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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Syncretist & eclectic religions & belief systems > Post-renaissance syncretist / eclectic systems
Topics include: Occult Science & Occult Development?Christ at
the Time of the Mystery of Golgotha and Christ in the twentieth
Century?The Michael Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha I? The
Michael Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha II?The Way to Christ
Through the Centuries?The Christ Impulse in Time and its Influence
on Human Beings: The Three Spiritual Preparatory Steps to the
Mystery of Golgotha?The Christ Spirit in relation to the Evolution
of Consciousness?Progress in Knowledge of the Christ: The Fifth
Gospel?The Four sacrifices of Christ.?The Three Preparatory Stages
to the Mystery of Golgotha.
From ancient times, people had knowledge of the zodiac's intimate
involvement in the creation of physical life. They understood that
the twelve realms of constellations of fixed stars in the sky
emanated specific forces that were brought to life and movement by
the planets. These spiritual energies created and formed all living
beings on earth - including, of course, the human being. This
traditional awareness has been reenlivened and given new meaning in
our time through Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy. Steiner gave
specific indications involving twelve individual gestures and
colours that depict the forces of the twelve zodiacal regions. In
this richly-illustrated collation of original artistic research -
which features exciting new work on the zodiac via the mediums of
sculpture, graphics and painting - these new insights are explored
and illumined in twenty-seven essays and numerous full-colour
images. Led by editor Gertraud Goodwin, the various contributing
artists offer a rich tableau of authentic, individual approaches to
understanding the zodiac, throwing light on the vast realm of
creative forces around us whilst acknowledging their primary
source. 'From the many relationships to other qualities, like the
consonants, virtues, areas of the human body, colours, eurythmy
gestures, elements (earth, water, air, fire), musical keys and many
more, in which the zodiacal forces express themselves as if through
different instruments, a harmony begins to emerge, which informs me
of an ever rounder picture of one particular force of the Zodiac.'
- Gertraud Goodwin
`This gave my mother the opportunity of mentioning to Dr Steiner an
idea... Could one affect the physical body in a healing,
strengthening and regulating way through certain rhythmical
movements of the etheric body - which after all was the centre of
all that was rhythmical - as well as of health and illness? Dr
Steiner not only enthusiastically affirmed this possibility, but
spontaneously declared himself ready to give the necessary
directions which I could then work out with my mother's help.' -
Lory Maier-Smits Alongside original material by Rudolf and Marie
Steiner, this volume features unique first-hand accounts of the
birth of the art of eurythmy by a number of its early students and
practitioners. The practical and artistic stages of its development
are chronicled in detail, alongside reports from the first public
performance onwards. Rudolf Steiner offers inspiration to the
original eurythmists to make their own discoveries - to perceive
and fashion in movement their creative `inner voice'. The artistic
principles are established for later development and elaboration,
to reveal and foster human creativity in many poetic and musical
contexts. Through the text, links between eurythmy and
temple-dances, that accompanied ancient initiations, gradually
emerge. The impulse to dance is rediscovered as inherent in the
`lost Word', or the primordial root language still available in
`genetic etymology'- the sounds of speech used in all languages.
Music eurythmy, we learn, did not start from dancing, but from the
archetypal structure of the musical system. Consequently, we can
witness directly how an eloquent performing art can properly
develop when technique and inspiration meet. The text is supported
by extensive supplementary material, including eurythmy forms, a
chronological survey, notes and indexes.
`The study of music is the study of the human being. The two are
inseparable, and eurythmy is the art which brings this most clearly
to expression. In these lectures, Rudolf Steiner guides us along a
path toward an understanding of the human form as music comes to
rest - the movements of eurythmy bringing this music back to life.'
- Dorothea Mier `Fundamentally speaking, music is the human being,
and indeed it is from music that we rightly learn how to free
ourselves from matter.' - Rudolf Steiner The focus of these eight
lectures is the source of movement and gesture in the human being.
The movement in musical experience is thus traced back to its
origin in the human instrument itself. Like the degrees of the
musical scale, Rudolf Steiner leads his select audience of young
artists through eight stages, focusing on the living principles of
discovery and renewal. Eurythmy was born in the turbulent decades
of the early twentieth century. From an individual question as to
whether it was possible to create an art based on meaningful
movement, Rudolf Steiner responded with fresh creative
possibilities for a renewal of the arts in their totality. The new
art of eurythmy was an unexpected gift. Today, music eurythmy,
along with its counterpart based on speech, is practiced as an art,
taught as a subject in schools, enjoyed as a social activity and
applied as a therapy. This definitive translation of Steiner's
original lecture course on eurythmy includes a facsimile,
transcription and translation of the lecturer's notes, together
with an introduction and index. The volume is supplemented with an
extensive `companion', featuring full commentary and notes compiled
by Alan Stott, as well as a translation of Josef Matthias Hauer's
Interpreting Melos.
`We must draw the slumbering soul away from the darkness of sleep
so that it no longer vanishes from its own scrutiny but stands
before itself as a being of pure spirit which, in volition, is
creatively active through - yet also beyond - the body.' - Rudolf
Steiner. According to Rudolf Steiner's independent research, the
soul or psyche has a relationship to both the body and the spirit.
