The spiritual foundation of anthroposophic medicine: winning back the staff of Mercury.
During the 1923 Summer School in Penmaenmawr, Ita Wegman posed the fateful question to Rudolf Steiner about a medicine akin to the one found in the ancient Mysteries—but now in a new, Christian form.1 Rudolf Steiner then gave lectures on the seasonal imaginations and revealed the Raphael Mystery for Easter: the representative of humanity between Lucifer and Ahriman, maintaining the balance, with Raphael standing beside him, teaching the paths that lead to illness and healing. Further lectures on the subject followed, culminating in the lecture cycle Mystery Knowledge and Mystery Centres [CW 232]. These were followed by the evening lectures during the Christmas Conference on the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society and the Independent School for Spiritual Science, in which Wegman was entrusted with the leadership of the Medical Section.
Previously, Rudolf Steiner made special mention of Ita Wegman, showing how natural, free, and trusting the human relationship between them was: “I am going to write a medical book with Dr. Wegman,” he said to a long-standing member of the Anthroposophical Society during a social evening in Vienna on October 2. Wegman, standing nearby, hearing herself named as co-author, later reported that she only first learned of Steiner’s decision at that very moment. If we consider how full Steiner’s schedule was during these years until his illness, we can see that this book project would hardly have come about if Wegman had not repeatedly reminded him of it and given him chapters to revise. Two days before his death on March 30, 1925, he was able to happily hand her the finished, corrected galley proofs. After the first proofreading, he wrote an introductory chapter and decided not to include Wegman’s “preface” to the book. This is worth noting because her preface focused on the esoteric understanding of illness and the path of medical training, while Steiner’s introduction is more general.2 Wegman writes:
“Medicine today has taken on a purely scientific character. Thereby, it has become entirely dependent on the views that have developed in modern times regarding science and scientificity. According to these views, only what can be established through sensory observation, experimentation, and intellectual conclusions drawn from these two sources is considered scientific.
“One must now ask oneself: is it possible, in this sense, to have a science whose findings are applicable to each individual human being? No matter how many people one may have examined in order to determine the general character of humankind, one can still only understand the individual essence of a single human being when one has the gift of direct observation of the individual. A sick human being, however, is always a completely individual case. No two people can be ill in the same sense [. . .]. In this book, we will speak about a medical system that is based upon the view of spiritual scientific laws just as much as on the natural scientific laws prevailing in the sensory world. We are aware that many will believe we are contradicting the recognized natural scientific orientation of medicine. This will, indeed, not be the case at all. We acknowledge in the fullest sense of the word the contemporary findings of this orientation. Alone, it cannot be denied that this orientation must stop short of the essence of illness. It can talk about damage to the organism and its members, but it cannot gain any insight into how the organism comes to develop such damage from within itself. The natural law of the organism lies in its development from germ to full maturity. If one remains within this development and stays within the natural order, one will not obtain any forces able to counteract this development. In disease, however, such forces are effective [. . .].
“Spiritual intuition knows directly that perception and thinking are themselves wholly spiritual activities. Mere natural activity cannot correspond to perception and thinking. Rather, if perception and thinking are to arise in the organism, there must be a breakdown of natural activity in order to make room for the spiritual activity. On the other hand, wherever natural activity is fully built up, no spiritual activity can penetrate there. This is the case where the metabolic system and the processes underlying the movement of the organism are concerned. [. . .] The upbuilding forces can become too strong, then they dampen down the spiritual forces. This is one form of illness; it occurs, for example, where the upbuilding metabolic processes in the brain become too strong. Consciousness is dampened.
“The other form of illness occurs when the breaking-down forces become too strong. This results in an overextended working of consciousness. This is the other form of illness; it is present, for example, when forces are at work in the digestive system that are only to be active in the brain with such an intensity. [. . .] The soul exercises that lead to spiritual intuition consist either in a weakening or an intensification of the soul life. The weakening of the soul life is a simulation of the diseases of the first type within the soul realm, while the intensification is a simulation of the diseases of the second type. Whoever knows the condition of the soul that stems from such exercises knows the diseases, for they have images of them in their soul states. Describing the physical symptoms of the diseases through what he experiences in these images, he thus provides every physician with descriptions that can be verified. Should the description stand up to verification, the indications of the spiritual researcher will thereby be confirmed. And should the physician repeatedly engage with the descriptions of such a spiritual researcher, he can thus more and more acquire the spiritual intuition himself from the researcher’s depictions of the complex of symptoms. We are thoroughly of the opinion that the right reading of this book will enable every physician to be able himself to see spiritually into the illnesses [. . .].”
