This page comprises one section of

"Steiner Static".

63) [Pachyderm Peculiarity] 

“When death approaches — this is the peculiar thing with pachyderms — these animals feel this particularly strongly ... Their instinct then makes them go into caves. People tend not to look for them in those earth caves. If they were to look for them there they would find more dead elephants in the regions where elephants are. They are not found in the open.” — Rudolf Steiner, FROM ELEPHANTS TO EINSTEIN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), pp. 4-5. 

Steiner accepted the myth that elephants have graveyards, and he added the nice twist that these graveyards are inside caves. But there's a good reason why people don't generally look for elephant bones inside caves. Can you guess what it is? 

As for the whole idea of elephant graveyards, the benighted ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA says this:

"Evidence does not substantiate the existence of so-called 'elephant graveyards,' where elephants supposedly gather to die." — "elephant." ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, Online, 27 Jan. 2009. 

But what does the BRITANNICA know? Very possibly staffed by human locusts, that institution wouldn't recognize a living occult truth if it fell out of the sky onto their heads (i.e., out of the "supersensible world" where Caliban is romping around). 

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PIECING IT TOGETHER

Let's linger over Steiner’s supremely silly statement about elephant graveyards. Our natural inclination on reading such piffle is to shake our heads, laugh, and move on. But that would be a mistake. There’s a lot to be learned from Steiner’s silliness — the elephant quote gives us Steiner’s method in a nutshell.

Steiner almost never met a legend, superstition, old wives’ take, myth, fantasy, or fairy tale that he didn’t like. This was his material, the stuff he took seriously (as opposed to real information, of the sort that science and rational scholarship produce). Thus, he said that ghosts exist; Atlantis existed; bulls hate red; there is a universal ether; there are goblins in the ground; there are fairies in the air; black magicians are busily at work all around us; we can communicate with the dead; astrology is for real; and so forth and so on. [See "Steiner's Blunders".]

Anthroposophy is Steiner’s Theory of Everything [see "Everything"], although he said it is not a theory, it is the Truth. If ever you are tempted to believe Steiner about anything, ask yourself whether you are prepared to join an expedition looking for elephant bones in caves.

Think about the caves Steiner mentioned, the ones where he said elephants go to die. Steiner accepted huge quantities of nonsense and misinformation, but he typically altered it, putting his own interpretation on it so that it fit into his overall design. Anthroposophists find this enormously persuasive. This is the “inner logic” of Anthroposophy: See? Steiner presented a design, an extremely elaborate explanation for all phenomena, one in which everything fits! Elephants, ghosts, Atlantis, bulls, magic, the dead, the stars, elephant graveryards ... Steiner’s vision encompasses them all!

Well, yes and no. Yes, Steiner pieced everything together in a huge superstructure of unsubstantiated invention. But no, this doesn’t make any of it sensible. Elephants don’t have graveyards, in caves or anywhere else. Goblins don’t exist. Horoscopes don’t work. Etc. Piecing fantasies together doesn’t make the fantasies true.

And notice how Steiner did the piecing. In order to make each piece fit, he got out his scissors and crayons — he cut and colored, changing each piece out of recognition. King Arthur was a high pre-Anthroposophical initiate. Jehovah is an demiurge who lives on the Moon. Jesus is the Sun God. Goblins are for real, but they happen to be invisible. Buddha went to Mars, at the behest of Christian Rosenkreutz. The canals on Mars are actually wind patterns. And so on. And so on. And so on.

This is Anthroposophy. Anyone who wants to believe it is free to do so. And anyone who wants to send their kids to a school that stands upon such thinking is free to do so. But if you must  send children to a Waldorf school, please do it with your eyes open. At the Waldorf school I attended, our little school library had multiple books about UFOs, dragons, and other fantasies — presented as truth. I was taught that different races embody different stages of human development. I was taught that animals evolved from humans. I was taught that science is unreliable and technology is evil. I was told, and assigned, innumerable myths and legends to read and internalize (especially Steiner’s favorites: Norse myths). I was required to recite prayers written by Rudolf Steiner. I was required to do forms of dance, and create types of paintings, that were intended to connect me to the spirit realm. I was directed to use my imagination, not logic; intuition, not research. And so on. And so on. And so on. 

My teachers, you see, believed Steiner. In retrospect, I am stunned to realize this, but so it was: I was “educated” by people who believed Steiner and his pieced-together, cut-and-colored fantasies.

Send your kids to a Waldorf school, by all means, if you absolutely must. But, please, do it with your eyes open. Know what you are signing your kids up for.

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By the way, Steiner did not originate all of the inventions we find in his teachings. He read and drew upon many, many books. Bad books, mainly; silly books. Books espousing occultism, esotericism, gnosticism, and the like. He was especially influenced by Helena Blavatsky's THE SECRET DOCTRINE, which he considered one of the great works of all time.

To see how Steiner reconfigured Christianity to suit his design, see "Was He Christian?" To glimpse the ties between Steiner's teachings and Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, and Theosophy, see "Gnosis", "Rosy Cross", and "Basics".

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Use this link to go to "Steiner Static".

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[Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998.]