Course for Young Doctors
Easter Course
GA 316
24 April 1924 a.m., Dornach
Lecture IV
I thought that today we would develop, in another direction, things that were mentioned yesterday. Perhaps this will help to give the questions you have put, and of which Dr. Wegman has told me, a right form.
Through your general destiny as human beings you are finding your way into the medical profession, into the vocation of healing. In this sphere you find a certain current to which, with full justification, you feel a kind of inner opposition. There are often objective reasons for this and you will understand what they are when you realize more and more that modern medicine is really like a foreign body in much of what constitutes European, Western civilization. We see for the first time how things really are when we realize that the reason why our natural science—and also a great deal else in modern spiritual life—has assumed its present form, is that people of importance in medicine and science within our culture were reincarnations of individualities from the Arabian-Mohammedan culture. These matters have recently been much spoken of at the Goetheanum. They are, indeed, connected with what is now happening in the Anthroposophical movement, but for the physicians, too, they are very important. I have said on various occasions that we must turn our attention to that center of spiritual culture which was at its prime when, in Europe, a kind of primitive spiritual life was prevailing under Charlemagne. Over in Asia there was flourishing the spiritual culture centers around Harun al Raschid (766–809). Many of the wise men of those days—including many physicians—were at his court. It was a time, as you will notice, when Christianity had already been working for some centuries.
Christianity itself appears in the world as something that can only be understood slowly and by degrees and, for an external, though not for an inner point of view, it is very strange that the deeper sides of Christianity have, in reality, not been fathomed at all by human beings. Christianity came into the world as an objective fact and the receptive faculties of men were not strong enough to develop the real essence of it in all directions. The objective consequences, therefore, are that Christianity is everywhere living in the sub-consciousness but that for three or four centuries it has been completely ruined by man. Human beings ruined Christianity through their intellect. As well as this there are the terribly dilettante institutions that have been set up in recent times at universities. Originally there were four traditional faculties, namely: philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. The rest that have been added have been based on utter unenlightenment and misunderstanding. Faculties for such subjects as political science, national economy and the like, originated from thoughts which no longer knew anything at all of the essentials.
What has not been understood at all is that, to begin with, four men were sent out by Christ to proclaim Christianity: Matthew, the theologian; Mark, the jurist; Luke, the physician; and John, the philosopher. This fact, which has very deep roots in the spiritual life (things at present are only in germ and have yet to blossom and bear fruit), is also connected with the realization that the texts of the four Gospels cannot completely tally because the one is written from the standpoint of the theologian, the other from the standpoint of the philosopher, a third from the standpoint of the jurist, and a fourth from the standpoint of the physician. This must be thoroughly understood. And because it has not been understood, because the Luke Gospel has not yet been accepted as a guide for the inner will-to-healing, there is no truly Christian will-to-healing in modern thought. There is, instead, the attitude that has crept into spiritual culture through Arabism which has gripped Christianity like a pair of forceps. It is very interesting that Christianity, which originated in Asia, came across to Europe and spread abroad in Europe.
But now just think of the Court of Harun al Raschid, where ancient medicine flourished. The Old Mystery Wisdom, still preserved in tradition, was living in the existing knowledge concerning the being of man. There were two men at that court: Harun al Raschid himself, the organizer of the great academy of spiritual life which grew and developed under his influence; and another, who in earlier times had been an initiate. In the days of Harun al Raschid the initiation did not come to the surface. Harun al Raschid

reincarnated as Lord Bacon of Verulam (1561–1626) and with his kind of thinking which was thoroughly steeped in Arabism, he renewed the natural-scientific thinking, from the West. Such was the path he took in his life between death and rebirth. If you would study Lord Bacon you would find how greatly medicine was influenced thereby. Indeed you would be amazed. The other man, the initiate, was reborn in the soul of Amos Comenius (1592–1670). Comenius' life was one of aspiration towards the spirit, but he turned everything into intellectual conceptions.
Again, another personality in Arabism—he did not live at exactly the same time as Harun al Raschid, but he played a part in the battle of Zeres de la Frontera—was reborn as Charles Darwin (1809–1882). And so the influences that are working in natural science and especially in medicine, are re-embodiments of ancient conceptions from which Christianity was excluded. Such conceptions did not constitute an evolution of Christianity, but Christianity was excluded as Arabism embraced Europe in its fold. Medicine itself was most of all affected in this sense. The impulse which the Luke Gospel can give to medicine has still to be absorbed. To this end you must take with the very greatest earnestness what I said yesterday about understanding the being of man from out of the cosmos and then you will find your true bearings in the tasks which your karma sets you today.
Let us try to picture medicine as it was at the Court of Harun al Raschid. On the one side it contained the heritage of the Hippocratic mode of thinking. Those who have read the first course of lectures to physicians given by me here will perhaps remember that I referred to Hippocrates as being the last man who healed on the basis of the medical wisdom of the Ancient Mysteries. Over in Asia, during the transition to Hippocratic medicine, there came, from northeastern Asia, a strong influence from Mongolian methods of healing. Very much was introduced against which not only European thought but the inner nature of the human being himself could not help rebelling. The inner nature of man was not in harmony with the Mongolian-Tartar influence which thus entered into medical thinking. The reason can be found if we can understand the human being from a fundamental, cosmic point of view.
In the book Occult Science, evolution is described through the Saturn, Sun, Moon phases, followed by the phase of Earth evolution proper. The human being has passed through all these stages of evolution and from what has been said in these lectures you will have learned that there is, firstly, the stream of heredity which works in the model, and secondly, the stream of the individuality which comes from earlier earthly lives. What works in heredity leads back to earlier times but is an Ahrimanic remnant, has dried up. This is what is contained in heredity and it is really with this factor alone that modern orthodox medicine is working. No heed is paid to the other stream that is elaborated in the second period of human life between the change of teeth and puberty—the period which even statistics show to be the most healthy because during it the human being is least prone to fall ill. Modern medicine does not really desire to be connected with health; it prefers to burrow about in disease. This expresses the condition of things very radically but so it is, in reality. To have a real connection with health this understanding of the whole cosmos in man must be brought to the point where the cosmos is actually perceived in the human being. For this we need a knowledge of the data which can enable us to have a picture of the cosmic evolution of man. The Old Saturn evolution, Old Sun evolution, Old Moon evolution—all are contained within the human being. And not until these three stages which lead up to the stage of Earth evolution are grasped is it possible to understand what we really have before us in the earthly human being. There are so many sciences today—but there is no real science concerning Saturn, Sun, Moon, because in our general experience of nature we can no longer remember what was contained in the instinctive, primal wisdom. We cannot even approach the wisdom that was still so alive in Hippocrates, because it has become mere phraseology. It must again be filled with life.
Significant words sound over to us from ancient times, but, generally speaking, no heed is paid to them, least of all is any heed paid to the wonderful indications they contain for medicine. There is a sentence in the Bible to the effect that the divine powers of the world regulated life on the basis of measure, number, and weight. But is there anyone today who regards such words as being anything more than a phrase suggesting the existence of an ancient, divine architect who worked according to the principles of measure, number and weight? A physician, however, has to find measure, number, and weight actually within the human being.
If we consider Saturn—and the Saturn evolution is contained in the human being—we naturally do not find this Saturn evolution as such in the human being as he actually is today, because all the evolutionary stages are synthetically united in him; they are present, but in such a way that the single stages by themselves disappear in the union, in the harmony. Illness, however, calls forth the one or the other phenomenon in its own particular form. And now, what I have described in Occult Science must really be grasped, not with the intellect alone, but in the way that makes us feel how during the Saturn evolution a cosmic warmth was all-pervading. Whenever we study the Saturn evolution we are led back to the element of warmth. Saturn is working in the human being and all that is described about the Saturn evolution—it is all working in the human being, but it does not come to light in earthly man when these evolutionary stages are intermingled within his being. It does, however, work when a human being is ill. A separation then takes place of what is otherwise united into a harmony. The Saturn element works on its own—in fever. We shall have a science of fever for the first time when we make this science of fever cosmic, when we can understand how Old Saturn is working in the human being; we must understand how, in the phenomenon of fever, the cosmos is working in by way of the Saturn forces which, spiritually speaking, have been sucked in by the earth. Realizing that the Saturn forces are distributed over the earth's surface, and appear in their strongest form in the lead forces, we shall get an inner understanding of fever. The divine world order regulates the world according to measure, and in the measure of the fever there is an expression of the measure prevailing in the world order. We must see the principle of measure in the phenomena of fever. Therefore, we must let these words work strongly in us:
Feel in the fever's measure
The Spirit-Gift of Saturn.
It is in very truth the spirit of the human being that makes its appearance in the fever which, in other circumstances, is submerged in the other elements. In fever, the spirit of man asserts itself, but here it is isolated. The most ancient constituent part of the being of man appears, in fever, at the surface of existence.
After the Saturn evolution came the Sun evolution, during which the element of warmth condensed to air on the one side, but, on the other, was rarefied to light. Light and air intermingle, they belong together. When we breathe we take in the rhythm of the air. We also take in the light, and light, in the occult sense, is not merely that which works in the eye. Light is a general expression for what works through the sun. The eye is merely the most characteristic representative of what works through the sun. In the Middle Ages, what works in the light was known as spiritual tincture. The Sun evolution is also within the human being of today and we feel it at once, not as something that is now working on the earth but as the after-working of the Old Sun, when with true feeling we lay our fingers on the pulse of a human being. The number of the pulse beats is an expression of the Old Sun evolution within us. Therefore as the second couplet, we have:
Feel in the pulse's number
The Soul-power of Sun.
Whether we act or do not act like this, my dear friends, is by no means a matter of indifference. Such a thing can be taken seriously, or not seriously. It makes a tremendous difference if you are really mindful of this when you proceed to read the temperature on the thermometer, if, having acquired the faculty by inner practice you think of the picture presented by evolution in the Saturn period. There, because everything lives in the flow of warmth, the whole world appears to you like a spirit gift in which, by way of warmth, love streams into every single thing; and if in this mood of devotion you realize that streaming love exists in the world through Saturn's warmth, if in this mood of reverent gratitude to the love and warmth-bestowing world creative power you recognize what is happening as you test the temperature, then you will have an intuition about what you ought to do.
Similarly we ought not to feel the pulse in the slipshod, mechanical way in which this is often done, but we should actually be able to steep ourselves in the cosmic rhythm that goes out from the sun. In feeling the pulse we should be able also to feel how the human being lives within all that spreads out light, air, and brightness, irradiating the world. Then again our whole being is poured into the will-to-heal. The will-to-heal cannot be acquired by inner commandment but only when the soul's attitude to the world is one of true devotion.
