The Four Seasons and the Archangels
GA 229
6 October, 1923 Dornach
II. The Christmas Imagination
Yesterday there stood before us the picture of Michael battling with the Dragon, as shown to us through an inner understanding of the course of the year. And art can really be nothing else than a reflection of what human beings feel in relation to the universe. Of course this is possible at various levels and from various standpoints; but on the whole we can speak of a work of art only when it expresses human feeling in such a way that through it the soul is opened to the secrets of the universe.
To-day, in the same spirit that led us to the culminating picture of Michael and the Dragon, we will carry further our study of the seasons of the year.
We know from yesterday's lecture that when autumn draws on, a kind of in-breathing by the Earth, a spiritual in-breathing, occurs, and the elemental beings are drawn back into the bosom of the Earth. Those who went out in the height of summer and turned back at Michaelmas are drawn further and further in, until in the depths of winter they are united most intimately with the Earth.
Now we must realise that in winter the Earth is above all self-contained, enclosed in itself. It has drawn back everything of a spiritual nature which it had allowed to stream out from itself during the summer. Hence in the depths of winter the Earth is more earthly, more truly itself, than at any other time. And while for our further studies we must keep firmly in view this winter character of the Earth, we must of course not forget that when winter prevails over half the Earth, the other half is experiencing summer. This is a fact we must keep in the background of our minds. But just now we are concerned with the coming of winter to one part of the Earth. It is then that the Earth unfolds its own nature in the deepest sense; the nature that makes it truly Earth.
Let us now look at this Earth of ours. It has a solid core, hidden below its visible outer surface, which in turn is largely covered by water, the hydrosphere. The continents are only floating, as it were, in this great watery expanse. And we can picture the hydrosphere as extending up into the atmosphere, for the atmosphere is always permeated by a watery element. Certainly this is much thinner than the water of the sea and the river, but there is no definite boundary in the atmosphere where the watery element comes to an end. Hence if we are to show schematically what the Earth is like in this respect we shall have, first, a solid core in the centre. Around it we have the watery regions (blue). I must of course indicate the jutting up of the continents: they will have to be exaggerated, for they should really be no more prominent than the irregularities on the skin of an orange. Then I must put in the hydrosphere, this watery part of the atmosphere all round the Earth. Let us look at this picture (blue) and ask ourselves what it really represents? It is not something made up out of itself: it is water shaped by the whole cosmos. The reason why this body of air and water is spherical is because the cosmos extends round it as a sphere on all sides. And this means that strong forces play in on the Earth as a whole.
The effect is that if we were to look at the Earth from some other planet, it would appear to us as a great water-drop in the cosmos. There would be all sorts of prominences on it—the continents, which would be rather differently coloured—but as a whole it would appear to us as a great water-drop in the midst of the universe.
Let us now consider this from a cosmic standpoint. What is this great water-drop? It is something which takes its shape from its whole cosmic environment.
If one approaches the matter from a spiritual-scientific point of view, bringing Imagination and Inspiration to bear on it, one comes to know what this water-drop really is. It is nothing other than a gigantic drop of quicksilver; but the quicksilver is present in an extraordinarily rarefied condition.
The possibility of these high attenuations has been shown by the work of Frau Dr. Kolisko. At our Biological Institute in Stuttgart the attempt has been made to put this on an exact footing. It has been possible to make dilutions of substances up to one part in a trillion, and in fact to establish precisely the effects which such high dilutions of particular substances can have. Hitherto, in homoeopathy, this has been merely a matter of belief; now it has been raised to the level of exact science. The graphs which have been drawn leave no doubt to-day that the effects of the smallest particles follow a rhythmical course. I will not go into details; the work has been published and these findings can now be verified. Here I wish to point out only that even in the earthly realm the effects of enormous dilutions must be reckoned with.
Here we are concerned with something of which we can say, when we use it on a small scale—this is water. We can draw water from a river or a well and use it as water. Yes, it is water, but there is no water that consists solely of hydrogen and oxygen. It would be absurd for anyone to suppose that water consists of hydrogen and oxygen only. In the case of mineral waters and such-like, it is of course obvious that something else is present. But there is no water composed solely of hydrogen and oxygen: that is only a first approximation. All water, wherever it appears, is permeated with something else. Essentially, the whole water-mass of the Earth is quicksilver for the universe. Only the small quantities we use are water for us. For the universe, this water is not water, but quicksilver.
Hence we can say, first of all, that in so far as we are considering the hydrosphere in relation to water, we have to do with a drop of quicksilver in the cosmos. Embedded as it were in this drop of quicksilver, naturally, are metallic substances—in brief, all the earthly substances. They represent the solid mass of the Earth, and they tend to assume their own special forms. Thus in the structure as a whole we observe [the general spherical form of quick]silver. Ordinary metallic quicksilver, one might say, is only the symbol produced by nature for the general activity of quicksilver, leading quite definitely to a spherical form. Embedded in the whole sphere are the metallic crystals, with the manifold variety of their own distinctive forms. Hence we have before us this formation of warmth, water, air: its tendency, as I have said, is to assume a spherical form, with individual crystal forms within it.
Even if we single out the air (dark red) which surrounds the Earth as its atmosphere, we can never speak simply of air, for the air always has a tendency to contain warmth in some degree: the air is permeated with warmth (violet). Thus we must add this fourth element, warmth, which enters into the air.
Now this warmth, which comes into the air from above, carries pre-eminently within it the sulphur-process, imparted to it from the cosmos. And to the sulphur-process is added the mercurial process, as I have described it in connection with the hydrosphere. Thus we have air-warmth—the sulphur-process; water-air—the mercurial process.
If now we turn towards the inner part of the Earth, we come to the acid-formation process, and especially to the salt-process, for the salts derive from the acids; and this is what the Earth really wants to be. Hence, when we look up into the cosmos, we are really looking at the sulphur-process. When we consider the tendency of the Earth to form itself into a cosmic water-drop, we are really looking at the mercurial process. And if we turn our gaze to the solid earth underfoot, which in spring gives rise to all that we see as growing, sprouting life, we are looking at the salt-process.
This salt-process is all-important for springtime life and growth. For the roots of plants, in forming themselves out of the seeds, depend for their whole growth on their relation to the salt-formations in the soil. It is these salt-formations—in the widest sense of the term—which give substance to the roots and enable them to act as the earthly foundation of plant-life.
Thus in turning back to the Earth we encounter the salt-process. This is what the Earth makes of itself in the depths of winter, whereas in summer there is much more intermingling. For in summer the air is shot through with sulphurising processes, which indeed occur also in lightning and thunder; they penetrate far down, so that the whole course of the season is sulphurised. Then we come at Michaelmas to the time when the sulphur-process is driven back by meteoric iron, as I told you yesterday. During summer, too, the salt-process mingles with the atmosphere, for the growing plants carry the salts up through their leaves and blossoms right up into the seeds. Naturally, we find the salts widely distributed in the plant; they etherealise themselves in the etheric oils and so on; they approach the sulphurising process. The salts are carried up through the plants; they stream out and become part of the being of the atmosphere.
In high summer, accordingly, we have a mingling of the mercurial element, always present in the Earth, with the sulphurising and salt-forming elements. If at this season we stand here on Earth, our head actually projects into a mixture of sulphur, mercury and salt; while the arrival of deep winter means that each of these three principles reverts to its own inner condition. The salts withdraw into the inwardness of the Earth, and the tendency for the hydrosphere to assume a spherical shape reasserts itself—imaged in winter by the snow-mantle that covers parts of the Earth. The sulphur process withdraws, so that there is no particular occasion to observe it. In place of it, something else comes to the fore during the deep winter season.
The plants have developed from spring until autumn, finally concentrating themselves in their seeds. What is this seeding process? When plants run to seed, they are doing what we are constantly doing in a dull human way when we use plants for food. We cook them. Now the development of a plant to blossom and then to seed-production is nature's cookery; it approaches the sulphur-process. The plants grow up into the sulphur-process. They are most strongly sulphurised, so to speak, when summer is at its height. When autumn draws on, this combustion process comes to an end.
In the organic realm, of course, everything is different from the processes we observe in their coarse inorganic form; but the outcome of every combustion process is ash. And in addition to the salt-formation, which comes from quite another quarter and is needed within the Earth, we must add all that falls down on to the Earth from the blossoming and seeding of plants as a result of the cooking or combustion process. This falling down of ash—just as ash falls down in our stoves—plays a great role which is usually overlooked. For in the course of seed-formation—which is fundamentally a combustion process—the seed-nature is continually showering down on the Earth, so that from October onwards the Earth is quite impregnated with this form of ash.
If therefore we observe the Earth in the depths of winter, we have first the internal tendency to salt-formation; besides this we have the mercurial shaping-process in its most strongly marked form; and while in high summer we have to pay attention to the sulphurising process in the cosmos outside the Earth, we now have in winter the ash-forming process.
So, you see, the tendency which reaches its culmination at Christmas is prepared in advance from Michaelmas onwards. The Earth is gradually more and more consolidated, so that in deep winter it becomes really a cosmic body, expressing itself in mercurial formation, salt-formation, ash-formation. What does this signify for the cosmos?
Now, if we can suppose that a flea, let us say, were to become an anatomist and were to study a bone, it would have before it an exceptionally small piece of bone, because the flea itself is so small and it would be examining the bone from a flea's perspective. The flea would then discover that in the bone we have to do with phosphoric lime in an amorphous condition, with carbonic acid, lime and so forth. But our flea anatomist would never come to the point of realising that the fragment of bone is a small part only of a complete skeleton. Certainly, the flea jumps, but in studying the tiny piece of bone he would never get beyond it. Similarly, it would not help a human geologist or mineralogist to be able to jump about like a gigantic earth-flea. In studying the mountain ranges of the Earth, which in their totality represent a skeleton, he would still be working on a miniature scale. The flea would never come to describing the skeleton as a whole; he would hack out a tiny piece with his little hammer. Suppose this were a tiny piece of collar-bone; nothing in the constituents of the little piece, carbonate of lime, phosphate of lime and so on, would reveal to the flea that it belonged to a collar-bone, still less that it was part of a complete skeleton. The flea would have hacked off a tiny piece and would then describe it from his own flea-standpoint, just as a man describes the Earth when somewhere—let us say in the Dornach hills—he has hacked out a bit of Jura limestone. Then he describes this bit, and works up his findings into mineralogy, geology, and so on. It is still the same flea-standpoint, though certainly somewhat enlarged.
This, of course, is no way to arrive at the truth. We need to recognise that the Earth is a single whole, most firmly consolidated during winter through its salt-formation, its mercurial formation and its ash-formation. Let us then ask what the whole nature of the Earth signifies when we look at it not from the flea's point of view, but in relation to the cosmos.
We will first consider salt-formation, taking this in the widest sense to connote a physical deposit, exemplified in the way ordinary cooking-salt dissolved in a glass of water will separate out as a deposit on the bottom of the glass. (I will not now go into the chemical side of this, though the result would be the same if I did). Now a salt-deposit of this kind has the characteristic of being porous, as it were, to the spiritual. Where there is a salt-deposit, the spiritual has a clear field of entry. In mid-winter, accordingly, when the Earth consolidates itself on the basis of salt-formation, the effect is, first of all, that the elemental beings who are united with the Earth have, one might say, an agreeable abode within it. But other spiritual elements, too, are drawn in from the cosmos and are able to dwell in the salt-crust which lies immediately below the Earth's surface. Here, in this salt-crust, the Moon-forces are particularly active—I mean the remains of those Moon-forces which were left behind, as I have often mentioned, when the Moon separated from the Earth.
These Moon-forces are active in the Earth chiefly because of the salt present in it. So in winter—beneath the snow cover which strives in one direction, one might say, towards the quicksilver form and in the other passes down into the salt deposits—we have the solid earth-substance, the salt, permeated with spirituality. In winter the Earth does indeed become spiritual in itself, through the consolidating influence, especially, of its salt-content.
