So many new practical endeavors originate with Rudolf Steiner: eurythmy, Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophic medicine. The source for all of these was what he called “spiritual science.” Who was he as a researcher?
Rudolf Steiner’s fundamental innovation was spiritual research, the expansion of cognition, knowledge, into the realm of the suprasensible. In his early philosophical writings, he writes that “cognition” involves the connection of percept and concept. This applies to both sensory and suprasensory cognition. In both cases, perception is mediated by specific organs. While sensory organs are innate to human beings, we have to develop suprasensory organs ourselves. Sensory organs are given with the body. Soul organs of suprasensible perception remain in potential, buried deep and yet to be unfolded.
If we were organized differently, we wouldn’t be able to use these higher senses and still remain free. Ancient human beings lived without this same freedom. The suprasensible organs were active in the past, but only in part, only one half, and then they were submerged completely. If today, the undeveloped halves are awakened, old dispositions can arise again. Some people want to return to earlier times and are willing to give up their individual freedom—and responsibility—to obtain suprasensible perception. But Rudolf Steiner considers it essential that freedom remains connected with the new development of these organs. Individual freedom is the fruit of modern times; along with this comes a necessary, but temporary, reduction of consciousness to merely sensory perception. If human civilization wants to avoid inevitable demise, this reduction of consciousness must gradually be overcome. Spiritual research is paving the way.
In the given reality, percept and concept are one. Our mental pictures of reality that only attribute meaning to patterns of sensory perception are therefore inadequate—only half of reality. Sense perception brings about an experience of separation between body and world. When we reunite percept and concept through cognition, we awaken to the true reality of the senses and form ourselves as free sensing beings. The development of suprasensible organs of perception also initially brings about an experience of separation. But when we connect suprasensible percepts with their corresponding concepts through cognition, we overcome this separation, awaken to suprasensible reality, and form ourselves as free—and responsible—higher beings.
Human and Cosmos
The individual fields of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual knowledge are far too numerous to mention in detail. They range from the etheric world to continued existence of the soul after death to the reincarnation of the spirit. The connection between humans and the cosmos is revealed. Spiritual knowledge shows that the evolution of human beings and the cosmos is inextricably interwoven, from the distant past and into the far future. The results of spiritual research prove to be fruitful and true, but they’re by no means universally immune to error.
Every human is fallible. Rudolf Steiner never claimed to be infallible. All research is inherently fallible. Knowledge is in flux. It’s not about never being wrong, but about being able to recognize errors and correct them. If the human organization only reflected what was given, we would be entirely bound by it. Our ability to err speaks against this erroneous materialistic view. This primal human capacity to err points beyond the untenable materialistic opinion regarding the reality of the suprasensible spirit.
Even though Rudolf Steiner went beyond the sensory and pointed the way to suprasensible knowledge, his spiritual research always relates to the sensory world and the embodied human being. This even applies to his karma research. He never relinquished the sensory ground under his feet. His spiritual research is eminently fruitful within the earthly world itself. The Sections of the School for Spiritual Science plow the fields of the earthly world. But, at its core, this world, too, is spiritual. When a balance is maintained, knowledge of the spirit is also fruitful in the whole world of the senses. The higher we ascend to the spirit, the deeper we must penetrate the sensory, and the more innovative the results become.
If we enter the spiritual world while remaining conscious in our cognition, we remain free. It’s not by chance that Rudolf Steiner’s published works began with a Philosophy of Freedom. His intention was to begin with the enlivening of thinking. Later, his aim was to stimulate development of all the capacities for higher cognition inherent in every human soul. Intellectualized thoughts and mental pictures aren’t suitable for art and suprasensible cognition. Living thoughts are.
Rudolf Steiner gave countless instructions on how to develop organs of suprasensible perception. Each organ relates to a group of soul qualities and habits. These must be trained and ennobled. The spiritual is objective, but it reveals itself within the soul. Meditation and contemplation are central. There are many forms of meditation; we can begin with a picture, a verse, or a pure thought, for example. Practice should always be combined with cultivation of the so-called “auxiliary practices.”
Rudolf Steiner also explained the prerequisites for higher stages of cognition. He distinguished between Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition. These are the main means of spiritual research. They require a transformation of the soul forces: thinking, feeling, and willing. We can describe Imagination as a kind of inner seeing, Inspiration as a kind of inner hearing, and Intuition as a kind of inner knowing. A spiritual being can appear as a figure in Imagination; in Inspiration, a spiritual being reveals itself by speaking; in Intuition, it merges with the cognizing ‘I’ to form, in a certain sense, a unity. In Intuition, the ‘I’ itself becomes the organ of cognition. Higher cognition thus gradually becomes more and more intimate and certain. Things that appear extended in sense cognition are experienced simultaneously in Imaginative knowledge, like a tableau. Living thinking is thus needed to be able to comprehend the experience and perceptions. An Imagination reveals itself to the human soul in two dimensions; an Inspiration (when compared with physical sense perception) reveals itself as a one-dimensional, linear stream radiating from the supratemporal into the temporal, into time; and an Intuition reveals itself as a full and potent point, a wellspring. Gradually, higher cognition leads step-by-step “down” to the sense realm.
Today, the organs of spiritual knowledge can become active all on their own. These higher senses are gradually loosening. If they’re not grasped and unfolded by a free ‘I’, they may be used by some other spiritual being with no regard for the freedom of the human being; or they can just wither away. The organs of each individual and our entire civilization are threatened by these two dangers: either they become the plaything of foreign powers, or they eventually die away. Spiritual research shows a way through. It is an essential need of our time.
This year, we are bringing you a series of articles titled “Rudolf Steiner as…” to honor the 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death. These articles are sometimes essays, sometimes simply thoughts or reflections, but always an aspect of his being.
Translation Joshua Kelberman
