“The plant realm is the soul world of the Earth made visible. The carnation is a flirt. The sunflower an old peasant. The sunflower’s shining face is like a jolly old country rustic. Plants with very big leaves would express, in terms of soul life, lack of success in a job, taking a long time with everything, clumsiness, and especially an inability to finish anything; we think that someone has finished, but the person is still at it. Look for the soul element in the plant forms!

“When summer approaches, or even earlier, sleep spreads over the Earth; this sleep becomes heavier and heavier, but it only spreads out spatially, and in autumn passes away again. The plants are no longer there, and sleep no longer spreads over the Earth. The feelings, passions, and emotions of people pass with them into sleep, but once they are there, those feelings have the appearance of plants. What we have invisible within the soul, our hidden qualities — flirtatiousness, for example — become visible in plants. We don’t see this in a person who is awake, but it can be observed clairvoyantly in people who are sleeping. Flirtation, for example, looks like a carnation. A flirt continually produces carnations from the nose! A tedious, boring person produces gigantic leaves from the whole body, if you could see them.” — Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 128.

Note that Steiner made these remarks when addressing Waldorf teachers. Equally important, the remarks depend upon belief in clairvoyance. (Only belief in clairvoyance prevents these remarks from being utterly absurd; and even then...)

Steiner speaks as a clairvoyant, telling Waldorf teachers what his clairvoyance reveals, and the teachers evidently take him at his word. Waldorf education — like its underlying belief system, Anthroposophy — depends on belief in clairvoyance. If clairvoyance is a fantasy, if in fact it does not exist, then the rug is pulled out from under Waldorf education and Anthroposophy. And, as far as anyone reliably knows, clairvoyance is a fantasy, it does not exist. A "clairvoyant" is either deceiving him/herself, or attempting to deceive us, or both. [See "Clairvoyant Vision", “Clairvoyance”, “Exactly”, "The Waldorf Teacher's Consciousness", and “Fooling”.]

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“The mission of Anthroposophy to-day is to be a synthesis of religions..” — Rudolf Steiner, “Buddha and Christ: The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas”, ANTHROPOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1964), GA 130.

Sometimes Steiner acknowledged the truth, wittingly or not. Anthroposophy, a synthesis of various religions, is itself a religion. A cocktail that consists of two or more alcoholic drinks is itself an alcoholic drink. A cosmological cocktail — a cosmology — that consists of two or more religions is itself a religion. Anthroposophy consists of Theosophy*, gnostic Christianity, and Hinduism, with admixtures of other religions including Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. Anthroposophy entails faith, reverence, prayers, meditations, spiritual guides, religious observances, and other religious identifiers. It lays out the path to spiritual advancement for its adherents, and it threatens spiritual loss and perdition for everyone else.  Anthroposophists believe that they are on the side of the gods, and they believe that their critics are on the side of the demonic powers. Anthroposophy is a religion.

* Theosophy is a religion or, if you please, it is the totality of religion.  Helena Blavatsky, cofounder of Theosophy, wrote: “It is perhaps necessary, first of all, to say, that the assertion that Theosophy is not a Religion, by no means excludes the fact that Theosophy is Religion itself ... Theosophy is not a Religion, we say, but RELIGION itself. ” — H. P. Blavatsky, “Is Theosophy a Religion?”, THE THEOSOPHIST OCTOBER 1888 TO APRIL 1889 (Kessinger, 2004), p. 198.

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Waldorf education is based on Anthroposophy — Steiner's occult body of teachings, which he also called "spiritual science". And Anthroposophy is based on... Well, it is based on some very strange propositions. Consider this: Steiner said that we have reliable spiritual science because superhuman beings — such as supermen from Vulcan — are bringing us messages from the spirit realm. This is an astonishingly weak foundation on which to build anything. Perhaps there is a spirit realm. Perhaps superhumans visit the Earth all the time. Perhaps. But there is no Vulcan. Hence there are no Vulcan supermen bringing us messages. If Anthroposophy depends on the existence of imaginary beings like Vulcan supermen, then there is no valid basis for Anthroposophy, meaning there is no valid basis for Waldorf education.

What we are discussing here is extremely weird and complicated, I know. But I am not making it up. These are Steiner's own teachings.

Let's take it a step at a time.

Vulcan is a hypothetical planet, nearer to the Sun than Mercury. Scientists once believed that such a planet existed, but they discarded the idea long ago. We know today that there is no Vulcan. But Vulcan looms large in Steiner's teachings. [See “Vulcan”.]

Here is a brief statement of Steiner’s teachings about Vulcan and its connection to spiritual science: 

“Vulcan beings are now actually entering this earth existence ... And it is thanks to the fact that these beings from beyond the earth are bringing messages down into this earthly existence that it is possible at all to have a comprehensive spiritual science today ... The beings I have spoken about will descend gradually to the earth. Vulcan beings, Vulcan supermen, Venus supermen, Mercury supermen, sun supermen, and so on will unite themselves with earth existence.” — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (SteinerBooks, 1987), p. 261.

OK? Steiner says that Vulcan, in some sense, exists. And beings from Vulcan are coming to Earth, bringing us the messages upon which spiritual science stands. (He also says that beings from other planets are descending, or will descend, to Earth. Whether this improves his argument is open to debate.)

You may already get the drift: Steiner's doctrines are loco. But let's slow down even further to give the guy a chance. Here is the same quotation again, this time given at length. Steiner seems to say that Vulcan exists in the solar system today, perhaps not as a planet but as a “sphere” (a term he used to denote the area of the solar system bounded by the orbit of a planet). This gets a bit confusing, since the “sphere” of Vulcan would be the area bounded by the orbit of the planet Vulcan — but does Vulcan exist as a planet? And, come to that, do the planets orbit the Sun? Steiner sometimes said that they do but he also sometimes said that they don’t. [See “Deception”.]

Be all that as it may, here’s what Steiner said about "Vulcan men" and "Vulcan supermen." Background: At an early stage of life on Earth, human souls fled to the other planets. (Didn’t they teach you this in school?) Then, during the age of Atlantis, these souls returned to Earth — they came from planets such as Saturn, Mars, and Vulcan (see the reference, below, to “Vulcan-men”). Moreover, Steiner said that “Vulcan Beings” or “’Supermen’ of Vulcan” are coming to Earth today. Where are they coming from? Vulcan. [1]

I turn the microphone over to R. Steiner:

“Whereas in ancient Atlantean times [i.e., while we lived on Atlantis] these human beings descended to earth from Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and the other planets — and it was therefore a matter of human soul beings entering the earth existence then — now a time is beginning when beings who are not human are coming down to earth from cosmic regions beyond. These beings are not human but depend for the further development of their existence on coming to earth and on entering here into relationships with men. [2]

“Thus, since the eighties of the nineteenth century, heavenly beings are seeking to enter this earth existence. Just as the Vulcan men were the last to come down to earth,  so Vulcan beings are now actually entering this earth existence. Heavenly beings are already here in our earth existence. And it is thanks to the fact that beings from beyond the earth are bringing messages down into this earthly existence that it is possible at all to have a comprehensive spiritual science today. [3]

“Taken as a whole, however, how does the human race behave? If I may say so, the human race behaves in a cosmically rude way toward the beings who are appearing from the cosmos on earth, albeit, to begin with, only slowly. Humanity takes no notice of them, ignores them. It is this that will lead the earth into increasingly tragic conditions. For in the course of the next few centuries, more and more spirit beings will move among us whose language we ought to understand. We shall understand it only if we seek to comprehend what comes from them, namely, the contents of spiritual science. This is what they wish to bestow on us. They want us to act according to spiritual science; they want this spiritual science to be translated into social action and the conduct of earthly life. [4]

“Since the last third of the nineteenth century, we are actually dealing with the influx of spirit beings from the universe. Initially, these were beings dwelling in the sphere between moon and Mercury, but they are closing in upon earth, so to say, seeking to gain a foothold in earthly life through human beings imbuing themselves with thoughts of spiritual beings in the cosmos. This is another way of describing what I outlined earlier when I said that we must call our shadowy intellect to life with the pictures of spiritual science. That is the abstract way of describing it. The description is concrete when we say: Spirit beings are seeking to come down into earth existence and must be received. Upheaval upon upheaval will ensue, and earth existence will at length arrive at social chaos if these beings descended and human existence were to consist only of opposition against them. For these beings wish to be nothing less than the advance guard of what will happen to earth existence when the moon reunites once again with earth. [5]

“Nowadays it may appear comparatively harmless to people when they think only those automatic, lifeless thoughts that arise through comprehension of the mineral world itself and the mineral element's effects in plant, animal, and man. Yes, indeed, people revel in these thoughts; as materialists, they feel good about them, for only such thoughts are conceived today. But imagine that people were to continue thinking in this way, unfolding nothing but such thoughts until the eighth millennium when moon existence will once more unite with the life of the earth. What would come about then? The beings I have spoken about will descend gradually to the earth. Vulcan beings, Vulcan supermen, Venus supermen, Mercury supermen, sun supermen, and so on will unite themselves with earth existence. Yet, if human beings persist in their opposition to them, this earth existence will pass over into chaos in the course of the next few thousand years.”  — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1987), lecture 14, GA 204. [6]

Rudolf Steiner’s teachings, Anthroposophy, represent his version of Theosophy. Both Theosophists and Anthroposophists call their systems “spiritual science” — that is, they claim that their systems present verifiable, objective information about the spirit realm. According to Steiner, spiritual science is possible because beings such as the superhuman beings of Vulcan are bringing us messages. If this impresses you, you may be ripe for joining Steiner’s cult. Otherwise, you may agree with me that Steiner’s statement reveals the complete falsehood of Anthroposophy. There is no Vulcan, hence there are no “Vulcan beings, Vulcan supermen” coming to Earth. By extension, then, there is no basis for “spiritual science” — aka, Anthroposophy. And, since Anthroposophy is the basis of Waldorf education, there is no valid basis for Waldorf education. QED.

(Oh, OK, I know. It is probably unfair to totally blow off Waldorf education because Steiner said totally nutty things about Vulcan. But you get the drift. Are you prepared to you send your child to a school run by people who accept the nutty things Steiner said about about Vulcan and many other matters?)

P.S. Steiner tried to scare us. He sometimes resorted to fire-and-brimstone railings, and he does that here. He asserts that if we don’t believe him about “Vulcan beings, Vulcan supermen” and all the rest, “this earth existence will pass over into chaos.” But I’m not worried. Are you?

The real danger Waldorf schools represent is the possibility that people will slip back into medieval superstition and ignorance. For this is what “spiritual science” is. Steiner spun grotesque, foolish fantasies — and some people believe him. That’s their right. But don’t let them “educate” your child.

[1] Reading Steiner is a bit like having a root canal. I will do my best to ease the pain by providing paragraph-by-paragraph paraphrases, below. I will also toss in some supplementary info.

[2] The third phase of our evolution on Earth occurred on the continent of Lemuria. Things got dicey during our Lemuria years, so most humans fled to other planets. After Lemuria sank, the survivors moved to Atlantis, and — thinking things were getting better — the humans who had gone to other planets returned to Earth. We now live in the post-Atlantis period, and now superhuman beings are coming from the various planets to the Earth. They are doing this because they need to do so in order to evolve to yet higher states of divinity — by entering into relationships with Earth humans, they will improve themselves.

[3] Since the 1890s, superhuman beings have been coming to Earth from the heavens. Back during the Atlantis period, humans who had gone to Vulcan were the first returnees among the humans who had fled the Earth. Likewise, today Vulcan super-humans are the first heavenly beings to come down to the Earth. Various heavenly beings (superhumans) are already here on Earth, and it is because they have brought us messages from the spirit realm that today we can have “spiritual science” — that is, Anthroposophy, the objective “science” that describes the spirit realm.

[4] Sadly, most humans have been rude to the superhuman visitors. Mainly, people have ignored these wondrous visitors. This will lead to tragedy for the human race. More and more superhumans are coming down, bringing us the knowledge contained in spiritual science (i.e., Rudolf Steiner’s teachings). The superhumans want us to accept spiritual science  (i.e., Rudolf Steiner’s teachings). If we don’t, woe betide.

[5] Since about 1860, there has been a large influx of superhumans from the planets to Earth. (Technically, the superhumans come from the “spheres” of the planets, not the planets themselves. For instance, the sphere of Mars encompasses all of the solar system within the orbit of Mars. The spheres of some other planets, such as Venus, exist within the Mars sphere, just as the Mars sphere exists within other, larger spheres, such as the Saturn sphere.) The first superhumans to descend, as we said before, came from the Vulcan sphere (i.e., the sphere of the planet inside the orbit of Mercury [see "Supermen"]). Superhumans gain a foothold on Earth by being received into the thoughts of the good people who do not rudely ignore them. The good people (spiritual scientists, i.e., Rudolf Steiner’s followers) transcend “shadowy intellect” to create images (or “imaginations”) or pictures of the spirit realm. This is a bit vague, but to be clear: Superhuman spiritual beings are coming to Earth and we must receive them. If not, there will be BIG trouble. These superhuman beings are preparing the way for our future evolution, when the Moon will merge into the Earth. If we ignore them (i.e., if we ignore Rudolf Steiner), woe betide.

[6] People nowadays — “modern” types — think in a dead way; they think with their physical (mineral) brains. (Contrast this with the spiritual “imaginations” of Anthroposophists.) People nowadays are materialists who think materialistically (i.e., with their brains), and they actually revel in such thinking. (Woe betide.) If people keep thinking in this dead, brainy way, there will be hell to pay when the Moon reunites with the Earth. The superhumans from Vulcan, Venus, the Sun, etc., will have come down and united themselves with the Earth. If we still rudely ignore them, the Earth will be plunged into chaos lasting thousands of years. (And won’t you be sorry then, all you rude fools who didn’t listen to Steiner?)

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“Because of how the forces of the Earth’s moon were now working, the human bodies taking shape under their influence were fully fit to embody human souls, so the souls that had previously moved to Mars, Jupiter, and so forth were led back down to Earth.”  — Rudolf Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 233.

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"Anti-Christian influence is directly visible in Moorish architecture with its arches that run up into a point instead of being rounded. This is the mark of [the demon] Ahriman. In architecture Ahriman worked as the Antichrist when he replaced rounded Romanesque arches with horseshoe and pointed arches.” — Rudolf Steiner, ARCHITECTURE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 153.

Rudolf Steiner had opinions about everything. He expatiated on any and all topics. He was a polymath. The breadth of his apparent knowledge stuns his followers.

But should we be impressed? Should we join the band of his devotees? How brilliant was Steiner, really? Consider the following quotation. The view taken of pointed arches is different (the speaker did sometimes contradict himself), but otherwise...

“When all's said, we should be grateful to the Jesuits. Who knows if, but for them, we might have abandoned Gothic architecture for the light, airy, bright architecture of the Counter-Reformation? In the face of Luther's efforts to lead an upper clergy that had acquired profane habits back to mysticism, the Jesuits restored to the world the joy of the senses ... Fanaticism is a matter of climate — for Protestantism, too, has burnt its witches. Nothing of that sort in Italy. The Southerner has a lighter attitude towards matters of faith. The Frenchman has personally an easy way of behaving in his churches ... It's remarkable to observe the resemblances between the evolution of Germany and that of Italy. The creators of the language, Dante and Luther, rose against the ecumenical desires of the papacy. Each of the two nations was led to unity, against the dynastic interests, by one man. They achieved their unity against the will of the Pope ... Italy is the country where intelligence created the notion of the State. The Roman Empire is a great political creation, the greatest of all. The Italian people's musical sense, its liking for harmonious proportions, the beauty of its race! The Renaissance was the dawn of a new era, in which Aryan man found himself anew ... The magic of Florence and Rome, of Ravenna, Siena, Perugia! Tuscany and Umbria, how lovely they are!”

Here we find a man capable of discoursing on an almost infinite array of subjects, spiritual and mundane, artistic and political, historical and racial, intellectual and emotional. Here we find a polymath, a man of many parts, verily a man for all seasons. Such a man, Anthroposophists assure us, was Rudolf Steiner.

There is a difficulty, however. The polymath I have quoted (“When all's said ... how lovely they are!”) is not Rudolf Steiner. The speaker here is Adolf Hitler. [See HITLER’S TABLE TALK 1941-1944 (Enigma Books, 2000), p. 9.]

Now, before Anthroposophists blow a gasket, let me quickly assure everyone that I am not saying that Steiner was indistinguishable from Hitler.* My point is that, as different as Steiner and Hitler were in many, many ways, self-approving polymaths are alike in at least a few ways: They think they know everything, or they pretend that they do. They love to hear themselves talk, and they expect respectful attention from everyone around them. In HITLER’S TABLE TALK, we find Hitler playing the polymath, just as we find Steiner playing the polymath in all of his books and lectures. Steiner’s performances were generally impressive. But our admiration diminishes when we begin to suspect charlatanry, and it disappears almost completely when we pay close attention to what Steiner actually said. When the torrent of his monologues subsides and we can think again, we find that he has given us almost nothing worth keeping. Steiner wrote and spoke incessantly, voluminously, vaingloriously, but he said very, very little of value. To a shocking degree, his teachings are pure, puffed-up, elaborated nonsense. [See, e.g., “Steiner’s Blunders”, “Steiner Static”, “Steiner’s ‘Science’”, “Steiner’s Illogic”, and “Say What?”.]

* Lest there be any confusion, allow me to stress that, although there were some similarities between the two men, there were also vast differences between them. Both were short, dark-haired know-it-alls. Both had delusions of grandeur. Both, born in Austria, were German nationalists. Both were devoted to the Aryan race, both were anti-Semites, both reveled in Nordic mythology. But Steiner was, in practice if not wholly in ideology, a man of peace; Hitler was, first and last, a man of war. Steiner didn’t outfit his followers with uniforms and send them into the streets to brawl with the opposition. He didn’t violate international treaties, amass an army, and plunge the world into war. He didn’t establish death camps where innocents were butchered and gassed. Hitler did these things. Hitler was a mass murderer, a maniac, a monster. Steiner was merely a crank. 

If we have to choose between Austrian-German delusional know-it-alls, Steiner is clearly the better choice. But perhaps a better course for us would be to dispense with delusional know-it-alls altogether. How about taking guidance from philosophers, scholars, and scientists who actually know what they are talking about? That would be a start, anyway.

[Concerning my odd formulation of Steiner's position on war and peace, see "All v. All", "Steiner and the Warlord", and "War".]

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Rudolf Steiner was an anti-Semite. He may have passed through a philo-Semitic stage, and he made some philo-Semitic statements. But he made a great many anti-Semitic statements and, on balance, he must be counted an anti-Semite. [See “RS on Jews”.] Steiner accepted some of the standard lies told about Jews, such as that, as a parasitic people, they are extremely materialistic and blind to spiritual truths. If Steiner’s anti-Semitic statements were not so deplorable, we might almost find humor in some of them. (The god of the Jews, Jehovah, lives on the moon, Steiner said; hence Judaism is the "moon religion.") But, indeed, there is nothing funny about racism in any form — including, of course, anti-Semitism.

• "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 ... 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.

• "From the Moon, Jahveh [i.e., Jehovah] reigned over the heart and soul of the Jewish people." — Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS: Esoteric Studies, Vol. 2 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1974), p. 203.

Steiner located Jesus on the Sun and Jehovah on the Moon. The Sun produces light or — metaphorically — knowledge. The Moon, in contrast, produces no light; it merely reflects light received from elsewhere. In this sense, the Moon is a parasite just as, according to anti-Semites, Jews are parasites. ("Anti-Semites said that Jews were especially linked to intellectualism which they abhorred. They also wrote that the moon was a 'parasitical' heavenly body, merely reflecting the sunlight. In this way, they wrote, 'lunar' Jews were also 'parasites'."  ["Waldorf Salad with Aryan Mayonnaise??"])

Like other anti-Semites of his time and place, Steiner blamed Jews for modern atheism. He said that Jewish thinking, or "Old Testament thinking," is responsible for the modern scourge of "atheistic science."

• "[T]he ancient Jewish people...did not wish to learn anything in addition to what the human being brings with him as a capacity because of the fact that he was an embryo ... Old Testament thinking [led to] the atheistic science of the modern age." — Rudolf Steiner, THE CHALLENGE OF THE TIMES (Anthroposophic Press, 1941), pp. 28-33.

Perhaps the most foolish thing Steiner ever said on the question of Jews and their antagonists is this: 

• “I consider antisemites to be harmless people.” — Rudolf Steiner, “Die Sehnsucht der Juden nach Palästina,” Magazin für Literatur, vol. 66 no. 38, 1897. Translation provided by Peter Staudenmaier. 

Bear in mind that Steiner, an Austrian German, claimed to have clairvoyant powers allowing him to see the future. Perhaps those powers were not well developed when he proclaimed the harmlessness of anti-Semitism. Steiner did not foresee that rather soon another Austrian German — Adolf Hitler — would prove how stupendously harmful anti-Semites can become.

Steiner, whom his followers hold up as a great spiritual guide, one of the foremost spiritual masters of all time, added his voice to the widespread anti-Semitism that, becoming virulent, led to one of the most horrific crimes against humanity ever committed: the Holocaust. Steiner did not foresee the Holocaust and he did not cause the Holocaust. But he failed to work vigorously and consistently to stem the prejudice and malice of anti-Semitism that infected the society in which he lived. Instead, he joined the chorus of intolerance. 

• "Judaism as such has long outlived itself and no longer has a legitimate place in the modern life of peoples." — Rudolf Steiner, "Vom Wesen des Judentums" {On the Nature of the Jews}, DIE GESCHICHTE DER MENSCHHEIT UND DIE WELTANSCHAUUNGEN DER KULTURVÖLKER, Dornach, 1968, GA 353

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“Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able, of themselves, to impart purpose and direction to their lives.” — attributed to Rudolf Steiner.

There are at least two problems with this quotation.

1) The “freedom” possible within the Waldorf/Steiner universe is extremely limited. Consider the following, contrasting quotation:

“Those who come to me wanting to hear the truths available through esotericism and nevertheless refuse to walk the path [emphasis added] are like schoolchildren who want to electrify a glass rod and refuse to rub it.” — Rudolf Steiner, FIRST STEPS IN INNER DEVELOPMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1999), p. 25.

If you want to know Steiner’s spiritual truths, you must walk “the path.” The one true path. Steiner stressed that you must choose the one true "white" path; otherwise you will descend to ruin on the evil "black" path. 

"If this is your choice, then yours is the black path. But those from whom you separate yourself tread the white path." — Rudolf Steiner, HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDS (SteinerBooks, 2002), p. 204.

You can freely choose not to walk the one true white path, but you will suffer severe spiritual penalties. People who make this error will fall into the abyss. “[They] will descend in the abyss and form the evil race. They have turned away from the impulse of Christ Jesus, and out of the ugliness of their souls they will again develop the animal form man possessed in former ages. The evil race, with its savage impulses, will dwell in animal form in the abyss." — Rudolf Steiner, UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), p. 103. When it suited him, Steiner could sound like a fire-and-brimstone preacher. [See “Evil”, “Sphere 8”, “Hell”, and “Sin”.]

There is a little wiggle room in Anthroposophy, but not much. Steiner described three different “ways” toward spiritual enlightenment. But these ways, as reformulated by Steiner, are quite similar to one another. 

