August 2020 - Sapphire Pavement

Spiritual Science – a path for today

Opening up Spiritual Scientific Method is close to my heart. I feel very sure it’s so strong and simple as to be the Path – the Way – that is open and fruitful and good for us today. Yet the first draft of my article came out totally unlike what I expected or wanted. It was doing its own thing. It’s the second time this has happened here: my very first post was supposed to be Hello Friends but what emerged was clearly Hello – Anthroposophical – Friends. I could simply rename it and write another Hello Friends. But this time it was more perplexing.

Christianity at the Threshold

From my Star Ages work (post coming), I know that a profound challenge to Christianity is unavoidable at this time; and that working through it will take over two more centuries.

The best I can do is set out to plumb the depths of the challenge and change needed, show evidence, and point the way forward. We actually have an excellent guide for this: the Qumran Community that was set up around 168BC to “prepare the Way of the Lord”, whose representative finally emerged into the public realm as John the Baptist. But proving what I know of Qumran will be a bit tricky, so for now let’s look at the challenges that clearly face Christianity.

With Steiner And Beyond

Arriving at pictures of important “unknown” reincarnations of Steiner and of close associates; claiming we must change his Star Ages dating; and claiming that Spiritual Science needs to take these on and work with them, if it is to have a future, are three extraordinary claims to make.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, said Carl Sagan. Now Rudolf Steiner gave us precisely this, with his very first books that describe the faculties of spiritual perception that lie dormant in us all. Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Philosophy of Freedom describe how to awaken those faculties safely and ethically, and how the spiritual essence of Scientific Method is valid, even essential in this. Steiner’s method yields, in time, the ability to spot the extra-ordinary evidence needed to validate or query his subsequent extraordinary claims. My own claims are nothing more than the result of many tiny steps of awakening experienced over many years: that way they do not seem outrageous at all, they seem natural and, eventually, self-evident.

Building Community Here & Now

It’s no use having fancy ideas for the future unless one is already living out of them, as it were, drawing them into the present. And utilizing what comes from the past.

I spent ten wonderful years with the Christian Quest Community here. During that time there was really nothing about building community that I did not learn; everything, in time, yielded understanding and wisdom. After that time ended, rather abruptly, I spent seven years out – but Glastonbury had not finished with me. I read the signs, and they said “come back”. I asked what my new work was, and Spirit said “pay attention”. I felt I was still carrying the Quest vision, but I went to Iona explicitly to let go of anything from the past that I should not be hanging on to. Iona showed me that my vision for “Quest the Next Generation” was still there. Fine, I thought. Let it unfold in its own time.

Francis Bacon & Rudolf Steiner

It was when I met Peter Dawkins in 1981, at Sir George Trevelyan’s Round Table Conference, that I first encountered a serious question-mark over Rudolf Steiner’s accuracy.

I had been invited to this very select spiritual gathering on the strength of the piece I wrote, The Apocalyptic Vision: Ecological Breakdown and Spiritual Breakthrough. There I met Peter Dawkins who told me he ran the the Francis Bacon Research Trust. I liked him: quietly well-spoken, clearly well-educated, and one always felt in the presence of a great courtesy, that never advertises itself, but makes one feel comfortable.

Quest Community and its legacy

I was a founder member of Quest, an ecumenical Christian community in Glastonbury, from 1993 to 2002. I loved every moment. Much of our work was to help people in need, to listen to their sometimes extraordinary stories, and to recognize forgotten truths often hidden in them.

People somehow turn up in Glastonbury when they are at a crossroads in their life: lost their home, their job, their spouse, their wits, their health, their faith, their sense of purpose … in Quest, they were sent to us, and we would do what we could … I could put myself in the shoes of most of the people who came to Quest for help: I’d been there myself. And I knew that if I sat with problems patiently, God would start to help.

Reincarnation Within Christianity

There has always been a minority of Christians who have stated their belief in reincarnation. Today the issues has opened up considerably, mainly thanks to an open yet also scientifically precise outlook towards the subject. The deep understanding of reincarnation came only very gradually to me, in three distinct stages. The first stage was learning its Biblical compatibility, and realizing it made profound sense. The second stage came when I discovered such classics as “The Cathars and Reincarnation” and “Far Memory”. But only years later did the third stage come: I started to have my own experiences.

Steiner’s Spirit Glimpsed

Revelations around Steiner, Spiritual Science, more past lives of his, other lives of his close co-workers, and the Great Star Ages, built up for me inch by inch, unremittingly, over the years. I believe that it is now time to tell a good part of the story.

I get the impression that Steiner, naturally clairvoyant, sensed from early on that his significant meetings all had past-life connections. Mostly he could say nothing at that time. He had to wait until he was 40 until he could speak openly about his esoteric perceptions at all.

Today things have changed, and perception has opened up for many people, including myself – see Reincarnation Within Christianity. Several past incarnations of Steiner have come to me, with confirmation after confirmation: all lives Steiner simply could not have talked about in that lifetime, even if he’d known. The revelations would have blinded people and burned out the awakening Steiner sought to develop gently, slowly, hands-on. Yet now I believe we need the knowledge, to come to terms with the subtle but powerful brilliance from Steiner that students of Anthroposophy know all too well, to challenge some of Steiner’s Spiritual Scientific conclusions, and to open it up further, in line with his principles, in ways that are logical and comfortable yet run deep, as Steiner himself did, and as our times call for.

Hello Anthroposophical Friends!

Who am I to claim that what I see is essential for Spiritual Science today, if it is to come of age? that Anthroposophy needs a fundamental reform of vision? By what right do I disagree with Steiner and claim to know about some things better than him? Yet I believe it is time to speak out.

From when I discovered him at 19, Steiner gave me the most precious tools for life. There’s nobody like him! What is it that is so precious with him, from him? I spent a year in Heaven at Emerson College, soaking up the foundations of Anthroposophy. All I learned I treasured in my heart, and it is still foundational to my experience. Yet right from the start I was aware that I had to work with what best enables me to help humankind, not with what Steiner said merely because he said it and has given me so much. I had to question everything and constantly build foundations afresh. Sometimes I have reached disagreement with Steiner, when new insights have opened up – yet they are insights I could scarcely have reached without his foundations.