‘Vreede’ = ‘Peace’.

TODAY 31 August in 1943 – Deathday of Elisabeth Vreede, a Dutch mathematician, astronomer & Anthroposophist – one of Rudolf Steiner’s closest co-workers, part of the the original Vorstand in Dornach . ‘Vreede’ translates from the Dutch as ‘Peace’.

Elisabeth Vreede was born in Holland, at The Hague, on 16 July 1879. She was a sensitive person, & later on in her life she played an important part in the life of Anthroposophia.

Elisabeth Vreede came into contact with Theosophy in her home growing up. She was interested early on in the starry sky, & while learning French, she read the works of Camille Flammarion, a French astronomer & author. Because of his scientific background, he approached reincarnation from the viewpoint of the scientific method, writing, “It is by the scientific method alone that we may make progress in the search for truth. Religious belief must not take the place of impartial analysis. We must be constantly on our guard against illusions.”

At the University of Leyden she studied mathematics, astronomy, Sanskrit, & philosophy (especially Hegel). She was also actively involved in student life, founding a boat club & was a council member of the students’ union.

After receiving her diploma in 1906, she gave instruction at a higher girl’s school in mathematics until 1910. Then she lived in Berlin, worked on her dissertation, & worked as a secretary for Rudolf Steiner. In April 1914, she moved to Dornach to help in the building of the first Goetheanum & was often found there carving wood.

Einige Briefe aus dem Jahr 1943, Elisabeth Vreede

Her first meeting with Rudolf Steiner took place at the Theosophical Congress in London in 1903. Vreede was leader of the mathematics & astronomy sections in the Goetheanum in Dornach from 1926 till 1935. In her capacity as leader of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section she wrote a monthly letter, then available by subscription, about both modern astronomy & classical astrology in the light of spiritual science. The letters included explanations of the fundamentals of astronomy & discussions of astrology in the modern world, with reference to such topics as the procession of the equinoxes, comets, solar & lunar eclipses, & the meaning of the Christian holidays such as Easter & Whitsun. The Letters in English translation were published in 2007 with the title Astronomy and Spiritual Science.

Cichorei | Elisabeth Vreede

Rudolf Steiner said of her: ‘this individuality does not wish to be recognized …’ Elisabeth Knottenbelt in her memoirs describes statements about her: that ‘she incarnated too early’ for the sake of serving Rudolf Steiner. “for this task [the work with Rudolf Steiner] she had assumed the sacrifice of a premature incarnation. One who, for the sake of a spiritual mission, comes in this way to earth too early must forego a lot. To a great extent one leaves one’s karmic circle of human beings behind in the spiritual word. Her life was thus really a quite lonely one, only a few persons were grouped around her without any real connection.”

Olive Whicher, personal assistant to, & colleague of George Kaufmann, recalls: “Dr Vreede used to say half jokingly that she thought she wore ‘Tarnkappe’ – an invisibility cap. I think it is true, and furthermore that the invisible cap extends to quite central themes in Rudolf Steiner’s great impulse. No doubt, as the decades pass and the souls who harbour those vital impulses have turned again towards Earth, the invisible cap will wear thin and become transparent”.

Chilly” was the single word that summed up Elisabeth Vreede for Ernesto Genoni, Australia’s foundational pioneer of biodynamics, when he met her in 1920. Other first hand accounts bear out his impression.

Olive Whicher recalled that Elisabeth Vreede “bore the solemn and determined – even stern – expression of the thinker”.

Rudolf Steiner saw her in connection with the Platonic stream, & had indicated that she had incarnated earlier than planned in order to meet him on Earth.

Rudolf Steiner is reputed to have said that Dr. Vreede understood his work more deeply than anyone else.

After the War, Rudolf Steiner developed his idea of the threefold social order & she too had an intense interest in this initiative & work. She was the first to bring this idea of a threefold social order to England.

Elisabeth Vreede had moved to Dornach in 1913, initially living with the English sculptor, Edith Maryon.

Elisabeth Vreede experienced the tragedy of war 1st hand. She moved to Berlin (in 1916 -1917) to support British prisoners of war. She had lived in the same apartment block as Marie & Rudolf Steiner in Motzstrasse. In this philanthropic work, she worked with Dr Elisabeth Rotten – Quaker, peace activist, & co-founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Her feelings for Berlin were ambivalent: “my peculiar mood concerning Berlin – most wonderful and most terrible of all cities”.

Around 1918, Dr. Vreede began to construct the library & archive at the Goetheanum. Using her own means, she purchased the expensive lecture transcripts as soon as they were typed from notes. In 1920 she moved to Arlesheim, Switzerland, where she had built a little house for herself. It was the second house for which Steiner had given the model in 1919. George Kaufmann Adams wrote that: “The model for this house had been made by Edith Maryon with Dr Steiner’s help…’House Vreede’ on the hill at Arlesheim, looking straight across to the Goetheanum, became known through its hospitality to countless friends”.

Elisabeth Vreede attended Rudolf  Steiner’s Agriculture  Course  at  Koberwitz, & was  a  member  of  the  ‘Experimental  Circle  of  Anthroposophical Farmers &  Gardeners’ tasked  with  testing  &  progressing  Rudolf Steiner’s  “hints”  for  the  development  of  a  Holistic / Spiritual agriculture. She  helped  the  farmers  in  developing  &  understanding  the astronomical aspects of their work.

Vreede  gave a lecture for “Agricultural  Session”  at  Dornach in January  1926, called  ‘The  Significance  of Astronomy  for  Agriculture’.

At the Christmas Conference in 1924, Steiner appointed her to head the Mathematical-Astronomical Section of the School of Spiritual Science of the recently reestablished Anthroposophical Society, & she belonged to the board of directors of the general Anthroposophical Society from 1925 to 1935. Rudolf Steiner had declared: “Fräulein Vreede is one of those who best understands my lectures”

Lili Kolisko, biodynamics pioneer, wrote: “Elisabeth Vreede, PhD, was a member of the Executive Council, on whose opinion one laid very little – one could almost say, absolutely no – value. This was in spite of the fact that Dr Steiner introduced her in the Christmas Conference [1923] with the following word: “Likewise, a very long-time member is the person I now mean and who has proven, right down to the last detail, to be the most loyal coworker here and with whom you really can also agree to the very last detail: Fraulein Dr Lili Vreede”

Rudolf Steiner stated: “her advice is always sought when we need to know something in the mathematical-astronomical realm … I wish to have this work carried on in the future by Fräulein Dr Vreede as Leader”.

Elisabeth Vreede - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

In 1935 the separation within the Anthroposophical Society took place & she was expelled from the executive council & excluded along with her long-time friend & co-member, Dr. Ita Wegman from the board of directors. She was also cut off from the observatory & archives that she herself helped assemble.

Expelled at age fifty five, Elisabeth Vreede continued to travel, often in Holland and England”, also to Italy, Greece, Palestine, Egypt, Ireland and Turkey. Her last trip to Germany was in 1938 to help Jewish members of the Anthroposophical. Months before her death, she delivered the eulogy at the funeral of fellow purgee, Ita Wegman (1876-1943).

The last years of her life became more lonely. She was cut off from her friends abroad by the War. The death of Ita Wegman at the beginning of March, 1943, was a great shock for her.

Here is a quote from a letter written by her prior to her removal from the executive council: The Being of Anthroposophy – I myself have always felt it as a spiritual being newly created by Dr. Steiner, as it were the first hierarchical Being that men have begotten, quite young and still underdeveloped, as is the case with a child—a Being that must now begin to develop further through our common work as a ‘community of knowledge’, and with the cooperation of its creator from the spiritual world. Just for this reason I find it so painful when attacks are continually made against part of the active members such as to exclude them from the work, from creating together the Being of Anthroposophy.”

