pub lications - Anthroposophical Society in America

NEWSLETTER
icfom
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ra
G
)(
Anthroposophical
Society in America
SPRING 1985
Published by the Anthroposophical Society in America for its Members
Con t e nt s
Oskar Kuerten
Sigfrid Knauer
Christof Lindenau
George O’Neil and G
'N
iselaO
The Son of Man and the Cosmic Christ
The Wisdom in Human Illness
Toward a Spiritual Practice in Thinking, Part IV
Practical Exercises for the Study of Anthroposophy
How to Read a Book: A Study of Rudolf Steiner’s
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, Part VIII
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PUBLICATIONS
Agnes Macbeth
Linda Miller
Gisela O’Neil
Maria St. Goar
Christopher Schaefer
Kenneth Melia
Michael Winship
Lenore Ritscher
Kenneth Melia
Rudolf Steiner: Christ in the Spiritual World.
The Search for the Holy Grail
Rudolf Steiner: Inner Impulses in Evolution: The
Mexican Mysteries, The Knights Templar
Walter Kugler, Ed.: Zur Philosophie der Freiheit.
Kommentare und Randbemerkungen von Eduard von
Hartmann
Adolf Arenson: Leitfaden durch 50 Vortragszyklen Rudolf Steiners
Stefan Leber, Ed.: Arbeitslosigkeit
L.F.C. Mees: Secrets of the Skeleton. Form in Metamorphosis
Stewart Easton: The Evolution of Human Thinking
Karin Neuschuetz: Lieber spielen als fernsehen!
Ottilie Zeller: Bluetenknospen: Verborgene Entwicklungs­
prozesse im Jahreslauf
Henry Ulrich: Baumgestalten
Frank Teichmann: Der Mensch und sein Tempel: Megalith­
kultur in Irland, England undder Bretagne
Helmut Kiene: Grundlinien einer essentialen
Wissenschaftstheorie: Die Erkenntnistheorie
Rudolf Steiners im Spannungsfeld moderner Wissenschaften
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MEMBERSHIP
Howland Vibber
Barbara Betteridge &ancy&
eN
ordP
G
Maureen Rosset
Rudolf Steiner
Bettina Kroth
New Members and Members Who Have Died
In Memoriam John Philbrick
In Memoriam Sigfrid Knauer
In Memoriam William Walsh
Gateways to the Departed —The Moments of Going to Sleep and
of Waking
Remembering Richard Kroth Who Died 25 Years Ago
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REPORTS
Christa Macbeth
Peter Stebbing
David Hill
MariJo Rogers
Herbert Hahn
Erich Gabert
Arvia MacKaye Ege
Christy Barnes and Others
Nathan Melniker
The Work in Speech Formation and Sylvia Baur’s Visit
Rudolf Steiner’s Graphic Forms —Their Value on Today’s
Books
Exhibition of Rudolf Steiner’s Architecture in Los Angeles
Religious Impulses in Waldorf Education. Conference in
Sacramento
The Teaching of Religion in Waldorf Schools
The Cultic Services of Religious Instruction in the Waldorf
School and Those of the Christian Community
Albert Steffen and America
Artistic Method Workshops
St. George Book Service —Its History and Contribution
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NOTES
Brief Reports, Programs, Announcements, etc.
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The Son of Man and the Cosmic Christ
by OSKAR KUERTEN (1886 - 1973)
From Mitteilungen aus der anthroposophischen Arbeit in
Deutschland, Easter 1971. Translated by Maria S t.Goar.
I
There are many occurrences reported in the Gospels
that pose riddles for present-day human beings. Rudolf
Steiner has made their comprehension accessible to us
through his spiritual research. Among them is an event
that took place when Christ Jesus was taken prisoner in
the Garden of Gethsemane. In Mark 14, verse 51, we read:
“And a youth was among His followers who wore a linen
cloth about his body; and they seized him, but he left the
linen cloth and fled naked.”
In his lectures on the Gospel of St. Mark, Rudolf
Steiner remarks:
Who is this youth? Who escapes? Who is it that appears near
Christ Jesus almost without clothing, and then slips away
naked? It is the young cosmic impulse. It is the Christ that slips
away and now has but a loose connection to the Son of
Man. . . . Nothing is left to protect the new impulse; it has
none of those elements with which the earlier times could
envelop mankind. It is the entirely exposed new cosmic
impulse of earth evolutional )
The fleeing youth is interpreted here as the cosmic
impulse, the Cosmic Christ —as we learn in the further
course of the lecture —who had been united with the Son
of Man but then withdrew from him. Henceforth, He
maintained only a loose connection with the Son of Man.
Only after the Resurrection did He reunite with him. This
cosmic element had enveloped the Christ in the form of an
aura during the three years of His earthly life,
. . . an aura through which cosmic forces and cosmic laws
descended to earth. . . Christ was surrounded by a farreaching, mighty aura. This aura with its powerful influence
was there because He was united with the souls of those He
had chosen; and it remained so long as He was united with
them.(l)
This inner bond of Christ with His disciples was to remain
throughout the events of Golgotha. This was Christ’s great
concern as He embarked on the path leading to His
passion and death; for even the disciples had not recog­
nized the cosmic spirit in Christ. Thus Christ made a final
attempt to maintain the inner union, at least with the
specially chosen disciples, when He led Peter, James and
John to the Mount of Olives.
And on the way He becomes afraid. . . Why is the Christ
sorrowful? He does not recoil from the Cross. This can be
taken for granted. He recoils at the thought, the question:
“Will those, whom I have brought with Me, be steadfast at the
decisive moment that shall prove if they can go with Me in
their souls —if they can experience with Me all things, even to
the Cross?”. . . This is the “cup” approaching Him. And He
leaves the three disciples so that they may remain “wake­
ful”. . . Then He goes aside and prays: “Father, let this cup
2
pass from Me, yet not My will but Thy will be done!”' This
means: Do not let Me undergo the sorrow that I, as the Son of
Man, will be left utterly alone. Let the others go with me.(l)
Yet, even the three chosen disciples could not remain
wakeful. In their souls and in those of the other apostles, a
strange condition of consciousness overcame them. They
went about as in a dream for fifty days and only awakened
from it when, at the event of Pentecost, the Spirit of the
Universe descended upon them. They realized only then,
in retrospect, what had occurred on Golgotha.
The cup had not passed from Him. Those whom He had
chosen showed no understanding. Thus the aura gradually
withdrew from the man, Jesus of Nazareth. The Christ and the
Son of Man became ever more separated. Jesus of Nazareth
became ever more alone toward the end of his life, and the
Christ ever more loosely connected with him. Whereas the
cosmic element was completely united with Jesus of Nazareth
up to the moment when the “sweating of blood” takes place on
Gethsemane, m an’s incomprehension now loosens this con­
nection. . . . Although the cosmic element is still present, we
find it joined less and less to the Son of Man. This makes the
whole event so deeply moving.
And because the comprehension was not forthcoming —
what did men attain in the end? Whom did they capture,
sentence and crucify? The Son of Man! And the stronger their
action became, the more the cosmic element withdrew, which
as a youthful impulse was to enter earth life. It withdrew.. .
There remained behind the Son of Man, around whom now
merely hovered what was to come forth as the young cosmic
element. (1)
This cosmic element in the figure of the fleeing youth “is a
spiritual, a supersensible element that became visible to
the senses only because of the unique circumstances of
that m om ent”(1) It remained with the Son of Man,
although loosely connected. And we see this youth again
(in Mark 16, verses 5 and 6) when, at the early dawn of
Easter morning, Mary Magdalene, with two other women,
approaches the empty tomb and encounters a youth
sitting there, clad in a white garment. Rudolf Steiner
explains:
This is the same youth! Nowhere else in the artistic composi­
tion of the Gospels do we encounter this youth who slips away
the instant that human beings condemn the Son of Man, who
appears again after the three days are past, and who will
henceforth be active as the cosmic principle of the earth.(l)
II
Who is this Son of Man, abandoned by the Cosmic
Christ in the spirit-form of the fleeing youth? It would
signify a complete contradiction to everything Rudolf
Steiner says concerning the Mystery of Golgotha, if, from
the above quotation, we were to conclude that it had been
only the human being, Jesus of Nazareth, who as the Son
of Man suffered the death on the Cross. After all, it is the
unique significance of the Mystery of Golgotha that a god
experienced death on earth.
Out of their midst, the gods had to send a being to the physical
plane to experience something that gods otherwise cannot
experience in the spiritual worlds. The gods had to send Christ
to earth . . . so He could learn the infinite agonies of men,
agonies that for a god signify something totally different than
for a human being.. . . A god had to suffer death on the
Cross.(2)
As the only being of the spiritual worlds, Christ was to
come to know death.. . . Hence, of all the celestial beings
above man, Christ is the only One to have learned about death
through His own experience.(3)
It had to be a divine being who would actually suffer
human death on earth: Christ, who had entered the
human sheaths of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism in the
Jordan; who, united with Jesus as Christ Jesus, had then
lived for three years on earth, and as an immortal passed
through death on the Cross in the dying body of Jesus.
Rudolf Steiner stresses this fact again and again. Thus
directly following his remarks about the fleeing youth, he
speaks of the "judging,condemning, and crucifying of
Christ Jesus,”(4) hence, not of Jesus alone. In another
lecture he refers to Christ as “the One who dwelt on earth,
was crucified as Jesus of Nazareth and laid in the earth,
then appeared to His initiated disciples in a spiritual
body.”(5) Indeed, how could we speak of Christ as the
“Resurrected One,” if Christ had not actually undergone
death?
Therefore, Christ could not possibly have separated
from Jesus in Gethsemane but remained united with him
even beyond death. The Son of Man is thus the Christ
Jesus, the union of the two beings. The Cosmic Christ,
however, must be something different. And indeed,
Rudolf Steiner says that the youth, the Cosmic Christ,
appeared “next to Christ Jesus” and “at the decisive
moment separated, as it were, from Christ Jesus.”(1) Thus
Rudolf Steiner distinguishes between Christ Jesus and the
Cosmic Christ, the fleeing youth. Concerning Christ’s
prayer on Mount Olive, he relates how Christ called
Himself the Son of Man.
III
How, then, are we to understand the “Cosmic
Christ”? Comparing many of Rudolf Steiner’s statements,
we may conclude that a trinity of divine-spiritual Beings
stands behind the Christ appearance on earth. First the
Logos, the second principle of the Divine Trinity; then, His
direct bearer and body of light, Christ, the Lofty Sun Spirit,
the Ahura Mazdao of Zarathustra; and third, the leader of
the hierarchy of the archangels.(6)
Mark describes the Sun Aura, the Great Aura, the Light Body,
the Spirit Light that permeates the universe and that works
into the being of Christ Jesus. Mark therefore begins with the
Baptism by John, when the Cosmic Light descends. In the
Gospel of St. John, however, the soul of this Sun Spirit is
described to us, the Logos, the Sun Word, the inner aspect.(7)
Here, the Sun Word, the Logos, and then the Sun Spirit,
the mighty Sun Aura, are clearly distinguished from the
Christ in Jesus. Rudolf Steiner calls this Lofty Sun Spirit
“a cosmic deity,”(7) the “leading Cosmic Spirit,”(8)
and also “the leader and guide of all the beings of the
higher hierarchies, an all-encompassing, cosmic, uni­
versal Being.”(9)
During the ancient Sun evolution, the Logos and, as
its bearer, the Lofty Sun Spirit, had descended from
cosmic heights to the sun to unite with the leader of the
archangels, the regent of the sun. Thereby, this leader of
the archangels became the bearer of the Logos and of the
Lofty Sun Spirit, and thus the ruler of our whole solar
system.(10) As a divine mediator, he served the Logos
and the Lofty Sun Spirit during Their descent from the
sun to the earth by incarnating in Jesus of Nazareth. This
Christ-Archangel stood only two levels above the level of
man, and in his divine nature was still relatively close to
the human nature of Jesus, whereas the other two Christ
Beings are infinitely far above man. They could not unite
with Jesus directly in a bodily manner. The Logos, and the
Lofty Sun Spirit, and the Christ-Archangel, termed
“Christ” in equal measure by Rudolf Steiner, are united in
triune manner, as it were. The knowledge of this trinity
concerning the Christ phenomenon clarifies many
otherwise incomprehensible statements by Rudolf
Steiner.
Only in reference to the Christ-Archangel does
Rudolf Steiner say that He was “physically incarnated as
Jesus of Nazareth,” that He “actually dwelt among us in a
physical sheath; that He was truly within a physical
body.”(11) Therefore, if we read elsewhere that only
“one —mark this well —one being of the divine-spiritual
world descended to the level of dwelling in a human body
within the sense world, living as man among other
men,”(12) then this being can only have been the ChristArchangel. Through Him, however, the Logos and the
Lofty Sun Spirit were linked to the human being, Jesus of
Nazareth, due to Their Oneness with the Christ-Archan­
gel. Thus, it can be said of Them, too, that They took
possession of the body of Jesus and “became flesh” in
Jesus, spoke and worked through him and participated in
the event of Golgotha in mysterious ways veiled from us.
IV
The Logos and the Lofty Sun Spirit are the actual
bearers of the cosmic element that was to enter earth
evolution as the new impulse of the future. This cosmic
element enveloped Christ Jesus like a protective aura,
safeguarding Him from His opponents so that
fundamentally, Christ was active in such a manner that
nothing could be done against Him.... Whereas earlier, the
Cosmic Christ had extended His influence into the temple,
spreading the most powerful teachings, and nothing had
happened; the soldiers could now draw near, when Jesus of
Nazareth stood in a much looser connection with the
Christ(1)
Only after the protective aura had left Christ Jesus, could
the soldiers lay hands on Him. The Christ-Archangel in
Jesus could not have protected Himself; because of His
union with the bodily sheaths of Jesus, He had become
human like other men. Rudolf Steiner once actually
speaks of Christ’s “becoming Jesus.”(13) Beginning with
the Baptism in the Jordan, in unimaginable agony the
Christ Being descended ever more deeply into the body of
3
Jesus, which increasingly wasted away under the power of
the Christ force penetrating it like fire. And with His
becoming human, Christ increasingly lost His divine
power.
The Christ Being had to experience how the divine power and
force increasingly vanished as He became one with the body
of Jesus of Nazareth. A god gradually became a human being.
Like a person who in unceasing suffering watches his body
waste away, so the Christ Being saw His divine substance
diminish. As an etheric Being He increasingly came to
resemble the earthly body of Jesus of Nazareth, until He
became so similar that He could actually feel fear like a
human being.. . . The miraculous divine power left Him.”(14)
As a divine Being in the abundance of His divine powers
Christ had entered His earthly incarnation of three years’
duration with the Baptism in the Jordan. At the end, only
weak human forces were left at His disposal. For a time,
the Christ in Jesus, the Christ-Archangel, had to relin­
quish his divine powers in the course of becoming human,
so that He could suffer death on the Cross as a god become
man. And the Logos and the Lofty Sun Spirit had
temporarily to withdraw Their powerful cosmic forces
from Christ Jesus so far as external effects were concerned,
so that He could be apprehended by the soldiers.
It must have been the forces of the Logos and of the
Lofty Sun Spirit that withdrew from Christ Jesus as the
“Cosmic Christ” in the image of the fleeing youth. After
the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, They then reunited Their
cosmic forces with the divine forces of the risen ChristArchangel in order henceforth to live in Their triune
Oneness as the Spirit of the Earth in human souls on
earth.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
4
Sept. 23, 1912: The Gospel of St. Mark, lect. IX.
April 17, 1912: The Three Paths of the Soul to Christ, lect. II.
April 27, 1913: Life Between Death and a New Birth.
Sept. 24, 1912: The Gospel of St. Mark, lect. X.
April 24, 1922: Man 'sLife on Earth and in the Spiritual Worlds.
For more details see Oskar Kuerten: Der Sonnengeist Christus
in der Darstellung Rudolf Steiners, Verlag Die Pforte, Basel
1967.
Sept. 12, 1910: The Gospel of St. Matthew, lect. XII.
June 27, 1909: The Gospel of St. John, lect. IV.
Aug. 21, 1911: Wonders of the World, Ordeals of the Soul,
Revelations of the Spirit, lect. IV.
June 12, 1912: Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and
Philosophy, lect. X.
June 6, 1907: Theosophy of the Rosicrucians, lect. XIV.
Aug. 28, 1909: The East in the Light of the West, lect. VI.
Aug. 24, 1918: The Mysteries of the Sun and of Threefold Man,
lect. I (Typescript).
Oct 3, 1913: The Fifth Gospel, lect. III.
The Wisdom in Human Illness
by SIGFRID KNAUER (1894 - 1984)
We cannot talk about illness without first considering
health. Health is often defined as the absence of illness,
but this is not true. One can be free of illness and still be in
poor health. Many illnesses have been successfully sup­
pressed, but poor health seems to be increasing.
How is good health maintained? Numerous move­
ments have sprung up, recommending anything from
fasting to prayer. Behind them all is the unspoken thought
that man ought to be established firmly on earth. He
should be integrated into the processes of nature, in
accordance, as they believe, with the intentions of the
Creator.
This assumption arises from the idea that man is just
part of nature, like the plant and animal kingdoms —that
his existence springs from the earth, that he has only to
assimilate those forces available on earth to keep him
well. Certain kinds of foods and certain kinds of exercises
are all that is needed for the purpose.
But Rudolf Steiner gave a far different concept about
the relation of man to nature. He proved beyond doubt
through his work that the purpose of man’s life upon earth
is not just to live according to the course and pattern of
nature, but to evolve, to take an active part in his own
evolution. The universe, including the earth, has been
created and lives in accordance with established patterns.
Man lives both within and outside of the pattern of nature;
he goes through and reaches out above. Otherwise he
would not be able to conquer nature and put her to his
own use.
Into this process of evolution both health and disease
are integrated, existing side by side as polarities. Because
of this there is a continuous struggle for balance, starting
at the very birth of each human being. Without this
struggle to maintain the proper balance, evolution, the
central aim and purpose of man’s earthly existence,
wouldn’t be possible. Just as we cannot only inhale but
have also to exhale, just as we have to maintain our
metabolism, rebuilding our inner structure and breaking
it down again, just as we die every minute and are reborn
again in our system, so an important part of our existence
is determined by the more or less harmonious swinging
between health and illness.
Since man lives within nature he has to conform to
her laws and he is wise not to violate them. At the same
time he has to emancipate himself from nature’s domina­
tion, otherwise he would be only a link in an endless chain
and he would miss the purpose of his existence on earth:
to work on his evolution. This is possible only if his
spiritual part is put into action, which enters into life from
beyond earth and nature.
Therefore the common statements that “you are what
you eat” and that “the body is merely a mechanism based
on chemical reactions,” are not true. Man is what he
develops from within and not what he appropriates from
the outside world. As far as he is mineral he belongs to the
mineral world; in his life-processes he is on the level of the
plant world; in his emotional pattern he is akin to the
animal forces; but where he is truly man he is no longer a
part of nature.
To conceive of man as solely a part of nature is the
result of our present materialistic thinking, excluding
man from any spiritual activity. It is commonly said that
we are becoming more and more religiously minded; but
the religion of today is not spiritual. Even devout persons
do not use prayer for their spiritual enlightenment, but
rather to improve their earthly conditions, to free them
from ill health, ill luck, or despair. If prayer does indeed
help, which it often does, then it is neither the prayer itself
nor the calling upon God that helps. Rather it is the inner
approach that desires to work toward evolution.
