~Light-Streaming Archetypes
Dear friends – It was at this time a few years back that I went on my Parzifal Journey to Cornwall & the magical isle of Tintagel. I did not find the Holy Grail. In fact, more often than not I met the Guardian at the Threshold who brought admonishment into my soul forces. I have yet to speak or write about this deep inner & outer voyage. I guess I’m still not ready. But it has been stirring in me, & I have wanted to let it breath out a bit, so it is interesting that today 17 August in 1924 Rudolf Steiner visits Tintagel.
It was during this inspired visit that Rudolf Steiner began writing the first 2 installments of what we call the ‘Michael Mystery’ (CW26). There are 19 letters, like the 19 Lessons of the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science. In them we are stimulated to develop the strength to illumine the world of our thoughts - to experience our thinking as light-filled - fostering an awareness of our connection to the cosmic realms -beyond the shadow intelligent which is a sense-bound slave to the physical - to strive instead to awaken to the experience of the divine world of independent ideas – to Become Michaelic Activists working together to reclaim the Cosmic Intelligence. We enthuse our inspired thinking with feelings of reverence & wonder, to enact deeds of service in our co-creation of the Cognitive-ritual, out-pictured artistically in community life as new Michaelic festivals.
On this, his final visit to Britain, Rudolf Steiner’s schedule of lecturing was hectic. He delivered 3 a day during the Anthroposophical Society’s Summer School at Torquay (11-22 August 1924) – but that is another story… Steiner took one day out of that busy schedule, to go as far west as he ever ventured in that lifetime – to the west coast of Cornwall.
Tintagel is the legendary home of King Arthur, Merlin, the sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake, the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot, Queen Guinevere, & the court of Camelot. Midway through the Torquay Summer School, 102 years ago TODAY - on Sunday 17 August 1924, Rudolf Steiner declared “I want to go to King Arthur”. A cavalcade of 3 cars ventured forth from the southern beachside resort town of Torquay, across the verdant moors of Dartmoor, to the spectacularly positioned Tintagel, on the west coast of Cornwall.
Eleanor Merry & D.N. Dunlop were the two organizers of the Torquay Summer School. Both were part of the entourage to Tintagel. Merry reports that: “At last we came again to the sea, and straight ahead of us, at the top of a green cliff, were the last fragments of King Arthur’s castle of Tintagel. A deep rocky chasm divided this from a second rugged cliff, where still other remains could be seen” Merry continues: “Dr. Steiner was at first silently absorbed in the wonderful view. All around was sunshine, and fleeting cloud-shadows and little hurrying rainbows – and a stormy and angry sea”. The entourage included at least two of the 11 attendees of Steiner’s Agriculture Course at Koberwitz, namely Dr. Elisabeth Vreede & Guenther Wachsmuth. That course (7-16 June, 1924) laid the foundations for the development of biodynamic agriculture.
Wachsmuth remembered: “On that unforgettable day Rudolf Steiner went with us to the place on the rough rocky western coast of Cornwall, Tintagel, where the castle of King Arthur had once stood … That strangely densified spiritual atmosphere we shall never forget, so intensely to be felt as Rudolf Steiner climbed the strange projecting cliff on the lonely coast of Cornwall where the last walls of the castle of King Arthur towered over the roaring sea … He spoke there, standing on the cliff, about the experience of the Knights of King Arthur … He spoke of the teachings of Merlin … The immediacy of the spiritual vision in this place was so intense that, during his descriptions, the entire reality, the external life and action … of King Arthur’s knights, stood before us as actual experience”
The Tintagel visit occurred just two months after Steiner’s Agriculture Course & less than six weeks before Rudolf Steiner retreated from public life entirely. On this, his tenth visit to Britain, Steiner taught about Anthroposophy & Waldorf education. An opportunity for agriculture lectures in Britain did not arise, & there had been no British attendees at the Koberwitz course. We can speculate that the attendance of Wachsmuth & Vreede, who had attended at Koberwitz – as well as Tintagel, in this case along with Marna Pease – may have seeded the early interest in Britain in Anthroposophic agriculture which evolved into biodynamics. Marna Pease went on to be the secretary of Britain’s Anthroposophical agricultural Foundation which was founded in 1928. Elizabeth Vreede attended, in London, as a guest at the first Annual Meeting of the Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation.
Wachsmuth described this final visit to Britain: “During … the last trip of Rudolf Steiner in his life on earth, he suffered tragically from the destructive illness. Outwardly, nothing of this could be observed. He met daily all the requirements of the comprehensive program & his lecturing activity. He spoke introductory words at artistic programs, had numerous conferences, & took part in the excursions, but every meal caused in his ill condition renewed suffering, which he bore courageously without a word of complaint … He permitted nothing to be known by those at the conference regarding his illness” (Wachsmuth, 1989, p.563). Just a month after this tenth visit to Britain, Rudolf Steiner retreated entirely from public life (after his last address 28 September, 1924), & he died on 30 March 1925
HAIKU: He has slipped backwards Out of that life like a dress— Dry cicada shell
17 August 2026 - “Speaking with the Stars”
To honor & foster the Christian Community of Southeast Wisconsin, we gather for ‘Devotional Services’ in-between Priest Visits. All are welcome to join in this opportunity to come together for devotion, reflection, & sharing. Sunday 13 September - 18 October Please arrive by 10:15 am so that we can be ready to begin promptly at 10:30 am– when the Consecration of the Human Being is being celebrated all over the country 11:30 am - Optional Potluck-Social Time (food contributions welcome) Families welcome - Children can play downstairs during the service. RSVP hazel@CogRite.com
SAVE THE DATE: 26 September 2026 MICHAELMAS: HORN OF PLENTY 3-8pm - Open House at the Spirit Lodge in Elkhorn WI. Bonfire, Prep-Stir, Walk the boundry, Potluck, Song Circle
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