Koguzki, Felix (1833-1909) - also see M.

The herb gardner who first gave Steiner occult initiation, according to Steiner. Steiner claimed he also received a second initiation later. [See "Rosy Cross".]

Felix Koguzki.

[Public domain.]

Krishna - also see avatars

a) A Hindu god, an incarnation of Vishnu.

b) According to Steiner, the architect of human self-consciousness; an avatar. "[T]he great spiritual Beings, the Avatars, descend and incarnate in human bodies from time to time when men are in need of help. They are Beings who for the purpose of their own development need not come down into a human body, for their own human stage of evolution had been completed in an earlier world-cycle. They descend in order to help mankind. Thus when help was needed, the great God Vishnu descended into earthly existence. One of the embodiments of Vishnu — namely, Krishna — speaks of Himself, saying unambiguously what the nature of an Avatar is." — R. Steiner. [See "Avatars".]

Krita Yuga

The golden age (short and long); from Hinduism, the first of four world ages. [See "Biodynamics".] "Higher knowledge speaks of this age when man was still united with the divine-spiritual Beings as the Golden Age, or Krita Yuga. It is an age of great antiquity, the most important period of which actually preceded the Atlantean catastrophe. Then came an age when men no longer felt their connection with the divine-spiritual world as strongly as during Krita Yuga, when: they no longer felt that their impulses were determined by their life with the Gods, when their vision of the spirit and the soul was already clouded. Nevertheless, there still remained in them a memory of their life with the spiritual Beings and the Gods." — R. Steiner, TRUE NATURE OF THE SECOND COMING (Anthroposophical Publishing Co, 1961), lecture 1, GA 118.

Kronos (Chronus) - see Saturn

In ancient Greek mythology, the supreme god before being deposed by Zeus. [See "Zodiac".] “[E]verything that has made itself independent as a result of a saturnine activity [i.e., the influence of Saturn] is doomed at the same time, because of this saturnine activity, to destroy itself again. Saturn, or Kronos, devours his own children, so the myth tells us. Here you see a deeply significant harmony between an occult idea, expressed in the name Kronos or Saturn, and a myth which expresses the same thing in a picture, a symbol: ‘Kronos devours his own children!’” — R. Steiner, AN OCCULT PHYSIOLOGY (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1951), lecture 3, GA 128.

Kyriotetes - also see Spirits of Wisdom

Gods six levels above man, according to Steiner. “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. Before they could become conscious of the reflection of their own life, proceeding from the warmth-bodies of Saturn, they had first to make these bodies capable of bringing about such a reflection. Hence their activity began soon after the commencement of Saturn evolution, at a time when the Saturn corporeality was still chaotic substance which could not have reflected anything ... 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”.]

---

- L -

larynx

The voice box; according to Steiner, it will become the new reproductive organ. Our thoughts and words create real spiritual beings who exist in the spirit realm. In the future, all of our reproductive activities will occur in this transcendent manner. [See "Steiner's Blunders".] "The larynx will appear to [the initiate] to be an organ that is quite in the beginning of its evolution and has a great future before it. From what the larynx itself tells, he will feel that it is like a seed, not at all like a fruit or like a withered object, but like a seed. He knows quite clearly from what the larynx itself brings to expression that a time must come in human evolution when the larynx will be completely transformed, when it will be of such a nature that whereas now man only utters the word, he will one day give birth to man. The larynx is the future organ of birth, the future organ of procreation. Now man brings forth the word by means of the larynx, but the larynx is the seed that will in future times develop to bring forth the whole human being — that is, when man is spiritualised." — R. Steiner, THE WORLD OF THE SENSES AND THE WORLD OF THE SPIRIT (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1947), lecture 2, GA 134.

lazure

A wall-painting technique often used in Waldorf schools, accounting for much of the visual appeal of the schools: many thin layers of paint are applied over a white surface to create unusually vibrant colors. [See "Ex-Teacher".]

leader - also see Buddha; Christ; White Lodge

According to Steiner, the highly evolved spirit giving correct guidance to a group. For an interesting example, let's look at a passage in which a Waldorf teacher discusses the Biblical story of Noah and the Floor. The Waldorf take on such matters may surprise some readers. "Many people, and also giants, now lived on the earth but men had become wicked ... The story refers to the sinking of the continent of Atlantis ... Noah, or Manu, as he is known elsewhere [i.e., in other religions and/or mythologies], was the leader of the sun-oracle of Atlantis [i.e., a center of occult knowledge] ... He was the most advanced leader and he was obviously still in touch with the creators of the Earth, the Elohim or Spirits of Form ... Noah gathered together people sufficiently mature and, knowing that the catastrophe was coming, emigrated to the center of Asia ... Here he set up a cultural or mystery center from which the early Post-Atlantis civilizations were inspired." — R. Wilkinson,  COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT STORIES (Henry Goulden, 1984). pp. 20-21. Reprinted by the Rudolf Steiner College Press. [See "Old Testament". Note that Wilkinson takes his "knowledge" from Steiner, who said these things but also gave differing accounts on some points, such as who created the Earth. There are many inconsistencies in Anthroposophical doctrines. They cohere or merge only in the occult murk underlying Waldorf education.]

  

A geometric form, essentially a figure eight. Steiner found occult significance in the form. He said, for instance, that the Sun and planets travel along a spiral path that inscribes a lemniscate in the heavens. “[W]hat has been said until now about [planetary] movements is not quite correct. In reality it is a case of a movement like this (lemniscatory screw-movement): Here, for example, [in position 1] we have the Sun; here are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and here are Venus, Mercury, and Earth. Now they all move in the direction indicated [spiral line], moving ahead one behind the other, so that when the Sun has progressed to the second position we have Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars here, and we have Venus, Mercury, and Earth over there. Now the Sun continues to revolve and progresses to here [position 3]. This creates the illusion that Earth revolves round the Sun. The truth is that the Sun goes ahead, and the Earth creeps continually after it.” — R. Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS, Foundation of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 168. [See "Deception".]

Lemuria - also see Atlantis

A lost continent; according to Steiner, mankind’s home before Atlantis. Steiner taught that we occupied Lemuria during the third stage of our evolution on Earth. It was the first stage during which we became civilized. “The ancestors of the Atlanteans lived in a region which has disappeared, the main part of which lay south of contemporary Asia. In theosophical writings they are called the Lemurians. After they had passed through various stages of development the greatest part of them declined. These became stunted men, whose descendants still inhabit certain parts of the earth today as so-called savage tribes. Only a small part of Lemurian humanity was capable of further development.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner Static" and "Past and Future".]

