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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Syncretist & eclectic religions & belief systems > Post-renaissance syncretist / eclectic systems
Great differences exist between the "Know yourself" of the ancient
mystery centers and that injunction today. What used to be achieved
after death is now achieved in life. To reach higher stages of
development after death we must become fully human in earthly life.
This was not always so; there has been a change. For in the center
of human evolution is the Christ event: in our time we must
experience the Christ in ourselves as light, life, and love.
Adopting the appropriate cognitive path, we become citizens of
the universe, rather than hermits of the earth.
The beginnings of the Templar Order are shrouded in mystery. Very
little is known about its foundation, inner workings or its rapid
growth. This lack of knowledge can lead to all sorts of speculation
and, sometimes, bizarre theories. This book - developed from a
conference held on the theme at Emerson College, England - offers
new, well-grounded perspectives that utilize both esoteric and
exoteric sources. From varying points-of-view, the contributors
tackle key questions relating to the forming of the Order and its
aims and intentions. They explore the Knights Templar's spiritual
and historical background, as well as the Order's significance at
the present time and its continuing impulse in the future. With its
broad scope, this stimulating anthology encourages independent,
open-minded enquiry and research. Featuring contributions by: Peter
Tradowsky, Gil McHattie, Horst Biehl, Margaret Jonas, Rolf
Speckner, Sylvia Francke, Simon Cade-Williams, Jaap van der Haar,
Alfred Kon, David Lenker, Peter Snow, Christine Gruwez, Frans
Lutters, Walter Johannes Stein and Siegfried Rudel.
Pressured by exams and premature academic demands, surrounded by
screens and technology, children today face huge challenges.
Childhood itself, it could be said, is facing a crisis. Are
children in danger of losing their natural imaginative faculties,
which are the source of all creative activity in later life? As a
society, are we in danger of losing childhood altogether? First
published in 1940, Harwood's little book has become a classic
introduction to the perennial themes of child development and
growth, as well as the basic principles of Steiner/Waldorf
education. Harwood (1898-1975) was one of the founding members of
the first Steiner school in the English-speaking world, and worked
for many years as a teacher. His sensitive awareness and respect
for the innate wisdom of childhood shine through his words. Despite
the passing of time, the archetypal principles he addresses, as
well as the sympathetic picture of childhood he paints, remain
highly relevant.
Now what kind of approach by the reader did THE PHILOSOPHY OF
SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY count on? It had to assume a special way of
reading. It expected the reader, as he read, to undergo the sort of
inner experience that, in an external sense, is really just waking
up out of sleep in the morning. The feeling one should have about
it is such as to make one say, "My relationship to the world in
passive thoughts was, on a higher level, that of a person who lies
asleep. Now I am waking up." It is like knowing, at the moment of
awakening, that one has been lying passively in bed, letting nature
have her way with one's body. But then one begins to be inwardly
active. One relates one's senses actively to what is going on in
the color permeated, sounding world about one. One links one's own
bodily activity to one's intentions. The reader of The Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity should experience something very like this
waking moment of transition from passivity to activity, though of
course on a higher level. He should be able to say, "Yes, I have
certainly thought thoughts before. But my thinking took the form of
just letting thoughts flow and carry me along. Now, little by
little, I am beginning to be inwardly active in them." - from
Rudolf Steiner's AWAKENING TO COMMUNITY
Ernst Marti devoted his life to researching the 'etheric realm' - a
subtle area that exists between the physical and spiritual. Taking
the numerous statements and references by Rudolf Steiner as his
starting point, Marti develops our understanding of the etheric
world in various fields - from the theory of knowledge to the
natural world, through to music, the realm of colours, eurythmy and
medicine. In doing so, he proposes exciting bridges from the
ancient and medieval worldview to the present and future of natural
and spiritual science.The Etheric explores the fourfold realm of
the ethers. Giving an overview of their cosmic origins in the
evolution of the earth, Dr Marti shows how the ethers work in
phenomena of warmth, light, sound and organic life. He brings a
contemporary understanding and insight to the classical elements -
fire, air, water and earth - as the media through which ethericity
manifests and works in the world. Four physical forces are also
explored which, as opposites to the ethers, have a constant
tendency to break down and annul what life-giving ether creates.Dr
Marti then studies the shadow aspects of the ethers connected to
what he terms the 'sub-natural' forces of electricity, magnetism
and nuclear force. Given that the author was unable to complete
this book in his lifetime, his pupil and colleague Irmgard Rossmann
edited the final version in the spirit of her teacher. It is
published here in two volumes, with this first focusing on 'The
World of the Ethers' and the forthcoming volume on 'The World of
Formative Forces'.
"Rudolf Steiner's Riddles of Philosophy: Presented in an Outline of
Its History is not a history of philosophy in the usual sense of
the word. It does not give a history of the philosophical systems,
nor does it present a number of philosophical problems
historically. Its real concern touches on something deeper than
this, on riddles rather than problems. Philosophical concepts,
systems and problems are, to be sure, to be dealt with in this
book. But it is not their history that is to be described here.
Where they are discussed they become symptoms rather than the
objects of the search. The search itself wants to reveal a process
that is overlooked in the usual history of philosophy. It is the
mysterious process in which philosophical thinking appears in human
history. Philosophical thinking as it is here meant is known only
in Western civilization. Oriental philosophy has its origin in a
different kind of consciousness, and it is not to be considered in
this book. "What is new here is the treatment of the history of
philosophic thinking as a manifestation of the evolution of human
consciousness. Such a treatment requires a fine sense of
observation. Not merely the thoughts must be observed, but behind
them the thinking in which they appear. "To follow Steiner in his
subtle description of the process of the metamorphosis of this
thinking in the history of philosophy we should remember he sees
the human consciousness in an evolution. It has not always been
what it is now, and what it is now it will not be in the future.
This is a fundamental conception of anthroposophy." --From the
introduction by Fritz C. A. Koelln:
Can there be such a thing as spiritual science today? Should faith
and spirit remain as purely private concerns - or, as
traditionally, preserves of the Church? When Rudolf Steiner founded
anthroposophy in the early twentieth century, his intention was to
create a fundamentally scientific approach to the spirit. His basic
works detail methods for developing spiritual consciousness,
allowing the individual to replicate the results of his research.
This key aspect distinguishes anthroposophy from the wealth of
spiritual teachings, sects, cults and religions within the modern
cultural milieu. But did Steiner fail in his endeavour to build a
scientific path to spiritual knowledge? Is anthroposophy just
another 'theory' based on intellectual thought, to be analysed and
dismissed? Up to now, academia has largely ignored Rudolf Steiner's
work. In 2013, however, the first volume of a new series - a
critical edition of Rudolf Steiner's writings, edited by a
professor of the largest religious university in the USA - was
published by a respected German academic press.Taking this concrete
case as an illustration, Pietro Archiati argues that academia, with
its in-built bias towards the atheistic assumptions of
materialistic science, will almost inevitably misrepresent
Steiner's work. Anthroposophy is a spiritual science, whose
metamorphosing nature requires penetration of its essence for true
understanding. Presenting a broad exploration of the critical
questions outlined above, Archiati's exposition works not only as a
critique of a specific new edition of Steiner's works, but also as
an introduction to key tenets of anthroposophical methodology and
thought. 'When, in the case of a flower, the coloured blossom
appears, this does not come as a correction of a faulty green leaf.
It is, on the contrary, a further metamorphosis of the plant,
which, without the existence of the green leaf, would not have been
able to arise. Rudolf Steiner was always comparing the arising of
his spiritual science with the evolution of a living organism.' -
Pietro Archiati
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