Rudolf Steiner encouraged his followers to believe that they are surrounded by enemies. 

These include secret societies of wrongdoers, black magicians, stooges of the demon Ahriman, 

people who are literally demons in disguise, wrongheaded adherents of traditional religions, 

scientists, materialists, and so on. 

Anthroposophists must carry on their good work in the knowledge that implacable enemies 

are springing up on every side.

Does this strike you as slightly paranoid?

Perhaps it is.

But Anthroposophists have it on good authority.

“[O]ur enemies are springing up on every side...”

[Rudolf Steiner, SECRETS OF THE THRESHOLD (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), “Words of Welcome”.]

•••

Such ideas can easily create a mindset of paranoia, defensiveness, and hostility — 

which can make communication between Anthroposophists and the rest of us extremely difficult. 

Be wary, Steiner said; don’t reveal our secret knowledge to these wicked outsiders.

“I do not like to talk about such things since we have often been attacked even without them. Imagine what people would say if they heard that we say there are people who are not human beings ... [W]e do not want to shout that to the world.” [Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER  (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 649-650.] 

The prohibition against public revelations was not absolute; Steiner published books revealing some inside knowledge, and his followers have published others. Finding the right balance has been hard for them. (I’ll return to this, below.)

•••

Anthroposophists generally believe that they are quite literally on the side of the angels. 

They are good; some non-Anthroposophists are less good; and still others are downright evil. 

Members of cults often have such attitudes. 

Among Steiner and his followers, the sense of persecution was heightened greatly 

when their first headquarters building, the original Goetheanum, was destroyed by fire. 

Although they never produced proof, they immediately decided that their building had been 

intentionally burned to the ground by their enemies.

“[T]he Anthroposophical Movement is of a nature that attracts enemies ... [W]hat was cast in the mould of love has called forth bitter enmity. Our misfortune has unleashed a veritable hailstorm of ridicule, contempt and hatred, and the willful distortion of truth that has always characterized so large a part of our opposition is especially typical of the situation now, with enemies creeping out of every corner and spreading deliberate untruth about the tragedy itself. Our friends present at the scene of the fire did everything in their power to save what simply could not be saved. But ill-wishers have had the bad taste to say, for example, that the fire showed up the members for what they were, that they just hung about praying for the fire to stop of itself. This is merely a small sample of the contempt and ridicule we are being subjected to in connection with the fire.

“I have been warning for years that we will have to reckon with a constantly growing opposition, and that it is our foremost duty to be aware of this and to be properly vigilant. It was always painful to have to hear people say that our enemies in this or that quarter seemed to be quieting down. This sort of thing is due to people's willingness to entertain illusions, unfortunately all too prevalent among us. Let us hope that the terrible misfortune we have had to face will at least have the effect of curing members of their illusions and convincing them of the need to concentrate all the forces of their hearts and minds on advancing the Anthroposophical Movement ... [E]verything we now have can be wiped out by our enemies in no time at all if we are not more thoughtful about the problems I have laid before you today.” [Rudolf Steiner, AWAKENING TO COMMUNITY (Anthroposophic Press, 1974), lecture 1, January 23, 1923.]

•••

•••

Here are other statements made by Steiner about “enemies” and “opponents.” 

Note how often Steiner encouraged his followers to intensify their defensive efforts 

and to make other contributions on behalf of Anthroposophy. 

The subject is distasteful, he said, but the forces of evil must be overcome by the forces of virtue. 

The enemies lie, slander, contemplate lawsuits, and resort to all manner of wicked attack. 

Beleaguered Anthroposophists must fight back vigorously, 

even though their kindly nature makes this difficult for them.

“[M]odern humanity suffers from two evils, both of which must be overcome in the [Anthroposophical] Society. One is fear of the supersensible. This unadmitted fear accounts for every enemy the Anthroposophical Movement has ... We are dealing with enemies who will not meet us on objective ground. It is characteristic of them that they avoid coming to grips with what anthroposophy itself is, and instead ask questions like, ‘How are anthroposophical facts discovered?’ or ‘What is this clairvoyance?’ or ‘Does so and so drink coffee or milk?’ and other such matters that have no bearing on the subject [sic], though they are what is most talked about. But enemies intent on destroying anthroposophy resort to slander, and samples of it have been turning up of late in phenomena that would have been quite unthinkable just a short while ago, before civilization reached its lowest ebb. Now, however, they have become possible. I don't want to go into the specifics....” [Ibid., lecture 4, February 13, 1923.]

