ENCYCLOPEDIA
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abnormal, abnormality - also see Africans; Asians; degenerate races; disease; evil; Jupiter; Mars; Mercury; Native Americans; Odin; Saturn; Venus; cf. advanced races; divine cosmic plan; normal In general, according to Steiner, a person or being is abnormal if s/he lags behind in evolution or otherwise varies from the central stream of the divine cosmic plan. Abnormality is related to — but not identical to — evil. [See "Abnormal".] • “At all stages there are members of the Hierarchies [i.e., spiritual beings] whose development is incomplete and man lives both under the influence of the normal beings and of those who have remained behind. These were termed the Spirits of Adversity but it must be remembered that they are not evil in themselves.” — R. Wilkinson, RUDOLF STEINER - An Introduction to His World-view, Anthroposophy (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2001), p. 199. • "Now on each planet there are also Spirits who have remained behind in evolution, they have remained stationary and not wished to progress. You will recognise a law from this: If the most outstanding fall and commit the 'great sin' of not advancing with evolution, then they become the very worst of all. The noble sense of liberty has been reversed into wickedness, into its opposite. Those are the Spirits of Temptation, and they must be taken gravely into account; they lead to the evil side of egoism, even today they are still in our environment, these evil Spirits of Saturn." — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 9, GA 99.
Abraham - also see moon religionThe Hebrew patriarch. According to Steiner, the Bible does not accurately explain Abraham's role in Hebrew history. (Many of Steiner's "revelations" have this character — they "correct" the Bible and many other sources.) Shem, one of Noah's sons, had an etheric body that housed an avatar (a god who had descended to Earth). Melchizedek, a king/priest revered by Abraham, received this etheric body with its embodied avatar. Melchizedek was then able to guide Abraham who, in turn, guided the Hebrew people. "[I]n the later phase of the evolution of the Semitic people, it became necessary that a very exalted being descend to earth in order to communicate with them and provide an impetus to their culture. Such a being was the Melchizedek of Biblical history who, as it were, had to ‘put on’ the preserved etheric body of Shem — the very etheric body that was still inhabited by an avatar being. Once it was woven into him, Melchizedek was able to transmit to Abraham the impulse necessary for the continued progress of Semitic culture.” — R. Steiner, THE PRINCIPLE OF SPIRITUAL ECONOMY (Anthroposophic Press, 1986), lecture 3, GA 109.] [See "Avatars".]
abyss - cf. salvation
a) A deep (perhaps bottomless) canyon. Figuratively, a gulf of separation.
b) The bottomless pit of Hell.
c) In Anthroposophy, the region separating physical reality from spiritual reality. [See "Hell".] Errant humans, moving downward against the course of evolution, may fall out of evolution and/or fall into the abyss. People who fail to embrace the proper spiritual vision will revert to animal form and constitute an "evil race" in the abyss. "Let us suppose a man were to deny it was the spirit which has given him a human countenance ... He would remain united with the body and go down into the abyss. And because of not having used the power of the spirit, the external shape would again come to resemble the previous form. The man who descends into the abyss would become animal like ... The evil race, with its savage impulses, will dwell in animal form in the abyss". — R. Steiner, UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), p. 103.
academic standards at Waldorf schools - see Anthroposophy; anti-intellectualism; curriculum; science; seven-year stages; spiritualistic agenda; textbooks; teacher training; thinking Standards are often low; the underlying goal of the schools is to spread Anthroposophy, not to provide an education as that term is usually understood. Moreover, ordinary knowledge is viewed askance — clairvoyance and its results provide "real" knowledge, according to Anthroposophical doctrine. Students in early Waldorf grades lag students in other schools, because waldorf postpones academic studies such as arithmetic and reading until the students incarnate more fully. The Waldorf curriculum is geared toward the incarnation of the students’ invisible bodies, as well as the development of proto-clairvoyant modes of thought (imagination, etc.). Waldorf defenders say that Waldorf students catch up with their peers at other schools during high school. The evidence for this is spotty at best and depends on the chosen metric of comparison. [See "Academic Standards at Waldorf".]
Adam - also see Eve; planetary migrations a) In the Bible, the first man.
b) In Anthroposophy, a sufficiently hardened early human, able to remain on Earth when other humans migrated to other planets. "[T]here was a principal human couple who survived the densification of the earth. Spiritual investigation impels us to accept what to begin with seems incredible, that there was such a couple as Adam and Eve, as the Bible tells us, and that the races which arose on the return of the soul/spirits from the cosmos came about through their union with the descendants of this couple.” — R. Steiner. [See "Genesis".]
c) Steiner also used the name “Adam” to refer to a primal condition of humanity in general. “By ‘Adam’ we have to understand not a single human being, but an ego-consciousness that embraced several generations ... If you look back as far as to Adam, you see the ego-consciousness flow through generations for hundreds and thousands of years.” — R. Steiner, THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN (Basle) (London Reference Library, 1942), lecture 8, GA 100. (Reconciling Steiner's various statements on a wide array of subjects can be difficult.)
adept - also see gnosis; initiate Noun: one skilled in the application or use of gnosis, occult knowledge. “The weapons of the mystic are concentration and inner vision; the weapons of the occultist are intuition and synthesis. Each corresponds to the other; they complete and presuppose each other.
“These two human types are blended in the Adept, in the higher Initiate. No doubt one or the other, and often both, are met with in the sounders of great religions and the loftiest philosophies. No doubt also they are to be found again, in a less, but still very remarkable degree, among a certain number of personages who have played a great part in history as reformers, thinkers, poets, artists, statesmen.” — Edouard Schuré, “The Personality of Rudolf Steiner and His Development”, introduction to THE WAY OF INITIATION (Harper & Row, 1960), by Rudolf Steiner, GA 10. [See "Adepts".]
advanced races - also see Aryan; Caucasian race; female; goddess; race; racism; savages; white race; cf. abnormal; degenerate races According to Steiner, some races are more advanced than others. The white race is the most advanced — whites are the most “normal” humans, coming closest to realizing the ideal human type. Other races are evolutionarily retarded. Black are childish, Asians are adolescent, and American Indians are senescent. [See “Steiner’s Racism” and “Races”.] Female influences in the past led to the subsequent advanced races. "The preeminence of the feminine soul, which has been described, was especially strong in the last Lemurian period and continued into the Atlantean times, during which the fourth subrace was preparing itself. But one must not imagine that this was the case among all of mankind. It was true, however, for that part of the population of earth from which the truly advanced races later emerged." — R. Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), chapter 5, GA 11.
Advent - see Christ, second coming of Advent is the celebration of the coming or second coming of Christ. In the church calendar, Advent occurs in the weeks leading up to Christmas. In Waldorf schools, Advent is often celebrated but, at least sometimes, disguised as a Winter Festival or a Spiral of Light (in which students walk a mystical spiral pattern, carrying and lighting candles, often in a darkened room). [See "Magical Arts".]
adult teeth - see teeth
Aeon - also see Christ; Jehovah; Pitris In gnostic teachings, an age (a historical epoch) or the god of that age. Christ is sometimes deemed to be a high Aeon. According to Steiner, Jehovah was a rather lowly Aeon. "The Aeons were Beings who had issued from the Demiurgos. Among these Aeons, Jahve or Jehovah was a Being of a relatively subordinate rank." — R. Steiner. [See “Was He Christian?”.]
Africans, “black race,” “Negro race,” “Negroes” - also see Mercury; N-word According to Steiner, Africans are descended from abnormal humans. “Groups of men in whom the bones had, as it were, become too strong, were now left behind as degenerate races ... The last remnant of those human groups in which the nutritive system hardened too soon now forms the Negroid races." — R. Steiner. [See "Negro".] According to Steiner, Africans are childlike and passionate. Steiner taught that blacks, heated by the Sun, are continuously “cooking” inside. Sometimes black Africans are called the "Mercury race" because, Steiner said, they are formed by powers in/on the planet Mercury. [See “Races”.] Blacks live instinctual lives, Steiner taught, whereas Asians live largely through their emotions and whites rely on their superior powers of thinking. [See "Forbidden".]
ages - see cultural epochs
Agnishvattas - see Archangels
Ahriman - also see America; Antichrist; Lucifer; technology; Zoroaster
a) The devil as seen in the Zoroastrian religion.
b) According to Steiner, Ahriman is Satan, aka Mephistopheles, aka Beelzebub. He is the demonic rival/partner of Lucifer. Ahriman is the power of darkness, materialism, external life, technology, intellect, and egotism. He will incarnate in the third millennium AD and will be centered in the West. "[B]efore only a part of the third millennium of the post-Christian era has elapsed, there will be, in the West, an actual incarnation of Ahriman: Ahriman in the flesh. Humanity on earth cannot escape this incarnation of Ahriman. It will come inevitably." — R. Steiner. [See “Ahriman”.]
Bust of Ahriman attributed to Rudolf Steiner [public domain].
Ahrimanic beings - also see Ahriman; Luciferic beings Ahriman's minions. “The deeper sources of [Earthly] events... must be sought in the world of the spirit. And if we investigate the processes in that world which have come to outer expression in the event of which I have just spoken, we have to point to a struggle, a real war in that world, which began then and came to a certain conclusion for the world of the spirit by the autumn of 1879. To have the right idea about these things, you must visualize a battle which continued for decades in the spiritual worlds, from the 1840s until the autumn of 1879. [paragraph break] This may be called a battle which the spirits who are followers of the spirit belonging to the hierarchy of Archangels whom we may call Michael fought with certain ahrimanic powers [minions of Ahriman]. Please consider this battle to have been in the first place a battle in the spiritual world. Everything I am referring to at the moment relates to this battle fought by Michael and his followers against certain ahrimanic powers.” — R. Steiner. [See "Michael".]
Ahrimanic world - also see Ahriman; American; materialism
The world or the plane of existence dominated by Ahriman — essentially the material world, found particularly in materialistic America. [See "Steiner and the Warlord".] More generally, the Ahrimanic world is a realm in which no true spirit or soul can survive. "[T]oday ... the spirit-soul is asleep. The human being is thus in danger of drifting into the Ahrimanic world, in which case the spirit-soul will evaporate into the cosmos. We live in a time when people face the danger of losing their souls to materialistic impulses. This is a very serious matter. We now stand confronted with that fact." — R. Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 115.
