The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner
1921
In the year 1921 Rudolf Steiner completed the sixtieth year of his life. To many persons destiny grants at such a turning point a quieter situation for a retrospect over the achievement of life in the light and the warmth of recognition by fellow men.
But the Spiritual Powers do honor to the greatest and strongest of human beings through the most severe tests. And the burdens which were laid upon Rudolf Steiner by the forces of destiny at just this time in his life are indications of the fact that he was chosen to accomplish an extraordinary task. For it was just at this time that they led him to the loftiest mountain peak of lonely perspective, but at the same time into the severest battles, unspeakable suffering and opposition. These also as a bestower, a forward marcher, he overcame victoriously. Rudolf Steiner once said: "The true must first be achieved by thrusting aside the errors on both sides of the road." This is the Christian way. For, according to the teaching of Dr. Steiner, it was not in the nature of Christ to destroy the Opposing Powers but, through His existence and His forward march, to point the way for them out of the world they had usurped into their own spheres, where they may be freed through their own nature or may be redeemed. It is according to this example that Dr. Steiner conducted his own life.
When we view this path of life in its final years, we find, besides those helping, those streaming to him and striving to advance with him, also on the sides of the road innumerable opponents arrayed, small and great, the unknowing and the consciously evil, induced by a mere tendency to immobility or by passion and hatred. He strode through these lines, receiving the most grievous wounds which they could inflict upon him and his work, suffering without complaint, continuing to advance until his work in this earthly life was fulfilled and safeguarded and, passing through the portal of death, he left behind him on the sides of the road the hordes of those who had opposed him. Let us observe first the road and those standing on its sides in the year 1921.
Rudolf Steiner began this year with a scientific course of 18 lectures on The Relation of the Various Natural-Scientific Fields to Astronomy, given during January 1—18 in Stuttgart for the teachers of the Waldorf School. What he had in mind was, as he said by way of introduction, that “bridges should be thrown from the various fields of science across into the field of the astronomical, and that the astronomical should appear in the right manner in the individual fields of science.55 He proceeded from the cognitional situation brought about by the fact that, during the centuries after Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus, the view of the macrocosmic passed over into a one-sided mathematical, mechanical form of conception, and that the same mechanical world of concepts was then applied to the microcosm of man, rendering it impossible that a profounder understanding of the process of genesis of the human organism, embryology, morphology, could be attained. Even such fruitful contributions as those given by Goethe, Oken, Gegenbaur and others were not followed out in their original meaning. And yet the limitations of knowledge holding sway till the present time at both of these poles, the macrocosmic and the microcosmic, astronomy and embryology, could be overcome only if in both spheres the principle of metamorphosis, the same living and organic thinking, is applied as this was initiated by Goethe in certain areas, and as it is now applied in spiritual science in a new manner to the totality of the cosmic and the earthly processes. Indeed a true insight into all these processes can be gained only when both poles, astronomy and embryology, are brought into organic relation with each other. From this point of view he said in that course to the students:
“You cannot possibly study embryology without studying astronomy; for what is presented to you in embryology is only the other pole of that which astronomy shows you. In a certain sense, we must on the one side trace the starry heavens, the manner in which they show successive stages, and we must trace how a fertilized germ cell evolves. Both belong together; for one is only an image of the other. If you understand nothing of astronomy you will never understand the forces which are at work within the embryo. And if you understand nothing of embryology, you will never understand the nature of the influences which lie at the basis of the astronomical. For these influences manifest themselves in miniature in the processes of embryology.”
He expressed his awareness of the fact that we are at present far removed from viewing things in this relation to totalities. But he did not present this merely as a postulate but showed in connection with a multitude of phenomena how a precise united view may be gained of those macrocosmic and microcosmic processes. He gave the ultimate foundations, as well as their practical application even in the most concrete details, showing that connecting links lead over from the application of the principle of metamorphosis in the cosmic, planetary evolution to an understanding of the development of the human organism even in its rhythms, organ-formations, all the way to the metamorphoses of the bony system. The variations in these processes were explained, as these occur in the course of a human life and in the temporal and spatial rhythms of evolution and integration of the structure of forces of the earth. He illustrated this, for example, by showing how the bodily structure, and also the spiritual configuration of the human being, undergo changes in this field of forces of the earth and the surrounding world. Out of these lines of direction given by him there results again the possibility of developing a conception of the birth of man out of the cosmic world and also a new astronomical world picture. This course of lectures was published under the direction of Dr. Elisabeth Vreede and Dr. E. A. K. Stockmeyer.
In lectures to members at the time Dr. Steiner showed what conclusions result with respect to the destiny of the individual human being out of a total world view, according as the individual person incarnates in one or another region of the earth; also through the fact that successive incarnations often occur in altogether different parts of the earth. He showed how out of such relations creative processes in history can be understood.
In public lectures in Stuttgart he returned in detail to problems of the day: speaking on January 4 and 7 on Spiritual-Scientific Findings and the Practice of Life and on Economic Requirements and Spiritual Knowledge. On January 8 he gave a lecture in connection with a meeting of industrialists of Wurttemburg, and during January 11-15 four lectures for university people on Tests Regarding the Relations between Spiritual Science and the Individual Special Sciences. There were numerous conferences with teachers and parents of the Waldorf School and also Eurythmy programs.
Two lectures were given early in 1921 for persons having special relations with the plebiscite then to occur in Upper Silesia. Numerous false accusations were circulated by reckless persons in regard to this matter. The purpose of the lectures was to aid in bringing into realization amid the embittered racial conflicts in that part of Europe the healing influences of fundamental ideas underlying the conception of the threefold nature of the social organism: especially the idea that, in a reorganization of the relations among the spiritual, the political, and the economic life, groups of peoples within the limits of a newly organized state should be given the possibility in the cultural realm—in religious matters, in the school system, for instance—to maintain their own cultural substance, their own language, their own schools; but that, on the other hand, economic problems could be solved only through an understanding of the fact that the economic life-space extends across state boundaries and must be dealt with according to its own inherent principles. At present this principle is to a great extent understood but at that time any one advancing such ideas was bitterly attacked as an enemy of the State. Thus was Rudolf Steiner made to suffer grievously under such unjustified attacks. It is the ideas which he then advanced that have later been in great part accepted.
On January 18, he ended the course of 18 lectures on The Relation between the Various Natural-scientific Fields and Astronomy. Practical pedagogy in Stuttgart had thus received abundance of material for study, and he had also given important help to physicians through conferences with them. The new knowledge thus provided could at that time be used in a newly founded Clinical-Therapeutic Institute, directed by Dr. Otto Palmer.
Dr. Steiner then returned to Dornach, to prepare during this year several important collegiate courses. In 1921 occurred also the first extensive journey since the end of the war, to Holland and Scandinavia. The home center at the Goetheanum developed steadily, a middle point for many spheres of activity, where numerous persons came together to gain new forces for pioneer work. To the artistic work still to be done on the building Dr. Steiner devoted himself intensely immediately after his return. During the first weeks, his evening lectures in the great workshop dealt especially with the spiritual foundations of contemporary evolution. He pointed out the great difference between the present epoch and earlier periods in the fact that in former times impulses could be received by humanity only through the initiates in the Mystery centers, whereas at present the human being in his spiritual structure has developed so much further that he brings to the earth with him cosmic wisdom out of the pre-natal life, although this sleeps at first in the unconscious life of the soul and now stands in need of an awakening through spiritual-scientific cognitional endeavor.
But the retarding tendencies of those Powers which represent the dying form of thinking of the past century resisted such an awakening with all their forces. For this reason Dr. Steiner was obliged in those lectures to refer to the blind and hostile groups of opponents who battled with united destructive purpose against the Goetheanum as a place of work representing the new period. This opposition took form either in mere jouralistic misrepresentation or more debased forms of publicity, resorting even to hostile threats. As presenting one of the vilest and most violent of these expressions of hatred, he mentioned a so-called astrological magazine which now gave expression to something which the other opponents for reasons of final scruples refrained from uttering. Such a magazine referred at that time to “spiritual sparks” which were said to be "hissing" against the Goetheanum building and then added: “...and Steiner will have need of some of his cleverness, need to work in a pacifying way, if a real spark of fire is not one day to bring about an inglorious end for the magnificence of Dornach.” No connection is intended here between such words and the actual burning of the first Goetheanum building at the end of 1922, but such expressions are a symptom of the low and debased level to which the worst of the representatives of the opposing groups had already sunk. Obviously, it could not be the task of Rudolf Steiner to "pacify" such persons, but he could only call the attention of honest people of constructive intention to the necessity for watchfulness in regard to such tendencies, and proceed, after calling attention to these opponents, unerringly on his own way. This he then did with increased intensity, filling the coming months and years with fruitful achievement, leading many persons who courageously continued to accompany him on this path in their spiritual, artistic, and practical life schooling and at the same time informing the public regarding his goals in order that all honest persons might be able to form their own judgment. Thus he spoke during these weeks in public lectures in Basel, Buchs, St. Gallen, Solothurn, and Bern on Anthroposophy as Knowledge and as Treasure of Life; The Tasks of the Goetheanum in Dornach; The Inner Being of Nature and the Nature of the Human Soul; and related themes. Upon invitation from scientific groups, he spoke also on January 26 in Basel before the Mathematical Society on Synthetic Geometry.
