Schwenk Sensitive Chaos

The Creation of Flowing Forms in Water and Air
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-85584-362-2
Verlag: Rudolf Steiner Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 288 Seiten

Why does water always take a winding course in streams and rivers? Do common principles and rhythms underlie its movement - whether it be in the sea, in a plant, or even in the blood of a human being? In this seminal and thought-provoking work, the laws apparent in the subtle patterns of water in movement are shown to be the same as those perceptible in the shaping of bones, muscles and a myriad of other forms in nature. Fully illustrated, Sensitive Chaos reveals the unifying forces that underlie all living things. The author observes and explains such phenomena as the flight of birds, the formation of internal organs such as the heart, eye and ear, as well as mountain ranges and river deltas, weather and space patterns, and even the formation of the human embryo. A perennial bestseller since publication, Sensitive Chaos is an essential book for anyone interested in the mysteries of life on earth. THEODOR SCHWENK (1910-1986) was a pioneer in water research. He founded the Institute for Flow Sciences for the scientific study of water's movement and its life-promoting forces. A prolific writer and lecturer, he contributed original insights to the production of homeopathic and anthroposophic medicines, developed 'drop-pictures' for analysing water quality and methods for healing polluted and 'dead' water.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schwenk, Theodor

Weitere Mitwirkende

Collis, J.

Leseproben

Water as Mediator between Earth and Cosmos

Water covers the greater part of the earth’s surface and is continually in the most varied motion. There is such unlimited movement in this sheath of water encompassing the earth that on a global scale it can be regarded as an organ mediating between earth and cosmos, integrating the earth into the course of cosmic events and enabling it to take part in these events.

Is it not of great significance that the world of the stars permeates all movements of water, that water infuses all earthly life with the events of the cosmos, that all life processes are through water intimately connected with the course of the stars? Wherever there is moving water—in the trickling stream, in the rolling river, in the rhythmical ebb and flow of the waves, in the foam of the breakers— everywhere it is illumined by the world of the stars. Thus water becomes an image of the stream of time itself, permeated with the rhythms of the starry world. All the creatures of the earth live in this stream of time, it flows within them, and, as long as it flows, sustains them in the stream of life.

Cosmic events and water are linked with the stream of time in the ebb and flow of the tides—in high tide and low tide. The connection between the course of the moon and the tides is so obvious and well known that we need not go into it in detail here.

On a smaller scale, too, the rhythms of the moon pulsate in water. In olden times these rhythms were taken into account when wells were dug. This was usually done only during certain phases of the moon and when it was in specific positions in the zodiac. Within the earth, water rises and falls with the course of the moon, so when the moon is in certain positions, water is soon reached, but it also dries up again more easily. At other times it is necessary to dig deeper in order to reach the water, but it then remains constant. Recent observations in deserted and flooded mines show how the subterranean water reservoirs are influenced by the rhythms of the moon.

Traditional customs among lumbermen, to the effect that the rivers spread out at full moon and burrow in the depths at new moon, show that the forms of movement within the water obviously have a particular connection with the course of the moon and its phases. In naturally flowing rivers, it is difficult to float the logs at full moon, as they are washed up on the banks, whereas at new moon they are drawn into the middle of the waterway and are thus easier to control. It is gradually becoming evident that observations like this from everyday experience in the past are not to be put aside lightly.

To mention only one example. It is well known that a large amount of pebbles and detritus sometimes collects in the water of a river dammed up to supply a power station, and has to be removed at great expense. It is however possible to make use of the experience that if the sluices are opened at certain phases and positions of the moon, the water itself has the power to wash away the debris.

Customs still practised today sometimes indicate knowledge of the change of the quality of water brought about by certain constellations in the heavens. For instance in some districts of the Himalayas, where knowledge of this kind is still cultivated, all water containers in the houses must be emptied before or after an eclipse.

Lumbermen reckon with the change in the stream of sap during the year. The stream of sap in the trees varies according to the phases of the moon and its position in the zodiac, and so accordingly does the durability and quality of the timber. Timber felled at new moon in winter is the most durable. To this day in South America valuable hardwoods are stamped with marks indicating the phase of the moon at which they were felled. Their commercial value is determined accordingly!

