Drive

Frits Julius: Die zwölf Triebe in Tier und Mensch

Drives arise from the inner vital life needs of a living being that strive for fulfilment. They are an expression of the will in the etheric body.

Instinct, drive and desire

The drive, which has its origin in the etheric body, thus differs both from instinct-guided behaviour, which is directly rooted in the physical body, and from desire, which emanates from the needs of the astral body. In humans, conscious action is guided by motives that arise from the I, the spiritual core of man.

In the plant world, the drive expresses itself in its purest form only as an unconscious (→ sleep consciousness) chaste growth instinct. In animals and humans, it is reflected in the form of pleasure or displeasure in the astral body, in which it very easily arouses desires that are almost inseparable from the drive. Examples of this are, for example, the food drive, which serves the preservation of the individual living being, or the reproductive drive, which is directed towards the preservation of the species. It is a high spiritual developmental task to make the drives chaste again, i.e. to purify them of the desires that arise from the unpurified astral body (→ catharsis).

The twelve drives in animals and humans

Frits Julius has phenomenologically distinguished twelve basic drives in animals and humans, which he assigns in pairs to opposite signs of the zodiac in order to make their complementary opposites clear.

Sign	Name	Drive	Description
	Aries	Waking instinct	On awakening, the animal immediately gives itself over to its sensory perceptions, but at the same time confronts its environment and seeks to build up a state of tension towards it. It rises, leaves its hiding place, starts to move, etc. Behind this, in turn, lies a sharply defined drive, the urge to wake up, to awaken."
	Taurus	Food instinct	By its girth, its food, and its whole constitution, it is destined to devote a large part of its life to the ingestion and processing of food. The bovine animal is predominantly dominated by the food instinct or eating instinct."
	Gemini	Play instinct	But if we consider how playing completely captivates the animal, and if we take into account that in the process a quite characteristic and nowhere else observable relationship to the environment comes about, then the conclusion is obvious that we must speak here of a drive.
	Cancer	Self-preservation instinct	A mouse, similar to cancer, is largely governed by the urge to be cautious and tends to stay hidden.
	Leo	Fighting instinct	What appears to be particularly characteristic of the lion is its tendency to attack and destroy large animals. We find something of this tendency in the most diverse animals in the form of the fighting instinct.
	Virgo	Brood care instinct	In the opposite sign of Virgo, the utmost care is given to the enclosure, including that of the child. Here something is indicated which takes place in all brood care: the retention of the reproductive products, their envelopment and protection."
	Libra	Sleep drive	We know only too well from our own experience that there is an urge to sleep which can completely dominate us, and we can also find its symptoms in animals. It clearly shows all the qualities which characterise it as an instinct, and expresses itself, among other things, by the fact that the activity of the sense organs is switched off."
	Scorpio	Lurking instinct, stalking prey	For a scorpion, the ingestion and processing of its food plays a much less important role, which can also be clearly seen in its waist. The more effort he has to put into stalking and creeping up on his prey. For him the instinct to lie in wait is of the greatest importance."
	Sagittarius	Hunting instinct	Sagittarius is a creature with an unusually strongly developed locomotor apparatus and a firearm. He thus lives out his instinct in rapid movement, which is directed towards a fleeing target and its killing. It can be clearly seen that this is the hunting instinct."
	Capricorn	Self-promotional instinct	How very differently a swift lives, on the other hand! Constantly he flies around in arrow-quick motion. It rarely touches the ground or its elevations, except when building its nest. It never seeks shelter anywhere. It escapes dangers by its all-surpassing speed and indefatigability. His way of life makes him one of the most striking animals."
	Aquarius	Nurture drive, suckling the young	Can a lion also behave differently, can it hold back, help and support another being, as is appropriate for a human being? In fact, we find such behaviour in the lioness who suckles and feeds her cubs. So we may assign the nurturing instinct to the opposite sign of Aquarius."
	Pisces	Reproductive instinct	Among all the signs of the zodiac, Pisces show the greatest carelessness in reproduction. The fish spawn is thrown unreservedly into the environment in large quantities.

Literature

• Frits Julius: Die zwölf Triebe in Tier und Mensch: Eine kosmisch orientierte Triebpsychologie, Urachhaus Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 978-3825170769
• Rudolf Steiner: Mythen und Sagen. Okkulte Zeichen und Symbole, GA 101 (1992), ISBN 3-7274-1010-8 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Kunst- und Lebensfragen im Lichte der Geisteswissenschaft, GA 162 (2000), ISBN 3-7274-1620-3 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Der Tod als Lebenswandlung, GA 182 (1996), ISBN 3-7274-1820-6 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Allgemeine Menschenkunde als Grundlage der Pädagogik, GA 293 (1992), Vierter Vortrag, Stuttgart, 25. August 1919 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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