ASA Newsletter 1984 Summer

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How Do I Find the Christ?

by RUDOLF STEINER

Zurich, October 16, 1918

This is the last section of the lecture, How Do I Find the Christ,

translated by Henry & Lisa Monges, published in 1941 by the Anthroposophic Press.

We live in the fifth post-Atlantean period and haveadvanced far into it, we live in the twentieth century. Theconsequence is that, when we as souls are bom, and enterthe world of the senses from the supersensible world, wehave experienced something in the spiritual world centuries before. Just as the contemporaries of the Mystery ofGolgotha gained, centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha,a complete understanding of it, so did we experience, while still in the spirit world, a kind of reflected image ofthe Mystery of Golgotha, before we were born, centuriesbefore we were born. But this is valid only for the humanbeings o f the present age. Present-day human beings bear

within themselves, when they are born in the physicalworld, a kind of reflected splendor of the Mystery ofGolgotha, a kind of reflected image of the experienceshuman beings had centuries after the Mystery ofGolgotha.

Certainly, this impulse cannot be perceived directlyby someone who has no supersensible vision; but every

one may experience the effect of this impulse within himself. And if he experiences it, he finds the answer to thequestion: How do Ifi n d the Christ?

You find the Christ if you have the following experiences: First, the experience of saying to yourselves: I shallstrive for self-knowledge as far as it is possible for me to doso as an individual human personality. But nobody whohonestly strives for this self-knowledge will, as a humanbeing of today, be able to say anything but the following: Icannot comprehend what I am striving for. My power ofcomprehension lags behind my striving; I feel powerlessin regard to my striving.This experience is very impor

tant. This experience of a certain feeling of powerlessnesseveryone should have, who takes honest counsel withhimself on self-knowledge. This feeling of powerlessnessis healthy, for it is nothing but the sensation of disease.For, when we have a disease and do not feel it, we are justthat much more ill. By realizing our powerlessness to raiseourselves to the Divine at any time in our life, we feel implanted within ourselves the disease we have described.And in feeling this disease we feel that the soul would be condemned by the body, as it is today, to die with the body.If we feel this powerlessness strongly enough, the changecomes. Then there appears another experience which tellsus that if we do not surrender to what we are able to gainonly through our bodily forces, but if we devote ourselvesto what the spirit bestows upon us, we may then overcomethis inward soul-death. We are permitted to have the

possibility of finding our soul anew and joining it to thespirit. On the one hand, we may experience the futility of

existence, and, on the other, the glorification of existence

out of our own self, if we transcend the feeling of

powerlessness. We may feel the disease in our lack ofpower, and we may feel the Healer, the healing power, ifwe have felt the powerlessness, and have become related

to death in our soul. In feeling the Healer we feel that we

bear something within our soul which can rise from death

at any time within our own inner experience. If we search

for these two experiences, we find the Christ in our ownsoul.

This is an experience which humanity approaches.Angelus Silesius stated it in speaking the significant

words:

Christ cannot redeem theeThe Cross of Golgotha from Evil can neer redeem

thee,So long as it remain unraised within thee.

It may be raised within us when we feel the two poles:Powerlessness through our body, resurrection through our

spirit.This inner experience, consisting of these two parts, is

that which draws us toward the Mystery of Golgotha. Thisis an event, in regard to which we cannot excuse ourselvesby saying that we have no supersensibly developed faculties. We do not need any such thing. We need merelyactual self-knowledge, and also the will to combat pride, a

fault which is so very common today, and which preventsthe human being from observing that he becomes proud

and haughty in respect of his own forces as soon as hedepends upon them. If, with regard to our own pride, we

are unable to feel that we have become powerless throughour own forces, we are then unable to feel either death or

resurrection; we shall then never feel the thought ofAngelus Silesius:

The Cross of Golgotha from Evil can neer redeem

thee,So long as it remain unraised within thee.

But, if we are able to feelpowerlessness and recovery

from it, we have the great good fortune of really having an

actual relationship with Christ Jesus. For this experienceis the repetition of what we experienced centuries previously in the spirit world. Thus we have to search for it inour soul here on the physical plane in its reflected image. Search yourselves, and you will find powerlessness; andafter having found it, you will find redemption from itthe resurrection o f the soul by the spirit.

But do not let yourselves be misled in these mattersthrough what is preached today by mysticism or even bycertain positive confessions. If Harnack, for example,speaks of the Christ, his statements are not true, for thesimple reason that what he says about the Christread ityourselves!may be said of God in general. What he saysmay just as well be said of the God of Jews, and just as well


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of the God of the Mohammedans, of every God. Manypeople who today claim to be spiritually awakened say: Iexperience God within me but they only experience Godthe Father in a very weakened form, because they do not perceive that they are ill, but merely base their words on

tradition.... Yet such people have no Christ; for the

Christ-experience is not the realizing of the God in thehuman soul, but consists of two experiencesthe death ofthe soul through the body, and the resurrection of the soul

through the spirit. And anyone who tells mankind that hefeels not only the God within himself, as it is also claimedby the merely rhetorical theosophists, but who is able todescribe two experiencespowerlessness and the resurrection from itonly such a person describes the trueChrist experience. And he will find his way to the Mysteryof Golgotha on a supersensible path; he himself will findthe strength which stimulates certain supersensible forcesand which will lead him to the Mystery of Golgotha.

There is no need today, my dear friends, for giving up hope to find the Christ in ones direct personal experience;for we have found Him, if we have recovered ourselvesfrom powerlessness. The whole feeling of nothingness, offutility, which comes over us when we, without pride,ponder over our own forces, has to precede the Christimpulse. Clever mystics believe they possess Christianitywhen they are able to say: I have found within my ego thehigher ego, the ego of God. But this is not Christianity!Christianity must be based upon the sentence:

The Cross of Golgotha from Evil can neer redeemthee,

So long as it remain unraised within thee.

Even the details of life make us feel the great truth ofwhat I say, and we may rise from them to the greatexperience of powerlessness and the resurrection from it.My dear friends, it would be beautiful, especially in ourpresent age, if human beings would, for instance, discoverthe following: There exists quite definitely a tendencytoward truth, rooted deeply in human souls, and theintention to utter the truth in words. But just at the point where we intend to utter the truth, stop for a moment inorder to think about this utterance of the truth, we makethe first step on the path leading to the experience of thepowerlessness of the human body in regard to Divine Truth. At the moment you actually practice self-knowl-edge in respect of speaking, you will hit upon somethingvery peculiar. The poet felt it when he said: If the soul

speaks, then, alas, thesoulno longer speaks. On its way tobecome speech, our inner soul experience of truth becomes already dulled. It is not deadened completely inspeech, but it is already dulled. And whoever understandslanguage, knows that only proper nouns, which designatemerely one thing, are true designations for this thing. Assoon as we have generalized wordsthey may be nouns,verbs, or adjectiveswe no longer speak the full truth. Insuch a case truth consists in our being conscious of the factthat, with every sentence, we have to deviate from the

truth. Spiritual science tries to rise from this confession:with every statement you speak untruth, by proceedingin a certain way which I have often characterized. I haveoften told you that in spiritual science the matter of chiefimportance is not what is statedfor this would fall just asmuch a prey to this judgment of powerlessnessbut thematter of chief importance ishow a statement is made. Tryto follow up (you may do this also with my writings) how asubject is characterized from the most varied points of

view, how the endeavor is made to characterize a thingfrom one side and then from another; only through thisprocedure are we able to deal with things.

Anyone who believes that words themselves aresomething different from eurythmy is greatly mistaken!Words are simply eurythmy performed by the larynx,produced by the help of the air. They are mere gestureswhich, however, are not performed with the hands andfeet, but with the larynx. We have to become consciousthat we merely point to something, and that we gain agenuine relationship to truth only when we see in the wordindications of what we wish to express, and when we, ashuman beings, in our mutual relationships bear in our

selves the consciousness that words are really only indications. Eurythmy, among other things, wishes to point tothis; eurythmy makes the whole human being a larynxthat means, it expresses through the whole human beingwhat ordinarily is expressed only by the larynxin orderto make human beings feel again that, in speaking thelanguage of sounds, they are making mere gestures. I sayfather, I say mother, if I generalize everything, I amable to express myself truthfully only when the otherhuman being, together with me, has acquainted himselfwith these things in the social element, so that he under

stands the gesture.We arise only then from powerlessness, which we

can, indeed, feel in regard to language, and from it wecelebrate the resurrection, when we understand that, inthe moment of opening our mouth, we must already beChristian. What has become of the Word, of the Logos, inthe course of evolution, can be comprehended only whenthe Logos is reunited with the Christ, only when we become conscious of the following: Our body, as instrument of pronunciation, forces truth into a lower state,killing it partly on our lips, and we vivify it again in Christ,when we become conscious that we have to spiritualize it;that means, we must not accept speech as such, but wehave to accompany speech byspirit-thoughts. This we haveto learn, my dear friends!

