Mercúrio em Steiner (2007)

The Earth is surrounded in the heavenly spaces, first by the Moon and then by the other planets of our planetary system. In an old instinctive science wherein the Sun was reckoned among the planets, they had this sequence: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Without astronomical explanations I will now speak of this planetary life, and of that in the planetary life which is connected with the earthly world. (Steiner 2007:12)

Now we can go still farther. Everything that lives in the silicious nature contains forces which comes not from the Earth but from the so-called distant planets, the planets beyond the Sun — Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. That which proceeds from these distant plants influences the life of plants via the silicious and kindred substances into the plant and also into the animal life of the Earth. On the other hand, from all that is represented by the planets near the Earth — Moon, Mercury and Venus — forces work via the limestone and kindred substances. Thus we may say, for every tilled field: Therein are working the silicious and the limestone natures; in the former, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars; and in the latter, Moon, Venus and Mercury. (Steiner 2007:12)

Everything connected with the inner forte of reproduction and growth — everything that contributes to the sequence of generation after generation in the plants — works through those forces which come down from the Cosmos to the Earth: from Moon, Venus and Mercury, via the limestone nature. Suppose we were merely considering what emerges in plants such as we do not eat — plants that simply renew themselves again and again. We look at them as though the cosmic influences from the forces of Venus, Mercury and Moon did not interest us. For these are the forces involved in all that reproduces itself in the plant-nature of the Earth. (Steiner 2007:13)

On the other hand, when plants become foodstuffs to a large extent — when they evolve in such a way that the substances in them become foodstuffs for animal and man, then Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, working via the silicious nature, are concerned in the process. The silicious nature opens the plant-being to the wide spaces of the Universe and awakens the senses of the plant-being in such a way as to receive from all quarters of the Universe the forces which are moulded by these distant planets. Whenever this occurs, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are playing their part. From the sphere of the Moon, Venus and Mercury, on the other hand, is received all that which makes the plant capable of reproduction. (Steiner 2007:13)

To begin with, no doubt this appears as a simple piece of information. But truths like this, derived from a somewhat wider horizon, lead of their own accord from knowledge into practice. For we must ask ourselves: If forces come into the Earth from Moon, Venus and Mercury and become effective in the life of plants, by what means can the process be more or lese quickened or restrained? By what means can the influences of Moon or Saturn on the life of plants be hindered, and by what means assisted? (Steiner 2007:13)

And now, to localise these influences, I beg you to observe the following. The activities above the Earth are immediately dependent on Moon, Mercury and Venus supplementing and modifying the influences of the Sun. The so-called “planets near the Earth” extend their influences to all that is above the Earth’s surface. On the other hand, the distant planets — those that revolve outside the circuit of the Sun — work upon all that is beneath the Earth’s surface, assisting those influences which the Sun exercises from below the Earth. Thus, so far as plant-growth is concerned, we must look for the influences of the distant Heavens beneath, and of the Earth’s immediate cosmic environment above the Earth’s surface. (Steiner 2007:16)

In due time there will be a science of these things — not the mere scientific jargon of to-day — and it will then be possible to give exact indications. It will be known, for instance, that there is a very great difference between the warmth that is above the Earth’s surface that is to say, the warmth that is in the domain of Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon — and that warmth which makes itself felt within the Earth; which is under the influence of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. For the plant, we may describe the one kind as leaf-and-flower warmth, and the other as root warmth. These two warmths are essentially different, and in this sense, we may well call the warmth above the Earth dead, and that beneath the Earth’s surface living. (Steiner 2007:17)

In effect, what was said at the beginning of this lecture — describing that which is above the Earth’s surface as a kind of belly, and that which is beneath as a kind of head-existence — is not complete unless we also understand the animal organism in this way. The animal organism lives in the whole complex of Nature’s household. In form and colour and configuration, and in the structure and consistency of its substance from the front to the hinder parts, it is related to these influences. From the snout towards the heart, the Saturn, Jupiter and Mars influences are at work; in the heart itself the Sun, and behind the heart, towards the tail, the Venus, Mercury and Moon influences (Diagram No. 5). In this respect, those who are interested in these matters should develop their knowledge above all by learning to read the form. To be able to do this is of very great importance. (Steiner 2007:19)

Moreover you will find that the Sun-influence goes as far as the heart and stops short just before the heart. For the head and the blood-forming process, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are at work. Then, from the heart backward, the Moon influence is supported by the Mercury and Venus forces. If therefore you turn the animal in this way and stand it on its head, with the head stuck into the Earth and the hinder parts upward — you have the position which the “agricultural individuality” has invisibly. (Steiner 2007:20)

We can only answer this question by taking into account what we have dealt with in the past few days. I showed how we must strictly distinguish between the forces that are there in the growth of plants — forces which, though they come from the Cosmos, are first received into the earth and then work from the earth upon plant-growth. As I said, the forces which are mainly due to the cosmic influences of Mercury, Venus and Moon (though they do not work directly from there planets, but by the round-about way of the Earth) — these are the forces we must consider when we are tracing what produces the daughter-plant after the mother-plant and so on in succession. While on the other hand, in all that the plant derives from the surrounding sphere, from that which is over the earth, we must perceive the workings and potentialities which the more distant planets transmit to the air, which are in this way received. (Steiner 2007:52)

Moreover, speaking in a wider sense we may say: All the forces that work into the earth from the near planets are influenced by the chalk-or limestone-workings of the earth, while that which works from the surrounding sphere is influenced by the workings of silica. Although the silica influences proceed from the earth itself, nevertheless they transmit what proceeds originally from Jupiter, Mars and Saturn — not what proceeds from Moon, Venus and Mercury. Nowadays, people are altogether unaccustomed to take these things into account. They pay the penalty for their ignorance. Indeed, in many regions of the civilised world a heavy penalty has been paid for this ignorance of the cosmic influences — ignorance both of the cosmic influence when it works through the air through all that lies above the level of the ground, and of the cosmic influence when it works from below through the mediation of the earth. They have had to pay the penalty for this lack of insight (Steiner 2007:52)

Let me show it diagrammatically (Diagram 11). Imagine this as the level of the earth’s surface. Here we have all the influences that come in from the Cosmos — from Venus, Mercury and Moon — and ray back again, working upward from below. Everything that works in the earth in this way causes the plants to bring forth what grows in a single year and culminates in seed-formation. From the seed a new plant arises, and a third, and so on. Once more then: everything that works from the Cosmos in this way flows out into the reproductive forces — into the sequence of generations. (Steiner 2007:52)

Now the Earth by itself is still just able to transmit that feeble reproductive process which growth represents; but it has no power, without the Moon’s assistance, to produce the enhanced growth process of reproduction. Here it requires the cosmic forces shining in upon the Earth through the Moon — and, in the case of certain plants, through Mercury and Venus too. As I said, people commonly imagine that the Moon merely receives the Sun’s rays and throws. them down on to the Earth. In considering the Moon’s effect they only think of the Sunlight; but that is not the only thing that comes to the Earth. (Steiner 2007:53)

Dr. Streicher: One could mention in the same connection the experiments initiated by a Freiburg scientist. He made organic mercury salts and manured the vegetable gardens with them during the war. Growth was remarkably enhanced by this “mercury manuring.” People even began to hope that the whole question of plant-growth would rapidly be solved; that vegetables would be produced in a very short time. These vegetables too showed a hypertrophied growth. (Steiner 2007:78)

STEINER, Rudolf. 2007. The Agriculture Course. (Trans.: George Adams) Shrewsbury: Wilding & Son Ltd.