The Class Lessons of the School of Spiritual Science
The Class Lessons of the School of Spiritual Science

The Class Lessons of the School of Spiritual Science

08 November 2026 Peter Selg 12 views

“A stronger impetus is needed than has been applied in the past if the spirit that humanity needs is to take hold”:1 these are Rudolf Steiner’s words spoken at the moment of the reconstitution of the School of Spiritual Science in 1923/24. Through the “esoteric school of the Goetheanum”—as a real “Michael School” upon the Earth—the anthroposophical movement was finally to gain the “spiritual strength” it so urgently needs. “The spiritual world wants something from humanity at this present moment in historical development; it wants this something in the most diverse fields of life, and it is up to us to follow the impulses from the spiritual world clearly and truthfully.”2
 

From the Realm of History and the New

The new and future-oriented, the humane and Michaelic, require total commitment, the necessary readiness, the will, the capabilities, and a spiritual presence of mind—for the opposing powers and their interests are strong. “Forces” are at work “that give us a sense of the abysses into which Western civilization is still steering.”3 In keeping with Goethe’s poem The Divine, Rudolf Steiner was concerned with “healing and saving.” That is, with the continuing existence of humanity and humaneness through initiatives, beginnings, and new forms in education, social, and economic life, that were capable of countering the “downfall of the Occident” as prophesied by Oswald Spengler.4 Following on from Steiner, one can say that it is no longer just the Occident or Europe that is at stake in the existential reality of the 20th/21st century, but the very existence of the Earth.

The Sections or departments of the School of Spiritual Science are intended to serve the “most diverse fields of life” into which new impulses are to flow. They were conceptualized in 1924 as places of research, teaching, training, and practical application for each individual field of modern life. Steiner hoped that the “achievements” of the School’s departments, which were to “come before the eyes of the world,” would reach “the greatest public openness imaginable.”5 For him, the earthly world in the third decade of the twentieth century was in an existential crisis and under threat, yet at the same time it was open and sensitive to change and to the new. Wherever the “foundation stone” of the new brings “light” and “warmth” “for the progress of human souls, for the progress of the world,”6 there, people can commit themselves. To put it another way: only through these people and their work is this light and this warmth possible in the Age of Michael. Steiner “translated” the line from the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come,” with the words: “May Your kingdom expand through our deeds and in our way of life.”7

 

Read full article in Das Goetheanum

  1. Rudolf Steiner, Die Konstitution der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft und der Freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft. Der Wiederaufbau des Goetheanum 1924–1925 [The constitution of the General Anthroposophical Society and the Independent School of Spiritual Science. The rebuilding of the Goetheanum, 1924–1925], GA 260a (Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1987), p. 190, Prague, Apr. 5, 1924.
  2. Rudolf Steiner, The Christmas Conference: For the Foundation of the General Anthroposophical Society 1923/1924, CW 260 (Hudson, NY: SteinerBooks, 2020), Dornach, Dec. 26, 1923, 10 a.m.
  3. Ibid., Dornach, Jan. 1, 1924, 8:30 p.m.
  4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Divine,” in Selected Poems, Goethe: The Collected Works 1 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2026), first published in German, 1785; contains the phrase “Heilen und retten” [heal and save].  Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, 2 vols. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926–28); first published in German, 1918–22; The original title, Der Untergang des Abendlandes, means literally “the going-under of the evening land,” or “the downfall of the Occident” – Tr. note.
  5. See footnote 2, CW 260, Dec. 24, 1923, 11:15 a.m.; Dec. 26, 1923, 10 a.m.
  6. Ibid., Dec. 25, 1923, 10 a.m.
  7. Matt. 6:10; Rudolf Steiner, Mantric Sayings: Meditations 1903–1925, CW 268 (Hudson, NY: SteinerBooks, 2015), “The Esoteric Lord’s Prayer.”