This page comprises one section of

"Steiner Static".

Let's conclude the story of humanity's past, as described by Steiner. To remind you, we evolved through Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon before arriving at Present Earth. Here on Earth, we lived through the Polarian Epoch, the Hyperborean Epoch, and then the Lemurian Epoch. [See the prior sections of Steiner Static titled "Old Saturn", "Old Sun", "Old Moon", "Present Earth", and "Lemuria". We evolved through many sub-stages during all of the stages of our evolution, including during Present Earth, but we needn't go into all of them now.] 

When Lemuria was destroyed by volcanic explosions (our fault), we moved to Atlantis.

These are the major periods of our life "on" Earth, in a manner of speaking.

They are called Great Epochs.

Having evolved through the Polarian, Hyperborean, and Lemurian Great Epochs,

we incarnated into our lives on the continent of Atlantis.

I'll describe Atlantis, as per Steiner, momentarily. But first, let's ask how much evidence we can find to support Steiner's narrative of human history. For that matter, what evidence did Steiner himself offer to support his assertions? The answers is: None. We can find none, and he provided none. Zero. Zilch. Steiner made up his account of the past, every bit of it. He fantasized. (Or, to be more precise, he borrowed most of his account from Theosophy and other occult systems, which themselves are based on no firm evidence whatever. Zero. Zilch.) Of course, Steiner claimed that he used exact clairvoyance to discover all the things he described. If clairvoyance existed, we might find this persuasive. But it doesn't. (That is, the evidence for its existence hovers in the vicinity of zero. Zilch. [See "Clairvoyance".])

Science has reams of evidence supporting the standard, scientific descriptions of cosmic and human history. Virtually nothing that we actually know about the real world and the real universe supports Steiner. This is particularly striking in the cases of Lemuria and Atlantis, the two “lost continents” where we supposedly dwelled. The ruins of these physical realms should still exist somewhere under the ocean. Steiner said where each continent was: Lemuria, south of Asia; Atlantis, east of Gibraltar. So finding the ruins should be easy enough. Indeed, expeditions have been mounted to find them. They found nothing. Zero. Zilch.

Oh, well. Moving on:

Steiner taught that a small part of the Lemurian population — the superior part, the individuals who were most capable of evolving properly — left Lemuria and settled on Atlantis. If the gods’ original plan had worked out, humans would have received the Christ Impulse there, and we would have ascended the evolutionary ladder all that must faster. But Lucifer fouled things up for us on Lemuria, and Ahriman (the arch-demon of Zoroastrianism) played a similar, subversive role on Atlantis. Both of these demons [see "Lucifer" and "Ahriman"] held us back.

Still, life on Atlantis was pleasant, at least for a while. We had flying automobiles and attractive wooden houses. Spiritual wisdom flourished, and everything looked pretty bright. But with Ahriman working his mischief, things eventually went awry. Human initiates (people possessing occult spiritual knowledge) became corrupt, and Atlantis was destroyed. Our fault.

124) [How the Atlanteans Lived]  The people of Atlantis had a highly developed technology, but unlike ours it was based on “the life force.” [See the entry for "life force" term in the Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.] Steiner points out that, of course, none of this information can be known by modern humans or modern science, because we depend on our senses and brains. (Hence zero, zilch.) But he assures us that everything he says is “quite certain for occult experience” — that is, clairvoyance nails down all of this information: 

“While the power to think logically was absent among the Atlanteans (especially the earlier ones), in their highly developed memory they possessed something which gave a special character to everything they did ... Memory is closer to the deeper natural basis of man than reason, and in connection with it other powers were developed which were still closer to those of subordinate natural beings [low-level embodiments of natural forces] than are contemporary human powers. Thus the Atlanteans could control what one calls the life force. As today one extracts the energy of heat from coal and transforms it into motive power for our means of locomotion, the Atlanteans knew how to put the germinal energy of organisms into the service of their technology ... The vehicles of the Atlanteans, which floated a short distance above the ground, traveled at a height lower than that of the mountain ranges of the Atlantean period, and they had steering mechanisms by the aid of which they could rise above these mountain ranges ... Today, the above-mentioned vehicles of the Atlanteans would be totally useless. Their usefulness depended on the fact that then the cover of air which envelops the earth was much denser than at present ... The above-mentioned density of air is as certain for occult experience as any fact of today given by the senses can be.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 42-44.

