The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner
1924
In the year 1924 we see Rudolf Steiner at the top of the mountain which he had ascended in three times three seven-year periods of life. From this height he took a survey, placed a road-marker for the generations of human beings who will follow on this path, pointed out the distances on the road which would lead thence into the future. After he had reached this peak, he was withdrawn by destiny from the earthly view of human beings, and through suffering, sacrifice, and death advanced toward a resurrection for action out of the realms of the Spirit. For this reason there rests upon this last year of his activity a quality of transfiguration; it manifests an intensity of concentration, of activity in bestowal, of fulfillment, and of a survey of the work completed which cannot be expressed in words alone, which must arise in one looking on, either out of memory or out of the capacity for a spiritual intuitive feeling. In what is to follow, we can only indicate the occurrences which stand as road-markers on the last stretch of this course of life.
Just as the germ bears within itself in most concentrated form the history of the past and the potentiality of the future life, so do the first two months of activity of Rudolf Steiner's after the Christmas Conference in Dornach include that which had been achieved and the new beginning of what was to develop. On January 1, 1924, the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society had taken place. At the last meeting of this Christmas Conference, he spoke once more the consecration poem of the Foundation Stone Laying, and then expressed his thanks and good wishes to the friends, who were to go away for a new activity in the world:
“What has taken place here I know; I was permitted to say it for it has been said in full responsibility while looking up to the Spirit which is and is to be and will be the Spirit of the Goetheanum. In the name of this Spirit have I permitted myself during these days to speak many words which would not have been permitted to come out so strongly if these words had not been spoken while looking upward to the Spirit of the Goetheanum, to the good Spirit of the Goetheanum. Permit me then to accept these thanks in the name of the Spirit of the Goetheanum for whom we will work, strive, and labor in the world.”
The aspect of world history in the cycle of the Christmas period he supplemented, in directing the work of the members for the new year, through four lectures on spiritual history: Mystery Places of the Middle Ages, Rosicrucianism and the Modern Principle of Initiation. On January 18, he spoke on the constitution of the School for Spiritual Science, and he announced the directives for this in the first issue of the News Sheet, just then beginning publication. To this organ of the Society he gave the title “What is occurring in the Anthroposophical Society,n and he clarified in the first numbers the basic principles and the planning for the future work through letters entitled To The Members. The esoteric schooling—which was now to take the place of all earlier forms of esotericism—he began for the First Class of the School at the Goetheanum through a lesson on February 15.
Moreover, the cognitional foundations already created were newly strengthened. It was a strange experience when, in January 1924, speaking to members who for the most part had participated in the Movement through years and even decades, he began the presentation of an uIntroductory Course in Anthroposophy." This course sets forth in still more concentrated form many of the most important results of research in spiritual science of the preceding twenty-one years.
At the same time he gave further directives for the art of healing in conferences with practicing physicians, and also a Course for Young Physicians, between January 2 and 9, under the title Ethics in the Study and the Practice of Medicine (Esoteric and Exoteric). As early as 1922 a small group of medical students had come to him for advice and he had replied to them with complete understanding: “What you are seeking is a humanizing of medicine.” What was now given to the young students for their inner schooling and for their therapeutic task by the School at the Goetheanum was intended to disclose, as Rudolf Steiner said, the source of true medical ethics, of the “medical attitude of mind.”
Additional important courses in natural science and agriculture followed in the course of the year. In the artistic field he gave the fundamental Course for Tone Eurythmy between February 19 and 27, now in book form under the title Eurythmy as Visible Song. New perspectives into the knowledge of reincarnation, destiny, and spiritual guidance were provided in lectures between February 16 and March 23 entitled Esoteric Reflections on Karmic Relations. As if into a focal point, there were gathered together in these first weeks of the year the entire compass of radiation of the activity by means of which he had during the preceding twenty-one years illuminated science, art, and religion with the light of spiritual science, and thus encompassed a complete unitary world picture.
Out of the esotericism which he gave to the School during the year 1924 the entire spiritual-scientific schooling and activity in all fields of work were to receive new substance and to be reborn. Whereas esotericism in the beginnings of the Movement, in accordance with fundamental principles already described, was developed at first in connection with the traditions of the past, the later development had brought about the possibility of establishing, on the basis of the direct spiritual research of the twentieth century, a new esotericism, which began its activity within the earthly sphere after the Christmas Conference of the year 1923. This was in keeping with the spiritual guidance which his own work had served, and especially the new forms of knowledge which he had made known in the latest years concerning the work of Michael. Those who entered into this schooling, uniting themselves with its spiritual substance and its tasks, were not to remain mere receivers, as had been justifiable up to the present time for those belonging to this Movement, but every such member took upon himself in the spirit of the esotericism of this school the responsibility to become also an active helper in the totality of the Movement. The results of spiritual science could be taken up by all, whether actively or only receptively, thus enriching in all aspects one's own life; but esotericism cannot be merely reflected upon and received; it must be put into practice. Rudolf Steiner himself had expressed this in preparatory lectures regarding the nature of Michael as the Time Spirit:
“To take up the force of Michael means to take the force of spiritual knowledge into the forces of the will . . . It is no longer permitted to human beings merely to take part in esoteric reflections; it is necessary today for the human being also to put the esoteric into practice.”
Any one, therefore, who desired to remain only a receiver was to have this possibility unchanged within the Society or in religious communities. But one who desired to unite with the School of Michael was to know himself responsible in the totality of his action, in accordance with the character of this Spirit, and to conduct himself accordingly. The task which was henceforth entrusted to the true pupils of this spiritual Movement was to aid in carrying through on this basis the totality of the realms of life and activity fructified out of Anthroposophy. One belonging to the School of Michael cannot be only a scientist, an artist, a teacher, a doctor, an agriculturist, a technician, or only enrich his own religious life he shares in responsibility for the unity and power of the total organism 0£ Me Movement, for the future of spiritual science, Anthroposophy, the Goetheanum, its School, the Society, all areas of activity which were to be fructified and rejuvenated by this spirit. This esoteric central core, its spiritual-scientific substance, directives for its development and guidance, the guarantee of its continuity and permanent unfolding were created by Rudolf Steiner in these months. On February 15 he gave to members of the First Class of the School at the Goetheanum the first Lesson for guidance into the esoteric work and carried this continuously further in the course of the year. In the New Year's Eve lecture of the year 1923 he had spoken of "hermits of knowledge” who at a certain time in the Middle Ages had guarded the wisdom of Rosicrucianism, of the Christian and Michaelic spiritual stream, in quiet and loneliness. At present a community of spiritually schooled human beings was to undertake the task within the stormy area of the twentieth century and out of a similar inner power, but in visible unity and action, to place this impulse in the world and bring it to realization in this century, in spite of all hindrances and Opposing Powers. They thus became the responsible bearers of the spiritual Movement for the future.
During the Christmas Conference, Rudolf Steiner had given an initial impulse for the work on the building during the coming year in a drawing representing the form prototype out of which, as out of a seed, the organic forms of the new Goetheanum building were to grow. Now, after the foundation had been created out of the spiritual forces of the unity of the Society, he handed over during the first months of the year 1924 to the architects the model of the new building, so that at Easter 1924, after the preliminary work on the building site had been completed, the architects, artists, and workers were able to begin to develop the building on the basis of this model in concrete created by his own hands. In this case again, as in that of the first building, there were difficult architectural and technical problems to be resolved, and yet in this year there arose on the hill of Dornach the complicated structure of scaffolding and planking; the first forms became visible; and once more there resounded everywhere the familiar sound of hammer and chisel, saw and plane; the sound of the tools mingled with the voices of hundreds of men at work. After two years—but after he had left us—the festival of roofing could be celebrated; after four years the mighty building had been brought to such a stage in its outer forms and inner organization that the three thousand visitors who came to the celebration of the opening in the year 1928 could dedicate it to its predestined task. Out of the drawing of the prototype form which Rudolf Steiner had given during the Christmas Conference, the Goetheanum building had grown and had become the location for the School which was destined to protect and foster spiritual science.
Through the refounding of the branches in various countries, correspondence with fellow workers over the entire earth had enormously increased, and this also Rudolf Steiner mastered in a remarkable way. During these years I had to place before him every morning about eleven o3 clock in his studio all the correspondence which had been received. He then gave me in a few essential words the directive for the reply to every letter, and in this intensive work of an hour or only a half-hour reached a multiplicity of decisions. It was extraordinarily instructive to see how, out of his comprehensive survey over the totality of the spiritual organism, he determined the function of each of the smallest parts, every specific detail. Thus every letter that he dictated, or the content of which he sketched for me, always breathed the spirit of the totality of the upbuilding work which he was guiding. If one was astonished now and then at the directive given with regard to a letter or a step to be taken, and would have thought of a different decision, one had always to recognize after a certain time with what unfailing certainty Dr. Steiner had selected the essential, whether in a great or a small problem; how he foresaw the individual development of single personalities, took into account their destiny and capacities, and thus pointed out to each person, each organization, its organically right place. By means of a single sentence, a single phrase, a special formulation, he often gave to the recipients of such letters decisive suggestions which led to far-reaching inner and outer developments. When he went through his correspondence in this way each morning, it was always especially instructive to observe which letters he answered immediately and which he set aside to be taken up again after a few days, weeks, or even months. In the case of many a letter he instructed that it should not be answered but filed with the records. For he had always emphasized expressly, as we have already remarked, that he must have the right to be silent when he considered this the right thing.
Of course, such answers or such silence was not always interpreted in the right sense if the wish of the inquirer was stronger than his capacity for objective attention. It was possible to observe, for instance, that a visitor who asked the question whether or how he could do this or that received the answer: "Do as you wish," he might interpret this answer as a commission instead of asking himself whether in such an answer there was an element of reserve—or the hint that, if the questioner conducted himself in that manner, he was fulfilling his own wishes and not those of the person questioned.
Thus many an alleged commission claimed by some person for himself has to be tested in this sense, as must be done in general with regard to the repetition of alleged oral statements of Rudolf Steiner. Unfortunately, such assertions often represent misinterpretations or the veiling of one's own desires. The advantage of the written word in correspondence was that such interpretations were not practicable. But, of course, the individual person was always free to decide whether he would integrate his activity into the totality of the organism or conduct himself outside in his own private sphere of wishes. In all of these measures and arrangements, there was left untouched the freedom of each person, but also the freedom of the leadership. If the individual decided to work in conjunction with the leadership, he was expected to leave the leadership free also to prescribe the prerequisites under which they could carry out their responsible task. With respect to the School, which was to be a model within the Society, Rudolf Steiner said expressly:
“Every one should judge for himself whether he desires to be a member of the School according to what he has learned as a member of the Anthroposophical Society. Then, when the leadership of the School mentions duties which the members undertake, they can understand clearly how this is intended. Nothing else is intended by this statement except that the leadership of the School cannot fulfill its tasks if such duties are not undertaken. The relation of every member of the School to the leadership remains completely free even when such duties are undertaken. For the leadership of the School also must have the freedom to carry on its own work in accordance with its inevitable requirements. The leadership would not have this freedom if it should not be said to one who remains free either to join the School or not: ‘If I am to work with you, you must simply undertake the duty to fulfill this or that requirement.’”
This statement was applicable also with respect to responsible activity in the organism of the Society and in the individual areas of work to be developed on the basis of spiritual science.
