Golden Blade 1991 " ' V . ' I ♦ * THE GOLDEN BLADE 1991 EUROPE T H E G O L D E N B L A D E FORTY-THIRD (1991) ISSUE EUROPE CONTENTS Editorial Notes William Forward 5 Central Europe between East and West Rudolf Steiner 7 The Future of the Slavic Peoples of the East and the Spiritual Tasks of Central Europe Sergei Prokofieff 19 The Heart and Lungs Jenny Josephson 50 The Emergence of Europe Coenraad van Houten 57 For the Conscience of Europe Charles Lawrie 62 Anthroposophy springs from the work and teaching of Rudolf Steiner Why is it Important to know the Soul and (1861 —1925). He described it as "a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual Spirit of a People? Athys Floride 76 in the human being to the spiritual in the universe'*. Central Europe between East and West: Present Tasks Manfred Schmidt-Brabant 88 The aim of this Annual is to bring the outlook of Anthroposophy to bear In Memoriam: Adam Bittleston 101 on questions and activities of evident relevance to the present, in a way which B o o k R e v i e w 1 0 9 may have lasting value. It was founded in 1949 by Charles Davy and Arnold N o t e s a n d A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s 1 1 5 Freeman, who were its first editors. The title derives from an old Persian legend, according to which King Djemjdid received from his God, Ahura Mazdao, a golden blade with which Edited by to fulfil his mission on Earth. It carried the heavenly forces of light into the William Forward and Andrew Wolpert darkness of earthly substance, thus allowing its transformation. The legend seems to point to the possibility that man, through wise and compassionate work with the Earth, can one day regain on a new level what was lost when the Age of Gold was supplanted by those of Silver, Bronze and Iron. Technology could serve this aim; instead of endangering our planet's life, it Printed and published by could help to make the Earth a new Sun. IMPRINT Publicity Service Crawley Down • Sussex RHIO 4LQ • U.K. 5 EDITORIAL NOTES At the time of going to print, the Russian republic is committed by its parliament to adopting the Shatalin plan and implementing its reformist provisions over a 500- day period from October 1st 1990. This places a considerable pressure on the other fourteen republics in the Soviet Union to do likewise or face the chaos resulting from conflicting claims to the assets of the State. Unequivocally the Shatalin plan states that humanity has not yet developed a more effective means of distributing resources than the free market system and resolves to adopt this in the first place by introducing equal rights to all types of ownership. Thence the State will begin a massive programme of privatisation by transferring its assets to the republics who then are responsible for gradually selling most of them off to the public. If successful, this implies that the private sector in the Soviet Union will have stumped up around 2 trillion roubles, or about 1,400 roubles for each wage earner. If indeed this proceeds as planned the only thing that will not have changed since the demise of the great 'experiment* will be the Marxist view of the driving force of history which is also still widely held in the West, namely that it is changes in the "mode of production** which determine social and cultural changes. Yet it is perhaps in this idea that the greatest threat to the people of the Soviet Union lies as they move into this new period of social turbulence. Already many East Gemians are contemplating the wealth and values of the West with the question, "Is that it?**. The need for aRussian answerto Russia*s problems is voiced in Solzjenitsyn*s recent manifesto "How to revitalize Russia**, and while it is dismissed in the West as "...plain nonsense. Full of musings about the nature of the Russian soul**, it may be taken as a symptom of alonging for values which now more than ever need to be taken seriously. In this issue of The Golden Blade we thus join on the changes taking place in Europe not only in the context of the plans for economic union by 1992, but also in the light of the opportunities presented by its release from being divided into eastern and western spheres of influence. There is clearly more at issue in the long term than the fonnation of another politico-economic superpower. Now is the time to lift our gaze from the European Market to the European Idea. The previously untranslated lecture by Rudolf Steiner of 18.03.1916, which we publish here under ie title "Central Europe between East and West**, gives valuable insights into the struggle for supremacy of Western European occultism against the successors of Central European idealism and into the intimate relationship between what can be developed as a culture of the future in Europe and new social fonns in the East (i.e. Russia and the Slav peoples). Sergei Prokofieff examines this latter relationship in detail in the chapter we 6 E D I T O R I A L N O T E S publish here from his book 'The Spiritual Springs of Eastern Europe and the Future CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST Mysteries of the Holy Grail", which is currently in translation. Those who read it will find a healing approach to the inter-relationship of Central and Eastern Europe Rudolf Steiner evident in the idea of cultural inter-dependence. The inter-dependence of individuals within an economy, or of national economies worldwide; these are ideas cuircntly Lecture given in Munich on 18 March 1916 (GA174A) unfolding in full strength — but the idea that the cultural mission of one group of people must be fulfilled to enable that of another to come about is one the bulk of Translated by Anna Meuss and Johanna Collis whose import is still in the future. [© Anna Meuss, 1990] The 'middleness' of Europe is illumined in an interesting way by Jenny Josephson*s description of the human heart which in its physiognomy is adapted not On many occasions when I have spoken of human evolution I have pointed out only to its intermediary, regulating function between the poles of the nervous system that during the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, in which we live, the task is to develop the and the metabolic system, but also to the exercise of an element of choice, the consciousness soul out of the general human potential. During the sixth post- Atlantean epoch the Spirit Self will have to evolve. I have pointed out that if the sixth experience of freedom. In the words of Meadows in Christopher Fry's "Sleep of post-Atlantean epoch is to come into its own in that evolution, a major role will have Prisoners", "The human heart can go to the lengths of God". to be played by specific human faculties that are to be found in the Eastern part of In two very different ways Coenraad van Houten and Charles Lawrie set out Europe, in the Russian people, though at present these still lie dormant. That historical perspectives to the choices that have to be made in the Europe of today, the evolution will depend on certain qualities that need to be so deeply rooted in the former with a symptomatic analysis of the characteristic features of Europe and the Russian folk soul that the souls of individual members of that nation — unless led forces opposing their development, the latter with a prodigious gathering of indicators astray by their 'intelligentsia' — are profoundly illumined by these qualities. We from current affairs and contemporary writers on the European question. should take note of those qualities. The Russian folk soul has something almost Athys Floride, in his article on why it is important to know the soul and spirit feminine about it, a compliance, something that makes it easy to accept what the of a people, brings the issue back to the realm of every individual's experience of his process of civilisation brings with it or her relationship to nationality and sets challenging goals for the acquisition of self- One aspect of this is that in the course of their evolution the Russian people have always been receptive to Byzantine religious elements with their more oriental knowledge at that level too—not without the sense of humour that is so essential in flavour, elements that have come to be part of their culture. Until now the Russian this pursuit. folk soul has been neither productive nor inwardly creative, but it has been We conclude our study of Europe with a lucid description of the tasks that stand enormously receptive. That is also why the Russian Orthodox faith cannot really be before the emerging European in Manfred Schmidt-Brabant's lecture from the said to have shown progressive development in the centuries during which this booklet "In mitten der Welt Europa. Impulse fur die Zukunfl", which has been Russian faith with its Byzantine orientation has been alive among the Russianpeople. translated for this issue of The Golden Blade. These are put in such a way that each When you attend one of the ceremonies of the Russian church—even if only briefly individual can feel they lie within his or her own province. —you can sense the strong oriental aura present in those ceremonies; something of As promised last year, this edition of The Golden Blade includes tributes to the an auric element is tangibly brought right into the present time.