125) [The Gods]  The Atlanteans knew various pagan gods as well as we today know our neighbors. Gods descended to Earth during the Atlantis period, when the Earth’s atmosphere was more watery than it is today — they walked among us in semi-aquatic human form. But later, when we developed more solid bodies, the gods backed off. 

“Already in Atlantis we meet beings [i.e., gods] who were among men as our fellows are today ... [M]an learned to know Thor, Zeus, Wotan, Baldur [i.e., Norse and Greek gods] as actual companions ... When man still lived in the water-fog atmosphere...incarnations were possible for [some gods]. Such a figure was the later Wotan [i.e., the Norse god later known as Odin], for example. He said to himself, ‘If man incarnates in this fluid matter, then I can also.’ Such a being assumed a human form and moved about in the physical world. But as the earth condensed and man took on ever denser forms, Wotan said, ‘No, I shall not go into this dense matter.’ Then he remained in invisible worlds, in worlds removed from the earth.” — Rudolf Steiner, EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), p. 140. For more on gods who descended to Earth, see "Avatars".

126) [Unmasking Wotan]  Incidentally, you may be interested to learn: 

“The same being who was called Wotan in the Germanic myths, appeared again [i.e., later] as Buddha.” — Rudolf Steiner, EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, p. 141.

127) [Initiates]  The population of Atlantis included occult initiates, who gained their secret knowledge in special occult schools. Steiner’s description of the Atlantean initiates can be applied to Steiner himself and to his followers: 

“[T]the initiates and their schools...are [or were] in advance of the stage of development of their period [i.e., they were more highly evolved than everyone else]. For admission into such schools, the decisive factor is not age, but whether in his previous incarnations the applicant has acquired the faculties for receiving higher wisdom. The confidence placed in the initiates and their representatives during the Atlantean period was not based on the richness of their personal experience, but rather on the antiquity of their wisdom. In the case of the initiate, personality ceases to have any importance. He is totally in the service of eternal wisdom. Therefore the characteristic features of a particular period do not apply to him.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY, p. 42.

128) [Trouble Comes]  Sadly, initiates on Atlantis made terrible errors. 

“Powerful rulers [of Atlantis] themselves were initiated ... [T]he initiated kings and leaders of the Atlanteans came into being. Enormous power was in their hands, and they were greatly venerated.

"But in this fact also lay the reason for decline and decay ... Man wanted to count for something through his power. The greater the power became, the more he wanted to exploit it for himself. The ambition which had developed turned into marked selfishness. Thus the misuse of these powers arose. When one considers the capabilities of the Atlanteans resulting from their mastery of the life force, one will understand that this misuse inevitably had enormous consequences.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY, pp. 51-52.

129) [Ahriman Sticks His Nose In]  The errors of the powerful rulers of Atlantis led to the destruction of their beautiful continent. But before we hear about that, we should examine the role Ahriman played. 

“Ahriman follows Lucifer [i.e., Ahriman and Lucifer are confederates] and instills into human beings the illusion that matter is a reality in itself. So in the course of their evolution, during which the divine-spiritual beings [i.e., the good gods] wanted their influence to work upon them [i.e., us], human beings allowed themselves to be subject to two other forces: those of Lucifer who attacks human beings in their inner nature, in their astral body, endeavoring to confuse and mislead them; and Ahriman who, working from outside, deludes human beings to a certain extent, causing the external world to appear as maya, as matter.” — Rudolf Steiner, ATLANTIS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p. 37.

According to Steiner, Lucifer tempts us toward false spirituality; Ahriman tempts us toward excessive materialism. Lucifer and Ahriman remain active today, and this description applies to us today. But In our history, Lucifer played the chief deceptive role on Lemuria, and Ahriman took this role on Atlantis.

