The Esoteric Botany of Hilma af Klint

From a lecture delivered by David Adams, Ph.D., March 8, 2020, at Lightforms, Hudson, NY
I will need to go over aspects of her biography to set
W e are so pleased to be able to show a number of
artworks by Swedish pioneering artist Hilma
af Klint for the first time in North America here at
what I have to say in a proper context. Hilma af Klint
(1862-1944) was born near Stockholm, Sweden, into
Lightforms in Hudson, New York. Hilma a bourgeois family with a long line of
af Klint was – and is – a visual artist like male naval officers, navigators, and
no other. Over the last several years she ocean map-makers (and no interest in
has become an international artworld art). She was classically trained as a
sensation – something difficult to do when painter, attending the Royal Academy
you’ve been dead 75 years! Historically, of Fine Arts in Stockholm from 1882
at a previously unacknowledged early to 1887, part of the first generation of
date she painted in an “abstract” or non- women accepted by art academies.
representational mode before almost Graduating with honors, the Academy
anyone else previously recognized provided her with a studio in the art
(such as Kandinsky, Kupka, Malevich, center of Stockholm, where she worked
and Mondrian), she made large-scale until 1908, mostly painting conventional
paintings on the studio floor well before naturalistic landscapes and portraits,
the Abstract Expressionists, she used which she exhibited and sold, such as
automatic drawing and writing long before figure 2.
the Surrealists, and she demonstrated
the groundbreaking original creativity She also created many careful botanical
of a female artist highly unusual, if not Fig. 1. Hilma af Klint in her studio, 1895 studies of plants and flowers (figure 3)
unprecedented, for her time. and worked as an illustrator of
animal surgery techniques at a
Tonight I want to make some Stockholm Veterinary Institute
observations about some (1900-01).
of the artwork of Hilma af
Klint from the perspectives But af Klint had another stream
of theosophy and, especially, of interest and activity in
anthroposophy. Even her young life in addition to
though af Klint joined painting.Already as a child she
the Theosophical Society had experiences of an invisible
already in 1889 and was very spiritual world (apparently a
interested in anthroposophy degree of natural clairvoyance or
for the last 30+ years of her FIg. 2. Hilma af Klint Summer Landscape 1888 oil on canvas “second sight” ran in her family)
life and a dedicated follower and at age 17 (1879) joined the
of it for the last 20+ years of her life, this is Spiritualist Literature Association and began
a perspective either missing from the dozen participating in then-popular “séances” with
or so books and hundreds of online articles secondary school friends. This interest was
published about her in the last 6-7 years or stimulated when, at age 18, she wrote that
it is treated superficially and incorrectly. So she tried to convince the soul of her ten-year-
hopefully my talk tonight will be one small old sister Hermina that she was dead (from
step toward correcting this. If you have no influenza) and needed to continue on in the
previous acquaintance with either of these afterworld. But in early 1882 she abandoned
worldviews, some of what I will say here will the séances as not serious enough.
probably sound rather strange. But this is the
world of understanding, experience, belief, Then in 1896 – fourteen years later – she
and imagination in which af Klint lived and formed with four other women “The Friday
created her artwork, so it offers us the best Group” or “The Five,” a Christian spiritualist
hope of understanding her often puzzling group that met weekly for the next ten years in
paintings. Fig. 3. Hilma af Klint Thistle 1890s each other’s homes and studios for meetings
watercolor
consisting of a prayer, meditation, New Testament enter and leave
Bible study, and ending with a séance while kneeling the spiritual astral
before an altar world at will. A
with a triangle and vegetarian, she
cross, during which lived a simple
they contacted ascetic life de-
disembodied spirits voted to art and
and spiritual guides. spiritual matters.
She normally
In our media- wore black. In
saturated world 1907 she wrote,
historical memory “I have been sent
is often very short. to work for the
At the time of af Rosicrucian world
Klint in the late of ideas.”2 At her
nineteenth century death in 1944
the popular and she left well over
fashionable spi- 1,200 paintings Fig. 5. Hilma af Klint Primordial Chaos, No.
ritualst movement Fig. 4. The Five Untitled 1903 and at least 127 2, 1906
(or, we could say, handwritten and
experiment) had eight million followers in the U.S. and illustrated notebooks/sketchbooks (over 26,000 pages of
Europe. writing, mainly in Swedish). Given the huge quantity and
often enigmatic nature of her artwork, my presentation
At least one of the crosses The Five used on the altar was a tonight should better be called just “An Introduction to
white rose-cross with a glass rose in the middle on a three- the Esoteric Botany of Hilma af Klint.” How did these
level base, and they seemed to feel the communications extensive artworks – a few of which are on display here
and guidance they received were associated with the – come about?
Rosicrucian stream of esoteric spirituality. Taking turns
serving as trance-mediums, they also received many A notebook entry by af Klint from January 1, 1906, stated:
messages via automatic drawing and writing. Over time, “Amaliel presented me with a task and I immediately
various messages, images, and symbols were recorded said Yes. The expectation was that I would dedicate a
in a series of five notebooks and nine sketchbooks year to this task. In the end it became the greatest work
documenting their weekly séances (books that af Klint of my life.”3 She was to depict in paintings “the immortal
kept her whole life and used as a resource). Figure 4 aspect of Man” and paint “ a message to humanity.”
shows an example of one page from these “messages.” She gave up her more realistic painting, underwent a
ten-month purification
By 1903 the at-first somewhat skeptical af Klint to prepare herself
had become the group’s chief medium. From age 18 involving prayer and
onward she read widely in Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, fasting, and began in
Rosicrucian, Hermetic, and Theosophical texts, and her November 1906 at
eventual library consisted of many theosophical and age 43 by creating 34
anthroposophical books as well as other occult literature. preparatory paintings
as preliminaries to
The Five found themselves in regular, repeated contact the major task. These
with a number of named spirits, two of whom – Amaliel preparatory works in-
and Ananda – were said to belong to a group of still more cluded the series of 26
advanced spirits that the others served, called the High small paintings that
Guides or High Masters, whom af Klint tells us in one became the Primordial
of her notebooks, are “the Masters of Mysteries,” “an Chaos Series, seem-
exalted and holy brotherhood, known to all mystics,” and ingly about the creation
“servants of Christ who reside in Tibet.”1 of the world or earlier
phases of human
As a short, thin, but serious, alert, grounded, and evolution, for which
independent personality, Hilma was said to be able to Fig. 6. Hilma af Klint Primordial Chaos, she received detailed
2 No. 1, 1906
instructions from botanical imagery, especially winding, twisting tendrils,
her spirit guides an elaborate system of diagrammed dualities, symbolic
and passively words and letters, and certain expressive geometrical
allowed her hand forms. Plants for her
to be guided in a could also serve as a
somewhat looser model for the ideal of
style by these overcoming/reuniting
spirits (see figs. sexual difference.
5-6). Hermaphrodism is
the norm in plants as
A note in The among snails, and plants
Five’s séance book express a kind of purity
for November 7, of natural life forces
1906, speaks of without contamination
her interpreting by human or animal
“the color hearing passions and desires.
and seeing tones,” One notebook records
and says of her a message received in
method: “Amaliel 1907 from the High
Fig. 9. H.P. Blavatsky, Fold-out
draws a sketch, Fig. 7. Hilma f Klint, Primordial Chaos, No. 12, Ones: “The purpose of diagram from Isis Unveiled
which H. [Hilma] 1906-07. Words mean Middle Ages and the Present. these letters is to prepare
then paints.”4 A the way for a language
notebook entry from 1907 concerning another small part of symbols that has
of the preparatory series of that time, The Large Figure already existed forever
Paintings, reads, “The pictures were painted directly and that has now been
through me, without given to humanity by the
any preliminary creative spirits.”7 Some
drawings and with of her diagrammatic-
great force. I had no like pictures recall those
idea what the paintings used in theosophy. For
were supposed to example, see Figure 9
depict; nevertheless, from Helena Blavatsky’s
I worked swiftly Isis Unveiled.8
and surely, without
changing a single Af Klint was told and
Fig. 10. Hilma af Klint Primordial
brushstroke.”5 clearly felt she had anChaos #11 1906-1907
important higher calling
In the freely painted to create these paintings.
Primordial Chaos She was able to fulfill her original promise from May
Series she explored 1907 to April 1908, when she painted The Ten Largest,
principles of polarity
– light and dark, good
and evil, male and
female – and their Fig. 8. Hilma f Klint, Primordial Chaos, No.
13, 1906-07
possible reunification
or transcendence. In these and later works the letter “W”
represents matter, while the letter “U” represents spirit,
with “WU” indicating a union, or transcendence, of the
dualities.6 (see figures 7-8)

