Save as PDFNow let us consider social forms, not so much the threefolding of man himself. One approach to the evolution of social forms can be to take some of the written materials given by Rudolf Steiner that pertain to threefolding of the social domain and try to make a beginning in a given circumstance. This has been done and is being done. It is evident that this is a perfectly legitimate approach to the social issues and their solution through social forms. Many others are trying to tackle social problems without any real consideration of social forms in any way, shape or form. The many who work in this way seek out of their own inner being to take on what comes as social problems—such as education, therapeutics, religious life, catastrophes, psychological difficulties, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty, business activities, etc. When it comes to the domain of social forms, there are many fewer who concern themselves with this matter. All those who take up social problems be they human or social forms can, of course, seek to do this out of their own being. What is missed in this approach is the archetype of man which is of a threefold nature and consequently the higher nature of man is left out. Something of the deep going work of Rudolf Steiner may be being side-stepped by this approach and leads to a kind of personal dogmatism in the case of social issues. When Rudolf Steiner’s indications are taken up directly there comes the difficulty of an anthroposophical dogmatism which when brought to the social circumstance can lead to great difficulties. My experience has been that much suffering for the seeker is needed so that anthroposophical wisdoms can be transformed into a basis for social actions, and then dogmatism is more easily laid aside.
What is being said here is that work with the human organism will need much more time and many individual efforts to approach what came to Rudolf Steiner as the results of spiritual scientific investigation. A seed has been planted and many have worked to find their way to a new revelation about the human organism, but we are still at the beginning. With the direct use of Rudolf Steiner’s indications in the social domain much suffering may be needed. When the human being sidesteps spiritual scientific knowledges and tries to solve social problems, then an all-human and a non-dogmatic activity is more difficult to achieve. However, with this all said, I none-the-less should like to try to share from some direct experiences of life. They are a result of the many years of work in this domain of existence. What I should like to do is to try to share some more direct experiences from life to keep the fire for this type of quest. The foundation and justification for this approach I believe can be found in the lecture cycle entitled, Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms. (August 6th—September 18th, 1920.) The present English translation contains a forward by Carlo Pietzner who concerned himself with this subject towards the end of his life. I shall not comment further on the cycle, but proceed with some personal experiences which could not be shared without the lecture cycle here pointed to.