Sistine Madonna

The Sistine Madonna by Raphael is one of the world's most well known paintings, together with a.o. Da Vinci's Last Supper and Mona Lisa.

Rudolf Steiner states it is "one of the noblest, most magnificent works of art in the history of mankind" (1913-01-30-GA062).

The 265 cm × 196 cm large oil painting by Raphael (1483-520) is currently in the museum of Dresden. The painting was commissioned in 1512 by Pope Julius II and was one of the last Madonnas painted by Raphael. The painting moved to Dresden from 1754. After World War II, it was relocated to Moscow for a decade before being returned to Germany.

The image of the Madonna and Child is a symbol of the eternally celestial or spiritual in the human being, that wafts down to the Earth out of the extraterrestrial .. whereas below, separated by clouds, we have everything that only proceeds from the earthly. The Mother and Child float toward us over the clouds that cover the globe — out of an indeterminate realm of the spiritual-supersensible — enveloped and surrounded by clouds that seem naturally to take on human form. One of them as though condenses to become the Child of the Madonna. (adapted from 1913-01-30-GA062)

The Madonna contains that which the human soul can bear out of her (the child, just as Isis the Horus boy): the true, higher human being (see Man's higher triad), slumbering in every human, the very best of human and that which is flowing and interweaving as spirit through the world. (adapted from 1909-04-29-GA057)

Aspects

• for the meaning of Mary and Virgin Sophia in esoteric christianity, see the topic page Mary.
• Christmas imagination: "the woman formed out of the clouds, endowed with the forces of the Earth, with the Moon-forces below, with the Sun-forces in the middle, and above, towards the head, with the forces of the stars. The picture of Mary with the little Jesus-child arises out of the cosmos itself. .. in the picture of Mary the mother, the folds of her robe following the forces of the Earth, while in the region of the breast her garment inwardly rounded, taking on the quicksilver form, so that here one has a feeling of inward enclosure. Here the Sun-forces can find entry, and the innocent Jesus-child, who must be thought of as having yet received no earthly nourishment, is the Sun-activity resting on Mary's arm, with the radiance of the stars above. .. the head and eyes of Mary, as though a light were shining out from within them towards men. And the Jesus-child in Mary's arm as though emerging from the rounded cloud-shapes, tender and lovable, inwardly sheltered; and the garment, subject to earthly gravity, expressing what the force of earthly gravity can become.." (1923-10-06-GA229)

healing effect - the Madonna series

• "the picture of the Madonna has a healing effect – within the limits already discussed. When it is contemplated in such a way that is has an after-effect upon the human soul … it has a healing effect to this very day". The same was already the case for the picture of Isis with the Horus boy. (1908-08-05-GA105)
• Rudolf Steiner described the healing effects of Raphael’s Madonnas in 1908, and between 1908 to 1911 directed Dr. Felix Peipers to arrange fifteen images as a therapeutic meditation for patients suffering from emotional disturbances. Sometimes called the “Raphael Madonna Series,” these fifteen images invite active contemplation. Each painting can awaken inner visualizations that lift us into communion in realms beyond the physical world, stirring our feelings of wonder and reverence and opening our souls to divine mysteries.
  • see oa Brian Gray: 'Discovering the Zodiac in the Raphael Madonna Series' (2013) and Christopher Bamford: 'Healing Madonnas' (2017)
• The fifteen images and their location; note: all paintings by Raphael except No 5 The Pazzi Madonna (Donatello) and No 13 Madonna of Bruges (Michelangelo)
  • Nos. 1 & 8 - The Sistine Madonna (Dresden, Gemaldegalerie)
  • No. 2 - La Bella Jardiniere (Paris, Louvre)
  • Nos. 3 & 4 - The Madonna Alba (Washington DC, National Gallery of Art)
  • No. 5 - The Pazzi Madonna by Donatello (Berlin, Dahlem State Museum)
  • Nos. 6 & 14 - Madonna of the Goldfinch (Florence, Uffizi Gallery)
  • No. 7 - Madonna Bridgewater (Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland)
  • No. 9 - The Madonna Tempi (Monaco, Alte Pinakothek)
  • Nos. 10 & 15 - from The Transfiguration (Rome, Pinocoteca, Vatican)
  • No. 11 - Madonna Granduca (Florence, Palatine Galleria)
  • No. 12 - Madonna of the Fish (Madrid, El Prado)
  • No. 13 - Madonna of Bruges by Michaelangelo (Bruges, Church of Notre-Dame)

Madonna as universal symbol of the virgin mother

• origin in the Chthonic and Eleusinian initiations, where the pupil was led in front of two pillarstatues, a male (Father Godhead, planetary spheres) and a female one (Mother, Earth), and after additional tests was led in front of a picture of a mother with a little child representing the god Jacchos (= Christ) who would come one day (1923-12-14-GA232)
• in different cultures (1909-04-29-GA057)
  • India: the goddess with Krishna at her breast
  • Egypt: Isis with the child Horus
    • The Sistine Madonna is the christened picture of the Isis with the Horus child (1920-12-24-GA202)
    • see also: Egyptian mythology
  • China (mentioned without further details in 1909-04-29-GA057)
• Other paintings
  • Michelangelo's Pieta
  • Raphael's various Madonnas (see also: The two Jesus children, eg Schema FMC00.097)
• for additional general information, see also wikipedia topic page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_(art)