Now water—that is, cosmic quicksilver—has the inner tendency to shape itself spherically. We can see this inner tendency everywhere. And because of this the Earth in mid-winter is enabled not only to become rigid through its salt-content and to permeate the salt with spirit, but also to vivify the spiritualised substance and to lead it over into the realm of life. In winter the whole surface of the Earth is reinvigorated. The quicksilver principle, working into the spiritualised salt, activates everywhere this tendency towards new life. Below the Earth's surface, in winter, there is a tremendous reinforcement of the Earth's capacity to produce life.
This life, however, would become a Moon-life, for it is chiefly the Moon-forces that are active in it. But because ash falls down from the seeds of plants, so that everything I have just described is impregnated with ash, something is present which keeps the whole process in the domain of the Earth.
The plants have striven upwards into the sulphur-process, and out of this process the ash has fallen down. This is what draws the plant back to Earth, after it has striven up into the etheric-spiritual. So in the depths of winter we have on the Earth's surface not only the tendency to absorb the spirit and to reinvigorate itself, but the tendency also to transform the Moon-like into the earthly. Through the remains of the fallen ash the Moon is compelled to promote Earthly life, not Moon life.
Now let us turn from the Earth's surface and look at the air-formation that surrounds the Earth. For the air, it is of the utmost importance always, but especially in midwinter, that the Sun radiates warmth and light through it—though the light is less relevant to our immediate considerations.
You see, science treats things always in isolation from one another, as in reality they never are. Air, we are told, consists of oxygen and nitrogen and other elements. But in fact this is not so: the air is not made up merely of oxygen and nitrogen, for it is always rayed through by the Sun. That is the reality: air is always permeated in the daytime by the activity of the Sun. And what does this activity signify? It signifies that the air up above is always seeking to tear itself away from the Earth. If salt-formation, mercurial formation and ash-formation were alone active, then nothing but the earthly would be there. But up above, because the activities striving upwards from the Earth are taken up into the activity of Sun and air, Earth-activity is transmuted into cosmic activity. The power to work on its own accord in the living-spiritual is taken away from the Earth. The Sun makes its power felt in everything that grows and sprouts upwards from the Earth. And so, in a certain region above the Earth, a quite special tendency is apparent to spiritual vision. On the Earth itself everything seeks to become spherical (dark red); in this upper region the sphere is continually impelled to flatten out into a plane (reddish). Naturally it will tend to resume its spherical shape, but up there the spherical is always inclined to flatten itself out. The upper influences would really like to break up the Earth, to disintegrate it, so that everything might become a flat surface, spread out there in the cosmos.
If this were to come about, the Earth's activities would disappear completely, and up above we should have a kind of air in which the stars would be active. This is very plainly expressed in man himself. What part do we as human beings have in the sun-filled air above? We breathe it in, and because of this the activity of the Sun extends right into us, downwards certainly in a sense, but chiefly upwards. Through our head we are continually drawn away from the influences of the Earth, and on this account our head is enabled to participate in the whole cosmos. Our head would really always like to go out into the region where the plane prevails. If our head belonged only to the Earth, especially in winter-time, our whole experience of thinking would be different. We should then have the feeling that all our thoughts wished to take a rounded shape. In fact they do not; they have a certain lightness, adaptability, fluidity, and this we owe to the characteristic incursion of the activity of the Sun.
Here we have the second tendency; here the Sun-like strikes into the Earthly. But this is at its weakest in winter. If we were to go still further out, something else would come into the picture. Then we should have to do no longer with the activity of the Sun, but only with the activity of the stars, for the stars in turn have a great influence on our head. Inasmuch as the Sun gives us back to the cosmos, so to speak, the stars have their own deeply penetrating influence on our head, and so on the whole formation of the human organism.
But now I must tell you that what I have just been describing no longer holds good to-day, for in a certain way man has emancipated himself, in his growth and his whole evolution, from the Earth's activities. If were to go back to the old Lemurian time, or especially to the Polarian time that preceded it, we should find the whole thing quite different. We should observe that everything that occurred on the Earth had a great influence on the human organism. You will indeed have gathered this from the account of the evolution of the Earth given in my Occult Science. In those early times we should find man placed in the very midst of the activities I have been telling you about. To-morrow I will describe how man has emancipated himself from all this; to-day I will speak as though we were still fully involved in it. And here we come to something that to present-day understanding will seem highly paradoxical.
We can ask the question: What does a mother become when she is beginning to develop a new human being? Originally—after all that has first to happen in order that a new human being may come into existence on Earth—it is the salt-forming Moon-forces which chiefly influence the female organism at that time. So we can say that while a woman is otherwise and in general a human being, the salt-forming Moon-forces then have the strongest influence on her. We can put this in spiritual-scientific terms by saying: The woman becomes Moon, just as the Earth—especially just below its surface—becomes Moon when Christmas approaches.
So it is not the Earth only which becomes mostly Moon when deep winter prevails; this tendency of the Earth to become Moon occurs again, in like manner, when a woman prepares herself to receive a new human being. And precisely because of this, the Sun-influence on her becomes different, just as it is different in mid-winter, compared with high summer. And the formation in the woman of the new human being stands wholly under the influence of the Sun. Because the woman takes up the Moon-activities, the salt-activities, so strongly into herself, she becomes able to take up the Sun-activities on their own account. In ordinary life the Sun-activities are taken up by the human organism through the heart and from there spread out over the whole organism. But directly a woman prepares herself to bring forth a new human being, the Sun-activities are concentrated on the forming of this new life. Thus we can say schematically: The woman becomes Moon so that she can take up the Sun-activities into herself; and the new human being, existing first as an embryo, is in this sense wholly Sun-activity. The embryo is enabled to come into being through this concentration of Sun-activities.
The old instinctive clairvoyance knew this in its own way. At one time in old Europe a remarkable idea prevailed. It was thought that before a new-born child had taken any earthly nourishment, it was a quite different being from what it became after imbibing its first drop of milk. That was the old Germanic belief. For these people had an instinctive feeling that the new-born infant was a Sun-being, and that through the first earthly nourishment it received it became a creature of Earth. Hence the new-born infant did not at first belong to the Earth at all. Again, according to occult laws which I might touch on at some other time, old Germanic custom gave the father—at whose feet the child was always laid directly it was born—the right either to let it grow up or to destroy it; for it was not yet a creature of Earth. If it had taken one single drop of milk, he no longer had the right to destroy it. It would then have to remain an Earth-creature, because it had been ordained by nature, by the world, by the cosmos, to be one. In such old customs there lives something of immensely profound significance.
Here indeed is the basis of the saying: The child is of the Sun. So it is possible now to look on the woman who has borne the child as a being who is in the deepest sense related to all earthly processes. For the Earth prepares itself in mid-winter through the salt-tendency—that is, the Moon tendency—so that it may be best able to receive the Sun-element. The Earth then reaches out beyond the Sun-element to the heavens, to which also the human head belongs.
Hence we can say something like this. In order to bring the essence of Christmas rightly before our souls, let us transpose ourselves into the being of man. In the Christmas spirit is expressed the coming to birth of the Jesus-child, who is ordained to receive the Christ into himself. Let us look closely at this. If we look at the figure of Mary, we are bound to see that her head reflects something heavenly in its whole appearance, its whole expression. We must then indicate that Mary is preparing to take into herself the Sun, the child, the Sun as it rays through the encircling air. And then we can see in the form of Mary the Moon-Earthly element.
Now imagine how this could be portrayed. First we have the Moon-Earth element, spread out below the Earth's surface. Then, going out into the great spaces, we find a raying forth from man into the cosmos, and this could be shown as a heavenly Earth-star radiance, sent out by the Earth into the cosmos. The head of Mary is like a radiant star, which means that her whole countenance and bearing must give expression to this star-radiant quality.
If then we turn to the breast, we come to the breathing process; to the Sun-element, the child, forming itself out of the clouds in the atmosphere, shot through by the rays of the Sun.
Further down we come to the Moon-like, salt-forming forces, given outward expression by bringing the limbs into dynamic relation with the Earth and letting them arise out of the salt and the Moon-elements in the Earth. Here we have the Earth in so far as it is inwardly transfigured by the Moon.
All this would really have to be shown through a kind of rainbow colouring. For if we were to look from the cosmos towards the Earth, through the shining of the stars, it would be as though the Earth were wishing to shine inwardly, beneath its surface, in rainbow colours. On the Earth we have something related to the Earth-forces, to gravity and to the formation of the limbs, which can be expressed only through the garment which follows the Earth-forces in its folds. So we should have the garment down below, in relation to the Earth-forces. Then we should have to portray, a little higher up, that which gives expression to the Earth-Moon element. We could even picture the Moon, if we wished to symbolise; but the Moon-element is clearly expressed in the configuration of the Earth.
Higher up still, we must bring in that which comes forth from the Moon-element. We see how the clouds are permeated with many human heads, pressing downwards; one of them is condensed into the Sun resting on Mary's arm: the Jesus-child. And all this must be completed, in an upward direction, through the star-radiance expressed in the countenance of Mary.
If we understand the depths of winter, how it shows us the connection of the cosmos with man, with man who takes up the birth-forces in the Earth, the only possible way of presenting the woman is in this form: formed out of the clouds, endowed with the forces of the Earth: with the Moon-forces below, with the Sun-forces in the middle, and above, towards the head, with the forces of the stars. The picture of Mary with the little Jesus-child arises out of the cosmos itself.
If we understand the cosmos in autumn, so as to represent all its formative forces in a picture, we come by necessity to an artistic portrayal of Michael and the Dragon, as I indicated yesterday. In the same way, everything we feel at Christmas-time flows together into the picture of Mary and the child—that picture which hovered so often before painters in earlier times, especially in the first Christian centuries, and of which the last echoes have been preserved in Raphael's Sistine Madonna.
The Sistine Madonna was born out of the great instinctive knowledge of nature and the spirit which prevailed in ancient times. For it is a picture of the Imagination which must in fact come to a man who transposes his inner vision into the secrets of Christmas in such a way that they become for him a living picture.
Hence we can say: The course of the seasons must come to expression for inner vision in clear and glorious Imaginations. If one goes out with one's whole being into the world, the approach of autumn becomes the glorious Imagination of Michael's fight with the Dragon. Just as the Dragon can be represented only in a sulphurous form—born out of the sulphur-clouds—and just as the sword of Michael emerges when we think of the meteoric iron as concentrated in the sword and blended with it, so out of all that we can feel at Christmas time, arises the picture of Mary the mother, the folds of her robe following the forces of the Earth, while in the region of the breast—even these details are apparent in the painting—her garment has to be inwardly rounded, taking on the quicksilver form, so that here one has a feeling of inward enclosure. Here the Sun-forces can find entry, and the innocent Jesus-child, who must be thought of as having yet received no earthly nourishment, is the Sun-activity resting on Mary's arm, with the radiance of the stars above. That is how we have to represent the head and eyes of Mary, as though a light were shining out from within them towards men. And the Jesus-child in Mary's arm must appear as though emerging from the rounded cloud-shapes, tender and lovable, inwardly sheltered; and then the garment, subject to earthly gravity, expressing what the force of earthly gravity can become.
All this is best rendered in colours. Then we have the picture which comes to shine out for us as a cosmic Imagination at Christmas-time—a picture we can live with until Easter, when out of cosmic relationships once again an Easter Imagination can arise; we will speak of it tomorrow.
You will see from this that art is drawn from the heavens and their interplay with the Earth. True art is an expression of that which man experiences in the cosmos, spiritual-psychical-physical, which reveals itself to him in magnificent Imaginations. So, in order to represent all that is involved in the inner struggle for the development of self-consciousness out of nature-consciousness, nothing will do but the grand picture of Michael's fight with the Dragon; and in order to bring before us everything that can work from nature into our souls during the deep winter season, we have an artistic, imaginative expression of it in the picture of the Mother and child.
