Anthroposophy and Ecofascism 20

Continuing my examiniation of paragraphy 6 of Peter Staudenmaier's 'Anthroposophy and Ecofascism':

Steiner consistently maintained that his intellectual development was a gradual evolution. Steiner's view that his intellectual development represented a gradual evolution is demonstrated in the following:

"Anyone who has found my writings and lectures may gather all this from them; and I would not especially mention this matter were it not repeatedly said in error that I have departed from all that I wrote and said formerly and turned to the views represented in the works of Blavatsky and Besant. Whoever carefully studies, for example, my Theosophy, will find that everything contained in it is developed in accordance with and as a continuation of the direction of modern thought described above; you will find that the matters dealt with are presented in accordance with certain presuppositions contained in Goethe's conceptions of the world, and that only in certain places is mentioned that ideas which I had arrived at (etheric body, sentient body, etc.) are also to be found in the literature which I which is called Theosophical. I know that these explanations shall not be able to do away with certain attacks that are constantly made against me, for in many cases these attacks are not made in order to arrive at the actual facts of the matter but for in some entirely different reason. But what can be done in the face of ever recurring inaccuracies? Nothing can be done but to reiterate the truth!"

Rudolf Steiner. "Approaches to Anthroposophy." Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992. Page 31. Translated by Simon Blaxland-de Lange. Lecture of January 11th, 1916 in Basel (GA 35).

It was at age 40 that Rudolf Steiner by his own account decided to go public with his spiritual insights. In The Course of My Life (New York 1951, page 297) Steiner writes:

“The decision to give public expression to the esoteric from my own inner experience impelled me to write for the Magazine for August 28, 1899, on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Goethe's birth, an article on Goethe's fairy-tale of The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily, under the title Goethes Geheime Offenbarung (Goethe's Secret Revelation). This article was, of course, only slightly esoteric. But I could not expect more of my public than I there gave. In my own mind the content of the fairy-tale lived as something wholly esoteric, and it was out of an esoteric mood that the article was written.”

Steiner goes on to describe how through a couple named Brockdorff and a circle of their friends he found people interested in Theosophy to whom he could speak of the esoteric knowledge that he had developed. It is of little wonder that, if Staudenmaier is unable to be accurate in the minor details of dates and years, his has such trouble with the far more difficult task of understanding Steiner's worldview and presenting it accurately.