Then you can pass on to examine the other symptoms. You try to discover how far the substances that are working in the human being are not taking on the human form but are adhering to their own form. To what, for example, is diabetes due? In the healthy human being, the sugar is humanized; it does not work through its own force as sugar. The diabetic condition is due to the fact that in his very atoms the human being is too weak to permeate the sugar through and through. In his ego organization he is following the sugar forces—forces which belong to the world outside man. Think of all the forces that express themselves in diabetes, in the residues of the urine, which deposit themselves in the body in migraine and other conditions. Think of all the substances that appear in the body, following their own laws and not the laws of man's nature, and two questions will occur to you.
First of all, how is it possible that there can arise in man a tendency to let substance unfold its own forces within his organism? If this tendency had never been present, the Moon evolution would never have been able to intervene. The moon forces intervene when the substances within the human organism want to go their own way. When this happens the moon forces seize hold of the forces of the substances and, as moon forces, produce the form of man. The human form is permeated with the moon forces. Saturn is the giver of warmth, sun of rhythm, moon of form.
Thus it is, in the whole human being. Think of something which I always emphasize. The brain in us has not really its own weight. If we remove the brain we find that its weight is about 1,500 grams, but when it is in the body it weighs only approximately twenty grams, because, according to the principle of Archimedes, every body in water loses as much of its weight as the weight of the volume of water displaced. The brain in the cerebral fluid, displaces some of this fluid, acquires buoyancy, and presses down on its base with a weight of only approximately twenty grams. So it is with everything else. The point is that there must be, in the cosmos, forces which up to the necessary degree take away from the human being some of the weight of the substances within him. The weight must be regulated and the third couplet has to do with the weight of substance and its regulation by the cosmos. If you are investigating the workings of metabolism, you are, in reality, investigating whether some substance is manifesting under the influence of its own weight or whether the weight is regulated by the cosmos. This is the regulation by the divine spiritual world according to weight. And the third couplet is:
Feel in the weight of substance
The forming powers of Moon.
Again with this attitude we should be able to feel, when we are speaking about rheumatism, gout, constipation, diabetes, migraine, about all conditions that are somehow connected with deposits which express the inherent weight of the substances, we should feel that something is entering into our experience that can be expressed in the words: Earthly gravity has laid hold of the human being. Much is contained in such words. You should permeate your investigations with such feelings.
Just think how abstractly, how brutally, how heedlessly investigations are made into these things today and you will realize what is really lacking and has been killed, in spite of the fact that Arabism did conserve much of the wisdom, conscientiousness and skill of ancient times. It has been killed because Moon, Sun and Saturn—this Trinity which was then disguised as Father, Son and Spirit—disappeared and was repudiated by Arabian thought in Mohammedanism with the words: “Away with this Trinity. Mohammed proclaims only one God!” (Mohammed himself did not say this, but the Angel who inspired him, did. He was not one of the best Angels although he was a very wise one.) And so we see that all differentiations in the world are allowed to disappear; things which ought to be known are darkened and our medicine has become an Arabian-Mohammedan medicine. European humanity was incapable of discovering the truth. Today these things must be known or mankind will go to pieces.
Feel in the fever's measure
The Spirit-gift of Saturn.
Feel in the pulse's number
The Soul-powers of Sun;
Feel in the weight of substance
The forming power of Moon;
Then wilt thou see in thy healing will
Earthly man's healing need.
If these things are grasped with real feeling, we shall realize how in the course of life on earth the individuality who comes from previous earthly lives takes hold of the model which proceeds from the stream of heredity. I have already told you of the struggle that takes place between what is shaped according to the model as the second human body in contrast to the first body that is really a model. If we know that we have in front of us a being who is really working himself to the surface, we also realize that what comes from earlier incarnations is working at this being. Those who permeate these things with their forces of heart and soul have the best possible opportunity to perceive or at least to get an inkling of what is coming over from earlier incarnations.
What is the cause of the condition that appears as illness? The healthy human being has his head organization, whose structure, even externally, is separated from the rest of the organization. The head is a bony structure in which the brain is enclosed. A continuation of the head is also contained in the bones. The head is self-contained and the rest of the human being is joined to it. But in the finer organization of man there is something that demarcates these two parts of his being. It is not so very easy to prove this fact by external anatomy and physiology, but there is a tremendous amount to be learned by studying the transformation of the foodstuffs, for instance, the fact that these foodstuffs do not, in their own form, pass over into the head organization, nor even into the nerves. There is a sharp boundary line which must not be crossed. What is it that must not cross this boundary?
Now from the beginning of earthly life there is working, most strongly of all in the head organization, the forces from earlier earthly lives which have been preserved through the period between birth and death. The forces of the child's individuality proceed from the head. But they must not pass down unsifted into the rest of the organism. A sieve must be there, an intermediate stratum. It is not externally visible but it exists in the organization. Nothing passes downwards unsifted. The lung as an organ or the liver as an organ must not be seized hold of directly by the forces that come from earlier incarnations. They cannot bear this. The human being is in a terrible condition when one is obliged to realize that the forces from earlier incarnations are getting to his liver without having passed through this sieve. In the period between death and a new birth the human individuality transforms into the new head organization the forces that were contained in lung and liver, in the metabolic-limb system, and in part, also, in the rhythmic system. The organization of limbs and metabolism is added for the first time, from outside. The human individuality (who is eternal) may only enter in this when the gate of death has been passed and when the physical, material part of it has fallen away. It is only the forces of the lung and the liver and other organs that pass through the gate of death. Thus, during earthly life, harm arises when the individuality enters into certain organs into which it ought not to enter. Therefore when we are faced with certain conditions of illness we have only to say to ourselves: Here the individuality from the previous earthly life is working on the organ which now ought only to be influenced by the present earthly life. The proper separation is not there. In the sick human being we see the individuality working over from previous earthly lives. This individuality which ought only to live itself out in the realm of the moral, in the realm of destiny, which ought to remain in what the human being does and experiences and ought not to touch the organization in the most earthly part of the human being—this individuality is working partly in the metabolic-limb system, partly in the rhythmic system, partly in the nerve and sense system because the boundary line has become faulty.
Our attitude to the human being is influenced by the fact that we know: In the diseased lung the individuality of the human being is working. When one looks at someone suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis one feels a deep and true sympathy, realizing that the materialism of our time is diverting him into the outer world and that his karma, which ought to live itself out in the moral sphere, in destiny, is, on account of our present spiritual life, thrusting him back into his own bodily nature. The individuality, instead of passing over into the realm of the moral, retreats suddenly, becomes organic, seizes hold of the lungs. The lungs are that part of the metabolic-limb system which is turned inwards, whereas the general direction of this system is outwards. Thus, the individuality, working over from earlier incarnations, takes hold directly of the corporeality.
These things are not so important as theories, but they lead one into the whole mood and attitude which generates the will-to-healing and then finds a real connection with man's need for healing. In our modern materialistic culture there is a sharp division between the one who heals and the one who needs healing. They do not get near to each other. There must arise a feeling for the eternal in the human being and out of this feeling there will develop the right relationship between the healer and the one who is to be healed. We realize then that we must always individualize in our treatment, for every human being has his own karma. In all healing measures we must individualize.
These things must work upon our hearts. They become esoteric when we allow them to work upon us. A document like the Luke Gospel contains the whole mood that we need in order to develop this feeling. Originally there actually were four faculties, a “Luke faculty” among them, but no trace of it exists today because our medicine is so strongly imbued with Arabism. Medicine will be Christianized when once again we reach the cosmic truths. The physician, too, must be conscious of his position in connection with these cosmic truths.
All this will indicate to you how strongly the forces of the moon influence the human form. When the moon forces in the human form work too irregularly we must realize that we heal by getting rid of this irregularity in the form and this can be done if we treat the patient in such a way that cosmic consciousness can find its place. But then, you see, the other side has to be understood. You have to look at something from outside. You cannot look at the eye from outside. The forces which enable us to look at things from outside give us our clear concepts, seeing to it that these clear concepts do not at once become abstraction but that our heart thinks with them. Our concepts must not be confused, but the heart must not be excluded from our abstract thinking. We must function as the whole human being; the heart must always think as well. We must not merely think abstractly about the world but realize that when we send out our thoughts the heart must be there as well. We must understand these forces of the heart which entwine themselves around the thoughts; we must understand once again how to use the staff of Mercury. And this is only possible if we pass over from the moon to Mercury. In connection with the general cultural life, that is what I meant in the lectures dealing with Raphael, for Raphael is the Christian Mercury. If you permeate yourselves with this kind of consciousness you will get the right feeling for your tasks when, as young people today, you enter into medicine.
Everywhere in the world there is cropping up the opposite of what ought to happen. It has appeared in a dreadful form recently in the domain of medicine. Forgive me for referring here to an everyday matter, but it is an example of how this opposite tendency is working. I refer to the principle of health insurance. It is the factor of the physician who is excluded here. In Germany there is art expression which conveys the exclusion of the human element in the physician. In truth, it is the physician who heals—not the products of medical science. But this expression suggests that medical science is something that floats around without the human being. The human being does not come into the picture. A rebuff is thereby given to karma. For karma does not work in such a way that it brings two human beings together blindly. Something of karma comes to light in the free choice of one's physician. But in the purely Ahrimanic character of health insurance arrangements, karma is put completely on one side and the human being is exposed to the Ahrimanic powers who fight against karma. When we come together again I will tell you how the Ahrimanic powers are setting out to nullify the karma of man so that they may attain their goal. This element is playing a direct part in such institutions as that of health insurance where individuals cannot always choose their own physician. I believe the expression ‘healing trade’ actually occurs in the law about health insurance. This shows the whole attitude that exists about health insurance and the conception of medicine as a trade. An illness of civilization is emerging symptomatically in our times—an illness that is making its appearance in many other domains, too, showing how urgently the physician's help is needed for its curing. But just where the physician himself is most acutely exposed to this illness of civilization, his real work is completely paralyzed. There is a terrible factor in such things as health insurance. Of course, it has its good side just as other things which crop up in the world to tempt and mislead. They seem plausible and are not displeasing. When the devil appears he always assumes the form of an angel. Anyone who sees the devil as such, in a vision, may be sure that it is not really the devil, for he always appears in angelic form. If the physician himself is exposed to an illness of civilization in its sharpest form, our culture cannot help becoming diseased. Therefore you must watch where your karma places you so that you do not work merely in the sphere of medicine regarded as a trade but in the sphere that is concerned with illness of the social organism.
In this direction, please formulate your questions. We will then meet once more tomorrow. I have heard you also have a certain need to hear how you can integrate yourselves into the general Youth Movement. We will still be able to supplement what I have said today but what I did bring today I wanted to bring because I thought that it could be necessary for you to know it and work with it.
Vierter Vortrag
Meine lieben Freunde!
Ich habe mir zunächst gedacht, daß wir das Begonnene dadurch fortsetzen, daß wir einiges von dem, was ich gestern angeschlagen habe, nach einer andern Seite hin ergänzen, vielleicht werden sich gerade dadurch die Fragen, die Sie gestellt haben und von denen mir Frau Dr. Wegman gesprochen hat, in der entsprechenden Weise formulieren können.
Sehen Sie, Sie wachsen hinein durch Ihre allgemeine menschliche Schicksalslage in das Medizinische, in den Heilerberuf. Sie finden vor eine gewisse Strömung, die im Heilberuf heute drinnen ist und in die Sie eigentlich so hineinwachsen, daß Sie eine innerliche Gemütsopposition dagegen mit vollem Rechte verspüren. Nun müssen Sie bedenken, daß die oft objektive Gründe hat, und die werden sich Ihnen ergeben, wenn Sie immer mehr verstehen werden, daß die heutige medizinische Strömung eigentlich in einem gewissen Sinne sogar ein Fremdkörper in vielem ist, was in der europäischen, in der abendländischen Zivilisation überhaupt drinnen lebt. Man sieht diese Sache dann erst ganz ein, wenn man weiß, daß unsere Naturwissenschaft und vieles auch von dem Streben in der neueren Geistesentwickelung dadurch zustande gekommen ist, daß maßgebendste Persönlichkeiten für den medizinisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fortgang unseres Geisteslebens wiederverkörperte Individualitäten aus der arabischmohammedanischen Kultur waren. Diese Dinge sind hier am Goetheanum in der letzten Zeit ja viel behandelt worden und sind auch sonst angeschlossen an dasjenige, was jetzt durch die anthroposophische Bewegung geht, aber sie sind auch für den Mediziner durchaus von großer Bedeutung. Ich habe schon an verschiedenen Orten gesagt, wie wir genötigt sind, den Blick hinzuwenden auf diejenige Geistesstätte, die in derselben Zeit geblüht hat, wo in Europa auf primitive Weise sozusagen geistiges Leben geherrscht hat unter Karl dem Großen. Da blühte drüben im Orient die geistige Kultur, die zusammengehalten wurde von Harun al Raschid. Er hatte eigentlich viele der damaligen Weisen, unter denen auch viele Mediziner der damaligen Zeit waren, an seinem Hofe gehabt. Und Sie merken, wir berühren ja, indem wir so etwas auseinandersetzen, schon die Zeit, in der das Christentum gewirkt hat Jahrhunderte hindurch. Nun, das Christentum selbst ist als etwas in die Welt getreten, das erst langsam und allmählich verstanden werden kann, und es ist eigentlich für ein äußeres Anschauen, nicht für ein inneres, sehr merkwürdig, wie die tiefen Seiten des Christentums eigentlich gar nicht bisher von den Menschen durchdrungen worden sind. Das Christentum kam als eine objektive Tatsache in die Welt, und die menschlichen Fähigkeiten, die Aufnahmefähigkeiten waren nicht stark genug, um das, was eigentlich im Christentum liegt, nach allen Seiten auszubilden. Daher ist der objektive Gang so, daß überall im Unterbewußtsein das Christentum lebt, aber der Mensch seit drei bis vier Jahrhunderten dieses Christentum vollständig verdarb. Die Menschen verdarben das Christentum durch das, was sie wissen, was im Intellekt, im Bewußtsein sitzt. Wir haben jetzt außerdem die schauderhaft dilettantischen Einrichtungen, die in der letzten Zeit mit den Universitäten getrieben worden sind. Es gab früher traditionell vier Fakultäten: die Philosophie, Theologie, Jurisprudenz und Medizin. Was dann noch angereiht worden ist, ist eigentlich nur auf Grundlage des äußersten finstersten Mißverständnisses geschehen. Denn eine staatswissenschaftliche Fakultät, eine nationalökonomische Fakultät stammen aus Gedanken, die gar nichts mehr wußten von dem, um was es sich handelte. Das, was nicht verstanden worden ist, dessen Verstehen heute vollständig verdunkelt worden ist, das ist, daß durch Christus ausgesandt worden sind zunächst vier, um das Christentum der Welt zu verkünden: der Theologe Matthäus, der Jurist Markus, der Arzt Lukas und der Philosoph Johannes. In diesem Zusammenhang, der etwas ganz Tiefes ist, wurzelt, was einmal heraufkommen muß. Es sind die Dinge nur in den Keimen vorhanden, blühen und Früchte tragen müssen sie noch. Das, was tief wurzelt im Geistesleben, das ist, daß die Evangelien nicht übereinstimmen können dem Wortlaute nach, weil das eine vom Standpunkte des Theologen, das andere vom Standpunkt des Philosophen, das dritte vom Standpunkt des Juristen und das vierte vom Standpunkt des Arztes geschrieben ist. Das ist etwas, was durchaus verstanden werden muß; und weil das Lukas-Evangelium überhaupt noch nicht in Wirklichkeit als eine innere Anweisung für den Heilerwillen genommen worden ist — es ist die Sache nicht verstanden worden -, deshalb ist es gekommen, daß eigentlich innerhalb unserer heutigen Denkweise gar nicht ein christlicher Heilerwille lebt, sondern jener Heilerwille, der sich hineinversenkt hat in die Geisteskultur durch den Arabismus, der ja das Christentum wie mit einer Zange umfaßt hat. Es ist sehr interessant, nicht wahr! Das Christentum, das in Asien entstanden ist, nimmt seinen Weg herüber nach Europa, breitet sich in Europa aus. Aber nun sehen Sie sich einmal an den Hof des Harun al Raschid, wo alte Medizin lebte, da lebte in der menschenkundlichen Auffassung eigentlich das alte Mysterienwesen; dies war in der Tradition noch vorhanden. Da lebten nun zwei Menschen; Harun al Raschid selber, der die ganze Sache organisierte, diese riesige Geistesakademie, die unter seinem Einflusse wächst; da lebte ein anderer, der in früheren Zeiten ein Eingeweihter war; in der Zeit kam die Einweihung nicht heraus. Harun al Raschid kam wieder als Lord Bacon, Baco von Verulam. Mit einer durchaus im Arabismus drinnenstehenden Denkweise erneuerte er das naturwissenschaftliche Denken vom Westen herüber. Während der Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt nahm die Seele diesen Weg (es wird gezeichnet). Wenn Sie Baco von Verulam studieren würden, würden Sie sehen, wieviel gerade dadurch in die Medizin hereingekommen ist, Sie würden staunend dastehen. Auf der andern Seite hat sich der andere, der Eingeweihte, verkörpert in der Seele des Amos Comenius. Wir sehen, ein nach dem Geiste hinstrebendes Leben war da in Comenius, aber er hat das alles nach intellektuellen Anschauungen getrieben. So sehen wir auch, wie der Arabismus in einer andern Persönlichkeit, die nicht gerade zur selben Zeit wie Harun al Raschid gelebt hat, aber in der Schlacht von Jeres de la Frontera eine Rolle gespielt hat, als Darwin wiederkommt. Und so sind alle in der Naturwissenschaft Wirkenden, und namentlich in der Medizin Wirkenden, Wiederverkörperungen dessen, was in alten Anschauungen, aber mit Ausschluß des Christentums — nicht in der Fortentwickelung des Christentums, sondern mit Ausschluß des Christentums -, nach Europa in dieser Umklammerung gekommen ist, die der Arabismus mit dem Christentum vorgenommen hat. Und so lebt gerade die Medizin als etwas, was am meisten in dieser Weise hereingekommen ist; während jener Impuls, der im Lukas-Evangelium für die Medizin enthalten ist, noch so da ist, daß man sagen muß, er muß noch aufgenommen werden. Dazu müssen Sie solche Dinge wie diejenigen, die ich gestern besprochen habe vom kosmischen Verstehen des Menschen, vom Verstehen des Menschen aus dem Kosmos herein, mit dem allergrößten Ernst nehmen können, und dann werden Sie sich hineingestellt fühlen in der richtigen Weise in die Aufgabe, die Ihnen heute durch Ihr Karma gestellt ist. Denn sehen Sie, die Sache liegt so: Betrachten wir ungefähr dasjenige Medizinische, was da lebte am Hofe Harun al Raschids. Dadrinnen lebte auf der einen Seite durchaus das Gute der hippokratischen Denkweise. Diejenigen, die vielleicht den ersten Ärztekursus, den ich hier gehalten habe, gelesen haben, werden gesehen haben, daß ich dort gleich im Prinzip mich auseinandergesetzt habe damit, daß Hippokrates der Letzte ist, der auf Grundlage der alten Mysterienmedizin heilte. Nun ist beim Herüberverpflanzen in Asien drüben dasjenige, was hippokratische Medizin war, hineingekommen in eine starke Strömung der mongolischen Heilweise, die vom Nordosten Asiens herüber kam. Da ist vieles von dem hineingeflossen, wogegen sich in Europa nicht nur die Denkweise auflehnen mußte, sondern sich auch auflehnen muß die innere Organisation des Menschen selber, denn die innere Organisation des Menschen paßte nicht zu dem, was dort als mongolisch-tatarischer Einfluß hineingekommen ist in das medizinische Denken. Das kann herauskommen, wenn man zu einer ursprünglichen kosmischen Denkweise über den Menschen kommen kann.
Nun werden Sie sich auf der einen Seite erinnern können an die Entwickelungsbetrachtung, die Sie finden können in dem Umriß meiner «Geheimwissenschaft», wo durchgeleitet wird die Entwickelungsströmung durch die Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenentwickelung, dann folgt die Erdenentwickelung. Der Mensch hat eigentlich alle diese Entwickelungsstadien durchgemacht; und Sie haben aus dem, was in diesen Tagen schon gesagt wurde, entnehmen können, daß im Menschen zuerst die Vererbungsströmung enthalten ist, die im Modell wirkt, und die individuelle Strömung, die aus früheren Erdenleben kommt. Das, was in der Vererbung wirkt, geht zurück auf frühere Zeiten, ist aber ahrimanisch zurückgeblieben, ist vertrocknet. Das ist also das, was in der Vererbung liegt. Mit dieser arbeitet einzig und allein im Grunde genommen die heutige offizielle Medizin und berücksichtigt nirgends dasjenige, was nun die andere Seite ist, die erarbeitet wird im zweiten Menschenleben, zwischen Zahnwechsel und Geschlechtsreife, derjenigen Epoche im Menschenleben, die schon statistisch als die gesündeste aufgefaßt werden kann, weil da der Mensch am wenigsten fähig wird zu erkranken; die Fähigkeit der Erkrankung wird da ausgeschaltet. Man möchte sagen, die heutige Medizin möchte sich am allerwenigsten mit der Gesundheit verbinden, sondern am liebsten in der Krankheit wühlen. Das ist radikal ausgesprochen, aber es ist so. Um aber sich mit der Gesundheit zu verbinden, ist es notwendig, daß man dieses Erfassen des ganzen Kosmos im Menschen wirklich bis dahin bringt, im Menschen auch den Kosmos zu sehen. Dazu braucht man die Einzelheiten, welche dieses Wahrnehmen der kosmischen Entwickelung im Menschen wirklich vermitteln können. Im Menschen steckt ja noch die alte Saturnentwickelung, die alte Sonnenentwickelung, die alte Mondenentwickelung drinnen. Und erst wenn man diese drei Vorentwickelungen zur Erdenentwickelung begreift, erst dann versteht man, was man im Erdenmenschen eigentlich vor sich hat. Aber wir haben heute so viele Wissenschaften — eine eigentliche Saturnwissenschaft, eine eigentliche Sonnenwissenschaft, eine eigentliche Mondenwissenschaft haben wir nicht, weil wir im allgemeinen Naturleben uns gar nicht mehr erinnern können an das, was in der instinktiven Urweisheit da war. Was also bei Hippokrates in der stärksten Weise gelebt hat, dem können wir uns nicht mehr nähern, weil es zur Phrase geworden ist. Das muß wieder lebendig werden. So werden Sie ein wichtiges Wort aus alten Zeiten herübertönend haben, aber Sie werden dieses alte Wort überhaupt im allgemeinen nicht achten, und am wenigsten es achten in seiner wunderbaren orientierenden Art, wie es auf die Medizin wirken kann. Es ist das Folgende.
Die göttlichen Weltenmächte haben angeordnet das Leben nach Maß, Zahl und Gewicht. Sie finden es als ein Bibelwort. Aber wer achtet heute auf solche Worte anders, als daß er es als allgemeine Phrase nimmt, als ob da einmal ein alter Weltenbaumeister gewesen wäre, der nach Maß, Zahl und Gewicht angeordnet hat. Für den Arzt aber handelt es sich darum, wirklich Maß, Zahl und Gewicht im Menschen zu finden. Schauen wir hin auf das Saturnwesen! Sehen Sie, der Mensch hat die Saturnentwickelung in sich, aber wir finden diese Saturnentwickelung natürlich nicht in dem tatsächlich vorhandenen heutigen Menschen, denn in dem sind alle Entwickelungsstufen synthetisch vereinigt, sie sind verbunden, so daß die einzelnen verschwinden in der Verbindung, in der Harmonie. Aber die Krankheit ruft die eine oder die andere Erscheinung in ihrer besonderen Gestaltung hervor. Und nun muß ja das eintreten, daß man das, was ich in der «Geheimwissenschaft» angegeben habe, wirklich nicht mit dem Verstand allein auffaßt, sondern es auffaßt in der Art, wie es dort geschildert ist: daß man überall darinnen fühlt, wie während der Saturnentwickelung eine kosmische Wärme durchgreifend wirkt. Überall muß man, wenn man die Saturnentwickelung studiert, auf das Wärmeelement rekurrieren, man muß zum Wärmeelement hinführen. Der Saturn wirkt im Menschen, und das, was von der Saturnentwickelung beschrieben worden ist, wirkt im Menschen, aber es tritt im Erdenmenschen nicht hervor, wenn er in sich harmonisiert diese Dinge alle ineinander enthält. Es wirkt aber, wenn der Mensch krank ist. Da trennen sich die Dinge, die sich sonst harmonisch zusammenfügen, da wirkt das Saturnelement für sich und es wirkt im Fieber. Wir werden erst dann eine Fieberwissenschaft haben, wenn wir diese Fieberwissenschaft eben kosmisch machen, wenn wir eingehen können darauf, wie der alte Saturn im Menschen wirkt, so daß tatsächlich verstanden werden muß, wie in der Erscheinung des Fiebers das Kosmische auf dem Wege der Saturnkräfte hereinwirkt, die wir geistig innerhalb der Erde eingesogen gefunden haben. Wenn wir überall, am stärksten in den Bleikräften und sonst überall verteilt, die Saturnkräfte auf der Erdoberfläche finden, werden wir ein inneres Verständnis für das Fieber gewinnen, und wir müssen darin dasjenige sehen, durch das die göttlich-geistige Weltenordnung die Welt ordnet nach dem Maß. Im Maß des Fiebers drückt sich jenes Maß aus, das lebt in der Weltenordnung, indem Wärme in die Weltenordnung überhaupt einströmt, jenes Maß, das aufgeht in den andern, sich harmonisiert. Aber wir müssen das Maß vor allen Dingen sehen in den Fiebererscheinungen. Daher müssen wir stark auf uns wirken lassen:
Fühle in des Fiebers Maß
Des Saturn Geistesgabe
Es ist eigentlich der Geist des Menschen, der erscheint im Fieber, der sonst nur untergetaucht ist in die andern Elemente. Im Fieber macht sich der Geist des Menschen, der sich vereinseitigt, geltend. Der älteste Bestandteil der Menschennatur erscheint im Fieber an der Oberfläche des Daseins.
Nun sehen Sie, nach der Saturnentwickelung steht die Sonnenentwickelung. Da wird auf der einen Seite das bloße Wärmeelement zur Luft verdichtet, aber auf der andern Seite zum Licht verdünnt. Licht und Luft wirken ineinander, die gehören zusammen. Den Rhythmus der Luft nehmen wir auf in der Atmung, das Licht nehmen wir auf; und Licht ist im okkulten Sinne nicht bloß das, was im Auge wirkt, sondern Licht ist ein allgemeiner Ausdruck für das, was durch die Sonne wirkt. Es ist nur das Auge der vorzüglichste Repräsentant für das, was durch die Sonne wirkt. Im Mittelalter wurde als geistige "Tinktur bezeichnet das, was im Lichte wirkt. Nun kommen wir an die Sonnenentwickelung, dann haben wir die Sonnenentwickelung auch im heutigen Menschen, und zwar verspüren wir sie sofort wie etwas, was nicht jetzt auf der Erde wirkt, sondern was die Nachwirkung ist der alten Sonnenwirkung, wenn wir richtig fühlend die Finger auf den Puls des Menschen legen. Die Zahl der Pulsschläge, sie drücken aus die alte Sonnenentwickelung in uns. Und daher haben wir als Zweites:
Fühle in des Pulses Zahl
Der Sonne Seelenkraft
Es ist nicht gleichgültig, meine lieben Freunde, ob wir in dieser Richtung wirklich vorgehen oder nicht. Solch eine Sache kann man ernst nehmen oder nicht ernst nehmen. Aber es ist ein gewaltiger Unterschied, ob Sie sich wirklich darauf besinnen, wenn Sie sich der Ablesung des Fieberthermometers hingeben - es muß nur in innerer Praxis angeeignet werden -, welches Bild die Evolution darstellt zur Saturnzeit: Da erscheint Ihnen die ganze Welt, weil alles unter der Wärmeströmung steht, wie eine Geistesgabe, in der durch die Wärme die Liebe in alles einzelne hineinströmt. Und erkennen Sie in dieser Stimmung der religiösen Hingabe, wie da durch das Saturnhafte mit Hilfe der Wärme in die Welt strömt die Liebe, erkennen Sie in dieser dankbaren Hingabe an die wärmende, liebende Weltenschaffung, erkennen Sie in dem Augenblick, in dem Sie das Fieber prüfen, aus dieser Stimmung heraus das, was vorliegt, dann geht Ihnen eine Intuition auf über dasjenige, was Sie eben tun sollen.
Ebenso sollte man nicht mit der handwerksmäßigen, schlächtermäßigen Art, wie man das oftmals tut, den Puls prüfen, sondern man sollte bei dem Puls tatsächlich sich versenken können in dasjenige, was als Weltenrhythmus von dem Sonnenhaften ausgeht. Man sollte empfinden können bei dem Pulsfühlen das Darinnenstehen des Menschen in dem Licht und Luft verbreitenden, die Welt durchstrahlenden Hellen. Dann ist es wiederum so, daß der ganze Mensch in Anspruch genommen wird in seinem Heilwillen. Der Heilwille kann nicht durch ein inneres Gebot erreicht werden, sondern kann nur erreicht werden durch ein hingebungsvolles Verhalten der Seele in der Welt.
Und gehen Sie weiter, da kommen Sie dazu, nun die andern Symptome zu prüfen, die darin bestehen, daß Sie überall nachschauen, inwieferne dasjenige, was im Menschen wirkt, nicht menschliche Gestalt annimmt, sondern seine eigene Gestalt annimmt. Nehmen Sie, sagen wir die Zuckerharnruhr, die diabetischen Zustände. Worauf beruhen sie? Darauf, daß [nicht wie] im harmonisierten Menschen der Zucker eben durchmenscht ist, so daß er nicht durch seine eigene Kraft wirkt; sondern bis in seine intimste Atomizität hinein wird der Mensch zu schwach, um den Zucker ganz zu durchdringen. In seiner Ich-Organisation folgt der Mensch den Zuckerkräften, den außermenschlichen Kräften. Sehen Sie hin auf alle die Kräfte, die sich beim Menschen in der Zuckerharnruhr ausleben, die in den Rückständen des Urins erscheinen, die sich im Körper ablagern bei Migräne und andern Zuständen. Sehen Sie hin auf das alles, was im Körper auftritt als Stoffe, die ihren eigenen Gesetzen folgen und nicht den menschlichen Gesetzen, da können Sie zwei Fragen aufwerten.
