They follow in a long succession, embracing this construct previously widely disseminated by Cabalists, Hermeticists, Gnostics, Neoplatonists and Rosicrucians as they exerted influence for centuries. As above, so below appropriates continuity with the past, right to the present day, in the eclectic teachings revered by the disciples of the Austrian mystagogue of the last century, who borrowed extensively, from this esoteric tradition, to concoct his own belief system Anthroposophy.

Steiner is reputed to have said that Elizabeth Vreede understood his work more deeply than anyone else (Vreede, 2001, back cover). Once appointed the head of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section of the School of Spiritual Science by Steiner himself, Vreede reiterated Steiner’s belief that stars are the discarded physical bodies and external forms of divine, spiritual beings; members of a spiritual colony that, although invisible, works directly into the material realm [H]uman souls are fellow members in this community of spirits in the life between death and rebirth (Vreede, p. 284). In her book Anthroposophy and Astrology, Vreede gives a summary of the Anthroposophic macro-microcosmic world view. After explaining Steiner’s concept that plants on earth correspond to the living mirrored image of the beings of the star world and describing plants as beings with self-consciousness in a group soul which exists as the offspring of the spirits of wisdom (p. 286), she writes:
The plant world receives its forms from the starry heavens, and the animal world its form from the zodiac. Human beings receive their form from the whole sphere of the heavens, not from the single constellations, just as we also bear in our head an image of the entire stellar universe. Again we find the human being as the synthesis, the perfect embodiment of the entire cosmos. (Vreede, 2001, p. 287)

In other words, a tulip is created by a certain group of spiritual beings forces, while the lily is created by another group of beings, whereas, animals get their form from the gods of the Zodiac. All beings in the cosmos make up man. Man is the world and the world is man. Macro-microcosmic thinkers perceive the world from inside and outside of their bodies, rather than objectively from within their skulls. Their world is animistic, teeming with spiritual beings whose powers create and regulate the physical world. In March 1910, Steiner gave a series of sermons on the topic of Macrocosm and Microcosm, addressing his audience: I have tried to make it clear that in the microcosm, in the nervous system, in the brain, men are mirror-images of the activities and beings of the macrocosm (Steiner, 1968, p. 147).

Steiner taught that the physical human being is comprised of an etheric body, astral body, and an I body. This belief gives Anthroposophic believers the ability to leave their physical bodies during their day-to-day earthly existence in order to commune with spiritual beings in the cosmos. In Waldorf education, Steiner’s True Nature of Man more commonly known by the uninformed as his child development model is based on his concept of man as physical, etheric, astral, and I. It is extremely helpful to be familiar with Steiner’s conclusions about these soul and spirit bodies of man in order to understand his pedagogy. For example, the emphasis on delaying first grade and reading until the etheric body enters (signaled by growth of secondary teeth), and delaying intellectual thinking until after the age of fourteen when the astral body supposedly incarnates. According to Steiner, these spiritual bodies incarnate in seven-year increments, after birth, as the physical body grows.

They are believed to leave the physical body after death and reincarnate after a period of cosmic existence spent with spiritual beings in the universe. The physical body is the hereditary body of flesh and bones. Beings in the cosmos cause the physical body to grow as well as hold it together. Beings that live in the chest move the blood as the heart is not a pump. Plants, minerals, man and animals have physical bodies. The etheric body incarnates around the age of seven. It is visible to the seer and has approximately the same form as the physical body. It is a body of forces (Steiner, 1981b, p.22). A whole people (ethnic and racial groups) share the rudiments of a common etheric body (Steiner, 1981b, p. 47). The etheric body in the male is female, and visa versa. It appears as a form of light extending everywhere, but only slightly, beyond the form of the physical body (Steiner, 1981b, p. 23). The loosening of baby teeth and growth of secondary teeth is a sign that the etheric body is incarnating. The etheric body never leaves the physical body until death, except during certain states of Initiation (Steiner, 1981b, p. 33).

