Etheric heart

From AnthroWiki
Revision as of 17:11, 13 October 2021 by Odyssee (talk | contribs)

The etheric heart is an etheric organ that underlies the physical heart and shapes and constantly regenerates it.

„All organs are held in their form and shape by the currents and movements of the etheric body. The physical heart is based on an 'ether heart', the physical brain on an 'ether brain', etc. The etheric body is structured in the same way as the physical body, only more complicated, and in it everything is in lively confusion where in the physical body there are separate parts.“ (Lit.:GA 13, p. 57f)

Physical and Etheric Heart

The etheric heart is the "architect" of the physical [[heart}}.

„The human heart could never come into being in the form it has if there were not an etheric heart in the etheric body which pervades the physical body. This etheric heart contains certain forces and currents, and these are the builders, the architects, the formers of the physical heart. It is as if you were to imagine that you had a vessel with water; if you cool this water, hardenings, ice formations arise in it. What is ice there is water, only hardened, and the forms that the ice formations have were inside the water as lines of force. Thus the physical heart is formed out of the etheric heart, it is only a hardened etheric heart, and the currents of force in the etheric heart have given the physical heart its form.“ (Lit.:GA 99, p. 27)

As a rule, the physical heart lies somewhat to the left in the body, whereas the etheric heart lies on the right.

„The more we come downwards in the human form, the more the etheric body changes in relation to the physical form. Otherwise, however, left and right correspond in a certain way in the physical and etheric bodies. Somewhat to the left lies the physical heart; the corresponding organ in the etheric body is the etheric heart, which lies on the right.“ (Lit.:GA 109, p. 177f)

According to Rudolf Steiner], since the year 1721 the natural connection between the physical and the etheric heart has loosened. By about 2100 the etheric part will have completely separated from the physical heart.

The relation between the physical and the etheric heart

„On the whole, man is a physical body embedded in an etheric body; we do not need to consider the rest today. But the intimacy of the connection - I do not mean the spatial covering, but the dynamic in the connection - changes in the course of the development of the earth, and the intimate relations between the etheric head and the human physical head, which existed, for example, in the centuries of which one speaks mainly when one speaks of Greek culture, these relations have no longer existed since the third century before Christ. Since the third century before Christ, the old connection of intimacy between the etheric head of man and the physical head has been lost. But a quite intimate connection between the human physical heart and the human etheric heart has always been maintained. But since the year 1721 the connection between the human physical heart and the etheric heart has, strangely enough, been loosening more and more. If I may say so: If the physical heart is there and the etheric heart is there (see drawing), it used to be more of a whole, now the etheric heart can be shaken etherically, it is no longer internally connected as dynamically as it used to be. Later, other organs of the human being will detach themselves from the etheric. But the fact that the heart is gradually detaching itself from its etheric part, and will have completely detached itself by the third millennium, by the time we write about 2100, is also something very significant in relation to human development. What constitutes it can be characterised in the following way. It must be said that it means that men have to seek another way, the way of spiritual life, for something that used to come naturally to them through the natural connection between the physical heart and the etheric heart. This etheric heart, detached from the physical heart, will only gain its right relationship to the spiritual world when man seeks spiritual knowledge, when man seeks anthroposophically oriented spiritual thoughts. This must be sought more and more.“ (Lit.:GA 190, p. 121ff)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
Retrieved from "https://en.anthro.wiki/index.php?title=Etheric_heart&oldid=7937"