What was Rudolf Steiner?

Recently, on the Anthroposophy Facebook page, there was a lengthy and needed discussion of Steiner’s “nature?”. Over one hundred back and forths. From my seeing, Context is everything, if we understand the style of thinking we call Goetheanism.

In the middle 1800’s scientific materialism triumphed in Central Europe. The ideas of a Big Bang and Darwian evolution were born then. In 1861, around the beginning of the Civil War in America, Steiner was born.

The Copernican Revolution had coughed up a spiritless “science”, … all matter, no spirit. Once we listen to the Mother, we will see that this was Her plan all along. Humanity had to forget that the Goddess Natura was real – and be led to seeing the world of matter as soulless things, absent any life or spirit … only the human being was to have an interior sentient self-consciousness.

If we were to come to know that a molecule as a corpse, and an atom a corpse of a corpse, and a particle a corpse of a corpse of a corpse … Cern practices necromancy, and the science of matter-only learns of death forces. All the same, the time of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is passing, while the Remembering of the Tree of Life begins to return.

“Western” Civilization is presently dying into a new becoming. The Mother, in Her Aspect as Divine Providence, coupled with Her Son as the Artist of Karma … begins to seed the world with genius.

Underneath the Copernican Revolution, is a counter-Copernican Revolution. Kepler was an astrologer. Newton an alchemist. Faraday a mystic. Via the Renaissance, artists make way for the Reformation. Goethe, Emerson, and S.T. Coleridge are born – inspirational stars of the “Remembering”.

The counter-Copernican Revolution includes: Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Romanticism, Transcendentalism, and now Anthroposophy … or perhaps a disaster: Steinerism.

RS lives and dies. To appreciate that … try to imagine a world in which his genius did not participate.

In The Challenge of Times, he asserts that central Europeans need to come to the Consciousness soul, via a spiritual means. English speakers, on the other hand, are instinctively in the Consciousness Soul in their Life of Rights.

As Barfield points out, materialism is deeply embedded in the meaning of very many contemporary words. We may know that RS used the capacity of German to create new words, out of old parts, and give a spiritualistic meaning via the new words.

As to his “judgmental-ism” … his audience was fully in the Intellectual Soul. They used the words “good and evil” all over the place, in reference to modern life. This included the common production of books, lectures, magazines, and so forth, where “argument” was the standard. Anyone could write a book, and Steiner was confronted with freeing his audience of the old, and pointing out something new at the same time.

This sea of discourse was not polite, and frequently involved folks who knew nothing real, about the subjects upon which they pontificated.

All the same, there is an extraordinary amount of stuff he didn’t know, but frequently acted as if he knew. For example, most of what he wrote and spoke about the Americas, and the Mother, were mistaken on many levels.

“Black Magic” being practiced in the deep inwardness of the Holy Mother-Earth Mother? There are “ceremonial” arts of no little import. When Steiner stumbled on the Realm where Titan-like gods, keep order and truth alive in the unfolding of earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wars, pestilence, and other nightmares, like the Covid Mystery … via Ceremonial Arts and Crafts, he was out of his depth, for tho’ touched by the Son, he did not seek the Mother as an act of love and adoration, naked and alone, but rather as a “spiritual researcher”. Talk about Ego!

Tasked with waking up audience, whose minds are in bondage to materialism, we might forgive, what the Law of Evidence calls: an excited utterance. As I thought about his lecturing, I came to sense that on a certain level he had to tell “ghost” stories. He saw and thought about what others did not see, or usually talk about.

A typical effort (to my ear) is to warn about the future in most dire of ways … via the Intellectual Soul, not the Consciousness Soul. German has two words for “you”, one more formal, another more intimate. It is also less “earthy”, as what we might hear in America (US of A). He speaks to the higher chakras, the three above the heart, and teaches a renewed Sun Wisdom.

In the Americas, we have to learn of, and master, the three chakras below the heart. This Way is a Moon Wisdom, as are all Earth Religions.

One of my serious issues, with Steiner fans, is that they can’t get their “heads” around the obvious fact, that the Mystery is not laying all Their Easter Eggs in one basket.

The Second Becoming of Christ is ongoing, which is an Event that dwarfs Steiner and Anthroposophy. Some social phenomena …

In this time of the rule of the God of Number (Ahriman), there was needed a counter-pull, thus the “1960’s”, a fully luciferic Dionysian Rite. Because America (US of A) has become a leader – in the 20^th Century – world culture was gifted with Rock ‘n Roll. Again, artists are taking the lead.

Film and television are everywhere today. Born in America, we find in film a dialogue over all the crucial social issues of the day. The creators of drama see the Consciousness Soul in action, they just don’t use that word.

Just after the end of WWII, China invaded Tibet, and a well simmered stew pot of wisdom was poured over the world. In the 50’s, the Beatniks embraced Zen, and American culture found itself in between the deepest ancient wisdoms from the East and the continuing folly of scientific materialism floating in from the Center.

Meanwhile, some “anthroposophists” fled Europe (not enough jobs for ego), and – while being completely ignorant of the “American Soul, proceeded to “teach” us how to develop our soul life.

A core element of the Anthroposophical Society, is the modeling of what it means to be a student of Steiner. Their Way … ? … look for Steiner in his books, because we are masters of quoting him. Oh, and by the way, ignore Goethean Science because it was too hard for us to learn, just like is “The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity”. And, for good measure do not seek him/her/it in the world of the dead.

Berlin, while Steiner was living: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIiK3rH2hXc&ab_channel=Rick88888888

Steiner outed: 1) Catherine MacCoun “Work on What has been Spoiled.” http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/ktmc1.html 2) Stephen Clarke: “Re-imagining the Mexican Mysteries” http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/Clarke5.html 3) me: ”The Meditative Scholar, and the Second Becoming of Christ in the Realm of Living Thought.” https://thecollectiveimagination.com/2022/01/20/the-meditating-scholar-and-the-second-becoming-of-christ-in-the-realm-of-living-thought/

The three of us where at the Culmination, as was Steiner, only in that incarnation his name was Harvey Bornfield.