Psychologists and psychotherapists can only work in a truly healing
way, he says, if they take this spiritual fact into account. This
expertly-compiled anthology explores the nature of the soul as
elaborated by Steiner in his writings and lectures. However, the
book comprises more than an account of the psyche and life of the
soul, but deals equally with the methodology for comprehending it -
the scientific, and above all spiritual-scientific, means of doing
so. Steiner questions methods and thought structures that are
fundamental to contemporary psychology. Rather than looking
backwards to conditions that influence how we are today, he focuses
on our further development as beings that think, feel and act with
intentionality. Given the soul's close affinity with pictorial
images, he elaborates a therapeutically-innovative meditative
schooling of the faculty of imagination. As Steiner states here,
his methods, `...do not draw only on the rules of the ordinary mind
but first prepare in the human soul another kind of consciousness,
another state of awareness, with which we then enquire into the
psyche... to approach and penetrate realities of the soul.'
`It is a cosmic law that what has once taken place can never
vanish, but must reappear later in a metamorphosed form. Every
thought, feeling and action brought about by man does not only
affect the world around him but will re-appear in the future...'
(From the Preface) This course of lectures was originally offered
as private, strictly verbal instruction to a select group of
esoteric pupils. In an atmosphere of earnest study, Rudolf Steiner
`translated' from the Akashic Script valuable concepts of human and
cosmic knowledge into words of earthly language - content that is
often not to be found in his later lectures. Although working
within the Theosophical Society, Steiner was an independent
spiritual teacher: `... I would only bring forward the results of
what I beheld in my own spiritual research.' The manifold, exact
and detailed descriptions of the events of evolution in these
lectures form a background to the evolving figure of the human
being. The mighty event of the moon leaving the Earth, vividly
described, took place - according to Rudolf Steiner - in order to
provide an environment suited to human progress. The wonderful
moment when the higher being of man descended in a bell-like form
and enveloped the lower human body, still on a level with the
animals, depicts what eventually provided human beings with a body
suited to the development of the self or `I'. Spiritual beings and
the great initiates led humanity along the path it was destined to
tread. Rudolf Steiner presents a sweep of occult knowledge,
including the phases of planetary evolution, various myths and
symbols, human physical and spiritual organs, illness,
reincarnation, and much more. Also included are unexpected insights
into specific phenomena such as dinosaurs, bacteria, radiation,
black and white magic, the Sphinx and Freemasonry.
The healthy social life is found When in the mirror of each human
being The whole community finds its reflection And when in the
community The virtue of each one is living. From the beginning of
his public work, Rudolf Steiner saw his spiritual mission as
civilizational. He understood that individual spiritual development
means little unless, spreading through a community of
practitioners, it leads to larger societal and cultural
transformation. As always, his views were radical. He realized that
a healthy social life would depend, above all, on the
transformation of work from a commodity into a gift. As he said in
1905: Evolution is moving towards totally uncompensated work. No
one rejects the idea and no one can change it. Whereas Greek
workers performed their work in bondage to their master and modern
workers are compelled to work for pay, in the future all work will
be performed freely. Work and income will be completely separated.
That is the healthy state of social conditions in the future. That
same year, he formulated what he called "the fundamental social
law" The wellbeing of an entire group of individuals who work
together becomes greater the less individuals claim the income
resulting from their own accomplishments for themselves-that is,
the more they contribute this income to their fellow workers, and
the more their own needs are met not through their own efforts but
through the efforts of others. In this important book, Peter Selg
shows us a different Rudolf Steiner. Here, the emphasis of his
teaching is mostly on the need to cultivate selflessness and
readiness to sacrifice. Selg first describes the context in which
Steiner expressed these ideas, how much they meant to him, and how,
when they fell on barren ground, he selflessly laid them aside
while holding them in his heart in the hope of a more opportune
moment. He goes on to show how this moment came after World War I,
when Rudolf Steiner dedicated himself tirelessly to the Threefold
Social Organism, lecturing extensively on economics and social
policy. Finally, in a last, extraordinarily moving chapter, Selg
shows the essential Christ- and Gospel-inspired nature of these
ideas: As long as you feel pain That passes me by, The Christ works
unrecognized... Weak is the spirit That can feel suffering Only in
its own body. Anyone interested in a just, equitable, healthy, and
spirit-based social future should read this important book
Building on her fundamental texts The Art of Acting and The Art of
Speech, Dawn Langman shows how the great dramas of Western heritage
illuminate the evolution of human consciousness - from the past and
into the future - thus providing a context in which actors can
consciously evolve their art. Having laid her foundation by
exploring the Eleusis Mysteries - the seed point of Western drama -
she moves to the end of the nineteenth century, when drama and
performance practice prepared for its next great evolutionary leap.
She explores the connection of this leap to the evolutionary
threshold facing human beings at the end of what occult history
calls Kali Yuga. Weaving back and forth between future, past and
present - guided by the great cyclic themes of human soul and
spiritual development - Langman shows how the inspiration of our
greatest artists springs from a source of knowing that encompasses
the high calling of the human being to mature beyond its biological
inheritance, and to become a conscious co-creator with the
macrocosmic powers that serve the evolution of the universe. In
doing so, she clarifies the specific function drama has in our
contemporary development within the spectrum of the arts.
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.
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