JOURNAL FORANTHROPOSOPHYNEW METHODS FOR THE TESTING AND IMPROVEMENT OF DRINKING WATER Theodor Schwenk CONCERNING THE PHYSICAL BODY Alan Howard THE ROOTS OF SELF-ASSURANCE John F. Gardner THE LUCAS CLINIC Rita Leroi, M.D. A PAINTER S CONVERSATIONS WITH RUDOLF STEINER Margarita Woloschin SAGE, SAVORY AND MARJORAM Wilhelm Pelikan Also reviews by Paul Allen, Christy Barnes, Harry Blanchard, Joseph Wetzl and Nick Lyons; poems by Albert Steffen, Lesley Rosenberg, Maude Champion and Andrew Hoy.

NUMBER 22 AUTUMN, 1975 Spiritual knowledge is the nourishment of the spirit. By withholding it, man lets his spirit starve and perish; thus enfeebled he grows powerless against processes in his physical and life bodies which gain the upper hand and overpower him. Rudolf Steiner

Journal for Anthroposophy. Number 22, Autumn, 1975 © 1975 The Anthroposophical Society in America, Inc. New Methods for the Testing and Improvement of Drinking Water

THEODOR SCHWENK

Many of those who live in our great cities no longer drink the water from their faucets but prefer to buy expensive mineral water and bottled spring water. Whereas formerly it was taken for granted that people drew drinking water from a spring or well, where it begins its cycle, nowadays, for the most part, we must resort to treating polluted river water so as to make it chemically and bacterio- logically “acceptable.” This, however, ignores the fact that drinking water consists not only of the chemical element H2O — albeit with various salts and trace elements held in solution — but is actually a

[Image: photograph]Pattern formed by drinking water of highest quality.

1 [Image: photograph]Pattern formed by a sample of drinkable quality from a Black Forest stream. The “leaf-forms” are a sign of vitality. food and must have its own vital quality if it is to be properly incorporated into the circulatory processes of the human organism. The Institute for Hydrological Research has set itself the task, under the direction of Dipl.-Ing. Theodor Schwenk, of searching out methods with the help of which one can, in large measure, re-enliven water that has lost its natural characteristics and restore it, as it were, to its original spring- freshness, which is essential for maintaining human health. The first step toward this goal was to establish a depend­ able method for ascertaining the water’s vitality. This proved entirely successful. Following indications given by Rudolf Steiner, the Institute for Hydrological Research developed a standardized and practical procedure, the so-called “Tropfen­ bild” (drop-pattern) method. This method has been used suc­ cessfully for many years in the research into the more subtle characteristics of liquids. In this procedure a sample of the water in question is set in motion through the impulse of drops of distilled water

2 [Image: photograph]Pattern formed by a sample from the same stream as previ­ ous picture after introduction of sewage. The “leaves” are snuffed out; the water has lost all of its formative force. which, falling onto its surface, form characteristic patterns. These finest phenomena of motion — as thousands of experi­ ments have shown — bring to exact expression the inner life configuration of the water investigated, much as the tone of a bell indicates something of its inner configuration. With the help of Schlieren optical equipment, the move­ ments are made visible and are held fast photographically. Experience teaches us to read the resulting pictures as accu­ rately as x-rays are interpreted by physicians. Examples of such pictures accompany this article. The results of this hydrological research can be practically applied by translating them into a scale which indicates their quality. This scale can be applied to any drinking water and indicates its capacity to be the carrier of life sustaining forces. The drinking water experts throughout the world are impa­ tiently waiting for such a scale. This was clearly expressed at the Conference for Water Provision held at Joenkoeping in 1972. The establishment of a map indicating the quality of

3 bodies of water still requires extensive work which needs to be carried out in the interest of public welfare. Many years of work with the inner nature of the element of water have yielded knowledge and experimental data which will enable a concentrated vitalization to be carried out — a process otherwise brought about only by nature in flowing and bubbling water. The task that faces the Institute today is to make these methods so practical that they can be incorporated into the preparation of drinking water in an economically sound way. In the future this will be an indispensable extension of the efforts to meet the needs of a wholesome water supply.

[Image: photograph]Pattern[Image: formed by a sample from the upper Rhine: rigid, radiating forms typical of greatly reduced life forces. (Drink­ ing water for millions of people is drawn from the Rhine.)

------Translated with kind permission from a short prospectus, Institut f uer Stroemingswissenschaften, Herrischried, Neue Wege zur Untersuchung und Verbesserung der Trinkwasserqualitaet, issued by the Institute for Hydro- logical Research of the Association for the Study of Movement, Inc., D-7881 Herrischried, West Germany. All rights for the photographs and text be­ long to the Institute.

4 Poem Albert Steffen

When we say eternally I for you and you for me, then the Christ goes with us twain. Fear not that the darkened day leads us from our chosen way. His holy light will never wane. Not upon the torture bed nor before the realm of dead will He leave the true to pain. When we to the grave have passed, He is with us to the last; turns coffin into heaven again. Since He sacrificed His blood, Love is in the hands of God; All the stars are His domain. Translation by John Root

5 Concerning Man ’s Physical Body

ALAN HOWARD

One of the basic requirements for progressive work in spiritual science is that of overcoming the illusion of matter, by which is meant that of regarding matter as something intrinsically dif­ ferent and separate from spirit. Matter is a special form of spirit itself. Rudolf Steiner has frequently pointed out that the trouble with the materialist is not so much that he is a materialist — that is something we are all more or less prone to — but that he doesn’t recognize matter for what it is. He is obsessed with it to the exclusion of everything else. Even if he should con­ cede the possibility of spirit as another element of the world whole, he still has the problem of how two such fundamen­ tally opposed principles could exist side by side in the same world. He is caught in an irreconcilable dualism, and monism demands that either spirit is a function of matter, or matter a form of spirit. It is the latter kind of monism that spiritual science works with; for if spirit — being the comprehending and therefore higher principle of the two — is (as the former kind of mon­ ism implies) merely a function of matter — the lower or comprehended principle — then we make of knowledge itself (by which alone we can speak of matter at all) something which we cannot know. Only by recognizing active spirit as the basic ‘stuff' of the universe together with its ability to manifest itself in various forms, of which matter is one, can we escape from this impossible position. Then it is still pos­ sible to investigate matter within its own limitations, and to

6 use the results in the field to which they belong, without tying ourselves in knots trying to extricate the knower from the thing known. Rudolf Steiner had no quarrel with scientific materialism as far as it went. The trouble was that it tried to go too far and presumed to explain the psychic and spiritual on a materialistic basis. His well-known analogy of ice and water puts the thing in a nutshell. If a man could only see ice and not the water in which it floated, he could make all kinds of acute observations about the ice, many of which might be quite correct and useful; but he would never come to a true understanding of what ice really was until he was able to see it as part of the surrounding water. Ice is not something essentially different from water. It is a special form of water; and the surrounding temperature needs only to be raised a few degrees for it all to become water again. In a similar way, we can never properly understand matter until we see it as a special form of spirit; nor shall we go very far either in the understanding of spirit itself unless we recognize this property it has, to manifest in other forms. The whole meaning and comprehension of spir­ itual science stands on this fundamental principle. Matter, in short, emerged out of spirit, it subsists within it, and it will return to it. Naturally, it requires special organs of perception, spiritual organs, to perceive spirit in its own nature. At present we only have those organs which can perceive it in its material form. This is why we can be deceived into thinking that there is nothing else but matter, that it is substantial, real; whereas, even if such a thing as spirit exists at all, it is something un­ substantial and therefore unreal. This deception is well-known to spiritual science as the work of Ahriman. “Not till we recognize that even in the smallest par­ ticle of matter there is spirit, and that the repre­ sentation of matter is a lie — not until we know that Mephistopheles (Ahriman) is the spirit who cor­

7 rupts our representations of the world — can the outer world present itself to us in its true aspect and help mankind forward in its evolution.” Rudolf Steiner Gospel of St. John (Cassel); Lecture 5. Along with this goes that other deception that the means by which we understand matter — our thinking — is again a material process, and subject to the vicissitudes of matter. Our thinking, however, is not a material process. It is the means by which we grasp spirit itself “in the form most immediately accessible to man;” and if on the basis of a materialistic con­ ception we put thinking back into the materialistic process, we just go round and round in a circle without noticing it, and without any means of escape. About the real being of Nature and ourselves, in which those material phenomena appear, we know absolutely nothing. The being Nature may all the time be speaking to us through those material phenomena, as Goethe has pointed out, but we remain deaf to all her secrets. The whole world appears to us simply as an interesting but mechanistic phenomenon. This deception of matter is nowhere so deeply entrenched for all of us as in the knowledge of our own physical-mate­ rial bodies. Granted we have all kinds of inner experiences too, like memories, feelings, thoughts, which have no material existence; but just because they happen in connection with a physical-material body, we are all too prone to believe them to be produced by that body. Finally, when we see that body disintegrate at death and return to its elements, it is extremely difficult not to believe that all that inner experience goes with it. When the lamp is shattered, as Shelley says, The light in the dust lies dead. Our only refuge then is in the belief that in spite of the evi­ dence of matter, this inner experience is nonetheless more 8 real, and that it has somehow got itself imprisoned in a mate­ rial body, but death will set it free. And because the urge to believe this is so strong in us, it is comparatively easy — reli­ gion has been doing this for centuries — to persuade ourselves that we really have a soul or spirit, which has only to possess itself in patience until death, when it will finally come into its own and everything will be all right. It is just this dilemma of the evidence of our senses and the desire of our hearts which it is the object of Anthroposophy to overcome. But the confidence in Anthroposophy to do this will only prevail over all doubt and opposition if spirit is seen to be basic in all things. There must be no hobnobbing with ma­ terialism in one quarter and spirit in another. Spirit must be seen to be all in all; matter a form of spirit; and because we seem most material in our physical body, we are most sus­ ceptible there to the attack of materialism. It is there, in our thinking about the physical body, that we must take our first hold on spirit. It is easy to believe that we are a spiritual be­ ing as well, because that is something we want to believe. It is not so easy to see that what seems the very opposite of spirit and is so completely disintegrated at death, the physical body, is not only spirit too, but — in respect of our own spirituality — a much more mature spiritual entity than we ourselves shall be for many ages to come. How then should we think of the physical body? We must first of all make a clear distinction between the physical body as such on the one hand, and the physical- material body on the other; for they are not the same. The physical body is a complex of forces which is imperceptible, supersensible. We never see the physical body. It is the mat- ter-filled body that we see. Nor do we touch the physical body. It is the matter, the flesh, that we touch — if in line with the conceptions of modern physics we do even that. The physical body itself, the invisible ‘mold’ in which those ma­ terial elements are cast, is not there to be seen or touched. We can, and we do, think the physical body, but perceive it, never.

9 It is necessary here to be somewhat more precise about what seeing is. We say we see objects out there in space. What we see, however, what indeed we only can see, are color sensations. That we group these color sensations in so-called material objects depends on our ability to discover that other aspect of reality, the conceptual relations between them. But that is something we think, not something we see. The act of knowledge does indeed put the two together and enables us for ordinary purposes to say of any object, “I see a ...;" but that is only because our thinking, which for the most part goes on unnoticed, is directed to that part of the environment to which our sight first drew us. We do not see the thought which is what gives meaning to what we do see; and even if we add touching and tasting and smelling to our seeing, they do not make the object more real to us. Only thinking endows it with reality. Without the imperceptible element of thought, knowledge of objects would be impossible. On the basis of this we only have to go one step further to realize that there are entities which have no sense perceptible counterpart at all save in their effects on so-called matter. Such an entity is the physical body of man. We know very well that there is such a body, because it is accessible to thought. But no one has ever seen one. It is the effects it produces in the material substance which we see. “If now you ask someone who has studied Theoso­ phy a little — not necessarily very thoroughly — if he knows the physical body of man, he will be sure to answer: ‘I know it quite well, for I see it when a person stands before me. The other members are supersensible, invisible; those one cannot see, but the physical human body I know very well.’ Is it really the physical body of man that appears before our eyes when we meet a man with our ordinary physical vision and understanding? I ask you, who without clairvoyant vision has ever seen a physical human body?” (My italics) Jesus to Christ; Lecture Six.

10 Then we have to distinguish between what we call any one particular physical body — yours or mine — and the physical body. This is perhaps the most difficult to do, for the physical human body is not something split up among all the human beings that exist, nor is it a kind of idealized abstract of it. It is something completely independent of any one particular body, something existing as such in its own right. It is some­ thing comparable, in respect of all the particular bodies there are, to what the Urpflanze is to the separate plants. It is the physical body of Man. On incarnation we dip down into it, and as a result of that experience we are able to attract mat­ ter to ourselves. At death the matter falls away, but the phys­ ical body remains in the keeping of mankind. We could think of it somewhat as follows: A man falls into a river. As a result of this experience, on climbing out he is completely covered from head to foot with the water of the river. He has a river-water ‘body.’ He himself is not the water, and certainly isn’t the river; but because he has fallen into the river he has acquired for awhile a ‘body’ of that nature. Even­ tually the water dries off and he resumes his ‘disemrivered’ state. The river, however, continues on its way — for hundreds of others to fall into, if they will, with the same results. In a similar way, when the spirit of man comes to reincar­ nate, he ‘falls into’ the physical human body and assumes for awhile its properties. It is just because of the way in which in­ carnation happens that credence can be given to the concept of the physical body of man as we have tried to indicate it here. It is not a material thing, but an intangible force-com­ plex carried by the life process of procreation which flows through the generations of human beings. That we tend to think of the human body in terms of our own material body is part of the deception that Ahriman began to weave after we came out of Paradise, for it is in the sphere of the physical- material that Ahriman is particularly active. If then our physical body is a pure spirit entity, how are we able to understand it at all — how, indeed, speak of it even? We must be able to get hold of it in some way. 11 And indeed we do — as a thought entity. It must be re­ called that everything stated here is based on the premise that the whole universe and man are essentially and primarily spir­ itual. There is no dualistic opposition between matter and spirit to the eternal confusion of the human intellect. What we call matter is one of the ‘forms’ by which the activity of spirit is perceived; but only one of its forms. The spirit can manifest in many forms, and another of those forms is thought. Thought is not itself pure spirit; but it is that “by which we grasp the spirit in the form most immediately ac­ cessible to man.” To that extent we can grasp the physical body of man as a thought entity. As a thought entity the physical body of man was first ‘thought’ by the creative gods, who gave it into man’s keeping to be passed on from genera­ tion to generation by the life-process in procreation. Let us look a bit closer at that. A man has a thought, an original idea, say, of something he can make or do, and that thought exists in his mind in all clarity and completeness. He can do two things with it. He can keep it entirely to himself, or he can ‘give’ it to somebody else, pass it on. The one receiving it can in turn give it to a third, and he to a fourth and so on. But the interesting thing about thought is that if he gives it away he still has it. He is in no way the poorer. He has given it away, but it still remains with him. It does not necessarily remain the same in being passed on, however. Because of inattention on the part of him receiving it, or carelessness in repeating it, the thought can become something else as it is passed on, so much so that the final form may be so unlike the original as to be hardly recognizable. Many readers must have played that amusing parlor game in which the players stand around in a circle, and one of them starts it off by whispering something to his neighbor, telling him to pass it on so that no one but his neighbor hears it, and so on round the circle. When it gets to the last player he has to say out loud what he has heard, and the first player who started it all off then announces what the original statement was. There is invariably an incredible dif­ ference between the two.

