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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Syncretist & eclectic religions & belief systems > Post-renaissance syncretist / eclectic systems
With love, humour and brilliant insight, Ben-Aharon addresses some
of the most critical questions of our age, ranging from artificial
intelligence and global politics to education and postmodern
philosophy. Although tackling diverse subject-matter, this
accessible anthology - delivered initially as lectures in locations
as contrasting as New York, Oslo and Munich - features a coherent
inner rhythm. With his lively and intense presentation, the speaker
invites us to share and participate in the creative process and the
dynamic activity of incarnating new ideas - indeed, to awaken to
the very Spirit of our Time. Ben-Aharon discusses his
investigations into the Spiritual Event of the 21st Century; the
working of spiritual beings in America, Central Europe, Scandinavia
and Israel; the renewal of education; the creative transformation
of antisocial forces; Israel's diverse culture in the midst of the
clash of civilizations; the new Christ Event and how it can break
through our habitual patterns and our hardened thinking, feeling
and will; and the mission of the anthroposophical movement in our
time. Informed throughout by decades of spiritual research and
intimate experience, this volume contains mature and illuminating
explorations into contemporary culture, history and spiritual
science.
The Theosophical Society (est. 1875 in New York by H. P. Blavatsky,
H. S. Olcott and others) is increasingly becoming recognized for
its influential role in shaping the alternative new religious and
cultural landscape of the late nineteenth and the twentieth
century, especially as an early promoter of interest in Indian and
Tibetan religions and philosophies. Despite this increasing
awareness, many of the central questions relating to the early
Theosophical Society and the East remain largely unexplored. This
book is the first scholarly anthology dedicated to this topic. It
offers many new details about the study of Theosophy in the history
of modern religions and Western esotericism. The essays in
Imagining the East explore how Theosophists during the formative
period understood the East and those of its people with whom they
came into contact. The authors examine the relationship of the
theosophical approach with orientalism and aspects of the history
of ideas, politics, and culture at large and discuss how these
esoteric or theosophical representations mirrored conditions and
values current in nineteenth-century mainstream intellectual
culture. The essays also look at how the early Theosophical
Society's imagining of the East differed from mainstream
'orientalism' and how the Theosophical Society's mission in India
was distinct from that of British colonialism and Christian
missionaries.
Dedicated to the one hundredth anniversary of Rudolf Steiner's
first proclamation of Christ's appearance in the etheric realm of
the Earth, this book refers to various aspects of that Event that
have so far not been adequately addressed. Sergei O. Prokofieff
points to three themes of primary importance, all of which are
connected directly with the tasks of the Society which Rudolf
Steiner founded: The preparation of mankind for the Second Coming;
Working together with Christ as the Lord of Karma; Recognising in
anthroposophy the spiritual language in which questions can be
posed to the etheric Christ today. Prokofieff describes these and
other critical undertakings, such as forging a strong relationship
to Michael and the importance of recognising the adversarial forces
that attempt to falsify Christ's Second Coming. The Appearance of
Christ in the Etheric is of relevance to every individual who
wishes to take an active part in fulfilling the needs of our time.
"Every moral deed and every physical action in human life is
connected in the human heart. Only when we truly learn to
understand the configuration of he human heart will we find the
true fusion of these two parallel and independent phenomena: moral
events and physical events." -Rudolf Steiner Today we know very
little about the true nature of the human heart. Our knowledge
arises only from a materialistic or an emotional standpoint.
However, the human heart, as Rudolf Steiner knew and taught, is
both spiritual and physical-the place where body and soul come
together. It is the place of their unity. We have lost this
knowledge, yet it is integral to the Western understanding of what
gives humanity its vocation-our spiritual/physical, our
earthly/heavenly nature. In this astonishing and inspiring book,
Peter Selg focuses on the evolution of the spiritual understanding
of the heart as transmitted through Aristotle, the Gospels, and
Hebrew Scriptures to the Middle Ages, when, in the light of the
Mystery of Golgotha and its sacramental life, it was synthesized
and transformed by Thomas Aquinas, after whom, with the rise of
modern science it, was lost until Goethe began a process of
recovery and development that led to its complete renewal and
transformation in Rudolf Steiner. The Mystery of the Heart tells
this story in three parts. Part one, "The Anthropology of the Heart
in the Gospels," examines the spiritual anthropology of the heart
in the Gospels in the light of Ezekiel's prophetic saying: "I will
give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove
from you your heart of stone and give you a living heart of flesh."
Part two, "De Essentia et Motu Cordis," describes Aristotle's
understanding of the heart and its transformation and deepening in
Aquinas. Part three, "The Heart and the Fate of Humanity," examines
the spiritual-scientific view of the heart as developed in Rudolf
Steiner's teachings. Also included is an appendix containing
selected meditative verses and therapeutic meditations for the
heart.
"Occult events that took place between the Christ and the community
of his disciples form a significant part not only of the four
Gospels but also of the Christ Mystery or Golgotha Mystery itself.
Today, many human souls are still moved by this apostolic
community, by how the disciples accompanied Christ Jesus, by their
place in history (as an esoteric circle charged with an exoteric
task), by their failures, and by the great new dawn that showed
them the way after Pentecost...For three years, they were close to
Christ, shared his life, and received a great deal of instruction
from him, often in their own intimate circle away from public view.
They were there when Christ performed healings and even when he
prayed.... "Rudolf Steiner once said that we in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries must live with the 'etheric Christ' in the
Earth's aura in the same way that 'the disciples once lived with
Christ Jesus on the physical plane.' If this is so, it is essential
for us to focus on the community of Christ's disciples. Rudolf
Steiner himself made major contributions to illuminating the depths
of the disciples' relationship and life with the Christ, both
during the three years of his earthly life and after the
Resurrection. An essential element of Steiner's life work was to
apply 'anthroposophically oriented cognition' to events of the
beginning of the Christian era in order to 'bring the Gospels'
deeper content to the light of day.' He spoke in detail about the
Christ's community of disciples in many lecture cycles, and, in his
lectures on the Fifth Gospel, he shed light on this community from
the perspective of the processes of human consciousness that were
intimately involved in events at the beginning of the new era and
inscribed in the chronicle of evolution.... "In his lectures on the
Fifth Gospel and elsewhere, Rudolf Steiner opened up many
perspectives that help us understand what took place between Christ
and his disciples. This book's purpose is to make those
perspectives available and accessible. Although all of Steiner's
statements have been published, they are widely scattered among his
lectures and remain unknown to many individuals deeply committed to
the community of Christ's disciples and to anthroposophical
Christology. In view of the challenges to consciousness we face in
modern times-including those that deal with Christianity and the
Christ Event itself-it seems urgently important to present details
of the positive and often illuminating results of Rudolf Steiner's
research." As is true of other works by Peter Selg, Christ and the
Disciples is one of those books that sharpens the reader's mind to
cut through the myriad of representation (and misrepresentations)
of Rudolf Steiner's teachings, clarifying many otherwise-knotty
issues.
'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
Beginning with ancient Egypt, the pyramids and sphinxes - and a
comparison of that epoch with our own - Rudolf Steiner surveys a
vast spiritual landscape of human development. In symphonic style,
he describes the conquest of the physical plane in post-Atlantean
civilizations, the relationships between the various cultural
epochs, the human being's connections with the kingdoms of nature
and the different planetary bodies, and the relationship of animal
forms to 'the physiognomy of human passions'. Through this
panoramic vision, we discover how the changed conditions of human
consciousness call for a new spiritual understanding today. In her
Introduction, Marie Steiner relates the special experience of being
a member of Rudolf Steiner's audience for this timeless series of
lectures: 'Enormous cosmic pictures were unfolded before the
spiritual gaze of the listeners; insights were of such depths of
ancient wisdom, views of distant futures of human and world
development, that deepest devotion flowed through their hearts...'
This new edition features a revised translation, introduction,
notes and an index.
Earth and humanity are involved in a fragile interplay of physical
and spiritual relationships, the full spectrum of which can only be
discerned by higher, finer senses. Based on actual, living
discernment rather than dogmatic ideas, Karsten Massei reveals how
we can unite with nature, supporting our inner development and
everyday lives. We ourselves comprise the path leading to the
mysteries of the earth. Through delving into nature's secrets,
paradoxically we are brought back to our own being - our soul-gold,
our luminosity, but also to our shadow, lower nature. Deep
encounters with the earth are thus self-encounters. --- In a series
of concise and accessible chapters, Massei illumines human
characteristics - our senses, the quality of our listening, our
soul wounds and the possibility for transformation. Likewise, he
lights up the natural world - plants and animals, but also
elemental beings, spirits of trees, and the great being of the
earth, Christ. Amongst a wealth of interrelated themes, the author
portrays death as the doorway to a new existence, describing the
relationship of the dead with the earth and humanity and speaking
movingly of the healing social deed of forgiveness. Founded on
first-hand research, this book is full of reverence for the hidden
aspects of life and their significance for personal growth.
