Anthroposophy

Goetheanum exterior
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Anthroposophy

A spiritual movement and outgrowth of Theosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) in the late 1800s.

Anthroposophy is said to embrace Christianity while advancing the idea of reincarnation, a teaching that most orthodox Christians do not accept.

Elements are also borrowed from several other mystical systems, including the occult, astral travel and Gnosticism.

Goetheanum interior
Originally uploaded by Dystopos

As the name suggests, Anthroposophy centers on mankind’s development toward becoming Divine, instead of conceptualizing the Divine as a separate, always greater being than Man [see comments, especially 4].

Steiner’s unique schools are respected throughout the globe, particularly in Germany, North America and the UK.

The movement has been criticized for being too “artsy”, “elitist” and “trendy.” Even some insiders tell jokes to this effect.

The Steiner schools have developed a therapeutic dance called Eurythmy, modifying the Taoist Tai Chi and, to some extent, Hindu yogic idea that bodily movement and spirituality may be linked.

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Gnosticism

Photo by zugaldia via Flickr

Gnosticism was an early Christian heresy containing many ideas previously existing in different forms and places within the ancient world. These unorthodox beliefs are mentioned in the New Testament by St. Paul, and were more systematically condemned by the Christian Church from the 2nd-century onward.

The Greek word gnosis means “knowledge.” In the context of gnosticism this isn’t bookish but experiential knowledge, supposedly of the divine.

Most gnostics believed that they fully understood the interconnected workings of the heavens, earth and hell and how this related to cosmic redemption. The gnostics’ chief aim was to gain spiritual knowledge and, in effect, become one with the Christ entity.

Some sects claimed that Christ did not die on the cross. Others envisioned him as a cosmic principle that incarnated to raise the world of matter to a higher level of love, awareness and compassion.

Among 49 Gnostic texts and versions of texts that have been unearthed in the early to mid-20th century, each claims to present the final truth about Christ and the nature of the cosmos. But ironically enough, these alleged truths differ considerably among Gnostic sects.

Possibly influenced by Manichaeism, Platonic and even Egyptian lore, Gnostic theories about ultimate reality are often intricate and esoteric. Only apparently ‘special’ people can understand and access elusive Gnostic truths.

Gospel of Thomas or maybe gnostic Gospel of Peter (see talk page) via Wikipedia

By way of contrast, the New Testament is more concerned with universal salvation and less with complicated cosmological theories. Heaven is described in parables. No real attempt is made to ‘say it like it is,’ mainly because God’s creation is portrayed as far too great to be reduced to any human theory.

Hence, the New Testament’s clear and undoubtedly universal invitation: “Knock and the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9).

Gnosticism was effectively silenced by the Church Fathers but resurfaced in the Middle ages within Jewish mysticism. And the Gnostic idea of ‘knowing from direct experience’ flourishes today.

Religious studies scholars such as Wayne Meeks say that Gnosticism was particularly threatening to the early Church precisely because it had much in common with orthodox belief. Both say “You are gods” (Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34). And the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, which some say was written by a twin brother of Jesus, contains sayings of Christ that coincide with those in the New Testament. Other points do differ, however, and virtually no events in the life of Christ are recorded in Thomas.

On the issue of the apparent exclusivity of Gnosticism in contrast to orthodox Christianity, some might say this difference is arguably one of degree. Not a few Christian mystical saints have been regarded as persons more loved by or special to God than, say, the rest of the clergy. Claims like this run throughout, for instance, The Divine Mercy Diary of Saint Kowalska.

More recently, Gnosticism is generally used to denote any kind of spirituality that involves relaxation, meditation or contemplation. The photo featured in this entry, for instance, has the tag line “Practicing zen gnosticism.”

Related Posts » Anthroposophy, Blake (William), Hendrix (Jimi), Irenaeus, Origen, Serpent

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Mystic

St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church via Wikipedia

The word ‘mystic’ refers to one who engages in mysticism, and is often used pejoratively or as a caricature (e.g. wooly-headed mystic). This usage arguably arises, in part, from the worldly bias of contemporary consumer-oriented culture.

Many individuals, religious and secular, seem to value only that which they can buy, sell, and most of all, see. Subtle religious feelings may not be accessible to them, so naturally they’d think the whole idea of mysticism is hogwash.

Fortunately, this almost animalistic perspective of reality is not all pervasive–although it does seem to be dominant in the scientific, legal and political aspects of 21C culture.

There always have been and continues to be mystics who suggest there’s more, much more to life than meets the eye.

By the same token, some mystics seem to make grandiose claims and have allowed their sense of reason to be eclipsed by personal biases.

The respected writer on mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, makes a distinction between the sincere and the insincere mystic, and other important related distinctions (e.g. meditation vs. contemplation).

