The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Effects of Substances in Outer Space and in the Human Body: Iron and Sodium

[ 1 ] Good morning, gentlemen. Has anyone come up with any ideas?

Questioner: I believe we are still waiting for the doctor to explain something to us about the connection between the stars.

[ 2 ] Dr. Steiner: Well, today I’d like to try to pick up where we left off last time and expand on it a bit further. Let me briefly recap: We noted that everything that occurs regularly in the universe—for example, what causes day and night in the Sun’s orbit, or what causes the seasons—is also connected to what is necessary within the human being. In the human being, it is necessary that eating and so on occur in conjunction with the alternation of waking and sleeping. In human beings, breathing, blood circulation, and so on are also necessary as part of a broader regularity. When we consider all of this in human beings, it is connected to what can now be calculated as regular through astronomy. On the other hand, phenomena that do not occur so regularly—which can indeed be calculated in a certain sense, but do not occur regularly in that way, such as comets and meteors—are connected to everything in human beings that constitutes free will, that is, what arises from within the human being as free will.

[ 3 ] Above all, we must focus on a substance that is particularly important—a substance that is abundant on our Earth, but which is also found throughout the universe, and which is contained in these very meteors when they fall to Earth. That substance is iron. There is so much iron on our Earth that one can say: In fact, the entire modern culture and civilization owe their existence to iron. — Just think of all the things iron is used for! Only now are we beginning to produce all sorts of things from materials other than iron; but throughout the last two centuries, virtually everything that has actually emerged—everything that has brought about both the current great advances and the current social conditions—has been made possible by iron. You must assume that iron is present everywhere in the universe, for the simple reason that whenever anything falls to Earth, it is made of iron.

[ 4 ] Now let’s take a look at iron in our own human bodies. It is very curious that when a human being enters earthly life, they consume what contains the least amount of iron: milk. Breast milk contains hardly any iron at all. So we can say that a human being only begins to take in iron through food as life goes on. — What does that mean?

[ 5 ] Yes, gentlemen, when you look at the child, it does indeed squirm a great deal; it is already dreaming. But the child has neither voluntary thought nor any other form of free will yet. To the extent that the child develops its free will, it depends on absorbing the iron within itself. So you can see from this that iron is actually necessary for free will. And if, for example, you want to determine the underlying cause in a person who is hoarse—in any sense of the word—or who has a weak voice, you must first and foremost investigate whether they have enough iron. For in someone who lacks iron, this manifests itself above all in this arbitrariness, in this free will, which comes to light through speech. So if you see a person who can bellow loudly, you need not worry that they lack iron; but if you have a person who can barely get their words out, then you can consider to what extent this person is deficient in iron. Thus, one can say: It is already evident outwardly that human beings need iron precisely for their free will. —In this way, we can also easily understand that what flies about in the universe as iron, what exists in the earth as iron, is connected to what constitutes human arbitrariness, to what constitutes human free will.

[ 6 ] But everything that happens does, in fact, have a major influence on everything else. And we must be clear that iron does not entirely make up who we are, nor does it entirely make up the universe—otherwise, we would be men of iron. That would certainly be good for our strength, but we would not be able to do anything else if we were men of iron. So we must then turn our attention to that with which iron can now enter into some kind of connection.

[ 7 ] Well, gentlemen, as I have already told you: Soda—which I described to you in detail the other day—is of particular importance for everything within us that is connected with thinking; for soda is sodium bicarbonate, carbon dioxide, and sodium. Sodium bicarbonate must tingle its way up into the head. Everything that is connected to our thinking, to our head—everything connected to the fact that we possess inner light—is connected to soda. You will recall that I explained this recently.

[ 8 ] But you have also seen that if something like soda is to exist in our bodies at all, we must take in oxygen from the air. We take in oxygen from the air through breathing, because air consists of oxygen and nitrogen—as well as many other substances, but they do not play such a major role. We take in oxygen through breathing. Carbon is formed within us; we produce it internally through the food we eat. The oxygen inside us combines with carbon dioxide and sodium, and we end up with sodium bicarbonate—soda. Soda plays a particularly important role in our head. Sodium bicarbonate—that is, soda—is present within us, and it actually wants to constantly rise up into our head. However, when reproduction is to take place, it must also play its role in that process; as I have already told you. So soda plays a major role within us.

