that has a position like the skull is linked to the movement of Saturn. The rotational forces of Saturn prevail there, so that one can say: the human being is formed from bottom to top through the connection between the Earth and the Moon, and is completed by that which lies in the rotational force of Saturn, but both types of forces are opposed to each other. If you look at the first forces, those that lie in the connection between the earth and the moon, these forces contain everything that gives human beings their plastic form, that builds them up plastically. One might say that within these forces there is a secret sculptor who builds up the human being plastically, while in the other forces, which work in the opposite direction, there is constant destruction. There, the material that builds up the human being plastically is constantly being broken down again. So when you cut your nails, you are working with the Saturn forces. When you eat, the component — the direction away from the earth gives this component — is in the direction of the moon. All forces in the direction of the moon build up. All forces in the direction of Saturn break down the human being, and in this interaction between breaking down and building up lies the human soul, lies the human spirit. This is where they reveal themselves.
Now, what is outside and what the human being has within themselves, what is connected to the etheric body, is connected to these peripheral forces. Silver is connected in a certain way with the building forces, so that when you notice in a person that the building forces are being overwhelmed by the destructive forces, you can usually correct this condition with some kind of medicine that comes from silver. But if you notice that the building forces are proliferating, that they are holding the human being together in his form, preventing disintegration, so to speak, then you will always see that one appeals to the remedies that come from Saturn, to remedies that come from lead, so that when one recognizes how the human being is built up, one gets an idea of how to behave.
Now it is a matter of entering into such a way of looking at things. Now, you see, my dear friends, the true world, the world of the spirit, is actually such that it has always been rightly said that it lies beyond a threshold, that human beings stand on this side of a threshold. It is necessary for human beings to cross this threshold in order to attain true knowledge, true insight into the constitution of the world. Now, it is generally dangerous for human beings to cross this threshold without further ado. For when human beings intersperse their ordinary sensory perception with thoughts as they have them in ordinary life and carry them into the spiritual world beyond the threshold, they conjure up before their spiritual eye a delusion, a real delusion, by judging things beyond the threshold in the same way as they are viewed and judged here. And that is why that spiritual being at the threshold teaches us that we need completely different concepts when we cross the threshold, that illusion paralyzes us for life if we enter the spiritual world with our ordinary concepts taken from the sensory world. This guardian of the threshold is actually the admonisher that we must first acquire the ideas we need in the spiritual world. People usually do not believe that the concepts that are useful in the spiritual world are extremely different from the concepts that are useful here in the physical world. In the physical world, for example, the part is always smaller than the whole. That is considered an axiom. This is not the case in the spiritual world. There, the part is always greater than the whole. This can be learned from the example of the human being. If one takes a power that the human being has, for example, when he builds his body from minerals, and then the power connection that a part of him has, then in relation to the cosmos, that which shapes the organs, i.e., the part of the human being, is essentially greater than the whole human being. You cannot easily imagine the statement that the part is greater than the whole because you are accustomed to the sensory world, but in relation to the supersensible world, this is certainly the case. Therefore, one must come to realize the possibility that in the spiritual world, the part can be greater than the whole. All our mechanics and physics do not apply to the supersensible world, but rather the opposite. Here in the sensory world, the straight line is the shortest distance between two points. In the spiritual world, it is the longest, because if you proceed in a straight line, you have to overcome the most obstacles. Any other direction is shorter than the straight line. One must be absolutely clear that if one wants to enter the spiritual world, one needs opposite concepts for what is commonplace in the physical world, so that one is not confused when one enters the spiritual world. This requires courage. You must have the courage to cross the spiritual threshold, to cross right over the abyss. If you go through the whole process, this crossing over to the spiritual world, this passing by the guardian of the threshold, and this arrival on the other side, if you go through this consciously in your soul and spirit, in your astral body and ego, then all is well. But if you do not go through it cleanly in your ego and astral body, an illusion arises, and when this illusion strikes back at the person, it results in illness. And whenever a person has something wrong with them, they actually have the guardian of the threshold within them, only in a kind of demonic image.
This brings me back to the demonic, which I already had to talk about. And what is this based on? It is based on the fact that when you look at the human being with ordinary perceptions, everything becomes confused. On the one hand, there is the human being's ego and astral body, on the other hand, there is the etheric body and physical body; and all of this appears to be in a colorful jumble when you look at the human being in this way. Above all, it is important to learn to distinguish between what is spiritual in the human being and what is physical. When the soul is in the body and you look at the human being, the soul does not appear as what it really is. The soul is in fact light. And you will have to realize more and more how the human soul, when viewed in its separation from the body, is light. It belongs to the things that surround it as an element, as an ethereal element, namely light. The human soul belongs entirely to the realm of light. You see it correctly when you see it within the light.
