PREFACE
by
Marie Steiner
HEN Rudolf Steiner, in 1909, delivered the lectures published here in
book form before the General Assembly of the German Section of the
Theosophical Society in Berlin, he intended them, as he expressed it,
as a strengthening of the foundations of the European
spiritual-scientific movement that he led. Such a strengthening,
substantiated by cognition and minutely verified, had become
indispensable in view of certain trends on the part of the
Anglo-Indian theosophical movement that, fed on oriental occultism,
failed to grasp the true spiritual life of the Occident in its
essence and content. It saw the aberrations of materialistic
civilization without understanding their deeper significance. It
believed it could lead Europeans back to the sources of primeval
wisdom, ignoring the historical evolution of Western peoples and
their own particular tasks. It set up the ideal of an unworldly
theosophy, a God-wisdom such as was sought with profound devotion and
sacrificial ardor, through meditation and deeply spiritual ecstasy,
by the German mystics in the Middle Ages and in the early dawn of
modern times. But this goal was unattainable for the great masses of
humanity; it could not be popularized without becoming shoddy.
True, the homeless souls of our day, suffocating in the
close atmosphere of materialism, found hope in this oriental
theosophy, but the path they discovered proved to be a blind alley.
Critical European thinking with its demand for analysis and synthesis
could not be satisfied with endless dogmatizing and the recounting of
wonderful happenings; it wanted a consistently thought-out sequence
of cause and effect, of becoming and dying within a series of
ascending metamorphoses, up to the goal of higher development. The
intensified Western sense of personality could not simply accept the
statement of a cycle of events run off in an endless monotony of
repetition, lacking all deeper significance, aiming only at the
ultimate liberation from existence. As the European felt it, Creation
would reveal itself by sending forth rays to a focal point, unite
with it, and emerge in new raiment with added import, endlessly
evolving new shapes and forms of life. This focal point of all
evolution could be envisioned only in the power of the ego. Divine
ego had permeated life; then came the time for the human ego —
that drop from the ocean of the divine ego-being — to possess
itself. Through transformation and according to laws governing
earth-life, it had to be shaped and harmonized, to return eventually
as an individual ego to the divine ego, retaining all it had
achieved, in freedom uniting its will with the divine will, guided by
knowledge and clear vision to a desire for this most exalted reunion.
The human ego cannot escape from itself, cannot extinguish itself. It
must seek and purify itself in eternal striving; during this process
of awakening it must gradually redeem and lead back to the spirit the
world of dross sloughed off during billions of years of ever new
transformations. Failing this, it will fall a prey to the world of
demons who will cast it back among the dross.
The task of present-day man is to seize hold consciously
of this ego, which for eons has worked upon its sheaths and its
essence. With the help of such remnants of the power of thought as
remain after centuries of abstract thinking, and after the
obscuration suffered by its living force through the shortsightedness
of a mind fed on mere sense illusions, it must win back to itself;
this task lends highest significance to human life that appears again
and again in new incarnations. This is the path by which man,
entrusted by Divinity with his freedom, gradually transcends the
limits of an earth-bound mind and reaches his highest goal: to become
once more the expression of the divine ego by returning to the
spirit. It is the task of the Occident to lead the individual ego
toward this goal by way of tireless research and free personal
activity. Not flight from individualism expressed in personality, as
Buddhism defines the principle of redemption, and as Neo-Buddhism
tries seductively to dangle it before a weary Occident. No; it is a
question of liberating the individual ego, for the time being
enmeshed in personality; of the awakening of its own powers
strengthened through active effort, so that it may become a fully
conscious instrument of the divine will, which it recognizes —
an instrument capable of collaborating with this divine will toward
the divine goal. In spite of its connection with a theosophical
current looking to the past and fraught with orientalism,
anthroposophy has set up and clearly defined this way as
indispensable. At the decisive turning point in human evolution —
there where the descent of the divine ego to the human ego halted and
the reascent commenced — anthroposophy points to the light
streaming from the Mystery of Christ's human incarnation and His
death of sacrifice.