Erstens, warum ist das überhaupt in der Menschennatur möglich, daß eine Tendenz bestehen kann, den Stoff zu seiner eigenen Wirksamkeit innerhalb des Menschen zu bringen? Wenn das nicht der Fall wäre, hätte nie die Mondenentwickelung eingreifen können. Sie greift gerade ein, wenn das, was im Menschen an Stoffen ist, sich selber folgen will. Dann ergreifen die Mondenkräfte diese Stoffkräfte und bewirken gerade als Mondenkräfte im Menschen die Gestalt. Alles, was im Menschen durch die Gestalt auftritt, ist durchdrungen von den Mondenkräften. So wie der Saturn der Durchwärmer, die Sonne der Durchrhythmisierer, so ist der Mond der Gestalter des Menschen. Nun, sehen Sie, so ist es im ganzen Menschen. Denken Sie nur einmal an das, was ich immer betone. Unser Gehirn hat nicht sein eigenes Gewicht. Wenn wir es herausnehmen, hat es ein Gewicht von ungefähr 1500 Gramm; im Körper drinnen hat es nur ungefähr 20 Gramm, weil jeder Körper nach dem Archimedischen Prinzip so viel an Gewicht verliert, als die verdrängte Wassermasse wiegt. Nun, das Gehirn verdrängt, da es selber in der Gehirnflüssigkeit schwimmt, einen Teil des Gehirnwassers, es erleidet einen Auftrieb und drückt nur mehr mit ungefähr 20 Gramm auf seine Unterlage. So geht es mit allem. Es handelt sich eben darum, daß die Kräfte da sein müssen im Kosmos, die den Menschen bis zu dem Grad, wo es notwendig ist für die Stoffe, die er in sich trägt, das Gewicht nehmen. Das Gewicht muß geregelt werden, und in dem eigenen Stoffgewicht und seiner Regelung durch den Kosmos liegt das Dritte. Also, ob Sie nun untersuchen, was immer im Stoffwechsel wirkt, ob irgend etwas Stoffliches auftritt unter dem Einfluß seines eigenen Gewichtes, oder ob das Gewicht sich einreiht in das Gewicht des Kosmos, Sie untersuchen die Ordnung der göttlich-geistigen Welt nach dem Gewicht, und so haben Sie das Dritte:
Fühle in des Stoff’s Gewicht
Des Mondes Formenmacht:
Das ist, was uns wieder durchdringen soll als eine Stimmung. Wir sollen fühlen können, wenn wir reden über Rheumatismus, Gicht, Obstipation, über Zuckerkrankheit, über Migräne, über alle die Zustände, die irgendwie zusammenhängen mit solchen Ablagerungen, welche die eigenen Gewichte der Stoffe erscheinen lassen, wir sollen fühlen, wie in unsere Empfindungen etwas eintritt, was man aussprechen kann mit den Worten: Die Erdenschwere hat den Menschen ergriffen. Es liegt viel in solchen Worten. Durchdringen Sie Ihre Untersuchungen mit solchen Empfindungen. Denken Sie nur, wie abstrakt, wie schlächtermäßig heute Untersuchungen gemacht werden über diese Dinge, wie gedankenlos! Dann bekommen Sie das, was heute fehlt, was trotz aller wunderbaren Konservierung alter Weisheit, alter Tugend, alten Könnens im Arabismus eben dadurch totgeschlagen worden ist, daß dasjenige, was als Trinität da war — Mond, Sonne, Saturn —, kaschiert, maskiert erschien als Vater, Sohn und Geist, und daß diese Trinität verschwunden ist und daß der Arabismus im Mohammedanismus einfach das alles abgelehnt hat mit den Worten — ich meine den Vordersatz, den Mohammed nicht ausgesprochen hat, den aber durchaus der Engel ausgesprochen hat, von dem er inspiriert wurde, der nicht gerade ein vorzüglicher Engel war, trotzdem er sehr weise war -: Ach was, alle Trinität! — Es ist nur ein Gott, den Mohammed verkündigen sollte. Darauf wird man gewiesen, auf das Verschwindenlassen aller Differenzierungen in der Welt. Dadurch sind die Dinge, die eigentlich gewußt werden sollten, verdunkelt worden und unsere Medizin ist eigentlich geworden eine arabisch-mohammedanische. Es war die europäische Menschheit zu schwach geworden, das Richtige zu finden. Heute müssen diese Dinge gewußt werden, sonst geht die Erdenmenschheit zugrunde, so daß Sie sich schon sagen müssen:
Fühle in des Fiebers Maß
Des Saturn Geistesgabe
Fühle in des Pulses Zahl
Der Sonne Seelenkraft
Fühle in des Stoff’s Gewicht
Des Mondes Formenmacht:
Dann schauest du in deinem Heilerwillen
Auch des Erdenmenschen Heilbedarf.
Sehen Sie, blickt man so hin in die Welt, dann muß man diese Dinge wirklich gemütvoll auffassen. Da bekommt man einen Sinn dafür, daß ja im menschlichen Lebenslauf auf Erden hier die Tendenz eintritt, daß die Individualität, die herüberkommt von vorigen Erdenleben, das erfaßt, was aus der Vererbungsströmung nun wie ein Modell da ist. Ich habe Ihnen ja schon von dem Kampfe gesprochen, der da besteht zwischen dem, was da geformt wird nach dem Modell als der zweite Menschenleib gegenüber dem ersten modellhaften Menschenleib. Weiß man, daßß man einen Menschen vor sich hat, der da eigentlich an die Oberfläche sich arbeitet, dann weiß man, daß an diesem Menschen arbeitet, was aus früheren Inkarnationen herüberkommt. Und es ist wirklich so: Der diese Dinge mit seinem Herzen, mit seiner Seele durchdringende Mensch hat am meisten Gelegenheit, im kranken Menschen dasjenige, was aus früheren Inkarnationen herüberkommt, wahrzunehmen oder wenigstens ahnend zu empfinden. Denn worauf beruht das eigentlich, was in der Krankheit zutage tritt? Beim gesunden Menschen ist das eigentlich so: Da ist die Kopforganisation, die eigentlich äußerlich schon abgetrennt ist von der übrigen Organisation in seiner Gestaltung. Der Kopf ist ein Knochengehäuse, in das das Gehirn eingeschlossen ist. Was Fortsetzung des Kopfes ist, ist auch in Knochen eingeschlossen. Es ist für sich da, und dann schließt sich das andere an, was zum Menschen gehört. Aber in der feineren Organisation des Menschen ist etwas da, was abgrenzt voneinander diese beiden Partien. Sehen Sie, man kann nicht durch die äußere Anatomie und durch die äußere Physiologie das so leicht nachweisen, aber es ist ungeheuer viel zu beachten in dem, was in der Umwandlung der Nahrungsstoffe zum Beispiel darin besteht, daß diese Nahrungsstoffe in ihrer innerlichen Struktur nicht so, wie sie sind, in die Kopfesorganisation, nicht einmal in die Nervenorganisation hineingehen. Es ist eine Grenze scharf fixiert, die nicht überschritten werden kann. Von wem nicht überschritten werden darf? Nun, sehen Sie, in der Kopfesorganisation wirkt von Anfang der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung an am stärksten dasjenige, was von früheren Erdenleben an Kraft sich durch die Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt erhalten hat. Vom Kopfe geht das aus, was als Individualitätskraft des Kindes wirkt. Aber es darf nicht ungesiebt in die übrige Körperorganisation hinunter. Es muß ein Sieb da sein, eine Zwischenschichte. Es ist nicht äußerlich sichtbar, aber es ist in der Organisation da. Es geht nichts ungesiebt hinunter. Es darf nicht die Lunge als organisches Glied oder die Leber als organisches Glied unmittelbar ergriffen werden von dem, was aus früheren Inkarnationen an Kräften herüberkommt; die vertragen das nicht. Und es entsteht eigentlich im Menschen ein Furchtbares, wenn man sich sagen muß, an seine Leber kommt heran ganz ungesiebt die Kraft aus früheren Erdenleben. Das, was menschliche Individualität ist, das wandelt ja in der Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt die Kräfte, die in Lunge und Leber, im Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselsystem, zum Teil auch im rhythmischen System liegen, um in Kopfesorganisation. Die Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselorganisation wird erst wieder angegliedert von außen her. Da darf erst wieder die menschliche Individualität, die ewig ist, hinein, wenn der Mensch durch die 'Todespforte gegangen ist, wenn das Physisch-Stoffliche davon abfällt und nur die Kräfte von Lunge und Leber durch die Todespforte gegangen sind, so daß Schädigung im Menschen entsteht während des Erdenlebens, wenn die Individualität hineinkommt in gewisse Organe, an die sie nicht herankommen sollte.
Deshalb sagt man sich gewissen Krankheitszuständen gegenüber mit einer solchen inneren Hingabe: Ach, da wirkt, weil keine richtige Trennung da ist, die Individualität aus dem vorigen Erdenleben auf das Organ, das jetzt nur von diesem Erdenleben beeinflußt werden sollte. — Deshalb sehen Sie im kranken Menschen herüberwirken die Individualität aus früheren Erdenleben. Diese Individualität, die sich selbst nur im Moralischen, im Schicksalsmäßigen ausleben sollte, die stehenbleiben sollte bei dem, was der Mensch tut und erfährt, und die nicht berühren sollte die Organisation in dem hauptsächlich irdischen Teile des Menschen, die wirkt teils in seinem Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem, teils in seinem rhythmischen System, teils in seinem Sinnes-Nervensystem, weil die Grenze schadhaft geworden ist. Sehen Sie, da entsteht ein Sich-Verhalten zum Menschen dadurch, daß man weiß, in der kranken Lunge wirkt die Individualität des Menschen. Wenn ich einen Lungenschwindsüchtigen ansehe, komme ich in ein ganz konkretes Mitleiden dadurch, daß unsere Zeit so materialistisch ist, den Menschen in der äußeren Welt ablenkt davon, wie sich sein Karma schicksalsmäßig ausleben sollte, ihn moralisch zurückstößt mit unserem ganzen ungeistigen Leben in seine eigene Körperlichkeit. Die Individualität, statt daß sie in das Moralische überginge, stößt unsere Zeit zurück; sie wird organisch, ergreift die Organe, ergreift vor allen Dingen die Lunge, die das ins Innere Gerichtete ist des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystems, das seinerseits nach außen gerichtet ist. Es ergreift die Körperlichkeit unmittelbar die aus früheren Inkarnationen hereinspielende Individualität. Solche Dinge sind nicht dadurch so wichtig, daß man über sie theoretisiert, sondern daß man sich in der ganzen Stimmung in sie hineinversetzen kann, und dann entsteht eben das, was Heilwille ist und was sich in der richtigen Weise dann verbindet mit dem Heilbedürfnis des Menschen. Es ist eigentlich nach unserer heutigen materialistischen Kultur der heilende Mensch außerordentlich scharf getrennt von dem Menschen, der das Heilen sucht. Er kommt nicht heran, weil man mehr braucht zum Herankommen, weil man ein Gefühl haben muß für dasjenige, was als Ewiges im Menschen lebt. Und aus diesem Gefühl heraus entwickelt sich das rechte Verhältnis zwischen dem Heiler und dem zu Heilenden, und dann geht einem der Sinn dafür auf, wie man wirklich individualisieren muß; denn jeder Mensch hat sein eigenes Karma. Man muß individualisieren im Heilverfahren.
