I.

Hermann von Baravalle, an associate of Rudolf Steiner, taught at Steiner’s original Waldorf School in Stuttgart, Germany. Later, von Baravalle emigrated to the USA, becoming chairman of the math department at Adelphi College, in suburban New York. While at Adelphi, von Baravalle helped found the Waldorf Teacher Education Program there. 

Von Baravalle’s publications include a series of pamphlets explaining how various academic subjects should be taught at Waldorf schools. The pamphlets are intended to be read by Waldorf teachers, not by the likes of you and me. In examining them, we get a glimpse behind the scenes at Waldorf schools.

What immediately jumps out is that von Baravalle’s approach often empties academic subjects of most of their intellectual content. The pamphlet I will discuss here is ASTRONOMY, An Introduction, outlining a course for sixth graders. [1] Writing about astronomy must have been a great challenge for von Baravalle, given Steiner's astrological, antiscientific, and occult doctrines. As I point out in other essays on this website, Steiner spoke of Moon forces, Sun forces, etc.; he taught that the Earth does not orbit the Sun; he tied various human “temperaments” to signs of the zodiac; he stated that Christ and other "gods" come from the Sun and other stars and planets; he asserted that humans colonized the Moon and various planets long ago; he said Jehovah rules over Jews from the Moon; he said Lucifer's true home is Venus; he told of Buddha emigrating to Mars; and so forth. How can astronomy be taught at Waldorf schools without revealing Steiner’s extraordinary statements about the stars and planets?

Von Baravalle’s solution is to make the study of astronomy essentially subjective. He stresses how the lights in the night sky will appear to his gazing students. He laboriously describes how the vault overhead looks to earthbound observers, and he urges students to make drawings of star "movements" (i.e., the apparent movements of the lights in the sky caused by the earth’s rotation). At no point does he advise Waldorf teachers to tell their students what the stars are, how they produce light, how they came into existence, how many there may be in our galaxy, how many galaxies may exist, what the Big Bang was, how old the universe is, how planets orbit the Sun, what the planets are made of, what conditions exist on the planets, or anything of the sort. His astronomy course omits the contents of a true study of astronomy. Indeed, von Baravalle scarcely distinguishes between stars, planets, galaxies, and nebulas. Virtually any light in the sky is, for him, a “star.” He concentrates on appearances and illusory motions; he says little or nothing about the physics of astronomy.

Virtually every bit of information he provides about the “stars” is trivial, subjective, or incorrect. For instance, he asks this:

“What about the speed of the stars? How fast do they appear to move in their courses?” [2] 

Von Baravalle concentrates on the apparent movement of the "stars" (their march, in evidently fixed formations, across the sky); he never gets around to their real movement (their individual orbits within our galaxy). He doesn't ask how fast the stars really move, as opposed to how fast they appear to move. He doesn't ask how fast the planets (which he calls "wandering stars") actually move, or how their speeds differ based on their distance from the Sun. He doesn't ask how fast our galaxy is moving. He doesn't ask whether the universe is expanding/contracting, or how fast it may be doing so (as indicated, for instance, by the speeds at which other galaxies are receding from us). Aside from acknowledging that planets move differently from other "stars," von Baravalle has virtually nothing to say about actual motions in the sky. Instead, he encourages his students to be self-involved and unreflecting. He announces:

“The Celestial Equator’s Center is Within Ourselves." [3] 

In what is supposed to be a course about the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe, he makes man the measure of all things. Objectivity is outside his frame of reference; his students dwell upon their subjective view of the "stars."

Von Baravalle's chapters on the Sun do not concern themselves with the Sun’s composition, the Sun's distance from the Earth, the Sun's rotation, Sunspots, solar flairs, or other such matters. These chapters are exclusively about the apparent course the Sun traces through the sky during the year. He never explains that the Sun's "movement" is illusory — that the Sun appears to travel across the vault of heaven because the Earth, rotating around its skewed axis, orbits the Sun.

Von Baravalle's chapter on the Moon is devoted to how the Moon looks at various times during the month, and how the phases of the Moon show in which direction the Sun (apparently) lies. 

“Whenever the moon is visible in the sky, it tells us the position of the sun. With the moon as guide, the observer can follow the course of the sun under the horizon.” [4] 

In truth, there is no mystery about the position of the Sun: The Sun is located at the center of the Solar System. And the Earth is located at the center of a region orbited by the Moon. The shifting shapes of the Moon (full, half, quarter) are illusions caused by the slow movement of darkness across the portion of the Moon that always faces inward, toward the Earth. The Moon orbits the Earth due to the effects of gravity, just as the Moon perpetually shows one side to the Earth due to the effects of gravity. There is much a child could learn about all this. But von Baravalle omits most of it. In effect, he encourages Waldorf teachers to mislead their students; he stresses illusions, not realities.

