Rudolf Steiner: as Traditional Rosicrucian or Not?

You are now reading the Rosicrucian Review of Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy.

My name is Samuel Robinson, and this is part five of my Reviews of the Rosicrucian Orders.

In this review you’ll find out about Anthroposophy and the Misraim Dienst, what they teach, where they are positioned within the greater league of occult Rosicrucian organizations.

As with all these Rosicrucian Reviews you’ll also see the pros and cons of this path of study. If you are a new student, deciding which path or Order is right for you, you have reached the right site. I’ve also reviewed the other major Orders so make sure you read all of my Reviews of the Rosicrucian Orders.

If you are a member already, this article will help expand your understanding of your organization.

The review you are reading covers the Traditional Score of Anthroposophy in particular. All the Rosicrucian Orders examined on this website are rated using the same system of analysis.

This review therefore describes how closely Steiner’s teachings adhere to the original tradition set out by the Rosicrucian manifestos and how it compares with other Rosicrucian Orders.

Rudolf Steiner is one of the is one of the most influential occult figures in history. He is tied to major names such as Blavatsky and Franz Hartmann and his occult teachings go well beyond mere occultism, stemming out to several branches of society, such as engineering and agriculture. Today, very few modern occultists realize the extent as just how much influence he has had on their work.

For example, several legends regarding Christ and Zoroaster were borrowed by AMORC founder Harvey Spencer Lewis, without credit to their source in Rudolf Steiner.

We’ll cover why Steiner was so interesting on many levels here.

Some readers have asked “Why would you examine Anthroposophy under your Rosicrucian Reviews series?” The reason for this is simple. Although quite different, Steiner’s writings had Rosicrucian roots at his very beginning and, as you’ll see, he came into contact with an authentic Rosicrucian circle.

That circle’s teachings became the crowning higher method of several occult Rosicrucian Orders.

Therefore, unlike my other Reviews of the Rosicrucian Orders, here you’ll be exposed to several facts that tie Steiner to many other occult bodies. This includes the Golden Dawn, the Memphis Misraim, Krumm Heller’s FRA and more, all of which connected to the same umbrella stream Steiner also utilized for his Anthroposophy.

If you are new to my blog series, then please ensure you read ALL of the following below listed blog posts. These will give you a strong historic basis in our origins, informing you about your tradition, and they will take you far beyond the monograph lessons.

The documents you need to read are:

Make sure you especially read the last post in particular before going any further.

Onwards!

Briefly: How the Reviews are Done

As you may have read in our scoring system, these reviews all follow a standardized review model. Without such a model they wouldn’t be objective reviews. They’d be totally biased.

Most of all, these reviews must be both helpful and open everyone to constructive discussion.

There are several issues at work in modern Rosicrucianism, one of them being that many Orders have lost track of their origins. For example, Anthroposophists did not know who Steiner’s Rosicrucian teacher really was until we published that information on this blog. Secondly, many Orders are closed off from the greater community, which clearly exists in a network of joint fraternity that is beyond any single organization.

As well, instead of writing biased reviews I’d like to clarify:

Only the early traditional documents were referenced in the creation of the Scoring System. We were not interested in the personal takes of those later Rosicrucian founders who developed their own ideas in the window between 1880’s to the 1930’s. Secondly, the Rosicrucian Reviews were not written alone by me (Samuel Robinson). In each review I have involved members from each Order, in this case – Steiner experts were interviewed to find out the goings on and deeper workings of his approach.

Beyond following a standard structure for each Rosicrucian Review: there are also unique questions addressed regarding each Order. For example, a common question asked for one Order might be “do they practice black magic?” and to another “Is this Order a cult” and still “Is this Order a money-making scam?”

After all, there are weird urban legends about each Rosicrucian Fraternity. We address those for Steiner, as with each fraternity.

Now, onto the reviews looking at Steiner using our scoring system:

Trinosophia Score: worth a total of 30 points. Pansophia Score: worth a total of 30 points. Christosophia Score: worth a total of 20 points. Wild Card Core: worth a potential bonus of 20 points.

Again, refer to my Scoring System of the Rosicrucian Reviews to understand this system.

The Rosicrucian Lineage of Anthroposophy:

Steiner’s Rosicrucianism ranges from the strange, absurd, exotic to most excellent. I’ve tried to cover this diversity in this post so you can see for yourself. In using our famous “Scoring System of the Rosicrucian Orders” certain elements stand out as being quite traditional indeed.

Some of Steiner’s best ideas show an eclectic approach that is partly Hermetic.

In reviewing Steiner, one has to wonder though. Are his good ideas merely in the mix because he threw so many concepts out there, that at least some of them had to be winners?

As I went deeper into writing the Steiner review it became evident that Steiner also drew from traditional R.C sources and this ought to be highlighted.

Most interesting these was Steiner’s connection to Rosicrucian groups espousing Pansophy. Steiner did in fact describe his philosophy as a school of Pansophy, saying “Amos Comenius had as his task translating (this) in his “Pan Sophia.”… And so we want to establish a school of wisdom, a universal wisdom, a “Pan Sophia” wisdom so that one can say that that which is in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, which was represented in the Wander Years, is a continuation of what Amos Comenius wanted.”[1]

For those new to our blog, “Pansophy” here means the externalisation of the Rosicrucian vision into practical worldly applications such as education and social order. What this shows is that Steiner did not suddenly come up with a unique idea to install educational or social avenues into his Anthroposophy. In fact, many of his best ideas seem to have arisen out of Pansophic Rosicrucianism. In one sense he obtained it, carried it forwards and then in another he threw a cocktail of strange ideas upon it. This is why having a Rosicrucian review to dissect Steiner is so sorely needed.

If you are to approach Anthroposophy, it would be great if you can recognize the traditional Rosicrucian aspects of his teachings and what is either a Blavatsky borrowing or his own ideas. People should know when any of Steiner’s ideas go well outside your typical R+C philosophy. This approach, or even stating that some of his best ideas arose out of Pansophy, might offend Anthroposophists, who absolutely adore Steiner. But then, denying there are pitfalls of any spiritual system is simply lying to new seekers. All of the Rosicrucian paths have their drawbacks. As Rosicrucians we are interested in what is useful and stands out as “traditional” to Rosicrucianism: as matching the original manifestos.

The first things you’ll notice when exploring Steiner’s Rosicrucianism is that for him Christian Rosenkreuz was a historical figure and the Frama Fraternitatis is an account of real events. The concept of CRC as a historical figure was perhaps conceived at a different time though, and to give Steiner credit, his idea of a historical Christian Rosenkreuz is teaming with vibrant ideas.

Unfortunately though, Steiner leaves no room for a symbolic interpretation for those who would approach the mysteries in a non-literal way. For this, and many other reasons, you will find that Anthroposophy, ultimately, is not very compatible with the diversity of other Rosicrucian Orders available. What I mean is that during inter-Order relations you’ll typically see members approach each other in a manner that politely leaves room for alternative ideas. With Anthroposophists this is not seen. Seeing I think differently from Steiner I’ve often been told “you are not spiritually advanced enough to perceive truth.”

Steiner’s mystery of Golgotha.

