GOD

Or So Steiner Said

Who or what is God, according to Rudolf Steiner? Waldorf school students are expected to recite prayers, written by Steiner, that address “God,” “God’s spirit,” and/or the “Creator Spirit.” [1] To whom are they praying?

Steiner spoke of the Godhead, which may be taken as a reference to the creative force behind the universe, often seen as the Christian triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. On the other hand, Steiner also said that polytheism is correct; monotheism is only a distant ideal:  “Monotheism or monism can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world, to a comprehensive, complete view of the world.” [2]

In Steiner's view, there is no One and Only God, at least not yet. That God, or at least the reality encompassed by that God, is still being evolved: It is “an ultimate ideal”.

To repeat, then: To whom are Waldorf students praying?

I.

The Godhead

Here is some of what Steiner said about the Godhead. He identified the Godhead as divine will. He depicted a nebulous force that activates the good gods, and good humans, and everything else aside, perhaps, from the evil gods and all the beings that lack real spirit. The Godhead is the “creator spirit” or the “kingdom” into which the good may enter. In this sense, it is blessedness.

“[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.” [3]

Atma is the highest evolutionary stage of human consciousness. Buddhi is a second, lower stage, consisting of the transformed etheric body — one of the three nonphysical bodies that humans possess, according to Steiner. (Mana, not mentioned in this quote, is the third, still lower stage, consisting of the transformed astral body — another of our three nonphysical bodies).  [4] 

If this explanation leaves you still in the dark, that’s how things work in Steinerworld. But maybe we can find a little additional illumination.

“True existence is the incarnation of the Godhead; the world process is the Passion of the incarnated Godhead and at the same time the way of redemption for Him who was crucified in the flesh....” [5]

The Godhead is a spirit that incarnates in true existence (false existence incarnates evil or it has no spiritual component at all). The Godhead, incarnated in Christ and enduring Christ's Passion (the Crucifixion), sacrificed itself for our sake. We ourselves can follow the world process that, if properly unfolded, will lead to our Christ-informed spiritual evolution — toward our own divinity, which may be considered the ultimate fulfillment of the Godhead.

Atma, Buddhi, evolution. This is not your father’s Christianity.

II.

God the Father

Let’s turn to God the Father.  The Godhead and God the Father stand outside humanity, as it were, although they also reside within us. Ultimately, we will be one with the Father — not as companions, but literally as Himself. “[W]e shall have gradually achieved the transformation of our own being into what is called in Christianity ‘the Father.’” [6]

The Father is the creative spirit, in which sense it is the Godhead or a portion of it. It is somewhat like the Creator in the Bible, except that it did not literally create the world — it is the spirit that enables all creation, but creation is an evolutionary process, the handiwork of the many good gods in Steiner’s polytheistic vision. 

Note the quotation marks around “the Father” in the quotation, above. Steiner clearly separated his vision form orthodox or Biblical faith. Steiner felt free to contradict the Bible, even writing or adopting alternatives texts. For example, one version of the “Lord’s Prayer” he used is addressed not to “Our Father which art in heaven” but to “All-Father of Humanity”: "We sense You above in the heavenly heights,/All-Father of Humanity./Consecrated be Your Name.” [7] This unBiblical version of the Lord's Prayer goes on to say “Yours is the claim of Lordship/Yours is the right of Might.” [8] God the Father has a “claim” to Lordship; He has the “right of Might” — but the divine cosmic plan of the Godhead has not yet been fulfilled, the claims of the Lord are not yet realized.

Our own spirituality requires us to see spirit — not God the Father, but "spirit" — as the creator: “We are spiritual beings only when we recognize spirit as creator — the agent that works on and shapes the material world. It is not the worship of some abstract spirit in the clouds....” [9]  Steiner’s God the Father is both more concrete and more vague than a traditional conception of the Biblical God. “The Father” is apart, in Heaven; but He is also all around and inside us, not precisely as He but as It, “an agent,” an impulse.

According to Steiner, "the Father" is certainly not, as shown in the Old Testament, Jehovah. Steiner taught that Jehovah (or Javhe) is only one of several collegial gods, the Elohim: “[The] further evolution of man has only been possible because one of the Elohim, Jahve, accompanied the separation of the Moon — while the other six spirits remained in the Sun — and because Jahve cooperated with His six colleagues....” [10]

As for the bits about the Moon and Sun — don’t worry about them; they are not illuminating at this stage of our discussion. But one thing we can say: This is not your father’s Judaism.

