THE WHITE LODGE

The Good Conspirators

Waldorf schools operate within a conspiratorial Weltanschauung. Not only do they generally have occult intentions that they conceal from the students' parents, but they try to steer a safe course through a universe that, according to Rudolf Steiner, is powerfully affected by conflicting conspiracies, both the heavenly and the hellish. Steiner’s view of the universe was esoteric. The important things are hidden, known to only a few; and the important actors operate behind the scenes, out of sight. The good things are summarized in Steiner's own doctrines, which can be fully revealed only to initiates (shh!). The bad things predominantly consist of the covert machinations of evil gods and their human henchmen.

In the essay “Double Trouble”, I examine the “dark” brotherhoods, the “black” magicians who lurk behind the scenes of human life. [1] Let’s look now on the bright side, the “white” side.

“You all know that the earth is guided in a particular way by the so-called White Lodge in which highly developed human individualities and individualities of a still higher kind [i.e., angels, archangels, etc.: gods] are combined. What do they do there? They work; they lead the evolution of the earth; while leading this evolution, they are devising a quite specific plan. It is really the case that during the evolution of each planet a specific plan is worked out by the guiding powers. While the earth is evolving, plans for the atom [seed or kernel] for the evolution of Jupiter — which succeeds the earth [i.e., “Jupiter” is our next evolutionary stage, following “Earth”] — are drawn up in the so-called White Lodge of the Earth. The plan is worked out in full detail. Therein lies the blessing and salvation of progress....” [2]

In passing, we might note that although Steiner stressed the importance of freedom, we clearly have no freedom if the only good path for us to follow is scrupulously following a plan ginned up in a sort of celestial back room. Reluctantly, we should also face up to the racial significance of Steiner’s doctrines. Black is evil, white is good. There are multiple races on Earth today only because demons fouled things up. We should have moved from dimness to brightness, from black to white, as it were, but we have been foiled by our foes. [5]

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Back to "the so-called White Lodge." Don’t let Steiner confuse you when he tosses in equivocations such as “so-called.” He did this often, suggesting that he was speaking of such profound, holy secrets that words are hardly sufficient to convey his meaning. He was way deep.

Be that as it may, Steiner claimed that the White Lodge exists. For confirmation, let’s look at an explanatory statement made by Richard Seddon, one of Steiner’s followers who evidently thought he had better mastery of words than Steiner himself had. (It’s interesting that so many people, including moi, have spent so much time trying to explain Steiner, substituting clearer words for Steiner's murky ones): ”Earth evolution has taken place according to a spiritual plan, the inner structure of which is reformed [i.e, given new form] within humanity under the direction of the Masters of the White Lodge (such as Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Christian Rosenkreutz [putative founder of the Rosicrucians]). This is compressed into an ever smaller kernel, so that a small copy of the whole physical evolution ... becomes the atoms [sic] of the next Condition of Life." [6]

Well, maybe that isn't really much clearer than Steiner's own words. The point is that there is a White Lodge hidden behind physical reality. The members of the Lodge include gods, humans who have become godly, humans who have housed gods, and occultists. They create a plan for us, which they compress into atoms or kernels — actually, seeds is a better image. The entire plan is miniaturized and put in these seeds, which later germinate to produce the next stage of evolution (aka "our next Condition of Life").

Relevantly, when Steiner was still a Theosophist, he made the following remark about the Archangel Michael: “Michael will print theosophy's message  into men, although not directly but by letting his wisdom stream into men's etheric bodies through the great white lodge.” [7] Michael is the archangel having special responsibilities for human evolution just now. Another way to put this is that Michael will pump the White Lodge's plan into our etheric bodies. (I'm sorry. The etheric body is the lowest of the three nonphysical body that Steiner and the Theosophists said real humans have.) We need to be careful when considering statements that Steiner made while he was a Theosophist — he might have changed his tune later. Actually, though, he barely did. When he broke away from Theosophy to establish his own cult, Anthroposophy, Steiner made some adjustments in his teachings, but by and large he stayed true to his Theosophical teachings. In the 1925 forward to his master work, OCCULT SCIENCE, Steiner said he hadn’t had to change his mind about much at all: “[E]verything that I have since been able to adduce becomes a further elaboration of the original picture.” [8] So you see, he had been right all along.

