The Rudolf Steiner Archive

in Kristiania (Oslo), May 18 or 20, 1923

Undated later report by Helga Geelmuyden

During the doctor's visit to Oslo – his last – in May 1923, the doctor held an M.E. meeting.¹

In the meeting, he continued to tell the temple legend very impressively. And he went on to talk about how the sons of Abel had found their way to the sons of Cain, in that the theologians had asked him for the new cult. This aroused increased hostility on the part of the sons of Abel and the sons of Cain in the outer world. (The Jesuits and the occult brotherhoods were meant, at least that is how I understood it.)

And then he went on to say that in the same hall where the theologians were given the new cult, the fire that destroyed the Goetheanum was lit.

After the temple legend, it was said that it would be necessary to rebuild the Goetheanum. It was said, something like this: the Temple of Solomon would never have existed physically. But it would have to be on earth one day. (The doctor once told me that the sons of Abel could not be admitted to the Medical Section. This was said in relation to someone wanting to bring in a woman with atavistic clairvoyance.

The things the doctor said about the reconstruction of the Goetheanum made a strong impression on me. Later that summer, I was present at the Annual General Meeting of the Goetheanum Association [in Dornach], where the question of the reconstruction was discussed. I then asked the doctor if he would like to say what he told us in Norway. He shook his head and said briefly: quite impossible.

Now I must confess: the new Goetheanum has never been able to satisfy me against the background of this impressive memory. In particular, it is painful for me to see the Christ group completely isolated. In 1916, when I spoke to Dr. Itten in Berlin on my way to Dornach, he said to me: “Now, when you visit the building, you must visualize the group in its place all the time.” I did so, and a living movement arose through the entire row of columns and architraves, and the moving element was the Christ-I, as it presented itself in the group. The old Goetheanum died, as it were, without having fully embodied this I — it was still outside. In the new Goetheanum there is no possibility of an organic connection.

The union of the sons of Abel and the sons of Cain has also never been fully realized. ²

• 1. The term 'M.E. meeting' for the esoteric lesson is explained by its similarity to an M.E. instruction lesson.
• 2. An addition to this can be seen in the following statement by Rudolf Steiner (a typewritten diary entry by Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, handed down through Paul Michaelis, of his last visit to Rudolf Steiner's sickbed on March 3, 1925):
  ”... But always bear in mind: The Jesuits have taken away the religiousness, the piety, the human being, and are completely identical with the Roman state authority. The fight, that is, the sin against the spirit, is their means of domination, the only sin of which Scripture says that it will not be forgiven. And yet the spirit cannot be completely eradicated, but only a few will carry it over into the future. This current can also be strongly felt within the Society, and he hopes to have paralyzed it through the Christmas Conference. (See GA Bibl. No. 260) For he did not seek to maintain a certain parity of female and male spirit within the Executive Council without reason, since the tendencies are perceptible, as the female spirit is to be eliminated from old contexts. I emphasized this from the very beginning when I talked about the temple legend. But it was probably not understood, and yet it is a significant undercurrent within society.

Munich (undated, ca. 1923)

The summer path is the path of the Christian Community in remembrance of a community (before birth) in the spiritual world. (Abel Way)

The winter path is the path of the anthroposophists through cold loneliness to knowledge. (Cain's Way)

Abel Way – Cain Way.

The difference between these two ways is concisely and clearly characterized by Jan K. Lagutt in his writing “Grundstein der Freimaurerei” (The Foundation Stone of Freemasonry), Zurich 1958, in the section “Das Wesen des Priestertums und das Wesen der Initiation” (The Nature of the Priesthood and the Nature of Initiation):

The priestly element of all religions [the Abel Way] is based on consecration. Through it, higher, non-personal forces are transferred to the bearer, the priest, which are regarded as an emanation of divine grace. Consecration has the effect that divine effects of grace can be carried into the physical world through the priest. Figuratively speaking, the

1) For explanations about the two columns, see the folder 'Images of Occult Seals and Columns. The Munich Congress at Whitsun 1907 and its Effects', CW 284; the lectures Nuremberg 25 and 26 June 1908 in 'The Apocalypse of John', CW 104; Berlin 20 June 1916 in ' Weltwesen und Ichheit», GA 169; Dornach 29 December 1918 in How can humanity find the Christ again? The threefold shadow existence of our time and the new Christ-light», GA 187; furthermore the pictorial design in the I-A-O motif in the great dome of the first Goetheanum in « Twelve Sketches for the Painting of the Great Dome of the First Goetheanum, an art portfolio Dornach 1930; also in Hilde Raske, Das Farbenwort, Stuttgart 1982. ordained priest becomes a channel through which divine effects flow into the earthly world.

