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- R -

Ra - also see Christ

a) The ancient Egyptian Sun god.

b) According to Anthroposophy, Ra is Christ as comprehended by humans at the ancient Egyptian stage of evolution. "Men spoke in those times of [the Sun God] Ra, whose representative on Earth was Osiris; Ra signified for them the Sun that moved round the Earth, giving light ... My dear friends, when the pupils of the old initiates looked out into the wide universe and spoke of what they saw living out there beyond the Earth in the workings of the Sun, yes, in the Sun itself — when they spoke of the sublime Spirit-Being of the Sun as proclaimed by Zarathustra, they were speaking of the very same Being Whom, in these later times, we designate as Christ." — R. Steiner. [See "Was He Christian?"]

race - also see advanced races; Africans; Aryans; Asians; Caucasian race; epochs; Europeans; exogamy; folk soul; French; Malayan race; Mongolian race; Native Americans; root races; savages

a) A major subdivision of humanity: people sharing the same lineage, color, history.

b) Also, according to Steiner, an evolutionary level (some races are more evolved than others). • “A race or nation stands so much the higher, the more perfectly its members express the pure, ideal human type.” • “Instead of the intended consecutive development of races, there was a coexistence of races. That is how it came about that physically different races inhabited the earth and are still there in our time ... Let us assume the original, divine cosmic plan for the earth had been fulfilled ... In that case, a human race of Grecian beauty would have spread over the earth, and in our age we would already see humanity approaching more and more this beautiful Grecian type.” • "[E]verything connected to the body and the metabolism is strongly developed in the Negro. He has, as they say, powerful physical drives, powerful instincts ... [H]is whole metabolism operates as if he were being cooked inside by the sun. That is where his instinctual life comes from. The Negro is constantly cooking inside, and what feeds this fire is his rear-brain.” — R. Steiner. [See "Races".]

race soul - also see folk soul; group soul

According to Steiner, a real being: the soul of a race. [See "Steiner's Racism".] “You know that what is called Folk-soul, Race-soul, has become a somewhat abstract idea today. Many think nowadays that the individual soul of man that dwells in his body is the actual reality. And if one speaks of German, French, Russian National-souls, people look on that as more or less an abstraction, as a comprehensive concept, embracing the characteristics which the individual members of these nations possess. To the occultist this is not so at all. What one calls the Folk-soul, as the German, French, Russian Folk-soul, is to him an absolutely independent entity. It is only that in our present Earth-existence the Folk soul is purely a spiritual being, perceptible only to one who can ascend to the astral plane; there you could not deny it, for there it is present as an actual living being. You would encounter the Folk-soul there, as on the physical plane you encounter your friends. [paragraph break] On the Moon it would have still less occurred to you to deny this Group-soul, for at that time it had a still more real existence. It was the Folk-soul, the Race-soul, which guided the bloodstream down into the bodies, into those beings which circled round the Moon. It is the destiny of our age to deny the existence of such beings as possess an actual life on the astral plane, and are not perceptible here on the physical plane. And we are at the very height of this materialistic evolution which prefers to deny such beings as Folk-souls and Race-souls.” — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), chapter 11, GA 99.

Radiating Flames - see Radiating Lives

Radiating Lives - also see Spirits of Will; Thrones

According to Steiner, gods seven levels above man. “When the Saturn development began, the most sublime of these beings already had attained a level of consciousness which man will reach only after his Vulcan life, that is, a high creative (supra-spiritual) consciousness. These ‘creators,’ too, once had to pass through the stages of man. This took place on heavenly bodies which preceded Saturn. However, the connection of these beings with the development of mankind lasted until the middle of the life of Saturn. Because of their sublime, delicate body of rays, in mystery science they are called ‘Radiating Lives’ or ‘Radiating Flames.’”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

radical subjectivity - also see subjectivity

           The inward focus, blotting out objective reality and rationality, promoted by Anthroposophy and Waldorf schools. [See "Criticism".]

Ragnarök - also see Norse myths; twilight of the gods

In Norse myths, the epic final battle of the gods and giants, in which all perish, the world ends — and a new world becomes possible. [See "The Gods".] Norse myths, which are central to much Waldorf schooling, are immensely violent. Much of this violence is paralleled in Anthroposophical belief. Thus, our current "great epoch" will end in a form of Ragnarök: the War of All Against All. “The downfall of our present epoch will be caused by lack of morality. The Lemurian epoch was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; our epoch and its civilisation will be destroyed by the War of All against All, by evil. Human beings will destroy each other in mutual strife. And the terrible thing — more desperately tragic than other catastrophes — will be that the blame will lie with human beings themselves. [paragraph break] A tiny handful of men will make good and thus insure their survival in the sixth epoch of civilisation. This tiny handful will have attained selflessness. The others will develop every imaginable skill and subtlety in the manipulation and use of the physical forces of nature, but without the essential degree of selflessness. [paragraph break] In the seventh epoch of civilisation, this War of All against All will break out in the most terrible form. Great and mighty forces will be let loose by the discoveries, turning the whole earth-globe into a kind of [self-functioning] live electric mass. In a way that cannot be discussed, the tiny handful will be protected and preserved.” — R. Steiner. [See "All v. All".]

"The Initiates had taught Nordic man that a change was taking place in the spiritual world during the intermediate time when he had lost the vision of the spiritual world and in consequence it would one day appear transformed ... What man will then see, the Initiates described to him as a vision of the future — the Vision that will one day appear to man when he is able to see into the spiritual world again, when he will see what has been the destiny of the old Gods and what was their relation to other powers. They described to him this vision of the future as seen by the Initiates when the Luciferic influence will to some extent override that which comes from the Gods and will, in its turn, be overcome. This was their vision of Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods. And again we shall see that all the events which were portrayed as future events could not, even down to the smallest details, be portrayed better or more aptly, nor in more fitting terminology than in the wonderful picture of the Twilight of the Gods. That is the occult background to the Saga of the Twilight of the Gods." — R. Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 9, GA 121.

a) Reliance on reason in the search for truth.

b) According to Steiner, one of the twelve justified or defended world conceptions; but rational, critical ("materialist") thinking undermines spiritual aspirations. “[Someone] might say to himself: 'It cannot be a superstition that the colour blue has so and so many vibrations. The world is ordered mathematically. If mathematical ideas are found to be real in the world, why should not other ideas have equal reality?' Such a person accepts this — that ideas are active in the world. But he grants validity only to those ideas that he discovers outside himself — not to any ideas that he might grasp from his inner self by some sort of intuition or inspiration, but only to those he reads from external things that are real to the senses. Such a person becomes a Rationalist, and his outlook on the world is that of Rationalism." — R. Steiner. Steiner associated rationalism with Taurus. [See “Philosophy”.]

An Anthroposophical leader who conducts meetings of the First Class in the School of Spiritual Science. S/he reads Steiner lecture aloud to the class, generally the lectures Steiner gave to the original members of the First Class. [See "Waldorf Now".]

Waldorf schools do not want children to begin reading before age 7, or until the etheric body is manifested. The replacement of baby teeth by adult teeth is taken as an indicator that the incarnation has occurred. Because the Waldorf curriculum is geared to fantasy events such as the incarnation of invisible (and, indeed, unreal) bodies, Waldorf students are generally denied the benefits of early-childhood education. If a child attends a Waldorf school for the first few grades and then transfers to a different school, s/he will almost certainly be far below grade level in most subjects and skills. [See "Incarnation".]

a) The philosophical doctrine that abstract concepts have objective or real existence.

b) According to Steiner, one of the twelve justified or defended world conceptions. "There can also be persons who say ... 'I recognize the external world; that is something I see and can think about. I have no particular reason for supposing that it is or is not spiritual at root. I restrict myself to what I see around me' ... [W]e can call such Realists, and their concept of the universe: Realism." — R. Steiner. Steiner associated realism with Libra. [See “Philosophy”.]

What actually exists; perhaps the crucial issue in assessing Anthroposophy: Is reality accessible through our senses and brains, or through clairvoyance, dreams, and intuition? The Waldorf worldview is often considered attractive, but it is essentially a fantasy. Steiner and his followers generally reject the findings of modern science, preferring their "clairvoyant" insights — which are all fantasies, because clairvoyance itself is a delusion. [See "Reality and Fantasy" and "Clairvoyance".]

The seven stages or periods during the seventh great epoch, analogous to cultural epochs in the fifth great epoch. The realms are Continental, Oceanic, Atmospheric, Heat Death, First Woe, Second Woe, and Third Woe, in that order. The first six are associated with Taurus, Aries, Pisces, Acquarius, Capricorn, and Sagittarius, in that order.  All of this lies so far in the future, it is of little importance to us here and now. For a primer, see Richard Seddon's THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge, 2002).

a) Summary, restatement, or repetition. In biology, the term is applied to the concept that growing life forms repeat earlier evolutionary stages of development.

b) In Theosophical and Anthroposophical doctrine, evolution occurs in spirals: as we move forward, we continually recapitulate previous stages in new forms. “During the recapitulation of the Saturn embodiment, Uranus, Vulcan and Saturn separated from the earth. During the recapitulation of the Sun embodiment, Jupiter and Mars separated. After the sun has left the earth, Mercury and Venus separate from it. After the separation of the sun, the earth cast out the moon. The dispersal of Old Moon was brought about by the forces of the progressed beings who drew out the solar body, while the normal and retarded beings produced the moon circling around it. In all the Mysteries these happenings were called the strife in heaven. The detached planetoids are the ruins of that battlefield. It is here that the primal secret of the origin of evil must be sought.” — R. Steiner. [See "Vulcan".] (Note: This is one of the occasions when Steiner seemed to contradict himself about Uranus, accepting that planet as a real member of the solar system.)

Steiner taught that we have evolved through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods or "planetary conditions." Each period recapitulates what came before. "Earth evolution falls accordingly into two parts. In the first the Earth appears as a re-embodiment of the earlier planetary condition, although by virtue of the spiritualized condition it has meanwhile undergone, this recapitulation represents a higher stage than that of the former embodiment. Within it the Earth contains the seeds of the ancestors of man which have come from the earlier planet." — Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - An Outline (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1963), chapter 4, part 2, GA  11. •  "Man attains this higher state of consciousness in the course of Sun evolution through the fact that the etheric or life-body is now incorporated in him. But this cannot take place until the Saturn conditions have been recapitulated. Such recapitulation has a quite definite meaning. When the interval of rest is over, what was previously Saturn emerges from the “cosmic sleep” as a new world-entity — as Sun. [Ibid., chapter 4, part 4.] "[N]ow, at the beginning of Moon evolution, another repetition of the Saturn events takes place, in order to achieve this adaptation. The physical life of man passes in recapitulation through the stages of Saturn evolution, but under altogether changed conditions. " [Ibid., chapter 4, part 5.] • "[I]n this period [the early part of the Earth phase of evolution], as in the Saturn time, higher Beings are working upon the physical body alone. When the evolution of this physical body is far enough advanced, all the Beings have to pass once more into a higher form of existence, before the life-body can advance in its turn. The physical body has, as it were, to be re-cast, in order to be able to receive, when it unfolds again, the more highly evolved life-body. After this interval devoted to a higher form of existence, there follows a kind of recapitulation of Sun evolution on a higher level, for the further development of the life-body. And then — after a further interval — the like is done, in a recapitulation of Moon evolution, for the astral body." [Ibid., chapter 4, part 6.]

c) Steiner also taught that growing children recapitulate the evolutionary cultural/racial/historical stages of mankind as a whole. The Waldorf curriculum is intended to present each subject at the "proper" stage of childhood development. Thus, for instance, astronomy classes for sixth graders are often limited to the astronomical knowledge available to the ancient Romans, since sixth graders are considered to be at the evolutionary stage of the ancient Romans. [See "Oh My Stars".] Likewise, fifth graders often compete in "Olympic" games where all the competitions are the same as the ancient Greeks contested, since fifth graders are thought to be at the level of the ancient Greeks.

a) Compensation, atonement, or salvation.

b) In Anthroposophy: evolution to a highly spiritualized state (i.e., changed wholly to highly evolved spirit). [See "All".] "At the beginning of to-day's considerations, I said, with regard to the consciousness that is filled to-day with intellectualism, that humanity has slipped entirely into the consequences of the Fall. If this persists, humanity will be unable to raise itself. This means that it will not reach the goal of the evolution of the Earth. Modern science makes it impossible to reach the goal of the evolution of the Earth. Nevertheless, the depths of the human soul are still untouched: If man appeals to these soul-depths and develops super-sensible knowledge in the spirit of the Christ-impulse he will attain redemption once more, even in the intellectual sphere redemption from the intellectual forces, that have fallen — if I may express it in this way — into sin." — R. Steiner, "Man's Fall and Redemption", ANTHROPOSOPHIC NEWS SHEET (1932, No. 20; General Anthroposophical Society).

The seven stages or periods during the sixth great epoch, analogous to cultural epochs in the fifth great epoch. The regions are Sense-Free Thinking, Moral Feeling, Sacrificial Will, End of Karma, Purification, Sealing of Ordeal, and Silence, in that order. They are associated with Sagitarrius, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, and Gemini, in that order. All of this lies so far in the future, it is of little importance to us here and now. For a primer, see Richard Seddon's THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge, 2002).

