- RUDOLF STEINER
- OTHER AUTHORS
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NEW AND FORTHCOMING BOOKSRUDOLF 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.
The Evolution of the Mysteries
The wisdom contained in this book is not derived via the usual methods of scholarly and historical research, and neither is it based on theory or speculation. Rudolf Steiner acquired his original contribution to human knowledge from metaphysical dimensions of reality which are hidden to most people – but visible to anybody who is prepared to develop spiritual means of perception.
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.
ANTHROPOSOPHY AND THE NATURAL SCIENCES
Foundations and Methods
This previously untranslated volume in The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner showcases Rudolf Steiner presenting the key concepts and methods of spiritual science to more or less skeptical academic audiences in the early 1920s, answering such questions as:
What are the tools and instruments required to orient oneself in the world of the soul and the spirit?
How can we know that the spiritual world is an objective world and not merely a psychic projection?
What authorizes the spiritual researcher to acknowledge what he has experienced “on the other side” as a reality that is independent of him?ARCHITECTURE AS A SYNTHESIS OF THE ARTS
This unique collection of lectures introduces Rudolf Steiner’s vision of architecture as a culmination of the arts, uniting sculpture, painting and engraving as well as drama, music and dance – a vital synthesis with the goal of awakening human beings to their task in life.
Introduction by Zvi Szir
“The challenge of saying something about art was personal for Rudolf Steiner. He experienced it as deeply connected with his biography. It is not for nothing that, in the last lecture of this volume, he points to his repeated attempts to develop a new approach and new forms of expression for speaking about art. We find at least three forms of this attempted approach in this book.” —Zvi Szir (from the introduction)
BACKGROUND TO THE GOSPEL OF ST MARK
‘Christianity was bound at first to be a matter of faith and is only now beginning, very gradually, to be a matter of knowledge.’ – Rudolf Steiner
The Significance of Anthroposophy in Contemporary Spiritual Life
“There is no contradiction, if you look into the matter correctly, between destiny and freedom. However, in order to be able to present the concept of destiny to the world later on, it was first necessary that the concept of freedom be presented in the book The Philosophy of Freedom.” — Rudolf Steiner
in Relation to Cosmic Facts
In an absorbing series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner discloses factors in a person’s life on Earth that will influence their experiences in the spiritual world after their death – and conversely, factors in the spiritual world that will affect their next life on Earth. Steiner focuses on the period in the afterlife when the individual has been through kamaloka – the purgatorial place where the soul is purified. Once the soul has been cleansed of its astral sheath, it becomes open to cosmic influences, expanding into the planetary sphere. Now it can begin preparation for reincarnation – for a new human life on Earth. Steiner addresses the vital relationship of the living to the dead – in particular, how those on Earth can influence the souls of the dead. He also speaks on themes of ‘Sleep and death’, ‘The seven-year life cycles of man’, and offers a ‘Christmas gift’ in the form of a lecture on Christian Rosenkreutz and Gautama Buddha. He ends with a mighty picture of the Mystery of Golgotha: Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was only seemingly a death; in reality it enabled the momentous birth of the Earth-Soul.
BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS, 1919–1924
Edited by Walter Kugler
‘Did Rudolf Steiner dream these things? Did he dream them as they once occurred, at the beginning of all time? They are, for sure, far more astonishing than the demiurges and serpents and bulls found in other cosmogonies.’ – Jorge Luis Borges
“You will find meditative verses for the individual weeks of the year. You should take these meditations quite particularly into your hearts, for they contain what can make the soul alive and what really corresponds to a living relationship of the soul forces to the forces of the macrocosm.” — Rudolf Steiner
“Spiritual science does not want to replace Christianity; rather, it aims to be the instrument through which the meaning of Christianity can be grasped. And one thing that will become particularly clear through spiritual science is that the being whom we call Christ must be recognized as the center of life on earth, and that what we call the Christian faith is the ultimate religion, the eternal religion for the future of the earth.” — Rudolf Steiner (July 13, 1914)
CHRIST AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
The Quest for the Holy Grail
Reassessing human history in relation to the cosmic-earthly events of Christ’s incarnation, Rudolf Steiner stresses the significance of both Gnostic spirituality and the legends of the Holy Grail. The ‘Christ-Impulse’, he tells us, is not a one-time event but a continuous process, beginning well before Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth. This mighty impulse is a force that gives impetus to human development, such as with the extraordinary blossoming of free thinking of the last two millennia. Surveying this pattern of evolving human thought, Steiner explains the roles of contrasting historical figures, for example the great teacher Zarathustra, Joan of Arc and Johannes Keplar. We are shown the widespread influence of the clairvoyant prophetesses, the sibyls, who formed a backdrop to the Greco-Roman world. Steiner contrasts their revelations to those of the Hebrew prophets.
The Mystery, Teaching and Mission of a Master
The wisdom contained in this book is not derived via the usual methods of scholarly and historical research, and neither is it based on theory or speculation. Rudolf Steiner acquired his original contribution to human knowledge from metaphysical dimensions of reality which are hidden to most people – but visible to anybody who is prepared to develop spiritual means of perception.
Wisdom and Love
An Almanac for the Soul
Rudolf Steiner’s inspiring words provide rich and nourishing thoughts and ideas for self-development and spiritual enlightenment. Daily Contemplations offers a separate passage from Steiner’s lectures – a special gift upon which to reflect – to accompany each day of the year. Carefully selected by Jean-Claude Lin, the quotations are sourced from lectures and addresses that Steiner gave on the specific day in question. Thus, the ordering is not arbitrary but arises from the historical fact of the lectures themselves.
DEEPER SECRETS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION IN LIGHT OF THE GOSPELS
‘The personality who received the Christ Being into himself in his thirtieth year is a complex entelechy. Only on the basis of the Akashic Record can an accurate view be gained as to why the life of Jesus is so diversely presented in the various Gospels...’ – Rudolf Steiner
THE DRIVING FORCE OF SPIRITUAL POWERS IN WORLD HISTORY
7 lectures in Dornach, Switzerland, March 11–23, 1923
“Historical happenings on Earth can be understood in their reality only when we see them as reflections of what is being enacted in the supersensible, spiritual world between the beings of the higher hierarchies.” — Rudolf Steiner (March 17, 1923)
Esoteric Wisdom of the Ancient Celtic Priests
The wisdom contained in this book is not derived via the usual methods of scholarly and historical research, and neither is it based on theory or speculation. Rudolf Steiner acquired his original contribution to human knowledge from metaphysical dimensions of reality which are hidden to most people – but visible to anybody who is prepared to develop spiritual means of perception.
ESOTERIC LESSONS FOR THE FIRST CLASS OF THE SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE AT THE GOETHEANUM
Volumes One to Four
During the refounding of the Anthroposophical Society as the General Anthroposophical Society at Christmas 1923/24, Rudolf Steiner also reconstituted, as the School of Spiritual Science, the Esoteric School he had led in three classes from 1904 to 1914, at the same time extending its scope by adding artistic and scientific Sections. However, owing to his illness and later death in March 1925, he was only able to make a beginning by establishing the First Class and the Sections. The actual step from the Esoteric School to the School of Spiritual Science was nevertheless an exceptional one. The Esoteric School from Helena Blavatsky’s time had been secret. Its existence was known only to those personally invited to participate. In contrast, the existence of the School of Spiritual Science was stated openly in the public statutes of the General Anthroposophical Society. From the Christmas Conference onwards, Rudolf Steiner worked within this publicly acknowledged framework.
THE FALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS
The Spiritual Background to the Outer World: Spiritual Beings and their Effects, Vol. 1
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.
The Doorway of Initiation – The Trial of the Soul – The Guardian of the Threshold – The Souls Awaken
The Doorway of Initiation – The Trial of the Soul – The Guardian of the Threshold – The Souls Awaken
From Natura to the Divine Sophia
The wisdom contained in this book is not derived via the usual methods of scholarly and historical research, and neither is it based on theory or speculation. Rudolf Steiner acquired his original contribution to human knowledge from metaphysical dimensions of reality which are hidden to most people – but visible to anybody who is prepared to develop spiritual means of perception.