“Rudolf Steiner spoke of three ways: what he called the way of ‘yoga’; the ‘Christian’ or ‘Christian-Gnostic’ way; and the ‘Rosicrucian’ way. The three ways are not mutually exclusive but overlap in many ways. They may be said to be distinguishable, but not necessarily divisible.” — Christopher Bamford, START NOW! (SteinerBooks, 2004), a collection of Rudolf Steiner's writings, p. 188.

The yoga path is not suitable for humanity at its present stage of development, Steiner said, and the Christian-Gnostic path is for the most part also obsolete. That leaves 

“the path [emphasis added] that is right for modern humanity: the Rosicrucian path.” — Rudolf Steiner, MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1985), p. 94. [See “Rosy Cross”.] 

By “the Rosicrucian path,” Steiner essentially meant the Anthroposophical path. He reinterpreted Rosicrucianism to make it consistent with his own teachings, and then he affirmed it as the path. So, really, there is only one path available to us today — i.e., the Rosicrucian path, i.e., Steiner’s path. This tends to limit our “free” choices rather severely.

2) The other problem with the quotation is that Rudolf Steiner neither wrote nor spoke it. Many Waldorf educators attribute the statement to Steiner, and some Waldorf schools use it prominently in their promotional materials, but in fact the statement was made by someone else: Steiner's second wife, Marie Steiner. You will find it on p. 27 of THE NEW ART OF EDUCATION (Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing, 1928) — introduction by Marie Steiner. I mention this only because it shines a light on a curious problem confronting anyone who tries to investigate Waldorf education. Much of the "information" provided by Waldorf schools is incomplete, misleading, or false. In this instance, the falsehood is arguably minor (Mrs. Steiner didn't stray far from the teachings of Mr. Steiner); but in other instances, the misinformation presented by Waldorf promoters can be highly deceptive. So, here’s a tip. When you enter the Waldorf universe, even for just a brief look around, stay alert. All may not be as it seems.

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“The basic coloring of a man is of great significance, for that is to some extent the color of the tapestry upon which his memory appears after death; greenish, greenish-blue for the white races; violet-reddish for the Japanese; and just flesh-colored [sic] for the black races.” — Rudolf Steiner, ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LIFE GIFTS (transcript), lecture 4, GA 181.

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“Lovers of unconscious humour are recommended to make a study of pages 53-55 of the text.” — Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Max von Laue, ridiculing Rudolf Steiner’s OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE. [See "Steiner and Natural Science".]

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“Remember what I have said in former lectures, that man is, in a sense, an inverted plant. All that you have learnt must be recalled and put together, in order to understand such a thing as this wonderful passage in the Bhagavad Gita [about the Avayata-tree, the fig-tree]. We are then astonished at the old wisdom which must today, by means of new methods, be called forth from the depths of occultism.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL (Anthroposophic Press, 1971), lecture 4, GA 142. [See "Veda", "The Ancients", and "Occultism".]

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“Modern exact clairvoyance, as developed by him [i.e., Rudolf Steiner], reveals spiritual facts to spiritual vision as clearly as men's ordinary senses reveal to the intellect the facts of the physical world.” — Floyd McKnight, RUDOLF STEINER AND ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophical Society in America, 1977), p. 4.

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“In Lemuria [i.e., when humanity lived on the continent of Lemuria], conditions for the whole earth were the same as it is today at the north pole, half a year day and half a year night. When sun, moon, and earth were still one this unified mass moved through space. Already back then this movement was calculated by occult wisdom, just as today one calculates time according to the sun which moves across the sky through the signs of the zodiac. Eight hundred years before Christ the sun stood in the sign of Aries. Christ was originally worshiped under the sign of the cross, with a lamb lying at the foot of the cross. The cross with Christ upon it appeared only in the sixth century. Before that the Bull, Taurus, was worshiped when the sun stood in its sign. Earlier, it was the Twin, Gemini, that was worshiped in Persia. The team of goats that pulled Thor's chariot had the same significance. Before that the Crab, Cancer, was worshiped, and so forth.” — Rudolf Steiner, READING THE PICTURES OF THE APOCALYPSE (Anthroposophic Press, 1993), lecture 1, GA 104a.

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“The dead will be brought into human life via a detour through Gemini which in quite a specific way will cause human vibrations to continue resonating in the machines.” — Rudolf Steiner, SECRET BROTHERHOODS AND THE MYSTERY OF THE HUMAN DOUBLE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), p. 192.

Sometimes it is best just to let Steiner have his say. (But if you want to delve into the matter, see "Double Trouble".)

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Rudolf Steiner offered multiple, generally dismissive and incompatible descriptions of atoms. His followers pore over such statements, trying to tease sense out of them. Surely, having been uttered by the great man, the statements must be profound.

• “[T]hose thought-out atoms have no existence.” — Rudolf Steiner, WONDERS OF THE WORLD, ORDEALS OF THE SOUL, REVELATIONS OF THE SPIRIT (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1963), p. 184.

• "If physicists were for once to talk sense, they would not produce speculations about atoms and molecules, but they would say: The visible world consists of the past, and carries in it not molecules and atoms, but the future." — Rudolf Steiner, COLOUR, lecture I, “Thought and Will as Light and Darkness” (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Company, 1935).

• “[A]toms are really tiny little caricatures of demons." — Rudolf Steiner, RHYTHMS OF LEARNING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 161.

• “[T]he atom is nothing else than congealed electricity.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE TEMPLE LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1985), p. 114.

• "[A]ll atoms are holes or empty bubbles in the spiritual world. All physical things are composed of countless numbers of such holes. When we touch things we bump into these holes, this nothing." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM THE CONTENT OF THE ESOTERIC CLASSES (transcript), 3-31-1914, GA 266. 

Some of these statements are clearly fatuous ("congealed electricity," "caricatures of demons"); others are harder to evaluate ("in the spiritual world"). Overall, however, Steiner was pontificating on a subject — atoms — he knew little or nothing about. He did this often, on a wide array of subjects.

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• “Jupiter is, of course, very important ... And then comes the outermost planet, which is Saturn.” — Rudolf Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 44. 

• "[I]f we take Saturn, the outermost planet of our Universe, we must represent him as the leader of our planetary system in cosmic space. He directs our system in space. He is the body for the outermost force which leads us round in the lemniscate in cosmic space.” — Rudolf Steiner,  MAN - HIEROGLYPH OF THE UNIVERSE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 11, GA 201.

Astronomers discovered Uranus in 1781 and Neptune in 1846. Both planets are farther from the Sun than Saturn is. Because his occult system required it, Steiner denied that Uranus and Neptune are real members of the solar system. His followers generally follow his example — when facts collide with their beliefs, they reject the facts and reaffirm their beliefs. This limits their value as educators. [See "Steiner's Blunders".]

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“At the end of the first Root Race [i.e., when humanity existed in its first racial form], man was not fettered to the ground as he is today. He hovered through the etheric earth, and his organs, too, were etheric.’”  — Rudolf Steiner,  “(On) Apocalyptic Writings”, lecture, October 10,1904.

"Root race" is a Theosophical term. Here is the definition given in the ENCYCLOPEDIC THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY (Theosophical University Press, 1999): "The main serial divisions of the human life-wave on any globe of a planetary chain; for instance, the root-races on our globe D include the third or Lemurian, the fourth or Atlantean, and the present fifth. Each such root-race contains many and various races as the word is commonly understood. All the human beings alive today are part of the fifth root-race. Each life-wave when it has completed its cycle of seven root-races on one globe, transfers its life-energies to the next globe, whereupon begins the same sequence of seven root-races on that next globe. Thus each globe of a planetary chain has its seven root-races, which together constitute one globe-round, the whole set of seven globe-rounds completing one planetary round."

Steiner essentially bought Theosophical doctrines, reworking and rephrasing them to suit himself.

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“[T]he third set of lectures [in this book] concerns the astral-etheric beings known as elemental spirits, whose existence is rarely acknowledged today beyond the sphere of folklore. We discover how indebted we are to these beings, both benevolent and malevolent, for our continued existence. Steiner gives an account of their different levels of consciousness and, in doing so, throws light on some of the characters from traditional nursery tales. Many of us will be familiar with the wise but gruff dwarf, the water sprite or mermaid who tries to lure the human being into its own fluid consciousness-world, and the unearthly beauty of the fairy queen which would entrap men and render them powerless, as if they slept. The fact that the elemental spirits, like irresponsible children, might choose to sport with the unprotected human consciousness should not undermine the fact that these spirits ‘wish man to make a move onwards with his consciousness, so that he may participate in their world.’”  — Ann Druitt, introduction to HARMONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), a collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, pp. xvii-xviii.

The gullibility of Steiner’s followers can be astonishing. The clearest example, perhaps, is their belief in fairy tales and the beings described in fairy tales. Steiner taught that fairy tales are true clairvoyant accounts of the activities of beings — gnomes, fairies, giants, dwarfs — who really exist. This is staggering. Yet when Druitt says that Steiner shines light on “the characters from traditional nursery tales,” she does not mean that Steiner offers a form of literary criticism, examining the import of fantastical, invented stories. No, she and other Anthroposophists accept Steiner’s assurances that 

“Fairy tales are never thought out [i.e., invented]; they are the final remains of ancient clairvoyance  [i.e., the psychic power that ancient peoples possessed] ... All the fairy tales in existence are...the remnants of the original clairvoyance.” — Rudolf Steiner, ON THE MYSTERY DRAMAS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983), p. 93. 

And the strange beings who populate these tales are real, Steiner said. Thus, for instance, Steiner tells us 

“There are beings that can be seen with clairvoyant vision at many spots in the depths of the earth ... Many names have been given to them, such as goblins, gnomes and so forth.” — Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), pp. 62-3. 

Or, 

"[O]ur brain connects us with certain elemental beings, namely those elemental beings that belong to the sphere of wisdom ... To etheric observation, this [aura] hovers in the immediate vicinity of our head. The I [our spark of individual divinity] lives in it, and alongside the I are found the elemental beings of the myths and sagas. There they are called elves, fairies, and so on." — Rudolf Steiner, THE RIDDLE OF HUMANITY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1990), lecture 5. 

Steiner said that fairy tales need to be interpreted, the facts they relate are hard to convey in ordinary language; and he said that we participate in the creation of such beings as goblins and fairies. But he also firmly stated that goblins, fairies, and other elemental spirits do actually exist. He claimed to be able to see them, thanks to his "exact clairvoyance," and he said you could see them too if you would just follow his instructions. 

At one level, this is all quite silly; but at another level, it is quite important, revealing something fundamental about Anthroposophy. There is a real world and there are fantasy worlds, and Steiner’s followers get them confused — they take the fantasies for reality. This is a serious matter, especially when people who are deluded in this way offer to educate children. Do you want to entrust the education of your child to people who believe that fairy tales are clairvoyantly true and that goblins really exist?

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“If we look up to the stars, we can say that something streams from them [i.e., light] that can be perceived by the human being's sense organs here on earth ... [I]t proceeds from beings of intelligence and will whose life is bound up with those stars. The effects appear to be physical because the stars are at a distance. They are not really physical at all. What you see are the activities of beings of will and intelligence in the stars. I have spoken to you of the ingenious description of the sun given by astrophysicists. But if it were possible to journey to the sun it would be found with amazement that nothing of what is to be expected from these physical descriptions exists ... What we see is in reality the working of will and intelligence which at a distance appears as light.” — Rudolf Steiner, AGRICULTURE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 35.

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“Through millennia, the progressive spirits of light guided humanity by means of blood bonds. They brought people together in families, tribes, nations and races, uniting those who belonged together on the basis of truly ancient human and world karma. With their feeling for those blood bonds people then also had a feeling for missions which went a very long way back in the world, missions designed to make the blood bonds — which, of course, came from the earth — part of the general human karma. If one turns one's attention to the spiritual world during the 1820s and 1830s, when the souls which were later to enter into human bodies were still in that world, one finds that the souls which were about to descend had certain impulses which, among other things, were due to the fact that for millennia they had been bound to particular families, tribes, nations and races each time they were on earth. From the 1840s onwards these souls were meant to make the decision to enter into particular bodies. For the spirits of light who sent their impulses into human souls were, of course, guiding human evolution according to the old blood bonds. And so the human souls in the spiritual worlds had certain impulses to follow the ancient human karma on entering into bodies which were to be the population in the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The spirits of light were using the old measures of controlling and guiding those souls.”  — R. Steiner, THE FALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), lecture 13, GA 177.

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“There is in the Cosmos the same polarity as we have described between male and female: and that is the polarity between a Comet and the Moon. If we wish to understand the nature of a Comet, wandering as it does in cosmic space regardless of the other laws of the Solar System, we must be clear as to the fact that the Comet carries the laws belonging to the old Moon-existence into our own [time] ... [I]t has remained behind at the stage of natural law which prevailed in the Solar System when our earth was still Old Moon [i.e., an earlier period of evolution]. It carries a former condition into a later, into the present; just as the woman’s body carries an earlier condition into present-day existence.” — R. Steiner, CHRIST IMPULSE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGO CONSCIOUSNESS (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1925; facsimile edition by Kessigner Publishing), p. 58.

There's a lot we might say about this preposterous statement. I will confine myself to just one comment. Steiner knew as little about comets as he knew about human beings. Comets do not "wander" through space, nor are they exempt from "the laws of the Solar System." Comets orbit the Sun, obeying the same laws of physics as all other bodies in the solar system.

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Steiner's capacity to surprise and perplex never dimmed. He claimed to find immense spiritual significance in the most surprising places. Here he tells us that without booze, we would not have become human — that is, we would not have developed our individual spiritual egos. These egos, if you remember, are what separate us from the animals.*

“Men have not always used alcohol ... Wine, alcohol, only appeared at a certain time in the history of humanity and the world ... Alcohol was the bridge which led from the group-ego to the independent, individual ego; without the material effect of alcohol man would never have made the transition from the group-ego to the individual ego.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN (Basle) (London Reference Library, 1942), lecture 8, GA 100.

This quotation — describing the spiritual-evolutionary benefits of alcohol — is taken from a typescript posted at the Rudolf Steiner Archive. Its accuracy is somewhat doubtful. However, essentially the same statement in a different translation can be found on pp. 85-86 of THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN (Anthroposophic Press, 1962). In other texts, Steiner is further quoted associating alcohol with the ego or “I” — see, for example, p. 111 of BEES (Anthroposophic Press, 1998). As was true of so many topics, Steiner’s views on alcohol were complex. In general, he advised against the use of alcohol. On the other hand, one of his more prominent supporters has told us that Steiner partook of alcohol in order to suppress the form of clairvoyance he had when young; he wanted to “clear the decks” so that he could develop a superior form of clairvoyance:

"Steiner himself as a child brought with him into the world a vestigial relic of the old clairvoyance, the old ‘original’ participation [i.e., clairvoyant participation in the spirit realm]. Biographies and his own autobiography bear witness to it. And it is credibly reported of him that he took deliberate steps to eliminate it, not even rejecting the help of alcohol, in order to clear the decks for the new clairvoyance it was his destiny both to predict and to develop.” — Owen Barfield, “Introducing Rudolf Steiner” (TOWARDS, Fall-Winter, 1983).

* Of earthly beings, Steiner taught, only humans have individual souls or individual spiritual egos. Other, lower beings have shared, "group" souls. Group souls are, in their own way, quite wonderful, he said. 

“[A]ll the animals of a particular species have a group ego or group soul. All individual lions, for example, are part of one group ego, as are all tigers or all pike ... The individual animals are simply the limbs of what dwells in the astral world [i.e., the group ego]. These animal egos are different from the human ‘I’, although comparable from a spiritual point of view. An animal ego is an extremely wise entity, far wiser than an individual human soul.” — Rudolf Steiner, WHITSUN AND ASCENSION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007), p. 47. 

I wonder if he was tipsy when he said such things.

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“Imagine that we wanted to convey a simple religious concept — for instance, the immortality of the human soul — to a class of young children. [Steiner suggests using the analogy of a caterpillar that doesn’t die but becomes a butterfly.] ... A Waldorf teacher, an anthroposophically oriented spiritual researcher, would not feel, ‘I am the intelligent adult who makes up a story for the children’s benefit,’ but rather: ‘The eternal beings and powers [i.e., the gods], acting as the spiritual in nature, have placed before my eyes a picture of the immortal human soul, objectively, in the form of the emerging butterfly. Believing in the truth of this picture with every fibre of my being, and bringing it to my pupils through my own conviction, I will awaken in them a truly religious concept.’” — Rudolf Steiner, WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1995), vol. 1, pp. 49-50 - Feb. 27, 1921.

Steiner gives us a lot to mull over, here. Waldorf teachers, who are fervent believers ("believing...with every fibre"), try to "awaken" religious concepts in their students. "Awakening" is far deeper than "learning." Waldorf teachers work to lead their students toward what they consider the truth, which is Anthroposophy. They want to awaken faith within their students, for the core of Waldorf schooling is a deeply felt commitment to the Anthroposophical faith. Steiner explicitly identifies Waldorf teachers as Anthroposophists — he says that the term "Waldorf teacher" is synonymous with "anthroposophically oriented spiritual researcher." (Or, as he said on another occasion, "As Waldorf teachers, we must be true anthroposophists in the deepest sense of the word in our innermost feeling.”) In reality, not all teachers at Waldorf schools are deeply committed Anthroposophists, but many are, and Steiner said all should be. Waldorf schools exist to promote the occult, pagan religion called Anthroposophy. [See "Here's the Answer".]

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Steiner taught that the will is a separate human faculty, and he said that exercising great will power is needed if you are to "see" what he "saw" through his claimed clairvoyant powers. By exerting the will, you can see only what you want to see.

"[I]t is necessary that the student should control and dominate everything that seeks to influence him from outside. He should reach the point of really receiving no impressions beyond those he wishes to receive ... [H]e actually evades all impressions to which he does not voluntarily respond. If he sees something it is because he wills to see it, and if he does not voluntarily take notice of something it is actually non-existent for him." — Rudolf Steiner, KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1947), chapter 6, GA 10.

Steiner here gives us the key to Anthroposophical belief. In order to believe Steiner's bizarre doctrines, his followers must see only what they want to see, while banishing everything else from existence. Steiner offers this as a method for attaining spiritual knowledge. A better description, however, is that it is a technique for self-deception, refusing to face reality squarely. If you will yourself to see gnomes, for instance, and work at this long enough while blocking out all real information about the world, sooner or later you will probably see gnomes. And your grasp of reality will weaken commensurately. [See "Will".] 

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“Our forefathers spoke of gnomes [nature spirits that live in the ground], undines  [nature spirits that live in water], sylphs  [nature spirits that live in the air] and salamanders  [nature spirits that live in fire], but to see any reality in such ideas is regarded to-day as sheer superstition. It doesn't matter much, in themselves, what theories people hold; it only begins to be serious when the theories tempt people not to see the truth. [paragraph break] When people say that their ancestors' belief in gnomes, undines, sylphs, salamanders and the like was all nonsense, one would like to make a rather grotesque reply, and say: ‘Well, go and ask the bees. They could inform you: the sylphs are no superstition to us; we know well enough what we owe to the sylphs.’ ... Mankind will land itself in a blind alley if it fails to acquire a spiritual understanding of these things. As with the gnomes, so with the beings we may call undines; they are found where the plants come into contact with the mineral kingdom. They are bound up with the element of water, they incorporate themselves where water and plant and stone come together.” — R. Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING, III (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1958), V, Whitsun, GA 98.

[For more on gnomes, etc., see "Neutered Nature" and "Beings".] 

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“It is said that Homer was a blind seer, but that means that he was clairvoyant. He could look back into the Akashic Record [a celestial storehouse of knowledge]. Homer, the blind seer, was much more seeing in the spiritual sense than were the other Greeks. Thus, the centaur was once an actual human form. When man looked like this, the moon had not yet withdrawn. The moon force was still in the earth, and in man was still what had formed itself during the sun period, the shining pineal gland, which he bore like a lantern on his head.” — Rudolf Steiner, EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES (SteinerBooks, 1990), p. 97.

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“Through spiritual perception...we become aware of beings of signal grandeur who leave an impression of the superhuman, rather than the human. They exist today and the Moon sphere is their permanent abode, as the Earth is ours between birth and death. These impressive figures attract our attention, whilst the human souls recede more into the background. We learn from these figures that they were once united to the Earth as we human beings are today. Whilst human beings live in their physical bodies, these Moon beings formerly lived on Earth in subtle, ethereal bodies. And we realize that we are in the presence of beings who, in primordial times, were associated with humanity and were the spiritual Teachers of mankind on Earth. When their tasks on Earth were fulfilled, they withdrew to the Moon sphere and are no longer associated with the Earth today.”  — Rudolf Steiner, TRUE AND FALSE PATHS IN SPIRITUAL INVESTIGATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), lecture 7, GA 243.

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“What keeps  the French language going is the furor, the blood, of the French. The language is actually dead, but the corpse continues to be spoken. This is something that is most apparent in French nineteenth-century poetry. The use of the French language quite certainly corrupts the soul. The soul acquires nothing more than the possibility of clichés. Those who enthusiastically speak French transfer that to other languages. The French are also ruining what maintains their dead language, namely, their blood. The French are committing the terrible brutality of moving black people to Europe, but it works, in an even worse way, back on France. It has an enormous affect on the blood and the race and contributes considerably toward French decadence. The French as a race are reverting.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 558-559.

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“Starting from the middle of the fourth Moon cycle, man consists of a physical body in which the Sons of Twilight perform their labor, of an ether body in which the Spirits of Fire perform theirs, and finally of an astral body in which the Spirits of Personality perform theirs.” — Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1959), chapter 16, “Life on the Moon”, GA 11.

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“Certain kinds of ceremonial magic have definite effects on the human physical body...specifically on the system of ganglia...and also on the spinal system. The cerebral system is the most difficult of all to influence by means of ceremonial magic. All this has to be done via the detour of the spiritual element, but it can be done and it can become effective." — Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF UNTRUTHFULNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992), lecture 21, GA 174.

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[DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS, p. 168.]

Peculiarly, the illustration does not include the lemniscate (the "lemniscatory screw-movement"). 

To picture the lemniscate, imagine a narrow figure eight lying on its side at the top of the illustration. 

Now imagine yourself hovering in space behind the line of planets. 

If you looked forward steadily over a period of many years, you would see the line gradually inscribe the lemniscate

(the planets surge upward at the end of each leg of their travels, 

then they plunge downward until the end of the next leg, when they surge upward again...).

“[W]hat has been said until now about [planetary] movements is not quite correct. In reality it is a case of a movement like this (lemniscatory screw-movement): Here, for example, [in position 1] we have the Sun; here are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and here are Venus, Mercury, and Earth. Now they all move in the direction indicated [spiral line], moving ahead one behind the other, so that when the Sun has progressed to the second position we have Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars here, and we have Venus, Mercury, and Earth over there. Now the Sun continues to revolve and progresses to here [position 3]. This creates the illusion that Earth revolves round the Sun. The truth is that the Sun goes ahead, and the Earth creeps continually after it.” — Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS, Foundation of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 168. (I added only one interpolation: the word “planetary” near the beginning of the quote; all other interpolations appear in the text.)

