Human etheric body

The human etheric body is one of Man's bodily principles, part of the structural make-up of Man, so closely intertwined with the other bodily principles that it should not be studied or considered as a separate entity. (see o.a. Man: an integrated view).

The etheric body consists of a blend of the four higher ethers (1916-01-02-GA165), it is the life body of formative forces which maintains our physical body.

The workings of Man's etheric life body can be conceived as a kind of fluid body (even mineral-physically, Man is predominantly made up of water). The currents and structures of our human etheric body, including human organs and correspondences, can be more easily imagined by observing the life of plants (that also have an etheric life body).

In one's lifetime, Man develops the etheric bodily principle, or life body, approximately between 7 and 14 years up to the age of puberty (when the workings of the human astral body starts, see also Seven year rhythm).

In the Human physical body, the etheric body finds its expression in the glandular system and processes (similarly as the astral system finds its physical expression in the nervous system). Through the connection of the etheric and physical bodies in the brain, humans can think autonomously as part of the complex I-organization (FMC00.036).

In terms of Man as a threefold being (with three subsystems) the etheric body is intimately bound up with the metabolic and limb system (1924-07-21-GA319). The etheric body is also the organizer and controller of the circulation of the chyle. See further Man: an integrated view.

The human etheric body also acts as a memory bank containing the memory of all our life experiences. The most recent memories are used day-to-day to experience and navigate the outer physical world. After physical death, we first see all our stored memories as a life tableau. After a period of a few days, these are then dispersed and become part of cosmic world ether.

The evolutionary trend in current and future times is that the etheric body is slowly loosening from the physical body. This will have far-reaching consequences for the human reality experience. Currently human reality experience is principally based on experience of the mineral physical world observed through the physical senses. (see Cosmic fractal, eg Schema FMC00.516). In the future this will naturally evolve into experiences of the spiritual, which humankind will have to know and understand. Without future knowledge and education in spiritual science, future generations will not be able to make sense of certain aspects of human experience.

For the initiate, the etheric body is used as a mirror for clairvoyant perception into the higher worlds of consciousness (see eg Schema FMC00.391), as it is able of a sevenfold reflection. These seven types of reflection are also called the seven spiritual vowels (whereas the twelve types of reflection of the physical body are also called the spiritual consonants) (see 1914-10-03/04/05/06-GA156, and Alphabet#Spiritual languages).

Aspects

The etheric (or vital or life) body is that which every moment prevents a living being from decaying, the preventing factor of such decay; it has the capacity to produce the most complicated physical substances, to maintain them and to prevent their decay. "What a living organism thus reveals in a purely external form, is what we call life. (1907-06-17-GA100). Life in substance means: resistance to decay. A living substance and you will find that it continually takes up matter from outside, incorporates it into itself, inasmuch as portions of itself become destroyed: a process through which life perpetually works against destruction. (1906-11-08-GA055)
The etheric body is a ‘time-organism’ (just as the physical body is a ‘space-organism’); what one regards as the etheric body at some definite moment is only an abstraction; the concrete reality is the time-process, and past and present form a whole."Here time really becomes space" (1924-02-02-GA234)
recapitulation as principle etheric body (1908-10-21-GA107, see Metamorphosis#1908-10-21-GA107)

practical experiential

impact of lifestyle and nervousness which increases with a weakening etheric body (1912-01-11-GA143)
beauty (such as art, and all that is noble) works through the human senses, works upon the etheric body and ennobles it (1905-10-19-GA093A)
- this is important in the process of reincarnation and finding a fitting etheric body on the descent, people who didn't develop this aspect of ennobling the etheric body, can receive a shock due to fear of re-birth and this can cause rebirth as an idiot.
effect of music - causes vibrations in the etheric body (eg 1906-07-29-GA097)
paralysis is the withdrawal of the etheric body from the physical body, which then becomes independent (1911-09-17-GA130)
a lazy person has weak etheric body either from birth or through letting it weaken through neglect (1911-09-17-GA130)

life explanatory

imprinting of sensory life experiences of the I via the astral body on the etheric and physical bodies
diffusion of the etheric body into cosmos after life tableau experience after physical death
exercices like yoga, qigong, tai chi effect the etheric and not the physical body
in medicine, homeopathy and potentization work via the etheric forces affecting the etheric and physical bodies
the etheric body is most dominant in people with a phlegmantic temperament, see eg FMC00.158 on Human temperaments
similarity of appearance in the human form is modeled from the etheric, and over the Earth the etheric body is fashioned according to climatic and other conditions, so that this etheric body has the special national character and peculiarities in its forces, so that it forms one nation differently from another (1912-04-09-GA136)

loosening & separation of etheric from physical body

conditions during normal life
- when a Man has a terrible experience such as dreadful fall or has been in danger of drowning, such shock causes the loosening of the etheric body so that in such a moment the whole of the previous life stands before the soul like a memory-picture. This is analogous to the experience after death (1907-05-26-GA099, see also 'Near Death Experiences' (NDE)
- the 'prickling' sensation of a hand or limb that has 'gone to sleep' is a partial and local separation of the etheric from the physical body (also certain states of hypnosis occur this way). The tickling sensation is because the etheric body is woven in the physical body in tiny pinpoint formations. (1907-05-26-GA099)
connection between etheric and physical body, its evolution from the Atlantean epoch (etheric outside, then entry and tightening connection) over the current into the sixth epoch (loosening of the etheric body again), and its many angles, ao:
- ancient initiation process with the three days sleep during the ancient Mysteries.
- the danger of spiritual death and insanity in current and future times if the etheric body loosens and Man only believes in the physical material - not realizing the realities he is experiencing (1908-04-13-GA102)
  - spiritual death: "When the etheric body has loosened Man will no longer be able to rely on remembrances of ancient human times, and if meanwhile he has not developed consciousness of the spiritual world .. he will be threatened in this condition with what is known as the 'spiritual death'.” For around him there is only phantasy, illusion, a world of whose reality he has no consciousness, in which he does not believe, and so ... he dies! That is the death in the spiritual world. It is the doom which threatens men if, before passing again into the spiritual worlds, they fail to bring with them any consciousness of those worlds." (1908-04-13-GA102)
- the re-appearance of natural clairvoyance and experience of Christ in the etheric - see eg Schema FMC00.081 on Christ Module 19 - experiencing the Christ
- loosening of the etheric body through the Christ Impulse (1908-07-04-GA266/1)

spiritual scientific

the etheric body connects us with the surrounding cosmos, just as it is the physical body that connects us with Earth (1915-09-05-GA162)
With the etheric body of Man we are already in the super-sensible. The etheric body is only in the smallest degree material; it appears as very fine jets or sprays of the etheric, giving rise to a matter finer than that of which nerves are made, a kind of matter that does not really come into consideration for us here at all. (1911-12-30-GA134, see Luciferic influence on Man#1911-12-30-GA134)