Some of the abstract symbolic language she began to

employ in these and later paintings was already received
by The Five between 1896 and 1906: the snail and/or
Fig. 11. Hilma af Klint Ten Largest, 1906-1907, at the Guggenheim
spiral, serpent, rose (and rose cross), lilies, a wide array of Museum, New York City 2018
3
taking about four days for cross. Starting from and centered in the lowest or “root”
each painting, executed in chakra, a spiraling red line arises and intersects the other
tempera on paper glued to upper chakras of the central yellow-blue figure. A half-
canvas, and each about 10’ yellow/half-blue lemniscate (which often is a sign for
5” high by nearly 8’ wide. eternity) radiates from middle, or heart chakra. Perhaps
They express The four great representing the two-petal, “third-eye” chakra, small
periods of human life (see blue and yellow lines radiate out from each side of the
figures 11-13). head, with similar red rays emerging above, probably
indicating the upper or “crown” chakra. Above, a blue
Keeping all these paintings woman and a yellow man sit on the crossbeam of the
secret, she noted about her cross looking in different directions, each holding a small
process of working, “It spiral in their left hand and connected to the white spiral/
was not the case that I was snail held up by the main figure below (which itself is
to blindly obey the High encircled along with the head by an oval of pure white
Lords of the Mysteries but Fig. 12. Hilma af Klint, Ten Largest lines emerging from the heart chakra). Two divine white
that I was to imagine that #3 Youth 2007 hands seem to reach down from above, connected to a
they were always standing red substance that either falls from them or rises up to
by my side.”9 In another them.
notebook entry she wrote, “I
immediately began to work Af Klint began to use many unusual color schemes in
in such a manner that the these sometimes figural paintings, perhaps imitated
pictures were painted through from her spiritual visions, and also with certain symbolic
me directly without any meanings. For example, she later described a “bluish pink
preliminary drawings and color” as indicating “trusting in previous incarnations.”11
with great force.”10 In all her work blue stands for the female principle and
yellow for the male principle – a basic color polarity
Let’s look in some detail according to Goethe’s color theory, which she studied.
at a couple of these early
paintings with fairly clear
figural esoteric spiritual
representations, which can Fig. 13. Hilma af Klint, Ten Largest
help us to understand some of #7 Adulthood 2007
her symbolism
in more non-
representational
paintings:

In Figure 14
inside a multi-
colored ellipse
on a black
background,
a red snail Fig. 15. Hilma af Klint Group 6, Evolution, #4, 1908
(representing
spiritual evo- Again in Figure 15 above we see a polarity of yellow
lutionary male figure and female figure with blue contours, on
development, as either side of large interpenetrated snails/spirals (large
does the spiral blue one and smaller yellow one in center). Above the
in Blavatsky’s man, who is holding a chalice, hover two combined
writings) is black-white snails, reflected in chalice, which suggests
projected across an indirect, reflected awareness of the spiritual reality.
a human figure The more intuitive woman touches the feelers of snail
standing before and holds a smaller snail to her ear. A counterlockwise
a large white Fig. 14. Hilma af Klint No. 1, Group 8, Series US 1913 spiral or snail seems to indicate the masculine power of
4
thought, while a clockwise spiral indicates the feminine at least fifty years. This comment seemed to help her
power of emotion or intuition. develop the attitude that these paintings only belonged to
the future, when human beings might be ready to accept
She continued with several additional series of Paintings and understand them, and should in the meantime largely
for the Temple (111 in all), stopping in 1908 for four be kept secret.
years to care for her blind mother, during which time she
also studied H. P. Blavatsky’s two-volume The Secret 2. Steiner said on Sept. 4, 1913: “in everything that a
Doctrine as well as a number of western philosophers. medium writes – whether it is from a trained medium
1908 was also the year of her first meeting with Rudolf or from a natural medium – and also where someone
Steiner, then the leader of the German Section of the feels compelled to write something automatically,” the
Theosophical Society. In April of that year after giving evil tempter spirit Ahriman is at work. “[Ahriman] wants
some lectures in Stockholm that we suspect af Klint . . . to make things fixed in writings or symbols.”13 By
attended, Steiner was lecturing a few days later in Oslo, contrast, “manifestations of figures, heads of light, etc,.
Norway, when af Klint invited and managed to convince produced by a medium are incited by Lucifer [the polar
him to come back to Stockholm to view her secret opposite tempter spirit of humanity].”14
paintings in her studio and advise her, offering to pay his
travel costs.12 She showed him the paintings she had so Af Klint’s paintings
far completed mediumistically, which he contemplated up to that point, as
silently. She was hoping he would be able to analyze and innovative as they may
interpret them in detail for her. Although, as she recorded, have been for their
he did tell her a few things about some of the paintings time in the artworld,
and their symbolism and confirmed that at least certain clearly illustrated both
paintings “belonged to the astral world,” she seems to types of mediumistic
have been generally disappointed by his visit. Steiner unhealthy directions
also told her that figure 16 was a kind of spiritual self- that Steiner spoke
portrait. about:
A. Symbols & Writing
(see fig. 17) and
B. Figures of Light
(see fig. 18).

We don’t actually
know what kind
Fig. 18. Hilma af Klint Primodial Choas or rank of beings
#15, 1906-1907 these were who
communicated with
af Klint and The Five.
As Rudolf Steiner
once said, “The astral
world is the place
where beings from
Fig. 16. Hilma af Klint Group VI, Evolution #15 from the Seven- different worlds can
Pointed Star Series 1908, oil on canvas meet, so to speak.” –
Why might Steiner have not been more enthusiastic and many want to try
about her work? I want to briefly suggest three reasons: to influence human
beings.15
1. Steiner objected to her working passively and
mediumistically as guided by spirits and apparently 3. This studio visit in
encouraged her instead to consciously develop her own Stockholm was only
spiritual faculties through disciplined meditation and a bit over a year after
take a more inwardly active and independent role in her Steiner’s surprising
artistic creation as a more proper modern way to obtain introduction at the
and express spiritual knowledge. Further, he apparently Fig. 17. Hilma af Klint Painting in Notebook 1907 Congress of
predicted that her paintings would not be understood for 5
#1173, August 1907 the Federation of
Fig. 19. Photograph of the Theosophical Society Congress, Munich, 1907
European Sections of the Theosophical Society in Munich
of artistic work as essential to a modern mystery culture
like the Theosophical Society (see fig. 19, showing in
dthe backgound Steiner’s “apocalyptic seals and painted
columns mounted on walls covered with red cloth).

