Seelenpflege 2016-3-4 Spezial

Beiträge | Contributions
impediments and lack of harmony and form around the
child all have consequences. Sooner or later anomalies
can appear. It is particularly detrimental if the body of
formative forces gradually being released from the chest
at this age result in fantasy and the ripening of memory
and these new faculties are engaged in an unhealthy
way. The origin of illnesses of children who do not thrive,
who are nervous, pale and retarded in their physical development
can be frequently discovered and detected in
such disturbances to their development. It can also occur
that a tendency exists in the constitution for the formative
forces to remain too long and too intensely linked to
the chest. This leads to hindrances in the development
which can result in grave consequences if they are not recognised
in time. The doctor can prescribe medicines for
the child which call forth and assist the plastic-moulding
forces which flow from the head into the body, to deter
the respiratory organs and blood circulation from excessive
growth and development and help find the appropriate
form. He can administer among other thing Conchae
(calcium carbonate) Phosphor calcite and Nontronite
(iron silicate) and saline baths.
The doctor can also try prescribing curative educational
exercises which have a similar effect, e.g. through
eurythmic and special curative eurythmic exercises. In
letting the child perform or watch individually selected
movements based on certain principles, he can again
work in a harmonising way upon the growth and plasticmoulding
forces.
From the age of six until the second teeth start coming
through, a new phase for the healthy child begins. To a
certain degree the body of formative forces is released
from the limb and metabolic organisations and this goes
hand in hand with a physical change. The child gradually
develops trust and faith in the adult which enables him
to surrender to his authority and develop a sense for the
moral admonitions which are posed to him. The dangers
are infinitely great, for as you can surmise from the above
mentioned, the child still takes everything it has experienced
through imitation directly into the formation of its
organs. If this metamorphosis cannot take place properly
on account of external disturbances or disposition of character,
the disadvantages can be far-reaching, because
the child is also being prepared for another stage in its
life, which begins with the coming of the second teeth.
This is a very significant moment in its development and
also a meaningful point of reference for the assessment
of an ill child for the physician. From an irregular, un-
healthy, belated or too early development of the second
teeth one is able to read what is present in the child as a
process or tendency towards illness. If the second teeth
appear too late and irregularly, or they are too soft, for example,
then this is due to the fact that the formative hardening
forces, ranging from the head inwards, have been
too weak. Alternatively, they might have been too forceful
and unrestrained, the result being that the second
teeth break through too early. The physician is concerned
in either case and either stimulates the mineralizing
formative process in the organism, or supports the
growth-and-life-process if the upsurging formative forces
have been too weak and hence cause the teeth to prematurely
break through without being properly formed. If
the doctor is observant of the child‘s dexterity and adroitness
with his hands and feet and gives arm exercises
to overcome his clumsiness, this enhances the healthy
development of the inner formative activity of the higher
members of his being, whenever they do not involve
themselves appropriately. A visible expression of this are
the disturbances in the formation of the second teeth.
With the change of teeth, the child has fundamentally
become another being and this needs to be taken into
consideration when one wishes to understand the child
in its healthy as well as unhealthy life processes and expressions.
At this point we have to direct our attention
to the way in which the spiritual-soul forces, - we can
call them ‚ego‘ and ‚astral body‘ - of the child, are involved
in the development of this structure. We should
know that the spiritual-soul element in the child has only
worked in the head until the age of seven and as from
there has been active in the formative shaping of the
entire organism right into its material substance - these
forces withdraw, however, with the coming of the second
teeth and from then on are more related to the rhythmic
movement processes of the chest, where they work with
the organism via breathing and blood circulation. These
forces withdraw from the head with the change of teeth
and now work more in the rhythmic movements and processes
which are typical of the chest processes of breathing
and blood circulation. The child progresses from
an imitative being to one which feels independently. It
opens itself to its environment with its life of feeling, it listens
to the teacher and what he can convey through language
and vigour of imagination. Everything that affects
its life of feelings will influence its breathing and blood
circulation and thus radiates right into its growth and
life processes - right into its structuring processes; in a
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