The Present Age

T.H. Meyer interviewed by John Beck

JB: You are known in America for important books on subjects from 9/11 to Rudolf Steiner’s core mission, and remarkable biographical works on Gen. von Moltke and D.N. Dunlop. You also give lectures over here, and have written about anthroposophy since Rudolf Steiner’s death and into the future. Can you speak of your own core mission—essential concerns you want to share with anthroposophists today?

THM: Well, if I dared to speak about my own core mission, I would say it consists in the humble attempt to elaborate biographies in harmony with Steiner’s core mission, which was, next to the social question, the revelation of concrete karmic relationships. In the two biographical works you mentioned this perspective underlay everything I did. This is also the case with the newly translated biography about Ludwig Polzer- Hoditz, which traces this pupil of Steiner’s back to the times of the Roman emperor Hadrian. And precisely in this respect I would like to share my concerns with fellow anthroposophists: that a karmic perspective on individuals is often left to fantasy, speculation, and the immature or premature expression of personal experiences in this field. Or it is totally overshadowed by an approach to Steiner’s research by philologizing and psychologizing, as is done by the new “critical” edition of his works undertaken by an individual deeply convinced of the “truths” of Mormonism.

Another concern is: Will more and more anthroposophists turn to the “core substance” of anthroposophy instead of merely hoping for an external growth of the movement? The lost harmony between inner deepening and going out into the world, between involution and evolution—a harmony that Nature establishes in the course of the seasons—should be restored within the anthroposophical movement. In the last decades there was too much one-sided going out on the one hand—trying to become everyone’s friend—and too much one-sided going inwards on the other hand—like clinging to the idea of the “esoteric” character of the Anthroposophical Society and the like.

JB: There is also much more that you have been doing as publisher and editor, in German, and now you plan to bring the magazine, Der Europäer (The European) out in English. Will this be for readers in the UK primarily, or also for North America? What should readers expect from this?

THM: It is hoped that the English language version of the Europäer will reach readers in all English speaking countries. Since “The European” already exists as the title of a EU-compatible journal, we decided to call it The Present Age—“an international monthly journal for the advancement of spiritual science.”

Walter Johannes Stein, inspired by D.N. Dunlop, had already published a monthly with this title in the 1930s. By choosing this title, which could also arouse the interest of a Chinese or Japanese reader, we would at the same time also like to link up with the great, unfinished impulses of Stein, Dunlop, and others. Without getting dogmatic, we will not be shy in speaking about anthroposophy, trying to show its fruitful impact upon understanding all major questions of life. The first issue will feature an as-yet unpublished article about “The Meeting with the Being of Anthroposophy” by Charles Kovacs, an outstanding teacher and painter who lived in Edinburgh. The Present Age will try to cover all major events and developments of our time from a spiritual scientific viewpoint.

JB: We know that Rudolf Steiner depended on questions being asked of him, but not many were asked from America. Yet the global cultural and economic power of the USA has been a dominant fact now for seventy years. What should North American anthroposophists be concerned with? Have we been trying too hard to be good Europeans or Germans when the world movement needs something else from us?

THM: I do remember some questions were put to Steiner by an American, the economist William Nasmyth. He asked Steiner whether for developing the threefold organism one would have to start in America by separating Economy from Politics and for how long the tripartition would be valid. Steiner found these questions remarkable and replied to the latter question, “About two centuries.” Steiner added that he would not speak about tripartition in America, unless he had lived there for at least three years.

D.N. Dunlop had envisaged holding a world economic conference in Washington in 1936 where a concrete psychology of the peoples of the earth would also have been integrated. This conference could not be realized because of Dunlop’s death in 1935. Today anthroposophists in the English-speaking countries should be ready to see, and possibly speak about, the real alternatives to the unhealthy processes of an undermining fiat-money economy as already developed by Steiner. When the next international crash arrives, clarity should be spread about such an alternative going beyond the scope and insights of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Even before separating Economy and Politics, this would seem to be the highest priority in the English-speaking world today. Apart from this task it seems necessary that more and more people in the West should become aware of the renewal of spiritual impulses that has, in fact, occurred in Old Europe, even if this renewal has stayed germinal.

JB: Speaking personally, I wonder about the possibility of a revival of European cultural leadership in the world. I was raised in the Rocky Mountains, deep in North America, but my cultural interests, language, music, literature, were all European. The loss of European leadership after World War I is very obvious to me. Why should we care about Europe today, except as a tourist destination? What should we be asking of Europeans, Middle-Europeans especially?

THM: A future revival of European cultural leadership is vital, but can only be realized indirectly, that is, insofar as a European spiritual renewal through anthroposophy is able to fructify the spiritual and cultural activities in the West. Steiner stressed in 1919 that the world responsibility for outer events has irrevocably passed over from Europe (including Germany) to the Western powers; but, he also stressed that these powers have the responsibility to develop new spiritual impulses. And this is simply impossible without recourse to the European spiritual renewal just mentioned. As long as Europe is no more than a cultural museum or tourist resort, the Western powers will not be able to stop the spread of what Steiner called the Kulturtod—the death of all culture—over the whole globe, a process which, especially after the events of 9/11, we are increasingly witnessing every day. A support for understanding the spiritual responsibility of the West can be found in the unexhausted impulses of Ralph Waldo Emerson who had, as you know, a deep understanding of what was preparing for the spiritual renewal of Europe.