Thus, theoretically at least, a priest of dubious personal morality could still evoke effects because they do not come from his personal sphere, but from a superhuman-divine one. This would make the priest a magician who, by virtue of his ordination and the use of certain sacred formulas, forces the deity to let its grace flow. Such an extreme conception of the priesthood, as it occasionally comes to light, certainly misses the truth. But it points to the very ancient origin of the priesthood, to a bygone era of humanity, which is referred to as the magical.

This description is not meant to be critical. It is solely a clarifying characterization.

The current that underlies Freemasonry, among other things, takes a different path [Cain's way). Here, there is no consecration in the sense of the transmission of higher powers, but rather an initiation, an induction or awakening. The essence of this is characterized by the fact that it invokes powers that are already inherent in man. The symbolic-cultic acts that are usually associated with initiation have the sole purpose of awakening these latent powers and putting them into action.

As in all great religions and cultures of antiquity, two currents coexist in Christianity: the priestly and the initiatory. It is as if in Jesus both currents, which are ancient, converge to flow out of him newly revitalized.

When Jesus sends out his disciples (Mark 6/7, Luke 9/1), he endows them with powers that lie entirely in the priestly line and do not come from the human-personal sphere of the disciples. It says: “...and gave them authority and power...

In the Gospel of John, Jesus clearly appears as the great initiator, as an initiate in the highest sense. This is already hinted at in the first chapter of the Gospel, where he calls Nathanael to discipleship. In the sense of the initiatory system, he addresses Nathanael in a special way, and the latter immediately recognizes him as a higher initiate. In all openness, Jesus appears as the great initiate, as a hierophant in the sense of the old mysteries, when he performs the resurrection of Lazarus (chapter 11). Jesus awakens anew the life of Lazarus, who has become frozen in the sleep of death. And in addition to the “external” awakening process, another profound process takes place in Lazarus, “whom the Lord loved”. In Lazarus, the eternal breaks through. And this eternal is the life of which Jesus says that He is the source. Wherever the spirit, the eternal, the higher self breaks through in a person, or, to put it another way, wherever a person, in his striving, approaches the source of his true being, he experiences the great awakening.

Is it any wonder that the Gospel of John occupies such a central position in the esoteric Christian tradition?

If true priesthood begins with grace of a superhuman nature, then true initiation should end in grace. If the priest is endowed with extra-personal powers of a higher nature through consecration, then it is up to him to prove himself worthy of them, to awaken to them and, as it were, to personalize them. Initiation, in so far as it is not an empty ceremony, calls upon the deeper, individual powers of the human being. And through them, the human being is to mature towards those spheres in which divine grace is at home.

The highest is thus the priest who becomes an initiate, an initiate. Conversely, the initiated person acquires the priestly dignity when the deeply human, which is divine, unfolds in him. Then he stands in grace.

Here the circle of apparent contradictions closes. One does not exclude the other. Both are paths on the great path of man to his true being. And this is God.

Held in Dornach on 27 May 1923, 23 October 1923, 3 January 1924 for the “Wachsmuth-Lerchenfeld Group” ¹

Text by Maria Röschl-Lehrs, “written down immediately afterwards from memory”.

I

n the introduction, it was explained why such a group is possible again now. A clear consciousness is necessary. In the past, people approached the institutions of anthroposophy with too little awareness, too little spiritual awareness.

If what had been given in those old esoteric contexts had been published, it would have given rise to many cults in the world. But because it was not published, hatred and betrayal of the cause arose.

These people here have not been summoned by him, they have gathered together themselves. He has refused to continue forming such groups himself in the face of the spiritual world. Don't be proud! There are more people who would be suitable, including those who are further along! Here are only those who have found each other. Through meditation. It is not just a personal matter, but has world significance. The Cosmos is interested in whether we do it or not.