Fig. 22. Rudolf Steiner, First Goetheanum, Dornach, interior of

auditorium looking to rear organ loft, 1913-1922

Fig. 20. Rudolf Steiner, Planetary Seals, 1907 – first five seals redrawn from experiencing of esoteric art more as pure form and
Munich Congress program color; and the basic layout and features (from what he
Among other things, this involved introducing the called “the true temple of the Rosicrucians”) of what
“musical” principle of metamorphosis of form (recalling would eventually between 1914 and 1921 become his
the inaugural exhibition at Lightforms), such as the five First Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland.16
“planetary seals” printed on the Congress program that The work af Klint was channeling then must have seemed
Steiner said were drawn from the spiritual “occult script” pretty far removed from the new artistic impulse Steiner
(see figure 20 above), the distinction between traditional was trying to introduce.
esoteric symbols and a modern contemplative, qualitative
When in 1912 she resumed work on the series of
Paintings for the Temple, Hilma af Klint steadily modified
her method of working. She still would spiritually,
clairvoyantly receive inner images or visions, but she
then would need to herself interpret and compose these
into executed paintings. Her contact with spiritual guides
became more free and personal. She said she had gone
through an occult education to become independently
clairvoyant and able to research spiritual worlds in a
more conscious way.17 She continued to work serially
and systematically, creating paintings in connected series
with subgroups, numbered like scientific research. These
works also continued to explore a path toward a harmony
between spiritual and material worlds, good and evil,
Fig. 21. Rudolf Steiner, Mercury Seal with Mercury Column Capital in First female and male principles, religion and science.
Goetheanum, Dornach, showing how a “section” of the seal was used for
the capital design. Image from Rex Raab, ed., Sieben Kapitelle aus dem By 1915 af Klint had finished 82 additional paintings
grossen Kuppelraum vom ersten Goetheanum als Offenbarer von Stütz-
kräften: Einführung und Zeichnungen (Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum, to complete the set of 193 Paintings for the Temple
1995). 6 (organized into 16 groups or series), which she had
worked on since 1906. These later series from 1912-1919, blacker and whiter birds also grow smaller and whiter
which includes The Tree of Knowledge on exhibit here, (more pure) as the “tree” ascends.
had more topical identities (e.g., The Swan, The Dove,
and The Atom) and a wide range of symbols. Rudolf In The Secret Doctrine sometimes Blavatsky mentions
Steiner again lectured in Stockholm in both 1912 and the Tree of Knowledge as just one example with similar
1913, as did Annie Besant, the international leader of the meaning to other recurring “tree symbols” from ancient
Theosophical Society, and presumably af Klint attended religious and mystery-center traditions. For example,
at least some of those events.18 she refers to oriental esoteric
wisdom traditions that teach
Now I want to attempt to the need to raise within oneself
consider at length some the spiritual form of the Tree
possible meanings of her 1913- of Knowledge, the Tau or
15 series of seven paintings Cross, focusing on the vital
The Tree of Knowledge (with Force that directs its growth
an eighth painting showing within one, forming “the trunk
“details” of the seventh one and branches, which, in their
in the series), which probably turn, bend down on either side
can be interpreted in various symmetrically like the boughs
ways.. I will do this mostly by of the Asvattha, or the holy
sharing some of the complex tree of Bodhi, sitting under
things that Helena Blavatsky which the Buddha gained
wrote about this traditional enlightenment.20 This Bodhi
symbol in The Secret Doctrine, tree (or fig tree), a Tree of Life,
which we know af Klint was is a real spiritual experience of
reading around this time as deep meditation and initiation
well as adding a few of the from almost all ancient Mystery
rather different but equally traditions21 – such as the ancient
complex things Rudolf Steiner Chinese sacred tree called
said about the meanings of Sung-Ming Shü, a combined
that symbol and the spiritual Tree of Knowledge and Life,
realities it represented. Of under which on the top of the
course, traditionally the Tree “great mountain” Foh-tchou
of Knowledge (of Good and (the teacher of the Buddha’s
Evil) is usually paired with the doctrines) produced his
symbol of the Tree of Life, as greatest spiritual miracles; or
a polarity, starting from the the Arasa-Maram, the banyan
Fig. 23. Hilma af Klint Tree of Knowledge #1, 1920s copied from
account in Genesis of the two 1913 original, watercolor, gouache, graphite, metallic paint, and ink tree, also a combined Tree of
trees in the Garden of Eden. on paper Knowledge and Tree of Life,
Af Klint’s paintings seem to sacred with the ancient Hindus,
freely combine her clairvoyant visions of this Tree with since the god Vishnu, during one of his incarnations
diagrammatic depictions typical for Theosophy. taught humanity higher and scientific knowledge there,
and gurus even today are said to initiate their pupils in the
Figure 23 above, the first painting in the series, is richly mysteries of life and death underneath it.22 In antiquity,
colored, full of weaving life forces. Note a twelvefold Blavatsky writes, the Tree was the universal symbol for
(zodiacal) radiation above from a rose-colored oval (the sacred and secret knowledge, or also for a scripture or
interior of a chalice) with twelve white disks (white and record. The Lipika were the most occult spirits of the
pale rose being her purest, most spiritual colors, relating universe (beyond even the planetary deities), who were
also to the colors of the traditional esoteric symbols rose the “scribes” of such supersensible scriptures, or Trees
and the lily as well as equivalent to the “w” and “u” of Knowledge, which were usually guarded by dragons,
symbols, respectively, both conveying “perfection,”19) and representing wisdom.23 The “tree” seems to grow up
stylized paired-snails/spirals in red below representing symmetrically out of the spinal or kundalini column or
a process of spiritual evolution, from which (among nervous system of the connected physical and spiritual
others) winding yellow (male principle) and blue (female aspects of human beings, linking the various higher
principle) streams flow upward and around. The two levels of the human constitution. Thus, on a couple of her
7
original paintings paintings af Klint also indicated that the whole series
of the Tree of portrays a condition and process when passion and desire
Knowledge series has succeeded in penetrating part of the human soul.24
Hilma af Klint One interpretation is that this explains the appearance
later labeled the of darker colors (like aura colors) and paired black-
three supersensible white birds active in the tree, which represent profane
hierarchical levels desire, and are gradually purified through the series in
vertically up the its passage upward through the “human tree.”25 If we
“tree” using the follow further through the Tree of Knowledge series, we
Theosophical notice how much darker and more brown (less pure) the
terminology of colors have become in the second painting in the series
“Etheric Plane,” (figure 25).
“Astral Plane,” and
“Mental Plane” (or
Devachan) – which
are also names
associated with the
higher “vehicles”
or “bodies” of the
human constitution
(see figure 24 Fig. 24. Hilma af Klint Tree of Knowledge #4
above),. 1915, with handwritten texts on lower right side

