The Planetary Gestures in Eurythmy
by Floris Books • 25 April 2025 • Anthroposophy, Extract, Non Fiction • 0 Comments
Eurythmy is an art form that makes sounds visible through movement. As well as gestures for speech and music, eurythmy also incorporates gestures that relate to the stars and the planets, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner.
If you’re brand new to eurythmy and want to know a bit more check out our introductory guide here.
The Planetary Gestures in Eurythmy is a companion volume to The Zodiac Gestures in Eurythmy by celebrated eurythmist Werner Barfod. It reveals how the planetary forces work in different people and explains how eurythmists can harness these forces. This insightful book is ideal for eurythmy teachers and practitioners who want to deepen their art and spiritual work.
In this extract Barfod presents the seven planetary gestures as described by Rudolf Steiner, outlining their characteristics and sound relationships.
The Characteristics of the Planetary Gestures
The earliest description of the seven gestures is to be found in notebook entries addressed to Erna Wolfram van Deventer in 1914, which have since been published in facsimile with the twelve zodiac gestures in Eurythmy: Its Birth and Development. After being described in 1914, the performance indications were taken up and slightly expanded in 1924, in particular with regard to the essential characteristics and sound relationships of the gestures.
Rudolf Steiner refers to the gestures as potential movements of the human organism when considered in its entirety:
Through human gestures and the possibility of movement, precisely something cosmic is expressed …
[It is] the imitation of that which was spoken by the gods from heaven down to human beings … One must only once again discover the potential for really seeking the inner meaning for the corresponding gestures out of the essence of spiritual knowledge …
Here we proceeded from the human being and went the other way … from the possibilities of movement and follow the path to the human being, to the visible speech.
Mars: the upper body is rocked up and down with the arms stretched out in front and the fingers drawn inwards. (1914).3 Addition (1924): with the body, the vowel E is given.
Jupiter: the right arm makes a circular movement around the left, which is held in front. Addition (1924): the left arm is also bent inwards and the vowel O is given.
Saturn: the hands are turned inwards and placed against the forehead where they are moved smoothly and regularly down and back up. Addition (1924): the hands are placed one over the other on the forehead and the vowel U is given.
Sun: the arms are extended with the right up and forwards and the left held down and back, both moving in a circle. Addition (1924): both go round simultaneously and the diphthong Au is added.
Venus: the left arm moves in a circle behind while the right is stretched forwards and stays still. Addition (1924): the vowel A is given.
Mercury: the right arm makes a circular movement forwards while the left arm stays behind, unmoving. Addition (1924): the contrast to the previous (Venus), and I is given.
Moon: The forearms are crossed in front … As we are here in the spiritual world, they can stay immobile – movement that has come to rest. Addition (1924): accompanied by the diphthong Ei.
In the speech eurythmy course in 1924, the most significant addition is the character of the seven gestures: ‘we see the human being, as it were, divided into his various capacities, members, and forces.’ A little later in the same lecture Rudolf Steiner looks at ‘all those qualities that the human being possesses in his activities that stream outwards’.
Here he first described the seven planetary gestures as follows:
Sun: the expression of the whole human being.
Venus: a loving devotional being.
Mercury: an egotistic being.
Moon: the capacity for creation, a creative, productive being
Mars: the capacity for aggression.
Jupiter: the activity or being that arises out of wisdom.
Saturn: contemplation, introspection and self-containment.
The Planetary Gestures in Eurythmy is the companion volume to:
The Zodiac Gestures in Eurythmy
Werner Barfod shows how by incorporating zodiac gestures into their art, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner, eurythmists can draw on a deep connection between the earth and the cosmos.
The zodiac, as representative of the whole cosmos, is a vital part of human spirituality, acting as the backdrop to human life. But it can be hard to fathom the zodiac’s secrets, even through meditation. Barfod draws a parallel between meditative exercises and eurythmy practice, and shows how zodiac gestures in eurythmy can reveal cosmic insights.
About the Author
Werner Barfod was born in Kiel, Germany in 1936. He studied eurythmy at the Goetheanum in Switzerland with Lea von der Pals, and from 1969 to 2000 was the Director of the Eurythmy Academy in the Hague, and of the Netherlands Eurythmy Ensemble, after which he was the leader of the Performing Arts section of the Goetheanum for seven years. He is the author of The Zodiac Gestures in Eurythmy and The Planetary Gestures in Eurythmy.
