According to Anthroposophy, each element, substance and living being on Earth are part of a harmonic set that breathes as a true living cosmos. This cosmos has a sensitive, visible and measurable aspect with which we relate through our senses and which we understand rationally through our academic science, but also has a set of non-visible forces, its immaterial or suprasensitive aspect.

For Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science, this suprasensitive field is as real and subject to study as the material world. The human being occupies a very peculiar position within this worldview. He is considered a condensed image of this world around him. A microcosm in permanent interaction with the material and spiritual macrocosm.

The three constituent principles of man or tripart

When we contemplate the human body, we can perceive three very distinct parts: head, trunk and limbs. Behind this apparent simplicity, however, one of the great secrets of the anthroposophical art of healing is hidden. For an anthroposophic physician, the human being is a trimmed organism.

Deepening in this direction, as we look at the head, we see that it dominates the neurosensory processes. If we look at the brain, we see a structure of very low vitality and high specialization. Through the head, most sensory stimuli penetrate the brain through the cranial nerves. Another feature of the head is that its bones have flat, rounded shapes and are located on the periphery to protect the brain.

At the opposite pole are the abdomen and limbs, with predominance of intense metabolic activity, where the processes of cellular regeneration are very active and there is a “going to the world” both through the hands and feet, as well as through the residues that weeliminated. The bones, in this pole, are long and rectilinear and are protected by musculature, giving them sustentation.

Among these two regions with such distinct characteristics is the thorax, which, in Anthroposophic Medicine, harbours the balance between the described polarities, being the seat of the rhythmic system, which promotes healthy interrelationship between the neurosensory pole and the pole metabolic. There you will find rhythmic organs: heart and lungs, protected by a framework, and the ribs, which also move. And so, briefly, we have a man trimmed into his neurosensory, rhythmic, and metabolic systems. Each of them permeates the entire human organism, but they are mainly concentrated in one region of the body.

In the case of the sensorineural system, it is more concentrated in the region of the head, but we know that the whole human body has nerves.

The rhythmic system is mainly concentrated in the region of the heart and lungs, that is, in the chest, but the whole human body has rhythmic pulsating arteries and breathing also occurs in every cell of our body.

The metabolic system concentrates its organs mainly in the abdomen and the active movement in the members, but each part of our body has its own metabolism and movement.

In psychic life, this threefold process can be identified in the three basic actions: thinking, feeling and willing.

The four constituent elements of the human being or Quadrilateral

“Man is what he is through the physical body, the etheric or vital body, the astral body (soul) and the Self (spirit). He must be seen as a healthy man from these members; it must be perceived, when ill, in the disturbed balance of them; for their health must be found medicines that reestablish the disturbed balance ” – Key Elements for an Extension of the Art of Healing – Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman

One way of presenting man in the light of Anthroposophy is to relate it to the nature around him. In this approach, man is seen as a being whom shares similarities with themineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, but is also distinguished from them by the presence of his self-consciousness. We can say that man keeps within himself all these kingdoms, being bearer of four essential structures, of four constituent elements, also called “bodies” in the medical-anthroposophical jargon.

Physical body: it is the solid structure, material, palpable and measurable, subject to the laws of physics and chemistry. It is the body we share with the minerals. It is a structure totally inert and dead when not permeated by the second element (etheric body).

Etheric or Vital Body: are the forces responsible for the whole principle of life, whether in plants, animals or humans. The vital body gives us the possibility of developing vegetative life: growth, regeneration and reproduction.

Astral body (soul body or soul): are the forces of consciousness, present in the animal and human realms, and which form the foundation for a sensitive life. It has a role of “organizer” of the vital processes and, in a didactic way, we can say that it manifests as nervous system and psychic life

Organization of the I (spirit): it is the characteristic element of the human being that distinguishes it from the other kingdoms and beings of nature. It is responsible for the healthy performance of other bodies and the appearance of erect walking, speech and thinking. It is our individuality, our spiritual entity. It relates to heat processes within the body.

An analogy can be made with the four elements of Hippocratic medicine and also with alchemy: earth (physical body), water (etheric body), air (astral body) and fire (I). 

The stages of human development or human biography 

One of the great contributions of Anthroposophy to Medicine and Psychology is the deepening of the study of biographical laws. If we observe the human being in its development process, we will see that this occurs in cycles of seven years, marked by significant events in the biological or psychological field.

From birth to seven years of age, we see profound transformations related to neuropsychomotor development and growth. The baby becomes a child with logical thinking, with feelings, self-will and great agility. The change of teeth and the beginning of literacy, around the age of seven, mark this change of cycle.

At the age of fourteen, the majority of young people reached puberty, marking a biological maturity, and at age 21 generally seek independence from the family, having reached legal maturity. And so, the human soul is transforming along with its physical-biological body, as the Self, the individuality, is deepening in its way by the Earth.

More briefly, we see three major biographical landmarks: from birth to age 21; from 21 to 42 years; from 42 to 63 years / end of life. Each of these cycles can be divided into three sevens with very definite characteristics. But in a comprehensive look at the human life cycle, we see an early life with a lot of physical vitality and little awareness; then a period of greater emotional development and “appropriation of the world,” followed generally by a phase of maturity, wisdom, and development of social consciousness, but with low vitality.

At the end of life there is a “detachment from the world.” According to Anthroposophy, the human self has an incarnational trajectory, descending from the spiritual worlds from where it originates, from birth to half of life (around age 42), when that process comes to an end. Soon after, he begins his journey back to the spiritual worlds, characterizing an excarnatory trajectory, an ascending process. Among these events, the human self develops an individual, unique history: his biography. Understanding the process of health and illness also means understanding the biographical moment, its crises and its fruits.

Texto: Biblioteca Antroposófica