I do not know whether time will permit me in thepublic lecture tomorrow to call attention to what I amabout to say. I should like to do it. At any rate, I shall say ithere first. Should I repeat it tomorrow once more, pleasedo not take it amiss. I shall now say here what I have saidpublicly in various places. We can make a peculiardiscovery. I shall characterize it by a special case. I haveintimately studied the very interesting essays whichWoodrow Wilson has written, lectures about Americanhistory, American literature, American life. We may say


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that this Woodrow Wilson has magnificently and powerfully described the American development as it takesplace from the American East toward the West. Hisdescriptions are those of a real American, and theselectures, published in essay form, are very captivating.They are calledMere Literature, a nd Other Essays.We reallylearn to know the American nature in reading theseessays, for Woodrow Wilson is the most typical American.Now I have comparedthis comparison can be made

quite objectivelymany of the paragraphs in these essaysof Woodrow Wilson, for example, with statements ofHerman Grimm, a man who is a typical German of thenineteenth century, through and through a typical MiddleEuropean of the nineteenth century. Herman Grimmsstyle of writing is just as agreeable to me as WoodrowWilsons style is disagreeable. But this is only a personalremark. I love the style o f Herman Grimms writings, and Ifeel the style of Woodrow Wilsons writings as somethingutterly repugnant to me; but at the same time I can be quiteobjective; the typical American Woodrow Wilson writessimply brilliantly, magnificently, especially about thedevelopment of the nature of the American. In comparing

the essays of Woodrow Wilson and Herman Grimm, inwhich both wrote about the method of history, I had toconsider something quite different. Let us take certainsentences o f Woodrow Wilsons; they agree almost literally with the sentences written by Herman Grimm; and wemay take sentences of Herman Grimm, and transposethem into the essays of Woodrow Wilson: they agreeexactly. Any borrowing of one from the other is out of thequestion! This is not the point in question I wish to make,that any borrowing has occurred; this is absolutely out ofthe question. Here is the point where without becomingphilistine, we may learn:I ftwo say the same thing, it is not thesame. For here we have the problem: How is it that

Woodrow Wilson describes his Americans much moreimpressively, much more suggestively than HermanGrimm ever did in his method of history, and thatWoodrow Wilson speaks in his descriptions in sentencesof Herman Grimm? How does this come about? Thisreally becomes a problem.

If we enter upon this, my dear friends, we find thefollowing: If we follow up Herman Grimms style ineverything that he wrote, then we see that every sentence isobtained by a hard, personal individual struggle;everythingtakes place in the light of the culture of the nineteenth century, but out of the most direct consciousness soul.

Woodrow Wilson describes brilliantly, but he ispossessed by something in his subconscious nature. Thereis a demonic possession.In his subconscious nature something inspires him to write down his literary productions.The demon that in a special way appears in an Americanof the twentieth century, speaks through his soul. Therefore the brilliance, the power!

Lazy people today so often say, when they readsomething, considering only the content: I have read thisbefore, here or there. But today the time has come wheremankind has to learn that the contentis no longer of chief

importance, but rather, whoit is that speaks; this is wherethe importance lies. We have to learn to know the humanbeing from whathe says, for the words are mere gestures,and we have to know who it is that makes these gestures.That is the thing with which humanity must becomeacquainted. Here we have a very great mystery of ordinarylife, my dear friends. There is a great difference whetherevery sentence is struggled for by the personal ego, orwhether it is inspired in some way from below, or above, or

from the side. The writing that is inspired, for instance, hasa more suggestive effect, for in reading what has beenstruggled for, we in turn have to struggle with everysentence. The time is approaching when we shall nolonger direct our attention to the merely literal content ofwhat lies before our soul, but we shall have to direct ourattention above all to those who say this or that, not to theouter physical personality, but to the entire human-spiritual connection.

If human beings ask today:How do Ifi n d the Christ?

then we have to give such an answer. For the Christ cannotbe reached through some kind of speculation or throughcomfortable mysticism. He may be reached only if we

have the courage to immerse ourselves directly in life. Andin such a case you have to feel the powerlessness also inregard to language, the powerlessness which the body hasimposed on you through its being the bearer of speechand afterwards theResurrection o fthe Spirit in the Word.Wehave to feel not only that the letter killeth and the spiritmaketh alivethis saying, too, is often misunderstoodbut even the sound kills, and the spirit has to revivify byconcretely connecting every individual experience withthe Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha. In this first stepwe find the Christ. Search for the human relationships!Do not merely consider the content of this or that sentencehuman beings today are all too prone to do this

but consider how the words emerge from the place fromwhich they are uttered. This becomes more and moreimportant.

If many of our friends would consider this, we shouldnot so often have to experience people who come and say:That person talked quite anthroposophically, or quitetheosophically. You need only look it up! The wordsthat stand there are of no importance, but the spirit from which they spring; that is o fgreat importance.We do not wishto spread wordsthrough Anthroposophy, but a new spirit,

the spirit which is the Spirit of Christianity for thetwentieth century onward.

The Anthroposophical Society:Name and Task of Members GroupsA Historical Study

by GUNDHILD BOCK KACER

This article was printed in Mitteilungen aus der anthroposophischen Arbeit in Deutschland, Michaelmas 1983. It was


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translatedfrom the German by Maria St. Goar and is published hereby permission.

When the Anthroposophical Society was rebuilt inGermany after World War II, those responsible in Stuttgart dispensed purposely with the founding of a branch.Instead, Wednesday was designated as a membershipevening to make it possible for all participants of the

quickly arising groups to gather for a common anthroposophical meeting and, also, for active members to presentwhat they have achieved in various fields of work. Thisloosely structured form was chosen for several reasons.One of them wasso it was saidthe idea of a constitutedbranch dated from the period of the Theosophical Society.This view particularly has given rise to various discussions and to studies of the history of the Society. The present study has resulted. We will discuss here not thespecial situation in Stuttgart but merely survey certainaspects of the history of the Anthroposophical Society.

The view has often arisen that there is a fundamentaldifference between a branch[Zweig]and a working group

[Arbeitsgruppe]. The attempt is then made to define andexplain this difference, a difference based largely onfeeling and habit. The working group is thus seen as anorganization, formed to work with a definite theme for ashorter or longer period of time, in which the individual members seek stimulation and enrichment for their ownstudies, perhaps limited to a specific field. In contrast, thebranch is considered an organization with more pro

nounced structure that, for the individual member, signifies a greater obligation and, because of this bindingnature, is designed to be more permanent. It is thoughtthat only in a branch these two ideals are possible: The awakening to the soul-spiritual being of the other person

as a community-building element, and the individualsawareness of the whole of the Society, of which he canexperience himself to be a part through his efforts to findhis way into anthroposophy itself, instead of satisfyingpersonal interest and need in some select areas.

This is one view. The other is based on the convictionthat these same ideals can be realized without limitation in a circle of members, called a working group.

Are we dealing here merely with a nominal issue? Isnot the amount and intensity of the anthroposophic workessential, regardless of name, manner and form? Is not theneed to understand and to master anthroposophic con

tent ever more clearly, deeply and thoroughly the foremost

concern of all? Nevertheless, it may serve as a stimulus tostudy how the term Zweig appears in the history of theAnthroposophical Society and how Rudolf Steiner usesthe terms branch and working group.

Proceeding from the concept branch one mayvisualize a tree, General Anthroposophical Society,with its small and large branches: twigs, branches, trunk,roots, and so on. Asking about details, however, we soon run into difficulties. Where are the roots? What aboutleaves, blossoms, fruit? How does the trees yearly cycle

compare to the spiritual life of the AnthroposophicalSociety, since man in his soul-spiritual life and quest forknowledge has in fact freed himself from the yearlyprocesses in nature? If we ponder all these single questions we arrive at the answer that we can apply the pictureof the tree only by disregarding the life of blooming andfading, essential qualities of the plant kingdom. Thecomparison can therefore not fully satisfy us.

An interesting documentary report, published on the

occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of theKarlsruhe Branch, includes a copy of the foundingcharter: Herewith it is acknowledged that the KarlsruheBranch with the following council [Vorstand] membershas been admitted as an integral branch of the GermanSection of the Theosophical Society in the first month ofits 30th year. Recorded in Berlin on December 9 ,1904. Itis signed: Dr. Rudolf Steiner, General Secretary, and H.S.Olcott, P.T.S., headquarters in Adyar, Madras, India.

Here the term branch appears as the official designation for a group within the German Section of theTheosophical Society.

Under the same date a printed form, with details

filled in, concerning the founding of the branch was sentto Adyar. It states [in the original English]:

To the Recording Secretary, T.S., in Adyar, MadrasAcharter was issued on 9. December 1904 to Herr LudwigLindemann to form Branch of the Theosophical Society atKarlsruhe to be known as the Karlsruher Zweig, Branch/Lodge of the T.S., President Lindemann .. . Yours fraternally, Dr. Rudolf Steiner General Secretary.

In this notification the dual name branch/lodgeap-pears. Zweig is therefore simply the German translationof the English term branch. Although in Englishbranch refers to a branch of a tree or bush, it can also

mean the branch of a river, that of a line, a firm or a bank.The German term branch of science [Wissenschafts

zweig]corresponds to this. Accordingly, we should interpret the use of branch in the sense o f local branch of theTheosophical Society.

Lodge is familiar to us from Freemasonry. Originally the word denotes a type of housing for occasional orspecific use (weekend lodge, hunting lodge). Strictlyspeaking, the Masonic lodge is therefore the location ofthe meetingsomething secludedand this was thentransferred to mean a group of members.

Branch/lodge are thus alternative terms for designating a group within the Theosophical Society. Even

though the term branch was the official designation forgroups within the German Section, the word lodge wasoften applied, at least in everyday usage. Many memberswere probably familiar with lodges through their ownmembership, and since branches were in the early years also something secluded, lodge was used in Germany aswell. (Ernst Weissert enjoyed relating that in Mannheimone went to the lodge. This is probably true for otherlocations.) Even Rudolf Steiner himself used occasionallythe term lodge. Also, his lectures to the members were


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announced as lodge lectures [Logenvortraege] in Mitteilungen fuer die Mitglieder der Deutschen Sektion derTheosophischen Gesellschaft [Newsletter for the Members. . . ]. Edited by Mathilde Scholl, this was the official organpublished by the Section (quoted in the following asScholl Letters). Generally, however, Rudolf Steinerspeaks of branches. He did so even before the founding ofthe German Section when he mailed suggestions and

outlines of bylaws to the then-existing branches. Concerning this, he reported to Wilhelm Huebbe-Schleiden, onSeptember 4,1902: Enclosed is the official circular for the

branches. It was mailed to all ten branches__ Even before the founding of the Section the two

designations branch and lodge were used side by side.In 1884 the Theosophische Societaet Germania wasfounded in Wuppertal, led by Huebbe-Schleiden. Withinthis society there existed loosely formed groups, calledassociations [Vereinigungen]. Later, some of them becamea branch or a lodge, and in some cases joined the Section.In the German edition of Vahan, then the organ of theTheosophical Society edited by Richard Bresch, there is

the following notice on February 1902, hence before thefounding of the Section: Two new German lodges. InDuesseldorf and Cassel, two promising new branches ofthe Theosophical Society have opened. Here the twoterms appear even side by side.

In almost every issue of the Scholl Letters (fromNov. 1905 to June 1914) there are lists of the brancheswithin the German Section. Many of these have specialnames, for example the Franz von Assisi-Zweig inMalsch. Others are merely called Munich Branch, Stuttgart Branch, and so on. All the groups bear the namebranch with the one exception of Lodge at the Grail[Loge zum Gral]. In the issue of April 1913, in the first

listing after the founding of the Anthroposophical Society, the lodge and its leader, Herr Ahner, no longer appear,signifying that this group has not joined Rudolf Steinerafter the separation from the Theosophical Society.

The fact that branch was the official name for agroup within the Theosophical Society is given only theproper weight if we clarify the use of this term in the newlyinaugurated Anthroposophical Society after the separation from the Theosophical Society. In March and April of 1913, the Scholl Letters, appearing as the first publications for the members of the Anthroposophical Society,include the minutes of the General Meeting of February1913. On the final page of the April issue, there is a notice

in large print below the heading Please Read!:

Upon receipt of this issue of the Newsletter, the esteemedleaders [Vorstaende] of the working groups of the Anthroposophical Society are urgently requested to send immediately an alphabetical list of their members names andaddresses to the office of the Anthroposophical Society,Berlin W 30, Motzstrasse 17. We ask the former branchesof the dissolved German Section of the TheosophicalSociety to see to it that the membership cards, issued by us,will all be returned to us because they are demanded fromus.

Thus, it is made clear, even through the different designations of the members groups, that something newbegins, unconnected with the Theosophical Society. Notonly the Society but the individual group is called by adifferent name! It seems, however, the members did notquite comprehend this change in terminology. This mightbe deduced from an additional notice in bold print in #5of January 1914:

To the attention of the leaders of the working groups (calledbranches) concerning the mailing of the Newsletter.Theesteemed leaders of the working groups (usually referred toas branches) of the Anthroposophical Society are kindlyrequested to hand a copy of the Newsletter each time uponreceipt... to every member of their working group (calledbranch)__ To receive the Newsletter, the members of theworking groups (called branches) are requested to addressthemselves to the leadership of that working group (calledbranch) to which they pay their membership dues. Onlythose members not connected with a working group (calledbranch) will receive.. . the Newsletter from the officedirectly.

Each time the new and obviously unfamiliar term working group is used, the old name is added in parenthesis!

In the next issue of the Newsletter, of April 1914, theidentical wording is repeated with this addition:

The esteemed members of the Anthroposophical Societyare kindly requested to give each time, in all communications, their exact address and to name the working group(called branch) to which they pay their membership dues.

In a similar way the term working group shows up whenthe branches of different cities are listed. At first, the list isstill titled, German Branches. Then, from 1914 on, the

heading reads German Working Groups. In the case ofbranches with individual names, e.g. the Kerning-Zweig, under the leadership of Toni Voelker in Stuttgart,is now listed as Kerning-Arbeitsgruppe. This particulargroup was chosen here as an example because, perhaps toa specially marked degree, it had the private and inwardquality we connect with the idea of a branch. This groupeven went by the matter-of-fact term working group.

Hereafter, the Scholl Letters as the organ of theAnthroposophical Society also publish the lists of thegroups of other countries, together with the names of theirleaders. The headings read: American Working Groups[AmerikanischeArbeitsgruppen], Belgian Working Groups,

Danish, English, French, and so on, Working Groups.The English groups call themselves Group of Study, forexample Zarathustra Group of Study, London. TheFrench Groups go by the name of Groupe detude, forinstance Groupe detude St. Michel, Paris, inauguratedon May 4, 1913 by Rudolf Steiner.

Nevertheless, the terms branch and lodge lectureare used as before in the Scholl Letters. This shows thatthe introduction of the new term was not a bureaucraticmeasure to be carried out like an order. One can, however,discern the effort to bring new and original thoughts even


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to the realm of externals. It also becomes clear that theuse of one or another term is not merely a matter ofexternals but one of conscious reorganization thatincludes such details, attesting to the new independence.

A special situation arose for those groups that had notmerely constituted themselves as a branch but had expe

rienced a festive dedication by Rudolf Steiner and hadtaken the name of a spiritual sponsor or protective patron.How these names originated, that a number of branches

adopted, is a theme by itself. One might assume thatRudolf Steiner had chosen these names in a way similar tohow later, upon the request by some parents, he gavenames for their newborn children; and by the choice ofsuch a name he had addressed the branch in question asan individuality of a higher kind. However, if one studiesthe addresses and lectures that Rudolf Steiner gave indedicating such branches with individual names, onediscovers that this was not the case. On the contrary, Rudolf Steiner underlines with special emphasis theimportance of the fact that a certain name was selected bythe members themselves. Two examples will be cited:Malsch, April 6, 1909: A branch comes into existence

that, out of the sincere desire of those united in this branch,has adopted a name with such a deeply inward connectionto the whole of Christianity. Due to the profound needs ofthose united in this branch, this branch calls itself theFranz von Assisi-Zweig.

Bochum, Dec. 21, 1913:

Our friends wish to dedicate their work and their branch tothe name ofthat deity, regarded in northern Europe as thedeity who is to return to declining humanity the rejuvenating forces, the spiritual forces of childhood----They wishto call their branch Widar-Zweig. May this name be a

good omen.

The brief notices in the Scholl Letters include reportsabout the choice of a name, for example in Berne(September 1908):

Since the decision to found the Berne branch was made lastfall, at the time Herr Dr. Steiner gave a cycle of lectures onthe Gospel of St. John in Basle, it was possible toinaugurate our lodge solemnly on Dec. 15,1907 with elevenmembers. In connection with this lecture cycle, activelyattended by us from Berne, the lodge chose the nameJohannes-Zweig.

After the founding of the Anthroposophical Society in1913, dedications of new branches occurred in Augsburg,Erfurt, Bochum, Duesseldorf, and finally on April 30,1918in Ulm. From this we can observe Rudolf Steinersgenerous and open attitude toward the wishes of themembers. The in dividual situation, though, of each location would have to be studied. Doubtlessly, the best-known lecture given by Rudolf Steiner at a branchdedication is the one published under the title, Community Above Us, Christ in Us, Duesseldorf, June 15,1915.This branch resulted from the introductory work of Prof.Craemer, of which the Scholl Letters reported already in

1910. (It came into existence alongside the other branchthat met in the home of Frau Clara Smits; and it is not identical with the branch mentioned in 1902 in Vahan.)

More significant than the origin of this branch,however, is the message of the dedication lecture. Here,Rudolf Steiner speaks with inmost words of the task ofbranches: Through their work, the next cultural period isto be preparedjust as such preparation occurred earlierin the Mystery Centers. The people within the Mysteries

knew that through their work, forces were engendered andgiven to the beings of the higher hierarchies, who thencould fashion that future part of mans being which, in thefollowing cultural epoch was to be bestowed on humanity.Today, as if under the protection of the higher beings, theSpirit Self, which will descend during the sixth cultural epoch so as to unite completely with men, hovers abovehumanity. The ideals of brotherhood, of freedom ofthought and of spiritual knowledge, toward which wetoday are aspiring, will then find their realization. Inas

much as we have the vision of this spiritual goal and strivetoward it, we are working on the preparation for the future.

Rudolf Steiner introduces these lofty thoughts with a

question: Why do we unite in working groups, and whydo we cultivate within such working groups the spiritualtreasure to which we dedicate our forces? He says that anoutsider might well ask whether it did not suffice for aperson to study spiritual science on his own and occa

sionally attend a lecturewithout joining with others informed groups. He speaks of the most friendly and mostbrotherly harmony in such working groups and of theattitude to be cultivated within them. In this solemn context, the word working group appears severaltimesa matter-of-fact term for us today and oftenconveying the underlying meaning of merely intellectualstudy of spiritual scientific contents in the pursuit of onesown interest. With this term, Rudolf Steiner, however,connects the brotherliness that, just as in the ancientMystery Centers, includes the solemn obligation to pre

pare in the right way the spiritual future of humanity:

In our fraternal working groups we perform work thatstreams upward to those forces that are being prepared forthe Spirit Self... . It is only through the wisdom of spiritualscience itself that we can understand what we actually do inrespect of our connection with the higher worlds when weunite in such working groups. And the thought that we dothis work within our working groups not merely for thesake of our own egoism but tha t it may stream upward intothe spiritual worldsthis is the true consecration of a

working group. To cherish such a thought is to permeateourselves with the consciousness o f the consecration that isthe foundation of a working group within our spiritualmovement. It is, therefore, of great importance to grasp thisfact in its true spiritual meaning. We unite in such workinggroups . .. whose work should be of the nature of cooperation among brothers ... [that we] experience as a breath ofmagic in our working groups.

From a lecture given at the dedication of the ChristianRosenkreutz Branch in Hamburg, on June 17, 1912:

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We are gathered here to ask the blessing of those spiritualpowers who guide our spiritual scientific movementtheirblessing for a working group that, to meet its innermostneeds, has created a center. Through the most variedsymbols there are manifested in this center the impulses ofour willing: namely our dedication to the spiritual powers,and the good will to serve them in the proper way.... Wemust become convinced that the founding of a workinggroup is not merely an occasion to rejoice; rather it is the

beginning of a great obligationespecially when oneundertakes to adopt for this founding the name of thatnoble martyr__With each founding of an anthroposophical working group one accepts a grave responsibility__ Therefore, keep in mind that a working group isinaugurated here that will remain loyal to the principle: totransformby making accessible to human comprehensionwhat flows down through the Christ from out of the

spiritual world.

Does the plain term working group not take on new meaning through such words? Certainly, the way ofworking at that time and the small size of those workinggroups do not compare to our present conditions. Neither

can they be compared to the changed conditions in theAnthroposophical Society, just a few years after the timeof the above quoted lecture. Changes were caused by theinflux of young people, particularly the academic youth.Nevertheless, our concern here is the way in which RudolfSteiner uses the term working group.

After World War I and especially after the burning ofthe Goetheanum, entirely new conditions and circumstances arose for the anthroposophic work. The year 1923brought the height of endeavors to give the Anthropo

sophic Society a new form that both groups could findroom: those members who, until then, had carried thework and had been part of the history of the Anthropo

sophical movement and Societythe old onesandtheyoung people, rushing in with their various foundings andacademic activities. Early in 1923, Rudolf Steiner describes with emphasis the spiritual task of the joint workwithin the various groups. What he states about theawakening to the soul-spiritual element of the otherhuman being concerns, after all, the old and the young equally, and is not tied to any specific content of thought.He perceives a tragedy in the fact that although thisawakening is being soughtespecially among theyounger peoplethe actual talk about Society formsarises not out of such higher consciousness but from thesphere of everyday life. This is bound to lead to tragicmisunderstandings and splits.On March 3, 1923, Rudolf Steiner said in Dornach:

Actually, the whole problem of the Anthroposophical

Society is a tailor-problem. Anthroposophy has certainlygrown, and the suit, the Anthroposophical Societybecause it has gradually become a suithas become toosmall.

It was exactly this tailor-problem that induced RudolfSteiner to found the Independent Anthroposophical

Society besides the existing Society. He interprets thisIndependent Anthroposophical Society as a loose unionof unattached anthroposophical associations. And infact these groups never employ the term branch. Theyuse the word circle [Kreis] to describe their effortstoward community.

In the two lectures at the meeting of delegates inStuttgart of Feb. 27 & 28, 1923, the term branch is not

mentioned a single time although, especially during thismeeting, intense discussions were carried on about theAnthroposophical Society and its forms of existence, andon this occasion Rudolf Steiner explained his decision tofound the Independent (or unattached) Society. It is in thiscontext that he speaks for the first time about theawakening to the soul-spiritual being of ones fellowmanas a prerequisite for the common work to be lifted out ofthe sphere of egoism and controversy. For this awakeningto a higher consciousness to occur, solely the good willand effort of all participants is neededand not by anymeans the closed form of a branch or the small size of agroup:

Regardless of whether we have a small or a large anthroposophical community, we can reach, in a certain sense, whathas been indicated with this characterization. (Feb. 27,1923)

The Christmas Conference of 1923 is for us an eventwhose spiritual significance and inner importance canhardly be fathomed. However, what Rudolf Steinerworked out and inaugurated in relation to the outer formof the newly founded Anthroposophical Society, may beviewed in the context of the development sketched here.How was the tailor-problem solved? How do contentand form (suit) relate to each other after this re

founding?

To give the Anthroposophical Society a form that wouldmeet the needs of cultivating the AnthroposophicalMovement, this was intended with the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum. (Das Goetheanum, Was in der

Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft vorgeht, Jan. 13, 1924)

Even the name, General Anthroposophical Society,includes what Rudolf Steiner emphasizes ever again fromhere on out: The consciousness of the age demands thatthe work of the Anthroposophical Society be fully public.The Society is open to anyone seeking it and showing

interest in the existence of such a Society whose task is the

cultivation of the spiritual life. The new autonomousresponsibility and the element of freedom find expressionalso in the principles, formulated by Rudolf Steiner.Paragraph 11: Members may join together in smaller orlarger groups on any basis of locality or subject. Duringthe discussion of the paragraph, Rudolf Steiner added:

So far as the General Anthroposophical Society is concerned, every group, even the Society of a country, isincluded in this paragraph. The General [allgemeine]Society is neither international nor national, it is univer-


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sally [allgemein] humanand it will treat everythingwithin its province as a group. In this way we bring lifereally based on freedom into the AnthroposophicalSociety, and also everywhere an autonomous life, whereverit wishes to unfold. (The Christmas Foundation Meeting ofthe

Anthroposophical Society, Extracts from Rudolf Steinersaddresses, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1980)

In these few sentences it becomes clear: The tailor-

problem was solved by fashioning the outward form of theSociety in as open and free a manner as possible. Thisform can never become too tight. It was designed forgrowth and transformation. It makes room for the most manifold and diverse groupings. Thus it has accommodated also the new organizational forms of the Society inGermany that were forced upon it in 1946 by the MilitaryGovernment and by the countrys division into fourdifferent Occupation Zones. At that time, working centers\Arbeitszentren]came into existence that still today offerthe possibility of structuring and organizing the greatlyincreased membership. These working centers have longsince become work relationships [Arbeitszusammenhaen-

ge] filled with living human contacts: administrativegroups in the sense of the principles. The form is capableof growth, yet the content must ever and again be createdanew.

To replace the old principles of a closed branch (anda branch leader in charge of it) with a structure that allowscomplete freedom for initiatives is possible, however, onlyby transferring the responsibility to each individualmember, willing to be active for anthroposophy. Theoutward form can remain flexible and open to changeonly by being itself a part of living anthroposophic work.Forming and developing the outward forms becomes initself an anthroposophic content. How this can Occur,

Rudolf Steiner describes in the Letters to the Members,The Living Being o f Anthroposophy and Its Cultivation. Hespeaks about the duties of those members willing to beactive; about the Leading Thoughts; about the shapingof the members meeting [Zweigabend] and the atmosphere that should prevail in members meetings. Hepresents all this after having sketched in broad outlinesthe history of the anthroposophical work, a backgroundthat alone makes clear and comprehensible the new andtransformed structure brought about through the Christ

mas Conference of 1923.During a specially solemn moment at the close of the

Christmas Conference, in Rudolf Steiners words of

farewell on New Years Day 1924, he chose again the wordgroup to point out the spiritual task of the Anthroposophical Society. (These sentences remind us of theweighty and lofty connotation the term group assumedin the earlier lecture in Duesseldorf.) His statement, then,will conclude our study:

Yesterday, a year ago, we were watching the blazing flamesthat were destroying the First Goetheanum ,.. . so today weare justified in hoping that when the physical Goetheanumwill again be there, we will have worked in such a way that

this physical Goetheanum will be merely the outwardsymbol of our spiritual Goetheanum. In Idea-form we takethis spiritual Goetheanum with us as we now again go outinto the world.

