"Not only do we pass through the gate of death as immortal beings, we also enter through the gate of birth as unborn beings. We need the term unbornness, as well as the term immortality, to encompass the whole human being." (Rudolf Steiner) As anyone who has had a child knows, newborns enter the earthly world as beings different from their parents. They arrive with their own individuality, being, and history. From the beginning, they manifest an essential dignity and a unique "I," which they clearly brought with them from the spiritual world. This unborn life of a person's higher individuality guides the whole process of incarnation. It frames our lives, but we fail to recognize this because of a single-minded focus on immortality, or life-after-death, which makes us forget the reality of our "unbornness." This unbornness extends not only from conception to birth, but also includes the whole existence and history of one's "I" in its long journey from the spiritual world to Earth. Unbornness-the other side of eternity-allows us to experience the fact that birth is just as great a mystery as is death. In a new and striking way, unbornness poses the mystery of our human task on Earth. It was one of Rudolf Steiner's great gifts that he returned the concept of unbornness to human consciousness and language. In this brief, stunning, and moving, almost poetic work, Peter Selg gathers the key elements and images needed to begin an understanding of-and wonder at-the vast scope of our unbornness. Drawing on and expanding on Steiner's work, as well as Raphael's Sistine Madonna and the poems of Nelly Sachs and Rainer Maria Rilke, Selg unveils this deepest mystery of human existence. After reading it, one will never look at a child or another human being in the same way again. Life after death life before birth; only by knowing both do we know eternity. (Rudolf Steiner) Unbornness is a translation of Ungeborenheit: Die Praexistenz des Menschen und der Weg zur Geburt (Verlag Ita Wegman Institut, 2009).

Usually, motivating ourselves to geth through the demands of daily life is difficult enough; finding the will to excel is even harder. Our occupations can become routine and boring, leading us to to ask: What is the purpose of my work? Is it merely to satisfy the demands of survival, which in turn simply allows me to keep working? Or is it a matter of more disposable income and consumerism? In the end, it can all seem rather pointless. In these remarkable talks, Rudolf Steiner takes us behind the scenes of the routine activities of vocation where we are shown how the combined vocational activity of all humanity affects the higher suprasensory realms. This activity mobilizes forces that lead to future worlds, which is the "karma of vocation." It prepares new worlds in which we will participate. By understanding this deeper aspect of our daily work, we can bring new meaning to the most insignificant activities. In fact, we begin to understand that no human work is insignificant; it all contributes to grand cosmic processes. Such understanding helps us to bring new enthusiasm to our work and lives.

"The New Essential Steiner" is an illuminating, completely new introduction to the philosophy and essential writings of Rudolf Steiner, introduced and edited by Robert McDermott, who also edited the now-classic "Essential Steiner." This new volume offers selections from a wide variety of Steiner's published works, presenting a broad, accessible overview of Anthroposophy. In his introduction, McDermott recounts Steiner's life and work, from his childhood and education to his work as a natural scientist, philosopher, scholar, educator, artist, interpreter of culture, and seer. He places Steiner in relation to major traditions of thought and explores the genesis and development of Anthroposophy. Although Rudolf Steiner is considered by many to be the greatest spiritual seer and philosophical thinker of the twentieth century and is credited with major cultural contributions such as the worldwide Waldorf school movement and the ever-growing biodynamic agricultural movement, he nevertheless remains relatively unknown to both academics and the public. The purpose of this volume is to redress that situation by introducing Steiner's work to a broader audience and making his name more universally recognized. "The New Essential Steiner" includes selections from Steiner's writings, which are grouped into chapters that demonstrate the breadth of his thinking and spiritual accomplishments.

Unlike other works on this theme, Sergei Prokofieff's short book is not a straightforward introduction. Presupposing an acquaintance with the basic principles of anthroposophy, it focuses instead on the central Christological insights which form the core of Rudolf Steiner's philosophy. "What is Anthroposophy?" is a personal work in the sense that it reflects an individual's own endeavors to build a connection to anthroposophy. As the author states in his Preface: '...as soon as we comprehend anthroposophy as something living, we are concerned not merely with defining it intellectually but, rather, with developing a real relationship to it...' He elaborates: 'The content [of this book] will probably reveal more about the author and his relationship to anthroposophy than about it itself, for its nature is basically beyond description and consequently evades any purely intellectual definition.' This is a valuable addition to the introductory literature on anthroposophy from an established and well-respected author.

