Does Prophecy Matter?

If we don't know where we want to go, how will we get there?

Rembrandt’s depiction of “The Hermit” from the Tarot, via MidJourney

Last time, we looked at Rudolf Steiner’s prophetic vision of the future — of cycles of individual and planetary incarnations that lead to states of being and forms of consciousness very different from what we know and experience today. Personally I find a lot of value in pursuing Steiner’s ideas on these subjects for various reasons. 

“Prophecy” is easily misunderstood. It means something very different from “prediction.” As Armin Geertz, an anthropologist who studied the Hopi, noted, “Prophecy is a thread in the total fabric of meaning, in the total worldview. In this way it can be seen as a way of life and of being.” A prophetic framework places our individual lives in a much larger, cosmological context. As an orientation, prophecy imparts dignify and meaning; it gives a shape to fate. 

I understand that encountering Steiner’s occult cosmology can be jarring at first. It seems like fantasy or science fiction. Actually, science fiction is a bit like prophecy. Where traditional cultures have legends and myths to guide them, we use science fiction for a similar purpose. These stories help us envision the future. They also shape that future, to some extent.

As an example, many companies base their concept of the Metaverse on the virtual world depicted in Neal Stephenson’s dystopian Snowcrash, where he coined the term. In Snowcrash, malevolent corporations and gangsters control both the virtual world and the real world. They have privatized the commons. In this Libertarian hell, freelance individuals have to fight for survival in the margins, selling their services to the highest bidder. Science fiction offers commentary on current conditions, while it probes future possibilities.

Rene Magritte’s version of “The World” card from the Tarot, according to AI

I suppose you can read Steiner as a peculiarly tendentious fantasy writer, but you won’t get much from him that way. What he offers is something different: A different vision of reality;  a different approach to cognition and knowledge.