Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/1347/en

Sulphur mediates the spiritually-cosmic to the earthly substances. These arrange themselves according to the forces of the spiritual archetype — of the yarrow, for instance — and bring it to appearance in the form or gestalt of this plant. Sulphur can be spoken of, within the living, as the bearer of the spirit-creating principle, which finds expression in form, in gestalt-formation. Potassium, as salt-former, is the bearer of the substance-principle and is thereby a representative of the earthly. In the interworking of these two polar principles, protein formation accomplishes itself in the plant through a process of enhancement. At every stage of its appearing, from seed to blossom, the plant — and yarrow in particular — is an image of this polarity. It stands before us in purely objective terms when we lay a seed in the earth. In the seed, the spiritual archetype of the plant concentrates itself. In it, the cosmic lives "as the form of the plant." The seed is surrounded by humus — the formative agent within the earthly — and by the mineral constituents of the soil: silica, lime, clay, and the salts dissolved in water. It is surrounded, then, by earthly materiality, which, however, loses its character in proportion to how fully the mineral components have crystallized through and thereby become insoluble in water — silica, for instance. In the crystal, the cosmic archetype of the mineral appears as form. In dissolved materiality, the physical-earthly laws hold sway.