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The Anthroposophical View of Death and Dying: How Contemplation of the Journey of
the Spirit at Death Informs the Work of Music-Thanatologists
Cyd Dudgeon
Music-Thanatology
Professional Research Paper
May 28, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Cyd Dudgeon
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Acknowledgements
My heartfelt thanks to Brian, Andrea, Elizabeth, Virginia,
And to Rudolf Steiner
The sphere of the Spirit is the soul’s true home
And Man will surely reach it
By walking in the path of honest thought;
By choosing as his guide the fount of love;
Implanted in his heart;
By opening the eye of his soul
To Nature’s script
Spread out before him through all the universe,
Telling the story of the Spirit
In all that lives and thrives
And in the silent spaciousness of lifeless things,
And in the stream of time – the process of becoming.
Rudolf Steiner
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Music-thanatologists often see individuals who are imminent, and at times have the honor
and privilege of witnessing a person crossing the threshold. Having a thorough understanding of
the dying process is paramount to our work. What is happening as an individual is dying?
Mainstream science offers signs and symptoms of pending physical death. This is important for
music-thanatologists, but further benefits are gained from an in-depth understanding of the
journey of the human soul and spirit in this process.
Anthroposophy, the science of the spirit, offers profound imaginations of the journey of
the human being at death. Through Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual research, we experience the
perspective of the human being’s preparation for crossing the threshold in body, soul, and spirit.
This paper will explore the journey of the spirit through Steiner’s work, focusing on the dying
process and immediately after death. Some indications of how music affects the body and soul in
the dying process will be examined from an anthroposophical viewpoint.
To contemplate these profound imaginations of the anthroposophical view of death and
dying broadens and enlivens understanding for music-thanatologists, opening new possibilities
for prescriptive use of thematic material, and potentially deepening the connection to souls
transitioning to the spiritual world. The reader is encouraged to consider what follows not as
dogma, but as living ideas to be contemplated and experienced, to continually work with
inwardly. Skepticism is welcomed. These ideas are meant to be studied, questioned, and
meditated on.
What is anthroposophy?
For those unfamiliar with anthroposophy, the word itself is derived from the two Greek
words anthropos, meaning human being, and sophia, meaning wisdom.
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The term anthroposophy
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literally means the wisdom of the human being, and was used by many nineteenth-century
thinkers, such as F. W. J. Schelling, I. H. Fichte, and Ignaz Troxler.
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Rudolf Steiner, who lived
from 1861 to 1925, developed the work of anthroposophy.
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Rudolf Steiner was a spiritual
researcher, teacher, educator, artist, and an initiate.
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What is now known as anthroposophy is the
body of his work, but it is also living wisdom; a way of knowledge, a path of how we can know
the world.
Steiner was a respected philosophical scholar. He was well-published, known for his
work on Goethe’s scientific writings.
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Goethe’s ideas of transformation and dying and becoming
live strongly in anthroposophy. These ideas speak to the secret of spiritual development, a
succession of deaths to the old and openings to the new.
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Steiner lived in a time of increasingly materialistic thinking. He saw the danger of
humanity becoming completely mechanistic, devoid of soul. He himself had achieved
enlightenment through intense inner work. He worked selflessly to develop anthroposophy for
the sake of humanity and the world. Steiner opened the possibility of a cognitive path that leads
the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe.
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Anthroposophy enters a person’s
being as a need of the heart, of the soul.
It is a practical path of spiritual and inner development.
Anthroposophy is a philosophy that speaks to deep spiritual questions of humanity, to artistic
needs, and to the need to relate out of a scientific attitude of mind appropriate for our age.
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This
path allows for complete freedom of individuality.
Anthroposophy was developed through European idealistic philosophy, and is strongly
influenced by the philosophies of Aristotle, Plato, and Thomas Aquinas.
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It is a path of
knowledge, a method of research which leads to spiritual experiences that can be replicated by
others. It is from this perspective that Steiner often referred to anthroposophy as spiritual science.
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This philosophy of Western esotericism has to do with the science of “subtle states mediating
between the divine and the earthly realms.”
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Some people believe that the limits given by what
one experiences through the senses determine the limits of what can be known. However, if close
attention is paid to how one becomes aware of these limits, one finds in the awareness the
capacity to go beyond the senses. One can develop powers of soul that live in elements that are
not limited by the senses.
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According to Steiner, in order to find inner peace, to trust our feelings, and to develop our
will, human beings need to know the spiritual world.
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The natural world provides much
greatness, with beauty and wisdom in nature, but does not give us answers regarding our own
being. Each human being holds together matter and energy of the material world in a remarkable
living physical form until the moment of death. Then, nature can no longer hold the material
body together, but disperses it.
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How is this form held together with forces of life? Souls that are
truly awake live with this question, longing for spiritual ways of knowing the world.
Anthroposophy is a non-dualistic cosmology, studying the universe and humanity’s place
in it. Anthroposophy traces human and earthly evolution from its beginnings in the spiritual
worlds up to the present time.
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The spiritual influences and significance of the ancient Indian,
Persian, Egyptian-Chaldean-Semitic, and Greco-Roman cultures are illuminated.
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Steiner’s
work provides a profound vision of humanity’s place in the Cosmos, of karma and reincarnation,
life after death, the activity of the heavenly hierarchies of angels, and the Christ impulse.
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Rudolf Steiner expands the view of humanity as having a threefold being of body, soul,
and individual spirit.
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The soul expresses itself in thinking, feeling, and willing. The body can
be thought of as having three divisions.
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The first division is the head, containing the brain – the
center of the nervous system. This is the physical organ of thinking. Secondly, there is the heart
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and circulation together with breathing, forming the rhythmic system. This is associated with the
feeling life of the soul. Third, the metabolic or digestive system with all the lower organs and the
limbs allows the soul’s outward expression of will.
