NEWSLETTER

Anthroposophical Society in America

Summer 1984

Published by the Anthroposophical Society in America for its Members Con tents

Rudolf Steiner How Do I Find the Christ? (Oct. 16, 1918) 2 Gundhild Bock Kacer The Anthroposophical Society: Name and Task of Member’s Groups — A Historical Study 4 Christof Lindenau Toward a Spiritual Practice of Thinking— A Guide for the Study of Anthroposophy. Part I, The Task 9 George O’Neil and Gisela O’Neil How to Read a Book: A Study of Rudolf Steiner’s Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, Part VI 13

PUBLICATIONS

Brian Gray Rudolf Steiner: The Tension Between East and West 16 Barbara Betteridge Rudolf Steiner: The Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth 16 Alice Wulsin Rudolf Steiner: An Occult Physiology 17 Kenneth Melia Wolfgang Schad, Ed.: Goetheanistische Naturwissenschaft Vol. 3, Zoologie 18 Magda Lissau H.D. van Goudoever: A Contemplation About Rudolf Steiners Calendarof the Soul 19 Patricia Kaminski Rudolf Steiner: Man in the Past, the Present and the Future. The Sun Initiation of the Druid Priest and His Moon-Science 19 Douglas Sloan Rudolf Steiner: The Art of Lecturing 19 Gisela O’Neil Heinz Mueller: Healing Forces in the Word and Its Rhythms 20 David Bittleston B. Masters & D. Bittleston, Ed.: Child and Man 21 Maria St. Goar A. Bittleston & D.T. Jones, Ed.: The Golden Blade 1984 21 Ruth Mariott Harald Falck-Ytter: Polarlicht 22 Malcolm Gardner William R. Fix: The Bone Peddlers: Selling Evolution 22 Gisela O’Neil Hermann Koepke: Das neunte Jahr 23 Stewart C. Easton Geoffrey Ahern: The Rudolf Steiner Movement and the Western Esoteric Tradition 24

MEMBERSHIP

M. K. Maulsby Kimball at Eighty 26 New Members and Members Who Have Died 27

REPORTS

D. Adams & S. Usher Promotion Efforts of the Anthroposophic Press 28 D.R. Dauenhauer Anthroposophic Efforts in Seattle, Wash. 28 Maria St. Goar The Southeastern Regional Group: Overcoming Isolation 29 Barbara Betteridge Mystery Play Performance in Los Angeles at Easter 29 Patricia Kaminski Eighth Annual Spring Conference in Fair Oaks, Calif. 30 L.F.C. Mees A First Impression of America 30 Rudolf Steiner On Plagiarism: The Story of Max Heindel (June 10, 1917) 31

NOTES

Notes, Programs, Announcements 32 How Do I Find the Christ? possibility of finding our soul anew and joining it to the spirit. On the one hand, we may experience the futility of existence, and, on the other, the glorification of existence by RUDOLF STEINER out of our own self, if we transcend the feeling of Zurich, October 16, 1918 powerlessness. We may feel the disease in our lack of power, and we may feel the Healer, the healing power, if This is the last section of the lecture, “How Do I Find the Christ, ” we have felt the powerlessness, and have become related translated by Henry & Lisa Monges, published in 1941 by the to death in our soul. In feeling the Healer we feel that we Anthroposophic Press. bear something within our soul which can rise from death at any time within our own inner experience. If we search for these two experiences, we find the Christ in our own We live in the fifth post-Atlantean period and have soul. advanced far into it, we live in the twentieth century. The This is an experience which humanity approaches. consequence is that, when we as souls are bom, and enter Angelus Silesius stated it in speaking the significant the world of the senses from the supersensible world, we words: have experienced something in the spiritual world cen­ turies before. Just as the contemporaries of the Mystery of Christ cannot redeem thee— Golgotha gained, centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha, “The Cross of Golgotha from Evil can ne’er redeem a complete understanding of it, so did we experience, thee, while still in the spirit world, a kind of reflected image of So long as it remain unraised within thee.” the Mystery of Golgotha, before we were born, centuries before we were born. But this is valid only for the human It may be raised within us when we feel the two poles: beings of the present age. Present-day human beings bear Powerlessness through our body, resurrection through our within themselves, when they are born in the physical spirit. world, a kind of reflected splendor of the Mystery of This inner experience, consisting of these two parts, is Golgotha, a kind of reflected image of the experiences that which draws us toward the Mystery of Golgotha. This human beings had centuries after the Mystery of is an event, in regard to which we cannot excuse ourselves Golgotha. by saying that we have no supersensibly developed facul­ Certainly, this impulse cannot be perceived directly ties. We do not need any such thing. We need merely by someone who has no supersensible vision; but every­ actual self-knowledge, and also the will to combat pride, a one may experience the effect of this impulse within fault which is so very common today, and which prevents himself. And if he experiences it, he finds the answer to the the human being from observing that he becomes proud question: How do I fin d the Christ? and haughty in respect of his own forces as soon as he You find the Christ if you have the following experi­ depends upon them. If, with regard to our own pride, we ences: First, the experience of saying to yourselves: I shall are unable to feel that we have become powerless through strive for self-knowledge as far as it is possible for me to do our own forces, we are then unable to feel either death or so as an individual human personality. But nobody who resurrection; we shall then never feel the thought of honestly strives for this self-knowledge will, as a human Angelus Silesius: being of today, be able to say anything but the following: I “The Cross of Golgotha from Evil can ne’er redeem cannot comprehend what I am striving for. My power of thee, comprehension lags behind my striving; I feel powerless So long as it remain unraised within thee.” in regard to my striving.— This experience is very impor­ tant. This experience of a certain feeling of powerlessness But, if we are able to feel powerlessness and recovery everyone should have, who takes honest counsel with from it, we have the great good fortune of really having an himself on self-knowledge. This feeling of powerlessness actual relationship with Christ Jesus. For this experience is healthy, for it is nothing but the sensation of disease. is the repetition of what we experienced centuries pre­ For, when we have a disease and do not feel it, we are just viously in the spirit world. Thus we have to search for it in that much more ill. By realizing our powerlessness to raise our soul here on the physical plane in its reflected image. ourselves to the Divine at any time in our life, we feel Search yourselves, and you will find powerlessness; and implanted within ourselves the disease we have described. after having found it, you will find redemption from it— And in feeling this disease we feel that the soul would be the resurrection o f the soul by the spirit. condemned by the body, as it is today, to die with the body. But do not let yourselves be misled in these matters If we feel this powerlessness strongly enough, the change through what is preached today by mysticism or even by comes. Then there appears another experience which tells certain positive confessions. If Harnack, for example, us that if we do not surrender to what we are able to gain speaks of the Christ, his statements are not true, for the only through our bodily forces, but if we devote ourselves simple reason that what he says about the Christ — read it to what the spirit bestows upon us, we may then overcome yourselves! — may be said of God in general. What he says this inward soul-death. We are permitted to have the may just as well be said of the God of Jews, and just as well 2 of the God of the Mohammedans, of every God. Many truth. Spiritual science tries to rise from this confession: people who today claim to be spiritually awakened say: I “with every statement you speak untruth,” by proceeding experience God within me but they only experience God in a certain way which I have often characterized. I have the Father in a very weakened form, because they do not often told you that in spiritual science the matter of chief perceive that they are ill, but merely base their words on importance is not what is stated—for this would fall just as tradition.... Yet such people have no Christ; for the much a prey to this judgment of powerlessness—but the Christ-experience is not the realizing of the God in the matter of chief importance is how a statement is made. Try human soul, but consists of two experiences—the death of to follow up (you may do this also with my writings) how a the soul through the body, and the resurrection of the soul subject is characterized from the most varied points of through the spirit. And anyone who tells mankind that he view, how the endeavor is made to characterize a thing feels not only the God within himself, as it is also claimed from one side and then from another; only through this by the merely rhetorical theosophists, but who is able to procedure are we able to deal with things. describe two experiences—powerlessness and the resur­ Anyone who believes that words themselves are rection from it—only such a person describes the true something different from eurythmy is greatly mistaken! Christ experience. And he will find his way to the Mystery Words are simply eurythmy performed by the larynx, of Golgotha on a supersensible path; he himself will find produced by the help of the air. They are mere gestures the strength which stimulates certain supersensible forces which, however, are not performed with the hands and and which will lead him to the Mystery of Golgotha. feet, but with the larynx. We have to become conscious There is no need today, my dear friends, for giving up that we merely point to something, and that we gain a hope to find the Christ in one’s direct personal experience; genuine relationship to truth only when we see in the word for we have found Him, if we have recovered ourselves indications of what we wish to express, and when we, as from powerlessness. The whole feeling of nothingness, of human beings, in our mutual relationships bear in our­ futility, which comes over us when we, without pride, selves the consciousness that words are really only indica­ ponder over our own forces, has to precede the Christ tions. Eurythmy, among other things, wishes to point to impulse. Clever mystics believe they possess Christianity this; eurythmy makes the whole human being a larynx— when they are able to say: I have found within my ego the that means, it expresses through the whole human being higher ego, the ego of God. But this is not Christianity! what ordinarily is expressed only by the larynx—in order Christianity must be based upon the sentence: to make human beings feel again that, in speaking the language of sounds, they are making mere gestures. I say “The Cross of Golgotha from Evil can ne’er redeem “father,” I say “mother,” if I generalize everything, I am thee, able to express myself truthfully only when the other So long as it remain unraised within thee.” human being, together with me, has acquainted himself with these things in the social element, so that he under­ Even the details of life make us feel the great truth of stands the gesture. what I say, and we may rise from them to the great We arise only then from powerlessness, which we experience of powerlessness and the resurrection from it. can, indeed, feel in regard to language, and from it we My dear friends, it would be beautiful, especially in our celebrate the resurrection, when we understand that, in present age, if human beings would, for instance, discover the moment of opening our mouth, we must already be the following: There exists quite definitely a tendency Christian. What has become of the Word, of the Logos, in toward truth, rooted deeply in human souls, and the the course of evolution, can be comprehended only when intention to utter the truth in words. But just at the point the Logos is reunited with the Christ, only when we where we intend to utter the truth, stop for a moment in become conscious of the following: Our body, as instru­ order to think about this utterance of the truth, we make ment of pronunciation, forces truth into a lower state, the first step on the path leading to the experience of the killing it partly on our lips, and we vivify it again in Christ, powerlessness of the human body in regard to Divine when we become conscious that we have to spiritualize it; Truth. At the moment you actually practice self-knowl- that means, we must not accept speech as such, but we edge in respect of speaking, you will hit upon something have to accompany speech by spirit-thoughts. This we have very peculiar. The poet felt it when he said: “If the soul to learn, my dear friends! speaks, then, alas, the soul no longer speaks.” On its way to I do not know whether time will permit me in the become speech, our inner soul experience of truth be­ public lecture tomorrow to call attention to what I am comes already dulled. It is not deadened completely in about to say. I should like to do it. At any rate, I shall say it speech, but it is already dulled. And whoever understands here first. Should I repeat it tomorrow once more, please language, knows that only proper nouns, which designate do not take it amiss. I shall now say here what I have said merely one thing, are true designations for this thing. As publicly in various places. We can make a peculiar soon as we have generalized words—they may be nouns, discovery. I shall characterize it by a special case. I have verbs, or adjectives—we no longer speak the full truth. In intimately studied the very interesting essays which such a case truth consists in our being conscious of the fact Woodrow Wilson has written, lectures about American that, with every sentence, we have to deviate from the history, American literature, American life. We may say 3 that this Woodrow Wilson has magnificently and power­ importance, but rather, who it is that speaks; this is where fully described the American development as it takes the importance lies. We have to learn to know the human place from the American East toward the West. His being from what he says, for the words are mere gestures, descriptions are those of a real American, and these and we have to know who it is that makes these gestures. lectures, published in essay form, are very captivating. That is the thing with which humanity must become They are called Mere Literature, and Other Essays. We really acquainted. Here we have a very great mystery of ordinary learn to know the American nature in reading these life, my dear friends. There is a great difference whether essays, for Woodrow Wilson is the most typical American. every sentence is struggled for by the personal ego, or Now I have compared—this comparison can be made whether it is inspired in some way from below, or above, or quite objectively—many of the paragraphs in these essays from the side. The writing that is inspired, for instance, has of Woodrow Wilson, for example, with statements of a more suggestive effect, for in reading what has been Herman Grimm, a man who is a typical German of the struggled for, we in turn have to struggle with every nineteenth century, through and through a typical Middle sentence. The time is approaching when we shall no European of the nineteenth century. Herman Grimm’s longer direct our attention to the merely literal content of style of writing is just as agreeable to me as Woodrow what lies before our soul, but we shall have to direct our Wilson’s style is disagreeable. But this is only a personal attention above all to those who say this or that, not to the remark. I love the style of Herman Grimm’s writings, and I outer physical personality, but to the entire human- feel the style of Woodrow Wilson’s writings as something spiritual connection. utterly repugnant to me; but at the same time I can be quite If human beings ask today: How do I fin d the Christ? objective; the typical American Woodrow Wilson writes then we have to give such an answer. For the Christ cannot simply brilliantly, magnificently, especially about the be reached through some kind of speculation or through development of the nature of the American. In comparing comfortable mysticism. He may be reached only if we the essays of Woodrow Wilson and Herman Grimm, in have the courage to immerse ourselves directly in life. And which both wrote about the method of history, I had to in such a case you have to feel the powerlessness also in consider something quite different. Let us take certain regard to language, the powerlessness which the body has sentences of Woodrow Wilson’s; they agree almost liter­ imposed on you through its being the bearer of speech— ally with the sentences written by Herman Grimm; and we and afterwards the Resurrection o f the Spirit in the Word. We may take sentences of Herman Grimm, and transpose have to feel not only that “the letter killeth and the spirit them into the essays of Woodrow Wilson: they agree maketh alive”—this saying, too, is often misunderstood— exactly. Any borrowing of one from the other is out of the but even the sound kills, and the spirit has to revivify by question! This is not the point in question I wish to make, concretely connecting every individual experience with that any borrowing has occurred; this is absolutely out of the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha. In this first step the question. Here is the point where without becoming we find the Christ. Search for the human relationships! philistine, we may learn: I f two say the same thing, it is not the Do not merely consider the content of this or that sen­ same. For here we have the problem: How is it that tence—human beings today are all too prone to do this— Woodrow Wilson describes his Americans much more but consider how the words emerge from the place from impressively, much more suggestively than Herman which they are uttered. This becomes more and more Grimm ever did in his method of history, and that important. Woodrow Wilson speaks in his descriptions in sentences If many of our friends would consider this, we should of Herman Grimm? How does this come about? This not so often have to experience people who come and say: really becomes a problem. “That person talked quite ‘anthroposophically,’ or quite If we enter upon this, my dear friends, we find the ‘theosophically’.” You need only look it up! The words following: If we follow up Herman Grimm’s style in that stand there are of no importance, but the spirit from everything that he wrote, then we see that every sentence is which they spring; that is o f great importance. We do not wish obtained by a hard, personal individual struggle; everything to spread words through Anthroposophy, but a new spirit, takes place in the light of the culture of the nineteenth the spirit which is the Spirit of Christianity for the century, but out of the most direct consciousness soul. twentieth century onward. Woodrow Wilson describes brilliantly, but he is possessed by something in his subconscious nature. There is a demonic possession. In his subconscious nature some­ thing inspires him to write down his literary productions. The Anthroposophical Society: The demon that in a special way appears in an American Name and Task of Members’ Groups of the twentieth century, speaks through his soul. There­ fore the brilliance, the power! —A Historical Study Lazy people today so often say, when they read by GUNDHILD BOCK KACER something, considering only the content: I have read this before, here or there. But today the time has come where This article was printed in Mitteilungen aus der anthropo­ mankind has to learn that the content is no longer of chief sophischen Arbeit in Deutschland, Michaelmas 1983. It was