Von Baravalle's chapter on the planets explicitly refers to them as stars. For instance, 

“The brightest of stars is Venus.” [5] 

The chapter never discusses the composition of the planets, their distance from the Sun, their orbits, gravities, moons, etc. The chapter never clarifies the difference between "wandering stars" (planets) and real stars — or between planets and galaxies, numbulas, comets, and meteors. Some differences are suggested, but they are never truly explained. Again, appearance and illusory movements are stressed. 

“Mars, too, is seen from time to time for extended nocturnal periods, shining brightly and slightly reddish in the night sky. Its position among the surrounding stars is also seen to shift if repeatedly observed night after night. Its changes are even greater than those of Jupiter.” [6] 

Why does Mars seem to shift more than Jupiter? No explanation is provided (i.e., both planets orbit the Sun; Mars is closer to the Sun — and to Earth — than is Jupiter, hence Mars’s orbit is smaller and faster; but von Baravalle explains none of this). Why is Mars red? How many moons does Mars have? How big is Mars? How far is it from Earth? What about the canals on Mars (almost everyone believed in Martian canals, until a 1964 space probe disproved their existence)? These are things kids would usually be eager to learn about. Von Baravalle is mum on all these points; his astronomy course leaves kids in the dark.

The final chapter of von Baravalle's pamphlet is entitled “Observing the Zodiac.” Here, von Baravalle treats the signs of the zodiac as if they are significant phenomena, but again he only discusses appearances, telling how the groupings of stars called constellations appear to someone standing on the surface of the Earth. The truth is that the zodiac is meaningless in astronomy; it has "meaning" only in astrology. The constellations are illusory patterns we impose on parts of the sky, connecting (in our minds) various starry dots that happen to be bright; the constellations are not structures that really exist. If we were to stand on the surface of a planet far, far from Earth, we would see (i.e., connect in our minds) different illusory shapes overhead, and the dear old constellations of the earthly zodiac would all be gone. Von Baravalle tiptoes past such realitues while covertly endorsing the proposition that the zodiac is in some sense real and important.

In sum, von Baravalle's pamphlet is an example of the way Waldorf teachers can deprive a subject of its content, sidestepping the real issues involved, while encouraging a thoughtless subjectivity in their students. The result is to move students toward the sorts of doctrines Steiner voiced (such as his affirmations of astrology), even while keeping these doctrines hidden in a mist of uncertainty. Students who do not understand the realities of nature are primed for accepting falsehoods about nature. 

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II.

Rudolf Steiner’s own statements about astronomy were frequently bizarre. For example, as I indicated earlier, Steiner repeatedly said that the Earth does not orbit the Sun. And here’s a crucial point for anyone interested in Waldorf schools: Steiner made this assertion — twice — when “educating” Waldorf school teachers, preparing them to "educate" Waldorf students.

On Sept. 5, 1919, Steiner told teachers at the first Waldorf school that the movement of the Earth around the Sun is an illusion. We think the Earth goes around the Sun because we see the Sun from constantly shifting angles. 

“This creates the illusion that the Earth revolves round the sun. The truth is that the Sun goes ahead, and the Earth creeps continually after it.” [7] 

Steiner said that, instead of orbiting the Sun, the planets move in line with the Sun. To illustrate his meaning, he drew a zigzag line showing the Sun at “position one” on the line. Ahead of the Sun he drew three planets, and behind the Sun he drew three others. As the Sun moves through outer space, he said, these six planets move with the Sun along the zigzag line. 

“[H]ere are Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, and here are Venus, Mercury, and Earth ... [W]hen the Sun has progressed to the second position we have Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars here, and we have Venus, Mercury, and Earth over there.” [8]

The line Steiner drew was meant to represent a spiral seen from the side. He said the Sun moves through space in a corkscrew manner, led by three planets and followed by three others. 

The planetary lineup Steiner specified is interesting. Steiner actually wobbled on it, a bit. On Sept. 5, he placed Venus ahead of Mercury, whereas in a later discussion he put Venus behind Mercury. (In some occult teachings, the identities of these two planets cross.) In either case, the sequence scrambles the real order of the inner planets, displacing the Earth so that, of the three inner planets, it is the most distant from Mars. In reality the Earth and Mars and next-door neighbors. Also, perhaps a minor point, the sequence omits the outermost planets. The true order of the planets, counting outward from the center of the solar system, and omitting minor planets such as Pluto, is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Bear in mind, this list does not denote a line of travel; it is an account of the distances at which the planets orbit the Sun. Mercury orbits near the Sun, Neptune orbits far away, and all of the other planets orbit at intermediate distances between the orbits of Mercury and Neptune. Steiner's description of the solar system gets most of this wrong.