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The eternal, individualized spirit or ego
permeates the body and soul, continually transforming them.
Steiner provides another picture of the human being, demonstrating connection with the
earth through the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms of nature. He speaks of the physical,
etheric, and astral bodies, and the ego or I.
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He teaches that these distinct spiritual bodies are
visible to the eyes of the seer, to the clairvoyant.
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The spiritual bodies unfold in the human
being, drawing into the physical body from childhood into adulthood, gradually separating at
death.
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In the anthroposophical imagination, all minerals have a physical body. The physical
body is connected to the element of Earth. The human being has a physical body in common
with the mineral world. The child develops uprightness, speech, and thinking through imitation
in the first seven years.
The higher bodies, including the ego, astral, and etheric bodies work on
the physical body from outside. Steiner describes a child’s surrender and longing to enter the
physical world in their early years as deep devotion, as permeated with a certain reverence.
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The plant kingdom has a physical body and a life body or etheric body.
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The physical
and etheric bodies can be distinguished from one another by contemplating the difference
between something living and organic, such as a plant, and something inorganic, such as a stone.
This is a contemplative exercise Rudolf Steiner often encouraged. The organic, life-giving
process is the etheric, a “spiritual entity that actively participates in the formation of cells and the
metabolic processes of living things.”
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The etheric body is not observed in the inorganic stone,
but in any living organism, preserving the physical body from dissolution every moment during
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life.
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It is a delicately and finely organized structure.
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To the eyes of the seer, the particles in
the etheric body are in constant motion with currents streaming through the body.
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It is
connected with growth, repetition, and rhythm. The etheric is the energizing force or entity that
streams through plants and causes growth. One can gaze at plant leaves and observe repetition.
They grow in harmonious, unreserved response to sun and earth, rising out of the earth in a spiral
growth pattern. The etheric is connected to the Water element, to the rhythmic system, the
circulation of blood in humans, and the bodily organs.
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The etheric body in a human being differs from a plant in that this body is developed
further by thinking, weaving a tapestry of memories and judgments deep into a person’s being.
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These judgments are deeper than sympathies and antipathies. These are expressed in habits, in
character, in temperament; patterns lying deep in the unconscious that are not easily changed.
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The activity of the blossoming etheric body is witnessed by observing a child’s need for
imitation and repetition.
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All parents know the experience of a child saying over and over, Read
it again, Mommy. This is an important stage for children. By honoring the repetition, the etheric
body develops, strengthening memory ability in later years.
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The etheric body weaves a picture
consciousness with the astral body. A young child learns best in pictures, in stories such as fairy
tales. This has a strengthening effect for the etheric.
The etheric body draws fully into the
physical body at the change of teeth, or about seven years of age.
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The idea of a life body is not
new with Anthroposophy. The Egyptian culture of ancient times had an understanding of this
spiritual body.
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The animal kingdom has a physical, etheric, and astral body. The astral body is connected
with the Air element. It enters through the breath. It is the carrier of consciousness and
connection to the world through the senses.
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It is therefore related to the nervous system.
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Having an astral body allows movement in and experience of the world, and expression of the
will. Experiencing pain and pleasure, sympathies and antipathies are connected to the astral
body. The astral body draws into the physical body between the ages of seven and fourteen,
“carrying breathing by way of nerves, as playing on a lyre.”
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The tender, sensitive feelings of
adolescence speak to this unfolding.
The astral body has two components, the soul body and the sentient soul.
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These are
important aspects for the music-thanatologist to contemplate due to their particular responses to
music. The soul body is connected with the deeper, coarser part of the etheric body united with
the physical body. The sentient soul is connected to the finer part of the etheric body, extending
beyond the soul body, reaching outward into the world.
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Steiner describes the soul body as a
sheath for the sentient soul, a relationship similar to a sword (sentient soul) in a scabbard (soul
body).
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To understand the soul body, imagine being aroused to experience sensation consciously,
but not thinking about it – just pure experience.
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Sensations arise in response to stimulation
within the environment.
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The human being takes in these experiences primarily through the
senses in the anterior part of the body: sight, smell, taste, and touch.
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The ears are shaped to
draw sound from the anterior, as well. The soul body “extends itself over every part of us that is
perceptible to touch.”
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The action of the soul body is from outside in, streaming toward us
through the sense organs.
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But, without the sentient soul, this is as far as sensation would go. To
begin to give permanence of feeling, sensation, and thought is the work of the sentient soul.
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The forces of the sentient soul stream from the back to the front of the human being, through the
head.
See Figure 1.
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There is a collision of sorts that occurs between the two streams, blocking
forces in the physical brain.
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Imagine this scabbard of sensation from the soul body being filled
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with the sentient soul, brimming with thoughts and feelings regarding experiences in the
environment. Thus, thinking arises, serving the sentient soul.
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Figure 1: The supersensible currents of the sentient soul and (sentient) soul body
The sentient soul is moved through sensory experiences and thinking. Subsequently, desires,
aversions, impulses, instincts, and passions emerge within the sentient soul.
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Individuals form
thoughts about sensations, becoming enlightened regarding the outer world.
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If we burn
ourselves, we learn, fire burns. Humans are drawn into the world through experiences of the
sentient soul, bringing about opportunities to satisfy passions and desires.
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Through this
description one can see the more inward quality of the soul body, and the more outward striving
quality of the sentient soul.
In anthroposophical thought, in addition to a physical body, etheric body, and astral body,
human beings also have an ego.
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The ego is connected to the element of Fire or warmth, and
enters through the warmth of the heart in the blood. Each human being has an individualized
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spirit. This spirit gradually incarnates through our lives, unfolding more fully at 21 years of age.
