The Constitution of the General Anthroposophical Society
GA 260a — 18 January 1924
The Organic Development of the Anthroposophical Society and Its Future Tasks
In the second newsletter — as you know, this newsletter is entitled “What is happening in the Anthroposophical Society” — you will first find an address I gave to the members, and I would like to emphasize that the first sentences of this address to the members should be taken very seriously. Perhaps I may quote these first sentences:
"The Christmas Conference for the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society cannot have its content solely in what the members gathered at the Goetheanum experienced during its duration. Only if, in the future, wherever anthroposophy is loved, people feel that that the implementation of what has been inspired by this conference has brought about a new anthroposophical life, will this content truly be there. If this were not the case, this conference would not have fulfilled its task."
There is no doubt, my dear friends, that the Anthroposophical Society needs new life. And what happened here at Christmas must actually be understood in such a way that it is far from finished, far from complete, that in fact very little of what happened here at Christmas can be regarded as complete, but that content must continually flow into this Christmas conference through what continues to happen in the Anthroposophical Society. Up to now, every such conference has basically been understood as being enclosed within the boundaries between which it began and ended. And at most, people have remembered an experience that took place there.
However, this Christmas conference had a character that showed from the outset that it cannot be understood in this way. It cannot be understood as a temporary conference. The content would then be subject to a very special quality. You see, my dear friends, when you think back on this Christmas conference, you will have to say to yourselves: there was something there that came from the spiritual world itself. An attempt was made to break with everything that is associated with club life and to let the spiritual shine through in every single action that took place. But the spiritual has its own laws, as I have often mentioned. The spiritual has different laws than those that prevail in the physical world. Let us take what was present through the spiritual background at the Christmas Conference: let us consider it as such and then think to ourselves: the individual activities, the individual deeds of the Anthroposophical Society are connected to this Christmas Conference.
If this Christmas conference is taken in the same way as previous conferences were so often taken, then it will gradually evaporate, it will lose its content, and it would have been better not to have gathered at all. For the spiritual has the characteristic that if it is not held fast, it disappears — not, of course, into the cosmos, but from the place where it is no longer cultivated. It then seeks other places in the cosmos. And for something like our Christmas conference, we are not dependent on what happens within the earthly realm. So you must not imagine that what was planned for the Christmas conference, if it evaporates through the non-execution of the impulses, must appear somewhere else on earth. That is not necessary. It can seek its further refuge in completely different worlds. — Everything therefore depends on finding the opportunity to concern oneself deeply with this Christmas conference, to truly absorb its content. This should be ensured by the newsletter for members.
The first issues of this newsletter for members will essentially give a picture not only of what happened at the Christmas Conference here, but also of what lived as will in this Christmas Conference. And in particular, what lived as will in this address to the members will be given. It is included in the first part of this second newsletter and will be continued in the next issues. First of all, it had to be emphasized that, on the one hand, we must now look back at what has been in the Anthroposophical Society and then look forward to what should be in the Anthroposophical Society in the future.
It will therefore be very good if we look back a little from this point of view, I would say, in order to place the Christmas Conference in an appropriate context for us.
The Anthroposophical Society began in a very, very small form, and this small form was included in the Theosophical Society at the beginning of the century. How was it? We can completely disregard the Theosophical Society, because what developed as the Anthroposophical Society underwent an organic development, developing, so to speak, from its own source, its own seed. Those who then formed the Anthroposophical Society as its foundation were very few in number at the beginning. They gathered in very small circles in several places. And even the public events were held on a very small scale at first. And basically, in those early days, no one cared about the anthroposophical movement except those who were there, who were directly involved in some way. It was truly, one might say, a wonderful peace, because the world took no notice of anthroposophy. Only those who gathered in anthroposophical circles took notice. Among them were those who could connect the deepest needs of their souls with what flowed out of the spiritual world as anthroposophy.
These joined together in ever greater numbers to form the circle that then became the Anthroposophical Society. These joined together in ever greater numbers to form the circle that then became the Anthroposophical Society.
Those who could not connect the needs of their souls with this remained away. But at first, those who stayed away were simply people who were uninterested, who did not become particularly angry, but who simply said to themselves: What is being offered here is not for me. — And they stayed away again. Working in this way, it was possible to work in peace and quiet, and it was actually possible to lead those who were searching for higher truths to these higher truths through the smaller circles.
Only in an external sense did the war actually impair this initial state. Certainly, communication between individual countries was not possible in the same way as before. It was not possible to connect in closer circles because a terrible world tyranny was practiced during the war. But what was the actual spiritual current that flowed and flows through the Anthroposophical Society remained in place.
Now, it was inherent in anthroposophy not only to touch the individual human being in relation to his or her central soul needs, but actually to touch the whole of human life. Wherever creativity wants to become effective from the sources of humanity, this creative activity can connect with the source of anthroposophy. For anthroposophy is based on what is universal in humanity. And so we were able to begin with artistic activity, first in Munich.
This artistic activity, which consisted of the performance of mysteries, brought progress to the soul life of many. They saw in the images what they had previously absorbed through the ideas into which spiritual life had been poured.
Basically, this performance of the mysteries in Munich did not yet disturb the previous calm course of events. The fact that the world took notice of what was spreading as anthroposophy began — although hostile efforts were already asserting themselves here and there in individual types — but in such a way that they did not need to be taken into account, because in the occult one works best positively only from immediate impulses — the real taking notice began when the intention to build the Goetheanum here, for which we laid the foundation stone in 1913, was put into practice. Now something was visibly placed before their eyes. Now people saw something, and something they did not understand. And with that, the world began to take notice of anthroposophy.
But now it also went step by step, although even during the war, I would say, the old customs continued on our part. Now it began step by step. Scientists who had initially joined the anthroposophical movement out of the innermost central needs of their souls found that not only could these most central needs of the soul be satisfied by anthroposophy, but they also found that every science today comes to a dead end. This dead end lies precisely where the actual needs for knowledge begin. One only has to imagine the scientific inventory of today in the right way. It is like this, my dear friends: the young person studies. What is presented to him or her conveys a sum of knowledge. This sum of knowledge has very special characteristics. And nowhere is it really expressed what these sum of knowledge, which young people find in schools today — actually already in the lowest schools, then to a particular degree in the higher schools — what these knowledge have in their sum for special characteristics. They are thoroughly permeated by materialistic thinking. And when some people say today that materialism has run its course, that science is returning to the spiritual, this is really just empty talk, because it is only an illusion. People talk about the spiritual, but they have not the slightest concept of the spiritual.
So the knowledge that is offered is basically a sum of materialistically conceived knowledge. But when young people receive it, it pours over them without them having any orientation within it. The only orientation is this: that they know they have to take exams. That puts them into the world in a certain way. But basically, they don't really know what to do with the whole breadth of scientific life. It pours over them. They actually get no other impression than someone who has been caught in a terrible downpour and is completely wet. They are, so to speak, completely soaked, or actually hardened by what is offered to them. It cannot be said that this knowledge, these notes that are offered, are worthless in themselves. They are not at all; they are sometimes of the highest value. But the person who has to learn them knows nothing of these values. They are presented to him in such a way that he knows nothing of these values.
And so one can say: even if today's knowledge were of the highest value, this value would not be able to enter the consciousness of those who now have to absorb this knowledge.
Perhaps I may, in all modesty, refer to what has already appeared and what is yet to appear from my life's work. You will see a peculiar phenomenon there. You will not find a description in words of how I learned; basically, what I gained from school remained quite superficial. What I gained from school, I gained through individual personalities who made a certain impression on me as personalities.
In the recently published “Goetheanum,” I drew attention to how I approached chemistry in middle school. Chemistry today is, in a certain sense, something to be admired. But as it stands as a science, nothing in it is held together. One is truly overwhelmed by insights, as if by rain.
Now, the person who taught chemistry at our secondary school was an excellent chemist. And he actually spoke very little. He demonstrated experiments to us, constantly conducting experiments and saying a few words to connect them. And this went on for weeks until grades were given. I didn't mention any particular intimacies there. But when grades were coming up, the students knew it. And they knew: Gilm is going to ask us something now, because he never asked us anything, he just did experiments in front of us, he never asked us anything, not for weeks. Then one of them plucked up the courage, went out to him and said: Doctor, will there be an experiment or an exam next time? — And he said: Well, next time I'll examine you. — And then we were examined for two or three hours. It was something excellent in itself, but without the possibility of getting into it.
But the man was the brother of the insightful Tyrolean poet Herman von Gilm. The teacher's name was Hugo von Gilm. And indeed, anyone who has a sense for such things and has ever looked into the eyes of this Hugo von Gilm has, through this looking into his eyes, actually gained, I would say, more chemistry than through the teachings of systematic chemistry, even though one gained a great deal there. For those eyes were something very special. They looked at the world in such a way that you could see: he looks at everything in nature in such a way that it enters him through his gaze. It enters his gaze, and his gaze radiates it back out again. He always had it inside him. And that's why we boys all had the feeling that this man had a different relationship to his science than all the other teachers. We called all the other teachers “Professor.” He was just as much a professor as the others, but we called him “Doctor” because we assumed that he had a completely different relationship to his science than the others.
You see, that was personality! You will also see from other examples I give: it was personality! These personalities had something, at least for me, that was extraordinarily inspiring. And so it came about that I — at least I — was able to sleep through school and seek out the things that interested me myself.
It was already the case in the second half of the 19th century and in the 20th century that no one could really learn anything unless they actively sought it, unless they groped their way forward. Then learning happened along the way. And actually, I have to say, cum grano saliis: I'm almost surprised that I was a good student. Because, you know, you're graded on what you learn in school. But I didn't really learn anything there. So I'm surprised that I was basically a good student everywhere.
So I think it is important to see what is actually destructive in the way today's civilization imparts knowledge to people. And at least a number of personalities, scientific personalities, who came into our Anthroposophical Society saw or felt this. They felt that today's scientific activity ends at a dead end in every single science, precisely where the soul wants to begin to turn what this science offers into real knowledge. But there is nothing, my dear friends, that could be uninteresting in human knowledge if it is brought to people in the right way and heard in the right way; there is nothing that could be uninteresting. And yet, how much is perceived as uninteresting by today's pupils and students!
It thus became apparent that a whole number of scientists had joined the Anthroposophical Society and now wanted to enrich the individual sciences from the perspective of anthroposophy.
Now something arose that terribly irritated people. For now they were shaken not only by the Goetheanum, but also by what appeared to be anthroposophical science. People saw that anthroposophy gave things a character that they did not want.
Basically, one only has to be reasonable. Really, it is just as I once said in an anthroposophical gathering: enemies are constantly walking through anthroposophical conferences, and one hostile being is the younger personality of naivety, and this naivety is very much present among our members. People think they can easily convince the pastor or the professor or the doctor. They cannot. For most people today, it is not important that they be convinced in their heads or in their hearts, but rather that they are in a position in life. They cannot unconsciously escape from this. So one must be understanding in this regard. Where can many people who are in a position in life get out of that position today? Well, this has often resulted — not a week goes by without some brochure or book appearing against anthroposophy — in what has then, naturally nourished by dishonest people, emerged as opposition.
All these things — I don't need to list what followed in Germany from the threefold movement and so on, it is enough for me to deal with the qualitative here — through all these things, the old tranquility and peace that existed because the world did not care about anthroposophy came to an end, and now anthroposophy must be pursued while at the same time being not only fought but slandered from all sides. This then gave rise to the question that played such an important role here in the last days of November and the first days of December among those who had then declared themselves willing to lead the anthroposophical movement. The big question arose as to how more anthroposophy could be pursued in the future. For the essence of anthroposophy has always been pursued in this way and cannot really be pursued in any other way than it was during times of peace and tranquility. But we no longer have peace and tranquility. And so ways and means must be found to practice more anthroposophy, that is, to present anthroposophy to the world in such a way that its own quality protects it from the slander of its opponents. This means that ways and means must be found to continue precisely what anthroposophy has meant from the very beginning.
This has led to the Christmas Conference, which has now come to an end, taking on precisely the character that it had. And indeed, this Christmas Conference must not be taken in the same way that many things in the Anthroposophical Society have been accepted. Something new must emerge from this Christmas Conference, but it is actually only an intensification of what already existed. And this has led to the constitution of the Society containing what I am now presenting in this second newsletter under the title: “The School of Spiritual Science.”
In this regard, my dear friends, mistakes were indeed made with the School of Spiritual Science during the period when the thread of actual anthroposophical life was broken. And I have already pointed out in the discussion of the Goetheanum that was taken from us how little what was held as university courses in this Goetheanum actually fit in with the whole artistic style of the Goetheanum. It contrasted with it. And that came from the fact that people wanted to bring too much of what the universities outside have into our ranks. But that is not necessary. We would only need that if we could have some kind of accreditation system for the School of Spiritual Science. What we need first and foremost is a place that offers what is not offered anywhere else: namely, what leads people into the spiritual world. And that is now to become, in the strictest sense of the word, the content of the School of Spiritual Science.