It loosens if a person gets a fright or sneezes. If a body part falls asleep and tingles it is because the etheric body temporarily has left that part of the physical body. If a hand, for instance, has gone to sleep, the seer can perceive the etheric part of the hand protruding like a glove; parts of the etheric brain also protrude when a man is in a state of hypnosis (Steiner, 1981b, p. 34). Man, plants and animals have etheric bodies. Humans and animals have astral bodies that bear feelings such as sorrow or joy. The astral body whirls about in space seeking the appropriate parents for the reincarnation process. To a seer, it resembles a bell-shape opening downwards (Steiner, 1981b, p. 46).

A whole people share a common astral body that lives within a kind of astral cloud and is the body of the Folk-Spirit (Steiner, 1981b, p. 47). It is released into the physical body between fourteen to twenty-one years of age. Steiner taught that all human astral bodies leave the physical body during sleep. They wind their way, in spiral form, out of the physical body into the cosmic community of spiritual beings, returning to the physical body upon waking (Steiner, 1959, p.104). While united with planetary beings, the astral body drinks the forces of beings associated with Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Sun etc. These planetary beings give the astral body what it needs to exist. During sleep, the astral body is in union with the starry world, the astral world (p. 105) and returns to the microcosm when the person wakes.

Spiritually advanced man has an individual I body. This separates him from animals and lower humanity, making him divine. The I leaves the physical body and accompanies the astral body during sleep. The I is the body that can be trained to remember past lives in Greece and Atlantis, etc. The spiritually advanced will develop I's that can remember past lives, and, after death, this body will be able to locate those that it worked with during a previous life on Earth. The anthroposophical movement is to help and guide people to remember in the right way (Steiner, 1990, p. 14). Anthroposophists who have developed their Is reincarnate in core groups that have been spread around the globe and will instruct others who have not developed their Is in what they may think, feel, will and do. The earth and all it can yield will belong to those who develop their Is (pp. 23-24).

One of the more influential yet eccentric medieval alchemists to embrace the micro-macrocosmic theory of ancient Greece was Paracelsus (1493-1541). His writings have exerted an influence for centuries right up to modern branches of Theosophy and Anthroposophy (Roob, 1997, p. 15). Claiming to have visited with magicians in Egypt and Arabia, he is said to have traveled to India before settling in Basle, Switzerland, where he taught medicine at the university and developed his version of alchemy which incorporated Cabala, astral magic and Christian mysticism. All Cabalistic signs, according to Paracelsus, could be reduced to twothe macrocosm and the microcosm. He taught that the sign of the macrocosm is a six-pointed star; the sacred symbol of Solomons Seal. The microcosm, a five-pointed star or pentagram, represented man and all occult forces. These signs had magical power over supernatural beings. (Spence, 1996, p. 257 & p. 276). Likewise, Steiner taught his pupils about star magic as documented in the book Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation: Mystery Centres of the Middle Ages.

In the lecture recorded in chapter five he claimed that once, while on a spiritual journey in the spirit world, he became aware of a lonely occult school in Central Europe that imparted the overpowering and great wisdom of the meditation known as Solomons Key. According to him, this wisdom goes right back in history through the Middle Ages to Aristotle in Greece: the tradition originated in Asia and Alexander the Great brought it to Greece via Macedonia. This symbol played a major role in the Central European mystery school that Steiner clairvoyantly discovered while in the spiritual world. Supposedly, the master of the occult school would instruct pupils to make a star with their bodies by standing with their feet apart and their arms stretched out above. By assuming this position the pupils became conscious that they really do exist (Steiner, 1965, p.64). After deep meditation the pupils learned that they could write themselves into space and feel the very marrow in their bones. They went so far inside of themselves that they left their bodies and they learned to know the lines of force that the gods had drawn to establish and found the world (p. 67).

Having discovered the paths to the gods through Man and by placing themselves in the spirit-being of man, the pupils learned to look back into past Atlantean times and even further (p. 68). The teacher would say to the pupil: Behold, Man is a Microcosm; he imitates in his organism what goes on in the great Universe (p.69). This concept of man as pentagram was a favorite topic of study for medieval wizards and alchemists. The image is found in numerous Renaissance magic textbooks and alchemical sources. It reappears in Steiner’s Anthroposophical teaching today, and, remarkably, in the lesson books and classroom rituals of Waldorf pupils.

During the Renaissance, influential magicians such as Agrippa of Nettesheim (1486-1533) and others, like Giordano Bruno, Robert Fludd and John Dee, disseminated macro-microcosmic ideas. Agrippa was one of the predominant sources of Renaissance magic (Yates, 1972, p. 109) and his work was well known by Steiner who described him in the book Mysticism and Modern Thought. Agrippas Christian Cabalistic, alchemical, and magical philosophy is very close to the Rosicrucianism expressed in the Rosicrucian Manifestos associated with the mythical Christian Rosenkreutz, and it was a major source for most Renaissance magicians work. Many texts were published about the great macrocosm and the little world of man, the microcosm, in an attempt to order and to present the philosophy based on the congruent design of the cosmos and its correspondences in man. Man became the world and the world man. He took his place at the center of the universe, the mid-point between spiritual realms and the physical realm, gaining power over matter and the ability to participate[th] with Spirits and Angels (Clulee, 1988, p. 149).

In a lecture entitled The Relationship of Man to the Sun, Steiner recapitulated his own doctrine by telling his audience that Agrippa knew quite well that in the several planets of our system are spiritual Beings of specific character and kind (Steiner, 1965, p. 49). He went on to say that Agrippa assigned to each planet what he called the Intelligence of the planet. Agrippa believed that stars were a sign of the presence of spiritual Beings. He knew that the beings united with stars are Beings who rule the inner existence of that star or planet, rule its movements in the Universe and hold sway indeed over its whole activity. The Intelligence of the Earth Star was man himself. Man had been given the task to regulate and rule the Earth by the World-Spirit. Through what he is, through the forces and powers he bears within his being, Man gives to Earth the impulse for her movement round the Sun, for her movement altogether in cosmic space. Man is Lord of the Earth (Steiner, 1965, pp. 50-51). In turn, Agrippas magical universe had been influenced by the doctrines of the legendary Hermes Trismegistus the patriarch of natural mysticism and alchemy(Roob, 1997, p. 8), which claimed that man was the image of God and gifted with omnipotence. Like Agrippa and earlier magicians, Steiner was also to systemize the influence of the planets, numbers, Hebrew words, the Zodiac, angels and other supernatural beings, relating their connection to specific organs of man.

Appearing throughout Steiner’s doctrine are references to his trinity of Ahriman, Lucifer, and what he calls the Christ Spirit. Two thousand years ago, the Christ who existed in the Sun, came to Earth and inhabited Jesus body for a period of three years: this Christ spirit had also inhabited other great spiritual leaders of human kind such as Zarathustra. Lucifer had a human incarnation about 5000 years ago in China, and Ahriman incarnated in the West in 1998. Steiner’s path of initiation enables disciples to remember past lives and gain the ability to recognize fellow believers in future reincarnations. This ability to remember past lives was considered crucial to his predicted Sixth Epoch:
It is the deeper task of the anthroposophical movement to enable a number of human beings to enter their next incarnation with an I each remembers as his or her own, individual I. These people will then form the nucleus of the next period of civilization. Then these individuals who have been well prepared through the anthroposophical spiritual movement to remember their individual I will be spread over the earth. For the essential characteristic of the next period of civilization is that it will not be limited to particular localities, but will be spread over the whole earth. These individuals will be scattered over the earth, and thus everywhere on earth there will be a core group of people who will be crucial for the sixth epoch of civilization. These people will recognize each other as those who in their previous incarnation strove together to develop the individual I. (Steiner, 1990, pp. 22-23)

With the help of the Akashic record and his professed clairvoyant abilities, he laid out the evolution of the Earth in a series of epochs and rounds Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. Earth consists of 7 epochs, and present humankind exists in the later part of the Fifth Epoch on Earth. Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan, are prophesied future periods. He taught that believers who develop their I will remember each other and reincarnate together in core groups to instruct others in what to think, feel, will and do, and that they will inherit the earth.