Rudolf Steiner had an extraordinary capacity for accomplishing a tremendous mass of work with concentration and rapidity. When I went into his studio in the mornings with his correspondence, he had generally already received a number of callers or was in the midst of the writing of an article, or was already carving on the tremendous statue in wood which had been set up in this workroom, or was modeling or painting or writing. In the midst of such other tasks he was now ready immediately to concentrate upon the correspondence to be handled; entered without hesitation into the midst of this task and gave quickly and clearly his answers or determinative indications. Any one who had previously experienced work with the leader of a great organization enjoyed especially Dr. Steiner's way of working, the unique harmony between a comprehensive orientation in the large and in all details, kindly human understanding, and unmistakable precision in giving directives. Many, for example, who have studied the biography of Goethe may have found it strange that this prince among poets troubled himself at the same time as minister with details of administration— even in mining, the regulation of water courses, road-building, uniforms for soldiers, and many other matters. In Rudolf Steiner this interest in every person and every detail could be observed in the fullest measure. Although he created the model for the tremendous Goetheanum building, yet he took an interest in the question whether the dishes in the Dornach restaurant were pretty or ugly. He could in one moment give to a person the most comprehensive suggestions for a spiritual undertaking and, as the caller was leaving, warn him not to go into the heat of the sun without his hat. He looked upon every human being as a totality to such an extent that nothing about him, whether great or small, inner or outer, escaped his interest.
We have already mentioned the fact that Dr. Steiner began the year 1924 with a course constituting an introduction into the fundamental elements of Anthroposophy, a series of lectures for doctors, a course for tone Eurythmy and those lecture cycles so important for spiritual-scientific work on Mystery Places of the Middle Ages, Rosicrucianism and the Modern Principle of Initiation, and on Karmic Reflections. In the first of the cycles just mentioned he set forth the most intimate difference between spiritual research in the Middle Ages and that of the present time. The true Rosicrucianism of the Middle Ages was characterized by a mood of expectation ;it guarded the sacred tradition and it knew at the same time that a new and powerful revelation of the Spirit of Michael would come again after a certain number of years. These "hermits of the spirit,n whose instruction to their pupils took place approximately from the twelfth century on and whose last representatives were to be found in certain Mystery Schools of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, all awaited with longing the dawn of the new age of Michael in the last third of the nineteenth century. They experienced this period of transition in a half-wakeful, prophetic dream, which passed at the turn of the century into a fully awake and conscious vision of the supersensible reality. Regarding this true Rosicrucianism of the Middle Ages—to be completely differentiated from similarly named confusing currents—Rudolf Steiner said in that lecture cycle:
“This Rosicrucianism is characterized by the fact that its illuminated spirits had a great craving to come into contact with Michael. They could do this only as if in a dream. Since the end of the last third of the nineteenth century, human beings can come into contact with Michael in consciousness.”
Since Michael is a Spirit of action, and the Middle Ages, in accordance with its evolutionary stage, rather a period of esoteric reflection, it was necessary at that time to guard within the inner being what today should work outward helpfully in accordance with the spiritual plan of the world. Regarding the nature which characterizes Michael in contrast with other activating Spirits in the Hierarchies, Rudolf Steiner said:
“Michael is a Spirit who really reveals nothing if the human being does not bring something from the earth to meet him out of diligent spiritual work. Michael is a silent Spirit, an altogether inexpressive Spirit, a Spirit speaking little, who at most gives very scant directives. For what the human being experiences in relation to Michael is not really the word, but—if I may be permitted to use such an expression—the glance, the power of the look.
“This rests upon the fact that Michael has to do chiefly with that which human beings create out of the spiritual. He lives with the results of what is created by human beings. The other Spirits live more with the causes; Michael lives more with the results. The other Spirits impulsate in the human being that which he should do; Michael is the genuine spiritual hero of freedom. He lets the human beings do, but he then takes what comes into existence out of human deeds in order to carry it further in the cosmos, in order to achieve in the cosmos that which the human beings are not able to achieve with this.
“It must come about that the world shall be able to include among the principles of civilization the principle of initiation as such. For it is only in this way that man here on earth can assemble within his soul something with which he can appear before Michael, so that he will be met with the approving glance signifying: cThat is right for the world? In this way will is strengthened, man is integrated into the spiritual progress of the world. In this way man becomes a collaborator in that which will be integrated through Michael— beginning in the Michael epoch—into the evolution of humanity and of the earth.”
What had been accomplished in a spiritual sense through the Christmas Conference rendered it possible now for Rudolf Steiner, in the lectures on Esoteric Reflections on Karmic Relations, which he gave in Dornach between February 16 and March 23, to enter concretely into the “karmic destiny of individual human beings” so concretely that he not only set forth the facts of repeated lives on earth, as objective content of knowledge, but brought into a clear view the course of certain definite individuals through history in such a way that he pointed out the concrete stages of their rebirth in various ages, and in this way clarified the effects which such individuals in their several incarnations either received out of the occurrences of definite centuries, or exercised upon these periods.
In many lectures of the first period of activity of Dr. Steiner we find such concrete series of incarnations presented for the purpose of exemplifying karmic processes; he then limited himself for a certain period of time to the presentation of general karmic systems of law. The new impulse at the turn of the year between 1923 and 1924 brought now again the setting forth of the individual facts in karmic evolution. But this cycle of lectures provides also a multitude of most important statements regarding the metamorphoses which come about as characteristic of the universally valid laws affecting repeated lives on earth.
While Rudolf Steiner was in this way introducing a new epoch in his work, he wrote at the same time a series of Letters to the Members under the title The Living Being of Anthroposophy and Its Fostering, published in the weekly news-letter for members. These dealt with the new way of shaping the spiritual and practical life of individuals and of the Society in order that every one who might desire to be active in the future in this spirit might make his own right contribution in the cooperative effort. In order to fix clearly in the minds of a great number of persons in various countries this beginning of a new epoch in work, he set out again in March 1924 on lecture tours. In the following months remaining to him up to the beginning of his illness in September, and in spite of grave suffering which was already beginning, he visited six countries of Europe, thus expanding as intensively as possible the radiation of this new impulse. He first visited Czechoslovakia and Germany and then, between May and August, France, England, and Holland.
There ought at some time to be indicated on the maps of the earth not only mountains and valleys, oceans and rivers, boundaries of states, geological and meteorological differences, but also—shown in shining or dark colors—the spiritual forces at work, which are just as formative for the world as the physical forces giving shape to mountain ranges and oceans.
Tremendous spiritual forces would battle within the arena of human souk in this map of the earth. The all too numerous forces of division, hatred, chilling egoism should be represented in dark, cold blue colors; the relatively few upbuilding, uniting forces should be indicated in brilliant colors. If some Being had looked down from the universe upon this play of colors, upbuilding and destructive, in those years, he would have seen only a few shining points in a dark grey sea. We mention here one of these rare shining points in the year 1924.
Such actions, illuminating the spiritual atmosphere, came about at first through the journeys which led during March and April from Dornach toward the East and into Middle Europe, there nurturing the spiritual flames with new fuel. The journey began with a public lecture on March 28 in Prague on "Research in the Spiritual World through Anthroposophy, n followed by four public lectures on the science of the present age, pedagogy, and "The Ethical Molding of Life through Anthroposophy.” The work of the friends in that area was also newly put in order in the spirit of the Christmas Conference and at the same time enriched by a repetition of the content of the Dornach lectures on "Karmic Relations,n on life after death and the beings of the Hierarchies, metamorphoses brought about through reincarnation, and the requirements of the spirit of the times.
The time in Prague was spent in the home of one of the members which was in itself a cultural center, and there were interesting visits to institutions of great historical interest in that city, as well as many social gatherings. I still remember a short, narrow, romantic alley and a row of houses rich in history, where Rudolf Steiner, through spiritual vision, brought to life again in narratives very much out of the past. Immediately after this visit to the historical alley-way, we came upon a door with a tablet indicating the activity of a present-day Sibyl, a person who claimed the ability to read one's destiny out of the palm of the hand. With a friendly challenge, Rudolf Steiner suggested that, just for fun, I should test on myself this art of modem prophecy. But I set the requirement that he also should permit the lady to read his hand, since it would be much more interesting to learn whether she would recognize whom she had before her and what she would prophesy about him. Unfortunately we learned as soon as we entered that she was absent, and we had to forego this informative interlude. Of course, if the test had been made it would have been done in a humorous spirit, at most as a psychological experiment.
The conference in Prague came to an end on April 5 with the final three karma lectures of Dr. Steiner. There was here also a contribution from art under the leadership of Frau Marie Steiner in two programs of Eurythmy, and a lecture by Rudolf Steiner in the Concert Hall of the Prague Conservatory on the nature of the art of Eurythmy. In reporting on this visit after his return to Dornach, he said:
“With great satisfaction I have just returned from the work which I was permitted to do in the service of Anthroposophy in Prague. My task for the period between March 28 and April 5 was met by a delightful stream of earnest enthusiasm and eager devotion to the cause of Anthroposophy. In keeping with the spirit of the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum, it was necessary that I should cause to penetrate more deeply into the esoteric foundations of Anthroposophy what I had to communicate. This tone was met with a heartfelt response by our friends.”
After a brief pause in Dornach there began on April 8 in Stuttgart, in connection with an educational conference between April 7 and 13, Rudolf Steiner5s series of lectures on The Methodic: of Teaching and the Life Requirements in Education. This conference was arranged unitedly by the Vorstand at the Goetheanum and the faculty of the Waldorf SchooL Regarding the purpose and content of the lectures, Rudolf Steiner later stated in his report:
“A true knowledge of man must be based upon research in body, soul, and spirit. For the human body is the work of the Spirit and a manifestation of the soul. If the teacher wishes to form the body, he must apply himself to the forces of the Spirit in order to continue what the Spirit has already transmitted out of the pre-earthly life into this body, in the shape of formative forces, and causes to be effective still in the earthly life. If the teacher wishes to develop the soul, he must understand the body, in order to understand how the soul element, which has been implanted in this body by the Spirit, may again be called forth out of it. To undertake to achieve bodily education merely through an influence upon the body itself is utter folly. For that which is taken during the age of childhood into the soul appears in mature life as a sound or sickly condition of the body. If one builds up in the child the element of soul, this upbuilding will leap across into the corporeal character. For in a child every impulse of the soul is transferred into a healthy or unhealthy breathing, a healthy or unhealthy circulation, a healthy or unhealthy digestive activity. What arises then as something sickly often fails to show in the child. It is at first present only in germinal form. But the germ grows while the human being is growing. Many a chronic illness in the forties of a man's life is the result of the misshaping of the life of the soul in the first or second seven-year period in childhood ...
“The fact that many persons are thinking today about the need for reflection regarding the position of education in cultural life is manifest in the fact that we were with difficulty able to accommodate the attendance at the lecture in the Siegle House〉by no means small. And the fact that the manner in which this situation was presented there seemed convincing to many was evidenced by the mood of the audience. And this mood gave evidence also of something else: that the audience felt Anthroposophical pedagogy gives to education and to teaching a relation to the life of man corresponding with what is demanded by human nature itself at the present time.”
During this conference the members in Stuttgart were given the essential content of the Dornach karma lectures. There was also a conference with the youth group.
The next pedagogical cycle of lectures was given by Dr. Steiner between April 13 and 17 in Bern under the title Anthroposophical Pedagogy and Its Prerequisites. The conference, arranged at the wish of an active group of teachers, took place in the city hall of Bern. The fact that such pedagogical methods as were presented in the five important lectures were in harmony also with the spirit of the great teacher of the past, Pestalozzi, and continued his work was stated by Rudolf Steiner in the following words:
“In the way in which Anthroposophical pedagogy brings to life enthusiasm for teaching in the soul of the one who is teaching, so that in an inevitable manner the knowledge of teaching becomes capacity to teach, sustained by a love for this work,—in this consists what is being sought for. And a pedagogical art whose purpose is to work in this direction is entitled to have the courage to represent its fundamental principles in a country in which Pestalozzi did so much that was a blessing in the education of the human being.”
