עברית ‘Nothing, absolutely nothing, remained as it was in 1902, 1910, 1919, 1924 and 1925. Everything, absolutely every word, work and deed that Rudolf Steiner ever said and accomplished, he already totally, thoroughly, transformed in the life stream of Michael from 1925 until today'.
The Resurrection of Anthroposophy in the Twenty-first Century: Anthroposophy Must be Re-established onTotally New Foundations.
From the second lecture of The Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity.
From the Current Preperations in the School of Spiritual Science for the three centenary events of 2022,2023-4, 2025.
There are two passages in the second lecture of The Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity, that express the essential process of this resurrection. The first emphasizes the requirement to resurrect all aspects of old anthroposophy from the ground up. We read there that ‘Nothing of the old Anthroposophy, not even the smallest element and impulse should be lost; everything, absolutely everything that Rudolf Steiner ever wrote, said and did must be resurrected to new life in the twenty-first century, through the new Michaelic Christ impulse, before he and the new Michaelic impulse can be incarnated again’. The culmination of this resurrection requires that the impulse of resurrection itself, given in the Christmas Foundation Conference 1923-4, will be resurrected as well. This means that ‘we must accomplish this resurrection now in our own etheric hearts: the resurrection of this deeply buried and forgotten impulse of resurrection, the resurrection of the Christmas Foundation Conference itself’.
With the power created through the resurrection of the Christmas Foundation Conference from its grave, we can experience how the power of this resurrection transforms ‘everything, absolutely everything, that Rudolf Steiner created in his life’, because we enter consciously into the suprasensible stream of life, in which everything that Rudolf Steiner said and deed in his previous earthly life ‘was wholly transformed in the course of the last century in the spiritual worlds!’. This means that ‘Nothing, absolutely nothing, remained as it was in 1902, 1910, 1919, 1924 and 1925. Everything, absolutely every word, work and deed that Rudolf Steiner ever said and accomplished, he already totally, thoroughly, transformed in the life stream of Michael from 1925 until today. We must join him in this, we must do the same as he did and does with his previous earthly work: transform everything from the ground up! We must work together on this task, as no one can achieve this alone; we must extract, potentize and resurrect all his major creations, deeds and foundations in the coming decades. What a wonderfully creative, challenging, and adventurous task this is, dear friends, and what a great responsibility, as an expression of our creative and free loyalty to this impulse and its founder’.
To realize how this is accomplished in the concrete re-formation of the community and school of spiritual science, one must read the whole book, to grasp consciously how the work with the supersensible stream of Michael is actualized, active in the etheric world since Rudolf Steiner’s death, through which alone the new revelation of the etheric Christ is grasped.
From the second lecture: The resurrection of old Anthroposophy
In the preparations for the first centenary event- the burning of the first Goetheanum, Sylvester 1922-2022- we strive to kindle its fire most strongly in our hearts. In kindling and fostering this fire, the college leads the school from Christmas 2021 to the annual global school meeting in Sylvester 2022. The next annual global school meeting, in Easter 2022, falls in the middle of this year, and in this meeting the fire of the first Goetheanum must already burn most brightly in our hearts, to illuminate the whole year with its spiritual blessing and grace.
In this context, we strive to deepen the feeling and mood of sacred and joyful devotion, as we celebrate the fire sacrifice of the Goetheanum, until that mysterious being comes to light, that RS called ‘the spirit of the Goetheanum’, who’s spiritualized essence formed the foundation of the Christmas Foundation Conference. For the work in the School of Spiritual Science, it is important to realize, that this is the spirit that carries the continuation of the anthroposophical work of Rudolf Steiner, not only from the first form he gave anthroposophy in 1902-1922, to the seed of its future form, given in 1924, but also in the spiritual world after it left the earth with Rudolf Steiner in 1925. Therefore, it’s continuous spiritualization today is the precondition to the resurrection of old anthroposophy of the 20th century to the new anthroposophy of the 21st century. As we contemplate this mystery, we can develop a living feeling towards this being, and experience that it is the spiritual body in which Anthroposophia was embodied, on earth, for such short time in 1924, and in which it is embodied, in a spiritual form, even since. This is one important aspect that we should carry in our hearts as preparation for the transformation of the Christmas Foundation Conference impulse in 2023-4.
In the second lecture of the Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity, the resurrection of old anthroposophy is described from various points of view, as an essential foundation of future anthroposophy. This passage is taken from the section ‘The Resurrection of Anthroposophy in the Twenty-first Century: Anthroposophy Must be Re-established on Totally New Foundations’.
‘If we take this old Anthroposophy that Rudolf Steiner created into our etheric hearts in the twenty-first century, we must resurrect, first of all, the root and trunk of the original esoteric school impulse, given from 1902 until 1914, and the forces invested in the building of the first Goetheanum. The old esoteric school can only be resurrected if we transform the most basic elements of the anthroposophical spiritual path that are given in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Occult Science, constantly penetrated and transformed by the practice of the Philosophy of Freedom. This practice can awaken in us the forces needed for the resurrection of the spirit of the
first Goetheanum and all the branches and daughters of Anthroposophy born in the last years of Rudolf Steiner’s life. Nothing of the old Anthroposophy, not even the smallest element and impulse should be lost; everything, absolutely everything that Rudolf Steiner ever wrote, said and did must be resurrected to new life in the twenty-first century, through the new Michaelic Christ impulse, before he and the new Michaelic impulse can be incarnated again.