•••

“Let it be understood that I am not saying that this or that person is not giving all he has or, perhaps, does not have; it is not in the least my intention to go into such details. But, if our souls possessed the same enthusiasm for Anthroposophy which our opponents of all shades have today for anti-Anthroposophy, we should be very differently established. Then it would not be so difficult to collect the pennies, trivial in comparison with the wealth of the world — in spite of the impoverished world of today — to finish the Goetheanum.”  [Rudolf Steiner,THE CONCEALED ASPECTS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE AND THE CHRIST IMPULSE (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Company, 1941), Appendix.]

•••

“[O]ur opponents are very well organized and know very well what they are doing ... [W]e have our opponents today ... who are not afraid to make use of any lie and who know very well how to utilize it to best advantage. It is wrong to believe that it is somehow appropriate to pass over these things lightly with the argument that not only are they devoid of truth, but the lies are so crude no one will believe them. People who say that simply show that they are deeply unaware of the nature of contemporary western civilization, and do not recognize the powerful impulses to untruth which are accepted as true, I have to say, even by the best people, because it is convenient and they are only half awake.” [Rudolf Steiner, THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC MOVEMENT (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), “The Consolidation of the Anthroposophic Movement”, 16 June 1923.]

•••

“You see, we already have enough enemies and they act in a quite peculiar way. I don't wish to speak of this now, perhaps you already know about it from reading the “Newssheet”. You also know the strange fact that there are people who have been saying for a long time now that what I teach is infected with all kinds of dogmatic Christianity, even with Jesuitism. Especially certain followers of the so-called Adyar-Theosophy talk in the worst way about this supposed Jesuitism, as well as many more hateful, unscrupulous things ... Well, that's enough! That is our enemies' method. We can look at these things not only calmly, but also with compassion – but we may not close our eyes to them. When such things happen, then care must be taken by those who for years indulged such people who acted without scruples. I would really prefer not to speak about such things....” [Rudolf Steiner, THE FIFTH GOSPEL (Anthroposophic Press), lecture V, October 5, 1913.]

•••

•••

“I believe, though, that in my own little book on the theory of knowledge, THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE IMPLICIT IN GOETHE'S WORLD CONCEPTION — it has just appeared in a new edition — that I have contributed something in this field which everybody can read. However, I do believe that it is not possible to carry out the principle of keeping something secret once it has been put into print. In practice it has proved impossible. After all, we now have a situation in which our enemies are far more quick to speak in public about a new publication than are the anthroposophists themselves. Facts such as these have to be taken into account.” [Rudolf Steiner, THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), December 28, 1923.] 

This statement touches on a central problem for Anthroposophists. 

They possess what they think is occult “mystery” knowledge; this must be kept secret; 

yet they also want to spread the good word, if they can, as Steiner himself attempted. 

But putting out the word stirs up additional enemies.

•••

Steiner said his enemies wanted to prevent him from doing his clairvoyant “research,” 

and he encouraged his followers to shoulder the responsibility for dealing with these enemies. 

This defensiveness continues today. 

“Now we certainly have any number of opponents who simply do not know why they adopt a hostile stand; they just go along with others, finding it comfortable to be vague about their reasons. But there are a few leading figures among them who know full well what they are up to and who are interested in suppressing and stamping out truths about the spiritual world such as can alone raise the level of human dignity and restore peace on earth. The rest of the opponents go along with these, but the leaders do not want to have anthroposophical truth made available. Their opposition is absolutely conscious, and so is their effort to stimulate it in their followers.

“What are they really intent on achieving? If I may refer to myself in this connection, they are trying to keep me so preoccupied with their attacks that I cannot find time for actual anthroposophical research....

“Now in a truly brilliant lecture that he gave in Stuttgart, Herr Werbeck called attention to the large number of hostile books written by theologians alone ... At least as many books have been written by people in various other fields. One is actually bombarded with hostile writings intended to keep one from the real work of anthroposophy. That is the quite deliberate intention ... [The Anthroposophical] Society should take over its responsibility in this area. It should take on the battle with opponents, for otherwise it will prove impossible really to keep up anthroposophical research.