As a physician one has ample opportunity to observe
people in their attitudes toward health. Some will have a
good constitution with a basically normal functioning of
the system. And still they will suffer and bitterly complain
about this and that: pain in the chest, indigestion, head­
aches, backaches, rheumatism, insomnia and so forth.
These people are dominated by their physical bodies, as
distinct from the forces of evolution. Those two clash
because the latter are not strong enough or are not
sufficiently put to work to keep the organism in balance.
Others, who may even have a serious illness, are
nevertheless able to keep their organism functioning.
They do not mind small disturbances but always keep
their heads above water. They know instinctively that with
lowered spirits the resistances in the body become insur­
mountable and with that creeps in pain, nervousness,
tiredness and general ill feeling. They produce the lifting
quality from within to succeed in overcoming the weight
of their mere physical existence. They keep the inner
agility in their organism alive, whereas the others let it
stagnate and thus the body becomes a painful burden to
them.
It is not good health as such that makes a person
capable of enjoying life. It is the result of the inner attitude
he has toward himself and his activities in life. If we are to
say that a person is truly healthy we must consider the
quality of his health rather than its quantity. And it is
therefore not the dieting or fasting or cleansing or eating
of vitamins and supplements that brings health but the
inner activity that prevents the negative trends in the
organism, the stagnation and the effects of gravity. Where
soul and spirit are active the organism functions in a
healthy manner.
Experiments with plants have shown that their
growth and development, their health, can be influenced
in an amazing way by converging loving thoughts and
attitudes upon them. The plants will flourish and grow far
better than control plants that have received the same
external treatment but were otherwise left alone. Similarly
with our own organism. With a positive, loving, active
attitude within ourselves, and a will for evolution, we
produce well-being; with a negative, inert, unspiritual
attitude we cause ill health. The problem of health can be
solved only from within.
A vast and detailed knowledge has been accumulated
within the last hundred years about the manifestations of
nature. But the general concept of nature has remained
vague. So has the concept of the processes in the human
being that result in the chemical exchanges and structural
formations. We know what takes place but we don’t know
from where it comes. We have confined our approach to
perception of the material manifestations only, not daring
to see them as results of higher forces.
We do not realize that nature in the surrounding
world works differently than nature in our organism,
despite forces of identical quality. The life-forces in nature
are expanding, of divergent character as seen in the life of
the plant world. The same forces act in the human
organism in a convergent manner, they are interwoven
within the organism. In nature their dynamism manifests
itself in producing new material; in the human organism,
only in function —continuously forming and dissolving.
This shows that substances exist not by themselves
but derive from an activity on a higher level. Just as the
first dimension —the line —can be understood as a projec­
tion from the second dimension —the plane —and this in
turn again as a projection from the third dimension, so
can three-dimensional substance be understood as result­
ing from forces of a four-dimensional quality. Those
forces thus would not emanate from the substances, but
rather the substances would be a condensation of the
forces.
It is interesting to look at physical phenomena like
warmth. We take the existence of warmth for granted. But
shouldn’t it fill us with wonderment that burning wood or
coal produces warmth? Does not the fact that warmth and
light can be released indicate that the warmth and light
forces have been incorporated first? There is another
warmth that can be produced without fire, the one that
comes from the sun. Another warmth through rage and
anger, wild, flaming, consuming warmth; another again
through enthusiasm, fiery, overpowering but constructive
warmth; another again through love that is like sunshine,
glowing, permeating, exhilarating warmth. Such warmth
is not a reactive process but a quality of spiritual origin.
And we might think of the warmth coming from the sun as
something that is the result of spiritual energies just like
the warmth that we as human beings produce from within.
If we truly observe, we can see such forces working
through the whole universe in a rhythmic ebb and flow. It
is these forces that, around the time of the full moon, drive
the sap in the plants into the branches, leaves and flowers,
and again, around the time of the new moon, push the sap
back again into the roots. This makes the germination of
seeds more effective for future plant growth if they are
sown just before the full moon, and transplanting more
successful just before the new moon. Here too we see
forces at work not springing from the mineral world; on
the contrary, the gravity, density, inertness of the physical
5
world are overcome and transformed into a living process.
This energy is tremendous; roots can lift a thick layer
of asphalt and break rocks apart. Plants can grow in
places where physical reasoning would think it impos­
sible. Every year a tremendous amount of new material is
produced and broken down again; for these forces are
stronger than the earth, and are coordinated into the
mineral world through plants, animals, atmosphere, sun,
moon and stars. They work likewise in the human
organism; contained within it, they are engaged in a
continuous surge of building and regenerating.
Thus we have to accept the existence of forces not
derived from the material world. This material world does
not move from within, is not formative, not creative, not
dynamic; it is static, the expression and result of a
dynamism behind and beyond it. We can study these
forces in the plants, where the transformation of lifeforces into matter takes place continuously, into living
matter first and into mineral material at the end, after it
has been abandoned by them.
We find the same dynamism in the human organism.
The life-forces change the minerals from an inert into an
active state. They play the polarity between the potassium
in the cells and the sodium in the surrounding fluid. They
maintain the magnesium level in the blood as a screen
between the activities of calcium, potassium, phosphorus
and sodium. They keep the iron in the hemoglobin of the
blood cells, making possible the transfer of oxygen to the
tissue cells. In a healthy organism all these minerals are
kept in balance. This again shows that higher forces act
upon the minerals.
Rudolf Steiner called these forces the etheric forces
that become organized as an etheric body. It is responsible
for all the functions of life, regeneration, rejuvenation,
creation. Responsible also for the maintenance of all the
elements necessary to maintain the organism and keep it
healthy.
Health and etheric body, however, are not synony­
mous. If the etheric body functioned only by itself it would
continuously build, resulting in a formless monster. The
forces must be directed, restrained, coordinated, formed.
We have to introduce another organization of a higher
dimension, keeping in mind that something on one level
can be dominated only from a higher level. This organiz­
ing body was described by Rudolf Steiner and called by
him the astral body —the forces that integrate the total of
the universe into the human organism. It is the carrier for
the instinctive thinking, for the feeling, and for the
numerous and diverse emotions. It is the equivalent of
what we call the mind, only the mind is not considered
today as an organization by itself but a function of the
physical body.
If this astral body is not integrated properly, if its
activity is too weak or too strong, illness will appear. Too
weak an astral body will leave the etheric body unchecked,
leading to every kind of inflammatory condition. An
increase in the activities of the etheric body may cause an
influx of all kinds of bacteria and viruses. If the astral
6
body on the other hand acts too strongly, the etheric body
will be suppressed, and the breaking-down process domi­
nates. The mineral world begins to creep in and degenera­
tive diseases like sclerosis, arthritis and cancer begin to
form.
But now we have to go a step further. Beyond the
astral forces there must be some higher consciousness.
Our actions, if they are conducted consciously, begin with
initiative that starts off the motion. To be effective, the will
must be guided by wisdom. If at the beginning of it all
stands love, the deed will serve human evolution.
These are the qualities that have created the universe.
They have become effective in the human organism as the
higher spiritual forces, described by Rudolf Steiner as the
ego. The ego gives meaning to man’s existence, because it
makes man’s central purpose on earth —evolution —pos­
sible and necessary. Only when man unfolds inner
initiative and cultivates wisdom and love to transform the
instinctive forces represented by his astral body can he
reach higher and higher levels in his evolution and
prevent the ever-present menace of illness.
We know that most illnesses cause a disturbed
reaction in man’s soul. People with liver trouble become
tired, irritable, moody; kidney troubles make them sleepy
and inert; intestinal disorders produce a general state of
unhappiness. To every disturbed organ and every dis­
turbed gland we can relate a certain pattern of peculiar
conditions and reactions.
But we can reverse such a path of thinking. Originally
those organs were healthy until they became sick. If we
remember that manifestations are the result, the conden­
sation of forces, we can see that those disturbances may
also be caused from within, if our daily actions lack
wisdom and love.
The theory that infections are caused by the invasion
of micro-organisms has been widely accepted. But orien­
tal practices have shown that the ego can exert such a
strong hold upon the lower forces of the organism that
infections do not take place, even when dirty needles
taken from the floor have been thrust deep into the flesh.
We see again that higher forces dominate the lower
manifestations.
In this way we can account for the various signs of
illness. The blood pressure, for example, is a fairly
constant value. If it goes up or down it indicates that the
astral forces are holding the etheric forces in check, either
too much or too little. The ratio between calcium and
phosphorus in the blood is also constant. The calcium,
organized in the bony skeleton, gives stability; the phos­
phorus, organized in the brain, intensity. If the proper
ratio is not maintained, the balance between stability and
intensity is lost. It is a sign that the ego is not acting
properly upon the astral body. It is the same with the
maintenance of the constant level of sugar in the blood.
Changes in this will express a certain disturbed relation­
ship between the ego and astral body.
Thus we come to the conclusion: if we go far enough
back in our analysis of illness and health we find that they
depend primarily on the way the ego acts within and upon
the human organism. In our century the position of man
in the stream of evolution has completely changed. He has
acquired the possibility of ruling over the earth as its
sovereign, and even tries to do the same with the universe.
But if he develops his ego-forces with the aim of ruling
rather than of participating in spiritual evolution, he will
fail. He will not be able to create the necessary basis for
future existence. He will conquer the world and will
destroy himself. Illness is a part of man’s evolution. It is a
challenge, a warning, a stimulation. It is an indication
that man has failed somewhere. To overcome this, man
has to realize that he does not live by bread alone. He has
to realize that he stands with his ego between the spiritual
and the earthly worlds and that he has to strengthen his
spiritual forces to be able to integrate them into his earthly
existence. For this he needs first, alertness of mind, to keep
eyes and heart open for the essential things, in order to
understand the meaning of his earthly existence; and
secondly, courage to carry out what is demanded through
his understanding.
Then fear will be conquered and illness will not
come, or if it comes, it will be accepted as a friend.
Toward a Spiritual Practice of Thinking
A Guide for the Study of Anthroposophy
by CHRISTOF LINDENAU
Translated by Frederick Amrine from the German. Der uebende
Mensch. Anthroposophie-Studium als Ausgangspunkt moder­
ner Geistesschulung. In memory of Alan P. Cottrell (1935-1984)
who reviewed the text in the Autumn 1978 issue of the Newsletter.
Verlag Freies Geistesleben, publisher, gave permission to serial­
ize the chapters of this workbook.
IV
PRACTICAL EXERCISES
FOR THE STUDY OF ANTHROPOSOPHY
To perform a symphony, one must prepare in two
ways: each instrumentalist must master his part inde­
pendently of others, and then practice playing in concert
with them. Something similar is needed when exercising
the faculties of the soul upon the anthroposophical path
of inner development. As a first step one must strive to
develop each faculty according to its individual nature
and then bring it into harmony with the others once again.
In the preceding chapters we have discussed a whole
series of faculties that collaborate in creating the soul’s
representational, conceptual and cognitional life. How
can they be exercised separately before we allow them to
rejoin the concerted whole? By focusing upon each faculty
in turn so that it can be developed with particular care.
Self-refl ection reveals, for example, that in ordinary
consciousness the process of “ingestion” seldom proceeds
with undivided attention. While listening to another
person, assent or rejection often rises up unnoticed within
our soul; often judgment and criticism surface immedi­
ately. In many cases, something similar happens when we
read. Here one must practice becoming silent within and
concentrating all one’s attention upon the object to be
perceived. We soon realize just how strong the habits are
that allow other faculties to interrupt pure observation.
Only after much patient effort does one become able to
suppress such habits and develop in their stead intense
devotion to the object. Through such efforts, all of one’s
perceiving and observing is gradually permeated by the
careful attention one formerly reserved for exceptional
cases. Rudolf Steiner provides a full description of this
exercise in the chapter “Preparation” in his book Knowl­
edge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment. Since we are
concerned with the study of spiritual science, our task is to
transform the exercise framed for listening into one
appropriate for reading.
We can also alternate this exercise of attentive “inges­
tion” with a schooling of our memory. Memory is un­
doubtedly strengthened through the careful attentiveness
in observation that is acquired in the way described. It is,
however, of particular value to turn one’s attention again
to the object, this time recreating the content through
one’s own activity. In the process, the content imprints
itself ever more indelibly upon our memory. Thus we can
try to reproduce in our own words a text we have read.
Such re-telling is not to be considered a “test” whether one
has “retained” the text yet; rather, it is the process of
imprinting itself. Rudolf Steiner gives detailed examples
of such memory exercises in his lectures “Practical Train­
ing in Thought” (Jan. 18, 1909) and “Overcoming Nerv­
ousness” (Jan. 11, 1912). These exercises can be fruitfully
applied to the study of spiritual science.
A third way of working is one we have employed all
along quite naturally when we wanted to study more
intensively a text, or parts of a text. In schooling memory
we have striven to give each part of a text equal attention;
now we do the opposite. We make distinctions. We
distinguish what is important to us by underlining, for
example, or by marking in the margin, whereby the
remainder of the text tends to recede into the background.
One of us will mark what strikes him for some reason or
what answers a question with which he has been strug­
gling. Another will perhaps find it important to isolate the
sentences that are felt to be a key to the rest. A third marks
passages with a view to the work in which he is otherwise
engaged. When each of us brings his own individuality
into the text in this way, the text becomes his own
individual experience.The unified impression that the text
previously made upon us disintegrates. Personal perspec­
tives and emphases stand in the foreground.
We have depicted three different steps one can take in
approaching a spiritual-scientific presentation in a medi­
tative way [uebend]. One of the first experiences will be the
7
following: we become aware that each of these exercises
brings the danger of our becoming one-sided. Thus the
memory exercise can cause one to become ever more
worried whether one has recapitulated the text accurately;
afraid of remembering something "wrong,” etc., so that
finally one is in danger of losing all independent judg­
ment. On the other hand the third exercise, recommended
for the strengthening of analytical thinking, can, if pur­
sued exclusively, increase the danger that we underscore
merely what we have always held to be important.
Eventually we perceive only what we find important, i.e.,
we see essentially only ourselves, unable to learn anything
new. Yet in performing these exercises we become
aware —and this is of the utmost importance —how these
different ways of working with a spiritual-scientific text,
employed alternately, prove complementary; each bal­
ances the one-sidedness of the other. (This can become an
immediate experience as well in the ways of working we
have yet to describe.)
Let us turn now to the inner activity of posing
questions. With good reason we feel that the activity of
posing questions —grasped in its deeper significance —is
an integral part of human life, which can be carried out,
but never really isolated for the sake of practice. What is a
matter for practice in the posing of questions concerns
linguistic expression, the formulation of the question, but
also listening intently —even posing another’s question
sympathetically within oneself. More than with the other
exercises, one feels that this exercise can achieve its full
potential only gradually. For this reason, it is extremely
desirable to allow the questions raised by a text sufficient
time to take form; in many cases, one will wait until the
following day, or to keep the original formulation provi­
sional, to be recast in the days that follow. With regard to
the questions of another, however, the meditant [der
uebende] will adopt such an inner attitude that he
attempts —always regarding the formulation as merely
provisional —to move inwardly in the direction whence
the question comes; listening, he will seek to submerge
himself in the source of life-experience from which the
question springs. Rudolf Steiner underscored the impor­
tance of such submersion in the living source of another’s
questions in his letter of March 16, 1924 to the members of
the Anthroposophical Society (in The Life, Nature and
Cultivation of Anthroposophy).
Of course a large part of one’s work with a spiritualscientific text consists in an —often communal —search
for answers to questions the text evokes. Observation
shows that one can answer such a question by pointing
out something previously unnoticed. One can also answer
by reminding the questioner of something he has said
earlier, or by emphasizing a particular portion of the text.
Sometimes the appropriate response will be to answer
with another question or, as often happens, either to
complement the ideas already discussed with other
thoughts, or to show how what has been contributed can
be arranged into a comprehensive picture that will con­
tain an answer. In short: we see that in handling questions
8
we encounter again the various mental faculties we have
been considering from the point of view of meditative
work with a spiritual-scientific text. Thus the exercises
serve at the same time as an initial preparation for such a
handling of questions, to the extent that the latter arises
out of the living interplay of the processes we have
exercised individually.
Analytical thinking can comprehend its object only
by taking it out of context and dissecting it into compo­
nent parts. In order for the process of cognition to be
completed, however, it is necessary that the living struc­
ture destroyed by analysis be inwardly restored. This
applies to our work with spiritual-scientific texts as well.
One of the most essential exercises to consider consists of
a repeated attempt to reconstruct the text in its entirety
backward; that is, to recreate the text freely, working from
the end to the beginning. This can be accomplished only if
the student has already entered deeply the text via the
meditative exercises. By attempting to grasp the thought
content backward a different quality of thinking can be
experienced. What we experienced previously in the
succession of thoughts transforms itself more and more
into the juxtapositions [Nebeneinander] of a thought struc­
ture, into the simultaneity [Zugleich] of a specific thought
panorama. An inner realm of images [Bildraum] begins to
open up. The more the composition of the text has flowed
from the inner unity of the presented thought complex, the
more the text, elaborated backward, can become a picture
of this harmony. This picture can, as in many of Rudolf
Steiner’s works, be one of extraordinary beauty. Through
these exercises we attain at the same time the ability to
assimilate organically the thoughts we have elaborated
into our own thought life. In his lectures “How Does one
Come to View the Spiritual World?”(1) Rudolf Steiner
strongly emphasizes this exercise of imaginatively recon­
structing a text backward.
* * *
Let us pause here for a moment. How are the inner
faculties that one engages in such an exercise different
from those employed in ordinary thinking? These activi­
ties are suffused with the forces of one’s own ego far more
intensively than is usually the case. Thus at the outset the
difference resides purely and simply in the conscious
strengthening of the volitional component. However, in
each of the aforementioned exercises this is achieved in an
entirely different way.
In deliberate and attentive “ingestion,” this will,
which projects itself from the ego into the soul’s cognitional life, actively “forgetting” itself, surrenders as com­
pletely and unreservedly as possible to the object of
perception. In the process of memory formation, the will is
called upon to unfold a different activity: it seeks, if only
through the conscious repetition of the process of inges­
tion, to reproduce inwardly what it has perceived. If the
result of this process is often a certain selection from the
things one has grasped, this is even more the case when
one exercises analytical thinking. Here we purposely
suppress what appears to us unimportant at the moment,
while stressing what does seem important, casting it as
best we are able in the form of our own concepts and ideas.
In the process, what we have perceived becomes individu­
alized, often to the point beyond recognition.
Although this process of individualization is related
to a deeper level of our individuality, that of interest, the
essence of this deeper layer does not yet become fully
conscious. This occurs only in the act of posing questions.
To be sure, questions arise often through what has been
“ingested” and, to a greater or lesser degree, assimilated.
The question itself arises, however, only when the will that
lives in these thought processes awakens an “openness” to
experience, which the self brings to the matter at hand.
Every question of this kind is not only a bit of individual
experience, but truly part of the human individuality
itself.
The path that the ego (represented by the will in
thinking) has heretofore traversed from without inward
continues at this point by turning from within outward.
This is accomplished, however, not in the sense of a
simple turnabout, but by continuing upon a different
level. If we attend subtly the exercise of imagining back­
ward, we become conscious of both levels: the level of
concepts and representations we have framed and, “be­
neath” concepts and mental representations, the level of
active thought-will [Denkwille], which grasps spiritually
that which fuses individual thoughts into a unity before
we form them into mental representations. It is to the
activity of thought-will that we owe the new dimension of
an inner realm of images mentioned above.
