Eurythmics
Eurythmics Art is the revelation of the phenomena hidden for sensual perception. Through our larynx and other involved organs we produce sounds, noises and words. „... Eurythmy wants to work through the artistic means of a real visible language. ... That which can be discovered by supersensible vision as movement intention in a human being can unfold as an initial development, as a visible beginning as a visible language, if the discovered movement intentions are transferred to the whole person or to groups of people", (B199, 18.8.1922). What we can do in sensual-physical hearing was previously produced by movements of the larynx. But these movements are the expression of etheric processes. Whatever forms and movements occur in the human pictorial or etheric body as impulses for speech and singing can now also be expressed through arm and leg movements. This means that spiritual processes are brought to visibility. It is an art of spatial movement in which every movement is taken from the perception of etheric processes. "And so we first transfer into movements of the human limbs what is otherwise only performed in speaking, singing and music by the invisible parts of the human larynx and its neighbouring organs. ... Thus it is essentially a transformation of the whole human being into a living larynx", (B193, 25.8.1918). Language translated into movement, language made visible. "Eurythmy is the transformation of air gestures into visible limb gestures, expressive gestures", (B161, 18.5.1923). „... movements are brought out of the human being and out of groups of people, which is a real visible speech or singing. ... In eurythmy the whole person, body, soul and spirit, flows out in movement", (B185, Ch. XVIII). In producing speech, words and sounds, man transforms the spiritual, his thoughts into physical sounds. This happens when these thoughts bring forth spiritual gestures (B199, 9.7.1923), which express the intention to move in the physical body. These supersensible-etheric intentions to move are stopped by the organs involved in the formation of language, such as the larynx, and thus allow language to emerge in the physical body. Eurythmy is now the artistic representation of the gestures and movement intentions that underlie language in the supersensible. It is not an intellectual thinking of movements, but a supersensible, imaginative, artistic experience of the gestures and movement intentions. Eurythmy makes the spiritual source of language visible. "Eurythmy wants to work through the artistic means of a truly visible language", (B199, 18.8.1922). "These movement intentions are stopped at the moment of their emergence and are transformed into individual organ movements of the larynx and its neighbouring organs. ... That which can be discovered as movement intentions in the human being through supersensible vision can be seen as initial development, as visible language, if the discovered movement intentions are transferred to the whole person or to groups of people", (B199, 18.8.1922). The human speech apparatus produces sounds, words, language through airflow and movement. Eurythmy translates this into movements of the whole human body, in dance-like movements, but in the art of movement that arises from the supersensible recognition of the etheric forces. "Just as the respiratory current is sent outward as a gesture, and only because the respiratory current is in a certain way in vibration, through that which is mixed in it by the mental element, so the gesture which is in the exhaled respiratory current is transformed into the audible sound" (B199, 10.6.1923). Language generalizes human utterance; it is not self-will but something generally valid that can only be considered as linguistic articulation. "Language becomes a common ground of a people, a group of people in general. ... And its finding into a unegoistic, into a general in the linguistic, that first spiritualizes humans for life on earth. The spiritual is spiritualized in spoken language", (B199, 10.6.1923). Language is the spiritual unifying factor of a group of people, a cultural community. Today one can seriously no longer speak of ethnic, blood or other genetic communities. The principle of distant marriage or the ever-increasing overcoming of such separations leads to larger cultural communities making themselves increasingly visible through the common language. Language is something common, something that overcomes selfishness. Eurythmy is the making visible of the etheric forces that are produced by language. Etheric forms of movement can then be used correctly to heal physical problems, that is eurythmy therapy. "If the movement gestures of artistic and pedagogical eurythmy are modified so that they flow from the sick being of the human being as the others flow from the healthy being, then curative eurythmy arises. Movements that are performed in this way have an effect on the diseased organs. ", (B185, ch. XVIII). Another form of healing through the knowledge of etheric sound is chirophonetics. It is the teaching of the formation of the sounds, the Healing Word. A knowledge of the air currents during the formation of sounds. Healing through knowledge of the etheric force currents. "Because we on earth can only speak and sing through the air, we have the earthly image of a spiritual-soul in the air formation of the tonal. The spiritual-emotional aspect of sound actually belongs to the supernatural world. (B227, 2.12.1922). "He who understands the meaning of language, To whom the world reveals Getting the picture; He that hears the soul of language, The world opens up to him As beings themselves; Who experiences the spirit of language, The world gives him a gift With wisdom power; Who can love language, She gives it herself Their own power. So I want heart and mind By spirit and soul Turning of the word; And in love To him I myself First feel it completely", (B098 ,Freie Waldorfschule, November 1922)
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