“Spiritual Science”
Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy
Already as a child, Rudolf Steiner (1865 – 1925) had direct perception of beings and phenomena beyond the reach of our usual five senses ; and as a young man, saw the difficulty of communicating about this non-physical realm to persons who could not yet experience it. To describe such things to those who know only the five senses, he saw, would need adaptations of language, and especially clear methods of presentation. To prepare for this he embarked on a rigorous education, the best available in his time, in both science and philosophy. His capacities as a scholar were recognized early in his appointment to a prestigious post editing the scientific writings of Goethe. (See Rudolf Steiner's overview of Goethe's scientific work) (Read for free) (Listen)
Steiner’s doctoral thesis, The Philosophy of Freedom, also known as The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, demonstrates through meticulous and rigorous thought processes that the human being is free ; that while certainly subject to and capable of error, and to limits imposed by the physical body, we can find our way to inner freedom, and to discovery of truth. This is possible, he outlines by steps, because of our capacity to form mental pictures and to think.
Natural science works with observation, mental pictures and thinking to study phenomena of the physical, sense perceptible world, and uses these precisely. Steiner observes, however, that this is not the limit for these tools ; they can also be turned to phenomena of the inner world, to our own thoughts and feelings, and to reflection on our actions. Further, he asserts, they can also be turned, through appropriate training, to entirely non-physical, non sense-perceptible phenomena - to an objective spiritual world not limited by time and space as our physical world, yet intimately connected and related to it. Steiner wrote and spoke of this world and these relationships in over 40 books and 6000 lectures.
Although the volume of themes addressed and of practical applications these have led to, is immense, they are not to be "believed" blindly or on faith. The means for evaluating results of spiritual research are of the same nature for the student as for the researcher who discovers them - namely, the tools of mental images and thinking, intensively and precisely applied. In this case the results of clairvoyant spiritual research can be experienced - actually perceived - by a someone who lacks this ability, if accurately presented to the student by the researcher as thoughts, concepts, mental pictures. They can in turn also be confirmed, first of all through thinking (internal logical consistency and coherence) ; and then through their consistency with phenomena in the sense world with which they're connected ; and which in many cases they prove to explain for the student, even for the first time. This is the starting point for any serious study of spiritual science.
Thinking, Steiner indicates, is the crucial bridge for human beings between the physical and spiritual worlds. Again : while the content of the spiritual world is at first inaccessible to those who are not clairvoyant, its processes and phenomena can be grasped as thoughts, when rightly described by someone with this faculty. Steiner’s life work included exactly such presentations, in the massive number of books and lectures mentioned. The fruits of Steiner's research are astonishingly broad, systematic and of the highest quality and integrity. Students report that these insights bear out consistently in their own experiences of life and the world. Broad and persistent study of these results of clairvoyant research are recommended as prerequisites, and as a foundation for later personal esoteric development.
Knowledge and access to the spiritual world are not limited to reports of it by others. It is a latent faculty in all human beings, which can also be cultivated. This is not to be gained easily or pursued lightly for the sake of curiosity. Steiner provided many guidelines for meditation, but also emphasized strong prerequisite of self knowledge and regulation of the inner life. The unfolding of genuine clairvoyance, he indicated, can only occur in a strict and lawful way, with “for each step in spiritual development, three steps in moral development.“ Knowledge of the spiritual world, he indicated, is not a superficial matter or one of vivid imagination and conjecture ; but a scientific activity. Steiner also called the knowledge arising from this activity anthroposophy, “wisdom concerning the human being.“
Relevance to Practical and Everyday Life
Natural science is a process in which human faculties of observing and thinking are directed to things observable by the five senses. Spiritual science involves directing these same faculties to phenomena equally real, but not perceptible to these five senses. The physical and spiritual worlds are a continuum, each grasped by observing and thinking – the phenomena are only of a different kind.
An example of a bridging phenomenon, accessible to any thinking person, Rudolf Steiner observed, is geometry. Geometry is of a spiritual nature, and its concepts are entirely non-physical : they are grasped by the mind and elaborated by thinking. Yet the applications of geometry are everywhere we look, concretely expressed in our physical world.
As natural science contributes innumerable improvements and innovations to the world, so too can spiritual science, both for inner and practical life. On the one hand it demands a fully equal discipline of observation and thinking - on the other self reflection, and responsibility for one's own feelings and actions. At best, both the discipline and the knowledge gained work in a structuring way, for increasingly clear understanding of the world and of human nature ; and for increasing competence in practical life.
The themes Steiner opened have also given rise to practical and social endeavors in many areas :
- Agriculture, namely Biodynamic Farming and Gardening
- Architecture
- Education and child development especially the worldwide Waldorf Education movement
- Anthroposophical Medicine and Therapy
- Anthroposophical understanding of Christianity (Book) (Read for Free) (Listen)
- Christian religious life, namely through The Christian Community (Movement for Religious Renewal )
- The arts, including the completely new art of "beautiful movement", Eurythmy
- An extended understanding of human psychology. (Book)
- An extended outlook on the practice of science. (Book)
- Social thinking, notably in the form of Rudolf Steiner’s Threefold Social Idea (Resource) (Resource)
Clairvoyance : A Spiritual-Historical Perspective
Helpful, perhaps, to understanding methods and knowledge that claim on the one hand to be scientific, and on the other to draw upon clairvoyance - which clearly, few people have, of yet - may be a brief historical overview of this faculty, as Rudolf Steiner describes it. This is a large and complex theme, but hopefully this can provide a starting point.
