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Tomberg about his inclusion in Dornach
A letter toMarie Steiner, 12. Januar 1934

... „So I let the first ,Consideration’ (,Anthroposophische Betrachtungen zum Alten Testament’, Schönach 1984 [16]) send to all the people in Dornach that I knew, a. o. also Dr. Boos, without any negative expectations. The reception that this study received in Dornach was for me truly unexpected. The most blatant form this took was in an article by Dr. Boos in the first issue of the ,Members journal’ (,Mitteilungsblattes’) which demonstrated an attack especially on my personality. This article was accepted by Mr. Steffen without being in any way moderated by him, much less retracted.

This article, however, contains a misrepresentation of what was in actual fact said in the ,Consideration’. This misrepresentation consists in the fact that Dr. Boos believes to have read the brutal untruth in the ,Consideration’ that I should have buried Rudolf Steiner and placed myself in his place. What was actually said in the ,Consideration’? It is said there that the author owes as much to Rudolf Steiner –  a n d  h i m  a l o n e – as the human body owes to the  a i r. Furthermore it is said there that by following the path that Rudolf Steiner has shown, everything that he said will be proved true, - also the fact that if someone were to bring his development so far that he were to reach the level where personal instructions from that particular part of occult knowledge that cannot be made known publically would be necessary, that this necessary knowledge  a l w a y s  would be granted to him.  

… So we have all certainty that we need never believe ourselves to be alone, - a l s o  not on the physical plane.

Furthermore it is stated there that the  l a c k  o f  c o u r a g e  o f  k n o w l e d g e which is growing ever stronger in the Anthroposophical Society as a consequence of the catholic attitude of a one-time revelation during the years 1901 – 1925 to which nothing can be added, has a deadening effect on the  l i f e  of the Society and poses a threat. We have a future, so it is said,  a l s o in the sense of an inflow of revelations. (Also this can be securely substantiated through Rudolf Steiner; indeed he speaks about the ,teachers from Chartres’ who are to  come in the second half of the 20th century in the ,Karmic Relationships’ a.s.o.

T h e s e  are the thoughts of the ,Considerations’ as they were intended, which, however, Dr. Boos interpreted in such an irresponsible way. (He did not at all enter into the factual matter concerning the work concerning the Bible.)

As I read this article of affront I asked myself:  Where does this  h a t r e d  c o m e  f r o m ? W h y  this distortion of thoughts? And as I learnt that Dr. Boos is not the only one at the Goetheanum who judges this work in such a way, I asked myself whether it would not be better immediately to cease the work so that this poisonous wave within the Society is not propagated further. Have we not had enough strife already?

So my first impulse was to bring the release of the ,Considerations’ to a complete cessation. But then I asked myself: Do the ,Considerations’ contain one word, one thought which is untrue, and which I could not carry responsibility for with my entire conscience after 17 years of austere work? Even more; is there in the work so much as one thought that cannot be justified from what Rudolf Steiner has conveyed? And I had to say to myself: Everything is true; you do not have to take anything back. And if the people who take offence were to ask themselves, in how far is it true and founded on Rudolf Steiner, instead of asking, as they have done, in how far is it untrue and in opposition to Rudolf Steiner, they too would easily realize that what is stated there is true.

As a consequence of this fact I came to the realization that one has from the very start not been benevolent toward the work in Dornach, for one has wished to construe everything in the negative, which, without this attitude, would have been evident and positively understood.“…

(Seiß, W., Der Kampf gegen Val. Tomberg, Briefwechsel V. Tomberg-M. Steiner [17], Schönach 1999 S. A19.1/2)

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[15] Research concerning the Path of Schooling of Rudolf Steiner and the Source of the Knowledge
       of Valentin Tomberg
[16] Anthroposophical Considerations on the Old Testament
[17] The fight against Valentin Tomberg; Correspondence between V. Tomberg and M. Steiner

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