The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] Recently, I have presented to your soul the four cosmic imaginations that can be drawn from humanity’s shared experience of the cycle of the year. If one wishes to understand human beings in their entirety—their position and situation in the world—one must actually seek this understanding through the interplay of the forces of those essences that appear to us in connection with these forms. And so, by way of introduction, I would like to say one thing to you today. When one opens the soul to all the impressions that can come upon one from the sight of what lies within these four forms, then at the same time many things present themselves to the soul—things that have been felt in the course of human development, felt as an echo of ancient, instinctive, clairvoyant visions, and which today are actually sometimes cited only in a historical context, but which, fundamentally speaking, are not understood. In their inner experience, true poets or spiritual individuals then take up these often wondrous voices that traditionally echo from those times and make use of them—they make use of them precisely when they wish to express the highest and the greatest. But in reality, they find very little understanding even with this. Thus, in a truly wondrous way, a phrase resounds from the first part of Faust that is often quoted, yet is considered to be scarcely understood. It is the phrase that rings out in Faust after Faust has opened the book of Nostradamus, beheld the sign of the macrocosm, and then bursts forth with the words:

How everything weaves itself into a whole,
How one thing works within another and lives!
How the forces of heaven rise and fall
And pass the golden buckets to one another,
With wings scented with blessing
Penetrating from heaven through the earth,
Resounding harmoniously throughout the universe!

[ 2 ] A magnificent image—and if one is familiar with Goethe, one can really only say that he captured it in his sensibility. For what Goethe evidently drew from his reading of ancient traditions—what he extracted for his own sensibility—only truly stands before our soul when we have before us what I have been able to present to you in the four great cosmic imaginations: Michael’s autumn imagination, Gabriel’s Christmas Imagination, Raphael’s Easter Imagination, and Uriel’s midsummer—St. John’s—Imagination. For of all these beings—Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Michael—you should actually imagine that forces radiate throughout the cosmos, forces that in turn flow into the human being, shaping the human being. To understand this, one must take a closer look at how, I would say, the human being is situated within the cosmos in a purely material sense.

[ 3 ] In this regard, unfortunately, there is very little understanding today of what is actually happening. For example, you will find that throughout the natural sciences and medical circles, it is described how a person inhales oxygen from the air and how the carbon within the body absorbs the oxygen; then this process is compared to an external combustion, where external substances also combine with the oxygen in the air, and then what is actually taking place within the human body is literally called a combustion. Indeed, the entire process taking place in the blood—this absorption of oxygen by carbon—is described in such external terms as a combustion, because there is one thing that is not known: It is not known that all these processes and all these substances, which are one thing outside the human body, become something else entirely once they enter the human body. And anyone who speaks of this peculiar combination of carbon and oxygen within the human body and regards it as combustion is actually speaking just like someone who says: It is not necessary for a human to have two living lungs; there could just as well be two stones inside; one could hang two stones in there. — That is roughly how someone speaks who describes human beings in terms of the combustion of carbon and oxygen.

[ 4 ] Everything that happens externally in nature is different when it enters into human beings. No process within a human being is the same as it is when it occurs externally in nature. And what we see externally in a flame when it burns is dead fire; what we have correspondingly within a human being is the animated flame, the living, soul-infused flame. And just as the stone relates to the lung, so does the flame externally relate to what takes place within a human being under the influence of life when carbon combines with oxygen—which, viewed externally and chemically, is also a form of combustion. All spiritual progress in the present day depends on our ability to understand such things correctly. When you have salt externally and consume it with your food, or when you eat something else—protein, or whatever it may be—people today imagine that such protein remains inside the human being just as it is externally, that such a substance, for example salt, remains just as it is externally. That is not true. What enters the human being immediately becomes something else. And the forces that transform it into something else emanate from those beings I have described in the four imaginations, and in a very specific way.

