Occult Science by Rudolf Steiner: A Review

What Is Occult Science: An Outline?

Rudolf Steiner published Occult Science: An Outline in 1910, catalogued as GA 13 in the complete edition of his works. The German title, Die Geheimwissenschaft im Umriss, is often translated more literally as "The Secret Science in Outline." The word "occult" here carries its original meaning of "hidden" rather than any connotation of darkness or superstition. Steiner was describing the science of what is hidden from ordinary sense perception.

The book represents Steiner's most systematic effort to lay out a complete picture of the cosmos, humanity, and the path of knowledge. He described it as a sequel to his earlier works Theosophy (GA 9) and How to Know Higher Worlds (GA 10). Where Theosophy introduces the basic concepts and How to Know Higher Worlds describes the inner path of development, Occult Science provides the vast cosmic canvas within which the human story unfolds.

The book is organized into several major sections: an introductory discussion of what occult science is and how it relates to natural science, a detailed cosmological account of human and cosmic evolution, a chapter on sleep and death, a chapter on the Akashic Record, a chapter on the path of initiation, and extensive supplementary comments that Steiner added to later editions. It runs to over 400 pages in most editions and rewards very careful, repeated study.

Scholars of Western esotericism, including Wouter Hanegraaff in New Age Religion and Western Culture (1996), have noted that Steiner's contribution was distinctive because he presented esoteric knowledge in a rigorously systematic form, attempting to meet the epistemological standards of modern scientific thinking while working from clairvoyant research. Whether one accepts the clairvoyant basis of his claims, the systematic architecture of Occult Science remains one of the most ambitious projects in the history of Western esoteric thought.

The Seven Planetary Stages of Cosmic Evolution

The heart of Occult Science is Steiner's account of cosmic evolution through seven planetary conditions. The term "planetary" here does not refer to the physical planets of the solar system as currently understood. Rather, Steiner describes successive conditions of our entire solar system, each characterized by a different quality of consciousness and matter.

The seven stages are: Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon, Earth (the current stage), Future Jupiter, Future Venus, and Future Vulcan. Each stage is preceded by a period of pralaya (rest or recapitulation) and involves a progressive enlivening and spiritualization of the cosmos.

Old Saturn: The first planetary condition is characterized by warmth. There is no light, no air, no solid matter. The spiritual beings who will eventually become humanity exist as warmth-bodies. The Thrones (Spirits of Will) sacrifice their will substance to create the first physical body of the human being. The spiritual hierarchies, whom Steiner identifies with the beings described in Christian tradition as Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, all play specific roles in this drama.

Old Sun: In the second planetary condition, warmth is joined by light and air. The spiritual beings who will become humans now have an etheric or life body added to their physical body. The Spirits of Wisdom (Kyriotetes) make their contribution during this stage. Old Sun is characterized by a kind of plant-consciousness, diffuse and dreaming.

Old Moon: The third condition adds the element of water and introduces astral or soul qualities. The human being now has three bodies: physical, etheric, and astral. The Moon condition is characterized by a kind of animal-consciousness, image-filled and emotionally resonant. During Old Moon, the split between the Sun and Moon occurs as a significant cosmic event that Steiner traces in detail.

Earth: Our current planetary stage introduces solid matter and, most significantly, the human ego or I-being. Earth is the stage at which humanity individuates fully. Steiner places the Christ event at the precise midpoint of Earth evolution, as the event that makes possible a new relationship between the human ego and the spiritual world. The incorporation of the Christ impulse into Earth evolution is, for Steiner, the central fact of cosmic history.

Future Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan: These three future conditions represent stages of progressive spiritualization. On Future Jupiter, the physical body will be transformed by life. On Future Venus, the etheric body will be transformed by soul forces. On Future Vulcan, the astral body itself will be fully spiritualized. By Future Vulcan, humanity and the cosmos will have achieved a state of spirit-selfhood (Atma in Steiner's terminology, borrowed from Theosophy but given a specifically Anthroposophical meaning).

