Seven year rhythm

During Man's life development, the human being develops through an 'unfolding' of the different bodily principles in periods of seven years or 'septennia', related to the work of the spiritual hierarchies and corresponding the influences of the planetary spheres.

These septennia

• correspond to major changes in Man's physiology, eg the changing of the teeth or the physical changes at puberty. See Schema FMC00.236.
• can usually easily be found back in biography work.
• have major consequences for education and the leading of a conscious life.

Aspects

• In the first seven years Man lives in an body based on inheritance, but thereafter he further develops his own physical body. See oa Model for hereditary physical body.
• corresponding three 21 year periods in life and the Spirits of Form (SoF) (1910-06-10-GA121)
• the importance of the age or 35, and the age of 33 for Christ-Jesus (1909-09-21-GA114)
• in Greek culture:
  • symbol of threefold Hecate represents the aspects of transformation on the physical, etheric, and astral bodies. Only afterwards the Demeter forces come into play again. The three daughters of Persephone: Luna, Astrid, Philia are mapped to the strengthening of the threefold human soul (1911-08-18-GA129 and 1911-08-19-GA129, no extract yet below)

biographical examples

• biographical examples: the seven year periods were very outspoken and clear and have been studied voor various personalities
  • a.o. Goethe, Napoleon, .. (eg 1916-11-05-GA172, 1919-08-30-GA293)
  • Rudolf Steiner (see book by Fred Poeppig under Further reading section below)
  • the Karmic Relationship Individualities (KRI), see Schema FMC00.241A on Karma research case studies, and the secondary literature with biographies (for example the seven year periods are apparent in Norbert Glas' book on Henry Stanley)

various other

• see also: Humanity is getting younger: the moment that Man is 'fully developed', and the soul becomes free of the body, occurs at a certain age, and has not been the same in the various preceeding cultural ages. This age shifts with time and this life period becomes ever shorter, showing a convergence point at the end of the epoch.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.236: provides an overview of the septennia or seven year periods, and how Man develops his bodily principles corresponding to the planetary spheres due to the work of the various spiritual hierarchies.

FMC00.236A illustrates with extracts from the original black board drawings (BBW)

FMC00.237 depicts Life Chart diagram diagram by George O'Neill based on Steiner's lecture of 1924-08-16-GA311 (by Florin Lowndes, see publication under references for an excellent book). This diagram is often used and appears in many books for personal biography work.

Lecture coverage and references

Pietro d'Abano (1257-1316)

already writes about the seven year periods, see eg the following quotes from 'History of magic and experimental science' published in 1923 by Lynn Thorndike (1882-1965)

p895:

.

In Difference 26 .. Peter divides the life of Man into seven ages under the seven planets

1907-03-04-GA096

human biography and planetary evolution

1909-09-21-GA114

the age of 35 + the ages of Nathan Jesus (14->12, 21->19, 28->26, 35->33)

• When the physical environment of the mother's body is abandoned at birth, the part of the human being then born is really his physical body only; what comes to the fore during the first seven years is the physical body. In various lectures on the education of children the great importance of this knowledge for the teacher has been emphasized.
• Then, when the etheric sheath has been discarded, the etheric body is set free.
• Again, in the fourteenth year, when the astral sheath is discarded, the astral body is set free
• Immediately connected with the etheric (or life) body is what is called the astral (or sentient) body which does not become completely free as regards the outer world until about the twenty-first year. Then what is called the sentient soul becomes gradually free.
• At the twenty-eighth year the intellectual or mind-soul (Gemütseele) becomes free, and later the spiritual soul (or consciousness-soul).

This applies, to the human being of today. Observation of human life guided by spiritual science clearly reveals these stages of development. The great leaders and leading figures of humanity have also known why the thirty-fifth year is so important. Dante was aware why he made particular mention of his thirty-fifth year as the time when he had the visions set down in his great poem. At the very beginning of the Divine Comedy there is an indication to this effect. At the age of thirty-five man's being has progressed to the point where the can make full use of the faculties dependent upon the astral body, the sentient soul and the intellectual soul.

1910-06-10-GA121

three 20 year periods and SoF

1913-01-14-GA141

When we study the cyclic periods already referred to and mentioned in my little book, Education of the Child, we shall notice that they begin in connection with the most physical, the most external member of Man's being and are then concerned with the other, more inward members of his constitution. From birth until the seventh year development is connected primarily with the physical body, then for seven years with the etheric body, then for seven years with the astral body, the sentient soul, and so on.

The evolutionary factors pass over more and more decisively from the external to the inner nature of Man. That is essentially characteristic of the seven-year periods.

What, then, is there to be said about occurrences which cut across these seven-year periods?

The flashing-up of ‘I’-consciousness during the first cycle is an emphatically inner event. For the sake of clarity, here let us consider something that seems to be in contrast with this flashing-up of I-consciousness. If we observe human life with discernment we shall find that the cessation of growth may be compared with some happening which cuts across the seven-year cycles of evolution. We will therefore think about the cessation of growth which after all occurs comparatively late in life, and study its implications.

• The first seven-year period ends with the change of teeth. The appearance of the second teeth is, as it were, the final act of what may be called the formative principle. The last contribution made by the forces that give the human being his form is when they drive out the second teeth. That is the culmination of the formative process, for the principle which builds up the human form is no longer in action. With the seventh year the formative principle ceases to be active.
• What comes about later on is only an expansion of what has already been established as form. After the seventh year there is no more remodelling of the brain. All that happens is growth of what is already established as basic form. Therefore we can say that the principle of form unfolds its activity specifically in the first seven years of the life of a human being. The principle of form stems from the Spirits of Form; thus these Spirits of Form are active in the human being during the first seven years of his life.
• It can therefore be said that when the human being enters into life through birth, his actual form is not complete. What happens is that the Spirits of Form continue their active intervention during the first seven years of life; the human being has then reached the point when his form merely needs to grow. The basis for the form has been established by the seventh year, and the second teeth are what the formative principle still produces out of the human being. The formative principle has now come to its conclusion. Were its activity to continue, the second teeth would inevitably make their appearance later than is now the case.

Here we may ask: When these Spirits of Form have worked on the human being until the seventh year of his life, does everything they do for him come to an end?

The answer is ‘No’, for the human being goes on growing and the basic principles of his form develop still further. If nothing else intervened, growth would be able to continue without interruption. If we think only of the principles of form that are active in the human being until the seventh year there is no more reason in the case of man than in that of other beings why these forms should not continue to grow if nothing were to intervene. But something does intervene. When the human being stops growing, certain principles of form still have an effect upon him. They have already been drawing near to him but now they unite in the fullest sense with his organism, lay hold of it, but in such a way that they now act as a hindrance, and further growth is prevented.

The formative principles that are active until the seventh year of life allow the human being a certain elasticity. But at that point other formative principles approach him; their nature is such that they capture and confine what is elastic in the demarcated form, thus preventing any further growth. That is why growth stops at some point. When growth stops, this means that formative forces approaching from outside are at work. Whenever formative principles are active, whenever forms grow larger, provision must be made for the stoppage of growth by the appearance of counter-formative principles which oppose the first category as its polar antithesis. When Man's form has developed until about the seventh year of life (indicated in the shaded portion of the diagram) this form can continue to grow. [see drawing in online version lecture] The formative principles have been at work until the seventh year; these principles work from within. Then different formative principles work in opposition from outside, so that the human being can grow only to the limit indicated by the line b–b. It is really as if until the seventh year of his life the human being were given an elastic garment which he can constantly stretch and enlarge. But at a specific point of time he is given one that is not elastic; he is obliged to put it on, and thenceforth cannot grow beyond its limits.

We can therefore say that in the human being a confrontation takes place between two kinds of formative principles, one working from within and the other from without. The formative principles belonging to the first category come from the Spirits of Form, from those Spirits of Form who have passed through a perfectly normal process of evolution in the Cosmos. The formative principles working from without are not of the same kind. They come from Spirits of Form whose development has been retarded and who have acquired a Luciferic character. They are the factor which works in the purely spiritual domain, whereas the forces working in the material sphere have had a normal development; having evolved through the stages of Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon, they then pass to the Earth in the regular way and shape the human form from within. The ‘irregular’ Spirits of Form take what is presented to them and hold back its further development. Thus the process of growth in the human being is brought to a halt by these backward Spirits of Form. The Beings of the higher Hierarchies have the most varied tasks, among them the one that has been characterised today.

