- C -

 

Calvary - see Golgotha

Camphill

This name is used by a number of Anthroposophical communities. Many such communities are isolated and nearly self-sufficient. Often they provide Anthroposophical "aid" to the developmentally disabled. [See "Waldorf Now".]

Cancer (sign) - see astrology

catastrophes, strife - also see demons; dissatisfaction; earthquakes

According to Steiner, natural catastrophes are caused by ourselves. “The fate of hundreds and thousands of people may be affected by an earthquake or a volcano. Does the human will influence these things, or is it all a matter of chance? Do dead, natural laws act with blind fury, or does some connection exist between these events and the human will?” — R. Steiner. Steiner’s answer is yes, our will causes natural disasters. But there is also another cause, he said: Evil spirits or at least supernatural forces beaming down to earth from the stars can, for example, pull material up from the subterranean levels of the earth, yanking them violently upward in the form of volcanic eruptions. “Now let me tell you, gentlemen, how a phenomenon like fire-spewing mountains is usually considered in science ... [T]he learned gentlemen [i.e., scientists] are always looking for the reasons why water vapor rises from a volcano and even bombs fly out; they look for the reasons — yes, they look for them below ground. But that is not where they [i.e., the reasons or causes] are ... [I]f the stars above Vesuvius [a volcano] are in a particular position relative to each other ... through the position of the stars, with the astral element above thinning out ... things are forcibly pulled up from below." [See “Past and Future”.]

Caucasian race - also see Aryans; Europeans; Jupiter; cf. Africans; Asians; Native Americans; etc. 

The white race. According to Steiner, highly evolved, mature; associated with Jupiter. The skin color of Caucasians reflects spiritual health. Each race belongs in a certain part of the world and should not stray from it. 

"When we ask which race belongs to which part of the earth, we must say: the yellow race, the Mongols, the Mongolian race belongs to Asia, the white race or the Caucasian race belongs to Europe, and the black race or the Negro race belongs to Africa. The Negro race does not belong to Europe, and the fact that this race is now playing such a large role in Europe is of course nothing but a nuisance." — R. Steiner. [See "Races".] Europe should be a white preserve, Steiner said. But more than other races, whites are free to move around, since they are the most advanced. The spiritual superiority of Caucasians is shown by the color of their skin. 

“If we take the flesh colour of a Caucasian person, which resembles spring's fresh peach-blossom colour, we have the living image of the soul.”  — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner's Bile"].

celestial sphere - also see crystal heaven

The sky: the illusory globe that seems to enclose the Earth. [See "Steiner's Illogic".] The celestial sphere — or celestial globe — does not exist. It is an ancient concept long since dismissed by science. Yet Steiner asserted that it does exist, and he attributed strange astrological/formative powers to it. He claimed that our heads are spheres due to the influence of the celestial sphere. Of course, he was wrong on both counts — not only does the celestial sphere not exist, but our heads are not spheres. Nonetheless, Steiner described formative powers flowing down into the spheres of our heads and indeed the sphere of the Earth: ”We must admit: In regard to our head organisation, we are organised from the celestial sphere; therefore what underlies the forces of the mineral kingdom must also be organised from the celestial sphere in some way.” — R. Steiner, ASTRONOMY COURSE, lecture 10, GA 323.

Central Europe, Central Europe, Northern European - also see Caucasian race; civilization; Europe; Germany; Norse myths; white race

According to Steiner, site of the most highly evolved humans, the truest mythology, the highest culture. [See "Clues".]

centaurs

a) In Greek mythology, creatures with the bodies of horses but the torsos, arms, and heads of humans.

b) According to Steiner, metaphorically: early humans, less evolved than modern humanity. “It is said that Homer was a blind seer, but that means that he was clairvoyant. He could look back into the Akashic Record. Homer, the blind seer, was much more seeing in the spiritual sense than were the other Greeks. Thus, the centaur was once an actual human form. When man looked like this, the moon had not yet withdrawn. The moon force was still in the earth, and in man was still what had formed itself during the sun period, the shining pineal gland, which he bore like a lantern on his head.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner Static".]

centers of cosmic influence - also see races

According to Steiner, places on the Earth where certain cosmic (planetary, stellar...) influences are strong. • "You have now, when you look into the cosmos, a sort of distribution of the normal and the abnormal Spirits of Form [gods four levels above man]. Six of the normal Spirits of Form are centered in Sun, one of them — Jahve or Jehovah — forms the equilibrium for them from Moon, by ruling and guiding the latter. The activities of this Spirit of Form are influenced by the activities proceeding from Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury. These forces stream down upon Earth, are stemmed there and ray up again from Earth." — R. Steiner. The cosmic forces hit the Earth, penetrate to the center, and beam back upward again. The abnormal gods (i.e., those that have fallen behind in evolution) help direct the rebounding rays in such a way as to create five spots on the surface of the Earth where cosmic influences are especially focused. These five spots are the regions where the five main human races have developed. "[T]hrough these abnormal Spirits of Form, there are five possible centers of influence, and these, in their reflection upon humanity from the centre of the Earth, really produce what we know as the five main races who inhabit the Earth." — R. Steiner. [See "Lecture".]

