 RANKINGS Top to Bottom in Steiner's World
Rudolf Steiner was preoccupied with rankings. He espoused hierarchical lists of gods, races, mythologies ... almost anything. The thinking behind some of these lists is hateful, while in other cases it is merely foolish. Let’s look at a few examples. ◊ RACIAL HIERARCHIES ◊ We’ll begin with the hateful. Steiner’s defenders insist that he was not a racist. This horrible subject can be approached in various ways. One that is sometimes overlooked: Steiner’s remarks about aboriginal Americans. Steiner discussed the “extinction” of the “American Indian race.” Steiner associated various races with planets, which have occult or astrological influence here on Earth, he said. The powers of the planets are exercised by spiritual beings on those planets. (I know this is nuts; I'm just saying what the great man said.) Steiner said that American Indians are influenced mainly by Saturn and its forces; hence, he called American Indians the "Saturn race." He said, further, that the extinction of the American Indians is a harbinger of the coming extinction of all mankind: “[T]he abnormal Spirits of Form [spiritual beings] who have their centre in Saturn [sic] work indirectly ... into the glandular system. In the Saturn race, therefore, we must expect to find the combination of the forces leading to the twilight of mankind, forces which set the seal upon its development and sow the seeds of its ultimate decline. This ... can be seen in the American Indian race and was the cause of its ultimate extinction.” [1] Notice how in this passage Steiner discussed the Indians’ end as something that has already happened (“was the cause”). It is undeniable that the native peoples of America were victims of an horrific genocide — but they were not pushed to their “ultimate extinction.” Steiner said the American aborigine became (or will become) extinct due to a) Saturn and its allies, and b) the encroachment of Europeans: “Here we have an example of the Saturn forces and their activity and of what follows from the cooperation between Saturn and other Spirits at such a moment as this when two contrasting civilizations [European and aboriginal American] meet.” [2] Thus, Europeans effectively exterminated (or will exterminate) the Indians, but the real culprit is Saturn and friends. Note that not only is time (past and future) jumbled in Steiner’s account, but so is the nature of Saturn: part planet, part Spirit (and elsewhere part evolutionary stage). Cutting the seer a little slack, we can deduce that Steiner speaks of future events as having already happened because he stands outside time and is therefore able to see the past and the future simultaneously as part of a vast tableau. His perspective, in other words, is not just “supersensory” (as he often claimed) but super-temporal as well. And if you believe that... There are other occult elements in the quotations I’ve offered, but let’s not allow them to detain us. They will be clearer to you if you dig into some of the other essays here at Waldorf Watch. But for now, let’s keep our focus on racism.  Lecture Six of THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS is titled “The Five Root Races.” The synopsis includes the following: “The abnormal Spirits are centered in the five planets and create the five root races: Mercury, the Negro race; Venus, the Malayan race; Mars, the Mongolian race; Jupiter, the Caucasian race; Saturn, the Red Indians. This took place in Atlantis.” [3] (I’ll discuss “abnormal” spirits, Spirits of Form, etc., in a minute. I promise.) Now, merely mentioning races is not necessarily racist. But you can start to intuit (to use a Steinerian term) which way Steiner’s wind blows. Note also the astrological component that pokes up, here, as well as the reversion to one of Steiner’s pet fantasies, Atlantis. Steiner taught that mankind was divided into races during the time of Atlantis. Steiner said that American Indians are ossified or bony. “In a race such as this [i.e., “the old American Indians”] everything pertaining to the forces of the Saturn evolution has become realized in a special manner; then Saturn withdrew into itself, abandoned man to his bony system and thus hastened his decline.” [4] He drew this conclusion, apparently, by looking at photos of American Indians. In other words, his view of this race depends largely on superficial appearance. This is precisely how racists often operate — they place enormous importance on apparent, superficial differences. Steiner actually said “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.” [5] The skin color of the “moribund Red Indian” is important, in Steiner’s eyes; but more important is the connection between this race and ossification. Steiner attributes the physical appearance of American Indians “process of ossification”: “This slow decline is characterized by a kind of ossification which is clearly reflected in [the Indians’] external form. If you look at pictures of the old American Indians the process of ossification described above is evident in the decline of this race.” [6] So, “Red Indians” are/were uncommonly bony (just look at snapshots of them). Ossification is/was characteristic of their race, and it inevitably led/will lead to the race’s decline: which is to say, Indians have/had a flawed nature that doomed/will doom them. Is attributing a congenitally flawed nature to a race racism? Clearly. Is the belief that physical appearance reveals racial