Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00119)

Arthur <Jerry could you please expand on
why you think that his version of Theosophy
is Christianized? and what it was that
caused it to be so. He is not an orthodox,
fundamentalist by any stretch. I get a
hunch he was applying Theosophy to
Christianity and not Christianity to
Theosophy.  Anyway what about Steiner
please anyone with comments? I would be
very appreciative.>

In his LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH,
Steiner mentions "the Mystery of Golgotha"
and stresses its importance about 26
zillion times per page, without ever really
telling us what it is.  Somehow, this
mystery is supposed to unite the world's
religions by allowing us to remain
conscious after death.  Let me give you
just one quote from this book which I
picked at random:  "This is why in our
modern occultism such stress is laid upon
understanding how Christ came to earth from
the Sun sphere.  It is essential to grasp
how Christ leads us to the Sun through the
Mystery of Golgotha.  Occultism shows that
Christ is a Sun Being who leads us back to
the Sun." (p 19) and so on ad nauseam.  He
simply replaces Mahatma with Christ.


Ellic Howe (author of THE MAGICIANS OF THE
GOLDEN DAWN) says that Felkin (a high
ranking leader of the Stella Matutina, a
Christianized version of the Golden Dawn
ala Waite) met Steiner and was
impressed with his knowledge.  He writes:
"Dr. Steiner had been Secretary General of
the German branch of the Theosophical
Society since 1902.  Never a Theosophist in
the Blavatsky-Adyar tradition he was
already on uneasy terms with Annie Besant.
 He and many of his followers broke away from
the T.S. in 1912 when he founded the
later far more influential Anthroposophical
Society" (p 262).  He also mentions
Steiner's "pusedo-Masonic activities" and
says that in 1910, during Felkin's visit,
Steiner had been warranted a special rite
in 1906 - that of Memphis and Misraim -
which he obtained from Theodor Reuss, a
leading Mason and head of the OTO before
Crowley.  Steiner was, in fact, head of the
Masonic Mystica Aeterna Lodge while still
in the TS.  His breaking from the TS
probably had more to do with his personal
disagreements with Besant and Leadbeater
than anything else.  One of the things that
bothers me about Steiner is that he never
credits HPB and the TS with anything.  On
the contrary, in the opening lines of his
THEOSOPHY, he carefully dissociates himself
with the TS movement started by Blavatsky.
 He wants us to believe that he has nothing
whatever to do with the TS.  Now Crowley
said much the same thing.  But in fairness
to Crowley, he was never a theosophist and
probably read only HPB's works, and in
addition he does give her credit as being a
high initiate.  Steiner was a theosophist
and was familiar with the TS literature,
and yet rebuked it all.

In fairness to Steiner, I do see him as a
remarkable occultist in the CWL tradition.
 Most of his stuff is from his own
experience.  His AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT
SCIENCE is probably his best book, and
worth reading.  In it, he says things like
"Progress in spiritual training is not
thinkable without a corresponding moral
progress" (p 280) which we can all agree
with.  On the down side, he throws around a
lot of psychology and in the process IMHO
shows his ignorance.  I have to take his
concepts of the ego and "new-born ego" with
a rather large grain of salt.  I am sorry
folks, but the theosophical arrangement of
bodies and principles seems to make a lot
more sense to me.  One quick quote in the
way of example: "When a person is possessed
by something in the subconscious working of
his soul, then something bursts through from
the subconscious ... resulting in a
brilliant and appropriate observation.  But
this makes it all the more difficult for
someone who is called to be an individuality,
an individual soul, to struggle for the
truth." (REINCARNATION AND IMMORTALITY,
p 51).  Again, this is a quick quote taken
at random.  What the heck is "the
subconscious working of his soul?"  And
what is an "individual soul?"  I don't know
but it sounds like something as opposed to
a collective soul (which is what?).  He
throws around terms like personality and
individuality (which is not quite what
theosophy means by that term) together with
psychological  buzz-words.  Jung is one of
the few psychologists who used the term
soul, but he didn't like the term
subconscious, because it negates the fact
that there is also a superconscious (his
term 'the unconscious' refers to both).
Anyway, I have studied enough psychology to
have problems with Steiner in these areas.


I hope that this helps you, Arthur.  When
you study Steiner, just remember to take
what you feel comfortable with, and leave
the rest alone.

          Jerry S.