Most Anthroposophical art is representational — it depicts various spiritual beings, conditions, or "truths." But even images that seem abstract may be considered representational, depicting the spirit realm as described by Steiner:

"[T]hough the world from which the soul descends [at birth] has no spatial forms or lines, it does have color intensities, color qualities. Which is to say that the world man inhabits between death and a new birth (and which I have frequently and recently described) is a soul-permeated, spirit-permeated world of light, of color, of tone; a world of qualities, not quantities; a world of intensities rather than extensions. Thus in certain primitive, almost-forgotten civilizations, they who descended and dipped into a physical body had the sensation that through it he entered into relation with a physical environment, grew into space. To him the physical body was completely attuned to space, and he said to himself: 'This is foreign to me, it was not so in the spirit-soul world. Here I am under the joke [sic — yoke?] of three dimensions — dimensions which had no meaning before my descent into the physical world. But color, tone harmonies, tone melodies, have very much meaning in the spiritual world.'” — Rudolf Steiner, THE ARTS AND THEIR MISSION (Anthroposophic Press, 1964), p. 23.

[R. R. simulation of Anthroposophical art, 2014.]

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Christ the Sun God as depicted in the monumental statue standing in the Goetheanum.

Design by Rudolf Steiner.

[R. R. impression.]

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The main window, a triptych, in the Goetheanum.

Design by R. Steiner.

[R.R. impression.]

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Rough sketches of details in the designs of other Goetheanum windows.

Designs by R.S.

[Impression by R.R.]

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The Virgin Mary, as vaguely represented in Walther Roggenkamp's Anthroposophical painting, "And He Was Made Man".

See John Fletcher, ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER (Mercury Arts Publications, 1987), p. 112.

[R.R. copy, 2010.]

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Steiner offered his followers "true" perception of the spiritual realm, which he argued they cannot find in churches, temples, or mosques.

“Here is the body (red) and here what lies behind it — which is not visible ... And now, within this, I draw the life of soul unfolded by man in the physical world (blue) ... [W]hile we are living between birth and death, the imperceptible (yellow) develops, and remains wholly imperceptible to us. When we die, our thinking, feeling and willing do not continue; they are exhausted, and in the process the yellow is elaborated (the imperceptible). This increases in power between death and a new birth and in so doing becomes the foundation of the new incarnation. We are reincarnated with new thinking, new feeling, new will, and a new bodily nature.

"...[R]epresentatives of certain religious bodies are intent upon not allowing man to become aware of the yellow ... The efforts of the representatives of various religious communities all tend quite decisively in the direction of concealing the fact that there is a spiritual world to which belongs the inmost core of our being, which is destined to appear in repeated Earth-lives, and in the intervals between them to pass through an entirely spiritual form of existence.

"...In their actions and trend of thinking these pastors of souls instinctively prevent men from coming into contact with certain beings. Man can never penetrate into the world of his true and innermost being without coming into contact with certain beings — just as in the way described he comes into contact with different beings if he desires or is actually able to break through the veil of nature.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE OCCULT MOVEMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (SteinerBooks, 1973), pp. 159-161.

[R.R. sketch, 2010, based on the one on p. 160.]

Accepting "false" religious instruction can be calamitous, Steiner said. Some ill-informed religious leaders try to prevent us from contacting spiritual beings. Others may lead us to contact such beings without first preparing us properly.

"If, as the result of certain teachings having been imparted to him without the requisite caution, a man comes into contact with certain destructive beings behind the veil of nature, he will become one who values nothing in the world, and it will soon be apparent that he takes actual pleasure in destruction — which need not necessarily be destruction of external things. Many men to whom this has happened have shown that they take pleasure in tormenting and oppressing other souls. These are the characteristics which come into evidence. But it can never be said that men who have such traits owing to their alliance with Ahrimanic elementary beings, are invariably egotistic. They need not be and indeed usually are not, egotists. They act out of an urge quite different from that of egotism. They act out of a lust for destruction, and they destroy without the slightest benefit accruing to themselves. The beings into whose sphere a man enters are essentially beings of destruction, and they tempt him, lure him, to destroy.

"...Thus if we enter this world without knowing anything of what the Initiate knows, namely, that behind the world of nature and also behind the world of soul there is a spiritual world, when we fill our will with ideals, when we unfold noble, spiritualised will, this will becomes allied precisely with the lower attributes of these beings into whose sphere we have entered. There is a mysterious bond of attraction between the noble side of our will and the lower urges and desires of these beings." — Rudolf Steiner, ibid., pp. 161-162.