Oh man...²

Legend [Temple Legend] new appendix two directions - in John the center. Recognizing what comes from the two directions. Fire, because both unite against the center. Hatred against the continuation of this center.

Wake up! Wake up to these two directions, but also in general. Wake up through right meditation! Goethe was fully awake, Schiller only half awake, Herder and Lessing slept completely.

In the face of the mystery of Golgotha, the words of an initiate were: Salem. Now the reversal: Melas... the circle is complete.

Addendum: Before that, Mach ben ach - son of the earth of suffering, or the physical body has separated from the soul and spirit.

Vocal exercise – pilgrimage to the self ³
O A J A O: I in the midst of light and space
A J O J A: Space for me and light
J O A O J: Light through space and me
I am

Now only that of the two directions and the fire.⁴

The Temple Legend

The wording of the temple legend from the esoteric hour of May 27, 1923, was reconstructed afterwards by various participants from memory and from texts from the earlier Erkenntnis cultic work context. The designation “New version, given in spring 1923”, under which this wording was passed on, actually applies only to the last conclusion (in the notes of Maria Lehrs-Röschl designated as “New Appendix”). In the first part, the legend text corresponds word for word to that of Rudolf Steiner's 1906 transcript (p. 365). The subsequent description of the casting of the brazen sea and Hiram's death, on the other hand, shows some variants compared to the earlier descriptions. The description in the 1923 version, which begins after the sentence from Rudolf Steiner's transcript (p. 367): “Hiram is only in possession of a real-human ego,” reads as follows:

From this point on, King Solomon is seized by violent jealousy against his master builder Hiram Abiff. The latter had three journeymen working on the temple construction who demanded the master's degree from him. However, they had shown their incompetence by cutting a mighty beam, which was irreplaceable for the construction of the temple, too short. Hiram had remedied the accident by stretching the beam to the correct length with his special powers. They are now Hiram Abiff's opponents because they had to be rejected by him when they demanded the master's degree and the master's word from him, for which they were not yet ready. The three treacherous companions have no difficulty in finding the ear of the king for the deed by which they want to corrupt Hiram Abiff.

The completion of the temple construction was to be crowned by a work in which Hiram Abiff sought to reconcile the tension and enmity between the Cain and Abel sons. It was the brazen sea, whose casting was to be made from the seven basic metals (lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, mercury and silver) and water, the metal of the earth, in such a way that the finished casting would be completely transparent. The thing was finished except for one very last step, which was to be carried out in front of the assembled court, including the Queen of Sheba, and which was to transform the still cloudy substance into one that was completely clear.

Now the three treacherous companions who had the task of adding the last ingredient mixed the water in the wrong proportion, and instead of becoming transparent, the casting sprayed in devastating flames. Hiram Abiff tried to calm the fire, but failed. The flames burst out on all sides.

But Hiram Abiff heard a voice from the flames and from the glowing mass: Plunge into the sea of fire, you are invulnerable. He plunged into the flames and realized that his path led to the center of the earth. Halfway there he met Tubal Cain, his ancestor. He led him to the center of the earth, where the great ancestor Cain was in the state he was in before the sin of killing Abel. He gave him the golden triangle with the master word. Halfway up, Tubal Cain gave him a hammer and instructed him to touch the casting of the brazen sea with it. There Hiram Abiff receives from Cain the explanation that the vigorous development of human powers on earth ultimately leads to the height of initiation, and that the initiation attained in this way must take the place of the old vision in the course of the world, that the latter will disappear. With the hammer, Hiram returns to the earth's surface; he touches the brazen sea with it, the casting is successful, and he was able to make it completely transparent.

Hiram wanted to see his work, the temple, for the last time and went there at night. There the false companions waylayed him. The first struck him on the left temple at one of the gates, so that the blood flowed down to the shoulder. Hiram Abiff turned to the second gate to leave the temple. There the second companion struck him on the right temple, so that the blood flowed down to the shoulder. He turned to the third gate. There the third journeyman struck him on the forehead, so that he collapsed. He still dragged himself out to a well, into which he sank the golden triangle. The three journeymen buried his body. Before his death, Hiram was still able to sink the golden triangle with the master word into a deep well. On his grave grew a cassia tree, an acacia. It was known to the initiated that a cassia tree grows out of the grave of an initiate. When his body was found, the new master word resounded: “Mach ben ach”.⁵ This means: The spiritual soul has separated from the physical body or: the otherness of the body.⁶ They then searched for the golden triangle and found it in the well. A cubic stone with the Ten Commandments was placed on the triangle and thus it was hidden and walled up in the temple.

