The Anthroposophical Movement Seeks an Earthly Home

Thomas O’Keefe

One of the main principles of knowledge seems to be that if one wants to know the true nature of a phenomenon, then one must become familiar with, and immersed in, as many of its aspects and details as possible. The more aspects we are able to experience and sense into, the more opportunity we give ourselves to form a full and living inner picture out of our own individual soul-sensing. This also leads to a perception of the depth or dimensions of the phenomenon. Perceiving the nature and quality of something’s dimensions is essential, because they determine the way we understand the implications of the various facts we learn about the phenomenon in question—they comprise the lens through which these elements are brought together into a story that corresponds to the reality of the phenomenon.

It is clear through the way Rudolf Steiner spoke of the Christmas Conference impulse—during the conference itself as well as in various lectures and other contexts up until the end of his life—that he experienced it as a deep and profound mystery 1 whose meaning he hoped members of the Society would increasingly awaken to. There is even much that suggests he felt his very life-forces were dependent upon this awakening comprehension by the members and the inner and outer tasks implied in such an awakening.2

The essential thought of the Christmas Conference impulse is often summarized in Rudolf Steiner’s words: “How can we combine full openness with the profoundest, most serious and inward esotericism?”3 It is the challenge not merely of balancing two polar qualities (openness and inward esotericism), but of willing the inner world of spiritual ideals and our devotion to these ideals to be lived in a more deeply incarnated way into the details of everything we do. As Dorothea Mier suggests in her article, it can also be seen as the challenge of bringing together within ourselves the two worlds, physical and spiritual, so that these two spheres overlap more completely.

In his book A Path to Self-Knowledge, Rudolf Steiner describes the meaning of “beauty” in the suprasensory world:

There, a being can only be said to be ‘beautiful’ . . . that is able to reveal all of what it experiences within itself to the other beings of its world so that these other beings may partake in the entirety of its experience. The capacity to completely reveal oneself and everything that lives within one without having to conceal anything within oneself could be called ‘beautiful’ in the higher worlds. There, this concept of beauty coincides perfectly with what might be called wholehearted sincerity, the honest acting out of what one carries within oneself.4 In this sense, the ideal of the Christmas Conference impulse can be seen as that of manifesting greater beauty, as individuals and as a community, in our work in the world—that is, the ideal of incarnating the spiritual even more deeply than before, so that anthroposophy is not merely something added to our work, but something that imbues our thoughts, feelings, and actions. The Foundation Stone Meditation is a key that characterizes the qualities of this threefold inner task of human becoming: the striving to develop true willing, true feeling, and true thinking. Virginia Sease describes how the Foundation Stone verse can be raised to the level of a mantram. And Joel Park elaborates on the Foundation Stone Meditation as a seed, with its ability to spread from heart to heart.

On an earthly level, the Christmas Conference itself (as distinct from the cosmic impulse given there) was an attempt to incarnate this ideal in a practical way within the Society, thereby uniting the (cosmic) Movement with the (earthly) Society. This union was to be achieved by means of the members’ deepening of this cosmic impulse within themselves. Leading up to the conference, Rudolf Steiner saw the Society, not the Movement —which he had until then led without holding an official role in the Society—as being in ruins and in need of renewal: “It can be said that the Anthroposophical Society—not the Movement—has emerged riven from the War.”5 The Movement is a purely spiritual stream that does not depend on earthly institutions for its health and survival—though its ability to become effective on earth would be greatly served by an institution that is able to embody its ideals. At the Christmas Conference, Rudolf Steiner attempted one last time to bring an impulse into the Society that could allow it to have a chance at providing a suitable home to the Movement, which he had always led and presumably always will lead, even after death, whether or not the Society is able to become a vessel for it. In order to attempt to incarnate this impulse into the Society, he agreed to take on its earthly leadership. 6

This deed required a great sacrifice from Rudolf Steiner and weighed heavily upon him. The question naturally arises: What did Rudolf Steiner’s premature death signify in terms of the continued possibility of this aim of uniting the Movement with the Society, that is, the possibility of making the Society a worthy vessel for the Movement? This question is explored in detail in Sergei O. Prokofieff’s book May Human Beings Hear It!, 7 a comprehensive study arising from a life devoted to a deepened understanding of the Christmas Conference impulse. R. J. Harlow, in his article, likewise attempts to distill the context in which we can explore these questions.

