Alphabet

Alphabet is the name we use for the basis for language, an expression means to convey meaning by means of signs called letters. The signs or letters are typically visual graphical symbols or characters (written languages), but can also be phonemes or sounds (spoken languages), sensory signs (eg Braille for blind people) or symbols representing modes of consciousness (spiritual languages).

An alphabet forms the basis of spoken and written communication between beings to convey meaning through the use of language. The term is mostly used to denote earthly context of communication between human beings, rather than communication with spiritual beings which takes places through consciousness and not the earthly senses.

As human beings speak to communicate, the written versions are linked to the phonetic pronunciation of reading the written version, and this is the basis for two classes of characters corresponding to different types of speech sounds: vowels and consonants. See also Speech.

Alphabets and the form of writing changed through the ages and evolved with language, culture and underlying consciousness. Languages such as sanskrite and ancient hebrew are symbolic in that the characters have underlying meaning, as opposed to contemporary characters where the letter is meaningless, and concepts of meaning follow from the combination of characters.

Several alphabets have their basis in a spiritual scientific worldview, with symbolic signs representing the twelve signs of the zodiac, the seven planets, and the four elements (see eg Agrippa reference below). The most speaking example is the Hebrew alphabet, with twelve simple, seven double, and three 'mothers' (one element not being counted).

The oldest forms of scripts or languages have no alphabets, for example

cuneiform used in ancient Persia (Mesopotamia, Babylon). Cuneiform are nail headed characters combined to represent sounds so they could record spoken language), but without an alphabet. They first appeared in the Second ancient Persian cultural age.
Chinese: the Chinese language does not have an alphabet, Chinese writing does not have a phonetic or syllabic writing system but is logographic, meaning it uses symbols (Chinese characters) to represent meanings rather than sounds.There are approx 3000-5000 essential Chinese characters (even though up to over 100.000 characters have been recorded in dictionaries). Characters consist of three categories of components (a sound/phonetic, a meaning, and an indexing/graphic component), radicals and 'morphemes' (word parts). .

Some examples of alphabets:

sanskrite (Indian)

Third Egypto-Chaldean cultural age
- Egyptian hieroglyphs used four types of signs: alphabetic signs representing a single sound, syllabic signs representing combinations of 2-3 consonants, then word signs or pictures of objects (concepts), and last the determinative: a picture of an object to help the reader.
- Hebrew: symbolic language with twelve simple characters (zodiac), seven double (planets), and three 'mothers' (four elements, one element not being counted). Hebrew is still used in spiritual traditions due to the teachings of the ancient Kaballah
Greco-Latin cultural age
- Greek: the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as well as consonants, became standardized around the 4th century BC to the Greek Euclidean alphabet with 24 letters from alpha to omega
- Latin or Roman: the classical Latin alphabet derived from a form of the Greek alphabet, consists of 26 letters and is the most widely adopted writing system in the world.
Current fifth cultural age
- Cyrillic: used in the Eastern Asian Slavic and Russian languages, heavily based upon the Greek alphabet
- Arabic: includes 28 letters, of which most have contextual letterforms. Arabic abjad script is written from right-to-left in a cursive style, with only consonants required to be written due to its optional use of diacritics to notate vowels.

An alphabet is a very powerful concept for the representation of information. Even though individual letters such as a, b, c, .. are quite simple, it is their combination into words, sentences, and whole books that makes this a fundamental concept for knowledge transfer.

Rudolf Steiner used the term 'spiritual alphabet' to describe the alphabet made up of categories, archetypes, symbols or cosmic concepts, that can be combined to unlock an understanding of the cosmos by enabling people the read the 'book of nature' again and see the spiritual in the world of nature.

This is illustrated by Schema FMC00.532, see more on Book of Ten Pages and also on the topic page for Cosmic fractal.

Aspects

originally humanity did have just one language; when people still had a feeling for these speech sounds, these letters, there was just one language (1924-06-04-GA353)
- see also the "universal spiritual 'language of wisdom', where the sounds related directly to soul experience (eg vowels and consonants) - quite unlike all later developments of language" as described on Persian cultural age#Sumerian culture
heart-language of the deceased or the dead - more on Interaction with deceased souls
- not based on abstract meaning of words, but of feeling content and meaning that issues from the sounds themselves (1922-08-22-GA214)
nature of letters in alphabet of ancient languages
- in the formation of the letters in ancient languages (such as eg Hebrew) particularly in the case of the consonants, one can see sort of an imitation of what forms itself in the air when we speak. (1924-06-25-GA279)
vowels and consonants in eurythmy (1921-04-14-GA315)
- in consonants lies an imitation of outer forms, in vowel sounds an inward experience is contained (1924-06-25-GA279)

Spiritual alphabets

for an introduction, see 1924-05-10-GA353 and Book of Ten Pages#Hella Wiesberger - note in GA089
based on Ten
- Sephiroth tree as a spiritual alphabet (1904-03-18-GA089, 1924-05-10-GA353)
  - "The Cabbala distinguishes twelve principles in the world, then first and last of which remain secret because they cannot be put into worlds at all. Only the other ten are put in words. ... These [map to] the ten sephiroth."(1904-03-18-GA089)
  - see also: Daskalos#.5B1.5D - Symbol of Life and origin of the Hebrew Tree of Life
- Raymond Lull's ten dignities of the divine.
  - Note In his Ars Magna, Ramon Lull describes the sixteen divine qualities based on the elements (1924-05-10-GA353, 1924-05-10-GA236). See also: Virtues
- t Greek spiritual alphabet consisting of the ten categories of Aristotle (existence, quality, ..) (1908-11-13-GA108, 1924-05-10-GA353)
cosmic alphabet of planetary spheres and zodiac, vowels and consonants (o.a. 1921-12-18-GA209, 1922-12-02-GA283, see also 1914-10-03/04/05/06-GA156 and Schema FMC00.391 on Stages of clairvoyance).
- origin of symbolic alphabet of the stars with Zarathustra (1911-01-19-GA060)
the language of creation, see also Franz Bardon's book 'Key to True Qaballah', see also Schema FMC00.517
- note: Franz Bardon also refers to 22 tarot cards of the major arcana as representing the 22 books or pillars of wisdom