As a result of this initial reflection upon our own
inner nature as meditants, we see that one might compare
the study of a spiritual-scientific text to practicing a piece
of music, whereby the writings of spiritual science corre­
spond to the score, the etheric body to the instrument, and
the meditant to the musician, who grasps the instrument
with the fingers of his inmost will in order to play it. This
image was inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s reference to the
study of his An Outline of Occult Science:
Every moment that one gives oneself over to the reading of a
text, one must create out of the depths of one’s soul and with
one’s innermost will something for which the books attempt
to provide the initial stimulus; only he who knows this will
succeed in viewing these books as musical scores, and in
creating the actual music from them in the inner experience
of his own soul. Yet it is precisely this active experience of
the soul that we need.(2)
* * *
(1) June 28, June 30, & July 7, 1923. GA 350.
(2) July 2, 1920: Oswald Spengler —Prophet of World Chaos. GA
198.
Editors Note: The second half of this chapter will follow in the next
issue.
How to Read a Book:
A Study of Rudolf Steiner’s
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
by GEORGE O’NEIL and GISELA O’NEIL
PART VIII
CHAPTER SIX: OVERVIEW — 2ND HALF
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THE EXERCISES
VITA ACTIVA & VITA CONTEMPLATIVA
Not within cloistered walls but in the midst of
modem active life —with all its demands and turmoil —
are we destined to cultivate an equally active inner life. Is it
possible? How can we do it?
“Finding” the time, “finding” the quiet, and “finding”
the will for regular inner work —this becomes the daily
and lifelong hurdle most of us face.
In the West we tend to be doers. It takes will to do the
many things we accomplish. We attend “anthroposophic
activities” —meetings, lectures, classes, conferences —but
we reflect little on what we did or heard. The “active life”
dominates; the “contemplative life” is not part of our
nature. We take in much from the outside. But so little
comes to a life of its own, within, as inner experience, as
inner treasure. A soul turned out is not active but passive
and receptive only. Concerning the various anthropos­
ophic exercises: most of us have “tried” them and then
turned to other interests.
In our study here we have arrived at the midpoint of
the book: the last chapter with exercises. (The following
chapters focus on the results of “inner work.”) Before
approaching the sets of exercises listed in the text, we will
describe briefly —based on decades of experience with
study groups —a few external obstacles we all face and
how they can be overcome.
A PLACE
Old European farmhouses had a Hergottsecke, a
nook graced by a religious statue or picture, that served as
focal point for daily prayers and table graces. Wealthy
early anthroposophists had their violet-painted medita­
tion rooms. Many modem homes have as focal point the
TV set. They provide little privacy and quiet. Yet it is
essential for each of us to have his private nook set up —
with a crystal, a picture, or whatever, and the text in use —
to which he can withdraw.
If the external noise is a problem, use ear stopples. A
lighted candle can help quiet the atmosphere, and cur­
tains drawn. (Since the phone will surely ring, take it off
the hook before you settle down.)
FINDING THE TIME
As the old saw goes, each of us is allotted only 24
hours per day. Would 25 hours make the difference —
9
giving us the extra hour needed to cultivate the inner life?
We have to make time, we’ll never be able to find it. Can I
free myself for one hour, or even one half-hour every day?
Can I schedule this time, give it firm priority? Planning a
definite time slot, committing oneself first for a number of
days —perhaps one week —is absolutely essential, unless
our failed good intentions will help pave that proverbial
4road to hell.” To start something only to drop it again is a
perennial danger, the fate of lukewarm intentions.
Anthroposophic resolve must be firmer than those famed
New Year’s resolutions, target of countless jokes.
Economy in the use of time, firm planning, and
guarding one’s priorities should make possible “free”
time, “personal” time, “contemplative” time —in every life.
In addition, during the day (our “active” life) most of us
have unoccupied minutes —we wait, walk, sit, ride or
drive —moments that can be filled with reflective thought:
bringing to mind what was studied, searching for illustra­
tions or examples from our daily experience, or practicing
an exercise —patience, positivity, detachment.
GOALS LARGE AND SMALL
The newcomer to anthroposophy begins to read,
book after book. If fortunate, a well-guided study group
will help him find the way through some basic texts.
Taking in new content nourishes the soul and fills the
memory. It’s not yet an active contemplative life. And the
danger of drifting arises, once the initial eagerness sub­
sides. That’s when the setting of goals becomes essential.
For example, working again, this time intensely, through
one written text a year; or for a Waldorf faculty, the
teachers’ literature re-studied (this implies also individual
work) in the course of every ten years. Then there are the
sets of exercises. They seem overwhelming at first in their
multiplicity, yet each necessary for inner growth and
stability. Here, small goals, daily tasks, are crucial for any
degree of success.
In an earlier study we referred to Ben Franklin’s daily
checklist of virtues. Something similar —of course differ­
ent —can be found in Rudolf Steiner’s Guidance in Esoteric
Training, published long after his death. It includes
detailed instruction to individuals and small groups,
given in the years he wrote Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.
Here and in the 1984-published Zur Geschichte und aus den
Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der Esoterischen Schule; 19041914, the directions for morning and evening work are
specific, the daily task clearly set (this includes keeping
daily tabs in a notebook on morning and evening work).
It’s not that easy and not that stem for us today —some 80
years later. To succeed, each of us can become his own
guide, his own taskmaster of the many small steps on the
path —adding up to the great step, freedom.
THE SETS OF EXERCISES
Three things are paramount for everyone today: a
vigorous cultivation of common sense or judgment, a
wakeful and well-ordered relation to the outer world, and a
strong inner life of reflection, of self-direction. In essence,
10
these are the spheres of the head, the larynx, and the heart
organs of the soul today. The centers of the 2-, the 16-, and
the 12-petaled soul organs (“flowers”).
The fourth one is exclusion, whereby the various
goblins of distraction and intrusion are kept at bay. There
has to be some “home-turf"—an inner realm exclusively
one’s own for meditative life. The control organ is the one
near the solar plexus (10-petaled).
The Head Organ: No specific exercises are given but
throughout the book the continual emphasis is on the
necessity of clear thinking. This is the new, the Western
note. Clarity, logic, objectivity, factuality in the forming of
thought about what we hear and see; plus a reckoning with
time, growth and development; the metamorphic changes
taking place all about us —this all comes within the scope
of strengthening the head forces, the two-petaled organ of
the head.
Nonsense should give us a headache. Every state­
ment needs checking with facts. The world is afloat today
with uninformed personal opinion, devoid of reason,
ignorant of fact.
The Organ of the Larynx: Rudolf Steiner’s original sugges­
tion, to practice these exercises on a weekly basis, has
become traditional knowledge in our movement: the same
exercises on the same day (Sat. thought, Sun. decisions,
etc.) and the eighth daily, spread over the week.
It’s interesting that the throat organ should have to do
with our relation to the world. Yet, considering all the
things we swallow, and all that comes forth in
“wordage” —plus the confusions and foibles arising from
both —the connection becomes obvious.
It’s a fact that the soul life of modem man, the
consciousness soul, has to mature at first in the relation to
the external world. Only with time do we spiritualize it,
“inwardize” it as spiritual soul.
Now to the exercises —their timeliness is striking, the
need is obvious. We have abbreviated them here in every­
day language (do the same for yourself!) and called them:
THE EIGHT RIGHTS
ORDERING THE DAY “ON THE RIGHT TRACK”
Use your mind with care: sift out the trivia, separate fact
from opinion, check the sources. Listen with inner calm.
Neither agree nor disagree. Think it over. (“Right
Opinion”)
Deliberate the things you do: leave unessentials undone.
Once you are sure, don’t flinch —stick to your decision.
You made it. (“Right Judgment”)
Talk sense: shun trivia, chatter. Conversation can be
golden or heavy as lead, can inspire or depress. Be
thoughtful, neither long-winded nor abrupt. Listen and
reflect. Silence is often an excellent choice. (“Right
Word”)
What, how, and why you do things: what you think you have
done isn’t always the way it appears to others. D on’t
disturb your fellow man. Weigh long-range needs and
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VI
consider all the effects of what you do. (“Right Deed”)
Order your life: plan the day. Avoid unessentials, don’t get
swamped by externals. Don’t rush and don’t dawdle. Pay
heed to health of body and mind. You are here to grow in
faculties and strength —“behave accordingly.” (“Right
Viewpoint”)
Set your goals: within your powers do all you can but don’t
overdo. Look beyond. Set your aims high to make some­
thing of yourself —spiritually. Develop now the faculties
to help others later: your road to excellence. (“Right
Habit”)
Live to learn: the world is a school. Do things better the next
time, watch others, collect experiences. And don’t forget
them. (“Right Memory”)
Do your daily check-up: keep tab on success and failure.
List your purposes, principles, duties and compare your
shortfall and errors. Reflect on your immediate goals.
(“Right Examination”)
THE SIX PROTECTIVE EXERCISES
The heart Organ : given various Latin translations, acces­
sory, subsidiary, supplementary —with the implied
meaning “of lesser importance,” Rudolf Steiner’s original
“Neben” in context clearly means “side by side.” They
must be practiced along with any kind of meditative work,
for protection and safety. This is how he introduced them
in Guidance in Esoteric Training:
“In what follows, the conditions that must be the basis
of any occult development are set forth. Let no one
imagine that he can make progress by any measures
applied to the outer or the inner life unless he fulfills
these conditions. All exercises in meditation, concen­
tration, or exercises of other kinds, are valueless,
indeed in a certain respect actually harmful, if life is
not regulated in accordance with these conditions.”
And in The Stages to Higher Knowledge Rudolf Steiner even
goes further. By establishing good habits, these six exer­
cises actually protect us from serious dangers arising with
higher development. Without this protection, pernicious
elementals can be the cause of ill health, unsavory
personal traits, even moral degeneration, when the soul
begins to withdraw a bit from the body. Hence, the
importance —not subsidiary, accessory, or supplemen­
tary —of these protective exercises.
But there is more: a threshold is being approached
between the soul-astral and living forces. Each exercise
calls forth energies that in time can be directed, and a
center formed in the life organism. We speak of the
Etheric Streams (cf. Guidance in Esoteric Training).
Indications of these in brief are here given with each
exercise.
THE SIX PROTECTIVE EXERCISES
AND THEIR STREAMS OF POWER
One: Concentrate on pin or pencil. Build a factual, simple
thought sequence —equivalent to a paragraph of a dozen
sentences or so —about some small thing. Remember in a
microcosm there reflects itself a macrocosm. The power to
12
focus and penetrate can be yours.
This feeling of certainty and firmness appearing in
the forehead, we pour through the head and down the
spine. It provides a captain’s sense of being in
command.
Two: Give yourself a daily small task (later several tasks) —
touch a button or your ear —to be carried out with
precision at the exact moment set by you (“10:00 sharp”).
Become master of time and learn to obey yourself. Your
self-esteem, “I can do it,” grows thereby.
The elation “I did it,” this feeling of accomplishment,
we let stream from head to heart. Lionheartedness we
now know.
Three: The feeling world, like the sea, can be stormy or lull,
whipped up or seemingly devoid of hope. We need ballast
for storms and shocks; sails of enthusiasm to counter the
hours of discouragement or gloom. Equanimity is an
active force. You become weatherproof. Inner quiet
ensues.
This peaceful quiet, this restfulness, we let stream
from the heart through arms and hands, down to the
feet, and then radiate to the head. Done once a day,
balance and calm permeate us.
Four: In a world of life and death, of growth and decay,
there is always the small seedling midst the rotting
manure. Affirm one and learn to understand the other. Be
active: discover what bears the future in it. You can help it
come to be.
This feeling of appreciation, of blessing and bliss, first
centered in the heart, streams through the eyes and
about us. The eyes become a source of blessings to
others in need.
Five: “Knowing it all” boxes us in, crab like. Hardenings
and encrustings come with age. Be willing to learn. Open
up again like a child. The new vibrates with life all about
us.
And if we but attend we realize: our life forces can
expand. We discarnate a bit when new insight carries
us beyond our personal sphere. A quivering life
streams into us through eyes, ears, and skin.
Six: Virtues come in circles. A single virtue is a specialized
skill. Onesidedness can act like sin! (A piece of a circle
isn’t round, it’s bent!) Well-roundedness and balance are
the goal; and a well-established “maintenance program”
will prevent decay and loss of what so far has been
achieved. Practice what you lack, and persevere!
Florin Lowndes drew the overview chart.
PUB LICATIONS
CHRIST AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLD and THE SEARCH FOR
THE HOLY GRAIL, by Rudolf Steiner. A course of six lectures,
Leipzig, Dec. 28, 1913 - Jan. 2, 1914. Rudolf Steiner Press,
reprinted 1983; 144 pages; $7.95.
Rudolf Steiner traces, in large outline, the spiritual evolu­
tion of humanity, touching upon the difficulties of understand­
ing the Christ Being; the thoughts of the Gnostics; the Sybils and
their role in human affairs; and Paul and Pauline Christianity.
The need to understand the Christ Being and the Mystery of
Golgotha is of primary importance.
In Greece and Rome, before and after the Mystery of
Golgotha, there was a profound deepening of thought that at
first could not be traced to its source. Then “one comes to the
feeling that something is happening far, far away in spiritual
worlds and that the deepening of thought is a consequence of it”!
Gnosticism wrestled with the problem but provided answers
only a few men could understand. The Sybils, with their
widespread influence and prophecies, stand in contrast to the
Hebrew prophets who seek, in later times, to suppress the
sybilline nature in men and to “cultivate solely that which works
in the clear forces of the ego.”
Astonishing facts are revealed in connection with the three
permeations of an Angelic Being —later to become the Nathan
Jesus child —by the Christ. The result was the rescue of the
human sense organs, then the rescue of the human vital organs,
and finally the harmonization of thinking, feeling, and willing.
In the last two lectures, Rudolf Steiner comes to the difficult
question of the Holy Grail. How is it to be understood in man’s
spiritual evolution? What does it mean when we are told in the
Parsifal legend that the name of the next Guardian of the Grail
always appears in the stellar script? Must we learn to read the
stellar script? Rudolf Steiner gives the answer: We are to “regard
what we are permitted to study in anthroposophy as a renewed
seeking for the Grail.” And then “let us try to explore a wisdom
that will disclose to us the connection between the earthly and
the heavenly, not relying on old traditions but in accordance
with the way in which it can be revealed today.”
—Agnes Macbeth (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
INNER IMPULSES OF EVOLUTION: THE MEXICAN MYSTER­
IES, THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, by Rudolf Steiner. Seven
lectures, Dornach Sept. 16-Oct. 1, 1916. Anthroposophic Press,
1984; 155 pages; $9.95.
These translated lectures, published for the first time in
English, have a somewhat rocky history. Problems arose
because a few of Rudolf Steiner’s external details about the
Mexican Mysteries appear to conflict with existing documents.
The Foreword by Stewart Easton and the academic 20-page
Introduction by Frederic Kozlik focus exclusively on how to
reconcile these discrepancies. (Such focus on one theme among
many —important to some readers, less important to others —
would perhaps be more appropriate as an appendix.)
The main theme of the lectures concerns the spiritual forces
opposed to human evolution and how they manifest in history to
undermine human progress. Lucifer draws human souls away
from the earth; Ahriman would create an earth mechanism
devoid of human egos.
Historical examples illustrate such efforts. During ancient
Greek times, Lucifer attempted to divert the human develop­
ment of imaginations to empty fantasy. Ahriman aimed at the
Roman civilization: to create a vast political machine without
law and justice. Both assaults failed, but Lucifer and Ahriman
continue to fight. Their attacks will become stronger because
they have prepared far in advance to assail later epochs. Thus,
the Mexican Mysteries, taking place centuries before Christ and
lasting until the Spanish Conquest, targeted the fifth and sixth
epochs. Through the brutal sacrifice of human victims by priests
initiated into ahrimanic mysteries of death, souls would dread
reincarnating. Not until a spiritual battle between “one of the
greatest black magicians of all time” and a sun initiate ended
with the magician’s crucifixion —at the time the Mystery of
Golgotha occurred —could these efforts be defeated. Had the
evil forces won, human beings would become weary of the earth,
loath to incarnate.
Even the noblest of human efforts are not exempt from
Lucifer and Ahriman’s onslaughts. This is illustrated in the
strivings and the fate of the Knights Templar, who dedicated
their lives to the Mystery of Golgotha, and many attained
spiritual vision. They were brutally eradicated. Their demise,
seen spiritually, was an ahrimanic consequence of their tooquick, hence luciferically tinged, initiation.
To further human evolution during our epoch we need to
develop the consciousness soul. Two faculties must be culti­
vated: a clear perception of the sense world and the unfolding of
free imagination. Goethe was the first to achieve this through his
experience of the “primal phenomenon.” But we must also
become cognizant of the cosmic forces —Lucifer and
Ahriman —that influence human culture, and of the dangers
each step forward will bring.
Given during the First World War, these lectures exude a
sense of urgency that rouses the reader —to tasks and battles still
ahead.
—Linda Miller (Pearl River, N.Y.)
ZUR PHILOSOPHIE DER FREIHEIT. Kommentare und Rand­
bemerkungen von Eduard von Hartmann. Beitraege zur Rudolf
Steiner Gesamtausgabe, Michaeli 1984. Rudolf Steiner-Nach­
lassverwaltung, Dornach; 88 pages; SFr 13.
Few readers will plow through Rudolf Steiner’s The Philos­
ophy of Freedom with Eduard von Hartmann’s intensity: page
after page filling the book with comments —yes!, no!, false!,
wrong word! —and corrections that begin already with the
book’s title.
Most readers bring less skill to the book, because Hartmann
was the eminent philosopher; and most come away like Hart­
mann, not grasping what the book is about —this was Rudolf
Steiner’s often expressed regret during his lifetime. And we may
assume that little has changed since then.
Here is the Hartmann story: As a young man, Steiner greatly
admired Hartmann. He wrote him several times, always stress­
ing positive points they had in common. He dedicated his
13
doctoral thesis, Truth and Science, to him. After he mailed him his
new book, The Philosophy of Freedom, the copy was returned two
weeks later, filled to the brim with corrections and criticism. (Just
imagine the effect on the young author.) Since Hartmann
requested that the fruit of his labor be returned to him, Rudolf
Steiner copied everything by hand, using a book with blank
pages interspersed. This took considerable spare time and
Hartmann sent a second request for the return of his copy.
Hartmann’s comments have now been published —almost
a book in themselves. They will be of great interest to the few
genuine students of Steiner’s The Philosophy of Freedom —able to
read German. Although Steiner’s 1918 additions respond to
some typical “Hartmann objections,” one who conducts a study
group on this text will grow more effective by struggling with the
detailed response of this archobjector.
Included in this publication is a splendid study by Andreas
Neider, “Rudolf Steiner and Eduard von Hartmann.” Neider
gives the history of the Steiner/Hartmann relationship and
delineates their philosophical differences. He then outlines the
immense demands placed upon the student of Steiner’s The
Philosophy of Freedom —the philosophical foundation of all his
later writings —and the stages on this “path of comprehension”
on which “richtig verstandenes Denk-Erleben schon Geist-Erleben
ist”
Lest we, too, misunderstand: A world movement devoid of
such firm foundation can but float among academic or mystical
clouds along with others of the wishful kind, destined to meet
their similar fate. The pervasive Hartmann syndrome must be
overcome —first among our own —if anthroposophy is not to be
denied its place in the sun.
Much can be learned from Eduard von Hartmann, because
he holds a special position to the philosophical base of Rudolf
Steiner’s work —as patron saint of non-comprehension.
—Gisela O’Neil (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
ARENSON LEITFADEN DURCH 50 VORTRAGSZYKLEN
RUDOLF STEINERS (Arenson Guide through 50 Lecture Cycles
by Rudolf Steiner), by Adolf Arenson. Verlag Freies Geistes­
leben, 8th edition 1984; 1023 pages; DM 48.
