The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1912–1918

GA 277a — 8 September 1915, Dornach

The Apollonian Course XIX

The pentacle, for poems with five lines

This form is suitable for poems with five lines or with four lines and a repetition.

Church hymn from 1480 Christ ascended to heaven
What did he send down to us?
The Comforter, the Holy Spirit
To comfort poor Christianity
Kyrieleis. Christ departed with the sound
of all his disciples.
He blessed them with his hand
and sent them to all lands.
Kyrieleis.

Five lines are usually only found in mystical poems.

[There is no drawing available for the following explanations.]

After each verse, everyone moves diagonally at the same time, e.g., 1 to 3, to 5, to 2, to 4, to 1.

Then everyone moves one place further. 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc. Only then do they all move into the new formation, e.g., from A to B. When moving from A to B, 1 goes to I; 4 to II]; 3 to IV; 2 to TI; 5 to V.

The pentagon:

1 goes to 3; 4 goes to 1; 5 goes to 2; 3 goes to 5; 2 goes to 4.

Outer, inner, middle circle.

Upbeat for five-line stanzas

Inner movement in the pentagon [five-pointed star]
Circulation [in the pentagon]
Transition to the next pentagon.

In the second pentagon (IT), either a) the person standing on the middle circle (as performed in Dornach) or [b)] the person standing on the outer circle can begin the inner movement.

Can be done with the specified rounds, but also with counter-movement.

Further examples of five-line poems: Ludwig Uhland: Dream (“I recently had a dream”); Ludwig Uhland: The Shepherd Boy's Song (“I am the shepherd boy from the mountain”); August von Platen: From “Tristan and Isolde” (“Whoever has seen beauty with their eyes”); Joachim Neander: “Praise the Lord, the mighty King of Honor”; J. W. Goethe: Symbolum (“The Mason's Walk”); Richard Dehmel: The Quiet City (“There lies a city in the valley”); Folk song: “Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz” (At Strasbourg on the Ramparts).

And then it should be emphasized that the respective diagonals and, starting from the pentagon, the circumference should be done as quickly as possible. I can still hear the doctor saying, “Now I'm going to shake you up!” And then he clapped his hands, and we had to run from one point to another like rays of light. Pals couldn't have known that, and that's how the “three-part” music came about.