Mysterious Painting Reveals Initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz
There has always been much confusion and mystery around this painting of Anna May Rychter in Anthroposophic circles. Many believe the painting was made by Edith Maryon, Rudolf Steiner's close associate in creating the First Goetheanum and the sculpting of the Representation of Mankind. Others believe that Steiner himself painted it or that it was created and then hidden. No one seems to know where the original painting disappeared to and the rumors about why it was created abound.
Having known of this painting for four decades and meditating its content for as long, I finally came across an article by Margarethe Hauschka, a very reliable source (see section titled "The Grail Triptych" below), that explains many of the mysteries of the painting and the central role that this painting would have played in the first building Steiner wanted to create in Munich. With the discovery of the content of Hauschka's article, I was able to add to a description of the painting that came from "unknown" sources that I had been using all those years in trying to decipher its meaning. The new information from Anna May's description, along with Hauschka's remarks, gave me insight into the central themes of the painting, giving me tremendous insight regarding the lives of Christian Rosenkreutz and Lazarus/St. John the Divine.
All of Freemasonry is based upon the "two John's of Jerusalem," who are known as St. John the Divine and St. John the Baptist. Prior to building the First Goetheanum, Steiner had planned to build a hall in Munich which was to be dedicated to Lazarus/St. John with the name Johannesbau, or St. John's building. We know from Steiner that Lazarus/St. John was also the mysterious figure Christian Rosenkreutz, the founder of Rosicrucianism. The spiritual history, life, and teachings of Rosenkreutz was first promulgated in three initial books by Johann Valentin Andreae and later through Henricus Madathanus and others. Prior to these books, the life of Christian Rosenkreutz was one of great mystery and spiritual import.
Although Rosenkreutz's incarnation in the thirteenth century was not recorded in outer history, Rudolf Steiner was able to determine through his clairvoyance that this was his incarnation of a "wondrous child" who was initiated by the twelve great masters. The right panel of the painting, known as a triptych, displays the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz as a model for all humans to follow in the distant future.
The Johannesbau was to have the triptych in a central position of the building, demonstrating Rudolf Steiner's personal knowledge and experience with the founder of Rosicrucianism. Steiner's Anthroposophy is a form of Rosicrucianism inspired by Christian Rosenkreutz, who we know later by the name of the Comte de Saint Germain who lived in the eighteenth century.
Side Note
Cain (author of war) who became Hiram Abif who became St. John-Lazarus (servant of the Christ, the author of peace) who became Christian Rosenkreutz (12th cty) who became the Comte de Saint Germain who lived in the eighteenth century
Abel who became Solomon who became Mary Magdalene
The traditional Crucifixion icon is a hand-painted icon with the scene of Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion in the center of the composition. Christ is usually surrounded by the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, St. John the Apostle, Longinos the Centurion, and several other onlookers.
What is quite notable about the Anna May's story of the triptych is that she names Christian Rosenkreutz in her description as the reincarnation of Cain who became Hiram Abif who became St. John-Lazarus. This series of incarnations from Cain to Hiram to Lazarus/St. John to Rosenkreutz is one of the most amazing lines of karmic descent that has ever been visually depicted. To see that the first sin of death by Cain is redeemed by Jesus Christ dying on the cross is a powerful insight of wisdom that shows the true nature of karma and reincarnation.
Add to this revelation another one from Anna May: that Solomon was the reincarnated Able who then reincarnated as Mary Magdalene. These are profound veils that have been lifted quite a veil for the spiritual researcher. Cain and Abel stood under the Cross, as the reincarnated St. John and Mary Magdalene, and the 'Mark of Cain' was finally removed. After this "sin" had been redeemed through love and wisdom, Cain-Hiram-St. John, in his later incarnation as Christian Rosenkreutz, was able to go through an advanced initiation process that the rest of humanity can follow in time. Essentially, Cain begins as the original author of war and ends as the servant of the Christ, the author of peace.
Rudolf Steiner is the only author who describes this special initiation process that Rosenkreutz went through in the thirteenth century. Later in the fourteenth century, Rosenkreutz goes through another initiation as depicted in the book, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. Steiner describes this initiation of the wondrous child:
When in about the middle of the thirteenth century, the darkness lifted, strange happenings transpired at a certain place in Europe — the name cannot now be given but sometime it may be possible to communicate it in a Group lecture. Twelve men in Europe of great and outstanding wisdom, whose spiritual development had taken an unusual course, emerged from the condition of twilight that had obscured clairvoyant vision. Of these twelve wise men, seven, to begin with, must be distinguished. Remembrance of their earlier Initiations had remained in these seven men, and this remembrance, together with the knowledge still surviving was such that the seven men recapitulated in themselves conditions they had once lived through in the period following the Atlantean catastrophe — the ancient Indian epoch of culture. The teachings given by the seven holy Rishis of India had come to life again in the souls of these seven wise men of Europe; seven rays of the ancient wisdom of the sacred Atlantean culture shone forth in the hearts of these seven men who through the operations of world-karma had gathered at a certain place in Europe in the thirteenth century and had found one another again. To these seven came four others. In the soul of the first of these four, the wisdom belonging to the ancient Indian culture shone forth — he was the eighth among the twelve. The wisdom of the ancient Persian culture lived in the soul of the ninth; the wisdom of the third period — that of Egyptian-Chaldean culture — lived in the soul of the tenth, and the wisdom of Graeco-Latin culture in the soul of the eleventh. The wisdom of culture as it was in that particular age — the contemporary wisdom — lived in the soul of the twelfth. In these twelve men who came together to perform a special mission, the twelve different streams in the spiritual development of mankind were represented. The fact that all true religions and all true philosophies belong to twelve basic types is in itself a mystery. Buddhism, Brahmanism, Vedanta philosophy, materialism, or whatever it be — all of them can be traced to the twelve basic types; it is only a matter of setting to work with precision and accuracy. And so all the different streams of man's spiritual life — the religions, the philosophies and conceptions of the world spread over the Earth — were united in that "College" of the Twelve.
After the period of darkness had passed and spiritual achievement was possible again, a Thirteenth came, in remarkable circumstances, to the Twelve. I am telling you now of one of those events which transpire secretly in the evolution of mankind once and once only. They cannot occur a second time and are mentioned not as a hint that efforts should be made to repeat them but for quite other reasons. When the darkness had lifted and it was possible again to unfold clairvoyant vision, the coming of the Thirteenth was announced in a mysterious way to the twelve wise men. They knew: a child with significant and remarkable incarnations behind him is now to be born. They knew that one of his incarnations had been at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. It was known, therefore, that one who had been a contemporary of the Events in Palestine was returning. The birth of the child in these unusual circumstances during the thirteenth century could not have been said to be that of an individuality of renown. In speaking of previous lives there is a deplorable and only too widespread tendency to go back to important historical personages. I have come across all kinds of people who believe that they were incarnated as some historical personage or figure in the Gospels. Only recently a lady informed me that she had been Mary Magdalene and I could only reply that she was the twenty-fourth Mary Magdalene I had met during my life! In these matters the most scrupulous care must be taken to prevent fantastic notions arising.