chakras - also see lotus flowers; organs of clairvoyance

a) In Indian thought: centers of spiritual power.

b) In Anthroposophy: invisible, incorporeal organs. "The further [sic] we advance [in spiritual consciousness], the more regularly structured our soul organism becomes ... To the clairvoyant it [the nonphysical body] looks like an independent body, containing certain [spiritual or nonphysical] organs. These organs ... may be seen spiritually in the following areas of the physical body: the first, between the eyes; the second, near the larynx; the third, in the region of the heart; the fourth, in the neighborhood of the pit of the stomach or solar plexus; the fifth and sixth, in the lower abdomen or reproductive organs ... [E]sotericists call these formations chakras (wheels) or 'lotus flowers' ... One of the first things to occur when an esoteric student begins practicing [spiritual] exercises is that the light of the lotus flowers intensifies; later the flowers will also begin to rotate. When this happens, it means that a person is beginning to have the ability to see clairvoyantly ... The organ in the vicinity of the larynx has sixteen 'petals' or 'spokes'; the one near the heart, twelve; and the one near the solar plexus, ten." [See "Inside Scoop".]

 

chela - also see mystery

A student of mystery (occult) wisdom. “The ant stands at quite a different stage from the beaver, and much further from us, because it already separated off at a much earlier planetary condition of the earth. In its one-sided development it has advanced much further than man. Man thinks, feels, wills, in fixed connection. If I see something which pleases me I grasp at it; the idea evokes the will. Without this interaction man would be very insecure. With the Chela [i.e., student of the mysteries], will, idea, and feeling are torn asunder, and must be quite separate. For general humanity that will first be attained at the Jupiter stage of the earth. But before he experiences this, the Guardian of the Threshold meets him, and gives him clarity about the whole of his previous life.” — R. Steiner. [See "Guardians".]

chemistry - also see physics; science; cf. alchemy

At Waldorf schools, all of the natural sciences are held in low esteem; the Anthroposophical view inclines more toward alchemy as defined by Steiner, and — at a higher level — "spiritual science" (i.e., the use of clairvoyance to study the spirit realm). Chemistry and the other physical sciences are insignificant precisely because they deal with transitory physical reality. "In the last resort, chemistry and physics have no value whatever beyond the earth." — R. Steiner. [See "Science".]

Cherubim - also see Spirits of the Harmonies

a) In Christian tradition, the second highest order of Angel.

b) In Anthroposophy, gods eight levels above man. They are the middle rank of the First Hierarchy, and their task is to harmonize the Earth with the rest of the solar system — thus, they are often called Spirits of Harmony. Ancient humans perceived the Cherubim in a variety of shapes. “Those Beings who came out of spiritual space to meet the Archangels, we call Cherubim (The Spirits of Harmony) ... These great Universal Helpers revealed themselves in quite definite etheric shapes or figures. Our forefathers who, through their traditions, were still conscious of these most important facts, represented the Cherubim as those strangely winged animals with differently formed heads — the winged Lion, winged Eagle, winged Bull, winged Man.” — R. Steiner. [See “Polytheism”.]

childhood - also see children; seven-year stages of growth

Anthroposophists believe children are newly incarnated beings who have come from the spirit realm and many previous earthly incarnations. They come with memories of the spirit realm and should be kept young as long as possible. [See "Thinking Cap".] Children only gradually incarnate all of their invisible bodies, doing so through a series of seven-year cycles. The Waldorf curriculum is keyed to this schedule. “If you recall the teachings of Spiritual Science on the subject of the education of the child you will know that in the first seven-year period of life ... man develops principally the physical body ... [T]his is really a recapitulation of what man underwent on Old Saturn ... The second of the seven-year periods ... is a recapitulation of what man underwent on Old Sun [developing the etheric body] ... The third seven-year period ... recapitulates the development of the astral body that normally belongs to the Old Moon epoch.” — R. Steiner.  [See "Incarnation".]

