Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 128
Steiner taught that before the age of nine children, generally, should be broken of left
handedness. Some Waldorf teachers attempt to change children‘s dominant hand in order to
help them in future incarnations:
The phenomenon of left-handedness is clearly karmic, and, in connection with
karma, it is one of karmic weakness. Allow me to give an example: A person
who was overworked in their previous life, so that they did too much, not only
physically or intellectually, but in general, spiritually, within their soul or
feeling, will enter the succeeding life with an intense weakness (Steiner, 1923
lecture, http://www.bobnancy.com/ retrieved March 3, 2003. Click on
―waldorf‖ then ―developing child‖, then ―Left-handed Cross-dominance,‖ scroll
to May 25, 1923 lecture).
Steiner‘s alchemy attempts to heal all the members comprising the human being, which
includes his concept of man as having an astral, etheric, ―I‖ and physical body. An
important component of his healing art is Curative Eurythmy. It is a magic based system of
angelic communication incorporating Cabalism, astrology, zodiac, numerology, sigils,
gestures, the alphabet, copper wands, color, and more, that supposedly connect the
participant to Steiner‘s spiritual world invoking various spiritual beings‘ healing powers.
Yet another of Steiner‘s contributions to humanity is ―Biodynamic Farming,‖ an
Anthroposophic based farming practice in which organic methods are imbued with
magical/spiritual components. For example, cows are sacrificed at certain times of the year
and their body parts used for magical purposes. Primary Moon forces (beings) are believed
to come to rest in horns. In one ritual fresh dung is stuffed into cow horns and buried in the
ground in autumn to attract various beings in the cosmos for better crop fertility. In spring
the horns are dug up and the contents emptied into warm water and stirred in a specific
manner for a specific time. Rotation must be fast to cause a vortex and the direction of the
stirring changed once or twice a minute. This substance, known as preparation 500, is
diluted with water and sprayed over fields. Biodynamic practitioners claim this type of
farming produces more nutritious food. A group of New Zealand Biodynamic apostates
believe that cow horns on living cows act as antenna attracting world etheric and world
astral forces, while deer radiate forces outwards through their antlers (Atkinson,
http://rimu.orcon.net.nz/garuda/books/cowhorns.html ,p.1).
In 1919, drawing on his life‘s work as a mystagogue, Steiner developed Waldorf education
based on Anthroposophy and his expertise on mystery schools. Steiner died in 1925, before
the Nazis came to power in 1933. Waldorf schools remained open in Nazi Germany for years
due to the amiable relationship between some Anthroposophists, Waldorf leadership, and
the new rulers in Germany. The schools received criticism from some party members for not
being stringently Nazi: they were however defended for being anti-intellectual and serving
as a model for indoctrination. Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess was Anthroposophy‘s chief
protector within the Nazi hierarchy and it was only after he flew to Britain that the last
Waldorf school was closed in Germany in 1941 (Leschinsky, 1983, p. 255).
Waldorf Education is a good example of an imposed alternate reality with an anti-cult
backlash formed in opposition to the schools. The sociologist, psychiatrist, and others
interested in investigating cultic studies might find the schools and controversy to be of
interest. Lamentably, critical research on Anthroposophy and Waldorf published in English is
lacking. Most books about Steiner, Anthroposophy, and Waldorf, are published from within
the enclosed world of Anthroposophy. Contributing difficulties for the researcher are the
secretive, hierarchical, occult tradition, from which Steiner emerged, and editorial deletions
and revisionism in the publications of his recorded lectures by disciples. Those that study
Waldorf might find that many involved in the schools have absolutely no comprehension of
the subtext informing Waldorf education and that the uninformed people tend to ―normalize‖

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 129
the environment. Scholars may also discover that Anthroposophy motivates all Waldorf
classroom activity and that, for those ―in the know,‖ the pedagogy and curriculum serves as
an Anthroposophic mystery initiation for both teacher and pupils. Because of this,
Anthroposophists are drawn to Waldorf Schools. Scholars might see that Anthroposophical
beliefs are the reasons for some of the more unusual practices, as well as the sometimes
humorous, but too-often tragic, scenarios that surface when the esoterically uninformed
flutter with the moths drawn to the light.
Anthroposophy–Doctrine of the Group
Sects drawn to occult illumination much like what would today be termed ―New Age,‖ were
already firmly entrenched in the America of the nineteenth century. After a period of
spiritual experimentation, the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 by Helena P.
Blavatsky, emerged in New York City. Theosophy spawned spiritual progenies such as I Am,
most modern Gnostic sects, modern astrology, as well as Anthroposophy. These spiritual
movements ―integrated spiritualist ideas with a great deal of Hindu and Buddhist thought,
including the theories of karma and reincarnation‖ and popularized Hermetic teachings in
America. ―Theosophy enjoyed a global boom by the early 1880s‖ and had an enormous
impact on all subsequent occult movements (Jenkins, 2000, p. 41) including
Anthroposophy.
Rudolf Steiner was a white magician and one of the most knowledgeable occultists of his
time (Merkur, 1993, p. 61). He saw the universe as a vast, living being, inhabited by a
multitude of spiritual beings at various stages of development, whose forces create the
physical world. He was a macro-microcosmic thinker, and the old hermetic axiom once
embraced by alchemists—‖As above, so below‖—is essential to Steiner‘s Anthroposophical
perspective. This fundamental tenet of magic is a radical divergence from contemporary
scientific thinking. Otherwise stated as ―the universe a vast human being, the individual a
small universe‖, this maxim of ―truth‖ was originally adopted by occult thinkers free from
the restraints imposed by scientific models of the universe and the Darwinian theory of
human evolution. Although the attitude is viewed as erroneous by modern science, magic
expert Michael Greer writes, in Circles of Power, that throughout history people have
persisted in viewing the interaction between consciousness and matter as a reality
independent of the mind. He adds that there are still those who embrace this principle of
macrocosm (great universe) and microcosm (little universe) as a more useful model for
experience than the scientific belief system accepted in American culture (Greer, 1997, pp.
13-14). 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: