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"In earthly substances what we actually see are the products of a collaboration between the starry forces ... Saturn sends its influence to certain parts of the earth especially favorably and over long periods of time, the effects become visible in the product, which in this case is the coming into being of lead." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 42. 

[R. R. sketch, 2011, based on the one in the book. 

Steiner's sketch is about as crude as mine.]

Steiner's knowledge of astronomy was extremely limited. His teachings have more to do with astrology than real astronomy. Saturn — which is not a star and has no "starry forces" — does not send its energies selectively "to certain parts of the earth," nor does it have anything to do with the creation of lead. Like all heavy metals, lead is the product of processes within supernovas.

FROM THE WALDORF WATCH NEWS

1.

“Christ was always the representative of the sun, namely, the intelligence of the Sun ... The sign of the intelligence of the Sun is [what you see here] ... This is, at the same time, the occult sign of the lamb. The lamb receives the book with the seven seals ... The seven corners of the sign are called 'horns.' But what do the 'eyes' mean?

“In occult schools the signs of the seven planets are written next to the seven eyes. The seven eyes signify nothing other than the seven planets, while the names of the planets designate the spirits incarnated in them as their intelligence. 'Saturn' is the name of the soul of Saturn. The names of the planets come from the spirits of the seven planets found around the earth. These have an influence on human life. The lamb, Christ, contains all seven. Christ is the alpha and the omega; the seven planets are related to him like members to an entire body. The entwining of the lines of the sign portray in a wonderful way the interaction between the seven planets. From Saturn one rises to the Sun, from there down to the Moon, then on to Mars, Mercury, and so forth ... Christ is the regent of all these world spheres; their actions constitute only part of his being; he unites them all. In Rosicrucian schools a lamb is often drawn as a sign for the intelligence of the Sun.” — Rudolf Steiner, READING THE PICTURES OF THE APOCALYPSE (SteinerBooks, 1993), pp. 19-21.

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Waldorf Watch Response:

The occult symbol of Christ, according to Steiner.

[R.R. copy, 2010, based on the illustration in the book.]

The occult symbol for Christ shows seven eyes and seven planets. Starting at the top and proceeding clockwise: The seven planets are the Sun (not really a planet, of course), Mercury, Venus, the Moon (not really a planet), Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter. These are the seven classical "planets" of astrology. 

On other occasions, Steiner spoke of seven planets or planetary stages of human evolution. These are, in order from first to last, Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon, Present Earth, Future Jupiter, Future Venus, and Future Vulcan. Thus, Steiner used two different seven-member lists of the planets in his teachings. For the evolutionary lineup, he took the astrological list, added the Earth and Vulcan (!), and omitted Mercury and Mars. 

Do you notice any other omissions? Neither list includes Uranus or Neptune. Steiner occasionally acknowledged the existence of those distant planets, but he usually denied that they are really part of the solar system. The one lineup of planets Steiner almost never spoke of (since his teachings rarely intersect with reality) is the real one. (Starting closest to the Sun and moving outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The real list, in other words, has eight planets, all of which are really planets. (Or the real list has nine planets, if we include poor little Pluto.)

But I haven't told you the weird part yet. On several occasions, Steiner taught that the planets travel in line with the Sun rather than orbiting it. He actually made this claim in the presence of Waldorf faculty members, none of whom jumped up shouting "This is insane! Let me out of here!" No, perplexed but polite, they sat quietly as Steiner told them, and I quote, 

“[I]t is not that the planets move around the Sun, but these three, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth, follow the Sun, and these three, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, precede it.” — FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 30-31.

OK? So the planets move along in a sort of conga line with the Sun. According to a drawing on p. 31 of FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, Saturn leads the line, followed by Jupiter, Mars, the Sun itself, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth, bringing up the rear. So, this amounts to Steiner's third seven-planet lineup if we count the Sun as a planet. What's missing? This time around, the Moon is no longer considered a planet, Vulcan is forgotten, and as always Uranus and Neptune (and poor little Pluto) are ignored. If we want to say that in this third seven-member lineup the Sun should not be considered a planet, then Steiner supplemented his two seven-planet lineups with one six-planet lineup. Again, the one lineup Steiner almost never mentioned is the real one. (Eight planets. Or, if we include poor little...)

[For more on some of these subjects, you might look at "Astrology", "Akasha", "The Planets", and "Deception".]

(P.S. In another text, Steiner again describes the planets moving in line with the Sun, and there's a similar drawing. But the lineup there is a bit different from the one given in FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, so I think we might as well skip that one, don't you? No need to get confused. [It's on p. 168 of DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997); the sequence there is Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Earth.])

2.

"What about the speed of the stars? How fast do they appear to move in their courses?" — Waldorf educator Hermann von Baravalle, ASTRONOMY - An Introduction, Waldorf Curriculum Series (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1991, revised 2000 by Norman Davidson), p. 7.