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"Between the world that is interwoven with the laws of nature and the world in which conscience speaks as it steams into us, there lies the world of dreaming. The world of dreaming protests in its images against the laws of nature." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 110.

[R. R. sketch, 2009, based on Steiner's. The blue area is the sleep world; yellow, the dream world; red, the waking world.]

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An Angelic form, perhaps conveying Gnosis.

See the cover of

Rudolf Steiner, THE FIFTH GOSPEL

- From the Akashic Record

(Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001).

Also see "Gnosis".

[R.R., 2015.]

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To give oneself over to Steiner's occult visions inevitably invites comparsion to a drug high.

[R.R. impression, based on acquaintance with Anthroposophy, not drugs.]

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Anthroposophy hinges on belief in clairvoyance.

Hard to depict, since it doesn't exist.

[R.R, impression, perhaps imprecise.]

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A quick impression of the front face of the Goetheanum.

I visited the building and its campus in 1963.

[R.R.]

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Scenery for the staging of one of Steiner's mystery plays at the Goetheanum. [R.R.]

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Steiner aimed at an affirmative symbiosis of religious traditions,

balancing East and West, high and low, esoteric and exoteric.

[See "Everything".]

He claimed to report objective, exact clairvoyant findings,

showing the underlying truths of all human experience and thought.

While some people are attracted to the result,

others are repelled by what they deem

a hodgepodge of fantasy and/or heresy.

[R.R. impression of some parts

— certainly not the whole —

of Anthroposophy,

perhaps approximate.]

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Here is a proxy for the sort of murals that adorn Anthroposophical buildings. This is my sketch of "And He Was Made Man", a study by Walther Roggenkamp. (Roggenkamp's original in better than my copy, of course.)

"From a distance it looks like a rose in full bloom ... The rose in blooming reflects, as a plant, that which is present in the cosmos as innocent childhood ... In the tapestry the face of the child appears in the rose: Jesus Christ born on earth ... [To the] right, in the encircling atmosphere between blue and red, are many faces of disembodied souls, moving to the earthly sphere with a desire for incarnation ... They are led by a majestic cosmic being in dark blue and violet... showing the path to earth ... Below the rose...there appears the form of the Virgin." — Berthold Wulf, quoted by John Fletcher in ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER (Mercury Arts Publications, 1987), p. 219.

[R.R. sketch, 2010.]

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“You see, when the soul arrives on earth in order to enter its body, it has come down from spirit-soul worlds* in which there are no spatial forms. Thus the soul knows spatial forms only after its bodily experience, only while the aftereffects of space still linger on** ... But though the world from which the soul descends has no spatial forms or lines, it does have color intensities, color qualities.*** Which is to say that the world man inhabits between death and a new birth (and which I have frequently and recently described)**** is a soul-permeated, spirit-permeated world of light, of color, of tone; a world of qualities not quantities; a world of intensities rather than extensions.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE ARTS AND THEIR MISSION (Anthroposophic Press, 1964), p. 23.

[R.R. impression, highly incomplete.]

* In Waldorf belief, humans have both spirits and souls, and there are spirit and soul worlds in the spirit realm. The combination of our spiritual natures is sometimes called the "spirit-soul."

** The human soul knows forms as found in the physical universe only while it is incarnated in a physical body or briefly thereafter.

*** The spirit realm (from which we descend to be born on Earth) has no forms or lines, but it has qualities such as color. Steiner develops this idea further in the next sentence: The spirit realm is a place of light, color, tones, qualities, intensities — it is permeated by soul and spirit.

**** This is an allusion to reincarnation. In Waldorf belief, we alternate lives on Earth with lives in the spirit realm. In Anthroposophy, life on Earth is often called life between birth and death; life in the spirit realm is often called life between death and birth.

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Crosses as found in various Anthroposophical texts. To the left: A cross with the Sun (or Sun God) bursting from its center. To the right: A Rosicrucian cross. (Steiner taught that Rosicrucianism, as reworked by himself, is the correct path for modern humanity.)

[R.R. impressions.]

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Medallions representing two of Steiner's mystery plays. To the left: THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD. To the right: THE PORTAL OF INITIATION.

[R.R. impressions.]

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The central figure in Anthroposophy:

Christ, the Sun God.

[R.R. impression.]