The lectures were supplemented by a presentation of pedagogical Eurythmy, performed by pupils of the continuation school at the Goetheanum, in order to show the teachers in Bern "how Eurythmy as a means of education can work through the manifestation of an art of movement which is drawn out of the entire nature of man." In addresses and the answering of questions the individual problems of the interested teachers were thoroughly discussed.
To the members of the Society in Bern Dr. Steiner gave on April 16 a special lecture on Karmic-Cosmic Relations. The Action of the Individuality in the Process of Historical Development.
The school in Dornach from which the girls came to give this example of pedagogical Eurythmy was originally established for the children of those working on the Dornach building. For the first attempts at painting by the Dornach children, Rudolf Steiner himself provided many sketches— for instance, the world of color of a growing tree, of a sunrise, and these he later explained to us grown-ups attending scientific discussions in the same room. Out of the sketches which he provided for the artists painting the great dome of the Goetheanum, and which pictured the epochs in the history of the earth, much can be learned by natural scientists.
At Easter time, between April 19 and 22, Rudolf Steiner presented in Dornach four lectures on The Easter Festival among the Festivals of the Year, a Piece of the History of the Mysteries. He spoke of the polarity and synthesis which had come about in the history of the cult of Adonis in the autumn and the festival of the Resurrection at Easter; about the three stages in initiation and the unveiling of the Mysteries of the sun and the moon in the evolution of the festivals of the year, still to be discerned at the present time in the fact that the Easter festival is fixed according to cosmic laws. This festival was beautified by an Easter Eurythmy program. Rudolf Steiner expressed in the following words the fact that in the future all activity in spiritual science, whether in the field of science, art, or social work, should be carried out in a continuous connection with the Christmas Conference:
“In a Eurythmy program for the members we intended to show how the impulses which were present in the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum can as a matter of necessity evolve further. The new trait which was to enter into Anthroposophical work through this conference must render itself effective through the fact that there shall live in all our programs not only that which arises out of the moment but also what has been developed at an earlier stage, and continues to unfold in later programs. The poem by means of which at the Christmas Conference the spiritual Foundation Stone was laid in the hearts of the membership of the Anthroposophical Society arose in a Eurythmy presentation at this Easter Conference again.”
A good deal had already been accomplished in the development of this new art of Eurythmy, and Dr. Steiner continued to foster this for the future with the utmost earnestness. During this Easter festival he gave for the artists two lectures, on April 27 and May 3, on Movement As the Speech of the Sold and Eurythmy, the Revelation of the Speaking Soul.
For the physicians he gave between April 21 and 25 an additional Course for Physicians of the Medical Section of the School for Spiritual Science, and this was supplemented through a series of special discussions with practicing physicians and young doctors. All of these fields of work were now integrated into the School. For the spiritual striving of youth there was also developed at the Goetheanum a Youth Section, put under the leadership of Frl. Maria Röschl. The new impulse led to an intensive activity of young people in various countries in connection with the School in Dornach. For the members in general the Karma Reflections of the early part of the year were continued, and for those belonging to the School the lessons in esoteric schooling were systematically fostered. At the beginning of May all those working together at Dornach suffered a severe loss in the death of the great artist Edith Maryon, who had been the devoted, understanding, and extremely competent helper of Rudolf Steiner in the creation of the great statue sculptured in wood for the Goetheanum building, and to whom he had entrusted the leadership of the section of the School for the plastic arts. The following significant words were included within Dr. Steiner's address at the funeral of Miss Maryon:
“We really need persons within the Anthroposophical Movement who are truly able to do that which they wish to do. For there are very many people who wish to do, but the success of our Anthroposophical Society depends upon those who are able to do what they wish...
“Only that is irreplaceable in the development of. humanity which possesses a certain special inner quality.55
From May 23 to 27 Dr. Steiner was in Paris, where he gave a lecture in the salle de Géographic on the theme How Does One Achieve Knowledge of the Supersensible World? and also three lectures to smaller group on Life after Death. He gave here to members also the substance of the first lesson of the College. On May 27 he spoke to physicians and students of medicine. In the intensive collaboration with Frau Dr, Ita Wegman, who was entrusted with this field of work and who also was a devoted assistant to Rudolf Steiner in the illness which he could already feel developing, he visited the Louvre a number of times during this stay in Paris, and he communicated to this friend while observing the works of art very much about historical relations and matters of destiny in earlier epochs. He spent time especially in the Assyrian division (Gilgamish statue), among the Greek statues (Alexander), and the painting by Gozzoli "The Triumph of St. Thomas,35 and also in the Sainte-Chapelle, in the Palace of Justice.
To the members active in Paris he gave advice and stimulation in their difficult task. It is instructive to learn, as I was told, that Dr. Steiner gave to M. Corre, with whom he conversed without an interpreter, a meditation in the French language written with his own hand, in which in many places he used Latin word formations harmoniously interwoven into the text. He visited the Eurythmy school of Simone Rihouet and gave her individual suggestions for every child in the school.
After a brief stay in Dornach he went in the beginning of June to Stuttgart to take part in a meeting of the Waldorf School Association, at which he spoke on The Relation of the Teacher to the Parents in the Spirit of Waldorf School Pedagogy, something to which he had devoted special attention since the beginning of the pedagogical movement. During all of these visits to Stuttgart, Dr. Steiner gave much time to the development of the teachers in the school through thorough-going conferences with them.
For the festival of Whitsuntide he returned to Dornach before the next important tours, and supplemented what had already been done for the development of the festivals of the year, through a lecture on June 4 in the field of esoteric reflections entitled The Idea of Whitsuntide As a Foundation in Feeling for the Comprehension of Karma.
The trip which he undertook at the beginning of June was devoted to something destined in the following decades to expand the results of his spiritual science through its realization in a practical area of life over the entire earth. For the results of research and the directives which he gave in the field of agriculture have since that time been put to the test by many thousands of practical farmers and gardeners in most of the countries of Europe and also on all the continents. These results have become through their practical application and confirmation an assured element in the practice of agriculture, accepted and approved by various scientific and agricultural specialists in many countries. In other words, we have here to do with a result of Rudolf Steinefs spiritual science which has become a transforming ferment in the social sphere to such an extent that it has become a directive influence in the further development of practical life.
The essential ideas which had been developed in the course of his life through the application of spiritual science in the fields of biology and agriculture were now summarized by Dr. Steiner in the Agricultural Course, which he gave between June 7 and 16 of this year. Reference has already been made to the first beginnings of what had developed now up to this level—suggestions and directives given to Ehrenfried Pfeiffer and me in connection with the Biological Research Laboratory at the Goetheanum. This occurred in the years 1921 and 1922. These intensive research efforts, under the constant direction of Dr. Steiner, led to practical application by a courageous pioneer in agriculture, Ernst Stegemann. These scientific and practical experiments and their results naturally aroused manifold interest. The result was a request by agriculturists to Dr. Steiner to give an agricultural course of lectures. But the time had not yet come. When, however, Count Carl von Keyserlingk sent his nephew to Rudolf Steiner in the spring of 1924 with the offer to make his manor house and extensive estate available for such a course, Dr. Steiner consented to give such a course of lectures between June 7 and 16 for a large circle of agricultural people near Koberwitz bei Breslau.
It was a unique experience in the development of this spiritual Movement to find at the home of Count Keyserlingk—in contrast with other programs attended by persons of various occupations—a selected gathering of practical farmers, all anticipating with the greatest intensity the united work of the following days. Count and Countess Keyserlingk had generously arranged for the use of all the rooms in the manor house for the accommodation of these guests.
The intense, warm-hearted, and eventful united work brought about during these days was aided essentially through the manner in which the days were organized. All attended in the forenoon lectures by Rudolf Steiner and then gathered in the great dining hall at mealtimes and in many of the surrounding rooms of the residence, and were also united in the periods of discussion and in trips around the extensive property, and in personal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings. Since the consciousness of all those participating was concerned with the significance of these hours, and with the spiritual substance that was being received and the duties being entrusted to us for the future, these days were characterized by a serious and yet joyful atmosphere of common thinking and willing, which remained forever impressed upon the hearts of all. In the periods between the lectures and the agricultural trips through the property, in the united daily life, in the evening trips together with Dr. and Frau Dr. Steiner, Count and Countess Keyserlingk to Breslau for artistic programs, in the gatherings for the essential esoteric work, the socially creative art of life of Rudolf Steiner in its intimacy, its heartfelt openness for all fellow workers, and its energizing power could be experienced in its noblest form.
In a social gathering at the end of this conference, Dr. Steiner made an exception from his usual practice and for once spoke about his personal destiny and experiences. He related that during the preceding nights, the only free time left to him, he had been engaged in writing two papers for the "Goetheanum" and the Members' News Sheet, and that these papers covered thirty-five years of his life. In one of these two reports, appearing in the "Goetheanum" as part of the series of papers entitled “The Course of My Life,” he dealt with the time in his life when, during the 'eighties of the previous century, he was working at the editing of Goethe's natural-scientific writings, and how he had the opportunity to speak about his spiritual goals during Christmas time in 1889 before a small, intimate circle. The other report, which he wrote during the last night of the Koberwitz conference, had to do with the multitude of undertakings of this agricultural conference. A straight line through the life of Rudolf Steiner leads from the lonely spiritual research in the 'eighties, through the editing of Goethe's natural-scientific writings, to the development of spiritual research as Anthroposophy, to the unfolding and testing of the natural-scientific work in the School at the Goetheanum, and to the agricultural course of the year 1924 and the “biological-dynamic agricultural methods.”
This explains the retrospect which Rudolf Steiner shared with his friends on June 16:
“During the last two nights, as during every week, I have had to write here in Koberwitz two papers as I do otherwise in various places, chiefly in Dornach. The first was intended for the periodical 'Das Goetheanum,中e other for the Members' News Sheet. In the periodical 'Das Goetheanum I had to describe a few steps in the course of my life belonging to the year 1889; and in the News Sheet for Members I had to describe what we have been experiencing here during this Whitsun festival. Between these two points lie thirty-five years, a lengthy space of time, which represents for me a sort of ascent in our Anthroposophical Movement. In those days there were no Whitsun festivals; there were Christinas festivals. I made the journey from Vienna to Hermannstadt in Transylvania to give lectures. In other words, giving lectures was already at that time something which belonged in my spiritual calling ... Those also were beautiful days, beautiful Christinas days. Yet I must take into myself how these two reports—the report about a period thirty-five years ago and that about what has just occurred here—appear to me; must also take into myself what has occurred between the two. At that time it was also very delightful； though in a small circle. But at present what had at that time no very extensive content—it was difficult to approach the world with what one had to say,—I must again and again permit to pass through my mind and to think how difficult it was at that time to bring before the world even a very little out of the spiritual content ... When the second night came, the last, preceding today, I then had so much to report—I did not know any longer where my head was, what all I should say in a column or two. There had been so many lectures, so many programs, so much concentrated into these days.
“Let us just pass in brief review all that has occurred. We have had the two poles of spiritual activity: the inner, intimate activity which leads direcdy into the form of the spiritual as this spiritual is present itself on earth. And we have had the other pole which just at this time and in this case, I should like to say, to the great satisfaction of the Anthroposophists, has taken its place by the side of the first pole during these Whitsun days. Here we have something which could be drawn from the spiritual worlds for an element of the practical activity of life, for agriculture. It has been possible every day, so to speak, to travel this way in the soul from the spiritually practical in the forenoon to the purely spiritual—which is, however, the ultimate fountain of everything practical—in the afternoon and the evening.”
