Rudolf Steiner’s first mystery drama, Portal of Initiation, begins with a scene between two friends, one of whom, Sophia, studies spiritual science and the other, Estella, who doesn’t. Estella wants to convince Sophia to go see a play, Outcasts from Body and Soul. However, Sophia has been working on a mystery drama which appears at the same time. Estella is worried that Sophia is drawing away from her and losing touch with everyday life and common sense. Estella, a modern realist, thinks it is important to accept harsh reality as it is, and forsake abstract ideals. Estella says, “I was rejoicing with all my heart at the thought of having you beside me to look into the real depths of our present-day life. But your world of ideas —which is so alien to me – will destroy even the last remnant of our friendship, that has bound us together since our schooldays” (14). Sophia reminds her that differing opinions don’t need to change the feelings between friends. Yet Estella feels that everything Sophia does just estranges her from all that is worthwhile. Estella admits that “something in me rebels against the way you look at life” (15). Sophia counters with, “Honestly, if you would only admit to yourself that you’re really asking me to deny the very core of my nature” (15). Estella feels that Sophia’s views imply superiority and greater profundity. She is suspicious of those who study spiritual science and feels they are spiritually arrogant.  After further argument, Stella ends with, “I understand what you are trying to say, but it only shows too clearly that you prefer to indulge in fantasy rather than face the truths of life” (19).  Nonetheless, they part with the expectation of remaining friends.

With this prologue, Rudolf Steiner presents a theme which is essential not just to the plays, but to our encounters with others in everyday life. It is indeed a common occurrence that an individual who delves into spiritual science soon finds himself estranged from others whom he used to feel close to. The feelings between two people change when one can’t understand, and subconsciously rebels against the world view of the other. Those with strongly held materialistic views will feel repelled by much that spiritual science has to say. A common outcome is that people drift apart and become estranged.

Are we wakeful when this happens with us? How common it is! I have witnessed numerous marriages broken when one partner took up Waldorf teacher training and the other did not take up anthroposophy. I have witnessed families torn apart in Waldorf communities after immersion in Waldorf-related ways of life. How is it that what seems to be a good thing, spiritual science, can wreak such social destruction? Are we acting with spiritual arrogance and unrealistic ideals? Have we lost touch with what is happening in the world? Perhaps some of the criticisms hurled at us have a basis in our behavior. Have we continued to nurture our relationships with non-anthroposophists? Are we humble? Do we expect to impose our views on others through talk and neglect right action? Have we narrowed our circle of friends so much that we have lost touch with modern culture? Do we cultivate real interest in others outside our circle? Do we really know why we do this or that, or are we just following a new cult-ural example? These are very real questions!

Steiner states in his Karmic Relationships lectures that anthroposophy can indeed be a force that disrupts social relationships. Individuals are drawn to anthroposophy through experiences in the spiritual world prior to birth. New connections form to other Michaelic souls, alongside one’s existing karmic ties. This can create dilemmas in life. One finds one family, friends, and old karmic circle on the one hand, and the strong pull to fellow Michaelic souls on the other hand, even while this latter group includes people from varied, and sometimes opposing streams from our own. How does one respond to this state of affairs? It is a situation which confronts every anthroposophist. Steiner cautions us:

The one will have this or that to undergo through the fact that he must tear himself loose from old connections and unite with those who are seeking to cultivate the message of Michael. … But in every case, those human beings who are within the Anthroposophical Movement stand face to face with others who are not in it, including some with whom they are deeply, karmically connected from former earthly lives. Here we can look into the strangest of karmic threads. (Karmic Relationships)

Steiner continues (with emphasis added):

It is most necessary for the anthroposophist to know that in this situation as an anthroposophist his karma will be harder to experience than it is for other men. From the very outset those who come into the Anthroposophical Society are predestined to a harder, more difficult experience of karma than other men. And if we try to pass this harder experience by — if we want to experience our karma in a comfortable way — it will surely take vengeance on us in one direction or another. We must be anthroposophists in our experience of karma too. To be true anthroposophists we must be able to observe our own experience of karma with constant wide-awake attention. If we do not, then our comfortable, easy-going experiencing of our karma — or rather our desire to experience it so — will find expression and take vengeance in physical illnesses, physical accidents and the like. (Karmic Relationships)

Weighty words, indeed. If we do not manage to fulfill our karmic tasks in the right way, we may be subject to physical illness and accidents! We hinder ourselves when we neglect our karma from the past. So how does one deal with this difficult state of affairs? Those with whom one was once quite familiar, perhaps throughout our childhood and youth, now are estranged from us. Yet we have karma with these individuals which we must put into order. And on the other hand, we feel the impulse to tear ourselves loose from these old karmic ties and focus on our Michaelic companions. How do we find right action in these situations?

