The Constitution of the General Anthroposophical Society

GA 260a — 11 May 1924

Funeral Services

I.

On May 3, I had to speak at the Goetheanum about the passing of loyal members of the anthroposophical movement. Mrs. Ferreri, the long-time leader of the branch in Milan, died recently. Her soul was completely devoted to the spiritual insights that anthroposophy brings to people. With perfect, sensitive certainty, her inner being, turned toward all that is noble, lived in the truths of this knowledge. We often had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Ferreri as a dear visitor at places where anthroposophical events were held. The Goetheanum was able to welcome Mrs. Ferreri as a participant in such events on all important occasions. — She was wholeheartedly involved in everything within the movement that required self-sacrificing devotion. Much was only possible because she developed this beautiful sense of sacrifice. She had been suffering for a long time, but the burden of her physical illness did not hinder the uplifting of her spirit. The suffering that took her away from physical existence prompted her to send a message to the director of the Clinical-Therapeutic Institute, Dr. Ita Wegman, a few days before her passing: she had to come to this institute, because only there, in the circle of the Goetheanum, could she find the strength to recover. She was no longer able to make the journey. — In Goethe's time, people who expressed the spiritual in their lives in a noble way through the direct revelation of their hearts were called “beautiful souls.” In this sense, Mrs. Ferreri can be described as a “beautiful soul.” She did an immeasurable amount for the anthroposophical view of life through her quiet, faithful work. The work in Milan was entirely inspired by her efforts. The branch in Honolulu was her work, and she was its most loving caretaker. Mrs. Ferreri will live on in the anthroposophical movement as a soul who was connected to it in an exemplary way. II.

On May 1, death took Edith Maryon, a faithful colleague at the Goetheanum and within the Anthroposophical Society, from the physical world. A person who had worked with us for years with complete self-sacrifice has been snatched from us for physical existence.

Edith Maryon came to us more than ten years ago. She came as a personality who was already fully committed to esoteric striving. Her inner life was completely filled with this striving. She sought the further development of this striving in the anthroposophical movement. With decisive inner certainty, she joined this movement. She later often assured us that she felt her joining was a natural step on her path of life.

When we began building the Goetheanum, she was one of the first personalities to devote her energies to this work with the most loving dedication. — She was a sculptor. An accomplished artist in her own right, she had achieved many successes. Her particular field was expressing spiritual content in measured, beautiful forms. She had mastered the technical aspects of her art to perfection.

She placed this artistic work entirely at the service of the Goetheanum. In the last decade of her life, she devoted herself entirely to this work. She understood the sense in which this devotion alone is possible. The artistic impulses that are to be given through the Goetheanum can only have an effect if they are not opposed by the artistic self-will of those who set to work with genuine skill. Maryon never asserted this self-will. I had to allow the impulses emanating from anthroposophy to flow into the work. In doing so, it is often difficult to overcome the contradictions that arise when the artistically familiar and the newly desired collide. With Maryon, I was able to collaborate sculpturally without this clash having any significance. For above all artistic opinions that might arise, she felt a freely felt necessity that the work had to be done. And carried by this feeling, Maryon allowed everything she was accustomed to artistically to flow into the new impulses in a quiet, energetic manner.

My collaboration with her in the field of visual arts was initiated by a clear karmic symptom. I was working with her in the front sculpture studio on the scaffolding erected around the large plasticine model when the central sculpture group for the Goetheanum was still in its early stages of development. I slipped through a gap in the scaffolding and would have fallen onto a sharp pillar if Maryon had not caught me. If I was able to achieve anything for the anthroposophical cause in the years that followed, it is because Maryon saved me from serious injury at that time. Maryon's artistic work was imbued with her search for the spiritual development of the soul. Esoteric deepening was a natural element of this soul's life. Seriousness in this deepening was the signature of her inner being. And she stood before many significant experiences in the spiritual realm.

This seriousness was also expressed in her outward appearance. Her whole being revealed a person who was not spoiled by the joys of life, but who had been severely tested by fate in many ways.

Edith Maryon had two characteristics that permeated her entire being. A reliability in speech and work that gave those who worked with her a feeling of complete security; and a practical sense that was inclined to tackle everything in her work and succeeded in what she set out to do because it unfolded the inner mobility of creativity. For many idealists whose intentions falter in the face of reality, Maryon's approach could be exemplary, as her beautiful idealism always overcame the resistance of reality because her desires always took shape as will. Maryon's work was not limited to the artistic sphere. In her quiet way, she was involved in many areas of anthroposophical work. It is thanks to her efforts that, through her friend Prof. Mackenzie, a large number of teachers from England gathered at the Goetheanum at Christmas 1921, to whom I was able to give a series of educational lectures. And the lectures and eurythmy performances that took place in Stratford and Oxford were a continuation of her work. She was the source of the inspiration that led to the eurythmic movements being captured in painted wooden figures. She worked on these figures with her own hands until she was confined to her sickbed. The night of the fire that took the Goetheanum from us planted the seed in her body, already weakened by previous illnesses, that developed into more than a year of suffering. At the end of January 1923, Maryon was confined to her sickbed; she was only able to leave it for very short periods during the previous summer; since the fall of 1923, she had been unable to leave it at all. She suffered unspeakably, especially in the last period of her life. The inner energy of her spiritual life remained undiminished even on her sickbed. She continued to participate in the most active way in everything that was happening at the Goetheanum. The spiritual content of the Christmas Conference and the class lessons of the Goetheanum School of Spiritual Science, which could be brought to her, formed the content of her last weeks on earth against the backdrop of her severe suffering. At the Christmas Conference, she was appointed to lead the Section for Fine Arts at the Goetheanum. Until her last days, she devoted many thoughts to the goal of how this section should one day become effective in the right way.

Maryon endured her severe suffering with admirable gentleness. On the night of May 1 to 2, at the side of her friend, Dr. Ita Wegman, who had faithfully cared for her, she was led through the gate of death into the spiritual world with complete clarity of mind.

The members of the Anthroposophical Society look back on the departed with the deepest gratitude. Maryon's work for this society will always be remembered as sincere and devoted.