Eighteen year rhythm

Man as a microcosmos is one with the macrocosmos and relates to the latter in various ways through a series of rhythms: that of a human breath, a daily and yearly rhythm but also a seven-yearly and an eighteen year rhythm. See also: three meetings and 25920 as well as cosmic breathing.

The 18-year rhythm in the life of Man corresponds to the moon's rhythm (nutation) and the return to its position to the sun at birth. Hence the 'moon nodes' or 'lunar nodes' are the points in the life of Man at approx 18y and 7m, at approx 37y and 2 m, and at approx 55y and 9m. At these points there is an astral influx into Man of one's I and higher Self, a kind of 'repeat occurance' of what happened at birth when Man incarnated and started life on Earth with a certain plan and mission.

Aspects

at full moon, when Man is asleep, spiritual streams from the moon permeate and strengthen the astral body (1908-09-11-GA106)
for moon node analysis as part of biography work
- work by Florian Roder (ao Goethe, Dante, Wagner, but also Peter Handke, Dag Hammarskjöld, and others), see 'Discussion area' and 'Further reading' section below
- the lunar nodes are apparent pivotal points in the lives of Goethe and Steiner, see biographies
for an astrological view of the progressed lunar nodes, see the work by Dane Rudhyar (see 'Further reading' below)
see also link with the 18-year rhythm of lunar eclipses in the macrocosmos on the Eclipses topic page.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.235 depicts the lunar nodes in one's life, with a high level description of characteristics

Lecture coverage and references

1908-09-11-GA106

Let us imagine that we lie down to sleep, that the astral body removes itself from the physical, and that all this happens in the full moon. We have the physical and etheric bodies lying in bed, the astral body hovering above, and all of this in the full moonlight. Now the situation is not so that an astral cloud simply becomes visible there for the clairvoyant.
On the contrary, what he actually sees is streams from the astral body into the physical, and these streams are the forces that remove fatigue in the night. They bring to the physical body replenishment for the wear and tear of the day, so that it feels refreshed and quickened.

At the same time one would see spiritual streams proceeding from the moon, and these streams are permeated by astral powers. One would see how there actually proceed from the moon spiritual effects that permeate and strengthen the astral body and influence its working on the physical body.

1920-05-14-GA201

If we consider a lunar eclipse occurring in a certain year, then there will be a certain date when the eclipse can occur. The lunar eclipse occurs on the same date about every 18 years, and in the same constellation. There is a periodical rhythm in the lunar eclipse, a rhythm of 18 years. That is just a quarter of a cosmic day and just a quarter of a Man's life. Man, if I may so express it, endures four such periods of darkness.

see longer extract: Eclipses#1920-05-14-GA201

1920-04-16-GA201

Take the 18 respirations per minute, making 1,080 per hour and in 24 hours 25,920 respirations; that is, we must multiply: 18 X 60 X 24 in order to arrive at 25,920.Taking this as the cycle of the precession of the equinoxes, and dividing it by 6o and again by 24, we would naturally get 18 years. And what do these 18 years really mean? Consider - these 25,920 respirations correspond to a human day of 24 hours; in other words, this 24 hour day is the day of the Microcosm. 18 respirations may serve as the unit of rhythm.
And now take the complete circle described by the precession of the equinoxes, and call it, not a Platonic year, but a great Day of the Heavens, a Macrocosmic day.
How long would one respiration on this scale have to occupy to correspond with the human respiration?
Its duration would have to be 18 years — a respiration made by the Being corresponding to the Macrocosm.
If we take the statements of modern astronomy, we shall find that it is a matter of indifference whether we assume that the motion of the Sun is apparent, or the motion of the Earth; that does not concern us — but let us now take that which the astronomer of today calls Nutation of the Earth's Axis. You are aware that the Earth's axis lies obliquely upon the Ecliptic, and that the Astronomers speak of an oscillation of the Earth's axis around this point and they call this ‘Nutation’. The axis completes one revolution around this point in just about 18 years (it is really 18 years, 7 months, but we need not consider the fraction, although it is quite possible to calculate this too with exactitude.)
But with these 18 years something else is intimately connected. For it is not merely on the fact of ‘Nutation’ — this ‘trembling’, this rotation of the Earth's axis in a double cone around the Earth's centre, and the period of 18 years for its completion — it is not only on this fact that we have to fix our minds, but we find that simultaneously with it another process takes place.
The Moon appears each year in a different position because, like the Sun, she ascends and descends from the ecliptic, proceeding in a kind of oscillating motion again and again towards the Equator ecliptic. And every 18 years she appears once more in the same position she occupied 18 years before.
You see there is a connection between this Nutation and the path of the Moon. Nutation in truth indicates nothing else than the Moon's path. It is the projection of the motion of the Moon.
So that we can in actual reality observe the “breathing” of the Macrocosm. We only need notice the path of the Moon in 18 years or, in other words, the Nutation of the Earth's axis. The Earth dances, and she dances in such a manner as to describe a cone, a double cone, in 18 years, and this dancing is a reflection of the macrocosmic breathing. This takes place just as many times in the macrocosmic year as the 18 human respirations during the microcosmic day of 24 hours.
So we really have one macrocosmic respiration per minute in this Nutation movement. In other words, we look into this breathing of the Macrocosm through this Nutation movement of the Moon, and we have before us what corresponds to respiration in man.
The meaning of all this is that as we pass from waking to sleep, or only from the wholly conscious to the dream state, we enter another world, and over against the ordinary laws of day, years, etc., and also the Platonic year, we find in this insertion of a Moon rhythm, something that has the same relationship in the Macrocosm, as breathing, the semiconscious process of respiration, has to our full consciousness.
We have therefore not only to consider a world which is spread out before us, but another world which projects into, and permeates our own.
Just as we have before us a second part of the human organism, when observing the breathing process, namely the rhythmic man, as opposed to the perceptive or head man, so we have in what appears as the yearly Moon motion, or rather the 18-year motion of the Moon, the identity between one year and one human respiration; we have this second world interpenetrating our own.
There can therefore be no question of having only one world in our environment.
We have that world that we can follow as the world of the senses; but then we have a world, whose foundations are laid within the laws of another, and which stands in exactly the same relationship to the world of the senses, as our breathing does to our consciousness; and this other world is revealed to us as soon as we interpret in the right way this Moon movement, this Nutation of the Earth's axis.
These considerations should enable you to realise the impossibility of investigating in a one-sided way the laws manifesting in the world. The modern materialistic thinker is in quest of a single system of natural laws. In this he deludes himself; what he should say is rather as follows. “The world of the senses is certainly a world in which I find myself embedded and to which I belong; it is that world which is explained by natural science in terms of Cause and Effect. But another world interpenetrates this one, and is regulated by different laws. Each world is subject to its own system of laws.” As long as we are of the opinion that one kind of system of laws could suffice for our world, and that all hangs upon the thread of Cause and Effect, so long shall we remain victims of complete illusions.
Only when we can perceive from facts such as the Moon's motion and nutation of the Earth's axis that another world extends into this one — only then are we upon the right path. And now, you see, these are the things in which the spiritual and material (so-called) touch each other, or let us say the psychical and material. He who can faithfully observe what is contained within his own self will find the following. These things must gradually be brought to the attention of humanity.

There are many among you, who have already passed the 18 years and about 7 months period in age. That was an important period.

Others will have passed twice that number of years - 37 years and 2 months - again an important time.

After that we have a third very momentous period 18 years and seven months later, at the age of 55 years and 9 months.

