- RUDOLF STEINER
- OTHER AUTHORS
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HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESSRUDOLF STEINER
ANCIENT MYTHS AND THE NEW ISIS MYSTERY
“In this series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner repeatedly challenges us to awaken a new way of thinking that can truly penetrate into the social questions surrounding us. As he so often did, Steiner emphasizes how Spiritual Science can, indeed must, address the pressing issues of the day. It might seem strange to some readers that a book with the titleAncient Mythsshould be a call to a new understanding of our modern condition, yet it is through an appreciation of the significance of myths in the lives of ancient peoples that Steiner makes clear the challenges we face in our modern ways of knowing.” —Signe Schaefer
How to Keep Your Soul Alive after Twenty-Seven
This could have been the title of this book. The author shows that the natural development of the soul stops at around the age of twenty-seven. After that, nothing happens for our inner being unless we learn to make it happen. Part of the tragic nature of our time is that more and more people allow their soul life to die at twenty-seven, so that the remainder of their life becomes a kind of mummification.Rudolf Steiner emphasizes the astonishing and special relationship between our own time and that of ancient Egypt—how, in the natural rhythm of the ages, the so-called third post-Atlantian (Egyptian) epoch is mirrored by the fifth (present) epoch. In this sense, today it is especially relevant to look at ancient Egypt with fresh eyes. The evolution of Western civilization has been profoundly influenced by Egyptian myths through the Greek mysteries. Because of other influences, however, this heritage has degenerated; thinking has mummified and myth has all but disappeared. Consequently, it is important to revive the seed of goodness passed down to us from ancient Egypt.
in Cosmic and Human History
In a broad-ranging series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner shines new light on the spiritual background to the outbreak of the Great War in Europe. Spiritual entities stand behind the various peoples of the world, he says. He describes how these beings – Folk Souls – relate to the cultural diversity of Europe, America and the East, and speaks of their individual tasks and destinies in relation to the deeper causes of the catastrophic war. Central Europe has the particular mission of mediating between the Western world, the Slavic countries and by extension the East. Steiner alleges that Western secret societies consciously suppressed the spiritual life of this central cultural region through malign activities. These same brotherhoods exploited H. P. Blavatsky’s occult faculties for their own ends.
THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
As Revealed through Initiation Knowledge
According to the initiate-research of Rudolf Steiner, humanity is in a continual process of transformation and evolution. Modern-day consciousness, based as it is on sense perception and abstract logic, differs considerably from the consciousness of ancient humanity. At that time, says Steiner, the human being was seen to be a microcosm, a concentration of the laws and activities of the cosmos. The loss of such knowledge today has led to the existential quest for meaning, and even the cul-de-sac of atheism.
in Modern History
In a radical approach to understanding current affairs and history, Rudolf Steiner presents a method of penetrating to the hidden causes and realities that lie behind outer appearances. Contemporary life cannot fully be understood by an analysis that is restricted to external events, he says. Deeper levels of meaning are revealed when one begins to view such events as symptoms. The causes of these symptoms – the reality behind them – are to be discovered on other levels of existence.
A Spiritual-Scientific Quest
‘Anyone who takes hold of what we call spiritual science, not with purely abstract thoughts but with his whole being, will see that this spiritual science goes right into the dexterity of the hands, that it makes a person more capable and enables him to extend his interest over wider areas and his will over a wider world.’ – Rudolf Steiner
Past and Present – Occult Fraternities and the Mystery of Golgotha
‘To live in truth, to wish to be true in one’s whole being, will be the watchword of the future.’ – Rudolf Steiner
INNER EXPERIENCES OF EVOLUTION
In this most remarkable and in many ways unique course of lectures, Rudolf Steiner describes the inner experience of the states of consciousness known as the Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth stages of evolution.
The Mystery of the Warrior Monks
Founded in the early twelfth century, allegedly to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land, the Knights Templar became famous for their pioneer banking system, crusading zeal, and strict vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. Having grown to some 15,000 men, they came to be perceived as a threat by Philip the Fair, who in 1307 disbanded the group and tortured their leaders for confessions. The French king accused the order of heresy, sodomy and blasphemy.
THE OCCULT TRUTHS OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS
Greek and Germanic Mythology
Richard Wagner in the Light of Spiritual Science
In this series of previously-untranslated lectures, Rudolf Steiner describes how myths and legends portray humanity’s most ancient evolutionary and spiritual history. Folklore presents ancient mystical wisdom in the form of stories – clothed in pictures by initiates – that enable individuals to understand their content in a more intellectual form at a later time.
POLARITIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY
West and East – Materialism and Mysticism – Knowledge and Belief
‘The present age needs to understand that human beings must hold the balance between the two extremes, between the ahrimanic and the luciferic poles. People always tend to go in one direction... The Christ stands in the middle, holding the balance.’ – Rudolf Steiner
Science · Philosophy · Theology · Education · Social Science · Theory of Language
“Each day Dr. Steiner opened the session dedicated to a particular branch of science with an introductory lecture.... These were amazing sketches—with an illuminating clarity and a sure brush stroke. Dr. Steiner painted a picture of each scientific field exactly as it was supposed to be in the future, seen from the anthroposophic perspective. With regard to the future tasks...these introductory lectures were like scientific sketches of an artist, in which the whole painting could be revealed to the viewer.” (a member of the audience)
ROSICRUCIANISM AND MODERN INITIATION
Mystery Centres of the Middle Ages
The Easter Festival and the History of the Mysteries
‘Steiner has been able to clarify the historical reality behind the Rosicrucian story, with all its aura of glamour and fantasy. That effected, he points to the enormity of its vision for the future evolution of ideas…’ – Dr Andrew Welburn (from the Introduction)
THE SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR
With the unprecedented global conflict of the First World War as an overarching theme, Rudolf Steiner addresses timeless issues such as the search for harmony between peoples and nations, the development of the human capacity for love, the contemporary presence of Christ, and the questions of reincarnation and life after death.
in the Historical Development of Humanity
‘When you perform a ritual, it is an appeal to the spiritual powers of the universe, an appeal to the powers that are meant to connect with the earth precisely through what people do...’ – Rudolf Steiner
THE TENSION BETWEEN EAST AND WEST
“In ordinary consciousness, we combine our thoughts logically and thus make use of thinking to know the external sensory world. Now, however, we allow thinking to enter into a kind of musical element, but one that is undoubtedly a knowledge element; we become aware of a spiritual rhythm underlying all things; we penetrate into the world by beginning to perceive it in the spirit. From abstract, dead thinking, from mere image-thinking, our thinking becomes a thinking enlivened in itself. This is the significant transition that can be made from abstract and merely logical thinking to a living thinking about which we have the feeling it is capable of shaping a reality, just as we recognize our process of growth as a living reality.” —Rudolf Steiner
TURNING POINTS IN SPIRITUAL HISTORY
Zarathustra, Hermes, Moses, Elijah, Buddha, Christ
Lecture collection: January 19, 1911 - January 25, 1912
In our long human journey, individual and collective, the journey that science calls evolution, many indeed are the turning points. But they are not so much turning points in outer, material manifestation in the fossils of paleontology, for those fossils are only the shed garments worn by humans in an earlier age, vestments designed by providence to meet the need of a changing human consciousness moving through time. Where the real evolution occurs, for which the necessary outer garments are tailored over time, is in the realm of consciousness as it transitions from spirit to matter and back to spirit.
Their Relationship to Egyptian Myths and Modern Civilization
‘The mission of our age is not to reproduce an ancient wisdom, but to engender a new one – a wisdom that points not only to the past but that works prophetically into the future.’ – Rudolf Steiner
Trials of the Soul, Revelations of the Spirit
‘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 Steiner
WORLD HISTORY AND THE MYSTERIES
In the Light of Anthroposophy
In this landmark series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner challenges the notion that human consciousness has in essence remained the same throughout history. On the contrary, we can only see the past in its true light when we study the differences in human souls during the various historical eras. Consciousness, he says, evolves constantly and we can only comprehend the present by understanding its origin in the past.
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HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESSOTHER AUTHORS
Reflections on the Future of Medicine
Peter Selg
“History does not repeat, but it does instruct.” — Timothy Snyder (On Tyranny)
THE CONFIRMATION OF KASPAR HAUSER
Peter Selg
During the 2018 Kaspar Hauser Festival in Ansbach, Germany, Peter Selg assumed the task of understanding the individuals in Kaspar Hauser’s life and comprehending their significance for his destiny. He begins by unfolding the sociopolitical and philosophical milieu during Hauser’s life, starting with Friedrich Hölderlin and other significant luminaries of the time. A fellow student and friend of Hölderlin said of Kaspar Hauser, “His fine facial features, his gentle expression, his beautiful bearing, his carefully tended attire, and the unmistakable loftiness expressed in his being have always remained with me,” saying further, “Whoever saw him loved him, and whoever became acquainted with him remained his friend.”
A Cosmic Picture
Maria Schindler
European thought and culture has had an enduring impact worldwide – but Europe has also been a focus of conflict and war on a global scale. With its international influence, Europe bears a responsibility, in example and practise, for humanity’s further development.
THE MYSTERY OF ARTHUR AT TINTAGEL
An Esoteric Study
Richard Seddon
RICHThe ancient and dramatic headland of Tintagel and its ruins, on the windswept north Cornish coast, have been linked to the legends of Merlin, King Arthur and his Knights since ancient times. In this well-researched, illustrated book, Richard Seddon reveals the inner spiritual meaning of Tintagel as a centre for the pre-Christian Mysteries. For many centuries its enigmatic site was integral to the evolution of human consciousness as a centre for esoteric wisdom – for the linking of the physical and spiritual worlds, art and religion.