Dr. Vreede gave a lecture on 3 January 1926, which was first published in Vol. 6, Nos. 42 to 46, called The World of the Stars and Human Destiny. In it she addressed the appropriate use of Astrology in our time:

You will now understand to what purpose we have a horoscope, and that it is not there in the first instance for our own sake. You will understand that when a horoscope is made for a person’s satisfaction, there is always a certain amount of egoism connected with it; for he does not possess it for this purpose! And if you take the passages in our literature where Dr. Steiner speaks about Astrology (there are passages in many of the cycles and lectures) you will find how he emphasizes again and again that Astrology must be something social, which pays no attention to the individual but has social aims. In a true Astrology only what is universally human is considered and not the satisfaction of the egoism of the human being. By considering it egoistically, that deed of Michael is undone whereby other beings ought to be saved from plunging into the abyss.

When Dr. Steiner asked the position of the stars at the moment of a birth, it was always with reference to children who lacked one or other of the forces just described. It was then possible to learn from it which of these forces was not there in the right sense; thus it could be gathered what this human soul lacked before birth. And then it might be possible under certain circumstances to find a cure. Here we see how the matter is carried away from what is egoistic and into the social, when such abnormal children may in this way find a cure, which otherwise might perhaps not be possible. But in those children in whom certain forces were not brought in at birth these influences remain present. …Thus we see how Astrology can be used when it is kept in Michael’s sense, and not in the sense in which it is so often practiced today.”

In 1928 she invited Willi Sucher to come to Dornach & collaborated with him in working out the death asterograms of historical personalities, which was part of his substantial historic research, & which he further worked out in the late 30’s & 40’s, doing the charts & therapeutic research of special needs children in England & Scotland.

On the anniversary, in 1943, of Rudolf Steiner’s death, she spoke to the circle of friends & co-workers at the Ida Wegman clinic. They wanted to commemorate not just Rudolf Steiner but the many others who were leading Anthroposophists but were no longer known to most. She spoke in a devoted way about Edith Maryon, who also died in 1924, & Alice Sauerwein. She portrayed Count Keyserlingk & Louis Werbeck, Caroline von Heydebrand & Eugen Kolisko.

At the beginning of May 1943 she spoke once more on the 400th anniversary of the death of Copernicus. At the lecture it was noticed that only by exceptional exertion could she keep herself upright. Just a few days later on 6 May, she had to take to her bed. She had never been ill nor depended on people until that point. Thanks to the devoted care of Frau Schunemann, she was treated at home until her passing on 31 August 1943 in Ascona.

The stars bear for us the traces of the Deeds of the Gods which lead through the Beings of the hierarchies to the frontiers of Divinity Itself.” ~Elisabeth Vreede

31 August 2023– “Speaking with the Stars” – Comet 103P/Hartley 2 is passing thru the outskirts of Perseus today. This region is rising after sunset & highest in the overnight hours, so if you can stay out late to observe it around midnight or later, your view will improve.

Look for the comet near Algol in Perseus, on the western border with Andromeda. Hartley 2 is a short-period comet that returns to our skies every 6.3 years. It is expected to brighten over the next two months, as it nears perihelion — the closest point to the Sun in its orbit — in mid-October.

Sunrise: 6:26 A.M.
Sunset: 7:34 P.M.
Moonrise: 8:16 P.M.
Moonset: 6:55 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (99%)

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (commons,rsarchive.org, Astrosophy.com)

JEAN-BAPTISTE REGNAULT

Feast Day of Joseph of Arimathea & Nicodemus. Rudolf Steiner speaks about these individualities as initiates many times. Here are a few examples: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA103/English/AP1962/19080525p01.html

12 – Birthday of Caligula

1528 – Deathday of  Matthias Grünewald a German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. Only ten paintings—several consisting of many panels—& thirty-five drawings survive, all religious, although many others were lost at sea in the Baltic on their way to Sweden as war booty. His largest and most famous work is the Isenheim Altarpiece

1740 – Birthday of Johann Friedrich Oberlin, mystic, philanthropist, social Christian. Rudolf Steiner spoke about him in his lectures on Occult History  http://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0126/19101227p01.html

1803 – Meriwether Lewis & William Clark start their expedition to the west

1869 – Deathday of Mary Ward, Irish astronomer & entomologist, killed when she fell under the wheels of an experimental steam car built by her cousins. She was the world’s first person known to be killed by a motor vehicle

1997 – Deathday of Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed & driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

15 thoughts on “‘Vreede’ = ‘Peace’.

