"All land actually floats in the sea ... It is not that it [i.e., the land] goes down to the bottom; the land, all lands, float in the sea. The sea is also beneath the land. Now you'll say, 'But why does it not move around in that case, like a ship?' Let me tell you something else. The land masses do indeed float in the sea, but imagine this is Great Britain [Steiner draws a picture]. It is an island. It does indeed float in the sea, but close to Europe, and the distance does not change ... [I]t is not held in place by the earth. If only the earth were involved, you simply cannot imagine how things would be shaken up and thrown into confusion. England would hit the Norwegian coast one day and then be moved across to America, and so on ... But it is not just a matter for the earth, for it is the relative positions of the stars which send out the forces that keep a land mass in a particular place. It thus is not the earth which does it. It is the relative positions of the stars ... [T]he land masses on earth...are held in place by the relative position of the stars." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), pp. 178-179. [R.R. sketch based on one mby Steiner: See FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 617. Steiner expected Waldorf teachers, like workmen at the Goetheanum, to believe him about floating islands.]

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“While it was enclosed within the earth, the moon provided the motherly, female qualities for the earth ... The forces the moon used to provide when it was part of the earth are now in the animals themselves. They bear the moon forces within them ... Nowadays the moon cannot do much more than stimulate the head ... It makes a big difference whether something is inside the earth or outside." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM CRYSTALS TO CROCODILES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), pp. 128-130. [R. R. sketch, 2009, based on the sketch on p. 130.]

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If you visit a Waldorf school, you may see some unusual symbols in paintings, pieces of sculpture, etchings, colored windows, even jewelry. (Or not. Such symbols are often kept hidden from visitors.) If you see any such, ask about them. Here are three typical Anthroposophical symbols. In the upper left is the seal of the Guardian of the Threshold — the spirit one must satisfy in order to gain admittance to spirit realms. In the upper right is the Portal of Initiation — the door leading to secret occult wisdom. At the bottom is a talisman representing the Sun (the domain of Christ, the Sun God). There are many other such symbols, including Steiner's reworking of astrological signs, in Anthroposophy. Many emphasize the number seven (7), since seven is the esoteric number of perfection, according to Steiner. Note the sevens evident in two of the symbols shown here. [R.R. sketches, 2009, based on John Fletcher's ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER (Mercury Arts Publications, 1987), pp. 73 & 197.]

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“[W]armth, air, and water were there but as yet no really solid mineral structures ... During this Old Moon stage, therefore, we are talking of a thickish fluid that contained in solution all the substances which today are solid ... [I]mmense quantities of metals and even of sulphur were present in the air ... The mode of life of the creatures that existed at that time was utterly different ... You can imagine how different the earth looked at that time, like a kind of giant egg yolk ... The creatures...had a bodily structure somewhere between what one needs for swimming — fins — and what one needs for walking — feet ... These creatures therefore had limbs in which there was something of a thornlike nature, but also something like joints. They were really quite ingenious joints, and in between, the flesh mass was stretched out like an umbrella ... Other creatures lived in the dense air ... [They] had no lungs ... They absorbed the air as a kind of food ... [T]he birdlike creatures in the air of that time excreted continuously ... Reproduction was at that time of a very different nature; it went on in the whole earth-body. The upper world fertilized the lower, the lower world fertilized the upper. The whole earth-body was alive. One could say that the creatures below and the creatures above were like maggots in a body ... It was one life, and the various beings lived in a completely living world." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM SUNSPOTS TO STRAWBERRIES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), pp. 18-24. [My sketch, 2009, based on the sketch on p. 20.]

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"In earlier [i.e., prehistoric] times immense quantities of metals and even of sulphur were present in the air. The air was quite saturated with sulphur. So there was a thickish water — if one had not been especially heavy one could have gone for a walk on it; it was like running tar — and there was a dense air, so dense that one could not have breathed in it with our present lungs. These were only formed later. The mode of life of the creatures that existed at that time was utterly different.

"Now you must picture to yourselves that the earth once looked like this. (See drawing.) Had you found yourself there with your present eyes, you would not have discovered the stars and sun and moon out there, for you would have looked out into a vague ocean of air which reached an end eventually. If one could have lived then with the present sense organs, one would have seemed to be inside a world-egg beyond which one could see nothing. And you can imagine how different the earth looked at that time, like a kind of giant egg yolk, a thick fluid, and a thick air environment corresponding to the white of the present-day egg." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM SUNSPOTS TO STRAWBERRIES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), p. 20.