[ 5 ] Let us picture the very last image as I have described it: just as in the St. John’s Day impression, with his body woven from golden light amid the shimmering golden rays of the sun, Uriel hovers high above (Plate V, red). One must imagine him, as I told you, with a serious, judgmental gaze, for these eyes are directed toward the Earth’s crystalline sphere, and he observes how little human faults measure up to the abstract—yet no less resplendent—beauty of what is taking place in the process of crystallization down below in the Earth’s crystalline sphere. This is what gives him that serious, judgmental gaze, directed downward, comparing human failings with what acts and lives within the Earth’s crystals. And I have spoken to you of how Uriel’s gesture is an admonishing one—in a sense, a command directed at humanity, urging them, if they understand it, to transform their faults into virtues. For high up in the clouds appear the images of beauty—images woven from the gold of the sun—of all that humanity accomplishes in virtue.

[ 6 ] From the being that must be described in this way—it cannot be described otherwise—from this being emanate forces that now act within human beings, but continue to act within them in a peculiar way. What I am describing to you takes place during the height of summer. We must now imagine that this being, Uriel, is not actually at rest, but is in a majestic movement. And so it must be, for when it is summer here, it is winter in the opposite hemisphere of the Earth, and when it will be winter here, it is summer in the opposite hemisphere; then Uriel is there in the heights. And we must actually imagine that, when we have the Earth here (see diagram on page 73)—here for us, during our summer—Uriel appears, and this Uriel performs a movement that brings him to the other side after half a year: there, we then have winter. While Uriel descends (yellow arrow)—that is, while his forces come to us in a descending line—summer turns into winter for us: we are here in winter, and Uriel is on the other side. But the Earth is no obstacle to Uriel’s forces reaching us. When Uriel is down there for the inhabitants of the other hemisphere, his forces penetrate through the Earth to us. So we can say: That which flows directly from above to below, from Uriel to us (red arrows), and seeks to permeate us with the golden light of summer, acts through the Earth during winter and permeates us from the other side; there it follows an ascending line, there it has an ascending current (red).

[ 7 ] When, at the time of St. John’s Day in midsummer, we consider what nature brings about within the human being—for what Uriel is at work there acts within the forces of nature—when we bring this before our soul, then we must actually imagine these forces of Uriel radiating out into the cosmos, streaming into our clouds, into our rain, into our lightning and thunder, and into the growth of plants. This is how we must imagine all of this. In winter, after Uriel has, so to speak, made his way around the Earth, this flows toward us through the Earth and comes to rest in our heads. And within our heads, the forces that are otherwise found in nature—which we might call Uriel’s forces—become the very forces that make us citizens of the entire cosmos; they truly recreate within our heads an image of the cosmos, and they work to enlighten us, so that we may indeed possess human wisdom. And we are correct when we say: Uriel descends from summer through fall into winter; Uriel begins to ascend in winter; and from this descending and ascending power of Uriel we derive the inner forces of our human head. And you see, just as Uriel works in nature during midsummer, and just as he works in the human head during winter—so that the human being is truly, in this respect as well, a microcosm in relation to the macrocosm—we can only understand the human being if we place him in the world not merely in a natural sense, but in a spiritual sense— just as we observe the forces radiating from Uriel and flowing into the human being throughout the course of the year, so must we say the same, for example, of Raphael, who allows his forces to flow into the forces of nature during spring, as I have described to you. So I had to explain to you that the Easter Imagination is complemented by the teaching that Raphael—I would say—can offer humanity as the great healer of the worlds. For precisely when we allow all that Raphael accomplishes during the springtime—weaving within the forces of nature just as Uriel does during the summer—to take effect upon us through the inspired spiritual ear at Easter, then, as I have described to you, the crowning achievement of all healing truths comes upon humanity.