It is essential to realize that the Christmas Conference impulse is not simply a finished and given deed whose earthly presence and grace we can always count on. Rather, its life and effectiveness on earth was said to depend entirely upon our activity. Rudolf Steiner explains this in a passage from a lecture of January 18, 1924:

If this Christmas Meeting is taken simply in the way one has been only too ready to take earlier gatherings [i.e., in a casual way], then it will gradually fade away, it will gradually lose all content; and in that case it would actually have been better if we had not come together at all. For the spiritual has the property, that if it is not held fast, it disappears—not of course in the cosmos, but for the place where it is not being pursued and fostered. What it does is to seek out other places in the cosmos. For something like our Christmas Conference, one is not dependent on what occurs in the earthly realm. You therefore must not imagine that what evaporates through the lack of carrying out the impulses of the Christmas Conference would have to appear somewhere else on earth. That is not necessary. It can seek its further place of refuge in quite different worlds. 8

On February 6, 1924, Rudolf Steiner added:

The Christmas Meeting becomes a reality only through its consequences and effects. To be attentive to the Christmas Conference does require a certain sense of responsibility in the soul for actualizing it; whereas otherwise it withdraws from earth existence and moves in the same direction that I described today in regard to the moon beings [of wisdom].9

Finally, as Thomas Mayer highlights in his article, Rudolf Steiner also made a related statement in conversation with Guenther Wachsmuth, as reported by Ernst Lehrs. There, Rudolf Steiner said: “With the Christmas Conference, anthroposophy has turned from a hitherto earthly affair into a cosmic one,” and then added:

Its [the Conference’s] effect upon humanity therefore no longer depends on its being accepted on earth. While it would have most painful consequences for civilization on earth if this does not happen, for human beings themselves it would then become effective from another location, for example from the moon [sphere].10

These statements make clear that the Christmas Conference impulse is not to be thought of as existing eternally and exclusively within the Society as an immutable force, as there are clearly stated alternative outcomes for it should we prove unable to foster it in the right way. Some anthroposophists have come to the conclusion that this impulse has in fact withdrawn or, in a sense, “failed.” In his contribution, Thomas Meyer quotes some reminiscences of personal encounters with Rudolf Steiner that point to this being the case. Mieke Mosmuller likewise discusses this view in her essay, and emphasizes the primacy of our real inner connection to Rudolf Steiner as the most essential basis for the continuing work of the Anthroposophical Movement.

It may be painful to experience a line of thought that attempts to substantiate the view that the Christmas Conference impulse has withdrawn from the Anthroposophical Society, especially if one has a deep relationship to this impulse and to the Foundation Stone Meditation. However, the truth—whatever it may be, including the truth of our inner experiences—is not threatened by logically grounded deliberations, but rather our questions and viewpoints can be further deepened and refined by such deliberations. In other words, such thoughts may help us in our quest to understand the dimensions of what we are dealing with.

Likewise evident in the above quotations is that Rudolf Steiner characterized the Christmas Conference impulse as having such a magnitude that, while its continued presence in the Society and on earth does depend on us, its essential existence and relatedness to human beings does not (“if it is not held fast, it disappears—not of course in the cosmos, but for the place where it is not being pursued and fostered”—“for human beings themselves it would then become effective from another location, for example from the moon [sphere]”). The impulse may well seek refuge “in quite different worlds,” or “in the direction of the moon beings [of wisdom],” or in “the moon [sphere]”; there, it will continue to be effective in a certain sense, and, one might suppose, be accessible to us in a different way, perhaps in a tragically more distant way. But it will not—cannot—simply disappear or “fail” in a cosmic sense. It will continue to exist somewhere, in some capacity, and in some relation to human beings on earth, even if we have missed a decisive opportunity—that is, failed —to establish a suitable earthly vessel for it as a Society during the time following the Christmas Conference.