Here's an additional complication. We've been speaking of the "Father" as if He were the Godhead or a part of the Godhead. Steiner spoke this way, sometimes. But Steiner also explicitly said that the "Father God" is a separate, discrete god, and not a very high one. The Father God is the presiding god of Saturn, a Spirit of Form, a god four levels above man. This is not, clearly, the same "Father" we have been discussing. Rather, this is the sort of complication introduced by Steiner's polytheism. "The highest Ruler of Saturn ... appears to us as the Father God, and the highest Ruler of Sun, the Sun-God, as the Christ. Similarly the Ruler of the Moon stage of Earth appears to us as the Holy Spirit....” [11] In this more particular sense, the Father is just one of the guys.

III.

God the Son

Let’s turn our attention to God the Son. In the New Testament, Christ Jesus is one of the three persons of God. Steiner’s conception overlaps this, but it is also extremely different. Christ is, in a way, the Son; but more accurately, according to Steiner, He is the Sun God. “The Sun oracle [a being/place having the power of prophecy] of ancient Atlantis [yes, Atlantis] had already prophesied the coming of Christ, of the Sun-God.” [12]

The spirit of the Sun God entered Jesus, the man, for three years, after which it merged with the Earth. Jesus was merely the man into whom the spirit of the Sun God entered. Early Christians understood these things, more or less, but later Christians forgot: “With greater of less understanding, Christ was thus pictured by the Christians of the first centuries as the mighty ‘Sun God’. [paragraph break] But throughout Christendom at this time the faculty of instinctive clairvoyance once possessed by men was fading away. Then they could no longer see in the sun the great spiritual kingdom at whose centre the Christ once had his abode.” [13] Note that Steiner and/or his editor put the phrase “Sun God” in quote marks. Steiner was not disowning his own description of Christ; Steiner was, rather, trying to be elusive, deep, suggesting that words are hardly adequate to convey his meaning.

Christ came to Earth and quit the Sun. “Christ died to the Sun. He died cosmically, from the Sun to the earth. He came down to the earth. From the moment of Golgotha [Calvary] onwards his Life-Spirit was to be seen around the earth.” [14] The life-spirit is the Buddhi, which I mentioned before. Christ "died to the Sun", meaning that he left the Sun. He, or his body, Jesus, later died on Earth, and Christ the spirit then merged with the Earth.

Dying to the Sun, and later merging with the Earth, is not quite the same thing as dying to redeem our sins. Christ is not so many mankind's savior as the role model humans should follow. "Christ shows himself to him as the great human Prototype and Example, united with the Earth's true evolution." [15] Christ is our opposite but also our fulfillment, the all-encompassing mega-man: “The ‘being’ of Christ should be thought of as the inverse macrocosmic man, but identical with the second aspect of the Divinity, the Logos.”  [16] We are microcosmic men, small reflections of the entire universe, and we become macrocosmic men when we properly follow Christ, who is the living Word of God, Logos.

Digging through all this, you need to remember that Steiner felt free to rewrite the Bible. In lectures presented as THE FIFTH GOSPEL, Steiner “corrects” the Bible by adding a new book to it. In his new gospel, Steiner says that Christ was accompanied on Earth by the demon Ahriman: “[I]t was also possible for Ahriman to be active side by side with the Christ during the three years in which Christ was active in the body of Jesus of Nazareth ... The Christ spirit only united with the three bodies [Jesus's physical, etheric, and astral bodies] gradually in a process that took three years.” [17]

This is not your father’s Bible.

IV.

The Holy Spirit

Finally, at long last, let’s consider the third person of the Christian triune God. It is the most nebulous of the three persons. It is, in a sense, what Christ bequeathed humanity. “[T]he living spirit speaks to us again. [paragraph break] It is no formula devised by human cleverness, the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is a reality deeply bound up with the whole evolution of the cosmos; and it becomes for us a living, not dead, knowledge when we bring to life within ourselves the Christ Who, as the Risen One, is the bringer of the Holy Spirit.” [18]

Note that the triune God is a formula devised by “human cleverness.” It is not the real deal.

