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This course of lectures was given at a pivotal point in the development of the anthroposophic movement. Just months before, an act of arson had caused the destruction of the first Goetheanum, and its darkened ruins appeared to reflect the fragmentations within the Anthroposophical Society. Divisions were appearing amongst members and friends, with individual energies increasingly routed to external initiatives and practical projects. It became apparent that a new impetus was needed. In this turbulent context, Steiner delivers these lectures in a calm, lively and informal style. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, he says, a yearning for spiritual nourishment arose within Western culture, and organizations such as the Theosophical Society gained in popularity. Despite his direct involvement in these events, Steiner describes in dispassionate tones how the spiritual movements behind theosophy and anthroposophy were able to work together harmoniously, before an unavoidable separation took place. Steiners expansive review of the anthroposophic movement is an important narrative account of the developing Western spiritual tradition and the history of the Mysteries. These lectures also offer rare perceptions of the life and philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. Those who identify with the movement he founded will discover revelatory insights to its background and possibilities for its future development within the broader evolution of humankind.

In these much-valued lectures, Rudolf Steiner begins by positing the question, Why investigate the spiritual worlds at all? He goes on to explore the contemporary need for spiritual knowledge and the authentic paths that can lead to it. Speaking in Torquay, England, at the International Summer School organized by his friend and colleague D.N. Dunlop, Steiner surveys the differences in various types of consciousness from ancient to modern times, in waking and dreaming, from space into time and the changes that have taken place in relation to knowledge and science in the course of history. He goes on to discuss the Mystery nature of crystallized minerals and metals such as copper and silver, and their relationship to the planets. He also describes how the ages of life can become organs of perception. In a dramatic conclusion Steiner explains the role of moon beings, ahrimanic elemental beings, and the true nature of mediumship, ectoplasm and spiritual possession.Presented here in a fresh translation that corrects many errors in previous editions, the text is complemented with notes, an introduction by Paul King and an index. Lectures include: Nature is the Great Illusion. "Know Thyself"; The Three Worlds and their Reflected Images; Form and Substantiality of the Mineral Kingdom in relation to Human Levels of Consciousness; The Secret of Research into other Realms through the Metamorphosis of Consciousness; The Inner Enlivening of the Soul through the Qualities of Metals; Initiation Science; Star Knowledge; Possible Aberrations in Spiritual Research.

Our neurosensory system is inwardly configured music, and we experience music as an artistic quality to the degree that a piece of music is in tune with the mystery of our own musical structure. - Rudolf SteinerWhat is music? Rudolf Steiner regards the essence of music as something spiritual, inaudible to the senses. The world of tones, borne on the vibrations of air, is not the essential element. The true nature of music, the spiritual element in music, he says, is found between the tones, lies in the intervals as an inaudible quality.Rudolf Steiner spoke repeatedly about music as something inherent both in the cosmos and the human being. It played an important role in many forms of ritual and worship, and people once perceived a link between music and the world of stars, which was seen as the dwelling place of the gods. Nowadays our view of music is divorced from such religious outlooks, but research repeatedly demonstrates the profound effect it continues to have on us. In this unique anthology of texts, compiled with a commentary and notes by Michael Kurtz, Steiner describes the realm of the spiritually-resonating harmonies of the spheres and our intrinsic connection to this cosmic music. He also explores the phenomenon of musical listening and experience, as well as Goethes approach to music.

Speaking to audiences in Denmark, Germany and France, Rudolf Steiner discusses a wide range of topics: from positive and negative human soul capacities, true self-knowledge and karma, to changes in human consciousness, from ancient times to the modern era all in the context of the incarnation of Christ on earth.The lectures illustrate the diversity of Steiners approach when speaking to different audiences. Reflecting on the polymath Novalis, for example, he is urgent about the responsibility of spiritual science to help humanity awaken to the new age. A few months later, talking of Hegel and deploring the fact that an interest in spiritual matters often fails to be accompanied by an equal interest in logical thought, Steiner uses a dispassionate, philosophical tone. But throughout the lectures he is consistent in his view that spiritual science does not reject conventional science. Trained philosophical thinking leads to different conclusions than materialism, he says, but there is nothing in the field of spiritual science that need be rejected by rigorous scientific thought.Although the lectures were given to a variety of audiences, ideas recur from different perspectives and in different contexts, with strong thematic links binding them together. These include the relationship between philosophy and science; the nature of clairvoyance; Christs presence in the etheric realm; reincarnation and karma; the mystery drama The Portal of Initiation; Christmas and its symbols; and the transformation of consciousness that occurred when Christ incarnated physically on earth.In the final lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks inspiringly about the Christmas festival, contrasting the feeling of inwardness that people used to experience with the hectic cultural environment of modern cities. However, this does not lead Steiner to be nostalgic about the past. Rather, he states, we should seek to recreate a mood of inwardness in a new way, appropriate to our modern age and consciousness. These lectures give us the tools to bring such a contemporary spiritual approach to our lives.