The Secret of Mercury’s Staff
This is precisely the great challenge for anyone who wants to devote themselves to the study of anthroposophic medicine. When studying the twenty chapters of the book Extending Practical Medicine: Fundamental Principles Based on the Science of the Spirit [CW 27], one is consistently stimulated to learn to think about what takes place in the health–illness continuum of the human organism. It is important, though, to discover the secret of Mercury’s staff in Steiner’s introductory chapter, which fully supports Wegman’s approach: the law of metamorphosis inherent in the members of the human being whereby the activities that form the body develop into activities purely of spirit and soul: thinking as a metamorphosed etheric body, feeling as a metamorphosed astral body, and willing as a metamorphosed ‘I’-organization.
This law, vividly symbolized in the open lemniscate of Mercury’s staff, shows that, in a healthy organism, the members of a human being have opposing directions of action: depending on whether they are guided—when embodied—by the wisdom of nature, or—when disembodied—by the soul-spiritual activity of the individual human being. When body-bound, they serve “biological egoism,” in the best sense of the word, a healthy self-preservation. In contrast, their healthy direction of action in “free spiritual life” is selfless devotion to the search for truth, an interest-led, loving connection with human beings and the world, and the goodwill to work collaboratively and help where it is needed. However, should it turn out that this healthy and healing polarity becomes out of balance, then it produces immune deficiencies in the body—that is, weaknesses in biological egoism, as well as a loss of altruistic tendencies in the soul and spiritual life.3
Every person suffering from illness expects their physician to see the cause of their problem and take the necessary measures. In the deepest sense, this struggle for knowledge is about “true knowledge of the human being,” as already suggested in the title of Steiner’s introductory chapter.4 This also includes the understanding of substance as described in this chapter: substance serves—selflessly sacrificing itself—the death processes in the mineral state, the life processes in the plant world, and all soul expressions in the animal world. In human beings, however, substance becomes spirit-bearing and enables them to achieve freedom, selfless devotion, and the doing of the good, but also to learn from error and guilt. In his work, The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity: Some Results of Spiritual-Scientific Research into Human History and Development (CW 15), Steiner further clarifies this aspect with regard to the development of the Earth’s substantiality: “Matter is built up more and more in the way that Christ has arranged it!—One will find Christ even in the laws of chemistry and physics” (Copenhagen, June 8, 1911).
Seen in this light, the Christian Mystery of the transformation of substance prevails not only in nature but also in human destiny. Where human beings learn to meet each other selflessly and work collaboratively in freedom and love, “serving the divine,” He is present. Therefore, Raphael can reveal himself as the Christian Mercury where human karma has harmonized itself. That this was made possible by Ita Wegman, in her collaboration with Rudolf Steiner—thereby showing the esoteric path for those working in medicine—we cannot thank her enough.
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Image Ita Wegman surrounded by her colleagues in the garden of the Arlesheim Clinic, September 29, 1926 (left to right: M. van Deventer, H. Walter, I. Wegman, E. Schickler, M. Bockholt). Photo: Ita Wegman Archive, Arlesheim.
Footnotes
- Cf. J. E. Zeylmans van Emmichoven, Who Was Ita Wegman: A Documentation, vol. 2: 1925–1943 (Spring Valley, NY: Mercury Press, 1996).
- The preface was first published by Walter Holzapfel, the third director of the Medical Section, on May 1, 1973, in the Section’s newsletter. Most recently in Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman, Rudolf Steiner: Schriften zur Anthroposophischen Medizin [Writings on anthroposophical medicine], Steiner Kritische Ausgabe [Critical edition] (SKA), vol. 15, edited by Christian Clement (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 2025).
- This approach was discussed at a university conference of the anthroposophical medical movement, and the working principles were published. See Michaela Glöckler, ed., Raphael and the Mysteries of Illness and Healing (Chatham, NY: Waldorf Publications, 2016).
- ch. 1, “Understanding the True Nature of Man as a Basis of Medical Practice,” in Rudolf Steiner, Extending Practical Medicine: Fundamental Principles Based on the Science of the Spirit, CW 27 (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2013). These laws are described in the book in regards to the working of the etheric, astral, and ‘I’-organizations in health and illness.