In the artistic field, the public programs of Eurythmy gained an ever increasing circle of friends and also pupils. The teaching of Eurythmy in Dornach had a twofold purpose: primarily, to train stage artists, who were then taken into the group of artists carrying out numerous programs in the cities of Europe, which have since that time become a widely known and highly prized element in European artistic life. Many others took the courses without intending to become professional artists, realizing as did numerous persons, the value of participating in everything new which Dr. Steiner provided as beneficial for the human being. There was not lacking an element of humor in the devoted efforts of all sorts of persons, from every sphere of life, many elderly and stiff, to school themselves in the movements of Eurythmy; but all those sharing felt and expressed their happiness in the effect of this artistic activity upon the hardened intellect which we all bear within us as a gift of the present age. It was no light task for those leading in these courses to develop an art without any dose relation with any other existing form of art. The new art was being brought into immediate relation with practical life. What was accomplished here under the artistic guidance of Frau Marie Steiner through Frau Tatjane Kissdeff, Annemarie Donath, and others gave a most important impulse to the art of the stage and also to many individual persons.
On February 11, Dr. Steiner began a lengthier lecture tour, taking him into Germany and Holland. During February 12-17, he gave at Stuttgart a course of ten lectures for speakers and lecturers to assist a great number of persons who had come together for the purpose of learning to lecture on spiritual science and the ideas of the threefold social order. Thus as many as thirty lecturers were at one time on lecture tours to various cities, each speaking in many places. It was because of the request of these people for advice on best manner of presenting these subjects to the public that Dr. Steiner gave this course of lectures. As the most fundamental prerequisite for success in this effort, he presented a rich abundance of actual knowledge for the speakers, but he said also:
“You will succeed in what you desire to bring about only if you work out of two fundamental forces in your souls. And since we are concerned today with an extraordinary seriousness which must permeate our cause and give warmth to our activity, we must be altogether conscious of the fact that we shall make no progress without developing these two fundamental forces in our souls: first, to speak out of a genuine love for the thing itself; secondly, to speak out of a love endowed with insight for human beings. You may be certain that, if these two prerequisites are not present, or if they are replaced by other motives—for instance, ambition or vanity—-no matter how logical may be the judgments that you present to people, no matter how cleverly you may speak： you will accomplish nothing. The requirements for effective use of words do not lie primarily in the impress and the formulation of the words themselves.・.・
“There are also other things which must be inherent in our speaking. These are the two forces of soul of which I have spoken: the genuine love of the thing itself, which alone can be the bearer of inner conviction: and love for humanity. Naturally, these two forces of soul cannot substitute for what is to be the content of the spoken words. The content of the spoken words must, obviously, be absolutely valid, yet this content is not effective if it is not sustained by the two forces of soul which I have mentioned."
As the lecturer must always determine before speaking whether he possesses these prerequisites, so must he bring to consciousness in his hearers the truth that the causes of the present chaotic situation are not to be found in external circumstances but must be found in man himself.
“The fact that human beings at the present time are in a situation of greater need than hitherto is not brought about through physical causes, but by the very spirit of man himself. If human beings are today in a situation of need, this has been brought about by a false spirituality, a false thinking. No other means can exist, therefore, for escaping from this situation of need than the substitution of right thinking in the place of false. It is not nature, not any kind of unknown Powers, that have brought humanity into its present situation; on the contrary, human beings have themselves brought about this situation. If there is a condition of need, it is human beings themselves that have led the way into this condition. . . . What matters, therefore, is not to proceed from the false assumption that some sort of unknown Powers have caused this situation of need, and that the condition itself must be removed before the human being can proceed to develop the right kind of thinking. On the contrary, since the condition of need has been brought about by wrong thinking of man himself, so likewise can relief from this need be brought about only by right thinking.”
He emphasized the need of an understanding of the fact "that at the present time for the most part there is no understanding regarding the productivity of the spiritual life." But he pointed out also another social evil of our time, which has its effects in the economic life:
“The second thing that must be borne in mind is that, because of the special form of the social life as this has come about during the last centuries, a sense for the need of the other human being has been lost. But, without this sense for the need of the other person, there can be no formation of the economic life. The economic life can take form only through persons who are capable in their thinking of ignoring entirely their own requirements, who have a feeling for the requirements of every other person, and who learn in this way to feel themselves as belonging within humanity." He called attention in this connection to the fact that, in lectures and published papers, he had pointed since the beginning of the century to the symptoms of disease in the social organism. This has been mentioned in connection with the year 1905.
He then proceeded in historical retrospect to deal in detail with the elements in evolution which, in the course of history, have brought about the present situation. He described as an example such decisive events as the Peace of Nystad, 1721, and that of Paris, 1763, by reason of which the situation in northern Europe and thence also in the whole of Europe, as well as the relation between Europe and America, was changed in such a way that the effects are to be found even in our civilized life of the present time. In the course of further historical reflections the changes in the nature of thinking and the resulting social formations within the civilization of the East, Middle, and West were laid bare. Out of this abundance of cognitional material those who were to lecture could gain conceptions which would enable them to lay foundations for their lecturing out of what they themselves knew, or could further work out on the basis of their own insight. Only on such a basis was it desirable to undertake lecturing. Since many of the lecturers had decided to deal with their themes in numerous lectures, Dr. Steiner emphasized in this connection the following:
“You must realize that the very worst thing that you could do would undoubtedly be to take such a theme as, let us say, The Great Questions of the Present and the Threefold Organization of the Social Organism,— you should take such a theme and, since you will deliver many lectures in various places during the week, simply repeat in lecturing on this theme the individual formulations on the basis of memory. Because of certain inner factual reasons, this is probably the very worst method that can be chosen for such a thing. It is really possible to develop a responsible method of speaking and one which rests upon the matter itself only when, in a sense, every address that one gives is something new even subjectively and personally; only if one finds it necessary even after having delivered a lecture thirty times—or, to take an exceptional example, a hundred times—one always finds it necessary to feel this to be something new and to cherish a certain equally great respect, attentiveness, with regard to the content of this speech; causing it in its fundamental coloration—please note well what I say—in its fundamental coloration, to pass before the mind every time before one speaks; to live through it again and again every time, not so much in the individual elements of the composition and the single formulations, but in the fundamental nuances, in the ideas.”
This indicates how completely Rudolf Steiner was opposed to any form of propaganda; how he always demanded of his students that they test whether that which was to be delivered in a lecture could be justified before their minds, sustained through their own inner forces, and found to be mature for mediation to their fellow men. The students would not claim to have met all these requirements, but they were at least presented with an ideal, toward which they could continue to strive with the hope of finding after years that one lecture or another approached this ideal.
It may not be out of place to mention in this connection the advice that Dr. Steiner gave to me in a personal conversation regarding the effective manner of preparation for a lecture, especially for one who had previously no practice in lecturing. He advised me, for example, to write down at times the first and the last two or three sentences of a lecture verbatim; for the unpracticed speaker experiences hindrances in beginning the lecture and in ending it in the right way. He did not intend that one should actually memorize the wording of these sentences. The rest of the lecture, he said, should not be written down verbatim beforehand, but noted at most in key expressions, and the speaker should then give form to his words freely out of his inner experience and the concrete situation in relation to the audience. He was entirely opposed to the current practice of reading a lecture instead of speaking freely. He himself very seldom made use even of reminder words, drawing everything out of the inner substance, plenitude of experience and knowledge.
The series of lectures of February 1921 for the collaborators preparing to give lectures ended with the following words:
“You must bring people to the point of having confidence or having belief in their own essential being. And this is what you must fundamentally strive for, at least in your hearts. To what extent you accomplish this will, perhaps, depend today upon your capacities; but if you devote yourself to this with good will, it will very soon not depend upon your capacities but the necessity of the times will take hold of your capacities and you will grow beyond yourselves in bringing this belief to other persons: that, in place of lack of confidence in man, there shall arise confidence in man. This is what I wanted to say to you before you leave to deliver your lectures. Feel within yourselves the strength that exists in one's being able to say to oneself: I have to bring it about that the last residue of superstition and lack of confidence in the human being, in regard to the human being, shall be transformed into faith in the human being, in the inner activity of the human being. For this is what matters in the struggle for a real ascent. Anything else will only have the effect of reproducing what is already in a state of decadence. Say to yourselves: That which is in a process of destruction should not be sustained. On the contrary, you may, as far as I am concerned, apply the saying of Nietzsche: Thrust it in order that it may more rapidly go to ruin; but let one love that which belongs, not to yesterday or today, but to tomorrow! I should like to have you go out as ‘human beings of tomorrow’ and give form to your words out of the consciousness of the human being of tomorrow during these coining weeks.”
After thus aiding those who were to work in Middle Europe in behalf of the new spiritual impulse, Rudolf Steiner went upon invitation for a lecture tour to Holland, which he began with a public lecture in Amsterdam on February 19 on Anthroposophical Spiritual Science and the Great Questions of Contemporary Civilization. He spoke on the same theme in Hilversum, Utrecht, The Hague, and Rotterdam. This was the first major foreign trip since the end of the war, and Dr. Steiner seized the opportunity once more looking toward an expansive activity through lecturing, in order to convey to the largest practicable area in Europe the substance which had been worked out since his last foreign lecture.