In the written report, the genesis of which is indicated in the above words, Dr. Steiner said in regard to the plan and the daily course of things in the conference just ended:
“For a considerable period of time, it has been the desire of a number of Anthroposophists occupied with agriculture that a course should be given by me presenting the content of what is to be said out of Anthroposophical vision about agriculture. Between June 7 and 16 I was able to find the time to respond to this desire.
uKoberwitz bei Breslau, where Count Carl Keyserlingk manages in an exemplary manner a great agricultural property, was the suitable place for such a course. It was self-evident that lectures dealing with agriculture should occur where those assembled for these programs should have immediately around them the things and processes with which the programs were to deal. This gives the proper mood and coloring to such a program ・・・
“The period between 11.30 and 3 o5clock was devoted to agriculture. During these hours a considerable number of farmers could gather in the home of Count and Countess Keyserlingk ... The forenoon was begun each day with a lecture. The content of these lectures had to do with the nature of the products which are rendered available by agriculture, and the conditions under which these products can come into existence. The purpose of these explanations was to arrive at such practical points of view for agriculture as would supplement what has been achieved through practical insight and scientific research at the present time with what can be provided by a spiritual consideration of the pertinent questions involved.
“The lecture was followed by the early luncheon period, at which the Keyserlingk household provided in the most thorough-going manner for the needs of those residents of Breslau who had come to Koberwitz to share in this course.
“Then there followed a discussion about questions existing on each occa:ion. The intensity with which this proceeded testified to the most earnest interest of those assembled in the Anthroposophical way of dealing with things which closely concern them.”
Lack of space renders it quite impossible to deal here with the abundance of scientific knowledge and practical directives given by Rudolf Steiner in these eight lectures and numerous discussions. Beginning with the nature of the earth organism, the rhythms of the cosmic and terrestrial forces and elements, essential descriptions of the most important substances in the cultivation of the soil and the nourishing of the human being, he passed systematically over to a description of the sensible and the supersensible structure of plant, animal, and man, without a thorough knowledge of which the farmer cannot carry out any well planned activity. He set forth concrete measures necessary for the development of an agricultural undertaking as an organism with its own foundation, self-inclosed as a living unity and totality. He set forth the basic necessities for a sound cultivation of the soil and fostering of plants and animals; indeed, his lecture actually dealt in great iliumination with every problem which is confronted by the practical farmer.
Out of the directives thus given there has come about at the present time a worldwide practice and also an extensive literature to which the reader must be referred. In those first beginnings, what was necessary was the creation of a circle of persons determined to devote themselves with all their strength, unwavering courage, and objective logical reasoning to the working out and practical application of these special types of knowledge and methods. For this reason, during this conference of June 1924, there was created a "Research Ring,” including scientists and practical persons, who now undertook to bring into actual practice the new agriculture. Rudolf Steiner explained in his report that this would be a union of persons included within the Natural-scientific Section at the Goetheanum. He added: “What Anthroposophy has to say about agriculture will find its best fostering among agricultural specialists; and it must be left to them to proceed in conjunction with the Natural-scientific Section at the Goetheanum as they may think best.”
In the final words of a comprehensive address during the agricultural course, Rudolf Steiner gave his directives for the future work:
“If we are willing to work together in this way, this will be a genuinely conservative but also at the same time an extremely radical progressive beginning. This will always remain to me a very happy memory if this course becomes the point of departure, if the genuine, wise essence of peasanthood— if I may so express myself—may be introduced into the deadened methodics of science; and Dr. Wachsmuth has, indeed, rejected this science which has really become dead, and has wished for a living science, which is to be fructified through the wisdom of the peasantry. Let us grow together in this way like Siamese twins—Dornach and the Ring. It is said of twins that they have really identical feeling, identical thinking; let us have this identical feeling and identical thinking, and we shall then progress in the best way in our field.”
Since that time the Agricultural Movement has progressed through scientific research and experiment and practical testing to a point where a new agriculture has been developed very widely recognized for its valuable contribution toward the furtherance of present-day cultural and living conditions. This has been accomplished through more than two decades in spite of much external opposition, skepticism, and ridicule. When I recall those first years in the Research Ring, the first discussions and contacts with the outer world, there comes into memory the intensive united work of the first pioneers in the form of regular concentrated schooling in knowledge, exchange of experiences, and gradual working out of the initial statements of Rudolf Steiner. There remains in memory the united struggle in understanding and applying the theory of the formative forces, the dynamic and biological processes in the kingdoms of nature as laid bare by Dr. Steiner; memories of the first success but also of failures in experiments; the year by year gatherings which contributed so essentially to the clarifying of fundamental ideas, learning out of the results of research, planning of further work in actual practice and in the representation and dissemination of the methods.
We then risked the first public conferences, at first with very few lectures, conducted on actual farms or in halls in country places, a practice which gradually changed the skepticism of peasants into confidence and cooperation, but which were opposed with every means at first by scientific specialists, disturbed in their calm, or by industrialists with business interests. In this way the number of enthusiastic cooperators was increased but also the opponents. Yet, in spite of everything, this obstinate opposition was gradually overcome to the extent that the results finally began to speak for themselves, confronting the most irreconcilable opponents with factual conclusions. Thus we owe to Rudolf Steiner, not only a new agriculture oriented according to spiritual science, but also the directives for carrying forward unwaveringly a new impulse and bringing it to practical realization.
Limitation of space renders it quite impossible to go into all the details here of scientific and practical work during these decades, carried forward by a great number of capable and devoted persons. We must turn again to our narrative of the course of Rudolf Steiner's life and activity in the year 1924. We have already indicated that, as a supplementation of the work which was carried on day by day in the manor house in Koberwitz, lectures and artistic programs took place in Breslau. In the evenings Rudolf Steiner spoke on the fundamental knowledge of spiritual science, on the decisive impulse of the Christinas Conference, and especially on the nature of destiny. In his own later report he said in regard to this:
“I spoke about human destiny in its development through successive lives on earth, on the manner in which the Beings of a supersensible world are active in the forming of this destiny (karma) in human existence between death and a new birth. I gave examples through which I could render clear out of the results of spiritual research this formative action.”
During these days, there occurred also in the artistic work, which had from the very beginning of this way of life accompanied the Movement, a decisive further advance in order to mediate to an ever increasing number of persons that which Rudolf Steiner had inaugurated in the realm of the art of speech. For the artistic impulses of Dr. Steiner have also spread at the present time through actual achievement and through an extensive group of students all over the world. This has also been the work of Frau Marie Steiner, who developed both through her own remarkable example as an artist and her pedagogical gifts the development of this large body of students. During these days between June 10 and 16 she gave in Breslau in the course of the Whitsun conference a Course on the Artistic Handling of Speech to a large number of visiting artists. Dr. Steiner himself reported in regard to this as follows:
“So many persons had announced their desire to share in a course on the artistic handling of speech given by Frau Marie Steiner that a limitation had to be imposed upon the number of those admitted. It is a matter of necessity that, in such a course, those participating shall actually engage in exercises in speaking. For this reason it is not possible to accept an unlimited number of students. On this occasion a compromise was suggested: that the front seats should be assigned to as large a number of participants as possible, and that the practices should be carried out by these, whereas a larger number of hearers in the more distant rows of seats could gain what was to be gained by silent listening. Frau Marie Steiner chose this way because she wanted to respond to this gratifying interest, manifest over such an extensive area, in the art of speech. This interest is extremely gratifying. For it shows an increase in understanding of the art of artistic handling of speech which has been fostered in the Anthroposophical spirit by Frau Marie Steiner. It is to be hoped that, through the further development of this understanding, the art of speech may find entrance into ever increasing circles. This can prove to be a beneficent influence in view of the significance that this art possesses for the culture of the personality.”
To the festival aspect of the conference a Eurythmy program made the greatest contribution, presented in the Lobe Theatre in Breslau. The work of the group of youths was fostered through two conversations with them. To the members of the School Rudolf Steiner gave here the first content of the esoteric work inaugurated at the Goetheanum.
The conference was brought to an end in a social gathering in which Dr. Steiner was warmly thanked in the name of all those participating, and he himself spoke of the "festival mood" of this Whitsuntide work, and expressed his thanks to all who had shared in it and especially to Count and Countess Keyserlingk and other leaders. There was vivid in our consciousness the tasks assigned to Anthroposophy on earth when in such a unity as was manifest in this conference in the spirit of the Goetheanum, science, art, religion, and the practice of social life are active on a common foundation for the culture of the twentieth century.
Before returning to Dornach Rudolf Steiner went once more to Jena and Stuttgart. He had again requested me to accompany him on this trip, and I still remember vividly how, during the journey between Breslau and Jena, after a period of silent reflection about the conference, he said suddenly with a strong and joyful emphasis: "Now we have accomplished also this important work." Seldom have I seen him so joyfully moved after the completion of a task as in this moment after the agricultural conference. Several times later he referred again in conversation in happy remarks to these, days.
In the neighborhood of Jena we visited the following day, June 18, the home for children needing special care, “Lauenstein.” We were able to share in the loving and beneficent work which was being devoted here to children so difficult to teach. While with the staff of the institute, Rudolf Steiner gave the directives for curative pedagogical work which has since spread over many lands. One week later he gave to those sharing in this special field as a foundation for their work the curative pedagogical course, in Dornach. In his characteristically modest way he said in his report about this visit to Lauenstein:
“And then I was able to go on Tuesday to Jena-Lauenstein, where a number of our younger friends together with Frl. Dr. Use Knauer have established a curative and educational institution/ not for children poorly endowed but for the really ill, constitutionally ill children, who were to be educated and to be brought as far forward in their ill condition as is possible. This institute is really in the process of founding. I was able in a way to inaugurate this and could see the first children admitted. Thus we have been able in a certain sense to set on its feet this thing in Lauenstein in the neighborhood of Jena.”
But it remains vividly in my memory how he not only helped "to inaugurate this" but, in going through the institute, in being together with the ill children, in talking with the teachers, gave out of his comprehensive knowledge of the nature of the human being insights and helpful information, preparing the way into the future for this curative pedagogical institution.
From Jena we went to Weimar and here, as has already been related at an earlier time, Rudolf Steiner visited all the places which were so rich in memories for him out of the decisive Weimar epoch of his life. He showed me the house in which he had resided at that time, stood on a square before the house and looked for a long time in silence, at the windows of the first floor. He then said that a personality had resided there whom he had greatly respected, and spoke with evident inner emotion about his experiences during that time. He led me also to the cafE where he had so often engaged in discussions with artists, intellectually stimulating persons, and so many Goethe enthusiasts. He paused here and there before a house or at a street crossing and related out of his memory fascinating anecdotes about striking personalities of the 'eighties and the 'nineties. During this day in Weimar there was in the nature of Rudolf Steiner a mood of fulfillment, sustained by the work of the preceding days, and of retrospect, which evoked the atmosphere of Weimar. Exactly thirty-five years had now passed since, in the year 1889, he made his trip from Vienna to Weimar for a general survey of the work in the Goethe Archives, which then led to the memorable seven years of the Weimar work on Goethe's natural-scientific writings. All that period of his life was in concentrated memory within him while we walked through the familiar places after thirty-five years of his earthly work had been fulfilled.
