Trust Meditation- origins

This "trust meditation" is one of several translations of several versions that are in circulation. The editors at the Rudolf Steiner Archive, however, have pointed out that none of these versions were ever given as such by Rudolf Steiner. They were created by unknown persons by patching together and modifying various passages from Steiner's lectures (or possibly from elsewhere). The first six lines in the above version, for example, are an abbreviated passage from Steiner's lecture "Cognition and Immortality" (Bremen, Nov. 27, 1910), which has been published only in the Archive newsletter (Beitrahygfrge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe, #98, p. 10). The remaining lines come from the end of Emanuel Zeylmans' biography

of his father, "Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven. Ein Pionier der Anthroposophie" (Arlesheim 1979, p. 358). The son relates that at his father's death he found a slip of paper in his father's wallet with these lines, which supposedly came from Rudolf Steiner. Although this is entirely possible (Willem was a friend of Steiner's and became the General Secretary of the Dutch Anthroposophical Society), the editors at the Rudolf
Steiner Archive have not been able to independently verify the source of these words.

The foregoing facts do not necessarily affect the truth of the whole "verse," but readers should be aware that it was not given as such by Rudolf Steiner and that it therefore probably does not have the occult power inherent in Steiner's other meditative verses.

[excerpt two]

I think the reference everyone is looking for is 27th November 1919. [Steiner did not say this on Nov. 27, 1919] 

Where Steiner allegedly said: (in an amalgam of out of context passages.)
"....First, however, everything that remains of the old will have to be reduced to nothingness. The clouds will have to gather round the human being, and he will have to find his freedom - find his own power, his own strength out of this nothingness. Outer material need will change into soul need, and out of this deep need of the soul will vision be born.
We must tear up by the roots every trace of fear and shrinking in face of what the future threatens to bring to human beings. All our feeling about the future must be permeated with calm and confidence. Absolute equanimity in face of whatever the future may bring - that is what man has to acquire, knowing as he does that everything that happens, happens under an all-wise cosmic guidance.
Our part is to do what is right in each moment as it comes - and to leave the rest to the future, That indeed is the lesson we have to learn in our time, to base our lives on simple trust. without any security of existence, to have trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world. That is the only way for us if our courage is not to fail. Let us then set to work to discipline our will....."

(based on a translation by Mary Adams)

[exerpt three]

Steiner did not say this on Nov. 27, 1919; this is another amalgam of out of context passages. In this amalgam the first paragraph is extracted from the end of Steiner's lecture of Oct. 30, 1920 (GA 200, p. 120), which is published in English as lecture 6 of "The New Spirituality". The second paragraph is a different translation of the first paragraph of the "trust meditation" that I commented on earlier (the date is Nov. 27, 1910, not 1919). I don't know where the first sentence of the third paragraph comes from. The remainder of the last paragraph is a different (and incomplete) translation of the material from Emmichoven.

Daniel Hindes:

A little note about the following verse, which is very popular lately. It is attributed to Steiner, but it is not one of his verses. According to the editors at Steiner's archive in Dornach It appears to have originated among Dutch anthroposophists during WWII (this information is contained in GA40a). The first part is a versification of a paragraph from a 1911 lecture. The second part is demonstrably pseudoepigraphical (more on that below).

From the Steiner Lecture:
ATTRIBUTED TO RUDOLF STEINER:
We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what
comes towards man out of the future.
We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations
about the future.
We must look forward with absolute equanimity
to everything that may come.
And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us
by a world-directive full of wisdom.

The part that is pseudoepigraphical:
It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live out of pure trust, without any security in existence.
Trust in the ever present help of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us.
And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves,
every morning and every evening.

Some basic hermaneutics can establish that the second half is not from Steiner. While the theme of the first four verses re-occurs repeatedly in slightly different formulations in lectures from the period 1910-1911 -especially in lectures where he is explaining anthroposophy to the public - the second half does not match in phrasing or in theme to anything in the Complete Works. For instance, you will not find a single instance of the phrase "pure trust" anywhere in Steiner's work. Nor any references to failing courage. Living in trust is not a concept you'll find in Steiner's work, and is arguably antithetical to much of Steiner's western path. And even seeking awakening from within is a novel formulation. Arguably this is the anthroposophical path, but you won't find Steiner describing it in those terms anywhere.