Here also the activity in lecturing was supplemented in several cities of Holland through Eurythmy programs. In Amsterdam and The Hague he lectured on The Architectural Idea of Dornach, with lantern slides, presenting in this lecture the whole spiritually inspired life at this center of activity. He spoke also in several cities of Holland on the new pedagogy: in Utrecht, The Hague, Hengelo, and Amsterdam on Problems of Instruct Hon and Education and of the Practical Life from the Point of View of Anthroposophical Spiritual Science. In later years he continued this work in Holland through special pedagogical courses. On February 25 he spoke, upon invitation, to the students of the technical college in Delft.
February 27 of this year was Dr. Steiner's sixtieth birthday. Characteristically, he spent this day in the utmost activity among his fellow men. Speaking to the members about our epoch as "the stage of the feeling for freedom in human history," and thus as a “time of perilous testing,” he gave on the same day an introductory talk at a Eurythmy program, and in the evening a public lecture on pedagogy. Probably extremely few persons who heard him during that day had any idea that he had reached his sixtieth birthday. No greater festival could have been enjoyed by him than, after the decades of lonely struggling and suffering and victory, to be able to bestow upon his fellow man what he had achieved out of the primal fountainhead of spiritual science. No reference was made to these decades of struggle.
At the beginning of March he returned again to Dornach for a time, to continue here the more esoteric lectures on the cosmic evolution of humanity and the work of the Hierarchies. Thence he returned to continue the collegiate course in Stuttgart, contributing to it the series of lectures of March 16-23 on Mathematics, Scientific Experimentation, Observation, and Cognitional Results from the Point of View of Anthroposophy. In supplementation of the previously given scientific course, special attention was given to methods of discipline in the observation of nature, as a sort preparation for the second collegiate course, which began in Dornach in April.
During these weeks, there appeared in Stuttgart a new monthly "Die Drei," which published during the following years a great number of contributions from Rudolf Steiner and his collaborators. This was issued at first by the publishing branch of an organization known as “Der Kommende Tag,” an organization created by members of the Society and engaged in economic undertakings. The magazine was later published by the Anthroposophical Society in Germany. In it there appeared a cycle of lectures the text of which Rudolf Steiner himself edited for publication in this form: The Orient in the Light of the Occident, lectures he had delivered in 1909. Seeing the copy of the lectures with his handwritten modifications for the printed form, I was enabled to observe how he gave form to oral discourse when it was to appear in print, the margins showing manifold corrections, modifications of the sentence forms, and the like. To have done this for his lectures in general would have been utterly impossible because of the excessive burden of work he was constantly carrying.
Dr. Steiner again spent the time of the Easter festival in Dornach, delivering a lecture on Cosmic Easter Ideas. Against the fatalistic thinking of the time, which would transfer to destiny and the laws of nature its own responsibility, he set the thought of resurrection, which must come about again at present in the spiritual freedom and the will power of man himself:
“We need within our entire Occidental culture the thought of Easter. In other words, we need again to be lifted up to the Spirit. ... And it will be the cosmic Easter idea when a sufficiently great number of human beings sense that the Spirit must be resurrected in modem civilization.
“Externally, this will have to be expressed through the fact that man will no longer wish to direct his research toward that which is imposed upon him, will not investigate alone according to the laws of nature and laws of history which are like the laws of nature, but that the human being will experience a craving for knowledge of his own will, for knowledge of his own freedom: that the human being will experience a longing to sense the real nature of the will, which carries him across the portal of death, but which must be viewed spiritually if it is to be seen in its real form.”
In contrast with the one-sided conception of the suffering Christ, characteristic of many centuries, our time needs to be united with the forces of the triumphant Christ, victorious over suffering.
“For this reason in the ancient Mysteries the picture of the suffering Chrestos was replaced by the other picture of the triumphant Christus, who looked down on the suffering Chrestos as upon something that had been overcome. There must be discovered again today the possibility of having before one's soul the triumphant spiritual Christ and in the soul, and especially in the will.”
In connection with the Easter festival, the second collegiate course took place in Dornach. In the opening address of April 3, 1921, Rudolf Steiner added to the saying of the ancient Mysteries, “Know thyself,” the demand of our age "and become a free being," as a fundamental motif. There followed a lecture by Albert Steffen on The Genesis of a Work of Art and the recitation by Frau Marie Steiner of the words of Hilarius out of Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Drama The Guardian of the Threshold. In the afternoon, there was a program of Eurythmy and music in which the organ built into the Goetheanum played a role and gave a special tone of dedication to the festival. Thus all the arts contributed in the domed auditorium of the Goetheanum in weaving the element of the beautiful into the knowledge of the true, to which the conference was dedicated. The conference lectures of Rudolf Steiner bore the title Anthroposophy and the Special Sciences, and dealt in five successive days with "Philosophy,” “Mathematics and Inorganic Natural Sciences,” “Organic Sciences and Medicine,” “The Science of Speech,” “Social Science and Social Practice.” There followed a succession of lecturers providing a supplementation in each case out of their fields of scientific work, and all of this was further clarified during the evenings in discussions with Dr. Steiner. On April 9 he gave a special talk to the students. Throughout the entire course 600 persons were present.
In addition, a rather large number of practicing artists had come to this conference; and, since there was present a group of actors and other stage artists, Rudolf Steiner gave on April 6 a special lecture on The Art of Oral Discourse, dealing with the art of recitation and declamation, the essential nature of the dramatic, lyric, and epic in poetry, the formation of the vowel and consonant elements in the art of oral utterance. Frau Marie Steiner gave examples of recitations from works of art. Through her work of decades, a new art of speech and of stage presentation had already developed, which rendered possible in later years a magnificent unfolding in the presentation of the Mystery Dramas and of Faust. On April 10 Dr. Steiner spoke in response to questions from a group of actors on Dramatic Art.
At the close of this conference Dr. Steiner himself guided visitors through the Goetheanum building. His manner of performing this friendly service was in itself artistic. He always avoided speaking theoretically about the artistic and objected to any intellectual exploration of the artistic forms of the building. His emphatic advice against such things has, unfortunately, been disregarded many times by persons presenting all sorts of theories and hypotheses regarding the details. In regard to this matter he himself wrote:
“No abstract ideas were incorporated in the Goetheanum. The formulation of ideas was completely forgotten when, out of an artistic sense the form, out of the artistic vision line out of line, surface out of surface, were derived, when there was made visible in colors on the wall what was beheld directly in color pictures.
“When I had the opportunity at times to guide visitors personally through the Goetheanum, I said expressly that all ‘explanation’ of the forms and pictures was very uncongenial, because the artistic is not to be presented through thoughts but should be taken in through direct vision and feeling.”
After the collegiate course, Dr. Steiner took up again the lectures for the collaborators in Dornach; and, during the evening lectures from April 15 to May 5, dealt with historic changes since the "etheric astronomy” of the Greek Period and the medicine of the bodily liquids of the Middle Ages, setting forth the transition from the cult to the scientific art of thinking in the last centuries. He then discussed the changes in religious conceptions with respect to the knowledge of Christ in the East and the West, the evolution of the "intellectual soul" between the eighth century B.C. and the fifteenth century A.D., and the new forces of consciousness which have arisen with the later development of the "consciousness soul.” He pointed out the differentiations which these forms of thinking have undergone among the various peoples—for instance, in the case of John Locke and Joseph de Maistre. In a Michaelmas lecture, the fourth century A.D. was pointed out as an important turning point in spiritual history.
During May 6-8, he gave for painters a series of lectures on The Nature of the Colors. In an introductory reflection preceding the first edition of these lectures, in book form, Marie Strakosch-Giesler calk attention to words which Dr. Steiner had written as early as the 'nineties of the last century in his Weimar edition of Goethe's Theory of Color.
“If I should ever have the good fortune to possess the leisure and the means for writing a theory of color in Goethe's sense, resting upon the level of the achievements of modern natural science, only in such an undertaking could the problem I have mentioned be resolved” [—that is, to explain on the basis of Goethe's principle the color phenomena still unknown at the time of Goethe].
Regarding the earliest period after the turn of the century, Frau Marie Steiner says in her preface to this book: "When, in the summer of 1903, in a series of lessons on the theory of color with the use of a candle flame and a sheet of paper, Rudolf Steiner was demonstrating to me the appearance of yellow and blue out of light and darkness, his eyes brightened as if in a happy identification with the nature of that which he was saying, and he remarked: 'If I had at the present time 10,000 Marks for the purchase of the necessary instruments, I should be able really to prove to the world the truth of Goethe's theory of color.’” The lack of both means and time, and the later tremendous burden of work, rendered it impossible for him ever to set down in writing this theory of color, but he now gave the content in oral form in these lectures of 1921 and others which came later. The three lectures of May dealt with Color Experience; The Picture Nature and the Luminous Nature of the Colors; and The Appearance of Material Entities in Color. These lectures provided artists with the possibility of understanding the spiritual and the substantial nature of the materials serving them for their creative shaping, both in their form as matter and also according to their effects on the soul and the spirit.
At the same time Dr. Steiner was continuing his work with physicians through the second Course for Physicians and Students of Medicine} continuing in eight lectures from April 11-18 the course of the previous year. This second series has been published under the title Spiritual-Scientific Points of View in Therapy.