[ 8 ] But what Raphael weaves there during the spring season, in turn, circles the Earth, just as Uriel circles the Earth. Uriel is the spirit of summer in the cosmic sense, who circles the Earth and, during the winter, creates the forces within the human head. Raphael is the spirit of spring who circles the Earth and who, during the autumn season, actually creates the forces of human respiration. So we can say: While Michael is the cosmic spirit above—the cosmic archangel—during the autumn season, Raphael weaves within the human being during the Michael season; Raphael, who acts in an ordering, blessing, and effective way throughout the entire human respiratory system. And we can truly imagine autumn correctly only when, on the one hand, we have the powerful Michael imagination—with the sword forged from meteoric iron, with the robe interwoven with the gold of the sun, shimmering with the silver rays of the earth—when we imagine this above us, while within the human being Raphael is at work, Raphael, who is attuned to every breath, attuned to everything that flows from the lungs to the heart, and from the heart back through the entire bloodstream. Thus, human beings come to know within themselves those healing forces that permeate the cosmos during the Raphael season in spring, when Raphael, as his rays pass through the Earth, works within the human breath during the autumn season, when Michael is above.

[ 9 ] For there is a great secret: All healing powers originate in the human respiratory system. And whoever truly understands the full scope of breathing knows the healing powers that lie within the human being. The healing powers do not lie in the other systems. The other systems themselves must be healed.

[ 10 ] The respiratory system—as you can see from what I have said about pedagogy—becomes particularly active between the ages of seven and fourteen. While the risk of illness is high during the first seven years of life and becomes high again after the age of fourteen, it is relatively lowest during the period when the respiratory system pulses through the human body with the help of the etheric body. There is a mysterious healing force at work precisely within the respiratory system. And all the mysteries of healing are at the same time the mysteries of breathing. This is connected to the fact that those Raphael forces, which are cosmic in the spring, penetrate the entire mystery of human breathing during the autumn season.

[ 11 ] We have come to know Gabriel as the Archangel of Christmas. He is, in fact, the cosmic spirit. We must look upward to find him. During the summer months, Gabriel carries into human beings all that gives rise to the nourishing forces within them—the nourishing, formative, and nourishing, plastic forces. During the height of summer, these forces are once again carried into human beings through the forces of Gabriel, after Gabriel has completed his descent from his cosmic activity during the winter to his human activity during the summer, when his forces flow through the earth because winter is now on the other side.

[ 12 ] And when we finally come to Michael, we find Michael as a cosmic spirit in the fall. That is when he is at his highest, when he reaches his cosmic culmination. Then his descent begins, and his forces permeate the Earth in the spring, rise up, and live in everything that becomes movement in the human being, in everything that is an expression of the will in the human being, in everything that enables the human being to walk, grasp, and work.

[ 13 ] And now imagine the complete images. Imagine the summer scene, the St. John’s Day scene: Above, the solemn Uriel with his judgmental gaze, his admonishing posture and gesture; and, approaching humanity, penetrating their inner being, the gentle, loving gaze of Gabriel, the blessing gesture of Gabriel; there you have, during the summer season, the interplay of Uriel in the cosmos and Gabriel at humanity’s side.

[ 14 ] And as you move from summer toward fall, you will see—just as I have described to you—Michael’s gaze, which I cannot call commanding; I would rather say it is a guiding gaze. For Michael’s gaze—if one looks at the figure correctly—is as if the eye were a pointer, as if the eye did not wish to look inward but rather to look outward, with its gaze directed toward the world. Michael’s gaze is active, positive, and dynamic. And the sword, forged from cosmic iron, is held in Michael’s hand in such a way that the hand simultaneously points the way for humanity. That is the image above. And below, Raphael, gazing with a profound gaze, approaches humanity and now brings to them the healing powers that he first—I would say—kindled in the cosmos; Raphael with the deep, contemplative gaze, supported by the caduceus, supported by the inner forces of the Earth; there you have the interplay of Michael in the cosmos and Raphael on Earth.

[ 15 ] And go forth in wintertime. Gabriel is the cosmic angel—Gabriel above, with his gentle, loving gaze and blessing gesture, weaving through the winter clouds—I might say, clad in a white robe of snow; below, the solemn, judgmental, and admonishing Uriel stands at humanity’s side. The positions have been reversed.

