Life today poses many questions, both in our personal lives and in our participation in nature and the broader culture. We often focus on the outer needs for social, political, technological, or environmental change. However, can we really meet the challenges around us without also attending to our inner life and to our own evolving biography as it reflects and informs the outer world? This book starts from the premise that each of our lives expresses uniqueness of spiritual intention within the unfolding of universal rhythms and possibilities. Can we wake up to the developmental opportunities offered to us through different life phases? Are we able to step out of the narrowness of the dualistic nature-nurture argument and experience that we are both more than our genetic composition and more than a product of the social and educational influences that have shaped us? Can we come to appreciate the learning that our "I" has received through heredity, ethnicity, schooling, and gender without losing a sense of our true individuality? Waking up to our unique self as it grows through interaction with the world and other human beings helps us recognize the significance we all play in one another's biographies and in the unfolding of our larger human story. Why on Earth? invites us to explore our own meaning-filled life journey, to bring conscious attention to how we go our path, so that we may more freely perceive our possibilities and our responsibilities along the way of our personal and shared becoming.

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, is a pivotal figure in contemporary esoteric thought. Through his books and lectures he provided an impetus for the spiritual renewal of many human activities, including education (Steiner Waldorf schools), agriculture, medicine, economics, the arts and religion. Steiner showed how mankind has been evolving and explained the role of the great spiritual world leaders in the process. Above all he showed how the impulse to evolution given by Christ's death and resurrection - what he referred to as the Mystery of Golgotha - is of unique importance in the human being's struggle to reach the summit of evolution: union with the higher self. Bernard Nesfield-Cookson here shows how Rudolf Steiner's vision of love, the transformative power brought by Christ, unites the forces of the head and heart towards a spiritual awakening among mankind. Gathering together references to the 'logic of the heart' from throughout Steiner's work, the author encapsulates the great teacher's revelations on the meaning of love, and indicates the supreme importance of the greatest of all deeds of love: the Mystery of Golgotha.

Steiner sees Krishna as a great spiritual teacher and the Bhagavad Gita as a preparation, though still abstract, for the coming of Christ and the Christ impulse as the living embodiment of the world, law, and devotion, represented by the three Hindu streams of Veda, Sankhya, and Yoga. For him, the epic poem of the Bhagavad Gita represents the fully ripened fruit of Hinduism, whereas Paul is related but represents the seed of something entirely new. In the last lecture, Steiner reveals Krishna as the sister soul of Adam, incarnated as Jesus, and claims Krishas Yoga teachings streamed from Christ into Paul.

Despite dramatic advances in recent decades, medicine - like many other scientific disciplines - is prone to materialistic tendencies, viewing the human being as little more than a biological machine that can be manipulated with 'interventions' and drugs. In this collection of challenging lectures, Dr Glockler asks if a new science of healing can be developed today - a discipline that allows for realities of soul and spirit. With humanity standing at the threshold of a new spiritual consciousness, this question becomes increasingly relevant. Michaela Glockler speaks on themes relating to the esoteric path of spiritual development and its therapeutic task for the individual and community. Giving an account of the evolution of the ancient mysteries in relation to medicine, she discusses the application of inner work in outer action, reflecting on modern social and ethical issues such as organ transplantation and the termination of pregnancy. Whilst the author primarily addresses those involved in the healing professions, this book will be of interest to anybody concerned with a new science of the spirit.

"We must become selfless-that is the task of culture today for the future. Human beings must become more and more selfless. Therein lies the future of right moral life actions, the future of all acts of love that can occur through earthly humanity." -Rudolf Steiner (Approaching the Mystery of Golgotha) In a lecture eight weeks before the outbreak of World War I, Rudolf Steiner, conscious of developments to come, coined the phrase "culture of selflessness" to describe the culture that would develop in the future. The far-reaching social implications of his primarily Christological lectures on the Fifth Gospel, given in 1913/14 under the same political circumstances, were foreign to many of Steiner's contemporary audiences, who largely failed to understand his dramatic accounts drawn from the Fifth Gospel (or that gospel itself) as a "source of comfort" for the future, or (as Rudolf Steiner said of them) as "needed" for future work. The subsequent catastrophes of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, however, have sensitized us to Steiner's central themes and contents of 1913/14. He spoke of spiritual development and self-preservation in the face of great suffering; of truly participating in the misfortunes of others; and of acquiring "true selflessness" that takes the human "I" fully into account. During the 1930s, during the National Socialist reign of violence, a few of Rudolf Steiner's pupils took this path of moral resistance and all-embracing therapeutic action. One example is described in the second chapter of this volume. Many other destinies are less well-known; by now, they can no longer be saved completely from oblivion. They include the great life work of Maria Krehbiel-Darmstadter, an anthroposophist of Jewish origin who was murdered in Auschwitz in January 1943. However, both now and in the future, in a world that must find humane ways to endure continued calamities of tremendous magnitude, the task Rudolf Steiner described remains relevant in all cultures and all parts of the globe. "A single great community covers the earth. Its name is suffering and strength."

