The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 14 September 1922, Dornach

Eurythmy Address

Poster for the performance

Ladies and gentlemen!

I took the liberty of speaking about eurythmy and its essence on the first evening, when we had our esteemed French guests here for the eurythmy performance. I therefore do not wish to add anything more on this subject today. I would just like to say a few words in view of the fact that the last number of the first part of today's program before the interval will feature a scene from my mystery drama “The Awakening of the Soul.”

We have gradually become particularly convinced that the higher form of stylization — for such a thing does occur in eurythmy — that higher form of stylization which lifts the stage action out of all naturalism, is particularly suited to the presentation of such dramatic scenes which lead beyond what is happening around human beings to such relationships which the human soul has with the supersensible world. Wherever anything in the drama plays into the higher effect of supersensible powers in the human soul, eurythmy appears as a particularly suitable art of representation, even for the dramatic. For example, we have used eurythmy to portray those scenes in Goethe's Faust that lead from the naturalistic to the supersensible in such a way that what lies in this Goethe drama could actually be revealed on stage.

And so one can say quite specifically: if something is aimed from the outset at bringing the relationship between human beings and the supersensible world to the stage, then eurythmy comes into its own as a matter of course. And my “mystery dramas” are actually already conceived in a eurythmic way, so that eurythmy emerges as a completely natural form of expression. However, in all those scenes in the drama which, if I may say so, depict ordinary earthly events and are purely naturalistic, the usual mimetic representation must be used.

Therefore, in the presentation of this scene, you will see how the personality who stands there in a completely naturalistic way in the drama also appears here in today's presentation in a naturalistic, mimetic representation, while everything else that signifies the spiritual world entering the human soul is brought to life through eurythmy in such a way that the visible language of eurythmy is spoken on stage and this visible eurythmic representation is accompanied by the corresponding recitation or declamation.

I would just like to say this about the scene: my “mystery drama” depicts a personality undergoing inner developments. We are in the middle of a dramatic development; this scene depicts a certain stage in the development of Johannes Thomasius. Through his friends Capesius and Strader, he experienced things that brought him into contact with supersensible powers, as did another character, Maria, and his teacher in spiritual matters, Benediktus. What resulted from these experiences and other life circumstances in his soul as impulses for development finally led Johannes Thomasius to see his own inner self in such a way that he truly had the connection with a spiritual world before him.

What is presented here in a spiritual context is not meant to be symbols, least of all straw allegories – for symbols and allegories are not actually artistic – but rather real spiritual insights. These spiritual insights will be understood by anyone who is capable of absorbing anything at all of the spiritual knowledge that is cultivated here at the Goetheanum.

Here we see how, at first, the whole inner self of human beings, like a kind of doppelganger — that is, himself — appears before Johannes Thomasius, how a scene unfolds between Johannes Thomasius, who lives in the outer physical world, and what he experiences as the image of himself in the spiritual world, since one must assume that a supersensible image exists of every human being who lives on earth.

But then, before Johannes Thomasius, there appears what I have characterized as the spirit of his youth. This spirit of his youth is not symbolic, but must be thought of as a reality, as the reality that appears at a certain point in human development in such a way that, when we have grown older, we look back on our youth and it confronts us through a foreign personality. Then we experience all that is tragic in our inner lives, which results from the relationship between what has become completely external to us on the one hand – the essence of our youth – and what still plays a powerful and real role in the present on the other. The disharmony that results from this is a tragic experience. This is the second thing that causes human beings to live their way into the spiritual world in this way.

But then certain difficulties arise in the transition from the physical to the spiritual world. That is why it is said that the spiritual world is actually protected from the ordinary consciousness of human beings by the guardian of the threshold. Human beings must pass this guardian of the threshold, laying aside fear and desire. Then they enter the spiritual world well prepared. - And then Ahriman is presented to us as another spiritual being. He is the spiritual representative of everything that works in human beings as an independent entity and draws them down into pedantry, materialism, and intellectualism, in other words, pulls them down to earth, just as Lucifer wants to draw them out of themselves in enthusiasm for themselves.

This relationship, which brings supernatural circumstances and experiences to the stage, is one that is particularly suited to eurythmic representation. Johannes Thomasius himself will be portrayed in a naturalistic, mimetic manner, while all the other characters will be represented through eurythmy. The performance of this scene is, as I said, the last number of the first part of the program; then there will be an intermission, and then the second part will follow.