In her explanatory writing on the back of some of these

Fig. 26. Hilma af Klint Tree of Knowledge #3 1920s copy of 1915

original

Paintings #3 and #4 of the series include horizontal

rows of seven lotus flowers each (ususally shown
more vertically) at both the etheric and astral levels,
representing the astral sensory organs of the chakras,
which can be meditatively developed and activated
through inner purification and also radiate through the
level of the etheric body. These can also be related to
the spheres of influence of the seven planets (of occult
tradition) or the seven roses on the rose-cross, a basic
Rosicrucian symbol and anthroposophical meditation.
Fig. 25. Hilma af Klint, Tree of Knowledge #2 1920s copied from
1913 original 8 In figure 26 we see the lotus flowers/chakras gradually
inducing more wisdom not yet conscious).
orderly formations,
and the upper In figure 27, the fourth picture of the series, the white
Mental Plane area radiations have become pale rose-colored.
is now a sevenfold
“planetary” In the next painting, figure 28 to the left, notice how
division or radiation much cleaner and purer the colors start to become, and
(connected to how areas of blue and yellow below start in part to
a lower, darker combine or unify into green areas, while a twelvefold
chalice within a red “Grail” chalice (re-)appears above. Also a multi-colored,
“oval,”), related lobed “cross” or X-form appears in a small box on the
to the working of middle-right, perhaps suggesting the first awakening of
and on the chakras, the higher self.
represented by
the seven white
radiations, but
is also colored
black, suggesting
it remains uncon-
scious, and seems Fig. 27. Hilma af Klint, Tree of Knowledge #4
to be encircled by a 1920s copied from 1915 original
rose-white serpent
biting its own tail (the uroboros, and a symbol of the

Fig. 29. Hilma af Klint, Tree of Knowledge #6 1920s copied from

1915 original

In the sixth painting (figure 29 above) we observe the

transformation to large green areas below and how black
and white angels appear above backed by the purer
colors in af Klint’s palette of white and rose. Seven
spiral loops below, the multi-colored “cross” form has
grown much larger.

In the seventh and final image in the progression (figure

30 next page) the purifying ascension upward continues,
Fig. 28. Hilma af Klint, Tree of Knowledge #5 1920s copied from now with a white circular area within a large black circle
1915 original above (which may indicate that this highest region is still
9
 largely unconscious). Also, the upper area has become
unitary, rather than sevenfold or twelvefold.

In the curious eighth painting in the series, labeled

“Details” of number 7 by af Klint (figure 31 lower left),
we see a supposed enlargement of barely discernible
details from the upper part of image number seven. Note
the rising multi-colored ladder formation in the center,
with its sixteen ascending steps (representing, I think,
what af Klint was told by her spirit guides were how
many more incarnations humanity had left to achieve its
goal in this age).26 The male and female figures (backed
by pale rose and white, no longer blue and yellow ovals)
have cooperated to give birth to a “spirit child”/higher
self that they lift up between them, with the process
being accompanied by several new cross-forms below
and “shepherded” by a floating, winged angelic figure
shown in a rose-colored aura to the right, so that at the
apex of the upper triangle a mature androgynous figure
radiates seven rainbow rays from each arm, seemingly
rising up toward a cross of “Grail chalices” above.

Fig. 30 above. Hilma af Klint, Tree of Knowledge #7. & Fig.

31 below. Tree of Knowledge, #7 Details, both 1920s copied
from 1915 originals

Fig. 32. Hilma af Klint Group X, No. 1 Altarpiece 1915 oil and
metal leaf on canvas

Compare this detail of a “rainbow ladder” with one of

her three culminating “altarpiece” paintings (figure 32
above) intended to summarize the whole Paintings for
the Temple series, also showing sixteen multi-colored
stages or steps ascending to a radiant gold-leaf spiritual
10 “sun” or higher self above.
Af Klint’s early focal point (still present in her Tree here to give you a general idea. In one of his lectures on
of Knowledge series) of reuniting or transcending the the Apocalypse of St. John in 1907 (p. 59) Steiner said
divided unity of male (yellow) and female androgyne that The human being became a “knower”
(blue) principles and other spiritual polarities through the inhalation of air through the
likely derives not only from her spirit guides lungs, where “used” carbon-filled blue blood
but also from writings of Blavatsky. In several is transformed into oxygen-rich red blood.
other places in her writings Blavatsky draws Our individual “I” or self arose through the
on the elaborate teachings of an Egyptian inflowing of the Odem, the breath of God,
Gnostic sect called the Ophites as well as from through which the human being became a
the divided left-right, male-female Sephiroth knowing soul. He says you can see a kind
Tree diagrams of the Kabala, and what she male of “tree” incorporated into the human body
female
calls the “allegory” of the first chapter of the (yellow) (blue)
created by the main arteries that branch
biblical book of Genesis, whose symbols, Figure 33. off into smaller and smaller capillaries
including the Tree of Knowledge, she says throughout the body. To be a knowing being
all derive originally from ancient India27 and which she it is necessary to take in the oxygen from the air to make
mixes together in sometimes dizzying constructions of red blood so that “human beings can take into themselves
explanation in The Secret Doctrine. I will describe one the tree of knowledge through the red blood.”33
example of this.
The other “tree” is made of the blue veins; the used, blue
She speaks of the meanings of ancient triangle symbols, blood is a poison, is filled with death forces. By descending
which represent threefold associations of spirit, force, and to earth, the tree of life in “the human being was divided
matter; or active (male), passive (female – Blavatsky’s into two parts, comprising the veinal and arterial, the blue
words, not mine), and a dual androgynous principle that and the red blood vessel systems. The blue blood system
binds the two together. (figure 33) She tells us that the
28
is removed from human mastery over it. It streams up to
original giant human spirit, Adam Kadmon, a collective the heart and must unite with the oxygen the plants give
name, is an androgyne being related to the Logos as a to the air. In humans: carbon dioxide is exhaled, oxygen
double principle of Good and Evil, who esoterically inhaled; in plants, the reverse: carbon dioxide inhaled,
becomes the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, oxygen exhaled. Human breathing, “which expresses
and around which are seven creative angels who operate itself in our actual ‘I-ness,’ is an intertwining of the red
in the planetary spheres on our globe.29 For the Ophites and blue ‘blood trees.’” But it is the plant that allows us
the unity of the Logos manifests as both Ennoia, or divine to intertwine the blue and red “blood trees.” Steiner also
mind, and the serpent-like Ophis, the shadow of the said this present divided red-blue state of human blood
divine light or wisdom on the earthly plane. When these arose at the same time as the differentiation of the sexes
two become separated, one is the meaning of the spiritual and the development of free will in human beings.34
Tree of Life and the other is the Tree of Knowledge (of
Good and Evil). Thus the serpent Ophis urges the first The “apocalyptic seal” from the Munich Congress in
human couple, Adam and Eve, to eat the forbidden fruit 1907 shown in Figure 34 (next page) shows the red
(or Soma) of the Tree of Knowledge. As in Genesis,
30
Jachin and blue-red Boaz columns (which also stood on
the Creator God breathed the “breath of life” into these either side of the entrance to the temple of Solomon),
first humans, but not of intellect and mind. The latter was showing above and beweeen them, as described in the
only acquired and developed once Adam had tasted of Apocalypse, the sun-faced, cloud-bodied angelic figure
the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and had the spiritual with rainbow overhead and feet “like pillars of fire,”35
principle of Manas implanted into him, which allowed indicating the higher self that we in the future can
a connection with the Spirit and divine Soul. Later 31
create/realize between the pillars (the “legs,” which are
symbols of the primal male-female, spirit-matter polarity also representing the Trees of Knowledge and Life).
(as well as the androgyne), writes Blavatksy, were the To progress, human beings need to maintain a balance
two columns of Solomon’s temple, Jachin and Boaz.32 between the one column representing the rigidifying,
Believe it or not, this is a great simplification or summary withering death- forces of the moon and the other column
of what Blavatsky writes in several scattered places. representing the over-fast, over-lively life-forces of the
sun.36
Let me add to this something of what Rudolf Steiner said
about the diverse meanings of the Tree of Knowledge and Steiner also related the red and blue blood streams to
the Tree of Life. This is even more complex and shifting these symbols of the two columns of Jachin and Boaz
than Blavatsky, so I will only indicate a few aspects that he pictured in 1907 on the fourth seal or sign of
11
 sexual division within humanity.40

When her mother died in 1920, af Klint felt more

free to travel and in September began to undertake
regular journeys to Dornach, where she joined the
Anthroposophical Society. Over eight or nine separate
visits from 1920 to 1925 (the year of Steiner’s death) she
spent altogether more than a year of time in Dornach.
There she could observe the style of painting inaugurated
by Rudolf Steiner on the Goetheanum building cupola
murals (Figure 34), learn something about his new
approach of “painting out of the color,” and how Steiner

Fig. 34. Clara Rettich, after Rudolf Steiner Fourth Apocalyptic Seal 1907
the Apocalypse, an astral image representing a future
higher stage of development when the two trees can be
reunited.37 In 2007 I gave an hour and a half lecture just
on the many meanings and spiritual realtieis behind the
Jachin and Boaz columns, so it is best we do not try to go Fig. 34. Rudolf Steiner, Egyptian and Greek Motifs, watercolor mural
more deeply into this aspect now.38 paintings on small cupola, First Goetheanum, Dornach, 1918-1919.

was extending Goethe’s color theory through such

Additionally, Steiner a few times recounted a story from concepts as image and luster colors. She may have
the Golden Legend (and the Temple Legend) where attended his lectures specifically on color in Dornach,
Seth, the offspring of Adam, was allowed after the Fall May 6-8 in 1921.41 She had conversations with Steiner
to enter Paradise and had a vision there of the Tree of and attended various lectures by him and about 36 of her
Life and Tree of Knowledge, grown together. Seth took later notebooks are full of extensive notes from these. All
a seed from this grown-together tree and planted it in she was learning in Dornach needed to be digested and
the mouth of his deceased father Adam. From it grew incorporated into her working methods and seemingly
a great tree with 3 trunks (representing Manas, Buddhi, led her to stop painting again for a couple of years until
and Atma; or, in anthroposophical terms, Spirit Self, 1922.
Life Spirit, and Spirit Man), which clairvoyant people
saw as shining with a fiery glow and forming the letters Especially from 1922 onward for the rest of her artistic
“J B” (Jachin and Boaz) as a kind of flaming script in life she changed her painting to working in a wet-
the branches whose meaning was “Ejeh, Asher, Ejeh,” on-wet watercolor technique, creating more than 200
which means “I am he who was, he who is, and he watercolors from a more anthroposophical approach.
who will be.” Later, among other things, wood from She did not just externally copy a “Goetheanum style”
that tree was used to make the cross on which Jesus of painting, but worked at penetrating the inner nature
Christ was crucified, as a kind of new Tree of Life.39 of colors and how form can arise from their interactions
as well as with a clairvoyant, spiritual-scientific research
I tend to doubt that Hilma af Klint in the 1913-1915 into the natural world that also used art as a means of
period was very aware of the meanings that Steiner gave recording or reporting the results of such investigations.
to the Tree of Knowledge and more likely took her cues Some of her later paintings – especially from the series
from Blavatksy and her spirit guides, but she did own On the Viewing of Flowers and Trees painted between
one book of 1907 lectures by Steiner, Theosophy of the July and October, 1922 – seem to be based on plant-
Rosicrucian, where he talks about the mystery of the related meditative exercises described in Steiner’s basic
blue and red blood, as related to life and death forces and 12
book How to Know Higher Worlds42:

Exercise 1. In one of the first and most basic exercises in

the book, Steiner says to patiently and devotedly practice
observing life in the natural world that is growing,
flourishing, developing, and blooming and suggests
we eventually will come to feel the quality of these
phenomena as similar to a sunrise.
Exercise 2. By contrast, he then instructs meditants to
similarly observe natural phenomena of fading, withering,
and decaying and suggests these will be experienced like
the slow rising of the moon.

When practiced long enough (which can vary for each Fig. 37. Hilma af Klint Wheat and Wormwood from On the View-
ing of Flowers and Trees 1922 watercolor
person), these exercises aim to build inner, spiritual
organs of clairvoyance (the chakras or lotus flowers) that some of Hilma af
will enable one to experience the invisible astral plane Klint’s paintings
(“soul world”) that lies behind the world we experience from this 1922 series
with our ordinary senses. Then the meditant will become of watercolors that
aware of certain “forms of feeling,” attached to each seem to show these
process, that is, astral forms, lines, and figures associated opposite “botanical”
or expressive of each of the two contrasting phenomena of phenomena:
the living world of nature, especially in plants. Consider
Figure 35 of a
birch tree seems
more sprouting
and full of life. By
contrast, figure 36
of a thistle seems
more withering and
contracted. Figures
37 and 38 seem to
show pairings of
the two different
Fig. 38. Hilma af Klint Untitled 1941 water- tendencies in a single
color picture.
Fig. 35. Hilma af Klint Birch from On the Viewing of Flowers and
Trees 1922 watercolor Exercise 3. Steiner then directs a meditant to first
comparatively observe and then call up in inner mental
images the different forming forces and related feelings
of stone, plant, and animal. He says this helps form
spiritual organs of perception to grasp purely spiritual
colors(similar to but different than colors of the ordinary
sense world) expressive of each natural kingdom. For
plants he describes a typically greenish color turning to
an ethereal pink.The closest example I could find to this
in af Klint’s paintings is figure 39 (next page_)

Exercise 4. Another plant-related meditative exercise

from Steiner’s How to Know the Higher Worlds asks
the meditant to physically observe and then inwardly
imagine a plant seed, say a sunflower or squash seed,
Fig. 36. Hilma af Klint Thistle from On the Viewing of Flowers and gradually building up in inner mental imagery and
Trees 1922 watercolor
13
 Exercise 5. Then one must practice the opposite
imagination: Picture the fully developed plant that will
eventually wither and die but will produce seeds. Consider
that something one cannot see guards the plant from
disappearing completely into nothing. There is something
in the plant that we cannot see physically. Out of this
feeling the meditant will gradually come to perceive a
spiritual flame-form or aura, larger and differently colored
than with the seed. (typically greenish-blue in the center
and yellowish-red at the outer edges). In my experience
with these exercises each specific species of plant
generates somewhat different auric color patterns. Note a
few examples from af Klint’s work in figures 40-42).