The spiritual forces that built the first Goetheanum are made of two inwardly related kinds, and both must be resurrected together. First, the Goetheanum building was the synthesis of all the artistic anthroposophical impulses, of the plastic and musical arts, with Eurythmy as its crowning flower, and in the center of which arched the wonderful spiritual dome of the four mystery dramas. This is a vast and diverse field of resurrection work, that can only be honestly carried out by enlivening the most basic artistic elements by connecting them to the living and creative spirit of the new being of Anthroposophy in the present. The second aspect of the Goetheanum impulse is found in the way in which a whole community dedicated itself to constructing its physical building. These forces must be resurrected today in our community, to become the new forces of the present and future anthroposophical community building, that will create the new ‘etheric Goetheanum’, the heart of the real Michaelic school and movement on the earth.
If we undertake this long-lasting, patient, gradual, resurrection work, transforming and enlivening in our etheric hearts all the fundamental forces and creations of old Anthroposophy, we will be able to continue to resurrect all of Rudolf Steiner’s founding acts that he accomplished in the last years of his life. Among them stand out, to begin with, three major impulses: the founding of Waldorf Education, the Christian Community, and the esoteric youth circle. All three were cut off from the living being of Anthroposophia in 1925 and continued their physical life on the earth, separated from the real supersensible stream of Michael and the etheric Christ impulse in the etheric world. These founding impulses led directly to the Christmas Foundation Conference in 1923-4, but today their resurrection depends on the resurrection and new impulse of the Christmas Foundation Conference, whose seed must be formed in 2023-4. Further, in the same way—proceeding from the new whole being of Anthroposophy to its branches—we must resurrect in our hearts the essence of the medical, agricultural and curative educational impulses, that form a certain unity in themselves, and enhance and intensify the others. In this way, we can make potentized extracts of their old forms and carry their living essences to the new altar, on which alone the fire burns, that ‘makes everything new’. We must be ready to resurrect them in our etheric hearts, the Christmas Foundation Conference itself, in its centenary 2023-4.
But this can only be done if we experience—based on the work invested in the resurrection of the whole old being of Anthroposophy—how Rudolf Steiner brought all his founding acts and impulses to the spirit altar, whose fire consumed and spiritualized the first Goetheanum. We will only experience the true meaning of the Christmas Foundation Conference, if we first of all let this sacred fire of sacrifice of the first Goetheanum burn in our etheric hearts here and now. Through this fire, the first Goetheanum was wholly spiritualized and transformed, and with it the whole being of old Anthroposophy. Everything Rudolf Steiner gave and created during his whole life, starting with his individualized impulse of freedom and love described in The Philosophy of Freedom, was burned down and resurrected like the phoenix from the ashes of the annihilated first Goetheanum. As he said himself, the impulse that underlies the founding of the Anthroposophical Society and the esoteric School of Michael, was a result of the spiritualized forces of the first Goetheanum, that he could bring down to the earth in a wholly new way. He emphasized that from this moment on—a moment which turned to be physically so short—Anthroposophy as a whole had been founded again on totally new foundations. His supreme act of freedom and love, actualized in the Christmas Foundation Conference, was the true Foundation Stone of Love, that contained as a seed the spiritualized forces of old Anthroposophy, and the totally new impulse that started then for the first time in the evolution of humanity:
‘And so, my dear friends, carry out into the world your warm hearts in which you have laid the Foundation Stone for the Anthroposophical Society, carry out into the world these warm hearts which promote strong, health-giving activity in the world. And help will be vouchsafed to you, enlightening your heads in what you would fain direct with single purpose. We will set about this with all possible strength. And if we prove to be worthy of this aim, we shall see that a good star will hold sway over what is willed from here. Follow this good star, my dear friends! We shall see whither the Gods will lead us by the light of this star.
O Light Divine,
O Sun of Christ!
Warm Thou our hearts,
Enlighten Thou our heads.’
When we strive, therefore, to resurrect the Christmas Foundation Conference impulse, and ‘re-establish on totally new foundations’ the Michaelic school and movement of spiritual science, we must first of all do, in our humble way, what Rudolf Steiner did himself. Standing in the ashes of both the first Goetheanum and the disintegrating old Anthroposophical Society, he resurrected the whole being of old Anthroposophy, from the ashes of its burned down roots and branches, flowers, fruits and seeds, and planted in these ashes the wholly new seed of the new cosmic new year, the seed of the new impulse of Michael in this age. We must accomplish it now in our own etheric hearts, but to this we must also add something truly new: the resurrection of this deeply buried and forgotten impulse of resurrection itself, the resurrection of the Christmas Foundation Conference itself.
The Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity
The History of the Michaelic Movement since the Death of Rudolf Steiner