Anthroposophy: A concise introduction to Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual philosophy

In his book published in English as Cosmic Memory, Rudolf Steiner describes the consecutive stages of development of our solar system. When we read this description we should realize that the author did not draw on the usual sources, such as manuscripts or archaeological or astronomical discoveries that are available to everyone. Steiner was able to draw on a spiritual source which is called the Akasha Chronicle. Only people gifted with clairvoyant abilities are able to read in this ethereal book in which all events are recorded. To non-clairvoyant people the information that follows is unverifiable and therefore, according to present-day academic standards, unscientific. Be this as it may, the facts Steiner gives to the reader can be used as a working hypothesis. While studying all of this with an open mind the reader can decide which facts sound acceptable and which do not. It is often said that doubt is at the root of all science. To start with, we can give the benefit of the doubt to someone’s theses and then see how far we can get.

The Akasha Chronicle is said to be a spiritual book in which all events that take place on earth are recorded. Some clairvoyant people are able to read in this ethereal book.

The following sequence of the developmental stages of our solar system is shown in Steiner’s work:

The seven developmental stages of our solar system, from Old Saturn, in the far-off past, to Vulcan, in the distant future.

Earth (including Polarian and Hyperborean eras, Lemuria, Atlantis, Ancient India, Ancient Persia, Egypt and Babylonia, Greece and Rome, the fifth post-Atlantean period (= the present). Two future civilizations are to follow.

In Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, amongst other writings, Steiner describes the origin of our solar system. The nine so-called angel hierarchies are given the task by the Holy Trinity of undertaking the creation of the solar system. Invisible to our present-day eyes, these hierarchies start developing a complicated system that will eventually lead to the solar system as we now know it. The concept of ‘time’ is created simultaneously. This first system, which we might call the foundation stone, is called Old Saturn, named after the god of time; in Greek this god is called Chronos. At an embryonic stage, the process of creation is started with a spherical shape, having the density of ‘warmth’ (this being not a quality of something else but an extremely rarefied substance in its own right) and the size of the present orbit of Saturn. The spiritual basis of the human physical body is created. It is hardly possible, if at all, to indicate how long ago this event took place.

This Old Saturn develops into a second phase, which Steiner calls Old Sun. The spiritual basis for the ether body is added. The angel hierarchies then further develop the physical body as well as the human ether body.

In the third stage, called Old Moon, the spiritual basis of the astral body is added. The hierarchies then continue their work on these three newly created members of mankind.

The fourth stage is called Earth. The preceding development is continued but now a fourth element is added: the human ego.

From the above it follows that we may call the human physical body the oldest member and the ego the youngest.

The stage called Earth, which is not yet our earth—the earth as we know it—develops further. Initially it is a coagulation of all the present planets, including the present sun. From this mass the present planets free themselves, one after another, until our earth is free and starts its own development. The various stages of this Earth stage are indicated by: Polarian era, Hyperborean era, Lemuria and Atlantis.

As soon as the word Atlantis is mentioned in this complex sequence, we can give an indication as to dates. Steiner tells us that human life on Atlantis existed from 50,000 years BC, until approximately 10,000 years BC when it was engulfed by an enormous tsunami and disappeared into the present Atlantic Ocean. Many people managed to flee from the disaster, led by Manu and his seven Holy Rishis. They migrated along the present Mediterranean to the east and reached as far as India. The old stories of Noah and his Ark and of Utnapishtim, in the Gilgamesh epic, all point to this same event.

Rudolf Steiner highlights a number of civilizations that are created after the Atlantean disaster. These civilizations have been crucial in the overall development of human consciousness throughout the ages. The civilizations that Steiner mentions are the following:

Two future civilizations are to follow. However, the development of our solar system will continue beyond this complete sequence of seven civilizations. The entire build-up of the system through the various planets will change. The present solar system is said to be developing into the new Jupiter. After this stage two more stages are to follow: the new Venus and finally Vulcan.

The development from Old Saturn to Vulcan, as we have described it, evokes a concept that can hardly be understood to the full. However, it is necessary to mention this concept because it is an essential part of anthroposophy. It is likely to crop up in all discussions on the anthroposophical view of mankind.

If we want to know more about the origins of the earth and mankind, we can seek out all sorts of documents which can serve as guides during this complicated search, guides such as these:

And in the context of this book, we may add the Akasha Chronicle, the supersensible book in which Steiner, as an initiate, could read.

