Curative Eurythmy
GA 315
18 April 1921, Dornach
Lecture VII
Held before physicians
(held before physicians)In respect to particulars you will find it necessary to elucidate what I have to tell you today about eurythmy through your knowledge of physiology and so on. How that can he done will reveal itself to you as if of its own accord, if I may say so. When we look into a spiritual-corporeal process such as that which takes place in eurythmy, we may do no less than to indicate the deeper spiritual-physical connections as well. Thus I would like to draw your attention to the following.
First we must contemplate that extra-human world process which one usually traces only in its details and not in regard to what is actually inwardly active. Just consider what earth formation is, in reality: a formative tendency works from the planetary sphere inward. And furthermore, from what lies without the planetary sphere a formative working into the earth takes place: continuous, radiant cosmic forces revealing themselves in the individual potentialities (“Kraftentitäten”, entities of force) radiating towards the earth.
In this connection we may conceive of these cosmic powers as working centripetally and building up that which is on and in the Earth from without—although they encompass all that I have said about such rays previously as well. The fact is that the metals of the Earth as a whole, for example, are not in essence formed out of some force or another within the Earth, but are actually set into the Earth from the Cosmos. Now these forces that work through the ether can be called formative forces, formative forces working in from outside and not from the planets, for in that case they would work towards the centre; the planets are there for the specific purpose of modifying them, that is, the planetary sphere. Please take note of them in precisely this context: the formative forces. In opposition to them stand those forces in the human being and in the earth which take up those formative forces and make them fast, which assemble them around a point so that the earth can come into being. Those forces which make secure we may thus call the consolidating forces (“Kräfte des Befestigens”) (please see the following diagram, and the one shown on page 81.)

In the human being they are present as the forces that build up the organs plastically, whereas the other forces, the formative forces, have more to do with propelling the organs out of the spiritual-etheric world into the physical world. That is a process which becomes so tangible in the contrast between the propulsive powers of magnesium and the rounding-off forces of fluorine. It is a process active every-where: in the teeth from below upwards and rounding-off at the top, but from front to back as well and from the back forwards, from above to below, rounding-off at the bottom. This process will become directly tangible if you picture to yourself that, in association with the tendency to push something spherical forwards, from without inwards, some-thing is formed which is opposed by a process of spherical formation from below upwards (red, in the following illustration).

Between these two processes is that which mediates: processes of secretion and on the other hand, the absorption of what the other has secreted and so on, that which can be called processes of secretion in the widest sense; then in the final analysis absorption is dependent upon a secretion inwards which is in turn re-absorbed. In between lies thus what can be best called secretory processes.
Such a secretory process becomes tangible when you picture to yourself that on the one side lies what continually wants to secrete carbon (orange, in the illustration) and that which takes it up through respiration from the fore in the formation of carbon dioxide (white).

Behind this such a process of secretion is taking place. When you descend further into the metabolic-limb system, you have a proper process of consolidation. However, this process is present in the other direction as well. You will be able to follow it most tangibly by studying the eye, which is built inwards from without, as embryology demonstrates, but is consolidated from within. The formation is internalized. That is the manner in which the eye develops. It is internalized (see the following drawing: orange).

Thus, as we progress to that which is of soul-spiritual nature in man, to the organs of the soul-spiritual, to the sense-organs, we find that the process of consolidation has become spiritualized, truly ensouled and spiritualized in perception; that is, more or less, the descending process which leads to the formation of. the organs (please refer to the first illustration and to the chart which follows).
Thus we find at the lowermost end the process of sensory perception, objective perception. If this development continues, if it goes further in this direction, then the process of perception encounters the consolidating forces; should it become conscious in this encounter, it will become imagination. If imagination develops further and becomes conscious in encountering the process of secretion, it becomes inspiration. And when inspiration develops further in the direction of the formative forces, collides with them consciously and thus sees through these forces, it becomes intuition. Thus Dne can develop this progression in the life of the soul stage by stage from objective sensory perception to imagination, to inspiration and to intuition.
Formative forces Intuition Secretory processes Inspiration Consolidation Imagination Perception
This process which unfolds in the soul is based, however, on the process of coming-into-being. It is in fact, as you can see here, only the inverse of this genesis. One steps out to encounter what has already come into existence, rising into this becoming in the opposite direction. Formation takes place in the descending direction. The human being ascends in the opposite direction; he advances to meet what is coming into being. Thus, what one develops as powers of perception and cognition in imagination, inspiration and intuition always has its counter-activity in the creative powers which express themselves in the formative forces, in the processes of secretion and consolidation.
From all of this you will gather that what is active in the human organism in the opposite direction, in its coming into being, is that into which one ascends when rising in knowledge. You will perceive that in reality what we attain in imagination are the same powers which, without our being conscious of them, reveal themselves in the phenomena of growth, in the plastic phenomena of growth. If we ascend to inspiration, we come upon the forces which inspire man from without inwards in his breathing, which shape him through and through as he breathes, which shape themselves into the plastic forces as they work these forces through, to a degree. And if we ascend to intuition, we rise in reality to the primal mover (“Agens”) who enters into our plastic forms from the world without as substantial being.
You see, in this way we grasp the human being as he takes shape out of the Cosmos. If we now apply the knowledge which we have gained in one way or another through anatomy or physiology and illuminate it with what is given us here, then we begin to understand the organs and their functions. This is an indication of how to understand the organs and their functions. Thus what is always at work plastically in the human being, what permeates and shapes him, lives on the other hand in the movements for the consonants, the unconscious imaginative forces which call forth a permeation of the organism, as I said yesterday. Yesterday's lecture should be of help. Here you can perceive how consonantal eurythmy takes hold of deficient formative powers, deficient plastic forces in the human being and transforms them into something truly sculptural.1Rudolf Steiner uses in every case here the word “plastic”.
Let us assume we have a child before us and we see that he is insufficiently formed, that his growth is rampant. What does it mean, when we say that something of a plastic nature is growing uncontrolledly? It means that the plastic is working centrifugally, thus making the head large, and, in doing so, is no longer permitting the head to be permeated in the proper manner with imaginative forces. These must be supplied. Therefore one will let the child do consonantal eurythmy.
Here we have a question about “a two-year-old boy with a large head, who is nevertheless not hydrocephalic and is otherwise apparently healthy.”
Here you have the effective antidote, in properly applied consonantal eurythmy. Here we have arrived at the point at which a thorough observation of the morphology, of the more profound morphological facts, can provide a direct indication for the eurythmic treatment.
Another: “a twelve and three-quarter-year-old boy whose growth in height is distinctly retarded, with no organic findings other than worms; intelligent but intellectually quickly tired.” A most interesting complex of symptoms, all of which indicate that the imaginative forces are insufficent, that the plastic forces in the organs are running rampant because of a lack of inner fictile forces, of plastic soul forces. These plastic forces of the soul are those which destroy parasites. It is no wonder that when these forces are insufficient the child has worms. Thus one should have him do consonantal eurythmy; therein lies the antidote. These associations will provide you with concrete indications of where you can employ eurythmy. Although the phenomena are somewhat camouflaged here, eurythmy will have an extraordinarily positive effect even in such cases, particularly if one complements it medicinally.
Here I have an interesting question that has been presented to me. Naturally I must answer the questions in principle. If complications of any sort should appear, they can later be taken into special consideration as the case demands. However, although it may be necessary to combine something else along with it, the matter has nevertheless been thoroughly dealt with from the side characterized.
“I have as a patient a five-year-old child who lost a great deal of blood as the result of a bullet wound suffered in the outbreaks of violence; two years ago a deformation of the joints set in. These are things which could lead to anaemia and similar conditions in adults. How could one help this child therapeutically?”
Here you have a deformation of the joints. That is an outwardly-working tendency of plastic forces that are unable to remain within. Thus these forces ray outwards, leaving the human being instead of working within him as they should. They will be reflected in the most effective manner precisely through the practice of consonantal eurythmy. In doing consonantal eurythmy you will call forth the objectively effective imaginations which offset the deformations. As the manner in which the question is placed quite correctly indicates, people in the future will in general tend to deform in the most manifold ways, because they will no longer be able to build up the normalizing human form out of the involuntarily active forces. Man will become free; he will gradually become free even in respect to the building up of his own form. However, he must then be able to do something with this freedom. Ile must go on to engender imaginations which continuously counter the deformation.
Now as to the other; you see that we are here concerned with a dearth of objective imagination. We could have to do with a deficiency of objective inspiration as well, which would express itself in a deformation of the rhythmic system, if I may call it that. In the case of a deformation of the rhythmic system, the objective inspiration which goes inwards does not encounter the circulatory rhythm in the proper manner. One can work towards a normalization of the situation by practising vowels in eurythmy. In eurythmy the vowels affect internal irregularities which are precisely not accompanied by morphological changes, even as consonantal eurythmy affects deformations and the tendency to deformation.