Rudolf Steiner, ATLANTIS - 

The Fate of a Lost Land and It's Secret Knowledge

(Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001).

130) [Ahriman II, The Sequel]  Any movie about Atlantis would include spectacular special effects depicting the destruction of that continent. Here’s Steiner’s account (imagine him providing this voice-over as the terrible scenes appear on the movie screen):

“Mighty and ominous powers of Nature were thus let loose by the deeds of men, leading eventually to the gradual destruction of the whole territory of Atlantis by catastrophes of air and water.* Atlantean humanity — the portion of it, that is, which did not perish in the storms — was compelled to migrate. As a result too of the great storms, the whole face of the Earth changed ... [S]upersensible [i.e., supernatural] forces were placed in the service of lower instincts, passions and desires ... [H]uman figures would arise [i.e., did arise] that were monstrous and grotesque in size and shape** ... [O]ther beings [i.e., demons] had, since the middle of the Atlantean time, been making themselves felt ... The leader of them may be called...Ahriman. (Mephistopheles is the same being.)” — Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1979), pp. 198-200.

* Steiner equated this with the Biblical Flood.

** When we gave in to "lower instincts, passions and desires," we became human monsters.

131) [Racial Divisions]  According to Steiner, one crucial result of the catastrophe that destroyed Atlantis is that humans migrated to other parts of the Earth. Some of those people were less evolved than others. Thus, higher and lower human races came into being. We’ll pick up the story by returning to the quotation I just now gave you, filling in some of the words I omitted. (Steiner always rambled; making his statements seem clear and coherent is a challenge.) 

“...the whole face of the Earth changed. Europe, Asia and Africa on the one hand, and America on the other, began gradually to assume their present shape. Vast numbers of human beings migrated into these countries ... Peoples of many kinds took up their abode in these countries, people that stood at many different levels of evolution — and also of corruption ... Physically speaking, post-Atlantean humanity evolved from Atlantean forebears whose bodily figure [i.e., form] had already become firm enough [to survive on the dense, modern Earth] ... Human racial forms which had hardened before this time could continue to propagate themselves for a good while to come, but...these races too had to die out [i.e., some low races managed to survive for a while, but most of them died out eventually]. Many of the forms were nevertheless able to maintain themselves right into the post-Atlantean times [i.e., some of these races survived into the present epoch]; indeed, some of them...survived in a somewhat altered condition for a very long time.” — Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE, pp. 198-199.

132) [Steiner’s Racism]  Examining Steiner’s unfounded statements about Atlantis brings us, inevitably, to his deplorable statements about race. We currently live in the Post-Atlantean Epoch, according to Steiner, and among us are survivors of higher and lower racial types whose roots extend back to Atlantis. I apologize for quoting the following, but anyone who studies Steiner deeply must come to terms with remarks such as this: 

“Just at the time when Atlantis began to sink there was a great contrast between men who were good as to their qualities of soul, and were a race of little men, and the giant forms who were wicked and in whom everything turned to flesh ... There were people whose inner nature was correctly balanced and who were normal ... [T]hese were the men that the Atlantean initiates could do the most with [they were the most capable of evolving higher]. On the other hand there were other men who had developed a tremendously strong ego-feeling ... There were other people again who had not reached anything like a normal ego-feeling...  [So there were good, normal people, and two types of abnormal people: those who were too egoistic and those who were not egoistic enough.] ... [I]t was the normal human beings that were the best material for the initiates to use for the evolution of the future ... Those peoples whose ego impulse was developed too strongly...gradually wandered to the West and became the nation the last survivors of which appeared as the Red Indians of America. Those people who whose ego-feeling was too little developed migrated to the East, and the survivors of these people became the subsequent Negro population of Africa. If you look at those things in a really spiritual scientific way you will see evidence of them right into the physical characteristics ... [T]he colour of egohood is red or copper or a yellowish brown ... Those people who had developed their ego being too little...became black ... [T]hey deposited too many carbonic constituents in their skin and became black. This is why the Negroes are black. Thus both east of Atlantis in the black population and west of Atlantis in the red population we find survivors of the kind of people who had not developed their ego-feeling in a normal way. The human beings who had developed normally lent themselves best to progress.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE BEING OF MAN AND HIS FUTURE EVOLUTION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1981), pp. 117-119. 