The Waldorf view of childhood is greatly complicated by Steiner's occult doctrines. Thus, for instance, Steiner as devoted to the number 3, which he considered magical. Thus, he divided childhood into three sets of three elements, and he said children pass through three stages. To make this system coherent, he hammered together things that are actually quite different, as when he speaks of the "limb-metabolic system." (Consult any legitimate medical text. We have arms and legs, and we have a metabolism, but these are separate; there is no limb-metabolic system.) Nonetheless, here is how childhood is described by an Anthroposophist: "On the level of soul, [Steiner] describes the human being as a threefold being, one who thinks, feels, and wills. On the level of consciousness, these three forces manifest as wakefulness (thinking), dreaming (feeling), and deep sleep (willing). On the level of physiology, they utilize the three 'systems' of nerve-senses (thinking), rhythmic-circulatory (feeling), and limb-metabolic (willing). On the level of human development, these forces unfold in discrete seven-year periods: willing dominates the first seven years of life, feelings become accessible to the child in the second seven-year period, and independent thinking blossoms after age fourteen.” — Eugene Schwartz in the Foreword to a collection of Steiner’s lectures and remarks, THE RENEWAL OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2001), p. 12.

Christ, Jesus - also see Ahura Mazda; Baldur; Christianity; gnosticism; gods; Golgotha; guardian(s) of the threshold; Hu; Jesus; Sun; Sun God

According to Steiner, Christ is not one of the three persons of the one and only God; Christ is one of innumerable gods. Specifically, Christ is a sublime Sun being, the Sun God (the Genius of the Sun, the Sun Hero, the highest solar pitris). Christ’s earthly incarnation, the “Christ event” (entailing the "mystery of Golgotha" — Christ's ministry and Crucifixion), provided the “Christ impulse” for human evolution. He is mankind's prototype, showing us what we should become. He revealed the greater guardian of the threshold, He came to Earth more than once prior to his incarnation in Jesus. He (not the Father) created the world. Christ is a god who descended to the physical plane, an avatar, the divine being who who incarnated in Jesus (the human being who combined the spirits of the two Jesus children). Modern people have lost the truth about Christ; to regain it, we need to heed Steiner, according to Steiner.

“It was known to the initiated priests of these Mysteries [i.e., ancient pagan priests] that the sublime Sun-Spirit of whom they spoke to the worshippers is the same Being as He who would later be called the Christ. But before the Mystery of Golgotha the priests could speak to this effect only: 'If you desire to know something of the Christ, you will seek in vain on the earth; you must be lifted to the secrets of the sun. For only outside and beyond the earth will you find the mysteries pertaining to the Christ.'

“...Until the fourth century after the Mystery of Golgotha there were always some who knew that Christ, the Sun-Being, and the Christ who had lived in Jesus of Nazareth were one and the same. It is deeply moving to learn from Spiritual Science [i.e., Steiner's own teachings] of the fervent prayers of men in the early Christian centuries: 'Thanks be to the Christ-Being from whom we should perforce have been separated, had He not come down from spiritual worlds to us here on earth!'

“After the fourth century A.D. the human mind could no longer comprehend that the Christ, who ensures immortality for men, was the sublime, divine Sun-Being. From that time until our own day there have been only the external words of the Gospels, telling of the Mystery of Golgotha. Nevertheless, these words of the Gospels worked throughout the centuries with such power that they turned men's hearts to the Mystery of Golgotha.” — R. Steiner. [See “Sun God”.]

Christ as depicted in the monumental statue

at the Anthroposophical headquarters.

[Public Domain.]

Christ event

The miraculous actions of Christ affecting Earthly and human evolution — the intervention of Christ in Earthly affairs. According to Steiner, there have been several such events — although the most important was the one entailing Christ's Crucifixion and its consequences. The first "Christ event" occurred while we lived on the ancient (mythical) continent of Lemuria. "If, during the old Lemurian epoch, the first Christ-Event had not taken place, Lucifer and Ahriman would have been able to bring about disaster to the whole of humanity ... [T]he being who later became the Nathan-Jesus [i.e., one of two Jesus children], and who otherwise would have had the form of an angel, took on human form ... In the super-earthly region Jesus of Nazareth is to be found as an etheric angel-form. Through permeation with the Christ [i.e., when the Sun God manifested in him] he then assumed etheric human form. Thereby something new entered the Cosmos and rayed down upon Earth and made it possible for man, the physical earthly human form, into whom streamed the force of the etheric super-earthly Christ-Being, to protect himself from that destruction which must have overtaken him.” — R. Steiner. [See "Events".]

