Copyright Alan Whitehead & Earthschooling: No Part of this book, post, URL, or book excerpt may be shared with anyone who has not paid for these materials.
Alan speaks in a very symbolic and esoteric manner in some parts of his books. Although they can be read anthroposophically, passages speaking of Atlantis, archangels, gods, etc. do not need to be taken literarily to be meaningful. The more you read, the more you will realize he uses many different religions to express ideas in a symbolic manner and not in a religious manner. His writings are not religious. In some places his writings are meant to refer to religious events in a historical way. In some places he is using religious figures (from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Ancient Roman and Greek Religions, etc.) in a symbolic manner. However, at no point is he promoting a specific religion or speaking from a religious point of view.
I have kept the writing as close to one-hundred percent original so you will also find that he speaks of Australia often and some spelling or manners of speaking may be cultural. Any words I have changed are presented like this: <word>.
Also keep in mind that these books are written by a Waldorf teacher with decades of experience who also studied with a Steiner student himself, so he speaks to an audience that is dedicating their lives to the Waldorf method without exception.
Because of this, all of his views are not reflected in the Earthschooling curriculum and not all of them may be ones you want to embrace or are able to use. In all of Alan Whitehead’s writings the opinions are his own and may not align with Earthschooling or Waldorf Books. In some cases, we will be updating some of these chapters in the future with additional and/or updated information.
Ultimately, however, as I read through these passages I find I can distill wisdom from even those paragraphs that do not resonate with me.
We invite you to read with an open mind and heart and with eagerness to learn and discuss…
THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS, THEIR PREPONDERATING ‘BODIES’, AND EYE COLOR
One of the most vexing questions in Spiritual Science is that of the Four Temperaments – or how to determine them in individuals. This, in spite of Rudolf Steiner providing copious information on the physiognomy of the temperaments – of both adults and children.
Of the package of observable factors (rather than mere behavior), that of eye color is, to this physiognomist at least, the most definitive. (See details of the seven physiognomic aspects of temperament, hair, skin, etc., in my book A Steiner Primary School?)
Eye color helps determine the dominant ‘body’ of the individual, which in turn indicates the temperament. In a lecture in the winter of 1908/09, Steiner described the predominating bodies of the four (adult) temperaments as: melancholic, physical body; sanguine; astral body; phlegmatic, etheric body; choleric, ego.
Just a few quotes from this amazing exposition:
“When the ego of the individual has become so strong through its destiny, so that its forces are noticeably dominant in the four-fold human nature, so much so that it dominates the other members, then the cholerictemperament results. If the person is especially subject to the influence of the forces of the astral body, then we attribute to him a sanguine temperament. If the etheric or life body acts excessively upon the person, the phlegmatic temperament arises.
And if, when the physical body with its laws is especially predominant in the person, so that the spiritual essence of being is not able to overcome a certain hardness in the physical body, then we have to do with a melancholic temperament”.
But what has eye color to do with the four dominant bodies?
Well, according to The Doctor, just about everything!
“In one organ it is shown especially clearly whether the astral body, ego and so on works formatively, that is in the eye. As a rule, we see how, for example, the steady, assured strongly-kindled inner light of the choleric turns everything luminously inward, expressing in a black eye (or grey, a lighter black, myself as an adult: Steiner had col-black eyes.
According to a certain law, the choleric does not permit the astral body to color that very thing that his ego force draws inward, although it is colored in another person … (myself as an adult).
In contrast, look at the sanguine individual, in whom the ego nature is not so deeply rooted, in whom the astral body pours forth all its mobility – there the blue eye is predominant. These blue eyes are closely connected with the individual’s invisible inner light, the light of the astral body …
The phlegmatic temperament rather confronts one with the so-called “colorless” eye (a blending of colors, with yellow or hazel predominating) – the expression of the etheric body …
With the melancholic, the eye can express a sadness quality (no surprises there!). The melancholic is one who cannot completely attain mastery over this physical body.”
Actually, this is the brown eye, with its many variations. Steiner elsewhere describes the brown eye as a result of matter dominating spirit. As one can see, the four eye types/bodies/temperaments express the three primary colors plus grey, the color of the ego. If one is painting with the three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, then the color of the water jar always finishes up grey.
The physical body brown eye is of course really a deep red, the ether body hazel eye is really yellow, and the astral blue eye completes this mystical primary color trio.
Warning! All the above relates to adults only, as Rudolf Steiner describes in Stuttgart in 1919. Here he tells how the four bodies, and their equivalent temperaments are different in children than adults:
“One of the four bodies preponderates in each child, and education and teaching must bring about the harmonizing of these four principles. If the ego preponderates, that is, if the ego is already very strongly developed in a child, then we find in him the melancholic temperament (in the adult, the choleric).