the human etheric body is permeated by the higher ethers and thus the principles of spirit-man, life-spirit, and spirit-self that work on the astral, etheric and physical body. Through the action of atma the physical body is contracted, through the action of buddhi it is stabilized, through the action of manas it is unburdened. See also link with the Human senses of life, movement and balances (1909-10-25-GA115)
how the etheric life brings life of the senses, nerves, breathing, circulation, metabolism, movement, reproduction (and the link to the seven life forces and planetary influences) (1921-10-29-GA208, see Schema FMC00.160)
use of the etheric body as a reflector for clairvoyant perception, see Stages of clairvoyance
the ether body has an influence both on the astral and upon the physical bodies .. "the forces of Eros and Demeter in the ether body, from the etheric are sent upwards into the astral body, and downwards into the physical body" (1911-08-18-GA129 no quote below yet)
a woman has a masculine etheric body, and a man a feminine etheric body (1905-10-05-GA093A)
aging
- the etheric body grows young with physical aging; and this makes a huge difference when someone dies young or old (1915-09-05-GA162), continued on: Journey between death and a new birth
- a young person has an old ether body, as one grows old physically, the etheric body grows young, see eg Schema FMC00.386 on Laying off the etheric body after death

structure

seven-folded nature of the etheric body, and the corresponding life functions
the pentagram is the symbol of Man, it corresponds to five etheric streams that run from Man's head towards both hand and feet, with its point is directed upwards indicating that the spirit streams to Man from above (1906-12-01-GA266). The healthy etheric body appears so that these currents are, as it were, Man's physical bony framework, but the pentagram is also as mobile as the human skeleton. (1907-09-13-GA101)
developing consciousness through initiation, means separating out again the soul forces of TFW and splitting the ether body in three parts. With still higher development, Man takes control over twelve such centers in order to attain higher consciousness. This way Man can take control of his twelve parts, and splits his human etheric body in twelve parts. (1905-08-13-GA091, see Man's transformation and spiritualization#Aspects)

evolutionary

origin of the Man's etheric bodily principle during Old Sun evolutionary phase
Man's etheric body was fashioned in remote primitive times; then came an episode when this etheric body was sent down, sunk into human nature. Only later did it shine out as the intellectual soul and brought forth the external powers of civilisation. (1912-04-09-GA136, explained in the language of the Kalevala (old Finnish myth), where the etheric body is called Sampo)
evolutionary patterns:
- loosening of etheric and physical bodies, and link with new clairvoyance - see 1919-04-05-GA190 on Christ in the etheric, long extract on: Current fifth cultural age#1919-04-05-GA190
- Humanity is getting younger
- impact of the first 20 years and how the etheric body is moulded developed, see causes on Schizophrenia
- hardening: as a result of inappropriate development during childhood, then the isn't soft and flexible at this age. It's hard for such people to find their way into life's affairs. Their etheric body is hardened and it takes a great effort to dissolve these hardenings. Luciferic Moon powers take advantage of this and flow into them (1910-03-15-GA266)
- physiognomy as imprint of the soul

Advanced topics

a human etheric body which remains preserved after death is called nirmanakaya, one that originates from multiplication is called dharmakaya (1909-02-19-GA109 extra notes to lecture) - see also Principle of spiritual economy
relation of Christ as a group soul to the twelve apostles on the basis of a twelvefold etheric body (1905-08-13-GA091)
the etheric law or principle of recapitulation (eg 1908-10-26-GA107 below)
in the Egyptian culture the etheric body and formative forces were called 'Ka' (see a.o. Teichmann)
Man's etheric body is the builder and creator of the whole glandular system, as well as in another aspect the organizer, creator, and controller of the circulation of the chyle (1908-01-06-GA102 - see Blood is a special fluid#1908-01-06-GA102). See also Schema FMC00.155 on the three bodily humors.

Various other

in general - the etheric has the general tendency to growth, a centrifugal tendency, spherical formation, and an upthrust (eg brain weighs not 1500 but 20g) (1924-02-02-GA234)

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.254 is an illustration that sketches the etheric body. On the right two drawings from original attendant notes and/or typoscripts. For explanation on the arrows see lecture extract below.

Schema FMC00.161 maps the planetary influences to the life functions of the ether body.

Lecture coverage and references

1904-GA009

We should not take offense at the expression 'ether body'. Ether here designates something different from the hypothetical ether of the physicist. We should regard it simply as a name for what is described here. The structure of the physical body of the human being is a kind of reflection of its purpose, and this is also the case with the human etheric body. It can be understood only when it is considered in relation to the thinking spirit.
The human etheric body differs from that of plants and animals through being organized to serve the purposes of the thinking spirit. Man belongs to the mineral world through his physical body, and he belongs through this etheric body to the life-world. After death the physical body dissolves into the mineral world, the ether body into the life-world.
By the word 'body' is meant whatever gives a being shape or form. The term body must not be confused with a bodily form perceptible to the physical senses. Used in the sense implied in this book, the term body can also be applied to such forms as soul and spirit may assume.

1905-08-13-GA091

.. - extract, freely translated

In this lecture, the relation of Christ as a group soul to the twelve apostles is explained on the basis of a twelvefold etheric body.

Higher consciousness means that the components of lower consciousness are relaxed and controlled.
In soul forces of TFW correspond to the Thrones, Spirits of Wisdom, and Spirits of Movement. The nine other forces work also in Man but are less noticeable.
When Man develops his higher Self, he takes control over these forces TFW first in astral, then etheric and finally physical .. and that way the higher consciousness comes in that controls the three components that have departed from one another.
Wiith still higher development, Man takes control over twelve such centers in order to attain higher consciousness.
Each human power stands in relationship with a primal force of the world, universe.
(example: ants)
This way Man can take control of his twelve parts, and this way he splits his ether body in twelve parts. Each part has its own special characteristic.
…
Higher developed emanate etheric bodies at death, these are used as models.
Christ radiated new physical matter at his birth, so he was able, before to radiate the twelve separate parts of the foregone Christ.
The twelve ether bodies of the apostles are the twelve separate parts of the previous Christ ether body.
Christ is one consciousness and the group soul of the twelve apostles who are his parts and represent his body. Christ has really worked through these twelve parts.

1905-10-05-GA093A

If we consider man's being in its entirety, we have to begin with the physical body, then the etheric body, then the astral body. The physical body of man can be seen by everyone. The etheric body becomes visible when the physical body is suggested away by a strong act of will [editor: clairvoyance]. Then the space of the physical body remains filled with the etheric body. The spiritual scientist considers the etheric as actually being the lowest body. It is the body according to which the physical body is formed. Taking the descending line, the form of the etheric body is the reverse of the physical. It is only in the ascending line that they are identical. A woman has a masculine etheric body, and a man a feminine etheric body.

1905-10-19-GA093A

Every combination of [mineral] matter on the physical plane lacks an etheric body, but all that grows has an etheric body.
If someone works artistically either in a visual or plastic way, this has an effect on the etheric body. An artistically formed piece of sculpture or a painting works directly on the etheric body. A virtue, on the other hand, works on the astral body.
Many noble human beings who return from the spirit world meet an etheric body which is in no way suited to their advanced astral body, because they have done nothing in the way of organised activity in the sphere of beauty.
It therefore happens that many people who in their last incarnation lived very holy lives, but without concerning themselves with what is noble in the outer world of the senses, when approaching reincarnation experience a fear of re-birth, because they have not ennobled their etheric body through that beauty which is dependent on the senses.
This very frequently brings about an apprehension before incarnation and in an extreme case, rebirth as an idiot. When a person during his life as an idiot experiences all that is detrimental in his etheric body, this is balanced out in the following incarnation. Because the human being at the moment of incarnation, of birth, receives a shock if he has not ennobled his etheric body through allowing beauty which is dependent on the senses to work upon it.
Freemasonry took beauty as its second principle. Wisdom, Beauty and Power or Strength are the three constructive forces; these have to be developed.
Anyone possessing all three will in his next incarnation become a human being who fits harmoniously into his three bodies.

