Students at Waldorf schools are often required to read classic works of literature. Often, but not always, the works chosen have mythic, mystical, or religious themes. And quite often, these works may be interpreted as containing messages congruent with Anthroposophy. Reading and discussing these works, under the guidance of Waldorf teachers, may lead students to apprehend these messages, if only dimly.

Here are three examples. [You might also see "Parzival" and "Faust" in the Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia; and see the section "Making Cultural Works Sacred" in "He Went to Waldorf"; and the section "Highs and Lows" in "Unenlightened".]

— R.R.

I. THE ODYSSEY

The man of the fifth root-race thinks with the physical brain. It is only in a future phase of evolution that Kama, the astral body, will be so advanced that it will be able to think. To-day Manas has taken hold of the physical brain. We have to pass between the hindrances on either side — Scylla-Manas and Charybdis-Kama. The passage of Odysseus is a picture of this. There is on the one hand the astral whirlpool of the instincts, appetites and passions into which man can fall; on the other hand there is the physical intellect chained to the rock. The rock occurs also in the Prometheus saga, where we meet the rock again. The human intellect is exposed to all the dangers of the physical, of the rock. Man sails between the physical intelligence and the whirlpool of the astral life. If he has accomplished that successfully, if he has recognized the dangers of the passage, and has nevertheless kept his footing, then he comes to Calypso, to the hidden wisdom. Then he can take a look into the future of humanity, then he can undergo the testing time, which lasts seven years. That is why Odysseus remains with the nymph Calypso seven years. Every man who seeks initiation goes through a seven-year testing period, and this is represented by the sojourn with Calypso. Only then can he reach the point to which the soul aspires. Read Homer's Odyssey! He means that man is in search of his own soul. He who really wishes to understand the Odyssey cannot accept the view of a modern investigator who asserts that Polyphemus and the Cyclopes only mean that Etna had erupted and that the scene of the conflagration seemed to Odysseus like the eye of a giant.

At last Odysseus returns home as a beggar, without any external property. This means that the man who had recognized the unimportance of the external world and of worldly goods, seeks his soul's home not in Maya, but behind Maya, thus in a mystical sense he returns home as a beggar. That he is truly wise is shown by his being led into his house by Pallas Athene. In all esotericism the soul is represented as feminine, it is always the feminine nature that is chosen as the symbol for the striving of the individual soul. Goethe calls it the ‘Eternal Feminine’. In Medea in the Argonaut saga, in Penelope, we have to understand the real soul, to which Odysseus seeks the way again. The Virgin Mary too, in the Christian religion, is the striving human soul, only there the significance is infinitely deeper. Strictly speaking, Penelope is the human soul in the fifth root-race. The fifth root-race has to cultivate human intelligence. Human intelligence is utterly unfruitful when it is only turned upon itself. When it has something that one can call a content, then the intelligence can be applied to it. Intelligence is a network which is spun around things we have from some other place. When external experience teaches you something, you can weave around it with your intelligence. When the higher occult wisdom teaches you something, you can also weave around it. Men say that occult wisdom contradicts reason. Nothing contradicts reason! When something new dawns on their horizon men have always said that it is contrary to reason. But the intellect is only there for purposes of combining. Out of itself it can win nothing. This barrenness of the intellect, which is nevertheless the real soul of the fifth root-race, is expressed in the perpetual weaving and unraveling of Penelope's cloth. Odysseus is led by wisdom. The initiate must find the way to the soul of the fifth root-race, but he will only unite himself with this soul in the right way if he is guided by Pallas Athene. Pallas Athene too is a feminine deity, another soul-force, wisdom, the real guide. But man has to reach intelligence through many by-paths, in so far as they are paths of development — for there were many by-paths in the Lemurian epoch. And in this journey Pallas Athene must be his guide. This was brought before the pupils of the Mysteries in Greece and this is what Homer wanted to express in his profound saga.

What is described in the Odyssey is initiation as it was carried out in Greece at that time — an initiation which was a repetition on the astral and mental planes of experiences from Lemurian times right down to the time of the Mysteries themselves. Odysseus is the clever man, the cunning man, and Troy was overthrown through his ability. The clever, intellectual man is the man of the fifth root-race. But to be able to find his way rightly in the fifth root-race, he must again on his devious path seek his home country, his Penelope. The man who is merely cunning and clever would never find the right way. He must first come out of himself, broaden his view, by looking back on the long journey of the human race. Odysseus is the representative of the cunning Kama-Manas man, who has to wander through many byways, in order to be led back again to the soul of the fifth root-race.

— Rudolf Steiner, GREEK AND GERMANIC 

MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF ESOTERICISM, 

II. The Argonaut Saga and the Odyssey, GA 92

The story [The Odyssey] may be based upon fact but it is on quite another plane that we can understand it. We can look upon it as an allegory and transfer the events to the events and experiences of the developing human being.

Odysseus overcomes the Cyclops, the one-eyed monster. The single eye represents the old form of consciousness [i.e., primitive, natural clairvoyance]. This is destroyed. A monster usually portrays the forces of the lower nature, the purely physical. Odysseus recognizes Circe as an evil being and has some mystical experience, as evidenced by his descent into the nether world. He withstands the blandishments of the Sirens (worldly attractions). He sails between Scylla and Charybdis (he keeps balance between two opposing negative forces [i.e., Lucifer and Ahriman]). He spends seven years with Calypso. This is a picture of a man in search of his own soul. He stays with Alcinous; he appreciates the joys of the world. He gets home, shipwrecked and in rage. The significance is that he has lost everything of a transitory nature but he has found himself. He is "home," and he becomes "master in his own house." Athene has been his spiritual guide and friend [i.e., . In other words, he has been guided by the power of clear thought.

Odysseus has advanced from the natural clairvoyant state. He has attained greater consciousness and a mastery over the lower emotions [as per Steiner's guidance]. He has trod the path of individual responsibility. He has used his "head." To be "master in his own house" means to be master of himself, to rule the emotions by thought, and to be conscious of oneself as an independent individuality [i.e., possessing an "I"]. The Odyssey demonstrates the special mission of the Greek [Steiner said all peoples have their own missions] in picture form [Steiner said this is the proper form for instruction].

— Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson, in a manual for Waldorf teachers,

 TEACHING HISTORY, Vol. 1 (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1973, 

revised 2000), pp. 49-50. [In brief, Odysseus becomes an initiate,

following the prescriptions given by Steiner in, e.g., his book

KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT.  — R.R.] 

II. THE DIVINE COMEDY

Anyone who has succumbed to the impact of Dante's great work, the “Divine Comedy” will never doubt, if he has spiritual discernment, that Dante experienced spiritual visions, that he had insight into the world of the spirit. He who comprehends the language of those who were familiar with the world of the spirit will find convincing proof of this in Dante's introduction to the “Divine Comedy”. Dante was well versed in spiritual knowledge; he was no dilettante in matters of the spirit; he was, so to speak, an expert in this field. He was aware that normal memory does not operate in the realm where we are in communion with the dead. He often speaks of the dead, of how the dead dwell in the “Light”. In the “Divine Comedy” you will find these beautiful lines on the theme of memory:

“O Light supreme, by mortal thought unscanned,

Grant that Thy former aspect may return,

Once more a little of Thyself relend.

Make strong my tongue that in its words may burn

One single spark of all Thy glory's light

For future generations to discern.

For if my memory but glimpse the sight

Whereof these lines would now a little say,

Men may the better estimate Thy might.”