Speaking to audiences in Denmark, Germany and France, Rudolf Steiner discusses a wide range of topics: from positive and negative human soul capacities, true self-knowledge and karma, to changes in human consciousness, from ancient times to the modern era - all in the context of the incarnation of Christ on earth. The lectures illustrate the diversity of Steiner's approach when speaking to different audiences. Reflecting on the polymath Novalis, for example, he is urgent about the responsibility of spiritual science to help humanity awaken to the new age. A few months later, talking of Hegel and deploring the fact that an interest in spiritual matters often fails to be accompanied by an equal interest in logical thought, Steiner uses a dispassionate, philosophical tone. But throughout the lectures he is consistent in his view that spiritual science does not reject conventional science. Trained philosophical thinking leads to different conclusions than materialism, he says, but there is nothing in the field of spiritual science that need be rejected by rigorous scientific thought. Although the lectures were given to a variety of audiences, ideas recur from different perspectives and in different contexts, with strong thematic links binding them together. These include the relationship between philosophy and science; the nature of clairvoyance; Christ's presence in the etheric realm; reincarnation and karma; the mystery drama The Portal of Initiation; Christmas and its symbols; and the transformation of consciousness that occurred when Christ incarnated physically on earth. In the final lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks inspiringly about the Christmas festival, contrasting the feeling of inwardness that people used to experience with the hectic cultural environment of modern cities. However, this does not lead Steiner to be nostalgic about the past. Rather, he states, we should seek to recreate a mood of inwardness in a new way, appropriate to our modern age and consciousness. These lectures give us the tools to bring such a contemporary spiritual approach to our lives.

"As microcosms we are actually part of, and subject to, the same laws that cosmic beings are, just as the breath we draw is subject to our own human nature.... If our hearts are sensitive to the secrets of cosmic existence and not merely blocks of wood, the words we have been placed into the universe will no longer be an abstract statement. We will be fully alive to this fact. Knowledge and a feeling will spring up within us, the fruits of which will be born in our will impulses, and our whole being will live in unison with the great life, divine cosmic existence." -Rudolf Steiner In this important series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner lays out for Society members right and wrong ways of establishing connections with those who have died. Rather than following the materialistic desire to draw those who have died back into the physical realm, Steiner presents a means toward true spiritual union through strengthening one's forces of consciousness. He also showed how help is provided from the sphere of Christ's activity as a balance for our time. Steiner stated: "One who sees into the deeper meaning intended by our spiritual science recognizes in it not merely theoretical knowledge about all sorts of human problems, the members of the human being, reincarnation and karma, but one looks in it for an entirely different language, a way to express oneself in regard to spiritual matters. The fact that we learn through spiritual science to speak inwardly in our thoughts with the spiritual world is far more important than acquiring theoretical ideas. The Christ is with us even until the end of the world. It is his language that we must learn." This book is a translation (translator unknown) of 7 lectures from Bausteine zu einer Erkenntnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Kosmische und menschliche Metamorphose ("Building Blocks for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha: Cosmic and Human Metamorphoses") 17 lectures, GA 175.

2013 Reprint of 1906 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Three Volumes bound into one. Volume contents are: Vol. 1. Prolegomena. -- Vol. 2. Sermons. -- Vol. 3. Excerpts and fragments This work exemplifies all that is best in Mead's dedicated, scholarly, but eminently readable studies of the spiritual roots of Christian Gnosticism and, more generally, of personal religion in the Greco-Roman world. His work encompassed much more than this; Mead was equally at home with Sanskrit texts, Patristic literature, Buddhist thought, and the problems of contemporary philosophy and psychical research. He devoted his intellectual energy to the complex interplay of Gnosticism, Hellenism, Judaism, and Christianity. This three volume set presents his insights into the formation of the Gnostic world-view and establishes him as an outstanding translator of these Hermetic books, and as the first modern scholar of Gnostic tradition.