We have laid the Foundation Stone here. Over thisFoundation Stone is to be erected the building whose single[einzelne] stones will consist of the work achieved in all ourgroups now by the individual [einzelnen] members all overthe world.

Toward a Spiritual Practice of Thinking

A Guide for the Study of Anthroposophy

by CHRISTOF LINDENAU

Translated by Frederick Amrine from the German, Der uebendeMensch. Anthroposophie-Studium als Ausgangspunkt moderner Geistesschulung. In memory o f Alan P. Cottrell (1935-1984)who reviewed the text in the Autumn 1978 issue of the Newsletter.

Verlag Freies Geistesleben, publisher, gave permission to serialize the chapters o f this workbook.

FROM THE FOREWORD:

When Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy,died sixty years ago, he left behind a literary legacy ofbooks, essays and transcribed lectures which will fill anestimated 350 volumes when published in their entirety.There the reader finds manifold descriptions of the resultsof scientific research into the past and future evolution ofhumanity together with its present tasks, into the past andfuture evolution of the spiritual world as well as theprocesses and beings active there, and into the meaning ofthe freedom we are able to develop in the face of thesefacts. Rudolf Steiners writings offer themselves to thosewho seek a path leading to a world view that can comprehend equally the spiritual and material aspects ofreality.

Yet his works can be equal to the task only if thethoughts, born from this world-view but dead within theprinted text, are brought to life again within the reader.This can happen only if the study of anthroposophy doesnot remain a matter of mere reading, but rather of workingthrough the written text within ones own activity ofthinking. These writings can accomplish their task onlyby calling forth within us something able in and of itself totransform our judgment, our deeds, our livesindeed, allof earthly existence, just as modern science has been ableto do.

The present work seeks to contribute to the cultivation of such study. It contains in reworked form lectureson a task dealt with by a group formed within theAnthroposophical Society in 1968 that has sought eversince to realize a common goal. The group calls itselfArbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Menschenkunde und Studiengestaltung [Working Group for Spiritual Anthropology


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and Forms of Study]. In keeping with the spirit of thatgroup, I would like this fruit of our common work to betaken not as a text to be read, but rather as a workbook. Itsuggests ways in which students of anthroposophy candeepen their study or illuminate and further pursueexperiences already gained.

To my colleagues in the aforesaid Arbeitsgemein

schaft I owe three things. Our search for varied and creative social forms within which to conduct our mutual

study of anthroposophy gave me the opportunity to gainmuch experience in this area. The groups continuinginterest spurred me on to elaborate further the insights wegained so that they could be put into words. Finally, the countless conversations which followed upon these presentations helped me to find viable formulations. In thislatter regard, I would like to mention Wolfgang Schad andThomas Goebel in particular, whom I thank for importantcontributions in the area of physiology. With regard to theinterest shown my work, let the name o f Ilse Schuckmannstand for a long list of others....

CHAPTER ONETHE TASK

We live ever more exclusively in a man-made world,i.e. a world transformed, but also destroyed, by technology. Feasibility [Machbarkeit] is the great ideal ofcontemporary civilization that bears the stamp of technology. It reflects back upon our daily experience of life in two ways. The one great experience which it helps us toattain is that, to a great extent free from wearisome dependence on nature and from the conditioning influence of traditional cultures, we can really carry out what

we design, think and plan. Inner security and consciousness of freedom grow out of this. We experience ourselvesas persons who are able to transform what we undertakeinto deeds. The other side of this civilization of thefeasible makes itself felt where we are no longer theagents, but rather those acted upon. In many areas we seeourselves forced into a way of life which excludes us fromthe shaping of our own affairs, condemns us to anexistence as passive onlookers and harnesses us into aworld made by others. This gives birth to boredom, inneremptiness and fear. Even ones own existence is finally feltto be meaningless. However much the one side of contemporary civilization appears to fulfill our longings as

individuals to shape our own lives, the other side robs usof this hope. Is the fate of individual freedom alreadysealed in this way?

In his philosophical works, especially in his Philos-ophy of Freedom, the first edition of which appearedalready in 1894, Rudolf Steiner undertook to show how theindividuals experience of freedom can be extracted fromthe raw ore of the experience just described and how, freedfrom the dross which attaches to it from the world of thefeasible, it can be raised up into the clear light of thinking

consciousness. Viewed in this light, human freedomshows itself no longer to be limited to intellectual andtechnological activity alone, but rather capable of extension to all thinking and actionprovided that oneaccomplishes this extension by activating ones cogni-tional faculties oneself. In his anthroposophical works,Rudolf Steiner carries further what was begun in this way.He describes the paths by which the human experience offreedom, developed further through spiritual activity, iscapable of entering realms of existence which gradually

place us in a position to confront the other, oppressiveexperience of contemporary civilization creatively.

The study of anthroposophical spiritual science isone of these paths. In elaborating spiritual science, RudolfSteiner preceded from two fundamental experiences.The one is that there exists a realm of purely spiritualprocesses and beings which underlies the physical world;the other, that this realm can, like the physical, beinvestigated down to the smallest details if one acquiresthe requisite faculties. But it was a third fundamental experience which led Rudolf Steiner to the oral andwritten presentation o f the results of his research: the clear

insight that we must cultivate such a science of the spirit ifwe are to be equipped to perform the tasks for the future ofhumanity that modern civilization sets us.

The study of this spiritual science has, understand

ably, different meaning for different individuals. Even asingle individual finds something different in it at different times of life: new modalities of thinking that set freeones own seeking, questioning and striving; the firstindications of a way of judging the facts and events in theworld from the point of view of the spirit; finding pathsleading to the experience of supersensible realms ofexistence; light that can illuminate the riddles of individ

ual and human destiny; intuitions leading to a creative

approach to ones task in life, etc. All these goals presuppose, however, an increased vitality in ones own powers ofthinking, which, should it be lacking, can be developedonly through a meditative practiceof the activity of thinking[ein uebendes Verhaeltnis zu r denkenden Betaetigung]. Thisliving within thinking can of course be built up [eruebt]toa certain extent in study of an artistic, scientific, mathe

matical or philosophical nature prior to the study ofanthroposophical spiritual science itself. But this can alsobe done directly through studying spiritual science. Thistext hopes to promote the latter kind of study. Thus itaddresses itself above all to those who are seeking insightful ways of attaining vital, spiritual thinking in individual

and group study of anthroposophy.

* * *

Modern humanity, whose attitude of soul bears thestamp of a consciousness directed toward objects, feels theworld of spiritual processes and beings of which anthroposophy speaks to be alien. And this self-evident factentails yet another: modern civilization is structured insuch a way that only the human capacities which lead tothe development of this object-centered consciousness are


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promoted and nourished. Thereby all our powers that areable to bring forth a consciousness of purely spiritualprocesses and beings, remain underdeveloped. For thisreason Rudolf Steiner undertook to give our civilizationthe means and the institutions necessary to a meditativeschooling through which a second, spiritual conscious

ness complementary to the waking consciousness ofexternal objects can be prepared and graduallydeveloped.

One of these means to the development of spiritualconsciousness is anthroposophical spiritual science itself.Rudolf Steiner often spoke about the way in which it is tobe used. He says for example in a lecture which he himselfwished to have published:

Scientific literature contains certain data which one learnsas information. Spiritual-scientific texts are not like this.They can become an instrument within the soul o f every human being. [emphasis C. L.]

And a few sentences later Rudolf Steiner elaborates this thought in the following way:

We will come more and more to see that a book written in atruly spiritual-scientific way is not like other books, thatmerely impart certain findings. Rather, it is like aninstrument that enables one to attain such knowledgethrough ones own activity. Only one must realize that thespiritual-scientific instrument is totally spiritual, that itconsists of certain deliberately enlivened representationsand ideas. Moreover, these representations and ideas aredifferent from all others because they are not pictures, butrather living realities.(l)

Here ones attention is directed immediately to the humanbeing himself. By taking up a spiritual-scientific description and thinking it through, we acquire already the

possibility of approaching spiritual reality itself. In thefirst, introductory chapter of one of his fundamentalspiritual-scientific works, Rudolf Steiner emphasizes thispoint of view even more strongly:

The way we live in reading the descriptions of spiritualscience is quite different from what it is when readingcommunications about sense-perceptible events. Wesimply read aboutthe latter; but when we read communica

tions of supersensible realities in the right way, we ourselves are entering into a stream of spiritual life and being.In receiving the results of research, we are receiving at thesame time our own inner path towards those results.