A characteristic experience which I may relate here bears upon his relation with both Goethe and Schiller. In passing through the street, he suddenly paused by the side of an advertising column and pointed to a placard announcing the presentation of a drama of Schiller's on this day in the Weimar Theatre. Since I had made a little while before a less enthusiastic remark about many Schiller dramas, he said: "Really we must see this.” Now, this chanced to be a not very distinguished special presentation for the Weimar Girls' Boarding School; and there resulted the curious picture in the theatre—if I remember correctly, we were the only men present—of the striking figure of Rudolf Steiner in a black suit in the midst of a sea of young girls dressed in white. In spite of the somewhat inferior dramatic art, he leaned over a number of times and said to me encouragingly: “But there are really very many excellent places in this!” Through this pedagogical method, he gave me the impulse once more to establish for myself a relation to the whole work of Schiller. I had already read on his suggestion in 1922 Deinhardt's work on Schiller especially on his letters on the aesthetic education of man. This was a characteristic example of the way in which Rudolf Steiner kindly and yet actively corrected inadequate and one-sided judgments on the part of his students.
We now return to Stuttgart. Late in the evening, immediately after our arrival there, Dr. Steiner had a session with the faculty of the Waldorf School. As his companion on the trip, I had also to take part in this discussion, and this night session has remained vividly impressed in my memory for the reason that, after all the strenuous activities of recent weeks, I myself was naturally rather weary, and there was no sign of weariness in him in his sixty-third year and after he had gone through incomparably more than I in recent weeks. I had to exert all my powers to keep my eyes open, but Rudolf Steiner, in spite of the illness already seriously affecting him, showed such wakefulness and energy that no one could have imagined what he had been going through. He conducted the session with the most vital intensity and concentration. As had occurred so many times in preceding years, questions with regard to the curriculum, the spiritual and practical foundations of the school, were thoroughly discussed, and he not only gave advice and help in individual cases of special difficulties mentioned by teachers, but also fundamental suggestions for the further development of the pedagogical work.
It frequently happened during this period that, when the night session had ended after many hours, he called immediately for the automobile and we traveled that night from Stuttgart to Dornach. Dr. Steiner had the capacity to relax and fall asleep for a brief time while traveling in the automobile even over such roads as these, which were at that time not especially good. When we arrived in Dornach in the early dawn he could go immediately to his work, beginning the strenuous course of the day with its typical abundance of tasks to be carried out. And yet on the same evening he appeared on the platform in the great workshop, gave a report to the friends on the journey just completed, and followed this immediately with the first of a series of lectures for the coming weeks. Many a time during these years these automobile trips from Stuttgart to Dornach would occur in the following way. He would request me to have the automobile ready at noon. But the stream of callers waiting before his conference room in Landhausstrasse was at that time still steadily increasing. He would then come out, smiling in a friendly way, and say: “We will leave only after coffee,” and disappear again. This would be repeated often-at five o'clock, seven o'clock, nine o'clock in the evening; and, only when the night was already far advanced, would he actually get into the car and make the night trip to Dornach.
This time he gave in the evening of June 20 a report on the trip just described and the agricultural conference, and then continued the series of lectures under the general title of Karmic Reflections, which he had begun in Dornach in the middle of February. In the following days he began two additional important courses: that on Sound Eurythmy, of June 24-July 12, and the Course on Curative Pedagogy, from June 25 to July 7. The two courses were delivered simultaneously.
The course of fifteen lectures on Speech Eurythmy, later published under the title Eurythmy as Visible Speech, comprised what had already been achieved in the twelve years since the initiation of this art. It began with an “exact formulation of the Eurythmy tradition,” and then provided comprehensive working material for the future development of the new art. We have already mentioned the various stages in this development: the birth of Eurythmy in 1912, its first steps in the outside world the next year, the following important stages of development, its essential share in the recreation of the dramatic art—especially in the presentation of Goethe's Faust at Easter in 1915—the first course in Speech Eurythmy in September 1915, the development of Curative Eurythmy, and especially since the course of April 1921 the spread of this art over many countries through presentations, Eurythmy schools and otherwise in the following years, and now the two comprehensive training courses, in Tone Eurythmy in February 1924 and Speech Eurythmy in June 1924. Frau Marie Steiner is to be credited with the great achievement of developing this art from its initiation.
During these weeks of June and July, Rudolf Steiner developed the methodics of the art of Eurythmy in a living collaboration with the eurythmists themselves. In the foreword to the course as published in book form, Frau Marie Steiner says:
“We united for this course as if for a united festival. Rudolf Steiner had been approached with many questions; one now checked on these things; understanding was reached in regard to many matters about which there were different opinions. Thus the entire course had the character of an immediate fresh improvisation. Drawings were quickly made on the blackboard; exercises for exemplification were carried out by the young women; everything came about in the fonn of conversation and collaboration, not in mere lecturing. This was often the character of instruction given by Rudolf Steiner t*o his students; but never in such high degree as in this course on Eurythmy...
“Eurythmy was one of the most beloved spiritual children of Rudolf Steiner. It developed quite organically out of very small beginnings, sending forth shoot after shoot, to a sturdy trunk, thanks to the fullness of sound life within it and to the zealous work of its representatives. It ennobled one who devoted herself to it, impelling her more and more to lay aside the personal; for arbitrariness there was no space within it. The law-conformity inherent in the art arose out of spiritual necessities, and one willingly recognized this law-conformity, since within it was experienced necessity, was experienced God. It was for this reason that Eurythmy could enkindle such powerful enthusiasm; it was in this way that so many selflessly devoted helpful working forces united with it, so that its field of activity could spread wider and wider. By the side of recitation, it laid hold fruitfully in music and opened new ways and possibilities of expression. A new art of lighting arose, adapted to Eurythmy principles of style, a simplified, ennobled art of clothing, freed from anything arbitrary, and based upon color nuances, color Eurythmy. In union with the drama, it resulted in lending a means of expression to that which would otherwise have been obliged to sacrifice expression in sensible form. The representation of the working of forces above the sensible and below the sensible level into the earthly life now became possible. Thus in the course of the years we had been able to present on the stage which was developed in the great workshop of the Goetheanum almost all of the scenes from Faust in which the supersensible plays a role.
“...The more we worked and created the more we received; every endeavor transformed into actual achievement resulted in new gifts from the kind giver.”
With regard to the fructifying influence of Eurythmy upon the related art of music, Rudolf Steiner said:
“Our musicians who place their artistic gifts in the service of Eurythmy advance the art of music, in my opinion, in a certain direction through the manner in which they serve Eurythmy and the great enthusiasm with which they are filled in collaborating with the related art. I believe that the sense for music which is alive within them finds its genuine release through being brought into this relation. At least, in the activity of our musicians in connection with the work of Eurythmy there is a profoundly satisfying expansion of the musical into the universally artistic. And this shows its fruitfulness, in turn, through a beautiful reaction upon the specifically musical.”
Thus did Rudolf Steiner crown in the year 1924 the twelve years of developing work in a new art, arisen out of his spiritual research and to be united permanently with the spiritual work of the future.
An additional course was devoted to the healing forces in pedagogy. In twelve lectures, from June 25 to July 7, Dr. Steiner spoke on Curative Pedagogy. He dealt with the processes of incarnation, of heredity, the members and the sense organization of the human being, all in such a way that he revealed to the curative teachers the differentiations which are manifest in the life processes of children needing special care in contrast with those in the normal child. He illustrated with actual examples the ways in which this knowledge can be applied fruitfully and effectively in the rearing of children and in their curative treatment.
We have already mentioned the first stages in the development of the medical courses. Through the initiative of Dr. Ita Wegman, the ClinicalTherapeutic Institute in Arlesheim had been decidedly expanded since its establishment in 1921, and there had been added in the "Sonnenhof” a home for children requiring special treatment. This has since that time been steadily developed under the leadership of Dr. Grete Bockholt, Dr. Julia Bort, Werner Pache, and other workers, and has achieved valuable results in the cases of many children. Through the cooperative work of curative teachers in various lands, this gift of Rudolf Steiner also has been expanded in many institutions in various parts of the world.
For the entire medical movement, he completed in 1924, with the collaboration of Dr. Ita Wegman, the comprehensive work Essentials for an Expansion of the Art of Healing according to Spiritual-scientific Knowledge.
We must mention here the fruitful development of the preparation of medical remedies. We have already referred to the beginning of this in the laboratory of Dr. Schmiedel and also in Gmund, Germany. Through the intensive work of an extremely able staff of research workers in the laboratories in Dornach, Arlesheim and Schwäbisch-Gmund, additional remedies have been brought about the value of which has been tested in many countries. After the dissolution of the economic undertaking "Der Kommende Tag" in Stuttgart, the institute in Schwabisch-Gmund was united with that in Arlesheim, and the combined undertaking bears the name “Weleda,” and is under the management of Edgar Dürler, Frau Gotte, and a staff of researchers, and has branches in other countries and its own medical periodical. The fundamental instructions of Rudolf Steiner in this field also have proven to be of great benefit to humanity.
When all the impulses and all the cycles of lectures of Dr. Steiner in the year 1924 are surveyed in their manifold areas, it seems as if he must have desired in this last year of his work on earth to give to the School and to the Society the substance and the force in most concentrated essence for their future development. This mood of survey and of preparation for the future were manifest also in those lectures for members which he gave in July 1924 in Dornach, and in which he set forth the history and the karma of the Anthroposophical Movement and Society, with which all of this work of his is deeply and inseparably united.
In a series of eleven lectures on The Karmic Relations of the Anthroposophical Movement, which he began on July 1 in Dornach and continued through August 8, he began with the tremendous spiritual battle over world conceptions which has had a determinative influence since the Middle Ages upon the development of Europe. He described in the beginning the two streams of the Middle Ages, representing a heritage out of the antithesis developed in previous centuries between the conceptions of thinking out of one's individual powers and thinking out of the cosmic thought, now become abstract. He set forth clearly the battle of the Scholastics with Averrhoes and the representatives of Arabism in the methods of thought of that period. He then showed how, in the nineteenth century, two separate spiritual currents developed, one of these open for the reception of the supersensible decisions of that century taking place in the spiritual world, and receiving inspiration from these, whereas the other remained inaccessible to these changes. He explained the adjustment of individual human beings and groups of persons to the two distinct spiritual evolutions of previous times, tracing these diflFerentiations back to the two streams of the Aristotelians and the Platonists. He described the crucial turning points, occurring in the first Christian centuries, and then especially between the seventh and eighth and between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The effect of these special impulses is clear in the influence of Brunetto Latini on Dante and his age. Dr. Steiner then gave a vivid picture of the polarity which became manifest in the thirteenth century in the School of Chartres and such personalities as Alanus ab Insulis, Bernardus Sylvestris, and those spiritually related to them, on the one hand, who wished to inaugurate a new spirituality on earth; and, on the other hand, in their opponents, who were inspired by antagonistic forces. This was a •decisive antithesis between two impulses, one desiring to take hold of the “cosmic intelligence,” entrusting this to man and to his free will; whereas the other endeavored to oppose these individual forces of thinking and supersensible knowledge. The first stream represents in history at times the influence of the spiritual power of Michael, the other the forces playing an opposing role in the development of humanity.
After the Dornach lectures in the spring of 1924 had set forth the great rhythms in spiritual history and then the destinies of single individuals incarnated in the various epochs of history, the Esoteric Reflections on Karmic Relations that Rudolf Steiner gave from July into September 1924 dealt with the destinies and the missions of human communities which in the course of history have been bound from stage to stage with one of the two polaric tendencies in evolution, and which now in the spiritual situation of the twentieth century are called upon for a decision for or against the spirit of Michael. He rendered possible an insight into the loftiest purposes of the Spiritual Beings and Powers struggling with one another in the course of human development, the mirroring and working out of this battle in the course of centuries, the stages of what has already been achieved, the new possibilities which may come about through spiritual decisions before the end of the present century. This was a history of the influence of Spiritual Cosmic Powers who have given the directive to individual personalities incarnated from time to time during the centuries and to spiritually oriented human communities, to unfold either in harmony with this plan of spiritual evolution for the whole of humanity or in opposition to it. Thus were many capacities developed which then in mutual opposition or in synthesis led to new stages in evolution.