Steiner's Sept. 5, 1919, statement quite naturally confused his listeners, so on Sept. 25, during a faculty meeting, one teacher asked for a clarification. 

“[W]e don't really have a clear understanding about the true movements of the planets and the Sun.” [10] 

In response, Steiner essentially repeated his previous remarks, trying to describe the optical illusion that he claimed causes people to mistakenly think that the planets orbit the Sun. Drawing his zigzag line again, Steiner pointed at it and said, 

“[W]hen the Earth is here [at one position on the line] and this is the Sun [at a different position on the line], the Earth follows along. But we look at the Sun from here, and so it appears as though the Earth goes around it, whereas it is actually only following. The Earth follows the Sun.” [11] 

Please note Steiner’s exact words: The Earth “appears” to go “around” the Sun, but “actually” it is “only following". “Only” is definite and unqualified. The Earth doesn't orbit the Sun, it only follows it.

The diagrams Steiner created on both Sept. 5 and 25 are basically alike, but on the second date he added a looping arrow and a short tangent. [12] 

The arrow in the drawing is supposed to show how, from one point along our journey, we see the Sun on one side of our line of motion, whereas later we will see the Sun on the other side of the line. Hence, we get the false impression that we move from side to side around the Sun. The tangent shows the orientation of the Earth's axis, pointing at the celestial pole. [14] All other things being equal, Steiner said, the spiral motion of the solar system should make the celestial pole seem to describe a lemniscate. But — perhaps to your relief — he said it doesn't. (He said the axis shifts around just enough to cancel out the celestial lemniscate.)

On neither day did Steiner refer to our galaxy, the Milky Way. Still, the corkscrew motion he postulated traces a trail through the Milky Way, or, as Steiner put it, “into cosmic space”. [13] According to Steiner, this trails leads us toward the celestial pole. There’s a problem, though. If we are climbing toward the pole, we are not in a galactic orbit; rather, we are making a serpentine progression that ultimately leads in a single direction. This is not what science has established. The actual movement of the Sun within the galaxy is orbital. Like all the other stars in the Milky Way, our Sun participates in the rotation of the galaxy, within the galactic plane. We orbit the galactic center, we do not move toward the celestial pole.

Steiner's description of planetary/solar motions has the small defect of omitting the actual motions of the planets and Sun. Steiner said that the only real motion is the progression along the corkscrew line. 

“Everything else is only apparent motion.” [15] 

“Everything” and “only” are definite and unqualified. But in this, as in so much else, Steiner was wrong. The planets very rarely form a line with the Sun, and they certainly do not adhere to a fixed order along a line of movement. The planets continually shift in their relationship to one another, due to their orbits. Sometimes some planets are on one side of the Sun, sometimes others are on that side. Sometimes some of the planets are more or less in line with one another, but usually they are scattered all around the Sun, at varying distances, at varying points in their orbits. The entire solar system is indeed moving, as a body, through the galaxy, but otherwise Steiner's description does not hold up.

As you can see, Steiner offered an alternative, unconventional theory of astronomy. He did the same with any number of subjects. The test of such theories is experimental and observational verification. The conventional model of astronomical phenomena is supported by vast quantities of verifiable information. Steiner's theory is not. Does this mean that the conventional model is definitely correct? No. Does it mean that the conventional model will not evolve further? No. Does it mean that all astronomical deductions are firmly established, never to be revised? No. (Calculating the distance to other galaxies, for instance, is a tricky business, and astronomers keep refining their techniques.) Likewise, does the lack of evidence for Steiner's view prove him wrong? No. But we have a great deal of information leading us to accept the conventional view, and we have virtually no information that supports Steiner's view. That's where the scientific method has brought us, and Steiner claimed to be scientific. According to science — that is, according to everything that we know — Steiner was wrong.

This discussion is already too long, but we should linger to make one more point. As we have seen, Steiner sometimes contradicted himself. On some occasions — generally when speaking in public — he referred to orbital motions of various heavenly bodies. At those times, he seemed to understand the real motions within the solar system; on those occasions, he said that the planets orbit the Sun. But on two distinct occasions, Sept. 5 and 25, 1919, when speaking in private, “educating” Waldorf school educators, he served up a deeply flawed set of ideas containing obvious errors. On those occasions — when he was revealing his real views to his devout followers — he said the planets do not orbit the Sun. Importantly, when his first effort to present his model was unsuccessful, he did not correct himself, but instead he repeated the errors, stressing their “truth.” He said, “In reality, it is like this.” [16]

In reality, Steiner was wrong..