This is not to say that the verse has not given much comfort to many in times of uncertainty. But I feel compelled to point out its murky origins.

https://www.mail-archive.com/bdnow@envirolink.org/msg04857.html

Sophia, Philosophia, & Anthroposophia

In truth, it was from a specifically human personal relationship, as of a man to a woman, that the relationship of human beings to philosophy arose during the age when philosophy directly took hold of the whole spiritual life of human evolution. This relationship - if you are not to take these words lightly, but take a little time to find the meaning behind them - has grown cold, truly cold. It has even become ice-cold. When we pick up most books on philosophy today - even those by philosophers who struggled and attained the finest possible relation to philosophy - we must really say that the relationship, so ardent when people viewed philosophy as a personal being, has grown very cold. 

Philosophy is no longer the "woman" she was to Dante and others who lived in his time. Philosophy meets us today in a shape we may speak of by saying, "The very form of philosophy that confronts us in the nineteenth century, in its highest development - as German idealism, the philosophy of concepts, the philosophy of Objects - shows us that its role in the spiritual development of humanity has been played out." 

It is really very symbolic when we take up Hegel's philosophy, especially The Encyclopedia, and find that the last thing presented in this nineteenth-century volume is about how philosophy understands itself. It has comprehended everything else; finally, it grasps itself. What is left for it to understand? This is a symptom of philosophy's end, even though - since Hegel's death - many questions remain unanswered. 

The radical thinker Richard Wahle has followed this thought through in his book The Whole of Philosophy and its End and he has ably worked through the thesis that everything achieved by philosophy may be divided among the various departments of physiology, biology, aesthetics, and so forth, and that when this has been done, nothing remains of philosophy. Of course, such books go too far, but they contain a deep truth - that spiritual movements have their time and day, and that, just as a day has its morning and its evening, spiritual movements, too, have their morning and evening in the history of humanity's development.

We know we are living in the age that is preparing the spirit-self. Thus, we know that, though we live in the age of the Spiritual Soul, the Spirit-Self is being prepared. Just as the Greeks lived in the age of the Intellectual Soul, and looked toward the dawn of the Spiritual Soul, so we live in the age of the Spiritual Soul and seek to prepare the age of the Spirit-Self. 

The Greeks established philosophy, which, despite Paul Deussen and others, did first exist in Greece during the unfolding of the Intellectual Soul when human beings still directly experienced the lingering influence of the objective Sophia; and Philosophy then came into being, and Dante could view her as a real, concrete being who brought him consolation when Beatrice was torn from him by death; in the same way, we now live in the age of the Spiritual Soul and look toward the dawn of the age of the Spirit-Self, and we know in this way that something is again becoming objective to human beings - something that looks forward to the coming times that will be gained by what we have won through the time of the Spiritual Soul.

What, therefore, must be developed? It must unfold that, once again, as a matter of course, a "Sophia" becomes present. But we must learn to relate this Sophia to the Spiritual Soul, bring her down directly to human beings. This is happening during the age of the Spiritual Soul. And thereby Sophia becomes the being who directly enlightens human beings. After Sophia has entered human beings, she must take their being with her and present it to them outwardly, objectively. Thus, Sophia will be drawn into the human soul and arrive at the point of being so inwardly connected with it that a love poem as beautiful as Dante wrote may be written about her.

Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia – as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.

Such is the progression of human evolutionary history in relation to the spiritual questions we have been considering. Here I must leave the matter to all those who wish to examine in even greater detail, following the destiny of Sophia, Philosophia, and Anthroposophia, how we may show how humanity develops progressively through those parts of the soul we call the Intellectual Soul, the Spiritual Soul, and the Spirit-Self. People will learn how profoundly what anthroposophy gives us is based in our whole being. What we receive through anthroposophy is our very own being.