Ahura Mazda (Ormazd) - also see Ahriman; Christ; Zoroaster
a) The chief Zoroastrian god, the opponent of Ahriman.
b) In Anthroposophy, Ahura Mazda is the Sun God, Christ, as comprehended by Zoroastrians. (Steiner taught that pre-Christian religions had some knowledge of Christ.) In the following passage, Steiner tells of a "lodge" of initiated spiritual beings (Bodhisattvas or Buddhas). There are twelve regular members in the lodge, plus a thirteenth who is Ahura Mazda or, in other words, Christ. "If you were able to look into the great Spirit-Lodge of the twelve Bodhisattvas you would find that in the midst of the Twelve there is a Thirteenth — one who cannot be called a ‘Teacher’ in the same sense as the Bodhisattvas, but of whom we must say: He is that Being from whom wisdom itself streams as very substance. It is therefore quite correct to speak of the twelve Bodhisattvas in the great Spirit-Lodge grouped around One who is their Centre; they are wrapt in contemplation of the sublime Being from whom there streams what they have then to inculcate into Earth evolution in fulfilment of their missions. Thus there streams from the Thirteenth what the others have to teach. They are the ‘Teachers’, the ‘Inspirers’; the Thirteenth is himself the Being of whom the others teach, whom they proclaim from epoch to epoch. This Thirteenth is He whom the ancient Rishis called Vishva Karman, whom Zarathustra called Ahura Mazdao, whom we call the Christ." [See “God”.]
air-fire beings - also see Lucifer; cf. earth-water beings According to Steiner, Luciferic beings composed of air and warmth, dwelling in the atmosphere around the Earth. "[W]e find these air-fire beings making sallies from their strongholds not only upon the Ahrimanic powers, but upon the influences that should be continually reaching man from Mars, Jupiter and Saturn." — R. Steiner. [See "Neutered Nature".]
akasha (akasa) - also see Akashic Chronicle; ether Spiritualistic universal ether, sometimes termed astral light; originally a Hindu concept, adopted by Theosophy and Anthroposophy. • "Akasa (Sanskrit) [from akas to be visible, appear, shine, be brilliant] The shining; ether, cosmic space, the fifth cosmic element." — ENCYCLOPEDIC THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY (Theosophical University Press, 1999. Reading information inscribed on the Akasha is difficult. • "Akasha pictures speak a confusing language, because the Akasha is alive." — R. Steiner. [See "Akasha".]
Akashic Chronicle or record(s) - also see akasha; initiate Supersensory storehouse(s) of knowledge, written on akasha. It can be read by initiates, according to Steiner and other self-described initiates. “[A]t a certain high level of his cognitive power, man can penetrate to the eternal origins of the things which vanish with time. A man broadens his power of cognition in this way if he is no longer limited to external evidence where knowledge of the past is concerned. Then he can see in events what is not perceptible to the senses, that part which time cannot destroy. He penetrates from transitory to non-transitory history. It is a fact that this history is written in other characters than is ordinary history. In gnosis and in theosophy it is called the 'Akasha Chronicle.’" — R. Steiner. [See "Akasha" and “Gnosis”.]
[Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001.]
alchemy - also see magic; cf. chemistry a) Pseudoscience aimed at converting base metals to precious metals.
b) More generally, a mystical antiscientific “science” or process.
c) According to Steiner, occult transmutation, a mystical process proceeding from and leading to spiritual knowledge. "Alchemy has always been known in its higher manifestations as a way to contact the deeper levels of reality, described as the superhuman ‘spirits' or guiding archangels of the universe ... [A]lchemy is finally seen in Rudolf Steiner’s presentation as a step towards the cosmic understanding we will need for our future role [in cosmic evolution].” — A. J. Welburn in the introduction to ALCHEMY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), a collection of Steiner's lectures. [See "Alchemy".]
alcohol - also see clairvoyance; ego; evolution; group soul; medicine Steiner sometimes cautioned against the use of alcohol, yet he also credited alcohol with an important function in human evolution, and he is reported to have relied on alcohol to suppress his primitive powers of clairvoyance so that he could proceed to higher forms of clairvoyance. • “Men have not always used alcohol. All that develops in the Spiritual has its corresponding expression in the Material, and conversely, everything material has also its counterpart in the Spiritual. Wine, alcohol, only appeared at a certain time in the history of humanity and the world; and it will disappear from it again. Here we see a profound truth or occult investigation. Alcohol was the bridge which led from the group-ego to the independent, individual ego; without the material effect of alcohol man would never have made the transition from the group-ego to the individual ego; it produced the individual, personal consciousness in man. When humanity has reached this goal, it will no longer require alcohol, and this will then disappear again from the physical world.” — R. Steiner, THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN (Basle) (London Reference Library, 1942), lecture 8, GA 100. • “Steiner himself as a child brought with him into the world a vestigial relic of the old clairvoyance, the old 'original' participation. Biographies and his own autobiography bear witness to it. And it is credibly reported of him that he took deliberate steps to eliminate it, not even rejecting the help of alcohol, in order to clear the decks for the new clairvoyance it was his destiny both to predict and to develop.” — O. Barfield, “Introducing Rudolf Steiner” (TOWARDS, Fall-Winter, 1983).
All Against All - see War of All Against All "The Lemurian epoch was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; our epoch and its civilisation will be destroyed by the War of All against All, by evil. Human beings will destroy each other in mutual strife. And the terrible thing — more desperately tragic than other catastrophes — will be that the blame will lie with human beings themselves. A tiny handful of men will make good and thus insure their survival in the sixth epoch of civilisation. This tiny handful will have attained selflessness. The others will develop every imaginable skill and subtlety in the manipulation and use of the physical forces of nature, but without the essential degree of selflessness. In the seventh epoch of civilisation, this War of All against All will break out in the most terrible form. Great and mighty forces will be let loose by the discoveries, turning the whole earth-globe into a kind of [self-functioning] live electric mass. In a way that cannot be discussed, the tiny handful will be protected and preserved." — R. Steiner, “The Work of Secret Societies in the World”, GA 93.
alternative - also see arts-intensive; humanism; progressive; spiritualistic agenda Waldorf schools often present themselves as offering "alternative" education. This claim is true, but the Waldorf alternative is rooted in occultism. [See “Soul School”.]
America - also see Native Americans According to Steiner, the home of abnormal humans descended from one branch of Atlanteans (i.e., residents of Atlantis). In the Waldorf belief system, materialistic America is associated with Ahriman. “Ahriman-America should not have the only voice; Lucifer-Bolshevism should not be allowed to do the only deed." — Helmuth von Moltke the Younger speaking to R. Steiner from beyond the grave, according to R. Steiner. [See “Steiner and the Warlord”.]
American Age - also see Anglo-Germanic Age; mechanization; Russian Age; spider beings; Wilson (Woodrow)
In Steiner's account of human evolution, the seventh and concluding age of the Fifth Epoch. It will run from 5733 to approximately 7900. There will be little advancement over the prior Russian Age; in a sense, retrogression or at least stasis will occur. Anglo-American culture will predominate, under the direction of an abnormal Spirit of Personality opposed to spiritual progress. The Moon will reunite with the Earth. Horrible monsters of intellect will be unleashed, and the Fifth Epoch will culminate in the War of All Against All. [See “Oriphiel”]
American Indians - see Native Americans
American transcendentalists - also see America; Anglo-Germanic Age; Germany; transcendentalism Proponents and authors of an idealistic philosophical movement centered in New England in the nineteenth century. American Anthroposophists stress real and fancied parallels between American transcendentalism and Anthroposophy in an effort to make their creed seem compatible with American thought and values. (Actually, Anthroposophy assigns centrality to the German nation and associates America with Ahriman.) [See “Light and Dark”.]
Amshaspands - also see astrology; Izeds; Zervan Akarana; zodiac Zoroastrian Time Beings or Time Rulers. In Anthroposophy, they are linked to the astrological signs of the zodiac. "I should like to [speak about time] ... Not, however, the abstract Time we think of today, but Time viewed as a living, super-personal Being. From this Being proceed the rulers of Time; first of all the Amshaspands, the spiritual Beings who are symbolised in cosmic space by the signs of the Zodiac.” — R. Steiner. [See "Magic Numbers".]
ancients, ancient ways, ancient powers, ancient wisdom... - also see myths Like other esotericists, Steiner and his followers conceive the ancients to have been wiser in some ways than moderns, especially modern scientists; Steiner credited the ancients with natural clairvoyance. “Imagine what the people of ancient times perceived [clairvoyantly], entrancing them, pouring through their heads, till they exclaimed, 'Ah, the nymphs! Ah, the gnomes! How the nymphs whirl in my head, how the gnomes hammer....' That no longer exists for us. Today the hammering, surging, and whirling are eclipsed and overwhelmed by what comes from actual seeing or hearing.” — R. Steiner. [See “The Ancients”.]
Angels - also see Sons of Life; Sons of Twilight; spirits of dusk In Anthroposophy, divine beings (gods) one evolutionary rank above men. They dwell in the Moon sphere and concern themselves with individual human beings. They were human on Old Moon. “Within the Saturn body something like sensations of taste begin to go surging to and fro. Sweet, bitter, sour, etc. are perceived at diverse places in the interior of Saturn; while in the heavenly spaces without, all this gives the impression of sound, a kind of music. And in these processes, once more, Beings find it possible to unfold their activity on Saturn. These Beings may be called the ‘Sons of Twilight,’ or ‘Sons of Life’ (in Christian language they are the Angeloi or Angels.)”* [See "Polytheism".]
Anglo-Germanic age - also see American Age; cultural epochs; Russian Age According to Steiner, the present (1413 AD - 3573 AD); currently presided over by Michael. [See "Magical Arts".] “The fifth, Anglo-Germanic age began in 1413 and will extend until 3573. Although we might suppose that we understand it because we live in it, we have so far seen only its earliest stages ... It carries the future within it like a seed. At first, however, its spiritually looked backwards ... [We] experience progressive deterioration ... Around 1471 spiritual rulership passed to Gabriel, the Archangel of the Moon. His period was dominated by the rise of the nation-state and of natural science (both firmly rooted in the moon forces of heredity) ... Gabriel brought also the moon quality of occultism ... Meanwhile Michael, the Sun Archangel, who strides ahead of Christ as his countenance, was preparing a new spiritual content for humanity ... His rulership of 350 years as Time Archangel began in 1879.” — Richard Seddon, THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge, 2002), pp. 17-19.
animal form (of evil race) - see abyss; evil race; perdition Sinful humans descend through lower and lower stages of development until, as one form of perdition, they become bestial or animal-like. They will then be consigned to the abyss. "The evil race, with its savage impulses, will dwell in animal form in the abyss." — R. Steiner, UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), p. 103.
animal man - see Moon humans During the Old Moon stage of evolution, humans were at a stage of development equivalent to the status of animals today. “If, as he had developed on the Sun, man was called plant man, the man of the Moon can be called animal man." — R. Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), chapter 16, GA 11.
animals, animality - also see abyss; biology; dragons; evolution; group soul; kamaloka; Sun humans According to Steiner, members of the third tier of creation, above plants and below man. Animals are endowed with etheric and astral bodies. They are descended from man; they are over-hardened spirits; they are "fallen." Unlike humans, do not possess individual souls — they have group souls. Human beings assume the form of animals in kamaloka (in effect, purgatory), but then set these forms aside. Evil humans also assume animal form in the abyss.