Languages of human culture

relationship of languages to various regions of the Earth to the cosmos
- languages with more vowels or more consonants, depending on whether the people and cultures in those geographies were more or less affected by cosmic forces from the zodiac (1922-08-02-GA347)
certain human languages are more (Sanskrit, German) or less spiritual

Inspirational quotes

Paracelsus (as quoted in 1906-12-03-GA283)

The kingdoms of nature are the letters of the alphabet, and Man is the word formed from them

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.532 is a draft pencil scribble or sketch transferred to a digital format for readability, but it should be read as a thought sketch and not as something exact. The Schema expresses how things, patterns of order, structures we find in the physical world 'below' are the result of the higher worlds of consciousness and the Golden Chain.

On the left, the different worlds are shown so as to illustrate our physical world is encapsulated, embedded, as the emanation of the spiritual influences of those higher worlds. The central axis symbolizes this path of the 'golden chain'.

Above, the higher spirit world with spiritual seeds (from the monad, 'atma') is an environment beyond time and space, before form. This is where Man's higher triad and spiritual core has to be positioned. From there on downwards, the Golden Chain pushes down the breath of creation into a sequential realm of time and form in space. It is in the lower spirit world one finds the archetypes with form, that will then be clothed with astral and physical matter. Descending down the astral and etheric the 'illusion' of time gets generated in the physical world, as everything gets clothed in the world of mineral 'substance' through the so-called tetrapolar magnet of the four elements.

It is due to this descent that in the physical world one finds symbols, the multiplicity in nature of number (see Book of Ten Pages), and recurrent rhythms (see Cosmic breathing). On the left of the Schema are shown the formative forces of the Elementary Kingdoms that, combined with the Group souls, generate the four kingdoms of nature. This is what gives rise to forms, symmetry, platonic solids, spirals .. and special patterns and ratio's such as Pi, the golden ratio, fibonacci series, etc.

Now it is because of all this also that certain texts can be read and contemplated in a multidimensional way, they are of a nature that could be called fractal or holographic, as they are like symbolic entry gates to 'folded' higher realities. Rudolf Steiner explains this for the Book of Revelation and the Lord's Prayer, but the same is valid for many ancient spiritual texts (eg Sepher Yetzirah, Vedas). Such texts are basically constructed from pointers connected to ideas in the spirit world and astral world, the sequence of words are just labels or sigils that connect to this higher spiritual reality which is not just sequential or uni-dimensional (and human intellectual rational thought). Hence these texts and words gain higher value with higher stages of clairvoyance such as imagination.

Finally on the right are shown the three dimensions of evolution that 'above' relate to qualities of the three Logoi or Trinity, and find their equivalences - in the manvantara outgoing cosmic breath in the solar system - in Conditions of Consciousness, Life and Form. Mapping form to the lower spirit world, and life to the higher spirit world, then consciousness takes a step change with every planetary stage of evolution at the levels above the higher spirit world (for details, see pralaya, the right of Schema FMC00.389, and coverage of the 1904-11-GA089 lectures on Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension). Contemplate the schemas on three dimensions of evolution with this Schema below, to imagine how this lies at the basis of structural threefoldedness in the physical world.

The schema also explains why the Book of Ten Pages, symbols, etc .. and the study of these 'pointers below' have been an essential part of ancient Mysteries through the millenia, even across various stages of human consciousness in its evolution.

Schema FMC00.587: illustrates the fact that humanity originally had just one phonetic language made up of sounds, or letters based on the feeling contained in speech sounds. In this universal alphabet, sounds of vowels and consonants related directly to soul experience. In later developments of language this was completely lost.

The table is compiled from descriptions in lectures by Rudolf Steiner, including examples, and is illustrative and not meant to be complete.

Also in the context of interaction with deceased souls, Rudolf Steiner speaks of this heart-language of the deceased, not based on abstract meaning of words, but of feeling content and meaning that issues from the sounds themselves.

See also the air flow forms produced by the sounds of vocals and syllables, see Speech#Visible speech - vocal flow forms

illustrates the fact that humanity originally had just one phonetic language made up of sounds, or letters based on the feeling contained in speech sounds. In this universal alphabet, sounds of vowels and consonants related directly to soul experience. In later developments of language this was completely lost. The table is compiled from descriptions in lectures by Rudolf Steiner, including examples, and is illustrative and not meant to be complete. Also in the context of interaction with deceased souls, Rudolf Steiner speaks of this heart-language of the deceased, not based on abstract meaning of words, but of feeling content and meaning that issues from the sounds themselves. See also the air flow forms produced by the sounds of vocals and syllables, see Speech#Visible speech - vocal flow forms

Schema FMC00.517 provides an overview of the esoteric alphabet of the cosmic language of creation, tables created by Rawn Clark based on Franz Bardon's third book Key to True Quabbalah (KTQ). It links the letters to the four elements (left) and also shows them in configuration as multi-letter keys (right).