To put it bluntly, we can say that the earth and all it can yield will belong to those who now cultivate their individualities. Those, however, who do not develop their individual I will be dependent on joining a group that will instruct them in what they should think, feel, will and do. In the future development of humanity this will be felt as a regression, a second Fall. Therefore, we should not regard the anthroposophical movement and spiritual life as mere theory but rather as something that is given to us now to prepare what is necessary for the future of humanity. (Steiner, 1990, p. 24)

Steiner’s lectures are peppered with racism and anti-Semitism. His racist doctrine is similar to other occult variants like ariosophy, sometimes attracting interest from far-right publishers and distributors. Peter Staudenmaier studies racism and Steiner texts including untranslated German lectures such as those recorded in Die Geistigen Hintergrunde des Ersten Weltkrieges, (1974). (GA 174b). On the Internet discussion group, waldorf-critics@topica.com Staudenmaier translated some German Steiner text into English (see posts from September 2002 titled skin color and spirit archived at
http://www.waldorfcritics.org/active/archives.html ). He concludes that Steiner accepted as obvious the basic Theosophical notion that intelligence and beauty are correlated with racial characteristics and links this to the classical Theosophical concept that primitive peoples are the degenerative remnants of older racial forms. Staudenmaier notes that Steiner subscribes to esoteric Darwinism in which inferior races of his lifetime were believed by him to be descendants of the earlier Lemurian and Atlantean root races which were devolving physically and spiritually toward an animal state. In contrast, the fifth root race, the Aryans, continued evolving upwards, towards universal humanity. Followers will be saved from Steiner’s prophetic, apocalyptic War of All Against All when white humanity will destroy colored humanity who has not taken the spirit deep within the skin.

White humankind is still on the path of absorbing the spirit deeper and deeper into its own essence. Yellow humankind is on the path of conserving the era when the spirit will be kept away from the body, when the spirit will only be sought outside of the human-physical organization. But the result will have to be that the transition from the fifth cultural epoch to the sixth cultural epoch cannot happen in any other way than as a violent battle of white humankind against colored humankind in myriad areas. And that which precedes these battles between white and colored humankind will occupy world history until the completion of the great battles between white and colored humankind. Future events are frequently reflected in prior events. You see, we stand before something colossal that when we understand it through spiritual science we will in the future be able to recognize as a necessary occurrence. (Steiner, 1974, p. 38, translated by P. Staudenmaier).

In a 1915 sermon in Stuttgart, Steiner said that advanced spirituality is tied to external skin color and that white skin is a sign of spiritual progress:
This carrying down, this thorough impregnation of the flesh by the spirit, this is characteristic of the mission, the whole mission of white humanity. People have white skin color because the spirit works within the skin when it wants to descend to the physical plane. That the external physical body will become a container for the spirit, that is the task of our fifth cultural epoch, which has been prepared by the four other cultural epochs. And our task must be to acquaint ourselves with those cultural impulses that tend to introduce the spirit into the flesh and into the ordinary. If we recognize this completely, then it will become clear to us that where the spirit is still supposed to function as spirit, where in a certain way the spirit is supposed to be retarded in its development because in our time its task is to descend into the flesh that where the spirit is retarded, where it takes on a demonic character and does not fully penetrate the flesh, then white skin color does not appear, because atavistic powers are present that do not allow the spirit to achieve complete harmony with the flesh. (Steiner, 1974, p. 37, translated by P. Staudenmaier). Racial selectiveness was important to Steiner’s doctrine which includes the notion that beauty and intelligence correlate with racial characteristics:

If the blondes and blue-eyed people die out, the human race will become increasingly dense if men do not arrive at a form of intelligence that is independent of blondeness. In the case of fair people, less nourishment is driven into the eyes and hair: it remains instead in the brain and endows it with intelligence. Brown- and darkñhaired people drive nourishment into their eyes and hair that the fair people retain in their brains. (Steiner, 1981a, p. 86)

Steiner’s doctrine of esoteric Darwinism was steeped in Blavatsky’s basic theosophical teachings; savages are considered degenerate remnants of older racial forms devolving into apes. A year before he died he was still preaching the same sermon:
[W]e are not justified in thinking that human beings were originally like the savages of today. The savages have developed into what they now are with their superstitions, their magical practices and their unclean appearance from states originally more perfect. The only superiority we have over them is that, while starting from the same conditions, we did not degenerate as they did. I might therefore say: The evolution of man has taken two paths. It is not true that the savages of today represent the original condition of mankind. Mankind, though to begin with looked more animal-like, was highly civilized. ... Just as the present savages have fallen from the level of the human beings of primeval times, so the apes are beings who have fallen still lower. (Steiner, 1987, p.126)

In 1904, early in his Theosophical career, he taught that the backward races were the descendants of the earlier Lemurian and Atlantean root-races which survived the Atlantean flood. Steiner’s clairvoyant powers enabled him to see far back in time, before the beginning of the world, long before that marked by historians and scientists. His psychic abilities enabled him to describe Atlantis in elaborate detail, when humans still had magical powers and could lift their hands above plants to make them grow rapidly, and when man drove vehicles that floated in the air. These backwards races should have died out, but Ahriman thwarted this cosmic plan. Instead of evolving towards a more advanced spiritual state and higher stages of evolution with more beautiful bodies, they physically and spiritually regressed.

Steiner and other Theosophists asserted that these "lower races" were devolving toward an animal state, while the fifth root-race, the Aryans, led by Manu, was saved from the Atlantis flood and continues to evolve towards a higher Sixth race. Steiner taught that a universal human would eventually return to pure spirit, free from the restraints of the physical body in his future Vulcan phase of cosmic evolution.

Anthroposophists continue to uphold Steiner’s racist teachings claiming that there is no question of a racial doctrine. This is documented in an article entitled No Question of a Racial Doctrine, Dutch Report is Ready, published in the magazine about life in the Anthroposophical Society, Anthroposophy Worldwide, No. 4, May 2000, page 3. The article records that on April Fools day, 2000, the Anthroposophy and the Question of Race Commission a panel of Anthroposophists appointed to study and report on whether or not Steiner’s doctrine is racist presented a 720 page final report to the public which has not yet been published in English (see van Baarda, et al, 2000 for source of the report in Dutch). The magazine article states that the Dutch report confirmed the findings of its 1998 interim report that Rudolf Steiner’s complete works contain neither a racial doctrine nor racist comments. Critics of Anthroposophy who have studied Steiner’s doctrine and the Dutch report observed that notably racist works were not included in the study and that some racist passages from included works were omitted. Despite their findings, however, the Commission admits that there are sixteen discriminatory remarks by Steiner that would be illegal in the Netherlands if proclaimed publicly by anyone today. The Commission recommended that these sixteen quotes, as well as sixty-seven, easily misunderstood remarks should be published with accompanying explanations in the future. [T]he Commission found no racism in Dutch Waldorf schools, only some use of stereotypes in ethnology lessons. Some Anthroposophists in Europe have placed ads in major daily newspapers distancing themselves from Steiner’s racism, while other Anthroposophical Society members criticized them for doing so. Ted van Baarda, head of the Commission, was concerned about facing these questions due to Anthroposophists loyalty to Steiner. The Commission, however, was not to evaluate spiritual science but rather the effect of such remarks on the public. The report was to identify the facts in order to develop a strategy for dealing with attacks, because, as van Baarde emphasized, We cannot afford to lose. Presumably he means that initiates are obligated to proselytize Steiner’s racist doctrine for societys redemption and the fulfillment of his prophecies.