Speaking towards the end of the catastrophic Great War, Rudolf Steiner reveals the spiritual roots of the crises of our times. Since 1879, he says, human minds have been influenced by backward angels, spirits of darkness, who following their defeat in battle with Archangel Michael were forced out of the heavens and fell to the earth. This war in the spiritual worlds had consequences, and it is essential that people today are sufficiently awake to the retrogressive influences around them. In a positive sense, we can choose freely to engage with the spirits of light, who seek to emancipate human beings from bonds of race, nation and blood.In this extraordinary series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner throws light on hidden aspects of world affairs. With the Bolshevik Revolution having just taken place, he discusses events in Russia and humanitys attempts to build theoretically perfect social orders. Steiner also speaks about the roles and spiritual backgrounds of significant individuals, such as the mystics Johann Valentin Andreae, Vladimir Soloviev and Saint-Martin, the American and British politicians Woodrow Wilson and Lloyd George, and world-historic figures including Charles Darwin and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.The new edition of this classic work features a revised translation, notes and extensive appendices by editor Frederick Amrine, plus a new introduction by Christopher Schaefer.

The Rose Cross meditation is central to the western - Rosicrucian - path of personal development as presented by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner repeatedly referred to the meditation as a symbol of human development that illustrates the transformation of the human beings instincts and desires. These work unconsciously in the soul, and in thought, feeling and will. Through personal development, the I - the essential self - can gain mastery over these unconscious forces of the soul. The Rose Cross meditation features the red rose as an image to which the student, via specific means, aspires. To the plant is added the black cross which, pointing to the mystery of death and resurrection, provides a symbol of the higher development of the human I. The metamorphosis of the roses and the cross into the symbol of the Rose Cross is brought about by the students inner efforts, creating an entirely new image. This becomes the starting point for further steps along the meditative path.The Rose Cross meditation is the only pictorial meditation whose content and structure Steiner described in such detail. In this invaluable book, the editor has drawn together virtually all Rudolf Steiners statements on the subject, arranging them chronologically within the motif of each chapter. His words are supported by commentary and notes.

Created in 1911, eurythmy was developed for years as an artistic and educational discipline. Although Rudolf Steiner pointed out its healing aspects from the very beginning, it was only in 1921 that he gave a course of lectures that gave the art of eurythmy a vital new application. To the assembled eurythmists and doctors, he presented what one participant described as ...a complete and detailed method of eurythmy therapy, in which we could directly experience that even today the creative and therapeutic power of the word ... is still at work.Steiners comprehensive lectures, republished here in a thoroughly revised translation, describe the principles of therapeutic eurythmy, giving many specific exercises. Primarily intended for practising eurythmists, these lectures also contain much material of particular interest. Steiner reveals the intricacies of rhythmic interplay between human physiology and the life-forces in the world around us. He describes the qualities of language and the dynamism contained in the individual vowels and consonants, elucidating their relationship with eurythmical movements and human experience. Through such movements, individuals are able to access the healing etheric forces.The exercises, referred to by Steiner as inner gymnastics, contain enormous potential for psychological and physiological well-being. Gaining ever-wider recognition today, they complement conventional medicine, offering a therapeutic process concerned with mind, soul and body.This new edition of these important lectures - previously published under the title Curative Eurythmy - includes an appendix with reminiscences by early eurythmists, as well as additional commentary from Dr Walter Kugler.

