Many will be familiar with the notion that a person at the point of death sees their life flash before them. Rudolf Steiner describes that when the spiritual bodies separate from the physical body, the etheric body of the dying person is revealed, giving a panoramic overview of their earthly life. This etheric body contains everything we have experienced in our consciousness and kept in memory. The etheric not only generates and sustains all life, but encompasses the life forces out of which we shape our existence. Although the revelation of the life tableau belongs to the early period after death, it can also emerge as a result of meditation. Rudolf Steiner speaks of this – through the first level of spiritual experience known as ‘imagination’ – as a conscious self-perception of the soul, taking place in the world of images. Here we are confronted with the harrowing knowledge of our doppelgänger – but we also experience the cosmic forces of childhood that are present in all our life processes. These same forces are described in psychology as the ‘inner child’. In this highly-original anthology of Steiner’s work we are led to a therapeutic, meditative approach that – through working with the imaginative life tableau – can strengthen and heal body, soul and spirit. Chapters include: ‘Experiencing the Inner Child as the Starting Point for a New Philosophy’; ‘Experiencing Life before Birth’; ‘Pain and Sadness When Reliving the Life Tableau’; ‘Intensive Backward Thinking’; ‘Feelings of Happiness When Experiencing the Life Tableau’; ‘Re-experiencing the Inner Child’; ‘Through the Forces of Childhood to the Higher Self and the Christ Experience’.

In these much-valued lectures, Rudolf Steiner begins by positing the question, 'Why investigate the spiritual worlds at all?' He goes on to explore the contemporary need for spiritual knowledge and the authentic paths that can lead to it. Speaking in Torquay, England, at the International Summer School organized by his friend and colleague D.N. Dunlop, Steiner surveys the differences in various types of consciousness - from ancient to modern times, in waking and dreaming, from space into time - and the changes that have taken place in relation to knowledge and science in the course of history. He goes on to discuss the Mystery nature of crystallized minerals and metals such as copper and silver, and their relationship to the planets. He also describes how the ages of life can become organs of perception. In a dramatic conclusion Steiner explains the role of moon beings, ahrimanic elemental beings, and the true nature of mediumship, ectoplasm and spiritual possession. Presented here in a fresh translation that corrects many errors in previous editions, the text is complemented with notes, an introduction by Paul King and an index. Lectures include: 'Nature is the Great Illusion. "Know Thyself"'; 'The Three Worlds and their Reflected Images'; 'Form and Substantiality of the Mineral Kingdom in relation to Human Levels of Consciousness'; 'The Secret of Research into other Realms through the Metamorphosis of Consciousness'; 'The Inner Enlivening of the Soul through the Qualities of Metals'; 'Initiation Science'; 'Star Knowledge'; 'Possible Aberrations in Spiritual Research'. (Eleven lectures, 11-22 Aug. 1924, GA 243)

Theosophy is a key work for anyone seeking a solid grounding in spiritual reality as described by Rudolf Steiner. The book is organized in four parts. First, Steiner builds up a comprehensive understanding of human nature, beginning with the physical bodily nature and moving up through the soul nature to our spiritual being: the I and the higher spiritual aspects of our being.This then leads to the experience of the human being as a sevenfold interpenetrated being of body, soul, and spirit. In the next section Steiner gives an extraordinary overview of the laws of reincarnation and the workings of karma as we pass from one life to the next. This prepares us for the third section where Steiner shows the different ways in which we live, during this life on earth and after death, in the three worlds of body, soul, and spirit, as well as the ways in which these worlds in turn live into us.Finally, a succinct description is given of the path of knowledge by which each one of us can begin to understand the marvelous and harmonious complexity of the psycho-spiritual worlds in their fullness.

Rudolf Steiner wrote his four plays, the Mystery Dramas, to give examples of how individuals go through different experiences as they find their way into the spiritual worlds. Because each of us has a unique biography and unique karma, our journey into the spiritual is also a unique path. The eight lectures presented in this volume were given on the occasion of the first performance of the fourth play, The Souls' Awakening. These lectures count among the most significant of Steiner's insights into the nature of the path to higher knowledge.

