King William-Alexander of The Netherlands and King Felipe VI of Spain: Social Organics - Turning Our Mother Earth into a Garden of Heavenly Joys

It is generally acknowledged that humanity on earth is
embroiled in a serious social-economic crisis and that the symptomatic solutions
offered so far to solve it are not really working and in some cases have even
made matters worse. Less acknowledged is the fact that humanity is also
suffering from a severe cultural-spiritual estrangement from itself and the
earth, and that the therapies applied to cure this wide-spread malaise are not
really working either. Therefore it is vitally important that, considering the
worsening state of mankind and the earth, new ideas be brought forward and that
they be met with an open mind, how unusual at first sight they may appear to be.


 



One such an idea, hitherto neglected or disregarded as
being unscientific, unpractical or outdated, is the concept of social organics,
i.e. the art and science of the threefold social organism that was inaugurated
in the first quarter of the 20th century by the Austrian born
philosopher and founder of anthroposophy or science of the Grail, Dr. Rudolf
Steiner (1861-1925). Since this seminal idea and its universal significance that
he presented in several stages of development and in different contexts has
hitherto remained practically unknown, it requires a short introduction in
order for the whole petition to be fully grasped. Only then will it become
clear why I am taking the liberty to submit this petition to your Majesties on
the occasion of your scheduled joint opening on February 12 coming of the
Hieronymus Bosch Exhibition “Visions of a Genius” in the city of
‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Dutch province of Brabant to mark the 500th
anniversary of the death of this enigmatic painter. In this exhibition, almost
all of his known works of art will be displayed, except his absolute
masterpiece, the triptych “The Garden of Heavenly Joys”, also called “Grail”, which
has been adopted as the figurehead of this petition for reasons that will be elaborated
in the course of my argumentation.

 


Please permit me therefore to attempt to do this. I
say attempt, because we are here dealing in essence with an unfathomable
mystery, of which only a general outline can be given here with references to
literary sources.


 


The triune idea of social organics was first offered in
1917 internally to the governments of the Emperors Wilhelm II of German and
Francis Joseph of Austria as a comprehensive peace plan on the part of the Axis
powers to end World War I. This even included an interview with crown prince
Max von Baden in 1918, of whom Rudolf Steiner hoped that during his acceptance
speech as State chancellor he would announce the idea of a threefold
commonwealth as evidence for a new social beginning and a peace overture on the
part of the German people. He thereby hoped to prevent the oncoming bloodshed
and revolution of a communist takeover and the signing of an unjust peace
treaty at the conference at Versailles, where Germany was falsely accused of
being solely responsible of starting the war and was consequently saddled with
enormous reparations that laid the groundwork for the second World War.

When all this was disregarded and to no avail, Rudolf
Steiner presented this idea for social renewal to the public in 1919 with an
“Appeal To The German People and the Civilized World”, which was signed by many
prominent personalities, such as the writer Herman Hesse, and which was backed
up by his book “Social Renewal - The Basic Issues of the Social Question” (http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA023/English/SCR2001/GA023_index.html).
Out
of this, arose a movement in Western and Middle Europe, centered in Stuttgart,
with a weekly newspaper and trained speakers for the realization of the Threefold
Social Order, as this idea is also called, under the slogans: Freedom in the cultural sphere (art,
science and religion), Equality in
the rights sphere (state and politics) and Brotherhood
in the economic sphere (through an association of producers, traders and
consumers).

 

When also this attempt failed and the strong,
overbearing economic forces that had contributed to the outbreak of the First
World War began to take hold again, Rudolf Steiner presented in 1922 a whole
new approach to the idea of the threefold social organism with his Course and
Seminar entitled “World Economy”.(http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA340/English/RSP1972/WldEco_index.html)
No longer typifying the social organism as the
social body consisting of the cultural, rights and economic spheres, he now viewed
it as the whole earth and as such consisting of the economic production factors
nature, labour and capital (a modern term for it would be the “environment”). The
proper management by world-wide economic associations-to-be of these three
production factors, out of which the two sorts of economic values are created
(through manual and  organizational
labour), can then result in just or fair prices, with which the whole process
of globalization, including the proper care of our endangered environment and
its species, stands or falls. After all, just prices are the virtues of the
world economy and world peace without a just world economy remains a pious wish.


 



This new science of world economy of course requires an
institution of advanced learning to further develop and promote this discipline,
and this constitutes in effect the fourth stage of social organic development.
This took place during the so-called Christmas conference in 1923/24 in
Dornach, Switzerland when, in the presence of some 700 - 800 members from the
four corners of the world, Rudolf Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society
anew with as its center of spiritual research and development the Goetheanum
(named after the German poet and scientist J. W. Goethe) by according it a
constitution also based on a social organics. This idea was thereby raised to
the status of a universal principle of civilization, because it does not only
possess the intrinsic potentiality to reform the faltering world economy, but
can also serve as an archetypal guide to establish and maintain human
societies, economic, legal and cultural institutions on a mesosocial plane. From
the many local anthroposophical societies that he had helped set up previously
in practically all countries in Western en Middle Europa, including The
Netherlands, but not yet Spain, he expected that they would model their own constitution
on that of the newly constituted Anthroposophical Society founded on these new
social organic statutes, so that in this way the new principle of civilization
would be instituted world-wide by this process of multiplication. His premature
death on March 30, 1925 put an end to these plans and left the Society in a
state of disarray.

 



To have demonstrated that social organics is indeed a
universal principle of civilization applicable to both macro- and mesosociale
planes of existence, is the great, yet until now insufficiently acknowledged, service
the philosopher and anthroposophist Herbert Witzenmann (1905-1988), former head
of the Social Science Section of the Goetheanum, has rendered with his books
such as “The Just Price – World Economy as Social Organics” (http://just-price.blogspot.nl/2012/08/the-author-herbert-witzenmann-and-his.html) and “Charter of
Humanity – The Principles of the General Anthroposophical Society as a Basis of
Life and Path of Training” (https://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwitwsLXkcXKA........).

 
Now, in these and other, not yet translated writings, Herbert
Witzenmann has enlarged in a profound way on what he has called “World Peace
Union of Oases of Humanity” during one of his social scientific conferences
“Contributions to the World Situation” in 1979 in Arlesheim, Switzerland.  This was exactly 33 years after the successor
to Rudolf Steiner as president of the General Anthroposophical Society, the
Swiss poet and writer Albert Steffen (1884-1963) together with the Swiss member
of parliament Emil Anderegg in 1964 entered an appeal entitled “Oases of
Humanity” to the Swiss parliament to transform Switzerland on the basis of the
threefold social idea into an oasis of humanity, an appeal that was never fully
realized, but that did lead to the further strengthening of the Geneva convention
for the protection of civilians in war-torn areas. But neither Herbert
Witzenmann nor Albert Steffen were the original architects of this idea, for
that again was Rudolf Steiner, who during the course of his course on biological-dynamic
agriculture in the east of Germany (Koberwitz) in 1924 spoke of the urgent need
to establish “oases of humanity”, spiritual centers for the preservation and
development of Middle-European culture in remote areas sustained by the new
farming method he was developing as a cure for the earth that already then was
being poisoned by chemical pesticides.(http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA327/English/BDA1958/Ag1958_preface.html)

It was then Herbert Witzenmann, who
broadened in 1979  this idea to a vision
of a World Peace Union.

 

The first step he saw in the establishment a model
oasis of humanity in which the occupants would make a threefold peace with
themselves, with each other and with the earth (through bio-dynamic farming)
and in which, among many other things, they would study, further develop and
carry out this new principle of civilization called social organics, that was originally
inaugurated as a peace program to end World War I by solving the so-called
nationalities questions, i.e. the problem of cultural autonomy for
nationalities living in foreign states that is still a threatening war mongering
issue in countries such as Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Israel and yes,
thinking of the Basques, also Spain. Once such a model oasis would be
established, it could, with the necessary moral fantasy and technique, be
reproduced and, interconnected and spreading all over the world, they could
then offer a hopeful perspective for the creation of a world peace union of
oases of humanity.

There have been, to my knowledge, some attempts made
in this direction, such as the SEKEM initiative in Egypt and the Camphill
movement centered in England, but not exactly in the way as delineated here, i.e.
centers of spiritual and social organic schooling sustained by
biological-dynamic farming from which a strong impulse for world peace is
forthcoming.

 



This having been said, brings us to the subtitle of
this petition, i.e. “Turning Our Mother Earth Into A Garden of Heavenly Joys”.

 



If, as we have seen the social organism is,
economically speaking, the whole earth, then it is from the point of view of
“The New Christianity” that Rudolf Steiner revealed to humanity in 1924 as the
inspirational source of his anthroposophy (although with many antecedents),
nothing else than the body of Jesus Christ! For did He not say, whoever drinks
wine partakes of My blood and whoever walks on the earth steps on My body? This
justifies the bold and at first sight far-fetched statement that developing and
practicing social organics, threefolding the social body either macro- or
mesosocially as a service to humanity on earth is the new religion of taking care
of the body of Jesus Christ!

 


This is now what is meant by “Turning Our Mother Earth
Into A Garden of Heavenly Joys”. It is nothing else than attempting (thereby
not excluding any other ways to do so) to further the establishment of God’s
Kingdom on Earth as originally established two thousand years ago by Jesus
Christ, to begin with by setting up a model oasis of humanity and then gradually
extending it to envelop the whole earth as a World Peace Union. For realizing
this, Jesus Christ has bequeathed us the Sermon on the Mount with its nine
Beatitudes. And as the eminent Christian hermetist Valentin Tomberg  (1900-1973), whom Rudolf Steiner envisaged as
his spiritual successor as the apostle of the New Christianity, has shown in
his book “Christ and Sophia -  Anthroposophical
Meditations on the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Apocalypse” there
is a direct relation between the last three beatitudes and the so-called
Foundation Stone Meditation. These mantra’s were given by Rudolf Steiner during
the refounding of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas conference
1923/24 with which invoked the divine trinity, God the Father, God the Son and
the Holy Spirit, the 9 celestial hierarchies and Jesus Christ as persona, and in
which he called upon the soul of man that it may also hear it and take its
divine message to heart, as have done the elemental beings in the East, West
North and South.

 


On this occasion, during the lengthy discussion of the
15 statutes of the social organic constitution at this Christmas conference,
later also called principles, he described the task of the new executive board
as simply realizing these statutes that, according to him, would contain
everything that the board, of course with necessary moral fantasy, would ever
do. And as Herbert Witzenmann has shown in his above-mentioned spiritual
scientific research on the universal significance of these statutes (“Charter
of humanity”), realizing these statutes, or any others derived from the
archetypal form in which Rudolf Steiner entrusted them to the local
anthroposophical societies or for that matter any other group wishing to
constitute itself in the spirit of them, is a renewal of the ancient Royal Art known
in Freemasonry and could therefore be of special interest in modernizing the
monarchy.

This requires a new spiritual knighthood of the Word,
which both Rudolf Steiner, in 1905 in Berlin, and Valentin Tomberg, in 1938 in
Rotterdam, suggested should come about and that would be founded on the Grail.

 


This then was an incentive for submitting on behalf of
the Willehalm Institute for Anthroposophy, Grail research and Social Organics in
Amsterdam a petition to your majesty King William-Alexander in 2014 to
establish a Willehalm Order of Knights of the Word as a supplement to the
already since 1815 existing Military Willems-Order established by King William
I, and which you as its Grand Master are the only one in our Kingdom by virtue
of our constitution privileged to do so by submitting a legislative proposal to
the States General. Still pending, this petition was first announced to the
public during the international art and book exhibition in Amsterdam’s city
hall in the spring of 2013 entitled “The Virtues – Towards a New Courtesy” ( https://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiK5b3sk8XKA.....) based
on the book “The Virtues – Seasons of the Soul” by Herbert Witzenmann ( https://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiiuNGflMXKA....)and the
paintings of the Dutch artist Jan de Kok, a book that was presented there
together with the book “William of Orange, Parzival and the Grail – Wolfram von
Eschenbach as a Historian” by the Swiss anthroposophist Werner Greub (
1907-1997) (http://www.boekenroute.nl/gasten/gtn1Boek.aspx?BoekID=34757). The first part of this erudite research report casts new light on
the life and work of the one, after whom the proposed new Civil Order of
Knights of the Word, like the Military one, is named: the main character of the
epic poem “Willehalm” by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Known in French as Guillaume
d’Orange, a paladin of Charles de Great and the original founder of the House
of Orange in the South of France, he was one of the last protectors of Celtic
Christianity. Moreover, by virtue of his heroic exploits and his embodiment of
the knightly virtues of courage, righteousness 
and loyalty as the supreme commander of the Carolingian army on the
southern flank of the empire in halting the invasions of the Moors from
occupied Spain, including the liberation of Barcelona in 802, he was in 1066
named patron saint of the knights by Pope Alexander II.
But what Werner Greub
has now added to his laudable biography is that after laying down his sword,
i.e. retirement from the military, Willehalm became a knight of the Word! As
the enigmatic Master Kyot the Provençal, he not only served as the spiritus
rector of the historic Grail kingship of Parzival, but as Kyot of Katelangen
Catalonia) played a leading role it!