Hence we come to see the enormous significance Steiner attributed to human skin color. 

132a) “One can only understand history and all of social life, including today's social life, if one pays attention to people's racial characteristics. And one can only understand all that is spiritual in the correct sense 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 - ÜBER DAS WESEN DES CHRISTENTUMS  (Verlag Der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, 1961), p. 52.

Can you guess what color the best, “normal,” upwardly evolving humans were and are? And can you guess where they migrated to, according to short, white, Austro-German R. Steiner? 

132b) “[O]ur white civilized humankind originated because certain elements segregated themselves from the Atlanteans [i.e., peoples who remained more or less at Atlantean levels of development] and developed themselves higher here, under different climatic conditions. Certain elements of the Atlantean population remained behind, at earlier [i.e., lower] levels; thus we can see that the peoples of Asia and America are remnants of the various Atlantean races.” — Rudolf Steiner, DIE WELTRÄTSEL UND DIE ANTHROPOSOPHIE (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1974), GA 54, p. 145. 

Steiner's racism was cerebral and mild-mannered, not visceral and apoplectic. But it was racism, and it was — and remains — indefensible. "For Steiner, indigenous peoples in the modern world are...the degenerate descendants of Lemurians and Atlanteans, those who failed to progress racially." — Historian Peter Staudenmaier. [For more on this subject, see "Steiner's Racism" and "Races".]

On this dreadful note, I will now conclude our summary of Steiner's account of human history. Steiner’s views were baseless and, on some topics, deplorable. Fortunately, nothing is or ever was the way Steiner described it. All of his views amount to static: crackling interference in the air — crackling that clears up when we twist the dial, tune in another station, and turn our attention to reality.

Use this link to go to "Steiner Static, Part I",

or use the following link to go to "Steiner Static, Part II".

Atlantis.

The Earth,

including Atlantis.

[Public domain images.]

— Compilation and commentary by Roger Rawlings

Early in 2022, historian Peter Staudenmaier left the following message

at the Waldorf Critics discussion site.

He was contributing to a discussion of efforts to modernize Steiner education.

He began by referring to a message left by another participant, called Walden:

A couple weeks ago Walden mentioned a notebook his child made at a Waldorf elementary school recounting "The Journey from Atlantis to India." This will sound familiar to readers here; similar examples have been discussed with some frequency on this list, and others have been the subject of public discussion from Germany to France to New Zealand. Those interested will have no difficulty finding comparable instances online, including color photographs and the like. One representative example is titled "Manu and Atlantis" and drawn with waves and a rainbow. The Waldorf pupil's description begins: "Once there was a continent known as Atlantis. The people who lived there had magic powers." It goes on to tell how Manu led the survivors of the Atlantean flood "to a far away land called India." (I recommend googling it for the full image.) Some of the German examples are even more striking, as when Waldorf pupils, echoing Steiner's account of racial evolution, write about the "split in humankind" that arose on Atlantis. 

For better or worse, there is nothing surprising about such examples. Steiner made perfectly clear that Waldorf teachers were to include material about Atlantis in their lesson plans, and that is exactly what has happened for a century now. The usual placement is in the fifth grade, in line with Steiner's outline of successive "culture epochs" and "ancient civilizations" and such. This is spelled out explicitly in the pedagogical texts that form the basis of Waldorf education. In addition to the plentiful passages from Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner that I posted previously, here is an extended passage from Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child, 66-67: 

"Spiritual science points back to a time when human beings inhabited Atlantis; compared to modern human beings, the Atlanteans soul and spirit were constituted differently. Their consciousness could be called somnambulistic, the intellect was undeveloped – they could neither count nor write, and logical reasoning did not exist for them. But they beheld many aspects of the spiritual world. The will that flowed through their limbs was immensely strong. The higher animals such as apes were degenerate descendants of the Atlanteans. [...] Human beings first descended into physical bodies during Lemurian time. That event is repeated during physical birth when, having descended into a physical body, a person begins to develop through soul and spirit to higher levels. The Lemurian and Atlantean epochs are repeated in a child’s development up to the seventh year."

