Anthroposophy

Disclaimer

Trying to describe Anthroposophy in a single web page is an irresponsible task. A single web page cannot do it justice. If compressing Anthroposophy to a web page is irresponsible, describing it out of naivete (as is done here), is riskier yet. This page will simply introduce some of the core teachings of Anthropsophy and link to primary works by Rudolf Steiner so you can explore them for yourself.

Keep in mind, this is a relatively UNINFORMED view on Anthroposophy, sometimes from questionable sources. This article contains several links to other web pages about Anthroposophy. Remember: don't believe anything you read on the Internet, including at OpenWaldorf.com!

The best way to understand Anthroposophy is to read Steiner's own words in context for yourself in the Reading Room, the Steiner says page, and the pre-made Google searches that search the web. After you are more familiar with Anthroposophy, and have formed your own opinion, your school can answer any questions you have about Anthroposophy.

Before You Keep Reading!

This information is in no way a complete presentation of Anthroposophy. Rather, it focuses on some core teachings that you may not be aware of. Before you read this page, you should read some introductory literature by Steiner on Anthroposophy:

Introductory Books and Lectures on Anthroposophy

An means teachers read this in Waldorf Teacher Training
An means this is essential reading for parents.
A means this is highly recommended reading for parents.
An means this was recently removed from the Waldorf Teacher Training reading list

• Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path (Previously Philosophy of Freedom)
• Theosophy
• An Outline of Occult Science
• Towards Social Renewal Summary
• The Universal Human
• Theosophy of the Rosicrucian
• Guidance in Esoteric Training

Other Online Resources on Anthroposophy

• Anthroposophy at Yahoo
• Google:
• Study Guide to Insights of Rudolf Steiner
• Anthroposophy - An Introduction
• Anthropsophy, by Valdemar Setzer
• Anthroposophy, the Wisdom of Human Kind
• Uncle Taz Anthroposophy Links

On Anthroposophy's Role In Life

In Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, Steiner says:

Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe.

Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts (Letters to Members, 1924)

In Waldorf Teacher Training, Waldorf Teachers read that Anthroposophy is not simply a philosophy or science. In fact, Steiner says anthroposophy bestows forces that provide inner strength, grows in the soul, and even helps human beings between death and rebirth during the cycle of reincarnation:

Read online!

...[Anthroposophy] should not be considered a theory or mere science, nor as knowledge in the ordinary sense. It is rather something that grows in our souls from mere knowledge and theory into immediate life, into an elixir of life. In this way, anthroposophy not only provides us with knowledge, but we receive forces that help us in our ordinary lives during physical existence as well as in the total life that we spend during physical existence and the non-physical existence between death and a new birth. The more we experience anthroposophy as bringing to us strength, support and life renewing energies, the more do we understand it. Steiner, Rudolf. Facing Karma

Reincarnation and Karma

Every Waldorf Teacher reads A Western Approach to Reincarnation and Karma in Waldorf Teacher Training. It is an essential subject for acquiring a Waldorf teaching credential. You may ask yourself how this subject is relevant to your child's education. But when you remember that Waldorf schools are run by Anthroposophists, it's easy to understand why every Waldorf teacher needs to learn about reincarnation and karma. After all, reincarnation and karma are core teachings of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy. Waldorf teachers learn how to lead their students through the process of reincarnation. Why else would they need to study reincarnation in a teaching credential program?

Not only do Waldorf teachers need to learn how to be a positive influence on your reincarnating child, they need to learn how to avoid injuring your child's journey of reincarnation. Steiner says:

Read online!

In the sphere of education, if through our own short-comings as teachers we are incapable of helping the child to think properly, we may leave undeveloped much that by virtue of his previous incarnations he could have brought to expression. If, however, we are unable to work on the child's life of feeling and of will through our natural authority and our example as teachers, then we fail to impart to him what he ought to receive in the physical world, and thus we do injury to his subsequent life after death. Steiner, Rudolf. Cosmic Forces in Man III. The Mission of the Scandanavian Peoples

For a closer examination of what Rudolf Steiner teaches about reincarnation, you can read this commentary on Steiner's book, The Evolution of Conciousness:

"One of the valuable insights which Steiner gives us pertains to the nature of time in the spiritual world. He asserts that time is reversed in the spiritual world, and the bodies of light possessed by the beings there move from the most distant future towards the past. During the time between death and rebirth human beings also acquire such bodies, and live through their lives backwards until they reach a new conception." Author unknown from Experiences Between Death and Rebirth a commentary on The Evolution of Consciousness

For an understanding of how your local Waldorf teacher might apply this philosophy in the classroom, you should read "Karma and Reincarnation for Teachers" from Taruna College.