Yet, there is something coherent in Steiner’s interpretation of Christian Rosenkreuz that actually ties together several occult streams. One has to understand, that for Steiner, the etheric bodies of various adepts (etheric bodies and astral bodies) were transmitted and shared throughout various incarnations in different masters of wisdom. This is delivered as factual history where the initiation of Christian Rosenkreuz directly occurs by the hands of Christ, during one of CRC’s earlier incarnations.

This is actually a brilliant system on many levels. In doing this Steiner effectively ties other normally non-associated forms of wisdom into Rosicrucianism, so that suddenly the R+C ends up with a longer unbroken lineage. We can briefly now explore this without getting side-tracked:

It starts where Steiner says that the etheric and astral bodies of purified adepts do not fade away but are preserved in the mystery schools. In his “The Principle of Spiritual Economy,” lecture IX, Steiner describes this interconnected “lineage” that would now flow into the initiation of Christian Rosenkreuz. Firstly, “Zarathustra had two disciples,” where we are told that Hermes would later receive his astral body, along with all his occult knowledge, and Moses would receive his etheric body. Already, you see three occult schools tied together in this occult doctrine.

It does not stop there though. More occult streams would be added. Steiner taught that Jesus himself received the astral body of Buddha and the etheric body of Krishnah, no less! Interestingly, at his baptism by John, the “I” of Jesus vacated his body and the “I” of Christ replaced it for the next three years. Now Christ permeated through the astral, etheric and physical bodies of Jesus.

Christian Rosenkreuz now enters the scene. Steiner describes several of CRC’s incarnations. One was Hiram Abif, the masonic master who had been slain. Another was John, yet he wasn’t John the Baptist in his earlier incarnation, as most Rosicrucian schools consider. No, Steiner’s CRC was Lazarus-John. Remember, according to the Bible Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. This raising of John was done on his etheric body. Later he would reincarnate as a boy in a monastery in Europe, where he would obtain the astral initiation of Christ. Lastly, during his incarnation as Christian Rosenkreuz, he would receive the “I” of Christ during his “Chemical Wedding.”

Thus, the previous transmissions given to Christ (Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Krishna) all ended up being transmitted to CRC. Again, this is all according to Steiner, even if it ignores facts such as the Chemical Wedding being actually based on two earlier Italian allegories that share the same story. None of that really matters for Steiner. He has created something quite unique. What Steiner ultimately achieved was the “Traditional History” that would claim all lineages as its own.

It was clever. It was devilish and outright cunning.

But, there is a major problem with all this. Let me explain:

Steiner’s Own Rosicrucian Initiation

Was Steiner being insane or intentionally brilliant? In fact, there is precedence for all this in the Bible where Jesus states that John is the returned Elijah. Steiner obviously takes this to a whole new level, but, to what purpose? According to Steiner, the figure of CRC or Christian Rosenkreuz was alive in his own lifetime, and also first taught Blavatsky. Blavatsky’s first book was apparently influenced by CRC. But, if you do your research, you’ll find that Blavatsky’s first teacher was a certain “John King.” A strange note was made regarding this teacher as well. This John King wanted her “to learn the mysticism of the masonic grade signs.” There was only one figure named John who taught occult Masonry this way. His name was Alois Mailander, who “Spoke in the voice of John.” Mailander was in fact teaching the esoteric masonic system of J.B Kerning.

What’s more, Mailander was also called the Master M by his students. Similarly Steiner called his teacher the Master M as well. We’ve covered parts of this history already in our other posts. You may wish to read those as they caused quite a stir for many groups:

The revelation of Alois Mailander was first revealed on this very blog in those two posts. Despite all scholasticism available, no one within the world of the Anthroposophical Society ever knew the occult identity of Steiner’s teacher. These facts though could only be given by those still alive who have a real connection to Mailander’s school. Richard Cloud was the first person to ever receive this information from Germany. Bear in mind, I can’t read German and being the main “revealer” of these facts, I did not depend on any written sources. Richard Cloud took what I shared with him, via oral communication from our own Rosicrucian sect, that led him to find some available written references. Like many readers of those original posts, I too was astounded at the evidence he found.

It should also be pointed out that the current group of Mailander’s lineage are not supportive of Steiner’s works. In fact, according to their history, Steiner entirely broke from tradition and in the finish was rejected by his teacher. There is written evidence that quite a few Mailander’s students from the Theosophical Society were expelled, including Wilhelm Hubbe-Schleiden and Blavatsky. Franz Hartman reported that Mailander’s group had a direct and profound knowledge of everything Blavatsky taught. Yet, accounts from both Franz Hartmann and Karl Kieswetter also describe it as a humble school teaching the way of Jacob Boehme. Now, if Mailander had such an extensive knowledge, relating all things Blavatsky knew, one is also confronted by the fact that Mailander could not read nor write. Still, everything was dispensed in his Rosicrucian sermons at the weaving factory in Kempten.

A careful examination of German history reveals that Mailander was not the only Rosicrucian prophet who arose from the humble beginnings of a weaving factory. At least three more surfaced from the very same settings. The reason for this was that the job is repetitive and always allowed for open dialogues. In this setting listeners encircled their “Brother John.”

Many Anthroposophists will know that Christian Rosenkreuz was also “John.” That Alois Mailander “spoke in the voice of John” during his prophetic utterances, and that Steiner had named Mailander as the new incarnation of CRC, would now allow Steiner to position himself as the receiver of all these other lineages or streams of knowledge, including a direct Christ initiation itself. All those ideas he had projected onto CRC, already mentioned, he could now squarely transfer to himself, thanks to Mailander’s incarnation.

A Rosicrucian necklace worn by Rudolf Steiner.

Consider all the incarnations of the etheric and astral bodies already mentioned above. They passed through several cultures. What’s more, Steiner described 12 streams of wisdom that also passed into Christian Rosenkreuz. For him all ancient wisdom streams had to be reborn trough esoteric Christianity, the form he received from his teacher CRC. Thus, in now receiving the etheric transmission from CRC, Steiner could effectively claim to have inherited a transmission that possessed ALL of the lineages of the various occult schools, including that of Buddha, Zoroaster, Pythagoras etc.

The grand vision, finality and totality of it is astounding. Yet, also a cunning turn of events. Steiner didn’t need an authentic Kabbalistic lineage here. Zoroaster had passed on his etheric body to Moses after all and Steiner had received this stream directly from CRC. In short, Steiner was able to lay claim to have the lineage of all schools while side-stepping all schools. Anthroposophists today believe their school alone is the culmination and successor of all of these ancient wisdoms.

I doubt actual Buddhists or Zoroastrians would agree whatsoever. Actually, and this is the shocking bit: what we are looking at is cultural misappropriation and white entitlement at its finest. Steiner took such entitlement extremely far. He even decided he could explain the secrets of the ancient Aztec mysteries. As a native Maori its clear to me there is nothing in his Aztec teachings other than more western thinking. This obvious mistake is repeated quite often. In theory he made a nice holistic system, which is attractive if you consider his accounts to be true.

What arose out of Steiner’s transmission from Mailander became known as the “Ritual of Transmission of the Etheric Link.” One version of this ritual was preserved in New Zealand thanks to Robert Felkin who visited Steiner in 1912. Its execution was continued in Felkin’s Stella Matutina Temple of the Golden Dawn. This lineage actually is one part of this Rosicrucian history that Anthroposophists would like to ignore. They point out that Steiner said he gave Felkin nothing, without ever taking any notice of how much Steiner gave Felkin’s European representative Neville Meakin. Obviously, the ritual of etheric transmission did not come from Felkin himself. Waite mentions its activity during his own lifetime when investigating Steiner’s Rosicrucian ritual group.