From 2009 to 2010, Sergei Prokofiev and Peter Selg-two leading authorities and spiritual researchers into the life and work of Rudolf Steiner-gave a series of conferences on the Christological foundations of Anthroposophy. Their aim was to show the power of anthroposophic Christology. Consequently, they focused on key turning points in Rudolf Steiner's exposition: his major work, An Outline of Esoteric Science; the first Goetheanum; the Reappearance of Christ in the etheric realm and the relationship of this event to Rudolf Steiner's lectures on the Fifth Gospel; and the Christmas Conference (1923-24) and the founding of the New Mysteries. The lectures from the conferences (published as four booklets in German) are collected here in a single volume. The Creative Power of Anthroposophical Christology is essential reading for all those who are interested in the true meaning and depth of Rudolf Steiner's experience and understanding of Christ's deed on Golgotha and his continuing presence among us and within Anthroposophy.

"What is the nature of matter?"Within conventional science, the reductionist, materialist view asserts that matter is solely physical. Hauschka shows that open-minded study, based on qualitative observation and quantitative research, can overcome this now standardized view. Without denying the laws of matter, he shows the limitations of a science restricted by them, and points to new research that indicates the primal nature of spirit. This classic work, reprinted in its original form, is the result of Dr Hauschka's many years' research at the Ita Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim, Switzerland. Through decades of experimentation he came to radical conclusions that suggested potential new directions for science. This book includes the detailed results of Hauschka's experiments although his approach is not restricted to measurement and outer observation. Based on the work of Goethe and Steiner, he encourages a method of seeing nature that has an artistic quality, and calls for direct experience rather than intellectual theorizing. "The Nature of Substance" is generally accessible. The author deliberately avoids technical terms and academic style in favor of vivid descriptions and lively discussions. His fascinating study takes in many substances, with chapters on plants, animals, oils, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, metals, carbon, oxygen, poisons, high dilutions, and much more. This book is a companion volume to the author s other work, "Nutrition."

'Because I felt that he knew how things were, I said simply:"I will stay with you." Then he said significant things to me that I was not to repeat. A very ancient karma existing between him and myself was renewed. It was not until many years later that I first realised the significance of that meeting.' - Ita Wegman Ita Wegman was one of Rudolf Steiner's most important co-workers, collaborating with him principally in the field of Medicine - co-authoring the key book Extending Practical Medicine and heading the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science. In the background to that external work, however, was an esoteric connection. In this seminal work of karma research, the authors attempt, sensitively and with responsibility, to shed light on that spiritual and karmic history. Written for members of the Anthroposophical Society, this book is a profound study of a series of different incarnations linked to the figures of Ita Wegman and Rudolf Steiner. Spread over six disparate lifetimes, they range from Gilgamesh and Eabani (Enkidu) in Uruk, ancient Chaldea, to the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, the twentieth-century setting of the world centre of anthroposophy. Based on copious historical research, verbal statements and not a little spiritual insight, this rare and valuable work, reprinted here for the first time, features many illustrations and facsimiles of documents and personal letters.

Following the end of WW1, Germany faced a period of revolutionary upheaval and general unrest. In the midst of these tumultuous events, Rudolf Steiner's pioneering movement for social threefolding rallied around a unique conception. Its three principal goals were to promote human rights and equality in political life, freedom in cultural life and associative cooperation in economic life. Albert Schmelzer's engaging yet rigorous study, the most complete to date, recounts the movement's practical attempts to bring about social threefolding in 1919, giving lively descriptions of the principal characters involved. Apart from this detailed history, The Threefolding Movement, 1919 offers an accomplished synthesis of the development of social thought and the complex politics of the day. Schmelzer studies threefolding within the context of evolving social ideas, comparing Steiner's relevance to key political and cultural thinkers, reformers and radicals. Steiner emerges as a social innovator who was actively involved in the revolutionary situation of 1919, although he rejected violence and was a consistent advocate of democracy. A cursory analysis might suggest that Rudolf Steiner stood at the left of the political spectrum, but Schmelzer shows how his social ideas transcend the right-left divisions and polarizations of contemporary politics. Social threefolding is truly a new approach to human development - a fresh way to understand society that allows for a more creative and harmonious future.

