Abstract
Although Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) never used the term “religion” to define his occult worldview, Anthroposophy, his four Anthroposophical mystery dramas were written to achieve a religious purpose: they represented Steiner’s descriptions of a supersensory world peopled with spiritual beings. Steiner taught that human beings can develop the power of clairvoyance and perceive this supersensible realm.1 For Steiner, theatre was an intermediary that, as Faivre puts it, serves to reveal the mundus imaginalis, “render the invisible visible,” and enlarge the initiate’s “prosaic vision.”2
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Notes
Rudolf Steiner, The True Nature of the Second Coming (1904; reprint, London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1971), 48.
See also Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1971);
Rudolf Steiner, An Outline of Occult Science (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1972).
Antoine Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York, 1994), 13.
Rudolf Steiner, quoted in Rex Raabe, Arne Klingborg, and Ake Fant, Eloquent Concrete (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1979), 31.
Frantisek Deak, Symbolist Theater: Formation of an Avant-Garde (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 171–177.
Maria Carlson, “No Religion Higher Than the Truth”: A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, 1875–1922 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), 177.
Michael Chekhov, On the Technique of Acting (New York: Harper Perennial, 1991), 74–77.;
see also Franc Chamberlain, Michael Chekhov (London: Routledge, 2004).
Cees Leijenhorst, “Steiner, Rudolf,” in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 1085.
Johannes Hemleben, Rudolf Steiner: A Documentary Biography (East Grinstead, Sussex: Henry Goulden, 1975).
Rudolf Steiner, Goethe’s Conception of the World (New York: Haskell House, 1973), 189.
Rob Creese, “Anthroposophical Performance,” Drama Review, Occult and Bizarre 22. 2 (June 1978): 46.
Annie Besant to Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden, June 7, 1907, quoted in Rudolf Steiner, Rosicrucianism Renewed: The Unity of Art Science and Religion, edited by Joan deRis Allen (Great Barrington, MA: Steinerbooks, 2007), 24.
Rudolf Steiner, “Virgin Sophia and the Holy Spirit,” in The Essential Steiner: Basic Writings of Rudolf Steiner, edited by Robert A. McDermott (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1984), 283.
Roland Edighoffer, “Rosicrucianism I: First Half of the 17th Century,” in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 1009.
Rudolf Steiner, Die Pforte der Einweihung, in Mysteriendramen, vol. 1 (1910; reprint, Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1998), 9.
Rudolf Steiner, An Autobiography (1923–1925; reprint, New York: Steinerbooks, 1977), 29.
Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1971), 79.
Ninian Smart, The World’s Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations (1989; reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 215–216.
Rudolf Steiner, The Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman: Human Responsibility for the Earth, trans. D. S. Osmond, revised translation edition (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1993), 17–26.
Georg Hartmann, The Goetheanum Glass-windows, 2nd ed. (Dornach: Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, 1993), 27.
Rudolf Steiner, The True Nature of the Second Coming, trans. D. S. Osmond and Charles Davy, 2nd ed. (1961; reprint, London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1971), 32.
Rudolf Steiner, The Arts and Their Mission (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1964), 81.
Rudolf Steiner, The Threefold Social Order (1966; reprint, New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1972). Originally published in 1919 as Die Kernpunkte der socialen Fragen.
Rudolf Steiner, “The Character of Goethe’s Spirit as Shown in the Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily,” trans. Adam Bittleston, in The Time is at Hand! The Rosicrucian Nature of Goethe’s Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily and the Mystery Dramas of Rudolf Steiner (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1995), 103, 160–161.
Rudolf Steiner, The Guardian of the Threshold, in Four Mystery Plays, trans. H. Collison, S. M. K. Gandell, and R. T. Gladstone, vol. 2 (New York, Knickerbocker Press, 1920), 6.
Waltraud Bartscht, Goethe’s “Das Marchen”: Translation and Analysis (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1972), 38.
Rudolf Steiner, Entwürfe zu dem Rosenkreuzermysterium: Die Pforte der Einweihung (Domach: Steiner Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, 1954), 11–12.
Rex Raab, Arne Klingborn, and Ake Fant, Eloquent Concrete (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1979).
Rudolf Steiner, A Lecture on Eurythmy (1967; reprint, London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1977), 10.
Hans Pusch, A New Kind of Actor (New York: Mercury Press, 1998), 9.
John Bowker, “Religion,” in The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), xv–xvi.
Richard Rosenheim, The Eternal Drama: A Comprehensive Treatise on the Syngetic History of Humanity, Dramatics, and Theatre (New York: Philosophical Library, 1952), 269.
Steiner, Über die Mysteriendramen: Die Pforte der Einweihung und Die Prufung der Seele (Dornach: Verlag der Rudolf Steiner-Nachverwaltung, 1964), 21.
Edouard Schuré, The Genesis of Tragedy and the Sacred Drama of Eleusis (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1936), 251.
Gerould and Kosicka, “Drama of the Unseen—Turn-of-the-Century Paradigms for Occult Drama,” in The Occult in Language and Literature (New York: New York Literary Forum, 1980), 14.
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© 2014 Edmund B. Lingan
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Lingan, E.B. (2014). The Anthroposophical Theatre of Rudolf and Marie Steiner. In: The Theatre of the Occult Revival. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137448613_4
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