[Anthroposophic Press, 1987.]

The following is a bit difficult to follow, 

but I think you'll find the effort eye-opening.

I urge you to read the entire lecture, 

"Ahrimanic Elemental Beings", 

in the book NATURE SPIRITS.

[W]e are surrounded by beings who, in accordance with the cosmic plan, have been charged with the mission to carry over into the future that which man himself is unable to transmit from one earthly life to another, especially the abstract content of our libraries, for instance ... These beings must enlist into their service others who had long been alien to them, who had experienced a totally different evolution from the spiritual beings associated with man. These beings with their different evolution I have called in my books ahrimanic beings. Despite their different evolution there are occasions when they come in contact with our own, when, for example, we build a motor car. They are beings who are able by virtue of their ahrimanic cosmic forces to understand modern techniques such as the construction of a motor car. They transmit to future ages the technical achievements of civilization.

...[W]hen a medium is in a trance condition...an entity of this kind which is subject to ahrimanic influences and whose function is to transmit the achievements of civilization to the future slips into the brain. Instead of being the bearer of the human ego, the medium is, temporarily, the vehicle of an elemental being which is neglecting its duty in the cosmos.

...Ahrimanic beings exist in the cosmos and possess an intelligence far superior to that of mankind ... Something of this intelligence passes over to their progeny, the elemental beings who slip into mediumistic brains, so that in this way significant information may be revealed by mediums ... Though we may learn much of importance from them, this is not the right path to spiritual knowledge. [The right path is the use of clairvoyance of the kind Steiner possessed, according to Steiner. Steiner proceeds to give an example of true clairvoyant vision, in contrast to faulty mediumistic vision.]

...The souls of those who have recently died are surrounded by strange demonic forms. At the entrance to this intermediate world which the dead must enter and in which we can accompany them with a certain clairvoyant vision, we meet with demonic figures with enormous webbed feet — enormous by earthly standards — like the duck or the wild duck species and other aquatic animals, huge webbed feet that are perpetually changing shape. These beings have a form somewhat similar to that of the kangaroo, but half bird, half animal.

...If, as you are standing among the autumn crocuses, you try to evoke the state of consciousness that is able to follow the dead, you will see, wherever an autumn crocus is growing, a being of the kind I have just described, with webbed feet and strange kangaroo-like body.

...We can only know what the elemental beings are, the progeny of the ahrimanic powers, when we enter into the world immediately bordering our own [through true clairvoyance] ... The deceptive and highly hallucinatory element in everything connected with mediumistic consciousness is explained by the fact that those who contact these beings have no understanding of their real nature.

 — Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), lecture 10, GA 243.

Does the divine cosmic plan — i.e., the carefully wrought intention of the good gods — encompass all spirits and all of their actions, the "good" and also the "bad"? Do evil spirits actually, in the end, serve the cause of divine beneficence? Steiner often indicated this to be the case. But, then again, he often indicated the opposite. We may lose our souls, he said. If we succumb to Ahriman, we may commit what amount to spiritual suicide. This danger is probably greater now than ever.

"[T]oday...the spirit-soul [man's combined spirit and soul] is asleep. The human being is thus in danger of drifting into the Ahrimanic world, in which case the spirit-soul will evaporate into the cosmos. We live in a time when people face the danger of losing their souls to materialistic impulses [i.e., excessive involvement in the physical realm]. That is a very serious matter. We now stand confronted with that fact." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 115.

To the extent that Anthroposophy finds 

virtue in the natural world,

a reverent attitude toward nature is cultivated.

This helps explain the presence of "nature tables" 

in many Waldorf classrooms.

Some critics see these as pagan altars.

From an essay by Dan Dugan [http://www.waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/nature_table/nature_table.html]:

"What is the altar in Room One?" a visiting public school teacher challenged parents assembled at Oak Ridge Elementary School on May 7, 1997. They had gathered for a meeting with Superintendent of Schools Jim Sweeney to discuss the school's "Waldorf Method." She was referring to a Waldorf school tradition, the "nature table," and implying that it had a religious significance. Does it?

