This edition tests the structuralist anthropology model of archetypes in cultural media, against Rudolf Steiner’s nine engraved window designs, stage dome icons, stage statue group, Goetheanum hall floor plan, and Anthroposophy campus. On a hill in rural Dornach south of Basel in Switzerland, emerged conscious esoteric correspondences based in esoteric Christianity, history, theosophy, anthroposophy, astrology, and architecture. The formats were collaborations, compromises, replications, renovations and changes in sketches, engravings, paintings, carvings, buildings, and site layout. Yet the subconscious compulsions of the artists expressed the usual 60% of about 100 features of the now known five layers of archetypal structure. The same applies to all complex artworks, buildings, and built sites (see the definition of archetype inside).
The current (second) Goetheanum was completed in the 1920s. The recurrent features in cultural media were found in 2010 (Furter 2014, 2016). No artists, builders, crafters or academics ever knew the model before 2014, yet the test confirms that the model predicts 60% of the defining features in all cultural media, including postures, items, symbols, and meanings (Furter 2017).
Archetype projects itself in ‘forms’
Steiner wrote of recurrent organic shapes as ‘forms’, the label that Plato used to explain how archetype manifests in culture, using the example of chairs. ‘Form’ was also at the core of biology science in Steiner’s time: “Forms… in higher worlds, cast their shadow pictures to the physical plane.” He also recognised cultural crafts as subconscious behaviour that could be known: “Development of clairvoyance leads humans to the realm behind the senses… Art is the divine child of clairvoyant vision, which lives as unconscious feeling in the soul.” But our conscious logic struggles to grasp archetype: “Salient feelings [from] no conscious reason or cause… are ignored, or attributed to some physical thing.” Yet we could have conscious access to archetype: “We must learn to sense how the spiritual world speaks to us… to find those regions from where gods speak, we turn our eyes to… windows. There we would be shown what lives in people who… tread the path from physical to spiritual world.”
Steiner saw culture as a hidden reality, not a set of correspondences: “We interpret spiritual meanings symbolically, as indirectly representing something physical, but it speaks directly in living emotions… forms are alive, as organs for what the spiritual world speaks.” This view is close to the philosophy of archetype. But Steiner was an artist, architect, mythographer, esotericist, and educator, thus a culture crafter, not a scientist or researcher.
His expressionism aimed to directly represent “primordial forms… sprung from the soul, not from imitation or resemblance’. Steiner’s intuition on the source of art is also confirmed by the ‘trance vision’ hypothesis (Lewis-Williams 1990s) that recognises ‘visionary’ content in art. But the current work contradicts the supposed cultural ‘framing’ and individual ‘idiosyncrasy’ of the trance vision hypothesis (Lewis-Williams et al., 2012), and its view of formal academic art as ‘different’ from rock art Steiner’s view that formal art is based on ‘resemblance,’ was mere recognition of our fascination with likeness. He saw culture as democratic: “Capacities by which we can gain insights into the higher worlds, lie dormant in each one of us.” (Steiner 1904). This view is now confirmed.
The current test of the structuralist model against Steiner’s crafts, started on the window designs and campus in 2018. See the conclusion in the post about the back page article, and the Goetheanum campus, on http://www.stoneprintjournal.wordpress.com.
Goetheanum north blue window characters (noting archetypal features):
1 Builder; Angel in a group (cluster), with trumpet (sacker /ruin), on a Revelation scroll (book).
2c Basket; Eclipses (weave, planet).
3 Queen; Central angel.
4 King; Hand of God held (sceptre) by the upper angel.
5a Priest; Angel (priest) with Hand of God (active, judge).
5c BasketTail; Sunset (disc).
6 Exile; Miner? Far out (egress).
7 Child; Lion head (unfolding).
7g Gal.Centre; Bull jaw (limb-joint). And human jaw (limb-joint).
8 Healer; Peacock feather ‘eye’ (loose eyes are more typical of 7v15).
9c BasketLid; Moon face (disc, planet). And star circle (wheel).
10 Teacher; Three angels (council), projecting seasons and species (hunt-master, ecology, carousel), arms up (W-posture). And a circle (archetype) projecting the angels and scroll.
