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During the Renaissance, influential magicians such as Agrippa of Nettesheim (1486-1533)
and others, like Giordano Bruno, Robert Fludd and John Dee, disseminated macro-
microcosmic ideas. Agrippa was one of the predominant sources of Renaissance magic
(Yates, 1972, p. 109) and his work was well known by Steiner who described him in the
book Mysticism and Modern Thought. Agrippa‘s Christian Cabalistic, alchemical, and magical
philosophy is very close to the Rosicrucianism expressed in the Rosicrucian Manifestos
associated with the mythical Christian Rosenkreutz, and it was a major source for most
Renaissance magicians‘ work. Many texts were published about the great macrocosm and
the little world of man, the microcosm, in an attempt to order and to present the philosophy
based on the congruent design of the cosmos and its correspondences in man. Man became
the world and the world man. He took his place at the center of the universe, the mid-point
between spiritual realms and the physical realm, gaining power over matter and the ability
to ―participate[th] with Spirits and Angels‖ (Clulee, 1988, p. 149).
In a lecture entitled The Relationship of Man to the Sun, Steiner recapitulated his own
doctrine by telling his audience that Agrippa knew ―quite well that in the several planets of
our system are spiritual Beings of specific character and kind‖ (Steiner, 1965, p. 49). He
went on to say that Agrippa assigned to each planet what he called ―the Intelligence of the
planet.‖ Agrippa believed that stars were a sign ―of the presence of spiritual Beings.‖ He
knew that the beings united with ―stars are Beings who rule the inner existence of that star
or planet, rule … its movements in the Universe‖ and ―hold sway indeed over its whole
activity.‖ ―The Intelligence of the ‗Earth Star‘ was man himself.‖ Man had been given ―the
task to regulate and rule the Earth‖ by the ―World-Spirit.‖ ―Through what he is, through the
forces and powers he bears within his being, Man gives to Earth the impulse for her
movement round the Sun, for her movement altogether in cosmic space.‖ Man is ―Lord of
the Earth‖ (Steiner, 1965, pp. 50-51). In turn, Agrippa‘s magical universe had been
influenced by the doctrines of the legendary Hermes Trismegistus —‖the patriarch of natural
mysticism and alchemy‖—(Roob, 1997, p. 8), which claimed that man was the image of God
and gifted with omnipotence. Like Agrippa and earlier magicians, Steiner was also to
systemize the influence of the planets, numbers, Hebrew words, the Zodiac, angels and
other supernatural beings, relating their connection to specific organs of man.
Appearing throughout Steiner‘s doctrine are references to his trinity of Ahriman, Lucifer, and
what he calls ―the Christ Spirit.‖ Two thousand years ago, the Christ who existed in the Sun,
came to Earth and inhabited Jesus‘ body for a period of three years: this Christ spirit had
also inhabited other great spiritual leaders of human kind such as Zarathustra. Lucifer had a
human incarnation about 5000 years ago in China, and Ahriman incarnated in the West in
1998. Steiner‘s path of initiation enables disciples to remember past lives and gain the
ability to recognize fellow believers in future reincarnations. This ability to remember past
lives was considered crucial to his predicted Sixth Epoch:
It is the deeper task of the anthroposophical movement to enable a number
of human beings to enter their next incarnation with an I each remembers as
his or her own, individual I. These people will then form the nucleus of the
next period of civilization. Then these individuals who have been well
prepared through the anthroposophical spiritual movement to remember their
individual I will be spread over the earth. For the essential characteristic of
the next period of civilization is that it will not be limited to particular
localities, but will be spread over the whole earth. These individuals will be
scattered over the earth, and thus everywhere on earth there will be a core
group of people who will be crucial for the sixth epoch of civilization. These
people will recognize each other as those who in their previous incarnation
strove together to develop the individual I. (Steiner, 1990, pp. 22-23)

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 133
With the help of the Akashic record and his professed clairvoyant abilities, he laid out the
evolution of the Earth in a series of epochs and rounds—Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter,
Venus and Vulcan. Earth consists of 7 epochs, and present humankind exists in the later
part of the Fifth Epoch on Earth. Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan, are prophesied future periods.
He taught that believers who develop their ―I‖ will remember each other and reincarnate
together in ―core groups‖ to instruct others in what to ―think, feel, will and do,‖ and that
they will inherit the earth:
To put it bluntly, we can say that the earth and all it can yield will belong to
those who now cultivate their individualities. Those, however, who do not
develop their individual I will be dependent on joining a group that will
instruct them in what they should think, feel, will and do. In the future
development of humanity this will be felt as a regression, a second Fall.
Therefore, we should not regard the anthroposophical movement and spiritual
life as mere theory but rather as something that is given to us now to prepare
what is necessary for the future of humanity. (Steiner, 1990, p. 24)
Steiner‘s lectures are peppered with racism and anti-Semitism. His racist doctrine is similar
to other occult variants like ariosophy, sometimes attracting interest from far-right
publishers and distributors. Peter Staudenmaier studies racism and Steiner texts including
untranslated German lectures such as those recorded in Die Geistigen Hintergrunde des
Ersten Weltkrieges, (1974). (GA 174b). On the Internet discussion group, waldorf-
critics@topica.com Staudenmaier translated some German Steiner text into English (see
posts from September 2002 titled ―skin color and spirit‖ archived at
http://www.waldorfcritics.org/active/archives.html ).He concludes that Steiner accepted as
obvious the basic Theosophical notion that intelligence and beauty are correlated with
―racial characteristics‖ and links this to the classical Theosophical concept that ―primitive
peoples‖ are the ―degenerative remnants‖ of older ―racial forms.‖ Staudenmaier notes that
Steiner subscribes to ―esoteric Darwinism‖ in which inferior ―races‖ of his lifetime were
believed by him to be descendants of the earlier Lemurian and Atlantean root races which
were devolving physically and spiritually toward an animal state. In contrast, the fifth root
race, the Aryans, continued evolving upwards, towards universal humanity. Followers will be
saved from Steiner‘s prophetic, apocalyptic ―War of All Against All‖—when white humanity
will destroy ―colored‖ humanity who has not taken the spirit deep within the skin.
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, translated by P. Staudenmaier).
In a 1915 sermon in Stuttgart, Steiner said that advanced spirituality is tied to external skin
color and that white skin is a sign of spiritual progress:
This carrying down, this thorough impregnation of the flesh by the spirit, this
is characteristic of the mission, the whole mission of white humanity. People
have white skin color because the spirit works within the skin when it wants