Rudolf Steiner gives us a hint, when he has Sophia and Estella part with an affirmation to remain friends. The feelings of connection with those with whom we have karmic ties must be respected and honored. It serves neither our own karmic burden nor our friend’s future if we discontinue a deep relationship. If one can discern the nature of the karmic bonds, one can resolve the old karma and bring it into order. This may entail remaining true to our responsibilities and obligations with regard to the other person. Or perhaps, cultivating forgiveness and loosening our personal interest in some past dilemma will serve. Yet there is also the other to consider. They may be repulsed by spiritual science, yet they are our friend. If we maintain a warm relationship with them, we give the other access to the light and life-giving effects of spiritual science beyond the gate of death, if not already in this life. Why would we want to foreclose this opportunity for the other to come into spheres where he or she will have access to Michael and Christ?

The situation is made even more weighty by the fact that these karmic ties affect not just us, but our angels as well. Anthroposophists, through their study of spiritual science, allow their own angel to penetrate even deeper into the spiritual world that it could before. Those who are stark materialists and with whom we may sever ties, cause their own angel to fall even deeper into lower worlds.

The destiny of anthroposophists, — the destiny that works itself out between anthroposophists and non-anthroposophists, — casts its waves even into the worlds of the Angeloi. It leads to a parting of the Spirits, even in the world of the Angeloi. The Angel who accompanies the anthroposophist to his next incarnations learns to find his way still more deeply into the spiritual kingdoms than he could do before, while the Angel who belongs to the other man — to the one who cannot enter, — descends. It is in the destiny of the Angeloi that we first perceive how this great separation is taking place. To this, my dear friends, I would now direct your hearts. It is happening now, that the comparatively single and uniform kingdom of the Angeloi is being turned into a twofold kingdom of Angeloi, a kingdom of Angeloi with an upward tendency into the higher worlds, and with a downward tendency into lower worlds. (Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships)

The Angelic hierarchies are in the midst of a sundering! We have a role in how this plays out. Do we strive for spiritual enlightenment and activity for ourselves alone, or do we strive to bring our fellow human beings along with us in a loving way? How successful are we really at obliterating our egoism? By paving a way for our friends to reach spiritual realms through their relationship to us, we also help the angels find their way deeper into cosmic happenings. Life will present myriad variations of this tendency to split off from other souls who have not yet found their way to Michael. Much rests on how we respond in each case.

A further example of sundering is given in the mystery dramas. Johannes, we discover, has neglected his relationship with a young woman who was faithfully devoted to him. Instead, he pursues his relationships with Maria and with spiritual science. The young woman, bereft, has killed herself in grief (123). The old girlfriend arises in Johannes’s vision, seeking an end to her suffering (139). Johannes Thomasius realizes his error, and comes to understand that he now has a heavy karmic burden to settle with her. He neglected to heed his karmic obligations. Furthermore, in his enthusiasm, he managed to transform Maria’s selfless love for him into a passionate desire for her, which hinders his spiritual development and prolongs his journey on the spiritual path. This is a very complex karmic knot, one that is not fully resolved even by the end of the fourth drama. How might his path have been different if he had taken his first girlfriend along with him into Benedictus’ circle? How might her fate have been changed?

Women often outnumber men in the anthroposophical movement. Our local group of anthroposophists are almost all women, most with husbands at home who are not engaged in anthroposophy. Yet we are all happy to have our supportive husbands and our anthroposophy too! By maintaining our relationships with those we have close karmic connections to, despite a lack of openness on the other’s part to spiritual science, we keep open a pathway for them to reach deeper into the spiritual world after death and in the future. We are, in a way, gatekeepers who can choose to keep the gate open.

Anthroposophy is given not just for those who are destined to find it, but for humanity as a whole. Let us be awake to how the relationships we maintain in our life (or don’t) may impact more than just ourselves. As anthroposophists, we are called on to put our karma into order, and to pave the way for Michael’s mission to come to fruition on earth. Let us tend our social life with care, that the sun may shine evenly on each and every one.