With this symbolism, that which in meditation elevated the inner essence of human development on earth to imagination was given. The brazen sea can be seen as a symbol of what man would have become if the three treacherous forces had not found a place in the soul. These three treacherous forces are: doubt, superstition, and the illusion of personal self.

Hiram Abiff was reborn as Lazarus and was thus the one who was first initiated by Christ. With him began the (reconciliation of the differences) that stood between the Cain and Abel currents.

According to another record, the “new appendix” reads as follows:

Hiram Abiff was reborn as Lazarus and thus became the first to be initiated by Christ. With him began the current of the center, which stood between the Cain and Abel currents. Over time, the Cain current found its main representatives in the F. (Masonry current), while the Abel current found its expression in the priestly current of the (Catholic?) Church. Both currents of humanity remained strictly hostile to each other. Only once did they unite in harmony: in their hatred of the current of the center. The result of this harmonious union of two otherwise hostile directions was the destruction of the Johannesbau (Goetheanum).

II

First, the Indian mantram was given for the first time, the translation for the first time. After this Indian mantram, the regular invocation was made: “Brothers of the...”

True esotericism is initially incomprehensible. As an example, imagine a living person who expresses absolutely no spiritual life on the outside. His spiritual life is directed entirely inwards. Nevertheless, it is an intense inner life.

About the vowels: hierarchies are involved.
I A O Seraphim, Cherubim and partly Thrones are involved.
U Kyriotetes, Exusiai, Dynamis
E _ Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi.

The whole together means the ancient-holy word of Jahve in place of the I-am. To create this word of Jahve out of the hierarchies means an act. The execution of this act on earth: the butterfly meditation:

Catch the butterfly
Send it to the icy heights
Where the world's secrets prevail.
It will become a bird for you
Then you have done half the work
. Dip the bird
Into the depths of the sea - - - - - JAOUE
Where the will of the world is at work.
If the bird drowns,
Then you still have to do,
Purifying the bird's corpse
By burning it in the fire.
Then consume the ashes
And you are
The light in the darkness of the world.

The visualization of this butterfly meditation has an ethereal effect. Only a simple interpretation. Searching in memory with the three and a half years following the butterfly meditation. Its ethereal effect is connected with the fact that it causes one to occupy oneself with one's own will, and in the retrospective examination of one's own will, one can find a point in one's life where this will has had a very specific impulse towards certain tasks. It is often the case that when searching for such moments of volition, the non-fulfillment of which has caused dissatisfaction, one comes to a point about three and a half years ago. (Prevention by external circumstances, for example, threefolding.)

Once this point has been reached, the task is to cultivate the content of this longing, not to try to carry out the deed, but to cultivate the content as much as possible, in the highest way. Then, three and a half years after this point in time, there will be another opportunity for realization. And then the task will be to perform a selfless act that has nothing to do with the starting point of seven years ago. This can also be a very inconspicuous act outwardly.

Description of the times, the situation. The present lectures and this hour are, in comparison to the prevailing fanaticism at the height of democracy outside, just the opposite; they signify the height of aristocracy and hierarchy. An enormous abyss that evolution must leap across in order to overcome these contradictions. Descriptions of this abyss, over which some courageously leap, others are dragged, others are torn. The whole thing is a heroic tragedy in the history of mankind.

Falter-Meditation
Invocation
Indian Mantram

III

Brothers of the... Indian Mantram

Indication that the new society was founded without mentioning the esoteric reason. (He had previously said that the reasoning had esoteric reasons.) Esotericism does not tolerate playing around, everything so far has been playful [taken]. Now esotericism must be brought openly and seriously into life, from Dornach, as the center. But now we really must not play with esotericism anymore. For that, modesty is needed, above all modesty before the ego.