If the astral body preponderates, we have the choleric temperament (in adult, the sanguine). If the etheric body preponderates, we have the sanguine temperament (in the adult, the phlegmatic). If the physical body preponderates, we have the phlegmatic temperament (in the adult, the melancholic). In later life these things are somewhat differently connected, so you will find a slight variation in a lecture I once gave on the temperaments.
In that lecture (the 1908-09 lecture quoted above) I spoke of the temperaments in relation to our members of an adult person.
But in the case of children, we shall certainly come to a right judgement if we look at the connection between temperament and the four bodies in the way I have just described.
The bringing to my notice of this apparent contradiction of Steiner’s by my physiognomy teacher over three decades ago, provided me with one of the most potent resources in the understanding of human nature in general, and child development in particular. Naturally the eye color extrapolates right across from adult to child. As such, the ego-dominant melancholic child will have grey (myself as a child) to black eyes; the astral choleric child will have blue eyes (the darker blue the more powerful the child; as is the case with any of the four colors, actually); the etheric sanguine child will have hazel, green or ‘colorless’ eyes; and the physical body phlegmatic child will have brown eyes.
I have never seen a contradiction to this amazingly simple but little known principle. Oh, how it threw light on the so-called ‘hyperactive’ child (the yellow-eyed sanguine), who, it was noted by the aptly named Dr. Goldstein, so often – due to an over-abundance of yellow in their soul – responded to a lessening of yellow food in their diet. There are legion enlightening examples like this.
But maybe this ignorance of the relation of temperament to eye color doesn’t matter all that much, as Steiner assured us that:
“Extreme temperament differences tend to be mainly overcome after the tenth year, as the edges wear off.” After all, temperaments are the cardinal development principle I the primary years only.
Into adolescence, these are well-and-truly eclipsed by the emergence of the seven-fold, astrally-induced, personality – and after 21 by the life-long development of ego-based character.
As well, there is no true temperament in the under-sevens, their 7-year life stage being one of zodiac-based physical body development.
The four bodies as expressed in the four colors components of the eye are: the ‘white’, physical body; the ring around the iris, astral body, the sun-like – usually yellow – flare around the pupil, etheric body, and the pupil itself, the all-mysterious ego.
“Rudolf Steiner – often had sad eyes, small and black when seen close up; but from a distance dominating the whole face like brilliant diamonds.” Andrei Belyi
FOUR TEMPERAMENT CHILDREN
Four-temperament children, from top left clockwise: brown-eyed physical body dominant phlegmatic; blue-eyed astral body choleric; grey-eyed ego melancholic; green-eyed gal ether body sanguine. Note green pencil. A coincidence? Not likely; like bower birds, eye color subliminally influence our color choices in life, whether in clothes, art, décor, etc., (I love my silver-grey car!)., All fur eye types are deep-hued, hence effective in the world.
FROM: Sacred Faces: A Study of the Human Being in Light of Steiner’s Spiritual Science
Four Kingdoms Companion volume to: Sacred Places Minerals & Land; Sacred Fauna Botany; Sacred Fauna Zoology
Important Earthschooling Notes
Copyright Alan Whitehead & Earthschooling: No Part of this book, post, URL, or book excerpt may be shared with anyone who has not paid for these materials.
Alan speaks in a very symbolic and esoteric manner in some parts of his books. Although they can be read anthroposophically, passages speaking of Atlantis, archangels, gods, etc. do not need to be taken literarily to be meaningful. The more you read, the more you will realize he uses many different religions to express ideas in a symbolic manner and not in a religious manner. His writings are not religious. In some places his writings are meant to refer to religious events in a historical way. In some places he is using religious figures (from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Ancient Roman and Greek Religions, etc.) in a symbolic manner. However, at no point is he promoting a specific religion or speaking from a religious point of view.
I have kept the writing as close to one-hundred percent original so you will also find that he speaks of Australia often and some spelling or manners of speaking may be cultural. Any words I have changed are presented like this: <word>.
Also keep in mind that these books are written by a Waldorf teacher with decades of experience who also studied with a Steiner student himself, so he speaks to an audience that is dedicating their lives to the Waldorf method without exception.
Because of this, all of his views are not reflected in the Earthschooling curriculum and not all of them may be ones you want to embrace or are able to use. In all of Alan Whitehead’s writings the opinions are his own and may not align with Earthschooling or Waldorf Books. In some cases, we will be updating some of these chapters in the future with additional and/or updated information.
Ultimately, however, as I read through these passages I find I can distill wisdom from even those paragraphs that do not resonate with me.
We invite you to read with an open mind and heart and with eagerness to learn and discuss.
END NOTE
Alan has presented dialogue in his writings in an expressive form, where he tries to capture the accent of the person he was with to give his writing more authenticity and to allow the reader to “be with him” in his experience. In no place in his writings is he using expressive language to make fun of or demean the speaker. So, as a person with a linguistics and anthropology degree I find this enriching and informative to me as the reader. Thus, we have made the decision to leave all expressive writing in its original form.
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