Rudolf Steiner was pretty based, any of you /x/-philes waldorf-schoolers?
For those inevitable haters, i am not defending the waldorf-school system entirely, it has a lot of flaws and many teachers in waldorf schools are just as sucky as goverment run schools.
Steiner was pretty interesting nonetheless, he was an avid theosophe and did a lot of good work, combining the old spiritual traditions with a modern scintentific language.
He also spends a lot of time in his biographical work trying to dismiss his strong connection with OTO. I find this interesting since i was subjected to his method of education and without any real insight into what he based it on etc. My interest was peaked much later in life after a year of rigorous martial arts practice and after that a lot of psychedelic experiences that got me into traditional mysticism.
>What i would like to know is if there are some connection with interest in the paranormal/spiritual and waldorf education.
>>17899683
Woah, someone mentions my ancestor.
Props anon.
>>17899684
Wow, thats amazing!
It's a great pleasure to have you in this thread then. Your ancestor was a wise man and i can't thank him enough.
What amazes me is that he managed to create an educational system which just relies on humanism and and deep compassion for the human nature. Let people say what they want about the more mystical aspects of his teachings. If you ask me he went a long way in reinventing conventional education.
>How are you related if i might ask? Steiner-senpai?
>>17899709
Don't call me Steiner Senpai...
I'm not worthy of his name or work. I'm just a regular Joe.
How I am related to him was lost in a fire, if I recall the story correctly. My great grandfather constructed a family tree, which my father remembers in vivid detail, but could never really recreate it. Either out of the lack of time or other stuff.
>>17899954
>Don't call me Steiner Senpai...
Sorry
Thats still pretty interesting, do you know anything about his work? Any other connections, did you go to waldorf school?
>>17900044
Nope. Never went there.
Didn't research much about him other than surface stuff, just so that I don't seem like a complete and total idiot, even though I still feel like one for not knowing much about a man connected to me.
There's probably someone else related to him more worth the spot anyway.
>>17899683
Sounds like a fair enough apology, comparable say to the relationship between Christ and the Church. I don't put much stock in Theosophy in general, but I appreciate how he was one of the few syncretists in history to acknowledge Manichaeism & use it as input for their own system.
>>17900048
The thing about Steiner in general is his work is hard to understand. I blame the discrepancy between his work and a lot of the legacy on the sheer difficulty of his texts. Don't feel bad i think theres only a handful of waldorf people that really understand him anyways.
From what you write you at least inherited his sense of humility, which to me is a human property worth its weight in wisdom. Thanks
>>17900056
>I don't put much stock in Theosophy
I don't think he did either, but he found an audience in the thoesophic society. I don't really know to much about mani to be honest.
What i do know is that he took great care not to mix to much of the eastern traditions in with his teachings, his work is almost stricly western in nature. The Rosenkreutz teachings was a great inspiration to him and of course Goethe, which was his muse.
>>17900075
I guess, summarize his work for me? I mean, i scratched Wikipedia, but I'm not Christian, I'm Rodnovery. Yet, from what I gathered, his work was interesting.
>>17900075
Manichaeism is a personal interest of mine, I find it intriguing in that it can be called only truly world religion to have died out (read: been persecuted out of existence), that it was a syncretism of the major world religions of the time (Christianity, Zoroastrianism & Buddhism/Jainism) and that it is the final culmination of Gnosticism from an amorphous collection of heretical Christian sects to an independent religion in its own right.
My source for the affinity between Manichaeism and Steiner:
>Steiner evaluated Mani highly, and wrote he is greater than Zoroaster, Prince Gautama and Scythianos (Steiner. Der Orient im Licht des Okzidents, p217). He prophesized that souls of the Manichaeans and the Neo-manichaeans (the Bogomils and the Cathars) will reincarnate to become members of Anthroposophical movement in 20th century (Steiner. Karma of Anthroposophical Movement , p169). Therefore Steiner school may be said to be a modernized Manichaean sect within Theosophy.
>>17900107
Forgot actual source
http://www.shamogoloparvaneh.com/Theosophy_A_Modern_Revival_of_the_Simorghian_Culture.pdf
>>17900090
It's a hard task to summerize his teachings, which came to be known as antroposophy. But it is easy to see why he put a lot of value in Manichaeism. When i think about it i have read about manichaeism in connection to the gnostic traditions. His views on christianity is interesting to say the least.