identity racist? Clearly. And there’s worse ahead. Let’s consider where Steiner put the Indian in his hierarchy of human races. According to Steiner, “Red Indians” failed to evolve alongside more progressive people, particularly the ones who would emerge as Europeans. The Indians preserved “a memory of that great Atlantean civilization which could not adapt itself to later evolution ... What the Red Indian valued most highly was that he was still able to sense something of the former greatness and majesty of a period which existed in the old Atlantean epoch ... The Atlanteans had not assimilated all that the Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter Spirits brought about in the East, to whom we owe all the civilizations which reached their zenith in Europe ... The descendant of the brown race did not participate in this development.” [7] The Red Indian, descendant of the inferior portion of the population of Atlantis, remained anchored in the past, and thus failed to participate in the human advances that were eventually brought to a “zenith in Europe.” According to Steiner (by sheer coincidence, a European), the Red Indian is/was backward as well as bony — hence his decline. Is this racism? Is there any doubt? Anthroposophists sometimes defend Steiner by saying that his doctrines do not reveal hatred of any race. Steiner did not hate Red Indians, evidently. He was speaking “objectively” about racial traits and destinies. But whatever was in Steiner’s heart — hatred or paternal solicitude — is both irrelevant and unknowable. His “objective,” “hate-free” doctrines are grotesquely biased, i.e., racist. We see this over and over. Did you know, for instance, that blacks are inherently childish? It’s not their fault. We mustn’t hate them for it. But due to the influence of local spiritual “forces” on “racial character,” blacks remain caught in a sort of perpetual childishness. Steiner says “[A] centre of cosmic influence [is] situated in the interior of Africa. At this centre are active all those terrestrial forces emanating from the soil which can influence man especially during his early childhood ... The black or Negro race is substantially determined by these childhood characteristics.” [8] The human ideal, according to Steiner, can be found among mature, spiritually creative peoples: Specifically, white Europeans. If humanity had not been divided into races (a regrettable event, Steiner said), today a European form of human beauty would be found everywhere. “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....” [9] But now, because there are various races, good humans evolve upward through the racial hierarchy. “A race or nation stands so much the higher, the more perfectly its members express the pure, ideal human type ... The evolution of man through the incarnations in ever higher national and racial forms is thus a process of liberation [leading to] an ideal future.” [10] According to Steiner, the basic racial hierarchy is this: Blacks are childish, Asians are adolescent, Whites are mature, and Amerindians are over the hill, ossified — or, in Steiner’s word, extinct.
◊ SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES ◊ Just as Steiner ranked human races, he also ranked the entities below and above humanity. There are many more above us than below, which just shows how far we have to go in our future evolution. “Now, as we know, other Spirits and Hierarchies are active in the world.” [11] As always, Steiner’s loose use of language causes barriers to comprehension, but these hurdles are surmountable. I’ll summarize. (For more, see Steiner’s books COSMIC MEMORY and OCCULT SCIENCE, AN OUTLINE.) Fortunately, Steiner took most of the following from traditional teachings that most of us are more or less familiar with. Directly above humans are Angels, and above them are Archangels. A complication is that there are “normal” and “abnormal” varieties of various Spirits. For example, “The abnormal Archangels have shown themselves to be, in reality, Spirits of Form or Powers who have only renounced in part the attributes of their evolution.” [12] It’s always diverting to see Steiner using terms such as “in reality.” But, passing along: “Abnormal” spirits are those that have not yet fully shed the “attributes” of lower levels of spiritual evolution. So an “abnormal” Archangel is sort of halfway between real “Archangels” and mere “Angels.” (Notice the nasty symmetry in Steiner’s teachings. There are higher and lower races, real and unreal human beings [13], real and not-quite-real Archangels, etc.)  The overall ranking of beings goes like this: Minerals, Plants, Animals, and Man [14]; then in ascending order (the following can be called the Third Hierarchy) Sons of Twilight (Angels, Sons of Life), Fire Spirits (Archangels, Agnishvattas), and Spirits of Personality (Archai, Primal Beings, Primal Powers, Zeitgeists); above them, the Second Hierarchy (which works in the three “Ethers” [15]): Spirits of Form (Powers, Exusiai), Spirits of Movement (Dynamis, Mights), and Spirits of Wisdom (Kyriotetes, Dominions) [16]; above them, still ascending but in the astral realm, the First Hierarchy: Spirits of Will (Thrones), Spirits of the Harmonies (Cherubim), and Spirits of Love (Seraphim) [17]. Finally, highest of all, is the Godhead, which may be taken as a version of the Christian triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), or a variant (Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma), or — more generally — divine will, the cosmic creative impulse, the force responsible for the divine cosmic plan of universal evolution. Despite often applying the term "Christian" to his own teachings, Steiner in fact offered us a polytheistic creed, heavily influenced by Hinduism. The three persons of God worshipped by Christians are, in Anthroposophy, three separate gods dwelling in different spheres. Most tellingly, Steiner's version of Christ is a pagan god: "Christ, the Sun God, who was known by earlier peoples under such names as Ahura Mazda, Hu, or Balder, has now united himself with the earth....” [RUDOLF STEINER SPEAKS TO THE BRITISH, pp. 4-5, Introduction by Margaret Jonas.] To delve further into these matters, see "God", "Pagan", "Polytheism","All", and "Was He Christian?" Additional complications also crop up. For instance, “The attendant Nature-spirits of the highest Hierarchy [are called] Undines, Sylphs, and Salamanders.” [18] So nature spirits, which Steiner often said are below us, may also be above us. (Nature spirits are, paradoxically, spiritual beings that have no real spirit — they cannot evolve, unless they ever do.) Also, “Archangels have three modifications of their etheric body [sic] which correspond to the three members of the human soul.” [19] So Archangels, like all the other beings, are complicated in and of themselves, and these complications mirror features found within ourselves. We can’t sort all this out quickly or easily, but we can look at a few subjects that spring from Steiner’s doctrines. Regarding salamanders, etc.: A leading Anthroposophist has this to say about “fairies or nature spirits”: “To be aware of them, the special faculty of spiritual vision [i.e., clairvoyance] is necessary; otherwise we must accept the information given to us by one [i.e., Steiner] who has [i.e., claims] this faculty ... Gnomes ... are active in the earth ... They maintain the structure of the mineral kingdom ... Undines ... water spirits who live in the element where air and water meet [? what element is that? not water, not air, so ... ?] ... Sylphs ... dwell in the warm vibrating currents of air and have an affinity to the birds ... Salamanders ... a kind of lizard who, it was thought at one time, could live in fire [when did we learn otherwise?] ... [they are] friends of the insects who visit the flowers [and are then eaten by the lizards?].” [20. I love this stuff.] The subtitle of the book from which I just quoted is “The Waldorf School Approach.” Let that sink in. Then peek at chapter 12: “Esoteric Development and the Teacher,” which tries to tell Waldorf teachers how to attain clairvoyance. [21]) There are Christian elements in Steiner’s scheme. But there are also many elements that are neither Christian nor Biblical. As I have already said — the point bears repeating — Steiner's universe is polytheistic (see Lecture Seven of THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS [22]). You’ll find Anthroposophical references to the “gods” scattered throughout the passages I’m quoting here. Reconciling Steiner's multi-god vision with monotheistic faiths, a task at which Steiner labored long and mightily, is in fact impossible. If you can accept a polytheistic view, you may be able to accept Steiner's doctrines. But if not... When Waldorf schools admit in any way that they have religious leanings, they almost always say these leanings are Christian. But Anthroposophy is Christian only if the impossible reconciliation is achieved. It is not. ◊ MYTHOLOGICAL HIERARCHIES ◊
For Anthroposophists, myths reflect human evolution. [23] According to the editors of THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, Steiner ranked human civilizations and their mythologies thus, in ascending order: India, Persia, Egypt and Chaldea, Greece, Rome, and modern Europe. You will not be surprised to learn that Steiner and his followers found/find special virtues in Northern European mythologies, particularly the Norse and Teutonic (German). E.g., “Pictures or symbols of Teutonic mythology contain occult truths.” [24] “No other mythology gives a clearer picture of evolution than Northern mythology. Germanic mythology in its pictures is close to anthroposophical conception [sic] of future evolution.” [25] German/Teutonic/Morse myths stand astride the mythic hierarchy. “We can scarcely understand the fundamental character of Teutonic mythology unless we review once more the five successive stages in the post-Atlantean epoch [i.e., the history of our own period, which began after Atlantis sank]. These five [were] ... primeval Indian civilization ... Persian ... Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian, then the Greco-Roman civilization and finally our own.” [26] This is not entirely consistent with the lineup we saw a moment ago, but we must steel ourselves to these contradictions. If Anthroposophists can bear up under them, I suppose we can as well. In this instance, the discrepancy is relatively small: Babylonia is added, and Greece and Rome are conjoined. Still, we wind up with five stages of progress instead of six. And since the latter description comes from Steiner himself, no other rankings should be considered. (I sometimes wonder whether Anthroposophists study Steiner’s works with anything approaching diligence. They cannot read him skeptically — that would undo their faith — but the exercise of critical intelligence doesn’t seem too much to ask.)  