SOPHIA INSTITUTE
NAVIGATION
About Rudolf Steiner
Anthroposophy is a
path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the
spiritual in the universe. It arises in people as a need of the heart and
feeling life. Anthroposophy can be justified only to the degree that it
satisfies this inner need. It may be acknowledged only by those who find
within it what they themselves feel the need to seek. Therefore,
anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential need of life,
certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just as
one experiences hunger and thirst. — Rudolf Steiner,
Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, 1904
Rudolf
Steiner was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austria (now in
Croatia) in 1861 and died in Dornach, Switzerland in 1925. In university, he
concentrated on mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Having written his
thesis on philosophy, Steiner earned his doctorate and was later drawn into
literary and scholarly circles and participated in the rich social and
political life of Vienna.
During the 1890s, Steiner
worked for seven years in Weimar at the Goethe archive, where he edited
Goethe's scientific works and collaborated in a complete edition of
Schopenhauer's work. Weimar was a center of European culture at the time,
which allowed Steiner to meet many prominent artists and cultural figures.
In 1894 Steiner published his first important work,
Intuitive
Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom, now published as
one of the Classics
in Anthroposophy.
When Steiner left Weimar, he went to Berlin where he edited an avant-garde
literary magazine. Again he involved himself in the rich, rapidly changing
culture of a city that had become the focus of many radical groups and
movements. Steiner gave courses on history and natural science and offered
practical training in public speaking. He refused to adhere to the
particular ideology of any political group, which did not endear him to the
many activists then in Berlin.
In 1899, Steiner's life quickly began to change. His
autobiography provides a personal glimpse of his inner struggles, which
matured into an important turning point. In the August 28, 1899 issue of his
magazine, Steiner published the article "Goethe's Secret Revelation" on the
esoteric nature of Goethe's fairy tale,
The Green
Snake and the Beautiful Lily. Consequently, Steiner was invited to speak
to a gathering of Theosophists. This was his first opportunity to act on a
decision to speak openly and directly of his spiritual perception, which had
quietly matured since childhood through inner development and discipline.
Steiner began to speak regularly to theosophical groups, which upset and
confused many of his friends. The respectable, if often radical scholar,
historian, scientist, writer, and philosopher began to emerge as an
"occultist." Steiner's decision to speak directly from his own spiritual
research did not reflect any desire to become a spiritual teacher, feed
curiosity, or to revive some ancient wisdom. It arose from his perception of
what is needed for our time.
Rudolf Steiner considered it his task to survey the spiritual
realities at
work within the realms of nature and throughout the universe. He
explored the
inner nature of the human soul and spirit and their potential for
further development; he developed new
methods of
meditation; he investigated the
experiences
of human souls before birth and after death; he looked back into the
spiritual
history and evolution of humanity and Earth; he made detailed studies of
reincarnation and karma. After several years, Rudolf Steiner became
increasingly active in the
arts. It is
significant that he saw the arts as crucial for translating spiritual
science into social and cultural innovation. Today we have seen what happens
when natural science bypasses the human heart and translates knowledge into
technology without grace, beauty, or compassion. In 1913, the construction
of the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland began. This extraordinary wooden
building took shape gradually during the First World War. An international
group of volunteers collaborated with local builders and artisans to shape
the unique carved forms and structures designed by Steiner. Steiner viewed
architecture
as a servant of human life, and he designed the Goetheanum to support the
work of anthroposophy —
drama
and eurythmy
in particular. The Goetheanum was burned to the ground on New Year's Eve,
1922 by an arsonist. Rudolf Steiner designed a second building, which was
completed after his death. It is now the center for the
Anthroposophical
Society and its School of Spiritual Science.
After
the end of World War I, Europe was in ruins and people were ready for new
social forms. Attempts to realize Steiner's ideal of a "threefold
social order" as a political and social alternative was unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, its conceptual basis is even more relevant today. Steiner's
social thinking can be understood only within the context of his
view of
history. In contrast to Marx, Steiner saw that history is shaped
essentially by changes in human consciousness changes in which higher
spiritual beings actively participate.
We can build a healthy social order only on the basis of insight into the
material, soul, and spiritual needs of human beings. Those needs are
characterized by a powerful tension between the search for community and the
experience of the human I, or true individuality. Community, in the sense of
material interdependence, is the essence of our world economy. Like
independent thinking and free speech, the human I, or essential self, is the
foundation of every creative endeavor and innovation, and crucial to the
realization of human spirit in the arts and sciences.
Without spiritual freedom, culture withers and dies. Individuality and
community are lifted beyond conflict only when they are recognized as a
creative polarity rooted in basic human nature, not as contradictions. Each
aspect must find the appropriate social expression. We need forms that
ensure freedom for all expressions of spiritual life and promote community
in economic life. The health of this polarity, however, depends on a full
recognition of the third human need and function — the social relationships
that relate to our sense of human rights. Here again, Steiner emphasized the
need to develop a distinct realm of social organization to support this
sphere — one inspired by the concern for equality that awakens as we
recognize the spiritual essence of every human being. This is the meaning
and source of our right to freedom of spirit and to material sustenance.
These insights are the basis of Steiner's responses to the needs of today,
and have inspired renewal in many areas of modern life. Doctors, therapists,
farmers, business people, academics, scientists, theologians, pastors, and
teachers all approached him for ways to bring new life to their endeavors.
The Waldorf
school movement originated with a school for the children of factory
employees at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory. Today, Waldorf schools
are all over the world. There are homes, schools, and village communities
for children and adults with special needs.
Biodynamic
agriculture began with a course of lectures requested by a group of
farmers concerned about the destructive trend of "scientific" farming.
Steiner's work with doctors led to a
medical movement
that includes clinics, hospitals, and various forms of therapeutic work. As
an art of movement, eurythmy also serves educational and therapeutic work.
Rudolf Steiner spoke very little of his life in personal terms. In his
autobiography, however, he stated that, from his early childhood, he was
fully conscious of the invisible reality within our everyday world. He
struggled inwardly for the first forty years of his life not to achieve
spiritual experience but
to unite his
spiritual experiences with ordinary reality through the methods of
natural science. Steiner saw this scientific era, even in its most
materialistic aspects, as an essential phase in the spiritual education of
humanity. Only by forgetting the spiritual world for a time and attending to
the material world can new and essential faculties be kindled, especially
the experience of true individual inner freedom.
During his thirties, Steiner awakened to an inner recognition of what he
termed "the
turning point in time" in human spiritual history. That event was
brought about by the incarnation of the Christ. Steiner recognized that the
meaning of that turning point in time transcends all differences of
religion, race, or nation and has consequences for all of humanity. Rudolf
Steiner was also led to recognize the new presence and activity of the
Christ. It began in the twentieth century, not in the physical world, but in
the etheric realm — the invisible realm of life forces — of the Earth and
humanity. Steiner wanted to nurture a path of knowledge to meet today's deep
and urgent needs. Those ideals, though imperfectly realized, may guide
people to find a continuing inspiration in anthroposophy for their lives and
work. Rudolf Steiner left us the fruits of careful spiritual observation and
perception (or, as he preferred to call it, spiritual research), a vision
that is free and thoroughly conscious of the integrity of thinking and
understanding inherent in natural science.