Every lower-grade Waldorf classroom that I've visited has had a nature table. It's an important part of the Waldorf way. The teachers create the tables with seasonal themes, making artistic arrangements of natural objects such as plants, wood, and rocks, and symbolic objects such as candles, Menorahs, figurines, and polished crystals.

...[Stanford scholar Bruce] Uhrmacher describes a full-blown morning prayer ceremony [at a Waldorf bature table].  Note the ritual use of bell and candle, and the students' assumption of the occultist posture of prayer:

Clock time registers 8:50. Miss Bronte [2nd grade teacher] sweeps to the back of the room to turn off the lights and then she says, "Let's have a golden tone this morning. Who has never done this?" A few students raise their hands. Miss Bronte chooses Ariana to ring the golden tone. With great enthusiasm and anticipation, acting as though she has never done this before, Miss Bronte holds the xylophone for Ariana, who with a flick of the wrist creates the golden tone. The class listens quietly in the darkened room.

Next, Miss Bronte strikes a match against the grey rock on the nature table. In unison the class says, "Candle, candle, burning bright, thank you for your loving light." The students stand and cross their arms in front of their chests and recite a verse by Rudolf Steiner that I am told is the one verse said, with some variation, in every Waldorf classroom between first and fourth grades:

The sun, with loving light,

Makes bright for me each day.

The soul, with spirit power,

Gives strength unto my limbs.

In sunlight, shining clear,

I reverence, O God,

The strength of humankind

Which thou so graciously

Has planted in my soul,

That I with all my might

May love to work and learn

From thee come light and strength

To thee rise love and thanks.

Students recite the words clearly. Next, with accompanying hand movements, students sing another song. Then they snuff the candle with great attention and ritual...” — P. Bruce Uhrmacher, WALDORF SCHOOLS MARCHING QUIETLY UNHEARD (dissertation, Stanford School of Education.) May, 1991, pp. 108-109.

Dugan quotes Steiner: 

“[W]hen he [Goethe] was seven he built himself an altar to nature, taking his father's music stand and placing on it plants from his father's herbarium and also minerals and crowning it all with a little incense candle that he lit by focusing the beams of the morning sun with a burning-glass; an offering to the great god of nature, a rebellion against everything imposed on him by education.” — Rudolf Steiner, PRACTICAL ADVICE TO TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1988), p. 113.

Dugan then comments: 

This is pretty explicit, "an altar to nature," and "an offering to the great god of nature." Presumably this is the sort of altar Waldorf teachers recreate in their classrooms. Note that the passage comes as part of Steiner's "practical advice to teachers." Driving the point home, Steiner told the Waldorf teachers that Goethe — whom Steiner often praised as an exemplar — represented the correct educational approach: “In the very essence of his nature, Goethe was always a human being longing to be educated in the way people ought to be educated today.” — Ibid., p. 113.

Steiner taught that animals descended from us —  

they diverged from the main current of human evolution.

Similarly, evil races split off from the good —  

they, too, diverged from the ascending stream  

of human evolution:

"Just as older conditions which have degenerated 

to the ape species seem grotesque to us today, 

so do materialistic races remain at the standpoint of evil, 

and will people the earth as evil races. 

It will lie entirely with humanity as to whether 

a soul will remain in the bad race

or will ascend by spiritual culture to a good race.” 

— Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM 

(Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 150.

Vertical man (close) standing beside a horizontal animal (farther away) —

x-ray views, as it were.

[R.R. sketch, 2009, based on one in 

FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS,

a collection of Steiner lectures.]

[FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS,

 Fig. 15, p. 128.]

In general, Steiner taught that earthly things are lowly;

man distinguishes himself by separating himself from the earthly.

"The child learns to walk; that is to say, he learns to raise himself from the position in which he was incapable of lifting his body from the earth level towards the heavenly heights of the Cosmos. He is now in that position which, above all, distinguishes man from the animals. Having learnt by his own inner forces to assume it, he turns his gaze away from the earth at which the animal is compelled to look by reason of its nature and form." — Rudolf Steiner, "Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ" (Steiner Book Centre, 1976), GA 152.