Anyway: Some myths reveal higher evolutionary stages than others; those of the higher races are themselves higher. Northern mythologies are the highest; they can be compared very favorably, for instance, to the spiritual development of the ancient Indians (not Red Indians, this time: Asian Indians) who long ago developed a high but dim spiritual consciousness. Now history has passed the Indians by and they are “Unable to apprehend the Christ Impulse.” [27] Throughout Steiner’s oeuvre, the stages of human consciousness and the myths of various peoples are presented as reflecting human evolution. Indeed, in the past, humans had direct awareness of evolutionary progression: “In old Atlantis [sic] man ... enjoyed direct perception into the old primeval [sic] states of human evolution.” [28] American Indians preserved much of the old Atlantean perception, but this cost them in the end — they failed to keep up with the forward march of evolution, according to Steiner. Northern Europeans, by contrast, attained a more progressive consciousness of the divine. “Nordic man perceived the figures of the Gods [sic], the divine Beings working directly on his soul ... This was direct experience to him.” [29] Nordic man “came to know Odin as one of the abnormal Archangels ... Nordic man experienced the activity of Odin....” [30] Ponder what Steiner is saying in these passages. Norse/Teutonic accounts of the gods, what we call myths, are actually eyewitness accounts of reality. Northern “myths” are true; they are literal. (So let’s feed them as such to our kids.) As Anthroposophist Eugene Schwartz details in his book WALDORF EDUCATION, Waldorf students are led through a sequence of mythologies, recapitulating human evolution and promoting the students’ own individual development. The culminating phase in this process entails the glories of Norse and Teutonic fables (which tell of two “races” of “gods”; and the god of blood and pigmentation, Lodur; and the hammer of Thor, which reflects the incarnation of ego in the blood; and other good stuff). But wait. Has anyone noticed an additional complication? The sequence of mythologies presented in Waldorf schools, according to Schwartz, et al., is somewhat different from the hierarchy of human civilizations with their attendant mythologies. Thus, Eugene Schwartz reports that Norse myths are studied in fourth grade, and “myths of India, Persia, Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece” in fifth grade. [31] If Waldorf teachers followed Steiner’s cultural hierarchy, they would start with Asian Indian myths and work up toward Northern European myths. How to account for this disparity? To understand, we need to go all the way back to the earliest grades. The youngest students get fairy tales. Then, as they progress from grade to grade, students usually are given legends and stories about saints, then Old Testament stories, then Norse myths, and then the myths of India, Persia, Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece — generally in that order. Thus, the children start with stuff that is easy for them, that were even concocted for them (fairy tales), then they get a grounding in Judeo/Christian religion (saints, Old Testament), and then they proceed to myths. The major set of myths taken out of sequence is the Norse. Why? The highest of myths are given to students in fourth grade, when the kids a) have been prepped and b) they are still pliable. Receiving the creme de la creme of mythology opens them to the remaining mythologies (Indian, Persian, etc.) later when their minds and egos are a bit sharper and their appetite for mythology has been whetted.  At Waldorf schools, myths usually give way to recorded human history (albeit with a distinctly Steinerian twist, and with the same evolutionary goals) in the sixth grade: “At the age of 11 children begin to develop a sense for what is historical ... then is the right time to present pictures of the civilizations ... which stretch from Atlantis to the present. Without it being said in so many words, these descriptions also contain the idea of the spiritual development of man ... they also mirror the individual development from babyhood to self-conscious maturity — in other words, to the full incarnation of the ego.” [34] A great deal is conveyed in this passage. Human development is recapitulated in individual development. The objective is to covertly (“without it being said in so many words”) infuse students with these concepts (I’ve called this brainwashing). For “development,” read “evolution”: The child evolves to higher stages of humanity just as civilizations followed this evolutionary course in the past. Why is Waldorf education covert? Waldorf education is almost always indirect, subliminal, secretive. Steiner often urged Waldorf teachers to keep mum about their goals and procedures. His intention was to work upon children's souls quietly, with or without the parents' knowledge. Steiner once said to his teachers “[W]hat you are inserting into the children in a roundabout way ... continues in the astral body and the ego.” [35] Inserting. By roundabout means. Troubling terminology. Everything in the physical world has, according to Steiner, ramifications in the spirit realm. This is what he wanted Waldorf teachers to bear constantly in mind. They were to lead children toward Anthroposophy, quietly. Operating at the physical level, they were to have spiritual effects on the kids. This is the covert purpose of Waldorf education.