[Rajput Press, 1911.]

leprosy

A disfiguring contagious disease; according to Steiner, spread by demonic beings. “[W]ith the dying out of the worst parts of the ancient population of which I have been speaking [in Asia], the whole region gradually became filled with demonic beings ... Their influence can best be seen at the time of the Great Migrations, when large masses of people, including Attila and his hordes, came over from Asia and caused great terror among the people in Europe. This terror made the population susceptible to the influences of the demonic beings ... As a consequence of the terror produced by the hordes coming over from Asia, there gradually developed what manifested during the Middle Ages as the epidemic of leprosy.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner's Quackery".]

libraries (and Ahriman) - also see Ahriman; brain; intellect; knowledge; cf. living thoughts

According to Steiner, repositories of dead information. “One of the things Ahriman wants for us is that we produce lots of libraries, storing lots of dead knowledge all around us.” — R. Steiner. [See "Thinking".]

lies, lying

According to Steiner, a consequence of karma and a cause of karmic effects. "Let us suppose that in one life a person manifests a particular tendency towards telling lies ... If a person is untruthful, the actions which proceed from untruthfulness will again arouse the most forcible feelings against himself in the life after death ... Spiritual Science shows that a fickle life which knows neither devotion nor love — a superficial life in one incarnation — expresses itself in the tendency to lying in the next incarnation; and in the third incarnation this tendency to lying manifests itself in incorrectly formed organs. Thus we can karmically trace the effects in three consecutive incarnations: superficiality and fickleness in the first incarnation, the tendency to lying in the second, and the physical disposition to disease in the third incarnation." — R. Steiner.  [See "Morality".]

life before birth - see pre-earthly life; reincarnation

According to Steiner, we live many earthly lives, and before each earthly birth we live in the spirit realm. "If you cannot manage to see every human being as a cosmic mystery, you will not get beyond the sense that people are no more than mechanisms, and if such a feeling were cultivated, it would lead to the downfall of earthly culture. On the other hand, earthly culture is raised only when we permeate education with the feeling that the whole human being has cosmic significance. And this cosmic feeling arises only when we regard the content of human feeling as belonging to the period between birth and death. Human thinking indicates the period before birth, and what exists in the human will points to what comes after death as a seed for the future. As the threefold human being stands before us, first we see what belongs to the time before birth, then we see what lies between birth and death, and, third, we see what awaits us after death. Our life before birth enters our existence as images, and the seed of what lies beyond death exists within us even before death." — R. Steiner. [See "Advice".]

life body - see etheric body

Life Conditions - see Conditions of Life

Life Kingdoms - see Conditions of Life

life sciences - see biology; botany; earth science

 

Life Spirit - also see ego; etheric body; soul; spirit

Steiner's description of the human bodily/soul/spiritual constitution was highly complex. At various times, he said we have four, seven, or nine major component parts. The life spirit is a high component, part of our spiritual nature; Budhi or Buddhi. It is the transformed etheric body, also an advanced stage of human consciousness. It is permeated by "I." "This member may be called the second spiritual member, the life spirit. (It is called 'buddhi' in Oriental wisdom.) The expression 'life spirit' is the appropriate term for the reason that the same forces are active in what it designates as in the 'life body'; only, in these forces, when they manifest themselves as life body, the human ego is not active. If they manifest as life spirit, however, they are permeated by the activity of the I." — R. Steiner. [See "Our Parts".]

light, nature of - also see electricity; Goethean science

According to Steiner, light consists of emanations coming from distant spiritual beings. It decays and becomes electricity. Steiner affirmed Goethe's description of light and rejected Newton's; and then he added his own professed clairvoyant insights. 

“If we look up to the stars, we can say that something streams from them [i.e., light] that can be perceived by the human being's sense organs here on earth ... [I]t proceeds from beings of intelligence and will whose life is bound up with those stars. The effects appear to be physical because the stars are at a distance. They are not really physical at all. What you see are the activities of beings of will and intelligence in the stars. I have spoken to you of the ingenious description of the sun given by astrophysicists. But if it were possible to journey to the sun it would be found with amazement that nothing of what is to be expected from these physical descriptions exists ... What we see is in reality the working of will and intelligence which at a distance appears as light.” — R. Steiner. 

[See "Overhead".]

light, spirits of - also see blood; cf. spirits of darkness

In Anthroposophical doctrine, beneficent gods. "Through millennia, the progressive spirits of light guided humanity by means of blood bonds. They brought people together in families, tribes, nations and races, uniting those who belonged together on the Basis of truly ancient human and world karma. With their feeling for those blood bonds people then also had a feeling for missions which went a very long way back in the world, missions designed to make the blood bonds — which, of course, came from the earth — part of the general human karma. If one turns one's attention to the spiritual world during the 1820s and 1830s, when the souls which were later to enter into human bodies were still in that world, one finds that the souls which were about to descend had certain impulses which, among other things, were due to the fact that for millennia they had been bound to particular families, tribes, nations and races each time they were on earth. From the 1840s onwards these souls were meant to make the decision to enter into particular bodies. For the 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.  — R. Steiner, THE FALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), lecture 13, GA 177.

The Waldorf curriculum emphasizes legends, myths, folk tales, and other narratives considered spiritually true (i.e., affirmed by clairvoyance). [See "Oh My Word".]

Although he claimed that Anthroposophy is a science, Steiner indicated that logic is useful primarily at the low level of material or physical existence; it is largely irrelevant at higher levels of being. Although he repeatedly stressed the need for a logical approach to spiritual investigation, his own work is often devoid of logic. [See "Steiner's Illogic".] On some occasions, he said that logic is the same at all levels of existence — material and spiritual — but on other occasions he indicated that the supersensible realm and its truths transcend logic just as they exceed the reach of our senses. Certainly, he taught, as we evolve to higher and higher states of consciousness, merely rational thought will be less and less valuable to us — we will proceed to high forms of clairvoyance that ultimately will provide complete, instantaneous awareness of spiritual reality. The gods operate at a level far beyond rationality and superior even to intuition. "[W]hat actually concerns these beings, what they themselves need in order to guide human evolution, can only be observed by means of a mode of cognition that transcends intuition. This points to worlds whose lowest spiritual concerns can be viewed as including Earth’s highest spiritual concerns. For example, rational conclusions are among the highest concerns within the earthly domain, while the effects of the mineral kingdom are among the lowest. In these higher realms, rational conclusions are the approximate equivalent of mineral effects on Earth. Beyond the domain of intuition lies the domain where the cosmic plan is fashioned out of spiritual causes." — R. Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 409.

logicism - also see logic; mathematics

a) A mathematical school that equates mathematics with logic.

b) According to Steiner, one of the seven world outlooks. “The special mark of Logicism consists in its enabling the soul to connect thoughts, concepts and ideas with one another. As when in looking at an organism one comes from the eyes to the nose and the mouth and regards them as all belonging to each other, so Hegel arranges all the concepts that he can lay hold of into a great concept-organism — a logical concept-organism. Hegel was simply able to seek out everything in the world that can be found as thought, to link together thought with thought, and to make an organism of it — Logicism!" — R. Steiner. Steiner associated logicism with Jupiter. [See “Philosophy”.]