As I said earlier, it may nevertheless be necessary to render aid when something appears in particularly radical form, as in the case of the deformations of the joints that we just discussed. There it would he necessary to come to the assistance of the consonantal eurythmic process therapeutically. This consonantal process works by stimulating through its imagination the inner breathing of the organs orientated from without inwards and lying on the far side, of the intestinal wall: the lungs, the kidneys, the liver, and so on. When a person does consonantal eurythmy, it is a fact that particularly the back of the head, the lungs, the liver and the kidneys begin to sparkle and flash; something is really there that indicates the reaction of the spirit and soul to what is _lone outside in the consonants. Man becomes a shining being in these organs, and the movements that are carried out are in continuous opposition to the luminous movements within. In particular, there appears an entire luminous reproduction of the excretory process of the kidneys, through certain consonantal movements. One has a picture of the excretory process of the kidneys in this luminous process which comes about as the result of consonantal eurythmy. And that works over into the unconscious imagination. The whole process in which this part begins to shine is the same process that I described as being especially under the influence of copper. It is the same process. Here one must draw the attention of the physicians to the fact that there are people with particular forms of illness. These forms of illness were brought to my attention again yesterday when I was shown some painted pictures that were very much admired in some quarters at least, and was asked whether they were particularly occult. In a certain sense, of course, they are occult, but it is extraordinarily difficult to speak to people about these things, for they are an objectively-fixed kidney-efflorescence; they are the objectively-fixed process of the excretion of urine. When in the case of persons predisposed to this illness the process of urinary excretion becomes an abnormal, luminous process, that is, when the process of excretion falters—a purely metabolic illness—the kidneys then begin to shine. When this inwardly directed clairvoyance then sets in, people begin to draw wildly. What they produce will be aesthetic, in an outer formal manner beautiful in every case. The colours applied will be beautiful. But, of course, people are not content when one says to them, “Yes, there you have painted something very beautiful; it is in fact your obstructed excretion of urine.” I can assure you that the obstructed urinary process and suppressed sexual desires—which lead as well in a certain manner to metabolic irregularities—are often presented by people of particularly mystical nature as mystically profound drawings and paintings. In much of what makes its appearance in the world in this manner one should recognize the symptoms of pathological abnormalities in the human being that are just bearable still.
As you see, anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is not mysticism as mysticism is commonly understood, since it fosters no illusions about matters such as we have just characterized. Quite the contrary: it investigates just such matters. People take exception to one for doing so, however. They resent my having gone so far in a public lecture as to indicate that the lovely poetry of Mechthild von Magdeburg, for example, or of Saint Theresa, are the inspirational reflexes of processes arising from repressed sexuality. Here, of course, the things are not drawn or painted, but poetically expressed. Naturally it is not pleasant for people to hear Mechthild von Magdeburg or Saint Theresa described as personalities with a strong sexuality which they restrained precisely because it was too strong for them, that certain metabolic-circulatory processes resulted from this retension, and that the reactions to this in turn appeared in such a form that they were fixed in very beautiful poetry. Indeed, this phenomenon leads extraordinarily deep into the mysteries of existence, when considered in a higher light. However, one must be able to rise to such an interpretation. And, therefore, one must have at least a notion of these peculiar processes which light up as inward processes when eurythmy is done outwardly. And in the moment when what is concealed within the poetry becomes eurythmy, as I showed you yesterday—when a beautiful poem is read and the eurythmy corresponding to it is done as we saw yesterday in vowels or consonants—then the one thing crosses the other; then an inward silent speaking joins what is carried out outwardly in movements in the person doing eurythmy as well. And when this process does not exude in sultry poetry but takes instead the course of accompanying beautiful poetry as eurythmy, then that which takes place in the human being does not become a recording of mysticism, but a definite process of healing for the human being. Thus one can say that when one lets the patients do eurythmy in such a manner that one continually brings to his attention: listen carefully, bring intensely into consciousness the sound that you hear, the relationships of the sentence you hear, to which you are doing eurythmy; then one will initiate his ascent to the outward formative forces, to the objectively intuiting powers. When one wants to affect all that has remained in the human being from what no longer took place between birth and death, but what materialism calls inheritance—the greater part of which, however, is carried over from the pre-existent spiritual soul-life—if one wants to affect what can be called congenital defects and so on, then one will do well to work—particularly during the course of youth—again and again through eurythmy by challenging the person doing it: make very clear to yourself what you hear outwardly! By this method one can drive out all the tendencies to fix inwardly what would like to arise and take form in something like mystical poetry or mystical drawing. Precisely that will be connected to the beautiful outer poem. It is the reverse process. A true mystic knows that that of an abnormal nature which is reflected by the human being as beauty always has a questionable side. By contrast, one cannot claim that, when what is beautiful in the outer world is experienced inwardly, it appears as a particularly magnificent and beautiful picture: on the contrary, it becomes schematic and thereby abstract; abstract as if it were sketched; abstract, as a drawing is abstract. That is precisely what is healthy, however, and what is desired. The beautiful historic process would not have taken place, but if for example Mechthild von Magdeburg had been instigated to do eurythmy to good poetry, her entire mystic fate would have been spared her. Naturally one can say here that a point has been reached where in a certain sense good and evil cease to exist; one enters into the amoral sphere of Nietzche, beyond good and evil. Of course, one cannot be so philistine as to claim that all the Mechthilds von Magdeburg should be eradicated. On the other hand you may be certain that from the super-sensible worlds care will be taken that the corresponding connections with these super-sensible worlds nevertheless remain, when man attempts to prevent this tendency from undue proliferation.
Although it is quite late, I would still like to go into a few matters in order to perhaps bring some clarification. I would like to start with the following question:
“Couldn't the therapeutic eurythmy exercises be reinforced by rational breathing exercises? It needn't necessarily be Hatha-Yoga.”
To this I would like to make the following remark. In our times, and within the direction that the continually progressing human nature has taken, rational breathing exercises, as a reinforcement of the eurythmic exercises, can in fact only be treated in the following manner. It will be observed that a tendency towards a modification in the rhythm of respiration arises of its own accord under the influence of the vowels in eurythmy. One will notice this quite clearly. Here one finds oneself in the uncomfortable situation that one should avoid stereotyping, avoid saying the one thing or another in general, but should first observe what is to be done. One should concern oneself in each individual case with the breathing of the person in whose healing one is attempting to be of assistance by means of eurythmic vowel exercises (in accordance with the diagnosis given, whatever it may be); one should observe the modification of the breathing and subsequently make the patient aware that he can consciously pursue this tendency himself. We are no longer human beings like the ancient orientals, who would go the reverse route and influence the entire human being by way of a prescribed method of breathing. This is something which today leads of necessity, in every case, to inner shocks, no matter how it is prescribed; it should really be avoided. We just have to learn to notice what kind of effect eurythmy itself, especially vocalic eurythmy, has on the breathing process. And then we can consciously continue the tendency which arises eurythmically, in the individual case. You will certainly observe that this respiratory process will be carried on individually, continued in varying manners in different people.
My esteemed friends, those are more or less the things that it is possible to answer at the moment. We have no real possibility of dealing with a number of matters that have got bogged down due to the shortness of time. In closing, my dear friends. I want to warn you that you must be prepared that your medical colleagues in the world will wage their wars no less intensely when they become aware of your bringing something of our sort to bear, and that you will have need of the penetrating power of conviction to weaken what will confront you. In no case, of course, may what you are confronted with lead you to neglect these matters; we may permit ourselves no illusions about those antagonistic forces we arouse.
At the end of this course I would as well like to state that, in order to make the movement possible, as it should now be inaugurated in the medical field, I will adhere everywhere to the policy of not involving myself directly with the patients in the therapeutic process, but will discuss and consult only with the physicians themselves. Thus you will always be in the position to refute any allegations that I myself interfere in any way in an unjustified manner in the therapy. I have already mentioned this at the end of the last course. This has been made extraordinarily difficult for me even from the anthroposophical side—this cannot he passed over in silence—as people naturally make all possible demands in this direction. It is also definitely the case that among anthroposophists the tendency exists, not only not to rise above egoism, but sometimes to become even more egoistic than normal people are. Then, when the occasion arises it is often a matter of complete indifference to the person, what the welfare of the movement may entail; that the welfare of the movement is dependent in each individual instance upon a rejection of the practice of what the world outside terms quackery; that a healing process should take place in the whole of medicine and should not be disturbed by the demands arising from an individual's personal aspirations. People will make it difficult, but it must be carried through in this direction, since we will only be able to succeed in this area when we can stand up to the outer world—as we are otherwise able to, in the anthroposophical movement, insofar as matters are conducted with understanding and not bowdlerized by people without understanding. Simply by virtue of knowing what is going on in the anthroposophical movement we must be in the position to say: what is being said there is certainly a lie, it is beyond doubt an invention. We must simply always be in the position to say that, in certain cases. And we come to be able to say that, when we are all inwardly initiated in the contents of matters such as those to which I have drawn attention here: that I myself do not intervene in the therapeutic process, but that within the anthroposophical movement the doctors are responsible for the therapy of the patients.