The Fourfold Human Being

One of the most practically useful aspects of Occult Science is Steiner's systematic description of the fourfold human constitution. This framework, which Steiner shared with Theosophy in modified form, distinguishes four aspects of the human being: the physical body, the etheric body (life body), the astral body (soul body), and the ego (I-being).

The physical body is the material form visible to the senses. Steiner does not dismiss it as merely material. He sees it as the most perfect of the four bodies, the product of the longest evolutionary development, carrying within it the wisdom of Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon in its structure.

The etheric body (sometimes called the life body or formative-forces body) is the organizing principle that maintains the physical body as a living system. Without it, the physical body would immediately begin to decompose. The etheric body is what distinguishes a living organism from a corpse. It is also the carrier of memory and temperament. Steiner describes it as having a spatial form that roughly corresponds to the physical body but extends slightly beyond it.

The astral body is the body of consciousness, desire, and inner experience. It is what differentiates animals from plants. Plants have physical and etheric bodies but no astral body. The astral body is the seat of pleasure and pain, desire and aversion, and the entire inner life of emotions. In sleep, the astral body and ego withdraw partially from the physical and etheric bodies, which is why the body rests and the etheric body is able to perform its regenerative work without interference.

The ego (German: Ich) is the specifically human element. It is the bearer of self-consciousness, the capacity to say "I" and mean oneself as a distinct individual. Steiner was deeply influenced by Fichte's philosophy of the I in understanding the ego's unique status. The ego can work back upon the lower bodies, gradually transforming them. When the ego works on the astral body, it begins to develop what Steiner calls Manas (Spirit Self). When it works on the etheric body, it develops Buddhi (Life Spirit). When it works on the physical body, it develops Atma (Spirit Self proper).

Sleep, Death, and Rebirth

One of the most original chapters in Occult Science concerns the nightly and final separation of the human components. Steiner's account of sleep and death is precise in a way that distinguishes it from vague discussions of the afterlife in popular spirituality.

During sleep, the ego and astral body separate from the physical and etheric bodies. The physical and etheric bodies remain in bed, maintained by the life forces. The ego and astral body enter the spiritual world, though without the self-conscious awareness that ordinary waking life provides. This is why we do not remember our sleep experiences as clearly as our waking experiences: we have not yet developed the higher organs of perception that would allow conscious experience in the spirit world.

At death, the separation is permanent. The ego and astral body, along with a kind of extract of the life forces (the etheric body dissolves into the general etheric world), move into what Steiner calls the soul world (Kamaloka in Theosophical terminology). During this period, the soul reviews its past life in reverse order, experiencing from the other side the effects of its actions on others. This experience, which Steiner says lasts roughly one-third the length of the earthly life, purifies the soul of its attachments and prepares it for the higher spirit world.

After the Kamaloka period, the soul enters the spirit land (Devachan), where it works with the spiritual hierarchies to prepare the conditions for its next incarnation. The soul passes outward through the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, absorbing from each sphere the qualities and karma it needs for its next earthly life. After a period in the highest spirit land, it returns, passing back through the planetary spheres, and incarnates in a new physical body.

Steiner's account of karma and reincarnation is carefully differentiated from its Eastern Buddhist and Hindu counterparts. He does not see karma as an impersonal cosmic law of cause and effect, but as a living process in which individual human egos, together with the spiritual hierarchies and other human beings, actively shape the conditions of successive incarnations with wisdom and purpose.

The Akashic Record and Clairvoyant Research

A section that puzzles many new readers of Occult Science is Steiner's discussion of the Akashic Record, which he uses as the primary source for his cosmic-historical descriptions. The Akashic Record, a concept Steiner shared with Theosophy though he gave it a distinctive interpretation, is the spiritual memory of the cosmos. Every event that has ever occurred leaves an impression in the spiritual substance of the world, accessible to trained clairvoyant perception.