The spiritual power provided for human evolution by the Sun God, Christ. "[I]n the Sermon on the Mount the great message that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand is proclaimed. In the course of these events the mystery of human evolution was fulfilled in Palestine. Man had reached a degree of maturity in all the members of his being so that he was able with his purified physical forces to receive the Christ impulse directly into himself. So it came to pass that the God-man Christ merged with the human being Jesus of Nazareth and these united forces permeated the earth for three years with their powers. This had to happen so that man would not lose completely his connection with the spiritual world during Kali Yuga [the spiritual dark age]." — R. Steiner. [See "Sermon".]

a) In Christian belief, the physical return of the Savior to Earth at the Last Judgment.

b) In Anthroposophy, the return of Christ in the etheric realm. By some accounts, it has already happened. In any event, Steiner indicated that it will be the next in a series of "Christ events". [See "Events".] Waldorf schools often celebrate Advent, the festival of Christ's appearance or reappearance. [See "Magical Arts".] Essentially, in Anthroposophy, the "Second Coming" is not, as Christians believe, the bodily return of Jesus Christ, but humanity's awakened ability to apprehend the essence of Christ, the Sun God. Those Anthroposophist who think it has not yet happened expect it to occur in the next epoch, following Kali Yuga, the "dark age." "[I]t must be understood that Christ's coming to Earth was a unique occasion which will not be repeated ... This event [i.e., the Second Coming] has to be understood not as a coming again of the Christ but as a raising of the human power to perceive Him spiritually." — R. Wilkinson, RUDOLF STEINER - An Introduction to His Spiritual World-view, Anthroposophy (Temple Lodge, 2005), p. 240. [Whether the "Christ event" narrated in the Bible was indeed a "unique occurrence" is not, perhaps, correct. See "Avatars". Anthroposophists pore over Steiner's words. and doctrinal disputes are common.]

According to Steiner, one of the three paths to initiation; the others are Rosicrucianism and Yoga. Rosicrucianism is the right path for modern humans, he said (having redefined Rosicrucianism so that it is almost indistinguishable from Anthroposophy); in it, the student's guru is more a friend than a master. The Christian-Gnostic way, incorporating Gnostic teaching deemed blasphemous by mainstream Christian churches, was appropriate for humans during the period before the modern age; here the student's guru leads the student to Christ (gnostically conceived as the Sun God), who then supplants the guru. The oldest way is the path of yoga, which was appropriate for ancient humans; on that path, a student's guru is a master who must be strictly obeyed. Christian Gnosticism remains relevant, but only for some. “Those persons who today are still inwardly upright and honest Christians, those who are permeated with certain principle themes of Christianity, may choose the Christian-Gnostic path, which differs little from the Cabbalistic path. For Europeans in general, however, the Rosicrucian path is the only right path ... An Oriental Yoga training without a strong submission to the authority of the guru is totally impossible. The Christian-Gnostic or Cabbalistic path allows a somewhat looser relationship to the guru on the physical plane. The guru leads his pupil to Christ Jesus; he is the mediator. With the Rosicrucian path, the guru becomes always more a friend whose authority rests on inner agreement.” — R. Steiner, ESOTERIC DEVELOPMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1982), lecture 8, Oct. 20, 1906. 

Steiner was defensive about charges made by his critics that he sought to revive Christian Gnosticism and that his doctrines resulted from his reading of occult texts. He claimed, on the contrary, to have found his own path (the revised Rosicrucian path) and to have done so through his own clairvoyant observations of the spirit realm. “Of my clairvoyant researches into the world of spirit it has often been alleged that they are a re-hash, howsoever modified, of ideas about the spiritual world which have prevailed from time to time ... Gnostic doctrines, oriental fables, and wisdom-teachings were alleged to be the real source of my descriptions [of the spirit realm] ... My knowledge of the spiritual — of this I am fully conscious — springs from my own spiritual vision ... As to whatever I might formerly have read ... I was able to eliminate such things completely while engaged on supersensible research. [paragraph break] But the critics [said that] I was merely reviving the ideas of Christian Gnosticism. Time and again I found myself confronted with comments of this kind ... OCCULT SCIENCE — AN OUTLINE, now to be published in a new edition, is after all an epitome of anthroposophical Spiritual Science as a whole, and is pre-eminently exposed to the same kinds of misunderstanding.” — R. Steiner, 1925 preface to OCCULT SCIENCE — AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), GA 13.