12 In some such way the living thought-being of the physical body of man can be thought of as being given to him by the gods — and incidentally was then uncontaminated with what we call matter — and was then passed on down the genera­ tions with all the changes that evolution and man made to it. But that original ‘thought,’ that spiritual physical body as the gods had conceived it, remained still in their keeping. The words, “Let us make man in our image,” in Genesis, corroborate this, occurring as they do prior to the actual crea­ tion, and indicating what that ‘image,’ that ‘thought,’ in the mind of the gods was before it was released into the actual creative act. And though that ‘image’ unquestionably refers to the whole being of man, it must — and the description of evolution in Rudolf Steiner’s Occult Science bears this out — include all the phases in that ‘making,’ of which the physical body was one. It was in that body that the gods ‘imaged’ that man lived as long as he was wholly in their keeping, and they saw that it was ‘good.’ But it did not remain ‘good.’ Something happened — the Fall. Man, still bearing the divinely imaged body, fell into matter. And now the story becomes increasingly puzzling un­ less we keep firmly in mind the thought with which this article began: That matter too is not something generically different from spirit, but a special form of spirit. If, however, we remember this, then matter is seen to be not only a special form of spirit, but a form of perception of spirit too, which became in the course of evolution so attractive, so all-absorb­ ing to man that it was gradually able to take the place of that direct perception of spirit itself which he had formerly had, until today matter is regarded as non-spiritual and the only constituent of the universe. It was into this that man fell, into this deception of the real nature of spirit, and the consequent obscuration of the spiritual world from which he came. This was the sphere which had become the kingdom of Ahriman, and in which he has been progressively and successfully working ever since. Matter is not a contradiction of spirit, but the way we regard it can be. It is the Ahrimanic deception about matter which is

13 materialistic, a deception brought about by the combined working of Lucifer and Ahriman; of Lucifer first, in that he activated (tempted) the independence of man, and of Ahriman next, who could appropriate that independence and seduce it to his will. And so with this egoism on the one hand, and delusion on the other, fear and error made their appearance in human evolution. Man has not only lost direct knowledge of the spiritual origin of the physical body, but in­ sofar as that body has come under Ahriman’s influence, it has been progressively distorted as it has passed down through the generations. It is not what the gods originally ‘thought’ of and gave to man. If that distortion, should continue, it can have only one end — death; not just death of the individual as we know it, but the death of man altogether in that it would be a complete separation of his connection with the creative gods, and a complete submission to Ahriman. This, as Rudolf Steiner has pointed out, is the avowed intent of Ahriman. Recall what and where Ahriman is. He represents a partic­ ular group of those backward gods who did not advance with the regularly progressive gods. At a certain point in evolution the progressive gods had to remove themselves into a less con­ densed atmosphere, which we know as the sun. The Ahrimanic spirits remained behind. They work upon man’s perception, so that he ‘dies’ to the perception he once had of his real spirit origin. Death is not extinction, but the complete and absolute separation from the higher gods. Life itself can­ not become extinct, and though man would certainly continue to live, it could happen through Ahriman’s influence that he would do so under the false conception of the real nature of himself and the world. That is what materialism is. It is a fundamentally false conception of man and the world. How then can it be avoided? What can we do? “O, wretched man that I am,” as Paul so appropriately says in his letter to the Romans, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” By our body, by our deluded materialistic con­ ception of the body, we are caught in a separation from the divine. That is death. How shall we escape?

14 It cannot be done entirely by our own efforts. Paul, of all people, knew that we need help — divine help. We have, and shall have, to do much subsequently by ourselves if we are to effect that escape; but the initial act of rescue, the salvation of man, the first setting of our feet on the right path, could only be accomplished by a god. How was that done? May I recall what was said above about that unique quality of a thought, that it can be given away, passed on, and yet still remain in the possession of the original giver. In that sense the Christ, who had Himself taken part in the creation of man, not only came to earth, not only revealed who He was to those able to understand him — “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” — but brought the ‘thought,’ the original thought-being, of the body of man with him into the kingdom of Ahriman and Lucifer, bore it triumphantly through death, and revealed himself in it at the resurrection to those who were able to behold it. One of the surprising things about the resurrection was that even the disciples themselves were too materialistic at first, too deluded by the universal Ahrimanic power, to realize what had happened. They came to the tomb looking for the body of Christ, and found nothing but the “linen clothes ly­ ing.” The body they looked for, the material body, wasn’t there. It had volatilized, as Rudolf Steiner puts it; but the Christ being, and the spiritual-physical body of man that he bore and with which he had passed through death, was risen; risen so vividly, so ‘physically,’ that even she who did see the resurrected Christ first, Mary of Magdalene, thought it was another man — the gardener! This is so tremendous when we think about it that it is not surprising that, apart from certain specially prepared people beginning with Paul, it has taken two thousand years for man to realize just what took place at the resurrection, that it was indeed a physical resurrection; but a physical resurrection which could only be perceived spiritually. Only to the extent that we too can begin to perceive spiritually shall we also be

15 able ultimately to share in that experience. Meanwhile, the first step toward such a perception is the overcoming of the Ahrimanic concept of matter, escaping from the dualism of matter and spirit as they are represented by Ahriman and Lucifer. That dualism is our greatest spiritual danger. That is where we are caught. We may believe that we can solve the problem by repudiating matter and being beautifully and loft­ ily spiritual, but then we give ourselves over to Lucifer; or we can pooh-pooh spirit and be thorough going materialists, but then Ahriman “has us by the collar.” We can even dither about in sloppy esoteric thinking and imagine that we only have to be able to know these two names, Ahriman and Luci­ fer, and learn to use them in the appropriate context and we have a kind of talisman for warding off their machinations. But only when we see matter itself as a special form of spirit and have no doubts whatsoever about this, do we begin to re­ lease ourselves from their clutches. How then is the regeneration of the physical body of man through Christ to be accomplished? In lectures given in Karlsruhe in 1911, and published un­ der the title From Jesus To Christ, Rudolf Steiner makes this quite clear. We are already descended from Adam; we have now to re-descend from Christ. It’s as simple as that; that is, the simplicity being in the brevity of the statement, not in what it implies, for Steiner uses ten whole lectures to elaborate on it. The descent from Adam involved the fall of the spirit­ ual-physical body of man into matter; the materialization of the physical body began then. And because of that fall man has come increasingly into the power of Ahriman, with error and death and the ‘corruption’ — Paul’s word is the best here — of the physical body. To escape the inevitable ‘death’ which must follow upon that, we have to re-descend from Christ. But we are already committed to the descent from Adam whatever we do. The course of procreative Nature can not be altered. How can we start all over again and re-descend from another progenitor? This, it will be remembered, was the problem of a well-

16 known figure contemporary with Christ himself, and who had the opportunity of discussing this same problem with Christ — Nicodemus; and he too, this ‘Master in Israel,’ was given the same unequivocal answer, “Ye must be born again.” And even Nicodemus could at first only see it in the Adamic-materialis­ tic terms, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?,” so that even he, as the rest of the conversation shows, had to be reminded of the primary and overriding significance of the spirit in all things. We are born again — ‘conceived’ might be an even better term — spiritually when we begin to see that spirit is primary; flesh, matter, derivative; and once that happens, then we can begin to descend through all our lives to come to the full spir­ itualization of our whole being, right down to the resumption of the spiritual reality of the physical body as it existed, and exists, in the mind of the creative gods before man was a created being at all, that ‘image’ which is spoken of in Genesis. With this in mind, let us look for a moment at the evolu­ tion of man as Steiner describes it in Occult Science and else­ where. It began with the creation of just this physical body on Saturn, but as physical body it was at that time in no way material — “We must differentiate still more carefully between the physical body and the mineral body. A physical body is one which is ruled by physical laws which are to be observed in the mineral kingdom. The present human physical body is not only ruled by these physical laws, but it is also permeated by min­ eral substance. It is impossible to speak of a physi- cal-mineral body of this kind on ancient Saturn. * At that time there was only a physical body gov-

------*If these terms are unfamiliar to the reader, he can find an explanation of them in An Outline of Occult Science by Rudolf Steiner.

17 erned by physical laws which manifested themselves only through the agency of heat.” (My italics) That was the first. There was nothing else of the world and man then. The only possible means of perception of that body — always assuming it could have been perceived — was heat, and even that ‘densification’ was not reached until the crea­ tion was already so far advanced into the Saturn evolution that that manifestation could occur. There was nothing more perceptible than heat, pure, uncompounded heat; heat with­ out anything that was hot, and nothing giving out that heat. But what manifested in that heat was the pure physical body. That physical body has continued through subsequent evolu­ tions, modified it is true by the subsequent additions of etheric* and astral* bodies, but still essentially physical. Nor were these bodies yet man as such, but only the preparation for man. Man did not appear until he incarnated in these three bodies as ego, and it was as ego that he fell into the realm and power of Lucifer and Ahriman with the results that have already been indicated. But now it is possible for man, for that ego, when it ‘gets wise to itself — the term though colloquial is literally exact here — when it realizes itself as originating wholly from the divine, when it is reborn as spirit in consciousness, it is possible for man to begin regenerating those bodies. That regeneration will not begin, however, with the physi­ cal body. That is far beyond man at present. The gods did in­ deed begin with the physical body. With man the process is reversed. He must begin with the third and last of those bodies — the astral body. That is all he can manage as yet; and although insomuch as he does this, insomuch as he makes a spirit-self* of it, the repercussions of that act will resound as it were in the physical body, the real transformation of the physical body will not take place until the third planetary evolution of our earth — Vulcan.*

------*See footnote bottom of page 17.

18 In short, while the descent from the Christ is indeed a de­ scent from , it is also, as far as the physical body is concerned, a descent to; for that physical body will not be realized until the Vulcan evolution, when man will have become Spirit-man.* Moreover, that body, the ‘body incorruptible’ as Paul calls it, the entirely spiritualized body, will, as the garment of the evolved ego, not be something personal, the vehicle of egoism. It will truly be the physical body of Man, which, as we now share it in its corrupted state, we shall then share in its un­ corrupted, purely spiritual state. Hitherto, only a god, the Christ, has been able to bear that body into and through the kingdom of Ahriman and Lucifer untouched by their machi­ nations, and untouched by death. It is the destiny of human evolution that all men shall so bear it. It is very tempting here to quote extensively from Rudolf Steiner’s From Jesus To Christ, but it would make the article too long. Besides, anyone can read those lectures for himself; but I should like to quote one or two passages, the italics being my own: “Through these three years, from the baptism by John in Jordan onwards to the actual mystery of Golgotha, the bodily development of the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body was quite different from the bodily development in the case of the other beings. Since the Nathan Jesus had received no influence from Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers in earlier incarnations, the possibility was given, that from the John baptism in Jordan on­ wards, from which time no human ego, but the Christ-individuality, was in Jesus of Nazareth, all was not developed which otherwise must work in the corporeality of a human being. We said yesterday that that which we call the human Phantom, the actual primal form which takes up into itself, which

------*See footnote bottom of page 17.

19 absorbs the mineral elements and then yields them up at death — that this Phantom had degenerated in the course of human evolution up to the time of the Mystery of Golgotha". There is much more of course, but readers must read it for themselves. But before leaving it entirely I would like to add what Steiner says about Paul in relation to the physical body, for Paul, as anyone familiar with his writings must know, was preoccupied with this business of the body. Crudens notes in his concordance some sixty or seventy references to the body alone in Paul’s letters, and though not all of them are to do with what has been developed here, many of them are. It is to Paul, it will be remembered, that we owe those well-known phrases about the ‘body corruptible’ and the ‘body incorrupt­ ible,’ about the resurrection of the ‘body’ and about the ‘old Adam’ and the ‘new Adam.’ “What was it that convinced Paul?” Steiner asks, and goes on to tell us . . . “He was an initiate who, up to that time, had known only that those who had connected them­ selves with the spiritual world by means of initia­ tion became, in their etheric body, independent of the physical body, and in a certain sense would ap­ pear in the purest form of their etheric body to those who were capable of seeing them. If Paul had had the vision of a pure etheric body, independent­ ly of a physical body, he would have spoken differ­ ently ... For him there would have been nothing particularly surprising in that. What Paul experi­ enced before Damascus could not have been this. What he experienced was what he knew could be experienced only when the Scriptures had been ful­ filled; that once in the spiritual atmosphere of the earth a perfect human Phantom, a human body risen from the grave, would be there as a super­ sensible form. And that is what he saw ... That was what convinced him that Christ was already

20 there; that He had not only appeared, but that He really was in a physical body, and that this physical body had rescued the actual primal form of the physical body for the salvation of all men." Anything after that, particularly that last sentence, can only be an anti-climax; but just because of that last sentence, I should like to add a few words more. We know from Occult Science that when the physical body was created on Saturn there were no individual human beings, no individual anything. Insofar as there was a physical body it was the physical body of the whole creation. Everything was potentially human, potentially Man, then. As evolution has progressed, only some of the beings on earth have been able to make it to that human potentiality — the present human race. We ex­ perience that humanness as individuals, as ego, in the three­ fold organization of astral body, etheric body and physical body. At death the physical-material body is first discarded, then the etheric, then the astral. We retain, however, of the etheric and astral something of our own, a seed or essence of our experiences in those bodies which becomes the ‘starter’ for those bodies in a subsequent incarnation. Although they be­ long primarily to the etheric and astral worlds, we nonetheless retain an individual essence of them. When we throw off the physical body, however, nowhere to my knowledge* does Steiner speak of our retaining such an essence of that body, a personal abstract of it. True, he says that on reincarnating we tend to come to that human pair that can give us the physical body most conforming to our needs; but nowhere is an ab­ stract of the physical body as such of one incarnation pre­ served for our subsequent use. In fact we do not get a physical body at all until we actually — again the colloquial

------*I might have to be corrected on this point, seeing that I could not claim to have read the entire works of Rudolf Steiner which alone would give the kind of authority for making such a statement so categorically. Nonetheless in the light of what I have read and understood where he does speak of this matter, I believe the statement is justified.

