- RUDOLF STEINER
- OTHER AUTHORS
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THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC MOVEMENTRUDOLF STEINER
and the Purpose of the Goetheanum
In his final lectures to the general public, Rudolf Steiner speaks with great clarity and purpose about the inner and outer necessity of the anthroposophical impulse in modern times. Following the fire that destroyed the first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland, Steiner had focused his efforts on rebuilding and reorganizing the Anthroposophical Society. But he also continued to travel and speak to the public – in Prague, Vienna and Basel – to explain the purpose of the Goetheanum and to elucidate the broader aims of his spiritual work. These lectures, including a semi-public series in Dornach, are gathered here and published in English for the first time, together with an introduction, notes and index.
In describing the development of Anthroposophy, Steiner illumined the philosophies that lie at its roots. He speaks of Madame H. P. Blavatsky, of the anti-Christian forces in the world, and of the 'homeless' souls who seek a spiritual scientific understanding of the world and humanity.
The History and Conditions of the Anthroposophical Movement in Relation to the Anthroposophical Society
An Encouragement for Self-Examination
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.
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS
Anthroposophy as a Path of Knowledge
The Michael Mystery
'Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe.' (From the first 'Leading Thought'.)
"We are firmly in our understanding of things of the spirit only when we do not rest content with abstract spiritual concepts and a capacity to express them theoretically, but instead grow into a sure belief that higher beings are present with us in a community of spirit when we engage in spiritual study. No external measures can bring about anthroposophical community-building. You have to call it forth from the profoundest depths of human consciousness." —Rudolf Steiner
For the Foundation of the General Anthroposophical Society 1923/1924
The laying of the Foundation Stone, lectures and addresses, discussion of the Statutes, Dornach, Dec. 24, 1923 – Jan. 1, 1924 (CW 260)
CONSTITUTION OF THE SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
An Introductory Guide
‘If the intentions of the Christmas Conference are to be carried out, the Anthroposophical Society will in future have to fulfil, as far as possible, the esoteric aspirations of its members. With this end in view, the School, consisting of three Classes, will be established within the General Society.’ - Rudolf Steiner, January 1924
THE FOUNDATION STONE / THE LIFE, NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY
This volume - which brings together two classic booklets for the first time - features Steiner's valuable thoughts and guidelines regarding the Foundation Stone Meditation and the new character of the Anthroposophical Society, given during and after the Christmas Conference of 1923/24.
1901-1925
Marie Steiner von Sivers
‘I send you fondest thoughts on your birthday. On this day I will think a lot of all the beautiful things which were, and are contained in our work together, and which now always stand so beautifully before my inner eye when I describe them. Let me assure you that I write this description with love.’ – Rudolf Steiner to Marie Steiner, 13 March 1925
From the time of the Foundation Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society (Dornach, Christmas to the New Year, 1923–24) until his death shortly before Easter 1925, Rudolf Steiner wrote a weekly letter addressed to the members of the Anthroposophical Society. The letters were printed in the members' supplement to the Goetheanum Weekly and in its English edition, Anthroposophical Movement.
SPIRITUALISM, MADAME BLAVATSKY, AND THEOSOPHY
The spiritual revolution of the twentieth century-the "New Age"-is unimaginable without the spiritualist movement and the formidable personality of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the creator of the Theosophical Society. Without these two, the work of Rudolf Steiner, G.I. Gurdjieff, Hazrat Inayat Khan, Sri Aurobindo, and C.G. Jung, could not have been what it was.
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THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC MOVEMENTOTHER AUTHORS
The Understanding and Continued Activity of the Christmas Conference
Edited by Peter Selg and Marc Desaules
“ . . . we are faced today with the need to turn the Society into a being that is active and effective in the world.” —Rudolf Steiner, November 1922
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL WORLD SOCIETY AND ITS SCHOOL FOR SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
Peter Selg
“When thousands are in the initial vanguard of a movement, these thousands have a higher, more potentized obligation...they have the obligation to practice, in every detail, greater courage, greater energy, greater patience, greater tolerance, and above all greater truthfulness in all things.” — Rudolf Steiner (Dornach, June 16, 1923)
THE DESTINY OF THE MICHAEL COMMUNITY
Foundation Stone for the Future
Peter Selg
In two related studies, Peter Selg tracks the groundbreaking of the first Goetheanum on September 20, 1913, in the context of what is known as the “Michael movement,” the primary active impulse brought by Rudolf Steiner in 1924, which explicitly indicates the anthroposophic movement and its official society.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY SINCE RUDOLF STEINER'S DEATH
An Outline and Perspectives for the Future
T.H.Meyer
This volume begins with Thomas Meyer's assessment of Anthroposophy's evolution since Rudolf Steiner’s death and its future prospects. He offers an overview of the eighty-seven years of the development of the anthroposophic movement and the Anthroposophical Society, the worldwide organization headquartered in Dornach, Switzerland, since the death of its founder.
