The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Foreword by Marie Steiner

on the series “Art in the Light of Mystical Wisdom”

[ 1 ] Only those who have been able to fully absorb the essence of Spiritual Science—in such a way that the concreteness of the spiritual world and its richly formative nature have become second nature to them—will be able to understand the impulses for renewal offered to humanity in the series “Art in the Light of Mystery Wisdom.” Armed with the full range of contemporary scientific tools and with the sharpest clarity of thought, Rudolf Steiner brought these ideas to the people of his time and pointed out to them how the “I” is placed at the focal point of humanity’s development of consciousness, and how humanity must grasp this “I” with full awareness. Art is a path to a grasp of the “I” that is pulsing with life, tempered by life, yet also level-headed and radiant. It is one of the healthiest and most enlightening paths, one of the most direct; it was the last to diverge from its place of origin—the temple of mystery wisdom—and could not be buried as quickly as the path of religion was by the Church’s lust for power, or the path of science by the intellectual rigidity of the materialistic currents of the time. Rudolf Steiner worked among us so that these three paths might find one another again, so that art, science, and religion might once more unite and interpenetrate. He devoted his full attention to each of these paths; in their living synthesis he saw the salvation of humanity. Just as they once worked together in the ancient sacred mysteries and, from there, brought all the cultures of the earth into being, illuminated them, and nourished them, so must they once again be brought closer together and united through a knowing grasp of their unified spiritual origin. Today, humanity must awaken within itself an awareness of this vital, essential communion. It can do so in complete freedom along the paths of critical insight and practical work—provided it does not timidly shut itself off from the forces superior to it and as yet unknown; provided it does not bow to the coercion of priestly influence or to the authority of dogmatic scientism. The stages of the path are revealed to humanity through the wise and most impersonal guidance of a knower who has not appealed to humanity’s need for submission and devotion, but rather to its capacity for knowledge, in accordance with the demands of the times.

[ 2 ] The first stage is study; thus, a prerequisite for understanding what is presented in the lectures of this series is the study of Spiritual Science. The bibliography included with each issue lists works by Rudolf Steiner that can provide a foundation for penetrating the mysteries underlying human artistic creation. Their impulses, which act from the supersensible realm, are now to be brought from the dullness of the subconscious into the wakefulness of ego-consciousness. Art is on the verge of withering away; it, too, has already cut itself off from its spiritual source of life. Through the paths of sensory observation and the imitation of physical contingencies, through the overgrowth of the personality, it has completely distanced itself from its origin. To reconnect the severed threads, to find one’s way back to the original spirit, and—with the newly acquired powers of the awakened personality, which recognizes its eternal value—to reenter the lost path in freedom filled with insight: this is the task of present-day humanity. To this end, may the profound wisdom and beauty—the power—that speaks to us through these words of Rudolf Steiner, now to be presented to the public, serve as a guide.

[ 3 ] These were spoken words, not intended for publication. Rudolf Steiner did not approve of his listeners’ eager note-taking, and he was opposed to the reproduction and printing of the spoken word. His sense of style suffered as a result, since he felt differently about the spoken word than he did about the written word. The transcripts always seemed flawed to him, since when proclaiming occult truths, the finest nuances and the most subtle turns of phrase and sentence structure were of the utmost importance to him. He also wished for his words to have a living effect on people’s souls rather than gathering dust on a bookshelf. Yet it was the relentless insistence of his listeners that created the necessity to yield. This arose because too many unqualified individuals were duplicating and distributing their own transcripts, and because the only way to correct this evil was to set the best possible transcript against the others and have it regarded as the sole authorized version. Thus, an evil ultimately brought about a good. For the giver, of course, it brought pain and malicious interpretation on the part of bitter enemies—those opponents of esoteric wisdom who, like bats, hate the light. But the times demand it. The only remedy against the proliferation of fanciful, amateurish forms of occultism is wisdom armed with all the knowledge of our time. It is evident from many letters from outsiders that Rudolf Steiner’s work is what first made life worth living for them. We must no longer conceal anything or hold anything back, for truth alone can defeat lies and death.

[ 4 ] The great Giver is no longer with us, but his word will continue to have an effect. Sluggish souls are gradually opening up; rigid thinking is, step by step, coming to grasp the essence of spiritual connections and their revelatory power of beauty, as they shine forth toward us from his words. And even if they are mocked and dragged through the mud, it can no longer harm him. Humanity has inflicted upon him all the suffering it can inflict upon a great soul. He has embraced them with his full love. His words shall continue to help them.

[ 5 ] We have wandered in the darkness long enough. A light has been kindled for us that can purify our souls; yet we are still too numb from the smoldering haze of the maladies of our materialistic age. But the light brought to us is so radiant and life-giving that, if we are only willing to clear away the debris that has accumulated within us, we cannot help but be healed by the power of that light.

[ 6 ] Every art is withering away; in every sphere of life, one senses this desolation taking hold. Only technology and mechanics march triumphantly forward. Mechanics has now taken hold of art as well; it has even muzzled the most spiritual of arts, music, and made it subservient. Humanity hardly notices the sub-psychic poison of decay that is seeping into it. The transition from the spiritual to the sub-spiritual occurred almost imperceptibly: all that soulless, wooden clatter on the piano, that erotic tinkling of notes, those nerve-wracking musical psychoses were accepted quite passively as a pastime, as a titillation of the senses, or as a stimulation of the nerves. Humanity scarcely realized where it was being driven, because its spiritual sense had been lulled to sleep and because, across the wasteland of the soul, the great masters of music still cast their enormous shadows: everyday music seemed trivial by comparison. Now, however, the consequences of this tolerance are becoming apparent. We have fallen under the compulsion of the musical machine; it pursues us even into the realm of nature. It drives us into the sub-sensual, into the realm of demonism.