Here are some fine Steiner quotes related to the etheric transmission from C.R.C:

“In such schools there are those who teach in the physical body; but it is also possible for the more advanced pupils to receive instruction from one who teaches in an ether-body only.”[2]

“Far reaching effects emanate also from the etheric bodies of great individualities. Great forces emanating from the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz can work into our soul and also into our spirit. It is our duty to get to know these forces, for we work with them as Rosicrucians.”[3]

“The etheric body of Christian Rosenkreuz has become very strong, and, through devotion to this, man will be able to acquire the new clairvoyance, and lofty spiritual forces will come into being. This will only be possible, however, for those people who follow the training of Christian Rosenkreutz correctly. Until now an esoteric Rosicrucian preparation was essential, but the twentieth century has the mission of enabling this etheric body to become so powerful that it can also work exoterically. Those affected by it will be granted the experience of the event that Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. Until now this etheric body has only worked into the school of the Rosicrucians; in the twentieth century more and more people will be able to experience the effect of it, and through this they will come to experience the appearance of Christ in the etheric body.“[4]

It should be pointed out here that the appearance of Christ in the Etheric was first a teaching of J.B Kerning, whose doctrines, as we have said were taught by Mailander.

Strangely enough, Anthroposophists would like to deny both Mailander as Steiner’s teacher along with the existence of an etheric link transmission granted to some of his students.

Not all of them do though, some have received it in reawakening his masonic tradition, starting with the Misraim Dienst in Sweden.

Moving Forwards: Anthroposophy or Rosicrucianism?

One of the things I have seen Anthroposophists claim is that Rudolf Steiner’s new system “Anthroposophy” itself is, according to them, purely Rosicrucian. However, in 1911 Steiner clarified the difference between Rosicrucianism and his new Anthroposophy:

“Hence the way indicated in my book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, as the way best adapted for gaining access to the Higher Worlds must not without further explanation be equated with what may be called the Rosicrucian way. Through our movement we can penetrate into true Rosicrucianism, but our movement extends over a far wider domain, for it embraces the whole of Theosophy; hence it should not be labelled Rosicrucian. Our movement must be described simply as the spiritual science of today, the anthroposophical spiritual science of the twentieth century. Outsiders, particularly, will fall — more or less unconsciously — into some kind of misunderstanding if they describe our movement simply as Rosicrucian. But an outstanding achievement of Rosicrucianism since the dawn of modern spiritual life in the thirteenth century has been to establish a rule which must also be ours: the rule that all modern Initiation in the deepest sense of the word must recognise and treasure the independence of the most holy element in man’s inner life, his Will-centre, as indicated yesterday. The occult methods there described are designed to overcome and enslave the human will and to set it on a predetermined course; hence a true occultism will rigorously avoid them.”[5]

Thus, we should determine that there are three streams: 1) pre-Steiner Rosicrucianism 2) Steiner-Rosicrucianism and 3) Anthroposophy. These are distinct philosophies. My observation is that Anthroposophy is the outer, or public system, and that his masonic system contained the higher teaching of “Steiner-Rosicrucianism” which was reserved for the few. See proof below.

In his own Rosicrucianism Steiner clearly blended the old with the new. What is also important for Steiner’s own version is that for him the “Rosicrucian wisdom was “lit up in outstanding grandeur in Goethe.” The exploration of Goethe’s works becomes central to his own Rosicrucian stream, quite distinct from the humble Jacob Boehme type circle he encountered.

AS for Goethe’s himself, his actual R+C initiation did take place and was received through admission into the Rite of Strict Observance, an alchemical Templar Rite which was related to the Golden Rosenkreuzers. For Steiner the fairy tale written by Goethe, the “Green Snake and the Beautiful Lilly” was paramount to his new Rosicrucianism. The fairy tale itself is thought to have been influenced by the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz. Goethe’s story is an alchemical allegory, but, instead of giving us the alchemical interpretation Steiner gives us something else. Steiner said, “Only a man filled with the wisdom of Anthroposophy can read Goethe aright.”[6]

To be clear, that statement is just god awful and creates sectarian thinking.

So what is so special about his particular Anthroposophical interpretation? The Hermetic symbols of the Old Man with the Lamp and the Green Snake and all its figures describe, for Steiner, the descent of souls, crossing the river of passion to incarnate into our world of life. When the snake forms a bridge across this river so the story’s characters may cross, this symbolises our journey to reach the super-sensory world and develop new spiritual awareness. There is a clear Sophianic element at work in the original that Steiner does not emphasize though, although it features strongly in German R.C currents. Thus, unfortunately, instead of giving the fairy tale a proper Rosicrucian interpretation Steiner instead talks about incarnation and a host of eastern influenced “psychic” ideas coming into vogue at the time. His interpretation is useful, insightful yes, but IMHO, not the work of enlightened genius.

Steiner’s Secrecy and Proof Anthroposophy was the Outer Order

Out of these Rosicrucian origins Steiner would do two interesting things. Firstly he set up his Anthroposophy in 1912. Secondly he would establish his Masonic Rite of the Mystical Aeterna, also called the “Misraim Deinst” or Misraim Service. His masonic body was established in 1906, which is quite significant as Mailander had just died in 1905. With Mailander now dead Steiner takes many liberties in not only naming the Master M “Christian Rosenkreuz” but attributes to him a whole host of other ideas, including the notion that Buddha was sending him transmissions from Mars.

Essentially, with Mailander dead, Steiner now had free reign to claim whatever he liked.

Actually the date of the founding of the OTO itself, Steiner’s Misraim Dienst and Traenker’s Pansophic Order coincides with Mailander’s death for many reasons. As we have shown in our post on Mailander’ teachings, several German Orders were preparing his version of the Kerning method as their Arcana Arcanorum (crowing occult system for esoteric masonry.) Several of Mailander’s students worked on this, and Carl Kellner, founder of the OTO, was a student of Mailander, like Franz Hartmann and Steiner.

Mailander’s inheritance was the lineage of the Golden Rosenkreuzer along with the esoteric Masonry of J.B Kerning. Kerning’s system itself was the application of the masonic grade signs to the body through the letters I.A.O. These were used to awaken the Word, which Steiner termed the Inner Word. Steiner actually gives the Kerning masonic signs in GA 267, available in English as “Soul Exercises: Word and Symbol Meditations, 1903-1924.” The Steiner text from the German reads:

“Extend your index finger and feel Cosmic “I” in it

Make an angle with your hand and feel it: “Α”

Thumb with the index finger and feel in it “Ο”

I A O”

I must emphasize, this is pure Kerning methodology Steiner is using! See Richard Cloud’s translation of “Kerning’s Testament” for the original Kerning writing to compare.

(So far every Anthroposophists has quite rudely told me there is no evidence Steiner ever used Kerning and therefore I’ve saved the rest of such evidence for my book on Mailander and Steiner and I am no longer willing to openly share any more than this).

These signs also appear in “Freemasonry and Ritual Work: The Misraim Service,” which covers the masonic rituals of Steiner’s version of the Egyptian Rite of Memphis Misraim. You may also wish to read my Rosicrucian Review on the Memphis Misraim as well. As Mikael Gejel recently has shown from his outstanding research, Steiner’s rituals were drawn from the Templar Rite of Starck’s Clerical Order. This goes hand in hand with the early OTO movement which conceived of “Oriental Templars.”

