For those who are new to Dr. Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science, two questions often arise: Where did Steiner get this knowledge? and Why has “no one” ever heard of him? To address the second question, we may start by asking ourselves if we can name any German philosophers of the early 1900s. During Steiner’s lifetime, though, he was well-known and drew crowds sometimes numbering in the thousands for his lectures. His work in organizing the Goethe and Schiller archives in Weimar prompted Friedrich Nietzsche’s sister to invite Steiner to visit her brother, the famous philosopher, as he lay on his deathbed. Steiner died 95 years ago on March 30, 1925, and his name, at least for the general public, has faded.
Albert Schweitzer, a household name not so long ago, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, said, “My meeting with Rudolf Steiner led me to occupy myself with him from that time forth and to remain always aware of his significance. We both felt the same obligation to lead man once again to true inner culture. I have rejoiced at the achievements his great personality and his profound humanity have brought about in the world.” Not very long ago, one would say of a greedy man: “He’s no Albert Schweitzer,” yet who in our time has even heard of him?
More recently, Willi Brandt, former Chancellor of Germany and also a Nobel Peace Prize winner said, “The advent of the Waldorf School was in my opinion the greatest contribution to world peace and understanding of the century.” And Victor Navaski, editor of The Nation for over 30 years, said in his 2005 memoir, A Matter of Opinion, that Rudolf Steiner was “light years ahead of the curve.” As Frederick Amrine (see linked site) has pointed out, the genius of Aristotle was lost for a millennium, J.S. Bach was rediscovered by Felix Mendelssohn, and Van Gogh sold but one painting in his lifetime. Will we one day look back on the relative obscurity of Rudolf Steiner as surprising?
Addressing the first question, we need to understand that Steiner isn’t the first to have gained spiritual enlightenment. Since the beginning of civilization, direct spiritual knowledge has been available to a few, mainly arising from initiation schools. In some mystery schools of yore, to reveal any of the knowledge therein would result in death, which is why so much of what we do know about the ancient mysteries from historical documentation is, at best, conjecture. Some mystery schools you might recognize include: the Pythagoreans, the Gnostics, the Essenes, the Mithraists, and the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These mystery schools offered a path of development, marked by various levels of attainment, to those students who were deemed ready. Over the course of long years of arduous training and purification, the student strove to observe in the higher worlds—strove toward “initiation” the term used for the student who has crossed the threshold between the physical and spiritual worlds.
The seven levels of initiation known as Raven, Occultist, Warrior, Lion, Persian, Sun-hero, and Father were sought within the Mithras mysteries popular among Romans from the 1st to 4th century CE. (https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt8.htm) Once a level was achieved, these students were called Initiates of that degree. Some initiates and their work in the world are completely unknown to us; others are.
Those initiates, who “soared above the lower stages of the human capacity for knowledge” shaped the major religions and philosophies and cultures in all ages. Edouard Schuré, in his book The Great Initiates, names Rama, Krishna, Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato and Jesus. Sergei O. Prokofieff, in his book Rudolf Steiner and the Masters of Esoteric Christianity, names Manes, Zarathustra (Master Jesus), Scythianos, Gautama Buddha, the Maitreya bodhisattva, Novalis, and Christian Rosenkreutz. Each of these Initiates had a purpose that was necessary for humankind’s advancement, a message that they imparted using a means and method appropriate for their time and culture.
Both Schuré and Prokofieff recognized Rudolf Steiner as an Initiate. Steiner’s mission was to share the revelations of the spiritual world without all the secrecy practiced in the mystery schools and without our needing to become initiates ourselves to understand. Dr. Steiner wrote 28 books, hundreds of articles and essays, and gave over 6,700 lectures. Thus we can appreciate the enormity of Steiner’s gift to us.
We are familiar with Buddha’s Eight-fold path and the Cabala. We can find information about the path to initiation taught in the Rosicrucian Order, in the Freemasons, and others. All of these practices point to methods of study that lead to enlightenment—to knowledge of the spiritual world that is universal; however, Steiner’s method, is the first one to use modern scientific thinking as a path toward knowledge of the spiritual world. Steiner’s path is detailed in his book: How To Know Higher Worlds.
Rudolf Steiner, as all other Initiates, was not looking at ancient texts and deciphering them in order to share them with us. He was an initiate who saw for himself what every initiate has seen after traveling the arduous path toward enlightenment. He then applied his knowledge to the ancient texts in order to show us how they should be interpreted with the mental faculties we possess today.
Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:
“I was not setting forth a doctrine (in Philosophy of Freedom), but simply recording inner experiences through which I had actually passed. And I reported them just as I experienced them. Everything in my book is written from this personal angle, even to the shaping of the thoughts it contains. A theoretical writer could cover more territory, and there was a time when I might have done so. But my purpose was to write a biographical account of how one human soul made the difficult ascent to freedom. In such an ascent one cannot spare any attention to others in the party as they try to negotiate cliffs and precipices, so preoccupied is one with getting up and over them oneself. One’s longing to reach the goal is too keen to consider stopping and pointing out the easiest way ahead to other climbers. And I believe I would have fallen had I attempted any such thing. I found my own way up as best I could, and then, later on, described the route that I had taken. Afterwards, I could have found a hundred other different ascent-routes that other climbers might have followed. But at the time I had no desire to write about any of these alternative paths. My method of getting over many a chasm was an individual one, deliberately singled out to be such. I struggled through thickets in a way peculiar to myself alone. And only when one reaches the goal does one realize that one has actually made it…”
Letter to Rosa Mayreder, dated November 1894. (Rudolf Steiner on his book The Philosophy of Freedom: arranged and annotated by Otto Palmer, 1975.)
Steiner’s work is published, but it isn’t easy to read, which is one reason it isn’t exactly popular. His path to enlightenment isn’t easy either; even the very first step is daunting. We have all the access to Steiner’s work that we could want, but it’s challenging, like most things worth doing. The good news is that reading Steiner’s work is, in itself, a preparation – a beginning on the path toward enlightenment. (See links below.)
The Creative Genius of Rudolf Steiner https://www.rudolfsteinerweb.com/Rudolf_Steiner_Biography.php
Discovering a Genius: Rudolf Steiner at 150 by Frederick Amrine
https://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/articles/amrine_steiner.pdf
How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation, by Rudolf Steiner. Most recent edition: Anthroposophic Press 1994.
Testimonials about Waldorf schools:
https://www.steinerwaldorf.org/steiner-education/does-it-work/what-others-say/
On my site: focus on biodynamic agriculture
https://www.whoareyou.blog/about-rudolf-steiner
2018 Documentary about a farm using biodynamic principles: The Biggest Little Farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfDTM4JxHl8
Michael Chekov: one of his pupils — Marilyn Monroe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiuB_6Zj05A
https://anthropopper.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/marilyn-monroe-and-rudolf-steiner/