(Paradiso. Canto XXXIII) 

Thus Dante was aware that it is impossible with normal memory to grasp that which could originate in the spiritual world. There are many today who ask: why should we aspire to the spiritual world when we have enough to contend with in the physical world; the ordinary man seeks a practical answer to the problems of this life! — But have these people any reason to believe that those who were initiated into the Mysteries in ancient times were any less concerned with the physical world? The initiates knew that the spiritual world permeates the physical world, that the dead are unquestionably active amongst us even though people deny it. And they knew that this denial merely creates confusion. He who denies that those who have passed through the gates of death exercise an influence on this world resembles the man who says: “Nonsense! I don't believe a word you say” — and then proceeds to behave as if he did believe it. It is not so easy, of course, to give direct proof of the havoc that is wrought when the influx of the spiritual world into the physical world is not taken into account, when people act on the assumption that this interaction can be ignored. Our epoch shows little inclination to bridge the gap that separates us from the kingdom where the dead and the higher Beings dwell. In many respects our present epoch harbours a veritable antipathy towards the world of the spirit. And it is the duty of the spiritual scientist who is really honest and sincere to be aware of the forces that are hostile to the development of Anthroposophy. For there are deep underlying reasons for this hostility and they stem from the same sources which are responsible for all the forces which are today in active opposition to the true progress of mankind.

— Rudolf Steiner, BUILDING STONES FOR AN UNDERSTANDING 

OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA, Lecture 10, GA 175

Various Anthroposophists have expounded the Steiner/Waldorf interpretation of THE DIVINE COMEDY. Here is one example: The following is from the publisher of an Anthropsophical book about THE DIVINE COMEDY (bracketed interpolations by R.R.):

This unique study examines Dante’s Divine Comedy in relation to the evolution of consciousness [Steiner's central theme] and explores Dante’s connection to the Knights Templar, the Fedeli d’amore, and other esoteric movements in his eternal quest for Divine Wisdom (Sophia) [sic], personified in the figure of Beatrice [the esoteric movement underlying Waldorf schooling is Anthroposophy, the movement in which "Anthroposophia" is the goddess who embodies divine wisdom of humanity]. By analyzing the poetry of Dante and the Fedeli d’Amore, the author investigates the existence of a “secret language” [in Anthroposophy, occult script] and the transmission of sacred knowledge [Steiner undertook such transmission].... 

Eric Bisbocci tells of how the “beatification of woman” was intimately connected to the transformation of being [i.e., human evolution], while probing the internal dynamics of the initiatory practices [in Anthroposophy, initiation provides access to occult knowledge] ... Finally, he reveals the relationship between the poetry of the Fedeli d’Amore and that of the Troubadours, as well as that of the Sufi poets before them — all while questioning the efficacy of modern literary theory to fathom the esoteric meaning [sic] of Dante’s poem. All of this culminates with an in-depth analysis of the Divine Comedy in its entirety, canto by canto, based on the threefold nature of the human being — thinking, feeling, and willing — as outlined by Rudolf Steiner [i.e., the framework for this analysis is Steiner's Anthroposophy]. 

The principle aim of this book is to perceive the Divine Comedy as a “Spiritual Imagination” [i.e., according to Steiner, a true clairvoyant vision]....

About the author: 

Eric Bisbocci has traveled to more than eighty countries in his life, experiencing their cultures and spiritual manifestations. As well as having studied Anthroposophy for more than thirty-five years, he received an advanced degree in Romance Languages with a focus on Italian literature. He has translated several books by the Italian anthroposophist, Massimo Scaligero. His [i.e., Bisbocci's] first book is on the esoteric nature of Dante’s Divine Comedy and its relationship to Anthroposophy....

— Promotional material from Lindisfarne Press 

(an imprint of SteinerBooks)

for Eric L. Bisbocci's UNVEILING THE MYSTERY OF DANTE : 

An Esoteric Understanding of Dante and his Divine Comedy 

(Lindisfarne Press, 2017).

III. PARADISE LOST

[W]ithin our cosmos, into which we human beings are interwoven, there exists a battle between the Luciferic beings, constantly striving for freedom, universal freedom, and the Ahrimanic beings, constantly striving for everlasting power and might. This battle permeates everything in which we live. Please hold this fact in mind as the second idea, important to our further considerations. The world in which we live is permeated by Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings, and there exists this tremendous contrast between the liberating tendency of the Luciferic beings and the power tendency of the Ahrimanic beings...