[ 9 ] Now, let me explain something to you. I once—quite some time ago—told you about colors. You can see the main colors in a rainbow. In a rainbow, the colors appear in this order: violet, blue, green, yellow, then orange, and finally red. Those are the colors found in a rainbow. Now, you see, when you have these colors in a rainbow, nature creates them. But you can also produce these colors by making a room completely dark, leaving just a single tiny slit of light in the window (it is drawn): Here you have a window, there’s a tiny slit of light here, and the light shines in. Now you place a glass prism here—a glass object like this—let the light pass through it, and you’ll see the colors inside, just as you see them in a rainbow. You can then project that onto a wall.

[ 10 ] Well, gentlemen, this sequence of colors—this arrangement of colors—which appears there, just as in a rainbow or through a prism, has the peculiarity that it actually appears correctly only when a gas is burned or when sunlight is used; but if other objects are used, then one does not obtain such a sequence of colors, but only individual colors. For example, under certain circumstances, everything to the right and left may be dark, with only a beautiful yellow line here in the middle. What does this yellow line signify?

[ 11 ] If you take a flame and add to it exactly what I’ve written down here—sodium—and burn it in the flame, you’ll get this yellow line—not the red color, but this yellow one. So if you take a flame, pass the light through the hole, and use a prism, you won’t get a solar spectrum—you’ll get a yellow line. If you take just a tiny bit of sodium and introduce a tiny bit of it into this entire space, you’ll immediately get this beautiful yellow line! You don’t need much sodium at all—that beautiful yellow line is everywhere; even in the tiniest amounts, sodium produces that beautiful yellow line.

[ 12 ] It is curious that if one looks out into outer space from any point and, instead of observing the solar spectrum directly, observes the yellow line resulting from the dispersion of the solar spectrum from some other source, one can detect this yellow sodium line coming from almost everywhere. This, in turn, is proof that sodium is widespread throughout the universe. If you now ask yourself, “Why is this sodium widespread everywhere?”—then you must answer: so that this sodium bicarbonate, this soda, can be formed. - It is present everywhere so that human heads can exist. Gentlemen, iron is present everywhere in the universe so that we can have free will; sodium is present everywhere in the universe so that we can have heads at all. If sodium were not present in the universe, then we would be utterly incapable of having heads.

[ 13 ] Well, what must be present for us to have minds as human beings? There must be carbon dioxide—that is, carbon and oxygen—and there must be sodium. Sodium, as I have told you, is present everywhere in the universe. As for carbon, we have that ourselves. It is constantly produced within us through the food we eat. It is simply carried away again, because we do not want to be a “dead carbon human,” but rather a living human who constantly destroys and recreates everything. But we produce carbon everywhere. So we have the carbon ourselves; we take in oxygen from the air and sodium from the universe. These must be present so that we can have heads.

[ 14 ] You see, in this way, if the universe contained only what I have just told you, we could have our own minds, and we could have free will. But what good would free will do us as human beings on Earth if we didn’t have arms and legs so that we could exercise that free will? Yes, you see, for that we must have the ability to nourish ourselves! In order for us to be built up at all from the matter of the Earth, we must have the ability to nourish ourselves. This depends on our having something in our abdomen similar to what we have in our breathing. We inhale oxygen; we exhale carbon dioxide. If we did not exhale this carbon dioxide, then the plants would not have carbon, because it is taken from the carbon dioxide exhaled by humans and animals. So the plants build themselves up from what humans and animals exhale. That is certainly the case. So oxygen takes our carbon away from us. It combines with our carbon. But first, we have to produce this carbon; we have to have it in the first place. To do that, we have to take in food. Oxygen is terribly greedy for carbon. If we don’t want to give oxygen our carbon, we’ll immediately start suffocating because the carbon dioxide can’t escape. We’ll immediately start suffocating! So the fact is that oxygen is simply greedy. Well, our stomach must also take in food. Just as oxygen takes in carbon and forms carbon dioxide, so our stomach must truly take in carbon greedily. And our stomach is a very greedy fellow—the very thing that actually craves food.

[ 15 ] Now, let’s create a mental image: If there were oxygen inside this stomach, it could work the same way it does when it goes out through the mouth and nose. The oxygen is inside; it absorbs the carbon. So there must be something in the stomach that also serves to absorb nutrients. And that is indeed there: a substance very similar to oxygen is in the stomach and is continuously secreted from it. That is chlorine. I have already told you that soda is used for bleaching laundry and for laundry in general. But chlorine is also used for bleaching; it’s found in laundry blue. That, too, is a substance that contains light, that carries light. Chlorine is very similar to oxygen.