To observe the course of the seasons is to follow the great cosmic artist, so that the things which the heavens imprint on the Earth are brought to life again in powerful pictures—pictures which grow into realities for the mind of man.
Thus the course of the year can reveal itself to us in four Imaginations: the Michael Imagination, the Mary Imagination and—as we shall see later on—the Easter Imagination and the St. John Imagination.
Zweiter Vortrag
Gestern stand vor uns das Bild des Michael im Streite mit dem Drachen, wie es sich ergibt aus einem inneren Verständnis des Jahreslaufes heraus. Und eigentlich kann ja die Kunst nichts anderes sein als die Wiedergabe desjenigen, was der Mensch im Zusammenhange mit dem Weltenall empfindet. Natürlich wird das in verschiedenen Graden, von verschiedenen Standpunkten aus möglich sein; aber im ganzen wird nur das ein Kunstwerk sein können, das dem Menschen wirklich etwas ist, was in der menschlichen Empfindung den Eindruck hervorruft, daß vom Kunstwerke aus sich die Seele öffnen kann für die Geheimnisse des Weltenalls.
Nun wollen wir heute einmal aus demselben Geiste, aus dem heraus wir gestern den Jahreslauf betrachtet haben, so daß diese Betrachtung gipfeln konnte in der Darstellung des Bildes Michaels mit dem Drachen, den Jahreslauf weiter verfolgen.
Wir wissen aus der bisherigen Darstellung, daß, wenn der Herbst herankommt, gewissermaßen eine Einatmung der Erde, eine geistige Einatmung der Erde stattfindet, daß hereingeholt werden in den
Erdenschoß selber die Elementarwesen, die ihren Weg hinausgefunden haben in der Zeit des Hochsommers und die dann sich wiederum zurückbewegen, wenn eben das Michael-Fest da ist, und die sich dann immer weiter und weiter zurückbewegen, bis sie im Tiefwinter am intimsten mit dem Schoße der Erde verknüpft sind.
Nun müssen wir uns ja aus alledem die Vorstellung machen, daß gerade zur Winterzeit die Erde am allermeisten ein in sich geschlossenes Wesen ist. Sie hat aus dem Weltenall all das hereingenommen, was sie insbesondere an Geistigem hat hinausströmen lassen während der Sommerzeit. Die Erde ist also während der 'Tiefwinterzeit am meisten Erde; ihre eigentliche Wesenheit ist sie da. Und wir werden daher, um eine Grundlage bekommen zu können für weitere Betrachtungen, gerade das Wesen der Erde zur Winterzeit ins Auge zu fassen haben, werden natürlich dabei niemals vergessen dürfen, wie das, was für die eine Hälfte der Erde Winterzeit, für die andere Hälfte Sommerzeit ist. Das müssen Sie im Hintergrunde haben, daß dies so ist. Aber wir stellen uns jetzt einen Teil der Erde vor, wo heranrückt die 'Tiefwinterzeit. Da entfaltet die Erde dasjenige, was gerade in tiefstem Sinne ihr eigenes Wesen ist, was sie ganz zur Erde macht.
Nun schauen wir uns diese Erde einmal an. Sie ist der feste Erdkern, der nach außen zunächst nur seine Oberfläche zeigt; aber dieser feste Erdkern ist ja zum großen Teil überhaupt nach außen bedeckt von der Hydrosphäre, von der Wassermasse der Erde. Die Kontinente sind gewissermaßen nur darinnen schwimmend in dieser Wassermasse. Und wir können uns sogar diese Wassermasse noch weiter in den Luftkreis hinein fortgesetzt denken, denn der Luftkreis ist ja auch immer mit
Wässerigem angefüllt, das allerdings viel dünner ist als das Wasser des Meeres und der Flüsse, aber eine feste Grenze im Wässerigen, wenn wir aufsteigen von dem Meere in den Luftkreis, ist eigentlich nicht da. So daß, wenn wir schematisch hinzeichnen, was in dieser Beziehung die Erde ist, wir diese Erde so zeichnen müssen: Wir haben in der Mitte den festen Erdkern (siehe Tafel I, grün). Um diesen festen Erdkern herum haben wir das wässerige Gebiet (blau). Nun müßte ich natürlich da die Kontinente zeichnen, wie sie hervorragen und so weiter. Es ist das alles karikiert gezeichnet, denn die Ausbuchtungen dürften nicht einen andern Eindruck machen als etwa die Erhabenheiten einer Orange. Nun muß ich aber ringsherumgehen lassen dasjenige, was ich als Hydrosphäre, als die Wassermasse in dem Luftkreis bezeichnet habe. Schauen wir uns dieses Gebilde einmal an (blau) und fragen wir uns: Was ist denn das eigentlich? Dieses Gebilde ist nicht etwa bloß aus sich herausgebildet, sondern dieses Gebilde ist ein Wasser im ganzen Kosmos. Dieses Gebilde ist das, was es als Form uns zeigt, aus dem ganzen Kosmos heraus. Und nur weil der Kosmos eigentlich nach allen Seiten hin eine Sphäre, ein Kugelartiges ist, erscheint uns auch dasjenige, was als Wasser, als Luftmasse nach oben geht, eben rund, kugelförmig abgegrenzt.
Das übt aber starke Kräfte aus auf die Gesamterde. So daß, wenn wir etwa von irgendeinem fremden Planeten die Erde uns anschauen würden, sie uns erscheinen würde als ein großer, meinetwillen, sage ich jetzt, Wassertropfen im Weltenall, in dem allerlei Hervorragungen wären, die Kontinente, die etwas anders gefärbt sich ausnehmen würden; aber es würde uns das wie ein großer Wassertropfen im Weltenall erscheinen.
Nun wollen wir einmal über den ganzen Tatbestand kosmisch sprechen. Was ist denn das eigentlich, dieser Tropfen, der da als ein Wassertropfen im Weltenall dahingeht? Das ist etwas, was durch die ganzen kosmischen Zusammenhänge die Tropfenform erhält. Geht man geisteswissenschaftlich auf die Sache ein, so bekommt man, gerade wenn man in die Imagination und Inspiration hineinrückt, die Erfahrung davon, was dieser Tropfen eigentlich ist. Dieser Tropfen ist gar nichts anderes als ein riesiger Quecksilbertropfen, wahrhaftig ein riesiger Quecksilbertropfen, nur daß die Quecksilbersubstanz in einer außerordentlichen Verdünnung da ist, in einer ungeheuren Verdünnung.
Daß solche Verdünnungen möglich sind, ist ja jetzt exakt bewiesen durch die Arbeit von Frau Dr. Kolisko. Es ist eben in unserem biologischen Institut in Stuttgart zum erstenmal der Versuch gemacht worden, dies auf eine exakte Grundlage zu bringen. Es ist da möglich geworden, Verdünnungen von Substanzen in dem Verhältnis von eins zu einer Trillion herzustellen, und es ist gelungen, in der Tat die Wirkungen exakt festzustellen, die in solchen Verdünnungen die einzelnen Substanzen haben. Dasjenige also, was bisher über die Wirkungen der einzelnen Substanzen in der Homöopathie ein bloßer Glaube sein konnte, ist dadurch tatsächlich zum Range einer exakten Wissenschaft erhoben worden. Es kann ja heute nach den Kurven, die da gezogen worden sind, gar nicht gezweifelt werden daran, daß die Wirkungen der kleinsten Teile in der rhythmischen Art verlaufen. Nun, auf das Genauere will ich nicht eingehen, die Arbeit ist ja erschienen, und die Dinge können heute überall nachgeprüft werden. Aber ich will hier nur das erwähnen, daß also gerechnet werden muß auch schon im Bereich des Irdischen mit ungeheuren Verdünnungen, die Wirkungen zeigen.
Hier haben wir es tatsächlich zu tun mit etwas, von dem man sagen kann: Genießen wir die Sache im Kleinen, so haben wir Wasser. Wir schöpfen mit unserem Gefäße Wasser aus dem Flusse oder aus dem Quell, verwenden dieses Wasser. Nun ja, das ist Wasser, aber es gibt kein Wasser, das nur Wasserstoff und Sauerstoff ist. Es wäre Unsinn, wenn jemand glauben würde, es gibt nur Wasser, das aus Wasserstoff und Sauerstoff besteht. Bei den Eisensäuerlingen oder bei andern Wassern ist das natürlich sehr auffällig, daß da noch etwas anderes drinnen ist. Aber ein Wasser, das nur aus Wasserstoff und Sauerstoff besteht, das gibt es nicht, das ist nur eine Annäherungsform. Jedes Wasser, das irgendwo vorkommt, ist mit etwas durchsetzt. In der Hauptsache ist die Gesamtwassermasse der Erde Quecksilber für das Weltenall. Wasser sind nur die kleinen Mengen für uns, die wir haben. Für das Weltenall ist dieses Wasser nicht Wasser, sondern Quecksilber.
So daß wir also sagen können: Zunächst, insofern die Hydrosphäre an Wasser in Betracht kommt, haben wir es mit einem Quecksilbertropfen im Weltenall zu tun. Diesem Quecksilbertropfen sind natürlich die mineralischen Substanzen, kurz, alles das, was erdig ist, sozusagen eingelagert. Die stellen dasjenige dar, was dann die feste Erdenmasse ist. Die haben die Tendenz, ihre eigenen speziellen Formen anzunehmen. So daß, wenn wir das Gebilde anschauen, wir ja sehen müssen auf die allgemeine Kugelform, die die Quecksilberform ist — das gewöhnliche metallische Quecksilber ist nur, ich möchte sagen, das naturgewollte Symbolum für das, was Quecksilber überhaupt tut -, es ergibt sich in einer ganz bestimmten Weise die Kugelform. Da ist nun eingelagert dasjenige, was sich in der mannigfaltigsten, differenziertesten Weise eigene Formen gibt: die mineralischen Kristallisationsformen. Das ist eingelagert. So daß wir sagen können: Wir haben jetzt dieses Gebilde vor uns, Erde, Wasser, Luft, und das hat diejenige Tendenz zur Formung, von der ich Ihnen eben gesprochen habe: einzelne differenzierte Kristallformen im Inneren, im ganzen das Bestreben, kugelförmig zu werden (siehe Tafel I).
Schon wenn wir die Luft (dunkelrot) nehmen, wie sie die Erde als Atmosphäre umgibt, können wir wiederum niemals von einer bloßen Luft sprechen, sondern diese Luft hat immer die Tendenz, Wärme zu haben in irgendeiner Weise, in irgendeinem Grade. Sie ist von Wärme durchdrungen (violett). Wir müssen also auch das vierte Element dazu haben: Wärme, die sich in die Luft einlagert.
Nun, diese Wärme, die da von oben in die Luft hereinkommt, die ist vor allen Dingen dasjenige, was in sich trägt, gewissermaßen aus dem Weltenall herein vermittelt, den Schwefelprozeß, den Sulfurprozeß. Wir könnten auch sagen: Vom Weltenall herein wird der Sulfurprozeß vermittelt. An den Sulfurprozeß schließt sich an der Merkurialprozeß, so wie ich es Ihnen gewissermaßen dargestellt habe für Wasser-Luft. Luft-Wärme: Sulfurprozeß, Wasser-Luft: Merkurialprozeß.
Gehen wir jetzt mehr der Erde zu, ins Innere der Erde, so kommt für das, was die Erde eigentlich sein will, der Prozeß der Säurebildung, und namentlich - aus den Säuren kommen ja wieder die Salze — der Salzbildung in Betracht. So daß, wenn wir hinaufschauen in das Weltenall, wir eigentlich hinaufzuschauen haben in den Sulfurisierungsprozeß, in den Verschwefelungsprozeß. Wenn wir diese Tendenz der Erde, sich zum kosmischen Tropfen zu bilden, anschauen, dann sehen wir eigentlich hinein in den Merkurialprozeß. Wenden wir den Blick hinunter auf den Erdboden, der uns im Frühling dann alles wachsende, sprießende, sprossende Leben emporschickt, dann schauen wir auf den Salzprozeß.