And, anticipating a criticism that might well be raised, Rudolf Steiner adds:

True, to begin with, the reader will often fail to notice thatthis is so. For he is far too apt to conceive the entry into thespiritual world on the analogy of sensory experience.Therefore what he experiences of this world in reading of itwill seem to him like mere thoughts and nothing more.Yet in the true receiving of it even in the form of thoughts,man is already within the spiritual world; it only remainsfor him to become aware that he has been experiencing in

all reality what he imagined himself to be receiving as themere communication of thoughts.(2)

If what Rudolf Steiner maintains here is true, then twofundamental questions follow immediately. The one is:But how do we attain a reception in thought of spiritual-scientific reports such that they can become an instrument in our own soul? The other: How do we come torealize that we have already experienced unawares what

we imagined to be merely the communication ofthoughts? Both questions lead to the proper surmise that,if this study of spiritual science is to be more than a mereacceptance of unrealizable communications, we mustconcern ourselves as much with the how, the way inwhich we receive and elaborate it, as with its content, thewhat.

* * *

This study shall attempt to answer this doublequestion neither with systematic plans of study, nor withmethodological recipes, nor with determinate learningtechniques or anything of the sort, but rather primarilywith a spiritual-scientific study o f the human being as

thinker.For a general discussion of the human being fromthe point of view of anthroposophical spiritual science,the reader must here be referred to the chapter TheEssential Nature of Man in the book Theosophyand thechapter The Nature of Humanity in the book OccultScience: An Outlineby Rudolf Steiner. The present study islimited to the human being as thinker. Thus there stands in the center of our considerations a series of metamorphoses of the souls perceptual, intellectual and cogni-tional activities, the structure of which is anchored in oursupersensible organization. We shall want to discussprocesses which take place in the supersensible part of ourhuman being when we take up spiritual scienceindeed,

science of any kindand work through it with ourthinking. For it is by means o f just these processes that wereceive at the same time our own inner path leading tothe realities of which spiritual science speaks. And expe

rience shows that a structuring of anthroposophical studythat takes into consideration the nature of these processesis more likely to make one aware that he has been experiencing in all reality what he imagined himself to bereceiving as the mere communication of thoughts thanone that does not.

Thus in the chapters that follow the reader will find aseries of studies relating to the human being as student,together with a series of indications showing ways inwhich the student can, if he or she wishes, employ theresults of spiritual anthropology [Menschenkunde]methodically. In this way the intent of the present work isto contribute to the various attempts within the anthroposophical movement to give every activity relating to thehuman being a foundation in the spiritual anthropologyof that activity. A spiritual anthropology of the developinghuman being must Thus in the chapters that followthe reader will find a series of studies relating to thehuman being as student, together with a series of

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indications showing ways in which the student can, if he

or she wishes.

Thus in the chapters that follow the reader will find aseries of studies relating to the human being as student,together with a series of indications showing ways inwhich the student can, if he or she wishes, employ theresults of spiritual anthropology [Menschenkunde] methodically. In this way the intent of the present work isto contribute to the various attempts within the anthropo

sophical movement to give every activity relating to thehuman being a foundation in the spiritual anthropologyof that activity. A spiritual anthropology of the developinghuman being must guide the work of the educator, and aspiritual anthropology of the sick and the healthy humanbeing must guide the doctor if pedagogy and medicine areto contribute to an art of social renewal; in the same way,the structuring of individual and group study can transcend mere learning techniques and become a socialart, if it is founded upon a spiritual anthropology of theactivity of study, or uses this to gain clarity and develop further. Whoever recognizes the intent of this book willalso understand that many of the ideas concerning

spiritual anthropology presented in the following pagesare elaborated only to the extent that seemed necessary toreach our stated goal; their epistemological justification,etc., would in many cases require many times the spaceavailable.

* * *

One must be able to confront an ideaand experienceit; otherwise one falls into its bondage, writes RudolfSteiner in the Preface to the first edition of his book The Philosophy o f Freedom Self-reflection reveals that we canlose our freedom with regard to an idea in two differentways. One is when our relationship to the idea becomesimbued with a subtle or a strong experience of intoxica

tion. Then the thought is in danger of working within us asan unconscious drive, as the desire to realize thethought, cost what it may, or to speak about it in order toconvince others, or, if not this, then at least to enjoy thethought itself. And all this without there ever arrivingsufficient insight into the relationships, contexts, andconditions under which it is thought, spoken, or put into action, and without giving due regard to its consequences.

In addition to this one danger to our inner freedom,namely that we become intoxicated with an idea andthereby become oblivious to its preconditions and consequences, there is another. Here again it is not the thoughtitself that threatens our freedom, but rather our relation

ship to the thought. The danger arises whenever ourthinking becomes so razor-sharp and clear that we graspan event in terms of a single logical chain of premises andconclusions; this one fragment of experience is so clear weforget that the same event appears different from differentpoints of view, and is related to other premises andconsequences, etc., as well. We purchase the clarity of theone experience at the expense of blindness to all others.Wh ile in the former example we were faced with thoughtas a compulsion [Gedankendrang] that destroys freedom,

here we confront thought as a vacuum [Gedankensog];

whoever allows himself to be drawn into this vacuumbelieves that the one clearly perceived fragment of experience represents everything about it that can possibly beexperienced.(3)

Anyone who studies contemporary culture in thisregard finds everywhere these two ways of relating tothoughts. And much that is unhealthy in contemporaryculture can be traced back directly or indirectly to this

cause.In the study of spiritual science we counteract these

phenomena of compulsion and suction within thethinking life of the soul by developing a third relationshipto our concepts and ideas. This can be made clear byconsidering the free relationship we are capable ofdeveloping toward the world of tools, instruments,machines, etc., that we have ourselves created. Wh ileanimals are bound to the instrumentaria of their bodies and thus can live only in a specific environment and perceive only a specific part of that world, we humans areable, in keeping with our goals in each situation, toexchange freely certain tools and instruments for com

pletely different ones; in this way we adapt to the varied parts of our environment when cognizing or acting. Thissame freedom is possible with regard to concepts andideas as well. Once they have been worked out, conceptsand ideas can also be used instrumentally. Then we nolonger serve an idea, but rather it serves us, helping usto determine human goals and to find ways to attain them.The mental equipment that is given us to help us in mastering lifes tasks is, however, a vital, inwardly mobileinstrumentarium that we ourselves must shape before wecan employ it.

The aim of studying anthroposophy is to attain suchan inwardly free, human relationship in our work with the

living concepts and ideas of anthroposophical spiritualscience as well. Through this initial form of spiritualactivity we make it possible to come into the rightrelationship not only to the physical world, but to thespiritual as well, and, actively uniting the two, to partic

ipate in shaping the future of humanity.

(1)Liestal, Oct. 16,1916,Human Life in the Light of SpiritualScience

(2)The Character of Occult Science, in Occult Science: AnOutline

(3)See in this regard the lecture of March 6 ,1917 inBuildingStones fo r an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha


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How to Read a Book:A Study of Rudolf Steiners

Knowledge of the Higher Worlds

by GEORGE ONEIL and GISELA ONEIL

PART VI

CHAPTER FIVE:CONDITIONS

If you are ever called upon to give an anthroposophical lecture and are in urgent need of a theme:recreate for your audience the content of this chapter.Youll never go wrong and youll be in good companywehave a list of five names, all prominent lecturers, who didthis in the auditorium in Spring Valley (there must beothers whom we did not happen to hear).

Likewise, for an initial study with a new group, youcouldnt find a more ideal text. (We have used it several times, each time a happy choice.)

What is so unique about this chapter? Why suchbroad appeal? There are several answers.

The chapter is self-contained, no background isneeded to appreciate it. There is no esoteric or unfamiliarterminology or intellectual difficulty. And, too, no imposing list of exercises (in contrast to the preceding andfollowing chapters). The writing is compactjust a fewpagesbut lyrical in style with an almost musical quality.The development is straight forward through the sevenmain themes. But there is more: although onlypersons with searching questions will come to anthro

posophy, Americans are often not yet awake to philosophical problemsas perhaps Europeans aresincethey are more concerned with social issues and human relationships. This chapter speaks squarely to this need,and it speaks to the heart.

Another aspect, perhaps the most important: the textis so deceptively simple that it reaches all levels ofunderstandingthe beginner and the most advancedstudentbecause there are here layers of thoughts andmeanings, as one who works with this text will discover.

