The sun at midnight

“More radiant than the sun” is a book about Anthroposophical meditation. Despite its title, it's not a detailed how-to-guide, but rather an introduction to the subject. The book is quite short, and feels somewhat disjointed, with excerpts from Rudolf Steiner's writings and lectures interspersed by the author's more personal take on the matters covered. There is also a chapter on the Christ and human evolution. (The German-speaking Austrian Steiner founded Anthroposophy about a century ago. At least to outsiders, Anthroposophy looks like a mixture of Theosophy and Christianity, with Steiner in the role of prophet. Apart from a curious spiritual worldview, Anthroposophy is associated with Waldorf schools, eurythmy and bio-dynamic farming.)

Some of the meditation exercises introduced are well-known to students of Anthroposophy, including the notorious “seed meditation”, which was heckled by C.S. Lewis during his polemical battle with Anthroposophist Owen Barfield. The Foundation Stone Meditation and the Six Essential Exercises are covered, but also a number of meditations I never heard about before, including the Triangle Exercise and the Point and Periphery Exercise.

An important point of Steiner's meditation is (of course) to train concentration, equanimity and objective thinking. However, the Anthroposophical worldview is clearly interwoven with the meditation exercises. The person doing the exercises is supposed to get proofs for the correctness of Steiner's “spiritual science”, for instance by seeing the vital force in plants, grasping the essence of Platonic forms, the eternity of the soul in an ever-changing world, etc.

Although “More radiant than the sun” is interesting, it nevertheless feels like a “teaser trailer”. Ironically, the subjective recollections of the author somehow contrast with Steiner's insistence on pure objectivity! In the end, I give this little work three stars.