The Rudolf Steiner Archive

7. The Influence of Celestial Constellations on the Earth and on Humans

[ 1 ] Questions regarding earthquakes.

[ 2 ] Dr. Steiner: You are probably referring to the earthquakes currently occurring in America? Of particular significance in relation to such questions are always those volcanic phenomena which—I would say—do not occur all at once with such intensity or strength, but which, when examined individually, show that something is also happening over time within the Earth’s global environment. And here I’d like to draw your attention to something else—something that may be less conspicuous, but which is actually more tangible for many people than these individual phenomena, which, of course, had a terrible impact on those who were nearby, but which are of lesser significance for the majority of humanity. And just think back to how, even in recent years, people have been talking about extraordinary weather conditions. We cannot deny that in recent years there have been no truly proper, sustained summers—especially not in our regions. But this phenomenon is spreading across a large part of Europe and beyond.

[ 3 ] Now, when people talk about something like this, they usually mention how large icebergs float in the northern ocean regions and how so-called cold waves then emanate from these massive floating icebergs. You may also recall that during last year’s so-called cold wave, ships reported that if they veered even slightly northward, they would encounter these enormous floating icebergs everywhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

[ 4 ] We must, however, be clear that the phenomena occurring in this way do not originate solely from the Earth, but are connected to the development of the entire universe. And so we must ask ourselves: What is the situation, in fact, regarding the distribution of heat and cold on our Earth?

[ 5 ] I’d like to draw your attention to something I may have mentioned before—though in a different context—that could be important as we consider this question. You may have already heard that, particularly in northern Siberia—that is, over in Asia—there are very special conditions in the ground. To give you a sense of the layout, I’d just like to point out the following. So if we look at a map of Europe like this (it is being drawn), here is Norway, here is the northern coast of Germany, then it goes over here to the Netherlands and so on; there would be Ireland, England, and then, crossing the large peninsula, we’d come over to Asia. There is the border between Asia and Europe. There is Russia. Here we cross over into Asia, and here we have Siberia. Over there is the so-called Arctic Ocean. This is just a sketch to help you get your bearings. Now, a long time ago, elephant-like animals were found in the soil of Siberia—animals that no longer exist today, meaning they lived on Earth a very, very long time ago. And as you know, elephant-like animals no longer live up there by the Arctic Ocean. Elephant-like animals belong in much warmer regions. But the curious thing is that these elephant-like animals, buried deep in the ground—in the frozen ground—were so fresh that you could still have eaten the meat, if you happened to like elephant meat. These animals were preserved in the frozen ground just as if someone had wanted to eat the meat and had kept the animals there for that purpose. So, over many, many millennia, these animals in northern Siberia were simply preserved—as they say—with their meat remaining fresh.

[ 6 ] Well, you see, gentlemen, it’s impossible that this could have happened gradually over time. Because if the animals had lived up there, simply died, and ended up in the ground, they would naturally have decayed long ago, and at most we would find skeletal remains, as is usually the case. Yet whole, fresh animals are found there. The only possible explanation is that these animals once lived there and a massive wave of ice swept in at tremendous speed, engulfing them and trapping them, so that they could be preserved for millennia in the same condition, with their flesh still fresh. So you can see: There must once have been a condition on Earth where a powerful surge simply came from the south, hurling water up into the ice region. The water froze instantly; these animals were instantly trapped in this vast Siberian ice chamber and were able to remain preserved there for millennia.

[ 7 ] Now, you will all admit that, of course, the Earth has absolutely no reason to suddenly do something like that. For where within the Earth itself would the forces come from that would enable it to carry out such a thing? These things can only come from extraterrestrial celestial influences. So if you imagine that here is the Earth (it is drawn), “with the southern regions, the equatorial regions, here—‘southern’ of course only in relation to the north—then there must once have been a celestial constellation here that simply threw the water back up. So, due to the celestial constellation—due to the position of the celestial bodies—this water was hurled upward, froze immediately, and buried these animals. You can see from such phenomena that the celestial constellation has a powerful influence on the distribution of land, water, and ice on Earth.

[ 8 ] Now, I explained to you the other day how volcanoes, too, originate from what lies outside the Earth—how, so to speak, what is there beneath the Earth is drawn out from the Earth’s interior. So we can also say that when, for example, there is a powerful eruption of Mount Etna, things are not hurled out from below, but rather a celestial alignment acts from above, and this brings these fiery masses out from the Earth’s interior.