Waldorf teachers do not need to rely solely on Steiner's work for material on Atlantis. They have many other sources to draw from, often sponsored directly by official Waldorf institutions. Aside from classic works by Ernst Uehli or Karl Heyer, there are more recent publications such as Charles Kovacs, Ancient Mythologies, and Alan Whitehead, Ancient Saturn to Atlantis, among others. 

The ongoing role of Atlantis in Waldorf curricula has been discussed repeatedly in reports in the German media, and in the case of Britain by the BBC. This topic is not a thing of the past. For contemporary examples from the UK, see the 2018 and 2019 articles on Atlantis (e.g. "Rudolf Steiner and Atlantis"), published in British anthroposophist journals, by Maarten Ekama, former director of Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School, one of the SWSF schools. The notion that such examples have somehow disappeared from latter-day Waldorf schools is unfortunately mistaken. Another noteworthy recent instance is the Summer 2019 Newsletter of the Science and Mathematics Group of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, which features a lengthy text on "Atlantis and the Ice Age" along with shorter pieces on "The lost continents of Atlantis and Lemuria." 

Steiner's teachings about Atlantis are woven into his racial theories. Atlantis plays a central role in his "root race" doctrines, as well as in his references to "racial karma." Steiner depicted Asians in particular as "stragglers from Atlantis" and explained on multiple occasions that the degenerated remnants of Lemuria and Atlantis now form "the lowlier races of mankind" (e.g. Steiner, Outline of Occult Science, 253). Atlantis was also a prominent theme in Steiner's remarks about Asian religious traditions. Here are two examples that can be read in full online: 

Steiner, Egyptian Myths and Mysteries: "Hence it is that stragglers from Atlantis have shown the deepest understanding for the Buddha-teaching. Among the Asiatic population there are races that have remained at the Atlantean level, although externally they must, of course, move ahead with the earth evolution. Among the Mongolian peoples much of Atlantis has remained. They are stragglers from the old population of Atlantis. The stationary character in the Mongolian population is a heritage from Atlantis. Therefore the teachings of the Buddha are especially serviceable to such peoples, and Buddhism has made great strides among them."

Steiner, Foundations of Esotericism: "Buddhism appears as a throwback into the Atlantean Age. This is why we find Buddhism most widespread with what has remained over from the Atlanteans in the Mongolian peoples. […] For this reason Theosophy must not be only what is carried over from the old, from Buddhism and Hinduism; this would certainly collapse."

And here is a passage I posted last month from Rudolf Steiner, True Knowledge of the Christ (Rudolf Steiner Press 2015), 150: 

"You have all been Atlanteans once […] Those who stayed behind, who 'connected with the race', as it is put, have degenerated whilst those who were advanced established new civilizations. The last stragglers in the migration to the east, the Mongols, have retained something of the Atlantean civilization. The bodies of those who will not progress and continue to evolve will grow beyond the next turn of an era and be the future Chinese people. There will be peoples again that fall into decadence. Today souls are living in the bodies of the Chinese which will need to incarnate once again in such races because they have felt too much drawn to the race."

There are many further examples along these lines. Now would be a good time for Steiner's followers to face this part of their inheritance. Greetings to all,

— Peter S.

Jan. 27, 2022

https://groups.io/g/waldorf-critics/message/32785

Here is a message I later posted, on the question 

whether Waldorf schools teach about Atlantis as if it were a real place.

(I have edited the message for use here.)

The following is not dispositive, but it is suggestive. 