Mikael Gejel from Sweden: Responsible for reawakening the Misraim Service masonic system of Rudolf Steiner.

By tracing the early documents it can be seen that Ruess, Steiner and Kellner were trying to continue the occult masonry of Kerning within a Templar vehicle. Although some Anthroposophists have taken to reading Kerning’s materials alone it should be added that none of this contains the mystical exercises of triangles on the body and Hebrew letters described by Steiner and others. Mailander’s system of the Kerning work was not only Masonic but was imbued with the Rosicrucian lineage he received.

This brings us to the topic of secrecy in Anthroposophy. Most Anthroposophists largely declare that Steiner was against keeping occult secrets. They cite him as revealing all things so that future seekers would no longer need have anything hidden from them. Yet, clearly Steiner’s Misraim Service was reserved for those who were advanced. Steiner intended it to be his true Third Class teachings.

Still, we are told Steiner de-occulted the occult. And yet, he never said who his Master M teacher really was? Weinfurter, another student of Mailander, explained that everyone was strictly forbidden from ever revealing the identity of the Master M. Even so, Weinfurter did reveal his identity eventually. It would seem here Steiner was true to his masonic oaths and took them seriously, like others.

But, Steiner did keep secrets. Internal alchemy was a favourite topic for the Kerning letter mystics and Steiner describes his own take on it here:

“Rosicrucian training guides the pupil through a definitely regulated breathing process to form that organ that can within himself effect the transformation of carbon into oxygen. What is today done by the plant externally, will later on, through a future organ which the pupil is already developing through his training, be affected in man himself This is slowly being prepared. Through the regulated breathing process man will bear in himself the instrument for the preparation of oxygen; he will have become akin to the plant, whereas now he is of a mineral nature. He will retain the carbon in himself and build his body from it, and hence his body will later on be more plant-like, then he can turn towards the holy love lance. The whole of humanity will then possess a consciousness like that gained by the initiate today when he raises himself into the higher worlds. This is called the transmutation of human substance into that substance of which carbon itself is the basis. This is the Alchemy which leads man to build up his own body as does the plant today. One calls this the preparation of the “Philosopher’s Stone” and carbon is its outer symbol. But it is not the Philosopher’s Stone until the pupil can create it himself through his regulated breathing process. The teaching can only be given from teacher to pupil, it is wrapped in deep secrecy, and only after he is completely purified and made ready can the pupil receive this mystery.” (Theosophy of the Rosicrucian)

So much for Steiner placing everything in public! He goes onto say that this development is tied to the development of the centre above the nose and the larynx. Most importantly, if you refer to Steiner’s other teachings on the larynx, he refers to the “Inner-Word” quite often. Thus, the secret Rosicrucian method he is referring to most certainly is that of Mailander’s method! Actually, this quote and the Kerning elements he included contribute towards the Trinosophia Score for this review.

The conclusion drawn here is that the Mailander version of Kerning’s regeneration was only for his Misraim Dienst and that Anthroposophy itself represents only an exoteric outer body leading towards his inner Rosicrucian mysteries. That will surely upset people, from what I understand.

Steiner’s Misraim Dienst as “Masonic Rosicrucians”

Although properly named the Mystica Aeterna or Misraim Dienst, Steiner nicknames his masonic rite as “Masonic Rosicrucian,” which determines its true nature. The implication is that his masonry is a vehicle to carry and reawaken the masonic spirit. It is a shame that Steiner did not encounter some of the better forms of esoteric masonry or Martinism. His opinion was that it was a sleeping giant, waiting to be reawakened. Of course, he would be the one to do this.

His “Temple Legend” is an interesting read in that for the first time he weaves together the masonic and Rosicrucian legends. The slain hero Hiram Abif becomes a former incarnation of Christian Rosenkreuz. What’s more, Hiram, during his building of the molten sea, at the raising of the Temple of Solomon, sees his ancestor Tubal-Cain in the furnace who guides him in its construction. Steiner builds a story between the lines of Abel and Cain.

In fact, Steiner borrowed his Temple Legend from “Women of Cairo” by Gerard de Nerval. Poke Runyon points out that the same legend was used by Sebottendorf, who not only used the Kerning exercises but was tied to the OTO. Thus, most likely the Nerval legend was used by Ruess.

The original legend is particularly interesting because when you compare it you’ll find Steiner excluded some of its details to suit his outlook. The original tale is quite similar, yet in it Tubal-Cain and the line of Cain are the enemies of the children of Abel, but it’s the line of Abel that are the bad guys as the story plays out. This seems to suit the original OTO anti-Christ agenda too. In the story Cain’s line plays the role of heroes and enact their revenge. A huge turn around, it was Solomon himself, of the Abel line, who hired the three ruffians to ruin Hiram! Hiram suffers at their hands in regular masonic legends, though this fact was never related in traditional masonry and ads and important detail that I find highly important to the Egyptian Rites of masonry: Solomon is the bad guy. The ruffians he hired cause damage to Hiram’s smelting preparations so that he would be ruined or come to harm during the smelting of the brass for the molten sea. During the smelting, things do go wrong and a burning blaze erupts in which Hiram’s ancestor Tubal-Cain comes to the rescue, in a vision within the fire. But, another important detail is now given by Nerval. Tubal-Cain says that, as he once put his curse upon the Tower of Babylon that it would result in ruin, he shall aid Hiram in a new act of revenge by placing something of a curse into the metals used in Solomon’s Temple that would lead to its future destruction. Thus, the destruction of Solomon’s Temple is a win for Hiram, his ancestors and the masons!

Tubal Cain also instructs his progeny Hiram to ensure his ancient religion of fire-worship is observed for future generations. Somehow, the masonic legend is anti-Biblical Patriarchs! I like it!

Adding another layer to this story, we are told Hiram learnt architecture by seeking out the ancient monuments of his ancestors. He finds caves where monolithic statues of kings and the buildings of Atlantis still remain underground. It is from these titanic structures he learns his craft. At one point in the story Hiram actually laments that he must lower himself to build Solomon’s Temple. He sees the Hebrew temple as rather crude and of amateur design. He dreams of a real challenge, rather wanting to build a gigantic sphinx or megaliths like those once raised by his master-builder ancestors.

Hiram, and not Solomon is the inspired hero of the story. Solomon recognizes it is Hiram alone who controls the vast population of masons, metal workers and wood workers. Enough for an army he sees. In the finish Solomon feels threatened and hires the ruffians to ultimately kill the hero of masonry. Thus, a whole new prequel appears here for the traditional masonic story.

Once you study the original legend you’ll notice that Steiner cherry picked the bits he liked and edited out those sections that disagreed with his own Christian views. It was just too anti Solomon.

Actually, it’s a real shame that no one is operating the original Nerval legend in a masonic rite. There is something raw and authentic about this version of the legend. Steiner’s rituals though are long winded and akin to attending a boring protestant church service. There is just so much lip service that it puts you to sleep. His ideas were good. He had a brilliant vision. He messed it up. The original Misraim rituals, which Steiner did not have, are beautiful drama creating a profound impact for initiates.

