II.

The Idea of Threefold Man

In his book Riddles of the Soul Rudolf Steiner formulated for the
first time in 1917 the idea of threefold man, showing how the entire
human being is ensouled, not just the nerves and senses. The soul
being of Man is membered into the qualities of thinking, feeling and
will, which have their bodily basis respectively in the processes of
nerves, rhythmic activities and metabolism. Thus we can differenti-
ate three levels of organization in the human body:

1. The nerve-sense system encompasses all the organs that arise

from the ectodermal embryonal germ layer: the nervous system, skin
and sense organs. The nerve-sense system is mainly centered in the
head, but penetrates the entire body, e.g. in the form of the peripheral
and vegetative nerves. The differentiation described here is thus
more functional than topographical. In the "upper man" the specific-
ity of the cell principle predominates, with simultaneous devitaliza-
tion, i.e. diminished metabolism. Life expresses itself in this system
by densification, differentiation, and individualization. In a sense or-
gan such as the eye, the organism's own activity is reduced so far that
a higher organ is created with translucent, light-refracting media,
serving for perception of the outer world. The life of the nerves is
paralyzed to such an extent that the cells scarcely have the ability to
divide, and exist at the edge of decay. However, their life forces are
thereby freed to form the basis of thinking and consciousness.

2. The metabolic-limb system represents a polar opposite to the

nerves and senses. Both in its nutritional and movement functions it
is given over to the external world. Here the world is taken in, inter-
nalized, rather than the distancing of the soul from the environment
which is characteristic of the nerves. The organs are actively involved
in formation and transformation of substance; cell division, growth
and regeneration are intensified, while perception recedes to the
background. Life expresses itself here in a general, undifferentiated
fashion, dissolving substance, dynamizing. Metabolic activity in the
muscles creates the power for movement of the limbs. In the digestive
organs substances are worked upon, whereby we distinguish three
phases: the breakdown of substances to divest them of foreign life

15
 The Idea of Threefold Man

forces, resorption or the upbuilding processes of intermediat e me-

tabolism, and excretion. Metabolism actually takes place before the
transformed nutritional stream is taken up into the individualiz ed
blood. The last remnants of foreign substance are overcome in the
metabolic processes of the connective tissue fluid, "below" the border
of the blood, so to speak. These processes are closely connected with
the immunolog ical functions of the lymphatic system.- The capacity
to create new life is intensified in the reproductiv e organs. We are
here involved with the "lower" man. The metabolic organs and their
space-filling substance activities originate from entodermal tissue.
Their life is carried on below the threshold of consciousne ss. The Idea
working in day-waking consciousne ss in the "upper" man dives down
and reappears in the drives and will impulses based on metabolic
processes.

3. The further developmen t of Goethe's principle of polarity and

intensificat ion in the anthroposop hical image of Man leads to a con-
ception of the middle, rhvthmic system which synthesizes and trans-
forms the opposing poles of the nerve-sense and metabolic systems,
bringing about an ordered, higher unity while leading one pole into
the other. From the mediating center come forces of renewal, healing
and integration. The middle system of the mesoblast, which remains
undifferent iated throughout life, forms the mesenchym e and the mes-
enchymal matrix that interconnec ts all the organs. From the meso-
blast arise the blood vessels which unite the rhythmical organs, the
lungs and heart. The lungs give a resting impulse to the breathing,
orienting it to the "upper" nerve-sense pole, while the flowing impulse
of the blood is related to the "lower" man, the pole of substance. The
relationship of lungs to streaming blood is expressed in the ratio of
breath frequency to pulse frequency, 1:4 in the healthy person. The
force center of the middle system is found between breathing and
heart-circul atory activities. Rhythmical processes provide the bodily
basis for the soul quality of feeling, which always weaves between two
polar opposites as in joy and sorrow, sympathy and antipathy. The
feeling life is comparable to a dream state between thinking, day-
waking consciousne ss and the will impulses which rise up from the
"sleeping" subconsciou s .

16
 The Idea of Threefold Man

The metamorphosis principle discovered by Goethe is also active

in the human being, in that substance-building forces from the me-
tabolism are transformed upward through the rhythmic system to the
nerve-sense system and set free as powers of consciousness. In the
opposite direction, the organizing forces of the sense-nerve system
work via the middle system into the metabolism and limbs, bringing
form. In the metabolism warmth and light energies are worked into
and bound to substance, while at the nerve-sense pole they are made
available for consciousness and perception.

A fundamental relationship can be derived between threefold

plant and threefold Man which is significant for therapeutic selection
of a certain plant part such as leaf, flower or root. The polar processes
work in the plant in such a way that substances are sublimated to-
wards the flower pole: plant starches are broken down to sugars and
plant acids, pollen flies away, color and warmth are radiated to the
surroundings. The dissolving, outstreaming tendency of the flower
corresponds to the metabolism of the human organism. In the root, on
the other hand, substances are condensed and stored, with simulta-
neous release of fermentative substances from the root tips which
work into the surrounding earth. The plant root has densifying,
physical tendencies which relate it to the human nerve-sense system.
The middle system of the plant, forming the transition, mediating
and harmonizing, corresponds to the rhythmic organization of
breathing and blood circulation. The plant leaf is therapeutically
most effective for breathing and circulatory processes. The same fun-
damental relationship exists between flower and metabolic system
and between root and nerve system.

The Principles of Sal, Mercury and Sulfur

In his lectures to doctors, especially the first medical courseu in
1920, Rudolf Steiner often describes the threefold human being in
relation to substances. He proceeds from the principles of Sal, Sulfur
and Mercury which were already given by Paracelsus. This threefold
idea can be a key for understanding Goethe's law of polarity and his
principle of metamorphosis. It is revealed in every manifestation of

14 Rudolf Steiner: "Spiritual Science and Medicine", 20 lectures, Rudolf Steiner Press

17
 The Idea of Threefold Man

inorganic and organic nature, all the way up to the threefold body
and soul of man, and even extending to the heavenly hierarchies and
the Trinity. The Sulfur-principle corresponds to the previously char-
acterized human metabolic system and the flower of the plant. In
general and abstract terms the Sulfur quality brings about the dy-
namic formation and transformation of substance in all its various
expressions. It is given over to the world, and has the quality of ex-
pansion. The Sal-principle which we met in the nerves and senses
and in the plant root, has the characteristics of coming to rest in or-
ganized form, of contraction and densification. The Mercury-principle
mediates and rhythmically restores unity between opposite poles.
Paracelsus possessed a further understanding of the archetypal
processes of Sal, Sulfur and Mercury, related to the substances salt,
sulfur and mercury. We will briefly describe their characteristics.
Salt-formation, such as precipitation of crystals from a saturated so-
lution of table salt, is a Sal-process which releases warmth. When
table salt is dissolved, on the other hand, warmth is withdrawn from
the environment. A characteristic quality of sulfur is the tendency to
bind warmth to itself, and to release it step by step when oxidized.
Sulfuric substances hold on to warmth even during combustion,
sometimes even taking warmth from their surroundings, as when
lime is burned. Mercury's physical characteristics reveal a fluid, mo-
bile condition and the polar tendency to evaporate in air and to break
into numerous droplets. Drop formation and evaporation represent its
dual tendency to densification and dissolution. The unusual, "mercu-
rial" nature of this metal is also seen in its extreme capacity to amal-
gamate with other metals, entering into a true solution with them.
Rudolf Steiner gives a drawing in the lOth lecture of Spiritual Sci-
ence and Medicine which is representative of a knowledge of sub-
stance based on the archetypes of Sal, Sulfur and Mercury. The po-
larity of carbon and silica (salts of carbonic and silicic acids) is held to
be characteristic for the human "life process." Like table salt, silica is
a crystalline substance completely governed by the Sal-principle. The
formative forces of light and warmth which created silica are freed
during crystallization, leaving a transparent, geometrical, cool, non-
combustible substance. According to Rudolf Steiner, universalizing
forces are active in the human organism via the silica process, re-
leasing energies from organs and substances which then provide the

18
 The Idea of Threefold Man

basis for perception and consciousness, giVIng us access to the

transpersonal world of ideas by means of thinking. In contrast, the
carbonic acid process leads directly into the formation of substance.

