Steiner's own account of how anthroposophy grew: a religious circle, then an artistic phase at Dornach, then practical work in schools, medicine, and society.
The Three Phases of the Anthroposophic Movement in Anthroposophy is Rudolf Steiner's own periodization of the movement he led, given as the opening lecture of the Waldorf-education course published as Soul Economy (GA 303) on 23 December 1921. The first phase, from about 1902, gathered a narrow circle who received anthroposophy as a religious worldview, cared little for its scientific grounding, and for administrative reasons worked alongside the Theosophical Society. That association ended in dogmatic quarrels, chiefly the claim that an Indian boy was the reincarnation of Christ. The second phase carried the movement out of sectarianism through art: the mystery dramas staged in Munich from 1910 to 1913, then the building of the Goetheanum on Dornach hill and the war years there. The third phase, opening in 1919, brought anthroposophy into practical life through the threefold social order, the Stuttgart Waldorf school, medicine, and eurythmy.
The three phases of the anthroposophic movement are Steiner's shorthand for how a small religious circle became a practical movement. Phase one was theory shared with the Theosophical Society. Phase two was art, the mystery dramas and the Goetheanum. Phase three was application: schools, clinics, eurythmy, and a threefold picture of society. He told the story once, plainly, to a hall of visiting teachers.
In Steiner's Own Words
These attempts to free the anthroposophic movement from sectarianism by entering the artistic sphere represent the second phase of its history. Gradually, as membership increased, a need arose for the thought of philosophy, cosmology, and religion to be expressed artistically, and this in turn prompted me to write my mystery plays. And these must not be interpreted theoretically or abstractly, because they are intended to be experienced directly on the stage. To bring this about, my plays were performed in ordinary, rented theaters in Munich, from 1910 to 1913. And this led to an impulse to build a center for the anthroposophic movement. The changing situation made it clear that Munich was inappropriate for such a building, and so we were led to Dornach hill, where the Goetheanum was built as the right and proper place for the anthroposophic movement.
What it Means Today
Steiner dated his own movement from the inside, and modern scholarship has been arguing with that dating ever since. The fullest counter-account is Helmut Zander's two-volume Anthroposophie in Deutschland, published in 2007 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Göttingen. Zander, a historian of religion at the University of Fribourg, traces the movement's institutional history from 1884 to 1945 and reads the 1912 and 1913 separation from the Theosophical Society as an organizational rupture over authority and leadership rather than the inner necessity Steiner describes. Read the two accounts together and the 1921 lecture stops being a chronicle and becomes something sharper: a founder telling a room of teachers from England, Holland, and Scandinavia what kind of thing they had walked into, the day before the course on Waldorf method began. He is not listing dates. He is arguing that a spiritual movement which stays theoretical will turn dogmatic, and that the only proof against sectarianism is work in the world.
Thalira synthesis: the three phases are not a timeline but a test, each phase being the previous one asked to become concrete, thought asked to become form, form asked to become deed. Anyone studying anthroposophy can run that test on their own reading. A student who has read Steiner for five years and cannot name one thing they do differently is still standing in phase one.
Where to Read More
- Soul Economy: Body, Soul and Spirit in Waldorf Education, GA 303
- Find Soul Economy at SteinerBooks [THALIRA_BLOG_LINKS_PLACEHOLDER]