Foundation Stone Meditation

"People who practice esoteric exercises grow spiritually into the future; they experience in themselves what will one day come about, and what they experience in this way is what we know as the higher worlds. These represent future conditions of humankind" (Rudolf Steiner, Munich 1907). Rudolf Steiner spoke the Foundation Stone meditation at the Christmas Conference of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923, giving it to the Society members for strengthening their forces. The meditation's words contain, as Sergei O. Prokofieff states, "the quintessence of the whole of Anthroposophy." Thus, Rudolf Steiner was bestowing on the members the possibility of dealing resolutely with the specific tasks that awaited them. In this short, potent volume, the author suggests further that "The Foundation Stone Meditation" represents the concerns of every individual of our time, allowing each of us to maintain our humanity in the face of the challenges and catastrophes of both the present and the future. Steiner said that one could hear the words of the meditation "sounding" in one's heart. This process of "hearing" will acquire even more significance and reality in future, and can be of enormous help to anyone who opens themselves to it. It is against this background that Selg has written this introductory book: to promote awareness of the meditation, understanding of its historic place in the catastrophic twentieth century, and its critical but latent contribution to the future.

The Foundation Stone Meditation holds a central place in the inner life of many students of Rudolf Steiner's work. First presented during the refounding of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference of 1923/24, it is a powerful and penetrating meditative text which many consider to be a key to the spiritual mysteries of our time. This version features three alternative translations (by George Adams, Pauline Wehrle and Richard Seddon), together with the original German verses and an introduction by Michael Wilson.

During the Christmas Conference of 192324 when the Anthroposophical Society was refounded, Rudolf Steiner presented to its members for the first time the Foundation Stone Meditation. On consecutive days during that week, Steiner showed how elements of the Meditation could be rebuilt into new meditations (sometimes referred to as rhythms), which could be inwardly practiced. Zeylmans van Emmichoven was present at that formative meeting and lived intensively with these rhythms for more than 30 years. Initially in the Netherlands, and later during his many journeys around the world, Zeylmans began to make people aware of the germinating forces contained within the Meditation. This volume remains a seminal book that has inspired generations of students of anthroposophy.

Rudolf Steiner gave The Foundation Stone Meditation in 1924. This profound text is designed to help people in their meditative work to make a real, inner connection to the spiritual source of anthroposophy. Dr. Adrian Anderson has made a new, accurate translation of both the verse and the lecture that Steiner gave at this time. The power of the book is in its commentary on the many subtle and deep aspects of the verse.

Meditative reflection--strengthening thinking and feeling through the will--is one of the main methods of experiencing Anthroposophy. Prokofieff writes: "The best path to this goal is inner work with the Foundation Stone Meditation, because this meditation is the quintessence of the whole of Anthroposophy, given in meditatively inspired form by means of earthly words." Rudolf Steiner described the substance of the "Foundation Stone Meditation" as spoken by him "out of the will of the spiritual world," and as "verses heard from the Cosmic Word." Owing to its spiritual and mantric form, the text of this meditation represents an archetype and is thus a key to the most diverse areas of world and human existence. Depending on "which spiritual portal is opened with this key," explains Prokofieff, "one arrives at one result or another, and one and the same line of the meditation becomes a reply to the most varied questions." The author applies this method in this work and, in the process, illuminates and opens up many dimensions of spiritual science. His research embraces, among other aspects, the relationship of the "Foundation Stone Meditation" to the being Anthroposophia, the spiritual hierarchies, human karma, the Rosicrucian, Michaelic and Grail streams, the Mystery of Golgotha, the two Jesus children, the three spiritual sources of Anthroposophy, and even the Constitution of the General Anthroposophical Society.

This volume - which brings together two classic booklets for the first time - features Steiner's valuable thoughts and guidelines regarding the Foundation Stone Meditation and the new character of the Anthroposophical Society, given during and after the Christmas Conference of 1923/24.