Charles Kovacs was a British Waldorf teacher. He is credited as the author of a series of curriculum guides that apparently are widely used by teachers in Waldorf schools today. [1] 

Here is how Charles Kovacs is described at the SteinerBooks website:

"Charles Kovacs (1907–2001) was born in Vienna, Austria. He left in 1938 and joined the British Army in East Africa. After the War he settled in Britain, and in 1956 he took over a class at the Rudolf Steiner School in Edinburgh, where he remained a class teacher until his retirement in 1976. He died in 2001. His extensive lesson notes have been a useful and inspiring resource material for many teachers; he also gave over 300 lectures to adults and was in demand as a speaker. He is the author of numerous books for Waldorf teaching, as well as The Spiritual Background to Christian Festivals and The Apocalypse in Rudolf Steiner's Lecture Series."  [2]

Kovacs' book ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES presents Atlantis as an historical reality. Here are excerpts from the beginning of the first chapter of ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES, published for use by teachers in Waldorf fifth-grade classes. A Waldorf teacher is addressing Waldorf students:

"This year you will hear some stories of people who lived a long, long way back in time at the very beginning of history ... [T]he people who told some of these stories lived a long time ago; so long ago that we would have to count back 10,000 years to reach the time they lived on earth ... Today, stretching between Europe and America there is an enormous wide ocean ... But 10,000 years ago there was an enormous island in the middle of the Atlantic ... Where there is now only the endless water of the ocean, there was once a great continent and it was known as Atlantis. But it is no longer there. Atlantis has disappeared and you will hear how this happened." — Charles Kovacs, "Atlantis and Manu", ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES (Wynstones Press, 1990; reprinted 1999 and 2008), pp. 10-11. [3]

Note that both the existence of Atlantis and the disappearance of Atlantis are presented as if they were real historical events. ("[T]here was once a great continent and it was known as Atlantis. But it is no longer there.")

Circling back to the SteinerBooks site: The editors describe ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES as "[s]panning the centuries from Atlantis to the civilizations of India, Persia, Babylonia, and Egypt." [4] SteinerBooks thus implicitly endorses the idea that Atlantis was real. There could be a span of time reaching from Atlantis to India, etc., only if Atlantis once existed.

Waldorf teachers who accept guidance from Kovacs and/or SteinerBooks may well treat Atlantis as historical fact; this could include British Waldorf teachers today. I would certainly suggest that the matter merits, at a minimum, careful investigation. [5]

 — Roger

[1] At least some of the books attributed to Kovacs were pieced together by his widow and others after his death, using his class notes. Dora Kovacs has given this account:

"As part of his preparation [for the classes he taught], he wrote out his lessons day by day so that he built into his teaching a structure, inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s curriculum, which could satisfy the growing child. These notes now stand as a fine example of the new and living way Steiner wanted his curriculum presented to children. Some of the notes have been made into books and they have been widely used in many different schools." — Dora Kovacs, "Charles Kovacs - Reflecting on His Life", http://www.florisbooks.co.uk/blog/2018/01/25/charles-kovacs/.

The "many" schools where Kovacs' books are used are almost certainly all —  or nearly all — Waldorf schools. The target audience for Kovacs' books is Waldorf teachers. Floris Books has published a large number of these books in their series "Waldorf Education Resources" [https://www.florisbooks.co.uk/author/Charles-Kovacs/].

[2] https://steinerbooks.presswarehouse.com/browse/author/a9e43983-5596-435a-be81-745117da3176/Charles-Kovacs?page=1   I found this online today, Feb. 19, 2022. It is a current Anthroposophical affirmation.

[3] Don't be misled by the title of Kovacs' book. Kovacs was not telling his students about ancient fables or legends that he said were untrue or fabulous. In Anthroposophy, myths are generally held to be essentially true, sometimes on a literal level, sometimes on a spiritual level. [See "myths" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.] Thus, Kovacs was telling his students stories that he wanted them to accept as true at some level. On the question of Atlantis, he wanted them to accept that Atlantis once really existed. Look again at the exact wording of Kovacs' statement. He says that ancient "myths" about Atlantis tell us about a real place, a continent that eventually disappeared under the waves of the ocean. And note that these statements come at the very beginning of the book, intimating the premise that myths tell us about reality.