We have now been able to consider many different aspects of the work of the ‘regular’ Hierarchies and also of the work of the backward spiritual Beings belonging to the different Hierarchies. In the book Occult Science — an Outline ¹ you can read how the human being reached the stage where through the Spirits of Form he could be endowed with the germinal foundation for the ‘I’. We know that man received the germ of his physical body from the Thrones, of his etheric body from the Spirits of Wisdom, of his astral body from the Spirits of Movement, and the germinal foundation for the ‘I’ from the Spirits of Form. Bearing this in mind we can say that man, in his outer stature, has been organised by the regular Spirits of Form into an Ego-bearing being and that this comes into manifestation in the first seven-year cycle of his life. But then the backward Spirits of Form who are the opponents of the regular Spirits of Form, put a stop to his growth. This is actually the antithesis of the first, most deeply inward experience in the human being, namely, the kindling of the consciousness of ‘I’ — the Ego. This happens in the early years of life, in the innermost realm of being. The outermost manifestation, the form, is checked at a later age, as a final act. Thus we perceive two evolutionary — but antithetical — processes in the human being. Of the one I have said that it comes from without and moves inward, taking hold of the sentient soul and so on, in the twenty-first year of life. Then there is another evolution proceeding from within outwards until the growth of the physical form is checked. The one evolution, the regular evolution, proceeds from the spiritual to the corporeal, from within outwards and is of interest especially for education. The other evolution — which is a much less regular and also more individual process — proceeds from without inwards and, when the human being has reached a certain age, it comes to expression in the completion of the outermost principle — the physical body.

It is very important that teachers should have knowledge of these two antithetical lines of evolution. Hence in the book The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy it was right to call attention to the first process of evolution which proceeds from within outwards, because it is only there that education is possible. On the other line of evolution — from without inwards — which is the line of individual development, it is impossible to make any actual impression. This is something of which account can be taken but which cannot be halted; neither can much be achieved in the way of education. And to be able to distinguish between where education is possible and where it is not, is of fundamental importance.

Just as the cessation of growth is caused by the backward Spirits of Form, the first actual manifestation of the ‘I’ in the human being during early childhood is the work of the backward Spirits of Will (Thrones). Between these two extremes there are other happenings which are to be attributed to backward Spirits of Wisdom and backward Spirits of Movement.

No adequate characterisation of man's life as a whole, including the existence between death and the new birth, is possible unless we take account of all the factors which have an effect upon him, and recognise that even in everyday life the influences of Luciferic beings take effect in many different ways. This influence is evident in other spheres as well. And as our endeavour in these lectures is to acquire a really fundamental understanding of man's life as a whole, we will not hesitate to think about matters which seem to be somewhat remote.

1916-11-05-GA172

The Rhythm in Goethe’s life

1919-08-30-GA293

Napoleon as example of strict rhythm of septennia

In Napoleon there appears subsequently a figure who is fashioned entirely in conformity with the rhythm of the personality, but with a tendency to the opposite pole.

• Seven years of sovereignty,
• fourteen years of imperial splendour and harassment of Europe, the years of his ascent to power,
• then seven years of decline, the first years of which he spent once again in disrupting the peace of Europe

— all in accordance with a strict rhythm: seven years, then twice seven years and then again seven years, a rhythm of septennia.

I have been at great pains (and I have alluded to this on various occasions) to trace the soul of Napoleon. It is possible, as you know, to undertake these studies of the human soul in divers ways by means of spiritual scientific investigation. And you will recall no doubt how investigations were undertaken to discover the previous incarnations of Novalis. [ Note 2 ]

I have been at great pains to follow the destiny of Napoleon's soul in its journey after his death. I have been unable to find it and do not think I shall ever be able to find it, for it is probably not to be found.

And this no doubt accounts for the enigma of Napoleon's life that unfolds with clockwork precision in seven-year rhythms. We can best understand this soul if we regard it as the complete antithesis of a soul such as that of James I, or again as the antithesis of the abstraction of the French Revolution: the Revolution all soul without body, Napoleon all body without soul, but a body compounded of all the contradictions of the age.

In this strange juxtaposition of the Revolution and Napoleon lies one of the greatest enigmas of contemporary evolution. One has the impression that a soul wanted to incarnate in the world, appeared without a body, clamoured for incarnation amongst the revolutionaries of the eighteenth century, but was unable to find a body ... and that only externally a body offered itself, a body which for its part could not find a soul, i.e. Napoleon. In these things there are more than merely ingenious allusions or characterizations, they harbour important impulses of historical development. They must of course be regarded as symptoms. Here, amongst ourselves, I use the terminology of spiritual science. But what I have just said could equally well be said anywhere if clothed in slightly different terminology.