Fig. 39. Hilma af Klint Untitled from On the Viewing of Flowers

and Trees 1922 watercolor
inner feeling the invisible forces in the seed as they will
gradually unfold in that specific plant as it grows. If one
more and more feels this with intensity, the inner image
of the seed will come to appear as if enveloped in a small
luminous colored flamelike cloud or aura with certain
colors. (typically lilac with blue edges)

Fig. 42. Hilma af Klint The Mallow from On the VIewing of Flowers
and Trees 1922 watercolor

These meditative plant

studies seem to have
helped lead to her most
extensive project from the
later “anthroposophical”
period: notebooks pre-
Fig. 40. Hilma af Klint Aura of a Plant Seed 1922 watercolor senting extended, unique
“spiritual-scientific”
botanical studies. created
especially during 1919-
1920, annotated in
German, and recording
the characters and
qualities of individual
plants.

Completed just before

these note-books, figure
43 (left) seems to be a
transitional work toward
them, or maybe a study
for them, which includes
Fig. 41. Hilma af Klint Green Algae from On the Viewing Fig. 43. Hilma af Klint Violets with also realistic images of
of Flowers and Trees 1922 watercolor Guidelines 1919 watercolor, graphite and the violets. Figure 44
metallic paint
14
 the English name of the plant and the page number for it
in af Klint’s notebook:
• Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot): “Through the energy of
the will from light to darkness, and from light to greater
light.” (p. 3)45

Fig. 44. Hilma af Klint Flowers, Lichens, and Mosses 1919-1920 pp. 24-25.

(above) shows a typical two-page spread from one of

her notebooks as one example of the format she finally
settled on. Fig. 45. H. af Klint Flowers, Lichens, and Mosses 1919-1920 pp. 17.

• Prunus spinosa (blackthorn):

