Mediators For Initiates?   By Mark McAlister

15 Dec Mediators For Initiates?   By Mark McAlister

Members should consciously make themselves mediators between what the questioning human soul feels as the problems of man and the universe, and what the Initiates have to recount.

This quote is from a Letter by Rudolf Steiner to members of the Anthroposophical Society, dated 13 July 1924.  Elsewhere in this letter, he describes how the Initiate is able to discern moral laws of the soul which are intimately connected with the happenings of everyday life.  Steiner challenges us to take this into account when we try to solve problems in the world.

To some, this may sound dogmatic — Herr Doktor hat gesagt  (the Doctor says)— but here is another way of looking at it.  Acknowledging the existence of factors that will always be beyond our control is the first step in any decision-making process.  (Management consultant Peter Senge writes about this extensively in his landmark book, The Fifth Discipline.)

In other words, Steiner is asking us to be mediators. This requires a high level of critical thinking, and the ability to take multiple — often conflicting — points of view into account.  Gradually, we can then learn to form imaginations which allow spiritual forces to stream into our initiatives.

Each of us will take up Steiner’s challenge in different ways, according to our vocation.  In my career as a business communications consultant, I kept coming back to a central theme: Understand your audience and engage with them — and pay attention to the new social forms that emerge. In this article, I will share some of my stories.

My first full-time job was at Rudolf Steiner Press in London in the late 1970s.  We had an ambitious plan to create a catalogue of trade editions, and to promote its sale in the public book trade. We were all very excited — but one day at a team meeting, I found myself saying, This is all very good, but who’s going to do the selling?  There was an awkward silence in the room, and perhaps you can guess what happened next!

Yes, I became the Trade Rep, and spent my days traipsing around London trying to place our books in stores.  Needless to say, this was pretty challenging, and the business results were modest.  However, the encounters with booksellers were often quite stimulating.  Excuse me, Ma’m.  I see you have some Waldorf books on the Witchcraft shelves.  Might I suggest that you also stock them in your Education and Parenting section?  I also remember visiting the Bookshop in the Tate Gallery, and showing (with some trepidation) a copy of Steiner’s Colour lectures to the Buyer.  To my astonishment, he ordered a stack of copies without even opening the sample.  He just loved the Geissberger watercolour on the cover!

During those  three years, I spoke with dozens of booksellers as well as customers at book fairs.  Listening to them, and learning about their perspectives on the needs of the reading  public, my own relation to Steiner’s work began to shift and evolve.

In 1980, I was back in Toronto, looking for work.  Here is an excerpt from the Career Goals section of my Resumé:

…the rapid deployment of word-processing and media technology has outstripped the development of writing and communication skills in many companies and organizations.  New concepts are not broadly understood within an organization, or are not conveyed successfully to the market…

I was soon hired by SYSDOC International Inc., a technical writing firm.  I was promoted to General Manager, and oversaw all aspects of the business.  Our informal slogan was, motivate people to act.  The primary purpose of a computer manual (or on-line documentation) is not to explain computers — it’s all about helping people to do their jobs.  Most of the staff had Arts backgrounds, and we fought like hell to protect and cultivate the English language.

Aside from Robert Massoud wandering in from the street and trying to sell me furniture, I did not meet any anthroposophists in the course of my day.  However, the work of Rudolf and Marie Steiner was always in the background for me.  This meditation was particularly helpful:

In present earthly Time, Man needs renewed spiritual content

in the words he speaks.

For of the spoken word Man’s soul and spirit

during the time outside the body while he sleeps

retain whatever is of spiritual value.

For sleeping man needs to reach out

into the realm of the Archangeloi

for conversation with them;

and they can only receive the spiritual content –

never the material content of the words.

Failing such conversation,

Man suffers harm in his entire being.

• Rudolf Steiner, from a letter to Marie Steiner, March 1923
• Translated by George Adams

My engagement with the National Research Council (1996-2005) was full of rich experiences.  Again, encounters with anthroposophists were few and far between, but that didn’t make the work any less spiritual.  Although you may find this hard to believe, the home page on their website carried the following inscription:

The sole aim of science is the glorification of the human spirit.

Mark receiving his Management Consultants Certificate from C.M.C.

I was asked to build the Ontario portion of the Canadian Technology Network, and the  task was to ensure that tech entrepreneurs in smaller cities had access to the best available business and financial resources.  I incorporated Warm Handshakes Inc., and started traveling  back and forth across the Province.  I recruited several dozen municipal economic development officers, and launched a series of meetings and conferences with local tech entrepreneurs.  We learned about their business plans, and brought some of the missing pieces (management consulting, finance, Internet tools…) to the table.

One of my informal slogans was Culture Leads, Commerce Follows. We recognized a wide range of factors that  benefited businesses, including schools, libraries, academic institutes, research organizations, art projects and so on. Of course the will of the entrepreneur is always a critical element, but she can’t do it all by herself.

During this period, I was helped by Steiner’s Motto Of The Social Ethic:

It is only wholesome when…

In the mirror of the Human Soul,

The whole community takes shape

And in the community,

lives the strength of the individual soul

• Translation by James Gillen

These examples give one perspective on what it means to be a mediator: helping people to understand a wider audience, and to get engaged with it.  New doors open for them, and they can meet the words of Initiates in their own way.

I’ll close with this quote from Peter Senge:

Merlin united the knights in the circle of the Round Table, and then scattered them forth again on the paths of their several transformations.  Though the knights travel their separate paths, they are united in a common bond, and their paths, though predestined for each one of them alone, will meet, cross and intertwine.

> Adapted from a passage in The Fifth Discipline, Ch. 18