The occult imprisonement of Rudolf Steiner

For a long time, I assumed that the Anthroposophists were a Green, mushy, hippie group involved in organic farming, alternative schooling and perhaps hash smoking. I knew that their founder was named Rudolf Steiner (almost common knowledge in Sweden), and that they believed in reincarnation. And yes, they like Schiller and Goethe.

I did not know that Steiner was raving mad.

At the very least, Steiner's book "Secret brotherhoods and the mystery of the human double" could make that impression on an outsider...

The book contains translations of seven lectures by Steiner held in Switzerland in 1917. Steiner makes the following claims. From 1841 to 1879, a battle raged in heaven between good angels and other angels turned evil. In 1879, the archangel Michael emerged victorious. The fallen angels were cast down on Earth, where they have roamed freely ever since. At birth, all human beings are automatically possessed by an evil, ahrimanic spirit. This is the "double" of the book's title. The souls of humans who die a violent death receive dangerous esoteric knowledge. Secret brotherhoods want to tap this knowledge with the help of mediums who communicate with the souls of the murdered dead. Sometimes, the secret societies murder people to speed up the process. Materialism is a conspiracy of secret lodges who don't really believe in it themselves. They want humanity at large to be materialist, since souls of dead materialists will roam the material world, where they can be easily controlled by the black magicians of the secret brotherhoods. These are the "Western" brotherhoods. There are also "Eastern" brotherhoods who capture the astral bodies of dead people, and give these to demons, whom they expect humanity to worship. Both groups want to stop "the coming of Christ in the etheric". Ireland is part of Paradise, and is spiritually speaking the most important part of our planet, which is incidentally a living organism. But there is hope: simply by knowing about their machinations, you are protected against the power of the evil brotherhoods.

Aren't you happy about me telling you the good news?

It would be interesting to know where in heaven's name Steiner got all these ideas from. Was he under occult imprisonment, perhaps? The dates 1841 and 1879 are never explained, but I read in another book that the date 1879 was proposed as the beginning of the Age of Michael already by the occult monk Trithemius (who died in 1516). Curiously, these dates are close to other dates believed to be significant by various Adventist or Russellite groups. In other words, apocalyptic Christians! These groups also believe in an invisible second coming of Jesus Christ, when Christ enters the "heavenly sanctuary". The etheric? Russell was accused of occult connections, and his tombstone does loke Masonic. Note also that the Jehovah's Witnesses, descended from the Russellites, identify Jesus Christ with Michael! Another interesting fact is that the Spiritualist "awakening" took place during the 1840's. Disentangling all these criss-crossing influences would probably take an entire dissertation. One also wonders whether the Scientologists took over Steiner's idea about humans being possessed by alien spirit entities?

Those interested in Steiner's conspiracy theories can also read the two-volume work "The Karma of Untruthfulness". I haven't read it, but it's recommended in a remarkably unapologetic foreword by the editors of the present work. Apparently, in these lectures Steiner explains how the secret brotherhoods were behind World War I.

And now, I will eat some chocolate and read a book by Valentin Tomberg!