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“[A] kind of ‘Chineseness’ is beginning to manifest in Europe, as though Europe were becoming ‘chinesified’ ... Consider the following: Souls exist who, as a result of their former lives, are inclined to incarnate in Chinese bodies ... Now since the Chinese population is nowhere near as great as it was in former times, it is, in any case, not possible for all these Chinese souls to incarnate there. In Europe, on the other hand, the physical population has increased considerably in recent times, and so many souls can be accommodated here who were really destined for incarnation in Chinese bodies. This is one reason why keen observers are beginning to notice that Europe is becoming ‘chinesified’ ...  By bringing about the ‘opiumising’ of Chinese bodies and causing generations to come into being under the influence of opium's forces, it was possible to condemn the Chinese to take in, to a certain extent, some very immature, sub-standard souls ... But those souls who had themselves decided to incarnate in Chinese bodies were thereby prevented from approaching these ‘opiumised’ bodies. They were diverted to Europe where they brought about among the European population those traits which have, meanwhile, been noted ... We must realize, of course, that an ordinary historian will only notice some degree of degeneration in certain strata of the Chinese population resulting from the Opium War. But one who, in addition, observes the spiritual aspects of cultural history will have to look more deeply in order to see what is brought about by this degeneration for the whole of mankind.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF UNTRUTHFULNESS, Vol. 1 (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1988), lecture 13, GA 173.

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“The mission of Anthroposophy to-day is to be a synthesis of religions. We can conceive of one form of religion being comprised in Buddhism, another form in Christianity, and as evolution proceeds the more closely do the different religions unite — in the way that Buddha and Christ themselves are united in our hearts.” — Rudolf Steiner, “Buddha and Christ: The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas”, ANTHROPOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1964), GA 130. 

Steiner usually denied that Anthroposophy is a religion, claiming that it is a “science” instead. His followers generally take the same line. But sometimes Steiner acknowledged the truth, wittingly or not. Anthroposophy, a synthesis of various religions, is itself a religion. (A cocktail consisting of several alcoholic drinks is itself an alcoholic drink. An system of thought synthesizing several philosophies is itself a philosophy. A spiritual system synthesizing several religions is itself a religion.)

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“[T]he ancient clairvoyance of undeveloped man was killed when his blood was mixed with the blood of others who did not belong to the same stock. The entire intellectual life of today [a bad thing, according to Steiner] is the outcome of the mingling of blood, and the time is not far distant when people will study the [damaging] influence this had upon human life, and they will be able to trace it back in the history of humanity.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE OF BLOOD (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1922), a lecture, GA 55.

According to Steiner, we descended into our current condition — using lowly intellect instead of divine clairvoyance — due to race mixing. [See "Blood".]

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Class work, for Waldorf students, is often little more than copying what their teachers write and draw on the chalkboard. 

“Copying is the curse of the Waldorf Schools. There is altogether too much of it, and it is not confined to the elementary school. In high school, where there is much less excuse for it, it still goes on. The way in which many [Waldorf] teachers organize their work implies that they consider that the whole object of the course is the creation of a gorgeous notebook. And the way in which some teachers judge the work of other teachers implies the same thing.” — Keith Francis (former Faculty Chair at the Rudolf Steiner School, New York), THE EDUCATION OF A WALDORF TEACHER (iUniverse, 2004), p. 132.

For an explanation of this quotation, along with other revealing remarks by K. Francis, see “Ex-Teacher 9”.

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“The College of Teachers [i.e., the inner council at a Waldorf school] of which I was privileged to be a member for many years had a strong tendency to oscillate between two extremes and I have seen similar tendencies in my travels as a visiting teacher [at other Waldorf schools]. One extreme is the position that the College should concern itself with purely spiritual matters and leave the nuts and bolts to other groups or individuals. The other is that the College should take the responsibility for everything, right down to the shape of the bathroom doorknob. Proponents of the first view say that it is the task of the College to maintain the lines of communication with the spiritual beings who hover over the school, and if the College doesn’t do it perhaps no one will. The school is a spiritual organism and there must be an organ to receive and cherish what flows in from the spirit. Those who take the second view say that decisions about nut and bolts are spiritual matters.” — Keith Francis (former Faculty Chair at the Rudolf Steiner School, New York), THE EDUCATION OF A WALDORF TEACHER (iUniverse, 2004), p. 184.

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“The reason why we do not simply circle round the Moon, but move on to approach another state of existence, is partly the onward driving force of the Mercury beings. These beings are rather stronger than those of Venus. Existence is urged forward by the Mercury beings, whereas through the Venus beings it is brought to a stop, as though completed. Hence the essential course of a man's passage through the soul-world is such that he feels himself taken up into the activity of Moon, Mercury, Venus. " — Rudolf Steiner,  THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 10, GA 227.

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“The Lemurian epoch was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; our epoch and its civilisation will be destroyed by the War of All against All, by evil. Human beings will destroy each other in mutual strife. And the terrible thing — more desperately tragic than other catastrophes — will be that the blame will lie with human beings themselves.

"A tiny handful of men will make good and thus insure their survival in the sixth epoch of civilisation. This tiny handful will have attained selflessness. The others will develop every imaginable skill and subtlety in the manipulation and use of the physical forces of nature, but without the essential degree of selflessness.

"In the seventh epoch of civilisation, this War of All against All will break out in the most terrible form. Great and mighty forces will be let loose by the discoveries, turning the whole earth-globe into a kind of [self-functioning] live electric mass. In a way that cannot be discussed, the tiny handful will be protected and preserved." — R. Steiner, “The Work of Secret Societies in the World”, GA 93.

Can you guess who the “tiny handful” of good humans are, according to Steiner and his followers? Steiner and his followers found hope only in Steiner and his followers. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that the secret of their survival cannot be discussed. But so it goes. Anthroposophists mean well. But their self-glorification is immense, and their grasp of reality is less than tenuous. Fortunately, our future does not depend on them. Fortunately, there is such a thing as reality.

P.S. Lemuria was the legendary continent that preceded Atlantis. It never existed. Atlantis was the legendary continent that followed Lemuria. It never existed. And the future described by Steiner? If Steiner's comprehension of the past is a guide, nothing he foresaw will come to pass.

P.P.S. To delve into the Anthroposophical nightmare, the War of All Against All, see “All v. All”.

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According to Rudolf Steiner, our second evolutionary period on Earth was the Hyperborean Age. [See "Steiner Static".] 

“During the Age which preceded the Lemurian Age, we have the Hyperborean Age on the Earth, that of the Sun Men, of the Apollo-Men ... They [Adepts of the Sun] passed over to the Moon. There also they had the possibility of being on a higher level than the Moon-men, and they developed to quite special heights. They were the forefathers of the Earth-men, but had hastened much further ahead. When...the Hyperboreans lived in their soft forms, these Sons of the Sun were in position to incarnate and they formed a particularly beautiful Race. They were the Solar Pitris [Sanskrit for "fathers"]. Already in the Hyperborean Epoch they created for themselves an upright form, completely transforming the Hyperborean bodies. This the other human beings were unable to do. In the Hyperborean Epoch the Solar Pitris became the beautiful Apollo-men, who in the Second Race had already attained the upright posture.” — R. Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 23, GA 93a.

In case you haven’t been keeping track: The “ages” of our evolution on Earth so far have been the Polarian (see yesterday’s quote), the Hyperborean (today’s quote), Lemurian (when we lived on the continent of Lemuria), and Atlantean (when we lived on Atlantis). We are now in the Post-Atlantean Age, also sometimes called the Anglo-German Age or just plain the Present. Coming next will be the Russian Age (sounds ominous) followed by the American Age (hurray!). Sadly, the American Age will culminate in the horrific  War of All Against All that will bring Earth evolution to an crashing end (heck). The amount of violence and destruction in the Steiner cosmology can be quite surprising. [See "All v. All".]

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“The Polarian human beings were very similar to four-footed animals, but they were formed out of a soft, pliant substance similar to a jellyfish, but much warmer.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 23, GA 93a.

According to Waldorf belief (i.e., according to Rudolf Steiner), the Polarian period was the first phase of human evolution on Earth. At that time, the Earth contained the Sun and the Moon. Or so Steiner said.

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“If, during the old Lemurian epoch [i.e., while we lived on the ancient continent of Lemuria], the first Christ-Event had not taken place, Lucifer and Ahriman would have been able to bring about disaster to the whole of humanity.”  — Rudolf Steiner, "Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ", GA 152.

Touchingly, Steiner’s followers often argue that Anthroposophy is wholly uplifting and positive. Even apparently evil beings such as Lucifer and Ahriman really work for the good of all, they say. This is a lovely idea, and Steiner sometimes seemed to mean something of the sort. But then again, Steiner often said something very different. Lucifer and Ahriman, for instance, plot  to bring about "disaster to the whole of humanity" somewhat more often than we would expect from friendly beings.

(As for the "first Christ-Event": Steiner taught that Christ, the Sun God, was an avatar who involved Himself in human affairs many times. See "Avatars" and "Events".)

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“This is precisely the task of school. If it is a true school, it should bring to unfoldment in the human being what he has brought with him from spiritual worlds into this physical life on earth.” — Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS , Vol. 1 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 5, GA 235.

What is the purpose of education? If you think it is to teach kids stuff, you are out of step with Waldorf schooling. The purpose of education, Rudolf Steiner explained, is to help children incarnate, unfolding the etheric bodies, astral bodies, and so on, that they brought with them from the spiritual worlds. [See “Incarnation” and “Higher Worlds”.]

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“[I]t would be wrong to imagine that having passed through the portal of death we do not belong to any forces at all, for after death we are connected with the forces of the solar system and the other galaxies." — R. Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND HUMANITY (Anthroposophic Press, 1992), lecture 3, GA 15.

Steiner referred to galaxies occasionally, just as he occasionally acknowledged other astronomical realities such as the existence of planets beyond Saturn or the truth that planets orbit the Sun. But for the most part, he denied the relevance of inconvenient scientific truths such as these, essentially omitting them from his cosmology. [See "Higher Worlds" and "Deception".] Even when appearing to recognize scientific findings, he spoke in terms that create doubt as to whether he knew anything about the phenomena he discussed.

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“Rudolf Steiner performed his own sacrifice on Earth in order to plant these tender seeds, and was crucified on the cross of the soul body of the Anthroposophical society.  Rudolf Steiner, a Rosicrucian initiate whose spiritual gaze was able to reach up to the Buddhi sphere and above to the Nirvana plane, paved the way for the future incarnation of the Maitreya Buddha." — Adriana Koulias, “Rosicrucianism and the Maitreya Buddha - Preparing mankind for the future understanding of Christ”.

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“You know that what is called Folk-soul, Race-soul, has become a somewhat abstract idea today. Many think nowadays that the individual soul of man that dwells in his body is the actual reality. And if one speaks of German, French, Russian National-souls, people look on that as more or less an abstraction, as a comprehensive concept, embracing the characteristics which the individual members of these nations possess. To the occultist this is not so at all. What one calls the Folk-soul, as the German, French, Russian Folk-soul, is to him an absolutely independent entity. It is only that in our present Earth-existence the Folk soul is purely a spiritual being, perceptible only to one who can ascend to the astral plane; there you could not deny it, for there it is present as an actual living being. You would encounter the Folk-soul there, as on the physical plane you encounter your friends.

“On the Moon it would have still less occurred to you to deny this Group-soul, for at that time it had a still more real existence. It was the Folk-soul, the Race-soul, which guided the bloodstream down into the bodies, into those beings which circled round the Moon. It is the destiny of our age to deny the existence of such beings as possess an actual life on the astral plane, and are not perceptible here on the physical plane. And we are at the very height of this materialistic evolution which prefers to deny such beings as Folk-souls and Race-souls.” — R. Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), chapter 11, GA 99.

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“In the autumn we experienced the death of a member's child, a child seven years of age. The death of this child occurred in a strange way. He was a good boy, mentally very much alive already within the limits set for a seven-year-old; a good, well-behaved and mentally active child. He came to die because he happened to be on the very spot where a furniture van overturned, crushing the boy so that he died of suffocation. This was a spot where probably no van went past before nor will go past again, but one did pass just that moment ... [T]he karma of this child was such that the ego, to put it bluntly, had ordered the van and the van overturned to fulfil the child's karma." — Rudolf Steiner, THE DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS (SteinerBooks, 1987), pp. 125-126.

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“Steiner’s Anthroposophy might seem total, because it involves so many aspects of life, but it is not totalitarian. In spite of all the consumer and well-being products, it remains an occult operation oriented towards an academically educated middle class, an operation that does not put itself out in the public and that would even rather operate in hiding.”  — Miriam Gebhardt, RUDOLF STEINER: A Modern Prophet (Verlagsgruppe Random House, 2011), from the Introduction.

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“Imagine what the people of ancient times perceived [clairvoyantly], entrancing them, pouring through their heads, till they exclaimed, 'Ah, the nymphs! Ah, the gnomes! How the nymphs whirl in my head, how the gnomes hammer....' That no longer exists for us. Today the hammering, surging, and whirling are eclipsed and overwhelmed by what comes from actual seeing or hearing.” — Rudolf Steiner, ISIS MARY SOPHIA (SteinerBooks, 2003), p. 230.

When reading such statements, it is helpful to recall that Steiner said that gnomes, nymphs, and the like really exist. [See "Beings".] He also insisted that clairvoyance is for real. [See "Exactly".] For "actual" seeing, we use our eyes. But for "real" seeing, he taught, we use our "organs of clairvoyance". (I kid you not.)

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“[T]he fate of hundreds and thousands may be affected by an earthquake or a volcano. Does the human will have any influence on this, or is it all a matter of chance? Are there dead laws which act with blind fury, or is there some connection between these events and the will of man? What is really happening when a man is killed by an earthquake? What does the occultist say about the interior of the Earth? ... [T]he births which occurred during a time of frequent earthquakes were investigated [by clairvoyance]. It was found that all those born at about the time of an earthquake, though not exactly in its area, were, surprisingly enough, men of a very materialistic cast of mind. The earthquakes were not the cause of this; rather it was these strongly materialistic souls, ripe for birth, who worked their way down into the physical world by means of their astral will and let loose the forces of the Fire-Earth layer, which proceeded to shake the Earth at the time of their birth.” — Rudolf Steiner, AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1986), lecture 14, GA 95.

Confess. You didn't know that incarnating Japanese babies caused the 2011 earthquake, did you?

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“[S]cience speaks under the influence of the demonic Mars-forces." — Rudolf Steiner, ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2009), p. 126.

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“Now something which was once a living fact in human evolution is, in a sense, returning. The priests of the Mysteries possessed, as I have told you, the power of contemplating the influence of the Moon; the influence of the Moon bore them up to their astrological Initiation. They learnt how it was possible to be initiated into the secrets of the stars by this means. An important point for the candidate for Initiation was that he should feel as though gravity were of less importance to him than it normally was. He felt that he weighed less. But then he was instructed by the older teachers not to give way to this feeling; when he began to feel lighter he must restore his heaviness by a strong exercise of will. The technique of the old Initiation made it possible for the candidate to allow the weight which was lost by the influence of the Moon to be restored by an effort of will; and as a result the wisdom of the stars shone forth. Thus every tendency in man at that time to overcome gravity was used to develop the will to hold fast to the Earth by the power of his own soul. But since this exerting of the will acted as a kindling of an inner light, it shone forth into the Cosmos and he could attain knowledge of cosmic spaces. When Spiritual Science throws its light on these matters, it is possible accurately to describe how this old consciousness came into being.

"Now there is always a tendency for what existed in such men to recur; there is a sort of atavism, an inheritance, of things long past. It recurs just because men themselves return [i.e., reincarnate]; and when this relation to the Moon appears in men who live at a time when, because this deep sleep is a thing of the past, such a relation should not occur [i.e., the present], it appears as somnambulism, especially as ordinary sleep-walking. Then they do not combat this increasing sense of lightness by exerting the forces of their soul, but they wander about on roofs or at least get up out of bed. They do with their whole being what only the astral body should properly do. Something which has now become an abnormality was in earlier times an asset which could be used to attain knowledge. It was quite appropriate that popular usage should call such men “moon-struck,” for this condition of man's being is connected with an atavistic relation to the Moon-forces which has survived from older times." — Rudolf Steiner, MAN IN THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE; THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS; AND THE SUN-INITIATION OF THE DRUID PRIEST AND HIS MOON-SCIENCE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), GA 228. (This, by the way, is one of the more felicitously titled of Steiner's works. The only better title in the Steiner canon is INVESTIGATIONS INTO OCCULTISM SHOWING ITS VALUE IN DAILY LIFE.)

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“We can show that the British isles have risen and sunk four times and thus follow the path of geology back to the concept of the ancient Atlantis ... [W]e should not be afraid to speak about the Atlantean land with the children. We should not skip that ... The only thing is, you will need to disavow normal geology since the Atlantean catastrophe occurred in the seventh or eighth millennium.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 25.

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“Moon man has become earth man ... [W]e still have Moon man in us. Looking upon this Moon man we are able to say: ‘He is what we call the dreamer in us.’” — Rudolf Steiner, THE DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS, (Steiner Books, 1986), p. 216.

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“[Steiner] often formed his ideas half spontaneously while speaking, and this is why they are often contradictory and inconsistent. His followers liked to call his meandering way of thinking ‘organic'; in fact it was more associative, rich in analogies, undisciplined, and spiced with a dose of megalomania.” — Miriam Gebhardt, RUDOLF STEINER: A Modern Prophet (Verlagsgruppe Random House, 2011), from the Introduction.

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“Now the Gods are merciful, and to-day our hope for the future progress of human civilisation must be that the Gods in their mercy will themselves come to the rescue where — as in the case of the gramophone — men's taste has gone astray.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 11, GA 227.

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“You need to gradually teach the children about something they can experience only through feeling, namely the difference between finished karma and arising or developing karma. You need to gradually teach children about the questions of fate in the sense of karmic questions. “ — Rudolf Steiner. FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 4.

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“Atlantis was bathed in hot vapours. In earlier times still, the air was pure warmth; before that again, fire. Fire was there in the place of air. The Lemurians breathed fire. That is why it is said in occult writings that the first Teachers of men were the Spirits of Fire.” — Rudolf Steiner, AN ESOTERIC COSMOLOGY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1978), lecture 15, GA 94.

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“[Rudolf] Steiner is an example of a guru who was much beloved ... Steiner gave a vast number of lectures about his ideas; transcripts of more than six thousand have been printed. He certainly had charisma, for his listeners are reported as feeling that they were at some form of divine service rather than at a conventional lecture.” — Anthony Storr, FEET OF CLAY: A Study of Gurus (Free Press Paperbacks, 1996), p. 68.

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“We are looking into an age when humanity will intrude in large measure into air and light-filled space. What will be the fruits of this age? Seen in their true form it can be said that these electromagnetic waves will work back into the forces of the earth during a certain age. Then, according to good and evil, earthquakes and earth tremors will appear as the effects of human deeds.”  — Rudolf Steiner, READING THE PICTURES OF THE APOCALYPSE (Anthroposophic Press, 1993), lecture 9, GA 104a.

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“Underneath the solid earth there are a large number of subterranean spaces which communicate to the sixth [subterranean] layer, that of fire. This element of the fire-earth is intimately connected with the human will ...  [W]hen the human will is devoid of egoism, it is able to appease this fire. Materialistic periods are mostly accompanied and followed by natural cataclysms, earthquakes, etc. ... [I]n human beings who perish as a result of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions one notices, during their next incarnation, inner qualities which are quite different.” — Rudolf Steiner, AN ESOTERIC COSMOLOGY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1978),  lecture 16, GA 94. 

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“[W]e see one of these groups of human souls in their descent from pre-earthly into earthly existence wander to regions situated, for example, in the vicinity of volcanoes, or to districts where earthquakes are liable to occur, in order there to receive their destiny from the elemental phenomena of nature. ... [S]uch places are deliberately chosen by the souls thus karmically connected, in order that they may experience this very destiny ... [They think] 'I choose a great disaster on earth in order to become more perfect....'" — Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, Vol. 2 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1974), lecture 15, GA 236.

Anthroposophy is not just a foolish faith, it is a cruel faith. It teaches that human beings cause the disasters that befall them. Indeed, human beings choose to endure disasters, in order to discharge their karmas.

This is not just nonsense, it is vile nonsense. According to Rudolf Steiner’s teachings, the human beings who suffered in Japan, Haiti, and elsewhere recently as a result of natural calamities deserved what they got. If you were injured during an earthquake, if you saw your spouse killed by falling debris, if you saw your child drowned in a flood of filth — you, your spouse, and your child got what each of you deserved. 

This is a horrid, inhuman doctrine. The feeble consolation Anthroposophy offers is that, having received your just deserts, each of you will be a better person in your next life. “[D]uring your next incarnation [you will have] inner qualities which are quite different.” Take what comfort you can from such a doctrine. Don’t think of your wife being crushed, don’t think of your child flailing helplessly as water fills her lungs — think of the imaginary future when you will all be reincarnated as higher beings.

The worst consequence of belief in karma is that it disarms compassion. When your child is being swept away, should you do everything in your power to save her, or should you stand back, glad to see karma being fulfilled? The answer, I submit, is obvious. Save your child. At whatever the cost, enduring whatever must be endured, save your child.

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“All education that is capable of enlisting teachers’ best energies and of giving their pupils the bread of life they long for and without which other bread does not nourish, must be regarded as religious. It need not be dogmatic or ritualistic, or in any way affiliated with a church or sect, but it cannot avoid questions of higher forms of cognition, of the reality of the human soul and spirit, of life beyond the bodily, of spiritual beings above and below humanity, of a spiritual concept of the evolution of the kingdoms of nature, of destiny, and of God.” — Waldorf educator John Fentress Gardner, EDUCATION IN SEARCH OF THE SPIRIT (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 154-155.

John Gardner was headmaster of one of the first Waldorf schools in America, and his writings continue to be circulated among Anthroposophists today. Here we find him effectively acknowledging that Waldorf schooling is religious, and he denotes specific Anthroposophical religious doctrines including clairvoyance (“higher forms of cognition”), the distinction between spirit and soul, spiritual evolution, and karma (“destiny”).

Disclosure: I knew John Gardner; I attended the Waldorf school that he ran. That school was nearly destroyed by a scandal he caused [see “Scandal”], but it survived and many years later the faculty there selected Gardner for a lifetime achievement award.

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“I am a Professor of Teacher Education at the California State University, East Bay. My Ph.D. is in Science Education. I have reviewed some of the Waldorf materials for teaching science and have found them silly and wrong. I strongly agree with you that children in a Waldorf School are being cheated out of a reasonable education. Our society tolerates religious schools. Unfortunately Waldorf Schools pretend that they are not religious while in practice they are promoting their strange religious philosophy. You may quote me and I want to help you. I do not want to accept money from you and would prefer to remain simply as a reference without any need for travel. I could be contacted for an interview (perhaps by phone) or could write a letter.” — Dr. David R. Stronck, PhD, Professor, Science Education, Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Hayward, CA [http://petekaraiskos.blogspot.com/2011/03/normal-0-attorney-at-law-june-adler.html]

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“We then come to Asia and find there the Venus-race or the Malay race. We then pass on across the wide domain of Asia and in the Mongolian race we find the Mars-race. We then pass over into the domain of Europe and we find in the Europeans, in their basic character, in their racial character, the Jupiter men. If we cross over the ocean to America, where the place is at which the races or civilizations die, we then find the race of the dark Saturn, the original American-Indian race, the American race. The American-Indian race is the Saturn race." — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1929), lecture 6, GA 121.