Few can notice as yet, not having been trained to do so, the effects and important changes taking place within the individual soul at these times. The nights passed during these periods are the most important nights in the life of the individual. It is here where the Macrocosm completes its 18 respirations, completes one minute - and Man as it were, opens a window facing quite another world. But as I said, man cannot yet watch for these points in his life. Everyone, however, could try to let his mental eye look back over the years he has passed, and if he is over 55 years old to recognise three such important epochs; others two, and most of you at any rate one! In these epochs events take place, which rush up into this world of ours out of quite a different one. Our world opens at these moments to another world.
If we wish to describe this happening more clearly, we can say that our world is at these times penetrated anew by astral streams; they flow in and out. Of course this really happens every year, but we are here concerned with the 18 years, as they correspond to the 18 respirations per minute. In short, our attention is drawn through the cosmic clock to the breathing of the Macrocosm, in which we are embedded. This correspondence with another world, which is manifested through the motion of the Moon, is exceptionally important.
Because, you see, the world which at these times projects into our own, is the very world into which we pass during our sleep, when the Iand the astral body leave our physical and etheric bodies. It must not be thought that the world composing our every-day environment is merely permeated in an abstract way by the astral world; rather should we say, it breathes in the astral world, and we can observe the astral in this breathing process through the Moon's motion or nutation. You will realise that we have here come to something of great significance.

1924-09-05-GA346

The moment when the gods entered into the Mysteries—this was something people were able to observe through the ancient astrology which enabled them to understand it in the right way. At the end of each year, or at the end of a moon cycle of 18 years, or at the end of other periods, there were always holy times that signified the non-conformity, the borderline between human intelligence and divine intelligence, holy times when the priests in the Mysteries were able to recognize that the gods could find their way to them and that human beings could find their way to the gods.

Eugen Kolisko

[Case examples]
Every musician knows about the 'productive year' in the life of Franz Schubert the Austrian composer. It puzzled all his biographers. During 1815 - his nineteenth year - Schubert composed six operas, two symphonies with full orchestra, four sonatas, an adagio, twelve 'Wiener Deutsche', eight écossaises, ten variations for piano solo, two masses, one hundred and forty - six songs, eight of which were written in one day. And besides, there were many other compositions. A truly prodigious output. Among the songs produced in this year were at least thirty of his most famous ones, including the incomparable "Erlkönig'. At this time Schubert was an elementary school teacher.

Another interesting example is Swedenborg. In his fifty-fifth year, i.e.at the end of the third cycle of eighteen years, after a life devoted to science and at a time when he was rightly regarded as one of the leading scientists in Europe, he suddenly developed in 1743 what is known as 'seership'.

Then there is Goethe, whose life was clearly marked by a perfect series of eighteen-year rhythms. At the age of eighteen years and seven months he fell ill in Leipzig, a circumstance which changed the whole trend of his life. At the age of thirty-seven years and two months (exactly twice eighteen years and seven months) he arrived in Rome on his famous Italian Tour, which proved to be one of the most productive periods of his life. A study of the biographies of Goethe will confirm again and again the importance of the eighteen year cycle, or to be exact, the cycle of eighteen years and seven months. At the age of fifty-five a further psychological crisis was caused by the death of Schiller. And with each eighteen year rhythm there was sudden increased output.

We have seen that the cycle of seven is mostly physiological in significance.
What is the import of the eighteen year rhythm: astronomical, physiological or psychological?
Every student of astronomy knows that the eclipses of sun and moon occur in regular periods of eighteen years and seven months, a rhythm on which with complete accuracy astronomers predict future eclipses. And these easily foretold eclipses are known as 'moon cycles'.
(It should not be assumed that I am here introducing "astrology", which, however interesting it may be as an amusement, has no genuine scientific basis whatsoever - at least certainly not in the way it is practiced today ).

Byron commenced his career as a poet in his first moon cycle, and his romantic life in the second one.

Shelley is no less significant. Born on August 4th, 1792, he was eighteen years and seven months old in March 1811. On March 25th in that year he was expelled from Cambridge University for atheism - the first of a series of unfortunate experiences. Soon afterwards he fled to Edinburgh with Harriett Grove and married her on his nineteenth birthday. In 1816 he married Mary Godwin who was just nineteen years old, and in the same year his first wife committed suicide.

