Journal forAnthroposophyPublished twice a year by the Anthroposophical Society in America Henry Barnes, Editor

All communications should be addressed to the editor, 211 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10016. Copyrights and all other rights are reserved by the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Responsibility for the contents of the articles contained herein attaches only to the writers.

N u m ber 5 S pring, 1967

CONTENTS profound message, it is, aside from my admiration for the universality of his genius, a very personal gratitude MY WAY TO ANTHROPOSOPHY Bruno Walter which strives for expression. For just as his teachings TO THE GOETHEANUM...... Percy MacKaye shed light on almost all fields of human spiritual en­ THE SURVIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE Rex Raab deavor, they also disclose the deepest meanings of music. AN EXCHANGE OF LETTERS...... Saarinen/Raab As I have already described, in my book on Music and Music Making,** I experienced how Rudolf Steiner’s POEMS...... Olin D. Wannamaker ideas on music in their essentials confirmed what I had ON THE COSMOGONY OF thought and felt about my art, and what it had become TEILHARD DE CHARDIN Hermann Poppelbaum for me throughout the activity of a long life. So to my A WEAVING ...... Edith Gutterson great satisfaction I received from the lofty viewpoint of THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION ...... David Hill the spiritual investigator a seal of confirmation upon my ON A COLLOQUIUM...... David Hill basic musical convictions as well as on my life as a musician. SELF-RENEWAL ...... Ann Steward TOWARD SOCIAL HEALTH ...... Frederick C. Hechel Yet it was not as a musician that I found my way to ABOUT THE AUTHORS Anthroposophy. Having grown up in Germany, sur­ rounded by German culture, I have always considered myself a disciple of Goethe. From my earliest years, I MY WAY TO ANTHROPOSOPHY* have felt a deep affinity with his Faust. An ardent long­ ing for light and knowledge dominated my inner life, and A Musician’s Tribute to Rudolf Steiner from my present viewpoint as an anthroposophist I be­ Bruno Walter lieve I can discern in this thirst for knowledge, in my closeness to nature, and above all in my early religious If after a long life in the service of music I feel called leanings, the signs of my predisposition to Anthroposo­ upon to join the many voices from other fields of cultural phy. Yet these unconscious capacities required many life who pay tribute to Rudolf Steiner and express their years for their development until, in my old age, I was veneration for this great teacher of mankind and his able clearly to recognize Anthroposophy as my destiny.

______*A centennial essay. See note p. 4. ______**W. W. Norton, 1961 In his lectures entitled “The Experience of Tone in Aquinas. Then followed The Bhagavadgita and the Epis­ Man”, given for the teachers of the Waldorf School, tles of St. Paul. Prepared through these deep experiences, Rudolf Steiner said: “To comprehend and experience I devoted myself to the study of his comparatively early music truly means to enter the world of the spirit.” As book, Theosophy, followed by his major works, Occult a pupil of Rudolf Steiner’s, I see in the way in which Science: An Outline and How to Attain Knowledge of the music flooded my soul from my earliest childhood on and Higher Worlds. What enlightenment I received from the in my lifelong dedication to my art, the manifestation numerous cycles of lectures through which I gradually of such spiritual presentiment within me. But destiny progressed and which, together with the study of his did not recompense my fervent strivings by affording autobiography, The Course of My Life, confirmed me me an early contact with Spiritual Science, or a personal in my definite acceptance of Anthroposophy as my given acquaintance with Rudolf Steiner, for which my musical path of life. From reading The Course of My Life there activities in Vienna and later in Munich would have developed in me a relation of deep personal devotion to offered ample opportunity. How decisively such an event this great teacher of mankind, who took his readers could have shortened my way! But, as it was, I had along with him on his earthly pilgrimage towards the to travel a long path into old age without the helpful sublime experience of his Christological intuitions. intervention of destiny. Rudolf Steiner died in 1925, and I was seventy-two when, in 1948, I was introduced My approach to Steiner’s encyclopedic work and my to the profound world conception of this enlightened and efforts to fathom his towering individuality, received enlightening spirit. Then, the further I progressed in this valuable support from the record of personal Meetings field of knowledge, the more clearly I recognized that, with Rudolf Steiner by Albert Steffen and. by Friedrich without knowing it, my development had proceeded con­ Rittelmeyer — and no less from the letters and poems of stantly in the direction of Anthroposophy. Since that the great German poet, Christian Morgenstern — all time I have entrusted myself to the guidance of Rudolf of which evoked before me the heartwarming and at the Steiner and in so doing have experienced the rare hap­ same time awe-inspiring image of a seer, to whose vision piness of becoming once again— old as I am— a “pupil”. the past and the future lay open and whose words shed light in both directions. It was really a new world which Steiner’s insight opened up to me, a world, which, if I was to live in it, I went to Dornach in order to visit the place where required a drastic change in my whole way of thinking. Rudolf Steiner had lived and from which his teachings For many years I had lived under the influence of the went out into the world. There I visited the poet and philosophy of Kant and had accepted as final his verdict thinker Albert Steffen, who, in compliance with Rudolf that human knowledge is confined to the sense world. Steiner’s wish, had succeeded him as the head of the An­ Now I learned that it was possible for a highly intensi­ throposophical Society. Deep is my admiration for the fied capacity of knowledge to win entrance to supersen­ poet’s unique ethical and spiritual personality and for sible realms. From Rudolf Steiner’s thought there now his untiring service to the work of his great friend. I felt, flowed unending light, illuminating cosmos, earth and indeed, in everyone and everything, as in the whole at­ man, the physical and spiritual worlds. It meant an im­ mosphere of the Goetheanum, the enduring influence of measurable enrichment for someone of my age in this Rudolf Steiner’s individuality. Dornach also offered era of depressing materialism to feel firm ground under me the unforgettable experience of a stage-rehearsal of his feet at last in the certainty that everything material Albert Steffen’s drama Barrabas, — the author at my is the manifestation of the spiritual. Herein I recognized side, seated on a low step of the stalls, watching the pro­ one of the fundamental premises of Anthroposophy and gress of the Biblical play, the product of his creative with a certain satisfaction I remembered that in my auto­ genius. The public performance of the drama confirmed biography, Theme and Variations, written long before my and strengthened the deep impression I had had in the contact with Spiritual Science, I had told of my youthful rehearsal and I remembered Rudolf Steiner’s word discovery “of the reality of the spiritual side of every­ about the importance of the dramatic arts in the field of thing that exists”. Anthroposophy.

Yet however certain I was of the reality of the spirit In this connection I will also mention my first im­ as the basis of Anthroposophy, I had to recognize that pression of eurythmy, for which the stage of the Goeth­ the universality of the thought world which Steiner re­ eanum again proved to be the ideal setting. This new vealed did not permit of any such simplification as a art, created by Rudolf Steiner’s musical-visual inspira­ “basic principle”. Soon I realized that only years of study tion, gave me a highly interesting experience: melody could help me to find my way into these wide new and musical rhythm — or the metric life of spoken spheres. verses — are here “translated” into the artistic language of an uplifting style of dance, grounded in the soul’s ex­ If I am not mistaken, my first adventure in this world perience, — “translated” by means of the beautiful and was a study of Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Thomas expressive gestures and rhythmically moving figures of

Page 2 the eurythmists. Their eloquent performance, singly or This natural and genuinely loving reaction to the emo­ in groups, proved the rich potentialities and originality tional power of music can already be seen in Steiner’s of this art. I shall not forget the stirring impression of memories of his childhood described in The Course of the scene showing Odysseus’ descent into Hades and his My Life. There he tells how grateful he was to the assis­ encounter with the shade of his mother. With the help of tant schoolteacher in the village of Neudoerfl, where the the very moving exposition of Ralph Kux’ musical com­ Steiner family lived. Rudolf was then a boy about eight position, it conjured up the magic of Homeric poesy from years old and he owed to his teacher the introduc­ a timeless past. tion to the world of art as well as his first impressions of geometry. The teacher played the violin and piano, which “inwardly strongly attracted” the boy and often he could In Dornach I also met Wilhelm Lewerenz, to whom experience in the neighboring place of Sauerbrunn the the musical work at the Goetheanum was entrusted at deep impressions of Hungarian Gypsy music. I remem­ that time; he was kind enough to acquaint me for the ber from my own experience the highly talented, passion­ first time with remarks of Dr. Steiner on music, showing ate playing of the Gypsy musicians and I am sure that me, to my surprise, his deep insight into the innermost the lively impression of which Steiner still spoke after sense of music. In the course of time Wilhelm Lewerenz so many years reveals his genuinely musical soul as a became a dear friend of mine. I love to think back to child. my later encounters with this high-minded personality in Vienna and Rome — but only a short time was granted Truly enlightening are Dr. Steiner’s thoughts about our friendship for he soon had to leave this earth. Karl the musical intervals, his profound remarks about “ma­ v. Baltz, outstanding violinist and true anthroposophist, jor” and “minor” and other fundamental musical con­ became his successor. He has made a systematic study ceptions, and I feel that such ideas of his will be recog­ of Steiner’s thoughts on music and he has had the great nized one day as an important contribution to scientific kindness, in compliance with my request, to let me know musical theory of the future, just as numerous other per­ the result of these studies. It was with the warmest grati­ ceptions of his ever-fertile mind in varied fields of spirit­ tude that I made use of his kind and unselfish communi­ ual endeavor will—for a long time to come—furnish cations which have enabled me to add to the all-embrac­ thematic material for scientific elaboration and develop­ ing veneration for Rudolf Steiner’s work that fills my ment. heart the expression of my particular devotion as a musi­ During the last years of his life his great-hearted read­ cian. Gradually it became clear to me that music is a iness to give of his spiritual insight enriched the medical, vital power in the universe as Steiner reveals it. I do not the agricultural, the pedagogical and other professions even think it too audacious to assert that according to with revolutionary perceptions and he gladly imparted him the cosmos “sounds”. He fully accepts the Pyth­ of his wisdom to all who asked for it. agorean idea of “the harmonies of the spheres” and ex­ tends and deepens it. Besides, his heart is wide open to In this connection, I would like to draw attention to the power of musical melodies and harmonies and he the developments in the field of religion which grew out recognizes in our great music, memories and premoni­ of the answers he was able to give to the young priests, tions of the wonder of existence in a higher world. May under the leadership of Friedrich Rittelmeyer and Emil I quote what he said: “We can now understand wherein Bock, who had been deeply moved by his insight into the the deepest significance of music lies, why all who know nature and destiny of Christ and came to Rudolf Steiner the inner relationship of things concede to music the for advice and help. Personally I can only speak of the highest place among the arts, why music touches and Christian Community with warmest gratitude. The friend­ makes the deepest strings in our soul resound. The higher ship which I have been privileged to enjoy with Emil world is man’s original homestead and the echoes from Bock, Rittelmeyer’s successor as leader of The Christian this native world, the world of the spirit, resound for Community, I count among the most valued gifts of him in the harmonies and melodies of the physical world. destiny. His eloquent and illuminating observations on They permeate this lower world with intimations of an Christianity, based upon a profound acquaintance with existence filled with glory and wonder; they move his the work of Rudolf Steiner, have enlightened my own innermost being and thrill it with emotions of purest study of Spiritual Science. joy, of loftiest spirituality, such as this world cannot Dr. Steiner’s innermost compassion for the needs of give him. Painting speaks to his astral, or sentient na­ mankind, and his love for his human brothers, can be ture, but the world of music speaks to his very inner be­ seen in the help he gave in response to the requests ing. And as long as man is not yet an initiate, his home which came to him from persons representing the most world, the world of spirit, is given him in music.” I varied fields of cultural endeavor and he lives in the re­ found these revealing remarks on music in a lecture sults which flow from the help he gave. Incalculable, for which Dr. Steiner held in Berlin in November 1906. instance, are the practical benefits of his pedagogical From this lecture we learn at the same time how over­ suggestions which have their origin in his knowledge of whelmingly the emotional power and the beauty of music man and, in particular, of the child and the different filled Rudolf Steiner’s own soul. stages of child development. I have made a point of study­

Page 3 ing Rudolf Steiner’s numerous educational writings and TO THE GOETHEANUM have been especially impressed by the emphasis which he places on the role of artistic activities— including Seen from the Unterer Zielweg drawing, painting, music—in early childhood education and was particularly gratified to discover again in this realm the significance he attaches to music. The early Calm, silent thunder of the soul of things! introduction of artistic experience clearly shows Dr. Vast immanence of passionate thought, made free Steiner’s intention of first nourishing and educating the In archetypal purpose! Solemnly soul of the child before making demands upon his in­ As dawn your plastic spirit floats, and flings tellect, as well as his fundamental policy which aims not The curved escarpments of your massive wings merely at imparting information but at the education of To nestle the offspring of Immensity character. His pedagogical ideas mark the beginning of In the human mind: Prescience of life to be: a new chapter in the art of education and the advantages Reverence of man for God’s imaginings. they possess over customary methods employed in our schools justify our hopes in the future generations whose His brow from whom you sprang through Phoenix-fire childhood and youth have been exposed to this beneficial Here broods alike on April cherry-bloom influence. In this connection I should also like to mention And autumn storm from your deep-sunken eyes, Rudolf Steiner’s loving concern for the fate of so-called Himself your silent thunder and your choir “retarded children”. There are now schools in many Of sacred dawn. Above his quickening tomb You lift the stature of his sacrifice. countries which apply Rudolf Steiner principles to cura­ tive education with excellent results. Percy MacKaye My personal gratitude as a musician to Rudolf Steiner includes his thoughts on education, the very spirit of which emanates from his lectures. For, in a sense, the activity of an opera or symphony conductor, to which so THE SURVIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE many years of my life have been devoted, is to a great Rex Raab, A.R.I.B.A. extent also that of an educator. One of our main tasks is to guide artists, to develop their talents, to obtain and keep their good will, to raise their accomplishments—in In 1960, Sir William Holford, the newly elected Presi­ short: to educate them. But beyond Rudolf Steiner’s dent of the Royal Institute of British Architects, made the pedagogical vocation, I understand him as an educator following timely admission at an official conference: “In of mankind in the highest sense of this high notion and occasional dark moments of despair, I wonder whether I am sure that future generations will see him in this architecture itself will survive the battle for its life light. So my devotion for him is very different from that which is being waged by this generation and the next. of a conductor or musical educator—for my musician­ I do not refer to building, nor to ‘building development’, ship means to me far more than mere musical activities as it is called these days; but to architecture that lifts such as performing, teaching or conducting—it means a the heart and delights the eye, that appreciates the better soul filled with music, dominated by its supersensible qualities of its own age— including its advances in scienti­ power, it means a bridge to a higher world, and from that fic thought— and is therefore likely to be remembered, kind of musicianship flows my gratitude to Rudolf Steiner for his spiritual scientific confirmation of my and preserved, by future ages.” being as a musician and for the profound significance he attributes to music in his conception of the world. This is an utterance worth dwelling upon.

Nowhere is this expressed in a deeper and more essen­ Former ages never failed to bring forth modes of tial way than in the prophetic passage in a lecture held building which, in retrospect, are seen to have been in­ in 1924 at Torquay, England, in which he says: “It may dispensable and beneficent law-givers to the community come about some day—whether or not this will happen —the pyramid, a man-made mountain peak planted be­ depends entirely on man himself—that it will be just tween river and desert, rousing the slave from a world of in the realm of music that the impulse of Christ in its true form will reveal itself before the world.” dream; the temple poised on its rocky promontory, in­ dwelled by the god, assurance to the peasant that all is well in the land; the cathedral, piled up towards the sky ______*This tribute was written by Bruno Walter in 1960 as a con­ tribution to a volume which was intended for publication in honor by the craft of hands soon to be folded in prayer. Such of Rudolf Steiner’s centennial in 1961. Unfortunately, the vol­ works are tangible inspiration. They are concrete em­ ume did not appear and this essay has not been published until now. Originally written in English, Bruno Walter rewrote it in bodiments of Goethe’s adage about “the manifestation of German for publication in the weekly magazine, Das Goetheanum secret laws of nature, which, without art, would forever (Vol. X L , No. 52, 1961) which was at that time edited by his Swiss poet-friend, Albert Steffen. remain concealed”.

Page 4 What, then, is the peculiarity of the twentieth century, crowned by the creation of a spiritual scientific method that the very foundations of architecture, in the opinion capable of being communicated to others, that he felt en­ of one of its recognized exponents, are in serious danger? titled to turn to practical application in other walks of Do Holford’s words imply a valid indictment against half life. That architecture was not overlooked in the process, a century of “modern architecture” ? Or are we merely however, but remained an object of wakeful attention being asked to witness a personal confession of failure? (which could well put us architects to shame!) may be Has the immense building activity of recent decades failed gathered from his confession in later life that he had suf- to find a true foundation assuring its sound future de­ fered many a sleepless night in his student days over velopment? What is the architecture of our day, if not the problem of the origin of the Corinthian capital! Let an expression of advances in scientific thought? Or is no one suppose that this concern was a mere matter of de­ something other than applied empirical science intended tail. It was nothing less than the defense of architecture here? as an art against the attacks being launched by that utili­ tarian interpretation of its origin which has not yet been The pursuit of architecture fit to survive will not lose cast overboard.—The first effective weapon in the battle itself in questions, however apposite these may be. It will for architecture is the strengthening of our knowledge move on to do just what Holford recommends “appre­ of its origin and office through spiritual research. The ciate the better qualities of its own age—including its second is actual artistic practice in the light of the know­ advances in scientific thought.” It will hasten to do what ledge so won. it has so long postponed; it will have recourse to the The chief fruit of Rudolf Steiner’s architectural work results of modern spiritual science. In Rudolf Steiner’s was the first “Goetheanum”, built in Dornach on the work those better qualities and those advances find western slopes of the Swiss Jura near Basle. Its story, direct expression. which has been told often enough in picture and word, is fraught with struggle, setback, victory, tragedy, re­ Steiner’s answers to the question of the survival of newed hope, and undaunted effort, and bears all the signs architecture were first and foremost practical answers in of being part of the battle for architecture. Closer re­ reinforced concrete and timber and glass; timely answers, ference to this remarkable work of building genius will when only the first skirmish in the battle for architecture only be made in order to lend an otherwise brief analysis was on, during the first, second and third decades of the the necessary concreteness. present century; answers just in the nick of time, cal­ culated to save the architectural endeavors of Western Characteristic of the Goetheanum is the capacity of society from needless groping down barren paths. Let its designer to shape each detail in accordance with the there be no mistake!—the survival of architecture now whole. The first beginnings of such a conscious procedure depends upon the extent to which those responsible— in art may be traced back to Munich in 1907, when Ru­ architects, engineers, clients and contractors— are pre­ dolf Steiner was afforded his first opportunity to create pared to revise their formulae for building. Art has a in architectural terms. His design of a sequence of col­ serious mission to perform. Architecture must once more umns whose capitals are without precedent has become be made into an indispensable factor in human life. the basis for a new and living architecture. Each capital is a distinct stage in an evolution of form from a simple It was the “goldsmith” Brunelleschi whose constructive beginning through greater complexity to a “higher sim­ genius unfolded in the face of the uncompleted cathedral plicity” or maturity at the end, the whole comprising an of Florence to create the first great dome of the Renas­ indivisible unity, much as the seven colors are united in cence; and the “painter” Michelangelo who alone knew wisdom and beauty in the rainbow. Just as the Doric, how to take the colossal task of St. Peter’s in hand. Ionic and Corinthian Orders of Architecture are clearly Goethe was the last who was gifted by nature with such manifestations of the inner evolution of the Greek spirit universal scope, and felt as much at home designing col­ and at the same time supremely appropriate building umns and cornices as writing a play or presiding at a forms, so our times have witnessed in these seven basic cabinet meeting, and did it better than the “profes­ Goetheanum columns a similarly happy and even more sionals”. coherent architectural embodiment of those forces which support and guide every cycle of evolution. Rudolf Steiner’s universality must be understood dif­ ferently. It is in accordance with the needs of the new Questions put to him by architects and engineers made age. Admittedly his initial studies were shaped with a it possible for Rudolf Steiner to enlarge on his ideas view to his becoming a civil engineer, and will have for the incorporation of these pillars in an interior where stood him in good stead when he later became associated they would perform their rightful office as supports and with architecture in practice. But his tireless search and form an environment conducive to the pursuit of modern efforts were primarily directed to the justification of spiritual knowledge. For tasks of a different order these spiritual experience before the strictest tribunal of scien­ particular designs would of course be inappropriate, and tific thought; and it was not before these efforts were other, suitable forms would have to be found.

