The Christmas Conference
for the foundation of the
General Anthroposophical Society
1923/1924
Foreword and Conclusion by Marie Steiner

The Christmas Conference of 1923 was a turning point for the anthroposophical movement. For the first time the spiritual impulse which entered personally through Rudolf Steiner was to be identified with an external structured organisation with Steiner at the head, the General Anthroposophical Society.

"This anthroposophical movement is not an earthly service, this anthroposophic movement in its entirety, in all its details, is a service of the gods, a divine service."

In 1923, at Christmas, one year after the burning of the first Goetheanum, in the wooden carpentry shop overlooking its charred ruins, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) founded the General Anthroposophical Society and joined his destiny to it. This remarkable volume documents that occasion.

In it, for the first time, English readers will find the complete proceedings of the Founding Meeting, as well as Rudolf Steiner's in-depth description of the structure and organization of the new Society. The discussions concerning the statutes are recorded in detail.

The laying of the Foundation Stone in the hearts of the members forms the center of the book. The Foundation Stone Verse (Mantra) is reproduced in the different forms in which Steiner gave it on each day of the Conference, together with his comments on its various rhythms. Also included are Steiner's lecture on the plans for the second Goetheanum, illuminating the spiritual significance of its architecture, and a talk on the burning of the Temple at Ephesus.

The text is complemented by a list of members mentioned, with biographical data, as well as by facsimile reproductions of Steiner's handwritten notes and blackboard sketches.
Here, as Henry Barnes wrote, "we have the 'footprints' of the process by means of which a spiritual archetype enters as a living reality into the human, social sphere, remaining true to its origins in the supersensible realm, yet leaving each human individual free to unite him- or herself out of insight with the spiritual reality."

Anthroposophic Press
Trans. J. Collis; GA260
324pp; hardback
ISBN: 0-88010-193-8
 

To purchase this title, click here: The Christmas Conference 1923/1924 - Rudolf Steiner

For more information on the Foundation Stone Meditation, see: The Foundation Stone Meditation - Rudolf Steiner, The Foundation Stone & The Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy - Rudolf Steiner, and The Foundation Stone - Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven.
 

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