All of these studies employed a combination of careful
“The incorruptibility of the
meditative observation, clairvoyant perception, and
law. The inexhaustibility of
artistic expression – titled Flowers, Mosses, and
the gospel.” (p. 14)
Lichens. She recorded these in three sketchbooks, one
• Figure 45: Prunus cerasus
of which she also made a nearly complete copy of (the
(sour cherry): “Liberator of
one exhibited here at Lightforms43). For these botanical
the intestinal bacteria and
studies she developed an unusual threefold diagrammatic
infusiora that are caused
language to capture the qualities of each plant, with each
by animal foodstuffs.” (p.
species given either a full or half page, reflecting a very
17;remember that af Klint
different way of experiencing nature than that used in
Fig. 46. Hilma af Klint Flowers, Li- was a vegetarian.)
clasical botany: chens, and Mosses 1919-1920 p. 19. • Pyrus communis (European
1) The plant’s identifying scientific name (seemingly
or common pear): “Give me
replacing the realistic depiction in the violets painting),
enlightenment about my
2) A small drawing/painting of spiritually perceived
astral weakness. Help me
“directional lines” either as free-floating symbols or
to improve the kidneys of
often a square (or oval) divided into 4 quadrants, usually
humanity.” (p. 18)
with expressive colors, lines, and forms; and
•Figure 46: Fragaria vesca
3) A verbal description of the plant’s emotional or
(wild strawberry): “Liberator.
spiritual qualities (sometimes seemingly pointing to
Longing: To cause balance
therapeutic properties).
within the blood system by
driving out either the white or
It is possible that this plant research was a task given to Fig. 47. H. af Klint Flowers, Lichens, red blood cells.” (p. 19)
her by Steiner, but we have no evidence of that. Later in and Mosses 1919-1920 pp. 21.
•Figure 47: Juniper: “Tena-
one notebook it was written: “The images are seen on the
city, persistence, energy
astral plane.”44
of the will, honesty, lack
of ostentation, need for
In these diagrammatic plant pictures from 1919-1920
completion.” (p. 21)
we seem to see elemental forces, colors, structures, and
• Figure 48: Polygala vulgaris
tendencies that expand and contract. We don’t know
(milkwort): “Humility.
why she so often rmployed a quadrant format within the
Caution. Accuracy. Timing.”
square or oval shapes depicting the plants’ “directional
(p. 25)
lines.” Perhaps they represent four levels of reality in
• Figure 49: Viburnum opulus
which the plant exists or maybe four stages of plant
(European cranberry bush):
growth. I will just present a few specific examples here,
Fig. 48. H. af Klint Flowers, Lichens, “Disobedience” (p. 28).
as visual images and/or verbal descriptions, indicating
15 and Mosses 1919-1920 pp. 25.
• Sedum telephium (Purple Emperor, a with the unhealthy relationships that had
succulent):“Tireless. In special contact with developed among Steiner’s successors in the
the spirits of the air.” (p. 41) Anthroposophical Society.51
• Tulipa (tulip): “Physical strength is a
necessary asset. The body is dependent on She continued to receive guidance into old
the etheric body.” p. 51) age from some of her spirit teachers and also
• Figure 50: Helianthus annus (sunflower): claimed to be in touch with Steiner after his
“Love is the greatest of all. The strength not death.52 Her last painting was completed
to forget God always comes from love.” (p. in 1941. She continually reworked
44) her handwritten notes and interpretive
• Figure 51: Hylocomium triquetrum annotations about her artwork, preparing
(“Bryophyte”) (p.72) One of the woodland for a future humanity that she hoped would
mosses (included in the original copy of the understand them, including creating indices
notebook but not in the one on display here) to help decode the many linguistic symbols
is even represented by a four-note rising she had received in her mediumistic works,
melody in a musical bar sign (lower right) which are usually unique integrations
Fig. 49. H. af Klint Flowers, Lichens,
labeled “The collective sound wave of the and Mosses 1919-1920 pp. 28. of language and visual artistic elements.
mosses.”46 & 47 In 1917 she dictated an account of her
understanding of spiritual life, “Studies
In her later years af Klint continued of the Life of the Soul,” which in 1941-
to feel her earlier paintings were of 1942 was typed to create a manuscript
value and undertook to interpret and of more than 2,000 pages. In one of her
document them. In 1927 she made a notebooks she wrote: “The experiments
copy of the Tree of Knowledge series I have conducted . . . that were to awaken
exhibited here and gave it to Swiss poet, humanity when they were cast upon
playwright, and painter, Albert Steffen, the world were pioneering endeavors.
then the leader of the Anthroposophical Though they travel through much dirt
Society after Steiner’s death in 1925. they will yet retain their purity.”53 When
She apparently donated one or more she died very poor at nearly age 82 in
of the plant research notebooks to the 1944 a statement in a notebook from
Natural Science Section of the School of 1932 stated that all her works only
Spiritual Science, a kind of alternative, Fig. 50. H. af Klint Flowers, Lichens, and Mosses “should be opened twenty years after
spiritual-scientific university Steiner 1919-1920 pp. 44. my death, . . .” and she also specified
founded at the Goethanum48 (whose that none of them should ever be sold.54
“First Class” af Klint also
joined49 ). Unexpectedly, her entire
estate (except for a few
Recently the first public works in Dornach) was
exhibition of a selection bequeathed in her will to
of her paintings has been the care of her nephew Erik
rediscovered to have af Klint, “a naval officer
taken place at the World with neither the financial
Conference of Spiritual means nor the conceptual
Science and Its Practical background in art to properly
Applications, a event held in steward them.”55 Erik rolled
London in 1928 from July 20 up her paintings and built
to August 1, and intended to Fig. 51. Hilma af Klint Flowers, Lichens, and Mosses 1919-1920 pp. 72. wooden crates to store her
introduce the various fields work, although not always in
of anthroposophical work to the general public. There af the best of circumstanaces. Eventually, the Hilma af Klint
Klint was given an entire room, where she exhibited “her Foundation was formed in 1972 to look after her work.
studies of Rosicrucian symbolism” and also gave a talk
about them.50 Two years later in 1930 her last, two-week Outside of a few small shows in Sweden, her paintings
visit to Dornach took place, and a notebook entry of were only first exhibited in public in 1986 in Los Angeles
December 27 of that year expressed her disillusionment 16 as part of the large, revelatory show The Spirit in Art:
Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (which traveled to Chicago anthroposophical periodical Die Drei, 2016), from email from Kevin
and The Hague) – 42 years after the death of af Klint. Dann to David Adams, August 23, 2019.
13
Rudolf Steiner, From the Esoteric School: Esoteric Lessons 1913-
Arising from a clairvoyant visionary process, her 1923, Vol.3 (Great Barrington: Steinerbooks, 2011; CW 166/3), pp.
artwork is somehow both abstract and representational 141 & 145.
with unique ways of coding information pictorially and 14
Rudolf Steiner, trans., James Hindes, From the Esoteric School:
diagrammatically that need further investigation. Today Esoteric Lessons 1913-1923, Vol.3 (Great Barrington: Steinerbooks,
2011; CW 166/3), pp. 141.
af Klint can’t easily be integrated into any existing 15
Nov. 25, 1903 in Concerning the Astral World and Devachan (Great
category of modern artist. What we know of her life, Barrington: SteinerBooks, 2018; GA 88), pp. 45 and 138.
motivations, and creativity is still an incomplete story 16
For much more information on the artistic innovations of the 1907
until her extensive diaristic notebooks in Swedish are Munich Congress, see Michael Howard, “Schooling Artistic Feeling
translated and digested – and intelligently related to her for the New Social Art” and David Adams, “On the Artistic Impulse
of the Munich Congress of 1907,” Art Section Newsletter 26 (Spring-
occult and theosophical/anthroposophical knowledge Summer 2006): 1-12, and David Adams, “Reflections on the Artistic
and contacts. The artworld is now engaged in trying to Initiatives of the 1907 Munich Congress,” Art Section Newsletter 28
broaden its perspectives to adequately incorporate her (Spring-Summer 2007): 9-11. For more on Steiner’s first Goetheanum
work as an inspiring example of a life dedicated to the building, see Hagen Biesantz and Arne Klingborg, trans. Jean Schmid,
The Goetheanum: Rudolf Steiner’s Architectural Impulse, (London:
spiritual sources of visual art.
Rudolf Steiner Press, 1979); Rudolf Steiner, trans. and ed., Frederick
Amrine, Toward a New Theory of Architeture: The First Goetheanum
All illustrations of works by Hilma af Klint are in the collection in Pictures, (Great Barrington: SteinerBooks, 2017); Rudolf Steiner,
of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden, except trans. and ed, Frederick Amrine, Architecture, Sculpture, and Paintng
for the Tree of Knowlege series exhibited at Lightforms and of the First Goetheanum, (Great Barrington: SteinerBooks, 2017; and
owned by the Albert Steffen Stiftung in Dornach, Switzerland. David Adams, “Rudolf Steiner’s First Goetheanum as an Illustration
of Organic Functionalism,” Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians 51,2 (June 1992): 182-204.
Endnotes 17
Fant, “The Case of Artist Hilma af Klint,” The Spiritual in Art, p.
1
158.
From Hilma af Klint, “Letters and Words Pertaining to Works by 18
Guenther Wachsmuth, The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner, 2nd ed.
Hilma af Klint” in Christine Burgin, ed., Hilma af Klint: Notes and (New York: Whittier Books, 1955), pp. 176 and 205.
Methods (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018), p. 257. 19
Burgin, Notes and Methods, p. 269; for a good overview of the
2
1907 notebook HaK 556, p. 431; as quoted in Johan af Klint and Hed- various traditional meanings of the rose and lily – including botanical
vig Ersman, “The Invisible Made Visible,” September 20, 2018; The fruits and grains, sacramental wine and bread, physiological blood
Hilma af Klint Foundation, wwww.hilmaafklint.se ; or: https://www. and nerves, forces of moon and sun, etc. – see Rudolf Hauschka,