Page 5 Since the Goetheanum was to house a stage as well as was that each separate artistic element became trans­ an auditorium, the original plan for a single elliptical figured, and infused with a new vigor. The art of build­ interior was given up and a far more significant architec­ ing was here revealed in its arche-type: the structural tural conception took its place,—whereby the Munich laws of the human physical body — the chest, with its project had to be adapted to the exposed position in Dor­ pillar-like supports, and crowned by its doming brow. nach. It is to the interior, harmoniously and consistently What is only too commonly a bare skeleton was here executed in every detail, that we should turn in order to suffused with warmth from the heart. Even the word receive the full architectural message of this building. architecture points to its origin in the human breast. An ark of a new covenant was actually built in the full Two rotundas, incomplete on plan, and of unequal publicity of modern times, to become the inspirer of a diameter, crowned by hemispherical cupolas, intersected new generation of artificers. If this is taken to heart, to form an interior space with the stage opening at their there is no need for even “occasional dark moments of junction. The original columns now formed an arcade despair”. bounding the area occupied by the seating in the audi­ torium beneath the larger dome— fourteen columns in Space here precludes entering into a discussion of the all; whereas twelve further columns, whose bases as­ various timbers and other materials employed in the sumed the form of imposing seats, surrounded the stage construction of the first Goetheanum. Suffice it to say area beneath the smaller dome. The final pair of columns that new art-forms gave rise to their concomitant tech­ in the east, flanking a wide and lofty arch on the axis of niques. symmetry, was destined to frame a colossal work of sculp­ ture some thirty feet in height as the culminating feature The deep sense of responsibility, unparalleled enthus­ of the whole interior. Stage and auditorium, though un­ iasm, personal sacrifice and practical effort of what now equal in size, thus possessed equal architectural value. seems like a mere handful of supporters reflecting Rudolf Steiner’s own attitude, succeeded in a few months in get­ The total internal length was about a hundred and fifty ting this considerable undertaking sufficiently far ad­ feet, the internal diameter of the larger rotunda a hun­ vanced before the outbreak of war in 1914 to secure dred and ten feet, its maximum internal height some the further progress of work. Anyone who has been eighty feet, and the seating capacity about nine hundred. afforded access to the working drawings and models Owing to the slope of the auditorium towards the stage, which arose at the time, and has followed the dates care­ the columns progressively increased in length and girth, fully, comparing them with progress on the site, will from the first pair framing the entry beneath the musi­ hardly have escaped a feeling of incredulity mixed with cians’ gallery in the west, which attained a height of warm admiration at the speed with which completely rev­ thirty-four feet, to the pair supporting the proscenium olutionary— or rather, evolutionary— artistic conceptions arch, reaching forty-five feet, so that each successive were mastered and realized in practice. The movement column appeared to contain its precursor within itself, for a healthy spiritual life untrammeled by the dictates of thus heightening the metamorphosis from one arch to state or finance, which here created for itself a world the next. headquarters in free Switzerland, may justifiably look with pride to the fact that, whilst the thunder of the guns The impression of immensity native to architecture was in neighboring Alsace rolled over the hillsides, individual here achieved by more subtle means than mere size. representatives of nearly twenty of the warring peoples Those who knew the first Goetheanum are unanimous in were engaged on this constructive labor of peace, in declaring that the forms of its interior seemed to be in which was to stand the great sculptural likeness of the a constant state of expansion, so that the beholder was Representative of Humanity. enclosed in a material sense only. The treatment of the painted domes, the architraves and pillars carved in re­ The first Goetheanum was burned to the ground on lief, and the engraved glass windows, made the wall New Year’s Eve, 1922-3—the victim of human jealousy. “spiritually transparent” for one endowed with artistic sensibility. But a new Goetheanum* arose like a Phoenix from the ashes of the old, larger and better adapted to its modern Architecture, sculpture, painting, music—the whole task, and this time entirely of reinforced concrete. Not building was “frozen music”—poetry, drama, and merely a monument to the memory of its precursor, eurythmy (that art of movement called into being by Ru­ but a telling work in its own right, fashioned out of a dolf Steiner’s insight into the deeper laws of the human sure feeling for the qualities and possibilities of the new body, which, at the opposite pole, also inform architec­ material, the present Goetheanum has stood the test of ture)— all the arts met under the hospitable roof, the the intervening decades and will continue to offer a chal­ lenge that is at the same time encouragement to all twin domes, of this House of Speech, as its creator liked those concerned about the survival of architecture. to call it. Architecture became a “mother of the arts” once more. The effect of this veritable choral concourse ______*See also Progressive Architecture, September, 1965.

Page 6 The difference between the two buildings is more ap­ on his own admission, would have been as readily pre­ parent than real, for each is informed by the same ac­ pared to tackle a railway station or a bank building as tive principle, in which interior and exterior, the whole a center for spiritual activity in science and art, for in and the parts, bear an organic, not a passive, relation­ such tasks the innate capacity and need of the creative ship to each other. Indeed, the exterior of the later work spirit to enter into and transform the material world is represents a step forward, possessing greater strength seen to best advantage. and unity of expression. In this sense, monuments are being erected to Rudolf “I have learned something”, Rudolf Steiner said in Steiner all over the world—wherever, in the solution of this regard. their tasks great and small, grateful architects and craftsmen look to his example for their inspiration. Even His artistry in this case lies in the handling of a domin­ in modest attempts, that may not always be successful, ant twofold formal theme—trapezium-shaped auditorium they can say to themselves, “I have learned something”, and rectangular stage block— developed “musically” and move on to the next attempt, never indulging in more right into the details and brought into movement through than they can answer for, but firmly grounded on the the powerful counterpoint of mass and concavity. Media­ living bedrock of an architecture in the service of man ting between those two extremes is a pair of lofty piers, rather than the machine. The conviction grows that even one on each side of the building, at the artistic, not geo­ imperfection, if it is a product of genuine striving, holds metric mid-point. The duality is thus resolved, the laws of out more promise for the future than easily attainable architecture satisfied. A threefold composition speaks mechanical perfection. throughout length, breadth and height, relating the be­ holder to the dimensions of space—the earth, the sky, In an age when so much is heard about launching man and the surrounding landscape. into space—mechanically, buildings based on the planet Earth should bring men to their senses. The only salutary The loyalty which led Steiner to dedicate this center way of launching man into space is through architecture, of cultural activity to the Goethean spirit can here be un­ the spatial art! Firm stance, erect posture, sure tread, derstood from the strictly architectural side. Goethe was free movement, clear gesture, calm brow— architectural the first to state clearly that architecture arises out of environment can be the silent but eloquent, severe but the interplay of three distinct elements: base or founda­ benevolent instructor in how to become worthy of the tion; wall or pillar (to him but two aspects of the same instrument of the human body. thing); and roof or crowning feature. A self-evident truth? Apparently not. Not only did Rudolf Steiner set up the highest known goals for architecture, but he was also able to initiate Various ancillary buildings in the vicinity of the main the first practical steps towards their attainment. One edifice in Dornach also stem to a greater or lesser de­ evening, when the machines had been stopped after a gree from Rudolf Steiner’s formative hand: dwelling day’s work, he once spoke these words to his active col­ houses, studios, a characteristic boiler house, a trans­ laborators on a great building project,— architects, en­ former house . .. but it was a source of disappointment to gineers, sculptors, artists in many fields, artisans, and him that conditions did not allow of a more consistent others dedicated to building: town planning development. His particular concern, how­ ever, was to stimulate others in a fruitful line of approach “My dear friends, however much men may ponder on to modern problems, rather than self-expression at all external ways and means of ridding the world of crime costs. In this—his ability to bring out the creative powers and antisocial tendencies— true healing, the turning of in his fellows—lies his significance for future generations. evil into good, will, in the future, depend upon the ex­ tent to which true art is able to instil a spiritual fluid If applied physical science has been successful in pro­ into human souls and human hearts, so that—once they moting remarkable advances in building construction are harmoniously surrounded by the forms of a sculptural and the technical services, applied spiritual science is architecture—should they be untruthfully inclined, they able to restore the balance, disclosing the relationship will cease to lie; should they have violent natures, they of architecture to the human being and the world order, will cease to disturb the peace of their fellow men. Build­ and setting up challenging new goals, in the realisation ings will begin to speak. They will speak a language of of which both artistic talent and technical invention are equally important. The field of utilitarian building in which men still have little inkling.” particular has scarcely yet been explored by the architect. “A school building is an artistically treated utilitarian The next morning his hearers— and he himself, no structure” is one of Rudolf Steiner’s many hints—that doubt—were up on the scaffolding again, bringing that is, something midway between a temple of learning and divinely inspired language a little nearer to their fellow a factory for dinning in knowledge! And he himself, men.