"[T]he animal kingdom is the human being spread out ... [A]nimals [are] the by-products of human development ... [T]he animal forms represent physically incarnated soul forces which the human being had to dispense with in order to mature sufficiently to receive the ego ... We see then that man is not the result of animal evolution but that he is at the beginning of it and is central to it. Indeed he is the cause of it. The animal world represents soul qualities which the human being has discarded although he still retains remnants of them.” — Anthroposophist Roy Wilkinson, MAN AND ANIMAL (The Robinswood Press, 1990).
For more on animals, see “Biodynamics”, “Neutered Nature”, and "Evolution, Anyone?".
animated monad - also see atma-buddhi; Christ; Old Sun; Sun; Sun God In Theosophy and Anthroposophy, atma-buddhi (the germ of our developing spiritual essence), which originated on Old Sun. More generally, a monad is a self-enclosed being, an individual. We become monads when we, in our spirits, carry our individuality through life and lives. See, e.g., Rudolf Steiner, INITIATION, ETERNITY, AND THE PASSING MOMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1980), p 44. The sum of all monads is Monad, the macrocosmic human, is Christ. See Rudolf Steiner, CORRESPONDENCE AND DOCUMENTS 1901-1925 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1988), p. 83.
Anthroposophy - also see Anthroposophical Society; emotion; human beings; occultism; Rosicrucianism; Theosophy; Waldorf schools The word "Anthroposophy" comes from Greek, meaning human wisdom or knowledge of the human being. Generally described as "spiritual science" by its adherents, it is a polytheistic, pagan religion entailing meditations, observances, and prayers. A variant of Theosophy developed by Rudolf Steiner, it assigns tremendous significance to human beings, placing them at the center of the created universe. The faith’s cosmology is essentially a set of phantasmagoric, occult reassurances for the frail human ego. The principles and practices of Waldorf education derive from Anthroposophy. [See “Everything”, “Is Anthroposophy a Religion?”, “Here’s the Answer”, and "Spiritual Agenda".]
The "science" in Anthroposophy is the use of clairvoyance to study the spirit realm. Rudolf Steiner laid out spiritual exercises, prayers, meditations, and other practices intended to assist his followers in developing precise or exact powers of clairvoyance. The process, he taught, is a modern form of occult initiation. He claimed that he himself was a high initiate whose clairvoyant findings — being "exact" — were very nearly undeniable. [See "Exactly" and "Inside Scoop".]
Anthroposophists believe that there are invisible worlds both above and below us, populated by powerful, invisible beings. Those below us have no true spirits, while those above us are, for the most part, beneficent gods. There are many ranks of gods, all of whom have evolved upward to their present status. We ourselves are also evolving upward, gaining in spiritual perfection. Our evolution began during a period called Old Saturn, followed by Old Sun and Old Moon. After our present existence on Earth, we will evolve through phases on Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. [See "Higher Worlds", "Matters of Form" and "Steiner Static".]
While most of the gods are good and merciful, there are also evil gods, demons, and other forces of evil. The trajectory of human development is upward — in the far distant future, we ourselves will become the highest gods. However, not all humans are moving upward. Some descend, taking the "black path" toward perdition. [See "Evil", "Evil Ones", "Hell", and "Sin".]
Steiner had been a Theosophist since 1902. In 1913, he broke away to establish Anthroposophy as a separate occult movement. However, he had described his own teachings as Anthroposophy even while he was nominally a Theosophist, and his teachings changed little after the break.
Variant of "Anthroposophy" (human wisdom) emphasizing "Sophia" (goddess of wisdom, the female element in divinity, according to Steiner). In this view, the female principle is intuitive, inconstant, emotional, and wise. We can summarize this in a sort of equation, which isn’t fully accurate but nonetheless suggestive: Woman = inconstant = backward = emotion = inwardness = soul = clairvoyance = wisdom = Sophia = Anthropo-sophia. [See "Goddess".]
Anthroposophical medicine - see medicine
Anthroposophical Society - also see First Class; General Anthroposophical Society; Goetheanum; School of Spiritual Science The central organization of Steiner's followers, founded in 1913; reconstituted in 1923 as the General Anthroposophical Society; headquartered at the Goetheanum. Under the original name, Rudolf Steiner had no formal connection to the Society, although all of its work was essentially based on his teachings. Upon the reconstitution in 1923, Steiner assumed a formal leadership role. There are also national Anthroposophical Societies around the world (e.g., the Anthroposophical Society in America) and regional branches (e.g., the Los Angeles Branch).
a) In Christian tradition: the personal opponent of Christ; or, secondarily, any opponent of Christ. The former — the "great" antichrist — will spread sin and destruction through the world before being defeated at Christ's Second Coming.
b) According to Steiner, Sorat is the “great” Antichrist. He is the Sun Demon, the reverse image of Christ the Sun God. "Christ is the good spirit, the intelligence of the sun; the adversary is the demon of the sun. Certain forces that are constantly working on the human astral body come forth from the demon of the sun. This demon of the sun is the opponent of the Christ spirit and is called Sorat." — R. Steiner. “Minor” Antichrists or stand-ins for Sorat may include Ahriman and other evil beings. [See “Evil Ones”.]
anti-intellectualism in Anthroposophy Steiner taught that true cognition comes from clairvoyance, not use of the brain. In Waldorf schools, intellect is minimized and postponed — children are not deemed capable of rational though until quite late. Use of the intellect should always be mediated by will and emotion. “The brain is an instrument for purely intellectual apprehension. Intellectualism and materialistic thinking are one and the same ... This manifests itself, on the one hand, in the empty formalism of belief; on the other, in Bolshevism [sic: emphasis by Steiner].” — R. Steiner. [See “Steiner’s Specific”.]
antiscientific bias at Waldorf schools Although Steiner claimed that Anthroposophy is a science, he disparaged real science. The study of science is often downplayed or watered down in Waldorf schools. Antiscientific ideas are sometimes taught. "[S]cience speaks under the influence of the demonic Mars-forces." — R. Steiner, ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2009), p. 126. [See “Steiner’s ‘Science’”.]
anti-Semitism - also see Hebrews; Jehovah; Moon; Nazism Steiner made numerous anti-Semitic statements. He said that the Jewish people no longer have a useful role to play in human development and therefore should cease to exist as a separate people. He taught that Jews are distinct from all other peoples, having been under the sway of Jehovah, a god who dwells on the Moon. They are highly materialist and lack spiritual vision. "As you know, we distinguish the Jews from the rest of the earth's population. The difference has arisen because the Jews have been brought up in the moon religion for centuries [i.e., they worship the Moon being, Jehovah] ... The Jews have a great gift for materialism, but little for recognition of the spiritual world." [See "RS on Jews".] Steiner also occasionally made philo-Semitic statements, and historian Peter Staudenmaier has argued that Steiner began as an anti-Semite, changed to a pro-Jewish position, and then back to anti-Semitism.
Apocalypse - also see twilight of the gods; War of All Against All The impending ultimate showdown between the forces of good and evil. [See "Matters of Form".] The term "Apocalypse" also refers to the Book of Revelation. Steiner offered elaborate interpretations of that book, as in his lectures collected in READING THE PICTURES OF THE APOCALYPSE (Anthroposophic Press, 1993). His discussion of Biblical topics led him, as ever, back to his own tenets. The following is from lecture 3 of READING THE PICTURES OF THE APOCALYPSE: “The war of all against all will be an expression of the egotism that is always growing stronger, the egotism conjured forth by humanity today as the I is and will always become, stronger and stronger. That will be the end of the last post-Atlantean culture. This catastrophe will also have its mission, its usefulness in the ascent of the entire human race. However, the great war of all against all will be something much worse than war of the present-day with weapons. It will be a war of souls, of souls who no longer understand one another, a war of the classes. This future catastrophe is difficult for present-day consciousness to understand." — R. Steiner.
apocrypha - also see gnostic; occult According to THE NEW STEINERBOOKS DICTIONARY OF THE PARANORMAL (SteinerBooks, 1980), apocrypha are "spiritual writings too sacred or mysterious for the uninitiated." Rudolf Steiner made heavy use of such texts. He claimed that his doctrines derive from his personal clairvoyant investigations of the spirit realm, but in fact he was a student of apocrypha.
A more precise definition of "apocrypha" is this: "[I]n biblical literature, works outside an accepted canon of scripture. The history of the term’s usage indicates that it referred to a body of esoteric writings that were at first prized, later tolerated, and finally excluded. In its broadest sense apocrypha has come to mean any writings of dubious authority.
"There are several levels of dubiety within the general concept of apocryphal works in Judeo-Christian biblical writings. Apocrypha per se are outside the canon, not considered divinely inspired but regarded as worthy of study by the faithful. Pseudepigrapha are spurious works ostensibly written by a biblical figure. Deuterocanonical works are those that are accepted in one canon but not in all.
"Heretical movements such as Gnosticism and Montanism spawned a great body of New Testament pseudepigrapha." ["apocrypha." ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011. Web. 16 Jun. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/29773/apocrypha>.]
Arabism - also see intellect In Steiner's teachings, the influence and worldview of Arabs. He called Arabism less advanced than the views of white Europeans. [See "Trinity".] In particular, he associated Arabism with the intellect, which he taught is a materialistic and faulty form of thinking. "We know what kind of associations the Arabic spirit calls up in those of us who have read and lived for some time with the last lectures which Rudolf Steiner gave in the summer of 1924; those karma lectures where Arabism has become almost a symbol not only for people who lived in the desert but who cultivated the desert of intellectualism." — Alfred Heidenreich, THE RISEN CHRIST AND THE ETHERIC CHRIST (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), lecture 2.
