Haut Anhang 4

 

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Der Merkurstab

[Lüder Jachens]

The skin seen from the anthroposophical point of view

Abstract To make the connection in thought between the skin and the whole of human existence, the systems of the threefold organism are sought out in the skin,

and the skin is considered in the polarity between hardening and dissolution. The activities of the four levels of human existence in the skin are described and how I and astral body mediate between inner and outer. There follows a discussion of the differences in how the four levels of existence relate to the threefold skin. In conclusion the skin is considered in its position between powers of substance and form. All the guidelines in the essential nature of the skin are illustrated with examples of pathological skin changes. This makes it possible to establish a holistic approach in dermatology.

Keywords

The skin as an organ

Threefoldness

Hardening and dissolution

Fourfoldness

Skin and internal organs

The main methods used in modern medicine based on natural science are differentiation and causal analysis, with reduction a further method where highly complex issues are reduced to simple processes. This has yielded a vast body of knowledge concerning the physical basis of the natural world and the human being. The approach has also been of undoubted benefit in modern dermatology. There are, however, also drawbacks, three of which are the following.

1 The connection is lost between the skin, its diseases and coincident functional disorders of internal organs. It is known that the causes of some (usually less common) skin conditions are disorders of internal organs (enzyme deficiency) in the liver (porphyria cutanea tarda). Yet dermatologists are not familiar with the role of internal organs in the genesis of common conditions such as rosacea, where it is often necessary to treat the liver.

2 The connection between skin and psyche, skin conditions and biography, is not open to rational evaluation. The answer to the patient’s question: “Why have I got this skin eruption just now?” usually is: “Every skin disease has to start sometime.” Connections between specific personality traits to particular skin types (topic skin diathesis) cannot be explained by experts in psychosomatic medicine nor by dermatologists.

3 The connection between skin disease and nutrition cannot be understood. Why do patients with neurodermatitis often not tolerate certain proteins (cow’s milk, gluten in wheat, eggs, fish)? Statistical methods do not contribute much to clarify the connection between skin change and food intolerance.

These “side effects” to the use of natural-scientific methods in medical research suggest that we must look for ideas at the point where the skin organ is connected, forming

a whole, with the rest of the human being as a living organism and a soul endowed with spirit, from which an individual biography arises. Here the anthroposophical view of the human being proves a

source of ideas which we can always draw on and which will never run dry.

In this approach it is a further development of Goethe’s principle that “Nothing happens in living nature that is not part of the whole.” In dermatology this means that every process in healthy and diseased skin substance powers and form powers relates to the organism as a whole and to the nature of the individual which reflects his soul and spirit.

Below, this principle will be applied, with the human skin considered from the following aspects:

• skin and threefold organism,

• the skin between hardening and dissolution,

• the skin and the four levels of human existence,

• I and astral body between inside and outside,

• the threefold skin and the four levels of existence,

• the skin between forces of matter and of form.

Skin and threefold organism

The idea of the threefold human organism was presented in detail by R.S. in 1917. The neurosensory system has its main localization at the upper pole of the human form.

It makes it possible for human beings to develop powers of thought in waking consciousness. At the organic level it is bound up with processes of degradation; matter which the blood makes available from metabolic processes is broken down. The degradation may go as far as cell death; regeneration of nerve cells in the brain is not possible.

The individual aspect of the human being (his I) forms out the physical body with the help of form principles which the neurosensory system brings into the organism from the surroundings, and the individual can thus be recognized by his face. The human being is thus most formed out and differentiated at the upper pole of his form. The form principles do, however, also take effect in the rest of the organism, here at a more subtle level and from above downwards, resulting in the individual ridges on the fingertips on the outside, for instance, and the immunocompetence of the humoral and cellular defence system on the inside.

The polar opposite of the neurosensory system is the system of metabolism and limbs. It provides the basis for unfolding the will which is at the sleep level of consciousness. (Impulsive actions can prove embarrassing because in the light of full conscious awareness they may prove not to have been what we feel is right.) Organically the metabolism lives in constructive processes.