1906-07-29-GA097

In the Nineteenth Century it was not possible to make clear to man the deep meaning of that great process of initiation in a drama. There is, however, a medium through which man's understanding can be reached, even without words, without concepts or ideas. This medium is music.
Wagner's music holds within it all the truths that are contained in the Parsifal story. His music is of such a unique character that those who listen to it receive in their ether body quite special vibrations. Therein lies the secret of Wagner's music.
One does not need to understand it — not in the least! One receives in one's ether body the benign and healthful effect of the music. And man's ether body is intimately connected with all the movements and throbbings of the blood.
Wagner understood the mystery of the purified blood. In his melodies are rhythms and vibrations that must needs beat in the ether body of Man if he is to be cleansed and purified so as to be ready to receive the Mysteries of the Holy Grail.

1906-11-08-GA055

Think of a substance denuded of life—it decays, it has the peculiarity of dispersing.
What then does life do? It sets itself again and again against disintegration; thus life preserves. That is the youth-giving element of life: it ever resists what would take place in its substance. Life in substance means: resistance to decay.
Compare with life the external process of death and it will be clear that life does not show what characterises the process of death: the disintegration in itself. Far more does it ever and again rescue substance from decay, sets itself against decay. Thus, inasmuch as life ever renews the substance which is falling to pieces in itself, it is the foundation of physical existence and of consciousness.
This has not merely been a verbal explanation; it would have been one if what it signifies were not continuously carried on. You need, however, only observe a living substance and you will find that it continually takes up matter from outside, incorporates it into itself, inasmuch as portions of itself become destroyed: a process through which life perpetually works against destruction. We have, in fact, to do with a reality.

1907-05-26-GA099

[Other separations of physical and etheric bodies]
Separation of the physical body from the etheric body during life can take place only in an initiate, but there are certain moments when the etheric body suddenly loosens from the physical body. This occurs when a man has had terrible experiences, for instance, a dreadful fall or has been in danger of drowning. The shock causes a kind of loosening of the etheric body from the physical body and the consequence is that in such a moment the whole of the previous life stands before the soul like a memory-picture. This is analogous to the experience after death.
Partial separations of the etheric body also occur when a limb has “gone to sleep” as we say if a hand, for instance, has gone to sleep, the seer can perceive the etheric part of the hand protruding like a glove; parts of the etheric brain also protrude when a man is in a state of hypnosis. Because the etheric body is woven in the physical body in tiny, pinpoint formations, there arises in the physical body the well-known sensation of prickling in a limb that has gone to sleep.

1907-06-17-GA100

Spiritual science therefore says: A living being would decay into the component parts of its substances if it were left to itself, if within it there did not exist something which prevents this decay. That which every moment prevents this living being from decaying, the preventing factor of such a decay, is what we call the etheric or the vital body.
This is of an entirely different nature from the substances which constitute the physical body in every living being, and it has the capacity to produce the most complicated physical substances, to maintain them and to prevent their decay.
What a living organism thus reveals in a purely external form, is what we call life.
This etheric or vital body, or this body of formative forces, cannot be perceived by physical eyes, but it can be perceived through the first degree of clairvoyant vision, and it is the task of a clairvoyant to develop himself so as to be able to perceive this etheric body. Modern natural science does indeed try to discover the etheric body, but it tries to form a conception of it in a purely speculative way, by speaking, for instance of vital force, or vital energy.

1908-04-13-GA102

.. discusses the impact of connection of etheric body with physical body

Why was spiritual vision a natural condition in the far distant past?
The reason is that the connection between the physical body and the etheric body was different. The connection existing today did not develop until the later phases of the Atlantean epoch. Before that time the upper part of the etheric head extended far outside the boundaries of the physical head; towards the end of Atlantis the etheric head gradually drew completely into the physical head until it coincided with it. This gave rise to the later form of consciousness which became natural in Post-Atlantean man, enabling him to perceive physical objects in sharp outlines, as we do today. The fact that man can hear tones, be aware of scents, see colours on surfaces — although these are no longer expressions of the inmost spiritual reality of things — all this is connected with the firm and gradual interlocking of the physical body and etheric body.
[Ancient initiation via etheric body]
In earlier times, when the etheric body was still partly outside the physical body, this projecting part of the etheric body was able to receive impressions from the astral body, and it was these impressions that were perceived by the old, dreamlike clairvoyance. Not until the etheric body had sunk right down into the physical body was man wholly bereft of his dim clairvoyance. Hence in the ancient Mysteries it became necessary for the priests to use special methods in order to induce in the candidates for Initiation the condition which, in Atlantis, had been natural and normal. When pupils were to receive Initiation in the Mystery-temples, the procedure was that, after the appropriate impressions had been received by the astral body, the priests conducting the Initiation induced a partial loosening of the etheric body, in consequence of which the physical body lay for three and a half days in a trancelike sleep, in a kind of paralytic condition. The astral body was then able to imprint into the loosened etheric body experiences which had once come to Atlantean man in his normal state. Then the candidate for Initiation was able to see around him realities that henceforth were no longer merely preserved for him in scripts, or in tradition, but had become his own, individual experiences.
Let us try to picture what actually happened to the candidate for Initiation. When the priests in the Mysteries raised the etheric body partially out of the physical body and guided the impressions issuing from the astral body into this released etheric body, the candidate experienced in his etheric body the spiritual worlds. So strong and intense were the experiences that when he was restored from the trance and his etheric body was reunited to the physical body, he brought back the memory of these experiences into his physical consciousness. He had been a witness of the spiritual worlds, could himself bear witness to what was happening there; he had risen above and beyond all division into peoples or nations, for he had been initiated into that by which all peoples are united; the primal wisdom, primal truth.
...
[the loosening of the etheric body, and its impact]
The whole evolution of mankind has a certain strange quality. It goes forward in one direction until a certain point is reached and then it begins to stream in the opposite direction. Having streamed downwards to a certain point, it turns again upwards, reaching the same stages as on the descent, but now in a higher form.
Today man stands in very truth before a fateful future, that future when, as is known to everyone who is aware of this deeply significant truth of evolution, his etheric body will gradually loosen itself again, freeing itself from its submergence in the physical body, where the things of the physical world are perceived in their sharply outlined forms. The etheric body must release itself again in order that man's being may become spiritualised and once again have vision of the spiritual world. Today humanity has actually reached the point when in a great number of individuals the etheric body is beginning to loosen.
A destiny in the very highest degree significant is approaching us, and here we come near to the secret of our own cultural age.
We must realise that the etheric body, which has descended very deeply into the physical body, must now take the path upwards, carrying with it from the physical body everything that has been experienced through the physical senses. But just because the etheric body is loosening itself from the physical, everything that was formerly reality — in the physical sense — must gradually be spiritualised.
It will be essential for mankind in times to come to have conscious certainty that the spiritual is reality.
What will happen otherwise?
The etheric body will be freed from the physical body while men still believe only in the reality of the physical world, and have no consciousness of the reality of the spiritual, which will be manifest in the loosened etheric body as the fruit of man's past experience in the physical body. In such conditions men may be faced with the danger of losing all relationship to this loosening of their etheric bodies.
Let us consider the point at which a man's etheric body, which has been firmly anchored in the physical body, begins to loosen from it again and to emerge. Suppose that this happens to a man who in his physical existence has lost all belief in, all consciousness of, the spiritual world, and has cut himself off from any connection with it. Let us assume that he descended so firmly and deeply into the physical body that he has been able to retain nothing save the belief that the physical life is the one and only reality. Now he passes into the next phase of human existence. Relentlessly the etheric body emerges from the physical body, while he is still incapable of realising the existence of a spiritual world. He neither recognises nor knows anything of the spiritual world about him. This is the fate which may confront men in the near future, that they do not recognise the spiritual world which, as the result of the loosening of the etheric body, they must inevitably experience, but regard it as a phantasy, illusion, vain imagination. And those who have experienced most ably, with the utmost perfection, the physical body, the men who have become the pundits of materialism and are full of fixed, rigid notions of matter, it is they who, with the loosening of the etheric body, will face the greatest danger of being without a single inkling that there is a spiritual world. They will regard everything that then comes to them from the spiritual world as illusion, fancy, as so many figments of dream.
If in times to come, when the etheric body has again loosened itself from the physical, man is to live his life in any real sense, he must have consciousness of what will then present itself to the etheric body. In order that he may be conscious that what then comes to him is knowledge of the spiritual world, it is essential that realisation of the existence of the spiritual world shall be preserved in humanity and carried through the period when man is most deeply immersed in the material world.
For the sake of the future, the link between the religious life and the life of knowledge must never be lost. Man came forth from a life among the gods; to a life among the gods he will again return. But he must be able to recognise them; he must know that in very truth the gods are realities.
[spiritual death]
When the etheric body has loosened he will no longer be able to rely on remembrances of ancient human times. If meanwhile he has lost consciousness of the spiritual world, has come to believe that life in the physical body and things to be seen in the physical world are the only realities, then for all ages of time he must dangle, as it were, in mid-air.
He will have lost his bearings in the spiritual world and will have no ground under his feet. He will be threatened, in this condition, with what is known as the “spiritual death.” For around him there is only phantasy, illusion, a world of whose reality he has no consciousness, in which he does not believe, and so ... he dies! That is the death in the spiritual world. It is the doom which threatens men if, before passing again into the spiritual worlds, they fail to bring with them any consciousness of those worlds.