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When we evolve further in the near future, Steiner said, the White Lodge will expand to become more inclusive. In the following deep remark, “Rounds” indicate evolutionary phases; the "higher ego" transcends individual ego or the "I", which is another nonphysical body; and "Masters" and/or "Adepts" are mystical insiders, the kinds of guys who get elected to the Lodge(s). “In the Seventh Round everyone will have reached the stage at which our Masters stand today. Then our ego [or "I"] will be the bearer of all earthly experiences. To begin with this will be concentrated in the Lodge of the Masters. The higher ego then will draw itself together, become atomic and form the atoms of (future) Jupiter. [paragraph break] The White Lodge will be looked upon as a unity, an ego comprising everything. All human egos and all separateness will be given up and will flow together into the all-comprehensive universal consciousness ... These then are the atoms which will form Jupiter. The Moon Adepts formed the atoms of the present-day Earth. One can study the atom when one studies the plan of the Adepts Lodge on the Moon.” [9]

I'm sorry. If some of that seems like gibberish to you, that's because it is. The Adepts of the Moon set us up for our Life on "Earth," and the Lodge of the Masters... Oh, the heck with it. Here's the takeaway: We will transcend our separateness and begin merging together into a form of superhumanity. We will, as it were, join the club.

We ought to examine at least one reference to the White Lodge coming from Steiner later in his career. Here’s a fascinating one from 1920. Steiner only quotes the magic phrase, yet I can't resist including the passage here: “I recently received a magazine published in America in which anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is characterized ... You know by now that Reverend Kully [Max Kully, a Catholic minister, German] stated that there are three evils in the world. One is Judaism, the other Freemasonry, but the third — worse than all of them, even worse than Bolshevism — is what is taught here in Dornach [i.e., Anthroposophy] ... What about America? I want to read you a small paragraph from an American publication written at the same time Catholic journals over here printed their view [i.e., Kully's view] of anthroposophy: ... ‘Steiner's other occult books ... all point to the same thing, namely, his writings are purely misleading ... superficial occultism’ ... The American article concludes with several more nice sentences: ‘Steiner claims to be an initiate. That may be; but whether he is of the White Lodge or belongs to the Brothers of Shadow is something one can only decide when it is realized that he stood on the side of men of 'blood and iron' ... and that a number of his students here (in America) were interned as German spies.’” [10] Steiner was indeed sympathetic to the Germany cause — or at least one of its highest leaders —  in World War I, but we needn’t go into that now. [11]

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That last quote has taken us a bit afield. So, coming back to the issue: Rudolf Steiner’s view of the universe was esoteric. Indeed, it consisted of “hidden” knowledge, such as that employed by hidden groups of mysterious, powerful, invisible beings. Steiner’s view was, in other words, essentially conspiratorial. Evil secret brotherhoods plot dastardly outrages; good secret brotherhoods plan wonderful future advancements. The rest of us are victims or beneficiaries of powers beyond our control or knowledge. The frame of mind induced by such thinking might properly be called paranoid. 

