Spiritual Friendship

"Their complete understanding of each other and those two great spirits passing into each other created an atmosphere, perceptible to all, that had bearing force and radiated hope for the future" (Marie Steiner-von Sivers). Peter Selg wrote this remarkable book on the formation of spiritual community and mutual assistance to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of Christian Morgenstern's death on March 31, 1914. Rudolf Steiner was, for Christian Morgenstern, the decisive spiritual teacher and facilitator of the future, both historically and to him as an individual, which is why Morgenstern wished to recommend Steiner for the Nobel Peace Prize. Rudolf Steiner felt great warmth of heart and gratitude toward Christian Morgenstern, his poetic work, and especially his groundbreaking way of working with anthroposophical Spiritual Science. "It is often said that to understand the poet we must go to his home country and understand that Christian Morgenstern is a poet of the spirit. And to understand this poet of the spirit, we must go into the land of spirit, to spirit regions" (Rudolf Steiner). CONTENTS Foreword Introduction 1. "Your Cross as a Silent Support" The Significance of Rudolf Steiner for Christian Morgenstern 2. "A Human Star" The Evidence of Anthroposophy in the Realm of the Dead and the Unborn 3. Easter 1915: Seven Poems by Christian Morgenstern Epilogue Addendum This book was originally published in German as Geistige Hilfeleistung. Rudolf Steiner und Christian Morgenstern (Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, 2014).