It can be time-consuming and often impossible to locate a
specific subject among the many lecture cycles by Rudolf
Steiner. For serious students of anthroposophy, able to read
German, this book is an indispensable aid and source of
information. The author, one of Rudolf Steiner’s earliest per­
sonal students, embarked on the task of compiling the encyclo­
pedic work in 1918. He had sought Rudolf Steiner’s advice and
discussed with him in detail how to go about this. The work was
finished seven years later. The first edition appeared in 1930.
The book covers the lecture cycles from 1906 to 1918. They
were the so-called “fifty cycles.” Adolf Arenson says they are
distinguished from later lecture cycles because “in them, the
whole substance and content of anthroposophy is set down;
thus, they represent anthroposophy’s foundation... .” In alpha­
betical order, the “Arenson,” as it came to be called, contains
brief, concise descriptions and indications concerning the
greatest variety of subjects. In the back, one discovers separate
listings of quotations from the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, and
the Old and New Testaments. A given subject can be traced
through all the cycles. To read, for example, what appears under
the heading “Mystery of Golgotha” is in itself rewarding; the
14
summary takes up almost six pages. This will not replace an in­
depth study of any lecture. But one is stimulated to discover more
about a given theme; if one has a question about something, one
learns where to look for an answer.
The numbering of Rudolf Steiner’s complete works in
German is different today. The designation of the first fifty cycles
as “Zyklus 1” to “Zyklus 50” has fallen into disuse. However,
Arenson’s method of referring first to the cycle number, then
lecture and page numbers, has been retained. In the front and
back of the book, the current numbers are listed next to the cycle
numbers. This makes it relatively easy to know where to look in
one’s library for the source.
Since 1930, the “Arenson” has gone through seven editions.
Due to its volume —no less than 1023 pages! —the earlier
editions were quite expensive. To make it less costly, the
publishers embarked on a special eighth edition. The format was
reduced, causing the print to be a bit smaller but still quite
readable.
A personal remark might be helpful here: When I bought
my “Arenson” in 1961, I arranged my German Steiner books in
the following manner. I wrote the new numbers of the complete
edition on the bottom of the backs, and the old cycle numbers
above. The books are arranged according to the current number­
ing system. This greatly facilitates locating a text.
—Maria St. Goar (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
ARBEITSLOSIGKEIT (Unemployment), edited by Stefan Leber.
No. 4 in Zeichen der Zeit (Signs of the Times). Verlag Freies
Geistesleben, 1984; 143 pages; DM 19.
Unemployment is a central political and social issue in Western
societies as millions of people suffer the personal anguish of
being without work. Unemployment compensation has been
lengthened, job-creating programs tried, and youth-training
activities increased. Yet, debates about unemployment usually
focus on the need for adjustments in the current economic
system —ignoring the underlying question, whether repeated
periods of crisis and unemployment suggest fundamental weak­
nesses in Western economic life. This excellent series of seven
essays raises basic questions about how the West German —and
by implication the U.S. —system of modified capitalism works,
how it contributes to unemployment, and what changes might
lead to a society that allows people to work if they are able and
willing.
Stefan Leber in “Competition and Unemployment: Its
Solution through an Associative Economic Order” points out
that both classical and modern state capitalism have caused a
crisis approximately every seven years since 1754. This observa­
tion, Leber suggests, points to the need for a new definition of
“work,” new motives for work by separating income from work
done, and a new associative principle for economic life, articu­
lated by Rudolf Steiner in his Toward Social Renewal (1920).
Leber’s incisive essay deserves the attention of policy-makers
and economists.
Josef Zimmerman’s “The Accumulation of Capital and the
Willing Worker without a Task” and Rainer Dilloo’s “To What
Degree Is Unemployment a Result of Technical Progress?” build
on the historical basis Leber provides but are more limited in
scope.
However, the following essays deserve special attention.
Benediktus Hardorp’s “The Separation of Work and Income”
compares Adam Smith’s and Rudolf Steiner’s views of the
human being, and examines their social and economic conse­
quences. Manfred Schmidt Brabant’s “The Value and Dignity of
Work” describes how meaningful work is essential to an
individual’s ego development and to the unfolding of personal
karma. It is the best account I have read about the relation of
work to the various sheaths of the human being.
The sixth essay on “Unemployment among Youth: How
Can It Be Overcome?” by Walter Kugler suggests a reform of the
educational and vocational training systems.
The last essay by W.E. Barhoff, a fitting ending to this fine
series, summarizes the most relevant aspects of unemployment.
We need a redefinition and reorganization of “work” to enhance
individual freedom. He sees this happening more frequently as
individuals seek work rather than employment.
This series of essays is a “must” for anyone interested in
understanding how the anthroposophical view of the human
being relates to a pressing contemporary issue.
—Christopher Schaefer (Pleasant Ridge, Mich.)
SECRETS OF THE SKELETON: FORM IN METAMORPHOSIS,
by L.F.C. Mees. Anthroposophic Press, 1984; 108 pages; $16.95.
L.F.C. Mees is an entertaining and interesting author and
speaker. Anyone who has heard him lecture will remember his
dramatic way of portraying some facet of man or nature with a
few broad strokes. He loves puns and the hidden wisdom in
everyday phrases. After a presentation of details, the audience is
often surprised at how Mees pulls the separate things together
into a whole.
In the preface of Secrets of the Skeleton Mees comments, “In
this book we are not dealing, as is usually the case, with
statements that are, in my opinion, established facts.” He
mentions that the comparisons and conclusions that result from
a discussion are so closely intertwined they should not simply be
viewed as merely subjective. When we want to view a landscape
or painting we must stand at a certain distance. If we become too
concerned with a close inspection “many more details are seen,
but the sight of the whole is lost.” However, details are important,
and in some cases this book lacks the power of the “close
inspection.”
In our first view of the subject we find a page with
photographs of four objects: a stone, a stone axe-head, a stone
relief of a sleeping human figure, and a tooth of a sperm whale.
They are approximately the same size and composed of mineral
substance. In each case the shape has been achieved in a
different way. In the stone the shaping has been the result of
inanimate forces in nature and the shape has mainly “contour.”
The axe was formed by a conscious being for a practical purpose;
its shape is pragmatic. It is called a “construction.” The work of
art is an aesthetic attempt to portray beauty, which Mees terms a
“composition.” The tooth is somewhat of an enigma. “We know
the creator of the axe and of the work of art is a human being. The
question arises: How should we conceive of the creator of
bones?” If we study the form of a skeleton we “remember that the
bone was once permeated by the creative shaping principle,
which withdrew after death.” This is called a “creation.”
The presentation of these four shapes is a powerful intro­
duction to the question of forms and formative processes. But in
the first chapter Mees asserts: “It is right to point out that
animals do not create, in spite of their great instinctive gifts.
Animals re p e a t."The statement is made flat-out without further
explanation and without any attempt to answer questions the
reader might have about the development of new behavior
which is not a repetition of former actions.
We are introduced to the process of metamorphosis —the
central idea of the book. Mees points out differences between
variation and metamorphosis. Variations (differences between
daisies of one species in a field) are seen as a “next to each other”;
metamorphosis (the change in form of leaves on the stem of an
annual plant) shows an “after each other.” The two criteria
necessary for a true metamorphosis are polarity and intensifica­
tion (Steigerung). To explain the difference between variation
and metamorphosis Mees chooses an example from technology.
Especially in technology we find many variations of the same
invention. If, for example, all cars looked alike, interest in
them would soon wane. Producing many makes of cars
maintains interest. If one places next to each other the many
cars produced since their invention nearly a century ago, we
clearly see a metamorphosis. The same idea has undergone
such a development that one can talk of intensification in the
sense of Steigerung.
What would the poles be in such a development? Where would
we place the 1959 Plymouth or the 1948 Volkswagen? What has
been intensified? I can imagine someone writing a comic essay
on this theme similar to S.J. Gould’s “Phyletic Size Decrease in
Hershey Bars,” which is a spoof on the use of statistics in biology.
But Mees is serious.
So the nature of metamorphosis, which will provide the
central Leitmotif of the book, comes into question in the first
pages of the text. After Mees discusses animal metamorphosis
and introduces the idea of reincarnation we come to the chapter
on metamorphosis of the human skeleton. Through an excellent
group of photographs and drawings Mees demonstrates the
threefold character of the human skeleton. He portrays the
threefold nature of the human femur with pictures from the work
of Belgian sculptor George Minne. The juxtaposition of his
sculpture of kneeling human figures with the pictures of the
human upper leg bone is very striking.
There follows a section in which we are shown wonderful
pictures of the similarities between various parts of the skeleton.
In a series of examples too numerous to mention we find some
great similarities and also some “stretchers” —in which my “well,
perhaps” reaction was swamped under a sea of “musts.” “. . .our
upper jaw, like our lower jaw, must be considered as a limb.
Therefore the upper jaw must be seen as the equivalent of the
arm.” “The nasal and oral cavities and eye sockets have altered
the original shape almost beyond recognition. Nevertheless, we
must think of such a connection.” And so on. All these “musts”
are to be found in a 43-page chapter that the author characterizes
as a “tentative scanning” and concludes: “We can say that the
matamorphosed shapes from the axial skeleton can be recog­
nized in the shapes of the skull bones.” “The pertinent statement
is that the shapes of the head are a metamorphosis of the shapes
of the axial skeleton of the previous incarnation.” There is no
direct reference to the origin of the statement in Rudolf Steiner’s
work and no direct quotation. When Steiner spoke about this
amazing transformation, in such lecture cycles as the Third
Natural Science Course (GA 323), he portrayed a complete
turning-inside-out process that can only be understood with
help from non-Euclidean (projective) geometry. There is no
mention of this in Mees’ book. What we are shown are parts of
the skeleton that have direct outer correspondences.
The author then shows drawings of the human form, and by
15
bending the skeleton and rearranging he manages to show a
form that corresponds to the lower part of the skull. No
correspondences are mentioned for the bones of the upper skull,
possibly because they don’t look like any of the bones in the limb
system.
The last chapter concerns metamorphosis and evolution. It
is a powerful ending, but unfortunately it doesn’t rest upon a very
strong main text.
When this book was published in German as Das Mensch­
liche Skelett it received two very critical reviews in the anthropo­
sophical publications Die Drei (September 1982) and Erzie­
hungskunst (August 1983). The review by Armin Huseman in Die
Drei was entitled “Die Welt des Unexakten” (The World of the
Inexact) and was a totally negative reaction. Mees does have
some interesting thoughts and observations, but even the best
parts of his presentation are not fully thought through. Since this
book is being energetically promoted for a wide general reader­
ship, it represents a case in which a good editor would have done
us all a great service by handing the manuscript back for more
careful work.
—Kenneth Melia (Orangevale, Calif.)
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN THINKING by Stewart Easton.
Rudolf Steiner Institute, 1984; 45 pages.
Those who were in the humid, 95° auditorium of Wilson
College at the Rudolf Steiner Institute two summers ago when
Stewart Easton gave three lectures will be grateful to peruse this
material under circumstances more conducive to the close
concentration it requires; and the new reader will appreciate the
opportunity to discover it.
Easton outlines the development of how Western man
experiences the activity of thinking. The text represents the
distillation of a lifetime’s study, both in anthroposophy and in
the Western intellectual tradition.
Easton moves across some three or four thousand years of
history. After a brief characterization of Egyptian and Mesopo­
tamian, and earlier mental processes, he explores Greece, the
early Arab world, medieval Christianity, and the early modem
period, ending with the materialistic thought of the 19th century
and its counterpole: the living thought developed by Goethe and
brought to fruition by Rudolf Steiner —all this in only 45 pages of
text! This is a valuable survey that includes incisive and
stimulating discussion of individual thinkers —especially Aris­
totle, Aquinas, and Steiner. All the while, Easton keeps to the
theme of Steiner’s vision of the spiritual forces at work in the
development of Western thinking. The masterful interplay
between the esoteric and the exoteric sheds new light on both.
Easton’s approach is dense and concentrated, it is also
clear, and the attentive reader shouldn’t find himself lost. The
book has a slightly uncomfortable number of textual and
typographical errors, not all of which are noted on the errata
page. Many thanks to the Rudolf Steiner Institute for publishing
a most valuable study.
—Michael Winship (Great Barrington, Mass.)
16
UEBER SPIELEN ALS FERNSEHEN! (Rather Play than Watch
TV!), by Karin Neuschuetz. Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 1984; 211
pages; DM 22.
Many parents and educators face the perennial problem of
children’s often excessive TV involvement.
The pros and cons have been promulgated at length; to wit
Norman Vincent Peale’s pro: “A lot of negative things people say
about television don’t convince me. I was concerned for a while
that TV was going to dull my grandchildren’s curiosity or make
them passive. On the contrary, it seems actually to have
sharpened them mentally.”
Karin Neuschuetz would dismiss these comments as hope­
lessly naive, at best. In a riveting, anecdotal style she describes
how TV watching affects the behavior and satisfies or frustrates
the needs of children. She asks: How can parents help a child
develop into a harmonious human being? Can TV contribute to
this? What is the difference between the encouragement, the
teaching, or the affection coming from a living adult and that
coming from a television "uncle” on a children’s program? What
effect do adults on the screen have if they predominate as role
models in a pre-schooler’s life? In a teenager’s life? How can the
two incessant urges of the young child —for physical movement
and for sense impressions —be fostered? And what about
developing a feeling for the spoken word and for a vocabulary
that will eventually lead to accurate verbal expression?
In the hands of a lesser writer, answers to these questions
would become cliches. Neuschuetz is innovative and practical.
For instance, one day parents decide that “it can’t go on this
way.” TV should not be allowed to dominate the life of the
family. “We’ll make an experiment!” says the courageous
mother. “We’ll let the TV disappear for two weeks!” Father looks
depressed. “Two weeks no sports? Not even news?” Her descrip­
tion of what transpires when the children and their friends
discover that the TV is gone, is hilarious, creative, and empathetic (to what each of us will face if we try her proposals).
“Mommy, I don’t know what to do! What can I do?” There’s
much wrapped up in that sentence, including a view of parent
involvement that many will find difficult. This leads into the
second half of the book that gives tips and detailed instruction
for numerous “remedies”: songs, nursery rhymes, fairy tales,
work with wood, wool, paper, all about puppets and a theater,
projects with materials gathered from nature, indoor games,
races and contests.
Neuschuetz claims that nothing can be a success if it isn’t
fun. So ask yourself, what do I really like to do with my children
and what is fun for them? This approach adjusts the activity to
the age and to the mood and need of the child at a particular
moment, something TV cannot do.
This book is of special value for teachers —it can be used as
a working model for a parents’ course. The last nine pages
outline such an endeavor, offering practical suggestions for eight
meetings.
“Rather Play than Watch TV” is the story of TV’s influence
upon young children with a vengeance! It makes fascinating
reading and by the time Neuschuetz has finished, the reader is
likely to agree with Cicero: “Take great care that the environ­
ment of the child is elevating and allow only pure and ennobling
examples to be reflected before him.”
—Lenore Ritscher (Alpine, N.J.)
BLUE
TENKNOSPEN: VERBORGENE ENTWICKLUNGSPRO­
ZESSE IM JAHRESLAUF (Flower Buds: Hidden Processes in
the Year’s Cycle), by Ottilie Zeller. Urachhaus, 1983; 244 pages,
110 black-and-white illustrations, 63 color photos. DM 58.
Ottilie Zeller shows us the beautiful geometry of forms in
the development of the bud that, in some cases are enclosed for
almost a year before they blossom. Through the use of photos,
photomicrographs and drawings she brings an artistic presenta­
tion to structures and processes that are often handled in an
unaesthetic manner by technical publications. Most people do
not associate the use of microscopes or microtomes (used to cut
very thin sections of tissue for viewing under the microscope)
with Goethean observation, but here in this book it works.
Those concerned with medicinal plants will find much of
interest in this presentation. A study of the rose family makes up
a large portion of the book, along with chapters on such popular
medicinal plants as Arnica and Calendula. Here the author has
made visible the sequence of forms: from the contraction to the
metamorphosis of the vegetative, photosynthetic realm into the
colorful, expansive and wondrous flower.
—Kenneth Melia
BAUMGESTALTEN (Treeforms) by Henri Ulrich. Urachhaus,
1984; 172 pages; DM 48.
This large-format book (8-1/2” x 12”) contains 60 full-page
drawings of European trees. Most of these trees are mature
specimens, growing in an open environment. They are trees that
have reached the stage in which one might stand back and say,
“Now, that is an oak! (or linden, etc.)” These very accurate, artistic
sketches actually depict more than photographs. Through them
Ulrich shows how the sensitive observer can learn to “read” the
forest landscapes. Along with the pictures of mature trees we are
shown specimens in various stages of development. The result is
that the characteristic form of each species speaks from each of
the drawings.
The health of the mixed forest ecology is discussed and the
effects of acid rain and other forms of pollution in Northern
Europe and North America are explained. The book ends with a
collection of excerpts of poetry and prose on the subject of trees
by major writers throughout history.
In earlier times trees were felt to have special qualities. They
were used for special ceremonies and gatherings. Even a casual
journey through this book helps one to appreciate why this was
so.
—Kenneth Melia
culture that flourished at the same time as those of Egypt and
Mesopotamia, but left behind no written language. Teichmann
presents the high degree of astronomical knowledge embodied
in the construction of the sites, by using recent archeological
findings and indications by Rudolf Steiner. Much of the
understanding of meaning and context of the stone circles,
menhirs, dolmen, etc., of the megalithic culture derives from the
contrast and comparison with Greek and Egyptian cultures.
This comparison is greatly helped by the fine use of charts and
graphics and by photographs of a very high quality.
Teichmann is also concerned with the fact that just this
culture, which developed so far in one direction, would be the
one to bring a new form of Christianity to Europe from the far
outposts of its rocky and wildly beautiful landscapes.
—Kenneth Melia
GRUNDLINIEN EINER ESSENTIALEN WISSENSCHAFTSTHEORIE: Die Erkenntnistheorie RudolfSteiners im Spannungsfeld
moderner Wisenschaftstheorien (Rudolf Steiners Theory of
Knowledge in the Range of Modern Theories of Science) by
Helmut Kiene. Urachhaus, 1984; 239 pages; DM 38.
In 1976 the West German government made an attempt to
set stricter standards for approval of medicines. The debates,
proposals and counterproposals raised questions not only about
the government’s role in such matters, but also about the proper
scientific methods to determine whether a medicine is “effec­
tive.” Can the individual experience of physicians and patients
be “trusted” or are purely statistical methods the only criteria?
The author explores the issue of testing of medicines and
raises questions about the nature of scientific inquiry. Then he
surveys scientists and philosophers from classical Greece to the
present, but focuses on twentieth century figures: Rudolf
Carnap, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Helmut Spinner, Paul
Feyerabend, John Eccles, Konrad Lorenz, Noam Chomsky,
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jean Piaget. He draws the conclusion
that scientists in our century have (for the most part) sought a
basis for describing their inquiry by forgetting one important
factor —the observer himself.
Kiene makes a good presentation of the contrasts and
comparisons of Rudolf Steiner’s ideas with the above-men­
tioned thinkers. He definitely helps place Steiner’s discussion of
the cognitive process in the first part of The Philosophy of Freedom
into contemporary perspective. The final chapter presents a
critical view of the easy acceptance of the axioms of positivism
and their applications in genetics and neo-Darwinism.
This book should be a candidate for translation.
—Kenneth Melia (Orangevale, Calif.)