Late in Steiner's life, Anthroposophy was in turmoil. There were disputes and schisms among Anthroposophists, and the original Goetheanum — the Anthroposophical headquarters — had burned down. (Anthroposophists attribute the fire to arson, but no proof was ever produced.) Steiner laid plans for a new Goetheanum, and he joined the Anthroposophical Society. Previously, he had remained above the fray; he was clearly the center and font of Anthroposophy, but he elected to play no active part in the formal organization of his followers. This changed at the Anthroposophical conference late in December, 1923. Steiner used the occasion to re-initiate the movement. Anthroposophists today look back on this as the true incarnation of Anthroposophy, and they consider that Steiner took this new, active role at some risk to himself. He sacrificed, or risked sacrificing, himself. "Rudolf Steiner knew the risk. To unite his destiny, his individual karma, with that of the Society's membership might very well cloud his relationship with the spiritual beings who guided and nourished the Movement." — Henry Barnes, A LIFE FOR THE SPIRIT, Rudolf Steiner in the Crosscurrents of Our Time (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 201. This is one of the reasons Anthroposophists often consider Steiner to have been Christlike.

Anthroposophists; members of the First Class who read Steiner's lectures aloud to the rest of the Class. Generally, the lectures are those that Steiner delivered to the original First Class.

According to Steiner, colors have healing powers. They are vehicles that bring spiritual beings into the physical world and that allow us to ascend to the spirit world. Clairvoyants find different spiritual beings in rooms having differently colored walls. Waldorf schools use various wall colors in classrooms for their supposed occult effects. “If the person devoting himself to the color which covers these physically dense walls were one who had made certain occult progress ... the walls would disappear from his clairvoyant vision ... the walls become like glass, but in the sphere which opens up there is a world of purely spiritual phenomena; spiritual facts and spiritual figures become visible.... many different kinds of elementary beings are around us ... But they cannot all be seen in the same way; according to the capacity of clairvoyant vision, there may be visible and invisible beings in the same space. What spiritual beings become visible in any particular instance depends on the colour to which we devote ourselves. In a red room, other beings become visible than in a blue room.... ” — R. Steiner. [See “Weird Waldorf” and "Magical Arts".]

In Anthroposophical belief, these are the largest divisions of our evolution: ancient, present, and future evolutionary über-stages. They are also called planetary conditions or planetary stages. We proceed from one to the next, evolving on or during each "planet": Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon, Present Earth, Future Jupiter, Future Venus, Future Vulcan, and five more that cannot be named or described. [See "Matters of Form".] "Humanity will have to be guided from one planetary condition to another. Spiritual Beings [i.e., gods] must also exist, whose care it is during the whole earth evolution to see that when that evolution will have come to an end, humanity may pass in the right manner through a Pralaya [a rest phase] and find its way to the next goal, to the Jupiter goal [i.e., the Jupiter Condition of Consciousness]." — R. Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1928), lecture 6, GA 110.

Steiner said school children fall into six categories: large- and small-headed, cosmic and earthly, and fantasy-rich and fantasy-poor. Waldorf teachers often categorize students — especially "difficult" children — according to this scheme, using it as a basis for their treatment of the students. “When we look at what Rudolf Steiner has to say with regard to difficult children, we will not find diagnoses such as ‘minimal brain dysfunction’, ‘aggressive behavior’, ‘hyperactivity’ or ‘change brought on by the child's environment.’ So as contemporaries now dealing with this terminology, we have to first try to come to an understanding of the way Steiner describes children, a way which can help us draw nearer to the true nature of the child. In this lecture of February 6, 1923, as well as in the lecture series ‘Menschenerkenntnis und Unterrichtsgestaltung’ (Knowledge of Man and the Form of the Lesson), he describes children in terms of six constitutional types: large-headed and small-headed, earthy and cosmic, fantasy-rich and fantasy-poor. Together with the four temperaments this typology connects the fundamental constitutional characteristics with the help of which a child learns to express himself in the most varied ways and to reveal his inner being.” — Michaela Gloeckler, Constitutional Types in School-Age Children (AnthroMed Library).

continents - also see Atlantis; Lemuria

According to Steiner, continents float and are held in place by the stars. [See "Steiner's Blunders".] “The continents swim and do not sit upon anything. They are held in position upon the earth by the constellations. When the constellations change, the continents change, also. The old tellurians and atlases properly included the constellations of the zodiac in relationship to the configuration of the Earth’s surface. The continents are held from the periphery; the higher realms hold the parts of the Earth.” — R. Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 618.

cosmic I — see I

COSMIC MEMORY - a book by Rudolf Steiner

A history of human development so far, as described by Steiner: it contains chapters on the Akashic record, Lemuria, Atlantis, the division into sexes, life on the moon, etc. [See "Lunacy".]

[Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959.]

cosmos - also see astrology; astronomy; stars

a) The universe.

b) The spiritual universe. [See "Foundations".] ”We speak of man in such a way that we envisage, to begin with, his physical organization and his etheric or vital body revealed to spiritual investigation; and then we speak of the astral body and of the Ego organization. But we do not yet grasp man's structure if we simply enumerate these things in sequence, for each of these members has a different place in the universe. We are able to grasp man's position in the cosmos only if we understand how these different members are placed in the universe.” — R. Steiner, “Man and the Cosmos”, ANTHROPOSOPHICAL NEWS SHEET, No. 1/2 (General Anthroposophical Society, 1948), GA 220.