A first factor to consider, per Steiner, is that while the physical world is a world of objects, subject to physical laws, the spiritual world is one of active but non-physical beings.
A second is that while our world, due to its physical nature is subject to time, the spiritual world and its beings are not ; such that past events not only continue to exist, but can be accessed spiritually by a spiritual being - of which we humans are also one. An incomplete and imperfect example of this even in earthly life is that we can remember past events in our lives, even without clairvoyance.
Steiner's descriptions, gained through exceptionally highly developed inner faculties, are generally as follows ; namely that the beings of the spiritual world
Consciousness, even in its most dim and rudimentary forms, even in states of unconsciousness and deep sleep, could thus not unfold until appropriate forms were created to receive them. Steiner's description of cosmic and earthly evolution is entirely unique, in that he portrays the path of the human being not as a rising from more primitive forms, but as an infinitely gradual descent from the purely spiritual, for which all else, all forms, kingdoms and stages of consciousness have been a preparation.
Ancient Clairvoyance
Human consciousness, like all else in the universe, is on a course of evolution, and this can already be seen in accounts from history. The history of humanity is filled with accounts of events and beings no longer visible or explicable to our modern consciousness. We hear these accounts in virtually every ancient culture, stories of beings, angels, gods, vigorously active and interactive, both among themselves and with human beings. Faced with these accounts, we easily think of them as superstition, imaginations, interpretations of reality by an earlier, primitive humanity to explain things unknown, or perhaps wished or feared. But what if these were in fact descriptions of real events, reported even by the most astute and advanced among human beings ?
Consistent with a descent of humanity from more purely spiritual conditions to more earthly ones, Steiner describes humanity in the ancient past as embedded entirely in the world of the beings who created it - dependent, without clear individuality, with awareness, such as it was, only of the spiritual world, and not yet of the earthly one at all. He describes the processes by which this changed in intricate detail - too much to repeat here, but systemically. Among phases described are long ages of clairvoyance of the spiritual world and its beings, stages by which clairvoyance fades, and ones in which awareness of the external and physical world gradually increases. A finer reading even of historical documents can discern ages when this outer, physical world was still considered Maya - illusion - by human beings ; followed later by epics and sagas of a "twilight of the gods", when the power of the gods diminished, and the earthly capacities of human beings grew. Clairvoyance into spiritual worlds, in Steiner's precise describing, was a faculty of a humanity living in worlds still more spiritual than earthly, only fading, and eventually for the most part disappearing as both descended deeper into physicality.
The Question of Freedom
Thus far we see the human being as an evolving spiritual creation, built up in wisdom by yet higher beings, descending in gradual stages from purely spiritual realms towards physical manifestation, to be a spiritual being in a physical body. Parallel and just as gradual, we see an imbuing of this being over time with consciousness - from the most profoundly dim and inward, to perception of the spiritual around it, to first perceptions of a physical world around it, this becoming ever more clear ; to the extent that perception of the spiritual is essentially lost. And coinciding with awareness of an external world, dawning self awareness, and potential to self-reflect.
To think of this evolution in any more than a superficial way raises questions as to the autonomy of this created being, of his individuality and freedom, especially in an inner sense. In Steiner's description consciousness was bestowed on humanity - but at what point did it become its own possession ?
Per Steiner as noted, human awareness arose first as only the dimmest internal perceptions, not even yet of any external environment. Later, in times still long before history, perceptions arose as images, pictures, spiritual but objective, of a spiritual environment and beings. These perceptions happened to humanity as experiences, as impetus to movement and development - yet guided from outside. Later still as noted, awareness of an earthly and external environment arose ; but when was it that autonomy, individuality, freedom became possibilities - and actually, how ?
In Steiner's description the dependence of humanity on higher beings continued for a very long time, passing in recorded time to guidance by the spirit of a tribe or nation, by a group soul of a people, and of forerunners of humanity - leading figures, priest kings and prophets, who gave it its successive cultures, and guidance, wise but very strict. The freedom of the individual human being lived always, from the beginning as intention of the higher worlds ; but the apprenticeship was careful - and long.
The guidance, deeds and gifts of the higher worlds to humankind were of the highest wisdom, and unerring.
Its later guiding human leadership was also spiritual in nature, based in living knowledge of its origins, living relationship to the higher worlds and loyalty to their intentions. This higher understanding lived, for instance, in the early teachings of the Christian church on the nine spiritual heirarchies, rising in perfection above a humanity still in development. These things can still be found in a Google search, but are now no more than traditions, understood by almost no one. Today rather, a near magnetic attraction for the earthly and physical grips us with such force that even the notion of "soul" or "spirit" seems strange to us, an impossibility to grasp - and for many, even to consider. This means independence from that which once faithfully guided us - but also a certain loss, both of knowledge and of relationship. How did these mixed circumstances unfold, and how can we understand them ?
