Rosicrucianism Renewed by Rudolf Steiner Christopher Bamford

Author:Rudolf Steiner,Christopher Bamford
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621511458
Publisher: SteinerBooks

We were able to erect the structure of the building and use it for the Francis of Assisi Lodge, but it could not be finished and is today still not finished. However, it could become the beginning point for another structure. A question arose ever again in my soul: What should this building be? The Greek temple is the home of the god; the Christian church is the house of the community that assembles to find the spiritual through ritual. What task does this new building have? I could find no other answer than that this building should be the center for the work of the human being—that work through which the human being strives to draw near to the spirit. There came to me, by dealing with the harmony of the forms that presented themselves in such overwhelming unity, self-containment, and perfection, the single thought: such a temple will have an effect on human beings, such that those who cannot travel the path of thinking can also come to self-knowledge, if they give themselves over to the forms.

When I said this [about such a temple and self-knowledge] to Rudolf Steiner, he answered: “Yes, it is true, but to higher self-knowledge.” I took him to mean the knowledge of the human being as such. At that time no Mystery Drama had been written, and the idea of establishing a central Anthroposophical building had not yet arisen. So at that time, I could experience only in this imagined underground temple what is regarded as Steiner's entire artistic creation—from the architecture of the Goetheanum, to the creative speech work, to the spiritual discernment of the Mystery Dramas,† the Truth-Wrought Words,† the Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, and the “Letters to the Members.”†

As the Stuttgart Branch decided to build its own house, the architect Schmid-Currius,† who knew the Malsch model building, had the idea of building a space of this type for the symbolic-ritualistic events I have already mentioned. In the basement under the large hall there was a designated space that he wanted to arrange accordingly. I was engaged, with Schmid-Curtius's agreement, to work on the project.

The task was still more difficult than working out the Malsch model building, because the available room in the basement was not only very narrow but also unfavorably oriented. In order to remain in accord with the four points of the compass, one had to place the column room almost diagonally into the space available. So as to lose as little of the rectangular room as possible, we made the circle-like wall ellipse so large that it overlapped somewhat with the straight walls of the cellar. The low height of the room forced a quite flat cupola-form and led to our laying the floor under the main cupola about three steps lower than in the ambulatory. The columns were hewn out of sandstone from Main by my father, together with the young architect Gerbote. The shafts were round. It was impossible to let sunlight fall in through the vault.

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