21 phrase is the best — ‘get down to earth,’ where the physical body of man is. It is in our physical body on earth that we are even now most closely related to mankind as a whole. However much we emphasize the individual being of ourselves, to be a real indi­ viduality is not being something essentially different, something separated from the rest of mankind. That kind of individuality may be what we experience now — even what we may prefer — which, of course, is also something that has yet to get through the baptism of ‘the war of all against all.’ Real individuality is individuality indeed, but individuality experiencing mankind, being Man. As Christ represents the cosmic ego of all man­ kind, so the Christ-ening of the individual will be the experi­ ence of man as a whole in every single man. Man in individual man. Has not Steiner, in anticipation of this, said that ultimately it will be impossible for any man to be happy on earth if anyone else anywhere in the world is unhappy? It is not to be wondered at, then, that it will take us until the Vulcan evolution before we can experience that, experi­ ence Man, Humanity, in ourselves; for only then shall be have a physical body, the Atman, capable of such an experience. As in Adam we all fell into the Luciferic-Ahrimanic experi­ ence of egoism and the material-physical body, so in Christ it will be possible to rise into true individuality in the spiritual­ ized physical body of Spirit-man. Christ not only revealed himself to man in order to give the impulse for this, but brought into the physical, Ahrimanic-Luciferic world the phys­ ical body as it had been conceived in the mind of the creative gods, and preserved by them so that it might once again be­ come the means of salvation for all. “For what men learn of Christ in this world is not lost.... Because they take the fruits of this with them to the life between death and rebirth, return­ ing here again in ever recurring incarnations, they will appear also in ever mightier, more Christ-filled bodies. ” Universe, Earth and Man; Lecture Ten

22 The Roots of Self-Assurance A WELCOME TO PARENTS OF THE WALDORF SCHOOL

JOHN F. GARDNER

I should like to work with you on a thought that has occurred to me in this season of fall. The man who loves nature, lives along with it through the seasons. In the summer he feels himself immersed in the growth and power and beauty of nature. He lives gladly out­ ward from himself. But what shall the lover of nature make of his experience in the fall of the year, when plants die, the in­ sects are stilled, the animals begin to migrate or prepare for hibernation? All life is subdued in the fall, and because the nature lover is rather suddenly bereft of so much that he has loved and leaned against, he may experience gloominess and emptiness, possibly a certain fear. Fortunately, however, these feelings can be overcome. A different kind of consciousness can succeed the nature-consciousness. The light and warmth of an inner sun can begin to rise. Happy the man for whom this is true! He can meet the fall season with enthusiasm be­ cause it brings him an intensified desire to live out the crea­ tive possibilities that have been preparing within his own self. He feels that he has been in a dream during the summer, but that now his outlook is clarified. He has the will to new action. The self-consciousness that replaces nature-consciousness can take two forms: one is self-assertion based on fear; the other is self-assurance based on love. Our school strives to give your children as much as possible of the latter: helping them, namely, to establish a strong, positive center in themselves, yet without egoism.

23 At the opening of school and in discussions with high school students, we have been asking what the single individual can do in a world turned towards mass opinion and power. We have spoken about the role of a small school like this in dealing with the great events of our time. It was pro­ posed that our smallness is not discouraging if looked at in a certain way. If the school now has some 300 students, and ap­ proximately 300 graduates, and if one estimates at 50 the number of years of productive activity each of these individ­ uals may expect to offer the world, one comes to 30,000 man- years of creative, productive intervention launched from just this school. No school, of course, can claim that all its graduates will be of lasting good will, much less that they will be prime movers. Yet the initiative of a single fine human being, an in­ dividual of clear mind, of heart and dedication, exerted over the 50 years allotted him, is enough to affect in basic ways a large community. Imagine how many hundreds of people one single wonderful person, well launched by a wholesome educa­ tion, can permanently influence for the better in the course of his lifetime! And imagine the waves of influence that will go out in turn from each of those influenced. Multiply by 600 and you have an idea of the possible activity coming from one small school in one generation. Let us try to picture just what we have in mind, in this fall season of threat and promise, as the kind of character who will manage his own affair so as to make a contribution to this threatening, promising time in history. Let us compare such a character with the usual. We find today a good deal of scepticism, of aimlessness and hopelessness, to say nothing of lack of joy. It is no exag­ geration, I believe, to say that many today are quite dis­ pirited. What strikes one especially is the failure of self-as­ surance on the one hand, and on the other hand the preval­ ence of self-assertion. It seems clear that as self-assurance lessens, egoism increases. The man who does not make the most of the natural enjoyments of life may stray towards the

24 pursuit of unnatural pleasures. One who feels insecure in him­ self may try too hard to entrench himself through various forms of tenure, to guarantee his future against all possible contingencies through excessive insurance; and so on. To the extent that a man lacks power in his own being, he is very prone to seek power over others. In the Waldorf School we should like our students to devel­ op real self-assurance, so that they can relax from self-as- sertion and let others relax; so that they can be themselves and enjoy the rest of the world without feeling the need to ex­ ploit it. We want their life to be filled with the experience of being, so that they need not succumb, as so many do at present, to the mania of having. What is it that gives a man real assurance? Is it not the amount of eternity that enters into him? We work as mortal selves on the coasts of time, yet it is always the eternal that we should be working into time and into ourselves. The more we sense the true “I Am,” which was and is and will be, and sense even the distant approach of that eternal Self to our mortal selves, the more we feel assurance. It may help us to speak as St. Paul did, of faith, hope, and love. St. Paul said of these three attributes that they “abide.” They are that which is for sure and is lasting. They are the respective ideals for man’s thinking, will, and feeling. In them we may well find the solid basis for self-assurance. The Waldorf School tries to help children find their way to­ ward these ideals not by preaching but by the example of the striving of its teachers. When the eternal — that which is sure because it is self-sustaining, self-active, and self-fulfilling — works into thinking, it becomes that deeper power of realiza­ tion we call faith; when it works into the will, it engenders hope; when it enters the heart, it becomes love. We can say that true self-assurance is based at last in faith, hope, and love. St. Paul called faith ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ The eternal, that which alone gives assurance, is never seen and is always hoped for; but

25 faith makes it real. Faith is that active power of realization which makes visible the invisible, and substantiates the insub­ stantial. Though some speak of faith as typically blind, for St. Paul faith must have been the very essence of awakened insight. Faith is the conviction, so very rare in our time, that truth, especially the deeper forms of truth, can be known. That Waldorf School teachers have this conviction stands in marked contrast to the widespread scepticism characteristic of aca­ demic circles. Nowadays, perhaps far more generally than we realize, it is assumed that man cannot know, because both his perceptions and his thinking are believed to be unavoidably idiosyncratic. Scientists who place emphasis upon the limita­ tions and eccentricities of the body, and who suppose that thought is some kind of secretion by the body, believe that the human being is necessarily cut off, that he is enclosed within his private sense impressions and organic reasonings. Our teachers, however, are convinced by the example as well as the teaching of Rudolf Steiner that man has the capacity to know objective truth. We try to prepare students to seek ob­ jective reality by inward as well as outward effort, giving them confidence that their success will depend primarily upon their willingness to overcome subjective preferences: to dig out the deeply rooted, personal fears and desires that come between them and that which really is. Let us consider hope in its relation to self-assurance. Hope points ever to the future. It strives forward creatively. In the world around us, what is creative is always hidden behind, or within, the veil of appearances. Somehow we must find our way past this veil. We do this by strengthening faith until it becomes an intuitive form of knowledge, knowledge of a kind that can experience being and becoming. When we learn how in this way to let the external form of created things lead us into the creative life that brings them forth, we approach the reality that endures. We participate in the eternal that pro­ duces and outlasts phenomena. This creative life, especially as it awakens our own soul, our own human abilities, our own

26 moral initiative, becomes the foundation of hope. The purest form of hope, it seems to me, is anchored in the knowledge of one’s own inexhaustible capacity for initiative. When a man is sure that eternal creativeness is the very substance of his own being, when he discovers in himself the power to make in­ numerable fresh beginnings and to persevere forever in the service of ideals freely chosen — and when he realizes that this power cannot be permanently undermined or overlaid by any external circumstance — he has the absolute basis for hope. This certainty begins to awaken in our students, we be­ lieve, as they are brought through science into touch with na­ ture’s creative forces, and through art into touch with their own. What part does love play in self-assurance? We cannot command love — neither that we shall love, nor that we shall be loved. Yet there is a way to be sure of both. If one loves the goodness, beauty, and truth of life, he participates in what makes all things lovable, even himself. Though we can­ not say to ourselves: Love this, or love that! we shall love the lovable, if we have faith enough to bring it into focus. And that is within our power, because we do have control over our attention. We can direct our attention to the good, the last­ ingly precious. Love then comes of itself; and we in turn be­ come, to that extent, worthy of being loved. Of course, love in the deepest possible sense, as St. Paul meant it, goes beyond any automatic response to that which is obviously endearing. It includes the ability to find ways to love what is apparently not lovable. Such love, however, is only an extension of the same principle that love arises when we have searched and found what is worthy of love. To see beyond the unlovely appearances that grow so rankly here in time to the hidden traits that partake of eternity, is already the func­ tion of hope, a hope that rests in turn upon the penetrating vision of faith. By faith, vision is kindled to see the miraculous in the com­ monplace, the creative in the already created, and the worthy behind unworthiness. Such faith is the threshold of the power

27 to know truth, but it is also the gateway to hope and love. Through faith, through hope, and through love, the eternal brings us the kind of self-assurance that banishes self-assertion. This is what our teachers want for the children you have placed in their care. On this basis, children who are ready to make the most of what we try to offer will be prepared to move out into the world with courage and with compassion, creatively.

Poem Albert Steffen O child, great-eyed with wisdom and amaze, Angelic shapes around your countenance Shine forth and light my wonder-lifted glance To heavens living in your sinless gaze. They fill my ear with spheric harmony Which drew you down to earth from star to star. They give me inward sight of what you are, Enfleshed from beauty’s ancient symphony. Begot of God — upon your mother’s arm, You have not known the lot that man must bear. Compassion not of earth has led you where We dwell in thralldom to destruction’s harm. Through fault of ours our woe has been ordained, While you take on yourself our death unstained.

Translation by Theodore Van Vliet From Widergeburt der Schoene Wissenschaften

28 The Lucas Clinic and the Research Institute Hiscia*

RITA LEROI, M.D.

I will try to give you a picture of the Lucas Clinic in Arles- heim, Switzerland, in view of the fact that it was founded in order to treat malignant disease in a new, comprehensive, and many-sided manner. Such places should come into being all over the world. After Rudolf Steiner held his first course for physicians in 1920, the question emerged as to how these new impulses in medicine could be put into practice in adequate surroundings, permitting thorough observation and treatment of patients. The experiences gained in such clinics were to be gathered to­ gether and used to encourage other physicians. From this im­ pulse, the Ita-Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim, the first of its kind and a model for all future institutions of this kind, was started by Ita Wegman, Rudolf Steiner’s medical collaborator. In this institute it became possible for Rudolf Steiner and the other doctors to join forces in intense cooperation for the practical application of this new and broadened approach to medicine. Twenty-eight years later, due to the efforts of Alexandre Leroi, the House Hiscia was founded for the purpose of devel­ oping a new scientific approach in cancer therapy. Today this institute is in full activity. There, with great care and thor­ oughness, the production of Iscador is carried out, beginning ------*Lecture given in Spring Valley, N.Y. to the Anthroposophical Therapy and Hygiene Association. Some previous knowledge of the insights into scientific phenomena provided by the anthroposophic approach is taken for granted.

29 [Image: photograph]The Living Room of the Lucas Clinic with the search for mistletoe-bearing trees which are found mostly in France. The mistletoe harvest takes place twice a year, and healthy, strong plants are carefully selected for the purpose. The plants are transported with the greatest speed to the Hiscia, where they undergo preparation without delay. Further procedures are then applied for the enhancement and conservation of the plant saps thus obtained. Finally, ampules are filled with the completed product and are distributed by the Weleda. The distribution of Iscador is increasing. There are by now more than a thousand physicians throughout Europe and other continents who make use of this remedy, and over ten thousand patients have been treated with it. Hiscia includes a technical department, staffed with two engineers and two technicians. Here the design for our new machine was created. Mistletoe sap only gains its full potency by bringing about a complicated mixture in a high-powered centrifuge. The several departments include a staff of biolo­ gists and other research workers who carefully monitor all stages in the preparation of the mistletoe extract. Different methods have been devised for this purpose, including tests such as one in which Iscador as a growth-inhibitor is tested on cultures of malignant cells. The stimulation of the immune- defense system in human beings can be observed in cultures of human lymphocytes or in the cellular behavior in small cuta­ neous wounds of cancer patients. The above-mentioned methods are of a more quantitative kind. But there are also qualitative methods for evaluating the mistletoe saps. These are the crystallization test of Pfeiffer, the capillary dynamic method of Kolisko, and Schwenk’s water-droplet pictures. These methods represent an entirely new approach — that of comprehending the life element or etheric forces by means of picture-forming procedures. Fourteen years after the founding of Hiscia, the Lucas Clinic — another achievement of Alexandre Leroi — opened its doors, first as a small in-patient department with eighteen beds. The clinic has now been extended and has rooms for forty-five patients. The main field of activity is still the care of

31 cancer patients, though some cases involving other internal diseases also find admission. The hospital is named after Luke, the Evangelist, the first Christian physician. Greek by birth, he became a close friend and travel-companion of Paul and played a part in the Christianization of Europe. Luke knew the secret by which strong instincts and desires can be mastered and turned into healing forces. His Gospel can truly be considered a spiritual guide for the medical profession. Luke teaches us love turned into action, into the deed of healing. Those who share work at the Lucas Clinic are spurred on by this ideal. Patients entering the clinic are at once surrounded by a friendly, colorful atmosphere. In the rooms they find light wood furniture and walls painted in delicate shades of color. They look out into a large flower garden, surrounded by a gentle, hilly landscape. The physician, who pays his visit after the patient’s admission, tries to get a first impression of this new personality, with all its problems. A full knowledge of previous diseases is very important and gives a clue to the origin of the actual condition. The doctor must also know where and how the patient spent his early years, what his profession is, and what the family situation is like. Moreover, he must gradually learn about the patient’s difficulties, worries and inner life. The antecedents of malignant disease must be well known in order to find a therapeutic approach to it. We must retrace its development on the spiritual, emotional and physical levels. When this is done, a thorough clinical exami­ nation is due, including all the diagnostic methods at our dis­ posal today. When special questions arise, we turn to special­ ists, mainly from Basel University, who are always willing to visit our patients. After having thus evolved a complete picture of our patient, we establish a plan for therapy, which is often talked over among all our physicians. The basic remedy, the Iscador, must be carefully chosen and administered. Special attention should be given to liver functions, which must be activated in every patient as the liver is the main organ of natural defense