DER MENSCH UND SEIN TEMPEL: MEGALITHKULTUR IN
IRLAND, ENGLAND UND DER BRETAGNE (Man and His
Temple) by Frank Teichmann. Urachhaus, 1983; 252 pages, 55
black-and-white illustrations, 35 color plates; DM 68.
This is the third in a five-volume study titled “Man and his
Temple.” The first two books cover Egypt and Greece, the fourth
will be on the cathedrals of Europe. In volume three we are
introduced to a group of “temples” that are completely different
from those studied in the other books. Here we find a complex
17
MEMBERSHIP
NEW MEMBERS
Barbara W. Gentry
San Juan Batista, CA
James K Staley
Fair Oaks, CA
Linda Atamian
Kenyon, RI
Kenneth Goldman
San Diego, CA
Patriq du Saint
Winston, OK
Sallie A. L. Cowan
Fullerton, CA
Mary Ann McDonnell
Grass Valley, CA
Melton Lee Crawford
Kimberton, PA
Elizabeth G. Monks
Fair Oaks, CA
Stephen Flowers
Boulder, CO
Dennis T. Scott
Fair Oaks, CA
Andrew Dario Frisardi
Northampton, MA
Holly Ann Slocum
Menlo Park, CA
Gregory R. Haynes
Sebastopol, CA
Hans Steegmans
Fair Oaks, CA
Ruth Geidel MacNeal
Spring Valley, NY
Mya Udy
Mission Hills, CA
Elizabeth A. Moreland
Southfield, MI
Judith G. Blatchford
Transf. from Hawaii
Frederick Schneider
Fair Oaks, CA
Roberto D. Trostli
New York, NY
Ingun Schneider
Fair Oaks, CA
Henry S. Dakin
San Francisco, CA
Craig V. Sloan
Fair Oaks, CA
Melissa Kay
San Francisco, CA
Alexander G. Spaey
New Paltz, NY
Emst-Jorg von Studnitz
Koenigswinter, W. Germany
Ulf-Christer E. Lundberg
Nashville, TN
John E. Barnwell
Birmingham, MI
Michael A. Miller
Denver, CO
John Bloom
San Francisco, CA
Sharon D. Miller
Denver, CO
Karin von Bluecher
Spring Valley, NY
Stephen Andrews
Pleasant Gap, PA
Catherine E. Brown
Capella, CA
Ann Christine Asp
Dornach, Switzerland
Lis-Britt Dalkarl
Japan
Walter J. Chao
Plantation, FL
William K. Simons
Philmont, NY
Eugene Donaldson
Miami, FL
June B. Simons
Philmont, NY
Marlyn Joyce Wall
Edmonton, Canada
MEMBERS WHO HAVE DIED
Julie K . Henry, October 30, 1984
From Saluda, ND
Joined the Society in 1979
Hans Just, January 12, 1985
From Spring Valley, NY
Joined the Society in 1924
Transferred to America in 1932
IN MEMORIAM
18
JOHN PHILBRICK
Oct. 15, 1910 - Dec. 10, 1984[Im
ilbrck]
age:photfJnP
In recalling some of our treasured hours with John Philbrick we are taken back to a Bio-Dynamic (B-D) Conference led
by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer at Threefold Farm in the Spring of 1947,
which was the first of many that John Philbrick was destined to
attend. For 15 years he served as president and chairman of the
B-D Association. His interest in B-D brought him to the work of
Rudolf Steiner and eventually to joining the Anthroposophical
Society in 1974.
We came to know John Philbrick as a deeply sincere person
with a genuine concern for the well-being of the many people
with whom he came in contact while carrying on his work as
leader of the B-D Association and as a pastor.
I would like to quote from the message that Helen Philbrick,
John’s wife, sent to their circle of friends: “I am sure John wants
us all to recall his bright blue eyes, his smile and his quick
repartee, his warm love, which like a true New Englander he
never quite expressed. He was gentle, whimsical, permissive and
sometimes perverse, a man of God who never did what we
expected but who always did better, with a twinkle in his eye.
They say he never gave a straight answer but somehow he
reflected joy and confidence. He preached without notes, never
wrote a sermon.. . . He also never wrote a letter if he could help
it! . . . Now with full confidence of his presence I hope we will
keep Faith Homestead active and productive in a modest sort of
way.”
Of all the B-D conferences John helped to lead, his talk
about the living Christ as an influence in the B-D approach to
the care of the land and all that lives on it remains clearest of all
in our memory.
Working in his garden in Duxbury, tramping through the
fragrant pine woods behind the house or reshingling the roof of
the chicken-coop, John’s identity with Faith Homestead and the
many B-D activities that took place there was obvious. We join
Helen in the hope that the Homestead will continue to partici­
pate in the important contribution Bio-Dynamics has to offer to
the world.
—Howland Vibber (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
IN MEMORIAM
SIGFRID KNAUER
Aug. 6, 7, or 8, 1894 - Dec. 20 or 21, 1984[Im
nu]
irdK
age:photfS
It is little wonder that a man of pioneering mind, born gifted
in a gifted family, a man who makes the world his home,
medicine his profession and anthroposophy his lodestar —little
wonder if such a man becomes a legend in his lifetime. Even he
could not pinpoint his date of birth, even his wife his date of
death. His long destiny took him around the globe: from a
birthplace in Kiev, Russia, to a deathplace in Sri Lanka.
Sigfrid Knauer was already considered a genius while he
was in medical school. As a student at the University of Jena,
knowing nothing of anthroposophy, he wrote a piece on “The
Significance of M an’s Upright Posture,” which earned him the
first prize —1,000 Mark. He participated in the medical courses
given by Rudolf Steiner, and was advised by him to go into the
field of cancer research. Dr. Knauer did not become part of the
Arlesheim Clinic, but a doctor at the Clinic is quoted as saying,
“We here consider him a genius.”
It is worth noting that Sigfrid’s brother and four sisters all
became professionally involved in anthroposophy. His older
sister, Ilse, also a renowned doctor, was in fact chosen by Rudolf
Steiner as one of seven to form the esoteric nucleus of the
Medical Section.
As a young doctor, Sigfrid opened his practice in Berlin and
soon developed an enviable reputation. Gisela Reuther remem­
bers him as the school doctor in the Waldorf school there. An
elderly member told us that Sigfrid was called to the “royal
houses.” A prominent Danish member always traveled to Berlin
to consult him “because he was the best there was.”
Neither Sigfrid nor his wife, Edith, could get along with the
Nazis when they came to power. They decided to leave Ger­
many. Dr. Knauer was invited to become court physician in
Addis Ababa, but Edith said if she had to leave Germany she
wanted to go across the ocean. When she heard that the Gestapo
were coming after her passport, she left precipitately for
Dornach to wait for her husband and their four children to join
her.
A little later they sailed to New York where we and others
consulted Dr. Knauer in Christoph Linder’s office (in 1939). I
experienced there for the first time his astounding ability to tell a
patient her case history after only moving his hands above her
body and reflecting awhile, without having touched her.
By destiny rather than choice, Dr. Knauer became the first
lonely pioneer to practice anthroposophical medicine in
western America, and he would remain the only such doctor, so
far as I know, during the next 42 years. For, unable to get a license
to practice in New York or Connecticut, where there would have
been colleagues, he turned to Los Angeles, where there was at
least an established group of anthroposophists. Here he was to
spend the greater part of his active life as our beloved and
revered doctor for 33 years.
Dr. Knauer’s reputation for bringing about “impossible”
cures and for being loath to turn anyone away gave him a
staggering case load. Many prominent artists were among his
patients, including Michael Chekhov, Darius Milhaud, Jose
Iturbi, Igor Stravinsky. Yet he treated Joe Smith or Juan Ruiz
with equal love and devotion —and each in his own language,
Russian, German, Spanish or English.
Dr. Knauer usually found little time or inclination to
communicate and was often abrupt when he spoke. Being
unusually silent about himself and his projects, and at the same
time admired to the point of worship by some of his patients, he
came to be surrounded by a certain quality of legend. Was he
called to White Sands to treat the atomic scientists and other
workers for radiation (one of his specialties)? Was he called to
UCLA’s prestigious medical center for consultations? Stories
abound, but verification eludes.
Agreement there is, however, on the special quality of
Sigfrid Knauer’s lovingness. Best remembered, perhaps, is the
loving smile that would enfold a baby he held in his arms.
Remembered, too, is the depth of his sadness when he lost a
patient.
In the earlier years here, before his practice became too
demanding, Dr. Knauer took an active part in the work of the
Los Angeles Branch, both as a lecturer and as a committee
member. He became the school doctor in the first Waldorf
school in the West, Highland Hall. Edith was also a partici­
pating member of the Branch, and one of those who sent
hundreds of boxes of food and clothing for the relief of the
members in Germany after World War II.
Passionately devoted to anthroposophy, Dr. Knauer never­
theless was not content to stop with Rudolf Steiner’s “indica­
tions” for medicine. He explored different methods that had a
potential for healing, new and old. He was open-minded and
inquisitive, willing to try anything that passed the tests of his own
perceptiveness and his own cogent powers of thinking. He was
19
greatly interested in folk medicine, especially in Mexico, and
tried at one time to retire and devote his time to research in this
field. He tried acupuncture, radionics and yoga, and found them
useful. He found that using a pendulum in diagnosis enhanced
his perceptive faculties. He wasted no time defending himself
when others, who had not taken time to investigate what he was
up to, found time to criticize. I asked him once, “Why Yoga?” and
he answered simply, “Because curative eurythmy is not available
to me.”
It was his great tragedy that Edith, always his supportive
and self-effacing wife, secretary and receptionist, failed to
“trouble” him with her own cancer symptoms until it was too
late, even for surgery. A deeply feeling man, Sigfrid was stricken.
At night he nursed her himself, resting on a mattress by her bed.
By day he rushed home from his nearby office whenever there
was a call for help. He was able to prolong her life, but he could
not save her.
After Edith’s death Sigfrid was married briefly to Vera von
Hohenfeldt Wisbar, a strikingly beautiful baroness turned
Hollywood working girl, who had been kind to Edith, but who
soon left him to marry a childhood sweetheart, Alfred Krupp,
also briefly. Typically, Dr. Knauer bore the difficult events, even
the interest of the tabloid reporters, with remarkable dignity.
Eventually he married again, this time a widely known teacher of
yoga, Indra Devi by pseudonym, who like him had been born in
Russia of German parents.
As an anthroposophical physician Dr. Knauer of course
used Iscador in the treatment of cancer, was grateful for what it
could do, and at the same time tormented by what it could not do.
Always he sought something better. He spent his “spare” time
developing remedies of his own from native plants and other
substances. The inner sanctum of his office, in which he saw
patients and which for them had the aura of a holy place, was
walled with bottles of his own remedies.
Dr. Knauer also supported the private research of those
whom he considered gifted. One of them was Carl Albin, who
with Knauer’s support, invented a forerunner of the electron
microscope that could reveal intimate life processes, not just
magnify dead tissues. Dr. Albin also developed a cancer cure
that Dr. Knauer used on his patients with results that must have
exceeded their greatest expectations. I was present in the waiting
room once when a couple brought their son to Dr. Knauer
straight from the UCLA Center and the distraught mother
announced, “Doctor, he has leukemia!” Dr. Knauer put his hand
on her shoulder and said quietly, “There’s no need to worry. We
can take care of it.” And so it was, in the experience of many.
But time was running out. Although Dr. Knauer was
approaching 80, he was still vigorous. In fact he was still seeing
patients, often from six in the morning until midnight. The
problem was the Establishment. Using unusual remedies is
hazardous in California —using unusual cancer remedies,
strictly forbidden. A time apparently came when Dr. Knauer
realized that danger was close at hand. He spirited away to his
home across the Mexican border carloads of his precious
remedies. Finally, on one trip he had an accident, followed in a
few hours by a massive stroke.
This disaster ended his practice, and Sigfrid Knauer
became at last himself a patient. Near the beginning of the
ordeal he told a doctor friend that it was a privilege to be able
consciously to observe the process of dying. This period of
fading was to last about eleven years. More and more, he had to
let others help him. Following another stroke in 1980, his care
became too much for any one individual or family. Rather than
20
see him go into a nursing home, sixty or so friends and former
patients rallied around him, some of whom cared for him, while
others helped to carry the expenses. This opportunity to give
back to him a little of what he had given us so unstintingly was
no sacrifice on our part, but rather a foretaste of what a truly
social life on earth may bring.
For some reason known only to the angel of destiny, Sigfrid
Knauer was to finish his long life in the East. For the final years
Indra took him to India, where she taught yoga, and in the end to
Sri Lanka. There he was further estranged from all he had
known. Children and grandchildren were far away. Blind, he
could not even read his beloved Rudolf Steiner, and there was
often no one to speak or read to him in any of the four languages
he had lived by. Lying in bed in total dependency, in the end he
suffered also the pain of cancer. He rejected the recommended
operation and refused morphine, determined to die as he had
lived —as strong, as free, as human as he knew how to be.
Now that he is gone, we grow ever more aware how much he
meant to all of us. Wherever friends gather together, as they did
following a memorial service at the Christian Community here,
you hear them telling how he saved their life, or their baby’s life,
or their father’s life, when all else had failed. And Sigfrid
Knauer’s help was not limited to the medical realm. Many have
set their life direction by his counsel. And many cherish like a
jewel some brief word of his. Once, for example, when a member
complained that it was her great regret not to have known Rudolf
Steiner, Dr. Knauer remonstrated mildly, “But he is available to
everyone.”
Such a man lives on in the hearts and thoughts and lives of
those left behind on earth. Sigfrid Knauer will never lack for the
supporting warmth that flows from this side to the other, as we
will surely not lack for his guidance and benediction.
—Barbara Betteridge (Santa Paula, Calif.)
Sigfrid Knauer came to Sacramento in 1980 for a year before
the last journey to India. He had been given the Last Rites. There
gathered around him a large community of friends, providing
care, special food and funds. Soon the house filled with flowers,
old friends, children who played the harp and flute, and dozens
of souls to meet and support him. With gentle care, eurythmy, the
sun and air of the garden, and the first words of Saint John’s
Gospel he so loved, he began to recover.
We celebrated his 86th birthday with a gala event. One felt
that those present represented a microcosm of his world-flung
practice .. . various races and nationalities, the very old, the
famous, tanned teenagers, and babes in arms.Each —as though
bringing gratitude for the thousands he had made well —came to
him and gave and received a touching heart-warming embrace.
So strongly independent, it was not easy for Dr. Knauer,
after decades of caring for others, now to be the patient. In our
time together, he did come to see how his very presence was
bringing a seed force for the awakening of the medical work
here. Dr. Christa van Tellingen came here directly through his
encouragement to become the founding doctor of the Raphael
Therapy Center. Other therapeutic efforts are manifesting in
many ways.
Clear consciousness, vision, and deep compassionate love
were the hallmarks of this beloved physician. What a blessing
that thousands of individuals have a connection with him.
—Excerpted from a report by
Nancy and Gordon Poer (Fair Oaks, Calif.)
IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM WALSH
March 22, 1924 - January 8, 1985
William Walsh was born in New Zealand. His mother,
Blanche, was an early member of a small anthroposophical
community under the guidance of Alfred Meebold. While still
very young, William too joined the Anthroposophical Society, as
did his sister, Sophia Walsh. In 1967 he transferred his member­
ship to the Los Angeles Branch of the American Anthroposo­
phical Society.
William had a remarkable talent: he was able to speak of the
work of Rudolf Steiner with perfect naturalness to everyone he
met. His absolute, joyful conviction of the validity of anthro­
posophy, and his ability to touch the deepest core of an
individual’s searching soul gathered many, many people into
the brilliant light of anthroposophy.
Those of us who were inspired and guided by William
Walsh will bless him forever.
—Maureen Rosset (Los Angeles)
GATEWAYS TO THE DEPARTED —
THE MOMENTS OF GOING TO SLEEP
AND OF WAKING
by Rudolf Steiner. Excerpt from a lecture, Feb. 4, 1918.
".. . the manner in which clairvoyant consciousness clari­
fies in a concrete way what we may term communication with
the so-called dead —this is living proof that for ordinary
consciousness the world of the departed must for the present
remain unknown. I need only mention a few characteristics of
the communication that can occur with the departed —though
only by means of a certain development of clairvoyant con­
sciousness —for you to understand why we know nothing in
ordinary life about our connection with the departed. It is
entirely possible —though this has questionable aspects —for a
person to awaken his consciousness in a certain direction, so
that the world of the departed will open up, that he can perceive
the world of the departed, that he can interact with a departed
soul. However, if he wants certainty in this, he must adopt an
entirely different attitude. He must acquire a form of conscious­
ness that differs completely from that of the physical world. I will
mention an aspect or two.
Here in the physical world, in communicating with another
person we have certain habits. If I talk with someone, if I ask him
or tell him something, I am accustomed to doing this by
speaking, and I am aware that this speech rises up out of my soul
and reaches him via my speech organs. I am aware that I am
speaking. I am conscious of my external perception. And if the
other person here on the physical plane answers me, or tells me
something, I hear his words. His words sound across to me.
This is not the way of fully conscious communication with
the departed. (In semi-conscious communication it is different,
but I am speaking of full consciousness.) Then it is exactly the
apposite. It is actually —if I may express myself this way about
such matters —entirely different from what we would expect. In
my communicating with one who has departed, he will speak
what I am asking him, or wish to relate to him. I will receive it
coming from him. And what he says to me will arise out of my
own soul
We must become accustomed to this. We must get used to
the fact that what the other says will sound from out of our own
soul, and what we ourselves say will sound toward us from out of
the spiritual world. This is so contrary to everything we
experience habitually here in the physical world that we don’t
even consider it. Just think: if you go through life and now and
then something resounds out of your soul, you will attribute it to
yourself! After all —as some people say —we are quite egotistical
and not easily inclined to attribute what rises up from within to
any source other than our own inspiration or genius. The fact
that much of what arises in our soul is actually what the departed
say to us —this one learns to recognize only through conscious
spiritual perception. Constantly the realm of the departed plays
into our feelings, rises up from within us. Perhaps we attribute
something that occurs to us to a flash of insight, whereas in
reality it was a communication from a departed soul. And then
the reverse, from us to the departed, is so unfamiliar that we pay
no heed to the possible experience of being within an indistinct
spiritual environment surrounded by our own thoughts. If we
can relate to our own thoughts so objectively that they appear as
if surrounding us, then the departed will understand these
thoughts.
Although man is connected with the departed even in his
ordinary consciousness, he is unaware of this because he is
unable to interpret correctly the facts I have just mentioned. To
understand this, we must take into account that we have two
additional states of consciousness besides those of sleeping,
waking, and dreaming. We have two other important states of
consciousness —indeed, extremely important states of con­
sciousness —but we ignore them in ordinary life. We pay no
attention to them for reasons that will become clear as soon as I
name them. We have the moments of going to sleep and of
waking —although they don’t last long. They pass by so quickly
that we don’t observe what they bring. Most important things
occur at these moments of going to sleep and of waking. And if
we learn to know the nature of these moments, this will guide us
toward the proper thoughts about our relation to the realm
where the departed are united with us.
I said, we are always connected with the world of the
departed, and that this union is especially active at the moments
of going to sleep and waking. The fact is, as clairvoyant
consciousness reveals, at the moment of going to sleep we are
especially able to pose questions to the departed, to convey
messages to them, and so on —that is, to address the departed. At
the moment of waking we can most easily receive communica­
tions, messages from the departed. These messages arrive
quickly, and then one is immediately awake. What flashes by
will at once be drowned out by the tumultuous waking state.