1908-07-04-GA266/1

The etheric body is loosened, lifted out of the physical body through the Christ Impulse. The etheric body is permeated by the Holy Spirit through the Christ Impulse. And the Holy Spirit - our higher 'I' - causes forces to stream to us from outside.

1908-10-26-GA107

.. the most elementary principle of the etheric body is recapitulation. A being, standing solely under its etheric and physical principles, would express in itself the principle of recapitulation. We see evidence of this in the plant in a very marked degree: We see how leaf after leaf develops, since the plant's physical body is permeated by the recapitulation principle of the etheric. A leaf is formed, then a second and a third; leaf is added to leaf in continuous repetition. And even when the plant comes to a certain conclusion above, recapitulation is still there. There is a kind of wreath of leaves forming the calyx of the flower, though they have a different form from the other leaves. Yet, you feel that it is still a recapitulation of the same leaves in altered form. We may therefore say that the green calyx-leaves up above where the plant ends are a kind of recapitulation. And even the flower petals are a recapitulation. It is true that they have a different color, but in essentials, they are still leaves — greatly transformed leaves.

1909-GA010

(the constitution of the etheric body)

1909-10-25-GA115

(SWCC)

We began with the sense we called the sense of life — the feeling of life, the vital sense. What is this sense based upon, in the true spirit of the word? In order to visualize its source we must delve rather deep down into the subconscious mind, into the substrata of the human organism. This method of spiritual-scientific research discloses first a peculiar co-operation of the physical and etheric bodies. The lowest member of the human being, the physical body, and the second, the etheric body, enter a certain mutual relationship whereby something new occurs in the etheric body.
Something that is different permeates and flows through the etheric body, and actually, men of our time don't in the least know in a conscious way what this “something” is. It saturates the etheric body as water does a sponge.

Spiritual science can tell us what it is that acts thus in the etheric body. It is what corresponds today to what men will develop in a far distant future as spirit man, or atma. At present, man does not possess this atma as his own. It is bestowed upon him, so to speak, by the surrounding outer spiritual world, without his being able to participate in it. Later on, in the distant future, he will himself have developed it within him. That which saturates the etheric body, then, is spirit man, or atma, and at the present stage of human evolution it is in a sense a superhuman being.This superhuman atma, or spirit man, expresses itself by contracting the etheric body — cramping it, as it were. Using an analogy from the sense world, we can compare the effect to that of frost, which cramps and contracts the physical body. Man is as yet not ripe for what one day will be his most precious possession, and therefore, in a sense, it destroys him. The result of the contraction described is that the astral element is pressed out, squeezed out. In proportion as the etheric body is pressed together the physical body as well undergoes tension, whereby the astral body makes room for itself. You can visualize it approximately by imagining a sponge being squeezed out. Now, the activities in the astral body are all emotional experiences — pleasure, distaste, joy, sorrow — and this process of being squeezed out communicates itself to sentience as the sense of life. This is the process that takes place in the astral body, and it expresses itself as a feeling of freedom, of strength, of lassitude, etc.

As the second sense, we listed the sense of our own movements. In this case, again, an extraneous principle is at work in the etheric body, and again it is one not yet indigenous in man. He has not achieved it through his own efforts; it flows into him out of the spiritual world, and, as with atma, the etheric body is saturated with it as a sponge with water. It is the life spirit, or buddhi, which in time will permeate him, but which for the present he holds as a gift, as it were, from the life spirit of the world. Its action is different from that of atma. As water seeks its level, so buddhi effects proportion, equilibrium, in the etheric and physical bodies, and hence in the astral body as well. This condition operates in such a way that when the balance is disturbed it can re-establish itself automatically. If we stretch out an arm, for example, destroying the balance through this change of position, the balance is immediately restored because the astral body is in a state of equilibrium. In proportion as we stretch out an arm the astral current streams in the opposite direction, thereby re-adjusting the balance. With every physical change of position, even merely blinking, the astral current in the organism moves in the opposite direction. In this inner experience of a process of equalization the sense of movement manifests itself.

We come now to a third element that can permeate man's etheric body, and this, too, is something that has entered human consciousness only to a negligible extent: manas, or spirit self. But inasmuch as precisely at this period it is incumbent upon man to develop manas, this being his earth task, manas acts differently upon the etheric body than do atma and buddhi, which are to be developed in the distant future. Its action is to expand the etheric body, effecting the opposite of what was designated “frost” in connection with the sense of life. This activity could be compared with a pouring, a streaming, of warmth into space, and this expands the elastic etheric body. We have something like streaming warmth when this semi-conscious expansion of the etheric body occurs. The consequence of this elastic expansion of the etheric body is a corresponding rarefaction of the astral body, which can thus expand as well. It need not be pressed out; by having more room it can remain in the expanding etheric body. While the sense of life becomes conscious through the contraction of the astral body, the static sensation results from the expansion of the etheric body, which thus makes more room for the astral body. In the way of a comparison it can be said that the texture of the astral body becomes rarefied, less dense. This thinning of the etheric and the astral bodies offers the possibility for the physical body to expand as well — in a sense, to extend itself.