“It was Steiner’s intention in these lectures to establish the ways in which this Gospel and its author, Lazarus-John, the one Christ called the beloved disciple, provided one of the surest paths to an understanding of the profound relationship of Christ to each human person and to Earth.... He leads his audience, and us readers, to an understanding of Lazarus-John unknown even to the other three primary evangelists—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—who wrote their Gospels several decades before Lazarus-John.” — Robert McDermott (from the introduction)
The Quest for the Renewal of the Mysteries
The wisdom contained in this book is not derived via the usual methods of scholarly and historical research, and neither is it based on theory or speculation. Rudolf Steiner acquired his original contribution to human knowledge from metaphysical dimensions of reality which are hidden to most people – but visible to anybody who is prepared to develop spiritual means of perception.
The spiritually-perceived story of our life between birth and death
Meditative knowledge out of childhood forces
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.
Third Scientific Course
“So you see, the most important thing to me has been to call forth within you an experience of the harmony between the human constitution and the structure of the cosmos. If you’ve really been following thus far, you can’t possibly regard this harmony as a sin against the spirit of science.” (from lecture 16)
“When faced with the way events are depicted in history, we should sense how necessary it is to rethink them. We should sense that today’s difficult time, which has brought such misery upon humanity, is the karmic effect of distorted, superficial thinking. We should sense that the painful experiences we are going through are in many respects the karma of materialism.” —Rudolf Steiner
The Greater and the Lesser World
Questions Concerning the Soul, Life and the Spirit
Rudolf Steiner shows how deeply and intimately human beings, the microcosm, are related to the macrocosm. But for Steiner the macrocosm is more than just the physical universe. It includes many hidden realms – like the world of Elements and the world of Archetypes – which lie behind outer manifestations such as our physical body. The macrocosm works within us continuously – in the daily alternation between sleeping and waking and in the great cyclical interchange between incarnation on earth and our time between death and rebirth. Steiner discusses the various paths of self-development that lead across the threshold to spiritual dimensions, transforming human soul-forces into organs of higher perception. In future we will even have the capacity to evolve a form of thinking that is higher than the intellect – the thinking of the heart.
Remembering and Forgetting
What is the meaning of memory in the information age? When all knowledge is seemingly digitised and available for reference at any time, do we actually need human memory? One consequence of the proliferation of digitization is the deterioration of our capacity to remember – a symptom that is apparent in a steady increase in dementia within contemporary society. Rudolf Steiner indicates that memory is the determining factor in awareness of oneself. Even a partial loss of memory leads to loss of self-consciousness and the sense of our ‘I’. Thus, memory is crucial for the development of I-consciousness – not only for the individual, but for humanity as a whole.
“It is particularly important . . . especially at the present time, to speak about the mission of the individual folk souls . . . because the destiny of humanity in the near future will bring people together in far greater measure than has hitherto been the case in order to fulfil a mission common to the whole of humanity. But the members of the individual peoples will only be able to offer their proper, free, and positive contributions if they have, above all else, an understanding of their own native origin, an understanding of what we might call the self-knowledge of their people, their folk.” —Rudolf Steiner
THE MISSION OF THE NEW SPIRIT REVELATION
The Pivotal Nature of the Christ Event in Earth Evolution
‘What would we be without love? We would inevitably become isolated and gradually lose all connection with our fellow human beings and our fellow creatures in the natural world.’ – Rudolf Steiner
From Isis to the Holy Grail
In a concise study, Rudolf Steiner presents an inspirational sketch of the evolution of the Mysteries – from ancient Persia through Egypt and Greece, to the Christian era and the present day. He traces the line of initiates from Egyptian divinities Isis and Osiris to Moses, King Arthur’s Round Table and the Holy Grail in the twelfth century. Steiner focuses on the process of initiation as a historical topic: how initiation worked in ancient Egypt and in the late Middle Ages. But his presentation is also inspirational, leading to the question: How can we advance to initiation now? He underscores the potential for achieving enlightenment today without a teacher in the flesh, and explains the four stages of the process towards initiation. He also highlights the need for strenuous efforts to overcome the subtle power of evil – in the form of Lucifer and Ahriman – through selfless work.
The Nature and Significance of Central Europe and the European Folk-Spirits
Speaking during the early stages of the First World War – with the Western Front just miles away and thousands of young men dying – Rudolf Steiner focuses on the subject of death. In particular, he addresses the difficult question of why some people die prematurely, particularly in youth. Steiner also speaks of the deaths of three of his acquaintances, having made contact with their living souls in the afterlife. He voices their own words and describes the first stages of their journeys after death.
Their Activity in our Visible World
‘Suppose you have seen an event, have formed an idea about it, and you say something that is not true – in other words, something that is a lie. Then what flows from the object is correct and what flows from you is false and this collision is a terrible explosion; and each time you do this, you attach a gruesome being to your karma which you cannot get rid of again until you have made good what you lied about.’ – Rudolf Steiner
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.
in Societal Events
Barely four months after the end of the First World War, with Europe in chaos and exhausted from years of conflict, Rudolf Steiner offered these lectures of hope and renewal. Despite continuing social troubles around the world, he knew that human beings had an opportunity to organize society in a new way. Steiner responded to this prospect by giving suggestions for creating innovative social structures that are in harmony with people’s inner needs.
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
THE REAPPEARANCE OF CHRIST IN THE ETHERIC
A Collection of Lectures on the Second Coming of Christ
Intro. by Stephen E. Usher
The first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles describes Christ’s Ascension: “and a cloud received him out of their sight.” As the disciples were looking up, two angels appeared and said, “the same Jesus, taken up from you into heaven, shall come again in the same way as you have seen him go.”
In a previously-unavailable series of talks to the general public, Rudolf Steiner builds systematically, lecture by lecture, on the fundamentals of spiritual science – from the nature of spiritual knowledge and its relationship to conventional science, the path of personal development and the task of metaphysical research, to specific questions on the mystery of death, the meaning of fairy-tales, the significance of morality and the roles of individual figures in human evolution, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Jacob Boehme.
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)
Experiencing the Supersensible
Replete with fresh immediacy, rich spiritual content, innovation and occasional humour, these talks were given at a time when Rudolf Steiner was preparing for independence from the Theosophical Society. Alongside the much-loved lectures ‘Nervousness and Ego Development’ – in which Steiner shares practical exercises for coping with contemporary life’s challenges – and ‘Love and Its Significance in the World’, the collection finds a focal point in descriptions of the ‘Three Soul Paths to Christ’. The first of these is via the Gospels, the second through ‘Inner Experience’ and the third ‘Initiation’, which Steiner characterizes as a path transcending religion. He further elaborates these themes in a lecture entitled, ‘Mysteries of the Kingdoms of Heaven in Parables and in Real Form’.
THREE PERSPECTIVES OF ANTHROPOSOPHY
Cultural Phenomena from the Point of View of Spiritual Science
What is truly real? Rudolf Steiner sheds light on everyday reality through spiritual knowledge, repeatedly urging us to bring anthroposophy into daily human existence. We might consciously experience the difference between consuming a potato as compared to cereals such as rye, for example – or we could grasp ordinary phenomena, such as sleepwalking, through an understanding of the threefold human being. Likewise, we might strive to comprehend how our head is the transformed organism of our previous life. Throughout, Steiner emphasizes that we can achieve spirituality on earth if only we make anthroposophy real.
TRUE AND FALSE PATHS OF SPIRITUAL RESEARCH
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.
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
For a Cognition that Satisfies the Human Being
The Relationship Between Spiritual Science and Natural Science
‘As soon as you start thinking about the living sphere, you have to make the thought itself mobile. The thought must begin to gain inner mobility through your own power.’ – 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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NEW AND FORTHCOMING BOOKSOTHER AUTHORS
Gerard Wagner
Caroline Chanter
A Life with Colour is the first complete survey of Gerard Wagner’s biography and his artistic intentions, featuring dozens of illustrations and more than 120 colour plates.