Austrian philosopher, playwright, and artist Rudolf Steiner (1861 1925) is perhaps best known as an educational philosopher and reformer, the founder of Steiner (or Waldorf) schools located around the world. These schools' philosophy represents the priorities Steiner discusses in Theosophy: the development of body, soul, and spirit. Goethe was an important influence on Steiner, and he edited the poet's scientific works (1889 1896). Steiner was an active member and leader of the German branch of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, eventually broke away from theosophy, as he developed his own spiritual philosophy termed 'anthroposophy'; this philosophical movement asserted the potential of realizing a spiritual reality through cognition. This 1910 translation by Elizabeth Douglas Shields is of the book's third German edition; it was first published in 1904. This work will be of particular interest to historians of philosophy, of spiritual movements and of education.

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, spent some five months of his life in Britain, visiting it ten times between the years 1902 and 1924. With the exception of German-speaking countries, the longest time Steiner spent abroad was in Britain, a place he clearly considered as central to his work. In this extraordinarily thorough study of over 1,200 pages and dozens of illustrations, Crispian Villeneuve documents these important visits, reproducing letters, articles, records and other archival material - much of it published for the first time. He also studies the interconnected theme of the life and work of D.N. Dunlop, Rudolf Steiner's closest British colleague. Rudolf Steiner in Britain has special significance for English-speaking peoples around the world, as well as for those seeking to understand how and why Steiner disseminated his spiritual world-view. Villeneuve's two-volume opus, the fruit of a decade of research, is finally available in a paperback edition.

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.

The Mystery of the Resurrection approaches the deepest mysteries of the Turning Point of Time through Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research. At its heart stands the question of the restoration of the 'phantom' of the physical body, and its transformation into the resurrected body of Christ through the Mystery of Golgotha. The author draws a broad and differentiated picture of the tasks and possibilities that the Easter event, as well as Ascension and Whitsun, present - both for the individual and humanity. The final chapter considers the mystery of Easter Saturday, through which the two polar aspects of the Mystery of Golgotha - death and resurrection - interconnect, at the same time explaining the relationship of the Earth Spirit to the interior of the Earth. An appendix tackles the phenomenon of stigmatization from a spiritual-scientific perspective.

Created in 1911, eurythmy was developed for years as an artistic and educational discipline. Although Rudolf Steiner pointed out its healing aspects from the very beginning, it was only in 1921 that he gave a course of lectures that gave the art of eurythmy a vital new application. To the assembled eurythmists and doctors, he presented what one participant described as '...a complete and detailed method of eurythmy therapy, in which we could directly experience that even today the creative and therapeutic power of the word ...is still at work'. Steiner's comprehensive lectures, republished here in a thoroughly revised translation, describe the principles of therapeutic eurythmy, giving many specific exercises. Primarily intended for practising eurythmists, these lectures also contain much material of particular interest. Steiner reveals the intricacies of rhythmic interplay between human physiology and the life-forces in the world around us. He describes the qualities of language and the dynamism contained in the individual vowels and consonants, elucidating their relationship with eurythmical movements and human experience. Through such movements, individuals are able to access the healing etheric forces. The exercises, referred to by Steiner as 'inner gymnastics', contain enormous potential for psychological and physiological well-being. Gaining ever-wider recognition today, they complement conventional medicine, offering a therapeutic process concerned with mind, soul and body. This new edition of these important lectures - previously published under the title Curative Eurythmy - includes an appendix with reminiscences by early eurythmists, as well as additional commentary from Dr Walter Kugler.