  1. Hazel,

    Thank you for the reminding us of Dr. Vreede and her travails dealing with her Anthroposophist opposition.

    In the early 80’s, I received an astrosophy reading from Willi Sucher himself so I would like to dedicate this comment of mine to Willi and invite him to overshadow our group here.

    When I was working with Rev. Carl Stegmann in 1981, he made this shocking and troubling statement to me, something which I carried inwardly until its fruition 33 years later in 2014.

    After he was ordained as a priest in 1923, Carl became a “pastor” of a Christian Community Church in Mannheim, Germany.

    Here’s what he said to me: “When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, about half my congregation considered Hitler to be a Michaelic figure because Rudolf Steiner had predicted the return of Christ in the etheric, starting in the year 1933.”

    That statement haunted me for decades, and led to this fruition 33 years later in 2014.

    https://groups.io/g/waldorf-critics/message/28424

    Hazel, I encourage you to consider the destiny of Hans Büchenbacher (1887-1977) a personal student of Steiner, who served as chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in Germany from 1931 to 1934.

    And Maverick, I encourage you to read through my entire posting in 2014 because it will shed some light on your relationship to Steve Hale here.

    Included in my 2014 posting is my translation of the letter that the Vorstand sent to Adolf Hitler in 1935.

    On November 1, 1935, the Chief of the Gestapo in Prussia, Reinhard Heydrich, signed an order banning the Anthroposophical Society in Germany. Within 3 weeks of the ban, the Vorstand of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler, pleading with the Führer to overrule Heydrich’s order.

    I close with a verse I translated anew honoring both Elizabeth Vreede and Willi Sucher:

    “Stars once spoke to us.
    Their silence now is cosmic fate.
    Listening to this silence —
    can make us suffer on the earth.

    But swelling in this silent stillness
    is what we are speaking to the stars!
    Listening to this speech
    can make us stronger in the spirit.

      1. You got it, Hazel! But I must correct your preposition.

        We must Speak again *TO* the Stars!

        They are now ready to listen to us.

          1. Always the provocateur, Tom.

            “And Maverick, I encourage you to read through my entire posting in 2014 because it will shed some light on your relationship to Steve Hale here.”

            Hmm. I didn’t know that Waldorf Critics archived its old posts, but I am glad you gave the letter of capitulation to Hitler, and signed by Steiner-von Sivers, Wachsmuth, and Steffen. Dated November 17, 1935

            BTW, Maverick and I have a very amicable relationship. I was only citing content from that lecture. Maybe you should read it for its concern at an important time in history. I know that atoms exist for you 🙂

    1. Yes, Tom, I believe that part of the reason for the ousting’s of dedicated Anthroposophists in the Society after Steiner died, besides the unwillingness to look at their karmic relationships, had to do with this pandering to the evil powers of the Hitler regime. It is not pretty, but this part of our history in the Anthroposophical Society cannot be glossed over, because if we don’t look it straight in the eye & bring forgiveness & healing it will, & indeed has continued to happen again in our time of the Corona Crisis.

      We have to learn from our past mistakes. Pandering didn’t help then, they still got shut down. And pandering doesn’t help now. The medical section got blasted even though they completely gave in to the materialistic anti-science. We have a powerful opportunity to give succor to human beings thru Spiritual Science during these dark times – but only if we have the courage to stand in the truth of a world-view where fear, hatred & doubt are named for what they are. And the Christ impulse is put at the center of our thinking, feeling & willing.

