The Origins of the Anthroposophical Society

In conducting his research into the mysteries of antiquity, Frank Teich-mann made a series of discoveries that connect directly to contemporary events and the tasks of the present-day. Whilst scholarly in nature and based on extensive documentation of historical sites, Teichmann’s work is no dry academic study. In The Origins of the Anthroposophical Society, he offers incisive new insights into Rudolf Steiner’s seminal esoteric deed – the refounding of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Con-ference of 1923-24 – and considers how it impacts us today. The Confer-ence itself, says Teichmann, ‘…did not just appear out of nowhere, nor did it happen merely as the result of a decision on Rudolf Steiner’s part. It was prepared for long beforehand.’

In the emergence of the anthroposophical movement, Teichmann reveals a conscious recapitulation and renewal by Rudolf Steiner of three types of primordial mystery. He states: ‘… the whole anthroposophical move-ment together with the Anthroposophical Society as it was re-founded at the Christmas Conference of 1923, was planned and prepared for in primordial times… All [Steiner’s] deeds, no matter how original they may appear in the foreground, have a deep esoteric background that contains the entire spiritual history of humanity.’ This renewal had been systemat-ically prepared by Rudolf Steiner in three phases: through the evolution and intensification of thinking via the ‘mysteries of light’ in Greece; ex-periencing the spiritual through art via the ‘mysteries of space’ in Egypt; and, involving the ‘tasks of civilization’, the ‘northern’ or ‘earth myster-ies’.