The Christmas Conference Impulse—A Distillation

R. J. Harlow

Made out of Nature’s materials,

The Goetheanum wanted to speak through its forms

Of the Eternal to the eyes of men.

The flames were able to consume the matter. Henceforward Anthroposophia—

Her edifice formed of the Spirit—

Shall speak to the inner soul of man

In words of fire, tempered by the flames—

The flames of the Spirit.

Rudolf Steiner1

The Goetheanum was an embodiment of living anthroposophy upon the earth. Through its artistic forms and colors, the Mysteries of cosmic evolution and the transformative power of the Christ impulse spoke to human beings. From its stage, Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, the Mystery Dramas, and eurythmy rang out as cosmic Word— anthroposophy, spiritual science, a modern path of initiation capable of fructifying and renewing all fields of art, science, religion, and practical life.

On New Year’s Eve, 1922, the Goetheanum was set ablaze by an act of arson. As the wooden shapes, metals, and stained glass colors rose into the night sky, Rudolf Steiner said to those present, “Impress this moment on your minds.”2 Afterward, in addition to anthroposophy’s enemies, he pointed to spiritual fecklessness within the

1 Verses and Meditations (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004).

2 Account of Heinz Müller, early Waldorf teacher. Raab, Klingborg, & Fant, Eloquent Concrete (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1979), p. 32.

Society—to “inner opposition,” “unwillingness,” “lethargy”—which kept the exoteric anthroposophical institutions from embodying their esoteric spirit. Speaking in private, he related that the members “do not want to wake up. So they have to be awakened by catastrophes and personal sufferings. It is not karma that is prevalent here but only the members’ lack of wakefulness, and human envy that works even into the physical.”3 This dichotomy of exoteric institution vs. esoteric impulse, of Society vs. Movement, even found expression in the fact that the Goetheanum hadn’t been officially opened. Rudolf Steiner was waiting for the conditions to be right.4 Until then, the Representative of Humanity statue could not be rightly placed within it.

When the Anthroposophical Society was founded on December 28, 1912, having split off from the Theosophical Society, Rudolf Steiner maintained his independence. He held no office and was not a member. As the leader of the spiritual Movement, and as the spiritual teacher of the private Esoteric School, he could not become involved in bureaucratic, exoteric institutions. This, he related, was a spiritual law. As an initiate, every action and relationship had to be a living embodiment of the spirit.

After the burning, the being of the Goetheanum returned as flaming, cosmic Word. The year 1923 was spent more actively than ever. Rudolf Steiner traveled throughout Europe, gave nearly 450 lectures, and worked with members to establish national societies; then, representatives were called to gather in Dornach at Christmas for the refounding of the Anthroposophical Society.

3 T.H. Meyer, Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz: A European (Temple Lodge, 2014), Appendix: “From Conversations with Rudolf Steiner,” p. 523.

4 See R. Steiner: “Address to the Members of September 12, 1920.” Printed in the English edition of Rudolf Grosse’s The Christmas Conference—Cosmic Turning Point of Time (Rudolf Steiner Book Centre, 1984).

The impulse was straightforward, but its implications were momentous and extensive. In his opening lecture, Rudolf Steiner stated:

My dear friends! We begin our Christmas Conference for the founding of the Anthroposophical Society in a new form… We shall take our starting point today from something we would so gladly have seen as our starting point years ago in 1913. This is where we take up the thread, my dear friends, inscribing into our souls the foremost principle of the Anthroposophical Movement, which is to find its home in the Anthroposophical Society, namely, that everything in it is willed by the spirit, that this Movement desires to be a fulfillment of what the signs of the times speak in a shining script to the hearts of human beings.5

Thereafter, the spiritual Foundation Stone, as esoteric deed and meditation, was laid in the hearts of the members.

