The Change of the Teeth at Age Seven
Why do our teeth change over at about the age of seven from our baby to our “permanent” or adult teeth? Is it more than our body’s attempt at making a fashion statement? We could cite the structural issues, and the need for larger teeth to fill the space of our jaw, but there is a deeper reason related to our overall development, related to our 7-year cycles of development (birth to age seven; seven to fourteen; fourteen to twenty one, and so on).
The changing of the teeth is an outward, physical marker, of an inner change and phase of development, when we are shifting from the primary focus being on the development of our physical body, to the development of our etheric body. The beginning of puberty close to age 14, for example, represents the next shift from the etheric into the development of the astral body. Likewise, at birth, the baby separates from the mother’s physical body, and then at the changing of the teeth, he or she has separated from the mother’s etheric body.
The changing of the teeth represents one of many specific stages of separation of the child from the parents, and the progressive development and expression of a unique individuality which is different from the genetic inheritance in the family. The goal of healthy development, from this point of view, is not to simply be a “chip off the old block”, but a fully developed individual. The baby teeth, then, come from the family genetics, and the adult teeth are a by-product of the emerging individuality of the child.
The graduation of a child from Kindergarten to grade one is partly determined by the timing of their change in teeth, amongst other markers which indicate that they are sufficiently mature for the next phase of the curriculum.
The process of individuation is life-long, and many critical phases and markers emerge through childhood of this process being on track. The job of parenting, it is said, is the most challenging and the most rewarding, and involves many progressive stages of “letting go” on the part of the parents. The deeper that a parent goes through Heilkunst treatment, the more easily they are able to appropriately let go at various stages along the way.