Archai - also see Archon; Spirits of Personality
According to Steiner, gods three levels above man. They are the highest gods in the lowest (third) hierarchy. They dwell in the Venus sphere and oversee the epochs of human evolution. Because of their connection with historical periods, they are sometimes called Spirits of Time or Zeitgeists. They help mold the spirit or personality of an age. They were human on Old Saturn. “[N]ow at this stage in the evolution of Saturn certain Beings intervene ... Through them the I looks down from the surrounding spaces on to Saturn, and communicates its nature to the single ‘live’ beings ... The Beings who bring this about may be called ‘Spirits of Personality’ (in Christian terminology they are the Archai, First Beginnings, or Principalities.)”* — R. Steiner. [See “Polytheism”.]
Archangels - also see Fire Spirits; folk souls; Gabriel; Michael; Norse gods; Oriphiel; Samuel; spiritual guides; time Archangels a) In Christianity, a high-ranking Angel.
b) According to Steiner, gods, a step above Angels. They occupy the Mercury sphere and concern themselves with groups of humans: nations, peoples, and races. Hence, they are sometimes called folk souls or folk spirits. They were human on Old Sun. “Archangels are also called Spirits of Fire, and the Primeval Beginnings ... Archangeloi or Fire Spirits ... [T]hey bring single lives into harmonious order with the life of larger human groups, as, for instance, nations, races, etc. Within our earth's evolution the Archangels’ task is to bring into certain harmonious relationship each single soul with the national or race-soul.”* — R. Steiner. [See “Polytheism”.]
a) Typical examples, models, recurrent motifs: archetypes.
b) According to Steiner, spiritual beings who manifest as thoughts outside the brain or mind: Archetypes. “Occult investigation shows decisively that all the things which surround us in this world — the mineral foundation, the vegetable covering, and the animal world — should be regarded as the physiognomical expression, or the ‘below,’ of an ‘above’ or spirit life lying behind them. From the point of view taken by occultism, the things presented to us in the sense world can only be rightly understood if our knowledge includes cognition of the ‘above,’ the spiritual archetype, the original Spiritual Beings, whence all things manifest have proceeded.” — R. Steiner. [See “Blood”.]
Archon (singular of archai) - also see planetary spirits; Zeitgeists According to Steiner, a spiritual planetary ruler during a particular epoch: a Spirit of the Age. “Leading up to the middle of this age [the Sixth], some time [sic] about 4300 to 4700 [AD], it is the turn of Michael (now an Archon but no longer Spirit of the Age) to act again as the ruling Time Archangel; so a further enhancement of the Christ impulse may then be expected." — Richard Seddon, THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge, 2002), pp. 49-50. (To translate: Michael, an Archangel, gets a promotion to Archon, but at the time mentioned he does not serve as the Spirit of the Age — he is one of the Archons not currently filling that role. However, despite his promotion, Michael does serve at that time as a Time Archangel — i.e., the Archangel with responsibility for a 350-year portion of a cultural epoch or age.) [See “Evil”.]
arithmetic - also see mathematics
Generally not taught in Waldorf schools until age seven, as the teachers wait for the children's etheric bodies to incarnate. [See "Incarnation".] Once math instruction begins, it is given a subtle but pervasive mystical significance. “Mathematical science teaches the way to become independent of sense-perception, and at the same time it teaches the surest path; for though indeed its truths are acquired by supersensible means, they can always be confirmed in the realm of the senses ... No one can become an Occultist who is not able to accomplish within himself the transition from thought permeated with sense to thought emancipated from sense-perception. For this is the transition where we experience the birth of the ‘Higher Manas’ from the ‘Kama Manas.’" — R. Steiner. Steiner also taught that various arithmetical operations are more congenial to children of particular temperaments. Thus, phlegmatic children do well with addition while melancholic children are comfortable with subtraction. [See "Mystical Math".]
arts - also see beauty; colors; crafts; curriculum; eurythmy At Waldorf schools, the arts are thought to have spiritual powers and benefits; arts are emphasized for occult reasons. “This is what gives art its essential lustre: it transplants us here and now into the spiritual world.” —R. Steiner. When considering such statements by Steiner and his followers, you should realize that they are meant literally, not figuratively. Thus, for instance, Steiner said “In having people do eurythmy, we link them directly to the supersensible world.” For Steiner and his followers, linking to the spiritual or supersensible world is a central goal. The Anthroposophical take on art is revealed in such books as ART AS SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY and ART AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF MYSTERY WISDOM (note that “mystery wisdom” is hidden or occult wisdom). [See “Magical Arts”.]
arts-intensive - also see alternative; arts; humanism; progressive Arts are stressed in Waldorf schools, and this tends to make the schools attractive. But the purpose of the arts at Waldorfs is occult: to enter the spirit realm and invoke spiritual presences. ”This is what gives art its essential lustre: it transplants us here and now into the spiritual world.” — R. Steiner. • Wet-on wet watercolor painting creates images representative of the spirit realm as Steiner described it, a place of colors and tones but indeterminate forms. According to Waldorf belief, colors have spiritual properties. “We have seen that colours ... are windows through which we can ascend spiritually into the spiritual world.” — R. Steiner. • Music, too, is meant to have spiritual effects. “[O]n listening to music, he has an inkling ... of the spiritual world.” — R. Steiner. • The special Anthroposophical type of dance, eurythmy, is meant to create an immediate connection to the spirit realm. “Eurythmy shapes and moves the human organism in a way that furnishes direct external proof of our participation in the supersensible [i.e., supernatural] world. In having people do eurythmy, we link them directly to the supersensible world.” — R. Steiner. [See “Magical Arts”.]
Arthur, King - also see Holy Grail a) A legendary king of Britain (possibly based on a Romano-British tribal chief, 5th or 6th century AD). b) According to Steiner, a real person, an initiate — in effect, a proto-Anthroposophist. "After Atlantis sank, great initiates led two main streams of people from west to east, one through Africa, the other through Europe. The one that came through Africa toward Asia produced, in the course of incarnations and evolution, the individuality could could take up the Christ light. Meanwhile, in the northern stream initiates raised a strong, powerful stock of people who not only knew how to spite their enemies but were also physically a match for demonic influences. At various locations in Europe there were mystery centers, the existence of which is reported in many old sagas. For example, behind the legend of King Arthur and his Round Table is hidden a report of such a secret school. King Arthur was a high initiate who made known the wisdom of the mysteries to his pupils." — R. Steiner. [See “Pagan”.]
Traditional image of Arthur, the legendary British king.
Aryans, “white race” - also see Europeans; Caucasian race a) Indo-European people who invaded Indian in the second century BC.
b) In Nazi ideology, non-Jewish Caucasians.
c) In Theosophy/Anthroposophy, the Root Race of our evolutionary period. “The ancestors of the Atlanteans lived in a region [i.e., Lemuria] which has disappeared ... After they had passed through various stages of development the greatest part of them declined. These became stunted men, whose descendants still inhabit certain parts of the earth today as so-called savage tribes. Only a small part of Lemurian humanity was capable of further development. From this part the Atlanteans were formed. Later, something similar took place. The greatest part of the Atlantean population declined, and from a small portion are descended the so-called Aryans who comprise present-day civilized humanity ... [T]he Lemurians, Atlanteans, and Aryans are root races of mankind.” [See “Atlantis and the Aryans”.]
d) In Anthroposophy, a racial category epitomized by the European/Caucasian race. Aryans are descended from normal humans who were capable of full maturity of evolution (unlike non-Aryan humans) “The white race is the future, the race that works creatively on the spirit.” [See “Atlantis and the Aryans”.]
Asia, Asians - see Asians; Malayan race; Mongolian race According to Steiner, Asia is the home of abnormal humans descended from one branch of the peoples of Atlantis. The main Asian subraces are Malayans and Mongols. In the hierarchy of races, Steiner said, Asians embody the adolescent stage, between blacks (childish) and whites (adult). Asians live largely through their emotions, whereas blacks rely on instinct and white use their powers of thinking. Asia is associated with Lucifer (the light-bearer, in the eastern land of the sunrise — from a European perspective). Like other nonwhite races, Asians represent unproductive side-streams, branching off from the correct central stream of human evolution. • "How can we fail to realise that the Asiatic peoples have retained certain cultural impulses of past earthly epochs, whereas the Euro-American peoples have advanced beyond them?” — R. Steiner. • “[F]undamentally we have two groups of people representing combinations: those on European soil, forming the root stock of the white population, who had predominantly developed the feeling of personality [...] On the other hand there are those peoples in Asia with passive, self-effacing natures in whom just this passivity expresses itself in the highest degree. This makes the people dreamy, and the etheric body penetrates very deeply into the physical body. That is the fundamental difference between the European and the Asiatic peoples." — R. Steiner. • “Very few inventions have been made in Asia. They can assemble things, but as for inventions themselves, that is, that which arises from experience with the external world, the Asians cannot do this ... This sort of independent thinking which Europeans develop in dealing with their surroundings, the Asians do not have this. The Japanese will therefore follow all the European inventions, but they will never think up something on their own.” — R. Steiner. [See “Races”, “Steiner’s Bile”, "Forbidden", and "Steiner's Racism".]
Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) Coordinating and certifying authority for Waldorf schools on the North American continent
asteroids - also see colonies According to Steiner, way stations between Earth and Jupiter; also, celestial colonies. “In order that man, though not yet able to enter the Jupiter region, may receive, between death and a new birth, something of the forces of Jupiter and also of Saturn, many planetoids are interspersed between Mars and Jupiter; in their outer aspect they are constantly being discovered by the astronomers. They make up the region which in its spiritual aspect is experienced by a man after death because he cannot yet reach Jupiter. They have the remarkable characteristic of being spiritual colonies, as it were, of beings from Jupiter and Saturn who have withdrawn there. And before a man is ripe for existence on Earth, he can find in this region of the planetoids, which are there for that purpose, a kind of preparatory substitute, before he is able to enter the region of Jupiter and Saturn. At present, therefore, by the time a man has gone through death and rebirth, he has achieved his Mars-organisation, and has absorbed those Jupiter and Saturn forces to be found in the colonised regions of the planetoids. With the after-effects of this — we still have to learn about them — the human being embarks on another earthly life.” [See "Planetary Humans".]
