Community Life, Inner Development, Sexuality and the Spiritual Teacher

Notes

ABOUT THIS EDITION

ABOUT THE TEXT: Several participants took notes during these lectures. Franz Seiler of Berlin was the official stenographer, but Helene Finckh of Dornach also recorded the entire series in shorthand. Summaries in shorthand were made by Bertha Reebstein-Lehmann and Johanna Arnold; in longhand, by Louise Boese, and Elisabeth Vreede made a summary of three lectures.

All of these sources were taken into account in preparing this edition; the text was then compared to the original shorthand versions available. It is apparent from Seiler's transcription of the shorthand record that Rudolf Steiner himself read it through once and made some corrections, which were of course included in this edition. Apparently he intended to have the lectures printed for the information of the members. It seems that the editing became too time-consuming for him, however, because defects of greater or lesser magnitude remain in the text, which made it necessary to edit the lectures considerably before they could be printed. This editing, however, does not touch on Rudolf Steiner's train of thought.

ABOUT THE DRAWINGS: The drawings correspond to how the notetakers reproduced them. Seiler's version of the lecture of September 14, 1915, includes two of Rudolf Steiner's original drawings, which have been reproduced here in facsimile.

PUBLICATION IN JOURNALS: The lectures given in Dornach on September 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15, 1915, appeared in What Is Happening in the Anthroposophical Society — News for Members, Vol.16 (1939), nos. 2-13.

The title of this volume and the titles of individual lectures are the responsibility of the publisher. In these notes works by Rudolf Steiner are referred to by their volume number in the Collected Works (Gesamtausgabe = GA). Translations of quotations in the notes are by the translator of this volume except when otherwise noted. Notes by the translator are in square brackets.

PART ONE

In these notes words by Rudolf Steiner are referred to by their volume number in the Collected Works (Gesantausgabe = GA). Translations of quotations in the notes are by the translator of this volume except when otherwise noted. Notes by the translator are in square brackets.

Lecture One

REQUIREMENTS OF OUR LIFE TOGETHER
IN THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

1. In Stuttgart on September 4, 1921, at the first Members' Assembly after World War I, Rudolf Steiner addressed the question of the lecture cycles as follows: “Actually, every member has taken on the responsibility of seeing that the cycles stay within the Society. I am not so concerned about the cycles being read outside the Society; what matters to me is that these cycles in the form in which they were printed stay among people who understand the circumstances, because lack of time kept me from correcting the proofs.” (Mitteilungen des Zentralvorstandes der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, Stuttgart, November 1921, No. 1, p. 27). And in The Course of My Life, GA 28, (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1986): “I would have preferred it if the spoken word could have been left in that form, the members wanted to have the lectures printed privately, and that is why the talks now exist in print. If I had had time to make corrections, there would have been no need for the 'for members only' restriction right from the beginning.” (Chapter XXXV, Anthroposophic Press, 1986).

However, since the members did not feel bound by this responsibility and Steiner's opponents in their writings often showed themselves to be better informed about the lecture cycles than the members themselves, Rudolf Steiner was obliged to lift all restrictions and declare the printed lecture cycles available to the general public at the Christmas Foundation Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society in 1923.

2. See the explanations Steiner gave on August 21 and 22, 1915, printed in Part Two of this volume.

3. August 22, 1915, in Part Two of this volume, p. 144.

4 “The Origin of Evil in the Light of Spiritual Science,” Munich, March 29, 1914. Only incomplete notes of this lecture are extant.

5 Gustav Gräser, 1879–1958, who became well known as an apostle of nature in the 1920s. Cf. Ulrich Linse, Barfüssige Propheten. Erlöser der zwanziger Jahre, Berlin, 1983. (“Barefoot Prophets: Redeemers of the Twenties”) Rudolf Steiner mentioned Gräser in a letter to Marie von Sivers on January 6, 1906 (in Rudolf Steiner/Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Correspondence and Documents 1901–1925, GA 262, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1988), saying that Gräser had attended a lecture of Rudolf Steiner's and taken part in the discussion afterward.