There are elements to Steiner’s Misraim Dienst that draw from grimoire type magic, such as the consecration of the water and salts for blessing the temple. Yet, aside from this, and the presence of Kerning’s operative mysticism, there isn’t much to raise the Trinosophia Score. The issue here is though that Steiner’s writings are not exactly practical and most of his real exercises have been lost. Originally the Kerning system (the system as revised by Mailander) used by the various German Orders (OTO, Traenker’s Pansophia, Krumm Heller’s FRA) was issued in the final three degrees, and in Steiner’s case for the last four degrees of his Misraim Dienst. As of now, I am the only English native speaker that has the entire system that was once circulated by these Orders.

Steiner’s above mentioned quote from “Theosophy of the Rosicrucian” on internal alchemy is worth looking into. Where it thereafter talks about the development of the larynx and centre between the eyes he is hinting at his own adaptions of Mailander’s Kerning process. I’ve compared various versions of the Kerning process, including the Kerning originals, that of Steiner’s and Krumm Heller’s etc. After placing the IAO letters on the body, originally, Kerning moves onto working the consonants on the tongue to awaken the power of prophecy and divine-speaking.

As a result of working with this system effectively, a question could then be formulated and the mouth, and of its own accord, the mouth would utter a divine pronunciation. Kerning was that cool. Mailander and his students, though, awakened these answers through the organ of the heart, which would speak through the Inner Word. In between the vowel and consonant work of Kerning, Mailander added a series of triangles to be worked upon the body. Steiner mentions these briefly in “Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation” in Lecture 5 on “Occult Schools in the 18th and First Half of the 19th Century,” which contains mention of Mailander’s school.

I gave mention of these triangles for Richard Cloud’s article without knowing that Steiner had also left any mention of it (I had not yet read any Steiner). This fact of Steiner’s mention of the triangles came forwards thanks to Steve Roberts just one month ago.[7] In addition to the triangles Mailander included a process of “following Moses to the Mount” and for building the Tabernacle as the new Body of Light. Lastly, Steiner’s own version focused not only on awakening to the Word like Kerning taught, but Steiner also inserted a third-eye development process and mentions “clairvoyance” which is not in the original version. Thus Steiner seems to have “Blavatsky-ized” everything, as usual.

This “chakra-plus process” involves reconnecting various spiritual centres around the head and body. Krumm-Heller mentions that the bridge between them was severed at our fall from grace. Like Krumm-Heller, Max Heindel was also member of Steiner’s Misraim Dienst. Heindel’s version of this process mentions “unused sex force” in the rotation of the energies. This actually shows that Steiner’s own version was influenced by the OTO version of Carl Kellner which drew upon Paschal Beverly Randolph’s sexual approach. Several versions related to the OTO actually use the sexual force to first change the heart centre and then those centers in the throat and head. Until the release of my upcoming book this blog post has more information on it than ever publicly shared. Many clues can be gleaned with dedication.

Heindel’s diagram of the unused sex force, as copied from Steiner’s masonic Mystica Aeterna or “Misraim Service.”

Where this leaves Steiner’s review is quite interesting. If you don’t get the point, anything from Blavatsky lowers its value in its Rosicrucian outlook. The Rosicrucian Reviews series looks how Orders teach the traditional values of the early Rosicrucian manifestos, after all. Thus, on one side Steiner was trying to preserve something of the old school he witnessed, and yet, on the other he created rituals that are torturously boring and coupled it with Blavatsky’s bizarre eastern mysticism and fake Atlanteanism. It’s just so disappointing as sometimes you catch glimpses of brilliance, like his tying together of the Hiram Abif myth with the Christian Rosenkreuz myth into a nice new fusion, and then in the next breath you’re told it’s all very real and to be taken quite literally and he is its living successor.

Of course, he wasn’t the only person to witness Mailander’s Rosicrucian school. Meyrink and Weinfurter and several others did too, but they kept it humble. In fact, of Mailander’s students, who would put things in writing, it was Karl Weinfurter who remained closest to the original. Remember, Kieswetter and Hartmann both described the original group as a circle teaching the doctrine of Jacob Boehme. Therefore, for those Anthroposophists looking for Mailander’s original teachings, do not expect to find anything that resembles all of Steiner’s teachings.

The Ultimate Problem of Steiner:

One of the problems Anthroposophy faces is that Steiner’s teachings were based on his own spiritual clairvoyance. Steiner made extensive “investigations” into the past, or for example “Let’s look clairvoyantly at the old continent of the Atlantic world, which we have to look for, where now is the Atlantic Ocean, between Africa and Europe on the one hand, and America on the other.” For Steiner, the Lemurian civilization lasted about thirty million years. Then came the Atlantean epoch after that, which began 66 million years ago. Apparently I am a Lemurian being, because I’m Maori. That’s why I intuitively “know stuff,” or so Anthroposophists have told me a few times.

Every Rosicrucian Order has its traditional history. Some are good and some are fishy. Some, like the Ormus legend of the Memphis Rite, were used to convert a certain other traditional history used by another Order to its own religion. Generally, most traditional histories serve some sort of purpose, normally political or lead towards some method of regeneration. We’ll return to this point.

What’s interesting with Steiner is that a lot of his historical revisions or “clairvoyant” discoveries seem to serve no purpose other than to make you fascinated, with Steiner himself. But, quite a lot of it is quite weird, and this needs to be addressed in this review. A few examples:

In the Atlantean epoch we were not yet fully physical beings. The world was kind of misty and we floated about as watery wet type mist beings. We didn’t have bones yet etc. We had tremendous control over the environment then, and the flood of Atlantis occurred because we abused those “etheric forces” we wielded such great influence over.

During the Lemurian period the atmosphere was very different from what we know today. The air was thicker and the water was thinner. We lived with dinosaurs. They didn’t eat us because Lemurian beings were not quite physically formed and those bodies would have been gelatinous and probably would not have made a satisfying lunch for a huge predator.

When we were soft non-bony masses, our bodies were pliable and genderless. Actually we didn’t need to fertilize each other. We gave birth by producing a sort of egg that was “sweated out” of our bodies then, giving life to the “sweat-born.”

There was only meant to be one race at a time. Races were to evolve consecutively, one after the other into higher forms. But, Lucifer, Steiner said, interfered with the natural order of things and that’s why more than one human race exists on earth today. Although Anthroposophists try to say that Steiner was not racist, one has to understand the underlying assumption here: “These other guys are not meant to be here. This was all due to the meddling of the devil.” Steiner might have got along with people with other races, but certainly they were less developed beings in his eyes. For Steiner, other races were less spiritually advanced than his own, but all deserved a chance for progression. In fact, Steiner said “The evolution of man through the incarnations in ever higher national and racial forms is thus a process of liberation.” (Never mind that the lineage and process of his Masonic tradition had to be restored to Europe by a Maori and that thanks to global warming people will most likely become progressively browner.) Despite what Steiner’s adorers say, he was racist.

Three races according to Steiner. Black (left), Yellow (center) and White (right). Black people are given a materialists focus on outer nature. White is spiritually advanced.

True to several other Rosicrucian doctrines, the sexual energies should not be wasted, but should be conserved to regenerate the heart, larynx and brow centres. But, according to Steiner if we, as humans, collectively evolve these centres with the unused-sexual forces our spiritual centres would get larger and our physical genitalia will shrivel up. Not fun.