Dead matter is taken hold of, given life, endowed with soul and made the vehicle for the I. Whereas processes in the neurosensory human being are largely connected with rest, we have here the active flow of matter (internal motion) and the movement of muscle (external motion). The organic configuration of limbs and metabolism produces round, convex forms that are not formed out to a great degree.

Summing up, we have the following polarity:

Neurosensory system Metabolism                            and                  Limbs

degradation construction,                                                  synthesis

form principle: configuration,                                               force of matter: round

differentiation forms,                                                            dedifferentiation

rest                                                                                        movement

death                                                                                   life

thinking                                                                               doing

waking consciousness                                                           sleep consciousness

A middle system which enables these polar opposites to coexist shows the basic phenomenon of all life = rhythm.

Differences balance out as pulse and respiration rhythmically interrelate the impulses of the nervous system with those of metabolism. Balance and harmony

are established between the poles above and below.

The rhythmical system is the basis for our feeling, which is at a dream level of consciousness.

When we apply the idea of a threefold organism to the skin, the following questions arise:

• Where does the neurosensory system have its main emphasis in the skin,

• where does metabolism mainly develop,

• where does the rhythmical system have its main site of action?

To answer these questions, let us first consider the uppermost layer of the skin, the epidermis. Cell division and the synthesis of matter are dominant in its basal cell layer, though in the epidermis the only gaol as keratino-cytes migrate from below upwards (inside to outside) is to take them to cell death and differentiation of intracellular keratin and intercellular lipid lamellae (for epidermal lipids.

Biochemical synthesis of matter thus meets with destructive tendencies paired with processes of dying which differentiate the stream of matter and fix matter in keratin and lipids, letting it “coagulate” in a form not capable of further change. With this, the epidermis fulfils its barrier function - water, acids, alkaline solutions, salts and other compounds meet a boundary with limited permeability from both inside and outside.

The epidermis contains numerous free nerve ends extending as far as the basal cell layer. Here the nuclei of keratinocytes dissolve. Vitality receding in the vicinity of free nerve ends suggests a relationship between the two; we are able to perceive the main site of neurosensory activity. This is where the waking consciousness arises which makes it possible for us, for instance, to have conscious awareness of any part of the body surface at any moment when awake. If the epidermis of someone with atopic skin diathesis lacks in vitality and biochemical anabolism (above all in the sphere of intercellular lipid lamellae), this also means increased neural activity.

Pruritus may reach a point of being excessively awake, of emphasis on the head, and the tendency to one-sided thinking in cases of neurodermatitis. If on the other hand the epidermis is flooded with metabolic impulses from the capillary circulation of the upper corium, as in the case of psoriasis vulgaris, keratinocytopoiesis “runs riot” with incomplete cell maturation and the appearance of cell nuclei in the keratinocytes of the cornified layer. Powers of the head are accordingly often underrepresented in the personality of individuals with psoriasis.

Looking for the areas in the skin where metabolism is most intensive, we come to the lower corium and subcutis. Sebaceous and sweat glands, hair roots in their follicles and the organ for nail growth are located in the subcutis. All four derive from the epidermis which inverts downwards from the skin surface and develops the relevant organ in the region of the lower corium.

There anabolism takes hold of the organ so that sebum, sweat, hair or nail may develop. The structures in the lower corium thus receive their form principles from the epidermis, their anabolism from the deeper skin layers.

They relate to the microcosm of internal organs—the sebaceous gland to the liver, the sweat gland to the kidneys, hair and nails to the intestines. Sebaceous glands give out fat to the outside, the liver lets bile flow into the intestine for fat digestion. Hair and nails are epithelial structures which grow quite solid. The epithelium in the intestinal lumen is one of the most vital tissues in the human organism altogether. Hair and nails grow brittle if insufficient matter is taken up from the food stream via the intestine. All these connections between structures in the lower corium and internal organs emphasize the metabolic character of their activity. Skin conditions arising from the lower corium (e.g. folliculitis with acne and rosacea, hidradenitis and paronychia) must therefore always be primarily treated via

the metabolism.