Containing a wealth of material on a variety of subjects, Light for the New Millennium tells the story of the meeting of two great men and their continuing relationship beyond the threshold of death: Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) - the seer, scientist of the spirit, and cultural innovator - and Helmuth von Moltke (1848-1916) - a renowned military man, Chief of the General Staff of the German army during the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914, following disagreements with the Kaiser, Moltke was dismissed from his post. This led to a great inner crisis in the General, that in turn drew him closer to Steiner. When Moltke died two years later, Steiner maintained contact with his excarnated soul, receiving communications that he passed on to Moltke's wife, Eliza. These remarkable and unique messages are reproduced here in full, together with relevant letters from the General to his wife. The various additional commentaries, essays and documents give insights to themes of continuing significance for our time, including the workings of evil; karma and reincarnation; life after death; the new millennium and the end of the last century; the hidden causes of the First World War; the destiny of Europe, and the future of Rudolf Steiner's science of the spirit. Also included are Moltke's private reflections on the causes of the Great War ('the document that could have changed world history'), a key interview with Steiner for Le Matin, an introduction and notes by T. H. Meyer, and studies by Jurgen von Grone, Jens Heisterkamp and Johannes Tautz.

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.

A second, wiser self guides us through life. Without it we would not go far, for it is what makes us human. In the first years of life -- before memory and ego -- it guides us to stand upright and to learn to speak and think. Then we exchange this wisdom, which is still connected to the spiritual hierarchies, for our ego-consciousness. Yet it remains ever-present, and through meditation we can consciously connect to it.

'Christianity is not a matter of a religion or even a denomination; it is not a question of a particular culture. Christ is there for all humanity.' In the old Mystery cultures the human being experienced himself as a child of the Gods, or even an instrument of them. According to Rudolf Steiner's spiritual-scientific research, the birth of independent thinking came only with our present state of consciousness - through becoming aware of the individual self. But who is this self? Who am I? Virginia Sease and Manfred Schmidt-Brabant maintain that real self-knowledge is intimately connected with knowledge of the central being of world evolution: the Christ, or the 'I AM'. Focusing on the being of Christ and on Christianity, "The New Mysteries" presents a series of engaging lectures on the developing Mystery wisdom of our age. Having given an overview of the history of the Mysteries in their book "Paths of the Christian Mysteries", the authors deepen and further their study by paying special attention to the effect of the "Christ Mysteries". Among the essential themes of the new volume are the transformation of conscience, the place of prayer and meditation, and the significance of sacrifice today.

"Translation of Geiste und soziale Wandlungen in der Menschheitsentwickelung, published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1992"--T.p. verso.

What is it like to live to a ripe old age? What is it like to have to look after oneself in later life, or to be cared for by others? As life expectancy in the western world continues to grow, and as people manage longer periods of old age, these questions face us on a daily basis. With great honesty yet sensitivity, the author describes, in poetically moving words and phrases, the experiences of an old person at the boundary of life.Shortly after the death of her almost 90-year-old mother, Almut Bockemuhl pauses to contemplate the four years of intensive care that she devoted to her. What happened during this period of sacrifice to a dying person? Taking a thoughtful, meditative approach, she describes invaluable experiences, concluding that old age, death and dying have the potential to touch the highest spheres of human knowledge and perception.'Growing old is a constant battle...One has the experience of being squeezed out of one's bodily home, and one sets out to protect oneself against it, and holds on to what one can...But when we make an effort to grow old in the right way, which means transforming what is earthly into what is spiritual, we are working at the transubstantiation of the earth. '

Why is there suffering, sickness and death? Why is no corner of human life and society immune from egotism, fear, tyranny, betrayal and guilt? What was God thinking when he allowed evil to come into existence? Drawing on the worldview of Rudolf Steiner, the author explains that the roots of evil lie with angelic beings. Schroeder discusses evil's prehistory in heaven and shows how the polarity of two kinds of evil, with good as a balance between them, manifests itself in earthly history, and in the areas of education, work, human relationships, sexuality, religion and technology. With the increased influence of evil in today's world, Schroeder considers how prayer, meditation and angelic guidance through reincarnation give us the possibility to overcome evil in all its forms.