Steiner did not only comment on history though. His psychic power gave him insight into physics and the solar system. He said that Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter do not orbit the sun. Actually he even said, “Our earth is actually such a rounded tetrahedron.” [8]

The list of his mistakes goes on and is important here to acknowledge. Steiner’s followers, of course, ignore all these points, or make excuses for them.

The thing is, acknowledging Steiner had some nutty ideas or made total blunders is totally healthy. I would have said to readers that “Acknowledging his mistakes and blunders needs to be done or else the Anthroposophical movement is entirely doomed to become a religion.” Alas, it is already too late. Anthroposophy, in light of such ideas is not an esoteric school. It is an exoteric one. It actually is a full blown religion with hard edges.

I’ll review this issue now before showing what I believe to be Steiner’s best quality.

At this point you may wish to read my other post “Why All the Nit Picking of Orders in your Reviews?”

What Kind of Adepts Does Anthroposophy Produce?

Any Rosicrucian student wanting to approach Steiner faces two choices: rejection or acceptance. My own dealings with Anthroposophists has left me to conclude we are dealing group of fundamentalists who are not capable of seeing outside their own worldview. I do not mean those Brothers and Sisters currently working the Misraim Dienst masonic rituals. They are already outsiders to Anthroposophy and thankfully think a bit differently. Even if they still believe much of Steiner’s ideas in a literal way, they probably are Anthroposophy’s only hope. What I mean is that for the vast majority of Anthroposophists only Steiner is referred to for all the answers. Everything that he prophesized would happen “will come” for Anthroposophists, which is quite alarming language to hear from esoteric seekers. By default they expel themselves from esoterica and from Rosicrucianism. Steiner explains this irony, stating that on Rosicrucian path you should never have a guru. He contrasted this against eastern mysticism. Yet, today’s Anthroposophists are stuck in Steiner.

In terms of only depending on Steiner as the sole source, I have an example. When Richard Cloud published information about the “Master M” in his true identity as Alois Mailander it was enlightening and celebrated by some, particularly Rosicrucians working Steiner’s Misraim Dienst. Actually in the Anthroposophical world, only two of Steiner’s followers actively joined our forum to learn more. Largely, Anthroposophists were not interested in reading evidence outside Steiner. Their reaction was to quote Steiner’s statements, all of which of course he said only after Mailander died and ignored the fact that Steiner said he would not reveal the identity of his master (Steiner did say his identity would be revealed after 100 years, which the Pansophers did from Germany). Truly loyal to Steiner, the Anthroposophical readers were not interested in the fact that several others called Mailander by the title of “the Master M.” Of course, in good research, “When one person says it, it’s nothing. When two say it, now you’ve got a coincidence. Now, when three say it, now you’ve got evidence,” or so says my Rosicrucian researcher friend Milko Bogaard who authored the FUDOSI series.

Meyrink called him the Master M in his letters. Weinfurter did in his books. Hartmann referred to his Rosicrucian group in a weaving factory in Kempten, which corresponds to the first descriptions. A few Theosophical Magazines mentioned the “weaver Master M..” and we know Mailander was a weaver. Actually the Dreieichenhain City Council sent me a report on Mailander, not only showing he was the teacher for several German Theosophists, but Mary Gebhard bought a small farm they would name the “Bruderheim” for Mailander and his brother. Quite a few Theosophists flew over from London to meet him. He was their Master M. Currently the Dreieichenhain council is researching the “Mailander Foundation,” a charity organisation he set up for orphaned children.

Again, I only found all these references with Richard Cloud after my teacher explained to me some of the forgotten history and their anti-Blavatsky and anti-Steiner sentiments. Yet, despite such evidences being able to be found, Anthroposophists still do not want to acknowledge Mailander as the M. I mean, we are not digging for evidence of Christ’s existence from 2,000 years ago. We are talking about a guy that some churches still remember in Germany from 115 years ago. If Steiner did not say it though, I guess it can’t be true, right? That’s your cross over into religious thinking.

Unfortunately, all of Steiner’s ideas are entirely seen as historical facts. Students walk an interesting tightrope as they deny that his teachings are his own ideas. Rather, they came to him during his psychic research. Even if his adherents cannot access that direct stream of information for themselves, most Anthroposophists are dazzled by the ways in which he tied together different streams, philosophies and parts of history. It’s quite easy for them to project higher inspiration upon it all.

I’ve literally been told by Anthroposophists that, “It must be true, he had so many teachings,” as one of their arguments. I say this humbly, but its certain that a few with actual psychic ability, including even my own small gift, will gladly admit they have too much integrity to push such absurd ideas. The reasoning that the vast amount of material he gave is proof of his ability is not valid. My thinking here, is that because Steiner’s teachings are taken literally, and that if you have accepted all his teachings, you ultimately are already the antithesis of Rosicrucian thinking.

I’m not joking here.

Think about it 1) Person delivers many occult ideas, with or without ability, it does not matter if it’s true. 2) Student accepts all ideas, although she or he cannot verify it him or herself. This, ultimately, is the great problem of Anthroposophy. It has not produced Adepts. It has produced followers.

If you don’t believe me or are an Anthroposophist yourself you may want to try observing the movement objectively as an experiment. Notice the kind of language used. Followers hardly ever say “Steiner said,” or “according to Steiner,” as would afford a healthy exchange between practitioners discussing different Rosicrucian currents. Another watch-word to look out for with Anthroposophists is that something “would have happened.” For example “If Lucifer did not interfere with human evolution we would have only had one racial type at a time on earth.” Another, “If Steiner’s building, the Goetheanum was not set on fire then world war two would not have broken out.”

Saying that things “would have happened” in the past is quite easy. Especially when nothing happened. As an example: “If I had remained in New Zealand the ancient Maori spirits would have spoken to my tribe to restore our ancient house of sacred learning, but I knew there was a price to pay, as in staying a volcano would have erupted as the sacrifice to bring down the powers.”

Probably would make a nice Rosicrucian speed dating game though.

This is why I say Anthroposophy is exoteric, entirely taken on faith. It does have esoteric practices of course, and the idea of CRC being historical figure, who actually lived, serves its purposes. I actually really like the Hiram to CRC to Saint Germaine reincarnation cycle of the initiatory hero. Consider how Pasqually granted his initiates the doctrine of the “Reintegration of Beings,” in the Order of the Elu Cohens, which is still enjoyed by Martinist today. Such doctrines serve to surround an initiate’s universe with meaning and position our role, as humans, in an unfolding process. For Pasqually it was redemption from the Fall of Man, and our eventual liberation that we may also, in turn, reintegrate the fallen beings in the universe with us. Such doctrines serve to enable ritual work and grant patterns of initiation as we follow a certain path of return, through repairing the “broken chain of events.” As is typical of such Orders, there is always room for a symbolic interpretation.

Steiner, in his own doctrine, successfully wove together a jumbled maze of occult streams that were never at all related to each other into a single historical synthesis. Thus, where the Golden Dawn has much ritualistic methodology to offer as its own strength, Anthroposophy in contrast offers its strength in the form of a very interesting revision of history for the purpose of giving mankind a picture of our momentum as we graduate and evolve in our spiritual evolution. At the same time, this historical revision is its weakness when this all becomes “fact” and a major focus for Anthroposophists.