History tells us very little about the incarnations of the Thirteenth. He was born many times, with great and profound qualities of heart. It was known that this Individuality was to be born again as a child and that he was destined for a very special mission. This knowledge was revealed to the twelve seers who took the child entirely into their charge and were able to arrange that from the very beginning he was shut off from the outside world. He was removed from his family and cared for by these twelve men. Guided by their clairvoyance, they reared the child with every care, in such a way that all the forces acquired from previous incarnations were able to unfold in him.
The child developed in a strange and remarkable way. The Twelve were not in any sense fanatics; they were full of inner composure, enlightenment and peacefulness of heart. They were very sparing with teaching clothed in words but because they lived in communion with the boy, twelve rays of light as it were went out of them into him and were resolved, in his soul, into one great harmony. It would not have been possible to give him any kind of academic examination; nevertheless there lived within him, transmuted into feeling and sensitive perception, all that the twelve representatives of the twelve different types of religion poured into his soul. His whole soul echoed back the harmony of the twelve different forms of belief spread over the Earth. In this way the soul of the boy had very much to bear and worked in a strange way upon the body.
Strangely enough, as the harmony within the boy's soul increased, the more delicate his body became — more and more delicate, until at a certain age of life it was transparent in every limb. The boy ate less and less until finally he took no nourishment at all. Then he lay for days in a condition of complete torpor: the soul had left the body, but returned after a few days. The youth was now inwardly quite changed. The twelve different rays of the mind of humanity were united in a single radiance and he gave utterance to the greatest, most wonderful secrets; he did not repeat what the first, or the second, or the third had said, but gave forth in a new and wonderful synthesis, all that they would have said had they spoken in unison; all the knowledge they possessed was gathered into one whole and when voiced by the Thirteenth this new wisdom seemed actually to have come to birth in him. It was as though a higher Spirit were speaking in him. Something entirely and essentially new was thus imparted to the twelve wise men. Wisdom in abundance was imparted to them, and to each individually, greater illumination of what had been known to him hitherto.
I have been describing to you the first School of Christian Rosenkreutz, for the Thirteenth is the Individuality known to us by that name. In that incarnation he died after only a brief earthly existence; in the fourteenth century he was born again and lived, then, for more than a hundred years. Thus in the thirteenth century his life was brief, in the fourteenth century, very long. During the first half of this later incarnation he went on great journeys in search of the different centers of culture in Europe, Africa and Asia, in order to gather knowledge of what had come to life in him during the previous century; then he returned to Europe. A few of those who had brought him up in the thirteenth century were again in incarnation and were joined by others. This was the time of the inauguration of the Rosicrucian stream of spiritual life. And Christian Rosenkreutz himself incarnated again and again.
To this very day he is at work — during the brief intervals, too, when he is not actually in incarnation; through his higher bodies he then works spiritually into human beings, without the need of spatial contact. We must try to picture the mysterious way in which his influence operates.
The forces in the ether bodies of highly developed individualities stream out and have a potent effect upon other human beings. The ether body of Christian Rosenkreutz, too, works far and wide into the world. And reference must here be made to a fact that is of the greatest significance in many human lives; it is something that transpires in the spiritual world between death and a new birth and is not to be ascribed to "chance."
Christian Rosenkreutz has always made use of the short intervals of time between his incarnations to call into his particular stream of spiritual life those souls whom he knows to be ripe; between his deaths and births he has concerned himself, as it were, with choosing out those who are ready to enter his stream. But human beings themselves, by learning to be attentive, must be able to recognize by what means Christian Rosenkreutz gives them a sign that they may count themselves among his chosen. This sign has been given in the lives of very many human beings of the present time, but they pay no heed to it. Yet among the apparently "chance" happenings in a man's life there may be such a sign — it is to be regarded as an indication that between death and a new birth Christian Rosenkreutz has found him mature and ready; the sign is, however, given by Christian Rosenkreutz on the physical plane. This event may be called the mark of Christian Rosenkreutz. Let us suppose that a man is lying in bed - in other places I have mentioned different forms of such a happening but all of them have occurred - for some unaccountable reason he suddenly wakes up and as though guided by instinct looks at a wall otherwise quite dark; in the half-light of the room. He sees, written on the wall: "Get up now, this minute!" It all seems very strange, but he gets up and goes out of the house; hardly has he done so than the ceiling over his bed collapses; although nobody else would have been in danger of injury, he himself must inevitably have been killed. The most thorough investigation proves that no single being on the physical plane warned him to get up from the bed! If he had remained lying there, he would certainly be dead. Such an experience may be thought to be hallucination, or something of the kind; but deeper investigation will reveal that these particular experiences — and they come to hundreds of people — are not accidental. A beckoning call has come from Christian Rosenkreutz. The karma of the one called in this way always indicates that Christian Rosenkreutz bestows the life he may claim. I say explicitly: such experiences occur in the lives of many people at the present time, and it is only a question of being alert. The occurrence does not always take such a graphic form as the example quoted, but numbers of human beings nowadays have had such experiences.
Now when I say something more than once during a lecture, I do so quite deliberately, because I find that strange conclusions are apt to be drawn from things that are half — or totally forgotten. I say this because nobody need be discouraged because he has had no such experience; this need not really be the case, for if he searches he will find something of the kind in his life. Naturally, I can only single out a typical occurrence. There, then, we have in our life, a fact of which we may say that its cause does not lie in a period of actual incarnation; we may have contacted Christian Rosenkreutz in the spiritual world. I have laid particular stress on this outstanding event of the call. Other events, too, could be mentioned, events connected directly with the spiritual world and to be found during the life between death and a new birth; but in our special circumstances we shall realize the significance of this event which is so intimately connected with our spiritual Movement.
I have told you of the strange event in the thirteenth century, purely in the form of historical narrative, in order to indicate those things to which men must pay attention if they are to find their proper place in life and understand the beckoning call of Christian Rosenkreutz. To make this possible the preparation by the Twelve and the coming of the Thirteenth were necessary. The event in the thirteenth century was necessary in order that in our own time and hereafter, such a beckoning or other sign may be understood and obeyed. Christian Rosenkreutz has created this sign in order to rouse the attention of men to the demands of the times, to indicate to them that they belong to him and may dedicate their lives to him in the service of the progress of humanity.