OPEN TO THE WORLDTHE SENTIENT SOUL ASPECT

Each of the chapters differs in content and quality. Ofthe eleven, the first and the lastas prelude and finaleform a frame. The remaining nine expound the path fromeach of the aspects of the ninefold human being. (This waspresented in the opening article of this series.) Thus thefifth chapter describes the demands the student mustfulfill in the realm of his sentient soul. Perhaps we cansummarize the achievements to be gained so far with theadmonition: Be prepared! (or expect disappointment).Boy scouts know, its their motto. (For orientation, werepeat here the first part of the books map.)

1 Prelude

Interview -Reverence for Truth

Ideas & Ideals

In the course of the human life, the soul of sentience,of adventure in the world of the senses, unfolds in thetwenties, from 21 - 28. It is striking how the themes of thisfifth chapter appeal to the idealism of young people.Striking too, how two decades ago, in the 60s when theyouth culture blossomed, some of these themes becamethe banner cries of various groups, spreading their idealsto large segments of society.

Sentient-soul idealism can deeply stir ones sense ofawe. If you happen to be over 28, dont assume that youmight be beyond these concerns (in other words, dontlook down your nose), for this portion of the soul is thevehicle for the creative spirit within the earthly sphere,opening the gateway to the wonders of the world. Andwithout stability and firm mastery in the realms ofperception and feeling (sentience), all intellectual strivings would lose their life and substance. The modern pathto the spirit is in no way weltfremd(alienated from life). Itseeks to unite an understanding of both worlds.

The emphasis here is on soul-life stability. Thesentient soul must become firm in itself, achieve character, if it is to be the basic instrument for further progresson the path. Either we work on it ourselves or life will teachus the hard way. We are never finished learning, acquiringstrength, polishing all those soul-windows to the world.The task stays with us through life.


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RU DO LF ST EIN ER S STYLE

OF WRITING

Unless we penetrate beyond the content to the style ofeach chapter, we miss half the message. The beginner, ofcourse, has to wrestle with the content, but for work instudy groups and for those wishing to get beyond thebeginners phase, concern with the how becomes asimportant as the what

In the lecture of Jan. 1, 1919, recently published in

English for the first time (inHow Can M ankind F ind theChrist Again?),Rudolf Steiner describes his style ofgestaltendes Denken (form-producing, shaping, sculpturing, orformative thinking) and contrasts it with the ordinarythinking we all tend to use:

The second way of thinking is a totally different process, acompletely other way of thinking. . . . It is a shape-forming manner of thinking. If you look more closely, ifyou follow what I have tried to indicate in my various bookson spiritual science, you will realize that the difference doesnot lie so much in the content that is impartedthis can be

judged from various other viewpoints; but the way of seeingthe whole world and of coordinating that knowledge, the

entire mode of thought presentation, is a different one. Thisis shape-producing; it gives separate pictures, roundedtotalities; it gives contours, and through contours, color.

Throughout the entire presentation in the printedbooks you will be able to see that it has none of thedismembering character that you find in modern science.This difference of the how (the mode of thinking) must bebrought out just as emphatically as the difference of thewhat (the content of subject matter). There exists aformative (gestaltende) way of thinking that has beendeveloped with the especial purpose of leading to thesupersensible worlds. If you take the book, Knowledge ofthe

Higher Worlds, where such a path is marked out, you willfind that every thought, every idea in it is based on this

formative thinking.This is something essential for our time. For this

formative thinking has a quite definite quality. . . . If youexercise creative, formative thinking (gestaltendes Denken),thinking that allows for metamorphosis, I could also sayGoethean thinkingrepresented, for instance, in theshaping of our pillars and capitals [of the First Goetheanum]; used too in all the books I have tried to give tospiritual sciencethis thinking is closely bound up withthe human being. Only the beings connected with thenormal evolution of mankind can work creatively, sculpturally as a human being works within himself withthinking. . . . You can never go astray on a wrong path ifthrough spiritual science you engage in formative think

ing. . . . For the Christ Impulse stands in the direct line offormative thinking.

THE OVERVIEW:

DYN AM ICS OF THE UNFOLDING IDEA

Angels never make mistakes. They never think stepby step. They see their cosmic thoughtsall at once!Humans some day will become angelic. Meanwhile, thepractice of Idea-Anschauung, of living into the development and totality of a chapter idea, will bring us a touch closer to that goalin the realm of thinking.

To help the reader achieve an overview, Steiners

beautiful text was reduced here (in the neighboring chart)to a series of maxims. The conscientious reader will turn tothe original and verify each one for himself.

To be observed: there is an opening set of threeparagraphs on the teacher/pupil relation; a closing set(four paragraphs) on the moral implications; betweenthese unfold the guiding seven conditions for cultivation of soul health and vigor. Each of these sevenconditions (paragraphs four through ten) describes whatmay be seen as a cure for a current crisis-situation insociety. Each condition could well be expanded into aseparate article. And the seventh condition includes theearlier six. It presumes that miracle of inner balance, and

formulates the goal: a unified, harmonized soul life willestablish the inner quiet, the poise needed for the firstsuccessful steps on the path to higher knowledge.

The sequence of the seven conditions proceedsfrom Outer to Inner: ascending from bodily health;through life-sensitivity; and reality of thoughts andfeelings; to the Being of man. Then in polar descent: fromsteadfastness o f will and creative sacrifice; through grati

tude, love, higher cognition; to harmony. Together: theseven great tones of sevenfold man resounda livingthought organism. It was given thus in a form able toevoke the magical power of coming alive in the soul o f thestudent: as totality, as Anschauung. Worthy of being

inscribed indelibly in the soul by meditative effort, it canbecome the basis for conversation with the Higher Selfand the Angelos.

Florin Lowndes drew the overview chart.


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C h a p t e r VParagr aphs *T heme * Organi smCONDITIONS FOR SOUL STABILITY

BASIS FOR ALL PROGRESS ON THE PATH

InnerThoughts &Feelings

Potent Forces

Be Strong!

Interl inkedOne with World

B e s e n s i t i v e !

Health f irst

Body & M ind

Take care!

The R eal Sel f

found With in

7

So u l

S t reng ths

C u l t i v a te t hem!

Life F o r c e sWe are resp o nsi bl e!

The Who le Man

H ol d the bal ance!

Outer

St eadf ast the W i l l !

Love the Doing - Not success

Sacrifice is Giving

Be t h a n k fu l !

Appreciation

awakens Love

Harmony -the Goal!

No extremes

Inner Poise!

Persistent effortsexpected

Lef t f ree-

No coercion

Teacher advisesPupil Initiates

Inner Spirit Shapesits outer Form

Love of Man widensto love of Existence

B u i l d , t r a n s f o r m -do not destr oy

W or k & Ded icat ionmake for Progress

Learn to learn!Listen w/o reaction

Be Pre p a re d !

The Path is A dv enture-some

Preparat ion ends

(N e x t : R e s u l t s )


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PUBLICATIONS

THE TENSION BETWEEN EAST AND WESTby Rudolf Steiner.Introduction by Owen Barfield. Ten lectures in Vienna, June 1-5and June 7-11, 1922. Anthroposophic Press, second printing

1983; 188 pages, $8.95

In June of 1922 Rudolf Steiner returned to his belovedVienna, where he had spent his student days. Once the sparklingcenter of culture and art in Central Europe, still a beautiful anddelightful city, postwar Vienna had been plunged into anatmosphere of gloom and despair. Devaluation of currencypermitted visitors to live in luxury, while threadbare Austrianscould scarcely afford basic necessities. Confusion, anxiety andfear prevailed.

A Pentecostal flame arose in the midst of this chaos duringthe twelve-day West-East Congress of the anthroposophicalmovement. Rudolf Steiner hoped that the Congress wouldestablish a spiritual foundation from which ascending forcesmight counter the forces of destruction. Vienna was speciallysuited, both geographically and through its people, to create aspiritual bridge between East and West. Individuals attendedfrom various parts of Europe, from America to the west and asfar away as Japan to the east. Mutual understanding was soughtamong companions from across the earth at a time wheninternational understanding was at its lowest level.

Each day lectures and discussions were shared on scientifictopics, artistic themes and religious questions; performances ofclassical music and eurythmy highlighted the artistic presentations.

Rudolf Steiners evening lectures brought each days themeto its culmination. He spoke to approximately 2000 people-many of them standing in the packed hall. He addressed theirreadiness for knowledge, their capacity for thinking, for testingthemselves, weeding out the old, and for acting out of insight.The reader will recognize that these lectures are not easy; theypresent spiritual insight into major problems and lead toward anew world view.

Anthroposophy and the Sciences, the first five lectures ofJune 1-5, point toward modern dilemmas of knowledge andsuggest some surprising solutions. Natural Science must bedeveloped into spiritual science, which seeks to be its soul andspirit. Psychology must be advanced into meditative experience leading to the eternal in human nature. The Role of Eastand West in History has slowly led to the separation of religion,art, and science, which must now find an inner spiritual unity inthe souls of men for trust to develop between East and West. Thefourth lecture, given on Pentecost, contains a poignant imagination: the raised crucifix, bearing the body of the Redeemer,symbolically stands between the Eastern Buddhistic view of lifeand the Western ideal of resurrection through willful humanactivity. Limits of knowledge of outer world and inner self, soessential for our capacity to love and to develop a reliablememory, can be extended by supersensible cognition to reveal aparadoxical truth: the world is seen as inner self, and the innerself as world Cosmic Memory.