The ego provides humans with individuality, self-awareness, and choice.
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Through the ego,
there is the ability to think about, analyze, and transcend this world through love, consciously
and freely.
The human I or ego receives experiences from the senses from one side, and the spirit
reveals itself from the other.
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The ego lives in the body and soul, but the spirit lives in the ego.
In so far as the ego lives in the physical, it is subject to the laws of the mineral world. In so far as
the I or ego receives the spiritual into itself, it is subject to the laws of the spirit.
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What lives in
the ego as spirit is eternal. Being human, simply put, is all about freedom and love. The ego
works to transform the astral, etheric, and physical bodies, working outwards from the center.
When an individual dies, the ego leaves. The human I or ego must excarnate from the physical
body.
The etheric body and ego create a radiating aura around the human being.
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The astral
body hovers primarily around the head and chest. When an individual is in wakeful
consciousness, the physical, etheric, and astral bodies are all around the person in space. The
etheric body always extends a little beyond the physical body on all sides, and is a supersensible
aura of light similar to the color of peach blossoms. The astral body extends over two times the
length of the head beyond the physical body, surrounding the body like a cloud around the head
and upper torso, fading in the lower part of the body.
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See Figure 2.
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When a person is dying,
the spiritual bodies of the human being must gradually separate from the physical vessel.
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The anthroposophical view of death and dying
To comprehend death, it is helpful to understand and contemplate what happens to each
human being in sleep.
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Sleep has been described as a little death. In sleep, the physical and
etheric bodies remain united. When a person drifts into sleep, the astral body loosens its hold.
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The ego and astral body separate and are outside the body.
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Without the ego and astral body and
the activity of the senses, there is no consciousness.
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The astral body is connected with the
breath and the nervous system. The activity of the astral body and the nervous system are
wearing for the body.
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During sleep, the ego and astral body work primarily from outside,
replenishing and nourishing the body.
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The person lies in bed unconscious and in dreamless
sleep, like a lovely, sleeping plant. When the astral body and ego are only partially separated, the
dream-state is experienced, and there may be a few memories of this.
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What is felt as this separation of the ego and the soul or astral body takes place during
sleep? Many people say they simply fall asleep.
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It is a challenge to notice what happens in the
moment of drifting to sleep, but if one is attentive, one notices that thoughts become fuzzy and at
a certain point there is no longer control of them.
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A person passes over into a series of pictures
with no logical connection and begins to dream.
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Sometimes an individual can vaguely
remember this, particularly if one is startled just before falling asleep. This can be a
contemplative practice to experience the separation of the soul from the body.
One can get a sense for loosening of the etheric or life body from the physical body by
considering moments in life where one receives a great shock, experiences a fall from significant
heights, or has fear of possible pending death.
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Many are familiar with stories of individuals
experiencing life passing before their eyes. When one sees their whole life in this way, this is an
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experience of a loosened etheric body.
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The etheric body is the bearer of memory. While the
etheric body is firmly rooted in the physical body, its vibrations are tied up with the coarser
rhythms of the physical.
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When it becomes even temporarily detached, a human being’s whole
life of memories flashes before the soul.
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Another experience of a loosened etheric body is the strange, tingling feeling of a limb
going to sleep.
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If a finger goes to sleep, a clairvoyant is able to see the loosened etheric body as
a little second finger protruding at the side of the actual finger.
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Another experience of the
etheric body is phantom limb pain and limb sensation experienced by amputees.
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Although the
physical limb is gone, the etheric body, which is the life force outlining human form, is still
present.
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Thus, one can feel as though the limb is still present.
As we age, memory changes. With advanced age, the life forces begin to gradually
withdraw from the body.
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These etheric forces are precisely the same forces that made
tremendous impressions on the very young, imprinting the experiences of early life in memory
picture forms.
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With the elderly, the life forces are no longer as active in building up the body.
As the etheric body loosens its hold with the physical, the past now returns in the form of
pictures.
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Images stand before the eyes of the elder as clear as if they had just happened. The
elder almost cannot resist talking about them, often over and over, because they are so tangible
and real.
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The stories can become confused, particularly in the case of dementia, when the
physical instrument of the brain is damaged and is no longer receiving the pictures accurately.
One can understand the wisdom of past ages, when very old individuals were paired with the
very young. Young children long for repetition of the same stories over and over to develop the
blossoming etheric body as it draws deeper into the physical body, and the very old long to share
their vivid picture memories as the etheric body begins to detach.
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To fully describe the anthroposophical view of death, it is important to briefly discuss the
idea of the human double or Doppelganger.
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Perhaps it is best to approach this by suggesting
that everyone has a lower and a higher self. When acting from the higher self, we are warm,
loving, and generous. When we act out of the lower self, we are selfish, driven, manipulative,
and cruel. This negative double aspect does not respect freedom, but often wishes to dominate
others.
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The positive side of the Doppelganger is the potential for its transformation by the
higher self.
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We all have tendencies and faults we desire to change and transform, and through
this we grow. Through our own failings we can also develop compassion for others. This shadow
side of us tends to keep us directed towards the material. We need a balance between earthly and
spiritual because as human beings, we are both.
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The experience of death is a function of the human spirit. It is a breaking free from
matter, moving into spiritual realms.
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The Doppelganger is not allowed to follow us into death,
into the spiritual world. Sometimes, a transformation or separation of the double can occur
several weeks before death, but generally it separates near death or up to three days prior to
death.
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Individuals can have a transcendent, peaceful quality once the double has departed. The
fragile, weakening body can then become almost luminous.
The struggle to free oneself from the double can be difficult to behold. There can be
much fear, agitation, sorrow, anger, agony, and regret to be experienced prior to the release.