The preceding quotation of Steiner's describes a unique and powerful story that is a crucial piece in solving the puzzle of human spiritual development. Rosenkreutz is the example of what will happen to all humans as they ascend into the spiritual world through spiritual development. It also shows us that the masters never leave the earth or abandon humanity to our own petty human ways. There is always spiritual intervention and assistance offered at all stages of the spiritual path. All spiritual beings evolve and no one is beyond the hope, grace, and mercy of the spiritual world and the countless beings who work together to aid human development.
The lessons of karma are displayed through the lives of Cain and Abel, Hiram and Solomon, and St. John and Mary Magdalene. These archetypal lessons of karma and reincarnation were to adorn Steiner's Temple of Wisdom and instruct aspirants who would see the paintings in the ways of spirit. The cosmic healing power of Christ's deed (the Mystery of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) is seen through the healing of Cain and Abel. War and hatred came into this world and through Christ's sacrificial deed, love, and forgiveness conquered them. Jesus Christ loved Mary Magdalene and St. John (the beloved) as his own and through that love their sins were turned into the possibility of truly understanding with wisdom the cosmic nature of the deed of Christ. Mary and John were particularly attuned to Christ, and they were often the two who could explain the profound wisdom that had come to rest in the Mother of Jesus.
As Hiram Abif, the master builder of Solomon's temple, Cain had to endure having the power and wisdom to construct the temple, but not being able to finish it before the three apprentices murdered him and kept him from the love of the Queen of Sheba who had chosen Hiram over Solomon. The Sophianic wisdom of the stars that worked through the Queen of Sheba could see that if Hiram could be redeemed, a great initiate could be made ready for the new initiation given by Jesus Christ to Lazarus. All Blue Lodge Freemasonry is based upon the Temple Legend wherein Hiram is raised from the dead by the secret lost word of the Masons. Jesus Christ calls out that lost word when he raises Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus being raised into St. John is the redemption of Freemasonry and the beginning of what would become Rosicrucianism and later Spiritual Science.
In this triptych we have before us a small picture of the whole of human spiritual evolution. In a way, Cain is the prodigal son who, once he has suffered tremendously through many incarnations, is finally prepared to understand the "other side" of his karmic deed of killing his brother which is his return to his true home (ascension back to heaven). Lazarus died and only then was called back to life to witness the deed of Christ and, later as St. John, to be asked by Christ to care for the Cosmic Wisdom that had come to exist in Mary. This adoption of the Mother of Jesus, the Sophia (Wisdom) of Christ, was the next step in karmic logic for Anna May who also tells us that the Queen of Sheba was the original Eve.
Thus, Hiram (Cain) and Solomon (Mary Magdalene) are being helped to heal the old wound of their own mother, Eve, reincarnated as the Queen of Sheba. Eve-Sheba uses the cosmic star wisdom to bring the mystery of the Holy Grail (the human "I Am" mysteries) to Solomon. But this time, it is the jealousy of Abel-Solomon that causes the death of Cain-Hiram. The karmic tables have been turned. Eve-Sheba cannot yet heal the rift between her two children in this lifetime; Abel-Solomon is jealous of Cain-Hiram and helps the apprentices kill Hiram.
It is the reconciliation of Cain-Hiram and Abel-Solomon under the cross that creates the possibility for the twelve world teachers to have Christian Rosenkreutz unite their teachings into one world teaching about the cosmic wisdom and love of Christ. This synthesis is the herald of a New Golden Age that will usher in a spiritual science that directly connects to the masters and the hierarchy. The suffering of Cain becomes a vessel to hold the wisdom of the ages taught by Rosenkreutz. This wisdom is found in the teachings of Rosicrucianism which is a new type of Christianity based upon karma and reincarnation that shows that Christ is the new Lord of Karma who uses love to mitigate karma and reincarnation. The unimaginable suffering of Christ and Christian Rosenkreutz became the cosmic and microcosmic vessels for the Holy Grail of "Not I, but Christ in Me."
In the following passages Margarethe Hauschka describes the history and meaning of the painting. The remarks are from: Grail Triptych by Anna May von Rychter, by Margarethe Hauschka, translated and adapted by Sonia Homrich.
Anna May von Rychter painted the Grail Triptych at the time of the Munich mystery dramas (1909-13) from indications given by Rudolf Steiner. This image was originally planned for the "Johannesbau" in Munich, later intended for the first Goetheanum. It was entitled: From Solomon through Golgotha to Christian Rosenkreutz. It was given to the Hamburg Waldorf School after WWI and during the WWII was destroyed by bombing.
The full Triptych
In Anna May's description of the painting we find the following: "It's not symbolic, it is a painting of spiritual history. This painting expresses in images what Steiner otherwise expressed in his writings and lectures. The theme is the Holy Grail. In his book Occult Science he refers to Anthroposophy as a Grail Science."
The mysteries surrounding the Holy Grail involve an ongoing quest, the language of symbols needs to be learned in order to develop Imaginative Consciousness which represents the first stage of higher development, which can be likened to a form of inner seeing, unfolding this capacity involves a cooperation of head and heart. Contemplating such a painting can help to orient the grail seeker as well as acting as a stimulus towards the development of imaginative consciousness. Steiner sought to draw together many facets that belong to the Grail theme in this picture.
The pivotal point in human history is the mystery of Golgotha, 'Holy Grail' is the word for man, inasmuch as he seeks relationship to this event. The legend says that the Grail is a hollowed out stone that Lucifer lost from his crown when he fell. Solomon receives it from the Queen of Sheba (left panel).
Then it becomes the Last Supper cup, in which Joseph of Arimathea had caught the holy blood (middle panel).
When this Christ blood has penetrated to the innermost depths of the Earth in the distant future, so also will the thoroughly Christ filled human being, the Parsival of the future, awaken from out of the grail chalice as from a coffin and unify all religions and earlier philosophies into a living Christ Wisdom. Then Michael will also have bound the dragon, and the 'woman' of Revelation will again take in the Sun with the Moon underfoot, then Earth will have achieved victory over being chained to matter.
The upper part of the triptych Grail portrays the spiritual world (gold), the uppermost heads: are the time spirits (Archai), who extend their hands over long periods of time; supporting them are the folk-spirits (Archangels).
Under these looking down on the people are the Angeloi or angels. In the lower part, i.e., the two pillars, is represented the blood streams which flow through humanity and connect with the spiritual (gold), enabling higher guiding beings to incarnate, who lead the evolution of mankind.