The soul's return to a new life on Earth in a different body; usually associated with karma; affirmed by Steiner. [See "Karma".] "Among the subjects we have been studying in our lectures there are many that might be considered less distinctive from the point of view of something entirely new being presented to modern humanity. Nevertheless they are fundamental truths which do indeed penetrate into humanity as something new. We need not look very far to find this new element. It lies in the two truths which really belong to the most fundamental of all and bring increasing conviction to the human soul: these are the two truths of reincarnation and karma. It may be said that the first thing a really serious anthroposophist discovers along his path is that knowledge of reincarnation and karma is essential. It cannot, for example, be said that in Western culture, certain truths — such as the possibility of becoming conscious of higher worlds — present themselves through Anthroposophy as something fundamentally new. Anyone who has some knowledge of the development of Western thought knows of mystics such as Jacob Boehme or Swedenborg, or the whole Jacob Boehme school, and he knows too — although there has been much argument to the contrary — that it has always been considered possible for a man to rise from the ordinary sense-world to higher worlds. This, then, is not the element that is fundamentally new. And the same applies to other matters. Even when we are speaking of what is absolutely fundamental in evolution, for example, the subject of Christ, this is not the salient point as regards the Anthroposophical Movement as such; the essential point is the form which the subject of Christ assumes when reincarnation and karma are received as truths into the hearts of men. The light thrown upon the subject of Christ by the truths of reincarnation and karma — that is the essential point." — R. Steiner, REINCARNATION AND KARMA (Steiner Book Centre, 1977), lecture 5, GA 135.

Belief in spiritual powers, gods, or a God whom one reveres, honors, obeys, serves; Steiner denied that Anthroposophy is a religion (calling it a science instead) but it is one nonetheless, entailing prayers, meditations, observances, etc. (and Waldorf teachers function as priests, leading prayers, observances, etc.) [See "Is Anthroposophy a Religion?"]

Steiner said that religion must be taught in Waldorf schools. We may mistakenly think that Waldorf schools today might downplay this guidance, but evidence suggests otherwise. The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America has said: “Waldorf schools are nonsectarian [sic] and non-denominational [sic] ... The pedagogical method is comprehensive, and, as part of its task, seeks to bring about recognition and understanding of all the world cultures and religions.” Providing "understanding" of "all" world religions will take up a significant swath of the school curriculum, obviously. 

“Without religion no person is whole.” — R. Steiner. The religion Steiner promoted was unusual. “I want you to understand what is religious in an anthroposophical sense ... [R]eligion connected with a specific church is not actually religious....” What is religious, "in an anthroposophical sense", is Anthroposophy — and Waldorf schools that are filled with religious feeling. “Religious instruction for children ... must invoke the feelings ... A religious mood is the goal.” — R. Steiner. [See "Basement".]

According to Steiner, gods four levels above man. “We have now raised ourselves to very lofty Spirits, and we come next to the hierarchy who are called ‘Revelations’ ... The Spirits of Light belong to the order of the Powers or Revelations. We know that Yahve [Jehovah] had six companions who separated off the sun. Yahve himself went with the moon which reflected the sun's light to the earth, but he is a companion of the other Elohim ... The whole structure in which man is embedded, the guidance of the planet and what occurs on it is the affair of the Revelations or Powers.” — R. Steiner. [See “Polytheism”.]

Waldorf schools aim to instill reverence (essentially a religious attitude) in students. This is central to their (generally concealed) religious mission. Thus, for example, many Waldorf schools have the students recite a prayer — written by Steiner — that includes the words 

“In sunlight shining clear

I reverence, O God,

The strength of humankind ... 

From Thee come light and strength,

To Thee rise love and thanks.” 

[See "The World of Waldorf".]

Hindu saints and sages. "The forces preserved by the planets were the subject of the mysteries of the seven Rishis ... [T]his primeval teaching contained approximately what we learn today as the evolution of humanity through the planetary conditions of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. The mysteries of evolution were secreted in the seven members of the [Rishis’] lodge, each of whom typified one stage in the progress of humanity." — R. Steiner. [See "Veda".] 

An artistic/philosophical movement stressing individualism, subjectivity, and inspiration; leading exponents included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and William Wordsworth. [See "Goethe".]

Fundamental human races; associated with great epochs. Steiner taught that the gods intended only one form of human being to exist in each evolutionary epoch — this is the "root race" of that epoch. Humanity evolves toward spiritual perfection by attaining higher and higher forms. The "fifth root race" is the proper form of humanity in the fifth epoch, and it is higher — more perfect — than the root race of the fourth epoch. If the divine plan played out as originally intended, humanity would climb through higher and higher forms in succeeding epochs. However, two demons interfered, causing older forms — races that belonged to prior epochs — to continue existing. This is why, Steiner said, "higher" and "lower" races exist simultaneously on the Earth.  “While there should have been basically only one form of human being ... Lucifer and Ahriman preserved [earlier human types] ... Thus, forms that should have disappeared remained. Instead of racial diversities developing consecutively, older racial forms remained unchanged and newer ones began to evolve at the same time. Instead of the intended consecutive development of races, there was a coexistence of races. That is how it came about that physically different races inhabited the earth and are still there in our time although evolution should really have proceeded....” [Rudolf Steiner, THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), p. 75.]

The term "root races" comes from Theosophy. Steiner used it less as he separated himself from Theosophy. However, he retained the core concepts of a hierarchy of races and evolutionary progress through the ascent to higher racial forms. The term "root races" is preserved in many transcripts of Steiner's lectures. [See "Early Earth".] "[T]he human spirit in the fifth Root Race [our present Race] has worked through a recapitulation of the [happenings of] the Lemurian Root Race [the third Race] when humanity was still of one sex only." — R. Steiner, THE TEMPLE LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 228. [The interpolations occur in the text; I did not add them. — RR]

a) A flower.

b) An occult symbol of Christ, Christ's blood; fundamental emblem of the Rosicrucians. “The name derives from the order’s symbol, a rose on a cross, which is similar to the family coat of arms of Martin Luther.” — ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.  [See "Rosy Cross".]

The putative founder of Rosicrucianism; a fictional character, accepted by Anthroposophists as real. “[A]t the end of the Graeco-Roman period, in the thirteenth century, humanity was for a short period cut off from any clairvoyant capacity. This is why a great conference of the wisest people [i.e., spiritual masters] was held at that time, the ‘College of the Twelve’. The first seven ... [represented] the seven Atlantean evolutionary stages [i.e., phases of our evolution on Atlantis]. Four other wise masters embodied the first four sub-races of our epoch  [a hierarchy of human races] ... The twelfth represented all that followed. Among these twelve was a boy, the thirteenth, whom they took into their midst; and all twelve poured out their wisdom upon him ... He lived only a short while under this mighty influence, but during this time was able, through what he had taken up from the others, to become their teacher ... Then he died and was reborn in the fourteenth century as Christian Rosenkreutz. He then lived for a hundred years, and since then has been the teacher not only of the twelve wise men, but of all humanity. He has the task of protecting humanity against the luciferic influence [i.e., the sway of Lucifer]." [See "Rosy Cross".]

The Rosicrucians are a secretive order claiming to possess ancient esoteric secrets. They are “a worldwide brotherhood claiming to possess esoteric wisdom handed down from ancient times ... Rosicrucian teachings are a combination of occultism and other religious beliefs and practices, including Hermeticism, Jewish mysticism, and Christian Gnosticism. The central feature of Rosicrucianism is the belief that its members possess secret wisdom that was handed down to them from ancient times.”  — ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. 

Steiner claimed to revive Rosicrucianism in improved form (Anthroposophy): it is the proper path for modern humans, he said. For this reason, Steiner is sometimes identified as a Rosicrucian initiate. • “We shall study the path that is right for modern humanity: the Rosicrucian path.” — R. Steiner. • "The Rosicrucian way ... leaves the pupil with the greatest possible independence. The Guru here is not a leader but an adviser; he gives directions for the necessary inner training. At the same time he takes good care that, parallel with the occult training, there is a definite development of thinking, without which no occult training can be carried through ... [O]ne activity — logical thinking — goes through all worlds. Logic is the same on all three planes [i.e., the physical plane, the soul plane, and the spirit plane]. Thus on the physical plane you can learn something which is valid also for the higher planes; and this is the method followed by Rosicrucian training  ... Here, then, the Guru is only the friend and adviser of the pupil ... But he [the pupil] will of course still need a Guru...." — R. Steiner. [See "Rosy Cross".]

The table of King Arthur and his knights. Steiner taught that Arthur was a high initiate. The Holy Grail, sought by Arthur's knights, is a symbol of occult wisdom, according to Steiner. [See "Pagan".] As he almost always did with the subjects he discussed, Steiner read his own occult beliefs into the tales of King Arthur and his knights. "[T]he persons who expressed the transit of the cosmic forces through the signs of the Zodiac were those called “The Knights of King Arthur's Round Table”. Twelve in number, they had around them a band of other men, but they were the principal Knights. The others represented the starry host; into them flowed the inspirations which were more distantly distributed in cosmic space; and into the twelve Knights flowed the inspirations from the twelve directions of the Zodiac. The inspirations which came from the spiritual forces of the Sun and Moon were represented by King Arthur and his wife Guinevere. Thus in King Arthur's Round Table we have the humanised Cosmos. What we may call the pedagogical high school for the Sentient Soul of the West proceeded from King Arthur's Round Table. Hence we are told — and the legend here refers in pictures of external facts to inner mysteries which were taking place in the dawn of that epoch in the human soul — how the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table journeyed far and wide and slew monsters and giants. These external pictures point to the endeavours of human souls who were to make progress in refining and. purifying those forces of the astral body which expressed themselves for the seer in pictures of monsters, giants and the like. Everything that the Sentient Soul was to experience through the later Mysteries is bound up with the pictorial concepts of King Arthur's Round Table."* — R. Steiner, THE MYSTERIES OF THE EAST AND OF HUMANITY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 4, GA 144.

Mystical representation of the Round Table

with a rose at its center, representing Christ.

[Great Hall, Windsor. Christophe.Finot]

Rounds - see Conditions of Life

Russia - also see America; Germany

According to Steiner, a Luciferic region, counterpart to Ahrimanic America. [See "Steiner and the Warlord".] 

According to Steiner, the Sixth Age of the Fifth Epoch, leading to the American Age. The Russian Age will run from 3573 AD until 5733 AD. Then humanity will enter the American Age, which will culminate — on or about the year 8000 AD — in a cataclysm similar to the ones that destroyed Lemuria and Atlantis. The War of All Against All will be conclusion of the turmoil that awaits us in the next six millennia, starting soon.  [See "Oriphiel".]

a) Tales of heroic achievement, especially Old Norse or Icelandic tales.

b) According to Steiner, true clairvoyant reports in disguised form. Norse myths, in particular, are stressed in Waldorf schools. [See "Oh My Word".] “[T]he sagas of the different nations have a very deep content, and ... myths are an expression of profound esoteric truth”. — R. Steiner, THE TEMPLE LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 35. [For more on Norse myths, see "The Gods".]

a) In biology: an amphibian resembling a newt.

b) In mysticism: an elemental being (nature spirit) that lives in fire. Steiner said that such spiritual salamanders really exist. [See "Neutered Nature".] “[T]he elemental beings called by spiritual science “Salamanders” have in part their origin from detached parts of animal group souls. These have, as it were, ventured too far forward into our physical world and have not been able to find their way back and unite again with the group soul, after the death and dissolution of the animal.” — R. Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 10, GA 102. 

Anthroposophists claim that their worldview is a science, not a religion. But in fact Anthroposophy is deeply devoted to the religious purpose known as salvation. "Our study of the Michael Mystery was irradiated by thoughts of the Mystery of Golgotha. For, in effect, Michael is the Power who leads man towards the Christ along the true way of man's salvation ... In the quick rhythmic repetition of the seasons of the year, the Divine-Spiritual Being which descended into the depths of Earth to permeate Nature's process with the Spirit, accomplishes this process. It is the ensouling of Nature with the Forces of the Beginning and of Eternity which must remain at work; even as Christ's descent is the ensouling of Mankind with the Logos of the Beginning and of Eternity, whose working for the salvation of mankind shall never cease." — R. Steiner, ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1973), "A Christmas Study: The Mystery of the Logos", GA 26.

a) In the Bible, a Hebrew prophet.

b) The Archangel of Mars, according to Steiner. [See "Magical Arts".] “The fifth ruler of the world was Samael, the Angel of Mars, who began to reign on June 26, 1417. Samuel ruled for 354 years and 4 months and impressed his influence strongly upon humanity. Under Samuel's reign, in the year of the world 1656, the universal flood occurred ... [E]ach time Samuel, the Genius of Mars, governs the world, a complete change occurs in some great monarchy.” — Johannes Trithemius von Sponheim (1462-1516), included as an appendix to THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL (Anthroposophic Press, 1994), p. 301.

a) The Devil, Lucifer.

b) in Anthroposophy, Ahriman. Steiner distinguished between Lucifer and Satan, identifying the latter with Ahriman and generally depicting Ahriman as the more terrible demon. [See "Ahriman".] • "Only from esoteric teachings did the Gospel writers also know of Satan - Ahriman.” — G. A. Kaufmann, SOULS OF NATIONS (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1938), lecture 9. • “You will find, — for at the time of the writers of the Gospels the word ‘devil’ (dämon) was taken from the Greek, — that in St. Mark's Gospel, where the temptation is spoken of, a ‘devil’ is spoken of; but whenever Ahriman is in question, the word ‘Satan’ is used.” — R. Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1929), lecture 9, GA 121. (However, on occasion, Steiner used the title "Satan" in the orthodox sense, applying it to Lucifer. "Christ had to learn to hold fast to a supersensible good God, but only that He had a meeting with that which was for Him the “evil,” — with Satan, with Lucifer." — R. Steiner, MAN IN THE LIGHT OF OCCULTISM, THEOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1964), lecture 8, GA 137.)

a) The sixth planet from the Sun.

b) In Greek/Roman mythology: as Cronus (Kronos), the supreme god until dethroned by Zeus (see Jupiter); the god of agriculture.

c) According to Steiner: first mega-evolutionary stage or Condition of Consciousness (Old Saturn). [See "Matters of Form".] “[T]he ancestors of man existed on Saturn not only as beings with the dull Saturn consciousness, but also along with these as beings which had already developed the higher stages of consciousness ... The human being himself can make no use of his luminosity on Saturn. The luminosity of his sensory germs could not express anything in itself, but through it other more exalted beings are given the possibility to reveal themselves to the life of Saturn.” — R. Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), chapter 14, “The Life of Saturn”, GA 11.