Page 7 EERO SAARINEN Should you find it possible to keep us in more intimate touch with developments on this job, or on any others, Correspondence with Rex Raab than is possible through the channels of ordinary publica­ Editors Note: Eero Saarinen was one of the great tion, we would greatly appreciate such an acknowledg­ architects of our time. Among his many and varied struc­ ment of our interest. tures, his design for the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Air­ With cordial greetings, port (then Idlewild) boldly broke through the static conventions to an imaginative, dynamic treatment of Rex Raab architectural form. In 1958, a group of European ar­ (for the Architects’ Group) chitects who are dedicated to the exploration of new Wolfgang Gessner (Chairman), Felix Kayser, Martin developments in design and who draw upon the pioneer Herzog, Hermann Munz, Gustav Schleicher, (1913 pupil work of Rudolf Steiner as a source of insight and prac­ and until 1933 friend of Adolf Loos, Vienna), Runge, tical inspiration turned to the study of Saarinen’s TWA L. H. Kresse, Dr. Felix Durach, Klein, Helmuth Lauer, building. They were deeply impressed and were moved W. Meyer, H. Wolpert. to express their admiration and their wish to know more of the work of their great American colleague. Rex Raab offered to conduct the correspondence. Several let­ ters were exchanged of which two are included here. In July 22, 1958 the late summer of 1961 Eero Saarinen died. Rex Raab’s letter to Aline Saarinen and her notable reply together Dear Mr. Raab and Members of the Anthroposophischer with four representative statements on architecture by Architektenkreis: Eero Saarinen which were read as a part of the memorial service for him held on September 9, 1961, in the Chapel First of all, let me tell you that without any qualifica­ at M.I.T. in Cambridge, which he designed, appear tions I can say that your letter of June 10th was a letter below. They are reproduced by kind permission of Mrs. more appreciated by me than any letter I have ever re­ Saarinen and of Mr. Raab. ceived. I feel most humble and most appreciative of all the very nice, very complimentary and carefully stated 10 June, 1958 things you said in your letter. I must admit that the statement my ego liked the most was “methodical but Dear Mr. Saarinen, not cautious architect”—that I liked especially. The undersigned are members of a varied group of architects—some in private, some in official practice, I feel quite strongly that modern architecture has the some already retired but nonetheless deeply concerned danger of falling into a mold too quickly and in too rigid with the pressing problems of our profession— (Anthro­ a mold. What once was a great hope for a great new posophischer Architektenkreis, Stuttgart). period of architecture has somehow become an automatic application of the same formula over and over again. I At one of our recent fortnightly sessions, when we feel, therefore, a certain responsibility to examine prob­ freely exchange notes and subject our several projects lems with the specific enthusiasm of bringing out of the to open comment and criticism for some three hours particular problem the particular solution. Louis Sullivan at a time, we had the pleasure of making a study of your said every architectural problem has within it its own own design for the new TWA Terminal Building in Idle- solution. This can, of course, be interpreted in many wild. We recapitulated as best we could the process of ways. I interpret it by feeling the need to try to extract work whereby you reached your results, with the aid of from the special problem the special solution. models on a small scale; and the outcome was, we be­ lieve, a dynamic experience of the way in which a meth­ The TWA Terminal, of course, started with an attempt odical but not cautious architect reaches a valid if un­ to give to the terminal the drama and specialness of expected solution to a considerable problem. travel. We chose to cover the space with a concrete shell. Quite spontaneously we felt an unqualified admiration We tried hard to express flight in that shell—to overcome for your achievement and want to tell you and your the earthbound feeling that prevails too much in the associates of this impression in the hope that this echo M.I.T. Auditorium. In studying the problem by models, from the other side of the Atlantic will be acceptable to both exterior and interior, it became more and more you. Needless to say much of your work is well known to apparent that by committing oneself to these forms for us— as far as the Journals can convey an adequate im­ the many vaulting cores one also committed oneself pression—but we feel that your TWA Building represents to that family of forms for the interior developments. a most convincing step towards freedom, free from irre­ Therefore, we had to go farther and farther in that direc­ sponsible arbitrariness. It will form amongst other things tion, because a building has to be all one thing. The TWA an impressive doorway to the United States at a point board is right now in the process of making up its mind where such is acutely lacking at the moment! whether to build or not and whether or not to change

Page 8 the loading of the aircraft to second level loading. I hope 29 November, 1961 they will do so. This means a change in the “fingers” but Dear Mrs. Saarinen and Associates of Eero Saarinen, not in the main structure. Whether or not this type of form proves to be realistic and sound for an air terminal, It is the heartfelt desire of the Anthroposophischer even of this special purpose, has to be proven. The air Architektenkreis in Stuttgart to try and tell you how terminal is in such a stage of transition that so many moved we were to learn of Eero Saarinen’s untimely changes will come about in the next few years and this death and to extend to you our sincere condolences. type of a form world may not be able to respond to these Despite the great distance that separates our respective changes. It seemed, however, terribly important to try fields of work, the name, the achievements and the signifi­ to create a form world and an atmosphere that responded cance of this true Master Builder had become intimately to the challenge of air travel. This is so lacking in our known to us. And we count ourselves particularly for­ country. tunate in being the recipients of Mr. Saarinen’s notable letter of 22nd July, 1958, in which he set down a con­ At the present moment we are tackling a new airport fession of true architectural faith such as is rarely to problem. Together with a group of engineers we have be seen. We gained the impression that he here perhaps been given the commission for the new airport at Wash­ revealed more of his convictions than was normally pos­ ington, D. C. This is truly a gateway to our country and sible to one engaged in such a busy career. this is a real challenge. It is not only a challenge because of its location, but also because I think it is the first air­ Should you find it possible to carry out his kind in­ port really to be planned for the jet airplane. Now we are tention to let us have some illustrative material of TWA in the process of making a really fundamental analysis of and any other of the works mentioned in his letter or how the jet really differs, what people really do at an otherwise, we would greatly value such a sign of friend­ airport and how all this can best be put together into a ship on your part. And, as an anthroposophical archi­ building. Our approach this time is not one of form and tects’ group we would further be most interested to learn atmosphere. Later this will come. But now at first we whether, to your knowledge, Mr. Saarinen was at all are trying to think as clearly as possible what the funda­ acquainted with the architectural ideas and work of Dr. mental new problems are. Please wish us luck. If and Rudolf Steiner, the builder of the “Goetheanum” in when there is something illustrative, I shall send it to you. Switzerland? Should this be the case, this fact would, in our eyes, far from minimise his own significance for It might interest you to hear about some other prob­ modern culture and his originality, but rather enhance lems we are working on in the office that we have not it. yet published, where the approach has been entirely dif­ ferent : Keenly aware of the great loss which our profession 1. We are working on a steel building, not steel and has suffered through Eero Saarinen’s passing, glass, but one that really expresses steel, for Deere We remain, with cordial greetings, & Company (a farm equipment company). Yours, 2. We are working on an all glass building, a really pure glass laboratory for the Bell Telephone Com­ Rex Raab pany. (for the Anthroposophical Architects Group in Stuttgart) 3. For Yale University, in the shadow of their pseudo Gothic buildings, we are working on a group of dormitories. This group will be all masonry, ro­ December 15, 1961 mantic in plan, and will, I hope, recapture the in­ Dear Mr. Raab and Members of the Anthroposophischer formality and charm of an Italian mountain village —like San Gimignano—but without towers. Architektenkreis: It could well be though that this shifting of ground The very beautiful and moving tribute to Eero of the rules is a lack of conviction or a lack of direction. Anthroposophischer Architektenkreis in Stuttgart reached Whether or not it is, of course, only time will tell. But me this week. In these black months since Eero’s sudden my belief is sincerely as stated in the first part of this and unexpected illness and death, I have received many letter—that we must explore and expand the vocabulary letters. Just as your letter to him in 1958 had special and horizons of our architecture. In this sense, I align meaning to him, so your letter now has particular mean­ myself humbly with Corbu and against Mies, although ing for me. I hope you will not think it presumptuous I admire his achievements immensely. if I answer your letter at length and on a very personal Thank you again for the letter which I will cherish level. to the end of my days. First, I feel I should introduce myself. I am a writer Sincerely, and an art historian. I was writing art and architecture Eero Saarinen criticism for The New York Times when I went out to

Page 9 Michigan in 1953 to write an article about Eero, whom I You will note our new address. Eero had set plans in had recommended to The Times and already noted as the motion, long before his illness, to move his office and his best architect of his generation. home to the East. We have all followed these plans and are all dedicated to carry out his work to its triumphant I found him to be not only a remarkable architect, conclusion. His associates have been magnificent and will surely on the way to greatness, but also a marvelous go on to work of their own, which I am sure will prove human being and an enormously attractive man. In De­ that Eero left a living legacy in his dedicated and respon­ cember of 1953 we embarked together on what was a sible and courageous approach to architecture. second marriage for both of us. Guided by Eero, who felt that one should also make of one’s life and one’s Sincerely yours, marriage “a work of art,” our life together was rare and wonderful. It was a very close, intimate, intensely con­ Aline B. Saarinen centrated life, in which we shared work as well as love. It was an incredible privilege to be his wife in these productive years, witnessing at close hand the develop­ From the Memorial Service for Eero Saarinen ment of a man whose absolute dedication and integrity held at the Chapel at M.I.T. Cambridge, and idealism and sense of responsibility to architecture— as well as whose genius—your group so perceptively rec­ September 9, 1961 ognized. Let us hear now the wisdom of the man himself, It is tragic his death came now. He had reached a spoken out of his heart to us for our profit and use, words point of real maturity. His thoughts about architecture— which ruled his life, and might well shape ours. some of which he wrote from the heart to you—had “It is on the individual, his sensitivities and under­ grown into strong convictions. I think this strength, this standing, that our whole success or failure rests. He affirmation is apparent in much of his last work. And he must recognize that this is a new kind of civilization in developed a mastery over means sure enough to match which the artist will be used in a new and different his big concepts. He was able to recognize essentials, to way. The neat categories of bygone days do not hold dispense with all else and to carry these to their logical true any longer. His job requires a curious combina­ conclusions. He could finally bring everything— form tion of intuition and crust. He must be sensitive and and structure and function and site and meaning and adaptable to trends and needs; he must be part of and materials—into one inevitably interlocking whole— really understand our civilization. At the same time, he is making each element the consequence of every other one, not just a mirror; he is also a co-creator and must really making each building be “all one thing” so surely, have the strength and urge to produce form, not so strongly and with such nobility that I think they will compromise.” live forever. His late work impresses and inspires. * * * You will see this in the TWA building which in reality “Architecture is not just to fulfill man’s need for shel­ far exceeds even the promise of the model; in the majes­ ter, but also to fulfill man’s belief in the nobility of his tic new colleges for Yale, of which he wrote you, which existence on earth. Our architecture is too humble. It accomplish the almost impossible feat of being simul­ should be prouder, more aggressive, much richer and taneously buildings with their own proud identity and larger than we see it today. I would like to do my part twentieth-century personalities and yet good neighbors to in expanding that richness.” their pseudo-Gothic surroundings; in the revised scheme for the monumental stainless steel arch in St. Louis; * * # in the skyscraper—the last major work he designed (and with such joy)—for Columbia Broadcasting System in “I think of architecture as the total of man’s man- New York, which is the simplest, most direct expression made physical surroundings. The only thing I leave of a soaring building; and, above all, in the new jet out is nature. You might say it is the man-made na­ airport for Washington, which he thought, and we all ture. Now this is not exactly the dictionary definition think, is probably his masterpiece. All these are still of architecture which deals with the technique of in various stages of construction. Under separate cover, I building, but this is mine. It is the total of every­ shall send you pictures of them. thing we have around us, starting from the largest city plan, includes the streets we drive on and its tele­ He was increasingly anxious to face the problem of phone poles and signs, down to the building and house urban design. He called our cities “the crucial problem.” we work and live in and does not end until we con­ His work in campus planning was preparation for the sider the chair we sit in and the ash tray we dump our next step into urban design. He believed city planning pipe in. It is true the architect practices only on a needed to be re-thought in three-dimensional terms and narrow segment of this wide keyboard, but that is that our cities should be given complete visual order. He just a matter of historical accident. The total scope would have made a real contribution. of the job is much wider than what he staked his