[ 7 ] Art cannot be renewed by flirting with modern decadence or by making compromises; it can only be renewed through a return to the spiritual sources of life. Whoever has drunk from these sources—how could such a person justify watching humanity languish without providing it with the salvation through which it can be healed?

[ 8 ] That salvation lies in the uncovering of the wisdom of the mysteries, which must be presented to humanity in a form accessible to people today. The new science of initiation must appeal to humanity’s powers of thought, to its sense of art and style, and to its eternal essence, by calling for alertness of consciousness in each of these areas.

[ 9 ] Through word, image, and deed, Rudolf Steiner became a voice calling for awareness in each of these fields. He set new directions in art. He freed it from rigidity and set it in motion; he breathed new life into what had been stifled. Perhaps the abundance of tasks in other fields would never have afforded him the opportunity to traverse all areas of art in a fruitful way, had the construction of the Goetheanum not demanded this of him, and had the World War not created the necessary time by curtailing part of his activity.

[ 10 ] At the Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner was able to bring to life the architectural vision that lived within him. He was able to entrust it to the most vibrant building material of all: wood. The result was a work of indescribable beauty, profoundly moving in the power it held to awaken the soul—a power arising from its forms, which were shaped in an organic sequence of development stemming from the interplay of directions, rises, and falls and their proportions. Number, measure, and weight triumphed in their vibrating, uplifting, and aligning triad. The building stood there as a human being; the human being as a building. The becoming of the worlds, the becoming and working of humankind, and the deeds of the gods were inscribed within it, revealed in the flood of colors in the dome, in the organic growth of the column and architrave motifs, and in the patterns of light from the windows. Sculpture and painting transcended themselves, overcame the line, and merged into movement. Color created the form from within, out of its own creative animacy. In the newly blossoming art of eurythmy, sound and speech had become movement and entered the realm of the visible through the instrument of the human body. The creative powers of language, thus made visible, in turn had a revitalizing effect on the other arts, kindling a spiritual fire of creation. The inner tone inherent in it was able to seize the sound produced by the air, imbue it with spirit, and lift it into higher spheres. Rudolf Steiner had called his building the “House of Language.” All the arts had found a home there, as had science and the wisdom of the mysteries. The synthesis of art, science, and religion had once again been accomplished.

[ 11 ] A structure like this cannot be recreated—unless the people who worked on it as the artists responsible for its execution are once again able to translate what they have learned and experienced into a work of the same kind.

[ 12 ] Otherwise, a work that could have powerfully advanced humanity even today on its path of development toward the spirit will fade into the past as a memory, yet as the spiritual seed of a new future. With the flames of New Year’s Eve 1922–23, an immense impulse for human progress was initially destroyed.

[ 13 ] The forces of stagnation have willed it so. They have incited the mob against Rudolf Steiner and are still trying to tarnish his memory. But the lingering barking can no longer destroy his spiritual work. It is too deeply rooted in the down-to-earth nature of spiritual essence and in the spiritual needs of our time.

[ 14 ] The new building is constructed of the most rigid material: concrete. It rises like a castle, yet not as a fortress or a defensive structure. Like a sanctuary of the mind, welcoming all who seek to strive for the noblest of all goods—knowledge of the world and of humanity—it radiates out into the landscape.

[ 15 ] The new Goetheanum does not claim to rival, even in the slightest, the one that was destroyed by fire in terms of its design and impact. True, its outer form soars majestically in bold, harmonious beauty—a final gift from the departed master of aesthetic inspiration. When he had created this form, he laid down his hammer, trowel, and measuring rod and continued to work quietly on the Word for a while longer before he left us. His students are now continuing the work on the building to the best of their abilities.

[ 16 ] It was the Master’s final legacy. But they were bound by the harsh constraints of limited financial resources; they had to sacrifice their intentions—and often even the guidelines left by the Master and still specified by him—under the rigid dictate of a lack of funds. The thought arises involuntarily: How different things might have been if the external resources had been sufficient to carry out, even within the structure itself, what the power of the Mystery impulses—rooted in esotericism—demanded. The thought keeps coming to mind again and again: When and where will it be possible to create a building—in which country, at what time—that will be able to concentrate within itself and radiate out these infinite impulses, which brought every detail of the burned-down Goetheanum together into a world-encompassing whole, expressing the forces of humanity and the world, the microcosm and the macrocosm, and thus reigning with such spiritual creativity and soul-shaping power?

[ 17 ] When Rudolf Steiner presented the artists with the motifs for the etchings to be incorporated into the stained-glass window, he offered words that allude to the initiate’s journey through the various stages of initiation. These words are to serve as guiding principles for this series of writings on “Art in the Light of Mystical Wisdom.” True art leads to mystical wisdom. Those who strive toward its light are gripped by the power of these words:

I look
It reveals
It has revealed

The world brings forth the will
The will comes into being
The will is born

The love of the world acts
And love for humanity arises
And love for humanity takes hold of him

The world gives him sight
And he sees
And he makes himself see

The external world in resolution
Resolving
He has willed

It has been
It had become
It was

It arises
It will be
It is

The world breathes piety
Thus he becomes pious
Piety takes effect

The world builds
I behold the building
And the building becomes human