Introduction
FIRE BORNE – On December 31, 1922 – Jan 1, 1923, the two-domed Goetheanum building burned. It was as if the domes were gigantic spiritual pine or fir cones which, like actual cones when burned, broadcast their seeds. The fire which destroyed the domes did not stop the Anthroposophical Society but seemed to propel it worldwide. A spiritual wind bore the seeds of inspiration around the world. After the fire in 1923, the General Anthroposophical Society (G.A.S.) had to be re-founded, but already, anthroposophy was beginning to form in America and Steiner sent the “Verse for America.” He was on the road starting country societies throughout Europe.
FIRE BORNE is the story of the biography of the Anthroposophical Society in America and related “daughter movements.” What makes the book different is that this story is told within the context of American political, economic, cultural events as they evolved generation-by-generation from 1886-2026.
FIRE BORNE is structured on a series of cultural, generational cycles presented in the book THE FOURTH TURNING by sociologists William Strauss and Neil Howe (Broadway Books, 1997) in which they establish their thesis of cultural and generational cycles which repeat throughout Western history.
The cultural cycles they present are:
- A period of cultural STABILITY and harmony. Once this period of stability becomes “over ripe” it becomes culturally oppressive.
- A period of AWAKENING through conscious, religious, economic, technologic, or political creativity, usually seen as a reaction oppressive nature of the stable culture.
- A period of UNRAVELING of the stable culture in which counter-cultural elements appear and challenge authority in a variety of ways.
- 4) Finally, a CRISIS ensues in which many elements of the once stable culture are done away with or altered.
Once the culture is re-formed, then a period of STABILITY would ensue and start the process all over again.
I have illustrated this process is illustrated in the CULTURAL WAVE FORM graphic below which repeats throughout this book.
The Goetheanum building burned and the Anthroposophical Society was re-founded in a phase going from UNRAVELING into a CRISIS phase. Our era is a cultural era of UNRAVELING and CRISIS, similar to the time when the Anthroposophical Society was re-founded.
Steiner never saw anthroposophy separate from the world. At the conclusion of the 1924 re-founding of the Society – when it was born – he said:
“And so, my dear friends, bear out with you into the world your warm hearts in whose soil you have laid the Foundation Stone for the Anthroposophical Society, bear out with you your warm hearts in order to do work in the world that is strong in healing.”
So, FIRE BORNE has a role to remind the anthroposophical movement of the generational truth that the next phase to arrive may be as much of a period of stability and growth as you see what happened between 1947-1963 when the Anthroposophical Society in America was:
“INSPIRED – KINDHEARTED – AND STRONG.”
CHAPTER SUMMARIES ARE LISTED BELOW BUT YOU CAN GET THE ENTIRE CHAPTER FREE – Starting in March 2023, MAIL CHIMP AUDIENCE subscribers (below) will receive the history of the Anthroposophical Society in America chapter-by-chapter FREE – one chapter each month.
FIRE BORNE: Anthroposophy in America 