4 translated from the German by Maria St. Goar and is published here compare to the spiritual life of the Anthroposophical by permission. Society, since man in his soul-spiritual life and quest for knowledge has in fact freed himself from the yearly processes in nature? If we ponder all these single ques­ When the Anthroposophical Society was rebuilt in tions we arrive at the answer that we can apply the picture Germany after World War II, those responsible in Stutt­ of the tree only by disregarding the life of blooming and gart dispensed purposely with the founding of a branch. fading, essential qualities of the plant kingdom. The Instead, Wednesday was designated as a membership comparison can therefore not fully satisfy us. evening to make it possible for all participants of the An interesting documentary report, published on the quickly arising groups to gather for a common anthropo­ occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the sophical meeting and, also, for active members to present Karlsruhe Branch, includes a copy of the founding what they have achieved in various fields of work. This charter: “Herewith it is acknowledged that the Karlsruhe loosely structured form was chosen for several reasons. Branch with the following council [Vorstand] members One of them was—so it was said—the idea of a constituted has been admitted as an integral branch of the German branch dated from the period of the Theosophical Society. Section of the Theosophical Society in the first month of This view particularly has given rise to various discus­ its 30th year. Recorded in Berlin on December 9 , 1904.” It sions and to studies of the history of the Society. The is signed: Dr. Rudolf Steiner, General Secretary, and H.S. present study has resulted. We will discuss here not the Olcott, P.T.S., headquarters in Adyar, Madras, India. special situation in Stuttgart but merely survey certain Here the term “branch” appears as the official desig­ aspects of the history of the Anthroposophical Society. nation for a group within the German Section of the The view has often arisen that there is a fundamental Theosophical Society. difference between a branch [Zweig] and a working group Under the same date a printed form, with details [Arbeitsgruppe]. The attempt is then made to define and filled in, concerning the founding of the branch was sent explain this difference, a difference based largely on to Adyar. It states [in the original English]: feeling and habit. The working group is thus seen as an organization, formed to work with a definite theme for a To the Recording Secretary, T.S., in Adyar, Madras—A shorter or longer period of time, in which the individual charter was issued on 9. December 1904 to Herr Ludwig Lindemann to form Branch of the Theosophical Society at members seek stimulation and enrichment for their own Karlsruhe to be known as the Karlsruher Zweig, Branch/ studies, perhaps limited to a specific field. In contrast, the Lodge of the T.S., President Lindemann ... Yours frater­ branch is considered an organization with more pro­ nally, Dr. Rudolf Steiner General Secretary. nounced structure that, for the individual member, signi­ fies a greater obligation and, because of this binding In this notification the dual name “branch/lodge”ap- nature, is designed to be more permanent. It is thought pears. “Zweig” is therefore simply the German translation that only in a branch these two ideals are possible: The of the English term “branch.” Although in English awakening to the soul-spiritual being of the other person “branch” refers to a “branch of a tree or bush,” it can also as a community-building element, and the individual’s mean the branch of a river, that of a line, a firm or a bank. awareness of the whole of the Society, of which he can The German term “branch of science” [Wissenschafts­ experience himself to be a part through his efforts to find zweig] corresponds to this. Accordingly, we should inter­ his way into anthroposophy itself, instead of satisfying pret the use of “branch” in the sense of “local branch of the personal interest and need in some select areas. Theosophical Society.” This is one view. The other is based on the conviction “Lodge” is familiar to us from Freemasonry. Origi­ that these same ideals can be realized without limitation nally the word denotes a type of housing for occasional or in a circle of members, called a working group. specific use (weekend lodge, hunting lodge). Strictly Are we dealing here merely with a nominal issue? Is speaking, the Masonic lodge is therefore the location of not the amount and intensity of the anthroposophic work the meeting—something secluded—and this was then essential, regardless of name, manner and form? Is not the transferred to mean a group of members. need to understand and to master anthroposophic con­ “Branch/lodge” are thus alternative terms for desig­ tent ever more clearly, deeply and thoroughly the foremost nating a group within the Theosophical Society. Even concern of all? Nevertheless, it may serve as a stimulus to though the term “branch” was the official designation for study how the term “Zweig” appears in the history of the groups within the German Section, the word “lodge” was Anthroposophical Society and how Rudolf Steiner uses often applied, at least in everyday usage. Many members the terms “branch” and “working group.” were probably familiar with lodges through their own Proceeding from the concept “branch” one may membership, and since branches were in the early years visualize a tree, “General Anthroposophical Society,” also something secluded, “lodge” was used in Germany as with its small and large branches: twigs, branches, trunk, well. (Ernst Weissert enjoyed relating that in Mannheim roots, and so on. Asking about details, however, we soon one went “to the lodge.” This is probably true for other run into difficulties. Where are the roots? What about locations.) Even Rudolf Steiner himself used occasionally leaves, blossoms, fruit? How does the tree’s yearly cycle the term “lodge.” Also, his lectures to the members were 5 announced as “lodge lectures” [Logenvortraege] in Mit­ Thus, it is made clear, even through the different desig­ teilungen fuer die Mitglieder der Deutschen Sektion der nations of the members’ groups, that something new Theosophischen Gesellschaft [Newsletter for the Members begins, unconnected with the Theosophical Society. Not ... ]. Edited by Mathilde Scholl, this was the official organ only the Society but the individual group is called by a published by the Section (quoted in the following as different name! It seems, however, the members did not “Scholl Letters”). Generally, however, Rudolf Steiner quite comprehend this change in terminology. This might speaks of branches. He did so even before the founding of be deduced from an additional notice in bold print in #5 the German Section when he mailed suggestions and of January 1914: outlines of bylaws to the then-existing branches. Concern­ ing this, he reported to Wilhelm Huebbe-Schleiden, on To the attention of the leaders of the working groups (called September 4, 1902: “Enclosed is the official circular for the branches) concerning the mailing of the Newsletter.—The branches. It was mailed to all ten branches__ ” esteemed leaders of the working groups (usually referred to Even before the founding of the Section the two as “branches”) of the Anthroposophical Society are kindly designations “branch” and “lodge” were used side by side. requested to hand a copy of the Newsletter each time upon In 1884 the “Theosophische Societaet Germania” was receipt... to every member of their working group (called founded in Wuppertal, led by Huebbe-Schleiden. Within branch)__ To receive the Newsletter, the members of the this society there existed loosely formed groups, called working groups (called branches) are requested to address associations [Vereinigungen]. Later, some of them became themselves to the leadership of that working group (called a branch or a lodge, and in some cases joined the Section. branch) to which they pay their membership dues. Only those members not connected with a working group (called In the German edition of Vahan, then the organ of the branch) will receive... the Newsletter from the office Theosophical Society edited by Richard Bresch, there is directly. the following notice on February 1902, hence before the founding of the Section: “Two new German lodges. In Each time the new and obviously unfamiliar term “work­ Duesseldorf and Cassel, two promising new branches of ing group” is used, the old name is added in parenthesis! the Theosophical Society have opened.” Here the two In the next issue of the Newsletter, of April 1914, the terms appear even side by side. identical wording is repeated with this addition: In almost every issue of the “Scholl Letters” (from Nov. 1905 to June 1914) there are lists of the branches The esteemed members of the Anthroposophical Society are kindly requested to give each time, in all communica­ within the German Section. Many of these have special tions, their exact address and to name the working group names, for example the Franz von Assisi-Zweig in (called branch) to which they pay their membership dues. Malsch. Others are merely called Munich Branch, Stutt­ gart Branch, and so on. All the groups bear the name In a similar way the term “working group” shows up when “branch” with the one exception of “Lodge at the Grail” the branches of different cities are listed. At first, the list is [Loge zum Gral]. In the issue of April 1913, in the first still titled, “German Branches.” Then, from 1914 on, the listing after the founding of the Anthroposophical Soci­ heading reads “German Working Groups.” In the case of ety, the lodge and its leader, Herr Ahner, no longer appear, branches with individual names, e.g. the “Kerning- signifying that this group has not joined Rudolf Steiner Zweig,” under the leadership of Toni Voelker in Stuttgart, after the separation from the Theosophical Society. is now listed as “Kerning-Arbeitsgruppe.” This particular The fact that “branch” was the official name for a group was chosen here as an example because, perhaps to group within the Theosophical Society is given only the a specially marked degree, it had the private and inward proper weight if we clarify the use of this term in the newly quality we connect with the idea of a branch. This group inaugurated Anthroposophical Society after the separa­ even went by the matter-of-fact term “working group.” tion from the Theosophical Society. In March and April Hereafter, the “Scholl Letters” as the organ of the of 1913, the “Scholl Letters,” appearing as the first publica­ Anthroposophical Society also publish the lists of the tions for the members of the Anthroposophical Society, groups of other countries, together with the names of their include the minutes of the General Meeting of February leaders. The headings read: American Working Groups 1913. On the final page of the April issue, there is a notice [Amerikanische Arbeitsgruppen], Belgian Working Groups, in large print below the heading “Please Read!”: Danish, English, French, and so on, Working Groups. The English groups call themselves “Group of Study,” for Upon receipt of this issue of the Newsletter, the esteemed example “Zarathustra Group of Study, London.” The leaders [Vorstaende] of the working groups of the Anthro­ posophical Society are urgently requested to send imme­ French Groups go by the name of “Groupe d’etude,” for diately an alphabetical list of their members’ names and instance “Groupe d’etude St. Michel,” Paris, inaugurated addresses to the office of the Anthroposophical Society, on May 4, 1913 by Rudolf Steiner. Berlin W 30, Motzstrasse 17. —We ask the former branches Nevertheless, the terms “branch” and “lodge lecture” of the dissolved German Section of the Theosophical are used as before in the “Scholl Letters.” This shows that Society to see to it that the membership cards, issued by us, the introduction of the new term was not a bureaucratic will all be returned to us because they are demanded from measure to be carried out like an order. One can, however, us. discern the effort to bring new and original thoughts even 6 to the realm of “externals.” It also becomes clear that the 1910. (It came into existence alongside the other branch use of one or another term is not merely a matter of that met in the home of Frau Clara Smits; and it is not externals but one of conscious reorganization that identical with the branch mentioned in 1902 in Vahan.) includes such details, attesting to the new independence. More significant than the origin of this branch, A special situation arose for those groups that had not however, is the message of the dedication lecture. Here, merely constituted themselves as a branch but had expe­ Rudolf Steiner speaks with inmost words of the task of rienced a festive dedication by Rudolf Steiner and had branches: Through their work, the next cultural period is taken the name of a spiritual sponsor or protective patron. to be prepared—just as such preparation occurred earlier How these names originated, that a number of branches in the Mystery Centers. The people within the Mysteries adopted, is a theme by itself. One might assume that knew that through their work, forces were engendered and Rudolf Steiner had chosen these names in a way similar to given to the beings of the higher hierarchies, who then how later, upon the request by some parents, he gave could fashion that future part of man’s being which, in the names for their newborn children; and by the choice of following cultural epoch was to be bestowed on humanity. such a name he had addressed the branch in question as Today, as if under the protection of the higher beings, the an individuality of a higher kind. However, if one studies Spirit Self, which will descend during the sixth cultural the addresses and lectures that Rudolf Steiner gave in epoch so as to unite completely with men, hovers above dedicating such branches with individual names, one humanity. The ideals of brotherhood, of freedom of discovers that this was not the case. On the contrary, thought and of spiritual knowledge, toward which we Rudolf Steiner underlines with special emphasis the today are aspiring, will then find their realization. Inas­ importance of the fact that a certain name was selected by much as we have the vision of this spiritual goal and strive the members themselves. Two examples will be cited: toward it, we are working on the preparation for the future. Malsch, April 6, 1909: A branch comes into existence Rudolf Steiner introduces these lofty thoughts with a question: “Why do we unite in working groups, and why that, out of the sincere desire of those united in this branch, do we cultivate within such working groups the spiritual has adopted a name with such a deeply inward connection treasure to which we dedicate our forces?” He says that an to the whole of Christianity. Due to the profound needs of those united in this branch, this branch calls itself the outsider might well ask whether it did not suffice for a Franz von Assisi-Zweig. person to study spiritual science on his own and occa­ sionally attend a lecture—without joining with others in Bochum, Dec. 21, 1913: formed groups. He speaks of “the most friendly and most Our friends wish to dedicate their work and their branch to brotherly harmony in such working groups” and of the the name ofthat deity, regarded in northern Europe as the attitude to be cultivated within them. In this solemn deity who is to return to declining humanity the rejuvenat­ context, the word “working group” appears several ing forces, the spiritual forces of childhood----They wish times—a matter-of-fact term for us today and often to call their branch “Widar-Zweig.” May this name be a conveying the underlying meaning of “merely intellectual good omen. study of spiritual scientific contents in the pursuit of one’s The brief notices in the “Scholl Letters” include reports own interest.” With this term, Rudolf Steiner, however, about the choice of a name, for example in Berne connects the brotherliness that, just as in the ancient (September 1908): Mystery Centers, includes the solemn obligation to pre­ pare in the right way the spiritual future of humanity: Since the decision to found the Berne branch was made last fall, at the time Herr Dr. Steiner gave a cycle of lectures on In our fraternal working groups we perform work that the Gospel of St. John in Basle, it was possible to streams upward to those forces that are being prepared for inaugurate our lodge solemnly on Dec. 15, 1907 with eleven the Spirit Self.... It is only through the wisdom of spiritual members. In connection with this lecture cycle, actively science itself that we can understand what we actually do in attended by us from Berne, the lodge chose the name respect of our connection with the higher worlds when we “Johannes-Zweig.” unite in such working groups. And the thought that we do this work within our working groups not merely for the After the founding of the Anthroposophical Society in sake of our own egoism but that it may stream upward into 1913, dedications of new branches occurred in Augsburg, the spiritual worlds—this is the true consecration of a Erfurt, Bochum, Duesseldorf, and finally on April 30, 1918 working group. To cherish such a thought is to permeate in Ulm. From this we can observe Rudolf Steiner’s ourselves with the consciousness of the consecration that is generous and open attitude toward the wishes of the the foundation of a working group within our spiritual members. The in dividual situation, though, of each loca­ movement. It is, therefore, of great importance to grasp this tion would have to be studied. Doubtlessly, the best- fact in its true spiritual meaning. We unite in such working groups ... whose work should be of the nature of coopera­ known lecture given by Rudolf Steiner at a branch tion among brothers ... [that we] experience as a breath of dedication is the one published under the title, “Commu­ magic in our working groups. nity Above Us, Christ in Us,” Duesseldorf, June 15, 1915. This branch resulted from the introductory work of Prof. From a lecture given at the dedication of the Christian Craemer, of which the “Scholl Letters” reported already in Rosenkreutz Branch in Hamburg, on June 17, 1912: 7 We are gathered here to ask the blessing of those spiritual Society” besides the existing Society. He interprets this powers who guide our spiritual scientific movement—their Independent Anthroposophical Society as a “loose union blessing for a working group that, to meet its innermost of unattached anthroposophical associations.” And in needs, has created a center. Through the most varied fact these groups never employ the term “branch.” They symbols there are manifested in this center the impulses of use the word “circle” [Kreis] to describe their efforts our willing: namely our dedication to the spiritual powers, toward community. and the good will to serve them in the proper way.... We In the two lectures at the meeting of delegates in must become convinced that the founding of a working group is not merely an occasion to rejoice; rather it is the Stuttgart of Feb. 27 & 28, 1923, the term “branch” is not beginning of a great obligation—especially when one mentioned a single time although, especially during this undertakes to adopt for this founding the name of that meeting, intense discussions were carried on about the noble martyr__ With each founding of an anthropo­ Anthroposophical Society and its forms of existence, and sophical working group one accepts a grave responsibil­ on this occasion Rudolf Steiner explained his decision to ity__ Therefore, keep in mind that a working group is found the Independent (or unattached) Society. It is in this inaugurated here that will remain loyal to the principle: to context that he speaks for the first time about “the transform—by making accessible to human comprehen­ awakening to the soul-spiritual being of one’s fellowman” sion—what flows down through the Christ from out of the as a prerequisite for the common work to be lifted out of spiritual world. the sphere of egoism and controversy. For this awakening Does the plain term “working group” not take on new to a higher consciousness to occur, solely the good will meaning through such words? Certainly, the way of and effort of all participants is needed—and not by any working at that time and the small size of those working means the closed form of a branch or the small size of a groups do not compare to our present conditions. Neither group: can they be compared to the changed conditions in the Regardless of whether we have a small or a large anthropo­ Anthroposophical Society, just a few years after the time sophical community, we can reach, in a certain sense, what of the above quoted lecture. Changes were caused by the has been indicated with this characterization. (Feb. 27, influx of young people, particularly the academic youth. 1923) Nevertheless, our concern here is the way in which Rudolf Steiner uses the term “working group.” The Christmas Conference of 1923 is for us an event After World War I and especially after the burning of whose spiritual significance and inner importance can the Goetheanum, entirely new conditions and circum­ hardly be fathomed. However, what Rudolf Steiner stances arose for the anthroposophic work. The year 1923 worked out and inaugurated in relation to the outer form brought the height of endeavors to give the Anthropo­ of the newly founded Anthroposophical Society, may be sophic Society a new form that both groups could find viewed in the context of the development sketched here. room: those members who, until then, had carried the How was the “tailor-problem” solved? How do content work and had been part of the history of the Anthropo­ and form (“suit”) relate to each other after this re­ sophical movement and Society—“the old ones”—and the founding? young people, rushing in with their various foundings and To give the Anthroposophical Society a form that would academic activities. Early in 1923, Rudolf Steiner de­ meet the needs of cultivating the Anthroposophical scribes with emphasis the spiritual task of the joint work Movement, this was intended with the Christmas Confer­ within the various groups. What he states about “the ence at the Goetheanum. (Das Goetheanum, Was in der awakening to the soul-spiritual element of the other Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft vorgeht, Jan. 13, 1924) human being” concerns, after all, the old and the young equally, and is not tied to any specific content of thought. Even the name, “General Anthroposophical Society,” He perceives a tragedy in the fact that although this includes what Rudolf Steiner emphasizes ever again from awakening is being sought—especially among the here on out: The consciousness of the age demands that younger people—the actual talk about Society forms the work of the Anthroposophical Society be fully public. arises not out of such higher consciousness but from the The Society is open to anyone seeking it and showing sphere of everyday life. This is bound to lead to tragic interest in the existence of such a Society whose task is the misunderstandings and splits. cultivation of the spiritual life. The new autonomous On March 3, 1923, Rudolf Steiner said in Dornach: responsibility and the element of freedom find expression also in the principles, formulated by Rudolf Steiner. Actually, the whole problem of the Anthroposophical Paragraph 11: “Members may join together in smaller or Society is a tailor-problem. Anthroposophy has certainly larger groups on any basis of locality or subject.” During grown, and the suit, the Anthroposophical Society— the discussion of the paragraph, Rudolf Steiner added: because it has gradually become a suit—has become too small. So far as the General Anthroposophical Society is con­ cerned, every group, even the Society of a country, is It was exactly this “tailor-problem” that induced Rudolf included in this paragraph. The General [allgemeine] Steiner to found the “Independent Anthroposophical Society is neither international nor national, it is univer- 8 sally [allgemein] human—and it will treat everything this physical Goetheanum will be merely the outward within its province as a group. In this way we bring life symbol of our spiritual Goetheanum. In Idea-form we take really based on freedom into the Anthroposophical this spiritual Goetheanum with us as we now again go out Society, and also everywhere an autonomous life, wherever into the world. it wishes to unfold. (The Christmas Foundation Meeting of the We have laid the Foundation Stone here. Over this Anthroposophical Society, Extracts from Rudolf Steiner’s Foundation Stone is to be erected the building whose single addresses, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1980) [einzelne] stones will consist of the work achieved in all our groups now by the individual [einzelnen] members all over In these few sentences it becomes clear: The tailor- the world. problem was solved by fashioning the outward form of the Society in as open and free a manner as possible. This form can never become too tight. It was designed for growth and transformation. It makes room for the most Toward a Spiritual Practice of Thinking manifold and diverse groupings. Thus it has accommo­ dated also the new organizational forms of the Society in A Guide for the Study of Anthroposophy Germany that were forced upon it in 1946 by the Military Government and by the country’s division into four by CHRISTOF LINDENAU different Occupation Zones. At that time, working centers \Arbeitszentren] came into existence that still today offer Translated by Frederick Amrine from the German, Der uebende the possibility of structuring and organizing the greatly Mensch. Anthroposophie-Studium als Ausgangspunkt moder­ increased membership. These working centers have long ner Geistesschulung. In memory of Alan P. Cottrell (1935-1984) since become work relationships [Arbeitszusammenhaen- who reviewed the text in the Autumn 1978 issue of the Newsletter. ge] filled with living human contacts: administrative Verlag Freies Geistesleben, publisher, gave permission to serial­ groups in the sense of the principles. The form is capable ize the chapters of this workbook. of growth, yet the content must ever and again be created FROM THE FOREWORD: anew. To replace the old principles of a closed branch (and When Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, a branch leader in charge of it) with a structure that allows died sixty years ago, he left behind a literary legacy of complete freedom for initiatives is possible, however, only books, essays and transcribed lectures which will fill an by transferring the responsibility to each individual estimated 350 volumes when published in their entirety. member, willing to be active for anthroposophy. The There the reader finds manifold descriptions of the results outward form can remain flexible and open to change of scientific research into the past and future evolution of only by being itself a part of living anthroposophic work. humanity together with its present tasks, into the past and Forming and developing the outward forms becomes in future evolution of the spiritual world as well as the itself an anthroposophic content. How this can Occur, processes and beings active there, and into the meaning of Rudolf Steiner describes in the Letters to the Members, the freedom we are able to develop in the face of these The Living Being of Anthroposophy and Its Cultivation. He facts. Rudolf Steiner’s writings offer themselves to those speaks about the duties of those members willing to be who seek a path leading to a world view that can active; about the “Leading Thoughts;” about the shaping comprehend equally the spiritual and material aspects of of the members’ meeting [Zweigabend] and the atmos­ reality. phere that should prevail in members’ meetings. He Yet his works can be equal to the task only if the presents all this after having sketched in broad outlines thoughts, born from this world-view but dead within the the history of the anthroposophical work, a background printed text, are brought to life again within the reader. that alone makes clear and comprehensible the new and This can happen only if the study of anthroposophy does transformed structure brought about through the Christ­ not remain a matter of mere reading, but rather of working mas Conference of 1923. through the written text within one’s own activity of During a specially solemn moment at the close of the thinking. These writings can accomplish their task only Christmas Conference, in Rudolf Steiner’s words of by calling forth within us something able in and of itself to farewell on New Year’s Day 1924, he chose again the word transform our judgment, our deeds, our lives—indeed, all “group” to point out the spiritual task of the Anthropo­ of earthly existence, just as modern science has been able sophical Society. (These sentences remind us of the to do. weighty and lofty connotation the term “group” assumed The present work seeks to contribute to the cultiva­ in the earlier lecture in Duesseldorf.) His statement, then, tion of such study. It contains in reworked form lectures will conclude our study: on a task dealt with by a group formed within the Yesterday, a year ago, we were watching the blazing flames Anthroposophical Society in 1968 that has sought ever that were destroying the First Goetheanum, ... so today we since to realize a common goal. The group calls itself are justified in hoping that when the physical Goetheanum “Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Menschenkunde und Studien­ will again be there, we will have worked in such a way that gestaltung” [Working Group for Spiritual Anthropology 9 and Forms of Study]. In keeping with the spirit of that consciousness. Viewed in this light, human freedom group, I would like this fruit of our common work to be shows itself no longer to be limited to intellectual and taken not as a text to be read, but rather as a workbook. It technological activity alone, but rather capable of exten­ suggests ways in which students of anthroposophy can sion to all thinking and action—provided that one deepen their study or illuminate and further pursue accomplishes this extension by activating one’s cogni- experiences already gained. tional faculties oneself. In his anthroposophical works, To my colleagues in the aforesaid “Arbeitsgemein­ Rudolf Steiner carries further what was begun in this way. schaft” I owe three things. Our search for varied and He describes the paths by which the human experience of creative social forms within which to conduct our mutual freedom, developed further through spiritual activity, is study of anthroposophy gave me the opportunity to gain capable of entering realms of existence which gradually much experience in this area. The group’s continuing place us in a position to confront the other, oppressive interest spurred me on to elaborate further the insights we experience of contemporary civilization creatively. gained so that they could be put into words. Finally, the The study of anthroposophical spiritual science is countless conversations which followed upon these pre­ one of these paths. In elaborating spiritual science, Rudolf sentations helped me to find viable formulations. In this Steiner preceded from two fundamental experiences. latter regard, I would like to mention Wolfgang Schad and The one is that there exists a realm of purely spiritual Thomas Goebel in particular, whom I thank for important processes and beings which underlies the physical world; contributions in the area of physiology. With regard to the the other, that this realm can, like the physical, be interest shown my work, let the name of Ilse Schuckmann investigated down to the smallest details if one acquires stand for a long list of others.... the requisite faculties. But it was a third fundamental experience which led Rudolf Steiner to the oral and written presentation of the results of his research: the clear insight that we must cultivate such a science of the spirit if CHAPTER ONE we are to be equipped to perform the tasks for the future of THE TASK humanity that modern civilization sets us. The study of this spiritual science has, understand­ We live ever more exclusively in a man-made world, ably, different meaning for different individuals. Even a i.e. a world transformed, but also destroyed, by techno­ single individual finds something different in it at differ­ logy. “Feasibility” [Machbarkeit] is the great ideal of ent times of life: new modalities of thinking that set free contemporary civilization that bears the stamp of techno­ one’s own seeking, questioning and striving; the first logy. It reflects back upon our daily experience of life in indications of a way of judging the facts and events in the two ways. The one great experience which it helps us to world from the point of view of the spirit; finding paths attain is that, to a great extent free from wearisome leading to the experience of supersensible realms of dependence on nature and from the conditioning influ­ existence; light that can illuminate the riddles of individ­ ence of traditional cultures, we can really carry out what ual and human destiny; intuitions leading to a creative we design, think and plan. Inner security and conscious­ approach to one’s task in life, etc. All these goals presup­ ness of freedom grow out of this. We experience ourselves pose, however, an increased vitality in one’s own powers of as persons who are able to transform what we undertake thinking, which, should it be lacking, can be developed into deeds. The other side of this civilization of the only through a meditative practice of the activity of thinking “feasible” makes itself felt where we are no longer the [ein uebendes Verhaeltnis zur denkenden Betaetigung]. This agents, but rather those acted upon. In many areas we see “living within thinking” can of course be built up [eruebt] to ourselves forced into a way of life which excludes us from a certain extent in study of an artistic, scientific, mathe­ the shaping of our own affairs, condemns us to an matical or philosophical nature prior to the study of existence as passive onlookers and harnesses us into a anthroposophical spiritual science itself. But this can also world made by others. This gives birth to boredom, inner be done directly through studying spiritual science. This emptiness and fear. Even one’s own existence is finally felt text hopes to promote the latter kind of study. Thus it to be meaningless. However much the one side of con­ addresses itself above all to those who are seeking insight­ temporary civilization appears to fulfill our longings as ful ways of attaining vital, spiritual thinking in individual individuals to shape our own lives, the other side robs us and group study of anthroposophy. of this hope. Is the fate of individual freedom already sealed in this way? * * * In his philosophical works, especially in his Philos- Modern humanity, whose attitude of soul bears the ophy of Freedom, the first edition of which appeared stamp of a consciousness directed toward objects, feels the already in 1894, Rudolf Steiner undertook to show how the world of spiritual processes and beings of which anthro­ individual’s experience of freedom can be extracted from posophy speaks to be alien. And this self-evident fact the raw ore of the experience just described and how, freed entails yet another: modern civilization is structured in from the dross which attaches to it from the world of “the such a way that only the human capacities which lead to feasible,” it can be raised up into the clear light of thinking the development of this object-centered consciousness are 10 promoted and nourished. Thereby all our powers that are all reality what he imagined himself to be receiving as the able to bring forth a consciousness of purely spiritual mere communication of thoughts.(2) processes and beings, remain underdeveloped. For this reason Rudolf Steiner undertook to give our civilization If what Rudolf Steiner maintains here is true, then two the means and the institutions necessary to a meditative fundamental questions follow immediately. The one is: schooling through which a second, spiritual conscious­ But how do we attain a “reception in thought” of spiritual- ness complementary to the waking consciousness of scientific reports such that they can become an instru­ external objects can be prepared and gradually ment in our own soul? The other: How do we come to developed. realize that we have already experienced unawares what One of these means to the development of spiritual we imagined to be merely the communication of consciousness is anthroposophical spiritual science itself. thoughts? Both questions lead to the proper surmise that, Rudolf Steiner often spoke about the way in which it is to if this study of spiritual science is to be more than a mere be used. He says for example in a lecture which he himself acceptance of unrealizable communications, we must wished to have published: concern ourselves as much with the “how,” the way in which we receive and elaborate it, as with its content, the Scientific literature contains certain data which one learns “what.” as information. Spiritual-scientific texts are not like this. * * * They can become an instrument within the soul of every human This study shall attempt to answer this double being. [emphasis C. L.] question neither with systematic plans of study, nor with And a few sentences later Rudolf Steiner elaborates this methodological recipes, nor with determinate learning techniques or anything of the sort, but rather primarily thought in the following way: with a spiritual-scientific study of the human being as We will come more and more to see that a book written in a thinker. For a general discussion of the human being from truly spiritual-scientific way is not like other books, that the point of view of anthroposophical spiritual science, merely impart certain findings. Rather, it is like an the reader must here be referred to the chapter “The instrument that enables one to attain such knowledge Essential Nature of Man” in the book Theosophy and the through one’s own activity. Only one must realize that the chapter “The Nature of Humanity” in the book Occult spiritual-scientific instrument is totally spiritual, that it Science: An Outline by Rudolf Steiner. The present study is consists of certain deliberately enlivened representations limited to the human being as thinker. Thus there stands and ideas. Moreover, these representations and ideas are different from all others because they are not pictures, but in the center of our considerations a series of metamor­ rather living realities.(l) phoses of the soul’s perceptual, intellectual and cogni- tional activities, the structure of which is anchored in our Here one’s attention is directed immediately to the human supersensible organization. We shall want to discuss being himself. By taking up a spiritual-scientific descrip­ processes which take place in the supersensible part of our tion and thinking it through, we acquire already the human being when we take up spiritual science—indeed, possibility of approaching spiritual reality itself. In the science of any kind—and work through it with our first, introductory chapter of one of his fundamental thinking. For it is by means of just these processes that we spiritual-scientific works, Rudolf Steiner emphasizes this “receive at the same time our own inner path” leading to point of view even more strongly: the realities of which spiritual science speaks. And expe­ rience shows that a structuring of anthroposophical study The way we live in reading the descriptions of spiritual that takes into consideration the nature of these processes science is quite different from what it is when reading is more likely to make one “aware that he has been expe­ communications about sense-perceptible events. We riencing in all reality what he imagined himself to be simply read about the latter; but when we read communica­ receiving as the mere communication of thoughts” than tions of supersensible realities in the right way, we our­ one that does not. selves are entering into a stream of spiritual life and being. Thus in the chapters that follow the reader will find a In receiving the results of research, we are receiving at the same time our own inner path towards those results. series of studies relating to the human being as “student,” together with a series of indications showing ways in And, anticipating a criticism that might well be raised, which the student can, if he or she wishes, employ the Rudolf Steiner adds: results of “spiritual anthropology” [Menschenkunde] methodically. In this way the intent of the present work is True, to begin with, the reader will often fail to notice that to contribute to the various attempts within the anthropo­ this is so. For he is far too apt to conceive the entry into the sophical movement to give every activity relating to the spiritual world on the analogy of sensory experience. Therefore what he experiences of this world in reading of it human being a foundation in the spiritual anthropology will seem to him like “mere thoughts” and nothing more. of that activity. A spiritual anthropology of the developing Yet in the true receiving of it even in the form of thoughts, human being must Thus in the chapters that follow man is already within the spiritual world; it only remains the reader will find a series of studies relating to the for him to become aware that he has been experiencing in human being as “student,” together with a series of 11 indications showing ways in which the student can, if he here we confront thought as a vacuum [Gedankensog]; or she wishes. whoever allows himself to be drawn into this vacuum Thus in the chapters that follow the reader will find a believes that the one clearly perceived fragment of experi­ series of studies relating to the human being as “student,” ence represents everything about it that can possibly be together with a series of indications showing ways in experienced. (3) which the student can, if he or she wishes, employ the Anyone who studies contemporary culture in this results of “spiritual anthropology” [Menschenkunde] regard finds everywhere these two ways of relating to methodically. In this way the intent of the present work is thoughts. And much that is unhealthy in contemporary to contribute to the various attempts within the anthropo­ culture can be traced back directly or indirectly to this sophical movement to give every activity relating to the cause. human being a foundation in the spiritual anthropology In the study of spiritual science we counteract these of that activity. A spiritual anthropology of the developing phenomena of “compulsion” and “suction” within the human being must guide the work of the educator, and a thinking life of the soul by developing a third relationship spiritual anthropology of the sick and the healthy human to our concepts and ideas. This can be made clear by being must guide the doctor if pedagogy and medicine are considering the free relationship we are capable of to contribute to an art of social renewal; in the same way, developing toward the world of tools, instruments, the structuring of individual and group study can tran­ machines, etc., that we have ourselves created. While scend mere “learning techniques” and become a social animals are bound to the instrumentaria of their bodies art, if it is founded upon a spiritual anthropology of the and thus can live only in a specific environment and activity of study, or uses this to gain clarity and develop perceive only a specific part of that world, we humans are further. Whoever recognizes the intent of this book will able, in keeping with our goals in each situation, to also understand that many of the ideas concerning exchange freely certain tools and instruments for com­ spiritual anthropology presented in the following pages pletely different ones; in this way we adapt to the varied are elaborated only to the extent that seemed necessary to parts of our environment when cognizing or acting. This reach our stated goal; their epistemological justification, same freedom is possible with regard to concepts and etc., would in many cases require many times the space ideas as well. Once they have been worked out, concepts available. and ideas can also be used instrumentally. Then we no * * * longer “serve” an “idea,” but rather it serves us, helping us “One must be able to confront an idea and experience to determine human goals and to find ways to attain them. it; otherwise one falls into its bondage,” writes Rudolf The mental equipment that is given us to help us in Steiner in the Preface to the first edition of his book The mastering life’s tasks is, however, a vital, inwardly mobile Philosophy of Freedom Self-reflection reveals that we can instrumentarium that we ourselves must shape before we lose our freedom with regard to an idea in two different can employ it. ways. One is when our relationship to the idea becomes The aim of studying anthroposophy is to attain such imbued with a subtle or a strong experience of intoxica­ an inwardly free, human relationship in our work with the tion. Then the thought is in danger of working within us as living concepts and ideas of anthroposophical spiritual an unconscious drive, as the desire to “realize” the science as well. Through this initial form of spiritual thought, cost what it may, or to speak about it in order to activity we make it possible to come into the right convince others, or, if not this, then at least to enjoy the relationship not only to the physical world, but to the thought itself. And all this without there ever arriving spiritual as well, and, actively uniting the two, to partic­ sufficient insight into the relationships, contexts, and ipate in shaping the future of humanity. conditions under which it is thought, spoken, or put into action, and without giving due regard to its consequences. In addition to this one danger to our inner freedom, namely that we become “intoxicated” with an idea and (1) Liestal, Oct. 16, 1916, Human Life in the Light of Spiritual thereby become oblivious to its preconditions and conse­ Science quences, there is another. Here again it is not the thought (2) “The Character of Occult Science,” in Occult Science: An itself that threatens our freedom, but rather our relation­ Outline ship to the thought. The danger arises whenever our (3) See in this regard the lecture of March 6, 1917 in Building thinking becomes so razor-sharp and clear that we grasp Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha an event in terms of a single logical chain of premises and conclusions; this one fragment of experience is so clear we forget that the same event appears different from different points of view, and is related to other premises and consequences, etc., as well. We purchase the clarity of the one experience at the expense of blindness to all others. While in the former example we were faced with thought as a compulsion [Gedankendrang] that destroys freedom, 12 How to Read a Book: A Study of Rudolf Steiner’s

