CW 170 The Riddle of Humanity: Lecture 14 (Dornach, 2 September1916) by Rudolf Steiner
Oct 6, 2026 · 41 min · 14 segments
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Oct 6, 2026 · 41 min · 14 segments
Recently, we have had repeated occasion to cite a result of spiritual scientific investigation that in fact is of most far-reaching significance.
You will remember how we described the relationship of the human head and the rest of the human body to the whole cosmos, and how this then shows the way the head is related to the rest of the body.
We said that the shape and structure of the human head and all that pertains to it is a transformation of anamorphosis.
The head is a transformation and reconstruction of the entire body from the previous incarnation.
So, when we observe the entire body of the present incarnation, we can see how it contains forces that are capable of transforming it into nothing but a head, a head with all that pertains to it, with the twelve pairs of nerves that originate in it, and so on.
In this head that is developed from our entire body, will be the head we bear in our next incarnation.
The body of our next incarnation and everything to do with it, on the other hand, will be produced during the time after our present life is over, the time between death and the birth which begins our next incarnation.
In part, it will be produced during the time between death and a new birth from the forces of the spiritual world, and in part, from forces of the physical world during the time between our conception and birth into the next incarnation.
These facts should be viewed as truths that testify to their own inherent validity, truths that point to connections of major significance.
They should not be treated like the truths of everyday life or of normal science.
The truths of everyday life consist more or less in descriptions of ourselves and our surroundings, but truths like those we have just mentioned provide us with the light by which we are able to read the cosmic significance of our surroundings and ourselves.
The truths of ordinary life and ordinary science are like descriptions of how the shapes of a row of letters are combined into words, or at most they are like a clarification based on grammatical laws.
But understanding the kind of truths we have been describing is comparable to understanding to reading without first having to resort to a special description of the shapes of the letters, or to a grammatical consideration of how they are combined into words.
Just consider how different is the content of what we read from what our eyes see written upon the page.
And so it is that when we cite truths such as those we have just been discussing, we have before our eyes not only what is now being said, but also the whole far-reaching significance of such things for the role of humanity in the cosmos.
Thereby we are, so to speak, able to read profound living spiritual truths that have nothing to do with the shape of the body or the head as it is studied by an anatomist or physiologist, or as one refers to it in ordinary life.
It is not enough to describe the human being in the manner of ordinary life and ordinary science.
Only if one can read man can he be understood.
Recently, we have had repeated occasion to cite a result of spiritual scientific investigation that in fact is of most far-reaching significance.
You will remember how we described the relationship of the human head and the rest of the human body to the whole cosmos, and how this then shows the way the head is related to the rest of the body.
We said that the shape and structure of the human head and all that pertains to it is a transformation of anamorphosis.
The head is a transformation and reconstruction of the entire body from the previous incarnation.
So, when we observe the entire body of the present incarnation, we can see how it contains forces that are capable of transforming it into nothing but a head, a head with all that pertains to it, with the twelve pairs of nerves that originate in it, and so on.
In this head that is developed from our entire body, will be the head we bear in our next incarnation.
The body of our next incarnation and everything to do with it, on the other hand, will be produced during the time after our present life is over, the time between death and the birth which begins our next incarnation.
In part, it will be produced during the time between death and a new birth from the forces of the spiritual world, and in part, from forces of the physical world during the time between our conception and birth into the next incarnation.
These facts should be viewed as truths that testify to their own inherent validity, truths that point to connections of major significance.
They should not be treated like the truths of everyday life or of normal science.
The truths of everyday life consist more or less in descriptions of ourselves and our surroundings, but truths like those we have just mentioned provide us with the light by which we are able to read the cosmic significance of our surroundings and ourselves.
The truths of ordinary life and ordinary science are like descriptions of how the shapes of a row of letters are combined into words, or at most they are like a clarification based on grammatical laws.
But understanding the kind of truths we have been describing is comparable to understanding to reading without first having to resort to a special description of the shapes of the letters, or to a grammatical consideration of how they are combined into words.
Just consider how different is the content of what we read from what our eyes see written upon the page.
And so it is that when we cite truths such as those we have just been discussing, we have before our eyes not only what is now being said, but also the whole far-reaching significance of such things for the role of humanity in the cosmos.
Thereby we are, so to speak, able to read profound living spiritual truths that have nothing to do with the shape of the body or the head as it is studied by an anatomist or physiologist, or as one refers to it in ordinary life.
It is not enough to describe the human being in the manner of ordinary life and ordinary science.
Only if one can read man can he be understood.
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