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Besides the luminescent quality, the release can be a kind of lightening that occurs in the last
hours or days. This is often a time for a second wind or seemingly brief recovery. A loved one
who has been unable to move or to speak will suddenly regain abilities temporarily. A deeper
peacefulness may be noted, and often a more natural flow of breath.
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As an individual approaches death, the person has longer periods of sleep. The astral
body and ego are outside of the body for increasing periods of time. Conscious awareness begins
to change, and four distinct stages of changes in consciousness may be discerned in the
process.
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The first sign is the presence of death images in dreams.
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One may dream of coffins,
grave stones, or seeing one’s own dead body. Often, these represent the exhaustion one is
feeling, or a sense of separation from others. The symbolic images begin to appear not only in
dreams, but in waking consciousness.
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A dying person may consciously experience being in a
train, moving through a tunnel. A light may illuminate a landscape in the tunnel walls; something
that is not possible in the physical world.
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The dying person experiences this as inner reality. A
dying individual may then ask – when did you get on? At this time, thinking is beginning to let go
of its connection with the physical world.
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The person still identifies with the body in the image
of the tunnel, but is beginning the process of letting go of the body. Other signs of this are
kicking off bed covers and wanting to leave the room. Actually, the person is trying to leave the
body.
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The second stage is when the dying individual no longer identifies with the body but sees
it from outside.
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Dream images may occur such as being on a plane looking down on one’s
home town. One may have a sense of buoyancy or an experience of getting bigger.
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In the third stage, the earthly world has vanished, and the person meets figures from
another world.
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The person may feel called by name.
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The call may be from a family member.
The person may feel someone is looking at him. One may walk in a field of plants with eyes
instead of flowers. Close to the threshold of death there is a perception of being watched and
looked at.
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This occurs in waking consciousness. Watchful eyes may feel very penetrating.
People who are dead may appear and the dying individual may have conversations with them.
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In the fourth stage of changing consciousness, the dying person begins to feel at home in
the new world.
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The individual often grows calm, radiating peace. The person may be
conscious enough to comfort and bless those around them.
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Kimberly Clark-Sharpe, the head of INDS, International Near-Death Studies, interviewed
over 1000 people who experienced near-death.
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These individuals reported an expanding not
diminishing consciousness as death approached. They became aware of not only the presence of
others at their bedside, but also their intentions.
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Nancy Jewel Poer describes in her book,
Living Into Dying, the situation of a young soldier in a coma in WWII.
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When he recovered, he
described to his priest the experience of being in a coma, and sensing far down the hall from him
a nurse expressing her concern and heartfelt sympathy that he would not live through the night.
This gave him the will to survive. He was later able to confirm his experience.
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As these changes are occurring within the human being, it is important to keep in mind
that to a certain extent, the spiritual bodies continue to hover in and around the individual right
up until death. When death is very near, long apneic periods can be seen and the pulse becomes
very faint. Now, the person no longer just sleeps with the astral body outside, and the etheric and
physical bodies united. The individual actually stops breathing – life stops temporarily. This
indicates greater separation of the astral body and the life giving etheric body.
When a person dies, the etheric body fully separates from the physical body, particularly
in the region of the heart.
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A soft light shines from the heart, and the spiritual bodies, including
the astral, etheric and ego, rise out of the head.
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The combined supersensible currents of the
spiritual bodies swirl in a vortex.
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Clairvoyant individuals witness the spiritual bodies leaving
the physical body in an upward, spiraling motion at the time of death. One can have the inner
sense of a whirlwind moving in the room, sometimes softly, sometimes stirring up a bit of chaos.
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One can contemplate and experience the mystery of the wide open mouth of the dying at
the bedside, sensing the yearning spirit readying to soar from the head. One can sense
imaginatively that one who is dying is laboring to give birth to the spirit – through the mouth.
There are actually similarities between the cervix and the larynx in their structures.
112
The moment of death is described in anthroposophy as “the most wondrous, most
beautiful, majestic, sublime experience” for the soul.
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The spirit that crosses the threshold of
existence “comes forth like a magnificent flame, filled with power, light, and beauty. No longer
confined to a physical organism, its brilliance provides a continuously guiding light to the
individual in his or her new existence.”
114
The human soul continually looks back at this
experience from the spiritual world after death.
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Steiner describes the ability of human beings
to find a sense of self or ego consciousness in the spiritual world by looking back on the death
experience.
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In the spiritual world, there is the tendency to expand into and unite with the all, in
unity of being. Looking back on the death experience gives human beings the strength needed to
feel oneself as in individual in the spiritual world; to continue to have a sense of the “I.”
117
The
wonder of death remains a remarkable reminder in the spiritual world that the spirit has
overcome physical matter.
118
If a person dies slowly, the separation of the bodies may produce the experience of
moving through a tunnel, spoken of in many near-death experiences. The tunnel is the conscious
experience of leaving the physical body. Beyond the tunnel is a fiery star of light, as the soul is
freed from the body.
119
If an individual is abruptly drawn from the body, for example, in an
accident, the person may not know he/she has died for a short period. Until the individual comes
to this realization, the person may hover near the body or try to complete tasks they were
involved in directly before death.
120
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Once the enlivening etheric body leaves the physical body, the remaining physical body
begins to fall apart rather quickly. Without the life giving body, the physical body feels very
heavy. It truly is dead weight. When a person passes through the portal of death, the body goes
the way of nature, back to the earth.
121
To the person leaving the body at death, there is an inner process; a soul process taking
place.
122
The individual feels the body being left behind. Again, this is of immense significance
to the soul that is leaving. The individual feels the dramatic shift in their relationship to the
world. To those family members left behind, what happens to the physical body becomes a
necessary external process.
123
The individual who has crossed the threshold can have the feeling,
“I am outside, but as though sunk into a single, fiery star.”