After finishing his philosophy phd he joined the "Giordano Bruno-society", where he shared his views on philosophical monism. He had found an arena but a lot of the people didn't like his mentioning of Thomas Aquinas's catholic monistic thought. This is where his non-conformity and great sense of dualism really stars to show. He then joined the theosophes and after a lecture on Nietzsche he got asked to keep lecturing and after a while got a leading position in the newly started german chapter. He found a lot of supporters within the theosophe circles but he was opposed to some of the eastern impulses (Krishnamurti for example)
I don't know every detail on his view of christianity and what i do know is pretty far out (Like his belief that there were two jesuses born at the same time and by parents both called Josef and Maria, one lost her child and adopted the other, which inherited this christ spirit when he was baptized). but i know he believed in the powerful spiritual impulse he called the "christ-spirit".
The break with the theosophes came after Leadbetter and Besant became infatuated with the "Star in the east" movement which Steiner opposed and finally started his antroposophic society.
>>17900107
An amazingly interesting source, thank you.
I went to a Waldorf school. I'd say the earlier poster was correct in saying most students come out of it seasoned occultists or even care. I'd be happy to answer any questions though if I can.
>>17900559
>I'd say the earlier poster was correct in saying most students come out of it seasoned occultists
Kek
But what do you remember from it? I like how in my school very little of the actual essence of Steiners work came trough, i felt subjected to the mechanics of it somehow. Does this seem right to you? I know the actual waldorf schools differ alot so it would be cool to hear other peoples experiences...
>>17900741
Err, I meant didn't become occultists mb. Though desu I was a hardcore atheist going in but got into paganism/occultism as a result of my time there so ymmv.
I talked at length with my advisor/other teachers about Steiner's thought when we were shooting the shit. About how Christ represents the balance between the Luciferian and Ahirmanic principles. Also some rudimentary ideas behind Theosophy such as root races, and how Steiner believed Americans would become a super race with best qualities of all the world's races.
There were other things too which jelled with that atmosphere. My best friend was a heathen and got me into Asatru (ironically I got him into metal, lol). Being into heathen stuff was in many ways icing on the cake with all the German stuff/nature worship stuff they did.
Cont...
>>17901168
They loved Goethe a lot of course. We had a class on Faust and one day my German teacher came in and acted out Dr. Faustus' soliloquy in the original. Far out stuff.
In hindsight I suspect he was secretly a Nazi (or at least a Strasserist/NPD supporter). One of my friends got him to sing the banned first verse of the German anthem, and I actually got him to sing Horst-Wessel Lied. He said his grandpa used to sing all those old songs all the time. He even made us go marching one time.
Another time we were chilling in the school library and he helped me translate Soviet/Nazi propaganda posters I collected from /b/ (for srs, he was super excited). It was around that time he lamented if the USSR/Germany had only teamed up "we would have been unstoppable". When I then cracked a joke about how I was impressed he didn't think I was going to shoot up the school because of my dank propaganda folder, he said that he knew I understood the Nordic spirit and that commiting suicide in such a cowardly way was un-German
>>17901168
>Err, I meant didn't become occultists mb.
Sorry, i must have misread
Your german teacher sounds cool man!
I get the feeling that they shared a lot more of the actual teachings of steiner with you though. I went trought seven years without hearing anything concrete about Lucifer/Ahriman. We also had faust of course, that one is probably hard to avoid. Since i went to norwegian waldorf school we also had alot of norse mythology. Did you read Gilgamesh?
>>17902433
>norwegian waldorf school
Hälsningar min vän! Finns det många Waldorfskolor i Norge?
I went to an American school so we didn't focus on it as much and all the Germans we had meant we focused on Parzival a lot more with grail mysticism and obligatory Goethe fapping. We did indeed have Gilgamesh, though we didn't go nearly as in depth with that.
>>17902740
Hilser tilbake sota bror!
A few years back i visited jarna in sweden, in connection to working in a waldorf kindergarten in Norway. If you havent been you should check it out.
There are a good few waldorf-schools in Norway and a few famous people connected to them. Bjorneboe, the writer was a teacher in a Norwegian waldorf school in Oslo.
I remember the period on Parzival as an amazing time. We also did a large play about st.michael with horses and real swords and armor aah good times...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So8F3QToniI
>>17899683
I went to one of the Waldorf Schools up in the mountains. It wasn't bad, though there was a distinct lack of discipline that rubbed me the wrong way. I guess it makes for more inquisitive minds and less restricted thinkers, but kids are bastards without a firm hand.