The subcutis is highly undifferentiated and monotonous morphologically; it consists almost exclusively of round fat cells. Metabolism on the other hand is highly active. Fat stored in the fat cells is continuously synthesized and broken down, and thus subject to permanent restructuring. Fats serve to generate warmth in the whole organism and in individual organs. The subcutis is thus connected with the organism as a whole and all internal organs through fat metabolism. The characteristics shown above for subcutis and lower corium reflect the relationship between them—the lower corium is the site

for a specific metabolic process which is comparable to metabolism in the internal organs; the subcutis with its fat metabolism on the other hand is part of the general metabolism which connects everything.

The localization of zones with low and high fat content in the subcutis of the human form is interesting.

The subcutis of eyelids, nose, ears and lips is low in fat; here the katabolic activity of the major sense organs pushes anabolic metabolism in the skin aside. The soles of the feet, hips, buttocks, flexor aspects of limbs, abdominal wall and female breast, on the other hand, are rich in subcutaneous fat. In the latter, the subcutis actually

develops an organ, the female mammary gland. This organ emphasizes the nourishing character of the subcutis.

Looking for the site where the rhythmical system is most intense in its actions, all we need is to look reflectively at a histological section through the skin layers.

The rhythmical up and down movement of the basal membrane which separates the papillae (papillary layer of corium) from the reticular elements (germinative layer

of epidermis between papillae) is rhythm “frozen” in form. As the swell, the rhythmical wave movement, leaves a wave pattern in the sand at low tide, so does the rhythmical pulsation of the blood in the capillaries of the upper corium leave an imprint in the undulating boundary to the epidermis. Apart from the influences of the circulation, which has its centre in the heart, respiration, with its centre in the lung, is also represented in the skin. On the one hand we may speak of an imponderable breathing in the senses, in so far as the skin, being a sense organ, takes up or rejects countless stimuli. On the other hand, the breathing is at ponderable level, for just a fraction of external breathing exists in the skin just as it does on the large scale in the lung, with a little oxygen taken in, and a little carbon dioxide given off. In everyday life our clothing must therefore be such that it must allow the skin to breathe as it gives off warmth, sweat, “vapour”, and also takes up oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide.

All processes on the metabolic side of our skin in lower corium and subcutis are wrapt in the darkness of sleep consciousness, so that we are not conscious, for instance, of producing pungent sweat under stress. Processes in the upper corium are half conscious, at the dream level of consciousness. Thus we notice that we blush a little when something comes up in a conversation that embarrasses us—but only half, as though in a dream.

Feeling better after taking a shower at variable temperatures is something else we perceive at dream level; circulation in the papillary layer has been stimulated in

the corium, stimulating the skin organ as a whole, and “somehow” we feel better. In looking for the threefold human being in the skin we have followed the Goethean principle to take delight in the whole you must perceive the whole also in its least part.

We have found the whole in its part and related the skin to the organism as a whole. The idea of the three-fold organism thus allows a genuinely holistic medicine.

The skin between hardening and dissolution

The human organism is connected with its environment in the sphere of all four elements - with warmth and light via the sense organs, with the air via the lung, with the watery and solid, earthy elements via the digestive tract. Any element entering into the organism must first be digested, its foreign nature transformed into our own. A foreign substance can only be taken into the body’s own synthesis when it has been fully broken down, with anything of foreign etheric and astral nature stripped away completely. If this degradation is incomplete, the organism can deal with foreign matter and processes in two ways:

1 The foreign element is taken hold of by the neurosensory system’s form principles and centripetally condensed. Foreign matter is deposited; in rheumatic processes, for instance, metabolic waste is deposited in bradytrophic joint tissue. As condensation proceeds, hardening may develop around the foreign matter and a capsule develop, e.g. when a piece of shrapnel becomes encapsulated. Examples in the skin are lichenification with neurodermatitis, or hyperkeratotic rhagadiform eczema of the hands, both arising through highly chronic inflammatory processes changing to hardening, cornification with pruritus or pain.

2 The foreign matter is taken hold of by the moved-matter powers in the system of metabolism and limbs and eliminated centrifugally via the skin. This process of dissolution often involves the development of pus, with an abscess, for instance. Skin eruptions also involve dissolution and elimination. The foreign matter moves centrifugally.

The exanthemata of typical childhood diseases, pityriasis rosea or drug eruptions are examples of this.