The planet we see in the sky today (see definition a, above) should not be confused with Old Saturn, although there is a connection. The planet Saturn exists today as the home of beings so imbued with Saturnian qualities that they needed to remain in an Old-Saturn-like condition. Thus, the planet Saturn is a sort of reincarnation or surviving fragment of Old Saturn. [See "Planets".]

d) According to Steiner, the outermost planet: • “Jupiter is, of course, very important ... And then comes the outermost planet, which is Saturn.” — R. Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 44. • "[I]f we take Saturn, the outermost planet of our Universe, we must represent him as the leader of our planetary system in cosmic space. He directs our system in space. He is the body for the outermost force which leads us round in the lemniscate in cosmic space.” — R. Steiner,  MAN - HIEROGLYPH OF THE UNIVERSE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 11, GA 201. (Steiner sometimes acknowledged Uranus and Neptune as being members of the solar system, thus demoting Saturn from its "outermost" place, but he generally either ignored them or said that they are not true members of the solar system.)

e) According to Steiner: Saturn is associated with the abnormal spirits responsible for Native Americans. “If we cross over the ocean to America, where the place is at which the races or civilizations die, we then find the race of the dark Saturn, the original American-Indian race, the American race. The American-Indian race is the Saturn race.” — R. Steiner. [See "Races".]

According to Steiner, humans on Saturn and/or those who follow the Saturn leader or "I". [See "Planetary Humans".] "It is true that 

Saturn human beings, Sun and Moon human beings do not move about side by side with Earth humanity in the same way as three-year-old children move about alongside fifty-year-old men and women, but within the earthly human being the previous states of humanity are supersensibly perceptible.” — R. Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), chapter 4, part 1, GA 13.

According to Steiner, a spiritual organ developed through the influence of Saturn during our passage into higher worlds following death. "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. 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.

a) In Greek mythology, lustful gods, horse- or goat-like in form.

b) According to Steiner, real beings who use Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers for evil. “[T]he urge towards rationalistic thought and towards a purely intellectual grasp of the earthly world mingled with the element of lust in material existence. In other words, a Luciferic impulse [i.e., the force of Lucifer] gradually insinuated itself  ... If the whole reality is revealed to us as we look over towards the East of Europe to-day, we see not human beings alone but an astral [i.e., supernatural] sphere which since the Middle Ages has become the Paradise of beings once known as the Fauns and Satyrs. And if we understand the nature of these beings, we can also follow the processes of metamorphosis through which they have passed since then. These beings move about among men and carry on their activities in the astral world, using on the one hand the Ahrimanic forces [Ahriman is a devil] of decadent, Eastern magic and on the other, the forces emanating from the Luciferic, rationalistic thinking of the West. And human beings on the Earth are influenced and affected by these forces. [paragraph break] In their present state, the goat-form which constitutes the lower part of the bodily structure of these beings has coarsened and become bear-like, but on the other hand their heads are radiant and possessed of a high order of intelligence. They are the mirrored personifications of Luciferic rationalism developed to its highest point of subtlety.” [See "Sympathizers?"]

According to Steiner, members of low races, especially hot-blooded Africans (who are cooking inside). “[T]his question of race is one that we can never understand until we understand the mysteries of the blood and the results accruing from the mingling of the blood of different races ... How can a negro [sic] or an utterly barbaric savage become civilized? ... [A race's fate is tied to] whether it be on the up- or down-grade of its evolution...." [See "Steiner's Bile".]

A school within the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum, devoted to Steiner's doctrines and spiritual research intended to further develop the inner core of Anthroposophy. The School includes sections focusing on art, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, etc., as defined from an Anthroposophical perspective. The School arose from the Esoteric School, which Steiner established as a Theosophist in 1904. Steiner broke with Theosophy in 1913, setting up Anthroposophy as a separate spiritual movement, and soon thereafter the Esoteric School was formally disbanded. The School of Spiritual Science is essentially the Anthroposophical successor to the Esoteric School. Remnants of the Esoteric School were folded into the School of Spiritual Science upon the creation of the latter in 1923, when Steiner reconstituted to Anthroposophical Society as the General Anthroposophical Society. Steiner intended to create three classes within the School, but he died after creating only one: the First Class. [See "Six Facts You Need to Know About Steiner Education".]

The School of Spiritual Science

meets on the campus of the Goetheanum.

[GOETHEANUM (Philosophical-Anthroposophical Press, 1961), p. 12, color added.]

science, and opposition to it - also see astronomy; Darwin; Einstein; evolution; Goethean science; logic; medicine; scientific method; scientists; technology; thinking; cf. alchemy; Anthroposophy; astrology; clairvoyance; Goethean science; magic; science curriculum at Waldorf schools; spiritual science; superstition

The search for knowledge based on careful observation, accumulation of verifiable information, formulation of testable conclusions, and careful experimentation; Steiner claimed that Anthroposophy is a science studying the spiritual realm, but it depends on clairvoyance (which does not exist) and thus its findings cannot be considered careful observation, nor can they be tested or verified. [See "Steiner's 'Science'".] "When the intellectual age began to dawn, the old conception of the fall of mankind was responsible for the veto on all thoughts concerning pre-existence. Then science arose as the immediate offspring of this misunderstood fall of man. Our science is sinful, it is the direct outcome of the misunderstanding relating to the fall of man ... Modern science makes it impossible to reach the goal of the evolution of the Earth. Nevertheless, the depths of the human soul are still untouched: If man appeals to these soul-depths and develops super-sensible knowledge in the spirit of the Christ-impulse he will attain redemption once more, even in the intellectual sphere redemption from the intellectual forces, that have fallen — if I may express it in this way — into sin." — R. Steiner, "Man's Fall and Redemption", ANTHROPOSOPHIC NEWS SHEET (1932, No. 20; General Anthroposophical Society).

Steiner's followers take a dim view of modern sciences, which do not affirm their doctrines. Sciences are studied, but often in distorted form, in Waldorf schools. “The science teacher has a most difficult task. Natural science has become purely materialistic in its approach and the immense discoveries and their application in technology have produced a de-spiritualised and de-humanised world.” — R. Steiner. The task of the science teacher is difficult because Steiner rejected most of modern science. He called science “scientific junk” and he called scientists “scientific simpletons.” Steiner preferred “Goethean” science in which you intuit (i.e., invent and project) spiritual essences in things. Ultimately, Steiner advocated his own “spiritual science” in which you use clairvoyance to perceive (i.e., invent and project) spiritual essences in and behind things. [See "Basement".]

An explanatory grouping of ideas based on established facts or knowledge. The accepted theories of any period represent the best, most solid information available. Later theories may improve upon or overturn earlier theories, but in no case does the word "theory" mean, in this context, loose or unsubstantiated guesses. (Anthroposophists often attack modern science as if the word "theory" has this informal meaning.) [See "Steiner's Blunders".]

The seven closed mystic emblems to be opened in the Apocalypse (see Revelation 6). [See "Sixth Epoch".]

Meetings, presided over by mediums, in which attempts are made to contact the dead. “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".]

The return of Christ; according to Steiner, it has already occurred on the etheric plane. In essence, the Second Coming is the revelation of Christ’s true nature, which is provided by Anthroposophy (i.e., it is provided by Rudolf Steiner). Steiner said the orthodox Christian belief that Christ will return bodily to the Earth is mistaken. The reality is that Christ’s being — His “ether form” — is perceptible now to those who use clairvoyance properly. This perception of Christ is “like” the Christian expectation of Christ’s bodily return. “The will of man must be fired by divine wisdom, and the most powerful impulse for this will be if the sublime ether-form of Christ Jesus becomes perceptible to those who have truly prepared themselves. To a person in whom natural clairvoyance has developed this will be like a Second Coming of Christ Jesus.” [See "Was He Christian?".] “Christ will appear again inasmuch as with their etheric sight men will raise themselves to Him. When this is understood, Spiritual Science is disclosed as the means of preparing men to recognise the return of Christ, in order that it shall not be their misfortune to overlook this event but that they shall be mature enough to grasp the great happening of the Second Coming of Christ. Men will become capable of seeing etheric bodies and among them, too, the etheric body of Christ; that is to say, they will grow into a world where Christ will be revealed to their newly awakened faculties.” — R. Steiner, THE TRUE NATURE OF THE SECOND COMING (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1961), lecture 1, GA 118. For those who “see” Christ now in the etheric, the Second Coming (as redefined by Steiner) has already occurred.

Secrecy has been built into the Anthroposophical movement from its inception. Rudolf Steiner claimed to possess “occult” — i.e., hidden or secret — spiritual wisdom. His most important book is titled AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE. In that volume — as well as in other books and lectures — Steiner revealed much of his secret wisdom. But he also kept a lot hidden from the uninitiated. He expressed his somewhat conflicted views on secrecy in another of his central texts: "It is a natural law among all initiates [i.e., those who possess occult knowledge] to withhold from no man the knowledge that is due him but there is an equally natural law which lays down that no word of esoteric knowledge shall be imparted to anyone not qualified to receive it. And the more strictly he observes these laws, the more perfect is an initiate. The bond of union embracing all initiates is spiritual and not external, but the two laws here mentioned form, as it were, strong clasps by which the component parts of this bond are held together. You may live in intimate friendship with an initiate, and yet a gap severs you from his essential self, so long as you have not become an initiate yourself. You may enjoy in the fullest sense the heart, the love of an initiate, yet he will only confide his knowledge to you when you are ripe for it. You may flatter him; you may torture him; nothing can induce him to betray anything to you as long as you, at the present stage of your evolution, are not competent to receive it into your soul in the right way." — R. Steiner, KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1947), chapter 1, GA 10.

For Steiner's followers today, there is a continuing debate over how much to reveal and how much to conceal. Over time, the Anthroposophical veil of secrecy has gradually lifted, but evidently not all the way. (We on the outside cannot know for sure. But Anthroposophy's long history of secrecy and deceit suggest that skepticism is still in order.) Anthroposophists can still be tightlipped, and although Anthroposophical publications have proliferated, learning what Anthroposophists actually believe and do can still require detective work. Unfortunately, the secrecy is often densest around Waldorf schools, where the ties to Anthroposophy, the devotion to Steiner, and spiritual/evolutionary goals of the Waldorf program are still usually denied. [See "Secrets".] 

Clandestine groups or societies, often with evil aims; according to Steiner, both good and bad secret brotherhoods, having magical powers, really exist. “Knowledge about real spirits who are outside the scope of human consciousness ... was always regarded as the secret possession of certain brotherhoods who ... were always honestly of the opinion that the majority of human beings were insufficiently mature to possess this knowledge. And this was to a large extent indeed the case. But many other brotherhoods, those we call brotherhoods of the left-hand path, endeavoured to keep this knowledge to themselves also because when such knowledge is possessed by a small group it gives that group power over others.” — R. Steiner, [See "Double Trouble".]

A temple devoted to or possessing mystery knowledge, secret wisdom, gnosis. [See "Wise Words".] "[T]he spiritual world is present in the sacrament through the establishment of the ritual. The ritual unites spirit with physical substance by virtue of deep insight into the relation of spirit to matter ... Everything in this relation depends upon the priest's celebrating the sacraments with such an attitude. Everything depends upon our permeating ourselves with such thoughts. For instance, the relation between experience in the body and experience out of the body; secrets of pathology from observing the body when it is left; secrets of therapy from observing abnormal life in the spiritual world as compared to normal perception in the spiritual world. What was established in ancient times in secret temple procedures by prominent somnambulists must now be again established by human beings developing spiritual perception in themselves.” — R. Steiner, PASTORAL MEDICINE (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), lecture 9, GA 318.

Arguably the basis of Anthroposophical/Waldorf beliefs and practices. [See "Fooling".]

