{"id":51204,"date":"2023-11-10T12:46:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T11:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=51204"},"modified":"2023-11-10T18:38:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T17:38:33","slug":"mistletoe-in-the-goetheanum-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/mistletoe-in-the-goetheanum-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistletoe in the Goetheanum Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rudolf Steiner\u2019s landscape design reveals a harmonious interplay between the building impulse and what was given by nature.<\/strong><\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Before construction began, the \u201cHouse of the Word\u201d was anchored co-creatively by Steiner in the world of the nature spirits. The mistletoe plant is found in dialogue between the building’s structures and as a mediator of the Goetheanum’s etheric sheaths. Mistletoe has formed a remarkable wreath around the Goetheanum landscape since its inception.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Odilia,<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> the Grail Castle of the ninth century,<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and Count Cagliostro\u2019s Rosicrucian-Masonic design<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> are all silently present in the landscape of the Ermitage in Arlesheim [the largest landscaped garden in Switzerland and an important spiritual site]. These historical impulses across the millennia were fundamental to the building of the First Goetheanum. It was here (so the story goes) that Rudolf Steiner decided to accept the offer to move the Johannesbau (Johannes Building) project from M\u00fcnich to Dornach. He chose a distinctive, free-standing natural rock formation as the starting point and \u201cnecessary\u201d focus for the design of the building and its surrounding landscape.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> He redesigned the \u201cFelsli\u201d (literally, \u201clittle rock\u201d) landscape as a plateau, providing it with a geometrical frame. Only then was it able to become dynamically active, in that its slightly eccentric circular shape could now collect and focus the forces in the sea of ethers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven wide steps spiral out from the foundation wall and are \u201ccollected\u201d back into the west side, turned away from the Goetheanum. Three little walls embedded in the meadow also emerge from the foundation wall in dynamic movement, fanning out like rays in the direction of the Goetheanum: one to the building\u2019s center and onward to the distant Ermitage, one to the building\u2019s entrance, and one more north-westerly, crossing in front of the building fa\u00e7ade.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> They are like a threefold invitation to the Goetheanum building: from its spiritual heart in the foundation stone with its connection to the Grail events at the Ermitage, from its \u201cface\u201d with the red window, and from its mission in the world as a whole. For the elemental world, these triple walls are like energetic road maps, channeling directions. According to a number of esoteric reports, they can be understood as a \u201ccontract\u201d Rudolf Steiner made with the elemental world before commencing construction.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The \u201cHouse of the Word\u201d nourishes itself from the etheric forces that the spirits of the landscape bestow upon it. In return, it seeks to resound with inspirations back to the kingdoms of nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The First Goetheanum was a peaceful dialogue with the beings who shepherd the landscape and ensoul it with their life forces. Steiner took up their formative etheric streams and translated them into curving works of stone.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The whole work culminated in a creative process that continuously opens up new experiential spaces for human beings and nature spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Twin Linden Trees on the Felsli<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting to observe how the trees interact with these landscape impulses. Two linden trees were planted in 1908\u2014only a few years before Steiner\u2019s redesign of the Felsli\u2014separated by \u201cthe length of a hammock.\u201d One, more slender and towering, and the other, more cup-shaped, grew together over time into a harmonious interwoven crown. From this place, we can see the Goetheanum in its most beautiful half-profile, while behind us, in the west, stand the surrounding landscape\u2019s distinctive mountains. Seminar groups have repeatedly perceived a vault of light in the root area of the linden trees, like a golden spiritual space, while, from above, this same light trickles down like an \u201cetheric shower.