Peter Staudenmaier studied the Dutch report and commented on the Commissions statement. The Commission confirmed the findings of its 1998 interim report, that Rudolf Steiner's complete works contain neither a racial doctrine nor racist comments. On December 12, 2002, in a post to waldorfcritics@topica.com entitled It takes an expert Staudenmaier wrote:
This is what Anthroposophists are asked to believe. Since nobody acquainted with Anthroposophy's central works can possibly believe this, it raises an obvious question about Anthroposophy's basic ability to deal with the manifest content of its own teachings. The standard Anthroposophist response is that, yes, indeed, it *does* take an expert to understand Steiner's works. Aside from the patently elitist and authoritarian implications of this stance, it is unconvincing even according to its own logic, because so many of the self-proclaimed experts on anthroposophy know astonishingly little about what Steiner actually wrote on racial topics and about the historical and intellectual context of those writings. That is precisely why informed critics of Anthroposophy are routinely greeted with the charge of arrogance: even simple, unadorned quotations from Steiner are enough to unsettle the Anthroposophist consensus on these matters, because they show that any thinking person can make sense out of Steiner's racial teachings without bowing to the self-appointed experts. I very much hope that the Dutch report is made available in English soon, so that people can peruse its pages and decide whether Steiner's quoted passages even if blatantly incomplete and de contextualized contain racial doctrines and/or racist comments. (Staudenmaier, 2002, December 12, http://www.waldorfcritics.org/active/archives.html search archive).

Steiner’s hierarchical scheme of human evolution is subtly incorporated into the Waldorf curriculum. As part of their history lessons, pupils learn ancient Indian religious stories as well as Persian, Egyptian-Chaldean, Greco-Roman and Germanic-Nordic myths which are meant to jog past life memories. Uninformed parents might interpret the lessons as multiculturalism; in reality, however, pupils are being passed through a covert mystery initiation, corresponding to Steiner’s doctrine of the spiritual evolution of the Aryan. Steiner believed that Manu saved an advanced group of people from the Atlantis flood, guiding them to India. They evolved upwards after a Persian initiation, Egyptian initiation, etc., and according to Steiner, will continue to evolve higher during his predicted future periods of Earth. The following example from a Waldorf pupils main lesson book reflects how Anthroposophic myth-making is woven into the curriculum:

The Journey from Atlantis to India
Thousands of years ago there was a vast continent named Atlantis. The people used their magic for evil and greedy purposes. On Atlantis there was a wise man called Manu. Great love lived with Manu. Often he would spend time alone thinking with his heart about God. One day when Manu was sitting by a pond he saw a small fish that needed help. As the fish grew, Manu continued to help the fish. When the fish was as big as a whale he told Manu that the great rains were coming to wash away evil in the world. Manu built an Ark and filled it with plants and kind people. The huge fish pulled the Ark to the Northern Mountains of India. The people were overjoyed at the sight of the rainbow and for the first time they saw the bright blue skies! (Personal collection).

Steiner prophesied that the pure and advanced will evolve into various forms on their way to becoming pure spirit, free from the restraints of the physical body. These future evolutions of man include a plant­like body during Jupiter and a bee-like state when Earth becomes Venus. By the Vulcan period, mans present organs of reproduction will atrophy and the spiritually advanced will instead have a highly evolved larynx as an organ of regeneration; man will give birth by speaking another into existence. In other words, in future, followers will return to spirit and become the creator, the universal human. At one point along Steiner’s path of evolution, possibly during Earths future Venus period, two wings or antenna will develop on the forehead and the heart will become an organ of knowledge the brain of the chest-being. He also predicted that in the future man will fly. Those who don’t comply with Steiner’s way, who do not develop their I, will be destined to life in his eccentric hell, when during Jupiter, they will become subordinate nature spirits. (Steiner, 1995b, p. 70)