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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Syncretist & eclectic religions & belief systems
What is the principal secret of the universe? The ancient mystery
saying called on the human being to 'Know Yourself ' Rudolf Steiner
explains that this maxim is not asking us to study subjectively our
own personal character, but rather to come to a knowledge of our
true, archetypal human nature-and with it the position we occupy in
the universe. In these eloquent lectures - formerly published as
Man, Hieroglyph of the Universe - Rudolf Steiner speaks of the
human being as the model of creation, the primary focus of the
cosmos. In an extensive exposition he talks of the constellation of
cosmic forces, zodiac and planets amongst which we find ourselves
situated. Only a true knowledge of our human nature and the
spiritual forces which surround us - the microcosm within the
greater macrocosm - can enable humanity to progress, he says. This
book is an important contribution to that goal: the development of
a contemporary spiritual science of the human being.
Augustine's Early Thought on the Redemptive Function of Divine
Judgement considers the relationship between Augustine's account of
God's judgment and his theology of grace in his early works. How
does God use his law and the penal consequences of its
transgression in the service of his grace, both personally and
through his 'agents' on earth? Augustine reflected on this question
from different perspectives. As a teacher and bishop, he thought
about the nature of discipline and punishment in the education of
his pupils, brothers, and congregants. As a polemicist against the
Manichaeans and as a biblical expositor, he had to grapple with
issues regarding God's relationship to evil in the world, the
violence God displays in the Old Testament, and in the death of his
own Son. Furthermore, Augustine meditated on the way God's judgment
and grace related in his own life, both before and after his
conversion. Bart van Egmond follows the development of Augustine's
early thought on judgment and grace from the Cassiacum writings to
the Confessions. The argument is contextualized both against the
background of the earlier Christian tradition of reflection on the
providential function of divine chastisement, and the tradition of
psychagogy that Augustine inherited from a variety of rhetorical
and philosophical sources. This study expertly contributes to the
ongoing scholarly discussion on the development of Augustine's
doctrine of grace, and to the conversation on the theological roots
of his justification of coercion against the Donatists.
spacer In these unique lectures, given to members of his Esoteric
School (1904-14), Rudolf Steiner's main intention is to throw light
on the hidden content of the picture-language of myths, sagas and
legends. Pictures, he explains, are the real origin of all things -
the primeval spiritual causes. In order to work in a healthy way
with pictures or symbols today, however, it is necessary that one
should first become acquainted with their esoteric content - to
understand them. At the time of these lectures Steiner was planning
to inaugurate the second section of the Esoteric School, which was
to deal in a direct way with a renewal - out of his own spiritual
research - of ritual and symbolism. He gave these lectures as a
necessary preparation, to clarify the history and nature of the
cultic tradition. He thus discusses principally Freemasonry and its
background, but also the Rosicrucians, Manichaeism, the Druids, the
Prometheus Saga, the Lost Temple, Cain and Abel - and much else
besides.
In a remarkable deed of original scholarly research and detailed
detective work, Anne Weise recreates sketches of a lost life - of
one of the millions of forgotten souls whose lives came to a
violent end in the Holocaust. Her focus is Alfred Bergel
(1902-1944), an artist and teacher from Vienna who was a close
associate of Karl Koenig - the founder of the Camphill Movement for
people with special needs - who wrote of Bergel in his youthful
diaries as his best friend 'Fredi'. After the annexation of
Austria, Alfred Bergel found himself unable to escape the horror of
the National Socialist regime. Subsequently, in 1942 he was
deported to the Theresienstadt camp. Imprisoned there, he produced
numerous artistic works of the inmates of the ghetto and taught
drawing, art history and art appreciation - sometimes in
collaboration with the Bauhaus artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis.
During this period, he was also forced by the Nazis to produce
forgeries of classic art works. One of the central figures of
cultural life in the Theresienstadt ghetto, Bergel was eventually
transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 where,
tragically, he was murdered. His name and his work are largely
forgotten today, even amongst Holocaust researchers, but Weise
succeeds in honouring the life of the Jewish artist by lovingly
piecing together his biography, based on numerous personal
testimonies by friends and contemporaries and supplemented with
documents and many dozens of photos and colour reproductions of
Bergel's artistic works. This invaluable recreation of a life
provides insight not only into the desperate plight of a single
individual, but also illustrates the human will and determination
to survive in the context of one of the darkest periods of recent
history.