The medical movement fructified by Anthroposophy received during these months an important new impulse through the founding by Dr. Ita Wegman, in the presence of Rudolf Steiner, on June 6, 1921, of the Clinical-Therapeutic Institute, in Arlesheim. Ita Wegman, born in the Dutch East Indies, had devoted herself to the art of healing since her earliest youth. Having settled in Europe about the year 1902, she came into contact with the work of Rudolf Steiner in Berlin, and he encouraged her to prepare for the profession of a physician. For the fulfillment of this spiritual mission, she went in 1905 upon his advice to Switzerland, completed her medical studies in Zurich and the requirements for the practice of medicine, and established there also a small private clinic. Through the medical courses given by Dr. Steiner and her contact with him, there developed in Dr. Wegman the decision to create in proximity to the Goetheanum a clinic for the comprehensive and helpful active application of the new methods of healing, and the Clinical-Therapeutic Institute was founded in Arlesheim on June 6, 1921. The fine results of this initiative will be discussed later.
At the same time with the course for physicians mentioned above, Dr. Steiner gave at the Goetheanum during April 12—17 a course of six lectures on Curative Eurythmy, which now developed the application of the healing forces within Eurythmy to the art of healing. From these lectures there has developed in the meanwhile in many countries an extensive practice of curative Eurythmy carried out by specially trained teachers under the supervision of physicians.
Mention must be made also of initiatives inspired by Dr. Steiner for the production of colors for painting. Even as early as 1912, a small laboratory was established in Munich to carry out the first experiments following upon a suggestion of his to produce colors for painting out of plants. This was transferred in 1914 to Dornach, and in it all the colors for the painting of both domes of the Goetheanum building were produced. He visited this laboratory many times and gave additional suggestions for the elaboration of plant colors. On this foundation, further research was carried out by others in connection with what was called the "anthea" colors. All of these stimulations and practical results were fruitful in connection with the artistic work in the Goetheanum and with the painting of the stage scenery for the Mystery Dramas. It was with this material that the American artist, W. Scott Pyle, produced also the painting on the great curtain before the stage in the Goetheanum.
Even at an earlier period certain physicians had become interested in the application of this special knowledge in the therapeutic use of colors. The study and the further development of the insights given by Dr. Steiner in the lectures on the nature of the colors will be of assistance for many generations to artists and scientists in artistic inspiration, in the completion of the technique of production of colors, and in therapy. We have already referred to the influence of these conceptions on the interiors of buildings.
The persons engaged in the laboratory mentioned above became engaged also in the production of medical remedies. Even in Munich and especially later in Dornach Dr. Steiner had given fundamental suggestions and prescriptions for the preparation of individual medical remedies, and these he supplemented at times in the Dornach laboratory. In connection with the first medical course of Easter 1920 Dr. Ludwig Noll also spent several weeks working in Dornach, and the production of the medical remedies was much expedited. The laboratory was later incorporated into the "Ilag" and still later into the "Weleda" Corporation, and the methodical development of the remedies was constantly furthered by Dr. Steiner and Dr. Wegman. The results will be seen later.
At the end of May Dr. Steiner made a contribution to scientific research through a cycle of lectures in Stuttgart on Natural Science and the Historical Evolution of Humanity since Antiquity, now available in book form. He proceeded from the "metamorphoses of man's constitution of soul in the various epochs.” Only by recognizing our own methods of thinking and research as a transitional stage between the ancient and the future can we take a right attitude toward our own age. To clarify this idea of the transformation of states of consciousness, he dealt even with the primal population of Asia and Europe, explained the relation between the wall paintings of the primal population of Europe and the origin of Indian culture, the influence of the developing evolution of intellect since approximately the eighth century B.G. upon the original condition of dependence upon nature. He explained the origin of agriculture in Persia, the more externally directed astronomical and meteorological discoveries of the Chaldeans, and the more inwardly concentrated capacities of the Egyptians as these led to the development of chemistry and the art of healing. He described how the human being then loses more and more his living tie with nature and finally becomes, as it were, obsessed with the forces of the intellect. The final dash between such varied evolutionary currents was manifest in the contact of the Northern and Germanic peoples, still livingly united with nature, and the intellectual culture of the South, the Latin-Roman civilization. With the mingling of these streams, which reached its decisive point approximately in the fifteenth century, the possibility of developing a new epoch in human consciousness was saved, as it were, through the marriage of the aging intellect with the vital state of a union with nature. Regarding this he said:
“This then led in the fifteenth century to the development of the so-called Consciousness soul, as I have often described this. The ancient culture would unavoidably have wholly disappeared if this new culture had not penetrated it as this was now received by the southern culture. Because then into something which had remained behind something very advanced now entered, a state of balance was brought about and in place of the merely intellectual culture, there arose the consciousness culture. The intellect became a mere shadow; it did not continue in its dying form, but, like a shadow product, like something which lives only in inner activity. And in this way the human being was, in a certain sense, freed from being inwardly possessed by the intellect. He could apply the intellect in an inner activity and could then pass over to external observation of nature just as Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler passed across to external observation of nature. For this purpose the intellect had first to be set free.
“If you observe everything that has come about in European civilization since the beginning of the fifteenth century, you will observe everywhere that this is to be ascribed to the penetration of this Germanic element into the ancient Latin-Roman. You can perceive that all the way to the individual personalities concerned.”
But the dangers which have come about in the last centuries from holding fast to the one-sided culture of the intellect—in spite of such possibilities—consist primarily in the fact that "at present we have a view of nature which excludes the idea of freedom." Rudolf Steiner called attention to the fact that such theories as that of the "conservation of energy53 no longer leave any place for the forces of the human being himself which are to be developed in freedom, but tend to arrange everything in the falsely understood unchangeable course of nature. But a new conception of nature, living and total, will once more permit what is bestowed through the creative and free formative forces in man himself to flow again into the relation of the human being with nature, and thus into the future shaping of human life.
We have already mentioned the fanatical opposition developed against Dr. Steiner because of his extensive activity in the scientific, artistic, and social fields. Because of this, he had from time to time to take this kind of opposition into general account. He delivered such a lecture on May 25 in the crowded festival auditorium of the Liederhalle in Stuttgart before an audience of more than 2,500 persons. This attendance itself shows how intense was the interest taken at that time in this conflict— fortunately, for the most part with a consciousness of responsibility for the clarification of these matters. Rudolf Steiner, the object of such an intense and unjust conflict, was greeted upon his appearance with storms of applause. In his characteristic calm, firm, and factual manner, uninfluenced by the emotional tension between his friends and the bitter opponents in the hall, he began with a reference to the numerous lectures he had delivered during the course of many years in which he always set forth his ideas with absolute clarity before the greatest possible public, submitting them in all details to the capacity of all men to pass judgment upon them who might wish in serious discussion to form an independent opinion. But, in addition to those who had made use of this possibility—friendly persons and also certain recognized objective opponents—there was also a great number of opponents who had never taken the trouble to test the facts objectively but proceeded on the basis of a spreading of caricatures of the truth, dissemination of false accusations, slanders, and untruths already disproven. He then once more traced in large outlines the objective of his activity since the 'eighties and 'nineties of the last century: his endeavor to bridge over the chasm separating the spheres of knowledge and belief. He pointed out that, after the publication of his book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, even objective opponents who had no inclination to follow this path had nevertheless admitted the fundamental ethical characteristic of this way of self-discipline. But in a more recent period, in addition to these objective discussions, which might be altogether necessary and fruitful, a kind of opposition had arisen practicing only the methods of personal vilification or false distortion of facts. In this process, however, the grotesque situation had arisen that the opponents were constantly in contradiction among themselves, a natural result when one departs from the foundation of truth.
In this connection Dr. Steiner referred to the grotesque assertion of a Protestant theologian who designated his work as Jesuitical, whereupon a pastor of the Catholic Church charged that the gentleman of the Protestant opposition group, in making such an assertion, possessed no understanding of Jesuitical methods. The stupid accusation of Jesuitry had been made also by Theosophical opponents in India, but had been reduced to an absurdity long ago by the well-known work of Dr. Steiner. Some others then maintained that he dealt with the Christ as only "a personality such as, for instance, Socrates, Plato, or Buddha," whereas through all the decades of his work he had placed the central deed of Christ, occurring but once, at the middle point of all his reflections. Taking no account of this fundamental fact, opponents of this kind fell into chaotic contradiction, some declaring him to be anti-christian and others Christo-centric. Some, in disregard of the facts, declared that he was subject to the spirit of the Orient. On the other hand, an opponent who, in his own way, had recognized the perils of the present intellectualism admitted, Dr. Steiner said: “that I have not striven to escape from this intellectual culture in the same manner as those whom I had refuted in 1897 as the nebulous Theosophists, but that I had gone by way of Goethe and Haeckel, had struggled through German idealism, that my orientation was Occidental, that the roots of my conception rested in Occidental culture and in scientific education.” This was admitted, indeed, among his honest opponents. Nevertheless, the falsehoods were constantly spread by many other opponents solely because of the endeavor to injure with any means whatever that which was represented by him. A situation had been brought about in this way which compelled him in this lecture and also in others to face this senseless opposing group by setting forth the facts; for variations of such contradictory falsifications constantly arose. One group of opponents asserted that he was a monistic materialist; others that he was a one-sided spiritualist; one that he was a Jesuit; others that he was an anti-Jesuit; one that he was anti-christian, others that he was Christo-centric. One said that he was a Jew, others that he was anti-Semitic; one that he was non-German, others that he was a PanGermanist; one that his teaching came from ancient India, others that it was anti-Indian and purely Occidental; one that he preached a "mystical egoism,5, others that his striving was for "the conscious complete abandonment of the personality”； one that he had "stripped from the conception of reincarnation its moral seriousness,others that: “It is clear that the decisive motives in this idea of reincarnation are moral.” Some said that he had not "himself exercised the perception of higher worlds”； others that “Steiner is a seer,” a “clairvoyant, an intuitive knower,” “a person possessing supersensible vision.”