Having said what was necessary, I want to add nothing more than the wish that the stimuli—which, in this course in particular, have often remained mere indications—may work on in you and become active in the appropriate manner for the welfare of humanity. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to carry on in some manner what we have already twice begun; in any case we will make an effort to carry on with it. With this wish, my dear friends, I will close these contemplations, in the hope that our deeds in these directions may be in accord with our wishes. It was very satisfying to see you here. It will be a satisfying feeling to think back on these days here, which it was your desire to spend together towards the enrichment of medical science. The thoughts that hold us together will accompany you, my dear friends, on the paths that you will wander, to transform into deeds what we attempted to activate, to begin with here, as thoughts.
Vortrag Aus Dem 2. Ärztekurs
Dasjenige, was ich Ihnen heute mit Bezug auf die Eurythmie zu sagen habe, meine verehrten Freunde, das ist so, daß es durchaus wird im einzelnen immer durchschaut werden müssen mit den Kenntnissen, die Sie in physiologischer Beziehung und sonst haben. Wie das zu geschehen hat, das wird sich Ihnen schon, möchte ich sagen, wie von selbst ergeben. Aber gerade wenn wir in einen solchen geistig-leiblichen Prozeß hineinschauen wie den, der beim Eurythmisieren stattfindet, so können wir gar nicht anders, als auf tiefere geistig-physische Zusammenhänge auch hinweisen. Und, sehen Sie, da möchte ich Sie nun auf das Folgende aufmerksam machen.
Wir müssen zunächst schauen auf den außermenschlichen Weltprozeß, auf jenen außermenschlichen Weltprozeß, den man gewöhnlich nur verfolgt in bezug auf seine Details, und den man nicht verfolgt in bezug auf dasjenige, was eigentlich innerlich tätig ist. Bedenken Sie doch nur, daß Erdenbildung in Wirklichkeit heißt: es geschieht eine Bildungstendenz von der Planetensphäre aus herein, und außerdem von demjenigen, was noch außerhalb der Planetensphäre liegt, geschieht eine Bildung in die Erde herein, fortwährende, strahlende, sich in den einzelnen Kraftentitäten ausdrückende, gegen die Erde her strahlende kosmische Kräfte.

Diese kosmischen Kräfte können wir jetzt in diesem Zusammenhange so auffassen - obwohl sie alles dasjenige, was ich früher über die Strahlen gesagt habe, wiederum in sich schließen können, so können wir sie aber doch so ins Auge fassen -, daß wir sagen, sie wirken gegen das Zentrum zu und bilden eigentlich dasjenige, was auf der Erde und in der Erde ist, von außen her. Es ist schon einmal so, daß zum Beispiel wirklich die gesamte Metallität der Erde, die gesamten Metalle nicht aus irgendwelchen Kräften aus dem Erdinneren heraus im wesentlichen gebildet werden, sondern daß sie wirklich von dem Kosmos herein in die Erde eingesetzt werden. Diese Kräfte, die da durch den Äther wirken - nicht etwa von den Planeten aus, da würden sie wiederum zentral wirken, die Planeten sind gerade dazu da, um sie zu modifizieren, die Planetensphäre ist es —, diese Kräfte können wir nennen die Bildungskräfte, die von außen her wirkenden Bildungskräfte. Gerade in diesem Zusammenhange bitte ich Sie, diese Sache zu fassen: Bildungskräfte. Ihnen stehen entgegen diejenigen Kräfte, welche beim Menschen und in der Erde diese Bildungskräfte aufnehmen und befestigen, sie gewissermaßen um einen Mittelpunkt herum versammeln, so daß eben die Erde entstehen kann. Also diese Kräfte, die da befestigen, wir können sie nennen die Kräfte des Befestigens.

Im Menschen sind sie vorhanden als solche Kräfte, die plastisch die Organe bilden, während die andern Kräfte, die Bildungskräfte, diejenigen sind, die mehr die Organe aus der geistig-ätherischen Welt in die physische Welt hereinschieben. Das ist ein Prozeß, der ja in dem Gegensatz zwischen den Schiebekräften des Magnesiums, zwischen den Fluorkräften, die runden, ich möchte sagen, eben mit Händen zu greifen ist. Aber wiederum [ist es] so ein Prozeß, der sich in allen möglichen Wendungen [darlebt] bei den Zähnen tritt er auf von unten nach oben und sich oben rundend, aber er tritt auch auf von vorn nach rückwärts, von rückwärts nach vorn, von oben nach unten, sich nach unten hin rundend -, ein Prozeß, der sich überallhin darlebt. Und Sie können ihn zum Beispiel, ich möchte sagen, wiederum mit Händen greifen, diesen Prozeß, wenn Sie sich vorstellen, daß sich mit der Tendenz, ein Kugeliges nach vorn zu schieben, von außen nach innen, da etwas sich bildet, und daß dem sich entgegenstellt ein Kugelbildungsprozeß, von unten nach oben.

Und zwischen diesen beiden Prozessen drinnen liegt nun dasjenige, was das Vermittelnde ist, also Absonderungsprozesse, wiederum das Aufnehmen des Abgesonderten von andern und so weiter, dasjenige, was man im weitesten Sinne Absonderungsprozesse nennen kann; denn schließlich ist auch das Aufnehmen beruhend auf einer Absonderung nach innen, die wiederum resorbiert wird. Also dazwischen liegt wiederum dasjenige, was man Aussonderungsprozesse 1Im Stenogramm deutlich unterscheidbar: bis hierher «Absonderungsprozesse», nun «Aussonderungsprozesse». am besten nennen kann.
Solch einen Aussonderungsprozeß können Sie wiederum mit Händen greifen, wenn Sie sich hier denken, daß auf der einen Seite dasjenige liegt, was den Kohlenstoff fortwährend aussondern will (orange), und dasjenige, was ihn wiederum aufnimmt in der Kohlensäurebildung (weiß) durch die Atmung von vorne.

Dann setzt sich dahinter 2Laut Stenogramm auch «da hinunter» möglich. ein solcher Aussonderungsprozeß fort. Und wenn Sie noch weiter herunterkommen in den Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenprozeß, dann haben Sie richtig einen Befestigungsprozeß. Aber dieser Befestigungsprozeß, der ist auch vorhanden nun nach der andern Richtung. Sie können das verfolgen da, wo Sie wiederum, ich möchte sagen, (es) mit Händen greifen können, wenn Sie darangehen, zu betrachten das Auge, es wird von außen herein gebildet, das zeigt Ihnen schon die Embryologie, aber es wird von innen her befestigt. Es wird verinnerlicht die Bildung. Darauf beruht ja die Entstehung des Auges. Es wird verinner licht.

So daß wir diesen Befestigungsprozeß, indem wir zu dem GeistigSeelischen vorschreiten im Menschen, also zu den Organen des GeistigSeelischen, zu den Sinnesorganen vorschreiten, daß wir diesen Befestigungsprozeß sich vergeistigend haben, sich wirklich verseelend, vergeistigend haben in der Wahrnehmung. Das ist gewissermaßen der heruntersteigende Prozeß, der bis zur Organbildung führt [siehe Schema S....]. Dann finden wir am untersten Ende den Wahrnehmungsprozeß, das gegenständliche Wahrnehmen. Bildet sich das weiter aus, entwickelt es sich so weiter, dann wird das Wahrnehmen gegen das Befestigen zu, wenn es bewußt wird am Befestigen, wird es zur Imagination. Wenn die Imagination sich weiter entwickelt und bewußt wird gegen den Aussonderungsprozeß zu, dann wird sie zum Inspirieren. Und wenn das Inspirieren sich weiter entwickelt gegen den Bildungsprozeß zu und da bewußt an den Bildungsprozeß heranstößt, also die Bildung durchschaut, dann wird sie zum Intuitieren. Man kann entwickeln diese Stufenfolge des seelischen Lebens von dem gegenständlichen Wahrnehmen zum Imaginieren, zum Inspirieren, zum Intuitieren.
Aber diesem Prozeß, den man da entwickelt im Seelischen, dem liegt ja der Werdeprozefßs zugrunde. Er ist nur, wie Sie hier auch sehen, die Umkehrung des Werdeprozesses. Man tritt dem Gewordenen entgegen und steigt wiederum hinauf ins Werden in umgekehrter Richtung. Das Bilden ist in absteigender Richtung. Man steigt in umgekehrter Richtung hinauf, man schreitet dem Werden entgegen. So daß das, was man als Wahrnehmen und Erkenntniskräfte in Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition ausbildet, daß das immer seine Gegenwirkung hat in den schöpferischen Kräften, in den schöpferischen Kräften, die sich in den Bildekräften, in den Aussonderungsprozessen, in den Befestigungsprozessen ausdrücken.