Ita Wegman seemed to be describing a view along these lines when she wrote—on her birthday, February 22, 1935—in a letter to Maria Röschl:

All the old forms, even the final form for anthroposophy, have been thoroughly broken. And it seems to me as though one no longer has to look for a form for the life of anthroposophy, but rather that every human being himself is the form with which anthroposophy wants to unite. Where this has taken place, people will find one another and unite in order to become a part of the true spiritual association.11

A further aspect of the Christmas Conference impulse is its relation to the burning of the First Goetheanum one year earlier. In a lecture on April 22, 1924, Rudolf Steiner suggested a mysterious connection between these two events, drawing an analogy to the burning of the Temple of Ephesus and the deeper revelations that this enabled for Aristotle. These passages seem to me to provide a glimpse into many important dimensions of this impulse, its origin, and its nature:

This Anthroposophical Society has before it an experience that can indeed just as well be utilized in the process of development as once a similar event was utilized: the burning of the Temple of Ephesus. Both were the result of a grave wrong; yet on different planes things have different meanings, and it is possible for a frightful iniquity, as it appears on one plane, to be employed on another for the advancement of human freedom —in the sense that precisely such horrible events can bring about a real advance in human progress. […]

When the conflagration at Ephesus blazed up, first in the outer ether and then in the heart of Aristotle, it revealed anew to Aristotle the secrets that could then be epitomized in the simplest terms; and we may say in all modesty that, just as he was able to use the fire of Ephesus to this end, so it is our task—and we shall fulfill it—to use what the flames of the Goetheanum carried into the ether: the aims and purpose of anthroposophy

What do we gather from all this, my dear friends?

That at the memorial service in the Christmas–New Year time [i.e., the Christmas Conference], the time in which the disaster struck us a year before, it was vouchsafed us to send forth a new impulse from the Goetheanum

How could this be? Because we are right in feeling that what had previously been a cause pertaining to this earth, worked for and established as such, was carried by the flames out into cosmic space. Because this misfortune has come to us, we are, recognizing its consequences, justified in saying: Now we understand that we may no longer represent a mere earthly cause, but must know it as one of wide etheric space in which the spirit lives: The cause represented by the Goetheanum is a cause of the cosmic ether in which lives the spirit-filled wisdom of the world. It has been carried out into the ether; and it is granted us to permeate ourselves with the Goetheanumimpulses flowing in from the cosmos.

Take this in any sense—as an image, if you like: Even as an image it signifies a profound truth, a truth that can be simply expressed: The Christmas impulse calls for the permeation of anthroposophical activity with an esoteric element This is present because what had been earthly now reacts on the impulses of the Anthroposophical Movement through the astral light in the physical fire that rayed forth into cosmic space; but we must be able to receive these impulses. 12

From this, the picture can emerge that the Christmas Conference impulse was related to the “spirit of the Goetheanum” coming back to us in a spiritualized form after the fire—even that this impulse was something like the Being of Anthroposophy itself (“the aims and purpose of anthroposophy”) seeking a more complete incarnation into a community of human beings on earth. And was Rudolf Steiner able to achieve, in his final years, something similar to what was made possible for Aristotle in the sense of “secrets that could then be epitomized in the simplest terms”—for example in the Leading Thoughts, the Karma Lectures, and the Class Lessons? The topic of the fire and the subsequent task of building the “inner Goetheanum” come to expression in Aaron Mirkin’s piece. In this issue, we are also printing an artistic display of paintings of the motifs of the large and small cupolas of the First Goetheanum, introduced by Keiko Papic.

It seems to me that the question of whether or not there is a possibility for the Christmas Conference impulse to continue as an effective force within the Society—whether as a currently living reality or as a mere potential —can only be an open and living question. If one is inclined to believe that it has withdrawn to “quite different worlds,” “move[d] in the same direction as the moon beings,” or relocated to “the moon [sphere],” then the next logical questions would be: What exactly would it mean— what would be the specific spiritual consequences for human beings—if this impulse were to become effective no longer from the earth but from the moon sphere? Why would the moon sphere be a likely place for this impulse to relocate to? What would be the most spiritually fruitful way to relate to and cultivate this impulse in such changed conditions? And might it then be possible, through inner work, to create the conditions within ourselves—as individuals, as an Anthroposophical Society, or as communities and groups working with anthroposophy—that would allow this impulse once again to be brought closer to our earthly lives and tasks? These seem to me important and essential spiritual-scientific research questions for the Anthroposophical Movement. Mieke Mosmuller suggests in her article that there may be a certain new opportunity related to this impulse after one hundred years, and refers to Rudolf Steiner’s stirring words to Friedrich Rittelmeyer. Thomas Heck likewise discusses the tangible evidence that the one-hundred-year rhythm is a reality that is now bringing about opportunities for meaningful collaborative work.

