Golden Blade

AN APPROACH TO CONTEMPORARY QUESTIONS IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY The Golden Blade The Centenary Year a, C. Harwood ANTHROPOSOPHY AMONG THE SCIENCES Rlldolf SteUter ANTHROPOSOPHY AND THE VISUAL Arts Rlldolf Stcitter Two Lectures (hitherto untranslated) given at The Hague, April 8 9, 1922 ANTHROPOSOPHY AND RELIGION Alfred Hcidemeich America : Land of the Apocalypse L. Francis Edmunds Jack the Giant-Killer Isabel Wyatt T h e S e a r c h f o r F e l i x E m i l B o c k In Memoriam: Emil Bock Alfred Heidenreich Equity Between Man and Man Owen Barfield Questions and Answers B O O K R E V I E W S F r o m A t o m t o O m e g a - - - - J o h n I V a t e r m a n Hopes for English Drama - - - Arnold Freeman The Celtic Light Eileen Hutchins B o t h m e r G y m n a s t i c s - - - - C . W . Edited by Arnold Freeman and Charles Waterman 1961 PUBLISHED ANNUALLY P R I C E E I G H T A N D S I X The Golden Blade 1961 T h e C e n t e n a r y Y e a r - - - A . C . H a r w o o d 1 Anthroposophy among the Sciences Rudolf Steiner 5 Athroposophy and the Visual Arts Rudolf Steiner 19 Two Lectures (hitherto untranslated) given at The Hague, April 8-9, 1922 Anthroposophy and Religion - Alfred Heidenreich 36 America : Land of the Apocalypse L. Francis Edmunds 46 J a c k t h e G i a n t - K i l l e r - - - I s a b e l W y a t t 5 9 T h e S e a r c h f o r F e l i x - - - E m i l B o c k 7 3 In Memoriam: Hmil Bock - - Alfred Heidenreich 93 Equity Between Man and Man - Owen Barfield 99 Q u e s t i o n s a n d A n s w e r s - 1 1 7 B O O K R E V I E W S - - - 1 2 4 Front Atom to Omega - John Waterman Hopes for English Drama - - Arnold Freeman The Celtic Light Eileen Hutchlns B o t h m e r G y m n a s t i c s - - - • C . W. Edited by Arnold Freeman and Charles Waterman Price 8/6 (9/3 post free) from the Rudolf Steiner Bookshop, 35, Park Road, London, N.W.I, or the Rudolf Steiner Book Centre, 54. Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.I. Ffiiftted lo Great Brttaitt» The Centenary of Rudolf Steiner's Birth A. C. Harwood Fordoubt some they reason are profitable the world affairs has come to newspapers to love centenaries. and journalists No who make the most of tibem. But they could hardly do so unless there existed a general feeling that a hundred years makes a good time for taking stock, and perhaps especially the first hxmdred years. An event is then sufficientiiy far away to see its relatiras: a person has shed the unessential and reveals his true nature. "A poet," said Lord Melbourne, " should be dead: then you can get his works and be done with him." If he has been dead a himdred years, you can be done with him all the better. Rudolf Steiner has not been dead a hundred years, and it was part of his own teaching that the centenary of a birth has not the same spiritual signifiance as the centenary of a death. But the Anthroposophy. a way of thought rather than a centenary of his birth (Februaiy 27, 1961) will provide (it is hoped) an opportunity for bringing his work to the attention of a wider body of dogma, springs from the work and teaching public; and, just because they will attempt to do this, his followers of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). He spoke of it as Me bound to appraise the situation of Steiner's work and teaching " a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the in the world to-day in a fresh light human being to the spiritual in the universe In writing of his childhood, Steiner describes himself as brought up among the advanced technical inventions of the age—the country station with a few trains a day and the electric telegraph in the The aim of this Annual is to publish writings which stationmaster's office. We can hardly help contrasting this environ bring the outlook of Anthroposophy to bear on ques ment with that of the typical modem child, warmed by an electf c fire as he sits in front of the television, with a stream of cars racing tions and activities relevant to the present time. past his door, and jet planes and satellites overhead. And all this the result of a direction of thought which Steiner saw to be one sided and dangerous, and which he set out to redress. The title derives from a reference by Rudolf Steiner It was not tihat he objected to the type of thinking. On the to an old Persian legend. "Djemjdid was a king contrary, he welcomed its clarity and precision and many of the who led his people from the north towards Iran, and new conceptions with which it was endeavouring to unriddle the who received from the God, whom he called Ahura secrets of the world. Foremost among these was the idea of evolution, which, though not invented by the nineteenth century, Mazdao, a golden dagger, by means of which he was certainly then attained a stature and significance unknown before. to fulfil his mission on earth .... It represents a Steiner from the first maintained that for ffiose who could grasp force given to man whereby he can act upon and the life of the individual as spiritual form, it called for antecedent forms no less than for a developed physical organism. The id^ transform external nature of evolution as applied to the individual leads therefore inevitably to the idea of reincarnation, which alone can provide the necessary antecedent forms. But, alas, his contemporaries could not grasp the idea of spiritual forms: they were too immersed in seeing life in terms of material forces. And although the definition of material forces has undergone an immense change, the orthodox scientists 1 still seek a unified ' material' explanation of all phenomena. former is to be found under the sign of necessity. All that brings a To celebrate the ' centenary' of the famous encounter of Huxley man to certain necessary experiences, such as the meeting with and Bishop Wilberforce, the Observer recently staged another duel someone of importance to his life, proceeds from the moon. All between Julian Huxley and Canon Mascall, in which Huxley that belongs to freedom, where he chooses what he will make of dignifies the experience of consciousness with the name of psychic- the experience, comes from the sun. Such ideas cannot be spoken metabolism. The original controversy supplies a pretty, example of of except through deep experiences of their reality in ffie speaker's how two apparently complete opponents may be united at a deeper life. The conscious experience of the anthroposophist is to address level of which they are unconscious. For, in the course of the itself to the unconscious experience of his hearers. But it is only argument, Huxley said to Wilberforce: " You know that you your the deep which calls to the deep. Reader or listener demand the self were originally a little piece of matter no bigger than the end ring of experience in the words of writer or speaker. of this gold pencil case." Wilberforce did not deny his origin as a The presentation and interpretation of Anthroposophy will little piece of matter, or assert that his spiritual self descended from therefore inevitably depend more and more on the individual. It is spiritual worlds.^ significant that there is now a small but growing collection of books * issued by publishers of repute which draw their inspiration from The incident is typical of the climate of thought with which Steiner's work, but are essentially the expression of the author's Steiner had to contend. It was natural that as he developed his own character, research and outlook.^ But there is, ^d for a very powers of spiritual perception and saw more and more clearly the long time will be, the need for a direct exposition of Steiner's work spiritual origin of things, the gulf between his 'spiritual science' and views. In one way this is easier than it was during his own and * natural science' seemed to grow wider and wider. Sometimes lifetime. For as far as the inner life of man is concerned, there has he went out of his way to build what he had to say on to recognised been—as Steiner prophesied there would be—a new awareness of external facts or to develop his argument logically. At other times spiritual things, so that it is far easier than in Steiner's own life the revelations which he was impelled to give came flooding in time to speak of such matters as reincarnation and karma, of the such a torrent that they were left to rely on their own ring of truth, mystical life, and of the Mysteries. But in the sphere of nature which can indeed be more potent and convincing than the closest materialism has become deeply entrenched.

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