Tom Raines

In this brief article, an attempt is made to introduce the concept for social renewal, as developed by Rudolf Steiner, into our modern times. He called his approach Dreigliederung - a threefold social order. Whilst one would need to study Steiner’s written works on the Three-fold Social Order to gain a deeper understanding, we can look at some of the basic ideas and background.

In Europe today we are in the midst of potentially great changes. The Nations of Europe, both to the East and West and to the immediate North and South, are wrestling with the question of how to form a common relationship for trade, political and cultural activities. The will to bring about a wider, unified European community can be seen through the workings of the EU and also the Council of Europe. The whole process brings to light many issues, not least being the fear that the various sovereign and cultural identities of individual Countries may become submerged, under a powerful centralised European Government. At the European Parliament in Brussels, bureaucrats seek for common policies for the people of a unified Europe, but there is no universal confidence that the policies reached are real solutions to the many problems that creating this unification brings. As all conscious actions result from an idea, a ‘guiding image’, we may ask the question: "Is there a true guiding image which these policies being developed in Europe should serve?"

Society, with all its myriad forms, arises through the inter-activity and sometime inspired creativity, of human beings. These social forms are fashioned out of our own nature, mirroring the human being with all our virtues and all our failings. But should not the guiding image of humanity be that of the true human being, through which moral impulses can flow? What is meant by this? We may find some help by considering a passage in the Old Testament where it says that Man was created in the Image and Likeness of God. The Image (which could perhaps be understood as the Higher-Self of the human being) is that true reflection of the Godhood, which never went through the fall from Paradise and remained in the spiritual worlds. The Likeness is that fully human aspect that was expelled from Paradise, becoming a personality in a physical body which then had to find, in freedom, the means of uniting again with the Image to become a complete Human Being. This Likeness has now to go through a long journey of transformation, through the ‘crucible’ of human experience, whereby it gradually comes more and more into connection and harmony with the Image. This ‘crucible’ of human experience occurs through our meetings with the world and one another. This is the social reality to our existence here on earth.

From our twentieth century perspective, we can readily see that Humanity is not yet a ‘finished work’, we are only on our way to becoming fully, truly, human in the far distant future. If our social forms were consciously founded upon a deeper understanding of the human being, then this would surely allow true humanhood to grow and develop within such forms. That we have so many social problems should awaken us to the fact that many of our social forms are not consciously based upon a true guiding Image of the human being. In seeking to apprehend and understand this true image one can come to the work of Rudolf Steiner.

Born in Austria in 1861, Steiner brought the fruits of his life’s work through the German language. From his earliest childhood he had what is popularly called ‘second sight’ of exceptional clarity. As he grew up he trained himself to understand and control this perception of nature and psychic forces. As a consequence of this he was able to undergo a development of what we might call ‘third sight’, perceptions of realms beyond life and death, where ultimate truth resides. It is this dimension of Steiner’s work, and his own descriptions of it, that makes his work unique, although not always easy to come to terms with. From his work many practical initiatives have been taken up in diverse fields such as Agriculture, Medicine, Education and the Arts. Steiner had been a well respected academic, organising and editing the archival material of Goethe, but from the age of forty, he devoted his life to developing and teaching a conscious investigation of the spiritual world, of supersensible experiences. Whilst this alienated him from the academic establishment, it eventually led to his forming of the Anthroposophical Society.

Anthroposophy recognises the tri-unity of God, Nature and the Human Being, and teaches the three-fold nature inherent in God, in Nature and in the Human Being. This Three-foldness had long permeated the philosophy and religion of the East, before it continued to survive in the West in such doctrines as Platonism, Neoplatonism, Hermetism etc. It can be found in the works of Augustine, Cusanus, Bruno, William Blake and, perhaps best of all, Jakob Boehme. What distinguishes Anthroposophy, with its renewed threefold teaching, from its predecessors, is that it is the perennial wisdom ‘resurrected’ in our time, the twentieth century. This had been lost in the scientific revolution which began in the seventeenth century bringing with it a fully materialistic world view. Steiner brought this teaching in a new way. His deeper picture of the three-fold nature of the human being, in its soul-physical relationship, is not to be found elsewhere. He established and presented it through a spiritual methodology as rigorous as that practised by orthodox science. He showed how the physiology of the human being is organised in a three-fold way, and that the understanding of this is accessible in concepts available to science.