When we attempt to pursue further the symptomatology of recent times we see the English character unfolding in successive stages in relative peace. Up to the end of the nineteenth century it developed fairly uniformly, it shaped the ideal of liberalism in relative peace. The development of the French character was more tempestuous, so much so that when we follow the thread of events in the history of France in the nineteenth century we never really know how a later event came to be associated with the previous event; they seem to follow each other without motivation so to speak. The major feature of the historical development of France in the nineteenth century is this absence of motivation. No reproach is implied here — I am speaking quite dispassionately. I merely wish to characterize.

1919-10-04-GA191

discusses intuition, inspiration and imagination the first three seven year periods. Earth forces work in the first, air forces in the second, and in the third period work the from outside instreaming forces. After the 21st year these forces work in the blood.

.. the first of the capacities that leads man into super-sensible realms is the force of Imagination, the second capacity is the force of Inspiration and the third capacity the force of Intuition.

The question now is whether these capacities need concern us at all except in their connection with knowledge of super-sensible worlds or whether these capacities have any part to play in the rest of man's life?

You will see that the latter is the case. As my book Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy tells you, we can see human life running its course in three stages: from birth to the change of teeth, from the change of teeth to puberty, and from puberty till about the twenty-first year. If you do not regard man purely superficially, you will be struck by the fact that the nature of man's development is entirely different in the three different seven-year stages. The pushing through of our permanent teeth is connected with the development of forces that are not merely confined, let us say, to our jaws or their neighboring organs, but fill our whole physical body. There is work in progress within our physical body between birth and the seventh year, and this work comes to an end with the pushing through of our permanent teeth.

• It is obvious that the forces doing this work of developing the physical body are supersensible, isn't it? The perceptible body is only the material in which they work. These super-sensible forces, active in the whole of man's organization during the first seven years of his life, become, as it were, suspended when their purpose has been achieved and the permanent teeth have appeared. At the age of seven these forces go to sleep. They are hidden within the being of man; they go to sleep within him. And they can be drawn forth from your being when you do the sort of exercises I describe in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds as leading to Intuition. For the forces that are applied in the acquisition of intuitive knowledge are the same forces that you grow with at the time of life when this growth culminates in the change of teeth. These sleeping forces that are active within the human body until the seventh year are the forces you use in super-sensible knowledge to reach Intuition.

• Now the forces that are active from the seventh year to the fourteenth year and go to sleep at puberty in the depths of the body, are drawn forth and form the power of Inspiration.
• And the forces that in bygone times used to be the source of youthful ideals between the fourteenth and the twenty-first year — it would be too much of an assertion to say that this still happens today — the forces that create organs in the physical body for these ideals of youth, are the same forces you can draw forth from their state of slumber and use for the acquisition of Imagination.

From this you will see that the forces of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition are not just any old forces gotten from we do not know where, but are the same forces as those we grow with from our birth to the age of twenty-one. So the forces that live in Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition are very healthy forces. They are the forces a human being uses for his healthy growth and that go to sleep within his body when the corresponding phases of growth are completed.

...

The question now arises as to how this activity is distributed. There is a considerable difference in this respect in the first, second and third stage of life, that is, up till the seventh year, the fourteenth year and the twenty-first year.

• The will working in us up till the seventh year works entirely from out of the planet's interior. It is very interesting to see spiritual-scientifically that in everything working in the child up till the age of seven, it is the force of the earth's depths that are active. If you want to see an actual manifestation of the forces of the earth's interior, then make a study of everything going on in the child up till the age of seven, for these are the forces from within the earth. To delve down into the earth to find the forces of the earth's interior would be absolutely wrong. You would only find earth substances. The forces that are active in the earth come to manifestation in the work they do in the human being up till his seventh year.
• And from the seventh to the fourteenth year, it is the forces of the encircling air that work in man, forces that still belong to the earth, to the earth's atmosphere. These are predominantly at work in everything developing in the human being between seven and fourteen.
• Then comes the most important stage of all, from fourteen to twenty-one. At this stage the subsensible passes over into the super-sensible. Here a kind of balance is created between the subsensible and super-sensible. Now the forces of the earth's whole solar system work at organizing the human being.