Page 10 claim on. So to the question, what is the scope of THE LITTLE BIRD SO RED architecture? I would answer: It is man’s total physical surroundings, outdoors and indoors. Once there came a little bird— So red he was, my dear!— * * * And hopped and stopped ‘Now, what is the purpose of architecture:’ And fluttered close To whisper in my ear! “Here again, I would like to stake out the most am­ bitious claim. I think architecture is much more than I did not understand, my dear, its utilitarian meaning—to provide shelter for man’s Just what it was he said, activities on earth. It is certainly all of that, but I But I shall know believe that it has a much more fundamental role to The words he spoke play for man, almost a religious one. Man is on earth As soon as I am dead. for a very short time and he is not quite sure of what I’ll understand the words he spoke, his purpose is. Religion gives him his primary purpose. That little bird so red! The permanence and beauty and meaningfulness of his surroundings give him confidence and a sense of The Angels keep such words, you know, continuity . . . the question, what is the purpose of To tell us when we’re dead. architecture? I would answer: To shelter and enhance man’s life on earth.” WISE PASSIVENESS I walk beneath the April sky Dear Mrs. Saarinen, With speechless heart and downcast eye: If They should speak and even the sound A veritable Christmas gift, which had all the more Of my own heart Their voice should drown! value because it was not of a material order, reached my doorstep on 23rd December last: your wonderful What if—intent myself to say letter of 15th December, with its poignant enclosure.. . The word of praise for sky or day— I missed the sign I should have seen This thought, Mrs. Saarinen, is what I, we, would like And learned not what the day did mean? to submit to you as our greeting in reply to your gen­ erous sharing with us of Saarinen’s achievements: that in I deem it wise to hold my tongue him we have a true representative of the Finnish folk Though filled with what the Thrush has sung— spirit transferred to the wide theatre of the North Amer­ Lest, telling over what I’ve heard, ican scene, who was thus able to manifest himself on a I mar the message of the bird. far greater scale than would have been possible in his Far better to be still and gaze native Land. We would not be an anthroposophic archi­ Along the forest’s hidden ways: tects’ group if we were not to pay attention to the re­ If you must speak, the brook is still; lationship between our specific professional and artis­ But, if you speak not, Others will! tic concerns and a central, guiding knowledge of man. And in the searchlight of such knowledge the above thought ceases to be a mere statement of the obvious THE ANGEL or a highflown compliment, and takes on the character of I waked one night at a quarter to three a fateful rune of destiny. No one has revealed the signi­ And by my bed there I did see ficance of the Finnish people and of its folk epic for An Angel, sitting on my chair— humanity more incisively than Rudolf Steiner, who desig­ With far-off eyes, with flaming hair! nated Finland as ‘the conscience of Europe’ . . . How even truer, more significant, more representative Eero One hand He lifted, pointing high, Saarinen’s words become: “. . . I have perhaps a greater And through the roof I saw the sky conscience, because I would know in my heart that it With stars aglitter everywhere— would not really be the best I can do ..." But suddenly He was not there! Much looking forward to receiving the pictures which I hold my breath with sorrowing pain you promised to send us, Till He shall sit on my chair again— and with kind and grateful regards, To leave the Earth!— ’twill break my heart!— But He knows best when we must part. Sincerely, To leave the earth! Keep still, my heart! Rex Raab for the Anthroposophical Architektenkreis, Stuttgart Olin D. Wannamaker

Page 11 ON THE COSMOGONY OF analogous to physical forces. There is a law of increasing TEILHARD de CHARDIN* complexity of forms and another of increasing con­ sciousness. All these together bring about the evolution Hermann Poppelbaum of the earth. Originally a lifeless mass, the earth becomes a “pre-biosphere”, then a biosphere proper. The giant The works of Teilhard de Chardin, in the ten years molecules of living substance are the necessary conse­ since he died, have achieved an astonishing circulation. quence of the preceding play of forces. The forms of Before his death this remarkable man—Jesuit and paleon­ plants and animals spread in an orderly way and grow tologist—was known only in professional circles, whereas into the tree of life. Through millions of years there is now every educated person has heard of him and of his an ascent from protozoa to primates, and the final goal strange and restless fate (he died in banishment). Such of these latter remains veiled. a response would be incomprehensible if the question of the Phenomene humain** were not really a crying There comes the time when man appears in the midst need of man’s heart and soul, as Rudolf Steiner stated of the “cerebro-manual” animals (the primates). He is in his Leading Thoughts in 1924. Man, searching for his not so much a new taxonomic item as a new era; after own identity, will not take mere information as an an­ thousands of years of preparation, suddenly thinking swer; he wants support for his self-consciousness, even arises: the noosphere permeates the biosphere. Teilhard for his existence in general. Can Teilhard de Chardin fur­ expressly states that the anatomical leap from pre-man nish this? to man is insignificant, although he was thoroughly fa­ miliar with the difficulties of explaining the numerous What Teilhard has to say is revealed by the contrast intermediate forms known to science today. He himself between the titles of two of his principal works, the took an active part in the excavation of Peking man Phenomene humain and the Milieu divin. These are the (Sinanthopus) in China in 1927-29. But for Teilhard the poles around which his research, thought, and prayer re­ important thing is not skeletal remains but the signature volve. His style combines brilliant diction with a fiery of the age that begins with man. “The earth sloughs off gift of persuasion, both of which suffer through transla­ the old skin. More than that, it finds its soul”, he remarks tion into German or English. The original French text is in The Phenomenon of Man. If this is not a mere stylistic fascinating. ornament, it must be the result of research.

Whether the books “build a bridge between science But how can the development of the earth be studied and religion”, as the publishers assert, is open to doubt, without spiritual research? It can be done only with especially if one takes Rudolf Steiner’s work as a yard­ forces that have been tempered by the study of man. stick. But certainly the reader will come to feel some of But this in turn requires knowledge of the whole man, the enthusiasm of the author, who matured his ideas in of spirit, soul, and body. The development of this entire strenuous scientific expeditions and in lonely meditation man is the key chapter of cosmogony. Man must be des­ and prayer. Often, in the endless wastes of China, he cribed by the beings that create him. Teilhard, however, said the Mass in complete solitude. Over and over again discusses only how our ancestors achieved intelligence, he shows that he wanted to be, and always was, a true which might be no more than the addition of a new trait son of the Church. Yet his writings never received the or capacity to those already present in the animal. He imprimatur and had to be passed from hand to hand in never suggests that with the debut of man nature entered manuscript. upon completely new ways, even to the point of reworking a portion of what had already been created. Thus we can The book on the “human phenomenon” (published in say that the creation itself is really ascribed to matter, English as The Phenomenon of Man by Harper & Row, and this is borne out by the extravagant praise that Teil­ 1964), begins with a hypothetical cosmogony such as hard (in another book) allows himself to bestow on any speculating physicist could work out. At the begin­ matter: “Blessed be thou, mighty matter.” One can readi­ ning of the world is the explosion of an atom, just as we ly understand how such a passage could lead the author’s might find it with Pascual Jordan. The stars, which are superiors to think that publication should be forbidden. One can also imagine how strongly such a combination viewed as pure matter, are the laboratories that prepare of materialistic premises with traditional piety can work the materials for the construction of the world. Two op­ upon unsuspecting readers. posing world-tendencies are spoken of, one radial and one tangential, and the reader will conceive of these as The truth is that Teilhard frequently passes abruptly from the sober description of facts to a world of highly ______*Originally published in German in Das Goetheanum (Vol. 41, suggestive pictures. He is not even trying to build a No. 19, 13 May, 1962), Translated by Norman Macbeth. bridge between knowledge and religion. His method is to transport the reader suddenly into the overpowering ______**Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Le Phenomene humain (Paris 1955, Editions du Seuil). influence of ancient spiritual ideas. The priest’s enchant­

P age12 ing style acts as a substitute for the continuity of exposi­ The transition from natural science to spiritual science tion that we have a right to expect. cannot be achieved through a forced intellectual vision, because there must be a consciousness-illuminating strug­ When one becomes aware of Teilhard’s discontinuity, gle for self-comprehension in the spirit. Mankind cannot one appreciates the way in which Rudolf Steiner aids be dispensed from this apparent detour. The divine crea­ the striving student not only to work out concepts of the tive powers, when they “made” man, wanted free beings divine-spiritual world but to spiritualize his ideas of na­ to arise. Therefore they wrote into the structure of ture. In the cosmogony of Occult Science,—An Outline, seven-membered man instructions for the transformation the entrance of man signalizes not only a new epoch in of his members. The earth too, from its earliest origin, time (called “the Earth”) but a new phase in the attitude bears the signature of transformation, which in this case of the divine-spiritual regions to the natural ones. Man, is directed toward the incorporation of the Christ-im- a creature of the earth, is entrusted with the gift of an pulse. What our time must do is to open the door of the ego that can know itself and the world. The spirit (not spiritual world for the forces of the free ego, which takes merely the intellect) enters into an individual bodily hold of itself on the path through incarnations. form, and this means a single such form at any given moment rather than a plurality as with the animals. “The Natural science was valued by Rudolf Steiner as a animal is soul; man is spirit” is the terse statement in the training ground for spiritual science. But the natural book Theosophy. Man is spirit in a way that was un­ scientific ideas on earth and man, once they have per­ known before, in a double quickening of the body-spirit formed their task, must allow themselves to be spirit­ relationship. This is something new in evolution. Through ualized through and through. the creation of man a piece of nature is given back to the spiritual world. The high point of the cosmogony is at the same time a decisive turning point. A WEAVING If we do not distinguish between the intellect and the spiritual-that-is-becoming-human-ego, the new step in The warp of Cosmic threads stretches world-evolution (the true hominization) is taken simply From heaven to earth, from earth to heaven as an increase in man’s stature. One cannot grasp the Held by the hands of Holy Sophia objective increase in stature that accrues to the world as a cosmic counterpart of the self-becoming of man. This Secured on earth by the feet of Christ. is the appearance of a new scene of activity, the real Touched by angels’ wings, the threads “Earth”. Sound forth and Truth calls down from heaven.

