Rudolf Steiner

What do you think about his works?

I’ve read a couple of his books (How To Know Higher Worlds and What Is Anthroposophy?) but I really don’t remember that much about them which means they didn’t really resonate with me probably because my knowledge base of his material isn’t broad enough to really grasp what he was saying, kind of like the expression when the student is ready the teacher appears and this student (me) probably wasn’t ready. I probably should dig them out and peruse them, see what I highlighted in the Anthroposophy book to refresh my memory. The copy of How To Know Higher Worlds was a pricey anniversary edition hardback I bought new so no markings and highlighting in that one to reference. I’ll mark and abuse a paperback as a general rule, but marking fine edition hardbacks is a no no in my personal library.

Anyway, good question that I wasn’t really able to answer but hopefully someone on the forum has read, studied Steiner who appreciates his work and can shed some light on him. I thought about reading Gary Lachman’s biography of him as I enjoyed his Madame Blavatsky biography and he is able to simplify and explain these philosophies to the layman reader.

What do YOU think of Steiner since you asked the question?

my best friend growing up came from a waldorf education, so i haven known quite a bit about steiner for a long time.

i didn’t know he was an occultist until a few years ago, i grew up hearing about his educational and practical ideas, which are well thought out. his biodynamic agriculture and medicinal ideas are truly revolutionary and should be more widely known.

my impression of his occultism is that he was a christian-oriented theosophist. his background was with the rosicrucians and he studied under blavatsky. his occultism wasn’t original, he synthesized his work, but he was a very good student and took only the best ideas from the currents of his time.

overall, i believe steiner’s practical ideas are more useful than his occult ones. he had very good ideas but was too tied to conventional christianity to be an effective 20th century metaphysician.

Well Adam. Just as you have religious arguments you also have Sorceror Arguments whrre they War on each other. I think things go much deeper than the conflicts although that could br a problem.

You have a point.