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“[T]he purpose of education is to help the individual fulfill his karma. The teacher is an intermediary and his task is to guide the incarnating individualities into the physical world and equip them for earthly existence, bearing in mind what they bring with them from the past and what they are likely to take with them into the future.” — Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 52.

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“[B]y the time a man has gone through death and rebirth, he has achieved his Mars-organisation, and has absorbed those Jupiter and Saturn forces to be found in the colonised regions of the planetoids.” — Rudolf Steiner, The EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 10, GA 227.

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“People who are knowledgeable about these things can ‘read’ the forces that determine a person's path in his or her physical life; on this basis horoscopes are cast. Each of us is assigned a particular horoscope, in which the forces are revealed that have led us into this life." — Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND HUMANITY (Anthroposophic Press, 1992), Lecture 3.

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“[T]he whole computer- and Internet industry is today the most effective way to prepare for the imminent incarnation of Ahriman.” — Leading Anthroposophist Sergei Prokofieff.

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“[I]t seems to me that we have no option but to take it at least as a working hypothesis that Steiner was speaking the truth when he claimed that he had the ability to read what has always been called, in the East and West alike, the Akashic Record, or better, the Akasha Chronicle* ... Everything that has ever happened on earth, Steiner tells us, and even events that have taken place in the spiritual worlds, are indelibly recorded, not by an earthly or even by a heavenly scribe, but imprinted, while they are happening [sic], in what he calls the ‘astral light.’ Though few occultists are able to ‘read’ it, they have always been aware of the existence of this Akasha Chronicle, which we may imagine as a kind of infinitely wide memory.” — Anthroposophist Stewart C. Easton, RUDOLF STEINER - Herald of a New Epoch (Anthroposophic Press, 1980), pp. 134-135.

The plausibility of just about everything Steiner ever taught, after his conversion to occultism, depends on his ability to read the Akasha Chronicle. 

It seems to me (pace Easton) that we have no option but to marvel at the gullibility of Steiner’s followers. Steiner used clairvoyance (which doesn’t exist) to read the Akasha Chronicle (which doesn’t exist).** Are you impressed? 

Or, more to the point, do you want people who believe Steiner to teach your children? Bear in mind, Waldorf are also called Steiner schools.

* In Theosophy and Anthroposophy, “akasha” is a universal ether, sometimes defined as starlight. The Akasha Chronicle or Record is a sort of universal encyclopedia recording everything that have ever happened (which may include everything that will happen), inscribed on akasha.

** See, e.g., “Clairvoyance” and “Akasha”.

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According to Rudolf Steiner, the Bible is obsolete. It is a simplified narrative created for unsophisticated people in prior centuries. Today, we are ready for a more up-to-date revelation, one that he himself provided. He used his “exact clairvoyance" to study the Akashic Record — a celestial storehouse of wisdom. Or so he said. Thanks to this “research,” he was able to produce a “fifth gospel” that corrects the New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark,  Luke, and John. Or so he said.

“Dr. Steiner called what he shared ‘additions’ because he said the four synoptic Gospels also draw their imagery from the same starry ‘picture book’ of the Fifth Gospel in the Akasha. Dr. Steiner is clear; his research shows the synoptic Gospels are — in part — imagery drawn from the Akashic Records. He discusses the service the authors of the original four Gospels performed in creating elementary ‘picture books’ of the spiritual path of Christianity, appropriate for people of their day and the next 1,500 years to come.” — Bruce Dickson, RUDOLF STEINER’S FIFTH GOSPEL IN STORY FORM (Dickson, 1991), p. 7.

In Theosophy and Anthroposophy, “akasha” is a universal ether, sometimes defined as starlight. The Akasha Chronicle or Record is a sort of universal encyclopedia recording everything that have ever happened (which may include everything that will happen), inscribed on akasha.

We’ll return to this subject.

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“If you do not use your own powers [for improvement]...the ground you stand on will be pulled out from under your feet. The purified world will develop over and beyond you [i.e., spiritual evolution will continue without you]. You will be excluded from it. If this is your choice, then yours is the black path. But those from whom you separate yourself tread the white path ... [The] temptation of personal salvation on the ‘black’ path is the greatest we can conceive of. The white path, on the other hand, does not seem tempting at all. It does not appeal to our egotism ... Thus those seeking salvation only for themselves will almost certainly choose the black path ... [W]e must not expect occultists on the white path to provide any instructions on the development of the egotistic I [i.e., to encourage egotism]”. — Rudolf Steiner,  HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDS (SteinerBooks, 2002), pp. 204-205.

Waldorf schools usually claim that they prepare their students to become free adults, able to make their own choices. This is a fine ideal. But in the belief system upon which Waldorf schools stands — Anthroposophy — there is really no such thing as freedom as we in the West normally understand it. Your options are these: the evil (“black”) path or the good (“white”) path.*

Steiner himself spoke of freedom; he himself held it up as a goal. But how much freedom do you have if your only options are the path of evil and the path of virtue?** Anthroposophy effectively eliminates any real power of choice, given that evildoers will pay an enormous price (they will lose their souls), while good-doers will reap an enormous payoff (they will evolve upward toward ultimate divinity). If you understand these alternatives properly, as described in Anthroposophy, there is only one choice you can reasonably make: It is to embrace Anthroposophy, which lays out for you the white path.

Steiner’s conception of freedom, such as it was, was Germanic or — if you prefer — fundamentalist. Steiner wanted to help us free ourselves of our low, ignoble tendencies. Good people rise above their egotistic desires and work for the good of all, not just for their individual gain.*** They “free” themselves of egotism. This is excellent. Surely we should want to free ourselves in this manner. But this sort of “freedom” is very different from the pro-active ability to make choices among a range of potentially beneficial options. Anthroposophy offers no such range of options. You can walk the black path and go to your doom, or you can walk the white path (i.e., the path laid out by Steiner) and go to your reward.

When children graduate from Waldorf schools, they are — in theory — free to decide how to live the rest of their lives. But those students who spent many years in the Waldorf system will have been molded to prefer a single path, the one-and-only good path, the path of Anthroposophy. Of course, not all Waldorf graduates become Anthroposophists. Waldorf schools often fail in their effort to “free” students of the desire to go astray. But Waldorf schools strive to succeed at their self-appointed, often clandestine, messianic task. They work to point students down the true path, as defined by themselves, which means as defined by Rudolf Steiner.

For more on all this, see “Freedom”, “Who Gets Hurt”, “Sphere 8”, “Hell”, “Here’s the Answer”, and “Spiritual Agenda”.

* Steiner’s use of the terms “white” and “black” is loaded. White is good, black is evil. In his day, such usage was common and, perhaps, acceptable.

** Anthroposophists sometimes suggest that there are differing lanes on the true path, and we can freely choose among them. This is not, however, the legacy Steiner established.  Steiner identified various approaches that, he said, had been appropriate at prior stages of human evolution but that were no longer adequate. The right path for modern people, he said, is Rosicrucianism. [See “Rosy Cross”.] By this, he meant Rosicrucianism as reworked by himself — that is, Anthroposophical Rosicrucianism (i.e., the white path). Indeed, all approaches and teachings that he affirmed in any way were approaches and teachings that he reworked to suit his own vision. All of the older true approaches led to the new true approach, the one true path now.

Why did Steiner identify Rosicrucianism, instead of Anthroposophy itself, as the true path? It boiled down to the same thing. Steiner claimed that Anthroposophy is not a religion but a science — specifically, the “science” of using clairvoyance to study the spirit realm. As a science, Anthroposophy is not, in itself, a body of religious or spiritual practices (although, contradicting himself, he often indicated that it is this). He claimed that Anthroposophy is the objective body of knowledge we need for our religious or spiritual endeavors. This is why he was prepared to see a separate church established, the Christian Community, which uses the “knowledge” provided by Anthroposophy to inform its faith. [See “Christian Community”.] The Christian Community is the religion, Anthroposophy is the science underlying the religion. Likewise, Steiner designated Rosicrucianism, rather than Anthroposophy itself, as the correct path for spiritual aspirants today: Rosicrucianism is the path, Anthroposophy is the light illuminating the path. But in fact, as defined by Steiner, there is scarcely a hair’s breadth of difference between Anthroposophy, the Anthroposophical Christian Community, and Anthroposophical Rosicrucianism. They are all the same path, the path laid out by Steiner.

*** In accordance with Germanic tradition, “all” may be the tribe, the nation, or the world.

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“We will now picture the human being of Saturn who has the first rudiments of the physical body. We must visualize hovering above him beings who are the Spirits of Form and have an etheric body, astral body, I, spirit-self, life-spirit, spirit-man, to the eighth member. Now we must think of the next stage. In the Sun-human-being we have the physical body and the etheric body. The etheric body had been instilled into man by the Spirits of Form, keeping their astral body, so that they had their astral body, their I, up to the ninth member. Then we pass on to the Moon.

“We have man consisting of the physical, etheric, astral bodies. The astral body has been sacrificed to man by the Spirits of Form who then have as lowest member the I, and spirit-self, and so forth, up to the tenth member. All that we call ‘man’ has gradually flowed down out of the environment of the planet, has been put together, so to speak, from outside. All that is within was once outside, has entered into man from without.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 4, GA 102.

The Theosophical/Anthroposophical scheme of things is somewhat complex. Various gods, such as Spirits of Form, have labored over us, making us what we are. I could sketch the scheme for you, and you could memorize it, but this wouldn’t be wise. We would be killing the very thing we are attempting to comprehend. Steiner explicitly told his followers not to go at things this way. He told them they shouldn’t think about things too hard. (Can you imagine why?)

“A man who would receive Anthroposophy with his intellect kills it in the very act.” — Rudolf Steiner, LIFE, NATURE, AND CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1963), p. 15.

If Anthroposophists shouldn’t think about Anthroposophy too much, I guess we shouldn’t, either. 

[If you want to disregard my advice as well as Steiner’s, you can look into these matters in a deadly intellectual way by consulting, for instance, at "Matters of Form", “What We’re Made Of”, “Our Parts”, “Polytheism”, “Planetary Spirits”, and “Planetary Humans”. That’ll get you started. But as for why you shouldn’t do this, read “Steiner’s Specific” instead. Just don’t think too hard as you read.]

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“The ashes that a thought leaves strengthen bones, and so people with rickets do better if they think abstractly.” — Rudolf Steiner, FROM THE CONTENTS OF ESOTERIC CLASSES, 3-14-08, GA 266.

Rudolf Steiner was impressive. Ask him a question about almost anything — how people lived on the continent of Atlantis, how to know higher worlds, how to treat rickets — and he had an answer. And not just any answer, but an elaborate answer, a startling yet authoritative-seeming answer. He displayed surprisingly wide knowledge. He cited authorities, scholars, mystics, ancient savants. He poured out a torrential flood of verbiage that could sweep you far from the shores of your old reality.

He was impressive. Read his lectures and come away stunned. Here was a brilliant man. Just think what he might have contributed to humanity if he had used his brilliance constructively! But something went wrong. We can’t know what it was. Perhaps he was an intentional con man, a fully self-aware charlatan. Or perhaps he was insane — a sort of lunatic savant, if you will. In either case, the value of his teachings is essentially nil. (Also essentially nil is the likelihood that he was what he claimed to be, an occult initiate with clairvoyant access to virtually unlimited information about just about everything.)

I’m not a betting man, but if forced to choose one of these possibilities, I’d choose Door Number One. Charlatan.

I could be wrong, of course. I could be mistaken, for instance, in thinking that abstract thought is not a plausible treatment for rickets. But whether I am right or wrong is not very important. What is important is your own opinion. Are you a gambler? Are you prepared to put you money down — or, more to the point, put your children’s lives down — in the Great Steiner Gamble? If you send your children to a Waldorf school, you are gambling that your children will be best served by teachers who think that Steiner was almost always right about almost everything.

To my mind, you would be taking a huge gamble for very high stakes. So I would suggest this: Pause. Let the flood of Steiner’s verbiage recede. And then, in the cool of the evening, think things over. Do you believe that goblins exist? Do you believe that the heart does not pump blood? Do you believe that there is an invisible celestial storehouse of wisdom hidden from you but accessible to clairvoyants? Do you believe that the continents float in the sea and are held in place by the stars? Do you believe that abstract thought is a plausible treatment for rickets? Rudolf Steiner affirmed all of these astounding propositions and a great many more. Anthroposophists believe him. Do you?

For more of Steiner’s astounding propositions, see “Steiner’s Blunders”. But there I go again. I gave that essay its title. Perhaps a less pointed title would have been better. Perhaps when reading the Steiner quotations I present in that essay, you will conclude that they are pearls of great wisdom. I doubt it. Indeed, I think the essay presents example after example of things Steiner said that are clearly, factually, well-nigh indisputably wrong. Flat wrong. Astoundingly wrong. 

But read “Steiner’s Blunders” and/or any of the other essays here at Waldorf Watch — "Steiner’s ‘Science’”, "Steiner Static", and “Steiner’s Quackery” leap to mind — and draw your own conclusion.

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“Waldorf education takes a spiritual view of what it means to be a human being, and is grounded in a path of personal development called anthroposophy, developed by Rudolf Steiner. We do not see ourselves as a religious school, however, and students are not taught any particular religious or spiritual doctrine.” — Washington Waldorf School [http://www.washingtonwaldorf.org/WWS_at_a_Glance.html]

When Waldorf faculties make such statements, they may be telling the truth — as they understand it. On other occasions, they may be quite consciously trying to mislead the public. But let’s be charitable and assume that all such statements by Waldorf schools are sincere. Where does this leave us?

Statements of this sort arise from a number of factors. For starters, Anthroposophists almost always deny that Anthroposophy is a religion. This denial is untrue, but it provides the essential first line of defense for Waldorf schools. If Anthroposophy is not a religion, then Waldorf schools are not religious institutions even if they teach Anthroposophical doctrines to the students. But Anthroposophy actually is a religion [see “Is Anthroposophy a Religion?”], so this line of defense fails.

The second level of the Waldorf defense — often invoked sincerely — is that the schools do not teach Anthroposophy to the kids, so therefore the schools are not religious institutions even if Anthroposophy itself is a religion. But this denial, too, is flawed. Many Anthroposophical doctrines do indeed get imparted to Waldorf students [see “Spiritual Agenda” and "Sneaking It In"]. Generally this occurs through an indirect process of suggestion and implication, rather than through direct instruction — but it happens. If you were to observe this class or that, on this day or that, you might detect little religious or esoteric content. But gradually, over time, such content makes itself felt among the students. The atmosphere in a Waldorf school is usually redolent with religious feeling [see “Here’s the Answer”], and the school year is punctuated by the celebration of religious festivals [see “Magical Arts”]. The schools may not openly profess their faith, but they enact it, and this certainly has an effect on most students, especially those who attend the schools for many years.

One more point needs to be made. Many students' parents and even junior faculty members are quite unaware of the religious nature of Waldorf schooling, at least initially. Thus, they may accept the prayers recited by Waldorf students as pretty “verses,” nothing more [see “Prayers”], and they may consider the celebration of such festivals are Michaelmas merely quaint seasonal festivities. But if so, they are fooling themselves. The inner circle within most Waldorf faculties is aware that virtually everything that happens at a Waldorf school has occult, spiritual significance.* When Waldorf representatives deny this, we should not be taken in. [See “Soul School”.] The deception and, indeed, self-deception practiced in Waldorf schools should not cloud our own eyes.

Let’s give the last word to the founder of Waldorf education. 

"It is possible to introduce a religious element into every subject, even into math lessons. Anyone who has some knowledge of Waldorf teaching will know that this statement is true." — Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD's CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS AS THE BASIS OF PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 94.

* Clearly, it is offensive to tell people that they don’t know what they are doing, that they are deceiving themselves. But in many cases, Anthroposophists do indeed deceive themselves. Even members of the innermost Waldorf circle may operate in a state of denial and self-deception. When, for example, Waldorf teachers use “clairvoyance” to determine the “temperaments" of their students, they are practicing a twofold deception on themselves. Clairvoyance is a fantasy, and the ancient four-slot system of categorization (phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine, choleric) that Waldorf teachers use to sort out their students has no basis in truth. [See “Clairvoyance” and “Humouresque”.]

Rudolf Steiner insisted that Anthroposophy is a science, not a religion, and many of his followers cling to this claim despite all the evidence to the contrary — indeed, they cling to it despite the admissions that Steiner himself sometimes made, apparently inadvertently. For instance, "[T]he Anthroposophical Society...provides religious instruction just as other religious groups do." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 706. The Anthroposophical society does not do science, it embraces a religion (Anthroposophy) that it works to spread “just as other religious groups do." One of the places they do this is in Waldorf schools. But hush! “[A]n institution like the Independent Waldorf School with its anthroposophical character, has goals that, of course, coincide with anthroposophical desires. At the moment, though, if that connection were made official, people would break the Waldorf School’s neck." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 705.

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“I enrolled my son in the San Francisco Waldorf School halfway through the sixth grade. I was very impressed with the school ... [But over] the year and a half my son was in the school, I became increasingly disturbed about three things: 1. Weird science ... [W]hen I obtained Waldorf curriculum guides, I discovered that the inadequate and erroneous science was part of the Waldorf system. 2. Racism. I was shocked to pick up a Steiner book for sale at the school and read: 'If the blonds and blue-eyed people die out, the human race will become increasingly dense' ... Why would a school in San Francisco in 1988 be promoting 1920s German racism? 3. Quack medicine. An ‘Anthroposophical physician’ gave a lecture to the parents on ‘Anthroposophical medicine.’  It was classic quackery, claiming to be scientific but ignoring science in favor of cult beliefs....” — Former Waldorf parent Dan Dugan, “Why Waldorf Programs are Unsuitable for Public Funding”, CULTIC STUDIES REVIEW, Vol. 2, No. 2. [http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/dugan_dan_csr0202j.htm]

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“Steiner’s revelation [i.e., his occult theology] is not taught directly at primary or secondary level [in Waldorf schools], though it is said that Waldorf/Steiner schools offer Anthroposophical study groups outside the standard required curriculum ... [I]nevitably, the social context and the ambience [in the schools] are Anthroposophical.” — Geoffrey Ahern, THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT - the Rudolf Steiner Movement and Gnosis in the West (James Clarke & Co., 2009), p. 102.

Ahern’s exposition is not entirely accurate, but he is one of the few scholars who attempt a disinterested, objective analysis of Rudolf Steiner’s works. As such, he deserves serious attention.

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“We have never heard of a community, other than perhaps extreme fundamentalists, who would abruptly excommunicate an entire family based on unsubstantiated hearsay." — A letter from parents to a Waldorf school after the family was ejected from the school.

Waldorf schools are often tight-knit communities led by devoted followers of Rudolf Steiner. The description "extreme fundamentalists" may in fact be appropriate in some instances. Waldorf faculties frequently defend their faith vigorously, rejecting most if not all criticism. Students' parents who question the practices of the school may be ostracized or incur other penalties, official and otherwise.

Here are some additional passages from two letters written by the parents quoted above. The writers are responding to the "college of teachers" — the inner, governing body — at a Waldorf school about problems that had arisen centering primarily on a particular teacher at the school. Evaluating a single situation at one school can be difficult and may not reveal much about an entire educational movement. However, if the single situation seems consistent with other reported incidents at the same and other schools, then a troubling pattern may be revealed.

"[T]here is an inordinate fear of parents talking to each other. Anyone who says even the slightest criticism, publicly or privately, no matter how constructive it may be, gets accused of being a disgruntled hysteric who lacks tact and discretion and only wants to destroy everything that is good about the school. After eleven years at [the school], we continue to be grateful for those faculty and parents who embrace each problem not as if it is a judgement or a threat, but as a valuable opportunity for learning about ourselves and discovering our true purpose as a community.

"...Your letter says that our communication has had 'negative effects on other adults, including the former teacher...' We realize that the questions we asked were intense. When parents hear about a teacher handing out pills to control disruptive boys, difficult questions absolutely must be asked.

"...Parents hollered at us that if we didn't like the battered wife song [the teacher] sang, we should leave the school.

"... In Second grade, our concerns fortunately matched those of the majority of the Second grade parents. This year, we have been in the minority of many of those same parents. We are incredibly frustrated that despite our best efforts to be conscientious and fair during a brutally exhausting and confusing process, you see us as wanting to harm this community.

"...We know many of you [teachers and parents] are deeply upset about the administration's sudden decision to remove our daughter from class, five days before school is over. We have heard that there will be a meeting of all concerned parents on Monday.

"...[W]e repeatedly asked for the school's help in addressing our mounting concerns with our Fifth grade son's teacher ... After a long brutal process, we agreed with the school that our son should not stay in [that teacher's] class, because there was only one other parent besides us that was willing to come forward and say that they felt she was doing inappropriate things to the children. Two days after we came to the conclusion that by Sixth grade we would find another school for our son, [that teacher] decided to teach the children a song involving very graphic violence against women imagery. The College immediately put her on a paid leave of absence. The rest of the semester was filled with a lot of anguishing meetings with many of the parents crying and yelling at various members of the College, insisting [the teacher] didn't deserve the way she was being treated. Ultimately, [the teacher] could not resolve her issues with the College, and chose not to return.

"...We came to this school because we believed that a Waldorf education was the best way to nurture our children. We are leaving shocked, and somewhat shattered, but still very grateful for all the wonderful friends we have met. It is profoundly sad to know our child is not entitled to properly say good-bye. She is worried that her friends will think she has done something really bad. It is hard to believe that we are not allowed to attend next week's graduation of so many children we've known since Kindergarten, nor may we participate in any future functions at a place where we spent so much energy building and contributing to the welfare of the school. What we couldn't always give in cash, we always gave in sweat equity and we got to know many wonderful people in the process. Our oldest daughter...went from Kindergarten through Eighth grade here. Just last week, Mrs. [Y] was trying to help her find summer employment. [Our daughter] loved attending the plays, concerts, fairs and assemblies and helped decorate for the Father-Daughter dance, even though she is not enrolled here. She has been looking forward to being in the audience when her friends and former classmates will graduate next year. Now she can't step foot on campus ever again and cannot understand how this could happen. We have never heard of a community, other than perhaps extreme fundamentalists, who would abruptly excommunicate an entire family based on unsubstantiated hearsay."

To read these letters in their entirety, go to http://petekaraiskos.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html. To consider whether the situation discussed in these letters is part of a larger pattern, see, e.g.,"Our Experience", "Moms", "Pops", "Slaps", "Ex-Teacher", "Ex-Teacher 5", "Ex-Teacher 6", "Ex-Teacher 7", "Report Card", and "Coming Undone".

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“We are a group of teachers working associatively out of our dedication to the Waldorf Curriculum. Anthroposophy is the heart and foundation of our work.”  — Faculty of the Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School, February 14, 2011 [http://jobs.waldorfteachers.com/job/3919/]

Waldorf education does not simply stand upon Anthroposophy. Waldorf education is vitally connected to Anthroposophy. The heart of Waldorf education is an occult, pagan religion: Anthroposophy. [See, e.g., “Soul School”, “The Waldorf Teacher’s Consciousness”, "Curriculum", “Occultism”, and “Pagan”.]