Capsule and pus development may replace one another in time. Examples are common psoriasis with joint involvement and herpes zoster with neuralgia. With psoriasis,

the skin condition may improve as joint problems increase, and vice versa. With herpes zoster, acute, abundant vesiculation indicates that the cause is being eliminated via the skin; marked neuralgic pain signifies that the disease process moves inwards, usually for many months. The neuralgia improves when vesicles appear again after the first bout.

The skin and the four levels of human existence

In a lecture course given in Prague in 1911, R.S. clearly identified the activity of the four bodies in the skin. Each represents an “energy system” and comes to its own conclusion in the skin.

The human I thus lives in the blood; the blood system delimits itself towards the outside in the papillary layer of the corium. In the blood, the I is able to influence the physical directly. With fear and shock, the I withdraws from the world in and with the blood, and we grow pale. Embarrassment makes us blush; the I pushes the blood outwards into the skin and wants to hide behind it. The astral body lies in the nerve; the nerve endings in the epidermis are the outermost boundary of the nervous system. This makes us conscious of our bodily limits. Pruritus signifies too much neural activity and too much conscious awareness. When we get goose bumps, particular feelings (dim fear, “the creeps”) lead to skin nerve stimulation and hence contraction of the arrectores pilorum muscle fibres, so that the fine hairs come upright together with the epidermis around the hair follicle. The ether body is above all active in developing secretions in the glands.

It creates its outer limits in the skin in the sweat and sebaceous glands. People with great vitality will usually sweat well and produce sufficient sebum. The activity of these glands is reduced, on the other hand, in people with atopic skin conditions. The physical body, finally, lives in nutritional processes with the transport of matter.

With atopic skin diathesis and ichthyosis, these functions are more or less reduced and fixed through hereditary tendencies. “In human beings, the organs in the periphery are most penetrated and configured by the I.” The I’s activity in the skin may according to this be seen not only in the blood system but also as leaving its mark on the astral body’s activity in the nerve, the ether body’s in the glands, and the physical body’s in the transport of matter. The typically human skin characteristics of nakedness, subcutaneous fatty tissue well developed compared to animals, and the high value human beings put on to how their skin feels in everyday life thus arise from the activity of the I. The skin is an organ of conscious awareness, an organ of the I-organization. I and astral body between inside and outside Ultimately it is the two higher bodies, I and astral body, which mediate between processes within and without the human organism, between what goes on above and below, and in doing so make the organism a whole. The right to speak of holistic medicine is really only given if we have insight into the I and astral body and their activities in the human organism.

R.S. and Ita Wegman showed how “inflammatory changes in the skin” go hand in hand with “abnormal” I-organization and astral-body activity in the skin.

This “abnormal” activity is one where the higher bodies go beyond the normal level of activity in the skin. Their activity in the internal organs is then reduced, and reciprocal sensitivity between those organs decreases.

Examples given are “abnormal states in liver function” and an influence on digestion. Enteral candidiasis, which has a higher incidence with four common skin conditions (neurodermatitis, urticaria, psoriasis vulgaris, seborrhoeic eczema) is no doubt due to this shift from central to peripheral in higher-body involvement.

The same shift means that digestive powers are weak in someone with neurodermatitis, where the emphasis is on nerves and senses, and he cannot break down proteins. Protein carries most of the foreign principles from the vegetable or animal organism it has come from.

R.S. and Ita Wegman pointed out that diagnosis means establishing the “direction of pathological actions”. For the above shift this means that the primary process must be seen to be on the outside, in the skin inflammation (“cause”), and the secondary process inside, in reduced liver function (“effect”). The direction of pathological actions is polar to this when functional weakness of an organ provides an obstacle in the physical/etheric sphere and pushes the activity of the higher bodies to the skin; this is then overburdened, there being too much, and producing symptoms. Here the primary process in inside (“cause”); the resulting dermatitis is secondary (“effect”). Examples are acne in adults and rosacea resulting from reduced liver function which improves when the liver is treated.

The threefold skin and the four levels of existence.