The Nature of Evil and "The Fall of Man"
The creation of the human being, as described, was possible when higher beings surrendered, literally gifted him elements of their own being, successively and progressively. The result for these beings themselves was that as humankind descended deeper into physicality, they rose higher in the spiritual world - an advance for humanity in one direction, and for them in another. But this progress was not the same for all.
It happened - time and again - that certain higher beings did not evolve accordingly, but remained at a previous stage, had affinity for it and evolved further only later, and differently. While this did not defeat or derail the course of cosmic evolution, it did have effects, and wrought certain changes to the process. Some such changes in fact became intrinsic to our freedom as human beings.
Evil
We have, in every culture and world conception, some notion of what we consider evil. As beings today oriented almost exclusively to physical existence, we tend to think of evil as anything that disrupts or disturbs this existence ; but viewpoints with spiritual dimensions, as described above, see further aspects.
Accounts from former times make reference to beings such as "Lucifer", "Satan", "demons" - these are names from western traditions ; other cultures give such beings other names. A recurring theme in western culture, although not limited to it, is "the fall of man" ; the loss of a former higher state for one somehow damaged or diminished. Why has this been such a central theme - and what does it mean ? Rudolf Steiner's account may help clarify.
As described by Steiner, the independence and eventual freedom of the human being were intended by the higher worlds - but only by steps, after careful preparation. Consciousness, for its part, had been in pictures, images objectively related to realities - but objective still only in spiritual realms, not yet in the earthly one. Of this world the human being was of yet inexperienced, without reliable understanding ; the grounds for this had simply not been laid in him yet.
It was in this condition that humanity could be approached by a "tempter", the being Lucifer in the old accounts, "the light bearer", and beings of like nature whom he led. Rudolf Steiner's descriptions complete this picture in the terms we've been exploring, and can, at least in potential, make it intelligible for our own times.
Lucifer
As we've seen, in the course of cosmic evolution beings of the higher worlds were able to bestow gifts on humanity, sacrificed out of their own being ; and by this process both they and we advanced. But such beings can also fail to advance. And while they may still have power to bestow, what they bestow may be incomplete. So this was with Lucifer and the beings who followed him.
Lucifer offered - and humanity received from him - a certain capacity : namely a capacity to picture inwardly experiences of the earthly and physical world. This was a forerunner to memory and to thinking as pertains earthly experiences, and was indeed a great gift ; but one given prematurely, and thus with equally great risks and consequences. Humanity gained an ability to picture and take action in the world of earthly things - but with no preparation to do so wisely, accurately or well. A potential was gained for a whole new world of consciousness ; but with this gift also, the potential of ruin.
Lucifer's effect on the human being was to enchant him with an inner world of light and wisdom perhaps concerning the earth, but also fascinating in itself, and inclined to estrange him from it, from his actual tasks, relationships and responsibilities on it. The intended trajectory of the higher worlds for the human being was towards the earth, into deeper relationship with it. To embrace Lucifer's ambitions unreservedly would fill the human being with pride at his own light and wisdom, so that he drew back from it ; an orientation, like Lucifer's, towards the past, rather than the future.
While the images of antiquity are of a fall, of being "cast from paradise", humanity was not to be abandoned by the higher worlds, which held their course faithfully - if under changed circumstances. Humanity was still to have freedom - if yet with painfully opened eyes. What happened, as results of this "temptation" and "fall" ?
Consequences
Within the human being, built into him, lived the whole story of his creation. Conscious or unconscious, this lived in his fabric, and remained. Into him were built the entire goodness, beauty and truth of that process, and these were permanent - not only in his substance, but as organs of perception, as bestowed to this point. This is expressed with great eloquence, for instance in a Hebrew Old Testament Psalm. Per Rudolf Steiner, the ability to recognize beauty, goodness and truth can never be lost by the human being ; and although they may be covered over for a time, or even rebelled against, they always re-emerge - even if to our shame. This was the case also with the gift of Lucifer.
With its new gift of mental pictures, humanity was in most other ways unchanged, but in fact, saw itself as it was for the first time ; thus the words that Adam and Eve "saw themselves naked". It was not destroyed in what it was, and lived still for the most part in the most intimate support from the world of its creation. But it found itself in a body in process of hardening and becoming more material, in a world in process of becoming harder and more material, in a future where it must be increasingly responsible for itself. In the best sense what it did and became would be to some extent its own achievement. But it could also see for itself as much as it dared look, what it did not know of the world, how subject it was to error and indeed, what it had lost.
The promise to the representative of humanity "Adam" had been to know good and evil and to be as a god. Here it came to truly know the ever present nature of illness, death and evil, and to feel its own weakness before them ; and as a result to know among other emotions, the archetypal one of shame.
Satan
Tradition identifies names, facts and events in history, to the extent history is available. Supersensible research, rightly conducted, gains access to these and more, in their ever-living origins ; and so sheds light in a new and more complete form. Tradition names Lucifer, Satan and other beings, but doesn't much distinguish differences, either in their nature or activities ; so that "Lucifer" and "Satan", as examples, are sometimes used interchangeably. Per Rudolf Steiner's this is not the case.
