With lectures by Martina Maria Sam

Friday 7.30 -9.30pm          Lecture 1

Saturday 10.30 - 6.30pm   Lectures 2, 3 & 4 and Discussion

Sunday 10.30 - 1pm     Lecture 5 and Discussion

A study weekend for Members of the Anthroposophical Society

Rudolf Steiner confided in his closest companions, Marie Steiner and Ita Wegman, his fear that one day his name could be separated from his work.  One aspect of this concern is that in the biography of a modern initiate, the life and work are one.  The life of Rudolf Steiner is an archetypal example of this interdependence.  What he wrote and spoke about came from his own experience, and the unfolding of anthroposophy is an expression of his own life.  The five lectures this weekend are an attempt to illustrate this on the basis of the notes he made about his occult schooling in conjunction with what we know from documentary and oral testimonies.  There is a significant turning point in this process before and after his initiation.  As far as 1903 we can follow his inner path with our own inner sensitivity, after that his work allows us but a peripheral view of the higher stages of his development. The mutually illuminating aspects of his life and work give us new insights into the course of his life and also a wider horizon onto anthroposophy.

The weekend (from Friday 7.30pm till 1pm on Sunday) will include five lectures on the following themes with time for questions and discussion

1. 1861 - 1880 Childhood and Youth: Discovering the Higher I

2. 1880 - 1889 Student days in Vienna:  Beginnings of the inner path

3. 1889 - 1898 From Vienna via Weimar to Berlin: Changes and Crises

4. 1898 - 1903 Trials of the soul, Crossing the abyss, initiation

5. 1903 - 1924 The sacrifice fulfilled: the higher stages of the inner path

FRIDAY

7.30pm - 9.30pm

1. 1861 - 1880 Childhood and Youth: Discovering the Higher I

SATURDAY

10.30am - 12pm

2. 1880 - 1889 Student days in Vienna:  Beginnings of the inner path

12 - 1pm

Discussion

Lunch

2.30pm-4pm

3. 1889 - 1898 From Vienna via Weimar to Berlin: Changes and Crises

Tea

5pm - 6.30pm

4. 1898 - 1903 Trials of the soul, Crossing the abyss, initiation

SUNDAY

10.30 - 12pm

5. 1903 - 1924 The sacrifice fulfilled: the higher stages of the inner path

12pm - 1pm

Discussion

Dr Sam, an authority on Goethe’s Faust and on Rudolf Steiner’s insights into language and speech, has been engaged in the research of this theme for a number of years.  From 1997 to 2012 she led the Humanities Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum, and is also a eurythmist and author. She is currently working with Stefan Hasler on a new edition of Rudolf Steiner's Eurythmy Courses, is involved as editor in the six-volume edition of all of Rudolf Steiner's letters and, after last year's publication of her book "Rudolf Steiner. Childhood and Youth 1861-1884”, is now writing the second volume of his biography.