Das sind die Dinge, sehen Sie, die wir vor allem gemüthaft auf uns wirken lassen sollen. Die Dinge werden dadurch esoterisch, daß man sie gemüthaft auf sich wirken läßt; und so etwas wie das Lukas-Evangelium enthält die ganze Stimmung, die man braucht, um in diesem Gefühl weiterzukommen. Daher ist es schon so, daß die Dinge objektiv entstanden sind, vier Fakultäten sind entstanden: eine Lukas-Fakultät, eine Matthäus-Fakultät, eine Markus-Fakultät und eine Johannes-Fakultät, aber man spürt heute nichts davon, weil der Arabismus besonders in der Medizin lebt. Eine Durchchristung wird stattfinden, wenn die Dinge so gefaßt werden, daß man wieder zum Kosmischen kommt. Da muß man sich auch bewußt sein seiner kosmischen Stellung als Arzt. Sie werden aus alledem ersehen haben, wie stark beteiligt die im Monde dirigierenden Kräfte auf die menschliche Gestalt sind. Wenn die mondendirigierenden Kräfte der menschlichen Gestalt zu unregelmäßig wirken, dann muß man den Sinn darauf lenken können, dann muß man sich klar sein können darüber, man heilt dadurch, daß man da das Stück Unregelmäßigkeit, das dadrinnen lebt in der Gestalt, wegläßt; und das geschieht dann, wenn man eben den Kranken so behandelt, daß das kosmische Bewußtsein mitspricht. Dann aber, sehen Sie, muß gewissermaßen überschaubar werden das andere. Man muß einen Gesichtspunkt gewinnen. Sie müssen von außen etwas anschauen. Sie können ja nicht das Auge anschauen von außen. Dasjenige, was uns von außen alles anschauen läßt, was da wirkt, das ist dasjenige, was uns auf der andern Seite klare Begriffe gibt von allem, aber in diese klaren Begriffe nicht gleich die Abstraktion hineinzieht, sondern unser Herz mitdenken läßt. Wir dürfen nicht in unseren Begriffen verworren werden, aber wir müssen auch nicht das Herz ausschließen aus unserem abstrakten Denken. Wir müssen dadurch Mensch sein, daß wir ein ganzer Mensch sind, daß das Herz immer mitdenkt. Wir müssen daher darnach streben, nicht bloß in die Welt hineinzudenken, abstrakt hineinzudenken, und das tut heute im Grunde genommen alles Denken. Wir müssen uns klar sein, daß wir untertauchen müssen mit unserem Denken, das Herz müssen wir in alles hineintragen. Wir müssen auch dasjenige, was sich um die Gedanken herzlich herumwindet, kennen, wir müssen den Merkurstab wieder handhaben lernen, und wir werden das nicht anders, als wenn wir vom Mond herübergehen zum Merkur. Das ist dasjenige, was ich für das allgemeine Kulturleben dazumal gemeint habe in den Vorträgen, die auch von Raphael gehandelt haben, denn Raphael ist gerade der christliche Merkur. Wenn Sie sich mit einem solchen Bewußtsein durchdringen, werden Sie die richtigen Gefühle bekommen für dasjenige, wofür Sie eigentlich wirken müssen, wenn Sie sich als junge Leute heute in die Medizin hineinversetzen. Überall in der Welt sprudelt ja das Gegenteil von dem hervor, was der Sache nach geschehen sollte, und gerade in bezug auf das medizinische Wesen ist ein Furchtbares im Grunde genommen in der letzten Zeit hervorgetreten. Das ist - verzeihen Sie, daß ich zu etwas Alltäglichem heruntersteige, aber es zeigt sich, wie das Gegenteil wirkt -, das ist das medizinische Krankenkassenwesen. Da ist der Arzt vor allem ausgeschaltet. In Deutschland hat man einen Ausdruck dafür, der bezeugt die Ausschaltung des Menschlichen im Arzt, der bezeugt, daß man meint, hier wirken die abstrakten Dinge und nicht der Mensch. In Wirklichkeit heilt der Arzt und nicht die Arztwissenschaft. Aber man meint, die Arztwissenschaft ist etwas, was herumfliegt ohne den Menschen. Der Mensch kommt nicht in Betracht; es wird dem Karma geradezu ins Gesicht geschlagen. Denn das Karma wirkt so, daß es nicht blindlings Mensch zu Mensch hinstellt, sondern daß tatsächlich, wo die Möglichkeit vorliegt, in der freien Ärztewahl ein karmisches Element zum Vorschein kommt. Aber in dem rein Ahrimanischen der Einrichtung der Krankenkassenärzte wird das Karma vollständig beseitigt, und der Mensch wird ausgesetzt den rein das Karma bekämpfenden ahrimanischen Mächten. Wenn wir noch einmal zusammenkommen, werde ich Ihnen erzählen, wie die ahrimaniischen Mächte darauf aus sind, das Karma des Menschen totzuschlagen, damit sie ihr Ziel erreichen. Aber das ist, was direkt im Krankenkassenwesen und der Einrichtung der nicht freien Ärztewahl liegt, und damit zeigt sich nur dasjenige an, was, nicht wahr, in der Sprache zum Ausdruck gekommen ist, indem man den Ausdruck «Heilgewerbe» gewählt hat. Ich glaube, er steht sogar im Gesetz über die Krankenkassen. Da geht so hervor die ganze Stimmung, die über dem Krankenkassenwesen, über dem Auffassen des Ärztewesens als «Heilgewerbe» liegt. Es liegt so in der Zeit, daß darinnen symptomatisch diejenige Kulturkrankheit herauskommt, die in zahlreichen andern Dingen heute erscheint und die bezeugt, wie gerade der Arzt unbedingt mithelfen muß an der Heilung dieser Kulturkrankheiten. Aber wenn er selbst in die Lage kommt, wo er am schärfsten ausgesetzt ist dieser Kulturkrankheit, dann wird der Arzt vollständig gelähmt. Und denken Sie, daß das furchtbare Faktum vorliegt in der Einrichtung der Krankenkassen. Sie haben ja auch ihr Gutes, wie das, was in der Welt auftritt und die Menschen versucht und irreführen will, gleißend auftritt, nicht so, daß es einem unbedingt mißfällt. Der Teufel nimmt immer Engelsgestalt an, wenn er erscheint. Derjenige, der den Teufel in Teufelsgestalt sieht in der Vision, kann überzeugt sein, daß es nicht der Teufel ist, denn der erscheint in Engelsgestalt. Wenn der Arzt ausgesetzt ist dem schärfsten Impuls einer Kulturerkrankung, dann muß im Grunde unsere Kultur in eine kranke übergehen. Daher ist es notwendig, daß Sie beachten Ihr Karma, wie es Sie hinstellt, um nicht nur mitzuarbeiten im Arzneiwesen, sondern im kranken Wesen des sozialen Organismus.
Nun, dahingehend formulieren Sie sich bitte Ihre Fragen. Wir werden morgen noch einmal zusammenkommen. Ich habe auch gehört, daß Sie ein gewisses Bedürfnis haben, daß auseinandergesetzt wird, wie Sie sich in die allgemeine Jugendbewegung einfügen können. Wir werden manches von dem, was gerade von mir heute gesagt worden ist, ergänzen können. Aber das, was ich heute vorgebracht habe, wollte ich schon vorbringen, weil ich dachte, daß es notwendig sein könnte für Sie, zu wissen und verarbeitet zu werden.
Fühle in des Fiebers Maß
Des Saturn GeistesgabeFühle in des Pulses Zahl
Der Sonne SeelenkraftFühle in des Stoff’s Gewicht
Des Mondes Formenmacht:Dann schauest du in deinem Heilerwillen
Auch des Erdenmenschen Heilbedarf.
Fourth Lecture
My dear friends!
I initially thought that we would continue what we started by supplementing some of what I touched on yesterday from a different angle. Perhaps this will enable us to formulate the questions you asked, and which Dr. Wegman spoke to me about, in an appropriate manner.