[ 16 ] And again, as we approach spring: Raphael above, with his profound gaze, holding Mercury’s caduceus—which has now, in the air, become something like a fiery serpent, a serpent glowing with fire; no longer resting on the earth, but as if suspended, drawing on the forces of the air, blending and harmonizing—in a sense—all that exists in the cosmos of fire, water, and earth, to transform it into healing forces that work and weave throughout the cosmos. And then below, approaching humanity, Michael, who becomes particularly visible there, pointing with his gaze—which I have called “positive”—: a gaze that seems to reveal the world, and that would gladly draw the human gaze along with it when Michael stands beside humanity in spring, complemented by Raphael.

[ 17 ] Look, here are the images: Winter—Gabriel above, Uriel below; Spring—Raphael above, Michael below; Summer—Uriel above, Gabriel below with humanity; Fall—Michael above, Raphael below with humanity.

[ 18 ] And now consider what has endured through the ages like an ancient magic spell, and was taken up again by Goethe:

How everything weaves together into a whole,
How one thing works within another and lives!

[ 19 ] Indeed, Uriel, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael—they work together; one works within the other, lives within the other; and when human beings, as spiritual-soul-physical beings, are placed within the universe, these forces work magically within them. And to what extent are such words true—to what extent! Just consider that the word “yes” means:

How everything weaves itself into a whole,
How one thing works within another and lives!
How the forces of heaven rise and fall

[ 20 ] — going up and down! — I'll get to the next line in a moment:

And pass the golden buckets to one another,
With wings fragrant with the scent of blessings
Penetrating from heaven through the earth,
Resounding harmoniously throughout the entire universe!

[ 21 ] Do you remember yesterday’s lecture, how everything challenged the transition from the plastic to the sonic: harmoniously resonating throughout the entire universe.

[ 22 ] I cannot tell you what I felt when this stood before my soul, and I read this phrase again in Goethe: “To penetrate from heaven through the earth!” This “through”—it can shake one to the core with its unique accuracy; for now one has it—it is true! And it is shocking that these words ring out through the world like the sound of bells, that one might believe it is poetic license, that it is just something—a word that people might otherwise jot down in their letters, or that people might otherwise write in their articles. That is not the case. It is a word that corresponds to a cosmic fact. It is something terribly unsettling to read this word in the context of the truth at this point in Goethe’s Faust.

[ 23 ] And now let us continue. It has been revealed to us so far how the celestial forces with their golden wings—the archangels—harmoniously permeate the entire universe, how one works within the other and lives within the other. But there is more to it. Let us consider Gabriel, who draws the nourishing forces from the cosmos and introduces these nourishing forces into the human being at the height of summer. These nourishing forces are active in the human metabolic system. Raphael reigns in the respiratory system. And now, as they ascend and descend, Gabriel and Raphael work together in such a way that Gabriel extends his forces—which are otherwise present in the human being’s nourishing impulses—upward into the breath: there, the nourishing forces become healing forces. Gabriel passes the nourishment on to Raphael: there, the nourishment becomes healing. When that which is otherwise merely nourishment in the human being is permeated by the mystery of breathing, it becomes healing.

[ 24 ] Yes, one must observe the transformation that external substances undergo in the digestive system; then one recognizes the significance of the Gabriel forces, the nourishing forces within the human being. But these forces are transferred into the respiratory system. And as they continue to act within the respiratory system, they become not merely forces that satisfy hunger and thirst, nor merely forces that restore the human being to health: they become forces that internally purify the sick person. The transformed nutritive forces are healing forces. Whoever truly understands nutrition understands the beginning of healing. Whoever knows the purpose of salt in a healthy person will know—when they allow that metamorphosis to take effect within them, the transition from the Gabrielic to the Raphaelic mode—how salt then acts as a remedy in this or that case. The healing forces within us are metamorphoses of the nourishing forces. Raphael receives the golden bucket of nourishment from Gabriel. It is handed to him.

