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If you send children to a Waldorf school, you are quite possibly handing them into the care of people who believe Rudolf Steiner’s phantasmagoric visions. Not all Waldorf teachers believe all of Steiner's delusions, but a great many do. Here are more examples of Steiner's amazing pronouncements, in Steiner’s characteristically tortured phrasings:
25) [Gnomes, or Goblins (which are real); and Their Heads]
Note: “all these symbols” — that is, all profound spiritual symbols, such a images of gnomes — are basically true, according to Steiner. They are true clairvoyant visions of the spirit realm, having a firm basis in reality. They are true just as all myths, and all fairy tales, are true.
Gnomes, for one, really exist, not just as symbols, but as real creatures lurking in the Earth. Their more revealing name is "goblins":
26) [One Reason Gnomes (Goblins) Crop Up in Waldorf Classrooms]
"There is a German saying ... People say: Pay heed like a goblin. And goblins are in fact the gnomes. So, if one wishes to make someone attentive, one says to him: Pay heed like a gnome. A gnome is really an attentive being. If one could place a gnome as an object lesson on a front desk in every school classroom, where all could see it, it would be a splendid example for the children to imitate." — Rudolf Steiner, MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 8, GA 230.
If you have visited a Waldorf school, you may have seen a gnome figure or tow, here or there. Gnomes are cute. And, according to Steiner, they set a good example by being so attentive. But bearing in mind that gnomes are goblins, their presence in Waldorf classrooms, staring unblinkingly at the children, may give us pause. Are goblins our friends? Hardly. They have no sense of morality, as we understand it. They "play all sorts of trick on us." Trust a goblin at your peril.
27) [Dragons] Steiner said that we humans used to live on the Moon, aka the Old Moon. Describing how humans on the Old Moon inhaled and exhaled heat, Steiner said:
“Figures such as the Archangel Michael with the fire-breathing dragon under his feet, or St. George, fighting with the dragon, are pictures reminiscent of those conditions [on Old Moon]. The fire breather of Old Moon, the ancient Dragon, is a figure that once actually existed.” — Rudolf Steiner, ROSICRUCIAN ESOTERICISM (Anthroposophic Press, 1978) lecture 7, GA 109.
Again: Steiner said all this stuff is real, although he often interpreted symbols, myths, etc., in his own special way. He spoke of goblins and dragons, etc., as symbols, but he also described them as actual beings who actually exist(ed). Thus, for instance, Steiner identified real dragons as fire-breathing dinosaurs:
28) [Certainly Magicians and Suchlike] Among the real beings we must worry about are black or grey magicians:
Steiner saw many conspiracies, including some that threatened himself and his followers. [See, e.g., "Enemies" and "Double Trouble".] Waldorf schools may seem to be bright, inviting refuges, but they may often also harbor a sense of impending perils, a fearful anxiety about being hemmed in by baleful opponents — Ahriman and his hordes, goblins (in a sense), black and grey magicians... Dangers, dangers.
29) [What Us Is Up To] Working pretty much in league with the black magicians are Americans, who plan to ruin everything for everyone, especially good (white) Europeans:
“[I]t is America’s endeavor to mechanize everything, to push everything into the realm of pure naturalism, thus gradually extinguishing Europe’s culture altogether.” — Rudolf Steiner SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), p. 70.
Ahriman and his hordes, goblins (in a sense), black and grey magicians, Americans...
Bear in mind that, for European Anthroposophists, the epitome of all that's right in Europe is, of course, Anthroposophy itself. American Anthroposophists face the challenge of finding virtue in their own situation, stranded amid the materialistic soullessness of wicked America. Various efforts have been made to make Anthroposophy seem compatible with American life and values, such as the strained argument that Emerson and Thoreau would find nothing wrong in Steiner's preachments. But Steiner's negative view of America hangs over all this, complicating things more than a little. [See "America".]
30) [What the USA Is Up To] Americans (aka, citizens of the USA) are going about their dastardly purposes in dastardly technological ways:
"From the quarter which will put forward the Antichrist...will come endeavours to make use of something that can work through the most material of forces, something that can work spiritually through the most material of forces ... It will be an American secret to use the earth’s magnetism in its duality, the northern and southern magnetism, in order to send controlling forces across the whole earth....” — Rudolf Steiner SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), p. 188.
I still haven't figure out how us 'Mericuns are gonna do these things, but I'm workin' on it.
More generally, Steiner taught his followers to fear modern, "materialistic" science and technology. These things exist under the sway of Ahriman, he taught. They bring demons into our world. Literally. Consider steam engines, for instance.
Ahriman and his demonic hordes, goblins (in a sense), black and grey magicians, the Antichrist, Americans, scientists, engineers, steam engines...
Perhaps you fear the Antichrist, and perhaps you should. But goblins? Magicians? Steam engines? Anthroposophy is a cult bedeviled by irrational, all-but-paranoid fears. Think carefully before placing your children in proximity to any such cult.
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