You see, through your general human destiny, you are growing into the medical profession, into the healing profession. You encounter a certain current that is present in the healing profession today, and you are actually growing into it in such a way that you quite rightly feel an inner opposition to it. Now you must bear in mind that this often has objective reasons, and these will become clear to you as you come to understand more and more that today's medical trend is actually, in a certain sense, even a foreign body in much of what lives in European, Western civilization in general. One can only fully understand this when one realizes that our natural science and much of the striving in recent spiritual development has come about because the most influential personalities for the medical and scientific progress of our spiritual life were reincarnated individualities from Arab-Muslim culture. These things have been discussed a lot here at the Goetheanum recently and are also connected to what is now happening in the anthroposophical movement, but they are also of great importance for physicians. I have already said in various places how we are compelled to turn our gaze to the spiritual center that flourished at the same time that spiritual life, in a primitive sense, so to speak, prevailed in Europe under Charlemagne. Over in the Orient, spiritual culture flourished, held together by Harun al-Rashid. He actually had many of the wise men of the time, including many physicians, at his court. And you will notice that, in discussing such things, we are already touching on the period in which Christianity had an effect for centuries. Well, Christianity itself entered the world as something that can only be understood slowly and gradually, and it is actually very strange, from an external perspective, not an internal one, how the deeper aspects of Christianity have not yet been penetrated by human beings. Christianity came into the world as an objective fact, and human abilities, the receptive capacities, were not strong enough to develop what actually lies in Christianity in all its aspects. Therefore, the objective course of events is such that Christianity lives everywhere in the subconscious, but for three to four centuries, people have completely corrupted this Christianity. People corrupted Christianity through what they know, what is in their intellect, in their consciousness. In addition, we now have the appallingly amateurish institutions that have been established in recent times with the universities. Traditionally, there were four faculties: philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. What has been added since then is actually based on the most extreme and darkest misunderstanding. For a faculty of political science and a faculty of economics originate from ideas that knew nothing at all about what was involved. What has not been understood, and whose understanding has now been completely obscured, is that Christ initially sent out four people to proclaim Christianity to the world: the theologian Matthew, the lawyer Mark, the physician Luke, and the philosopher John. In this context, which is something very profound, lies the root of what must one day come to fruition. These things are only present in their seeds; they still have to blossom and bear fruit. What is deeply rooted in spiritual life is that the Gospels cannot agree in their wording, because one is written from the point of view of the theologian, another from the point of view of the philosopher, the third from the point of view of the lawyer, and the fourth from the point of view of the physician. This is something that must be understood; and because the Gospel of Luke has not yet been taken as an inner instruction for the will to heal — the matter has not been understood — it has come about that, within our present way of thinking, it is not actually a Christian healing will that lives, but rather that healing will which has sunk into spiritual culture through Arabism, which has, as it were, gripped Christianity with a vice. It is very interesting, is it not? Christianity, which originated in Asia, makes its way over to Europe and spreads throughout Europe. But now take a look at the court of Harun al-Rashid, where ancient medicine lived on, where the ancient mystery cult actually lived on in the anthropological conception; this was still present in the tradition. There were two people living there: Harun al-Rashid himself, who organized the whole thing, this huge spiritual academy that grew under his influence; there was another who had been an initiate in earlier times; at that time, the initiation did not come out. Harun al-Rashid came back as Lord Bacon, Baco of Verulam. With a way of thinking that was thoroughly rooted in Arabism, he renewed scientific thinking from the West. During the time between death and new birth, the soul took this path (it is drawn). If you were to study Baco of Verulam, you would see how much has come into medicine precisely because of this, and you would be amazed. On the other hand, the other, the initiate, incarnated in the soul of Amos Comenius. We see that Comenius had a life striving toward the spirit, but he pursued it all according to intellectual views. We also see how Arabism reappears in another personality who did not live at exactly the same time as Harun al-Rashid, but who played a role in the battle of Jeres de la Frontera when Darwin returns. And so all those who work in the natural sciences, and especially in medicine, are reincarnations of what came to Europe in this embrace, which Arabism undertook with Christianity, in ancient views, but with the exclusion of Christianity — not in the further development of Christianity, but with the exclusion of Christianity. And so medicine lives on as something that has come in most strongly in this way, while the impulse contained in the Gospel of Luke for medicine is still there, so that one must say it has yet to be taken up. To do this, you must be able to take things such as those I discussed yesterday about the cosmic understanding of the human being, about understanding the human being from the cosmos, with the utmost seriousness, and then you will feel yourself placed in the right way in the task that is set for you today by your karma. For you see, the situation is this: let us consider, for example, the medical science that flourished at the court of Harun al-Rashid. On the one hand, the good of the Hippocratic way of thinking certainly lived there. Those who may have read the first medical course I gave here will have seen that I dealt with the principle that Hippocrates was the last to heal on the basis of ancient mystery medicine. Now, when Hippocratic medicine was transplanted to Asia, it entered into a strong current of Mongolian healing methods that came over from Northeast Asia. Much of this flowed into it, against which not only the European way of thinking had to rebel, but also the inner organization of the human being itself, because the inner organization of the human being did not fit in with what came in there as Mongolian-Tatar influence in medical thinking. This can come out when one can arrive at an original cosmic way of thinking about the human being.
Now, on the one hand, you will be able to recall the view of development that you can find in the outline of my “Secret Science,” where the stream of development is guided through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon developments, followed by the Earth development. Human beings have actually gone through all these stages of development; and from what has already been said in recent days, you will have gathered that human beings first contain the stream of heredity, which acts in the model, and the individual stream, which comes from previous earthly lives. What acts in heredity goes back to earlier times, but has remained Ahrimanic, has dried up. So that is what lies in heredity. Today's official medicine works solely with this and nowhere takes into account what is now the other side, which is worked out in the second human life, between the change of teeth and sexual maturity, the epoch in human life that can already be statistically regarded as the healthiest, because it is then that human beings are least capable of falling ill; The ability to fall ill is eliminated at this stage. One might say that modern medicine is least interested in health and most interested in delving into illness. That is a radical statement, but it is true. However, in order to connect with health, it is necessary to truly grasp the whole cosmos in the human being, to see the cosmos in the human being. To do this, we need the details that can truly convey this perception of cosmic development in the human being. The old Saturn development, the old Sun development, and the old Moon development are still within the human being. And only when we understand these three pre-developments to the Earth development can we understand what we are actually dealing with in the Earth human being. But today we have so many sciences — we do not have an actual science of Saturn, an actual science of the Sun, an actual science of the Moon, because in general natural life we can no longer remember what was there in the instinctive primordial wisdom. So we can no longer approach what was most strongly alive in Hippocrates, because it has become a phrase. This must be brought back to life. So you will have an important word echoing from ancient times, but you will not generally pay any attention to this old word, and least of all pay attention to its wonderful orienting nature, how it can affect medicine. It is the following.
The divine powers of the world have arranged life according to measure, number, and weight. You find this as a biblical saying. But who today pays attention to such words other than to take them as a general phrase, as if there had once been an ancient architect of the world who arranged everything according to measure, number, and weight? For the physician, however, it is a matter of actually finding measure, number, and weight in human beings. Let us look at the Saturn being! You see, human beings have Saturn development within them, but of course we do not find this Saturn development in actual human beings today, because in them all stages of development are synthetically united, they are connected, so that the individual ones disappear in the connection, in the harmony. But illness brings forth one or another manifestation in its particular form. And now it must be the case that what I have indicated in The Secret Science is not really understood with the intellect alone, but is understood in the way it is described there: that one feels everywhere within it how, during Saturn development, a cosmic warmth has a pervasive effect. When studying Saturn's development, one must refer to the element of warmth everywhere; one must lead to the element of warmth. Saturn works in human beings, and what has been described about Saturn's development works in human beings, but it does not come to the fore in earthly human beings when they harmonize all these things within themselves. However, it does work when human beings are ill. Then the things that otherwise fit together harmoniously separate, and the Saturn element works on its own and manifests itself in fever. We will only have a science of fever when we make this science of fever cosmic, when we can understand how the old Saturn works in human beings, so that we can truly understand how the cosmic works in the manifestation of fever through the forces of Saturn, which we have found spiritually absorbed within the earth. When we find the Saturn forces on the earth's surface everywhere, most strongly in the lead forces and otherwise distributed everywhere, we will gain an inner understanding of fever, and we must see in it that through which the divine-spiritual world order orders the world according to measure. The measure of fever expresses the measure that lives in the world order, in that warmth flows into the world order in the first place, the measure that merges into the other, harmonizes itself. But we must see the measure above all in the symptoms of fever. Therefore, we must allow it to have a strong effect on us:
Feel in the measure of fever
The gift of the spirit of Saturn
It is actually the spirit of the human being that appears in fever, which is otherwise only submerged in the other elements. In fever, the spirit of the human being, which is one-sided, asserts itself. The oldest component of human nature appears on the surface of existence in fever.
Now you see, after the development of Saturn comes the development of the Sun. On the one hand, the mere element of warmth is condensed into air, but on the other hand it is diluted into light. Light and air interact; they belong together. We absorb the rhythm of the air in our breathing, we absorb the light; and in the occult sense, light is not merely what acts on the eye, but light is a general expression for what acts through the sun. It is only the eye that is the most excellent representative of what acts through the sun. In the Middle Ages, what acts in the light was called spiritual “tincture.” Now we come to the development of the sun, and we also have the development of the sun in human beings today. We feel it immediately as something that is not now working on the earth, but is the after-effect of the old sun's influence, when we place our fingers on the human pulse with the right feeling. The number of pulse beats expresses the old development of the sun within us. And so we have as a second point:
Feel in the pulse number
The sun's soul power
It is not indifferent, my dear friends, whether we really proceed in this direction or not. One can take such a thing seriously or not take it seriously. But it makes a huge difference whether you really reflect on it when you look at the reading on the thermometer — it just has to be acquired through inner practice — what image evolution presents at the time of Saturn: because everything is under the flow of warmth, the whole world appears to you as a gift of the spirit, in which love flows into everything through the warmth. And in this mood of religious devotion, recognize how love flows into the world through the Saturnic with the help of warmth; recognize this in your grateful devotion to the warming, loving creation of the world; recognize, in the moment when you check the fever, what is present from this mood, and then you will have an intuition about what you should do.
Likewise, one should not check the pulse in the mechanical, butcher-like manner that is often done, but one should actually be able to immerse oneself in the pulse in that which emanates from the sun as the rhythm of the world. When feeling the pulse, one should be able to sense the human being standing within the light and air-spreading, world-illuminating brightness. Then, in turn, the whole human being is engaged in their will to heal. The will to heal cannot be achieved through an inner command, but can only be achieved through a devoted attitude of the soul in the world.
And as you continue, you will come to examine the other symptoms, which consist of looking everywhere to see how that which works in the human being does not take on human form, but takes on its own form. Take, for example, diabetes mellitus, diabetic conditions. What are they based on? On the fact that [unlike] in harmonized human beings, the sugar is permeated by the human being, so that it does not act through its own power; but down to its most intimate atomicity, the human being becomes too weak to permeate the sugar completely. In his ego organization, the human being follows the sugar forces, the non-human forces. Look at all the forces that manifest themselves in humans with diabetes, that appear in the residues of urine, that are deposited in the body in migraines and other conditions. Look at everything that occurs in the body as substances that follow their own laws and not human laws, and you can ask two questions.