We might prefer to hear Waldorf teachers state that they are dedicated to the welfare of children, and this — not Anthroposophy — is the "heart and foundation" of their work. Sometimes they do say such things, of course, and probably they make such statements sincerely. I just wish we could completely believe them. But sometimes their deeper objectives and loyalties are revealed. They do not intend to inflict harm on children (I have known Waldorf teachers who certainly loved their students), but to the degree that they are devoted to Steiner's doctrines, they inevitably — if unintentionally — threaten grave harm. When children are reared in an atmosphere of occult belief, they will almost inevitably be damaged. The Waldorf formula is love plus occultism. The formula we need is love plus sanity. [See, e.g., "Faculty Meetings", "Here's the Answer", "Spiritual Agenda", and "Secrets".]

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“One question that is often asked is: ‘Is a Waldorf school a religious school?’ The best answer I have heard is ‘Yes and No.’  It is not a religious school in the way that we commonly think of religion. There is no creed, no catechism, and no proselytizing. Neither are Waldorf schools sectarian, and for that reason they can thrive equally in a Buddhist country such as Japan or on a kibbutz in Israel.

“And yet, in a broad and universal way, the Waldorf school is essentially religious. The word religion comes from the Latin root religare, which means essentially to re-link. Young children are not yet un-linked from their spiritual connection ... For their continued spiritual development, children need only a little outward instruction. According to Rudolf Steiner, they simply need to be taught in a balanced three-dimensional way, one that develops head, heart, and hands to preserve their innate religious awareness.   Although the notion that a balanced education fosters spiritual awareness may seem simplistic, it is based on a theory of knowledge that is at the heart of the Waldorf approach.” — Waldorf teacher Jack Petrash, UNDERSTANDING WALDORF EDUCATION (Nova Institute, 2002), pp. 134-135.

There is much to quarrel with in Petrash’s statement. Anthroposophy is itself a sect; it certainly has a creed; and the chief proselytizing effort made by Anthroposophists is represented by Waldorf schools. [See “Is Anthroposophy a RelIgion?”, “Here’s the Answer”, “Spiritual Agenda”, and “Soul School”.] But the main point Petrash makes is certainly true. “[T]he Waldorf school is essentially religious.”

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“According to page 1 of my [Waldorf] exercise book, all races originate from a kind of primeval man, who lived ten thousand years ago in the central continent of Atlantis; which, however, had to perish 'because of abuse of the divine wisdom. On the bottom of the sea, one can still find the remains of this continent as a long extensive reef' ... 'With the first Southern races, the natural forces of earth and sun have worked to blacken their skins. With the Northern races, the inner forces of light became stronger, which made them whites.' 'The races became stuck at different stages in their development from childhood to old age.' Then comes a classification, linking the black race to childhood, the brown race to a fourteen year old, and the whites to all ages ... In this very chart, I thought the linking with parts of the body was as least as remarkable. According to the exercise book, each race corresponds to a part of the human body. Senses and brains are linked to whites, metabolism to blacks. And only the white person has a straight face. E.g., the yellow race has 'slanted eyes, a hollow face, flat nose, and coarse black hair.'

"... At a certain point, my defense of the school changes into pure anger. How dare they indoctrinate me with this? And why did the government and its inspectorate of education not finish this? An anger, which only increases, when today Anthroposophists, including a former teacher, keep defending this by hook and by crook." — Former Waldorf student Edwin Kreulen, “My Education Towards Racism”. 

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“The highest Ruler of Saturn, the Ego Spirit,* appears to us as the Father God, and the highest Ruler of Sun, the Sun-God, as the Christ. Similarly the Ruler of the Moon stage of Earth appears to us as the Holy Spirit with his hosts known in Christian esotericism as the Messengers of the Godhead, the angels.” — Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 100.

The Waldorf belief system is polytheistic. Rudolf Steiner taught that there are many gods, some higher than others. According to Steiner, the three persons of God worshipped by Christians are not, as Christians believe, members of a single God — they are three separate gods, whose headquarters are located in various celestial globes or periods. Christ, the highest of one subset of gods, came to Earth from the Sun. The Father God rules over Saturn, while the Holy Spirit presided over the Moon phase of evolution. (Jehovah — whom Steiner identified as a middling god — rules over Jews from the Moon, whereas Lucifer calls Venus home.) All of this is made a bit more complicated by Steiner’s use of such words as “Sun” and “Moon” to refer not just to places but also to stages of evolution (Old Sun, Old Moon). Put it this way: Steiner taught that various gods preside over different portions of the cosmos, both in space and time; we live, he said, in a universe fairly swarming with gods. In such a universe, monotheism is only a distant dream. 

“Monotheism or monism can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world, to a comprehensive, complete view of the world.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 115.

Steiner posited a hierarchy of gods, ranging from the Sons of Twilight (aka angels, who are just slightly superior to humans) upward to the virtually inaccessible “Godhead.” The Godhead, in Anthroposophical belief, is not the triune Christian God nor the Hebrew God, Jehovah. The Godhead is a trinity of sorts (Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu), but more generally it is a nebulous, unified creative force standing behind the evolution of the universe. It may be perceived as “divine will”. 

“[A] Christian** sees a mirror image of the Godhead, of divine will, in every single thing in the world. The universe contains the sacrificed Godhead, and this reflected image of the Godhead was called in esoteric Christianity ‘the kingdom’. What the kingdom meant to them was the divine will raying back to them multiplied a million times. The kingdom was the creative power of Atma, the living force of Buddhi in us, the creative force working in the outside world.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE LORD'S PRAYER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007), p. 64. 

Some of that language (Atma, Buddhi — derived from Hinduism) indicates how far Steiner strayed from Christian orthodoxy.

As for the origin of everything — which Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others attribute to the Creator God — Steiner threw up his hands. This is ironic. Anthroposophists often criticize modern science for not knowing (yet, anyway) how everything began (i.e., what caused the Big Bang), but Anthroposophy suffers from the same limitation. Steiner did not offer the usual, simple answer about the beginning of all things: He did not simply say that God created everything, and that's that. Yes, he said, the Godhead was the originating force, but matters are complex and cloudy, with no firm answer available to us. Our universe was preceded by earlier universes, Steiner indicated, but we shouldn’t try to go into this question. We cannot know the beginning, he said — raising the question simply takes us into an infinite regress. X caused Y, but what caused X? Perhaps W caused X. But what caused W? And what caused that? 

“In a purely intellectual way it is possible, of course, in the case of every given origin, to ask again after its origin ... [But in doing this] we only prolong questioning, as it were, mechanically ... [T]he facts themselves will put a natural end to questioning.” — Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1979), pp. 126-127. 

The “facts” are the doctrines Steiner presented. They put an end to questioning not because they answer the big question (how did it all start?) but because facts are facts, i.e., Steiner’s doctrines are Steiner’s doctrines, i.e., things are as they are. So we are silenced. Our questioning ends when we quit the pointless, mechanical activity of asking questions.

(Steiner was not always consistent on these — or any other — of his teachings. But no more questions!)

For more on all this, see “Polytheism”, “God”, and “Everything”. (The latter isn't quite as intimidating as the title makes out.)

* In Waldorf belief, the "ego" is the highest of our three invisible bodies. It is our spark of divinity, our ineffable, unique spiritual individuality. No one can know your ego except yourself, and it confers on you the power of self-definition. The ego incarnates on about your 21st birthday. In a manner of speaking, we were set on our path toward spiritual egohood by the god who oversaw the first stage of our evolution, the Ruler of Saturn, the Father God, who presided over Old Saturn. (We have evolved through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon stages. We are now in the Earth stage. We will proceed to Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. Yes, Vulcan. We will look further into our relationship to the Father in the next endnote.) We have developed egos only since arriving on Earth. 

"In the present earth evolution for the first time he [i.e., man] received his ego...." — Stewart C. Easton, MAN AND WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), p. 204. 

By this account, we receive the ego from the Spirits of Form, gods four levels above man (these gods are also referred to as Revelations, Exusiai, Elohim, Spirits of Light, and/or Powers). The timing of the development of the ego was altered, for reasons that need not detain us here. 

"The ego would have come to its full fruition about the middle of the earth evolution, and this had been the intention of the Spirits of Form or Elohim who endowed man with his ego." [Ibid.] 

("Elohim," as used in the Bible, is a single noun referring to God — Jehovah or Yahweh (YHWH). In Anthroposophy, it is a plural noun.)

** Steiner's use of the term "Christian" can be confusing. Sometimes he distinguished between Anthroposophy and Christianity, but more often he indicated that Anthroposophy embodies the truest form of Christianity (complete with numerous extra- or supra-Christian concepts such as polytheism, karma, and reincarnation). In most cases, Steiner "explained" Christianity in terms that mainstream Christians (Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists...) would recoil from. Here Steiner separates himself from Christianity (he speaks of what the Christian sees, not what "we" see; he tells what the esoteric Christians "called" things, not what he calls things), but he also redefines Christianity to suit himself, seeing in it what most Christians have never consciously seen ("the creative power of Atma, the living force of Buddhi"). Thus, reworking Christianity to fit his über-religion, Anthroposophy, Steiner endorses gnostic Christianity and its perceptions. For Steiner and his followers, the "Godhead" is both the beginning and, in a sense, the end of things. The Godhead gave an original impetus to evolution, and He stands at the end of our evolution — He sent us on our way and He is the ultimate goal we seek. 

"Adam was a son of the very Godhead. This means that he belonged to a time when humanity had just made the transition from a spiritual to a physical state." — Rudolf Steiner, ISIS MARY SOPHIA (SteinerBooks, 2003), p. 77. 

Here, the Godhead is nearly indistinguishable from the Father God, the Elohim of Saturn; the Godhead starts us along the path that descends into physical existence and later will rise again toward perfected spirituality. There is no One and Only God, according to Waldorf belief, but such a God may emerge eventually if the "ultimate ideal" of monotheism is realized. In our higher and higher future stages of evolution, as we approach ultimate divinity, we and the Godhead will converge. 

"[W]e shall draw ever nearer to the Godhead, and the Godhead will come ever closer to us." — Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND THEIR REFLECTION IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD (Anthroposophic Press, 1970) p. 126. 

We will, in a sense, realize or clothe the Godhead. Quoting Goethe, Steiner said:

"'I work to make/ The living garment of the divine.' The Godhead will wear this immortal garment when the Earth [i.e., evolution] has reached its completion. And it is on their upward path through their many incarnations, in passing through births and deaths, that each individual human being will have woven their share of the fabric of this garment." — Rudolf Steiner, THE LORD'S PRAYER, p. 60. 

And eventually we will, in a sense, become the Godhead — "the Father" lies ahead of us but He also has been inherent in us from the start. 

“[W]e shall have gradually achieved the transformation of our own being into what is called in Christianity ‘the Father.’ What lies hidden in the human soul, the highest goal that lies ahead of us, is 'the Father in heaven.'” [Ibid., p. 17.] 

Here, "the Father" is not a mere Spirit of Form, such as the Ruler of Saturn; here, "the Father" is the fulfillment of the Godhead. He is what we shall become. This is the grand vision of Anthroposophy. For orthodox Christians, it is blasphemy.

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“That's why I send her to a Waldorf school. She can have a religious experience. A religious experience. I'll say it again: I send my daughter to a Waldorf school so that she can have a religious experience. So that she learns something about reverence. So that she learns something about respecting a higher being. If she didn't learn that, she'd be out the door in a minute. I don't want her to go to a school that calls itself Waldorf, and denies her a religious experience.

“Somebody's gotta change their name! And I sure hope it isn't the Waldorf movement of independent schools. I think we owe it to our parents to let them know that the child is going to go through one religious experience after another. And if any of the teacher trainees in the room feel that I'm not saying that clearly enough to you, well, here it is, guys, if I haven't said it to you a hundred times already: when we deny that Waldorf schools are giving children religious experiences, we are denying the whole basis of Waldorf education.” — [T]ranscript of a talk by Waldorf educator Eugene Schwartz, who at the time was head of Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge College. He lost his position soon after making these remarks. He was, perhaps, a bit too outspoken. [http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/schwartz.html.]

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“Rudolf Steiner was forced to ask why it was that no one seemed to be able to hear what could be done to form a truly new society, a truly human society. He concluded that no one could hear him because the education people had been given left them unable to consider, and therefore unable to work with, anything not based in familiar routine.” — Robert F. Lathe and Nancy Parsons Whittaker, introduction to THE SPIRIT OF THE WALDORF SCHOOL, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1995), a collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, p. xii.

This provides a telling, if incomplete, account of the impulse behind Waldorf schools. Rudolf Steiner decided that people could not hear him because of the way they had been educated, so he decided to create a new form of education, what we now know as Waldorf or Steiner education, to produce people who would be able to hear him.

Steiner education does not absolutely pound the doctrines of Rudolf Steiner’s occultism — that is, Anthroposophy — into the heads of the students. But Steiner education softens the children’s heads so that Anthroposophical attitudes and beliefs will find welcome within.

Waldorf schools guide students from the familiar, real world into an enticing fantasy universe. They place great emphasis on myths and legends; they emphasize imagination and intuition while downplaying intellect; they admire the “wisdom” of the ancients while disparaging modern science and technology; they stress feeling over thinking; they minimize academics; they encourage a soft, sweet, fuzzy romanticism. All of this leads children not quite through the doorway into Anthroposophy, but it ushers them right up to the doorstep. Steiner’s aim was to educate people in such as way that they would not only “hear” his occult fantasies, but stand ready to embrace them. [See “Curriculum”, “The Gods”, “Magical Arts”, “Thinking Cap”, and “Spiritual Agenda” — especially the section “We Don’t Teach It”.]

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“We can observe the child’s growth until the time of its second dentition around the seventh year. Far more than one generally thinks is connected with this second dentition. If we observe the soul-bodily processes in an unprejudiced way, we can see that after the second dentition the child’s whole way of thinking, its whole life of representation and feeling, in fact the whole life of the soul, undergoes a complete change.” — Rudolf Steiner, PATHS TO KNOWLEDGE OF HIGHER WORLDS (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1947), GA 79.

A child’s seventh birthday is highly important in Waldorf schools. At age seven, Waldorf teachers generally believe, a child’s "etheric body" is incarnated. The child then moves from the first stage of growth (a period of seven years during which the will and the physical body predominate) into the second stage (a period of seven years during which the emotions predominate and the etheric body is developed). The Waldorf lower-school curriculum is built around this concept.*

Several problems leap out. For one, there is no such thing as an etheric body. For another, there is no objective evidence that “the child’s whole way of thinking” changes at or around the seventh birthday. And for yet another, the notion that the “second dentition” (i.e., the replacement of baby teeth by adult teeth) occurs at or around age seven is incorrect. Most adult teeth don’t arrive until about age 11, and some don’t arrive until age 21.**

Even if we extend every possible courtesy to Steiner, stipulating that by “second dentition” he meant the arrival of the first adult tooth — which on average happens between ages six and seven — our main objections remain. There is no etheric body, nor is there any reason to think that children change profoundly when the adult teeth start appearing.***

So why all the fuss at Waldorf schools about age seven? Steiner liked to create groupings of seven and twelve because he claimed that these numbers possess occult, magical significance. [See “Magic Numbers”.] Thus, Steiner built the Waldorf curriculum around the number seven. But dividing things according to occult fantasies about numbers is arbitrary and meaningless. Steiner was making things up, spinning them out of his occult imagination, with no regard for reality or truth. If he believed his teachings on such points, he was deluding himself — just as his followers delude themselves now in accepting his teachings.

The truth about the design of the Waldorf curriculum is plain. The design is truthless (or should I say toothless?). In truth, there is no truth in it.

*  The upper-school curriculum is built around the idea that a second fundamental change occurs in children at age 14. At that time, according to Waldorf belief, the "astral body" incarnates.

**  See, for instance, the “Permanent Tooth Eruption Chart” put out by the American Dental Association. It shows that various adult (“permanent”) teeth come in (“erupt”) at various times, from around the sixth year of life up to around the 21st year. [http://www.ada.org/sections/publicResources/pdfs/chart_eruption_perm.pdf] Using the data provided by this dental authority, we can see that the average date for the arrival of an adult tooth is slightly less than 11 years, which is more than half way into the Waldorf-fantasized second stage of childhood (ages 7-14).

*** We have bent over too far to accommodate Steiner. Note the following: “[I] the first seven-year period of life, between birth and the change of teeth, man develops principally the physical body.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 68. Here, Steiner is clearly saying that adult teeth replace baby teeth ("the change of teeth") at age seven, as if the entire process is completed at that time.

Let’s look a bit more deeply into Steiner’s dental doctrines. Steiner taught that the arrival of adult teeth marks a stage when various forces that had been needed by the physical body can be redirected to higher purposes. “After the second dentition, the human being no longer requires certain forces for the development of his physical organism which he formerly required. The forces which push out (if I may use this trivial expression) the second teeth are not merely localised in the human head, but they are forces which work in the whole body....” — Rudolf Steiner, PATHS TO KNOWLEDGE OF HIGHER WORLDS. But the forces that "push out" the adult teeth have by no means finished this work by age seven. Unfortunately for Steiner's teachings and the Waldorf curriculum [see "Curriculum"], the forces that “push out” adult teeth are still slaving away in the physical body until about age 21, which is the end of the Waldorf-fantasized third stage of childhood (ages 14-21). In sum, Steiner’s numbers don’t add up. Or, to frame this more broadly, Steiner used little or no real information to reach conclusions that make little or no sense.

(P.S. The Waldorf conception of the third stage of childhood may seem to make more sense than the conception of the first two stages. Stage #3 corresponds, roughly, to the period beginning with puberty and ending with the attainment of adulthood. But in reality puberty comes at widely varying ages for different individuals, and the threshold of adulthood is a legal or cultural convention — different societies draw the line at different ages.)

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“Six Facts You Need to Know about Steiner Education ... Steiner fact 1: Steiner’s esoteric belief system, which determines the nature of Steiner education, is a religion ... Steiner fact 2: The Steiner movement has some of the characteristics of a cult ... Steiner fact 3: Steiner’s religion dictates his educational doctrines ... Steiner fact 4: Steiner education is not evidence-based ... Steiner fact 5: Steiner education is not friendly to parents ... Steiner fact 6: There are racist undertones in Steiner’s writings.” — Ian Robinson, Rationalist Society of Australia. http://www.rationalist.com.au/.

For the complete text of Robinson’s essay, see “Six Facts”.

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“My partner and I are already in the process of applying for a place for my 9 year old daughter to get into the local Steiner school and only 2 days ago stumbled on towaldorfeducation.me, waldorfcritics and PLANS. WOW!! I am in a state of shock and also very upset. Is this where the dream ends??"  — Plea sent to the Waldorf Critics discussion group. 

For a summary of the resulting discussion, see "Help!"

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“Waldorf schools present themselves as aimed at a ‘holistic’, child-centred and age-appropriate education towards freedom. This depiction is misleading, since for anthroposophists, these words have very specific meanings that cannot be easily inferred by an outsider if he has not been initiated into Steiner’s occult teachings. Freedom means freedom for anthroposophy. Child-centred and age-appropriate refer to anthroposophical dogmas on childhood development, depending on mumbo-jumbo conceptions surrounding the number 7.” — Peter Bierl, “A Pedagogy for Aryans” [http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/BierlFinal.htm]

People who attended Waldorf schools are sometimes praised for having “interesting minds.” They are “original” thinkers; they "think outside the box.” This sounds fine, and it would seem to support the claim that Waldorf schools prepare students to make original, free choices in their adult lives. But what outsiders see in Waldorf grads is not so much originality as the product of an unconventional form of mental training. Waldorf students are taught to rely on their imaginations and intuitions, to “feel” more than “think.” Ultimately, Waldorf teachers believe in clairvoyance, not rational thought, and the effects of this belief trickle down into the consciousness of Waldorf students. [See “Thinking Cap” and “Steiner’s Specific”.]

What does this mean for freedom? Waldorf teachers want their students to reject normal thinking and normal values. They believe that most of modern culture is wicked, most of modern technology is demonic, and most of modern science is wrong. The “freedom” they advocate is the freedom to reject convention and even rationality. What they want is for people to start choosing the one true path, unconventional though it is: the path of Anthroposophy. 

For freedom to be meaningful, we must have a variety of potentially good choices to select from — each person can opt for what s/he wants while others make other choices. But this is not what Waldorf education contemplates (even if some Waldorf teachers think it is). We have only two real choices, according to Anthroposophical teachings, and only one of them is good. We may “freely” choose to follow the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and his adherents, in which case we will evolve to marvelous spiritual heights; or we may “freely” turn our backs on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and his adherents, in which case we will — sooner or later — lose our souls. This paradigm abolishes freedom. We can go one way and live, or go the other way and die. No sane person would take the second option, which means that all sane people are compelled to take the first option.* [See “Freedom” and “Hell”.]

Waldorf faculties attempt to train children in unconventional forms of thought, inculcating unconventional values while directing kids toward unconventional life journeys. The freedom Waldorf schools want to promote is the freedom for Waldorf students and graduates to choose the Waldorf religion.

(Returning to Bierl’s statement, above: He mentions the Waldorf conception of “holistic” schooling and the strange power of the number 7. You can get a taste of Waldorf’s unconventionality by looking into “Holistic Education”, “Magic Numbers”, and “Most Significant”.)

* Anthroposophical thinking allows a slight bit of wriggle room — very slight. You can elect a form of Anthroposophy that is a bit more gnostic, or one that is a bit more Rosicrucian, or a bit more Hindu-ish, or a bit more Buddhist-ish — but these are minor shadings. Anthroposophists believe, for instance, that all “true” forms of spiritual science must recognize the central importance of Christ. (So much for overly Hindu-ish or Buddhist-ish approaches.) And Christ must be recognized as the Sun God. (So much for mainstream Christianity. [See “Sun God”].) Very little variation is permissible. The path suited to modern humans, Steiner said, is the Rosicrucian/Anthroposophical path. Those who take this path are less dependent on a guru than if they were to take other paths, but still the ultimate options available are just two: 1) Anthroposophy, advancement, life or 2) anti-Anthroposophy, doom, death.

Steiner did not hesitate to speak of “the path” — the one and only good choice. “Those who come to me wanting to hear the truths available through esotericism and nevertheless refuse to walk the path are like schoolchildren who want to electrify a glass rod and refuse to rub it. But, without friction, the rod will not be charged with electricity. This is similar to the objection raised against the practice of esotericism.” — Rudolf Steiner, FIRST STEPS IN INNER DEVELOPMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1999), p. 25. You can’t electrify the glass rod without rubbing it; you can’t hear “the truths” without walking “the path.” Steiner goes on to say “No one tells you to become an esotericist. People come to esotericism of their own volition.” [Ibid.] There, volition: freedom! But what happens to those who don’t walk the path? Their doom is terrible. [See “Sphere 8”.] Only those who want to see mankind destroyed refuse to accept Steiner’s one-true-way: “[O]nly those who are willing to see human beings pass into the Eighth Sphere [i.e., perdition] can have any valid objection to this spiritual-scientific Movement.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE OCCULT MOVEMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973), lecture 5, GA 254.

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“You ask me to define ‘anthroposophy.’ But to do so would be to destroy it.” — Waldorf educator John Fentress Gardner, private correspondence.

Waldorf teachers generally acknowledge that their educational methods arise from Anthroposophy, but they very often try to avoid explaining what Anthroposophy is.