Knowledge of three-foldness is a wisdom spanning ages of time. An indication of this can be seen in the ancient myths. In the Norse mythology we find the story of how three sons of the God Bor were walking by the sea at the edge of the world’s shore. These were the Gods Odin, Hoenir and Loki (Lodur), also known in mid-Europe as Wotan, Wile and We. Whilst walking together they saw two logs of wood. These had grown from the hair of Ymer, which sprang up as thick forests. Ymer was a great and lumbering clay-giant who had been slain in a war between the Giants and the Gods. The flesh and bones of Ymer’s body had become the soil and rocks of the earth, his skull the dome of Heaven and his brains the clouds. His ice-cold blood had become the waters of the sea. One of the logs was from an Ash tree the other was from an Alder tree. From them, these three Gods made a Man and a Woman. But they were still only like trees that grow in the soil until these Gods, Wotan, Wile and We also gave them the gifts of Mind and Will and Desire. (We can see in this ancient myth that the three soul attributes of Thinking, Willing and Feeling are present.) From this created Man and Woman descended the entire human race. Even in this brief myth-picture we can experience that the logs, coming from the fallen clay-giant, have a certain relationship to the Likeness and the gifts which make them truly man and woman come from the gods, the Image. Their ensoulment came in a three-fold way from three Gods. From his own research Steiner was able to show that Wotan brought the gifts of spirit and universal soul life to humanity, Wile the gifts of form, movement and intelligence and We the gifts of countenance, speech, hearing and sight. Other ancient myths also speak of this threefoldness. For example, in the ancient Persian myths the ‘Great Aura’, Ahuro Mazdao is spoken of as a force of light, fighting with Ahriman or Angryamanyu, the ‘Spirit of Opposition’. This ‘Great Aura’ differentiated into three parts as it came closer to the human being. According to Steiner this three-fold division in the Persian myths of the Cosmic Aura is a picturing of the same forces that the three Norse Gods, Wotan, Wile and We placed into the human being. Through them the forces of the ‘Great Aura’ were now allowed to flow into the individual human Auras.(We can see a development from the Persian to the Norse myths of the Cosmic Aura now entering the individual human aura. With this individualised three-fold nature, the human being was now fit to journey towards the creation of a true society, growing out of this human three-foldness.)

In his book "Von Seelenratseln", (Riddles of the Soul) published in 1917, Steiner states that he spent thirty years of systematic spiritual investigation before he felt able to bring his results to the public. Only in the last of those years was he able to formulate his results in concepts capable of expression and substantiation by orthodox science. He maintained that the Human Being is Three-fold in nature, consisting of a Nerve-Sense system (the head - the thinking realm), a Rhythmic system (heart and lung, pulse and breathing - the feeling realm) and the Metabolic system (transformation of substance - the realm of ‘willing’, of taking hold and changing something.) Steiner showed each human being as having a three-fold nature of thinking, feeling and willing.

Two years later, in 1919, during the ensuing chaos that followed the First World War, Steiner introduced his idea of a Three-Fold Social Order. It is important to recognise that this three-fold picture of society grows directly and organically out of an understanding of the three-fold nature of the human being. Given in the form of several books and lectures, it was Steiner’s response to the social problems of his time. But its understanding reached into the far future. He did not produce rigid blueprints for social reform, rather he developed an understanding that could be applied to all society with its diverse range of racial and cultural characteristics. Steiner was certainly opposed to any state system which imposed a stereotype of social values and customs onto whole groups of peoples, thereby stamping them with a grey uniformity. (This brings us to the heart of the debate over present day Europe). He saw that just as there were three aspects working together in the individual human being, so in our social life are to be found three independent, but related, realms. An economic one, a political one (where the rights of people were understood and protected) and a cultural one which included the arts, education and religious life. He stated many times that the essence of social problems are phsychological or cultural and not economic. He entirely refuted the suggestion that changing or revolutionising just the economic system would also solve our psychological problems.

It becomes clear from Steiner’s understanding that life on Earth has sufficient purpose, in terms of the historical evolution of human consciousness and of individual human destiny, for our Spiritual-Cultural interests to be placed on an equal footing with our Economic and Legal-Rights systems in the administrative structure of government. The State should not consist of just one central parliament controlling both the economy and the laws of the land, but of three interdependent departments, acting on their own initiative, although answerable to each other, for the economic, political-legal and the cultural affairs of a Nation. This is in much the same way that each person consists physically of three interdependent organisms; the head and nerves (thinking), the rhythmic (feeling), and the metabolic (Will) systems. If one system imposes its functions on another, then the whole body can become ill. For instance, if the feelings become overstimulated, the rhythm of the heart and lungs is disturbed, the breathing is effected and the blood moves differently in the body. This can effect the head, bringing headaches, and also the digestive system, even to the point of sickness. This same picture also holds true for the social organism. To avoid social-illness, none of the three inter-related departments should come out of balance and impose its functions on one another.

