“The Red Thread”

 Marie Steiner-von Sivers; from her Memoirs (1953)

Rudolf Steiner’s Reading of the Karmic Biography of Novalis:

Its Significance for our 21st Century

Dear Friends,

This is an edited and revised version of a lecture that I gave on Zoom to an audience friends and members of the Anthroposophical Society in America. The lecture occurred on April 10, 2025, as part of the American Society’s Easter Festival: “Anthroposophy Ever Anew.” The lecture was an offering to the Society from the North American Section for the Literary Arts & Humanities of the School for Spiritual Science. 

This is the companion lecture to a presentation that I gave at the Front Range Anthroposophical Cafe in June, 2025 “In my end is my beginning . . . The Fairytale that Inspired Anthroposophy.” The two lectures should be viewed together, ideally. I added chapter markers so persons can skim or jump about. 

Chapter Divisions

1. 00:00 Preface to Video
2. 01:46  Introduction to Our Theme
3. 15:27  The Mystery of the Last Address  
4. 22:38  What is Missing from the Last Address?
5. 28:08  Rudolf Steiner. “Theosophist”?
6. 33:24  The Poet Novalis. “Anthroposophist”?
7. 41:08   What is “Spiritual Economy”? Why Should I Care?
8. 43:41   The Continuity of the Red Thread
9. 46:13   “Ordo Inversus”
10. 53:53  Beauty . . . Goodness, & Truth: Their Significance for Anthroposophy
11. 55:44 11. “Ordo Inversus”. . . A Final Example
12. 59:55 12. Tying up the “Red Threads”
13. 60:03  All You Really Need to Know: “Song One” from “The Songs of the Spirit” by Novalis

08.02.25