In Anthroposophy, physical and/or spiritual beings having to do with stars and/or astral bodies. [See “Matters of Form”.] They condescend to have relationships with humans beings. They stoop from the celestial or soul world to deal with us. Their lowest embodiment is the astral body. “Now in this world-of-soul (let us call it the soul world for the present; medieval philosophers referred to it as the heavenly world or the celestial) in this world, once more, we find beings who are just as real as we are during our life between birth and death, nay, more so. They are, however, beings who do not need to come to embodiment in a physical, or even in an etheric, body. They live — as in their lowest corporeality — in that which we are wont to call the astral body. Constantly, during our life and after our death, we are connected intimately with a large number of these purely astral beings.” — R. Steiner, ON THE CONNECTION OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD (General Anthroposophical Society, publication date uncertain), GA 168.
astral body, astral organization - also see etheric body; I According to Steiner, the astral body is the second of our nonphysical bodies; it is also called the faith body or sentient body. It consists of soul forces/living forces that fine-tune the physical body (which has been shaped by the etheric body). The astral body contains the senses (twelve in all). It incarnates (i.e., is born) at about age 14, an event marked by the sexual changes of puberty. Once this body develops adequately, its forces power the knowledge-acquiring faculty called inspiration (the second stage toward clairvoyance). Animals have astral bodies, too. The Waldorf curriculum is keyed to the incarnation of the astral body as well as the etheric body and the “I.” [See “Our Parts”.] “[T]he astral body is the legacy of the Moon-evolution, the etheric body of the Sun-evolution, the physical body, in its first rudiments, of the Saturn-evolution ... The astral body is the member nearest to the Ego [i.e., the ‘I’] ... The Angels form pictures in man's astral body and these pictures are accessible to thinking that has become clairvoyant.” — R. Steiner, THE WORK OF THE ANGELS IN MAN’S ASTRAL BODY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1960), GA 182.
astral light - see akasha
astral nature - also see astral body; astral plane According to Steiner, astral nature is either the third division of the sevenfold nature of man, combining Soul Nature (a) and Sentient Soul, or it is the third division of the fourfold nature of man. [See “What We’re Made Of”.] Basically, Steiner taught that we have a physical body tied to an invisible etheric body; above these are the astral body and the "I". Astral nature is that plane of existence on which the astral body functions. Most of these terms are relative, however, and have varying meaning in varying circumstances. ”[I]f we should observe the astral nature of the individual moon-beings clairvoyantly — and we are entirely justified in speaking of them — we would be convinced that the worst and basest feelings that we have on earth are as nothing compared to what is found on the moon. Thus, in respect of the astral, the etheric, and the physical parts of the moon, we may speak of beings, of elements, that had to be expelled so that our earth could pursue its way, free from injurious influences.” — R. Steiner, EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), lecture 6, GA 106.
astral plane - also see astral world; higher worlds; soul world According to Steiner (taking from Theosophy), the soul world. It is the realm of "ether" beings — the imaginative world, also sometimes called the elementary world, according to which description it is the first "higher world" we enter when we are initiated, or fall asleep, or die. “As soon as an initiate enters the astral plane he comes to know a whole series of new beings who are utterly unrepresented on the physical plane, and who yet appear to be beings such as he is himself.” — R. Steiner, INVESTIGATIONS IN OCCULTISM (Health Research Books, 1996), p. 111.
astral slap - also see punishment In Waldorf schools, a nonphysical blow, used for nonphysical discipline. “If you give them [i.e., students] a slap, you should do it the way Dr. Schubert [one of the Waldorf teachers] does ... There are physical slaps and astral slaps. It doesn’t matter which one you give, but you cannot slap a child sentimentally.” — R. Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 323. [See "Slaps".]
astral vision - also see clairvoyance; pictorial thinking; cf. inspiration; intuition. This is the first, lowest of clairvoyance: imagination. You find images or symbols that represent spiritual truths. At later, higher levels of cognition (inspiration, intuition) you pass beyond these symbols to see the Truth directly. "[E]xact, correct observation appears at first in symbols. If man concentrates for instance on his spinal cord, it is a fact that he always sees a snake. He may perhaps also dream of a snake, because this is the creature which was placed out in the world when the spinal cord was formed, and has remained at this stage. The snake is the spinal column outwardly projected into the world. This pictorial way of seeing things is astral vision (Imagination)." — R. Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 1, GA 93a.
astral world - also see arts; astral plane; Devachan; higher worlds; soul world According to Steiner, the world of gods who speak to us through colors, musical tones, etc. [see “Magical Arts”] Steiner's varying use of terms can cause confusion, but the astral world may be said to be the soul world or, more generally, the universe that lies beyond the reach of our senses. This universe is “supersensible” (beyond our senses) but it can be perceived through clairvoyance. “The Astral World As long as we are only observing the physical world, the Earth as our dwelling-place appears like a separate cosmic body. However, if supersensible cognition rises to the level of other worlds, this separation ceases ... In addition to the Earth’s supersensible aspect, other cosmic bodies that are physically separate from the Earth are embedded in the world that we enter in this way. Those who perceive supersensible worlds do not observe only the Earth’s supersensible aspect but to begin with they also perceive the supersensible aspect of other cosmic bodies.” — R. Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 402.
astrology - also see astronomy; astrosophy; horoscope; Moon forces; planets; zodiac A superstitious system that attempts to trace the spiritual or magical influences of the stars and planets on man and the Earth. Horoscopes are drawn in an effort to divine destinies. Astrology underlies various Waldorf/Anthroposophical beliefs. “[T]he old, real, and genuine Astrology expresses itself in the destinies of men.” — R. Steiner. [See “Astrology”.] “When teaching animal geography, you need to consider the zodiac in connection with what I have just said, that is, look at the projection of the zodiac upon the Earth. You will then find the areas of the animal groups on the Earth. You have some globes where the zodiac is drawn upon the Earth. They will provide you with what you need.” — R. Steiner. [See "Waldorf Astrology".]
astronomy - also see astrology; cosmos; crystal heaven; Jupiter; Moon; planets; Saturn; Sun; Vulcan; zodiac Astronomy is often a required subject in Waldorf schools, especially in sixth or seventh grade. But little real astronomical information is presented. The Anthroposophical view of the heavens is essentially Medieval and akin to astrology. [See “Oh My Stars”.] According to Steiner, astronomers — like other "materialistic" scientists — know little or nothing of value. Indeed, scientists are often intentionally left in the dark by occult savants who possess the truth. True knowledge of the stars and planets comes through the use of clairvoyance. ”In all occult nomenclature, what astronomers call Venus is called Mercury, and vice versa. Astronomers know nothing of the mysteries behind this, because in the past it was not desired that the esoteric names should be revealed. This happened in order to conceal certain things.” — R. Steiner, EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, (Anthroposophic Press) 1971, lecture 4, GA 107.
Clairvoyant knowledge of the stars and their powers; Anthroposophical astrology, higher than ordinary astrology and superior to and even at odds with physical sciences. ”[O]ne has had to invent leap years, intercalary months, all kinds of things. Such things have always had to be used for the fixing of time. What is offered by a well-developed astronomy that has deepened into astrology and astrosophy (for one can think of it in that way) is all destroyed for immediate use by meteorology.” — R. Steiner. [ See "Astrosophy".]
a) In Indian mythology, evil spiritual beings.
b) In Zoroastrianism, benevolent spiritual beings.
c) A name for all spiritual beings.
d) An Anthroposophy, abnormal Archai who lure humans into extreme egoism. "Asuras are spirits of the very greatest egoism who remained behind during Saturn evolution. They want to condense matter and compress it ever more so that it can't be spiritualized and brought back to its original condition. They're the dregs of the planetary evolution that goes from Saturn to Vulcan. The asuras inhabit the moon and from there they work on the men whom they want to drag down into the eighth sphere and thereby tear away from progressive evolution and its goal — the Christ. All those who strive towards the eighth sphere will eventually live on a moon." — R. Steiner. [See "Evil Ones".]
A resident of Atlantis. [See "Atlantis and the Aryans".] ”While the power to think logically was absent among the Atlanteans (especially the earlier ones), in their highly developed memory they possessed something which gave a special character to everything they did. But with the nature of one human power others are always connected. Memory is closer to the deeper natural basis of man than reason, and in connection with it other powers were developed which were still closer to those of subordinate natural beings than are contemporary human powers. Thus the Atlanteans could control what one calls the life force. As today one extracts the energy of heat from coal and transforms it into motive power for our means of locomotion, the Atlanteans knew how to put the germinal energy of organisms into the service of their technology. One can form an idea of this from the following. Think of a kernel of seed-grain. In this an energy lies dormant. This energy causes the stalk to sprout from the kernel. Nature can awaken this energy which reposes in the seed. Modern man cannot do it at will. He must bury the seed in the ground and leave the awakening to the forces of nature. The Atlantean could do something else. He knew how one can change the energy of a pile of grain into technical power, just as modern man can change the heat energy of a pile of coal into such power. Plants were cultivated in the Atlantean period not merely for use as foodstuffs but also in order to make the energies dormant in them available to commerce and industry. Just as we have mechanisms for transforming the energy dormant in coal into energy of motion in our locomotives, so the Atlanteans had mechanisms in which they — so to speak — burned plant seeds, and in which the life force was transformed into technically utilizable power. The vehicles of the Atlanteans, which floated a short distance above the ground travelled at a height lower than that of the mountain ranges of the Atlantean period, and they had steering mechanisms by the aid of which they could rise above these mountain ranges.” — R. Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), “Our Atlantean Ancestors”, GA 11.
Fabled lost continent. According to Steiner, a real place, the home of mankind before the present (post-Atlantean) phase of evolution. “The ancient Atlantean did not possess a developed intellect and mind, but he was equipped with fine somnambulistic-clairvoyant forces. Logical power ... did not exist in ancient Atlantis, for man's faculties of thought and feeling were quite different. At that time, he could not have combined thoughts, nor could he have reckoned, counted, or read, as men do now; yet certain somnambulistic-clairvoyant spiritual forces lived in him. He could understand the language of Nature and could hear God speak to him in the murmuring waves; he could understand the rolling thunder, the rustling forest, the delicate aromas of the flowers; he could understand this language of Nature ... [T]he Atlantean just went out and listened to the sounds of the trees and of the wind and these told him what he had to do." — R. Steiner. [See "Atlantis and the Aryans".] Note that in this passage Steiner refers to God. He did this sometimes. However, he far more often referred to "the gods" and he explicitly taught that monotheism is incorrect. [See "Polytheism".]