32 against malignancy. Amongst other vital functions, the liver is responsible for a neutralization of toxic by-products in cancer. It regulates, moreover, the entire metabolism, which must be in good order if we want therapy to prove successful. Atten­ tion must be given to the digestive functions. In the presence of constipation, Iscador fails to take effect. Heart and circula­ tion are important factors; good circulation in all the organs to supply them with oxygen counteracts the tendency to fer­ mentation, which is actually a pre-stage of cancer. Exercise and brisk walks in the fresh air, if the patient’s strength per­ mits, are also important and act as curative agents. Regular function of all excretory organs, especially the kidneys and also the skin, are necessary. Any tendency to anemia should be checked. Mild, calming remedies are used to promote natural sleep. In this manner each patient benefits from an individual therapeutic program which prepares the ground for a proper response to Iscador treatment. In addition to medication, we utilize physiotherapy. Baths using various etheric oils or other substances, for instance herbs and salt-solutions, may be prescribed in order to acti­ vate the warmth organism, which is the instrument of the ego. If the patient suffers from low temperature, we give him re­ peated, prolonged hyperthermic baths in which his tempera­ ture rises to a high degree. Massage can be a helpful addi­ tional treatment. We usually apply the rhythmical Hauschka- massage, by which a selective stimulation of the different organs is possible. A choice of different oils enables us to give even more differentiated treatments. We give special attention to well-balanced diet. Cancer pa­ tients are usually too much bound by earth-heaviness. For this reason we try to avoid meat in our diet as this is a food which draws man down to earth and alienates him from his spiritual origin. We give a wide choice of cereals which, ripened by the sun, are rich in strengthening proteins and carbohydrates. We add salads and fresh vegetables which have been cultivated bio-dynamically. Roots activate the brain and thinking capac­ ity, flowers stimulate the metabolism, and leaves are especially

33 effective in stimulating the rhythmic system. Products of sour milk, such as yogurt and different types of light cheese, dark bread and fruit juices complete our meals. Honey or pear- syrup is used for sweetening. Fats such as olive- and sunflower oils and some butter are used; we avoid artificially hardened fats like margarine. For seasoning we use herbs in great variety. Tomatoes do not appear on our vegetable list as they are proliferating nightshade plants and unsuitable for cancer patients. And we especially forbid alcohol in every form as weakening the forces of the ego. Meals, taken in common in our large, colorful dining room, constitute another therapeutic element. Patients and members of the staff are intermixed, the topic of disease is forbidden, and it is the duty of all co-workers to keep cheerful conversa­ tion going. In view of our international patients, differing lan­ guages and interests, this is not a simple task. When it is well solved, each meal turns into a refreshing and pleasant event. Let us come to the artistic therapy, an integral part of our treatment. All our patients, including serious and bedridden cases, are given curative eurythmy. The physician prescribes the eurythmy and discusses it with the eurythmist in charge. In the morning, each patient practices his individual eurythmy exercises. In the afternoon, all join in group eurythmy, which is most important for the introverted and self-centered cancer patients. They learn hereby to take notice of other people and to move along with them in a common rhythm. These hours always turn into a very cheerful experience. For thin, intellectual patients we prescribe painting therapy. By becoming absorbed in the luminous world of watercolors, they learn to shape forms corresponding to these colors. We start by letting them experience the blue shades and then con­ trast these with sunny yellow in order finally to reach the rain­ bow colors. If the patient wishes to paint concrete objects, he can turn to landscapes or other things after taking part in the color exercises. Corpulent patients in whom the formative powers are weak are given modeling which awakens their forming powers through the feel of vaulted and hollow sur­

34 faces. When we see a patient leaving his teacher with glowing cheeks and eyes, we know that the therapy has been suc­ cessful. It is striking to note how many patients have trouble in speaking with clear articulation. Many mumble, stammer, or speak hastily. Often the speech is not under control but pours out without thought and order. These patients should benefit from lessons in speech-formation, which teaches them to be­ come conscious of consonants and to master and mold the stream of respiration. The whole artistic therapy is aimed at the unfolding of the soul’s creative faculties which often lie fallow nowadays. The development of such qualities counter­ acts the misdirected creativeness of malignant growth. The ego’s initiative should again radiate through the entire per­ sonality. Of course the physicians observe carefully the response of each patient to therapy. Sometimes changes are necessary. During his stay at the clinic the patient gains confidence in his doctor and therapists. The often introverted individuals be­ gin to speak about their inner difficulties, to ask about the real purpose of life. Patients who are aware of their diagnosis may put questions regarding their disease. It is a principle with us that each patient is entitled to know what he suffers from and what his chances are. It is a sin against human dig­ nity to keep him in darkness about his diagnosis and to feed him on false hopes up to the last minute. Naturally, the phy­ sician will frame his words so as not to discourage the patient. The patient must join as partner in the battle. He should feel that his doctor will always stand by him and never slacken in his efforts to heal. In this way a healing spirit can be present even in the final stages of cancer. Conversation accompanied by such utter trust between doctor and patient will have to touch on fatefully grave questions. The patient must learn that his condition is not a punish­ ment imposed upon him by God. He must learn to see the possibilities for inner development. Often hopeless, lifelong en­ tanglements are solved by his disease. In order to reach such

35 an attitude, the patient must recognize himself as a spiritual entity — whose native element is in the spiritual world and who has to go through many incarnations in order to develop and be an instrument for the world’s progress. Such funda­ mental exchanges are the crowning features of our therapeutic efforts. If they have real impact, a person’s entire life may take a new turn.

* I have sketched various aspects of our therapy. You are now entitled to ask: What do you achieve by them? Many patients come to us for full clinical investigation and for conclusive diagnosis. When a carcinoma is detected, we turn to surgical measures after a short pre-operative Iscador treatment. If we have the chance to carry through the post­ operative treatment over a period of years, we see that these patients, compared with cases which were not Iscador-treated, have a distinctly longer life-expectancy. When a patient finds himself with an inoperable tumor, a recurrence, or the spread of a tumor, then the benefit from Iscador depends upon his general condition. Relief from pain and improvement in the general well-being occur in practical­ ly every case. Many patients regain, through this therapy, a renewed initiative and rise out of their depression. Very fre­ quently tumor growth can be retarded, and sometimes a com­ plete standstill may be observed over the years. We have seen many cases in which histologically verified tumors have re­ gressed and disappeared completely. Carcinomas of the blad­ der, genital and digestive tract and melanomas show the best response to Iscador. Breast cancer in women is a somewhat difficult field; our best results are in the post operative phase. Without surgery the tumor is often unresponsive to therapy. A similar situation arises for inoperable lung carcinoma, in which we cannot boast of more than a longer life expectancy, whereas results with operable lung carcinoma are especially good. University clinics where Iscador is administered confirm our results.

36 The field of cancer prevention is most important. In gen­ eralized and even in already localized pre-cancerous condi­ tions, Iscador is a potent factor. These stages can be recog­ nized in a number of ways and by specific tests: Pfeiffer’s crystallization test and the capillary dynamolysis developed by Kaelin. Both methods in the context of a complete medical evaluation are often able to point to cancer disposition in an early stage so that an effective preventive treatment can be given. Finally, I should like to mention a third institution, planned by Alexandre Leroi but which materialized after his death: a seminar established four years ago for physicians who wish to become familiar with anthroposophic medicine. More than a hundred doctors and medical students have already attended this school and have been taught by a wide spectrum of those active in the healing arts. The students also take part in eurythmy and artistic therapy. They learn about medicinal plants, and gain experience through helping in the practical preparation of remedies. A worldwide demand for anthropo­ sophically trained physicians proves that this schooling is fill­ ing an urgent need. I have described our approach to cancer research and the treatment and training in this field. Cancer research is, how­ ever, only one part of anthroposophical medicine, which covers all aspects of human suffering and shows new ap­ proaches to dealing with it. Contacts with agriculture, educa­ tion, and religious renewal are inherent parts of this science. Might not such a collaboration of forces be able to renew the physical and spiritual forces of mankind and help to alter the face of this chaotic world?

37 Invocation Give us the fire Give us the Light to see, Open our eyes To our thoughts as we think them, Show us the shape That they long to describe; Circle our silences, Polish their surfaces, Stay us awake through the slow stirring dawn. Give us the words, Give us the songs to sing, Speak in our soul Of the joy and the sorrow, Lead us through dreams From the dusk to the dawn; Whisper the words Of the sighing of breezes Through summer-starred trees As you lift them to love. Give us the deeds, Give us the work to work, Balance the burden Behind and before us, Show us the steps Of the dance we must dance. Give us your Light As we walk into darkness, Help us deliver What waits to be born. Lesley Rosenberg

38 A Painter’s Conversations With Rudolf Steiner

MARGARITA WOLLOSHIN

This anonymous translation appears to have been made from an early text, parts of which are incorporated in The Green Snake (Die Gruene Schlange, Verlag Freies Geistesleben), the autobiography of the Russian painter, Margarita Woloschin. A section of this book was printed in translation in number 16 of this magazine. In April of the year 1914, I saw the Dornach Bau for the first time, toward evening. The two cupolas had not yet been covered with slate, but only overlaid with fresh wood, and they radiated a golden light through the blossoming cherry trees. The day’s work was over; the workmen from the Bau streamed toward me down the hill. At the gate of the grounds a group of young artists in light-colored work-blouses greeted me. The joyous light in their eyes attracted my attention. I knew what was intended with the Bau. Like a sun-seed, it had been implanted in the earth-sphere “that the Earth too might sometime become a Sun.” “Soon,” I thought, “I shall see the forms which, in material substance, manifest the forces of the Word through which the world was created. But am I myself yet capable of inwardly experiencing these forms di­ rectly? — Do I still love too much the repose and perfection of the antique? — Will my soul be able to vibrate with the new? — Such a thing cannot be forced.” My apprehensions vanished, however, when I caught sight of the Bau still full of scaffolding, when I beheld the mighty