Lecture coverage and references

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim

in 'De occulta philosophia libri tres' (Latin, in EN: 'Three Books Concerning Occult Philosophy')

Quote A

as published in footnote 101 in GA089;

'The ten and its ladder', it says: `God himself, the first monas, divides before he imparts himself to lower elements, first into the triad, then into the ten, which is like into the ten ideas and measures of all numbers and all that can be generated, which the Hebrews called the ten divine properties, designating them with ten special names for the godhead, which is also why there can be no more than ten.' Generally reference is made only to one which cannot be known and which is above the ten sephiroth (aM soph, also spelled en soph; aM means `nothing').

from Book 2 - Ch. 12 (online), on the number 10:

As the number ten flows back into a unity, from whence it proceeded, so every thing that is flowing is returned back to that from which it had the beginning of its Flux. So water returns to the Sea, from whence it had its beginning, the body returns to the Earth, from whence it was taken; time returns into Eternity, from whence it flowed, the spirit shall return to God that gave it; and lastly, every creature returns to nothing, from whence it was created, neither is it supported but by the word of God, in whom all things are hid; and all things with the number ten, and by the number ten, make a round, as saith Proclus, taking their beginning from God, and ending in him.
God therefore that first unity, or one thing, before he communicated himself to inferiors, diffused himself into the first of numbers, viz.
The number three, then into the number ten, as into ten Ideas, and measures of making all numbers, and all things, which the Hebrews call ten Attributes, and account ten divine names; For which cause there cannot be a further number. Hence all tens have some divine thing in them, and in the Law are required of God as his own, together with the first fruits, as the original of things, and beginning of numbers, and every tenth is as the end given to him, who is the beginning, and end of all things.

Quote B from Book 1 - Chapter 74 (online), here SWCC

Chapter 74. Of the proportion, correspondence, reduction of Letters to the Celestial Signs, and Planets, according to various tongues, and a Table shewing this.
God gave to man a mind, and speech, which (as saith Mercurius Trismegistus) are thought to be a gift of the same virtue, power, and immortality. The omnipotent God hath by his providence divided the speech of men into divers languages; which languages have according to their diversity received diverse, and proper characters of writing, consisting in their certain order, number, and figure, not so disposed, and formed by hap, or chance, nor by the weak judgement of Man, but from above, whereby they agree with the celestial, and divine bodies, and virtues.
But before all notes of languages, the writing of the Hebrews is of all the most sacred in the figures of characters, points of vowels, and tops of accents, as consisting in matter, form, and spirit.
The position of the stars being first made in the seat of God, which is heaven, after the figure of them (as the masters of the Hebrews testify) are most fully formed the letters of the celestial mysteries, as by their figure, form, and signification, so by the numbers signified by them, and also by their various harmony of their conjunction. Whence the more curious Mecubals of the Hebrews do undertake by the figure of their letters, the forms of characters, and their signature, simpleness, composition, separation, crookedness, directness, defect, abounding, greatness, littleness, crowning, opening, shutting, order, transmutation, joyning together, revolution of letters, and of points, and tops, by the supputation of numbers by the letters of things signified to explain all things, how they proceed from the first cause, and are again to be reduced into the same.
Moreover they divide the letters of their Hebrew Alphabet, viz. into twelve simple, seven double, and three mothers, which they say signifie as Characters of things, the twelve Signs, seven Planets, and three Elements, viz. Fire, Water, and Earth, for they account Air no Element, but as the glew [glue], and spirit of the Elements.
To these also they appoint points, and tops: As therefore by the aspects of Planets, and Signs, together with the Elements, the working spirit, and truth all things have been, and are brought forth, so by these Characters of letters, and points, signifying those things that are brought forth, the names of all things are appointed, as certain Signs, and vehicula's of things explained, carrying with them every where their essence, and vertues. The profound meanings, and Signs are inherent in those Characters, and figures of them, as also numbers, place, order, and revolution; so that Origenes therefore thought that those names being translated into another Idiome, do not retain their proper vertue. For only original names, which are rightly imposed, because they signify naturally, have a natural activity: It is not so with them which signifie at pleasure, which have no activity, as they are signifying, but as they are certain natural things in themselves. Now if there be any original language, whose words have a natural signification, it is manifest that this is the Hebrew, the order of which he that shall profoundly, and radically observe, and shall know to resolve proportionably the letters thereof, shall have a rule exactly to find out any Idiome.
There are therefore twenty two Letters, which are the foundation of the world, and of creatures that are, and are named in it, and every saying, and every creature are of them, and by their revolutions receive their Name, Being, and Virtue.
He therefore that will find them out, must by each joyning together of the Letters so long examine them, until the voice of God is manifest, and the framing of the most sacred letters be opened, and discovered. For hence voices, and words have efficacy in Magical works: because that in which nature first exerciseth Magical efficacy, is the voice of God. But these are of more deep speculation, then to be handled in this book.
But to return to the division of the Letters.

Of these, amongst the Hebrews, are three mothers, viz., [Alef, Vav, Yod] א, ו, י;1 seven double, viz. ב ג ד כ פ ר ת The other 12, viz. ה ז ח ט ל מ נ ס ע צ ק ר are simple.

The same rule is amongst the Chaldeans; and by the imitation of these the letters of other tongues are distributed to Signs, Planets, and Elements, after their order.

For the Vowels in the Greek tongue, viz. Α Ε Η Ι Ο Υ Ω answer to the seven Planets. Β Γ Δ Ζ Κ Λ Μ Ν Π Ρ Σ Τ are attributed to the twelve Signs of the Zodiac, the other five Θ Ξ Φ Χ Ψ represent the four Elements, and the spirit of the world.