In the first newsletter after the Conference, Rudolf Steiner wrote: “To give the Anthroposophical Society the form most suitable for the development of the Anthroposophical Movement: this was the purpose of the Christmas gathering which has come to an end.”6 And a week later, in an address to the members, he further clarified: We must find a way to continue and carry further what has really been our intention with anthroposophy from the beginning. We have seen the results of this in the character given to the Christmas Meeting. … A new thing must proceed from this Meeting—new, and yet only the old enlarged and extended. The Christmas Meeting has led to the fact that the constitution of the Society will contain what I have called… The School of Spiritual Science.7

Speaking to members of the School on Good Friday, he summarized:

What happened because of [the Christmas Conference] can be described in one sentence. That sentence is: Until that moment, anthroposophy was administered by the Anthroposophical Society; now, everything that hap - pens through the Anthroposophical Society must itself be anthroposophy. Since Christmas, anthroposophy must be done in the Anthroposophical Society. Every single action must have a directly esoteric character. 8 This was not the founding of a dogmatic holy institutionalism, nor was it a “new” anthroposophy, nor what is sometimes associated with the phrase “the founding of the new Mysteries.”9 It was the union of the living, spiritual Movement of our time, which anthroposophy had always been , with the earthly institution of the Society. This transformative union, with the spiritual world’s agreement (alliance or covenant—“Bündnis”), was only made possible through Rudolf Steiner as initiate and spiritual leader, taking on the presidency and uniting the Esoteric School, under the guidance of the Archangel Michael, with the High School of Spiritual Science, thereby restructuring and renewing the Society.

5 The Christmas Conference (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), GA 260, December 25, 1923, 11:15am.

6 The Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy (The Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1963), GA 260a, “Letter to All Members,” January 13, 1924.

7 The Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science (The Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1964), GA 260a, lecture of January 18, 1924, p. 10.

But this union of the esoteric Movement with the exoteric Society, this impulse of the Christmas Conference, was entirely contingent. Rudolf Steiner had accomplished it initially, as a spiritual deed, through his act of taking on the leadership and uniting the Esoteric School with the High School of Spiritual Science, but he repeatedly emphasized that the further development and success of the impulse within the Society relied on the members grasping and taking up the spiritual life with enough vigor to be able to make both inward, spiritual progress as well as to embody it in their everyday lives, interactions, and occupations. Failing this, he said, “it will gradually fade away [...] lose all content; and in that case it would actually have been better if we had not come together at all.”10 He then added: “It may seek refuge in quite other worlds.”11 The impulse itself, as spiritual deed, was of cosmic significance; the question was whether or not the Society could become its fully imbued bearer.

After the Christmas Conference, Rudolf Steiner gave over 430 lectures in only nine months; it was an unparalleled revelation of spiritual knowledge, but his health deteriorated rapidly. By Michaelmas Eve, 1924, Rudolf Steiner had to give his last address. In it, he specified the conditions of the further guidance of the Anthroposophical Society under Michael, the Spirit of the Age: If, in the near future, in four times twelve human beings, the Michael Thought becomes fully alive—four times twelve human beings, that is, who are recognized not by themselves but by the Leadership of the Goetheanum in Dornach—if in four times twelve such human beings, leaders arise having the mood of soul that belongs to the Michael festival, then we can look up to the light that through the Michael stream and the Michael activity will be shed abroad in the future among mankind.12

8 Esoteric Lessons for the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum: Volumes One to Four (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2021), GA 270, lecture of April 18, 1924, Good Friday.

9 Surveying the complete works, it is important to note that Rudolf Steiner did not refer to or characterize the Christmas Conference as “the founding of the new Mysteries.” In fact, his rare use of the term “new Mysteries” (“neuen Mysterien”), both before and after the Christmas Conference, referred more generally to the renewal of the Mysteries through the Christ impulse which anthroposophy, since its inception and on into the future, is intrinsically united with. That the Christmas Conference was a new, transformative impulse for the Society, that new possibilities, new revelations flowed from it, and that the School was to “[represent] in the fullest sense a renewal of the holy Mysteries” (GA 270, May 2, 1924)—this Rudolf Steiner characterized extensively and with context.