Reflections on the Future of Medicine
Peter Selg
“History does not repeat, but it does instruct.” — Timothy Snyder (On Tyranny)
ANTHROPOSOPHY AND THE ACCUSATION OF RACISM
Society and Medicine in a Totalitarian Age
Peter Selg
“No longer should the blood that runs through the ancestors be of sole account. From this point onward, what every single person achieves in one’s soul shall count. Every single human being shall be of value during their incarnation...” — Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy, and the Holy Scriptures: Terms & Phrases
3rd revised edition
Edward Reaugh Smith
More significant for Christianity than the twentieth-century Dead Sea and Nag Hammadi discoveries is the growing North American awareness of Rudolf Steiner's works. No Bible commentary has yet reflected the remarkable spiritual insights of Anthroposophy. In The Burning Bush, Edward Reaugh Smith combines his own extensive traditional biblical knowledge with his years of concentrated study and reflection on hundreds of assembled works by Steiner. The result is the first Bible commentary in the light of anthroposophic insight.This volume is based on the anthroposophic understanding given to humanity by Rudolf Steiner during the first twenty-five years of the twentieth century. The dramatic newness of anthroposophic thought means that the usual method of Bible commentary is not appropriate here. Much of The Burning Bush is devoted to laying an anthroposophic, or spiritual-scientific, groundwork. A major assumption indulged in most Bible commentaries—that one can go directly to portions dealing with given passages of scripture and understand what is being said about them—does not fit.
THE CHALLENGE OF SPIRITUAL LANGUAGE
Rudolf Steiner’s Linguistic Style
Martina Maria Sam
‘Development in the science of the spirit will always … involve what we may call developing the inner meaning and inner configuration of our language.’ – Rudolf Steiner
COLOUR, HEALING AND THE HUMAN SOUL
Understanding colours and using them for health and therapy
Gladys Mayer
In a delightful study – originally comprising two separate booklets – the accomplished artist and teacher Gladys Mayer explains that colour is nothing other than the very substance of the soul. Just as the body is made up of mineral, water, air and warmth, so the soul is made up of colour. This is revealed in the emotions of sadness and joy and the many shades in between, as expressed in human language – for example: ‘seeing red’, ‘rose-coloured spectacles’ and ‘jaundiced view’.
THE DIGNITY OF THE YOUNG CHILD, VOL. 1
How can we keep the young child healthy?
Care and up-bringing in the first three years of life
Michaela Glöckler
Claudia Grah-Wittich
New and successful insights for the care and raising of the child in the first three years of life.
Educating for the A-ha Moment
Liz Attwell
with contributions by Josie Alwyn and Catherine Fenton
A-ha!
Introductions to Essential Works
Christopher Bamford
“The deep aim, or intention, of an introduction (understood esoterically) is a ‘living understanding,’ or, as the poet William Blake put it, the ability ‘to catch the bird in flight and fly with it.’ If successful, this makes it possible for any reader to hear or translate, into his or her own understanding, what Rudolf Steiner is offering, within and beyond his words, in these texts of The Collected Works.” —Christopher Bamford
THE FALSE DOOR BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH
Supporting Grieving Students, Teachers, and Parents
Torin M. Finser
When a school community loses a child, parent, or teacher, the experience can be devastating to the whole community. Few things in life can prepare anyone for such a tragedy. Teachers and parents often struggle with how to speak with the children and may have important questions, such as:
What is the best way to work with grief?
What happens after death?
How can we stay connected?
Working through shock, grief, and even depression is a necessary step in life following a death in one’s community.Meditative exercises for mindfulness, empathy and strengthening the will
Klaus Adams
Wolfgang Rissmann M.D. and Marko Roknic
In the midst of life we can find ourselves pulled in many different directions and it is easy to lose our sense of self. Is it possible to find and strengthen the inner core of who we are? Can we rediscover our inner equilibrium and tranquillity without retreating from the world?
