Editing Anthroposophy (section)

==Central ideas==

===Spiritual knowledge and freedom===
Anthroposophical proponents aim to extend the clarity of the [[scientific method]] to phenomena of human soul-life and spiritual experiences. Steiner believed this required developing new faculties of objective spiritual perception, which he maintained was still possible for contemporary humans. The steps of this process of inner development he identified as consciously achieved ''[[imagination]]'', ''[[:wikt:inspiration|inspiration]]'', and ''[[Intuition (knowledge)|intuition]]''.<ref name="Schneider">{{Cite book |last=Schneider |first=Peter |title=Einführung in die Waldorfpädagogik |date=1985 |publisher=Klett-Cotta |isbn=3-608-93006-X |publication-place=Stuttgart |language=de}}</ref> Steiner believed results of this form of spiritual research should be expressed in a way that can be understood and evaluated on the same basis as the results of natural science.<ref name="Willmann" /><ref name="Schneider20" />

Steiner hoped to form a spiritual movement that would free the individual from any external authority.<ref name="Schneider20">{{harvnb|Schneider|1985|pp=20–21}}, Schneider quotes here from Steiner's dissertation, ''Truth and Knowledge''</ref> For Steiner, the human capacity for [[rationality|rational]] thought would allow individuals to comprehend spiritual research on their own and bypass the danger of dependency on an authority such as himself.<ref name="Schneider20" />

Steiner contrasted the anthroposophical approach with both conventional [[mysticism]], which he considered lacking the clarity necessary for exact knowledge, and [[natural science]], which he considered arbitrarily limited to what can be seen, heard, or felt with the outward senses.

===Nature of the human being===
[[File:Representative of humanity.gif|thumb|upright|''The Representative of Humanity'', detail of a sculpture in wood by Rudolf Steiner and [[Edith Maryon]]<ref name="EM" />]]

In ''Theosophy'', Steiner suggested that human beings unite a ''physical body'' of substances gathered from and returning to the inorganic world; a ''life body'' (also called the [[etheric body]]), in common with all living creatures (including plants); a bearer of [[sentience]] or [[consciousness]] (also called the [[astral body]]), in common with all [[animal]]s; and the ego, which anchors the faculty of self-awareness unique to human beings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steiner |first=Rudolf |author-link=Rudolf Steiner |url=https://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA009/English/AP1971/GA009_c01_4.html |title=Theosophy – An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man |date=1922 |publisher=Martino Fine Books |isbn=1614270503 |page=<!-- or pages= --> |chapter=The Essential Nature of Man}}</ref>

Anthroposophy describes a broad evolution of human consciousness. Early stages of human evolution possess an intuitive perception of reality, including a [[clairvoyance|clairvoyant]] perception of spiritual realities. Humanity has progressively evolved an increasing reliance on [[intellect]]ual faculties and a corresponding loss of intuitive or clairvoyant experiences, which have become [[atavism|atavistic]]. The increasing intellectualization of consciousness, initially a progressive direction of evolution, has led to an excessive reliance on [[abstraction]] and a loss of contact with both natural and spiritual realities. However, to go further requires new capacities that combine the clarity of intellectual thought with the imagination and with consciously achieved inspiration and [[Intuition (knowledge)|intuitive]] insights.<ref name="RAMcD">{{Cite book |last=McDermott |first=Robert A. |title=Modern Esoteric Spirituality |date=1995 |publisher=Crossroad Publishing |isbn=978-0-8245-1444-0 |editor-last=Faivre |editor-first=Antoine |publication-place=New York |pages=299–301; 288ff |chapter=Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy |editor-last2=Needleman |editor-first2=Jacob |editor-last3=Voss |editor-first3=Karen}}</ref>