Atma - see Spirit Man
Atma-Buddhi - also see evolution; Life Spirit; Spirit Man According to Steiner, taking from Theosophy: the combination of atma (the spiritual self) and buddhi (life energy or the soul). This was a stage of human evolution, achieved on the Sun. "From the middle of the sixth course of the Sun onward, man himself is [i.e., was] so far advanced that he can [i.e., could] unconsciously work on his physical body. In this respect he now relieves the 'Sons of Twilight.' Through this activity in dullness, he creates the first germinal predisposition to the living spiritual being, which one calls life-spirit (Buddhi). Only at later stages of his development will he become conscious of this spirit of life. As from the seventh Saturn cycle onward, the Thrones voluntarily poured their power into the predisposition to spirit-man which was formed at that time, so the Cherubim now pour out their wisdom, which thenceforward is preserved for the life-spirit of man through all subsequent stages of development. From the middle of the seventh course of the Sun onward, the germ of spirit-man (Atma), already formed on Saturn, appears again. It combines with the life-spirit (Buddhi), and the animated monad (Atma-Buddhi) thus comes into being." [See "What We're Made Of".]
Atma-Buddhi-Manas - also see Atma-Buddhi; ego Further development of Atma-Buddhi (see above), adding manas or Spirit Self after man leaves the Sun and comes to Earth. (Mastering terminology from Steiner's Theosophical period is not really necessary in order to comprehend Anthroposophy — Steiner's later terminology was generally clearer. However, his concepts remained largely unchanged.) “One must therefore imagine the earth, when it condenses as a refined etheric body out of its astral precursor, to be a conglomerate of an etheric mineral basic mass and of etheric plant, animal, and human beings. Filling the interstices as it were, and also permeating the other beings, are the creatures of the elementary realms. This earth is inhabited by the higher spiritual entities, which, in the most diverse ways, are active in the realms we have mentioned. They form a spirit community, so to speak, a spirit state, and their dwelling-place and workshop is the earth, which they carry with them as a snail does its shell. In all this it must be borne in mind that what today is separated from the earth as Sun and Moon, is still entirely united with the earth. Only later do both heavenly bodies separate from the earth. “The ‘higher man’ (spirit-man, life-spirit, spirit-self, Atma-Buddhi-Manas) has as yet no independence at this stage. He still constitutes a member of the spirit state, and for the time being is bound to the Spirits of Form, as a human hand is bound to a human organism as a dependent member.”
Atman - see Spirit Man
atom - also see atomic theory; physics; science a) In physics, atoms are the basic units of the various chemical elements. Once thought to be indivisible — the smallest units of matter — atoms are now known to consist of subatomic components. b) Steiner offered multiple, generally dismissive and incompatible descriptions of atoms. • “[T]hose thought-out atoms have no existence.” • "If physicists were for once to talk sense, they would not produce speculations about atoms and molecules, but they would say: The visible world consists of the past, and carries in it not molecules and atoms, but the future." • “[A]toms are really tiny little caricatures of demons." • “[T]he atom is nothing else than congealed electricity.” [A]ll atoms are holes or empty bubbles in the spiritual world. All physical things are composed of countless numbers of such holes. When we touch things we bump into these holes, this nothing." [See "Atoms".] Some of these statements are clearly fatuous ("congealed electricity," "caricatures of demons"); others are harder to evaluate ("in the spiritual world"). Overall, however, Steiner gives the impression that he was pontificating on a subject he knew little or nothing about. He did this often, on a wide array of subjects.
- also see atom; physics; science The theory (quite well established by science) that, at a deep level, physical reality consists of tiny bundles of energy/mass called atoms. For the most part, Steiner denied the truth of the atomic theory. “[A]toms are really tiny little caricatures of demons, and our learned scholars would not speak about them as they do unless people had grown accustomed, in education, to putting everything together out of its parts.” —R. Steiner, RHYTHMS OF LEARNING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 161. Steiner often dismissed academics, scientists, and other authorities, frequently directing sarcasm their way ("our learned scholars"). He taught that phenomena do not get built up from below, tiny parts (such as atoms) combining to create larger structures; instead, he taught that all structures are delivered whole, from above, from the spirit realm. At least at the physical level, he was wrong.
aura - also see auric sheath
Nimbus of vital forces radiating from a living form, revealing spiritual and psychological qualities; accepted as real by Anthroposophists: visible only to clairvoyants such as Steiner. "
auric sheath - also see aura According to Steiner, the spiritual "skin". [See "Our Parts".] ”If we investigate the human physical body, it is found to contain the same materials and forces as are to be found outside in the rest of the physical world. It is the same with the spirit man. In it pulsate the elements of the external spirit world. In it the forces of the rest of the spirit world are active. Within the physical skin a being is enclosed and limited that is alive and feels. It is the same in the spirit world. The spiritual skin that separates the spirit man from the unitary spirit world makes him an independent being within it, living a life within himself and perceiving intuitively the spiritual content of the world. Let us call this ‘spiritual skin’ (auric sheath) the spirit sheath. Only it must be kept clearly in mind that the spiritual skin expands continually with advancing human evolution so that the spiritual individuality of man (his auric sheath) is capable of enlargement to an unlimited extent.” — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), chapter 1, part 4, GA 9.
authority - also see Waldorf schools, teachers as authority figures Steiner informed Waldorf teachers that they need to exert unbending authority with their students, especially the young ones. The students want this, he said; but regardless, Waldorf teachers must be authority figures. “[I]t will be very good if you can keep the children from losing their feeling for authority. That is what they need most. You can best achieve that by going into things with the children very cautiously, but under no circumstances giving in.” — R. Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 14-15. [See "Faculty Meetings".]
automatons (automata) - also see intellect; materialism; spider beings; subhumans b) According to Steiner, wholly materialistic people, inhuman, subhuman; also monsters of intellect released in the future. [See "Sixth Epoch".] Sometimes Steiner used the word literally, and sometimes figuratively. ”From the earth, there will spring forth a horrible brood of beings. In character they will be in between the mineral and plant kingdoms. They will be beings resembling automatons, with an over-abundant intellect of great intensity. Along with this development, which will spread over the earth, the latter will be covered as if by a network or web of ghastly spiders possessing tremendous wisdom. Yet their organization will not even reach up to the level of the plants. They will be horrible spiders who will be entangled with one another. In their outward movements they will imitate everything human beings have thought up with their shadowy intellect, which did not allow itself to be stimulated by what is to come through new Imagination and through spiritual science in general.” — R. Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1987), lecture 14, GA 204.
avatars - also see Christ; Krishna; Maitreya Buddha; Shem Originally a Hindu concept: the manifestation of a god. Steiner identified Christ as an avatar. (Generally he indicated that Christ was a unique god who descended to Earth. But the concept of avatars suggests that other gods have done the same.) “[I]t can happen that such a being appears; if we test it clairvoyantly in regard to the soul, we cannot say, as we can of other human beings, that we trace it back in time and discover it in a previously fleshly incarnation, then trace it farther back and find it again in another incarnation, and so on ... Such a spiritual being who descends in this way into a human body in order to intervene in evolution as a human being is called an ‘avatar’ in the East ... The greatest avatar being who has lived on earth, as you can gather from the spirit of our lectures here, is the Christ.” [See "Avatars".]
- B -
baby teeth - also see incarnation; teeth Astonishing though it may seem, Waldorf teachers set great store by the replacement of their students' baby teeth by the second, adult set of teeth. They take this as an indication that the students' etheric bodies have incarnated. And, you see, Waldorf schools consider the incarnation of invisible bodies to be the main objective of school life. Teaching subjects to the children — conveying information — is far less important than overseeing the process of incarnation. The physical body, you see, is a product of heredity — the parents' genes are paramount. But when the baby teeth go, a second, higher body is born (and the parents' importance diminishes, while the teachers'...). After germinating during the first seven years of life, the etheric body incarnates. "[T] he child's development undergoes a radical change with the loss of his first teeth. For in truth, what we call heredity or inherited characteristics are only directly active during the first epoch of life. It is however the case that during the first seven years a second life organism is gradually built up in the physical body, which is fashioned after the model of the inherited organism. This second organism is, we may say, completed at the changing of the teeth ... the etheric body." — R. Steiner, THE KINGDOM OF CHILDHOOD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 2, GA 311
a) Disease-causing bacteria.
b) According to Steiner, Ahrimanic cause of illness. “As already mentioned, these battles have recurred over and over again, but always on different issues. In the distant past, the crowd of ahrimanic spirits were also cast down from the spiritual worlds into the earthly realm when they had lost such a battle. You see, they would return to the attack again and again. After one of these battles, for example, the crowd of ahrimanic spirits populated the earth with the earthly life-forms which the medical profession now calls bacilli. Everything which has the power to act as a bacillus, everything in which bacilli are involved, is the result of crowds of ahrimanic spirits being cast down from heaven to earth at a time when the dragon had been overcome. In the same way the ahrimanic, mephistophelean way of thinking has spread since the late 1870s as the result of such a victory. Thus we are able to say that tubercular and bacillary diseases come from a similar source as the materialism which has taken hold of human minds.” — R. Steiner. [See "Michael".]
backward souls - also see bad souls
Souls that lag behind in evolution. “These backward souls will have burdened their Karma with so much of error, ugliness and ill-doing as to constitute a special group on their own, subject to aberration and evil and bitterly opposed to the progressive community among mankind." — R. Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - An Outline (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1963), chapter 6, GA 13.
bacteria - see bacilli
bad souls - also see abyss; nature spirits; irreclaimable moon; race; cf. good souls These are abnormal, ruthless, or otherwise errant souls that descend to lower evolutionary levels. Eventually they may drop out of evolution altogether. Some Anthroposophists recoil at the idea that anyone may be left behind as humanity evolves upward, but others find the concepts of evil, sin, and perdition clearly expressed in some of Steiner's teachings. “Enough souls are pouring in from other quarters for incarnation in races that are on the down-grade (i.e., bad souls). But what is within must come out, and man will ascend when his Karma has been worked out.” — R. Steiner, INVESTIGATIONS INTO OCCULTISM SHOWING ITS PRACTICAL VALUE IN DAILY LIFE (Kessinger Publishing, 1996), p. 138. The phrase "bad souls" was interpolated by Steiner's Anthroposophical editor. Steiner's point in this passage is that souls may descend to lower and lower forms, including lower racial forms (surely one of Steiner's most deplorable doctrines). If an individual fulfills the needs of his/her karma, the descent will be reversed, so presumably there is always hope for recovery. But Steiner also taught that, as humanity as a whole progresses, the lower races will die out, and indeed eventually the physical human body will pass away. A descending soul will then find that it cannot incarnate at all; there will no bodies available to incarnate in. Therefore, this soul will return as a subhuman, a nature spirit. "The earth does not wait for him [the errant soul], the earth goes forward and he finally arrives at a point where he can no longer incorporate in a human body, for none are in existence ... Such souls lose the possibility of incarnation and find no other opportunity ... They appear in a later epoch as subordinate nature-spirits." — R. Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS UPON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 8. [See "Evolution, Anyone?" and "Hell".]