[ 9 ] From this we can see that many factors are at play today, and on the one hand, this is what causes these cold spells. The cold spells are therefore certainly also caused by extraterrestrial forces. The fact that we have these volcanic eruptions and earthquakes also stems from extraterrestrial forces. However, one can never fully assess such a phenomenon unless one is clear about the fact that human beings themselves are intimately connected to all these extraterrestrial conditions.

[ 10 ] You’ve surely heard of what are called “hemoptyses,” where a person’s blood no longer follows its proper course, causing them to cough up blood from their mouth instead of the blood circulating throughout the body. This is called a hemoptysis. Such hemoptyses occur particularly easily when a person is in certain stages of life. We must ask ourselves: What is the actual connection between a hemoptysis and what is happening on the outside? — Well, if you recall that a human being does not consist solely of the physical body, which we can touch with our hands, but that a human being consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I-body, then you will have to say to yourself: Certainly, we can shed the physical body. It is heavy; it is dense matter; it is connected to the Earth. But the etheric body is connected to the environment. — And when we consider human beings, it is the case that the Moon, in particular, exerts an enormous influence on them. But the Moon, as it is now, does not exert such a strong influence on human beings; rather, we are led back to very ancient times. In ancient times, the Moon had an immensely strong influence on human beings. People had to do certain things during the waxing moon, certain things during the waning moon, and so on. And in those earlier times, human procreation was very much governed by the moon. It is so interesting to see how people who still hold onto traditions from ancient times think about these matters. They firmly believe that it is of great significance whether a person is conceived during a waxing moon or a waning moon, for example. This is a very important matter in ancient traditions. And the moon then exerts its influence on the entire development of the human being, but in such a way that the person carries these lunar influences within themselves. So it’s not that the full moon or something like that has a direct influence on a person right now; but we see the moon waxing and waning—that once had an influence on people, and that influence has remained and continues. So it is not the current lunar cycle that has a major influence, but rather something similar to the ancient lunar cycle—an ancient legacy—that exerts a major influence. And so one can certainly say: The moon does have a certain influence.

[ 11 ] But we wouldn’t have any blood in our heads at all if it weren’t for the moon. We’d all be walking around with very pale faces—horribly pale faces—if there were no influence from the moon. The moon draws the blood in our bodies up toward our heads. That is the influence of the moon—it is what causes the blood to even bother going up to the head at all. This is extraordinarily interesting. Blood only rises to the human head because of the moon’s influence. Otherwise, the blood would always flow downward. Now, when a person becomes so weak throughout their entire body that they can no longer offer sufficient resistance to these forces of the moon that draw the blood upward, the blood rushes too strongly into the human head, and this causes a nosebleed. We must always have this influence, but when it becomes too strong, the blood rushes too strongly toward the human head, and as a result, the blood comes out.

[ 12 ] And you see, what a hemorrhage is for an individual human being is like, for example, water surging upward [pointing to Siberia] or the eruption of a volcano out in the vast natural world. Only there, it is not the influence of the Moon, but the influence of the other celestial bodies. You must imagine that, as we develop simply as human beings, we are constantly exposed to other influences. Let me illustrate this for you. Imagine once again that here is the Earth (a diagram is drawn), and here the Moon orbits the Earth. I’ll draw it as it appears. So the Moon orbits the Earth, and it has a major influence on human beings to begin with. But beyond the Moon are the other planets—Venus, Mercury, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and so on—and then the fixed stars. Now you must be clear about this: It makes a difference whether, say, Mars is behind the Sun, or whether Mars has moved on and is already next to the Sun. When Mars is behind the Sun, it has less of an effect on Earth because the Sun masks its influence. When Mars is positioned like this [next to the Sun], it exerts a stronger influence on Earth. And so the strength of the influence on Earth always depends on the position of the stars. This science of the stars’ positions is hardly studied at all today, and that is why people look only at what is happening on Earth—icebergs and so on—but they do not look out at the stars.

[ 13 ] Now, one cannot explore these things from the perspective of the Earth; rather, one must be clear that these things must be explored from the perspective of the human being. These things must definitely be explored from the perspective of the human being.

[ 14 ] Now I would like to tell you something: If you trace the development of humanity in modern times, you will indeed find enormous changes in this human development. We don’t want to go back very far, but let’s go back, say, only six hundred years. If we go back six hundred years—today is 1923—that brings us to 1323. You have to consider this: If you had lived back then, you would have had no idea that America or Australia existed. People didn’t know any of that; they only knew about Europe and Asia and a small part of Africa—very little of Africa. So six centuries before our time—just imagine—people knew only of a small patch of earth. And above that earth, they saw the moon rise and set, the sun rise and set, the stars, and everything was such that their entire lives unfolded within a very small space. Yes, gentlemen, back then people knew little about the Earth and had no idea about the movements of the celestial bodies. But they did know something about the spiritual influences of the stars. This is connected to the fact that people lived on a small scale. People derived their influence from these small-scale circumstances.

