Anthroposophy is not a religion, not a set of spiritual beliefs, but a path one can walk down to develop themselves (and apply the fruits of this self-development to many practical fields) to have a clear understanding of the spiritual (extra-physical) world(s).
But you don’t have to read and “follow” the work of Rudolf Steiner or later Anthroposophists to be an Anthroposophist. Everyone has their own path and their own calling.
An Anthroposophist is someone who is balanced, not succumbing to forces that wish to divert them from what they believe is the highest good. An Anthroposophist is someone who occasionally conducts spiritual-scientific experiments into the nature of reality, not with beakers and flasks, but by developing one’s inner faculties, using yourself as the instrument. An Anthroposophist is someone who has identified the highest good, thought about it from all angles, and works in furtherance of that highest good for themselves and for society. An Anthroposophist is someone who uses the warmth of spirituality and the light of science and reason to come to sound conclusions. (just to name a few definitions. none are 100% true or false.)
In Anthroposophy, we recognise that dogma and doctrine is (basically) not very good. People have freedom and that should be respected! Is something true? For someone to realise that something is true, they must find that out and realise it for themselves! No attempt to force someone else, or even yourself to believe something will work, and it will cause harm!
We no longer want to believe; we want to know. Belief demands the acceptance of truths that we do not fully understand. What is not clearly understood goes against our individuality that wants to experience everything in the depths of its inner core. The only knowing that satisfies us is the kind that submits to no external norm, but springs from the inner life of the personality.
Nor do we want the kind of knowledge that has been encased in rigid academic rules, and stored away as valid for all time. Each of us claims the right to start from the facts we know, from our own direct experience, and from there advance to knowledge of the whole universe. We strive for certainty in knowledge, but each in his own way.
Today, no one should be compelled to understand. We expect neither recognition or agreement from anyone who is not driven to a certain view by his own distinct individual need. We do not want to cram facts of knowledge into an immature person, or even a child. We try rather to develop the child’s capacities in such a way that his understanding no longer depends on our compulsion, but on his own will to understand.
– Rudolf Steiner
A very important part of Anthroposophy is freedom. People have freedom, and people deserve freedom. In today’s society, freedom is taken away almost all the time, even in places we might not realise at first glance. Buy this soap! Go to school! No elbows on the table! And there are some things that people do need to do, but freedom is being taken either way. We are getting used to it.
Unlike Theosophy for example, Anthroposophy does not only look up into the cosmos and forget about or cast aside the Material which is so obviously there, it understands and recognises the importance of both, something which is often lost by other spiritual movements.
The negative spiritual forces are not there to be destroyed or to be defeated, they are there to be redeemed and refined. There is no good in thinking humans are thoughtless clockwork machines, and there is also no good in giving in to spiritual bliss and dissapearing into the cosmos. But with the understanding that both things are there, both things are real, but if one is allowed to take over, it will. Finding a balance and standing steadfast in that balance is extremely important.
Through the spiritual-scientific investigations of Rudolf Steiner (though we should always value truth over people, these results are replicatable), we know a few things. We know about the nature of parts of the spiritual world, we know about the four parts of the human being and we know what to do to develop ourselves in order to develop ourselves and our higher faculties, to name a few things.
I won’t go into this too much, but there are generally four parts that make up each human;
- Physical
- Etheric
- Astral
- “I” or Ego (ego not used in the modern sense)
The thing that we are dealing with in this age is the “I”. It’s quite hard to explain in any other way than “IT’S YOU!” and it’s the thing we need to be devleoping and thinking about more and more.
AND; there are many practical applications of Spiritual Science that do real good on the ground. To name a few; Biodynamic Agriculture, looking at natural cycles and creating food that is essentially like organic++! Waldorf education, schools that attempt to create free people who can think for themselves and have a full education in all areas. Camphill, Eurythmy, and a whole lot more! This is almost a seperate rabbit hole.
Does this all sound cool? If it doesn’t, that’s fine! If it does, there’s a whole lot more where this came from! Want to talk about it on Discord? Click here. Want to read some detailed stuff? Click here.
PS; No, racism isn’t a “core part of anthroposophy”, it is the opposite! I would like to not have to bring this up but unfortunately lots of sensationalist articles state that Anthroposophy is super racist. Click here for more info on that topic.