This once floated toward us in the form of a celestial goddess with whom we were able to enter into relationship. This divine being lived on as Sophia and Philosophia, and now we can once again bring her out of ourselves and place her before us as the fruit of true anthroposophical self-knowledge. We can wait patiently until the world is willing to test the depth of the foundations of what we have to say, right down to the smallest details. It is the essence of anthroposophy that its own being consists of the being of the human, and its effectiveness, its reality, consists in that we receive from anthroposophy what we ourselves are and what we must place before ourselves, because we must practice self-knowledge. 

-Rudolf Steiner's lecture on "The Being of Anthroposophy" (1913), given on February 3, 1913. Berlin, during the First General Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society at Berlin: http://www.southerncrossreview.org/39/steiner-sophia.htm

Dante's treatise Il Convivio, on how to read esoterically, can be found here: https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/library/the-convivio/

Hildegard Quote

We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.

Hildegard of Bingen

I mean, immediately I read it I felt that the language sounded too modern. 

My suspicions were confirmed:

"Thank you Morgana Morgaine for solving the mystery of whence came the unlikely Hildegard quote about an interpreted world. At least you attributed it correctly in your book. I checked vol. 21 Fall 1991 Gnosis as Nathaniel suggested, and the quote is indeed from the last paragraph of Elaine Bellezza's article entitled "Hildegard of Bingen, Warrior of Light". The byline says that "Elaine Bellezza is a free-lance artist and writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area." The article is a dramatic view on individuation as a holy war (the topic of the magazine issue) with Hildegard as example of the process and using quotes from Rilke and Jung. Here is the entire final paragraph:

"We often look to someone like Hildegard or to other great people throughout the ages as if what they have is not ours to have; we admire them, honor them, study them. We want to make use of them, and we allow them to consummate our inner light for us. We allow them to be the still point of our turning world. We feel incapable, yet the world wants to infuse us and to be infused by us. At that point no one can help us, not angels, not men, not Hildegard, not Jung, not Rilke. We cannot live securely in a world which is not our own, in a world which is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to put our ears to our own inner voices, to see our own light, which is our birthright, and comes to us in silence."

So the quote is taken out of context from an inspirational manifesto, and it was clearly never meant to sound like Hildegard. Unfortunately the misattribution has been promoted extensively on the internet in multiple soundbite images, quote portals, and blogs. The misquote has gone so far as to now head the introduction of the 2016 book by Dr. Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook "Hildegard of Bingen: Essential Writings and Chants of a Christian Mystic- Annotated and Explained" - perhaps future editions will correct this embarrassment for what appears to otherwise be a well-researched introductory volume.

Thus Hildegard has joined the ranks of those whose names get attached to someone else's words for instant pedigree, including Einstein, the Buddha, and Thomas Edison. A dubious distinction perhaps, but as Lincoln once said, you can't believe everything you read on the internet."

The Ego & Color Perception - Rudolf Steiner

If you try to ignore all sensory content, that in the vast majority of cases, and in the vast majority of people, there is a certain tendency to sink into a kind of sleep state; but that means just dampening the ego. It may be remarked that the ego-consciousness, as it is in daytime awakening, is essentially linked to the presence of sensory content. So that we can say: We experience our self at the same time with the sense content. Actually, we do not experience our ego for the everyday consciousness other than with the sense content. As far as the sense content is concerned, ego-consciousness is present, and insofar as ego-consciousness is present- at least for ordinary life- the sense-content is sufficient. It is perfectly justifiable, starting from the point of view of this everyday consciousness, not to separate the I from the sense-content, but to say: by red, by this or that sound, by this or that sensation of warmth, by tactile sensation, this or that taste, if the sensation of smell is present, the ego is also present, and insofar as these sensations are not present, the ego, as it is experienced in the usual waking state, is also absent.