[ 16 ] If we consider the respiratory organs, there is the oxygen in the air, which constantly draws carbon out of our bodies. In the stomach, we have chlorine, and chlorine—because it is greedy, terribly greedy—immediately draws all the hydrogen to itself. And together with the hydrogen, the chlorine forms hydrochloric acid. This hydrochloric acid trickles and flows inside our stomach, and it is eager for food. When we put food into our mouths, it must first be broken down by the acid found in saliva, in ptyalin. This is already a substance that is similar to hydrochloric acid. Then the food enters the stomach. Inside the stomach is pepsin. It is similar to hydrochloric acid, just a little different, but hydrochloric acid is also present in the stomach. It is only because the hydrochloric acid becomes active that this active hydrochloric acid is pepsin. It voraciously consumes the food. And if a person has too little hydrochloric acid, he immediately gets a bitter taste in his mouth. Why? Because hydrochloric acid actually voraciously absorbs all food and sends it on to the rest of the body. So if the hydrochloric acid isn’t working properly, the person leaves what he has eaten sitting in his stomach. Then it rises back up into the mouth; then they have that bitter taste when the fumes rise, their tongue feels coated, and so on. The fact is that something like hydrochloric acid must be constantly active within us so that we can build up our limbs at all.

[ 17 ] And so we can say: Iron would not truly help us if we could not use it of our own free will. We must build up our limbs. In order for us to build up our limbs, chlorine must combine with hydrogen to form hydrochloric acid. We must have this hydrochloric acid within us.

[ 18 ] Now just imagine: Setting everything else aside, your entire body contains hydrochloric acid; you have carbon within you, and many other things. We must gradually come to view human beings in this way: If this were a human being (a drawing is made), there would be hydrochloric acid everywhere. This hydrochloric acid must intermingle with the iron particles in the blood. Then a person becomes the kind of person who can develop their will freely and powerfully. So what is of immense importance in a human being? It is of immense importance that a person be able to correctly combine the iron within them with what comes from the hydrochloric acid, from the chlorine. This must take place continuously within a person, so that what arises from the chlorine within them combines correctly with the iron. Now it can happen that female bodies in particular, especially during adolescence as they mature, must devote so much energy to maturing that they no longer have the energy left to properly combine what arises from the chlorine with the iron. Then, on the one hand, they have iron; this weighs them down and cannot combine with what comes from the chlorine on the other hand, because the energy for it is lacking. It does no good to simply give iron to such young girls who cannot combine the chlorine with the iron; for they may already have quite enough iron in their bodies. The pallor that young girls develop does not stem from a lack of iron, but from their inability to transfer the iron to the chlorine. Therefore, one must develop this ability within them to bring the iron over to the chlorine.

[ 19 ] Well, gentlemen, you see, when you look at iron, it becomes clear—as we gaze out into the universe—that iron is connected to Mars. Mars is, in fact, the creator of iron in our solar system. This can be determined by examining humanity’s relationship to Mars. I have spoken about such things here before, and I will continue to do so in the future. So iron is connected to Mars.

[ 20 ] If we ask: What has a strong influence on a person when they do not produce hydrochloric acid properly, when their stomach does not function properly? — then we see: It is Mercury, the planet Mercury, which is connected to chlorine. So that in the case of a young girl who suffers from pallor, we can say: The influence of Mercury—which is supposed to act on the stomach and its associated organs—and the influence of Mars are not properly harmonized. —So you see, when we look up at Mars, we can say: It generates within us the influences that make it possible for us to utilize iron. —Mars must be present so that we have the strength to utilize iron. Iron must be present so that we can apply this strength to our free will. Mars provides us with the power of iron; the meteors provide us with the substance of iron, because they continuously release it into the air. We can therefore say: Mars is the celestial body in the universe that enables us to use the iron in the proper way—the iron that the meteors and comets bring to us when they appear irregularly.

[ 21 ] When we speak, we speak through the power of Mars, connected to comets and meteors. That is human language. Isn’t it true that people are accustomed to taking human language for granted and seeing nothing special in it? But people who think today—well, they actually cannot think; they cannot possibly think—because they direct their attention to something entirely different from what is reality. You can see this in small things. We had a fire here the other day. Of course, one does everything one would do if there were a real fire. The *Katholisches Sonntagsblatt* reported that there was a real fire here and that the fire was extinguished very quickly! You see, gentlemen, people know how to think about things that do not exist at all; but they do not think about the things that do exist! That is precisely what characterizes people today: they think about everything that doesn’t exist, but they have absolutely no sense of how to think about what does exist. Anyone who constantly thinks about what doesn’t exist loses all sense of reality. And that is very much the case with people today. Isn’t it true that anyone with such a stunted way of thinking—for that is indeed a stunted way of thinking when one lies constantly—loses all sense of reality?

