“This is what gives art its essential lustre:
it transplants us here and now into the spiritual world.”
— Rudolf Steiner [1]
MAGICAL ARTS:
What Lies Behind the Arts at Waldorf Schools
Waldorf schools place great emphasis on the arts. The rationale is not aesthetic. Rather, Rudolf Steiner taught that various art forms have spiritual, even magical, properties.
Eurythmy
For Steiner, the highest art was eurythmy (which, not coincidentally, he invented). Eurythmy is a form of bodily movement that looks a bit like slow-motion modern dance, but that is actually intended to teach the proper stances to manifest spiritual states of being — calling upon influences from past lives and preparing the basis for future lives. According to Steiner, eurythmy enables the physical body to make direct connection with the spiritual realm. Our physical bodies are, in a sense, merely tools that enable us to do eurythmy. Eurythmy gives us access to aspects of our previous lives, and it creates — in our limbs — effects that will carry over into our next lives. (If some of the following quotations seem nonsensical, don’t worry: They are. It’s just the price one pays for reading Steiner.)
“In a certain sense, we take from earthly life only the physical medium, the actual human being who is the tool or instrument for eurythmy. But we allow this human being to make manifest what we study inwardly, what is already prepared in us as a result of previous lives; we transfer this to our limbs, which are the part of us where life after death is being shaped in advance. Eurythmy shapes and moves the human organism in a way that furnishes direct external proof of our participation in the supersensible world. In having people do eurythmy, we link them directly to the supersensible world.” [2]
At the Waldorf school that I attended, we did eurythmy while manipulating therapeutic copper rods and holding our pelvises strictly still. Occasionally, we prepared eurythmic performances for school assemblies. In my class’s first such performance (coming in about the third or fourth grade), we enacted the creation of the world — the emergence of light, the separation of light from darkness, the separation of dry land from the waters, and so on. We portrayed angels and archangels and the fulfillment of God’s commands. (In a wholly nonsectarian, non-denominational way, of course. “Waldorfs have no religion agenda.” Please.)
Painting
Crucial as eurythmy may be, other forms of art are also emphasized at Waldorf schools. At my school, we were taught to produce misty watercolor paintings with no straight lines or clear definitions. This was wet-on-wet watercoloring (wet brushes spreading watery paint over wet paper), a technique that effectively prevents a child from creating recognizable images of the real world. There was certainly something otherworldly about the images we created, bearing no resemblance to ordinary physical reality, yet completely unlike the stick-figure cartoons that kids often produce. The teachers didn’t say so, but our paintings were in effect talismanic representations of the spirit realm — rich in color but devoid of harsh lines and clear-cut forms:
“You see, when the soul arrives on earth in order to enter its body, it has come down from spirit-soul worlds in which there are no spatial forms. Thus the soul knows spatial forms only after its bodily experience, only while the aftereffects of space still linger on [i.e., only after birth in the physical plane, but while memories of the spirit realm linger] ... But though the world from which the soul descends has no spatial forms or lines, it does have color intensities, color qualities. Which is to say that the world man inhabits between death and a new birth (and which I have frequently and recently described) [Steiner is talking about reincarnation] is a soul-permeated, spirit-permeated world of light, of color, of tone; a world of qualities not quantities; a world of intensities rather than extensions.” [3]
The paints we used in our watercoloring were, from an Anthroposophical perspective, magical: Their hues provided entree into the spirit realm while simultaneously providing spiritual beings with access to our world. “We have seen that colours ... are windows through which we can ascend spiritually into the spiritual world....” [4] Children using colorful paints are being directed toward such windows, according to Steiner. But, also, the colors bring spirit entities into the room. Thus, a clairvoyant can find different spiritual beings in a rooms of varying colors: “In a red room, other beings become visible than in a blue room .... ” [5] The use of color, in other words, is supposed to be a major part of a child’s spiritual training. This also helps explain why Waldorf classrooms are often painted in varying colors, here a beige room, there a pink or green room. The colored walls are meant to pull the students into varying spiritual states: “Imagine we look at a surface shining all over with the same shade of strong vermilion ... We shall not be able to help feeling that this whole red world permeates us ... In this infinite red space we shall be able to feel as though before the judgment of God ... Suppose we do the same with a more orange surface, we shall feel that what comes to meet us ... wants to arm us with inner strength ... With a yellow surface we feel as though transported back to the beginning of our cycle of time ... our first earthly incarnation ... If we accompany green into the world ... we experience and inner increase in strength in what we are in this incarnation ... With a blue surface you would [feel the desire] to overcome your egoism....” [6]
The main point for us here is that, at Waldorf schools, colors are not used for art’s sake. Instead, the students are led to perform actions, such as painting, that are intended to lead them toward occult spiritual “truths.” And they do this in rooms that are often intended to direct particular spiritual entities toward them. If you are a believer in spiritual entities and states, you may like the sound of all this. But perhaps you should ask yourself whether Steiner’s versions of these matters are consistent with yours. If you are an orthodox Christian, Muslim, or Jew, they are not. Belief in reincarnation, to give just one example, is not a tenet of those faiths.
