RUDOLF STEINER CONCEPT OF THE SEVEN YEAR PHASES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

 RUDOLF STEINER CONCEPT OF THE SEVEN YEAR PHASES OF HUMAN

DEVELOPMENT:

Steiner speaks about human being from many different points of view.

One of the images he offers is of the human being today having what he refers to as four bodies. These bodies are not visible, they are not material.

They can be thought as sheaths of activity, these sheaths do unfold in a time frame of seven years. These seven-year phases of development go on after the last of the sheaths develops and bring us archetypal experiences if we will, to guide us into the experience of being a human being. 

Each of these seven-year phases are influenced by one or more planets.

Let’s  start by outlining the life of a human in three main parts and then we will break them down into our called seven-year phases.

1.

The main characteristic of this phase is physical development. 

We are occupied at this stage above all building our bodies and allowing our organs to mature physiologically. 

This takes place from 0 to approximately 21.

2.

In the middle phase (from approximately 21 to 42) we are primarily concerned with our soul development.

It’s a very expansive phase (we found a family, build a house, a career...). 

We experience confrontation, love, enthusiasm, antipathy...

3.

The third phase is of spiritual development.

The biological forces begin to weaken and these circumstances do allow us to develop greater consciousness.

 

Seven-year phases:

0 - 7

the moon is influencing the life of the new human being. 

The physical body is incarnating, establishing itself in the earth. 

The education of the child at this time should be focused on imitation and example.

An important aim to bear in mind is that children should experience that the world is good.

Children developing organs and even brain physiology are affected by the kind of sensory stimulation around them. 

Once the body has been worked on in the first seven years, life forces are liberated that were previously needed and children are now reflective and ready for school, they can now use these forces to acquire knowledge. 

There are seriously detrimental consequences if children go to school too early, this will be felt in between the ages 56 and 63, for that is when these forces detach themselves from the nervous and sensory system again.

Once the physical body has developed, another phase starts for the child, we start losing our milk teeth and a very different phase approaches.

The so-called etheric or life body starts to unfold. 

The rhythmic system develops at this time and for this is crucial to pay much attention to the rhythms of the life of the child. 

Contraction and expansion, inner and outer activities, serious and funny experiences throughout the day should be provided.

 

7 - 14

Mercury is the ruling planet. 

Children do not longer learn wholly by imitation and example, now they need adults to look up to and experience as figures of authority

This is the period when our habits are formed. 

Our individual feeling life begins to awaken at this stage.

 It is important that our feeling life should find fertile ground on which to grow. 

Such fertile soil can be provided by art or religion, but above all by loving authority  which comes from parents and teachers. 

If in the previous phase we aimed for the child to experience the world as good, here we aim for “the world is beautiful”.

 

This seven-year period is also the time when the difference between I and you has to become to terms with. 

For many children between eleven and twelve, there is a glimmer of a future interest or even vocational choice. 

This period will be reflected later in life from 21 to 42 years old.

 

14 - 21 

 a real change happens that has to do with a deepening of our soul life.

The organs which now develop are those of the lower abdomen, the genitals in particular and above all the muscular and limb systems. 

These are the organs with which we change the world. 

The astral body  starts to unfold (sensations, desires, instincts, feelings...). 

Conception now becomes possible, no only physically but also mentally in quite a new

way.

Adolescents are now torn between two opposing forces: 

in the one hand the ideal human being and in the other the awakening of the sex drive.

The soul is trying to find a balance and this translates into rebellious actions.

 

 The more the youngster feels free at home, the less likely he is to have the need for external freedom. 

They are walking along an unseen line with childhood on one side and adulthood on the other. 

At any moment they may hop to either side and it is the adult task to perceive which side they are on and to interact with them accordingly. 

If they are feeling grown up, they are insulted when we treat them like children, yet if they are for a moment basking in childish behaviour; it is pointless to expect more mature actions

from them. 

Attention to discipline and boundaries is vitally important, but it is difficult to introduce them now if they have been absent at younger ages.

Now the young people are looking for the truth in what we say and do.

The search for truth and authenticity has three aspects: scientific truth, physiological and spiritual truth. 

Stories of trials, of striving and initiation nurture their emerging sense of independence. 

These are the Venus influenced years, awakening longings accompany a ripeness for love. Life should give us the experience that “the world is true” so following the other phases we are now provided with three principles belonging to humankind: goodness, beauty and truth.

Steiner suggested that only at the high school level should girls and boys be treated differently. 

Males are more incarnated into their physical bodies, puberty takes longer for them. 

Young women are more interested in their feeling life. 

Their inner world is more accessible to them and all the talking they do with their friends is a way of exploring it. 

Steiner gives a picture of the young woman´s astral body sucking her “I” into it, already in her teens. 

With this earlier connection of their “I”, she is more self-conscious ad she can more easily understand the mood and motivation of others.