Various

• for more on Raphael on KRI - Karmic Relationships Individualities#KRI 52: Elijah - John Baptist - Raphael - Novalis
  • influence of Raphael's deceased father on Raphael's painting - see Influence of deceased souls
  • see also: The being of Elijah (and Mystery of John)

Inspirational quotes

1909-04-29-GA057

In the Sistine Madonna we have a picture of the human soul born of the spiritual universe, and - springing from this soul - the highest that a human being can bring forth: Man's own spiritual birth, what within him is a new begetting of cosmic creative activity.

1908-08-05-GA105

Man of today has but a dim conception of those ancient ideas regarding the inner relationships between wisdom and health, between science and the art of healing ... when we look at the picture of the Madonna and child as painted by Raphael—it reminds us of Isis with the child Horus, the Goddess on whose temple was inscribed the words: “I AM, who was, who is, who will be; my veil no mortal can raise.” This Goddess was mysteriously connected with the art of healing ... this points to a very mysterious fact.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.581A: shows the central detail of the Madonna with Child arising from a radiant heaven filled with angelic faces.

Schema FMC00.581: shows a high resolution picture of Raphael's painting of the Sistine Madonna

Lecture coverage and references

1905-11-25-GA262

If people are able to understand real forms, such as the birth of the soul from the etheric clouds of the Sistine Madonna, then there will soon be no more spiritless matter for them.

1908-08-05-GA105

The unique fact lying at the foundation of temple-sleep is that among the Egyptian priests, and in ancient civilizations in general, wisdom was held to be very closely bound up with the art of healing and with health. The Man of today has but a dim conception of those ancient ideas regarding the inner relationships between wisdom and health, between science and the art of healing; and it will be the task of the anthroposophical movement to direct humanity once more to that conception of the spiritual through which wisdom and the art of healing will be brought again into close connection. This recalls what was said in the last lecture. It recalls that ancient figure of which we were reminded when we looked at the picture of the Madonna and child, as painted by Raphael—it reminds us of Isis with the child Horus, the Goddess on whose temple was inscribed the words: “I AM, who was, who is, who will be; my veil no mortal can raise.”

This Goddess was mysteriously connected with the art of healing; she was regarded as the teacher of the Egyptian priesthood in this respect. There is a remarkable statement taking us back to the very earliest ages of antiquity that shows how Isis was particularly interested in the health of mankind at the time when she was placed among mortals.

This points to a very mysterious fact.

1909-04-29-GA057

Isis with Horus boy and picture of Madonna

from RSH

The picture of the Madonna with the child in Christian representation like Raphael's (Raffaello Sanzio) Sistine Madonna, in other religions as in India as goddess with the Krishna child and in ancient Egypt as Isis with the Horus boy. The meaning of the Isis-Osiris myth. The threefold Isis and the mothers in Goethe's Faust: “Indeed, our human soul bears three natures in itself: a willing-like nature, its being contained in the deepest grounds, a feeling-like nature and a wisdom nature. These are the three soul mothers; they face us in the three figures of the Egyptian Isis.” “Hence, the reborn Isis faces us in the Madonna, as it were, in suitable way heightened and transfigured.” “On the other hand, the Madonna contains that which the human soul can bear out of her (remark: as Isis the Horus boy): the true, higher human being, slumbering in every human, the very best of human and that which is flowing and interweaving as spirit through the world.“

quote A

...

Now let us try to turn what has been said into a physical picture. Let us ask ourselves:

Do we not possess a physical picture of what has been described, where the spiritual world is represented by cloud formations out of which the spiritual is born in the form of angels' heads portraying the human soul? Have we not in the Virgin's figure in Raphael's Sistine Madonna a picture born out of the divine spiritual world?

Let us go on to ask:

What becomes of a Man whose soul has been cleansed and purified, who has ascended to higher knowledge and has unfolded in his soul those spiritual images that give life within him to the divine, living and weaving through the world? This human being who gives birth in Man to the higher Man, to a Man who represents a little world in the great world, who out of his purified soul brings forth the true higher Man — what is he?

He cannot be otherwise described than by the word clairvoyant. If we try to make a picture of the soul that gives birth to the higher man out of himself, out of the spiritual universe, we need only call to mind the picture of the Sistine Madonna, the Madonna with the wonderful Child in her arms.

Thus in the Sistine Madonna we have a picture of the human soul born of the spiritual universe, and springing from this soul the highest that a human being can bring forth — Man's own spiritual birth, what within him is a new begetting of cosmic creative activity.

quote B about the Madonna as a universal symbol of all ages and cultures

All that surrounds us in the world has sprung from the spirit we seek in the soul. Thus the soul has sprung from the divine Father-spirit living and weaving throughout the universe, bearing the Son of wisdom Who is like unto this Father-spirit, of Whom He is a repetition.