Lecture Two

THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AS A LIVING BEING

1. Cf. Diogenes Laertius, The Life and Opinions of Famous Philosophers, VI, 40 (about Diogenes of Sinope): “When Plato proposed the definition, which met with approval, that the human being is a featherless two-footed creature, he (Diogenes) plucked the feathers from a chicken and brought it into Plato's school, saying, ‘Here is Plato's human being.’ ”

2. August Weismann, 1834–1914, professor of zoology. Studies on the theory of evolution, 1875–6; lectures on the theory of evolution, 1881. Cf. Rudolf Steiner's lecture of April 18, 1916, in Gegenwärtiges und Vergangenes im Menschengeiste (“Things Past and Present in the Human Spirit”), GA 167, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1962).

3. The three points in the 1913 “Draft of the Principles for an Anthroposophical Society”:

1. Within the Society, all those people may work together in a brotherly fashion who take as their foundation for lovingly working together the existence of a common spirituality in all human souls, regardless of their differences with respect to faith, nation, class, gender, etc.

2. Investigation into the supersensible concealed in everything sense-perceptible shall be fostered and the dissemination of true spiritual science promoted.

3. Knowledge of the core of truth in the philosophies of different peoples and times shall be fostered. [This draft was not published in English — Translator]

4. “What Are the Intentions of Spiritual Science? A Response to ‘What Do the Theosophists Want’ ” in the Tagblatt (“Daily News”) fiir das Birseck, Birsig, und Leimental, Arlesheim, Vol.43 no. 50, February 28, 1914. Now printed in Philosophie und Anthroposophie. Gesammelte Aufsatze 1904–1923, GA 35, (Domach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1984). [See next note. Not published in English — Translator]

5. “What Do the Theosophists Want?” — a talk given at the family night of the Reformed Church in Arlesheim on February 14, 1914, by E. Riggenbach, pastor. It was printed in the supplement to the Tagblatt, Arlesheim, February 1914.

6. It has been reported that this is how the Italian Princess D'Antuni, Elika del Drago, expressed herself to Rudolf Steiner. At her invitation, Steiner held lectures in the Palazzo del Drago in Rome in 1909 and 1910. He used this expression quite a few times.

7. On March 5, 1616, under Pope Paul V and as a result of the turmoil surrounding Galileo, Copernicus's work, “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI” (1543) was placed on the Index of forbidden books by the Inquisition charged with that task. On May 10, 1757, the Index Commission resolved to rescind the decree forbidding books saying that the sun stands still while the earth moves in the new edition of the Index, and Copernicus's book was no longer listed in the Index from then on. However, it was only on September 11 and 25, 1822, that the Holy Office and Pope Pius VII allowed the printing and publication of such works.

8. See Part Two, pp. 123-135.

9. Dr. Hugo Vollrath, theosophical book dealer and publisher (Theosophisches Verlagshaus) in Leipzig. In addition to being a member of the German Section of the Theosophical Society led by Rudolf Steiner, he also belonged to the so-called Leipzig Society and tried to bring its intentions, which were quite different in their orientation, into the German Section. This made their cooperation very difficult. Primarily at the insistence of the Leipzig branch of the German Section, he was excluded from membership in the German Section by its VIlth General Assembly in October, 1908.

10. Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy: An Introduction to the Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man, GA 9, repr., (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1988).

11 See Part Two, p. 170.

12 Several lines have been omitted here because the stenographic record did not make sense.

Lecture Three

SWEDENBORG: AN EXAMPLE OF DIFFICULTIES
IN ENTERING SPIRITUAL WORLDS

1. Emanuel Swedenborg, b. Stockholm 1688, d. London 1722, scientific investigator, physician, and mystic.

2. The Autographa edition, published by the Swedish Academy of Science, 18 volumes, Stockholm, 1901–1916.

3. Presumably Rudolf Steiner is referring to the section on the planet Mars in Swedenborg's book Die Erdkörper im Weltall (“The Heavenly Bodies in Space”). Steiner had in his personal library the book Emanuel Swedenborgs Leben & Lehre. Eine Sammlung authentischer Urkunden über Swedenborgs Persönlichkeit, und ein Inbegriff seiner Theologie in wörtlichen Auszügen aus seinen Schriften, Frankfurt, 1880 (“Emanuel Swedenborg's Life and Teachings: A Collection of Authentic Documents on Swedenborg's Personality, and a Sample of his Theology in Verbatim Extracts from his Works”). (Publisher not given).