Und Sie werden daraus ersehen, daß im menschlichen Organismus dasjenige in umgekehrter Richtung tätig ist beim Schaffen, beim Entstehen, in das man hineinsteigt, wenn man sich im Erkennen aufschwingt. Sie werden daraus sehen, daß es wirklich so ist, daß dasjenige, was wir in der Imagination erreichen, dieselben Kräfte sind, die da ohne unser Bewußtsein in den Wachstumserscheinungen sich geltend machen, in den plastischen Wachstumserscheinungen sich geltend machen. Wenn wir aufsteigen zur Inspiration, so kommen wir an die Kräfte heran, die von außen herein bei der Atmung den Menschen inspirieren, beim Atmen den Menschen durchbilden, die sich da in die plastischen Kräfte, als sie gewissermaßen durcharbeitend, hineingestalten. Und wenn wir zum Intuitieren aufsteigen, so steigen wir eigentlich zu dem Agens auf, das sich in unseren plastischen Formen als die substantielle Wesenheit von der Außenwelt herein begibt.
Sie sehen also, wir fassen da den Menschen, aus dem Kosmos heraus sich gestaltend, und wenn wir jetzt unsere Kenntnisse anwenden, die wir uns erworben haben in irgendeiner Weise durch Anatomie oder durch Physiologie, und sie durchleuchten mit dem, was uns da gegeben ist, dann fangen wir an, die Organe und ihre Funktionen zu verstehen. Es ist das also ein Hinweis auf das Verstehen der Organe und ihrer Funktionen. So daß in demjenigen, was plastisch immer wirkt am Menschen, was den Menschen normal, ich möchte sagen durchplastiziert, daß das auf der andern Seite - nehmen Sie Jetzt den gestrigen Vortrag zu Hilfe -, daß das auf der andern Seite lebt in den konsonantierenden Bewegungen, die da ja gerade unbewußte Imaginationskräfte, wie ich gestern sagte, nämlich eine Art Durchträumen 3Im Stenogramm nicht eindeutig zu entziffern, «Durchströmen» wäre auch möglich. Siehe auch den Hinweis S. 152. des Organismus hervorrufen. Sie durchschauen da also, wie das konsonantierende Eurythmisieren mangelnde Bildekräfte im Menschen, mangelnde plastische Kräfte ergreift und sie in die richtige Plastik überführt.
Nehmen wir also ein Kind und sehen wir, daß eine mangelhafte Plastik vorliegt, daß die Plastik zu stark wuchert. Was heißt das: die Plastik wuchert zu stark? Das heißt, die Plastik wirkt zentrifugal, macht den Kopf groß, indem sie zentrifugal wirkt, und läßt ihn, weil er zu groß wird, nicht dazu kommen, sich in der richtigen Weise mit imaginierenden Kräften zu durchdringen. Die muß man zuführen. Also lasse man das Kind eurythmisieren in konsonantischer Weise.
Frage: Ein zwei Jahre alter Knabe, mit großem Kopf, jedoch kein Wasserkopf, sonst scheinbar gesund.
Sie haben tatsächlich im konsonantierenden Eurythmisieren, das richtig angewendet wird, das Gegenmittel, um dem beizukommen. Hier kommen wir eben auf die Stelle, wo eine gründliche Beobachtung des Morphologischen, des tieferen Morphologischen gerade hinweist auf die eurythmisierende Behandlung. Oder:
Ein zwölfdreiviertel Jahre alter Knabe, dessen Längenwuchs auffallend zurückgeblieben ist, organisch ohne Befund, jedoch Würmerbesitzer ...,4Lücke im Stenogramm. intelligent, aber geistig schnell ermüdbar.
Ein außerordentlich interessanter Symptomenkomplex, alles darauf hinweisend, daß nicht genügend imaginative Kräfte da sind, daß die plastischen Organkräfte wuchern, weil nicht genügend innere plastische Kräfte, seelisch plastische Kräfte da sind. Die seelisch plastischen Kräfte sind es ja nun auch, die die Parasiten zerstören. Es ist also kein Wunder, wenn sie zu wenig da sind, daß das ein Würmerbesitzer ist. Also lasse man ihn konsonantierend eurythmisieren, und man hat das Gegenmittel gegeben. Diese Zusammenhänge, die weisen Sie ja direkt darauf hin, wo Sie mit der Eurythmie einzugreifen haben. Denn wenn diese Erscheinungen etwas, ich möchte sagen, kaschiert auftreten, nun, dann kann man selbst noch bei solchen kaschierten Fällen außerordentlich günstig mit Eurythmie wirken, insbesondere, wenn man dann noch in einer materiell therapeutischen Weise der Sache entgegenkommt.
So zum Beispiel ist mir eine interessante Frage vorgelegt worden. Es ist natürlich, daß ich diese Frage im Prinzip zu beantworten habe. Wenn irgendwelche Komplikationen eintreten, so könnten dann bei der speziellen Sache diese Komplikationen besonders berücksichtigt werden; aber wenn auch irgend etwas anderes kombiniert werden muß mit der Sache, so ist dennoch die Sache von der einen Seite her mit dem, was da charakterisiert werden kann, durchaus getroffen:
Ich habe ein fünfjähriges Kind als Patient, das bei den Unruhen durch Schußverletzung viel Blut verloren hat; vor zwei Jahren stellte sich eine Deformierung der Gelenke ein ...5Von Helene Finckh wurde die Lücke im Stenogramm wie hier wiedergegeben gekennzeichnet und in der Übertragung der nachfolgende Satz in runden Klammern beigefügt, obwohl er nicht im Stenogramm festgehalten ist. (Dinge, die später zu Bleichsucht und dergleichen bei Erwachsenen führen.) Wie wäre dem therapeutisch beizukommen?
Ja sehen Sie, da haben Sie Gelenkdeformation. Das ist ein schon nach außen Wirken der plastischen Kräfte, die nicht mehr im Inneren bleiben können, die also schon nach außen strahlen, so daß sie den Menschen verlassen, statt daß sie im Inneren wirken würden. Die werden im eminentesten Sinne zurückgestrahlt gerade durch die Anwendung des konsonantischen Eurythmisierens. Denn Sie rufen ja im konsonantischen Eurythmisieren eben die wirksamen, die objektiv wirksamen Imaginationen hervor, die Deformierungen ausgleichen. In der Zukunft - darauf ist schon bei der Fragestellung ganz richtig hingewiesen worden - in der Zukunft werden die Menschen überhaupt in der mannigfaltigsten Weise zu Deformierungen neigen, weil sie nicht mehr auf 6Im Stenogramm möglicherweise auch «in». den unwillkürlich wirksamen Kräften die normalisierende Gestalt werden bilden können. Der Mensch wird frei; er wird sogar frei werden nach und nach in bezug auf die Bildung seiner eigenen Gestalt, aber er muß dann mit der Freiheit etwas anfangen können. Er muß also übergehen zu dem Erzeugen von Imaginationen, meine lieben Freunde, die dem Deformieren immer entgegenwirken.
Nun das andere, sehen Sie, hier haben wir es zu tun mit mangelhafter objektiver Imagination; wir können es auch zu tun haben mit mangelhafter objektiver Inspiration, was sich dann äußert durch - wenn ich so sagen darf - Deformierung des rhythmischen Systems. Diese Deformierung des rhythmischen Systems, die drückt sich ja ganz besonders dadurch aus, daß die objektive Inspiration, die nach innen geht, nicht in der richtigen Weise entgegenkommt dem Zirkulationsrhythmus. Und da wirkt man normalisierend, wenn man das vokalisierende Eurythmisieren anwendet. Dieses vokalisierende Eurythmisieren, das wirkt ebenso auf solche Unregelmäßigkeiten im Inneren, die eben nicht von morphologischen Veränderungen begleitet sind, wie das konsonantierende Eurythmisieren eben auf Deformierungen oder auf Neigungen zu Deformierungen wirkt.
