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Anthroposophy
is also called 'spiritual science' and lies in the tradition of what is called 'German Idealism'. It has its own epistemology, formulated by Rudolf Steiner. This theory (book: "truth and science".) is actually an very accurate philosophical description of the creative process. According to Steiner, the thinking can be developed into an organ of active perception. Steiner was a clairvoyant but also a very thorough thinker. He claimed that studying natural science was the best preparation for spiritual activities. From my own experience, I presume that Steiner developed a new form of clairvoyancy, that is nested inside normal sensory perception (instead of receiving images only in the mind or feeling etc.). That is, Rudolf Steiner spoke of 12 senses (apart from hearing, sight, smell and taste, he included a senses for warmth, health or well-being, touch, movement, balance, speech or language, idea, and essence or being).
In anthroposophy, "thinking" is something different than "intellect". Intellect is: the machinery of the mind, with its speed of moving around in existing conceptual systems. The bigger the system you can cover, the more intelligent you can call yourself. Thinking is: the ability to find the right question, and to wait until the question answeres itself. To only be satisfied with the best answer to this question. It's the ability to judge your own thinking, to see if your answer is a palliative (some explanation) or an actual accurate answer, a fulfillment of the question. Truth is not a thing or object - some things are more true than others, depending on the profoundness of thought or perception.
It's impossible to explain all of anthroposophy here, because as a science it has many branches and applications. It does well in education (waldorf schools), health- and and mental care, but also in agriculture, architecture, the arts and natural science. Here I'll give only the most basic information. In the beginning of the 20th century, many forms of spirituality (that were not public before) came out in the open. Rudolf Steiner tried to modernise especially the esoteric Chrisianity (as founded by Christian Rosenkreuz), and make these contents accessible for the individual modern man/woman. He combined his very exact clairvoyant perception (giving highly unusual and detailed descriptions of angels, elemental beings and primordal states of nature) with a solid training in natural sciences and philosophy. He tried to create a new platform (anthroposophy) in which different carmic currents and esoteric schools could unite in a new form of esoteric Christianity. He took the heritage of Goethe's approach of natural science, and tried to develop new forms of science from there. Rudolf Steiner made a difference between "anthroposophy" and "initiation science" - only anthroposophy was meant to be public. Even though Rudolf Steiner had a very exact inner sight, I don't think anthroposophy climbs the absolute heights of the occult. But it's an important tool or bridge, it enables one to create new forms of science or research, that can bridge the gap between esoterics and the reality of the thinking individual. It creates an intellectual platform on which people can communicate in normal language on how to work not only on the material level, and to exchange and develop knowledge in these fields. A lot of people like to read about the occult or practice meditiation, but most older forms of initiation are not very suitable for modern people. Before, transmission of knowledge was done by initiation, by direct surrender to something higher outside of oneself, apart from the world of other men. But in the present, it is necessary for people to understand the spiritual with their own thinking, not to turn away from normal life but to incorporate the spiritual in one's daily life and work.
The principles of anthroposophy are: one's own ability to know, which is a creative ability. It has to be applied to perception, which has to be as unprejudiced as possible. Steiner based a lot of his knowledge on the perception of the four realms of nature: the mineral world, flora, fauna, and human culture. Here you find an expression of four different ways of incarnation or consciousness.
| - the physical world - the world of sensory perception - matter, but also immaterial space. Minerals only have a physical body, we are only "incarnated" this way when we are dead. The word "physical" implicates "matter", but everything that is sensory perceptible we cal "physical". So: physical and material are not necessarily the same thing. |
| - the "ethereal" world: the life processes who are the caretakers of physical existance. This world is non-physical, it is made out of time. Plants and flowers have their own phyiscal and ethereal body (in the sense that, every specimen has its own ethereal organisation, working from the inside of the physical body). |
| - the "astral" world, which on earth expresses itself in the perception and feelings of men and animals. The astral world is made of perception. Animals have a physical body, ethereal body and an astral body. |
| - the spirit world, which on earth only actually incarnates in human beings. We have physical bodies, ethereal bodies, astral bodies and eacht our own spirit germ or "ego". The spirital world of ideas has been expressed in nature, all these plant- animal- and plantspecies. We can learn to perceive their essence by understanding. Our "ego" is still very young, we only started to develop it and do so by our own effort. The "ego" is no closed entity or object. To describe what it is, one might need a lot of pages. There is a direct link between the ego and "evil", which explains the freedom that we have (without evil there cannot be freedom...) The "ego" expresses itself in a certain kind of self-consciousness, for example the ability to reflect on one's own thinking. It can also become manifest in feeling or in ways of being creative. The spirit world is made of ideas - not abstract concepts but essences or beings. |
In the four realms of nature there are four ways of "being", who all represent an independant level of existance - but only one of them is directly given to our senses (the physical world). In the world of matter, other levels of existance are imprinted or expressed. A plant is materially very different from a stone or mineral, it changes in time, feeds, grows and multiplies. It manifests a specific stature in its cyclic way of being in time. Animals have other kinds of bodies than plants (organs, senses). Every animal has, apart from his physical body and its "body" in time, a specific way of moving. The quickest way to feel your way into an animal is, to imitate its movement. Humans are different from animals, because they are unspecified. Animals are very specified (they have either claws, paws, hoofs, wings or fins) - humand beings have none of these (which we compensate with our intellect). Our being unspecified makes us able to contemplate on ourselves. Humans also have a moral stature (that is, we're working on it).
Other prelimanary results of doctor Steiner show, that there are other beings in the world apart from the incarnated ones - above us, and below us. Above us there are 9 hiarchies of angels (at least), who occupy themselves with our solar system. Below us there are elemental beings and under-earthly layers, that mirror the worlds of the angels. Rudolf Steiner also described, with his very exact clairvoyant perception, how our earth came to be in four different phases. this is highly fantastic literature which I can recomment do anyone ("secret science" by Rudolf Steiner)
So, an anthroposofical thinker will never ask IF angels exists, but he will ask HOW they exist. Us knowing the concept "angel" means that at least the concept of "angel" has a form of existance. Getting to see what it is, and how it expresses itself in the material world, is a matter of doing research (by thought and perception).