Dieser Salzprozeß ist auch das Allerwichtigste für das sprossende, sprießende Leben, denn die Wurzeln der Pflanze, indem sie sich aus den Keimen bilden, sind für ihr ganzes Wachstum einfach angewiesen auf die Beziehung, in der sie zu den Salzen, zu den Salzbildungen im Erdboden stehen. Was der Erdboden an Salzen enthält im weitesten Sinne des Wortes, was an Ablagerungsgebilden innerhalb des Erdbodens vorhanden ist, das ist dasjenige, was die Wurzeln mit einer Substanz durchdringt, was die Wurzel zur Wurzel, das heißt zu der irdischen Grundlage des Pflanzenhaften eigentlich macht.
Wir haben also, wenn wir gegen die Erde hin kommen, den Salzprozeß. Das ist nun dasjenige, was sozusagen die Erde aus sich selbst macht in der Tiefwinterzeit, während es zum Beispiel im Sommer sehr gemischt, möchte ich sagen, auf Erden zugeht. Sulfurisierungsprozesse durchzucken die Luft, ein Sulfurisierungsprozeß lebt ja auch in Blitz und Donner; das geht weit herunter, daher eben wird dasjenige, was den Jahreslauf mitmacht, auch selber sulfurisiert. Und wir bekommen dann um die Michaelizeit den Prozeß, wo das Eisen diesen Sulfurisierungsprozeß zurückdrängt, wie ich gestern ausgeführt habe. Und dann ist wieder der Salzprozeß hineingemischt in die Atmosphäre während des Sommers, denn die Pflanzen tragen, indem sie sich entfalten, indem sie heranwachsen, durch ihre Blätter, Blüten, bis in die Samen hinauf die Salze. Wir finden sie natürlich in den verschiedensten Teilen, die Salze; sie ätherisieren sich dann, sie werden eingelagert in ätherische Öle und so weiter, sie nähern sich dem Sulfurisierungsprozeß. Aber es werden die Salze durch die Pflanzen hinaufgetragen. Ihr Wesen strömt auch aus, wird das Wesen der Atmosphäre.
So daß wir in der Hochsommerzeit ein Durcheinandergemischtsein haben des Merkurialischen, das in der Erde immer da ist, mit dem Sulfurmäßigen und mit dem Salzmäßigen. Stehen wir im Hochsommer auf der Erde, so taucht eigentlich unser Haupt hinein in eine Mischung des Sulfur, Merkur und Salz, während tatsächlich das Eintreten der Tiefwinterzeit bedeutet, daß jedes dieser Prinzipien, Salz, Quecksilber, Schwefel, seinen eigenen inneren Bestand annimmt, daß die Salze zurückgezogen sind ins Innere der Erde, daß in die Hydrosphäre, in das Wassermäßige eindringt das Bestreben, sich zur Kugelform zu glätten, gewissermaßen in der kugeligen oder wenigstens kugelzonigen Schneedecke auch ein äußeres Zeichen für die Rundung, für die Kugelung des Wassermäßigen zu erzeugen. Der Schwefelprozeß zieht sich sozusagen zurück, so daß dann um diese Zeit keine starke Notwendigkeit besteht, den Schwefelprozeß als etwas Besonderes ins Auge zu fassen. Dagegen tritt an die Stelle des Schwefelprozesses in dieser Tiefwinterzeit etwas anderes.
Die Pflanzen haben sich entwickelt vom Frühling bis zu dem Herbst hin. Sie sind in die Samen geschossen. Was ist eigentlich der Samenprozeß? Indem die Pflanzen in den Samen schießen, findet in der Natur draußen etwas statt, was wir, ich möchte sagen, in einer menschlich stümperhaften Weise, aber immerhin doch fortsetzen, wenn wir uns die Pflanzen zu unserem Nahrungsmittel machen: Wir kochen die Pflanzen. Nun, dieses Hinaufgehen in die Blüte, dieses Erzeugen des Samens ist eine Naturkochung, ist ein Entgegengehen dem Schwefelprozeß. Die Pflanzen sind hinausgewachsen in den Schwefelprozeß. Sie sind am stärksten sozusagen verschwefelt, wenn der Hochsommer seine volle Entwickelung erlangt hat. Wenn der Herbst herannaht, dann gelangen die Verbrennungen zu ihrem Ende.
Natürlich ist im Organischen alles anders, als wir es draußen in den groben anorganischen Prozessen sehen, aber was sich ergibt bei jeder Verbrennung, ist Asche. Und zu dem, was auf ganz anderem Wege in der Salzbildung auftritt, was in der sozusagen im Inneren der Erde geforderten Salzbildung auftritt, zu dem tritt dasjenige hinzu, was gewissermaßen von der Besamung der Pflanzen, von dem Blühen der Pflanzen, von diesem Kochprozeß, von diesem Verbrennungsprozeß von jeder einzelnen Pflanze heruntergefallen ist auf den Erdboden. Das spielt eine große Rolle, die man gewöhnlich gar nicht berücksichtigt. Was in unserem Ofen geschieht, daß die Asche hinunterfällt, das spielt im Jahreslauf eine große Rolle auf Erden, denn von alledem, was Samenbildung ist, was im Grunde genommen eine Verbrennung ist, fällt fortwährend das Aschenhafte hinunter, und es ist die Erde vom Oktober an eigentlich ganz imprägniert mit Aschenbildung.
So daß wir, wenn wir im Tiefwinter die Erde betrachten, die innerliche Tendenz der Salzbildung haben, wir ferner haben in seiner bestimmtesten, ausgeprägtesten Form den Merkurbildungsprozeß, die Merkurbildung, und während wir in der Hochsommerzeit Rücksicht nehmen müssen auf den außerirdischen Kosmos in der Sulfurisierung, haben wir jetzt die Aschenbildung.
Das, was da gewissermaßen seinen Gipfel erreicht zur Weihnachtszeit, das bereitet sich von der Michaelizeit an vor. Immer mehr und mehr wird die Erde daraufhin konsolidiert, eigentlich in der Tief winterzeit ein kosmischer Körper zu sein, sich zu entfalten in Merkurialbildung, in Salzbildung, in Aschenbildung. Was bedeutet das für das Weltenall?
Nun, wenn ein Floh einmal, sagen wir, ein Anatom würde und er würde einen Knochen untersuchen, so hätte er ja eine außerordentlich kleine Knochenpartie vor sich, weil er eben selber klein ist, weil er von der Flohperspektive aus den Knochen untersuchen würde. Dann würde der Floh konstatieren, daß wir es da mit phosphorsaurem Kalk zu tun haben in amorphem Zustand, daß wir es zu tun haben mit kohlensaurem Kalk und so weiter. Er würde aber gar nicht darauf kommen, wenn er als Floh Anatom wäre, daß das nur ein Teilchen von einem Knochengerüst ist. Allerdings, er springt ja, aber wenn er eben das Kleine untersuchen würde, würde er durchaus nur im Kleinen steckenbleiben. Es würde dem Menschen, wenn er Geologe oder Mineraloge ist, auch nichts helfen, wenn er so springen könnte wie ein großer Erdfloh, er würde trotzdem das Gleiche machen, was er sonst im Kleinen macht, wenn er die Gebirgsmasse der Erde untersucht, die in ihrer Ganzheit ein Knochensystem darstellt. Da würde der Floh also nicht das Knochensystem beschreiben, sondern er würde mit seinem Hammer ein Stückchen herausklopfen. Sagen wir, mit seinem kleinen Flohhammer würde er ein Stückchen vom Schlüsselbein abklopfen: es würde nichts in diesem kleinen Stückchen kohlensaurem Kalk, phosphorsaurem Kalk und so weiter ihm verraten, daß das Ganze ein Schulterschlüsselbein ist, geschweige denn, daß es zum ganzen System des Knochengebildes gehört. Er würde halt ein kleines Stückchen mit seinem kleinen Hammer abgeklopft haben und würde das dann beschreiben von seinem Flohstandpunkt aus, so wie der Mensch die Erde beschreibt, wenn er irgendwo, sagen wir, am Dornacher Berg ein Stückchen vom Jurakalk abklopft. Nicht wahr, dann beschreibt er halt dieses Stück, und das wird dann verarbeitet in Mineralogie, in Geologie und so weiter. Es bleibt ja allerdings etwas vergrößert, aber es bleibt eben dieser Flohstandpunkt.
So kommt man natürlich nicht zur Wahrheit, so kann man die Sache nicht machen, sondern es handelt sich darum, daß man wirklich darauf kommt, daß die Erde ein einheitliches Gebilde ist und am meisten konsolidiert ist zur Tiefwinterzeit in ihre Salzgestaltung, in ihre Merkurialgestaltung und in ihre Aschenbildung.
Und was bedeutet das nun im Ganzen des Erdenwesens, wenn man den kosmischen Standpunkt, nicht den Flohstandpunkt ins Auge faßt, was bedeutet das? Nun, sehen Sie, alles das, was im weitesten Sinne des Wortes Salzbildung ist, Salzbildung in dem Sinne, daß es als Ablagerung im physikalischen Sinne sich festlegt, wie das aufgelöste Kochsalz meinetwillen im kleinen Wassergefäße sich ablagernd festsetzen kann, alles das, was in dieser Weise Salzbildung ist im weitesten Sinne — ich will jetzt nicht auf das Chemische eingehen, aber dabei würde sich nichts anderes ergeben -, alles das hat die Eigenschaft, daß es gewissermaßen für das Geistige durchlässig ist. Wo Salz ist, da hat das Geistige gewissermaßen freien Raum. Das Geistige kann da hinein, wo Salz ist. So daß dadurch, daß die Erde sich zur Tiefwinterzeit in bezug auf ihre Salzbildung konsolidiert, erstens die Elementarwesen, die sich mit der Erde verbinden, einen, sagen wir angenehmen Aufenthalt innerhalb der Erde haben, daß aber auch anderes Geistiges des Kosmos herangezogen wird und gewissermaßen wohnen kann in dem, was da als Salzkruste unmittelbar unter der Oberfläche der Erde ist. Und in dieser Salzkruste, die da unmittelbar unter der Oberfläche der Erde ist, werden besonders tätig die Mondenkräfte, der Rest der Mondenkräfte, von denen ich Ihnen in diesen Betrachtungen öfters gesprochen habe, der zurückgeblieben ist, nachdem der Mond aus der Erde herausgegangen ist.
Diese Mondenkräfte werden vorzugsweise in der Erde dadurch tätig, daß die Erde das Salz in sich birgt. So daß wir unmittelbar unter der Oberfläche der Erde, gerade in dem sich Befestigenden unter der Schneedecke, die ja schon auf der einen Seite nach dem Quecksilberigen strebt, nach unten hin aber übergeht in das Salzartige, so daß wir da in alledem Erdenmaterie haben, Salz, durchsetzt von Geistigkeit. Die Erde wird wirklich zur Winterzeit in sich geistig durch ihren Salzgehalt, der sich da besonders konsolidiert.
Das Wasser, das heißt eigentlich das kosmische Quecksilber, das nimmt auf die innere Tendenz, sich in Kugelform zu bilden. Da tritt dann überall diese innere Tendenz hervor, sich als Kugel zu bilden. Und dadurch, daß das geschieht, ist die Erde in dieser Tiefwinterzeit befähigt, nun nicht bloß zu erstarren im Salze und dieses erstarrte Salz mit Geist zu durchziehen, sondern sie ist befähigt, dieses durchgeistigte Materielle zu verlebendigen, ins Lebendige überzuführen. Die Erde lebt unter ihrer Oberfläche im Ganzen auf zur Tiefwinterzeit. Im Geist- und Salzprinzip ist durch das Quecksilberprinzip überall regsam die Tendenz, lebendig zu werden. Es ist während des Winters eine ungeheure Erkraftung der Erde, unter ihrer Oberfläche Leben zu entfalten.