Ich sagte früher, daß es ja allerdings notwendig sein kann, so etwas zu unterstützen, wenn es in besonders radikaler Weise auftritt, wie bei der Deformierung der Gelenke, die wir gerade jetzt besprochen haben. Da ist es dann notwendig, daß man therapeutisch zu Hilfe kommt dem Prozeß des konsonantierenden Eurythmisierens, der also so wirkt, daß er namentlich anregt durch diese Imagination die innere Atmung der von außen nach innen gehenden, jenseits der Darmwände nach innen zu gelegenen Organe: Lunge, Nieren, Leber und so weiter, daß man diesem Prozeß zu Hilfe kommt. Es ist ja schon einmal so, wenn man konsonantierend eurythmisiert, dann beginnen besonders der Hinterkopf, die Lunge, die Leber, die Nieren ein Funkeln und Funkensprühen, das tatsächlich etwas ist, was zeigt, wie die Reaktion ist, die geistig-seelische Reaktion ist auf dasjenige, was im Konsonantieren außen gemacht wird. Der ganze Mensch wird in diesen Organen ein leuchtendes Wesen, und den Bewegungen, die ausgeführt werden, setzen sich immer Leuchtebewegungen im Inneren entgegen, und insbesondere bei gewissen konsonantierenden Bewegungen entsteht, ich möchte sagen, eine ganze Leuchtenachbildung des Absonderungsprozesses der Niere. Man bekommt gewissermaßen ein Bild des ganzen Absonderungsprozesses der Niere in diesem Leuchteprozeß, der da auftritt durch das konsonantierende Eurythmisieren. Und das wirkt dann hinüber in die unbewußten Imaginationen, und der ganze Prozeß, wo diese Partie so zu leuchten beginnt, das ist ja derselbe Prozeß, den ich speziell als den unter dem Einflusse des Cuprum geschildert habe; es ist derselbe Prozeß. Und hier ist auch der Ort, wo man gerade den Arzt darauf hinweisen kann, daß es ja auch Menschen gibt, die gewisse Krankheitsformen haben. Diese Krankheitsformen, gestern nach dem Abendvortrag wurden sie mir erst wiederum, ich möchte sagen, entgegengetragen, diese Krankheitsformen, indem mir jedenfalls von einer gewissen Seite her außerordentlich bewunderte Zeichnungen gebracht wurden, bemalte Zeichnungen, von denen gefragt worden ist, ob sie nun ganz besonders okkultistisch sind. Sie sind natürlich okkultistisch in einer gewissen Weise, aber es ist außerordentlich schwer, zu den Leuten über diese Dinge zu reden, denn solche Dinge, die sind objektiv fixiertes Nierenleuchten, sie sind objektiv fixierter Ausharnungsprozeß. Dieser objektiv fixierte Ausharnungsprozeß wird, wenn er in abnormer Weise bei gewissen krankhaft angelegten Menschen zum Leuchteprozeß wird, wenn also eine gewisse Stockung der Harnabsonderung eintritt, also eine reine Stoffwechselkrankheit, dann beginnen die Nieren zu leuchten. Und wenn dann dieses besondere, nach innen gewendete Hellsehen eintritt, dann fangen die Leute an, wild zu zeichnen. Das wird immer schön, äußerlich im formalen Sinne immer schön. Die aufgetragenen Farben werden immer schön. Natürlich sind die Leute nicht zufrieden, wenn man ihnen sagt: Ja, du hast da etwas sehr Schönes gemalt, das ist nämlich deine abgestaute Harnabsonderung. - Ich kann Ihnen die Versicherung geben, daß abgestaute Harnabsonderung und verhaltene Geschlechtssehnsuchten, die ja auch in einer gewissen Weise in Unregelmäßigkeiten des Stoffwechsels münden, daß die einem entgegengehalten werden von besonders mystischen Naturen als tief mystische Zeichnungen und Malereien, und daß man in vielem, was in dieser Art in der Welt auftritt, Symptome sehen soll für gerade noch erträgliche Krankheitsabnormitäten der Menschen.
Sie sehen, anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft ist nicht in dem Sinne Mystik, wie viele Menschen das verstehen, denn sie gibt sich keinen Illusionen hin über solche Dinge, wie sie eben charakterisiert worden sind. Sie erforscht im Gegenteil gerade solche Dinge. Aber die Leute nehmen einem das übel. Sie nehmen mir schon übel, daß ich in den öffentlichen Vorträgen so weit gegangen bin, anzudeuten, daß zum Beispiel - wenn auch die Sachen nicht gezeichnet wurden, sondern poetisch sich auslebten -, die schöne Poesie der Mechthild von Magdeburg oder der heiligen Therese die Abbilder sind, also die Inspirationsreflexe sind von demjenigen, was Prozesse sind, die durch zurückgehaltene Sexualität entstehen. Natürlich ist es den Leuten dann nicht angenehm, wenn man ihnen eine Mechthild von Magdeburg oder eine heilige Therese schildert: Nun ja, das sind eben Persönlichkeiten mit einer starken Sexualität, die sie aber gerade deshalb, weil sie ihnen zu stark wurde, zurückgehalten haben; dadurch entstehen gewisse Stoffwechsel-Zirkulationsprozesse, auf diese hin finden Reaktionen statt, die so auftreten, daß sie dann fixiert werden in sehr schönen Dichtungen. Ja, das Phänomen, in einem höheren Sinne betrachtet, führt außerordentlich tief hinein in die Geheimnisse des Daseins. Aber man muß sich eben hinaufschwingen können zu einer solchen Auffassung. Und deshalb muß man schon auch etwas wenigstens ahnen von diesen eigentümlichen Prozessen, die als innere Prozesse aufleuchten, wenn äußerlich eurythmisiert wird, und namentlich dann, wenn dasjenige, was nun innerlich in die Dichtung hineingeheimnißt ist, wenn das eurythmisiert wird, so wie ich Ihnen das gestern gezeigt habe, wenn vorgelesen wird ein schönes Gedicht, danach eurythmisiert wird in entsprechender Weise, so wie wir es gestern gesehen haben, konsonantierend oder vokaliisierend; dann kreuzt sich das eben noch mit dem andern, dann tritt hinzu zu dem, was da äußerlich in Bewegungen ausgeführt wird, auch beim Eurythmisierenden ein innerliches stummes Sprechen. Und wenn der Prozeß nun nicht ausgeschwült wird in schwülen Dichtungen, sondern wenn der Prozeß einfach so verläuft, daß er der Begleiter, der eurythmische Begleitprozeß ist von schönen Dichtungen, dann ist dasjenige, was im Menschen vorgeht, eben nicht ein solches Aufzeichnen von Mystischem, sondern es ist ein durchaus den Menschen gesundmachender Prozeß. So daß man sagen kann, wenn man eurythmisieren läßt geradeso, daß man immer den Patienten aufmerksam macht: Höre gut zu, bringe dir stark zum Bewußtsein den gehörten Laut, den gehörten Satzzusammenhang, nach dem du die Eurythmie machst -, dann wird man ihn aufsteigen lassen gerade zu den äußeren Bildungskräften, zu den objektiv intuitierenden Kräften. Und man wird gut tun, wenn man auf alles dasjenige wirken will, was sich im Menschen findet als Rest von dem, was nicht mehr sich abgespielt hat zwischen Geburt und Tod, sondern was der Materialismus Vererbung nennt, wovon aber ein großer Teil eben aus dem präexistenten geistig-seelischen Leben mitgebracht ist, wenn man also wirken will auf dasjenige, was man angeborene Fehler, Defekte und so weiter nennen kann, dann wird man gut tun, insbesondere im jugendlichen Alter immer wieder und wiederum so durch die Eurythmie zu wirken, daß man den Eurythmisierenden immer wieder auffordert: Mache dir ganz klar dasjenige, was du im Äußeren hörst. — Dadurch werden ja auch vertrieben alle diejenigen Tendenzen, die das innerlich fixieren wollen, was etwa da entstehen will in so etwas wie das mystische Zeichnen oder mystische Dichten. Es wird ja gerade das angeschlossen an das äußere schöne Gedicht. Es ist der umgekehrte Prozeß. Ein richtiger Mystiker, der weiß, daß dasjenige, was der Mensch an Schönem reflektiert als gerade Abnormes, daß das immer eine bedenkliche Seite hat. Dagegen wenn dasjenige, was in der Außenwelt schön ist, innerlich erlebt wird, dann kann man nicht sagen, daß es sich einem als besonders großartig schönes Gebilde darstellt; im Gegenteil, es schematisiert sich, es wird abstrakt dadurch, aber abstrakt als Zeichnung, so wie eine Zeichnung abstrakt ist. Aber das ist gerade das Gesunde, das ist das Erleben.6Schlecht leserlich im Stenogramm, in der Umschrift von Helene Finckh «das Erwünschte». Und nicht wahr, es wäre ja dieser schöne historische Prozeß nicht hervorgetreten: aber wenn zum Beispiel die Mechthild von Magdeburg veranlaßt worden wäre, nach guten Gedichten zu eurythmisieren, dann wäre sie bewahrt geblieben vor ihrem ganzen mystischen Schicksal. Man kann natürlich, wenn man an diesen Punkt kommt, sagen: Da kommt man an einen Punkt, wo gewissermaßen das Gute und das Böse in einer gewissen Weise aufhört. Da kommt man in die amoralische Nietzsche-Sphäre, in das «Jenseits von Gut und Böse», und man kann ja natürlich nicht so philiströs sein, daß man sagt, es sollen alle Mechthilds von Magdeburg mit Stumpf und Stiel ausgetilgt werden. Aber auf der andern Seite können Sie schon sicher sein, daß wiederum von den übersinnlichen Welten aus gut gesorgt wird, daß, wenn auch der Mensch nicht gerade das wuchern läßt, daß dann eben trotzdem die entsprechenden Zusammenhänge mit der übersinnlichen Welt bleiben.