Per Steiner, Satan gained access to humanity only later, and is a being of higher spiritual rank and power. Unlike Lucifer, whose own ambition is to lead humankind away from the earth, and distract it with illusions, Satan's aim is to bind it too closely to the earth. Steiner speaks of Satan as Ahriman, the name first used for him in ancient Persia. This Ahriman would do away with humanity's memory of the past altogether if he could. His interest is only in what can be weighed, measured and be turned into statistics, according to which all things must be proved and justified. His ideal for the earth is that it in effect become a machine, a system of which the individual human being is a cog and servant, at risk of his very existence. His lie to the human being is that each one is alone, insignificant, and must get what he or she can ; that there is no soul or spirit, and that the physical world is the only reality.
Ahriman's "way" is to persuade belief in this mindset, participation in an all-convincing system ; and to grant, in return, earthly rewards and power. if Lucifer's gift was one of exceptional light and consciousness, Ahriman's is one of exceptional will ; a disproportionately powerful will, exercised in apparent freedom in the earthly, physical world.
The caveat to the freedom he bestows is that what humans achieve thereby may not be lawful ; that it is often not ; and even catastrophically not. What does "lawful" mean in this sense ? It means in simple terms that heaven, earth and the human being are created according to a higher order, by higher beings ordained to do so, and in ways permeated by goodness, beauty and truth throughout. This creation cannot be tampered with without consequences - even in our own inner being.
The freedom of Ahriman, while imperfect and potentially very dangerous, is still freedom, and may yield achievements of which we can reasonably be proud ; not least a technological world wholly of our own making, that provides for our every seeming need and convenience. Yet made as we are, we again feel discrepancy, vulnerability, even in our depths. The risk of failure, the reality of collateral, seemingly inevitable harm from things we do ; a visceral sense of our own smallness in the face of an immense universe, an unknown future. if we're honest, these expose a downside even in our own inner life ; namely a veiled but existential fear.
Trajectory of Humanity Since Lucifer
I spoke earlier of the trajectory of a humanity guided by the higher worlds from a past entirely spiritual in nature, towards deepening engagement in a physical world, itself evolving ever more deeply into physicality; its vehicle, organs and possibilities for consciousness prepared over ages uncounted, with the greatest wisdom and lawfulness. Parallel and equally gradual, unfolded its progress from complete dependence and direction by higher beings, towards its own inner awareness and autonomy.
The gift of Lucifer, as noted, gave awareness and autonomy at a stroke ; but left out steps in a cosmically immense process. It gave rise to a world of human insight, arts, invention, philosophy - but always partial, tinged personally, "finding its way" in a whole beyond its reach ; and also now subject to illness and death, and to the encounter with evil, both within and without. What achievements it attained - and there were many - were its own ; but ever with a backdrop of sorrows, a certain undispellable shadow.
Humankind was not abandoned entirely by the world of its creation, however. Imbued still with great resilience and vitality, it continued to receive help in the forms of
- Residual, if dwindling clairvoyance.
- Powers of memory far greater than our own today.
- The capacity, permanently implanted as noted, to recognize goodness, beauty and truth. when it encountered these ; and also to recognize their absence.
- The guidance of nations and peoples by spiritual forerunners of humanity - priest kings, prophets etc as noted above - themselves under guidance by the higher worlds.
- The instruction and preparation of these individuals in secret, to know the cosmic history of the world and of humanity ; and where possible, to experience these mysteries directly.
The consequences of the fall were implacable, with death the common fate of all ; yet even here humanity was not simply abandoned. A great and wise guidance here allowed a means for renewal of exhausted forces for the human individual, and the chance over time to learn from the experience of life on earth, including past errors and ignorance ; namely the phenomena of reincarnation and karma (resource). In these processes the spiritual world could still be deeply involved.
Remembrance of what was realized and resolved in the time between lives, however, was far from complete in a new life ; and the help of the spiritual world was also not simple or obvious to discern. Rather, these emerged much more in feelings felt in response to new life events, or impulses of will acted out far from fully consciously, and resulting in new or needed experiences.
To review, through events known to tradition as "The Temptation by Lucifer" and "The Fall of Man", the human being gained a great gift of consciousness - but to begin with lacked the experience to use it wisely. His life on earth became his path of experience, often with the result of true progress ; and often also through deep error and pain. The help of the spiritual world remained possible if sought ; but the spiritual world itself was ruled by lawfulness : it could not simply forgive, nor take away consequences, nor even answer questions unless the right questions were asked. Humanity labored at a deficit - a gap it could not quite close, a wound not quite possible to heal, despite all and best efforts.
The Goals and the Impact of Ahriman
Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy
Already as a child, Rudolf Steiner (1865 – 1925) had direct perception of beings and phenomena beyond the reach of our usual five senses ; and as a young man, saw the difficulty of communicating about this non-physical realm to persons who could not yet experience it. To describe such things to those who know only the five senses, he saw, would need adaptations of language, and especially clear methods of presentation. To prepare for this he embarked on a rigorous education, the best available in his time, in both science and philosophy. His capacities as a scholar were recognized early in his appointment to a prestigious post editing the scientific writings of Goethe. (See Rudolf Steiner's overview of Goethe's scientific work) (Read for free) (Listen)
Steiner’s doctoral thesis, The Philosophy of Freedom, also known as The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, demonstrates through meticulous and rigorous thought processes that the human being is free ; that while certainly subject to and capable of error, and to limits imposed by the physical body, we can find our way to inner freedom, and to discovery of truth. This is possible, he outlines by steps, because of our capacity to form mental pictures and to think.
