Berlin, 1907: Rudolf Steiner gives a conference paper on Christmas from a perspective which is both Christian and theosophical, and purports to be "universal".
Theosophy, Nature and ManSteiner starts by explaining how the spiritual science of theosophy addresses the human being at the level of feelings more than on the doctrinal plane. Inasmuch as the realms of nature, animal, vegetal and mineral all contribute to give pleasure or pain to the earth, they are endowed with spiritual life which man perceives and is affected by: an interplay between the human and the cosmic dimensions takes place.
Anthroposophy and the Cycle of Light and DarknessRegaining a non-mechanical view of natural phenomena enables man to partake of the same soul force that expresses itself in the natural world through and in different individuals. It is through anthroposophy that this revealed theosophy becomes embodied in human beings. Anthroposophy, in fact, is a human effort to reawaken one's thinking powers and feelings towards the knowledge of the divine in life.
The festivals connected to the natural cycles of light and darkness throughout the year, the equinoxes and solstices, deserve particular attention as moments when man and earth are being lifted up to the astral plane of existence.
Christmas as a Cosmic EventIn many of Steiner's books, the idea of the living connection between man and the universe links up to the event of Christ's birth: the light that comes into the darkness. Steiner goes at great length to explain the Christmas connection of the human and the cosmic.
The Initiates of ancient mysteries, who used to worship the sun, and rever it as the source of the cosmic spirit, knew that something would subsequently happen that would bring the sun consciousness on the earth.
According to Steiner, it was when Jesus Christ shed his blood on the Golgotha that the eternal encounter of the solar/cosmic consciousness with the human/earthly consciousness changed our perception of the nature of love forever.
Christ extended the boundaries of love from the next of kin to the universe, thus freeing human beings froma sectarian and restrictive idea of love.
To Steiner, then, Christmas is that moment that recurs every year, when the light of consciousness and the uplifting of earth and humanity onto the astral plane takes place, in an eternal and a-temporal dimension.
By bringing together feeling and thinking, in a vivid and imaginative engagement with practical and speculative life alike, Steiner's Christmas words are a remarkable example of his preoccupation with reviving the spirit, rather than the letter, of Christmas.
For Steiner's ideas about children's education see Rudolf Steiner and Child Development.