This text, outlining a new methodology for the study of human nature, dates from 1910 and was found after Rudolf Steiner's death among his unpublished papers. Steiner had dealt with the same theme earlier in lectures. Asked for a written version, he tried to write down what he had said, but found himself unable to do so-the language would not completely relinquish the words. Nevertheless, what he was able to put down remains a major intellectual and spiritual accomplishment of the twentieth century. Steiner presents anthroposophy, which lies between anthropology and theosophy, as a way of studying the human being. Where anthropology studies the human being on the basis of the senses-i.e. by observation within the limits of the scientific method-theosophy recognizes the human as a spiritual being on the basis of inner experience and seeks to understand what it means to be human in a spiritual world. Between these two approaches-basically those of science and religion-lies anthroposophy, which seeks to study human beings as they present themselves to physical observation, while at the same time seeking to derive indications of the spiritual foundations of phenomena by a process of phenomenological intensification. The results of such phenomenological intensification, though fragmentary and incomplete, are of enormous importance. They constitute the first steps toward a truly cognitive psychology, one that demonstrates the richness of the phenomenological approach to the human being as a sensory organism. Starting from there, Steiner unfolds the seven life processes, the nature of I-experience, the meaning of the human form, and its complex relation to higher spiritual worlds. This is a key work, whose time has truly arrived.

In a series of vibrant and lively essays, Steffen Hartmann focuses on a little-known but critically important theme relating to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Steiner described the collaboration between human souls connected to the Platonic and Aristotelian 'schools' or groupings - both here on Earth and in the spiritual world. These groupings of souls work within a wider metaphysical collective known as the 'Michael School', led by the ruling Spirit of our age, Michael. Prior to their births, millions of human souls were prepared within this School to help them face the challenges of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We may have forgotten these pre-existence experiences, but they can be reawakened within us, says Hartmann. Indeed, it is possible consciously to reconnect to our earlier incarnations and to perceive our karma. The book begins with this theme and leads to Rudolf Steiner's 'Michael Prophecy' of 1924 - to his vision of the millennium and the era in which we now live, especially the crucial period between 2012 and 2033. Dealing with the 'anthroposophical block' in the emerging holistic building of humanity, the author contextualizes the topic with reference to direct personal experiences. The sharing of such considered experiences can help to stimulate self-reflection in the anthroposophical movement and contribute real spiritual substance to contemporary culture. This little book provides stimulation to spiritual seekers who carry within them deeper questions about life in the modern world.

A collection of best loved lectures containing practical insights for day-to-day living.

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 lectures culminate in the secret background to the Parzival narrative. Steiner illustrates how it is possible to experience the Holy Grail by reading the stellar script in the sky at Easter. Here, he provides a rare personal account of the processes he utilized to conduct esoteric research. The new edition of these much-loved lectures features a revised translation and an introduction, appendices and notes by Frederick Amrine.

In two related studies, Peter Selg tracks the groundbreaking of first Goetheanum from September 20, 1913, in the context of the so-called Michael movement, the primary active pulse brought by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 that explicitly indicates the anthroposophic movement and its formal society. The author shows the fundamental importance of this beginning in Dornach. He illuminates the fateful goal of the "School of Spiritual Science" with Rudolf Steiner's karma lectures, not only providentially in sense that it involved individualities, but also with regard to the future progress of human civilization. This monograph builds on Peter Selg's book Rudolf Steiner's Foundation Stone Meditation: And the Destruction of the Twentieth Century and Sergei O. Prokofieff's Rudolf Steiner's Sculptural Group: A Revelation of the Spiritual Purpose of Humanity and the Earth. Originally published in German as Grundstein zur Zukunft. Vom Schicksal der Michael-Gemeinschaft by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, 2013.

