Steiner, Rudolf
From Tarotpedia
[edit] Tarot contribution
Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher behind such developments as Bio-Dynamic farming; Waldorf-Steiner education; the Anthroposophical Society; and the Threefold Social Order, has had only indirect influence on the understanding and development of tarot.
His main influences appear to have been two-fold: on the work of Valentin Tomberg in his Meditations on the Tarot; and on the work of Frieda Harris in her projective geometrical designs she incorporated in the Crowley-Harris 'Thoth' deck. Others who have written on tarot may also have had significant influence from the works of Steiner, such as John Barnwell as shown in his Arcana of the Grail Angel.
Steiner himself appears to have referred to tarot in only three places, all perhaps inter-related, and all in December 1906.
[edit] three 1906 references
The first of these is an entry he makes in his December 1906 notebook (ref. 222). Admittedly, as no specific date is included, it may have been made later than the other two references, though unlikely given the context).
The second is in the context of a closed-door esoteric lesson given on the 12th December, in which the notes written after the event by one of the participants refers to tarot as 'the book of Thoth'.
The third instance is the better known reference, given in a public Christmas Lecture on the 17th December (bibliographic ref. GA 96, Signs and Symbols of the Christmas Festival [lecture III]) in which the stenographed notes, referring to the symbols on the Christmas tree, read:
The square is the symbol of the fourfold nature of man: physical body, ether body, astral body and ego.
The triangle is the symbol of the higher man: Spirit Self, Life Spirit and Spirit Man.
Above the triangle is the symbol of the Tarot. Initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries knew how to read this sign. They also knew how to read the Book of Thoth, which consisted of seventy-eight cards on which were recorded all world events from beginning to end, from Alpha to Omega, and which could be read if they were joined and assembled in the right way. The Book of Thoth, or Hermes, contained in pictures the life that fades in death and again sprouts forth anew into life. Whoever could combine the right numbers with the right pictures was able to read it. This wisdom of numbers and pictures has been taught since primeval ages. In the Middle Ages it still played an important role, but today there is little left of it.
Above the Alpha and Omega is the sign of Tao. It reminds us of the worship of God by our primeval ancestors because this worship took its origin from the work Tao. Before Europe, Asia and Africa were lands of human culture, our ancestors lived on Atlantis, which was submerged by a flood. In the Germanic sagas of Niflheim, the land of the mists, the memory of Atlantis still lives. For Atlantis was not surrounded by pure air. Its atmosphere was filled with enormous masses of mist similar to the clouds and mists in high mountains. The sun and moon were not seen clearly in the sky, but were surrounded by a rainbow, and sacred Iris. At that time man still understood the language of nature. What speaks to him today in the lapping and surging of the waves, in the whistling and rushing of the wind, in the rustling of the leaves, in the rumbling of thunder, is no longer understood by him, but at that time he could understand it. He felt something that spoke to him from everything about him. From the clouds and waters and leaves and winds the sound rang forth: Tao (the I am). Atlanteans heard it and understood it, and knew that Tao streamed through the whole world.
Finally, all that permeates the cosmos is present in man and is symbolized in the pentagram at the top of the tree. The deepest meaning of the pentagram may not now be mentioned, but it is the star of mankind, of mankind developing itself. It is the star that all wise men follow as did the priest-sages in ancient ages.
It symbolizes the earth that is born on the Night of Consecration, because the most sublime light radiates from the deepest darkness. Man lives on toward a state when the light shall be born in him, when one significant saying shall be replaced by another, when it will no longer be said, “The Darkness does not comprehend the Light” but when the truth will resound into cosmic space with the words, “Darkness gives way to the Light that radiates toward us in the Star of Mankind, Darkness yields and comprehends the Light”.
This shall resound from the Christmas celebration, and the spiritual light shall radiate from it. Let us celebrate Christmas as the festival of the most lofty ideal of the Idea of Mankind, so that in our souls may rise the joyful confidence: Indeed, I, too, shall experience the birth of the higher man within myself. The birth of the Savior, the Christos, will take place in me also.