Amongst the Latine there is the same signification of them. For the five Vowels A E I 0 U, and J and V Consonants are ascribed to the seven Planets; and the Consonants B C D F G L M N P R S T are answerable to the twelve Signs. The rest, viz. K Q X Z make four Elements. H the aspiration represents the Spirit of the World. Y because it is a Greek, and not a Latine Character, and serving only to Greek words, follows the nature of its Idiome.
But this you must not be ignorant of, that it is observed by all wise men, that the Hebrew letters are the most efficacious of all, because they have the greatest similitude with celestials, and the world, and that the letters of the other tongues have not so great an efficacy, because they are more distant from them. Now the disposition of these, the following Table will explain. Also all the Letters have double numbers of their order, viz. Extended, which simply express of what number the letters are, according to their order: and collected, which recollect with themselves the numbers of all the preceding letters. Also they have integral numbers, which result from the names of Letters, according to their various manners of numbering . The virtues of which numbers, he that shall know, shall be able in every tongue to draw forth wonderful mysteries by their letters, as also to tell what things have been past, and foretell things to come.

1908-11-13-GA108

covers the theory of the categories, also comes back in the KR lectures on Aristotle.

Aristotle's Categories or Classes or Conditions or States: 1. Substance 2. Quality 3. Quantity 4. Relation 5. Action 6. Passion 7. Time 8. Place 9. Situation 10. Habit”

1911-01-19-GA060

This ancient conception of the universe did not merely state vaguely: Outside and behind the world of the senses which works upon eyes and ears, there is 'spirit'.
A kind of alphabet, records of the spiritual world were revealed. Suppose we today take a page of a book. We see letters on it and we build up words from these letters, but we must first have learnt to read. Those who have not learnt to read in the spiritual sense, cannot understand Zarathustra; they cannot read the sense of his teaching but merely see signs and symbols. Only those who know how to build up these signs into a doctrine to which their souls respond can understand Zarathustra.
[Zodiac through the signs]
Now behind the world of the senses, in the ordered grouping of the stars, Zarathustra perceived a symbolic writing in cosmic space. Just as we have a written alphabet, so Zarathustra saw in the starry worlds of space, a kind of Alphabet of the spiritual worlds, a language through which they became articulate. Thus arose the science of penetrating into the spiritual world and of reading and interpreting the constellations. He knew too, how to decipher the signs in which the Cosmic Spirits inscribe their activities into space. Their language is the grouping and movement of the stars. Zarathustra and his disciples saw that Ahura Mazdao creates and manifests by describing an apparent circle in the heavens, in the sense of our Astronomy, and this circle was for them the outward sign of the way in which Ormuzd manifested his activity to man. Zarathustra showed — and this is a most important point — that the Zodiac is a line which returns on itself, forming a circle as the expression of the rotation of Time. In the highest sense, he taught that while one branch of Time goes forward into the future, the other turns backwards into the past.
...
If we take a sheet of paper upon which are inscribed alphabetical characters, these may be combined into words; but we must first have learnt how to read. Without this ability no one could read about Zarathustra; for they would merely perceive certain characters which could only be followed with the eyes. Actual reading can only take place after it is clearly understood how to connect such characters with that which is within the soul. Now, Zarathustra discerned a written sign underlying all that was in the perceptual world, particularly in the manner in which the stars are grouped in the universe. Just as we recognize written characters upon paper, so did Zarathustra descry in the starry firmament something similar to letters, conveying a message from the Spirit-World. Hence, arose an art of penetrating into the World of Spirit, and of deciphering the signs indicated by the arrangement of the stars, and of finding a method of reading and construing from their movements and order, in what manner and way those spiritual beings that are without, inscribe the facts concerning their activities in space.

1914-11-09-GA158

1918-10-04-GA184

stresses the importance of learning to read the alphabet of life, to get back from abstraction to reality

For it will not be possible in the future to derive our education from abstract principles; we shall have to educate on an empirical, concrete basis. And we do not discover these empirical, concrete bases if we have no power to read life.
We must be able to read life; but for that we must learn its alphabet.
As you know, there is much more to it than that, but the most necessary alphabet that will suffice for the immediate future is to know three letters — normal evolution, Ahrimanic evolution, Luciferic evolution.
Just as no-one can read a book without knowing his ABC, so anyone who is ignorant of these three letters cannot read — they are simply the letters through which one learns how to read life. Only by our learning to read life will the Utopian spirit so widespread among men be overcome. And people will then have to embark on a study of those forces which play into life.

1921-04-14-GA314

1921-12-18-GA209

is called 'The alphabet - an expression of the mystery of Man' (SWCC)

.. if a Man could look through himself inwardly he would have to admit: I am an etheric body, in other words, I am the echo of cosmic vowels; I am a physical body, in other words, the echo of cosmic consonants. Because I stand here on the earth, there sounds through my being an echo of all that is said by the signs of the Zodiac; and the life of this echo is my physical body. An echo is formed of all that is said by the planetary spheres and this echo is my etheric body.
1. Physical body = Echo of the Zodiac

2. Etheric body = Echo of the planetary movements

3. Astral body = Experience of the (impression of the ) planetary movements (in thinking, feeling and willing)

4. Ego = perception of the echo of the Zodiac

Nothing is said by repeating that Man consists of physical body and etheric body: those are no more than vague indefinite words. If we want to speak in a real language, which can be learned from the mysteries of the cosmos, we would have to say, not talking abstraction but reality:
Man is constituted out

of the echo of the heavens, of the fixed stars,

of the echo of the planetary movements,

of what is experienced of the echo of the planetary movements, and

of what knowingly experiences the echo of the fixed star heavens.