Music
As you might expect, music is also not simply an art, according to Rudolf Steiner. It is steeped in mystical power. A music class, like a painting class, like a eurythmy class, is actually a cultic ritual — or so Steiner intended.
Steiner explained that composers get their musical ideas while asleep, during which time the higher parts of their beings leave their physical bodies and travel into the spirit world. “When a man falls asleep, his astral body [a nonphysical human body — don’t worry about it] goes out from his physical body, his soul then lives in the devachanic world [a Theosophical term for Heaven - don’t worry about it]. Its harmonies make an impression on his soul .... The composer ... takes his model from the spiritual world. He has in himself harmonies which he translates into physical terms. That is the secret connection between the music which resounds in the physical world and the hearing of spiritual music during the night ....” [7] Note Steiner’s use of the word “secret.” Occultism centers on secrets: Knowledge that initiates have but the rest of us don’t. This is the basis of Steiner’s claim to being a spiritual guide: He possessed secrets. To a lesser extent, Waldorf teachers who are devoted to Steiner’s doctrines believe that they share such secrets. And secrets don’t remain secret if they are revealed to others, for instance to you.
In WaldorfWorld, people who play or listen to music are being lured toward occult spiritual experiences. “[O]n listening to music, he has an inkling ... of the spiritual world.” [8] Steiner is speaking, here, of the composer listening to music. But other listeners share a similar spiritual experience: Composers are not the only ones who hear spiritual harmonies at night. Children in a Waldorf music class are actually being ushered toward esoteric mysteries. Steiner taught that musical tones operate much like colors, providing access to the spirit realm. Bear in mind that Steiner wasn’t speaking metaphorically or vaguely, he meant this quite literally. A child listening to or making music is moved to the occult world of spirits. “The world of sound will deepen and enliven the life of the soul in a very similar way ... We shall experience the tone [i.e., a musical note] as an opening made by the gods from the spiritual world, and we shall climb through the tone into the spiritual world.” [9]
Just as a parent may initially like Steiner’s statements about spiritual entities and color, it is quite possible that a parent may agree with Steiner that music can enliven a student’s soul. But, once again, I would urge you to be sure that Steiner’s literal meaning is acceptable to you. His version of the spiritual realm includes not only reincarnation but also multiple gods (“an opening made by the gods”). Anthroposophy is polytheistic. If you want your child led toward polytheism, well and good. But if you don’t, a Waldorf school may not be best for your child.
Literature
From the Waldorf perspective, literary art has spiritual effects like all other arts. “The question I have in mind is ... ‘What is the actual positive reason for introducing art into our lives?’ It is only during our materialistic age that ... we have forgotten the supersensible origin of art.” [10] According to Steiner, “supersensible” stuff is imperceptible to our regular senses but quite clear to clairvoyants like Steiner. Art of all types comes from the supersensible world — the spirit realm, the devachanic world — and it leads us back to that world.