Therefore, wake up! Become aware that we are asleep! With each waking we enter into a new sphere of the world, for we live completely surrounded by spheres of the world, only we sleep and know nothing of them. So far, everything in man only happens in dreams. The importance of the Falter meditation (he had said last time that everything he said about the effect of this meditation and its connection with the two times three and a half years only applies to people over 28). Reading it out loud – J A O U E.

Something should be added to enhance the effect of this meditation by Falter:

4 stages of falling asleep: in thinking, feeling, willing, in the I
4 stages of waking up: in thinking, feeling, willing, in the I

Thinking:

The head is like a fruit, the heart like a glowing chalice. We should experience our head as self-illuminating right down to our heart. We should experience our thinking as an etheric organ that feels its way towards everything it is meant to grasp. The difference between the occultist and the non-occultist is that the occultist is aware that this organ radiates out into the etheric. We should experience ourselves as a snail stretching out its feelers. Thinking must become a feeling process! Help for this:

Awaken in thinking: you are in the spiritual light of the world.

Experience yourself as radiant, feeling the radiance.

Through such thinking, all of nature becomes radiant. Stone and plant shine forth in the earthly... as animal and human being... in the moral. Through the experience of thinking as touching, we develop something like a sense of touch: we see a dandelion blossom and experience it as sand; we see chicory and experience it as silk, a sunflower as a spiky animal...

Feeling:

This is still a deep dream. We should experience our heart as glowing, but in such a way that it absorbs light from our entire environment and reflects it back outwards like the moon. Through our awakening feeling, we must experience the world quite differently; the earth as a sentient being that laughs and cries. In the withering of autumn there is a kind of weeping in nature, but joy of the Ahrimanic beings in winter, joy of the luciferic beings in spring. Natural processes as deeds of spiritual beings! Trees - in winter they are only their physical body, the etheric is outside. One can come to see how the trees solve tasks in the etheric.

When one awakens in thinking, one expands into infinity. When one awakens in feeling, one sets oneself in motion, one leaves oneself.

Awaken in feeling: you are in the spiritual deeds of the world.

Experience yourself, feeling the spiritual deeds.

Wanting:

In this respect, the human being of the present is still in a state of deep sleep. But in the realm of the will, the human being is completely on his own. He has his thinking only in this embodiment, taking nothing of it with him into the afterlife. The gods need our thinking, but they do not need our feeling and willing. A person may be ingenious, but only because the gods need it that way. Geniuses are the lamps that the gods need. Our thinking abilities return to the gods after death.

Our will, on the other hand, goes with us through our embodiments; it is a result of our embodiments, we work on it through our earthly lives. In our cooperation in shaping the world, our will is what is essentially characteristic. The will is man's property, while man's thinking belongs to the gods. Envy of the gods! In our volition, we have a life of our own. But people are still asleep in their volition. They love their volition because they always believe that what they want is already the right thing. But with our volition, we are helping to shape the world. We wake up in our volition by becoming aware that we are not alone, but are responsible for the actions of others. For example, Kully: What he does, especially what upsets us the most, is our fault, we are actually participating; Goesch affair = Maya.⁷When we no longer feel ourselves as separate individual beings, but so connected in the general activity, then we awaken in the will, then we come to the living will, then we think the spiritual beings: Awaken in the will: you are in the spiritual beings of the world. The spiritual beings experience you thinking.

Awakening in the I:

We sleep in the I. We use the word “I” only because the gods once spoke it for us - our angeloi - and now, imitating them, we speak it. But we must awaken in the I! Imagination for this: altar, above it the sun. We approach the altar and experience ourselves entirely as shadows, entirely as insubstantial. So far we have said: I am. Now we consciously say: I am not. – Then a deity rises out of the sun above the altar and animates the shadow. We are like a bowl that receives the light of the deity rising out of the sun. – By grace we receive this deity, it gives itself to us. – Fichte experienced this, but only in a shadowy way. Therefore, what he says about it is completely abstract.

In the I awaken: you are in your own spiritual being.

Experience yourself as receiving from and giving to the gods.⁸

Then it was said:
The stones are mute...
Brothers of the...
Indian saying

• 1. Named by Rudolf Steiner (see page 466) because the initiative came from the two Wachsmuth brothers, Count Lerchenfeld and Harriet von Vacano. The following participants are known by name: Marie Steiner, Dr. Ita Wegman, Dr. Elisabeth Vreede, Albert Steffen, Dr. Günther Wachsmuth, Wolfgang Wachsmuth and his wife, Dr. Kurt Piper, Dr. Otto Palmer, Dr. von Baravalle, Dr. Maria Röschl, Count Lerchenfeld, Harriet von Vacano, Jürgen von Grone, Margarita Woloschin.
• 2. This mantram was later incorporated into the mantras of the first class of the School of Spiritual Science.
• 3. See original recording on page 473.
• 4. Regarding this, Maria Röschl-Lehrs' note: “Only very sparse notes here. The order is not clear.”
• 5. Here, according to the usual traditions, the intermediate link is missing: Solomon gave the order to search for Hiram's body. Since it was believed that the murderers had extorted the master word from Hiram, it was agreed that they would remain silent during the search. The first word that one of the masters spoke unintentionally while digging up the body was to be considered the new master word. When the body was found after a long search, the word “Mach ben ach” escaped from one of them at that moment. This was accepted as a new master word.
• 6. Another record has here: “Earth son of suffering”.
• 7. Kully and Goesch: two opponents actively appearing at the time.
• 8. Cf. the manuscript on page 477.

Rudolf Steiner's notebook entries, notebook archive number 281. Some of this may also have been given in the esoteric lesson in Kristiania (Oslo) on 18 or 20 May.

May 27, 1923, Dornach, the Wachsmuth-Lerchenfeld group:

First enjoyment of the Esot. Then forgetting the Esot.

1.) Examination of the seriousness =

2.) Hatred, ambition, denied love, astral light
3.) The legend
4.) The intentions<
today = one has lost the word and the
thoughts to the I.

Thought-feeling

Melas

speak rightly, s l m ch
so that the word Salem
works

“Lord
over thyself

”Brethren of the... (another version)

According to Rudolf Steiner's manuscript from notebook archive number 281

Divine Sculptors of the Universe
Feel the soul-sacrifice smoke
Which we in your light heights
Worshipping would like to let flow.

Divine thinkers of the universe
Take into your thinking the sacrificial word
That we entrust to the air circles
Which meet you when your forces
worlds through space.

Divine creators of the universe
Take into your being our own being
So that we may flourish under your protection
When you lift up from the depths of the earth
a world growing towards the heights of light.

Meditation from the esoteric hour Dornach, May 27, 1723

The Indian mantram

The wording has not been handed down. Among Rudolf Steiner's handwritten notes on these esoteric hours are two Indian mantras:

Yasmāt jātam jagat sarvam, yasminn eva praliyate
yenedam dhriyate caiva, tasmai jnānātmane namah.
From whom the whole world originates, to whom it
returns,
through whom it is securely supported,
To Him the Self who knows, be all honor.

The other Indian mantram is recorded in the notebook as follows:

Satyam gnanam anantam Brahma
ananda rupam amritam vibharti
Shantam Shivam advaitam
Shanti Shanti Shanti.

Wording of the two subsequent manuscripts by Rudolf Steiner

The two manuscripts, obviously written down together, come from the estate of the English sculptor Edith Maryon, who was Rudolf Steiner's colleague in the sculptural wood group and fell ill after the building fire. Rudolf Steiner, who visited her repeatedly during her illness, apparently told her about the esoteric lesson of May 27, 1923 and wrote down the two mantras for her.

Note sheet archive number 5852

J A O U E (preparation)

Catch the butterfly
Send it to the icy heights (3 1/2 years)
Where the world dreams (memory)
It becomes a bird for you
Then you have done half the work (-I now)
(Forgetting)
Dip the bird
In the depths of the sea
Where the will of the world is at work
The bird drowns
Then you still have to do
To burn the bird's corpse
Purifying in the fire
Then consume the ashes
And you are
The light in the darkness of the world. - (Tragedy)

(Above the vowels:)

J still within,
A one opens to the world that says a lot
O the angels come, give hands
U the second hierarchy comes, flows around one with light
E the first hierarchy comes and burns one in fire.