It has been necessary to go into this unpleasant matter because of the intensity and the extensiveness of the accusations at that time against Dr. Steiner and the fact that these were far more violent and obstinate than the many favorable affirmations by persons prominent in all walks of life who opposed this campaign of hatred. The succeeding time has completely obliterated every trace of influence derived from this campaign of hatred. In spite of an attempt of a few fanatical enemies at the close of this lecture to renew their campaign, the vast majority of the 2,500 persons present in the hall expressed their confidence and admiration with a tremendous storm of applause.
After thus clearing the atmosphere, Dr. Steiner turned again to the work of upbuilding which in this time of the greatest need humanity could not long await. Indeed, there were many persons waiting to follow his impulse in behalf of the new to replace the old and decadent period. In the Dornach lectures of June 2 and 3, he dealt with certain additional aspects of the historical foundations of present-day natural science, and rendered clear the metamorphosis of ideas which had marked the course of development from such personalities as Dionysius the Areopagite and Origen, through the stage of Sacramentalism and Soteriology up to the development of the "intellectual soul” in the ninth century; from Scotus Erigena up to the natural science of the nineteenth century. This internal cognitional work for the collaborators he supplemented once more through a public lecture on Natural Science and Anthroposophy, given on June 4 in Zurich upon invitation of university persons.
Between June 12 and 19 he gave eight lectures in Stuttgart for the faculty of the Waldorf School in a Supplemental Pedagogical Course. On June 17 occurred the first assembly of the Waldorf School Association, to which we have already referred.
Moreover, during these weeks the first seeds in a new field of labor were planted, later to grow into an important movement. During June 12-16, upon invitation of a circle at first limited, his initial Theological Course was given. This title could, perhaps, be misunderstood. According to the information given by the Reverend Emil Bock, this initial development can be thus explained. Eighteen young men, some of them interested in theology but others engaged in entirely different courses of study, but all interested in a movement for religious renewal, approached Rudolf Steiner with the request for advice. To these he gave this course of lectures intended to outline what had to be planned. Indeed, Dr. Steiner declared at the beginning that the theological in a general sense could be left out of consideration since this would be worked out in the course of time by a very small number on the basis of the whole of Anthroposophy. Thus this initial series of lectures was in a sense an introduction for the first longer course of fifteen lectures, given at Michaelmas in 1921 in Dornach, and constituting an essential advance toward the founding of the “Christian Community” in 1922. This will be discussed later.
Dr. Steiner spent the following month in Dornach. He frequently visited the newly established Clinical-Therapeutic Institute to give help and advice. Between June 24 and July 3, he gave a series of lectures to members, since published under the title The Origin and Evolution of Man, Cosmic Soul and Cosmic Spirit. Earthly and Cosmic Laws, Form-Forces and Therapeutic Knowledge. In extreme compression, the substance of these lectures may be thus stated. Initial consideration was given to the threefold relation of the human being with the surrounding world: freedom of the spirit in relation to external phenomena, changeable relations of the soul to cosmic rhythms, dependence of the body within the natural laws of matter. The lectures then clarified the variegated reciprocal actions between the members of man5s being and the solid, fluid, airy and warmth elements. Thus the relations of the corporeal with the cosmos are not only of a material character; for lofty creative Beings are active in these relations, so that the wonderful structure of the human body must be recognized as the result of "the intuitions of spiritual Beings of the Higher Hierarchies/J if we are to understand the totality of the genesis and evolution. Strengthened supersensible vision can penetrate into the pre-existence of the human being in the process of development, but the truth of reincarnation may also be inferred purely from the phenomenology of the human organization itself. Dr. Steiner then described how the individual organs of the human being become, as it were, “mirroring apparatus" for the life of the soul; that memory is to be traced to such functions. But the false use of such functions can lead to psychic aberration, to hallucinations; their right use to a healing and strengthening of the forces of the soul. Only a thoroughly spiritual-scientific knowledge of these reciprocal relations can form the basis for a rational therapy; and in our time soul therapy will become one of the most important tasks for all persons with such a responsibility. In closing Dr. Steiner set forth that the human being is thus seen to be the outcome of his own evolution and of the inflow of cosmic thought and cosmic will. In this fact lie great potentialities for man but also great perils. In contrast with the cosmic Hierarchies filled with wisdom, there arc also Negative Powers and forces of will; and the greatest of all perils at the present time is that the human being under the influence of Ahrimanically colored science, thinking, and will may lose his individuality, may be brought into a condition of dependency threatening the extinction of his conscious and free unfolding. This peril is to be met by an active and living cognition of the deeper relations under the surface which sees through these opposing forces and thus overcomes them.
In the lectures which followed in Dornach between July 8 and 17, under the title Man as a Thought Being, Cosmic Molding Forces, further light was thrown upon the “cosmic logic” and the subconscious forces of will within our organs and their subtle reciprocal activity within the human organization. Here the directive forces were set forth which the human being brings out of a pre-natal existence into the earthly life and carries over into the life after death. The working of cosmic laws in the lower kingdoms of nature, especially in the animal kingdom, was clearly set forth. In the later lectures he then returned to the subject of the activity of the Higher Beings above the human level, and their influences in the development of the individual person and the unfolding historical process. All of this was set forth even down to the concrete transformations occurring during repeated lives on earth, making clear how, not only the spiritual-psychic, but also the forces of the corporeal organs—such as lungs, liver, heart, etc.—have their effects as form forces in the next incarnation. Dr. Steiner referred here to information he had conveyed in a preliminary way in 1914 in the cycle The Inner Being of and Life between Death and a New Birth.
The third cycle of these interrelated momentous series of lectures, of July 1921, under the title Man as a Being of Senses and of Perception, continued in this same field from the point of view developed since the year 1916 in the theory of the senses, giving a still further analysis of the twelve senses as there set forth, distinguishing them in three groups: the outwardly directed senses, the outward-inward senses, and the predominantly inner senses, and also their relation to the world of conception, feeling, and will in man. He then showed how the sense organization is developed in a relation of polarity, and how the ancient Oriental culture rested primarily upon one of these poles and the Occidental culture rests upon the other. In conclusion he gave a thorough elucidation of the interaction between the spiritual and the corporeal in the processes of growth, or memory, of the capacity for love, of consciousness, etc.; and thus the potentiality for an understanding of the way in which the spiritual world creates its image in the physical; how the moral order and the natural order interplay in these processes and how it is possible, nevertheless, for the human being, through insight into the unceasing struggle going on within him against the causality of natural forces even within his corporeal being, to achieve the consciousness: "I am free.” It is extremely interesting to observe how Rudolf Steiner at this time followed two courses of activity side by side with complete consistency: the systematic development of the substance of knowledge brought about in recent years within the circle of those who had shared in this process, and were therefore schooled for further steps; and at the same time the presentation of essential spiritual-scientific knowledge before a more extensive public, before audiences for which he had almost every time to begin with a repetition of the first steps. This process might be compared with a research institute where the director gives guidance for further progress to those who have been engaged in research for years, but must also set forth for new workers again and again the elementary foundations of the total process involved. Thus the tremendous pressure of the outside world, which made such numerous claims in that time upon him for orientation, was never allowed to prevent his continuation of the work of research and teaching in the inner circle; but neither did he ever neglect the task of providing orientation for the public. This wholesome, balancing rhythm of his activity within and without contributed essentially in those difficult times to the organic development of the Movement.
After these lectures in Dornach he then participated in a collegiate program during July 27-30, in Darmstadt, dealing with the theme Anthroposophy and Science, which he opened with a lecture on Knowledge of Nature and Knowledge of the Spirit. Numerous other lecturers took part out of their own special fields, and a seminar was conducted dealing with chemical, mathematical-physical, and economic-technical problems. During discussion periods, Dr. Steiner gave at times supplemental comments upon the individual lectures of specialists. It was precisely in such situations that one might often be astonished at the absolute patience with which he discussed objectively the most misleading abstractions and theories of many of those speaking in the discussion, in order to help them to develop bridges to a living reality; how with the same patience he explained things which had been said a thousand times in friendly explanation according to the greater or lesser degree of capacity for understanding, and often of mere stupidity and stubbornness, of some of those sharing in the discussion. Every one was helped to find the way which the questioner himself could not see because of intellectualism or dogmatism, pessimism, in the one case, or because of lassitude or fear of the unaccustomed in other cases. Those listening were always astonished at the unlimited open-mindedness and patient endurance with which Dr. Steiner took pains with such persons—barricaded against anything new, often very intelligent but petrified in the customary thinking of the time—so long as they showed the least desire to achieve a clarification. He often succeeded in loosening the stiffened mechanism of thinking of such persons, and many of them could be met in later years who then acknowledged that, during those experiences, something was released within them which after a long struggle had worked its way through to a new course of development.