Elucidation of Detail
The Top Panel
Top Panel Detail
The divine trinity symbolized by the Golden Triangle at the top center is the source of the Divine Plan that rays out into both past and future streams of time. One such stream rays out through the forehead of Buddha, then the ark of the Covenant that hovers over the left panel and streams onward towards the pre-Christian Grail-Cup that the sun-initiate Melchizedek bore when he bestowed his blessing upon Abraham the hereditary father of the Hebrew people who will henceforward come under the Lunar Divinity Jahwe, know esoterically as the seventh Elohim (spirit of Form). Another golden stream emanates on the opposite side towards the future with the same angle touching the forehead of the beloved disciple passing through the image of the crucified one that hovers above Christian Rosenkreutz who has invoked the In Christo Morimur and continues onward to the Heart of the Virgin Sophia who gives birth to the Second Coming of Christ. From the heart of the Virgin and the Grail Chalice held by Melchizedek, the golden rays proceed inward. On the left they pass through the head of Solomon who was granted the gift of Wisdom on through the pre-Christian Grail vessel that the Queen of Sheba bears, then endowing the Golden Sun Hammer (Tau-Tao) held by Hiram with its magical power touching the bowed head of Moses and culminating in in the in the sub-earthly chamber where the Mothers gather in the Communion that gives the Earth its Meaning. From the other side the corresponding rays pass through the Chrystal that envelopes the semi-transparent body of the youth laid upon an Altar formed of the 4 living creature, then touching and opening the eyes of Paul, and finally converging with the other stream coming from the past.
Lucifers Crown is alluded to as a ring formed by a serpent biting its tail that can be seen in the canopy of the central tree. An Alchemical vessel is there in the opening where the crowns central jewel once had its place, and had been dislodged by Michael during the battle in heaven. This Jewel expressive of the perfect balance of the four members of the human being now endowed with the power of Christ is seen as a fruit that has grown out of this sacrificial deed. The members of the 3rd hierarchy who act as mediators and servants helping to carry out the divine plan are arrayed above. The angels are imaged as winged heads while the archangels have flames rising upwards to the heights. Around the renewed Tree of Life are gathered the many souls who have been drawn to this new manifestation of the Christ Sun who has enacted this central event of the great seven-fold drama upon the stage of human and earthly history, making this both a profoundly spiritual as well as being deeply imprinted into the dense physical substances that were transmuted into the Resurrection that prefigured the transubstantiation of the entire physical body of the Earth.
Left Panel
Left Panel Detail
The content of the images contained within the indigo is a summary of the solar mystery of the earth and human development. And of Melchizedek, the priest and leader of the ancient sun mysteries, who brings the bread and wine to Abraham. Continuing up to the Mystery of Golgotha, the two human streams of Cain and Abel, represented here by Hiram and Solomon who combine their forces, build the Temple; i.e., the body that can take the full "I" of Humanity. The stone from the 'light-crown' of Lucifer is an image of the Earthly-I of humanity, which was brought by the Queen of Sheba as a representative of the starry worlds. The focal point of the Hebrew faith was the Temple that began as a tent in the wilderness but was later built in Jerusalem through the collaboration of king Solomon (Abel stream) and Hiram Abiff the master builder (Cain stream). Between these two individualities is the Queen of Sheba over-lighted by the Sophian star wisdom which was still alive at that time.
This comprehensive imagination reflects Steiner' reading of the Akashic Record (Cosmic Memory). The Mystery of Golgotha is being depicted as the central event of world evolution. Two streams of time converge in this center, the one that comes from the pillar on the far left (Jachin) which includes Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaak, and Jacob flows along the bottom is connected with the red blood and is met by the bowing figure of Moses beholding the descending Christ in the burning bush, from which he hears the voice of the Logos proclaiming "I Am the I Am." This etheric stream that flows out of the past and worked through the hereditary lineage of Abraham prepared the body temple over 42 generations that would become the Grail Vessel into which the Christ would later descend. Opposite Moses is Paul who through his Damascus experience prefigured the experience of the Second Coming of Christ that is unfolding in our time.
Middle Panel
Middle Panel Detail
The impulse towards this entered human and earthly evolution through the intervention of the Cosmic Christ being through his descent into the physical body of the man Jesus of Nazareth in his thirtieth year and after totally transmuting the three Astral, Etheric and Physical sheath's underwent the sacrificial event of the Mystery of Golgotha this involved alchemically transmuting the Phantom Body which underlies the physical body which had been corrupted through the Luciferic intervention which inevitably led to the invitation of Ahriman the Lord of Death into the human organism. The Christ revered as the Sacrificial Lamb without spot (karma) who's infinite Love was poured out with the Sacrificial Blood which in its inner fire or warmth is the medium of the human Ego raising it into a communion with the divine "I AM". This precious gift that reversed the consequences of the Fall is caught up in the Grail Vessel made Holy by this overflowing Love by Joseph of Arimathea.
Joseph of Arimathea captures the Blood, as it were for humanity. What is captured by the Norns (Mothers), absolves the Earth, and draws the power of Christ into destiny, whose Lord Christ becomes. That Sacred Blood which flowed down to the Earth was etherized and drawn into the etheric aura of the Earth, this sun aura of the Earth is also the memory body of the earth that reaches back to the three former stages Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon expressed symbolically by the three Mothers who harken back to these periods and together embody the threefold soul of the Earth. By receiving this Sacred Blood which bore within it the power of the Divine Logos, the Seven Solar Elohim, these three Mothers received the Christ's Resurrection Impulse which instilled into the Earth the power of the resurrection as a means of over-coming the inevitable death of our common body the Earth so that it can in the future become the radiant Body of the Christ Earth-Sun. The blood arrayed as a circle of seven roses expresses the restoration of the divine plan that stretches from Old Saturn (1st Stage) all the way to future Vulcan (7th stage). The Cross becomes the renewed Tree of Life which Christ as the new Planetary Spirit restored. Around it are gathered souls who have created spiritual and physical history. The Buddha Gautama, who helped to prepare this central event is shown in the pillar to the left of the central panel, the Beloved Disciple John who later reappears as Christian Rosenkreutz is shown in the right pillar, both are aligned to the inspirations of pre and post Christian Archai (time spirits) who reach-out to one-another and penetrate them from above.
Right Panel
Right Panel Detail
Right Panel: The initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz who is the reborn Hiram is the central theme of the panel on the right. Then in the distant future the physical body can be purified to transparency, as was the case with Christian Rosenkreutz. What was initially possible for the sun-like eye to achieve, to purify substance to the clarity of crystal, which is also the highest level of transformation of substance achieved by the alchemists, will now be possible for the entire body once the Human-I has become one with Christ, generating Atma, a preview of the end of world development.
