Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory. In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine. Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
Even 100 years later, Rudolf Steiner's teachings are mind-stretching stuff. In a series of lectures given in 1909, Steiner describes the 9 hierarchies of angels and their respective functions in the cosmos and in cosmic history. And while his version of the latter would appear to be at odds with the accepted mechanistic-physical account accepted by modern science, he insists that this is not so, but is rather an artifact of the incompleteness and biases of materialistic science.
The more I read of Steiner, the more I incline to the likelihood that he was mostly right about everything; but even though I fully believe in clairvoyance, angels, and astrology, I still find plenty of things in his work that give me pause! I dare say that's because of my remaining limitations rather than anything to do with his teachings.
No matter what, Rudolf Steiner is learned, intelligent, and passionate about his topics, which are surely among the most important that we can turn our minds to. For these reasons, he is well worth reading, no matter how skeptical you are.
Лекционният курс на Рудолф Щайнер относно "Духовните йерархии" е значително постижение в розенкройцерската и антропософската окултна мисъл в началото на 20 век. Той разглежда духовните цивилизации и тяхната неизменна еволюция, пречупени под непрестанните измерения на вълната на живота - напреднали и изостанали духовни същества в своето развитие. Поколенията от изостаналите сформират една полу-божествена, полу-незавършена конструкция от същности, оформили се от края на всяка планетарна епоха и манвантара. Тази тема неведнъж е разисквана и в други лекции на австрийския теософ, но тук намира най - широко отражение: как и доколко влиянието на поколенията луцифериански и ариманически същества рефлектира върху материалната история на човечеството от земната планетарна епоха. За да достигне до своята основна теза, Щайнер прави бърз преглед на досегашните окултни изследвания върху натрупаното от гносиса, древните мистерии и летописи, описва планетарната еволюция, духовната еволюция на съзнанието и човека, неговата конструктивност и многопластов строеж. По този начин най - добре ще бъде изяснена ролята на "Изостаналите" от своите космични събратя. Как съсловието на поколения обединени под термина "Ариман" се проявяват в етерното тяло и как старолунните "луцифери" - в астралното тяло на човека.
В поредица от лекции, проведени в Германия през април 1909 година, Щайнер разкрива и другата посока на проявяването на "Изостаналите" в културните епохи на човечеството, върховният златен век на Луцифер, достигнал до зенита на Атлантската епоха, както и проявлението на Ариман след квазиисторически сблъсък с Михаил, осъществил се напълно през 1879 година.
Оттук започва същинската профетология. Чрез своите изследвания, Щайнер предрича неминуемия сблъсък между световните сили и антанти, както и неизбежна световна война, период в който никой не е предполагал, че такъв катаклизъм може да избухне цели два пъти. Последствията от Аримановия импулс все още се проявяват до днес, а там Щайнер се оказва застрашително прав, предвиждайки душевността на хората век след неговата физическа смърт, бумът на технократската епоха, скептицизма, зародишите на клонирането и др, включително европейски обединения, прототипни модели на Европейския съюз.
Nearly 90 years after the death of the author, we behold the steely cold ascending forces of materialism that Rudolf Steiner called “Ahrimanic”. We see that the Anthroposophic movement which he hoped would be helping millions of people by now is like a damp squib compared to his hopes.
Faced by this ascending cold-as-steel dehumanised society, what does one do? My answer involves what Steiner says here:
These are very strange things indeed. That what he was so opposed to was the only wakeful consciousness within our sleeping civilization … For reasons indicated at the above link that I do not wish to rate this book. I simply want to say I have read it and that whilst Steiner served to free me from Eastern Theosophy and the New Age scene I found at Findhorn, Valentin Tomberg, in turn, provided me with a very different hermeneutic with which to engage Steiner.
I hope the above link however can contribute a little to the tangled issues involving Steiner and Tomberg - and why I believe this "very different hermeneutic" is necessary for a world plunging into a dark, mechanised society ...