How can we best achieve our personal goals - not just to benefit ourselves but also our loved ones and wider communities? Mastering Life introduces comprehensive and effective methods to transform the self, enhanced by the meditative use of magical symbols and sacred words. These help us identify our aspirations, combining goal contemplation, visualization and meditation techniques. Through these processes, we can gain control over spiritual forces that work within our destiny, attracting favourable outer circumstances in everyday life. Dr Gruenewald offers a set of practical tools: * A spiritual symbol and mantra for meditation that can enhance our capacity to manifest harmonic goals. * Contemplation - courageous conversation with our resourceful self - to enrich imagination and willpower. * Resilience-building techniques, active listening, mindful nature observation and transformation of negative emotions. * Harmonization of our goals with the developmental needs of others, in freedom and love. * Contemplative work with the initiatory Temple Legend narrative (featured in the book). In this accessible handbook, the author shows how we can call upon the assistance of spiritual beings and masters who serve the development of humanity - including Christian Rosenkreuz, whose pupils have long used magical symbols and verses for meditative and ritualistic work.

6 lectures, Berlin, November 16-December 12, 1915 (CW 157a) This is a fully revised edition of the book previously published as The Forming of Destiny and Life after Death Rudolf Steiner delivered these lectures near the end of 1915 and the beginning of World War I, when the issue of death and destiny weighed on the minds of many in Europe. He describes, from a spiritual perspective, the process of crossing the threshold of death to life in the spiritual world; the soul's experience immediately after death; and the process of forming one's destiny, or karma, while we remain on Earth and later in the spirit world. Steiner also discusses the importance of our connection with those who have died and how love and reverence to the memory of the dead must be united with our love for the physical world, and how we can strengthen ourselves through meditation. In the final lecture, given on December 21, Steiner stresses the esoteric importance of the thirteen nights of Christmas and how we can consciously affect our future karma during that time. This edition includes "The Dream Song of Olaf Asteson," a Nordic poem (discussed in lecture 6) that describes in pictorial language the deep mysteries of the Christmas nights.

'The power of Shakespeare lies in his evidently conscious knowledge, skill and understanding of how to work with the alchemical potential in the human soul in the crafting of his plays. Each play is made as an exquisitely unique transformative device for the education of the soul."Books carry on conversations across the thresholds of time and space', writes Josie Alwyn in her introduction. This book is the fruit of her 'conversation' with Brien Masters - a collaboration that began more than twenty years ago, when she was learning to be a Waldorf teacher. They open their discussions with the broader theme of the role and 'mission' of drama in human development, before focusing on the central topic: the potential for metamorphosis inherent in Shakespeare's plays. This creative, birth-giving, transformative essence of Shakespeare - the esoteric core of his work - is vitally important to our times, they suggest, and contributes to the ongoing cultural education of the human soul.Published to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Educating the Soul offers an overview of Shakespeare's journey as a playwright in the context of evolving human consciousness. The heart of the book features nine essays on Shakespeare's most performed plays. Just as the middle act of a Shakespearian drama gives a point of transformation, so these essays represent the central, unfolding dialogue that took place between the writers as the book developed. This section is followed by an in-depth study of Hamlet, that sees the story as a learning process, deeply strengthened by the primary character's own education and changing consciousness. Finally, the book explores the theme of transformation through The Tempest and in relation to the archetypal 'tree of life'. Accessible to all, the motifs of the various chapters in this book are woven lightly together, enabling the reader to follow the contents in sequence, or to dip in and pick up the threads at any point.

'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 In a previously-untranslated volume of lectures, Rudolf Steiner presents shattering insights regarding the interaction of human and spiritual beings. He speaks, for example, about how perfumes can give certain spirits access to people on earth, or how phantoms, spectres and demons can be created through human deficiencies - or even how the arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and music allow 'good' or 'hideous' entities to enter our world. As he states: 'Learning about the effects of spiritual beings is of much greater help than moral preaching. A future humanity will know what it is creating through lies, hypocrisy and slander.' The lectures are divided into two broad thematic groups: the first relating to the inner path of knowledge and its relation to the yearly festivals, and the second focusing on the work of elemental beings in our everyday world. The 18 lectures are complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Christian von Arnim.

The rising interest in goddess spirituality expresses our current need to understand the feminine side of God, the Sophia (or Divine Wisdom), and her relationship to the masculine aspects of God. Offering a new perspective, the author draws on his own research and on the teaching of Russian philosopher Pavel Florensky, according to whom Sophia has a relationship to the masculine Trinity as an independent spiritual being. Robert Powell discusses Sophia as a Trinity-as Mother, Daughter, and Holy Soul- and as the feminine aspect of Divine Godhead. He connects our reawakening to the feminine aspect of God with many of the changes now taking place in the world. Also included is an introduction to the Divine Feminine by Daniel Andreev, author of The Rose of the World.

