66. Clarification

It seems that some confusion has arisen regarding membership of the “Anthroposophical Society”. From now on, I would like to know the same relationship that members of the Theosophical Society have had up to now. I must say in advance that my friends and I must draw only the necessary conclusions from the decision of the General Council of the Theosophical Society of December 1912, which is entirely equivalent to the exclusion of the German Section from the Theosophical Society.

The events that preceded this fact are so momentous that it is impossible at the present moment to act other than to take the whole matter most seriously as a matter of principle for the spiritual movement we serve.

The situation is as follows: what has happened in Adyar prohibits me from continuing to hold those lectures that I have hitherto given to members of the Theosophical Society for those who wish to remain members of that Society. It goes without saying that this applies only to those lectures that have so far been given only to members of the Theosophical Society. In the future, these will be held for members of the Anthroposophical Society. And it is therefore quite natural that members of the Anthroposophical Society cannot at the same time be members of the Theosophical Society, because I cannot give the lectures mentioned for the latter. Likewise, I must insist that the transcripts of these lectures not be given to members of the Theosophical Society. When it is said, oddly enough, that it is an infringement of freedom of conscience to demand that members of the Anthroposophical Society may not at the same time be members of the Theosophical Society, this is quite incomprehensible, for surely no one is forced to join the Anthroposophical Society. They can remain in the Theosophical Society. But surely the Anthroposophical Society should be free to accept or reject whom it wishes. Nobody should have a crisis of conscience over this.