Spiritual Knowledge as a Constructive Power
Charles Kovacs, in his important lecture about Anthroposophy, points out that all knowledge of the spirit rests within each human soul, like the fish in the depths of the sea. But he also shows that if it is not raised into the light of thinking consciousness, this knowledge becomes a destructive power. There is as much destructive power in the world as there is suppression of the spirit.
Instead of concrete spiritual insight almost everywhere we find phraseology, Nominalism and theoretising intellectualism. But it is good that here and there one sees individuals who at least do not cover up the phenomena of destruction with mere phrases, but call them by their names. To give just two examples: the whistleblower Edgar Snowden, who enabled us to glimpse something of the extent of the surveillance State in which we have been living for a long time now, even if – until now – he has done nothing to illuminate the prime catastrophe of the 21st century, the 9/11 attacks; there has also been George Friedman, originally from Hungary, founder of the think tank STRATFOR, who, in a lecture on 4 February 2015, made clear that the main concern of US foreign policy over the last 100 years has been to prevent a collaboration between Russia and Germany, for only such a collaboration, he said, could threaten the power of the USA. Friedman also points out that with the US-organised “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine, the Russian government understood that the West’s aim was to shatter the new threat from the power block of the Russian Federation by dividing Ukraine. We recommend our readers to watch Friedman’s lecture at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaL5wCY99l8
In anthroposophical waters too we see an intellectualism devoid of spirit or solid foundation floating in many places, like an oil slick shimmering with many colours which is threatening the life of the world of fish. In the witches’ kitchen of Facebook, in which those who do not wish to be seen as “yesterday’s men or women” feel they have to spend time every day, the particularly shimmering initiator of the Critical Edition of Steiner’s works (known as the SKA in German) from Salt Lake City reveals a shocking face, very different from the one seen between the covers of his academic books. Last autumn a ‘Facebooker’ wanted to know whether it was correct, as had appeared in Der Europäer, that Rudolf Steiner had been baptised post-mortem by the Mormons [it took place on 22 January 19901], and found the notion of such baptisms “bizarre”. The SKA editor replied to this on 17 October 2014: ”Say, Roswitha Hoppe, isn’t it just as “bizarre”, to sit down and read Steiner books out loud – and to expect that the dead up there are now really happy because they are at last receiving the blessings of spiritual science? How much more bizarre is a vicarious baptism than a vicarious reading of Steiner?”2
Another day he put down another Facebooker with a word that begins with ‘a’ and ends with ‘hole’. So much for the “blessings” from the new scholar of Steiner’s works. There is a straight line from cynical and frivolous use of thoughts and facts to social barbarism.1
In an enduringly relevant post-mortem communication from Helmuth von Moltke he said: “People on Earth must learn from events, that thoughts are facts” 3, and a year later: “In times like the present wrong thoughts are the actual forces of destruction”.4
Through serious thinking to spiritual knowledge – that is the constructive path. Only on that path can Anthroposophy be found.
Thomas Meyer
1 With reference to the editorial of Der Europäer, Vol. 18. No. 2/3, 2013/2014 that will be brought to our readers in May
2 Source: Facebook Group ‘Virtuelle Anthroposophische Gesellschaft‘ Sebastian Gronbach, posted by Christian Clement; 17 October 2014, 16.00 pm
3 24 May 1918, see Helmuth von Moltke – Light for the New Millennium, p. 207, Vol. 2, Basel 2nd ed. 2006
4 1 May 1919, see Helmuth von Moltke – Light for the New Millennium, p. 242, Vol. 2, Basel 2nd ed. 2006
Kategorie: TPA Editorial