I fully respect anybody's interest in studying how any event may or may not affect any other event.  To that degree, I have no problem with people getting in groups and attempting to protect the world or themselves for the solar eclips. 

However, in the context of the above question, I squirm a bit in reading the letter sent out to the community.   Astrology is an activity that simply can't be proven wrong.  But that's not because it has been proven true.  It's just that it is a field that provides such ambiguity that nobody will ever be able to pin it down all that effectively.  This isn't a critisism at all of astrology.  Many of our most significant practices as humans are unfounded in terms of evidence.  Most of those, however, are not subject we spend much time making bold pseuo-scientific proclamations about. 

That's where it gets tricky in my opinion.  And that's where the explicit anthroposophical movement may be really stuck in very old structures of cognitive consciousness.  I love that people play fantasy board games and get passionate about the "meaning" associated with various spiritual practices/powers/contexts within the game.  It's also very useful that such people can step away from the game and realize that they aren't having actual intuitions about reality simply because they have highly intelligent understandings and intuitions about the terms and phenomena of the game.  It would be very helpful, I think, if the explicit anthroposophical movement were able to begin approaching matters such as the eclipse with a very grounded sense of not only the intutive connections of all the mental pictures they have associated with astrology and spiritual matters but, also, a direct intuition of the vast scope of healthy ignorance they have regarding such materials.  This wish of mine is not exclusively connected to anthroposophy. No, no.  I find it to be the most important gesture of the individual in our times.  And all individuals and every group is, by my observations, demonstrating equal degrees of success and challenge regarding this ultimate intuition.  The ego-process esures that we cherry pick and organize our understandings in the most "suitable" manner for it to continue itself onwardly hidden from the self-sustaining activity that is always the case of the Self.

blah, blah.  But, notice: even if we KNEW FOR CERTAIN the effect of the eclipse there is no reason that it would have to be approached from a fear-orientation whatsoever.  That orientation itself reflects a fundamental gesture/strategy of egoic process. 

Sounds like Alice Bailey, not Rudolf Steiner.

Another reason to try to understand Steiner's spiritual science from a philosophical viewpoint.

This is totally skewed. But he is entitled to use whatever media he can get his hands on to further his public initiative."Prominent leader" he is described as. Hmmm. I think that might be another misconception; self-styled enthusiast more like.

Theres a bit of the prophet in all of us, so this guy to me is nothing too alarming. But I would reserve the word "anthroposophy" for something utterly divergent in every respect from all ideas implicit in his spiel.It amazes me though, at the level of intention-

He regards himself as aligned to the Light Divine and the Christ Sun and he thinks a bit of communal chanting is going to swing it in the face of the full force of the alleged physical incarnation of "the Great Beast"? I can only conclude that, in his estimation, its his own mighty self-image thats going to make up the defecit. And the root of his narcissism is his certainty that the Light Divine, and the Christ Sun are bestowing special protection on him.

Been there, done religion, done salvation, done heroics, done magic powers, done glamour. I study now. I reckon he should too.

Homunculus the magnificent

I have chosen to avoid obsessing about something of which I have no direct knowledge. I do have to say, however, that Steiner's meditations, including the Foundation Stone, are real gems in the way they use carefully chosen thoughts to bring a person to a place of wholeness. I have read meditations aloud before going to bed and wake up the next day feeling a deep sense of renewal. I use some of Steiner's meditations not as an irrational ritual incantation, and not out of fear, but as a way to engage with the power of words and to center myself before studying my own thoughts. We have to give Steiner some credit for this even if we may be critical of how some anthroposophists have put them to use. I won't take a position here because I'm too new to Anthroposophy and don't know the people involved.

...Mark