LISTEN ABOVE or via
SPOTIFY • APPLE PODCASTS • POCKET CASTS • CASTBOX • PLAYERFM

Your contribution to Against Everyone With Conner Habib is vital. Support the show with a monthly or or annual pledge via PATREON.
You can also make a one-time contribution to the show today via Square.

Friends,
At the center of this podcast is esotericism, and within that, esoteric Christianity.

It’s a Christianity that seems almost unrecognizable if you are looking from a mainstream point of view

And it’s an esotericism that is also often at odds with many magickal and occult approaches.

In fact, if esoteric Christianity looks like anything, it is probably more like continental philosophy than anything else, or maybe like an art of togetherness, a social artform. I don’t mean to reduce it to this, of course – it is much more than some intellectual but ultimately secularized exercise.

One of a few main figures or spiritual teachers of my life who has remained consistent for me is Rudolf Steiner. You know him if you listen to this show. And the fruits of his labor are everywhere. For instance, if you’ve ever had biodynamic wine, or known someone who sent their kids to Waldorf school, or if you use Weleda products, or if you’re part of a CSA…

But plenty of people access these fruits while either not knowing or deliberately obscuring the origins. Furthermore, Steiner is either dismissed as being part of a generalized milieu of esotericism which depends on outdated and problematic ideas about social issues.

When you approach with a sense of clarity, it is clear that Steiner is a radical thinker whose politics can be read coherently from an anarchist or leftist perspective.

In fact, this is something I did with his biographers Aaron French and Henry Holland on ⁠AEWCH 311⁠.

But also I have to add that this has been part of my struggle with many anthroposophists today (and historically, of course). As someone with a Syrian father, as a gay person, as someone with a clear and thought-through solidarity with marginalized people, I have endured plenty of directly racist and homophobic comments; not to mention endured transphobic, and Islamophobic commentaries and monologues from people who claim to be adherents of anthroposophy.

Of course, so much of this can simply be ascribed to the fact that anthroposophy originated in a white European context and that its headquarters are in a mostly white European country, and that most of its adherents are white Europeans and/or white settlers in non-European countries.

But it would be unfair to dismiss the questions and concerns about Steiner’s work entirely based on my own own good or bad experiences. Many people encounter this roadblock when they approach. Even as they long for the insights derived from his esoteric landscape, they find themselves hesitant to enter the territory.

It’s also complicated enough as it is!

Esotericism — particularly anthroposophy — goes into so many aspects of life with a revolutionary, or maybe better said, redemptive impulse. So if we grapple with the historical social questions and come through interested, will we be on board with radical reevaluations of science, medicine, politics, and more?

I do think there are many lessons to be learned and that can infuse us with new perspectives.

The call of the esoteric is not an ancient call filled with timeless truths that ask to be believed.

Rather, esotericism is new.

It offers indications of new ideas, new gestures of compassionate mutual aid, and newly creative participations with worldly discoveries and events.

I’m so happy, therefore to welcome ⁠WOLFGANG MULLER ⁠onto the show. Wolgang is the author of many books, but the one you can find in English now is ⁠THROUGH THE LENS OF ANTHROPSOPHY: WHAT A SPIRITUAL WORLDVIEW HAS TO SAY ABOUT RELIGION, RACE, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY TODAY⁠.

Wolfgang was a former editor at NDR (German Radio) in Hamburg, focusing particularly on history. And he’s an especially appropriate guest for this discussion, as he went through his own period of skepticism regarding Steiner, even writing an article criticizing anthroposophy.

We discuss all the topics above, and more. This is a great discussion for those new to anthroposphy as well as those who have been with it for years, and for anyone wanting to communicate it with others.

CH