Knowledge of the Higher Worlds by GEORGE O’NEIL and GISELA O’NEIL

PART VI

CHAPTER FIVE: CONDITIONS

If you are ever called upon to give an anthropo­ sophical lecture and are in urgent need of a theme: recreate for your audience the content of this chapter. You’ll never go wrong and you’ll be in good company—we have a list of five names, all prominent lecturers, who did this in the auditorium in Spring Valley (there must be others whom we did not happen to hear). Likewise, for an initial study with a new group, you couldn’t find a more ideal text. (We have used it several times, each time a happy choice.) 1 Prelude What is so unique about this chapter? Why such broad appeal? There are several answers. Interview - The chapter is self-contained, no background is needed to appreciate it. There is no esoteric or unfamiliar Reverence for Truth terminology or intellectual difficulty. And, too, no impos­ ing list of exercises (in contrast to the preceding and Ideas & I deals following chapters). The writing is compact—just a few pages—but lyrical in style with an almost musical quality. The development is straight forward through the seven main themes. But there is more: although only In the course of the human life, the soul of sentience, persons with searching questions will come to anthro­ of adventure in the world of the senses, unfolds in the posophy, Americans are often not yet awake to philo­ twenties, from 21 - 28. It is striking how the themes of this sophical problems—as perhaps Europeans are—since fifth chapter appeal to the idealism of young people. they are more concerned with social issues and human Striking too, how two decades ago, in the ’60s when the relationships. This chapter speaks squarely to this need, youth culture blossomed, some of these themes became and it speaks to the heart. the banner cries of various groups, spreading their ideals Another aspect, perhaps the most important: the text to large segments of society. is so deceptively simple that it reaches all levels of Sentient-soul idealism can deeply stir one’s sense of understanding—the beginner and the most advanced awe. If you happen to be over 28, don’t assume that you student—because there are here layers of thoughts and might be beyond these concerns (in other words, don’t meanings, as one who works with this text will discover. look down your nose), for this portion of the soul is the vehicle for the creative spirit within the earthly sphere, OPEN TO THE WORLD opening the gateway to the wonders of the world. And THE SENTIENT SOUL ASPECT without stability and firm mastery in the realms of Each of the chapters differs in content and quality. Of perception and feeling (sentience), all intellectual striv­ the eleven, the first and the last—as prelude and finale— ings would lose their life and substance. The modern path form a frame. The remaining nine expound the path from to the spirit is in no way weltfremd (alienated from life). It each of the aspects of the ninefold human being. (This was seeks to unite an understanding of both worlds. presented in the opening article of this series.) Thus the The emphasis here is on soul-life stability. The fifth chapter describes the demands the student must sentient soul must become firm in itself, achieve “charac­ fulfill in the realm of his sentient soul. Perhaps we can ter,” if it is to be the basic instrument for further progress summarize the achievements to be gained so far with the on the path. Either we work on it ourselves or life will teach admonition: Be prepared! (or expect disappointment). us the hard way. We are never finished learning, acquiring Boy scouts know, it’s their motto. (For orientation, we strength, polishing all those soul-windows to the world. repeat here the first part of the book’s “map.”) The task stays with us through life. 13 RUDOLF STEINER S STYLE THE OVERVIEW: OF WRITING DYNAMICS OF THE UNFOLDING IDEA Unless we penetrate beyond the content to the style of Angels never make mistakes. They never think step each chapter, we miss half the message. The beginner, of by step. They see their cosmic thoughts—all at once! course, has to wrestle with the content, but for work in Humans some day will become angelic. Meanwhile, the study groups and for those wishing to get beyond the practice of Idea -Anschauung, of living into the develop­ beginner’s phase, concern with the “how” becomes as ment and totality of a chapter idea, will bring us a touch important as the “what” closer to that goal—in the realm of thinking. In the lecture of Jan. 1, 1919, recently published in To help the reader achieve an overview, Steiner’s English for the first time (in How Can Mankind Find the beautiful text was reduced here (in the neighboring chart) Christ Again?), Rudolf Steiner describes his style of gestal­ to a series of maxims. The conscientious reader will turn to tendes Denken (form-producing, shaping, sculpturing, or the original and verify each one for himself. formative thinking) and contrasts it with the ordinary To be observed: there is an opening set of three thinking we all tend to use: paragraphs on the teacher/pupil relation; a closing set (four paragraphs) on the moral implications; between The second way of thinking is a totally different process, a these unfold the guiding seven “conditions” for cultiva­ completely other way of thinking. . . . It is a shape- tion of soul health and vigor. Each of these seven forming manner of thinking. If you look more closely, if you follow what I have tried to indicate in my various books conditions (paragraphs four through ten) describes what on spiritual science, you will realize that the difference does may be seen as a cure for a current crisis-situation in not lie so much in the content that is imparted—this can be society. Each “condition” could well be expanded into a judged from various other viewpoints; but the way of seeing separate article. And the seventh condition includes the the whole world and of coordinating that knowledge, the earlier six. It presumes that miracle of inner balance, and entire mode of thought presentation, is a different one. This formulates the goal: a unified, harmonized soul life will is shape-producing; it gives separate pictures, rounded establish the inner quiet, the poise needed for the first totalities; it gives contours, and through contours, color. successful steps on the path to higher knowledge. Throughout the entire presentation in the printed The sequence of the seven “conditions” proceeds books you will be able to see that it has none of the from Outer to Inner: ascending from bodily health; dismembering character that you find in modern science. This difference of the “how” (the mode of thinking) must be through life-sensitivity; and reality of thoughts and brought out just as emphatically as the difference of the feelings; to the Being of man. Then in polar descent: from “what” (the content of subject matter). There exists a steadfastness of will and creative sacrifice; through grati­ formative (gestaltende) way of thinking that has been tude, love, higher cognition; to harmony. Together: the developed with the especial purpose of leading to the seven great tones of sevenfold man resound—a living supersensible worlds. If you take the book, Knowledge of the thought organism. It was given thus in a form able to Higher Worlds, where such a path is marked out, you will evoke the magical power of coming alive in the soul of the find that every thought, every idea in it is based on this student: as totality, as Anschauung. Worthy of being formative thinking. inscribed indelibly in the soul by meditative effort, it can This is something essential for our time. For this become the basis for conversation with the Higher Self formative thinking has a quite definite quality. . . . If you and the Angelos. exercise creative, formative thinking (gestaltendes Denken), thinking that allows for metamorphosis, I could also say Goethean thinking—represented, for instance, in the shaping of our pillars and capitals [of the First Goethe­ anum]; used too in all the books I have tried to give to spiritual science—this thinking is closely bound up with the human being. Only the beings connected with the normal evolution of mankind can work creatively, sculp­ turally as a human being works within himself with thinking. . . . You can never go astray on a wrong path if through spiritual science you engage in formative think­ ing. . . . For the Christ Impulse stands in the direct line of formative thinking. Florin Lowndes drew the overview chart.

