Founding of the First Waldorf School - Waldorf Research Institute

sum of personalities — that is the physical aspect. Viewedspiritually, a group is a being that wants to express itself andcommunicate through the personalities. Rudolf Steiner placedgreat emphasis on this. He said that everything in the physicalworld is a reflection of the supersensible world. What do theparties, the political parties, reflect? The conservative partiesare oriented in an ahrimanic direction; the truth behind theconservative party is an ahrimanic being; the truth behindthe progressive party is a luciferic being. That is what he said;it can be found in his lectures. He referred to other groupsas well, to the Order of the Jesuits and the body of Waldorfschool teachers. But he did not indicate what being expressesitself through a body of Waldorf school teachers. He left it toour inner attentiveness to determine that.If it is true that we can bring to expression a positiveor less positive spirituality — and this is indeed somethingthat every person senses in his feelings — then the questionarises, how must we conduct ourselves so that a positive andprogressive spirituality can work through us? The question isasked: What must we do to become a vessel for the SchoolBeing, for a positive spirituality? I must admit that we havespoken very little about these matters. You have elicited thesequestions; I am grateful that for once these questions havebeen formulated. I believe there are conditions of the sociallife among colleagues which can be described. One conditionis trust among human beings. Without trust nothing cango forward. Without the trust that I give to another humanbeing, nothing can succeed. It is an absolute prerequisite thattrust in one another be brought about.Trust, however, like all higher virtues, cannot be broughtabout by force. One cannot force love; one cannot bringabout friendship by force; productivity cannot be forced;61