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“To present this correctly, we must show the Earth here, and the Eighth Sphere here (see diagram). The Eighth Sphere belongs to our physical Earth in the sense indicated. We are surrounded everywhere by the Imaginations into which the aim is that mineral materiality shall continually be drawn. There lies the reason for the sacrifice made by Jahve or Jehovah — the precipitation of substance far denser than the other mineralised substance. This was established by Jahve as Moon, as the counteracting agent. It was substance of extreme density — and this density was described by Sinnett as substance of a far denser physical-mineral character than exists anywhere on the Earth. Hence Lucifer and Ahriman cannot dissolve it away into their world of Imaginations. And so this Moon circles around as a globe of dense matter, solid, dense, indestructible. If you read carefully enough you will find that even the descriptions of the Moon given by physicists tally with this. Everything that was available on the Earth was drawn out and placed there in order that there should be enough physical matter incapable of being wrested away. When we look at the Moon, we see there in the Universe a substance far more intensely mineralised, far physically denser, than exists anywhere on the Earth. Jahve or Jehovah, then, must be regarded as that Being who even in the physical domain has ensured that not all materiality can be drawn away by Lucifer and Ahriman. And then, at the right time, equal care will be taken by the same Spirit that the Moon shall re-enter the Earth when the Earth is strong enough to receive it, when the danger is averted by the development that has meanwhile taken place.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE OCCULT MOVEMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973), pp. 87-88. [R.R. sketch, 2010, based on the one on p. 87.]

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This is an occult color wheel, based on Steiner's teachings. Colors are vehicles for spirits to enter our world, and they reflect conditions in higher worlds, Steiner taught. Moreover, specific colors have specific effects on us, linked to the occult or astrological effects of the planets and stars. “[B]lack. white, green and peach blossom have a quiescent effect ... In the three colors of red, yellow and blue there is an inner movement, a planetary quality. Something of the nature of the fixed stars is present in black, white, peach-blossom and green; something of the planets lives in yellow, red and blue.” — Rudolf Steiner, quoted in John Fletcher’s ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER (Mercury Arts Publications, 1987), p. 132. [R.R, sketch, 2010, based on one by Fletcher on p. 134.]

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"When we look towards the red-yellow, fear streams out; when we look toward the blue-violet, we have the feeling: That is where everything like bravery and courage lives." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 141. The area on the left represents "Moon existence"; the middle, a rainbow; the right, fear (above) and courage (below). What can we make of Steiner's teachings? You decide. [R. R. sketch, 2009, based on Steiner's.]

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"[T]he earth stands in the universe, curiously, as a rounded tetrahedron, as a kind of pyramid." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM SUNSPOTS TO STRAWBERRIES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), p. 185. [R.R. copy of a sketch by Steiner.]

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“Now let me tell you, gentlemen, how a phenomenon like fire-spewing mountains is usually considered in science ... [T]he learned gentlemen are always looking for the reasons why water vapor rises from a volcano and even bombs fly out; they look for the reasons — yes, they look for them below ground. But that is not where they are ... [I]f the stars above Vesuvius are in a particular position relative to each other...through the position of the stars, with the astral element above thinning out...things are forcibly pulled up from below." — R. Steiner, FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 27-30.

“[J]ust as the blood is driven up into the head by the moon, so today's volcanic eruptions are thrown up by the stars.” — Rudolf Steiner, FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 127.

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“Where does it come from, this [standing] upright? ... If you loosen a stone here it will fall to the ground. Why? ... [A] force exists that pulls it down [i.e., "gravity"] ... We, too, must adapt ourselves to this vertical line. We must learn to stand in the vertical when we are earthly human beings ... [O]ur physical body would serve no purpose if we did not assume the vertical position ... But does the ether body also need what the physical body needs? ... [T]he human ether body, this subtle body which we also have, does not get so used to the vertical position ... [It] always wants to follow the rotation of the earth ... If the ether body did not want to make this movement, you would want to rotate all the time when you are just walking...wanting to go round and round all the time because you'd hurt all over from the shove you are given [by the Earth's rotation] ... You can also see from this how little thought is given to things in modern science." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 8-9. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on the sketch on p. 8, showing what Steiner said was the deceptive power of gravity.]

