Anthroposophy and Ecofascism 26

Turning now to paragraph 8 of Peter Staudenmaier's 'Anthroposophy and Ecofascism':

Peter Staudenmaier writes in Paragraph 8:

Steiner dedicated ten years of his life to the theosophical movement, becoming one of its best-known spokespeople and honing his supernatural skills. He broke from mainstream theosophy in 1913, taking most of the German-speaking sections with him, when Besant and her colleagues declared the young Krishnamurti, a boy they "discovered" in northern India, to be the reincarnation of Christ. Steiner was unwilling to accept a brown-skinned Hindu lad as the next "spiritual master." What had separated Steiner all along from Blavatsky, Besant, and the other India-oriented theosophists was his insistence on the superiority of European esoteric traditions.

This paragraph follows that pattern established by Peter Staudnemaier: it covers a number of events from a period, but not in any depth or with any citations, and of course, it gets the basic facts wrong. First, Steiner was not dedicated to the Theosophical movement in the manner implied, as the passages of his that I quoted earlier make abundantly clear. He lectured and wrote for ten years as General Secretary of the German branch of the Theosophical Society, but always made it clear that he would only ever represent his own knowledge, and never the party line if that in the slightest way diverged from his own insight. And he was certainly not shy about pointing out exactly where he felt party-line Theosophy went wrong.

Examples of Steiner's many critical statements on Theosophy and the Theosophical Society include:

“The Theosophical Society was first established in 1875 in New York by H.P. Blavatsky and H.S. Olcott, and had a decidedly Western nature. The publication "Isis Unveiled", in which Blavatsky revealed the large number of esoteric truths, has just such a western character. But it has to be stated regarding this publication that it frequently presents the great truths of which it speaks in a distorted or even caricatured manner. It is a similar to a visage of harmonious proportions appearing distorted in a convex mirror. The things which are said in " Isis" are true, but to how they are said is a lopsided mirror-image of the truth.  .... A distortion arises because of the inappropriate way in which H.P. Blavatsky's soul has received these truths. The educated world should have seen in this fact alone the evidence for a higher source of inspiration of these truths. For no one who rendered them in such a distorted manner could have created these truths himself. .... Under the influence of this stream the Theosophical Society took on its eastern character, and the same influence was the inspiration for Sinnett’s "Esoteric Buddhism" and Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine". But both of these again became distortions of the truth. Sinnett’s work distorts the high teachings of the initiators through an extraneous and inadequate philosophical intellectualism and Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine" does the same because of her chaotic soul. 

“The result was that the initiators, the eastern ones as well, withdrew their influence in increasing measure from the official Theosophical Society in the latter became an area of all kinds of occult forces which distorted the great cause. ... This was the situation when I was faced with the necessity of joining the Theosophical Society.”

Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner. Correspondence and Documents: 1901-1925 . New York: Rudolf Steiner Press 1988. Pages 17-18.

The above is an excerpt from “the Barr Document” written by Steiner for Eduard Schuré in Barr, Alsace in September 1907. Steiner was the General Secretary of the German Section of the Theosophical Society at this time, and would be for another six years. Speaking of the subject in 1916, Steiner said:

"I now wish to say something about the development of our Anthroposophical Society, because errors have been circulated on the subject. For instance, it is said that the Anthroposophical society is only a kind of development out of what is called the "Theosophical Society". Although it is true that what we aim at within our Anthroposophical Society found its place for a time within the framework of the General Theosophical Society, yet our Anthroposophical Society must on no account be confused with the Theosophical Society. And in order to prevent this, I must bring forward something – apparently personal – about the gradual emergence of the Anthroposophical Society.

“It was about 15 years ago that I was invited by a small circle of people to give some lectures on spiritual science. These lectures were afterwards published in the title Mysticism The Dawn Of The Modern Age. Until then I had, I might say, endeavored as a solitary thinker to build up a view of the world which on one hand fully reckons with the great, momentous achievements of physical sciences, and on the other hand aspires to gain insight into spiritual worlds.

"I must emphasize the fact that at the time when I was invited to speak to a small circle in Germany on the subject connected with spiritual science already mentioned, I did not depend in any way upon the works of Blavatsky or Annie Besant, nor did I take them particularly into consideration. The outlook expressed by these books have little in common with my view of the world.  I had at that time endeavored, purely out of what I discovered for myself, to present some points of view about the spiritual worlds. The lectures were printed; some of them very soon translated into English, and that by a distinguished member of the Theosophical Society, which at that time was particularly flourishing in England; and from this quarter I was urged to enter the Theosophical Society. At no time had I any idea, if the occasion should have presented itself in the Theosophical Society, to bring forward anything to save what was built up on the foundation of my own, independent method of research.

"And that which now forms the substance of an anthroposophical view of the world, as studied in our circle of members, is not borrowed from the Theosophical Society but was represented by me as something entirely independent which – as a result of that society's invitation – took place within it, until it was found to be heretical and was "shown to the door"; and what had thus always been there was further developed and cultivated in the now wholly independent Anthroposophical Society.

"Thus it is an entirely a erroneous conception to confuse in any way what is living within the Anthroposophical Society with what is represented by Blavatsky and Besant. It is true that Blavatsky has in her books put forward important truths concerning spiritual worlds, but mixed with so much error that only one who has accurately investigated these matters can succeed in separating what is significant from what is erroneous. Hence our Anthroposophical movement must claim to be considered wholly independent. This is not put forward from want of modesty, but merely in order to place a fact in its objectively correct light.”

Rudolf Steiner. Approaches to Anthroposophy. Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press,1992. Pages 6-7. Translated by Simon Blaxland-de Lange. Lecture of January 11 th, 1916 in Basel, GA 35.