We understand now the way in which Goethe approached this problem in all its mystical significance when he tried to gather the whole content of Faust together in the “Chorus Mysticus”, where he speaks of the human soul as the 'eternal feminine' that draws us onward to the universal spirit of the world.

This was Goethe's attitude to his Madonna problem at the very end of Faust. From the figure which the portrayal of the Madonna has assumed, even today it is hardly possible to recognize fully what is here expressed as in a picture which is nevertheless founded on profound truth.

If, however, we trace this Madonna problem back to its origin, we shall realize that in very truth the mightiest human problem, though closely veiled, confronts us in the figure of the Madonna.

These Madonnas are, it is true, greatly changed from the simple figure of the catacombs in the first Christian centuries, where we find Madonnas with the Child groping for the mother's breast. From this first simple figure, having little to do with art, it is a long way to the fifteenth century, to Michaelangelo and Raphael, where after many transformations the Child and the Madonna have become in the modern sense much more in accordance with art — in accordance with the art of painting. It is, however, as if these supreme artists proceeded from no very full knowledge but a definite feeling of the deeper truth of the Madonna problem. Very beautiful experiences arise in us when we stand before the so-called Pieta of Michaelangelo in St. Peter's in Rome, where the Madonna is sitting with the corpse across her knees — thus the Madonna is at the age when Christ had already passed through death but is portrayed with all the beauty of youth. In Michaelangelo's day it was a much discussed question why at her age he had given the Madonna this youthful beauty. When asked about it he replied how it was well known that virgins long preserve the freshness of youth — and this is no mere belief but spiritually derived knowledge. Thus why should he not be right in representing the Mother of God at this age still with all the freshness of youth? It is a remarkable conception here expressed by Michaelangelo! Although it is not openly expressed by Raphael, nevertheless we feel it to be there in his pictures.

We can, however, understand this conception only by going far back into the times when what meets us in the Madonnas as unconscious art was still outwardly living.

We might go very far back, and actually we should find the Madonna problem all over the world. We might go to old India and there find the Goddess with the Krishna child at her breast; in a Chinese cult we might find similar pictures.

1913-01-30-GA062

Nominally great figures, these popes were certainly not what Savonarola or his like-minded comrades would have called Christians. The papacy had passed over into heathenism, not in the old, but in a new sense. There was not much trace of Christian piety in these circles, though certainly of the desire for splendour and lust for power. Raphael becomes the servant of this heathenized Christendom. But such that something is created out of his soul by which the Christian ideas appear in many respects in a new form. We see the most heartfelt, the most delightful content of the world of Christian legends arise in the Madonna pictures and other works of Raphael. What a stark contrast there is between the inwardness of soul in Raphael's works and all that went on around him in Rome, when he became the outer servant of the popes. How was all this possible? Already, with his apprenticeship in Perugia, and then his time in Florence, we see how disparate were the actual circumstances and Raphael's inner nature. This was quite especially the case in Rome, where he created pictures of worldwide renown. Yet Raphael and his surroundings have to be taken into account if we are to acquire a proper idea of what lived within him.

Let us allow the pictures of Raphael to work upon us. For the moment, this cannot be done with individual pictures, though one of his best-known paintings may be singled out, so as to come to an understanding of the characteristic soul quality in Raphael.

It is the Sistine Madonna in nearby Dresden, which almost everyone knows from the numerous reproductions found throughout the world. This shows itself to be one of the noblest, most magnificent works of art in the history of mankind.

We see the Mother and Child float toward us over the clouds that cover the globe — out of an indeterminate realm of the spiritual-supersensible — enveloped and surrounded by clouds that seem naturally to take on human form. One of them as though condenses to become the Child of the Madonna. She calls forth a quite particular feeling in us. In permeating us inwardly, this enables us to forget all legendary ideas from which the image of the Madonna derives, as well as all Christian traditions that tell of the Madonna.

I should like to characterize, not in a dull manner, but as large-heartedly as possible what we are able to feel in regard to the Madonna. In considering human evolution in the sense of spiritual science we transcend the materialistic view. According to the natural scientific view, the lower creatures evolved first, ascending as far as the human being. However, from the standpoint of spiritual science we have to see the human being as having an existence over and above the lower kingdoms of nature. With the human being we have, in spiritual scientific terms, what is much older than all the creatures that stand in relative proximity to him in the kingdoms of nature.

For spiritual science the human being existed before the animal, the plant or even the mineral kingdom came into being. We look back into far distant perspectives of time in which what is now our innermost nature was already there, only later to unite itself with the kingdoms that stand below the human being. Thus, we see the essential being of Man descend, that in truth can only be comprehended in raising ourselves to the supersensible, to what is pre-earthly. By means of spiritual science we come to recognize that no adequate conception of the human being is to be gained from forces connected only with the earth. We must raise ourselves to super-terrestrial regions to see the approach of the human being. To speak metaphorically, we must feel how something floats toward the earthly — in turning our gaze, for instance, to the sunrise in a region such as that in which Raphael lived, to the gold-gleaming sunrise. There, even in natural existence, we can come to feel how something must be added to what is earthly, of forces that we can connect with the sun. Then there arises for us, out of the golden lustre, the symbol of what floats down in order to take on the vesture of the earthly.

