“As soon as we begin to think with our fingers — and one can think with one's fingers and toes much more brightly, once one makes the effort, than with the nerves of the head — as soon as we begin to think with that part of us which has not entirely become matter, when we think with the lower part of our being, then our thoughts are the thoughts of our karma." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 126. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on Steiner's.]

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“When a thought penetrates into astral space it forms a denser layer around the hollow brought about by the thought. Around this hollow, coloured phenomena make their appearance. A glimmer begins to light up. It is the thought-form which we then see. The astral substance surrounding it becomes denser and thereby brighter. The added brightness which arises around the thoughts soon disappears; but if the thought is connected with an intense impulse of passion, it has a relationship with the densified astral substance and gives it life. Thus people who are still very undeveloped but very passionate create living beings in astral space when they think. This ceases later; when people evolve and become calmer such beings no longer arise when they think. But now you understand that there are beings on the astral plane which originate from human beings and also from animals; for in the case of certain animals too, such beings are formed, and indeed with far greater intensity. The animal however presses its own impulses into its own astral form, so that it usually creates its own form, its own image in astral space.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 19, GA 93a. [R.R. sketch, 2010, based on the one in the book.]

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"[T]his organ [the liver] has an ether body which is connected with the rest of the ether body, and it also has an astral body, and then there is also the I in it. This liver therefore has something that is of the spirit ... Spirits hardly ever speak through any of the organs in the head. The whole world speaks there; the stars in their motions, and so on; they speak through the organs in the head. But spiritual entities do indeed also speak to us, and they do so though the other organs, such as the liver." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 76-77.

[R.R. sketch, 2009, based on the sketch on p. 77.]

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"[F]rom the eighth pre-Christian century to the fifteenth century A.D....human beings predominantly employed their etheric body when they engaged in thinking ... [I]n the fifteenth century people began to think with their physical bodies. When we think, we do so with the forces the etheric body sends into the physical body." — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 178-179. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on illustration on p. 179.]

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“When we think, we die continually. That which dies in us, that which removes itself from life, that which becomes mineralized, this it is with which the I draws us, this it is with which the I actually draws the sum of our thoughts." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 56. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on the one in the book.]

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“This is what the surroundings of the earth looked like [in the ancient past] ... [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, based on illustration on p. 101.]

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"Think of the pastoral peoples of earlier times ... Sleep came from the darkness. But there were those stars shining on the people. And wherever a star's ray shone down, the human being became a little bit excited inside. Then a ray of oxygen would go out from the body. And the star rays were all met by rays of oxygen, with the human being having such oxygen rays running through every part of him. He then became an inner oxygen-mirror image of the whole starry firmament ... They developed a marvelous science of the stars. They did not dream that the Ram was simply made up of so and so many stars, but they really saw the animal ... This has come down as poetic wisdom to us from those pastoral peoples, a wisdom which sometimes contains extraordinarily many things that can still teach us something today ... The inner life of man is a life lived in the astral body, for in sleep he experiences the whole of the heavens. We would be in a sorry state if we had not descended from those pastoral peoples ... We still have an inner starry firmament today, purely by inheritance, to give us insight. " — Rudolf Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), pp. 37-38. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on sketch on p. 38.]

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“When the child is very young, all development comes from the head. Once the second teeth have developed [around age seven], and one is therefore older, all development comes from the chest. This is why one has to be so careful about children's breathing between their 7th and 14th years ... [I]t will only be when a person has reached sexual maturity [according to Steiner, around age 21] that development comes from the whole human being, from the limbs ... We develop further in our 20s and 30s ... Coming from the 40s into the 50s, one needs to use the chest more again, and in old age one needs to use the head more again. But at that time, in old age, one should not use the physical head but the more subtle ether head." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 144-145. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on sketch on p. 144.]

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An Anthroposophical planetary seal: Jupiter. [R. R. copy, 2014, plate 32, Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIANISM RENEWED (SteinerBooks, 2007); colors added.]

Venus. [R. R. copy, 2014, plate 33, ROSICRUCIANISM RENEWED (SteinerBooks, 2007); colors added.]

