Establishing relationship, encounter, awakening
6 Exercises on level 2, duration 16 minutes, with pause and possible rest.

In the eurythmy exercises for E, we awaken the ability for introspection and develop tools for influencing and changing our behaviour. You learn to feel good about yourself and to establish relationships between what you encounter and your inner self. You develop inner strength and be-come aware of it. The texts to the exercises may be found at the bottom of this page.

Introductory videos

• The basic gesture of E
• Reverence - E
• The big E gesture

Questions to the eurythmy exercises

B2    How do you experience the basic gesture of E?

• When crossing the arms out of the widths – do you lead your inner movement with the arms or does your inner movement lead the arms?
• How do you choose the crossing point of the arms?
• Always the same? Or sometimes closer or further away?
• Do you cross at the wrists, on the forearms or even on the upper arms?
• What feels better, right arm outside or left arm outside?
• At which height do you do the crossing of the arms? At collarbone, heart or diaphragm height? How do you experience the differences?
• Can you remain centered in yourself when raying through the arms and hands and simultaneously perceive the surrounding space?

C2    What experiences do you have when doing the E with the forwards step?

• What helps you to find your balance? Is raying through the arms and legs an extra burden or does it help you?
• Do the arms come into contact and so consciously feel their meeting or does each stay with itself?
• Have you tried doing it the other way around, with the leg movements directing the arm movements? What is better, what feels more pleasant and how does the effect differ?

D2    Encounter the periphery with the heart

• What happens in the space behind when you bring the arms back out of the widths? Does it become narrower or wider?
• How does it affect the tempo of the arms when you pay attention to the creation of a balanced dialogue and meeting between what the E brings from without and what the heart answers. Can one move too fast? Can one move too slowly?
• How do you fill the space--or widths from which you bring the arms in--with content? Do you fill it with preconceptions or is it enough to feel into it in a mindful manner and notice that content is there when you direct your attention to it?
• Can you describe what you feel during and after the exercise?

Exercise texts

 A2    Crossing the legs with E - Stilt house

Cross the left leg in front of the right, stand upright, feel the connection to the ground. Pay attention to your hips facing forward and to how the legs touch each other. Come back to the center. Cross the right leg in front of the left, stand upright, feel the connection to the ground. Pay attention to your hips facing forward and to how the legs touch each other. Do the same crossing the legs behind. In feeling the center, you could experience the four positions as four columns around you. Take a step forwards and repeat the exercise.

Video: The basic gesture of E

B2    The basic gesture of E: Raying into the widths

Lift the arms. Feel into the widths. Lead the arms into a crossing. Ray through the arms from the heart, until you feel you are raying far into the space around you. Take a step forwards and repeat the exercise.

Video: The basic gesture of E

C2    Raying through the E gesture in the legs and arms

Cross the arms and the legs and ray through to the other side. The arms lead the movements of the legs.

D2    Encounter the periphery with the heart

Carry the hands from the periphery into a crossing in front of the chest. Focus attention on the heart expanding to meet the gesture on equal terms. Repeat the exercise. How do you experience this meeting?

Video: Reverence - E

E2    Strengthening the column by pulling the leg in.

Take three steps from the head of a pentagram to its right foot and, by strengthening the experience of the right column, draw the left foot to the right foot at the corner. Starting with the left foot, take three steps to the left arm of the pentagram and, by strengthening the left column, draw the right foot up to the left at the corner. Use this principle for the whole pentagram.

F2    My love is as great as the world is wide

Slowly and peacefully execute the Big E and the E and connect them with the following text “My love is as great….”

Videos: The big E gesture and Reverence - E

One and All (F2)

My love is as great as the world is wide,
it holds and embraces all things.

As the sun gives its light and its warmth to the world,
my love its abundance brings.

There is no grass, there is no stone,
my love, my love were not within.

There is no breeze, no streamlet small,
wherein she does not live.

There is no creature, nor ant nor man,
wherein my heart can`t live, to whom it is not lost.

My love is as wide as this soul of mine, all things rest in it.
They all, all, comprise myself and all is within me.

Christian Morgenstern             
Transl.: Adele Waldmann