The Gospel of John, distinct from the 'synoptic gospels', is the
most esoteric and challenging account of the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. John, whose identity has been much
debated, mysteriously refers to himself as 'the disciple whom Jesus
loved'. But didn't Jesus love each of the twelve Apostles? Indeed,
did he not love all human beings? However, the Gospel says only of
Lazarus that Jesus 'loved him'. In this profound study, Richard
Seddon brings together essential but often overlooked quotations
from the work of the philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner.
Steiner made no claim to divine inspiration, but described how -
through the vigorous discipline of inner development - the capacity
for spiritual-scientific research could be acquired. Rudolf
Steiner, who founded anthroposophy, undertook research into many of
the incidents recorded in John's Gospel, and reported his results
in lectures given across Europe. In compiling Steiner's various
statements, The Challenge of Lazarus-John reveals that John's
Gospel not only gives a historical account, but also represents a
path of personal development or initiation.After the prelude
characterizing Creation, the Gospel describes how the Christ being
descended into the physical and spiritual constitution of Jesus of
Nazareth at the Baptism. Crossing the threshold between physical
and spiritual worlds, the Gospel writer places emphasis on the
development of the higher self in freedom, on the rebirth of the
soul, and on the raising of Lazarus. An interlude considers the
significance of the seven events referred to as 'signs', and the
seven 'I am' statements in relation to higher stages of cognition.
The remainder of the Gospel is seen as an expression of the seven
stages of Rosicrucian-Christian initiation and their reformulation
in the process of human evolution described in anthroposophy. This
culminates in an examination of the spiritual processes that take
place in the constitution of Jesus during the Crucifixion and
Resurrection. It is Lazarus-John's personal witness of these events
that enables him to write his unique Gospel.Drawing together such
insights and interpretations, Seddon has produced a comprehensive
monograph that supplements existing biblical commentaries and
illumines John's enigmatic Gospel as a truly Christian path of
modern initiation - a challenge to all human beings that will
remain for millennia to come.
What can we read in the fast-moving events of recent times? Is
there a theme - a spiritual signature - that should be recognized
and understood? Following on from the book of essays Perspectives
and Initiatives in the Times of Coronavirus, key figures from the
School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum assess critical
societal issues in a series of striking lectures. In the context of
the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, the speakers address questions
such as: 'Are we making a religion out of science?', 'How is our
behaviour mirrored in the ecosystem?' and 'What effects do inner
work and meditation have on the healing powers of the human being?'
Offering scientific, artistic, historic and sociological
viewpoints, their research is based on expert knowledge and
practice in various disciplines such as medicine, agriculture and
education. Uppermost in their analysis, however, is the spiritual
dimension of the human being. The book also deals with
misrepresentations and misinterpretations of anthroposophy. The
School of Spiritual Science, with its centre in Dornach,
Switzerland, has eleven sections that are active internationally in
research, development, teaching and practical implementation of
findings. The work of each of the School's sections seeks to
develop anthroposophy - as founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) -
in a contemporary context through the core disciplines of general
anthroposophy, medicine, agriculture, pedagogy, natural science,
mathematics and astronomy, literary and visual arts and humanities,
performing arts and youth work.
'That in our times a kind of supernumerary person is appearing who
is egoless, who in reality is not a human being, is a terrible
truth.' - Rudolf Steiner -- Are there people on earth today who do
not have a self - a human ego or 'I'? The phenomenon of
'egolessness' - the absence of a human being's core - was discussed
by the spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner in lectures and personal
conversations. An egoless individual, he intimated, is an empty
sheath through which other spiritual entities could operate.
Erdmuth J. Grosse brings together many little-known quotations from
Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research and supports them with a wealth
of disquieting reports, testimonies and examples from literature
and politics. He places these insights within the broader context
of the riddle of the human self, throwing light on the spiritual
development of the individual and humanity as a whole. In this
thought-provoking study, Grosse goes on to discuss the role of
comets, the effects of cyanide on the human constitution -
especially in the light of the Holocaust - and the hidden effects
of ceremonial magic, occult lodges, cults and sects. In conclusion,
he offers positive solutions to humanity's present predicament by
describing the healing impulses of social threefolding, the
invisible spiritual beings seeking to help humanity, the role of
the gods, the Christ impulse and the true goals of human evolution.