Nun möchte ich noch auf ein paar Dinge eingehen, die vielleicht doch noch einiges aufklären können, trotzdem ja unsere Zeit schon sehr vorgeschritten ist. Ich möchte da zunächst namentlich auf die Frage eingehen:
Könnten die therapeutischen Eurythmieübungen nicht durch rationelle Atemübungen unterstützt werden? Es braucht ja nicht gleich Hatha-Yoga zu sein.
Nun, dazu habe ich das Folgende zu bemerken: Rationelle Atemübungen zur Unterstützung der Eurythmieübungen, die sind für unsere Zeit bei der gegenwärtigen, und auch in der nun einmal eingeschlagenen Richtung immer weitergehenden Menschennatur nur in der folgenden Weise zu behandeln. Man wird nämlich bemerken, daß unter dem Einflusse namentlich des vokalisierenden Eurythmisierens von selbst eine Tendenz zur Änderung des Atmungsrhythmus entsteht. Das wird man bemerken. Und nun steht man eben vor der Unbequemlichkeit, daß man hier nicht schablonisieren soll, nicht irgend etwas im Allgemeinen sagen soll, sondern daß man dasjenige, was man tun soll, erst beobachten soll. Man soll sich im einzelnen individuellen Fall damit befassen, die Atmung eines Menschen, dem man nach sonstigem Befunde mit vokalisierendem Eurythmisieren heilend helfen will, diese Atmungsänderung zu beobachten, und dann soll man ihn darauf aufmerksam machen, daß er bewußt diese Tendenz nun fortsetzt. Denn wir sind nicht mehr Menschen, wie es die alten Orientalen waren, die den umgekehrten Weg gehen können, durch vorgeschriebenes Atmen den ganzen Menschen wiederum zu beeinflussen. Das ist etwas, was unter allen Umständen, wenn es so oder so vorgeschrieben wird, zu inneren Schocks führt, und was eigentlich vermieden werden sollte. Wir sollten, wir müssen eben lernen, dasjenige zu beobachten, was uns die Eurythmie lehrt, namentlich die vokalisierende Eurythmie lehrt über ihren eigenen Einfluß auf den Atmungsprozeß. Und dann können wir bewußt fortsetzen dasjenige, was im einzelnen Falle eurythmisch auftritt. Sie werden da nämlich durchaus sehen, daß dieser Prozeß, dieser Atmungsprozeß in einer gewissen Weise individuell, das heißt, verschieden für die verschiedenen Menschen eben fortgesetzt wird.
Nun, das, meine verehrten Freunde, sind ungefähr diejenigen Dinge, die sich noch beantworten lassen. Es ist keine rechte Möglichkeit vorhanden, auf einiges, was ja allerdings noch steckengeblieben ist, einzugehen wegen der Kürze der Zeit. Am Schlusse möchte ich Ihnen nur mit ein paar Worten sagen, meine lieben Freunde, daß Sie sich darauf gefaßt machen müssen, daß von Ihren medizinischen Kollegen in der Welt nicht minder der Kampf ausgehen wird, sobald sie in einer starken Weise gewahr werden, daß sich da irgend etwas von unserer Art geltend macht, und daf3 Sie schon brauchen die Überzeugungs-Durchschlagskraft, welche wird dasjenige, was Ihnen entgegentreten wird, ablähmen können. Es darf einen natürlich niemals dasjenige, was sich da entgegensetzt, dazu veranlassen, die Dinge zu unterlassen, aber wir dürfen uns auch über all diejenigen Kräfte, die wir als antagonistische aufrufen, eben durchaus keinen Illusionen hingeben.
Auch am Ende dieses Kursus wiederum möchte ich sagen, daß es durchaus von mir überall eingehalten wird, daß ich, um die Bewegung so, wie sie Jetzt inauguriert werden soll auf dem medizinischen Felde, möglich zu machen, daß ich selber mich Patienten gegenüber nicht unmittelbar in Heilungsprozesse einmischen werde, sondern nur besprechend, diskutierend, ratend mit Ärzten selber, so daß Sie ja immer in der Lage sein können, zurückzuweisen dasjenige, was etwa darauf hinginge, daß ich selber in irgendeiner Weise in das Kurieren eingreifen wollte in unberechtigter Art. Das ist dasjenige, was ich schon am Schlusse des letzten Kursus gesagt habe. Es wird einen ja auch das, namentlich — das kann schon nicht verschwiegen werden - von anthroposophischer Seite, außerordentlich schwer gemacht, weil die Menschen natürlich mit allen möglichen Zumutungen nach dieser Richtung kommen. Es ist ja durchaus auch das der Fall, daß in Anthroposophen auch die Tendenz liegt, nicht etwa über den Egoismus hinauszukommen, sondern manchmal noch egoistischer zu werden, als die normalen Menschen sind, und dann wird es einem gegebenenfalls wirklich ganz gleichgültig, höchst gleichgültig, was das Heil der Bewegung ist, daß das Heil der Bewegung darauf beruht, daß nicht im einzelnen Fall dasjenige ausgeführt werden soll, was die Außenwelt eben als «Kurpfuscherei» bezeichnet, sondern daß der Gesundungsprozeß der ganzen Medizin vor sich gehen soll, und daß der nicht gestört werden soll durch dasjenige, was der einzelne vielleicht manchmal aus seinen persönlichen Aspirationen heraus eben für Anforderungen stellt. Es wird einem das sehr schwer, aber es muß in dieser Richtung durchgeführt werden, denn wir werden nur dann gerade auf diesem Gebiete durchkommen können, wenn wir der Außenwelt entgegenhalten können — was auch sonst in unserer anthroposophischen Bewegung der Fall ist, insofern sie mit Verständnis getrieben wird, nicht verballhornt wird von den Unverständigen -, wir müssen in der Lage sein, einfach dadurch, daß wir wissen, was in der anthroposophischen Bewegung vorgeht, zu sagen: Das, was da gesagt wird, ist ganz gewiß eine Lüge, ist ganz gewiß erfunden. — Das müssen wiir in gewissen Fällen eben einfach immer sagen können. Das können wir aber sagen, wenn wir innerlich in all dasjenige, ich möchte sagen, eingeweiht sind, was in solchen Dingen besteht, auf die ich hier aufmerksam gemacht habe, daß ich nicht in Heilungsprozesse direkt eingreife, sondern daß zum Heilen gegenüber den Patienten eben diejenigen da sind, die als Ärzte innerhalb unserer anthroposophischen Bewegung funktionieren.
Indem ich das noch sagen mußte, möchte ich nichts anderes mehr hinzufügen als das, meine lieben Freunde, daß gerade in Ihnen diese Anregungen, die ja gerade bei diesem Kurse oftmals nur in Andeutungen steckenbleiben mußten wegen der kurzen Zeit, daß diese Anregungen in Ihnen sich weiter verarbeiten mögen, und daß sie wirksam werden in der entsprechenden Weise zum Heile der Menschheit. Wir werden hoffentlich Gelegenheit haben, dasjenige, was wir jetzt zweimal begonnen haben, auf irgendeine Art weiterzuführen und wollen uns wenigstens bemühen, es in irgendeiner Art weiterzuführen. Mit diesem Wunsche schließe ich diese Betrachtungen ab, meine lieben Freunde, und ich hoffe, daß nach all diesen Richtungen hin unsere Taten unseren Wünschen entsprechen mögen. Es war ein sehr befriedigendes Gefühl, Sie hier zu sehen. Es wird ein befriedigendes Gefühl sein, zurückzudenken an die Tage, die Sie hier gerade zur Bereicherung der medizinischen Wissenschaft haben verbringen wollen, und die Gedanken, die uns zusammenhalten sollen, werden Sie auf den Wegen begleiten, meine lieben Freunde, auf denen Sie wandeln werden, um dasjenige in die Tat umzusetzen, was wiir hier versuchten, in Gedanken zunächst anzuregen.
Lecture from the 2nd Medical Course
What I have to say to you today with regard to eurythmy, my dear friends, is that it will always have to be understood in detail with the knowledge you have in physiological and other respects. How this is to be done will, I would say, become clear to you of its own accord. But precisely when we look into a spiritual-physical process such as that which takes place in eurythmy, we cannot help but point to deeper spiritual-physical connections. And, you see, I would now like to draw your attention to the following.
We must first look at the non-human world process, that non-human world process which is usually only followed in terms of its details, and which is not followed in terms of what is actually active within it. Just consider that earth formation in reality means: a formative tendency is coming in from the planetary sphere, and in addition, from that which still lies outside the planetary sphere, a formation is coming into the earth, continuous, radiant, expressing itself in the individual force entities, radiating toward the earth as cosmic forces.