It was the rational fulfillment of the life work of Rudolf Steiner for the creation of spiritual science in the twentieth century that he added this survey of the history preceding this spiritual science, of those who sustained it and guarded it in earlier times, in order that future creative work might grow consciously out of the total plan underlying spiritual history, consciously recognized and carried further.
After the completion of all this tremendous work of lecturing at Dornach5 Dr. Steiner set out again on lecture tours. He spent two days first in Stuttgart in conference with the teachers of the Waldorf School. Discussions occurring at that time led to the dissolution of the economic undertaking uDer Kommende Tag." The various activities which had been carried on by this organization were transferred to other institutions to be continued. After this brief sojourn, Dr. Steiner traveled to Holland, to share in a summer conference between July 17 and 24 at Arnhem, at which he gave a course of nine lectures under the title The Pedagogical Value of the Knowledge of Man, and the Cultural Value of Pedagogy. He dealt in the beginning with the awaking of “the teacher attitude of mind,” which is won out of a knowledge of the whole human being; described the results of research regarding the rhythms of life, the spiritual and corporeal stages in the development of the child, the temperaments, the gradually awaking consciousness of the surrounding world, and the pedagogical aids which further this plastic molding work of the formative forces in the child nature and bring it to a sound and free unfolding. He spoke of the experiences already available for study in the practical realization of this way of education, and of what must be observed by teacher and parents in order to develop in the child out of the fundamental virtue of thankfulness the impulses of love and consciousness of duty, so that they may guide the child organically into life and into the world perspectives of the present age. A historical survey of the development of the system of education in past centuries furnished the basis for an understanding of “the significance to the world of the pedagogical art” in the twentieth century.
This summer conference, in a unique part of Holland with wooded hills, was characterized by a splendid mood of intensive community work, resulting in part from the fact that all those sharing were together, not only during the lectures but also in the course of the day, at mealtimes, on excursions, during discussions. The public pedagogical course was supplemented by lectures of Dr. Zeylmans van Emmichoven, Dr. Karl Schubcrt, Dr. Hermann von Baravallc, and others. To the members of the Society, Dr. Steiner gave an insight into the substance of the Dornach karma lectures and an introduction into the esoteric schooling established during the Christmas Conference. He contributed help to the doctors by continuing the medical work of the previous year in three lectures on the topic What Can the Art of Healing Gain through a Spiritual-Scientific Conception? The artistic activity was represented during this conference by two courses given by Frau Marie Steiner on the art of speech, one a general introduction and the other a course for advanced students. The children of the “Vrije School” gave a charming program in Eurythmy.
But, for those sharing in this conference, there became manifest also the tragic suffering borne by Rudolf Steiner out of the grave illness which was depleting his physical forces. Every gift of spiritual substance in lectures and conversations was at the same time a sacrifice connected with an intensification of his physical suffering. One who had to see the tremendous struggle against this destructive illness, and who could not persuade him to spare himself, experienced the supreme greatness of his personality as he sacrificed the necessary care of his own bodily well-being in order to serve humanity up to the last.
On July 20 he gave in the workroom assigned to him during this conference a special Address to a Gathering of Young Persons who had assembled here out of various countries. Not only the content but also the intensity of the appeal characterizing this address keeps it vivid in one's memory. For the most essential thing in this address was the fire and the force of the words with which Rudolf Steiner called upon youth to be awake. It may have been the theoretical disputations of many young persons, the talking about social tasks which did not lead to social action, which moved him to challenge the youth with such fiery intensity now really "to get up from their chairs," to lay aside theory and disputation and become active in the schooling of oneself and in true social action. Many of these young men left the hall changed from what they were when they entered.
In connection with this, one had a strong impression of how Rudolf Steiner utterly ignoring his own destructive illness, employed the fullness of all his spiritual forces in order to awaken and activate those who ought now to share in responsibility for carrying his work further. If future generations prove themselves worthy of this challenge, his bestowal and his sacrifice will not have been in vain.
At the end of July Dr. Steiner returned to Dornach and carried further his work of establishing the foundation of the entire undertaking by continuing the lectures he had begun in the spring on The Karmic Relations of the Anthroposophical Movement. These lectures led from an insight into the destiny of the individual and of the community to Michael as the one who "brings order into karma." Simultaneously during these months the esoteric work of the School was carried further, step by step. Whereas spiritual science sets forth the results of supersensible research and indicates and tests these in the phenomena of the surrounding world and the human being, spiritual schooling gives the possibility of surveying and traveling the path which leads across the "Threshold" of the sensible into the supersensible world. All humanity is at present standing at this Threshold, in part unconsciously, in part consciously. In regard to this work of the School at the Goetheanum, Dr. Steiner said in a report:
“It is necessary for one who really seeks for knowledge of man to observe that all which nature manifests in beauty, greatness, sublimity cannot lead to the human being. For the inner man, active in the external world, has his fountainhead not in the natural world but in the spiritual. But into this it is impossible for the senses and also for the intellect bound to the brain to penetrate.
“Knowledge of the human being in his true nature is possible only from a point of view beyond the Threshold. One who is willing to receive with his sound human understanding communications of one who knows which come from the other side of the Threshold must also have a conception of what the one who knows has experienced at the Threshold. For it is only in this way that he reaches a situation in which he is capable of judging the supersensible rightly: that is, by knowing himself the conditions under which a knowledge of this supersensible is attained.”
The Goetheanum, to which he entrusted the carrying out of this schooling and its radiation into all realms of life—and which even in its visible form was intended to indicate the existence of such a spiritual working center in our century—continued to grow during this year in its mighty new structure according to the model Rudolf Steiner had formed. He shared every day again with his council in the artistic rehearsals, in the research of the laboratories, through visits to the clinic—indeed, intensively in all areas of activity in Dornach. He continued to have discussions with the workers on the building, in order that every one who participated in any way in this work might be led into the unity of the whole and united livingly with it.
This year also was characterized by the organic rhythm between the intensifying of the center and the radiating into the outer expanses. The spiritual deed of the Christmas Conference of the previous year permeated with new forces all this creative activity, and he constandy, through word and deed, called this into the consciousness of others, in order that the foundation of the entire work might be so strengthened as to withstand the storms of the century.
In August he went to England for a significant summer conference. This "Second International Summer School" took place in Torquay, in the beautiful region of the south coast. Although this landscape was very unlike that at Penmaenmawr, where the conference of the previous summer was held, yet Torquay was extremely well suited through the fact that important ancient Mystery places could be reached from there.
There was always something characteristic of Rudolf Steiner in the themes he chose, since his lectures were always intended, not only to mediate the results of objective spiritual research, but also to meet the requirements of the different capacities and forces of consciousness in different persons, and likewise to point out dangers and hindrances which have to be overcome in spiritual endeavor. The title of this lecture cycle was Truth and Error in Spiritual Research; it is published in book form under the title Initiate Consciousness. In these eleven lectures between August 11 and 22 he proceeded from nature and the world of matter given to the senses of the human being, and pointed out the "illusions" which have been introduced into human thinking in the last few centuries through the one-sided observation and consideration of nature as determined by these senses and the intellect. The position of the human being, who sees himself surrounded by riddles in the relation between the world of matter and processes in consciousness, he clarified this time by beginning with the world of matter and guiding gradually from this into the realm of the spiritual. He explained the influence of the mineral element, the lower realm of nature, upon the states of consciousness in man, and then described the methods by which in past ages, for example, the substances and forces of the metals, as the results and mirrored reflections of cosmic developments, were used for the forming and the intensification of consciousness in the ancient Mysteries.
But he pointed out, in contrast to this, the necessity at the present time to penetrate into the mysteries of nature through a purely spiritual metamorphosis of the forces of consciousness, and called attention to the perils involved in teaching and practicing the methods of ancient times, as is done in many places. The application of certain substances as a means for intensification of consciousness, as this was customary in the times of the Egyptian and Caldaean Mysteries and in a decadent form in the period of the Greek and Roman Mysteries, the very late forms of alchemy in the Middle Ages, and all such methods used in the search for the supersensible within the sensible, are unsuited for the present organization of man. The person of the present age should know about the ways practiced in earlier times, but he should not any longer travel on those paths. Moreover, bringing over from the past decadent practices, as this is done in misunderstood occult symbolism in many places, or even the desire to enter into the supersensible within the material realm, as this occurs in mediumism and spiritism,—all of these practices lead to evil results. Dr. Steiner warned against these wrong practices, not only in a theoretical manner but by pointing out the specific results to be expected. The application of substances for influencing consciousness and the endeavor to materialize the spiritual must be recognized and rejected for their evil consequences. The process of raising the level of consciousness can be done today rightly only out of the forces of the human spirit and soul, through the conscientious schooling of these. It is this way which is clearly shown by Initiate Consciousness, the way suited to capacities and forces of the present-day human organization.
During this summer conference in Torquay, the last trip of Rudolf Steiner in this life on earth, he suffered tragically from the destructive illness. Outwardly, nothing of this could be observed. He met daily all the requirements of the comprehensive program and his lecturing activity. He spoke introductory words at artistic programs, had numerous conferences, and took part in the excursions, but every meal caused in his ill condition renewed suffering, which he bore courageously without a word of complaint. Frau Dr. Wegman, his faithful physician, discussed with me and carried out during trips inconspicuous ways of enabling him to reduce his suffering during pauses in the program and at mealtimes. He permitted nothing to be known by those at the conference regarding his illness. The more his physical suffering increased, so much the more heroic became the concentrated, intense, and at the same time spiritually clarified activity to bring about and to safeguard the greatest plenitude of spiritual knowledge in this life on earth.
On an unforgettable day Rudolf Steiner went with us to the place on the rough rocky western coast of Cornwall, Tintagel, where the castle of King Arthur had once stood, whence he and the Knights of the Round Table carried on their battle for victory against evil and to rescue the impulse of esoteric Christianity and the current of the Grail for a new epoch. That strangely densified spiritual atmosphere we shall never forget, so intensely to be felt as Rudolf Steiner climbed the strange projecting cliff on the lonely coast of Cornwall where the last walls of the castle of King Arthur towered over the roaring sea. The unceasing struggle of the sun forces against the clouds and fog rising from the sea surrounded the cliffs and the castle with an atmosphere of an eternal elemental battle.
He spoke there, standing on the cliff, about the experiences of the Knights of King Arthur, who experienced in this external struggle of the forces of light with the elements of the earth a reflection of their own inner battles, where in the realm of soul and spirit light and darkness battle for the mastery, and the ego force, the illuminated consciousness of man, strives to achieve in ceaseless battle mastery over the clouds and fog of the passions. He spoke of the teaching of Merlin, which was there fostered, of the service to the spiritual Sun practiced by Arthur's circle and their knowledge of the cosmic deed of Christ. As he then surveyed on the highest point of the cliff the remains of the walls of the ancient castle, which indicated the structure of the Mystery place of King Arthur in its external lines, the past became present to him in his spiritual vision, and he described to us in living pictures—pointing with his hand to the various parts of the castle—where the hall of the Round Table had once been, the rooms of the king and of his knights. The immediacy of the spiritual vision in this place was so intense that, during his descriptions, the entire reality, the external life and action, the inner willing and achievement of the circle of King Arthur's knights, stood before us as actual experience. That such an occurrence is in our time actually possible—making the past livingly present through spiritual vision and the resulting real union of present experience and will with a spiritual stream of a past age,—this fact gave to those hours on the cliff of Arthur's castle in Tintagel the sacred character of a deed which is inscribed in the annals of history.