 


In order therefore to truly do justice to this new
spiritual element in his biography, it stands to reason that a civil chivalric
order be established and named after him. 
 
Originally given the task to
reform the world economy on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s Course World Economy,
the mission of the new Order of Knights of the Word in status nascendi (i.s.n.)
was aptly extended in 2015 to foster and protect the “New Christianity” that
potentially has the depth, scope and power to re-Christianize the world,
something that leaders of both Catholic and Protestant faiths are said to be
striving for.  

 



The present petition is an extension of the one to
your Majesty King William-Alexander in 2014 to establish a new Civil Order,
which can no longer be signed, as well as a supplement to two petitions, which
have recently been formulated and put on internet (petitions.nl) for public
support (at this time of writing, January 25, they have gathered 29 signees.).
We hereby extend these petitions, where applicable, also to your Majesty King
Felipe VI.

 
The first (Dutch) petition is entitled (as translated into English) “The Garden of Heavenly Joys by Hieronymus Bosch Ought to be Returned to The Netherlands” (see: http://tuinderhemelsevreugde.petities.nl). (This is not to be understood in an absolute sense, but in the sense of exhibiting the work of art alternately in appropriate venues in the kingdoms of Spain and The Netherlands.) The short description reads : “This triptych was as part of the possessions of William of Orange that at the beginning of the 80-year war [of liberation from Spain] confiscated and removed by the Duke of Alva from the palace of the fugitive prince in Brussels, was acquired by the Spanish King Philip II and ended up in the Prado museum in Madrid.


We : do not just want to see a reconstruction [being done
presently by Henk Groenendaal] in Den Bosch but preferably the triptych itself.

Note: Anthroposophic, Christian-hermetic research by C.
Wertheim-Aymès, K. Falk, W. Seiss and C. Barker, based on indications by Rudolf
Steiner and Valentin Tomberg, has shown that the triptych of Hieronymus Bosch, also
called "Grail", is a manual inspired by the two great world teachers
Christian Rosenkreutz and Master Jesus to the kingdom of God on earth, established
by Jesus Christ, a true oasis of humanity.


And request : Your Majesty, as the successor to William of
Orange the rightful owner of the triptych, to discuss in your meeting with the
Spanish King Felipe VI on February 12 in Den Bosch, the return of looted
"Grail" to the Netherlands so that it may serve as the figurehead and
inspiration of apocalyptic wisdom for the conversion of our Kingdom of the
Netherlands [and that of Spain] into an oasis of humanity to launch a World
Peace Union.”

 

The second petition is entitled : “Project World
Peace Union of Oases Of Humanity” (see http://antroposofischvredesinitiatief.petities.nl)

The short description : This peace initiative with "The Garden of
Heavenly Joys" by Hieronymus Bosch as a figurehead was announced by the
petitioner on Epiphany, January 6 this year in front of the Royal Palace on Dam
Square as a New Year's speech in the form of an Open Letter to, among others, you
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima.


We , people of good will are aware that there is an
urgent need for new peace initiatives.


Note: In 2014 a petition was offered to you to make use of
your privilege use to submit a bill to the States-General to set up a new
Knights of the Word to transform the current unjust world economy on the basis
of Rudolf Steiner's course "World Economy". Meanwhile, the petition
further substantiated in 2015, is in the hands of Chancellery of Dutch Orders,
without there having been any substantive response.

 


And request : Your Majesty on the occasion of your opening on
February 12 of the Hieronymus Bosch exhibition in the North Brabant Museum
respond to the open letter entitled "World Union of Oases of
Humanity" that on January 5 last was sent to you, in which a further
foundation is given to the petition to you to supplement the Military
Willems-Orde with a Willehalm Knighthood of the Word towards achieving a World
Peace Union.”

 



Conclusion

 


We hereby request your Majesties in your opening
remarks at the Hieronymus Bosch exhibition “Visions of a Genius” on February 12
coming in the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch not to restrict yourselves to the usual diplomatic
niceties, but to make use of your cultural royal freedom and as defender of the
faith to lend your support in one way or another to the non-political mission
of the Willehalm Knights of the Word (i.s.n.) to achieve a World Peace Union of
Oases of Humanity with the triptych “The Garden of Heavenly Joys” by Hieronymus
Bosch as an inspiring figurehead and thereby making a contribution to the
further establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth as established by our Saviour Jesus
Christ.


In this way, a truly Christian spiritual note will
mark this event in honour and recognition of the Christian spiritual nature
underlying the visions of this genius known as Hieronymus Bosch.


 


Post Script


For a further
foundation of this petition, we include an essay entitled “The Secrets of
Hieronymus Bosch II – Updated Commentary on the Film  ‘Touched by the Devil’ Produced by Pieter
Huystee” (also to be read with the links on http://willehalminstitute.blogspot.nl/2016/01/the-secrets-of-hieronymus-bosch.html.

 



Note:  The occasion to bring an updated version
of this commentary, written in November 2015, to the fore is twofold. First and
foremost is the fact that I am about to enter a petition online to the Dutch
King William-Alexander and his Spanish counterpart King Felipe VI, who
together will be opening on February 12 the international exposition “

Hieronymus Bosch – Visions of a
Genius ” in celebration of his 500th day of
death. This exhibition will be displaying almost all of his works, with the notable
exception of his most famous masterpiece “The Garden of Heavenly Joys”, since
the Prado Museum in Madrid refused to lend it out. A sneak preview of
this English petition-in-progress, now entitled "World
Peace Union of Oases of Humanity - Turning Our Mother Earth into
A Garden of Heavenly Joys" was given at my 3rd " Reading on the Dam Square"  in front of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam
(in Dutch) on January 20. This is a supplement to two closely related
Dutch petitions entitled “The Garden of Heavenly Joys by Hieronymus Ought
to Be Returned to The Netherlands” and “Project World Peace Union of Oases of
Humanity”, which together with the English one will be submitted to the royal
recipients on February 2, which is celebrated by Catholic Christians as
Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord  in the Temple of
Jerusalem (the 40 days old Jesus of Nazareth as mentioned in the Gospel of
Luke).

 


More
than Meets the Eye


The second
occasion is the fact that the Dutch Liberal Weekly “De Groene Amsterdammer”
(The Green Amsterdammer) in its edition of January 13 published a review of the
film “Touched by the Devil” that is now being shown publicly under the Dutch
title “
Geraakt bij de Duivel ”. This review by Koen Kleijn entitled “Ghosts
and Monsters” is typical of the helplessness with which the modern,
intellectual and materialistic mind-set sees itself confronted in trying to
interpret this baffling, enigmatic work of art, something which in the opening
lines is even honestly admitted: “ Nothing seems able to explain where Hieronymus Bosch
got his crazy, macabre imagery from. Had the devil had something to do with it?
Soon we will know more.” Whether this bold prediction will indeed be fulfilled,
remains to be seen; all the signs in the past, as described in my commentary
below, point after all to the opposite. The review ends with a grudging general
admission that there is perhaps more to the Boschian works than meets the eye:
“It could well be that his work met with no great response and was only
appreciated as acquired taste by a small, literary elite, may be with something
of an occult or erotic interest. We do not know.” The critic may restrict
himself in his public admission of ignorance to his own person or his
intellectual circle, it certainly does not apply a priori to the
anthroposophically and Christian-hermetically orientated writers, who are
introduced in my commentary below, whose actual works mentioned must of course
be studied before a final judgment as to their intrinsic worth can be made. But
they deserve at any rate no longer to be overlooked or even suppressed by a
modern day version of the inquisition.

 
 


Dear Mr. Van
Huystee,

 


During the
International Documentary Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam on November 22, I had
the pleasure of seeing your film “Touched by the Devil”. Since I was not able to ask you any questions
during the discussion after the showing or afterwards in the restaurant, I now
take the liberty to do so via this email with CC to the various museums that
display paintings by Bosch, as well as to a number of interested parties. 

