The Constitution of the General Anthroposophical Society

GA 260a — 12 August 1924

Remarks on the Christmas Conference in England

Before the lecture

Today is the first time since the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum that I have had the opportunity to speak to you again. And before we begin further discussions, it is important to mention something that is connected with the impulse that entered the anthroposophical movement through the last Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum. We had the pleasure of welcoming a number of members of the English National Society to Dornach for this Christmas conference, above all our dear old friend Mr. Collison, the chairman here in England. And I would like to take this opportunity to renew the greeting I offered him at that time in Dornach as the representative of the English National Society.

What has come into the Anthroposophical Society as an impulse through the Christmas Conference should indeed represent something profound, so that many things that were characterized in one way or another before the Christmas Conference must now be discussed in the opposite sense. This Society has also gone through a difficult time in an inner, occult sense, namely because in the post-war period, various attempts were made from different sides within the Anthroposophical Society, and it has become necessary to bring about a kind of renewal for the Society. For me personally — and I may well mention this here — this renewal was linked to something very, very significant.

Some time before Christmas, a question arose for me, after I had long had the intention of re-establishing the Society in a certain way at Christmas — or at least in a new form. I was faced with the necessity of deciding to do what I had refused to do at the time when the Anthroposophical Society separated from the Theosophical Society, and for good reasons. At that time, I assumed that if I withdrew from all administrative matters, from all leadership of the Society, in order to remain solely in the teaching profession, certain things would be less difficult to manage than if the teacher also held an administrative office at the same time.

But these things, which were assumed at that time, in the years 1912, 1913, when the Anthroposophical Society was separated from the Theosophical Society, did not come to pass. The assumptions did not materialize within the Anthroposophical Society. And so it became necessary for me to seriously consider the question of whether or not I should take over the chairmanship of the Anthroposophical Society. And I saw the necessity of taking over this chairmanship. However, I would like to emphasize very strongly, also in the circle of our dear English friends, something that is absolutely necessary to emphasize in connection with that decision to take over the chairmanship of the Anthroposophical Society. It was an absolute risk for the whole movement to carry this out, because it meant facing a very specific eventuality.

The anthroposophical movement is based on the fact that real revelations about the content of spiritual knowledge flow down from the spiritual world. If one wants to do the work of the anthroposophical movement, one cannot do only human work. One must be open to what flows down from the spiritual worlds. The laws of the spiritual worlds are very specific and cannot be violated. They must be strictly observed.

And it is difficult to combine what is required of an external office in our time, even that of the chairman of the Anthroposophical Society, with the occult duties towards the revelations of the spiritual world.

So that one had to ask oneself the question at that time: Will the spiritual powers that have blessed the Anthroposophical Society with what can flow down from them continue to bless the anthroposophical movement in this way?

You can certainly appreciate the full significance of such an eventuality. One had to face the possibility that the spiritual powers would have said: That is not possible, an external office cannot be accepted.

Now, in the presence of all the spiritual powers connected with the anthroposophical movement, it can truly be said that the connections between the spiritual worlds and the revelations that are to flow through the anthroposophical movement have become more intimate, more incisive, abundant than was previously the case, that of the two eventualities that could have occurred, the one that is most favorable for the further progress of the anthroposophical movement has actually come to pass. It can be said that since the founding of the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum, the spiritual powers from whom we receive our revelations have been looking down upon us with unceasing goodwill, and with even greater goodwill than was previously the case. As a result, a heavy burden has been lifted from the Anthroposophical Society in this regard for some time now.

Before this Christmas conference at the Goetheanum, I often had to emphasize that a distinction must be made between the anthroposophical movement, which reflects a spiritual current on earth, and the Anthroposophical Society, which is a society that was administered in an external manner by electing or otherwise appointing its officials.

Since Christmas, the opposite must be said. It is no longer possible to distinguish between the anthroposophical movement and the Anthroposophical Society. They are both one: for by my becoming chairman of the Society myself, the anthroposophical movement has become one with the Anthroposophical Society.

This made it necessary that at Christmas in Dornach, a board of directors was not appointed that is a board of directors in the external, exoteric sense, but rather a board of directors was appointed that is to be regarded as an esoteric board of directors, which is responsible only to the spiritual powers for what it does, which was not elected, but formed. All the things that usually happen at founding meetings happened differently at Christmas. And this executive committee is what I would call an initiative executive committee, an executive committee that sees its tasks in what it does. Therefore, statutes were not drawn up at the Christmas conference as statutes are usually drawn up, but it was simply stated what the relationship should be between people, between the executive committee and other members, between the individual members themselves, and so on. What the Executive Council intends to do is set out in what is not a statute, but has only taken the form of a statute, and is actually a narrative of what it wants to do. Everything was different from what is usual in societies.

And that is the essential point, that an esoteric element has now entered the entire Anthroposophical Society. The whole movement, as it now flows through the Society, must have an esoteric character.

This must be taken very seriously. Only the impulses of purely human activity from the spiritual world will be decisive for the Executive Council at the Goetheanum. Not paragraph 1, paragraph 2, and so on, but what is real spiritual life should be promoted, unreservedly, without any other intention.

You see, I may cite something that seems quite insignificant. The membership certificates for all members have been and continue to be renewed. Since we now have twelve thousand members worldwide, twelve thousand membership certificates had to be issued. All of them must now be signed by me personally. Of course, some people thought that a stamp could be made and pressed on them. But in the anthroposophical movement, everything should henceforth have a directly individual, human character. Therefore, I must adhere to this even in such a small matter. Every membership certificate must be in front of my eyes, I must read the name and write my name underneath it with my own hand: in this way, a small but real human relationship is created with each individual member. It would, of course, be easier to have someone stamp the twelve thousand membership certificates, but that should not happen.

This is intended, I would say, to symbolically indicate that in the future, only what prevails as human in society will matter.

If you show understanding for the Executive Council at the Goetheanum in this way, then you will see — of course, everything will take time, you must be patient, my dear friends, but even if it takes time, each and every one of the Christmas intentions will gradually be carried out. But we must also show understanding toward the Executive Council at the Goetheanum; it cannot take the fifth step before the second, or even the second before the first, and even if it has only taken half a step so far, it will work out, the time will come when it will also have taken the fifth step. For if things are to be managed humanely, one cannot remain at the abstract level; one must enter into the concrete everywhere.

And so the anthroposophical movement will truly take on a new character. It will be esoteric in spirit, no longer seeking the esoteric in outward appearances. Esoteric will be certain truths that can only be proclaimed within it, because only those who actively participate in everything that is happening in society will be able to truly internalize such truths. But we will no longer impose cycles on the outside world, as has been the case up to now. We will not sell the cycles through bookstores, but those who want them will be able to have them. However, as has already been indicated, we will draw a spiritual line: we will say that we cannot accept any objections or criticism whatsoever, except from those who stand on the same ground as the cycles. People may say what they want in the future, but in the occult we work in the positive, not in the negative.

All these things must be understood gradually. Once they are understood, a whole new impetus will enter the anthroposophical movement. Then people will understand how the Executive Council at the Goetheanum feels responsible solely to the spiritual world, but they will also feel connected to this Executive Council within the whole society.

And then, perhaps, through this new impetus, it will be possible to achieve what must be achieved with the anthroposophical movement if it is to become what I will describe here in the course of these lectures from the innermost depths of spiritual life. With this brief indication, I would like to introduce the lectures I am to give here before you, and after this has been translated, I will begin with the actual discussions.

After the lecture

I should add that we have now incorporated into the anthroposophical movement an esoteric movement in the narrower sense, which is divided into different sections. First and foremost, there is the general section, which will contain esoteric knowledge for all human souls. Then we have the educational section — things will become known in due course — and we have the medical section. We have two artistic sections, one for the visual arts and the other for the musical and dramatic arts. We have a natural science section. We have an astronomical-mathematical section. I will have more to say about these things when the opportunity arises.

The General Section is now represented to the world by its first class, and class lessons have been held in Dornach for some time now, as well as in various other places, for example in Prague, Breslau, and Paris, by me. Now these class lessons are also to be included in the things we deal with here among ourselves, and a class lesson is planned for next Tuesday here. For this it is necessary that those friends who are in a position to become members of this class, indeed of the esoteric movement, be admitted.

I will then have to speak about the strict conditions during the first class lesson. First of all, however, only those friends who have been members of the anthroposophical movement for at least two years should apply for admission to the first class. Exceptions can only be made in rare cases. In addition, the management of the school at the Goetheanum reserves the right to grant or refuse membership. And it should be said from the outset that in the future, anyone who has an interest in and a longing for the spiritual worlds will be able to approach the Anthroposophical Society. One will be obliged to do nothing more than what every decent-minded person is actually obliged to do.

On the other hand, the school, which is intended to open the way into the spiritual world itself, must make its very serious demands. Anyone who wants to be a member of the school must also be a true representative of the anthroposophical cause before the world.

Do not call this an impairment of human freedom! Freedom must be mutual. Those who become members of the school are, first of all, free human beings, but the school's management must also be free. It must be free to decide to whom it wants to impart the spiritual treasures of the school. It is, so to speak, a spiritual contract that is concluded between the school's management and its individual members. Therefore, the school must also reserve the right, if it should turn out that someone who has become a member of the school does not act in accordance with the impulses of the school, does not act in life in such a way that he or she represents the school, then the school must also be free to decide that this person can no longer be a member of the school or can no longer be a member for a certain period of time.

The fact that these matters are taken seriously may be evident to you from the fact that, before it became possible to hold a class lesson here in your midst — which is to take place for the first time next Tuesday and then continue — it was already necessary, in the course of the school's work, to exclude more than sixteen or seventeen members from the school. Things that relate to the occult life must be taken in their full reality.

So if anyone feels that they could truly represent anthroposophy to the world by joining the school, they are welcome to apply. The initial external requirement is that they have been a member for at least two years. Friends who have been members for more than two years can apply, provided they have not yet received their blue certificate. In future, members of the Anthroposophical Society will have the red certificate, and members of the school will have the blue certificate.

Friends who wish to become members of the school, who, as I have already said, have not yet received their certificate, even if they have already written and their letter has not yet been processed, i.e. if they have not yet received their blue certificate, may apply.

So those friends who want to become members of the school, who, as I said, have not yet received a certificate, even if they have already written and their letter has not yet been processed, i.e. if they have not yet received the blue certificate, I ask them to register here with Dr. Wachsmuth this evening or at least in the next few days, preferably as soon as possible. This will give us a list of those who are still registering, and then those who can be admitted to the school will receive their blue certificate for the first class, which, as I said, is scheduled for next Tuesday.