The Rudolf Steiner Archive

7. Man, Woman, and Child in the Light of Spiritual Science

Notes from a participant

[ 1 ] Spiritual science is not merely a means of satisfying curiosity, or, to put it more nobly, a means of satisfying the drive for research. It is also intended to give people an impulse for living and acting. After all, a sense of security and fulfillment in life, as well as competence in our actions and in accomplishing our tasks, should flow from what the humanities offer us.

[ 2 ] A child is, as it were, a living mystery before our eyes. Prejudices in many areas of life can sometimes still be corrected, but prejudices in a child’s upbringing often have a detrimental effect and frequently cannot be remedied.

[ 3 ] In the triad of man, woman, and child, the whole of humanity appears to us in a certain sense. Much is inherited by the child from the man and the woman. Thus, the question of heredity comes into play here, which actually encompasses, to a certain degree, the mystery of fate. What has the child received from its ancestors? Consider, for example, the plays of Ibsen. In art and science, the question of heredity is raised everywhere because people sense its importance and practical significance. However, we must not allow ourselves to be misled here by the prejudices that are often suggested to us by the facts we encounter when observing lower forms of life. One of the greatest errors in this field is that we uncritically apply to modern humans what observation and experimentation reveal about animals and plants, or what we know about our ancestors from history. Spiritual science acknowledges what science understands as heredity, but it rises from these facts to higher ones that are truly revealed to us only from the perspectives of the spiritual world. There is, in fact, a progression with regard to laws. A fundamental law prevails throughout all of nature, through the physical and the spiritual. But with our insights into the laws of lower realms, we must ascend to laws that apply in higher realms. We must absolutely accomplish this progression.

[ 4 ] Into what does heredity transform itself at higher levels? The answer to this question will inspire in us a sense of awe for the developing human being. There is a tremendous difference between lower forms of life and human beings. The fundamental difference between humans and other living beings lies in the following: Everything that interests us about animals is encompassed within the concept of genus or species. We do not have the same respect for the individual in animals as we do in humans. The description of a lion is the description of the species of lions. Here, the generic aspect predominates. In humans, on the other hand, individuality takes precedence. Therefore, a biography is possible for every human being, even the simplest person. Much is hidden in this fact, above all that each individual human being is a genus, a species in and of themselves. There is something within humans that is equivalent to an entire animal species.

[ 5 ] From this follows the law of the reincarnation of the soul. The human individual is, from the perspective of our ancestors, completely incomprehensible to us. External characteristics, of course, may possibly be traced back to ancestors, but not that which belongs to the intrinsic nature of a human individual. Nor can we deduce the species-specific individuality of any animal from the characteristics of its ancestors.

[ 6 ] The causes of the origin of a living being must always arise from something living. Just a few centuries ago, people still believed in spontaneous generation—for example, that living animals could arise from river mud. The human soul is not cobbled together from all sorts of characteristics, any more than a worm is made up of certain inorganic substances, as was believed at that time. The soul always traces back to the soul; and the soul that dwells in a human being today traces back to a previous soul existence. It is a reincarnation, but it is not a conglomeration of characteristics from the paternal and maternal sides. Thus, the law of reincarnation necessarily follows. From this perspective, let us consider man, woman, and child.

[ 7 ] What appears to be the deeper foundation—the child’s individuality—is that which integrates itself into the physical body as a soul after having continued to exist in another life in the meantime. A man and a woman have merely to provide the child with a vessel. This in no way diminishes the love of a mother and father. A person’s individuality exists long before the parents’ act of procreation. A kind of unconscious love draws the child to these specific parents and prompts them to conceive. In return, the two parents then bestow their parental love upon the child.

[ 8 ] For certain living beings, death and love are intertwined. Some animals die after mating. Such beings offer us a profound insight into the interconnectedness of all living things in the universe and also into the reality of love. For human beings, love is something through which they dedicate their individual existence to the whole of being. It is not merely a clichéd concept of poetry, but a force that permeates all of nature. Love is the antithesis of selfishness. In love, the individual, as it were, transcends themselves. In more perfect beings, it is a true elevation of life.

[ 9 ] Human beings are the most individual of all beings. The meaning of the individual and of love can only be fully understood by considering the essence of the human being, as revealed to us through spiritual science. According to spiritual science, the physical body is merely a garment of the entire human existence. Human beings share the etheric body with animals and plants. The astral body, which animals also possess, encompasses everything soul-related, from the basest instincts up to the highest moral ideas.

[ 10 ] The power of the “I,” however, is possessed by him only as a human being; therefore, he may be regarded as the crown of creation. That personality felt the depth of the word “I,” which declared: “I am what is, what was, and what will be.” True self-knowledge is the highest form of knowledge in existence. Behind the “veiled image at Sais” lies self-knowledge. “No mortal has yet lifted my veil!” True self-knowledge belongs only to those

[ 11 ] A power within human beings that is immortal! Only the supernatural aspect of human beings recognizes the immortal. Thus, that which is mortal within us does not lift the veil of the Goddess.

[ 12 ] A German Romantic once boldly declared: “If no mortal can lift the veil of Isis, then we must simply become immortal!”

[ 13 ] The physical body develops until a child’s first set of permanent teeth comes in. Of course, a person continues to grow after that, but this growth is merely an increase in stature—an expansion of the form the child has retained up to the age of seven. This is an important guiding principle for education. Up to this point, one should focus on developing the child’s physical form. If this is not done, something essential for the person’s entire life will have been neglected. In the second period, up to the age of puberty, the etheric body develops. Of course, it was not inactive during the preceding period. However, until the teeth are replaced, the etheric body is enclosed in a kind of maternal sheath. Only from this time onward does it become free and able to unfold. At sexual maturity, a culmination point in the development of the etheric body is reached, and from this point on, the development of the astral body becomes free. Even later, the actual formation of the “I” begins.

[ 14 ] A different picture thus emerges for the process of inheritance in the physical body, a different one for the etheric body, and yet another for the astral body.

[ 15 ] What a person inherits from their ancestors is contained in the physical and etheric bodies. By the time a person reaches sexual maturity, these inherited characteristics become fully apparent. But then the unfolding of the person’s unique individuality begins, and this is expressed through love. Certain animal species die during the act of love because that is where their existence ceases and their individual

[ 16 ] existence has come to an end. The greater a being’s individuality, the more of it it carries over beyond sexual maturity as something imperishable. In reality, of course, there are many different stages of transition. In this way, human beings preserve their inner life beyond the merely generic.

[ 17 ] Perhaps we can best understand this by contrasting human beings with stones: In a crystal, the external forces that formed it come to an end. They do not impose anything further on the stone’s interior. In the case of the plant, the essential aspect does not lie in an enlargement of form, but only in a kind of repetition of the principle of form, as Goethe has described. What the human being has acquired at earlier stages is now manifested as the effect of the “I.” Just as the plant seeks and draws its materials from the soil to build its body, so the young human being seeks the foundation from his parents to build his physical body.

[ 18 ] Here, the ideas of the secret science have a direct impact on the will, the feelings, and life itself. We must respect the right of a child’s individuality in the deepest sense. When one sees things in this light, one feels differently toward the next generation.

[ 19 ] Natural science explains it this way: A number of characteristics are passed on to the germ from the male principle, and likewise from the female part, the egg cell. Both sets of characteristics must mix within the germ. This prevents the eternal recurrence of the same characteristics. This is the reason for the blending of the characteristics of the male and female germ cells. Herein lies the essence of what is essential to the balance of nature.

[ 20 ] But when it comes to the soul, our natural science is the most superstitious thing there can be. This is also expressed in a brilliant insight by Schopenhauer: That which seeks to come into being brings human sexual individualities together through love. Ultimately, this is also what spiritual science teaches. People are brought together for procreation by the generations of the future. If we view every child in this light, we have no right to impose our own individuality upon them. A true educator can only foster a child’s development to the extent that he or she has learned this through personal experience. The child is the educator’s greatest teacher.

[ 21 ] If the educator thoroughly unravels this mystery in the child, then he is the best educator. For those who internalize such views with their whole soul, they transform into respect for the child’s essence and inspire awe for what is growing and developing there—the entire generation to come. We adults are, for the coming generation, something like the fertile soil from which they develop. We must give the child what it needs for life, but we must not force it to conform to our own image; rather, we must allow it freedom in its development and respect that freedom. Respecting this freedom in a being that is still in its nascent stage is a far more significant mission for human beings than respecting the freedom of that which already exists. Spiritual science is a true teacher of this respect and reverence. It reveals to us the supersensible realm and the facts that, since time immemorial, spiritual beings have been active in the building up of the world and thereby helping humanity. Knowledge of the past enables us to find satisfactory solutions for the present as well. Our actions in the present must respect the freedom of the developing supersensible realm. Freedom of the supersensible within the sensible shall be our motto! In this way, we help to advance humanity toward a future that is healing for us and, as it were, signifies a state of divinity. Once our eyes are opened to the supersensible in the present, the past becomes understandable to us, and we can learn from it what is useful and expedient for our future.

If yesterday is clear and open to you,
You’ll act with strength and freedom today,
And you can hope for a tomorrow
That will be no less happy.