So:
Through the action of atma the physical body is contracted, through the action of buddhi it is stabilized, through the action of manas it is unburdened.
The result is that at certain points it pushes out tiny particles, and this occurs in those three marvelous organs, the semi-circular canals of the ear. Such spreading out of physical matter does not arise from a forcing from within, but from a cessation or diminution of pressure from without, through the unburdening of the physical matter in question. This in turn enables the astral body to expand more and more. It makes contact with the outer world and must achieve equilibrium with it, for when this is not the case we cannot stand upright; we even fall over. If we would move in space we must take our bearings, and for this reason those three little canals are arranged in the three dimensions of space at right angles to each other. If these canals are injured we lose our sense of balance, we feel dizzy, we faint.

1910-03-15-GA266

Anyone who has begun an esoteric training should make it clear to himself that he's undertaken something that's very serious, that he must work on himself very seriously so that eventually he'll be able to participate in esoteric work. So how must an esoteric work on himself?
We know that Man's etheric body is born at age seven, and until then, it surrounds the physical body like a maternal sheath. The etheric body should then be prepared rightly for its development up to age 14, when the astral body is born.
But all kinds of unelaborated parts are attached to it, partly from previous incarnations and partly from the present one. All of the habits that live in us are unfolded in our etheric body from age 7 to 14, and depending on how we consolidate our views to prejudices — educators can have a big influence here — we, for instance, become more or less receptive for theosophy later on. One who creates sharply outlined views for himself will find it harder to accept its teaching than someone who keeps himself open for all new things. The etheric body becomes completely developed between the ages of 7 to 14. If a child doesn't take in great model pictures, if he doesn't look up reverently to an authority, then his etheric body isn't soft and flexible at this age. It's hard for such people to find their way into life's affairs. Their etheric body is hardened and it takes a great effort to dissolve these hardenings. Luciferic Moon powers take advantage of this and flow into them. It's not for nothing that Christ says: Watch and pray.
The astral body unfolds from age 14, 15, to 21, 22. The things that are attached to this aren't nearly as much of a hindrance for the acceptance of theosophical teachings as the etheric hindrances, since the etheric body is a much denser mass than the astral body.
The I develops from age 21-28. The 'Masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings' [re White Lodge] adapted theosophical teachings to present conditions so that they mainly work on the I and are grasped by the I. This wasn't the case before. Then an occult teacher had to work on both the astral body and the I. This wouldn't be possible today for men have much more individualistic tendencies. If a teacher wanted to intervene in the astral body and he tried to direct the passions, drives and desires he would thereby immediately produce an I through theosophical teachings to ennoble his older but lower body.
Why can a Man understand all of theosophy's teachings through thinking, through his I ?
We received a physical body on Old Saturn. The etheric body was added on Old Sun. There the physical body was in the Old Sun condition whereas the etheric body was in the Old Saturn condition. On Old Moon, the newly added astral body was in the Old Saturn condition, the etheric body in the Old Sun condition, and only the physical body in the Old Moon condition. On Earth the physical body is in the Earth condition whereas the newest and youngest part, the I, is in the Old Saturn condition. The I is the Old Saturn in us, and that's why it understands everything that happened since Old Saturn times.
[for reference, see Schema FMC00.001 and Schema FMC00.143A on The elementary kingdoms]

1911-02-26-GA127

Relationship of the human being to the environment through the etheric rays of the hands. The etheric function of the thyroid gland

1911-09-17-GA130

As soon as we know that the physical body is interpenetrated by an etheric body we will readily understand the occultist describing in his way that paralysis is an abnormal occurrence of what otherwise happens through normal training.
It can happen that a man's etheric body withdraws from his physical body. Then the physical body becomes independent. Paralysis could possibly result, for the physical body has been deprived of its enlivening etheric body. But we do not need to go as far as the appearance of paralysis, for we can understand its appearance in everyday life even better.

For example, what is a lazy person? He is someone who has a weak etheric body from birth or who has let it grow weak through neglect. We try to correct it by relieving the physical body of its leaden heaviness and by some means making it lighter.

1912-01-11-GA143

(overcoming nervousness) (SWCC)

[forgetfullness]
.. forgetfulness, so common and such a nuisance, but also so significant in our lives. Strange as it may seem, anthroposophy shows it to be harmful to health, and that many upsets bordering on severe illness can be avoided if people would only be less forgetful. And who can claim to be exempt, since there is no one who is not forgetful to some degree. Just consider the numerous cases in which people can never find where they put things. One has lost his pencil, another cannot find his cufflinks, etc., etc., all of which seems trivial but such things do, after all, occur often enough in life.
There is a good exercise for gradually curing such forgetfulness. Suppose a lady is forever putting her brooch down when she takes it off in the evening, and then cannot find it in the morning. You might think the best cure for her forgetfulness would be to remember to put it always in the same place. There isa far more effective means of remembering where it is. This does not, of course, apply to all objects but in this case the lady should say to herself, “I will put my brooch in a different place each evening, but as I do so I will hold the thought in mind that I have put it in a particular spot. Then I will form a clear picture in my mind of all the surroundings. Having done this, I will go quietly away. I realize that if I only do this once, I probably will not succeed, but if I make a habit of it, I will find that my forgetfulness gradually disappears.”
Further results can be attained from such an exercise. When it becomes habit to hold such thoughts when things are put aside, it represents a strengthening of the etheric body, which, is the bearer of memory.
But now assume you have advised someone to do this exercise not because he is forgetful but because he is nervous. It will prove to be an excellent cure. His etheric body will be strengthened and the nervous tendencies will disappear. In such cases, life itself demonstrates that what spiritual science teaches is correct.
[jerking in writing]
.. the physical and etheric bodies are intimately connected .. anyone with a healthy soul will be moved to compassion for clerical workers and others whose professions demand a great deal of writing. Perhaps you have noticed the strange movements they make in the air whenever they are about to write. Actually, with some of them the movements are not so extreme and they may only give a kind of jerk when they write, a jerk repeated for every up and down stroke. You can see the jerking in the writing.
This condition is easily understood through spiritual science.

In a healthy human being the etheric body, guided by the astral body, is always able to permeate the physical body. Thus, the physical body is normally the servant of the etheric body.

When, undirected by the astral body, the physical body executes movements on its own, it is symptomatic of an unhealthy condition. These jerks represent the subordination of the etheric to the physical body, and denote that the weak etheric body is no longer fully able to direct the physical. Such a relationship between the physical and etheric bodies lies at the spiritual scientific foundation of every form of cramp or convulsion. Here the physical body has become dominant and makes movements on its own, whereas in a healthy man all his movements are subordinated to the will of the astral body working through the etheric.

Again, there is a way of helping a person with such symptoms (provided the condition has not progressed too far), if one takes into account these facts. In this case we must recognize the existence and efficacy of the etheric body and try to strengthen it.
Imagine someone so dissipated that his fingers get to shaking and jerking when he tries to write. You certainly would do well to advise him to write less and take a good vacation, but better still you might also recommend that he try to acquire a different handwriting. Tell him to stop writing automatically and try practicing for fifteen minutes a day to pay attention to the way he forms the letters he writes. Tell him to try to shape his handwriting differently and to cultivate the habit of drawing the letters. The point here is that when a man consciously changes his handwriting, he is obliged to pay attention to, and to bring the innermost core of his being into connection with what he is doing. The etheric body is strengthened in this way and the person is made healthier.
It would not be a bad idea to introduce such exercises systematically into the classroom to strengthen the etheric body even in childhood. But, even though anthroposophy can give such pedagogical advice, it will doubtless be a long time before leading educators will consider it anything but foolish. Nevertheless, suppose that children were first taught to write a particular style of penmanship and after a few years were expected to acquire an entirely different character in their handwriting. The change, and the conscious attention it would involve, would result in a remarkable strengthening of the etheric body.
So something can be done to strengthen the etheric body. This is of immense importance because in our time weakness of the etheric body leads to many unhealthy conditions. What has been indicated here represents a definite way of working upon the etheric body. When these exercises are practiced, an actual force is applied to the etheric body that certainly could not be applied if the existence of this body were denied. Surely, the effects of the force, when they become apparent, demonstrate the existence of the etheric body.
The etheric body can be strengthened by performing another exercise, in this case, for the improvement of memory. By thinking through events, not only in the way they occurred but also in reverse sequence, that is, by starting at the end of an event and pursuing it through to the beginning, will help to make the etheric body stronger. Historical events, for example, which are usually learned in chronological sequence, can be followed backwards. Or a play or story can be thought through in reverse from end to beginning. Such exercises when done thoroughly are highly effective in consolidating and strengthening the etheric body.
.. it soon becomes apparent that people do not do the things that would contribute to the strengthening of the etheric body. The restless daily bustle of modern life does not allow them the opportunity to come to that inner quiet required for such exercises, and in the evening after the day's work they are generally too tired to be bothered. Should spiritual science begin to penetrate their souls, however, people would soon see how many things done in the bustle of modern life could be dispensed with, and they would find the time to practice such exercises. They also would become aware of the positive results that could be achieved if such exercises were carefully applied in education.
Another exercise: If it has not been cultivated from early youth, it is perhaps not quite so useful in later life. Nevertheless, it's still a good exercise to practice in later years. With certain things we do, no matter whether or not they are of enduring importance, it is good practice to look carefully at what is being done. This is comparatively easy in writing and I am quite sure many people would soon correct their hideous handwriting if they really looked at the letters.
In still another exercise a person should endeavor to watch himself the way he walks, moves his head, laughs, etc. In short, he should try to form a clear picture of his movements and gestures. Few people actually know what they look like when they are walking, for instance. While it is good to make this experiment, it should not be prolonged because it would quickly lead to vanity. Quite apart from the fact that it can be corrective of undesirable habits, this exercise also tends to consolidate the etheric body. When a man cultivates an awareness of his gestures and involuntary actions, the control of the astral becomes increasingly stronger over the etheric. Thus, he also becomes able, if necessary, to suppress certain actions or movements out of his free will.
It is an excellent accomplishment to be able to do quite differently the things we do out of habit. .. This does not mean that we need become fanatical about the indifferent use of our right and left hands. If a man, however, is occasionally able to do with his left hand what he commonly does with the right, he will strengthen the control of his astral over his etheric body.

1912-04-09-GA136

explains in the language of the Kalevala (old Finnish myth), where the etheric body is called Sampo:

quote A

Now it was so that when these bodies of man were forged, especially when the etheric body of Man, the Sampo, was forged that it had first to be wrought upon for a time; did not at once possess the forces which were prepared for him by the super-sensible powers. Whilst the etheric body was being forged, it had first to grow accustomed to itself inwardly; just as when a machine is being prepared it must first be made ready, them as it were, fully matured, in order to be made use of. In human development — this shown in all evolution — there had always to be an interval between the creation of the principle in question, and the using of it. Thus Man's etheric body was fashioned in remote primitive times; then came an episode when this etheric body was being sent down into human nature.
Only later did it shine out as the intellectual soul, and Man learnt to use his powers as external powers of nature; he brought forth from his own nature the Sampo which had remained concealed. We see symbolically in a wonderful way this secret development in the forging of the Sampo, in the concealment of it, in the inefficiency of the Sampo, in the episode which lies between the forging, and the rediscovery of it.
We see the Sampo first sunk into human nature, then brought forth to the external powers of civilisation, which appear first as primitive forces just as they are described in the second part of Kalevala. Thus everything in this great national epic gains a profound significance when we see in it clairvoyant descriptions of the ancient occurrences in human development, of the coming into being of human nature in its various principles.
I can assure you that to me who only learnt to understand Kalevala long, long after these facts regarding the development of human nature stood clearly before my soul, it was a wonderful, amazing fact to find again in this epic that which I had been able to represent more or less theoretically in my “Theosophy”, which was written at a time when as yet I knew not a line of Kalevala.

quote B (SWCC)

But there is yet another secret concealed.
... In the animals we see the etheric body so active that it becomes the master-builder of the most varied forms, from the most imperfect to the most perfect.
Into the human etheric body was forged something which collected all these animal forms as in a unity, with the one exception only, that over the Earth the etheric body, that is the Sampo, is fashioned according to climatic and other conditions, so that this etheric body has the special national character, the special national peculiarities in its forces, so that it forms one nation differently from another. The Sampo is, to every nation that which determines the special form of the etheric body; which so places this special nationality in life that its members have the same appearance as regards that which shines out through them, through life-being, and physical-being.
Just as similarity of appearance in the human form is modeled from the etheric, so do the forces of the etheric body lie in the Sampo.

1913-03-23-GA145

synopsis (machine translation)

Acquisition of a sense of time in the etheric body; one experiences the outer ether as a living being. Differentiations in the inner experience of the etheric body. The work of the successive Amshaspands on the etheric body of the human brain during the old moon. the image of the etheric archetype: the physical brain.The taking along of the flowing time: rolling up of a distant past.
In the middle part of the etheric body: swimming with the flow of time, feeling as if between phlegmatic and sanguine mood, while concentrating on the etheric body. concentrating on the etheric body of the head is connected with a a melancholic mood,
A third part of the etheric body is perceived as disappearing into the earth, spreading out; a fourth as the impression of an outer form, an egg shape, which then colours itself. - The influence of the spirits of the course of the year into the course of the day brings new differentiations into the experience of the etheric body, as otherwise according to seasons, so also according to hours of the day. Suppression of sensory perception, then of abstract thinking in the esoteric development. God-given wisdom flows into the vanishing own thinking; something pours into the etheric body like an oncoming stream from the future. The precondition for this is the development of serenity.

1913-03-29-GA145

.. is called 'The Etheric Body as a Picture of Cosmic History, or: 'The Etheric Body Records Cosmic History. The Twelve Members of the Cosmos Through which the Hierarchies Speak.'

1914-12-04-GA063

describes the greyzone of effects that can appear for example in certain Near Death Experiences (NDE), that the forces of the physical body pull back the etheric body

The physical body counteracts it, as long as the physical just lasts. For at the moment when the danger threatens that the subtler etheric of a more spiritual body as it were would lose itself, the physical body asserts its reinforced forces — and one has to go again back into the physical body. Then this is just in such a way, as if you are forced back by the power of the physical body to the everyday perception, to the usual sight and to the physical way. As you can learn from this representation, you get to know the moment that must take place when the physical and chemical forces seize the outer physical body and take it away if death enters. One learns to recognise how the consciousness can live on after death because now the physical body does no longer call back the just described subtler etheric body. It can just live on at first in this form that our own experience faces us as a memory picture, only as long as the forces of the spiritual universe assert themselves and the subtler body disintegrates in the universe.