In some ways, literature is even more potent than other arts, because it consists of words that convey meaning. According to Steiner, the effect of literature is to carry us toward “truths” that need no logical confirmation. “We experience poetry much more externally than architecture or sculpture ... We actually forget time and space, or at least space, and are lifted out of ourselves ... Supersensible knowledge can be described as a transformation of ordinary abstract knowledge ... It is nonsense to require the same sort of logical, pedantic, narrow-minded proof of things in higher realms as is desirable in the crasser realms of the sciences, mathematics, and so forth.” [11]
The arts are not a place for narrow-minded proof — this is true enough. But does it then follow that what we receive from art is truer than science or math? Steiner’s system requires us to stop thinking logically and instead immerse ourselves in amorphous states of mind — dreamy, colorful, harmonic — where we will become spiritually initiated. Confession: I was an English major in college and later I became member of a college English department. I believe in the power of literature. But that is quite different from believing that any form of art trumps reasoning as a way to learn about reality. If you doubt me, I’ll hand the microphone back to Steiner. Here is a statement he made about novels written by blacks:
“[I]f we give these Negro novels to pregnant [white] women to read, then it won’t even be necessary for Negroes to come to Europe in order for mulattos to appear. Simply through the spiritual effects of reading Negro novels, a multitude of children will be born in Europe that are completely gray, that have mulatto hair, that look like mulattos!” [12]
Some Anthroposophists have claimed that the remark I’ve just quoted is a joke. If so, it is a “joke” that only a racist would tell or find amusing. But I submit that the remark is serious, not a stab at humor (of which Steiner’s books are almost completely devoid). Steiner was perfectly consistent in arguing that art has spiritual origins and spiritual effects. And he taught that the physical world is imbued with spiritual realities (such as the beings clairvoyants see in colored rooms). A novel, then, comes from spiritual sources and has spiritual effects extending into the physical realm. A novel written by a “Negro” carries “Negro” spiritual powers, which would — in Steiner’s warped thinking — have injurious effects for white readers (who are more spiritually advanced, according to Steiner). [13]
For more about the uses and misuses of literature in Waldorf schools, see my essay, “Oh My Word,” at this Web site.
Other Arts, All Arts
Among the doctrines Steiner adopted from various religions are karma and reincarnation. Focusing on these concepts helps us to comprehend what Steiner meant about art arising from the spirit realm.
“Prebirth experiences are carried over into the world of the physical senses. What we see if we survey the architectural and sculptural works of art created by humankind is nothing other than an embodiment of unconscious recollections of our life between death and rebirth.” [14]
Art comes out of our nightly excursions into the spirit world, and it also comes out of our previous lives in the spirit world. We live in that world between our earthly lives, according to Steiner. It leaves its marks on us (Steiner taught that children are born with memories of the spirit world — see my essay, “Thinking Cap”). We are visitors from a faraway place that we often revisit. We go there during our many hours of sleep and during the many, many spiritual lives we lead between our many, many earthly lives. Art helps us to make our return visits, and it provides us with links to the great beyond during our periods of physical existence on Earth.
So there you have it. “Now we have a realistic answer to the question why human beings create art.” [15] Art at Waldorf schools is a vehicle for occult beliefs. What we get from art are secret “truths” that need no proof, but that Rudolf Steiner possessed. According to him. Hardly anybody else has ever known as many secrets as he knew. According to him.
No Jew, Muslim, Christian, atheist, agnostic, or rationalist should swallow any of Steiner’s guff. If you fall into any of those categories, I’d suggest you keep far away from schools where Steiner’s doctrines are honored. Occultism and true faith are quite different, as are occultism and rationality. Steiner advocated the occult and the irrational. We find this everywhere we look in his doctrines, including his discussions of art.
— Roger Rawlings
Parts of this essay are adapted from “Unenlightened.”
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ENDNOTES
[1] THE GOETHEANUM: School of Spiritual Science (Philosophical-Anthropopsophical Press, 1961), p. 25
[2] Rudolf Steiner, ART AS SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 247.
[3] Rudolf Steiner, THE ARTS AND THEIR MISSION (Anthroposophic Press, 1964), p. 23.
[4] Rudolf Steiner, ART AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF MYSTERY WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), pp. 111-112.
[5] Rudolf Steiner, lecture given on October 15, 1911, quoted in ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER, John Fletcher (Mercury Arts Publications, 1987), p. 95.
[6] Rudolf Steiner, UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993), pp. 160-161.
[7] ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER, p. 136.
[8] Ibid., p. 136.
[9] UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BEING, p. 162.
[10] ART AS SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY , p. 238.
[11] Ibid., p. 240.
[12] Rudolf Steiner, quoted by Peter Staudenmaier, “Race and Redemption: Racial and Ethnic Evolution in Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy,” 2004, waldorfcritics.org.
[13] This is a big and horrible topic. See my essay, “Race.”
[14] ART AS SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY, p. 241.
[15] Ibid., p. 241.