Not long ago, more primitive people knew and observed this
with atavistic consciousness. But even in primitive regions such
things are now buried under the influence of our materialistic
culture. Anyone who has grown up among old peasants will
know that there was a basic rule: to try remaining still for a little
while after awakening, to avoid looking at the bright window,
looking into the light. The after-effects of sleep, of what
approached the soul in awakening, was not to be overwhelmed
by the stormy waking-up process. These more primitive people
would lie quietly in the dark room for a while and not look at the
window as they woke.
We must become aware that, although it is not too difficult
to observe, something special is connected with these moments
of waking and of going to sleep. To be able to notice such things
requires —if I may put it this way —a certain wakefulness in
21
thinking. Awakeness in thinking! A trait that has never been so
lacking as it is in our time.”
—translated by Margaret Barnetson (Sepulveda, Calif.)
REMEMBERING RICHARD KROTH
WHO DIED 25 YEARS AGO
“The Earliest Days of Anthroposophy in America""were pio­
neered by American-born musicians, mostly professional singers.
The next generation of pioneers included a professional painter,
Richard Kroth (1902 - 1959), who lectured extensively for the
Anthroposophical Society in America.
In Spring Valley, N.Y., about a year ago, a community meeting
was devoted to “looking back”—an effort to appreciate the contribu­
tions of the past that have made possible what exists today. Bettina
Kroth, herselfa contributingforce over many years, gave thefollowing
account of Richard Kroth s life and work. Not limited to the local
scene, his tireless efforts served the national Society: as lecturer and as
member of the Council.
25 years have passed since his sudden death at the age of 57 —an
occasion as worthy as any to recall here one of the leaders in our
anthroposophic work.
- Ed.
]Richard Kroth, as a child, was a shy boy. He was the favorite
icrdK
age:photfR
[Im
of his grandmother, a religious woman who took him to all the
churches and cathedrals in Frankfurt and the neighboring
cities. At an early age he knew he wanted to be a painter. His
father made him his first easel when he was eight years old.
When he was nine the family emigrated to America and settled
on Staten Island. Richard had a twin sister and two younger
brothers. He had a happy family life, spending much time in the
out-of-doors. An uncle showed great interest in Richard’s art
work. He took him to the museums and art exhibits in New York
and bought him beautiful art books.
By the time I met him, only his family continued to call him
Richard —he was Dick to all his friends. He received a thorough
academic art training at the National Academy where he won
the Hallgarten prize, among other prizes; he also studied at
Cooper Union and at Miss Traphagen’s School of Design. He
met William Starkweather, one of the leading watercolorists in
the country and joined his Sunday morning painting class. Mr.
Starkweather was like a father to many young artists. After the
lesson he would take them to a restaurant for dinner and they
would return to his studio to talk about Art. Dick remained
friends with some of those artists all his life.
Dick was an avid reader. As the family still spoke German at
home, he never lost that language, which was a great advantage
when he later studied anthroposophy.
22
All this time Dick was painting and exhibiting. He joined a
group of artists who showed their work regularly at the Midtown
Gallery in New York City. He also exhibited regularly with the
American Watercolor Society, the Staten Island Museum and in
various other shows. Some years later when we were in Chicago,
Dick worked with the Russian artist, Nicholas Remisoff, a friend
of Chekov. They painted murals in Chicago and New York. We
had gone to Chicago to join a company of artists who were
producing plays. There we met a Mr. Meade who was to
influence our destiny. He had studied various occult movements
and we talked with him many times at his home.
Various circumstances led us to leave Chicago and go to
Europe. Naturally we went to Florence. Twice in that city Dick
had moving experiences. He was almost overcome and said “I
have been here before.” He described places that turned out to be
just as he described them. On the way back to America we
changed trains at Basle and were there for half an hour, but we
didn’t know about the Goetheanum that was 20 minutes away.
About a year later Mr. Meade wrote that he had heard a
remarkable lecturer, a Mr. Meebold, speak on anthroposophy.
This word sounded odd and almost unpronounceable! He
explained there was a Society with American headquarters in
New York City, and urged us to contact them. Months later we
looked them up —our fate was sealed!
Although Dick responded to the philosophy of Rudolf
Steiner, he was not impressed by the first examples of anthro­
posophical watercolor painting he saw in this country. (You
must remember he was already an accomplished watercolorist
himself.) Not until he met Irene Brown and later Mieta and Scott
Pyle did he find the answers to his questions. These three
painters had worked with Rudolf Steiner on the first Goethe­
anum. From that time on, Steiner’s color lectures became Dick’s
Bible. Gradually his whole style of painting changed. He studied
Goethe’s Theory of Color and spent long hours experimenting
with colored shadows. His greatest problem became the trans­
formation of darkness —matter —into light. He became a master
of veil painting. Berta Jenny, a musician from Dornach, visited
Threefold Farm and saw his paintings. She became excited
about them and said “Albert Steffen must know about these
paintings.” Soon after Dick received an invitation to exhibit his
paintings at the Goetheanum. During the following years he had
a number of exhibitions there. Later there was a memorial
exhibit.
By this time Dick was giving painting lessons during the
Summer Conferences at Threefold Farm. One year, a Califor­
nia member, Sybil Maxwell, who attended the Conference and
Dick’s lessons, talked to him about visiting Los Angeles. She
would arrange an exhibition of his paintings —promptly buying
several to take back with her. It was arranged that he would give
a series of lectures for the Society, and hold painting classes, at
the same time the exhibition was going on. This was the first of
many trips he made for the Anthroposophical Society in
America.
As Dick went deeper into anthroposophy his talents blos­
somed. He was gifted in so many ways: he built the Kroth House;
he illustrated a book for Dr. Hans Krause on the care of cerebral
palsy patients; he taught painting to the teachers at Kimberton
Farms School; he taught in the Rudolf Steiner School in New
York City; he was invited to the Franklin Institute in Philadel­
phia to demonstrate his ideas about colored shadows. During
the 1949 Goethe Centennial he was asked to speak and
demonstrate in Aspen, Colorado. There he had a unique
experience. He was given time in the Opera House to rehearse
and run through his slides. He was almost finished when Arthur
Rubinstein walked in to rehearse for his concert. Mr. Rubinstein
told Dick not to hurry, and sat down and watched. Then he
allowed Dick to remain while he went through his entire
program! Dick also met Thornton Wilder at Aspen. Mr. Wilder
wrote him later, encouraging him to continue with his experi­
ments.
Dick traveled from coast to coast and from Canada to
Kentucky, lecturing, giving painting lessons and exhibiting. On
one trip alone, he gave 70 lectures in two months! At that time
there weren’t many lecturers going out to the groups, so it was an
event for the members. In addition to everything else there were
many private talks and consultations. I never knew Dick to say
no to anyone. He always had time and patience for another’s
problems. He had warmth and enthusiasm for everything he did.
This carried over to others, and people opened their hearts to
him.
He lectured and exhibited his paintings also in England
and on the Continent. He traveled to Southern France to
examine at first hand the Cave Paintings at Lascaux. His
interests were so widespread. His was a never-ending search for
spiritual truths.
Dick had two great wishes, neither of which was granted
him. One was to open a winter art school at Threefold Farm.
Shortly before he passed away, the ground had been cleared for
the studio that Charlotte Parker was going to have built for him.
(The building intended to become his painting school is today
part of the Eurythmy School.) His second wish was to write a
book on Color and he had begun to gather material for this.
Dick’s leave-taking of the earth was dramatic. It was All
Souls’ Day. He was standing before his easel, with a fresh white
paper stretched and ready for the first strokes of his brush. He
held a tube of black paint in his hand. Somehow the tube burst.
At that moment he was released to step over into the world of
light. He was 57.
Over 600 letters and telegrams arrived. One of the many
messages came from Bruno Walter: “I learned that your dear
husband has left this earthly life. Destiny has granted me only a
short opportunity of being in his presence, of seeing and hearing
him and making his personal acquaintance. But the memory of
this profound experience lives on in my heart and will continue
to do so —I felt his was a soul full of human kindness and at the
same time that of a genuine artist.”
—Bettina Kroth (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
REPORTS
THE WORK IN SPEECH FORMATION
AND SYLVIA BAUR’S VISIT
Autumn 1984
The work in speech formation in this country is growing
slowly but with steadiness of purpose. In recent years we had two
meetings of American speech artists with guest artists from
Dornach. During the second meeting we decided to take up
Albert Steffen’s “Choral Requiem for Those Fallen in War” at
our different places of work. The fruit of that effort could be
heard last summer when a chorus of some thirty people —
laymen and trained speakers —joined together to recite the
Requiem at the Members’ Conference.
One person who has helped us especially over the past two
years is Sylvia Baur, coming twice to this country from Dornach
where she is active in speech and drama work. She worked
intensely with students in the School of Eurythmy, Spring
Valley, making it possible for the school as a chorus to recite
Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” at a recent All Souls’
celebration. As she had done the year before, Sylvia traveled in
the area. While in Kimberton, Penn., she participated in a
workshop on the Mystery Dramas, arranged by Linden Sturgis.
In New York City she gave a workshop and, together with Lydia
Wieder and Christa Macbeth, repeated the recital they had given
in Spring Valley. Sylvia then visited Southfield, Chicago, and
Harlemville.
From Southfield, Mich., Barbara Renold writes: “Sylvia
Baur was at the Waldorf Institute for two weeks, working mainly
with the Teacher-Training and Early-Childhood students. They
all had five speech lessons a week, three times as a chorus and
twice as separate classes. They worked on texts from different
cultural epochs and languages: the beginning of Genesis in
Hebrew, a Sanskrit text, an Old Norse text, and Homer in Greek.
Working with foreign languages makes speaking English a more
conscious experience. The smaller groups studied Grimm’s fairy
tales for the different temperaments.”
Judith Pownall reports that in Chicago Sylvia gave two
workshops for the teachers of the Esperanza and the Chicago
Waldorf schools. Two themes were requested: the Oberufer
Christmas Plays and work with dramatic elements —the use of
stage space and of the six gestures from Rudolf Steiner’s Speech
and Drama Course. Sylvia also recited from the Seventh Scene
of Rudolf Steiner’s The Portal of Initiation. Her visit coincided
with the Annual Midwest Regional Meeting, where Judith
Pownall, Barbara Renold and Christa Macbeth presented a
sequence of American poetry as part of the Artistic Evening.
Robert Oelhaf and Christy Barnes report: “The speech work
in Harlemville received a strong impulse forward with the early
December visit of Sylvia Baur, culminating in a performance
commemorating Albert Steffen’s 100th birthday. Sylvia brought
a vivid and inspiring presence, as she worked intensely with
Christy Barnes’ speech group in preparation. As they did last
summer, Lydia Wieder and her New York speech group joined
in the ‘Choral Requiem for Those Fallen in War.’ . . . Sylvia
gave evening classes for laymen and worked with the faculty and
selected high school classes. In a special evening performance,
she gave an extraordinarily beautiful recitation of Rudolf
Steiner’s ‘The Rock-Spring Wonder,’ accompanied by Chris­
toph Andreas Lindenberg on the lyre.”
This is the positive side of our work, and we hope it
continues to grow; but it is still very hard to earn a living by doing
speech formation in this country. At present several young
Americans are training in Europe, able to contribute to our work
here very soon. The question becomes acute: can we give them
an opportunity for work they are trained to do, that is so urgently
needed? This requires effort from all those who appreciate this
art. Shouldn’t speech formation live in every Waldorf school, for
instance? We hope the day will come!
—Christa Macbeth (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
23
RUDOLF STEINER S GRAPHIC FORMS
THEIR VALUE ON BOOKS TODAY
It has been reported to me that recent book cover designs of
the Anthroposophic Press have not been regarded favorably in
some anthroposophical quarters. Apparently, these book covers
are thought “sentimental.” Thus it seems necessary to point out
that the designs being objected to are in fact primarily those of
the author of the books, Rudolf Steiner himself. Was Rudolf
Steiner sentimental?
The graphic forms in question —appearing on such books
of the Anthroposophic Press as Knowledge of the Higher Worlds,
Theosophy, Mans Being, His Destiny, and World Evolution, Educa­
tion as a Social Problem, etc. —are part of the publisher’s overall
attempt to follow a direction consistent with the design prin­
ciples for book covers set forth by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner says for
instance, “One must know when designing a book cover that
there is a difference between above and below when one is
looking at or opening the book.. . . books bound in such a way
that the cover does not tell one that it is supposed to be opened,
all these are sins in the world of appearance, which is the domain
of art.”
It is not always realized, even within our movement, that
Rudolf Steiner inaugurated a new approach to the design of
book covers, letterheads, etc., and that, for example, he made a
graphic form specifically for the Calendar of the Soul, as well as
for Theosophy, for Towards Social Renewal (The Threefold Social
Order), and many other books. Can these designs really be
described as sentimental or, as is also sometimes heard, as “oldfashioned”?
If as responsible anthroposophists we are to judge Steiner’s
graphic work, or its underlying impulse, in this fashion, must we
not also ask if the contents of the books are sentimental or out­
dated? Content and cover motif were conceived by Rudolf
Steiner always as a unity, like the kernel and the shell of a nut.
The principle as such goes back to Aristotle: the essential
oneness of form and content. Thus if we regard Rudolf Steiner’s
lectures and written works as of such a nature that they point to
the future, then his graphic forms do the same. They are no mere
decorations. Like eurythmy, like the architectural and other
artistic impulses he gave, the graphic forms for book covers
would have to be seen as ahead of our time, rather than behind it.
This touches on the question of how we respond to what is
new and unfamiliar. A performance of eurythmy experienced
for the first time (or for that matter the sculptural forms of the
Goetheanum, or the new art of speech formation), often calls
forth a negative reaction, very different from the response later
on. These new arts require new organs of perception not
immediately present in us, but needing time to grow and
develop. If we have had the good fortune at some time to practice,
even on a rudimentary level, one of the new arts ourselves under
the guidance of a teacher, then it can be as if a world opens up to
us that was not there before. We become more receptive, and as
though able to experience on another level, with another part of
our being. This is equally true of the new illustrative art Rudolf
Steiner gave, strange though it may be to us at first.
Those concerned with bringing out Rudolf Steiner’s works
in the English language have largely ignored his graphic
impulse. The question is whether this stems from ignorance or a
disinclination for his graphic forms. Have we been attempting to
protect Rudolf Steiner from the strangeness of his own designs?
A state of affairs that has continued for more than sixty years can
hardly be called accidental.
24
A notable and welcome exception to the general rule of the
past has been the commendable effort of the Anthroposphic
Press in recent years to introduce cover designs on their books
based on this graphic impulse, with particular concern that the
designs Rudolf Steiner made for his own books, appear on those
books. The response on the whole has been very favorable. The
Nachlass has shown its approval, and incidently, so also have
the book buyers at B. Dalton.
If unwilling to adopt Steiner’s graphic forms, other anthro­
posophical publishers would perhaps do well at least to familiar­
ize themselves carefully with a representative number of the
original graphic forms, so as to understand better what was
intended by them. Surely publishers ought to have a thorough
and accurate conception of Rudolf Steiner’s graphic impulse.
Those interested may be referred to the material reproduced in
Rudolf Steiner als illustrierender Kuenstler (Dornach, 1941) and
Bewegung und Form in der Graphik Rudolf Steiners by Roggen­
kamp and Gerbert (Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 1979), as well as
to the two lectures of Rudolf Steiner (untranslated) in Wesen und
Bedeutung der illustrativen Kunst (Dornach, 1940). There are also
examples, illustrated in black and white only, with related text in
the recently reprinted Handwork, Volume I by Hedwig Hauck
(Steiner Schools Fellowship, 1983).
It is to be hoped that in the near future a more enlightened
assessment of Rudolf Steiner’s book cover designs will prevail in
the English-speaking world than hitherto. We are concerned
with probably the least understood and appreciated of Rudolf
Steiner’s artistic impulses, yet one that he considered of vital
importance. The courageous beginning recently made in actu­
ally printing those of Rudolf Steiner’s book cover designs on the
books for which he intended them, deserves positive recognition.
Does this not significantly enhance the intrinsic value of those
books?
—Peter Stebbing (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
EXHIBITION OF RUDOLF STEINER ARCHITECTURE
IN LOS ANGELES
On Feb. 8 , 1985 a combined reception, lecture and evening
exhibition on Rudolf Steiner’s architecture drew 250 to 300
people to the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. The
exhibition was created at the Rudolf Steinerseminariet in Jaerna,
Sweden. It has had successful showings in Europe and America
but this was its first appearance on the West Coast.
An overflow audience heard a lecture, profusely illustrated
with slides, given by Robert Benson, associate professor of
architecture at Lawrence Institute of Technology, and architec­
ture critic of the Detroit News. The title was “Architecture of
Rudolf Steiner: Turning Point in the 20th Century.” Prof.
Benson gave a sweeping review of the development of architec­
ture in order to provide a context for the design of both
Goetheanums. He illustrated the conflict between the axial,
linear architecture of great cathedrals and the tradition of an
enclosed sacred place, generally circular and domed, as in the
Pantheon. While there had been earlier efforts to resolve this
conflict, Steiner devised a supreme resolution in the use of two
intersecting domes. Expert engineering was involved.
Some texts include the first Goetheanum as an example of
the Art Nouveau of the period. Benson pointed out that Steiner
had small use for organic designs plastered onto ordinary flat
walls, as was often done. In contrast every surface, inside and
out, of the Goetheanum was hand-carved from homogeneous
material. Inspired use of painting and light helped create a living
edifice to support the activities carried out inside.[Im
nxb]
age:photflviw
Sweden were effectively displayed. There were drawings and
photomurals with clay models interspersed. The works of other
architects who were influenced by Steiner’s philosophy were
also shown.
The exhibition is scheduled to run through Feb. 28. Since
numerous furniture and decorating show rooms line the Gal­
leria, it can be expected that a large number of people will have a
chance to see the display. Four L.A.schools of architecture have
planned student tours. The fact that the exhibition was staged in
attractive surroundings is due to a devoted committee that
persevered past numerous disappointments, and some local
architects who took up the cause.
—David Hill (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
RELIGIOUS IMPULSES IN WALDORF EDUCATION
18TH WALDORF TEACHERS CONFERENCE IN THE
WEST.
Fair Oaks, Calif., Feb. 16 - 21, 1985.
The second Goetheanum represents a new approach for a
new age. Again difficult engineering problems were solved. The
use of reinforced concrete was well ahead of its time. The overall
impression is one of a building that could grow from the natural
environment of its site. Using a number of excellent photo­
graphs and drawings Benson showed that the design uses nonEuclidean or projective geometry and illustrates Steiner’s prin­
ciple of metamorphosis. He felt that this had great potential for
architecture of the future.[Im
age:photfxibn]
The exhibition that followed the lecture was in the vast
Galleria on the top floor of the Design Center. On articulated
screens provided by the Center some ninety panels prepared in
Comprising the largest conference yet to convene of Wal­
dorf teachers from the western United States and Canada, 291
participants from 46 schools gathered at Rudolf Steiner College.
Kindergarten, grade school, and high school teachers arrived
from schools throughout California, Washington, Oregon,
Hawaii, New Mexico, and British Columbia, joined by repre­
sentatives from Minnesota, Texas, Michigan, New Jersey, and
New York. Invited from Germany were Helmut von Kuegelgen,
who gave each evening’s keynote lecture, and Juergen Schliefer,
who spoke each morning on the art of music. Warmly welcomed
were special guests Virginia Sease, member of the Vorstand in
Dornach, Anne Charles, chairperson of the Waldorf Associa­
tion, from Long Island, N.Y., and Nana Goebel of the Youth
Section in Dornach.