In contrast, the body belongs to heaviness. Now I have explained how heaviness is overcome, how the brain becomes terribly much lighter than it is experienced outside. But the physical body in its form, which we perceive in its essence, belongs to heaviness. Just as you obtain hydrogen and oxygen from water through chemical analysis, so, if you want to look at the human being in terms of its essence, you must divide it into the soul with its luminous power and the body with its heavy power.
These two entities, the soul with its luminous power and the body with its force of gravity, are confusingly intertwined when viewed with the ordinary eye. Because they are confusingly intertwined, it is impossible to tell from looking at the body, or indeed at the human being as a whole, what the nature of the illness is.
. If you arrange your soul in such a way that it can look at the human being in such a way that the nature of the illness can be revealed, and if you thereby discover how the nature of the illness can be revealed, then little by little, when you look at lead, when you look at silver, you will realize what healing powers these things have. But you must take medical life extremely seriously and shape the meditative life so powerfully in your soul that through this meditative life you learn to see differently, to grasp the world differently. And that is why I would like to give you here now that which, when meditated upon correctly, my dear friends, added to the other, will now also lead you to gain the relationship to special substances that these substances themselves have to healthy and sick people. You need only regard what I am now writing as words on the board* as awakening in your soul, so that what you see in ordinary life of human beings is not reality, but what you will see when you enliven your soul with what lies in these words; then you will see the truth of human beings in their relationship to one another.
I have spoken so far in such a way that you can understand human beings in general in their relationship to the cosmos. Today I would like to write into your souls what will enable you to take a small piece of gold and contemplate it meditatively. I hammer it into a thin plate and, when I look through it, I see something greenish. It looks greenish. By looking so greenish, it awakens, not only through a confused analogy, but precisely when I approach this gold plate with deeper soul forces, the same inner experience that the green meadow, the green plant cover of the earth awakens. But by immersing myself deeply with my soul forces in the small, shimmering gold plate, the opposite soul force is also awakened. And when I have the greenish shimmering gold plate here, when I look up everywhere, look everywhere, look away, I get—not as the physiological physicist says, only a contrast effect, but in all this lies a whole world in the contrast effect—the impression of a whole world shimmering within itself, a whole world shimmering within itself, which shimmers everywhere around me in a dull reddish, bluish-reddish light. And I know at that moment that in this little piece of gold, which is so small, lies the whole world. And this little piece of gold that I hold in my hand, which shimmers greenish here, is actually a whole sphere. It is condensed into this tiny atomistic piece. I cannot have a piece of gold without it being an entire sphere, without it being a node of a sphere, an entire sphere, so that I learn, in a manner of speaking, to live in the blue-red, in the blue-violet of a sphere. And when you then get to know other properties of gold, then you will vividly connect these other properties of gold with what you receive in a kind of spiritual vision. For example, you will experience the property you know, that gold does not tolerate a connection with oxygen, in a thorough, fundamental, principled way, because you will say to yourself: Man lives because he has oxygen. He lives because he has oxygen, because he constantly processes oxygen. — In the etheric body — you have seen it — everything is different; it is related to that which is not anchored in the physical body. Gold is related to the etheric body in that it does not tolerate a connection with oxygen within itself, so that precisely because of this property, gold has a healing effect in the etheric body on everything that oxygen can cause in the physical body, for example. Therefore, gold is, in a sense, a remedy that can work properly from the center of the human being. Through this luminous impression in dull blue-red light, you actually receive the inner truth of the statement: Gold is sun. It is entirely sun. Now you have this one knot, which simply indicates here that gold is sun in the universe and that gold-sun is related to the etheric body.
You see, through such observations you arrive at the properties of a substance that are needed for therapy. But you can only do this if you are willing to take it seriously, not as an external word, but as a constant inner call from the soul:
Look into your soul
Light-bearing power
Feel in your body
Heavy power
But this really must become practice. You must be able to practice as if your soul were becoming something that truly flows into the distance, flowing light, luminous power, and as if your body could become something that connects with the inner earth through its own inner longing for heaviness. You must truly experience this tremendous contrast within yourselves, then you will separate soul and body, soul and physical body, which must be separated. Then it continues.
In the luminous power
The spirit-ego shines
Only in this way will you understand the whole. For the human ego merges into the soul as an inner experience. Therefore, you must also understand the image that the ego grows radiantly in the soul that shines out into the universe, the soul that shines out.
The other is now what you must add:
In the force of gravity
God's spirit is at work.
Truly, not merely as a trivial image, my dear friends, but as something that corresponds deeply to the truth, the people of earlier times always spoke of the human being, the human body, as a temple of the deity. And just as truly as the ego reigns in the soul when the soul is conscious, so truly does the deity reign in the body. You must not refer to your body as yours, for the body does not belong to man, the body belongs to God. It is true that the human body arises from divine powers, but only the soul within it is his, so that you must truly see God's temple in your physical instruments.
