The leaders of the twelve Sections of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum worked with participants of the 2025 Whitsun Conference on three questions: What core inspirations did Rudolf Steiner articulate for each Section? What methods, knowledge practices, and understanding does each Section contribute to the School? What does each Section contribute to the future of civilization? In preparation for the conference, we asked the Sections four questions of our own about their particular section:
Guiding star: What idea from Rudolf Steiner guides you?
Obstacle: What anthroposophical idea remains a mystery for you?
Shadow: What opposition do you want to redeem?
Humanity: How does your Section make us more human?
Karin Michael
Medical Section
Guiding star: Rudolf Steiner inspires us to develop a new science of the living for today’s medicine. He gives us the concept of the etheric body—as a riddle, a wonder, and a task for a new art of healing. His indications about the new etheric heart and the transformation of the central member of our threefold being, our feeling, are for me the starting point for a medicine of warmth and of the future. My guiding sentence for this is: “It is of the utmost significance to know that the ordinary thinking forces of human beings are the refined forces of formation and growth. In the formation and growth of the human organism, something spiritual is brought into manifestation. The spiritual element then appears later in the course of life as the spiritual power of thinking” (Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman, Extending Practical Medicine: Fundamental Principles Based on the Science of the Spirit, CW 27. Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997, ch. 1).
Obstacle: We still have so many open research questions! When it comes to fully healing a human being, one thought presents us with a new riddle for every disease: “The remedies must therefore be such that they not only reverse the disease process but also support the vitality that has been lowered” (see above, CW 27, ch. 19).
Shadow: Rudolf Steiner indicated two types of doppelgangers in medicine, both of which we must redeem through knowledge and the courage to heal: “For this doppelganger of which I have spoken is nothing more and nothing less than the originator of all physical illnesses that arise spontaneously from within, and to be completely familiar with it is the task of organic medicine. The illnesses that arise spontaneously, not through external injuries, but spontaneously from within the human being, do not come from the human soul, they come from this being. He is the originator of all illnesses that arise spontaneously from within; he is the originator of all organic illnesses. And a brother of his, who is, however, not of an Ahrimanic nature, but of a Luciferic nature, is the originator of all neurasthenic and neurotic illnesses, of all illnesses that are not really illnesses, but are only, as one says, nervous illnesses, hysterical illnesses, and so on. So, medicine must become spiritual from two sides” (Rudolf Steiner, Secret Brotherhoods and the Mystery of the Human Double, CW 178. Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004, lecture in St. Gallen, November 16, 1917).
Humanity: I owe it to anthroposophy that I am able to sense a higher meaning in illness and healing. It provides moral guidance, particularly in the difficult borderline cases and threshold situations that we encounter in medicine.
Sonja Zausch, Jan Göschel, and Bart Vanmechelen
Section for Inclusive Social Development
Guiding Star: We draw on two sources of inspiration from Rudolf Steiner. One is the Curative Education Course, where he condenses his understanding of humanity and child development into an imaginative picture unlike anywhere else in his work. This helps us understand how the ‘I’ enters into a resonant and self-effective relationship with the world through physicality, and what is needed for this relationship, this “embodiment,” to succeed. Another motif is that the future can already be grasped in the present and shaped into a “seed.” Rudolf Steiner characterizes certain qualities of a potentially “inclusive” future society. They are: practical participation in the lived reality of others, unconditional respect for the freedom, dignity, and inviolability of the inner world of others, and a lived approach to knowledge that makes it possible to communicate across all differences as human beings who share a common reality. How are we to implement these qualities? We have to have a spiritual presence of mind, as Rudolf Steiner puts it, to know what is most essential: to be able to arrive at a deeper insight and to courageously implement what is helpful for the specific person in front of me in this moment. This requires a training of inner perception that goes beyond one’s own experience, as well as inner freedom to change patterns of behavior. This is how the anthroposophical path of training can be applied in the spirit of the Foundation Stone Meditation (Rudolf Steiner, Education for Special Needs: The Curative Education Course, CW 317. Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2015).
Jan Göschel: At the moment, my favorite sentence from the “Curative Education Course” is: “But when we begin to work out of the spirit, we must feel confronted with decisions every day, every hour; and with every action, we feel confronted with the possibility of being able to do it or being able to leave it aside, or of being able to be completely neutral.” (see above, CW 317, lecture in Dornach, June 26, 1924) We’re faced with the task of providing new creative impulses in our individual and social development, in what Steiner calls “the trolling away of the past,” and of creating space for seeds of the future. We have these three possibilities for doing this when we’re able to be present. The third is the most interesting for me: What does it mean to open oneself to the unknown, to the new, to be inwardly “neutral,” not passive, but rather with courage to allow whatever comes to happen, to then connect with it and help (co-)shape it?
Bart Vanmechelen: My favorite part of the Course is the point-circle meditation, which has become part of my daily practice. It opens up the possibility of discovering new inspiration and intuition in every encounter and every moment of teaching, in order to learn something or practice something together.
Sonja Zausch: For me, these two motifs come together in the “devotion to the small.” Seeing the authentic person in front of us, being present in the situation we’re in, and taking them seriously in order to enter into dialogue with our fellow human beings. Perceiving what is being offered to me in the moment and allowing the effect to unfold, so allowing a “sphere of activity” to unfold.
Obstacle: Rudolf Steiner characterizes curative education as “intervening in karma.” The question of which understanding of “karma” is meant here and what “intervening” entails has not been sufficiently addressed yet. Even the thought itself is often perceived as impertinent. However, there’s great potential for the future here if we engage with it with greater depth. For Steiner, “karma” means something completely different from the popular understanding of the term. For him, karma is about grasping the dynamic connection between past and future in the present, whereby we can unfold our creative potential. It’s about the fact that every human being is a new riddle. We discover how we can do this in each individual case when we connect with the essence of the other person. Rudolf Steiner says, “It’s uncomfortable work, but it’s the only real work. Therefore, it is so important that we, as educators, cultivate self-education to the highest degree in the sense described in our spiritual science.”
Shadow: The doppelganger of our section’s field of work is closely related to the doppelganger of the professional fields we work in. Wherever people in vulnerable situations are accompanied, where there are relationships of dependency and power differences, we’re confronted with the potential for boundary violations, dominance, and abuse. In recent decades, there have been significant efforts to raise awareness of this. As specialists with an anthroposophical understanding of human beings, we should be pioneers in dealing with these doppelganger issues. But we certainly haven’t always lived up to this ideal. All the more reason why now is a good time to further develop our ability to deal with the shadow aspects of support professions. In doing so, we should draw on the approaches that have developed more generally in our professional field. At the same time, we also have the task of more fully elaborating the anthroposophical perspective on self-knowledge and inner development, on the dynamics of the “doppelgangers” in interpersonal processes and organizational structures, and of providing a fruitful approach to these areas that can be implemented in practice. On a personal level, in our day-to-day work, we’re constantly confronted with our own imperfections and lack of awareness. These prevent me from treating the people I accompany and support with respect and as equals. I can gratefully accept new things that I learn in order to be more free and creative. Seriousness and depth, as well as humor and playfulness, are all important to create the right balance in every situation.
Humanity: The “for all” is a central concern of our section: How can participation in society become possible for everyone? From a spiritual perspective, this brings us back to the core questions of individual and social development, as well as transformation into a future form of society and community: How can the greatest possible diversity of individual paths of development be reconciled with a sense of belonging and solidarity within a community? Reconciling such apparent contradictions requires a spiritual perspective, because these paradoxes can’t be resolved by a perspective that only considers outer manifestations. We all learn to become ourselves by connecting with others, with those who came before us, with the people around us, and with the new generation to whom we’re gradually passing on our planet, our culture, and our wisdom. Being able to marvel at the mystery of otherness means wanting to learn rather than thinking we already know everything. Empathy and interest create a space where others can reveal their potential for development. Through enthusiastic collaboration, we can realize our ideals for a humane future.
Pieter van der Ree
Visual Art Section
Guiding Star: In today’s “visual culture,” it’s become more and more relevant to work out of a new approach that involves shaping forms from within, from out of the content itself, so that spiritual aspects are experienced, inner life is stimulated, and connections are felt. Steiner’s advice is: Ask yourself what will happen, what is going to take place in the future building you’re constructing, and design it from out of that content and activity.
Obstacle: The moral effects of forms, how forms become lawmakers.
Shadow: Initially, we usually design out of habit, drawing on what we created in the past. This must be transcended and overcome each time so that something new can emerge. The shadow cast by artistic and architectural influences becomes the danger of falling into a fixed stylization in building and art.
Humanity: Life becomes an adventure because I develop through my tasks, enabling others to develop as well.