Then we would express in real cosmic speech what is abstractly expressed by the words: Man is made up of physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego.
And:

.. picture to yourselves the Zodiac, the representation of the fixed stars. Man is exposed to their influence on descending from the life of soul and spirit into earthly life. If their effects are to be designated in accordance with their actual being we must say that they are cosmic music, they are consonants. And the forming of consonants in the physical body is the echo of what resounds from the single formations of the Zodiac, whereas

the formation of vowels within the music of the spheres occurs through the movements of the planets in the cosmos. This is imprinted into the etheric body. Thus, in our physical body we unconsciously bear a reflection of the cosmic consonants, whereas in our etheric body we bear a reflection of the cosmic vowels.

This remains in the silence of the subconscious. But as the child develops, forces press upwards within the body and strengthen the speech organs; these are forces that, as reflections of the formative forces of the cosmos, build up the speech organs. The more interior speech organs are so formed out of Man's essential being that they can produce vowels, and the organs nearer to the periphery, the palate, the tongue, the lips and everything that contributes to the form of the physical body, are built up in such a way that consonants can be produced. While the child is learning to speak, something takes place in the upper part of his being, as a result of the activity of his lower part, which is a consequence of the formative forces taken up into the physical body, and also into the etheric body. (This is naturally not a material process but has to do with formative activity.) Thus when we speak, we bring to Manifestation what we might call an echo of the experience Man goes through with the cosmos in the life between death and a new birth during his descent out of the divine spiritual world. All the single letters of the alphabet are actually formed as images of what lives in the cosmos.

1922-08-02-GA347

lecture title: The origin of speech and language

covers oa relationship of languages to various regions of the Earth to the cosmos

[languages with more vowels of more consonants]
Let's imagine the earth and people standing at various points on the earth. And one person, let us say, is given a language rich in vowels and another one a language rich in consonants. What must have happened in their respective regions?
A lot may have happened, but I want to focus on one thing that may have taken place. Imagine that we have high mountains and a level area, a plain. Picture then steep mountains on one side and a plain on the other. Now, wherever there are flat regions, we perceive that the language people speak there is richer in vowels. Wherever there are steep mountains, the local language tends to be richer in consonants.
But you see, this matter is not so simple after all, because we must ask how the mountains and the plains came about. This is the way it is: We have the earth, and the sun shines upon it. At one time our entire earth was unformed mush. The mountains first had to be pulled out of this mush. All right then, the earth was basically mush and the mountains were pulled up out of this mush.
Well, what was it that pulled the mountains up? The cosmic forces that work out there did. We can say that there are certain forces of a cosmic nature that pulled up these mountains. In some places the forces were strong and developed mountains; in other places there were weaker forces coming in out of the universe that did not produce mountains. In this latter area the earth crust was not pulled up so strongly in primeval times. And

the people born on those parts of the earth crust, less affected by these cosmic forces, use more vowels.

Persons born in areas more strongly influenced by the cosmic forces use more consonants.

We see now that the differences between languages are connected with the forces of the entire universe.
Now how can we support such a claim? Well, gentlemen, what we have claimed here must be considered in the same way we look at clocks to check the time. We look at the clock to see if we must start working or if it is time to leave. But we never say, “Now this is too much! This awful minute hand is a terrible fellow who whips me on to work.” We wouldn't dream of saying that. All the clock does is tell us when we have to go to work, and so we cannot blame it for having to work, can we? In this case, the clock is completely innocent.
Similarly, we can look up to the sun and say that when we stand here at a certain moment, the sun is between us and the constellation of Aries. That is the direction where these strong cosmic forces work from. It is not Aries itself, of course. This constellation merely indicates the direction where the strong forces come from. If a person is standing in a different place at that same time, he or she is affected as follows: When the sun has moved to that place, it is in Virgo, let us say. The forces coming from this direction are weaker. Instead of going through the entire process now, I can therefore say that when someone is born in an area where at a certain time, let's say at his birth, the sun is in Aries, that person will tend to use more consonants. However, when someone is born with the sun in Virgo, he will tend to use more vowels.
You see, I can read the entire zodiac like a clock from which I can see what happens on earth. But I must always keep in mind that it is not the constellations that cause these events; they are only indicators. From this you can see that the zodiac can tell us a lot, even about the reasons why the languages on earth differ.
Now, let us look at the earth and imagine that we put a chair out there into space and look back at the earth. Of course, this is only possible in our imagination and not in reality. When we look from our chair in space at the various languages on earth, as in a sort of language map, then we get a certain picture. When we then turn the chair around and look out into the universe, we get a picture of the stars. And the two pictures match.
If we study the Southern Hemisphere and the languages there and then turn the chair around and examine the southern firmament, our experience is entirely different from the one we would have if we did the same thing in the Northern Hemisphere. This means that we could draw a map of the starry skies above us, and from our study of the connection between the stars and language we would then be able to tell which language is spoken under a particular constellation.
You see now that as soon as we begin to observe human spiritual life, for example, the formation of our minds through speech, we must look up to the stars in order to understand anything. The earth alone does not give us an answer; you can think about why languages are different as long as you like, but based on the earth alone you won't find an explanation.
If you want to know what takes place in your stomach, you must examine the earth, the soil below. If a region grows mainly cabbages, you will understand that people there must constantly re-enliven in their metabolism the heads of cabbage pulled out of the soil. In other words, if you want to know what people in a certain area eat, you must examine the soil. If you are interested in how people breathe in a particular region, you have to study the atmosphere. And if you want to know what happens inside the skull, in this brain of ours, you must look at the position of the stars. You always have to see the human being as an integrated part of the entire universe.
You see now that it is indeed mere superstition to say, “Whenever the sun is in Aries, such and such takes place.” This kind of statement is not worth anything. However, if you understand the full context, the matter ceases to be superstition and becomes science instead. And that will lead us from understanding the transformation of substances to an understanding of what is really happening and its connection to the vast universe out there.