In schools that led into spiritual life, there was always first an exoteric circle, and from this exoteric circle one entered into the esoteric. Now the leadership of the Anthroposophical Society wants to take full account of these facts, which are truly inherent in the nature of spiritual knowledge. This means that in the future — I began to describe this in the second article on the School of Spiritual Science, which will also be continued shortly — there will now be the General Anthroposophical Society, which people will join under the conditions that were discussed in the so-called statutes during the Christmas Conference. One will be in this Anthroposophical Society for a while. One may also find oneself fully satisfied with what is communicated in this Anthroposophical Society about spiritual knowledge. And actually, everyone should read very carefully what is contained in this second newsletter, and then they will say to themselves: Yes, it is quite good that, initially, spiritual knowledge is communicated in the General Anthroposophical Society to those who join, because that is the basis for any path into the spiritual world.
Of course, there must first be people who can research spiritual knowledge so that it can be communicated. But it requires a special karma for someone to approach spiritual visions directly without first having carefully studied what has been dealt with in spiritual research in ideas. It is precisely the case that human beings in general are quite capable of understanding what is brought forth by spiritual knowledge and ideas without relying on authority. And so, as a member of the Anthroposophical Society, one should first practice anthroposophy with all its consequences for life, with all its consequences for the individual branches of life. And then one should approach the esoteric. And the three classes of the School of Spiritual Science, which are now joining the general Society, will certainly have to present the esoteric, nuanced according to the sections as I described them at the Christmas Conference, but they will have to present the esoteric.
Now, the situation today is certainly such that there are very many friends in the Anthroposophical Society who have been members for a long time. The best advice for someone joining today would be to remain in the Anthroposophical Society for two years and then apply for admission to the first class of the School of Spiritual Science. Of course, this cannot apply to those who have already — how do you say it outside? — become moss-covered heads in the Anthroposophical Society.
That is why the first class will be established immediately, and it has already been announced that people should register for this first class. I have already received numerous registrations. And now the task will be to establish the first class in the near future, so that the older members can also become members of this first class. Of course, we will not be pedantic about this. Mature younger members who are fully enthusiastic about anthroposophy will of course also be able to join this first class. Everywhere, it will be more about the inner than the outer.
But this will initially have to be linked to something external. You see, my dear friends, I have long noticed that the three lectures a week have actually been too much for the way the lectures are received, especially recently. It was too much! There were really too many lectures. You must not take offense when I say this. Therefore, I will now begin — things will change step by step — to speak first on Saturdays and Sundays for the Anthroposophical Society, and always on Fridays for the first class of the School of Spiritual Science.
In the future, we will have general membership cards for the Anthroposophical Society — all of this will be set up in the very near future — and we will also issue membership cards for the first class of the School of Spiritual Science. So on Fridays, the members of the first class of the School of Spiritual Science will appear here, and on Saturdays and Sundays, all members of the Anthroposophical Society. And I assume that the members of the first class of the School of Spiritual Science will also come on Saturdays and Sundays, because I would like to arrange things so that people here in Dornach can really see that something is coming out of the Christmas Conference.
Isn't it true that here in Dornach, since the first lecture I gave many years ago on this hill about the acanthus leaf, we have gradually come to find ever more esoteric truths being spoken here? But the members who are joining us now cannot really cope with this. And it must be shown here exactly how it should be done. In future, it must be possible to see in Dornach not only where one is going in the Anthroposophical Society, but also how it is done. And this will best be achieved by my continuing in the first class every Friday with what has been done here up to the last lecture on Sunday, also going into the inner developments, in short, cultivating the esoteric. This will take place on Fridays. On Saturdays and Sundays, in the near future, I will give what actually introduces anthroposophy, the beginnings of anthroposophy. Of course, I will not read aloud or repeat my book “Theosophy” or “How to Know Higher Worlds,” but I will try to present anthroposophy from its foundations, and I assume that the good will to participate in anthroposophical life will not consist in the members of the first class here in Dornach saying: Now we will only go on Fridays, because we already know everything else anyway — but I hope that the members of the first class will be all the more interested in the general lectures. For there they will indeed be able to take in many things that have actually been neglected until now. So that in the future, one will be able to see here how anthroposophy should actually be developed from its foundations, and yet also be able to take in the esoteric content of the first class, if one has registered for this first class and the registration has been accepted.
It is important that this constitution of the Anthroposophical Society be understood in the future. I hope that by Sunday I will have found a way to begin next Friday with what I am now planning for the three evenings. However, I will begin tomorrow with the presentation of anthroposophy from its foundations.