4. Rudolf Steiner, Chance, Providence and Necessity, GA 163, (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1988).

5. “The Path of Knowledge,” Theosophy, pp. 154-178. See Lecture Two, note 10.

6. In many lectures by Steiner, in addition to sections in the following books: Theosophy. (See Lecture Two, note 10.) Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, GA 10, repr., (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1986). An Outline of Occult Science, GA 13, repr., (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1989).

7. Genesis, GA 122, revised translation (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982).

8. In a lecture given on August 8, 1915, entitled “The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge,” not published in English but available in manuscript from Rudolf Steiner Library, Ghent, N.Y. 12075. Published in German in Kunst- und Lebensfragen im Lichte der Geisteswissenschaft (“Questions of Art and Life in Light of Spiritual Science”), GA 162, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1985).

Lecture Four

METHODS AND RATIONALE
OF FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS

1. Sigmund Freud, 1856–1939. Psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis.

2 Joseph Breuer, 1842–1925. Rudolf Steiner met Breuer in the home of the Specht family, where Steiner was a tutor from 1884–1890. See Steiner's The Course of My Life, GA 28, Chapter XIII, (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1986). See also Karl Konig, “Die Schicksale Sigmund Freuds and Joseph Breuers” (“The Destiny of Sigmund Freud and Joseph Breuer”), Stuttgart 1962.

3. In Joseph Breuer's therapy, hysteric patients were put under hypnosis and their symptoms traced back to the point when they first appeared; as a rule, on recreating this condition, the symptoms intensified, but usually disappeared afterward. In their Studies on Hysteria, (Leipzig and Vienna, 1895) Breuer and Freud described this form of therapy on the basis of five individual cases.

4. Berlin, November 4, 1910, included in Wisdom of Man, of the Soul, and of the Spirit, GA 115, (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1971). Also Munich, November 18, 1911, in Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, GA 130, 2nd ed., rev., (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1984).

5. Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, tr. James Strachey, copyright 1950 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company). In the magazine Imago, vols. I and II (1912 and 1913), these articles appeared under the title, “Some Correspondences in the Inner Life of Savages and Neurotics.”

6. Dr. Oskar Schmiedel, 1887–1959, a chemist, was head of the laboratory producing the plant pigments needed in building the first Goetheanum.

7. Freud, op.cit., p. 29.

8. Ibid., p. 30.

9. Apparently, the next few lines dealt with the connection between the Goesch-Sprengel case and psychoanalysis, but the stenographer only caught the words, “It is important how the connection is drawn… with disguised drives like these… especially between two personalities of this sort…”

10. Sigmund Freud dealt with the Oedipus complex for the first time in The Interpretation of Dreams, tr. James Strachey, Chapter V, Section D, (New York: Avon, 1965).

11. Freud, Totem and Taboo, p. 16.

12. Ibid., p. 17.

13. Moritz Benedikt, 1835–1920, physician and criminal anthropologist. The exact quotation reads, “Nowadays we find that students at the best finishing schools are more informed on the topic of sexual perversions than we young doctors used to be, and I often wish beating could be instituted as a punishment for the 'liberated' women teachers who encourage this kind of knowledge.” Aus Meinem Leben. Erinnerungen and Erörterungen, Vienna, 1906, vol. II, p. 162.

14. Sandor Ferenczi, 1873–1933, a favorite pupil of Freud's who later went his own way in psychoanalysis.

15. Freud, Totem and Taboo, p. 131. Ferenczi's report appeared in English as “A Little Chanticleer” in Contributions to Psycho-Analysis, 1916, p. 270.

16. It has not been possible to determine whether or not this actually happened.

17. “The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche as a Psychopathological Problem,” in Friedrich Nietzsche: Fighter for Freedom, GA 5, (Englewood, NJ: Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1960).