A guided tour through the building, its surroundings and its history
Hans Hasler
'I first saw the Goetheanum as a fifteen-year-old through binoculars. I was fascinated and wanted to know more about this incredible building. What am I seeing? Why these forms? What happens in this building?' - Hans Hasler
A Century of Rudolf Steiner's Work in North America
Henry Barnes
Henry Barnes—the author of A Life for the Spirit—brings us a comprehensive view of the development of the anthroposophic movement in North America. During its initial phase in the early 1900s, Americans began to return from Europe with word of an individual who spoke about the spiritual world from direct experience. The first spritual-scientific initiatives began in New York in the 1930s and spread across the prairies to the West Coast and beyond—to Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii—taking root in the hearts and minds of the “new world.”
A Century of Rudolf Steiner's Work in North America
Henry Barnes
Henry Barnes—the author of A Life for the Spirit—brings us a comprehensive view of the development of the anthroposophic movement in North America. During its initial phase in the early 1900s, Americans began to return from Europe with word of an individual who spoke about the spiritual world from direct experience. The first spritual-scientific initiatives began in New York in the 1930s and spread across the prairies to the West Coast and beyond—to Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii—taking root in the hearts and minds of the “new world.”
and the Clinical-therapeutic Institute
A Photographic Documentation
Mirela Faldey and Peter Selg
“Ita Wegman is not only an inspiring genius of anthroposophy but a healing genius for the anthroposophical art of healing. Her very being harbors within it breath, courage, greatness.” —J. E. Zeylmans van Emmichoven
A Conversation with Emanuel Zeylmans
Wolfgang Weirauch
"I believe a time will come when greater distance makes the conflicts in the Anthroposophical Society - which at first sight seem so ugly - appear as part of the struggle for Anthroposophy in the twentieth century. When this future dawns, it will be important to be able to reach back to an historical documentation of what happened." - Emanuel Zeylmans
THE REPRESENTATIVE OF HUMANITY
Between Lucifer and Ahriman
The Wooden Model at the Goetheanum
Judith von Halle
John Wilkes
In conceiving his architectural masterpiece - the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland - Rudolf Steiner designed a large wooden model, featuring three main figures, to be placed in a central position inside the building. Known as 'the Representative of Humanity', this sculpture shows a central, free-standing Christ holding a balance between the beings of Lucifer and Ahriman, who represent polar tendencies of expansion and contraction. On New Year's Eve 1922 the Goetheanum was destroyed by fire, but the model - still in a process of creation and therefore housed in an external studio - miraculously escaped the flames. It remains intact to this day in the second Goetheanum, where it can be viewed by the public.
RUDOLF STEINER AND THE SCHOOL FOR SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
The Foundation of the
Peter Selg
"Following Rudolf Steiner's death, the mysteries cannot be revealed further at the present time, but we must continue to cultivate a living, not only rational but also ritual, continuity of the mystery contents he has given, passing them to people who did not know Rudolf Steiner and yet seek to connect with him esoterically and not just intellectually." - Ludwig Count Polzer-Hoditz
RUDOLF STEINER'S INTENTIONS FOR THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
The Executive Council, the School of Spiritual Science, and the Sections
Peter Selg
Although the fruits of Anthroposophy - Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, Camphill, anthroposophic medicine, and so on - are relatively well known and moderately successful, their relationship to Anthroposophy and its vehicle for transmission, the General Anthroposophical Society, and the School for Spiritual Science, remains mysterious and unclear; sadly, the same is true of the meaning and purpose of those institutions.
RUDOLF STEINER’S MISSION AND ITA WEGMAN
Margarete and Erich Kirchner-Bockholt
‘Because I felt that he knew how things were, I said simply:“I will stay with you.” Then he said significant things to me that I was not to repeat. A very ancient karma existing between him and myself was renewed. It was not until many years later that I first realised the significance of that meeting.’ – Ita Wegman
TIME OF DECISION WITH RUDOLF STEINER
Experience and Encounter
Friedrich Hiebel
This fascinating recollection of the early days of the Anthroposophical Society offers a unique perspective on Rudolf Steiner's work and his relationship to his students.
TWIN ROADS TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM
The Christmas Conference and the Karma of the Anthroposophical Society
Hans Peter van Manen
First published in the run-up to the new millennium, van Manen’s seminal study remains a unique and important source for understanding the spiritual and karmic background to the Anthroposophical Movement and Society, as founded around the work of the twentieth-century seer and scientist Rudolf Steiner.
The Practice of Thinking
Georg Kühlewind
The goal of this study is to cultivate the experience of living, intuitive thinking, such as we experience with every new understanding. As Kühlewind puts it, this unique contribution to practice of anthroposophy has a twofold purpose: “to stimulate working with spiritual science through exercises, and to stimulate independent new formulations of its content on the basis of experience.”
