Part 2

Before physical birth the nascent human being is enclosed on all sides by an alien physical body. It does not come into contact independently with the outward physical world. The physical body of the mother forms its environment. This body alone can influence the maturing fœtus. Physical birth consists precisely in the fact that the physical body of the mother releases the child, thereby causing the surroundings of the physical world to influence him immediately. The senses open themselves to the outward world, and this latter is thereby able to exercise those influences over the child which were previously exercised by the physical body of the mother.

For a spiritual comprehension of the world such as is represented by Theosophy, the physical body is then actually born, but not yet the etheric or vital body. As the child until the moment of its birth is surrounded by the physical body of the mother, so too until the time of his second teeth, about the age of seven, is he surrounded by an etheric and an astral covering. Not until the time of the change of teeth does the etheric covering release the etheric body. Then until the time of puberty there still remains an astral covering.[6] At this period the astral or desire body also becomes free on all sides, as did the physical body at the time of the physical birth and the etheric body at the time of the second teeth.

Thus then, Theosophy must speak of three births of man. Certain impressions, which are intended to reach the etheric body can reach it as little, up to the time of the second teeth, as the light and air of the physical world can reach the physical body while it remains in the womb of the mother.

Before the coming of the second teeth the free vital body is not at work. As the physical body, whilst in the womb of the mother, receives powers which are not its own, and within that protective covering gradually develops its own, so is this also the case with these later powers of growth, until the time of the second teeth. Only at this period does the etheric body perfect its own powers in conjunction with the inherited and alien ones. During this time, while the etheric body is freeing itself, the physical body is already independent. The etheric body which is gradually freeing itself, perfects that which it has to give to the physical body. And the final point of this work is the child’s own teeth, which come in the place of those he has inherited. They are the densest things embedded in the physical body and therefore at this period appear last.

After this period, the child’s own etheric body takes care of its growth alone. Only the latter still remains under the influence of an enveloped astral body. As soon as the astral body becomes free as well, a period is terminated for the etheric body. This termination takes place at the time of puberty. The reproductive organs become independent, because from henceforth the free astral body does not work inwardly, but openly encounters the external world.

As one is not able to let the influences of the outward world affect the child physically before it is born, so those powers (which are the same to him as the impressions of the physical surroundings to the physical body) should not be allowed to affect the etheric body before the time of the second teeth. And the corresponding influences upon the astral body ought only to be brought into play at the time of puberty.

Common phrases, such as, “the harmonious training of all the powers and talents,” and the like cannot form the foundation for a true system of education, for this can only be built upon a genuine knowledge of the human being. We do not mean to affirm that the above-mentioned phrases are incorrect, but only that they are as valueless as if one were to say with regard to a machine, that all its parts must be brought into harmonious working order. Only he who approaches it, not with mere phrases, but with a real knowledge of the particular kind of machine, can handle it. This applies also to the art of education, to the knowledge of the principles in a human being and of their individual developments; one must know which part of the human being should be influenced at a certain time of life, and how to bring such influences to bear upon him in a suitable manner. There is indeed no doubt that a really intelligent system of education, such as is outlined in these pages, can make its way but slowly. This is due to the manner of viewing things in our day, wherein the facts of the spiritual world will still be considered for a long time as merely the overflow of a mad fantasy, while common-place and entirely superficial phrases will be regarded as the result of a really practical way of thinking. We shall here proceed to give a free outline of what will be considered by many at the present time a mere mirage of the fancy, but which will in time come to be an accepted fact.

At physical birth, the physical human body is exposed to the physical environment of the external world, whilst previously it was encircled by the protective body of the mother. That which the forces and fluids of the mother’s body did to it previously must now be done by the forces and elements of the outer physical world. Up to the time of the second teething, at the age of seven, the human body has a mission to perform for itself, which is essentially different from the missions of all the other life-epochs. The physical organs must form themselves into certain shapes during this time; then structural proportions must take definite directions and tendencies. Later on growth takes place, but this growth in all future time proceeds on the bases of the shapes which were in process of formation until the time mentioned. If normal shapes have been forming themselves, normal shapes will afterwards grow, and conversely from abnormal bases will proceed abnormal results. One cannot make amends in all the succeeding years for that which, as guardian, one has neglected during the first seven years. As the right environment for the physical human body is provided by Nature, before birth, so after birth it is the duty of the guardian to provide it. Only this correct physical environment influences the child in such a way that his physical organs mould themselves into the normal forms.

