Forces that work from the head in childhood
Rudolf Steiner repeatedly drew the picture that the plant is an inverted human being. Through the threefold image of the human being, what works in the head nerve-sense system of the human being is related to the forces that work in the root of the plant, the human rhythmic-circulatory system of heart and lung corresponds to the plant’s leaf region, while the metabolic-reproductive system, which forms the lower pole of the human being, is turned and raised upwards to the light in the flowering process of the plant. In lecture two of the Agriculture Course, Rudolf Steiner, points to the forces working below ground as having a similar effect on plant growth as the effect our head has on our body during childhood. It is the head which contains all the condensing Salt forces of the past – that which has been – which work on the body’s form as the outcome of past karma. The metabolic limb system contains all the active dispersing Sulphur forces, which bring the freedom of new beginnings, and the working of new karma. The rhythmic system with its constant momentary pulse mediates between the two.