DECEPTION:

What Steiner Actually Gave

to His Followers

Rudolf Steiner often contradicted himself. On occasion — especially when addressing outsiders — he made sensible, verifiable statements. But on other occasions — especially when addressing his occult followers — he said precisely the opposite: He made statements that are utterly phantasmagoric.

For most people, this gives rise to two conclusions. Firstly, Steiner was unreliable. His statements cannot be accepted at face value. He spoke with what we might call a forked tongue.

Secondly, because so many of his statements are phantasmagoric — and because these seem to reflect his real views, the ones he shared with people he trusted — his teachings are occult junk, nonsense, balderdash.

But Anthroposophists reject these conclusions. Proceeding from the premise that Steiner revealed deep, hidden truths, they puzzle over his pronouncements, seeking to reconcile the contradictions and arrive at the majestic, transcendent Truth they believe Steiner apprehended. Thus, they may walk into the basic occult trap: Training their minds to reject rationality, they “stretch” their minds to believe the unbelievable. They train their minds to deceive themselves.

Steiner compounded this labor of self-deception because sometimes when he speaking to insiders he made rational, verifiable statements, and sometimes he favored outsiders with wildly irrational statements. Further, his “rational” statements were often rational only on one point, while other elements of these same statements were quite fantastic. Steiner was quicksilver.

Let’s briefly review one example. Do the planets orbit the Sun, or do they move in some other manner? Steiner said both, and reconciling these two possibilities is well nigh impossible.

Here are some more or less rational descriptions (some more rational than others) offered by R. Steiner:

“The planets move in orbits, and so the earth, too, moves in an orbit.” [Rudolf Steiner, FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p.12.]

“[T]he earth is circling and men can calculate when it will reach a certain point.”  [Rudolf Steiner, THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH AND MAN AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1987), lecture 13, GA 354.]

“A very long time ago Michael decided to work in those planetary orbits that are preordained by the sun existence.” [Rudolf Steiner, THE BOOK OF REVELATION AND THE WORK OF THE PRIEST (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 158.] Steiner included a sketch showing planets orbiting the Sun.

“If you imagine a sphere with the Sun at its center, extending to the orbit of the present Mars, you have the size of the old Moon.”  [Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND THE PHYSICAL WORLD (SteinerBooks, 1996), p. 87.] "Old Moon" was the third of our planetary evolutions — don't worry about it.

•••

So far so good, yes? But here are some more or less phantasmagoric descriptions (some more phantasmagoric than others) offered by R. Steiner:

“[T]he third Copernican law has been disregarded. People preferred the easy assumption that the Earth rotates around its axis in twenty-four hours, progressing all the while so as to move around the Sun ... [But the] Sun moves; it would outrun the Earth if the Earth simply revolved around the Sun. The Earth cannot revolve around the Sun because meanwhile the Sun would move away from it. In reality, the Sun moves on, and the Earth and the other planets follow it." [Rudolf Steiner, THE FOURTH DIMENSION (Anthroposophic Press, 2001), p. 128.]

“This creates the illusion that the Earth revolves round the sun. The truth is that the Sun goes ahead, and the Earth creeps continually after it.” [Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 168.]

“[W]hen the Earth is here and this is the Sun [pointing at a diagram he created], the Earth follows along. But we look at the Sun from here, and so it appears as though the Earth goes around it, whereas it is actually only following. The Earth follows the Sun.” [Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 30. The diagram Steiner created in this case is utterly unlike the one shown in  THE BOOK OF REVELATION AND THE WORK OF THE PRIEST.]

“The Earth progresses, but exactly in a line behind the Sun. When the Earth is here, the observer now sees the Sun in another direction. The Sun advances still further, the Earth following, and once again the observer sees the Sun in the other direction. That is to say, he sees the Sun at one time on the right, and another time on the left, owing to the way in which the Earth follows the Sun. [paragraph break] This has been interpreted as demonstrating that the Sun stands still and the Earth revolves around it. In reality it is not so; the Earth moves along behind the Sun.” [Rudolf Steiner, MAN - HIEROGLYPH OF THE UNIVERSE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), pg. 33.]

“[W]e can certainly speak of a daily motion of the Earth around her axis, but by no means of a yearly motion of the Earth around the Sun. For the Earth follows the Sun, describing the same path. [paragraph break] Were the Earth revolving round the Sun, we should expect her axis, which owing to its inertia remains parallel, to point in the direction of different fixed stars during this revolution. But it does not! If the Earth revolved round the Sun, the axis could not indicate the direction of the Pole-star, for the point indicated would itself have to revolve round the Pole-star....” [MAN - HIEROGLYPH OF THE UNIVERSE,  p. 85.] But it does not, said Steiner.

Steiner's oft-repeated vision was not just an inversion of reality,

it was a reversal and obliteration of reality.

[R. R., 2009.]

Anthroposophists have expended enormous ingenuity in trying to sort all this out. They discuss the meaning of such terms as orbit, circle, ellipse, helix, spiral, lemniscate — all for naught. The editors of THE FOURTH DIMENSION list 33 occasions (March 24, 1905 to May 5, 1924) on which Steiner spoke of planetary motions, sometimes as orbit and sometimes as something else. They admit they are unable to reconcile Steiner’s statements:

“The following list includes most of the lectures and question-and-answer sessions (Q&A) in which Steiner discusses the problem of the Sun and Earth’s motion, especially the third Copernican movement (Copernicus 3), Bessel’s corrections (Bessel), and/or the problem of spiral or lemniscate (∞) movement ... Various attempts have been made to unite Rudolf Steiner’s scattered indications into a consistent interpretation but to date, no view has successfully encompassed them all.” [THE FOURTH DIMENSION, pp. 206-207.]

Anthroposophists will continue racking their brains with such conundrums. You may have better things to do with your time. Call a contradiction a contradiction, call nonsense nonsense, and move on (along a spiral, lemniscatory line, or any other trajectory of your choice).

— Compilation and commentary by Roger Rawlings

---

---

The blues in the night.

[R. R., 1976,]

---

---

Here is an item from the Waldorf Watch "news" page:

---

---

[R. R., 1980.]

---

---