FOUR LARGE WATERCOLOUR MOTIFS OF RUDOLF STEINER
With a Lecture by Rudolf Steiner on Raphael
Gerard Wagner
Rudolf Steiner
“The art of the future will be an art of inner maturity. What leads to artistic activity will be sensed only at a relatively advanced age in life. It will no longer be assumed that one cannot have the necessary youth forces for artistic creation in later years—as is still often asserted today. It will be found that only by way of inner deepening augmented by spiritual scientific insight are the forces released that lead to artistic creation.” —Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, February 7, 1915
GENESIS IN THE LIGHT OF HUMAN EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT
Kaspar Appenzeller, MD
Dr. Kaspar Appenzeller compares the biblical story of creation to human embryonic development. He leads us through his years of research into the grand imagery in the book of Genesis, relating it to what today’s science has to say about the origin of the human body. He reaches the concrete view that the human being is a small cosmos, a microcosm in the vast cosmos, the macrocosm. The original Hebrew language proves to be a true marvel—not only the meaning but also the individual sounds of the words illustrate the reality they describe. We are confronted with the fact that the writer of Genesis touched the true educational impulses of the world and humanity.
Their Connection to Cosmos, Earth, and Humankind
Karsten Massei
“When studying honeybees, one will find that they are creatures whose secrets are not easily elicited. A bee colony is an extremely complex entity. It consists of many thousands of individuals who have the ability to respond wisely to a wide variety of circumstances. To this day, it is not clear how they achieve this. In fact, one could say that a bee colony is imbued with an incomprehensible wisdom that encompasses each individual bee and ensures that the colony remains viable despite ever-changing living conditions.” — KarstenMassei
Fresh Perspectives on Waldorf Education: Principles, Methods, Curriculum
Stephen Keith Sagarin, PhD
“Education prepares us for an unknown, uncertain future. Conformity, convention, and a lack of creative thinking and action will not serve us fully to face this future. We cannot know, and can only guess, what the future will bring, and we educate truly when we educate for inspiration—for insight and creativity—in the face of the unknown. We aim not to define our students, not to pigeonhole them according to our own inevitably partial and too-narrow view of the world they will inhabit and make. We aim to educate them while leaving them free to rebel, not for no reason, but for a reason, for a cause.” —StephenSagarin (from the introduction)
THE LANGUAGE OF COLOR IN THE FIRST GOETHEANUM
A Study of Rudolf Steiner’s Art
Hilde Raske
Rudolf Steiner’s architectural masterpiece, the double-domed building known as the first Goetheanum, featured decorated ceilings that were designed and partly painted by Steiner himself, utilizing vegetable colors and a new layering technique. Steiner emphasized that he was seeking a new artistic conception based on a conscious understanding of the nature of color. Contemporaries report the extraordinary effect of the domed ceilings’ paintings combined with the multicolored light emanating from the engraved glass windows.
LEADERSHIP QUESTIONS AND FORMS OF WORKING IN THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC MEDICAL MOVEMENT
Michaela Glöckler
Rolf Heine (eds.)
Rudolf Steiner is known around the world as an author, speaker and the creator of anthroposophy, yet few are aware of him as an inaugurator of new ways of working together. As a result, questions of management and leadership are especially challenging, even in institutions that work out of anthroposophy. Here the model for forms of collaboration created by Steiner in 1923/24 can serve as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Using this social concept as an orientation, the authors show how the social framework of the anthroposophic medical movement has evolved and stood the test of time since 1988. A ‘leadership style with heart’ was needed that could unite the principles of individual responsibility, collegial leadership and democratic codetermination.
Portraits of Five Michaelic Individuals
Neill Reilly
Neill Reilly presents portraits, rather than biographies, of five remarkable individuals:
Fritz Koelln
John Fentress Gardner
Lee Lecraw
Marjorie Spock
William WardEssays in the Time of Coronavirus
Peter Selg
“Rudolf Steiner himself did not just comment critically about the out-of-hand ‘fear of bacilli’ or the ‘obsession with hygiene’ as ‘modern superstition,’ but also warned about the dangerous reality of ‘pathogens of the worst kind’ that could become ‘destroyers of human life’ and bring with ‘dreadful epidemics’.”