\u201d A few years ago, several mistletoe plants settled high up in the crown branches. The first mistletoe flower essence in the Goetheanum park was prepared in 2019 on the Felsli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impulse to research the healing forces of mistletoe flowers\u2014in addition to the well-known preparations from the berries and leaves\u2014was born at the Goetheanum in September 1999, on the fringes of the International Co-Worker Conference of the anthroposophical medical movement. There, I met a botanist who had been caring for mistletoe trees for decades in different natural habitats\u2014including the Ermitage\u2014as a part of their research into anthroposophical cancer remedies. The marvelous hornbeam at the Ermitage pond in the atmosphere of the Hornichopf peak, the hawthorn at the Rustic Temple directly above the so-called \u201cCave of Trevrizent,\u201d<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> the pines on the rocky ridge with a magnificent view of the Goetheanum, and the tall linden trees in front of the castle ruins: all were abundantly sown with mistletoe. They now provided a starting point for yet another sacred impulse. Carried along by the Grail atmosphere of the Ermitage, this healing stream has gone out into the world for many years now, from the many powerful mistletoe locations between the Mediterranean and the Oslo Fjord to the Carpathians and Caucasus. Step by step, a system of \u201cBiographical Healing,\u201d in harmony with the laws of destiny inherent to the \u2018I,\u2019 has emerged from out of the mistletoe essences prepared throughout Europe.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But it was not until 2019 that the impulse to prepare mistletoe flower essences from plants in the Goetheanum Park came to full clarity. The setting for this initiative was formed by two distinctive elements of Rudolf Steiner\u2019s landscape architecture: the Felsli and the semicircular little walls in the south. Within their parabolic focal point, Rudolf Steiner planted a pear tree, which has since been replaced by an apple tree.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Positions of the trees carrying mistletoe around the Goetheanum. Courtesy: Raphael Kleimann<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Mistletoe around the Goetheanum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A glass bowl filled with spring water and fragrant, golden yellow blossoms sat at the foot of the Felsli\u2019s twin linden trees with their mistletoe spheres, and, at the same time, another bowl sat under the apple tree, itself overflowing with mistletoe. A large seminar group witnessed the event. We experienced strong sensations of the resonance between the interior of the Goetheanum and its etheric sheaths. Central to this was the Foundation Stone. It seemed that it had temporarily created a kind of biological outpost for itself in the apple tree. In the year that followed, other flower essences were created around the Goetheanum. But most significantly, in the foreshadowing of the Corona Spring, the task became clear to combine the healing powers of bees with those of mistletoe and, at the same time, to open to the entire course of the year and go beyond the limited time window of mistletoe\u2019s blossoming at the end of winter. The preparations took a year. Over the course of that year, in the outer stillness of the pandemic, there was an opportunity to train our perception of the landscape. One year later, a surprising sight opened to our inner eye: the Goetheanum, lifeless, as if in a coma brought on by the lockdown, appeared wrapped in a powerful but gentle, spiritual glow, carried in particular by the mistletoe. Specific places glowed like a promise of further possibilities, still unlived by the current undertakings. It seemed to us that the world of beings in the etheric environment continues to carry Rudolf Steiner\u2019s intentions further, while at the same time, they approach us from the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Wreath of Light<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Growing on a variety of trees in a wide arc around the building, mistletoe plants stand out as a kind of special organ in these etheric sheaths\u2014like a band of pearls. Some of these points of light are directly related to Steiner\u2019s visible landscape design. For example, the linden mistletoes, in their majestic heights, stand in the grove below the cul-de-sac opposite the west entrance, in an exact extension of the building\u2019s east-west axis. Others function as \u201cthreshold guardians\u201d at the access paths where visitors enter the inner space of the Goetheanum grounds\u2014for example, the magnificent spheres in the maple trees on R\u00fcttiweg, opposite the entrance to Philosophenweg, and in the gnarled overgrown distinctive tree at the entrance to the narrow \u201cgrove\u201d on Albert-Steffen-Weg, above Haus Martin. On some paths, the mistletoes follow the natural features of the terrain, as when they line the border of the Goetheanum grounds at Schwinbach or where they mark the upper end of the Goetheanum garden between the student residence and Kepler Observatory. Here, in the east of the Goetheanum grounds, there is actually a double ring. The beautiful mistletoes in the islands of trees on Blood Hill breathe far into the landscape above the Goetheanum, in the direction of the Dorneck Castle ruins and Gempen. They also connect us with the historic genius loci\u2014the battlefield of 1499\u2014with its dual quality of Michaelic and Helvetic courage, of freedom, and unrestrained brutality.