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This single star is “radiating cosmic
wisdom.”
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Steiner likens this to the conscious experience of a chick breaking out of an egg shell.
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Now, the world is viewed from outside of the body instead of from inside of the body.
127
Steiner
speaks of the brief space of time just after death as being quite remarkable. The entire life
appears before the soul as a great tableau.
128
The etheric, astral, and ego bodies rise away and
remain united for a few days. The separation of the etheric body creates a picture memory
tableau that people who have near-death experiences often speak about.
129
Again, considering the
life passing before your eyes in extreme danger helps one to comprehend this. All the events that
have been consciously experienced between birth and death now come before the soul in picture
form. This tableau is maintained as long as one has the inner power to remain awake, usually
from one to three days.
130
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How music affects the spiritual bodies
Now that the groundwork has been laid for the anthroposophical understanding the
spiritual bodies of the human being and their separation at death, it is important to consider how
music affects these bodies. When one experiences the musical element, one lives “in a reflection
of their spiritual home.”
131
The world of tone speaks to the innermost core of the human being.
The nature of the etheric and sentient bodies is based on spiritual tone and spiritual vibration.
All
human beings, in their deepest nature, are spiritual tones.
132
Music is first experienced by the
astral body. The tones are sent to the etheric body. Steiner describes how the musical experience
of harmony, melody, and rhythm leads one to an experience of the etheric body.
Harmony takes hold of human feeling through the heart. Harmony “directly addresses
itself to feeling and is experienced in it.”
133
Melody carries harmony upward.
134
The element of melody guides the musical element
from the realm of feeling up in the direction of thinking on the stream of breath, connected to the
nervous system.
135
Music does not fully enter into thinking because thinking is all about
concepts. Through the melody, the head “becomes open to feeling, to actual feeling. It is as if
you brought the heart into the head through melody.”
136
In melody, you become free, as you
normally are in your thinking. Your thoughts are freed, and feeling enters thought, freeing and
purifying thought, allowing one to feel serene.
137
Rhythm carries harmony in the direction of the will.
138
Rhythm carries genuine feeling
through the blood, through the circulatory system into the limbs.
139
Think of the effects of
rhythm on the body and soul. One feels rhythm moving within, and often cannot resist moving
the limbs with the rhythm. If the inner experience of harmony, melody, and rhythm leads to an
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experience of the etheric body, consider taking time with a favorite piece of music,
contemplating how this feels inwardly. What is experienced within the nervous, circulatory, and
metabolic systems; within thoughts, feelings, and in the limbs?
Steiner describes the historical path of musical experience in an evolutionary sense that
corresponds to changes of consciousness and development of individuality over time. Steiner
offers that in the past the perfect fifth (P5) brought a feeling of expansion into the vast universe,
of being transported.
140
Humanity was less incarnated in the body and experienced awareness of
being in the divine world.
141
To many in the modern world, the P5 may feel somewhat hollow or
empty. This is normal in the current era given that the spiritual bodies have drawn more fully
into the body.
142
Increased incarnation in the body corresponds to increased individualization,
creating a feeling of separation from the Divine. Steiner speaks of a time when individuals would
feel with the P5, “The angel in my being is beginning to play music.”
143
The experience of a major and minor third (M3 and m3) brings a mood of “consolidation
of the inner being.”
144
In the third, there is awareness of the “human being within himself.”
145
The musical experience became personal with the third, where one could say, “I sing.”
146
In our
current age, the warm, inner consonance of the major third is easily heard and sung.
The human being was able to experience himself as etheric body in the perfect fourth P4
as late as the 4
th
century CE, in the time of Augustine.
147
The P4 is seen by Steiner as lying at the
border of the human organism.
148
It arises at the dividing line between the experience of the P5
of the spiritual world and the experience of the third in a human being’s innermost self.
149
One
would feel oneself in the spiritual world in the P4, but also retain a sense of egohood, the sense
of being an I.
19
Steiner’s many descriptions of the experience of the P4 are worth mentioning for
contemplative opportunities. In the past, a person experienced himself from outside with the P4.
The P4 led a person to feel, “He is among the gods. He forgets himself in the fifth, but in the
fourth he does not forget himself, he moves about with the gods, standing at the border of his
humanness.”
150
With the interval of the fourth lived “the holy wind that had placed him into the
physical world.”
151
The “entire human being is experienced spiritually at the threshold in the
experience of the fourth: one experiences the etheric human body.”
152
Steiner explains the special significance of the astral body’s sentient soul and soul body
in the experience of music. When a minor key is experienced, the soul body (the scabbard for
the sword of the sentient soul), which is deeply connected to the etheric, grows stronger,
becoming a victor over the more outward striving sentient soul.
153
Particularly, in the minor
third, there is a pain, of sorts, in which the soul body is dominant.
154
In the experience of a major
key, there is a predominance of the sentient soul over the soul body.
155
In the major third, the
sentient soul dominates as the victor.
Therefore, a more inward element tends toward the minor
and a more outward element towards the major.
156
One must be careful not to make strong generalizations. The experience of major and
minor is very individual. Consider, for example, a person who has lived life directed fully to the
outer world. No consideration of the inner life or the spiritual world has been contemplated. This
person lived fully in the sentient soul. Contemplate another individual who devoted their life to
inner work, silence, and meditation. This person has possibly strengthened the soul body and its
connection with the etheric. These two people may experience minor tonality in completely
different ways. It is possible that the first may find minor tones painful, and the second may find
them comforting and deepening, based on the transformation of the soul and etheric bodies. This
20
is just an example, intended to show that major tonality does not just mean happy and minor
painful.
The major second (M2) is said to be experienced more deeply by evolving humanity, as
the inner life of the human being intensifies.