If we want to enquire into the different functions of the bodies in neurosensory processes, metabolism and rhythmical processes in the skin, R.S.’s and Ita Wegman’s discussion of blood and nerve provide an answer. In the lower skin layers where the emphasis is more on metabolism (lower corium, subcutis), autonomic nerve fibres form a dense net around blood vessels, hair follicles, sebaceous, sweat and scent glands. The ether body is mainly active in these nerves; their function is to keep metabolic processes away from the blood, thus keeping the human being unaware of the activity immanent in substances.

The I-organization is predominantly active in the blood in the lower corium and subcutis. Thus we have the I-organization acting out of the blood and the ether body out of the nerve in their interaction in the deeper skin layers.

Acne in puberty is a dermatitis arising from the sebaceous glands in the lower corium. Here blood substance has not (yet) been properly taken hold of by the I. The form principles arising from the autonomous nerves around the sebaceous gland are not strong enough to hold back the blood’s overweening, ungainly powers of movement. The result is foreign bacterial life in the sebaceous glands, inflammatory changes in the surrounding papule, with the sebaceous gland liquefying in the pustule.

In the middle layer of the skin (upper corium) nerves in which the astral body is active work together with blood processes which also depend on the astral body and in their upper parts on the ether body. This helps us to understand urticaria, bouts of which are often triggered by emotional reactions of the astral body. The irritated astral body then allows blood and nerve to work together so that the blood vessels can no longer contain the serum and wheals arise.

In the uppermost layer of the skin, the epidermis, the “inwardly organizing” powers of the I are present in the nerves. Blood impulses arriving here are under the influence of the purely physical, having “a marked tendency to turn lifeless, mineral.” Examples of skin conditions with the epidermis much involved in the pathological process are neurodermatitis and psoriasis vulgaris. In the case of neurodermatitis, nerve impulses are too strong, so that the tendency of blood substances to become lifeless goes beyond the healthy level.With psoriasis vulgaris, on the other hand, the blood substances’ tendency to become lifeless is too weak, and the substance-moving powers of the blood are too strong. The epidermis is flooded with proteins and leukocytes. The I-organization is not sufficiently active in the nerve, so that development and differentiation of keratinocytes is inadequate.

.

The skin between principles of matter and of form

The polarity between matter and form was known even to Aristotle. R.S. spoke in detail of the organism’s own form principles in the lectures he gave in Prague. Those powers come to an end in the boundary of the human form, the skin, and do not take effect beyond this. Nor are foreign form principles in the surrounding world permitted to cross the skin boundary.

Sunlight as the vehicle for form principles from the cosmos may only be taken in through the eye or with light-filled air. At all other boundaries, the sun’s radiation is

absorbed by the pigment of melanocytes in the basal epidermis and thus rejected in the outer boundaries.

The skin thus sets an absolute limit, both from inside to outside and from outside to inside. The stream of matter reaching the skin is refashioned in the skin’s organs (sebaceous and sweat glands, hair, nails, keratinocytopoiesis), and is eliminated or flows back to the inner body (venous system). If we also consider Steiner’s descriptions of the differentiated way in which ether-principles act in the human organism, it becomes clear that form principles act mainly through the light and warmth ether, and matter principles with the chemical and life ether. Light and warmth ether live in light, air and warmth, reaching the human being from the environment and ultimately the cosmos. This centripetal movement is directed towards the upper pole of the human form. An outer sign of this are the lines in light-damaged skin.

Sunlight draws lines in human skin. The sense organs, the lung and also the skin as a whole take light and warmth ether into the organism. Inside it is taken from above downwards. In the lower human being these ethers connect with chemical and life ether, two types of ether based on the elements water and earth that enter into the organism with the food. Chemical and life ether move from below upwards in the human organism, and from inside to outside. Matter enlivened by the chemical and life ethers moves from the internal organs via the blood to the skin in a centrifugal movement.

The interaction between matter and form principles in the skin (and any organic form) can be seen in an analogous way in the work of a sculptor. The artist’s ideas of form are centripetally applied to the clay as the hand models it; form principles are involved. The clay, on the other hand, is a vehicle for matter principles. The material must be obtained and prepared; it needs space and has weight. Matter is then configured by the application of form principles.

 

Tabel 1.

