The Rudolf Steiner Archive

15. Man and Woman in the Light of Spiritual Science

[ 1 ] The question of “man and woman,” which is a topical issue today, must be viewed from a higher perspective through theosophy and should be the focus of our discussion today. However, this consideration also leads us down into practical matters.

[ 2 ] Our age seeks to have overcome materialistic thinking and feeling. In a certain sense, it has; yet a materialistic mindset still prevails in the spirit of our time. It is not so much the great questions of existence that suffer from this as what is happening immediately around us. Only through theosophy can this issue be placed in its proper light. The women’s issue of our time is a legitimate movement. But we need only let such questions pass through our minds to realize how little our age is capable of forming sound judgments. By way of illustration, I will mention here various judgments made by so-called prominent figures regarding the nature of women. A prominent natural scientist, a man of public political life, attempted to summarize his judgment as follows: All of a woman’s qualities point toward one thing, and that is gentleness. Another thinker: “The nature of women, in all their qualities, culminates in the word ‘irascibility.’” A prominent German philosopher characterized women’s thinking in terms of its mode. There are two modes of thought: first, analysis—deconstructive thinking—and second, synthesis—constructive thinking. Whoever knows how to properly combine these two modes of thought possesses true harmony. In general, one of these approaches is even more prevalent among people. — This German philosopher calls a woman’s thinking analytical and a man’s synthetic. Another thinker says the opposite. One view sees the preservative element in everything a woman does; another, who knows history, calls her a revolutionary.

[ 3 ] Where do these opposites, these one-sided views, come from? In the external world, everything is indeed distinct from one another; take a tree, for example: one person sketches it from this side, another from that side; both images will be quite different. Spiritual science exists to help people move beyond such one-sidedness. Everything in our time is once again moving toward overcoming this one-sidedness. People who think for themselves today no longer identify with materialistic thinking.

[ 4 ] Perhaps you have heard of a book that caused quite a stir some time ago: *Sex and Character*; it was written by the ill-fated Weininger, who later took his own life. The line of thought in this book stems from the natural sciences and conflates the concepts of man and woman in a thoroughly materialistic way. He says: When we consider the individual human being, we find a mixture—man is feminine, woman is masculine. If we take this idea into a supersensory perspective, it is quite correct; but in Weininger’s case, it is understood in a materialistic way and comes across as utterly outrageous. He presents it as a mixture of substances. The result is nothing but materialistic paradoxes—apparent absurdities. Weininger concludes: “The woman lacks: self, personality, individuality, character, freedom, and will.”—What, then, remains? One might also ask: “If we consider a man—since he is half woman—does he not also lack, by half, self, personality, individuality, and so on?” Nevertheless, there is a glimmer of truth underlying this. For here, the human being is considered solely in terms of its lowest component, namely its physical body. But the human being is only truly understood when one considers the qualities of its fourfold nature: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I.”

[ 5 ] There is one thing that should be of particular interest to us today—a truth that might seem absurd, namely, that the physical body and the etheric body are, in a certain sense, opposites, like north and south, positive and negative. They are opposites in terms of the masculine and the feminine. The etheric body is of the opposite sex to the physical body. Everyone carries these opposites within themselves. This becomes clear to us through the qualities of women: loving devotion and compassion, which, when heightened, can rise to the level of masculine courage. On the other hand, heightened masculine qualities take on the characteristics of the feminine nature. A myriad of phenomena can be explained by taking the etheric body into account alongside the physical body. How can such perspectives purify our concepts?

[ 6 ] Let us consider the phenomenon of sleep. It is the state in which all feelings and sensations sink into an indeterminate darkness. When a person sleeps, the astral body departs with the “I,” leaving the physical body and the etheric body behind, and upon awakening, it re-enters the latter. Why does the astral body re-enter with the “I”? Because it thereby receives impressions through the physical senses; for the physical eye does not see, the physical ear does not hear; that is why we also say: “I see,” “I hear.” Today, human beings cannot yet perceive through the astral body, but someday they will be able to. Today, the astral body is in the same position as our physical body once was, when, in time immemorial, the physical senses began to develop. Thus, spiritual clarity will one day dawn when the astral body has developed its organs. Then the masculine and the feminine will be brought into one realm.