But the collegiate week, with its strongly marked scientific character, had also a bordering of the artistic: in an opening lecture by the poet, Albert Steffen, and on the last day through a lecture by Dr. Steiner on Poetry and Recitation, with Frau Marie Steiner presenting in recitation models out of the first Mystery Drama and out of Goethe’s Iphigenia. This mission of art to free and vitalize thinking is given expression by Dr. Steiner through one of the figures in the Mystery Dramas in the following lines:
He clearly saw that science of the Spirit
Can only then be placed on firm foundations
When sense for science and when thinking strictly,
By artist spirit freed from rigid form,
Have been invigorated inwardly
To share experience of cosmic being.
After the course in Darmstadt, Dr. Steiner carried the stream of spiritual-scientific research further through two series of lectures in Dornach between August 5 and 20 which were linked with the cycles of July described above. After setting forth the cosmic formative forces and the human sense processes, these lectures dealt with The Ego as an Experience in Consciousness. In earlier lectures these problems had been dealt with from philosophical, epistemological, psychological, physiological, and spiritual-scientific points of view. He now continued the reflection through numerous examples of the relations between the ego and the organic processes, all the way to a knowledge of the fact that every element in consciousness, especially the consciousness of the ego, is based upon processes of corporeal destruction within the human organism, but is maintained without effect from this destructive process. This was once summarized thus:
“The spirit unfolds within the being of man, not on the basis of an upbuilding activity in matter, but through a decay of matter. Wherever the spirit is to work within man, matter must withdraw from its own activity.”
In these lectures he guided the reflection through a concrete phenomenology of organic processes, which we cannot here follow in detail, to a similar ultimate finding:
“There we gradually learn to see that death, when it confronts us upon the cessation of life, is really only something like a summation, a totality I mean to say, of single processes which are going on always within the human being from birth on. Fundamentally considered, we are dying all the time; but we die in extremely small fractions. When we begin our life on earth, we begin also to die. But again and again that which is bestowed upon us as vitality through birth overcomes death. Death always tends to work within us. But it succeeds always in only a small portion of its effect and is then overcome. But that which appears to us as if actually visible in the single moment, summarized, crowded together, in death,—this is proceeding as fractions all the time in life; it is a continuous, lasting process.
“Thus, when we trace this process, we see that there are not only upbuilding processes going on in the functioning of the inner organic being in man. If only the upbuilding processes were there, we could never arrive at a thinking consciousness; for that which simply lives, which is simply vital, takes away our consciousness, it makes us unconscious, and the processes of death within us, the dying processes, those which destroy the vital, and which are always occurring in us fractionally,—it is these which bestow consciousness upon us3 which make us thinking, rational human beings. We should always be in a sort of unawareness of ourselves, a kind of unconsciousness, if we should simply ‘live.’ If the truth were that life in the plant is at a certain level, in the animal at a higher level, in the human being at a still higher level—if, in other words, we had to do always with an elevating, a potentizing of life—we should never develop a thinking consciousness. In the plants we have life. But, as life ascends to the animal, it is lowered in intensity even in the animal. In the human being there exists a continuous process of dying. This continuous process of dying, which not only reduces the intensity of living, but actually undermines it—it is simply rebuilt—this is the organic process which lies at the basis of conscious thinking. To the extent that we have within us the continuous process of dying, to just that extent do we have the possibility in physical life of thinking...
“The dying process is there; but there is always present also a battler against the dying process: there is the process represented by the life of the ego. Just as one sees on a higher level of cognition, on a higher level of vision, that the nerve process in the human being causes continuously a depositing, that an inner sediment, so to speak, is formed, one sees also that the ego continuously struggles out of this process of sediment-formation, out of this inner creation of a sediment. It is not possible to win a vision of the true ego until one is able to observe this inner process of sediment-formation. Naturally, the ego is living in the human being, but man becomes aware of this ego through perceiving the dying process, the process of the inner decomposition. One who has comprehended that the ego is a continuous battler against this dying process has also comprehended that this ego is something which as such has nothing whatever to do with death. Such a person has grasped in vision that which is otherwise designated dialectically or logically as immortality.”
This course of thinking was repeated later by Dr. Steiner in numerous lectures, always with respect to different aspects.
On August 21 an additional university course was begun at the Goetheanum, once more dealing with an extremely comprehensive area. During this year the course was made up of two component elements: a series of scientific lectures by various speakers and artistic programs for all of those participating. Besides, a special summer art course was arranged on the initiative of the Danish painter, Baron Arild Rosenkrantz, then living in London and was carried out predominantly by English artists and with lectures primarily in the EngEsh language. The lectures of Dr. Steiner on that occasion were interpreted immediately in English. There thus came about a fine collaboration among various European and American artists and persons interested in art. Such programs in various languages were repeated later, generally during August, at the Goetheanum.
After the summer course in Dornach, Dr. Steiner attended a public congress in Stuttgart, during which he delivered, between August 29 and September 6, eight lectures on Anthroposophy: Its Cognitional Roots and Its Fruit for Life, with an Introduction Regarding Agnosticism as a Corrupter of Genuine Human Nature. At this congress also, numerous other lecturers spoke on subjects from their own special fields. There were a Eurythmy program and a musical concert in which new instruments were used, made by Thomastik, of Vienna. For Dr. Steiner had given new suggestions also for musical instruments, and these have now been applied practically. At a much later period, special instruments were made by others and proved helpful in a therapeutic way. Thus were knowledge, art, and practice brought into a cooperative relation.
During this period in Stuttgart, Dr. Steiner gave to members of the Society explanations regarding work within the Society. The expansion of work to be done led at that time to a reorganization of the Vorstand (Society Council) in Stuttgart. Earlier, when the work was more concentrated in Berlin, Frau Marie von Sivers, Michael Bauer, and Dr. Carl Unger had belonged to the Central Vorstand. Michael Bauer now resigned on account of his health and Frau Marie Steiner because of her residence in Dornach. To Dr. Carl Unger, very active in highly valuable philosophical work and also many-sided initiatives and lecturing, there were now added Ernst Uehli, valuable in an artistic way and also as a writer for the weekly magazine uDreigliederung,n and Emil Leinhas, active also in connection with the idea of the threefold social order and also in the economic life. On September 8, Dr. Steiner gave special explanations regarding the Youth Movement at a gathering of young people. Through further development, what now took place in these ways became very prominent in later years. As a conclusion to the congress, Dr. Steiner gave a lecture with lantern slides on The Architectural Idea of Dornach. He thus brought persons from far and near into a relation with his central work.
In August 1921, the weekly magazine “Das Goetheanum” was founded and its direction placed by Rudolf Steiner in the hands of Albert Steffen, the distinguished poet, with whom he had come into contact for the first time as early as 1907. Rudolf Steiner himself wrote the first words for the initial number of the magazine: “Whoever looks today beyond the most immediate interests of the moment feels that humanity is confronted by tasks such as have come about only at the great turning points of historical evolution. They are tasks which concern all peoples and affect all realms of life.”
These words indicated at the very beginning the ideal of this magazine. To this ideal Albert Steffen, to the joy of his readers, has always remained true. Every issue of the magazine up to the death of Dr. Steiner contained at least one contribution from him. It was in this magazine that his autobiography, The Course of My Life, appeared for the first time, and many of his lectures have later been published in the magazine. In connection with the festivals celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the magazine, in August 1941, Albert Steffen wrote:
“Scarcely a single issue appeared which had not been discussed by Rudolf Steiner and me. When he was to be on a lecture tour, this was attended to beforehand. In spite of the excessive burden he was carrying, he sent his contribution to Dornach. In connection with the articles which he himself wrote, many conversations occurred, in which he expanded further what he had written. In his studio, where he carved on the statue of the Christ, personalities often became living figures through only a few words—Franz Brentano, Herman Grimm, Ernst Haeckel, Nietzsche, Solovieff, to name only a few; but also contemporary personalities, still living, he set forth in the very imprint of their being: for example, Albert Schweitzer, Woodrow Wilson, Oswald Spengler. Of the last-named he said once that he would break to pieces if he were brought into touch with the Spirit, but that Brentano would remain intact. But I prefer to repeat such remarks only in a broader context in order to include in their connection the underlying foundations and the perspectives. Dramas could arise out of them.
“Rudolf Steiner's inexhaustible fullness of spirit never affected one depressingly; it always left one free and made every free person productive.”
Every annual volume of this weekly magazine for the more than thirty years of its existence is, at the same time, a scientific work, valid in its own right; a volume of poetry; a mediator of spiritual-religious substance, needed by our time. Here can be experienced the newly established unity of science, art, and religion brought about by Rudolf Steiner.
An additional source for comprehensive development took its new beginnings in the summer of 1921 in the establishment of the research laboratory at Dornach. Such institutions in relation with the Anthroposophical Society always came about through the concrete contacts of definite persons who were brought by their destiny and also their free decision to the service of spiritual science in a definite sphere of life and work. I may be permitted to say that this research laboratory in Dornach came about at that time through my contact in life and my friendship with Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. Brought into a united work by destiny and freedom at the same place and with the same interests and objectives, we inevitably soon sought for a space where we could carry out experimentation to test and to bring to realization what was in our thoughts. The beginning of this laboratory was not without humorous experiences, for it began in a primitive cellar which possessed just one advantageavailable gas and running water—but otherwise was empty and doleful. Rudolf Steiner had granted our request to make use of this space in the basement of the "Glass House," on the first floor of which the glass for the windows of the Goetheanum building were engraved. There, with the most primitive and limited equipment, we began our research. Since the direction of our research had to do with an insight into rhythm and life, one of our first instruments was a large Toricelli barometer. It soon proved unusable for our special purpose, but could be used for other experiments because of its vacuum and its quicksilver.