There are two magic words which epitomise the relation which is formed between the child and its environment. These are: Imitation and Example. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, called man the most imitative of animals, and for no other period of life is this more applicable than for the age of childhood up to the time of the second teething. The child imitates whatever takes place in its physical environment, and in the imitation his physical organs mould themselves into the forms which then remain to them. The term physical environment is to be taken in the widest sense imaginable. To it belongs not only that which takes place materially round the child, but everything that is enacted in his surroundings, everything that may be observed by his senses, everything that from all points of physical space can influence his spiritual forces. To it also belong all actions, moral or immoral, sensible or foolish, that the child may see.

It is not by moral texts, nor by rational precepts, but by what is done visibly before the child by the grown-up people around him, that he is influenced in the manner indicated. Instruction produces effects only upon the etheric body, not upon the physical, and up to the age of seven the etheric body is surrounded by a protective etheric shell, just as the physical body until physical birth is surrounded by the body of the mother. That which ought to be developed in this etheric body in the way of ideas, habits, memory, etc., before the age of seven, must develop itself “spontaneously,” in the same way as the eyes and ears develop themselves in the womb of the mother without the influence of the external light. It is written in an excellent educational book, Jean Paul’s _Levana_ or _Pedagogics_, that a world-traveller learns more from his nurse in his early years than in all of his travels put together. This is undoubtedly true, but the child does not learn by instruction, but by imitation. And his physical organs form themselves through the influence of his physical surroundings. A healthy vision is formed when the right colors and conditions of light are brought into the child’s environment, and the physical foundations for a healthy moral nature are formed in the brain and in the circulation of the blood, when the child sees moral things in his environment. When the child, up to the age of seven, sees only foolish actions taking place around him, his brain assumes such forms as to make him also, in later life, capable only of foolishness.

As the muscles of the hand grow strong and powerful when they do work suitable for them, so the brain and the other organs of the physical human body will be directed towards the right path, if they receive the right impressions from their environment. An example will best illustrate the point in question. A doll can be made out of an old piece of cloth, by making two corners serve for arms, two for legs and a knot for the head, with the eyes, nose and mouth painted in ink—or a so-called “beautiful” doll can be bought with real hair and painted cheeks, and given to the child. The latter, it is hardly necessary to say, is really horrible, and is calculated to ruin the child’s sound aesthetic taste for life. Here the question of education is quite a different one. If the child has the rag-doll to look at, it has to complete out of its own imagination the impression of a human being which the doll is intended to convey. This work of the imagination helps to build up the forms of the brain, so that it opens up as the muscles of the hand expand by doing their natural work. When the child possesses the so-called “beautiful doll,” there is nothing further for the brain to do. It becomes, as it were, stunted and dried up, instead of expanding itself. If people could look into the brain after the manner of the occultist and see it building itself up into forms, they would certainly only give their children that kind of plaything which is really able to stimulate the creative powers of the brain. All toys that are only composed of dead mathematical forms have a desolating and deadening effect on the child’s formative powers, whilst on the other hand everything that stimulates the perception of something living tends to influence in the right direction. Our materialistic age produces but few good toys—such for instance as that in which two movable pieces of wood are made to represent two smiths facing one another and hammering at some object. Such things may still be bought in the country. Very good also are those picture books in which the figures are made to be pulled by strings, thus enabling the child to transform the dead picture into a representation of action. All this produces an inner activity of the organs, and out of this activity the right form of the organs builds itself up.

Of course these things can only just be indicated here, but in the future occult science will be called upon to point out that which in each particular case is necessary, and this it is able to do. For it is not an empty abstraction, but a body of vital facts quite able to furnish the guiding-lines for practical matters.

