Rudolf Steiner: A Great Philosopher and Esotericist?

I have read four books by Rudolf Steiner, and have no plans to read more. In my opinion, Steiner is among the most overrated 20^th-century spiritual teachers. Moreover, even though he had a PhD in philosophy, with an emphasis on epistemology, his writings on the subject pale in comparison to Ayn Rand’s in her “Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.” The iconic Valentin Tomberg eventually recognized Steiner’s limitations, moved on to Christian Hermeticism, and penned his classic “Meditations on the Tarot.”

Below are my three Amazon reviews of Steiner texts and an article by me on Tomberg’s “Studies on Rudolf Steiner’s ‘The Philosopher’s Stone” (which Tomberg wrote while still a Steiner acolyte).

An Overrated Epistemology Text [My three-star review of “Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path.”]   

“Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path” is a mixed bag. It has positive aspects—its stress on ethical individualism (which mirrors Ayn Rand’s rational self-interest) and it emphasis on thinking as a “spiritual” tool – but as a text on epistemology, it is teeming with flaws. Steiner, a Ph.D in epistemology, has unique perspectives on the mind, which makes his book an interesting read - but in my opinion, most of his perspectives are wrong. Steiner makes you think about thinking – but if you really want to understand thinking, you need to read Ayn Rand’s “Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology” (which I’ve reviewed at Amazon). I believe that most who compare Steiner’s book to Rand’s will consider the latter the (by far) superior text. But don’t take my word for it: read both and decide for yourself

Steiner says that “thinking is beyond both subject and object.” No it isn’t. All thoughts, implicitly if not explicitly, involve a subject and an object. Mental abstraction always pertains to this duality. Even if dialectical thinking results in a higher-level synthesis, the subject-object nature of the thought process remains intact.

Steiner conflates cognition with thinking. They are not the same. Cognition pertains to “understanding” and “knowledge,” and not all thinking yields understanding and knowledge. Thinking is man’s chief cognitive method, but it does not always result in cognition, or “knowing.”

Steiner writes, “In this book I try to validate cognition of the spiritual realm before one enters spiritual experience.” Steiner never explains what the spiritual realm is, never validates cognition of it (whatever that means), and never explains what he means by spiritual experience or how it relates to Spirit. In short, he fails to link epistemology with spiritual ontology.

Steiner has little understanding of real mysticism. He writes:

“This tendency—the philosophy of feeling—is often called mysticism. A mystical view based solely on feeling errs in wanting to experience what it ought to know; it wants to make something that is individual, feeling, into something universal.

Feeling is a purely individual act. It is a relationship of the outer world to our subject, insofar as that relationship finds expression in a purely subjective experience.”

Contrary to what Steiner claims, higher mysticism is not based on subjective feelings. It is trans-psychological in nature and involves objective, impersonal beholding, or apprehension, of the Mysterium Tremendium: Divine Light-energy, the Holy Spirit. When one’s consciousness (or soul) unites with this Divine Light-energy, or Power, then one spontaneously experiences the transcendental feeling of Being, and this feeling is independent of emotions, though one may experience emotions in relation to it.

But Steiner is correct when he criticizes the use of one’s individual feelings as a means of cognition. He writes, “They try to make feeling, not knowing, the means of cognition. Since feeling is something altogether individual, something equivalent to perception, philosophers of feeling make something that has significance only within their own personality into the principle of the universe. They try to permeate the entire universe with their own selves.”  Ayn Rand says the same thing, that emotions or feelings are not tools of cognition; they only tell you how you feel about something. But contrary to what Stein says, feeling is not equivalent to perception.

Steiner writes, “Feeling, like perceiving, always appears before cognizing.” Not true. First off, if one has already formed concepts about percepts, more concepts, or abstractions, can be formed from those concepts, hence cognizing can precede perceiving. Second, individual emotions, or feelings, follow cognition. For example, if you learn that your beloved dog was run over, you will feel intense emotional pain. In this case, feeling follows cognition.