One of the twelve justified world conceptions, according to Steiner. “[One] can say: 'The world of phenomena we certainly have around us, but all that we believe we have in these phenomena is what we have ourselves added to them, what we have thought into them. Our own sense-impressions are all we can rightly accept. Anyone who says this — mark it well! — is not an adherent of Phenomenalism. He peels off from the phenomena everything which he thinks comes only from the understanding and the reason, and he allows validity only to sense-impressions, regarding them as some kind of message from reality.' This outlook may be called Sensationalism.” — R. Steiner. Steiner associated sensationalism with Leo. [See “Philosophy”.]

a) Faculties by which we perceive the world. In general usage, there are five: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Scientists also sometimes speak of additional senses, such as proprioception (internal awareness of bodily position) and echolocation (finding location by echo), but some of these may simply be extensions of the five basic senses, and none provide scientific validation of the extra "senses" Steiner described (below).

b) According to Steiner, we have twelve senses. The physical senses are: touch, life, movement, balance. The soul senses are: smell, taste, vision, temperature. The spirit senses are: hearing, speech thought, and ego sense. These twelve are associated with the astrological influences of Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, and Aries, in that order. [See "What We're Made Of".]

Hocus-pocus analytical technique used in biodynamic agriculture. [See "Biodynamics".]

According to Steiner, our souls have three parts. The first part is the sentient soul, which  forms feelings and concepts. The sentient soul then passes these to the next level, the mind soul which mulls them over. (The mind soul is also called the intellectual soul, although Steiner taught that intellect is unreliable. In Anthroposophy, true concepts are likely to come from emotion rather than intellection. The form of "intellect" represented in the "intellectual soul" is strongly modified by feeling. Note that we a considering soul activities, not brain activities.) The upper level of the soul is the consciousness soul which finds links and applications between one's inner consciousness and the objective, outer world. [See "Our Parts".]

a) The highest order of Angels.

b) According to Steiner, gods nine levels above man. They reside in the upper sphere of the zodiac, where they labor to harmonize the solar system with the rest of the cosmos. [See"Higher Worlds".] The Seraphim are the highest of the three types of gods in the highest hierarchy of gods, the First Hierarchy; below them in the First Hierarchy at the Cherubim and Thrones. [See "Polytheism".] Like the other gods, the Seraphim evolved to their current lofty station from much lower conditions in the past. Indeed, their evolution began long before our solar system existed. "Before a system of Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim can be evolved, it must have been a solar system at an earlier stage; which means, that when the Sun has got so far as to be reunited with its planets, it becomes itself a circle — a Zodiacal circle. That which we have come to know in the Zodiac, those great, sublime Beings, are the results that have come over to us from an earlier solar system." — R. Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1928), lecture 5, GA 110. 

Steiner reworked the meaning of this essential Christian text, as he did most religious texts he incorporated in his belief system. Thus, for example, he explains the first beatitude (blessed are the poor in spirit) this way: “All the members of [man’s] being — the physical and etheric bodies, the sentient, rational and consciousness souls, the ego, and even the higher soul members — receive new life through the nearness of the Kingdom of Heaven. These teachings are in complete accord with the teachings of primeval wisdom. In order for an individual to enter the spiritual world in earlier times, the etheric body had to be slightly separated from the physical body, which was thus formed in a special way. Christ Jesus therefore said in regard to the physical body, ‘Blessed are the beggars, the poor in spirit, for if they develop their ego-ruled bodies in the right way, they will find the Kingdom of Heaven.’” — R. Steiner. [See "Sermon".]

One of several overlapping, not-wholly-consistent descriptions Steiner gave of human nature: our seven parts are physical nature, etheric nature, astral nature, intellectual soul, spirit self, life spirit, spirit man.  [See "What We're Made Of".]

According to Steiner, we incarnate and develop in seven-year stages; the Waldorf curriculum is meant to reflect this "insight," which has been called Steiner's greatest educational contribution. [See "Incarnation".] “Perhaps the most original and significant component in Steiner’s educational philosophy is its conception of child development in seven-year stages.”  — Robert McDermott, THE ESSENTIAL STEINER (Lindisfarne Press, 2007 ), p. 396. [See "Most Significant".]

According to Steiner, the final epoch in our current Stage of Form. This epoch will, in effect, conclude with the physical destruction of the Earth and indeed the entire universe. You may be surprised to learn that physical reality will end through our own actions: We will, in a sense, ingest it all. “This epoch completes the physical condition of form of the earth [i.e., the physical existence of the Earth], which must then be entirely transmuted into astral form. But only in human beings is matter annihilated. So it must all be absorbed by us.” — Richard Seddon, THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge, 2002), p. 83. [See "Lucky Seventh".]

According to Steiner, the division into sexes was part of the process of separation and individuation that will be reversed as we evolve. Male and female principles represent very different spiritual forces, although males have invisible female bodies, and vice versa. [See "Clues".] The division into sexes occurred on Lemuria. Before that, people could impregnate themselves. ”We shall now describe the state of man before his division into male and female. At that time the body consisted of a soft malleable mass ... This division took place slowly and gradually. Long before its actual occurrence, human beings were already developing in such a way that one individual would be born with more male, another with more female characteristics. Each human being however also possessed the opposite sexual characteristics, so that self-impregnation was possible.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner Static".]

a) In the Bible, a son of Noah, progenitor of the Semites.

b) In Anthroposophy, an avatar. [See "Avatars".]

a) The Hindu god of destruction.

b) According to Steiner, a member of the Godhead. “The Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are for us the highest Hierarchy among divine Beings, because they have already passed through their solar system evolution and have risen to mighty cosmic deeds of sacrifice. Hence it is that these Beings have come into the actual direct vicinity of the highest Godhead of which we can speak at all: the Trinity, the three-fold Divinity. Beyond the Seraphim we have to see that highest Divinity of which we find mention by almost all nations as the threefold Divinity — as Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, as Father, Word, and Holy Ghost. From out [of] this highest Godhead, this most exalted Trinity, stream forth the plans for a new cosmic system." — R. Steiner. [See "Trinity".]

According to Steiner, a high initiate who preserved Atlantean wisdom. "The Spirits of Jupiter were specially observed in those Mysteries in which — as those of you will know who took part in my course of lectures at Munich last year — the three Individualities met together, the three spiritual Beings, Buddha, Zarathustra or Zarathas in his later incarnation, and that great leader of humanity whom we describe by the name of Skythianos. That is the Council which, under the guidance of One still greater, set itself the task of investigating into the mysterious forces which must be developed for the evolution of humanity, whose starting-point was taken from that part which is originally connected with the Jupiter forces and which was preordained in the map of the Earth already mentioned."* — R. Steiner. [See "Lecture".]

Rudolf Steiner's second wife. Influential among Anthroposophists during her husband's lifetime, she assumed an even greater role following his death. [See "What a Guy".]

Marie von Sievers.

[Public domain.]

Sif - also see group soul; Norse myths; Thor

a) In Norse mythology, the wife of Thor.

b) According to Steiner, the Nordic group-soul. "To this group-soul was given the name Sif. That is the name of the spouse of Thor ... Sif signifies the group-soul of the individual community from which the single individual grows forth. Sif is the being who unites herself with the God of the individual ‘ I ’, with the giver of the individual ‘I’, with Thor. The individual man recognized Sif and Thor as the Beings who gave him his ‘I’. The Northman still felt thus about them, at a time when to the peoples in other parts of Europe other tasks had already been given in the educating of man up to the ‘I’.” — R. Steiner. [See "The Gods".]

• "There was an initiate in the most ancient times who was signified by the name 'Sig.' The Drotten mysteries, which were in Russia and Scandinavia, the Druidic mysteries in Germany all derived from an initiate with the name Sig, who was the founder of the northern mysteries. What happened in the mysteries has been preserved in the various myths and legends of the German nation and other Germanic peoples. The myths and legends are pictorial representations of what was experienced. In the Siegfried legend we see most clearly that feature that seeks for an end. This feature is expressed in mythological terms in the 'Gotterdammerung,' the twilight of the gods. This is characteristic of all the northern mysteries." — R. Steiner, READING THE PICTURES OF THE APOCALYPSE (Anthroposophic Press, 1993), lecture 2, GA 104a. • "[T]he Gods had to withdraw from the world they had themselves created. The Gods who, even as late as the Atlantean epoch, had descended into the bodies of the most advanced human beings and had taught them important secrets in the Mysteries were obliged gradually to withdraw, and they could only come in touch with the physical world by using the more advanced human beings as their instruments or vehicles. This actually happened in the Atlantean epoch; and those who were initiated into the ancient Druidic Mysteries knew, for example, that an ancient Atlantean individuality known as Sig appeared long after the Atlantean catastrophe in many different ways in European bodies." — R. Steiner, UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN (H. Collison, 1931), lecture 10, GA 105.

Steiner affirmed and explained traditional occult signs and created his own new ones, which are represented in and around some Waldorf schools. A concise guide to some of these signs is OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (Anthroposophic Press, 1972). [See "Signs".]

According to Steiner, sin is the effect of evil gods, black magicians, demons in human form, etc. Sin is deviation from the divine cosmic plan. It is an anachronism (actions appropriate at one stage of evolution but inappropriate at others). It is deeply involved with karma. "[T]hrough Karma, objective justice is fulfilled ... [T]here is rightness in the fact that we are not excused a farthing of our Karma, but must pay our debts in full .. If we have, let us say, put out someone's eyes in a present incarnation, and then in the next incarnation we do something that makes compensation for this act, yet for the objective course of the universe the fact will remain that so many hundred years ago we put out someone's eyes." — R. Steiner. [See "Sin".] "[N]ow in this new Age of Michael, men will have to become aware of the way of their salvation. They must not allow their Intelligence to be overcome by sinfulness; rather must they use this age of Intelligence to ascend to the spiritual life in purity of Intelligence, free from all illusion." — R. Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, Vol. 3 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1977), lecture 8, GA 237.

Widely believed to be the sign of the Beast, the Antichrist. Steiner affirmed this belief. “The danger of succumbing to the realm of [the demon] Ahriman was at its greatest around the year 333 BC. This was the moment in time when humanity began to make use of mere intellect, mere logic. Then the mystery of Golgotha [i.e., Christ's ministry and Crucifixion] occurred and entered the life of humanity. And from AD 333 onwards the time began in which human beings must consciously strive to re-enter the realm of the higher hierarchies...

"If you add these two numbers together you get 666. That is the 'number of the beast'.'" — R. Steiner. [See "Mystic Math".]

According to Steiner, the next epoch in human evolution. It will come after the terrible War of All Against All. The results of that conflict will allow for our further evolution. “Progressive people [will] have radiant, good features and noble benevolent expressions; those who were lukewarm or turned away, preserving backward forces and retarding evolution, [will] reveal their evil passions and impulses hostile to the spirit in ugly, unintelligent, evil-looking countenances ...Mankind is [i.e., will be] thus divided into two great streams, the good and the evil .”  — R. Seddon, THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge, 2002), p. 70. [See "Sixth Epoch".]

Steiner taught that the evolutionary level of one's soul is reflected in one's skin color. “One can only understand history ... if one pays attention to people's racial characteristics. And one can only understand all that is spiritual ... if one first examines how this spiritual element operates within people precisely through the color of their skin.” — Rudolf Steiner, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE {On the Life of Human Beings and of the Earth} (Verlag Der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, 1961), p. 52. Understandably, this passage is rarely translated into English. [See "Steiner's Racism".]

According to Steiner, our astral bodies and egos leave our physical and etheric bodies during sleep and journey into spirit realms. He further taught that dreams and other sleep activities can be reliable sources of knowledge. "Coming now to describe rather more in detail how we take our way after falling asleep, we find we can distinguish different spheres through which we pass. First comes the sphere where the I and the astral body — that is to say, the soul of man as it finds itself in sleep — feel united with the movements of the World of the planets ... In the first sphere with which we come in contact after falling asleep — and it will also be again the last sphere we enter before awaking — we have in us the forces of the movements of the planets ... [W]e carry within us a little picture, as it were, wherein the movements of the planets are reproduced. And this picture is different for each single human being ... We follow, as it were, with our astral body all that happens with the planets, as they move out there in the wide spaces of the Universe; we experience it all in our astral body in a sort of planetary globe." — R. Steiner. [See "Dreams" and "Higher Worlds".]

According to Steiner, the symbol of the Earth as it developed from Old Moon. "The occultist says that the snake is the symbol for the earth as it developed itself out of the Moon. The fish is the symbol for spiritual being as it has developed itself out of the Sun. Our earth, as it stands before us with its solid substances, has its lowest being in the snake." — R. Steiner. [See "Signs".]

A former Waldorf parent. She was active in Waldorf education, then she became a leading Waldorf critic. She is president of People for Legal and Nonsectarian Schools (PLANS). "My personal experience with Waldorf was very confusing. Instead of the progressive and liberal alternative school I was led to expect by the school's promotional materials and staff, I discovered a rigid, authoritarian environment that seemed to be rooted in a medieval dogma that I did not understand. When, in an effort to make sense of things, I asked questions about this, I found Waldorf teachers to be strangely defensive. [paragraph break] I was stunned to arrive at the conclusion that the education of children — at least as I use the term "education" — did not seem to be the school's most important focus and objective ... If the information on the PLANS Web site had been available 9 years ago, our family would have passed by Waldorf's door, knowing that its sectarian, occultist nature was not what we were looking for after all." [PLANS.]

The ancient Roman Sun god — a pagan comprehension of Christ. [See "Was He Christian?"] Anthroposophists conceive the Sun to be masculine, whereas the Moon is feminine. “In previous times people generally knew more about these things ... People used to know more about these matters and said that the sun has masculine qualities ... [S]ol, the sun, is masculine, while luna, the moon, is feminine. Sol, the sun quality, fertilizes luna, the feminine element.” — R. Steiner, FROM CRYSTALS TO CROCODILES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), p. 125.

Gods on or of the Sun; the highest of them is Christ, Steiner said. "[A] Sun God had to come, a higher being than Lucifer. There still existed what are known as the Solar Pitris. The most exalted among these is Christ." — R. Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 26, GA 93a. [See "Events".] In a more general sense, "Pitris" are human forebears who passed through the human level of evolution before we did. They were human on Old Sun and then rose to the ranks of the gods.

According to Steiner, gods two levels above man. "The work of these spirits [Primal Beginnings] is succeeded around the middle of the fifth Saturn cycle by that of the 'Sons of Fire,' who, at this stage, still have a dull image consciousness, similar to the Moon consciousness of man. They attain the stage of humanity only on the next planet, the Sun. Their work here is therefore to a certain degree still unconscious and dreamlike. But it is through them that the activity of the “sensory germs” from the previous cycle is enlivened. The light images produced by the 'fire spirits' shine outward through these sensory germs. The ancestor of man is thereby elevated to a kind of shining entity. While the life of Saturn is otherwise dark, man now shines in the general darkness."* — R. Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), chapter 14, GA 11. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, gods one level above man. “Within the Saturn body [i.e., Old Saturn — the earliest planetary stage of our evolution] something like sensations of taste begin [i.e., began] to go surging to and fro. Sweet, bitter, sour, etc. are perceived at diverse places in the interior of Saturn; while in the heavenly spaces without, all this gives the impression of sound, a kind of music. And in these processes, once more, Beings find it possible to unfold their activity on Saturn. These Beings may be called the ‘Sons of Twilight,’ or ‘Sons of Life’ (in Christian language they are the Angeloi or Angels.)”* — R. Steiner.  [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, gods one level above man. They reside in the Moon sphere and were human on Old Moon. Unlike higher gods, they take direct interest in individual humans. “These beings are the ‘Sons of Twilight,’ the ‘Spirits of Dusk.’ (In theosophical writings they are called Lunar Pitris or Barhishad-Pitris.) They attain the stage of humanity only on the Moon. On earth they, as well as their predecessors, the Sons of Fire [i.e., Archangels], have already grown beyond the stage of humanity. On earth they are higher beings which Christian esoteric teaching calls ‘Angels’ (Angeloi), while for the Sons of Fire it uses the expression “Archangels” (Archangeloi). These Sons of Twilight develop in the ancestor of man a kind of understanding [i.e., they had this effect on our early development], of which however, in his dull consciousness, he himself cannot yet make use.” * — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

In Anthroposophy, the divine female principle; wisdom; the Holy Ghost; the mother of god. “The cleansed, purified astral body, which bears within it at the moment of illumination none of the impure impressions of the physical world, but only the organs of perception of the spiritual world [i.e., nonphysical organs of clairvoyance], is called the ‘pure, chaste, wise Virgin Sophia’ in esoteric Christianity [i.e., heretical, Gnostic teachings]. By means of all that he receives during katharsis [i.e., initiation], the pupil cleanses and purifies his astral body so that it is transformed into the Virgin Sophia.” — R. Steiner. [See "Goddess".]

According to Steiner, the Sun demon, the Antichrist. According to Steiner, Sorat returned during the final third of the 20th Century. (Christ will return, but only in the etheric realm — that is to say, knowledge of Christ will become available, through Anthroposophy. Then the Antichrist will return.) "At the end of this century the time will come when Sorat will once again raise his head most strongly out of the waves of evolution to become the adversary of that appearance of Christ which those who have been prepared for it will already experience during the first half of the twentieth century when the Etheric Chris becomes visible. Only two thirds of the century will have still to run before Sorat once again raises his head most mightily." — R. Steiner. [See "Bad".]

a) Generally, the spiritual or immaterial element of a human being; often considered immortal.

b) According to Steiner: the personal spiritual self, renewed with each incarnation; distinct from spirit. Actually, we have several souls or soul members, Steiner taught. They incarnate at different ages. [See "What We're Made Of" and "Our Parts".] "Between the body and the spirit is the soul, which may be regarded as the mediator or bridge between them, and Steiner speaks of how it gathers treasures from the earthly experience to bestow on the spirit. The soul is not immortal, as the spirit is; after death it is gradually dissolved into the 'soul world.' Every newly incarnated human being creates for itself a new soul with the qualities needed for the fulfillment of its new destiny." — S. Easton, MAN AND THE WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), p. 36.

a) According to Steiner, the highest component of body nature.

b) According to Steiner, the second major division of ninefold nature of man. [See "What We're Made Of".] "Man's soul nature as his own inner world is different from his bodily nature. When attention is turned to even the simplest sensation, what is personally his own comes at once to the fore. Thus no one can know whether one person perceives even a simple sensation in exactly the same way as another. It is known that there are people who are color-blind. They see things only in various shades of grey. Others are only partially color-blind. Because of this they are unable to distinguish between certain shades of color. The picture of the world that their eyes gives them is different from that of so-called normal persons. The same holds good more or less in regard to the other senses. Thus it will seem without further elaboration that even simple sensations belong to the inner world. I can perceive with my bodily senses the red table that another person perceives but I cannot perceive his sensation of red. We must, therefore, describe sensation as belonging to the soul. If this single fact is grasped quite clearly, we shall soon cease to regard inner experiences as mere brain processes or something similar. Feeling must link itself with sensation. One sensation causes us pleasure, another displeasure. These are stirrings of our inner life, our soul life. In our feelings we create a second world in addition to the one working on us from without. A third is added to this — the world of the will. Through the will we react on the outer world thereby stamping the impress of our inner being upon it. The soul of man, as it were, flows outwards in the activities of his will. [paragraph break] The actions of man differ from the occurrences of outer nature in that they bear the impress of his inner life. Thus the soul as man's own possession stands confronting the outer world. He receives from the outer world the incitements, but he creates in response to these incitements a world of his own. The body becomes the foundation of the soul being of man." — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), chapter 1, GA 9.

According to Steiner, an intermediate level between the physical world and the spiritual world; accessible to souls. [See "Higher Worlds".] "When the soul enters the soul world after death it becomes subject to the laws of that world. The laws act on it and the manner in which the soul's inclinations towards the physical are destroyed depends upon their actions. The way these laws act on the soul must differ depending upon the kinds of soul substances and soul forces in whose domain it is placed at the time. Each of these according to the its kind will make its purifying, cleansing influence felt. The process that takes place here is such that all antipathy in the soul is gradually overcome by the forces of sympathy. This sympathy itself is brought to its highest pitch because, through this highest degree of sympathy with the rest of the soul world, the soul will, as it were, merge into and become one with it. Then will it be utterly emptied of self-seeking. It ceases to exist as a being inclined to physically sensible existence, and the spirit is set free by it. The soul, therefore, purifies itself through all the regions of the soul world described above until, in the region of perfect sympathy, it becomes one with the general soul world. That the spirit itself is in bondage until this last moment of the liberation of its soul is due to the fact that through its life the spirit has become most intimately related to the soul. This relationship is much closer than the one with the body because the spirit is only indirectly bound to the body through the soul, whereas it is bound directly to the soul. The soul is, in fact, the spirit's own life. For this reason the spirit is not bound to the decaying body, although it is bound to the soul that is gradually freeing itself. On account of the immediate bond between the spirit and the soul, the spirit can feel free of the soul only when the soul has itself become one with the general soul world." — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), chapter 3, GA 9.

A mystery play by Steiner.

 

A scene from THE SOUL'S AWAKENING

as staged at the Goetheanum.

[GOETHEANUM (Philosophical-Anthroposophical Press, 1961), p. 23, detail, color added.]

THE SOUL'S PROBATION

A mystery play by Steiner.

Steiner taught that all characteristics are the result of karma and must be handled cautiously; extreme deficiencies may show that a person is not really human. [See "Compassion and Its Absence".] Steiner advocated the curative use of eurythmy and horoscopes, among other approaches. [See "Eurythmy" and "Horoscopes".] The most extended presentation of Steiner's teachings about students with special needs can be found in EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998). 

According to Steiner, nature spirits embodying evil: ghosts; also wraiths, monstrous apparitions, fearsome beings. “The accumulation in the etheric body caused through these [wicked] experiences of the soul ... brings about detachments from the beings working in the spiritual worlds and these likewise are now to be found in our environment — they are the ‘specters’ or ‘ghosts.’” — R. Steiner. [See "Neutered Nature".]

Steiner held that speech can have magical, spiritual effects; like the gods, we can create realities by speaking them into existence. He also taught that prayers and other important texts should be declaimed rather than merely spoken. He prayed so loudly that he could be heard in the next room. "If the art of speech is to be resuscitated — preferably more in the form of a narrative style, or as the kind of poetry developed by the ancient Greeks — and to revise also the art of declamation, which the older German poetry is based on, it is necessary to do something about speech formation. This is the point." — R. Steiner. [See "Magical Arts".]

a) A round three-dimensional form with every point on its surface equidistant from its center.

b) A planet or other celestial, spherical body.

c) A physical, intellectual, political, cultural, or spiritual area.

d) In Theosophy: manifestation of the spiritual All.

e) In Anthroposophy, the region of a planetary god's spiritual influence, bounded by the orbit of the plant (except when Steiner said that planets don't move in orbits). The Moon sphere is inhabited by the Sons of Twilight; the Mercury sphere by the Fire Spirits; the Venus sphere by the Archai; the Sun Sphere by the Spirits of Form; the Mars sphere by Spirits of Movement; Jupiter Sphere by the Spirits of Wisdom; and the Saturn sphere by the Spirits of Will. [See "Higher Worlds".]

According to Steiner, monstrosities of intellect that will spread across the earth. [See "Spiders, Dragons and Foxes".] “[T]he earth ... will be covered as if by a network or web of ghastly spiders possessing tremendous wisdom ... [T]hey will imitate everything human beings have thought up with their shadowy intellect, which did not allow itself to be stimulated by what is to come through new Imagination and through spiritual science in general ...  To the extent that human beings have not enlivened their shadowy, intellectual concepts, they will have to unite their being ... with these ghastly mineral-plant-like spidery creatures. They will have to dwell together with these spiders ... However great the resistance in hostile quarters, these things must be said; for, as I have stated again and again, the acceptance or rejection of spiritual scientific knowledge is a serious matter facing mankind ... [W]e are dealing with something that definitely affects the whole configuration of the cosmos."  — R. Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1987), lecture 14, GA 204.

a) Generally, the nonphysical element of a person; synonymous with soul.

b) According to Steiner: the transcendent, undying spiritual self; distinct from soul. [See "Higher Worlds".]  Actually, we have several spirits or spiritual members. Thus, just as we have three bodies (physical, etheric, and astral), we have three souls (sentient, intellectual., and consciousness) and three spirits. "Thus, we have the three 'bodies,' the three 'souls,' and above these are yet higher stages of consciousness known to anthroposophy as the spirit self, life spirit, and spirit man."  — S. Easton, MAN AND THE WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), pp. 147-148. (Note: We have four bodies if we count the "I.")

According to Steiner (drawing on Theosophy), the third spiritual human component: atma(n). Spirit man is the transformed physical body or, sometimes, the highest human consciousness (Steiner was not always consistent). It is the Godhead as reflected in man, hence the God within. It is the highest division of Soul Nature (by one definition). It is the independent human spiritual being. [See "What We're Made Of".]

According to Steiner, the highest major division of the nine-fold nature of man. [See "What We're Made Of".] "Within the confines of life between birth and death, the human being belongs to the three worlds of bodily nature, soul nature, and spirit nature." — R. Steiner, A WESTERN APPROACH TO REINCARNATION AND KARMA (SteinerBooks, 1997), p. 126.

a) According to Steiner (drawing on Theosophy), the first spiritual human component: manas: the transformed astral body; the reincarnating self; semi-high human consciousness; the spirit forming and living as "I".

b) Also the combination of Spiritual Soul and Spirit Self (by one definition) in the seven-fold nature of man. [See "What We're Made Of".] "The higher the moral and mental development of man, the more will his 'I' have worked on the astral body, and the seer can distinguish this. Whatever part of the astral body has been thus transformed by the 'I' is called the Spirit Self (Manas)." — R. Steiner, UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 25. 

The spiritual "skin," according to Steiner. “...The spiritual skin that separates the spirit man from the unitary spirit world makes him an independent being within it, living a life within himself and perceiving intuitively the spiritual content of the world. Let us call this 'spiritual skin' (auric sheath) the spirit sheath ... The spirit man lives within this spirit sheath. It is built up by the spiritual life force in the same way as the physical body is by the physical life force. In a similar way to that in which one speaks of an ether body, one must speak of an ether spirit in reference to the spirit man. Let his ether spirit be called life spirit. The spiritual nature of man is thus composed of three parts, spirit man, life spirit and spirit self.” [See "Our Parts".]