14 C h a p te r V CONDITIONS FOR SOUL STABILITY Paragraphs * Theme * Organism BASIS FOR ALL PROGRESS ON THE PATH

The Real Self found Within Outer 7

Inner ThoughtsInner & Feelings Soul Steadfast the Will! Potent Forces Strengths Love the Doing - Not success Be Strong! Cultivate them! Sacrifice is Giving

Interlinked Be thankful! Life Forces One with World Appreciation We are responsible! Be sensitive! awakens Love

Health first Harmony -the Goal! The Whole Man Body & Mind No extremes Hold the balance! Take care! Inner Poise!

Inner Spirit Shapes its outer Form Persistent efforts expected Love of Man widens to love of Existence Build, transform- do not destroy Left free- No coercion Work & Dedication make for Progress

Teacher advises Learn to learn! Pupil Initiates Listen w/o reaction

Be Prepared! Preparation ends The Path is Adventure-some (Next: Results) PUBLICATIONS

THE TENSION BETWEEN EAST AND WEST by Rudolf Steiner. relation to intellectuality, compares human life-cycles to history, Introduction by Owen Barfield. Ten lectures in Vienna, June 1-5 and presents an overview of the Waldorf impulse. In "The and June 7-11, 1922. Anthroposophic Press, second printing Individual Spirit and the Social Structure” we see how history is 1983; 188 pages, $8.95 now deployed in geographic space, pointing clearly to a three­ fold world view. Our failure to comprehend the true role of In June of 1922 Rudolf Steiner returned to his beloved human labor and integrate it into the social order is “The Vienna, where he had spent his student days. Once the sparkling Problem (Asia-Europe).” Our “Prospects of Its Solution center of culture and art in Central Europe, still a beautiful and (Europe-America)” involve taking hold of the unconscious, delightful city, postwar Vienna had been plunged into an youthful forces of will. The path “From Monolithic to Threefold atmosphere of gloom and despair. Devaluation of currency Unity” requires recognition of the role of Liberty in spiritual life, permitted visitors to live in luxury, while threadbare Austrians Equality in legal and political life, and Fraternity in economic could scarcely afford basic necessities. Confusion, anxiety and endeavors, the three spheres working together. fear prevailed. Carl Stegmann, who was present as a young man at these A Pentecostal flame arose in the midst of this chaos during lectures, remarked on the thundering ovations greeting Rudolf the twelve-day “West-East Congress” of the anthroposophical Steiner as he entered and left the hall. He points out that Steiner movement. Rudolf Steiner hoped that the Congress would proposed a new world view that went beyond his earlier establish a spiritual foundation from which ascending forces Threefold Social Order; here, his scope was more universal, and might counter the forces of destruction. Vienna was specially new boundaries defined East, Center and West. The promise of suited, both geographically and through its people, to create a America is spoken of in these lectures as never before; from the spiritual bridge between East and West. Individuals attended impulses given in Vienna, Rev. Stegmann and many others have from various parts of Europe, from America to the west and as turned their destinies toward planting and nurturing the seeds of far away as Japan to the east. Mutual understanding was sought anthroposophy in the West, as well as turning their inner gaze to among companions from across the earth at a time when comprehend the East. These lectures bear powerful forces for international understanding was at its lowest level. realizing a threefold world unity. Each day lectures and discussions were shared on scientific —Brian Gray (Fair Oaks, Calif.) topics, artistic themes and religious questions; performances of classical music and eurythmy highlighted the artistic presen­ tations. Rudolf Steiner’s evening lectures brought each day’s theme THE CYCLE OF THE YEAR AS BREATHING-PROCESS OF to its culmination. He spoke to approximately 2000 people- THE EARTH by Rudolf Steiner. Five lectures, Dornach, March many of them standing in the packed hall. He addressed their 31 - April 8, 1923. Translated by Barbara Betteridge and Frances readiness for knowledge, their capacity for thinking, for testing E. Dawson. Anthroposophic Press, 1984; 88 pages; $7.95 & $14.00 themselves, weeding out the old, and for acting out of insight. (cloth) The reader will recognize that these lectures are not easy; they present spiritual insight into major problems and lead toward a When a Member asked Rudolf Steiner whether it was better new world view. to read fifty cycles once or one cycle fifty times, Steiner “Anthroposophy and the Sciences,” the first five lectures of reportedly opted for one. This cycle would be a good choice. On June 1-5, point toward modern dilemmas of knowledge and occasion Steiner went so far as to say that learning to feel the suggest some surprising solutions. “Natural Science” must be seasons of the year in all their significance was one way to developed into spiritual science, which seeks to be its soul and prepare for seeing the etheric Christ (so Adam Bittleston spirit. “Psychology” must be advanced into meditative experi­ reported in the 1960 Golden Blade.) ence leading to the eternal in human nature. The “Role of East This Easter cycle, subtitled “The Four Great Festival and West in History” has slowly led to the separation of religion, Seasons of the Year,” forms the central part of what we might call art, and science, which must now find an inner spiritual unity in a trilogy of festival cycles, beginning with the Holy Nights of the souls of men for trust to develop between East and West. The 1922-23 (The Spiritual Communion of Mankind) and concluding fourth lecture, given on Pentecost, contains a poignant imagina­ with the cycle of Michaelmas 1923, Anthroposophy and the tion: the raised crucifix, bearing the body of the Redeemer, Human Gemuet (recently published under the title Michaelmas symbolically stands between the Eastern Buddhistic view of life and the Soul Forces of Man). and the Western ideal of resurrection through willful human In the Holy Nights lectures Rudolf Steiner mentioned for activity. Limits of knowledge of outer world and inner self, so the first time the importance of celebrating the festival of essential for our capacity to love and to develop a reliable Michaelmas in our age. The Easter cycle then takes up the memory, can be extended by supersensible cognition to reveal a impulse, describing what is needed for men once more to paradoxical truth: the world is seen as inner self, and the inner become “festival-creating,” especially to establish a Michael self as world “Cosmic Memory.” festival in such a way as to assure that ascending forces shall Following a performance of Bruckner’s Mass in F Minor as prevail in evolution. Together, this festival trilogy and the Soul requested by Rudolf Steiner, he resumed lecturing on June 7-11 Calendar (given eleven years earlier) are revelations of this path, on the theme “Anthroposophy and Sociology.” In “Individual which should lead from conscious participation in the cycle of and Society” he speaks about the question of freedom and its the year to conscious communion with the divine. 16 In Steiners picture of “the festival year” the four seasonal ology, laying down the foundations of the study of human life festivals form polarities, like a great cross: St. John’s polar to processes. Physiology, unlike anatomy, concerns itself with what Christmas, Michaelmas to Easter. Upon this cruciform structure is in movement in the human organism, what flows between the year lives and breathes in a kind of lemniscate. The living organ systems, the continuous metamorphosis from substance Earth-soul which is held within the Earth in winter is breathed to spirit, from spirit back to substance. The mood of these out into the cosmos from spring to summer, then breathed in lectures, then, is one of tremendous reverence, as they approach again from fall to winter, bearing with it certain nature elemen­ the deepest mysteries of the human being in his relationship to tal, and beyond these the forces of Christ with Michael at his the cosmos. Steiner says at the beginning of this cycle that, “It is right hand. Man’s soul participates in this process. not without reason that I myself have only reached the point Many students have found the drawing of the lemniscate where I can speak upon this theme as the result of mature with which Steiner closed the first lecture an endlessly rewarding reflection covering a long period of time,” and the reason to subject for meditation, also in relation to the Soul Calendar. The which he refers is the need to cultivate this reverence before the crossing-point of the lemniscate can be seen as indicating the being of man as a revelation of spirit. time just before Easter and just after Michaelmas. Steiner speaks This mood of reverence is conveyed not only in the rich of Easter and Michaelmas as “holding the balance” between the content of this cycle but in its meditative unfolding, which summer mysteries of the heights and the winter mysteries of the evokes the essential nature of life processes perhaps more depths. powerfully than the content itself. Steiner himself says, early in The following day Rudolf Steiner sounded the call for a the cycle, that it will be impossible to understand fully what is renewal of the Easter festival. “Today the time is come,” he offered in the early lectures without what is given in the final proclaimed, “when the Easter thought must again awaken as a lectures: a complete circle of thought is formed, in which the end living thought.” This living thought can then give birth to a meets the beginning, re-enlivening it and allowing deeper Michael thought which alone can provide the inspiration for reflection to peel away layer upon layer of common illusions. renewal of the social life. Beginning with the essential duality in human experience— The central lecture, devoted to developing the impulse of the the outer world and inner life—Steiner guides us through a series Michaelic will, stands as one of the greatest Michaelmas lectures of pictures of dualities within the human organism, revealing in the literature. In the central passage of the cycle we read: countless facets of this relationship of what is inside to what is outside. The first picture presents the contrast between the brain To feel the becoming of the thought in one’s self, the gleaming up and spinal cord, protected from the outer world within their of the idea in the human soul, in the whole human organism of bony sheath, and the rest of the organ systems. Though it is man, to be akin to the yellowing leaves, the withering foliage, the physically protected from the outer world, it is through the nerve- drying and shriveling of the plant world in nature; to feel the sense system that we make our most immediate encounters with kinship of man’s spiritual “beingness” with nature’s spiritual what is outside us, while the organs more exposed physically to “beingness”—this can give man that impulse which strengthens his will, that impulse which points man to the permeation of his will the outside maintain a much more inward existence. Having with spirituality. In so doing, however, in permeating his will with pictured this primary duality, Steiner penetrates further, differ­ spirituality, the human being becomes an associate of the Michael entiating the brain (thinking) from the spinal cord (action), and activity on earth. finally the outer portion of the brain, which mediates waking consciousness, from the inner portion, a metamorphosed spinal In astounding pictures taken from the Akashic record Rudolf cord, which is more concerned with dream life. Steiner describes, in the closing pair of lectures, the celebrating The essential duality of nerve-sense system and inner of the four festivals of the seasons in the ancient Mysteries, organs is then developed further, with the heart-blood system echoing and expanding the content of the other two cycles in the introduced as the mediator between outer and inner. Steiner trilogy. The origin of human singing from bird song, connected describes the blood moving through us as a tablet on which are with St. John’s, provides a delightful passage, once the reader inscribed on one side the sense impressions from the outer world gives himself up to its dreamy repetitiveness. But he would do and on the other side the inner vital life mediated by the organs well to heed Steiner’s warning: “Echoes of the [old] festivals have of nutrition. Just when we may think, however, that we have persisted, but naturally everything was changed when the great outer and inner fixed in their “proper” places, Steiner suggests Event of Golgotha entered in.” that the inner life of the organs is actually the transformed outer It is in all a stirring book. It would be hard to read it without world of the cosmos. And through the nerve-sense system, outer sensing what Guenther Wachsmuth, who experienced the cycle impressions enter inner life via the soul activities. The blood in its first hand, meant when he wrote of “these sacred hours which constant movement faces both the world outside us and the carried the inauguration of the spiritual cult of the festival times world within, just as the ego stands poised between earthly life at the Goetheanum to a new stage of development.” and supersensible life. —Barbara Betteridge (Santa Paula, Calif.) A further duality is introduced between the brain, which conveys outer impressions to the blood, and the sympathetic nervous system, which Steiner describes as keeping the inner AN OCCULT PHYSIOLOGY by Rudolf Steiner (eight lectures vital activities from reaching consciousness. From this polarity, given in Prague, March 20-28, 1911). Rudolf Steiner Press, Steiner gives remarkable insight into two potential paths of London, reprinted 1983, 205 pages; $9.95 spiritual development: the quest into the macrocosm in which, through the development of Imagination, one frees the nerve For those who have been studying this book for years from forces from the blood, thus loosening oneself from the ordinary contraband, dog-eared Xerox copies, the reprint of this crucial ego and piercing the veil over the sense world; and the quest cycle of lectures is a most welcome event. In these lectures within, into the microcosm, seeking through mysticism to bind Steiner offered potent seed-forces for an exploration of physi­ the sympathetic nervous system to the blood, thus piercing the 17 veil within, but also resulting in a dangerous immersion into the organs can we hope to apprehend the true nature of human ego. physiology. Steiner offers such a fluid mobility of thinking in Steiner then shifts to another facet of the human duality, this cycle: he presents the results of his own cognition, yet, even contrasting the transformation of nutritive substance, particu­ more important, he demands a similar mobility in our own larly by the spleen, liver, and gall bladder—in which outer thinking, without which we would be unable to grasp the shifting substance is completely transformed before meeting the blood— relationships that unfold breathtakingly before us: man/ with the direct penetration of the outer world into the human cosmos, inner/outer, conscious/unconscious, nerve/organs, being via the oxygen which the blood absorbs, untransformed, brain/spinal cord, blood/nerve, blood/organs, lung/spleen, in the lungs. A collision of these two forces in the blood takes heart/kidney, lung/nerve, bone/skin, bone/blood, excretion/ place at the heart, and the harmony between them is brought absorption, death/life. After studying these lectures one feels as about by the activity of the kidney system, which disposes of if woven into the formative stages of a crystal, surrounded and excesses emerging from one pole or the other. A further penetrated by the threads of truly living thoughts. unfolding of these dualities appears in the contrast between the —Alice Wulsin (Spring Valley, N.Y.) outer world as it is absorbed directly and physically in the lungs and the direct but non-physical absorption of the outer world via the sense impressions and the soul activity involved in percep­ tion. Here Steiner contrasts a physical breathing process with a spiritualized breathing process, again mediated by the blood. The interplay of bodily, soul, and spiritual forces as they GOETHEANISTISCHE NATURWISSENSCHAFT; Volume 3, manifest themselves in relationship to the four members of man Zoologie, edited by Wolfgang Schad. Verlag Freies Geistesleben, and to the three soul faculties leads to the tremendous complex­ 1984; DM 32.- ity that we encounter when trying to penetrate outer appear­ ances. As Steiner indicates, a particular organ system is merely a We live in a time in which Stephen Jay Gould’s entertaining physical reflection of supersensible force systems which then essays on such obscure topics as gall midges, fresh water clams, guide the deposit of substances. Irish elks, sponges, quahogs, mites, etc. are collected into best­ Further dualities are explored in later lectures: the lymph selling books for the general reading public. The array of such system in relation to the blood system; the bony system in books and the many television programs on animals and animal relation first to the skin and then to the blood. The bony system’s behavior show that many people are interested in the animal fixity of form and impermeability to outer influence are con­ world. However, most of these works show the behavior of trasted with the blood’s determinable substance which is sen­ animals through the neo-Darwinian lens, if not through the lens sitive to every stirring within. The bony system, formed from past of sociobiology or “selfish genes.” In one reaction to such incarnations and now deadened, withdrawn from the ego’s interpretations, best-selling author and “biology watcher” Lewis influence, provides a support for the whole ego organization of Thomas remarks that he cannot listen to the thrush outside his this lifetime, while the blood, alive in the fullest sense, is the window singing its complex song, and compress it into a picture instrument of the ego’s present activity. These larger systems are of a bird saying, “I’m here, keep out”(males or “I’m here, please then associated with much more delicate physiological proc­ come into my territory” (females). Thomas’ feeling is that there is esses connected with the soul’s activities: the salt-formation of a special “something else” in a thrush song which can only be the thought-process in the individual is associated with the interpreted as an expression of “thrushness.” cosmic thought-process of the past, reflected in the deposit of Zoology and animal behavior (ethology) are the themes in bone; the warmth activity of individual willing is associated with this third book of the four-volume Goetheanistische Natur­ a cosmic warmth of the future that can imbue the human ego, wissenschaft series. The essays in this collection take a closer look carried by the blood, with compassion that will transform the at the “something else” we feel when we carefully watch the lives earth. and forms of animals. Having woven together an image of the entire human being The collection contains 12 articles by the following authors: through unfolding this sequence of dualities, Steiner brings all Andreas Suchantke (5), Friedrich Kipp (5), Thomas Goebel (1), the systems into mobility in very specific descriptions of and Wolfgang Schad (1). The topics are: bird migration, display activities undertaken by all the organ systems in harmony. A patterns in birds, the language of insect forms, convergent powerful example is Steiner’s exploration of the activity of evolution in skeletons of different animal groups, teeth patterns excretion at different levels: physical excretion in the differ­ in mammals, the influence of light on living forms, a challenge entiating of nutritive substances; “etheric” excretion in the to the Darwinian interpretation of mimicry in butterflies, forms secretion of glands; “astral” excretion of the skin, related to the of mollusks, and questions on the validity of natural selection nerve-sense system; and “ego” excretion in the blood’s constant and the Darwinian interpretation of survival of species. flowing, changing, and differentiation of substances. Through Half of the articles in this collection appear in the biblio­ all these forms of excretion the human being achieves con­ graphy of Wolfgang Schad’s Man and Mammals. Here one can sciousness, becoming aware of himself from within and without find some of the seminal insights which were incorporated into through the resistance and discerning involved in the activity of Schad’s book, which is the best-known detailed work on excretion: this is I, this is not I; this is within, this is without. Goethean biology available to readers in English-speaking Steiner’s occult physiology is truly a hidden one: when we countries. look at the living human being, we see none of these mysterious Science is a conversation between the observer of living activities that are constantly at play in the organism; neither can nature (biologist) and nature, but it is also a conversation we see them when we dissect a liver or kidney on a laboratory between biologists and biology watchers. May these articles table. Only through attaining the same mobility in thinking that provide ground for dialogue, challenge, criticism and insight. is active in the force systems behind the physical deposits of the —Kenneth Melia (Orangevale, Calif.) 18 A CONTEMPLATION ABOUT RUDOLF STEINER S CALENDAR wisdom of the stars received as inspiration. The Druid priest was OF THE SOUL by H. D. van Goudoever. Translated by Giselher concerned with retaining the purity in nature. He knew well the Weber. St. George Publications, 1984, 50 pages; $6.95 elemental beings that work beneficially in plants, but he also saw these same beings grow to gigantic size, and work destructively In this short summary of lectures H. D. van Goudoever, with through such weather phenomena as hail, fierce winds, biting warmth of heart and wisdom of soul, describes the yearly cold or searing heat. Agricultural practices were conducted in journey of the human soul with way stations along a fourfold absolute rhythm with stellar influences, and the herbal medi­ path. This path, beginning anew each year at Easter, is capable cines were to reconcile the ravaging weather giants with the gods. of raising us to different levels of soul experience. Nevertheless, this nature culture met its demise when the Van Goudoever shows how working with the verses of the forces of the intellect entered with the writing of the Runes. calendar can open up the possibility for the new Christ Gradually, the harmonious connection was broken and the experience: “The appearance of Christ in an etheric body and Druid priesthood sank into decadence. As intellectual day the imaginative vision of the soul seeing itself as Madonna is the consciousness replaced former dreamlike states, spiritual vision destiny of mankind and has worldwide significance.” We learn of nature was lost, although Steiner identifies Druid remnants in to appreciate the Calendar of the Soul as a yearly path of the atavistic capacities of such men as Jacob Boehme, transformation with the birth of the spirit child in the womb of Paracelsus or Swedenborg. the soul as a goal. Working with the Calendar may also be A natural world order could never have granted true expressed as the practice of awakening the Christ consciousness freedom to humanity, and the death-like intrusion of the within oneself. intellect was necessary. It is the Deed of Golgotha that makes The text includes Giselher Weber’s English rendering of possible a new moral world order, replacing the natural one. The Rudolf Steiner’s verses of the Calendar, a boon to all who labor abstract intellect, however, can not experience the Golgotha to find “right” translations. One can readily agree with J. Phillip Event, but rather the new state of consciousness, now emerging Nusbaum in his Foreword: “We feel this small volume would in humanity: “a heightened state of waking, concerned with the justify its publication for the English-speaking world even on the human will as it acts on the nervous system.” merits of the verses alone, as one more conscientious effort to When we have understood the past, know of the future, and incarnate them into our life in this language.” “feel ourselves a bridge between them,” can we begin to acquire This study will surely prove invaluable to all who seek a way the new faculties. The Druid cosmology of the past contains the to connect themselves with one of Rudolf Steiner’s most elusive seeds of the new will-wisdom of the future. In the Michaelic yet also most centrally vital creative gifts to humanity. culture now approaching, a new relationship with the elemental —Magda Lissau (Chicago, Ill.) world must be forged to heal the Earth—now from the vantage point of a heightened will-awareness, but prepared by the ancient Druid priest. —Patricia Kaminski (Nevada City, Calif.) MAN IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE THE SUN-INITIATION OF THE DRUID PRIEST AND HIS MOON SCIENCE by Rudolf Steiner. Four lectures in Stuttgart, Sept. 14- 16, 1923 and Dornach Sept. 19, 1923. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982; THE ART OF LECTURING by Rudolf Steiner. Six lectures, 82 pages; $5.00 Dornach, October 11-16, 1921. Mercury Press, 1984; 118 pages. This lecture series, delivered shortly after Rudolf Steiner For anyone deeply concerned with the difficult and urgent returned from Penmaenmawr, England, sheds light on impor­ task of relating anthroposophy to the present human situation, tant aspects of Druid cosmology. In fact, Steiner refers to the this is an important set of lectures—one that will repay careful Penmaenmawr visit as “a very important event in the history of reading, discussion, and thought. Because—foremost and the anthroposophical movement,” in bringing deeper recogni­ throughout, and with a richness of insight and illustration— tion of certain soul forces in ancient humanity, which contribute these lectures deal with the art of lecturing itself, it would be easy to the evolution of human consciousness. to overlook their wider importance. But these lectures can, in Rudolf Steiner characterizes the Druid sensitivity for fact, be read on at least two interrelated levels, both of which measuring and interpreting the Cosmos as one quite different offer important guidelines if anthroposophists are “to speak” from our modern telescopic astronomy, which merely calculates meaningfully in today’s world. and transfers an earthly understanding to the larger universe. The course is always about the art of lecturing, and the The monuments of the Druid priest—-the cromlechs and stone subject is presented as pecisely that, an art. There is here no kit­ circles—were instruments by which the Cosmos itself could be bag of ready-made techniques to produce the instant lecturer. read, through clairvoyant discernment of the shadows cast by Nor, Rudolf Steiner makes clear, could there be. What is crucial these stones. Unlike modern astronomy, which seems remote is to understand that which must go into lecturing—in prepara- from the Earth itself, the cosmic Sun-wisdom of the Druids was a tion and presentation—and, above all, to live into this under­ profound nature-knowledge that produced a superior agricul­ standing and to nourish it in practice. What such careful ture and plant medicine. preparation and presentation entail is developed by Rudolf The Druids are described as possessing, “a kind of uncon­ Steiner with detailed discussion of such wide-ranging considera­ scious memory of Sun and Moon elements existing in the Earth tions as the different and appropriate ways in which thinking, before the Sun and Moon were separated from it.” Initiation feeling, and willing must all enter into the preparing and giving rituals guided the Druid priest into the depths of the Earth, while of the lecture; the task of joining thought with experience; the holding fast to the anti-gravitational forces of the Moon. The composition of the lecture; the appropriate forms of delivery for living spirit in nature was perceived imaginatively, and the different subjects; the place of humor; the use and kinds of notes 19 when these are needed; and so forth, reaching from the general Finally, Rudolf Steiner urges anthroposophists to be aware to the very concrete. And because lecturing involves the whole of and interested in the events of the times. Here, as elsewhere, is person, in speaking and listening, Rudolf Steiner takes up, with his oft-repeated urging that anthroposophy never be allowed to practical suggestions, the improvement of speech. (The practical become a sect in which, under cover of practicing esoteric exercises for speech development are in German and, hence, of knowledge, one takes refuge from the world. For example, limited use to English-speaking readers; nevertheless, the prin­ Steiner observes that the indifference of the bourgeois middle- ciples involved are important.) classes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to Steiner relates anthroposophical lecturing to other forms of what was really going on in the world actually turned the public speaking in past and present, and concludes that beyond spiritual life into ideology, and left the proletariat no alternative the older traditions of “beautiful” speaking and “correct” but to regard all spiritual talk as, indeed, ideological. One speaking, anthroposophists must strive for good speaking, a implication seems to be that a strong antidote to any tendencies characterizing style, which connects effectively and meaning­ of turning anthroposophy itself into mere ideology is a vital fully with the tasks of life. This is the element of truth, he says, in interest in what is happening in the world. To be sure, the utilitarianism of modern humanism and pragmatism, which anthroposophy rightly grasped will itself evoke this deeper is to be taken up and transformed. On principle, therefore, interest and understanding, but it requires those “who strive for a crucial to all anthroposophical lecturing, and stressed repeat­ genuine knowledge of the times.” (p. 114) Steiner says: “What we edly, is the need to understand from the inside the mind and need above all is energy, courage, insight, and interest in world heart and circumstances of the listener—his background, life- events on a broader scale! Let us not isolate ourselves from the situation, and inner-life of consciousness and concepts. And this world, not get entangled in narrow interests, but be interested in important principle points to another level on which this course everything that goes on all over the world.“ (p. 118) For all who of lectures can be read. wish to find a deeper relationship in anthroposophy for them­ These lectures would repay some thoughtful reading and selves, with others, and for our times, these deceptively simple discussion by all who are not satisfied with our efforts so far to lectures have much worth pondering. And for those who would bring anthroposophy into genuine engagement with our most lecture, they are essential. pressing modern problems and dominant ways of thinking. To —Douglas Sloan (New York City) this reviewer at least, three principles or considerations emerge that offer some real help, and challenge, in this regard. The first has already been mentioned; namely, Rudolf Steiner’s insist­ HEALING FORCES IN THE WORD AND ITS RHYTHMS by ence on the need to understand the listener. Heinz Mueller. Translated by Jesse Darrell. Rudolf Steiner Steiner gives an excellent illustration of what is involved. He Schools Fellowship Publications (distr. by St. George Book is speaking in 1921 to a small group of Swiss who will be engaged Service) 1983; 101 pages; $8.95 in lecturing on “the threefold social order.” He speaks directly to the needs and self-understanding of this audience, opening up A craftsman of old had to pass through learning stages of for it the meaning of the threefold social order, and helping these apprentice and journeyman to become eventually a master in future lecturers grasp those points which meet the needs and his field. Waldorf teachers go through similar phases. Taking on thinking of the proletariat and middle-class audiences they in a class for eight years—the first time around is surely an turn will be addressing. Just as he did with pragmatism, Steiner apprentice situation. The “experienced” teacher could be attempts to show some of the points of contact between likened to the journeyman, having greater certainty, knowledge anthroposophy and the proletariat (there will be a few surprises and skill. Even in public school education we speak now of here, I suspect, for some readers) and the middle-class “master teachers” who are to guide others. bourgeosie—points of contact which then have to be trans­ True masters, however, are rare: those who create and speak formed, for understanding does not mean naive adoption nor out of their own insight, not merely repeating what others have categorical rejection of the other’s position. One encounters said and achieved—masters who educate and heal, who reach increasingly today the question, that while anthroposophists are the moral will of individual children. often quick to show how they differ from other movements, do Such a Master—with capital M to be sure—was Heinz they have no common ground with others that would make Mueller. “Cultivate speech in yourself and your children with the genuine engagement and dialogue possible—and necessary? greatest care, since far and away the most of what a teacher gives Rudolf Steiner would seem to suggest that this is a good question, his children comes to them on the wings of speech”—Rudolf and one that we would do well to wrestle with. Steiner’s personal advice became Muellers central task. And Another important consideration is Steiner’s insistence that there was more early help: a daily six-week speech course given the way to present anthroposophy must be continually re­ by Steiner to a small group—Mueller among them—in Steiner’s thought in connection with the time, place, circumstance, and private study in Dornach. This was followed by personal talks (at consciousness of the people involved. “Every sentence,” says various places) that covered whatever the young Mueller was able Steiner, “that is possible in a certain connection is today to ask and comprehend. impossible in another connection.” (p. 32). He says to his In 1967, after 42 years of Waldorf teaching, Mueller pub­ listeners in 1921, for example, that the “threefold social order” as lished in a small book the mature fruit of his lifework, centered he first presented it needs to be re-worked thoroughly in a on the “report verse.” For the uninitiated: this is a short poem to completely different form for England and America. There is no be created yearly by the class teacher for each child, to go with the room here for any kind of “anthroposophical fundamentalism” written report but meant for the child himself, “a verse that can which would seek to preserve unaltered some given formulation show the individual child the direction in which he should of anthroposophy. Can speaking and living out of anthropo­ strive” (Rudolf Steiner.) Quite a task! It concerns not just a sophy in our time require less attention to this task of continually suitable poem but one specifically written to be recited by the renewed understanding and interpretation? child regularly in class during the following year. 20 Heinz Muellers mastery is formidable: his loving knowledge with the encouragement of Ruth Pusch, started trying to fill the of the individual child’s moral needs, his creative skill, and his gap left by the sad demise of Education As An Art. We were achieved know-how. He tells of the healing effect different allowed to take on this name as our sub-title by the Association meters have on the temperaments, and on weaknesses of of Waldorf Schools of North America. thought, feeling, or will; he describes the effect of different vowel- Now our circulation is over 5,000 with 54 U.S. Waldorf and-consonant combinations; and he gives practical sugges­ schools subscribing. Our aim is to have teachers throughout the tions for improving sloppy speech in individuals or class movement inspiring one another with reports from their recitation. classrooms. This educational gem has now become available in English, Also, we should like to be an ambassador, introducing translated by veteran teacher Jesse Darrell. A labor of love and Waldorf education to parents and students. The Waldorf astounding skill: there are 181 sample verses whose thought Schools Fund has given us a grant for the August 1985 issue to be content and imagery, meter and rhyme, and vowel-and-conso- sent to a thousand U.S. colleges and universities. nant emphasis were all transposed into English! The North American side includes myself as editor, about To any apprentice, journeyman, and even master in twenty liaison editors in different schools, Alan Howard, Dan Waldorf education this small book is truly a gift, and also to Dorr as advertising manager and Diane Schmitt as circulation parents who are spiritually awake to the needs of incarnating manager. souls in their care. —Daniel Bittleston (Larkspur, Calif.) —Gisela O’Neil (Spring Valley, N.Y.)