[ 15 ] Well, as you know, it didn’t take long: In 1492, the Genoese Christopher Columbus set sail with a small number of ships, convinced that it was possible to sail around the world. Christopher Columbus didn’t actually set out to discover America; rather, he had come to believe that the Earth must be spherical. Previously, people had thought the Earth was flat. Now he came to believe that the Earth must be spherical. And so he equipped himself with a number of ships. There was resistance, of course, but he eventually obtained these ships from the government, equipped them, and believed he could sail around the world. That’s what he thought. He told himself: If we travel from Europe over there to the east, we’ll find (pointing to the drawing) Asia; down there is the Near East, and there is the Far East. — So he knew that if you travel over there by land, you’ll reach India. Now he wanted to sail around the globe from Spain and reach India from the other side. That’s what Columbus wanted. He wanted to sail around the globe because he hoped, so to speak, to be the first to put the idea of the Earth’s roundness into practical use. He wanted to sail around and discover India from the other side. So he set sail and stumbled upon America, believing it was the other side of India. — That’s why this region was also called the West Indies, as it is still partly known today.

[ 16 ] So you see how, little by little, through human thought, the spherical shape of the Earth was gradually accepted as fact; how people gradually came to realize that they had reached the other side of America and realized that it was not India, but a new land. So 1492—that was only 431 years ago—is when people first discovered America.

[ 17 ] But the discovery of America means something else entirely. And if you want to understand what the discovery of America means, please consider the following. You see, in 1492—as I told you—Christopher Columbus set out and discovered America. In 1543, Copernicus came along and first proposed the theory that the sun is stationary and the Earth orbits the sun like the other planets. So what every child learns in school today has only been around since that time. Just think—how many years is that, after all? It’s only been 380 years! It’s only since then that people have had even the slightest idea of what is taught in elementary school today. Before that, people knew nothing about any of these matters. But they thought all the more about the influence the Moon has on human beings. People knew what I’ve just told you—that the Moon draws blood to the head. They recognized the Moon’s influence on human beings.

[ 18 ] Now you need to consider what the “discovery of America” actually means. You see, people talk about it so thoughtlessly, and history portrays it that way too: “The discovery of America”—those people must have been geniuses! — Yes, gentlemen, but you need to imagine it quite differently. What kind of people do you think were living in America at the time Columbus stumbled upon it? Not even five hundred years ago, the copper-red Indians lived over there, and these Indians didn’t think the way you do in Europe today. They knew a great deal about the influence of the stars. So at that time, throughout all of America, there lived a population that knew an extraordinary amount about the influence of the stars. They organized their lives entirely according to the influence of the stars. And then came the Europeans—civilized humanity. Well, you see, even in the 19th century, the Native Americans said that the Europeans always brought something strange with them—something white with little spirits on it. But these were very harmful spirits, terribly harmful spirits, and the Europeans used them to cast spells on the Native Americans. That’s what the Native Americans believed. And do you know what it was that the Native Americans feared so terribly—the reason they thought the Europeans were such dreadful fellows who caused so much mischief with it? It was the books—those white sheets of paper with letters on them! The Native Americans looked at them, mistook them for magic, and said, “These people are bewitching us with these.”

[ 19 ] That’s how the two groups came into contact. And then came the extermination of the Native Americans. But where did the people who exterminated the Native Americans come from? They came from Europe, after all! And if the people who were still living in Europe in 1323 had come over there, their views would have been much more similar to those of the Native Americans. For these people in Europe in 1323 were still aware of the influence of the celestial bodies. They would have been able to understand one another much better. But those people who eventually crossed over could no longer get along with the Native Americans at all; they could only exterminate them. And in the very place where the exterminated Native Americans had lived, European civilization developed. Just think about it: The Americans who developed there are, after all, Europeans. — Isn’t it true that the ideas people often form based on what they learned in school are sometimes really, truly absurdly stupid?