In addressing the conference’s theme, Dr. Kuegelgen drew
upon his 32 years of experience in class teaching as well as his
work as a teacher of independent religious instruction in
Waldorf schools in Germany. By working out of anthroposophy,
Waldorf teachers know that science educates the thinking of the
children, art the feeling life, and religious experience affects the
moral life of the will. To foster religious impulses, Waldorf
teachers can draw upon the spiritual gifts bequeathed by Rudolf
Steiner: meditative verses to develop the teacher’s inner life; the
college of teachers to cultivate the inner life of the school; and
the religious instruction and services for the children, practiced
in Europe but relatively unknown in America.
During the conference, a meeting was held of First Class
members and of members of the Pedagogical Section of the
School of Spiritual Science. The Faust Branch of the Anthro­
posophical Society hosted an evening meeting, at which Virginia
Sease spoke of the importance of anthroposophy for Waldorf
teachers.
In this conference, teachers pondered and discussed in an
open way the relationship of themselves and their schools to
anthroposophy and the religious experience needed for the
harmonious development of children. Should independent
religious instruction be instituted in our schools? How can one
approach parents about the subject? Should we focus first on
cultivating the festivals? These and other questions were taken
into our hearts for further reflection, and by representatives to
faculties far and wide for further discussion, but the feeling
predominated that practical steps in the near future were being
called for.
—MariJo Rogers (Sacramento, Calif.)
25
Editors Note: Without full grasp of historical differences between
Europe and America, misunderstandings might easily arise. There is
no religious instruction in American public schools, even a “silent
prayer”is prohibited by law; there is by law, and paidfor by the state,
religious instruction in German public and private schools (and was
carried out even during the Nazi period).
In Germany, the Catholic priest and the Protestant pastor teach
the children of theirfaith, usually twice a week during regular school
hours and as part of the curriculum. This was the case in the first
Waldorf school, founded in Stuttgart in 1919. For the students not
belonging to a church (some of them children of anthroposophists),
who therefore received no religious instruction and were not occupied
during the time their classmates were taught religion, lessons in “nondenominational religion ” were instituted. Only for these, not for all
children.
The Waldorf curriculum, followed in Waldorf schools world­
wide, acquaints students with the Old Testament and with preChristian religions through their mythologies. The New Testament is
not part of the curriculum. This creates the real possibility that
American Waldorf students, even children of anthroposophists, will
grow up as"pagns w
ithout religious experience, without knowledge
of Christianity, ignorant of the central forces in human evolution.
(Advent-wreaths and Christmas legends arefine for younger children
but will not reach older students.)
On the other hand, due to our historical tradition, any American
Waldorfschool that teaches religion will lose its status of being "nonsectarian” —no matter how hard one tries to explain —and will upset
many parents for different reasons.
Thefollowing articles by two German Waldorf luminaries were
published in English in the Anthroposophic News Sheet of the
Goetheanum, June 11, 1967. Obvious translation errors and weak­
nesses have been corrected here.
THE TEACHING OF RELIGION
IN WALDORF SCHOOLS
by Herbert Hahn
In the autumn of 1919, when Rudolf Steiner instituted a
free —that is, non-confessional —religious instruction in the
Waldorf Schools, he wished it to be treated as a concern of the
Anthroposophical Society. Let me take this opportunity to
inform the members on the nature of this instruction and on the
Sunday ritual connected with it.
Through the educational methods of the Waldorf school the
religious element is included in every lesson, yet Rudolf Steiner
considered it important that twice a week the pupils should be
given lessons in what he called “important imponderabilities.”
Confessional-religion lessons are given “extra-territorially” in
the school by representatives of the religious communities. For
these lessons the school does everything required from the
organizing and administrative standpoint and does not influ­
ence them in any way.
The “non-confessional” lessons are also extra-territorial. In
these lessons the Anthroposophical Society is represented in the
school, as the Churches are represented in their lessons. But the
“non-confessional” religion lessons are based upon the spirit­
ual-scientific knowledge of man and the methods resulting from
it. The teachers of these lessons were recommended by a special
committee of teachers and are recognized by the Vorstand of the
General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach.
Rudolf Steiner elaborated the curriculum of these religion
26
lessons in the teachers’ meetings of the Waldorf School. He
reserved the right to appoint these teachers of religion. They were
chosen primarily among the teachers of the Waldorf School, but
he also considered the possibility that members of the Anthro­
posophical Society, grounded in anthroposophy and skilled
educators, might take over the lessons. Rudolf Steiner thought
that candidates for this instruction should not apply personally,
but be chosen by a special committee.
At a meeting in 1919, the parents whose children attended
these lessons expressed the wish that Sunday services be
connected with the religious instruction. They asked the two
teachers appointed for this task to approach Rudolf Steiner. The
founder of the Waldorf School, Emil Molt, also supported this
very warmly.
In reply, Rudolf Steiner handed over, at larger intervals, the
texts of four rituals to the teachers of religion, entrusting them to
conduct the services: A Sunday service (for Grades 1 to 8) in
1919; a Christmas service in 1920; a Confirmation service for
adolescents (for Grades 9 and 10) in 1921; a service for Grades 11
and 12 in 1923.
His intention was for the services to remain within the
closed circle of the school, restricted to the children, their
parents, and the teachers of the school. When Rudolf Steiner
handed over the texts of these services to the teachers of religion,
he said that it was an important and responsible task.
During Rudolf Steiner’s lifetime the texts of these cultic
services were also given to the institutes of curative education.
There they are handled in accordance with the existing educa­
tional possibilities. The texts were also placed at the disposal of
the Christian Community, with full freedom to include them in
their own religious life.
Waldorf schools in different countries have been living for
decades with these services, and we recognize ever more clearly
the great spiritual gift entrusted to us with these rituals. Their
significance will grow from generation to generation.
When he spoke of instituting the first Sunday service,
Rudolf Steiner stressed that it would gradually establish an
inner contact with the Being of anthroposophy.
For the members of the Anthroposophical Society to further
these cultic services represents a great task, yet one of renuncia­
tion. Only those who belong to the destiny-community of the
schools, or of the institutes of curative education, can take part in
them directly. However, these services depend upon the mem­
bers’ active, objective interest in helping to cultivate and protect
them.
THE CULTIC SERVICES OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
IN THE WALDORF SCHOOL
AND THOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
by Erich Gabert
A significant question concerns the connection between
the Anthroposophical Society and the Christian Community.
Two dangers soon appeared: anthroposophical groups
either sought with flying banners to transform themselves into
communities of the Christian Community, or troublesome
conflicts arose, leading to dislike, estrangement and opposition.
Help can be found by continuing efforts to understand the
inner relationship, as well as the difference between two groups
of cultic services. (The third kind of cultic services, the “symbolic
cultic activity” that existed until the middle of 1914, mentioned
in Chapter 36 of Rudolf Steiner’s book The Story of My Life, need
not be dealt with here.) The two groups of cultic services were not
thought out by human beings, nor exacted from Rudolf Steiner
by ambitions of any kind. They were instituted through Rudolf
Steiners help out of the spirit. Only in this way could they rightly
come into being. A true cultic act is “the most esoteric element
one can imagine.” This is how Rudolf Steiner once expressed it
when speaking to the teachers of the Waldorf School.
From 1919 on, he gave the rituals for the services in the
school: first the Sunday service for children under 14; soon after,
the Christmas service; then the ritual for adolescents, the
Confirmation; and in 1923 the Offering Service for the upper
high-school students. After the Christian Community was
formed in 1922, Rudolf Steiner gave the first three texts also to
the Christian Community. Within the Christian Community
these services can be known and experienced by anyone. This
cannot be so in Waldorf schools.
Even though all these rituals come from the same spiritual
source and through the same mediation, it is important to
recognize the differences between them. The essential point is
not so much that in the Confirmation service of the Christian
Community Rudolf Steiner changed a few passages specially
connected with the school, for even if the text had remained the
same, the outer aspect is a very different one.
In both cases the one who performs the ritual stands before
the altar. In the school he wears a plain black suit, but in the
Christian Community, the priestly garments. This is not a
superficial detail. The outer picture reveals a significant differ­
ence.
In the Christian Community the ritual is performed upon
the foundation of a spiritual event: the priest’s consecration.
This forms part of the “spiritual substance” that “was given to the
priests of the Christian Community from out the spiritual world
through my mediation.” Rudolf Steiner wrote in the Nachrich­
tenblatt of Oct. 4 , 1924. Hence, the Christian Community service
for adolescents, the Confirmation, is conducted by a priest,
generally by the one to whose province the community belongs.
This is different in the Waldorf school. There the ritual is
enacted upon the foundation of the “imponderabilities,” as
Rudolf Steiner called it, which exist between the teacher of
religion and his pupils. The sacramental element arises
“through the blood of the teacher,” as Rudolf Steiner said to Karl
Schubert. In the school the ritual can therefore be carried out
only by a teacher who gives lessons in religion.
Because the objective spiritual fact of the priest’s conse­
cration is the foundation of every ritual in the Christian
Community, its services are open to all who seek them. This is
not the case in the school. There Rudolf Steiner strictly insisted
that the services be restricted to the pupils, the teacher of religion,
the other teachers of the school, and the parents of the pupils or
the parents’ representatives. This was not done to conceal the
existence of the services. Rudolf Steiner spoke of them on
various occasions in lectures he gave outside the Waldorf
School, the last time at Ilkley and Torquay. But the intimately
human, personal-impersonal atmosphere of the teaching of
religion was to be preserved at all costs.
Rudolf Steiner did not make it a condition that the teachers
of religion should be teachers of the Waldorf School. He
authorized also older members of the Anthroposophical Society
to teach religion. This was to be taught by anthroposophists,
because the bearer of this religious instruction and its ritual is
the Anthroposophical Society, and not the Waldorf School —as
Rudolf Steiner said again after the Christmas Foundation. In
single cases he drew in priests for the teaching of religion. But
what he then said to the teachers shows that he did not ask them
because they were priests, but because of their personal and
anthroposophical suitability. He stressed that the Christian
Community was to be completely independent of the Anthro­
posophical Society.
He never stated to the teachers that the services of the school
were to cease after the founding of the Christian Community.
Explanations given in July 1924 on the inner difference between
the Confirmation service in the school and in the Christian
Community would be quite incomprehensible had this been his
intention.
In the Christian Community the young people experience
the Confirmation service only once. Immediately afterward they
are led for the first time to the Act of Consecration of Man, the
“mass” of the Christian Community. In the Waldorf school the
Confirmation service is repeated for two years and is then
replaced by the service for the two highest grades. This is not
open to the public.
At Easter 1924, when the first pupils had completed their
education at the Waldorf School, Rudolf Steiner gave them, at
their request, a meditation verse. Today it is still given to those
who have gone through the school. The words of the meditation
can be taken as words of remembrance. They indicate in the
freest possible way the path to anthroposophical knowledge,
which can now be followed individually.
Other differences could be shown, but those mentioned will
suffice as a beginning for understanding things more clearly.
We are facing a twofold task. First we should carefully note
the differences between these two closely connected groups of
ritual services. This will enable us to realize that the rituals in
these two movements, with forms apparently so similar, set the
two movements before very different tasks.
Secondly, despite their separate paths these two movements
strive toward the same spiritual goals. A constant exchange of
ideas will teach us to see things through the eyes of the others,
enabling us to work together and support each other. By
becoming aware of the same great goals, we will feel the unity
that seeks to arise, and thus experience our mutual connection.
But this task goes, of course, far beyond the theme devel­
oped here.
ALBERT STEFFEN AND AMERICA
The 100th anniversary of the birth of the Swiss poetdramatist, Albert Steffen, has reawakened an awareness of the
scope and magnitude of his work. It may be of interest to
Americans to recall his connections with this continent reaching
back over many years.
Among the earliest of these may have been his concern with
the sinking of the Titanic and its significance. Years later this
became the theme of his drama Fahrt ins andere Land (Voyage to
Another Land). With the founding of the League of Nations, the
relationship between America and Europe, and the questions
concerning the enigmatic Woodrow Wilson must have engaged
his deep interest and thought, evident in his drama Friedens­
tragoedie (Peace Tragedy).
In 1924, a small personal contact with America came about
when he was visited in Dornach by Irene Brown and Arvia
MacKaye, and gave them permission for the first translations of
his poems into English. Soon various translations of Steffen’s
work began to appear in America as the number of translators
grew to include Marjorie Spock, Christy Barnes, Olin D.
27
Wannamaker, Eleanor Trives, Lacy van Wagenen, Elly Simons,
and Margaret Lloyd. A keen interest in his writings started to
grow among a small number of people. Lucy Neuscheller, who
pioneered eurythmy in this country, was eager to perform his
poems in English. Steffen’s recollections of Rudolf Steiner
appeared in 1931, in a small volume, In Memoriam.
Then in 1936, a first wider link was made with this country
in the literary sphere. The American poet-dramatist, Percy
MacKaye, was present at the opening night of “Peace Tragedy”
in the Basle Stadt Theater. He sent an extensive account of the
occasion to the New York Times, which was printed in full as a
news report in the Sunday edition. Through the friendship of
these two poets, steps were taken to bring Albert Steffen’s work to
the American public. Efforts were made to interest various
theatrical producers in his “Peace Tragedy.” Both Miriam
Stockton (the mother of Anne Stockton of the Tobias School of
Painting) and Eleanor Trives (the sister of Walter Hampden,
the noted American Shakespearean actor) became actively
involved.
As the friendship between the two poets deepened, their
shared joy in each other’s works resulted in a small volume of
inter-translated poems, perhaps unique in literature, Im andern
Land (In Another Land). With the outbreak of World War II,
plans for a dramatic production of a Steffen play in America had
to be abandoned.
Throughout the war years the two countries were cut off
from each other, but modest efforts continued. Through the
helpful interest of Hermann Poppelbaum and Frederick
Hiebel —both lived in this country during the war —and the
initiative of the MacKayes, the financial aid of Charlotte Parker,
Nancy Loughlin and others, and through the discovery of a
wonderful, old-time printer in Vermont, the Adonis Press was
established. Little by little, small volumes of works by Steffen,
Poppelbaum and others appeared. This small press, now carried
on by Christy Barnes, has pursued its goals for over forty years.
In the meantime during the war, other translators were at
work abroad. These include Rex Raab, the well-known architect,
and his father Reginald Raab, Dora Baker and Virginia Brett.
Correspondence with these continued spasmodically across the
mine-laden seas. A few letters from Steffen himself arrived
safely. Virginia Moore brought out a special issue of his works in
The Forerunner, and Christy and Henry Barnes edited a volume
for his 75th birthday, Albert Steffen, Translation and Tribute.
After the war, Percy MacKaye corresponded with Thornton
Wilder, who had met Steffen in Zurich, and with Sims Carter
who headed the Goethe Bicentennial celebration in Aspen,
Colorado, urging that the Swiss poet attend this occasion. Both
these men held Steffen in high esteem. Due to the burdens
placed upon him in Dornach, Steffen had to decline. But his
deep interest in America, which he often voiced to friends, never
waned and is surely, now, a strong help to us today.
The large circle of translators and lecturers who, in addition
to those mentioned, concern themselves with Steffen’s work
nowadays include Daisy Aldan, Sophia Walsh, Mechthild
Harkness, Theodore Van Vliet, Eugene Schwartz and Daniel
Marston. Published translations of his work have increased.
Through the celebrations, here and abroad, of the 100th
anniversary of his birth, his work and his stature as a poetdramatist have been brought once more before the public.
In this country there were celebrations in New York, Los
Angeles and Chicago. Two larger performances, in Spring
Valley and in Copake, N.Y., included his great “Choral
Requiem,” recited by three combined speech choruses, with solo
28
recitation and eurythmy. In Spring Valley, an impressive scene
from his Fall of Antichrist, given by the Hawthorne Valley
Players, and directed by Christy Barnes with Barbara Renold,
was the first full staging of a dramatic scene by Steffen in
America. These celebrations and the rendering of Steffen’s
poems by such speech artists as Sylvia Baur, Sophia Walsh,
Lydia Wieder, and the young American speech trio of Christa
Macbeth, Judith Pownall and Barbara Renold, signify both a
memorable fulfillment of the many earlier efforts and a seed and
strong incentive for the future. Albert Steffen’s work has the
potential of contributing on a world-wide scale to the thera­
peutic needs of humanity.
—Arvia MacKaye Ege (Hillsdale, N.Y.)
ARTISTIC METHOD
AS AN APPROACH TO THE NEW MYSTERIES
Artistic Method Workshops have been held regularly over a
period of years at the Rudolf Steiner Farm School in Harlem­
ville, N.Y. These have included nine major sessions and many
preparatory meetings. Because many artists participated in the
efforts to celebrate the Albert Steffen Centennial year, it was not
possible to hold the 10th session recently at New Year’s.
However, these celebrations round out creatively, in a fitting
way, the 10th session of our strivings.
These workshop gatherings, in which all of the artists
participated together in all of the activities offered, have proved
to be a unifying and extremely fruitful approach, not only for the
artists themselves, but also for the work of the Society. Aware­
ness of the mission of the arts as a healing and awakening force
was heightened.
Begun in the summer of 1976, and underwritten by the
Anthroposophical Society, the workshops have provided an
opportunity for those artists actively engaged in anthropos­
ophical work to meet together for artistic practice and study, and
for a sharing of common problems and experiences, in order to
help one another cope with the tasks confronting us.
Each year a new theme was undertaken, among them the
following:
Art as a healing counterforce to the attack upon the senses by
today’s world.
The structure of the First Goetheanum as archetypefor all artistic
creation and social forms.
How do we use the Sun forces of thefuture rather than the Moon
forces of the past?
The path of poetry in the Michael Age.
The transformation of evil and the path of creating.
Thinking with the heart.
Balance and freedom.
Throughout the workshops, Steffen’s writings have been an ever­
present source of inspiration and help. The performance of a
Scene from his Fall of Antichrist, the first staging of a dramatic
work by him on this continent, stands as one small but
significant result of such work.
Those who have formed the initiative group for these
workshops in the past are taking this opportunity, through the
kindness of the Newsletter to inform friends of the situation at this
date. The future of such work and the continuation of the
workshops lies now in the hands of those artists and friends who
seek such shared activity and who find such a mutual deepening
helpful for their anthroposophical work.
That the healing fluid of the arts, the heightening of its
spiritual quality, and the knowledge and application of artistic
method in life are daily more and more needed, there is indeed
no doubt!
—For the Initiative Group:
Arvia Ege, Kari van Oordt, Thorn Zay,
Christy Barnes, Donald Hall, Dorothea Mier.
Editors Note: Reports of Artistic Method Workshops were published
in the Newsletter —Spring 1977 by Sophia Walsh; Summer 1979 by
Mary Rubach; Spring 1980 by Alice Stamm; and Spring 1982 by
Robert Logsdon.
ST. GEORGE BOOK SERVICE
Its History and Contribution
In 1962, shortly after we joined the Anthroposophical
Society, my wife Yolanda and I, together with our daughter
Sharon, had the great good fortune to attend both the Anthro­
posophical Summer Conference in Spring Valley and then,
almost immediately afterward, the Rudolf Steiner Seminars
Conference in Stockbridge, Mass. Among the highlights of the
Stockbridge Conference were the slide lectures by Paul Allen.
