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.

'An external view of states of health and sickness must be augmented by what we can also know about the inner, spiritual reality within the human being.' - Rudolf Steiner In a series of nine lectures to doctors, pharmacists and students, Rudolf Steiner presents a wealth of medical ideas with numerous therapeutic and diagnostic insights. As with his first series of lectures on medicine held a year previously (Introducing Anthroposophical Medicine), the range, depth and scope of Steiner's subject-matter is breathtaking. Speaking at the international centre of anthroposophy, the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, Rudolf Steiner begins by describing the interplay of physical and metaphysical aspects of the human being, presenting a paradigm in which the four bodies - physical, etheric, astral and ego or 'I' - interrelate in contrasting ways with the threefold human organism of head, thorax and metabolism, and with our capacities for thinking, feeling and will. These challenging but enlightening concepts unlock a wonderful diagnostic tool for the appraisal and understanding of patients. Steiner considers the medicinal actions of various substances - including silica, phosphorus, sulphur, arsenic, antimony and mercury. Among numerous other subjects, Rudolf Steiner discusses the methodology of medical examination; the treatment of developmental irregularities; the four types of ether; raw food diets; the I and assimilation of food; metal therapy and the actions of lead, magnesium, tin, iron, copper, gold, mercury and silver; the use of root and herbaceous parts and flowers in medicine; the rhythmic balancing process between the action of salutogenic and pathological forces; and the nature of death. This volume also features Rudolf Steiner's answers to questions, an introductory lecture to eurythmy therapy, a comprehensive introduction, notes and index, colour plates of Steiner's blackboard drawings, and facsimiles and translations of his notes for the lectures.

In this third volume in The Actor of the Future series, Dawn Langman continues to explore the integration of Steiner's research into speech, drama and eurythmy with Michael Chekhov's acting methodology. Her advanced applications of all the basic processes allow the art of the actor and speaker to evolve beyond the 'soul and body' paradigm - still broadly accepted in contemporary culture - to include dimensions of the spirit. The book contains a seminal analysis of comedy and tragedy, showing how an understanding of their esoteric roots - sprung from the Eleusis mysteries of ancient Greece - deepen our appreciation and our ability to implement the practical suggestions made by Steiner and Chekhov to differentiate the fundamental styles. A comprehensive exploration of the vowels in relation to planetary beings lays the foundation for many layers of artistic deepening and application.

"If we read Steiner's] lectures with an open and attentive inner eye, we may be able to see the Christ mystery, not as a collection of dogmas or facts, but as a spiritual impulse that stretches far beyond the limits of Christ's own time and even of the lifespan of Christianity itself. We may even catch a glimpse of the high powers that govern the life of civilizations and of the great entity known as the human race." -Richard Smoley (from the introduction) For centuries people have been baffled by the varying accounts of Christ's life as presented in the four Gospels and have struggled to reconcile them. In these profound and stimulating lectures, Steiner addresses this conundrum. He shows how each of the Gospels presents a different lens onto Christ's life and message. Here Steiner reveals the Gospel of Matthew as the one that emphasizes Christ's humanity. But he does not stop there; his visionary perspective traces Christ's life and message to spiritual impulses that go back centuries, even millennia, to the legendary civilization of Atlantis, to the mysterious Zarathustra, and to the Jewish sect known as the Essenes. An introduction by Richard Smoley, author of Inner Christianity, puts Steiner's vision into perspective for modern readers. Once you have experienced Steiner's powerful exploration of Matthew, you will never see the Gospels in the same way again.

Moral preaching cannot establish morality. Only by delving into the hidden secrets of life can we find its moral sources. Humanity has always manifested moral life. In ancient India, for instance, morality lay in devotion to the spirit: in Europe, the cardinal virtue was courage. To understand the relationship between these, however, the evolution of consciousness must be taken into account. Originally, morality was a gift of the gods, a part of human nature, but errors, deviations, a falling away have occurred in the course of evolution. Nevertheless, something divine still underlies human nature. In this short, much-loved cycle of three lectures, Rudolf Steiner, using the example of St. Francis of Assisi, indicates the sources for the recovery of a living morality. In ancient times, some version of the caste system ruled. Then the Buddha came with his teaching of equality and compassion. This teaching was particularly suited to Europe. And thus, "some centuries into the Christian era," on the shores of the Black Sea, an esoteric school was established where Buddha's teaching was interpenetrated with the Christian impulse. Two streams flowed out of this school: a more Buddhist stream of equality and brotherhood, and a stream of Christic morality. St. Francis came from this school, permeated by outer Christ forces. Rudolf Steiner explains how the spiritual world was connected with his coming. St. Francis exemplifies morality as the middle path. We see a warrior nature transformed into the expression of mercy, compassion, and love. Rudolf Steiner shows the transformation of the virtues through the evolution of consciousness and, above all, through the incarnation of Christ in the Mystery of Golgotha. Since then, morality - if it is true morality - works to build up Christ's being. Therefore Francis sought to live a Christ-like life, seeking an intense personal relationship to Christ and the Cross.