157
This allows music to reach profound, life-giving
levels of the body, with potential for deep, inner healing.
158
The interval of the second is viewed
here not only as the simultaneous striking of two notes, such as C and D, but also as the
chronologically sequential movement of notes as occurs in melody.
159
In other words, the
intervallic journey of the melody line itself carries an abundance of M2s and m2s. The interval of
a second has been described as the “eternally indeterminate, questioning interval.”
160
With the
second, the soul may feel freed, moved, and wanting to go on.
161
At the same time there is an
element of metamorphosis, of continually creating connections.
162
Does this continual movement
reflect the life journey of human beings? Can inner meaning be found for the dying through the
melody’s intervallic journey? Are possibilities opened for processing, unbinding, and healing in
deep, inner regions of the body and soul? Through an intensified experience of the second, the
possibility is opened to have music permeate the whole human being, including the physical
body, through the life forces of the etheric body.
163
Prescriptive considerations from an anthroposophical perspective
The thematic material of the music-thanatologist provides a wealth of healing medicine
for the dying individual; for the human being whose spiritual bodies are preparing to excarnate
from the body. First, in learning that all music resounds within the etheric body, the music-
thanatologist affirms the effectiveness of musical medicine in wakefulness and in sleep.
21
Certainly, all music-thanatologists have seen the effects of music on a sleeping individual, how
facial features soften and breathing patterns change. One can connect deeply to the etheric body,
to the rhythmic system, as a person sleeps. Music reaches into the life-giving level of the human
being, nourishing at unconscious levels. Music dips into this realm of rhythmic patterns that are
not only physical, but deep habitual patterns: the realm of basic temperament and deep-seated
memories. The anthroposophical explanation of the etheric helps us to understand why the work
of music-thanatologists assists softening or unbinding at physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.
Although Steiner describes the experience of the musical intervals in an evolutionary
sense, how are the M2, m3, M3, P4, and P5 experienced by an individual who is dying? As the
spiritual bodies separate and an individual is returning to their spiritual home, is it possible that
musical intervals are experienced quite differently than when the spiritual bodies are firmly
incarnated in the body? For example, consider the arpeggiated accompaniment pattern of 1-5-1,
frequently offered by music-thanatologists with dying individuals. With this pattern, a P5 and P4
are continually being delivered. There are many examples of P5 leaps in the thematic material,
such as Deus meus, Blessing of the Road, and Ave maris stella. How does this affect someone
whose astral and etheric bodies are separating? Is it possible they are lifted to the spiritual world
with the music, experiencing glimpses at the threshold in the security of the vigil setting?
Consider the difference between an individual who is 40 years old, dying rapidly from
cancer and a 95 year old with history of CVA, CHF, and dementia, dying of aspiration
pneumonia. The etheric body of the 40 year old is potentially still firmly incarnated or attached
to the physical body. One may see much limb movement in a young person who is more fully
incarnated. Is the individual laboring to free the etheric body from the physical? Would metered
rhythm with accompaniment in the lower ranges of the harp potentially be soothing to the
22
rhythmic etheric body and to the physical body, gradually introducing unmetered music when the
person is ready? Would it be comforting to intentionally offer stepwise patterns with M2’s to
reach deeply into etheric and bodily realms, gently supporting loosening and unbinding from the
physical body?
The etheric body of the 95 year old has potentially been detaching for years. The
individual may have experienced strong memory pictures of the past for an extended period of
time. Would the elderly person be ready for intervallic leaps of P4 and P5, potentially letting in
light? Would this open possibilities of release into spiritual realms? Of course, each individual’s
readiness and soul state must be assessed, but to contemplate the readiness of the spiritual bodies
for release is a prescriptive consideration.
Asperges me is probably one of the most etheric pieces offered in the music-thanatology
thematic material. It is so fluid and watery that it easily slips through the fingers and out of the
consciousness of the music-thanatologist! When something has a tendency to slip out of
consciousness, it is moving into the unconscious realm of the etheric. What makes Asperges me
watery and etheric? The melody line initially weaves in a wave-like, watery motion, with
primarily a stepwise ascending and descending pattern, including many major 2nds. This has the
potential to reach deep, etheric levels in the body. Then, the presence of the P4 enters, creating
the possibility for experiencing the human being “spiritually at the threshold.”
152
As the antiphon
continues, the reciting tone on G arises, repeating often through the piece. The reciting tone is all
about repetition, another hallmark of the etheric. When is this antiphon of value? Again, there are
numerous possibilities, however, Asperges me can be very effective in sleep or when an
individual is drifting into sleep, and the astral body separates, leaving the etheric and physical
23
bodies. Asperges me has the potential to directly speak to, soothe, and heal the etheric body,
promoting deep rest and sleep.
The shorter pieces in the thematic material open possibilities to penetrate deeply into the
etheric with their ability to offer repetition. A porta inferi, Ehre, Blessing of the Road, and Deus
meus have these qualities. A porta inferi is a short antiphon, with the potential for much
repetition. In addition, it offers a watery, wave-like, ascending and descending melody line with
unmetered rhythm. When as music-thanatologists, we speak of the benefits of repetition for
creating familiarity, security, and freeing thinking to create a vessel to rest into, we are from an
anthroposophical point of view addressing the level of the etheric. We are entering into the
rhythmic body, that deep part of the human being that craves rhythm and security in daily life,
has many habits – both physical and social, often resists change, and rests in the consistent
rhythm of the steadily beating heart.
How can old habits, temperament, and social rhythms residing deep within the etheric
nature be addressed through the music? Consider opening possibilities for unbinding by offering
the musical elements which reach into etheric realms, including rhythm, repetition, the stepwise
progression of the M2 in the melody line, and bringing more focus to the P4 as the individual
approaches the threshold. As the etheric body of the human being loosens and separates, the
steady, rhythmic qualities of the body gradually change. In unmetered music, this process is
supportive for the transforming individual at the time of death. The new arrhythmic nature of the
individual is met, following the breath and the changing rhythms.