At about 19 years of age (18, 7), the moon, the earth and the sun are positioned in the constellation as to when we were born. 

This is called a moon node and will happen again and again every 18, 7 years. 

Pictorially is as if we come once again to a cosmic gateway we passed through on our journey to Earth. 

During the influence of this first moon node, we might experience openness to the spirit intentions of this life. 

It is interesting that in many cultures this is the time of finishing high school and making choices about our future. 

Who am I is a question that can arise strongly and this time of life.

 

21 - 28

From twenty one to twenty-eight, many people take their rucksack and go off on their travels, this happens also on a soul level. 

The last of our so-called four bodies descend now: 

The “I”. 

The I or ego is the one that receives the information of our sensations, of pain and individuality. 

It is our higher self. The I, according to Anthroposophy is eternal and comes to Earth again and again with the purpose of becoming truly human. 

The I is present since about the age of three (when the child says I for the first time) but will

not really descend until approximately the age of 21. 

This I, penetrates now into the astral, etheric and physical sheaths, reworking what has been offered and even what may have become embedded through the years of childhood.

It is important in these years to experiment with different activities and ways of being, 

to explore different skills and to learn from the consequences of my efforts. 

Feelings are still a primary motivating force throughout the twenties, as impressions from the outer world are received.

The part of the soul we are dealing here with is the sentient soul.

It is characterized by the ups and downs of life.

The opinions of others matter to us. 

If we succeed in building firm ground under our feet during the phase of the sentient soul we build the foundations for the development of our personality in subsequent years. 

Ideally in this phase, young people will feel that the future is open, that changes can be made and that fulfilling dreams is possible. 

The planet that will rule from 21 to 42 is the sun.

 

28 - 35

At approximately 28 years of age, another planetary influence hits us and it’s almost inevitable to find ourselves into an inner and outer crisis: we question our direction.

The gifts of youth are coming to an end, the vital forces weaken. 

The “I” needs to be strengthened, it does start working from the inside, and we are

being guided into an individualization process. 

During this seven-year period our physical body is deeply penetrated by our individual self. Steiner calls this phase the time of the intellectual and sentient soul.

Thinking and feeling must be integrated in our personality.

For many women, the later years of this phase and on into the next one can become particularly challenging. 

How do we balance the masculine and feminine side of ourselves, how do we honour a wish for relationships and family with an equally compelling need for personal expression through work?

As we approach thirty-five and the end of this phase we are experiencing the

most deeply encarnated time of life. We have arrived fully on the Earth and the weight and pull of our material life can be very strong.

At thirty-five the forces that have guided our physical growth gradually begin to withdraw.

 

 

35 - 42

 we are at a crucial edge in our becoming, and the way forward is through our individual awakening and effort. 

All of humanity is in the process of developing this aspect of human nature. 

It is part of this age of the consciousness soul that the traditional groupings of family,

ethnicity, religion or social group that once defined identity have ever less hold over us. 

This is both liberating and isolating. Even as our individualities grow stronger we can feel the resistances of self-responsibility within and around us.

The I is now working on the legacy of our experiences from birth to seven, most of which is beyond our conscious memory. 

Those years are often filled with stress and now those days can come to us in all manners of disguised ways- a deep loneliness, unexpected confusions and insecurities, self-doubts

and surprising new fears.

It is our will that is being especially challenged these years and quite specifically our willingness to take more consciously our further development.

Toward the middle of this phase, the second lunar node occurs. 

We may experience openings and closings to do with basic life intentions. 

We are in a very earthly time of life, in the closest proximity to the earth. 

Now we begin to free ourselves from our body and strive upwards. 

The impulse to make a new start is even stronger than in the first moon node. 

We experience an impulse to leave the past behind us and the urge to adopt new values, new standards.

The sun is still the ruling planet.

This is the phase of the consciousness soul. 

Courage is required at this point to turn outwardly directed criticism into inwardly directed criticism.

Each person must ask herself: 

What are my limits? 

Where do my capacities and opportunities for action lie? 

What is important and what is not? 

We often have spiritual experiences at this time of life.

The forty-second year marks a turning point in a person´s life story; 

this might be described as an existential crisis. 

For some people, it starts as the late thirties and with others, it extends far into this period we are going to talk about now.

 

42 - 49

 the I, that has been tied to the organs begins gradually to separate from the lower organs (reproductive, metabolic and limb system). 

These forces enter our consciousness and overwhelm us.

Our body will be affected if we do not use these forces that have been released, the shadow of ageing will begin to dominate my days (illnesses may occur). 

The more my self-identity is dependent on my physical reality, my power in the world, my material successes and possessions, the more my

soul/spirit potential will be bound to the inevitable decline of my physical body. We are working here on the spirit self. 

How we meet the challenges of these years will strongly colour the years to come.

Those males who failed to develop their feeling side, their female energy, now tend toward excesses. 