In Perugia quite especially, one can have the sense that the eye beholds the same sunrise seen by Raphael and that the natural phenomenon of the rising sun grants us a feeling of what is celestial in the human being. Out of the clouds shone through by the sun-gold there can arise for us — or it can at least appear so — the image of the Madonna and Child as a symbol of the eternally celestial in the human being, that wafts down to the earth out of the extraterrestrial. And below, separated by clouds, we have everything that only proceeds from the earthly. Our feeling-perception can rise to the most exalted spiritual heights, if — not theoretically and not abstractly but with our whole soul — we abandon ourselves to what affects us in Raphael's Madonna. It is a quite natural feeling one can have in regard to the world-famous picture in Dresden. And I should like to provide an example showing how it has had such an effect on some people, in quoting words written by Goethe's friend, Karl August, Duke of Weimar, concerning the Sistine Madonna, following a visit to Dresden:

With the Raphael adorning the collection there, it was for me as when, having climbed the heights of the Gotthard all day and traversed the Urseler Loch, one all of a sudden looks down on the blossoming, green valley below. As often as I saw it and looked away again, it always appeared only like an apparition. To me, even the most beautiful Corregios were only human pictures; in memory, their beautiful forms palpable to the senses. — Raphael, however, remained always like a mere breath, like one of those appearances the gods send us in female form, in our happiness or sorrow; like pictures that present themselves to us again in sleep, upon awakening or in dreaming, and having once seen, appear to us day and night ever afterwards, moving us in our inmost soul.

And it is remarkable, what is to be found in following up the literature of those able to express something of a profound nature in viewing the Sistine Madonna, as also other Raphael pictures. Again and again we find comparisons with light, with the sun, with what is luminous and what is spring-like in nature.

...

Entering in feeling into the way in which Raphael himself must have felt, we have to say to ourselves: In looking at a picture such as the Madonna della Sedia it strikes us, in contemplating the Madonna with the Child, along with the Child John, that we forget the rest of the world — forget above all that this Child held by the Madonna could be linked with what we know as the Golgotha experience. With Raphael's picture we forget everything that followed as the life of Christ-Jesus. We give ourselves over entirely to the moment seen here. We have simply a Mother and Child, of which Herman Grimm said, it is the most exalted mystery to be met with in the outer world. We view the moment in serenity, as though nothing could connect onto it, either before or after. We are wholly taken up by the relationship of the Madonna and Child, separated from everything else. Thus, in always showing us the eternal in a given moment, Raphael's creations appear fundamentally complete in themselves.

...

Fundamentally, the works of Raphael first embarked on their triumphal march when, with love and devotion, innumerable engravings, photographs and reproductions of his works were made. Their effect continues right into the reproductions. One can understand Herman Grimm when he relates that he once hung a large collotype of the Sistine Madonna in his room and on entering, it was always as though he were not fully permitted to enter — as though the room now belonged to the picture as a sanctuary of the Madonna. Some will already have experienced how the soul actually becomes a different being than it otherwise is in ordinary life, when truly able to give itself over to a picture by Raphael — even a mere reproduction. Certainly, the originals will some day no longer exist.

But, do the originals not still exist in other realms?

...

1920-12-24-GA202

from RSH

Parallels between the Egyptian and our epochs (example Kepler).

The Sistine Madonna is the christened picture of the Isis with the Horus child.

Isis myth: Osiris as solar representative is killed by Typhon (= Ahriman), is found by his wife Isis in Asia and brought back to Egypt. Typhon dismembers the corpse in 14 parts that are buried at different places. Osiris is the representative of the solar forces and - at the same time - the representative of the force that fructifies the Earth. These facts are also preserved in the measures of one of the (presumably Cheops) pyramids: The shade disappears from the spring solstice up to the autumn solstice, because it falls in the base.

1923-10-06-GA229

describes the Sistine Madonna as a Christmas imagination

Now imagine how this could be portrayed. First we have the Moon-Earth element, spread out below the Earth's surface. Then, going out into the great spaces, we find a raying forth from man into the cosmos, and this could be shown as a heavenly Earth-star radiance, sent out by the Earth into the cosmos. The head of Mary is like a radiant star, which means that her whole countenance and bearing must give expression to this star-radiant quality [see BBD].

If then we turn to the breast, we come to the breathing process; to the Sun-element, the child, forming itself out of the clouds in the atmosphere, shot through by the rays of the Sun.

Further down we come to the Moon-like, salt-forming forces, given outward expression by bringing the limbs into dynamic relation with the Earth and letting them arise out of the salt and the Moon-elements in the Earth. Here we have the Earth in so far as it is inwardly transfigured by the Moon.