The key to the understanding of the earth is man’s be­ The woof of earthly threads is carried coming an ego. This is the nub of a world-knowledge that From East to West, from West to East. is suitable to our times. Such knowledge must include the supersensible events of the kingdom of nature, par­ The pattern is woven by fingers of men ticularly the introduction of the solid element into the Agile with joy or bent with pain body of the earth, an event that already points to man. In colors of crimson, blue and gold (This subject should be pursued in Occult Science—An Men’s deeds of love, in freedom wrought Outline.) Are emblazoned up to heaven. Teilhard speaks of the earth’s future, but for him this Edith Gutterson is an end-phase. The separate lines of evolution in the unfolded kingdoms of the earth draw together again, like parallels that meet in infinity. The facts of develop­ ment have a single goal, which Teilhard calls Point Omega. All of evolution gravitates toward this. It is the THE MEADOW LARK reuniting of the world with God. In other places Teilhard speaks of the universal Christ and of his permeating the I sat one day in the gathering dark world in the distant future. But he speaks of this in such And listened to a Meadow Lark. a way that one can feel that he brings his cosmogony I could not move— into harmony with the results of his meditations by an I could not stand— act of will rather than of knowledge. He is not an em­ I could not speak or raise my hand! piricist of the spirit, as he would have to be if he were to describe future stages of the world. His starting of the I sat until the sky grew dark world in matter gives us a materialistic nightmare, and Remembering the Meadow Lark. he tries to compensate for this by the ardor with which he embraces the Christian doctrine of the last days. Olin D. Wannamaker

Page 13 THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION of products each year. Thick slabs of steel are rolled into thin, wide strips to be used for stamping out auto­ David A. Hill mobile bodies. The hot slab passes between two massive rollers that squeeze it down. It passes to a second set of In 1888 John Wesley Powell was president of the rollers that reduce the thickness further, then to a third, American Association for the Advancement of Science. a fourth, etc. There are seven stands in all. Each squeeze This Association evidently feels that Powell made signifi­ increases the speed at which the steel strip is moving. It cant contributions, since they included biographical emerges from the seventh stand at 3,000 feet per minute material and quoted him in a recent promotional bro­ to be coiled for shipment. chure. This is the quote: The process is more complicated than one might sup­ “The laws of biotic evolution do not apply to man­ pose. The results are affected by variations in steel com­ kind .... Culture is human evolution . . . .In position, the rate at which the slab cools, the progressive man’s progress from savagery to enlightenment, he wear on the rollers - there are several hundred variables has transferred the laws of beast evolution from involved. Small errors in controlling the process produce himself to his inventions and, relieved of the load, off-grade product and larger errors can result in costly he has soared away to the goal of his destiny on damage to equipment. the wings of higher laws.” In this Detroit mill a large computer receives input These words have the sound of 19th century optimism data on the state of the process, the chemical analysis about the good things to come from science. A second and temperature of the slab about to be rolled and the conviction is strongly implied: while man will continue dimensions specified for the completed steel strip. The to bring forward ever greater wonders, he himself need computer calculates the values of the many settings for not evolve further. He is perfected. the rolling stands, transmitting them to actuators. As the Let us take a look at one of the inventions Powell slab passes through the first pair of rollers, it checks the found so promising. It is one that would have seemed resulting thickness and, if necessary, readjusts the suc­ like an imagining of science fiction in his day but which ceeding stages to bring the final product within tolerance. the ever accelerating development of science has brought The entire process rims with no human intervention at into daily use - the electronic computer. It is already all. Once the control system has been set up, men are evident that the computer will create a revolution as pro­ there only to maintain the equipment and to handle un­ found as the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th expected trouble. The precise degree to which control has centuries. But its effects will be even more widespread. been achieved can be illustrated by the following: as the Computers are changing the patterns of government, tail end of one slab is going through the stands, the next finance, education, medicine, as well as all fields of run, which may differ in composition and in desired industry and science. The entire social structure will thickness and require a complete change of settings, will eventually be modified by the impact of the electronic be following along only one stand behind. computer. The Computer Revolution The subject is too big to explore in detail. A few ex­ In an airconditioned room looking down on the mas­ amples will illustrate how computers are being used or sive rolling stands is the computer - and a man. He has are about to be used. We will soon see that this business in front of him twenty feet of dials, gauges, charts and of “soaring away to the goals of our destiny” through switches that furnish information and can be used for man’s inventions raises many questions. Among them emergency manual control. His job is to stand by while the question of whether man is to be the master or the the computer runs the show. This man is an old steel subject in relation to his mechanisms. And if he is to be mill hand with twenty to thirty years of operating experi­ the master, does he have some further evolution to ac­ ence. He used to carry a little black book of his accumu­ complish? lated lore on how to roll steel. In a sense that book has been lifted from his pocket and put into the computer’s Control of a Hot Strip Mill memory, together with the results of engineering studies Computers now run or help to run several hundred that went into designing the control program. As he industrial plants. The number of installations is accel­ stands watching the gauges and charts the old hand may erating each year. The fields include power generation, feel that something is not running as it should or perhaps oil refineries, chemical plants, electronic parts fabrica­ out of sheer boredom as the day wears on he reaches over tion, cement kilns and even a large bakery. A good ex­ and changes a setting. The computer has been designed ample of what can be done is provided by a hot strip to take care of this possibility. In a fraction of a second mill, or rolling mill, in Detroit. It is as big as several it evaluates the change. If necessary it compensates by football fields and turns out about $300,000,000 worth adjusting other variables, so that no damage will be done.

Page 14 Then slowly, without informing the operator, it brings recognize that technology directly affects both the the rolling mill back to the settings its calculations had individual and society. For purpose does not exist determined were best. This does not at all mean that the in a vacuum; men do not choose from an infinite computer thinks. An expert crew has built into it all the array of alternatives. On the contrary the alterna­ available knowledge about the process and formulated tives from which they choose are in large part given logical equations to describe it. The advantage possessed by their technology; any major advance in science by the computer is that in a few thousandths of a second or change in technology throws up new alternatives it can make calculations that a man with a slide rule and erases old ones.” would labor over for hours. How does the old hand feel about the new regime? Organized vs. Individual Behavior Psychologists claim that a man’s sense of personal worth, A look a little farther down the road will illustrate the his inner security, are strongly affected by the values he fact that those whose skills and interests lead them into feels that he contributes to his work. The little black the development of computer technology often share a book that was once in the operator’s pocket represented certain viewpoint toward human beings. The Air Force knowledge that he personally had labored years to col­ has supported a study at one of the so-called “think lect. Now it is gone. When the blacksmith hammered factories” where specialists in the physical and social horseshoes on his anvil, he had a direct, personal con­ sciences develop new approaches to problems of national tact with the object he was forming. Since the industrial defense. The subtitle of the report is: revolution the lathe hand has fed his machine and ad­ “Programming the Bureaucratic Computer—In justed its settings but the machine made the object. Now which a system of logic in communication is evolved a computer has been interposed between man and for the hierarchy echelons of large corporations, and machine, removing him one more degree from a satisfy­ wherein the digital computer plays vital parts - from ing sense of personal accomplishment. There are also executing the commands of the C-in-C to the robot­ social changes involved. The old hand was once “bull like obedience of a rear-rank private.” of the woods” in his shop. Now he finds himself playing It is true that in large organizations, industrial or second fiddle to a smart young computer engineer with governmental, communication can become inefficient. a bow tie, French cuffs and a recent degree in his Human bias and weakness confuse the results. The pocket. authors propose that all communication from the bosses Examples of such personal and social change are be­ down to hired hands, whom they choose to call “robots”, ing multiplied by the thousands as the computer revolu­ is to be through a central computer. The computer tion takes hold. To make a quick leap from a single ex­ observes and judges the conformity of the response to ample to the generalized view one may consider the each command or requirement for action according to a studies of Jacques Ellul, a French sociologist, whose set of logical rules. Any maverick who tries to insert his book The Technological Society has made a stir.* Ellul individual ideas into the system is promptly detected by speaks of man as bewildered, helpless, of his futility the computer. A light flashes, “ILLEGAL” on the opera­ in the world of Technique. Technology has become ting console to which he is assigned and his attempt at autonomous, an end in itself to which men must adapt communication is rejected. The system was given an themselves. He writes: extensive trial run. The authors proudly report that as “It is an illusion to think that because we have a result of the experimental study”. . . the computer pro­ broken through the prohibitions, taboos and rites grams and our experimental techniques give us step-by- that bound primitive man, we have become free. We step control over the progressive transformation of indi­ are conditioned by something new: technological vidual behavior into organized behavior.” civilization.” This was no mere academic exercise. A recent issue of Charles Silberman in an article in Fortune (February Time reports on the big continental command post buried 1966) states that Ellul has gone overboard in crying in the heart of Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado disaster but neither does Silberman agree with those who Springs at a cost to the taxpayer of $142,000,000. Several claim that the results of technology are completely neu­ hundred people can hole up to run the defense of North tral with no inherent power for good or evil. He points America in case of nuclear attack. Thirteen major com­ out with regard to the latter position: puters handle the mass of incoming and outgoing data “This view is a half-truth that obscures more than on the disaster taking place above ground. One illustra­ it illuminates. Its proponents are on strong enough tion for the article shows the face of a communication ground when they deny that technology determines control console. In the lower right-hand corner are a our destinies. The trouble arises when they fail to button and light marked “ILLEGAL”. The military systems of today foreshadow the government and busi­ ______*The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara recently held a seminar to discuss Ellul’s book. ness systems of tomorrow. When in the name of national