The compound spiritual self, combining one's spirit and soul. Steiner often used the term "spirit-soul;" he also reversed the terms, sometimes, and referred to the soul-spirit. [See "Waldorf's Purpose".] "[W]e must recognise that the human being is really composed of two members. Before the human being comes down to earth a union is entered into between the spirit and the soul — meaning by spirit what for the physical world of to-day is still entirely hidden, and what in Spiritual Science we call Spirit-Man, Life-Spirit, Spirit-Self. These three members of man's being are present in a certain way in the supersensible sphere to which we must now work our way through. And between death and a new birth we do already stand in a certain relationship to Spirit-Man, Life-Spirit, Spirit-Self. Now the force which proceeds from this trinity permeates the Soul element in man: Consciousness Soul, Intellectual or Mind Soul, and Sentient Soul. And if you were to observe the human being when, having passed through the existence between death and a new birth, he is just preparing to descend into the physical world, then you would find the spiritual which we have just described united with the soul. Man descends, as it were, as Spirit-Soul or Soul-Spirit from a higher sphere into earthly existence. He clothes himself with earthly existence."* — R. Steiner, THE STUDY OF MAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 1, GA 293. (Don't be concerned when Steiner tells you that man has "two members," and then immediately refers to "three members." Some of the linguistic confusions in Anthroposophical texts result from transcription and translation errors; others result from the sloppiness of Steiner's thinking.)

a) According to Steiner, any of various nonphysical worlds above the physical world: hence, "higher worlds."

b) Also, according to Steiner, when used as a singular term: the world above the physical and soul worlds. [See "Higher Worlds".] In general, Steiner taught that there are three higher worlds, and the highest of these is the spirit world, corresponding to a human being's highest component, the spirit. We ascend to each higher world in varying ways, while we sleep, while we evolve, and while we make the passage between incarnations. Progressively higher gods and states of consciousness are found in each succeeding stage. 

The spirit world lies beyond the soul world. "[L]egends inform us that unusually endowed people, who are particularly suited by their karmas, pass into an extraordinary state of consciousness that resembles sleep, but only on the surface. its inner quality is such that it can be inspired by those forces that elevate human beings to the domain we call the spirit world. A beautiful Norwegian legend tells us that Olaf Åsteson, in church on Christmas Eve, falls into a sleeplike state and when he awakens on January 6 is able to relate the experiences he had in this condition. This Norwegian legend does in fact describe the experiences that one perceives first as the soul world — and then as something that feels like the spirit world, but with everything being expressed as images, as imaginative forms." — R. Steiner, CHRIST IN RELATION TO LUCIFER AND AHRIMAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1978), GA 159.

a) Spiritualism: In philosophy, the doctrine that spirit exists separate from matter, and/or that spirit is the only reality.

b) According to Steiner, "spiritism" is one of the twelve justified world conceptions. "[T]here are people who, owing to a certain inwardness, are naturally predisposed to see in all that is material only the revelation of the spiritual ... Such persons may take no particular interest in the material world and its laws. As all their ideas of the spiritual come to them through their own inner activity, they may go through the world with the consciousness that the true, the lofty, in which one ought to interest oneself — all genuine reality — is found only in the Spirit; that matter is only illusion, only external phantasmagoria ... Let us call their conception of the universe: Spiritism." — R. Steiner. Steiner associated spiritism with Capricorn. [See "Philosophy".]

In Theosophy: the spiritual realm, entered after death; roughly equivalent to Devachan, the Mental Plane. This concept was adopted and developed by Steiner. In his teachings, Spiritland is the equivalent of the spirit world, the highest of the three "higher worlds." As such, lying beyond the the physical and astral planes, it is the world of inspiration. [See "Everything".] We ascend to spiritland through our process of out-of-body spiritual education and evolution. Hence, spiritland may be considered both a place and a stage of evolution. More accurately, there are lower and higher spiritlands that may be considered levels or periods. As the latter, they are two of seven Stages of Form. [See "Matters of Form".]

Steiner's use of terminology was fluid; do not expect full consistency or clarity from him. In part, this can be attributed to his departure from Theosophy to establish his own system, Anthroposophy. The term "spiritland" comes primarily from his Theosophical period. "[T]he soul passes into cosmic-spiritual life and finds its place in the Mars region. This region corresponds with what is described in [Steiner's book] THEOSOPHY as the first sphere of the ‘Spiritland’. This description portrays the inner aspect of the fact that the soul is spiritual to the extent of being able to behold as something external to itself the ‘archetype’, as it were, of the physical bodily organisation and of physical conditions on the Earth in general. The archetypes of physical life on Earth appear as a kind of ‘continental’ mass of the Spiritland. The external configurations of a man's different incarnations are inscribed in this ‘continental’ region. There we have a picture of what, in terms of cosmic existence, the human soul has to experience in the Mars region. It might seem strange that this Mars region which has repeatedly been described in these lectures as a region of strife, of aggressive impulses until the beginning of the seventeenth century, should be said to be the first region of Devachan, of the true Spiritland. Nevertheless this is the case." — R. Steiner, BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1975)), lecture 10, GA 141.

According to Steiner, gods three levels above man. "Then we rise to those beings whom we designate the Spirits of Personality, primeval beginnings, primeval forces, or Archai ... [T]hey live in such a way that, on the waves of time, from epoch to epoch, they transform themselves at certain definite periods, they assume other spiritual bodies ... You have here to do with that which represents the meaning and the mission of an epoch of humanity ... This ‘Spirit of the Age’ comprises something which reaches beyond single nations, beyond single races ... That which one really calls a ‘Zeit geist’ or Spirit of an epoch is the spiritual body of the Archai or the Primeval Beginnings or Spirits of Personality.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, among the gods three levels above man; also rebellious spirits thrown out of the spirit world above us. “Then follows the activity of the ‘Spirits of Darkness.’ which are also called 'Spirits of Personality’ or of 'Self-hood’ (Egoism). At this stage they have [i.e., had]a consciousness similar to the present human earthly consciousness. They inhabit the formed human material body as 'souls’ in a way similar to that in which the human soul inhabits its body today. They implant a kind of sensory organs in the body, which are the germs of the sensory organs which later develop in the human body in the course of the development of earth.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".] 

[Rudolf Steiner Press, 2008.]

According to Steiner, gods one level above man. “These beings are the ‘Sons of Twilight,’ the ‘Spirits of Dusk.’ (In theosophical writings they are called Lunar Pitris or Barhishad-Pitris.) They attain the stage of humanity only on the Moon. On earth they, as well as their predecessors, the Sons of Fire [i.e., Archangels], have already grown beyond the stage of humanity. On earth they are higher beings which Christian esoteric teaching calls ‘Angels’ (Angeloi), while for the Sons of Fire it uses the expression “Archangels” (Archangeloi). These Sons of Twilight develop in the ancestor of man a kind of understanding [i.e., they had this effect on our early development], of which however, in his dull consciousness, he himself cannot yet make use.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, gods two levels above man. They dwell in the sphere of Mercury and were human on Old Sun. They concern themselves with groups of human beings — peoples, nations, and races. “These Spirits of Fire rise to the human stage by allowing their forces to surge in and out of this Saturn part of the human being, just as this was performed by the Spirits of Personality [Spirits of Personality] on Saturn. This, too, happens at the central stage of the Sun evolution. At that time the Saturn part of the human being is so far matured that with its help the Spirits of Fire — Archangels — are able to pass through their human stage.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, gods four levels above man. They are the lowest gods in the Second Hierarchy. They dwell in the sphere of the Sun and were human in the time before Old Saturn. They shape the forms of the Earth and its environs as evolution progresses. “[T]he activity of yet other Beings begins [i.e., began], whom we will call Spirits of Form. Their lowest member is also an astral body ... [T]he astral body of the Spirits of Form (in Christian language Exusiai or Powers) works in such a way that it seems as though manifestations are being hurled out into cosmic space from many single beings ... The Spirits of Form divide this life of Saturn [Old Saturn] into so many separate living entities, so that eventually it appears like a conglomeration of soul-beings.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, members of the tenth hierarchy: us in the distant future. Having attained complete spiritual freedom, having perfected ourselves, we will become the highest of the high. “[W]e must place among the hierarchical ranks those we may call the ‘Spirits of Freedom’ or the ‘Spirits of Love.’ Counting from above downward, this is the Tenth Hierarchy. This Tenth Hierarchy, although still in the process of development, nevertheless belongs to the spiritual hierarchies.” — R. Steiner. [See "Tenth Hierarchy".] 

According to Steiner, gods four levels above man. “The Spirits of Light belong to the order of the Powers or Revelations. We know that Yahve [Jehovah] had six companions who separated off the sun. Yahve himself went with the moon which reflected the sun's light to the earth, but he is a companion of the other Elohim ... The whole structure in which man is embedded, the guidance of the planet and what occurs on it is the affair of the Revelations or Powers. For the whole present evolution of humanity could not have gone on without, on the one hand, the accelerating sun forces, and, on the other, the hindering moon forces.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

a) According to Steiner, gods four levels above man - see Spirits of Form. (Steiner sometimes applied the term "Spirits of Love" to the Spirits of Form, but usually he did not.)

b) According to Steiner, gods nine levels above man. As the highest gods in the First Hierarchy, they reside in the upper reaches of the zodiac. They harmonize the solar system with the rest of the universe. “’Spirits of Love’ ... work upon the human etheric body (or life-body) in co-operation with the Spirits of Personality. The combined activity of these Beings enables the life-body to take a further step on its path of evolution ... Observation of the human being during the middle epoch of Sun evolution reveals it to be divided into a physical body and a life-body. The latter is the scene of activity for the more advanced Spirits of Personality, in unison with the Spirits of Love. The physical body is now intermingled with a portion of the retarded Saturn nature, and here the activity of the Fire Spirits is at work. In what the Fire Spirits achieve in this retarded Saturn nature, we have to recognize the forerunners of the present sense-organs of Earth man. (It will be remembered that already upon Saturn the Fire Spirits were concerned in elaborating within the warmth-substance the seeds of the human senses.) On the other hand, in that which is accomplished by the Spirits of Personality in union with the Spirits of Love (the Seraphim,) we have to perceive the first beginnings of man's present glandular organs.””* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

c) Ourselves when perfected. “Dr. Steiner speaks of future humanity as of the tenth Hierarchy, Beings of spiritual Freedom, Spirits of Love.” — G. Adams Kaufmann. “[W]e must place among the hierarchical ranks those we may call the ‘Spirits of Freedom’ or the ‘Spirits of Love.’ Counting from above downward, this is the Tenth Hierarchy. This Tenth Hierarchy, although still in the process of development, nevertheless belongs to the spiritual hierarchies.” — R. Steiner.  [See "Tenth Hierarchy".]

According to Steiner, gods five levels above man. The middle gods of the Second Hierarchy, they reside in the sphere of Mars. Their task is to guide the motions of spiritual energy within the forms of evolution. “The third kind of spirits with the self-conscious (supra-psychic) object consciousness [a level of conscious we will acquire after Vulcan] is called ‘Spirits of Motion’ or of ‘Activity.’ In Christian mystery science they are called ‘Principalities’ (Dynamis).  (In theosophical literature, the expression Mahat is to be found for them.) From the middle of the second Saturn cycle onward [life on Old Saturn developed in stages or cycles] they combine with the progress of their own development, the further elaboration of the human material body, in which they implant the capacity of movement and of forceful activity. This task comes to a conclusion around the middle of the third Saturn cycle.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, gods three levels above man. They dwell in the sphere of Venus and were human on Old Saturn. Their task is to oversee the epochs of human evolution, giving each period its character or personality. They are sometimes called Time Spirits or Zeitgeists. “Then we rise to those beings whom we designate the Spirits of Personality, primeval beginnings, primeval forces, or Archai ... [T]hey live in such a way that, on the waves of time, from epoch to epoch, they transform themselves at certain definite periods, they assume other spiritual bodies ... You have here to do with that which represents the meaning and the mission of an epoch of humanity ... This ‘Spirit of the Age’ comprises something which reaches beyond single nations, beyond single races ... That which one really calls a ‘Zeit geist’ or Spirit of an epoch is the spiritual body of the Archai or the Primeval Beginnings or Spirits of Personality."* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, evil spirits of Saturn, leading to the evil side of egoism. "Now on each planet there are also Spirits who have remained behind in evolution, they have remained stationary and not wished to progress. You will recognise a law from this: If the most outstanding fall and commit the 'great sin' of not advancing with evolution, then they become the very worst of all. The noble sense of liberty has been reversed into wickedness, into its opposite. Those are the Spirits of Temptation, and they must be taken gravely into account; they lead to the evil side of egoism, even today they are still in our environment, these evil Spirits of Saturn. All that is bad draws its power from these Spirits." — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 9, GA 99.

