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Anthroposophy: Rudolph Steiner's Cosmology
The Spiritual Bookstore Online World Religion Library
Rudolph Steiner's Cosmology
Very early in his career Steiner borrowed from Theosophy (with minor
adaptions of his own) a metaphysical system of great rigidity. Although
his cosmology seems complex, that is only because of the minute
attention to detail. In actual fact, its principles are simplistic yet
extraordinarily baroque, very like the Ptolemaic (Geocentric) cosmology
just prior to Copernicus, in which everything is explained in terms of
cycles and epicycles, a kind of vast cosmic mechanism. Everything is
explained within a series of cosmic cycles: the Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old
Moon, and Earth eras, and three future ones; each of which possesses
certain characteristics:
Old Saturn: Solar System single mass; densest substance "warmth"
Old Sun: Sun, Moon, and Earth single mass; densest substance "air" (or
gaseous)
Old Moon: Earth and Moon single mass; densest substance "water" (or
liquid)
Earth: Present world; densest substance "earth" (or solid) during its
densest substages
"Jupiter" ) future increasingly
"Venus" ) spiritualised worlds;
"Vulcan" ) reverse of previous stages
This series has the "Saturn" era as the most subtle. Each of the
following cosmic stages get progressively denser, untill we come to
Earth era, which is the turning point from which things reverse and once
again become more subtle. Each of these major eras or "metamorphoses" is
seperated by a period of withdrawl or non-manifestation, a pralaya (a
Hindu cosmological theme first taught in the West by Blavatsky and
central to Theosophy). The whole thing can be represented like the
diagram at the top of this page.
This idea of a cyclic universe is fairly straighforward, recalling
similiar themes from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, from Kabbalah,
from the now discarded "pulsating universe" speculations of
astrophysics, and so on. The whole thing is unfortunately made much more
obscure and absurd by dividing each of the seven cosmic cycles into
seven (each with it's own small pralaya), and each of those in turn into
seven, and each of those in turn into seven, and each of those in turn
into seven!!! This infatuation with cycles and sub-cycles and
sub-sub-cycles (a kind of quasi-fractal universe) is another
theosophical theme that Steiner retained. These stages and all of their
sub-stages and sub-sub-stages were worked out in great detail, producing
a cosmology that is at its best as awesome and inspiring as any other
great myth of creation, yet just as absurd and ridiculous when taken
literally (which unfortunately is what Steiner's followers do).
What about the rest of the universe, you may ask. Unfortunately, Steiner
doesn't mention this. Indeed, astonishingly for a man living in the
beginning of the 20th century, he seems totally uninterested in anything
beyond the orbit of Saturn. His entire cosmology is limited to this
Solar System; when he says "the cosmos" he is referring to the Solar
System out to Saturn.
Cycles and Sub-Cycles
In both the Theosophical and Anthroposophical cosmologies, each cycle is
divided into smaller cycles. Rudolph Steiner followed the cosmology of
Blavatsky very closely, so much so that all of the major features of his
formulation can be directly attributed to the founder of Theosophical
Movement, a fact that he is curiously reluctant to acknowledge (instead
he speaks as if it were all his own cllairvoyance. In this sevenfold
cosmology, each major era is divided into seven shorter periods, also
separated by a pralaya. Usually these are in turn divided into even
smaller divisions, but these are not seperated by prayalas.
The first hierarchical level, the "Metamorphoses", represents the
primary cosmological division, equivelent to the "Chain" of Theosophy.
Apart from the "Form Conditions", which refer to descent from the
spiritual pralaya state (Arupa; "Formless") to matter, and subsequent
ascent, all the others are in some respect or other a recapitulation on
a smaller scale of the original eras or "Metamorphoses".
Thus the present Earth stage consists of or is divided into seven "Small
Cycles", sub-eras: a fiery or Old Saturn era (which recapitulates the
first eras), a gaseous or Old Sun era, a liquid or Old Moon era, and an
earthy (solid) or Earth era (our present age), and three future ones
(which presage the future eras). Each of these small cycles is the same
as the "Round" of Theosophy.
The Earth era of the Earth Metamorphosis is in turn divided into seven
Form Conditions (= "Globes" of Theosophy), referring to, as indicated
above, the descent from spirit to physical matter (the present Earth),
and subsequent ascent back to Spirit.
The present Earth condition is divided into seven eras, according to the
Root Race (another Theosophical concept Steiner adopted) that exists at
that time. These are the seven evolutionary periods: Polarian,
Hyperborean, Lemurian, Atlantean, "Post-Atlantean" (the current one) and
two future ones, given the apropriately biblical names of "Seal" and
"Trumpet" (in refereance to the Book of revelations). Each era lasts
exactly 15,120 years, the time of the Platonic "Great Year", or
"Precession of the Equinoxes". In keeping with his reliance on the
Classics, Steiner used this old Greek time-frame as the central element
of his chronology.
Finally, each of these eras is in turn divided into seven, giving seven
"Culture Periods" of exactly 2,160 years each. Originally, Steiner
taught that every human ego (soul) reincarnates precisely twice, once as
a man and once as a woman; later, he dropped this idea.
As can be seen, with all these cycles within cycles, Steiner's entire
cosmology came pretty well out of Theosophy. He formulated it in the
early days, when he was trying to find favour with the Theosophical
Society (according to Colin Wilson's biography on him, Steiner was an
upward social climber). Into the Theosophical style statements, the
Greek elements were mixed in.
Yet even if Steiner derived his overall cosmology from Theosophy, he
still made a creative and original contribution within that framework.
Whilst the Theosophical cosmology, especially that of the post-Blavatsky
theosophists such as C.W. Leadbeater and Alice Bailey, is mechanical and
unimaginative, Steiner added an extraordinary amount of new details.
The Relevence (or otherwise) of Steiner's cosmology
The importance of Steiner's cosmology, like that of Blavatsky, is that
it transfers the process of emanation from the ahistorical dimension (as
in Neoplatonism and Kashmir Shaivism) to the meta-historical, or perhaps
one could say mytho-historical. Rather than occuring in a purely
timeless way, the emanation of the cosmos followed a particular almost
scientific (or quasi-scientific) schedule. Certainly, the "dramatic"
cosmologies of Gnosticism and Lurianic Kabbalah also present such a
mytho-historical vision, with their concept of crisis and fall and
future redemption. But apart from this primary drama, there is no
detailed mention of periods of previous evolution, cycles and sub-cycles
of various races and worlds that preceeded, and were not as "dense" as
our own. It was really only Blavatsky who gave such an "occult history"
to the world, and others, such as Leadbeater, Steiner, Alice Bailey,
Cayce, etc, who elaborated upon it, modifying certain details, but
contributing no equally novel ideas. In fact, apart from Steiner's
incredibly detailed account - far more elaborate and detailed even than
anything Blavatsky herself constructed - all of Blavatsky's successors
have either grossly simplified her original account (e.g. the very
popular and admirable Edgar Cayce) or simply codified it with more
detail, but adding absolute nothing new (Leadbeater, Bailey, etc). It is
because of his detailed accounts, and because, despite his difficult
style, he is still rather more comprehensible than Blavatsky, that we
have given Steiner the space he has been given here in this review of
his occult history.
The Difficulty with taking all this literally
Because of its absurd elements, Steiner's cosmology has become a
curiosity by the uninitiated, and a dogma to the believers. I remember
listening to one young woman who was educated in a Rudolf Steiner
school, and who referred dismissively to Steiner's metaphysics as the
"way in which people used to think in those days" - a totally inaccurate
statement (for the early twentieth- century was just as "scientifically"
inclined as the modern decade), but typical of the way in which the
layperson reacts to Steiner's cosmology.
from: http://www.kheper.net/topics/Anthroposophy/Steiner-cosmology.htm
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