To learn more about how reincarnation affects your child, you might want to read a book called Your Reincarnating Child by Gilbert Childs, a popular Waldorf author and anthroposophist. Childs says "One of the main purposes of this book is to demonstrate that human beings are primarily of spiritual nature, and only secondarily of bodily nature." The book explains how these two natures complement each other in the processes of maturation and development from the period before birth, or incarnation, to maturity.

Lucifer and Ahriman

There is a famous passage that critics of Waldorf love to cite:

Most of that which contributes to our work as teachers, preparation work, artistic work, even meditative work is under the guidance of Lucifer. We can become great teachers under his supervision, for he is responsible for much of what has blossomed in the unfolding of civilization and culture in the past.

Schwartz, Eugene. The Waldorf Teachers Survival Guide

Lucifer's polar opposite is a being called Ahriman, who will incarnate sometime in the third millenium A.D. (any time now). Steiner says:

...the Ahrimanic influence has been at work since the middle of the fifteenth century and will increase in strength until an actual incarnation of Ahriman takes place among Western humanity. Now it is characteristic of such things that they are prepared long in advance. Ahrimanic powers prepare the evolution of mankind in such a way that it can fall a prey to Ahriman when he appears in human form within Western civilization hardly then to be called `civilization' in our sense as once Lucifer appeared in human form in China , as once Christ appeared in human form in Asia Minor. It is of no avail to give oneself illusions today about these things. Ahriman will appear in human form and the only question is, how he will find humanity prepared. Steiner, Rudolf.

Ahriman and Television

Some members of the Waldorf community believe that Ahriman is especially present in electronic media such as computers and the Internet. This might help explain why Waldorf is so adamant about eliminating television for children, even when the American Association of Pediatrics says limited TV is OK for kids over 2 years of age.

You can familiarize yourself with this phenomenon at Google:

Also, don't forget to check out OpenWaldorf's Media Restriction page.

What does Steiner Say?

You can read for yourself more of what Steiner says about Lucifer and Ahriman at the Rudolf Steiner archives:

You can research more about Waldorf and Ahriman at Google:

The Three-fold and Four-fold Human

The Akasha Chronicle

In Theosophy of the Rosicrucian, Rudolf Steiner describes something called the "Akasha Chronicle," also known as the "Akashic Record." Steiner says:

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What is the Akasha Chronicle? We can form the truest conception of it by realising that what comes to pass on our earth makes a lasting impression upon certain delicate essences, an impression which can be discovered by a seer who has attained Initiation. It is not an ordinary but a living Chronicle . Suppose a human being lived in the first century after Christ; what he thought, felt and willed in those days, what passed into deeds this is not obliterated but preserved in this delicate essence. The seer can behold it-not as if it were recorded in a history book, but as it actually happened. How a man moved, what he did, a journey he took-it can all be seen in these spiritual pictures; the impulses of will, the feelings, the thoughts, can also be seen. Steiner, Rudolf. Theosophy of the Rosicrucian,

Steiner warns that our language is insufficient for describing the Akasha Chronicle. To paraphrase Capon, a human trying to describe the Akasha Chronicle is like an oyster trying to describe a ballerina! Still, Steiner indicates that the chronical is of non-transitory history that is not perceptible to the senses. Steiner says:

Read online!

[At] a certain high level of his cognitive power, man can penetrate to the eternal origins of the things which vanish with time. A man broadens his power of cognition in this way if he is no longer limited to external evidence where knowledge of the past is concerned. Then he can see in events what is not perceptible to the senses, that part which time cannot destroy. He penetrates from transitory to non-transitory history. It is a fact that this history is written in other characters than is ordinary history. In gnosis and in theosophy it is called the Akasha Chronicle. Only a faint conception of this chronicle can be given in our language. Steiner, Rudolf. Cosmic Memory, Preface: From the Akasha Chronicle

Much of the knowlege in Anthropsophy is a result of Steiner's clairvoyant research of the Akasha Record. For example, Steiner used clairvoyant powers to study the Akashic record for insight on the Gospel of St. John. Steiner says:

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We have attempted in the last few days to gain an understanding of the Christ-impulse on the basis of a clairvoyant study of the Akashic record, and to establish that impulse as an actual fact in the evolution of mankind. Moreover we referred only to those parts of the Gospels which appear to confirm the facts previously ascertained and verified by clairvoyant research. Steiner, Rudolf. The Gospel of St. John, Chapter IX

Imagine the excitement of actually being there when Rudolf Steiner conducted this kind of clairvoyant research for the sake of Anthroposophy and humankind!

