Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 143
the visitor, ―Waldorf is like a cult, you all follow Steiner, he is your guru. I have never felt so
oppressed, this is like a religion.‖ I was right, but I did not know that I was right. The visitor
assured me that this was not so and that she had ―never felt so free.‖ I had no inkling at
that time that thousands of Steiner‘s sermons had been published and distributed by
devotees from within the closed world of Anthroposophy. In those days I had not entered
the occult world consciously, I was in an ―information void‖ trying to function in an
Anthroposophic environment without any knowledge of the occult subtext. I still believed
that Steiner was as advertised—a scientist, educator and philosopher—instead of an
occultist, mystagogue and Anthroposophist. Long after we left Waldorf, as I sifted through
sermon after sermon, I came across the following hint as to why young ―reincarnating‖
pupils might be prevented from using lines, and instead, exposed to color:
You see, when the soul arrives on earth in order to enter its body, it has come
down from spirit-soul worlds in which there are no spacial forms. Thus the
soul knows spacial forms only after its bodily experience, only while the after-
effects of space still linger on. But though the world from which the soul
descends has no spacial forms or lines, it does have color intensities, color
qualities‖ (Steiner, 1964, p 23).
In kindergarten, my daughter painted sheets of wet watercolor paper that had the corners
rounded off. At first, only single colors of yellow or blue were used. I thought this was odd
and wondered why the children didn‘t paint images. I asked the teacher why they were only
allowed one color and what the purpose for these ―paintings‖ was. She said it was Steiner‘s
―color theory‖ and that the children were developing their ―imagination.‖ After leaving the
school, I learned from Anthroposophist Audrey McAllen that:
The colours which the child uses for the expression of the harmonious
connection with his body before the change of teeth are blue and yellow out
of these colours the soul weaves its connection with the hereditary body and
transforms it (McAllen, 1985, p. 44).
In other words, painting a sheet of wet watercolor paper with yellow or with blue helps the
reincarnating soul connect with the physical body. Later I noticed that children were
painting ―discs‖ of color surrounded by a counter color. For example, a blue disc surrounded
by red or visa versa. Years later I was to learn that Steiner also offered his adult pupils
meditative exercises that resembled my daughter‘s disc paintings. Disciples were to perform
the following exercise seven times in the mornings:
Concept of a blue circular disc with red surrounding. Then transformation into
a red disk with blue surround. Reconversion into the original state.
Do this seven consecutive times.
Conceive through inner observation how the thinking thereby becomes mobile
and free in itself and ultimately is raised to a condition free from the body
(Steiner, 1988b, p. 17).
The more I studied Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy, the more I began to
see the ―discs‖ as planets or suns. I now think of the Waldorf color exercises in terms of
mandalas and talismans. After discovering Theosophist Annie Besant‘s and Charles W.
Leadbeater‘s book, Thoughtforms, published the year before Steiner became General
Secretary of Theosophy in Austria and Germany, I began to understand that these types of
abstractions of the spiritual world were in vogue during Steiner‘s day and influenced him.
On my daughter‘s rounded papers she also painted images of suns and rainbows that I later
understood to be Anthroposophical icons. I have since learned from Chassidic Rabbi
Yonassan Gershom that the Waldorf paintings represent ―the creative energy of higher
spiritual worlds.‖
the visitor, ―Waldorf is like a cult, you all follow Steiner, he is your guru. I have never felt so
oppressed, this is like a religion.‖ I was right, but I did not know that I was right. The visitor
assured me that this was not so and that she had ―never felt so free.‖ I had no inkling at
that time that thousands of Steiner‘s sermons had been published and distributed by
devotees from within the closed world of Anthroposophy. In those days I had not entered
the occult world consciously, I was in an ―information void‖ trying to function in an
Anthroposophic environment without any knowledge of the occult subtext. I still believed
that Steiner was as advertised—a scientist, educator and philosopher—instead of an
occultist, mystagogue and Anthroposophist. Long after we left Waldorf, as I sifted through
sermon after sermon, I came across the following hint as to why young ―reincarnating‖
pupils might be prevented from using lines, and instead, exposed to color:
You see, when the soul arrives on earth in order to enter its body, it has come
down from spirit-soul worlds in which there are no spacial forms. Thus the
soul knows spacial forms only after its bodily experience, only while the after-
effects of space still linger on. But though the world from which the soul
descends has no spacial forms or lines, it does have color intensities, color
qualities‖ (Steiner, 1964, p 23).
In kindergarten, my daughter painted sheets of wet watercolor paper that had the corners
rounded off. At first, only single colors of yellow or blue were used. I thought this was odd
and wondered why the children didn‘t paint images. I asked the teacher why they were only
allowed one color and what the purpose for these ―paintings‖ was. She said it was Steiner‘s
―color theory‖ and that the children were developing their ―imagination.‖ After leaving the
school, I learned from Anthroposophist Audrey McAllen that:
The colours which the child uses for the expression of the harmonious
connection with his body before the change of teeth are blue and yellow out
of these colours the soul weaves its connection with the hereditary body and
transforms it (McAllen, 1985, p. 44).
In other words, painting a sheet of wet watercolor paper with yellow or with blue helps the
reincarnating soul connect with the physical body. Later I noticed that children were
painting ―discs‖ of color surrounded by a counter color. For example, a blue disc surrounded
by red or visa versa. Years later I was to learn that Steiner also offered his adult pupils
meditative exercises that resembled my daughter‘s disc paintings. Disciples were to perform
the following exercise seven times in the mornings:
Concept of a blue circular disc with red surrounding. Then transformation into
a red disk with blue surround. Reconversion into the original state.
Do this seven consecutive times.
Conceive through inner observation how the thinking thereby becomes mobile
and free in itself and ultimately is raised to a condition free from the body
(Steiner, 1988b, p. 17).
The more I studied Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy, the more I began to
see the ―discs‖ as planets or suns. I now think of the Waldorf color exercises in terms of
mandalas and talismans. After discovering Theosophist Annie Besant‘s and Charles W.
Leadbeater‘s book, Thoughtforms, published the year before Steiner became General
Secretary of Theosophy in Austria and Germany, I began to understand that these types of
abstractions of the spiritual world were in vogue during Steiner‘s day and influenced him.
On my daughter‘s rounded papers she also painted images of suns and rainbows that I later
understood to be Anthroposophical icons. I have since learned from Chassidic Rabbi
Yonassan Gershom that the Waldorf paintings represent ―the creative energy of higher
spiritual worlds.‖