Aber dieses Leben würde ein Mondenleben werden, denn vorzugsweise die Mondenkräfte, wie ich gesagt habe, sind darinnen tätig. Dadurch aber, daß die Asche heruntergefallen ist von den Samen, daß das alles, was ich jetzt beschrieben habe, imprägniert ist mit der Asche, dadurch ist dasjenige in dem Ganzen drinnen, was diese ganze Bildung für die Erde in Anspruch nimmt.
Die Pflanze hat hinaufgestrebt in den Sulfurisierungsprozeß; aus diesem Sulfurisierungsprozeß ist die Asche heruntergefallen. Das ist dasjenige, was die Pflanze, nachdem sie hinaufgestrebt hat in das, ich möchte sagen Ätherisch-Geistige, wieder zurückführt zur Erde. So daß wir da zur Tiefwinterzeit auf der Erdenoberfläche die Tendenz haben, Geist in sich aufzunehmen, sich zu verlebendigen, aber das Mondenhafte ins Erdenhafte umzusetzen. Der Mond wird hier gezwungen durch die Erdenaschenteste dessen, was da heruntergefallen ist, nicht auf mondenhafte, sondern auf erdenhafte Weise das Lebendige zu entfalten.
Nun gehen wir über von dem, was sich uns da gezeigt hat in bezug auf die Erdenoberfläche, zu dem, was im Erdenumkreise ist, zu dem Luftförmigen. Für die Luft hat die größte Bedeutung zu jeder Jahreszeit, aber eben besonders zur Tiefwinterzeit, daß die Sonne diese Luft durchstrahlt mit ihrer Wärme, mit ihrem Lichte — aber das Licht kommt jetzt weniger für uns in Betracht -, daß die Sonne diese Luft durchstrahlt.
Man betrachtet in der Wissenschaft eigentlich alles so abgesondert, wie es gar nicht in Wirklichkeit ist. In der Luft, sagen die Leute, sind Sauerstoff und Stickstoff und noch andere Dinge drinnen. Aber so ist es ja nicht in Wirklichkeit. Luft ist ja nicht bloß da als Sauerstoff und Stickstoff, sondern die Luft ist immer von der Sonne durchstrahlt. Das ist die Realität: Luft ist immer das, was die Sonnenwirkungen trägt bei Tag. Also es ist die Sonnenwirkung von der Luft getragen. Ja, diese Sonnenwirkung, von der Luft getragen, was bedeutet das? Es bedeutet, daß eigentlich fortwährend das, was da oben ist, entrissen werden will der Erde. Wenn das, was ich vorhin beschrieben habe als Salzbildung, Merkurialbildung und Aschenbildung, für sich gedeihen würde, dann würde lediglich Irdisches da sein. Aber weil da oben dasjenige, was herauswill aus der Erde, empfangen wird von der SonnenLuftwirkung, wird umgestaltet das, was Erdenwirkung sein will, in kosmische Gestaltung. Es wird der Erde die Macht genommen, allein im Lebendig-Geistigen zu wirken. Die Sonne macht ihre Wirkung geltend in allem, was da nach oben sproßt. Und so bemerkt man, geistig angesehen, daß fortwährend hier, eine gewisse Strecke über der Erde (siehe Tafel I), eigentlich eine besondere Tendenz vorhanden ist. Auf der Erde selber will sich alles kugelig machen (dunkelrot); hier oben wirkt fortwährend die Tendenz, daß sich die Kugel zur Ebene ausweitet (rötlich). Diese Tendenz wird natürlich wiederum bezwungen, die Erde wird wieder zur Kugel gemacht, aber eigentlich will das, was da oben ist, das Kugelige, immer eben ‘werden. Es möchte eigentlich das, was da oben ist, am liebsten da unten die Erde auseinandernehmen, auseinanderreißen, so daß alles eine im Kosmos stehende ebene Fläche wäre.
Würde das zustande kommen können, so würden die Erdenwirkungen überhaupt vollständig verschwinden, und wir würden da oben mehr eine Art Luft haben, in der die Sterne wirken würden. Das drückt sich am Menschen sehr stark aus. Was haben wir als Menschen von dem, was da als sonnentragende Luft oben ist? Das atmen wir ein, und indem das in uns eingeatmet wird, erstreckt sich die Sonnenwirkung allerdings in einer gewissen Weise nach unten, aber vorzugsweise nach oben. Wir werden mit unserem Haupte fortwährend den Erdenwirkungen entzogen. Dadurch ist unser Haupt überhaupt erst in die Möglichkeit versetzt, teilzunehmen an dem ganzen Kosmos. Unser Haupt möchte eigentlich immer in diese Ebenenbildung hinaus. Würde unser Haupt nur von der Erdenbildung, namentlich zur Winterzeit, in Anspruch genommen, dann würde all unser Denkerlebnis anders sein. Dann würde man nämlich das Gefühl haben, daß alle Gedanken rund werden wollen. Sie werden nicht rund, sondern sie haben eine gewisse Leichtigkeit, Anschmiegbarkeit, eine gewisse Flüssigkeit. Das rührt von diesem eigentümlichen Auftreten der Sonnenwitkung her.
Da haben Sie die zweite Tendenz, da greift das Sonnenmäßige in das Erdenmäßige ein. Es ist am schwächsten zur Tiefwinterzeit. Würden wir weiter hinauskommen, so würde sich noch anderes einstellen. Da würden wir es dann nicht mehr mit der Sonnenwirkung, sondern mit der bloßen Sternenwirkung zu tun haben, die ja wiederum einen großen Einfluß auf unser Haupt hat. Indem uns die Sonne sozusagen zurückgibt dem Kosmos, haben dann die Sterne eben ihren tiefgehenden Einfluß auf unser Haupt und dadurch auf unsere ganze Menschenbildung.
Das, was ich Ihnen da beschrieben habe, ist heute ja aus Gründen, die ich morgen auseinandersetzen werde, nicht mehr so, weil der Mensch sich in einer gewissen Weise emanzipiert hat, weil er in seinem Wachstum, in seiner ganzen Entwickelung sich emanzipiert hat von den Erdenwirkungen. Aber wenn wir zurückgehen würden in die alte lemurische Zeit oder namentlich in die polarische Zeit, die der lemurischen vorangegangen ist, dann würden wir die Sache ganz anders finden. Da würden wir eben den großen Einfluß von alledem, was auf Erden geschieht, auf die ganze menschliche Bildung finden. Sie kennen das aus der Darstellung, die ich in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» von der Erdenevolution gegeben habe. Da würden wir finden, daß der Mensch eigentlich ganz hineingestellt ist in die Wirkungen, die ich da beschrieben habe. Wie gesagt, wie er sich davon emanzipiert hat, werde ich morgen beschreiben; heute werde ich die Sache so beschreiben, wie wenn der Mensch noch hineingestellt wäre in diese Bildung. Und da tritt uns denn folgendes entgegen; etwas, was für die heutige Auffassung ganz paradox ist, tritt uns da entgegen.
Wir können nämlich die Frage aufwerfen: Was wird die Mutter, wenn sie sich der Entwickelung eines neuen Menschen nähert? Ursprünglich, in der Verknüpfung des Menschen mit der Erde, ist das so, daß diejenigen Kräfte, die da Salzbildungs-Mondenkräfte sind, nach alledem, was vorangehen muß, damit ein neuer Mensch auf Erden entsteht, vorzugsweise Einfluß haben auf den weiblichen Organismus, insofern er sich vorbereitet, den neuen Menschen in sich auszubilden. Wir können also sagen: Während die Frau im übrigen eben im allgemeinen Mensch ist, so werden in der Zeit, wo sie der Entwickelung eines neuen Menschen entgegengeht, in ihr die Mondenkräfte, insofern sie die salzbildenden Kräfte in der Erde sind, am stärksten. Und man kann das geisteswissenschaftlich so ausdrücken: Die Frau wird Mond, wie die Erde im ganzen, wenn sie sich der Weihnachtszeit nähert, unmittelbar unter ihrer Oberfläche am meisten Mond wird.
Aber nicht nur, daß die Erde am meisten Mond wird, wenn die Tiefwinterzeit waltet, sondern dieses Mondwerden der Erde, das geschieht wieder, das geht wieder vor in der Art und Weise, wie sich die Frau vorbereitet, den neuen Menschen zu bekommen. Und nur dadurch, daß sich die Frau durch das Mondenwerden vorbereitet, den neuen Menschen zu bekommen, wird auch die Sonnenwirkung eine andere, wie in der Tiefwinterzeit die Sonnenwirkung eben eine andere ist als im Hochsommer. Und was da ausgebildet wird in der Frau als neuer Mensch, das steht ganz unter dem Einfluß der Sonnenwirkung. Dadurch, daß die Frau selber in sich so stark die Mondenwirkung aufnimmt, die Salzwirkungen aufnimmt, dadurch wird sie fähig, in sich abgesondert wiederum die Sonnenwirkungen aufzunehmen. Im gewöhnlichen Leben werden die Sonnenwirkungen vom menschlichen Organismus durch das Herz aufgenommen und verteilen sich in den ganzen Organismus. In dem Augenblicke, wo die Frau sich anschickt, einen neuen Menschen hervorzubringen, werden die Sonnenwirkungen konzentriert auf die Bildung dieses neuen Menschen. So daß wir schematisch sagen können: Die Frau wird deshalb Mond, damit sie die Sonnenwirkungen in sich aufnehmen kann. Und der neue Mensch, der da entsteht als Embryo, ist ganz und gar in diesem Sinne Sonnenwirkung. Er ist dasjenige, was entstehen kann durch die Konzentration der Sonnenwirkungen.
Das haben ältere, instinktiv-hellseherische Weltanschauungen in ihrer Art gewußt. Durch das alte Europa ging in einer gewissen Zeit eine merkwürdige Anschauung. Die schloß das in sich, daß das Kind etwas ganz anderes war, wenn es geboren war und noch gar nichts vom Erdenmäßigen als Nahrung in sich aufgenommen hatte, und etwas ganz anderes wurde mit dem ersten Milchtropfen, den das Kind aufnahm, mit der allerersten Erdennahrung. Für diese alten germanischen Anschauungen waren das ganz verschiedene Wesen, das eben geborene Kind und das Kind, das nun schon außerhalb des Leibes der Mutter irgend etwas von Erdennahrung aufgenommen hatte, zwei verschiedene Wesen, weil man ein instinktives Gefühl dafür hatte: Das geborene Kind ist Sonne. Es wird durch die erste Erdennahrung Erdengeschöpf. Es ist Sonnengeschöpf, wird Erdengeschöpf. — Daher gehörte das eben geborene Kind, das noch keine Nahrung aufgenommen hatte, gar nicht der Erde an. Nach wiederum okkulten Gesetzen, die ich ein anderes Mal berühren möchte, hatte der Vater im alten germanischen Rechtsbewußtsein das Recht, das Kind, das ihm immer, wenn es geboren war, zu Füßen gelegt wurde, nach dem Anblicke entweder aufwachsen zu lassen oder es auszusetzen, zu vernichten, denn es war noch nicht Erdengeschöpf. Hatte es nur ein Tröpfchen Milch genossen, so durfte er es nicht mehr vernichten, es mußte Erdengeschöpf bleiben, weil es naturhaft, weltenhaft, erdenhaft, kosmoshaft zum Erdengeschöpf dadurch bestimmt war. In solchen alten Gebräuchen lebt sich etwas ungeheuer tief Bedeutsames aus. Das aber begründet, daß man sagt: Das Kind ist sonnenhaft. So daß man also jetzt die Möglichkeit hat, auf die Frau, die das Kind geboren hat, hinzuschauen als auf ein Geschöpf, das im tiefsten Sinne mit allen Prozessen des Erdenhaften gründlich verwandt ist — denn die Erde bereitet sich selber zur Tiefwinterzeit so vor, daß sie das Salzhafte, das heißt, das Mondenhafte hat -, daß sie am besten eben da eintreten kann in die Möglichkeit, das Sonnenhafte aufzunehmen. Und dann ragt sie hinauf über dem Sonnenhaften in das Himmlische, dem ja auch das menschliche Haupt angehört.
