Steiner said that bringing the knowledge of reincarnation back to the West was a central part of his mission. In this session, we’ll delve into his teachings: We will look at his ideas on karmic relationships, the subtle bodies and reincarnation, including the reincarnation of the Earth. We will explore humanity’s role in cosmic evolution, according to Anthroposophy. We will investigate Steiner-ian concepts such as the influence of “super-sensible” beings like Ahriman and Lucifer on our development, the angelic hierarchies, nature spirits, and the meshed destinies of humanity and the Solar System.

In dozens of books and hundreds of lectures, Steiner developed a very extensive esoteric cosmology, where our current Earth was the fourth in a series of world-incarnations where humanity developed its physical and spiritual capacities while transforming the Earth itself. In this epoch, we are cultivating our unique individuality, our “I” or ego, while we also possess a physical body, astral body, and etheric body. We are currently developing a new “body,” which Steiner called the “Spirit Self,” as we transmute the energies and yearnings flowing into us from the astral world.

As an esoteric Christian, Steiner had a particular perspective on the incarnation of the Christ: Christ supported healthy individuation and showed us, as a model, the path for positive esoteric development. Steiner defied a variety of spiritual beings accessible to “super-sensible” perception, and proposed a path for attaining non-atavistic clairvoyance. He wrote about imagination, inspiration, and intuition as higher forms of cognition which we could develop over time. For Steiner, scientific materialism was necessary to evolve humanity up to a point, but this had to be reintegrated with knowledge of the subtle realms, or “higher world,” without collapsing into irrational or unconscious states.

Buddha said, “As perceived, so appears.” Steiner, similarly, warned that the beings we encounter through super-sensible cognition reflect our level of development, including our unconscious and shadowy aspects. He talked about “The Guardian of the Threshold,” a being we encounter as we develop, reflecting our own malevolent impulses in magnified form. Steiner also believed we were approaching the incarnation of Ahriman, a being or force linked to excess rationality and materialism: This seems to be happening now via Artificial Intelligence and advanced robotics. Steiner proposed how we handle this inevitable, epochal event.