In this selection of thirty of Rudolf Steiners most important lectures on the Festivals, he identifies and illumines the true meaning behind Christmas, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, and Michaelmas, emphasizing both their inner-spiritual and outer-cosmic aspects. He shows that the Festivals are not merely the commemoration of mighty historical events or truths within the Christian tradition, but are in themselves - each year - spiritual events, manifesting in seasonal and natural rhythms, which carry a significance that grows and deepens with the developing of human evolution.

From the contents of original Greek drama and the soul drama of the present day that leads to self-knowledge, Rudolf Steiner develops his thought processes pulsating with lively contemplation about wonders of the world, trials of the soul and revelations of the spirit! Marie SteinerIn this remarkable interpretation of Greek mythology, Rudolf Steiner goes beyond Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell in reading mythological figures such as Demeter, Persephone, Eros and Dionysos as primordial archetypes of macrocosmic thinking, feeling and will. Moreover, he explains in detail how this archetypal consciousness was gradually lost, giving way to new-found, subjective experience of these faculties, which in turn opens up possibilities for human freedom. His overarching theme of the evolution of consciousness is grand in its sweep, but Steiner also shows himself to be the master of telling details.Lectures include: The origin of dramatic art in European cultural life and the Mystery of Eleusis; The living reality of the spiritual world in Greek mythology and the threefold Hecate; Nature and spirit; The entry of the Christ Impulse into human evolution and the activity of the planetary gods; The merging of the ancient Hebrew and the Greek currents in the Christ-stream; The ego-nature and the human form; The Dionysian Mysteries; Eagle, Bull and Lion currents, Sphinx and Dove; The two poles of all soul-ordeals; and On Goethes birthday.The freshly revised text features an introduction, notes and appendices by Professor Frederick Amrine, colour images and an index.

Rudolf Steiner, the often undervalued, multifaceted genius of modern times, contributed much to the regeneration of culture. In addition to his philosophical teachings, he provided ideas for the development of many practical activities, including education - both general and special - agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, religion and the arts.Steiners original contribution to human knowledge was based on his ability to conduct spiritual research, the investigation of metaphysical dimensions of existence. With his scientific and philosophical training, he brought a new systematic discipline to the field, allowing for conscious methods and comprehensive results. A natural seer from childhood, he cultivated his spiritual vision to a high degree, enabling him to speak with authority on previously veiled mysteries of life.Samples of Steiners work are to be found in this introductory reader in which Matthew Barton brings together excerpts from Steiners many talks and writings on Easter. The volume also features an editorial introduction, afterword, commentary and notes. Chapters: Can we Celebrate Easter?; The Earth and the Cosmos; Rising Sun: Nature and Resurrection; Golgotha, the Central Deed of Evolution; Easter, a Festival for the Future.

In 1924, Rudolf Steiner gave a series of urgent, impassioned, talks to members of the Anthroposophical Society regarding their karma and its relationship to the culture of the time. Steiners words characterize vividly a spiritual battle, of forces gathering to fight for the soul of humanity itself. Given the challenges faced by humanity today, it has, perhaps, never been more urgent for those who ally themselves with Rudolf Steiners work to study, absorb and take to heart the contents of this critically important material.

...This will generate a struggle covering the face of the whole earth. The one and only remedy for this nonsense being made of human evolution will be the path that can lead humanity to the spirit the path of Michael, which finds its continuation in the path of Christ. Rudolf Steiner. Speaking in the aftermath of the Great War, Rudolf Steiner presents a series of extraordinary lectures on the power and mission of the Archangel Michael. He paints on a broad canvas in the context of cosmic and human evolution revealing Michaels tasks in the past, present and future. Originally the countenance of Yahweh, Michael has metamorphosed from a night spirit to a day spirit. As the Countenance of Christ, Michael helps us find a balance between luciferic and ahrimanic tendencies. The old dualism (such as good versus evil), says Steiner, needs to be replaced by the trinity of Lucifer-Christ-Ahriman. Filling our heart with the Christ Impulse creates an equilibrium between the luciferic influence that imbues our head and the ahrimanic influence at work in our limbs. Rudolf Steiner describes how humanity faces three dangers in the social sphere: spiritual life could flow into the pit of mendacity ruled by Ahriman, individual rights might descend into the pit of selfishness (Lucifer), and economics into cultural sickness and death (Asuras). In order to prevent European-American culture from perishing, it will be necessary to turn towards contemporary threefold social ideas. Steiner also speaks about the principle of metamorphosis in connection with evolution and devolution, as evident in the design of the pillars in the newly-built Goetheanum. Architectural styles are an expression of human evolution, as can be seen in Greek temples, gothic Cathedrals, the Grail temple and the building at Dornach. Amidst many other themes, Rudolf Steiner addresses the problem of natural necessity and freedom, and the abolition of the trichotomy of body, soul and spirit at the Council of Constantinople in AD 869.