This is — at least sometimes — a conscious ploy, an effort to stave off scrutiny. Waldorf education is built on many occult beliefs, and Waldorf teachers often realize that they must not admit this in public. As Rudolf Steiner said, “[W]e have to remember that an institution like the Independent Waldorf School with its anthroposophical character, has goals that, of course, coincide with anthroposophical desires. At the moment, though, if that connection were made official, people would break the Waldorf School’s neck." [Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 495.] So mum’s the word.

At another level, however, the disinclination to pin down the meaning of “Anthroposophy” is genuine and heartfelt.

Anthroposophists believe that their system is a living, evolving spiritual force that transcends ordinary human concepts and categories. Possibly they are right about this. (And possibly they are wrong. One definition of “Anthroposophy” that Anthroposophists usually reject but that is often borne out in practice is this: “Anthroposophy is what Rudolf Steiner taught.” Whereas Anthroposophists like to think that they are free to attain their own spiritual insights and thus create their own forms of Anthroposophy, to a very large extent what they really do is to take their beliefs from Steiner’s lectures and books.)

The practical problem in all of this, if you are interested in Waldorf schools, is that you can hardly form a sensible judgment about the schools if the faculties refuse to explain their fundamental worldview. So allow me, please, to offer the following. It is by no means complete, but it is sufficiently accurate that many Anthroposophists themselves would likely accept it. 

Anthroposophy was conceived by Rudolf Steiner, the author of such books as OCCULT SCIENCE and HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDS. The word comes from the Greek and means “human” (anthropo) “wisdom” (sophia). How is this wisdom obtained? Through the use of “spiritual science,” a concept that Steiner adopted from Theosophy and applied to his own teachings. For Anthroposophists today, “Anthroposophy” and “spiritual science” are virtually synonymous. The “science” Steiner described (and that many Waldorf teachers try to practice) is the use of clairvoyance to gain “objective” knowledge of the spirit realm and its residents — including human beings, since we are essentially spirits (we visit the spirit realm every night, and we reside there between our earthly incarnations). 

Perhaps you believe in the spirit realm. Perhaps you believe in clairvoyance. Perhaps you think that by sharpening your own clairvoyance you can attain what Steiner called “exact clairvoyance,” which will allow you to make independent, objective investigations of the spirit realm. If so, fine. Then the Waldorf way of thinking is probably acceptable to you. 

In any event, you should know what Steiner's followers mean when they speak (or whisper) the word “Anthroposophy” inside a Waldorf school. Don’t quietly allow Waldorf teachers to avoid your questions. Most of the activities found in Waldorf schools have their roots in Anthroposophy. Waldorf teachers owe you and your child an honest exposition of this crucial fact.

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“My personal experience with Waldorf was very confusing. Instead of the progressive and liberal alternative school I was led to expect by the school's promotional materials and staff, I discovered a rigid, authoritarian environment that seemed to be rooted in a medieval dogma that I did not understand. When, in an effort to make sense of things, I asked questions about this, I found Waldorf teachers to be strangely defensive.

“I was stunned to arrive at the conclusion that the education of children — at least as I use the term ‘education’ — did not seem to be the school's most important focus and objective. But what was?

“I began to ask questions. What is Anthroposophy? Why don't teachers allow students in the preschool through the early elementary grades to use black crayons in their drawings? Why do students use the wet-on-wet watercolor painting technique exclusively for so many years? Why is mythology taught as history? Where is the American flag, and why don't Waldorf schools teach civics lessons in America? In a school system that promotes itself as 'education toward freedom,' why do students copy everything from the blackboard? Why do Waldorf teachers talk in high voices and sing-song directions to their classes? Why must the kindergarten room walls be painted 'peach blossom'? Why is learning to read before the age of 8 or 9 considered unhealthy? Why do so many Waldorf classes have problems with bullying, and what is the school's policy for dealing with this? Why are teachers always lighting candles?

“What answers I received were not forthright, and the teachers made it clear that my questions were not welcome. They told me, 'If you understood Anthroposophy, you wouldn't be asking that question.' Yet before we enrolled, I was told that the school was non-sectarian and that Anthroposophy was not 'in the classroom!' I was eventually invited to leave.” — Debra Snell, president of People for Legal and Nonsectarian Schools (PLANS).

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“The success of Waldorf Education, Rudolf Steiner [said], can be measured in the life force attained. Not acquisition of knowledge and qualifications, but the life force is the ultimate goal of this school.” — Peter Selg, THE ESSENCE OF WALDORF EDUCATION (SteinerBooks, 2010)‚ p. 30.

When thinking about Waldorf schools, you should always remember that the primary goal of these schools is not to give children a good education (“not acquisition of knowledge and qualifications”). The schools exist to support the religion of Anthroposophy, and they seek to steer students and their families toward the “living” spiritual forces and beings described by Rudolf Steiner. The schools often pursue these goals surreptitiously; they often deny what they are doing; but this is indeed what they are doing.

Another point needs to be made. When the schools pursue their occult purposes without the knowledge and explicit consent of the students’ parents, their actions are profoundly immoral. Waldorf faculties rationalize their behavior, believing that they are fulfilling a higher morality, implementing the messianic mission of Anthroposophy. But few parents will be appeased when they learn of such actions and rationalizations.

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“What about the speed of the stars? How fast do they appear to move in their courses?” — Waldorf educator Hermann von Baravalle, ASTRONOMY - An Introduction, Waldorf Curriculum Series (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1991, revised 2000 by Norman Davidson), p. 7.

The speed of the stars! Now there’s a fascinating subject, one that good teachers could use to great advantage, stimulating the minds and stretching the imaginations of their students. All the stars in our galaxy orbit the galactic center. How fast are they going? How fast, for instance, is our Sun moving? Do different stars move at different speeds? Why? This is exciting material. And there’s plenty more. Not all of the lights we see in the night sky are stars; some are planets. How fast are the various planets moving as they circle the Sun? In addition to stars and planets, there are still other lights in the sky, especially galaxies — huge pinwheels and platters and globes of stars, far far away. How fast are these moving toward or away from us? Almost every child would love to explore such questions.

Unfortunately, in his teachers’ guide — intended to show Waldorf teachers how to present astronomy to sixth graders — Hermann von Baravalle avoids these questions. Science classes at Waldorf schools often shortchange students by offering minimal information about the real universe, and this astronomy course follows the Waldorf pattern. The stellar speed von Baravalle refers to is the apparent motion of the stars (“How fast do they appear to move?”), which is an illusion caused by the spinning of the Earth. And the “courses” he mentions are illusory paths, also caused by the Earth's motions. Von Baravalle focuses not on the actual universe but on the subjective view students may obtain by gazing upward without knowing what they are seeing. And von Baravalle does not propose to provide kids with much real information that would enable them to know what they are seeing.

Von Baravalle calls every light in the night sky a “star” (e.g., “The brightest of stars is Venus.” — p. 35). Von Baravalle distinguishes only slightly between stars and planets, accepting the ancient view that planets are "wandering stars."* Nor does he provide much information about the size or composition of the things we see in the night sky, their true motions, their distance from the Earth, and so forth. He does, however, provide a chapter on the signs of the zodiac. A student studying astronomy in this, the Waldorf way, will come out of the class with virtually no real knowledge. Are stars bigger than planets? Are stars closer to us than planets or farther away? What are stars made of? What are planets made of? Are there different kinds of the planets? How many stars are there? How many planets do we know about? You can continue this list yourself. Think of any question that a student might ask concerning the real objects in the sky. In all probability, a Waldorf astronomy course will skimp on the answers.

The occult rationale for the course von Baravalle outlines is that sixth graders recapitulate the mental and spiritual condition of ancient Romans, and therefore sixth graders today should know only as much as the ancient Romans knew. (I kid you not.) All grades at Waldorf schools are meant to help kids pass through particular spiritual-evolutionary stages. But the Waldorf view of evolution (beginning on Old Saturn and moving toward Future Vulcan) is a fantasy, unsupported by any objectively verifiable information. The association of various childhood ages with various stage of human evolution is likewise unfounded. And here we see an example of the harm that can result — twenty-first century children are denied twenty-first century information. Instead, they are restricted to ancient ignorance. 

A six grader is certainly capable of comprehending real information about stars and planets. Indeed, a third grader is. But at Waldorf schools, such information is largely withheld in deference to Rudolf Steiner and his fabulous untruths. [For more on this, see “Oh My Stars”. Also relevant are "Curriculum", "Astrology", "Astrosophy", "Star Power", "Planetary Humans", and "Everything".]

* Here is the beginning of chapter 7, "Observing the Planets - Flexibility in the Cosmos:  Five 'stars', different from all the others, appear at times in the night sky. All five shine brightly at night in some months ... These five special stars include the brightest of all stars ... The brightest of stars is Venus." [p. 35.] We might note that there are really eight planets, not five. The brightest real star visible in the sky is Sirius. Moreover, some of the "stars" we see with our naked eyes are really nebulas and galaxies. The closest large galaxy in the sky is Andromeda. Von Baravelle is mum about all this.

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“If you recall the teachings of Spiritual Science on the subject of the education of the child you will know that in the first seven-year period of life, between birth and the change of teeth, man develops principally the physical body ... [T]his is really a recapitulation of what man underwent on Old Saturn ... The second of the seven-year periods from the ages of seven to fourteen...is a recapitulation of what man underwent on Old Sun ... The third seven-year period covers the years between fifteen and twenty-one. During this period man recapitulates the development of the astral body that normally belongs to the Old Moon epoch.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 68.

Waldorf schooling has only a tangential connection with the real world and real knowledge about the real world. Much if not all of what happens in Waldorf schools is keyed to bizarre occult doctrines.

Allow me to try, in as few words as possible, to explain the Waldorf conception of humanity’s past. Thus far, we have evolved through three “Conditions of Consciousness” or “Planetary Stages” — i.e., major evolutionary phases — which are named for "planets" (Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon). We became progressively more physical at each stage, and now on Earth we are about as densely physical as possible. In the future, we will become less and less physical and more and more spiritual as we evolve through additional Conditions of Consciousness (Future Jupiter, Future Venus, Future Vulcan, and beyond).

Each Condition of Consciousness contains seven Conditions of Life, each of which contains seven Stages of Form, each of which contains seven Epochs, each of which contains seven Ages. (The terms vary from Condition to Condition, but the pattern does not.*) As we move along through these stages and sub-stages, we repeatedly recapitulate — in altered form — the stages and sub-stages we passed through previously. Cumulatively, we progress, although certainly not in a straight line. We sharpen our capacities, and develop new capacities, as we go, so that in the future we may rise to higher and higher states of perfection.

In our current Earth Condition of Consciousness we are now in the fourth Condition of Life, the Mineral Condition (very densely physical indeed). Like all the other Conditions of Life, the Mineral Condition contains Stages of Form ranging from Higher Spiritland to the Archetypal Stage of Higher Spiritland (a recapitulation with improvements). We are presently in the Physical Stage of Form (very very densely physical indeed indeed).

There are or will be seven Epochs or Great Epochs in this Stage of Form. So far we have passed through the Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, and Atlantean Epochs. We are currently in the Post-Atlantean Epoch (i.e., the period following the sinking of Atlantis — yes, Atlantis).

Each Epoch consists of (you guessed it) seven sub-epochs. In our Post-Atlantean Epoch, these sub-epochs are called Cultural Ages or Cultural Epochs. Our current Cultural Epoch — known as the Anglo-Germanic Age, or simply as the Present  — falls between the Greco-Roman and the Russian Cultural Epochs. (Don't worry — the Russian Age will be followed by the American Age.)

Cultural Epochs are divided into fairly brief (350-year) periods, which in turn are divided into very brief (33-year) cycles. (The math doesn't quite work out, but let it go.) Each Condition and Epoch and period along the way is presided over by various gods, and during each we spin through repetitions (with improvements) of all the prior Conditions and Epochs and periods.

OK? Got it? Few Waldorf teachers will lay out much of this for the students, at least not openly. But this is what devout Waldorf teachers believe and, directly or indirectly, it informs almost all of their work. [If you’d like more information on all of this imaginary history — which Anthroposophists take for reality — see, e.g., “Matters of Form” and “Everything”. “Steiner Static” and the “Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia” are also, I hope, informative.]

* Different labels may apply to some of these subdivisions in some macro-devisions. We can be a little loose in our terminology, since all of this is fantasy.

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“When a foundation of observation and disciplined thinking is established, the [Waldorf] high school science teacher now introduces a new type of thinking ... [T]his 'new' thinking is called phenomenological thinking ... [F]irst a phenomenon is carefully observed; second, the rigors and laws of thinking and science are applied...third, everything up to now is laid to rest, the mind is cleared, and the phenomenon itself is allowed to speak. The student observes what comes forward while keeping the mind from straying ... This activity opens on up to new possibilities ... This type of thinking is freed from the senses and allows the universe to speak through the individual. It is a type of thinking which is truly moral and can be the fertile ground for the 'new' science of the twenty-first century." — Waldorf teacher David S. Mitchell, THE WONDERS OF WALDORF CHEMISTRY (Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, 2004), pp. 12-13.

The "new" thinking is a form of meditation ("the mind is cleared...keeping the mind from straying"). It is the sort of thinking Steiner advocated for attaining clairvoyant powers. It is "freed from the senses" because Steiner taught that clairvoyance is seated not in the physical brain but in nonphysical organs of clairvoyance. 

Waldorf students who attempt the "new" kind of thinking may not leap straight to clairvoyance (in reality, they cannot, since clairvoyance is a fantasy). But by using "phenomenological thinking" as described by Mitchell, they will be on their way (or so their Waldorf teachers hope). Phenomena and/or the universe itself will "speak through the individual" as through a clairvoyant or seer.

The thinking Mitchell refers to is hardly new. It is an approach advocated by the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and embraced by Steiner. [See "Goethe".] So-called "Goethean science" is meant to be an alternative and corrective to conventional science. And as Steiner arranged matters, Goethean science leads to "spiritual science," i.e. Steiner's own doctrines, i.e. Anthroposophy. 

"[T]he science [Steiner] spoke of was not conventional science of the abstract mechanical-materialist type. Modern science in this sense was, in fact, a deviation ... The corrective was to create an alternative science based on different assumptions." — Christopher Bamford, introducing Steiner's WHAT IS ANTHROPOSOPHY? (Anthroposophic Press, 2002), p. 19.

But Goethean science is not real science at all; it is a misconstruction of scientific procedures and values. In this sense (pace Bamford), the form of "science" found in Waldorf schools is a deviation from truth and the search for truth. Yet it is close to the heart of the Waldorf enterprise. Waldorf schools try to inculcate a meditative form of thought that leads students toward accepting Anthroposophy. Students taking a class that may seem to be conventional science (chemistry) wind up being introduced to a form of thinking that leads them into Goethean science ("Waldorf chemistry") and, by indirection, on to "spiritual science" (Anthroposophy). Waldorf schools exist to promote Anthroposophy. This is what Mitchell and Bamford and Steiner have told us, without meaning to be quite so direct about it. (Although sometimes they have come close. 

"Anthroposophy will be in the school when it is objectively justified, that is, when it is called for by the material itself.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 495. 

And when will the material — seen through the "new" way of thinking — call for it? Just about always.)

[To go into this more deeply, see "Steiner's 'Science'"; scroll down to "Mitchell".]

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Today we’ll take a break from serious matters and just enjoy the spectacle of Rudolf Steiner being unintentionally silly. All of the following quotations come from FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophical Press, 1998).

So let’s hear Steiner out on the pressing issue of stenography, the use of shorthand. Stenography is the epitome of Ahrimanism, Steiner said. One possible response we might make to this surprising proposition is “WTF”? But let’s take the high road. In the Waldorf belief system, Ahriman is the arch-demon of technology, deceit, and intellect, among other ills. [See “Ahriman”.] According to Steiner, stenography is a step down the slippery Ahrimanic slope leading to telephones and who know what else. (If Steiner had been clairvoyant, as he claimed, he might have mentioned TVs and computers — Ahrimanic devices deplored in most Waldorf schools today — but on these he remained mum. But telephones!) So, stenography is as evil as evil can be. And therefore, Dr. Steiner concluded, Waldorf students should learn it, or some of them should, or some of them may, and certainly the students should not question the decisions made for them by their wise teachers.

June 17, 1921   “If we add stenography to our curriculum, we need to start now ... We need to ask ourselves if we should use these two periods a week to teach stenography in the tenth grade ...  I think the Gabelsberger method would do the least damage. If only stenography had never been created! But now that it exists, people cannot live without it, just like the telephone. Well, Gabelsberger it is. Two periods of stenography.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 276.

November 16, 1921   “You should learn stenography in your sleep, that is without any particular concentration. Teaching stenography at all is basically barbaric. It is the epitome of Ahrimanism ...  It is simply all nonsense. It is cultural nonsense that people do stenography. “ — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 300.

June 20, 1922   “[T]his class needs to learn bookbinding, and that they should also study waterwheels and turbines, and also papermaking. All this could be done in technology class ... Religion, music, and stenography remain as they were....”  — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 353.

October 28, 1922   “There are a number of reasons why [stenography] should be required. Stenography only begins in the tenth grade. We could change things so that they have stenography for one period a week in the afternoons, but it would be required. It would be quite good if the children learned stenography.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 426.

December 9, 1922   “I know stenography can be learned in nothing flat, without much homework ... The students do not need to consider the question, ‘Why do I need to learn this?’ ... [I]f you want to be an artist...you may well need stenography. There was once a poet, Hamerling, who once said he could not have become what he was without stenography. We must learn to teach so that as soon as the teacher says something, the children become interested.”  — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, pp. 475-476.

June 2, 1924   “The only thing we can do is to make stenography an elective ... We are teaching the best stenographic system, Gabelsberger’s, and it is obligatory because in our modern times it is needed for a complete education. I do not think it is prejudice at all. It is the only system that has some inner coherence. The others are all simply artificial. We need to think about having this class in a lower grade [i.e., before tenth grade].”

So, there you have it. We’ve looked at stenography from both sides now — it is the epitome of Ahrimanism, or, no, it is just nonsensical; it is terribly evil, or, no, it is artistically necessary (think of Hamerling!); it should be elective, unless, no, it remains obligatory; it should be offered only in tenth grade, unless, no, it is required earlier. I hope this is all clear.

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“This notion, that imagination is the heart of learning, animates the entire arc of Waldorf teaching.” — Todd Oppenheimer, “Schooling the Imagination”, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, September, 1999.

Waldorf schools emphasize imagination. They display “imaginative” art and they encourage “imaginative” play. What they don’t usually spell out is the reason for this emphasis. In the Waldorf belief system, imagination is the first stage on the path toward clairvoyance. The stages are imagination, inspiration, intuition, clairvoyance, and “exact” clairvoyance.* Rudolf Steiner claimed to use exact clairvoyance. (Hence, very few of his teachings can be disputed, since he knew the exact Truth.) The forms of imagination, etc., attainable now by Waldorf students pale in comparison to the perfected forms that can be attained by initiates and that all humanity will attain in the future, according to Steiner. 

These stages are spiritual — they are not seated in the brain but in invisible spiritual “organs.” The brain is held in low esteem at Waldorf schools. The use of the brain — in particular, disciplined, rational use of the brain, that is, intellect — is faulty, Steiner taught. At most, the brain can tell us about the physical plane of existence — the lowest and least important plane. For higher cognition, we have to turn to clairvoyance and its precursors. In stressing imagination, inspiration, and so forth, Waldorf teachers attempt to deflect students from rationality, thereby opening the portals to the worlds beyond our own.

Believe it or not, what I have described just now is one of the central (but generally concealed) pillars of Waldorf belief. We have this on the highest authority. Consider the following:

“These things can, of course, be truly observed only when we press forward to the mode of cognition I described previously as the first stage of exact clairvoyance, imaginative knowledge. The abstract, intellectual knowledge of the human being that is common today does not lead to this other knowledge. Thought must come to life from within, and become imaginative, so that through thought as such, one can really understand. Nothing can be truly understood through intellectual thinking; its objects all remain external.”  — Rudolf Steiner, A MODERN ART OF EDUCATION, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 2004),  p. 60.

Steiner was emphatic: 

“The artistic element, then, begins to be the guide to the first stage of exact clairvoyance — that of imagination.”  — Rudolf Steiner, A MODERN ART OF EDUCATION, p. 64.

And he laid out the succeeding stages. Concerning the second stage, he said:

“If one goes beyond imagination and reaches the second stage of exact clairvoyance (described in greater detail in my books), one attains inspiration — perception of independent spirit, no longer connected to the physical body.” — Rudolf Steiner, A MODERN ART OF EDUCATION, p. 66.

We could trace this further, but since Steiner wanted you to search out (and, presumably, buy) his books, perhaps we shouldn’t. So round up his books and settle down for a good read. Particularly interesting are the books in the series Foundations of Waldorf Education. Waldorf teachers study these books intently. Before sending a child to a Waldorf school, perhaps you should, too.

* These terms merge and mingle, and various Anthroposophical accounts conflict with one another to various degrees. Imagination, inspiration, and intuition may be considered precursors to clairvoyance, or they may be deemed actual forms of clairvoyance. Under the latter interpretation, intuition is often deemed to be full-blown clairvoyance, which when perfected becomes exact clairvoyance. Steiner said that clairvoyance is exact when it is disciplined and precise, as he claimed his was. If the goal of mental and spiritual training is to attain exact clairvoyance, then disciplined imagination, inspiration, and intuition can be considered stages of exact clairvoyance — which is how Steiner describes them in statements we will consider here.

Things get muddier when we consider the sorts of "imagination," etc., stressed by Waldorf schools for the students. The kids are not taught the techniques of exact clairvoyance or, indeed, any form of clairvoyance, defined literally. But they are shepherded onto a path that is supposed to lead to clairvoyance. Note that the Steiner statements we have considered come from a book about education. 

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“Steiner presents us with a paradox. His belief system is so eccentric, so unsupported by evidence, so manifestly bizarre, that rational skeptics are bound to consider it delusional.” — Anthony Storr, FEET OF CLAY: A Study of Gurus (Free Press Paperbacks, 1996), p. 68.

There’s really no paradox. At most, there’s a minor mystery: How can anyone take Steiner seriously, given that his teachings are “so eccentric, so unsupported by evidence, so manifestly bizarre”?

Unfortunately, human beings have an enormous appetite for the bizarre. [See “Why? Oh Why? Oh Why? Oh Why?” and “Inside Scoop”]. Many people want to believe in the strange and the marvelous. And Steiner fed this appetite. He perfected a persona that conferred spurious plausibility to his remarks — smart, poised, charismatic, he wowed his audiences with polysyllabic fantasies masquerading as facts. His sophistry was and remains, for many, impenetrable. (Steiner can be understood. The question is whether you see any point in expending the needed effort.) Intentionally or not, Steiner was a flimflam man par excellence.

Here’s Steiner in full rhetorical flight; he soars very nearly into the realm of laughable double-talk: 

“If, as I have already mentioned in this connection, you study Goethe’s Theory of Color, namely, the physiological-didactic portion, then you will see that since Goethe encompasses the deeper aspect of sight, he can observe sympathy and antipathy in the nuances of color. You need only penetrate the activity of a sense organ a little to immediately see how sympathy and antipathy arise in sensing. Antipathy originates in the cognitive aspect, in the conceptual aspect, in the nerves; sympathy originates in the will aspect, in the blood.”  — Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 96.