The far right pillar (Boaz) represents the astral stream of time that flows prophetically and apocalyptically out of the future, and is associated with the blue blood. Hence the figures of the Archangel Michael and Sophia who appear as the main characters in the central drama that unfolds at the very heart of the Book of Revelation. The Rosicrucian Initiation expressed by the seven red roses are a means of aligning oneself to these New Mysteries that prepare the future by helping to build the New Jerusalem which involves the transformation of the Earth into the Golden City known esoterically as the Planet of Love.
The Importance of the Triptych
Once the meaning and content of this painting finds a home in the heart of an aspirant, great insight and wisdom can flow into the understanding of history and the way karma and reincarnation complete the puzzles of human spiritual development. Studying each detail and trying to fit them into a comprehensive overview will take a good deal of time. Focused meditation and contemplation on these ideas will produce great results because the content is based in archetypal realities.
The same archetypal realities depicted in the triptych also happen in the human body through corollaries with the archetypes. The struggle of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel are found in every person's soul and spiritual strivings. We all are prodigal sons and daughters attempting to find our way back home to reclaim our rightful inheritance and we must tread the path of suffering until the time comes that we accept the cosmic nature of our own I am and become clear as a crystal, like the body of the wondrous child during initiation. Cain was born a son of God, but carried the "mark" upon his brow until his suffering and karma brought him together again with his brother who he had wronged. Karma will right every wrong in due time. When love and forgiveness come into play, there is no limit to the quantum leaps in spiritual development that can happen through the mitigation of the new Lord of Karma and the wisdom of His spiritual relationship to every human being.
The Grail Triptych
by Margarethe Hauschka
Translated and adapted by Sonia Homrich
Note: This was retyped from the source (scribd) as I could not find another copy and scribd encrypts its content. The overall structure of the original document is not entirely intuitive and clumsy in parts. For example there is a citation at one point which seems confusing where it is placed. Also, there are quotes for which no source was provided. Further, the last section seemed not to flow directly from the content before it — after the citation. I added a title to this section, "Old Testament Connections", to help section it more logically. None of the content was edited except were occasionally I [filled in] connector words or commas where I felt they were intended. Emphasis (bolding) is mine. -Anthony
In the estate of my mother I found an old color transparency from the beginning of the 20th century. It is the triptych "Grail" that great picture of the painter Anna May, which she painted at the time of the Munich mystery dramas (1909-13). This image was originally planned for the "Johannesbau" in Munich, later intended for the first Goetheanum. It was, however, by other fateful dispensations years after the [First World] war, given to the Hamburg Waldorf School and during the Second World War was destroyed by the bombing.
Since I knew it was about the only colored reproduction, which still existed, I felt the obligation to snatch this work, to which Rudolf Steiner had personally given important instructions, from oblivion and make it once again accessible to all. It was a wall-filling image, estimated 2.5m high, and 4m long. Hanging for a time on exhibit in the Glass Palace in Munich, Anna May herself provided a description at the request of the exhibitors, from which I provide an excerpt [below]. It was entitiled: "From Solomon through Golgotha to Christian Rosenkreutz" Triptych.
"The pivotal point in human history is the mystery of Golgotha, 'Holy Grail' is the word for man inasmuch as he seeks relationship to this event. The legend says that the Grail is a hollowed out stone, that Lucifer lost from his crown when he fell. Solomon receives it from the Queen of Sheba (left part of the triptych).
"Then it becomes the Last Supper cup, in which Joseph of Arimathea had caught the holy blood (middle part of the triptych).
"When this Christ blood has penetrated to the innermost depths of the Earth in the distant future, so also will the thoroughly Christ-filled human being, the Parsival of the future, awake from out of the grail chalice as from a coffin and unify all religions and earlier philosophies into a living Christ wisdom. Then Michael will also have bound the dragon, and the 'woman' of Revelation will again take in the Sun with the Moon underfoot, then the Earth will have achieved victory over being chained to matter.
"The upper part of the triptych Grail portrays the spiritual world (gold), the uppermost heads are the Time Spirits (Archai), who extend their hands over long periods of time; supporting them are the folk-spirits (Archangels).
"Under these looking down on the people are the Angeloi or angels. In the lower part, i.e., the two pillars, is represented the blood streams which flow through humanity and connect with the spiritual (gold), enabling higher guiding beings to incarnate, who lead the evolution of mankind."
[...]
The triptych Grail was demonstrably on display in 1918 Munich in the art house Reich and later the Kunsthaus, and somewhat later still in the Glass Palace. From this period comes the above description written by Anna May as required for exhibitors.
From Jerusalem, where she had to earn a living by painting, she sent in July 1946, a watercolor, "View from the Mount of Olives to the city of Jerusalem", as a Christmas gift to Marie Steiner and also got an answer (the letter is in the archive), to a question on the Grail picture to which Rudolf Steiner had provided indications, as he saw it. As far as I remember these did not concern the artistic conception, but as to the realizations of the countenances.
After living with this triptych image a long time, I understood better why Rudolf Steiner recommended that the frame should rest on a pedestal as a kind of altar, and the zodiac should be represented in a spanning bow in gold on indigo. Indigo is the color that we only consciously experience as a color since the 15th century, with the development of the consciousness soul, inasmuch as it is the closest color to darkness, the color of ashes, from which the spirit can rise again.[1] Only when from the eye self-perception is rooted out, when one moves to pure perception, can one experience Indigo. Here I can only hint at the mystery of Indigo, there could be much more said. Each color means, therefore, a stage of our soul development, as Albert Steffen observed in his early essays. Before the Mystery of Golgotha the tones had a reddish impact that testified to the presence, albeit at a subtle level, of life processes in the eye. After the Mystery of Golgotha humanity acquired blue, the color of the soul, which has pushed back the life processes, so that we humans can now meet the soul and spiritual directly.
The content of the images contained within the Indigo is a summary of the solar mystery of the earth and human development. And of Melchizedek, the priest and leader of the ancient sun mysteries, who brings the bread and wine to Abraham. Continuing up to the Mystery of Golgotha the two human streams of Cain and Abel, represented here by Hiram and Soloman who combine their forces, build the Temple; i.e. the body that can take the full "I" of Humanity. The stone from the 'light-crown' of Lucifer is an image of the Earthly-I itself, must become the chalice for the higher-I, when the full depth of the Grail mystery is grasped. Then in the distant future the physical body can be purified to transparency, as was the case with Christian Rosenkreutz. What was initially possible for the sun-like eye to achieve, to purify substance to the clarity of crystal, which is also the highest level of transformation of substance achieved by the alchemists, will now be possible for the entire body once the Human-I has become one with Christ, generation Atma, a preview of the end of world development. Here then appears rightmost in the picture of the Woman Clothed with the Sun, the new sun human being.