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.

Today some six million Freemasons around the world continue to perform their rituals regularly - an enormous legacy of spiritual endeavour, kept largely in secret. In Britain alone there are over 7,000 Lodges, with a quarter of a million members. What is this wealth, this appeal, and how did the philosopher and spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner reinterpret or reconstruct Freemasonry's time-worn legacy? Unless one is a Freemason, the masonic world, with its arcane conventions and language, remains largely unknown: an obscurity that is almost impossible to fathom. Yet understanding its traditions and style are invaluable when approaching Goethe, Mozart, Herder, Lessing and Novalis - as well as Rudolf Steiner. Steiner himself renewed the 'Royal Art' of Freemasonry from 1906 to 1914 through his ritual work known as Mystica AEterna. When Steiner invigorated education, medicine, the social order and religion, he fully intended that committed and professional individuals should assume responsibility for the new initiatives. But this was not the case with the Masonic Order he founded, whose leadership he took upon himself. Even the celebration of his passing in 1925, led by Marie Steiner, was entirely Masonic in character. In the context of continuing resistance and misrepresentation, N.V.P. Franklin uncovers the living heart of Freemasonry and reveals why it was - and still is - immensely relevant to anthroposophy. With profound research into its older rituals and teachings, this detailed and conscientious study is a unique contribution to comprehending freemasonry and anthroposophy - both historically and in the present day.

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. The work of each of the School's sections seeks to develop anthroposophy - as founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) - in a contemporary context through the core disciplines of general anthroposophy, medicine, agriculture, pedagogy, natural science, mathematics and astronomy, literary and visual arts and humanities, performing arts and youth work. The featured essays include: Creating Spaces of Inner Freedom - Training Approaches in Times of Uncertainty and Fear; The Hidden Sun - Reality, Language and Art in Corona Times; Consequences of COVID-19 - Perspectives of Anthroposophic Medicine; Aspects of Epidemic Infectious Diseases in Rudolf Steiner's Work ; Challenges and Perspectives of the Corona Crisis in the Agricultural and Food Industry; Corona and Biodynamic Agriculture; Our Relationship with Animals; The Part and the Whole - On the Cognitive Approach of Anthroposophical Natural Science; Comparing the Constellations of the Corona Pandemic and the Spanish Flu; Aspects of Dealing with the Corona Crisis for Youth; 'Crisis Implies that it's Unclear ... as to What, How, Why and by Whom Things Need to be Done'; Education in Times of Corona; Understanding History from the Future - Crisis as Opportunity; Social Challenges and Impulses of the COVID-19 Pandemic; Consequences of COVID-19 - The Perspective of Anthroposophic Curative Education, Social Pedagogy, Social Therapy and Inclusive Social Development; A Medicalized Society?.

`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.

In these much-valued lectures, Rudolf Steiner begins by positing the question, 'Why investigate the spiritual worlds at all?' He goes on to explore the contemporary need for spiritual knowledge and the authentic paths that can lead to it. Speaking in Torquay, England, at the International Summer School organized by his friend and colleague D.N. Dunlop, Steiner surveys the differences in various types of consciousness - from ancient to modern times, in waking and dreaming, from space into time - and the changes that have taken place in relation to knowledge and science in the course of history. He goes on to discuss the Mystery nature of crystallized minerals and metals such as copper and silver, and their relationship to the planets. He also describes how the ages of life can become organs of perception. In a dramatic conclusion Steiner explains the role of moon beings, ahrimanic elemental beings, and the true nature of mediumship, ectoplasm and spiritual possession. Presented here in a fresh translation that corrects many errors in previous editions, the text is complemented with notes, an introduction by Paul King and an index. Lectures include: 'Nature is the Great Illusion. "Know Thyself"'; 'The Three Worlds and their Reflected Images'; 'Form and Substantiality of the Mineral Kingdom in relation to Human Levels of Consciousness'; 'The Secret of Research into other Realms through the Metamorphosis of Consciousness'; 'The Inner Enlivening of the Soul through the Qualities of Metals'; 'Initiation Science'; 'Star Knowledge'; 'Possible Aberrations in Spiritual Research'. (Eleven lectures, 11-22 Aug. 1924, GA 243)

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.