We can’t know whether, when he spoke this way, Steiner thought he was speaking truthfully. What we can know is that his faithful followers have accepted his lectures as marvelous vessels of well-nigh incomprehensible wisdom. And think about this: The statement I have quoted comes from a lecture that Waldorf teachers consider foundational. They believe that such lectures 

“provide an anthropological basis for understanding the soul, spirit, and bodily nature of the human being. Thereby we come to realize that these challenging, difficult concepts are what made possible the development of a radically new approach to education....” — Henry Barnes, introduction to THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, Foundations of Waldorf Education, p. 14. 

Finally, think about this: Some of the people who accept Steiner’s lectures as truth hold key positions on Waldorf faculties. They do not understand that Steiner’s system is bizarre, eccentric, and unsupported. They embrace Steiner’s system. And they are eager take extend its imaginary benefits to you and your children.

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“A horde of fourth grade berserkers rise from the darkness of the hall to stamp onto the stage ... [The child who plays the Norse god] Thor, though one of the smallest in the class, has an enormous voice to match the famous Thor’s Hammer ... The bit where Thor...knocks the taunting warriors off their benches in well choreographed waves of destruction, is particularly impressive ... [E]ach festival is embedded in a cycle of festivals which...express the inner mood of the spiritual calendar ... [F]estivals are also linked to the intuitive realm of the future. In an age in which traditional forms of ritual and community are fading, the Steiner Waldorf Schools strive to cultivate a new, free consciousness of time, human development and community.”  — Christopher Clouder and Martyn Rawson, WALDORF EDUCATION - Rudolf Steiner’s Ideas in Practice (Floris Books, 1998), pp. 10-16.

The festivals at Waldorf schools are meant to be attractive and festive. Often they are used as PR devices, charming parents and attracting new families to the fold. (Violence is sometimes depicted — the myths celebrated in Waldorf schools are often very violent — but only in "choreographed" form.)

The festivals are also religious observances. On p. 39 of their book, Clouder and Rawson include a photo of a Whitsun festival at a Waldorf school (Whitsunday, or Pentecost, celebrates the descent from Heaven of the Holy Spirit). Many Waldorf festivals have an apparently Christian character, but the roots of the festivals run back to pagan beliefs — as is suggested by the enactment of Thor’s adventures.

The “cycle” observed is that of the seasons as understood by the ancients. The “inner mood of the spiritual calendar” embodies the occult or hidden significance of the cycle. The “intuitive realm of the future” is a reference to clairvoyance and to the future states of humanity Rudolf Steiner has described using his claimed clairvoyant powers — a future in which intuition or clairvoyance will be widespread, Anthroposophists believe. 

The “new, free consciousness” that Waldorf schools attempt to cultivate is the imaginative, intuitive, clairvoyant consciousness needed to follow Steiner into the new age. The “human development” mentioned is the spiritual evolution of humanity that is the core aim of Anthroposophy. Waldorf schools are wedded to the aims of Anthroposophy.

As always at Waldorf schools, there is more (and less) going on than meets the eye. Note that the goals of Waldorf schools have little to do with education as it is usually understood — that is, the development of the brain and the acquisition of real knowledge about the real world. Instead, almost everything done at Waldorf schools is guided by Rudolf Steiner’s occult teachings.

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“In occultism, we learn to grasp life more earnestly, we learn to perceive that the things which are not palpable, which cannot be observed by the senses, are still a reality.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE TEMPLE LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 249.

Rudolf Steiner freely identified himself and his followers as occultists. [See "Occultism".] He was not confessing to devil worship or the practice of black magic. He meant that Anthroposophists possess secret, hidden spiritual knowledge. This claim is certainly questionable. But beyond that, we should recognize that many of the malign characteristics that people generally associate with occultism do indeed show up in Steiner’s doctrines.

While Anthroposophy is generally upbeat, foreseeing a wonderful future for humanity [see “Tenth Hierarchy”], it also includes doctrines about ghosts and phantoms [see "Neutered Nature"], demons [see “Evil Ones”], secret esoteric brotherhoods [see “Double Trouble”], spiritual degeneration [see "Evolution, Anyone?"], astrology [see “Star Power”], white and black magic [see “Magicians”], infernal regions [see “Sphere 8”], goblins [see “Gnomes”], and the like. To the rational mind, Anthroposophy is an elaborate patchwork of superstition and ignorance, essentially medieval in nature, and marked by many nightmarish concepts.

We would need to accept Anthroposophy's nightmares along with its the optimistic doctrines, if they represented truth. But they do not. Steiner claimed that all of his teachings were based on his personal spiritual investigations. By this, he meant his use of “exact clairvoyance" [see “Exactly”]. But there is no such thing [see “Clairvoyance”]. Nothing based on clairvoyance is real or true. In presenting his purported clairvoyant visions, Steiner was either hallucinating or fibbing. In either case, his teachings have no merit. And the implications of this for Waldorf schooling should be clear, since Waldorf schools — otherwise known, significantly, as Steiner schools — base their practices on Steiner’s teachings.

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“The propagandistic nature of WAITING FOR ‘SUPERMAN’ is revealed by [filmmaker] Guggenheim’s complete indifference to the wide variation among charter schools. There are excellent charter schools, just as there are excellent public schools. Why did he not also inquire into the charter chains that are mired in unsavory real estate deals, or take his camera to the charters where most students are getting lower scores than those in the neighborhood public schools? Why did he not report on the charter principals who have been indicted for embezzlement, or the charters that blur the line between church and state?"  — Diane Ravitch, “The Myth of Charter Schools”, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, November 11, 2010, pp. 22-23.

Waldorf schools have made a fuss about the documentary movie WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, which argues that charter schools are superior to traditional public schools. Waldorfs treat the film as an endorsement of their own educational approach — As charter schools, they argue, we are clearly superior.

But the film does not focus on Waldorf schools. It provides no evidence that Waldorf education is superior. Indeed, it provides little evidence that charter schools in general are superior.

A study of 5,000 charter schools — conveniently ignored in WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” — shows that almost half of charter schools (46%) are no better than comparable public schools, while more than a third (37%) are clearly worse, and only about one in six (17%) are superior. Overall, then, five out of six charter schools (83%) fail to deliver on their promise to provide a better education than traditional public schools provide. — Diane Ravitch, "The Myth of Charter Schools", p. 22.

Traditional public schools may have problems, but many traditional public schools provide good educations, and many of their competitors — charter schools, “free” schools, private schools — do no better or actually do worse.

Don’t remove a child from a traditional public school unless you find an alternative that is clearly better. Waldorf schools often have low academic standards [see “Academic Standards at Waldorf”], and they often strive to lead children into the labyrinth of occultism [see “Soul School”]. This is not clearly better; it is clearly worse. 

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“When death approaches — this is the peculiar thing with pachyderms...[t]heir instinct then makes them go into caves. People tend not to look for them in those earth caves. If they were to look for them there they would find more dead elephants in the regions where elephants are. They are not found in the open.”  — Rudolf Steiner, FROM ELEPHANTS TO EINSTEIN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), pp. 4-5.

What can we say about such foolishness? Not much, perhaps. Yet this is a fine example of the way Steiner and his followers think. They embrace fabulous untruths and attempt to justify them.

There is a fable — a bit of unfounded folklore — that elephants choose to die in certain locations: elephant graveyards. Silliness of this sort exerts a powerful influence on Anthroposophists. They wish for a world of magic and mystery, a universe in which fables and folklore are true. So Steiner grabs a fantasy about elephants and embroiders it. Recognizing that no one has ever found an elephant graveyard, he nonetheless insists that such places really exist, and he cooks up an excuse for their invisibility. We don’t see pachyderm boneyards, Steiner assures us, because they are hidden within caves. (Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?)

It is laughable. But there is usually no way to shake Anthroposophists’ beliefs in such fantasies. You could quote works by zoologists, memoirs by explorers, excellent encyclopedias (“Evidence does not substantiate the existence of so-called ‘elephant graveyards,’ where elephants supposedly gather to die” — ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA) — you could bring forward all manner of rational evidence debunking these fables, but Anthroposophists would be unswayed. They reject real information about the real world, you see. They prefer “clairvoyant” falsehoods.

Okay. Fine. Let them believe whatever they like. The only stipulation we should make, I submit, is that such people not be employed as educators. But unfortunately, such people — true-believing Anthroposophists —  are precisely the sort of teachers Waldorf schools employ. 

“As Waldorf teachers, we must be true anthroposophists in the deepest sense of the word in our innermost feeling.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 118. 

Think carefully before allowing Anthroposophists to teach your children.

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“[The] special contribution, the unique substance, mission, and intention of the independent Waldorf School, is the spiritual-scientific view of human nature [i.e., Anthroposophy] ... It certainly is possible that the Waldorf schools will, gradually or suddenly, distance themselves from this substance, because they increasingly fail to understand it, and because they are influenced by the criticism imposed from outside ... [T]he weakening and fading away of the innovative, independent Waldorf schools would be disastrous....” — Peter Selg, THE ESSENCE OF WALDORF EDUCATION (SteinerBooks, 2010)‚ p. 4.

There are Waldorf schools and Waldorf schools. Some of the schools adhere more closely to Rudolf Steiner’s occult vision than others do. “Waldorf-inspired” schools sometimes try to employ Waldorf methods without embracing Anthroposophical occultism. And Waldorf schools that seek taxpayer support sometimes stray from Anthroposophical true belief (or at least they work extra hard to conceal their devotion to Anthroposophy). 

But leaders in the Anthroposophical/Waldorf movement work hard to enforce full acceptance of Steiner’s teachings within Waldorf schools. As one instructor in a Waldorf teacher-training program has said, “I am a missionary for Rudolf Steiner.” [See “Teacher Training”.] When evaluating a Waldorf school, the safest assumption is that the school is a true-blue Anthroposophical religious institution. Proceed on this assumption until you unearth irrefutable evidence to the contrary. In some cases, such evidence may turn up. In many other cases, such evidence cannot be found, for those schools are staunch in their Anthroposophical beliefs.

The "disaster" that would result, if Waldorf schools strayed from their underlying purpose [see "Here's the Answer"], would be the defeat of the messianic mission that Rudolf Steiner assigned to Waldorf teachers. Steiner explained that Waldorf teachers should, in all their endeavors, serve the gods' wondrous plan for universal spiritual evolution. 

“Among the faculty, we must certainly carry within us the knowledge that we are not here for our own sakes, but to carry out the divine cosmic plan. We should always remember that when we do something, we are actually carrying out the intentions of the gods, that we are, in a certain sense, the means by which that streaming down from above will go out into the world.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 55.

Waldorf faculties take themselves very seriously. They credit themselves with the highest motives. And Anthroposophical insiders press to ensure that Waldorf faculties do not stray from their mission.

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“[W]e are interested in what shaped Rudolf Steiner as an educator. Certainly, his native clairvoyant capacities played a role, as did his scientific training. Nor should mention be omitted of the crucial human and spiritual encounters that marked his early years: Felix Kogutsky, the herb gatherer, with whom Steiner became friends and with whom he could speak about the spiritual world as with someone of experience; [and] the otherwise unnamed Master....” — Christopher Bamford, introduction to THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILD, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), a collection of Rudolf Steiner’s teachings about education, p. viii.

This is a remarkably concise statement concerning the irrationality upon which Waldorf schooling is built. 

• Some of Steiner’s teachings (most of them, actually) come from his claimed clairvoyant abilities. But he was not clairvoyant. No one is clairvoyant. Therefore all of these teachings are bunk. [See “Clairvoyance”.]  

• Seiner had studied science, but he was no scientist. The only “science” he did was “spiritual science,” which hinged on the use of clairvoyance. This returns us to the first point: Knowledge gained through clairvoyance is no knowledge at all and provides no basis for a sound education. [See “Fooling”, “Will”, and “Is Anthroposophy Science?”] 

• Concerning “human and spiritual encounters”: Steiner claimed to be a two-time occult initiate — i.e., a mystic insider, privy to the deepest occult secrets. Not content to claim that he had been initiated once — which any run-of-the-mill occultist might do — he said he had been initiated on two separate occasions, once by a spiritualistic gardener, Felix Kogutsky, and later by an unnamed “Master” (sometimes referred to as “M” and believed by Anthroposophists to have been Christian Rosenkreutz — although Christian Rosenkreutz is a legendary figure who never existed [see "Rosy Cross"].)

Where does this leave us? If you agree with me that the points listed by Bamford are obvious nonsense (bunk, piffle, delusion, looniness), then you should steer clear of the Waldorf universe. But if you disagree with me — if you think Bamford and Steiner make good, levelheaded sense — then the Waldorf way of thinking may be just what you’re looking for.

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“Rudolf Steiner intended Waldorf education to be a preparation for life ... Education should follow human nature, should orient itself to the universal nature of the developing human being, whilst addressing the specific needs of individuals in their time and space.” — Martyn Rawson, foreword to Anthroposophist Francis Edmunds’ AN INTRODUCTION TO STEINER EDUCATION (Sophia Books, 2004), p. xiii.

Waldorf schools have high and noble purposes, and they are generally staffed by conscientious, well-meaning individuals. Good intentions, however, are not necessarily sufficient. Is the Waldorf view of the world and of human nature realistic? Is it rooted in true knowledge?

The “preparation for life” offered by Waldorf schools centers on an idea that Waldorf faculties consider fundamental but that the rest of humanity may deem nonsense. A child is properly prepared for life, according to Waldorf belief, only when his/her invisible bodies are incarnated. The etheric body generally incarnates at about age 7, the astral body at about age 14, and the “I” at about age 21. Much of what happens in Waldorf schools is predicated on this idea. Unless you consider the idea true, Waldorf education may not suit you or your child. [For information on our invisible bodies and the seven-year stages of human development, see "Incarnation" and "Most Significant".]

What is “the universal nature of the developing human being”? In part, it is what we have just seen: the incarnation of invisible bodies to supplement the physical body. But the Waldorf view of human nature is even more involuted and fantastical. [For an overview, see “Holistic Education” and "Our Parts".] Fundamentally, according to Waldorf belief, we are the central spiritual beings in the universe [see “The Center”], worshipped by the gods, evolving from Saturn to Vulcan and beyond [see “Everything”], where/when we will ultimately become God the Father. This is all quite flattering, but to believe it you must subscribe — as most Waldorf teachers do — to Rudolf Steiner’s occult doctrines.

How about “the specific needs of individuals in their time and space”? How well do Waldorf schools respect and address the students’ individual needs? According to Waldorf belief, each individual has lived many previous lives, and s/he arrives in this life with a karma that needs to be fulfilled. In addition, s/he has a “temperament” (sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholic) that must be respected (class assignments, seating, etc., will be based at least in part on “temperament” [see “Temperaments”]). Moreover, each child is a member of a racial group, and this membership crucially reflects her/his level of spiritual evolution. (Steiner taught that blacks are the least evolved, whites are the most — see “Races”].) To an unfortunate degree, Waldorf schools treat students not as individuals but as members of various categories, and quite often the schools' attitudes on these matters are benighted. (The most unfortunate children, according to Waldorf belief, are those who are not really human beings at all but demons in disguise. Such kids are likely to be expelled, since, as Steiner said, 

"We cannot...create a school for demons." —  Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 650).

Waldorf schools have high and noble purposes, but their view of the world and of human nature is deeply unrealistic — and this view informs everything about the schools.

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“Occult students and, in particular, initiates have known for some time that human intelligence is developing toward evil, and that it will become more and more difficult to recognize good simply through intelligence. Humanity is now undergoing that change ... [H]uman intelligence will more and more tend to conceive evil and to integrate that evil into human morality and knowledge, creating error. ” — Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 76.

This statement appears in a book frequently consulted by Waldorf teachers — it is part of the Foundations of Waldorf Education series.

Rudolf Steiner, the authority on whom Waldorf teachers rely so much, was an avowed occultist. To the degree (usually very large) that Waldorf schools abide by Steiner’s teachings, they themselves are occultist.

It is also important to note that Steiner explicitly downplayed intellect and the use of the brain, associating them with evil. Waldorf schools place minor emphasis on the development of intellect among students, and still less emphasis on conveying real-world knowledge to students. Their primary goals are occult: facilitating reincarnation, karma, the development of invisible bodies, spiritual evolution, transport into higher worlds, and the like. To receive anything like a real education, Waldorf students often must rely on outside sources (books, periodicals, TV, the Internet) — something that Waldorf schools strongly discourage.

(Steiner, of course, denied that he opposed rational thought. He argued that the brain is a faulty instrument [see "Steiner's Specific"] and that truth is attainable through clairvoyance, not brainwork. Still, he did not advocate stupidity. Intelligence is all very well, in its way, he said. But it must be guided by the feelings and will that we develop through our clairvoyant converse with higher worlds. Intellect by itself is a danger, he said. We live in a materialistic age when the spirit is asleep and thus our intelligence is not properly guided. 

"We would hope that the sleep in which humanity now finds itself will change into an awakening. That awakening can result only from a comprehension of the seriousness of the task presented to people today. These aberrations indicate the dangers presented by an intellect left to itself and steering toward an Ahrimanic path. That should be the impulse that arouses a feeling in us for the seriousness of the problem." — Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE, p. 83. 

Certainly, ordinary intelligence or intellect, along with modern scholarly and scientific knowledge, are fundamentally antithetical to Steiner's occult forms of "perception" (clairvoyance and its precursors) and the occult doctrines that Steiner derived from them.)

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“I ended up sharing a house with a Waldorf teacher ... As I was walking in with my first box of things my new housemate confronted me about my belongings.  She was upset that I had so many books and made it clear that I had to keep them locked away in my bedroom!  After that first encounter everything I did seemed to be horrible in her eyes. She didn’t like the medicine I took; it was made in a lab. I needed to go to anthroposophical doctor and use only natural medicines. She didn’t like the clothes that I wore; they weren’t all cotton and dyed with natural dyes. She didn’t like me talking on the phone even though it was in the kitchen and belonged to the house; the phone was a tool of [the devil] Ahriman ...  I was told, ‘Steiner had exceptional powers, he saw the future, he knew the truth. If you truly need to learn, you need to study and follow Steiner. Steiner is all anyone ever needs to know.’”  — A Waldorf teacher quoted by a former Waldorf teacher-in-training [http://www.montessorianswers.com/my-experiences-with-waldorf.html].

Waldorf teachers generally dwell within a very small mental universe. They typically get their teacher training at unaccredited institutions such as Rudolf Steiner College. While there — and subsequently in their teaching careers — they generally restrict their reading to the works of Rudolf Steiner and his disciples. This would be ok if Rudolf Steiner had been (as his followers often seem to believe) omniscient, able to impart all necessary knowledge and wisdom. But he was very far from that. Having been a scholar and intellectual as a young man, he did a sudden U-turn in early middle age and became an occultist. Thereafter, he rarely wrote or spoke a true word. He spun an elaborate, mystical description of the universe; compared to reality, his vision is miniature and simplistic. Yet his is the universe that most Waldorf teachers take for real; it is the fantasy that controls the beliefs and actions of most Waldorf faculties. Children inducted into Waldorf schools are in danger of being led far from rationality and reality.

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“I well remember meeting a charming child of eleven, daughter of a Dutch father and a partly Mexican-Indian mother, almost all of whose female relatives were clairvoyant, and several were mediums. Little Alexandrina used to prattle on about the dead, what they were doing, where they were, when she had seen them before, all in the most natural manner in the world. Part of what she said could be confirmed, and the perfectly correct facts that she gave could not have been learned in any other way. The young Rudolf Steiner was also very well aware of the nature spirits [i.e., “elemental beings” that reside within nature] with whom, indeed, he held converse, again not unlike many other children...." —Anthroposophist Stewart Copinger Easton, RUDOLF STEINER: Herald of a New Epoch (SteinerBooks, 1980), pp. 17-18. 

Stewart C. Easton is highly regarded among Anthroposophists. He earned this regard, however, not by telling truths but by indulging in the sort of gullible illogic that characterizes so much of Anthroposophy.

Here we see Easton affirming Steiner’s claims that a) clairvoyance is a real faculty, and b) young children possess natural clairvoyance. How convincing is Stewart's statement? How does he know, for instance, that numerous "female relatives" (grandmothers? aunts? cousins?) in a certain family were clairvoyant? What evidence does he produce? Zero.

And what about the clairvoyant child? Stewart assures us that her descriptions of the activities and whereabouts of the dead were wonderfully natural and contained many verifiable facts. But what were these facts, and how were they confirmed? Stewart doesn't say. And how does Stewart know that these “facts” (if any) “could not have been learned in any other way?” He doesn’t say. He makes a bold claim, one that Anthroposophists gladly accept, but he does nothing to support it. Instead, he leaps to his preferred idea — the child is clairvoyant! — without considering other possibilities. • Children are imaginative, often inventing imaginary companions. Is this was Alexandrina was doing? • If Alexandrina had met some of the dead individuals before their deaths ("she had seen them before"), she may have known quite a bit about them from ordinary observation and memory. • If Alexandrina ever overheard adults talking about various dead relatives, she may have learned a lot as a result. But Stewart considers none of this. Rather, he leaps past logic and evidence to draw a typical Anthroposophical conclusion: Amazing! Aunt Claudia has been dead these many years, yet Alexandrina knows she was tall! The child must be clairvoyant!

As for the youthful clairvoyance of Rudolf Steiner, what evidence does Stewart produce, what argument does he make? Zero. He accepts Rudolf’s word just as he accepts Alexandrina’s. He likes what they say, so he accepts their reports uncritically, gullibly, ingenuously. This, I'm afraid, is a fair sample of Anthroposophical discourse.

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Rudolf Steiner's followers do not absolutely oppose vaccination in all cases, but they believe that vaccination poses serious dangers. Diseases, they think, are often expressions of karma — you get sick in this life in order to pay for errors you committed in a former life. Vaccination thwarts karma, a very serious matter. If, in this life, you don’t contract the disease your karma needs, you may have to contract it — or something like it — in a future life. In this sense, vaccination is extremely harmful, thwarting your spiritual evolution.

The dangers of vaccination can be offset if a patient receives “spiritual education” — by which Steiner and his followers mean education in the occult doctrines of Anthroposophy. Such an “education” is the cure for all human ills, Anthroposophists believe.

Let’s take this a step at a time. In this life, you should want to suffer the disease your karma requires. Even if the disease can be fatal, you should want it in order to fulfill your karma. 

“[P]eople may virtually be driven to places where it is possible to get an infection in order to find in this the compensating effects for certain karmic causes within them; people are even driven to what one might call fatal life events to find such compensation.” — Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA  (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), p. 167.

Behind each disease lies one or more spiritual errors that must be corrected. Consider the error of unlovingness. This error finds physical expression in the disease known as smallpox. Smallpox vaccine will prevent you from getting the disease, but this may mean that you will need to contract smallpox or something similar in a later incarnation. You see, smallpox vaccine does not remove the real “poison” behind smallpox. The poison is the spiritual error manifested by smallpox: unlovingness. If this poison is not removed in this life, it will have to be removed in a future life. 

“The organ of unlovingess is killed in the most complete sense — in the outer physical sense — through smallpox vaccination ... [But] we are merely accomplishing something to which the person in question will somehow have to produce a counterpart in a later incarnation when he [still] has the smallpox poison within him...” — Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, pp. 165-166.

The real cure for smallpox — as for every other ill — is learning to accept Rudolf Steiner’s occult doctrines. If you do so, even vaccination won’t harm you. 

