The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Our Summer Courses in Torquay

[ 1 ] This time, the friends of the anthroposophical movement in England organized the summer courses in Torquay, on the southwestern coast of England. Mr. Dunlop, a sensitive anthroposophist with far-reaching goals, and Mrs. Merry, a tireless worker and devoted supporter of the movement, together with other friends, undertook the great task of making these courses possible.

[ 2 ] The work consists of an ongoing course for members and friends of anthroposophy, which I hold in the mornings and for which the desired topic is: “The true and false paths of spiritual research”; a course for teachers of the school based on the anthroposophical spirit, which is currently being established and takes place in the early afternoon; five eurythmy performances led by Marie Steiner, who also recites; lectures for members and class lessons; and lectures by Dr. v. Baravalles.

[ 3 ] Apart from myself, the Goetheanum Executive Council is represented by the secretary, Dr. Ita Wegman, Marie Steiner, Dr. L. Vreede, and Dr. Wachsmuth. The president of the English Anthroposophical Society, Mr. H. Collison, and most of the Executive Council members are present.

[ 4 ] Mr. Kaufmann is translating my lectures, which I am giving in German, in the most dedicated manner.

[ 5 ] As I write this, we are in the middle of the course; six morning lectures, six educational lectures, two lectures for members, two eurythmy performances, and a lecture by Dr. v. Baravalles have already taken place.

[ 6 ] In the morning lectures, I set myself the task of showing the paths of the human soul to the various states of consciousness through which the realms of the world hidden from ordinary consciousness are revealed to human beings. First, I described the changes that the human state of consciousness has undergone in the course of historical development. I chose two examples: the ancient Chaldeans and the teachers of the School of Chartres in the Middle Ages. The Chaldeans had a way of seeing that perceived not only the sensory revelations but also the spiritual. They do not yet have the thought-based waking consciousness that humanity has today, but rather one that perceives the sensory and the spiritual together in images while awake; in return, however, their dreamless sleep does not remain without memory; they reflect on it and thereby perceive the spiritual realm to which human beings belong before birth and after death. The teachers of Chartres speak from their consciousness, which they have not fully developed, but which they have traditionally handed down in terms of content, of “nature” not as modern humans do, as a mere sum of natural laws, but as a living being that produces the phenomena of nature in its living activity. The perception of this living being, which humans once possessed, has been lost with the extinction of the ability to remember the experiences of dreamless sleep. I then went on to show how humans generate different states of consciousness within themselves, how they thereby come to the realization of what spiritually governs the human, animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms. I described the spiritual essence of individual metals and their relationship to the developing spiritual perception as well as to the sick human being. I also described the state of consciousness that can follow human life beyond death. I also showed my listeners how certain states of consciousness that can be developed enable human beings to expand their spiritual field of vision beyond the earth into the cosmos, to the spheres of the stars.

[ 7 ] In this way, I try to lay the foundation for finding the right paths to knowledge of the spiritual world, so that I can then go on to illustrate the deviations that lead down the wrong path.

[ 8 ] In my educational lectures, I endeavor to give the teachers of the primary school to be founded here in England according to the Waldorf school model a kind of seminar course. I try to shed light on the attitude necessary for teachers and educators, the state of mind that is indispensable for the practice of the art of education. I try to give methodological instructions for the individual areas of education and school subjects. Everything is oriented toward the presentation of a teaching practice based on true knowledge of the human being.

[ 9 ] In the eurythmy performances, Marie Steiner has compiled international programs for the eurythmic presentation of poetry and versatile musical eurythmies that showcase the essence of the art of eurythmy in all its facets. Marie Steiner is responsible for the English, French, and German recitations. The two performances we have had were marked by a warm and joyful atmosphere. One has the feeling that eurythmy is gradually penetrating the hearts of people who are receptive to art. I am glad that the eurythmy troupe under Marie Steiner's direction, which has its artistic center at the Goetheanum, will be able to look back with the most satisfying feelings on the warm and enthusiastic reception of their performances, as can be concluded from the two performances that have taken place so far.

[ 10 ] In the members' lectures, I spoke about the way in which people, by going through repeated earthly lives, carry the results of one historical epoch over into another. I showed how such a transfer explains why such diverse spiritual tendencies are manifest in our present civilization. The bearers of these spiritual currents carry within them the most diverse results from their previous earthly lives, and these have a karmic effect on them. Thus, through Spiritual Science research, we can see how Bacon of Verulam carried over into his life as Bacon non-Christian ideas and impulses rooted in Mohammedanism and Arabism from previous earthly lives.

[ 11 ] The way we feel about the course of this summer course so far, the good atmosphere that prevails, gives us hope that the rest of the course will also unfold in the most beautiful way.

Further guiding principles sent out by the Anthroposophical Society from the Goetheanum

[ 12 ] 82. Human beings look up to the starry worlds; what presents itself to the senses there are only the outer manifestations of those spiritual beings and their deeds which have been spoken of in previous issues of this newsletter as the beings of the spiritual realms (hierarchies).

[ 13 ] 83. The earth is the scene of the three natural kingdoms and the human kingdom, insofar as these reveal the outer sensory appearance of the activity of spiritual beings.

[ 14 ] 84. The forces that act upon the earthly natural realms and the human realm on behalf of spiritual beings are revealed to the human spirit through true, spiritual knowledge of the celestial worlds.

(Continued in the next issue.)