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Rudolf Steiner believed in the power of the stars — and so do his faithful adherents. This is a rough sketch of the emblem for Sagittarius, as designed by Rudolf Steiner and drawn by Imma von Eckhardstein. — Rudolf Steiner, CALENDAR 1912-1913, Facsimile Edition (SteinerBooks, 2003), p. 83ff. [R.R. copy, 2009].

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An Anthroposophical Janus (with a soaring 'do). Sketch of a detail from a window at the Goetheanum, the worldwide headquarters of Anthroposophy. "Then comes time for the new birth [i.e., reincarnation]. Before the incarnation, the human being presents itself as if possessing a Janus-head ... The spiritual soul of man looks down onto the earth. It brings parents together and their unification will create the physical conditions for the new earth-life. But it also looks back to the experiences of its earlier lives on earth and to their accomplishments, which now become the seed of destiny [karma] for the coming life. Thus, each human being carries with it into birth the earth-plan with its very individual pre-fabricated conditions of destiny." — Georg Hartmann, THE GOETHEANUM GLASS-WINDOWS (Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, 1972), p. 55. [R.R. sketch, 2009, based on Steiner's.]

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The Janus is vaguely limned near the top of this window at the Goetheanum. See, e.g., THE GOETHEANUM GLASS-WINDOWS, p. 54. [R.R. copy, 2009.]

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Anthroposophical art, which is often hung in Waldorf schools, is intended to depict, and evoke, spiritual powers and realms. Images such as this may appear in such art, although usually the results are more cheerily colorful. In creating this sketches, I worked from a design created for display at the Anthroposophical headquarters, the Goetheanum; the effect produced here express, at least in part, my own editorial assessment. [See THE GOETHEANUM CUPOLA MOTIFS OF RUDOLF STEINER (Steiner Books, 2011). R. R. interpretations, 2014.]

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Anthroposophical art — ranging from watercolor painting to sculpture to architecture — usually employs organic forms that are meant to invoke the spirit realm. The presence of such art in a Waldorf school suggests a deep commitment to the religion of Anthroposophy. This is the side door of a house designed by Rudolf Steiner; the object next to it is a window shutter.

When they can afford to do so, Steiner's followers build and decorate structures in a distinct Anthroposophic style. The cost can be prohibitive, however, which often forces Anthroposophists to make do with conventional buildings. Some Waldorf schools are architecturally unmistakable; others appear, outwardly, to be perfectly ordinary, conventional schools.

[R. R. sketch, 2010.]

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“As soon as we speak from the aspect of the higher worlds, there exists an unbroken connection between the different planets and so the moon is connected with the earth just as for instance Berlin and Hamburg are connected by the telephone. Beings that live on the moon can therefore carry out their operations on the earth with the aid of astral forces. One might call them the reverse side of other beings whom we also find in the astral world, beneficent beings who, compared even with the mildest human nature, are yet much, much milder — in their speech too, very mild and gentle. The speech of these beings has not that aridity of human language which a man must ponder over a long time if he is to express himself, and clothe his thoughts and ideas in words. One could say that the thoughts of these beings flow from their lips — not merely the expression of the thoughts in words, but thoughts themselves flow in a gentle language from their lips. These beings are likewise to be found within our astral world; they have their actual scene of action on another planet. As the first-named beings are at home on the moon, these second are at home on Mars, they inhabit Mars and are in fact the main population — as certain human races are the principal population on our earth. If we then mount up higher to the devachanic plane we 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 to be found on the devachanic plane have their actual home on the planet Venus, as the other beings 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.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 1, GA 102.

[R.R. impressionistic sketch, 2010. I have a special fondness for THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN — I remember seeing a copy in the home of one of my teachers. I wish I had read a page or two and shown them to my parents.]

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The psychological and even spiritual harm that may result from Waldorf schooling can be traced directly to the occult doctrines preached by Rudolf Steiner and accepted as truth by devout Waldorf faculty members. You can find innumerable examples in Steiner's books and lectures: doctrines so bizarre, we might reasonably wonder why any adult would accept them. Here's one example, taken more or less at random. Steiner's followers consider teachings like this to be clairvoyant revelations.

"[O]n the Moon, man is [i.e., was] a being composed of physical body, ether body, and astral body. Through the ether body he is enabled to feel joy and pain; through the astral body he is a being with emotions, rage, hate, love and so forth ... On the Moon the ether body received the capacity for joy and pain through the Spirits of Twilight [i.e., gods one level above man]; the emotions were implanted in the astral body by the Fire Spirits [still higher gods] ... [A]fter the seventh small cycle, all of Moon existence enters a kind of sleeping state (Pralaya) ... When everything again emerges from the sleeping state there must first be repeated in their essentials the Saturn condition during a first small cycle, the Sun condition during a second, and the Moon cycle during a third. During this third cycle the beings on the Moon, which has again been split off from the Sun, resume approximately the same forms of existence which they already had on the Moon. There the lower man is a being intermediate between man of today and an animal; the plants stand midway between the animal and plant natures of today, and the minerals only half bear their lifeless character of today, while for the rest they are still half plants.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), "The Life of Earth", GA 11.

[R.R. sketch, 2010. Confession: My memory of life on the Moon is sketchy at best, so don't take this image literally.]

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The mathematics teacher at the Waldorf school I attended often said that if you enter a city from one direction, it will be a different city than if you enter it from another direction. He did not simply mean that you would see the city differently; he meant that the city would literally, truly be different. This concept is consistent with Anthroposophy, which teaches that thoughts exist as real beings in the spirit realm. Such beings have power to shape and alter reality. Hence, what we think comes to pass, literally, because we think it. The universe is malleable — our subjective states make the universe different from what it might be if we had different subjective states. Even the import of mathematics would be different if we had a different mental attitude.

This is the radical subjectivity promoted by Waldorf education, and it is clearly wrong. Facts are facts; they do not bend to our preferences. Truth is truth; we do not make something true by thinking it. (You do not alter the nature of New York City, for instance, by perceiving it from the east instead of from the west.) We find truth by discovering it as it objectively is, apart from any preferences, moods, viewpoints, or wishes of our own. Objectivity is difficult, but it is the goal we should aim for. Waldorf schools, however, follow Steiner in stressing subjectivity.

"[F]acts are simply upon occasion quite different from the concepts we hold of them with our present-day abstract, theoretical grasp of things, so remote from life and reality. There is not even a true grasp of what it might mean to take in the sciences of arithmetic and geometry with quite another soul-constitution than we have to-day, with a mature soul-condition ... The mathematics of the universe, which have become so thoroughly abstract to us, revealed [in the ancient past] something really living, because the revelation found completion in what was brought to understand it." — Rudolf Steiner, THE TWO CHRISTMAS ANNUNCIATIONS (Anthroposophic News Sheet 1938, Supplement 5-6, GA 203.

Steiner was speaking, here, about the mystical meaning of mathematics and geometry (or what is sometimes called sacred geometry). He found occult meaning in numbers, in geometrical design, and indeed in all orderly phenomena. This is what "a mature soul-condition" may find. But is it truly an apprehension, or merely a subjective desire? Is it found in phenomena, or is it read into them?

Our subjective states are, of course, important. How we feel about things is, of course, important. The spirit in which we act is, of course, important. But recognizing the importance of such things should not muddle us. Our inner states are important, but they are separate from — and do not control — outer, objective reality. Steiner's teachings result in such concepts as the following: "If these ideas [i.e., the doctrines of Anthroposophy] are not true, they should be true. What we believe shapes the reality. If we become conscious of these ideas and hold them, they will become true." — Dr. Ronald E. Koetzsch, an Anthroposophist connected with the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.

What we believe certainly may shape reality if we act on our beliefs — but believing, in and of itself, cannot make false ideas true any more than it can change the laws of mathematics or the objective facts about the universe. A city is what it is, no matter what street we drive along to enter it. Thinking otherwise does not create higher truths; it is self-deception. Training children to "think" in this manner does them a severe disservice.

[R.R. painting, 2010 — merely impressionistic.]