Lecture Five

SEXUALITY AND MODERN CLAIRVOYANCE:
FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS
AND SWEDENBORG AS A SEER

1. Freud, Totem and Taboo. See Lecture Four, note 5.

2. Ibid., p. 28.

3. Ibid., p. 28.

4. Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Freedom: A Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, GA 4, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1988).

5. In a lecture given in Domach, August 8, 1915. See Lecture Three, note 8.

6. It is a Masonic custom to give the neophyte two pairs of white gloves at the occasion of his admission. One is for himself, the other for the woman he reveres most highly.

Lecture Six

THE CONCEPT OF LOVE AS IT RELATES TO MYSTICISM

1. Plutarch, c.46–after 119 A.D. Greek biographer and writer. In his work “On Isis and Osiris,” Plutarch makes the distinction between the two on the basis of the origin of Venus and Amor. He uses the Greek “Eros” for “Amor.”

2. For instance, in a lecture given in Berlin on May 14, 1912, Lecture 6 in Earthly and Cosmic Man, GA 133, (London: Rudolf Steiner Publishing Company, 1948).

3. Fritz Mauthner, 1849–1923, linguistic philosopher whose most important works were Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache, 3 volumes, (Stuttgart and Berlin: 1901–1902) and Wörterbuch der Philosophie. Neue Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache, 2 volumes, (Munich and Leipzig, 1910).

4. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, see Lecture Three, note 6.

5. Theosophy, see Lecture Two, note 10.

6. The reference is to a line from Goethe's Faust: “Schau alle Wirkenskraft und Samen und to nicht mehr in Worten kramen,” “[I] may contemplate all seminal forces — and be done with peddling empty words.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, trans. Stuart Atkins, (Cambridge, MA: Suhrkamp/Insel, 1984), Part One, Scene I, 11. 384-385.

7. In all probability, the reference is to Laurenz Manner (1848–1911), a Catholic theologian and professor of philosophy Rudolf Steiner met in Vienna in the salon of Marie Eugenie delle Grazie. See The Course of My Life, GA 28, (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1986) and Vom Menschenrätsel (“On the Riddle of the Human Being”), GA 20, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1984). [Not published in English — Translator]. {yes it is! - e.Ed}

8. In German, “his pigtail hangs behind him.” The reference is to a poem by Adalbert von Chamisso (1781–1838).

9. The quotations on the following pages are from Mauthner's Wörterbuch der Philosophie, see note 3 above.

10. Lou Andreas-Salome, 1861–1937, German writer. Daughter of a German general in the service of the Russians, wife of Orientalist F. C. Andreas, a friend of Nietzsche and Rilke, with connections to Freud and psychoanalysis. She wrote novels, short stories, and nonfiction.

11. Lou Andreas-Salome, Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werken, (“Friedrich Nietzsche in His Writings”), 1894.

12. See Address of August 21, 1915, in Part Two of this volume, p. 141.

13. Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, trans. E. F. J. Payne, (Indian Hills, Colorado: Falcon's Wing Press, 1958), Vol. II, Addenda to Book 4, Chapter 44, “Metaphysics of Sexual Love.” This passage is also quoted in Mauthner's Wörterbuch der Philosophie in the entry on “Love.”

14. No stenographic record was kept of this meeting, since Rudolf Steiner did not participate in it.

Lecture Seven

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
AS ILLUMINATED BY AN ANTHROPOSOPHICAL
UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN BEING

1. Rudolf Steiner, An Outline Of Occult Science, GA 13, repr., (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1989).

2. See note 10 to Lecture 4 above.

PART TWO

I
THE PROTAGONISTS

1. Alice Sprengel, b. 1871 in Scotland, d. 1949 in Bern, Switzerland. Grew up in Yorkshire, then came to Berlin and was active there in theosophical circles. There she also met Steiner and eventually joined his anthroposophical group and was a member of his Mystica Aeterna Lodge. After leaving Steiner, she joined the Order of Oriental Ternplars, a pseudo-masonic occult order. She became the secretary of Theodor Reuss (1855–1923), the Grand Master of the O.T.O. and moved with him and his group to Ascona. She was part of the Executive Council of the O.T.O., and by 1937 she was in charge of a Lodge of the O.T.O. in Locarno. For more information see Ellic Howe, The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order 1887–1923, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972) and Helmut Möller and Ellic Howe, Merlin Peregrinus: Vom Untergrund des Abendlandes (“Merlin Peregrinus: On the Underground of the Occident”), (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1986).