Natural science works with observation, mental pictures and thinking to study phenomena of the physical, sense perceptible world, and uses these precisely. Steiner observes, however, that this is not the limit for these tools ; they can also be turned to phenomena of the inner world, to our own thoughts and feelings, and to reflection on our actions. Further, he asserts, they can also be turned, through appropriate training, to entirely non-physical, non sense-perceptible phenomena - to an objective spiritual world not limited by time and space as our physical world, yet intimately connected and related to it. Steiner wrote and spoke of this world and these relationships in over 40 books and 6000 lectures.
Although the volume of themes addressed and of practical applications these have led to, is immense, they are not to be "believed" blindly or on faith. The means for evaluating results of spiritual research are of the same nature for the student as for the researcher who discovers them - namely, the tools of mental images and thinking, intensively and precisely applied. In this case the results of clairvoyant spiritual research can be experienced - actually perceived - by a someone who lacks this ability, if accurately presented to the student by the researcher as thoughts, concepts, mental pictures. They can in turn also be confirmed, first of all through thinking (internal logical consistency and coherence) ; and then through their consistency with phenomena in the sense world with which they're connected ; and which in many cases they prove to explain for the student, even for the first time. This is the starting point for any serious study of spiritual science.
Thinking, Steiner indicates, is the crucial bridge for human beings between the physical and spiritual worlds. Again : while the content of the spiritual world is at first inaccessible to those who are not clairvoyant, its processes and phenomena can be grasped as thoughts, when rightly described by someone with this faculty. Steiner’s life work included exactly such presentations, in the massive number of books and lectures mentioned. The fruits of Steiner's research are astonishingly broad, systematic and of the highest quality and integrity. Students report that these insights bear out consistently in their own experiences of life and the world. Broad and persistent study of these results of clairvoyant research are recommended as prerequisites, and as a foundation for later personal esoteric development.
Knowledge and access to the spiritual world are not limited to reports of it by others. It is a latent faculty in all human beings, which can also be cultivated. This is not to be gained easily or pursued lightly for the sake of curiosity. Steiner provided many guidelines for meditation, but also emphasized strong prerequisite of self knowledge and regulation of the inner life. The unfolding of genuine clairvoyance, he indicated, can only occur in a strict and lawful way, with “for each step in spiritual development, three steps in moral development.“ Knowledge of the spiritual world, he indicated, is not a superficial matter or one of vivid imagination and conjecture ; but a scientific activity. Steiner also called the knowledge arising from this activity anthroposophy, “wisdom concerning the human being.“
Relevance to Practical and Everyday Life
Natural science is a process in which human faculties of observing and thinking are directed to things observable by the five senses. Spiritual science involves directing these same faculties to phenomena equally real, but not perceptible to these five senses. The physical and spiritual worlds are a continuum, each grasped by observing and thinking – the phenomena are only of a different kind.
An example of a bridging phenomenon, accessible to any thinking person, Rudolf Steiner observed, is geometry. Geometry is of a spiritual nature, and its concepts are entirely non-physical : they are grasped by the mind and elaborated by thinking. Yet the applications of geometry are everywhere we look, concretely expressed in our physical world.
As natural science contributes innumerable improvements and innovations to the world, so too can spiritual science, both for inner and practical life. On the one hand it demands a fully equal discipline of observation and thinking - on the other self reflection, and responsibility for one's own feelings and actions. At best, both the discipline and the knowledge gained work in a structuring way, for increasingly clear understanding of the world and of human nature ; and for increasing competence in practical life.
The themes Steiner opened have also given rise to practical and social endeavors in many areas :
- Agriculture, namely Biodynamic Farming and Gardening
- Architecture
- Education and child development especially the worldwide Waldorf Education movement
- Anthroposophical Medicine and Therapy
- Anthroposophical understanding of Christianity (Book) (Read for Free) (Listen)
- Christian religious life, namely through The Christian Community (Movement for Religious Renewal )
- The arts, including the completely new art of "beautiful movement", Eurythmy
- An extended understanding of human psychology. (Book)
- An extended outlook on the practice of science. (Book)
- Social thinking, notably in the form of Rudolf Steiner’s Threefold Social Idea (Resource) (Resource)
Clairvoyance : A Spiritual-Historical Perspective
Helpful, perhaps, to understanding methods and knowledge that claim on the one hand to be scientific, and on the other to draw upon clairvoyance - which clearly, few people have, of yet - may be a brief historical overview of this faculty, as Rudolf Steiner describes it. This is a large and complex theme, but hopefully this can provide a starting point.
A first factor to consider, per Steiner, is that while the physical world is a world of objects, subject to physical laws, the spiritual world is one of active but non-physical beings.
A second is that while our world, due to its physical nature is subject to time, the spiritual world and its beings are not ; such that past events not only continue to exist, but can be accessed spiritually by a spiritual being - of which we humans are also one. An incomplete and imperfect example of this even in earthly life is that we can remember past events in our lives, even without clairvoyance.
Steiner's descriptions, gained through exceptionally highly developed inner faculties, are generally as follows ; namely that the beings of the spiritual world
- Have built up our physical world out of the purely spiritual world in stages, by a progression of infinitely small steps, over infinitely long periods of time.
- Have done this by sacrificing elements of their own being, life and consciousness - pouring these out first as potentials which could later become capacities, and eventually physical substance ; a cosmic process of extrusion and condensation, filled with wisdom, and unfolding in successive stages.
- By similarly extended, stepwise processes, refined out the plant and animal kingdoms and the human being in their gradually evolving forms.
- Evolved and implanted degrees and faculties of consciousness into the created world.
Consciousness, even in its most dim and rudimentary forms, even in states of unconsciousness and deep sleep, could thus not unfold until appropriate forms were created to receive them. Steiner's description of cosmic and earthly evolution is entirely unique, in that he portrays the path of the human being not as a rising from more primitive forms, but as an infinitely gradual descent from the purely spiritual, for which all else, all forms, kingdoms and stages of consciousness have been a preparation.
Ancient Clairvoyance
Human consciousness, like all else in the universe, is on a course of evolution, and this can already be seen in accounts from history. The history of humanity is filled with accounts of events and beings no longer visible or explicable to our modern consciousness. We hear these accounts in virtually every ancient culture, stories of beings, angels, gods, vigorously active and interactive, both among themselves and with human beings. Faced with these accounts, we easily think of them as superstition, imaginations, interpretations of reality by an earlier, primitive humanity to explain things unknown, or perhaps wished or feared. But what if these were in fact descriptions of real events, reported even by the most astute and advanced among human beings ?
Consistent with a descent of humanity from more purely spiritual conditions to more earthly ones, Steiner describes humanity in the ancient past as embedded entirely in the world of the beings who created it - dependent, without clear individuality, with awareness, such as it was, only of the spiritual world, and not yet of the earthly one at all. He describes the processes by which this changed in intricate detail - too much to repeat here, but systemically. Among phases described are long ages of clairvoyance of the spiritual world and its beings, stages by which clairvoyance fades, and ones in which awareness of the external and physical world gradually increases. A finer reading even of historical documents can discern ages when this outer, physical world was still considered Maya - illusion - by human beings ; followed later by epics and sagas of a "twilight of the gods", when the power of the gods diminished, and the earthly capacities of human beings grew. Clairvoyance into spiritual worlds, in Steiner's precise describing, was a faculty of a humanity living in worlds still more spiritual than earthly, only fading, and eventually for the most part disappearing as both descended deeper into physicality.
The Question of Freedom
Thus far we see the human being as an evolving spiritual creation, built up in wisdom by yet higher beings, descending in gradual stages from purely spiritual realms towards physical manifestation, to be a spiritual being in a physical body. Parallel and just as gradual, we see an imbuing of this being over time with consciousness - from the most profoundly dim and inward, to perception of the spiritual around it, to first perceptions of a physical world around it, this becoming ever more clear ; to the extent that perception of the spiritual is essentially lost. And coinciding with awareness of an external world, dawning self awareness, and potential to self-reflect.
To think of this evolution in any more than a superficial way raises questions as to the autonomy of this created being, of his individuality and freedom, especially in an inner sense. In Steiner's description consciousness was bestowed on humanity - but at what point did it become its own possession ?
Per Steiner as noted, human awareness arose first as only the dimmest internal perceptions, not even yet of any external environment. Later, in times still long before history, perceptions arose as images, pictures, spiritual but objective, of a spiritual environment and beings. These perceptions happened to humanity as experiences, as impetus to movement and development - yet guided from outside. Later still as noted, awareness of an earthly and external environment arose ; but when was it that autonomy, individuality, freedom became possibilities - and actually, how ?
In Steiner's description the dependence of humanity on higher beings continued for a very long time, passing in recorded time to guidance by the spirit of a tribe or nation, by a group soul of a people, and of forerunners of humanity - leading figures, priest kings and prophets, who gave it its successive cultures, and guidance, wise but very strict. The freedom of the individual human being lived always, from the beginning as intention of the higher worlds ; but the apprenticeship was careful - and long.
The guidance, deeds and gifts of the higher worlds to humankind were of the highest wisdom, and unerring.
Its later guiding human leadership was also spiritual in nature, based in living knowledge of its origins, living relationship to the higher worlds and loyalty to their intentions. This higher understanding lived, for instance, in the early teachings of the Christian church on the nine spiritual heirarchies, rising in perfection above a humanity still in development. These things can still be found in a Google search, but are now no more than traditions, understood by almost no one. Today rather, a near magnetic attraction for the earthly and physical grips us with such force that even the notion of "soul" or "spirit" seems strange to us, an impossibility to grasp - and for many, even to consider. This means independence from that which once faithfully guided us - but also a certain loss, both of knowledge and of relationship. How did these mixed circumstances unfold, and how can we understand them ?
