THE FINGER

“The finger which I carry about on me is a finger only as long as it is part of my organism; the moment I cut it off from my organism it is no longer a finger, it decays.
In the same way, if we think of man as a physical being separated by a few miles from the body of the earth he would decay just as a finger does if it is cut off from the man’s body. The delusion of man that as a physical being he is independent of the earth arises only from the fact that he can move about freely on the surface of the earth, whereas the finger cannot move about on the rest of his organism. If the finger could walk about on the rest of the body it would have the same delusion concerning man as he, as a physical being, has concerning the earth.”
—Rudolf Steiner, “Mystery Centres”, [Anthroposophic Press, ‘43]