The Etheric
Formative Forces
from The Etheric
Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth & Man
by Guenther Wachsmuth, 1932
There are altogether seven etheric
primal forces, formative forces, active in the cosmos; of these,
however, only four reveal themselves in the space-and-time processes of
our present phenomenal world. In what follows, therefore, we shall deal
only with these four etheric formative forces.
Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophical
science designates these four kinds of ether as:—
The four kinds of ether may be
classified in two groups, and this distinction is of fundamental
importance for the understanding of all that is to follow: — The first
two, Warmth Ether and Light Ether, have the tendency to expand, the
impulse to radiate out from a given central point; they act
centrifugally; whereas the other two, Chemical Ether and Life Ether,
have the tendency to draw in toward a centre, the impulse to concentrate
all in a given central point; their action is suctional, centripetal.
This polarity of the two ether groups—the centrifugal, radiating,
self-expanding will, and the suctional, centripetal will to draw inward,
to concentrate—is an ultimate elemental principle lying at the bottom
of all natural phenomena.
Warmth Ether tends towards the spherical form. If it were merely
a conveyer of “motion,” then it could in turn call forth only motion
in a substance-medium in which it works.
Since, however, the tendency to create
spherical forms is inseparably linked with its action, therefore it
calls forth, wherever it enters into Nature and is not obstructed in its
action, spherical forms. We are here dealing—and this must again
and again be emphasized—not with abstract dead oscillations of
unknown origin, but with concrete formative forces.
The
second ether state is that of Light Ether, or, more simply, of that
which is given to the physical perception of man as “light”. As
Lenard says, light gave us the first intimation of the existence of
ether, and he thinks “Light is undoubtedly a transverse wave motion:
that is, in a beam of light and perpendicular to its direction—never
merely backward and forward displacements in the same direction with the
beam, as is the case in sound waves—there are present periodically
shifting states. Optical researches by no means recent—for instance,
those in regard to polarization of light, have already shown the
transverse character of light waves. In the course of time we have
learned to recognize still other ether waves which are invisible:
ultra-violet, ultra-red, and electric waves; but these as a group have
the same characteristics as light waves, differing only in their
lengths.” That the “characteristics” are similar, the lengths
different, may satisfy us so long as we are testing in a one-sided and
arbitrary fashion the quantitative-mechanical action in the substance
medium; but in this way we learn nothing whatever in regard to the
natures and the concrete distinctions of the different kinds of ether.
The Light Ether to which we refer, which calls forth for the human eye
in the manner to be explained later the phenomenon of light, does in
fact induce among other things a transverse oscillation; but in addition
to what has been said above we must add that this occurrence describes
the figure of a triangle, so that Light Ether, as we shall see, when it
can exert its effect unhindered in Nature, also produces there
triangular forms, whereas Warmth Ether produces spherical forms. We may
say, then, that an oscillation, a form which is caused by Light Ether in
a substance-medium, takes the shape of a triangle.
The
third ether is Chemical Ether,
Tone or Sound Ether. Its
forces, that is, cause the chemical processes, differentiations,
dissolutions, and unions of substances; but also — though, as it were,
through activities in another field — its forces transmit to us the
tones perceptible to the senses. The inner kinship of these two spheres
of action will be clear to us from the phenomenon of Chladni’s
sound-forms. For it is tone which causes the uniting together, the
orders and forms, of substance and bodies of substance. “That which
the physically audible tone produces then in the dust is happening
everywhere in space. Space is interpenetrated by waves produced by the
forces of Chemical Ether,” which, in the manner of the Chladni dust
figures, dissolve and unite substances. But Chemical Ether has in
reality “a tone-and-sound nature of which sensible sound, or tone
heard by the physical ear, is only an outward expression: that is, an
expression which has passed through air as a medium.”
We must establish the fact that tone
and chemical processes are to be attributed to the same ether in the
manner explained.
Chemical Ether, when it can exert
itself unhindered in Nature, produces, as we shall be shown concretely, half-moon
forms.
In contrast with the expansive kinds
of ether—warmth and Light Ether—Chemical Ether, as we have said,
tends in its action to be centripetal.
It may also be proved that the
phenomenon of cold is one of those attributes which are to be ascribed
to Chemical Ether, a fact which is essential for an understanding of the
relation between processes of cold and of contraction.
The
fourth ether is Life Ether. It is phylogenetically the most
highly evolved ether, and therefore in its qualities most varied and
complicated. It is that which is rayed out to us, among other things,
from the sun and then modified in its action by the atmosphere of the
earth. Life Ether, together with Chemical Ether, belongs to the group of
suctional forces, those which tend to draw inwards. We shall also be
able to prove its relation to that which is called “gravitation” and
to the phenomenon of magnetism.
Its form-building tendency, when it
can exert its effect unhindered in substance, leads to square shapes,
expressed, for instance, in crystallizing salt.
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