The Body of Man and Earth
14.1
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An analogous relationship
On our journey over the Earth from South to North, we saw a succession of cultural regions emerge. It seemed that the various psycho-social structures in which human beings live, are related to different geographical zones. We saw how the inhabitants of those zones give shape to their individuality and social networks in a variety of ways. We were able to distinguish two opposite extremes: We encountered cultures that leave hardly any room for the development of individuality (13.4), but also communities that consider the ultimate self-experience to be tantamount to a God-experience (13.7), as well as various types of cultures in between.
Taking a closer look, this sequence actually displays something remarkable. For, we are able to discern an analogy between the different forms of Self that we encountered on our journey over the Earth and the subsequent stages of our human process of Self-development, which develops from a symbiotic, paradisical, primal unity through various puberty stages into autonomous Self-awareness.
Body and consciousness
Could it be, in view of all this, that specific stages may be distinguished on Earth, in which a specific form of Self can be developed? And might these stages become visible in the succession of geographical zones that we encountered? And if so, could this sequence shed some light on our astrological work model and deepen our understanding of it? Let us now find out.
Centrifuge
Let us return for a moment to the functional relationship between axes and planes. In our discussion of this ( 5.3), we assumed them to be standing still and ignored their spinning motion. Yet on our journey over the Earth, we did take into account the fact that the Earth is rotating on her axis. We compared an outward focus of attention to the workings of a centrifuge (13.8). Let us revisit this idea for a moment.
For apart from flinging away material, a centrifuge creates a second effect as well, which is the orderly arrangement of this material into distinct fractions:
Due to the centrifugal force, the spinning material will crawl up along the centrifuge wall as its specific gravity decreases. In this way, its composing substances are sorted out into zones or fractions, depending on their specific gravity. The heaviest fraction will end up down below and the lightest one at the top. In this way, a spinning centrifuge arranges a heterogeneously composed mass into a series of subsequent, fractioned layers. So a rotating axis not only generates an outward-flinging movement, but also has an ordering influence.
On our journey over the Earth, we encountered a sequence in socio-cultural areas which show a similar arrangement from down below to up above.
More analogous relationships
This may be an unfamiliar idea, yet it may be worth our while to contemplate it for a moment, all the more so because there are even more of this kind of analogies that we can point to.
In the tropical regions, we see how the Self gets all but absorbed by its natural environment. Physical expression and practical (sacrificial) acts play a key role. In the Mediterranean, a more astral, warm-blooded charge permeates the Self-experience, while in more template regions, the Self adopts a notably cooler, more mental attitude. Finally, up in the high North, the environment has been stripped off from the Self-experience altogether. Here, the Self functions on its own. It stands alone.
Thus, as we travel northward through the successive geographical zones, the ‘heaviness’ of the Self-experience diminishes, coinciding precisely with the arrangement that would have resulted from a centrifuge’s spinning motion: the heaviest fraction (the physical) down below and the lightest fraction (the bare, stripped-off Self) at the top.