Taking an approach of spiritual realism (that is, basing our thoughts on what we can experience through a striving for objectivity in soul- and spirit-sensing), it is perhaps useful to explore the above questions by asking ourselves: Despite the tragic history of the Society, what is the path that I can enter upon with real hope and inner enthusiasm for the continued becoming of the spirit of the Anthroposophical Movement on earth? Our feeling life is not unimportant for this exploration, since it can be refined into an organ of knowledge, as Benjamin Cherry reminds us in his article.13 If one wants to deepen the impulse of anthroposophy on earth—whether within or apart from the Society, and whether or not the Christmas Conference impulse has withdrawn—then cultivating the impulse described at the Christmas Conference and articulated most clearly through the Foundation Stone Meditation would appear to be an essential path toward this aim. Christopher Houghton Budd describes this impulse as the sole beacon that can guide humanity into safe harbor.

The answers to the various questions that emerge here may not be direct or easy to find, but I believe that bringing ourselves into inner activity in the search for deeper understanding strengthens the forces of the soul and creates the courage to proceed on what can feel like a dimly lit path.14 In every great epic story, there are periods of severe trial, confusion, and darkness. Perhaps we have been, and still are, in the midst of one of those periods now—a thought which Allan Kaplan moves in his article. But I trust that we have within us, in seed form, what we need to find the next step.

It is notable that when Rudolf Steiner spoke of a coming “law that will have the goal of suppressing all individual thinking” originating in America soon after the year 2000, he specified that “a beginning toward this is already given in what today comprises purely materialistic medicine, where the soul is no longer allowed to be seen as effective.”22 One may infer from the potent ahrimanic tendencies of thought and soul inculcated into humanity in the recent years of Covid that these events were merely a prelude to a larger epochal event whose symptoms Rudolf Steiner characterized in detail.23

The forces standing opposed to the further development of individual consciousness—i.e., standing opposed to the individual’s deepened relation to truth and to the task of forming independent judgments—and the necessary challenge of the consciousness-soul era that emerges from this, are articulated with striking clarity by Thomas Külken in his article. There, he highlights the importance of the forces of conscience and questioning consciousness for the evolution of the human soul in our times. Related to this, Roland Tüscher describes the principle of ethical individualism as it stands opposed to the tendency that would bring about an automated synchronization of all toward the “good.”

The final message of the late anthroposophical doctor Philip Incao (1941–2022) gives essential expression to the task of our age with regard to truth:

The healing so greatly needed in the world at the present moment can only come about if enough people have the courage and will to strive for and to represent the truth. This is the only way that human lives can begin to change for the better. The present situation is crying out to all of us to become involved and active in seeking, and in living by, the Truth. Truth is a living spiritual Ideal which human life needs for its guidance, purpose, and meaning, an Ideal which empowers and unites human beings to work for the future.24

We can only meaningfully strive toward truth to the extent that our capacities of thinking, feeling, and willing are developed in harmony with their ideal or “true” archetype. The Foundation Stone Meditation is like a seed for this task, but it is also a stone, a rock: It is the spiritual foundation stone upon which can be built the community of all human beings who are willing to take up this challenge.

Thomas O’Keefe is the founder of the Deepening Anthroposophy journal and editorial director of Chadwick Library Press, working as an editor and translator of Rudolf Steiner’s books and related texts.

1 For example: “[T]his Christmas Conference . . . is to be for us a festival of consecration not merely for the beginning of a new year but for the beginning of a new Turning Point of Time to which we want to devote ourselves in enthusiastic cultivation of the life of spirit.” The Christmas Conference (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), GA 260, lecture of January 1, 1924, 8:30pm.

2 See, for example, Sergei O. Prokofieff, May Human Beings Hear It! The Mystery of the Christmas Conference (Temple Lodge, 2004), Ch. 1, p. 72ff.

3 The Christmas Conference, December 26, 1923, 10am

4 A Path to Self-Knowledge (Chadwick Library Edition, 2019), GA 16, Seventh Meditation.

5 The Christmas Conference, December 24, 1923, 11:15am.

6 “I have now reached the realization that it would become impossible for me to continue to lead the Anthroposophical Movement within the Anthroposophical Society if this Christmas Conference were not to agree that I should once more take on in every way the leadership … of the Anthroposophical Society.” The Christmas Conference, December 24, 1923, 11:15am, p. 49.

7 O p. cit. See especially the end of Ch. 1, p. 85ff.

8 The Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science (The Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1964), GA 260a, lecture of January 18, 1924, p. 2. Supplemented by the translation in S.O. Prokofieff, May Human Beings Hear It!, p. 77.

9 Karmic Relationships, Vol. VI, lecture of February 6, 1924. Supplemented by the translation in S.O. Prokofieff, May Human Beings Hear It!, p. 77.

10 Ernst Lehrs, Gelebte Erwartung (Mellinger, 1979), p. 268. Cited in: S.O. Prokofieff, May Human Beings Hear It!, p. 76. “Mit der Weihnachtstagung ist die Anthroposophie von einer bisher irdischen zu einer kosmischen Angelegenheit geworden.” “Dem fügte Rudolf Steiner hinzu: Ihre Wirkung auf die Menschheit sei daher nicht mehr davon abhängig, dass sie auf der Erde angenommen wird. Wenn dies nicht geschieht, so würde das zwar für die Zivilisation auf der Erde sehr schmerzliche Folgen haben, für die Menschen selber würde sie dann von einem anderen Orte, zum Beispiel vom Monde her, wirksam werden.”

11 Cited in Peter Selg, Spiritual Resistance: Ita Wegman, 1933–1935 (SteinerBooks, 2014), Epilogue. In German: “Alle alten Formen, auch die allerletzte Form für die Anthroposophie, sind gründlich kaputt gemacht, und mir kommt es so vor, als ob man nicht mehr eine Form für das Leben der Anthroposophie zu suchen hat, sondern dass jeder Mensch selber die Form ist, mit der sich Anthroposophie vereinen will. Wo dieses geschehen ist, werden Menschen sich finden und vereinen, um ein Glied zu werden des wahren Geistesvereins.”

12 Italics added. Lecture of April 22, 1924 (GA 233a), in: Easter as a Chapter in the Mystery Wisdom of Man. Recently published under the title Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2020).

13 S ee Theosophy (GA 9), Ch. 4, “The Path of Knowledge,” where the virtue of equanimity is described.

14 Just as Rudolf Steiner stated that, with his books, he has “quite consciously endeavored not to offer a ‘popular’ exposition, but rather an exposition that makes it necessary for the reader to study the content with strict effort of thought. . . . For the calm, conscious effort of thought that this reading makes necessary strengthens the forces of the soul and through this makes them capable of approaching the spiritual world” ( An Outline of Occult Science [GA 13], Preface to the 1925 Edition)—so something analogous is perhaps catalyzed through the effort of soul that our current predicament makes necessary.

21 See New View, The Present Age, Mieke Mosmuller’s Philosophical Reflections Blog, and Nancy Jewel Poer’s book America 2022: Romanism, Christ/Michael/Sophia, and the Incarnation of the Antichrist (White Feather Publishing, 2022).

22 “It will not be long at all after one will have written the year 2000, when there will come from America not a direct prohibition, but something like a prohibition of all thinking, a law that will have the goal of suppressing all individual thinking. On the one hand, a beginning toward this is already given in what today comprises purely materialistic medicine, where the soul is no longer allowed to be seen as effective, but where, purely on the ground of outer experiments, the human being is treated as a machine.” Lecture of April 4, 1916 (GA 167), in: The Human Spirit—Past and Present (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2015).

23 S ee the lectures compiled under the title The Incarnation of Ahriman (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2006).

24 The entirety of Philip Incao’s message is printed in Deepening Anthroposophy issue 11.1, p. 5.