Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

=== Theosophical Society ===
{{Main|Rudolf Steiner and the Theosophical Society}}
[[File:Steiner mit Annie Besant.jpg|right|thumb|Rudolf Steiner in Munich with Annie Besant, leader of the Theosophical Society. Photo from 1907]]
[[File:Marie Steiner.jpg|upright|thumb|Marie Steiner, 1903]]
In 1899, Steiner published an article, "Goethe's Secret Revelation", discussing the esoteric nature of Goethe's fairy tale ''[[The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily]]''. This article led to an invitation by the Count and Countess Brockdorff to speak to a gathering of [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophists]] on the subject of Nietzsche. Steiner continued speaking regularly to the members of the [[Theosophical Society Adyar|Theosophical Society]], becoming the head of its newly constituted German section in 1902 without ever formally joining the society.<ref name=RAMcD/><ref name=Ravagli/> It was also in connection with this society that Steiner met and worked with [[Marie von Sivers]], who became his second wife in 1914. By 1904, Steiner was appointed by [[Annie Besant]] to be leader of the Theosophical ''Esoteric Society'' for Germany and Austria. In 1904, Eliza, the wife of [[Helmuth von Moltke the Younger]], became one of his favourite scholars.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meyer |first=Thomas |title=Helmuth von Moltke, Light for the new millennium: Rudolf Steiner's association with Helmuth and Eliza von Moltke: letters, documents and after-death communications |publisher=Rudolf Steiner Press |year=1997 |isbn=1-85584-051-0 |location=London |language=en}}</ref> Through Eliza, Steiner met Helmuth, who served as the [[German General Staff|Chief of the German General Staff]] from 1906 to 1914.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mombauer |first=Annika |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0521791014 |title=Helmuth Von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War |date=19 April 2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521019569 |language=en |access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref>

Anna Eunicke was not pleased that her husband, having previously the reputation of a liberal academic, now joined the cult of a charlatan.{{sfn|Lachman|2007|p=135}}

In contrast to mainstream Theosophy, Steiner sought to build a Western approach to spirituality based on the philosophical and mystical traditions of European culture. The German Section of the Theosophical Society grew rapidly under Steiner's leadership as he lectured throughout much of Europe on his [[spiritual science]]. During this period, Steiner maintained an original approach, replacing [[H. P. Blavatsky|Madame Blavatsky]]'s terminology with his own, and basing his spiritual research and teachings upon the Western esoteric and philosophical tradition. This and other differences, in particular Steiner's vocal rejection of [[C. W. Leadbeater|Leadbeater]] and [[Annie Besant|Besant]]'s claim that [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]] was the vehicle of a new ''Maitreya'', or world teacher,<ref>See Lutyens, Mary (2005). J. Krishnamurti: A Life. New Delhi: Penguin Books India. {{ISBN|0-14-400006-7}}</ref> led to a formal split in 1912–13,<ref name=RAMcD/> when Steiner and the majority of members of the German section of the Theosophical Society broke off to form a new group, the [[Anthroposophical Society]]. Steiner took the name "Anthroposophy" from the title of a work of the Austrian philosopher [[Robert von Zimmermann]], published in Vienna in 1856.<ref>Zimmermann's ''Geschichte der Aesthetik als philosophische Wissenschaft.: Anthroposophie im Umriss-Entwurf eines Systems idealer Weltansicht auf realistischer Grundlage'': Steiner, ''Anthroposophic Movement'': Lecture Two: ''The Unveiling of Spiritual Truths'', 11 June 1923.[http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA258/English/RSP1993/19230611p01.html]. Steiner took the name but not the limitations on knowledge which Zimmerman proposed. Steiner, ''The Riddles of Philosophy'' (1914), Chapter VI, "Modern Idealistic World Conceptions" [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA018/English/AP1973/GA018_p02c06.html]</ref> Despite his departure from the Theosophical Society, Steiner maintained his interest in Theosophy throughout his life.<ref name="RSLib">{{Cite journal |last=Paull |first=John |year=2018 |title=The Library of Rudolf Steiner: The Books in English |journal=Journal of Social and Development Sciences |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=21–46 |doi=10.22610/jsds.v9i3.2475 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

According to Helmut Zander, Steiner's clairvoyant insights always developed according to the same pattern. He took revised texts from theosophical literature and then passed them off as his own higher insights. Because he did not want to be an occult storyteller, but a (spiritual) scientist, he adapted his reading, which he had seen supernaturally in the world's memory, to the current state of technology. When, for example, the [[Wright brothers]] began flying with gliders and eventually with motorized aircraft in 1903, Steiner transformed the ponderous gondola airships of his Atlantis story into airplanes with elevators and rudders in 1904.{{sfn|Zander|2011|pages=191ff}} Mainstream historians have lambasted Steiner's accounts about Lemuria and Atlantis as pseudohistory.<ref name="Staudenmaier 2014 p. "/>