First, why is it possible in human nature that there can be a tendency to bring the substance to its own effectiveness within the human being? If this were not the case, the moon's development could never have intervened. It intervenes precisely when the substances in the human being want to follow their own course. Then the lunar forces seize these material forces and, precisely as lunar forces in human beings, bring about the form. Everything that appears in human beings through the form is permeated by the lunar forces. Just as Saturn is the warmer, the sun the rhythmist, so the moon is the shaper of human beings. Now, you see, this is how it is in the whole human being. Just think about what I always emphasize. Our brain does not have its own weight. When we take it out, it weighs about 1500 grams; inside the body, it weighs only about 20 grams, because according to Archimedes' principle, every body loses as much weight as the displaced mass of water weighs. Now, since the brain floats in the cerebral fluid, it displaces part of the cerebral water, experiences buoyancy, and presses on its base with only about 20 grams. This is how it is with everything. The point is that there must be forces in the cosmos that take away the weight of the substances that humans carry within themselves to the degree that is necessary. The weight must be regulated, and the third factor lies in the weight of one's own substance and its regulation by the cosmos. So, whether you examine whatever is at work in the metabolism, whether anything material occurs under the influence of its own weight, or whether the weight fits into the weight of the cosmos, you are examining the order of the divine-spiritual world according to weight, and thus you have the third factor:
Feel in the weight of matter
The shaping power of the moon:
This is what should permeate us again as a mood. We should be able to feel, when we talk about rheumatism, gout, constipation, diabetes, migraine, about all the conditions that are somehow connected with such deposits, which reveal the inherent weights of substances, we should feel how something enters our sensations that can be expressed with the words: The heaviness of the earth has taken hold of man. There is much in such words. Imbue your investigations with such feelings. Just think how abstract, how butcher-like investigations into these things are carried out today, how thoughtless! Then you will get what is missing today, what, despite all the wonderful preservation of ancient wisdom, ancient virtue, ancient skill in Arabism, has been killed off precisely because what was there as a trinity — Moon, sun, Saturn — appeared concealed, masked as Father, Son, and Spirit, and that this Trinity has disappeared and that Arabism in Mohammedanism has simply rejected all this with the words — I mean the first part of the sentence, which Mohammed did not utter, but which was certainly uttered by the angel who inspired him, who was not exactly an excellent angel, even though he was very wise: Oh, what nonsense, all this Trinity! — There is only one God, whom Mohammed was to proclaim. This is what we are told, that all differences in the world should disappear. As a result, the things that should actually be known have been obscured, and our medicine has actually become Arabic-Mohammedan. European humanity had become too weak to find the right thing. Today, these things must be known, otherwise humanity on Earth will perish, so that you must already say to yourselves:
Feel in the measure of fever
The gift of the spirit of Saturn
Feel in the number of the pulse
The soul power of the sun
Feel in the weight of matter
The formative power of the moon
Then you will see in your desire to heal
The healing needs of the earth human.
You see, when you look at the world in this way, you really have to take these things in with your heart. Then you get a sense of the tendency that occurs in the course of human life on earth, namely that the individuality that comes over from previous earthly lives grasps what is now available as a model from the stream of heredity. I have already spoken to you about the struggle that exists between what is formed according to the model as the second human body and the first model human body. If you know that you have a person in front of you who is actually working their way to the surface, then you know that what comes over from previous incarnations is working on this person. And it is really so: The person who penetrates these things with their heart and soul has the greatest opportunity to perceive, or at least sense, what comes over from previous incarnations in the sick person. For what is the basis of what actually manifests itself in illness? In healthy people, it is actually like this: there is the head organization, which is actually already separated externally from the rest of the organization in its form. The head is a bony casing enclosing the brain. What is a continuation of the head is also enclosed in bone. It exists on its own, and then the other parts that belong to the human being are attached to it. But in the finer organization of the human being, there is something that separates these two parts from each other. You see, it is not so easy to prove this through external anatomy and external physiology, but there is an enormous amount to consider in the transformation of nutrients, for example, in that these nutrients do not enter the head organization, not even the nerve organization, in their internal structure as they are. There is a sharply defined boundary that cannot be crossed. Who is not allowed to cross it? Well, you see, from the beginning of human evolution on Earth, what has had the strongest effect on the head organization is that which has retained its power from previous Earth lives through the time between death and new birth. What acts as the child's individuality force emanates from the head. But it must not pass unsifted into the rest of the body organization. There must be a filter, an intermediate layer. It is not visible externally, but it is there in the organization. Nothing passes down unscreened. The lungs as an organic member or the liver as an organic member must not be directly affected by the forces that come over from previous incarnations; they cannot tolerate this. And something terrible actually arises in the human being when one has to say to oneself that the force from previous earthly lives comes to one's liver completely unscreened. What constitutes human individuality transforms the forces that lie in the lungs and liver, in the limb metabolism system, and partly also in the rhythmic system, into the head organization during the time between death and new birth. The limb metabolism organization is only reattached from the outside. Only when the human being has passed through the ‘gate of death’, when the physical-material aspect has fallen away and only the forces of the lungs and liver have passed through the gate of death, can human individuality, which is eternal, enter again, so that damage occurs in the human being during earthly life when individuality enters certain organs that it should not access.
That is why, when faced with certain illnesses, people say with such inner devotion: Ah, because there is no proper separation, the individuality from the previous earthly life is affecting the organ that should now only be influenced by this earthly life. — That is why you see the individuality from previous earthly lives affecting the sick person. This individuality, which should only live itself out in the moral, in the fateful, which should remain with what the human being does and experiences, and which should not affect the organization in the mainly earthly part of the human being, which works partly in his metabolic-limb system, partly in his rhythmic system, partly in his sensory-nervous system, because the boundary has become defective. You see, a certain attitude toward the human being arises from the knowledge that the individuality of the human being is at work in the diseased lung. When I look at someone with consumption, I feel a very concrete compassion because our time is so materialistic, distracting people in the outer world from how their karma should be lived out as fate would have it, morally pushing them back into their own physicality with our whole unspiritual life. Instead of merging into morality, individuality is pushed back in our time; it becomes organic, takes hold of the organs, and above all takes hold of the lungs, which are the inward-directed part of the metabolic-limb system, which in turn is directed outward. Physicality directly takes hold of the individuality that comes in from previous incarnations. Such things are not so important because one theorizes about them, but because one can put oneself in the whole mood of them, and then what arises is precisely what healing will is and what then connects in the right way with the healing need of the human being. According to our materialistic culture today, the healing person is actually very sharply separated from the person who seeks healing. He cannot approach them because more is needed to approach them, because one must have a feeling for that which lives eternally in human beings. And out of this feeling develops the right relationship between the healer and the person to be healed, and then one understands how one must truly individualize, for every human being has his own karma. One must individualize in the healing process.
These are the things, you see, that we should allow to affect us emotionally above all else. Things become esoteric when we allow them to affect us emotionally; and something like the Gospel of Luke contains the whole mood that one needs in order to progress in this feeling. Therefore, it is true that things have arisen objectively, four faculties have arisen: a Luke faculty, a Matthew faculty, a Mark faculty, and a John faculty, but one senses nothing of this today because Arabism is particularly alive in medicine. A Christianization will take place when things are understood in such a way that one returns to the cosmic. As a physician, one must also be aware of one's cosmic position. From all this, you will have seen how strongly the forces directing the moon affect the human form. If the forces governing the human form from the moon have too irregular an effect, then one must be able to direct one's attention to this, one must be clear about it, one heals by removing the element of irregularity that lives within the form; and this happens when one treats the patient in such a way that cosmic consciousness has a say. But then, you see, the other must become comprehensible in a sense. One must gain a point of view. You must look at something from the outside. You cannot look at the eye from the outside. What allows us to see everything from the outside, what is at work there, is what gives us clear concepts of everything on the other side, but does not immediately draw abstraction into these clear concepts, but allows our heart to think along with us. We must not become confused in our concepts, but we must also not exclude the heart from our abstract thinking. We must be human by being whole human beings, by always thinking with our hearts. We must therefore strive not merely to think our way into the world, to think abstractly, which is basically what all thinking does today. We must be clear that we must immerse ourselves with our thinking; we must carry our hearts into everything. We must also know what surrounds our thoughts warmly; we must learn to wield the rod of Mercury again, and we will only do this if we move from the moon to Mercury. This is what I meant for general cultural life at that time in the lectures that also dealt with Raphael, for Raphael is precisely the Christian Mercury. If you imbibe such a consciousness, you will develop the right feelings for what you actually need to work for when you, as young people today, enter the field of medicine. All over the world, the opposite of what should actually happen is bubbling up, and especially in relation to the medical profession, something terrible has basically emerged in recent times. This is—forgive me for descending to something mundane, but it shows how the opposite works—the medical health insurance system. Here, the doctor is essentially eliminated. In Germany, there is an expression for this that testifies to the elimination of the human element in the doctor, that testifies to the belief that abstract things are at work here and not human beings. In reality, it is the doctor who heals, not medical science. But people think that medical science is something that flies around without human beings. Human beings are not taken into consideration; karma is literally thrown in their faces. For karma works in such a way that it does not blindly place one human being opposite another, but that, where the opportunity exists, a karmic element comes to the fore in the free choice of doctor. But in the purely Ahrimanic institution of health insurance doctors, karma is completely eliminated, and the human being is exposed to the purely Ahrimanic forces that combat karma. When we meet again, I will tell you how the Ahrimanic forces seek to kill the karma of the human being in order to achieve their goal. But this is what lies directly in the health insurance system and the institution of non-free choice of doctors, and this only reveals what has been expressed in language by choosing the term “healing trade.” I believe it is even in the law on health insurance. This reveals the whole mood that prevails in the health insurance system, in the perception of the medical profession as a “healing trade.” It is symptomatic of the times that this cultural disease, which appears in numerous other ways today, is coming to the fore, testifying to how doctors in particular must help to heal these cultural diseases. But when doctors themselves find themselves in the position where they are most exposed to this cultural disease, they become completely paralyzed. And consider that this terrible fact is present in the structure of health insurance companies. They also have their good side, just as what appears in the world and tempts and misleads people appears dazzling, not in a way that is necessarily unpleasant. The devil always takes on the form of an angel when he appears. Those who see the devil in his true form in a vision can be convinced that it is not the devil, for he appears in the form of an angel. When the doctor is exposed to the strongest impulse of a cultural disease, then our culture must essentially turn into a sick one. Therefore, it is necessary that you pay attention to your karma, as it presents you, so that you not only cooperate in the medical profession, but also in the sick nature of the social organism.
Now, please formulate your questions in this regard. We will meet again tomorrow. I have also heard that you have a certain need to discuss how you can fit into the general youth movement. We will be able to supplement some of what I have said today. But I wanted to bring up what I have said today because I thought it might be necessary for you to know and process.
Feel in the measure of fever
The gift of Saturn's spiritFeel in the pulse's count
The soul power of the sunFeel in the weight of matter
The shaping power of the moon:Then you will see in your desire to heal
The healing needs of earthly humans as well.