Rudolf Steiner's spiritual philosophy is the inspiration for many successful initiatives in the world today, from the international Steiner Waldorf school movement to biodynamic agriculture and its increasingly popular produce. Steiner developed his philosophy in dozens of books and many thousands of lectures. His teaching contains dozens of new concepts and ideas, and as a result he had often to create his own vocabulary. In this practical volume - a companion to his Anthroposophy, A Concise Introduction - Henk van Oort gives concise definitions of many terms and concepts in Steiner's worldview, from the most commonplace to the more obscure. Anthroposophy A-Z can be used as a reference guide, but also as a gateway into Rudolf Steiner's manifold world of spiritual ideas and concepts. Anthroposophy can be seen to be a new language - a language that can lead to the world of the spirit. It was with this awareness that Henk van Oort took the initiative to write this glossary. Ultimately, he has written the sort of inspiring handbook that he wished had existed when he first became acquainted with anthroposophy over 40 years ago.

In March 2020, Are Thoresen contracted Covid-19. Whilst convalescing from the disease and suffering great exhaustion, he experienced a breakthrough in his daily meditation. Although he has always been able to 'see' into the spiritual world, now deeper, unknown realms appeared to his inner vision. In the soapstone surround of the fireplace in his Norwegian home, he perceived the elemental beings and forces that make up the mineral at an atomic level. A few days later, an even deeper dimension revealed itself, in the form of a void or vacuum. Here, astonishingly, was an open portal to the entire cosmos... In Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation, Thoresen shares the results of his latest spiritual investigations, including a moving, life-changing encounter with 'the Light of the World'. He details the teachings he receives from the beings Vidar and Balder - who stand as guardians to the threshold of the outer etheric world - and characterizes the Northern way of initiation, which is based on merging, or 'fading', into nature. Thoresen documents Rudolf Steiner's descriptions of this path and shows how it is reflected in the Old Norse Poetic Edda, the Kalevala and von Eschenbach's Parzival. Based on painstaking research, he describes the individual qualities of the three elemental realms, and how the adversarial forces - seeking to corrupt human senses - hinder spiritual observation of them. Thoresen's book is a powerful personal testimony to the human potential for spiritual knowledge and experience in our time.

'That in our times a kind of supernumerary person is appearing who is egoless, who in reality is not a human being, is a terrible truth.' - Rudolf Steiner -- Are there people on earth today who do not have a self - a human ego or 'I'? The phenomenon of 'egolessness' - the absence of a human being's core - was discussed by the spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner in lectures and personal conversations. An egoless individual, he intimated, is an empty sheath through which other spiritual entities could operate. Erdmuth J. Grosse brings together many little-known quotations from Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research and supports them with a wealth of disquieting reports, testimonies and examples from literature and politics. He places these insights within the broader context of the riddle of the human self, throwing light on the spiritual development of the individual and humanity as a whole. In this thought-provoking study, Grosse goes on to discuss the role of comets, the effects of cyanide on the human constitution - especially in the light of the Holocaust - and the hidden effects of ceremonial magic, occult lodges, cults and sects. In conclusion, he offers positive solutions to humanity's present predicament by describing the healing impulses of social threefolding, the invisible spiritual beings seeking to help humanity, the role of the gods, the Christ impulse and the true goals of human evolution.

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. In this classic series of lectures, now retranslated and featuring a previously-unavailable public address, Rudolf Steiner also discusses: the planets and their connection with our sleeping and waking life; the inner path of the mystic; the 'greater' and 'lesser' guardians of the threshold; the Egyptian mysteries of Osiris and Isis; initiation in the Northern mysteries; The four spheres of the higher worlds; mirror-images of the macrocosm in man; the strengthening powers of sleep; the symbol of the Rose Cross; reading the Akashic Record; four-dimensional space; the development of future human capacities, and much more. The volume includes an introduction, notes and index.

