Individual and social healing forces
Rudolf Steiner described two fundamental tasks of the Anthroposophical Society in the Statutes, he wrote letters to the members in order to support their social interaction with each other and with the public, and he published the Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts: all of these sources can guide and unite the membership worldwide.
In the summer of 2018, during the professional development week All African Anthroposophic Training in Nairobi (KE) (Anthroposophy Worldwide 10/2018), we met the coordinator of the Franciscan movement in Africa, Pater Hermann. He celebrated a catholic mass with those present, speaking in his sermon on a topic that is important to him: in the past, he said, one used to focus on what divided the Christian confessions and orders, now the Franciscan movement supported an approach that looked at what they have in common.
I asked myself what it is that holds us together globally in the Anthroposophical Society and movement – despite all the polarizing tendencies, conflicts and disagreements. What are the constructive, healing forces that have prevented the Society from breaking up? We speak of resilience today, of salutogenic resources, defences and sources of health that we – individuals, institutions or societies – require to withstand any inner or outer destructive forces. What do these sources of health look like in our anthroposophical movement and in the Anthroposophical Society in particular? How is it possible that they keep renewing themselves?
When I thought about this, I had the image of three beacons that send out their light, across national borders and all the discord, helping us to resolve the problems we meet and to not lose access to our individual and social healing forces.
A truly global society
One of these beacons are the Statutes that Rudolf Steiner so lovingly consulted on with the members present at the Christmas Conference of 1923/1924. They contain the spiritual foundation of a «truly global society» (GA 260) that sets itself the following two tasks:
• to contribute to an association of people that pursues true knowledge of the spiritual world,
• to cooperate with an Executive Council that is expected to communicate with the members on everything «it sees as the Society’s tasks».
At the same time as the consultations on the Statutes, Rudolf Steiner spoke in-depth about the Foundation Stone Meditation which he presented to the members for guidance and as a meditative source of inspiration. It is this foundation that brings people together. It illustrates the tasks that need doing in the various spheres of life: creating inner and outer facts that can facilitate an experience of Christ’s working in the etheric.
A distinct human identity
The second beacon informs us on success factors and pitfalls that determine the achievements or failures, the growth or withering of the Anthroposophical Society’s branches and groups. The Letters to Members which Rudolf Steiner wrote after the Christmas Conference (GA 260a) accompanied the global work from 20 January to 10 August 1925, culminating in Rudolf Steiner describing Anthroposophy itself as a spiritual attitude, a distinct human identity to which one testifies by representing it authentically, as conscientiously as one can, and by resolutely rejecting group opinions.
Consciously serving Michael, the spirit of our time
The third beacon concerns all of humanity. One could say that it is Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual legacy to the members, to the anthroposophical movement and Society, and to humankind as a whole: the Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts (GA 26), composed by Rudolf Steiner throughout the final year of his life. The last two of these Leading Thoughts were not published until after his death, a gesture that signified that he wanted to be active beyond his death, on 30 March 1925, as the teacher of the General Anthroposophical Society which he had inaugurated. Integrated into these Leading Thoughts are the Michael Letters, which describe the cosmic-earthly evolution of humankind in a way that enables the anthroposophical movement to consciously serve Michael, the spirit of our time.
In my work with the anthroposophic-medical movement from 1988 to 2016, I have experienced how much these three beacons can be a source of inspiration and orientation and enhance one’s daily work.
Pater Hermann later invited me to visit his seminary, where students from all over Africa are introduced to the Franciscan order. In our conversations I realized that they have similar beacons: finding the way to the living Christ in one’s heart, practising a community life that radiates out into the world and working where one is needed and where one can serve life.
Global Society
«And the way you had to sign an admission form [in the Theosophical Society] that felt as if you had to make some dogmatic assertion, is certainly no longer appropriate for human souls. Human souls today feel that any kind of dogmatism or sectarianism is entirely foreign to them. And yet, it cannot be denied that it is difficult to shed the sectarian tendencies that live within the Anthroposophical Society. They must be shed, however. Not a shred of sectarianism must remain in the Anthroposophical Society of the future. It must be a truly global society. Anyone joining it must feel that they find here what moves them. Older people must feel that they have found the community they have striven for all their life; young people must feel that their needs are being met here.»
Rudolf Steiner, GA 260, morning of 24 December 1923
Book Michaela Glöckler, Rolf Heine (eds.): Leadership Questions and Forms of Working in the Anthroposophic Medical Movement, Verlag am Goetheanum (available in German and English)