[ 20 ] I’d just like to point one thing out to you. These days, people talk so much about the French. But around Nuremberg, people are still called Franconians today. The French are, after all, just Germanic immigrants who later adopted the Latin language in a modified form. So all this talk—the kind of talk people engage in when they don’t know how things came to be, and get so worked up because that’s how it’s portrayed in history—is sometimes so boundlessly foolish, so boundlessly stupid. And it’s just as boundlessly stupid in this case, too. People don’t even consider that the people of Europe—who developed there over the last three centuries—migrated to America. The main wave of immigration didn’t happen until much later, in the 18th and 19th centuries. That’s when America was first settled. And what kind of people crossed over there? Well, illiterate people did cross over as well, but they didn’t have much influence. Those who crossed over and had a major influence were the ones who had been educated in Europe—particularly in the sciences—who had learned the Copernican theory, and who held entirely different views about the celestial bodies.

[ 21 ] Just think about how all of this fits together in world history. On the one hand, the spherical shape of the Earth is proven by the very fact that one can travel all the way around it; and on the other hand, it is shown that the sun does not rise and set, but rather that there is space everywhere and the Earth orbits the sun—that the Earth is not a flat plane, that the sun does not sink into the water in the evening, but rather that the Earth orbits the sun.

[ 22 ] You see, people don’t even stop to think about what the actual connection is between the discovery of America, which took place in 1492, and 1543, when Copernicus presented his new view of the stars. There is, after all, a deep connection. Don’t for a moment believe that what happened there could have come about without the influence of the stars on human beings. It was not without the influence of the stars that Columbus thought: Now I want to sail westward. — You just have to consider how hazy the whole process was. He didn’t even know he was discovering America. He just wanted to sail around the world. It’s like when a blind hen finds a grain of corn. You can’t say that was his own intellect; rather, people are simply driven by these influences. And what drives them are precisely the influences of the stars. So when we ask ourselves, “Why did Copernicus think exactly that way about the influences of the stars?”—then we must look for the causes in the influences of the stars themselves.

[ 23 ] There was a time in the Middle Ages—as I told you, this was still the case six hundred years ago—when people still had concepts that referred to a very small world. Then, suddenly, they began to have concepts that encompassed the entire earth and the entire sky. All their concepts began to drift apart. Yes, gentlemen, one really has to think a little more deeply about what is going on inside a human being. One has to delve into these matters with true science. One must, therefore, study human beings. Now, I have already told you many things about human beings. I want to recount a well-documented fact to you once more, so that you can see how things really are.

[ 24 ] There was an Austrian poet, Robert Hamerling, who was transferred to Trieste in 1855 to work as a high school teacher, and he took a keen interest in everything that was going on. At that time, Robert Hamerling was also very interested in how all sorts of charlatans—as well as people who produced the extraordinary, so-called mediums—would pass through Trieste. He enjoyed attending all such gatherings very much; he was by no means superstitious, but he truly saw how most of these phenomena were based on deception. But once, when he saw a person with a particularly strange medium, he thought to himself: Now I want to see for myself. — Now, Hamerling—who had lived in Graz before coming to Trieste—had known a young girl in Graz who died very soon afterward, and from whom he had received a lock of hair. He made a small wreath out of this lock of hair from the young girl, tied it together, pinned it to a small piece of paper, and then placed it in a little box. He kept it as a memento. It had become especially precious to him after the girl in question had already died. He took it with him to Trieste among his other belongings. No one knew anything about it. He never told anyone about it—he remembered that very clearly—and he never, ever showed the box to anyone. Moreover, the circumstances were such that he would not have wanted to show it at all. It was something he was very embarrassed about. So he had, so to speak, a secret box where it was kept. He put it in his pocket when he went to the séance with the medium. And with the medium, the way it worked was that people would bring all sorts of objects, which they put in envelopes or boxes; the medium would take them in hand, touch them, and then say what was inside the box. Well, such things are very often riddled with trickery; one must definitely keep an open mind about these matters.

[ 25 ] For example, I was once at a gathering where a medium had been brought in, and the man they call the impresario walked around among the audience and had all sorts of things written down on slips of paper. He took them, but then stopped. The medium had his eyes covered. And while he was still standing there—he simply said, “Tell me, what do I have in my hand?”—the medium immediately said what he had in his hand. So if someone wrote down their own name, they gave it to the impresario, who read it and then crumpled the slip of paper up. The medium couldn’t see anything, but then said what was written on it. Well, you see, the people at the table where I was sitting back then were terribly curious—because they were terribly amazed—and someone suggested that we should now write down something that the guy wouldn’t be smart enough to figure out, something he couldn’t communicate, because they all believed he was communicating with the medium through all sorts of signs. Well, so I wrote down the name Spinoza and one of Spinoza’s works, the Ethics, because people believed that the impresario naturally wouldn’t know who Spinoza was. But he just as readily accepted Spinoza and the Ethics, and the medium responded to them perfectly and on the spot. People were terribly astonished by this. But, you see, the matter was very simple. The impresario was a ventriloquist, and the medium was only pretending to answer, while the impresario spoke from his stomach in the medium’s voice! So the fact is, you mustn’t fall for these things at all. I must emphasize again and again: you must not be taken in by these things. That is precisely the difference between superstitious, gullible people and those who can judge these matters.