One can also say from this picture that the meaning of Earth evolution lights up as the eye sweeps from left through the middle and again to the right. It appears in the middle as the Blood flows deep into the Earth, and the post-Christian mysteries, starting with the Last Supper, are mysteries of the Blood. So also the Grail mysteries. Joseph of Arimathea captures the Blood, as it were for humanity. What is captured by the Norns ( deities in Norse mythology responsible for shaping the course of human destinies), absolves the Earth, and draws the power of Christ into destiny, whose Lord Christ becomes.
In such a manner one can stand before the picture and slowly learn to read it. It's not symbolic, it is a painting of spiritual history, of course, in the guise appropriate to the style at the beginning of the 20th century.
Part 1: This comprehensive imagination reflects Steiner's reading of the Akashic Record (Cosmic Memory). The Mystery of Golgotha is being depicted as the central event of world evolution. Two streams of time converge in this center, the one that comes from the pillar on the far left (Jachin) which includes Melchisadek, Abraham, Isaak and Jacob flows along the bottom is connected with the red blood and is met by the bowing figure of Moses beholding the descending Christ in the burning bush, from which he hears the voice of the Logos proclaiming "I Am the I Am". This etheric stream that flow out of the past and worked through the hereditary lineage of Abraham prepared the body temple over 42 generations that would become the Grail Vessel into which the Christ would later descend. The focal point of Hebrew faith was the Temple that began as a tent in the wilderness but was later built in Jerusalem through the collaboration of king Solomon (Abel stream) and Heiram Abiff the master builder (Cain stream). Between these two individualities is the Queen of Sheba over-lighted by the Sophian star wisdom which was still alive at that time.
Opposite Moses is Paul who through his Damascus experience prefigures the experience of the Second Coming of Christ that is unfolding in our time. The inititation of Christian Rosenkreutz who is the reborn Heiram is the central theme of the panel on the right. The far fight pillar (Boaz) represents the astral stream of time that flows prophetically and apocalyptically out of the future, as is associated with the blue blood. Hence the figures of the Archangel Michael and Sophia who appear as the main characters in the central drama that unfolds at the very heart of the Book of Revelation. The Rosicrucian Initiation expressed by the seven red roses are a means of aligning one self to these New Mysteries that prepare the future by helping to build the New Jerusalem which involves the transformation of the Earth into the Golden City known esoterically as the Planet of Love.
Part 2: The impulse toward this entered human and earthly evolution through the intervention of the Cosmic Christ being through His descent into the physical body of the man Jesus of Nazareth in his thirtieth year and after totally transmuting the three Astral, Etheric and Physical sheaths that underwent the sacrificial event of the Mystery of Golgotha. This involved alchemically transmuting the Phantom Body which underlies the physical body which had been corrupted through the Luciferic intervention which inevitably led to the invitation of Ahriman the Lord of Death into the human organism. The Christ revered as the Sacrificial Lamb without spot (karma) who's infinite LOVE was poured out with the Sacrificial Blood which in its inner fire or warmth is the medium of the human Ego raising it into a communion with the divine "I AM". This precious gift that reversed the consequences of the Fall is caught up in teh Grail Vessel made Holy by this overflowing Love by Joseph of Arimathea.
That Sacred Blood which flowed down to the Earht was etherized and drawn into the etheric aura of the Earth, this sun aura of the Earth is also the memory body of the earth that reaches back to the three former stages Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon expressed symbolically by the three Mothers (https://anthroposophy.eu/Three_mothers) who harken back to these periods and together embody the threefold soul of the Earth. By receiving this Sacred Blood which bore within it the power of the Divine Logos, the Seven Solar Elohim, these three Mothers received the Christ's Resurrection Impulse which instilled into the Earth the power of the resurrection as a means of over-coming the inevitable death of our common body the Earth so that it can in the future become the radiant Body of the Christ Earth-Sun. The blood arrayed as a circle of seven roses expresses the restoration of the divine plan that stretches from Old Saturn (1st Stage) al the way to future Vulcan (7th Stage). The Cross becoms the renewed Tree of Life which Christ as the new Planetary Spirit restored. Around it are gathered souls who have the Buddha Gautama, who helped to prepare this central event is shown in the pillar to the left of the central panel, the Beloved Disciple John who later reappears as Christian Rosenkreutz is shown in the right pillar, both are alignd to teh inspiritations of pre and post Christian Archai (time spirits) who reach out to one another and penetrate them from above.
Part 3: THe divine trinity symbolized by the Golden Triangle at the top center is the source of the Divine Plan that rays out into both past and future streams of time. One such stream rays out through the forehead of Buddha, then the ark of the Covenant that hovers over the left panel and streams onward towards the pre-Christian Grail-Cup that the sun-initiate Melchisedek bore when he bestowed his blessing upon Abraham the hereditary father of the Hebrew people who will henceforward come under the Lunar Divinity Jahwe, we know esoterically as the seventh Elohim (Spirit of Form). Another golden stream emanates on the opposite side towards the future with the same angle touching the forehead of the beloved disciple passing through the image of the crucified one that hovers above Christian Rosenkreutz who has invoked the In Christo Morimur and continues onward to the Heart of the Virgin Sophia who gives birth to the Second Coming of Christ. From the heart of the Virgin and the Grail Chalice held by Melchisedek, the golden rays proceed inward. On the left they pass through the head of Solomon who was granted the gift of Wisdom on through the pre-Christian Grail vessel that the Queen of Sheba bears, then endowing the Golden Sun Hammer (Tau-Tao) held by Heiram with its magical power touching the bowed head of Moses and culminating in the sub-earthly chamber where the Mothers gather in the Communion that gives the Earth its Meaning. From the other side the corresponding rays pass through the Chrystal that envelops the semi-transparent body of the youth laid upon an Altar formed of the four living creatures then touching and opening the eyes of Paul, and finally converging with the other stream coming from the past.
Lucifer's Crown is alluded to as a ring formed by a serpent biting its tail that can be seen in the canopy of the central tree. An Alchemical vessel is there in the opening where the crown's central jewel once had its place, and had been dislodged by Michael during the battle in heaven. This Jewel, expressive of the perfect balance of the four members of the human being now endowed with the power of Christ, is seen as a fruit that has grown out of this sacrificial deed. The members of the 3rd hierarchy who act as mediatiors and servants helping to carry out the divine plan are arrayed above. The angels are imaged as winged heads while the archangels have flames rising upwards to the heights. Around the renewed Tree of Life are gathered the many souls who have been drawn to this new manifestation of the Christ Sun who has enacted this central event of the great seven-fold drama upon the stage of human and earthly history, making this both a profoundly spiritual as well as being deeply imprinted into the dense physical substances that were transmuted into the Resurrection that prefigured the transubstantiation of the entire physical body of the Earth.