◊◊◊◊ The consequence of all we’ve seen here is that, for most of their schooling, Waldorf students are given outdated information and perspectives, wholly unsuitable to the modern world and the lives the students presumably will have to lead in that world. Steiner’s defenders claim that Waldorf students are aided, not harmed, by ingesting large dollops of misinformation: The curriculum leads students through humanity’s developmental stages, arriving — in the high school years — at a clear-eyed recognition of the contemporary world. But in fact, if Waldorf school prepare children for anything, it is for an imaginary spirit realm that is structured in accordance with Steiner’s hierarchical fantasies. Here are the words of a defender of Waldorf education. Bear in mind, this is a defense. “Some parents appreciate the education of the particular [Waldorf] school but have a reservation about its anthroposophical basis! It has been known for parents to say that they like the school, but wish it were divorced from certain ‘crazy’ ideas which they may have garnered, or which a teacher may have expressed. [paragraph break] The Waldorf school and the ‘crazy’ ideas are, however, inseparable. Waldorf schools would not exist if they were not related to these ideas.” [36] If you send your children to a Waldorf school, please do so with your eyes open. — Roger Rawlings
For more on the spiritual hierarchies, see "Polytheism". For more on races, see "Races" and "Steiner's Racism". For more on myths, see "Oh My Word" and "The Gods". Some illustrations on each page are closely connected to the essay on that page; others are not — they provide general context. The worlds are stacked up, one above the other. The "science of the spirit" investigates the worlds we cannot see with our normal senses. Anthroposophy is a science, Steiner often said. But Anthroposophy is not, in fact, neutrally objective, even by Steiner's own account. It has a goal: to assist us in our upward evolution, our spiritual salvation. In this sense (and in the sense that the clairvoyance on which Anthroposophy depends is an illusion, so that the worlds Steiner described can be accepted only as an article of faith), Anthroposophy is actually a religion.  The presumed divinely ordained structure of the universe is often called the Great Chain of Being. This detail shows a section of the chain, which extends from God the Highest to the lowliest inanimate matter and thence down into Hell. [RHETORICA CHRISTIANA, 1579.]    The chain is sometimes developed into a system of concentric rings, more or less consistent with astrology. Steiner's system derives in part from this concept. [Fludd, Robert, 1574-1637; Folger Library.]  Hu was the Egyptian god of the spoken word. Some occultists equate him with Christ since Christ is taken as the embodiment of the Word. Christ is also equated with various Sun gods. Here are three Egyptian gods associated with the Sun: Horus, Ra, and Bast.  Horus, the greatest god, contained both sun and moon. Ra was the Sun god. Bast was the Sun goddess. [Ernst Lehner, SYMBOLS, SIGNS & SIGNETS(Dover Publishing, 1950), p. 18.]  Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda [detail, Ginolerhino 2002]. Anthroposophy exists within the wide world of occultism, wherein we find many strange faiths. Some of these are somewhat consistent with Anthroposophy, and some of them are not.  "Figure 5 shows the triangle of triune Divinity in the midst of a cross. At the left is a small triangle containing the words The Secrets of Elohim, and at the right is another inscribed The Secrets of Nature. On the horizontal arms of the cross are the words The Tree of Life and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The plate explains the interblending of the spiritual and infernal powers in the creation of the universe. Figure 7 is called The Road to Paradise. It probably indicates the positions of the sun, moon, and planets at the moment of their genesis. Figure 8 is the earth before the flood, when it was watered by a mist or vapor. The words at the left are The Tree of Life; those at the right, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The diagram with the symbol of Mars is devoted to a consideration of the rainbow." [Manly P. Hall, THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES, http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta35.htm]  [Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, 1999.] "In this fine book, Ernst Uehli explains what lives in these myths and why Rudolf Steiner felt that these tales were so important to the child and the [Waldorf] curriculum." — from the back cover  Thor [Johannes Gehrts].  "The way in which healing processes are continuously working downwards in us calls forth a feeling of pleasure in the higher hierarchies [of spiritual beings]. It constitutes the joy of the higher hierarchies in the earthly world. They look down and continually feel illness arising out of what streams upward in man from the earthly, from what remains of the earthly attributes of the substances. And they see that the impulses of forces that work out of the earthly realm, forces that lie in the air that moves all around and so on, are continually active as processes of healing. This arouses satisfaction in the higher hierarchies." — Rudolf Steiner, HARMONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p. 172. [R.R. sketch, 2009.]  [R.R., 1993.] "[P]icture to yourselves: There before me is no mere rainbow! Beings are coming out of it and disappearing into it — here anxiety and fear, there courage ... And now, here the rainbow receives a certain thickness and you will be able to imagine how this gives rise to the element of Water. In this watery element spiritual Beings live, Beings that are actually a kind of copy of the Beings of the Third Hierarchy." [Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIANISM AND MODERN INITIATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1965), I, "Research into the Life of the Spirit During the Middle Ages".] Additional artwork by Waldorf students. [Reprinted by permission.] "Passing upwards beyond the Angels we have the Archangels, Archangeloi; then the rank of the 'Original Forces' whom we also call Archai; and then the 'Revelations' or Powers, Exusiai; the so-called Mights or Dynameis; the Dominions or Kyriotetes; the Thrones; the Cherubim, and the Seraphim. Then only, beyond the Seraphim, should we speak of what in the Christian sense, one calls the actual 'Godhead.' Genuine occultism, true spiritual science, cannot share the usual trivial notion that man can look up direct to the highest Divinity; we have the whole ladder of Beings whom we call Angels, Archangels, and so on, standing between. In a certain respect it is a sign of indolence to say — as we can often hear today — 'Well, why do we need the whole succession of beings? Man can quite well come to a direct relationship to the Godhead.' The student of spiritual science cannot share this indolence, for the beings are absolutely real." [Rudolf Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 7, GA 102.] For Steiner's view on abnormality, please use this link: "Abnormal". Quotations there also bear on quack medicine, human freedom, the central position of humans in the cosmos, Jehovah, and the temperaments of nations. For more about God and the Godhead, please use: "All". For the Anthroposophical view of Old Testament stories, please see "Old Testament". To examine some of Rudolf Steiner's statements about ordinary forms of thought or intellect,
 In a Waldorf frame of mind (not) [R.R., 2010]. ENDNOTES [1] Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 108: facsimile of 1970 edition. [2] Ibid., p. 110. [3] Ibid., pp. 15-16. [4] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 108. [5] 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. [6] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 108. [7] Ibid., pp. 108-109. An aside: During a seminar for adults held at my Waldorf school, a participant quoted Steiner as saying that American Indians had a gift for intuitive ideas [Sylvester M. Morey, AMERICAN INDIANS AND OUR WAY OF LIFE (New York: The Myrin Institute Inc. , 1961), p. 6.] This is consistent with Steiner’s statement that Indians remain/remained attached to the perspective of an earlier stage of evolution, “still able to sense something of” Atlantis and the “Great Spirit of the primeval past.” Anthroposophist Morey worked to ferret out Steiner’s meaning. As Morey expresses it in his booklet, the underlying difference between Indians and whites is that “The white man has been swept along in the tide of evolution....” [Ibid., p. 18] whereas the “red man” remained stuck at a prior stage. White humanity’s supposed evolutionary advantage is Steiner’s basic rationale for asserting the superiority of the white races. Here is an extended statement Steiner made about native Americans. Descended from people who could not evolve properly, "Red Indians" remain close to nature, and thus they have a sort of natural piety and natural clairvoyance that whites have generally lost. This is an advantage, in some ways, but a great disadvantage overall. Native Americans will be left behind as the good, normal humans evolve upwards. Still, we can feel some sorrow and pity: [8] Ibid., p. 75. In Rudolf Steiner, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE {On the Life of Human Beings and of the Earth} (Dornach: Verlag Der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, 