'We learn gradually to raise our eyes not only to material
existence; instead we discover spiritual entities and their actions
wherever we look in the universe...We get to know the deeds of
these spirits. We are alive and active and we are within the
spiritual entities and their activities.' - Rudolf Steiner This
classic series of lectures presents systematic knowledge on many
different spiritual entities, ranging from the higher hierarchies
of angels down to hindering demons. Basing his presentation on
spiritual-scientific research, Rudolf Steiner intends to awaken us
to the existence of these beings and how they interact with all
aspects of our lives. Steiner describes how animals, plants and
minerals have group souls - with even an inert stone having a
spiritual counterpart in the invisible world. The various planets
in the cosmos are connected to great spiritual beings and
hierarchies too, as is the zodiac, which is not a static band of
fixed stars but is also evolving. Steiner gives a remarkable
picture of how Christ relates to the zodiacal constellations and to
our own higher aspects. Spiritual entities are associated with the
evolution of earth and the previous stages of its existence - and
here Steiner elaborates relevant chapters of his book Occult
Science, An Outline, explaining how our task on earth is ultimately
to develop love rather than wisdom (which was the goal of earth's
previous stage). From cosmic considerations, Steiner leads to the
spirits of the kingdoms of nature - the elemental beings, with
their four classes connecting to the four elements - gnomes,
undines, sylphs and salamanders, or earth, water, air and fire
spirits. He describes how elemental beings are created by human
activities - with coercion of the views of others leading to
'demons', lying leading to 'phantoms', and bad social systems to
'spectres'. Spirits are also created in the association of humans
and animals, whilst other spiritual entities connect us with the
arts. Steiner emphasises the importance of developing and
appreciating the arts - such as music, sculpture, architecture,
painting and poetry - for the sake of humanity's future evolution.
That there is a living stream of Johannine Christianity can no
longer be doubted. There is now an abundant literature from
Rosicrucian and esoteric traditions - from the deepest prayer and
meditation - that addresses the exalted nature of John the
Evangelist as expressed through his Gospel, Letters and the Book of
Revelation. Yet it fell to Hermann Beckh to elucidate clearly how
the individual known as 'John' became the source of such undying
love and wisdom in Christ. According to Rudolf Steiner, John was
the ailing Lazarus, called from death to a new life as 'the
disciple Jesus loved'. Beckh demonstrates how John's invaluable
writings were based on personal spiritual knowledge and experience,
expressing the divine work of the Cosmic Christ on human nature and
on the Earth, leading far into the future. Whilst Beckh's
authorship originated within the context of the emerging Christian
Community founded in 1922, his profoundly original books could not
be confined to its framework. Not only could Beckh tackle original
texts in Tibetan, Sanskrit and Avestan, but - through his
independent vision - he was able to establish new links with
philosophical Alchemy, Jakob Boehme, Goethe, Nietzsche and Novalis.
He thereby stands with these figures as a co-worker in a greater
community. Having prepared the way with his Mark's Gospel of 1928,
John's Gospel could be described as the capstone of Beckh's
writings - as a triumphant announcement that theology and the study
of John's Gospel have finally come of age. Appearing here in a
freshly revised translation by Alan Stott, the current volume is
enhanced by a series of valuable addenda that shed further light on
Beckh's significant achievements.
In March 2020, Are Thoresen contracted Covid-19. Whilst
convalescing from the disease and suffering great exhaustion, he
experienced a breakthrough in his daily meditation. Although he has
always been able to 'see' into the spiritual world, now deeper,
unknown realms appeared to his inner vision. In the soapstone
surround of the fireplace in his Norwegian home, he perceived the
elemental beings and forces that make up the mineral at an atomic
level. A few days later, an even deeper dimension revealed itself,
in the form of a void or vacuum. Here, astonishingly, was an open
portal to the entire cosmos... In Travels on the Northern Path of
Initiation, Thoresen shares the results of his latest spiritual
investigations, including a moving, life-changing encounter with
'the Light of the World'. He details the teachings he receives from
the beings Vidar and Balder - who stand as guardians to the
threshold of the outer etheric world - and characterizes the
Northern way of initiation, which is based on merging, or 'fading',
into nature. Thoresen documents Rudolf Steiner's descriptions of
this path and shows how it is reflected in the Old Norse Poetic
Edda, the Kalevala and von Eschenbach's Parzival. Based on
painstaking research, he describes the individual qualities of the
three elemental realms, and how the adversarial forces - seeking to
corrupt human senses - hinder spiritual observation of them.
Thoresen's book is a powerful personal testimony to the human
potential for spiritual knowledge and experience in our time.