Page 15 security or business efficiency electronic logic is called emerged in some years,” goes farther along this road. in to control operations, the humans who function within He believes that each extension of the senses by mechani­ the system must necessarily conform to the patterns that cal means tends to disrupt the balance between them and the machine can tolerate. It is interesting that the com­ to damage certain faculties by the excessive emphasis on mon military term for the men who serve such a complex others. For example, he blames on the invention of the is “The Personnel Subsystem.” printing press, which exaggerated the importance of the individualistic, rational eye, the final disappearance of Such a computerized communication system is de­ mystical insight. Of the general effect on man of his new signed by members of a new and growing profession, electronic media of communication, radio, telephone, the systems engineers and programmers. Their viewpoint television, and computers, he says: is conditioned by the thing they understand best - the capability of the computer. When they have a choice, “. . . we must learn that our electronic technology their tendency is to diminish or, if possible, eliminate the has consequences for our most ordinary perceptions human component in the system design. and habits of action which are quickly recreating in us the mental process of the most primitive men.” Computers and Human Faculties The kind of people who are drawn to Anthroposophy Instead of receiving our understanding of the world pri­ are apt to be interested in human values. They may be marily through the printed page and the rational eye, we unhappy or repelled by the picture that has been painted learn through verbal, aural media. (MacLuhan considers of the dawning computer revolution. But truthfully one TV primarily aural) This brings with it personal involve­ might as well wish to uninvent the atom bomb, or the ment instead of rational detachment, creates a global automobile or the steam engine. Or to cut down the kite village to replace individuality, and brings back the with which Franklin explored the nature of electricity. magic “resonance” of primitive communication. The new These embodiments of our thinking are not about to be culture consists of rock and roll music, the chant of TV wished away. They were discovered or invented because commercials, politicians worshipped for their image, etc. man had reached a stage in his evolution where his MacLuhan apparently feels that we might as well surren­ capacities and interests made them inevitable. It is man’s der to the pluralistic culture our electronic mechanisms destiny to experience them and to make choices, good or are creating. bad, as to how he will live out his life in relation to What about computers? Is man taking a faculty he them. developed over a long period - the ability to reduce the One question we need to think about is whether man processes of his world to numbers— and putting it into is making inner sacrifices in order to bring forth these machines? Are we bestowing our capacity for logic on extraordinary machines. There may be a clue in effect electronic circuits? We may be separating an attribute of an older invention - the phonetic alphabet. In from ourselves to give it material form within the steel “Phaedrus” Plato presents a debate on the arts. When it cabinets of computing equipment. William Blake gave an comes to letters he has one of his protagonists say to imaginative picture of such a process in his Jerusalem: Theuth: “The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man, & “. . . the parent or inventor of an art is not always when separated from Imagination and closing itself the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own as in steel in a Ratio of the Things of Memory, It inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, thence frames Laws and Moralities to destroy Imagi­ you who are the fathers of letters — have been led nation, the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms and Wars.” to attribute to them a quality which they cannot Today men are not inclined to talk as freely as John have; for this discovery of yours will create forget­ Wesley Powell about “soaring away to the goals of our fulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external destiny.” The state of the world and the inner conflicts written characters and not remember of themselves men experience have raised doubts. Silberman says that . . . they will be tiresome company, having the show Man as Victim of his Technology is emerging as a characteristic theme of the times. He quotes a student of wisdom without the reality.” placard from the Berkley revolt, “I am a human being; Modern anthropologists confirm this phenomenon. do not fold, bend or mutilate.” There are many divergent Illiterate people have enormous memories. The kings of views as to how to approach the Space Age. Jacques old Hawaii could name their lineage for 8000 years Ellul finds man helpless to combat technology. MacLuhan back. The capacity diminishes as soon as they learn thinks man is being made over by electronic media and to read and write. The Canadian professor, Marshall that it is probably a Good Thing. A third view is typified MacLuhan, whom Fortune calls “The most stimulating - by some recent remarks by Dr. Simon Ramo, a dis­ and controversial - student of technology to have tinguished and articulate scientist and an example of the

Page 16 scientists who are moving into the top management of The true cause for uneasiness comes from the feeling technically oriented companies: that the advent of the computer robs men of a degree of freedom, that human values are diminished in their re­ “We are all aware today that we are in rapid trans­ lation to material values, that the dignity of man has ition to a new, highly technological and sociological suffered a further blow. Equally disturbing is the pres­ progress . . . will the transition to the new society sure to conform to patterns of “organized” thinking that be orderly or chaotic? . . . How do we maintain the machine can recognize. Whether consciously or un­ freedom of thought and true unfettered thinking consciously Western civilized man already conforms to in an environment of highly integrated planning?” patterns of thinking that are inherent in the technological, He believes that technical creativity is solving man’s affluent, materialistic nature of his culture. The electronic computer can intensify this trend in every field of human material problems. What of the social, human problems activity from his earliest schooling and throughout the yet unsolved? span of his active life. Rudolf Steiner pointed out more “But perhaps there is hope. If the machines do more than forty years ago that the development of the con­ of the routine, everyday, intellectual tasks and in­ ceptual intellect, which has entered man’s thinking since sure the success of the material operations of the the fifteenth century and has become the normal pattern world, man’s work will be elevated to the higher today, has on the one hand enabled man to “draw on mental domains. He will have the time, the intellec­ inner powers and establish the marvelous results of the tual stature, and hence the inclination to solve the sciences” but on the other hand provides no real satis­ world’s social problems. . . . It could be that tech­ factions for man’s inner yearnings.* A formidable ob­ nology will provide the added brainpower to, in stacle confronts those who see this problem and would turn, accelerate social progress, bringing it into point the way toward a kind of thinking that grants to the scientific approach its proper role while it reawakens the balance with technological advance.” artistic and spiritual aspects of man’s inner being, which This reads like John Wesley Powell’s view brought up he recognizes, if only dimly, as being starved. The prob­ to date; man can provide himself an earthly paradise lem is that the material benefits of technology are ex­ through science. The scientific approach has created perienced immediately and measurably whereas the other wonders in the material realm. Apply it to human prob­ view offers advantages which, to everyday thinking, are lems too. Our mechanisms will save us. distant, nebulous and perhaps illusory. The problem then involves the character of man’s thinking and the Thus we are given strongly opposed interpretations of limitations inherent in the brand of knowledge that can be derived through the intellect. the impact of technological marvels like the electronic computer. Few thinking men seem to be satisfied with the prospect for the future; the differences lie in what As long as materialistic values dominate, as long as they propose men should do about it. To bring the ques­ man is captivated by the benefits he can gain through tion into focus it is necessary to ask what underlies marvels like the electronic computer, his thinking cannot take into account the values of human soul and spirit. the uneasiness and distrust so many feel. Surely it is This is a realm that lies outside of the boundaries of not simply the fact, for example, that an electronic com­ natural scientific knowledge. When modern commentators puter can run a steel rolling mill. It is the business of like Ellul suggest fleeing in desperation from technology the enterprise involved to turn raw material into useful or propose like McLuhan that man drift blissfully in the products and the computer accomplishes this in a more stream of technical revolution, it is because they cannot efficient manner. What is disturbing is the effect the summon any thinking or knowledge that is capable of introduction of the computer has on the men in the plant. tackling the questions disturbing modern man. Rudolf It changes the content of their daily work, modifies Steiner, in contrast, declares that man is far from help­ the role they play in the enterprise and so affects how less if only he will set out to discover and employ the full they think about themselves and their fellow men. To the measure of his inner qualities—the perceptions and facul­ extent that the computer takes over repetitive, unimagina­ ties that lie dormant within him. In his “Introduction to tive tasks, relieving men of clerical drudgery and monot­ Anthroposophy” Steiner says: onous routines, it may be looked on as a liberator in the sense that the threshing machine or mechanical cotton “The moment we become truly conscious of our picker liberate men from back-breaking labor. Those human dignity and feel we cannot be like beings whose livelihood has depended on nothing higher than driven by necessity, we rise to a world quite differ­ the exercise of logical skills will have to make an adjust­ ent from the world of Nature.” ment. All adjustments are disturbing but this should be only a temporary problem. The opportunity is pre­ As used here, “Nature” includes the entire realm of the sumably presented for men to move on to work of a physical—the material world, man’s physical being, man’s higher order. mechanisms.

Page 17 Steiner suggests that man is far from perfected, as SELF-RENEWAL* Powell and others imply, but has further evolution to Ann Steward accomplish. Western civilization’s mastery of the material world was made possible by a one-sided development of Striking parallels of thought and idea are to be found individuality and intellect. The logical capacities he ac­ in John W. Gardner’s book, Self-Renewal and in some quired in relatively recent times are not the end of the of the basic works of Rudolf Steiner. The inclusiveness road. The vast store of knowledge about the world can­ of the title draws one immediately into the likeness: in it not only grow in size but can change in character. An­ Dr. Gardner condenses his subject, the self, and its ac­ throposophy dares to propose that knowledge itself is tivity, renewal, into a word that implies a perpetually capable of evolution and that “. . . beyond the horizon creative process. Ideas throughout the book then bear one of the normally conscious life of the mind, there is an­ along what was anciently called the Way or the Path of other into which the human being can penetrate.”* * It such a process, but in terms that are modern, immediate is only through a heightened consciousness that man can with life as we know it now. acquire knowledge adequate to cope with the difficult and sometimes frightening questions of the times. Dr. Gardner begins with the Greek concept of self- knowledge, the maxim of the Greek Mysteries, “Know thyself,” which he describes as “so ancient . . . so de­ ON A COLLOQUIUM CALLED TO FOSTER ceptively simple . . . so difficult to follow,” but as having COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE “gained a richness of meaning as we learn more about SCIENCES man’s nature,” and he opens the door toward the infinity of its meaning with the statement that “even today only the wisest of men have some inkling of all that is implied Flagstones of the enormous square in this gnomic saying. He proceeds along the “Path” with whisper with shuffle of sandalled feet what he has to say about creativity, giving as a first re­ as the clustered black robes cross and carom quirement “Openness to the outer world and inner life.” with the hooded greys Here we find a parallel that runs very close to Dr. and the white’s spiral eddies Steiner’s words for one of the first steps to be taken circle the red eminence. in the self-development he traces: “. . . the unreserved, unprejudiced laying of oneself open to that which is re­ No word, no sound beyond clattering bead. vealed by human life and the world external to man.” Each order with averted eyes keeps counsel, Further steps of “flexibility” and the “capacity to find risks no intercourse; order in experience, a new relatedness” might be sim­ therein lie confusion, traps and heresy. ilarly compared. Dr. Gardner’s “hunger for meaning” in Black’s polished logic, modern man, and his “search for identity” could be state­ grey’s perfected zeal ments of the very raison d’etre of Anthroposophy, its liv­ ing impulse. The two procedures of thought actually meet and inviolate white just this side of their end in infinity, in the question of cleave each to a just and reasoned stand; man’s identity, of “Who am I ? ” into which Dr. Gardner each cherishes a jewelled coffer hallowed to resolves all other questions. Here, however, he stops be­ thighbone, fore the door he has opened with it, whereas Dr. Steiner knuckle or winding sheet— goes on, across the threshold of its answer. In this con­ relic of dismembered Saint Scientia. nection the conclusion Dr. Gardner reaches is the begin­ ning of Anthroposophy. Night climbs the blackening towers while they who thought to speak, A longer, more sustained and specific parallel is to now from their tall stakes be found in his concept of freedom and individuality, are signalling each other which continually calls to mind Dr. Steiner’s Philosophy through the flames. of Spiritual Activity. Dr. Gardner presents the whole idea of freedom as being rooted in man’s philosophical and David Hill religious ideas, and as growing out of his moral and ethical values, thus removing it from the political and economic sphere where materialism would keep it con­ fined. He puts certain social limitations upon individual ______*Man in the Past, the Present and the Future, the Evolution freedom, but he does not see these as being incompatible of Consciousness by Rudolf Steiner, translated by E. Goddard, Rudolf Steiner Press, London with it where they relate the individual “to the larger social enterprise and to values that transcend the self.” **The Psychological Foundations of Anthroposophy by Rudolf Steiner, translated by Olin D. Wannamaker, Anthroposophic Press, Inc., New York ______*John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal, Harper & Row, New York, 1963

