Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 134
to descend to the physical plane. That the external physical body will become
a container for the spirit, that is the task of our fifth cultural epoch, which has
been prepared by the four other cultural epochs.
And our task must be to acquaint ourselves with those cultural impulses that
tend to introduce the spirit into the flesh and into the ordinary. If we
recognize this completely, then it will become clear to us that where the spirit
is still supposed to function as spirit, where in a certain way the spirit is
supposed to be retarded in its development—because in our time its task is to
descend into the flesh—that where the spirit is retarded, where it takes on a
demonic character and does not fully penetrate the flesh, then white skin
color does not appear, because atavistic powers are present that do not allow
the spirit to achieve complete harmony with the flesh. (Steiner, 1974, p. 37,
translated by P. Staudenmaier).
Racial selectiveness was important to Steiner‘s doctrine which includes the notion that
beauty and intelligence correlate with ―racial characteristics‖:
If the blondes and blue-eyed people die out, the human race will become
increasingly dense if men do not arrive at a form of intelligence that is
independent of blondeness. In the case of fair people, less nourishment is
driven into the eyes and hair: it remains instead in the brain and endows it
with intelligence. Brown- and dark–haired people drive nourishment into their
eyes and hair that the fair people retain in their brains. (Steiner, 1981a, p.
86)
Steiner‘s doctrine of ―esoteric Darwinism‖ was steeped in Blavatsky‘s basic theosophical
teachings ―savages‖ are considered degenerate remnants of older racial forms devolving
into apes. A year before he died he was still preaching the same sermon:
[W]e are not justified in thinking that human beings were originally like the
savages of today. The savages have developed into what they now are—with
their superstitions, their magical practices and their unclean appearance—
from states originally more perfect. The only superiority we have over them is
that, while starting from the same conditions, we did not degenerate as they
did. I might therefore say: The evolution of man has taken two paths. It is
not true that the savages of today represent the original condition of
mankind. Mankind, though to begin with looked more animal-like, was highly
civilized. ...Just as the present savages have fallen from the level of the
human beings of primeval times, so the apes are beings who have fallen still
lower. (Steiner, 1987, p.126)
In 1904, early in his Theosophical career, he taught that the ―backward races‖ were the
descendants of the earlier Lemurian and Atlantean root-races which survived the Atlantean
flood. Steiner‘s clairvoyant powers enabled him to see far back in time, before the beginning
of the world, long before that marked by historians and scientists. His psychic abilities
enabled him to describe Atlantis in elaborate detail, when humans still had magical powers
and could lift their hands above plants to make them grow rapidly, and when man drove
vehicles that floated in the air. These ―backwards races‖ should have died out, but Ahriman
thwarted this cosmic plan. Instead of evolving towards a more advanced spiritual state and
higher stages of evolution with more ―beautiful bodies,‖ they physically and spiritually
regressed. Steiner and other Theosophists asserted that these ―lower races‖ were devolving
toward an animal state, while the fifth root-race, the Aryans, led by Manu, was saved from
the Atlantis flood and continues to evolve towards a higher Sixth race. Steiner taught that a
―universal human‖ would eventually return to pure spirit, free from the restraints of the
physical body in his future Vulcan phase of cosmic evolution.
to descend to the physical plane. That the external physical body will become
a container for the spirit, that is the task of our fifth cultural epoch, which has
been prepared by the four other cultural epochs.
And our task must be to acquaint ourselves with those cultural impulses that
tend to introduce the spirit into the flesh and into the ordinary. If we
recognize this completely, then it will become clear to us that where the spirit
is still supposed to function as spirit, where in a certain way the spirit is
supposed to be retarded in its development—because in our time its task is to
descend into the flesh—that where the spirit is retarded, where it takes on a
demonic character and does not fully penetrate the flesh, then white skin
color does not appear, because atavistic powers are present that do not allow
the spirit to achieve complete harmony with the flesh. (Steiner, 1974, p. 37,
translated by P. Staudenmaier).
Racial selectiveness was important to Steiner‘s doctrine which includes the notion that
beauty and intelligence correlate with ―racial characteristics‖:
If the blondes and blue-eyed people die out, the human race will become
increasingly dense if men do not arrive at a form of intelligence that is
independent of blondeness. In the case of fair people, less nourishment is
driven into the eyes and hair: it remains instead in the brain and endows it
with intelligence. Brown- and dark–haired people drive nourishment into their
eyes and hair that the fair people retain in their brains. (Steiner, 1981a, p.
86)
Steiner‘s doctrine of ―esoteric Darwinism‖ was steeped in Blavatsky‘s basic theosophical
teachings ―savages‖ are considered degenerate remnants of older racial forms devolving
into apes. A year before he died he was still preaching the same sermon:
[W]e are not justified in thinking that human beings were originally like the
savages of today. The savages have developed into what they now are—with
their superstitions, their magical practices and their unclean appearance—
from states originally more perfect. The only superiority we have over them is
that, while starting from the same conditions, we did not degenerate as they
did. I might therefore say: The evolution of man has taken two paths. It is
not true that the savages of today represent the original condition of
mankind. Mankind, though to begin with looked more animal-like, was highly
civilized. ...Just as the present savages have fallen from the level of the
human beings of primeval times, so the apes are beings who have fallen still
lower. (Steiner, 1987, p.126)
In 1904, early in his Theosophical career, he taught that the ―backward races‖ were the
descendants of the earlier Lemurian and Atlantean root-races which survived the Atlantean
flood. Steiner‘s clairvoyant powers enabled him to see far back in time, before the beginning
of the world, long before that marked by historians and scientists. His psychic abilities
enabled him to describe Atlantis in elaborate detail, when humans still had magical powers
and could lift their hands above plants to make them grow rapidly, and when man drove
vehicles that floated in the air. These ―backwards races‖ should have died out, but Ahriman
thwarted this cosmic plan. Instead of evolving towards a more advanced spiritual state and
higher stages of evolution with more ―beautiful bodies,‖ they physically and spiritually
regressed. Steiner and other Theosophists asserted that these ―lower races‖ were devolving
toward an animal state, while the fifth root-race, the Aryans, led by Manu, was saved from
the Atlantis flood and continues to evolve towards a higher Sixth race. Steiner taught that a
―universal human‖ would eventually return to pure spirit, free from the restraints of the
physical body in his future Vulcan phase of cosmic evolution.
