"Anthroposophy embraces a spiritual view of the human being and the cosmos, but its emphasis is on knowing, not faith. It is a path in which the human heart and hand, and especially our capacity for thinking are essential. It leads, in Steiner’s words, “from the spirit in the human being to the spirit in the universe”, because only if we first come to experience the spirit in ourselves can we know the cosmic spirit. But Anthroposophy is more than self development. Through it we recognize out humanity. Humanity (anthropos) has the inherent ((wisdom (sophia) to transform both itself and the world." http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/anthroposophy
"Anthroposophy is a philosophy founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers of anthroposophy aim to develop mental faculties of spiritual discovery through a mode of thought independent of sensory experience. They also aim to present their ideas in a manner verifiable by rational discourse and specifically seek a precision and clarity in studying the spiritual world mirroring that obtained by scientists investigating the physical world. " Wikipedia, Anthroposophy
"We are now approaching a time when new forces and capacities will be developed by humankind, and these will be distinctly apparent in the first half of this present twentieth century. These new forces and capacities must be understood. Particularly those individuals who have studied and understood Anthroposophy must realize that such an uplifting of humanity toward the spiritual has again become possible. During the important times that will follow 1930, single individuals will become capable of developing higher forces naturally, and what we know as the etheric body will become visible to them. A certain number of people will develop etheric clairvoyant powers. Two things will then be possible. Either the materialism of our age will continue, in which case, when these forces are manifested, men will fail to understand that they lead into the spiritual worlds. They will then be wrongly understood and so suppressed. Should that occur, people speaking in a materialistic sense at the end of 1940 would be justified in saying, “Now see what fantastic prophets spoke at the beginning of the century. Nothing of what they foretold has been fulfilled.” If the new capacities do not appear, however, it would not contradict what must indeed be said now. It would only prove that people without the right understanding have choked these things in the bud and that they have missed something that humanity must possess if its further evolution is not to collapse into dissolution and decay. Here lies the great responsibility of Anthroposophy: Anthroposophy has sprung from a knowledge of the necessity of preparing for something to come that might otherwise be overlooked and suppressed." (The Christ Impulse and the Development of Ego Consciousness, IV; February 8, 1910)
See Also