A glimpse into the unlimited problems confronting us may be provided by one of the early questions we addressed to Dr. Steiner—how one could obtain the life-force, the formative forces, or what he called life ether, out of nature or in some way bring it into our experiment. I could not say whether Dr. Steiner took our question—one that reached for the stars—in full seriousness or with a suitable dose of friendly humor; he replied, however, that we could have this very easily, simply by putting a fly in a vacuum. With this suggestion more or less understood in the joy and excitement of a creative moment, we descended into our cellar space. Naturally, it took little time to capture the fly and test him in a vacuum. But, having done this, we both thought of the decisive question: “What now?” Perhaps we might have the life-force in the vacuum, but what was lacking was the possibility of establishing this fact, of testing and confirming it, measuring it or applying it. This first research, in itself to be taken humorously, had, nevertheless, a decisive influence upon us; for we recognized now that what we needed more than anything else was a reagent: a mode of testing, something which would indicate where and how these forces are present, how they intensify or weaken, etc. Within the limits of this biography, it is not possible to describe all the labyrinthine ways that we had to follow in order to arrive at our goal; all the numerous and more concrete suggestions and incitements given to us by Rudolf Steiner during the following years; the successes and the failures, to trace out the ways of thinking and the experiments which came about in the further development of this work. Nevertheless, the fact can be established that the goal was actually reached at a number of decisive points, as is evidenced by the number of publications and the success which these have attained in various countries. There exist at the present time a large number of instances of affirmative attitudes and conversations with scientists giving recognition to the significance and fruitfulness of these methods and results, and taking them over for general exploitation. Here let mention be made of fields of application which resulted for us in the course of further events.
We were aware that two foundations needed most of all to be established for further research work: first, the systematizing of the theory of the formative forces, and then a practical testing of arrangements for research which, as reagents for the life phenomena and the processes in the formative forces underlying these, would render the action of these forces visible, decipherable in its rhythms and form-building processes; indeed even reproducible in their normal and abnormal, sound and unsound components. The endeavor toward a systematizing of the theory of the formative forces on the basis of suggestions given by Rudolf Steiner was begun by me at that time, after a discussion with him, through working out the book The Etheric Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth, and Man. A Way to Research in the Living. The arrangements for experimentation for rendering visible the effects of the formative forces was developed in the following years by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. As a development out of the years 1919-20, and decades of uninterrupted work of an experimental character since that time, there have already been carried out, verified, and published a great number of series of experiments, some of these resting upon thousands of single detailed experiments.
Since all this research work was directed toward discovering and rendering visible the laws of life, the biological processes, and the world of forces active especially in the living organism, it was possible to work out these things especially in three fields: in the elaboration of concepts and views for the understanding of the living organism, in practical application in agriculture and in the art of healing, and in medical remedies. Out of the germ cell of this Dornach research laboratory there issued in the following years the first experiments and preparations for the new methods in agriculture, which Rudolf Steiner then inaugurated within greater limits three years later.
At Michaelmas 1921, an important step was taken toward the founding of the “Christian Community,” which occurred in 1922. After the meeting with a small circle of persons seeking for a religious renewal in June 1921, some of these persons had made a number of journeys to find others having the same ideal. Thus the circle which assembled in Dornach in September 1921 had increased to more than 100 persons. Its composition was at that time still provisional, since it included both numerous evangelical and also Old Catholic pastors. To that extent, this course could be called a "Theological Course,” but the greater number of persons were not theologians by profession. Many of those who participated in the meeting worked later toward the founding of the Christian Community, but many withdrew. It could easily be observed in the development of the course that a selection would have to occur later. Dr. Steiner made clear in large outlines the cognitional aspect required for a new religious activity of teaching and also for the founding of a new cultic action. He bestowed this spiritual substance in a great series of 15 forenoon lectures and 14 afternoon periods of discussion. He had himself arranged that those persons coming from Germany, where inflation was prevalent, should receive free entertainment, an indication of how much the progress of this impulse meant to him. It is impossible here to explain in detail the great spiritual gifts which he bestowed upon those participating. Each of those sharing was left entirely free to decide whether he would unite his life course with what was here provided out of Anthroposophy as a foundation for religious renewal. Although the ultimate objective of everything was the founding of a new priestly and cultic action, only the cognitional aspect of this task was developed at this meeting. This seed unfolded then in the souls of those who had laid themselves open to it until the time of the founding of the new movement in the following year.
Friedrich Rittelmeyer, the significant personality who then became the first leader of the movement, has provided an interesting picture of the birth of this religious impulse in its inner and outer aspects in his work Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life, describing how an inner development led him out of his earlier activity as a well-known theologian and Protestant pastor in Berlin and Nuremberg into this struggle for a religious renewal. He tells how he became acquainted through Michael Bauer in Nuremberg with the work of Rudolf Steiner and then had his first momentous meeting in 1911 with Dr. Steiner himself, and how his seeking for a new experience of the Christ in keeping with the truth of the spiritual world by the path of cognition which Rudolf Steiner had pointed out met with fulfillment. Of the decisive moment which he experienced in the year 1915 in Dornach after a conversation with Dr. Steiner, he says: "Here before the Christ statute in Dornach my seeking for many years came into full contact with the help which could come to it here through Anthroposophy." Out of these inner decisions there grew in the following years the conclusion which he then carried out together with Emil Bock and some younger friends, to travel this new path with undivided strength, free from all previous bonds. Regarding the decisions of this group of spirit424 seeking and courageous men of the year 1921, Friedrich Rittelmeyer reports as follows:
“In the year 1921 some young men had come to Dr. Steiner and asked him what advice he could give them regarding a religious way of action which was not that adopted by existing churches, but in keeping with a new spirituality. They had not found in their universities what they were seeking and had come now with confidence and hope to Anthroposophy. After a brief reflection, Dr. Steiner responded with a will ready for action. He had always emphasized the fact that the Anthroposophical Society is not a church and also will not undertake to establish a new church; that it leaves to every individual complete freedom in the cultivation of his own religious life. Thus the purpose of developing a new religious activity had to come from another direction, and the responsibility for a new establishment had to be borne by some one else. But Rudolf Steiner could then give assistance. He could not turn away from a request which came to him upon such a basis. Therefore, he helped powerfully and bestowed upon this good intention that which enabled it to become active.”
Because of illness, Doctor Rittelmeyer himself could not participate in the courses of the summer and Michaelmas of 1921, but he reports on the experience which a study of these courses brought to him.
“When the whole content of these many lectures and hours of discussion was spread out before me, I was astounded once more about Dr. Steiner. This I had not expected, in spite of all my experiences: that in the realm of theology also he was king; that not only in regard to the Bible and biblical science, but also in regard to church history and confessional conflicts, in regard to the spiritual and moral depths of Christianity, he had such new and great things to say which pointed powerfully into the future. Most of all was it instructive and significant for me to see how concretely, securely, and discreetly he took hold in the realm of religious practice. All of this gave powerful stimulation. But it was not yet the decisive point. The ritual for the Consecration of Man was sent me. I began at once to think it through thoroughly and from every point of view, and to -take it up in meditation. After a few insignificant difficulties of language were overcome, the pure and lofty spirit of the Consecration of Man worked upon me very powerfully. It began to dawn upon me that here a religious service might be created in which all true Christians could be at one, which could serve as the middle point of a true Christian community life, around which a new, manifold, ever-growing religious life might unfold. Gradually the thought arose in me: 'This must not be withheld from humanity! You yourself must not fail if you do not wish yourself to be guilty in relation to humanity and the divine revelation. And, if it is impossible to bring this to humanity in the existing churchly forms, then something new will simply have to be ventured? It must be expressly stated that Dr. Steiner himself asked several times whether it was not possible within the existing church organization and that, in addition to the young friends, it was especially I myself- who had said it will not do unless the new is freed from being rooted in the old.”
In immediate connection with this description of the occurrences of 1921, Dr. Rittelmeyer tells of a decisively important question which he put to Rudolf Steiner at that period of birth of the new movement, “Is it not possible also to receive the body and the blood of Christ without bread and wine, only in meditation?” and that Dr. Steiner answered this question affirmatively. I may be permitted to say in this biography that, without any knowledge of the conversation with Dr. Rittelmeyer, I once asked Dr. Steiner the same question, for it was a burning question for many of us whether this experience which the ritual mediates to us with bread and wine, the spiritual and corporeal presence of Christ in the human being, were not also an experience that could be received through one's own spiritual schooling. Rudolf Steiner gave me at that time, in almost the same words and with the same comparison, the affirmative answer that he had given Dr. Rittelmeyer: that the spiritual student can receive this experience of the presence of Christ upon his own spiritual path without the mediation of the cult—by means of right meditation. In a conversation which I was later able to enjoy with Friedrich Rittelmeyer about this matter, we mutually interchanged these experiences of the answers of Rudolf Steiner. Our paths of life crossed again at a decisive moment when Dr. Steiner sent me as his representative in February 1925 to the festival at which Friedrich Rittelmeyer took up his position as the first ruling bishop (Erzoberlenker) of the Christian Community.