The Nature of Evil and "The Fall of Man"
The creation of the human being, as described, was possible when higher beings surrendered, literally gifted him elements of their own being, successively and progressively. The result for these beings themselves was that as humankind descended deeper into physicality, they rose higher in the spiritual world - an advance for humanity in one direction, and for them in another. But this progress was not the same for all.
It happened - time and again - that certain higher beings did not evolve accordingly, but remained at a previous stage, had affinity for it and evolved further only later, and differently. While this did not defeat or derail the course of cosmic evolution, it did have effects, and wrought certain changes to the process. Some such changes in fact became intrinsic to our freedom as human beings.
Evil
We have, in every culture and world conception, some notion of what we consider evil. As beings today oriented almost exclusively to physical existence, we tend to think of evil as anything that disrupts or disturbs this existence ; but viewpoints with spiritual dimensions, as described above, see further aspects.
Accounts from former times make reference to beings such as "Lucifer", "Satan", "demons" - these are names from western traditions ; other cultures give such beings other names. A recurring theme in western culture, although not limited to it, is "the fall of man" ; the loss of a former higher state for one somehow damaged or diminished. Why has this been such a central theme - and what does it mean ? Rudolf Steiner's account may help clarify.
As described by Steiner, the independence and eventual freedom of the human being were intended by the higher worlds - but only by steps, after careful preparation. Consciousness, for its part, had been in pictures, images objectively related to realities - but objective still only in spiritual realms, not yet in the earthly one. Of this world the human being was of yet inexperienced, without reliable understanding ; the grounds for this had simply not been laid in him yet.
It was in this condition that humanity could be approached by a "tempter", the being Lucifer in the old accounts, "the light bearer", and beings of like nature whom he led. Rudolf Steiner's descriptions complete this picture in the terms we've been exploring, and can, at least in potential, make it intelligible for our own times.
Lucifer
As we've seen, in the course of cosmic evolution beings of the higher worlds were able to bestow gifts on humanity, sacrificed out of their own being ; and by this process both they and we advanced. But such beings can also fail to advance. And while they may still have power to bestow, what they bestow may be incomplete. So this was with Lucifer and the beings who followed him.
Lucifer offered - and humanity received from him - a certain capacity : namely a capacity to picture inwardly experiences of the earthly and physical world. This was a forerunner to memory and to thinking as pertains earthly experiences, and was indeed a great gift ; but one given prematurely, and thus with equally great risks and consequences. Humanity gained an ability to picture and take action in the world of earthly things - but with no preparation to do so wisely, accurately or well. A potential was gained for a whole new world of consciousness ; but with this gift also, the potential of ruin.
Lucifer's effect on the human being was to enchant him with an inner world of light and wisdom perhaps concerning the earth, but also fascinating in itself, and inclined to estrange him from it, from his actual tasks, relationships and responsibilities on it. The intended trajectory of the higher worlds for the human being was towards the earth, into deeper relationship with it. To embrace Lucifer's ambitions unreservedly would fill the human being with pride at his own light and wisdom, so that he drew back from it ; an orientation, like Lucifer's, towards the past, rather than the future.
While the images of antiquity are of a fall, of being "cast from paradise", humanity was not to be abandoned by the higher worlds, which held their course faithfully - if under changed circumstances. Humanity was still to have freedom - if yet with painfully opened eyes. What happened, as results of this "temptation" and "fall" ?
Consequences
Within the human being, built into him, lived the whole story of his creation. Conscious or unconscious, this lived in his fabric, and remained. Into him were built the entire goodness, beauty and truth of that process, and these were permanent - not only in his substance, but as organs of perception, as bestowed to this point. This is expressed with great eloquence, for instance in a Hebrew Old Testament Psalm. Per Rudolf Steiner, the ability to recognize beauty, goodness and truth can never be lost by the human being ; and although they may be covered over for a time, or even rebelled against, they always re-emerge - even if to our shame. This was the case also with the gift of Lucifer.
With its new gift of mental pictures, humanity was in most other ways unchanged, but in fact, saw itself as it was for the first time ; thus the words that Adam and Eve "saw themselves naked". It was not destroyed in what it was, and lived still for the most part in the most intimate support from the world of its creation. But it found itself in a body in process of hardening and becoming more material, in a world in process of becoming harder and more material, in a future where it must be increasingly responsible for itself. In the best sense what it did and became would be to some extent its own achievement. But it could also see for itself as much as it dared look, what it did not know of the world, how subject it was to error and indeed, what it had lost.
The promise to the representative of humanity "Adam" had been to know good and evil and to be as a god. Here it came to truly know the ever present nature of illness, death and evil, and to feel its own weakness before them ; and as a result to know among other emotions, the archetypal one of shame.
Satan
Tradition identifies names, facts and events in history, to the extent history is available. Supersensible research, rightly conducted, gains access to these and more, in their ever-living origins ; and so sheds light in a new and more complete form. Tradition names Lucifer, Satan and other beings, but doesn't much distinguish differences, either in their nature or activities ; so that "Lucifer" and "Satan", as examples, are sometimes used interchangeably. Per Rudolf Steiner's this is not the case.