Primary disease                                  Inflammatory changes                                  Functional organic phenomenon in the skin weaknesses

Diagnosis based on                           I and astral body                                       II and astral body reduced inside strengthened outside

the four bodies                                  strengthened outside and reduced inside

Direction of                                       from outside (cause)                                               from inside (cause)

pathological actions                          to inside (effect)                                              to outside (effect)

Secondary disease                            weakening of liver and                                 skin overburdened phenomenon

digestion, e.g. with                                             activities alien

enteral candidiasis                                             to it, e. g. with rosacea, adult acne

 

(Table 2)

Blood                                             Nerve

neursensory system:                          physical body                           I-organization

epidermis

rhythmical                                         upper part:                                                astral body

system:                                              ether body

upper corium                                     = lower part:

papillary body                                   astral body

metabolic system:                              I-organization                                      ether body

lower corium subcutis

 

predominantly active in the blood in the lower corium and sub-cutis. Thus we have the I-organization acting out of the blood and the ether body out of the nerve in their interaction in the deeper skin layers.

Acne in puberty is a dermatitis arising from the sebaceous glands in the lower corium. Here blood substance has not (yet) been properly taken hold of by the I. The form principles arising from the autonomous nerves around the sebaceous gland are not strong enough to hold back the blood’s overweening, ungainly powers of movement.
The result is foreign bacterial life in the sebaceous glands, inflammatory changes in the surrounding papule, with the sebaceous gland liquefying in the pustule.

In the middle layer of the skin (upper corium) nerves in which the astral body is active work together with blood processes which also depend on the astral body and in their upper parts on the ether body. This helps us to understand urticaria, bouts of which are often triggered by emotional reactions of the astral body. The irritated astral body then allows blood and nerve to work together so that the blood vessels can no longer contain the serum and wheals arise.

In the uppermost layer of the skin, the epidermis, the “inwardly organizing” powers of the I are present in the nerves. Blood impulses arriving here are under the influence of the purely physical, having “a marked tendency to turn lifeless, mineral.” Examples of skin conditions with the epidermis much involved in the pathological process are neurodermatitis and psoriasis vulgaris. In the case of neurodermatitis, nerve impulses are too strong, so that the tendency of blood substances to become lifeless goes beyond the healthy level.With psoriasis vulgaris, on the other hand, the blood substances’ tendency to become lifeless is too weak, and the substance-moving powers of the blood are too strong. The epidermis is flooded with proteins and leukocytes. The I-organization is not sufficiently active in the nerve, so that development and differentiation of keratinocytes is inadequate.

 

The skin between principles of matter and of form The polarity between matter and form was known even to Aristotle. R.S. spoke in detail of the organism’s own form principles in the lectures he gave in Prague. Those powers come to an end in the boundary of the human form, the skin, and do not take effect beyond this. Nor are foreign form principles in the surrounding world permitted to cross the skin boundary.

Sunlight as the vehicle for form principles from the cosmos may only be taken in through the eye or with light-filled air. At all other boundaries, the sun’s radiation is absorbed by the pigment of melanocytes in the basal epidermis and thus rejected in the outer boundaries.

The skin thus sets an absolute limit, both from inside to outside and from outside to inside. The stream of matter reaching the skin is refashioned in the skin’s organs (sebaceous and sweat glands, hair, nails, keratinocyto-poiesis), and is eliminated or flows back to the inner body (venous system). If we also consider Steiner’s descriptions of the differentiated way in which ether-principles

act in the human organism, it becomes clear that form principles act mainly through the light and warmth ether, and matter principles with the chemical and life ether.

Light and warmth ether live in light, air and warmth, reaching the human being from the environment and ultimately the cosmos. This centripetal movement is directed towards the upper pole of the human form. An outer sign of this are the lines in light-damaged skin. Sunlight draws lines in human skin. The sense organs, the lung and also the skin as a whole take light and warmth ether into the organism. Inside it is taken from above downwards. In the lower human being these ethers connect with chemical and life ether, two types of ether based on the elements water and earth that enter into the organism with the food. Chemical and life ether move from below upwards in the human organism, and from inside to outside. Matter enlivened by the chemical and life ethers moves from the internal organs via

the blood to the skin in a centrifugal movement.