All this would really have to be shown through a kind of rainbow colouring. For if we were to look from the cosmos towards the Earth, through the shining of the stars, it would be as though the Earth were wishing to shine inwardly, beneath its surface, in rainbow colours. On the Earth we have something related to the Earth-forces, to gravity and to the formation of the limbs, which can be expressed only through the garment which follows the Earth-forces in its folds. So we should have the garment down below, in relation to the Earth-forces. Then we should have to portray, a little higher up, that which gives expression to the Earth-Moon element. We could even picture the Moon, if we wished to symbolise; but the Moon-element is clearly expressed in the configuration of the Earth.

Higher up still, we must bring in that which comes forth from the Moon-element. We see how the clouds are permeated with many human heads, pressing downwards; one of them is condensed into the Sun resting on Mary's arm: the Jesus-child. And all this must be completed, in an upward direction, through the star-radiance expressed in the countenance of Mary.

If we understand the depths of winter, how it shows us the connection of the cosmos with man, with man who takes up the birth-forces in the Earth, the only possible way of presenting the woman is in this form: formed out of the clouds, endowed with the forces of the Earth: with the Moon-forces below, with the Sun-forces in the middle, and above, towards the head, with the forces of the stars. The picture of Mary with the little Jesus-child arises out of the cosmos itself.

.. everything we feel at Christmas-time flows together into the picture of Mary and the child — that picture which hovered so often before painters in earlier times, especially in the first Christian centuries, and of which the last echoes have been preserved in Raphael's Sistine Madonna.

The Sistine Madonna was born out of the great instinctive knowledge of nature and the spirit which prevailed in ancient times. For it is a picture of the Imagination which must in fact come to a man who transposes his inner vision into the secrets of Christmas in such a way that they become for him a living picture.

.. out of all that we can feel at Christmas time, arises the picture of Mary the mother, the folds of her robe following the forces of the Earth, while in the region of the breast — even these details are apparent in the painting — her garment has to be inwardly rounded, taking on the quicksilver form, so that here one has a feeling of inward enclosure. Here the Sun-forces can find entry, and the innocent Jesus-child, who must be thought of as having yet received no earthly nourishment, is the Sun-activity resting on Mary's arm, with the radiance of the stars above. That is how we have to represent the head and eyes of Mary, as though a light were shining out from within them towards men. And the Jesus-child in Mary's arm must appear as though emerging from the rounded cloud-shapes, tender and lovable, inwardly sheltered; and then the garment, subject to earthly gravity, expressing what the force of earthly gravity can become [see BBD].

1924-02-13-GA352

from RSH:

Raphael painted his Sistine Madonna originally for a banner of procession, he himself only painted the Madonna and the child.

2017 - Christopher Bamford on the Madonna Sequence (extract only, Part 2), see 'Further reading section' below for further references.

[The Images, the Etheric Body, and the Pentagram Organisation Underlying the Sequence.]

There are fifteen images, which Dr. Peipers projected in large format and in a particularly sequence on the wall before his patients in his Munich clinic. It is unknown how long the contemplation, or being with the image lasted.

The sequence presents twelve different works of art in fifteen images. All but one of these are images of the Madonna and Child. Eight are by Raphael: Sistine Madonna ( appears twice, once full, once as a detail ), Beautiful Gardener, Alba Madonna, Madonna of the Goldfinch ( also appears twice ), Bridgewater Madonna, Tempi Madonna, Granduca Madonna, Madonna of the Fish. To these are added a marble relief ( Pazzi Madonna ) by Donatello and a sculpture ( Bruges Madonna ) by Michaelangelo. There are also two details from Raphael's Transfiguration: first, as the tenth image, a detail of the head of the transfigured Christ Jesus and, as the fifteenth and closing image, his full figure.

Thus, the Sistine Madonna frames the first half of the sequence, as if an in-breath, while the Transfiguration frames the second half, as if an out-breath.

The order of these images is by no means random. The sequence in which they are organised is precise and has a peculiar end or function. In the first instance, contemplation of the images (above all in sequence, but in some degree also individually) is intended to purify and harmonise the etheric or life-body of the patient or contemplator; and also, consequently (or secondly), to purify and harmonise the astral or soul body.

The sequence does this by following the form of the pentagram, as this is inscribed through the progressive movement of the placement of the infant Jesus in relation to his mother Mary. Thus the figure of Jesus moves from the left foot of Mary (the Beautiful Gardener) upward to his mother's face (Pazzi Madonna): then moves down to the right foot ( Madonna of the Goldfinch ); then moves crosswise upward to the left ( Sistine Madonna detail ), and then horizontally to the right ( Tempi Madonna ), before finally descending diagonally back to the left foot ( Madonna of the Goldfinch — full picture ). [ see diagram ]

Thus, the path of the Jesus child moving from image to image in relation to the Madonna, beginning at the left foot, organises the sequence. The path thus traced forms a pentagram that follows the fivefold flow or stream of the etheric currents ( of the etheric or life body ) of the human being.