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“Spiritual science shows that originally there was not a primeval mist, a lifeless mist, but that living warmth was there at the beginning, a simple living warmth ... In my OCCULT SCIENCE I have called this original warmth condition the Saturn condition [red] ... It has, in fact, something to do with the planet Saturn, but we will not go into that now ... [T]here were as yet no solid bodies and no air, only warmth; but the warmth was living ... The human being lives absolutely in warmth ... A living cosmic being was present ... Now the first thing to happen to this warmth-being was a cooling down ... [T]he second condition to come about was gaseous, definitely airy [green] ... In what has been formed, in a certain sense, as a second cosmic body, everything is air. There is as yet no water, nothing solid within it; it consists entirely of air ... I have called this second condition 'Sun' ... [I]t was not the present sun, but a sunlike condition ... [B]oth human being and animal were there ... Now how did things continue? The warmth decreased, and as it gradually decreased, not only was air formed but also water ... I have called it 'Moon' [yellow] ... [I]t was a watery, thoroughly watery body ... [M]an and animals were joined by plants pushing up out of the water ... [A]s long as the Old Moon period lasted, the whole earth was a womb. There was nothing yet of stone or mineral. It was all a gigantic womb, and we can say that our present earth [blue] came forth from this gigantic womb." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM SUNSPOTS TO STRAWBERRIES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), pp. 5-10. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on image on p. 6.]

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The types of art promoted at Waldorf schools are meant to have powerful occult effects. This sketch of scenery used for staging one of Steiner's "mystery plays" has some of the qualities you may detect in paintings created and displayed at Waldorf schools (except that they would be better than my effort shown here, and the effects would be heightened): watercolor, prismatic coloration, an effect of drapery or veils, vague organic/spiritual forms, a suggestion of passageways leading into the distance, perhaps some mysterious runes or occult symbols... [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on a stage set used at the Goetheanum — see, e.g., GOETHEANUM: School of Spiritual Science (Philosophical-Anthroposophical Press, 1961), p. 21.]

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Sketch of a green window at the Goetheanum. "The creatures of Ahriman with the body of snails correspond to the principle of creating forces, taking innumerable form variations in the animal world, and here especially in the world of mollusks." — Georg Hartman, THE GOETHEANUM GLASS-WINDOWS (Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, 1972), p. 31. The Goetheanum is the worldwide Anthroposophical headquarters. It is located in Dornach, Switzerland. The images in the windows are meant seriously — they depict spiritual beings many Waldorf teachers believe in. [R.R. copy, 2010. I've added color beyond green.]

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It is not uncommon to find Anthroposophical symbols — often presented in a distinctive Anthroposophical style — in and around Waldorf schools. Here are seven occult planetary columns intended for use in the second Goetheanum, the worldwide Anthroposophical headquarters. This is my sketch of a design created by Christian Hitsch and P. A. Wolf, based on indications given by Steiner. [See Rudolf Steiner, ARCHITECTURE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 129. R. R. sketch, 2010.]

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Somewhat different: An Anthroposophical moon column, designed by R. Steiner. [R.R. Sketch. See Rudolf Steiner, MYSTIC SEALS AND COLUMNS (Health Research, 1969.]

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Perhaps the silliest-looking building in the known universe, this is the boiler house on the Goetheanum campus. The Goetheanum itself is impressive, and some of the secondary buildings on the campus are at least defensible as works of architecture. But then there is this. When some Waldorf schoolmates and I toured the campus in 1963 and came upon the boiler house, we could hardly believe our eyes — and the shock has scarcely lessened with the passing of the years.

Steiner himself drew up the overall concept for the boiler house, and he was proud of his work. But there's a problem. The most eye-catching features of the boiler house, clearly, are the concrete leafs or buds decorating the chimney — an effort to make the structure seem organic and natural. The expedient fails, spectacularly — and indeed it betrays Anthroposophical falsehood. If Steiner had been true to his own teachings, there would be no mechanical contrivances such as boilers at the Goetheanum. Steiner taught that machines and technology introduce demons into human life. The boiler house, then, populates the Goetheanum campus with demons. Trying to make a chimney resemble a gargantuan vegetable does nothing to diminish this dreadful circumstance. Here is Steiner on the question of machines such as steam engines:

“When we build steam-engines, we provide the opportunity for the incarnation of demons ... In the steam-engine, Ahrimanic demons are actually brought to the point of physical embodiment.” — Rudolf Steiner, “The Relation of Man to the Hierarchies” (ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, Vol. V, Nos. 14-15, 1928).