Where it all leads is a huge vision of history with very little practice. Anthroposophists smile, thinking they know a lot about world history and forgotten epochs, but lack occult methodology. It appears to me that Steiner was too preoccupied with the mission of telling everyone the grand story about his school’s inheritance, but never finished actually crowning his system with the working method.

Right now Anthroposophy is at a turning point to regenerate its teachings through the rites of the Misraim Dienst with the Mailander-Kerning method to crown it. Yet, will Anthroposophy merely embrace these teachings to withdraw back into their own exoteric system? Or, would they come out of their “stuck in Steiner” position and be liberated into the greater Rosicrucian stream he was trying to draw from? The mission of Max Heindel comes to mind here, who seems to have already attempted a purging of the Misraim Dienst back to its Rosicrucian roots. Heindel seemed quite aware of Steiner’s saturation of Blavatsky throughout his teachings and tried, even at that time, to clip away her influence to get to the core Rosicrucian essence taught by Mailander. Hats off to Heindel.

Pansophy: Steiner’s Greatest Strength:

I mentioned at the start that Pansophy is one of Steiner’s greatest strengths. Pansophy, not only as it was taught by Comenius, but by a whole range of Rosicrucian mystics, is one of the new hot topics in Rosicrucianism. It recently came into the spotlight through this blog. At its outset Comenius was directly working with Johan Valentin Andrea, who set the Rosicrucian movement in motion. His system primarily focused on utopianism and regenerating the world through education, but, it became so much more. Frankenberg, directly in contact with Comenius, would soon name his Rosicrucian group the “Pansophic Circle” as guided by Jacob Boehme. Here you start to see the Jacob Boehme thread take on new life through Pansophy and as Arthur Versluis points out, the Golden Rosenkreuzer Order was born out of Frankenberg and was certainly a Pansophic Order.

I have already discussed the Golden Rosenkreuz lineage of Mailander on this blog. Pansophy was the underground byword for Rosicrucianism, and at least signified a classical approach to the R.C with a specific focus on both Nature and Reformation in equal portions. This is what sets it quite apart from the later French and American Rosicrucian movements. As Traenker points out, the Panentheism of Karl Friedrich Christian Krause (1781-1823) was also drawn from Comenius’ Pansophy and was adopted by several Rosicrucian Orders in the 1800’s. As Ian Gladwin showed, the famous Rosicrucian lodge said to be behind the Golden Dawn, called Lodge “Licht, Leben, Liebe,” drew on both Pansophy and Panentheism together. Mailander’s school was one of those using the term Pansophy, and indeed Hartmann says they did not even call themselves “Rosicrucian” by name.

The strength of Pansophy is its application of utopian occult ideas into practical avenues of society. Initially this meant architecture, through the building of a holy city, social reform and a new Waldorf education system to transform humanity into a body of the collective learned. As a student of Mailander it was Steiner who would advance these ideas most in public out of all of Mailander’s students. In his “Theosophy of the Rosicrucian” Steiner writes: “Rosicrucian wisdom must not stream only into the head, nor only into the heart, but also into the hand, into our manual capacities, into our daily actions. It does not take effect as sentimental sympathy; it is the acquisition, by strenuous effort, of faculties enabling us to work for the well-being of humanity. Suppose some society was to proclaim human brotherhood as its aim and was to do no more than preach brotherhood. That would not be Rosicrucianism.”

Steiner used the rose cross symbol of the Pansophers for his Anthroposophy. It is a distinct rose cross with a circle of seven roses upon it. It was used by Heindel, Surya, Krumm-Heller, Sebottendorf, Hartmann and Traenker, showing its Pan-German Rosicrucian use. We know its distinctly Pansophic because it first appears in the Rosicrucian document “Pandora of the Sixth Age,” dated 1617. The author gives only his pen name, “Theophilus Schweighart, of Konstanz, Student of Pansophy.” His real name was Daniel Mögling, who also authored the other Pansophic treatise “The Mirror of Wisdom of the Rosy Cross,” of 1618. Both works discuss Pansophy at length and show it went well beyond the utopian scope of Comenius and into the broader system of Boehme and Rosicrucian occultism.

The Pansophic tie becomes quite obvious thanks to Friedrich Eckstein, who wrote a book called “Comenius und die Böhmischen Brüder,” meaning “Comenius and the Bohemian Brothers,” 1900. Eckstein was directly associated with Mailander and was an advocate of the Kerning system of Freemasonry itself. Although no written evidence has surfaced he directly studied with Mailander, it is impossible he did not know of him. Eckstein remained close friends with Mailander’s two key students Hartmann and Meyrink. Hartmann initiated Eckstein into Theosophy and Steiner said of Eckstein that meeting him was one of the most important events of his life behind one other. Rolf Speckner has also described in great detail Eckstein’s participation in the masonic occult system of J.B Kerning.

As Rolf Speckner points out, Kerning had already died in 1851, Eckstein was born in 1861 so he cannot have learnt directly from Kerning himself. “Eckstein was very modest. He told me that he himself knew very little and that he had received his small store of knowledge from a certain W, a pupil of Kerning, whose acquaintance he had made in Stuttgart. He concluded with the words: “Rudolf Steiner should get to know you. He is an intimate friend of mine. I have known him since he was tutor in a family here. He is more and better than a theosophist. I consider him a person who has worked with amazing results.”[9] The “amazing results” clearly in this circle refer to the practice of J.B Kerning’s mystical exercises, which Steiner would record in his “Soul Exercises,” (manuscript GA267). What’s more, the Theosophical Society issued a charter to one “Kerning Lodge” in Stuttgart in 1905, which is strangely a few months after Mailander had died.[10] It appears obvious that a race was on to be the next successor or leader with the Master M now deceased. Master S (Solomon), being Mailander’s brother, was supposed to succeed the local Kerning lodge near Frankfurt, but Steiner moved to found his own lodge the very next year getting the authority from Reuss and his OTO. In the meantime Weinfurter’s Prague Blue Star group had already tied itself to Mailander and continued things quietly in their own way, as did the Lorbians, who continued to work near Wuppertal where Mailander initiated them.

Steiner wrote: “We have in Amos Comenius a human being who knew that now is the time for a sudden change, that one must transmute all the knowledge from earlier times into the form of external intellect. You do not simply continue it in the form of the ancient tradition. This tradition rests upon that which was the Temple architecture. Amos Comenius had as his task translating (this) in his “Pan Sophia.”… And so we want to establish a school of wisdom, a universal wisdom, a “Pan Sophia” wisdom so that one can say that that which is in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, which was represented in the Wander Years, is a continuation of what Amos Comenius wanted.”[11]

The Rosicrucianism Steiner would extent to “our manual capacities” would take life in Steiner’s Anthroposophy in his threefold social structure, his four mystery plays, eurythmy, biodynamics and the soon to be founded Wardolf Schools for children. His dancing method of eurythmy is most interesting as it is an extension of Kerning’s alphabet mysticism. Several other students around Traenker’s Pansophia did the same but for the runic alphabet. The threefold social structure is probably the most important of these, although Steiner’s focus on architecture also scores highly for the Pansophy Score of this review. In summary, of all the Rosicrucian Orders founded from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, Steiner’s has the highest traditional Pansophy Score of any Rosicrucian Review.