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III.

Astronomy may seem like a relatively unimportant subject — some schools may not even offer it. But for Steiner’s purposes, astronomy is crucial. He needed to deflect students away from a scientific understanding of the heavens because his own views were so fundamentally anti-scientific.

Here is a brief tour of the solar system, Steiner-style. I will start at the Sun and work my way out to the various planets orbiting the Sun, although Steiner said they do not orbit, and he put them in a different order, and he omitted some of them while adding an extra one...

The Sun 

◊ “[M]aterialistic physicists would be immensely astonished if they went up into space expecting to find the sun as they describe it in their science. Their descriptions are nonsense. If by some convenient transport the physicists could reach the sun, they would be amazed to find no gas whatsoever. They would find hollow space, a real vacuum. This vacuum radiates light.”

◊ “[T]he physical sun...is the external expression of the spiritual world that is received at the point where Christ’s physical body is walking around.” [17]

Vulcan 

(a non-planet that Steiner evidently believed in)

“Not much can be publicly communicated about life on this planet ... [O]nly mystery students of the higher order, who may leave their physical body and acquire supersensible knowledge outside it, can learn something about Vulcan.” [18]

Mercury 

◊ “We come next to Mercury. In contrast to the other planets, Mercury is not interested in things of a physical, material nature as such, but in whatever is capable of co-ordination. Mercury is the domain of the Masters of co-ordinative thinking ... Mercury provides the forces for capacities of intellect and reason, especially of intellect ... Venus and Mercury bring into the human being the karmic element that is connected more with the life of soul and spirit and comes to expression in his qualities of heart and in his temperament ... Venus, Mercury and the Moon may be called the destiny-determining planets.”

◊ “If we state that the Negro race was born in cooperation between the normal Spirits of Form [gods of a certain rank] and the abnormal Spirits of Form [variants of the normal gods of this rank] centred in Mercury [i.e., these gods live or and around Mercury], then from an occult standpoint we are perfectly correct in describing the Negro race as the 'Mercury race.'” [19]

Venus 

◊ “Lucifer himself takes part in Earth evolution with the perpetual longing within himself for his true home, for the star [sic] Venus ... [W]hat Lucifer casts off as a husk...as the physical body is cast off by the human soul at death, shines down from heaven as Venus.” 

◊ “[T]he present Venus is a prophetic anticipation of the future Venus state." [20]

Earth

◊  “[T]he whole earth is a living being.”

◊  "The whole of our earth was once alive. It was first a plant, then an animal.” 

◊  “Just think, children, our Earth feels and experiences everything that happens within it ... [I]t has feelings like you have, and can be angry or happy like you.”

◊ The planet consists of various layers having such designations of "Fire Earth": “The Fire Earth is made essentially of feeling and will. It is sensitive to pain and would cry out if stepped on. It consists entirely of passions.”

◊ “[T]he earth stands in the universe, curiously, as a rounded tetrahedron, as a kind of pyramid. That, gentlemen, is actually still the form of the earth!”

◊ Conventional teachings about the major formations of the Earth, the continents, are incorrect. “[T]he continents swim [in the sea] ... All fixed land swims and the stars hold it in position.” [21]

◊ "The Earth cannot revolve around the Sun because meanwhile the Sun would move away from it. In reality, the Sun moves on, and the Earth and the other planets follow it." [22]

The Moon

◊ "[T]he moon, which has around it what we have in the interior of the earth, produced a thickish, horny mass on the outside. This is what we see when we look up. It is not like our mineral kingdom, but it is as if our mineral kingdom had become horn-like and turned into glass. It is extraordinarily hard, harder than anything horn-like that we have on earth, but it is not quite mineral. Hence the peculiar shape of the moon mountains; they actually all look like horns that have been fastened on.” 

◊ “[T]he moon today is like a fortress in the universe, in which there lives a population that fulfilled its human destiny over 15,000 years ago, after which it withdrew to the moon together with the spiritual guides of humanity.” 

◊ "[H]uman beings who have to pass after death into the Moon sphere...are unable to understand the Moon Beings."