Edith Maryon (1872-1924) was a trained sculptor who worked
alongside Rudolf Steiner to create the unique sculpture of Christ
(the 'Representative of Humanity') at the Goetheanum in Dornach,
Switzerland. One of Steiner's closest collaborators, she was a
highly-valued colleague and esoteric pupil. As one of his dearest
friends, Maryon kept a busy and detailed correspondence with Rudolf
Steiner, in which he confided freely about his personal situation,
his lack of true colleagues, difficulties with lecture tours, and
the embattled public standing of anthroposophy. Almost invariably,
these letters emphasized Steiner's longing for the Dornach studio
and their shared work on the Christ statue. Maryon's early death,
aged 52 - following fifteen months of illness - shook Rudolf
Steiner to the core. He was to die himself less than a year later.
With this book, the author's central aim is to illuminate the
spiritual signature of Edith Maryon's relationship with Rudolf
Steiner and their mutual work in anthroposophy and on the sculpture
of Christ. Building on Rex Raab's (1993) biography, Peter Selg's
moving study features dozens of photos and facsimiles of letters,
utilizing previously unpublished sources from Edith Maryon's and
Ita Wegman's literary estates and the Rudolf Steiner Archive in
Dornach. -- The most essential and intrinsic quality of her soul
... was not a particular branch of human endeavour, not even art;
the most salient of her soul tendencies, her soul intentions, was
the striving for spirituality...' - Rudolf Steiner
In a private conversation on his deathbed, Rudolf Steiner informed
his friend Count Polzer-Hoditz of three spiritual problems that
would need to be resolved in the coming years: 'Firstly, the
question of the two Johns [John the Baptist and John the
Evangelist]. Secondly: Who was Dmitri? Thirdly: Where did Caspar
Hauser come from?' Tackling these issues, said Steiner, would be of
critical importance for humanity's future. He added: 'In all three
problems it is important that one's gaze is directed not towards
death but towards birth. Where did they come from and with what
tasks?' In Dmitri's case, Steiner emphasized that the most
important thing was to discover what was to have been achieved
through him. --- Utilizing the significant clues left by Rudolf
Steiner, Sergei O. Prokofieff takes on the second of these tasks,
the great unsolved mystery of Russian history. Tsarevich Dmitri,
the son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, was tragically murdered as a
young boy. Later, he was impersonated by a series of rogues and
pretenders. Prokofieff's wide-ranging study integrates historical,
psychological and spiritual-scientific perspectives to work towards
the truth behind Dmitri's brief life, his mission and the
distortions created by the 'false Dmitris'. He also examines the
significance of Friedrich Schiller's unfinished play, Demetrius.
Near the end of his life, Rudolf Steiner took up the task that was
his special destiny to bring knowledge of reincarnation and karma
to the West. Consequently, he gave more than eighty lectures in
1924 to explicitly reveal the destinies of various individuals from
one life to the next. He explained how the general laws of karma
work in individual cases and revealed many details of the karmic
streams of the members of the Anthroposophical Society. These
volumes constitute an immeasurable contribution to the
understanding of reincarnation and karma and the tasks of the
Anthroposophical Society in connection with the Archangel Michael.
In volume five, Steiner discusses the difference between moon karma
and sun karma, the influences of Christian and Islamic thinking,
the transformation of inner human qualities from one life to the
next, and much more.
The so-called 'supplementary exercises' - to be carried out
alongside the 'review exercises' and meditation - are integral to
the path of personal development presented by Rudolf Steiner.
Together they form a means of experiencing the spiritual realm in
full consciousness. Meditation enlivens thinking, the review
exercises cultivate the will, whilst the supplementary exercises
educate and balance feeling. Conscientiously practised, this path
of self-knowledge and development has the effect of opening a
source of inner strength and psychological health that soon make
themselves felt in daily life. In six stages these exercises enable
the practise of qualities that can be summarized as: control of
thoughts, initiative of will, equanimity, positivity,
open-mindedness and equilibrium of soul. When carried out
regularly, they balance possible harmful effects of meditative
practice and bring inner certainty and security to the soul. They
are also of inestimable value in their own right due to their
beneficial and wholesome effect on daily life. In this invaluable
small book, the editor has drawn together virtually all Rudolf
Steiner's statements on the supplementary exercises, supporting
them with commentary and notes. With a chapter devoted to each
exercise, they are described in detail and from different
perspectives.
According to the initiate-research of Rudolf Steiner, humanity is
in a continual process of transformation and evolution. Modern-day
consciousness, based as it is on sense perception and abstract
logic, differs considerably from the consciousness of ancient
humanity. At that time, says Steiner, the human being was seen to
be a microcosm, a concentration of the laws and activities of the
cosmos. The loss of such knowledge today has led to the existential
quest for meaning, and even the cul-de-sac of atheism. In these
comprehensive lectures, delivered to an English audience, Rudolf
Steiner indicates how it is possible for people to rediscover their
connection to the cosmos. He describes how one develops higher
faculties of consciousness - what he calls Imagination, Inspiration
and Intuition - and gives a vivid description of life after death
and the individual's progress through the planetary spheres. It is
in these spheres, he explains, where tasks and goals for future
incarnations are prepared in cooperation with the spiritual beings
of the heavenly hierarchies.The lectures culminate in a call for
mankind to take its own destiny in hand through conscious and free
development of spiritual capacities. The new edition of this
fundamental work features a revised translation as well as
previously-unavailable addresses and question-and-answer sessions.
'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
These eleven lectures were given in post-war Stuttgart against a
backdrop of struggle and uncertainty - not only within society at
large but also within the anthroposophical movement. Rudolf Steiner
and his supporters were working to introduce 'threefold' social
ideas and - given Steiner's public profile - were coming under
increasing personal and sometimes physical attack. Steiner responds
to this turbulent situation by revealing the spiritual background
to the forces of decline working in contemporary civilization. He
speaks of retrogressive powers - spiritual beings referred to as
luciferic or ahrimanic - that work directly into human culture,
manifesting, for example, in what he refers to as the 'initiation
streams' of Western secret societies, the Church-allied impulse of
Jesuitism and the Bolshevik force of Leninism. The spiritual agents
of adversity also encourage polarised thinking and false opposites
such as East verses West, materialism and mysticism, or knowledge
and belief. Only the threefold principle - represented by Christ -
allows us to create a balance in the midst of these existential
conflicts. This freshly-reworked translation is complemented with
notes, an index and an introduction by Matthew Barton.
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. At the time of these presentations,
Steiner had already worked in Berlin for many years, and thus,
'...could reckon with a regularly returning audience to whom what
mattered was to enter ever more deeply into the areas of knowledge
that were newly opening up to them' (Marie Steiner). As a
consequence - and through 'a series of inter-connecting lectures
whose themes are entwined with one another' - he was able to
communicate a coherent and challenging spiritual perception of
reality, based on his personal research. Presented here with notes,
an index and an introduction by Simon Blaxland-de Lange, the 14
lectures include: 'How is Spiritual Science Refuted?'; 'On What
Foundation is Spiritual Science Based'; 'The Tasks of Spiritual
Research for both Present and Future'; 'Errors of Spiritual
Research'; 'Results of Spiritual Research for Vital Questions and
the Riddle of Death'; The World-Conception of a Cultural Researcher
of the Present, Herman Grimm' and 'The Legacy of the Nineteenth
Century'.
The unique scholarship and artistic sensitivity of Prof. Dr Hermann
Beckh (1875-1937) is in the process of being rediscovered. The
great linguist, Orientalist and Christian priest - an active
music-lover who also composed - penned pioneer works on our musical
system that are respected by musicians and musicologists. This
volume brings together two revised versions of his best-loved
books. The Essence of Tonality is written '...for musicians and
music-lovers who, because of their particular musicality experience
something spiritual - and for spiritual seekers and sensitive
people who, because of their particular spirituality, have
experienced a connection with music.' Beckh believed a spiritual
view of tonality would ensure music's, and humanity's, future. The
author elucidates the correspondence of the circle of fifths (the
keys) to the zodiac. Research should be directed towards the twelve
vital, spiritual key-centres, as expressing the cosmic rhythms in
which we all live, rather than the abstract twelve chromatic notes
of atonality. In The Parsifal Christ-Experience, Beckh's original
insights throw new and powerful light on the search for meaning in
our age, for a knowledge of the heart. In the poetic libretto and
remarkable music of his final creation, Wagner - acknowledged by
Bruckner as 'the Master' - presents the Grail legend and its
imagery. The psychological drama and its ultimate solution provide
insights to anyone who is prepared to reflect on inner experience.
Through Beckh's references to Wagner's own letters, as well as a
remarkable letter from Nietzsche, the reader gains knowledge of the
true nature of Wagner and his work.
'How can our souls unite with the etheric Christ, experienced in
the etheric world since the end of the last century? What steps
should we take, in the second century of the age of Michael, to
unite with Him?' At the centre of humanity's evolution stands the
Mystery of Golgotha, through which the Christ impulse entered the
earth. Anthroposophy, said Rudolf Steiner, was given at the
beginning of the last century to prepare for the second major
Christ event - the etheric Second Coming - beginning in 1933. This
Event is the portal that leads to the mighty and transformative
happenings taking place in the etheric world right now, enabling us
to meet the etheric Christ, Michael and Anthroposophia. At the
heart of this book is an existential question. Early in his
anthroposophical work, Ben-Aharon came to realize that without the
light of spiritual science, the meeting with the etheric Christ
remained simply a personal experience. Likewise, without the new
life forces streaming from the etheric Christ, anthroposophy was
merely a body of knowledge, frozen in time. Both needed each other.