Final Scores of the Steiner Rosicrucian Review:

Based on elements of Steiner and his Anthroposophy, the following scores are rewarded:

Total Trinosophia Score: 3/30

Total Christosophia Score: 10/20

Total Pansophia Score: 25/30

Total Wildcard Score: 8/20

Final Total Score of the Rosicrucian Review: 46/100

Every Order has a chance to win a total of 30 points for its Trinosophia Score, ten each for teaching magic, alchemy and Kabbalah. These like the other factors are indicated in the early Rosicrucian manifestos. As stated, an actual working methodology for students is one of the missing factors of Steiner’s Anthroposophy. His practices were very fragmented, and his main focus was in his traditional histories. The presence of some exercises from Kerning help for internal alchemy. There is zero magic being taught. Although it has been shown in Giorgio’s great article that Steiner’s system may correlate to Qabalah, Steiner did not actually teach Qabalah but revised this structure to teach something more similar to Blavatsky’s occult cosmology. Giorgio’s article on Steiner’s Kabbalah is a must read for serious students.

The total Christosophia Score of Anthroposophy was degraded mainly due to its mix with Blavatsky’s system. Most of the right content is there, but the only thing lacking is a real Hermetic mix of Christ with Greek deities as one might expect from Jacob Boehme or Swedenborg who do it quite well. Don’t get me wrong, Steiner nearly names every deity under the sun at some point, but his mix just isn’t Hermetic Christianity as one sees in the manifestos, Apollo document or the three Pansophic treatises. It does suffer somewhat from the dry form of German Protestantism that was popular at the time though. No points were reduced for the against Gnosticism Score. Had Steiner removed his weird mix of Blavatsky’s ideas he might have had a better score. Max Heindel obviously scores higher, even though they are using very similar teachings. Heindel tried to distil it to a more western approach.

The Pansophy Score is the highest. This is the real strength of Anthroposophy. It may also come hand in hand with German thinking to be pragmatic though. While Steiner’s ideas might not always agree with Campanella’s or Andrea’s regarding reformation no other Order has gone into externalizing itself through so many social avenues.

Every Order has the chance to win another 20 points for the Wild Card Score, awarded for something special. The Wild Card Score looks for something that distinctly represents aspects of the manifestos in an Order, especially for elements it does better than other traditions. Eight points have been awarded for Steiner’s Temple Legend, where he tied together the lives of Hiram Abif, Lazarus John and Christian Rosenkreuz, into one being incarnating into these lives. The Lazarus event, when he was raised by Christ from the dead ads a fine element to the C.R.C story and meaning of initiation. While it does not represent the manifestos as such, it ties together two traditional histories, that of Masonry with that of the Rosicrucians, into a fine continuation. However, Steiner left no room for symbolic interpretations. This was all literal history, which is quite unapproachable for many. Actually, I have evidence that C.R.C was not a historical figure because I found the story that Johan Valentine actually drew from for the writing of his Fama. But, I’ll get to that in our upcoming short video.

The total score of 45/100 is reasonable after all. The Pansophy Score clearly saves Anthroposophy. Other Orders, like the Golden Dawn, are totally lacking there. Martinism has some strengths there in comparison, such as the Synarchy reformation and LCM’s own social ideas. Other Orders actually scored around the mark of 65 points, but this is due to teaching more magic and alchemy.

Again, I must stress, this is not a spiritual score, but a comparison with the Rosicrucian teachings of the early manifestos. We are only concerned with any Order in terms of it being a Rosicrucian Review. In terms of actually “Being Rosicrucian” though, Anthroposophy does not score very well.

Still, its higher than AMORC.

Where to go from here? The takeaway for all these Rosicrucian Reviews is that every Order should look to their Rosicrucian roots. In this case, Anthroposophy needs to cast out Blavatsky and entirely reform Anthroposophy as a movement. Still, a new leader of “clairvoyant ability” might be the only one who can do that. I suspect Steiner’s students will be waiting no end if they wait for another like him.

I imagine this review will probably upset a few. One of the most important things we look for, as Pansophers, is that various Rosicrucians, from many groups or Orders and from different backgrounds get along with each other. Right now a movement is under way. Most Orders do get along very well.

Steiner’s temple, Stuttgart.

Largely, Anthroposophists belong to another world, and are quite weird in our world. I suspect that if Anthroposophists learn the more universal language of the brotherhoods and leave room for others to have their symbolic approach in discussions, and use words like “Steiner said” rather than push their teachings as facts, then we’ll start to see Anthroposophists fit into the bigger picture.

I should add here, one of the greatest graduations you’ll ever have, as a Rosicrucian student is breaking away from your own Order. Yes, I mean cancelling your membership and throwing it all away. This might sound strange at first, even hurting, but you’ll see why here, as there are HUGE benefits.

You’ll also find out if your brothers and sisters are as nice as you originally had thought…

For now, it’s an exoteric movement and until we see these changes, Anthroposophy should be totally avoided for new seeking students. If you are interested in it, I recommend joining a few of the normal Orders to get your feet firmly grounded in the larger picture of Rosicrucianism. This will give you practical methods to use as you move forwards with Anthroposophy, as Steiner really spent most of his time explaining the historical importance of his Rosicrucian work, so much so, that he never actually ended up delivering a fully applicable and practical occult system. He left his students hanging. By this I mean the Anthroposophical Society never ended up getting a complete the Third Class and his Kerning exercises were never preserved within the A.S (they were preserved by Felkin though). Also, by joining one of the normal Rosicrucian fraternities it will protect you from submerging into exoteric thinking and becoming another blind devotee of Steiner’s religion.

After all, it’s not all facts. It’s just what Steiner said.

Comments enabled below!

Yours in the Light,

Samuel Robinson,

Founder of Pansophers.

P.S, for those interested in seeing more comparisons of Steiner with Mailander and the teachings of Kerning I am about to release a book on this topic, some 400 pages, containing translations of Kerning’s Rebirth and his masonic ritual as well. Aside from this it has several examples of other German occultists using the same method. Included are several unpublished papers Steiner drew from as well.

P.S.S, some people in the comments on this page thought that this was meant to be an all encompassing review of Steiner, which it is NOT and never intended to be. We do not review his other theories about karama and incarnating through various epochs simply because those have nothing to do with Rosicrucianism. This is a “Rosicrucian Review of Steiner’s Teachings” strictly speaking and examines his value to the Rosicrucian Tradition.

For now, I recommend reading:

[1] Things in Past and Present in the Spirit of Man, Lecture V: Comenius and the Temple of PanSofia, Dornach, 11 April 1916, GA 167

[2] “Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz“ Schmidt Number: S-2665, Neuchatel, 18th December 1912

[3] “Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz,” Lecture 1: S-2443, Neuchatel, 27th September 1911

[4] Ibid.

[5] “From Jesus to Christ“ Schmidt Number: S-2449

[6] The Story of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily, 1904.

[7] Oddly enough Richard Cloud’s article was published on the 23rd of August 2018 and Steve Roberts brought this to light exactly one year later to the day.

[8] “The Evolution of the Earth and Man and The Influence of the Stars.” Schmidt Number: S-5944

[9] Rudolf Steiner. My life story. GA28. Dornach 7.Aufl. 1962. p.25-26

[10] “Suppliment to the Theosophists” September 1905. IAPSOP. Page 109 of this PDF.

[11] “Things in Past and Present in the Spirit of Man, Lecture V: Comenius and the Temple of PanSofia,” Dornach, 11 April 1916, GA 167