The alkalis mediate rhythmically between the universalizing and

individualizing processes. Rudolf Steiner's drawing is a symbolic rep-
resentation of the process of life itself: carbon leads life into matter,
densifying it into the formation of the individual body, while silica
guides life to the periphery of the body, to become conscious and con-
. nect the human being to universal world laws.
We have described the law of polarity and the principle of three-
foldness which run through the whole of Nature. In what follows we
will address the question of how the kingdoms of Nature, in the proc-
ess of becoming, are active in the human being and how they relate to
his entelechy (Ego-being) in health and illness.

19
 Ill. Fourfold Man and Fourfold Nature

When man looks upon surrounding Nature, he sees the inorganic

world of minerals, the living plant world and the ensouled, sensitive
animal world. He is able to differentiate and understand Nature be-
cause he has mineralizing, formative and soul forces within him. As
described above, these forces can also be transformed into the possi-
bility of soul-spiritual experience. He bears the "powers of the king-
doms of Nature" within him and is therefore intimately related to Na-
ture. But the human being has these powers only in the process of
becoming- he encompasses and rises above them through the Ego-
activity that is his alone. In Nature the formative forces reach the
point of external manifestation which is also an ending: for Goethe
the created world has run into a dead end. In Schelling's sense we
would call it Natura naturata. The forces of Nature are present in the
human being only in statu nascendi as a continuously transformable
potential corresponding to his developing, evolving state. Schelling
speaks of this potency as creative nature, natura naturans.

Man is a part of Nature, but constantly overcomes her tendency

to take on fixed, one-sided forms by taking her up into his totality,
thereby also becoming his true self. In this sense Man continues to
partake of the primal creative process. If a nature process manifests
in him in a one-sided fashion, appearing similar to external nature
rather than integrating into the harmony of his individual being, ill-
ness anses.

According to the unifying Goethean conception of Man and Na-

ture, the natural laws of the mineral world, the Principles of the
plant kingdom, and the Type-creating animal nature are all present
in the human organization as well. These powers of nature create
their own organizations of forces within Man, which are delineated
and differentiated from the surroundings. Rudolf Steiner calls these
the "members of Man's being." The physical body manifests in the
world of matter and can be observed directly by the senses, while the
higher members can at first only be grasped by their effects on the
physical body. The physical-material body follows the laws of the
mineral, the life or "etheric" body the Principles of the plants, the

20
 Fourfold Man and Fourfold Nature

sensitivity or "astral" body the Type of the animal. The Ego-warmth

organization extends above and beyond the external realms of Nature
as the organic bearer of the Ego-being, the human being himself. In
accord with its physical-spiritual nature it unifies the three one-sided
forces organizations. Working from the middle, it creates balance and
organized, mutual interpenetration between the upper and lower
man. Ego-activity always leads human nature back to an organizing
principle of the middle, one which is universally active and maintains
the human personality.

Aristotle's teaching of the four elements, fire, air, water and

earth, was continued in the four humors of Hippocrates and into the
19th century in humoral pathology (Rokitansky). Each of the four

elements has an essential relationship to one of the four members of

Man's being. The Ego-organization works through warmth (fire) down
into the physical body, the sensitivity organization makes use of the
light-airy element, the life organization is active in the fluid-watery,
and the physical organization governs the mineral-earthly element.

What more can a human being gain from life,

than that Godly-Nature reveal itself to him?
To see how the solid is turned into Spirit,
To see how the Spirit-created is held firm.J5

J. W. von Goethe

15 Goethe- Poems, vol. 1, "Gott und Welt": Im ernsten Beinhaus ... , Artemis-Verlag

21
 IV. The Members of Man's Being and their Expres-
sion in the Physical Body16

1.1 The Human Ego-organization

We understand Rudolf Steiner's term "Ego-organization" to be an

organization of forces created by the human Ego-being for the pur-
pose of taking hold of the physical body. These forces work into the
physical by means of the warmth element. Silica is the substance
which supports the presence of the Ego-organization in the physical
body. Silica builds a finely differentiated structure throughout the
body which mediates the ordering, form-giving impulses of the Ego-
organization. The universalizing forces described by Rudolf Steiner in
the above drawingi7 are connected to the silica process, both organi-
cally and soul-spiritually.

We know that silicic acid is present as a trace element every-

where in the connective tissue matrix, the organs derived from mes-
enchyme, and in the blood. Those functions involved with silica forces
are of paramount importance from the beginning of embryonic devel-
opment. During this period the growing physical body is absolutely
dependent on the mesenchymal matrix that permeates all the organs.
The characteristics and functions of this matri~ enable the organs to
perceive and adjust to one another. The mesenchymal matrix, con-
sisting chiefly of mucopolysaccharides, forms the zona pellucida of the
egg, and is found again at the trophoblast stage. Later it penetrates
all tissues and organs of mesenchymal origin, such as the vitreous
body, pulpous nucleus, cartilage, bones, tendons and, as fibrinogen,
the blood. The connective tissue organism as a whole, i.e. the inter-
cellular interparenchymatous organism, permeates every organ and
connects them to the blood, the center of the warmth organism. Blood
has the ability to take on form and dissolve it again by means of fi-
brinogen-mediated coagulation. The Ego is by nature a being of rela-

16 A complete presentation of the members of Man's being can be found in, e.g.- Theosophy, chapter: The Nature of
the Human Being, Occult Science: an Outline
17 Spiritual Science and Medicine, Dornach 1920, lOth lecture

22
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

tionships. It has the power both to reveal itself and to withdraw

again. It appears only in the moment, in order to bring the arising
forms into relation with its archetypes, then as quickly it redissolves
the forms to their original condition. If we wish to characterize the
Ego-organization in its essential, Trinity-representin g significance,
we would say: it is the blood itself, which unites "upper" and "lower"
man from the center, continually guiding the action of the differenti-
ating, peripheral organs back to an all-encompassing general condi-
tion. In this sense, the warmth-bearing blood system and its central
organ, the heart, are the real bearers of the Ego-organization.

The study of warmth-relationsh ips in the human being is there-

fore of fundamental importance in understanding pathology. When
the warmth organism becomes independent at either extreme, fever
or cooling, it is a significant indicator of failure in the healthy Ego-
organization that should harmonize the "upper" and "lower" man. The
dual nature of the human Ego as a spiritual-physical warmth being
has to be recognized in order to understand its relation to the other
members of Man's being. Warmth forms the bridge between the soul-
spiritual condition, e.g. warm interest, and the physical condition,
which can be read on the thermometer. Warmth is thus the suitable
mediator for the impulses of the spiritual Ego-being, down into the
physical body.

1.2 The Ego-organization and the Heart

Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy deepens Goethe's conception of

Man and Nature, and enables us to recognize the formative powers of
the four members of Man's being in the four main organs, the heart,
lungs, liver and kidneys. The Ego-organization, astral organization,
life body and physical body work in each organ with differing inten-
sity and interrelationship.

We described how the sulfuric, substance-building metabolic

forces are transformed by the warmth-organizati on, which is centered
in the heart. The fluid streams of the "lower" and "upper" man which
flow to the heart, i.e. the connective tissue fluid and lymph, are

23
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

united in the venous blood, transformed into each other in the heart
and elevated to the level of warmth. In the embryonal period the
heart is a unipolar, monistic organ, left and right are not yet sepa-
rated. When breathing begins after birth the heart becomes polarized,
but even then it attains a unified-monist ic character. The intensive
unifying tendency of the heart is exemplified by the unusual capil-
larization of the right and left heart musculature and the partial
emptying of capillary blood directly into the heart chambers via the
foramina thebesii. Another expression is the extremely high level of
warmth formation, especially in the left heart. Is

During the previous discussion of threefold man we mentioned

the four alkaline elements calcium, potassium, sodium and magne-
sium, each of which has a relationship to one of the four main organs.
Magnesium as a process belongs to the heart: magnesium is an im-
portant substance process in the human organism because of its
catalytic function in the liver, whereby sugar is broken down by gly-
colysis and transformed into warmth. We know that calcium and
magnesium are present in high levels in the heart musculature (1 7
mg% of each). The two processes have an antagonistic relationship:
calcium ions are physiologically active in systole, especially in the left
heart, mediating contractibility of myoglobin; magnesium, on the
other hand, strengthens diastole and works via the right heart. Mag-
nesium salts can compensate for excessive, one-sided effects of cal-
cium, e.g. in digitalis overdose. Thus, the alkaline earth elements cal-
cium and magnesium have a polar action in the heart: calcium
strengthens systole, magnesium strengthens diastole. In calcium ac-
tivity the astral body works more strongly into the heart from the left
side; magnesium activity enables the etheric organization to act, by
means of the sugar process, and· belongs especially to the liver and
the right heart.

18 Landois-Rosemarm: ''Physiologie des Menschen"

24
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

2.1 The Physical Body

The concept of the "physis" (translated from the Greek as "that

which has grown") is extremely difficult to understand, accustomed as
we are to think of everything of a substantial-minera l nature as being
related to the physical body. But the exclusively mineral condition,
governed by physical-chemical laws, only appears in the human or-
ganism when substance is on the way to excretion or at death. During
life, mineral existence is constantly overcome by the higher members
and integrated into the whole human being.

We have to try to comprehend the physical organization as a

sense-perceptible warmth organization in which the mineral-
substantial is secondarily present in a constant state of dying and
becoming. We may speak of a dynamic balance in the warmth condi-
tion of substance. In this sense we can understand the transitory
deposition of calcium salts in the bones, as a moving, living phenome-
non. As soon as bone salts fall into a purely mineral state, they are
either renewed by the osteoclasts and the continuous rebuilding of
the haversian system, or illness sets in. What is here described for
the bones is markedly so for the outer layer of skin, and is basically
true for every human substance: it is always in process of dying and
becoming.

The process becomes pathological when the created substance,

e.g. bone salts, is precipitated in a disorganized form as exostoses in
the transition from bone to cartilage. The continual renewal of bodily
substance is paralyzed and physical substantiality piles up. The same
applies to protein metabolism in the protein hypertrophy of multiple
myeloma. In a corresponding way in hyperlipidemia, fatty substances
accumulate in the blood and secondarily deposit as arteriosclerotic
plaques on the blood vessel walls, when they should be physiologically
active in building up the nerves. In all these cases, substance has
fallen out of the dynamic balance and made itself independent in the
organism, especially in the blood.

From a therapeutic standpoint, the basic rule is that substances

from mineral nature administered in dynamized form are active on

25
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

the Ego-organization which is closely connected to the physical or-

ganization. Potentized natural substances always act on the opposite
organizational level of the human being. In the case of a mineral
remedy, we address the Ego-warmth organization, which alone is in a
position to overcome the physical-mineral element by raising it to a
state of warmth. Rudolf Steiner gives the example of silica, which in
the healthy person must constantly be excreted from the body by the
power of the warmth-organizatio n.I9

2.2 The Physical Organization and the Lungs

It is difficult for us to imagine how the lungs are related to the

physical body because, as described above, the physical body is spiri-
tual in nature. However, a study of how the lungs are formed can
help us to understand that the physical organization is, in fact, domi-
nant. The lungs are an organ whose three-dimensional shape is fully
grasped by physical space. The passivity of the lungs is striking, their
movement dependent on movements of the thorax. The lungs have
very low vitality, being poorly supplied with blood by the vasa pro-
pria. If all the blood is emptied from the adult lung (about 500 gm), it
weighs only about 100 gm. As a three-dimensional organ it contains
about 1200 ml of air, although the vital capacity is over 3liters.

In relation to the volumes of air and blood that course through

the lungs, their own life is largely subdued. Even in a healthy condi-
tion they are devitalized. The lungs' tendency to become physical can
easily assume the pathological aspects of rigidity and loss of elastic-
ity, i.e. pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema.2o The propensity of the
lungs to cooling and rigidity is caused by the intensive connection of
the sensitivity organization with the lungs during breathing. The bi-
polar nature of the lungs is another expression of the fact that the
sensitivity organization is strongly united with the physical body in
the lungs. This tendency is fundamental to the sensitivity organiza-
tion. According to its nature it works formatively and constitutionally
directly on the physical body. The character of the lungs must be con-

19 M.G. Voronkov, G.I. Zelchan, E. Lukevitz, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1975

20 See H.H Vogel: The Lungs in "Der Merkurstab", vol. 5, 1991, p.352

26
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

ceived more as a sense organ than a metabolic organ. Although they

arise dichotomously from the entodermal fore-intestine and initially
have a glandular nature, during post-natal development"they come
increasingly under the influence of the upper man and the sense-
nerve organization. This is what gives them their physical character.
Pulmonary inflammation, on the other hand, is a return of the lungs
to the embryonal glandular stage. In hepatization of the lungs, for
example, the air-filled space becomes over-vitalized, assuming a
pathologically glandular consistency.

Rudolf Steiner's indication that the calcium process is especially

active in the lungs points in the same direction. The organic forces of
the lungs have a particular relationship to the physical body. The in-
tegration of the calcium salts into the bones is brought about by the
influence of the lungs in cooling the blood. Of the above-named alka-
line elements, calcium belongs to the lungs.

