The evolution of the Earth. Cosmogony and geology, an organic becoming - Guenther Wachsmuth

In the book "The Evolution of the Earth" by Guenther Wachsmuth, the rapid progress currently underway in the knowledge of the Earth is taken into account. The conquest of the upper layers of the atmosphere and cosmic space make it all the more important, before any effort in this direction, to acquire a true knowledge of the Earth and its evolution to which what follows aims to make a contribution.

Choose and single out from the mass of phenomena those that are especially capable of contributing to the formation of a new overall vision. A more detailed research will certainly contribute to modifying, correcting and completing the present exposition greatly, but the essential lies in the method which seeks to derive the laws of formation of this whole considered as an organized whole .

After a quick examination of the initial stages of formation and organization of the Cosmos , we move on to the different phases that give the terrestrial organism its appearance, studying the periods and their specific rhythms, which have shaped the past and still act today. Since the Earth, a living organism, always remains linked to the cosmic organism that surrounds it, from which it was born and in which it continues its evolution through changes and numerous rhythmic synchronisms.

For this reason we have described in the last chapters the mutual relationships of the Cosmos and the Earth , helping us with the results of current research. Man, belonging to this genesis and this evolution and participating in it with his actions according to the rhythm of the different eras of civilization, has his place in the whole constituted by the common evolution of the Cosmos, the Earth and Man.

Biography of Guenther Wachsmuth

Guenther Wachsmuth was born on October 4, 1893 in Dresden, Germany. In 1919 he went with his brother to Dornach for a first conversation with Steiner and on 26 September 1920 he participated in the inauguration ceremony of the first courses of the "Free University of Spiritual Science" at the Gotheanum of Dornach, where he decided to move, chosen as collaborator. He later met and became friends with Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, dedicating himself with him to the natural sciences and founding a research laboratory within the Gotheanum. The two were entrusted with the task by Rudolf Steiner of a modern science of living and therefore of the development of a "systemic theory of shaping forces".

From 1921 to 1924 he was assistant and secretary to Rudolf Steiner and then treasurer in the new foundation of the Anthroposophical Society with duties on a section on natural sciences and one on social sciences. In June 1924 he attended Rudolf Steiner's course to inaugurate the "biodynamic" cultivation method. Upon Steiner's death, he undertook to follow the work on the new Gotheanum building; only thanks to him was the building able to withstand the financial crisis of the war and continue with its scientific and artistic work, thus resuming its activities. He will lead the Rudolf Steiner Literary Legacy Association as president. He played a unifying role with Ita Wegman and Elisabeth Vreede since the late 1920s with a growing attachment to Albert Steffen. He died on March 2, 1963 in Dornach, Switzerland, on the threshold of his seventieth birthday.