[4] https://steinerbooks.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9780946206520/Ancient-Mythologies    I found this online today, Feb. 19, 2022. Note that although Kovacs died some time ago, his books are still touted — and sold, and read — by Anthroposophists, including many Waldorf teachers, today. The editors of SteinerBooks today repeat an idea that Kovacs expressed years ago (an idea that Steiner expressed even earlier): Atlantis was a real place.

[5] I probably put my point too mildly. Kovacs' "useful and inspiring resource material" has guided Waldorf teachers for decades, down to the present. Such guidance has undoubtedly led Waldorf teachers, on at least some occasions, to affirm what Rudolf Steiner taught about Atlantis: that it really existed. [See "Atlantis" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.]

And here's the kicker. The "ancient myth" that Kovacs uses to start his book — the story he titles "Atlantis and Manu" — is in fact a modern Anthroposophical narrative. Kovacs tells his students about the lost continent of Atlantis, and he says that one of the residents of Atlantis was "a good and wise man whose name was Manu" [p. 12]. According to Hindu lore, Manu was the first man. One Hindu tale about Manu tells of a great flood — in this sense Manu is approximately equivalent to both Adam (the first man) and Noah (who survived the biblical Flood). [See The Encyclopaedia Britannica: Manu, mythology.] But Atlantis does not appear in the Hindu tale. (In fact, Atlantis was first mentioned by Plato — a Greek, not an Asian Indian; about 2,500 years ago, not 10,000 years ago as postulated by Kovacs.) When Kovacs conjoins the story of Atlantis with the story of Manu surviving a flood, he is not giving us an ancient myth — he is giving us a tale that Rudolf Steiner worked up, drawing from Theosophical sources. Waldorf teachers who recount "Atlantis and Manu" to their students are, in fact, conveying to the children a portion of Rudolf Steiner's vast fantasia, his occult system called Anthroposophy. These teachers bring Anthroposophy into the classroom and share a part of it with their students.

In another Waldorf teachers' guide, written by another Waldorf teacher, the proposition is repeated: Students in Waldorf schools should be told that Atlantis was real:

"At the age of 11 [fifth grade] children begin to develop a sense for what is historical, and this is the right time to present pictures of the civilizations mentioned which stretch from Atlantis* to the present ... From about the age of 11 then, a picture of the progressive civilizatons is presented. To learn about the early ones...we must rely on myths [which Anthroposophy says are true] ... Each cultural epoch of post-Atlantis [i.e., the present "Post-Atlantean" phase of human evolution] lasts approximately 2000 years." — Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION (Sophia Books, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), pp. 63-64.

In Anthroposophy, the evolution of humanity on Earth is divided into seven "great epochs." In our current great epoch, there are seven subdivisions called "cultural epochs."  In Anthroposophical institutions, avoiding the belief that Atlantis really existed is almost impossible given that Steiner designated our present great epoch the Post- Atlantean period (that is, the period after the sinking of Atlantis). He called the previous great epoch — can you guess? He was referring to the period when he said Atlantis still proudly held its head above sea level. He called that great epoch the Atlantean Epoch. [See "Epochs".]

"* Spiritual science [i.e., Anthroposophy] confirms the existence of this continent...." — Footnote by Wilkinson.

In a message dated February 21, 2022, historian Peter Staudenmaier 

quoted from recent statements published by two Waldorf schools 

that explicitly refer to teaching about Atlantis:

◊ Norwich Steiner School Curriculum Plan (October 2012), discussing Class 5: "The narrative thread for Ancient civilisations often begins with the fall of Atlantis and the exodus led by Manu in his boat pulled along by a giant fish. Manu and his followers initially settle in the Gobi desert. From this original settlement, groups set off to establish new civilisations in India, followed by Persia, then Babylonia, Egypt and finally moving on to classical ancient Greece."