And so it will be possible, right here in Dornach, to gain impulses that follow on from the Christmas Conference. If we take this point of view, which I have just discussed, into consideration, then we will already be taking this “more anthroposophy” into account in our hearts.
Anthroposophy can neither be a theory, nor can it completely dispense with that which lives in thought. We live today in a time when, basically, anthroposophy should become a burning question for countless people on earth, if only the Anthroposophical Society could succeed in working in such a way that people's needs for what anthroposophy offers them could catch fire.
The point is this. I want to give you a concrete example. Another wonderful book about life has now been published, a kind of autobiography, a kind of self-description of Ford's life. It must be said that what this automobile king presents to the world as his life story is something extraordinarily characteristic. There is something delightful about it, something truly magnificent. And I would like to say: what this automobile king presents as what he has longed for in spiritual and material terms during his life makes the following impression on me. Imagine someone standing in front of a gate with urgent spiritual needs. In this case: He wants something urgent, he wants something justified, but his voice is not loud enough to say what he wants that is justified. He wants to shout out loud, loudly to the world, what he wants that is justified, but that does not seem loud enough to him, and so he knocks on the door and invents all kinds of ways to express what he actually wants in a thunderous rumbling.
Yes, when I read Ford's book, I almost feel as if I were the door myself. But it is still delightful; you get bruises on your soul, but you love those bruises because it is unspeakably reasonable. And behind the door is anthroposophy. But so far, it has been constituted in a society in such a way that it is completely impossible for what is knocking on the door to get to what is behind the door. It is not possible. We need something completely different for that.
Isn't that right, Ford is just a representative person. But what he is on a grand scale, really on the grandest scale of the present, ° what he is there, are numerous people of the present. What is at stake is that in the future there will indeed be a consciousness, not only of how to be a good learning anthroposophist. My dear friends, do not take what I have said to mean that I have the slightest objection to those who are learning anthroposophy. These are people who are absolutely justified in their aspirations. They have joined anthroposophy; they had their best time in the era when peace and so on prevailed and they spread very slowly. There is nothing wrong with wanting to learn. That is a separate issue. On the contrary, this should be cultivated much more intensively in the future than it has been since 1918, when all kinds of academic pretensions and other pretensions were introduced into the anthroposophical movement. But what is to be added to what has always been strived for: representing anthroposophy to the world, that, you see, requires a completely different style. And that is what motivated me to take over the chairmanship. For this will enable me to show the world more clearly how I would like anthroposophy to be represented through the Society. When, in 1912 and 1913 — at that time with good intentions — the idea was realized that I would withdraw [as chairperson] and merely hold the teaching position, the time came when this gradually proved impossible. What I actually wanted was continually dulled by the Society. Its impulsive power was taken away, especially strongly since 1918.
And now, here in Dornach, through this special institution that I have referred to here — but this is only a beginning, it will continue — through this special institution in Dornach, it should be possible to see how anthroposophy should be represented, how anthroposophy should be brought before the world. And in this way it will also be best carried into the hearts of the members. Of the two sides, the one that has come to the fore in peace and quiet will come to the fore even more. On the other hand, precisely by cultivating this in the right way, one will really see how it might actually be possible — if what is being impulsed by the leadership is understood in the near future — to say when there is a rumbling at the door: Behind the door is anthroposophy. — But now, no matter how loud the banging, the door will not open! However, the possibility could be found that it would be unlocked from the inside by anthroposophy. But then there must also be the possibility that things will now come before the world in such a way that people who have grown out of today's civilization in a format of knowledge such as the automobile king Ford will say to themselves: I have written again that today's science is actually only something that points to the past, but man cannot live only in the past; life must actually be guaranteed for the future; one cannot just absorb knowledge, one must have something alive. I have now written this down — read, for example, the penultimate chapter in Ford's extremely interesting book — and now I know that something is missing: anthroposophy belongs there.
It would be possible for people to say that if we understood what was intended at the Christmas Conference, we would take it seriously, if the Christmas Conference were to become more and more meaningful rather than less and less.
That is what I wanted to present to you today as an introduction, so to speak, to further work here in Dornach, my dear friends. Tomorrow I will slowly begin, I would like to say, to look at the Anthroposophical Society as it must be thought of as the Anthroposophical Society, by taking up anthroposophy as such.
I also have to announce that there will be a eurythmy performance on Sunday at five o'clock. On Saturday and Sunday, the corresponding lectures will be at eight o'clock.