We can now understand these cosmic forces in this context – although they can in turn encompass everything I said earlier about the rays, we can nevertheless consider them in this way – that we say they work towards the center and actually form what is on and in the Earth from outside. It is already the case, for example, that the entire metallicity of the earth, all metals, are not essentially formed by any forces from within the earth, but that they are actually brought into the earth from the cosmos. These forces, which work through the ether — not from the planets, because then they would work centrally; the planets are there precisely to modify them, it is the planetary sphere — we can call these forces the formative forces, the formative forces working from outside. In this context, I ask you to grasp this concept: formative forces. Opposing them are those forces which, in human beings and in the earth, absorb and consolidate these formative forces, gathering them around a center, so to speak, so that the earth can come into being. So these forces that consolidate, we can call them the forces of consolidation.

In human beings, they are present as forces that plastically form the organs, while the other forces, the formative forces, are those that push the organs from the spiritual-etheric world into the physical world. This is a process that can be grasped, so to speak, in the contrast between the pushing forces of magnesium and the fluorine forces that round things off. But again, it is a process that occurs in all kinds of variations. In the teeth, it occurs from bottom to top and rounds off at the top, but it also occurs from front to back, from back to front, from top to bottom, rounding off at the bottom — a process that occurs everywhere. And you can, for example, I would say, grasp this process with your hands when you imagine that with the tendency to push something spherical forward, from the outside to the inside, something is forming, and that this is opposed by a process of spherical formation, from the bottom to the top.

And between these two processes lies that which mediates, i.e., processes of separation, in turn the absorption of what has been separated from others, and so on, that which can be called processes of separation in the broadest sense; for ultimately, absorption is also based on an inward separation, which in turn is reabsorbed. So in between lies what can best be called processes of separation.
You can grasp such a separation process with your hands if you think here that on the one hand there is that which wants to continuously separate the carbon (orange), and on the other hand that which absorbs it again in the formation of carbon dioxide (white) through breathing from the front.

Then, behind this, 2According to the shorthand notes, “down there” is also possible. such a process of separation continues. And if you go even further down into the metabolic limb process, then you really have a fixation process. But this fixation process is also present in the other direction. You can follow this where you can, I would say, grasp it with your hands when you start to look at the eye. It is formed from the outside in, as embryology shows you, but it is attached from the inside. The formation is internalized. This is what the development of the eye is based on. It is internalized.

So that we have this process of attachment, as we advance to the spiritual-soul in the human being, that is, to the organs of the spiritual-soul, to the sense organs, that we have this process of attachment spiritualizing, truly soulifying, spiritualizing it in perception. This is, in a sense, the descending process that leads to organ formation [see diagram S....]. Then, at the lowest end, we find the process of perception, objective perception. If this continues to develop, perception becomes conscious of consolidation and turns into imagination. If imagination continues to develop and becomes conscious of the process of differentiation, it turns into inspiration. And if inspiration continues to develop toward the process of formation and consciously approaches the process of formation, that is, sees through formation, then it becomes intuition. One can develop this sequence of stages of soul life from objective perception to imagination, to inspiration, to intuition.
But this process, which is developed in the soul, is based on the process of becoming. As you can see here, it is simply the reversal of the process of becoming. One confronts what has become and ascends again into becoming in the opposite direction. Formation is in a descending direction. One ascends in the opposite direction, one strides toward becoming. So that what one develops as powers of perception and cognition in imagination, inspiration, and intuition always has its counteraction in the creative powers, in the creative powers that express themselves in the formative powers, in the processes of separation, in the processes of consolidation.
And you will see from this that in the human organism, the opposite is at work in creation, in becoming, which one enters into when one rises to knowledge. You will see from this that it is really true that what we achieve in imagination are the same forces that assert themselves without our consciousness in the phenomena of growth, in the plastic phenomena of growth. When we ascend to inspiration, we approach the forces that inspire human beings from outside during breathing, that shape human beings during breathing, that form themselves into the plastic forces as they work through them, so to speak. And when we ascend to intuition, we actually ascend to the agent that enters our plastic forms as the substantial entity from the outside world.
So you see, we grasp the human being as forming itself out of the cosmos, and when we now apply the knowledge we have acquired in some way through anatomy or physiology and examine it with what is given to us, then we begin to understand the organs and their functions. This is therefore an indication of the understanding of the organs and their functions. So that in what always has a plastic effect on the human being, what makes the human being normal, I would say plasticized, that on the other hand — take yesterday's lecture as an aid — that on the other hand lives in the consonant movements, which are precisely unconscious powers of imagination, as I said yesterday, namely a kind of dreaming through 3Not clearly decipherable in the shorthand notes, “flowing through” would also be possible. See also the note on p. 152. of the organism. So you can see how consonant eurythmy takes hold of the lack of formative forces in humans, the lack of plastic forces, and transforms them into the right plasticity.
Let us take a child and see that there is a lack of plasticity, that the plasticity is growing too strongly. What does it mean to say that the plasticity is growing too strongly? It means that the plasticity has a centrifugal effect, making the head large, and because it becomes too large, it cannot be permeated in the right way with imaginative forces. These forces must be introduced. So let the child do eurythmy in a consonant way.
Question: A two-year-old boy with a large head, but no hydrocephalus, otherwise apparently healthy.
You actually have the antidote to this in consonant eurythmy, when applied correctly. Here we come to the point where a thorough observation of the morphological, the deeper morphological, points precisely to eurythmic treatment. Or:
A twelve-and-three-quarter-year-old boy whose growth in height is noticeably stunted, organically without findings, but with worms ...,4Gap in the shorthand notes. intelligent, but mentally quick to tire.
An extremely interesting complex of symptoms, all pointing to insufficient imaginative powers, to the proliferation of plastic organ powers because there are insufficient inner plastic powers, soul plastic powers. It is the soul's plastic forces that destroy the parasites. So it is no wonder that if there are too few of them, the person is infested with worms. So let him do consonant eurythmy, and you will have given him the antidote. These connections point directly to where you need to intervene with eurythmy. For if these phenomena occur in a somewhat concealed manner, then even in such concealed cases, eurythmy can have an extremely beneficial effect, especially if one then also approaches the matter in a material therapeutic way.
For example, I have been presented with an interesting question. It is natural that I should answer this question in principle. If any complications arise, these complications could be taken into account in this particular case; but even if something else has to be combined with the case, the case is still perfectly covered from one side with what can be characterized there:
I have a five-year-old child as a patient who lost a lot of blood due to a gunshot wound during the unrest; two years ago, a deformation of the joints developed ... 5Helene Finckh marked the gap in the shorthand as reproduced here and added the following sentence in parentheses in the transcription, although it is not recorded in the shorthand. (Things that later lead to anemia and the like in adults.) How could this be treated therapeutically?
Yes, you see, you have joint deformation. This is an outward effect of the plastic forces that can no longer remain inside, that is, they already radiate outward, so that they leave the person instead of acting inside. They are reflected back in the most eminent sense precisely through the application of consonantal eurythmy. For in consonantal eurythmy you evoke the effective, objectively effective imaginations that compensate for the deformities. In the future — as has already been correctly pointed out in the question — in the future, people will tend toward deformities in the most diverse ways because they will no longer be able to form the normalizing shape with the involuntarily effective forces. the involuntarily effective forces to form the normalizing shape. Man will become free; he will even gradually become free in relation to the formation of his own shape, but he must then be able to do something with this freedom. He must therefore move on to creating imaginations, my dear friends, that always counteract deformation.
Now the other thing, you see, here we are dealing with deficient objective imagination; we may also be dealing with deficient objective inspiration, which then manifests itself in — if I may say so — deformation of the rhythmic system. This deformation of the rhythmic system is expressed particularly in the fact that the objective inspiration, which goes inward, does not correspond in the right way to the rhythm of circulation. And here, one has a normalizing effect when one applies vocalizing eurythmy. This vocalizing eurythmy has the same effect on such internal irregularities that are not accompanied by morphological changes as consonant eurythmy has on deformations or tendencies toward deformations.