◊ “Yahweh [Jehovah] resides on the Moon.” [23]

Mars

◊ “Mars is not densely solid in the sense in which today the earth is solid ... Mars today is in a condition similar to that of the earth in [an] earlier epoch ... [The] ‘human beings’ on Mars are as they were on the earth at that time — still without bones.”

◊ “Mars consists primarily of a more or less fluid mass ... [As for the canals:] There is nothing to be seen except straight lines ... [They are] something rather similar to our trade winds.”

◊ “The Buddha wandered away from earthly affairs to the realm of Mars. Until then Mars had been the chosen center of forces designated by the Greeks as fearfully warlike ... The Buddha Mystery on Mars did not take the same course as the Christ Mystery on earth, but Buddha, the Prince of Peace, who, during his last earthly life had spread peace and love wherever he went, was transferred to the belligerent realm of Mars.”

◊ "[T]he Buddha lives — quite really — on Mars." [24]

Since Mars figures so prominently in occultism as well as science fiction, let’s stay with it a moment or two longer. 

“Mars used to radiate different forces. The Mars culture that human beings experience between death and a new birth went through a great crisis in the earth’s fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ... When these conditions came into force on Mars, the natural consequence would have been for Mars to continue sending down to earth human beings who brought Copernican ideas with them, which are really only maya [i.e., illusion]. What we are seeing, then, is the decline of the Mars culture. Previously Mars had sent forth good forces. But now Mars sent forth more and more forces that would have led us deeper and deeper into maya. The achievements inspired by Mars at that time [i.e., Copernican ideas] were ingenious and clever, but they were maya all the same.” [25] 

You see, the illusion or “maya” created by Copernicus — silly ideas such as that the planets orbit the Sun — is a result of Martian influence.

Planetoids

"[M]any planetoids [i.e., asteroids] are interspersed between Mars and Jupiter ... They make up the region which in its spiritual aspect is experienced by a man after death because he cannot yet reach Jupiter. They have the remarkable characteristic of being spiritual colonies, as it were, of beings from Jupiter and Saturn who have withdrawn there.” [26]

Jupiter

◊ "Acquaintance with the Beings of the Jupiter-sphere makes a very remarkable impression ... The first impression is one of astonishment that Beings like those belonging to the Jupiter-sphere can exist at all... They are Beings who need not ‘learn’ anything ... [T]hey are already wise, supremely wise. They are never stupid, never unwise. They are as men on earth would often like to be ... These Beings on Jupiter are not ‘born’; they simply arise out of the whole organism of Jupiter. Rather in the way that we see clouds forming out of the atmosphere, so do these Beings arise out of Jupiter, and once they are there they can be regarded as embodied wisdom. Neither do they die; they are merely transformed, they undergo metamorphosis. Jupiter is in essence weaving wisdom. Picture yourselves standing, let us say, on the Rigi, and looking down at the clouds. And now imagine that you are looking, not upon weaving clouds of water-vapour but upon weaving wisdom itself, weaving thought-images which are actually Beings. — Then you will have an impression of Jupiter.“

◊ “Jupiter is the Thinker in our planetary system, and thinking is the activity cultivated by all the Beings in his cosmic domain. Creative thoughts received from the universe radiate to us from Jupiter. Jupiter contains, in the form of thoughts, all the formative forces for the different orders of cosmic Beings. Whereas Saturn tells of the past, Jupiter gives a living portrayal of what is connected with him in the cosmic present ... A man who has tried hard to apply clear thinking to some problem but cannot get to the root of it, will find, if he is patient and works inwardly at it, that the Jupiter powers will actually help him during the night. And many a one who has found a better solution for some problem during the night, as though out of dream...would have to admit, if he knew the truth, that it is the Jupiter powers who imbue human thinking with mobility and vigour ... Modern man has to depend more upon receiving the memory of Saturn and the wisdom of Jupiter separately in the course of his spiritual development.”

 ◊ "[W]e find in the Europeans, in their basic character, in their racial character, the Jupiter men.” [27]

Saturn

◊ "To the modern materialistic view of the cosmos, Saturn is observed merely as a body moving about in cosmic space; and the same with the other planets. This is not the case; for if we take [i.e., consider] Saturn, the outermost planet of our Universe [sic], we must represent him as the leader of our planetary system in cosmic space. He directs our system in space.”

◊ "[Saturn is] a kind of antithesis to the Moon ... The nature of Saturn is such that he receives many diverse impulses from the universe but allows none of them to stream back — at all events not to the Earth ...  Saturn is an entirely self-engrossed heavenly body in our planetary system, raying [i.e., sending] his own  being into the universe ... He speaks only of himself, tells us only what he himself is. And what  he is reveals itself gradually as a kind of memory of the planetary system.”