2. From Rudolf Steiner's mystery drama The Guardian of the Threshold (Scene 4, Strader speaking to Theodora), The Four Mystery Plays, GA 14, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), p. 297.

3. The reference is to Edouard Schure's drama La Sœur Gardienne. Rudolf Steiner began working on the production in the summer of 1913 in Munich, but had to abandon the project because he was overtaxed.

4. Mary Peet Bivar, an Englishwoman living in Brussels, had been a pupil of Annie Besant's for many years before siding with Rudolf Steiner in 1910. She founded the Johannes Branch in Brussels in 1912, moved in the middle of 1914 first to Basel and then to Arlesheim. She was tirelessly active on behalf of Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy until her death in 1927. See the obituary in Was in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft vorgeht, No. 44, October 30, 1927.

5. See Karl Heyers, Wie Man Gegen Rudolf Steiner Kampft ("How Rudolf Steiner Is Opposed"), Stuttgart, 1932.

6. Paul Fechter, Menschen und Zeiten: Begegnungen aus funf Jahrzehnten ("People and Times: Encounters in Five Decades"), Giltersloh, 1948.

7. See Emanuel Hurwitz, Otto Gross: Paradies-Sucher zwischen Freud und Jung (“Otto Gross: Paradise-Seeker between Freud and Jung”), Zurich, 1979.

8. In Deutsche Rundschau, May 1930.

9. Max Asch, physician, died 1911. Member of the German Section of the Theosophical Society since 1904. While commemorating the dead during the General Assembly of 1911 (December 10, 1911), Rudolf Steiner dedicated these words to him:

“I must also recall a third person, whose departure from the physical plane may have seemed to many to have come unexpectedly quickly. This person is our beloved member Dr. Max Asch. In his extremely eventful life he had to overcome many things that can make it difficult for someone to approach a purely spiritual movement, but in the end he did find his way to us, and he, the physician, found healing for his own suffering in reading and studying theosophy. He assured me repeatedly that in his physician's heart he could find no more fruitful faith in any remedy than in what he received spiritually from theosophical books, that he could feel theosophical teachings streaming like balsam into his pain-racked body. He cultivated theosophy in this sense right up to the hour of his death. When our friend departed this world, it was very difficult for me to resign myself to not being able to speak a few words at the graveside as his daughter wrote to ask me. I was unable to fulfill this wish because my lecture series in Prague began that day, thus making it impossible for me to render this last service on the physical plane to our friend the theosophist. You can be sure that the words I would have spoken at his grave followed him in thought into the worlds he was entering.”

Asch was also a friend of the physician Carl Ludwig Schleich (1859–1922). In this regard, see Rudolf Steiner's lecture given in Dornach on September 7, 1924, in Karmic Relationships, Vol. IV, GA 238, rev. ed. (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983), pp.25-37.

10. In Vol. II of Metamorphoses of the Soul: Paths of Experience, GA 59, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983), pp. 85-100.

II

ADDRESS BY RUDOLF STEINER

1. Lecture of August 20, 1915, Dornach, entitled “Episodische Betrachtungen fiber Raum, Zeit, Bewegung” (“Some Observations on Space, Time, and Movement”), in Der Wert des Denkens far eine den Menschen befriedigende Weltanschauung. Das Verhältnis der Geisteswissenschaft zur Naturwissenschaft (“Thinking's Value for a Humanly Satisfying World View: The Relationship of Spiritual Science to Natural Science”), GA 164, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1984). [This lecture has not been published in English — Translator.]

2. Rudolf Steiner, “Gedanken wahrend der Zeit des Krieges” (“Thoughts during the Time of War”), essay of July 5, 1915, in Aufsätze über die Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus und zur Zeitlage: Schriften und Aufsätze 1915–1921 (“On the Threefolding of the Social Organism and on the Current Situation: Essays and Articles 1915–1921”), GA 24, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1982). [Not available in English — Translator.]