`No true understanding of the world is possible without an understanding of the elementary kingdoms.' - Oskar Kurten A hidden gem for students of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual-scientific research, Symphonies of Creation offers a breathtaking overview of the physical and metaphysical development of the world and humanity. In describing the elementary kingdoms, Kurten elucidates the exalted spiritual realms out of which all creation has arisen. These are the formative forces that provide successive life-waves of being with the subtle and physical forms through which their evolution becomes possible. He traces the beginnings of creation - an unformed `thought seed' in the elementary kingdoms that is elaborated by hierarchical beings at all levels, through the planes of the spiritual, soul and physical worlds - to the manifold and evolving aspects of the human being. What emerges is a picture of astonishing complexity and beauty in which all spiritual beings connected with the earth, from the highest to the lowest, work together in symphonic harmony. Rudolf Steiner spoke on many occasions and in different places of these elementary kingdoms and the multiple processes that take place within them. Kurten has sought out these references, meditated on their content and re-presents it here in an inwardly coherent synthesis. Even for those who have been studying anthroposophy for decades, this book can offer startlingly fresh insights. Symphonies of Creation is the life's work of a man who, due to severe deafness, led a retiring existence. His inner work, however, was full of life - the results of which are presented in this inspiring study.

Among Rudolf Steiner's many initiatives that evoked visible, sustained impulses, there was one that did not develop as planned - his so-called 'endowment' of 1911. This was his attempt to create a 'Society for a Theosophical Art and Way of Life', that would work 'under the protectorate of Christian Rosenkreutz'. Rudolf Steiner envisaged a grouping of individuals who were '...deeply moved by a spiritual power like the one that lived earlier in Christianity'. Through the forming of such a Society, he sought to enable a true spiritual culture to arise on earth - a culture that would 'engender artists in every domain of life'. Virginia Sease's reflections - a century after Rudolf Steiner's attempt - place a special emphasis on three considerations. Firstly, that the Endowment impulse allows us to experience the art of 'interpreting' in the Rosicrucian way. Secondly, that the best initiative, even one undertaken by a great individuality, is doomed to failure if the participants are unable to overcome their personal ambitions. And finally, that we may live with the fact that, despite the passing of time, the seeds dormant in Rudolf Steiner's attempt still have the possibility to come to fruition in the future.

Today, illness is almost universally regarded as either a nuisance or a grave misfortune. In contrast to this conventional thinking, Rudolf Steiner places the suffering caused by disease in a broad vista that includes an understanding of karma and personal metamorphosis. Illness comes to expression in the physical body, but mostly does not originate in it, says Steiner, and thus a key part of the physician's work involves gaining insight into the whole nature of an individual - his essential core being. From this perspective, illness offers us the opportunity for deeper healing. Throughout this volume Rudolf Steiner draws our attention to the greater scope of the smallest phenomena - even a seemingly insignificant headache. He casts vivid light on things we normally take for granted, such as the human capacity to laugh or cry, and in the process broadens our vision of human existence. The apparently mundane human experiences of forgetting and remembering are intrinsic to our humanity, for example, and have unsuspected moral and spiritual dimensions. Steiner's insights are never merely 'lofty' or nebulously 'spiritual' but time and again connect with the minutest realities of everyday life. In these 18 lectures, delivered on a weekly basis as part of an ongoing course covering 'the whole field of spiritual science', Steiner elaborates in detail on the diverse interplay of the human being's constituting aspects (physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego or 'I') in relation to rhythmic processes, developing consciousness, the history of human evolution, and our connection with the cosmos. Within this broad canvas, some of his themes acquire a very distinctive focus - such as vivid accounts of the 'intimate history' of Christianity, 'creating out of nothing', the interior of the earth, and health and illness. Other topics include: the nature of pain, suffering, pleasure and bliss; the four human group souls of lion, bull, eagle and man; the significance of the Ten Commandments; the nature of original sin; the deed of Christ and the adversary powers of Lucifer, Ahriman and the Asuras; evolution and involution; the Atlantean period - and even Friedrich Nietzsche's madness!

Rudolf Steiner wrote his four plays, the Mystery Dramas, to give examples of how individuals go through different experiences as they find their way into the spiritual worlds. Because each of us has a unique biography and unique karma, our journey into the spiritual is also a unique path. The eight lectures presented in this volume were given on the occasion of the first performance of the fourth play, The Souls' Awakening. These lectures count among the most significant of Steiner's insights into the nature of the path to higher knowledge.