1922-08-22-GA214

Above all, the dead speak in the actual sounds of the alphabet — sounds and combinations of sound. The longer a soul has lived in the spiritual world after death, the more will he be speaking in a kind of, language which you can only make your own by cultivating a true feeling of discrimination even in the realm of earthly speech, insisting no longer on the abstract meaning of the words but entering into their feeling-content. It is as I was saying in the educational lectures here.
With the sound a [a, pronounced as in father.] we experience something like astonishment and wonder.

Moreover we take the sense of wonder deep into our soul when we not only say a, but ach [German or Scottish pronunciation of ch as in Loch. Ach is the German equivalent of the exclamation Ah.]. Ach signifies: “A — I feel wonder. The sense of wonder goes right into me: ch.”

And if I now put m before it and say mach [Mach: German for ‘make’ or ‘do.’], I follow what awakens wonder in me as though it were coming nearer to me step by step — mmm — till at long last I am entirely within it.

It is with this kind of meaning — meaning that issues from the sounds themselves — that the answers of the dead will often come. The dead do not speak English, nor do they speak German, nor Russian; their speech is such that only heart and soul can understand them, — if heart and soul are in the ears that hear.
I said just now; the human heart is greater and more majestic than the Sun. Seen from the earthly aspect it is true, the heart is somewhere inside us, and will be no pretty sight if we excise it anatomically. Yet the real heart is there throughout the human being, permeating all the organs; so too it is in the ear,

We must get used to the heart-language of the dead, if I may so describe it. We get used to it in learning gradually to jettison all nouns and noun-like forms and live in verbs. It is the words of action and becoming which the dead still understand for a comparatively long time after death. Then, at a later stage, they understand a language that is no longer language in the ordinary sense, and what we then receive from them has first to be re-translated into an earthly language.

1922-12-02-GA283

cosmic alphabet

As I have explained to you, when man has passed through the portal of death, he passes at the same time from the earthly world into the world of the stars. Though it appears that I am speaking figuratively, this description is a reality. Imagine the earth, surrounding it the planets, and beyond them the fixed stars, which are traditionally pictured, for good reason, as the Zodiac.
From earth, man views the planets and fixed stars in their reflections; we therefore say that earthly man sees them from the front. The Old Testament expresses this in a different way.
When man moves away from the earth after death, he gradually begins to see the planets as well as the fixed stars from behind, as if were. He no longer sees these points or surfaces of light that are seen from the earth; instead, he sees the corresponding spiritual beings. Everywhere he sees a world of spiritual beings. Where he looks back at Saturn, Sun, Moon, Aries, or Taurus, he sees from the other side spiritual beings. Actually, this seeing is also a hearing; and just as one can say that one sees Moon, Venus, Aries, or Taurus from the other side, from behind, so one can say that one hears the beings who have their dwelling places in these heavenly bodies resound into cosmic space.
Picture this whole structure — it sounds as if I speak figuratively, but it is not so, this is a reality; imagine yourself out there in the cosmos: the planetary world further away, the Zodiac with its twelve constellations nearer to you. From all these heavenly bodies it sings to you in speaking, speaks in singing, and your perception is actually a hearing of this speaking-singing, singing-speaking.
When you look toward the constellation of Aries you have a soul-consonant impression. Perhaps you behold Saturn behind Aries: now you hear a soul-vowel. In this soul-vowel element, which radiates from Saturn into cosmic space, there lives the soul-spiritual consonant element of Aries or Taurus.
You therefore have

the planetary sphere that sings in vowels into cosmic space, and you have

the fixed stars that ensoul this song of the planetary sphere with consonant elements.

Vividly picture the more serene sphere of the fixed stars and behind it the wandering planets. As a wandering planet passes a constellation of fixed stars, not just one tone but a whole world of tones resounds, and another tone world sounds forth as the planet moves from Aries to Taurus. Each planet, however, causes a constellation to resound differently. You have in the fixed stars a wonderful cosmic instrument, and the players of this instrument of the Zodiac and fixed stars are the gods of the planets beyond.
We can truly say that, just as man's walk was shaped for earthly conditions out of cosmic, spiritual orientation, so his speech was shaped for earthly conditions. When man takes speech back into song, he moves closer to the realm of pre-earthly existence, from whence he was born into earthy conditions. It is human destiny that man must adapt himself to earthly conditions with birth. In art, however, man takes a step back, he brings the earthly affairs surrounding him to a halt; once again he approaches the soul-spiritual element from which he emerged out of pre-earthly existence.
We do not understand art if we do not sense in it the longing to experience the spiritual at least in the revelation of beautiful appearance. Our fantasy, which give rise to the artistic, is basically nothing but the pre-earthly force of clairvoyance. Just as on earth tone lives in the air, so what is actually spiritual in pre-earthly existence lives for the soul element in the earthly reflection of the spiritual. When man speaks, he makes use of his body: the consonant element in him becomes the sculptural form of the body; and the stream of breath, which does not pass into solid, sculptural form, is used by the soul to play on this bodily instrument.
We can, however, direct toward the divine what we are as earthly, speaking human beings in two ways. Take the consonantal human organism; loosen it, as it were, from the solid imprint, which it has received from the earthly forces of gravity or the chemical forces of nutrients; loosen what permeates the human being in a consonantal way! We may indeed put it like that.
When a human lung is dissected, one finds chemical substances that may be examined chemically. That is not the lung, however. What is the lung? It is a consonant, spoken out of the cosmos, that has taken on form.
Put the human heart on a dissecting-table; it consists of cells that can be examined in relation to their chemical substances. That is not the heart, however; the heart is another consonant uttered out of the cosmos.
If one pictures in essence the twelve consonants as they are spoken out of the cosmos, one has the human body. This means that if one has the necessary clairvoyant imagination to observe the consonants in their relationships, the complete shape of the human body's sculptural form will arise. If one therefore extracts from the human being the consonants, the art of sculpture arises; if one extracts from the human being the breath, which the soul makes use of in order to play on the instrument in song, if one extracts the vowel element, the art of music, of song, arises.
From the consonant element extracted from the human being, the form arises, which we must shape sculpturally. From the vowel element extracted from the human being arises the musical, the song element, which we must sing. Man, as he stands before us, on earth, is really the result of two cosmic arts. From one direction derives a cosmic art of sculpturing, from the other comes a musical and song-like cosmic art. Two types of spiritual beings fuse their activities. One brings forth and shapes the instrument, the other plays on the instrument.
No wonder that in ancient times, when people were still aware of such things, the greatest artist was called Orpheus. He actually possessed such mastery over the soul element that not only was he able to use the already formed human body as an instrument, but with his tones he could even mold unformed matter into forms that corresponded to the tones.
You will understand that when one describes something like this one has to use words somewhat differently from what is customary in today's prosaic age; nevertheless, I did not mean all this figuratively or symbolically but in a very real sense. The matters are indeed as I described them, though the language often needs to be more flexible than it is in today's usage.

