Brain-water: a word from Rudolf Steiner
I came across a word in the work of Rudolf Steiner, the clairvoyant scientist, that caught my attention straight away, and I want to share it with you. It touches the whole tone of the first two books in the Soul Frequencies series, The Ego on a String and The Inner Well.
Steiner was describing the pressure that comes from our ordinary breathing, in and out. Where we would say "spinal fluid," he said Gehirnwasser, "brain-water." That is not the scientific term. The medical name is the Latin liquor cerebrospinalis, usually shortened to liquor. Gehirnwasser is the everyday German word for the same fluid, along with Nervenwasser, "nerve-water." Steiner chose the plain word.
Here are his words, in German and in English:
Indem wir einatmen, bringen wir den Atmungsdruck bis zu unserem Rückenmarkskanal; dadurch bewegt sich dieser Druck nach dem Gehirn zu und wirkt formend auf das Gehirnwasser.
As we breathe in, we carry the pressure of the breath up to the canal of the spinal cord; this pressure then moves toward the brain and works formatively upon the brain-water.
Steiner is describing natural breathing. As students of spiritual development, we know how much more vitalizing the breath becomes when we join it with meditation and breath practice. That is the very reason for the five meditations in The Inner Well: they are designed to bring the deep waters within the human being upward. Alongside the meditations, the book gives gesture practices and an account of the flowing waters of the inner being. The exercises are simple, and nearly anyone can do them. Beginners and advanced students alike can feel the stirring of the breath and the inner fluids.
If you don't have them yet, you can find The Ego on a String and The Inner Well here.
I hope this helps you find a deeper relationship to your own Inner Well, discover the deeper waters within you, and raise them upward.
Quote Ref: Steiner GA 343