Steiner explains that every time the octave appears in a musical composition, human
beings potentially experience inwardly, “I have found my “I” anew; I am uplifted in my
humanity by the feeling of the octave.”
164
As music-thanatologists, it is of value to contemplate
24
this, and consider this prescriptively. When Kyrie from Mass of the Angels is offered, the
ascending melody line lifts to the dominant and rises further to light on the octave. The melody
leaps a full octave in the middle section. Salve Regina delivers another experience of the octave
with its repeating four note ascending melodic fragment of G, A, B, and C. In paradisum can be
played in octaves at the close of the vigil for an individual close to crossing. What is the
experience for the individual? When is this of value? Certainly, the possibilities are abundant,
but as a dying person experiences loosening of the spiritual bodies, one can offer a glimpse of the
higher self, a new level of being in the experience of the octave. An individual close to crossing
the threshold of existence may feel an ethereal call from the spiritual world, a hint of lifting to
the beyond. If the person is resting deeply into the music, the presence of the octave may open
possibilities of peaceful release and hope. The individual may feel supported in the new sense of
buoyancy and lightening they are experiencing as their consciousness changes. This material also
may be beneficial just after crossing the threshold – a reflection of movement to a new state of
being. However, if a person is fearful of dying and clearly struggling, this could potentially be
frightening. One may consider a musical delivery with the security of the M3 in times of fear,
offering the consolidation of self, the feeling that I am still an I discussed in this work.
144
These are just a few prescriptive indications ascertained from contemplation of the
anthroposophical view of death. It is hoped that this paper will generate interest in
anthroposophy and the abundant possibilities it brings for the work of music-thanatologists.
When considering imaginatively the majestic journey of the human soul as it loosens and
separates from the physical body, one is filled with awe and a feeling of great honor to be present
for this remarkable transformation; the event of death being so wondrous and sublime for the
human being that one returns to this moment over and over from the spiritual world. These
25
thoughts bring a heightened sense of privilege and responsibility in playing at the bedside of the
dying.
26
Notes
1. Rudolf Steiner, What is Anthroposophy? (Great Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic
Press, Inc., 2002), 8.
2. Steiner 2002, 11a.
3. “Rudolf Steiner,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Online Academic Edition, 2008.
4. Friess, Horace, “Steiner, Rudolf (1861–1925).” Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. Ed. Donald Borchert. Vol. 9. 2
nd
(1967), 241-242.
.
5. “Rudolf Steiner,” Columbia Encyclopedia, 6
th
edition 2001-07.
6. Michael Lipson, “Transformation,” Lilipoh, ed. Christine Murphy (Spring 2001),
7. Sergei O. Prokofieff, The Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation (London: Temple
Lodge Publishing, 1995), 53.
8. Andrea Intveen, “Musical Instruments in Anthroposophical Music Therapy with
Reference to Rudolf Steiner’s Model of the Threefold Human Being,” Voices: A World Forum
for Music Therapy. Volume 7, Issue 3 (1 Nov. 2007).
.
9. Robert Mays and Sune Nordwall, “What is Anthroposophy?” 2004-2008
.
10. Steiner 2002, 11b.
11. Steiner 2002, 8-9.
12. Steiner 2002, 9a.
13. Steiner 2002, 9b.
14. Steiner 2002, 6a.
15. Rudolf Steiner, An Outline of Esoteric Science (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic
Press, Inc., 1972), 100-254.
16. Steiner 2002, 6b.
27
17. Stanley Drake, Though You Die: Death and Life Beyond Death (Harrison Gardens,
Edinburgh: Floris Books, 2002), 34.
18. Intveen.
19. Intveen.
20. Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, Inc., 1971), 1-40.
21. Steiner 1971, 16a.
22. Calvert Roszell, The Near-Death Experience (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press,
Inc., 1992), 39. Roszell speaks of Indian Vedanta philosophy, describing a physical body, called
the annamaya kosha, and it’s supersensible or spiritual double, pranamaya kosha. In the Indian
cultural view, the astral body is the sukshma sharira, completely separating from the physical
body at death.
23. Rudolf Steiner, The Child’s Changing Consciousness (Hudson, NY:
Anthroposophic Press, Inc., 1996), 43-50.
24. Rudolf Steiner, At the Gates of Spiritual Science (London: Rudolf
Steiner Press, 1986), 11-13.
25. Roszell, 38a.
26. Steiner 1971, 16b.
27. Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment (Spring Valley,
New York: Anthroposophic Press, Inc., 1984), 163.
28. Steiner 1984, 164.
29. Steiner 1972, 26-27.
30. Roszell, 38b.
31. Roszell, 38c.
32. Steiner 1996, 56a.
33. Steiner 1996, 56b.
34. Steiner 1996, 43-66.
35. Drake, 40. Drake describes how Egyptians spoke of the ka of a person, which left
the body at death. This ka was not just the soul, but actually “hovered in birdlike form above the
28
mummified body”, having connection to life forces. A person experienced bodily existence only
so long as he had his ka.
36. Steiner 1972, 27-28.
37. Rudolf Steiner, “The Kingdom of Childhood,” SteinerBooks. 1995. Steiner Books.
12 May. 2009 .
38. Steiner 1971, 16-21a.
39. Steiner 1971, 20a.
40. Rudolf Steiner, The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone (Hudson,
NY: Anthroposophic Press, Inc., 1987), 6.
41. Steiner 1971, 17-21a.
42. Steiner 1971, 17-21b.
43. Rudolf Steiner, A Psychology of Body, Soul, & Spirit (Hudson, NY:
Anthroposophic Press, Inc., 1999), 40-43.