The name of Charles Darwin (1809–82) should certainly be mentioned here. His book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published in 1859. On the first day 1250 copies were sold. And still today the book is the subject of many heated discussions. According to Darwin, all forms of life on earth have come about as a result of natural selection, resulting from the struggle for life in which the fittest is the most likely to survive. Human beings came about in the same way, according to Darwin. Or to put it more specifically, man evolved from the higher primates. So, no divine creation, but evolution.

This area of discussion, which arises whenever man and animal are compared, is also expressed in the following quotation from Pensées (Thoughts) by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1632–62):

‘It is dangerous to show man how like he is to an animal if one does not show him his grandeur at the same time. Similarly, it is dangerous to show him his grandeur and not at the same time his turpitude.’

The French palaeontologist, priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) suggests, in Le Phénomène Humain (The human phenomenon) published in 1958, that the planet earth was created at a point which he calls Alpha and that the whole solar development moves from this diverging start to a converging point, which he calls Omega. Although there are Darwinian elements in his works, Teilhard de Chardin adds a spiritual element. He supposes that behind all creative processes we may find spiritually directing forces or even one single determining spiritual force. We can find parallels between his works and Steiner’s way of thought.

Rudolf Steiner places the development of mankind in the overall development of the universe from Old Saturn to the future Vulcan. Mankind is the supporting axis throughout this amazing sequence. From the very beginning to the very last moment, man is involved. A clear understanding of Steiner’s concept of spirit cannot be ignored if we are to understand this phenomenon. (See also chapter 3.)

According to Steiner everything related to knowledge of the physical world, in the widest possible sense of the word, comprises everything that was ‘cast out’ from the spiritual world straight into this physical world, as we know it through our usual senses. By way of comparison, a visible ice cube may be looked upon as invisible vapour in a different form. All things measurable and weighable are states of aggregation of something else. If we only study these final states of aggregation, i.e. the physical world (the world that can be perceived with our usual senses), we will never reach the origin. We can, for instance, knock down a building and study every single brick but in doing so we will never discover the creative, formative thoughts of the architect. Under a microscope, we can see what is ‘not spirit’. A poet called this sort of science ‘winter science’, which leads us to yet another comparison. In winter, flowers of frost may be seen on a window pane. These flowers consist of mere water, it is true, but the question is: where do the shapes come from? And why these shapes, the shapes we see at this particular moment? The source of the shapes is invisible to the untrained eye.

Frost flowers on a window pane. They consist of mere water. The question is: where do the shapes come from?

In order to understand something of the development of man, we must enter into this world which is not readily visible. Steiner tells us that on Old Saturn the development of man was initiated by the Holy Trinity and carried out by the nine angel hierarchies. However, in order to properly undergo this development, impeding elements had to be excluded from this process. These elements were disassociated, separated from the mainstream. This process of disassociation is essential for a good understanding of the anthroposophical way of thought. It continually took place throughout the planetary stages described in anthroposophy. This is difficult to grasp because the separating process occurred in the invisible spiritual world before the visible forms had materialized on earth.

Man was involved from the start and he is the essential, supporting axis of the whole process.

Man is not a final product, but was involved from the start in the creative processes of the hierarchies. Dr Hermann Poppelbaum elaborates on this anthroposophical concept in his book Man and Animal.

The following image may further help us understand this complicated concept. Let us imagine that the human nucleus is located in a huge downward-gliding balloon. This human nucleus must be developed further in a certain direction before this balloon lands on the newly created earth. The balloon is gradually gliding towards the earth. However, the landing on earth is continually postponed because certain elements are separated from this human nucleus and thrown overboard. In this way the landing is postponed and, at the same time, more space is made for further development of the nucleus. This process goes on and on. In succession, the minerals, the plants, the invertebrates, the fish, the amphibians, the reptiles, the birds, the lower mammals, the quadruped mammals, the primates and, finally, man are thrown out of the balloon. The whole development takes place simultaneously on two levels: on the spiritual level the forming human nucleus gradually glides towards the earth in this imaginary balloon, and on the physical level we see the materialized forms appear on earth.

These forms, materialized in earthly circumstances, develop further according to terrestrial laws. As soon as the plants and the animals appear on earth they are liable to further development in accordance with the laws that Darwin has discovered and called ‘evolution’. The animals of the present are the result of age-old specialization. Every animal is a specialist. Some examples:

Considered in this way animals have been stalled, snarled up in their own physical shape. An animal’s speciality has determined its outer physical form in such a way that it cannot do anything other than what its body allows. Animals have lost their freedom. Man, still present in this imaginative balloon, continues to postpone the moment of getting out and delays becoming part of the hardening process that will inevitably take place after landing.