So daß wir etwa sagen können: Versetzen wir uns, um so recht das Weihnachtshafte vor unsere Seele hinzustellen, in das Wesen des Menschen. Im Weihnachtshaften drückt sich ja aus das Geborenwerden des Jesuskindes, das bestimmt ist, den Christus in sich aufzunehmen. Schauen wir uns das so recht an. Schauen wir uns das in der Gestalt der Maria an, so haben wir zunächst die Nötigung, das Haupt der Maria so darzustellen, daß es wiedergibt etwas Himmlisches in seinem ganzen Ausdruck, im ganzen Blick. Wir haben dann anzudeuten, daß sich diese Maria bereitet, die Sonne in sich aufzunehmen, das Kind, die Sonne, wie sie durch den Luftkreis erstrahlt. Und wir haben, weiter nach unten gehend in der Gestalt der Maria, das Monden-Erdenhafte.
Denken Sie sich das, wenn ich es bildhaft darstellen würde, so: Das Mondenhaft-Erdenhafte, es ist dasjenige, was unter der Erdoberfläche schwelt. Würde man hinausgehen in die Weiten des Weltenalls, so würde man das, was sich da oben darstellt, wo der Mensch hinausstrahlt in das Weltenall, schauen wie, ich möchte sagen, eine verhimmlischte Erde-Sternenstrahlung, welche die Erde in den weiten Weltenraum hinaussendet. Sternenstrahlend muß auch das Haupt der Maria sein, das heißt im menschlichen Ausdruck, so daß wir in der Physiognomie, in der ganzen Gebärde den Ausdruck des Sternenstrahlenden haben (siehe Tafel II).
Gehen wir dann bis zu der Brust, so müssen wir dasjenige haben, was mit dem Atmungsprozesse verbunden ist: das aus den Wolken, die die Sonnenstrahlung in der Atmosphäre durch sich strömen haben, heraus sich bildende Sonnenhafte, das Kind.
Und wir haben weiter unten das, was von dem Mondenhaft-Salzbildnerischen bestimmt wird, was man äußerlich dadurch ausdrückt, daß man die Gliedmaßen in die Dynamik des Irdischen hineinbringt und sie aufsteigen läßt aus dem Salzbildnerisch-Mondenhaften der Erde. Wir haben die Erde, insofern sie innerlich, wenn ich so sagen darf, durchmondet ist.
Man müßte es eigentlich so darstellen, daß wir eine Art Regenbogenfarbe anbringen. Wenn man nämlich vom Weltenall nach der Erde herschaut, so würde sich das so darstellen, daß man durchschaut durch die Sternenstrahlung auf die Erde selbst, wie wenn die Erde unter ihrer Oberfläche in Regenbogenfarben nach innen schimmern würde. Darauf steht dann, von der Erdendynamik zunächst, von den Gliedmaßen, von der Erde, der Schwerkraft und so weiter in Anspruch genommen, dasjenige, was sich eigentlich nur durch die menschliche Gewandung ausdrücken läßt, die so gefaltet wird, daß sie den Erdenkräften folgt. Wir würden also da unten die Gewandung haben im Sinne der Erdenkräfte. Wir würden weiter hinaufgehen und würden zu zeichnen haben, was sich nun in dem ganzen Erdenhaft-Mondenhaften ausbildet. Man könnte auch den Mond noch zeichnen, wenn man symbolisch sein wollte, aber dieses Mondenhafte ist ja schon in dem Erdengebilde ausgedrückt.
Wir kommen dann weiter hinauf, nehmen auf dasjenige, was aus dem Mondenhaften kommt, sehen, wie die Wolken durchdrungen werden von vielen Menschenköpfen, die herunterstreben; einer der Menschenköpfe ist verdichtet zu der auf dem Arm der Maria sitzenden Sonne, dem Jesuskinde. Und wir müssen das Ganze nach oben ergänzen durch das in der Physiognomie die Sternenstrahlung ausdrückende Mariengesicht.
Verstehen wir die Tiefwinterzeit, wie sie uns den Zusammenhang des Kosmos mit dem Menschen darstellt, mit dem Menschen, der aufnimmt, was in der Erde an Gebärungskräften ist, dann gibt es keine andere Möglichkeit, wiederum bis auf die Formgebung aus den Wolken heraus hin, als die mit den Kräften der Erde, nach unten mit den Mondenkräften, nach der Mitte mit den Sonnenkräften, nach dem Haupte oben mit den Sternenkräften begabte Frau darzustellen. Aus dem Kosmos selber heraus entsteht uns dieses Bild der Maria mit dem Jesuskindlein.
Und so wie wir, wenn wir den Kosmos im Herbst verstehen und alles das, was wir in ihm an gestaltenden Kräften haben, in ein Bild hineinlegen, notwendig zur künstlerischen Ausgestaltung des Streites des Michael mit dem Drachen kommen, wie ich es gestern dargestellt habe, so strömt uns alles das, was wir um die Weihnachtszeit empfinden können, zusammen in dem Bilde der Marienmutter mit dem Kinde, das in älteren Zeiten, namentlich in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums, Künstlern vielfach vorgeschwebt hat, und dessen letzte Nachklänge in der Entwickelung der Menschheit eben in der Raffaelischen Sixtinischen Madonna noch erhalten sind. Diese Raffaelische Sixtinische Madonna ist noch aus den großen naiven Naturund Geist-Erkenntnissen einer alten Zeit heraus geboren. Denn sie ist das Bild jener Imagination, die der Mensch eigentlich haben muß, der sich mit innerer Schauung in die Geheimnisse des Weihnachtswebens so hineinversetzt, daß ihm dieses Weihnachtsweben eben zum Bilde wird.
So können wir sagen: Der Jahreslauf, er muß sich für die innere Schauung in ganz bestimmten grandiosen Imaginationen ausleben. Geht man seelisch mit seinem ganzen Menschen hinaus in die Welt, so wird einem der Herbstesbeginn zu der grandiosen Imagination des Streites des Michael mit dem Drachen. Und wie der Drache nur sulfurisch dargestellt werden kann — die Schwefelmasse, die sich in die Drachengestalt hineinfindet -, wie da das Schwert Michaels entsteht, wenn wir uns das Meteoreisen zu diesem Schwerte konzentriert, vereinigt denken, so entsteht uns aus dem, was wir in der Weihnachtszeit empfinden können, das Bild der Marienmutter, deren Kleid in den Kräften der Erde gefaltet ist, während das Gewand - bis in diese Einzelheiten geht da die Malerei in einer bestimmten Weise vor — sich innerlich runden muß, quecksilbrig werden muß, so daß man eine innere Geschlossenheit in dem Brustgebilde hat. Da aber halten die Sonnenkräfte ihren Einzug. Und das unschuldige Jesuskind, das so gedacht werden muß, daß es noch keine Erdennahrung genossen hat, das ist die auf dem Arm der Maria sitzende Sonnenwirkung selber; oben die Sternenstrahlungswirkung. So daß wit, wie von innen heraus leuchtend in Auge und Haupt selbst, darzustellen haben, dem Menschen entgegenglänzend, das Haupt der Maria, daß wir‘ wie in lieblicher Milde aus den Wolkengebilden in sphärischer Rundung, innerlich geschlossen, das Jesuskind auf dem Arm der Maria darzustellen haben, und dann nach unten gehend die Gewandung, von der Erdenschwere übernommen, in der Gewandung ausdrückend dasjenige, was Erdenschwere werden kann (Tafel II).
Und wir tun am besten, wenn wir das auch in den Farben ausdrükken. Dann haben wir jenes Bild, das uns aufdämmert als eine kosmische Imagination zur Weihnachtszeit, mit dem wir hinüberleben können bis zur Osterzeit, wo uns wiederum aus dem kosmischen Zusammenhange eine ebensolche Osterimagination aufgehen kann, von der wir dann morgen sprechen wollen.
Sie sehen daraus, Kunst holt sich der Mensch aus den Himmeln, wie sie zusammenhängen mit der Erde. Wahre Kunst ist dasjenige, was der Mensch mit dem physisch-seelisch-geistigen Weltenall erlebt, das sich für ihn in grandiosen Imaginationen ergibt. So daß der Mensch all das, was an innerlichem Streit zur Herstellung des Selbstbewußtseins aus dem Naturbewußtsein notwendig ist, nicht anders sich vor Augen stellen kann, als indem er das grandiose Bild des Streites des Michael mit dem Drachen hat; daß der Mensch alles, was zur Tiefwinterzeit aus der Natur heraus in seine Seele wirken kann, vor seine Seele selbst stellen kann, indem er das Bild der Mutter mit dem Kinde, wie ich es jetzt beschrieben habe, künstlerisch-imaginativ vor seine Seele hinstellt.
Jahreslaufbeobachtung heißt, mit der großen kosmischen Künstlerin mitgehen, und diejenigen Dinge, die der Himmel der Erde einprägt, in mächtigen Bildern, die aber dann Realitäten werden für das menschliche Gemüt, in sich wieder lebendig werden zu lassen. So kann einem der Jahreslauf in vier Imaginationen aufgehen: MichaelImagination, Marien-Imagination, und wir werden morgen und in den nächsten Vorträgen sehen: Öster-Imagination, Johanni-Imagination.
Morgen werde ich dann zunächst den Weg suchen von Weihnachten zu Ostern.
Second lecture
Yesterday we were presented with the image of Michael in battle with the dragon, as it arises from an inner understanding of the course of the year. And actually, art can be nothing other than the reproduction of that which man feels in connection with the universe. Of course, this will be possible to different degrees, from different points of view; but on the whole, only that can be a work of art which is really something for man, which evokes the impression in human perception that from the work of art the soul can open itself to the mysteries of the universe.
Now let us continue to follow the course of the year today from the same spirit from which we looked at the course of the year yesterday, so that this contemplation could culminate in the depiction of the image of Michael with the dragon.
We know from the previous presentation that when autumn approaches, a kind of inhalation of the earth, a spiritual inhalation of the earth takes place, that the elemental beings themselves are brought into the
womb of the earth, which have found their way out in the time of high summer and which then move back again when the Michael festival is there, and which then move further and further back until they are most intimately connected with the womb of the earth in deep winter.
From all this we must now form the idea that it is precisely in wintertime that the earth is most of all a self-contained being. It has taken in from the universe all that it has allowed to flow out, especially in spirituality, during the summer time. The earth is therefore most of all earth during the 'deep winter time; it is its actual essence there. And therefore, in order to obtain a basis for further considerations, we will have to focus on the nature of the earth during wintertime, but of course we must never forget how what is wintertime for one half of the earth is summertime for the other half. You must have it in the background that this is so. But let us now imagine a part of the earth where the ‘deep winter time’ is approaching. There the earth unfolds that which is its own essence in the deepest sense, that which makes it completely earth.
Now let us take a look at this earth. It is the solid core of the earth, which initially only shows its surface to the outside world; but this solid core of the earth is, for the most part, covered on the outside by the hydrosphere, by the earth's water mass. The continents are, so to speak, only floating within this mass of water. And we can even think of this mass of water as continuing further into the air, because the air is always filled with
water, which is much thinner than the water of the sea and the rivers, but there is actually no fixed boundary in the water when we ascend from the sea into the air. So that if we draw schematically what the earth is in this respect, we must draw this earth in this way: In the center we have the solid core of the earth (see Plate I, green). Around this solid core we have the watery area (blue). Now, of course, I would have to draw the continents there, how they protrude and so on. It is all drawn in a caricatured way, because the bulges should not make any other impression than, say, the elevations of an orange. Now, however, I must go around what I have called the hydrosphere, the mass of water in the circle of air. Let us take a look at this structure (blue) and ask ourselves: What is it actually? This structure is not just formed out of itself, but this structure is water in the entire cosmos. This structure is what it shows us as a form out of the entire cosmos. And only because the cosmos is actually a sphere on all sides, a sphere-like sphere, does that which goes upwards as water, as air mass, appear to us to be round, spherically delimited.