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Waldorf Watch Response:

The speed of the stars! Now there’s a fascinating subject, one that good teachers could use to great advantage, stimulating the minds and stretching the imaginations of their students. All the stars in our galaxy orbit the galactic center. How fast are they going? How fast, for instance, is our Sun moving? Do different stars move at different speeds? Why? This is exciting material. And there’s plenty more. Not all of the lights we see in the night sky are stars; some are planets. How fast are the various planets moving as they circle the Sun? In addition to stars and planets, there are still other lights in the sky, especially galaxies — huge pinwheels and platters and globes of stars, far far away. How fast are these moving toward or away from us? Almost every child would love to explore such questions.

Unfortunately, in his teachers’ guide — intended to show Waldorf teachers how to present astronomy to sixth graders — Hermann von Baravalle avoids these questions. Science classes at Waldorf schools often shortchange students by offering minimal information about the real universe, and this astronomy course follows the Waldorf pattern. The stellar speed von Baravalle refers to is the apparent motion of the stars (“How fast do they appear to move?”), which is an illusion caused by the spinning of the Earth. And the “courses” he mentions are illusory paths, also caused by the Earth's motions. Von Baravalle focuses not on the actual universe but on the subjective view students may obtain by gazing upward without knowing what they are seeing. And von Baravalle does not propose to provide kids with much real information that would enable them to know what they are seeing.

Von Baravalle calls almost every light in the night sky a “star” (e.g., “The brightest of stars is Venus.” — p. 35). Von Baravalle distinguishes only slightly between stars and planets, accepting the ancient view that planets are "wandering stars."* Nor does he provide much information about the size or composition of the things we see in the night sky, their true motions, their distance from the Earth, and so forth. He does, however, provide a chapter on the signs of the zodiac. A student studying astronomy in this, the Waldorf way, will come out of the class with virtually no real knowledge. Are stars bigger than planets? Are stars closer to us than planets or farther away? What are stars made of? What are planets made of? Are there different kinds of the planets? How many stars are there? How many planets do we know about? You can continue this list yourself. Think of any question that a student might ask concerning the real objects in the sky. In all probability, a Waldorf astronomy course will skimp on the answers.

The occult rationale for the course von Baravalle outlines is that sixth graders recapitulate the mental and spiritual condition of ancient Romans, and therefore sixth graders today should know only as much as the ancient Romans knew. (I kid you not.) All grades at Waldorf schools are meant to help kids pass through particular spiritual-evolutionary stages. But the Waldorf view of evolution (beginning on Old Saturn and moving toward Future Vulcan) is a fantasy, unsupported by any objectively verifiable information. The association of various childhood ages with various stages of human evolution is likewise unfounded. And here we see an example of the harm that can result — twenty-first century children are denied twenty-first century information. Instead, they are restricted to ancient ignorance. 

A six grader is certainly capable of comprehending real information about stars and planets. Indeed, a third grader is. But at Waldorf schools, such information is largely withheld in deference to Rudolf Steiner and his fabulous untruths. [For more on this, see “Oh My Stars”. Also relevant are "Curriculum", "Astrology", "Astrosophy", "Star Power", "Planetary Humans", and "Everything".]

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* Here is the beginning of chapter 7:

"Observing the Planets - 

Flexibility in the Cosmos:  

"Five 'stars', different from all the others, appear at times in the night sky. All five shine brightly at night in some months ... These five special stars include the brightest of all stars ... The brightest of stars is Venus." [p. 35.]

Venus may be the brightest planet, but it is not the brighest star. (And Venus is "bright" only because, like the other planets, it reflects sunlight. Venus does not produce its own light. No planet does.) The brightest real star visible in the sky is Sirius. (And it is brightest because it is fairly near us; it does not produce more light than any other star; some stars produce much more light than Sirius, but they are farther away from us.) 

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For more on Anthroposophical astrology.

see "Star Power",

"Astrology", and

"Waldorf Astrology".

To learn more about the planets and their effects,

see "Planetary Humans",

"Planetary Spirits", 

and "Planets".

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STARRY EXPANSES

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"[T]he human embryo merely rests in the mother's body; it is given form by the sun's forces ... The moon forces become evident, above all, as the inner influence of the lower, metabolic nature of man ... With their whole being human beings are placed into the polarity of the sun forces and moon forces." — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 240-241. 

[R.R. sketch, 2009, based on illustration on p. 241.]

“[A]n island like Great Britain 

swims in the sea and is held fast 

by the forces of the stars.” 

— Rudolf Steiner, 

FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER 

(Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 607.

“[T]he continents swim ... 

All fixed land swims 

and the stars hold it in position.” 

— Rudolf Steiner, 

FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 617.

[R.R. sketch, 2010.]

“Picture a man with the old clairvoyant vision. (I will take the eye as representing the clairvoyant gaze, although this is not exclusively a function of the eye.) He directed his gaze to the starry heavens and beheld the different spiritual impulses streaming from there.

“Then, in the course of the ages this clairvoyance faded away and man's gaze was restricted to the phenomena of earthly existence. Something else had to arise in place of the earlier clairvoyance, something that can be indicated by saying: What formerly came from without must now go out from within. Man had to learn to project outwards what the Heavens had implanted in him in order that he might again find his links with the phenomena of the Heavens.