Three of Steiner’s devotees may help us, here. In one sense, the Holy Spirit is a light beckoning us onward in our evolution: A “light appears from the future ... It is this, so to speak, beckoning light that Steiner speaks of as the Holy Spirit....” [19] And, the “individual comprehension of the Christ Impulse is described by Steiner as the gift of the Holy Spirit, the direct reception of which is celebrated at Whitsun.” [20] The Christ-Impulse is the spiritual impetus and ability activated in us by Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us this impulse as a gift. Whitsun or Whitsuntide (or Pentecost) is a celebration of this gift. At Waldorf schools, Whitsun is "the festival of awakening, or free individuality, of baptism ... Whitsun/Pentecost is both moveable and fixed [in the calendar], in that it follows fifty days after Easter; that is to say, the experience of death and resurrection leads in due course to the experience of understanding oneself as a spiritual being." [21]

But, as always, let's turn to Steiner himself for the real deal. Steiner taught that the Holy Spirit is the "universal I" — that is, the universal spiritual ego, the spark of divine selfhood and illumination. During the process of initiation, the human astral body is purified, becoming the perfect receptive human soul with its inborn wisdom: the "Virgin Sophia". “Through all that is received during catharsis, the student cleanses and purifies the astral body so that it becomes transformed into the Virgin Sophia. Moreover, when the Virgin Sophia encounters the cosmic, or universal 'I' which leads to illumination, the student is surrounded by spiritual light ... If you prefer, one may say 'overshadowed by the "Holy Spirit," or cosmic, universal 'I.'" [22]

On other occasions, Steiner indicated that the Holy Spirit is itself the receptive feminine aspect of spirituality. "One could also say that the ‘Holy Spirit’ is the (feminine) ‘Mother’ principle of the (male) ‘Son’ principle, Christ. We owe the development of the ‘Christ in us’ to the ‘Holy Spirit’ (the female creator of Christ)." [23] The procreative power of the "mother" finds expression in our souls. “Here we have one of the central conceptions of Mystery-teaching, which acknowledges the human soul as the mother of god.” [24] In a sense, as we attain divinity and become "what is called in Christianity ‘the Father'”, we will have created God. And we will have done it thanks in large measure to the "mother" of God: Sophia/Artemis/Eve/Mary, who may be thought of as the Holy Spirit.

V.

God(s)

Here are some additional statements which may or may not tend toward illumination. Trying to make all of Steiner's statements consistent with one another is, at a minimum, taxing. Sometimes it is better to just let the words flow.

“We must acquire the possibility of conceiving of the Christ in such a way that we do not identify Him with the Father god. Many of the modern evangelical theologians are no longer able to differentiate between the general concept of God and the concept of the Christ. To be unable to find the Christ in life is a different matter from being unable to find the Father God. You know that it is not here a matter of doubting the Divinity of the Christ. It is a matter of clear differentiation, in the sphere of the Divine, between the Father God and the Christ God. This comes to expression in the soul of man. Not to find God the Father is a disease; not to find the Christ is a misfortune. For the human being is so connected with the Christ as to be inwardly dependent upon this connection. He is, however, also dependent upon that which has taken place as a historical event. He must find a connection with the Christ here upon earth, in external life. If he does not find it is a misfortune. Not to find the Father god, to be an atheist, is an illness. Not to find the Son God, the Christ, is a misfortune.” [25]

•••

“It was by turning their gaze into the past that the men of those ancient times felt the reality of spiritual things. ‘I must look back beyond my birth, far into the past, if I would see the Spiritual. There is the Spirit; out of that Spirit I am born; that Spirit must I find again. But I have departed far from Him.’

“Thus did man feel the Spirit from whom he had departed, as the Spirit of the Father God. The highest Initiate in the Mysteries was he who evolved in his heart and soul the forces whereby he could make manifest the Father in his own external human being. When the pupils crossed the threshold of the Mysteries and came into those sacred places which were institutions of Art and Science and of the sacred religious Rites at the same time, and when at length they stood before the highest Initiate, they saw in him the representative of the Father God. The ‘Fathers’ were higher Initiates than the ‘Sun-Heroes.’ ... Thus in the course of human evolution, in the consciousness of man, the ‘Out of God — out of the Father God — we are born,’ was supplemented by the word of life, of comfort and of strength, ‘In Christ we die’ — that is to say, in Him we live.” [26]

•••

“How are we to think about the Father God with truly spiritual comprehension

“Let us consider human beings, first in day-waking consciousness, then in night-sleeping consciousness, and let us compare the two states. We know that in full waking consciousness individuals are living as they have been placed to live within the order of this physical world. Just as the earth has had earlier stages of evolution — Saturn, Sun, Moon — and will undergo further evolution, so must humans themselves be recognized as the result of those earlier evolutionary periods. In this sense they belong in their waking state to the earth; by their nature they stand within the sphere of the earth. In waking condition they stand on a level with nature.