Steiner apparently did not speak of "bad" souls, as such. (An extensive search reveals no instances of this phrase proceeding from his pen or mouth.) But Steiner did speak of "materialistic", "evil", "backward", and "sub-standard" souls. • “[M]aterialistic souls incarnate, drawn sympathetically by volcanic phenomena ... And these births can in their turn bring about new cataclysms because reciprocally the evil souls exert an exciting influence on the terrestrial fire.” — Rudolf Steiner, AN ESOTERIC COSMOLOGY (Rudolf Stiner Press, 1978), chapter 16, GA 94. • “These backward souls will have burdened their Karma with so much of error, ugliness and ill-doing as to constitute a special group on their own, subject to aberration and evil and bitterly opposed to the progressive community among mankind. OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Stiner Press, 1963), chapter 6, GA 13. • “By bringing about the ‘opiumising’ of Chinese bodies and causing generations to come into being under the influence of opium's forces, it was possible to condemn the Chinese to take in, to a certain extent, some very immature, sub-standard souls.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF UNTRUTHFULNESS, Vol. 1 (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1988), lecture 13, GA 173.
Baldur (or Balder or Baldr) - also see Christ; Mithra; Norse myths a) In Norse myths: the son of Odin, brother of Thor; variously the god of patience or of lust. The manifestation of dying spring, he is also known as Balder and Baldr.
b) In Anthroposophy, Mithra, the Indo-Iranian god of light; the embodiment of the Sun's love. Hence, Baldur is a Christ figure — one of many early, incomplete understandings of Christ, the Sun God. Baldur, the patient, pure god, the embodiment of the dying spring, is killed. But his spirit is reborn with each new spring. “[H]e is the hope of the gods ... he is killed by the god Loki with a branch of mistletoe. The God of Light is killed.” — R. Steiner. “Christ, the Sun God, who was known by earlier peoples under such names as Ahura Mazda, Hu, or Balder, has now united himself with the earth...." — M. Jonas. [See "The Gods".]
Baldur. [Elmer Boyd Smith, 1902.]
Bamford, Christopher
Barfield, Owen (1898-1997) British philosopher, critic, and influential Anthroposophist; author of SAVING THE APPEARANCES, "Introducing Rudolf Steiner", and "Listening to Steiner", among other works.
Baravalle, Hermann von; aka Herman v. Baravalle (1898-1973) A Waldorf teacher and author, an associate of Rudolf Steiner at the first Waldorf school. He helped bring Anthroposophy and Waldorf education to America. He became a central figure in the Waldorf faction that strove to make Waldorf education and Anthroposophy seem rational and unobjectionable to Americans, which entailed downplaying Rudolf Steiner's occultism.
Barnes, Henry (1912-2008) A Waldorf teacher, an Anthroposophist and author, he was a leader in the Anthroposophical Society in America and headmaster at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City
Beast, The - see Antichrist; sub-astral sea
beauty - also see arts; maya Waldorf schools are often beautiful, displaying much beautiful art. Steiner stressed the need to teach all subject beautifully, to nourish the students' souls. The purpose of the beauty found in Waldorf schools is spiritual: through the arts, and through beauty, we can enter the spiritual realm, Steiner taught. [See "Magical Arts".] Ultimately, Waldorf beauty is intended to have more and religious effects. “We must, in our lessons, see to it that the children experience the beautiful, artistic, and aesthetic conception of the world; and their ideas and mental pictures should be permeated by a religious/moral feeling. Such feelings, when they are cultivated throughout the elementary school years, will make all the difference during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth years. For a child whose feelings for the beautiful, for the aesthetic conception of the world, have not been stimulated will during puberty easily become overly sensual, even perhaps erotic. There is no better way of counteracting the erotic feelings than through the healthy development of the aesthetic sense for the sublime and beautiful in nature.” — Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 77-78.
Steiner said that physical appearances, including beautiful appearances, can be deceiving. We live in a world of maya or illusion. However, he also stressed a concept of correspondences (as above, so below), according to which physical appearances reflect spiritual realities — attractive forms reveal attractive spirits. White people, he taught, are both more spiritually advanced and more attractive than darker peoples. This led to such judgments as “There is a biography of Schubert in which it is said that he looked rather like a negro. There is not a grain of truth in it. He actually had a pleasing, attractive face.” — R. Steiner. [See "'Negro'".] Steiner also taught that people who have a sanguine temperament tend to be the most physically attractive. [See "Humouresque".]
Beelzebub - see Ahriman; Mammon a) The Devil.
b) In Anthroposophy, Ahriman. ”Many people think that they're working for the good of mankind from morn till eve, but this is questionable. A clairvoyant can see that efforts coming from materialistic thinking have the wrong effect, and it may lie in some people's karma that they should wait until they can do certain things. Then a higher being can whisper such a task in his ear, so that it's not induced by outer circumstances. Life is a destructive process for someone who only devotes himself to outer sense impressions. A meditating esoteric doesn't let his life be determined by outer circumstances as much. One who makes repeated meditational efforts isn't exposed to astral confusions at night and makes himself ready to receive the instructions of spiritual beings. And it's very necessary that we be instructed in this way. For since 1879 we've entered a new stage of human evolution. Gabriel worked on the development of a new organ in man's brain by regulating human births (1525–1879). A 16th century man would not have understood our present theosophy. It's up to archangel Michael to simulate men to use their newly acquired organ, that degenerates if a man doesn't use it. Such a man comes under the influence of Michael's opponent, Mammon or Beelzebub. This is the God of hindrances, who wants to prevent men from making progress. The bacterial that arise under his influence can give rise to terrible epidemics and strange nervous diseases; children could be born with a ruined nervous system." — R. Steiner. [See "Evil Ones".]
Besant, Annie (1847-1933) - also see Theosophy A leading Theosophist, colleague and rival of Rudolf Steiner. [See "Basics".]
A sacred Hindu text, a poem composed between the second century BCE and the second century CE. “Remember what I have said in former lectures, that man is, in a sense, an inverted plant. All that you have learnt must be recalled and put together, in order to understand such a thing as this wonderful passage in the Bhagavad Gita [about the Avayata-tree, the fig-tree]. We are then astonished at the old wisdom which must today, by means of new methods, be called forth from the depths of occultism. We then experience what this tree brings to light. We experience in its leaves that which grows upon it; the Veda knowledge, which streams in on us from without.” — R. Steiner, THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), lecture 4, GA 142. [See "Veda".]
- also see Anthroposophy; old testament; religion; spiritualistic agenda; Sun god; cf. gnosticismThe chief holy text of Judaism and Christianity. Various forms are used, containing various books. In Anthroposophy, the Bible is seen as a flawed document. Steiner derived many of his doctrines from Apocrypha — semi-Biblical writings not included in the standard versions of the Bible — and gnostic beliefs. [See "Gnosis".] Steiner rewrote various Biblical passages, including The Lord's Prayer. He even wrote a "corrected" version of the New Testament's account of Christ's life and death: THE FIFTH GOSPEL (e.g., Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995). His "authority" for such alterations was his claimed clairvoyant access to the Akashic Record. [See "Commandments", "Genesis", "Old Testament", and "Sermon".]
biodynamic gardening and farming Agricultural practices based on indications given by Rudolf Steiner. Waldorf schools often have biodynamic gardens and compost piles. As with almost everything else in Waldorf schools, Waldorf beliefs about plants and gardening are laced with occultism. Thus, for instance, the gnomes that are often represented by dolls or statuettes in Waldorf classrooms are significant beneficiaries of healthful plant life, according to Steiner. (Bear in mind, Steiner taught that gnomes really exist.) “The plant gathers the secrets of the universe, sinks them into the ground, and the gnomes take these secrets into themselves from what seeps down spiritually to them through the plants. And because the gnomes, particularly from autumn on and through the winter, in their wanderings through ore and rock bear with them what has filtered down to them through the plants, they become those beings within the earth which, as they wander, carry the ideas of the whole universe streaming throughout the earth ... The gnomes receive through the plants, which to them are the same as rays of light are to us, the ideas of the universe, and within the earth carry them in full consciousness from metal to metal, from rock to rock.” — R. Steiner. [See “Biodynamics”.]
biology - also see biodynamics; blood; botany; evolution; human constitution; medicine The Waldorf view is rooted in Anthroposophical doctrine — for instance, animals are thought to have evolved from humans, not vice versa. Physical reality is viewed askance, and the physical body is considered the lowest of the four human bodies (physical, etheric, astral, and "I"). Strange doctrines include the idea that the heart does not pump blood and the brain does not think. How many of these concepts are explicitly revealed to students varies from school to school and teacher to teacher. [See "Steiner's Quackery", "What We're Made Of", "Our Parts", and “Neutered Nature”.] “[Science] sees the heart as a pump that pumps blood through the body. Now there is nothing more absurd than believing this....” — R. Steiner, PSYCHOANALYSIS AND SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY, (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1990), p. 126.
birth, and activities before, knowledge gained before - also see death, life after; reincarnation According to Steiner, we have many lives, through the process of reincarnation. Before each birth or incarnation, we live in the spirit realm. We are born with the effects of actions taken there. “A living comprehension will lead you to see the pre-existence of the soul, to see what the human being experienced before birth, to see that human life in the physical world is a continuation of previous experiences. Traditional religions strongly oppose preexistence, which can make a human being selfless. They strongly oppose those things that do not strive toward a murky and numbing uncomprehending belief, but toward knowledge and the clear light of comprehension.” — R. Steiner. [See "Faculty Meetings".] Moreover, we are "born" several times during each life, as various parts of our constitution are incarnated. [See "Incarnation".]
black - cf. peach-blossom; white According to Steiner, the color of spiritual death. [See "White-Black".]
black magic, black magicians - also see magic; cf. white magic The use of magical powers for evil. According to Steiner, black magicians are at work today. • ”The black magician has the urge to kill, to create a void around him in the astral world because this void affords him a field in which his egoistic desires may disport themselves. He needs the power which he acquires by taking the vital force of everything that lives, that is to say, by killing it.” — R. Steiner. • “Today, those who know the secret of the use of these forces know full well that the use of such forces in our time means that powers of black magic are at work. Magic must never be made to serve when selfish purposes are involved. Hence, the employment of seed forces is not permitted today even to serve white magic.” — R. Steiner. [See "Magic".]
black path - see egoism; cf. freedom; white path According to Steiner, the path of spiritual error. [See "Spiritual Agenda".] "[I]f thou dost refuse to apply thy powers in this world, others will come who will not refuse; and a higher supersensible world will receive all the fruits of the sense-world, while thou wilt lose from under thy feet the very ground in which thou wert rooted. The purified world will develop above and beyond thee, and thou shalt be excluded from it. Thus thou wouldst tread the black path, while the others from whom thou didst sever thyself tread the white path.” — R. Steiner. [See “Guardians”.]
blacks - see Africans (Steiner did not apply the term "blacks" to African-Americans)
Blavatsky, Helena (1831-1891) - also see Theosophy A Russian spiritualist, cofounder of Theosophy; Steiner's mentor. Steiner expressed great admiration for Blavatsky and much of her theology: “One thing can be said of the writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Only one who does not understand them can underestimate them. Anyone who finds the key to what is great in these works will come to admire her more and more.” — R. Steiner. [See "Clairvoyant Vision".]