Close studies of hundreds of biographies convinces me that every eighteenth year marks a climax in the emotional and creative centres of the human being. In other words there is a sharp, inner experience amounting to a crisis which may manifest in increased productivity, in romantic adventure, or in a decisive inner struggle permanently affecting the future happiness or other of the individual.
Having arrived at this possibility, I tried, by a still closer examination of the life of Goethe, to prove it in detail.
Goethe's long life covers four distinct periods each of eighteen years and seven months, whilst any student of the scientist - poet - philosopher's life and work will agree that these four periods mark the most outstanding events in his life.
[see also Goethe]
Goethe was born August 1749,

I st cycle 1767 - 8: The Leipzig illness produced a "crisis" and change of personality

37 years and two.months. October. "The Italian Tour" Arrival in Rome Conception of the Idea of "change" or metamorphosis.

55 years and nine months. May 1805: Death of Schiller, Goethe's "Alter Ego", produced a great psychological effect.

74 years and four months: Writes the notes for the autobiography

One more example. Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orleans, died when she was nineteen, completing only one cycle. She accomplished her great task, was imprisoned, tried, and put to death all in one year and a few months. Born on January 6th [ Epiphany ], 1412, she died on May 30th, 1431, at the age of nineteen years and five months. In the Maid, the inner crisis flamed with such dynamic effect that it changed the face of Europe.
As in the case of the cycle of seven, however interesting these examples may be in themselves, are they of any practical significance to the average man or woman? I believe they are, and that is why I continued this line of inquiry. I found in the course of my medical practice in Vienna and elsewhere, that just at these periods (every eighteen years and seven months ) the great majority of men and women have quite remarkable dreams. They are experienced at the ages of 18-19; 37-38; 55-56; 74-75.
These findings were substantiated by interviewing contemporary celebrities, some of my personal friends, and in watching the lives of patients, as well as keeping strict watch on my own mental processes. The great importance of writing down dreams -- as recommended by J. W. Dunne in his excellent 'Experiment with Time' - cannot be overstressed. At the periods of life enumerated above, most people are at what may be termed a high-tide of mental activity. Dreams occurring at these periods, if carefully noted, would reveal many of life's secrets .
But there is also a physiological side to this problem. Breathing is a very important function. We breathe on an average eighteen times in one minute. During the time taken to breathe once, the heart beats four times, and the average pulse beats seventy two times.
[see also 25920]
If we imagine our life to be one long breath - the inhalation at birth and exhalation at death - it would be easy to stretch the analogy so as to imagine the four heartbeats as representing the four cycles of eighteen years and seven months - the allotted life span .
These cycles are facts in nature. If they were accepted as such, biography would become much more dramatic and history much more exciting experiences than they are. And again the importance of the recognition of these cycles in education must be stressed.
Young men and women should be trained to watch for these events in their lives: a recognition of them and their true meaning would render unnecessary expensive trips to the doctors and psycho - analysts in later life. If no other reasons presented themselves, the fact of these recurring cycles in human life, based as they are upon extensive medical and psychological practice, would be sufficient evidence that human life is not governed by "chance".
If we ignore in the meantime any religious reasons and confine ourselves to things that science can discover -- the body and mental power -- then cycles explain very neatly an underlying plan of development for both.

Bernard Lievegoed

In 'Man on the Threshold', Bernard Lievegoed (see references below) comments:

