A study group on Rudolf Steiner's "Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts“
by Marthe Müller Lütken
In October 2023 a group of young people met for the first time at the Youth Section House in Dornach to work on a selection of Rudolf Steiner's "Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts“ in preparation for the conference in spring 2024 on "Digital Technology and Spirituality“. Since then, we have met every Tuesday at 7:30 pm to read one letter from the book and to talk about its content, how to understand it, and its relation to digital technology.
So, a question one can ask could be: Why this book?
We started reading a letter about the dawn of the Michael Age. The spiritual being Michael is described by Steiner as the being related to our time right now on earth. In rich pictures, Steiner describes Michael, the development of cosmic relations, of the human being and the earth: How much did our perception of thoughts and spirit change throughout time? Have the spiritual beings and their appearance on earth changed and how? Which other beings are with us and what impulses do they want to bring? What happened in the past and how is it serving the future? The more we study these letters, the more they reveal to us the striking relations of cosmic impulses and developments on earth and in human beings.
All of these questions that are being asked in the "Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts“activate our thinking toward an understanding of why we are confronted with certain forces and circumstances at this time and to widen our frame of reference as we observe the development of the world and the human being. From the depictions Steiner gives in these letters, we come to the question of digital technology. So, what we ask ourselves, while we try to understand the thoughts of the book, is how can we understand digital technology and its forces through spiritual and cosmic changes and transformations that happened in the past and where can we find future impulses to confront these forces? How do we meet the spirit inside of us and how do we meet digital technology? Where is the relation?
For me starting to read the "Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts “ every Tuesday with a group of young people and giving it the best try to understand the meaning, brought up even more questions. At the same time, it provided a space in which the complexity of the relation of "Spirituality and technology" can slowly grow.
Marthe Müller Lütken