As we observe the arrangement and sequence of pictures in the Raphael Madonna series our gaze and the movement of our etheric body follow the same directional flow. In the images we find "mirror reflections" of this directional movement, as we are facing the pentagram of pictures as though into a mirror. With our attentive gaze moving from image to image, healing etheric currents can move more harmoniously through our physical body in the directions of this pentagram (source: Brian Gray. "Discovering the Zodiac in the Raphael Madonna Series" ).

As Rudolf Steiner said in an earlier esoteric lesson the pentagram "is a sign in the esoteric script, the sign of the human being". This sign is not made up: it is not arbitrary, but rather is read from the cosmos, and is in correspondence with the cosmos. That is, it expresses and mediates the influences of the sun, moon, and planets, as well as the constellations of the zodiac. In this regard, Brian Gray has proposed zodiacal correspondences for the fifteen Madonna images ( See Figure 2 ).

The human being as the microcosm in relation to the macrocosm both reflects the cosmos and extends into it. From this double point of view, he or she is also, in a certain sense, continuous with it, and in this sense a cosmic being. From this point of view, it is the human's task to "bring about a transformation within of what has streamed in, and to change what flows out into the world from within" (Esoteric Lesson: 1906-10-29).

A year later (on 1907-11-01), having given the same description, Rudolf Steiner added with regard to the practice of "pentagram exercises", that the ideal is gradually to develop within oneself the nature of a plant, and that this may be achieved "by approaching the divine with the greatness devotion".

Furthermore, Steiner added, through such pentagram work, one acquires not just knowledge of oneself, but also of one's connection with the macrocosm. During this early period, he also emphasised from another point of view, that the points of the pentagram may be understood in terms of moral development and the acquisition of certain soul virtues ( steadfastness, confidence, love, hope, trust ) as in the following meditation:

To place myself steadfast in existence ( concentrating on left leg )

To walk the path of life with confidence. ( concentration on right leg )

To nurture love in my being's core. ( concentration on left arm )

In imprint hope in every deed. ( concentration on right arm )

To have trust in all thinking. ( concentration on the head )

Summing all this up, three longer quotations from Rudolf Steiner may help amplify one's understanding:

1

Consider the pentagram...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 suprasensory: one cannot see it with physical eyes. To perceive it, clairvoyant methods are necessary. Evidently, then, the essence of the etheric body does not consist in its appearing in a fine nebulous framework. 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 the physical body fashions itself out of the etheric body, which, like the ocean, is flooded through with many currents flowing in all directions. Among them are five main currents. When you stand with feet apart and arms outstretched, you can actually 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 five currents correspond, as it were, to one's skeletal framework. However, one must not suppose that everything pertaining to the etheric body is only within; because when a person moves, for instance, the currents actually go through the air. The pentagram is as mobile as one's physical skeleton. Thus when the occultist speaks of the pentagram as the figure of the human being, it is not a matter of something that has been thought out; 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.

1907-09-13 "Occult Signs and Symbols", Lecture 1

2

According to spiritual science, a human being, as he or she stands before us, is divided ( from one point of view ) into seven parts, of which the physical body perceptible to our senses is only one part of the human being.

Human beings possess this physical body in common with the whole of the mineral kingdom surrounding us; the forces at work in our physical body are the same as those operating in the whole of so-called inanimate nature.

The physical body is, however, permeated by Still higher forces, just as a sponge may be permeated by water. The difference between inanimate and animate bodies is that in inanimate bodies the materials of which they ate constituted follow physical, chemical laws only: but in animate bodies the various materials are combined with one another in a very complicated manner, and only under the influence of the etheric body can they be held together in this form, which to them is unnatural and is forced upon them. The physical materials have the constant tendency to group themselves according to their own nature; this signifies the destruction of the living body, and the etheric body fights continually against this destruction.

Each organ of the physical body has this etheric body behind it. A human being has an etheric heart, an etheric brain, and so forth, which holds together the corresponding physical organ. One is naturally tempted to picture the etheric body in a material way, somewhat like a thin cloud, but in reality the etheric body consists of a number of currents of force.

1907-11, Basel

3

The clairvoyant sees in the human etheric body certain currents that are exceedingly important. Thus, for example, there is a stream which rises from the left foot to the forehead, to a point which lies between the eyes, about a half an inch down within the brain; it then returns to the other foot; and from there it passes to the hand on the opposite side; from thence through the heart to the other hand and from there back to its starting-point.

In this way it forms a pentagram of currents of force...This current is not the only one in the etheric body, there are very many of them. However, it is to this stream of force that the human being especially owes its upright position.

1907-11-02, "The Gospel of St.John. Lecture 2

4

In am early formulation ( included here only to indicate that from the beginning Steiner worked with the symbol of the pentagram ). Steiner describes an etheric current coming from the cosmos as follows "There are etheric streams that circulate out of the cosmos through the human body. One such such steam enters through the head and proceeds from there into the right foot, then into the left hand then into the right hand and then to the left foot, and from thence back to the head. Think of the human being in the position you described standing with outstretched arms; then the stream has the form of the pentagram.

1906-11-14; Esoteric Lesson

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The images are to be projected or meditated in the following sequence:

1. Sistine Madonna ( full image )
2. Beautiful Gardener ( Pisces )
3. Alba Madonna ( Aquarius )
4. Alba Madonna ( detail - Capricorn).
5. Pazzi Madonna ( Sagittarius )
6. Madonna of the Goldfinch ( Scorpio )
7. Bridgewater Madonna ( Libra )
8. Sistine Madonna ( detail - Virgo )
9. Tempi Madonna ( Leo )
10. Transfiguration ( detail )
11. Granduca Madonna ( Cancer )
12. Madonna of the Fish ( Gemini )
13. Bruges Madonna ( Taurus )
14. Madonna of the Goldfinch ( Aries )
15. Transfiguration ( detail )

In the collection "Supplementary Lectures on Color", referring to himself in the third person, Dr.Peipers' describes the use of the Madonna pictures in the color therapy treatment in this way:

"In the clinic all patients received so-called color therapy ( during their stay of often several weeks and several months ) in part once a day, usually mornings but sometimes also afternoons. First they were shown lantern slides of the so-called Madonna Series in Dr.Peipers' study. The series involved fifteen images, with thirteen Madonna images and two images of details from the Transfiguration ( by Raphael ): one shows the head; the other shows the full figure of Christ.

The beginning of the series is the Sistine Madonna and the closing is the Transfiguration by Raphael. The series is arranged so that in one image after the other the placement of the child, the Christ, in relation to the mother describes a pentagram, beginning at the right leg. Through observation the patient should experience a permeation of his or her etheric stream by Christ. Afterwards, the patient into one of the two square color chambers".

We also have descriptions by others. For instance, by Hilda Boos-Hamburger on 'The Use of the Madonna Image in Color Therapy" ( from notes made from memory ):

"Felix Peipers had put together a series of Madonna images that he, with Rudolf Steiner's approval, included in the treatment. He did this presumably based on the characterisation of the Madonna image as a healing remedy that Rudolf Steiner gave in his Stuttgart cycle "Universe, Earth, and Man", in 1908 ( Lectures 1 & 2 ): "...that wonderful symbol of the Virgin Mother. From the standpoint of spiritual science, it can certainly be emphasised that the picture ( of the Madonna ) has a healing effect ( within the limits already discussed ) when it is contemplated in such a way that it has ab aftereffect on the human soul — that is, it has a healing effect to this very day when the soul lies in sleep and can, for instance, dream of this picture.

Dr.Peipers showed the series ( in lantern-slides or only in photographs ) to the patient either right before going to sleep, or right before the beginning of color-chamber treatment. Rudolf Steiner would have drawn attention to how in each picture a particular etheric stream reveals itself. The Sistine Madonna and the figure of Christ from the Transfiguration by Raphael especially expresses the harmony of these streams. If one lets the images work upon oneself, the etheric body can thereby be harmonised and be brought into healthy movement, or rhythm".

Supplementary Lectures on Color

We may add to this the description by Maria Strakosch-Geisler, who made notes during her treatment:

1. "In the full image of "Sistine Madonna" the main motif is to be seen. Its entire composition is based on the pentagram. Dr.Steiner pointed out repeatedly that the deepest mysteries of humanity underlie the pentagram as a symbol.
2. The sequence of the images shows a particular movement of the Jesus child. Following the first image, that of the Sistine Madonna, which provides the main motif for the whole series, there follows a second picture or image: "The Beautiful Gardener". The Jesus child is standing on the right foot of his mother with his left leg positioned in a climbing movement towards her. His right hand, as well as his glance, gives further testimony of this intention, taken up by the gesture both hands of the mother. John ( the John-the-Baptist child ) follows the event with rapt attention, as if also to call the observer of the picture to turn his or her attention to the action.
3. The "Alba Madonna", the third image, shows us the Jesus child in the further ascent in the same direction taken from the beginning. In this picture the John child follows the direction of movement of the Jesus child as he moves further with intensified attention. John and the Jesus child show by the meeting of their eyes that they stand fully within the present event: the Jesus child with the expression of a strong consciousness of the event. His left foot is bent for further climbing. The mother's glance, on the other hand, works outside of time and outside of space, as is the case with the Sistine Madonna.
4. The fourth picture of the "Alba Madonna" again, but this time a detail from the painting, which further strengthens the intensity of the event and the movement for the observer.
5. The "Pazzi Madonna" by Donatello, the fifth image, shows the full union of the mother and child at the root of the nose, the location of the "I", expressing the movement of the "I" of both the child and the mother. It were the physical and the etheric bodies fully coincide.
6. In the sixth image, a detail of the 'Madonna of the Goldfinch" that cuts off below the navel of the child, and shows the child returned back to the ground in a stance that announces the next movement to follow, which is upward to the right arm of the mother.
7. The seventh image, the "Bridgewater Madonna", shows us the child rising up the right arm of the mother with a powerful swing.
8. In the eight image, which is a detail of the "Sistine Madonna" ( head and chest ), we see the child being safely carried and held and resting majestically on the right arm of the mother.
9. The ninth image, the "Tempi Madonna". The child is on the left arm of the mother, with the mother pressing him to her heart with unending inwardness. With this picture the movement has come to a position of balance. Images eight and nine balance one another.
10. In the tenth image, a detail of the "Transfiguration", a totally new motif begins, first indicated in the glance turned upward. Only in the last picture of the series ( 15 ) does the new motif fully manifest.
11. The eleventh image, "Granduca Madonna", shows through the glance of the child the further movement in a descending line. This intention comes out more clearly in the next image.
12. The twelfth image, "Madonna of the Fish" ( detail ). The child strives back toward the starting-point.
13. The thirteenth image, "Madonna of Bruges" by Michaelangelo, shows us the child taking the last step. He steps onto the ground again.
14. The fourteenth image, "Madonna of the Goldfinch" ( in full ). The child has returned to the starting-point, to the right foot of the mother. The pentagram is now complete.
15. The last image of the series ( 15 ), "Transfiguration on Mount Tabor" by Raphael, detail. The figure of the ascending Christ. The new motif suggested in the tenth picture. The pentagram is gliding freely in the upward direction.