A major weakness of this text is its failure to clearly explain what “intuition” is. Steiner defines it as “the conscious experience, within what is purely spiritual, of a spiritual context. But, again, Steiner does not define his terms and explain what he means by “spiritual” and “spiritual context.” Nor does he explain how intuition differs from feeling, which he denigrates as a means of cognition. Moreover, Steiner never broaches the subject of the subconscious mind, which integrates the material “fed” into by the conscious mind. In my opinion, much of so-called “intuition”stems from the subconscious.

Steiner says that “The essence of thinking can only be grasped through intuition.” Wrong. The essence of thinking can only be grasped via proper epistemology, which evades Steiner. I grasped the essence of thinking after, and not before, I read Rand; and if intuition enabled one to grasp this essence, why would one need to read any books on epistemology?

In summary, this text might impress those with little or no background in epistemology and ontology; but those with a deep and wide background in these branches of philosophy will recognize it for what it is: an overrated work by an overrated "spiritual" philosopher.

Overrated Occult Teachings [My two-star review of “The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.”]

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.

Judge for Yourself [My two-star review of “The Foundation Stone Meditation.”]

I recently wrote a critical two-star review of Rudolf Steiner's "The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds," and some my Facebook friends insisted that I needed to read more of Steiner, that the three books of his I had read -- "The Essential Rudolph Steiner and Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path" (see my three-star review) in addition to "The Way of Initiation, or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds" did not constitute a sufficient consideration of his teachings. They recommended that I read his "The Foundation Stone Meditation," and so I did.

This super-skimpy text, which I purchased from Amazon for $3.49, consists of nothing but a few different, but very similar, translations of the 200 or so words below. That is the whole enchilada. Read it and form your own opinion.

My opinion is that without exegetical commentary, it is no more than vague, nebulous quasi-poetic Dharma. It is bereft of depth, details, definitions, practical instructions, and an esoteric dimension that explains the En-Light-enment process.

Compare this work to truly profound Dharma poetry, such as Tilopa's "The Song of Mahamudra," and there is no real comparison; Tilopa smokes Steiner.

I don't dislike "The Foundation Stone Meditation; it just does nothing for me, and at $10.00 for the book and $3.49 for the Kindle, it's grossly overpriced. With this in mind, I'll give it two stars.

Soul of man!
You live in the limbs
That carry you through the world of space
Into the sea of spirit-being:
Practice spirit remembrance
In the depths of soul,
Where in the reigning
Cosmic creator-being
Your own I
In God's I
Is begotten;
And you will truly live
In the cosmic human being.

For the Father Spirit of the heights reigns
Creating being in the cosmic depths:
Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones
Let resound from the heights
What in the depths its echo finds;

This speaks:
Ex deo nascimur.
The elemental spirits

In East, West, North, South hear this:
May men hear it too.
Soul of man!
You live in the heart-lung-beat
That guides you through the rhythm of times
To the sensing of your own soul of being:
Practice spirit contemplation
In equanimity of soul,
Where the surging
Cosmic creative deeds
Unite
Your own I
To the cosmic I;
And you will truly feel
In deeds of the human soul.

For the will of Christ reigns in the earthly sphere
Granting grace to souls in cosmic rhythms:
Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai
Let from the east inflame
What through the west takes form;
This speaks:
In Christo morimur.
The elemental spirits
In East, West, North, South hear this:
May men hear it too.

Soul of man!
You live in the reposing head
Which opens cosmic thoughts
from eternal founts to you:
Practice spirit-seeing
In peace of mind,
Where the eternal goals of the gods
Confer
The cosmic being of light
On your own
For its free will;
And you will truly think
From founts of human spirit.

For the cosmic thoughts of spirit,
light imploring, reign in cosmic being;
Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi
Let from the depths demand
What will be heard in the heights;
This speaks:
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
The elemental spirits
In the East, West, North, South hear this:
May men hear it too.

At the turning point of time
The cosmic spirit-light stepped
Into earthly evolution;
Night darkness
Had ended its reign;
The bright light of day
Streamed into human souls;
Light
That warms
The poor shepherd hearts
Light
That enlightens
The wise kings heads.

