Rudolf Steiner.

[Public domain photo; color added.]

This may seem a strange thing to say, but I think Rudolf Steiner might have made something of himself.  He dabbled in many fields, and he showed signs of aptitude in some of them — architecture, for example. If he had applied himself, he might have had a career in architecture. But he went a different route, and as a result most of his potential was lost. (How great was his potential? It is hard to say. He had assistance in many of his artistic projects. It is not always clear how much of "his" artwork was his own and how much was provided by his "assistants.")

The route his chose, of course, was occultism. He elected to be a spiritual savant. Perhaps this was his karma; perhaps it was the will of the gods. Or perhaps it was his own conscious choice, a voluntary decision he made heeding no drumbeat but his own. In any event, his life's work turned out to be the enunciation of the spiritual "truths" that he claimed to attain through the use of marvelously precise clairvoyance. The value of that work is certainly open to challenge; and, sadly, because he devoted himself to that work, he allowed most of his other talents to go largely unfulfilled.

Still, he involved himself in many areas of human endeavor, and he left us various products of his apparent, potential gifts. Here are a few samples of his output.

Rudolf Steiner.

[Public domain photo; color added.]

* Steiner's supporters often indicate that Steiner created the statue wholly or at least primarily by himself. But sometimes a different, more accurate account emerges — although we still may need to read between the lines to fully comprehend the story.

“Rudolf Steiner, with the support of the English sculptress Edith Maryon, began work on a central sculptural work for the developing building [i.e., the Goetheanum] ... Rudolf Steiner worked on the ‘Christ Group’ with Edith Maryon and a few assistants.” — Peter Selg, THE FIGURE OF CHRIST: Rudolf Steiner and the Spiritual Intention Behind the Goetheanum’s Central Work of Art (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2009), pp. 23-25.

“The group, which is carved out of elm, is of an enormous size, needing a scaffolding nine meters (about 29 feet) high. The original model, which was the same size as the final sculpture, was largely made by the English sculptress Edith Maryon in accordance with Rudolf Steiner’s instructions. Several other sculptors in addition to Miss Maryon worked on the wooden Group itself, once the huge pieces of elm had been glued together and were ready for the mallet and chisel. Steiner sometimes left this original sculpture as they had left it, but more often he added a few essential touches to make the figures conform fully to his intentions.” — Stewart Copinger Easton, RUDOLF STEINER: Herald of a New Epoch (SteinerBooks, 1980), p. 227.

Steiner undoubtedly controlled the project; his was the guiding sensibility; and he is usually credited with doing substantial work on the final sculpture (which largely conforms to the original model). The statute is, in an important sense, his. But the photograph of Steiner standing alone, in a sculptor's smock, contemplating the work in progress, creates a highly misleading impression. How much Steiner intended to mislead the public about his artistic endeavors and the degree of assistance he received may remain an open question. The most accurate statement about the statue would be that the statue was created by Rudolf Steiner, Edith Maryon, and others.

— Compilation by Roger Rawlings