A Guide to Rudolf Steiner’s first Mystery Drama
Trevor Dance
The philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner was also a radical dramatist who wrote four lengthy and complex plays. The first of these, The Portal of Initiation, is rich in content and artistically presented, but leaves us with questions: Why is the first scene so long and many speeches so lengthy? Why are our usual expectations of drama not met? Was Steiner really a competent dramatist?
PERSPECTIVES AND INITIATIVES IN THE TIMES OF CORONAVIRUS
The School of Spiritual Science
Edited by Ueli Hurter and Justus Wittich
The School of Spiritual Science, with its headquarters at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, has eleven sections that are active worldwide in research, development, teaching and the practical implementation of research results. During the early stages of the Corona pandemic of 2020, the sections of the School made individual contributions to the crisis in the form of sixteen essays that offer insights, perspectives and approaches to tackling the challenges of Coronavirus through spiritual-scientific knowledge and practice.
Youth Education in a Time of Global Crisis
Peter Selg
“[Children and young people] should know—and really sense and feel—that viruses are not ‘evil’ but a part of our organism, of our organic ‘self,’ and that also the group of mutable coronaviruses has been known for many years; we also live with them and deal with them, especially in the upper respiratory tract, although not with SARS-CoV-2, which is a new challenge for the human immune system, though not quite as new as initially assumed.” — Peter Selg
Rudolf Steiner’s Perspectives on Technology
A Compendium, Volume 1
Edited by Gary Lamb
This book is a call to examine the very nature of technology and to develop practices for meeting its many challenges.
RUDOLF STEINER AND SOCIAL REFORM
Threefolding and other proposals
Richard Masters
How might we improve the way we organize society, so that human beings can live in greater peace, dignity and justice?
RUDOLF STEINER'S ESOTERIC TEACHING ACTIVITY
Truthfulness, Continuity, New Form
Hella Wiesberger
These accounts by Hella Wiesberger (1920–2014) offer an overview of the nature, background, and history of Rudolf Steiner's esoteric teaching activity. This book is the result of her lifelong study of this aspect of Steiner’s work, including documents she oversaw as an editor of Rudolf Steiner’s Collected Works. Wiesberger’s collegial relationships with certain esoteric students also helped her illumine some of Steiner’s less accessible documents.
Volume 7 - 1924-1925: The Anthroposophical Society and the School for Spiritual Science
Peter Selg
In the seventh and final volume in his comprehensive biography of Rudolf Steiner, Peter Selg describes Steiner's final months on Earth. Although his health was beginning to decline, 1924 was arguably his most productive and fruitful year. It saw a new beginning for the Anthroposophical Society, as well as the beginnings of the Esoteric School and the School for Spiritual Science, both of which continue to constitute the heart of the Society's core mission in the world.
Volume 7 - 1924-1925: The Anthroposophical Society and the School for Spiritual Science
Peter Selg
In the seventh and final volume in his comprehensive biography of Rudolf Steiner, Peter Selg describes Steiner's final months on Earth. Although his health was beginning to decline, 1924 was arguably his most productive and fruitful year. It saw a new beginning for the Anthroposophical Society, as well as the beginnings of the Esoteric School and the School for Spiritual Science, both of which continue to constitute the heart of the Society's core mission in the world.
Sophia as a Story for Our Time
Signe Eklund Schaefer
We should face that world not with our opinions but with our questions, indeed in a questioning mood and attitude. — Rudolf Steiner, The Fifth Gospel
SOLVING THE RIDDLE OF THE CHILD
The Art of Child Study
Christof Wiechert
It may be a truism to say that every teacher should make efforts to understand his pupils. Our real understanding, after all, can be a sure foundation and support for children’s whole development; and without this our lessons will be a random undertaking that connects with our pupils, at best, only in a superficial way. A skilled teacher seeks to understand his pupils so that he can raise learning beyond mere compulsion or drill. It was Rudolf Steiner’s ideal that the weekly pedagogical meetings in Waldorf schools should support teachers’ continually developing insight into their pupils. He exhorted them to ‘become psychologists’ but did not mean this in the commonly understood sense. He himself demonstrated this ‘art of evolving insight’ in the faculty meetings in which he participated on many occasions. One can say that it is an essential part of the quality of our work as teachers for us to develop these skills of perception, reflection and insight. Christof Wiechert here picks up these suggestions of Steiner’s anew. He elaborates from them the art of the child study as a key tool in nurturing pupils’ development and, at the same time, teachers’ own growing powers of insight. In short, the approach described here can enliven the educational and social dimensions of a whole school community.
