Anthroposophicum

We stand at an important point in world history. 100 years after the Treaty of Versailles. 100 years after the opening of the First Goetheanum. Shortly before 1920 Rudolf Steiner's impulse for the social threefolding had not been taken up. Rudolf Steiner opened the First Goetheanum in 1920 with a series of lectures that focused on three areas: religion, art and natural science. In response to the catastrophe of World War I, the former esoteric ritual work was transformed into the First-Class Meditations. 

September 26 is the 100th anniversary of the opening of the First Goetheanum. In 2020, with the coronavirus crisis, history presents us with a new great challenge for society, for our economy; and all this within a culture that is facing materialistic challenges as never before. Of course, we can feel the urge to resist or contribute to changes in politics, economics and culture; but how can we do this if we want to remain faithful to a spiritual challenge?

Rudolf Steiner said after the catastrophe of the fire of the First Goetheanum that this was a consequence of the "sleepiness" of anthroposophists. Similarly, around the outbreak of World War I, leading figures seemingly "sleepwalked" into the catastrophe, unaware of the spiritual realities surrounding them. This issue of "sleepiness" is part of a broader and deeper issue that has also been raised in a wide spectrum in the anthroposophical world in recent years: the question of a return to esoteric work.

This theme of "sleepiness" is part of a broader and deeper theme that has been raised in recent years, also in the anthroposophical world, in a wide spectrum: the question of a return to esoteric work. One remembers well the call of Sergei Prokoffiev and Peter Selg for a necessity of an esoteric deepening of the esoteric work of the First Class. Even if one looks at the recent academic journal publication of "Steiner Studies", one can notice similar calls for a more conscious and intensive engagement with questions of spiritual research and questions of the path of knowledge. The theme has been taken up further recently in Judith von Halle's work on Falter Meditation. It is a theme that connects.

The esoteric in our society must be seen in the light of the culture and the world in which we live. The twentieth century saw dramatic changes in culture and society after World War II. The media changed, the arts changed, and our psychology changed. In fact, we all grew up in a world radically different from the world of the 1920s: before the devastation and catastrophe that followed. A world was built on ruins. A new world with ideologies, and new media had come along.

Should humanity continue to sleep through new disasters and challenges? The answer is undoubtedly and unfortunately yes. But as always, history is led and changed by a vanguard. As Rudolf Steiner has so often said, the important attitude to bring to esoteric work is first and foremost reverence for the spiritual world.

This will be our starting point to reconnect with some of Rudolf Steiner's first-class mediations. In relation to art, we will see what two particular stories can tell us about such a process of spiritual awakening. One is familiar to all: the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, but with a story that takes us back to Arthurian times. The other is a wonderful alchemical mystery play by William Shakespeare "Pericles Prince of Tyre". Both stories will take us deeper into the themes of the spiritual path, which we will supplement with meditations from the First Class.

Anthroposophicum is an ambitious undertaking, but we hope to collaborate in it with others who feel the same drive and need to engage in such esoteric work in this challenging but hopefully bright future dawning around us. In this sense, it is a task of religious renewal with which we bring together art and spiritual science on Michaelmas 2020. We look forward to meeting people who wish to join us.