He also had a book table at the Conference in his capacity as
proprietor of St. George Book Service and we were overwhelmed
by the rich variety of books, art prints, periodicals and art cards
offered for sale. We found Paul Allen’s catalogue impressive and
the list of titles exceptional. Not only did he offer those available
from anthroposophical sources, but also a rich variety of titles in
the fields of art, science, history, literature, and domestic and
imported children’s books. In his very first catalogue, Mr. Allen
stated the aim of the St. George Book Service: “Every title
included in our catalogues and lists reflects our constant effort
and desire to offer only those books we can unreservedly
recommend on the basis of their quality, uniqueness or lasting
worth.”
Paul Allen had the unique opportunity of gauging the
interests of American anthroposophists through his many years
of membership in the American Anthroposophical Society, his
work as a lecturer for the Society, his position as Secretary of the
Society, as editor for Rudolf Steiner Publications and of Free
Deeds magazine, and the voluminous correspondence associ­
ated with those activities.
I have no doubt that the initial catalogue of St. George Book
Service landed like a bombshell among recipients who lived far
from centers of culture and had hungered for a source of quality,
unique and classic books to complement the writings of Rudolf
Steiner and other books written out of an anthroposophical
impulse. Although catalogue #1 carries no date, early 1962 can
be ascribed to it. Catalogue #2 is dated 1963. This was the first
catalogue in the U.S. to offer reproductions of the art work of
Rudolf Steiner, including a portfolio of drawings in black-andwhite and color by him for the interior of the Large Cupola of the
First Goetheanum, and his sketch “The Representative of
Humanity.”
Through this catalogue, the “basic mix” of the content of
future St. George Book Service catalogues was set, except for the
later addition of Stockmar art supplies, and related Waldorf
school materials. The following catalogues, issued quarterly,
listed new anthroposophical titles as they were published;
anthroposophical and other art prints and portfolios of Rudolf
Steiner’s art, including sketches for the colored glass windows of
the First Goetheanum, occult seals and columns, designs for the
eurythmy figures, and selected German anthroposophical
books.
In 1968, the Allen family made plans to move to England, in
connection with Joan deRis Allen’s work as an architect, to join
the Camphill movement. It became necessary for Paul Allen to
find someone to continue the work of St. George Book Service.
One option was to sell St. George Book Service to my wife and
myself, as he knew we had a fair amount of experience in the
book trade and, through our years of patronage and conversa­
tions with him, we had become familiar with the various aspects
of anthroposophical literature. He also felt we would be able to
maintain the high standards and character of the Book Service
as he had established it. And so, we took over St. George Book
Service in May 1969, having recently moved to a small town in
New York State (SparrowBush).
Our first catalogue is dated summer 1969. It carried a letter
by Paul Allen introducing us as the new proprietors of St. George
Book Service. In this catalogue, there was already some hint of
how we would adhere to the principles he had established, and
of the forays in new directions we were to make. New books listed
for the first time included: A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology
edited by Paul Allen and Carlo Pietzner; Kymatik, Vol. 1 by Hans
Jenny; Der Baugedanke des Goetheanums, a slide lecture by
Rudolf Steiner; and Der Bau by Carl Kemper. Later catalogues
continued this pattern, offering new and in-print English titles
by Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophical titles in German, books on
art, art prints, and items relating to art inspired by anthropos­
ophy. Our second catalogue celebrated the 50th anniversary of
the founding of the first Waldorf School and we, therefore,
offered many, many titles related to all aspects of Waldorf
education.
Slowly, art became a factor in determining the books to be
listed and emphasized, since we were convinced that Americans
would respond positively to spiritual science presented in the
form of the visual arts. In her introduction to her book, The Gem
Book, Bertha Meyer-Jacobs quotes Rudolf Steiner as saying, in
Ways to a New Style of Architecture: “Art is the creation of an organ
through which the Gods can speak to mankind.” She further
says that Rudolf Steiner “created such forms as transmit the
divine word to mankind.”
Operation of the St. George Book Service has provided us
with many satisfactions, not the least of which is the opportunity
to correspond with people all over the world. Although many
letters are of a business nature, others contain a high degree of
personal warmth. There are letters from searchers for and on the
path, others from still-eager students of anthroposophy of manyyears standing, and still others from authors or researchers
looking for just this book, journal, or piece of ephemera that
contains the information needed to carry on their work. Another
source of deep personal satisfaction is the part we have been
allowed to play in enabling anthroposophy to reach those souls
to whom its message is as vital as food to the hungry. An
example: the spring 1971 issue of The Last Whole Earth Catalogue
carried the suggestion that certain books about Bio-Dynamics
could be obtained from St. George Book Service. This brought
letters of inquiry and orders from many people who had
previously no contact with anthroposophy. With our replies we
included a copy of our catalogue, listing Rudolf Steiner’s basic
books and other titles by him and anthroposophical authors. As
time went on, some of these correspondent/customers would
order books in areas other than Bio-Dynamics, and eventually
29
copies of Steiner’s basic books. The penultimate satisfaction
came upon seeing their names listed in the Newsletter of the
Anthroposophical Society in America as new members. And the
ultimate satisfaction came when we were able to meet, at
anthroposophical seminars, conferences, or institutes, many of
those people who had become our customers or with whom we
had corresponded. Some even journeyed to visit us.
Shortly after we started our work with St. George Book
Service, the need became evident to originate and publish
certain items of anthroposophical interest, and to reprint others.
Our first publishing venture was a series of letters to parents by
Eileen Hutchins, reprinted from the British periodical The
Sunfield Letters, under the title Observation, Thinking and the
Senses. We also reprinted an abbreviated account of The Story of
the Antichrist by Vladimir Soloviev edited by Fried Geuter. As it
became possible, we have published important and seminal
works, including Rudolf Steiner’s Nine Lectures on Bees, Carl
Unger’s Language of the Consciousness Soul, Rudolf Steiner’s The
Michael Mystery. Other significant publications include H. D.
van Goudoever’s Contemplations on the Calendar of the Soul;
Rene Querido’s Questions and Answers on Reincarnation and
Karma (now published also in Denmark); several titles by Alan
Howard, Sex in the Light of Reincarnation and Freedom (recently
published also in Germany), You Wanted to Know —What a
Waldorf School Is . . . and What It Is Not, and The Study of
Anthroposophy, and titles by Marjorie Spock, including Fairy
Worlds and Workers, Art of Goethean Conversation (translated into
several languages), and To Look on Earth with More than Mortal
Eyes.
This publishing activity led us to act as distributors for
several anthroposophical publishers in Great Britain and in the
United States. This in turn enabled us to carry titles by Rudolf
Steiner out into other than anthroposophical circles. Preparing
original manuscripts for publication is an interesting and
exciting activity that has called upon us to sharpen our joint
skills in English and editorial work.
At the time we took over St. George Book Service, we
continued to participate at Waldorf school fairs as Paul Allen
had done, mainly in Spring Valley. Soon, however, we were
asked to participate in fairs at more distant locations —Boston,
Harlemville, New York City, Wilton, Kimberton, even as far
away as Washington, D.C. —sometimes twice a year at the same
location. Gradually, because of work pressure we had to curtail
our participation. Yet we are grateful that at these various fairs
we were able to meet many of St. George’s old and new customers
and to achieve a wider distribution of our quarterly mail-order
catalogues, and our Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf Education and
Children’s Books catalogues.
In 1973, we moved to Spring Valley to enable our grand­
children to attend Green Meadow Waldorf School. More
recently, our former living room became the St. George Gallery,
lazure-painted by Robert Logsdon and his helpers. This pro­
vides a fitting atmosphere and salesroom for displaying the art
prints of Rudolf Steiner, original paintings by some anthropos­
ophical artists, art prints and art cards by many artists, and a
large variety of Advent calendars, so much in demand at
Christmas time.
We have been able to provide the public with many
difficult-to-find and unusual items —the work of Novalis in the
fields of mathematics, and health and illness; a four-volume
Lives of the Saints by Alban Butler; two volumes of the writings of
Alain de Lille; and the writings of Anna Catherine von
30
Emmerich. We are especially proud to have been able, through­
out the years, to offer all of the available art print reproductions
of the work of Rudolf Steiner, and many of Albert Steffen and
other anthroposophic artists. Within the last year, through the
Hirter-Heller fund, many new reproductions of Rudolf Steiner’s
paintings have become available. The use of up to twelve colors
made possible amazingly faithful reproductions. These include
Adam Kadmon in Early Lemuria, Group Souls, and Man in
Connection with the Planets.
With the passage of time, it is inevitable that changes will
have occurred with the three principals involved in the St.
George Book Service, with our daughter, Sharon Bond, assum­
ing ever greater responsibility.
In concluding, we should like to thank the Editor of the
Newsletter for prompting us to share this brief history of St.
George Book Service with the readers of this Newsletter. Finally,
we should like to remind members and friends that we are ready
to serve them in the future as we have in the past.
—Nathan Melniker
(St. George Book Service, P.O. Box 225, Spring Valley, NY 10977)
NOTES
CONFERENCE ON HEALING FORCES IN EDUCATION
—Movement, Tone, Color
in Marlborough, N.H., June 17-21, 1985
The fifth conference of Waldorf and Curative-Education
teachers and workers, arranged by the newly formed Association
for Healing Education, will take place at Camp Glenbrook.
The theme of each year’s conference derives from previous
themes. Last year, by discussing Learning Disabilities, the need
to explore “Movement” became evident.
Inquiries about the Association may be addressed to
Cornelius M. Pietzner, Beaver Run, RD #1, Glenmoore, PA
19343.
Inquiries about the Conference may be addressed to:
Kathleen Young, Box 258, Philmont, NY 12565 (518-672-4597).
ANTHROPOSOPHIC YOUTH CONFERENCE
in Harlemville, N.Y., August 23-27, 1985
During the 1984 members Conference in Spring Valley, a
group of young members came together to discuss important
issues facing today’s youth. Several of us then traveled to various
youth conferences in Europe, including the International Youth
Conference in Dornach. Since then a group has been meeting on
the East Coast with the intention of organizing a youth
conference for the summer of 1985. We feel fortunate that Jorgen
Smit of the Vorstand of the General Anthroposophical Society
will be with us for this conference.
In February we welcomed Nana Goebel from the Youth
Section of the Goetheanum who spoke about the anthropos­
ophic work of young people around the world. Her talk in Spring
Valley was well attended, and attracted new co-workers to our
conference initiative. We are now meeting quite often to prepare
this conference. We are also in contact with other young people
in the Midwest and West.
For more information, please write to: North American
Youth Conference 1985, Box 516,22 Maple Ave., Philmont, NY
12565.
—Abby and David Brill (Spring Valley, N.Y.)
P.S. Jorgen Smit will give a members lecture in Copake, N.Y., on
August 28.
CONFERENCE ON INNER ASPECTS OF THREEFOLDING
in Spring Valley, N.Y., Aug. 18-24, 1985
A one-week Anthroposophical Conference is again
planned for members and friends at Threefold Farm (from
Sunday afternoon to Saturday morning).
The theme will focus on the threefolding of society and the
human inner striving it reflects. Speakers and seminar leaders
include Alan Howard, George & Gisela O’Neil, John Root, and
Eugene Schwartz. There will be morning classes, seminars,
artistic workshops, lectures, a eurythmy performance, and —a
social square dance.
The program will be mailed shortly to all members.
—Hiram A. Bingham
WELEDA NEWS
Weleda offers free of charge its Weleda News, with articles by
anthroposophic professionals.
Weleda News #5 (the current issue) on the heart and
circulation, contains these articles: “The Soul’s Effect on Ill­
ness,” “How to Strengthen the Heart Forces through Art,” “The
Heart —Our Central Organ,” and “Warmth in Pharmaceutical
Processes.”
Copies of Weleda News #5 are available from: Weleda Inc.,
841 South Main Street, Spring Valley, NY 10977
TOWARDS (Edited by Clifford Monks)
Several members have written that this fine publication needs and
deserves wider circulation. Barbara Betteridge reports that the editor
‘received an unsolicited gift of$1,000from afoundation fo r Towards,
which has been elected as one of the 10 best magazines in America. ’ ”
Kenneth Melia writes:
Towards was first published in 1977. Its stated purpose is “to
explore and make better known the work of Owen Barfield, S.T.
Coleridge, Goethe, Rudolf Steiner and related authors.” It is the
only English-language periodical I know in which the ideas of
Rudolf Steiner mingle freely and regularly with those not
directly associated with anthroposophy. Many of the readers
and contributors first heard of Steiner in the work of Owen
Barfield. Barfield’s work is a major focus of Towards, most issues
have something by or about him. One of the best features in the
magazine is the interview section. Past issues have included
interviews with Norman Macbeth, author of Darwin Retried;
Richard Turner, lawyer for Kelly Segraves in the “Scopes II”
trial; Georg Kuehlewind, author of Stages of Consciousness; and
Owen Barfield, author of Saving the Appearances, Speakers
Meaning, World's Apart, etc.
Towards is published twice yearly. Subscription rates: $5.00
per year, Canada $6.00 (U.S.). 3442 Grant Park Drive, Car­
michael, CA 95608.
FROM THE RUDOLF STEINER LIBRARY: I would like to
thank the many generous members who have given in the past,
and who continue to give donations to the library along with
their membership dues.
The library continues its efforts to fill the gaps in its journal
collection. One glaring gap is in the American Newsletter from
1963 through 1972. If anyone can help here please let me know.
We continue to expand our journal collection. I will begin
issuing lists of articles of interest from past journals, to open up
this rich resource to the membership.
The large bibliography on Sub-Nature is now available.
Cost: $2.00.
We have a large selection of: German anthroposophical
works; philosophical, historical and literary backgrounds to the
origin of anthroposophy; works by and on Goethe, and
Goethean science; Celtic history and thought; Medieval history,
thought and architecture; Greek and Roman thought, history,
and mythology; Americana —especially works on Emerson and
Thoreau; works dealing with the spiritual impact of science —
besides many anthroposophical works we have books by Bohm,
Eccles, Weitzenbaum, Heisenberg, Bohr, Capra, etc.
If you are interested in any of these areas, please write for
information. A Library Newsletter will be published soon, and
detailed bibliographies will be included.
—Fred Paddock, librarian
R.D. 2, Ghent, NY 12075. Tel. (518) 672-7690
FROM THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC PRESS: This year a collec­
tion of Rudolf Steiner’s essays and newspaper articles on the
threefold social order, written for the general public, will be
published under the title Renewal of the Social Organism. A
foreword by Joseph Weizenbaum, a renowned researcher in the
field of computers and the sociology of technological develop­
ment, may increase the public appeal of the book. The important
thing now is for the book to reach people in positions to write
and publish reviews in journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Should any member be in that position or have a connection
with someone able to publish such a review, please contact us
and we will provide complimentary books.
258 Hungry Hollow Road, Spring Valley, NY 10977. Tel.
(914) 352-2295.
—Stephen Usher
TOBIAS SCHOOL OF ART (East Grinstead, Sussex, England)
announces that, in addition to courses listed in the previous
issue, a course “Color Dynamics” by Thomas Decker will be
offered (Aug. 6-18, 1985).
THE THREEFOLD RESTAURANT on Threefold Farm in
Spring Valley wishes to let visiting (and local) members know
that it serves vegetarian lunch, Monday through Friday between
12:30 and 1:30. Sundays, dinner is served at 1:00 and includes a
meat dish.
For reservations call (914) 352-5617.
POSITION OFFERED: The Golden Garden Waldorf School of
Seattle, Wash., is seeking a qualified First Grade teacher,
dedicated to anthroposophy, who has had three (or more) years’
31
experience as a class teacher. The school was founded in 1982
and has a full Kindergarten and Pre-School. We are planning an
additional Kindergarten and a First Grade this coming Septem­
ber. Qualified teachers seeking relocation should apply before
July 1 , 1985, to D. R. Dauenhauer, Secretary, 3514 N.E. 88th St.,
Seattle, WA., 98115
FROM THE EDITOR: Several items in response to the winter
issue arrived far too late to be included in this issue. The fault, to
a large extent, lies with the US postal service. Several members
reported that their copies arrived in the middle of March. In
contrast, some overseas recipients received theirs (mailed from
Spring Valley) in the first days of February. As a wit remarked,
US postage seems to include the cost for storing the mail —
especially true for bulkmail.
This time about a dozen book reviewers ignored their
promised task. (May conscience stir them to act —and write
those reviews.) One member made up for others, Kenneth Melia
sent a surprise package of four reviews (in addition to one mailed
earlier).
A recurring problem is finding a suitable photo (black-andwhite) of members who have died. Barbara Betteridge has been
heroic in getting us first one (unsuitable for printing) and then a
second photo of Sigfrid Knauer (the latter from his daughter
Christiane in Stanford, Calif.). Barbara also wishes to let friends
know that the long version of her Knauer article —longer than
published here —can be obtained from her directly (418 Bradley
Str., Santa Paula, CA 93060).Herself an editor (News and Views),
she knows about the problem of length. In fact, her accompany­
ing note began, “DON’T SCREAM! I don’t expect you to print
all this.”
Indications and Final Dates
for Receiving Contributions
Please send clean copy: typed in double spacing throughout
(this includes headings, quotations, and footnotes), indented
paragraphs, wide margins (about ten words per line, 28 lines per
page), one side only, full names with verified spelling.
March 1, June 1, September 1, December 1.
News items: Stewart Easton’s tome, Man and World in the
Light of Anthroposophy (Anthroposophic Press) has appeared in
Spain (in Spanish), adorned with a fiery colored cover. Also,
Easton’s detailed review of Ahern’s The Sun at Midnight: The
Rudolf Steiner Movement and the Western Esoteric Tradition
(Summer 1984) was reprinted in the British periodical Meeting
the Third Millennium. (Some members seem to have missed this
review but encountered the sordid book itself.)Alan Cottrell’s last
book, Goethe’s View of Evil and the Search for a New Image of Man
in Our Time (see Winter 1982/83) was recently reviewed in
Teachers College Record, Columbia University, Winter 1984.
Practically all the books reviewed in the Newsletter, includ­
ing German texts, can be borrowed from the Rudolf Steiner
Library. Just write a postcard. Also, most of the Newsletter’s back
issues (12 years) can be had from the Society office. There is no
cost. Bill Hunt suggests that you send one dollar for postage for
three copies requested. Ronald Kotzsch’s study, “The Legacy of
Rudolf Steiner” (Spring 1984) is again available in small or large
quantities at minimal cost. Bill Hunt had it reprinted a second
time. The first batch went very quickly. Some groups give this
fine article to inquirers.
Thanks are due to the many contributors to this issue. Most
are listed on the contents page. Others to wit are not: three
translators, Maria St. Goar (Tenn.), Fred Amrine (Germany),
and Margaret Barnetson (Calif.). Heidi Moore sent the photos of
the Los Angeles Exhibition. On the production end, Eva
Lauterbach of Schaumburg Publications (typesetting) and the
team of Mercury Press contribute the extra care and interest of
committed members —far beyond the call of duty. Between
weave the many editorial tasks: Linda Miller and Gladys Hahn
have helped in so many ways, including the proofreading —that
we all survived another issue.
—Gisela O’Neil
Subscription
The Newsletter is published quarterly by the Anthroposo­
phical Society in America for its Members. It is available to
members and libraries of other national Societies at an annual
subscription of US $ 10.00, including overseas postage. Subscrip­
tion begins with the Spring issue and may be ordered via the
editor.
All editorial communications should be addressed to the Editor o f the Newsletter:
Mrs. Gisela O’Neil, Pomona Country Club, Spring Valley, NY 10977, (914) 354-3386;
all other communications should be sent to the office secretary,
Anthroposophical Society, R.D.2, Ghent, NY 12075, (518) 672-4601.
Copyright and all other rights are reserved by the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America.
Responsibility for the contents of articles attaches only to the writers.
32