dropbox.com/s/cuu9ntag8kugoia/Article%20about%20Hilma%20 trans. Marjorie Spock and Mary T. Richards, Nutrition (London:
af%20Klint%20%2020%20September%202018.pdf?dl=0. All her Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983), pp. 87-93.
items left behind have been registered by the Hilma af Klint Founda- 20
H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science,
tion with a special “HaK number.” Religion, and Philosophy, Vol. 2 (Pasadena: Theosophical University
3
Burgin, ed., Notes and Methods, p. 14. Press, 1999 [1888]), pp 588-589.
4
Quoted in Åke Fant, “The Case of the Artist Hilma af Klint,” The 21
Also see Rudolf Steiner, trans., K. Castelliz and B. Saunders-Davies,
Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985 ex. cat.(New York: The Gospel of St. John (London: Temple Lodge Press, 1980: GA 94),
Abbevile, 1986), p. 157. p. 21. This is an excerpt translated from the complete German edition:
5
Quoted from Iris Müller-Westermann, “Paintings for the Future: Hil- Kosmogonie. Populärer Okkultismus, Das Johannes-Evangelium,
ma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion,” Hilma af Klint – 2nd ed. (Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 2001). “When a person has
A Pioneer of Abstraction ex. cat. (Stockholm: Moderna Museet; Ost- reached the fifth grade of initiation he always sees a picture on the
finden, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2013), p. 38, in David Max Horowitz, astral plane, which formerly he had not seen – the picture of a tree,
“’The World Keeps You in Fetters; Cast Them Aside’: Hilma af Klint, a finely branched, white tree. This picture on the astral plane . . . is
Spiritualism, and Agency” in Tracey Bashkoff, Hilma af Klint: Paint- called the Tree of Life. He who had reached this point is said to have
ings for the Future (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2018), p. 130. sat under the Tree of Life. Thus, Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree and
6
Burgin, Notes and Methods, p. 14. Nathaniel under the Fig Tree. These are terms for the picture on the
7
Ibid., p. 246 astral plane. . . . The Bodhi Tree is but the astral mirror image of the
8
Fold-out diagram from H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, vol.2 human nervous system.” (p. 21)
(Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1960 [1877), p. 264ff. 22
Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, vol. 2, pp. 293-294; and The Secret
9
Quoted from Anna Maria Svensson, “The Greatness of Things: The Doctrine, vol. 2, pp. 214-15 and 589.
Art of Hilma af Klint,” in John Hutchinson, ed., Hilma af Klint ex. 23
Variously from Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled vol. 2, p. 293; and The
cat. (Dublin: Douglas Hyde Gallery, 2005), p. 19, in Horowitz, “The Secret Doctrine, vol 1, p. 128fn; and vol. 2, pp. 4, 293, 354, and 588-
World Keeps You in Fetters,” Paintings for the Future, p. 130. 589.
10
Svensson, “The Greatness,” p. 18; quoted in Tessel M. Baudin, 24
David Lomas, “The Botanical Roots of Hilma af Klint’s Abstraction,”
„Að sjá og sýna hið ósýnilega. Um nútímalist og andleg verk Hilmu in Iris Müller-Westermann, ed. A Pioneer of Abstraction, p. 232.
af Klint“ (“Seeing and Depicting the Invisible. On Hilma af Klint’s 25
Ibid.
Modern Art and Spiritual Paintings”), Ritið 1/2017: 187-224; English 26
Burgin, Notes and Methods, p. 269.
translation pdf of Icelandic publication by Eva Dagbjört Óladóttir. 27
Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Vol. 2, pp. 267 and 293; and The Secret
11
Burgin, Notes and Methods, p. 257. Doctrine, Vol. 2, pp. 175 and 214-215.
12
From translation of letter from Hilma af Klint to Rudolf Steiner, 28
Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, pp. 268-270.
June 26, 1908, by Kevin Dann (as printed in an article in the 29
Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, vol. 2, p. 264; and The Secret Doctrine,
17
vol. 2, pp. 4 and 293. applying some of af Klint’s plant indications to determine if the
30
Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Vol. 2, pp. 184 and 293; and The Secret bodily and psychological therapeutic effects af Klint described could
Doctrine, vol. 2, pp. 214-215 and 499fn. be documented in practice, maybe after the manner of homeopathic
31
Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 247; and Vol. 2, p. 175. herbalism, the Bach flower remedies, or the anthroposopical remedies.
32
Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, vol. 2, p. 270. 48
The original copy of the first plant notebook is part of the collection
33
Rudolf Steiner, trans. James H. Hindes, Reading the Pictures of the of the Hilma af Klint Foundation in Stockholm. The copy of the
Apocalypse (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1993; G A104a), p. majority of this notebooks is part of the collection of the Albert Steffen
59 (May 15, 1907). Stiftung in Dornach. The second and third plant research notebooks
34
Rudolf Steiner, trans. M. Cotterell and D.S. Osmond, Theosophy of are in the collection of the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach, as
the Rosicrucian, 2nd ed. (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966; GA confirmed by an email to the author from an editor there, Anne Weiss,
99), pp. 128-129 (1907); and Rudolf Steiner, trans., John M. Wood, of February 7, 2019: “The first notebook (red) is dated 21 April 1919
The Temple Legend: Freemasonry and Related Occult Movements (144 pages), the second notebook (black) is not dated (162 pages).”
(London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1985: GA93), pp. 252-252. (October 49
I thank Anne Weise at the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach for
23, 1905); and Steiner, Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse, pp. this information, in an email to me of February 12, 2019.
59-60. 50
Julia Voss, “The Traveling Hilma af Klint,” in Bashkoff, ed.,
35
As in the biblical Book of Revelations 10:1. Paintings for the Future, pp. 61-62; and Anonymous, “The World
36
As in Rudolf Steiner, trans. Sabine Seiler, Toward Imagination: Conference on Spiritual Science, Anthroposophy: A Quarterly Review
Culture and the Individual (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, of Spiritual Science 3, 3 (1928): 383-399.
1990L GA 169), pp. 56-57 (June 20, 2016); or Rudolf Steiner, The 51
Quoted by Voss, “Traveling Hilma af Klint,”, p. 60; from Notebook
Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge, (Chestnut Ridge, NY: HaK1047 (1930-1930), p.33.
Mercury Press, 2006; GA 162), pp. 56-57. (August 1, 1915). 52
Ibid., p. 59; and Ulf Wagner, Sweden, email to author of February
37
Rudolf Steiner, The Apocalypse of St. John, 4th ed., trans. M. 7, 2019.
Cotterell, J. Collis, et al., (London Rudolf Steiner Press, 1977; GA 53
Quoted in Tracey Bashkoff “Temples for Paintings,” Paintings for
104), pp. 160-161 (June 26, 1908); The Gospel of St. John and Its the Future, p. 18, from Anna Maria Svensson, “The Greatness of
Relation to the Other Gospels, 2nd ed., trans., Samuel Lockwood, Loni Things: The Art of Hilma af Klint,” in John Hutchinson, ed., Hilma af
Lockwood, and Maria St. Goar (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Klint ex. cat. (Dublin: Douglas Hyde Gallery, 2005), p. 17.
Press, 1982; GA 112), pp. 264 and 269 (July 7, 1909); “The 54
Voss, “Traveling Hilma af Klint,” Paintings for the Future, p. 51.
Theosophical Congress of 1907. A Report by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, 55
Johan af Klint, “Artist’s Foundation Statement” in Paintings for the
published in the magazine “Lucifer-Gnosis,” Anthroposophical News Future, p. 9.
Sheet vol. 5, no. 25 (1937), p 104; and “Occult Seals and Columns:
Introduction to the Portfolio. 1907”: translation in John Fletcher, David Adams, Ph.D., taught art history at several state
Art Inspired by Rudolf Steiner (England: Mercury Arts Publications, universities and art schools for thirty years, including for twenty
1987), p.77. years at Sierra College in California. He has edited or co-
38
For more information on this apocalyptic seal, see Rudolf Steiner,
edited as well as often written for the international Art Section
“Occult Seals and Columns” in Fletcher, Art Inspired by Rudolf
Steiner, pp.76-79; and David Adams, “An Overview of Rudolf
Newsletter since 1996. He has published numerous articles,
Steiner’s Apocalyptic Seals,” Art Section Newsletter 30 (Spring- essays, booklets, and chapters on art history and criticism,
Summer 2008: 4-9, 11, + color insert; also in News for Members (The education, music, anthroposophy, and other topics as well as
Anthroposophical Society in America) 2 (2008). created occasional works of performance and installation art.
39
Rudolf Steiner, trans., Lisa D. Monges, Signs and Symbols of the Since 1983 he has directed the Center for Architectural and
Christmas Festival (NY: Anthroposophoc Press, 1969), pp. 57-58 Design Research, a small non-profit organization. He also
(December 17, 1906); The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge, taught and administrated at several Waldorf schools for nine
pp. 5-6 (July 24, 1915); and Concerning the History and Content of years.
the Higher Degrees of the Esoteric School 1904-1914 (Isle of Mull,
Scotland: Etheric Dimensions Press, 2005), pp. 378, 381, and 384-
385.
40
Steiner, Theosophy of the Rosicrucian. See note 33.
41
Rudolf Steiner, trans., John Salter, Colour (London:Rudolf Steiner
PRess, 1971; GA 291; or see the later, expanded edition, trans. John
Salter and Pauline Wehre, Colour (London: Rudolf Steiner Press,
1992; GA 291).
42
Rudolf Steiner, trans., Cristopher Bamford, How to Know Higher
Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation (Hudson, NY: Anthroposopic
Press, 1994: GA10). Also translated as Knowledge of Higher Worlds
and Its Attailnment.
43
Of the original 80-page notebook, her copy includes the first 66
pages.
44
Burgin, Notes and Methods, p. 233.
45
All descriptions of the plants are quoted from the translations in
Burgin, Notes and Methods, pp.165-244.
46
Burgin, Notes and Methods, p. 236.
47
This sketchbook book also includes a few other, not directly
botanical topics, including one butterfly, one mosquito, one spider, Fig. 52. Hilma af Klint “Vortex”” from On the VIewing of Flowers
a form for each Scandanavian country, a diagram of the kingdoms and Trees 1922 watercolor
of nature, and one of comparative qualities of the four gospels)
It would be interesting if a therapist or medical researcher tried
18