[ 7 ] Just as I and my astral body submerge, so every man—and every woman—becomes a sexual being only each morning upon awakening, when he submerges. These concepts apply only to the outer aspect of the human being. The biblical saying, “In heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:35ff.), becomes understandable to us through this. At night, the human being is in the heavens. We must not conclude from this that there are no similar opposites in the higher worlds. When we follow a person upward into sleep, we also encounter opposites. When a person leaves his physical and etheric bodies every night, he first enters the astral world.

[ 8 ] In the astral world, we first encounter the opposites of form and life—or, let us say, death and life. These opposites exist so that harmony may develop as the world evolves.

[ 9 ] Let us try to understand how death manifests itself as form and life as becoming in our existence. Observe a plant—how the root grows, the stem forms, and leaves and flowers sprout—and you will first see the living process of becoming. In the case of a tree, you see the connection between death and life in the bark. Inside, the plant preserves its living process of becoming. The bark is the enveloping death. Thus, you can find the interplay between death and life everywhere, and it is here that true existence first reveals itself. It is no coincidence that the ancient initiates, the Druids, were named after the “oak.” They formed a protective shell around themselves to make their inner being all the more vital. Where there is heightened life, heightened death will also be found as a “sheath” around life. This contrast between dying and resurrection reveals itself everywhere. With the same sharpness as the masculine and the feminine in the physical world, active death and active life are expressed in the astral world.

[ 10 ] These contrasts are also expressed in art. To illustrate this point, I will mention the Juno Ludovisi. One admires in its form something that appears immediately complete. Anyone who studies the whole, who observes the breadth of the brow, says to themselves, “There is spirit here—a great deal of spirit.” The spirit that lives within it and is constantly emerging has become outward form. One sees the source fully flowing out onto the face. The life of the soul has become rigid in an instant; it has died away. In the head of Zeus, you find, in a certain sense, the opposite. There is a narrow forehead, deep furrows in the brow—also a beautiful form—but it is possible that life could take a different shape. This is the contrast that you will one day learn to recognize in its fullness. One is the withering away of death, the beauty of death; the other is life in the making. This contrast between a form that is withering away and life that is constantly rekindling itself is expressed in the masculine and the feminine. If only the masculine existed, there would be only consuming life; the image of form finds expression in a feminine physical form. Thus they present themselves: life and form, becoming and fading away. Life in the feminine shines forth toward us—the life that seeks to preserve and perpetuate itself; in the masculine, a form that, once fully developed, would be eternal. Thus man and woman struggle within our lives, and thus death and life struggle with one another.

[ 11 ] When one is aware of or has a sense of these facts, symbols and myths appear in a completely different light—for example, the facts behind a biblical myth, even though every symbol has more than one interpretation; and therein lies the power and strength of the symbol—that it is rich in meaning—such as, for example, the myth of the serpent. There you find the words: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) Here we have a hint at the character of these words: male and female. The one from whom this myth originates wanted to point to the duality of human nature. Nature, which strives for form, must be overcome by the eternally becoming. The higher nature of man, which overcomes form, is Eve; man’s clinging to the past is the serpent. The higher feminine nature is meant to overcome what turns outward. Goethe uttered a profoundly mystical phrase:

The Eternal Feminine draws us upward!

[ 12 ] The era behind us—the culture of men—is over. Now comes the time when men and women work together to shape culture, and this is the foundation of the true women’s issue: masculine—physical—and feminine—ethereal. The driving force lies in overcoming form. One will find itself in the other, and true harmony arises from this juxtaposition. True strength will find itself in the other; only then will true creation arise.