Blavatsky claimed to possess psychic powers, which she frequently demonstrated. Eventually she was attacked in the press for rigging these demonstrations. Following an investigation, in 1885 the London Society for Psychical Research pronounced her a fraud.
Early in his career as an occultist, Steiner became head of the German wing of Theosophy. Although he was greatly indebted to Blavatsky, Steiner distanced himself from some of her teachings and practices, and ultimately he broke away to establish his own occult system, Anthroposophy. He became almost dismissive, asserting the superiority of his own clairvoyant insight. “It is true that Blavatsky has in her books put forward important truths concerning spiritual worlds, but mixed with so much error that only one who has accurately investigated these matters can succeed in separating what is significant from what is erroneous.” — Rudolf Steiner, APPROACHES TO ANTHROPOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992), p. 7.
Many of Steiner's statements about Blavatsky and her work have been compiled in the book SPIRITUALISM, MADAME BLAVATSKY & THEOSOPHY: An Eyewitness View of Occult History (SteinerBooks, 2002).
Helena Blavatsky. [Public domain, color added.]
blood - also see exogamy; heart; racism According to Steiner, blood has occult significance: it is the physical expression of the I and the Consciousness Soul. The heart does not cause it to circulate, it circulates due to its own force. Waldorf schools may teach that different races have significantly different types of blood. Steiner taught that mixing blood in virtually any way is destructive. Humans lost their instinctive clairvoyance, and fell into the demonic clutches of intellectualism, due to blood-mixing. “Just as this mingling of the blood of different species of animals brings about actual death when the types are too remote, so, too, the ancient clairvoyance of undeveloped man was killed when his blood was mixed with the blood of others who did not belong to the same stock. The entire intellectual life of today is the outcome of the mingling of blood.” — R. Steiner. [See "Blood".]
A founder of the Christian Community; the movement's leader 1938-1959.
Bodhisattvas - also see Buddha; Christ; lodge of twelve In Theosophy and Steiner's teachings, enlightened beings, either Buddhas or individuals who will become Buddhas in the next few incarnations. [See "God".] "The succession of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas has no relation as such to the cosmic Being we call Christ; it was a Bodhisattva — not the Christ — who incarnated in the body of Jeshu ben Pandira. Christ incarnated in a physical body once, and once only, for a period of three years. The Bodhisattva appears in every century until his existence as Maitreya Buddha. [paragraph break] The mission of Anthroposophy to-day is to be a synthesis of religions. We can conceive of one form of religion being comprised in Buddhism, another form in Christianity, and as evolution proceeds the more closely do the different religions unite — in the way that Buddha and Christ themselves are united in our hearts.” — R. Steiner, “Buddha and Christ: The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas”, ANTHROPOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1964), GA 130.
bodies - also see astral body; etheric body; "I"; soul; spirit Steiner often said that full, real human beings have three bodies: the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. [See "What We're Made Of" and "Our Parts".] This concept creates a nice symmetry with Steiner's teaching that we have three souls and three spirits. However, Steiner often treated the "I" or "ego" as a fourth body, in that it does not arise from within human nature but is bestowed from without, by Christ. Thus, the "I" can be seen as a sheath or body, although more correctly it is a spark placed within and/or the culmination/combination of our three spirits.
body nature According to Steiner, the lowest major division of the nine-fold nature of man. Steiner variously said that human nature has nine, or seven, or four major components. In the ninefold version, body nature comprises three sub-components: physical nature, etheric nature, and soul nature. These conform, more or less, to the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. (In the sevenfold and fourfold descriptions, body nature disappears and the lowest division of our nature is termed physical nature.) “We have, in all, nine members of man's nature ... [We have] nine members, two and two of which coincide. Therefore the Rosicrucian method speaks of three times three members = nine, which is reduced to seven. We must, however, recognise the nine within the seven; otherwise we shall reach only a theoretical conception.” — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), “The Ninefold Constitution of Man”, GA 99. [See "What We're Made Of".]
BOOK OF THE DEAD - See Egyptian Book of the Dead
botany - see animals; biodynamics; plants At Waldorf schools, the subject of botany is often skewed toward an Anthroposophical view in which plants are the expression of thoughts, moods, or spirits. Plants are, in a sense, the Earth’s hair. They are members of the second kingdom, standing between minerals and animals. Like animals and humans, they have etheric bodies. How many of these concepts are explicitly revealed to students varies from school to school and teacher to teacher. [See “Biodynamics”.] “[I]nsight into the cosmos must be the result of knowledge consciously developed ... This cosmic insight will so live in us [i.e., Waldorf teachers] that we shall be able to shape it artistically into the pictures we need [to convey to children] ... At about the tenth year the child is ripe for what the teacher can make out of this far-reaching vision. And if a teacher shows in living pictures how the whole earth is a living being, how it bears the plants as a man bears his hair ... a kind of expansion takes place in the soul of the child ... It is not correct to say that the child is not mature enough for conceptions of this kind. A teacher in whom they live and who has this world conception at the back of him, knows how to express them in forms for which the child is ripe and in which it [sic: meaning s/he, the child] can concur with its [sic] whole being.” — R. Steiner. [See "Foundations".]
a) A member of the Hindu trinity. "Brahma, one of the major gods of Hinduism from about 500 bce to 500 ce, who was gradually eclipsed by Vishnu, Shiva, and the great Goddess (in her multiple aspects). Associated with the Vedic creator god Prajapati, whose identity he assumed, Brahmawas born from a golden egg and created the earth and all things on it. Later myths describe him as having come forth from a lotus that issued from Vishnu’s navel.” — "Brahma." ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011. Web. 18 May. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/77028/Brahma>.
b) According to Steiner, one of the three Logoi: the three gods comprising the Godhead. Specifically, Brahma is the first and highest member, to the Father in Christian teachings. [See "All".] “Beyond the Seraphim we have to see that highest Divinity of which we find mention by almost all nations as the threefold Divinity — as Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, as Father, Word, and Holy Ghost. “ — Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES (Anthroposophical Publishing Co,m 1928), lecture 5, GA 110.
a) In Hinduism, the ground of being, embodied by Brahma.
b) The highest caste in Hindu society.
brain - also see intellect; Kali Yuga; knowledge; thinking; cf. clairvoyance; organs of clairvoyance According to Steiner, not connected with real cognition (i.e., clairvoyance) — it reflects thought occurring elsewhere, but does not itself think. • "Within the brain nothing at all exists of the nature of thought." — R. Steiner. • ”[T]he brain and nerve system have nothing at all to do with actual cognition; they are only the expression of cognition in the physical system.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner's Specific".]
Systematic, involuntary mental conditioning, often covert, sometimes through force; it may occur at Waldorf schools when teachers covertly lead students to feel and/or think about things as they themselves (Anthroposophists) feel and think. [See "Beat" and "Fooling".]
brotherhoods, secret - see secret brotherhoods
a) Siddartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.
b) According to Steiner, the god also known in Norse myths as Odin or Wotan. Steiner also taught that Buddha was a student of Christian Rosenkreutz, the putative founder of Rosicrucianism, and that Buddha was crucified (as it were) on Mars. • “The same being who was called Wotan in the Germanic myths, appeared again as Buddha.” — R. Steiner. • "Gautama Buddha left his activity and went to Mars. In 1604 Gautama Buddha accomplished for Mars what the Mystery of Golgotha [i.e., Christ’s Crucifixion] did for Earth.” — R. Steiner. [See "More Overhead" and "Mars".]
Budhi, Buddhi - see life spirit
Buddhi plane According to Steiner, this is the realm of living warmth; the level of "fore-seeing." [See "Faculty Meetings".] The term comes from Hinduism and was adopted by Theosophy. Steiner tended to put such terminology aside after breaking away from Theosophy. (The break was more formal than real — Steiner's teachings changed very little, although his terminology evolved.) In Theosophy — including some of Steiner's own teachings — there are seven "planes" of existence/consciousness. The lowest is the physical plane. The Buddhi plane is the fourth, midway along the ascent to godly consciousness. [See “Higher Worlds".] Below the Buddhi plane, logic or the use of the physical brain has some value; but above it, only supernal forms of thought — in essence, clairvoyance — lead to truth. “If we have learned to think with consistency through our study, we can help ourselves on the astral and devachanic planes. However, the logic of the physical plane no longer applies to the Buddhi plane.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 141.
bull - also see eagle; group soul; lion; man One of the four group souls shared by humans at an early stage of evolution. Modern humans of varying kinds still reflect the influences of these souls. "One calls these four group souls by the names of the apocalyptic beasts: Bull, Eagle, Lion, Man. The Man, however, was at another stage of evolution than the man of today. The names are taken from the organization of the group souls ... There were forms existing which were especially adapted to receive the Lion egos, others the Bull egos, etc. That was in a very early age of earth evolution. Now consider that the group soul we have called the Bull soul enters quite definite forms which are there below. These have a quite definite appearance ... [T]here was a group of bull-like people, everything adapted to the physical plane ... The bull race, however, had a special attractive force for the female etheric body. Thus the bull body had the special force to attract the female etheric body and unite with it ... [But] the bull humanity became more and more unfruitful ... The physical body of the woman has proceeded from the lion nature, whereas the physical bull-body is the ancestor of the male body.” — R. Steiner. [See "Four Group Souls".]
bullying at Waldorf schools - also see discipline; karma While Waldorf schools can be peaceful havens, they can also be dangerous — bullying can become a problem; Waldorf teachers often think it is the karma of some students to bully and of other students to be bullied; bullying by teachers may occur for similar reasons. [See "Ex-Teacher 5" and "Slaps".]
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