In order that man might consciously achieve his human
status, might learn to know the world and himself, might become ripe
to grasp the concept of Divinity, this anthroposophical middle way
from earth to the Divinity had to be cleared. The human being —
of the earth, earthy, and torn two ways — can grasp this way
only by the greatest effort of all the forces of his being. The
attainment of communion with God by isolated, surpassing pioneers
transcending their epoch — that does not suffice. If all
humanity was to be led toward this goal, and thus the imminent danger
of sinking into the subhuman be escaped, it was necessary for one to
come who was able to point out this middle way and render it
practicable for others: the way from the human to the divine Being,
through the “Know thyself.”
The time has come for all humanity to become conscious
of the old Mystery word. To bring this about, human personality, torn
from its roots, had to undertake the long and arduous pilgrimage
through the rough scrub of critical thinking by an intellect divorced
from the spirit, down into the aberrations of materialistic
obtuseness, and up to the portal of our mighty technical discoveries,
at which the powers of the underworld are already knocking. This is
the realm of the elementals opening up between spirit and nature. It
is sending up forces whose incalculable, demoniacal efficacy remains
un-dreamed of by the discoverers of their first manifestations; they
will not be able to gauge it until they learn to penetrate the world
of spirit. To do this they must first learn to know the human being —
themselves. Anthroposophy can lead us to this goal by the path of
serious work; without it we will know neither the abyss nor heaven,
both of which are hidden in the human being. Know man; only then will
you be able to travel the path that redeems hell and attains to
heaven.
This road to a comprehension of the world and of man
through knowledge starts in the cool region of philosophical
thinking, which must confront life's enigmas with clearly defined
concepts. Those whose souls are winged by the grace of direct feeling
may find this road arduous and almost superfluous, yet it is a
necessary one in our time. Mystical contemplation alone can no longer
satisfy us in our search for life's purpose.
Rudolf Steiner smoothed this road by first creating the
atmosphere that warms our heart and lifts up our spirit, thus
clearing our vision for the heights of true theosophy and the wisdom
of the Gospels. But he did not save us the effort, the climb up those
steep steps to the peaks of knowledge. That is proved by the
expositions set forth in this book. They are a vital component part
of those publications of Rudolf Steiner that deal with the theory of
knowledge, and they are important as well for a realistic
establishment of the historic events that constitute the frame of his
work.
Rudolf Steiner had already been active for seven years
along the lines of the anthroposophic spiritual current that he had
inaugurated. He had been called, begged for assistance, by members of
the theosophical movement who felt strongly that something more was
necessary to quench their thirst for knowledge — above all, an
access to Christianity that could satisfy their thinking and their
feeling. Rudolf Steiner was ready to give this, to illuminate the
Occident's task in this spirit. It was upon these conditions —
the assurance, on the part of the leading theosophists, of a totally
non-dogmatic freedom of action and speech — that he consented
to become the leader of the German branches. In this way seven years
passed, the last two of which were darkly overcast by a suddenly
arising dogmatic intolerance among the leaders of the Anglo-Indian
current, who in no uncertain terms evinced their intention to render
the spirit of the Occident pliant to their will. Rudolf Steiner
wished to meet such difficulties solely on a basis of the forces of
cognition, and in the general assemblies of the German Society he
aimed to provide for his listeners ever firmer foundations for
comprehending each case in point. At the same time he stressed the
cyclical course of events that stems from something deeper than is
apparent to superficial thinking. Probably none but a blunt-minded
materialist will still refuse to see the cyclic significance of the
number seven, which keeps recurring in countless images, symbolizing
what is transitory, and playing so great a rôle in the
evolution, not only of man but of humanity, as well as in its
reflections, the historical events.
The unfolding of the consciousness soul in man commences
as a rule after the completion of his twenty-eighth year, and
something similar takes place in the organism of a human community.
Now, as we are publishing these lectures, delivered over a period of
three years before the General Assemblies of the Society, it is not
without interest to continue with the indications given by Rudolf
Steiner in the opening words of the first lecture. He said that the
seventh anniversary of the founding of the Society furnished the
right occasion for a more comprehensive presentation of
anthroposophy, such as he would endeavor to give in the ensuing
lectures, and he reminded his hearers that at the Foundation meeting,
seven years before, he had already spoken on the subject of
“Anthroposophy,” thus indicating the direction his work
was to take.
