Viral Illness and Epidemics in the Work of Rudolf Steiner

Viral Illness and Epidemics in the Work of Rudolf Steiner

Collected in this book are all of Rudolf Steiner’s statements on viral illnesses and epidemics. Spanning over forty years and arranged in chronological order, these extended excerpts are drawn from 35 separate volumes of the Collected Works. Several of these statements have never before been published in English. Newly translated from the latest German editions, they serve as an invaluable resource for anyone interested in exploring Steiner’s views on health and illness in relation to pathogens and infectious diseases.

At various times in his career Rudolf Steiner touched upon the themes of viral illnesses and epidemics. In his early Theosophical work it was mostly to elucidate the theme of karma. Epidemics were one more example of how karma works into daily life and into the big cycles of repeated earth lives.

In the middle phases of his lecturing activity he turned his focus more towards the cosmic origin of infectious diseases. In these examples pathogens are consequence of the deeds of cosmic beings as these play in to their role supporting the gradual independence of humanity..

Beginning in 1918 and continuing through 1924 Steiner looks more practically at the cause of outbreaks, locating their origin and timing and cosmic events. He repeatedly stresses that pathogens carry illness, but are not the primary cause. The cause of infection are weaknesses in the physical and etheric. These must be present for a pathogen to generate an illness. Asymptomatic carriers are the evidence that the pathogen cannot be the primary cause. Steiner elaborates this in a number of ways in lectures to medical doctors and to the general public in the 1920s.

All of these indications are present in this book in fresh translations. This volume is an essential background for people attempting to understand the current pandemic in light of anthroposophy.

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up (see right). As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.