Reversed cultus
A reversed cultus, as characterised by Rudolf Steiner, arises when a community of free, spiritually striving people come together for a common spiritual work. In contrast to conventional cultus, such as is cultivated by a priest in religious communities, here the supersensible is not brought down into the sensual world, but the spiritually striving community rises from the sensual to the spiritual in common action. The prerequisite for this is that the people in this community do not merely face each other externally, but that a real awakening takes place in the other person. Rudolf Steiner saw this as a model for anthroposophical community building, such as should be cultivated in the anthroposophical branches. But this also applies to all other communities whose basis is a common spiritual striving. This can be, for example, a therapeutic community in which doctors, nurses and therapists work together on a spiritual basis, an educational or curative institution, but also an economic or agricultural enterprise, etc.
„Through the cultus the supersensible in word and action is brought down into the physical world. Through the anthroposophical branch the thoughts and feelings of the anthroposophical group are lifted up into the supersensible world. And when the anthroposophical content is experienced in the right frame of mind by a group of human beings, whereby human soul awakens to human soul, this human soul is actually raised to the spiritual community. It is only a question of this consciousness being really present. When this consciousness is present and such groups appear in the Anthroposophical Society, then in this, if I may say so, reversed cultus, in the other pole of the cultus, something community-forming is present in the most eminent sense. One might say, if one wants to speak metaphorically: the cult community tries to induce the angels of heaven to descend into the cult space so that they may be among the people. The anthroposophical community tries to raise human souls into the supersensible world so that they may come among the angels. This is the community-building element in both.
But if anthroposophy is to be something for the human being that really leads into the supersensible world, then it must not be theory, not abstraction. Then one must not merely speak of spiritual beings, but seek out the nearest, most immediate opportunities to be with spiritual beings. The work of an anthroposophical group does not consist merely in a number of people talking about anthroposophical ideas, but in their feeling united as human beings in such a way that human soul awakens to human soul and people are transported up into the spiritual world, so that they are really among spiritual beings, even if perhaps without seeing. Even if it is not there in the vision, it can be there in the experience. And that is then the strengthening, the invigorating, which can come out of the groups which have just come into being within the Anthroposophical Society with the right community building.“ (Lit.:GA 257, p. 179f)
Literature
- Friedrich Benesch: Das Religiöse der Anthroposophie. Der kosmische, der umgekehrte Kultus, Die Pforte, Basel 1985, ISBN 978-3856360696
- Gerhard von Beckerath: Gespräch als Kultus: Wiederkunft, Christlicher Einweihungsweg, Bruderschaft, Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 2005, ISBN 978-3723512388
- Günter Röschert: Das freie Erkenntnisgespräch als umgekehrter Kultus, Verlag für Anthroposophie, Dornach 2010, ISBN 978-3037690277
- Herbert Ludwig: Das anthroposophische Erkenntnisgespräch als "umgekehrter Kultus", Verlag Ch. Möllmann, Borchen 2011, ISBN 978-3899791334
- Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophische Gemeinschaftsbildung, GA 257 (1989), ISBN 3-7274-2570-9 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Vortrag in Dornach, am 3. März 1923, Klartextnachschrift des 9. Vortrags aus GA 257 pdf
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