Yaike Dunselman
Visual Art Section
Guiding Star: Life—or survival—on our Earth depends upon how we humans treat the fragility of our Earth. This consciousness is essential to my architecture. The technical path of past centuries seems to be a path of human alienation from the Earth, a path “away from the Earth.” With both an inner and an outer posture, I’d like to contribute to a future that connects with the Earth organism. It’s an individual path, a “path to the Earth,” a path that can only be taken with a spiritual consciousness of the sensitive, fragile living “Earth” organism. Everything is becoming technical, everything is becoming fixed, everything is determined down to the last detail. It has become so complicated that we no longer understand that we can no longer find a way out. And here’s when artificial intelligence (AI) pops up! When I look at it, it becomes clear to me: AI appears not to be a tool (though it is!), and instead seems to be an entity, one that makes decisions! This affects us humans at a time when many are retreating into a complicated, rigidified reality. AI is not a technical challenge, but a cultural and moral decision of humanity! That makes the work in this section so important to me. It’s about addressing the human, creative potential in everyone; it’s about carrying it in our consciousness and fighting for it! Everywhere, transforming the straight into the curved, seeking balance, everywhere attempting to dissolve the rigid into the fluid, everywhere creating stillness in the movement, but then again setting the stillness into motion.
Ariane Eichenberg
Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities
Guiding Star: Rudolf Steiner shows the way that science becomes art. Science is transformed into spiritual science, enabling Imaginative, Inspirational, and Intuitive knowledge. “Yes, human beings are on Earth because the gods need them to think, feel, and will what lives in the cosmos” (Rudolf Steiner, The Arts and Their Mission, CW 276. Hudson, NY: SteinerBooks, 2023, lecture in Dornach, June 8, 1923).
Obstacle: In his letter to members dated November 2, 1924, Rudolf Steiner writes that anthroposophy wants to speak a different language alongside the language of natural science, and he calls this other language the “Christ-Michael language.” A silver lining appears on the horizon here—but the full light remains hidden (Rudolf Steiner, Leitsätze—Leading Thoughts. Bilingual Edition, CW 26. Arlesheim, Switzerland: Ita Wegman Institute, 2024, Nov. 2, 1924).
Shadow: The doppelgangers dwell in computer-generated language and language use. Comprehending these technologies and assigning them their place in our future evolution will be tantamount to salvation.
Humanity: The literary arts and humanities do not constitute one single professional group. The sense of belonging arises out of a free choice. The literary arts and humanities point to a future ideal: human beings acting out of freedom.
Christiane Haid
Visual Arts Section & Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities
Guiding Star: Building bridges between science and art and encouraging people to take a closer look at works of creative imagination is more relevant than ever after one hundred years. Given the claim that AI can create art and write texts, it will be essential to recognize and appreciate human creativity as a genuinely human achievement that cannot be imitated by machines. This will determine what kind of future world we’ll live in, what kind of speech we’ll use to communicate, and so what kind of beings we’ll connect with. “Suffused with ideas, the soul experiences spirit-light when sense-appearance only echoes in the human being like a memory” (Rudolf Steiner, Leitsätze—Leading Thoughts. Bilingual Edition, CW 26, translated by George and Mary Adams, revised by Thomas O’Keefe. Arlesheim, Switzerland: Ita Wegman Institute, 2024, March 8, 1925).
Obstacle: One challenge is that the field of the literary arts and humanities is undervalued and is also misunderstood as a section created just so Albert Steffen would have a section to lead as part of the original Executive Board. This makes it so that its actual task remains undone; the task of formulating a new scientific paradigm, one that brings science closer to art and imbues art with forces of knowledge without killing it. Artistic methods bring the necessary vitality and concreteness to all other fields of work and keep excessive technology within necessary limits. In this way, the space of the human being is awakened and protected.
Shadow: The doppelganger is effective wherever creativity and freedom are underestimated and when one is content to sit back and achieve results without effort. If, for example, one shies away from the effort of working through a text by Rudolf Steiner and instead prefers to enjoy a translation into an easier language, then one misses the inner message and requirement of spiritual science, which is to give people an opportunity to raise themselves up above their current self. This may sound old-fashioned, but even after a hundred years, it remains a genuine experience.
Humanity: Literature, language, history, aesthetics, and philosophy are human creations and enable self-reflection and self-knowledge. To unfold this force, we need people who are willing to transcend inner and outer boundaries and conquer the realm of the spirit. Machines cannot do this. Whether this creative world of human beings will continue to exist in the future depends on whether its significance is recognized, nurtured, and promoted. In the future, I will seek forms of speech and writing for exchange and communication. The starting point should be personal experiences, experiences that have a paradigmatic character and lead to the spiritual. This requires being awake during our experiences and also when we process our experiences, as well as an art of representation that evokes spiritual force.