Renowned occultist H P Blavatsky is famous for introducing the 'Secret Doctrine' to an astonished West. 'The Voice of the Silence' is derived from the same deep spring of Wisdom. Tibet's Panchen Lama endorsed the work as the "only true exposition in English of the Heart Doctrine of Mahayana and its noble ideal of self-sacrifice." The current (14th) Dalai Lama concurred: "I believe that this book has strongly influenced many aspirants to the wisdom and compassion of the Bodhisattva Path." The book's three segments form a step-wise introduction to this spiritual path. Fragment 1 describes the preparation of the aspirant for discipleship; Fragment 2 the methods of purification of the lower vehicles; while Fragment 3, reveals the Seven Keys which open the way to Enlightenment.

Civil Society has become a major power in the world. The stunning defeat of the controversial and secretive Multilateral Agreement on Investments, the massive worldwide WTO protests and the yearly meetings of the World Social Forum are testimony to its coming of age. From these significant victories, civil society continued to catch world attention with the Arab Spring, the grassroots movement that helped elect former US President Barack Obama and the significant gains of the anti-fracking campaign. With tens of millions of citizens and over a trillion dollars involved in advancing its agenda, civil society now joins the state and the market as the third key institution shaping globalization. However, it cannot fully mobilize its resources and power as it currently lacks clear understanding of its identity. Shaping Globalization argues that global civil society is a cultural institution wielding cultural power, and shows how - through the use of this distinct power - it can advance its agenda in the political and economic realms of society without compromising its identity. Nicanor Perlas outlines the strategic implications for civil society, both locally and globally, and explains that civil society's key task is to inaugurate `threefolding': the forging of strategic partnerships between civil society, government and business. Such authentic tri-sector partnerships are essential for advancing new ways for nations to develop, and for charting a different, sustainable type of globalization. Using the model of the Philippine Agenda 21, we are shown how civil society and progressive individuals and agencies in government and business are demonstrating the effectiveness of this new understanding to ensure that globalization benefits the environment, the poor and society as a whole. This reprinted edition includes a new Afterword.

The Mystery of the Resurrection approaches the deepest mysteries of the Turning Point of Time through Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research. At its heart stands the question of the restoration of the 'phantom' of the physical body, and its transformation into the resurrected body of Christ through the Mystery of Golgotha. The author draws a broad and differentiated picture of the tasks and possibilities that the Easter event, as well as Ascension and Whitsun, present - both for the individual and humanity. The final chapter considers the mystery of Easter Saturday, through which the two polar aspects of the Mystery of Golgotha - death and resurrection - interconnect, at the same time explaining the relationship of the Earth Spirit to the interior of the Earth. An appendix tackles the phenomenon of stigmatization from a spiritual-scientific perspective.

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

Even within the Anthroposophical Society and movement, people's relationship to Rudolf Steiner is weakening and dissipating. This is problematic, says Prokofieff, as the future of both the Society and movement is dependent on a sufficient number of people aspiring to and realizing a true spiritual connection with anthroposophy's founder, Rudolf Steiner. Prokofieff deals in detail with the issues surrounding this concern, and asks the question, "Can one be an anthroposophist without being Rudolf Steiner's pupil?" In the second part of this book Prokofieff elaborates on the mysteries surrounding the laying of the spiritual Foundation Stone at the Society's Christmas Meeting of 1923-24. This event, he suggests, ensured that a personal relationship to Rudolf Steiner "would not remain within the realm of the generally abstract or intellectual, but would become a real inner deed". Thus Rudolf Steiner gave each of us the possibility of connecting with him by way of free inner work on the Foundation Stone. Both parts of this book are integrally linked in the sense that once a relationship to Rudolf Steiner is established, an inner longing to work with the new Mysteries will inevitably follow. In Prokofieff's words: "...the will to take the foundation of the New Mysteries seriously leads to a real, inner connection with Rudolf Steiner". Also included is an important essay that assesses the difficulties connected with the recent digital publication of Rudolf Steiner's most important esoteric texts, as well as the occult background to the internet and electronic media as a whole. In response to readers' questions as to how one might counteract the damaging consequences of these developments, the author has expanded and developed his original essay on the subject.

Who was Cain and what does he represent? The first part of this book invites us to revise the traditional, biblical, view of Cain as his brother's murderer. Rudolf Steiner shows how the original Cain was ready to sacrifice his being to something higher, but this pure impulse was perverted into the desire to murder. Our earthly knowledge has an affinity with the fallen Cain, but there is also a path by which we can ascend to the condition of Cain before his fratricide - through the stages of higher knowledge. Only the descendants of Cain, coming to full and real 'I' development, can sustain themselves in the face of earthly forces. In the context of this primeval Cain, or the 'new' Cain, the ritual ceremonies enacted by Steiner between 1905 and 1914 acquire their true meaning: as a way to incorporate previously developed spirit knowledge into the human soul and into physical reality. Here the practical occultist increasingly identifies with Hiram, the central figure of the Temple Legend, in order to realize the new Cain within him.Meyer demonstrates the direct line from Rudolf Steiner's early 'rites of knowledge' to the Class lessons of 1924, which Steiner had intended to reinvest with a ritual element. Besides reflections by Rudolf Steiner and editor Thomas Meyer's commentary, this volume includes important thoughts by Marie Steiner, W.J. Stein, Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz and Rudolf Geering-Christ. The final chapter is a lecture by D.N. Dunlop - perhaps Steiner's most important pupil in the West - that reveals the universally human core of the rituals we encounter both in traditional freemasonry and in Steiner's own rites.

The heart of this volume comprises Rudolf Steiner's commentary on the elemental forces that are responsible for our earthly nature as human beings - forces that influence us through our membership of a national or geographical group. When such elemental forces are not recognised and understood, he states, they cause conflict and chaos. However, Steiner indicates an important accompanying task that calls upon each human being to develop individuality, emancipating ourselves from the earthly influences underlying national and racial groups.These great themes are framed by Rudolf Steiner's pioneering research into the two major Northern folk-poems, the Kalevala and The Dream Song of Olaf Asteson. The former tells of the elemental spirits who created the conditions for our earthly incarnation, whereas the Dream Song has to do with the drama of excarnation - the journey of the human soul after death. Linking these vast motifs is Steiner's unique description of the mission and tasks of the Russian people and the contrast of their destiny to the North American people (who, he says, are 'dominating the Earth for a brief period of increasing splendour'). Steiner explains how elemental beings, responsible for the balance of land and sea, have created conditions where various peoples are enabled to develop their gifts and fulfil their destinies. Thus he speaks of Finland as the ancient conscience of Europe, Russia as the future bearer of the Christ-imbued Spirit Self, and the differing but complementary environments of Germany and Britain. Strikingly, he states that, 'no souls on Earth love one another more than those living in Central Europe and those living in the British Isles'. Rudolf Steiner also speaks of the necessary work of luciferic and ahrimanic beings that collaborate to enable the solid spatial forms of our physical bodies. Likewise, they influence our etheric and astral bodies, facilitating thinking, feeling and will to be imbued with life and consciousness.

The two contradicting genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels have long puzzled biblical scholars. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research led him to the controversial theological conclusion that historically there existed two Jesus boys, born of two holy families. These two boys, he said, were necessary as part of the spiritual preparation of forming a suitable human body for the incarnation of Christ into the earthly realm. Both apocryphal texts and the writings of the Essenes - as discovered at Qumran by the Dead Sea - now appear to support this conception, with references to Messianic figures from both royal and priestly lines. Various authors have developed Rudolf Steiner's observations - first presented in the early twentieth century - although much of this literature has lacked the rigour of accurate and broad scholarship. The Two Jesus Boys is not simply a derivative rehash of these previous publications. Rather, it offers a fresh investigation of primary sources, coupled with an objective determination to allow the facts to speak for themselves. Christoph Rau thus comes to the unavoidable conclusion that Steiner's presentation of the chronology of the two births needs revision; furthermore, the most recent discoveries and interpretations of Essene scrolls reveal that the Jewish sect expected not one but three Messiahs. Rau quotes from and analyses numerous documents from the landscape of early Christianity and Judaism. His findings provide a secure foundation for the historical existence of two Jesus boys in the prelude to Christ's incarnation on earth, as well as a revelation of the Essenes' long expectation of three Messiahs.

Drawn by the mysterious mount Etna, Thomas Meyer sets off on a quest to discover the secrets of the Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Stromboli. The Sicilian region is not only famous for the drama of its live volcanoes, but also for its associations with numerous cultural figures - ranging from Cain, Empedocles, Klingsor and the much maligned Cagliostro, through to Goethe and Rudolf Steiner. The author ponders their lives, work and karmic connections, whilst unexpected meetings with cryptic strangers result in discussions that are filled with spiritual insights and pearls of wisdom.Meyer's travelogue is at once engaging, poetic and deeply esoteric, drawing parallels between the burning lava of Etna and Stromboli and the soul lava through which our spiritual feet must wade in the present day. In meditations on the Guardian of the Threshold and the explosive popularity of football, we are led to the conclusion that today human beings need to develop 'spiritual feet' to cross the boundary to higher worlds. The author's final trip coincides with the recent natural catastrophe in Nepal, which prompts him to ask whether humanity can begin to take inner responsibility for the many such disasters - particularly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions - that take place around the world. For these natural calamities, says Meyer, are intimately related to our untamed passions and emotions.

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.