Logoi - also see Godhead; Logos

According to Steiner, three gods comprising the Godhead. ("Logoi" is the plural form of "Logos.") "Here we have three definitions of Beings who bring about, who underlie a planetary chain. They are called the three Logoi. The Third Logos produces by means of combining. When out of one substance something else having new life comes into being, this is brought forth by the Second Logos. Everywhere, however, where we have to do with a coming forth out of nothing, we have the First Logos. This is why the First Logos is also often called the One who is immanent in things, the Second Logos the One who in the quiescent substance in things creates life out of the living, the Third Logos the One who combines everything existing, who puts the world together out of things." — R. Steiner.  [See "All".]

 

Logos - also see Gnosis; Logoi

a) The Word of God.

b) Often, gnostic or esoteric knowledge of the Word.

c) Sometimes, Gnosis itself. [See "Best".]

d) According to Steiner, one of the three Logoi; especially Christ. “When the Intellectual or Mind-Soul was unfolded, it was through the reality alone that man could continue to be preserved from being severed from the Divine-Spiritual Beings who belonged to him. The Divine had to enter inwardly as Being, even in the earthly life, into the Organization of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul ... This took place through the Divine-Spiritual Logos, Christ, uniting His cosmic destiny with the Earth....” — R. Steiner. [See "Gnosis".]

Loki - also see Lucifer; Norse myths

a) In Norse mythology: a trickster god.

b) According to Steiner: a real being: the disguised Lucifer. “Lucifer conceals himself behind the figure of Loki who has a remarkably iridescent form.” — R. Steiner. [See "The Gods".]

 

Loki.

[Public domain.]

The Lord’s Prayer

The model prayer offered by Jesus; Steiner used several reworked versions. The most radical is this: 

"AUM.

AMEN.

Evils reign

Bearing witness to I-being

Separating itself

and to selfhood's guilt —

Incurred through others,

Experienced in the daily bread

Wherein the will of heaven

Does not reign,

Because humanity

Has separated itself

From Your Kingdom

And forgot your names

Ye Fathers in the Heavens."

 — R. Steiner. [See "Power Words".] (There is some debate over whether Steiner actually began this version of the prayer with "Aum".)

lotus flower - also see chakras

The lower of two levels of Spiritland, otherwise called the spirit world and/or Devachan. In Steiner's teachings (developed from Theosophy), souls ascend through higher worlds during sleep, during evolution, and between lives. To assume physical form, a spirit is conceived as an archetype in Higher Spiritland, is made specific in Lower Spiritland, receives an imagined form in the soul world, and becomes material in the physical world. The ascent to spiritual improvement works in the opposite direction. 

Steiner's use of various terms often fluctuated, so it is always best to be cautious in seeking the sense of his statements. "When a man goes through the first stages of initiation, he can raise himself clairvoyantly to the world of the lower spirit-land; he experiences conceptions of what has to do with the soul, of what is moral and what is intellectual. He looks down on all that is going on in souls, even if they do not comprehend themselves as ego beings. This comprehension of one's being as an ego being, together with all the blossoming of spiritual life in the initiates, is experienced in the higher spirit-land with one single exception that is right and good if it can happen as an exception that breaks through the general rule. From the lower spirit-land one sees the whole being of Christ Jesus! So that, looking back in a purely human way, and holding fast to what is present in remembrance, you have a memory of Christ Jesus and of all the events that have taken place in connection with Him, that is, if the other condition of which I spoke in the second lecture has already been fulfilled. The truth about the other initiates, however, you experience for the first time in the higher spirit-land." — R. Steiner, INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1980), lecture 5, GA 138.

Forebears of humanity, advanced spiritual beings who passed through the human level of evolution before us. They became human on the Moon and have risen to the rank of lowly gods (Angels) during the Earth cycle of evolution. "[T]he Moon Spirits now stand above the human being. They are also called 'Lunar Pitris', 'Moon Fathers' and 'Spirits of Twilight ... The Angels are the Spirits immediately above man, who passed through their human stage upon the ancient Moon." — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY AND ROSICRUCIANISM (General Anthroposophical Society, 1942), lecture 9, GA 100.

Steiner taught that modern technology is destructive, even demonic. Machines, as products of this technology, hold terrible dangers. “[I]f we could make our thoughts and ideas effective rather than just having them, within us ... our life of thoughts would have a deathly, paralyzing effect. This is because such thoughts and ideas are in a certain way destructive for everything that is grasped by them ... They only bring about destruction when they come to expression in machines, in tools which are something dead that has been removed from living nature.” — R. Steiner, SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), p. 33. 

manas - see Spirit Self

manes - see Spirit Self; cf. Mani; Manu

Mani - see Manichaeism

Third-century (AD) Persian religious teacher, founder of Manichaeism. [See "Manichaeism".]

Manichaeism

A gnostic, dualistic Persian religion. [See "Manichaeism".]

                

mantra, mantram - also see meditations in Anthroposophy; prayers

A component of meditation, often a repeated word or sound intended to focus and clear the mind. "In the Mysteries there were leaders and guides who were not unlike our modern doctors of medicine. The modern doctor gives his advice about man's body. That is quite understandable, and no reproach is intended. But the leaders in the Mysteries, who were also physicians, would for example, if a man suffered from some physical infirmity, give instruction as to how he could better his relationship to Venus, or it may be to Saturn. It was thus advice for the soul that these leaders in the Mysteries gave. Let us suppose a physician of this kind found that the person who had come to him for healing was too strongly attracted to his physical body. Instead of feeling his body merely as a garment for his soul, he was firmly bound to it, rather like a man of the present day who persisted in sleeping in his clothes. The physician would say to such a person: When the Moon is full, try going out for a walk in its light, when it is rising in the evening; and while you walk, repeat a certain mantram." — R. Steiner. [See "Power Words".]

