#schwenk

If we observe how in embryonic development an organism is gradually created out of the liquid, our attention is drawn to movements which play their part in fashioning it according to invisible plans, though they are themselves not all visible in the finished form. They are like the hands of the potter in their abundance of possibilities, moulding a vessel from without and within and then withdrawing again into the invisible world. They are movements which originate in the will and spirit of a living being. As movements they are actually the creative and formative forces through which the idea underlying the forms can be impressed on the elements. Once this has been accomplished, the creative movement releases the form and appears in it as a function, of which the embodied being may now make use.

The stream of speech, like a flaming sword, pours forth from man, announcing the inner secret of his creation. It is the "sensitive flame", issuing forth from the region of the will, on which man can impress his moods—the "meteorology" of his soul. But he also communicates this to his surroundings, which take it in through the activity of listening; it is recreated in the receptive processes of the organ of hearing. The sensitive flame is the underlying concept both of the larynx and of the organ of hearing. In both it is the creative principle—an "organ" not as yet brought to the resting state of form, but retaining its functional quality as pure movement. It functions in the intermediate region where forms are for ever being created; with its delicate sensitive boundary surface, it is a portal through which all the imponderable forces may enter into the world of earthly substance.

It is at the vocal cords that the whole soul life of a man flows into the formation of the stream of speech, the soul's means of expression. The as yet unformed stream of air issues forth from the region of the will; at the vocal cords it receives the impulses which come from the conscious soul life of the human being, striving to communicate with the outer world (articulation). As yet unformed, the air coming from the lung enters the larynx. It leaves the organs of speech structured in finest detail—in waves, vibrations and vortices; definite, though ever-changing formations. Their richly varied interplay builds complicated forms out of the fundamental, archetypal movements of the streaming air.