[ 22 ] So the influence of Mars and the influence of the comet give rise to free will in human beings and enable us to use our limbs of our own free will. However, this must interact with Mercury in the human being in the proper way. It is Mercury that produces the correct composition of hydrochloric acid in our stomach. Just as we need soda in the head, so we need in the stomach what comes from hydrochloric acid. This is very beautiful, gentlemen, for soda imparts light to the head and also to the embryo, the human seed, which, after all, develops primarily into the head. When a person matures, the functions associated with the stomach take over the production of hydrochloric acid. And when hydrochloric acid combines with sodium—which is found everywhere—our ordinary table salt is formed. In the head, we need soda, which we also use for bleaching. In the stomach, we need table salt. This is not only ingested with food but is continuously produced so that light can reach down there as well; for both soda and table salt are carriers of light, allowing it to pass through.

[ 23 ] Well, gentlemen, we don’t salt our food for no reason. We salt our food because we actually always secrete a little too little of our own salt. In this way, we maintain our connection with nature. So we see: The influence of Mars must be properly aligned with the influence of Mercury. Then our will will correctly target what is necessary in our limbs—in terms of iron and other elements—so that we can use our limbs with a strong, free will.

[ 24 ] Now, for example, you can already see this in girls with pallor: what comes from the stomach—which is related to hydrochloric acid—and what comes as iron simply don’t mix properly. They can’t mix properly. Of course, one must investigate whether, in a particular case, there might be too little iron present. Certainly, that can also be the case; it can also be the cause of pallor. However, the cause of pallor can also be a lack of chlorine. But in most cases, that is not the case; rather, in most cases, the two simply cannot combine. Mars and Mercury in the human being cannot come together. This is usually the cause of pallor.

[ 25 ] This is precisely the case in modern medicine, for example: People want everything to have the same cause; but diseases can look exactly the same on the outside and be completely different on the inside! So if a young girl has pallor, one must not only ask: Does she have too little iron, too little chlorine?—but one must also ask: Or is it simply that the two don’t go together?—If the young girl has too little iron, then one must ensure that iron is administered to her in the proper way. Yes, but that’s not so easy! For if you introduce the iron into the stomach, as is usually done, then the chlorine must first have the inclination—the inclination to accept the iron in the stomach—otherwise the iron remains in the stomach, passes through the intestines, and does not enter the body at all. So we must first find a way to introduce the influence of Mercury and the influence of chlorine into the human body in the first place.

[ 26 ] And here it is of great importance not to simply give iron as iron, but to say to oneself: I must get the iron into the stomach in such a way that the iron is somehow absorbed by the chlorine in the stomach. — To do this, however, one must prepare a remedy, for example, from spinach. Spinach contains iron. One can also make a remedy from other substances, say, for example, from anise seeds and so on; but it is primarily necessary not to use the spinach as it is—though it can certainly serve its purpose if one simply eats it—but rather to make a remedy from the iron contained in the spinach. Then, the way the iron is distributed in the spinach gives it the power to transport the iron all the way into the blood. So in such a case, when one discovers that there is too little iron, one must try to introduce the iron into the blood in this way.

[ 27 ] But chlorosis can also be caused by there being too little fat in the stomach to produce chlorine. Yes, a naturalist once observed that in cases of pallor, too little chlorine is produced; that is why the condition has also been given the name “chlorosis.” But people do not understand the underlying connections. In such cases, one should not simply try to introduce hydrochloric acid into the stomach, for there may already be enough of it present—especially if it is introduced from outside. The point is that the chlorine must be produced by the stomach itself—that the stomach has the ability to produce chlorine. A person needs their own chlorine, not chlorine introduced from outside! And for this, it is necessary to introduce into the stomach a substance prepared from copper through a specific process. This makes the stomach more inclined to produce chlorine again. So you see, one must look deeply into every aspect of these matters. But in most cases of pallor, the problem is not a lack of iron, nor a lack of chlorine, but rather that the two cannot come together. Mars and Mercury cannot come together within the human being.

[ 28 ] Yes, you see, gentlemen, in the universe, the Sun stands between Mercury and Mars (see diagram). Just as Mars is related to iron, Mercury is related to either mercury or copper. So if, in cases of chlorine deficiency, the influence of Mercury is needed, and in cases of iron deficiency, the influence of Mars is needed—and if the two cannot be combined—then the task is to strengthen the solar force that lies between them within the human being. For what brings chlorine and iron together is the power of the Sun within the human being. And this can be kindled by introducing very small amounts of gold into the person. If one then attempts to treat the condition with gold—again, of course, in a very specific preparation, otherwise it will simply remain in the stomach—one can reunite Mars and Mercury.