CHILD AND MAN-EDUCATION AS AN ART edited by Brien THE GOLDEN BLADE 1984— Work and Worklessness—Japan Masters & Daniel Bittleston. Steiner Schools Fellowship; 48 and the West edited by Adam Bittleston and Daniel T. Jones. pages; $3.00 per copy or $4.50 per year (two issues) from Diane Rudolf Steiner Press, London; 151 pages; $9.95 Schmitt, 1823 Beech Street, Wantagh, NY 11793 This year’s issue deals mainly with two themes. The first Child and Man is just about fifty years old today. It was concerns man’s experience of work and unemployment. The founded in the 1930s by Cecil Harwood, but in none of the early second looks at Japan’s culture and relationship to the West. A volumes is a date to be found. The journal was clearly intended lecture by Rudolf Steiner, “Elemental Beings and Human to be timeless and indeed the contents of the very first issue are as Destinies,” included in this issue, throws light on both subjects. interesting and as relevant today as ever. A complete collection The section on “Work and Worklessness” brings a number of all the issues makes a very useful reference library on Waldorf of short articles. The “Meaning of Work” concludes with the education. profound observation that “when we bring devotion to our I first came across Child and Man in 1965 when taking my worldly tasks, love is born as a creative force for the continuing first class at Michael House School, where Alan Howard was good of m a n k in d “Work & Destiny” goes more deeply into how teaching and editing. By 1969 Alan had become correspondent man can understand himself in relation to the work he does. for North America, a position he still holds with a regular, This is followed by nine brief essays on specific vocations and thought-provoking Comment. In the Winter 1983 issue, he how, through looking at what a person accomplishes in the wrote: “It is the enslavement of the human spirit that is to be social context, even the lowliest work can become a true service feared, not the Bomb; and the real enemy is not Russia nor to the human community. “A Dustman Speaks” gives the reader America, but those beings of the unseen world who can seduce a new awareness of how vital this menial task is to society’s welfare. “A Cook’s Delight” shows the significance of the the human spirit through magic and fear.” housewife’s task in providing nourishing food for her family. “I When I became a fairly frequent contributor, the journal Am A Plumber,” “The Actor,” “What Is A Research Worker?,” had no color, no illustrations. For seven years I subscribed to “Tinker, Tailor, Banker, Teacher,” “A Doctor’s Approach,” and Arne Klingborg’s Par Vag, the Swedish Waldorf schools’ journal; even ‘The Satisfaction of Computer Programming” all try to I understood very little but loved the colorful children’s work view the individual’s contribution to the community. The two and the many photographs, financed, I discovered, by a large articles, “A New Vocation: Eurythmy” and “Counseling & grant. Such glories were considered totally impossible for us. Priesthood” show how healing forces can flow into the social life But in 1976, Art Osmond, an American colleague, and I through a new approach to human work. raised funds and persuaded the editorial board to let us take over. We doubled the price and launched the first issue with the In “Japan and the West,” the reader is introduced to cover and seven pages in full color and sixteen other illustra­ Japanese poetry, the Haiku. This art form, at first strange to tions, including a photo of Green Meadow School. Waldorf Western ears accustomed to the wealth of words our poets use, education could, after all, be described as colorful in contrast to can be appreciated if taken somewhat like meditations. Rudolf the other varieties. Eileen Hutchins and I were co-editors and we Steiner once described the butterfly as the plant freed by the tried to make the journal representative of the whole English- whole cosmos. Moritake in the fifteenth century made the same speaking world. That first illustrated issue had a report on the observation when he wrote: North American Waldorf schools by Francis Edmunds, on A fallen flower Vancouver Waldorf School by Alan Howard, and a halfpage ad Flew back to its branch! for Education As An Art. No, it was a butterfly. The circulation immediately doubled to 2,200 and contin­ ued to rise. We were solvent. “Individuality and Community in Japan” is written in the In 1981, I moved to California to begin my third voyage form of a dialogue between a Japanese and an Englishman and through the class teacher years at Marin Waldorf School and, explores the difference between social attitudes in the East and 21 in the West. The individual's identification with a group and be hard put to translate this veritable paean and do justice to the with his nation contributes to the economic success of Japan. exalted, creative, visionary and apocalyptic language. Benesch, This is also pointed out in the next article, “Japan and the World who met the poet, calls him a true initiate. Economy.” The need for new spiritual impulses in Japan is The book’s jacket design is backlighted by polar light highlighted in a brief description of the Japanese language and curtains in delicate hues of greens and green-gold. They invite speech. The section ends with “Notes on Japanese Painting” you to open the covers, to discover what’s between them, to which includes several color reproductions of Japanese explore what is old, what is new, what is yet to come, promising paintings and a brief history of this art form. beauty, mystery, knowledge and enlightenment. A concluding third section, titled “Messengers of the Light,” —Ruth Mariott (Louisville, Tenn.) presents a biographical sketch of Wellesley Tudor Poole and a review of Alan Cottrell’s Goethe’s View of Evil by Owen Barfield. —Maria St.Goar (Chattanooga, Tenn.) THE BONE PEDDLARS: SELLING EVOLUTION by William R. Fix. Macmillan, New York, 1984; 337 pages; $18.95

