Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/1489/en

marked ways for all flowering plants. The astral body of the plant, which rays in upon it from outside from the world of the supersensible, shapes — in a kind of inward working — the etheric forces, which are in constant movement, into formative forces. In accordance with the essential image of the plant, these restrain or dam back the life processes, or activate them toward vigorous growth. In cereals, for example, the stalk grows from one node — one point of growth-stasis — to the next. Out of this zone of stasis, a movement-impulse develops the next internode and the accompanying leaf, which sheaths the stalk as a leaf-sheath up to the following node. This inward working, rapidly dying into form, stands in polar contrast to an astral outward working. This expresses itself in the element of air, kept in motion through warmth. The principal constituent of air is mineralically dead nitrogen (79%), the physical bearer of astral force-working. One can say: with every breath of air that plays around the leaves, every gust of wind that sets them swaying back and forth, swings branch and bough to and fro, or sends a rye field streaming along in "swaying silver waves" — in all of this a movement-impulse is at work, the expression of an astral outward working.