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 1861 in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia) 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 Foundational Works of 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 of 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.
Books By Rudolf Steiner:
Rudolf Steiner's Available Written Works
Foundational Books by Rudolf Steiner