[ 30 ] So you see, for patients with such conditions, three types of remedies may be considered. It is not possible to cure simply by the name of the disease; rather, either a copper preparation or an iron preparation—which must be extracted from a plant, such as spinach—must be used. Or gold may be necessary—but in the proper form—so that the two can be combined. The fact is: If one knows only what takes place here on earth within the human being, then one can know nothing at all about the human being; then one ends up calling things that look the same by the same name. But that would be just like someone wanting to use a razor to cut meat simply because it’s a knife. Anemia is not always the same thing. One would have to say: There is iron-deficient anemia, there is chlorine-deficient anemia, and there is anemia where the two do not correspond—just as one must say there are razors, table knives, and penknives. — But people, don’t you think, are just like that—they always lump everything together. Just like someone who says: “Oh, come on, whatever goes on the table is an ingredient in what you eat”—and so he salts his coffee, since salt is an ingredient and sugar is an ingredient. That’s how people are when they shout to the world: “Anemia is anemia.” But that’s just as much nonsense as saying, “An ingredient is an ingredient.” For if you treat anemia—which is based on disharmony—with iron, you’re doing the same thing as if you were salting your coffee.

[ 31 ] You see, gentlemen, this brings us to the point that, in fact, we must look everywhere for what is not as obvious as the nose. It is indeed true: Our science has already come as far as the length of a nose; for when one looks into a microscope, the nose always reaches right up to the microscope. In life, it’s not that simple. There, you don’t get very far just by following your nose. People say: “He can’t see beyond the tip of his nose.” - Those who examine things under a microscope today don’t see any farther than their noses either! But one must look all the way up to Mars if one wants to see what is significant in ordinary iron. Why? It is only then—by going out into the vastness of the universe in this way—that one can discover the exact connections. It is no fiction to speak of Mars and say that it possesses this or that ability. It is not simply a matter of developing some vague, indefinite form of clairvoyance that looks up to Mars; rather, one must learn a great deal—one must understand the influence of Mars on human beings. Only then can one speak of Mars; otherwise, one cannot. And the same is true of the other planets as well. And we can say, for example: We will always find that when a person lacks something internally—as is the case with anemia—that is, when iron cannot be absorbed—then this is connected to the fact that Mercury is not acting properly on the person. When a person lacks something externally, then this is connected to the fact that Mars is not acting properly on the person.

[ 32 ] Well, gentlemen, you see, there are young girls who, when they reach maturity, develop pallor. This suggests that something is not right internally. The influence of Mercury is too weak; we must make it more effective through the influence of gold. But there are boys—you know, in boys, coming of age does not occur through some inner process; whereas in girls menstruation begins as an internal process, in boys it manifests outwardly: the voice changes, the voice matures—in whom something else very often occurs: they can develop a hoarseness in their voice precisely at that point. This is the male counterpart to pallor in girls—boys can also become pale; this indicates that something is not right internally—but what this signifies in boys is that the voice change does not occur properly, taking on a certain hoarseness, as is the case with many people. In that case, it is not the influence of Mercury that is the actual culprit, but the influence of Mars. But if one still tells oneself—since Mars does not provide iron alone, but meteors also provide iron—that one must strengthen the influence of Mars, then it may also be that one can strengthen this influence of Mars with gold, with aurum. You see, the process of maturing in youth manifests itself in very different ways: in girls, it means they are more under the influence of Mercury; in boys, it means they are more under the influence of Mars, tending toward hoarseness or, if they are not always hoarse, at least becoming hoarse every winter.

[ 33 ] These matters must be investigated today through Spiritual Science. Conventional science has absolutely no understanding of these things. Well, gentlemen, you see, the point is that when anemia is caused by iron deficiency and the like, one must ensure that the iron already distributed correctly within the plant is introduced into the stomach in the proper way. You see, one can only truly understand human nature by relating it to the entire world of the stars. This is actually a never-ending subject, but one must be absolutely clear that everything one sees in the sky as stars has a corresponding influence on human beings. So this is of great importance.

[ 34 ] We’ll continue discussing this next Wednesday. Perhaps by then you’ll think of something else you’d like to know in connection with this topic. You can also ask the following question: How should public nutrition relate to public health?—Perhaps you’ll notice one thing or another regarding the outbreak of common diseases and so on. We can talk more about that later. So think about it! Maybe by next Wednesday you’ll find something you’d like to know specifically in connection with the question about nutrition.