“That is exactly what our opponents want. Indeed, they would like best of all to find grounds for lawsuits ... Yes, my dear friends, most of our opponents know very well indeed what they are about, and they are well organized. But these facts should be known in the Anthroposophical Society too. If the right attention is paid to them, action will follow.”

I will skip down several paragraphs:

“Our opponents are projecting a caricature of anthroposophy, and they are working hard at the job. Their writings contain unacknowledged material from anthroposophical cycles [i.e., Steiner’s teachings]. Nowadays there are lending libraries where the cycles can be borrowed, and so on. The old way of thinking about these things no longer fits the situation. There are second-hand bookshops that lend cycles for a fee, so that anybody who wants to read them can now do so. We show ourselves ignorant of modern social life if we think that things like cycles can be kept secret; that is no longer possible today. Our time has become democratic even in matters of the spirit. We should realize that anthroposophy has to be made known.” [AWAKENING TO COMMUNITY, lecture 10, March 4, 1923.]

•••

“Spiritual science is reproached for saying that Jesus was not always the Christ, but that Christ's life on earth began only when Jesus was thirty years old. Prejudiced humanity confronts spiritual science with one superficiality after another. The mere stating of the fact instantly invites prejudice. And the same holds true of almost everything that our opponents say regarding the position spiritual science takes on Christianity.” [Rudolf Steiner, “Anthroposophy and Christianity” (Anthroposophic Press, 1985); July 13, 1914.]

•••

“[W]e find hardly anyone who has lived in the environment of an anthroposophist, however obstinate his opposition, who in his subconscious does not show a leaning towards spiritual science. It is precisely among the opponents of anthroposophy that one finds after death a sphere of wishes in which a passionate longing for spiritual science is manifest. This is why a practice that has become customary among us has proved to be so beneficial for the dead, that is, to read to those who during their lives were unwilling to receive much anthroposophy. This proves to be extraordinarily beneficial for the souls concerned. This should be done by vividly picturing the face of the person who has died as he was during the last period of his life on earth. Then one takes a book and quietly goes through it sentence by sentence with one's thoughts directed towards the dead person as if he were sitting in front of one. He will receive this eagerly and gain much from it.” [Rudolf Steiner, LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH (Anthroposophic Press, 1968), lecture 6, November 28, 1912.]

If this weren’t absurd, it would be sweet.

Sort of.

•••

Steiner and his small band of adherents stand out

in a world teeming with evil opponents, materialists

who are creating a hellish future.

The fight goes on, the angelic spiritualists

against the hellish materialists,

the good high races against the evil low races:

“A humanity that thinks materialistically will produce frightful beings in the future ... We have two streams today, a great [i.e., huge] materialistic one which fills the earth, and the small spiritual stream which is restricted to but few human beings ... All materialistically thinking souls work on the production of evil race-formations ... Just as older conditions which have degenerated to the ape species seem grotesque to us today, so do materialistic races remain at the standpoint of evil, and will people the earth as evil races. It will lie entirely with humanity as to whether a soul will remain in the bad race or will ascend by spiritual culture to a good race.” [Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 150.]

To examine the Anthroposophical impulse

to demonize enemies, see

"Can't We All Just Get Along?"

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---

Some illustrations on each page are closely connected to the essay on that page; others are not — they provide general context. 

---

Here are sketches of the first Goetheanum, based on

images on pp. 114-115 of 

Rudolf Steiner, ARCHITECTURE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003.)

You'll find pictures of the second Goetheanum

elsewhere here at Waldorf Watch.

[R.R., 2009.] 

"If you look at the Goetheanum you will see that it has two domes ... [T]his double dome is an expression of the living element. If there had been one dome then in essence our building would have been dead." [Rudolf Steiner, ART AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF MYSTERY WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 154.] 

---

Rude approximation of the large west window 

in the Anthroposophical headquarters building.

Beneficence, ascension, and the abyss.

Steiner sometimes indicated that all will be redeemed,

eventually.

Sometimes he suggested otherwise.

[R.R., 2011.]

Today's Goetheanum

along with other structures

on the campus.

[R. R. photo renderings, 2010, derived from

images on p. 10 and p. 12 of THE GOETHEANUM

(Philosophical-Anthroposophical Press, 1961).]

---

[R.R.]