One or two further examples will serve as illustrations. According to occult science a so-called nervous excitable child should be treated differently from a lethargic and inactive one, with regard to its surroundings. Everything must be taken into consideration, from the color of the room and the various objects by which the child is generally surrounded, to the color of the clothes in which it is dressed. One may often do the wrong thing, unless willing to be guided by occult science, for a materialistic tendency will in many cases hit on just the opposite of what is right. An excitable child should be clothed and surrounded with red or reddish-yellow colors, whilst for the opposite type of child, blue or bluish-green should be selected. For, in accordance with the color used outwardly is the complementary color produced inwardly. Thus, for instance, green is produced by red; orange-yellow by blue, and of this one may easily be convinced by looking for a time on a spot of a particular color and then quickly directing the eyes to a white surface. This complementary color is produced by the physical organs of the child, and in turn reacts upon the corresponding organic structures necessary to the child. Red in the environment of an excitable child produces inwardly the green complementary picture. The activity thus produced by the sensation of green has a calming effect and the organs take upon themselves the tendency to composure.

One rule must invariably be taken into consideration at this period of life—that the physical body has to create for itself the standard of what is suitable to it. It does this through the corresponding development of desire. Generally speaking it may be said that the healthy physical body desires only what is good for it. And as long as it is a question only of the physical body of the growing child, one ought to notice carefully what it is that is sought by the healthy desires, cravings and pleasures. Joy and pleasure are the powers which draw out the physical forms of the organs, in the best way.

A very great error may be committed in this direction by not placing the child in the suitable physical conditions with regard to its environment. This can especially be the case with regard to the instinct of nourishment. The child can be overfed with things that make him completely lose healthy instincts of nourishment, whilst through correct feeding they can be preserved for him so fully, that he will ask (even to a glass of water) for that which under given circumstances is good for him, and will refuse anything that may be harmful. When occult science is called upon to construct a system of education, it will be able to specify, even to the particular articles of nourishment and table luxuries, all that has here to be considered. For it is a practical teaching, applicable to life, and no mere colorless theory—as indeed one might suppose, from the mistakes of many Theosophists of today.

Among the forces therefore which affect the physical organs by moulding them, must be included an element of joy with and amid the surroundings. Let the guardian be cheerful of countenance, and above all things let there be true and not artificial love—a love that flowing warmly through the physical environment, as it were, incubates, in the true sense of the word, the forms of the physical organs.

When within such an atmosphere of love, the imitation of healthy models is possible, the child is in his right element. Special attention should therefore be given that nothing may happen in the child’s environment that he should not imitate. Nothing should be done that would necessitate saying to the child “You must not do that.” Of the way in which the child tries to imitate, one may be convinced by observing how it can copy written letters long before it can understand them. It is indeed an advisable thing for the child to copy the written characters first, and then later to learn their meaning. For imitation belongs to the developing stage of the physical body, whilst the mind responds to the etheric body, and this latter ought only to be influenced after the time of the second teeth, when its outer etheric covering is gone. Especially should the learning of speech by means of imitation take place in these years. For _by hearing_ the child best learns to speak. All rules and artificial teaching can do no good at all.

In the early years of childhood it is especially important that such means of education as, for instance, songs for children should make as beautiful a rhythmic impression on the senses as possible. The importance lies in the beautiful sound rather than in the sense. The more invigorating the effect which anything can have upon the eye and ear, the better it is. The power of building up the organs which lies in dancing movements when put to a musical rhythm, for example, must not be under-estimated.

With the change of teeth the etheric body throws off its outer covering, and then the time begins in which the training of the etheric body may be carried on from without. One must be clear as to what it is that can influence the etheric body in this way. The transformation and growth of the etheric body signify, respectively, the transformation and development of the affections, the habits, conscience, character, memory and temperament. One is able to influence the etheric body by pictures, by example, by regulated guidance of the imagination. Just as the child, until it has reached the age of seven, ought to be given a physical model which it can imitate, so too, in the environment of the developing child, between the period of the second teeth and that of puberty, everything should be brought into play that possesses an inner sense and value upon which the child may direct his attention. All that conduces to thought, all that works through image and parable, has now its rightful place.