But this exerts strong forces on the earth as a whole. So that, if we were to look at the earth from some foreign planet, it would appear to us as a large, for my sake, I say now, drop of water in the universe, in which there would be all kinds of protrusions, the continents, which would appear somewhat differently colored; but it would appear to us like a large drop of water in the universe.
Now let us talk about the whole fact cosmically. What is this drop of water that passes through the universe as a drop of water? It is something that takes on the form of a drop due to the entire cosmic context. If you approach the matter from a spiritual-scientific point of view, you will experience what this drop actually is, especially when you move into imagination and inspiration. This drop is nothing other than a huge drop of mercury, truly a huge drop of mercury, only that the mercury substance is there in an extraordinary dilution, in a tremendous dilution.
The fact that such dilutions are possible has now been precisely proven by the work of Dr. Kolisko. An attempt has just been made for the first time in our biological institute in Stuttgart to put this on an exact basis. It has become possible to produce dilutions of substances in a ratio of one to one trillion, and it has indeed been possible to determine the exact effects that the individual substances have in such dilutions. So what could previously be a mere belief about the effects of the individual substances in homeopathy has actually been raised to the level of an exact science. Today, according to the curves that have been drawn, there can be no doubt at all that the effects of the smallest parts are rhythmic. Well, I don't want to go into the details, the work has been published, and things can be checked everywhere today. But I only want to mention here that even in the realm of the earthly we have to reckon with tremendous dilutions that show effects.
Here we are actually dealing with something of which one can say: If we enjoy the thing in miniature, we have water. We draw water from the river or spring with our vessel and use this water. Well, yes, that is water, but there is no such thing as water that is only hydrogen and oxygen. It would be nonsense for anyone to believe that there is only water that consists of hydrogen and oxygen. In the case of ferric acid or other waters, it is of course very noticeable that there is something else inside. But there is no such thing as water that consists only of hydrogen and oxygen, that is only an approximation. Any water that occurs anywhere is interspersed with something. In the main, the total mass of water on earth is mercury for the universe. For us, water is only the small quantities that we have. For the universe, this water is not water, but mercury.
So that we can say: First of all, insofar as the hydrosphere of water comes into consideration, we are dealing with a drop of mercury in the universe. This drop of mercury naturally contains the mineral substances, in short, everything that is earthy, so to speak. They represent what is then the solid earth mass. They have a tendency to take on their own special forms. So that when we look at the structure, we have to look at the general spherical form, which is the mercury form - the ordinary metallic mercury is only, I would like to say, the natural symbol for what mercury does in general - the spherical form results in a very specific way. Now that which gives itself its own forms in the most varied, most differentiated way is embedded: the mineral forms of crystallization. That is embedded. So that we can say: We now have this structure before us, earth, water, air, and this has that tendency to form of which I have just spoken to you: individual differentiated crystal forms in the interior, on the whole the endeavor to become spherical (see Plate I).
Even if we take the air (dark red) as it surrounds the earth as atmosphere, we can again never speak of mere air, but this air always has the tendency to have heat in some way, to some degree. It is permeated by heat (violet). We must therefore also have the fourth element: Heat that is deposited in the air.
Now, this heat that comes into the air from above is above all that which carries within itself, mediated as it were from the universe, the sulphur process, the sulphur process. We could also say that the sulphur process is mediated from the universe. The sulphur process is followed by the mercurial process, as I have described it to you for water-air. Air-heat: sulphuric process, water-air: mercurial process.
If we now go more towards the earth, into the interior of the earth, then the process of acid formation comes into consideration for what the earth actually wants to be, and in particular - from the acids again come the salts - the salt formation. So that when we look up into the universe, we actually have to look up into the sulphurization process, into the sulphurization process. If we look at this tendency of the earth to form itself into a cosmic drop, then we are actually looking into the Mercurial process. If we turn our gaze down to the earth, which in spring sends up all growing, sprouting, sprouting life, then we are looking at the salt process.
This salt process is also the most important thing for sprouting, sprouting life, because the roots of the plant, as they form from the germs, are simply dependent for their entire growth on the relationship in which they stand to the salts, to the salt formations in the earth. What the soil contains of salts in the broadest sense of the word, what is present as deposits within the soil, that is what permeates the roots with a substance, what actually makes the root the root, that is, the earthly basis of plant life.
So when we come to the earth, we have the salt process. This is what the earth makes of itself, so to speak, in the depths of winter, while in summer, for example, it is very mixed, I would say, on earth. Processes of sulphurization are pulsating through the air, a process of sulphurization also lives in lightning and thunder; it goes far down, therefore that which takes part in the course of the year is itself also sulphurized. And then around Michaelmas we get the process where the iron pushes back this sulphurization process, as I explained yesterday. And then the salt process is again mixed into the atmosphere during the summer, because the plants carry the salts through their leaves, flowers and seeds as they develop and grow. We find them naturally in the most diverse parts, the salts; they then etherize, they are stored in essential oils and so on, they approach the sulphurization process. But the salts are carried up through the plants. Their essence also flows out, becomes the essence of the atmosphere.
So that in midsummer we have a mixture of the mercurial, which is always present in the earth, with the sulphuric and the saline. When we stand on the earth in midsummer, our head is actually immersed in a mixture of sulphur, Mercury and salt, while the onset of the deep winter time actually means that each of these principles, salt, mercury, sulphur, takes on its own inner existence, that the salts are withdrawn into the interior of the earth, that into the hydrosphere, into the watery, penetrates the endeavor to smooth itself into a spherical form, to produce, as it were, in the spherical or at least spherical-zoned snow cover, also an external sign for the rounding, for the sphericity of the watery. The sulphur process retreats, so to speak, so that at this time there is no great need to consider the sulphur process as something special. In contrast, something else takes the place of the sulphur process in this deep winter time.
The plants have developed from spring to fall. They have shot into seed. What actually is the seed process? By shooting the plants into the seeds, something takes place in nature outside that we, I would like to say, continue in a humanly bumbling way, but nevertheless, when we make the plants our food: We cook the plants. Now, this going up into the blossom, this producing of the seed is a natural cooking, is a countering of the sulphur process. The plants have grown out into the sulphur process. They are most sulphurized, so to speak, when midsummer has reached its full development. When autumn approaches, the burnings come to an end.
Of course, everything in the organic is different from what we see outside in the coarse inorganic processes, but what results from every burning is ash. And in addition to that which occurs in a completely different way in the formation of salt, which occurs in the salt formation required, so to speak, in the interior of the earth, there is also that which has fallen to the ground from the insemination of the plants, from the flowering of the plants, from this cooking process, from this combustion process of each individual plant. This plays a major role that is not usually taken into account. What happens in our oven, that the ashes fall down, plays a great role on earth in the course of the year, because from everything that is seed formation, which is basically combustion, the ashes continually fall down, and the earth is actually completely impregnated with ash formation from October onwards.
So that when we look at the earth in deep winter, we have the inner tendency of salt formation, we also have in its most definite, most pronounced form the Mercury formation process, the Mercury formation, and while in midsummer we have to take into account the extraterrestrial cosmos in sulphurization, we now have the ash formation.
That which reaches its peak, so to speak, at Christmas time, prepares itself from Michaelmas onwards. More and more the Earth is being consolidated to actually be a cosmic body in the deep winter time, to unfold in Mercurial formation, in salt formation, in ash formation. What does this mean for the universe?
Now, if a flea were, let's say, an anatomist and he were to examine a bone, he would have an extraordinarily small section of bone in front of him, because he himself is small, because he would examine the bone from the flea's perspective. Then the flea would state that we are dealing with phosphoric acid lime in an amorphous state, that we are dealing with carbonic acid lime and so on. But he wouldn't even realize, if he were a flea anatomist, that this is just a particle of a skeleton. Of course, he jumps, but if he were to examine the small, he would only get stuck in the small. If a person is a geologist or mineralogist, it would not help him if he could jump like a large flea, he would still do the same thing that he usually does on a small scale when he examines the earth's rock mass, which in its entirety represents a bone system. So the flea would not describe the bone system, but would knock out a small piece with its hammer. Let us say that with his little flea hammer he would knock off a piece of the collarbone: nothing in this little piece of carbonic acid lime, phosphoric acid lime and so on would tell him that the whole thing is a shoulder collarbone, let alone that it belongs to the whole system of the bone structure. He would just have knocked off a small piece with his little hammer and would then describe it from his flea's point of view, just as a person describes the earth when he knocks off a piece of Jurassic limestone somewhere, say, on Dornach Mountain. Not true, then he simply describes this piece, and this is then processed in mineralogy, geology and so on. It remains somewhat enlarged, but it remains this flea point of view.
Of course, you can't get to the truth that way, you can't do it that way, but the point is that you really come to the conclusion that the earth is a uniform structure and is most consolidated in its salt formation, in its mercurial formation and in its ash formation in the deep winter period.
And what does that mean in the whole of the earth's being, if one considers the cosmic point of view, not the flea point of view, what does that mean? Well, you see, everything that is salt formation in the broadest sense of the word, salt formation in the sense that it settles as a deposit in the physical sense, just as the dissolved table salt can, for my sake, settle as a deposit in a small vessel of water, everything that is salt formation in this way in the broadest sense - I do not want to go into the chemical now, but nothing else would result from that - everything that has the property that it is, so to speak, permeable for the spiritual. Where there is salt, the spiritual has free space, so to speak. The spiritual can enter where there is salt. So that by the fact that the earth consolidates itself in the deep winter time with regard to its salt formation, firstly the elemental beings, which connect themselves with the earth, have, let us say, a pleasant stay within the earth, but that also other spiritual things of the cosmos are drawn in and can, so to speak, dwell in what is there as a salt crust directly under the surface of the earth. And in this salt crust, which is there directly under the surface of the earth, the lunar forces become particularly active, the rest of the lunar forces, of which I have often spoken to you in these considerations, which remained behind after the moon has gone out of the earth.
These lunar forces become preferably active in the earth through the fact that the earth holds the salt in itself. So that directly under the surface of the earth, just in the solidifying under the snow cover, which on one side already strives towards the mercurial, but downwards passes over into the salt-like, so that we have earth matter in all of this, salt, interspersed with spirituality. The earth really becomes spiritual in itself at wintertime through its salt content, which is particularly consolidated there.
The water, that is actually the cosmic mercury, takes on the inner tendency to form itself into a spherical shape. This inner tendency to form itself as a sphere then emerges everywhere. And because this happens, the earth is enabled in this deep winter time not only to solidify in salt and to infuse this solidified salt with spirit, but it is enabled to enliven this spiritualized material, to transfer it into the living. The earth comes to life under its surface as a whole in the deep winter time. The tendency to come alive is active everywhere in the spirit and salt principle through the mercury principle. During the winter it is a tremendous power of the earth to unfold life under its surface.
But this life would become a lunar life, for preferably the lunar forces, as I have said, are active in it. But because the ashes have fallen from the seeds, because all that I have now described is impregnated with the ashes, that is what is inside the whole, which takes up this whole formation for the earth.
The plant has striven upwards into the sulphurization process; the ashes have fallen from this sulphurization process. That is what leads the plant, after it has ascended into the, I would like to say, etheric-spiritual, back to the earth. So that at the time of deep winter on the earth's surface we have the tendency to take spirit into ourselves, to become alive, but to transform the lunar into the earthly. The moon is forced here by the earthly ashes of what has fallen down there to unfold the living not in a moonlike but in an earthlike way.