Of course, in reality, some animals 

stand erect much as humans do

 — but Steiner discounts them.

And, of course, no four-legged animals 

spend all their time looking downward —

think of giraffes, or horses, or dogs, or cats...

In fact, most animals, most of the time,  

direct their gaze horizontally,

looking at their surroundings —

just as humans do.

“[T]he butterfly is essentially a being belonging to the light — to the light in so far [sic] as it is modified by the forces of the outer planets, of Mars, of Jupiter, and of Saturn ... [T]he butterfly does not participate in what is directly connected with earthly existence, but only indirectly, in so far as the sun, with its power of warmth and light, is active in this earthly existence. Actually a butterfly lays its eggs only where they do not become separated from sun activity, so that the butterfly does not entrust its egg to the earth, but only to the sun. Then out creeps the caterpillar, which is under the influence of Mars-activity, though naturally the sun influence always remains present. Then the chrysalis is formed, and this is under the influence of Jupiter-activity. Out of the chrysalis emerges the butterfly, which can now in its iridescent colours reproduce in the earth's environment the luminous Sun-power of the earth united with the power of Saturn.” — Rudolf Steiner, MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 5, GA 230. 

According to some ancient thinkers 

(others, of course, held other views), 

physical reality is fundamentally composed 

of four basic "elements":

fire, air, water, and earth.

Traditional signs of the four elements.

[Rudolf Koch, THE BOOK OF SIGNS 

(Dover Publications, 1955), p. 50.]

The four primary types of nature spirits 

or element beings may be considered to be 

the "spirits" of the four elements:

salamanders: fire,*

sylphs: air, 

undines: water, 

gnomes: earth.

In modern times, Steiner endorsed this paradigm, 

and Anthroposophists embrace it today. 

"Elemental beings — also called etheric elemental beings, usually assigned to the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire. Among these beings are creatures such as dwarves (earth)**, undines (water), sylphs (air) and salamanders (fire). Our visible physical world is a modification of these invisible elemental beings ... [A]ll visible substances come into being by materialization of these elemental entities. When these substances are destroyed, the elemental beings are freed again. The elemental beings are invisible to the untrained eye." — Henk van Oort, ANTHROPOSOPHY A-Z (Sophia Books, Rudolf Steiner Press, 2011), p. 36.

Science currently recognizes 114 elements, not four.

And none of the ancient four qualifies as a real element.

◊

* The "salamanders" in question are etheric beings, not the real-world amphibians — although some of the ancients did think real salamanders were impervious to fire. This is just one indication of the value of "ancient wisdom," on which Steiner pinned so much importance.

** Van Oort has chosen an uncommon designation, here. More commonly within Anthroposophical circles, earth nature spirits are referred to as gnomes or goblins.

“[T]he third set of lectures [in this book] concerns the astral-etheric beings known as elemental spirits, whose existence is rarely acknowledged today beyond the sphere of folklore. We discover how indebted we are to these beings, both benevolent and malevolent, for our continued existence. Steiner gives an account of their different levels of consciousness and, in doing so, throws light on some of the characters from traditional nursery tales. Many of us will be familiar with the wise but gruff dwarf, the water sprite or mermaid who tries to lure the human being into its own fluid consciousness-world, and the unearthly beauty of the fairy queen which would entrap men and render them powerless, as if they slept. The fact that the elemental spirits, like irresponsible children, might choose to sport with the unprotected human consciousness should not undermine the fact that these spirits ‘wish man to make a move onwards with his consciousness, so that he may participate in their world.’” — Ann Druitt, introduction to HARMONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), a collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, pp. xvii-xviii.

According to Steiner, nature spirits — despite their less savory aspects — make contributions to the cosmic commonweal. Among other things, they enable plants to grow. 

