{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 240/1924-07-18/p038","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"When I myself, in preparing for the Anthroposophical Movement, was led along a particular path of destiny, this showed itself in a strange connection with the Cistercian Order, which is closely connected, in its turn, with Alanus ab Insulis. [Let me say here, for those who like to weave legends, that I, in respect of my own individuality, am in no way to be identified with Alanus ab Insulis. I only want to prevent legends arising from what I am putting before you in an esoteric way. The essential point is that these things stem from esoteric sources.] In an altogether remarkable way my destiny allowed me to discern through the external circumstances, such spiritual connections as I have now described. Perhaps some of you know the articles in the Goetheanum Weekly entitled, *Mein Lebensgang* ( *The Course of My Life*). I have spoken there of how in my youth I was sent, not to a *Gymnasium*, but to a *Real Schule*, and only later acquired the classical education given in the *Gymnasia*. I can only regard this as a remarkable dispensation of my karma. For in the town where I spent my youth the *Gymnasium* was only a few steps away from the *Real Schule* and it was by a hair's breadth that I went, not to the *Gymnasium* but to the *Real Schule*. If, however, at that time I had gone to the *Gymnasium* in the town, I should have become a priest in the Cistercian Order. Of that there is no doubt whatever. For at this *Gymnasium* all the teachers were Cistercians. I was deeply attracted to all these priests, many of whom were extremely learned men. I read a great deal that they wrote and was profoundly stirred by it. I loved these priests and the only reason why I passed the Cistercian Order by was because I did not attend the *Gymnasium*. Karma led me elsewhere ... but for all that I did not escape the Cistercian Order. I have spoken of this too in my autobiography. I was always of a sociable disposition, and in my autobiography I have written of how, later on, in the house of Marie Eugenie della Grazie in Vienna, I came into contact with practically every theologian in the city. Nearly all of them were Cistercian priests. And in this way a vista opened out, inducing one to go back in time ... for me personally it came very naturally ... a vista leading through the stream of the Cistercian Order back to the School of Chartres. For Alanus ab Insulis had been a Cistercian. And strange to say, when, later on, I was writing my first Mystery Play, *The Portal of Initiation*, I simply could not, for reasons of aesthetic necessity, do otherwise than clothe the female characters on the stage in a costume consisting of a long tunic and what is called a stole. If you picture such a garment—a yellowish-white tunic with a black stole and black girdle—there you have the robe of the Cistercian Order. I was thinking at the time only of aesthetic necessities, but this robe of the Cistercian Order came very naturally before me. There you have one indication of how connections unfold before those who are able to perceive the inner, spiritual significance of symptoms appearing in the external world.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture VII","site_heading":"Chartres School Platonists and Dominican Aristotelians","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1924-07-18","location":null,"word_count":559,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/240/1924-07-18/p038","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1971","book_title":"Karmic Relationships VI","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA240/English/RSP1971/19240718p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/240/1924-07-18/p038"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/240/1924-07-18/p038","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 260a/1924-07-18","ga":"260a","lecture":"1924-07-18","kind":"reprint","relation":"the same text served under another volume (a reprint or another edition)"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1924-07-18","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 240/1924-07-18/p035","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/240/1924-07-18/p035"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":505,"en_words":559,"ratio":1.11,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 240/1924-07-18/p035","passage_number":35,"text":"Wenn ich selber, vorbereitend die anthroposophische Bewegung, einen besonderen Schicksalsweg durchgemacht habe, so zeigte sich dieses in einem ganz merkwürdigen Zusammenhange mit dem Zisterzienser-Orden, der ja im Zusammenhange steht gerade mit Alanus ab Insulis. Ich bemerke für die, welche gerne Legenden bilden, daß ich mit Bezug auf meine eigene Individualität nichts zu tun habe mit Alanus ab Insulis. Ich möchte nur vermeiden, daß sich Legenden bilden aus dem, was ich esoterisch vorbringe. Es handelt sich darum, daß diese Dinge aus dem Esoterischen heraus dargestellt werden. In einer ganz merkwürdigen Weise hat mich mein Schicksal durch die äußeren Ereignisse auf das hinblicken lassen, was solche spirituellen Zusammenhänge lehren konnten, die ich jetzt dargestellt habe. Vielleicht kennen einige von Ihnen die Aufsätze «Mein Lebensgang» im «Goetheanum». Da mußte ich erzählen, wie ich in meiner Jugend nicht ein Gymnasium, sondern eine Realschule durchgemacht habe und mir die Gymnasialbildung erst später angeeignet habe. Ich muß das selber als eine merkwürdige Fügung meines Karma betrachten. Denn in der Stadt, wo ich meine Jugend durchmachte, waren nur ein paar Schritte vom Gymnasium zur Realschule, und um ein Haar handelte es sich, daß ich nicht in die Realschule, sondern ins Gymnasium gekommen wäre. Wäre ich aber damals in jener Stadt in das Gymnasium gekommen, so wäre ich Zisterzienser-Ordenspriester geworden. Das ist ganz zweifellos. Denn es war dies ein Gymnasium, an dem nur Zisterzienser lehrten. Ich hatte gar einen tiefen Hang zu allen diesen Patres, die auch zum großen Teile außerordentlich gelehrte Menschen waren. Ich las vieles, was diese Patres schrieben, es berührte mich außerordentlich tief; ich liebte diese Patres. Und eigentlich bin ich nur dadurch sozusagen neben dem Zisterzienser-Orden vorbeigegangen, daß ich gar nicht in das Gymnasium gekommen bin. Das Karma führte mich anders; aber der Zisterzienser-Orden ließ mich nicht los. Das beschreibe ich auch. Ich war eine Natur, die immer gesellig lebte, und ich erzähle in meinem Lebensgange auch, daß ich später im Hause der Marie Eugenie delle Grazie mit fast allen Theologen dort verkehrte. Das waren fast alles Zisterzienser-Ordenspriester. Da bildete sich sozusagen die Perspektive aus, um zurückzugehen. Es war auch persönlich für mich sehr naheliegend: der Blick, die Perspektive bildete sich aus, durch die Strömung des Zisterzienser-Ordens zurück in das geistige Leben hineinzukommen, bis in die Schule von Chartres. Denn Alanus ab Insulis war ein Zisterzienser. Und es ist merkwürdig: Als ich dann später das erste meiner Mysteriendramen, «Die Pforte der Einweihung», schrieb, da konnte ich aus ästhetischen Notwendigkeiten heraus gar nicht anders, als die Frauen in einer Bekleidung auf die Bühne zu bringen, die in einer langen Tunika und in dem bestand, was Stola genannt wird. Wenn Sie sich also ein solches Kleid so vorstellen, daß Sie eine gelblich-weiße Tunika haben, dazu die Stola schwarz und die Binde schwarz — dann haben Sie das Zisterzienser-Ordenskleid. Ich dachte damals nur an ästhetische Notwendigkeiten; aber es kam diese Bekleidung dem Zisterzienser-Ordenskleid sehr nahe. Da haben Sie einen Hinweis darauf, wie sich die Zusammenhänge für den ergeben, der in der äußeren Welt auftretende Symptome ihrer inneren spirituellen Bedeutung nach verfolgen kann.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":505,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/240/1924-07-18/p035"}],"english":["GA 240/1924-07-18/p038"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":505,"en_words":559,"ratio":1.11,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7420,"original_word_count":7161,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1971","book_title":"Karmic Relationships VI","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA240/English/RSP1971/19240718p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 240/1924-07-18/p035"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}