I said earlier that it may indeed be necessary to support something like this when it occurs in a particularly radical way, such as the deformation of the joints that we have just discussed. In such cases, it is necessary to provide therapeutic support to the process of consonant eurythmy, which works by stimulating, through this imagination, the inner breathing of the organs located beyond the intestinal walls, from the outside to the inside: lungs, kidneys, liver, and so on, so that this process is supported. It is already the case that when one performs consonant eurythmy, the back of the head, the lungs, the liver, and the kidneys in particular begin to sparkle and sparkle, which is actually something that shows how the reaction, the spiritual-soul reaction, is to what is being done externally in consonant eurythmy. The whole human being becomes a luminous being in these organs, and the movements that are performed are always countered by luminous movements within, and in particular with certain consonant movements, I would say that a whole luminous reproduction of the secretion process of the kidney arises. In a sense, one gets a picture of the entire secretory process of the kidney in this luminous process that occurs through consonant eurythmy. And this then has an effect on the unconscious imaginations, and the whole process, where this part begins to glow, is the same process that I have described specifically as being under the influence of Cuprum; it is the same process. And this is also the place where one can point out to the physician that there are also people who have certain forms of illness. These forms of illness were brought to my attention again yesterday after the evening lecture, I would say, when I was shown some drawings that were greatly admired by a certain group of people, painted drawings, and I was asked whether they were particularly occult. Of course, they are occult in a certain way, but it is extremely difficult to talk to people about these things, because such things are objectively fixed kidney light, they are objectively fixed urination processes. This objectively fixed urination process, when it becomes a glowing process in an abnormal way in certain people with a pathological disposition, when a certain stagnation of urine secretion occurs, i.e., a pure metabolic disease, then the kidneys begin to glow. And when this special, inward-turned clairvoyance occurs, people begin to draw wildly. It always becomes beautiful, outwardly beautiful in the formal sense. The colors applied always become beautiful. Of course, people are not satisfied when you tell them: Yes, you have painted something very beautiful, but it is your stagnant urine secretion. I can assure you that pent-up urine and restrained sexual desires, which in a certain way also lead to metabolic irregularities, are presented to you by particularly mystical natures as deeply mystical drawings and paintings, and that in much of what occurs in this way in the world, one should see symptoms of just barely tolerable pathological abnormalities in human beings.
You see, anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is not mysticism in the sense that many people understand it, because it does not indulge in illusions about such things as have just been characterized. On the contrary, it investigates precisely such things. But people resent this. They already resent me for going so far in my public lectures as to suggest that, for example—even though the things were not drawn but expressed poetically—the beautiful poetry of Mechthild of Magdeburg or St. Therese are reflections that is, the inspirational reflexes of processes that arise from repressed sexuality. Of course, people are not comfortable when you describe Mechthild of Magdeburg or Saint Teresa to them: Well, these are personalities with a strong sexuality, but precisely because it became too strong for them, they restrained it; this gives rise to certain metabolic circulation processes, to which reactions occur that are then fixed in very beautiful poetry. Yes, viewed in a higher sense, this phenomenon leads extraordinarily deeply into the mysteries of existence. But one must be able to rise to such a conception. And that is why one must at least have some inkling of these peculiar processes that light up as inner processes when eurythmy is performed externally, and especially when that which is now mysteriously contained within the poem is eurythmized, as I showed you yesterday, when a beautiful poem is read aloud and then eurythmized in the appropriate manner, as we saw yesterday, consonantizing or vocalizing; then this intersects with the other, and then, in addition to what is performed externally in movements, an inner silent speech also occurs in the eurythmist. And if the process is not exaggerated in sultry poetry, but if the process simply proceeds in such a way that it is the companion, the eurythmic accompanying process of beautiful poetry, then what goes on in the human being is not such a recording of the mystical, but it is a process that is thoroughly healing for the human being. So that one can say, if one lets eurythmy be performed in such a way that one always makes the patient aware: Listen carefully, bring to your consciousness the sound you hear, the context of the sentence you hear, according to which you perform the eurythmy – then one will let it rise directly to the outer formative forces, to the objectively intuitive forces. And it is good to work on everything that is found in the human being as a remnant of what has not taken place between birth and death, but what materialism calls heredity, a large part of which is brought along from pre-existing spiritual and soul life. If one wants to work on what one can call congenital defects, defects, and so on, then one would do well, especially in youth, to work again and again through eurythmy in such a way that one repeatedly asks the eurythmist: Make yourself completely clear what you hear externally. — This also dispels all those tendencies that want to fix internally what wants to arise in something like mystical drawing or mystical poetry. It is precisely this that is connected to the beautiful poem on the outside. It is the reverse process. A true mystic knows that what human beings reflect as beautiful as something abnormal always has a questionable side. On the other hand, when what is beautiful in the external world is experienced internally, one cannot say that it presents itself as a particularly magnificent beautiful formation; on the contrary, it becomes schematized, it becomes abstract, but abstract as a drawing, just as a drawing is abstract. But that is precisely what is healthy, that is the experience. 6Poorly legible in the shorthand notes, in Helene Finckh's transcription “the desired.” And it is true that this beautiful historical process would not have emerged: but if, for example, Mechthild of Magdeburg had been prompted to eurythmize good poems, she would have been spared her entire mystical fate. Of course, when one comes to this point, one can say: One comes to a point where, in a sense, good and evil cease to exist in a certain way. One enters the amoral sphere of Nietzsche, the “beyond good and evil,” and of course one cannot be so philistine as to say that all Mechthilds of Magdeburg should be eradicated root and branch. But on the other hand, you can be sure that the supernatural worlds will take good care of things, so that even if people don't exactly let things run wild, the corresponding connections with the supernatural world will remain.
Now I would like to address a few things that may still clarify a few things, even though our time is already very advanced. I would like to start by addressing the question:
Could therapeutic eurythmy exercises be supported by rational breathing exercises? It doesn't have to be Hatha yoga.
Well, I have the following to say about this: Rational breathing exercises to support eurythmy exercises can only be treated in the following way in our time, given the current direction in which human nature is increasingly heading. One will notice that under the influence of vocal eurythmy in particular, a tendency to change the breathing rhythm arises automatically. One will notice this. And now one is faced with the inconvenience that one should not stereotype here, should not say anything in general, but should first observe what one should do. In each individual case, one should observe the breathing of a person whom one wants to help heal with vocal eurythmy, based on other findings, and then one should draw their attention to the fact that they should now consciously continue this tendency. For we are no longer human beings like the ancient Orientals, who could go the opposite way, influencing the whole human being again through prescribed breathing. This is something that, under all circumstances, if prescribed in one way or another, leads to inner shocks and should actually be avoided. We should, we must learn to observe what eurythmy teaches us, namely what vocal eurythmy teaches us about its own influence on the breathing process. And then we can consciously continue what occurs eurythmically in each individual case. You will see that this process, this breathing process, continues in a certain way individually, that is, differently for different people.
Well, my dear friends, those are roughly the things that can still be answered. There is no real opportunity to go into some of the things that have remained unanswered due to the shortness of time. In conclusion, I would just like to say a few words to you, my dear friends, that you must be prepared for the fact that your medical colleagues around the world will put up no less of a fight as soon as they become strongly aware that something of our kind is asserting itself, and that you will need the power of persuasion that will be able to defuse what will oppose you. Of course, what opposes us must never cause us to refrain from doing things, but we must also not harbour any illusions about all those forces that we call antagonistic.
At the end of this course, I would like to reiterate that I will adhere to my principle that, in order to make the movement possible in the medical field as it is now to be inaugurated, I myself will not intervene directly in healing processes with patients, but will only consult, discuss, advising with doctors themselves, so that you will always be in a position to reject anything that might suggest that I myself wanted to intervene in the healing process in any way that was unjustified. This is what I already said at the end of the last course. It is also made extremely difficult, especially from the anthroposophical side — this cannot be concealed — because people naturally come up with all kinds of unreasonable demands in this direction. It is also certainly the case that anthroposophists have a tendency not to overcome their egoism, but sometimes to become even more egoistic than normal people, and then one may become completely indifferent utterly indifferent to the welfare of the movement, that the welfare of the movement depends not on carrying out in individual cases what the outside world calls “quackery,” but on allowing the healing process of medicine as a whole to proceed, and that this should not be disturbed by what individuals may sometimes demand out of their personal aspirations. This is very difficult, but it must be done in this direction, because we will only be able to succeed in this area if we can counter the outside world — as is also the case in our anthroposophical movement, insofar as it is driven by understanding and not distorted by the uninformed — we must be in a position, simply because we know what is going on in the anthroposophical movement, to say: What is being said there is most certainly a lie, is most certainly invented. — In certain cases, we must simply always be able to say that. But we can say that if we are inwardly initiated, so to speak, into all that consists in such things to which I have drawn attention here, that I do not intervene directly in healing processes, but that those who function as doctors within our anthroposophical movement are there to heal the patients.
Having said that, I would like to add nothing more, my dear friends, than that these suggestions, which often had to remain only hints in this course due to the short time available, may continue to work in you and that they may become effective in the appropriate way for the healing of humanity. We will hopefully have the opportunity to continue what we have now begun twice in some way, and we will at least endeavor to continue it in some way. With this wish, I conclude these reflections, my dear friends, and I hope that after all these directions, our actions may correspond to our wishes. It was a very satisfying feeling to see you here. It will be a satisfying feeling to think back on the days you have spent here enriching medical science, and the thoughts that bind us together will accompany you on the paths you will walk, my dear friends, to put into practice what we have tried to inspire here in our thoughts.