Following a performance of Bruckners Mass in F Minor asrequested by Rudolf Steiner, he resumed lecturing on June 7-11on the theme Anthroposophy and Sociology. In Individualand Society he speaks about the question of freedom and its

relation to intellectuality, compares human life-cycles to history,and presents an overview of the Waldorf impulse. In "TheIndividual Spirit and the Social Structure we see how history isnow deployed in geographic space, pointing clearly to a threefold world view. Our failure to comprehend the true role of

human labor and integrate it into the social order is TheProblem (Asia-Europe). Our Prospects of Its Solution(Europe-America) involve taking hold of the unconscious,youthful forces of will. The path From Monolithic to ThreefoldUnity requires recognition of the role of Liberty in spiritual life,Equality in legal and political life, and Fraternity in economicendeavors, the three spheres working together.

Carl Stegmann, who was present as a young man at theselectures, remarked on the thundering ovations greeting RudolfSteiner as he entered and left the hall. He points out that Steinerproposed a new world view that went beyond his earlierThreefold Social Order; here, his scope was more universal, andnew boundaries defined East, Center and West. The promise ofAmerica is spoken of in these lectures as never before; from the

impulses given in Vienna, Rev. Stegmann and many others haveturned their destinies toward planting and nurturing the seeds ofanthroposophy in the West, as well as turning their inner gaze tocomprehend the East. These lectures bear powerful forces forrealizing a threefold world unity.

Brian Gray (Fair Oaks, Calif.)

THE CYCLE OF THE YEAR AS BREATHING-PROCESS OFTHE EARTHby Rudolf Steiner. Five lectures, Dornach, March31 - April 8 ,1923. Translated by Barbara Betteridge and FrancesE. Dawson. Anthroposophic Press, 1984; 88 pages; $7.95 &$14.00(cloth)

When a Member asked Rudolf Steiner whether it was betterto read fifty cycles once or one cycle fifty times, Steinerreportedly opted for one. This cycle would be a good choice. Onoccasion Steiner went so far as to say that learning tofeel theseasons of the year in all their significance was one way toprepare for seeing the etheric Christ (so Adam Bittlestonreported in the 1960 Golden Blade.)

This Easter cycle, subtitled The Four Great FestivalSeasons of the Year, forms the central part of what we might calla trilogy of festival cycles, beginning with the Holy Nights of1922-23 (The Spiritual Communion of Mankind) and concludingwith the cycle of Michaelmas 1923, Anthroposophy and the

Human Gemuet(recently published under the titleMichaelmasand the Soul Forces of Man).

In the Holy Nights lectures Rudolf Steiner mentioned forthe first time the importance of celebrating the festival ofMichaelmas in our age. The Easter cycle then takes up theimpulse, describing what is needed for men once more tobecome festival-creating, especially to establish a Michaelfestival in such a way as to assure that ascending forces shallprevail in evolution. Together, this festival trilogy and the SoulCalendar(given eleven years earlier) are revelations of this path,which should lead from conscious participation in the cycle ofthe year to conscious communion with the divine.


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In Steiners picture of the festival year the four seasonalfestivals form polarities, like a great cross: St. Johns polar toChristmas, Michaelmas to Easter. Upon this cruciform structurethe year lives and breathes in a kind of lemniscate. The livingEarth-soul which is held within the Earth in winter is breathedout into the cosmos from spring to summer, then breathed inagain from fall to winter, bearing with it certain nature elemental, and beyond these the forces of Christ with Michael at hisright hand. Mans soul participates in this process.

Many students have found the drawing of the lemniscate

with which Steiner closed the first lecture an endlessly rewardingsubject for meditation, also in relation to the Soul Calendar. Thecrossing-point of the lemniscate can be seen as indicating thetime just before Easter and just after Michaelmas. Steiner speaksof Easter and Michaelmas as holding the balance between thesummer mysteries of the heights and the winter mysteries of thedepths.

The following day Rudolf Steiner sounded the call for arenewal of the Easter festival. Today the time is come, heproclaimed, when the Easter thought must again awaken as aliving thought. This living thought can then give birth to aMichael thought which alone can provide the inspiration forrenewal of the social life.

The central lecture, devoted to developing the impulse of the

Michaelic will, stands as one of the greatest Michaelmas lecturesin the literature. In the central passage of the cycle we read:

To feel the becoming of the thought in ones self, the gleaming up

of the idea in the human soul, in the whole human organism of

man, to be akin to the yellowing leaves, the withering foliage, the

drying and shriveling of the plant world in nature; to feel the

kinship of mans spiritual beingness with natures spiritual

beingnessthis can give man that impulse which strengthens

his will, that impulse which points man to thepermeation of his will

with spirituality. In so doing, however, in permeating his will with

spirituality, the human being becomes an associate o f the Michael

activity on earth.

In astounding pictures taken from the Akashic record RudolfSteiner describes, in the closing pair of lectures, the celebratingof the four festivals of the seasons in the ancient Mysteries,echoing and expanding the content of the other two cycles in thetrilogy. The origin of human singing from bird song, connectedwith St. Johns, provides a delightful passage, once the readergives himself up to its dreamy repetitiveness. But he would dowell to heed Steiners warning: Echoes of the [old] festivals havepersisted, but naturally everything was changed when the great

Event of Golgotha entered in.

It is in all a stirring book. It would be hard to read it withoutsensing what Guenther Wachsmuth, who experienced the cyclefirst hand, meant when he wrote of these sacred hours whichcarried the inauguration of the spiritual cult of the festival timesat the Goetheanum to a new stage of development.

Barbara Betteridge (Santa Paula, Calif.)

AN OCCULT PHYSIOLOGYby Rudolf Steiner (eight lecturesgiven in Prague, March 20-28, 1911). Rudolf Steiner Press,

London, reprinted 1983, 205 pages; $9.95

For those who have been studying this book for years fromcontraband, dog-eared Xerox copies, the reprint of this crucialcycle of lectures is a most welcome event. In these lecturesSteiner offered potent seed-forces for an exploration of physi

ology, laying down the foundations of the study of human lifeprocesses. Physiology, unlike anatomy, concerns itself with whatis in movement in the human organism, what flows betweenorgan systems, the continuous metamorphosis from substanceto spirit, from spirit back to substance. The mood of theselectures, then, is one of tremendous reverence, as they approachthe deepest mysteries of the human being in his relationship tothe cosmos. Steiner says at the beginning of this cycle that, It isnot without reason that I myself have only reached the pointwhere I can speak upon this theme as the result of mature

reflection covering a long period of time, and the reason towhich he refers is the need to cultivate this reverence before thebeing of man as a revelation of spirit.

This mood of reverence is conveyed not only in the richcontent of this cycle but in its meditative unfolding, whichevokes the essential nature of life processes perhaps morepowerfully than the content itself. Steiner himself says, early inthe cycle, that it will be impossible to understand fully what isoffered in the early lectures without what is given in the finallectures: a complete circle of thought is formed, in which the endmeets the beginning, re-enlivening it and allowing deeperreflection to peel away layer upon layer of common illusions.

Beginning with the essential duality in hum an experiencethe outer world and inner lifeSteiner guides us through a series

of pictures of dualities within the human organism, revealingcountless facets of this relationship of what is inside to what isoutside. The first picture presents the contrast between the brainand spinal cord, protected from the outer world within theirbony sheath, and the rest of the organ systems. Though it isphysically protected from the outer world, it is through the nerve-sense system that we make our most immediate encounters withwhat is outside us, while the organs more exposed physically tothe outside maintain a much more inward existence. Havingpictured this primary duality, Steiner penetrates further, differentiating the brain (thinking) from the spinal cord (action), andfinally the outer portion of the brain, which mediates wakingconsciousness, from the inner portion, a metamorphosed spinalcord, which is more concerned with dream life.

The essential duality of nerve-sense system and innerorgans is then developed further, with the heart-blood systemintroduced as the mediator between outer and inner. Steinerdescribes the blood moving through us as a tablet on which areinscribed on one side the sense impressions from the outer worldand on the other side the inner vital life mediated by the organsof nutrition. Just when we may think, however, that we haveouter and inner fixed in their proper places, Steiner suggeststhat the inner life of the organs is actually the transformed outerworld of the cosmos. And through the nerve-sense system, outerimpressions enter innerlife via the soul activities. The blood in itsconstant movement faces both the world outside us and theworld within, just as the ego stands poised between earthly lifeand supersensible life.

A further duality is introduced between the brain, whichconveys outer impressions to the blood, and t

Documents

ASA Newsletter 1984 Summer