 


What drew my
interest and motivated me to see your film was the following text with which it
was highlighted in the IDFA program: “A team of Dutch art historians
crisscrossed the world to unravel the secrets of the paintings of
Hieronymus  Bosch.” The Dutch text mentioned “the uniqueness of his work and
its highly imaginative character”, adding that “to unravel this secret in the
bureaucratic jungle of the world of art is no easy task.”

 

My question
would now be: “What is then the secret of the paintings by Bosch? Can it be
divulged by the microscopic scrutiny of the layers of paint or by determining
the age of the wooden oak frames to determine whether a certain work is really
from the hand of the master, one of his many assistants or even from an unknown
follower?”

 


These high-tech
endeavors no doubt have yielded interesting details, but barely scratch the
surface, as it were, and therefore do not suffice to penetrate to the heart of
the matter. This short-coming was wryly indicated in your film by the director
of the Prado Museum in Madrid, who referred to the mystery still surrounding El
Bosco; the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington also attempted
to come to terms with the “inexplicable nature” of this artist, as he called
it, implying that this is a well-nigh impossible task. Thus not so much because
of “the bureaucratic jungle of the art world”, but rather of the apparent
failure to enter into the mind and soul of the artist to fathom his motives and
driving forces that forged his astounding works of art, thereby lifting the
veil that forbids a mentality dealing only in weight, measure and numbers from
crossing over a threshold to step into the rich realm of imagination beyond the
bounds of mere sense perceptions out of which these fantasy-filled  images
are born. 
A description for attaining this intuitive mind-set is a saying
by Goethe from his  Faust  (Part I), „Du gleichst dem Geist, den
du begreifst“ (You equal the mind that you understand).

 

A further
expansion of object-bound knowledge based on sense-perception to an
imaginative, inspirative and intuitive form of cognition able to discover and
describe multiple layers of supersensible realms was consequently elaborated by
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the founder of anthroposophy or, as he also called
it in his basic book “Occult Science”, science of the Grail.  
A
complement to this basic book, providing an overview on the nature,
constitution, pre- and post-existence of the human being, the laws of karma and
reincarnation, the epochs of evolution, and past and future of humanity, is
entitled  Theosophy of the Rosicrucian .

 

Herein lies   the
key to unlocking the secrets of Hieronymus Bosch.  For it is precisely
with this enhanced state of consciousness that the higher (or deeper) realms of
existence were painted by the master and as such can be recognized and
disclosed. Now it can be demonstrated, not by documentary evidence but
spiritual iconography, that Bosch, especially in his later oeuvre such as “The
Garden of Heavenly Joys”,  “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” and “The Last
Judgment” must indeed have been inspired by a form of esoteric or Johannean
Christianity, which was professed at that time – albeit strictly underground as
it was (and still is) considered heretical in the eyes of the Catholic Church –
by the few followers of Christian Rosenkreuz (1378-1484), in this case in the person
of Jacob van Almaengien, known as a magister and who, after his conversion from
Judaism to Christianity and being baptized in the St John’s cathedral in Den
Bosch in the presence of high nobility (Philip the Fair), became  a fellow
Swan brother of the Illustrious Confraternity of Our Lady in Den Bosch.

 


This spiritual
source, first identified by Wilhelm Fraenger in his magnum opus  Millennium
of Hieronymus Bosch
 (1951), was subsequently given a solid
anthroposophical basis by the Dutch Bosch expert and anthroposophist
Clément A. Wertheim Aymes, in his books  Hieronymus Bosch – Eine
Einführung in seine geheime Symbolik  (Amsterdam, 1957) and  Pictorial
Language of Hieronymus Bosch   (1961).   Kurt
Falk in  The Unknown Hieronymous Bosch , (Golden Stone 2008) continued
in this vein, however without making sufficiently clear that a foreknowledge of
basic anthroposophy was a precondition for understanding his book and
especially for making a proper judgment of it.  Lacking this
pre-condition, it was heavily criticized by Adam MacLean on his Alchemy website for unleashing anthroposophical terms on a
non-suspecting readership, thereby exhibiting at the same time his own
unwillingness to familiarize himself with this anthroposophical nomenclature in
the above-mentioned literature. 