1914-12-12-GA156

see: Process of perception#1914-12-12-GA156

It is true, of course, that we are always making use of our etheric bodies, except when we are sleeping, but we use them in the sense that they carry on their activity within our physical bodies, so that both the physical and etheric bodies are made use of during our life on the physical plane. But we come to know what the particular characteristics of the etheric body are when it is lifted out of its connection with the physical body and put to use as our sole perceptive instrument. We know that this condition comes about naturally immediately after death, when we have laid the physical body aside. Then, for a short time, we make use of the etheric body, until that too is laid aside.
We have therefore to distinguish the first condition after death, in which we dissolve our bond with the physical body, from the second condition that soon follows it, and brings about the dissolution of our bond with the etheric body.
I have been saying that the physical body binds us to everything that comes to us on the physical plane. What, then, does the etheric body bind us to? It binds us to everything that relates us to the cosmos, to the extraterrestrial, to everything that lives in us that cannot be ascribed directly to any connection with the physical realm.
If, for example, a person is born with a physically defective ear, he won't be able to become a musician. But physical defects are due to physical heredity. This is a radical case that illustrates our dependence upon the ongoing heredity process. But we must turn our attention from the capacities to which our physical bodies predispose us to those occasioned by the etheric. These show up more distinctly in particular predispositions of the soul. Only a poor observer can miss the fact of the great differences of soul manifested by individuals. Dull-witted materialists are sometimes little interested in subtle differences of soul; they want to investigate the external form element alone. But alert observers of life are perfectly aware that nobody resembles any other person as far as his individuality is concerned.
... [continued on Journey between death and a new birth, explaining the difference between old and young people: the etheric body grows young with physical aging; and this makes a huge difference when someone dies young or old]

1916-01-02-GA165

quote A

Let us think of the human etheric body as it is connected with the physical body. We shall sketch it thus: representing it entirely diagrammatically, and we shall sketch the physical body as a kind of rind of the etheric body, though it must be understood that in reality it interpenetrates the whole human etheric body, except the most external part of the latter. Let this then be the etheric and physical body, and there, belonging to them, as is understood, in the whole system of Man, his astral body and I.
Let us now recall that the etheric body of Man naturally consists of the different kinds of ether which we have learnt to distinguish.
We recognize these as consisting of:

warmth-outer ether,

light-ether,

chemical-ether [by which the music of the spheres is communicated]

and life-ether.
Let us turn our attention to the light-ether. It is true that the whole etheric body consists of an inner blend — an inwardly organised blend of the four kinds of ether, but we shall only consider today that part of the ether body which is light-ether; and in order to fix our attention on that part of the etheric body which we call the light-ether, we have sketched it above.

quote B describes the process of remembering with our light body (light ether)

It is the light part of the etheric body that we are now considering; of course, the other members of the etheric body — the heat, chemical and life parts also vibrate in sympathy, but it is the light part that we are considering today; I will speak of it therefore as the light-body. Our etheric body, then, experienced certain movements, for the thoughts evoked by the man whom we met, revealed themselves within our light-body as movements — as inner light-movements; so that apart from our having perceived the man with our senses, we received impressions [not communicated through the senses] that gave rise to movements in our light-body. Thus the whole result of our meeting with the man consisted in our light-body experiencing all kinds of movements. Picture this vividly to yourselves. While you stood before the man and spoke to him, your etheric light-body was in continual movement. What you said to him, what you felt and thought regarding him, is all disclosed in the movements of your light-body. When, several days after, you see this man again, the fresh sight of him stirs your soul, and this movement causes your etheric body, purely because of its laws of continuity, to reproduce the movements it experienced five days before, when you met the man and exchanged thoughts with him. Very well, we encounter this man again after five days. The etheric light-body, stirred by this meeting, experiences again the same movements which it did at the first meeting; and because man is always with part of his astral body and ego in the outer ether, he feels the movements which stir the outer ether, and thus because of its law of continuity [or persistence] he again becomes aware of what he experienced previously. We have really to picture to ourselves, that during the waking state we are both with our ego and astral body within the outer light-ether; sleep only consists in that part of the astral body and ego, which during the day, when we are awake, is within the physical and etheric body, also withdrawing into the outer ether. Remembrance is this: the perception from the outer ether of inner etheric movements; the perception from the outer light-ether of movements in the inner light-body: that is, to remember.

1916-03-20-GA174A

(the weaving and living activity of the human etheric bodies)

1921-10-01-GA207

We cannot understand our etheric body without understanding that we have this universal thought-weaving of the world (see drawing, bright) and that our etheric body (red) is woven, as it were, out of this thought-weaving of the world through our birth. The thought-weaving of the world weaves into us, forms the forces that underlie our etheric body and that actually manifest themselves in the space between etheric body and physical body. They are drawn in, as it were, through the physical body, separated from the outer world, and then they work in us with the help of the etheric body, the actual body of formative forces.

1923-12-30-GA233

What is my etheric body? It is that in you which is subject to the forces streaming in on all sides from the periphery.
You can even show it in a drawing. [see Schema FMC00.254]. Imagine that this is the human being. His physical body is the one that is subject to the forces that go towards the centre of the Earth. His etheric body is the one that is subject to the forces streaming in from all sides, from the ends of the Universe. Here we have a system of forces in man.

There are forces that pull downward, — they are really present in all organs that are upright, — and

there are forces that pour in from without, tending inward.

You can actually perceive in the form of man where the one kind and the other are more represented.

Study the legs and it is obvious, their form is due to the fact that they are more adapted to the earthly forces.

The head is more adapted to the forces of the periphery.

In like manner you may also study the arms, and this is not uninteresting.
Hold your arms close to your body, and they are subject to the forces that go towards the centre of the Earth.

Move them in a living way, and you yourself will be subjecting them to the forces streaming in from all sides of the periphery.

Such indeed is the difference between arms and legs:

The legs are invariably subject to the central forces of the Earth, while

the arms are so only in a certain posture, that is to say, conditionally. Man is able to lift them out of the domain of the earthly central forces and place them in the midst of those forces which we call the ethereal forces, the forces pouring in from the periphery.
And so you can see for all the single organs, how they are placed in the whole cosmic system.

1924-02-02-GA234

Indeed, the difference only becomes apparent when we study these things on a somewhat bigger scale, and notice what I have emphasised so strongly, namely: that the human organism as a whole cannot be maintained by external Nature, but is subject to destruction. Thus we can say that, in the solid, earthy, physical realm, we do not find, to begin with. very much difference between what is outside and what is inside man. We must recognise a greater difference however, in what is etheric.
I have drawn your attention to the way the etheric really looks down on us from the world beyond the Earth. I pointed out that, from out of the etheric, everything, whether it be a large or small drop, is made spherical, and that this tendency to spherical formation, due to the complex of etheric forces, extends to the etheric body of man.
We have really to fight continually to overcome this tendency in our etheric body. Of course, all this takes place in the subconscious. In its present form the human etheric body is closely moulded to the physical body. It has not such sharp boundaries and is mobile in itself; nevertheless we can distinguish a head part, a trunk part and, indistinctly, limb parts where the etheric body becomes diffuse. Thus, when we move an arm the etheric body, which otherwise conforms to the human shape, only protrudes a little beyond the arm, whereas below it is widely extended. But it has from the cosmos the tendency to take on spherical form.
The higher being of man — the astral man and the I — must oppose this tendency and mould the spherical form to the human shape. So we may say: man, as an etheric being, lives in the general etheric world by building up his own form out of the etheric, whereas the formative tendency of the surrounding etheric is to give spherical form to what is fluid.
In Man what is fluid takes on human form, and this is due to his inner forces opposing the external, cosmic forces.
...
Now, when we turn our psycho-spiritually sharpened gaze to the cosmos, we do gain the conception of the etheric as described, but we also receive the impression that it is due to the etheric that we strive away from the earth. While we are held to the Earth by gravity, we tend away from the Earth because of the etheric. It is really the etheric that is active in this centrifugal tendency. In this connection you need only think of the following: The human brain weighs approximately 1,500 grammes. Now a mass with this weight, pressing on the delicate blood vessels at the base of the brain, would quite compress them. If our brain actually exerted its 1,500 grammes weight in the living man we could not have these blood-vessels. In the living man, however, the brain weighs twenty grammes at most. It is so much lighter because it floats in the cerebral fluid and loses in weight by the weight of fluid displaced. The brain really strives away from man; and in this tendency the etheric is active. Thus we may say that it is just in the brain that we can see most clearly how matters stand.
Here is the brain floating in its fluid, whereby its weight is reduced from 1,500 to about twenty grammes. This means that its activity shares, to a remarkably small degree, in our physical, bodily life. Here the etheric finds tremendous scope for acting upwards. The weight acts downwards but is reduced. In the cerebral fluid there is principally developed the sum of etheric forces that lifts us away from the earth. Indeed, if we had to carry our physical body with all its forces of weight, we would have a sack to drag about. Every blood corpuscle, however, swims and is reduced in weight.
This loss of weight in a fluid is an old piece of knowledge. You know, of course, that it has been ascribed to Archimedes. He was bathing one day and noticed, on lifting his leg out of the water, how much heavier it was than when in the water, and exclaimed: Eureka! I have found it. He had discovered that every body in a fluid loses in weight the weight of the fluid displaced. Thus, if you think of Archimedes in his bath, here his physical leg and here the same leg formed of water, then the physical leg is lighter in water by the amount that this water-leg weighs. It is lighter by just this amount. Likewise the weight of our brain in the cerebral fluid is reduced by the weight of a mass of cerebral fluid of the size of the physical brain. That is, it is reduced from 1,500 to 20 grammes. In physics this is called ‘upthrust’, and here the etheric acts.
The astral, on the other hand, is stimulated — to begin with — by breathing, whereby the airy element enters the human organism and eventually reaches the head in an extremely attenuated state; in this distribution and organisation of the air the astral is active.
...
If we now look back to Man, we find in him, too, an etheric body corresponding to the external etheric.
But this etheric body is not perceived in such a way that you can say: there is the physical Man, and here is his etheric body.
Certainly, you can draw it so, but that would only be an arrested section. You never see merely the present etheric body; this section which you can draw is seen to be continuous with what has gone before. You always see the whole etheric body extending back to birth. Past and present form a whole.
If you have a twenty-year-old person before you, you cannot see merely his twenty-year-old etheric body; you see all that has happened in his etheric body back to birth and a little beyond. Here time really becomes space. It is just as when you look down an avenue and see the trees drawing closer and closer together on account of perspective; you see the whole avenue in space.
Likewise you look at the etheric body as it is at present but see its whole structure, which is a ‘time-structure’. The etheric body is a ‘time-organism’, the physical body a ‘space-organism’. The physical body is, of course, self-contained at any given moment; the etheric body is always there as a totality which comprises our life up to the given moment. This is a unity.
Hence you could only draw or paint the etheric body if you could paint moving pictures; but you would have to be quicker than the pictures. The momentary configuration that you draw or paint is only a section and is related to the whole etheric body as the section of a tree-stem to the whole tree. When you draw a diagram of the etheric body, it is only a section, for the whole etheric body is a ‘time-process’. Indeed, on surveying this time-process one is led beyond birth, even beyond conception, to the point where one sees the human being descend from his pre-earthly life to his present life on earth, and, just before he was conceived by his parents, draw together etheric substance from the general cosmic ether to build his etheric body.
Thus you cannot speak of the etheric body without surveying Man's life in time back to birth and beyond. What one regards as the etheric body at some definite moment is only an abstraction; the concrete reality is the time-process.

Frank Teichmann, in 'The sacred mysteries of Egypt'

(1999 in DE, 2016 in EN), writes:

[p88]
All these transformations are effected by formative forces that shape matter. These the Egyptians called Ka, and they are those forces that transmute the Sun God as well as those that give shape to human beings. They are the life giving forces, allowing propagation and growth, as well as keeping the overall form while the substance continually changes.
[p92]
What Fichte describes as the unifying forming principle .. is nothing other than the Ka.
...
Rudolf Steiner follows this tradition [to call this the etheric body] but also uses names like 'formative forces' or 'time body

Pentagram - five ether streams

1906-12-01-GA266

We're always surrounded by five ether streams in the world around us on Earth. They're called earth, water, fire, air and thought ethers.
These etheric streams are also active in Man:

earth ether from the head to the right foot,

from there water ether to the left hand,

from there fire ether to the right hand,

from there air ether to the left foot,

and then thought ether back to the head.

This is the occultist's sacred pentagram, the symbol of Man.
Its point is directed upwards, which indicates that the spirit streams to man from the heights. The pentagram is present in many flowers and other things in nature.
The sign of black magic is a pentagram with one point at the bottom, through which magicians attract bad forces from the earth and send them out of the two top horns into the environment by means of their bad will in order to use soul and nature forces for their own egotistical, evil purposes.

1907-09-13-GA101

Let us consider the pentagram. You know that much abstruse thinking has been spent on it; this is not the concern of occultism. In order to understand what the occultist says about the pentagram, we must at first call to mind the seven fundamental parts of the human being, and it is, above all, the etheric body that is especially relevant in this consideration. You know that the etheric body belongs to the sphere of the occult; it is not to be seen with physical eyes. To perceive it, clairvoyant methods are necessary. Then it will become evident that the essentiality of the etheric body does not consist in its appearing as a fine nebulous formation.
It is characteristic of it that it is indeed, the architect, the creator of the physical body. Just as ice forms out of water, so does the physical body fashion itself out of the etheric body, which, like the ocean, is flooded through by many currents flowing in all directions. Among them are five main currents. When you stand with feet apart and arms outstretched, you can accurately follow the direction of these five currents. They form a pentagram. Everybody has these five currents hidden in him. The healthy etheric body appears so that these currents are, as it were, his bony framework.
You must not suppose however, that everything pertaining to the etheric body is only within, because when a person moves, for instance, the currents actually go through the air. This pentagram is as mobile as a man's physical bony framework. Thus, when the occultist speaks of the pentagram as the figure of Man, it is not a matter of something that has been thought out, but rather he is speaking of it as the anatomist does of the skeleton. This figure is really present in the etheric body. It is a fact.

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

Cornelis Boogerd: 'Der Ätherleib in der Erziehung des Kindes' (2016)