Per Steiner, Satan gained access to humanity only later, and is a being of higher spiritual rank and power. Unlike Lucifer, whose own ambition is to lead humankind away from the earth, and distract it with illusions, Satan's aim is to bind it too closely to the earth. Steiner speaks of Satan as Ahriman, the name first used for him in ancient Persia. This Ahriman would do away with humanity's memory of the past altogether if he could. His interest is only in what can be weighed, measured and be turned into statistics, according to which all things must be proved and justified. His ideal for the earth is that it in effect become a machine, a system of which the individual human being is a cog and servant, at risk of his very existence. His lie to the human being is that each one is alone, insignificant, and must get what he or she can ; that there is no soul or spirit, and that the physical world is the only reality.
Ahriman's "way" is to persuade belief in this mindset, participation in an all-convincing system ; and to grant, in return, earthly rewards and power. if Lucifer's gift was one of exceptional light and consciousness, Ahriman's is one of exceptional will ; a disproportionately powerful will, exercised in apparent freedom in the earthly, physical world.
The caveat to the freedom he bestows is that what humans achieve thereby may not be lawful ; that it is often not ; and even catastrophically not. What does "lawful" mean in this sense ? It means in simple terms that heaven, earth and the human being are created according to a higher order, by higher beings ordained to do so, and in ways permeated by goodness, beauty and truth throughout. This creation cannot be tampered with without consequences - even in our own inner being.
The freedom of Ahriman, while imperfect and potentially very dangerous, is still freedom, and may yield achievements of which we can reasonably be proud ; not least a technological world wholly of our own making, that provides for our every seeming need and convenience. Yet made as we are, we again feel discrepancy, vulnerability, even in our depths. The risk of failure, the reality of collateral, seemingly inevitable harm from things we do ; a visceral sense of our own smallness in the face of an immense universe, an unknown future. if we're honest, these expose a downside even in our own inner life ; namely a veiled but existential fear.
Trajectory of Humanity Since Lucifer
I spoke earlier of the trajectory of a humanity guided by the higher worlds from a past entirely spiritual in nature, towards deepening engagement in a physical world, itself evolving ever more deeply into physicality; its vehicle, organs and possibilities for consciousness prepared over ages uncounted, with the greatest wisdom and lawfulness. Parallel and equally gradual, unfolded its progress from complete dependence and direction by higher beings, towards its own inner awareness and autonomy.
The gift of Lucifer, as noted, gave awareness and autonomy at a stroke ; but left out steps in a cosmically immense process. It gave rise to a world of human insight, arts, invention, philosophy - but always partial, tinged personally, "finding its way" in a whole beyond its reach ; and also now subject to illness and death, and to the encounter with evil, both within and without. What achievements it attained - and there were many - were its own ; but ever with a backdrop of sorrows, a certain undispellable shadow.
Humankind was not abandoned entirely by the world of its creation, however. Imbued still with great resilience and vitality, it continued to receive help in the forms of
- Residual, if dwindling clairvoyance.
- Powers of memory far greater than our own today.
- The capacity, permanently implanted as noted, to recognize goodness, beauty and truth. when it encountered these ; and also to recognize their absence.
- The guidance of nations and peoples by spiritual forerunners of humanity - priest kings, prophets etc as noted above - themselves under guidance by the higher worlds.
- The instruction and preparation of these individuals in secret, to know the cosmic history of the world and of humanity ; and where possible, to experience these mysteries directly.
The consequences of the fall were implacable, with death the common fate of all ; yet even here humanity was not simply abandoned. A great and wise guidance here allowed a means for renewal of exhausted forces for the human individual, and the chance over time to learn from the experience of life on earth, including past errors and ignorance ; namely the phenomena of reincarnation and karma (resource). In these processes the spiritual world could still be deeply involved.
Remembrance of what was realized and resolved in the time between lives, however, was far from complete in a new life ; and the help of the spiritual world was also not simple or obvious to discern. Rather, these emerged much more in feelings felt in response to new life events, or impulses of will acted out far from fully consciously, and resulting in new or needed experiences.
To review, through events known to tradition as "The Temptation by Lucifer" and "The Fall of Man", the human being gained a great gift of consciousness - but to begin with lacked the experience to use it wisely. His life on earth became his path of experience, often with the result of true progress ; and often also through deep error and pain. The help of the spiritual world remained possible if sought ; but the spiritual world itself was ruled by lawfulness : it could not simply forgive, nor take away consequences, nor even answer questions unless the right questions were asked. Humanity labored at a deficit - a gap it could not quite close, a wound not quite possible to heal, despite all and best efforts.
The Goals and the Impact of Ahriman
Please Pardon Our CONSTRUCTION SITE !
We're in the homestretch of this article, with just a few more sections to complete this overview of Spiritual Science. Please hold your thoughts on this (or share them with me in the form below), and know that it won't be long now.
Last work on this page : November 14, 2022. We'll be back at it again soon !
Article-in-process by : Jeff Smith RN (Retired)
We're in the homestretch of this article, with just a few more sections to complete this overview of Spiritual Science. Please hold your thoughts on this (or share them with me in the form below), and know that it won't be long now.
Last work on this page : November 14, 2022. We'll be back at it again soon !
Article-in-process by : Jeff Smith RN (Retired)
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