The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds (Rudolf Steiner)
Overrated Occult Teachings
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds” by Rudolf Steiner.]
I am a spiritual teacher-writer, and in addition to hosting my own Facebook group page – Electrical-Hermetic Christianity – I participate at numerous gnostic Christian Facebook groups. Plenty of people in these groups are into Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), so I decided I should further my familiarity with Steiner’s teachings by reading more of his writings. I’d read and reviewed “Steiner’s “Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path” (see my three-star Amazon review), and I decided to check out “The Essential Rudolf Steiner” and “The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.”
I’ve now read enough of Steiner to form a strong opinion of his spiritual teachings; in short, they are unimpressive. I’ve read well over two thousand spiritual texts, and Steiner’s don’t make my top fifteen-hundred. And truly speaking, Steiner’s texts aren’t really spiritual, they’re pseudo-spiritual or occult, sprinkled with second-rated epistemology. (He was a philosophy professor who specialized in epistemology.)
The spiritual world for Steiner is not about Spirit itself. He equates “Spiritual World” with the “so-called Astral Plane.” His teachings, which revolve around occult phenomena (such as developing clairvoyance, seeing auras, and meeting beings from higher and lower worlds),are neither deep nor detailed in this particular text.
Steiner writes: “There are according to esoteric teachers three steps by which the goal may be attained: 1. Probation. This develops the spiritual sense. 2. Enlightenment. This kindles the spiritual light. 3. Initiation. This establishes intercourse with higher spiritual beings.
“Probation,” according to Steiner, consists of “a strict cultivation of the emotional and mental life.” “Enlightenment,” according to Steiner, “is the result of very simple processes. Here too, it is a matter of developing certain feelings and thoughts which are dormant within all men but must be awakened.” In “Initiation,” says Steiner, “certain matters or subjects connected with the higher worlds are produced before the candidate, but he is able to see and hear these only when he can perceive clearly the figures, tones, and colors, for which he has been prepared by the teachings of Probation and Enlightenment.”
First off, Steiner doesn’t have a clue what Enlightenment is about. It isn’t about developing dormant thoughts and feelings; it’s about uniting Spirit, or Light-Energy, with one’s soul (or consciousness). Secondly, Steiner misrepresents true Initiation, which is Baptism by the Holy Spirit, which is the same Divine Power as Hindu Shakti and the Buddhist Sambhogakaya. Moreover, as a “closed-fist,” teacher Steiner refuses to divulge what mysteries await an Initiated disciple. He writes: “The highest degree in Occultism of which it is possible to speak in a book for general readers is Initiation. One cannot give public information concerning all that lies beyond…”
I have an aversion to closed-fist, secretive “Mystery” teachings, so that alone turns me off to Steiner. But even apart from my aversion, I rate Steiner as no more than a second-rate occultist, and as a spiritual teacher, he rates even lower.
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds” by Rudolf Steiner.]
I am a spiritual teacher-writer, and in addition to hosting my own Facebook group page – Electrical-Hermetic Christianity – I participate at numerous gnostic Christian Facebook groups. Plenty of people in these groups are into Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), so I decided I should further my familiarity with Steiner’s teachings by reading more of his writings. I’d read and reviewed “Steiner’s “Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path” (see my three-star Amazon review), and I decided to check out “The Essential Rudolf Steiner” and “The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.”
I’ve now read enough of Steiner to form a strong opinion of his spiritual teachings; in short, they are unimpressive. I’ve read well over two thousand spiritual texts, and Steiner’s don’t make my top fifteen-hundred. And truly speaking, Steiner’s texts aren’t really spiritual, they’re pseudo-spiritual or occult, sprinkled with second-rated epistemology. (He was a philosophy professor who specialized in epistemology.)
The spiritual world for Steiner is not about Spirit itself. He equates “Spiritual World” with the “so-called Astral Plane.” His teachings, which revolve around occult phenomena (such as developing clairvoyance, seeing auras, and meeting beings from higher and lower worlds),are neither deep nor detailed in this particular text.
Steiner writes: “There are according to esoteric teachers three steps by which the goal may be attained: 1. Probation. This develops the spiritual sense. 2. Enlightenment. This kindles the spiritual light. 3. Initiation. This establishes intercourse with higher spiritual beings.
“Probation,” according to Steiner, consists of “a strict cultivation of the emotional and mental life.” “Enlightenment,” according to Steiner, “is the result of very simple processes. Here too, it is a matter of developing certain feelings and thoughts which are dormant within all men but must be awakened.” In “Initiation,” says Steiner, “certain matters or subjects connected with the higher worlds are produced before the candidate, but he is able to see and hear these only when he can perceive clearly the figures, tones, and colors, for which he has been prepared by the teachings of Probation and Enlightenment.”
First off, Steiner doesn’t have a clue what Enlightenment is about. It isn’t about developing dormant thoughts and feelings; it’s about uniting Spirit, or Light-Energy, with one’s soul (or consciousness). Secondly, Steiner misrepresents true Initiation, which is Baptism by the Holy Spirit, which is the same Divine Power as Hindu Shakti and the Buddhist Sambhogakaya. Moreover, as a “closed-fist,” teacher Steiner refuses to divulge what mysteries await an Initiated disciple. He writes: “The highest degree in Occultism of which it is possible to speak in a book for general readers is Initiation. One cannot give public information concerning all that lies beyond…”
I have an aversion to closed-fist, secretive “Mystery” teachings, so that alone turns me off to Steiner. But even apart from my aversion, I rate Steiner as no more than a second-rate occultist, and as a spiritual teacher, he rates even lower.