1924-05-10-GA353

the Sephiroth tree as a spiritual alphabet and Ramon Lull. And also the Greek spiritual alphabet consisting of the ten concepts or categories of Aristotle: existence, quality, ..

see: Sephiroth#1924-05-10-GA353

1924-05-10-GA236

In his Ars Magna, Ramon Lull describes the sixteen divine qualities based on the elements. Steiner covers Lull and his approach/intentions, and how he was misunderstood.

Kindness, greatness, eternity, power
Wisdom, will, virtue, truth
Honour, perfection, justice, benevolence
Mercy, devotion, mastery, patience

1924-06-04-GA353

Consider this second aspect. When it was realized that someone had subtle sensation, one would go further, for people learned even more than this. In the early days people did not write as much as they do today; they would really only write very rarely and then it would be something that was most sacred to them. There was a kind of correspondence in antiquity, but it was a correspondence in all kinds of signs. Many signs were developed for all kinds of things. And it was also the case that people who did not belong to the mysteries and therefore were not 'wise' people, as it was called, would only travel lesser distances; they would not go very far. But the scholars, the wise people, travelled a great deal.
They would therefore have needed to know not only all languages but also all dialects. It is of course difficult for someone from the north of Germany to understand the Swiss German dialect. But those people in the mysteries had not only the language they spoke but all kinds of signs for things that interested them. They would make signs.
For instance, the usual gesture, for which one already had a feeling, would be developed further: 'I understand'; or 'That is nothing, what you are telling me'; or 'We really understand one another'. They would sign a cross. A fully developed sign language thus existed especially among the wise people of old, and they would put everything they knew into those signs. You can see, therefore, that all the people who were in the universities of that time, which were the mysteries, had particular signs for everything. Let us say, for example, they wanted to record these signs at some point in time. It was only then that they would draw them. And this is how they came to put signs on things.
It is certainly interesting that there are still some scripts today where one can clearly see that they have developed from signs.
An example is the script of the ancient Indians, Sanskrit. Here one can see everywhere that it has developed from a curved and a straight line [drawing]. Curved lines: dissatisfaction with something, antipathy; straight lines: sympathy. Just think of someone who knows that straight lines mean sympathy, curved lines antipathy. Now I want to tell him something. I have a sign for this, too. He wants to tell me something. This may be all right to start with, but then things may go wrong. You see, there it still works fine. Later he will draw a wriggly line — then it may be something bad. And so they had particular signs for everything. These signs provided a means of communication for those who were in the mysteries. So you had the handshake and the sign.
People also saw something very special in words in those times. You see, when people say words today, they really no longer have an idea of what there is to those words. But one can still have a feeling for what lies in the speech sounds.
You will easily be able to tell when someone is in a particular life situation and starts to say: Ah. That has something to do with amazement, with awe. A — the letter A [pronounced like the 'a' in father] is amazement. Now add the letter R — this is something rolling along, radiating. R = radiance. A = amazement, awe, R = rolling, radiance.
Now we know what we have just said about the sun's rays. But even if they are only seemingly there, and are not real, it looks as if they were streaming forth. Now imagine someone wants to say: 'Up there is something that tosses something to me here on earth, and when it appears in the morning it causes me to feel awe.' He would express his awe as A, but the fact that it comes from above with the sound R; so he would express it as RA. Yes, that is what the ancient Egyptians called the sun god — Ra.
In each of these letters you have an inner feeling, and we have put the sounds together to make words. So there was feeling in there, feeling spread out. This has long since been forgotten.
Take the sound I*, for instance. That is something like quiet pleasure, one comes to terms with something one comes across, something one perceives: I. And the laugh is also a hee-hee. That is quiet pleasure.
And so every letter has a particular character. And there is a knowledge that enables one actually to create the words if one has an understanding of the sounds that make up the words.
Now you'll say one thing, gentlemen: 'Well, if that were the case, then there could be only one language.'
Originally humanity did have just one language; when people still had a feeling for these speech sounds, these letters, there was just one language.
Later different languages developed, when people went apart. But originally they had such feeling for it, and in the mysteries it was actually taught how speech sounds, letters, may be felt and made into words. They therefore had their own language in the mysteries. This was the language they would all speak among themselves. They would not use their dialects but this language, which all of them understood. When one of them said Ra, the other would know that this meant the sun.
When one would say E [more or less like the 'a' in 'gate'] — just feel it: I shrink back a little. That does not suit me; E — I am a little afraid, something like fear!
Take the L now. That is as if something is fading away, something is flowing, and EL, well, that is something that flows and from which we shrink back a little, which causes us to be afraid. That was El in Babylon, meaning 'god'. And everything was given its name on this principle.
Take the Bible. If you say O — that is amazement, being taken aback by it.
With the A you have a feeling you like, an amazement and awe you like. O and you want to step back;
H, Ch [like the h in human] is the breath.
So we may say: O = amazement, being taken aback; H = breath; I = one points to it, one takes quiet pleasure in it = I.