3.1 The Sensitivity Organism or the Astral Body

Just as we found correspondences between the human warmth

organization and the element of fire, the physical organization and
the solid, mineral element earth, so the sensitivity organization lives
in the light-airy element of the organism. However, we have to realize
that the air element is ensouled, especially the oxygen and nitrogen
that is breathed into the lungs. It works on in the arterial blood,
penetrating and ensouling the furthest reaches of the organism. The
entire body is thus permeated and empowered by a differentiated
breathing organization which works out of the soul element via the
airy element. We call this organization the astral body.

If we try to identify what the soul element does, we find on the

one hand the life of feelings, with its polar forces of sympathy and
antipathy. On the other hand, the astral body governs breathing and
the arterialization of the blood. The sensitivity organization always
has a dual orientation, in contrast to the unified, monistic physical
body. If the astral body works too strongly, the inhalation and action
of oxygen in the blood vessels will be excessive, leading to vessel con-

27
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

traction, fear and, in the kidneys, to anuria. When the body's inhala-
tion impulse is too weak, there is vessel atony, hypotension, cold
sweat, out-of-body soul states and also fear. Fear is a symptom of
both extremes because the soul is isolated, not properly integrated
into the Ego-warmth organization.

The astral organization is particularly related to the activity of

the kidneys, so that we can see in the kidneys how the sensitivity or-
ganism takes hold of the metabolism. Rudolf Steiner points out that
the regulation of breathing and the impulse for inhalation proceed
from the kidneys and only secondarily from the lungs. If the astral
body does not take hold of the kidney organization strongly enough,
oxygen activity and excretion are decreased. The loose relation of the
astral element to its bodily basis causes shortness of breath and
states of excitement and fear. An opposite condition arises when the
astral body works too strongly on the lower man, paralyzing life proc-
esses. The nervous system is a sense-percepti ble image of the sensi-
tivity organism. Increased activity of air and oxygen leads to hyper-
sensitive awareness, neurasthenia and psychasthenia . Accompanying
symptoms which can extend to the rest of the organism are paralysis
of the burgeoning etheric element, dehydration and danger of peri-
pheral gangrene. The life body threatens to become "mummified" by
hyperactivity of the sensitivity organization.

In taking the patient's history it is important to ascertain their

relationship to the influences of the surrounding light and air. Are
symptoms aggravated by sun exposure and variations in barometric
pressure? Does the patient want fresh air, are they sensitive to smells
or sounds? Oversensitivit y to smells can point to disturbances of kid-
ney function, since the sense of smell corresponds in the upper man to
the kidneys.
The history can also give important indications of how the astral
organization works in developmenta l phases. For example, an overac-
tive sensitivity organization accelerates childhood and youth, bring-
ing them to a premature conclusion. The sensitivity organization
tends to accentuate its formative power in the spiritual-phys ical ele-
ment at the expense of organic life forces. The consequence is that
while organs are matured too soon, spiritual maturity is hindered. A

28
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

typical example is the fact that puberty occurs earlier and earlier to-
day. However, healthy human development is characterized by hold-
ing back, especially in relation to organic development but also in a
psychic sense. Animal development is characterized by acceleration of
formative processes in the organs.2I We can speak of a psychosomatic,
animalizing tendency when the human sensitivity organism is acti-
vated prematurely and one-sidedly.

3.2 The Sensitivity Organization and the Kidneys

The heart is a monistic organ. During embryonic development the

two chambers are connected and work as a unipolar organ, and even
after birth when arterial and venous blood are polarized, they are
united in the blood as a whole. In contrast, the lungs are a double or-
gan. Bipolarity is a morphological expression of the formative ten-
dency of the astral organization. All Dual organs, e.g. the two halves
of the brain, the lobes of the lungs and kidneys, bear the signature of
the sensitivity organism.

In the kidneys bipolarity is present again in the dualistic organi-

zation and physiology of the renal cortex and medulla. In the renal
cortex arterial blood is congested in the extreme, almost coming to a
halt on the way from the renal hilus through the arcuate arteries to
the glomeruli. A condensing, congesting process is at the basis of the
entire arterial blood system, from the left heart via the mighty curve
of the aorta, down into the renal arteries and the kidneys themselves.
Arterialization begins when oxygen is taken in by the lungs, increas-
ing the density of the blood and leading to a certain combustion or
ash-formation of excreted substances in the kidneys. The form-giving
action of the sensitivity organization works right down into the mor-
phology of the kidneys: the arterial vessels, and the vessels returning
from the glomeruli, have an extremely stretched appearance. Renal
capillaries are also unusually long and extended, lacking the sinusoi-

21 Hermann Poppelbaum: "Mensch und Tier- 5 Einblicke in ihren Wesensunterschied", Rudolf Gering Verlag,
Basel, 1930, and
Friedrich Kipp: "Hoeherentwicklung und Menschwerdung", Hippokrates-Verlag (out of print) and "Die
EntwicklWlg des Menschen vom Gesichtspunkt seiner Iangen Jugendzeit", Verlag Freies Geistes1eben, Stuttgart.

29
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

dal, meandering form typical of venous capillaries. In contrast to all

other venous capillaries, they have a length up to 10 rom. The blood
flow returning from the kidneys is highly arterial. As a consequence,
arterial blood in the cortex comes into direct contact with the power-
ful fluid stream of the ultraflitrate excretion and reabsorption (ca.
180 liters in 24 hrs.). The middle system, represented by the venous
blood, is completely in the background. This physiological dualism is
the organic basis for the psychic lability associated with renal func-
tion.

Here we have to emphasize the connection between the kidney-

adrenal gland organization and the sodium-process. The sodium-
process in the intercellular fluid of the entire organism is related to
tissue sensitivity, especially of the kidneys, musculature, heart and
nervous system. Sensitivity of the soul is also a function of the same
sodium process. The light-bearer, the astral body, has to maintain the
proper balance between the sodium, kidney adrenal processes in the
lower man and the nerve activity in the upper man. It is only in this
sense that we can understand how tissue tone and sensitivity in the
broadest sense are a kidney-adrenal function. We spoke about the
mediating, mercurial function of the alkalis in connection with Rudolf
Steiner's sketch from the lOth lecture of the first medical course. Now
we have to emphasize the polar relationship of potassium and sodium
which enables the etheric organization in the ''lower man" to be con-
nected to the higher members, the astral body and Ego-organization
in the nerve-sense system.22

If we try to find a common denominator for the psychosomatic

connection between the sensitivity organization and the kidneys, it
would be that the sensitivity organism governs the kidneys by mean
of the entire air-organism. The air is internalized and ensouled. The
pathological appearance of air in hollow organs, especially of the gas-
trointestinal tract, is also a symptom of disturbed kidney function:
belching, flatulence and spontaneous meteorism, often occurring with
colic and burning pain. From the standpoint of the members of man's
being, the astral organization withdraws from the lower man. Patho-
logical air takes the place of the astral organization's rhythmic activ-

22 Compare 4.4: The Differentiation of the Etheric Organization

30
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

ity in digestion. The healthy kidneys are supposed to harmonize the

integration of the sensitivity organization and with it the ventilation
of the whole digestive tract.

4.1 The Formative-Force Organism or the Etheric Body

The fourth member to be described is the life or formative-force

body, whose element is the fluid-organism. It acts from the lower man
on the streaming body fluids with a suctioning, force-binding dy-
namic. It is therefore understandable that the etheric organism is
simultaneously the carrier of anabolic processes (the internalizing of
imponderable forces in metabolism) and the sulfuric principle. The
etheric body overcomes death forces with regeneration and growth. It
is centered in the liver, but guides fluid processes everywhere in the
organism, so that in pathology we can speak of displaced liver func-
tions. The etheric body is most active at night, during sleep. Nerve
activity is damped down, and the differentiated fluid systems (espe-
cially lypmh and connective tissue fluid) are the organic bearers of
the life organization, all the way to blood formation in the portal vein
system and the sinusoidal blood of the liver.

Thus it can be understood that all liquefying, loosening, sulfuric,

inflammatory processes result from the activity of the etheric organi-
zation, even when fever is present. In contrast, pathological processes
of the astral body are characterized by sclerotic, catabolic, hardening
tendencies. The sensitivity organism, which is especially active from
the upper man downwards, stands in polarity to the ether body
working from the lower man upwards. One could also say, the sensi-
tivity organism ebbs as it reaches into the upbuilding activity of the
etheric organism, and the etheric body ebbs as it reaches into the
nerve-sense activity of the sensitivity organism.

31
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

4.2 The Etheric Body and the Liver

In considering the heart, it was described as an anatomically mo-

nistic organ which, however, combines and overcomes the polarity
between left and right heart, metabolic and sense-nerve organiza-
tions. The liver, in contrast, reveals exclusively the monistic morpho-
logical and physiological process of the etheric organization, which
governs fluid processes. Water is the bearer of life in nature and in
the human being; it represents the motherly, receptive element.2a The
fluid organization is receptive and open towards the stream of nutri-
tive substance coming from intestinal digestion and the suctioning
intestinal villi, through the portal vein system to the liver.

The etheric organization has a dynamic which is polar opposite to

the sensitivity organization. The centrifugal, accelerated arterial
bloodstream becomes congested in the kidneys. The phenomenon of
congestion corresponds to the nature of the soul-astral element. The
etheric organization, on the other hand, works centripetally in the
liver, sucking from the periphery to the center of the hepatic lobes,
giving the liver the appearance of a blood sponge. The polarity be-
tween the kidneys and liver, between the astral and etheric organiza-
tions causes congestion in the arterial system and expansion, surface-
forming in the venous system. This is the expression of the law of ex-
pansion and contraction in the force-organization of the kidney and
liver. It is confirmed physiologically by the fact that metabolic proc-
esses are endothermic in the liv,er, but exothermic in the kidneys.

While sodium corresponds to the kidney process, potassium is

related to the liver. Potassium is predominantly present in intracel-
lular fluid and supports the suctioning action of the liver, building ·up
glycogen. Sodium is mainly extracellular and is active in maintaining
osmotic pressure (gas pressure), working centrifugally in the sense of
renal-suprarenal activity.

23 Theodor Schwenk: Sensitive Chaos, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart

32
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

4.3 The Relationship Between the Life and

Sentient Organizations

Speaking very generally, healing forces are active in the forma-

tive-force body and illness-inducing forces are active in the astral or-
ganization, especially when the sentient organism acts one-sidedly
either in the entire human being or in the organic processes outside
the nerves and senses. Illness is thus dependent on the relationship
between the formative-force and sensitivity bodies. The balancing,
correcting impulse is continuously exercised from the middle, by the
heart and circulatory activity whose basis is the Ego-organization.
The middle is in a position to create a healthy relationship between
the upper and lower man.

In using therapeutic substances from the animal and plant king-

doms it is important to understand the polar relationship between the
sentient and life organizations. Just as mineral substances call forth
activity in the Ego-organization, so potentized plant and animal
remedies have an opposite relationship. Plant remedies act on the
soul organization, which has to overcome the plant substance by
raising it up to the airy element. Potentized animal substances find
their polar counterpart in the etheric body, which has to digest the
foreign animality. Using the remedy as a model for transforming one-
sided nature forces, the human organism learns how to overcome the
corresponding tendencies within itself.

33
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

4.4 Differentiation of the Etheric Organization

The life body has a special affinity to the elemental world of the
kingdoms of Nature, based on its :relationship to the watery element.
The four fundamental force-qualities which create the four elements
fire, air, water and earth, also impress themselves on the monistic
formative-force organization, resulting in a fourfold qualitative differ-
entiation.

Heart
Ego-organization
Warmth ether
Mg
Warmth

Kidneys
Astral-organization
Light ether
Na
Light-Air

Liver
Etheric organization
Chemical ether
K
Water

. Lungs
.

-
Physical organization
~ Life ether
~~
Ca
r.0.
Earth

34
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

Earthly forces continue to work in the life ether which can also be
called weight ether. It has a densifying dynamic, centered on a single
point and related to the physical body. We speak of central forces. The
forces at work in the liquid element and the fluid organism act cen-
tripetally, with a suctioning dynamic. Rudolf Steiner spoke of chemi-
cal ether or tone-ether, gestalt-ether. The light-ether forces mani-
festing in the light-airy element are centrifugal, radiant, while the
warmth-ether leads to the periphery and there forms an encompass-
ing circle. The following diagram shows the force-qualities in relation
to the four main organs, ethers and alkalis.
The working together of the four ethers with the great organs can
be symbolized by the following sketch:

Hean
Warmth Ether

Liver
Chemical Ether

Lung
Central Forces
Life ether

35
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

We place the spleen in the middle; as a member of the reticuloen-

dothelial system, it represents the pluripotent, embryonal condition
of the mesenchymal matrix system. Throughout life it forms a polar-
ity to the specialized activity of the other organs and mediates be-
tween them.

4.5 The Four Protein-Building Organs

The fourfold organization of forces just described in the human

being leads us to consider the related forces at work in the earth-
organism: in the geosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, the
stratosphere, and the extremely attenuated peripheral hydrogen
mantle of the earth.24
The meteorological elements of the earth permeate and form its
airy mantle and, through breathing, also determine how substances
are built up in the human being, animal and plant. The elements ac-
tive in the air are chiefly nitrogen and oxygen, supplemented by the
heavy gas carbonic acid and the lightest, hydrogen. These are the
same elements which are released from life processes when protein
decays. Nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the air, at 78.1 vol.-%.
Because it is less dense than oxygen it is only 75.4% in terms of
weight; in addition the air contains small amounts (0.9 vol.-%) of ar-
gon and traces of other noble gases. Hydrogen is the lightest of all
gases (14.4 times lighter than air) and forms the periphery of the at-
mosphere, the outer limit of the earth organism. The sluggishness of
nitrogen, which at normal temperatures is chemically hardly reactive,
and the fact that in the ammonia form combined with water it acts as
a lye, reveals its mercurial character.2s It participates in breathing

24 Meteorology differentiates a troposphere up to the elevation of about 8 km, having temperatures down to ~s·c.
It encompasses what we call the geosphere, hydrosphere and a part of the atmosphere. It takes part in the
continuous erosion of the geosphere, so that the air contains extremely fme soil particles. There follows the
mesosphere, up to 50 km elevation, where temperatures rise to +50°C. Then comes the SO·Called mesopause.
Above 80 km is the thermo-- or ionosphere. Beyond that is the exosphere, representing the transition to outer
space. The ozone layer is found between 3~50 km, especially above the polar regions. Strong air currents mix the
gases in the atmosphere, making it impossible to clearly distinguish them. However, it is important to note the
atmosphere contains 0.00005 vol.-% hydrogen. Due to its lightness, it strives away from the earth to the periphery
of the atmosphere, i.e. the border of the stratosphere.
25 The ammonium-ion acts like a univalent metal ion. Ammonium hydrate is a weak base, forming ammonium salts
with acids. For example, with hydrochloric acid it forms ammonium chloride (NH4Cl + H20). Nitrogen in the form
of nitric acid is one of the strongest acids (HN03).