              

Manu - also see Atlantis; initiate; leader; Noah; race

According to Waldorf belief, Noah: a high initiate from Atlantis. "Many people, and also giants, now lived on the earth but men had become wicked ... The story refers to the sinking of the continent of Atlantis ... Noah, or Manu, as he is known elsewhere, was the leader of the sun-oracle of Atlantis ... He was the most advanced leader and he was obviously still in touch with the creators of the Earth, the Elohim or Spirits of Form ... Noah gathered together people sufficiently mature and, knowing that the catastrophe was coming, emigrated to the center of Asia ... Here he set up a cultural or mystery center from which the early Post-Atlantis civilizations were inspired." — R. Wilkinson. [See "Old Testament".]

"Manu" may be taken as a name but also as a title. "Then came the great Flood. The less advanced Atlanteans went from West to East, settling in the lands of Europe. The most advanced of all went towards Asia and founded in Central Asia the great colony of the Manu. The Manu was the lofty Being who was the leader of this handful of the most advanced Atlanteans who went with him to Central Asia and from there called the different cultures to life. It must here be borne in mind that in Asia and Africa, as the result of earlier and later migrations, and through other peoples who were descendants of still earlier epochs, the countries were inhabited, and these pupils of the Manu went out in various directions in order to spread new strews of culture. The first mission went from Central Asia to India. The Manu sent his first pupils to India; he himself, for certain reasons, withdrew into the background." — R. Steiner, "A Chapter of Occult History", ANTHROPOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1969), GA 108.

manvantaras - see Conditions of Consciousness

Mars - also see astrology; astronomy; Conditions of Consciousness; Mongolian race; planets; Samuel

a) The fourth planet from the Sun.

b) In Greek/Roman mythology: the god of war; Ares.

c) According to Steiner: "Mars is a reincarnation of Old Moon on a higher level." [See "Planets".] It is also the center for the abnormal spirits responsible for the “Mongolian race.” “We ... find there [i.e., in Asia] the Venus-race or the Malay race. We then pass on across the wide domain of Asia and in the Mongolian race we find the Mars-race." — R. Steiner. [See "Races".]

d) According to Steiner: the transfer location for Buddha, where Buddha achieved a crucifixicomparable to Christ's on Earth. "Buddha became a Redeemer and Saviour for Mars as Christ Jesus had become for the Earth. The Buddha had been prepared for this by his teaching of Nirvana, lack of satisfaction with earthly existence, liberation from physical incarnation. This teaching had been prepared in a sphere outside the Earth but with the Earth's goal in view. If we can look into the soul of the Buddha and grasp the import of the Sermon at Benares we shall witness the preparation of activity that was not to be confined to the Earth. And then we shall realise how infinitely wise was the contract between Christian Rosenkreutz and the Buddha, as the result of which, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Buddha relinquished his activity on the Earth through which he would have been able, from the spiritual world, to influence human souls between birth and death, in order henceforward to work in the Mars sphere for souls between death and rebirth.” — R. Steiner.  [See "Mars".]

e) According to Steiner: the source of Copernican maya. “Mars used to radiate different forces. The Mars culture that human beings experience between death and a new birth went through a great crisis in the earth’s fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ... When these conditions came into force on Mars, the natural consequence would have been for Mars to continue sending down to earth human beings who brought Copernican ideas [like that the planets go around the Sun] with them, which are really only maya [i.e., illusion]. What we are seeing, then, is the decline of the Mars culture. Previously Mars had sent forth good forces. But now Mars sent forth more and more forces that would have led us deeper and deeper into maya. The achievements inspired by Mars at that time [i.e., Copernican ideas] were ingenious and clever, but they were maya all the same.” [See "Mars" and "Wise Words".]

The Mars sphere.

[R.R.]

Mars humans - also see Jupiter humans; Moon humans; Saturn humans; Sun humans

In Anthroposophy: humans descended from those who migrated to Mars and returned. [See "Mars".] “You will remember the passage in the book OCCULT SCIENCE dealing with the time when the human souls ascended to the planets and afterwards descended once more to earth-existence. I spoke of how the Mars-men, the Jupiter-men and the others descended again to earth." — R. Steiner. [See "Planets".]

Mars organ - also see organs of clairvoyance

According to Steiner, a spiritual organ developed through the influence of Mars. [See "Mars".] "In the same way that in earthly life we have head, heart, limbs, and, immediately after death, Moon, Mercury, Venus, so, after that, we have organs which we must attribute to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. [paragraph break] These are then our inner organs, just as heart, pineal gland, kidneys, are on Earth. All this has gone through a metamorphosis into the spiritual and these new organs, not fully formed when first we leave the soul-world and enter the world of spirit, now have to be gradually developed. For this purpose we do not describe one circle only in the Sun-existence, as in our Moon-existence, but three. In the first circle the spiritual Mars organ is developed; in the second, the Jupiter organ, and the Saturn organ in the last circle. If we compare them with earthly periods of time, we find that these three circles are traversed much more slowly, about twelve times more slowly than the relatively fast Moon circle. And during this whole journey, while a man is living in the world of spiritual spheres and participating in its forces, he is continually active. Just as we are active here with the forces of nature, so there we are active with the forces, the Beings, of the higher Hierarchies, whose physical manifestation in the surrounding starry heavens is only an outer reflection, as with the Sun and Moon."* — R. Steiner, THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 10, GA 227.

Mars-Mercury

An occult designation for Earth evolution (Mars was paramount during the first half; Mercury during the second). "Mars has given iron to the Earth and the Mercury influence manifests on the Earth in such a way that it makes the human soul more and more free, more and more independent. In occultism therefore, we speak of the Mars half of Earth evolution and of the Mercury half. Whereas the other names describe a whole planet, Earth evolution is spoken of as 'Mars-Mercury.' Used in this connection the names do not designate the planets we know today but the influences at work during the first and second halves of Earth evolution." — R. Steiner. [See "The Planets".]

 

Masonry - see Freemasonry

masters - also see guru

Spiritual guides, gurus, high initiates. “In the Seventh Round everyone will have reached the stage at which our Masters stand today. Then our ego [or "I"] will be the bearer of all earthly experiences. To begin with this will be concentrated in the Lodge of the Masters. The higher ego then will draw itself together, become atomic and form the atoms of (future) Jupiter. [paragraph break] The White Lodge will be looked upon as a unity, an ego comprising everything. All human egos and all separateness will be given up and will flow together into the all-comprehensive universal consciousness ... These then are the atoms which will form Jupiter. The Moon Adepts formed the atoms of the present-day Earth. One can study the atom when one studies the plan of the Adepts Lodge on the Moon.” [See "The White Lodge".]

               

Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings - see Bodhisattvas

materialism - also see automatons; brain; intellect; matter; science; thinking; veil

a) Excessive interest in material possessions.

b) The philosophical belief that nothing exists except matter and the movements of matter.

c) In Anthroposophy, a state of condensed (or over-condensed) spirit; also "materialistic thinking". [See "Materialism U."]

d) One of the twelve justified or defended world conceptions, according to Steiner. "There are people so constituted that it is not possible for them to find the way to the Sprit, and to give them any proof of the Spirit will always be hard. They stick to something they know about, in accordance with their nature. Let us say they stick at something that makes the crudest kind of impression on them — Materialism. We need not regard as foolish the arguments they advance as a defence or proof of Materialism, for an immense amount of ingenious writing has been devoted to the subject, and it holds good in the first place for material life, for the material world and its laws." — R. Steiner. Steiner associated materialism with the astrological sign Cancer. [See "Philosophy".]

mathematics - also see geometry

Like other subjects, mathematics as taught at Waldorf schools is often infused with religious (occult, Anthroposophical) feeling and intent. Steiner placed special importance on geometry with its “symmetrical drawing (reflection) which stimulates inner perception.” — R. Steiner. Waldorf belief holds that geometry can convince children to believe in the supersensible realm, and indeed it fosters clairvoyance. Steiner said he experienced the mystical power of geometry in his own life: “Through his geometry book, that assistant teacher at Neudörf provided me with a confirmation of the spiritual world I needed then.” [See "Mystic Math" and "Basement".]

mathematism

One of the twelve justified or defended world conceptions, according to Steiner: accepting as true only those things that can be dealt with mathematically. "The crudest kind of materialism ... will consist in this, that people carry to an extreme the saying ... that in the individual sciences there is only so much real science as there is mathematics ... [A]nyone who raises himself above ... crude materialism will become a mathematical thinker, and will recognize as valid only whatever can be treated mathematically. From this results a conception of the universe that really admits nothing beyond mathematical formulae. This may be called Mathematism.” — R. Steiner. Steiner associated materialism with Gemini. [See "Philosophy".] 

matter - see materialism; maya; nature

a) Physical substance, empirically real.

b) In Anthroposophy: condensed or crystalized spirit, and/or illusory substance — the bottom-most form of existence, divorced from spirit. During our Earth phase of evolution we have sunk down into matter. “With the increasing densification of terrestrial matter, the spiritual being gradually lost the ability to mold this matter ...  A new manner of reproduction arose ... While before there had been no organs of reproduction, these now made their appearance ... With this an important stage in the development of mankind is reached. The immediate influence of the soul has been withdrawn from the physical body. The latter is totally given over to the physical and chemical world of matter." — R. Steiner. [See "Early Earth".]

 

maya, illusion - also see fantasy; materialism; reality; veil; cf. appearances

The illusion of the phenomenal (natural or physical) world; and the gods’ powers causing such illusion. • “I must emphasize this again and again, that the saying ‘the world is Maya’ is so vitally important." — R. Steiner. The greatest liar, the author of so many illusions that await us in the world of matter, is the devil Ahriman. • “Ahriman infused into human observation something like a dark smoke cloud that prevents penetration to the spiritual. Through Ahriman's agency man is enmeshed in lies, in maya, in illusion.“ — R. Steiner. [See "Neutered Nature".]

Maypole dance - also see festivals; pagan

Originally a pagan fertility rite; in toned-down form, Maypole dancing is often included in Waldorf spring festivals and other occasions. [See "Failure".]

mechanization - also see Ahriman; America; machines; spider beings

According to Steiner, an Ahrimanic activity, especially American. [See "Steiner Static".] Mechanization is one of great temptations of our time. "Mankind now faces two paths: One of these leads through the mechanization of the spirit. In more recent times, the spirit has become very mechanical, particularly in regard to the abstract laws of Nature, which have also been applied to social life, as ruling laws. Mechanization of the spirit — vegetalization of the soul! Vegetals sleep — and the human soul also tends to sleep. In a sleeping state we pass through the most important events. The most important events of the past years have literally been slept away! Even to-day, most important events are being slept away.' [paragraph break] Let us now turn our gaze to the East. There we can see that the animalization of the bodies is coming up in a very strong measure. Just as the Americanization of the spirit represents a mechanization of spiritual life, so the Bolshevism which tends to spread out in the East represents an animalization of the bodies. Emotions lead people to reject and criticize this or that, yet they do not wish to grasp real life. [paragraph break] At the present time, humanity has therefore the choice of advancing in a direction where it can find, on the one hand, the mechanization of the spirit, the vegetalization of the souls and the animalization of the bodies, or else it may, on the other hand, seek the path leading to an AWAKENING OF THE SPIRIT." — R. Steiner, "The Crossing of the Threshold and the Social Organism", ANTHROPOSOPHICAL NEWS SHEET, No. 5-6 (General Anthroposophical Society, 1940), GA 193.

medicine - also see health; human constitution; nutrition

"Anthroposophical medicine" is often practiced in and around Waldorf schools; it is a form of "holistic" therapy relying heavily on herbs, colors, eurythmy, and other unscientific (quack) approaches. [See "Steiner's Quackery".] “Anthroposophic medicine (AM) is medicine that has been infused with the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Chief among these teachings is that the body is not an independent material organism and that good health depends on a harmonious relationship between the physical body, spirit or vital force, the soul, and the ego. ... [A]nthroposophic medicine is even more out of touch with modern, science-based medicine than homeopathy. AM not only thinks that the vital spirit plays a major role in health — a view it shares with homeopathy — but AM also brings into play other metaphysical entities it refers to variously as the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego. AM thinks the soul, the senses, and consciousness are beings that exist independently of the body and that such things as herbs and essential oils can bring these things into harmony with each other and with the physical body. AM is certainly in harmony with Steiner's basic approach to reality, which was to think he had special powers to see directly into occult realities without the bother of tests in experience or replication by others.* When you believe you have clairvoyant powers, you don't feel the need to prove your claims the way other scientists do. Steiner approached medicine the same way he approached everything else from astrology to Atlantis to education to farming to metaphysics: He dictated his visions. Why anyone considers him a scientist is a great mystery. His notion of science as involving the explanation of how immaterial entities affect material entities is the very opposite of science.” — Robert T. Carroll, THE SKEPTIC’S DICTIONARY [http://skepdic.com/anthroposophicmedicine.html]

meditations in Anthroposophy - also see spiritual exercises; mantras; prayers

Although Steiner labeled Anthroposophy a science rather than a religion, it entails meditations as well as prayers. "To foster the connection between [Waldorf] teachers and the Third Hierarchy [of gods] Rudolf Steiner gave information which could be considered a kind of prayer or meditation. The actual words are available only to the college members [i.e., members of a Waldorf school's inner circle, the "college of teachers"] ... When united in common striving, the archai [gods three levels above man], in particular the Spirit of the Times (Michael), gives to the group the light of wisdom and the creative forces of intuition." — R. Wilkinson. [See "Soul School".]

[Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004.]

mediums - also see the dead, communicating with

"Seers" who claim to be able to communicate with the dead and/or other spiritual beings; according to Steiner, they do have this power, but often at a low, misleading level (unlike his own clairvoyance). “When mediums are possessed of the necessary faculties, they can see the Akasha Chronicle, although in most cases only its astral reflections. Now there is something singular about the Akasha Chronicle. If we discover some person there, he behaves like a living being. If we find Goethe, for example, he may not only answer in the words which he actually spoke in his life but he gives answer in the Goethean sense; it may even happen that he utters in his own style and trend, verses he never actually wrote. The Akasha picture is so alive that it is like a force working on in the mind of the human being. Hence the picture may be confused with the individuality himself. Mediums believe that they are in contact with the dead man whose life is continuing in the spirit, whereas in reality it is only his astral Akasha-picture. The spirit of Caesar may already have reincarnated on earth and it is his Akasha picture that gives the answers in seances. It is not the individuality of Caesar but only the enduring impression which the picture of Caesar has left behind in the Akasha Chronicle. This is the basis of errors in very many spiritualist seances. We must distinguish between what remains of the human being in his Akasha-picture and what continues to evolve as the true individuality. These are matters of extreme importance.” — R. Steiner. [See "Seances".]

memory

According to Steiner, a high faculty — humans have it, animals don't. “To attribute memory to animals is an error ... It is natural enough to think of memory when a dog recognizes its master ... Yet in reality the recognition depends not on memory ... Surely, one might [think], since the dog grieves when its master goes away, it must retain some memory of him ... [But] the animal’s behaviour implies the absence of all memory.” — R. Steiner. [See "Everything".]

Mental Plane - see Devachan; planes; Higher Spiritland; Lower Spiritland; spiritland

A Theosophical term, essentially equivalent to Devachan, which is essentially equivalent to heaven. It is Spiritland, the spiritual world, the world of harmony of the spheres, the world of inspiration. It includes the lower spiritual world (Lower Spiritland) or heavenly world, and the higher spiritual world (Higher Spiritland) or world of true intuition. These Theosophical concepts were largely accepted, with modifications, by Steiner. [See "Faculty Meetings".]

mental vision

Steiner used the term "mental vision" is various ways. The precise definition in one usage is "inspiration." In other cases, the term applies to imagination or any use of the mind to consider/conceive things thoroughly. • [Concerning levels of clairvoyance:] "[E]xact, correct observation appears at first in symbols. If man concentrates for instance on his spinal cord, it is a fact that he always sees a snake. He may perhaps also dream of a snake, because this is the creature which was placed out in the world when the spinal cord was formed, and has remained at this stage. The snake is the spinal column outwardly projected into the world. This pictorial way of seeing things is astral vision (Imagination). But it is only through mental vision (Inspiration) that the full significance is revealed." — R. Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 1, GA 93a. •  [Concerning seances:] "It was quite impossible that either the medium or anyone present at the sittings could have seen this photograph. Here we have a case which must be reckoned with both scientifically and historically, for not only might one say that such a case would naturally make a great impression, but it really did occur and did make an enormous impression. As far as could be seen, this photographic proof, which has nothing to do with thought-transference, was very convincing. [paragraph break] It is necessary for us to bring the whole of this case before our mental vision. We must be quite clear as to the fact that when a man passes through the gate of death, the human individuality is at first for a short time, enshrouded in the astral body and etheric body; and that the latter after a more or less brief period — varying in different cases, but never lasting more than a few days — passes out into the etheric world and there pursues its further destiny; so that the individuality enters the Spiritual world with the astral body only, and continues its further wanderings in that world." — R. Steiner, COSMIC AND HUMAN METAMORPHOSES (Garber Communications, 1989), lecture 1, GA 175.

A Theosophical concept, the mental world (or higher-spiritland) is the second "higher world," situated above the astral world (or higher-spiritland). Steiner used the term early in his career as an occultist, but tended to abandon it later. [See "Basics".] "[O]ne is raised to a still higher world that may be called the higher spirit-land or, if you will, the higher mental world; a world that differs somewhat from the others. We are in this higher spirit-land when experiencing the splitting of the ego, and the ordinary ego in memory only. It is here that one is first able to form a true estimate of man on earth. As one looks back one begins to know what man is in his inmost being. There, too, it is first possible to come to an experienced judgement concerning the course of history. Human evolution that has been experienced becomes for us the progress of the soul as an ego being. Standing out from the general progress are the beings who are leaders in the advancement of humanity. Here one actually experiences what I described in the second lecture, that is, the impulses that are continually flowing into human evolution through the initiates, those initiates who, wherever they may be, have to leave the life of the senses and go to spiritual worlds so that they can give out these impulses. When you reach the point of experiencing man as an ego being, you also experience for the first time a true insight into the human being as such." — R. Steiner, INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1980), lecture 5, GA 138.

mental telepathy - see telepathy

Mephistopheles, Mephistophelean power - also see Ahriman

a) A familiar spirit (i.e., an attendant demon) of Satan, a figure more of fiction than theology — the tempter of Faust.

b) According to Steiner, Satan himself: Ahriman. "[I]t was to Ahriman that the faculty of human cognition was primarily directed. Ahriman was a Being whose existence was divined by men, a Being of whom they had some knowledge through the culture inaugurated by Zarathustra; and from there the knowledge of Ahriman spread among the other peoples and into their world of ideas. Ahriman with his hosts appears as a figure with the most diverse names among the civilized peoples. And owing to the peculiar conditions obtaining in the souls of the European peoples who had remained farthest in the rear of the migrations from West to East, who had been less affected than the others by what had transpired in the ancient Indian, ancient Persian, Egyptian and even in the Greco-Latin civilizations — owing to these circumstances there prevailed among the European peoples from whom the Fifth Epoch of culture was to be born, an attitude of soul which regarded Ahriman alone as a figure of dread. And while many different names were adopted — as for example, 'Mephistopheles' among the Hebrew people — in Europe the figure of Ahriman became the 'Devil' in his various forms.” — R. Steiner. [See "Ahriman".]