Rational, critical thought is damaging, according to Steiner and many of his followers. 

"A youth whose childhood has been touched by the blight of 'critical thinking' will come to the moment of independent insight badly crippled ... Because skepticism has long since robbed him of part of his heart, he will now feel unable to embrace enthusiastically what he has come to understand." — J. F. Gardner. [See "Beat" and "Criticism".]

In Anthroposophy, dark spirits are the minions of evil gods, and/or they are retarded spirits, beings who have fallen behind evolutionarily. [See "Michael".] "[T]he spirits of light who sent their impulses into human souls were, of course, guiding human evolution according to the old blood bonds. And so the human souls in the spiritual worlds had certain impulses to follow the ancient human karma on entering into bodies which were to be the population in the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The spirits of light were using the old measures of controlling and guiding those souls. [paragraph break] The spirits of darkness wanted to gain control over this. They wanted to drive the impulses of the spirits of light from those human souls and bring in their own impulses. If the spirits of darkness had won the battle in 1879, the relationship between human bodies and souls would have been utterly different from what it actually has become in people born after 1879. Different souls would have been in different bodies, and the plan according to which human affairs on earth were ordered would have been according to the ideal of the spirits of darkness. But it is not. Thanks to the victory that Michael won over the dragon in the autumn of 1879, this could not happen.” — R. Steiner, THE FALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), lecture 13, GA 177.

In deep sleep, according to Steiner, one is in immediate but unconscious contact with the will, the soul force that is deeper than emotion or thought. Will is the dominant force of childhood, when one is still — to some degree — in innate communion with the spirit realm from which one arrives on Earth. In deep sleep, one travels to kamaloka, where the gods judge and correct; one receives the direct ministrations of the gods, which form one's intentions (one's "will") upon return to Earth. Whereas ordinary sleep provides spiritual insights that are analogous to sight, deep sleep provides impressions that are — initially — analogous to hearing. “Some idea can be given of those experiences which emerge from the insensibility of deep sleep if they be compared to a kind of hearing. We may speak of perceptible tones and words. While the experiences during dreaming sleep may fitly be designated as a kind of vision, the facts observed during deep sleep may be compared to auricular impressions. (It should be remarked in passing that for the spiritual world, too, the faculty of sight remains the higher. There, too, colors are higher than sounds and words. The student's first perceptions in this world do not yet extend to the higher colors, but only to the lower tones. Only because man, according to his general development, is already more qualified for the world revealing itself in dreaming sleep does he at once perceive colors there. He is less qualified for the higher world unveiling itself in deep sleep; therefore the first revelations of it he receives are in tones and words; later on, he can here, too, ascend to colors and forms.)” — Rudolf Steiner, KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1947), chapter 8, GA 10.

According to Steiner, races that failed to evolve in the correct manner. Even faults that may seem minor can cause a race to fall behind. “Groups of men in whom the bones had, as it were, become too strong, were now left behind as degenerate races." — R. Steiner, UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN (Collison, 1931), VI.

According to Waldorf belief, opponents of Anthroposophy and/or Waldorf may literally be controlled by demons or they may themselves be demons. [See "Nuts" and "Can't We All Just Get Along?"]

Steiner identified some dinosaurs as fire-breathing dragons. "Yes, those beasts, they did breathe fire." — R. Steiner. [See "Faculty Meetings".]

disabilities - see learning disabilities

discipline - see punishment; Waldorf teachers as authority figures

disease, diseases - also see health; medicine

According to Steiner, most disease results from karma. Curing illness may thus be wrong, interrupting the needed operations of karma. Illness can also come from the stars. Anthroposophical medicine leans on homeopathy, spells, and various forms of magic in addition to some standard medicinal treatments. The occult nature of Steiner's medical teachings is shown best by quoting his remarks about various illnesses. • “We must ask ourselves: In what constellation were we living when, in the nineties, the present influenza epidemic appeared in its benign form? In what cosmic constellation are we living at the present moment? By virtue of what cosmic rhythm does the influenza epidemic of the nineties appear in a more acute form today?" • “If we destroy the susceptibility to smallpox, we are concentrating only on the external side of karmic activity.” • "With pneumonia, the cause is always in the astral body [another human nonphysical body]; pneumonia can occur in no other way.” • "[T]he predisposition to diabetes occurs if the I [a high human nonphysical body] excludes itself from internal processes ... All of this secretion, which as you know is an oscillating and circulating activity, is neglected while the I is focusing its chief activity on the brain.” • “In cancer, the sensory-nervous system invades the metabolic-limb system and begins to assert itself there ... An ear that develops in the right place is a normal organ, but when even a very minimal latent ear or other sense organ develops in the wrong place, we are faced with cancer, or carcinoma. To learn to counteract the body’s tendency to develop sense organs in the wrong place, we must look deep into world evolution, into the cosmic evolution that led to the human being.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner's Quackery".]