If we think of those beings which man regards as his own divine beings, we must say: we can feel and sense them in the right way only if we conceive of them as effecting the equilibrium between the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic principles. We can never feel in the right way what we should feel as the Divine if we do not enter upon this threefold order. Consider from this point of view Milton's Paradise Lost, or Klopstock's Messiah which came into existence under the influence of Paradise Lost. Here you have nothing of a real comprehension of a threefold world structure, you have instead a battle between the supposedly good and the supposedly evil, the battle between heaven and hell. You have the mistaken idea of the duad brought into man's spiritual evolution; you have what is rooted in popular consciousness as the illusory contrast between heaven and hell, introduced into two cosmic poems of modern times.

It is of no avail that Milton and Klopstock call the heavenly entities divine beings. They would only be so for man if they were conceived of on the basis of the threefold structure of world existence. Then it would be possible to say that a battle takes place between the good and the evil principles. But as the matter stands, a duad is assumed, the one member of which has the attributes of the good and receives a name derived from the divine, while the other member represents the diabolical, the anti-divine element. What does this really signify? Nothing less than the removal of the divine from consciousness and the usurping of the divine name by the Luciferic principle; so that in reality we have a battle between Lucifer and Ahriman; only, Ahriman is endowed with Luciferic attributes, and the realm of Lucifer is endowed with divine attributes.

— Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF 

THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL, Lecture 1, GA 194

In PARADISE LOST, poet John Milton presents and defends the traditional Jewish/Christian understanding of the fall of Adam and Eve, when humans were expelled from the Garden of Eden. It may seem remarkable that Steiner challenged this traditional understanding, but then he often "corrected" the Bible. [See, e.g., "Steiner's Fifth Gospel".]

At Waldorf schools, one prominent account of the expulsion from Eden is presented each year by Waldorf teachers who perform a play for their students at the beginning of the Christmas season. This is the "Paradise Play" derived from a pageant staged in Medieval times in the German town of Oberufer. The play is generally faithful to the biblical account — although room is usually left for heterodox interpretations.

Rudolf Steiner Press has published a script for "Paradise Play" as well as two other traditional plays for Waldorf/Steiner Christmas observances:

[Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007.]

If Waldorf Christmas observances seem, on their surface, more or less true to biblical tradition, the underlying Anthroposophical meaning — which Waldorf teachers may convey or at least suggest to their students — is distinctly untraditional. Let's consult another Waldorf teachers' guide, written again by Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson and published by a Waldorf/Anthroposophical press. Here is how Waldorf teachers should understand the fall of mankind, the sad time when we left paradise end entered a world of sorrows. (Again, I will added some comments and explanation in brackets.)

The story of the Fall...describes the completion of events which had begun much earlier [i.e., the rebellion of Lucifer and his subordinate angels].

There had been certain beings in the spiritual world  [Lucifer and his minions] who had failed in their normal progress and they had become self-willed [i.e., they had not evolved properly]. They are known as the Luciferic beings]. Ever since man has been endowed with astrality, i.e., the possibility of having feelings, passions, desires, he was open to Luciferic influence. For their own purposes these beings [Lucifer and crew] made man aware of himself earlier than planned by the creators [i.e., the good gods]. They awakened the senses of humans (opened their eyes) who began to lose consciousness of the divine in favor of the terrestrial [i.e., humans lost contact with heaven and became more fully earthly]. By becoming conscious of themselves in the world of the senses [i.e., the physical world], they acquired the ability to choose freely between good and evil [in this sense, Lucifer's impact on humans was at least partly positive, laying the groundwork for future human evolution].

For the earth in general the Luciferic influence brought about a condensation to solid and fluid [i.e., the Earth evolved to become more densely physical]. A physical, material world came into being and humans acquired physical bodies. They came down from the periphery [i.e., from the ethereal realm] to an earth which was becoming firm and solid. Life in the physical world brings with it "work in the sweat of they face" [quoting the Bible] and the pain of childbearing, in other words, toil, travail, and affliction [this is the Anthroposophical explanation for pain: We followed Lucifer down into a physical existence].

— Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson, 

COMMENTARY ON OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

(Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1984, revised 2001), p. 20

As always, it is up to individual Waldorf teachers to decide how much of the "real" meaning of things they will convey to their students.

[R.R.]