According to Steiner, gods eight levels above man. They are the middle gods of the First Hierarchy, and dwell beyond the solar system, within the zodiac. The harmonize the Earth with the other planets. “[Y]et other Beings to enter the heavenly body. Let them be called the ‘Spirits of the Harmonies’ (in Christian terminology called the Cherubim.) These Beings transmit to the Sons of Life a kind of dim consciousness of man today. It is like the consciousness that belongs to man in dreamless sleep, which is of such a low degree that in a manner of speaking it does not ‘come to consciousness’ at all; man remains unaware of it. Yet it is there. It differs from day-consciousness in kind as well as in degree. Our present-day plants possess this ‘dreamless sleep’ consciousness. It affords no perceptions of an outer world in the human sense of the word, but it regulates the life-processes and brings them into harmony with those in the outer Universe. At the Saturn stage with which we are here dealing, the Sons of Life cannot perceive the regulations; but the Spirits of the Harmonies perceive it. They therefore are the real regulators.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, gods that manifest as natural laws. "The nature-spirits of water and air can be observed; we may say they are in the environment; but we cannot say of these spiritual beings of which we are now speaking, that they are in our environment; we are in fact always actually united with them, as if poured into them, when we perceive them. We are merged into them, and they speak to us in spirit. It is as though we perceived thoughts and feelings from the environment; impulses of will, sympathy and antipathy come to expression in what these beings cause to flow into us as thoughts, feelings, and impulses of will. Thus in this category of spirits we see beings already resembling the human soul. If we turn back again to what has been stated, we may say that all sorts of regulations in time, of divisions in the relations of time and space, are also connected with these beings. An old expression has therefore been preserved in occultism for these beings, which in their totality we recognize as the astral body of the earth, and this in English would be, 'Spirits of the Rotation of Time.'” — R. Steiner,  THE SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN THE HEAVENLY BODIES AND IN THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE (Steiner Book Center, 1981), lecture 2, GA 136.

According to Steiner, gods seven levels above man; they are the lowest gods in the First Hierarchy. Dwelling in the sphere of Saturn (the outermost sphere of the solar system), they will the Earth to move as it should, following the correct laws for its progress. "The Beings who find Their blessedness in pouring out Will at the beginning of Saturn may be called ‘Spirits of Will.’ (In Christian esoteric science they are called the Thrones.) ... Let us now direct our attention to these phantoms-of-man [human precursors] with their semblance of life. During the period with which we have been dealing, they are of ever-changing form. Now they will resemble one shape, now another. In the further course of evolution the shapes become more definite, and sometimes even last for a while. This is due to their being now permeated by the influences of the Spirits who were at work in the very beginning of Saturn evolution, namely the Spirits of Will (the Thrones.) As a result, the phantom-of-man appears to be endowed with the simplest, darkest form of consciousness. We must conceive it as being yet more dim than that of dreamless sleep. Under present-day conditions, the minerals possess this consciousness. It brings the inner nature of the object or being into unison with the physical external world. On Saturn it is the Spirits of Will who regulate this unison, with the result that man appears like an impress of the Saturn life itself ... Inwardly — within Saturn — this dull human will manifests itself to the faculty of supersensible perception by effects which may be compared to ‘smells.’ Outwardly — out into the heavenly spaces — there is a manifestation as of personality, a personality, however, that is not guided by an inner I, but regulated from outside like a machine. It is the Spirits of Will who regulate it ... Pure inner warmth accompanies the appearance on Saturn of the Spirits of Movement, pure spiritual light that of the Spirits of Wisdom, while pure inward being is connected with the first outpouring of the Spirits of Will.”* — R. Steiner. [See "Polytheism".]

According to Steiner, gods six levels above man. They are the highest gods in the Second Hierarchy. Their home is the sphere of Jupiter, from which they project the spiritual consciousness that guides our evolution. “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".]

Steiner specified exercises, meditations, mantras, and prayers for his followers to use. [See "Serving the Gods".] His most detailed exposition can be found in the book KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT, which has also been released under the title HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDS. Steiner laid down "rules" for aspirants to follow. Early in the book, Steiner says, for instance, "One of the first rules may now be put into words, somewhat as follows: “Create moments of inner peace for yourself, and in these moments learn to 

distinguish the essential from the inessential.' Here, as I said, it is put into words, but originally all the rules and teachings of spiritual science were given symbolically in a sign language. Whoever would learn the full meaning and import of these rules must first understand this symbolic language. Such understanding, however, depends upon having taken the first steps in spiritual science. To take these steps, one must observe closely the rules presented here. The way stands open to anyone whose will is sincere." — R. Steiner, HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDS (Anthroposophic Press, 1994), p. 26.

According to Steiner, humanity is guided by elevated spiritual beings; some resided on Earth and have moved to the Moon. "[T]he moon today is like a fortress in the universe, in which there lives a population that fulfilled its human destiny over 15,000 years ago, after which it withdrew to the moon." — R. Steiner. [See "Prehistory 101".] Mankind is mainly aided by beneficent gods, but superior human beings also provide guidance for humanity at large. [See "The White Lodge".] Anthroposophy teaches that errant humans may descend so low that they lose their souls and become subhuman. [See "Nuts".] Likewise, Anthroposophists believe, highly advanced humans may rise to a superhuman level. These are the adepts or masters (a prime example being Rudolf Steiner, in the view of his followers). Humanity benefited from such leadership even before we became human. "On the Old Moon the predecessors of man again went through a certain normal development. But there were also Moon Adepts who hastened on in advance of the rest of mankind. At the end of the Old Moon evolution these Pitri beings [i.e., human forebears] were much more advanced than the rest of humanity, just as the Adepts are today." — R. Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 23, GA 93a.

According to Steiner, the third major division of nine-fold nature of man. [See "What We're Made Of".] "The soul nature of man is not determined by the body alone. Man does not wander aimlessly and without purpose from one sensation to another, nor does he act under the influence of every casual incitement that plays upon him either from without or through the processes of his body. He thinks about his perceptions and his acts. By thinking about his perceptions he gains knowledge of things. By thinking about his acts he introduces a reasonable coherence into his life. He knows that he will worthily fulfill his duty as a man only when he lets himself be guided by correct thoughts in knowing as well as in acting. The soul of man, therefore, is confronted by a twofold necessity. By the laws of the body it is governed by natural necessity. It allows itself also to be governed by the laws that guide it to exact thinking because it voluntarily acknowledges their necessity. Nature subjects man to the laws of changing matter, but he subjects himself to the laws of thought. By this means he makes himself a member of a higher order than the one to which he belongs through his body. This order is the spiritual. The spiritual is as different from the soul as the soul is from the body. As long as only the particles of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen that are in motion in the body are spoken of, we do not have the soul in view. Soul life begins only when within the motion of these particles the feeling arises, 'I taste sweetness,' or, 'I feel pleasure.' Likewise, we do not have the spirit in view as long as merely those soul experiences are considered that course through anyone who gives himself over entirely to the outer world and his bodily life. This soul life is rather the basis of the spiritual just as the body is the basis of the soul life. The biologist is concerned with the body, the investigator of the soul — the psychologist — with the soul, and the investigator of the spirit with the spirit. It is incumbent on those who would understand the nature of man by means of thinking, first to make clear to themselves through self-reflection the difference between body, soul and spirit." — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), chapter 1, GA 9.

According to Steiner, the objective examination of spiritual phenomena: it has taken many forms, culminating thus far in Anthroposophy. Theosophists have also used the term with reference to their own belief system. In essence, according to Steiner, the spiritual realm can be objectively studied after one has develop "exact clairvoyance." Steiner lays out directions on how to do this in his book KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT. Gaining access to the hidden wisdom contained in spiritual science is essentially the same as becoming an initiate. When Steiner's followers speak of "doing" Anthroposophy, they mean employing clairvoyance in the manner described by Steiner, with the aid of meditations, prayers, mantras, etc., provided by Steiner. In theory, they can go beyond Steiner, conducting individual spiritual research, but in general this has been rare. [See "Spiritual Science", "Altogether", "Exactly", and "Inside Scoop".]

"Steiner may have broken away from the Theosophical Society, but he did not abandon the eclectic mysticism of the theosophists. Steiner thought of his Anthroposophy as a 'spiritual science.' Convinced that reality is essentially spiritual, he wanted to train people to overcome the material world and learn to comprehend the spiritual world by the higher, spiritual self. He taught that there is a kind of spiritual perception that works independently of the body and the bodily senses. Apparently, it was this special spiritual sense that provided him with information about the occult." — Robert Todd Carroll, THE SKEPTIC'S DICTIONARY [http://skepdic.com/steiner.html].

The idea of spiritual science is undeniably appealing. What a wonderful thing it would be, if we could know the spirit realm as well as we know the physical realm, if we could know spiritual truths as undeniably as we can determine physical laws. But, despite Steiner's promises, we cannot. Steiner's "science" depends on clairvoyance, which almost certainly does not exist. [See "Clairvoyance".] More precisely, it depends on "exact clairvoyance," for which we have no evidence at all. This is why Steiner stressed the need for faith and gurus — things that are not needed in real sciences. [See "Faith" and "Guru".]

The School of Spiritual Science, founded by Steiner, is located on the campus of the Goetheanum, the worldwide Anthroposophical headquarters.

Creative, germinating kernels of spiritual power or consciousness. [See "Steiner Static".]

According to Steiner, the highest division of Soul Nature. [See "What We're Made Of".] "Man is first of all a physical-corporeal being; hence he is subject to the same laws to which every body is subject. In this sense he is thus a purely elemental body. The purely corporeal-physical laws combine in the organic life process. Paracelsus designates the organic laws as 'Archaeus' or 'Spiritus vitae;' the organic raises itself to spiritlike manifestations which are not yet spirit. These are the 'astral' manifestations. From the 'astral' processes emerge the functions of the 'animal spirit.' Man is a sense being. He combines his sensory impressions in a rational manner by means of his reason. Thus the 'rational soul' awakens in him. He immerses himself in his own spiritual products; he learns to recognize the spirit as spirit. Therewith he has raised himself to the level of the 'spiritual soul.' At last he understands that in this spiritual soul he experiences the deepest stratum of the universal existence; the spiritual soul ceases to be an individual, separate one."* — R. Steiner, MYSTICISM AT THE DAWN OF THE MODERN AGE (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1980), chapter 4, GA 7.

Steiner said one of the most important facts about the founding of the Waldorf School is that it allowed Anthroposophy to become a large movement. He said Waldorf teachers should be true Anthroposophists, and he affirmed that Anthroposophy will be in the school. Generally, however, Waldorf schools tend to conceal their spiritualistic purposes. [See "Here's the Answer" and "Spiritual Agenda".]

Generally, the observance of the Anthroposophical conception of Easter. [See "Magical Arts".] The purpose of celebrating festivals, in Anthroposophy, is to awaken Steiner's conception of Christianity as the religion of the Sun God, Christ, and the "impulse" He provided for human evolution. "[W]hen we think of the numbers of people in the grip of materialism to-day who have no real right to celebrate an Easter festival, it is obvious that the subject is also very relevant to the conditions of the times. A true Easter impulse needs to be inculcated into present-day Europe and indeed into the whole of the civilised world in order to counter the rapid strides now being taken in the direction of decline. It is very necessary to realise how far men are from any real understanding of the Christ Impulse and how closely this lack of understanding is connected with the symptoms of decline in evidence at the present time. These symptoms show themselves clearly to-day in statements often made by well-intentioned people." — R. Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING, Vol. 2: Easter (Anthroposophical Publishing Co.,), lecture 2, GA 198.

According to Steiner, the symbol for the four-fold nature of man. [See "Signs".]

In Anthroposophy (derived from Theosophy), parts of the pattern of human evolution, larger divisions than epochs, smaller than Conditions of Life: Higher Spiritland, Lower Spiritland, Astral Stage, Physical Stage, Perfected Astral Stage, Intellectual Stage, Archetypal Stage. [See "Matters of Form".] • “You have ... the seven different forms of consciousness, Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, and so forth. In each of these stages of consciousness, Saturn, Sun, etc., there are seven life-stages; and in each life-stage, seven stages of form. What we describe as our epochs of culture — ancient Indian, ancient Persian, Egypto-Chaldean, Greco-Latin, and our present epoch — are also forms.” — R. Steiner, HOW CAN MANKIND FIND THE CHRIST AGAIN? (SteinerBooks, 1984), p. 77. • “Each condition of life must again pass through seven stages of form, in such a way that you have to consider your present physical condition of form to be in the very middle. Before something becomes physical it is astral; before it is astral ... When the astral condenses it becomes physical. Then the physical dissolves again and returns to a more perfect astral .. The physical condition of form is in the middle.” — R. Steiner, THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN (Anthroposophic Press, 1993), pp. 176-177.

According to Steiner, outward manifestations of spiritual powers. Stars expert spiritual (astrological) influences on the Earth and on human beings. "[J]ust as the physical forces of the stars have an influence on the earth, so do their spiritual powers also have an influence on the earth, and above all on the human being." — R. Steiner. [See "Star Power".]

Historian who has extensively researched Anthroposophical racism and links between Anthroposophy and Fascism/Nazism.

Rudolf Steiner's first wife. She was perplexed by Steiner's sudden shift into occultism. [See "What a Guy".]

Rudolf Steiner's second wife; an influential Anthroposophist, especially after Rudolf Steiner's death. [See "What a Guy".] She encouraged Anthroposophists to see Rudolf Steiner as a Christlike figure. “His life, consecrated wholly to the sacrificial service of humanity, was requited with unspeakable hostility; his way of knowledge was transformed into a path of thorns. But he walked the whole way, and mastered it for all of humanity.” [Rudolf Steiner, THE STORY OF MY LIFE (Anthroposophic Press, 1928), p. 340, Conclusion by Marie Steiner.]