“And so we picture, from below upwards, in bluish, blackish shades the force of gravity, to which an upward impulse is given by the gnomes; and flitting all around the plant...[is] the undine power that blends and disperses substances as the plant grows upwards. From above downwards, from the sylphs, light is made to leave its imprint in the plant and molds and creates the form which descends as an ideal form and is taken up by the material womb of the earth; moreover fire spirits flit around the plant and concentrate cosmic warmth in tiny seed points. This is sent down to the gnomes together with the seed power, so that down there they can cause the plants to arise out of fire and life." — Rudolf Steiner, HARMONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), pp. 125-126. 

It's good to see Steiner affirm the force of gravity, here. At other times, he said that "gravity" is just a word; gravity exists only on solid planets. [See, e.g., "Steiner's Blunders".]

[R.R. sketch, 2009. 

There is no plant in my sketch because 

there is none in the book's.] 

“It is a remarkable thing that animals and man, who in their lower organs are in fact earth-bound, should experience as poison what has become corrupted on the earth in the belladonna, whereas birds such as thrushes and blackbirds, which should really get this in a spiritual way from the sylphs — and indeed through the benevolent sylphs do so obtain it — should be able to assimilate it, even when what belongs up above in their region has been carried downwards to the earth. They find nourishment in what is poison for beings more bound to the earth.

"Thus you get a conception of how, on the one side, through gnomes and undines what is of a parasitic nature strives upwards from the earth towards other beings, and of how the poisons filter downwards from above.

"... And so you have gained a picture of those beings which are just on the boundary of the world lying immediately beyond the threshold, and of how, if they carry their impulses to their final issue, they become the bearers of parasites, of poisons, and therewith of illnesses. Now it becomes clear how far man in health raises himself above the forces that take hold of him in illness. For illness springs from the malevolence of these beings who are necessary for the upbuilding of the whole structure of nature, but also for its fading and decay.

"These are the things which, arising from instinctive clairvoyance, underlie such intuitions as those of the Indian Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva ... Brahma is intimately related to all that is of the nature of the fire-beings, and the sylphs; Vishnu with all that is of the nature of sylphs and undines; Shiva with all that is of the nature of undines and gnomes. Generally speaking, when we go back to these more ancient conceptions, we find everywhere the pictorial expressions for what must be sought today as lying behind the secrets of nature.” — Rudolf Steiner, MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 8, GA 230.

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FAIRY WORLDS AND WORKERS

— A Natural History of Fairyland

by Marjorie Spock

(Anthroposophic Press, 1980).

“That fairyland and its denizens should be as much a concern of scientists as they have long been of poets and painters and storytellers was one of Steiner’s deep convictions. For he was a close observer of their [i.e., the fairies’] life and work, and it was clear to him that they were of profound importance to the earth.” — Waldorf educator Marjorie Spock, FAIRY WORLDS AND WORKERS, p. 8. (The book’s dedication: “In memory of RUDOLF STEINER who understood so well the living forces behind Nature.”)

"Four races of Little People (as tradition also calls fairies) serve the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Gnomes are the caretakers of the earth-realm, undines or water spirits [are] wielders of fluids. Sylphs are the element of light and air. Fire-spirits reign over processes of heat." — Ibid., p. 10.

"[I]t would be a mistake to picture the Little People carrying on their work in a do-gooding spirit. Virtue does not interest fairies; it would scarcely occur to them that they 'serve' Nature ... They simple react to their environment in love or loathing. For they are ruled exclusively by feeling — feeling more intense by far that any familiar to most human beings." — Ibid., p. 10.

"Since gnomes and human beings alike are earthbound creatures, we will probably find gnomes — or cobolds, or goblins, as they are sometimes also called — the fairy race closest to our understanding." — Ibid., p. 11.

"Gnomes are immensely clever Little People, with large heads out of all proportion to their tiny bodies ... [T]o them anyone who has to think to get facts is half asleep ... Since they are wide awake already, they perceive what is without having to mull it over in their heads." — Ibid., p. 11.

"It is no easy feat for people of our time to see the fairies. Yet there are four professions which offer their practitioners unique opportunities to know them. Farmers, fishermen, foresters and miners work not just at the threshold of fairyland but well inside it ... Insightful farmers learn to transform dead wastes into life by composting ... Fairies are strongly attracted by this practice. They swarm to the farmer's aid ... Taught by Rudolf Steiner, the biodynamic farmer adds a further lure: Four kinds of sprays are readied ... To strengthen gnome activity in roots a spray of treated cow manure is used... [etc.]." — Ibid., pp. 27-28.

