I have to also wonder why Steiner's ideas caught on so well, whereas those of people like Alisdair Crowley really have remained fringe. It's a strange world.
Right time, right place. Steiner came of age during the German idealism movement in philosophy, born of Rousseau's romanticism (don't think, feel!) and a mystical counter-reaction to the British empiricists like Locke and Berkeley. The German idealism movement produced Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel, and Marx, among others. So basically, Steiner was a man of his time and place, with ideas that, while completely wackadoo, were entirely in line with the particular brand of wackadoo that was all the rage.
Crowley's brand of wackadoo was simply not in fashion.
I guess the lesson to be learned here is, the best way to be an influential crazy person is to be crazy in a mainstream kind of way.