divine cosmic plan - also see evolution; Godhead; gods; messianism; Waldorf teachers

Anthroposophists believe that the gods — assisted by initiates and members of secret lodges — have a plan for humanity's proper evolution. Waldorf schools attempt to operate in accordance with this plan. The origin of the plan lies with the Godhead (divine will). In this sense, Waldorf teachers serve the gods and the Godhead. “Among the faculty, we must certainly carry within us the knowledge that we are not here for our own sakes, but to carry out the divine cosmic plan. We should always remember that when we do something, we are actually carrying out the intentions of the gods, that we are, in a certain sense, the means by which that streaming down from above will go out into the world.” — R. Steiner, addressing Waldorf teachers. [See "Here's the Answer" and "Advice".]

divine will - also see divine cosmic plan; Godhead

The divine intent or impetus found in the divine cosmic plan; the Godhead. The created universe reflects the image of the divine will. "[A] Christian sees a mirror image of the Godhead, of divine will, in every single thing in the world. The universe contains the sacrificed Godhead, and this reflected image of the Godhead was called in esoteric Christianity ‘the kingdom’. What the kingdom meant to them was the divine will raying back to them multiplied a million times. The kingdom was the creative power of Atma, the living force of Buddhi in us, the creative force working in the outside world.” — R. Steiner. (By "Christian," Steiner primarily meant Anthroposophists, but the terms "Atma" and "Buddhi" — taken from Hinduism — suggest how far Anthroposophy diverges from mainstream Christianity. [See "God".]

Donar

A Germanic god: Thor. [See "What We're Made Of".]

divining, divination

Discovering information through intuition, clairvoyance, or some other nonrational means. "...Moritz Benedikt has discovered that when a person holds the divining rod by both prongs the forces in the left side of the body unite with those in the right side. Or, as he expresses it, the forces, by flowing together, form a common stream of emanation. When a person particularly strong in such forces walks over ground beneath which there is water, a change takes place in the forces of both sides of his body. This change is caused by emanations streaming upwards from the water below into the person." — R. Steiner. [See "Divining".]

"doing" Anthroposophy - also see autosuggestion; will

Anthroposophists think their ideology is a science and that by using the methods of this science they can gain direct knowledge of and access to the spiritual realm. Waldorf schools attempt to "do" Anthroposophy indirectly by infusing it into their classes and activities. [See "Serving the Gods".] Steiner's most complete exposition of the exercises Anthroposophists should do can be found in his book KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT, which has also been published under the title HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDS.

Dominions - also see Spirits of Wisdom

According to Steiner, gods six levels above man “Certain sublime Beings whose life Saturn rays back, may be called Spirits of Wisdom. (In Christian spiritual science they bear the name Kyriotetes, i.e. Dominions.) Their activity on Saturn does not be any means begin with the middle epoch of evolution ... Indeed in a certain sense it is by then already at an end ... The Spirits of Wisdom have in their etheric body attained the power to do more than enjoy the reflection of Life — as on Saturn; they are now able to pour Life out of themselves, endowing other beings with it.”* — R. Steiner [See “Polytheism”.] 

double, human (evil)

According to Steiner, the evil counterpart of a human being, existing within the human (as demons are evil counterparts of geniuses and/or good gods). “It is this freedom of heart and soul which is so strongly objected to by that opponent [i.e., the double] about whom I have told you that he accompanies the human being from birth until death ... Under the influence of this double a great deal can emerge ... [The double blocks our] goal of enabling the evil to be transformed into good to some extent ... Where the double is strongly at work, that is where the true tendency of the fifth post-Atlantean period is being counteracted.” — R. Steiner. [See "Double Trouble".]

dragons, fire-breathers - also see dinosaurs; Michael

According to Steiner, dragons really existed; they were fire-breathing dinosaurs. "[T]hose beasts, they did breathe fire, the Archaeopteryx, for example ... What I am referring to are the dinosaurs from the beginning of the Tertiary Period.'” — R. Steiner. [See "Faculty Meetings".] Also, he said, dragons are mythic images of men living “on” the Moon who breathed heat rather than air. And the images of dragons may be used to symbolize evil powers generally, as for instance the evil forces combatted by Michael. “To see something like this in the right way, we can always call on an image which humanity has known throughout its evolution — the fight between Michael and the dragon. This image has come up again and again in the course of evolution. We may characterize it by saying that every battle between Michael and the dragon is similar to the one in the 1840s, but it is about different things — harmful and damaging things. We may say that a particular crowd of ahrimanic spirits seek over and over again to bring something into world evolution, but they are always overcome. And so they also lost the battle in the autumn of 1879, and, as I said, this was in the spiritual world.” — R. Steiner. [See "Michael".]