POLARLICHT by Harald Falck-Ytter; photos by T. Loevgren. This book is much more than a well-researched critique of Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 1983; 195 pages; DM 58.- paleoanthropology. First and foremost it is a valiant and enlightening attempt to lift the question of the origin of man out Other than explorers, Eskimos and Lapps, relatively few of the ruts of the creationists/evolutionist debate. people have experienced the Aurora Borealis and/or -Australis. Through introducing the book with a lively description of These magnificent, mysterious curtains of light, ever changing, his own evolution as an author, William Fix quickly brings the swaying, flowing in an absolutely stunning display of colors reader to feel comfortable with the whole subject. He relates how his interest was first piqued by the incautious, dogmatic tone of from the palest reseda-green to the deepest, but diffused red, the responses of the scientific community to the pressures of were for many years the only worthwhile winter show—other biblical fundamentalism. Why were the scientists being so than the starry shoals of the Northern skies—for me and my defensive if the evidence was as overwhelming as they claimed? family in the dark nights of Alaska. Sometimes, when it was very And on the other side, why were so many people reverting to the cold, we could even hear them: a tinkling, swooshing, delicate pre-scientific, literal interpretation of Genesis? Fix then de­ sound, described by some as glittering, harmonious. Northern­ scribes how in trying to protect its weak points, science becomes ers call it the Music of the Spheres: the soft touch of angels ever more extreme and ultimately discredits itself entirely. It playing the heavenly harp while the lights oscillate. becomes a secular religion espousing a crass materialistic This book, greeted like an old and very special friend by doctrine. Referring to Carl Sagan he says, “Sagan invokes those who “remember,” provides also a marvelous journey for accidents the way others invoke God.” In light of this, the every nature lover, for everyone who appreciates rare photo­ resurgence of fundamentalism is not surprising: graphs and even rarer art, for anyone who wants to know more If millions are ignoring the evidence of geology, for about the phenomena of polar lights. This book, as Friedrich example, it may not be that the dulcet tones of Jerry Falwell Benesch in his foreword points out, is the first complete work and other prime-time preachers are utterly irresistible, but about polar light in German. No such other, should it exist in that the scientists themselves are driving them away in the any language, could possibly equal it. The author has encom­ first place with their vacuous absurdities. passed here with vision, great love and scientific accuracy all His interest fully aroused, Fix then plunged into the intricacies available information about the Auroras. Polarlicht is on its way of evolutionary theory and paleoanthropology. There he found to being translated into English, but a true lover of fine books that “almost every ancestor of man ever proposed suffers from could be satisfied with the work at hand: 22 full-page color disqualifying liabilities that are not widely publicized,” and photos, various self-explanatory charts and illustrations, 8 furthermore, “that the presentation of fossil evidence for human lithographs by the Danish painter Harald Moltke (1871-1960)— evolution has long been and still is more of a market phenome­ themselves highly valued works of art and collector’s items in non than a disinterested scientific exercise.” their time—and a reproduction of a woodcut by explorer Fix documents his view of the history of paleoanthropology Fridtjof Nansen. It is impossible not to feel deep reverence and in the first half of the book (entitled “A Tour of the Boneroom”). be truly awe-inspired when turning the pages, slowly. Here it is possible to mention only the major features of this The text itself comprises eight chapters, dealing—in “tour.” Fix is not out to scuttle the evolutionary lineage of man balanced proportion—with different aspects of the polar lights: on principle—he simply wants to get behind all the outrageous mythical, historic, scientific. The newest discoveries and exact claims made about it. He proceeds by using the internal analytic results of geophysics and astrophysics are amplified. inconsistency of the fossil evidence to clear the field of most of They gain more meaning in the light of anthroposophy and a the proposed ancestors of man, including such standbys as deeper, more spiritual world vision. The Auroras are seen not “Neanderthal man” and “Peking man,” as well as recent only in context with the planet, around which they blossom, but additions like “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis). Along the with the whole planetary system. While serious exploration and way Fix points to the factors that keep the popular misconcep­ studies have only recently been done, the phenomenon itself has tions alive: the temptations of fame and fortune, the national long been taken as one akin to thunder and lightning. The polar rivalries, and the all too human reluctance to eat crow. He lights originate in the upper spheres, where the earth surrounds concludes this section by observing that after 120 years of itself with the magnetically caught winds of the sun. The book’s paleoanthropology it is still the anatomical resemblance of apes final crowning chapter features interpretations and part rendi­ and men that is the strongest evidence in favor of evolution. tion of the Northern Light Epos by Theodor Daeubler (1876- In the second part of the book (“A Wider Perspective“), Fix 1934) to whom the whole book is also dedicated. A translator will tries to lay the basis for a more fruitful discussion of man’s origin 22 than is possible in the present public debate in the United States. the luciferic memory-self and the child learns to say “I”; the He begins by demonstrating that the Darwinian theory of second, in the tenth year (at 91/3), brings an ahrimanic thought- evolution survives today largely because it is “an object of capacity, enhancing greatly the feeling of self. The latter genuinely religious devotion.” In this demonstration he draws establishes the split between “me” and the world. The child heavily on Norman Macbeth’s book Darwin Retried: An Appeal to begins to distinguish between what he sees and what he thinks. Reason. He speaks of “that advocate of common sense, Norman (Rudolf Steiner describes the entrance of these two streams, and Macbeth,” and titles one of the chapters ‘The Lawyer’s Whistle”; the educational measures to balance the second, ahrimanic one may well regard the whole book The Bone Peddlers as a stream in a lecture in Augsburg, March 14, 1913.) continuation of that earlier “appeal to reason.” Fix turns next to This book, “The Ninth Year,” is about the second, momen­ the creationists: he points out that the book of Genesis contains tous change in the human life. (The author speaks of “the ninth two accounts of creation, which are contradictory in places if year” the way the Italians name the centuries—quatrocento for taken in the literal sense that the creationists insist upon. In the the 15th. The book concerns—what we call—the tenth year.) geological record he does not find much evidence for a recent Hermann Koepke, a Waldorf teacher in Dornach, details creation of the earth and he suggests that the whole literal the physiological and psychological changes and the educa­ interpretation of Genesis is bad Bible scholarship. Having tional implications. By reconstructing two parent interviews and shown that both the evolutionist and creationist theories have a parent evening with the class teacher, he first approaches the many weak points, Fix takes a positive tack and—borrowing theme from the outside, observing the tenth-year change and from parapsychology, modern physics and ancient religious relating it to home and school. Then he brings seven autobio­ literature—introduces two theories of his own; these he feels take graphical recollections, including those of Bruno Walter, Dante, into account the spiritual dimension of man without proposing a and Rudolf Steiner. In the third section, titled ‘The Second series of miracles that are intrinsically inscrutable. In the theory Seven Years,” he attempts to clarify the physiological and of psychogenesis, a new species may arise through the interven­ psychological changes by contrasting different age groups. He tion of spiritual agencies at critical stages of embryonic devel­ draws on Rudolf Steiner’s educational lectures and on other opment; in the (unhappily named) apparition theory, the anthroposophic writers. There is an appendix relating the tenth- physical body of man is regarded as having “condensed” from a year change to a half moon node, and an effort to correlate the more spiritual condition. Fix concludes with the sociological teeth-change pattern with form drawings that Rudolf Steiner observation that today, although the materialistic biologists are gave in a lecture cycle in Ilkley (August 1923). And there are 54 woefully unaware of it, “there is a deep tide running in the footnotes, witness to thorough and thoughtful work. direction of things of the spirit.” Ultimately, the deeper problem For Waldorf teachers of the younger grades this book of the scientists is not the challenge of the fundamentalists, but should prove a great help. There are, however, some limitations: rather their own “lack of appreciation of the multiple dimen­ Koepke bases his illustrative material, demonstrating the crucial sions of man himself.” help provided by Waldorf education, on the curriculum of the This book succeeds through its own humility and sincerity third grade. This implies that third graders have completed the in breaking the deadlocked conceits of the evolutionists and the ninth year (and that the school entrance age for first grade is the creationists. It points in a new direction and is itself a significant completed seventh year). In our schools, however, the children symptom of this direction. It chronicles the self-imposed erosion are at least a full year younger, and the tenth-year change occurs of evolutionary science and portrays how ripe the situation is for here mostly in the fourth grade. Nor do we seem out of tune with a new direction in these waning years of the century. It is also, the curriculum , since Rudolf Steiner’s indication for introducing however, a plea for help, for it does not completely escape the in a Waldorf school the second morning verse, beginning with “I dualism which it recognizes must be overcome, Fix has yet to look into the world”—affirming the new consciousness—is for realize that it is the hypothetico-deductive method itself that the fifth and not the fourth grade. must be superseded in science. It is not enough to shift the Koepke’s third part, based on Rudolf Steiner’s Menschen­ content of study from physical to spiritual phenomena (as in kunde works with anthroposophic concepts—e.g., the unfolding parapsychology), the method of study must change as well. of the three systems in man; head and will poles; or that the Theory and phenomenon must no longer remain separate, or as “head-spirit” is still asleep in the first grader—making the text Goethe put it, the phenomena must themselves become the accessible only to thoroughly prepared readers. Also, the use of theory. When Fix recognizes this method he will also no doubt sphere, moon, and rays, that Rudolf Steiner showed in other recognize the significance of Rudolf Steiner, the man who most contexts as components of the human form, portraying here the consistently applied this method, above all to the evolution of human figure as bearer of systems (head, rhythm, and limbs) man. (Fix does include Steiner’s Life between Death and Rebirth in would strike an unprepared reader as quaint, to say the least. the bibliography, but does not mention him in the text.) These caveats should not distract from the book’s merit as a —Malcolm Gardner (Spring Valley, N.Y.) valuable study for Waldorf school faculty. It can help teachers to anticipate the tenth-year change, and to guide the children in their care (and their parents) more consciously through this difficult phase—instead of having to react, perhaps bewildered, DAS NEUNTE JAHR (The Ninth Year) by Hermann Koepke. to the obvious manifestations of this change. Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, Dornach 1983; 121 —Gisela O’Neil (Spring Valley, N.Y.) pages

The human life unfolds in seven-year rhythms under the guidance of the hierarchies. This regularity is broken by two early incisions when the luciferic and the ahrimanic streams enter. The first occurs around the age of three with the birth of 23 THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT: THE RUDOLF STEINER MOVE­ periodical literature written by Members other than Steiner, MENT AND THE WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITION by perhaps yielding clues to their “thought-world.” But there is no Geoffrey Ahern. The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, sign that Ahern consulted the Journal for Anthroposophy, or the England, 1984; £7.95 British Anthroposophical Quarterly, or the current Anthropo­ Editors Note: To bring Stewart Easton ’s review in this issue, drastic sophical Review, though he used some issues of the British reduction of the original length was necessary. The resulting omis­ Newsletter. Neither he nor his assistant and collaborator ex­ sions and some rough spots in the text are the responsibility of the amined the very extensive German literature. Instead he pre­ editor. ferred to do “field work,” consisting of 18 interviews averaging three hours each with Members in London, who were taking The publishers state on the jacket that this is the “first courses in speech formation and eurythmy at Rudolf Steiner critical study of the Steiner cult by an informed outsider.” The House. Since the average age of those interviewed was about 30, author claims to be both informed and an outsider, insisting he the sample was scarcely representative. Ahern admits that “has never hidden his independence from Rudolf Steiner’s willingness to be interviewed was in inverse proportion to the age revelation,” and while doing his research he was never “con­ of the Members approached. Perhaps older and more knowl­ verted.” The contents bear out this claim, but on several edgeable Members refused to be interviewed, leaving him little occasions Ahern says he was also an “empathetic” outsider. choice. Since he has respected the anonymity of those inter­ Taken literally, this statement cannot be true. Empathy means viewed, we cannot tell whether they possessed authentic infor­ “the power of projecting one’s personality into, and so fully mation. The rest of his “field work” appears to have consisted of understanding, the object of contemplation” (OED). After a a three-week visit to the Camphill Community in Botton, careful reading, I find more antipathy (though possibly uncon­ Yorkshire, visits to biodynamic farms, and a eurythmy perfor­ scious) than empathy. Whatever Ahern’s conscious intentions, mance that he failed to appreciate or understand. much of his writing exposes the movement and its founder to The lessons we ought to learn, as anthroposophists, is how ridicule. His method of research may be “an empathy explicitly our behavior and comportment, including our vestimentary assessed by a consciousness that is trying to be honest,” but most preferences, affect outsiders. The numerous errors and mis­ readers will find his “non-empathetic” feelings take precedence understandings in this work should remind us how careful we over objectivity. must be when explaining anthroposophy to outsiders, especially Ahern’s age is not given, but I will guess he is now in the later those who write about it The examplary accuracy of Ronald part of the intellectual soul period, his early thirties, and that his Kotzsch’s article from the East/West Journal published in the “field work” was completed at what he calls “early middle age,” Spring Newsletter does credit to those who answered his which he identifies as 29! Only at such an age could he believe questions, to the author himself, and the spirit of his enquiry. If himself capable of assessing Steiner and the movement, even the readers of Ahern’s book seek accurate knowledge of anthro­ placing it within the entire esoteric tradition of the West, and posophy, they should look elsewhere because it is impossible to concluding his book by offering a “theory of esotericism” distinguish truth from opinion, and fact from misinformation. subsuming his personal enquiries into anthroposophy and his For Americans it will come as news that “Spring Valley in New extensive reading in Western esotericism. York State” was bought with an inheritance after the Second In view of this attitude toward anthroposophy, it is extra­ World War, especially if, like myself, they paid a visit to the ordinary that the author became a member of the Society, having Threefold Farm in the 1930s; or that in New Hampshire there is applied in Great Britain. As he says, the statutes formulate only “an attempt to establish a local currency (based on windmill one necessary commitment of the applicant—that he “considers energy) which is an integral part of anthroposophical living.” If as justified the existence of an institution such as the Goethe­ Ahern’s membership figures for other countries are reliable, we anum in Dornach, in its capacity as a School of Spiritual in France, with 1040 members are way ahead of most Societies, Science” (Statute #4). But Statute #2 states, that the persons including the Scandinavian, although he “credits” us with gathered at the Goetheanum at Christmas 1923 “are convinced “apparently relatively few citizens belonging to the movement.” that there exists in our time a genuine science of the spiritual Information on the history of the Society provided in a world which it is the task of the Anthroposophical Society to chapter called “The Establishment of a Cult,” is scarcely more cultivate.” It is evident the author has no such conviction and reliable except when he quotes directly from Steiner. Having does not accept there exists any genuine science of the spiritual obtained access to the Bockholdts’ book on Rudolf Steiner and world. It follows that he cannot believe the Goetheanum, as a Ita Wegman and to old English newsletters, he gives some School of Spiritual Science, to be justified. He is critical of almost information not widely known, but managed to confuse the two every aspect of anthroposophy, not because of the way it has protagonists of the book, speaking once of Ita Wegman as “the been applied, but as spiritual teaching or, as he always calls it putative Ebani”! Nor did Ahern check the culture to which this “Steiner’s revelations.” pair belonged, referring to it as “Assyrio-Egyptian.” We learn This book originated from a thesis presented at the London Steiner became a highly controversial figure in postwar School of Economics to enable the author to win a doctorate. Germany, but hear immediately that “anthroposophists still The subject was ‘The Anthroposophical Movement in the seem to be slightly disappointed that this attention died down United Kingdom; its gnosis and the thought-world and identity with the apocalyptic sense of chaos.” An archetypal sentence of its members.” The author examined the social status of the reveals Ahern’s major preoccupation: “Esotericism generally Members, their cultural interest outside anthroposophy, and appealed to the socially privileged, perhaps because, without similar matters. The founder of anthroposophy was also scruti­ being personally threatening to their status or pockets it gave nized from the same point of view. Research into the “thought- them experiential relief from convention and cosmological world” of Members is difficult because Rudolf Steiner’s teach­ comfort.” Steiner’s admitted association with the Yarker rite ings constitute the greatest part of anthroposophical thought. I (explained in detail in his Autobiography) is used to associate him would have advised the doctoral candidate to look into the with an “esotericism that is said to have practiced sexual magic.” 24 When the notes are consulted, we are referred to a book Macrocosm” makes use of this notion, attributing Steiner’s published by Ahern’s publisher and written by one Christopher teachings on the Crystal Heaven (pre-Saturn) to “the Steiner McIntosh called The Rosy Cross Unveiled claiming Yarker family’s sense of past paradise . . . before they experienced the belonged to an Order that practiced sexual magic. The same marginalities involved in working for the new railway.” In statement is again referred to later as if McIntosh was a reliable describing Old Saturn, Steiner “was perhaps in touch with some authority. very early pre-conscious states of being from his own infancy, or On affairs of the Society, Ahern does not fare much better. even foetal life”; “the pralayas . . . could relate to sleep, or, He attributes the 1935 crisis in the Society to differences between more psychologically to the need for periods in which con­ German-speaking and non-German speaking Members. The sciousness can assimilate new development.” When the Saturn book is riddled with words like “seems,” “appears,” “perhaps,” consciousness advances to that of sleep, Steiner, Ahern tells us, “probably,” and “possibly” showing he did not verify what he “may have been projecting his infantile experience.” The said. For example, after speaking of Marie Steiner’s “marginal “rebellion and conflict” on Old Moon, “could relate to his cultural origins,” which he compared to Steiner’s own lower- childhood sense of being an outsider and the tension when he class origins, he calls her Steiner’s “conservative-minded widow was an adolescent between his intuition and the contemporary who spoke no English.” The smallest enquiry from an informed materialist philosophy.” source (such as my own biography of Steiner) would have It should be clear enough that the book is valueless as a revealed she was an excellent linguist, like so many upper-class study of the “Rudolf Steiner Movement,” and that Ahern’s women of Baltic origin, having translated for Steiner, among research methods could not have led to anything much better. other languages, from the English. It would have been easy to The material on the Western esoteric tradition does include discover that Mr. Dunlop was still the General Secretary of the some interesting passages and a few well formulated sentences AS in GB during the schism from Dornach in 1935, and that it and insights, but his presuppositions about anthroposophy and retained the original name, the Anthroposophical Society in Western esoteric tradition prevented him from coming to any Great Britain. It was not “carefully named” by Cecil Harwood, real understanding of either. Therefore, let me say how I think who was not General Secretary until 1937. This should be Mr. Ahern’s enterprise could have been carried out. enough to show something of the nature of the author’s “field It would have been possible for him to have decided to hold work.” as a possible hypothesis that Steiner’s teachings were true. It was Ahern in his prologue admits that he “cannot expect to not compulsory for him to be “converted” but only to be truly uncover all the multiple diversities of the movement,” but “empathetic” and see whether his “research” would lead to any expresses the hope “that the limitations inherent in any intro­ greater understanding of the world, humanity, and the process of duction by an outsider are not so great that the enterprise as a evolution. Did what Steiner taught make any sense, not in the whole is invalid.” As an “insider” of many decades I can only say light of Ahern’s studies and prejudices, but in its own light? In that his hopes have not been realized. It is not the numerous other words, assume that it might all be true. Where might this errors which vitiate it, nor the limited research. The enterprise have led him? was doomed from the beginning by the attempt to use criteria for It would have led him to the key concept of the evolution of judging the Society and Movement that are not applicable, consciousness, a topic to which he scarcely gives any attention, leading to gross distortions and useless conclusions. What though crucial for any understanding of anthroposophy. This earthly use is it to enquire into the class origins and economic concept would have explained how a man of our time was able to status of members of the Society, or to speculate about Steiner’s acquire all the knowledge that Rudolf Steiner possessed, includ­ success as a substitute father-figure for Members who disliked or ing the cosmogony to which Ahern devotes so much attention. disagreed with their real fathers? How does such “research” help There have always been some men who had knowledge of the solve any problems of the modern world or add to human higher worlds, able to read, as Steiner could, in the Akasha understanding? Chronicle. But the time had not yet come in human evolution It never occurs to Ahern to look for “spiritual” explanations. when this kind of knowledge could be given out in clear He does not believe in Steiner’s cosmogony, holding with most conceptual form. This had to wait for the development of the academics that new ideas are simply syntheses of old ones. consciousness soul. If Trithemius the Magus and Eliphaz Levi Therefore, the task is to trace these ideas into the past. Ahern spoke prophetically of the coming age of Michael, they knew of it assumes Steiner was familiar with older gnostic and esoteric in advance through their own clairvoyance. They did not have to ideas which he used to construct his own synthesis, designed to take the idea from others, any more than Steiner did. appeal to certain categories of Western society. In particular, When I was talking about this book with an English Ahern maintains that Steiner was intellectually beholden to the Member he asked only one question—was it well written? I told Valentinian Syro-Egyptian gnosis of the second century A.D., him that readers who did not have a special interest in the and he pictures Steiner “possibly” studying “original Western subject would find it difficult to plow through the convoluted esoteric works in medieval Latin” (to which improbable activity sentences, even when they conveyed a clear meaning and were he was led by his “scholarly reflexes”), He speculates that Steiner not just so much verbiage as they often were. Would new readers “seems” to have derived his idea that since 1879 we have been be tempted to read the book and learn a good many things about living in a Michaelic age from the Magus Trithemius (perhaps anthroposophy that are not so, or would the writing discourage through Eliphaz Levi) and that he “may have been aware of a them, he then asked. I told him I doubted they would be so light-hearted esoteric work, Le Comte de Gahalis (1670), which tempted. Then we can be assured, he said, it will sink without a theorizes about elemental spirits called, as in his later system, trace. gnomes, sylphs and salamanders.” While not wishing any personal ill to either author or To explain Steiner’s particular syntheses Ahern uses Carl publisher, I can only hope my friend is right—for reasons that Jung’s theory stating that gnostic and esoteric cosmology is a have surely become clear in the course of this review. psychological projection. The chapter “The Evolution of the —Stewart C. Easton (Colmar, France) 25 MEMBER SHIP