Mercury - also see Africans; astrology; astronomy; planets

a) The planet closest to the Sun. 

b) In Greek/Roman mythology: the god of eloquence, skill, trading, thievery; divine messenger; Hermes.

c) According to Anthroposophical belief: home of beings more evolved than earthly humans [see "Planets"]. Also the center for the abnormal spirits responsible for the “Negro race”. “In the interior of Africa is the point where the abnormal Spirits belonging to the planet Mercury concentrate their forces. The outcome of them is the Negro or Ethiopian race. Eastward, in Asia, is the formative centre for the Venus-forces, the Malayan race — the type we find in Southern Asia and the Malayan archipelago. Northward from thence — more in the great expanse of Asia — the Mongolian race is formed by the Mars forces. In Europe then, we come to the Jupiter humanity, the Caucasian race. Finally, in America, dark Saturn's race: the Red Indians ... So then it comes about that the most childlike and the most aged racial types — the Negro and Red Indian — are both of them, though in such different ways, the result of planetary forces working into the glandular system.” — George Adams Kaufmann, SOULS OF THE NATIONS (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1938), lecture 6. [See "'Negro'".]

Astrological sign for Mercury.

[Rudolf Koch, THE BOOK OF SIGNS

(Dover Press, 1955) - color added.]

mermaids - also see undines

Mythical half-human sea creatures; sometimes said to be undines (nature spirits or elemental beings that dwell in water). [See "The Ancients".] “[T]he third set of lectures concerns the astral-etheric beings known as elemental spirits, whose existence is rarely acknowledged today beyond the sphere of folklore. We discover how indebted we are to these beings, both benevolent and malevolent, for our continued existence. Steiner gives an account of their different levels of consciousness ... Many of us will be familiar with the wise but gruff dwarf, the water sprite or mermaid who tries to lure the human being into its own fluid consciousness-world , and the unearthly beauty of the fairy queen which would entrap men and render them powerless, as if they slept. The fact that the elemental spirits, like irresponsible children, might choose to sport with the unprotected human consciousness should undermine the fact that these spirits ‘wish man to make a move onwards with his consciousness, so that he may participate in their world.’”  — Ann Druitt, introduction to HARMONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), a collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, pp. xvii-xviii.

messianism - also see spiritualistic agenda

Belief in a Savior or belief that one has a role as a savior. In Waldorf schools: teachers' belief that they are serving the divine cosmic plan of the gods for the progress of humanity toward divinity; this is a far higher self-assigned purpose for the Waldorf movement than mere education; it entails combating demonic forces that would impede the spiritual/evolutionary progress of Waldorf students. [See "Nuts".]

metabolic-limb system - also see nerve-senses system; rhythmic-circulatory system

Mithras - also see Baldur; Christ; Sun; Sun demon; Sun god

a) The chief god of Mithraism.

b) According to Steiner, the Sun's love; Baldur. [See "The Gods".] The symbol of Mithras riding a bull depicts human nature rebelling against the limitations of mere physical reality. "This cultic form was something that had existed since very ancient times and had been brought across from Asia to Europe. It was, in a sense, Christianity viewed from one side, viewed from the external, astronomical side, for Mithras was the sun force in man. Mithras was the human being who rebelled against the merely planetary and terrestrial aspects." — R. Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1987), lecture 4, GA 204.

Molt, Emil (1876-1936)

Director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany; he commissioned Rudolf Steiner to create a school for the children of the factory's workers. Opening in 1919, the school took its name (Waldorf) from the factory.

Emil Molt.

[Public domain.]

Moltke, Eliza (1859-1932)

Anthroposophist, acquaintance of Rudolf Steiner; married to Helmuth von Moltke. [See "Steiner and the Warlord".] 

Moltke, Helmuth von (1848-1916)

Chief of the German general staff at the start of World War I; married to Eliza von Moltke. Although by some standards von Moltke might be judged a war criminal, Steiner defended him forcefully, and after von Moltke died, Steiner claimed to establish contact with him. Steiner relayed many messages from the dead man to his wife, Eliza. [See "Steiner and the Warlord".] 

monad - also see animated monad

A self-enclosed being; the kernel of individual identity. [See "Ego".] This is one of the terms Steiner used during his Theosophical phase and later tended to avoid. “We have within us an inner kernel of being which we call the Monad. We retain this kernel throughout the three worlds. It lives within us in the physical world, but also in the astral and devachanic worlds. This inner kernel, however, is always clad in a different garment. In the physical, astral and devachanic worlds the garment of our kernel-of-being is different ... We must learn to know man as a duality: as the Monad and what clothes the Monad. We ask: How has the one and how has the other arisen? Where did the astral man live before he became what he is today and where did the Monad live? Both have gone through different stages of development, both have gradually reached the point of being able to unite.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 22, GA 93a.

monadism

One of the twelve justified or defended world conceptions, according to Steiner. "Someone may not take the path we have tried to follow to the activities of the spiritual Hierarchies, but may still come to an acceptance of certain spiritual beings. The celebrated German philosopher, Leibnitz, was a man of this kind ... His view was that a being — as, for example, the human soul — can build up existence in itself. But he formed no further ideas on the subject. He only said to himself that there is such a being that can build up existence in itself, and force concepts outwards from within itself. For Leibnitz, this being is a “Monad”  ... A person with this outlook ... reflects ... upon the spiritual element in the world, allowing it to remain indefinite ... [he picks] out from them an abstract characteristic ... Monadism is an abstract Spiritism." — R. Steiner. Steiner associated monadism with Sagittarius. [See “Philosophy”.] 

Mongolian Race - also see Mars

According to Steiner, the 'Mars race': product of powers in/on the planet Mars; central Asians. "Now let us go up over the wide Mongolian plains. In those plains those Spirits of Form [i.e., gods: powers] are principally active who work indirectly through the blood. There in the blood is brewed that which brings about a modification of humanity and produces the basic character of the race. There is, however, something very peculiar in this Mongolian race. There the Mars-spirits enter the blood: But they work in it in quite a definite way, viz., they are there able to work towards the six Elohim [gods] who are centered in the Sun. In the Mongolian race, therefore, they work towards these six Elohim, and in doing so they make a special attack in the other direction towards Jahve or Jehovah Who has separated His field of action from that of the six Elohim." [See "Races".]

monism - also see monotheism; cf. dualism; pluralism

The doctrine that the universe arises from a single source or consists of a single underlying substance. Monism is incorrect, according to Steiner — it is a distant goal, not a present reality. On occasion, he identified monism with monotheism, although the concepts are actually separate. [See "Rankings".]

monotheism - cf. polytheism

The doctrine that there is just one God; sometimes equated with monism. Monotheism is incorrect, according to Steiner — it is a distant goal, not a present reality. “Monotheism or monism in itself can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world." — R. Steiner. [See "Rankings".] As described in the Bible, the spirit realm needs no improvement. Indeed, no improvement is conceivable. God Almighty exists and has always existed, and He is perfect — omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. The Theosophical/Anthroposophical view is fundamentally different. The perfect God of monotheism — indeed monotheism itself — is only a distant ideal. There is no One and Only God now, nor has there ever been. The universe is aswarm with many gods, all of them imperfect, all striving to evolve toward perfect (or, in the case of evil gods, to thwart the drive toward perfection). Someday God will exist. Someday lowly beings will evolve upward far enough to become God. And who will these triumphant, formerly lowly beings be? Who will become God? As it turns out, according to Steiner, us.