"I have put this more often than a finding of soul observation. In particular, I have made it clear in a lecture I gave at the Philosophers' Congress in Bologna in 1911, where I tried to show how what should be experienced as the ego should not be separated from the whole range of sensory experiences. We must therefore say that the ego is essentially first bound - I always speak of experience - to sensory perceptions. It's not true that we do not now consider the self as reality; on the contrary, it is only in the course of these three lectures, today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, that we want to point out the ego as reality. We now want to focus on what we call the ego experience in the realm of our lives."

( Ref : GA 206, p. 118f )

With every perception, the ego and the astral body, which live in the psychic-spiritual outer world, are brought into the body. Rudolf Steiner explains this using the example of color perception. The colors have no physical reality, but nevertheless are not merely subjective phenomena, but belong as objective mental reality to the soul-world.

"Physics must be content with the light that is in the room. You cannot undertake the consideration of colour at all without first lifting it into the region of the soul. For it is sheer nonsense to say: Colour is something subjective which produces an effect on us. And if one goes further and says, — and in doing so one conceives an inexact picture of the Ego — that there is some external objective inclination which affects us, our Ego, it is rubbish; the Ego itself is in the colour. The Ego and the human astral body are not to be differentiated from colour, they live in it and are outside the physical human body in proportion as they are bound up with colour out there; they only reproduce the colours in the physical and etheric body. That is the point. So that the whole question of the effect of an objective on a subjective colour is nonsense; for the Ego, the astral body, already exist in the colour, and they enter with it. Colour is the conveyer of the Ego and the astral body into the physical and into the etheric body."

-Rudolf Steiner 

( Ref : GA 291, p. 59f )

Color is the revenge of the gods against Lucifer

"Color is the revenge of the gods against Lucifer," Dr. Steiner said to me on one occasion, during a conversation about my work with regard to the healing force of painting. It was only later that the meaning of these words became comprehensible to me. The Lightbearer, who locks up his light in the glow of passion, in a wealth of shades of feeling, within the individual experiences of the human heart, is purified through the objective experience of color and offered to the world. Thus when, out of cosmic space, the Christ-Spirit enters into the heart, then, brought to rest, the Spirit of Separateness (Lucifer) is freed from his imprisonment in the world and becomes pure Holy Spirit. So color can have a healing and salutary effect. (It is for this reason that oftentimes luciferic people have an antipathy for strong colors.)

Luciferic souls do not generally like strong colors.

I want to repeat so as to make it unmistakably clear: The Doctor had brilliant things to say about Gnosis and the Christ; that is well known. But anyone who has not himself experienced Steiner cannot really form any idea of what took place in our hearts: "He was more heart than head." He was inspiration, not only imagination. His words about the Christ were inspirations -- heart-thoughts that transformed hearts more than the heads.

When the Doctor spoke about the Christ, his head was silent; he spoke out of the sun-filled heart. The words of his lecture cycles on Christ are like an exhalation - not of oxygen, but of carbon dioxide, the symbol of mysterious life processes. . . . 

The doctor stood "close to the door," but not to this door, the wooden door toward which the heads turned. One ran one's head against the wood - and lost consciousness. But there was another door - the heart -- and it was to that door he called us. . . . 

You might think, "Nonsense! What doors is he talking about?"
I speak of those doors through which you shall not enter as long as you have not changed your whole world. One must speak of it differently, without the acrobatics of theoretical knowledge, without Ahriman, without ahrimanizing, without the condescending smile that has become customary meanwhile in our circles. 

That is how Steiner spoke, and so, too, his student Michael Bauer. "Thou art our letter, written in our heart," says the apostle. -- Without the language of the heart -- silence. . . . 

The Doctor and the Christ theme: In the end, everything that he has said leads toward the theme of "Christus." All the gifts he brought to unfolding are, with infinite reverence, offered up to the Christ theme. The multiform unfolding of anthroposophical culture is Steiner's "silence." The Doctor traveling from city to city -- the Doctor who builds bridges from the social question to art, from art to natural science, from there to the tasks of pedagogy -- is the Doctor who is silent concerning the essential. This culture is a brilliant tapestry of outlooks, of vistas that can cause dizziness. One cannot help but ask, "Is all this splendor meant to be a field for man's activity?"

-Andre Belyi