MAULSBY KIMBALL AT EIGHTY lectures aloud in the evenings, and through this I became immersed in anthroposophy. Out of this background, and I was born in Buffalo, N.Y. on May 20, 1904 and grew up together with others, I formed and conducted the Bryn Mawr Art there. The home atmosphere was a cultured and artistic one with Center (1937-1955). I also headed the art department of the regular reading aloud of poetry and fine literature. My mother Haverford School for twelve years (1945-57). I spent a year in the was a very artistic person and a very good painter in oils. My army and a number of months doing projected drawings in father was a lawyer whose loves were playing quartettes, where perspective for a helicopter company as part of the war service. he was a violist, and collecting paintings. Earlier there were many months of doing medical illustrations, I was a typical “second born” (in the sense of Karl Koenig), first for the anatomy department of the University of Pennsyl­ unresponsive to guidance and without a sense of duty: a problem vania and later as a freelance illustrator. until late adolescence. Looking back, I experience this early Meanwhile, in 1933 the Anthroposophical Society had rejection of convention as the seed of my creative freedom as an invited Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Guenther Wachsmuth, and artist. However, problems caused wear and tear on my parents, Hermann von Baravalle to the U.S. for a lecture tour. In 1939 the trying of several schools, even the co-founding of one of the Baravalle returned to this country to become a significant first progressive schools in the country, the Park School, in influence for the development of the Waldorf school movement. Buffalo.[Image: photographofMaulsbyKimball] From time to time I invited him to lecture. In 1949 Baravalle’s sister, Elisabeth (Ilse) Metaxas came from Europe to teach eurythmy at the Kimberton Farms School and at Adelphi College. The first summer she was here I invited her to join us and teach eurythmy in the summer school we had in Maine— and in 1952 we were married. A few years later, we lived in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., I painting and teaching, and Ilse conducting a eurythmy school at the New York headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society. As time went on I became more active in the anthropo­ sophical work. This began with a special project for the centennary of Rudolf Steiner’s birth in 1961. We formed the Rudolf Steiner Exhibitions Trust, which borrowed paintings from anthroposophical artists in Europe, and circulated exhibi­ tion groups of these and other anthroposophical material to hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the country, often accompanied by lectures. In 1962 I became yet more active I cannot remember much of the child-age drawing and in Society work and for ten years, up to 1972, was president and painting. The conscious urge to engage in art was awakened by then executive director (as well as member of the council and of the drawing in a biology class. Later, I found myself living near the executive committee) of the Anthroposophical Society in the Art Students League in New York City. There I participated America. This called for many classes and lectures throughout in evening drawing classes for about five years. I became friends the country. with a very talented younger, well-established painter, Jay In 1974 Ilse and I immigrated to South Africa, where we Connaway, and spent many hours watching him paint, living spent 21 months. Ilse taught eurythmy, and I taught painting, into the remarkable qualities of his painting. Eventually, I lectured, and exhibited in various South African cities and acquired a set of oil paints for my first halting efforts at Rhodesia. The high point for each of us was a series at the St. painting—unbelievably bad but engrossing. George Cathedral in Capetown, and 20 lecture demonstrations Then came one of the most vivid and significant moments at the University of Capetown. of my life. One day I was painting. Suddenly I experienced an My painting has developed its character over the years. At inner flash of knowledge that painting and a life of art were to be first it was straight representation. Then I became influenced by mine. It was like a revelation, certainly the speaking of my inner the dynamics of the French moderns. In the 1930s one of the being as I had never experienced it before. From that moment I outstanding anthroposophic artists, William Scott Pyle, came to had a sense of purpose and direction. This called for a Philadelphia as a patient of Dr. Kilgus. In a few sessions spent reorientation of life. I left New York City, moved back to the with him I became deeply influenced by the possibilities of family home in Buffalo, and for the next two years studied cosmic quality in painting and imagination directly out of color. intensively—morning, afternoon, and evening—at the local I have worked to develop this through the years. This has led to Albright Art School. the exhibiting of paintings world-wide, and having pictures in In 1930 I moved to Philadelphia and met a remarkable collections in sixteen countries on four continents, most recently esoteric teacher and therapist, Dr. Ella D. Kilgus, a student of two paintings in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard where the Rudolf Steiner’s work. She worked actively to bring her patients curator, Konrad Oberhuber, commented: “Maulsby Kimball’s to a spiritual transformation. I remained in close touch (1930- art is music made visible in color and form.” 1955). For years we had summer classes in painting in Sullivan, Throughout the years the study of anthroposophy has been Maine, where Dr. Kilgus had a summer home. We read Steiner a major continuing influence. I attribute to several years of 26 weekly eurythmy classes the metamorphosis from conventional Gertrude S. Schneider Robert George Mays painting to a much more flowing and imaginative way of Lake Oswego, OR Chapel Hill, NC working. Ilse was our fifth eurythmy teacher and I have often said that “I have married my fifth eurythmy teacher.” This work Josef Towner Suzanne Brooke Mays in eurythmy did much towards developing the “musical quali­ Fair Oaks, CA Chapel Hill, NC ties” in my painting. I had been brought up with music, had Claude Julien studied violin when very young and then piano, later viola and Gonda Verhoeven-Bremer Carmichael, CA for a number of years had played viola in quartettes. At the age of Southfield, MI sixty, I started singing lessons which led to a rich musical Mary Osborne Teresa S. Thompson experience. I always had an instinctive sense for handling things Carmichael, CA Southfield, MI in music, but in my painting I had to labor “the hard way” through all possible problems. Having had to work so hard to William N. Ritch, Jr. Karen Frishkoff achieve living qualities in painting has helped me to understand Carmichael, CA Ghent, NY these problems when teaching and helping others. Life called on me to teach from preschool-age children to real “old timers,” Constance Ann Michael Bernard C Wojan including a number of guest-teacher blocks in Waldorf schools Cincinnati, OH W.Hartford, CT and teacher-training classes. The most recent teaching task was John P. Michael painting classes for foundation-year and teacher-training Verena R. Buhl Cincinnati, OH students for several years, at the Rudolf Steiner College in Transf. from Netherlands Sacramento. Eva Kudar Fair Oaks, CA

NEW MEMBERS

Ilana W. Graham Patricia Zimmerman MEMBERS WHO HAVE CROSSED Fair Oaks, CA Fair Oaks, CA THE THRESHOLD OF DEATH Gerald R. Hershberger Richard John Anderson Troy, MI San Francisco, CA Sandra Holland Stephen Bloomquist Ursula Stuber, Nov. 30, 1983 Inverness, CA Belmont, MA from Great Barrington, MA Joined the Society in 1952 James J. Kotz Marilou B. Coats Venice, CA Chattanooga, TN Valdene Sachs, May 10, 1984 from Denver, CO Ronald M. Krupp Gwendolyn Eisenmann Joined the Society in 1946 Temple, NH Brixey, MO Peter Escher, May 19, 1984 Christine Meyer Paul Gierlach from Spring Valley, NY Granada Hills, CA Detroit, MI Joined the Society in 1944 Donald C. Meyers Beth Ann Grib Laura Blickfelt, May 21, 1984 Richmond, VA Belle Vernon, PA from Los Angeles, CA Joined the Society in 1935 Katherine M. Scharff Karl Levin Spring Valley, NY Hollywood, CA Fowler Hamilton, June 7, 1984 from Greenwich, CT Sabine Seiler Terry Levin Joined the Society in 1975 New Orleans, LA Hollywood, CA Rick Mansell, June 8, 1984 Susan E. Walter Angelika N. Mahle from Redondo Beach, CA Davis, CA Carmichael, CA Joined the Society in 1949 Joseph Weitner Carol K. Rudolph Chicago, IL Detroit, MI Dietrich V. Asten, July 7, 1984