“It is not the same when human beings sleep. When we are asleep our physical and etheric bodies lie on the bed, and our astral body and ego are outside them. Let us look at the physical and etheric bodies. Of what do we consist, lying there in our physical and etheric bodies? We have — of course, at a more advanced stage — what we received in the old Saturn evolution and the old Sun evolution. That is now further evolved; we have the further development of our Saturn and Sun existence now during sleep. We do not have our Moon existence in what lies there on the bed. Nature has progressed from Moon existence to Earth existence. And the fact that the sleep condition is essential to us means that nature preserves in the sleeping human being a nature that is now below, a nature that only existed during the Saturn and Sun periods. That is subnature. That lies at the foundation of all beings through the fact that there is a human race. Humans fall during sleep into subnature, and from this fall illnesses appear. That is the realm of the Father God. When we sleep we enter the realm of the Father God, we enter subnature, the realm of the Father.” [27]

•••

“For in early Christian times, up to about the third or fourth century, when there was still a good deal of the Oriental wisdom in Christianity, men were occupying themselves intently with the question of the difference between the Father God and God the Son. These fine differences that engaged attention in the early Christian centuries have long ceased to have meaning for modern man, who has been occupied in developing egohood as a result of the influences I have described.

“A kind of untruth has thus found its way into modern religious consciousness. Through inner experience, through his analysis and synthesis of the world, man comes to the Father God. From tradition, he has God the Son. The Gospels speak of Him, tradition speaks of Him. Man has the Christ, he wants to acknowledge Him — but through inner experience he has Him no longer. Therefore he takes what he should apply only to the Father God and transfers it to the Christ God. Modern theology has not the Christ at all; it has only the Father — but it calls the Father ‘Christ,’ because it has received the tradition of the Christ Being in history and, quite naturally, wants to be Christian. If we were honest, we should simply be unable to call ourselves Christians in modern times.” [28]

•••

“Those who know that the progress of mankind depends upon living apprehension of the mighty Event of Golgotha are they who as the ‘Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings’ are united in the great Guiding Lodge of mankind. And as once the ‘tongues of fire’ hovered down as a living symbol upon the company of the apostles, so does the ‘Holy Spirit’ announced by Christ Himself reign as the Light over the Lodge of the Twelve. The Thirteenth is the Leader of the Lodge of the Twelve. The ‘Holy Spirit’ is the mighty Teacher of those we name the ‘Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings’. It is through them that his voice and his wisdom flow down to mankind in this or that stream upon the earth.” [29]

•••

"A Lodge of twelve Bodhisattvas [enlightened beings, Buddhas] is to be regarded as the Lodge directing all Earth evolution. The concept of ‘Teacher’ familiar to us at lower stages of existence can be applied, in essentials, to these twelve Bodhisattvas. They are Teachers, the great Inspirers of one portion or another of what mankind has to acquire.

"Whence do these Bodhisattvas receive what they have to proclaim from epoch to epoch? — 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. He is the Leader and Guide of the great Lodge of the Bodhisattvas. Hence the content of the proclamation made through the whole choir of the Bodhisattvas is the teaching concerning Christ, once called Vishva Karman. The Bodhisattva who became Buddha five to six centuries before our era was endowed with the powers of Vishva Karman. The Nathan Jesus who received the Christ into himself was not merely ‘endowed’ but ‘anointed’ — that is to say, permeated through and through by Vishva Karman, by Christ." [30]

If you don't follow all of this, it is because you have not adequately purified your astral body.

 

— Roger Rawlings

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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. 

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"The animals, the sun, the soil, the rain, all of these are important and necessary on the farm. 

But only God's grace will help the animals to be born and the plants to grow."

God is honored in Waldorf schools — and so are "the gods"

(Steiner said that polytheism is truth).

Whenever you see a Waldorf practice that seems consistent with mainstream monotheistic religion,

you may want to dig deeper.

[Waldorf student work.]

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According to Steiner, God is

our evolutionary goal — the being

atop the universal hierarchies.

Eventually we ourselves will become

God the Father.

[RHETORICA CHRISTIANA, 1579.]

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The Creation.

[William Blake.]

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[R. R.]

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Charts of Ramon Lull's occult art, meant to lay out divine wisdom.