◊ “[T]he hosts of Beings indwelling Saturn lend their attention to the outer universe, but...they speak only of past  cosmic events. That is why Saturn is like a kaleidoscopic memory of our planetary system. As a faithful informant concerning what has come to pass in the planetary system, he [i.e., Saturn] holds its secrets of this kind within himself ...  Saturn is the constant tempter of those who listen to his secrets; he tempts them to give little heed to earthly affairs of today and to immerse themselves in what the Earth once was ... Those who have a particular inclination towards Saturn in earthly existence are people who like to be gazing always into the past, who are opposed to progress, who ever and again want to bring back the past." [28]

Basically, that's the entire solar system as described by Steiner. Steiner occasionally mentioned Uranus and Neptune, but not in a very helpful manner. Indeed, he denied that they were really members of the solar system. You see, the ancients spoke of seven planets, so Steiner wanted to stick with that. In particular, he wanted to stick, more or less, to Theosophy's "Seven Sacred Planets. They are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun (standing as a substitute for an invisible planet very near the sun, sometimes referred to as Vulcan), Venus, Mercury, and the Moon (also a substitute for an invisible planet)." [29] Or, as Steiner put it: 

"The Saturn sphere is really the last one that we...enter, since Uranus and Neptune do not enter our picture." [30] 

So, when he absolutely had to admit the existence of Uranus and Neptune, he refused to extend membership in the solar system to those worlds: 

"Then come Uranus and Neptune ... [T]hey circle much farther out and their orbits exhibit such irregularities that in reality they cannot be counted among the planets even today." [31] 

(Here, Steiner acknowledged that the planets travel in orbits. But he was speaking in public, when he felt a need to try to seem sensible.)

Just about the only use Steiner had for Neptune and Uranus came in working out horoscopes: 

"Now let us turn to the horoscope of the younger child. Again, here are Venus and Uranus and Mars near together ... [W]hen we examine more nearly [i.e., more closely] the position of Mars, we find it is not, as before, in complete opposition to the moon [i.e., Mars and the Moon are not exactly on opposite sides of the sky]. It is however very nearly so. Although the younger child does not come in for a complete opposition, there is an approximation of opposition." [32] 

Steiner wasn't into astronomy at all, really; he was into astrology.

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I realize how strange and even confusing Steiner's statements about stars and planets are. If nothing else, the thing to take away from all this is the recognition that Rudolf Steiner's followers — including many Waldorf school teachers — believe these strange and confusing ideas. Waldorf teachers may not express these ideas openly when teaching astronomy — but then again, they may. Note that the passages I quoted about planets traveling in line with the Sun come from the books DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS and FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, both of which were published in the series called "Foundations of Waldorf Education". Steiner told Waldorf teachers that the planets do not orbit the Sun. Some of the teachers had trouble with this proposition, but Steiner repeated it, driving it home. Waldorf teachers today, studying these books, may accept Steiner's word on astronomical matters as they accept it on almost all other matters. Steiner told them the deep truths about the universe (or so they believe). So, if these ideas are the truth, will Waldorf teachers withhold them from their students? Will they lie  to the students, indicating that Copernicus was right and Steiner was wrong? Some may do so. But others surely will not.

Let's clear up one more matter (if possible) before quitting. Sometimes when Steiner spoke of "planets," he meant planets such as we see in the sky today. But sometimes, as I mentioned previously, he meant something different: He meant stages in the evolution of the entire solar system. In Steiner's occult cosmology, "Old Saturn" was different from the Saturn that we see today (although sometimes Steiner spoke of "Saturn" when he meant Old Saturn, causing considerable confusion). Old Saturn was the first incarnation of the entire solar system. Prior to that, other states of being existed for the gods, but not for mankind, and not for anything else that came into existence with the first appearance of our solar system. There was, for us, nothing before the solar system originally burst into being. To put this another way, everything in the solar system — including us, in our first evolutionary form — originally incarnated in a condition or phase called "Old Saturn." (If you like, you could say that the forces of Saturn were predominant throughout the solar system as it existed at that time.) When that stage ended, the entire solar system blinked out of existence, only to reincarnate later in a phase called "Old Sun." Following Old Sun, everything in the solar system disappeared again, only to reincarnate in the stage called "Old Moon." It ended, everything went away, and then the solar system reappeared in a new form, i.e., in the "Present Earth" stage of evolution, which we are in now. When the Present Earth stage ends, everything will proceed to the Future Jupiter stage, then the Future Venus stage, and then the Future Vulcan stage.