The second seven-year cycle that followed witnessed the
expression of the spiritual struggle arising from the refusal of the
orientalizing Anglo-Indian Theosophical Society to abandon its
intention of winning over the Occident to its spiritual creed. When
it was no longer possible to pass up the ramparts of Christianity
with a shrug, the Society created from its midst an Ersatz-savior
for the souls longing for Christian truth: the Indian lad,
Krishnamurti. This led to the secession of the more serious members
of the theosophical movement, and to the independent Anthroposophical
Society.
In 1916, at the termination of Rudolf Steiner's second
cycle of activity in behalf of the spiritual rejuvenation of the
Occident in a manner according with its own premises, Europe was
ablaze in the abysmal flames of the world war. Upon the hills of
Dornach, in Switzerland, arose the Goetheanum, center of activity for
the representatives of nineteen nations who gave what they had in the
name of humanity. This gave a strong impetus to the artistic element,
while other departments of the work suffered through the obstacles
imposed by the war. In view of her fourteen years' collaboration with
Rudolf Steiner in building up the Society, the writer of these lines
may be permitted to mention that this was the occasion of her
resignation from the leadership of the Anthroposophical Society, and
that from then on she devoted herself more intensively to the
artistic tasks. Along with this step, Rudolf Steiner, as whose
executive it had been the writer's privilege to serve, transferred
the leadership of the Society to the Vorstand officiating in
Germany. This arrangement lasted until Christmas, 1923, when he
founded the Society anew under the name of the General
Anthroposophical Society, with its seat at the Goetheanum in
Switzerland, and he undertook the leadership himself, with a Vorstand
recruited in Dornach.
By Christmas, 1930, the fourth seven-year cycle had run
its course. Rudolf Steiner had departed this earth shortly after that
memorable refoundation, over which he was destined to preside but one
year. Then Albert Steffen, the great poet and dramatist, became the
recognized Head of the Anthroposophical Society. Albert Steffen who,
together with those responsible for carrying on the spirit of the
movement as it had been entrusted to them by Rudolf Steiner, suffered
a period of harrowing inner struggle before this apparently obvious
step could be taken. Spiritual necessities, as manifested in their
earthly reflection, create many trials that must be converted into
forces of consciousness. It is along such paths that we can achieve
an individualized community-consciousness, and the fourth seven-year
cycle was characterized by a struggle for just that end.
Now we have entered the fifth epoch of our
anthroposophic life. May it see the grasping of this
community-consciousness by wide-awake ego forces, in order that the
purpose may be fulfilled that is inseparably linked with the
anthroposophical movement for the spiritualization of humanity!
Anthroposophy is a way of cognition that would lead the spiritual
nature of man to the spiritual nature of the universe.
This way is that of a modern science of initiation. It
is not our intention to found a new religion, but rather, we aim to
serve as the advance guard of a crusade to enkindle in man the
rousing force of the ego. In the face of all struggles and
difficulties, we as anthroposophists strive for wisdom in truth.
These lectures on Anthroposophy as here published
are reproduced, more than is usually the case, in a certain
abbreviated form, for no shorthand version was available — only
longhand notes. In spite of this fact, no anthroposophist will fail
to recognize the value of these expositions. The two cycles on
Psychosophy and Pneumatosophy are here given accurately
from shorthand reports. The question of omitting the poems arose.
[Cf. footnote, pp. 67 and 118.]
They have but a loose connection with the text and in a sense were
called forth by the occasion of the General Assembly. This, however,
would have necessitated an adaptation of the text, and that was above
all things to be avoided. As it is, the character of the original has
been retained intact. In addition to its spontaneity it thus has a
certain historical value, and this will also serve as an excuse for
the inevitable deficiencies in the notes.
Thus, we offer this book to the public as an expression
of the living word of that leader of humanity, so little understood,
so greatly feared by his adversaries, who was the embodiment of
kindness, wisdom and active force in our midst, and who created the
conditions for the regeneration of Europe.
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