10 The Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science, January 18, 1924, p. 2.

11 Ibid.

As he had emphasized before, the future of the Christmas Conference impulse directly depended on the inner progress of individuals. According to conversations recorded by Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz,13 these were the exact numbers that were to constitute the Second (thirty-six) and Third Classes (twelve), the upper levels of the High School of Spiritual Science, which never came to fruition. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer reported on a conversation with Rudolf Steiner about this, saying that when he asked “... what the requirements were and how many at this time—1924—would be ripe for it, [Rudolf Steiner] mentioned a one-digit number. The requirement: fully awake consciousness.”14

Rudolf Steiner withdrew to his sickbed. He continued to write extensively, detailing the workings of Michael, chapters of his autobiography, and his medical work with Ita Wegman. However, what ensued made it clear: He did not, and could not, appoint anyone to take on his leadership role, nor could he designate anyone to lead the Esoteric School. Ita Wegman reports: “In full consciousness, but without a word spoken of the future, without having left any messages or instructions for this or that person, the Master departed from us. And to a direct question in this regard, he consciously answered ‘No’.”15 On March 30, 1925, he died.

Rudolf Steiner was the formative agent of the Christmas Conference impulse and without the progress he spoke of, according to spiritual law, it could not continue on earth within the Society. Discarding unfounded notions and allowing the facts to speak for themselves, it is hard to avoid the solemn picture that arises: The Christmas Conference impulse withdrew—and Rudolf Steiner with it. An honest reckoning with this was, and still is, extremely difficult, with vast implications for the Society, its leadership, the High School of Spiritual Science, the First Class, and anthroposophists everywhere (within and outside the Society). This does not mean that we shouldn’t turn with all earnestness to the esoteric content, teachings, and tasks of spiritual science; but there can be no pretense when it comes to authority or doing things we are not spiritually capable of. For without an initiate, how can there be an Esoteric School upon the earth?—Rudolf Steiner warned repeatedly that there are consequences for mishandling esoteric/spiritual matters. As hard as this picture is to look at, the history of the Society’s conflicts and ordeals bears it out. And while we can look back now and strive to form a clear and compassionate understanding for what took place one hundred years ago, there is no reason to assume that we ourselves would have done any better if placed in the same circumstances.

12 Karmic Relationships, Vol. IV (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2008), GA 238, “The Last Address,” September 28, 1924, p. 171.

13 T.H. Meyer, Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, p. 525.

14 Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, A Modern Quest for the Spirit, Ed. T.H. Meyer (Mercury Press, 2010), p. 124.

15 Ita Wegman, Esoteric Studies: The Michael Impulse (Temple Lodge, 2013), p. 17.

As the centennial approaches, the nature of the Christmas Conference impulse remains essential and defining for the Anthroposophical Movement, its historical development and future. While Rudolf Steiner’s death and the failure of the Society at that time to embody the Christmas Conference impulse is immensely tragic, we can nevertheless resolve as modern-day anthroposophists to turn our souls toward the impulse, taking up its call to enkindle the spirit within our hearts. However briefly upon the earth, the Christmas Conference was and remains a spiritual fact.16 Through Rudolf Steiner, the spiritual Movement, the living Goetheanum—spoken as fiery Word—the Temple, was once upon the earth. It remains our task to reach beyond the veil of the senses and seek that Temple’s entrance where are inscribed the ever-resounding words: “O Man, Know Thou Thyself in Thinking, Feeling, and Willing.”

May we hear the call.

A student of anthroposophy for much of his life, R. J. Harlow has a passion for open-minded conversation, deep study, music, eurythmy, and the magic of nature.

16 Ernst Lehrs reported on a conversation between Rudolf Steiner and Guenther Wachsmuth. Rudolf Steiner said, “With the Christmas Conference, anthroposophy has turned from a hitherto earthly affair into a cosmic one.” Ernst Lehrs further described: “To this, Rudolf Steiner added: [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].” Ernst Lehrs, Gelebte Erwartung (Mellinger, 1979), p. 268. Cited in: S.O. Prokofieff, May Human Beings Hear It! (Temple Lodge, 2004), p. 76.