Steiner is careful to distinguish between the genuine Akashic Record and the mental projections of untrained imagination. He describes a rigorous training of clairvoyant perception through the exercises given in How to Know Higher Worlds, and insists that results must be checked by multiple trained researchers and tested for internal consistency. In this sense, he presented his clairvoyant research as analogous to scientific research: reproducible (in principle), internally consistent, and subject to correction.

Whether one accepts the reality of Akashic perception, Steiner's methodological care is historically significant. He was the first major esoteric teacher to apply the standards of systematic, verifiable research to clairvoyant investigation, anticipating by decades the modern attempts to study anomalous cognition through parapsychological methods.

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, in The Western Esoteric Traditions (2008), notes that Steiner's claim to scientific rigor was both his greatest strength and the source of significant controversy. Critics found the cosmological descriptions impossible to verify by ordinary means. Steiner's supporters argued that the inner development Steiner prescribed was itself a legitimate scientific method, one that modern culture had not yet learned to apply consistently.

Steiner and Blavatsky: Two Esoteric Cosmologies Compared

Any serious study of Occult Science benefits from comparing it with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine (1888), the foundational text of the Theosophical Society that preceded and significantly influenced Steiner's work. Steiner himself was a member of the Theosophical Society from 1902 to 1913, serving as head of its German section before founding his own Anthroposophical Society.

Both The Secret Doctrine and Occult Science describe the evolution of the cosmos through a series of stages, using similar terminology (rounds, root races, chains in Blavatsky; planetary stages, cultural epochs in Steiner). Both draw on Eastern esoteric traditions (particularly Sanskrit cosmological concepts) while adapting them for a Western audience. Both claim to be based on access to super-sensory sources of knowledge.

The fundamental difference is Steiner's Christology. Blavatsky's cosmology is broadly Buddhist and Hindu in orientation. The Christ is acknowledged as a great Teacher but is not given the unique cosmic role that Steiner assigns to him. For Steiner, the Christ event (the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth) is literally the pivot of the entire Earth stage of cosmic evolution, the moment at which the cosmic sun being that had guided evolution from without actually entered the physical stream of Earth evolution from within. This Christocentric orientation fundamentally reshapes every other element of Steiner's cosmology.

A second difference is methodological emphasis. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine draws heavily on comparative mythology, Sanskrit texts, and a vast range of historical and scientific sources. Steiner's approach is more phenomenological: he grounds his descriptions primarily in the direct results of clairvoyant research and proceeds from there to find correspondences with traditional sources.

A third difference is the treatment of evil. Blavatsky tends to see evil as relative, a necessary aspect of cosmic duality. Steiner, by contrast, gives detailed and specific attention to the beings he calls Lucifer and Ahriman as real spiritual entities whose activity in human evolution has specific consequences and requires specific responses. Sergei Prokofieff, in Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries (1986), has elaborated extensively on how this treatment of evil differentiates Anthroposophy from Theosophy at a foundational level.

Prokofieff and Later Anthroposophical Commentary

Sergei Prokofieff (1954-2014) was one of the most prolific and systematic commentators on Steiner's work in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His major works, including Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, The Occult Significance of the Bhagavad Gita, and the two-volume The Twelve Holy Nights and the Spiritual Hierarchies, all build directly on the cosmological framework of Occult Science.

Prokofieff's particular contribution was to elaborate the relationship between the planetary stages described by Steiner and the Christian liturgical year, the nature of the hierarchical beings, and the significance of the Christ event at the midpoint of Earth evolution. His book The East in the Light of the West extends the comparison between Steiner and Eastern traditions that is implicit in Occult Science.

Other significant commentators include Georg Kuhlewind, who worked extensively on the question of consciousness and the ego; Adriana Koulias, whose novels (particularly The Sixth and Temple of the Cosmos) dramatize Anthroposophical cosmology in narrative form; and various members of the Goetheanum research community in Dornach, Switzerland, who have published ongoing commentaries in Das Goetheanum journal.