See "Gnosis".

[Martin Gardner, SCIENCE: GOOD, BAD AND BOGUS (Prometheus Books, 1989), p. 45.]

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ENDNOTES

[1] Here are the two prayers generally used in Waldorf schools, both of them written by Steiner for use by the students. They can be found in Rudolf Steiner, PRAYERS FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995).

“The Sun with loving light 

Makes bright for me each day; 

The soul with spirit power 

Gives strength unto my limbs; 

In sunlight shining clear 

I reverence, O God, 

The strength of humankind, 

That thou so graciously 

Hast planted in my soul, 

That I with all my might 

May love to work and learn. 

From Thee come light and strength, 

To Thee rise love and thanks.”

“I look into the world; 

In which the Sun shines, 

In which the stars sparkle, 

In which the stones lie, 

The living plants are growing, 

The animals are feeling, 

In which the soul of man 

Gives dwelling for the spirit; 

I look into the soul 

Which lives within myself. 

God’s spirit weaves in light 

Of Sun and human soul, 

In world of space, without, 

In depths of soul, within. 

God’s spirit, ‘tis to Thee 

I turn myself in prayer, 

That strength and blessing grow 

In me, to learn and work.”

Some schools substitute the term “Creator Spirit” and/or “World Creator” for “God’s spirit.” Thus, at the Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor (Michigan) the second prayer ends this way:

“I look into the soul,

That lives within my being

The World Creator weaves

In sunlight and in soul light,

In world space there without

In soul depths here within.

To Thee Creator Spirit

I will now turn my heart

To ask that strength and blessing

For learning and for work

May ever grow within me.”

http://www.steinerschool.org/public/inside/default.aspx 

— I last checked this on July 1, 2009.

For an analysis of these prayers, see "Prayer" here at Waldorf Watch.

[2] Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 115.

Steiner said that the Trinity exists, but so do other trinities. The Christian triune God exists, but in a distant sense, beyond a plethora of other gods who are nearer to us and more busy in our affairs. The highest attendants of God have experienced the presence of the Trinity, but perhaps only they. "The Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones come from an earlier solar system. They have been in the vicinity of the highest godhead of all, namely the Trinity." [Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES (Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1928), synopsis of Lecture 5.]

In a sense, on the matter of origins and ultimate powers, Steiner cops out. He focuses on events in our own solar system, which is distant from the "highest godhead", and he discourages investigation into ultimate origins. “In a purely intellectual way it is possible, of course, in the case of every given origin, to ask again after its origin ... [But in doing this] we only prolong questioning, as it were, mechanically ... [T]he facts themselves will put a natural end to questioning.” [Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), pp. 126-127.]

The Godhead as conceived by Steiner most closely resembles the Hindu Brahma. Steiner said the universe is polytheistic, but he also said that all of the many gods arise (like everything else) from an underlying, unified "principle" or spirit. "Monism or monotheism in itself can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world, to a comprehensive, concrete view of the world. Nevertheless, in the post-Atlantean age the current of monotheism also had to be represented, so that the urge, the impulse toward monotheism devolved upon a single people, the Semitic people. The monistic principle is reflected in this people by a certain rigidity or inflexibility, whilst all the other peoples, in so far [sic] as their different divinities are comprehended in a unity, receive the impulse toward monism from them. The other peoples are inclined to pluralism.

"It is extremely important that this should be borne in mind and whoever is concerned with the continuance of the old Hebraic impulse will find the extremes of monotheism at the present day Monotheism amongst the learned Rabbis, in Rabbinism. The task of this particular people to propagate the doctrine that a single ultimate principle underlies the world. The task of all other peoples and Time Spirits was analytic, to representing the one World-Principle as being articulated into different Beings. In India, for example, the ultimate abstraction of the Unity underlying all things was divided into a tri-unity, just as the one god of Christianity is divided into Three Persons." [THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, pp. 115-116.]

Steiner tried to affirm both polytheism and monotheism, which is logically absurd. "Pluralism is not possible without monism. We must recognize the necessity for both." [Ibid., p. 116.] As a point about mental concepts, this is true: One concept implies its opposite; we must have both concepts. But applied to existential reality, the concept is wrong. In reality, the universe is either one or the other, a monotheistic reality or a pluralistic reality. Thus, there may be one and only one god (monotheism), but in order to exist this god does not require the existence of multiple other gods (polytheism). Indeed, the existence of multiple gods would mean that there is no single, one-and-only god.