Light divine,
Sun of Christ,
Warm
Our hearts,
Enlighten
our heads,

So that good will be
What we
From our hearts beget,
What we
Through our heads
Will to achieve.

Studies on Rudolf Steiner’s “The Foundation Stone,” Part 3 [An article I wrote on Valentin Tomberg’s “Studies on the Foundation Stone, Part 3.”]

[A few of my Facebook friends, unhappy with my two-star Amazon review of Rudolf Steiner’s “Foundation Stone Meditation,” insisted that I needed to get a deeper perspective on this teaching. With this in mind, one of them generously sent me a copy of Valentin Tomberg’s “Studies on the Foundation Stone, Part 3.” ]

Given how good Tomberg’s “Meditations of the Tarot” is (see my five-star review), I looked forward to considering his study. Well, I’ve considered it, and in a word, it sucks. Clearly Tomberg experienced a quantum leap in his spiritual understanding in the four-decade period between “Studies on the Foundation Stone” and “Meditations on the Tarot.” From a fogged-out acolyte of the grossly overrated Rudolf Steiner, he evolved into the brilliant, innovative expositor of Christian Hermeticism.

Thankfully, this text was only twenty-four pages; I couldn’t have tolerated any more of this poppycock-filled study. Virtually every sentence in it drips with philosophical and occult nonsense.

Here are a few examples, with my comments following.”

“In itself, [Nature] is not reality so long as the other half --namely that of the conceptual is not added to it… Nature would have no meaning were she not to let herself be ‘expressed’ through man.”

This is primacy-of-consciousness nonsense. Nature exists exactly as it is exclusive of man’s concepts of it.  And the “meaning” of nature is hardly the same to all men.

“This fact, to which Rudolf Steiner has referred, means however that the human ether body is the ‘concept’ of the percept ‘animal kingdom,’ and that the human astral body and the human I are the concepts for the plant and mineral kingdoms.”

The human astral body and human I are not “concepts” for the plant and mineral kingdom. If anything, they could be described as “concepts” in God’s Mind.

In an “Outline of Occult Science,” Rudolf Steiner expresses these brief sentences: Then after an intermediate stage, which presents itself as a sojourn in a higher world, the Earth will transform itself into Jupiter.”

In my humble opinion, I would say that it is more likely for Roseann Barr to transform herself into Kate Upton than it is for the Earth to transform itself into Jupiter.

“The actual practice of the Foundation Stone Meditation consequently bears within it the practice of ‘journeying through the twelve points of view’ of the circle, which brings about that inner mobility of man’s I-being. Through this the power of numbness is overcome first of all in man’s inner being, in order then – in ways delineated by karma – to overcome it in nature too; i. e., to bring about the redemption of the mineral kingdom in the way it is to take place in the future Jupiter existence.”

Again, more occult garbage. The idea of the “Dodecahedric  Stone” as “man’s task as hope of the mineral world”  is utter baloney. There is absolutely no need to contemplate the zodiac relative to the spiritual en-Light-enment process. – and I say that as a professional astrologer. It’s a great to study astrology, but such occult study is superfluous to the practice of real, or Divine, meditation.

“Rudolf Steiner speaks about this task of man’s redemption of the animal kingdom in “An Outline of Occult Science.” There he speaks about the future task of mankind toward nature, and also toward the part of humanity who will remain behind: “’The good humanity will through its development acquire the use of the Moon forces and thereby so transform the evil part also that, as a special real of the earth, united with the moon, will be able, after a certain period of evolution, to reunite also with the sun and with the other planets. Then, after an intermediate stage, which presents itself as sojourn in a higher world, the Earth will transform itself into Jupiter. Within this state, what is now called the mineral kingdom will no longer exist; the forces of the mineral kingdom will be transformed into plant forces.”

If cosmological crap like this floats your boat, you might find this book an amenable read. But if you’re interested in real, or Divine, meditation, this is hardly a book worth reading, and I were reviewing it at Amazon, I’d stick it with a single star.