[ 26 ] But Hamerling took the little box with him, and no one knew anything about it. Then he passed this little box—whose contents no one knew—up among the other objects. The medium was sitting in front of a table. He passed the box up. Well, first the other items were identified. The medium did this rather quickly. And the moment she came to his little box, she picked it up and flung it away. Now Hamerling thought to himself: “This must be a prearranged thing among the others; it can’t be prearranged with me, because the medium wouldn’t think of that and would just fling it away!” — So he went over and said he wanted to know what was inside after all. The little box was picked up once more. The medium flung it away again. It was picked up once more. Then the medium said, stammering heavily: “A lock of hair and a small piece of paper!” — Well, now, of course, the astonishment was on his side. Any kind of trickery was out of the question—absolutely out of the question. Then he asked why she had kept flinging it away. She replied, “Because it comes from a dead person.” — Well, that made his astonishment even greater. So this is a case where—I’m not mentioning any other cases besides those you can find in the literature, otherwise I could mention hundreds of others—any deception is ruled out. And what underlies this? The medium must not know at that moment what is there, but must seek it out from the unconscious. There is a very specific influence at work here.

[ 27 ] I once told you that sometimes the influence of buckwheat groats down in the cellar can still be felt all the way up on the third floor. Do you remember how I told you that? Such an influence is at work here, one that manifests itself only in the head. And the medium then says what’s inside there—why? Because the medium is a person whose blood is more subject to the influence of the moon than that of other people. It does not act so strongly as to cause a hemorrhage—though that could indeed occur in such a medium who does not actually suffer from vertigo—but the blood is drawn toward the head more strongly than in other people. This creates a powerful influence, which is why an influence of this kind can be present.

[ 28 ] When you consider this, you will say to yourselves: Yes, the powerful influences of the stars naturally have a constant effect on human beings. And everything that Europe has experienced together with America and the entire world over the past four hundred years has been under the influence of the stars. But what is the nature of this influence? Well, gentlemen, you must imagine the following. Imagine now that here is the Earth (it is being drawn). There was that small piece of Earth that people used to know only. Above it, in a way, are the stars—I am, of course, only drawing this schematically for you. People are under the influence of these celestial bodies. That is the time before the discovery of America. People have firmly established concepts. If you look at the paintings and portraits of the old councilmen, you can already see their fixed concepts in the way they stand with both feet firmly on the ground. That is because back then there was a celestial constellation in which the stars were very close together. Since then, we have had a different constellation. With the Earth in the picture, the stars are, so to speak, much more slanted—though, of course, this is again a highly schematic representation. If one were to draw them in detail, each one would, so to speak, stand out. You might say: “But the fixed stars haven’t changed, have they?”—Yet they have changed as well, albeit not to such a great extent. So you can see from this: The gaps grew larger in the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The boundaries have dissolved. And now there is once again a time when the gaps are becoming smaller, when the stars are drawing closer together again. This is only very slight in the case of the fixed stars, but it is indeed the case. Even when you chart the fixed stars, you can see that they must be shifting. And now people are faced with the fact that they have acquired concepts under the influence of stars that were far apart. But now they must acquire concepts under the influence of stars that are once again close together. There is an entirely new constellation of stars in the world. You can see this if you have lived consciously from the previous century into this one. You see, I was born in 1861, so I have consciously experienced the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s, and now the 20th century. Yes, in my boyhood it was quite different from today! In my boyhood, people simply thought very differently than they do today. Everything has now changed, and in one area in particular, it has changed completely. When I was a young boy of twelve, I didn’t have much money back then to buy books, but every year we were given a school handbook as a gift; it contained the most important concepts in physics of that time. Well, I spent a lot of time poring over those at first. They were already difficult to grasp. Even back then, I had to learn differential calculus to understand things. But I know what the concepts of physics were like back then.