But I don’t want to end on such a down note. The White Lodge has our best interests at heart — it will help us a lot in the future just as it has helped us a lot in the past. For example, the Lodge intervened once to strike a balance between Jehovah, who wanted to create a perfect human form, and Lucifer, who wanted to lure us into premature, false spirituality. (Jehovah, by the way, is not God. He is just one of the guys, a nice enough god, but not very high up. He did not create the world, but he created our physical form.) Neither Jehovah nor Lucifer would have led us in the right direction, so the White Lodge rode to our rescue. “Jehovah's aim was the perfection of form. Lucifer would have been able to develop in astral substance his passion for premature spirituality. The result would have been a violent battle between the Jehovah-spirits and the hosts of Lucifer. There was the danger that through Jehovah some human beings would become living statues [i.e., physically perfect but spiritually vacant] and that others would be too quickly spiritualised through Lucifer [i.e., other humans would have prematurely left physical reality behind]. Means of bringing about equilibrium [were needed] ... In order to annul the battle between Jehovah and Lucifer, the White Lodge, which was just in its beginning, had to obtain material from one of the other planets ... The new material was brought over from Mars. Thus in the first half of our Earth evolution astral substance from Mars was introduced. A great advance was brought about through the introduction of this astral substance from Mars.” [12]

The Lodge has super powers, remember, and it includes members from many distant worlds. As we've already learned, the original Rosicrucian, Christian Rosenkreutz, is in the Lodge. Rosicrucianism is a form of occultism particularly dear to Steiner. His book THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN is an eye-opener, indicating how gnostic Christianity is the real deal (although incomplete prior to the additions Steiner himself made to the secret canon). [13] I'll close by quoting a different eye-opener, however. Christian Rosenkreutz actually presides over the Lodge, sometimes. At least, he has been empowered to call meetings of the members. And, bear in mind, another member of the Lodge is Buddha, who it turns out is Christian Rosenkreutz's best pupil. Here's what happened. “A Conference of the greatest and most advanced Individualities was called together by Christian Rosenkreutz. His most intimate pupil and friend, the great teacher Buddha, participated in these counsels and in the decisions reached.” They decided Buddha should go to Mars and fix things. “At that spiritual Conference it was resolved that henceforward Buddha would dwell on Mars and there unfold his influence and activity. Buddha transferred his work to Mars in the year 1604.” [14]

Buddha allowed himself to be crucified on Mars, which was useful to the Martians as well as to us, since we go to Mars, as it were, after we die, as it were. [15] “Buddha, the Prince of Peace, went to Mars — the planet of war and conflict — to execute his mission there. The souls on Mars were warlike, torn with strife. Thus Buddha performed a deed of sacrifice similar to the deed performed in the Mystery of Golgotha [i.e., Calvary — Christ on the cross] ... Buddha performed this deed on Mars in the service of Christian Rosenkreutz. Thus do the great Beings who guide the world work together, not only on the Earth but from one planet to another. [paragraph break] Since the Mystery of Mars was consummated by Gautama Buddha, human beings have been able to receive different forces from Mars during the corresponding period between death and a new birth ... [T]his word of Peace, issuing mysteriously from Buddha, resounds from the planet of war and conflict to the soul of men on the Earth.” [16]

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Studying Steiner's deep teachings is fascinating, isn’t it? You learn something new every day.

— Roger Rawlings

[R.R., 2010.]

“Besides the exalted beings working from the sun and moon 

there are others at an intermediate stage between man and the high Sun and Moon-Spirits; 

these have their home on Mercury and Venus, the celestial bodies lying between the sun and earth.” 

[Rudolf Steiner, UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN (H. Collison, 1931), lecture 6, GA 105.] 

Demonic powers (detail)

[http://karenswhimsy.com/]

Sometimes, plowing through Steiner's books and lectures, I pause to wonder why reality isn't enough for so many of us. Life is certainly hard, all too often. We certainly suffer as we work our way toward the grave. It's easy to see why we are lured by escapist dreams. And yet...

Waldorf schools stress imagination. Fine. But shouldn't we use the power of our minds to attempt to grasp the reality of the universe in which we live, rather than fantasizing — as Steiner did — about a universe that never existed?

This is a NASA photo of the Andromeda galaxy. Our own Milky Way probably looks much like Andromeda. Our galaxy and neighboring Andromeda contain billions of stars. And there are billions more galaxies. Daunting, for sure. Overwhelming. But my point, at the moment, is simple: The real universe presents us with enough challenges, as well as enough occasions for awe and astonishment. Reality is infinitely more intriguing than delusions such as Steiner's. And it has an overriding virtue. It is real.