It is not uncommon for children's drawings to end up in the
wastepaper basket. Yet these early artistic expressions indicate
how children communicate with their environment. From the first
scratches and scribbles to the detailed sketches of houses and
people, the drawings and paintings of our young ones are
significant manifestations of inner processes, containing important
statements about their development and gradual incarnation into a
physical body. Michaela Strauss's classic work is a pioneer study
that can strengthen observation, understanding and love for the
being of the child, both in the home and the kindergarten. First
issued in 1978, it is republished here with revisions, improved
reproductions, a larger format and more than 40 pages of colour
illustrations. 'In its drawings, the child describes for us
different conditions of consciousness, which are parallel with
those of cultural epochs.' - Michaela Strauss
'The personality who received the Christ Being into himself in his
thirtieth year is a complex entelechy. Only on the basis of the
Akashic Record can an accurate view be gained as to why the life of
Jesus is so diversely presented in the various Gospels...' - Rudolf
Steiner Previously untranslated, this collection of twelve lectures
represents a middle point in Rudolf Steiner's unique exposition of
the Christian gospels - his momentous courses on St John and St
Luke had already been delivered, whilst his lectures on the Matthew
and Mark gospels were yet to follow. Here, he examines the varying
depictions of Christ in the gospels, explaining that they represent
four different but complementary perspectives. Steiner's
unparalleled insights are based on his firsthand ability to
research the spiritual Akashic Record - the universal compendium of
all events, thoughts, emotions and intentions. The twelve lectures
include: 'The Gospels, Buddha and the two Jesus children'; 'Four
varying depictions of Christ in the four Gospels'; 'The Mission of
the ancient Hebrew people'; 'Preparations for an understanding of
the Christ Event'; 'On the right attitude to Anthroposophy'; 'The
Gospel of Matthew and the Christ conundrum'; 'Group souls and
Individuality'; 'God within and the God in outer manifestation';
'The Christmas tree as a symbol'; and 'A Christmas mood'.
Translated by Christiana Bryan, this volume features an
introduction by Tom Ravetz as well as notes and an index. Twelve
lectures, various cities, 11 Oct.-26 Dec. 1909, GA 117
In an absorbing series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner discloses
factors in a person's life on Earth that will influence their
experiences in the spiritual world after their death - and
conversely, factors in the spiritual world that will affect their
next life on Earth. Steiner focuses on the period in the afterlife
when the individual has been through kamaloka - the purgatorial
place where the soul is purified. Once the soul has been cleansed
of its astral sheath, it becomes open to cosmic influences,
expanding into the planetary sphere. Now it can begin preparation
for reincarnation - for a new human life on Earth. Steiner
addresses the vital relationship of the living to the dead - in
particular, how those on Earth can influence the souls of the dead.
He also speaks on themes of 'Sleep and death', 'The seven-year life
cycles of man', and offers a 'Christmas gift' in the form of a
lecture on Christian Rosenkreutz and Gautama Buddha. He ends with a
mighty picture of the Mystery of Golgotha: Jesus Christ's death on
the cross was only seemingly a death; in reality it enabled the
momentous birth of the Earth-Soul. Long out-of-print, the
freshly-revised text of the ten lectures in this new edition is
complemented with an introduction, notes and appendices by
Professor Frederick Amrine, and also features an index. Ten
lectures, Berlin, Nov.-Apr. 1913, GA 141
With great empathy, delicacy, and directness, Peter Selg recounts,
in three lectures, the moving story of Ita Wegman and her
relationship with Rudolf Steiner in the context of the development
of anthroposophic medicine and the formation of the Medical Section
of the School for Spiritual Science. Steiner had suffered patiently
until the right person-Ita Wegman-arrived to guide spiritual
science's healing mission into the medical fi eld. In the fall of
1920, Ita Wegman founded a medical clinic in Arlesheim. From then
on, she and Rudolf Steiner worked together, both medically and
spiritually, gradually unveiling a karmic working relationship
unique in Steiner's life. Thus the stage is set. The second lecture
focuses on anthroposophic curative education: ..". the social
center, the heart even, of Ita Wegman's 'Medical Section.' To make
a commitment to children with severe obstacles in their
incarnation, out of spiritual insight into the human being and the
wider karmic context, and to make this commitment as a group of
people working out of a Christian-religious impulse-this was for
Ita Wegman the true anthroposophic medicine." Dr. Selg then
describes Dr. Wegman's heroic eff orts to create a true community
of physicians working anthroposophically out of Rudolf Steiner's
indications and in the spirit of Christ; how she looked after her
colleagues, always seeking to wake them up "to the destiny of their
own being." As well, she sought to resist all that was happening in
Nazi Germany, never forgetting Rudolf Steiner's warning: "In the
future the Anthroposophical Society will be faced with the crucial
decision of whether responsibilities will be met or not..." And
here exactly lies the heart of this wonderful book: the inner
struggle to make love responsible.
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