The History of the Esoteric School 1904–1914, Volume Two
GA 265 — Hildesheim
Esoteric Session
in Kristiania (Oslo), May 18 or 20, 1923
Undated later report by Helga Geelmuyden
During the doctor's visit to Oslo – his last – in May 1923, the doctor held an M.E. meeting.1
In the meeting, he continued to tell the temple legend very impressively. And he went on to talk about how the sons of Abel had found their way to the sons of Cain, in that the theologians had asked him for the new cult. This aroused increased hostility on the part of the sons of Abel and the sons of Cain in the outer world. (The Jesuits and the occult brotherhoods were meant, at least that is how I understood it.)
And then he went on to say that in the same hall where the theologians were given the new cult, the fire that destroyed the Goetheanum was lit.
After the temple legend, it was said that it would be necessary to rebuild the Goetheanum. It was said, something like this: the Temple of Solomon would never have existed physically. But it would have to be on earth one day. (The doctor once told me that the sons of Abel could not be admitted to the Medical Section. This was said in relation to someone wanting to bring in a woman with atavistic clairvoyance.
The things the doctor said about the reconstruction of the Goetheanum made a strong impression on me. Later that summer, I was present at the Annual General Meeting of the Goetheanum Association [in Dornach], where the question of the reconstruction was discussed. I then asked the doctor if he would like to say what he told us in Norway. He shook his head and said briefly: quite impossible.
Now I must confess: the new Goetheanum has never been able to satisfy me against the background of this impressive memory. In particular, it is painful for me to see the Christ group completely isolated. In 1916, when I spoke to Dr. Itten in Berlin on my way to Dornach, he said to me: “Now, when you visit the building, you must visualize the group in its place all the time.” I did so, and a living movement arose through the entire row of columns and architraves, and the moving element was the Christ-I, as it presented itself in the group. The old Goetheanum died, as it were, without having fully embodied this I — it was still outside. In the new Goetheanum there is no possibility of an organic connection.
The union of the sons of Abel and the sons of Cain has also never been fully realized.2
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The term 'M.E. meeting' for the esoteric lesson is explained by its similarity to an M.E. instruction lesson. ↩
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An addition to this can be seen in the following statement by Rudolf Steiner (a typewritten diary entry by Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, handed down through Paul Michaelis, of his last visit to Rudolf Steiner's sickbed on March 3, 1925): ”... But always bear in mind: The Jesuits have taken away the religiousness, the piety, the human being, and are completely identical with the Roman state authority. The fight, that is, the sin against the spirit, is their means of domination, the only sin of which Scripture says that it will not be forgiven. And yet the spirit cannot be completely eradicated, but only a few will carry it over into the future. This current can also be strongly felt within the Society, and he hopes to have paralyzed it through the Christmas Conference. (See GA Bibl. No. 260) For he did not seek to maintain a certain parity of female and male spirit within the Executive Council without reason, since the tendencies are perceptible, as the female spirit is to be eliminated from old contexts. I emphasized this from the very beginning when I talked about the temple legend. But it was probably not understood, and yet it is a significant undercurrent within society. ↩