The Lords Prayer stands at the heart of Christianity. Over the past two millennia it has been spoken millions of times by millions of people around the world. Rudolf Steiner affirms the power of this prayer, given by Jesus Christ himself, and encourages us to begin to understand it at deeper levels. Such an understanding, he explains, is now necessary for humanitys further development. In the four lectures he gave on this subject, collected here under one cover, Rudolf Steiner penetrates the esoteric meanings of the Lords Prayer, relating its seven petitions to the seven spiritual and physical bodies of the human being. He also discusses the difference between prayer and meditation, and shows how true prayer is selfless in nature. This volume features an introduction by Judith von Halle, whose work is valued for her experiential knowledge of the Lords Prayer and the events of Christs life.

For hundreds of years ordinary folk in the small Austrian village of Oberufer on the Danube gathered in the local tavern at Christmas time to perform these plays to their neighbours. With their roots lost in medieval times, the plays gradually evolved to incorporate a unique mixture of broad peasant humour and deep reverence in their celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. The Paradise Play serves as a Preface, presenting the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, but with the promise of future salvation through Christ. The Shepherds Play follows with its portrayal of the birth of Jesus in a stable where he is sought out by a group of simple shepherds. The Kings Play, the final in the trilogy, depicts the visit of three wise Kings to the birthplace of the King of Humanity, and the murderous measures taken by Herod to try and thwart Jesuss mission. This revised edition of the plays - eminently suitable for amateur and professional companies alike - offers a clear layout of the texts, greatly elaborated directors and make-up indications, stage and lighting directions, and detailed costume designs illustrated in colour.

Large temptations will emanate from these machine-animals, produced by people themselves, and it will be the task of a spiritual science that explores the cosmos to ensure all these temptations do not exert any damaging influence on human beings.In an increasingly digitised world, where both work and play are more and more taking place online and via screens, Rudolf Steiners dramatic statements from 1917 appear prophetic. Speaking of intelligent machines that would appear in the future, Steiner presents a broad context that illustrates the multitude of challenges human beings will face. If humanity and the Earth are to continue to evolve together with the cosmos, and not be cut off from it entirely, we will need to work consciously and spiritually to create a counterweight to such phenomena.In the lectures gathered here, edited with commentary and notes by Andreas Neider, Rudolf Steiner addresses a topic that he was never to speak of again: the secret of the geographical or the ahrimanic doppelganger. The human nervous system houses an entity that does not belong to its constitution, he states. This is an ahrimanic being which enters the body shortly before birth and leaves at death, providing the basis for all electrical currents that are needed to process and coordinate sense perceptions and react to them.Based on his spiritual research, Rudolf Steiner discusses this doppelganger or double in the wider context of historic occult events relating to spirits of darkness. Specific brotherhoods seek to keep such knowledge to themselves in order to exert power and spread materialism. But this knowledge is critical, says Steiner, if the geographical doppelganger and its challenges are to be understood.

"It is not always right to send someone to the chemist for some medicine when hes ill. Instead we should organize our lives in a way that renders us less susceptible to illness, or alleviates its impact. Disorders will impinge on us less severely if we strengthen the egos influence on the astral body, the astral bodys influence on the etheric and the etheric on the physical."Nervousness, anxiety and agitation are all common symptoms of our increasingly stressed and pressured society. They manifest in the everyday form that many people experience, or sometimes as serious mental or psychological disorders. In this classic lecture, Rudolf Steiner offers practical advice and spiritual insight for those who wish to heal these proliferating ailments of modern life. He describes simple exercises that strengthen the inner self, with the goal of achieving the calm and centredness necessary to lead a purposeful and healthy life.