In this painting, which was very large and was apparently originally intended to have a place in the First Goetheanum, expresses in images what Steiner otherwise expressed in his writings and lectures. The theme is the Holy Grail. In his book Esoteric Science, an Outline which provides the most comprehensive overview of Anthroposophy published in 1910, he refers to Anthroposophy as a Grail Science.
The mysteries surrounding the Holy Grail involve an ongoing quest, the language of symbols needs to be learned in order to develop Imaginative Consciousness (the first stage of clairvoyance) which represents the first stage of higher development, which can be likened to a form of inner seeing, unfolding this capacity involves a cooperation of head and heart. Contemplating such a painting can help to orient the grail seeker as well as acting as a stimulus towards the development of imaginative consciousness. Steiner sought to draw together many facets that belong to the Grail theme in this picture. He have indications of the kind of frame that was intended — it would have had a protrusion along the bottom suggestive of an altar to evoke the mood of reverence which is necessary to enter into such content with the appropriate soul mood. I believe the carved wood frame was intended to be stained with blue-violet with gold rubbed over it that would have adhered to the convex parts.[2]
In one of the lectures contained in the book you've referenced, Steiner stated that, "Krishna — that is, the spirit who worked through Krishna — appeared again in the Jesus child of the Nathan line of the House of David, described in St. Luke Gospel (Lecture 9, 5 June 1913, The Occult Significance of the Bhagavad Gita). This Krishna-Nathan Jesus became the Physical Grail Vessel into which the Christ lived for 3 years culminating in the central event of world evolution highlighted in this painting. The presence of Buddha who according to Steiner had prepared the way for this event and also overlighted the scene with the humble shepherds described in the Luke Gospel and bestowed his Nirmanakaya-purified astral body as a gift upon this child. This with the help of Steiner's reading of the akashic record a convergence of East and West contributed to the realization of this event.
All this including the lofty mission of the Hebrew's recorded in the Old Testament which was to prepare the physical body for the coming of the Messiah, who's immanent appearance their prophets proclaimed. As well as all of the esstoteric insights that Steiner gave regarding the gospels and other books recorded in the New Testament, would be negated, if one were to accept the proposition being put forward and argued by Felix Volunaryist Hau, who is claiming that both the man Jesus who served as the vessel for the awaited Messiah as well as the Christ being are merely the product of myth and legend. Therefore pretty much all of what was carefully and painstakingly depicted in this Grail Triptych, including the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz from which the "Rosicrucian Line" arose never actually existed. This radical proposition is certainly not in accord with the better part of what Steiner contributed to Anthroposophy, through his spiritual scientific research.
I love this from Rudolf Steiner, so obvious in the modern world:
The quieter we are, the more can happen through us in the spiritual world. We simply cannot say that anything happens in the spiritual world as a result of hurry and excitement. We need to develop loving participation in a mood of soul calmness for what is to happen, and then wait patiently to see how things come to pass. This calmness of soul, which in the spiritual world is creative, does not quite have its equal in ordinary physical life. It is similar on higher levels of earthly existence to the sphere of knowledge and of the arts. Here we have something analogous. The artist who cannot wait will not be able to create the highest he is capable of. For this, he needs patiences and inner calmness of soul until the right moment dawns, until the intuition comes. One who seeks to create according to a schedule will produce only works of inferior quality. He who seeks to create, be it the smallest work, prompted by an outer stimulus will not succeed as well as if he had waited quietly with loving devotion for the moment of inspiration. We might say for the moment of grace. The same is true of the spiritual world. In it there is no rush and excitement but only calmness of soul.
Chapter 4: Life between death and rebirth
Margareth Hauschka, Das Triptychon Gral von Anna May in Das Goetheanum, 54 #24, Dornach 15 June 1975
Old Testament Connections
Approaching the Altar that Leads Into the New Mysteries
The "Altar": imagination reachs into the realm of the Archetypes and therefore has universaly human significance that has come to physical expression in a myriad different forms within varied cultures and civilizations throughout the ages. In many traditions it has served as the focal point for religious experience (religion - to bind; religio - bond, reverence) where the connection between the heavenly and the earthly, spirit and matter, or the communion between the human and the divinity was established or renewed. The fragrant incense that is often used in many such religious rites is meant to express prayer and devotion, accompanied by the mood of reverence.
Solomon's Temple and the New Jerusalem
The gesture of offering and sacrifice, such as that related to Abraham and his son Isaac within Judaic tradition also plays a central role. It is upon the sacred rock that commemorates this event that the Ark of the Covenant found its resting place within the Holy of Holies in the Hebrew Temple. The "mercy seat" invited the presence of Yahweh who's voice (Logos) was once heard by Moses from the burning bush uttering "I Am The I Am". The Altar of incense located in the middle chamber of this threefold Temple, stood before the threshold to the Holy of Holies where the four colored veil related the 4 elements, concealed the cubicle space which was covered with the sun metal gold which finds its metamorphosis in the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse, which also has cubicle dimensions. The veil which served to separate the people from this sacred chamber that only the high-priest, who wore the breastplate, adorned with 12 gem-stones entered once a year to utter the Sacred Name of God was "rent in twain from the top to the bottom" while the Mystery of Golgotha was being enacted.
In other words the secret hidden within this sacred chamber which embodied the future New Jerusalem (Jupiter Stage) which involves the Earth becoming a Sun, was made accessible, and possible by the Deed of Christ Jesus on the stage of history, thus preparingthe next 5th stage of planetary evolution when humanity will have brought Spirit-Self (Manas) to realization. This involves a process of astral-purification, catharsis which prepared a communion with the Shekina-Sophia, which led to illumination by the Holy-Spirit through the redemption of Lucifer. The great basin that stood outside the temple, referred to as the "Brazen Sea" supported by twelve bulls (Will) which dispensed the waters of ablution as well as the nearby Altar of Sacrifice were ritual means of enacting this cleansing and purification with the elements of water and fire.[3]
Upon entering the temple through the porch, one passed between the two great pillars Yachin and Boaz, which in esoteric tradition relate to the descent from the spiritual into the physical (birth) associated with the red blood (Jachin) and the ascent from the physical to the spiritual (death) related to the blue blood (Boaz). This arterial and venous blood are in turn related to in-breathing oxygenated blood and exhaling carbon dioxide laden blood. The exhaling out-breath was also related to the Micro-Logos the Word.
The mysteries of Birth (Jachin) and Death (Boaz) symbolized by the two pillars on either side of the threshold embody the 4th Mystery pertaining to the Earth and human "I" which were revealed through the birth of Jesus and the death of Jesus Christ. One has to pass through the threshold into the middle chamber in order to proceed to the Altar of Incense, which leads onward into the Holy of Holies, (which has become accessible through the Mystery of Golgotha), where the Ark of the Covenant, which embodies the first communion with the Divinity, Manas-Holy Spirit comes to expression, the two subsequent stages were symbolized by the two Cherubim who hovered over the Ark as Buddhi-Son-Venus stage and Atman-Father-Vulcan stage.
The Three Altars
This same threefold mystery was embodied in the layout of the lodge shown below.[4] The fact that while undergoing Initiation the three soul forces Thinking, Feeling and Willing would begin to separate meant that they needed to be oriented to the threefold Trinity in order to avoid falling prey to the adversarial forces, who must be contended with on yonder side of the threshold (Lower Guardian). Thus Thinking was raised to commune with the Holy Spirit through Wisdom, Feeling united with the Son through Beauty/Love and Willing elevated to union with the Father forces through Strength/Courage. This threefold communion with the divinity expressed in the three stages Manas, Buddhi and Atman were reflected in the three Altars. Upon entering one passed between the two pillars and proceeded to the Altar of Wisdom located in the east (Jachin side) related to the morning sun, then onward to the middle Altar devoted to Beauty and Love where the incense sensor was kept, related to the midday sun, and the third Altar devoted to Strength in the west was oriented to the setting evening sun. Finally upon departing from the Lodge on once again passed between the two pillars but this time on the Boaz side. The Hammer TAU/TAO that was used to open and close the sacred rituals enacted in this Lodge was meant as a manifestation of the Micro-Logos, the Word imbued with Inspiration that proceeded from the Logos which only the higher Christ endowed Higher Self could wield.
The Two Guardians at the Altar
Rudolf Steiner and Christian Rosenkruetz can be seen as the two guardians who preside oer the mysteries embodied in the two pillars that lead over from the 4th Mystery having to do with uniting the human "I" with the Macro-cosmic Christ "I" to the 5th stage involving communion with the Holy-Spirit. Rudolf Steiner indicated that this fifth mystery was expressed with sacred geometry in the architecture at the entry to Solomon's temple in the form of a pentagram which symbolizes the Higher Human Being who overcomes the Mystery of Evil associated with this 5th stage. The Altar sketch that Rudolf Steiner gave to Ita Wegman who was to preside over the First Class in the High School of Spiritual Science, was meant to convey that CR and RS were acting as guardians of these mysteries which could only be entered by first making the offertory sacrifice at the Altar. Steiner for example referred to eh Sacrifice of the Intellect which was necessary to raise thinking into the realm of the Holy Spirit and Imagination. (Part One)
"The brilliance manifest in so much of the Renaissance art and architecture involved looking back to the wisdom and inspirations carried over from the Greco-Latin era which involved a recapitulation of the Atlantean period. However in our time humanity is collectively crossing the Threshold where we are no longer recapitulating the past, but rather prophetically anticipating the future. According to Steiner this is what makes our times apocalyptic. The Threshold we are collectively crossing involves the pralaya period that leads over to the future Jupiter Planetary condition (New Jerusalem) being telescoped into our times. This can be better understood by recalling that the Lemurian Epoch as the 4th Earth Epoch stands in the middle and our present 5th Post-Atlantean Epoch anticipated the future Jupiter Condition, however the first four ages within this 5th Epoch continue to involve recapitulations with the exception of our 5th age which began in 1413 and gradually shifts to the future orientation. ...The radical division of humanity that will take place during the transition to the future Jupiter is beginning in a preliminary fashion in our own time. The shift from the Medieval two-dimensional painting to the development of perspective among the Renaissance painters reflects a collective incarnational process deeper into the physical material world, a trajectory dictated by the culminating Kali-Yuga (Dark Age). ...However since the end of the Kali Yuga in 1899 the heavens are once again opened, and a re-ascent that the Michael Age, which began in 1879, has ushered in has given us Anthroposophy which then brought to Life within human minds and hearts can lead to the awakening of the imaginative consciousness we need to navigate the abyss we have collectively begun to cross since the 1840's. The imaginative world once again involves a two dimensional experience only now rather than the heavy oils the more fluid water colors become the preferred medium. ...As to Architecture we are being called upon to begin to wield the etheric forces that stream in from the surrounding cosmos so that we can help build the New Jerusalem, the Golden City that now shines within the etheric aura of the earth as the Bride of the Lamb descending from above. Obviouslywe also need to live our everyday practical lives in a grounded manner. So the Architecture that [is] built from below upward also needs to [be] imbued with the quickened and more mobile thinking centered in the etheric rather than [the] physical brain. This would mean more rounded and sculpted forms such as Steiner sought to achieve in the first and second Goetheanum where organic forms and metamorphosis play more of a role."
Thanks to Richard Distais and Florian Sydow.
Thanks from my heard to Anna May with all my admiration.
Meditating on the Triptych
The following are thoughts about this painting from Stephen Hawks of Art and Anthroposophy
Something that Steiner said in his lectures on art (The Arts and Their Mission) struck me very strongly (among other things), that it didn’t matter whether art used naturalism or not but what mattered was whether the spirit shone through in the work. This is an inadequate paraphrase. I recently came across an early 20th century artist that proved this to me. Her style was so unique and unlike other Anthroposophical art practitioners that It convinced me of what I was sure was possible. There is a real embodiment of Anthroposophical experience but with a very different style to other Anthroposophical artists. I came across this extraordinary image along with an essay by Margarethe Hauschka about the work, while looking for something else on the Internet. A translation of the essay by Sonia Homrich may be found at the following link: Link
My consciousness continually draws parallels from sometimes disparate things. When I saw this image what came to mind was a great 20th century work, Der Krieg, by Otto Dix. Anna May von Richter’s work seems an antidote to the horror and suffering depicted in Dix’s work.
The promise of Early 20th century spiritual trans-formative impulses, though devastated by 2 World Wars and numerous other disasters perpetrated and perpetuated by human beings, has never-the-less survived in the seeds of that promise, which continue to sprout and grow, despite the continuation of human horrors, into the 21st Century. I bare witness to this in my life and in the lives of those I encounter who continue to strive for the spirit in the midst of grief and suffering, preparing the way for joy and wisdom.