But how was that mutually-enlivening bridge to be built? Speaking
candidly of his personal spiritual path and inner struggles of
consciousness, Ben-Aharon tackles this fundamental dilemma as a
prelude to the forthcoming, second edition of his book The New
Experience of the Supersensible. Contents include: The Ur-Phenomena
of the Modern Christ Experience, Paul's Christ Experience and the
Birth of Christian Platonism; The Michaelic Yoga; The
Platonic-Aristotelian Essence Exchange at the End of the Twentieth
Century; The Meeting with the Etheric Christ; The Abyss and the
Event of the Threshold; The Knowledge Drama of the Second Coming;
The Meeting with Michael; The Meeting with Anthroposophia.
How awake are we to our inner being, our true nature? How much
self-knowledge do we really have? In relation to our intrinsic
self, we can easily feel like a novice. In truth, we face a long
journey before we can fully understand ourselves - and we are
equally unpractised in relating to our 'shadow' and inner wounds.
The path described in this book is an inward one, concerned with
strengthening our individuality. Based on life-long research,
Karsten Massei has created a valuable workbook for knowing and
healing ourselves. In a series of short chapters, he explains the
interplay and tensions between the human individual and the nature
of our 'inner and cosmic child'. Both are complex entities but are
directly related; both are deeply connected with our destiny. Our
experiences with our inner child are often still in the earliest
stages - but cultivating a relationship with her, noticing her,
holding conversations with her, is vital, and offers us ever
deepening experiences. As our insights expand, our frailties,
deficiencies and inner wounds become apparent. The being of the
inner child wants to educate us to become inwardly truthful and
authentic. Only honest engagement with the traumas and
vulnerabilities of our soul will enable a true picture of ourselves
to arise. Child of the Cosmos contains surprising perspectives
arising from the author's personal experiences, opening up a clear
path of personal development. The text is complemented with seven
special meditations to assist us in engaging with the challenges
ahead.
In 1919 Rudolf Steiner spoke about the future physical incarnation
of the being of Ahriman. This would take place before 'a part' of
the third millennium had passed, and was inevitable - but it was
also necessary that people were aware of this event and recognized
it, for earthly culture would be destroyed if the world were to
fall completely to Ahriman. The situation we find ourselves in
today shows Ahriman's unmistakable signature: the rapid destruction
of nature, zoonotic diseases and pandemics, huge social
inequalities, and the overall dominance of high finance. In this
short book Peter Selg presents a timely overview of the challenges
we face, beginning with a pithy and concise survey of Steiner's
commentary on Ahriman's incarnation and the conditions that would
characterize it. This is followed by a study of Ahriman's depiction
in the mystery drama The Souls' Awakening. Steiner's remarkable
personification of Ahriman on stage - portraying his strategies and
activities - provides vital instruction for humanity. Selg
concludes with an evaluation of 'the Battle for Human Intelligence'
taking place in contemporary culture through materialistic ideas
such as transhumanism. In their recent book Covid-19: The Great
Reset, for example, Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret propose
wholesale economic, geopolitical, environmental and technological
revisions to society - ideas that need to be understood and
confronted in human thought and consciousness. The Future of
Ahriman is a crucial aid to comprehending our times.
'When we know how to enter deeply into the realm of the soul, we
reach understanding of the harmony that exists between successive
lives on earth and the whole of the physical world outside us.' -
Rudolf Steiner In these eight lectures, given during the Great War
as thousands of young men were being killed in battle, Rudolf
Steiner - the great initiate of the twentieth century - describes
the dramatic reality of the spiritual worlds encountered by human
beings after death. He speaks of the joys and sufferings
experienced in those worlds by people of different character; the
vision of the 'ideal human being' that souls experience; the cosmic
'midnight hour'; the processes leading to rebirth in the world of
the senses; the deeper causes behind such phenomena as materialism
and criminality; and why, in the flesh, we lose our instinctive
perception of the spiritual worlds. Steiner describes how knowledge
of the spiritual realms, as well as the life beyond death and
before birth, can be built on the foundations of modern science.
Indeed, he speaks of mankind's involvement in science and its many
achievements as necessary steps on the path towards a modern
spirituality and true understanding of the soul, and describes in
detail some of the methods by which direct perception of the worlds
of soul and spirit can be developed.
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