Matthias Rang and Vesna Forštnerič Lesjak
Natural Science Section
Guiding Star: We are guided by the task to resolve the contradiction between a spiritual and a scientific approach to the world. It is a wonderful inspiration, even if we still have a lot to do in order to fully implement it. More specifically, a task we’ve been working on for a hundred years is the expansion of natural science into the etheric realm. Much has been achieved, but we simply don’t have enough people involved to gain real momentum. Natural science also forms a bridge to medicine. Our task is to recognize the boundaries of matter, as well as the limits of the methods we use to study it. Goethean natural science enables the holistic and essential explanation of the effects of medical remedies in relation to the processes of natural substances and their transformation through pharmaceutical processing. Our guiding star is the subtitle of The Philosophy of Freedom: “Results of soul observation according to the method of natural science.” This sentence states clearly how, from the other side, the dichotomy between natural science and classical spiritual science can be overcome. When we begin to observe our inner experiences, we resolve to also learn in this realm through the clear, observation-based approach used by natural scientists and researchers in the outer world. Like the expansion of natural science into the realm of the etheric, this side of the work also helps to connect spiritual knowledge with the scientific achievements made throughout the evolution of consciousness.
Goethe also remains our source of inspiration, even though Steiner said that in Goethe’s work we only find the beginnings, only the way of approach, and that we must develop it further. In various places, Steiner writes, “An immeasurable amount depends on this.” That said, Goethe’s research method is still a guiding star for us; for example, “One should seek nothing behind the phenomena; they themselves are the teaching.” Goethe attempted to follow the natural phenomena of the world—in the colors of inorganic nature to the forms and evolution of living beings—to trace their unfolding in such a way that they themselves express their archetypal idea, that is, that they represent and reveal their inner nature through the manifestation of their phenomena (J. W. von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995, bk. 2, ch. 11).
Obstacle: Rudolf Steiner’s statements and explanations nearly all remain mysterious to us—nearly all of them continue as questions for further research. As natural scientists, we’re used to this and see it as a great and welcome challenge. One example is the question of substances in the human organism. Rudolf Steiner indicates that substances act differently when they are within the organism and that they act differently than when they are outside the organism—that they go through a process of etherization. This is not observable using the methods of natural science, as these methods typically isolate substances. Even in our thinking about substances, we still isolate them when we use the natural scientific approach. The biggest questions still remain: What is matter, with all its manifestations? What is life, what is an organism, what is consciousness, and what is the spirit? How did the Earth and the cosmos develop? These are clearly existential human questions. They will be with us until the end of Earth’s evolution.
Shadow: We often think of substances in such material terms that our thoughts themselves hold us captive in the material world. At first, this seems like a contradiction. It’s not easy to clarify which results are determined by our preconceptions and show us more of our personal spiritual constitution rather than the object or being we are investigating. It’s an illusion to believe we can gain knowledge of nature independently of our spiritual constitution. In Goetheanism, we therefore try to become conscious of the way and manner that our soul is observing the object or being under investigation. We undergo a practice of distinguishing our own soul activity from how the being is expressing itself within my soul.
On the other side, as a polarity to the solidification of our thoughts in matter, there’s another doppelganger: contempt for matter, contempt for the sensory world. This is associated with a whole host of other characteristics: “that we already know better,” rushing to conclusions, forgetting good scientific practice in terms of discussion and reproducibility of phenomena, and thus sacrificing modesty, openness, and patience in our research.
Humanity: How does spiritual engagement in a particular field make us all human beings? What does it mean to spiritually awaken the doctor, farmer, artist, teacher, researcher, etc. within me? One can learn and become familiar with a great deal in life. But in Goethean natural science, when you observe a plant for months, perhaps years, you form a relationship with it. Today, few people have a living relationship with nature, and we experience the consequences of this in a number of ways. Every human being can build up a living relationship with nature within themselves and continue to cultivate it through the years. This is what makes Goetheanism, as described by Rudolf Steiner, such an essential cultural impulse.
Event
The School of Spiritual Science and Its Sections. Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Impulses for a Civilization of the Future. Whitsun Conference June 6–9, 2025 at the Goetheanum.
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Title image Staircase in the Goetheanum, photo: Xue Li