On the back of the sheet are the following comments in Edith Maryon's handwriting which obviously refer to the instructions given by Rudolf Steiner for the meditation:

"First think thinking - only the eyes move while he reads.
Then the content, the letters connect him with the hierarchies.
Then say: I A O U E
Falter = thought.

3½ years, months or weeks or days
3½ later, occurrence with enthusiasm
Experience of democracy (with) fellow human beings and the loneliness and tragedy of the aristocracy of thought. Penetrate loneliness to reach the content.

Note sheet archive number 5853

If the gods had
consumed themselves in joy,
the world would never have come into being;
they would have only scattered their own essence
into the world air:
Sadly they became d'rum
And in lament
Embraced their essence,
And from the lament
Rose the blessed Fiat
The world-creating word.

Joy is the fire
That glows
When the lament
Melts into ashes.

On the first anniversary of Rudolf Steiner's death, on 30 March 1926, Marie Steiner-von Sivers, who had not only taken a special position as co-founder and co-leader of the Erkenntniskultischer Arbeitskreis (a working group within the General Anthroposophical Society), but also through her inner competence in the same, had written¹ a memorial service with a symbolic-cultic character was held in the context of the first class of the School of Spiritual Science. On the stage of the carpentry hall at the Goetheanum, where all events in Dornach were held at the time, she had three altars set up, at the eastern altar of which she had always served at the side of Rudolf Steiner. The following drafts of her address express what Rudolf Steiner's life's work meant to her, namely, to have experienced the legend of the temple.

Marie Steiner

We have gathered here in memory of the one who left this earth a year ago, who worked for us here in this place, among us, who gave us guidelines for our work, the service at the altars of wisdom, beauty and strength, as a sign of which we have placed these altars, which symbolize his work for us. We have placed these tools on the altars as a symbol of his creative work. With them he shaped the new forms in the wood. They are his compass and his straightedge, his trowel and his hammer. They are still imbued with the fire of his hands, they speak to us and demand action.

In his memory and in memory of what we have to do, we light these candles:

1. The light that he has kindled in our hearts, may it shine brightly and become wisdom.

2. It may rise in purity to him, as pure as he has sunk it into our souls.

3. It strengthens us in our active work, so that our actions serve his spirit, our spirit grows stronger in its self-transcendence through Christ.

We stand in this room of mourning, remembering the great man who has left us. The three altars stand before us as a sign and seal of his work. The leader who stood at the helm of this turning point for humanity served at these altars continually. He was allowed to bring them out of the depths of the temple, where they had stood since the beginning of mystery religions, and hand them over to humanity. He gave them to us in images and in art, by incorporating them into his mystery dramas, at the stages of the spiritual student's progress. He gave them to us in His Word by placing at the center of His activity the ideals of wisdom, beauty and strength, constantly presenting them to our minds in their individual expression and in their interaction. He allowed the two most important poetical personalities among His disciples to present the legend to the world in words and pictures. You know them from their works.² We can only remember them insofar as they have been given to humanity artistically. And with the hammer blow with which Rudolf Steiner established the connection to eternal spiritual service at the laying of the foundation stone, he is now commemorated here.³ We take up the thread of his work and place ourselves under his protection to serve the powers to which he led us in his service.

Why was Rudolf Steiner allowed to do this, which signifies a turning point for humanity, even within esotericism, a new phase and a new path?

When the great is very close to us, we do not see it, the mountain wall towers above us, it crushes one, it hinders the view of the other. We do not see beyond it, we only feel: this is great.

It takes a long time before we reach the summit of the mountain and take in the full extent of the view; but now and then, during the arduous ascent, a glimpse of the big picture presents itself, and we grasp parts of the enormous context.

Our vision was made easy; we were able to experience it, but perhaps the light was too dazzling for us to see clearly.

We experienced the construction, we saw Rudolf Steiner raise his hammer to work and how his students flocked to serve the work; the temple had risen, noble and radiant, from the power of its spirit and the skill of its hands, and we were allowed to learn and work. But we too, in addition to our weaknesses and imperfections, had among us the three evil companions, who went as far as betrayal and a will to destroy. The seed of hatred bore its fruit. The building was in flames, just as the Sea of Steel was once in flames. Rudolf Steiner embodied the legend; he realized it in physical action; he became the legend. He proclaimed it to humanity through his life.