 


The most recent
notable work in further unlocking and opening the secret of Bosch for an
audience well-versed with the anthroposophical basics or for those willing to adopt
this foreknowledge is the trilogy by Dutch-born Catharina Barker on what is
commonly known as “The Garden of Earthly Delights” entitled  Der Garten der himmlischen Freuden von
Hieronymus Bosch   Im Licht der Lehre von Christian
Rosenkreutz  (Achamoth Verlag, 2012 ) ,  of
which Vol. I   The Garden of Heavenly Joys In
The Light Of The Teaching Of Christian Rosenkreutz : Life in Religion, Tradition and Philosophy has been translated and of which Vol. 2:
“The Evolution of the Personality” as well as Vol. 3: “The Blossoming of the
Individuality in God and the Heavenly Hierarchies” are on the drawing board. (

 


What is truly
remarkable about this trilogy, which was also inspired by the profound work of
the Christian-hermetist  Valentin Tomberg (1900-1973), an apostle of The New
Christianity as the spiritual basis of anthroposophy heralded by Rudolf
Steiner, and by Barker’s deceased partner Willy Seiss, author of  Die Versuchung des Hl. Antonius von
Hieronymus Bosch im Zusammenhang mit der modernen Geisteswissenschaft , (2015) is that on the basis of its contents
the bold assertion can be substantiated that the enigmatic works by Bosch offer
a preview-in-depth not only of true Rosicrucianism, more than a century before
the Rosicrucian movement appeared in public with such works as  The Chemical Wedding of Christian
Rosenkreutz , but that these Boschian works also portray
the basic tenets of anthroposophy, some four centuries after this science of
the Grail was made public by Rudolf Steiner! This indicates that since the
mystery of Golgotha, the turning point in history, there has been an
underground mystery stream that is now, in spite of strong opposition from
various quarters, more and more coming into the foreground.

 



Back to the
documentary at hand. As the reigning provost K. Noordzij of the
Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Lady in the House of the Swan Brothers in Den
Bosch said in his introduction to a lecture held there on November 23
last,  the documentary provides an interesting insight into the thankful
efforts of the Dutch group of art historians, curators and other experts on
their journeys to museums half way around the world to bring together the
paintings by Bosch for the international Bosch exposition from February 13
until May 8 2016 in the Noordbrabants Museum in ’s-Hertogenbosch. But as now may be
properly asserted, it certainly fell short of the expectations aroused by the
marketing buzz that it would unravel the secrets of Bosch. Moreover, also the
title is misleading. Bosch was not touched by the devil but instead crept in
its belly to depict its gripping machinations from the inside; he was much
rather touched by an angel of the Holy Spirit so as to be able with his in-born
genius to depict the whole gamut of human, sub- en superhuman experience beyond
time and space.

 


The big question
now remaining is: will the above key to Boschian secrets, as was attempted to
sketch here, fit into the portal, the mind-set of the coming exhibition in his
home town? Will the visitors be given an opportunity to also take notice of the
newest results of the anthroposophical research done into the work of Bosch’
favorite son?

Overtures to
that effect to the organizers of Bosch-500 made so far since this last summer have
produced no tangible result. Perhaps the devastating view of local-born art
historian Dr. Gerlach made on p. 65 of his voluminous book  Jheronimus
Bosch – Opstellen over leven en werk  (1988) that the efforts of
Fraenger and Wertheim in bringing in the Rosicrucians (and as a logical
extension the anthroposophists) are “klinkklare onzin” (complete and utter
nonsense) holds still too much sway. But in the end this Capuchin Pater, after
demanding that one must know the language and the morals of the people, and
especially the mentality of the catholic milieu  from which Bosch emerged,
to properly interpret him and his work, admits that even this is not enough,
for he asks (on. P. 188): “Finally the intriguing question remains whether the
painter really intended to ‘mean’ something’ or whether it is perhaps only an
expression of his fantasy.”

 

If this is
indeed the case, i.e. if it cannot even as a possibility be considered that his
paintings are both, i.e. an ultimate expression of his own exact fantasy, it
may be time to liberate the painter Bosch from this local bias and organize an  Alternative
Bosch 500 Exhibition  dedicated to presenting a new-found key to the
secrets of his work. And to preview it, a documentary could be made under the
possible title  Touched by an Angel .