For many centuries a two-fold picture of church and state had held sway across Europe. At the beginning of this century Steiner felt that this old picture must give way to a truly three-fold one, based on the individual human being - and in our century, particularly in the Western culture, there has been an enormous development and opening out of the individual, the ‘I’, as a self determining focus. The Church, as the former representative and focus of cultural and moral life, has in this century somewhat lost its vital connection with life, whilst State governments have political and economic affairs largely confused together. Economic and political affairs are closely connected in actual life, but their inherent laws are quite different. In order that these different activities can function properly, Steiner saw that it must become possible for governments to deal only with the laws concerning peoples’ rights and the fair distribution of goods whilst allowing Associations, or groups of companies directly concerned with economic production, to deal with the economy and control of prices. Steiner observed that one of the major causes of social unrest arises from the idea that human labour and initiative is a commodity to be bought and sold like any other. He recognised that human labour is a Right, and needs to be recognised and rewarded as such. Therefore, wages should be determined by the Rights (legal-political) sphere and not by the Economic realm of production and consumption. Steiner saw that if wages would be paid in this way, people could gradually overcome their sense of being exploited in their work, and in time might accept being paid in accordance with their actual needs and what a country could afford, rather than automatically demanding higher wages. A search for more money, particularly as wages, is also sometimes a compensation for the unfulfilled yearning for a life with more meaning. Without doubt, a scientific world view that could admit as feasible that humanity has a personal and a cosmic mission, such as is found in anthroposophy, would counteract the growing frustration and yearning for more meaning in life experienced by many people. This recognition would allow the development of a healthy Cultural life.

All this is a brief picture, not of some Utopian ideal, (there are already many small initiatives approaching these ways of working in the world), but of a social life where there could exist freedom in the cultural life, equality in the rights-political life and true brotherhood and sisterhood in the economics life. Then the cry heard during the French Revolution of "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" would find its true expression, rather than the largely misunderstood caricature that survived the terrors of that period of French history. When Steiner presented his Three-fold picture, he was hopeful that in the aftermath of the first world war such ideas could be seriously taken up. This was not to be. Instead, there appeared two other ideas which took root in Europe as dark responses to the spiritual picture of mankind and society that Steiner was bringing forward. National Socialism came into German political life and the Russian Revolution of 1917 brought Bolshevism to the fore in Russia, leading to seventy years of Communism in Eastern Europe. Now, with the Second World War behind us and the demise of communism throughout eastern Europe and Russia, the people of Europe have another opportunity to create our social forms in a truly human way. The time is ripe.

Steiner saw that he had to bring the public a picture of the three-fold nature of the human being. Only then could he bring his picture of a three-fold social order. Dreigliederung can only be seriously taken up, indeed can only really be understood, when human beings can know themselves in a three-fold way. Then there is the right soil in which to sow and grow the concepts of Dreigliederung. These concepts can then be recognised, not as some external teaching, but rather as belonging intimately to our own humanity. A creative response to life, based on a true, self-understanding, coming from within each person, then becomes possible.

In these three-fold pictures the human being is always present in a certain way as a fourth element. Our conscious inner-self, that part of us which can say ‘I’ to ourselves, is present as a potentially higher-integrating reality with these three realms of thinking, feeling and willing. When we are dealing with a question of money, for example, we can become conscious in observing ourselves taking part in the Economic realm. We can then notice the moment we step out of that realm and into, say, the realm of Rights, or into a Cultural question or experience. These realms are states of consciousness, states of relationship that we move in and out of during daily life. As we shift our consciousness, so we shift our relationship. By becoming aware that life consists of these different realms, each with their own laws, we can come to understand how to apply ourselves with moral creativity in each different situation. Then transformation of our social life can take place.

Society is a community of individuals, each one an unique ‘I’ presence. Society will become its true being by first receiving its true Image. For Society to become a moral community is a long journey with many steps. We are those steps. To bring this about, as members and co-creators, our human Likeness has to become fully spiritualised and lifted up into a complete relationship with the Image. Rudolf Steiner opened this possibility further through anthroposophy. It is only a beginning and to understand and connect with the true Image of Mankind, through living experience, needs courage, imagination and good will. The true Idea of the whole human being needs to be thought. If the people of Europe could come towards an understanding of the true Idea of the human being, would that not be of benefit, like a healing remedy, to the whole body of humanity?

Three hundred years ago, in1799, the German philosopher-poet Novalis wrote an essay in which he looked at the destiny of Europe and asked a question: would Europe become a new centre of true Christianity for the world? Steiner’s three-fold picture is a response to that question, for it leads to none other than the Resurrected Christ. On Easter Sunday Christ showed in His perfect Body that the True Image of man is now united with the fully purified Likeness. This fully realised and transformed state is the goal which is available to every human being. Then a new Heaven on Earth can become a reality, fulfilling St. John’s vision in the Apocalypse of the New Jerusalem. That is our Social future.

Steiner mentions in a lecture on 22.3.05 that Hoenir and Loki are also sometimes called Wili and We. In a lecture from "The Mission of the Folk-Souls", he says that Hoenir and Lodur are normal archangels and Wili and We abnormal ones. This question of archangel identities needs more research to come to a better understanding, but the three-fold picture remains valid in these myths.

The Case for Anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1970. (Selected translations and foreword from Steiner’s Riddles of the Soul by Owen Barfield.)

Lectures by Rudolf Steiner concerning the Norse mysteries: 22nd March 1905 and Berlin 14th and 28th October 1907.

Steiner’s writings on Dreigliederung - the Threefold-Social Order (Available from Rudolf Steiner Press and the Anthroposophic Press.)

First published in New View, Issue 9, Oct-Dec 1998. Anthroposophical Association, London.

Tom Raines Ó 1998
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