For English-speaking readers, Owen Barfield's intellectual engagement with Steiner (particularly in Saving the Appearances, 1957, and Romanticism Comes of Age, 1944) provides a philosophically rigorous entry point to the ideas of Occult Science without requiring immediate acceptance of clairvoyant methodology. Barfield's concept of "original participation" and "final participation" is essentially a philosophical translation of Steiner's account of the evolution of consciousness across the planetary stages.

The Path of Initiation in Occult Science

The final major section of Occult Science describes the path of initiation available to modern seekers. Steiner distinguishes this modern path sharply from ancient initiation practices, which were conducted in mystery schools using methods no longer appropriate for the individuated human ego that has developed through Earth evolution. The modern path works from within, through the free activity of the individual ego, rather than through the surrender of consciousness to an external initiating authority.

Steiner identifies several stages of the modern path: preparation, enlightenment, and initiation proper. The preparation involves the cultivation of specific soul qualities: control of thoughts (disciplined, logical thinking), control of will (deliberate action rather than impulse), equanimity (steadiness in the face of pain and pleasure), positivity (seeking the positive in all experiences), and open-mindedness (remaining receptive to new experiences). These qualities correspond closely to the virtues described in his earlier How to Know Higher Worlds.

The enlightenment stage involves the development of specific capacities of clairvoyant perception: imagination (the perception of spiritual realities in living pictures), inspiration (direct knowledge of spiritual beings), and intuition (full union with spiritual realities, not merely their image or voice). These three stages of higher knowledge are described with particular care in Occult Science and elsewhere in Steiner's work.

Initiation proper, for Steiner, means the integration of these higher capacities with full waking consciousness. The initiate is not a person who has lost themselves in mystical states but one who can move freely between ordinary waking consciousness and higher states of awareness, bringing knowledge from both into dialogue. This integration distinguishes Steiner's conception of initiation from many other esoteric approaches that privilege trance or ecstatic states as the primary vehicles of higher knowledge.

How to Read Occult Science: A Practical Guide

Many readers approach Occult Science and find it initially impenetrable. The cosmological chapters in particular, with their descriptions of planetary conditions and hierarchical beings acting over enormous spans of time, can seem either impossibly strange or abstractly academic. The following guidance, based on Steiner's own recommendations and the experience of Anthroposophical study groups, may help.

Read in sequence. Steiner designed the text to be read from beginning to end. The introduction is not a preamble to skip but a substantial epistemological argument about the nature of occult knowledge. Many readers who struggle with the cosmological chapters have not absorbed the epistemological framework Steiner establishes at the outset.

Read slowly. Steiner himself recommended reading no more than a few pages at a time, allowing each passage to work in the mind before moving forward. Unlike academic philosophy, which can be read rapidly and then re-read for detail, Occult Science is meant to be absorbed like a meditation. The images it creates should be allowed to live and breathe.

Read with companions. Occult Science was designed for study group use. Reading in community, sharing impressions, and comparing understanding is not only enjoyable but illuminating. Differences in how readers picture the planetary stages, for instance, often reveal which aspects of the text need further contemplation.

Connect to the other introductory works. Occult Science is most productive when read alongside Theosophy (for the basic concepts) and How to Know Higher Worlds (for the path of development). The three books form a complementary set, and difficulties in one are often resolved by reading the relevant passages in the others.

Use the Rudolf Steiner Archive. The complete text, in multiple translations, is freely available at rsarchive.org. The Archive also contains lecture cycles that expand on specific topics from Occult Science, particularly the cycles on the hierarchies, on karma, and on the Gospel of John.

Andrew Welburn's The Beginnings of Christianity and Gary Lachman's Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Work (2007) both provide accessible scholarly contexts for approaching Occult Science with some critical perspective as well as genuine appreciation for Steiner's contributions.