Now we pass from what has shown itself to us there in relation to the earth's surface to what is in the earth's orbit, to the airy. The greatest significance for the air at any time of the year, but especially in the depths of winter, is that the sun radiates through this air with its warmth, with its light - but the light is less important for us now - that the sun radiates through this air.
In science, everything is actually viewed as separate, as it is not in reality. People say that the air contains oxygen and nitrogen and other things. But that's not how it really is. Air is not just oxygen and nitrogen, but the air is always irradiated by the sun. That is the reality: air is always what carries the effects of the sun during the day. So the sun's effect is carried by the air. Yes, this effect of the sun, carried by the air, what does that mean? It means that what is up there actually constantly wants to be snatched from the earth. If what I described earlier as salt formation, Mercurial formation and ash formation were to flourish on its own, then only earthly things would be there. But because up there that which wants to emerge from the earth is received by the sun-air effect, that which wants to be an earth effect is transformed into a cosmic formation. The earth is deprived of the power to work solely in the living-spiritual. The sun asserts its effect in everything that sprouts upwards. And so, seen spiritually, one notices that a special tendency is actually present continuously here, a certain distance above the earth (see Plate I). On the earth itself everything wants to become spherical (dark red); up here the tendency is constantly at work that the sphere expands into a plane (reddish). This tendency is of course overcome again, the earth is made spherical again, but actually that which is up there, the spherical, always wants to become flat. What is up there would actually prefer to take the earth apart down there, to tear it apart, so that everything would be a flat surface standing in the cosmos.
If this could come about, the effects of the earth would disappear completely, and we would have more of a kind of air up there in which the stars would work. This is expressed very strongly in humans. What do we as human beings gain from what is up there as sun-bearing air? We breathe it in, and by breathing it in, the effect of the sun extends downwards in a certain way, but preferably upwards. We are continually withdrawn from the effects of the earth with our head. This is what enables our head to participate in the whole cosmos in the first place. Our head actually always wants to go out into this level formation. If our head were only occupied by the formation of the earth, especially in winter, then all our mental experiences would be different. Then we would have the feeling that all thoughts want to become round. They do not become round, but have a certain lightness, malleability, a certain fluidity. This is due to the peculiar appearance of the solar movement.
There you have the second tendency, where the solar intervenes in the earthly. It is weakest in the depths of winter. If we were to get further out, something else would occur. Then we would no longer be dealing with the effect of the sun, but with the mere effect of the stars, which in turn has a great influence on our head. As the sun gives us back to the cosmos, so to speak, the stars then have their profound influence on our head and thus on our entire human formation.
What I have described to you there is no longer the case today for reasons that I will discuss tomorrow, because man has emancipated himself in a certain way, because in his growth, in his entire development, he has emancipated himself from the effects of the earth. But if we were to go back to the old Lemurian time, or in particular to the polar time that preceded the Lemurian time, then we would find things quite different. There we would find the great influence of everything that happens on earth on the entire human formation. You know this from the account I gave of earth evolution in my “Secret Science in Outline”. There we would find that man is actually completely involved in the effects I described there. As I said, I will describe tomorrow how he has emancipated himself from this; today I will describe the matter as if man were still involved in this formation. And here we are confronted with the following; we are confronted with something that is quite paradoxical for today's view.
We can pose the question: What does the mother become when she approaches the development of a new human being? Originally, in the connection of the human being with the earth, it is so that those forces, which are salt-forming lunar forces, after all that must precede, so that a new human being arises on earth, have a preferential influence on the female organism, insofar as it prepares itself to form the new human being within itself. We can therefore say that while the woman is generally a human being, the lunar forces, insofar as they are the salt-forming forces in the earth, become strongest in her at the time when she is approaching the development of a new human being. And this can be expressed in spiritual scientific terms: The woman becomes moon, just as the earth as a whole, when it approaches the Christmas time, becomes most moon immediately under its surface.
But not only that the earth becomes most moon when the deep winter time prevails, but this moon becoming of the earth, that happens again, that proceeds again in the way the woman prepares herself to receive the new man. And only through the fact that the woman prepares herself to receive the new human being by becoming moon, does the effect of the sun also become different, just as the effect of the sun is different in the time of deep winter than in midsummer. And what is formed in the woman as a new human being is entirely under the influence of the sun's effect. Because the woman herself absorbs the lunar effect so strongly, absorbs the salt effects, she becomes capable of absorbing the solar effects separately. In ordinary life the effects of the sun are absorbed by the human organism through the heart and spread throughout the whole organism. At the moment when the woman prepares to bring forth a new human being, the effects of the sun are concentrated on the formation of this new human being. So that we can say schematically: The woman becomes a moon so that she can absorb the effects of the sun. And the new human being that comes into being as an embryo is entirely in this sense a solar effect. It is that which can come into being through the concentration of solar effects.
Old, instinctive, clairvoyant world views knew this in their own way. At a certain time, a strange view ran through ancient Europe. It included the idea that the child was something completely different when it was born and had not yet absorbed any earthly nourishment, and became something completely different with the first drop of milk that the child ingested, with the very first earthly nourishment. For these old Germanic views, the completely different beings, the child that had just been born and the child that had already taken in some earthly nourishment outside the mother's womb, were two different beings, because they had an instinctive feeling for it: the born child is the sun. It becomes an earth creature through the first earth nourishment. It is a sun creature, becomes an earth creature. - Therefore, the child that had just been born, which had not yet taken in any food, did not belong to the earth at all. Again, according to occult laws, which I shall touch on another time, the father in the old Germanic legal consciousness had the right, after seeing the child that was always laid at his feet when it was born, either to let it grow up or to abandon it, to destroy it, for it was not yet an earth creature. If it had only enjoyed a drop of milk, he was no longer allowed to destroy it, it had to remain an earth creature, because it was destined to become an earth creature in a natural, worldly, earthy, cosmic way. In such old customs something tremendously deeply meaningful is expressed. But this is the reason for saying: The child is sun-like. So that one now has the opportunity to look at the woman who has given birth to the child as a creature that is thoroughly related in the deepest sense to all processes of the earthly - for the earth prepares itself at the time of deep winter in such a way that it has the salt-like, that is, the moon-like - that it can best enter into the possibility of receiving the sun-like. And then it rises above the solar into the celestial, to which the human head also belongs.
So that we can say: Let us place ourselves in the essence of man in order to place the Christmas spirit before our souls. The Christmas character expresses the birth of the infant Jesus, who is destined to receive the Christ within himself. Let us take a good look at this. If we look at this in the figure of Mary, we first have the necessity to depict Mary's head in such a way that it reflects something heavenly in its whole expression, in its whole look. We then have to indicate that this Mary is preparing to receive the sun into herself, the child, the sun, as it shines through the circle of air. And we have, going further down in the figure of Mary, the lunar-earthly.
If I were to depict it figuratively, think of it like this: The lunar-earthly is that which smoulders beneath the surface of the earth. If one were to go out into the vastness of the universe, one would see that which presents itself up there, where man radiates out into the universe, like, I would like to say, a glimmering earth-star radiation, which the earth sends out into the vast universe. The head of Mary must also be star-radiant, that is, in human expression, so that in the physiognomy, in the whole gesture, we have the expression of the star-radiant (see Plate II).
If we then go as far as the breast, we must have that which is connected with the respiratory process: the solar nature, the child, forming out of the clouds that have the solar radiation streaming through them in the atmosphere.
And further down we have that which is determined by the moon-like salt-forming, which is expressed externally by bringing the limbs into the dynamics of the earthly and allowing them to rise out of the salt-forming moon-like of the earth. We have the earth insofar as it is inwardly, if I may say so, lunar.
We should actually represent it in such a way that we apply a kind of rainbow color. If one looks from the universe to the earth, it would be represented in such a way that one looks through the star radiation to the earth itself, as if the earth under its surface would shimmer inwards in rainbow colors. Then, taken up by the earth's dynamics, by the limbs, by the earth, by gravity and so on, there is that which can actually only be expressed by the human garment, which is folded in such a way that it follows the forces of the earth. So down there we would have the garment in the sense of the earth's forces. We would go further up and would have to draw what is now forming in the whole earthly-moonish. We could also draw the moon if we wanted to be symbolic, but this moon-like quality is already expressed in the earthly structure.
We then go further up, take in that which comes from the moon-like quality, see how the clouds are permeated by many human heads reaching down; one of the human heads is condensed into the sun sitting on the arm of Mary, the infant Jesus. And we must complete the whole upwards with the face of Mary, whose physiognomy expresses the starry radiance.
If we understand the deep winter time as it represents the connection of the cosmos with man, with man, who absorbs what is in the earth's birthing forces, then there is no other possibility, again down to the shaping out of the clouds, than to depict the woman gifted with the forces of the earth, downwards with the lunar forces, in the middle with the solar forces, upwards with the starry forces. This image of Mary with the infant Jesus emerges from the cosmos itself.
And just as, when we understand the cosmos in autumn and place all the formative forces we have in it into a picture, we necessarily arrive at the artistic interpretation of Michael's quarrel with the dragon, as I depicted it yesterday, so all that flows to us, What we can feel at Christmas time flows together in the image of the Virgin Mary with the Child, which in earlier times, especially in the first centuries of Christianity, artists often envisioned, and whose last echoes in the development of humanity are still preserved in the Raphael Sistine Madonna. This Raphael Sistine Madonna is still born out of the great naive insights into nature and the spirit of an ancient age. For it is the image of the imagination that a person must actually have who, with inner vision, immerses himself in the mysteries of Christmas weaving in such a way that this Christmas weaving becomes an image for him.
So we can say: the course of the year must be lived out for inner vision in very specific grandiose imaginations. If you go out into the world with your whole soul, the beginning of autumn becomes the grandiose imagination of Michael's fight with the dragon. And just as the dragon can only be depicted sulphurically - the sulphur mass that finds its way into the dragon's form - just as the sword of Michael arises when we think of the meteoric iron concentrated and united into this sword, so what we can feel during the Christmas season gives rise to the image of the Virgin Mary, whose life is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the image of the Virgin Mary, whose dress is folded in the forces of the earth, while the garment - painting proceeds in a certain way down to these details - must round itself inwardly, must become mercurial, so that one has an inner unity in the breast structure. There, however, the solar forces make their entrance. And the innocent child Jesus, who must be conceived in such a way that he has not yet enjoyed any earthly nourishment, is the sun effect itself sitting on Mary's arm; above it is the star-radiation effect. So that we, as if shining from within in the eye and head itself, have to depict the head of Mary, shining towards man, that we have to depict the child Jesus on the arm of Mary as if in sweet mildness from the cloud formations in spherical roundness, inwardly closed, and then, going downwards, the robe, taken over from the earthly gravity, expressing in the robe that which can become earthly gravity (Plate II).
And we do best when we also express this in the colors. Then we have that image that dawns on us as a cosmic imagination at Christmas time, with which we can live on until Easter time, where, in turn, a similar Easter imagination can arise from the cosmic context, of which we will then speak tomorrow.
You see from this that man draws art from the heavens as they relate to the earth. True art is that which man experiences with the physical-soul-spiritual universe, which arises for him in grandiose imaginations. So that the human being cannot visualize all the inner conflict that is necessary for the creation of self-consciousness from the consciousness of nature in any other way than by having the grandiose image of Michael's conflict with the dragon; that the human being can place everything that can work out of nature into his soul in the deep winter time before his soul itself by placing the image of the mother with the child, as I have now described it, artistically-imaginatively before his soul.
Observing the course of the year means going along with the great cosmic artist and allowing those things that heaven imprints on earth to come to life again in powerful images, which then become realities for the human mind. In this way, the course of the year can unfold in four imaginations: MichaelImagination, Mary-Imagination, and we will see tomorrow and in the next lectures: Easter Imagination, St. John Imagination.
Tomorrow I will then start by looking for the path from Christmas to Easter.