Many examples could be taken from the world of living creatures to demonstrate the connection between water and the course of the stars, but we shall let one speak for all and simply ask: Is it not remarkable that water animals actually know how to make use of the processes in the heavens? A certain kind of smelt, distantly related to the salmon, inhabit the open sea. Once a year at their spawning time in May they approach the coast of California. They wait near the shore until the tide reaches its highest point on the third day after full moon, and allow themselves to be carried up on to the beach by the last, highest wave. There the females lay their eggs in the wet sand and the males fertilize them, and with the next wave they return again to the open sea. But this wave is already the first of the receding tide. So the eggs on the sand are left untouched by the water and not swept away, for this wave does not reach them on the beach. The high tides in the following thirteen days do not again attain this level. Not until fourteen days later is the tide again high enough to reach the spawn of the smelt; it hatches only a few minutes before being washed out to sea, not to return to that shore until years later, fully grown, for a moment on this third day after full moon in May. These fish live in such close connection with the cosmic movements of the water—for that is what the tides are—that they ‘know’ with astronomical accuracy to the second when the tide has reached its highest point on the third day after full moon in May. Only for one moment in the year are the relative positions of sun, moon and earth suitable for them.

The world of moving water absorbs influences from the constellations of the stars in the heavens and passes them on to the earth and its creatures. Cosmic events, the world of water and the living creatures in it form a totality. The latter, as water creatures, simply make visible the cosmic events that live and move in their element. Creatures living on dry land also have part in these events through the circulation of liquids in them.

Through the rhythm of breathing, the laws of the cosmic world penetrate the beat of the heart and the streaming of the liquid blood in the human being. We draw breath eighteen times a minute, 25,920 times a day, and are thus connected in our respiratory system with the course of the sun, for it takes as many years for the vernal equinox to have moved through the great circle of the zodiac. On the other hand our breathing is in a ratio of 1 : 4 with the circulation of the liquid blood, as there are seventy-two beats of the pulse for every eighteen breaths drawn. This relationship between air and water (blood) would not appear to be accidental, for it is also found in nature outside man. The speed of propagation of sound is four times faster in water than in air. The relationship is particularly close in the case of sea water which, because of its qualities, has often been compared with the blood of the human being. So there is a path that leads from the rhythms of the macrocosm via the breathing of the human being to the processes of his blood circulation. The same cosmic order, reflected in these number ratios, permeates both the universe and man.

We have demonstrated the ability of water to take part in cosmic processes. Let us now consider the well-known phenomenon in water usually referred to as the Principle of Archimedes.

It is well known that a heavy stone lifted from the bed of a river suddenly seems still heavier when lifted out of the water. It seems to weigh less in the water than outside it. It is therefore said that as a submerged body it is subject to upthrust. How does this arise? If a stone falls to the ground it is pulled downward by a force that one must imagine to be drawing at the centre of gravity of the stone. It usually falls vertically downwards. This is of course also true of every drop of water. A submerged body however makes it obvious that within the water there are also other forces, which not only work downward but from all sides (including upwards). The weight of the water presses at right-angles to every point of the surface of the submerged body. The pressure at each point is proportional to the depth below the surface. Thus the pressure on the undersurface is greater than at any other part.

The pressure of the water is always perpendicular to the surface of a submerged body. The pressure from underneath is greater than that from above, hence the upthrust of Archimedes’ Principle

Therefore of course the weight of the submerged body is diminished and it receives an upthrust which is exactly equal to the weight of the volume of water displaced by it. In opposition to the force of gravity which always pulls downwards, there is in the water a principle that can be said to work from all sides. Forces from all sides, from the surroundings, act upon the submerged body, and it thereby loses weight. Water, by allowing its own forces of weight to work upon a body from all sides, thus making it lighter, aligns itself with cosmic forces working in from the universe. It places itself in the centre between the forces working from the stars and those emanating from the earth.

This ability of water to make bodies lighter through the forces of upthrust and to lift them towards those coming in from the starry spheres, is of great significance for all life on earth. All plant growth would be inconceivable without this propensity of water. Its power for example to rise up 90m or more in an American redwood conifer demonstrates most impressively its ability to overcome the force of gravity. Everywhere in nature it places itself as mediator between earth and cosmos, relieving solid bodies of some of their weight and maintaining the connection between cosmic events and the earth.

In what follows we shall call the forces raying in from the world of the stars, from the universe...