36
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

without any appreciable difference in its volume percentage of in-

haled and exhaled air. Oxygen, on the other hand, is chemically
highly reactive. It stimulates metabolism and forms and shapes the
life-bearing protein substances. It is the carrier of inhalation, sub-
stance densification and the permeation of substance with light. Air
contains 20.9 vol.-% oxygen, or 23% by weight since it is heavier than
nitrogen; thus, the proportion of nitrogen to oxygen is about 4:1! Car-
bon is present in the air only in the form of the heaviest gas, carbonic
acid (0.03 vol.-%, fluctuating strongly with the amount of moisture in
the atmosphere). Rudolf Hauschka's The Nature of Substance26 gives
the atmospheric elements names corresponding to their true princi-
ples: hydrogen is pyrogen or fire-substance, nitrogen is aerogen or
soul-substance, oxygen is biogen or life-substance, and carbon is geo-
gen or earth-substance. This expresses the fact that the atmospheric
elements are physical representatives of life forces, which form and
shape the whole of nature from minerals, plants and animals up to
Man. When Rudolf Steiner speaks of the heart, lungs, liver and kid-
neys as the meteorological organs27 and states that protein is created
by their working together, he takes the view of Man and Nature
which we are here representing and makes it more concrete. This
view does not see the human being as existing separate from nature,
but as the active, ever-becoming center of creation. Thus, protein
formation results from the four etheric-organic life qualities which
are centered in the four main human organs. The physical carrier of
substance creation is the liver, as we have described above. In its
chemism (form or tone-ether) it unites the forces of the other three
protein-forming organs (heart, lungs and kidneys) in the creation of
physical substance. The spleen and the sulfur-process play an essen-
tial role in the background. Sulfur is the Proteus of unification within
the fourfold force-organization of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and car-
bon on the physical plane. Sulfur acts as the integrator of these forces
in the formation and transformation of protein. The spleen is the uni-
versal, archetypal organ representing the matrix-organization, and
under its influence universal protein is created. The following sketch
relates the elements synthesized into protein with the four main or-
gans. Sulfur is at the periphery and encompasses the differentiated

26 R.Hauschka: The Nature of Substance, Vittorio Klostermann Verlag 1950, Frankfurt a. Main
27 R.Steiner: Spiritual Science and Medicine, Domach 1920, Lecture 12

37
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

protein-forming organs. The formative principle connected to carbon

is related to the earth-organ, the lung. The warmth or fire-substance
(hydrogen) corresponds to the heart, the light-mediating life-sub-
stance (oxygen) to the kidneys, and soul-substance (nitrogen) to the
liver.
This designation requires some explanation: The physical-bodily
organs together with their particular etheric organizations create
centers whose sphere of influence extends into all other organs and
fluids. By means of the unifying blood, the substance processes of hy-
drogen, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon are present in all other organs.
The heart and lungs create an extreme polarity in the rhythmic sys-
tem: the lungs as the "earth-organ," emphasizing the centralizing
forces, the heart as the Ego-warmth organ, emphasizing the periph-
ery. In contrast, the liver and kidneys stand much closer to each other
in the polar processes of soul-substance and life-substance. They are
immediately related to the organ-specific etheric forces: the nitrogen-
process with the chemism of the liver, the oxygen-process with the
light-etheric forces of the kidneys. The oxygen and nitrogen processes
mediate between the peripheral and central forces, between heart
and lung processes. This is expressed in the fact that both processes,
but especially the nitrogen-process, are involved both in building up
and breaking down substance.

In summary we can say that in protein formation in all organs,

the universal liver process is active in the chemism of lymph-

38
 The Members of Man's Being and their Expression in the Physical Body

formation. This is the place where protein is ensouled, mediated by

nitrogen. Through the blood, the other three organs participate in
protein formation wherever lymph is formed. As a result, protein
formation in the liver leads to the same protein concentration in the
outflowing liver lymph as in the blood serum. On the other hand, the
chemical ether is involved in the reabsorption of ultrafiltrate in the
kidneys. Every 24 hours, 50 gm of protein is temporarily excreted and
reabsorbed into the blood. The kidneys thus participate in the en-
souling and, through the light-ether activity of oxygen, on the indi-
vidualizing of protein.

From this standpoint, protein arises from the periphery of the or-
ganism in the interstitial fluid-lymph-processes of every organ, in-
cluding the skin. Although protein levels vary2B , no tissue fluid is
completely free of protein, not even the cerebrospinal and amniotic
fluids.

28 Rusnyak!Foeldi/Szabo: Physiologie und Pathologie des Lymphkreislaufes, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1957

39
 V. The Members of the Human Being and
the Seven Stages of Life

Rudolf Steiner describes 7 levels of life. In order to understand

how the 4 human members work together with the 4 etheric forces, it
is essential to recognize how the 7 stages of life relate to the threefold
human being. This will then open the way to understanding how
remedies work. The order of the life levels is especially important for
the upper-lower orientation of the inner secretory glands and their
relationship to the 7 chief metals, which are so significant in anthro-
posophic medicine (see below). When the fourfold etheric organization
is integrated with the threefold form of Man, in the sense of the
above-described relation between the Sal-nature and the sense-nerve
system, the Sulfur-nature and the metabolic system, then the entire
etheric organism reveals two modifications, towards the nerve-sense
pole and the Sulfur-pole. The etheric organism is then differentiated
into seven members:

Life of Senses
Life of Nerves
Life of Breathing
} Nerve-sense System

Life of Circulation Rhythmic System

Life of Metabolism
Life of Movement
Life of Reproduction
} Metabolic-Limb System

The seven-fold organization results from three life processes be-

coming free in the upper man which are building up organs and sub-
stances in the lower man. The liberated, transformed substance-
creating forces of the lower man are mirrored in the upper man as
powers of consciousness. In the middle the upper and lower forces are
balanced out in the rhythmical interpenetration of breathing, heart
and blood. Here is the hypomochlion, the transformation of lower into
upper and vice versa. The rhythmic system can also be differentiated
according to its forces, in which case one would come to a nine-fold
organization. In chapter four the connection of the human members

40
 The Members of the Human Being and
the Seven Stages of Life

to the four main organs lungs, liver, heart and kidneys was described.
There is a further inner relationship between the seven stages of life
and the seven inner secretory glands, as Karl Koenig has especially
pointed out.29 According to him the seven endocrine glands are func-
tional carriers of the entire etheric body. During embryonic develop-
ment the etheric forces work very generally with the instreaming
forces of the periphery in the fluid body to build up the organs. Mter
birth these processes are taken over, individualized and carried by
the endocrine glands for the remainder oflife.