And this is of tremendous importance to know:
In the power of light
- of the soul
The spirit-ego shines
In the force of gravity
The spirit of God is powerful
— is powerful in the human body just as the ego is in the human soul.
But now comes the important part:
But the luminous power must not
take hold
of the heavy power.
When a person sleeps, it will be immediately clear to you that they have separated their soul from their physical body. They have separated them. The soul does not take hold of the body. But even when a person is awake, it must be the case that although the ego and the astral body are submerged in the physical and etheric bodies, there is still an inner separation, an inner division between the light force and the heavy force. It must not be the case that a chemical component is formed from the light force and the heavy force; they must be separated internally. Mechanically, they must not mix with each other or even connect internally. They must work side by side in the same space, the force of gravity of the body downwards, the light force of the soul upwards. That is why the sentence is important:
But the light force must not
seize
the force of gravity
nor must
Nor should
the force of heaviness
penetrate
the light-force.
That is only the contrast. So in reality, my dear friends, what our outer sensory perception continually mixes together must be present in human beings, but separately. When you look at human beings externally in sensory perception, everything is mixed up. And if human beings were what ordinary perception sees them to be, they would always be sick. Human beings can be healthy, but our perception, our sensory perception of human beings, is always sickness. We always see human beings as sick, but of course that is always Maya, illusion. For in their true essence, human beings must never be as we see them. In their true essence, their light force and heavy force must not be mixed together. They must be separated from each other internally. So it must not be like water, where hydrogen and oxygen form a chemical bond with each other and actually disappear on their own. This is merely the sensual perception of human beings; it has brought about the tastelessness of carrying chemical ideas within oneself and viewing human beings as if they were a combination of light force and heavy force – these are separate and must remain separate – as if water were such that hydrogen and oxygen always remained separate within it, even though they are intertwined.
For light force grasps
The force of gravity
— so light force really does enter into the force of gravity —
For light force grasps
The force of gravity
And penetrates the force of heaviness
Into the force of light
Thus binding in the madness of worlds
Soul and body
Into corruption
— corruption is illness.
As I said, you must take something like this very seriously, but take it so seriously that it shapes your body, that you can truly look at people in terms of light force and heavy force, and that you feel that when they touch each other, they are enemies. In sickness, they touch each other. And when light force touches heavy force, the diseases of the body arise; when heavy force penetrates light force, the so-called diseases of the soul arise. For consider what is there. Consider that God's spirit lives in the body. When light force touches heavy force, man unlawfully appropriates God, God within himself.
Now, to think about all these things with the necessary moral impulse, to feel them through, to empathize with them, and then to want what you have felt there, you gradually learn to look at the things and processes of the world in such a way that you come to understand how, when the power of light has grasped the power of heaviness, you can remove the power of light from the power of heaviness through something that supports the etheric body from the astral body, through some external substance or through a process within the human being. You see, when you truly feel something like this in your soul, you will also gain an insight into the healing power of eurythmy therapy. For the healing power of eurythmy therapy is, I would say, that which relies particularly on cosmic forces in healing. When you do consonantal eurythmy therapy exercises, you are inside the lunar forces. When you develop vowel-based eurythmy healing forces, you are immersed in the forces of Saturn. And it is through these two types of forces that the human being feels directly into the cosmos when practicing eurythmy healing. And it is like this, for example: Let us assume that one could state — because the essential thing in medicine is, of course, therapy, but there is no therapy without an absolutely reliable diagnosis — let us assume that one could state that a person has too strong a formation, that he has within himself, let us say, the formation of salts or carbohydrates that he cannot overcome; there is too much formation within them. If you really consider the finer effects on the organism — the symptoms can only appear as mild symptoms — then vocal eurythmy, which counteracts the formation, can have an extremely beneficial effect. Or let us assume that a small child shows a slight tendency to stutter. Now, I certainly do not want to speak in a dilettantish way about what stuttering is, as there can of course be a wide variety of damage. But in all cases, these impairments affect stuttering in such a way that a predominant formative force is present, and that is precisely why vocal healing eurythmy exercises are used for stuttering, specifically in the order in which the vocal organs naturally form sounds in humans. I would say to the right human expression, applying them in such a way that, with children who have a tendency to stutter, one can achieve an extraordinary amount with eurythmy therapy, simply using the usual sequence of vowels a, e, i, o, u, if one has the necessary perseverance and love.
