When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 6 - Waldorf Research Institute

Four developmental stages of cardiac function
Taking an overall view, we can discern four stages of development:
Earth – hydraulic ram
• physical body: arrangement of
myocardial fibers
Water atmosphere: clouds, rain • ether body; peripheral waves of
and rivers on earth
proteinaceous tissue fluid
Surrounding air • astral body; respiration –
emotional ups and downs – blush
of shame – pallor of fear
Warmth
• ego orientation; blood
temperature; blood stream
crossing in the heart
Every stage reveals something of the character and essential nature
of the heart. At the physical level we noted periodic congestion causing
a simple vessel to be enlarged into the myocardium. At the next stage we
became aware of the waves of tissue fluid and their reflection in the heart
beat. At the psychic and astral level these elements are raised to a new plane
and related to conscious and semi-conscious inner activities and the ego.
Emotions such as wonder and delight are based on the rhythmic system just
as much as the fact that we are born to suffer and to overcome in the process
of our life destiny.
The insights gained in this field can become a key element in our
approach to the natural elements earth, water, air (which unites with
the human psyche in respiration) and heat (in the blood temperature an
expression of the ego organization). Out of warmth, the heart and the blood
have been created to give expression to the ego organization. The positive
and negative pressures created by warmth allow the ego’s activity in this
element to shine through in the pulsating movement of the blood. 13 Thus
looking at the world of nature in the mirror of our image of the human
being we can see why the heart may be called the key to the world, seeing it
holds the whole world in itself.
Warmth of heart in education and for teaching methods
On September 7, 1919, Rudolf Steiner spoke of seeing the heart in a
living way in the new approach to education. Four weeks after the opening
of the Stuttgart Waldorf School, on October 4, 1919, he discussed the
warmth needed in teaching and the consequences this would have for the
children in later life. It goes without saying that the usual subjects have
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