So we have the earth's interior in the first period of life; encircling air in the second period of life, that is, what the earth itself is embedded in. The forces streaming down from cosmic spaces in so far as these cosmic spaces are filled with our own actual planetary system, up till the twenty- first year. Not until the age of twenty-one does man tear himself away, as it were, from the influences brought about in him from outside by the planets and the planetary system belonging to these.

Please notice that in everything I have referred to as having an influence on man, bodily influences are of course included. They are bodily processes that the forces from the planet's interior bring about up till the seventh year. They are bodily processes that are formed by the circulating air in connection with the breathing and so on between the seventh and the fourteenth year. There is no doubt that they are bodily processes, in fact actual transformations of bodily organs are brought about; everything being connected with man's growing and becoming larger. Thus man grows beyond all this work being done on him by the earth; all this ceases at twenty-one.

What happens then, however? What happens after twenty-one?

Up till twenty-one we draw on what comes from the earth and its planetary system in the way we have described. We build up our constitution with the earth's help.

• Then, after we have reached the age of twenty-one, we have to draw on ourselves. We gradually have to release what we have put into our organism from out of the forces of the planet and the planetary system.

Activities going on in the blood forces always used to ensure that this happened in the past. As you will probably know, man has not learned to release the planetary forces himself, after the age of twenty-one. And yet he has been doing so. He did it as an unconscious process. The capacity was in his blood. It was built into him to do it. The important change in our present time — and the present extends over a long period of several centuries, of course — is that man's blood is losing the capacity to release what we have put into the organism in this way, before twenty- one.

1919-12-06-GA194

Wherever I have lectured on education, I have always given emphasis to an important landmark in the course of life that occurs at about the ninth year. It is a turning-point that should be very carefully marked in teaching. Up to that time one's teaching about nature should be entirely of the kind where the description of nature and her processes is connected — by way of fables, legends, and so forth — with the moral life. Only at the ninth year may one begin to describe nature in a simple, elementary manner. Then the child is ripe for it. In Waldorf education the whole arrangement and treatment of subjects is derived directly and entirely from actual observation of the human being, down to the smallest details. I pointed this out in the article I wrote on the educational foundations of the Waldorf School, and I alluded there to this turning-point around the ninth year.

We may characterise this turning-point by saying that the I-consciousness receives then a new form.

The child becomes capable of taking note of external nature in a more objective way. Earlier, he unites whatever he sees in nature with his own being.

Now the I-consciousness unfolds, as you know, in the first seven-year stage of life, from about 2 – 2 ½ years of age. What happens is that it comes back in the second seven-year period, at about the ninth year. This is one of the most striking ‘returns’ — this return of the I-consciousness at about the ninth year of age. It comes back in a more spiritual form, whereas in the second or third year of life it has more of a soul character.

This is only one of the events which comes back in a striking manner. The same observation can be made for less significant events.

Discussion

The seven year rhythm can be found in one's personal biography in:

• contacts with people that enter or leave one's life, certain people enter and become important
• milestones regarding one's development in terms of personal interests and/or professional career

Related pages

• Man - the human being
• Cosmic breathing
• Humanity is getting younger
• Biography work

References and further reading

• Helmut Hessenbruch: 'Von der Bedeutung des Siebenjahr-Rhythmus beim heranwachsenden Menschen' (1968)
  • Ph.D thesis 1938
• George and Gisela O'Neil: 'The human life' (1990, third printing 1998)

First seven years of life

• Christoph Rau: 'Wenn die kleinen Kinder beten : Sprüche und Gebete für die ersten sieben Lebensjahre' (1981)
• Werner Christian Simonis : 'Die ersten sieben Jahre. Ein Ratgeber zum Verständnis des Kleinkindes' (1986)
• Dr. med. H. Michael Stellmann ; Wolfgang Warner: 'Die ersten sieben Lebensjahre : das Kind von der Geburt bis zur Schulreihe ; ein medizinisch-pädagogischer Ratgeber' (1999)

Case studies of seven year rhythm in life biography

• Fred Poeppig: 'Die Bedeutung der siebenjährigen Entwicklungsperioden im Lebensgange Rudolf Steiners' (1950)
• F.C.J. Los: 'Der siebenjährige Rhythmus in Goethes Lebenslauf'
• Rudolf Treichler: 'Metamorfosen in de levensloop : Ziekte en ontwikkeling in het leven van Goethe' (1990), original in DE 1984 as 'Metamorphosen im Lebenslauf'