At certain moments, the gate to the higher I reopens, and earthly man can reinforce his intentions for the present incarnation. These moments are determined by the cosmic constellation, namely by the relationship of sun, moon, and earth.
The higher I accompanies the incarnating soul during its descent through the planetary spheres, down to the moon sphere, from where physical birth takes place. We enter life on earth through the 'gate of the moon'. The I then withdraws to the sun sphere, where it belongs.
Just 18 years, 7 months and 9 days later, the birth constellation with respect to the 'aspect' of the sun, moon, and earth returns (the so-called first ‘lunar node’). At that moment, the gate of birth reopens momentarily, as it were, and the I can renew its impulses for the incarnation.
This process repeats itself with the second lunar node (another 18 years, 7 months, and 9 days hence), and so on.
Note: these moments should not be seen as limited to a certain day, but rather be regarded as a period in which the influence of the higher I increases and then decreases again over a period of some years centred on the moon node constellation.
The first repetition of the birth constellation occurs towards age 19. That is why the years between 17 and 20 are of the greatest importance for the future intentions of young people. They face important study or vocational choices, or it may be a case of confirmation or rejection of choices that were imposed on them too early. The young person then wonders: Who am I? What do I want? What am I able to do? To be actively involved with these existential questions between age 17 or 18 and 19 or 20 is an important task for post-secondary education.
The second 'lunar node constellation' is of great significance too; it comes at age 37, shortly after the mid-point of life, at a moment that many people experience as a dead point. Two of the greatest dramatic works of all time, the Divine Comedy of Dante and Faust of Goethe, start with this situation of desperation of age 35, in which it becomes apparent that if the thread of life can be picked up again, the actual fulfilment of the incarnation can take place in the second half of life.
The third and fourth moon node constellations also have a special place in many biographies.
...
The awareness of one's higher I, of ideal man, or second man in us, arises in the life of feeling first, and then in the other soul forces. New impulses enter the thinking, making it creative, opening up new ways of looking at things and opening up new interests. When the sleeping will becomes more conscious, this expresses itself on the moral plane. Old morality, taken for granted, becomes problematic. New norms, new values, new moral goals emerge from unconscious depths, and confront the developing human being with an existential life crisis.

2012 - Wolfgang Schad

Another, even wider, life rhythm is that of the moon nodes. Rudolf Steiner referred to them only a few times. It is the time when the same constellation of earth, moon and sun appears before the same fixed-star sky as at the time of birth: a rhythm of about 18 and two-third years (6793.39 days). According to Rudolf Steiner, a spiritual window opens for a few nights at those intervals, allowing for new orientation in a person’s biography. We experience four or five moon nodes in a lifetime.
In 1981 Georg Glöckler established that this rhythm is not identical with the Saros or Metonic cycles, but that it is a moon node cycle or nutation period. Florian Roder provided rich biographical evidence for this in 2005.
Rudolf Steiner advised upper school teachers to identify the relevant days or nights of the first moon nodes of their 18-year-old students (usually during class 12) and think more intensely of the student in question during that time. It would be beneficial, he said, if at least one person did this for the adolescent. The young person did not need to know about it because the event took place in deep sleep and not in waking consciousness.
It is therefore not a matter of identifying one’s own moon nodes and waiting for some spiritual impact during those nights since this might well lead to a lack of openness and even prevent the event, especially as it takes place in deep sleep. It is obviously important not to focus on oneself, but to think selflessly of others.

Discussion

Florian Roder (see references below) did a biographical analysis of ao Goethe, Dante, Wagner, but also Peter Handke, Dag Hammarskjöld, and others. His work shows a number of patterns, too complex to oversimplify but still shown in the simple table of Schema FMC00.235 above. For a true appreciation and an indirect but clear sensing of these patterns, one needs to live oneself into the biographical stories in his work.

Related pages

References and further reading

Dane Rudhyar:
- 'Lunation Cycle: A Key to the Understanding of Personality' (1967)
- also coverage in:
  - Planetary and Lunar Nodes (Humanistic Astrology Series, No. 5) (1971)
Wilhelm Hoerner: 'Zeit und Rhythmus' (1978, fifth edition 2006)
Bernard Lievegoed: 'Man on the Threshold' (1985, reprint 2013), original 'Mens op de Drempel' (1983)
Florian Roder: 'Die Mondknoten im Lebenslauf' (2005)
Susanne Donato: 'The Effect of Lunar Nodes on Human Biography: Our Hidden Plan'