Theme of the Year 2007/08:

Paths to Thinking of the Heart through Meditative and Artistic Practice

Light's weaving essence, it sends its rays Through widths of space To fill the world with being. Love's blessing, it sends its warmth Through ages of time Proclaiming revelation of all worlds. And spirit messengers, they marry Light's weaving essence To revelation of soul: And when human beings can join Their very selves to both, They live in heights of spirit. The Portal of Initiation, Scene 3

Light's weaving essence, it sends its rays From human being to human being, To fill all the world with truth. Love's blessing, it sends its warmth From soul to soul Bringing bliss to all worlds. And spirit messengers, they marry Human deeds of blessing To aims of worlds: And when human beings can join Their very selves to both, Spirit light shines through warmth of soul. The Portal of Initiation, Scene 7

Image from the Portal of Initiation Click image for larger view.

Over the past two years, work on developmental paths to thinking of the heart has brought together large areas of the Anthroposophical Society. We would like to continue this effort during 2007 with an emphasis on meditative and artistic practice. Things that seem outwardly quite separate — artistic formation that enters strongly into the outer world to become visible, and meditative work oriented to the inner world — prove to be deeply related and connected with one another in practice. Meditative work can be a wellspring of inspiration for artistic creation, whether with the word, with thoughts, with the activity of feeling, or in exercises of will, morality, and character. On the other hand, artistic work offers an inexhaustible stimulus for meditative deepening in the forces that shape the world as color, proportion, relationship of sounds, linguistic expression, and material processes in the realms of nature and the cosmos.

Rudolf Steiner gave the relationship of art and meditation a central position when he portrayed it in his Mystery Dramas. This is why the two light and love meditations from the first drama, The Portal of Initiation, have been placed at the beginning of our theme for the year. As words of guidance, the first mediation describes the path across the threshold to the spiritual world; as words of strength, the second meditation describes the path back into life from beyond the threshold. Both paths have in common that light and love — luminosity of heart and warmth of knowledge — are the bridging forces to bring worlds and inner essence together.

In following the protagonists' development in the dramas we are especially struck by how they speak with one another: honestly seeking, open, present. We become witness to a schooling that is lived, a culture of the heart that is practiced, and also to what works in opposition. A new production of the Mystery Dramas is currently being prepared at the Goetheanum. Along with the Mystery Dramas, we would like to recommend working through Rudolf Steiner's lecture cycle Secrets of the Threshold (GA 147), his book, The Threshold of the Spiritual World (GA 17), and the chapter “Some Effects of Initiation” from How to Know Higher Worlds.

These suggestions for work are also meant to acknowledge the fact that the artistic impulse of anthroposophy needs new stimulus in the hundredth year of its history. This stimulus can come through the practice of these exercises.

Other Themes: 2006 Theme of the Year 2007 Theme of the Year 2008 Theme of the Year

Thank you to the following organizations for the links to the on-line documents by Rudolf Steiner: the Rudolf Steiner Archive, the Rudolf Steiner Press, SteinerBooks, the Anthroposophical Publishing Company, London, and Rudolf Steiner Publications, Inc.