AN APPROACH TO CONTEMPORARY QUESTIONS IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY The Golden Blade Evil and tme Power of Thought - Rudolf Steiner Seeds of Future Worlds - - - Rudolf Steiner Two Lectures given at noniach, September 23-4, 1921 The Council OF 869 A.D. - - - A. P. Shepherd Water's Forming Forces - - - Olive Whicher Human Relationships in a Divided World - _ . _ _ AdamBUtleston Goddess Into Saint . - . Isabel Wyatt and The Bird on the Harp T h i n k i n g A b o u t K n o w i n g - - - A l a n H o w a r d Melancholy IN Our Age - - - Rudolf Treichler The Work of Alice Bailey: 1880- 1 9 4 9 F r a n c e s B a n k s Reviews of books by Albert Steven, Alfred Heidenreich, Katharine Trevelyan, Stanley Drake, Evelyn Derry, Eleanor Merry, Isabel Wyatt. Edited by Arnold Freeman and Charles Waterman 1963 PUBLISHED ANNUALLY PRICE EIGHT AND SIX The Golden Blade 1963 Evil and the Power of Thought - Rudolf Steiner 1 S e e d s o f F u t u r e W o r l d s - - - R u d o l f S t e i n e r 1 1 Two Lectures given at Dornach, September 23-4, 1921 The Council OF 869 A.d. - - - A.P.Shepherd 22 W a t e r ' s F o r m i n g F o r c e s - - - O l i o e W h i c h e r 3 7 Human Relationships in a Divided World AdamBittleston 47 G o d d e s s I n t o S a i n t - - - . I s a b e l W y a t t 5 5 and The Bird on the Harp Thinking About Knowing - - - Alan Howard 67 M e l a n c h o l y i n O u r A g e - - - R u d o l f T r e i c h l e r 7 7 The Work of Alice Bailey: 1880- 1 9 4 9 F r a n c e s B a n k s 8 3 Reviews of books by Albert Steffen, Alfred Heidenreich, Katharine Trevelyan, Stanley Drake, Evelyn Derry, Eleanor Merry, Isabel Wyatt. Edited by Arnold Freeman and Charles Waterman Price 8/6 (9/5 post free) from the Rudolf Steiner Bookshop, 35. Park Road, London, N.W.L AT THE CENTRE OF MAN'S BEING: I Evil and the Power of Thought Rudolf Steiner The first of two Lectures given at Dornach on September 23-4, 1921^ IF anthe oriental Mysteries sage of ofthe early ancient times, East, who were had to been turn initiatedhis glance into towards modern Western civilisation, he might perhaps say to its representatives: " You are living entirely in fear; your whole mood of soul is governed by fear. All that you do, as well as all that you feel, is saturated with fear and its reverberations in the most im portant moments of life. And since fear is closely related to hatred, so hatred that plays a great part in your whole civilisation." Let us make this quite clear. I mean a sage of the ancient East ern civilisation would speak thus if he stood again to-day among Western people with the same standard of education, the same mood of soul, as those of his own ancient time. And he would Anthroposophy, a way of thought rather than a make it plain that in his time and his country civilisation was body of dogma, springs from the work and teaching founded on a quite different basis. He would probably say: " In of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). He spoke of it as my days, fear played no part in civilised life. Whenever we were concerned to promulgate a world-conception and let action and "a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the social life spring from it, the main thing was joy—joy which could human being to the spiritual in the universe be enhanced to the point of a complete giving of oneself in love to the world." That is how he would put it, and in so doing he would indicate (if he were rightly understood) what were from his point of The aim of this Annual is to publish writings which view supremely important constituent factors and impulses of bring the outlook of Anthroposophy to bear on ques modern civilisation. And if we knew how to listen to him in the right way, we should gain much that we need to know in order to tions and activities relevant to the present time. find a starting point for trying to get a grip on modern life. In fact, an echo of the ancient civilisation still persists in Asia, The title derives from a reference by Rudolf Steiner even though strong European influences have been absorbed into its religious, aesthetic, scientific and social life. This ancient civilisa to an old Persian legend. "Djemjdid was a king tion is in decline, and when the ancient oriental sage says, who led his people from the north towards Iran, and " Love was the fundamental force of the ancient oriental culture," who received from the God, whom he called Ahura then it must certainly be admitted that but little of this love can be traced directly in the present. But one who is able to discern it Mazdao, a golden dagger, by means of which he was can perceive even now, in the phenomena of decline of the Asiatic to fulfil his mission on earth .... It represents a culture, the penetration of this primeval element of joy—delight in force given to man whereby he can act upon and the world and love for the world. transform external nature ". * In those ancient times there was in the Orient little of what was afterwards required of man when that word resounded which found *From a shorthand report, unrevised by the lecturer. Published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland. 1 its most radical expression in the Greek saying, " Know thyself!" of man's inner being, a precept which was to make clear to them in This " Know thyself' entered the historical life of man only what mood of soul this self-knowledge was to be approached. The when the early Greek civilisation set in. The old eastern world- precept I mean is frequently quoted. But in its full weight it was picture, wide-ranging and light-filled, was not yet permeated uttered only in the older Mystery colonies of Egypt, North Africa by this kind of human ^owledge; it was in no way orientated and Ireland as a preparation for the pupil, and as a reminder for towards directing man s glance mto his own inner being. every Initiate in regard to the experiences of man's inner being. In this respect man is dependent on the circumstances prevailing The precept runs thus: " No-one who is not initiated in the sacred in his environment. The ancient oriental civilisation was founded Mysteries should learn to know the secrets of man's innermost under a different influence from the sun's light, and its earthly being; to utter these secrets in the presence of a non-Initiate is in- circumstances were also different from those of Western civilisation. admissible; for the mouth uttering these secrets then lays the burden In the ancient East, man's inner glance was captured by all that he of sin upon itself; likewise does the ear burden itself with sin when experienced in the surrounding world, and he had a special motive it hearkens to those secrets." for giving over his entire being to it. It was cosmic knowledge that Time and again this precept was uttered from out of the inner wove in the ancient oriental wisdom, and in the world-conception experience to which a man, prepared by Oriental wisdom, was able that owed its origin to this wisdom. Even in the Mysteries them- ' to attain when he penetrated, by virtue of the terrestrial configura- selves—you can infer this from all you have been hearmg for many tion of the West, to the knowledge of man. Tradition has preserved years in all that lived in the Mysteries of the East there was no this precept, and to-day it is still repeated—without any understand- fulfilment of the challenge, " Know thyself!" On the contrary— ing of its intrinsic nature—in the secret orders and secret societies "Turn your gaze outwards towards the world and endeavour to let of the West which, externally, still have a great influence. But it is that approach you which is hidden in the depths of cosmic repeated only from tradition. It is not uttered with the necessary phenomena!' —that is how the precept of the ancient Oriental weight, for those who use it do not really know what it signifies, civilisation would have been expressed. Yet even in our own time this word is used as a kind of motto in The teachers and pupils of the Mysteries were compelled, how- the secret societies of the West: " There are secrets concerning man's ever, to turn their glance to the inner being of man when the Asiatic inner being that can be transmitted to men only within the secret civilisation began to spread westwards; as soon, indeed, as Mystery societies; for otherwise the mouth uttering them is sinful, and the colonies were founded in Egypt and in North Africa.