3. Rudolf Steiner, The Riddles of Philosophy, GA 18, (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1973).

4. See p. 115 in this volume.

5. Address in Berlin, December 15, 1911, in Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der Esoterischen Schule 1904 bis 1919 (“On the History and Contents of the First Class of the Esoteric School, 1904–1919”), GA 264, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1984). [This volume has not been published in English — Translator.]

6. Rudolf Steiner may well have been referring to his description of different types of clairvoyance, and especially the difference between “head clairvoyance” and “gut clairvoyance.” Cf. the lecture series Wege der Geistigen Erkenntniss und der Erneuerung künstlerischer Weltanschauung (“Paths to Spiritual Knowledge and Renewal of Art Philosophy”), GA 161, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1980), and Kunst- und Lebensfragen im Lichte der Geisteswissenschaft (“Questions of Art and Life in the Light of Spiritual Science”), GA 162, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1985). [These volumes have not been published in English — Translator]

7. Hilde Boos-Hamburger in Mitteilungen aus der anthroposophischen Arbeit in Deutschland (“News about the Anthroposophical Work in Germany”), Vol 17, no. 1, Easter 1963.

8. Michael Bauer, 1871–1929, leader of the Albrecht Diirer Branch in Nurnberg. He was a member of the Vorstand of the Anthroposophical Society from 1913 until his retirement for health reasons in 1921.

III

ADDRESS BY RUDOLF STEINER

1. It has not been possible to ascertain which physician and which letter are referred to here.

2. See the volume Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der Esoterischen Schule 1904 bis 1919, note 5 to section II above.

3. See II, note 1 above.

4. See the two volumes Geisteswissenschaftliche Erlauterungen zu Goethes “Faust” (“Spiritual Scientific Commentaries on Goethe's Faust”), GA 272 and 273, (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1981). [These volumes have not been published in English — Translator.]

5. Robert Hamerling, 1830–1889, Austrian poet.

6. This seems to be a reference to Heinrich Goesch, who was not involved in any kind of practical activity. It was reported by some members that he had refused to help with the construction of the first Goetheanum.

7. The person referred to is Alice Sprengel. See Part Two, p. 109ff in this volume and also note 1 under I above.

8. The second half of this sentence is somewhat unclear in the stenographic record and may have not have been taken down exactly or completely.

9. This letter has not been found.

IV

RESOLVING THE CASE

1. Laura Marholm, pseudonym of Laura Hansson, née Mohr, 1854–1928, Swedish author whose books were published in German.

2. Marie Madeleine, pseudonym of M. M. von Puttkamer, 1881–? Caused a sensation with books published around the turn of the century because of her advocacy of free love.

3. Dolorosa, pseudonym of Maria Eichhorn, 1879–? poet and novelist.

4. Margarete Beutler, M. Friedrich-Freska, née Beutler, 1884–1949. Under the pseudonym Margit Friedrich, she wrote lyric poetry and stories on social themes.

5. Julia Wernicke, Member of the Anthroposophical Society, no further details known.

6. Mieta (Pyle-)Waller, 1883–1954. Since about 1907, a friend and close artistic colleague of Marie Steiner-von Sivers and Rudolf Steiner.

7. Mrs. von Strauss, Member of the Anthroposophical Society, no further details known.

Publisher's Note

THE LECTURES and addresses printed here were given by Rudolf Steiner to audiences familiar with the general background and terminology of his anthroposophical teaching. It should be remembered that in his autobiography The Course of My Life, he emphasizes the distinction between his written works on the one hand, and on the other, reports of lectures that were given as oral communications and were not originally intended for print. For an intelligent appreciation of the lectures it should be borne in mind that certain premises were taken for granted when the words were spoken. “These premises,” Rudolf Steiner writes, “include at the very least the anthroposophical knowledge of Man and of the Cosmos in its spiritual essence; also what may be called ‘anthroposophical history,’ told as an outcome of research into the spiritual world.”