39 forms of the separate architraves, pillars, capitals and bases. These sculptural forms in wood, which stood there like rocks in the entrance hall to the Bau, and in the neighboring sheds, were something quite new to me, and yet, of kindred origin. Crystal-like planes fashioned organic forms. One form flowed out of another and led to the next. One form vouched for the other, completing and perfecting it. The tripartite windows formed a unity. The steps of the stairways, spreading out like watery circles, rose before one in an inviting manner. It was as though in manifold gestures a being was disclosing its love, a love which encompassed and penetrated everything in a living metamorphosis. Here the soul breathed freedom. The next morning, even from a distance, I heard the tapping of hundreds of hammers and mallets. “It is coming into being,” was the happy feeling. And can there be a greater good fortune than to participate in the springing into existence of a God-willed work? Is not the experience of Para­ dise itself a participation in a God-willed creation, in which the cosmic body and the human body are still one? I believe that the artists who, in those months in Dornach, were al­ lowed to participate in the work, will agree with me that the pure ecstasy which filled us at that time was akin to that paradisaic experience. And if later the mood changed, it was because each of us brought with us, from the world, dead thoughts, illusory feelings and a lack of courage. Besides this, out in the world itself, the destructive forces had un­ leashed the fury of the World War, and the work at Dornach had to be continued under this tragic sign. When I came to the Bau that first morning, I was given, like all the other artists, a chisel and a hammer. I was as­ signed a capital and was shown how I was to carve. Soon I heard the hammering around me gradually hushed. Dr. Steiner came into the hall. He seemed to me younger and fresher than I had seen him previously in the lectures and consultations. In Dornach, on account of the mud on the Goetheanum grounds, he wore high boots, which recalled the time of Goethe. I was told that on the previous day he had 40 himself begun to carve. He climbed up on a box before a capital and began to work. We stood behind him. I could see his profile and his hands. For a long time he chiselled in si­ lence. His face was concentrated and happy as though in­ wardly he were listening to something beautiful. It was like a dialogue with the wood. Cautiously and unfalteringly he took away the wood in layers, as though he saw exactly the limits of the form hidden within it, and as though he only wished to free it from the superfluous material. Then he said something like the following: “In sculpture, one must feel the planes, one must be mind­ ful of the planes in space, just as the plants in their growth follow the direction of the planes in space. In sculpture the edges must exist only as a result, as limits; they must not previously be determined. One must be curious about the edges; that helps a great deal.” When I greeted Dr. Steiner soon after, he asked how these forms pleased me. Each time that Dr. Steiner greeted one of us, and we met his affirmative glance, it was as though this moment was anti­ cipated out of the future. We had the feeling: — the one whom Dr. Steiner is greeting there, who is permitted to greet him, is in fact not yet fully present. But each one of us an­ swered with the solemn promise that someday he would be present with his whole being. That glance, in which lived the greatest victory, spoke at the same time of the deep seriousness of a world tragedy, of a world catastrophe. It was as though the dark of the cross shimmered through this countenance, which seemed woven out of light. We knew that this prodigi­ ous life had gone through death. The love which one met in this glance was akin to death. Each time we were torn out of time — for this reason we had to be strong and objective, in order to be able to answer objectively — and on this occasion I could not do so. My answer was clumsy, too reserved, so that he could not possibly have drawn from it how much I loved these forms already. So he said, “They will soon please you. I wish you to learn to understand this Bau with its one 41 axis of symmetry. Here for the first time a building with a single axis of symmetry has been attempted.” The next time that Dr. Steiner made corrections in one of the architraves, he said that the form which was being worked upon was too inflated, it had too much stomach. The forms in the Bau, he meant to say, are not taken from nature, al­ though many people will seek in them for a similarity to nat­ ural forms. True art, however, has nothing to do with imitat­ ing nature. In nature the artist can learn the laws according to which she creates her forms, but he must not remain at the stage of a novice; he must draw from the sources out of which nature herself creates. “Naturalism is inartistic,” he said, and suddenly turning to me he asked, “Do you not believe that?” “Oh yes,” I replied, then asked myself afterward if, as a mat­ ter of fact, I was as finished with naturalism as I thought I was. Naturalism certainly did not satisfy me, still less the theo­ sophical symbolic pictures, their concoctions of the brain, or their fanciful creations. Cubism, which treated the living like the dead, seemed to me demonic, futurism ad libitum. I loved the ancient mosaic art and the Russian ikons, but I did not know what language the spirit active in the present required. So I came to Dornach full of expectations. In the small wax model of the large cupola, Dr. Steiner had traced the curves in color. Some of the painters had already received, from him, their sketches for the large cupola and were working in the large studio-like room in the Bau. I was to paint in the small cupola, as I found out. “You must have patience,” Dr. Steiner said to me several times, “and chisel a little while longer. I also must wait until I find the way.” In our unspiritual age everyone thinks that cleverness and talent alone suffice for being able to produce a work of art at any time. But anyone who has to produce something actually effective in the outer world, reckons with the laws of the spir­ itual world. Just as the fruit needs a definite time in which to ripen, so does the soul which has put its questions to the spiritual world also need time in which to receive the answers. 42 To ask questions of the spiritual world and to wait reverently for the answer, as though waiting for grace, does not mean to be passive. In Dornach, we could daily observe with what en­ ergy and perseverance Dr. Steiner sought out different, new, technical methods, trying again and again, overcoming the greatest obstacles. In the early days, I once visited the studio of a painter who was working on his study for the painting in the large cupola. Dr. Steiner came to him and they spoke about many things in connection with the plant colors, with which the painting was to be done, and which were produced according to his direc­ tions. These colors produce a very different effect from the mineral colors. They are luminous and create an etheric space. As far as I can now remember, they spoke of the ground and the painting medium; wax, cellulose, various resin­ ous substances ought to protect the fine plant pigment and keep it alive, as in the blossom of the plant. I stood nearby and, without taking part in the conversation, my thoughts were on the historical moment which we were experiencing, when an initiate was fructifying with his knowledge the various realms of life, even to the technical details. “Why are you standing apart so devoutly, saying nothing?” Dr. Steiner jok­ ingly asked me. “I understand too little of organic chemistry,” I said in embarrassment. If I had at that time only under­ stood the hint: take an interest, set to work, study, try. With an attitude of passive devoutness and ignorabimus, he could certainly not have started any of his cultural work. With the outbreak of the war, the painter whom I had visited had to go back to Germany, and I received the task of working out one of the sketches given to him. (However, he, himself, was able to take over the work again, later on.) It was the sketch for both the blue eye and the red ear. In this picture, one can learn how the law of inversion, to which Dr. Steiner was constantly referring, was also carried out by him in color. We see on the one side, blue in the middle, which, through chromatic shades, becomes red on the periphery; on the other side, red in the middle, passing over 43 through transitions from one shade to another, to a blue circumference. Out of contrasts, out of conflict between cold and warmth, arises the force of composition. At that time I was quite unconscious of the meaning of this painting lan­ guage. I asked about the objective content, what kind of be­ ings were represented here, what Hierarchies? “They are the thoughts of the Second Hierarchy,” was the answer. I asked if one might increase the number of these forms, seven on each side, through shadow repetitions, in order that they might unite with the background. “You can do that very well,” replied Dr. Steiner, “because the etheric world is like a mirror; there, one being can appear like a multiplicity.” I asked how I should paint. “I wish you to remain quite free,” he replied. In speaking of a particular small study, Dr. Steiner said that he wished it to be carried out in the cupola, because there, space and form are reproduced purely through color. “It is living, not rigid.” I was interested in the place chiaroscuro, shadows, would have in the painting we were striving for. His reply was, “Darkness should not be used for shadows in order to reproduce the sculptural form, but only to convey a psychic impression; for example, it might be used for something that produces in the feelings the effect of a wellspring or something deep. “How is it in this respect with portraiture,” I asked, “since portraiture so much depends on form?” “Portraiture,” he re­ plied, “stands quite on the borderland of painting — it is an Ahrimanic art.” In the autumn, the artists received their sketches for the small cupola. Dr. Steiner brought me a little sheet of paper. An Egyptian priest sat upon a blue, crystal seat within a formation that consisted of two transparent, interlocking triangles, one rose-violet, the other blue-violet. Above him, a rose-colored angel, overshadowed by a fiery archangel. At one side of a small black and white drawing, the same was indi­ cated in colored crayon. When I measured the size of the figures as they were to be 44 reproduced in the cupola, I found that the wings of my angel and the outspread arms of my archangel extended far over into my neighbor’s territory. I communicated my predicament to Dr. Steiner. “That does not matter,” he said. “In the spir­ itual world things do not stand side by side; they penetrate each other. In painting also the forms can interweave, the colors should be transparent, should have depth.” Five or six of us composed our individual sketches into a whole, in a small model of the cupola. Aside from this, each one worked in his atelier on the forms of his composition in their anticipated size. We painted with plant colors upon wooden slabs, which were properly primed. Dr. Steiner at­ tached great importance to a white luminous ground which should act as a source of light, and to a transparent painting medium. The colors should not be applied thickly at one time. They must get their strength through many layers, one upon the other. This gives depth and luminosity. For one who had previously painted only in oil with opaque colors, this technique meant a very great reversal. “Painting must not give the effect of planes, it must create a space, in order that the walls may be annulled,” Dr. Steiner said. On one occasion, evidently to give me courage, Dr. Steiner praised my Egyptian who, over life-size, sat upon his throne. I then asked him what he found good about it. He showed me a place around the mouth that was painted, mosaic-like, in de­ finitely transparent planes placed side by side and superim­ posed one upon the other. “It should come into being out of the inner gestures of the colors.” “Line or stroke in painting is a lie,” said Dr. Steiner. He spoke of line as of something dead, as an abstraction. I think I heard him say, although I cannot now repeat it exactly, that for the dead who perceive painting, line acts as a hindrance. The small cupola rested upon twelve pillars. Before each pillar stood a great seat or throne. On each side were six dif­ ferent thrones, carved out of wood in geometrical forms. Above in the cupola, over each pillar, in a form resembling 45 the thrones, an image was to be painted which was overshadowed by a genius. Toward the West, and next to the Egyptian composition, which corresponded to the fourth pillar, a yellow Athene was taming a serpent. Above her was Apollo with the lyre, hovered over by such a genius. Further toward the West, on a red ground was the Skeleton and above it a blue Faust. Faust held a book, in which the small word “Ich” produced the ex­ traordinary effect of being the only writing contained therein. An angel was leading toward Faust a child, who was pressing forward toward him out of the corner where the small cupola, above the stage, and the large cupola of the auditorium met. Eastward, from the Egyptian figure on the other side, were to be seen two winged giant forms facing each other, the red Lucifer and the dark Ahriman. (Ahriman’s color should have the effect of horn, Dr. Steiner said.) Between them an initiate was lifting upward a luminous child. Still further toward the East was the Slav, he himself a light pink, with a counterpart, or a dark double, which separated itself from him like a shadow. The Slav gazed upward toward a vision of the Rose Cross. (Since I was to paint this Slav, Dr. Steiner said to me: “You should not paint him as troubled and sentimental, but joyful over the future and strong.”) In the open space between Ahriman and a blue genius, above the Slav, was to be seen an extraordinary red-winged horse, with many legs and a human face. As the central motive, in the East, the great, light-filled form of the Christ was represented. With the left hand he pointed upward, and out of his heart, like a red flame, the redeemed Lucifer rose aloft into the green Easterly heaven. The right hand, pointing downward, emitted a force which fettered Ahriman to the earth as with chains. In the back­ ground were to be seen the three crosses. This was the task assigned to us. At last, after long months of work in the model cupola, when our forms stood peacefully side by side in “beautiful harmony,” without fight­ ing each other, but also without helping each other, Dr. Steiner painted there the great colored curves which were to 46 unite them. Out of a small violet wave from the West came a luminous red; and separating off from this was an orange and a yellow, which, in the East, passed over into the green of the Eastern heaven of the central composition. Warmly impressive was the effect of these colors; as im­ pressive as the whole sculpture of the small cupola. These col­ ors demanded that our paintings also be imbued with glowing life, activity and movement. But even more than the heaviness of our painting did the rigidity of our thoughts, the past attached to us, hinder us from bringing into our incapacities the form that rises from the living stream. Everything in which we were able to parti­ cipate, the dynamic forms of the Bau, which were all about us, the lectures by Dr. Steiner, which dealt also with painting, the world of creative color, could only become living within us in the course of time. At that time, however, we still had no proper foundation for questioning Dr. Steiner about problems in painting. And to clothe in concepts what the effect of color should be contradicted his realm of art. Therefore he said very little to us about our work, in personal conversations. I was doubtful about our accomplishments. “Work comes with work,” he said consolingly. He asked one of us if we were really inwardly very much absorbed in our painting, if we thought a great deal about it. Of course I thought a great deal about it, but in a wrong way. How can I paint an angel or an archangel, when I have never seen one?” I thought. “I don’t know how they look.” I wanted to have a clear vision before me, which I could then paint. It was a transfer of naturalism into another realm. I wished to confront the spiritual world with the same passive attitude which a naturalistic painter maintains toward nature. I was not conscious that the hierarchical beings, who are active within and around us, are able to reveal themselves just through the intuitive activity of painting. To work out of a dreamy, visionary condition of the dulled consciousness is not the way to the new painting, but rather an awareness in feeling and will. “If you were able to bring your 47 heart to a standstill, you would soon see what is within you,” Dr. Steiner said to one of the painters. The heart of a person, which no longer experiences sorrow and pleasure for its own sake, but knows that feeling is the herald of spiritual facts, becomes an organ for the new art of painting. When the light of day-consciousness penetrates into the darkness of the world of will, the human being, through the essential color experi­ ence in his own soul, also experiences inwardly the colors of outer nature. Darkness lightened to blue, light dulled to red, proclaims to him in the realm of nature the “origin of things, the deeds of the gods.” “Art is akin to death,” Dr. Steiner said on one occasion. “Like death, it removes Maya and re­ veals ‘being’.” Set free from the weight of the evolved world into the realm of the evolving-living, color redeems the dead world through the art of painting. By shifting things from their existence in three-dimensional space over into the sphere of planes, painting invests them with a new existence in a new space. In this space the inner human being expresses itself as the outer. The outer world, however, becomes ensouled, be­ comes an inner experience. Time becomes space. The spiritual light of Lucifer and the heavy darkness of Ahriman become color in Christ. “Color is the revenge of the gods against Lucifer,” Dr. Steiner said to me on one occasion, during a conversation about my work with regard to the healing force of painting. It was only later that the meaning of these words became com­ prehensible to me. The Lightbearer, who locks up his light in the glow of passion, in a wealth of shades of feeling, within the individual experiences of the human heart, is purified through the objective experience of color and offered to the world. Thus when, out of cosmic space, the Christ-Spirit enters into the heart, then, brought to rest, the Spirit of Separateness (Lucifer) is freed from his imprisonment in the world and becomes pure Holy Spirit. So color can have a healing and salutary effect. (It is for this reason that often­ times luciferic people have an antipathy for strong colors.) On one occasion, someone related to Dr. Steiner a conver­ sation I had had with a Russian shepherd. When this shep­ 48 herd heard that I painted, he said: “I understand very little, and I can find few words, but the words that come to me I will tell you. Christ wishes to give his image. He came in order to give his image, not to take. Only for the Turks and Tartars is it excusable not to know this. But we Christians must know that since he lived upon earth, everything, a stone, a cloud, a flower is His image. And when Luke the Evangelist painted the Child with the Mother, the Child wanted it that way. And the woman only stretched out a handkerchief, a simple piece of linen, but He gave His image. So you must stretch your soul and pray that God may recognize His Image in your picture, that your work may be counted among his works.” After several weeks, when I was able to speak with Dr. Steiner, he said to me. “When the man spoke to you about Veronica, he answered you out of his heart. (Dr. Steiner drew an arrow that started from a point.) I, however, answered you out of the cosmos. (He drew arrows which pointed from the periphery to the point.) And you stand in the middle and cannot yet unite the two answers.” Whereupon he instructed me to be more active in my own work. “If the real experience of color is not cultivated in our age, and the mechanistic theories about the nature of color con­ tinue to live in mankind, children will come into the world who no longer possess an organ for the perception of color. Life manifests itself through color. But mankind will no longer be capable of seeing the elemental spirits weaving in nature. The world will be gray,” Dr. Steiner said. I complained to him once that my intellect was disturbing me in painting. He replied, “Intellect has nothing to do with painting. When I have a lecture to give, I also do not know beforehand what I shall say. I only hold fast the mood out of which I am to speak.” Another time he said, “In the eye exists the force of cosmic thinking, which is not impaired by human thinking. Painting should manifest this cosmic thinking.” After visiting an exhibition of modern art, Dr. Steiner said, “Purposeless painting is a protest against naturalism, but it is in itself absurd. If one really penetrates into the world of 49 color, one comes upon ‘being.’ We do not need to seek the lion first in the physical world; we find his archetype in the world where color holds sway.” What a different meaning Dr. Steiner attributes to the words, “painting out of color,” from that of many who produce accidental figures while they, too, are playing with color, (as though prophesying from coffee grounds) and call these pictures — oftentimes mediocre, often­ times resulting from physiological experiences of their own bodies — “painting out of color!” Painting out of color de­ mands the greatest possible awareness, the greatest force of will and the greatest concentration, and of this Dr. Steiner says, “It demands of us another state of consciousness, another ego force than that which we possess today — and above all, a great technical ability.” When Dr. Steiner himself painted in the small cupola, he is said to have remarked that he should have worked thirty years in painting in order to paint properly. I never saw these finished paintings in the small cupola my­ self. In the year 1917, I returned to Russia with the intention, after a few months, when the others were finished with their work, to return and, together with the others, harmoniously to balance the whole. A year before my departure, when one of our Russian friends returned to Russia, Dr. Steiner said to me, “In Russia one will not be able to work. There one will be able to experience only chaos and Kamaloka.” I forgot these words and only remembered them later on when I ac­ tually experienced that chaos, that hell and the impossibility of working there. For six years I was able to study there the demonic cubism which treated the living like the dead, not only on canvas but in life itself. There could be seen the di­ rection in which the materialistic world-conception was tending, together with its logical consequences. No longer could one seek support in the spirituality of an ancient cul­ ture; one could only lift up one’s eyes spiritually toward that human building in Dornach in the organic forms of which the human social ideal was expressed. When after six years I was at last allowed to depart, on the 50 day I received my visa for a journey into Switzerland, the Goetheanum was burned. I reached Dornach the day after. So I never saw the first Bau completed. The reproductions which have been made of the paintings of the small cupola give some idea of the life and the strong movement which were present in them; an idea of the tre­ mendous distances and space that were opened up through the colors; of the chaos, in the beautiful Greek sense of the word, of coming into being and becoming. These forms are not beautiful through the flattering luciferic beauty, but through the earnest truth, through the living gesture of the spirit, through a strong, free characteristic. When I saw in the Schreinerei (the temporary auditori­ um) the posters for the eurythmy performances, painted by Dr. Steiner, or executed by Frl. Geck after his sketches, I be­ came quite aware that here we have to do with an entirely different kind of painting from any that has ever existed in human culture up to the present time. All that had to do with the earthly three-dimensional space, with perspective, with the sculptural characteristic of the East, was here laid aside. Color effect creates a new space. One breathes a lighter air when looking at these pictures, which have nothing to do with memory-images, with what has been created, and which, although so wholly of the earth, remain true to their highest being. When, after a long time, in the year 1923, I was again privileged to see the Christ statue carved by Dr. Steiner, where it stood in his studio, I felt, “It is eternity itself which strides through time — it is that Being which takes everything upon Itself.” Not only earnestness and strength, but sorrow also was to be seen in this face. I asked Dr. Steiner if the lines of pain were to be expressed in the central figure in the small cupola also. “Pain? I only wished to portray love,” he answered. “This figure should not be taken dogmatically. I simply see it that way.” The last words I heard from Dr. Steiner were these: “Christ must be sought in all realms in our age, even in painting.” 51 Rudolf Steiner gave us the path to a new Christian paint­ ing. Like the doctors, the teachers, the actors and other workers in various fields of art and science, the painters have also received from him a legacy, a task. Not only is the realm of art in the human being fructified by the comprehensive, cosmic concepts of Anthroposophy, but also through special instructions to the painters. Already through the technique of using veils of color, the painter holds the balance between the dark, heavy Ahriman and the volatile Lucifer; and through the force within the color, creates a definite, but yet not stiff­ ened, form. Thus handicraft itself again becomes hallowed. One who, through a long period of soul-culture, no longer considers as dogmatic but as experience, what Rudolf Steiner has said in his color lectures about luminous and image colors, will see in this transition from luminosity to image and from image to luminosity, a priestly, redeeming act for the Earth — a metamorphosis.