Moon - also see Gabriel; Jehovah; Jews; planets; Sun

a) The Earth’s natural satellite.

b) According to Steiner: the seat of Yahweh (Jahve, Jehovah). “Yahweh resides on the Moon.” — R. Steiner. [See "Lunacy".]

c) According to Steiner: the third evolutionary mega-stage or Condition of Consciousness (Old Moon). “By Moon, we mean a former state of the earth that existed in the past and then, just as a human being passes through a spiritual state after death, went through a spiritual state called pralaya [i.e., a state of rest]. Just as the human being reincarnates, so this lunar planet reincarnated as Earth. Further, what we have characterized as this lunar planetary state is, in fact, the reincarnation of a still earlier state, which we call the Sun.” — R. Steiner. [See "Matters of Form".]

d) According to Steiner, the “irreclaimable moon” is a form of perdition. “From Venus, a a certain stage, a separate celestial body becomes detached [i.e., will become detached]. This — as it were an 'irreclaimable Moon' — includes all the beings who have persisted in withstanding the true course of evolution. It enters now upon a line of development such as now words can portray, so unlike is it to anything within the range of man's experience on Earth." — R. Steiner. [See "Truth".]

Moon beings - also see Jehovah; Jews; Moon (Moon religion); Moon humans; Moon religion

Steiner taught that various beings have lived on the Moon, and some live there now; some of these were previously human. In addition, Jehovah resides on the Moon; Judaism is the Moon religion, focusing on the god residing on the Moon. Inability to understand Moon beings may cause humans to become specters. “When human beings cling too strongly to earthly things it may be difficult for them to find their bearings in the sphere of the Moon Beings ... The moon-influences are not really active below the roots of plants ... The moon-influences, rising like mist from this shallow layer, may cause human beings who have to pass after death into the Moon sphere — the soul-world — but are unable to understand the Moon Beings, to be trapped by this shallow stratum of moon-influences and they can actually be seen by sensible-supersensible perception wandering about as ghosts, as spectral shades.” — R. Steiner. [See "Lunacy".]

Moon humans; Moon beings - also see Jupiter humans; Mars humans; Saturn humans; Sun humans

According to Steiner, humans lived on or during Old Moon before life on the present Earth. Moon man was very different from contemporary Earth humans, but moon heritage and influence resides within Earth humans still. “Moon man has become earth man ... [W]e still have Moon man in us. Looking upon this Moon man we are able to say: ‘He is what we call the dreamer in us.’” [See "Dreams".]

Moon religion - also see Jehovah; Jews; Moon beings; Moon humans

According to Steiner, the Jewish religion: Jews worship Jehovah, who rules over them from the Moon. "As you know, we distinguish the Jews from the rest of the earth's population. The difference has arisen because the Jews have been brought up in the moon religion for centuries." — R. Steiner. [See "Lunacy".]

Moses - also see Hebrew; Israel; Jews

a) In the Bible, a Hebrew prophet and lawgiver; led his people out of bondage in Egypt.

b) According to Steiner, an Egyptian initiate and a student of Zarathustra. “Zarathustra had two pupils whom he did not instruct for the purpose of sending them out to teach the Persians. They were pupils such as are always to be found with the great Initiates and who prepare in quietude for their missions, refraining, to begin with, from going out into the world to teach. These two pupils, in later incarnations, were : Hermes, the great Teacher of the Egyptians, and Moses.” [See "Moses".]

mother forces - also see father forces

Feminine primordial creative spiritual forces. “Rudolf Steiner dealt with the Christ Impulse [the spiritual-evolutionary power given us by Christ] in pedagogy even before the founding of the first Waldorf school in 1919 ... I have made an attempt to bring many of these indications together and especially to follow the ‘golden thread’ of teaching out of the background of the Father (and Mother) forces in the early grades, of the Son forces in the middle grades, and through the Holy Spirit in the high school.” — R. Querido. [See "Soul School".]

In Anthroposophy, the "mystery" of Christ's life and death on Earth. “[B]efore the Mystery of Golgotha the Father Principle held sway. Yet it was felt how man had departed ever more and more from the Father, to whom as we look up we say. Ex Deo nascimur. Mankind stood in need of healing, and the seers and initiates lived in expectation of the Healer, the Hælend,  the healing Saviour. To us the conception of Christ as the Healer is no longer living. But we must find our way to it again, for only when we can feel His presence once more as the Cosmic Physician, shall we also realise His true place in the Universe.” — R. Steiner. [See "Prototype".]

mystery plays

Pageants depicting spiritual mysteries or spiritual phenomena and truths; Steiner wrote four: THE PORTAL OF INITIATION, THE SOUL'S PROBATION, THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD, and THE SOUL'S AWAKENING. [See "Plays".]

[Anthroposophic Press, 2007.]

mystery science - also see spiritual science

This term may apply to spiritual science itself (i.e., Anthroposophy) or to earlier forms of earlier forms of "scientific" investigations of the spirit realm and its mysteries. [See "Overhead".] “The names used in mystery science for these stages [of evolution] are the Saturn, Sun and Moon periods. It will become apparent that these designations at first have nothing to do with the heavenly bodies of today which bear these names in physical astronomy, although in a broader sense a relationship to them exists, which is known to the advanced mystic ... this research is not based on speculation, on a day dreaming in terms of mere concepts, but on actual spiritual experience. As our physical eye can see outdoors only as far as a certain boundary line and cannot look beyond the horizon, so the “spiritual eye” can look only as far as a certain point in time. Mystery science is based on experience and is content to remain within this experience. Only in a conceptual splitting of hairs will one want to find out what was “at the very beginning” of the world, or “why God really created the world.” ... Behind the general mass of men stand the inventors, artists, scientists, and so forth. Behind them stand the initiates of mystery science, and behind them stand superhuman beings.” — R. Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), chapter 11, GA 11.