So, if pushed to the wall, what would Steiner say? "Monism or monotheism in itself can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world."

[3] Rudolf Steiner, THE LORD'S PRAYER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007), p. 64.] 

[4] OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE, p. 332, translator’s note; also Gary Lachman, RUDOLF STEINER (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2007), p. 141.

[5] Rudolf Steiner, INTUITIVE THINKING AS A SPIRITUAL PATH (Wilder Publications, 2008), p. 92. A different translation is available from the Anthroposophic Press.

[6] Rudolf Steiner, THE LORD’S PRAYER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007), p. 17.

Many of Steiner's remarks come to us not from books he wrote but from lectures he delivered. Faithful adherents made transcriptions. Whether or not certain words should be put in quotation marks was, in these cases, a matter of interpretation. If the transcriber understood Steiner to put a certain spin on certain words, s/he may or may not have decided to put these words inside quotation marks.

[7] Rudolf Steiner, START NOW! A Book of Soul and Spiritual Exercises (SteinerBooks, 2004), p. 220.

[8] Ibid., p. 220.

[9] THE SPIRITUAL GROUND OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2004), p. 49.

[10] Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 99.

[11]  Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 100.

For more on this theme, see "Polytheism".

[12]  Rudolf Steiner, THE PRINCIPLE OF SPIRITUAL ECONOMY IN CONNECTION WITH QUESTIONS OF REINCARNATION (Anthroposophic Press, 1986). p. 5.

[13] Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, Vol. VI (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1989),  p. 125.

[14] Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, Vol. VIII (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1975), p. 78.

[15] OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE, p. 272.

[16]  Rudolf Steiner, CORRESPONDENCE AND DOCUMENTS 1901-1925 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1989), p. 83.

[17] Rudolf Steiner, THE FIFTH GOSPEL, (Rudolf Steiner Press), p. 225.

[18] Rudolf Steiner, UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), p. 75.

[19] Stewart C. Easton, MAN AND WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), p. 163.

[20] THE SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION OF MORALITY (Anthroposophic Press, 1995), introduction by Malcolm Ian Gardner, p. xiv.

[21] "Whitsun or Pentecost", by Karen Mortenson, WALDORF EDUCATION: A Family Guide (Michaelmas Press, 1995), edited by Pamela Johnson Fenner and Karen L. Rivers, p. 171.

Whistun may also be mixed, at Waldorfs, with the Jewish Shavu'ot and other observances. 

[22] Rudolf Steiner, "Christ, the Virgin Sophia, and the Holy Spirit", THE NEW ESSENTIAL STEINER (Lindisfarne Books, 2009), ed. Robert McDermott, p. 164.

For more about Sophia, see "Goddess".

[23] Rudolf Steiner, ISIS MARY SOPHIA (SteinerBooks, 2003), p. 49.

[24] Rudolf Steiner, THE MYSTERIES: Rudolf Steiner's Writings of Spiritual Initiation (Floris Books, 1997), ed. Andrew Welburn, p. 86.

[25] Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 4, GA 174a.

[26] Rudolf Steiner, “The Mystery of Golgotha” (ANTHROPOSOPHY QUARTERLY, Vol. 1 (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1926), a lecture, GA 214.

[27] Rudolf Steiner, PASTORAL MEDICINE (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), lecture 11, GA 318.

[28] Rudolf Steiner, “The Seeds of Future Worlds” (THE GOLDEN BLADE, 1963),  a lecture, GA 207.

[29] Rudolf Steiner, THE DEED OF CHRIST (Steiner Book Centre, 1954), lecture 1, March 22, 1909, GA 107.

[30] Rudolf Steiner, THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1964), lecture 7, GA 114.

Re. the "Nathan Jesus": see "Was He Christian?"

[Ernst Haeckel, ART FORMS IN NATURE (Dover Publications, 1974).]

There is clearly much beauty, symmetry, even "design" in nature.

Whether this amounts to evidence that a designer — a Creator — exists

is, perhaps, open to question.

Many people in the modern, Western world

— perhaps a majority —

believe that God exists.

But Steiner would have us believe in a vast pantheon of gods, 

nature spirits, and other invisible beings.

To substantiate his vision, he offered essentially

his unsupported word —

he used "exact clairvoyance," he assured his followers.

Really, he said, he did.

And he assured them that if they accept his word,

and follow his directions, and develop exact clairvoyance too,

then they will see exactly what he saw.

Really.