"It is wise, on encountering a  fairy, not to be too overeager in one’s scrutiny. Little People — like those other innocents, animals, and children — have an intense dislike of being stared at. They love to stare at us, of course, but will turn away at once and disappear the moment we return the favor. They have grown shy in the face of our disbelief in them.” — Ibid., p. 28.

"It is not hard to detect that gnomes are wintry ... There is frostbite of mind in them, and a chilly remoteness from others in their rugged individualism ... We live with undines when we feel with spring, experiencing the upward freeing of the tide of life ... We live with sylphs when we imagine ourselves moving with the raying light as it suffuses the whole universe in summer ... We live with fire-spirits in the mellow warmth that is carried deep into the earth in autumn ... This is to live with Nature where she really lives." — Ibid., pp. 30-31.

"[F]or centuries elemental beings have been receiving less and less ... Human beings [today] neglect them with the consequence that they turn to another world, the realm of death ruled by [the demon] Ahriman ... Human beings [must] once again give them what they need. Then they will be able to help human beings again. This fact is of such importance that Rudolf Steiner spoke of it ... [Homemaking is] especially well suited to what the elemental beings seek ... Cleaning vegetables is not exactly a popular activity. Yet just this leads one directly into the elemental world. If a carrot is scraped and rubbed, a potato peeled or washed, elemental beings are freed.” — Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, THE SPIRITUAL TASKS OF THE HOMEMAKER (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2008), pp. 37-39. Schmidt-Brabant is a follower of Steiner's. According to SteinerBooks: "In 1975 he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum [the Anthroposophical headquarters] in Dornach, Switzerland, and served as Chair of the Council from 1984 until his death in 2001."

Here are some items from the Waldorf Watch News:

I.

"Prairie Moon [Waldorf School] was one of three schools named a 'Kansas Green School of the Year.' The others were Hesston Elementary School and Tomahawk Elementary School in Shawnee Mission [Kansas, USA]. The awards were presented during a ceremony April 1 in Topeka. “These schools really are models for how all of us can be more green,” said Wilson, of KACEE [the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education]. The state organization will present the students at Prairie Moon with a big green banner on May 7." [4-8-2011 http://wellcommons.com/groups/locavores/2011/apr/8/prairie-moon-waldorf-school-earns-state-/]

◊

Waldorf Watch Response:

Is it ever wrong to be right? Perhaps not. But it is possible to be right for the wrong reasons. Waldorf schools are right to promote green values. But their reasons for embracing such values are wrong — their reasons are occult nonsense. Waldorf Anthroposophists believe, for instance, that nature is the abode of elemental beings, otherwise known as nature spirits. Some nature spirits live in water, some live in the air, some live in fire, and some live underground. The underground nature spirits are called gnomes or goblins. (I am not making this up.) 

“A gnome is only visible to someone who can see on the astral plane, but miners frequently possess such an astral vision [i.e., clairvoyance]; they know that gnomes are realities.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 27, GA 93a.

Gnomes are useful in various ways, but they also tend to be naughty. (I am not making this up. Really.) 

"Many names have been given to them, such as goblins, gnomes and so forth ... What one calls moral responsibility in man is entirely lacking in them ... Their nature prompts them to play all sorts of tricks on man....”  — Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), pp. 62-63. 

The good things gnomes have done include (in a manner of speaking) creating the physical Earth. (I am not making this up. I swear, I am not.) 

“The predecessors of our Earth-gnomes, the Moon-gnomes, gathered together their Moon-experiences and from them fashioned this structure, this firm structure of the solid fabric of the Earth, so that our solid Earth-structure actually arose from the experiences of the gnomes of the old Moon.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE RIDDLE OF HUMANITY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1990), lecture 9.

