The renaissance of mystery wisdom in the work of Rudolf Steiner

THE RENAISSANCE OF MYSTERY WISDOM IN THE WORK OF RUDOLF STEINER

IT WILL be interesting to know whether future ages will more respect our present century for its exploration of space or of time. Digging up the past is as characteristic of our age, and as novel in the history of man, as sending sputniks into space. Nor is it only a digging into barrows and graves and city mounds. The psychologist digs into the unconscious as relentlessly as the archaeologist into the soil of the earth. More and more it is acknowledged that the two diggings are part of the same great excavation of the human past.

In the case of the Mysteries it might have been hoped that the union of the two would have sparked off a bright light on the human past. Here was a psychological experience to whose enthralling and transforming character many ancient writersthemselves participants—have testified. It was enshrined in a ceremony, which took place—generally at a particular time of the year—in a definite place and even a definite building. Surely the experience must have left some tangible remains by which it could be reconstructed? But somehow the marriage has not been fruitful; the core of the Mysteries still eludes modern consciousness. Take the case of the best known and best documented of all the Mysteries, that of Eleusis. Externally we can follow the yearly procession of the Eleusinian Mysteries in considerable detail. On the 13th of the moon month Boedromion (roughly October) the “sacred things’ were brought to Athens from Eleusis, and a festival was held. Three days later the Hierophant addressed the

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