Life of Senses Pineal gland Warmth ether

Life of Nerves Pituitary gland Light ether
Life of Breathing Thyroid gland Tone ether

Life of Circulation Epithelial bodies Life ether

Life of Metabolism Thymus gland Tone ether

Life of Movement Adrenal glands Light ether
Life of reproduction Gonads Warmth ether

The life of the senses and therewith the human being as a physi-
cal-spiritual sense-perceptible being is carried by the warmth ether.
The pineal gland is the functional carrier of the physical body.

The life of the nerves is mediated by the light ether, which brings
the plastic organs out of the streaming fluid stage down into spatial
form. This activity is encompassed by the pituitary gland, which, to-
gether with the hypothalamus, mediates between the nerves and
glands. The electrical phenomena associated with nerve impulses are
a counter-process to the light ether, which densifies, concentrates and
devitalizes nerve substance.

The life of breathing follows the tone ether. The chemical-etheric

forces proceed from their organic center in the thyroid gland, from the
"upper" to the "lower" man. The chemism of the thyroid gland intensi-
fies and accelerates the transformation of substance. As a chemical-
etheric organ it takes up the forces of the pineal gland, diencephalon

29 Dr. med. Karl Koe:rrig: Das Problem der inneren Sekretion, Natura, vol 2, 1927/28

41
 The Members of the Human Being and
the Seven Stages of Life

(warmth ether) and pituitary gland (light ether), and provides a bal-
ance to the lower man, to the thymus, adrenal glands and gonads.
Anabolism and catabolism become harmonized.

The task of the epithelial bodies is to bring the forces of the pin-
eal, pituitary and thyroid glands to the physical-mineralizing, life
ether stage. In the life of circulation they bring about the self-
enclosed blood circulation system. The parathyroid gland, acting from
the blood, guides and impels the calcium process, which extends into
vessel closure, muscle contraction and bone formation.

The thymus gland mirrors the function of the thyroid gland from
the "lower" man, promoting the chemical creation of bodily substance
in the life of metabolism. During embryonic development the thymus
participates in building red and white blood cells and platelets. As the
carrier of the immune system matrix later in life, it represents a
stage of substance, especially protein substance, which precedes or-
gan differentiation and specification.

The plastic activity of the pituitary gland in the upper man is

mirrored in the lower man in the adrenal gland dynamic, building up
substance and filling up space. The light ether forces are here creat-
ing organ tissues. In the life of movement the dynamizing principle
takes hold of surrounding space.

In reproductive life the entire etheric organization is active in

creating a new human body. The four life qualities work together un-
der the guidance of the warmth ether, the source of all life processes.

42
VI. How to Understand Therapy Derived from
Pathology

In order to understand the origin of illness and how remedies

work, the following aspect is essential: illness occurs when the normal
physiological activity of an organ is shifted to another organ whose
normal physiological activity is different.

Sickness is not something foreign or contrary to nature, but only

"life under abnormal conditions," life in the wrong place, or at the
wrong time or in the wrong strength. so

We can differentiate between two polar relationships of the hu-

man members, one typical for a sense organ and the other for a meta-
bolic organ. In the schematic drawing the astral body and Ego-
organization are submerged in the lower man, actively building up in
the etheric-physical organ. Substance is created at the Sulfur-pole of
the organism. The dynamic of the metabolic process is directed out-
ward. In contrast, the astral body and Ego can for the most part
withdraw out of the upper man. Here the formative forces have con-
cluded most of their tasks related to growth, so they are more avail-
able for consciousness. Where the physical manifests in the Sal-
region of the organism, the astral body and Ego are relatively free.
Their dynamic is directed from outside-in, like a stamp, forming and
shaping the organs. At the nerve-sense pole substance is broken down
and disappears. Consciousness arises in its place.

The life process unfolding between the metabolic pole of the lower
man and the fo:J;"m-pole of the upper man is based on the physiological
principle of anabolism and catabolism.si In the living, healthy organ-
ism, anabolism (which we call sulfuric creation of substance, a kind of
physiological inflammation) and catabolism (breakdown of substance,
physiological degeneration) exist in a functional, rhythmical balance.

30 Werner Hueck: Morphologische Pathologie, p.37, Thieme-Verlag 1937

31 Letterer: Allgemeine Pathologie, p.148, Thieme·Verlag 1959

43
 How to Understand Therapy Derived from
Pathology

Physical Body

Astral Body

Ego-organization
~""'"""'

Etheric Body

Physical Body

Astral body

''"'.,''"'"' Ego-organization

Schema of the physiological

ordering of the members of being
in the Nerve-sense and in the
metabolic-limb system.

These two physiological tendencies can be intensified to the

pathological processes of inflammation or degeneration. The physio-
logical process of regression or tissue obliteration results initially
from a locally intensified inflammation process, followed by degenera-
tion. Examples of this are the obliteration of the central retinal artery
in the eye, the Ductus Botalli, and the follicle transformation in the
corpus albicans. Organs which are physiologically on the way to de-
generation include the cornea, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, the
so-called bradytrophic tissues. The balance between upper and lower
is shifted towards degeneration. In spite of this, these organs are in-
cluded in the life process.

44
 How to Understand Therapy Derived from
Pathology

In the healthy human being the interaction of the human mem-

bers is different for each organ. If the normal interaction is displaced,
illness results. Rudolf Steiner gave the example of carcinoma, de-
scribing it as a sense organ in the wrong place. What this means is
that the human members are active in a metabolic organ in a way
that is normal for a sense organ. The goal of therapy is to induce the
Ego- and soul-organizations to penetrate the physical and etheric or-
gan again with their warmth (Ego-organization) and breathing (as-
tral organization).

This principle is fundamentally valid for understanding illness.

For example, when the human members act in the heart the way they
normally do in the nerves, heart muscle necrosis can occur.

If the nerve-forming process is too strong in the arterial vessel

system, the result can be lipoid degeneration of the vessel walls or
-when occurring in the kidney region-nephrotic syndrome with hy-
perlipidemia. Specific diseases can always be explained with this
method.

In order to recognize disease and apply therapy rationally, it is

necessary to understand the normal formation and physiology of the
organs in terms of how the Ego-organization and astral body interact
with the etheric and physical organizations. The anthroposophical
doctor has to study how the relationships differ in each organ, where
the emphasis lies. In comparing different organs the action of the
human members is frequently reversed. For example, in the venous
region and the liver, the chemical ether is predominantly active,
while the warmth and light ether are involved in building up sub-
stance (endothermic metabolism). In contrast, the light ether is most
active in the kidneys; warmth and light forces are relatively free (exo-
thermic metabolism).
The task of anthroposophically-extended medicine is to develop
remedies which correspond to pathological shifts in the relationships
of the human members. When illness is present, it is because normal
human physiological processes have partially lost their connection to
the whole, becoming isolated nature processes.

45
 How to Understand Therapy Derived from
Pathology

Rudolf Steiner describes the relationship between a pathological

process and a substance of nature which is able to induce a therapeu-
tic counter-process, as follows:

"Our knowledge of the effects of therapeutic substances is

based upon the understanding of the development of forces in the
world outside man. For, in order to bring about a healing process,
we must bring into the organism substances which will distribute
themselves in it in such a way that the disease process gradually
transforms itself to a normal one. It is the essential nature of a
disease process that something is going on which does not inte-
grate itself into its total activities. Such a disease process has this
in common with a similar process in outer nature. We may say: If
there arises within the organism a process similar to one of ex-
ternal nature, illness ensues."32

This relationship between Man and Nature runs like a red thread
through the entire preceding presentation of this book. In this con-
text, the principle of remedy-finding introduced by Samuel Hahne-
mann (1755-1843) becomes clear:

"Similia similibus curentur ."