After we had returned to Torquay, Dr. Steiner gave to those fellow workers who were there assembled a detailed report upon what had been experienced at the castle of King Arthur and a description of the spiritual relations in which the action of King Arthur's knights and the stream of the Grail, fostered by them, had worked out historically. In addition to the daily lectures of the cycle on Initiate Consciousness, he gave at the same time in Torquay a Pedagogical Course of seven lectures which made available to a group of teachers the methodics and the practice of the new art of education. These teachers had expressed the wish for the development of additional schools based upon this spiritual-scientific foundation. Persons gathered during this summertime at this magnificent coast resort shared enthusiastically in the programs of Eurythmy given under the leadership of Frau Marie Steiner. Since that time Eurythmy has developed greatly also in this country.
On August 23 we traveled from Torquay to London, where Dr. Steiner had been invited to give additional lectures between August 24 and 30. To the friends there he imparted first in three lectures on Karma in Individual Human Being and in the Evolution of Humanity the essential content of the Dornach karma lectures, supplementing this with statements about the incarnations and destinies of significant historical personalities. In this connection he reported on his experiences at Tintagel and their historical backgrounds. On August 29 and 30 he spoke in addition in public lectures, upon invitation of the Educational Union for the Realization of Spiritual Values. These lectures on pedagogy were delivered in Essex Hall. On August 28 and 29 he gave two special lectures for physicians on the theme The Art of Healing from the Standpoint of Spiritual Science. At the end of August we returned to Dornach from this final foreign trip, which had made such grievous demands upon the forces of Rudolf Steiner, but had been filled with such significant experiences.
His activity in the month of September, devoted to preparation for Michaelmas and introducing the final epoch of his earthly work, constitutes an admonition in the history of the Society. It is like a lofty lighthouse sending its rays out over all the spheres which he had illuminated in the course of his life from the beginning of the century. His creative work and beneficence during these September weeks reached an intensity possible only for the loftiest forces of concentration in a supremely great spiritual leader.
Not only did he once more spread light over the wide expanses of his fields of research, but during this brief time he gave seventy lectures the substance of which enriched in essential matters what he had previously given. During these weeks he gave simultaneously four lecture cycles, each organically supplementing the other: one on the archetypal form in the destiny of the spiritual Movement which he had inaugurated, Anthroposophy, guiding into a supersensible knowledge of the world and of the destiny of man. This was the final comprehensive series of esoteric “Karma Reflections.” This main motif was supplemented by three cycles of lectures, one devoted to art, one to religion, and one to science. The artistic sphere received its completion through the lectures between September 5 and 23 on The Art of Speech and Dramatic Art; the religious sphere through the Course for Theologians of the Christian Community; and the union of art, religion, science, and the practical life in eleven lectures on Pastoral Medicine, between September 8 and 18.
We have seen that art accompanied Anthroposophy on its way of life from the beginning. The two cannot be conceived apart from one another. Rudolf Steiner’s lifework opened a way into the future for art. In this sphere of work Frau Marie Steiner was his most devoted assistant, and she initiated also the present course, even conducting it during the first days, since Dr. Steiner arrived in Dornach only on September 5, and the training of the numerous participants in this course had to begin before his arrival.
The capacity of speech belongs to man alone of all beings on earth, but materialism and the intellect have greatly reduced the value of this creative gift. Yet there are many persons at the present time who long to recognize the destiny of this loftiest gift, and to experience it when practiced as an art. Regarding the fulfillment of this longing, Rudolf Steiner said: "This can be done only when, first of all, one becomes aware how the soul content of man is manifest when molded livingly in words. The modem consciousness lives in the presence of speech only in the sensing of the idea; it has almost completely lost a sense for the sound and the word. But in the sensing of the idea the sensibly perceptible spirituality is almost completely lost, and this is the actual essence of all art."
The present-day intellect, concerned only with the content of ideas, docs not listen to the spiritual force immanent in every sound, can no longer comprehend how in the right intoning of every sound the soul and spirit of man, and also creative forces of the world, come to manifestation. This "schooling for a sense for sound and word" was given to the artists, who were now to learn, in spite of all difficulties, to achieve again for the sound and the word their spiritual potency. Living and working in the sound, and a new capacity of the sense of hearing, for taking in the spiritual power indwelling in sound and word, constitute one of the most important preliminary stages for a spiritualized experience of both the sensible and supersensible worlds, which belongs to the future destiny of man. An art of the stage which undertakes to present human soul forces, human gestures, forms of expression, essential traits in an artistic way without a concrete knowledge of the spiritual nature of man inevitably falls into a banal naturalism. Only spiritual science gives once more the possibility of creating anew for the human being, in a manner in keeping with the times, an experience which was once bestowed by the art of the Greek Mysteries.
This extraordinarily rich Course in the Art of Speech and Dramatic Art, available in book form, has for years been the basis of continuous training at the Goetheanum and in many other countries. The renewal of Mystery art—in the presentation of Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Dramas, of Goethe's Faust, unabridged, and of the dramatic works of Albert Steffen, the achievements of the artistic troupes of the Goetheanum, now well known in many of the cities of Europe—all of this has come out of the new knowledge of the spiritual nature of speech brought to light by Rudolf Steiner.
At the same time with this course Dr. Steiner gave, between September 5 and 22, a cycle for the work of the priests of the Christian Community, providing substance and force out of the sources of spiritual-scientific knowledge and esoteric Christianity for their future development. In a report written by him we read: “In the courses which have been given here at the Goetheanum between September 4 and 23, 1924, there was one for the priests of the Christian Community. It was in the strictest sense addressed only to this circle. Only the members of the Vorstand at the Goetheanum shared in the course in addition to this circle. The members of this priesthood had for a long time expressed the desire that the content of the Apocalypse should constitute the substance of this course.”
He then called attention to the fact that, in the year 1908, he had for the first time dealt with the spiritual substance of the Apocalypse in his cycle of lectures at Nuremberg to members of the Society, and that this earlier cycle rendered possible the insight into the fact that the consciousness of the present-day human being can come to a realization of the complete harmony between spiritual-scientific knowledge regarding the evolution of cosmos, earth, and man and the revelations of esoteric Christianity:
“In the cycle of lectures delivered at Nuremberg, I was able to point out that there is to be found in large measure in the pictorial language of the writer of the Apocalypse what can be said regarding the evolution of humanity and the earth within the solar system on the basis of the researches of Anthroposophy, carried further into the spiritual sphere but conducted in accordance with the conscientiousness of present-day science. For this reason it was possible also to place in the right light the relation between the esoteric truths of Christianity and Anthroposophy. In a certain sense I could at that time place before my hearers the insight that it is possible for the human being to hear eternal truths, profoundly moving to the soul, from two sides: from the side of the vision achieved in esoteric Christianity and from that of spiritualscientific cognition, and that one hears the same thing if one listens rightly.”
Dr. Steiner then described the further events leading to the lectures he had given to a circle of theologians, and the development which followed out of these. He said:
“What was to occur could be brought about here in the Goetheanum two years ago. Since that time the community of priests of the Christian renewal have gone forward energetically on their course. They are developing a beneficent and wholesome activity. After two years—the anniversary actually occurred during the period of the course—these priests felt the need to enter into a closer relation with the Apocalypse. I thought I could do something to bring about this closer relation. My spiritual path had rendered it possible for me to follow traces of the writer of the Apocalypse.
“And so I thought that I could render possible in this course a *presenta tion which could mediate this 'book for priests, in the true sense to the priests as a spiritual guide. The Consecration of Man is at the very center of the work of the priest. From this there radiates out what penetrates the human world out of the spiritual world in the form of a cult. The Apocalypse can stand in the middle of the soul of the priest. From it there can radiate into all the thinking, all the feeling of the priest what the human soul, in performing the sacrifice, can receive in grace from the Spirit world. It is in this way that I thought about the tasks of this course for priests when the wish was expressed that I should give it. And now I have given it in that spirit.”
One received an unforgettable impression in being permitted to take into oneself the spiritual atmosphere of these two cycles of lectures. Of course, the areas of action of the artists and the priests, who received in separate cirdes and at different hours of the day what was given to them, were in character and in mood very unlike. For, naturally, in the case of the artists, the work during the course was directed toward immediate transformation into action, word, gesture, the intoning of sounds, exercises, and rehearsal. In the case of the priests, that which was received addressed with its primordial content most of all the inner forces; called upon the soul for self-questioning full of inner decisions; brought to them a substance which created out of the spirit of the Apocalypse also an insight into the sphere of spiritual duties of our own age. What was occurring could be clearly sensed in the lecture room, in the circle of priests, as a real and active force. One realized that here a new epoch of activity was beginning.
The content that was given in these lectures is inevitably a treasure of wisdom entrusted only to those who participated, but what occurred arose so organically out of the totality of the lifework of Rudolf Steiner that it is historically profoundly united with him, and remains so united.
The third of these cycles of lectures at the Goetheanum in September 1924 was devoted to the influence of knowledge, art, and religious experience in the science and the activity of the healing art. For Rudolf Steiner gave simultaneously with the two cycles already mentioned, between September 8 and 18, eleven lectures on Pastoral Medicine. Priests and physicians participated together in this course. The content of this course we cannot here set forth. It was entrusted to the knowledge and the practical work of help in this sphere of those so engaged, and it has since that time demonstrated its beneficent force in manifold ways. During these weeks Rudolf Steiner also carried further the esoteric lessons for the members of the School. It is essential that one should always bear in mind that all these areas of work came out of the same spiritual source and led to the same goal.
We have already mentioned the fact that, during these last weeks of teaching and creative work in the circle of co-workers, Dr. Steiner gave seventy lectures: three or four every day for persons assembled for different types of work. In the forenoon and the afternoon he spoke to the artists, priests, scientists, doctors, and teachers; in the evening he guided the whole body of members into the historical sources, destiny, and mission of the Anthroposophical Movement. In the very few remaining free hours he still continued to carry on his addresses to those working on the building.
It was a tragic fact, bearing in a certain sense a quality of guilt, that many persons who, in the midst of this tremendous load of work, requested opportunities for personal conferences with him—many such requests were made every day—did not recognize the fact that such requests, under the circumstances and in view of his grave bodily sufferings, constituted an excess which must inevitably overburden his physical forces. Nevertheless, in his utterly unselfish goodness and devoted helpfulness, he still rendered possible hundreds of personal conversations, conferences, discussions. In spite of the warnings of Frau Dr. Wegman, watching over his physical condition and counseling him, and the entreaties of friends who knew of his suffering that he should limit the number of daily interviews, he continued to grant these gifts of his from morning to late in the night with increasing intensity. The consequences resulting from this have been described by Frau Marie Steiner:
“Every day, three courses manifesting an inexpressible power of ascent of the spirit, of an astonishing plenitude in integrated composition and practical instruction. In addition, at least three lectures every week about Anthroposophy and magnificent lectures for those working on the building. One dared not utter a word about sparing him. Pleas to spare himself constituted a hindrance. Thus destiny had to take its course.
“He himself said to us many times that what brought him to his sick bed was the numerous private conferences. The lectures he could divide into parts according to his forces, so he thought, and there was also a sustaining force in them. The rest, yielding to the pleas, he could no longer control, could no longer adapt to the residue of his strength. The door-keepers counted four hundred visitors during the time when he was daily giving four lectures. There had for a long time been no moment of rest remaining to build up what was destroyed in the forces of the organism.”