Page 18 Dr. Steiner presses further into these values, introducing words are used by Tillich and Steiner to express it. One into his concept of individual freedom in relation to might say that the whole of Anthroposophy is contained society what he calls Moral Imagination and Moral In­ in that last phrase. tuition. He posits a realm of Ideas which, beyond being two merely social at any one time, are as eternal and universal There are, as we know, thresholds in directions as the stars, and similarly shed light and impart harmony that man can take in his conscious life: toward past or future, the group or the individual, bondage or freedom, and order upon all men alike. This he presents as the realm of that truth which alone can make men free. To lower or higher levels, regions of darkness or light. Evi­ dence of what Dr. Steiner has to say about the former the objection that if everyone were to live his own life, retrogressive sides are to be found all too often in the according only to his own ideas or norms of right and literature of today, especially that of Freudian psycho­ wrong, there would be no distinction between a good act or an evil one in relation to the general welfare Dr. analysis. An extreme case in point here is Dr. Norman O. Brown’s Life against Death and its recent sequel Steiner replies: “In fact, only an action which issues out Love’s Body. For every one book on the side of Self- of intuition can be individual. Renewal there are hundreds on that of Dr. Brown. Hence it is to be further commended for its “courage to be” “To regard evil . . . as a manifestation of the human in face of so great an opposition. individuality . . . is a confusion which only becomes pos­ If we add to the content and courage of the book the sible when blind instincts are reckoned as part of the nation-wide influence of Dr. Gardner’s position in the human individuality. But the blind impulse which drives field of education and health, we find the small volume a man to a criminal act does not spring from intuition Self-Renewal and does not belong to what is individual in him. . . . of to be of great potential significance for a free spiritual life in this country in the future. The individual part of me is not my organism with its in­ stincts and feelings but rather the unified world of Ideas which reveals itself through my organism. My instincts, cravings, passions justify no further assertion about me TOWARD SOCIAL HEALTH than that I belong to the general species man. . . . They Frederick C. Heckel make me the sort of man of whom there are twelve to the dozen. The unique character of the Idea, by means When a man has suffered many years from a progres­ of which I distinguish myself within the dozens as “I”, sive illness, for which the best physicians obtainable can makes of me an individual... . The Moralist believes that do nothing except treat and soften certain symptoms, he a social community is possible only if all men are held naturally becomes discouraged. Were a trusted friend to together by a commonly fixed moral order. This shows approach him telling of his experiences with a relatively that he does not understand the identity of the world of unknown doctor who “has been achieving cures in a Ideas. He does not grasp that the world of Ideas which number of ‘hopeless’ cases”, the chances are good that inspires me is no other than that which inspires my the patient would not even want to hear him out. fellow man.” Nobody who seriously considers the matter would deny that the body social, everywhere in the world (except This is the world of what Emerson calls the Over-Soul, perhaps in a few relatively untouched “primitive” cul­ and to which he attributes all being and becoming. It is tures), is seriously ill. The stage or degree of the sick­ free of the created world of dualities and their law of ness, and even the symptomatology, varies from country compensation (karma); it is a third party in all con­ to country. Yet dedicated social thinkers, whatever the versation between two people, a common nature, yet this remedy they personally advocate, would probably agree is not social, “it is impersonal, is God.” In groups it that our Western civilization as a whole is in danger of “arches over them like a temple, this unity of thought not surviving. which in every heart beats with a nobler sense of power and duty.. . . All are conscious of attaining to a higher And odd as it may seem to the outside observer, there self-expression. It shines for all.” falls to the relatively limited number of students of Ru­ dolf Steiner’s work a strange moral responsibility. Know­ ing the accuracy of his insight, a few people feel obliged Paul Tillich, to whom Dr. Gardner refers as the man to undertake the difficult and rather awesome task of who has explored such relationships more profoundly calling again to the world’s attention Steiner’s accom­ than any other contemporary thinker, expresses them in plishments as a “social diagnostician”. His therapeutic yet another way. Summing up Tillich’s view of them in advice in such fields as education and agriculture, for his book The Courage to Be, Dr. Gardner says that Til­ instance, has been followed successfully over the years lich finds them most nearly resolved “when man sees by sufficient numbers of professionals to have “proven himself as reflecting a larger harmony, as a bearer of the itself” in use. creative process of the universe, as a microcosmic par­ ticipant in the creative process of the macrocosm.” Here His analysis of the underlying causes of social unrest the convergence of thought is so close that the same and upheaval, and the indicated remedies, clearly re­

Page 19 quired by the circumstances themselves, were first pre­ He feels the lack of a free human status also, and in a sented to the world in 1919. At that time they were sense primarily, because with the triumph of the “scien­ considered and discussed in rather wide circles. But, tific” world conception, all his spiritual foundations were nothing was done about them. And while certain indivi­ taken from him and he was given nothing in their place. duals and small groups have kept the matter alive, his So Dr. Steiner stresses, and in fact begins by stating social perception, and the healing concepts growing out the absolute necessity of freeing the Spiritual-Cultural of it, have been largely forgotten. sphere of the body social from all domination, whether Yet they are as valid today—perhaps even more valid economic or political. In the practical application of this —than they were when Steiner wrote and spoke about principle, the greatest change would be the gradual taking them. away from the State of all control of education. He in­ It is therefore most timely that the book in which sists that a really free educational system, run by the Steiner set forth his social ideas has just been published teachers themselves, would have such an enlivening effect by the Anthroposophic Press in a new translation under on the whole of society as we, looking around us now, the title The Threefold Social Order. cannot conceive of. It would as it made itself felt restore to all men an inner spiritual content and substance. The need for something in the way of remedies is greater than it was at the time Steiner wrote. The social­ To take labor-power out of the commodity market, izing of the means of production, with the political state on the other hand, demands that a basic “Rights Wage” taking over from private owners, has proven itself, as must be determined by the State, in which all men have Steiner said it would, far worse than useless as a solution. an equal voice. This sphere would in the Threefold Order Private, capitalistic ownership of these also continues be concerned solely and entirely with questions of right, to demonstrate its social shortcomings. Yet the two in which all human beings are equal. “solutions”—with varying degrees of extremism, moder­ It hardly requires adding that these and other social ateness or blending—are essentially all that our social concepts are presented by Rudolf Steiner in this book thinkers offer. in their contexts, and grow naturally out of his analysis Neither wing will be happy at hearing what Dr. Steiner of a sick society. Here in these few lines one had, at insists will be found to be the only constructive solution risk of unfairness to the author, simply to catalogue a of the economic aspect of the Social Question. He says little of what is in the book. To make it available to as that social needs demand the continued and unimpeded many readers as possible this publication, of 115 pages, private control of the means of production, with, at the is in paperback (selling for $1.95). It can be ordered from the Anthroposophic Press, Inc., 211 Madison same time, their ownership lying completely in the hands Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10016. of Society. Qualified individuals or groups would have the unimpeded Right of Use of the means of production. This Right of Use of the means of production would be trans­ ABOUT THE AUTHORS ferred to others, equally qualified, when the previous Bruno Walter (1876-1962) Conductor: Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic. entrepreneur no longer could function productively. Author: Theme and Variations, London, 1947. Of Music and The disposal of the Right of Use would not, however, Music Making, W.W. Norton, 1961. Percy MacKaye (1875-1956) Poet, playright, essayist. In Another be in the control of the State, but of representatives of Land, poems intertranslated with Albert Steffen, 1936; My Lady the Spiritual-Cultural sphere of the Threefold Social Dear, Arise! 1940; Poesia Religio, 1941; The Mystery of Hamlet, Order. These representatives of educational and other King of Denmark, 1945. cultural groups (advised by specialists when necessary) R ex Raab A.R.I.B.A. Practicing architect, Germany, England, Switzerland, Poet, essayist, translator. would have no personal or group interest at stake in Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) Architect. Son of Eliel Saarinen. the outcome. Among the buildings to his credit: U.S. Embassy, London; TWA Terminal, Kennedy Airport; M.I.T. Chapel, Cambridge, Mass.; Steiner shows that such a solution, with qualified peo­ C.B.S. Building, New York; Dulles Airport, Washington. ple having free access to capital, is necessary. Otherwise Olin Wannamaker B.A. Wofford; M.A. Vanderbilt & Harvard. the worker would only be more closely chained than Taught in China. Prof. of English. Author, translator. President ever to the industrial machine. Yet production will, under Anthroposophical Society in America, 1959-62. this arrangement, benefit from the absolutely essential, Hermann Poppelbaum Zoologist. Author: Man and Animal, 1928; A New Zoology, 1938; Man’s Eternal Biography, 1940. Head of free exercise of creative ability. Section for the Natural Sciences, Goetheanum, Dornach, Switz. The basic cause of all social unrest and disturbance Edith Gutterson B.A. Wellesley. Assistant Art Librarian, Chicago in our time, however, he shows to be neither political Art Institute (retired). David Hill studied at Dartmouth, Rutgers and Princeton. Hughes nor economic. It is the justified demand of the worker Aircraft Co., Assistant Director of Licencing; published over 20 for “a life worthy of a human being”. The worker feels technical papers in various scientific magazines. the lack of this because, as long as his labor-power is Ann Steward Playwright; Poems for Children; Two Novels: Let still sold and bought on the market like any other com­ the Earth Speak, 1940; Take Nothing for Your Journey, 1943, MacMillan Co. modity, he correctly feels himself not far removed from Frederick Heckel Journalist, editor, author. Former staff reporter earlier times when even his body was so bought and sold. of the New York Times; editor Proteus magazine.

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