Glossary

The Double (Doppelganger) in Anthroposophy

The Double, also called the Doppelganger, is a second being that lives below the threshold of ordinary awareness inside every person. Steiner described it as an Ahrimanic spirit that slips...

Group Soul in Anthroposophy

A Group Soul is the being that an entire animal species shares in common, in place of the individual I that each human being carries. Steiner describes the lion, the...

Fire Spirits (Salamanders) in Anthroposophy

Fire Spirits are the warmth-dwelling nature-spirits of Anthroposophy, the beings Rudolf Steiner says were once named salamanders. They are the fourth and highest rank of elemental beings above gnomes, undines,...

Sylphs in Anthroposophy

Sylphs are the elemental beings of the air in Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science, the spirits of the airy-warmth element who bear light into the growing plant. Steiner places them above...

Undines in Anthroposophy

Undines are the water spirits of Anthroposophy, elemental beings woven into the moist, living element of the plant. Where the gnomes work at the root in the dark earth, the...

Gnomes in Anthroposophy

Gnomes are the earth elementals of Anthroposophy, the root spirits an older clairvoyance once perceived behind every sprouting plant. Rudolf Steiner described them as the cleverest of the four elemental...