Children ’s Rhymes Ring around a daisy chain, One for me and one for Jane. Arnigh has her special one, And little Christian now must run. Join the green and merry ring. With daisy faces let us sing. Come sister and come brother, Now dance* with one another. * Sun milk on the meadow, Star flowers in the wood, Moon leaves on the willow, Heaven has raised her brood. Andrew Hoy *Bow, skip, swing, etc. 52 Sage, Savory and Marjoram*

WILHELM PELIKAN

Salvia officinalis, sage, red sage, white sage: As the preceding examples have shown, the characteristic of the labiate process is that the “warmth ether” enters deeply into the region of the “life ether.” This interaction finds expression on the one hand in aromatic processes involving volatilization (action of the warmth ether), and on the other hand in the com­ pact form of the plant, always gathered in closely around the stem element (action of the life ether). Such a polarity can also be seen in Salvia. The sages are the largest genus in the family of Labiatae: there are 500 species of them. This means that the type has been able to remain very flexible in them. Sage is a “particularly true” labiate, and Salvia officinalis is one of the most impressive representatives of the genus, so that it deserves more detailed treatment. The bare chalk rocks of the Dalmatian coast and the barren slopes of the Balkans, Greece and Spain are “sage country.” On such slopes, sage is like incense on an altar of nature, its scent is severe and solemn, similar to rosemary, but rougher, closer to the earth. It is a real summer plant, with sturdy, woody stems, strong, thick, wrinkled leaves, strong ribs and veins, not contracted into needles, but into narrow lancets. From the leafy half-shrub rises the imposing inflorescence, determinedly

------*Continued from foregoing issues of the Journal. Translation from the German of the author’s Heilpflanzenkunde (Medical Botany); published with the kind permission of the author and of the publishers, Philosophisch - Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum/Dornach, Switzerland. Trans­ lator: R. E. K. Meuss, F.I.L. 53 separating itself from the leaf region. The flowers are large and aromatic, full of nectar and particularly shaped to fit the body of a bee. And so in the current of warmth-filled development the sage plant rises up quickly to an upper region, there revealing itself in the exhalation of scent, the production of etheric oils and a rich flowering; but in contradistinction to this it also takes up into itself solidifying, formative elements, also apparent in physical form, in the abundant development of tannins as well as resins, and considerable deposits of salts (calcium oxalates). The dried leaves contain 2 per cent of etheric oil, 5 to 6 per cent of resins, and 5 per cent of tannin. The action of etheric oils born in warmth on the ego organiza­ tion which works in warmth processes has now been sufficiently described. Resins are like etheric oils condensed to the solid state, formed through warmth activities, but mummified. They stimu­ late ego activity in the system of nerves and senses. Tannins, arising from astral impulses (this is particularly obvious from the fact that much tannin is formed around animal plant galls), act on the astral body. Rudolf Steiner1 drew particular attention to the importance of the tannin from sage in the treatment of asthma. According to him, the “inner appetite” of the organism is lacking in the case of asthma. “The whole organism is some­ thing of a subtle organ of taste. Only later this tasting function is localized ... in the area of the palate and tongue ... In subconscious spheres, then, the human being savours and pro­ duces the inner experience of appetite throughout the whole of the organism... There is such a thing as lack of appetite on the part of the organism ... (the asthmatic) has no desire whatever to take the ingested food substances particularly in the direction of those parts which enter into the whole of the circulation. Now it is a good thing to know how one can get at an organism ... which has no appetite. In this case the proper connection be­ tween etheric organism and astral organism has been broken, for that is what it means to lose the appetite. In a case like this it is

------1.Rudolf Steiner. Besprechung mit praktizierenden Aerzten. Drei Ansprachen. Dornach, 31 Dec. 1923. 54 always good to give the organism the right dose of the tannic acid obtainable from sage leaves, for instance, ... or from oak leaves. This is a substance of particular importance to the astral body, stimulating it to extend its activity to the etheric body.” It is interesting in this context that a species of sage growing in Crete, Salvia pomifera, frequently produces cherry-sized galls at the ends of its shoots, very sweet and edible when young. (In the formation of galls, etheric plant nature and astral animal nature combine particularly closely.) To the healing process of warmth which is a key note of the labiate species we have so far discussed, sage adds the tannin processes to give firmness. The resulting formative processes tauten tissues and give form to bloated tissue. An overflowing fluid organism is held in check, warmed through: glandular ac­ tivity in particular is placed under the rule of ego impulses. Ex­ cessive lactation and abnormal perspiration are therefore held in check by sage. It has anti-inflammatory and also tissue-forming, wound-healing properties if used in compresses, washes, gargles, etc., for inflammation of the throat, etc. Like the other labiates we have been discussing, sage also stimulates ego activity in digestion, metabolism and blood formation, of course.

Satureia hortensis, summer savory: As a wild plant, the summer savory has its habitat along the eastern Mediterranean and on the shores of the Black Sea. It holds a place between rosemary and sage, and shall be men­ tioned briefly. Its growth is woody and bristly, needing a lot of warmth, with the leaves once again contracted almost into needles. The plant loves rocky slopes covered with boulders. It is not surprising to find that it stimulates the appetite, has anti- spasmodic and sudorific actions, fills the digestive organs with warmth, but also has emmenagogic and indeed slightly aphro­ disiac properties. The plant contains etheric oils and also some tannin.

55 Hyssopus officinalis, hyssop: The shoot is slender but tall, closely covered with narrow lancet leaves. It bears aloft the blue or reddish-violet blossoms held together in a pseudospicule, from which the stamens spill out. Its home is in southern Europe and the dry regions of west­ ern Asia (Turkey, Caspian Sea, Aral Sea), where it may be found on rocky, stony hills and mountains. The scent of the crushed leaves is warming, camphor-like, and a bit animal-like, as of a badger. In addition to its warming properties it has those due to the camphor it contains — relaxing and antispasmodic; the rhythmic region of the plant is abundantly developed, and correspondingly the medicinal action is aimed more at the rhythmic system, in chronic bronchial catarrh, asthma, but also in the regulation of perspiration. The oil will also ameliorate severe pain from wounds.

Origanum majorana, sweet marjoram, knotted marjoram: This is another plant from the warm south of Europe, though marjoram does not like the rocky mountain slopes so much, but rather warm, light garden soils and the cultivating hand of man. The germinating seed is grateful for shade. It develops into a graceful, beautifully formed plant, even its lower parts per­ meated with the mild aroma, striving upwards irresistibly, with gently rounded leaves drawn close to the stem, and soon it is crowned by the flower spicules. Each spicule looks like a small bee-hive, with numerous small white blossoms half concealed in it when they come out in high summer. It requires the long period of southern sunshine to ripen seeds capable of germina­ tion; they are full of fatty oil. The mild scent of the leaves gives a beneficent, warming sensation — like the dark warmth of the baker’s oven. The etheric oil — produced through cosmic warmth, but in more gentle fashion than in the Labiatae we have discussed so far — also contains camphorous substances. From the same cosmic forces is derived the fatty oil surrounding the seed that shuts off the influence of earthly forces, so that the seed may remain fully open for the cosmic formative powers 56 which impress upon it the germ of the formative law of future growth. Rudolf Steiner specifically mentioned marjoram seed as a medicinal agent (in a remedy to regulate the menstrual cycle). Marjoram has powers to fill the metabolism, and particularly the sex organs, with warmth. It strengthens the stomach and intestines, cures colics and diarrhoea, promotes conception and menstruation. Its sphere of action also includes antispasmodic properties useful in asthma, vertigo and paralysis. In combina­ tion with Melissa, it is an excellent remedy for inflammation and weakness of the child-bearing organs.

Some points regarding the formation of seeds: As the seeds develop, part of the plant is first of all separated off from the whole, subjected to partly paralysed processes of growth and decreasing vitality, and finally tied off completely from the whole. This part would have to deteriorate into chaos had it not been permeated with new formative forces after polli­ nation. These — and this is a finding of spiritual scientific re­ search — stream into it from the cosmic periphery. We have already described how the plant’s higher aspects of being are linked with that cosmic periphery. The specific constitution of the seed protein of the species concerned serves as a “filter” to separate out from the abundance of cosmic influences those relevant to the plant. Because of pollination, the seed protein becomes chaotic at first, and this removes it from the sphere of influence of earthly forces — forces radiating outwards from a physical centre, which find their most perfect expression in dead, mineral existence. The seed protein now comes under the influence of the universal forces which radiate inwards. The chaos is penetrated by the cosmos, and can again become a microcosmos, something that is alive and developing. The process of oil formation, always linked with seed development, serves to isolate the seed from the forces of the earth. It disappears during germination, when the plant once again looks for, and makes contact with, the forces of the earth. 57 Origanum, vulgare, common or wild marjoram: This plant might strike one as a more robust variation of marjoram. It grows wild in Europe and right down into Asia, crossing the Alps. It is taller than marjoram, and the inflorescence with its reddish flowers rises more strongly above the leaf sphere. Poor, mountainous positions, or warm places at the edge of forests are favoured by the plant, whilst cultured ground repels it. The wild marjoram, too, has a warming, stimulating effect on the sexual sphere. It has been used in uter­ ine disorders, dysmenorrhoea, amenorrhoea; the restraining, mastering forces of the ego are brought to bear again (action against erotomania, nymphomania, onanism). After what has been said so far, it will not surprise us that colds and catarrhs af­ fecting the respiratory organs and weakness of the metabolic organism are also helped by it. Wild marjoram has diuretic properties and relieves congestion in the hepatic and portal regions. Like sweet marjoram, Teucrium marum and other labiates acting on the sexual sphere, wild marjoram also has an effect on the nasal region which is related to it: working against inflammation, chronic coryza, polyps.

After A Child’s Drawing I have a Chinese house For it is made of paper. My daughter drew it now For me to live in later. I will take my treasures with me And she will dwell there too, For we will live on memory And deeds we could not do. Andrew Hoy 58 MAN AND THE WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF AN­ THROPOSOPHY, by Stewart C. Easton, 536 pp., Anthro­ posophic Press, Spring Valley, New York, 1975.

Over the years a variety of books aiming to give an introduction to one or another aspect of Rudolf Steiner’s work have appeared in this country and abroad. And now the Anthroposophic Press has published this work intended, as Dr. Easton writes, “to be an introduction to Steiner’s work,” though at the same time he cautions that “it is in no sense intended to be used as a substitute for direct personal study of Steiner’s own lectures and writings, still less to take the place of the inner work that must be done by the student himself and can be done only by him.” (p. 11) This book, the author explains, is written first of all as “a stimulus” to personal study and inner work by the student. This is accomplished by indicating the various areas of modern life to which Steiner contributed, and at the same time by providing the reader with a glimpse, however brief, of the tremendous scope and wealth of what he gave to humanity. The two main sections of the book explore the themes “Anthroposophy as a Body of Knowledge” and “Anthropos­ ophy in Practical Life.” The first section considers such fundamental aspects of Anthroposophy as the evolution of human consciousness as manifested in prehistory and history, spiritual development of the individual, human freedom, the life of man on earth and in the spiritual worlds, reincarnation and karma, Christianity, the arts, the science of spirit and the science of nature, the social tasks of our age, and so on. The second part of the book comprises a presentation of the results of the application of the knowledge of man and world as given by Anthroposophy in the fields of education, curative education, agriculture, gardening, medicine, econ­ omics, political science, nutrition, and so on. A final chapter gives a living impression of the manifold activities sponsored 59 by the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland and in various countries of the world. A unique feature of this book is the “Suggestions for Further Reading” which appear at the end of each chapter. These will be invaluable in acquainting the reader with books on Anthroposophy in English by Rudolf Steiner and other authors, on a systematic basis. Dr. Easton’s brief commentary on each title listed will help the reader to assess the content of the works in question, and will at the same time assist in over­ coming the bewilderment and confusion which often result upon first meetings with the great quantity of anthropos­ ophical literature available. Long study of Rudolf Steiner’s work, combined with the disciplined, creative mind of a mature scholar, have equipped Dr. Easton admirably for the successful accomplishment of the difficult and exacting task he has set himself. Readers will appreciate his straightforward, common-sensed approach to his subject and his balanced presentation of it. Despite the extraordinary scope of the subject-matter, the book is nowhere superficial or lacking in thoroughness. Although the author’s profound appreciation of Dr. Steiner is everywhere apparent, no trace of hero-worship or sectarianism is to be found. He does not attempt to persuade or impress a point of view upon the reader; his style is logical, objective, calm but by no means cold. And though the book maintains a warm, friendly conversational tone throughout, no attempt is made to disguise the fact that a thorough study of Anthroposophy is not easy, and that an active entering upon the path of spiritual development requires sober, earnest application on the part of the aspirant if he is to succeed. In this connection, and as an illustration of the style and depth of the book as a whole, perhaps no better example could be chosen than from the bottom of page 144. After citing Steiner’s statement that “only they can be anthropos­ ophists who feel certain questions on the nature of man and the universe as an elemental need of life, just as one feels hunger and thirst,” Dr. Easton comments: “This statement may 60 at first seem startling, but the more experienced one becomes in Anthroposophy, and especially in working with newcomers, the more does its truth become apparent. The casual enquirer simply cannot become a serious student of Anthroposophy. There must be some questions to which his whole being demands an answer. One cannot really approach Anthropos­ ophy as a dilettante taster of cults, beliefs and philosophies; there must be a desire truly akin to that of ‘hunger and thirst,’ and this desire in fact derives from our personal karma. We should thus all of us beware of trying to convince anyone that Anthroposophy is true, and especially not by the use of arguments. We are brought by our karma toward a door that opens out on Anthroposophy. But it is for us, not the doorkeeper, to make the decision to enter.” Out of the wealth of material included in this excellent work, the chapter on history and the evolution of human con­ sciousness is almost certain to be for many readers one of the most impressive and memorable parts of the book. This is per­ haps to be expected from a professional historian who at the same time has made Anthroposophy a profound concern of his life for over forty years. Nevertheless one is inescapably impressed by the livingness, the richness and the mastery of the subject evidenced in this splendid chapter, which on grounds of modern scholarship and research substantiates many of Steiner’s indications concerning prehistory and history when seen from the vantage-point of the evolution of human consciousness. For example, note what is said about the Sumerian language on pages 44-45 of the book. The entire work is markedly contemporary. The discussion of world issues of the 1970s (the EEC, the Middle East, the petroleum crisis, etc.), particularly in chapter eight, shows how applicable are Rudolf Steiner’s insights to a genuine understanding of our current world economy, our social struggles and the manifold needs, problems and interests of our time. On the other hand, one should have no illusions about the spread of Anthroposophy today. This is made abundantly clear 61 by the sentence with which Dr. Easton concludes his book: “If Anthroposophy should ever become a mass movement it would certainly be because its content will have been diluted far beyond any permissible simplification — as will surely be appreciated by anyone who has read through this book with something of the care with which its author has tried to write it.” — It is perhaps above all this quality of “care” which will in the long run make the reading of this book a memorable experience, for it everywhere pervades the entire work, which on page 15 its author modestly characterizes as “an inadequate attempt to show to those who have never occupied themselves with it, something of the dimension of Rudolf Steiner’s work.” — A challenging “attempt” which though fraught with hazard and difficulty, has been accomplished with outstanding success. Paul M. Allen