1961), Steiner speaks of races becoming “extinct” when they move away from their allotted places on earth. This happens because races tend to have deep spiritual bonds with their allotted places on the earth. “To a certain extent the etheric forces emanating from the soil permeate the human organism so that man becomes dependent upon the soil of a particular geographical area.” [MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 74.] Such doctrines are troublingly close to the Nazis’ belief in blood and soil. [9] Rudolf Steiner, THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), p. 82. [10] Rudolf Steiner, KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1944), p. 149. [11] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 64. [12] Ibid., p. 64. [13] “Imagine what people would say if they heard that we say there are people who are not human beings....” Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 649-650]. [14] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 83. [15] Ibid., p. 15. [16] Ibid., pp. 65 & 83. [17] Ibid., p. 84. The term "spirits of love" usually applies to the Seraphim. However, Steiner also applied it, sometimes, to the Spirits of Form: "We must therefore describe the Spirits of Form in their totality (because their particular mission is to harmonize the three former conditions) as the Spirits of Love." [Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE INDIVIDUAL FOLK-SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 5, GA 121.] [18] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 15. [19] Ibid., p. 14. [20] Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION, The Waldorf School Approach (Sophia Books, The Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996) “History,” p. 90. [21] Ibid., pp. 115-123. [22] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 16. In the seventh lecture in this volume, Steiner discusses two pairs of concepts, monotheism/monism on the one hand and polytheism/pluralism on the other. Monism is the proposition that everything in the universe consists of a single fundamental substance and/or derives from as single principle, while pluralism says there are two or more basic substances/principles. Steiner confuses matters by treating monotheism and monism as essentially the same: “Monotheism or monism in itself [note: he says they are one: “it”] can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world....” [Ibid., p. 115] [23] THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION, pp. 61-66. [24] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 19. [25] Ibid., p. 17. [26] Ibid., pp. 125-126. [27] Ibid., p. 17. [28] Ibid., p. 131. [29] Ibid., p. 132. [30] Ibid., p. 132. [31] Eugene Schwartz, WALDORF EDUCATION (Xlibris Corporation, 2000), pp. 75-76. See also Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION, pp. 62-63,;and Wilkinson, TEACHING ENGLISH (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1976, reprinted 1997), pp. 13-30; also von Baravalle, WALDORF EDUCATION FOR AMERICA (Parker Courtney Press, 1998), pp. 21-30. Note that in WALDORF EDUCATION, Schwartz omits Chaldea and Rome. In TEACHING ENGLISH, he prescribes a somewhat different sequence for the study of myths, etc., and he adds fables, folk tales, and Irish myths. Wilkinson covers the same ground in RUDOLF STEINER ON EDUCATION (Hawthorn Press, 1993). Wilkinson also reminds us that Steiner's first Waldorf school was in Germany: “Dr. Steiner gave indications for literary studies but as they were for German schools, they are not entirely suited to English speaking schools [sic]....” [p. 93] So, there may be some doubt as to the proper sequence of study for English-speaking students. Nonetheless, Wilkinson stresses that the order in which myths, etc., are presented is important: “There is, however, still a central theme which is of special educational value to each age.” [p. 87] The main objective is to provide “food for the soul” [p. 87], and the underlying theme is “the development of man.” [p. 94] We understand what these phrases mean for Anthroposophists. Chillingly, Wilkinson indicates that students should study “folklore of different races.” [p. 87] Not peoples. Not nations. Races.
[32] THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, pp. 134-135. [33] THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION, p. 53. [34] Ibid., pp. 63-64. [35] Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 46-47. In Anthroposophy, the “ego” is a nonphysical human body. (Steiner's use of the term “ego” should not be confused with Freud's, any more than Steiner's “evolution” should be confused with Darwin's.) [36] THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, p. 17. Hierarchies, ranks, layers. [R.R., 2010.] |
