In the Circle of Twelve: Rudolf Steiner as Bodhisattva
Publication information:
Abstract
From 1904 until 1924, in dozens of lectures and books, Rudolf Steiner repeatedly described the Principle of the Twelve as a central aspect of nearly all the ancient Mystery streams – both East and West – and made stunning new revelations about this principle within the context of Christian–Rosicrucian mystery teachings. He also actively integrated this principle in his development of new impulses for pedagogy, natural science, and the arts.
Though he gave over 100 lectures (most between 1909 and 1912) that touched on the nature and role of the Bodhisattvas, Rudolf Steiner never spoke of his own position within Earth’s most significant Circle of Twelve – the Twelve Bodhisattvas around the Logos, who, incarnating century–after–century, perform deeds of service to Christ in order to advance the divine plan of world evolution.
This paper will discuss Rudolf Steiner’s role as the Aries Bodhisattva – the Bodhisattva of thinking who bears the Sun Archangel Michael – through his previous incarnations and also within the context of the other members of the Circle of Twelve Bodhisattvas who incarnated in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Presenter Biography
A historian of American natural history and ecology, I have taught Native American History at Rutgers University; Environmental History at University of Vermont; the History of Science at Arizona State University, University of Minnesota and the University of Oklahoma, and Modern Global History at SUNY Plattsburgh. My books include: Bright Colors Falsely Seen: Synaesthesia and the Search for Transcendental Knowledge (Yale UP: 1998 Across the Great Border Fault: The Naturalist Myth in America (Rutgers UP: 2000); Expect Great Things: The Life and Search of Henry David Thoreau (2017) and The Road to Walden (Penguin: 2018); Enchanted New York: A Journey Along Broadway Through Manhattan’s Magical Past (NYU Press: 2020). I am co–author with Robert Powell of two books based upon the scientific work of Rudolf Steiner: Christ & the Mayan Calendar (Lindisfarne: 2009) and The Astrological Revolution (Steiner Books: 2010). I am currently a Contributing Editor at Public Domain Review.