Sleep Revelations Down dim-lit labyrinthine lanes I glide To roam an undulating sea of dreams Where rose-lights flood its slow, refulgent tide And harmonies flow forth in silver streams. At last restrained by neither form nor weight, I drink full deep of freedom’s ecstacy And move at will amidst the gods’ estate, Knowing the peace of immortality. Why should we ever question, doubt or fear The Greater Sleep when nightly through its gate We pass into the same resplendent sphere That shall be ours as life’s fulfillment-fate? Can we not trust the same benignant power That nightly claims us at the appointed hour? Maude Houghton Champion 62 THE VIRTUES, Contemplations by Herbert Witzenmann, Translated from the German by Daisy Aldan; 35 pages. Folder Editions, N.Y., 1975

The small volume, as Mr. Witzenmann tells us, is “based on brief indications by Rudolf Steiner for meditations which may be practised in accordance with the changing year. They be­ gin, Until January 21: Courage becomes redeeming force, and end, Until December 21: Control of the tongue (speech) be­ comes feeling for truth. ” The book is dedicated “To Herbert Witzenmann on his seventieth birthday,” and tells us briefly about the author and his work at the back. In the preface, the author writes: The year is the archetype of becoming and declin­ ing... . But the human soul does not merely repeat what occurs in nature, however profoundly she may be moved by it. She feels herself satisfied only when, out of it, she gives rise to something new. . . . When the soul directs the gaze of her inner ob­ servation onto herself, she may notice that the moods of the seasons correspond to twelve attributes of her own being. These attributes, however, do not unfurl, as is the case with creatures of nature, with­ out her own activity. There are twelve stages of de­ velopment in which she can educate herself and to which she must impel herself. Hence they are not natural tendencies but virtues.... For this the soul requires the guidance and direction of her own spirit. . . . Rudolf Steiner does not enumerate a series of Virtues, but directs us toward a path of inner work upon ourselves, whereby, in that we develop our po­ tential qualities, and let them blend into one an­ other, we become creators of our Virtues, architects of our own being. 63 The chapter given to each month is less than a page in length. Each sentence is a unity in itself, self-sustained and seemingly self-enclosed. Yet each begins with something of the substance with which the last ended. Often the same word ends a sentence and begins the next, so closely is thought linked with thought. Each is a step, a phase in the unfolding and transformation of inner human activity. The reader rests in the fullness, firmness and nourishment of each thought-ex- perience. He can ponder each one for a long time and then step on to the next. One such sentence might well be enough to start a day with. Each chapter is likewise linked securely to the one before. Or it would be better to say that our insight is awakened to realize how one is born out of the preceding one. Just as the Green Snake in Goethe’s Fairy Tale experiences with each part of her body the ground over which she passes, so the reader is led to experience each contour of the ascending metamor­ phoses of soul. The living thought puts forth and flows into leaf, branch and blossoming of human moral capacity, form­ ing a lawful structure at the same time that it constantly moves on into new transformations. Daisy Aldan’s translation has the mastery not to seem a translation at all but to house the content in a clear and na­ tural way. It is a pleasure to read because as a poet she is an intimate friend of the spirit of the English language. The cover of the book is a work of art. Upon its violet-red background — in which a bluish hue at once intensifies and softens the red to a quality of active aspiration — Beppe As- senza, with a few gold lines, has suggested the receptivity of the lower for the higher in man through the gesture of the figure below; while the form above it, with its upward-point­ ing, winged gesture, directs its forces downward as well as aloft, so as to inspire and protect the figure below. Thus the cover speaks the same language as the text which it encloses. Christy Barnes

64 STAR JOURNEY by Eleanor Trives. Cover and Drawings by Jacques Gleiny. 63 pages. Firmin-Didot et Cie, Editeurs, Imprimeurs de L’Institute de France, 1975.

This fourth book of poems by Eleanor Trives marks a new strength and depth of experience in her work. It belongs in a very special way to our times, for it could only have been written by one who has created a new kind of relationship with death and to another human being who journeys on the other side of death. This relationship is the fruit of a study of Spiritual Science. It carries what study has illuminated down into the very stuff of life and death and into the soul’s dying and becoming in the encounter. Eleanor Trives grew up amongst the poets and artists of America in the earlier part of this century. Her brother was the famous Shakespearean actor, Walter Hampden. As a young woman, she toured this country with Vachel Lindsay, dancing to his poetry as he recited it in his dramatic and musical way. She had a sense that poetry could be re-ex­ pressed in movement. Later this sense led her to recognize im­ mediately the significance and nature of the art of eurythmy, of which she became a student. Still later, she again toured the United States, this time herself reciting the poems of Lind­ say and others for the eurythmy of her daughter and of Kari van Oordt. Her poetry has always consisted of short stanzas in which the simplicity of expression and fineness of imagery speaks a delicate language of the spirit. The words and verses are un­ ruffled by the waves of a strong rhythm, and reflect on their quiet surfaces the thoughts and colors that accompany sunrise and stars, the unfolding of plants and of inner awakening. The present book is written out of the experience of her husband’s death. The modest, unrhymed stanzas and the purity of language call no especial attention to themselves. But the lines are transparent to experience. Reassuring real­ ities glow into and through them: warmth, clear-seeing, com­

65 passion and the recognition of another’s immortal being Their gold lies in their truth, their faithfulness to human ex­ perience, as in the following poems: Into the dark of separation and death I would bravely go down like a miner To seek the gold of your true being And weld with you a new treasure That shall never be lost. * Look above the abyss Lest the void suck you down To the monster below. Behold the glory beyond, The heights that man can reach Since Michael, clad in sun gold, With sword of meteor fire, Conquered the dragon. * You, who travel the long road beyond death, Facing yourself as one seldom does in life, O help me to see into my own heart With its evil and with its good, That I may better accompany you In the truth of our quest together. * Many were the voyages of our youth, The wanderings, the adventures! Then we moved swiftly from place to place. But the sweetest path I ever trod Is the last one with you, With slow steps together Going toward eternity. Review by C.B. [ChristyBarnes]

Since this review was written, news has come of the death of Eleanor Trives in Paris on August 19th, 1975. 66 MARIHUANA TODAY, by George K. Russell, Proceeding No. 29, The Myrin Institute, Inc. for Adult Education, 521 Park Avenue, New York, 10021.

The use of illegal drugs, especially by the youth of the coun­ try, has increased rapidly during the past decade. Probably no other factor has been as significant in causing a polarization of our society as has the use of drugs, particularly marihuana. Indeed, the question of the harmfulness of smoking mari­ huana has probably been the greatest single factor causing divisiveness between parents and their children and between the old and the young. Today there appears to be an amelioration in the use of hard drugs. It now seems accepted, even by many of the young, that they are dangerous. The same cannot be said about marihuana. Many are convinced that it is not harmful and can, therefore, be used safely as a mild intoxicant result­ ing in pleasurable effects. Usually, such conclusions are based either on the actual experience of the user or on the informa­ tion given in such books as Lester Grinspoon’s Marihuana Reconsidered (Harvard University Press, 1971) or the Con­ sumer Union’s Licit and Illicit Drugs (E.M. Brecher and the Editors of Consumer Reports, Little, Brown and Co., Boston and Toronto, 1972). Probably the most common retort made by any young per­ son wishing to defend his use of the drug is couched in the oft-heard phrase, “If you haven’t tried it, don’t knock it.” Al­ though there are logical and reasonable answers to this, they seldom get far with a person who wants to use the drug. Moreover, with the availability of such books (and others) as those cited, the battle is frequently lost before it even begins. For this reason, as much as any other, those of us who work with young people must be grateful for Professor Russell’s re­ markably succinct and useful article. As anyone who has tried to follow the literature on this subject can tell you, it has been confusing to say the least.

67 Similar studies have resulted in conflicting results; some stud­ ies have exonerated marihuana of any harmful effect, while others have concluded that it is no more harmful than alcohol and perhaps less so; still others maintain that it affects the will. Professor Russell has set himself the task of sorting out the various studies and of determining what the results of the most carefully conducted ones show. I am happy and grateful to report that he has succeeded admirably. In a brief opening statement containing pertinent back­ ground information on marihuana (Cannabis sativa), it is noted that the active psychoactive ingredient is delta-9-tetra­ hydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC), isolated and identified in 1964. However, marihuana is a complex substance since there are a total of at least 50 identifiable substances present, some of which, although they are not psychoactive, appear to cause damage to the chromosomes. In the introduction which follows, Professor Russell suc­ ceeds in putting the issue into proper perspective. He points out how the press has given much favorable publicity to re­ ports advocating a more tolerant attitude toward the drug, while virtually ignoring scientific writings pointing to its dan­ gers. Thus, both of the books mentioned above were given widespread publicity, while Dr. Gabriel Nahas’ Marihuana — Deceptive Weed (Raven Press, New York), a book that cites the results of many studies pointing to the dangers of smok­ ing marihuana, was ignored by the press. Even the publicity accorded the first report of the National Commission on Mari­ huana and Drug Abuse tends strongly to stress the reassuring passages while ignoring the final conclusions and recommenda­ tions. One cannot help but question why this has happened. Is there a conspiracy working to legalize marihuana? One won­ ders. Dr. Russell concludes his introduction by saying, The point at issue was then, and is still, whether marihuana should be deemed a soft recreational drug, or whether it must be regarded as a danger­ ous substance calling for strict control. 68 In section 2, Dr. Russell begins to answer this question. He points out that the results of Dr. H. Isbell, making use of pure delta-9-THC, showed it to be an hallucinogen, while studies done at Harvard University utilizing marihuana ciga­ rettes indicated that delta-9-THC was merely a mild intoxi­ cant. It now appears that the results of the Harvard studies must be questioned because the cigarettes used were inade­ quately assayed for THC content and had, undoubtedly, un­ dergone considerable decay because of the well-known instabil­ ity of THC between the time of its preparation and its actual use. This is significant because Grinspoon in his book had re­ lied heavily on the results of the Harvard studies to support his claim that marihuana is no more than a mild intoxicant. As mentioned earlier, Edward Brecher and the Editors of “Consumer Reports” in their Licit and Illicit Drugs were in­ strumental in giving marihuana a clean bill of health. In the March 1975 issue of “Consumer Reports” they return to the subject with an article entitled, “Marihuana, the Health Question.” The article proceeds to review the case against marihuana and then, based on contradictory evidence, con­ cludes that ... a general pattern is beginning to emerge. When a research finding can be readily checked — either by repeating the experiment or by devising a better one — an allegation of adverse marihuana effects is relatively short-lived. No damage is found — and after a time the allegation is dropped (often to be replaced by allegations of some other kind of damage due to marihuana). Brecher supports his claim by citing evidence from a num­ ber of different sources. However, most important is the so- called “Jamaica study.” This was a study supported by the National Institute of Mental Health carried out in Jamaica where marihuana is used regularly by an estimated ten per­ cent of the population. The conclusion of the study was that marihuana is safe and, at worst, a mild relaxant. However, it now appears that the study suffered from numerous scien­ 69 tific-methodological shortcomings, placing the conclusions in doubt. Thus it seems that Isbell’s conclusions that delta-9- THC should be classified as an hallucinogen is the correct one. Dr. Russell next turns his attention to the effects of smok­ ing marihuana on the psyche, perhaps the area of greatest in­ terest to those who work with young people since it is precisely here that direct observation can be made. He begins by citing the well-known studies of Kolansky and Moore who reported that cannabis usage exerted a corroding effect on the will power of the user, as well as on his emotions and his ability to think. This was particularly pronounced with young people. Typically, users displayed a goallessness or loss of motivation; they were apathetic and usually showed a loss of interest in personal cleanliness, grooming and dress. These symptoms, known as the “antimotivational syndrome,” were exhibited uni­ formly by all of the patients studied, all of whom were chronic smokers of marihuana. Three case histories are described illustrating the above points along with the tendency toward magical thinking and an altered sense of reality often shown by habitual smokers of marihuana. For example, it is often observed that users dis­ play a “false impression of calm and well-being,” a fact that can undoubtedly be attributed to the beguiling and, hence, insidious nature of marihuana, wherein the user is not aware of the beginning of the loss of his own mental functioning! Finally, it is often observed that a feature of cannabis use is sexual promiscuity, ranging from sexual relations with several individuals of the opposite sex to relations with individuals of the same sex and to relations with individuals of both sexes. Perhaps the most remarkable part of this whole section is, as Russell points out, how well the careful accounts of many practicing clinicians support the early observations of Dr. Franz E. Winkler who published one of the first articles warn­ ing of the danger of marihuana usage. (“About Marihuana,” Myrin Institute, Inc. for Adult Education, New York). In that article, Winkler pointed out that the use of Marihuana seri­ 70 ously impaired will activity and that marihuana was much more harmful than alcohol. To those of us who found Winkler’s early article convincing and useful, this confirma­ tion is helpful, indeed. In the succeeding sections of his article, Russell reviews the evidence on the effects of marihuana smoking on the brain, the lungs, the immune system, the reproductive process, and the genes and chromosomes. In every case, the results of the various studies have shown that smoking marihuana has a detrimental effect in all these areas. Obviously, they are all of great importance, yet one cannot help but express special con­ cern over the indications in Russell’s words and in a quotation from the testimony of W.D.M. Paton given before the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security, ... the numerous psychiatric reports cited above converge to a remarkable “extent in supporting a prima facie view that repeated cannabis use acts on the deeper parts of the brain (where sensory infor­ mation is processed and mood is controlled); that this is at first reversible, but becomes more per­ sistent as cumulation occurs, and that later irrever­ sible changes occur with loss of brain substance, due either to interference with the capacity of brain cells to synthesize their requirements or to interfere with cell division. Of a similarly crucial significance are the findings that the smoking of marihuana appears to cause serious genetic dam­ age. When one considers the number of young people using the drug, such findings are frightening. In this review, I have tried to give an indication of the im­ portant points covered by Dr. Russell. In my judgment, he has done all of us a great service in putting the problem into perspective, in calling our attention to the favorable publicity that has been accorded those articles and books advocating a lenient approach to the control of the drug in contrast to the virtual news blackout received by articles advocating a 71 stronger stand, and in critically reviewing and pointing out the inadequacies of many of the early favorable studies. Char­ acteristically, Russell ends his article, not with a scientific conclusion, but rather with a human consideration. He says, There is, of course, another dimension altogether to the marihuana question. Inescapably, the time comes when each of us must ask himself: What kind of a person do I want to be? What kind of society do I want to live in? To pursue the ethical and social implications of marihuana use would lead me far beyond the intended scope of this article. And yet it is on just such considerations that the decision ultimately rests. I wish, therefore, to leave one ques­ tion with the reader: Can the use of marihuana, in any amount, ever be reconciled with the clarity of thought, the personal integrity, and the strength of will that an individual must have who would play an active role in helping humanity find the way out of its ever-worsening difficulties? Yes, that is the question, and Dr. Russell has given us additional information that will help us in our struggle to make our young people realize what the answer to that ques­ tion must be. Dr. Harry S. Blanchard

72 ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTE­ NANCE: AN INQUIRY INTO VALUES by Robert M. Pirsig, 412 pp., William Morrow and Co., 1974.

A strange name for a remarkable work. The title is no semantic gimmick for drawing attention but means to indicate from the outset that Zen Buddhism and the motorcycle — spirit and technology — are pertinent ingredients of our civilization, and that we had better come to terms with them for our own sakes. The subtitle “An Inquiry into Values” gives the clue to the plot of a drama worthy of its predecessors of ancient Greece, encompassing both tragedy and catharsis. The author is a modern scholar who also attended Benares Hindu University in India at one time — apparently a true product of our academic world, yet not of it. His keen and questioning mind causes constant turbulence within the aca­ demic climate. That mind is searching for the catalyst which might resolve the dualism of the scientific cognitive method. He attempts to fuse subject and object, mind and matter, “realism and romanticism” into a livable wholeness. The author tries nothing less than to transcend Emmanuel Kant’s boundaries of knowledge with the tool of rational thought it­ self. This was bound to lead him into cognitive uncertainties. To be sure, the author realizes that “a real exploration ... would have to be in an entirely new direction ... into realms beyond reason.” Yet, though his mind is extremely sharpened, rational thinking itself remains untransformed into an organ for perception for that which is beyond mere logic, and so it must strain itself within its own intellectual channels for too gigantic a task. Robert Pirsig is unaware of another possibility — of such a course as has been expounded in Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual scientific works. Nevertheless, the reader can feel only admiration and respect for the author’s earnest and sincere odyssey of the hu­ man mind. Through an arduous quest into philosophical fields and intensive and thorough soul-searching, he arrives at the 73 term Quality, by which he means a primal essence, neither a product of the subject nor inherent in the object, but rather the creator of both, and the basis for judging all values. “What (the author) has been talking about as Qual­ ity, Socrates appears to have described as the soul, self-moving, the source of all things.” Throughout the book this Quality is again and again being tested meticulously in relation to all life situations and human activities. Is this a groping for something akin to Steiner’s “moral imagination” — a striving for the reconciliation of thought-man and heart-man? “Man is the measure of all things ... Quality is not a thing. It is an event ... If it can be shown ... that this Quality is the central term of Religion, Art, and Science, and it is all of one kind, then it follows that the three disunified areas have a basis for introconversion.” The author relates how he tried futilely at least twice, with ideas that were practically heretical, to confront the academic system. The stage for the second attempt was the department of philosophy at the University of Chicago. His provocative thesis for admission left no doubt that he planned to rock the boat. To his own surprise he was, nevertheless, admitted by default, but the professor of philosophy and also the chair­ man of the department were determined to discredit his “outlandish” approach, if not his academic standing. The author was aware of this and prepared himself for it. While teaching full time for a living, he studied “the thought of Classic Greece in general, and of Aristotle in particular” with an unheard-of zeal — an average daily stretch of twenty hours of work and study, with little attention to food and sleep. In the end he succeeded in humiliating both of his an­ tagonists with his superior erudition. But the victory proved to be a hollow one; the exhaustive struggle took its final toll: 74 “Slowly, imperceptibly at first, the entire conscious­ ness begins to come apart ... to dissolve and fade away ... He feels himself extending into the uni­ verse with no limit.” A complete breakdown into a state of insanity follows. What is happening here in the light of Rudolf Steiner’s supersensible investigations? One might ask, is this a “crossing of the threshold” using inadequate means, unprepared for the step, with near fatal consequences? Is it also a demonstration of the impotency of oriental Zen Buddhism in the face of Western humanity’s necessity to come to grips with its own spiritual problems? At any rate, destiny affords Robert Pirsig a second chance. A successful shock therapy restores his mental stability and he establishes a “new personality.” This is autobiography at its best — frank, honest, yet modest in its integrity, and shattering in its implication. A kind of catharsis is carried over to the reader. The content of the entire book consists in the author’s retracing of the steps of his former self, his “ghost,” whom he names Phaedrus. The descriptions of an interesting motorcycle trip with his son are interspersed with the reevaluation and discussion of Phaedrus’ trials. On this journey the author then meets this alter ego, his doppelgaenger, in a nightmare which awakens him and also terrifies his son. The style of the book is relaxed and flowing. It moves along expertly, whether picturing landscapes or campsites, or dealing humorously, sometimes caustically, with social condi­ tions and human foibles. Philosophic discussions are pursued relentlessly but in easy stages. The pages are filled with common sense concerning the art of living; in short it is a re­ warding experience. The motorcycle itself plays a major role in the course of the story. Apropos of its do-it-yourself mainte­ nance, the author philosophizes about the right attitude toward technology. He deplores his friends’ attempts to dis­ tance themselves from it by disdainful use, as well as the sloppy handling of it by some auto mechanics of the younger generation who carelessly “butcher” his machine in the course 75 of a minor repair: " ... the real evil isn’t the objects of tech­ nology but their tendency to isolate people into lonely atti­ tudes of objectivity.” A minor but important drama is being enacted within the larger one toward the end of the book when the father finally realizes he must mend the foundering relationship with his son in order to preserve the boy’s sanity. The child has had to en­ dure, in his young years, the twin personality of his father, and nearly falters mentally under the trauma. The book ends with Pirsig’s feeling that “We’ve won it. It’s going to get better now. You can sort of tell these things.” Perhaps this is a projection of his own sense of fulfillment onto Western man’s general outlook. Despite unqualified respect for this courageous trailblazer, one can be moved to ask: “Will things really get better if men continue on this note of vague presentiment without discovering an alternative to such a tortuous path? Must we all meet disaster first, blindly?” Notwithstanding, this is an extraordinary work, one that was inevitably bound to emerge in such a form out of the present social and technological impasse, a book which once started is hard to put down. Joseph Wetzl

76 SEARCH FOR A STILL POINT: HUMBOLDT’S GIFT by Saul Bellow (The Viking Press, 487 pp., $10). Toward the end of Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie March, Augie says with uncommon conviction that he has a “feeling about the axial lines of life, with respect to which you must be straight or else your existence is merely clownery, hid­ ing tragedy.” If one is on such axial lines he has “truth, love, peace, bounty, usefulness, harmony”; then all “noise and grates, distortion, chatter, distraction, effort, superfluity,” pass off like something unreal. Such has been the goal of all Bel­ low’s heroes: Joseph (the “dangling man”), Asa Levanthal (the “victim”), Augie, Tommy Wilhelm (in Seize the Day), the abundant Henderson (the “rain king”), Herzog, and the be­ wildered Sammler all seek and would wish to be judged by these yardsticks. Bellow’s first novels demonstrate a cycle of consistent growth toward such axial lines — registering an anguish, exuberance, whimsy, pathos, comedy, and painfully honest groping in which he cheats neither the complexities of the personal life nor the ambiguities of our moment in Amer­ ican history. “At any time,” Augie says, “life can come together again and man be regenerated ... the man himself, finite and taped as he is, can live, where the axial lines are.” That was said twenty years ago. Such has been Bellow’s search — in novels that, seesawing, and with increased profundity, have explored lives hemmed in by their fears and failures, by the discrete calls of flesh and mind, by the need for independence and the need to unite. It is thus no shock (though most critics have taken it as such) that in his eighth novel, Humboldt’s Gift, Bellow, per­ haps America’s most thoughtful novelist, should have a central figure, Charles Citrine, “discover” Anthroposophy. By other names, and through other characters, he may have been searching for it all along. Certainly the Anthroposophy in this new and important (if not entirely successful) novel is only fragmentary: Bellow fo­ cuses almost exclusively on meditation exercises outlined in 77 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment. Citrine, a prominent and publicly successful intellectual living in Chicago, is besieged by memories of his dead friend and literary mentor, Von Humboldt Fleisher (a brilliant, tormented poet, based loosely on the late Delmore Schwartz), a gnashing settlement action with his ex-wife, financial woes and broad philosophical doubts, and a humorous and persistent entanglement with a small-time criminal named Cantabile. A Professor Scheldt gives Citrine some of Rudolf Steiner’s books and lectures, and talks patiently with him about certain basic concepts. Through Scheldt, Bellow reveals his own deft novelist’s understanding. After Citrine has spoken of Steiner’s ideas, and has asked Scheldt whether he has properly understood them, the old pro­ fessor — his face “interested and plain” — says: “All this is in the texts. I can’t be sure that you have grasped it all but you’re fairly accurate.” Though Citrine’s friends tell him An­ throposophy is a sham or madness, he has found in his medita­ tions a truth and consolation, the beginnings of an understand­ ing about death, a still point he has been seeking all his life. As an “intellectual,” he has begun to learn it first in his head, but as the book ends and he vows to visit the Goetheanum, An­ throposophy is becoming more of a working force in his life. A novelist’s first obligation is to the truth of his art. Bellow is making no plea for Anthroposophy, nor is he attempting to represent it in all its dimensions. The meditation exercises, fairly plucked — though indeed plucked — from Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, serve distinct functions in the novel: they en­ able Citrine to recall his dead friend with patient, objective clarity, and they provide him with a still point in the midst of all his personal chaos. The man is being torn apart by threats and betrayals from within and from without, and Anthro­ posophy becomes his chief line of defense. Fair enough. Though the Anthroposophy is a bit lumpy in the novel, and the novel is somehow too discursive (there’s so much talk — and must Citrine have an affair with Scheldt’s daughter and take that tiresome trip to Texas?), even prolix, what we have is bril­

78 liant and honest. The book warrants the widest possible reading. One intriguing upshot of its publication has been the reac­ tions of the reviewers. One “generously” says he is unwilling to call Steiner “a quack”; another speaks of the Steiner “farrago” as being merely a metaphor for the creative imagination; sev­ eral obviously had to look up Anthroposophy in encyclo­ paedias, and got little further than hollow definitions; others refer to it as merely mysticism, and imply that Bellow has gone soft. But Bellow was obviously sincere in his use of Anthro­ posophy. In a Newsweek interview he said he had been “im­ pressed by the idea that there were forms of understanding, discredited now, which had long been the agreed basis of hu­ man knowledge. We think we can know the world scientifi­ cally, but actually our ignorance is terrifying.” On a recent trip to England he intended to talk with Owen Barfield, whose Saving the Appearances had deeply impressed him. Surely the greatest part of Von Humboldt Fleisher’s legacy and gift, beyond the screen scripts that are financially reward­ ing to Citrine, is his closing assertion in a letter: “Remember: we are not natural beings but supernatural beings.” Citrine accepts this, too, suggesting that Bellow has moved steadily from his view of man as “finite” to a spiritual view of man that alone can put human beings on “the axial lines of life.” This may be Bellow’s greatest gift, too: he has reminded American “intellectuals” that they are not mere thinkers but have unused powers of perception — and that there is a path, long ignored and even mocked, called Anthroposophy (which his Citrine has not yet fully grasped but begun to appreciate) that just might be worth their patient study. Nick Lyons

79 CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE THEODOR SCHWENK — Mechanical and hydraulic engineer; worked many years in Aerodynamic Institute, Goettingen and in research for Weleda; founder and Director Institut f uer Stroemungswissenschaften, Herrischried, Germany; author Sensitive Chaos, Introduction by Jacques Cousteau, Rudolf Steiner Press, London; Bewegungsformen des Wassers and Grundlage der Potenzfor­ schung, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart. • ALAN HOWARD — Retired Waldorf teacher who has lectured widely on Rudolf Steiner and his work. • JOHN F. GARDNER — Director of Adelphi University’s Waldorf Institute for Liberal Education and Adjunct Professor of Education at Adelphi, was for 25 years teacher and Faculty Chairman of the Waldorf School, Garden City, New York; author Love and the Illusion of Love, The Secret of Peace, The En­ vironmental Crisis as Proceedings of the Myrin Institute. In November, 1975, the Waldorf Press, of which he is founder and president, will publish his Experience of Knowledge, “Essays for American Parents and Teachers.” • RITA LEROI, M.D. — Head physician, Lucas Clinic, Arlesheim, Switzerland; Director, Cancer Research Institute, Hiscia, Arlesheim. • MARGARITA WOLOSCHIN — Russian painter; author Die gruene Schlange, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart. • ALBERT STEFFEN — Swiss poet, dramatist, essayist. President of the Anthroposophical Society 1924-63. • LESLEY ROSENBERG — Poet; Kindergarten Teacher at Marin Waldorf School, Mill Valley, California. • MAUDE HOUGHTON CHAMPION - Poet; author Nomad of Time; Lovelier than the Lilac; Tender is the Night. • WILHELM PELIKAN — Botanist and pharmacognocist, Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzer­ land; author. • PAUL M. ALLEN — Editor of a number of books by Rudolf Steiner in English translation; A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology, lecturer for nearly 40 years in the U.S., Canada, Central America, Great Britain, Scan­ dinavia and the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland. • CHRISTY BARNES — Retired Waldorf teacher, author, editor. • ANDREW HOY — Member of Camphill Movement since 1957; presently at Kimberton Hills, Kimberton, Pa. • HARRY S. BLANCHARD — Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Michi­ gan; formerly research scientist, General Electric Co.; active environmental­ ist; currently Faculty Chairman and science teacher, Kimberton Farms School, Phoenixville, Pa. • JOSEPH WETZL — Retired Waldorf teacher and trans­ lator: The Bridge over the River and What is Anthroposophy? by Frankl- Lundborg, Anthroposophic Press, New York. • NICK LYONS — Associate Professor of Literature, Hunter College; author of Jones Very, Fishing Widows and others.

80 The Journal for Anthroposophy is published twice a year by the Anthroposophical Society of America. Editor, Christy Barnes. Subscription $4.00 per year. Back numbers may be obtained upon request from Journal for Anthroposophy, 211 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Title design by Walter Roggenkamp.