They experience their wives as witches who prevent them from expressing their feelings. Mars is the ruling planet.

 

49 -56

for many people, these years come as a sigh of relief. 

The intensity of Mars begins to subside and Jupiter offers a wider and potentially wiser view. This is an expansive phase and for many brings a peak in one´s creative life. 

We may feel a renewed inner vitality and it is now possible to view our own inner experiences and the world in which we live with greater objectivity.

This is a time when forces withdraw from the rhythmical system of the middle , the lungs and the heart. 

Now it is particularly important to find a new rhythm. 

These organs will be damaged if we do not succeed in making such a change. 

The result is a heart attack or problems with the respiratory organs.

The gap that began at forty-two between people who take their own inner development in hand and those who continue to cling to purely material reality- manifest in this phase in ever more obvious ways. 

Those who resist regular self reflection can become increasingly threaten by the next generation. 

They are critical of others, often boastful and insistent on their own authority. 

Many become progressively more rigid in their thinking and often daily activities become very compartmentalized.

Increasingly during this phase we no longer concern ourselves with our individual destiny but with the destiny of mankind as a whole. 

The organ of kindness (the heart) awakens and leaves us to suffer and feel sympathy with

the whole of humankind. 

We become a universal father or mother. 

Now is the most appropriate age at which to turn to politics in the best sense of the

world in order to attempt to do something for people, country and humankind. 

We can call this period the phase of inspirational soul development. 

Inspiration is connected with breathing in; the new organ of perception that awakens when the forces from the rhythmical system withdraw is linked with listening.

 

56 - 63

this period could be named the mystical phase, we are developing here the intuitive soul.

 At this stage, we are in diametrical opposition to the first seven-year period.

We were incarnated through the sensory world, made contact with the external world through our

senses. 

Now we have reached the point where our senses, the windows to the outside world are slowly closing. 

We must therefore do something for our senses if they are to continue to mediate to make contact with the world. 

It frequently happens that people at this stage have a tendency toward premature sclerotization. 

This means primarily that the blood vessels in the brain harden through premature calcification. 

That manifests itself in inflexibility of thinking, forgetfulness and pig-headedness.

If the life forces have been insufficiently cared for and respected in the first seven-year period

(ex: demands on the intellect and starting of schooling), 

then the brain uses its vitality too early and the predisposition for premature sclerosis is given. 

Every artistic therapy, every exercise of the thinking, every creative act as such strengthens the human being in this sense. 

Anyone who does not prepare for these years will experience emptiness. 

Our life begins to develop steadily from the moment that we find the thread once more.

Special attention must be paid to people at this stage of life. 

When the menopause occurs in women after the age of forty-nine and the andropause in

men after the age of fifty-six, the psychological differences between men and

women are reduced somewhat. 

After a shortish phase of emotional instability, women experience a kind of liberation. 

In men, the changes take place to a greater extent on a soul level as their reproductive organs are still capable.

Often their organs cause sexual dreams as they release their forces. 

If men know that they originate on an organic level they can cope with it better and

they will not fall prey to the illusion that they need to find themselves a girlfriend. 

The early sixties can be a particularly vulnerable time for people whose self-identity has been strongly bound to their work accomplishments or to their physical vitality. 

Those who continue to resist the call to self-knowledge tend to hold on even more tightly to their social position, work responsibilities and even possessions. 

These are the years that show the influences of Saturn.

 

63 - 70

from here on the seven-year cycles become less clear and they begin to run into one another. 

They are linked to a greater extent to each person’s individual destiny.

The next three seven-year period have one characteristic in common: during this time the older person can practise qualities that were decisive for the initial seven-year periods.

Many people start an artistic activity at this time. We can allow the child in us to arise once more. 

Gratitude is a common emotion in these years.

 

70 - 77

this time of life is linked to the second seven-year period. 

The average human life span is approximately 72 years.

That is connected to the rhythm of the sun; in its motion, it moves by one degree within a period of 72 years which means that our birth star is no longer fully aligned with the sun. 

 

Steiner said in one of his karma lectures that a person´s birth star begins to work against him when that occurs. 

Our pulse rate too, incidentally, represents a sun rhythm with approximate 72 beats per

minute.

 

77 - 84

 

Death is approaching and we should make an effort to let our bad habits die. 

We have to face ourselves in truth and justice, clear our conscience and make our peace with other people.

It is important for a fruitful life that we are always prepared to learn something new for as long as we live. 

Even if for example we are tied to a wheelchair for many years that has a quite specific

meaning. 

Perhaps someone is overtaken by such a fate who has never learnt to be patient. 

Or it might be a person who has never accepted help from others. 

Such a fate represents an important schooling experience for such a person, by which she can acquire quite new abilities. 

If we look only at the physical body, we might well think that it is best for them to die. 

But if we take the soul and spiritual element into consideration as well, every nuance in

their life is given a new meaning.