27 REPORTS

PROMOTION EFFORTS OF THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC Finally, as we who are fully occupied with the production PRESS and selling of books strive to remember, anthroposophists cannot rely on the printed word by itself to communicate the May 26-29 the Anthroposophic Press exhibited its books at living realities of anthroposophy. The printed word, as a tool of the annual American Booksellers Association convention in Ahriman, must be enlivened through human meeting and Washington, D.C. This is the largest annual book event in conversation. However, this must be human contact of the right America, where well over 4,000 publishers and booksellers sort. Just today we received a telephone call from a man in a large appear for three and a half days to attend seminars, meet, and midwestern city who wanted to use a 1977 catalog to order books. exhibit their wares in booths and displays. This year included He said he had found Rudolf Steiner’s books very valuable and book promotions featuring such celebrities as Racquel Welch had been reading them on his own for about ten years. He asked and Rosalyn Carter. With the help of a eurythmist, the Anthro­ almost desperately for centers of anthroposophical study and posophic Press brought to life for the convention visitors our life where he could discuss these ideas. He said in the past he had recent publication, An Introduction to Eurythmy by Rudolf encountered too many unbalanced or “kooky” types among the Steiner, through demonstrations of eurythmy in our booth. local anthroposophists he met and had never found anyone Many curious persons were attracted to the eurythmy, and a “intelligent” with whom to converse about anthroposophical good number were already familiar with the name of Rudolf ideas. Nor is this an isolated instance in our experience at the Steiner, particularly through the Waldorf schools. (However, Press. It only reinforces for us the need for sensitivity, openness, some took our color poster of the book to be a promotion of the and restraint in approaching newcomers to anthroposophical rock group The Eurythmics!) conceptions and activities. The Press has made significant progress in its new focus on —David Adams and Stephen Usher (Spring Valley, N.Y.) getting the books of Rudolf Steiner and other anthroposophical authors it distributes before a much wider audience. Within the last few years the two largest bookstore chains in America, B. EFFORTS IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Dalton Books and Walden Books, have begun stocking Press titles. (Look for them in your local shopping mall!) An addendum to the report given by Susanne Szekely at the Annual Many Members have asked for an update on the reception General Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society as reported by of Steiner’s The Boundaries of Natural Science and the effect of its Henry Barnes in the Autumn 1983 issue. widespread promotion. The results are not yet fully in, since There have been several people who pioneered the anthro­ three major scholarly reviews of the book will appear only in posophical work in the state of Washington, which may be early summer 1984. It is possible, however, to report that more symptomatic of other situations. than 1,000 copies were sold during the first three months of sales In September of 1975, Ronald Moss, a member of the (October to December 1983). Since then sales have steadied to a Society, invited Steven Roboz of Vancouver to give the first regular trickle averaging fifty-some copies a month. It is public lecture, on Reincarnation and Karma, in Seattle. A significant that many of these orders are arriving from public weekly study group resulted. I attended this lecture and joined and university libraries. the Society the following year. Several new books scheduled to appear in late 1984 or early In 1976, Mr. Moss opened the Rudolf Steiner Book Store in 1985 will be promoted in a similarly energetic fashion. The first his home. In 1977, we procured a booth at the Good Earth Fair of these, Secrets of the Skeleton: Form in Metamorphosis by L.F.C. and in 1978 a booth at the first Environmental Fair, both held in Mees, the Dutch physician, is a profusely illustrated the Coliseum. This activity led to the securing of over 100 names Goetheanistic study of correspondences between human bone of people interested in Waldorf education. forms, leading the reader to consider these as evidence for the Then Mrs. Szekely became involved in helping to work realities of reincarnation and etheric formative forces. Another toward the first Waldorf school in the area. She graciously is a translation of Art and Human Consciousness (Ideen zur opened her home to anthroposophical speakers invited to Kunstgeschichte) by Gottfried Richter with a foreword by Konrad Seattle. The first was Hans Gebert in May 1979. Oberhuber. Also richly illustrated, this is the only anthropo­ Our mailing list continued to grow. We had lectures on sophical book offering a complete, if aphoristic, survey of art education, and Veronica Reif gave a lecture/workshop on history from ancient to modern times. A third translation, The eurythmy, thereby increasing the interest in eurythmy. In 1979, Rediscovery of Color by Heinrich Proskauer, is more than a Rene Querido gave a Wagner Seminar in conjunction with the normal book on Goethe’s color theory—the boxed volume will Wagner Ring Festival held at the Opera House each year. We include a prism and replicas of Goethe’s own experimental color continued to represent Rudolf Steiner’s work in most public fairs cards so that readers may themselves perform and experience from Olympia north to Bellingham. By 1980 the time was right Goethe’s original color experiments. Theodore Roszak has for teachers and parents to meet. After one-and-a-half years of promised to review this book, which he already knows in unrelenting work, a suitable place was found to house the first German. 1985 will also see the appearance of a collection of Seattle Waldorf Kindergarten. Simultaneously, the Kinderhaus essays by Jochen Bockemuehl, Wolfgang Schad, Hermann preschool and the Dolphin Bay School, on Orcas Island, opened Poppelbaum, and others methodically introducing a Goethean their doors. scientific approach to the etheric forces, tentatively titled Paths In 1981, some of us formed “Friends of Anthroposophia” a toward a Phenomenology of Nature non-profit entity to further Rudolf Steiner’s work. We also began 28 distributing Weleda products, and raising funds from the sale of festivals of the year, either in Chattanooga, Maryville or in toys, and the proceeds from lectures. In 1982, we sponsored the Auburn. We became good friends—anthroposophists trying to Golden Garden kindergarten. overcome our isolation. In the past two years we have formed the Silver Star Glove Things continued like this until Walter Sawert’s death in Puppet Theater, presenting monthly shows for the local public August of 1981. Several of us were able to visit Walter in and other areas of the state. Two additional family events were Alabama before he died and shared in Helene’s grief. Early in established: a Children’s Christmas Festival, and a wondrous 1982, during our Easter gathering here in Chattanooga, we Unicorn Festival in celebration of Pentecost. Public events discovered to our surprise that, independent of one another, include a recent significant Grail Seminar by Rene Querido, and several of us had had the same idea: As each person arrived, it a planned Death-and-Dying Seminar with Dr. and Mrs. was one of the first things that were brought up—we should Reitsma and Ilsa Kolbuszowski. become an official group! We resolved to take the necessary There are now two groups in Seattle, each working from a steps. Subsequently, we felt that surely it was Walter Sawert who different aspect of anthroposophy, giving their best at a time of from the spiritual world had guided us, helping to bring us stress, both financially and personally, to do the much needed together in a new way. work. More needs to be accomplished, however, and we welcome Now we are a small group of about a dozen Members but we those wishing to become part of our endeavor. The journey are growing, with more friends joining. And it appears that now upstream is not easy—but it will bring new life at its end. we shall be meeting once a month in addition to the four festival —Dolores Rose Dauenhauer (Seattle, Wash.) dates. That came from a request by Bill Crow of Marietta, Georgia—the only actual Member in that whole state. I marvel at how things have changed! THE SOUTHEASTERN REGIONAL GROUP: We are indeed overcoming our isolation but it requires OVERCOMING ISOLATION. effort to do so. From Maryville, Tenn. to Auburn, Ala. takes over six hours to drive one way. Occasionally, someone spends the It will be two years this August that we were officially night. We have met several times on Sundays in a motel room we recognized as a group within the Anthroposophical Society. rented outside Atlanta. That way, some of us had to drive “only” Members, and friends who are students of anthroposophy but two hours. Mostly, however, we meet in Auburn or Chattanooga. not yet affiliated with the Society, have met for several years, (Naturally, when everybody arrives after hours of travel, there from three southern states—Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. has to be nourishment for the body as well as for the soul. We sit We have even had visitors from Louisiana and Florida. down to a home-cooked meal.) The actual meeting lasts about It all began more than two decades ago as a Member here or three hours—then comes the long drive home. there attempted to make contact with another anthroposophist. These efforts are all well worth the time and trouble. We feel When I first came to Chattanooga in 1954, one other Member that the darkness of isolation has been replaced by lights of lived here, Mrs. Harriete Hujer whom I encountered by “acci­ friendship built on our mutual love of anthroposophy. We are a dent.” After we discovered that we were “fellow anthropo­ small group but a fine spirit prevails among us. We realize we sophists,” we met regularly to study together. Some time later, must deepen our own commitment to anthroposophy and bring Ilse Burckhardt, another Chattanoogan, who had contact with more persons to join our work. We are inspired by these human the Christian Community in Germany, was referred to me. She contacts, by the joy of sharing with others our most precious became a Member and a close friend, joining our weekly studies treasure—anthroposophy. until her move out of the state and her death soon afterwards. —Maria St. Goar (Chattanooga, Tenn.) Occasionally, someone else would join us and leave again. Visiting anthroposophists from around the country and Europe were welcomed with open arms. Enviously, we heard of the MYSTERY PLAY PERFORMANCE active group life elsewhere IN LOS ANGELES AT EASTER 1984 As my children grew up, I was able to travel more. Thea Pflanze in Maryville, Tenn. was given my address by the It was a historic event for us when a group of students of the Christian Community in New York. We would meet occasion­ Mystery Plays turned into performers and shared seven scenes ally to read a lecture together. A member of the Dutch of The Portal of Initiation as well as the prelude and the interlude Anthroposophical Society, Barbara Benz, came to Chattanooga. with ail appreciative audience. (It was one of those strange “coincidences” that she and I had a Too few Members nowadays are fully aware of the artistry mutual friend in Germany who introduced us to each other.) My and significance of Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Plays. The heart of son Edward became a Member at age 21. Through Patricia Anthroposophy is to be found in them, expressed in human Sivils, eurythmy graduate from Spring Valley, a former karmic relationships evolving over several lifetimes. There is no Chattanoogan who had had no prior contact with us, we met parallel in literature. Artistically, the plays offer a guideline for fellow-Chattanoogan, Fred Coats, who had become a Member the future. They are rewarding on every level of approach, for the through Patricia, and his wife Mary Lou, who has now also individual but even more for a group. joined the Society. All of us formed a local study group in 1980 For some five years, a sizable group has come together for a and have since been meeting every Monday night. few weeks each year to study the Mystery Plays, under the Some years ago, Helene and Walter Sawert, both Members, guidance of Sophia Walsh from Dornach. Sophia is an experi­ moved from Chicago to Auburn, Ala. Bob and Faye Kwapien enced performer and teacher, who now spends half her time in were the only other anthroposophists there. Helene made an Los Angeles, particularly in connection with the Anthropo­ attempt to contact Members in the three states; the response was sophic Studies Course (sponsored by the Los Angeles Branch). disappointing. Those of us who did reply visited Auburn and As part of their work together the group often dramatized a from this first gathering evolved the decision to meet for the four scene. Sharing three scenes with interested family and friends 29 was another step. Finally they were emboldened to offer more. becoming submerged by the elemental world, or find expression To encompass seven scenes and the prelude and inter­ of our highest ideals. Only a balance in the triangle of thinking, lude—a feat that demands three hours of performing time— feeling, and willing can allow for a fourth soul force of ego- required drafting new players to assemble a cast of twenty (with a directed genuine love to rule our lives. man for each male part). The players came from three counties, The actual “heart” of the Spring Conference was experi­ and on the great evening an audience came from five Southern enced through artistic and social exchange. Singing and California counties and two in Northern California. It was truly eurythmy, and small-circle sessions (led by the organizing a California celebration! committee) allowed the opportunity for the larger topics to come We were not disappointed. The level of communication to expression. At the final symposium we felt that a bridge had between cast and audience was of a high order as the cast shared indeed been built among those gathered. A touch of the Christ the inspiration they had gained from the play. What Sophia impulse had been experienced in our social life together and we Walsh had been able to bring forth from a group of amateurs in could return with renewed strength to our individual task in the so short a time—projecting their speech effectively and credible world. acting—was a remarkable achievement. Not the least of the —Patricia Kaminski (Nevada City, Calif.) contributing elements was the costuming, primarily the work of for the Spring Conference Committee a new Member, Pamela Carty. The only discordant note in the overall artistic impression A FIRST IMPRESSION OF AMERICA was the painfully inadequate environment offered by the school by L.F.C. Mees facilities of Highland Hall. The play should give us all an added incentive to provide a more ideal home for anthroposophy here From Das Goetheanum, Oct. 16, 1983. Translated by Maria St. in Southern California. Goar. —Barbara Betteridge (Santa Paula, Calif.) In 1968, I flew to America for the first time. I was to give lectures at the Anthroposophical Society in New York City. EIGHTH ANNUAL SPRING CONFERENCE Reservations had been made at a hotel nearby. As I entered the IN FAIR OAKS, CALIFORNIA hotel lobby, a gentleman approached me with outstretched hand May 18-20, 1984 and asked in an almost radiant, friendly voice, “Hello, how are you?” How can we build a bridge between our thoughts and deeds, I thought he must be an acquaintance whom I could not allowing the Christ impulse to permeate the middle realm of our recall. I reached out my hand, too, and greeted him warmly. He social life? This question was posed in early January when a asked what I was planning to do. I told him of my scheduled committee of twelve (representing the Sacramento Faust Branch lectures at the Madison Avenue address and that I was glad that I and the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks) met to prepare the could go there on foot. He warned me, however, saying, “Don’t theme of the Spring (Youth) Conference. We began with study forget that it will take you three-quarters of an hour.” (The blocks and discussion of “Love and Its Meaning in the World,” and in New York City are long!) He then inquired about the topic of “Spiritual Guidance of Man,” by Rudolf Steiner. Through these my lectures. I replied that it would be “drugs.” “How interesting,” “knowing” ideals, a bridge was built to the actual “doing”— he said, “what are you going to say about it?” organizing the conference—and thus created a group experience I thought, the man is interested, and proceeded to give a of living in both spheres of activity. brief summary. But his eyes lost interest increasingly; soon he About 80 persons attended the Spring Conference, with turned to another guest just arriving, approached him with local areas well represented as well as more distant points in outstretched hand and greeted him with, “Hello, how are you?” California and surrounding states. Special guests were Mark in the same effusive tone of voice. Finser and Katherine Scharff of New York, who brought news of Since that time it has dawned on me more and more that world-wide initiatives and of plans for the International Youth this little episode is indicative of a characteristic feature—not Conference at the Goetheanum in July. Dietrich V. Asten only in America, but everywhere else—emerging in many presented the keynote lecture on Saturday morning, character­ human encounters. Initial friendliness, even cordiality, is izing the struggle to Christianize human life as a challenge followed by decisive withdrawal, by wishing no longer to be confronting the human ego, in solving the Pauline riddle of “not claimed, no longer to be intensely involved, not willing to give up I but Christ in me.” The ego develops through a threefold process one’s “own private sphere.” First the friendly encounter, then of soul unfolding, beginning with the sentient soul’s longing to determined dismissal. experience life through Beauty, the intellectual soul’s task of Expressing this in eurythmy gestures: meeting a person ordering life by the principle of Truth, and the consciousness cordially, putting your arms around him with a gesture of soul’s striving toward Goodness. The ego must experience a new affection, friendliness, and if you will, love, although not wholeness through the “Christ in me.” Such a wholeness does physically but with the soul. Then, with equal conviction, not negate the individuality, for the “host must be home when pushing him away and off to the side. Embracing—pushing the Guest arrives.” Thus our spiritual/social goal is not one of away. Embracing—pushing away: O—K, O—K! (One who is uniformity but rather sanctified individuality, so that the Christ unfamiliar with this eurythmic movement should have it can work through each of us. demonstrated to him.) On Sunday morning, Merlin and Rene Querido amplified The word “okay” originated in America. Various explana­ these ideals through themes from Shakespeare’s Midsummer tions are given for its origin. But I am not interested in how it Nights Dream (performed the previous evening by the Foun- came about. I am mainly interested in why this expression has dation-Year students of the Rudolf Steiner College). In this play taken over practically the whole world. Not only in New York, human love lives in the feeling life, modulated by the rhythms of but the world over, adults as well as children constantly say, Nature. In pursuit of love we can either lose hold of ourselves, “okay.” 30 In earlier times, human beings lived in groups. Much of this The book was published in America, under the title of group element was retained into our century. Meanwhile, man “Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception”—and even that was a was educated to greater self-reliance, independence. There is a plagiary. Some people might have said: Well, after all, that is danger that the crowd, the masses will replace the former group American and perhaps one can expect nothing else. But here in attitude. How strongly do we experience this at the present time! Germany there was a publishing company, managed by a Dr. Yet we live in the age of the consciousness soul, and it is Hugo Vollrath. He was quite eager to translate the book into necessary that the human being shall learn to experience that he German, and he did so, bringing it out as a series of Letters of is an individuality. Is this “okay” not a significant symptom? Instruction. His preface stated that some of the contents had, it Nevertheless, one senses: things should not remain on the was true, first been given in Germany, but had had to mature in level of this “okay.” What was once “group” and now threatens to the pure air of California! In the literary world proper such turn into “crowd” should some day become community. For that scandalous procedure is unthinkable. It is a scandal which to become a reality, every person must learn to recognize the ought everywhere to have been recognized as such—-and it human quality in his fellow man, because “okay” will not offer a would have been, had there been any soundness of judgment. I way out of the social difficulties of the present age. would really like to count the names of the people who knew the facts. Few take any interest in such matters, however, and so they recur.

RUDOLF STEINER ON PLAGIARISM Then there was a man who had been a Member for many years THE STORY OF MAX HEINDEL (membership could no more be refused to him than it could be From a lecture given in Leipzig, June 10, 1917 refused to Herr Grashof who wrote his book in America under the name of Max Heindel.) This other man, Max Seiling, wrote a . . . There must be more virility of judgment. We must face the book titled “Who Was Christ?” In this book—although not to the facts that in our Society things happen that could only happen same extent as Grashof—he compiled all kinds of things taken there and nowhere else! I am going to speak of an occurrence from my lecture courses—with the motto that knowledge should that happened some time ago now, but I will mention a recent not be withheld, but belongs to the world. (The person from one as well. whom he had copied the motto was very angry because its A certain Herr Grashof became a member of our Society. original author had used it in quite a different context.) And then For a time he attended lectures in every town where they were Herr Seiling added: “Dr. Steiner has, it is true, indicated certain given; he was always there. Naturally you may ask: “Why was he details, but everything needs to be developed.” admitted to membership?” In certain circumstances it is impos­ You can understand, my friends, that this book had to be sible to refuse admittance to people, especially if they are rejected by the Anthroposophical Publishing Company in introduced by trusted persons. It would be a question of Berlin, to whom Seiling applied with the request that they should foreseeing the future! Suppose a man like Grashof were to come publish it He thereupon became an opponent. and I were to say: We cannot admit him. Well, why not? Oh, because later on he will be a traitor to the Society. One cannot (1) Rudolf Steiner received the following letter at the time: adopt this attitude about something that has not happened yet, Dear Sir, but will only happen in the future. Such people quite obviously May I venture to approach you with a question, or indeed must be admitted to the Society. This man Grashof attended with more than one question? I must mention first of all that I am every lecture that he possibly could. He borrowed notes made by here on a short visit, and that my home is in Salina, Kansas, the Members and copied them all. And what people were U.S.A. In that town some time ago, two friends and I procured a unwilling to give him he extracted through the intermediary of book that had been recommended to us by the Esoteric Library the person who had introduced him. Then, after a time, he in Washington, D.C. The title of the book is Rosicrucian Cosmo- returned to America, whence he had come, and wrote a book, Conception or Christian Occult Science, by Max Heindel. We were compiled from everything he had heard in the lectures and struck by the curious way in which, in the preface. Max Heindel found in the books and had also amassed from unpublished refers to the name of Dr. Rudolf Steiner, the main lines of whose lectures. But he made no mention of this. He wrote a preface to teachings are said to resemble his etc., etc. In short the preface this book in which he said: “I heard this and that from Dr. caused me, and subsequently my friends, to read your books Steiner but felt that I was not ready for it Then I was ordered to Initiation and Its Results and Theosophy. It is a riddle to us why go to a “master” (a Master in the Transylvanian Alps of course!) whole sentences in the Cosmo-Conception can be compared and from this Master I learned the deeper truths that I still almost word for word with those contained in your books, so the lacked.” The “deeper” and “higher” in this book is copied down thought occurred to us: “Has Max Heindel borrowed from you from my lectures and books and from notes made by other the teachings he is trying to spread in America—above all, in Members. (l) California?”...

31 N otes

FROM THE OFFICE: Reprints of the article, "The Legacy of the life of Waldorf schools. Mr. Ashe spoke on the Waldorf Rudolf Steiner,” in a brochure format (3-panel, half-page size, movement, and the threefold social order. Three workshops printed front and back) are available from the Society’s offices in dealt with financial problems of the Waldorf educational the following quantities and costs (postage included): $.50 for movement, fund raising for operating budget, and questions of single copy, $.35 each for 2-10 copies, $.30 each for 11-25 copies, school development. (This meeting was made possible in part and $.20 each for 26-100 copies. from grants from the Waldorf Schools Fund, Gemeinnutzige Checks should be made out to the Anthroposophical Treuhandstelle e.V., and Iona Stichting.) Society, RD#2, Box 215, Ghent, NY 12075. Please allow 6-8 The third meeting will be held in Sacramento, Calif, on Oct. weeks for delivery. 26-28, 1984. The first meeting was held in Spring Valley in —Bill Hunt November 1983. Three main themes being addressed in all the meetings are: 1) the social basis for education, 2) the financial administration of Waldorf schools, and 3) the funding of Anne Stockton, of the Tobias School of Art (East Grinstead, Waldorf education. The series is intended for parents, teachers, England) writes: Americans will join in a sense of loss to learn of and others involved in the finances of Waldorf schools. the death of Rudolf Marcus in Forest Row on March 21, 1984. Lecture tapes, notes, and summaries are available of both Some will remember his inspired modeling course in Spring meetings. For more details, contact Ann Stahl, 285 Hungry Valley some ten years ago. Many visitors and Emerson students Hollow Road, Spring Valley, New York 10977. will recall with gratitude Rudi’s “healing hands” as he devotedly —Donald Samick gave his massage learned in Holland and Germany.

MICHAELMAS CONFERENCE IN AUSTIN, TEXAS (Oct. 5, Rudolf Grosse’s Die Weihnachtstagung als Zeitenwende will soon 6, & 7 , 1984): A group of Members from seven Texas cities and become available in English, titled: The Christmas Foundation, towns is sponsoring an anthroposophical conference titled “Is Beginning of a New Age. Written by the former president of the There a Christian Path to the Spirit in Our Time?” Lectures will General Anthroposophical Society, and published by the include “Introduction to the Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner,” School of Spiritual Science, Dornach, in 1976, the book is being “Anthroposophy, a Path of Knowledge,” and “Anthroposophy translated by Johanna Collis, London, and will be published by and Practical Life.” Henry Barnes will be our main speaker. Also Steiner Book Centre, North Vancouver, Canada. planned are eurythmy workshops and a performance by three eurythmists, members of the Midwest Performing Group. A PROGRAM IN PAINTING (beginning in September 1984) Following the conference a meeting will be held and Mr. in accordance with the artistic training developed on the basis of Barnes will speak on “The Anthroposophical Society as Rudolf Rudolf Steiner’s indications by the painter Gerard Wagner in Steiner’s Last and Greatest Work of Art.” We will then discuss Dornach is being offered under the auspices of the Threefold how Members of Texas and surrounding states can work Educational Foundation. Classes are conducted by Peter together to further the aims of the Society. We are also hoping to Stebbing, and the program includes a study of Goethe’s Color hold a meeting of the First Class. Theory and art history. For further details, write: Threefold Conference fees: individuals $35 until August 31, then $40; Painting Program, 285 Hungry Hollow Road, Spring Valley, couples $55; students $25. Contact the conference secretary— N.Y. 10977, (914) 353-5020. Eileen Menke, Star Route 1-A, Box 73-0, Dripping Springs, Texas 78620, (512) 858-7420. THE ECONOMIC BASIS FOR WALDORF EDUCATION, PAST AND FUTURE MEETINGS: A second workshop was The Boca Raton Waldorf School, Florida, now completing its held at the Waldorf Institute in Southfield, Mich. May 4-6, 1984. 11th year as a nursery and kindergarten, is seeking an experi­ The speakers were Warren Ashe (from Michael Hall, England), enced class teacher, committed to anthroposophy, to take the Werner Glas, Siegfried Finser, Christopher Schaefer, and first grade in September 1984. Please contact the school at Box Arthur Auer. Mr. Glas spoke on trusteeship, fund raising, and 951, Boca Raton, FL 33429 or call (305) 391-4278.

Indications and Final Dates Subscription for Receiving Contributions The Newsletter is published quarterly by the Anthroposo­ Please send clean copy: typed in double spacing throughout phical Society in America for its Members. It is available to (this includes headings, quotations, and footnotes), indented members and libraries of other national Societies at an annual paragraphs, wide margins (about ten words per line, 28 lines per subscription of US $ 10.00, including overseas postage. page), one side only, full names with verified spelling. Subscription begins with the Spring issue and may be ordered March 1, June 1, September 1, December 1. via the editor.

All editorial communications should be addressed to the Editor of the Newsletter: Mrs. Gisela O’Neil, Pomona Country Club, Spring Valley, NY 10977, (914) 354-3386; all other communications should be sent to the office secretary, Anthroposophical Society, R.D. 2, Ghent, NY 12075, (518) 672-4601. Copyright and all other rights are reserved by the Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America. 32 Responsibility for the contents of articles attaches only to the writers.