[ 25 ] And now comes a secret that people believe was common knowledge in ancient times, but which has actually been completely lost. Anyone who can read Hippocrates today—indeed, perhaps even someone who cannot read Galen but can interpret his work—will notice that in Hippocrates, and even in Galen, the ancient physicians, there still lives on something that is actually a great human mystery. Healing forces are at work in our respiratory system; they are constantly healing us. Our breathing is a continuous process of healing. But when these respiratory forces rise into the human head, the healing forces become the human’s spiritual forces, which are at work in sensory perception and in thinking. And that thinking, perception, and the inner spiritual life of the human being constitute the higher metamorphosis of therapy and healing; that what lies between the head and the human metabolic system—the respiratory-healing system—is, so to speak, driven even further upward than when it acts as healing forces—it is the foundation, the material foundation for the spiritual life of the human being: that is the secret that was once known, which can be read almost clearly in Hippocrates and, at least, interpreted in Galen.

[ 26 ] So one can say: The thought that flashes through the human mind is actually a transformed force of the healing impulses present in various substances. — If one understands this and, let’s say, has in one’s hand some healing salt or some healing plant substance, then one looks at it and says: Here you are the beneficial healing power, if I introduce you into the human being as needed; but if you penetrate on your own, pass through the respiratory sphere, and take effect in the human head, then you are the material carrier of the human power of thought, for Raphael hands his bucket to Uriel. — What Raphael has received from nourishment and transformed into healing, Raphael hands to Uriel, and it becomes the power of thought.

[ 27 ] Why is a remedy healing? A remedy is healing because it is on the path to the Spirit. And if one knows to what extent a remedy is on the path to the Spirit, one knows the healing power of the remedy. The Spirit alone cannot intervene directly in the earthly realm within a person, but the lower level of the Spirit is the therapeutic power.

[ 28 ] And just as Gabriel hands the nourishing forces to Raphael to be transformed into healing forces, that is, hands him his golden bucket, just as Raphael hands his golden bucket to Uriel by transforming the healing forces into thought forces—so it is Michael who receives the thought forces from Uriel and, by virtue of the cosmic iron from which his sword is forged, transforms these thought forces into will, so that they become forces of movement within the human being. Uriel hands his bucket to Michael, and the powers of thought become powers of movement. Thus we truly also see this second image: Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael ascending and descending, interacting with one another—let us say, Uriel and Gabriel together—but also working in unison, each handing over his own domain to the other so that it may continue to work within him. We see how celestial forces ascend and descend, passing the golden buckets to one another—the golden buckets of the Nourishing, the Healing, the Thoughtful, and the Moving. Thus these golden buckets move from one to the other, while at the same time each one works together with the other in cosmic harmony.

[ 29 ] And once again, we find such a word at this point in Faust:

How the heavenly forces rise and fall
And pass the golden buckets to one another!

[ 30 ] The word is correct up to “golden,” for these things are indeed woven from the gold of the sun, emanating from Uriel, as I have described to you.

[ 31 ] Goethe had just read what he had poetically incorporated into this saying. It made a profound impression on him. He was unfamiliar with what was described here. But that is precisely what is so moving: that when a spirit like Goethe, acting out of a certain poetic sensibility, takes up something that has come down through ancient traditions, it then reflects the truth so incredibly accurately. That is the grandeur that reconnects us when we pursue spiritual science in the present and these things reveal themselves to us: when we truly see how Uriel, Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel work together, how they truly pass on their own powers to one another; when we perceive this in its original form and then allow ancient sayings—which may have reached us indirectly, as here through Goethe—to take effect upon us, and see how an ancient, instinctive truth—mythical, or, if you will, legendary—once thundered through the world! How then a different era has dawned, and how in our time this must in turn be raised to a higher level.

[ 32 ] Oh, Hippocrates—whether we call him Raphael, who stood at his side, or whether he was called Mercury or Hermes, it really doesn’t matter—this Hippocrates lived at a time when the knowledge of the interplay between Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel was already in its twilight, so that the healing forces stand in the middle between the thoughts and the nourishing forces. This gave rise, through an instinctive primordial wisdom, to those remarkable ancient remedies that have actually been renewed time and again, which are found today among so-called primitive peoples, and where the people cannot even imagine how humans came up with them. All of this, however, is connected to the fact that humanity once possessed a primordial wisdom.