Illustration from Man and Animal by Dr Hermann Poppelbaum. Man is the supporting axis in the development and was involved from the beginning.

In the table above we can see that the primates are the second-to-last to step out of the balloon and incarnate on earth. When the predecessors of man get out the imaginary balloon has almost landed. Among these predecessors we may mention Peking man (360,000 BC), Pithecanthropus (100,000 BC), and also Neanderthal man (75,000 BC). Remains of their skeletons have been found. Present mankind does not descend from these early beings and certainly not from the primates, as will have become clear from the previous explanation. When all these predecessors had landed on the earth and had materialized in earthly circumstances, only one spiritual element was left in this imaginary balloon. This last element lands on earth, so to speak, and gradually appears in the visible world as we now know it, approximately 50,000 years BC. This creature is usually called Homo sapiens. According to Rudolf Steiner the substance of these human beings, the last ones to get out of the balloon, was ‘as thin as the scent of a flower’. In terrestrial circumstances the solidifying process went on and on. Gradually cartilage developed and, following this stage, real, more rigid human bones appeared.

If this development has really taken place, from an extremely thin, rarefied stage, through a stage of gradually hardening cartilage to, finally, extremely hard bones, it will never be possible to find fossilized remains of the early human beings because the material from which they were made was too soft, too easily dissolved—cartilage will not last long after death.

When comparing a human being to an animal the perpendicular gait of a human being is one of the most important differences we will notice. The human legs are fully occupied in resisting gravity. The feet are almost flat on the ground. The result is that the arms are totally freed from any supporting task. The arms are fully disconnected from gravity and enable a human being to act in a remarkably free way. This freedom is the most important characteristic of mankind. No animal can enjoy the total freedom of the front, or upper, limbs as human beings can.

Another testimony from which human development can be studied is embryology. When we study and compare the development of human and animal embryos we find it very striking to see that for a very short period the human embryo goes through stages that are remarkably similar to the stages of animal embryos. Very briefly, the human embryo is quite similar to that of a fish, quills and all, or of a bird, etc. The similarities are striking. Exactly by not adopting this passing animal shape the human embryo is able to develop further and further into the final human form. When the human being is eventually born, it turns out to be the most incomplete creature possible. It is the newborn, in all of nature, that is most in need of extensive assistance.

During his research, Teilhard de Chardin is confronted with the problem that he never succeeds in finding the precursors of the human beings of whom he finds the skeletons.

‘Whichever group acts as the object of our observation, it always drowns in its own origin, in weakness, in the unsegmented. This is an infallible means to let disappear its stem in the genealogy.’ From: The Phenomenon of Man.

Chart of Ernst Haeckel in relation to the development of human and animal embryos.

When we summarize this chapter we could add that any human being, from conception to adulthood, repeats the development of mankind over the ages, from Old Saturn up until the present. This thought was also expressed by the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919). He is the author of the so-called biogenetic law or law of recapitulation:

In simple words: The development of an individual from germ cell to adulthood is equivalent to a shortened repetition of the stages which his predecessors have passed through from the very beginning of creation.

Rudolf Steiner expands this biogenetic law by adding the previous planetary stages, as described above.

Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogy is more or less based on this biogenetic law. Teachers choose the content of their lessons according to the psychological stage of development of their pupils. The world of the fairy tales, for example, surrounds the pupils until the age of seven. The Old Testament is the backdrop in Class 3, at the age of eight. In Classes 5 and 6, ages 11 and 12, the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations are discussed. The voyages of discovery are the inspirational source in Class 8; and so on. The growing boy or girl repeats, in this way, the most important developmental stages of mankind and absorbs the essential knowledge and wisdom.

The ancestral sequence of mankind is the internal bond that keeps together the whole of evolution.

Ancient India	7227–5067 BC
Ancient Persia	5067–2907 BC
Egypt–Babylon	2907–747 BC
Greece–Rome	747 BC–1413 AD
The fifth post-Atlantean period	1413–3573 AD

Parrot	bill	pair of pincers
Woodpecker	bill	hammer
Eagle	talons	grab crane
Mole	paws	scoop
Horse	leg	wellie
Bird	wing	plane
Kangaroo	tail	pillar
Tiger	eyetooth	dagger
Cat	molar teeth	scissors