What's in the Akasha Chronicle?

If you are curious about some of the things that are in the Akasha Chronicle, the best book to read is Cosmic Memory, by Rudolf Steiner. In this book you will read about many subjects that inform Waldorf education. Steiner richly describes:

• our Atlantean ancestors
• the Lemurian race (which lived on earth before the Atlanteans)
• the Hyperborean and Polarian epoch
• the extrusion of the moon from the earth (the moon used to be part of the earth)
• the lives of the earth, sun, moon, and saturn
• the four-fold nature of man: physical, etheric, astral, and "I"

At the very least, every Waldorf parent should read the chapter called "The Fourfold Man of Earth," which forms the basis for Steiner's child development theory.

If you want to learn more about Steiner's clairvoyant research of the Akasha Chronicle, you can search the Rudolf Steiner Archive with Google:

Finally, if you are interested in reading your own Akashic Record, you might want to contact Akashic Record Consultants.

Anthroposophy and Polytheism

Anthroposophy and Christianity

The person of Jesus Christ is the fulcrum of Christianity. Without Jesus, Christianity falls apart. Rudolf Steiner takes an esoteric view with regards to Christ. Steiner says:

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The Christos [Christ] is the Sun Hero who has transplanted all the strength of the Sun upon the Earth. Now you will be able to understand with what deep intuition esoteric Christianity conceived of the fish form, because it signifies the outer symbol of the Sun power, of the forces of the Christ. Steiner, Rudolf. Occult Signs and Symbols, Lecture 2: The Symbolic Meaning of Noah's Ark and the Gothic Churches

While this perspective may not seem familiar from the bible, keep in mind that it's not supposed to. In addition to biblical study, Rudolf Steiner also used clairvoyant research to develop his own unique Christology. For a better understanding of how clairvoyance is used to understand Jesus, you can search the Rudolf Steiner archive with Google:

If you self-identify as a Christian, and are interested in learning more about Steiner's unique Christology, there are many works freely available online for you to explore:

Is Anthroposophy a religion? Is Waldorf religious?

Prayers and Verses in the Classroom

Historically, Waldorf teachers led prayers in the classroom at the early Waldorf school. However, publicly these prayers were called "verses," for external appearances to overcome prejudice. Steiner says:

We also need to speak about a prayer. I ask only one thing of you. You see, in such things everything depends upon the external appearances. Never call a verse a prayer, call it an opening verse before school. Avoid allowing anyone to hear you, as a faculty member, using the word "prayer." In doing that, you will have overcome a good part of the prejudice that this is an anthroposophical thing. Steiner, Rudolf. Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner

In contrast to the early years of Waldorf, "verses" in today's Waldorf schools may look like "prayer," and sound like "prayer," but they are "verses." If you are concerned that your child is praying at Waldorf school, you can be assured they are not. Proof of this is that you will never hear a faculty member at Waldorf using the word "prayer" when talking about "verses."

The best way to understand the distinction between Waldorf "verses" and "prayers" is to compare a Steiner "verse" with a Steiner "prayer:"

When you compare the above texts, the differences between a "verse" and "prayer" should be clearly obvious. If you can't yet tell the difference, you can find many more examples of Waldorf verses at Google:

Waldorf students usually say "grace" before eating lunch. Here is an example table grace from the Waldorf journal "Education as an Art":

Sun who makes it ripe and good,
Dear Earth, dear Sun, by you we live,
Our loving thanks to you we give.

You can review more examples of Waldorf blessings at Waldorfhomeschoolers.com.

You can also explore more about Waldorf and prayer at Google:

Questions for Parent's Night or School Tour Verses and Prayer Why do children recite verses at Waldorf? What are the verses like? What is their purpose? Do children address God in the first person in Waldorf verses? If so, are they talking to God? Would a child think they are talking to God in Waldorf verses? Which God are they talking too? Is talking to God considered prayer? Is talking to God a religious practice? Are the verses also prayers? What is the difference between a "prayer" and a "verse?" Do children petition God in Waldorf verses? Is petitioning God considered prayer? Did Steiner talk to Waldorf teachers about the difference between calling something a "verse," and calling it a "prayer?" What was the difference? When do parents get a copy of the verses their children are learning at Waldorf? You can print out the Master Checklist for parents, and bring it with you to school.

Many Points of View

There are many points of view with regards to the question of religion and Waldorf. Here are examples of a "pro" and "con" view as to the religious nature of Waldorf:

Pro: The Religious Basis of Waldorf Education

Con: Waldorf Education is Non-Sectarian