[ 33 ] A mystery must surely be resonating within your souls right now, my dear friends, namely that if you take everything I have described to you, you would actually have to believe, for example, that: Raphael’s forces weave and live during springtime; in the fall, they are carried by Raphael into the innermost part of the human respiratory system; and the human being would be completely enveloped by the weaving, active forces of the cosmos as the seasons pass. This is also the original state. But just as human beings are beings who continue to remember what they have once experienced—just as, in other words, what is an external experience for a human being is preserved through memory and can still be an inner, present re-experience days or even years later—so, too, do these truths, which are entirely valid for the cosmos, remain in effect. But human beings do not merely experience the Raphael force, for example, internally in the respiratory system in the fall; they also experience it throughout the winter, spring, and summer. In a sense, a more vivid memory of it remains.

[ 34 ] Since, then, matters are arranged as I have described, certain effects remain within a person throughout the entire year. Just as an experience remains fixed in memory, so these effects remain throughout the year; otherwise, a person could not be a being that develops steadily throughout the year. In physical earthly life, some people forget more easily than others; but what Raphael planted in our respiratory system one fall would disappear by the next fall if Raphael did not return. Until then, memory—this natural memory—remains active in the respiratory organ; but then it must be refreshed again.

[ 35 ] And so, after all, human beings are placed within the course of nature; they are not cast out of the flow of the world, but are placed within this flow. Yet they are also placed within this flow in another way. It is certainly true that when human beings stand here on Earth, bounded by their skin and permeated by their organs, they already feel somewhat isolated within the cosmos, because the interconnections—as I have described them—are, in fact, mysterious. But this is not the case when a human being exists in a spiritual-soul state, for example, in pre-earthly existence. There, between death and a new birth, the spiritual-soul aspect weaves its way through the spiritual realm, in the spiritual sphere. There, this soul aspect looks down, so to speak—not initially upon a single human body, which it will choose in the course of time, but it looks down upon the entire Earth, indeed upon the Earth in connection with the entire planetary system, with all this life and activity of Raphael, Uriel, Gabriel, and Michael. There one is outside, observing it from the outside.

[ 36 ] And then the gate opens for the entry of the souls returning from pre-earthly life to earthly life—but only during the period from the end of December until the beginning of spring, when Gabriel weaves above as the cosmic archangel and below, at humanity’s side, Uriel carries the cosmic forces into the human mind. During these three months, the souls that will incarnate throughout the entire year descend annually from the cosmos to Earth. Then they remain and wait until an opportunity presents itself for them in the planetary-earthly sphere; even those souls who are born in October for my sake have already been waiting within the earthly sphere for their birth. And, fundamentally, much depends on whether a soul, after having already entered the earthly sphere, has already been touched by it or must still wait within the earthly sphere for its earthly incarnation. For some souls this period is longer; for others, it is shorter.

[ 37 ] But this is still the special secret: just as, for example, the fertilizing seed penetrates the egg at only one point, so too does the heavenly seed penetrate the entire annual cycle of the Earth only when, above, Gabriel reigns as the cosmic angel with a gentle, loving gaze and a blessing gesture, and below, Uriel is present with a judgmental gaze and an admonishing gesture. This is the time when the Earth is fertilized by souls. This is the time when the Earth is covered in snow, when the Earth transitions into its crystallizing forces, when human beings can connect with the Earth as the thinking, earthly world body: then the souls move from the cosmos into the Earth’s sphere, gathering there, as it were. This is the annual fertilization of the earthly cycle.

[ 38 ] We come to understand all these things when we open ourselves to a view of the cosmos—not only in a physical sense, but also through the workings of those cosmic beings I have described to you through the four images. And then, once one has that, something like a cosmic breath and weaving finds its way into some poetry, for that is what exists in the world:

How everything weaves itself into a whole,
How one thing works within another and lives!
How the forces of heaven rise and fall
And pass the golden buckets to one another,
With wings scented with blessing
Penetrating from heaven through the earth,
Resounding harmoniously throughout the universe!

[ 39 ] One can sense something, especially in these words, of that wonderful interplay and cooperation among the four Archangeloi beings, who—in connection with the forces of nature—also weave and bring to life the natural, soul, and spiritual aspects within the human being through their mutual interaction and cooperation.