Illuminations on Rudolf Steiner as a Spiritual Teacher. Unpublished Materials from the Rudolf Steiner Archive

In his comprehensive study on the history of anthroposophy in Germany, Helmut Zander (2008, I: 716) points out that the history of Steiner's impact as a spiritual teacher is largely unwritten. This talk aims to make a modest contribution to this huge topic from both the early theosophic and the early anthroposophical periods of Steiner's esoteric teaching. For this purpose, some unpublished, in part only recently discovered, materials from the Rudolf Steiner Archive (RSA) will be examined, including: hectographed diagrams in Steiner's handwriting, and meditative drawings by the Russian symbolist writer Andrei Bely (1880-1934) and the Russian graphic artist Asya Turgeneva (1890-1966). 
From Steiner's early theosophical teaching practice, there exist small colored cards with pentagrams and hexagrams and hectographed diagrams, which probably served as meditation templates, handed out to the members of the ES. These materials illustrate how Steiner, as a spiritual teacher of the Theosophical movement, amalgamated various elements of different Eastern and Western occult traditions, and how he strived to relate the different traditions to each other.
Furthermore, the RSA's collection contains 124 meditative drawings by Andrei Bely and four meditation albums by Asya Turgeneva. Many of them bear the date of creation and a commentary, made by Steiner, who, from the summer of 1912 until 1914, closely mentored the meditation progress of the couple. These meditative drawings by Bely and Turgeneva from the last three years of Steiner's activities as spiritual teacher within the ES show no connections to Eastern occult traditions, but on the contrary demonstrate the inclusion of Christian mystic tradition elements. 
Through Andrei Bely, Steiner's esoteric teaching practice had a huge impact on Russian literature, as Bely integrated his spiritual experience into his writing practice and developed a new style, called “ornamental prose,” which significantly influenced Russian literature throughout the 20th century.