“The direction that had now to be followed was exactly the opposite of that of the earlier path. It is an actual fact that human nature is at this present point of time involved in a process of re-organisation. It has passed through the point of deepest darkness — one expression of which was what I called the full flood of materialism in the middle of the nineteenth century. But humanity is emerging from this condition. Describing this in terms of occultism, we may say: In earlier times men did not perceive, did not think with the physical body only, but they perceived and thought with the etheric body. What was perceived with the etheric body was experienced consciously in the astral body as Astrology. But in modern Astronomy everything is a matter of calculation.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE OCCULT MOVEMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973), pp. 107-109. 

[R.R, sketch, 2010, based on the one on p. 108.]

In Steiner's teachings, 

the "sphere" of a planet 

(such as the sphere of Saturn)

encompasses the area defined 

by the orbit of the planet

(bear in mind, however, 

that Steiner sometimes said that 

such orbits are illusory).

More properly, as Steiner tended 

to use the term, a planet's "sphere" 

is the spiritual region presided over

by the god who guides that planet.

[R.R., 2010.]

The ancients generally thought 

the stars are stationary — 

the stars are “fixed” in their places in the sky.

Moreover, ancient observers tended

to think all the stars are 

the same distance from the Earth: 

The stars are attached to a celestial sphere

that rotates around us.

All these ideas are wrong. 

And yet Steiner

— who almost always preferred 

ancient ignorance to modern knowledge —

clung to such thinking. His outlook 

was essentially medieval.

◊ “Those people of olden time, you see, were not so stupid with their instinctive science! Now that we are passing [in our discussion] from plants to animals, we come to the ‘animal circle’ — that is, the ‘Zodiac.’ It was not called so in a meaningless way. To attain our end within the plant-world we stop at the planetary system. For the animal world, that is not enough. There we need ideas that reckon with the surrounding sphere of fixed stars, notably the fixed stars of the Zodiac.” — Rudolf Steiner, AGRICULTURE COURSE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1958), p. 113.

◊ ”[T]here a correspondence between the several members of the human form and the fixed stars, so that their Signs can be ascribed severally to these various members of man's form. And we have before us — man, complete in his physical form.” — Rudolf Steiner, MAN IN THE LIGHT OF OCCULTISM, THEOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1964), lecture 9, GA 137.

◊ “When a man has become a Sun-dweller and has taken the Christ Impulse into himself, a multitude of facts, known as the Akasha Chronicle of the Sun, lie open before him. If, on the Earth, he had not found Christ, he cannot read the Akasha Chronicle on the Sun. We can learn to read this great script if, on the Earth, we have accepted the Mystery of Golgotha with warmth of heart — and then, on the Sun, we are able to perceive the Deeds of Christ on the Sun through the millennia. Existence today is such that we are strong enough to become Sun-dwellers. — Later on we enter the sphere of Mars, then the spheres of Jupiter and Saturn and then, finally, the world of the fixed stars. On the path of return to the Earth, the ether-body of man shrinks and shrinks in size — until it is so tiny that he can incarnate again in a new human germ-cell.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1950), lecture 6, GA 130.

[Rudolf Steiner Press, 2009.]

I don't want to enrich Anthroposophical publishers, but I strongly urge you to buy and study several books by Rudolf Steiner. It's the best way to determine whether Anthroposophy is right for you and your children. (Note that Steiner did not write some of the books attributed to him. These books consist of transcripts of lectures delivered by Steiner. The transcripts were prepared by his devout followers.)

— R.R.

Waldorf schools may use various techniques — intentional or not — to nudge kids toward belief in astrology. One such technique involves biodynamic gardening. 

Biodynamics is a form of organic gardening developed by Rudolf Steiner, and it is often present in or around Waldorf schools. Indeed, many Waldorf schools have biodynamic vegetable gardens, and students are often encouraged or even required to work in them.

"[In Waldorf schools] garden work should be an obligatory addition to the lessons." — Rudolf Steiner, quoted by Rudolf Krause in GARDENING CLASSES AT THE WALDORF SCHOOLS (Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association, 1992), p. 2.

Here's the kicker: Biodynamic gardening is interwoven with astrological and other magical beliefs. To grow plants in the approved Waldorf way, you need to consider the phases of the moon, the positions of the planets, the conditions of the zodiac, and so forth. Anthroposophical gardening publications and websites are packed with astrological lore of this type. [See "Biodynamics".] 

Working in a biodynamic garden means receiving — tangentially or essentially, a little or a lot — an introduction to astrological beliefs. [See, e.g., "Stars, Planets, and Steiner", October 9, 2018.]

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Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 168.

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Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), 

text ("In reality, it is like this...") on p. 30, diagram on p. 31.

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Waldorf Watch consists of a great many pages, many of which contain multiple sections. Throughout, I have tried to write in such a way that even newcomers — who may know little or nothing about Rudolf Steiner and his doctrines — will be able to follow the discussion. One drawback to this approach is that I often have to repeat points I have made before, elsewhere at the site. I ask for your forbearance. When you come upon quotations or other material that you have seen previously, please remember the reason for this redundancy, and skip ahead. Further down on that page or the next page, you should soon find less familiar material. — R.R.    

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