◊ London Steiner School Curriculum Policy (August 2021): "Class five is the middle of childhood, with a strong emphasis on beauty and transformation.  Literacy moves from the mythological stories of muddy, murky, trickster type characters such as Loki and finishing with the final battle of Ragnarok in Norse myth, to a new beginning with the voyage of Manu, the sinking of Atlantis and the beginning of the study of Indian mythology. Thus the ancient cultures of India, Persia and Egypt, with the associated developments of humanity, are studied, right through to Greek mythology." 

From a message I posted on the same day:

For those who don't know, a little background may be helpful. Why all this fuss about Atlantis? In the Anthroposophical/Waldorf worldview, Atlantis is critically important. The central narrative of Anthroposophy traces the evolution of humanity as described by our guy Steiner. The major stages of evolution on Earth, according to Steiner, are called "great epochs." The great epoch before our present great epoch was, according to Steiner, the "Atlantean Epoch." Atlantis existed then, and we lived upon it. All of us. That was humanity's home. Atlantis is thus inescapably important. (I'm simplifying the story, but anyone interested can easily uncover the details and subtleties in Steiner's account. You could start, e.g., by reading Rudolf Steiner, ATLANTIS - The Fate of a Lost Land and Its Secret Knowledge (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001).)

Our current great epoch is the "Post-Atlantean Epoch." Our present existence, thus, is still defined by Atlantis. The very definition of our present time on Earth is "the great epoch following the destruction of Atlantis." (Rawlings's words, not Steiner's.) Since Atlantis sank, we have evolved through four major cultures or "cultural epochs" (subdivisions of the Post-Atlantean great epoch): the India, Persian, Egypto-Chaldean, and Greco-Roman cultural epochs. We now live in the Anglo-Germanic cultural epoch, otherwise known as the fifth cultural epoch of the Post-Atlantean (Great) Epoch.

This is the central account of recent human evolution, according to the Anthroposophical/Waldorf worldview. And bear in mind, the Waldorf curriculum is meant to lead students along the succession of stages reflected in this account. Personal evolution is believed to repeat overall human evolution. So, for instance, sixth graders are thought to stand at the developmental level of the ancient Romans, and the sixth-grade Waldorf curriculum is designed to be appropriate for kids whose minds are like the minds of ancient Romans. Thus, the evolution of humanity as described by Steiner forms the backbone of Waldorf education.

None of this means students in Waldorf schools must always be taught that Atlantis existed. The Anthroposophical/Waldorf worldview generally lingers in the background of Waldorf education, it does not generally emerge brashly into the foreground. Still, there it is, in the background: a story of evolution in which Atlantis is highly important. If Waldorf schools intend to teach kids the truth, and if the truth is believed to be found in Rudolf Steiner's teachings, then the schools will at least hint at the notion that Atlantis was real.

(And sometimes the Anthroposophical/Waldorf worldview does indeed blast into the foreground. Alan Whitehead earned a reputation as a maverick Waldorf teacher. Unlike many of his peers, he laid Anthroposophy on his students explicitly and in detail. You might look, for instance, at his book — one of his Waldorf teachers' guides — titled FROM ANCIENT SATURN TO ATLANTIS - A Teenagers' Travel Guide to the Evolution of the World and Man in the Light of Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Science — A Creative Approach (Golden Beetle Books, 1991). I forgot to mention, above, that according to Steiner human evolution began "on" Saturn before proceeding to Sun and Moon and then, eventually, Earth. Our passage through the great epochs and cultural epochs occurred after we arrived "on" Earth. (Again, I'm simplifying.) Whitehead traces this procession for the benefit of his teenaged Waldorf students — from Saturn (or Ancient Saturn) right through to Atlantis. Now, remember that most Waldorf teachers do not follow Whitehead's approach. Our history "on" Saturn, etc., is usually not spelled out for Waldorf students. But our history on Atlantis — occurring only a very little while ago, as cosmic narratives go — does sometimes show up in Waldorf classes. Sometimes. It is, after all, the "truth.")

— Roger

[R.R.]