<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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Mistletoe, detail, Photo: Chris Fry<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Relation to the World<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the west, the Memorial Grove holds the urns of Rudolf Steiner and many of his closest collaborators. For a few years now, it has been framed on both sides by mistletoe. The young yet vigorously growing maple mistletoe at the entrance gate is particularly characteristic. One can experience how it \u201clooks\u201d toward Basel, toward the high-rises of the financial metropolis, and conveys this reality to the Goetheanum while it reciprocally picks up the events of the west fa\u00e7ade\u2019s red window, radiating them out into the world of the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down in the southwest, the \u201cMary Magdalene\u201d essences were created in late winter at the beginning of 2023. These consisted of a linden mistletoe, which made its way from the ruins of Dornach Castle, across a characteristic preparation site between the Dragon’s Tail and the Felsli, all the way to the south of France, to the place where the \u201cHoly Marys of the Sea\u201d arrived and worked.<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> While making the preparations at the Sainte-Baume grotto, a clear and powerful connection was felt with the Arlesheim sites of Odilia and the Grail. And, as if shimmering all throughout, an appeal came for the future developmental possibilities for the Goetheanum\u2014perhaps, as a synthesis of the coming, more feminine spirituality and the Michael Current?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time at Pentecost 2023, a larger working group developed mistletoe flower complex-preparations for the needs of the present, which also are related to health. With this work, the four (or twelve) cardinal points around the Goetheanum had a stronger influence than ever before. It seemed to me that the unusual way in which the most recent essences were created speaks clearly of the multi-layered field of action of the Goetheanum. What happens inside the building, in terms of the cultural creations and international encounters, is intrinsically connected to an outer sheath. And it seemed that Rudolf Steiner modeled the \u201cskeleton and blood circulation\u201d of this sheath into his design of the landscape and planting of trees. The mistletoes have come along as special sense organs \u201cin just the right places.\u201d<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The awakening \u201cto [a] powerful presence\u201d<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> can also assume dramatic features, as when, for example, on the summer solstice 2023, a thunderstorm snapped the larger of the two Felsli linden trees, and with it the prominent mistletoe. Similarly, in the summer of 2022, the distinctive apple mistletoe of the little walls in the south, along with its host tree, withered away. It was as if, precisely at the halfway mark between the centennial anniversaries of the Goetheanum Fire and the Christmas Conference, the spirits of nature had brought a message: \u201cNow you must be strong and carry these forces yourself!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, in recent years, many mistletoe shoots grew larger, and in a remarkably short time, several new ones have sprung up. They seem to all be connected with each other in a continuous stream of spirit, the Goetheanum standing in the middle. Certain sites seem to have special functions, giving an overarching ordering and signaling to the whole, also \u201cspeaking\u201d to the organs in the more distant landscape. As a working hypothesis, it seemed fruitful to relate our meditative perceptions of the mistletoe plants and trees to the inner core of anthroposophy, to the visible and recently published impulses of Rudolf Steiner as landscape architect, as well as to the current initiatives seeking a renewed world society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Contact<\/strong> MistleTree Essences<\/a>, Baldron<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman
Title image<\/strong> Mistletoe on the campus of Goetheanum, Photo: Xue Li<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rudolf Steiner\u2019s landscape design reveals a harmonious interplay between the building impulse and what was given by nature. Before construction began, the \u201cHouse of the Word\u201d was anchored co-creatively by Steiner in the world of the nature spirits. The mistletoe plant is found in dialogue between the building’s structures and as a mediator of the Goetheanum’s etheric sheaths. Mistletoe has formed a remarkable wreath around the Goetheanum landscape since its inception. St. Odilia, the Grail Castle of the ninth century, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9493,"featured_media":51340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8762,8846],"tags":[8814],"class_list":["post-51204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goetheanum","category-history","tag-musings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}