Encountering the Being We Meet

The Goetheanum Alumni hosted two study weekends for its former students on Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts last January 15-17 and February 26-28. The key discussion points revolved around the nature of the human being, thinking, and knowledge of self and others. Naturally, the question arose: how can one know one’s Self?

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Leading Thought 16 offered us some guidance in our endeavour. There, Steiner outlines a path that can lead to an encounter with oneself and other beings. When we desire to know someone, Steiner writes, we can start with forming a thought of the person whose acquaintance we wish to make. The thought carefully captured then leads us to an image of that person. The image draws our attention towards the fact that it is not there merely of its own accord. Rather, the image was made by something. Thus, the image of the person pulls us to the forces from which the image originates. We then learn that the forces that created the image are not cold and blind mechanisms. They are powers that belong to someone. They are someone’s forces. And here, we encounter the being we set out to meet.

This journey – from thought to image, from image to force, and from force to being – shows one way to know ourselves and others. Over the course of the two study weekends, we were becoming familiar with four special beings – four special people one could say – through Steiner’s Leading Thoughts. Through the letter “The World-Thoughts in the Working of Michael and in the Working of Ahriman”, we were introduced to ourselves, to a rather odd being called "Ahriman", to a beautiful being with the name "Michael", and to Christ.

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