Steiner taught that Jehovah is not evil; he said that Jehovah is obsolete.

Associated with the Moon and Judaism, he served a purpose in the past. 

This image shows the Moon (gray) and three stages of the Earth's evolution: Earth in the Lumerian Epoch, 

the Aryan Epoch (the present), and the Sixth Epoch. Two lines of influence extend from Moon to each Earth stage, 

a spiritual stream and a physical-astral stream.

Jehovah provided an impulse for humanity during the Lumerian Epoch;

 Christ provides the crucial impulse now; the "Father" will provide an impulse in the Sixth Epoch. 

[Rudolf Steiner, CORRESPONDENCE AND DOCUMENTS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1988), p. 85.

R.R. sketch, 2009, based on the b&w sketch in the book.]

The image below is a rough sketch of a rough sketch that Steiner tossed off. (I’ve added colors.) Ranged along the top are the "planets": Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Earth (green, vague), Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. (Yes, Vulcan). At the bottom is the human being: physical body (blue) around the etheric body (orange) around the astral body (red) around a stack: reading, top to bottom, sentient soul, intellectual soul, consciousness soul, and upper trinity (i.e., manas, budhi, and atma). Each human part is connected to its equivalent planet. For example, “The human being was never on Mars, but his intellectual soul is connected esoterically with this planet in such a way that its forces have been taken from there.” [Rudolf Steiner, CORRESPONDENCE AND DOCUMENTS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1988), p. 71. My sketch, 2009, based on the one in the book.]

ENDNOTES

[1] "Double Trouble", http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/double-trouble.

[2] Rudolf Steiner. THE TEMPLE LEGEND AND THE GOLDEN LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 190.

[3] Rudolf Steiner, THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN: The Evolution of Individuality (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), p. 75.

[4] Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 55.

[5] See my essay “Steiner’s Racism”, http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/steiners-racism. 

[6] Richard Seddon, THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND OF THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2002), p. 92. 

Note the name of the publishing house.

Christian Rosenkreutz, whose name fortuitously combines "Christian" and "Rose" (a symbol of Christ) and "Cross" (kreutz), is almost certainly a fictional character. ["Christian Rosenkreuz, the putative founder of the group, who is now generally regarded as a fictional character rather than a real person” "Rosicrucian." ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 11 Aug. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/510019/Rosicrucian>.] We shouldn't be surprised that Steiner believed this fiction. He was really quite unsophisticated, believing all manner of myths, fairy tales, and fantasies. His own work, after all, if fiction.

[7] Rudolf Steiner, “From the Contents of Esoteric Classes”, GA 266, lecture, May 5,1909 [rsarchive].

The provenance of this quotation is slightly iffy, but if it is good enough for the Steiner Archive, I guess it is good enough for us. 

[8] Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - An Outline (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1975), p. 12.

He wrote the first version of the book in 1909, before he split.

[9] Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 25, October 27, 1905.

[10] Rudolf Steiner, SPIRITUAL SCIENCE AS A FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL FORMS (Anthroposophic Press, 1986), lecture 1, August 6, 1920.

[11] See my essay “Steiner and the Warlord”, http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/steiner-and-the-warlord.

[12] Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 26, October 28, 1905.

[13] Rudolf Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966).

[14] Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1950), lecture 7, “The Mission of Gautama Buddha on Mars”.

[15] We don't go to the planet Mars, so much, as to the sphere of Mars. And, not to conceal this from you, we go to other planetary spheres, too. But in re Mars: “We continue our journey between death and a new birth and, thus, enter the Mars sphere ... While we pass through the Mars sphere, we learn in a conscious way from the beings there. The spiritual population of the Mars sphere consists of beings who know  the cosmic speech, along with other beings who are warlike, and so on.” [Rudolf Steiner, AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE (Anthroposophic Press, 2000), p. 78.]

[16] THE MISSION OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ, lecture 7.