The Course for Theologians of September 26-October 10, 1921, which laid the foundation for the activity of those who were to prepare the way for the establishment of the Movement for Religious Renewal embraced, in addition to 15 lectures by Rudolf Steiner, also 14 periods of discussion between him and them. This prepared for the founding of the Movement the following year.
The uninterrupted work which gave power and content to currents flowing into so many spheres of life continued during these months. In the following weeks, it was concentrated primarily upon three realms of work. Lectures to members were carried further, and these described the Eastern and the Western Mysteries; the influence of karma, both past and in process, on earthly life; the stages of higher consciousness; the relations of man to the Hierarchies in the life between death and rebirth; and the human corporeality as the germ for the future evolution of the earth, the Jupiter existence, and the development of new stages of unfolding in the cosmos with the cooperation of man.
To these lectures for members there were added, from October 1921 on, regular lecture periods which Dr. Steiner devoted to numerous workmen at the building not belonging among the members: laborers, masons, carpenters, locksmiths, construction workers, and others, at their request. Whenever he was in Dornach, he then devoted an hour each week during the working time to the exchange of questions and answers. Any one who studies these lectures for workmen recognizes immediately the complete knowledge of human beings with which Dr. Steiner here spoke to a group of persons who were now addressing questions to him from an entirely different sphere of education and life. Questions arose out of the occupation of hand-work, out of the daily concerns of city workers, of small farmers, of family life, problems of alcoholism, forces of thought which arose out of a popularized Darwinistic science. There were questions about the origin of the earth, the meaning of life, birth and death, and then suddenly again out of mechanics, or, for example, regarding the care of bees, raising of plants, the treatment of animals, then questions about the rights of the worker, about the possibilities of further education, about social relations—in short, everything which concerned one or another of the workmen present and impelled him to put a question.
With the deepest human and factual understanding Rudolf Steiner entered during these periods of lecturing and discussion into all these unexpected questions and as well into the nature, ways of thinking, temperaments and problematics of every individual workman, understanding how to convey in this living dialogue a wealth of knowledge regarding the history of the earth and of humanity, the laws of life and death, ethical conduct of life, but also even technical and practical details in daily life. The personal and human contact which united him with those working on the building brought about an altogether model relation—not between employer and employees but between him and other human beings. There existed here a model for carrying out a social project in which all who shared in a spiritual and an artistic way, or as technicians and as laborers, worked together happily and willingly with all their forces. Throughout all the crises of the outside world, all the periods of unrest after the war, this fellowship in life and labor went forward to the completion of this great work of construction. When Rudolf Steiner was attacked hostilely, these working men, engaged here not out of interest in spiritual science but because of the opportunity for work, stood up for him with all their hearts in deepest thankfulness. These weekly lectures were continued regularly during the following years.
Still another field of activity at this time was that of aiding personalities who were working publicly in behalf of spiritual science and social impulses. In a Course for Orientation in Work for Anthroposophy and the Threefold Social Order in Switzerland, he took up in six lectures and in discussion evenings, during October 11-16, both the content of the idea of the threefold social order and the practical possibilities of its realization and also the necessary preparation and self-discipline of those who wished to be active in this field. He differentiated the types of speaking as speaking “beautifully,” speaking “rightly,” and speaking “truly”; and also periods in history in which speaking beautifully was primary, periods of rhetoric and eloquence, periods when abstract logic was the main concern, but where there was lacking adequate consideration as to whether a thought, although right in itself, was in accordance with the totality of the problem. In place of the excessive emphasis on speaking beautifully and on abstract logic, alien to life, it was necessary, he said
“that we learn in addition to what we can acquire out of history—in addition to speaking beautifully and to speaking rightly—speaking in a way true to the situation...
“...that we develop a feeling for the fact that something ought not only to be right but that it must be justified within its context: that it may be good within a certain connection or may be bad within a certain connection.”
And this succession of stages leads "from beauty, from correctness, to the ethics of speaking." He entered especially into the question of the nature of composition in a lecture, the thinking preparation, the right analysis, the content of experience which comes to expression in the spoken word, but also self-discipline which leads to a "mastery of speech,n which enters into a true relation with the spiritual and organic nature of the forces of speech.
Thereafter, from October 15 to November 13, Dr. Steiner continued in lectures to members his elucidation of the human being and the cosmos, explaining the four stages in the relation of the bodily form, the life processes, the soul, and the spirit of man with the universe, with the Beings and forces of the zodiac and the planets. He rendered clear the process of man's development out of self-forming and cosmic-forming, the interaction of freedom and necessity in the earthly life and also in the existence between death and rebirth. In the consideration of history which followed these lectures, he spoke of such unique history-forming centers of forces as the “Palladium,” which played such a mysterious and significant role in Constantinople as the point of contact between Orient and Occident. He brought into a clear light the contradictory figures of Constantine and Julian the Apostate, and once more brought his considerations of history from another point of view up to the knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha as the central point in the evolution of the earth.
We have referred already to Dr. Steiner's lecture tours in various countries after the war, with their clarifying and healing influence. Already in February 1921, he had extended his trips as far as Holland and he now visited in the second half of the year also Norway. Between November 23 and December 4, there occurred a series of lectures, courses, and artistic programs in Christiania. A good soil had been prepared here in somewhat more than a decade by the work of active members; and, since the many courses of lectures of Dr. Steiner in Scandinavia before the war, a larger circle of collaborators and also of students and scientists awaited eagerly his first return after the end of the war. The lectures in Christiania of November 23 and 24, upon invitation of the “Pedagogical Association” dealt with Methods of Instruction and Education on the Basis of Anthroposophy. Two lectures on November 25 and 26, arranged by students, dealt with the Reality of the Higher Worlds. The Free Spiritual Status of the Present Time; and with Paths to a Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. On November 29 there was a lecture to the “Theological Union” on Jesus or Christ. A lecture on November 30, upon invitation of the "Economic Association of the State,55 dealt with The Cardinal Questions of the Economic Life. In addition, he gave general introductory public lectures on The Foundations of Anthroposophy; Evolution of the World in the Light of Anthroposophy; and The Necessity for a Renewal of Culture. For Groups of members in Norway he spoke on the more subtle rhythms in waking and sleeping, in earthly life and cosmic existence, and in his final lecture especially on the spiritual mission of the Scandinavian peoples. Two programs of Eurythmy were presented in the National Theater. This was a unique phenomenon: a single human being in that time invited by teachers, students, theologians, economists, spiritual, social, artistic circles, without regard to boundaries between countries, to provide in all these various realms of life the inspiration for a united renewal of culture on the basis of his unitary substance of knowledge. It was the unique personality of Rudolf Steiner which enjoyed at that time in Europe the confidence of so many persons regardless of all the usual boundaries and differences, and also the capacity for justifying this confidence.
Before and after this visit to Scandinavia he gave each time a public lecture and a lecture for members and an artistic program in Berlin, and he took part on December 16 in the laying of the cornerstone for the rebuilding of the Waldorf School in Stuttgart.
In the middle of December, having returned to Dornach, he reported on his tour and introduced the Christmas season with a lecture on December 18 on The Lost Primordial Word. The Alphabet, an Expression of the Mystery of the Human Being. He elucidated the historical evolution of the relation of speech, of the word, with the human being and the cosmos. He explained how spiritual-scientific knowledge can find even in the corporeal structure of man, as it were, an echo of the zodiac, an echo of the movement of the planets, a reflection of “the cosmic consonance,” the “cosmic vocalism,” and how the cosmic formative forces reveal their mystery in the elements of speech.
From December 23, 1921, until January 7, 1922, there were 16 lectures constituting a Christmas Course for Teachers. Among those attending this course from Middle Europe there were also present some persons holding leading positions in the educational world in England, and this led the next year to the very important conference at Stratford-on-Avon. The first three lectures of the course described Knowledge of Man as the Basis for Pedagogy and Didactics; other lectures dealt with A Theory of Health and Sickness Necessary for Teachers, and with the child in the various stages of life, the last three lectures dealing especially with aesthetic, bodily, ethical, and religious education. This course has been published as to its substance and in artistic form in the first year's issues of the weekly "Das Goetheanum,J, by Albert Steffen.
The Christmas lecture of Dr. Steiners on December 26 on The Festival of the Appearance of Christ led from the sacred teaching of the ancient Mysteries about beholding the sun at the midnight hour to the revelation of heaven and to peace on earth, as these must be gained through struggle by the consciousness of our age. Two lectures on December 28 and 30 on Style-forms of the Organic-Living led over to the incorporation of spiritual creative forces in art as these were brought to realization on earth in the Dornach building. A Eurythmy program by children and the presentation of the Paradise and Nativity Plays induced the Christmas mood which was enveloped every year at Dornach in the atmosphere of a living presence of the spiritual with an intensity scarcely to be found elsewhere in the world.
The last day of the year brought a Eurythmy presentation of pictures out of the Mystery Dramas. The New Year's Eve lecture by Dr. Steiner placed the call for initiation science at the center of the words which he spoke about the turning point of time. Such Christinas and New Year's days and nights are unfortgettable for those who shared in them, for they renewed in the human being the certitude that the earthly sphere bears within it, not only the evil, chaos, conflict of the surrounding world, but also Spiritual Powers at work, accessible to the experience of a wakeful consciousness, and giving knowledge, courage, and strength for head, heart? and hands to those who have a will to do an upbuilding work.