Anthroposophy speaks of the reincarnation of the human spirit: that the human being passes between stages of existence, incarnating into an earthly body, living on earth, leaving the body behind, and entering into the spiritual worlds before returning to be born again into a new life on earth. After the [[death]] of the physical body, the human spirit recapitulates the past life, perceiving its events as they were experienced by the objects of its actions. A complex transformation takes place between the review of the past life and the preparation for the next life. The individual's [[karmic]] condition eventually leads to a choice of parents, physical body, disposition, and capacities that provide the challenges and opportunities that further development requires, which includes karmically chosen tasks for the future life.<ref name=RAMcD/>

Steiner described some conditions that determine the interdependence of a person's lives, or [[karma]].<ref>Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy, {{ISBN|0-85440-269-1}}</ref><ref>Rudolf Steiner, An Outline of Esoteric Science, {{ISBN|0-88010-409-0}}</ref>

====Evolution====
The anthroposophical view of [[evolution]] considers all [[animals]] to have evolved from an early, unspecialized form. As the least specialized animal, human beings have maintained the closest connection to the archetypal form;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Verhulst |first=Jos |title=Developmental Dynamics |publisher=Adonis Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-932776-28-0 |location=Ghent, NY |pages=24–25}}</ref> contrary to the Darwinian conception of human evolution, all other animals ''devolve'' from this archetype.<ref name="Trevelyan 1981 p. ">{{Cite book |last=Trevelyan |first=George |title=Operation Redemption: A Vision of Hope in an Age of Turmoil |date=1981 |publisher=Turnstone |isbn=978-0-85500-150-6 |pages=117–118}}</ref> The spiritual archetype originally created by spiritual beings was devoid of physical substance; only later did this descend into material existence on Earth.<ref>Steiner, ''Man as Symphony of the Creative Word'' and ''Occult Science''</ref> In this view, human evolution has accompanied the Earth's evolution throughout the existence of the Earth.

{{Blockquote|The evolution of man, Steiner said, has consisted in the gradual incarnation of a spiritual being into a material body. It has been a true "descent" of man from a spiritual world into a world of matter. The evolution of the animal kingdom did not precede, but rather ''accompanied'' the process of human incarnation. Man is thus not the end result of the evolution of the animals, but is rather in a certain sense their ''cause''. In the succession of types which appears in the fossil record-the fishes, reptiles, mammals, and finally fossil remains of man himself — the stages of this process of incarnation are reflected.<ref name="Harwood 1961 p. ">{{Cite book |last=Waterman |first=John |title=The Faithful Thinker: Centenary Essays on the Work and Thought of Rudolf Steiner, 1861-1925 |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |year=1961 |editor-last=Harwood |editor-first=A.C. |page=45 |chapter=Evolution and The Image of Man |access-date=16 March 2024 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHASSQAACAAJ}}</ref>}}

Anthroposophy adapted [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy]]'s complex system of cycles of world development and human evolution. The evolution of the world is said to have occurred in cycles. The first phase of the world consisted only of heat. In the second phase, a more active condition, light, and a more condensed, gaseous state separate out from the heat. In the third phase, a fluid state arose, as well as a sounding, forming energy. In the fourth (current) phase, solid physical matter first exists. This process is said to have been accompanied by an evolution of consciousness which led up to present human culture.

===Ethics===
The anthroposophical view is that good is found in the balance between two polar influences on world and human evolution. These are often described through their mythological embodiments as spiritual adversaries which endeavour to tempt and corrupt humanity, [[Lucifer]] and his counterpart [[Ahriman]]. These have both positive and negative aspects. Lucifer is the light spirit, which "plays on human pride and offers the delusion of divinity", but also motivates [[creativity]] and [[spirituality]]; Ahriman is the dark spirit that tempts human beings to "...deny [their] link with divinity and to live [[materialism|entirely on the material plane]]", but that also stimulates intellectuality and [[technology]]. Both figures exert a negative effect on humanity when their influence becomes misplaced or one-sided, yet their influences are necessary for human freedom to unfold.<ref name="Essential" /><ref name="Willmann" />

Each human being has the task to find a balance between these opposing influences, and each is helped in this task by the mediation of the ''Representative of Humanity'', also known as the Christ being, a spiritual entity who stands between and harmonizes the two extremes.<ref name="Willmann" />