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What is wanted and striven for with the meditative and repeated observing of this series of images before going to sleep at the appropriate time is perhaps best shown in a comment by Dr. Steiner in which he said that, with most people, the etheric body has slipped down and must be lifted.

Madonna cult

1908-08-05-GA105

from RSH

The curative effect of the temple-sleep in ancient Egypt: The priest transformed the dream pictures of the sick person into etheric pictures of the ancient Atlantean gods.

The picture of the Isis with the Horus boy had an even stronger effect. Isis is the reproductive power of the moon which was effective in the asexual reproduction until the Lemurian age (Horus comes into being through a sunbeam of Osiris = sun). Her curative effect has partially kept so far: “We can experience something of what remains of this in that wonderful symbol of the virgin mother which is preserved in the picture of the Madonna.

From the standpoint of spiritual science, it can certainly be emphasised that the picture of the Madonna has a healing effect – within the limits already discussed. When it is contemplated in such a way that is has an after-effect upon the human soul … it has a healing effect to this very day.” (I.e. if humankind becomes absorbed in the spiritual wisdom).

1923-12-14-GA232

from RSH:

Portrayal of the Chthonic and Eleusinian initiations, which acquainted the pupil with the secrets of natural forces and physical substances, especially those of the planetary metal forces (examples Saturn – lead, moon – silver). The pupil was also led in front of two pillarstatues, a male (Father Godhead, planetary spheres) and a female one (Mother, Earth). After additional tests he was led in front of a picture of a mother with a little child representing the god Jacchos (= Christ) who would come one day. That was not understood completely later in the Christian pictures or icons of the Madonna (as the Sistine Madonna). “It still awaits understanding.”

Related pages

• Mary
• Christ Module 2 - Nature of the Christ being
• The being of Elijah
• Mystery of John
• Egyptian mythology

References and further reading

• Marielene Putscher: 'Raphaels sixtinische Madonna : das Werk und seine Wirkung' (1955)
• Theodor Hetzer: 'Die Sixtinische Madonna' (1991)
• Michael Ladwein: 'Raphaels Sixtinische Madonna : Zeugnisse aus zwei Jahrhunderten deutschen Geisteslebens' (1993)
• Robert N. Nuber: 'Die heilende Madonnenbildreihe nach Felix Peipers und Rudolf Steiner' (1997)
• Loek Dullaart: 'De madonna's van Raffaël' (2005)
• Harald Schwaetzer, Stefan Hasler, Elena Filippi: 'Raffaels Sixtinische Madonna : eine Vision im Dialog' (2012)
• Brian Gray: 'Discovering the Zodiac in the Raphael Madonna Series' (2013)
  • Rudolf Steiner described the healing effects of Raphael’s Madonnas in August 1908, and from 1908 to 1911 he directed Dr. Felix Peipers to arrange fifteen images as a therapeutic meditation for patients suffering from emotional disturbances. Sometimes called the “Raphael Madonna Series,” these fifteen images invite active contemplation. Each painting can awaken inner visualizations that lift us into communion in realms beyond the physical world, stirring our feelings of wonder and reverence and opening our souls to divine mysteries.
• Christopher Bamford: 'Healing Madonnas' (2017)
  • Exploring the Sequence of Madonna Images Created by Rudolf Steiner and Felix Peipers for Use in Therapy and Meditation
  • In a 1908 lecture, Steiner addressed the subterranean spiritual links connecting ancient Egypt and our own time and described certain healing functions of the Isis Mysteries. He connected the Madonna Mary, in a sense, as the evolutionary metamorphosis of Isis, focusing on Raphael’s visionary image of her in the Sistine Madonna.
• Madonna Postcards, set 15 (The Healing Forces of the Madonna Images)

Internet digital

• creativityandhealing.podia.com/the-madonna-sequence (1h45' video course)