44. Steiner 1999, 42a.
45. Steiner 1999, 40-43, 56-57.
46. Steiner 1971, 16-21b.
47. Steiner 1999, 42b.
48. Steiner 1999, 40-43, 56-57.
49. Steiner 1971, 17-21c.
50. Steiner 1971, 20b.
51. Steiner 1971, 20c.
52. Steiner 1971, 21.
53. Steiner 1972, 28-38.
54. Steiner 1971, 26-29.
55. Steiner 1971, 29a.
29
56. Steiner 1971, 29b.
57. Steiner 1986, 25-28a.
58. Steiner 1986, 25-28b.
59. Florin Lowndes, Enlivening the Chakra of the Heart (Trowbridge, Wiltshire:
Cromwell Press Limited, 2000), 12.
60. Steiner, 1986, 25-28c.
61. Steiner 1986, 25-28d.
62. Steiner 1986, 25-28e.
63. Steiner 1986, 25-28f.
64. Steiner 1986, 25-28g.
65. Steiner 1986, 25-28h.
66. Steiner 1986, 25-28i.
67. Drake, 35a.
68. Drake, 35b.
69. Drake, 35-36.
70. Steiner 1986, 25-27a.
71. Steiner 1986, 25-27b.
72. Steiner 1986, 25-27c.
73. Steiner 1986, 25-27d.
74. Steiner 1986, 27-28.
75. Steiner 1986, 27a.
76. Steiner 1986, 27b.
77. Steiner 1986, 27c.
30
78. Norbert Glas, The Fulfillment of Old Age (Hudson, New York: Anthroposophic
Press, Inc., 1986), 26-27a
79. Glas, 26-27b.
80. Glas, 26-27c.
81. Glas, 26-27d.
82. Glas, 26-27e.
83. Nancy Jewel Poer, Living Into Dying (N.J Poer, 2002), 95-98a.
84. Poer, 95-98b.
85. Poer, 95-98c.
86. Poer, 95-98d.
87. Poer, 95-98e.
88. Poer, 95-98f.
89. Poer, 95-98g.
90. Poer, 95-98h.
91. Johannes Schneider, “The Dying Human Being- How We Can Understand and Be
With Him” (Journal of Anthroposophical Medicine Volume 13, Nr. 1 (Spring 1996)), 2.
92. Schneider, 2-3.
93. Schneider, 2-4a.
94. Schneider, 2-4b.
95. Schneider, 2-4c.
96. Schneider, 2-4d.
97. Schneider, 4-5a.
98. Schneider, 4-5b.
99. Schneider, 4-6a.
31
100. Schneider, 4-6b.
101. Schneider, 4-6c.
102. Schneider, 4-6d.
103. Schneider, 4-7a.
104. Schneider, 4-7b.
105. Kimberly Clark-Sharp, After the Light (Authors Choice Press. 2003).
106. Clark-Sharp.
107. Poer, 94a.
108. Poer, 94b.
109. Steiner 1986, 26a.
110. Steiner 1986, 26b.
111. Steiner 1999, 45.
112. Michael Sasnow, Lecture entitled, “The Larynx, Ear, and Countenance,” Course
title Reimagination of the Body III. (Music-Thanatology Training Program. Lane Community
College. 18 Oct. 2008) 8.
113. Poer, 96-97
114. Poer, 97.
115. Sergei O Prokofieff, May Human Beings Hear It (Forest Row, Sussex: Temple
Lodge Publishing, 2002), 182.
116. Rudolf Steiner, Inner Nature of Man and Life Between Death and Rebirth.
(Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 1998), 52-58a.
117. Steiner 1998, 52-58b.
118. Steiner 1998, 52-58c.
119. Steiner 1998, 52-58d.
120. George Ritchie, Return From Tomorrow (Grand Rapids, MI: A Chosen Book,
1993), 36-58.
32
121. Steiner 1998, 52a.
122. Steiner 1998, 52b.
123. Steiner 1998, 52c.
124. Steiner 1998, 53a.
125. Steiner 1998, 54a.
126. Steiner 1998, 53b.
127. Steiner 1998, 53c.
128. Steiner 1998, 54-55a.
129. Ritchie, 48-55.
130. Steiner 1998, 54-55b.
131. Steiner 1987, 8.
132. Steiner 1987, 5.
133. Steiner 1987, 64-65a.
134. Steiner 1987, 65-67.
135. Steiner 1987, 64-65b.
136. Steiner 1987, 66-67a.
137. Steiner 1987, 66-67b.
138. Steiner 1987, 67-68a.
139. Steiner 1987, 67-68b.
140. Steiner 1987, 60-61.
141. Steiner 1987, 61.
142. Steiner 1987, 63.
143. Steiner 1987, 52.
33
144. Steiner 1987, 61a.
145. Steiner 1987, 61b.
146. Steiner 1987, 62a.
147. Steiner 1987, 62b.
148. Steiner 1987, 61d.
149. Steiner 1987, 61e.
150. Steiner 1987, 61-62.
151. Steiner 1987, 62c.
152. Steiner 1987, 68.
153. Steiner 1987, 19a.
154. Steiner 1987, 19b.
155. Steiner 1987, 19c.
156. Steiner 1987, 70.
157. Steiner 1987, 71.
158. Hans Erhard Lauer, “The Evolution of Music Through Changes in Tone-Systems,”
Cosmic Music, ed. Joscelyn Godwin (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 1989),
218.
159. Lauer, 218-219.
160. Anny Von Lange, Man, Music and Cosmos (Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992),
32a.
161. Von Lange, 32b.
162. Von Lange, 32c.
163. Lauer, 200-220.
164. Steiner 1987, 48.
34
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36