The remedy proving describes characteristic manifestations of ill-

ness provoked by administration of a particular medicine. A totality
of physical and psychic symptoms arises, called the remedy picture.
The fact that a specific natural substance (from the mineral, plant or
animal kingdoms) can induce specific, reproducible symptoms of ill-
ness is only understandable on the basis of the relationship described
above by Steiner.

The homeopathic principle of remedy selection reckons with the

similarity of an internal human process with a nature process repre-
sented by the medicine. If symptoms appear spontaneously in a hu-
man being which are typical of a particular natural substance, the
latter will be a remedy for the corresponding symptom complex when
administered in potentized form. Hahnemann also introduced the

32 Rudolf Steiner, Ita Wegman: Fundamentals of Therapy, 1925, ch. 15 "The Therapeutic Process"

46
 How to Understand Therapy Derived from
Pathology

process of potentization into modern medicine, leading substance

from its material dead end back to the world of forces from whence it
came. This pharmaceutical process is one of the foundations of an-
throposophically-oriented medicine.
Rudolf Steiner's medical work honors Hahnemann's ideas and
takes them a step further:

" ... But there is the other way, chosen after the ancient
method has ceased to work, and chosen in definite awareness of
the fact that man is something more than a chemical apparatus.
This way simply tries to take the substances as found in nature
and to make available through "potentizing'' the forces hidden in
them. This is the way chosen by Hahnemann's schooL represent-
ing a new departure in the whole of man's medical researches. It
left the archaic way, now blocked because of the ignorance con-
cerning the extra-telluric and other relationships." (Underlined by
author).33

"On the other hand, however, I must ask you to forgive me if I

point out that a scrutiny of homeopathic medicine does not always
furnish satisfactory_results. True, homeopathy attempts to handle
the human being as a whole; it forms a comprehensive picture of
all the symptoms, and attempts to build a bridge to therapy. But
the professional literature of homeopathy brings to light some-
thing else calling for comment. At the first glance one is almost in
despair, for especially in the therapeutic literature, we find the
remedies enumerated one after another and each recommended
for an entire legion of illnesses. It is never easy to discover spe-
cific indications from the literature, for everything is beneficial
for so very much! I will admit that for the present, perhaps, this
is unavoidable. But it is also a source of danger. And this danger
can only be avoided if we proceed as we have sought to do here,
even if on elementary lines, and by indications rather than in de-
tail. (... ). This can only be remedied if through such an inner
study of human and extra-human nature one ascends to thenar-
rowing of the compass of a medicinal remedy, to its delimitation.
But this can only come about if we not only study the effects of a

33 Rudolf Steiner: Spiritual Science and Medicine, 6th lecture.

47
 How to Understand Therapy Derived from
Pathology

remedy on both the sick and the healthy, but gradually endeavor
to view the whole universe as an integral unity ...." 34

Anthroposophically -extended knowledge of Man and Nature be-

gins with a deepened study of the phenomenology of illnesses and
substances. It's goal is to integrate the multiplicity of internal and
external phenomena into a comprehensive higher order. The essen-
tial, specific activity of every remedy within the complex of the hu-
man members has to be sought, so that the corresponding illness pic-
ture can be logically connected to it. This method was the leading
thought in the creation of the following remedy monographs.

34 Rudolf Steiner: Spiritual Science and Medicine, 20th lecture

48
VII. Organ-Metal Compositions and Metals
Combined with Endocrine Glands

The human being participates in the general evolution that has

led to the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. He has characteristic
nature processes in him but does not allow them to become fixed and
one-sided as in the realms of nature. The human being overcomes the
threefold formative tendencies that lead to differentiation of the or-
gans and integrates them into a higher unity which remains con-
nected to the archetypal, primal world of formative forces. Warmth is
the essential element of the Ego-organization, permeating the organs
and maintaining them in the unified state. Generally speaking, met-
als stimulate the activity of the Ego-warmth organization.
Metals are found in the earth either as pure metals or as metal
salts, usually surrounded by granitic rock formations. They appear in
a way as organic inclusions in the earth. The metals modify, vary and
give color to the matrix of the earth's crust, visibly demonstrated in
the precious stones. They also cause the qualitative differentiations of
granite, which is basically composed of quartz, feldspar and mica.
In a similar way, the human organs are also modifications of the
matrix of the mesenchymal blastema. Its differentiation into spleen,
liver, kidneys, lungs and heart is brought about by certain principles,
which are called cosmic-planetary entities by Paracelsian and an-
throposophically-extended medicine. The essence of the planets corre-
sponds to the main metals and these in turn to the essence of the in-
ner organs.
Saturn Spleen Lead (Pb)
Jupiter Liver Tin (Sn)
Mars Gall bladder Iron (Fe)

Sun Heart Gold (Au)

Venus Kidneys Copper (Cu)

Mercury Lungs Mercury (Hg)
Moon Uterus/Ovaries/ - Silver (Ag)
Testes

When an organ's activity becomes too independent relative to the

organism as a whole, it can be treated by certain typical remedies

49
 Organ-Metal Compositions and Metals
Combined with Endocrine Glands

made by combining a metal with its corresponding organ in poten-

tized form. The metal belonging to the organ imitates the pathological
organ activity from the outside. The phenomena expressing the simi-
larity between a metal and a certain organ are described in the rem-
edy monographs. However, as a rule, metallic remedies always pro-
mote greater activity in the Ego-organization.
Another aspect is important for understanding the therapeutic
action of organ-metal combinations: all metals have a mercurial
quality in addition to their own force-configuration. In potentized
form they mediate between their own specific activity and the com-
prehensive warmth-Ego-organization, which penetrates and orders
all the organs. One-sided organ activity is then guided to reorient it-
self to the whole, using the organ's own immanent warmth-potential.
This is the therapeutic significance of organ-metal combinations.
The idea of preparing inner secretory glands with metals goes
back to Dr. Karl Koenig's above-mentioned article on the "Problem of
Inner Secretion." Koenig sees the seven secretory glands as organic-
functional expressions of the seven-fold etheric organism described by
Rudolf Steiner. Here, too, a correspondence can be found between the
inner secretory glands and the seven planetary metals that encom-
pass the human being:

Life of Senses - Pineal gland - Plumbum (lead)

Life of Nerves - Pituitary gland - Stannum (tin)
Life of Breathing - Thyroid gland - Ferrum (iron)

Life of Circulation - Parathyroid gland - Aurum (gold)

Life of Metabolism - Thymus gland - Mercurius (mercury)

Life of Movement - Adrenal glands - Cuprum (copper)
Life of Reproduction - Gonads - Argentum (silver)

The alternating relationship of metals and glands provides a ba-

sis for the conception of specific remedy-compositions, which are fully
described in the main portion of the book. The remedies strengthen
gland activity through the corresponding metal process.

50