The Fifth

Today we come to the fifth note of the scale, the Fifth. The soul gesture associated with it is called «Knowledge».

Attunement

As always, the first thing we say to ourselves is: I take time, as if time were a substance, in order to arrive within myself. I invite it into my inner being and use my senses to perceive what is inward: my breathing movement, the rhythms of the heart, the space of the chest as far as the shoulder blades. I try to look inward with my senses in such a way that the inner being feels perceived, responds, expands, makes me light, and lifts me. I allow this lightness and its warmth to overflow and stream downwards, deep into the earth. And I sense how this straightens me up and makes me tall.

Recapitulation

• The first note is the Prime, the keynote. I am entirely with myself. I feel my collarbone like the roof and my body like its house. Do–Do.
• With the Second, I move from the collarbone out into the upper arm, into my spiritually creative will. Do–Re.
• The third note flows into the feeling forearm; I experience my soul’s garden. Do–Mi.
• With the Fourth, I flow from the collarbone as far as the wrist. I arrive and look back. I experience myself: Do–Fa.

The Fifth

Sunrise

First stand in a relaxed way and allow the arms to rise a little higher on the left and right with each note: Do–Re–Mi–Fa. With the Fifth, the hands turn – Sol …

It is like a sunrise in the forest. It is dark, it becomes lighter, and then you see the sun rising – very slowly: Do–Re–Mi–Fa – – – Sol.

Can you feel the sunrise all the way into your body? Do–Re–Mi–Fa – – – Sol.

The Hand Turns the Arm

The special quality of the Fifth is that it is not the arm that turns the hand, but the hand that turns the arm:

Extend your hand and give a little tension to the palm. Turn it very slowly and feel this movement all the way into the upper arm and further into the collarbone.

Try it with the other hand as well – it is like a key. You insert the bit of the key (the hand) into the keyhole, you turn the key, the door opens, and a space reveals itself. Then let what you see work upon you.

Let us practise the Fifth in both directions: opening and closing. When does the note wish to sound: Do–Re–Mi–Fa–Sol (open) – Do (closed) – Sol (open) …

Knowledge

From the Fifth arises the eurythmy gesture «Knowledge».

With the right hand, reach further outward than your personal garden extends. Turn your hand and lead it towards yourself by bringing the upper arm closer to the upper body. The forearms become upright like the shaft of a candle, and the hands become a luminous flame near your forehead.

Carry out this reaching outward in complete purity: your whole form and movement are white. Give the turning hand a mindful yet active role – in the eurythmy figure it is orange – and trust its «power of turning». Sense how your hand brings what it has gathered to sound in your forehead.

The left hand also brings something in from outside, but then turns it in such a way that it has a lovingly calming effect on the vital life beneath the diaphragm. It too – like the elbow – is emphasised in orange. It mediates relaxation, balance, and a quiet awareness to the intuitive space below the diaphragm.

Do–Re–Mi–Fa – Sol.

Sense how a yellow veil, in chaste wakefulness, wraps itself around your whole body and enlivens it. Your bodily feeling is white from head to feet – open and awake: Do – Sol.

Knowledge: Do – Sol.

Conclusion

To conclude, once again experience where the Fifth leads you, as a prerequisite for a form of knowledge that is more than mere cleverness.

• Sunrise: Do – Re – Mi – Fa – Sol (rising on the right and left up to the horizon, turning of the hands).
  
• As a path through the garden: collarbone (Do), upper arm (Re), forearm (Mi), wrist, looking back (Fa), and now turning (Sol).
  
• Do – Re – Mi – Fa – Sol.