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Reincarnation

Second hand reincarnation: shaggy359

Also known as metempsychosis and transmigration, reincarnation is a manmade theory based on beliefs found in different philosophical systems and religions, including ancient Greek, Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Jain, African and New Age perspectives.

Reincarnation usually involves ideas of karma and grace. It’s believed that after the death of the physical body, the soul (or in some schools, temporary personality attributes) returns for another birth.

In most traditions the self is on an evolutionary path from unconsciousness to consciousness–that is, from lower to higher, or gross to subtle forms of consciousness.

In some branches of contemplative Hinduism, the soul is said to begin in the mineral world and then move upward to the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Eventually it takes birth as a human being. After learning about and practicing good ethics from innumerable human incarnations, the soul may reincarnate in astral and heavenly realms before reaching ultimate liberation, awareness and bliss.

But bad ethical choices send the evolutionary process into reverse. If a human being abuses their freedom, they may reincarnate backwards into the animal kingdom or possibly further down into one of various temporary hells.

According to popular wisdom it’s often said that God provides perfect punishments and rewards for one’s deeds. So generally speaking, if one makes good ethical choices in an embodied life, one gains merit and reincarnates into a more auspicious life the next time around.

However, if one makes bad ethical choices, one returns to a less auspicious life. Again, the alleged purpose of reincarnation is to instruct the soul, preparing it for an ultimately perfect, eternal existence. The exact nature of this perfection is described differently among various schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Taoism.

Once complete liberation is achieved, the soul (or temporary personality attributes) no longer returns to a body, gross or subtle. This idea is expressed in an old Taoist tale, paraphrased as follows:

A man had led a dissolute life and reincarnates as a horse. After a few years the horse grows weary of being whipped by his masters, refuses to eat and dies. He then returns as a dog. Despising this incarnation the dog bites his master’s leg who has him destroyed. He returns as a snake. By now he’s finally learned his lesson. One must play out the hand one is dealt, patiently seeing it through to learn how to be virtuous. As a reformed soul, the snake avoids doing harm to other animals by eating berries and tries to keep itself out of danger. But one day the snake mistakenly dies under the wheel of a cart. Pleading his case before the King of Purgatory, he finds himself reborn a man—a reward for his good intentions (Raymond Van Over, ed. Taoist Tales, New York: Meridian Classic, 1973, pp. 52-53).

According to this view, suicide is like ‘skipping school’ (in the cosmic sense) and causes regression to a less desirable birth.

But not all believers in reincarnation would take this attitude. Some believe that the very same kind of life situation would arise again, as if the suicide is forced to repeat the same cosmic classroom he or she didn’t pass the first time around.

Meanwhile some New Age thinkers say that every life is consciously chosen prior to birth.

In most Asian religions God’s grace can mitigate or even erase the effects of bad karma, a fact often overlooked in specious critiques of reincarnation.

African pre-colonial tribal beliefs about reincarnation differ from Asian variants. African ancestors are believed to reincarnate into one or several descendents to give a particular family more power. Somewhat similar to the Asian idea, however, the African Ibo believe that one chooses between two bundles before birth – one bundle holds auspicious fortune, the other inauspicious. While the spirit tries its best to choose a favorable incarnation, a formerly evil person undergoes a difficult incarnation as a human or animal.

More variants of reincarnation are found within ancestor cults. And in The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare‘s character Gratiano suggests that Shylock is a reincarnated wolf.

In contrast to the belief in reincarnation, the Old Testament says that evil actions are repaid with evil, but not through reincarnation. Evil begets evil through one’s offspring:

The Lord…a God merciful and gracious…forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:7).

In Catholicism, St. Thomas Aquinas refutes reincarnation on the basis of Romans 9: 11-12:

For when they were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil…not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger.

The Christian New Testament view of the body and its relation to the afterlife is expressed in I Corinthians 15; 51-52; 2 Corinthians 5:1; I Thessalonians 4:14; John 3: 4-7.

Some suggest that the Catholic notion of purgatory was created as a Christian counterpart to the temporary process of punishment and purification as found in non-Christian theories of reincarnation.

At Earthpages.org:

• Articles about reincarnation and karma.

» Anatman, Anthroposophy, Avatar, Cayce (Edgar), Chinmoy (Sri), Deva, Fenris, Free-John (Da), Gawain (Shakti), Hell, Hermes Trismegistus, Karma, Meno, Origen, Ram Dass, Parvati, Plato,  Ramacharaka (Swami), Republic, Roberts (Jane), Samsara, Skandhas, Theosophy, Transmigration, Werewolf, Pythagoras

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Remote Viewing

Charging My Batteries aka Sun Worship: Vox Efx

Remote Viewing

The term ‘Remote Viewing’ (RV) was coined by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff.