Of course, those who shared the responsibility for the entire work in Dornach sought to relieve him as far as possible of ordinary tasks, or to help him with them, but the stream of those seeking his aid constantly made demands upon his force from all sides; the stream could not be dammed because his own goodness of heart left the doors open to it. Thus at length nature and destiny themselves had to call a halt, when his strength had been so far exhausted in the end of September that even his superhuman capacity of self-sacrifice was no longer able to keep his suffering body upright and continue his work. It is beyond the power of expression to say what we all experienced in those days of September when he bestowed his last gifts upon us, with terrible physical distress, in his Michaelmas lectures.
We called attention at the beginning of this biography to the fact of destiny that at the beginning and at the end of Rudolf Steiner's work he devoted his first and his last series of lectures to the spiritual nature of relations in destiny, to reflections on karma. This series of lectures uniting the beginning and the goal came to an end in the evening of September 23.
It was an appropriate fulfillment of the course of his life, lived in harmony with spiritual laws, that he gave his last lecture at the time of Michaelmas, on September 28, 1924, in the great workshop at the Goetheanum. In these last words he spoke about the wanderings on earth and the deeds of the spiritual being of John. And he gave access to the Mystery of Lazarus. A second lecture was to have supplemented what he had given, but his suffering forced him to his sickbed, to the most grievous sacrifice. Thus in this lecture on September 28 he stood for the last time on that speakers5 platform of the great workshop in Dornach and implanted in the atmosphere of that working place, rich in destiny, the nature of Johannine Christianity, whose esoteric truths he had received in our day out of the sacred tradition of history, had proclaimed on the basis of spiritual vision, and had entrusted as loyal guardian and pathfinder to the twentieth century.
Ricarda Huch, in her work on The Meaning of the Holy Scriptures speaks of the fate of the great spiritual leaders in the history of humanity: “Every one who is called is a sacrifice which feeds the flame; but, while he is being consumed, he illuminates and warms the broad expanse of the world." This was the destiny and the deed also of Rudolf Steiner in the twentieth century.
The sacrificial flame consumed him in the months that still remained until his return into the spiritual world. His suffering bound his physical body to the sickbed from September 1924 until his death on March 30, 1925. And the sacrificial flame in this time of suffering gave light and warmth, for his spiritual giving lasted till his death.
Where he had his place of work, there Rudolf Steiner remained even during the months when he could no longer go out among people. He never returned during that period to his residence, but remained until death in his studio on the Dornach hill, in the simple lofty room where he had worked for decades and had given counsel and help to many thousands of persons. His bed was at the base of the Christ statue on which he had been carving till the end, his gaze could now rest upon this work. It had now to be more quiet in this working room. Only with a few persons could he now speak face to face; his voice became weaker, his hearing a tax on his physical forces. The countenance had become thinner. Because of his suffering, the form of the noble head was plastically still more prominent. His eyes indicated the pain he suffered, but they were kinder and more brilliant than ever. His lofty spiritual powers created in the stillness and concentration those gifts which from now till the end came to human beings in written words.
Upon entering this studio during these weeks and months, one generally found Rudolf Steiner resting half erect on his bed, reading or writing. He continued to work without interruption. Almost every day during this time, he requested me to lay before him the correspondence at the habitual hour of eleven o’clock, had the letters read to him, dictated the answers or gave directives and advice for replies going into all parts of the world. For the stream of questions and of requests for counsel from the whole world never ended. If, in order to protect him, I presented to him just as little as possible, his questions drew into the discussion what had been withheld; for, even in this time of apparent external separation, he shared most intensely in the life of the Society, of the friends, of his students.
The example of Frau Marie Steiner, who kept the great body of artists at their creative work and directed the programs in Dornach and also those now taking place on tours, gave to the members courage and strength still to carry out their tasks in the midst of the grievous sorrow all experienced. Every week Albert Steffen received from Dr. Steiner the contribution for the weekly “Das Goetheanum” painstakingly written in bed with his own hand. He was then writing down for the first time for serial publication in the weekly his autobiography, The Course of My Life. In these conversations in the studio there came to light constantly new glimpses into the nature of significant individualities, into the mission of humanity, and into contemporary events.
Very much in the sphere of work, and especially personal attendance and treatment of Rudolf Steiner, rested in the hands of Frau Dr. Ita Wegman, in whose medical counsel and friendly assistance he had the utmost confidence. She cared for him day by day unweariedly. During the later stages of the illness, Dr. Ludwig Noll was brought in as a consultant and they were aided by the faithful fellow workers at the clinic.
During these months, Rudolf Steiner addressed himself every week to the whole body of his students in a letter entitled To the Members, published in the “News Sheet.” In these letters he guided them more and more deeply into the nature of the Michaelic. To render clear this way of knowledge which he was then through these letters enabling them to tread together with him, I should like to mention some of the themes:
The Pre-Michaelic and the Way of Michael.
Michael's Task in the Sphere of Ahriman.
MichaeFs Observations and Experiences in the Course of His Cosmic Mission.
The Michael-Christ Experience of the Human Being.
Michael's Mission in the Cosmic Age of Human Freedom.
Christmas Reflection: the Mystery of The Logos.
Heavenly History, Mythological History, Earthly History, the Mystery of Golgotha.
What Is Revealed When One Looks Back into Repeated Lives on Earth.
he Freedom of Man and the Michael Epoch.
The Human Being in His Macrocosmic Nature.
These few examples of the themes dealt with in these lectures indicate their direction and objectives. These weekly hand-written communications to the members gave once more a concentrated compendium of what he had been bringing to bear for decades upon the consciousness of present-day human beings, and at the same time the signal for a courageous, independent continuation on this path. To each of these articles there was appended at the end, in terse form, a “Guiding Thought” (Leitsatz), rendering it possible for the student to establish a union through concentration and meditation with the spiritual substance of this knowledge and, through practice, to achieve it for himself. They constitute a spiritual legacy bequeathed to the forces of consciousness and will in the advancing century, which is destined to stand under the sign of Michael, and in his spirit to overcome the Dragon which threatens this age.
In addition to this creative work which Rudolf Steiner carried on from day to day from his sickbed, he also did a tremendous amount of reading, keeping himself continuously informed regarding literature newly published in the fields of science, art, history, and all others. Since he could no longer himself visit the bookshops and the antiquariats, with their riches, the difficult task was assigned to me to choose and acquire constantly books which might be interesting to him. This was a taxing task, rich in experiences, for it was really difficult to guess what he already knew, what might or might not interest him, what he would consider important or unimportant. Every few days, therefore, I visited the bookshops in Basel, but often also those in other cities, seeking for the books which might be what he would wish to read. Then, every time that I came to the side of his bed with a great pile of books chosen for examination, there was always a moment of suspense as he thoughtfully took one book after another, looked at the title and the name of the author, turned a few pages, and made his choice. The books that he wished to retain and read he piled on the right side of the bed and those not interesting on the left side. I was proud, naturally, when the greater number of books finally lay on the right side; but I had to go again very quickly in search of books if the pile on the left was greater than that on the right. It was also very instructive to notice what he considered interesting or important in the flood of new publications in world literature, in connection with which he often characterized author and theme in a few words, and placed them in their general relations. When he studied the tremendous pile of books lying on the right side of the bed, in the midst of all his other work, and in spite of his illness, is a puzzle, but chance remarks on the next occasion of the delivery of books indicated that he had in the meanwhile taken thorough account of their contents.
It has already been said that, even in this time of great suffering, he shared intensely in all that was going on in Dornach and among those all over the world united in this work. As an indication of this heartfelt bond of union with the persons about him, it may be mentioned here that he did not forget in his illness to cooperate by means of letters to friends in bringing about a worthy celebration of the fortieth birthday of Albert Steffen on December 10, 1924. On the day before this event he wrote a placard for the bulletin board in the great workshop, giving the following expression to what impelled him:
“To our friends at the Goetheanum,
“On Wednesday December 10, friends desire to assemble at the Goetheanum to do honor to Albert Steffen on his fortieth birthday.
“I cannot be present in person in this gathering, but I shall be altogether present in spirit; for my heart is filled with admiring recognition of Steffen's lifework, and it is filled with warmest spiritual joy at the fact that we can call him our own.
“The meeting is to occur on Wednesday at five o'clock in the lecture room of the Schreinerei” [the great workshop by the side of the Goetheanum of which Dr. Steine?s studio sick room was an annex].
Thus all the friends celebrated unitedly the fortieth birthday of Albert Steffen. Frau Marie Steiner gave an artistic recitation of some of his poems, the Dornach musicians enriched the festival with compositions of their own, and all of those present, deeply distressed at the absence of Rudolf Steiner, knew through his words that they were united with him, through his sharing in the festival from his sickbed in the same building.
Albert Steffen, the distinguished poet and friend of Rudolf Steiner, had been chosen by him, indeed, as his Representative (Stellvetreter) and as Vice-President of the Society and the Goetheanum, and it became his task after the death of Rudolf Steiner to serve as President.
In a comprehensive survey over the stages of development, Frau Marie Steiner has described in the following words, taken from the preface of one of the works of Rudolf Steiner edited by her, the life epoch of the spiritual Movement extending from 1923 to 1930:
“At Christmas of 1930 the fourth seven-year cycle had run its course. Rudolf Steiner had left the Earth—soon after that memorable New Foundation, over which he could preside as President for only one year. And Albert Steffen, the great poet and dramatist—after an intense struggle among those responsible as to the spirit of the Movement as this had been entrusted to us by Rudolf Steiner, after processes of fermentation and passionate battles of consciousness which had to precede this fact, apparently so self-evident—now became the recognized head of the Anthroposophical Society. Spiritual necessities create in their earthly reflection many testings, which we must resolve into forces of consciousness. It is by this path that an individualized community consciousness must be achieved. The struggle in that direction became the characteristic of the fourth seven-year cycle.”
In connection with that festival of December 1924, so intimately enhanced in its beauty by Rudolf Steiner, there came the message mentioned above: “I shall be altogether present in spirit,” sent from his place of work in the immediate vicinity, whence we were still permitted to receive daily advice from him in the earthly sphere, and indications for the future. Faith, love, and hope caused those at the gathering and the whole membership to await the day when he could again be present in the earthly body. The certitude which he gave that he would be present in spirit conferred courage and strength to do service to his work in the earthly sphere also when it became necessary to ask for counsel and indications for the future out of the spiritual worlds united with the earthly sphere.
In this December 1924, there was still a work of building to be made certain for the future: the erection of the second Goetheanum. There were already rising on the hill of Dornach the scaffolding, the foundation, and the walls of the mighty building, taking on the form of the model made by Rudolf Steiner; and he called again and again into the consciousness of those working with him in this spiritual movement the significance of the Goetheanum and the need to work energetically for its realization. Thus, in a letter of December 30, he wrote the following words for warning, for reminder, and for unwavering constancy:
“For a year I carried about with me in my head the idea for the new Goetheanum. The transformation of this idea out of wood, of which the first Goetheanum was constructed, into the artistically brittle substance of concrete was not easy. Then, at the beginning of this year, I began to work on the formation of the model ... For many years, in my Anthroposophical writings and lectures, I have emphasized the fact that Anthroposophy is not only a theoretical conception of the world, but that a special style in art results from its very nature. And, since that is the case, a building for Anthroposophy must grow out of this itself...
“I beg you to believe me when I say that this results from an iron necessity.”
This creative fulfillment of what was known to be right according to spiritual laws—to produce out of Anthroposophy itself the building where science, art, and religion were to come together in a new unity based upon the Spirit—had imbued his creative work from the beginning. He had called upon human beings in the spirit of Michael, the Time Spirit, to be true to this task, to carry the work further which he had brought to its unfolding in space and time. He now again summoned the consciousness of all those responsible to both knowing and willing in this Spirit, and assured for Him a working place for the coming time.