THE SPIRITUAL SIGNATURE OF OUR TIME
in the Era of Coronavirus
The School of Spiritual Science
Edited by Ueli Hurter and Justus Wittich
What can we read in the fast-moving events of recent times? Is there a theme – a spiritual signature – that should be recognized and understood?
TEACHING, THE JOY OF PROFESSION
An Invitation to Enhance Your (Waldorf) Interest
Christof Wiechert
To be a teacher and teaching children and youngsters is still a wonderful profession: it never gets dull or boring. But it is also a professional life under pressure. Complex demands, a high profile in professionalism, delivering sound results, yet also being attentive to the individual needs and development of the students and helping parents to understand their own child. All this demands from the teacher a multitasking talent. The teacher is constantly serving others, without time for him or herself. Working in this profession you can easily lose your balance – the balance between inner needs and demands put on you by children, their performances, the parents and the school organism as a whole. If that happens, then we grow sour in this delightful profession. This book is a guide to find that balance which means gaining access to more energy.
UNDERSTANDING CHILDREN’S DRAWINGS
Tracing the Path of Incarnation
Michaela Strauss
It is not uncommon for children’s drawings to end up in the wastepaper basket. Yet these early artistic expressions indicate how children communicate with their environment. From the first scratches and scribbles to the detailed sketches of houses and people, the drawings and paintings of our young ones are significant manifestations of inner processes, containing important statements about their development and gradual incarnation into a physical body.
THE UNIVERSITY AT THE THRESHOLD
Orientation through Goethean Science
Nigel Hoffmann
‘Concern for the world today provides the impetus to ask of ourselves a profound question… how can our way of knowing, the very style of our thinking which informs our research and our teaching, come to express care, to reveal itself to be a deed and duty of care?’
An Introduction
Christof Wiechert
What is distinctive about Waldorf or Rudolf Steiner schools? How do their pedagogical aims relate to the wide range of educational provision available today? Many people have heard of these schools, but few know much about them.
WHAT IS ANTHROPOSOPHIC MEDICINE?
Scientific basis – Therapeutic potential – Prospects for development
Michaela Glöckler
In this concise summary and introduction, Michaela Glöckler presents the therapeutic spectrum of anthroposophic medicine – its scientific basis, diagnostic methods and potential for practice. She gives numerous practical examples of its application and suggestions for treating patients at home.
A Mind-Body Physiology of the Heart
Armin J. Husemann, MD
“This book does away with the idea of the heart as a machine—the heart is not a pump! In many animals, blood moves without blood vessels and heart. The scientific facts, properly thought through, show today that the human heart beats as an organ of perception for the whole of one’s life.” — Dr. Armin J. Husemann
Principles for Biodynamic Beekeeping
Erik Berrevoets
While the benefits of Steiner's research into agriculture and education are increasingly recognized, his research into the nature of bees has had limited impact on beekeeping practices and on our general understanding of nature. Wisdom of the Bees examines Steiner's insights and research into the nature of bees and their implications for the future of beekeeping.
A Travel Guide
Anthroposophical Aspects of Changing Human Consciousness
Henk Van Oort
In a series of short studies enlivened with colour illustrations, Henk van Oort takes the reader on a spiritual journey through a variety of topics relating to everyday experience. With chapters as diverse as ‘The Human Will’, ‘Quantum Physics’ and ‘Good and Evil’, the book’s common theme is the dynamic nature of human consciousness.
An Introduction to Anthroposophic Medicine and Study of the Human Being
Armin J. Husemann, MD
“You take all of Nature together to shed light on individual details; in the totality of her phenomena, you seek to explain the individual. From simple levels of organization, you ascend to the more complex, ultimately assembling the most complex of all—the human being.”—Friedrich Schiller (in a letter to Goethe)