    2. We have to learn from our past mistakes. Pandering didn’t help then, they still got shut down. And pandering doesn’t help now. The medical section got blasted even though they completely gave in to the materialistic anti-science. We have a powerful opportunity to give succor to human beings thru Spiritual Science during these dark times – but only if we have the courage to stand in the truth of a world-view where fear, hatred & doubt are named for what they are. And the Christ impulse is put at the center of our thinking, feeling & willing.

  2. Greetings,
    another word Humble appeared in Mathew 18 2,e.g.
    “Elisabeth Vreede came into contact with Theosophy in her home growing up. She was interested early on in the starry sky, & while learning French, she read the works of Camille Flammarion, a French astronomer & author. Because of his scientific background, he approached reincarnation from the viewpoint of the scientific method, writing, “It is by the scientific method alone that we may make progress in the search for truth. Religious belief must not take the place of impartial analysis. We must be constantly on our guard against illusions.”
    Mathew 18 1 5
    At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;

    surprising how a person can achieve such Bodhisattva,in age span @64 years!!some 100
    years back!! where as in past 50 years we lost starry sky/only light appears in sky,
    civilized human did wonderful inventions..still we need food, four wheels in car
    last 50 years lead humans to where?next 50years..we may loose natural connections.
    many we see in streets not aware of gravity they move in streets as if carrying a luggage
    no graceful jittery moves like a cat or cheetah!
    Namaste mkyogi

    1. The answer to the current predicament is the warning that Steiner gave in his last Leading Thought on Sub-Nature, ref. https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA026/English/RSP1973/GA026_c29.html

      Thus, it is technological materialism that is turning human beings into zombies, along with copious amounts of opioids for pain, and even fentanyl usage in the current diagnosis. The homeless are disabled to due their addiction, which is being actively pushed as a sign and symbol of humanity’s own self destruction.

      You wrote: “surprising how a person can achieve such Bodhisattva,in age span @64 years!!some 100 years back!! where as in past 50 years we lost starry sky/only light appears in sky, civilized human did wonderful inventions..still we need food, four wheels in car last 50 years lead humans to where?next 50 years..we may loose natural connections. many we see in streets not aware of gravity they move in streets as if carrying a luggage no graceful jittery moves like a cat or cheetah!”

      I think I ‘might’ understand this to some extent. Namaste.

      1. Greetings,
        True you are very right..
        from link,
        https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA026/English/RSP1973/GA026_c29.html

        “By far the greater part of that which works in modern civilisation through technical Science and Industry — wherein the life of man is so intensely interwoven — is not Nature at all, but Sub-Nature. It is a world which emancipates itself from Nature — emancipates itself in a downward direction.”

        and civilized human to zombies!! or robots or alien?
        created new word privacy!!
        frustrations,create zombies? addictions?

        King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 5 17,
        All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.

        Namaste,mkyogi

      1. It is quite interesting to consider that Elizabeth Vreede was a premature incarnation, and specifically for the purpose of meeting and aligning with Rudolf Steiner, who was also a premature birth. They worked very closely, and this biography indicates that Steiner relied on her very much, and made her the leader of the Astronomical Section at Christmas 1923. Thus, one who is destined to incarnate prematurely gives up what would be normal karmic connections, and leads a life “out of due time”, which can be very intense and lonely. Elizabeth Vreede is an exemplar in this regard, and held to the code to the very end. Excellent article.

        It can also be shown that a life meant to take place at a certain point in time is deferred to a later time in order to make way for a premature birth. This has the effect of giving one’s intended karmic connections to the one born prematurely. This was Rudolf Steiner’s unique circumstance. It is well documented in his autobiography. For example, giving birth to the Being of Anthroposophy required the little boy to come out of his cocoon by seeing a paranormal event in which his recently deceased Aunt came into the railway station and pleaded words to him, and then disappeared into the heat stove.
        The boy made inquiries, and the outer world opened up to him.

        Years later, he informed that Dante had reincarnated in the 19th century in a peculiar way in order to help make his own destiny. Premature births contain these kinds of peculiarities. Definite outcomes are intended in these lives. Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, is another example of a premature birth.

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