Austrian/German lecturer and author; professed initiate, clairvoyant, and occultist; founder of Anthroposophy; originator of Waldorf education, Anthroposophical medicine, and biodynamic agriculture, among other pursuits. Steiner was a genuine polymath, but his followers often credit him with contributions in fields where he actually had little or no impact. Thus, Anthroposophists often refer to Steiner as a scientist, but he did no real science. Instead, he claimed to use clairvoyance to study the spirit realm. Likewise, his followers call him a philosopher, but his early, largely unappreciated forays into philosophy gave way to professions of occultism. He was an avowed occultist for the final quarter-century of his life. It is also worth noting that encyclopedists have generally been lax in their presentations of Steiner. Until recently, Steiner's influence has been so minor that there seemed little point in delving deeply into his work. The worldwide spread of Waldorf schools is changing this, however. In the field of education, Steiner's influence has been significant and is increasing. Partly as a result, Steiner is now coming under the scrutiny of serious scholars such as Geoffrey Ahern and Peter Staudenmaier. (Steiner's racism, his political efforts, and his German nationalism have also caught scholars' attention.) In the near future, Steiner's reputation — in encyclopedias and elsewhere — will doubtless be adjusted when the work of such scholars is widely disseminated. [See "What a Guy".]

Steiner's words and influences are discussed on virtually every page here at Waldorf Watch. A few pages, however, are particularly focused on Steiner. These include "Steiner and the Warlord", "Steiner Static", "Steiner's Bile", "Steiner's Blunders", "Steiner's Illogic", "Steiner's Quackery", "Steiner's Racism", "Steiner's 'Science'", "Steiner's Specific", and "Top Ten Jokes Told by R. Steiner". "Say What?" and "Wise Words" consist mainly of quotations from Steiner, as does "Daily Quotes", to a somewhat lesser extent. "Everything" summarizes Steiner's major book, OCCULT SCIENCE, while "Faculty Meetings" summarizes the book FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER. Other pages extend these discussions; they include: "Advice", "Basement", "Discussions", "Foundations", and "Underpinnings". "Lecture" takes an in-depth, paragraph-by-paragraph look at one of Steiner's occult lectures. "Biodynamics" considers Steiner's agricultural teachings. "Best", "Love and the Universal Human", "Most Significant", and "Nutshell" consider some of Steiner's work that has drawn particular praise from his followers and/or the versions of his work that they wish to present to the public.

Rudolf Steiner.

[Public domain; color added.]

Steiner schools - see Waldorf schools

Steiner Waldorf schools - see Waldorf schools

Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship

Coordinating and certifying authority for Waldorf schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

a) Any organism less evolved than humans.

b) In Nazi and related ideologies: members of races that are not as high as the Aryans, the true, full humans.

c) In Steiner's teachings, "people" who are not really human, having become demonic. "Our culture would not be in such a decline if people felt more strongly that a number of people are going around who, because they are completely ruthless, have become something that is not human, but instead are demons in human form ... Imagine what people would say if they heard that we say there are people who are not human beings. Nevertheless, these are facts." [See "Steiner's Bile".]

Steiner taught that errant humans lag behind in evolution and may even fall so far behind that they lose their souls and become subhuman — specifically, they become a form of nature spirit. "Now let us take an extreme case and imagine that a man unites too fully with what is to constitute the character of an incarnation. Let us suppose he reaches what is to be reached in sixteen incarnations; he takes the sixteen false paths. The earth does not wait for him, the earth goes forward and he finally arrives at a point where he can no longer incorporate in a human body, for none are in existence. There will be no more bodies in which souls that have grown too much involved in their bodily nature can incarnate. Such souls lose the possibility of incarnation and find no other opportunity ... They must therefore live a bodiless existence. They must cut themselves off entirely from the progress of evolution. Why have they deserved this? By reason of the fact that they have not made use of life! The world is around them; they have possessed senses in order to perceive the world, to enrich the life-kernel and mold it to a higher stage. They do not advance with world evolution, they remain behind at a certain stage. Beings that stay behind at such stages appear in a later epoch with approximately the character of the earlier age. They have grown together with it, but not in the forms of the later epoch. They appear in a later epoch as subordinate nature-spirits." [See "Nuts".]

Some people are not up to snuff; they are inferior, according to Steiner. "Low" races tended to be populated by such souls, according to Steiner. The Chinese race, for example, includes many substandard souls, which is why the Chinese are particularly prone to opium — according to Steiner. “By bringing about the ‘opiumising’ of Chinese bodies and causing generations to come into being under the influence of opium's forces, it was possible [for demonic forces] to condemn the Chinese to take in, to a certain extent, some very immature, sub-standard [sic] souls.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF UNTRUTHFULNESS, Vol. 1 (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1988), lecture 13, GA 173.

a) The star the Earth orbits.

b) According to Steiner: the star the Earth follows. “[W]hen the Earth is here and this is the Sun [Steiner points at a diagram he created], the Earth follows along. But we look at the Sun from here, and so it appears as though the Earth goes around it, whereas it is actually only following. The Earth follows the Sun.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner's Blunders".]

c) According to Steiner: the original location of Christ and other Sun beings; locus of New Testament consciousness and gnostic knowledge; font of healing powers (cf. Moon). “With greater or less understanding, the first Christians of the earliest centuries after Christ regarded him as the `mighty Sun God'. But during these first Christian centuries, the faculty of instinctive clairvoyance once possessed by human beings was fading. People could no longer see in the sun the great kingdom at whose center the Christ had once dwelt.” — R. Steiner. [See "Sun God".]

d) According to Steiner: the second mega-evolutionary stage or Condition of Consciousness: Old Sun. “Man now passes through his second stage of consciousness on the Sun [i.e.,we passed into this phase long ago]. It resembles that into which today man sinks during a calm and dreamless sleep. This condition, which interrupts man's state of wakefulness today, is a remainder, as it were, a memory of the time of the Sun development. One can also compare it with that dull state of consciousness in which the world of plants exists today. As a matter of fact, in the plant one must see a sleeping being.” — R. Steiner. [See "Steiner Static"].

According to Steiner, the god we perceive as Christ is the same being other peoples and religions worshipped as the Sun God. “The highest Ruler of Saturn, the Ego Spirit, 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 with his hosts known in Christian esotericism as the Messengers of the Godhead, the angels.” — R. Steiner. [See "Sun God".] Note that the Father God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are not three persons of a single god, in Steiner's account — they are three separate gods. Christ, the "highest Ruler of the Sun, the Sun-God" has been worshipped under many names, Steiner said. Essentially all the peoples who have worshipped the Sun God were actually worshipping Christ, although their understanding of Christ was limited. Only now, by listening to Steiner, can we comprehend Christ properly, or so Steiner assured us. Christ's role is to steer us in the proper evolutionary direction. If we do not go where He directs us, we will fall into decay. “Had Christ not appeared on the earth, had He remained the Sun-God only, humanity on the earth would have fallen into decay.” — R. Steiner. [See "Was He Christian?"]

a) According to Steiner, a high initiate in Mithraism, a religion centered on the Sun God. “Those who had reached the second stage of Initiation were known as ‘Occultists’; at the third stage they were ‘Warriors,’ at the fourth, ‘Lions.’ At the fifth stage of Initiation a man was called by the name of his own people: he was a ‘Persian,’ ‘Indian,’ or whatever it might be. For that man alone who had reached the fifth degree of Initiation was regarded as a true representative of his people. At the sixth stage a man was a ‘Sun Hero’ or one who ‘runs in the paths of the Sun.’ And at the seventh stage he was a ‘Father.’” — R. Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1955), lecture 1.

b) According to Steiner, Christ. [See "Prototype".] “In the ancient Mysteries, before men spoke of a Christos, they spoke of a Sun Hero who embodied the same ideal as is connected with the Christos in Christianity. The bearer of this ideal was called the Sun Hero. Just as the sun completes its orbit in the course of the year bringing about an increase and decrease in light, and its warmth apparently withdraws from the earth and then again radiates anew, just as it contains life in its death and lets it stream forth anew, so like wise does the Sun Hero, through the power of his spiritual life, become master over death and night and darkness.” — R. Steiner, SIGNS AND SYMBOLS OF THE CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL (Anthroposophic Press, 1967), lecture 3, GA 96.

According to Steiner, people who developed during the Sun period of evolution. "Another portion of the Saturn warmth-substance separates off and comes to an independent existence alongside of and among the Sun human beings, constituting thus a second kingdom, developing a fully independent, but purely physical body — a body of warmth. There is therefore in this second kingdom no independent life-body to receive the activity of the fully evolved Spirits of Personality.”* — R. Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - An Outline, chapter 4, section 4, GA 13.

According to Steiner, Christ as foreseen in Zoroastrianism: Ahura Mazda. [See "Everything".]  “In the ancient Persian epoch, the leadership of humanity was apportioned to the Archangels. They put themselves under the direction of the Christ earlier than did the beings in the rank next below them. Of Zarathustra it can be said that pointing to the sun, he spoke to his followers and his people in some such words as these: ‘In the sun there lives the great Spirit Ahura Mazdao, who will one day come down to the earth.’ For the beings out of the region of the Archangels who guided Zarathustra, pointed to the great sun-leader who had not at that time come down upon the earth but had only begun his journey thither in order, later on, to enter directly into the earth evolution. And the guiding beings who directed the great teachers of the Indians, also pointed out to these the Christ of the future; for it is a mistake to think that these teachers had no foreknowledge of the Christ. They said that He was ‘beyond their sphere’ and that they ‘could not attain’ unto Him.” — R. Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE OF MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1976), lecture 3, GA 15.

Beyond the reach of our ordinary senses — clairvoyance is needed. Most of what Steiner described (the invisible human bodies, the higher worlds, etc.) is supersensible. This may mean they are supernatural or spiritual, or that they are imaginary. “One often hears it objected that works on Occult Science do not prove what they adduce; they merely make their statements and declare: 'This is what Occult Science teaches.' It would be a misunderstanding to think that anything put forward in these pages was intended in this spirit. Our purpose is different; it is to encourage what is developed in the human soul through the knowledge of Nature to go on evolving, as indeed it can do by its own inherent power. We then point out that through this evolution the soul will encounter supersensible realities ... To those who opine that there are limits to human knowledge which man cannot transcend and which compel him to stop short of an invisible world, the answer is: No doubt, with the mode of knowledge they have in mind, man will never penetrate into an unseen world. If one considers this to be the only mode of knowledge they have in mind, man will never penetrate into an unseen world. If one considers this to be the only mode of knowledge, one cannot but come to the conclusion that the human being is denied access to a higher world — if such a world exists. And yet, supposing it to be possible to evolve another mode of cognition, the latter may after all lead into a supersensible world. If such a mode of knowledge is ruled out, then indeed one arrives at a point of view from which any discussion of a supersensible world must appear meaningless. Yet for an open mind the only possible reason for this opinion is that the one who holds it is unacquainted with the other form of knowledge [i.e., clairvoyance] ... We cannot deny a man's right not to concern himself with the supersensible; but he can never have the right to declare himself competent to judge, not only of what is known or knowable to himself, but of what he alleges to be unknowable to ‘Man’ in general!” — R. Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - An Outline (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1963), chapter 1, GA 13.

In Steiner's teachings, generally, the entire realm inaccessible to our ordinary senses. This includes numerous worlds above and below the physical plane of existence. "In our life in the physical world of the senses, the double [i.e., our lower self] immediately makes itself invisible by means of the sense of shame ... Simultaneously, however, the double also conceals [the spirit realm]. It stands like a guardian in front of that world, refusing entry to anyone not yet suitable for entering. The double can therefore be called ‘the guardian of the threshold to the world of soul and spirit.’ We encounter this guardian of the threshold not only when we enter the supersensible world in the way described [i.e., while still alive] but also when we enter it through physical death. The guardian reveals itself gradually in the course of our soul-spiritual development between death and a new birth. In this case, however, we are not oppressed by this encounter because we know about worlds we did not know about during life between birth and death. [paragraph break] If we were to enter the world of soul and spirit without encountering the guardian of the threshold, we would succumb to one deception after another, because we would never be able to distinguish between what we ourselves were bringing into this world and what really belongs to it." — R. Steiner. [See "Guardians".]

Related to phenomena and experiences beyond the reach of our ordinary senses (nearly synonymous with extrasensory, as in extrasensory perception, ESP). The term "supersensory" is essentially a synonym for "supersensible." [See "Light and Dark".]

An elemental being that lives inside the air. Steiner said such beings really exist. [See "Beings".] “[W]e behold the deepest sympathy between the sylphs and the bird-world. Whereas the gnome hates the amphibian world, whereas the undine is unpleasantly sensitive to fishes, is unwilling to approach them, tries to avoid them, feels a kind of horror for them, the sylph, on the other hand, is attracted towards birds, and has a sense of well-being when it can waft towards their plumage the swaying, love-filled waves of the air. And were you to ask a bird from whom it learns to sing, you would hear that its inspirer is the sylph. Sylphs feel a sense of pleasure in the bird's form. They are, however, prevented by the cosmic ordering from becoming birds, for they have another task. Their task is lovingly to convey light to the plant. And just as the undine is the chemist for the plant, so is the sylph the light-bearer. The sylph imbues the plant with light; it bears light into the plant.” — R. Steiner, MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 7, GA 230.

Steiner's explanations of these are presented in, for instance, the book OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS. [See "Signs".]