Lessons for the Participants of Cognitive-Cultic Work 1906–1924

GA 265a

At an Mystica Aeternis meeting in Oslo [in May 1923]

Undated report by Helga Geelmuyden

During the doctor's visit to Oslo – the last one – in May 1923, the doctor held an M.E. meeting. First, a few new members were admitted to the M.E. (Mr. Ingero and Christian [Smit]). A few days later (I think) he gathered the brothers and sisters at Oskarsgate 10. The meeting took place at Reitan.

At the meeting at Oskarsgate, he continued to tell the temple legend in a very impressive way. 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, who did not want to join forces in this way. (This referred to the Jesuits and the occult brotherhoods, at least that's how I understood it.)

And further he spoke about the fact that in the same hall where the new cult was given to the theologians, the fire was ignited that destroyed the Goetheanum.

Following the temple legend, it was further 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 there on earth one day.

The doctor once told me that the sons of Abel could not be accepted into the Medical Section. This was said in relation to the fact that someone wanted 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, 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: “Absolutely impossible.

Now I must confess: the new Goetheanum has never been able to satisfy me in the context of this impressive memory. In particular, it pains me to see the Christ Group completely isolated. In 1916, when I spoke to the doctor in Berlin on my way to Dornach, he said to me: Now, when you visit the building, you must imagine the Group in its place the whole 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 never been fully realized.