OK? The planets that we see in the sky today are fragments of the various "planetary stages" of evolution, but they are not those stages per se. The planet Saturn, today, is not the ancient "Old Saturn" stage of evolution. It is the planet Saturn as it exists in the Present Earth stage of evolution. As such, it is a reincarnated fragment of Old Saturn that has survived (in a new form) in the new, Earth stage of evolution. Here is how Steiner tried to explain such things:

"Seen in the light of spiritual science [i.e., Anthroposophy], the present Saturn is a kind of reincarnation of Old Saturn. It came into existence because, before the Sun had separated from the Earth, Beings were there who would not have been able to leave with the Sun. They were so much imbued with Saturnian characteristics that they could not live where Solar properties above all were to be developed. So too the present Jupiter arose because Beings were there with characteristics which cosmic evolution as a whole will be unfolding in the future Jupiter and not till then. Mars on the other hand is a heavenly body inhabited by Beings whose evolution on Old Moon was such that they could not have benefited from any further progress upon Earth. Mars is a reincarnation of Old Moon on a higher level. The present Mercury is a dwelling-place for Beings who are ahead of earthly evolution in that they have developed certain earthly qualities in a higher form than is possible upon the Earth herself. Likewise the present Venus is a prophetic anticipation of the future Venus state." [3]

OK?

This is the Anthroposophical thinking that lies behind — and may infect, directly or indirectly — the astronomy taught in Waldorf schools.

— Roger Rawlings

Painting by a Waldorf student,

courtesy of 

People for Legal and Nonsectarian Schools.

Footnotes for the Foregoing Sections

(Scroll down for a link to additional sections.)

[1] Hermann von Baravalle, ASTRONOMY, An Introduction (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1991, revised 2000 by Norman Davidson).

In Waldorf belief, children repeat, in their own development, the evolutionary development of humanity as a whole. Sixth grade children are thought to stand at the evolutionary level of the ancient Romans (who were, according to Waldorf belief, far less evolved than we are today). Therefore, sixth graders should be given no information beyond what the ancient Romans knew. Judged by today's standards, this means vast swaths of real knowledge should be withheld. This consigns kids to effective ignorance.

[2] Ibid., p. 7.

[3] Ibid., p. 7. (Capitalization as shown — the quoted words are a section title.)

[4] Ibid., p. 29.

[5] Ibid., p. 35.

[6] Ibid., p. 37.

[7] Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 168.

Note that on other occasions, Steiner said the planets do  orbit the Sun. [See "Deception".] Coping with his contradictions is a challenge for his followers. One tip: Note whom he was addressing when he said this or that. When speaking more or less privately to his followers, he tended to make unashamedly oddball remarks (e.g., he said the planets do not orbit the Sun), but when speaking in public, he tended to conceal his nuttiest views (e.g., he said the planets do orbit the Sun).

[8] Ibid., p. 168.

This idea, that the planets and Sun move in a file with each other, bears no relation to the real movements of the Sun and planets.

[9] Steiner sometimes acknowledged the existence of Neptune and Uranus. Read on.

[10] Rudolf Steiner (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 30.

[11] Ibid., p. 30.

[12] Ibid., p. 31.

[13] Ibid., p. 30.

[14] A celestial pole is a theoretically fixed point in space directly above either of the Earth's poles. In this instance, Steiner was speaking of the north celestial pole.

The celestial sphere is “the apparent surface of the heavens, on which the stars seem to be fixed ... The Earth’s axis, extended to infinity, touches this sphere at the north and south celestial poles, around which the heavens seem to turn.” — “celestial sphere.” ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, Online, 20 Dec. 2008.

[15] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 30.

[16] Ibid., p. 30.

Finding contradictions in Steiner's works is easy; deciding what to make of them is something else. Anthroposophy is an exceedingly complex body of teachings, describing what Steiner said is an exceedingly complex spiritual reality. Sometimes "contradictions" in all this can be explained away as a necessary result of complexity — there are hidden, deep connections that rectify superficial conflicts. But sometimes this is not the case; sometimes we spot contradictions that seem to have no extenuation. Such instances reinforce the conclusion we may have already drawn from other evidence, that Steiner was perpetrating an exceedingly elaborate spiritual scam, trusting elaborations and obfuscations to shield him from criticism. His followers, in any case, often find justification for their devotion in the sheer, stunning complexity of the vision Steiner presented for their awed acceptance.

[17] The Sun is a vacuum: Rudolf Steiner, THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH AND MAN AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 143-144.