A boiler is not a steam engine (although most steam engines are built around boilers), but Steiner's concerns about modern technology and the incarnation of demons extended far beyond specific types of machines. The boiler house at the Goetheanum produces heat and electricity for the campus, and — woe betide — this only makes things worse.

"[S]team engines...are by no means the most demoniacal. Whenever electricity is used...there is far more of demon magic." — Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF VOCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 1984), lecture 9, GA 172.

Perhaps the contours of the boiler house magically disarm demons, in which case the boiler house is perfectly okay from an Anthroposophical perspective. Perhaps. Or perhaps Steiner's teachings on these matters are much like the design of the boiler house: They are essentially, unintentionally laughable.

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Waldorf schools sometimes operate out of conventional buildings having more or less conventional fixtures and decor. But when they can afford to do so, Waldorf faculties often prefer the more expensive option of erecting buildings in accordance with Rudolf Steiner's architectural dicta, which emphasize rounded, "organic" forms, and starburst patterns — shapes that imply or even invite spiritual influences. (This approach is more expensive because almost everything must be handmade by artisans.) The results can be attractive or bizarre, depending on one's perspective. In general, right angles are minimized or, if possible, avoided altogether, as are pointed arches, which are deemed Satanic.

"In architecture Ahriman [i.e., Satan] worked as the Antichrist when he replaced rounded Romanesque arches with horseshoe and pointed arches.” — Rudolf Steiner, ARCHITECTURE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 153.

An Anthroposophic portal. This entryway can be found leading into the arts workshop at the Anthroposophical campus in Dornach, Switzerland. (Its resemblance to a shrieking face is presumably unintended.) All the forms — arch, windows, door, steps — are rounded. Demonic shapes are thus avoided. [R. R. sketch, 2010.]

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Anthroposophists — including many Waldorf teachers — think that only they possess full Truth. Judaism is wrong, for instance, and so is mainstream Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. A few indicators:

◊ "As you know, we distinguish the Jews from the rest of the earth's population. The difference has arisen because the Jews have been brought up in the moon religion for centuries [i.e., they worship the Moon being, Jehovah] ... The Jews have a great gift for materialism, but little for recognition of the spiritual world." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM BEETROOT TO BUDDHISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 59.

◊ "If Jesus of Nazareth had continued in the Jewish way, he could not have taught anything but the moon religion." — Ibid., p. 60.

◊ "The Roman Catholic religion has completely forgotten [spiritual truths]." — Ibid., p. 60.

◊ "By the sixth century all understanding of the spirit had really been lost [in Catholicism]." — Ibid., pp. 102-103.

◊ "[T]he knowledge that the Christ is a spirit coming from the sun, a spirit who lived in Jesus, the human being, is reflected in a symbols we can see on every altar today during high mass: the monstrance [above] — the sun is at the center and the moon supporting it. This made good sense when people still knew that the Christ was a spirit from the sun ... Christendom ought to know that their symbol is the one where the sun gains victory over the moon". — Ibid., pp. 103-104.

◊ As for Islam, Steiner said “Mohammedism is the first manifestation of [Satan, aka] Ahriman ... Mohammed's god, Allah, Eloha, is an Ahrimanic imitation or pale reflection of the Elohim [gods of Steiner's polytheistic teachings] ... The Mohammedan culture is Ahrimanic, but the Islamic attitude is Lucifer.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 75-76.

[R.R. sketch of a monstrance, 2009, based on the image on p. 103 of FROM BEETROOT TO BUDDHISM.]

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"[T]his was the wonderful instinct possessed by simple people, who often knew more than the scholars ... The skeleton is the seat of the spirit. So they had the idea that when the spirit moves about it would have to appear in the shape of a skeleton." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 143. [R.R. sketch of Steiner's sketch, 2009.]

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"The ancients...were still able to see things better in the spirit; and lo and behold, something like a spectre of the person [under consideration] would arise ... [W]hen someone tended towards a particular illness, let us say, consumption, the astral spectre would be thin and dried up. When someone tended to be unnaturally fat, the spectre would be swelling up on all sides. You may call it fanciful that someone should see a different spectre arising ... But they did see it." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM ELEPHANTS TO EINSTEIN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), pp. 158-159. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on image on p. 158.]

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Sketch of a detail from a window at the Goetheanum (shown previously), depicting the emergence of the will or will power. In the Waldorf belief system, everything — including subjective human states and capacities — is conceived to be a spiritual being of some sort. [R.R., 2009.]