The problem with the Waldorf view of nature is twofold: It populates the natural world with creatures that never existed, and it undervalues the creatures that actually do exist in nature. (Steiner was dismissive of animals, calling them mere cast-off fragments of human nature.) 

When Waldorf teachers who believe in gnomes teach children to respect the Earth, they are teaching them a right lesson for a wrong reason. True morality — and true stewardship — is not born of fantastical delusions. Our moral duty is to the real planet we live on and the real creatures we share it with. We should preserve the Earth because that is the rational, compassionate, and responsible thing to do. We should save the Earth for the future generations of all the real species — including, of course, our own species. (And we can let the gnomes, sylphs, and other imaginary "nature spirits" look out for themselves.)

[For more on the Waldorf view of nature, see "Gnomes", "Neutered Nature", "Evolution, Anyone?" and "Biodynamics".]...

II.

“The plant realm is the soul world of the Earth made visible. The carnation is a flirt. The sunflower an old peasant. The sunflower’s shining face is like a jolly old country rustic. Plants with very big leaves would express, in terms of soul life, lack of success in a job, taking a long time with everything, clumsiness, and especially an inability to finish anything; we think that someone has finished, but the person is still at it. Look for the soul element in the plant forms! 

“When summer approaches, or even earlier, sleep spreads over the Earth; this sleep becomes heavier and heavier, but it only spreads out spatially, and in autumn passes away again. The plants are no longer there, and sleep no longer spreads over the Earth. The feelings, passions, and emotions of people pass with them into sleep, but once they are there, those feelings have the appearance of plants. What we have invisible within the soul, our hidden qualities — flirtatiousness, for example — become visible in plants. We don’t see this in a person who is awake, but it can be observed clairvoyantly in people who are sleeping. Flirtation, for example, looks like a carnation. A flirt continually produces carnations from the nose! A tedious, boring person produces gigantic leaves from the whole body, if you could see them.” — Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 128.

◊

Waldorf Watch Response:

Note that Steiner made these remarks when addressing Waldorf teachers. Equally important, these remarks depend upon belief in clairvoyance. (Only belief in clairvoyance prevents these remarks from being utterly absurd; and even then...)

Steiner speaks as a clairvoyant, telling Waldorf teachers what his clairvoyance reveals, and the teachers evidently take him at his word. Genuine, Anthroposophy-based Waldorf education — like its underlying belief system — depends on belief in clairvoyance. If clairvoyance is a fantasy, if in fact it does not exist, then the rug is pulled out from under Waldorf education and Anthroposophy. And, as far as anyone reliably knows, clairvoyance is a fantasy, it does not exist. A "clairvoyant" is either deceiving him/herself, or s/he is attempting to deceive us, or both. [See "Clairvoyant Vision", “Clairvoyance”, “Exactly”, "The Waldorf Teacher's Consciousness", and “Fooling (Ourselves)”.]

III.

Mother Nature's Child Film Screening at Da Vinci Waldorf School

February 12, 2013

Free film screening that explores nature's powerful role in children's health.

"Mother Nature's Child: Growing Outdoors in a Media Age" will be shown at Da Vinci Waldorf School, Saturday, Feb. 16, 10 a.m. to noon. Da Vinci Waldorf School is located at 150 W. Bonner Rd., Wauconda [Illinois, USA]. 

This film explores nature's powerful role in children's health and development through the experience of toddlers, children in middle childhood and adolescents. It asks the questions: Why do children need unstructured time outside? What is the place of risk-taking in healthy child development? How is play a form of learning? What does it mean to educate the 'whole' child?

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Waldorf Watch Response:

One of the attractive features of Waldorf education is the schools' embrace of green values. Nature and all things natural are revered, at least provisionally. This is the flip side of the schools' antipathy to modern technology, and it has its charms. It may even, at some levels, contain wisdom.

You should bear a few things in mind, however. The Waldorf view of nature is essentially mystical and superstitious. According to the Waldorf view, nature should be respected because it is the creation of the gods. (Gods, plural. The Waldorf belief system, Anthroposophy, is polytheistic. See "Polytheism".) This does not mean, however, that nature is wholly beneficent or trustworthy. Rather, according to Rudolf Steiner, the physical universe is a false realm of illusion or maya. 

“I must emphasize this again and again, that the saying ‘the world is Maya’ is so vitally important." — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 64. 

Moreover, according to Steiner, nature is the abode of "nature spirits" — invisible, subhuman beings such as gnomes or goblins whose behavior is often amoral.

"There are beings that can be seen with clairvoyant vision at many spots in the depths of the earth ... Many names have been given to them, such as goblins, gnomes and so forth ... What one calls moral responsibility in man is entirely lacking in them ... Their nature prompts them to play all sorts of tricks on man...."  — Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), pp. 62-63. [See "Neutered Nature" and "Gnomes".]

The announcement of the screening of "Mother Nature's Child" raises some other issues that are worth pondering. Note the references to "unstructured time outside" and "risk-taking." The supervision of children at Waldorf schools is often dangerously lax. There are many reasons for this, such as the belief that children should be free to enact their karmas, and the belief that playtime is a reenactment of life before incarnation on Earth. But equally important is the Waldorf notion that teachers don't need to watch children carefully because the kids' guardian angels will do this work. In Waldorf doctrine, there are many ranks of gods standing above humanity. The lowest rank consists of the gods who are commonly called angels. According to Rudolf Steiner, each human being has a guardian angel. This is a pleasing belief, and perhaps you share it. But do you agree that, because of this belief, teachers should send kids outdoors, in all weathers, for unstructured and largely unsupervised play periods? Is this a form of "risk-taking" you want for your young child?

You might also mull over the Waldorf conception of the "whole child." Holistic education seems like a fine ideal, and Waldorf schools often make the attractive claim that they educate a child's "head, heart, and hands." Sounds good. But look a bit deeper, and you may find reason for concern. In Waldorf belief, a child is a reincarnating being who has a karma, an astrological sign, both a soul and a spirit, three invisible bodies (the etheric, astral, and ego bodies), a temperament (phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine, or choleric), a racial identity reflecting her/his level of spiritual evolution, a brain that doesn't really think, a heart that doesn't pump blood, a hidden double or doppelgänger, and so on. The Waldorf view of human beings, in other words, is fully as mystical and superstitious as the Waldorf view of nature. Unless you share the Waldorf perspective, you will likely come to the conclusion that much of what happens in Waldorf schools is irrational and, potentially, harmful. [For more on such matters, see, e.g., "Oh Humanity", "Holistic Education", "What We're Made Of", and "Our Parts".]

“You will injure children if you educate them rationally.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 61.

“The earth was once a giant animal which, in keeping with its size, was rather lazy, turning only slowly about its axis in space, but which looked out into space through these dragon birds which were simply movable eyes ... You can comprehend the earth if you imagine it as an animal that has died.” — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 69.

[R.R., sketch, 2009 — 

my copy of Steiner's sketch.]

“This is what the surroundings of the earth looked like ... [L]et's call this warmer layer 'fiery air.' It was not blazing hot, as modern scientists incorrectly assume ... [P]eculiar animals lived in the fiery air ... These flying animals were even able to emit something like electricity and to send it down to the earth ... [T]hese birds were small dragon birds ... Further down, on the muddy earth, there were animals remarkable for their gigantic size ... [T]hey had huge eyes that emitted light ... [Y]ou would have seen a gigantic light coming toward you with a body larger than a whale ... [Y]ou could have climbed on it with a ladder. It would indeed have been like mountain climbing ... So you see things were really different back then." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM CRYSTALS TO CROCODILES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002, pp. 101-104.

[R.R., sketch, 2009 — 

my copy of Steiner's sketch.]

“The kingdom into which the Dragon [i.e., Ahriman] was driven has become ‘Nature,’ and is now so constituted as to be visible to the senses ... The Adversary has found his abode in man. Michael has remained true to his nature. When man turns to Michael with that part of his life which has its origin in the higher spirituality, then there arises in the soul of man the inward fight of Michael and the Dragon.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING, IV (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1957), Michaelmas, VI, Michael and the Dragon, GA 36. 

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