RV is the alleged ability to internally perceive objects and events at a distance beyond the range of the normal senses.

Remote Viewers (RVers) usually say they perceive objects and events in the past, present and probable future. But RVers don’t believe they psychologically time travel when seeing the past. Instead, they say they access a holographic cosmic memory bank that records all of the events that ever took place, somewhat like the Akashic Records of Theosophy and Anthroposophy.

With regard to the future, RVers apparently see possible outcomes but don’t claim to predict the future with any certainty.

One difficulty with RV is a margin of error that researcher Dale Graff calls “white noise.” RVers strive to scientifically verify their distance visions and apparently are developing new methods to increase accuracy.

On this point RVers differ from some psychics who remain convinced that their distance visions are accurate without ever attempting to verify them.

Interestingly, RV researcher Russell Targ says his team got better scientific results when they kept the research environment “fun” and relaxed.

Although Targ admits to making money from RVing future probabilities, he reports that human greed came to interfere with the success of his experiments.¹

Targ later introduced the term Remote Sensing because RV may also be accompanied by an inner sense of hearing, smell and touch.

The paranormal writer Rosemary Ellen Guiley says that Remote Sensing is a well-documented phenomenon, both in ancient and contemporary times.

According to Anthony C. LoBaido at WorldNetDaily.com and Steve Hammons at AmericanChronicle.com, the CIA has used RV for intelligence gathering. LoBaido also claims that the FBI has adopted RV for the same purposes.

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¹ Thinking Allowed with Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove, “ESP, Clairvoyance and Remote Perception with Russell Targ“.

» Akashic Records, Clairvoyance, Doors, ESP, New Age, Psychic Spies, Seer, “The New Age and Remote Viewing,” Third Eye

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Steiner, Rudolf

Steiner, Rudolf (1861-1925)

Schweizergarten- Rudolf Steiner monument 2007-04: Er.We

Born in what is now Yugoslavia, Steiner was a mystic philosopher who, after becoming a leading figure in the Theosophical Movement, broke away to form his own branch of Anthroposophy.

Perhaps Steiner’s most enduring influence is found in his Waldorf or “Steiner schools.” Some 400 of these schools populate the globe today, with a diverse curriculum geared toward developing individual potential.

Critics say the Steiner schools encourage paganism, even Satanism, and are out of touch with the realities of contemporary life.

» Ahriman, Akashic Records, Theosophy

On the Web:

• Good entry about Steiner at Wikipedia

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Spirit

spirit catcher: Rannie Turingan

Spirit

One definition of the word spirit points to an incorporeal being which may not be seen, as compared to a ‘ghost’ which allegedly is seen by a living person.

Spirit has several other meanings, such as an animating or vital force within life, the soul or some some kind of invisible force or presence that permeates the created universe.

Spirit arguably becomes an ambiguous concept if assessed merely from a conceptual level of analysis.

Many New Age thinkers, for instance, equate the notion of spirit with that of matter/energy. This is a dubious analog when we consider Rudolf Otto and C. G. Jung‘s treatment of the term numinosity and, moreover, the Christian understanding of The Holy Spirit.

It almost seems as if those who haven’t experienced any difference between the perception of matter/energy and spirit tend to automatically equate the two, just as one might equate any seemingly similar variables without having had a significantly direct experience of them.

By way of analogy, if one had never drunk white wine they might look at its color, recognize it as a liquid and say white wine is equivalent to apple juice or perhaps urine. And so it is, many mystics content, with the experience of spirit. Those who know, they claim, realize that spirit’s character may vary significantly, not only because spirit is passing through psychological and cultural filters, but also because of the differences inherent to spirit itself.

serpent spirits: Jeremiah Ketner

Since the experience of ‘the spirit’ may be associated with a ‘particular spirit,’ as in the opening definition, we have the notion of ‘pure and impure,’ ‘holy and unholy,’ ‘good and evil’ spirits, along with their respective abilities to influence human beings for good or ill.

This tremendous diversity as to the meaning of spirit is not just found in Christianity but in most world religions. But again, some well-meaning but arguably unknowing individuals tend to simplify this diversity by making unsupportable claims, as did Sri Ramakrishna, that all paths involve the same type of spirit, lead to the same place, and so on.

This may have been Ramakrishna’s belief when dabbling in different religions from his master perspective of Hinduism but it certainly isn’t everyone’s.