These profound studies of the cosmic forces behind the four great festivals of the year provide a wealth of material for fruitful meditation. Rudolf Steiner presents great imaginative pictures which unite the heavens and the earth through a portrayal of the activities of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. In the course of the lectures he offers spiritual wisdom on subjects which include the alchemical processes of sulphur, mercury and salt in the cosmos, man and the plant, spiritual combustion processes, crystals, clouds, meteors, the movement of elemental beings in nature, and the conflicting efforts of the two great adversaries to divert the earth from its true goal.

As a spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner wrote many beautifully formed and inspired verses. Often they were given in relation to specific situations or in response to individual requests; sometimes they were created for general use in assisting the process of meditation. Regardless of their origins, they are uniformly powerful in their ability to connect the meditant with spiritual archetypes and realities, and are valuable tools for developing experience and knowledge of other dimensions. Matthew Barton has delicately translated these meditations into English, many for the first time, and arranged them thematically in this outstanding new series. In this collection of meditations for maintaining a connection to those who have died, Rudolf Steiner offers hope and consolation to the bereaved. The first section features words of wisdom on death and its deeper, spiritual meaning; the second part consists of verses which stress the continued links between the living and the dead, indicating how our thoughts can help those who have departed earthly life; and the third section is devoted to poems which express something of what those who have died experience in their new existence.

In Hindu tradition, the concept of kundalini refers to a form of primal energy located at the base of the spine. Through traditional Eastern methods, efforts were made to awaken the kundalini in order to achieve transformed consciousness. Rudolf Steiner offers an entirely new perspective, integrating the kundalini idea into his spiritual philosophy. This anthology contains all relevant comments and notes by Steiner on the theme, highlighting how his thinking evolved. At the same time, it accentuates the differences and similarities between Western and Eastern spiritual paths, and in the process reveals what is new and original about Steiners esoteric teachings.In contrast to most yoga traditions which cultivate the energy rising from the lower life centre the Western path of esoteric schooling starts in our upper centre of consciousness, in thinking and the I. From there, the centre of experience is shifted downward, from the head to the heart. After development of the new heart centre, as Rudolf Steiner describes it, forces can be guided consciously and, through specific exercises, the kundalini snake can be fully awoken. In his detailed introduction, editor Andreas Meyer distils the perspectives and instructions from Steiners complete works, presenting a valuable synopsis for our understanding and practice of meditation today.Chapters include: The Meaning of Meditation, and the Six Exercises; Developing and Cleansing the Lotus Flowers; The Snake Symbol; The Kundalini Fire; The Kundalini Light; Developing the New Heart Organ; The Reversal in Thinking and Will; Specific Aspects of Kundalini Schooling; Transforming Physical Love and the Division of the Sexes; Breathing, the Light-Soul Process, and the New Yoga Will; The Polarity of Light and Love and Transforming the Kundalini Fire into Fraternity.

Many will be familiar with the notion that a person at the point of death sees their life flash before them. Rudolf Steiner describes that when the spiritual bodies separate from the physical body, the etheric body of the dying person is revealed, giving a panoramic overview of their earthly life. This etheric body contains everything we have experienced in our consciousness and kept in memory. The etheric not only generates and sustains all life, but encompasses the life forces out of which we shape our existence. Although the revelation of the life tableau belongs to the early period after death, it can also emerge as a result of meditation. Rudolf Steiner speaks of this through the first level of spiritual experience known as imagination as a conscious self-perception of the soul, taking place in the world of images. Here we are confronted with the harrowing knowledge of our doppelganger but we also experience the cosmic forces of childhood that are present in all our life processes. These same forces are described in psychology as the inner child. In this highly-original anthology of Steiners work we are led to a therapeutic, meditative approach that through working with the imaginative life tableau can strengthen and heal body, soul and spirit. Chapters include: Experiencing the Inner Child as the Starting Point for a New Philosophy; Experiencing Life before Birth; Pain and Sadness When Reliving the Life Tableau; Intensive Backward Thinking; Feelings of Happiness When Experiencing the Life Tableau; Re-experiencing the Inner Child; Through the Forces of Childhood to the Higher Self and the Christ Experience.