Horst, Germany. 2025 is the 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death. How does he live on in specific individuals? Martyn Rawson, author, teacher, and lecturer for Waldorf pedagogy, gives his answers.
How can people around you tell you that you are interested in Rudolf Steiner?
Some people see me as a threat to anthroposophy, and in particular to the status of anthroposophy as the basis of Waldorf education. I’m sorry about this, but I believe in open discourse. If you treat Steiner as a guru and his entire collected works as a revelation of truth, you lose your freedom, which I thought was Steiner’s main point. Most people who know me know that I am a lifelong dedicated practitioner of Waldorf education, and many trust what I say about the anthroposophical basis for Waldorf education.
In which human encounter did you feel close to Rudolf Steiner?
My first mentor as a novice Waldorf teacher was Edith Bierman (1908-2004). As a girl, she performed on the stage of the First Goetheanum, which she saw burn down. She was the last surviving person who attended the Ilkley Course and Summer School at Penmaenmawr in 1923. I am one of the last people who knew someone personally who spent time with Rudolf Steiner. Edith gave me a sense of Rudolf Steiner as a public and private person, but she was not sentimental. Steiner gave her a powerful sense of mission, and Edith inspired that in me, too.
For which life questions is anthroposophy particularly important to you?
It depends on what you mean by anthroposophy—there are multiple discourses about anthroposophy, or ways of relating to it. Some aspects of Steiner’s works have always inspired and interested me: education, obviously, social threefolding, and his theory of knowledge.
What thought would you like to add to anthroposophy?
I try to put my understanding of anthroposophy into my own words and make these accessible in a contemporary context. I see anthroposophy as a process, as something you have to do, as a way of generating understanding about the spiritual dimension of life, not as something that already exists.
Contact martyn.rawson@alanus.edu
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Image Martyn Rawson, Photo: Ulrike Sievers
