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Indeed, a ―Catholic Method‖ or ―Catholic-inspired‖ public district school or public charter
school describing itself thus would simply not be believed. Anthroposophy is getting away
with it because people don‘t know what it is.
A Racial Theory of History
Madame Blavatsky, drawing from Hindu traditions about events of history being predestined
to occur in cycles, defined an elaborate system of wheels within wheels. In Theosophy‘s
cosmology, seven Planetary Conditions (Mantavaras) each contain seven Life Kingdoms
each Life Kingdom contains seven Global States each Global State contains seven Root-
Races and each Root-Race contains seven Sub-Races. Sub-Race periods are 2160 years
long, 1/12 of the astronomical period of the precession of the equinoxes, called the Platonic
Year. Anthroposophy adopts this scheme directly. Anthroposophy‘s Sub-Race periods are
therefore ―Platonic Months.‖
According to Theosophy and Anthroposophy, the present time is in the ―Earth‖ Planetary
Condition, the ―Mineral‖ Life Kingdom, the ―Physical-Etheric‖ Global State, the ―Aryan‖ Root-
Race, and the ―Aryan‖ Sub-Race. Why are the smaller time periods called ―races‖? Because,
according to divine plan, humanity, which has always been present throughout cosmic
history, is supposed to evolve through higher and higher racial forms. According to the plan,
the races whose evolutionary tasks are done are supposed to die out. The actions of evil
deities flawed the plan, however, and so ―left behind‖ races still exist. Steiner taught:
We are within the great Root Race of humanity, which has peopled the earth,
since the land on which we now live rose up out of the inundations of the
ocean. Ever since the Atlantean Race began slowly to disappear, the great
Aryan Race has been the dominant one on earth. If we contemplate
ourselves, we here in Europe are thus the fifth Sub-Race of the great Aryan
Root Race. The first Sub-Race lived in the distant past in Ancient India. And
the present-day Indians are descendants of that first Sub-Race, whose
spiritual life is still extant in the ancient Indian Vedas. The Vedas are indeed
only echoes of the ancient culture of the Rishis. At that time there was of
course no writing yet — there was only tradition. Then came the second, third
and fourth Sub-Races. The fourth Sub-Race adopted Christianity. Then,
halfway through the Middle Ages, we see that the fifth Sub-Race formed
itself, to which we and the neighboring nations belong. (Steiner, 1985a, p.
220)
This mythology, of the Aryan race originating in Atlantis, migrating to Asia and then west to
Europe, provided what was claimed as a scientific foundation for racism and anti-Semitism
in Steiner‘s time. The mythology can be traced from its origin in Blavatsky to Steiner and
the Ariosophists, like List and Lanz in the next generation, and on to its tragic finale with
Nazi theorist Rosenberg and the Holocaust (Goodrick-Clarke, 1992, Rosenberg, 1993). It‘s
difficult to believe that there are still people studying and promulgating this pseudo-
historical theory today they‘d have to be Neo-Nazis or wearing cult blinders. There are neo-
Nazis in Europe who follow Steiner (Staudenmaier, date unknown), but the overwhelming
majority of Anthroposophical publications reject Naziism while at the same time defending a
racial theory that formed part of the philosophical foundation of Naziism (e.g. Kerkvliet,
2000). The examples that follow are all from Anthroposophic presses.
Jewry as such has long since outlived its time it has no more justification
within the modern life of peoples, and the fact that it continues to exist is a
mistake of world history whose consequences are unavoidable. We do not
mean the forms of the Jewish religion alone, but above all the spirit of Jewry,
the Jewish way of thinking. (Steiner, 1971, p. 152)

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These blacks in Africa characteristically suck in, absorb, all light and all heat
from the cosmos. And, humans being humans, this light and this heat from
the cosmos cannot pass through the entire body. It does not flow through the
entire body, but it stops at the skin. In this way, the complexion itself
becomes black. Consequently, a black in Africa is a human who absorbs and
assimilates as much light and heat from the cosmos as possible. As he does
this, the forces of the cosmos work throughout that human. Everywhere, he
absorbs light and heat, really everywhere. He assimilates them within himself.
There really must be something which helps him in this assimilation. That
something is mainly the cerebellum. This is why a Negro has an especially
well developed cerebellum. This is linked to the spinal marrow and they can
assimilate all light and heat which a human contains. As a consequence,
especially the aspects which pertain to the body and to metabolism are
strongly developed in a Negro. He has a strong sexual urge as people call it,
strong instincts. And as, with him, all which comes from the sun light and
heat really is at the skin‘s surface, all of his metabolism works as if the sun
itself is boiling in his inside. This causes his passions. Within a Negro, cooking
is going on all the time and the cerebellum kindles the fire. ...And we,
Europeans, we poor Europeans, we have the thinking life, which resides in the
head. ...Therefore, Europe has always been the starting point of everything
which develops the human entity in such a way that at the same time a
relationship with the outside world arises. ...
When Negroes go to the west, they cannot absorb as much light and heat any
more as they were used to in their Africa. ...That is why they turn copper
red, they become Indians. That is because they are forced to reflect a part of
the light and heat. They turn shiny copper red. They cannot keep up this
copper red shining. That is why the Indians die out in the West, they die
because of their own nature which does not get enough light and heat, they
die because of the earthly factor. ...
Really, it is the whites who develop the human factor within themselves.
Therefore they have to rely on themselves. When whites do emigrate, they
partly take on the characteristics of other areas, but they die more as
individuals than as a race. The white race is the race of the future, the race
that is working creatively with the spirit. (Steiner, 1980, p. 67)
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)
What relevance does this early-20th-century racism have to Waldorf schools today,
especially to public Waldorf schools? There are three reasons to be concerned: First,
teachers study racist texts for their training, and consequently, racist materials will always
be present in the schools. Second, the Theosophical theory of history is the framework for