11 Womb; Midriff (womb) of Reaper (wheat). OFF THE GRID.
12 Heart; Reaper (death, weapon?).
14 Mixer; Angel (angel) guiding a soul. And moon (time).
15 Maker; Eye (bag) held by an angel (winged).
15g Gal.Gate; Sunrise. And window frame (juncture).
Axial centre; Unmarked, as usual.
4p Gal.S.Pole; A trumpet (juncture).
11p Gal.Pole; Reaper’s elbow (limb).
Cel.Pole; A foot. Or knee (limb-joint).
Cel.S.Pole; Foot. Or eagle beak (limb).
Age; Polar markers place ‘summer’ between 13-14 or Leo-Cancer, thus ‘spring’ and the cultural time-frame in Age2-3 Taurus-Aries, before the work as usual. Additional markers place ‘summer’ in Age 15/Gemini, thus ‘spring’ and the cultural time-frame in Age 4 Pisces, era of the work.
- This post is an excerpt from STONEPRINT Journal 9, a supplement to Stoneprint, the human code in art, buildings and cities. Order the book, or journal editions, or contribute articles, on edmondfurter at gmail dot com, or +27 (0)11 955 6732, Four Equators Media.
- Back editions:
- 1 Pictish Beasts are not a ‘zodiac’
- 2 Crop circles are natural artworks
- 3 The Stoneprint tour of Paris
- 4 The Stoneprint tour of London
- 5 Culture code in seals and ring stamps
- 6 Rennes le Chateau stoneprint tour
- 7 Hercules, Arcadia, Greece myth maps
- 8 NASA and SETI space cosmograms
Some sources used in this edition:
Adams, D.J. 1992. Rudolf Steiner’s First Goetheanum as an Illustration of Organic Functionalism. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 51:2, 182-204
Blaser, W. 2002. Nature in Building: Rudolf Steiner in Dornach. Basel: Birkhauser
Boos-Hamburger, Hilde. 1910. Experiences in painting cupolas of first Goetheanum. Anthroposophic Press
Burki, Karin. 1923. Goethnm., Heartbrut
Fant, Å., Kingborg, A. and Wilkes, A. J. 1975. Rudolf Steiner’s sculpture in Dornach. London: Rudolf Steiner Press
Furter, E. 2014. Mindprint, the subconscious art code. Lulu.com
Furter, E. 2016. Stoneprint, the human code in art, buildings and cities. Four Equators Media, Johannesburg
Furter, E. 2017a. Stoneprint Journal 2; Crop circles are natural artworks. Four Equators Media, Johannesburg
Furter, E. 2017b. Recurrent characters in rock art reveal objective meaning. Expression 16, June, p54-62. Atelier Etno, Italy /Also in book form
Furter, E. 2018a. Stoneprint Journal 3; Paris stoneprint tour. Four Equators Media, Johannesburg
Furter, E. 2018b. Stoneprint Journal 4; London stoneprint tour. Lulu.com
Furter, E. 2018c. Stoneprint Journal 5; Culture code in seals and ring stamps. Lulu.com
Furter, E. 2019. Blueprint, cultural structure in four media. Researchgate /Academia /Edmondfurter.wordpress.com
Furter, E. 2019a. Stoneprint Journal 6; Rennes le Chateau stoneprint tour. Lulu.com
Furter, E. 2021. Stoneprint Journal 7; Hercules, Arcadia, and Greece myth maps. Four Equators Media, Johannesburg
Furter, E. 2023. Stoneprint Journal 8; NASA and SETI space cosmograms. Four Equators Media
Goetheanum Archive, Dornach; Rudolf Steiner Archive, Dornach; Verlag am Goetheanum
Kasser, R., Meyer, & Wurst 2006. Gospel of Judas. National Geographic
Paull, J. 2020. First Goetheanum: A Centenary for Organic Architecture. Journal of Fine Arts Vol.3, Iss.2 Steiner, R. 1925c. Goetheanum windows. Rudolf Steiner Press, UK
Mindprintart.wordpress.com 
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