The Sun is the outward expression of Christ's physical presence: Rudolf Steiner, THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), pp. 65-6. This passage refers to the Sun as it was in times past. Christ, the Sun God, later left the Sun and came to Earth, according to Steiner. 

[18] Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY: Prehistory of Earth and Man (SteinerBooks, 1987), p. 163. 

Steiner referred to many "planets," including Vulcan, as both physical planets and, more essentially, as stages of human evolution. We lived, or will live, "on" planets such as Saturn and Vulcan during the corresponding evolutionary stages, but those planets were, or will be, very different from the planets we see in the sky today (or don't see, as in the case of fictitious Vulcan). His reference here is to the Vulcan stage of evolution. Whether Steiner believed that a planet called Vulcan actually exists in the solar system today may not be entirely clear — but it nearly is. He almost certainly did. [See "Vulcan".]

[19] Mercury is not interested: Rudolf Steiner, “The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets” (THE GOLDEN BLADE, 1988), GA 228. (Steiner refers to Mercury as if it were the god Mercury, but also as the habitation of spiritual initiates called "Masters.")

The Mercury race: Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 101. (Here, Steiner identifies various gods living on or around Mercury.)

[20] Venus is Lucifer's husk: Rudolf Steiner, WONDERS OF THE WORLD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983), p. 77.

Venus is an anticipation: Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), pp. 328-329. (The planet Venus is a foretaste of the Future Venus stage of evolution.)

[21] The Earth is alive: Rudolf Steiner, ESSENTIALS OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1926), p. 64. 

The Earth was alive: Rudolf Steiner's FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), editors’ synopsis, p. vii. 

The Earth has emotions: Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 132. (Steiner was adressing Waldorf students.)

One layer of the Earth is the "Fire Earth": Rudolf Steiner, THE INTERIOR OF THE EARTH (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007), p. 31. 

The Earth is a rounded tetrahedron: Rudolf Steiner, FROM SUNSPOTS TO STRAWBERRIES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), p. 185. 

Continents float: Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 617.

[22] Steiner sometimes acknowledged that the Earth orbits the Sun, but at other times he denied it. The quotation here applies to all the planets, not just the Earth: Rudolf Steiner, THE FOURTH DIMENSION (Anthroposophic Press, 2001), p. 128.

[23]  Horny, glassy Moon: Rudolf Steiner, THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH AND MAN AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), GA 354, p. 26.

The Moon is a fortress: Rudolf Steiner, RUDOLF STEINER SPEAKS TO THE BRITISH (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 93.

Moon Beings: Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, Vol. 2 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1974), pp. 150-151.

Jehovah lives on the Moon: Rudolf Steiner, SLEEP AND DREAMS (SteinerBooks, 2003), p. 43.

[24] Boneless Martians humans:  Rudolf Steiner, THE EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH AND MAN AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1987), GA 354, lecture 10, Sept. 9, 1924.

Mars is liquid, with winds looking like canals:  Rudolf Steiner, FROM SUNSPOTS TO STRAWBERRIES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002), pp. 147-148. 

Buddha went to Mars: Rudolf Steiner, LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH (SteinerBooks, 1985), p. 207.

Buddha is on Mars now:  Rudolf Steiner, MAN IN THE LIGHT OF OCCULTISM, THEOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1964), lecture 10, GA 137.

[25] Rudolf Steiner, ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY AND THE MISSION OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), p. 289.

[26]  Rudolf Steiner, The EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 10, GA 227.

[27] Beings of the Jupiter-sphere:  Rudolf Steiner, KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS, Vol. 2, lecture 12, GA 236.

Jupiter is the thinker:  Rudolf Steiner, “The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets” (THE GOLDEN BLADE, 1988), a lecture, GA 228.

Jupiter race:  Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF FOLK-SOULS (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1929), lecture 6, GA 121.

[28] Saturn is the leader: Rudolf Steiner, MAN - HIEROGLYPH OF THE UNIVERSE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), lecture 9, GA 201.

Antithesis of the Moon: Rudolf Steiner, “The Spiritual Individualities of the Planets” (THE GOLDEN BLADE, 1988), a lecture, GA 228.

Hosts of Saturn: ibid.

[29] Andrew Rooke, The Solar System: Perspectives from Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science

[http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/37-87-8/sc-rooke.htm].

[30] Rudolf Steiner, AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE: Exploring Our Suprasensory Nature (SteinerBooks, 2000), p. 74.

[31] Rudolf Steiner, FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p. 290.

[32] Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 196.

[33] Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE  (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), pp. 328-329.

Also see "Everything", "Matters of Form", and "Stages".

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