» à Kempis (Thomas), Abyss, Active Imagination, Afterlife, Alchemy, Alice in Wonderland, Alien Possession Theory (APT), Ancestor Cults, Angels, Animism, Anselm (St.), Anthroposophy, Apollinarius, Aquinas (St. Thomas), Archangel, Arius, Ashram, Aurobindo (Sri), Avesta, Ba, Blake (William), Bowie (David), Brown (Michael), Castanada (Carlos), Celibacy, Chakras, Channeling, Clairaudience, Class, Collective Unconscious, Confirmation, Demons, Dionysius the Areopagite, Divination, Eleusinian Mysteries, Evil, Faeries, Fallen Angels, Fasting, Feng Shui, Grace, Hawking (Stephen), Heaven, Hegel, Hell, Henry of Ghent, Intercession, Jedi, Jinn, Kabbala, Karma Transfer, Kundalini, Lennox (Annie), Madness, Mana, Mental Illness, Michael (St.), Miracles, Mysticism, Near Death Experiences (NDE), Obsession, Paranormal, Pollution, Prayer, Psychosis, Quiddity, Randi (James), Roberts (Jane), Samkhya, Shaman, Shapeshifter, Siva, Soul Loss, Soul, Spiritual Attack, Swedenborg (Emanuel), Talbot (Michael), Tantra, Teresa of Ávila, (St.), Third Eye, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Totem, Totem Pole, Tradition, Tramp Souls, Transubstantiation, Trickster, Trinity (Holy Trinity), Underhill (Evelyn), Vampires, Virgin Mary, Voodoo, Wach (Joachim), Wave, Weber (Max), World Tree, Yoda, Yoni, Zombie

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Theosophy

Theosophy Hall by jericl cat

Theosophy [Greek: theos = god + sophia = wisdom]

A non-denominational spiritualist movement founded in 1875 at New York City by the Russian born mystic Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, William Q. Judge, and several other high society figures.

Drawing on the doctrine of reincarnation, theosophy repackages the ancient Gnostic-influenced belief that absolute knowledge is gained through direct, purifying mystical experience.

God, according to the Theosophists, emanates to all mankind an immortal essence.

By understanding the hidden wisdom contained in myth and symbol, we may share in the immortality of the divine. This sacred task is called the “theurgy.”

Blavatsky’s most popular work is Isis Unveiled, where she reveals remarkable erudition. But somewhat like C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell and many others after her, Blavatsky tends to oversimplify apparent similarities among different religious, mystical and mythological traditions at the expense of overlooking their real and important differences.

» Akashic Records, Anthroposophy, Besant (Annie), Buddhism, Hinduism, Peebles (Dr. James Martin)

On the Web:

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Taoism

Misty mountains by Bill Tyne

Taoism

Generally speaking, Taoism is an outlook on life that attempts to harmonize the individual will with the natural and spiritual influences of the cosmos.

Personal thoughts and actions are said to alternately coincide or conflict with the flow of the universe, or in some commentaries, the Will of Heaven.

The advent of Taoism is usually attributed to two Chinese sages, Lao Tzu (mid fourth-century BCE) and Chuang Tzu (369-286 BCE), although other profound Taoist authors are available in translation.

In the poetic Lao Tzu (also called the Tao-te-Ching), its author, Lao Tzu, tells of the 10,000 things (representing the visible world) that flow synchronously with an underlying ground of being which, although cannot be named, he calls Tao (often pronounced Dow, as in Dow-Jones).

Chaung Tzu’s writings are more mystical than Lao Tzu’s. Later developments in Taoism include the use of magic, alchemy and polytheistic worship. These trends were taken by many Chinese as degradations of the original message–that being the cultivation of virtue through naturalness and simplicity.

In recent times Alan Watts has popularized Taoism. Fritzoff Capra, Gary Zukav and others have followed suit by likening the cosmological aspects of Taoism to those of contemporary sub-atomic physics.

» Ancestor Cults, Anthroposophy, Confucianism, Evil, I Ching, Lao-tzu, Pantheism,  Particle-Wave Duality, Reincarnation, Saint, Soul, Spinoza (Baruch), Wu Wei, Yin-Yang

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Tai Chi Chuan

Tai chi chuan or Jedi? by Womby

Tai Chi Chuan

A defensive Chinese martial art said to be at least 2,000 years old, based on the principles of Tai Chi.

Tai Chi Chuan is a graceful, slow-moving series of (usually) 108 archetypal positions relating to nature (e.g. “grasp bird’s tail”) and simple human activities (e.g. “fair maiden works at shuttles”) that effortlessly flow into one another.

The practice has spread throughout the world via Taoist masters and missionaries.

Enthusiasts say that it has notable health benefits in the areas of digestion, general flexibility, arthritis and the cultivation of serenity.

Critics say that the organizational aspect can have cultish qualities. And some feel that the numinosity associated with or generated by the practice of Tai Chi might be unclear and “spacey.”

To this effect Robert Thoor cautions:

Avoid strict or spacey teachers.†

» Anthroposophy, Yin-Yang

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† http://www.haotaichi.com/eng/q&a.htm

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