[ 29 ] But today things are completely different. When someone studies physics in college today, they learn something entirely different from what we learned as boys. And you can see from what has happened there that the concepts of physics have dissolved. Today, no physicist knows which concepts to use anymore. Back then, people spoke of space and time as two distinct things. Today, physicists speak of four dimensions, treating the first, second, and third as dimensions of space and the fourth dimension as equivalent to time. Most people have no idea what teaching is like today. People outside of schools still live with the concepts I learned as a boy. But in physics itself, people are already talking about something completely different today. This shows that the concepts have become completely jumbled. Today, physicists are the ones who know the least about what to do. Everything has become jumbled.

[ 30 ] Yes, gentlemen, this reveals to you that there is a different constellation of stars at work in the human head. For the fact is that people today all have more blood in their heads than people throughout the centuries have ever had, because the Moon is supported by stars that are, in turn, closer together. So when one studies human development, one finds that a wave of blood has surged upward toward the head due to the constellation. But this wave is not confined to human beings; it is taking place all over the Earth. And it is this very same influence that once propelled the cold from the south to the north and buried the mammoths—which are still fresh meat in Siberia today—as if in a vast ice cellar. Just as that cold was once propelled upward—much like blood is driven up into the head by the Moon—so today these volcanic eruptions are propelled upward by the stars. Thus, we now experience the effect of a constellation coming from the other side of the Earth. It passes through North America and Greenland, driving the cold air across, so that today, as a result of the constellation, large masses of cold air are constantly being driven from west to east.

[ 31 ] And now I have told you: When you go to Italy, in certain places on the earth’s surface, all you need to do is set a piece of paper on fire, and smoke rises from below. — It is not the earth that throws up the smoke, but rather, because I heat the air above—and thereby make it thinner—these vapors rise. Now, the constellation propels these air masses from west to east. We are exposed to them here, which is why we now have this climate. Here, the flow goes from west to east. But this causes the ground below to expel its masses—its fiery masses. At first, they were expelled over in America by the giant volcanoes and the massive earthquakes. Now the movement is continuing further and further eastward. Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius are all beginning to become active because the wave is flowing over here, and below, the earth becomes elastic. This is not forced out from below, but is brought to the surface by the constellations. In humans, blood is forced into the brain, and on Earth, air masses are swept across the surface while fiery gas masses are expelled from beneath the ground and transported to other locations. It’s the same phenomenon. It all originates from the stars.

[ 32 ] If people understood why they think differently now, they would also understand why Mount Etna spews fire. But to do that, people must first realize that they are not something that can be viewed in isolation; rather, they must be viewed in the context of the entire universe. That is precisely the point. And people have completely forgotten how to view things within the universe. It’s really quite interesting how animals, in this regard—as I’ve told you before—are much smarter than humans. Animals usually even migrate before a volcanic eruption or something like that occurs, while humans stay put. Why do animals migrate? Well, when that other influence comes—that other celestial influence—it works like this for animals: An animal is built in such a way that it has its legs there (see drawing $138), its spine, the vertebrae, and its head. When the stars pass overhead, the entire spine is constantly exposed to the stars—vertebra by vertebra—and they are so closely connected that we have 28 to 31 vertebrae in our spine, and the moon takes 28 to 31 days to complete its orbit. That’s how closely they’re linked.

[ 33 ] But humans walk upright. In humans, only the head—this small part of the head—is exposed to the starry sky. They have extended their spine. As a result, in humans only the blood is exposed to the influence of the stars, not the nervous system. In animals, however, the nervous system is exposed to the influence of the stars. That is why animals sense the influence of the stars much sooner than humans do and migrate when earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. Humans remain where they are. The very fact that animals can migrate—and thus show us that the influence of the stars affects them—is proof that we are not dealing here with arbitrary waves emanating from the Earth, but rather with the influence of the stars acting from outside. This is what reveals to us this entire fascinating connection with the entire universe. Human beings are not merely earthly beings; rather, they are beings placed within the entire celestial realm.

[ 34 ] Well, of course, this also leads one to understand that, since people have forgotten their ancient knowledge of the stars, they must regain it. So, I would like to say: It is indeed the case that, through anthroposophy, we must give humanity—in a new way—what it needs; otherwise, humanity will remain in confusion. For the stars, now arranged more closely together, no longer fit the concepts of other times; only the concepts that anthroposophy can provide are suitable once again.

[ 35 ] I’ve already been asked four questions today. We’ll see if we can make some progress next time. I might have to be away on Wednesday. I’ll have someone let you know when our next class is.

[ 36 ] How does one come to see the spiritual world?