Etude de l'embryologie par la pratique du modelag

We understand another person’s body language quite intuitively. We readily grasp the implications of a gesture, a facial expression or the position of the head and body of the person opposite us. The movements of the body are an expression of the movements of the soul. Can this also be said of the remarkable movements made by the embryo in the course of its development? From the standpoint of Anthroposophy the soul is already active in the formative processes taking place in the embryo’s organs before it will leave them at birth to acquire consciousness once these organs have been adequately developed. Thus, in the formative movements taking place during the development of the embryo it is possible to witness a certain kind of body language, which in turn reveals a relationship with the cosmos as well as with the embryo’s own inherent spiritual nature. Getting to know this specific type of body language demands a far deeper awareness of shape and shaping than can be had from devoting oneself to the usual studies of the anatomy. In effect, it is essential to go about creating the shapes oneself. Using the will to produce the shapes results in the emergence of an intuitive sensitivity for the movements of the living (des Ätherischen), which is the real origin of our physical organs, and this is why Rudolf Steiner encouraged doctors, teachers and all those having dealings with people to model the physical organs in clay as a part of their training, even giving details for the necessary practical exercises*. The work that Christian Breme is undertaking in this field benefits from his lengthy and varied experience as a teacher of pupils of the upper school and also from the fruitful collaboration with his brother, the sculptor Jochen Breme. It has been an essential tool for stimulating his students’ sense of wonder during their study of the human body. May this ingenious artistic as well as scientific approach to embryology find the receptive audience it deserves. If we want the civilisation of the present age to develop a wholesome relationship to the physical body, then such an approach along the lines of Christian and Jochen Breme’s work with embryology is the ideal method. Filderstadt, March 2012 Armin Husemann