Although this classic text is more than one hundred years' old, its accurate scholarship, detailed research and lucid presentation make it no less relevant today than when it was first published. In 1916, Hermann Beckh was one of a handful of leading European authorities on Buddhist texts, reading Tibetan, Sanskrit and Pali fluently. At the same time, he was a member of the Anthroposophical Society and its Esoteric Section. In consequence, Beckh's seminal study on Buddhism has an entirely unique quality. It invites the reader to engage freely with the Buddhist Path, although in many ways re-expressed and renewed by Rudolf Steiner, whilst discovering its universal validity through the original texts. For the most part, Beckh allows these texts to speak for themselves, as eloquently now as ever. In the first section, Beckh presents Gautama Buddha's life from legend and history. The second part of the book details the `general viewpoints' of Buddhist teaching and the individual stages of the Buddhist Path, including meditation to ever higher levels. Both sections are expertly collated out of a wide knowledge of the primary sources. To this academic understanding, Beckh sheds new light on the subject from his own research, based on highly-trained meditation guided by Rudolf Steiner (with whom he carried out a long-lasting correspondence that has only recently been uncovered). Dr Katrin Binder has rendered the complete German text in a natural English idiom with great accuracy and professional insight, thereby making this timeless book available to English readers for the first time in a lucid translation. New notes and an updated bibliography are also featured. `The book before us here is not some kind of dusty text or just another undergraduate-level introduction to Buddhism. It is nothing less than the still, clear, luminous centre of a hurricane...' - Neil Franklin (from the Foreword)

`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.

"Following Rudolf Steiner's death, the mysteries cannot be revealed further at the present time, but we must continue to cultivate a living, not only rational but also ritual, continuity of the mystery contents he has given, passing them to people who did not know Rudolf Steiner and yet seek to connect with him esoterically and not just intellectually." -Ludwig Count Polzer-Hoditz Since Rudolf Steiner's death in 1925, little has been written about the "First Class" of the School for Spiritual Science in Dornach. The Class continues as an esoteric institution in the hearts of its disciples and in the mantras and meditations. This meditative work is hidden from view, yet, behind the scenes, it lives on in the inner striving for development of soul and spirit that is part of any mystery school. Rudolf Steiner himself guarded the content of the Class Lessons strictly, only intimating to members of the General Society that his esoteric school existed and how it worked. In this book, Peter Selg provides a context for the "reading" of the Class Lessons, the School for Spiritual Science itself, as well as for Rudolf Steiner's intentions for such an esoteric undertaking. The School for Spiritual Science was the work of an initiate, and through the esoteric collaboration of Rudolf Steiner and those who worked with him a Christian mystery center began to unfold. But Steiner's aim has not yet been achieved. Intense work is still needed for its realization-unwavering efforts with awareness of the foundations Rudolf Steiner laid down and consciousness of the mystery dimension of the endeavor. As an aspect of that wider mystery dimension, Peter Selg also looks back to Ita Wegman as Rudolf Steiner's "helper" in the First Class. He seeks to leave behind the conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s as Ita Wegman herself left them behind her. As Ita Wegman said, "For me the matter is settled. There are so many misunderstandings that I consider it better to leave things well alone. We all thought we were doing the right thing. Looking forward is more important now than looking back." In its exploration of the First Class, Rudolf Steiner and the School for Spiritual Science provides a much-needed perspective on what ought to be at the very heart of Anthroposophy and the movement for Spiritual Science that Rudolf Steiner brought into the world.

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.

In these remarkable lectures, Rudolf Steiner reestablishes the human being as a participant in an evolving, dynamic universe of living spiritual beings: a living universe, whole and divine. He does so in concrete images, capable of being grasped by human consciousness as if from within.

In the same way that the entire plant is contained in germinal form in its seed, so the totality of anthroposophy can be discovered in Rudolf Steiner's central work The Philosophy of Freedom, a book that lays the foundation for the modern scientific path to the spiritual world. Given the centrality of the Guardian of the Threshold to modern initiation, one may therefore ask where this theme is to be found in The Philosophy of Freedom. Prokofieff presents his insights to this little researched question in the first part of this volume. In the second part, he investigates The Philosophy of Freedom's connection to the content of Rudolf Steiner's research relating to the Fifth Gospel. Through Prokofieff's thoughtful commentary, new light is shed on the connection between Rudolf Steiner's early and late work. Study of the relevant texts reveals that the roots of Steiner's early work lie in the same spiritual reality - the Christ Impulse - as those of the later anthroposophy he was to develop.