On the Cover

On the Crossing to Oslo, 1908

There are few candid images of Rudolf Steiner taken when he was unaware of the camera. The image on our cover shows him together with Marie von Sivers on the ferry to Oslo, Norway, during his first “extended lecture tour,” late March, early April 1908. At the time he was lecturing on the Gospels, and in Oslo he spoke about the Gospel of St. John

In a letter to Edouard Schuré dated March 26, 1908, Rudolf Steiner wrote: In two hours we leave for Scandinavia. Lectures are planned in Lund, Stockholm, Upsala, Gothenburg, Christiania (Oslo), Malmö and Copenhagen.

In the photo it is easy to sense, in the outward directed gaze, that he appears to be looking not at the world, but into it.

One person sails across the ocean, and only a few inward experiences pass through his soul; another will hear the eternal language of the cosmic spirit; for him are unveiled the mysterious riddles of existence.

~Rudolf Steiner “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment