Venus

Venus, being a virgin, keeps to herself (yes, Steiner uses the female pronoun). She loves Earth, however, and she listens to Mars. When Mars and Venus are in conjunction, the effects on Earth are unfortunate. 

“Venus wards off the universe. She is difficult to approach; she does not want to know anything about the universe. Her attitude is that if she were to expose herself to the external universe, she would lose her virginal nature. She is deeply shocked when any impression from the external universe attempts to approach her ...  On the other hand, Venus is highly responsive to everything that comes from the Earth. The Earth is, so to speak, her lover ... The secrets of men in their earthly existence are transformed by Venus into dream-pictures of infinite diversity. She has a very great deal to do with poets, although they are not aware of it ... As I said before, she declines every would-be suitor, but for all that she listens attentively to the utterances of Mars. She transforms and illumines her dreamlike experiences of earthly things with what is communicated to her from the universe through Mars ... If we want to understand the impulses in the universe connected with the formation of human speech, we must turn our gaze to this strange life that weaves between Venus and Mars ... [A] language tends to become superficial, poor in qualities of soul, when Venus and Mars are in conjunction, and this in turn has an influence upon the people or nation concerned.” [25]

There are both good and bad beings on Venus, as on all celestial spheres. Each planet has a genius and a demon, and the various other beings on each planet follow one or the other of these leaders. 

“[W]e find certain beings who in their own way are also of a mild, peaceable nature and who in a certain respect are extraordinarily clever. These beings...have their actual home on the planet Venus, as the other beings [find homes] on moon and Mars. On Venus too we find yet a second species of beings who — in contrast to the gentle, amiable kind — present a wild and furious vitality, and whose principal occupation consists in mutual fighting and plunder ... Influences of the Venus beings live in all the plants and naturally also in the animal kingdom [on Earth]. The influences may come on the one hand from the good, gentle, mild Venus beings, or on the other hand, from the wild beings who have been described to you as greedy for plunder and engaged in conflict with each other. According as the one or the other kind work upon our animals and plants, so are virtues or vices built into man's body when the flesh of these animals or the food obtained from these plants are transformed into the chyle [a milky fluid in the body involved in digestion].”  [26]

After our Jupiter planetary condition, we will evolve to our Venus planetary condition — Future Venus. [See "Future Stages".]

Mercury

Mercury is a bit prosaic, but seen in the context of other celestial orbs, it is highly significant. Certain "Masters" — occult insiders, beings clued into deep mysteries — live on/in the various planets, including Mercury. 

“We come next to Mercury. In contrast to the other planets, Mercury is not interested in things of a physical, material nature as such, but in whatever is capable of co-ordination. Mercury is the domain of the Masters of co-ordinative thinking; Jupiter, the habitation of the Masters of wisdom-filled thinking ... Mercury provides the forces for capacities of intellect and reason, especially of intellect. The Masters of the forces of co-ordinative knowledge and mental activity have their habitation in Mercury.  [paragraph break] There is a remarkable connection between these planets and the life and being of man. The Moon...builds and fashions the outer form, the body of man. It is therefore by the Moon that the forces of heredity are incorporated in his bodily constitution ... [S]cience speaks under the influence of the demonic Mars-forces and has not even begun to approach the real mysteries of heredity ... Venus and Mercury bring into the human being the karmic element that is connected more with the life of soul and spirit and comes to expression in his qualities of heart and in his temperament. On the other hand, Mars, and especially Jupiter and Saturn when a man has a right relationship with them, act as liberating factors. They wrest man away from what is determined by destiny and make him into a free being ... Mars, Jupiter and Saturn may also be called the liberating planets; they give man freedom. On the other hand [sic], Venus, Mercury and the Moon may be called the destiny-determining planets.” [27]

Circling back to the Moon for a moment: "The Moon...builds and fashions the outer form, the body of man." Actually, Jehovah did this. Jehovah is not God — he is a Moon Being (Jews mistakenly worship him; theirs is a Moon religion, Steiner explained). Jehovah, using his Moon forces, created the physical form of mankind. [Take a peek at "Clairvoyant Vision", "Steiner's Bile", and "The White Lodge".] All of the "planets" and "stars" — and their presiding gods — have exerted their influences downward to us. Here we have seen a bit of Mercury's work.

Vulcan

Vulcan does not exist. But occult science generally says that it does. To believers, Vulcan is the most mysterious member of our solar system. It may be Mercury, or it may be another planet, hidden by Mercury, or something else. It is so near the Sun that we can’t see it (it may hide behind the Sun). Yet it is real, and our seventh planetary condition will bear its name. In the past, when humans dispersed to the various planets, some went to Vulcan (proving that the planet really exists, perhaps). And today, Vulcan beings (the nonhuman occupants of Vulcan) are already here, among us. According to Steiner:

“You will remember the passage in the book OCCULT SCIENCE dealing with the time when the human souls ascended to the planets and afterwards descended once more to earth-existence. I spoke of how the Mars-men, the Jupiter-men and the others descended again to earth. Now an event of great significance came to pass at the end of the seventies of last century [i.e., the 1870s]. It is an event that can be described only in the light of facts which are revealed to us in the spiritual world. Whereas in the days of old Atlantis human beings came down to the earth from Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and so on — that is to say, beings of soul were drawn into the realm of earth-existence — since the end of the seventies of last century, other Beings — not of the human order — have been descending to the earth for the purposes of their further development. From cosmic realms beyond the earth they come down to the earth and enter into a definite relationship with human beings. Since the eighties of the nineteenth century [i.e., the 1880s], super-earthly Beings have been seeking to enter the sphere of earth-existence. Just as the Vulcan-men [sic] were the last to come down to the earth so now Vulcan Beings are actually coming into the realm of earthly existence ... [This is a serious matter:] Super-earthly Beings are already here, and the fact that we are able to have a connected body of Spiritual Science at all today is due to the circumstance that Beings from beyond the earth are bringing the messages from the spiritual world down into earth-existence ... Today people may consider it comparatively harmless to elaborate only those automatic, lifeless thoughts which arise in connection with the mineral world and the mineral nature of plant, animal and man. Materialists revel in such thoughts which are — well — thoughts and nothing more. But try to imagine what will happen if men go on unfolding no other kinds of thoughts until the time is reached in the eighth millennium for the moon-existence to unite again with the earth. These Beings of whom I have spoken will gradually come down to the earth. Vulcan Beings, ‘Supermen’ of Vulcan, ‘Supermen’ of Venus, of Mercury, of the Sun, will unite with this earth-existence. But if human beings persist in nothing but opposition to them, earth-existence will pass over into chaos in the course of the next few thousand years." [28] 

I'll bet you didn't know these facts, did you?

[For more on Vulcan, see "Vulcan".

Outer Planets

(Out)

Steiner also spoke of Uranus and Neptune, sometimes, but he basically excluded them from the solar system.

"Uranus and Neptune...circle much farther out and their orbits exhibit such irregularities that in reality they cannot be counted among the planets even today.” [29]

As for Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and the other minor planets (members of the Kuiper Belt), Steiner knew them not.

So this concludes our planetary tour. 

Bear in mind: This little survey is incomplete. Not only have we omitted Uranus and Neptune, but we have failed to perceive what we are unable to perceive, the invisible planets: 

"There are many planets that are not to be seen with physical eyes, such as those in the first, second, and third elementary kingdoms. Only when such a planet within creation enters the mineral kingdom can it be seen." [30]

So that's the end of the tour. 

Be sure to take your things with you as you file out of the planetarium.

— Roger Rawlings

"[Steiner’s] vision of the world, the universe, 

and cosmic history... 

is more like science fiction than anything else.”

— Anthony Storr, FEET OF CLAY 

(Free Press, 1996), p. 81.

How much of Steiner's astronomical fantasies, falsehoods, and ignorance will Waldorf teachers pass along to their students? It depends. Some Waldorf teachers and some Waldorf schools will keep Steiner's occultism well concealed in the background, whereas some others will bring it forward to varying degrees. Waldorf students may be told some remarkable things about the zodiac, the stars, and the planets — they may be taught some Anthroposophical doctrines about these subjects. It is less likely that the students will be told about "planetary conditions" of cosmic evolution. But, then again, in some rare instances even this deeply esoteric lore may find its way into Waldorf classrooms. In the Waldorf teachers' guide ANCIENT SATURN TO ATLANTIS (Golden Beetle Books, 1991), Waldorf teacher-trainer Alan Whitehead advocates laying out the occult history of the cosmos in detail for Waldorf students. [See "Out in the Open".]

“[Long ago] the great majority of human souls had to relinquish their union with the earth. Here we come to something of great importance in the relationship between man and earth, something which happened during the time between the separation of the sun and that of the moon. During this interval human soul-spirits, except for a very small number, abandoned earthly conditions, and pressing upward into higher regions, continued their evolution upon the several planets belonging to our solar system, each according to the stage of his development. Some souls were fitted to pursue their evolution on Saturn, others on Mars, others again on Mercury, and so on. Only a very small number of the strongest soul-spirits remained in union with the earth. During this time the rest dwelt upon the earth's planetary neighbours. This came about at a time preceding (to use our own terminology) the Lemurian age.” 

— Rudolf Steiner, GENESIS: Secrets of the Bible Story of Creation 

(Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1959), lecture 9, GA 122.

Mystic planetary emblems,

as per Rudolf Steiner:

Sun, Saturn, Venus.

These emblems may sometimes 

be found in Waldorf schools.

[R.R. sketches, 2010, based on pp. 197-199, 

John Fletcher's ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER 

(Mercury Arts Publications, 1987).]

There are similar Steiner-indicated emblems 

for the other "sacred planets."

The following chart summarizes many Anthroposophical beliefs about the planets: the day of the week associated with each planet, the bodily organ most affected by each planet, the phyical process bound up with each planet, and so on. Astrology pervades much of the Anthroposophical/Waldorf worldview.

"Keeping Track of the Planets"

[Waldorf teacher Monica Gold]

"Coming now to describe rather more in detail how we take our way after falling asleep, we find we can distinguish different spheres through which we pass. First comes the sphere where the I and the astral body — that is to say, the soul of man as it finds itself in sleep — feel united with the movements of the World of the planets. When we wake up in the morning and slip into our physical body, we have in us, as we know, our lungs, our heart, our liver, our brain. In the first sphere with which we come in contact after falling asleep — and it will also be again the last sphere we enter before awaking — we have in us the forces of the movements of the planets. This does not mean of course that we receive into us every night the entire planetary movements; we carry within us a little picture, as it were, wherein the movements of the planets are reproduced. And this picture is different for each single human being. That, then, is the first experience every one of us encounters after falling asleep. We follow, as it were, with our astral body all that happens with the planets, as they move out there in the wide spaces of the Universe; we experience it all in our astral body in a sort of planetary globe." 

— Rudolf Steiner, PLANETARY SPHERES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON 

MAN'S LIFE ON EARTH AND IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS 

(Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 3, GA 214. 

"[R]ed human blood is connected with the evolution of the Earth as such. It could not have been formed at all if the Earth, in its evolutionary course, had not come together with another planet, namely, with Mars. Before this contact of the Earth with Mars, the Earth had no iron; there was no iron in the blood; the blood upon which the human being is dependent today, did not exist. In the first half of Earth existence, the influence of the planet Mars is the ruling factor, and the influence of the planet Mercury in the second half.

"Mars has given iron to the Earth and the Mercury influence manifests on the Earth in such a way that it makes the human soul more and more free, more and more independent. In occultism therefore, we speak of the Mars half of Earth evolution and of the Mercury half. Whereas the other names describe a whole planet, Earth evolution is spoken of as 'Mars-Mercury.' Used in this connection the names do not designate the planets we know today but the influences at work during the first and second halves of Earth evolution.

"In the future the Earth will incarnate as a new planetary body, known as Jupiter. The human astral body then will have developed to a stage where it no longer confronts the physical body as an enemy, as is the case today, but it will still not have reached its highest stage. The etheric body on Jupiter will have reached the stage at which the physical body is now, for it will then have three planetary evolutions behind it as the physical body has today.

"On the planetary body following Jupiter, the astral body will have developed as far as the physical body of today; it will have behind it the Moon, Earth and Jupiter evolutions and will have reached the Venus evolution. The final planetary incarnation will be that of Vulcan, when the 'I', the Ego, will have attained the highest stage of its development. The future incarnations of the Earth will thus be: Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan." 

— Rudolf Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN 

(Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), pp. 79-80.

Steiner knew that his terminology could be confusing. Here is his effort, in a Supplementary Note at the end of OCCULT SCIENCE, to explain the differences — and connections — between planetary conditions, such as Old Saturn, and planets, such as Saturn:

"In the fourth and sixth chapters of this book it was described how the World to which Man belongs, and Man himself, evolve through the successive states called ‘Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan.’ Some indication was also given of how human evolution is related to the existing heavenly bodies other than the Earth — Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, for example. They too are of course evolving, and in their present stage of evolution the physical part of them is perceptible to our senses in the forms known to physical Astronomy as ‘Saturn’, ‘Jupiter’, ‘Mars’ and the rest.

"Seen in the light of spiritual science, the present Saturn is a kind of reincarnation of Old Saturn. It came into existence because, before the Sun had separated from the Earth, Beings were there who would not have been able to leave with the Sun. They were so much imbued with Saturnian characteristics that they could not live where Solar properties above all were to be developed. So too the present Jupiter arose because Beings were there with characteristics which cosmic evolution as a whole will be unfolding in the future Jupiter and not till then. Mars on the other hand is a heavenly body inhabited by Beings whose evolution on Old Moon was such that they could not have benefited from any further progress upon Earth. Mars is a reincarnation of Old Moon on a higher level. The present Mercury is a dwelling-place for Beings who are ahead of earthly evolution in that they have developed certain earthly qualities in a higher form than is possible upon the Earth herself. Likewise the present Venus is a prophetic anticipation of the future Venus state.

"Such are the reasons for naming the past and future stages of World-evolution after the heavenly bodies — their present representatives, as it were, in the Cosmos." 

— Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE 

(Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), pp. 328-329.

Steiner told the teachers at the first Waldorf school that the planets do on orbit the sun. Instead, he said, the planets move through space in a line. Saturn is at the head of the line, the Sun occupies a position in the middle of the line, and the Earth brings up the rear.

The line is complex, moving in a swirling, snake-line manner, swinging from side to side. From some angles, the line resembles a spiral or helix. From others, it resembles a lemniscate (a figure-of-eight, as shown above.)

For more on all this,  see "Deception".

[R.R. sketch.]

Endnotes

[1] See my essay “Everything” and the essays that follow it.

Depending on context, Steiner used the name of a planet for the planet, or for a stage of evolution, or for the "sphere" or "globe" of the planet — a spiritual region corresponding to the space enclosed by the apparent orbit of the planet.

I will explain at least some of this, here, while allowing the mind-spinning complexity (and, perhaps, internal confusions) of Steiner's teachings to reveal themselves.

[2] Rudolf Steiner, WONDERS OF THE WORLD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983), p. 77.

[3] Rudolf Steiner, AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1986), lecture 9, GA 95.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), p. 36.

We can, perhaps, get Steiner off the hook if we stipulate that the souls who moved to other planets were not quite human, yet. "Human" is a plastic term, in Anthroposophy. It may apply to us and our forebears (who were us, in earlier incarnations), or only us as we are now (humans as humanity is today), or to all beings who have evolved through a stage equivalent to our current stage of development. The gods who are one level higher than humanity today, for instance, once stood at a developmental level equivalent to our level today. 

"Man has only become human, in the present sense of the word, on earth. The former planetary conditions, which the earth has passed through had a similar task. Other beings became human on those other planets [i.e., during those phases of evolution], and now stand at a higher stage than man ... The Archangels [for instance] were first able to become human on the Sun [i.e., during Old Sun]....” — R. Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES (Anthroposophical Publishing Co.), lecture 3, GA 110.

Concerning "ever new incarnations": As you may have gathered, reincarnation is a basic Anthroposophical belief. See "Reincarnation".

[9] Rudolf Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), pp. 238-239.

[10] Rudolf Steiner, THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), p. 75.

[11] Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (Anthroposophic Press, 1972), p. 11.

[12] Rudolf Steiner, MAN - HIEROGLYPH OF THE UNIVERSE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 9, GA 201.

[13] Ibid.

To be precise, the real universe consists of four primary dimensions: height, width, depth, and time. String theory postulates many additional dimensions, but these remain speculative. In any event, all planets occupy the same sort of space, the universal space, however many dimensions this ultimately comprises.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Rudolf Steiner, “The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets” (THE GOLDEN BLADE, 1988), a lecture, GA 228.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Sometimes Old (or Ancient) Moon is referred to as Old (or Ancient) Mars, because this incarnation of the solar system is said to have been a sphere as large as the current orbit of Mars. But this usage (Old or Ancient Mars) is rare.

[22] Rudolf Steiner, “The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets”, GA 228.

[23] Rudolf Steiner, THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH AND MAN AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), lecture 10, GA 354.

[24] Rudolf Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 1, GA 102.

[25] “The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets”.

[26] THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN, lecture 1.

[27] “The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets”.

[28] Rudolf Steiner, "Picture of Earth-Evolution in the Future" (THE GOLDEN BLADE, 1960), a lecture, GA 204.

[29] Rudolf Steiner, FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 290.

[30] OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS, pp. 40-41.