“Vaccination will not be harmful if, subsequent to vaccination, the person receives a spiritual education.” — Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, p. 166.

What did Steiner mean by “a spiritual education?” He meant the education he himself was dispensing, Anthroposophical education. That is where one may find truth. “

Spiritual scientific research [i.e., Steiner’s own teachings] has shown, for example, that smallpox developed during a time when the general inclination towards egotism and unlovingness reached a particular climax. That is when smallpox emerged in the outer organism [i.e., the physical body]. This is a fact. In anthroposophy it is our duty to speak truthfully.”  — Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, p. 165. 

Anthroposophists essentially argue that people either need to endure illnesses such as smallpox, or they need to submit to occult indoctrination and spend their days in the dark corridors of superstition and fallacy. They use different words to describe this choice, of course.

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“The choleric teacher or parent who is given to sudden, violent burst of fury causes his children to live in a perpetual state of subconscious terror ... The phlegmatic teacher has an equally drastic though more subtle effect on his pupils. Their lively spontaneity is suppressed in his presence ... The melancholic teacher who is absorbed in his brooding fails to set up a reciprocal relationship with his pupils ... The excessively sanguine teacher continually overstimulates his pupils. They are exhausted by his restlessness ... The teacher who recognizes temperamental imbalance in himself will continually make a conscious effort to overcome his one-sidedness.” — Waldorf educator Marjorie Spock, TEACHING AS A LIVELY ART (Anthroposophic Press, 1985), pp. 123-124.

Waldorf teachers classify human beings according to a fallacious, ancient idea of human temperament. [See "Humouresque".] This severely limits their comprehension of human capacities and personalities. To the extent that they base their judgments on a false system, they necessarily misjudge everyone.

Waldorf teachers quite admirably try to improve themselves through a continuous program of self-education. Unfortunately, this effort falters to the extent that the educational materials and doctrines the teachers embrace are fundamentally flawed. Primarily, they study Rudolf Steiner's occult pronouncements alongside materials prepared by true-believing Anthroposophists who are themselves victims of the delusions disseminated by Steiner.

Teachers whose self-analysis is guided by faulty concepts will not know themselves well and therefore they will not know what steps they need to take to improve themselves. This is a serious matter. But far more serious is the damage that may be inflicted on Waldorf students. In Waldorf education, teachers stay with their students for many years. Part of the rationale is that the teachers will get to know their students well. But if, in fact, the teachers form their opinions of the kids using an unreliable set of concepts, they will have no reliable knowledge of the children. Instead, they will inflict mistaken and harmful appraisals on the children. If they peg a kid as "phlegmatic," for instance, this false and injurious categorization may haunt the child for all its life in the Waldorf community — and perhaps long afterward.

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“If [a person] learns systematically to apply his will to his own thinking...it becomes God-thinking, a creative force itself ... Rudolf Steiner’s method of work calls upon man, in the highest degree, to face and outgrow himself.” — Anthroposophist Francis Edmunds, AN INTRODUCTION TO STEINER EDUCATION (Sophia Books, 2004), p. 7.

The “thinking” promoted in Steiner schools is not the rational use of the brain. It is intuitive, imaginative; it is infused with feeling and will; it is essentially religious (“God thinking”) in an occult sense. It is, in short, clairvoyance or a precursor to clairvoyance. By thinking in such a “creative” way, one theoretically undergoes the religious experience of transcending oneself (“outgrowing” oneself) and entering the invisible spirit realm.

The great flaw in this scheme is that clairvoyance does not exist. If you convince yourself that you are clairvoyant, you a deceiving yourself. You are using your feelings and will to “intuit” or “imagine” or “clairvoyantly perceive” what you want to perceive, nothing more. 

God may certainly exist. Spiritual beings of all sorts may exist. But you cannot come to know them through Waldorf-style “thinking,” which is really nothing but self-willed delusion. Yet Steiner and his followers explicitly affirm clairvoyance, and they explicitly tie it to imagination. If you are attracted to Waldorf education because it celebrates imagination, you should understand what the schools ultimately mean by the word “imagination.” In the Waldorf universe, “Imagination” is virtually synonymous with “clairvoyance,” as Rudolf Steiner himself revealed. 

“Essentially, people today have no inkling of how people looked out into the universe in ancient times when human beings still possessed an instinctive clairvoyance.... If we want to be fully human, however, we must struggle to regain a view of the cosmos that moves toward Imagination again....” — Rudolf Steiner, ART AS SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 256.

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“[T]he occasion was an opportunity to showcase...his anthroposophical ‘spiritual science,’ of which the practice of Waldorf education was an important, even primary, application.”  — Anthroposophist Christopher Bamford, introduction to THE SPIRITUAL GROUND OF EDUCATION, The Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 2004), a collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, p. vii. 

The “occasion” was a speech Rudolf Steiner delivered in Britain. But that isn’t important. Here’s what’s important:

Advocates of Waldorf education often deny that Waldorf schools are deeply immersed in the occult belief system called Anthroposophy (aka “spiritual science”). At most, they tend to acknowledge that Waldorf schools take inspiration from the founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, and/or that the schools base their methods on Steiner’s “insights” as expressed in Anthroposophy. But in truth, the bond between the schools and the occult system are strong and deep. As a primary “application” of the system, the schools essentially embody the system in the crucial sphere of education. Waldorf schools apply Anthroposophy to the lives of children.

In the past, I have called Waldorf schools stalking horses for Anthroposophy, I have called them front organizations for Anthroposophy. But don’t listen to me. And don’t listen to even such a learned individual as Christopher Bamford. Listen instead to Rudolf Steiner. What connection, if any, did Steiner see between the schools he started and the occult system he created?

Addressing Waldorf school teachers, Steiner said, 

“[W]e have to remember that an institution like the Independent Waldorf School with its anthroposophical character, has goals that, of course, coincide with anthroposophical desires. At the moment, though, if that connection were made official, people would break the Waldorf School’s neck." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 705.

Steiner’s metaphor is rather violent, but his point is well taken. If people understood that Waldorf schools are deeply committed to the goals and “desires” of Anthroposophy, they would rise up in opposition to the schools. Anthroposophy is occult. Rudolf Steiner was an occultist. And Waldorf schools are mired in occultism. With their “anthroposophical character,” they have “goals that, of course, coincide with anthroposophical desires.”

In other words, the purpose of Waldorf education is to spread Anthroposophy. We have Steiner’s word on this, as well. Speaking in the first Waldorf school, Steiner said, 

“One of the most important facts about the background of the Waldorf School is that we were in a position to make the anthroposophical movement a relatively large one. The anthroposophical movement has become a large one.” — Rudolf Steiner, RUDOLF STEINER IN THE WALDORF SCHOOL (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p.156.

Anthroposophy would exist without Waldorf schools — albeit in a much reduced form — but the schools could not exist without Anthroposophy. Waldorf schools are applied Anthroposophy.

[To dig into some of these matters, see, e.g., "Everything", "Faculty Meetings", "Secrets", "Here's the Answer", "Occultism", and "The Waldorf Teacher's Consciousness".]

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“Over there is a bench and on it is, let us say, a ball ... [T]he ball falls to the ground ... Saying that the ball is subject to the force of gravity is really meaningless ... But we cannot avoid speaking of gravity; we must mention it. Otherwise, when our students enter life they may some day [sic] be asked to explain gravity ... Just imagine what would happen if a fifteen-year-old boy knew nothing of gravity; there would be a terrible fuss.” — Rudolf Steiner, PRACTICAL ADVICE TO TEACHERS, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 2000), pp. 116-117.

It is really quite amazing that anyone believes a single word Steiner ever spoke or wrote. His teachings fly in the face of reality. Here we see him saying that gravity is a meaningless concept. And note whom he was addressing: Waldorf teachers. This is the sort of nonsense Steiner required his followers to accept.

The only concession Steiner makes to reality is his acknowledgment that people outside Waldorf schools will be appalled at Waldorf beliefs. Therefore, he says, we will teach kids about gravity, even though we know that it is a meaningless concept.

Steiner reiterated and expanded his various rejections of reality in numerous statements. Here are a couple more of his remarks about gravity:

• “It would be wonderful if you could stop speaking about gravity. You can certainly achieve speaking of it only as a phenomenon. The best would be if you considered gravity only as a word.”  — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 29.

• “Gravity is...perceived only by those beings that live on a solid planet ... Beings who could live on a fluid planet would know nothing of gravity ... And beings who live on a gaseous planet would regard as normal something that would be the opposite of gravity ... [B]eings dwelling on a gaseous planet instead of seeing bodies falling towards the planet would see them always flying off.” — Rudolf Steiner, SCIENCE (Rudolf Steiner Press 2003), pp. 136-137.

The only teachers who are qualified to teach science to children are those who utterly reject Steiner’s unscientific nonsense. This means that almost no Waldorf teachers are qualified.

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“[W]e see...groups of human souls in their descent from pre-earthly into earthly existence wander to regions situated, for example, in the vicinity of volcanoes, or to districts where earthquakes are liable to occur ... [S]uch places are deliberately chosen by the souls thus karmically connected, in order that they may experience this very destiny ... [They think] 'I choose a great disaster on earth in order to become more perfect....'" — Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, Vol. 2 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1974), pp. 226-227.

You get what you deserve. This is the essential predicate of the doctrine of karma. You got blown up by a volcano? You asked for it. You got sent to a Waldorf school? You asked for it.

Karma is a cruel concept. (If you doubt this, consider the condition of “untouchables” in India.) Karma is a self-serving rationalization supporting the comfortable status of the privileged. The high deserve their wealth and power. You deserve your poverty and powerlessness.

Drawing from Hindu and Theosophical teachings, Steiner taught that you come to each Earthly life with a karma resulting from your prior lives. Here, you try to work out your karma in such a way as to make amends for former errors and to improve yourself for future spiritual growth. If the best way to do these things is to go to an active volcano and allow red-hot molten rock to consume your body, then this is what you should do. And the rest of us should stand back and let you do it.

If you are a child whose karma requires you to be bullied, beaten, humiliated, tormented — then that’s what you deserve. It is, in fact, what you have chosen for yourself — it is what your soul needs. This is why Waldorf teachers often stand back and allow bullying and other forms or cruelty and harm to befall their students. [See, e.g., “Slaps”.]

Waldorf schools are generally lovely places, refuges from the modern world. But they may be refuges where some students endure great suffering.

___________

“[I]t was a wild time, and Rudolf Steiner is [i.e., was] often acting under great pressure. Much here if not taken in context can be misunderstood and misrepresented. As publishers, we have debated whether to publish the book and whether to publish it whole. “ — Publisher’s note, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. xxxix.

This defensive/apologetic note appears near the front of a two-volume set of transcripts that most enrollees in Waldorf teacher-training programs study at length. There are several embarrassing passages in FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, but one passage causes Anthroposophists special embarrassment. It is a vitriolic attack made by Rudolf Steiner against the French. He railed that 

"The French as a race are reverting” [p. 559] 

and, bizarrely, 

"The use of the French language quite certainly corrupts the soul” [p. 558]. 

What set Steiner off? He was distressed by racial practices in France. 

“The French are committing the terrible brutality of moving black people to Europe” [pp. 558-559].

Anthroposophists have difficulty comprehending how a man they consider a great apostle of love and charity could voice such sentiments. As the editor of FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER says on p. xxxv, 

“During the faculty meeting of February 14, 1923, [Steiner] speaks about the French language and about immigration, of ‘moving black people’ to Europe. Before I can judge the comment, I would need to understand it, and I am not able to do so.” 

People who are not Steiner’s devout followers may have less difficulty understanding. Not burdened with a determination to excuse the inexcusable, they are better positioned to see what is plain. A poseur can’t maintain his pose 100% of the time. Sometimes we get a glimpse of the man behind the pose.

___________

“A teacher: 'B.B. is in my seventh grade class. Could you give me some advice?'

“Dr. Steiner: ’He is lazy? I think it is just his nature, that he is Swedish, and you will have to accept that he cannot quickly comprehend things. They grasp things slowly, but if you return to such things often, it will be all right. They love to have things repeated.’” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 412.

In creating Waldorf education, Steiner said he was establishing an educational system that would honor each child's individuality. But in fact he categorized students by race, nationality, and "temperament," claiming to find significant differences between the members of these groupings. (Thus "B.B." is not an individual but a typical lazy, slow-witted Swede, according to Steiner.) Steiner also taught that children mature in lockstep, reaching crucial turning points at ages 7, 14, and (leaving childhood), 21. All Waldorf students of the same age are expected to study the same subjects, because these are the "right" subjects for children of that age — regardless of individual interests or talents.

Waldorf schools today typically repeat the claims that Steiner made for the Waldorf system. But in truth, genuine individuality and individual freedom are virtually impossible in the Waldorf system. See, e.g., "Races", "Steiner's Bile", "Humouresque", "Curriculum", "Freedom", and (for the penalties incurred by "freely" choosing to leave the true path) "Hell".

___________

“The group soul of a beehive is a very high level being, higher than that of ants. It is of such a high development that you might almost say it is cosmically precocious. It has attained a level of evolutionary development that human beings will later reach in the Venus cycle, which follows the completion of the present Earth cycle ... The group soul of corals, however, is on a still higher plane....” — Rudolf Steiner, BEES (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 176.

What, if anything, can this mean? Group souls, according to Steiner, are souls shared by large classes of beings, such as nations and species. Dogs, for instance, share a group soul. No dog has an individual soul; rather, each dog possesses a tiny share of the canine group soul. We human beings are working on our individual souls, and eventually we will attain an unprecedented degree of individuation. However, when we move along to Jupiter and then Venus, our consciousness will become increasingly transcendent and even transpersonal. In a sense, we will recapitulate the experience of sharing a group soul, but at a much higher level. Perhaps surprisingly, it will take us some time to catch up with bees, and even longer to overtake corals.

Send a child to a Waldorf school, if you wish. Become an Anthroposophist, if you wish. But understand that you are consigning your child, and yourself, to the ministrations of people who — in all sincerity and good will — subscribe to a bizarre, occult belief system.

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“One can only understand history and all of social life, including today's social life, if one pays attention to people's racial characteristics. And one can only understand all that is spiritual in the correct sense if one first examines how this spiritual element operates within people precisely through the color of their skin." — Rudolf Steiner, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE - ÜBER DAS WESEN DES CHRISTENTUMS (Verlag Der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, 1961), GA 349, p. 52.

Anthroposophists vigorously deny that their beliefs are racist. They argue, for instance, that Rudolf Steiner did not hate anyone due to race. This may no may not be true [see “Steiner’s Racism” and “Steiner’s Bile”], but it misses the point. Granted, the worst forms of racism culminate in racial hatred. But the essence of racism is not hatred, it is prejudice. Specifically, it is making judgments about people based on their race, and Anthroposophy is full of such judgments. Consider the following:

“[T]he aspects which pertain to the body and the metabolism are strongly developed in a Negro. He has a strong sexual urge — as people call it — strong instincts. And as, with him, all that comes from the sun — light and heat — really is at the skin's surface, all of his metabolism works as if the sun itself is boiling in his inside. This causes his passions. Within a Negro, cooking is going on all the time; and the cerebellum kindles the fire....” — Rudolf Steiner, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE - ÜBER DAS WESEN DES CHRISTENTUMS (Verlag der Rudolf Steiner, 1961), GA 349, p. 55.

Steiner does not say that he hates “Negroes” and perhaps he did not hate them. His statement nonetheless reeks of racism.

___________

“A school class is a destiny community ... A class is not a group of children who have been thrown together arbitrarily”. — Peter Selg, THE ESSENCE OF WALDORF EDUCATION (SteinerBooks, 2010)‚ p. 45.

Waldorf teachers believe in destiny or karma. A Waldorf class is considered a “destiny community” because Steiner taught that, during the interval between their previous Earthly lives and their current Earthly lives, the members of the class chose to come together. In other words, their self-created karmas caused them to gather together — the karmas of the children and the karmas of the teachers. Think of the enormous authority Waldorf teachers believe this gives them. They believe their authority is cosmically ordained. And what will they do with their authority? Lead children toward the truth, of course. And what do they think is the truth? Anthroposophy.

___________

“Our modern, theoretical knowledge does not, in fact, grasp or explain the true being of man. Beneath all that the average human being knows of himself, there live hopes, longings, aspirations, dreams of the might-have-been or the might-yet-be, unused gifts, maybe, that are urging to be realized....”  — Waldorf educator Francis Edmunds, AN INTRODUCTION TO STEINER EDUCATION - The Waldorf School (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), p. 4.

The second sentence in this quotation is quite true. The unconscious and subconscious are important components of the human mind.

The first sentence, however, should set off warning sirens. Waldorf schools do indeed tend to reject modern knowledge, such as modern knowledge of human biology and psychology. Waldorf teachers tend to view such knowledge as “theoretical” because it does not stem from clairvoyance, which is the “faculty” on which they mainly rely. (Mainly, they rely on Rudolf Steiner’s claimed “exact clairvoyance.”) The “true being of man,” from the Waldorf perspective, is a reincarnating spirit having a karma, several invisible bodies, both a soul and a spirit, a heart that does not pump blood, a brain that does not yield true knowledge, and so on. The Waldorf view, in other words, is malarkey. Rationality leads us to precisely the real knowledge that the Waldorf belief system rejects.

___________

Anthroposophists often quote Steiner as saying that the gods worship us. For instance, 

"[H]igher beings, the gods, also have a religion: they too look up to something in awe and reverence. What is this religion of the gods? What is it that the gods revere? It is man. Man is the religion of the gods." — Rudolf Steiner, quoted by Charles Kovacs, THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND TO CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS (Floris Books, 2007), pp. 72-73.

Steiner's doctrines certainly attribute to humanity a central, august place in the great scheme of things: 

“The aim of the creative activity of the Gods is the Ideal Man. That Ideal Man does not really come to life in physical man as he is at present, but in the noblest spiritual and soul life that is possible through the perfect development and training of aptitudes which this physical man has within him. Thus a picture of Ideal Man is ever present to the mind of the Gods. This is the religion of the Gods.” —  Rudolf Steiner, THE INNER NATURE OF MAN AND LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH (Kessinger Publishing, 1998), p. 18.

We can all sympathize with the desire to believe that God loves us — or that the gods do. We all want to believe that we are important, that our lives have meaning and value, that what we think and do is significant. We want to assure ourselves that we are not mere assemblages of dust, not robots made out of meat, not naked monkeys. We quite rightly want to deny that our lives are random, empty affairs that end quickly and pointlessly. Such ideas appall us. No! We are important! Our lives are important!

This deeply felt human desire explains the appeal of Anthroposophy. Not only are we important, Steiner taught — we stand at the absolute center of the created universe. Everything revolves around us; everything was made for us. Verily, the gods lavish their care and concern on us.

These are alluring ideas, certainly. But are they based on anything except our fear that, actually, we are small and ephemeral? Are they anything more than rather pathetic attempts to prop up our frail egos, telling ourselves lies about ourselves?

History shows that for millennia, we have told ourselves such lies. The Earth is the center of the universe. The Sun orbits the Earth. We are wholly superior in all ways to all the other creatures who share our planet. Most assuredly we did not evolve from apes.

History also shows that, gradually, we have had to wean ourselves from such beliefs. It is still hard for us to let these ideas go, but let them go we must. And as we toss them away, we need to toss out Anthroposophy as well. It is merely one of the more recent versions of our ancient self-deceiving misconceptions about ourselves.

But where does this leave us? Does this mean that our lives are meaningless and we ourselves are unimportant? Of course not. We are capable of love, intelligence, creativity, joy, pity, kindness, altruism, reverence. Our lives are blessings, gifts. We stand upright in a universe of beauty and majesty. But we do not magnify any of this by lying to ourselves; indeed, we only diminish ourselves through such lies. Our glory must be that we embrace life as it truly is, and that — with our eyes open and reverence in our hearts — we rise to the potential that we have to live compassionately, humbly, and wisely. We need to grow up, affirm what is true, and set aside the myths we believed as children.

___________

“[D]uring the Lemurian epoch...the majority of souls withdrew from the earth to other planets, continuing their life on Mars, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and so forth ... [D]uring the Atlantean epoch, these souls gradually came [back] down to earth in order to incarnate in earthly bodies under the changed earthly conditions. ” — Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), p. 36.

According to Steiner, Lemuria was a continent where we lived before we moved to Atlantis. Both continents met unhappy ends. We fled to other planets when we saw what was happening on Lemuria. We were less wise on Atlantis. [See, e.g., "Planets".]

___________

“The predecessors of our Earth-gnomes, the Moon-gnomes, gathered together their Moon-experiences and from them fashioned this structure, this firm structure of the solid fabric of the Earth, so that our solid Earth-structure actually arose from the experiences of the gnomes of the old Moon.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE RIDDLE OF HUMANITY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1990), lecture 9.

___________

“[Waldorf] education is essentially grounded on the recognition of the child as a spiritual being, with a varying number of incarnations behind him, who is returning at birth into the physical world ... Teachers too will know that it is their task to help the child to make use of his body, to help his soul-spiritual forces to find expression through it, rather than regarding it as their duty to cram him with information....” — Anthroposophist Stewart C. Easton, MAN AND WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), pp. 388-389.

Waldorf schools aim to benefit children in a number of ways, few of which have much to do with education.

 • The overall curriculum is designed to help children incarnate on a fixed schedule (etheric body by age 7*, astral body by age 14, “I” by age 21**).

 • A basic objective is helping students fulfill their karmas so that they can evolve properly. (As Easton indicates, reincarnation is a basic Waldorf belief.)

 • An effort is also made to maintain children’s supposed innate connections with the spirit realm.

 • Magical forms of thought (imagination, intuition, inspiration) are emphasized — they are meant to lead toward development of clairvoyance.

 • A warm, hazy love of the mystical and fabulous is encouraged, in the hope that students will, as adults, become full Anthroposophists.

 • Arts are emphasized because Steiner said they provide direct avenues to the spirit realm.

 • Science is de-emphasized because Steiner associated it with the dreadful demon Ahriman. [See “Ahriman”.]

 • Children are classified by race and “temperament,” and the schools endeavor to help the kids overcome the “drawbacks” of the races and temperaments to which they belong. [See “Races” and “Humouresque”.]

None of this makes a particle of sense except to committed occultists. And very little of it has any connection to what we normally think of as education.*** Certainly, Waldorf teachers do not "cram" their students with information. The less a Waldorf student is exposed to real knowledge of the real world, the better Waldorf teachers will be able to pursue their aims.

* Completion of this stage is signaled by the replacement of baby teeth with adult teeth — a process given extraordinary importance by Anthroposophists.

** Anthroposophists believe that in addition to a physical body, a fully developed human being has an etheric body (essentially a constellation of life forces), an astral body (soul forces), and an "I" (spirit forces that realize divine human individuality). According to Waldorf belief, the latter three bodies are invisible; they can be discerned only through clairvoyance. They incarnate gradually, through a series of seven-year-long phases. [See “Most Significant”.]

*** Indeed, little of it is clearly revealed in standard Waldorf PR mottoes: The schools say they educate “head, heart, and hands,” and they claim to equip students for "freedom." [See "Holistic Education" and "Freedom".] As descriptions of Waldorf methods and objectives, such statements are fundamentally misleading unless they are accompanied by detailed expositions of Anthroposophical doctrines.

[R.R]