When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 1 - Waldorf Research Institute

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Archetypes of Form in the Human Organism IRA CANTOR, MD This article arose out of a fascination for the forms and gestures of eurythmy, and their relationship to various physiological and psychological processes. This sparked an interest to discover the forms and gestures within human anatomy, and then to attempt to build a bridge to the euryth my gestures. In this article, I will limit myself to discussion of the first part; that is, the archetypal forms within the human organism. Preliminary Thoughts If one views the body externally, there are certain simple, yet nonethe - less striking observations that can be made. To begin with, we note a contrast between the head, which is more or less spherical, and the limbs, which are linear. To understand the significance of this, we must ask ourselves the question, “What are the typical qualities of a sphere, of a line?” A sphere has the quality of being complete within itself at rest, whereas a line implies directionality, or movement from one point to another. If we then view what lies under our skin, we’re struck by the image of how the nerves from all the different parts of our body are drawn together into a single organ, the brain. The polarity to this is seen below our diaphragm, where there seems to be a separating tendency, without any obvious ordering principle, into the many different organs of our abdominal cavity. We can see how the quality of convergence appears in our nervous system, whereas separation, or divergence is present in our abdominal or gans. Further light is thrown on these observations if we ask the question of how different forms arise in the body. The finished forms arise from par ticular shaping tendencies. From a certain viewpoint, we can say that there are two different dynamics at work in the creation of forms. These can be described as forces which radiate in a linear fashion from a central point (centrifugal) and those which come tangentially from the periphery and tend to form surfaces and spheres.* *In Sensitive Chaos (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1965), Schwenk describes these dynamics in a different, but complementary manner in relation to fluids. He speaks of the tendency of fluids to form a sphere and of the effect of gravity upon fluids. <strong>When</strong> these two forces interact over time, spiral and meandering forms arise. 28
This can be illustrated by looking at the diagram below: The forces radiating from a center push out and tend to separate things whereas those coming from the periphery limit and force the form inwards and back on itself. The study of physiognomy affords numerous instances to see these shaping forces at work. The forehead has, for instance, a predominance of the peripheral, surface-forming forces, whereas the chin has a predominance of the central radiating forces. Of course, both chin and forehead demonstrate the interaction between both of these forces. What happens when these two shaping tendencies meet in a rhythmical, repeating manner? In that situation, as seen in the diagram, rhythmically oscillating curves arise. First one is predominant, then the other. The wonderful curves that one sees in the nose and ear arise this way. As we shall later see, the heart muscle is also formed in this manner.* In looking at the threefold picture of the human being (nerve-sense, rhythmic, metabolic-limb systems), we can make certain preliminary statements, based on the above observations. The head has a concentrating, or converging tendency, and the predominant shaping force is the peripheral, surface-forming one. Our limbs, as a polarity, tend to divergence or expansion, and have a predominance of the raying-out forces. Our rhythmical system demonstrates the rhythmical meeting of these two, and therefore develops oscillating curves. We will now proceed to look at these three systems in detail. Our proce dure will be fundamentally the same in each situation. In this way, the similarities and differences will appear more clearly. Nerve-Sense System In looking at the skeleton, we notice an interesting relationship between the skeleton and the organs. In the head, the skull surrounds the primary organ, the brain, which is located inside the skull. In the limbs, the opposite relationship occurs. The chief organs, the muscles, lie outside the structure. *Sensitive Chaos, Schwenk. 29
Page 1: When Healing Becomes Educating Sele
Page 4 and 5: Published by: The Research Institut
Page 7 and 8: An Introduction to Anthroposophical
Page 9 and 10: II. Pathology and Therapy According
Page 11 and 12: normal life, such an inner happenin
Page 13 and 14: and where the action of the ego-org
Page 15 and 16: As the “result of analysis,” de
Page 17 and 18: emembering oneself does one experie
Page 19 and 20: animals of a species. The group-ego
Page 21 and 22: Making the gaseous, the airy elemen
Page 23 and 24: “In-Between Forms” in the Plant
Page 25 and 26: overpowering. The number of poisono
Page 27: spring from the mineral soil, so wa
Page 31 and 32: This is also shown by the fact that
Page 33 and 34: The lung shows two form tendencies
Page 35 and 36: etween those organs above and below
Page 37 and 38: (nervous system, lungs, kidneys). I
Page 39 and 40: the unconscious. He stressed, howev
Page 41 and 42: the age of seven. In fact, they onl
Page 43 and 44: quite so clear. Ahrimanic forces ha
Page 45 and 46: which are activated only to the ext
Page 47 and 48: is stored in the gall bladder befor
Page 49 and 50: it should not meet until after deat
Page 51 and 52: securities that applied to generati
Page 53 and 54: continue. It will then become incre
Page 55 and 56: 3 There is no human spirit truly ca
Page 57 and 58: What form should the new debate tak
Page 59 and 60: the physical world, nor do they per
Page 61 and 62: useful criteria for the identificat
Page 63 and 64: as the essence of anthroposophy. In
Page 65 and 66: debate? The answer has to be: not e
Page 67 and 68: 2 In conventional physics, concepts
Page 69 and 70: anthroposophical point of view, is
Page 71 and 72: REFERENCES 1. Stœrig HJ. Kleine We
Page 73 and 74: In 1953 Watson and Crick published
Page 75 and 76: principle for the beginning, sequen
Page 77 and 78: messengers.” 3 Hormones are a par
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structures are not rigid, crystalli
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Following Kant and Popper one usual
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for genetics. Thus we will try to l
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Of course, in addition to the mutua
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REFERENCES 1. Arber, W.: Das Bakter
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Need for Rhythm Studies in Anthropo
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The following formulations, given i
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Rhythmic system - time organism - t
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The part of the spectrum where wave
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Fig. 5. Frequency distribution of 1
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Such a clear statement does, of cou
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inner resources we build a world th
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Scientific Hypotheses - Truth or Er
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However there is an inherent danger
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and analyze the data. It cannot rea
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simply one aspect of the solution.
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Waldorf RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR E D
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