And Rudolf Steiner threw himself into the searing fire of the center. We were this searing fire for him, we, the children of Cain. He took our karma upon himself so that we would be freer to serve. But our karma was too hard and too heavy and broke his physical strength almost immediately after he had entered into the covenant. His last year of life was a mighty expiration of his spirit...

We are gathered here today because we are aware that we have experienced a moment in world history that was a turning point, not just a turning point. The spirit descended in currents never before imagined through a person who had made himself capable of receiving the spirit in mind, soul, and body. Today we want to do nothing else but let this spirit prevail among us in the words he left us, as a source of life and strength, the words and the music inspired by him in the space surrounded by black, which is the physical color of the spirit, at the three altars whose significance is known to you through the mystery plays, by the light of the three candles that are the chandeliers of these altars.

Our thoughts turn to the one who left us a year ago today, who poured his wisdom into our hearts with inexhaustible, never-ending gentleness and kindness, whose love embraced and carried the souls of us all, whose strength lifted our earth out of its Ahrimanic material snares, in which it threatened to suffocate, and carried it towards the spirit, on the wings of the ego-transcendence he lived and taught. “Christ in me” - that was his life, his work and his word.

In his words he created a structure of indestructible strength, clarity and beauty. May our thoughts, feelings and will strive to keep this word alive among us!

We have laid down on the altars of wisdom, beauty and strength, before which he has served, the tools with which he has worked, which are still imbued with the warming fire of his hands, which have grasped the future. With them he worked into the material until it became a spiritual revelation, thus opening up to us the most hidden laws of nature, which push towards revelation through the beautiful appearance. These are his compass, his measuring rod, his trowel, his hammer, his mallet, with which he created the forms of his sculpture: (3 hammer blows: long short short; long short short; long short short).

In his spirit we gather today, asking that he cover our weaknesses and our inadequacies with the splendor of his being. In his name we call upon the archangel, whose service he has consecrated to us, seeking to recognize the guardian who stands before the gate of the temple to the other realm: (3 hammer blows: long short short; long short short; long short short). We try to approach this Guardian in the sign of his love, which, emanating full of wisdom, became for us the bestowing virtue of his word, which, being transformed into action, became for us the pointing, active sword of Michael, his emanating life, which, in creating knowledge, led us back to our original state, and, overcoming space and time, became for us the future. We call upon them, the existing, active, ruling powers: He who created them anew: Anthroposophia, Him whom He bids us follow: Michael The all-embracing source that bears the future within itself: Jahveh-Adonai

Life – Love – Logos
Christ in me

Ex deo nascimur / In Christo morimur / Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus

(3 hammer blows: long short short; long short short; long short short).

• 1. A participant reported a related statement by Rudolf Steiner in the context of the work of the Knowledge Cult as follows: “At the top, as head of the school and as mediator of spiritual realities, was Rudolf Steiner; at his side as comrade and colleague was Marie von Sivers. ... During a higher-level activity, at which only a small number of participants were allowed to be present, we were informed by Rudolf Steiner himself that Marie von Sivers' collaboration was to be taken in a fully legitimate sense - not symbolically as with the rest of us. And in such a way that reference was made to a reality that goes beyond birth and death.” Adolf Arenson in a circular letter to the members of the Anthroposophical Society, October 1926.
• 2. Albert Steffen's drama “Hieram and Solomon” and the poetry of Kurt Piper, see “Further Reading” on page 498.
• 3. What is meant is the laying of the foundation stone for the education of the General Anthroposophical Society at Christmas 1923. Adolf Arenson reports: “Rudolf Steiner opened the Christmas Conference not with words but with symbolic blows, and in so doing he brought the law of continuity into effect. For everyone who belonged to the institution that Rudolf Steiner describes in the 36th chapter of his 'Life Course' said these blows: “The new that I want to give you, I hereby tie to the existing earlier, true to the law of esotericism. ... It hardly needs to be emphasized that this tying to the earlier includes the possibility of bringing a completely new, even a leaping new, as indeed the flower ties to the formation of leaves in the plant and yet is a completely new one.” Letter from Adolf Arenson to Albert Steffen, December 24, 1926.