The etheric body develops its power when a well regulated imagination is directed upon that which it can unravel or extract for its guidance from living images and parables, or from such as are addressed to the spirit. It is _concrete_ and not _abstract_ ideas that can rightly influence the growing body—ideas that are spiritually rather than materially concrete. A spiritual standpoint is the right means of education during these years. It is therefore of paramount importance that the youth at this period has around him in his guardians themselves personalities through whose points of view the desirable intellectual and moral powers may be awakened in him.

As “imitation” and “example” are the magic words for the training of children in their early years, so for the years now in question the corresponding words are “hero-worship” and “authority.” Natural and not forced authority must supply the immediate spiritual standpoint, with the help of which the youth forms for himself conscience, habits and inclinations, brings his temperament into regulated paths, and wins his own outlook on this world. The beautiful words of the poet: “Everyone must choose his own hero, in whose steps he may find the way to Olympus,” are of special value with regard to this epoch of life.

Veneration and reverence are powers that assist the etheric body to grow in the right way. And he to whom it is impossible, during this period, to look up to anyone with unlimited reverence, will have to suffer on that account for the rest of his life. When this veneration is missing, the vital forces of the etheric body are checked. Picture to yourself the following in its effect on the youthful disposition: a boy of eight years of age is told of a person highly esteemed. All that he hears about him fills him with holy awe. The day draws near on which he is to see this honored person for the first time. A profound reverence overcomes him when he hears the bell-ring at the door, behind which the object of his veneration is to become visible. The beautiful feelings which are produced by such an experience, belong to the lasting acquisitions of life. And _that_ man is fortunate, who not only during the happy moments of life, but continuously, is able to look up to his teachers and instructors as to his natural authorities.

To these living authorities, to these embodiments of moral and intellectual power, must be added the authorities perceived of the spirit. The grand examples of history, the tales of model men and women, must fix the conscience and the intellectual tendency—and not abstract moral truths, which can only do their right work, when, at the age of puberty, the astral body is freed from its astral covering.

One ought especially to guide the teaching of history into courses determined by such points of view. Before the time of the second teeth, the stories, fairy tales, etc., which are told to the child, can only have for their aim, joy, recreation, and pleasure.

After this time it will be necessary to use forethought concerning the matter that is to be related, so that pictures of life, such as he can beneficially emulate, may be set before the soul of the young person. It must not be overlooked that bad habits can be ousted by pictures correspondingly repulsive. Warnings against such bad habits and tendencies are at best of little avail, but if one were to let the living picture of a bad man affect the youthful imagination, explaining the result to which the tendency in question leads, one would do much toward its extermination.

One thing to bear always in mind is, that it is not abstract representations that influence the developing etheric body, but living pictures in their spiritual clearness, and, of course, these latter must be applied with the utmost tact, for otherwise the opposite to what is desired will be the result. In the matter of stories it is always a question of the way in which they are told. The verbal narration of a tale can therefore not be successfully replaced by a reading of it.

During the time between the second teeth and puberty, the spiritually pictorial, or, as one might also call it, the symbolical representation, ought to be considered in yet another way. It is necessary that the young person should learn to know the secrets of nature, the laws of life, as far as possible through symbols and not by the means of dry and intellectual ideas. Allegories about the spiritual relation of things ought so to reach the soul that the law and order of existence underlying the allegories is rather perceived and divined, than grasped by the means of intellectual ideas. The saying that “all things transient are only symbols” ought to form an all-important motto for the education during this period. It is very important for a person to receive the secrets of nature in allegories before they appear to his soul in the form of natural laws, etc. An example will make this clear. Supposing one wished to speak to a young person of the immortality of the soul, of its going forth from the body, one might as an instance make the comparison of the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. As the butterfly comes forth from the chrysalis, so the soul comes forth from the shell of the body after death. No one who has not previously received them by means of some such image, will adequately grasp the right facts in the abstract ideas. For by such a simile one speaks not only to the intellect, but also to the sensations and feelings, to the whole soul. The youth having gone through all this, approaches the matter in quite a different attitude of mind when it is given to him later in intellectual conceptions. Indeed the man who cannot first approach the riddle of existence with this feeling is much to be pitied. It is necessary that the teacher should have similes at his disposal for all natural laws and secrets of the world.