And M, that is wanting to enter into it yourself. You feel, when you say M: M — the breath goes out, and you feel you are literally running after your breath; M thus is to go away.
Now let us put this together. El, as we have seen is the spirit that comes in the wind, El; 0 is amazement that makes you step back, H is the breath; this is the more subtle spirit that acts as breath; I is quiet pleasure; M is to go towards it. There you have Elohim, and the Bible begins with this. You have these speech sounds in it.
So that we are able to say: What are the Elohim? The Elohim are spirits in the wind of whom we are a little afraid, shrinking back a little, but with the breath they have pleasure in human beings, pleasure in going to the human beings — Elohim.
And so one had to study the words originally for their speech sounds, their letters, to see what they really mean. Today people no longer have a feeling for how this really is.
[continued but no longer the above focus]
What is the plural of Wagen here in Switzerland? Do you also say Wagen here, or is it Wägen? [Answer: die Wagen ^**]. So it is still die Wagen. Then it has become blurred; originally it would have been der Wagen, die Wägen. With the plural we have this in all kinds of different ways. For instance we have der Bruder, die Brüder. Or, let us say, das Holz, die Hölzer. I expect here, too, one does not say die Holzer. Das Holz, die Hölzer. You see, gentlemen, when the plural is formed, the umlaut is used — a to ä, u to ü, o to ö. Why is this done? You see, the umlaut indicates that the thing becomes blurred. When I see one brother, he is distinct, a single individual; when I see several brothers, it becomes blurred, and I have to differentiate between them, and if I cannot do this it becomes blurred. One has to look at them one by one. The umlaut always indicates things getting blurred. So when you have the umlaut in a word, something is blurred.
So there is something in language that allows us to see the whole human being; there you have the whole human being. And people would also bring to expression how there was a certain meaning even in the letters they wrote, in these signs.
'A' always was amazement, awe. When an ancient Hebrew had written the letter aleph like this: א [drawing], he would say to himself: Who is amazed in the Earth world? Animals are not really amazed, only Man is. And so he altogether referred to Man as 'amazement'. When he wrote his aleph, the א, the Hebrew 'A', it therefore also referred to the human being.
And so it was that every letter also signified a particular thing or being. And the people who were in the mysteries knew all this.
So when one of them was meeting another on his travels and they had that common knowledge, they would recognize one another by the word. So that we are able to say that in the early days the situation was that people who had learned things, who knew a great deal, recognized one another by handshake, sign and word. But you see, gentlemen, then there was something in it! You immediately had their whole scholarship in this sign, handshake and word. For people learned to distinguish between things by touching them. Having the signs, they had a way of imitating everything there is by way of nature's secrets. And in the word they got to know the inner human being. So we are able to say that in the handshake they had sensory perception; in the sign they had the world of nature, and in the word they had the human being, his inner amazement or shrinking back, his pleasure and so on. So they had nature and man and echoed them in sign, handshake and word.
In the course of human evolution a separation occurred into university and later schools on the one hand and the Church and the arts on the other. In all three of these, people no longer understood what had originally existed; and handshake, sign and word were lost completely. It was understood only by people who had then discovered: Wow! Those wise ancient people had some degree of power because they knew this. A person is justified in having this power because he knows something and it is for the benefit of others. If no one had known how to build a railway engine, humanity would never have had a railway engine. And it therefore benefits humanity if someone knows something; that is justifiable power. But later on people simply acquired the power by copying the external signs.

1924-06-25-GA279

The Character of the Individual Sounds

see full extract on: Speech#1924-06-25-GA279

To begin with I should like to draw attention to the fact that in the life of humanity, in the course of human evolution, there has always been a more or less definite consciousness of these things. It is only in our time that, as I said yesterday, we have become so shrivelled up with regard to our attitude towards speech. There has always existed a certain consciousness of all that lies in the progression of sounds as they occur in language, an understanding of the fact that in the consonants there lies an imitation of outer forms and that an inward experience is contained in the vowel sounds.
This consciousness has been carried over more or less into the forms of the letters, so that in the formation of the letters in ancient languages, in the Hebrew language, for example, particularly in the case of the consonants, we may still see a sort of imitation of what takes place in the air, of what forms itself in the air when we speak.
To a great extent this has been lost in all the more modern languages. (Among these I naturally include all those which, let us say, begin with the Latin language; the Greek language still retains something of what I mean.) Many things, however, still recall the time when an attempt was made to imitate in the forming of the letters that which actually lies in the formation, in the structure of the word; when a word was fashioned out of the consonantal element, — that is to say, the imitation of the external,— and out of the inner experience which had its source in the life of the soul. Today it is only in certain interjections that we can still see dearly an instance of such imitation.

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

Rudolf Steiner: 'Verlorengegangene Urwort : Das Alphabet, ein Ausdruck des Menschengeheimnisses : Die sieben freien Künste' (1937)
- part of GA209C, this is lecture of 1921-12-18
Joscelyn Godwin: 'The Mystery of the Seven Vowels' (1991)
Georg Goelzer: 'Alpha und Omega : Die meditative Alphabetkunst' (1997)
William G. Gray (1913-1992): The language of the Gods (published 2009)