 

An Anthroposophical seal:

Michael overcoming the dragon.

[See Rudolf Steiner, MYSTIC SEALS AND COLUMNS.]

dreams

Dreams can be made reliable sources of knowledge, according to Steiner. Anthroposophists strive to attain a state in which dreams are true. Waldorf teachers may take guidance from their dreams. “Now, where do the images of a dream sequence come from? If you really are standing in the midst of spiritual experience, free from the body, then you have the spiritual world before you with all the processes and beings within it ... To characterize what the dream really is, you could say it is an experience of the individual soul-spiritual essence of the human being ... [T]he eternal is experienced in the dream precisely in the temporal, the transitory, the normal content of life ... [This is] the essence of the dream in the light of spiritual science.” — R. Steiner. [See "Dreams".]

Druids

Ancient Celtic seers, magicians, and/or priests. "In the West of Europe were other initiation schools, and in them the Druids were the initiates. The whole social life of the people was still even then ordered and regulated by these initiates." — R. Steiner. According to Steiner, Druids were correct in many things; at least some of them may be comprehended under the heading "pagan Christians" — that is, early initiates who acknowledged Christ without comprehending Him. "A sublime and wonderful phenomenon was unfolding here behind the scenes of world history. From the west, pagan Christianity, Arthur Christianity, which also appeared under other names and in different guises, was advancing.” — R. Steiner. [See “Pagan”.]

dualism - see abyss; Ahriman; evil; good and evil; Lucifer; materialism; matter

The religious concept that the universe is divided between opposite principles, such as good and evil or spirit and matter. Anthroposophy shares this perspective, although many Anthroposophists deny it, stressing Steiner's assurance that everything may ultimately be redeemed (made highly spiritualized). Steiner explicitly rejected monism, and he frequently discussed the opposition between the good and the evil, the higher and the lower, the right and the wrong. In this sense, his vision was distinctly dualistic. [See "Manichaeism".]

Dugan, Dan

A former Waldorf parent, secretary of People for Legal and Nonsectarian Schools (PLANS). 

Dvapara Yuga

From Hinduism: in Theosophy and Anthroposophy, the bronze age (not to be confused with the historical Bronze Age). It is the third of four world ages, ending about 3,100 years before the birth of Jesus. [See "Biodynamics".] “Then came the epoch of those incarnations when man's vision was more and more shut off from the spiritual world, when his whole nature was directed to the outer sense-world and firmly consolidated in that world; inner ego-consciousness, consciousness of manhood, became more and more definite and distinct. This is the Bronze Age, or Dvapara Yuga. Man's knowledge of the spiritual world was no longer as sublime or direct as in earlier times, but something at least had remained in humanity. It was as if in men of the present day who have reached a certain age there were to remain something of the jubilance of youth ... this is past and over but it has been experienced and known and a man can speak of it as something with which he is familiar. Thus the souls of that age were still in some degree familiar with experiences leading to the spiritual worlds. That is the essential characteristic of Dvapara Yuga.” — R. Steiner, True Nature of the Second Coming (Anthroposophical Publishing Co, 1961), lecture 1, GA 118.

dwarfs - also see gnomes; little men; nature spirits; Norse myths; cf. giants

In Anthroposophy; small nature spirits that really exist; sometimes elves, fairies, gnomes; sometimes a separate Earth-dwelling species, counterparts of the giants. 

"Everything that refers to ‘giants’ in legends is absolutely based on a knowledge of the truth. If, therefore, a real memory of these times is preserved in the Germanic [i.e., Norse] myths, we feel it to be absolutely correct, from the spiritual scientific point of view, that the giants are stupid and the dwarfs very clever." 

[See “Beings”.]

The philosophical theory that phenomena are caused by energy rather than matter or motion. 

According to Steiner, dynamism is one of the twelve justified — i.e., defended— world conceptions, which he associated with signs of the zodiac: “A world-outlook of this kind — which looks everywhere for forces behind phenomena — can be called Dynamism." — R. Steiner. Steiner associated dynamism with Scorpio. [See “Philosophy”.]