The interaction between matter and form principles in the skin (and any organic form) can be seen in an analogous way in the work of a sculptor. The artist’s ideas of form are centripetally applied to the clay as the hand models it; form principles are involved. The clay, on the other hand, is a vehicle for matter principles. The material must be obtained and prepared; it needs space and has weight. Matter is then configured by the application of form principles.

predominantly active in the blood in the lower corium and subcutis. Thus we have the I-organization acting out of the blood and the ether body out of the nerve in their interaction in the deeper skin layers.

Acne in puberty is a dermatitis arising from the sebaceous glands in the lower corium. Here blood substance has not (yet) been properly taken hold of by the I. The form principles arising from the autonomous nerves around the sebaceous gland are not strong enough to hold back the blood’s overweening, ungainly powers of movement. The result is foreign bacterial life in the sebaceous glands, inflammatory changes in the surrounding papule, with the sebaceous gland liquefying in the pustule.

In the middle layer of the skin (upper corium) nerves in which the astral body is active work together with blood processes which also depend on the astral body and in their upper parts on the ether body. This helps us to understand urticaria, bouts of which are often triggered by emotional reactions of the astral body. The irritated astral body then allows blood and nerve to work together so that the blood vessels can no longer contain the serum and wheals arise.

In the uppermost layer of the skin, the epidermis, the “inwardly organizing” powers of the I are present in the nerves. Blood impulses arriving here are under the influence of the purely physical, having “a marked tendency to turn lifeless, mineral.” Examples of skin conditions with the epidermis much involved in the pathological process are neurodermatitis and psoriasis vulgaris. In the case of neurodermatitis, nerve impulses are too strong, so that the tendency of blood substances to become lifeless goes beyond the healthy level. With psoriasis vulgaris, on the other hand, the blood substances’ tendency to become lifeless is too weak, and the substance-moving powers of the blood are too strong. The epidermis is flooded with proteins and leukocytes. The I-organization is not sufficiently active in the nerve, so that development and differentiation of keratinocytes is inadequate.

The skin between principles of matter and of form The polarity between matter and form was known even to Aristotle. Rudolf Steiner spoke in detail of the organism’s own form principles in the lectures he gave in Prague. Those powers come to an end in the boundary of the human form, the skin, and do not take effect beyond this. Nor are foreign form principles in the surrounding world permitted to cross the skin boundary.

Sunlight as the vehicle for form principles from the cosmos may only be taken in through the eye or with lightfilled air. At all other boundaries, the sun’s radiation is absorbed by the pigment of  melanocytes in the basal epidermis and thus rejected in the outer boundaries.

The skin thus sets an absolute limit, both from inside to outside and from outside to inside. The stream of matter reaching the skin is refashioned in the skin’s organs (sebaceous and sweat glands, hair, nails, keratinocytopoiesis), and is eliminated or flows back to the inner body (venous system). If we also consider Steiner’s descriptions of the differentiated way in which ether-principles act in the human organism, it becomes clear that form principles act mainly through the light and warmth ether, and matter principles with the chemical and life ether.

Light and warmth ether live in light, air and warmth, reaching the human being from the environment and ultimately the cosmos. This centripetal movement is directed towards the upper pole of the human form. An outer sign of this are the lines in light-damaged skin.Sunlight draws lines in human skin. The sense organs, the lung and also the skin as a whole take light and warmth ether into the organism. Inside it is taken from above downwards. In the lower human being these ethers connect with chemical and life ether, two types of ether based on the elements water and earth that enter into the organism with the food. Chemical and life ether move from below upwards in the human organism, and from inside to outside. Matter enlivened by the chemical and life ethers moves from the internal organs via the

blood to the skin in a centrifugal movement. The interaction between matter and form principles in the skin (and any organic form) can be seen in an analogous way in the work of a sculptor. The artist’s ideas of form are centripetally applied to the clay as the hand models it; form principles are involved. The clay, on the other hand, is a vehicle for matter principles. The material must be obtained and prepared; it needs space and has weight. Matter is then configured by the application of form principles.

