Turning Past One Hundred Years

by John Bloom

One hundred years of anthroposophy presents a significant moment for recollection, recognition, and reckoning. So much has been accomplished around the world over the hundred years since the 1923/24 Christmas Conference, the founding moment of the newly inspired Anthroposophical Society. One hundred years on, there is clearly much more to do that speaks to the future and anthroposophy’s evolution in the twenty-first century. The gift of the Foundation Stone Meditation given at the 1923 Conference was already a transformation from the Foundation Stone laid in 1913 in the first Goetheanum. This spiritual and metaphysical deed was encoded in the life of the organization in the new Society in its first statute: “The Anthroposophical Society is to be an association of people whose will it is to nurture the life of the soul, both in the individual and in human society, on the basis of a true knowledge of the spiritual world.”

The first statute in Rudolf Steiner's handwriting

When I first encountered this statute, I found a kind of destiny affirmation in it, though I could hardly foresee how it might play out in my life. It says to me that the spiritual world, and my ability to know and be guided by it, is the moral atmosphere that informs self-knowledge, and further, how I engage with others in their respective journeys. The aim of this statute is not about who has the most spiritual knowledge but rather how that knowing has encouraged and shaped work in the life of the soul in individuals and associations. The statute was essential to distinguishing the newly re-founded Anthroposophical Society from its Theosophical predecessor. It signaled a movement from individual spiritual practice into a practical social healing service to others and the world. Part of the effort here at the hundred year turning point is to ask the question: If the intention of the first statute is true, where are we as members in relation to it as a Society in the United States and as part of the World Society?

The first statute on the printed program of the 1923/24 Christmas Conference, with Rudolf Steiner’s notes

The statute speaks of the development of consciousness and the consciousness soul and how we work with that in community over time. Yet, the economically driven ethos of our US culture doesn’t really lend itself to tending that development as individuals or as associations. As a good friend of mine commented, “Who has that kind of time and interest? I have work enough just to feed my family.” This comment is hugely important for the fu- ture of the Society as it touches on the challenge of nurturing the life of the soul when the practices seem remote and privileged, and when the economy is structured to commoditize and dehumanize work. The call of the Foundation Stone Meditation is one of light and warmth. We have work to do that “good may become,” work that we can lead within a moral atmosphere that is selfless and concerted in association with others. In my mind and heart, I see this social call as one area that we need to tend as a Society.

Each human exists at the intersection of the spiritual and the social. The spiritual line, if I may call it that, is vertical much like the indicative letter “I”. This I is the incarnating individuality or self; that is, with the help of spiritual guides and self-discipline I can become an awake citizen of the earth through a path of initiation such as is indicated in How to Know Higher Worlds. The earth and its indicative horizon line is a surface we all share. This shared plane is the social ground for the agreements that we make to govern ourselves and for economic interdependence. Where I stand, engaged with the world, both the spiritual and social are co-present within me and through us. It is and can be a beautiful tension, one that unavoidably demands consciousness and devoted time. It is worthy work to cultivate an awareness that can comprehend what is alive in me, alive in the spaces between us all, and awake, and is open to this awareness in others. This social ethic is what Rudolf Steiner was asking of us as practitioners of anthroposophical inquiry or spiritual science.

The scope and scale of the unaddressed cultural, economic, and political challenges from one hundred years ago that gave rise to the First World War have continued to grow to a near intractable stage. Even back then, Rudolf Steiner was carrying and calling for a healing impulse to transform the social and spiritual damage left behind from the War. The practical fields that arose from those seeking Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual scientific insight in their respective vocations have grown too. Waldorf Education and Biodynamic Agriculture, the originations of which bracket the Christmas Conference, are known practices and the numbers of people engaged in them bear witness to the presence and influence of both in many countries and cultures. Other fields have contributed as well. Yet, they are not recognized for the healing potency they carry. Understanding this lack of recognition is the Society’s responsibility to carry in collaboration with those working directly in the fields.

The call for spiritual scientific research, which was also at the heart of the Christmas Conference through the founding of the School for Spiritual Science, was a significant part of and central to the work of the Goetheanum. And further, Rudolf Steiner brought the Class Lessons as a source of deepening and renewal for those committed to a meditative life and to representing anthroposophy in the world.

Spiritual scientific research has been carried strongly by individuals and has played an important role in the development of anthroposophical practices and organizations in the vocational fields. There is strong thought leadership coming from the vocational and practical Sec- tions of the School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum. However, in the US, there is not a strong awareness of the work or the existence of those Sections, even though it is part of the Society’s responsibility to further that research. So, we have some work to do, especially as the awareness and interest in anthroposophy and its practices has diminished in the initiatives as they have extended further into the world. The challenges to and distancing from anthroposophy by individuals and some organizations have paralleled this pattern. We have to acknowledge the reasons behind and take responsibility for this shift. This current situation is a great risk for anthroposophy and for the life of the Society in the US, and we have not found an effective way to address those risks. The evolving approaches to various disciplines over the last hundred years have served well and have been rooted in a growing body of spiritual scientific research. However, without a deep connection to anthroposophical knowing as a source tempered by an abiding interest in serving the real social and ecological needs of our time, the conditions for renewal and leadership seem clouded. So this moment, the one hundred year moment, is a time for honest self-reflection and recognizing where we are and what the call for the future is, at the intersection of the spiritual and the social.

It is the time for all the bearers of the Society and the School for Spiritual Science in the US and North America to come together. It is time to rekindle the linkage of heart forces and capacities that will assure flow from the spiritual to the social and back again in a kind of reciprocal field of research and practice. This process will of necessity include conflict and forgiveness, and an ever-widening awareness of suffering in the world. It will also mean an ever-deepening quality of research that engenders applied transformative approaches to human problems while at the same time lifting the human being as a physical, social, and soul expression of spirit. Effort and focus in this direction, and with some urgency, will honor the impulse founded one hundred years ago at the Christmas Conference.

John Bloom

John Bloom ( john.bloom@anthroposophy.org) is General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America (US).

Occasional letters from the General Secretary and related posts are online at anthroposophy.org/general-secretary