When you consider all this, my dear friends, you will be able to say to yourselves that it must be important for you to regard the esoteric background that I gave you a few days ago and now as a kind of moral code for medical studies. By morality I mean feeling connected to an obligation, feeling connected to really bringing the soul into the necessary continuous mood through such meditative powers, to face the world in the right way. Wouldn't it be true that if one could lecture to you for a year, one could say a great deal about individual things, which could then also be put into practice in a concrete way? But since we could only get everything off the ground, so to speak, in these lectures, my dear friends, it is of particular importance to first talk about the development of medical powers in human beings, to give you these medical hints. For when you now approach your medical studies with these esoteric hints, you will see that things will be different. However, it may even become more difficult. When a somewhat dull-minded person of today — people today are already dulled by elementary school, even more so by high school, and then they go on to college — if such a dull-minded person enters medical studies, he will get through the first and second years with a certain inner stubbornness, perhaps feeling some kind of moral whip behind him due to his social background. But he will not become a physician. He will become someone whom society employs as a person who mimics a physician, but he will not become a physician. Now, of course, you will acquire a more refined soul power by allowing such things to affect your soul powers. And sometimes the way in which psychology, physiology, and pathological science, on which medical science is based, affect you will cause you pain. It will really be as if you were sometimes given stones instead of bread. But you will then be able to get something out of these stones that are there. And what is given there will, to a certain extent, be useful to you. You will be able to learn something on a path that is not easy. And that has to be so, doesn't it? For the time being, the world with its materialism is still powerful, and we must first of all place ourselves in it in some way. We must work our way out of the situation we find ourselves in when we enter it.
And so you must become doctors, as the world demands, and permeate your medical studies with what you can gain from here. And so I would like to say once again: you, my dear friends, will certainly have the opportunity to join together here in the right way, to join in the way I have told you. You must have complete confidence in the way in which Dr. Wegman and I administer the medical department of the Goetheanum. It is precisely this medicine, as it can be researched here, that can show you how it can truly be experienced in human life — forgive the paradoxical word. You will be able to receive this, and that is why you should do it in such a way that when you are back out in the world and one thing or another comes up, you write down your wishes, your heart's desires. And what each person writes will then receive an answer, which will be communicated to everyone in the monthly newsletter. In this way, as we can only do for the time being, the external study of medicine can be permeated by what can be given today.
For you see, basically there are still very few people – it can really only be young people – only a few people who can build a bridge between what is spiritually desired in Dornach and what has materialistic power out in the world. For the time being, it can only be a few people, and really only those who are involved in their studies. Why? What one hears from Dornach in the first instance in various fields, if it were true, would be foolishness. Once, when I had to give a lecture to a group of students on a special chapter of therapy, the students were from the entire faculty and there was a full professor, a real professor. Yes, you see, my dear friends, I could see in the man who came into the lecture that he wanted to find confirmation of what he believed, that what was being presented there was just ordinary chatter, as is presented by medical dilettantes. And there I was really able to study metamorphosis, as on the one hand he became more and more inwardly unwilling, but on the other hand he experienced a surprise. He had to come to believe that it was not idle talk, but of course he could not say yes to it, because it completely contradicted what he had considered to be true and right for decades. Isn't that right? The most that could be asked of this gentleman was – I spoke to him afterwards, and it turned out – that he said to himself: I'd rather keep my distance from this! He wouldn't have had to keep his distance if he had realized that it was nonsense. Then he could easily have given the usual kicks. He also believed that he could do it easily, but he couldn't, and so the most that could be expected of him as a professor was that he said to himself: I prefer to keep this at arm's length. — One cannot demand anything else. But young people really must take a completely different approach. They have no antecedents. So they can actually take things up for the good of humanity. And when that happens, my dear friends, then it will come to pass that little by little — perhaps faster than one might think — Goetheanum spirituality will enter into medicine.
But of course, the first thing is that something like this must be continued with complete seriousness, as Dr. Wegman said, in the way you came to her, in order to truly initiate, with complete confidence, the connection with what medical studies should actually be, which must flow into today's general materialistic medicine. You can do a lot for yourselves, but also a lot for the world and for sick humanity, if you do not regard what you have now heard as something merely temporary, but as a starting point for what you have already made such an extraordinarily good beginning to.
In this sense, my dear friends, let us remain united, let us remain so united that you keep your center here in Dornach at the Goetheanum and truly hold on to this center, so that this center can work in the world through you. That is what I would like to give you as a kind of reminder, I would say, then it will be good, then many things will follow on from what we have discussed and gone through here, of which you can have such a beautiful ideal in your feelings, but which can become a real way of life.
Well, my dear friends, let us keep it that way.
Look into your soul
Light force
Feel in your body
Heavy force
In the power of light
The spirit-self shines
In the power of gravity
The spirit of God is powerful
But the power of light
Must not
Seize
The power of gravity
Nor must
The power of gravity
Penetrate
The power of light
For if the power of light
Takes hold of the power of heaviness
And the power of heaviness
Penetrates the power of light,
Then soul and body
Are bound in worldly error
And in corruption. —