Primary disease Inflammatory changes

Functional organic phenomenon in the skin weaknesses Diagnosis based on I and astral body II and astral body the four bodies strengthened outside reduced inside and reduced inside strengthened outside Direction of from outside (cause) from inside (cause) pathological actions to inside (effect) to outside (effect)

Secondary disease weakening of liver and skin overburdened phenomenon digestion, e.g. with with activities alien enteral candidiasis to it, e.g. with rosacea, adult

The I-organization is predominantly active in the blood in the lower corium and subcutis. Thus we have the I-organization acting out of the blood and the ether body out of the nerve in their interaction in the deeper skin layers.

Acne in puberty is a dermatitis arising from the sebaceous glands in the lower corium. Here blood substance has not (yet) been properly taken hold of by the I. The form principles arising from the autonomous nerves around the sebaceous gland are not strong enough to hold back the blood’s overweening, ungainly powers of movement.

The result is foreign bacterial life in the sebaceous glands, inflammatory changes in the surrounding papule, with the sebaceous gland liquefying in the pustule.

In the middle layer of the skin (upper corium) nerves in which the astral body is active work together with blood processes which also depend on the astral body and in their upper parts on the ether body. This helps us to understand urticaria, bouts of which are often triggered by emotional reactions of the astral body. The irritated astral body then allows blood and nerve to work together so that the blood vessels can no longer contain the serum and wheals arise.

In the uppermost layer of the skin, the epidermis, the “inwardly organizing” powers of the I are present in the nerves. Blood impulses arriving here are under the influence of the purely physical, having “a marked tendency to turn lifeless, mineral.” Examples of skin conditions with the epidermis much involved in the pathological process are neurodermatitis and psoriasis vulgaris. In the case of neurodermatitis, nerve impulses are too strong, so that the tendency of blood substances to become lifeless goes beyond the healthy level.With psoriasis vulgaris, on the other hand, the blood substances’ tendency to become lifeless is too weak, and the substance-moving powers of the blood are too strong. The epidermis is flooded with proteins and leukocytes. The I-organization is not sufficiently active in the nerve, so that development and differentiation of  keratinocytes is inadequate.

The skin between principles of matter and of form

The polarity between matter and form was known even to Aristotle. R.S. spoke in detail of the organism’s own form principles in the lectures he gave in Prague.

 

Tab. 2

neursensory system:                          physical body    I-organization

epidermis

rhythmical                                         upper part:                        astral body

system:                                              ether body

upper corium =                                  lower part:

papillary body                                   astral body

metabolic system:                              I-organization    ether body

lower corium

subcutis

 

 

Those powers come to an end in the boundary of the human form, the skin, and do not take effect beyond this. Nor are foreign form principles in the surrounding world permitted to cross the skin boundary.

Sunlight as the vehicle for form principles from the cosmos may only be taken in through the eye or with light-filled air. At all other boundaries, the sun’s radiation is

absorbed by the pigment of melanocytes in the basal epidermis and thus rejected in the outer boundaries. The skin thus sets an absolute limit, both from inside to outside and from outside to inside. The stream of matter reaching the skin is refashioned in the skin’s organs (sebaceous and sweat glands, hair, nails, keratinocytopoiesis), and is eliminated or flows back to the inner body (venous system). If we also consider Steiner’s descriptins of the differentiated way in which ether-principles act in the human organism, it becomes clear that form principles act mainly through the light and warmth ether, and matter principles with the chemical and life ether.

Light and warmth ether live in light, air and warmth, reaching the human being from the environment and ultimately the cosmos. This centripetal movement is directed towards the upper pole of the human form. An outer sign of this are the lines in light-damaged skin. Sunlight draws lines in human skin. The sense organs, the lung and also the skin as a whole take light and warmth ether into the organism. Inside it is taken from above downwards. In the lower human being these ethers connect with chemical and life ether, two types of ether based on the elements water and earth that enter into the organism with the food. Chemical and life ether move from below upwards in the human organism, and from inside to outside. Matter enlivened by the chemical and life ethers moves from the internal organs via the blood to the skin in a centrifugal movement.

The interaction between matter and form principles in the skin (and any organic form) can be seen in an analogous way in the work of a sculptor. The artist’s ideas of

form are centripetally applied to the clay as the hand models it; form principles are involved. The clay, on the other hand, is a vehicle for matter principles. The material must be obtained and prepared; it needs space and has weight. Matter is then configured by the application of form principles.

 

 

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