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.