Even within the Anthroposophical Society and movement, people's relationship to Rudolf Steiner is weakening and dissipating. This is problematic, says Prokofieff, as the future of both the Society and movement is dependent on a sufficient number of people aspiring to and realizing a true spiritual connection with anthroposophy's founder, Rudolf Steiner. Prokofieff deals in detail with the issues surrounding this concern, and asks the question, "Can one be an anthroposophist without being Rudolf Steiner's pupil?" In the second part of this book Prokofieff elaborates on the mysteries surrounding the laying of the spiritual Foundation Stone at the Society's Christmas Meeting of 1923-24. This event, he suggests, ensured that a personal relationship to Rudolf Steiner "would not remain within the realm of the generally abstract or intellectual, but would become a real inner deed". Thus Rudolf Steiner gave each of us the possibility of connecting with him by way of free inner work on the Foundation Stone. Both parts of this book are integrally linked in the sense that once a relationship to Rudolf Steiner is established, an inner longing to work with the new Mysteries will inevitably follow. In Prokofieff's words: "...the will to take the foundation of the New Mysteries seriously leads to a real, inner connection with Rudolf Steiner". Also included is an important essay that assesses the difficulties connected with the recent digital publication of Rudolf Steiner's most important esoteric texts, as well as the occult background to the internet and electronic media as a whole. In response to readers' questions as to how one might counteract the damaging consequences of these developments, the author has expanded and developed his original essay on the subject.

Gnostic religion is the expression of a religious worldview which is dominated by the concept of Gnosis, an esoteric knowledge of God and the human being which grants salvation to those who possess it. Roelof van den Broek presents here a fresh approach to the gnostic current of Late Antiquity within its historical and religious context, based on sources in Greek, Latin and Coptic, including discussions of the individual works of preserved gnostic literature. Van den Broek explores the various gnostic interpretations of the Christian faith that were current in the second and third centuries, whilst showing that despite its influence on early Christianity, gnostic religion was not a typically Christian phenomenon. This book will be of interest to theologians, historians of religion, students and scholars of the history of Late Antiquity and early Christianity, as well as specialists in ancient gnostic and hermetic traditions.

God occupies our nation's consciousness, even defining to many what it means to be American. Nonbelievers have often had second-class legal status and have had to fight for their rights as citizens. As R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick demonstrate in their sharp and convincing work, avowed atheists were derided since the founding of the nation. Even Thomas Paine fell into disfavor and his role as a patriot forgotten. Popular Republican Robert Ingersoll could not be elected in the nineteenth century due to his atheism, and the suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton was shunned when she questioned biblical precepts about women's roles. Moore and Kramnick lay out this fascinating history and the legal cases that have questioned religious supremacy. It took until 1961 for the Supreme Court to ban religious tests for state officials, despite Article 6 of the Constitution. Still, every one of the fifty states continues to have God in its constitution. The authors discuss these cases and more current ones, such as Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which address whether personal religious beliefs supersede secular ones. In Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic, the authors also explore the dramatic rise of an "atheist awakening" and the role of organizations intent on holding the country to the secular principles it was founded upon.

The extraordinary mysteries of the pyramids - revealed From the development of monumental architecture around 3,000 BC to the fabulous edifices that rose up from the desert plains of Giza, these are amongst the most remarkable structures in world history. Their story has given rise to a set of incredible legends: spaceships, ley lines, mysterious goings on... Is it fact or fiction? Joyce Tyldesley, writer, lecturer and broadcaster on Ancient Egypt, cuts away modern myth and prejudice to reveal the truth behind these astonishing structures. The Old Kingdom pharaohs believed that death was the beginning of eternal life. To help them on their way they built pyramids; huge ramps or stairways charged with the most potent magic, leading directly to the sky. Pyramids chronicles how and why Egypt's pharaohs built on so grand a scale, and shows how the pyramids helped to build Egypt itself. ‘A fascinating survey… For anyone who wants to know about pyramids, this is required reading’ Spectator ‘Tyldesley sets out to fill the gap between Egyptologists’ reserve, the excesses of tour guides and misinformed traditions… [she] should be required reading.’ Sunday Times

A clear, concise explanation of human nature; the worlds of body, soul, and spirit; the laws of reincarnation; and the workings of karma.

Who was Cain and what does he represent? The first part of this book invites us to revise the traditional, biblical, view of Cain as his brother's murderer. Rudolf Steiner shows how the original Cain was ready to sacrifice his being to something higher, but this pure impulse was perverted into the desire to murder. Our earthly knowledge has an affinity with the fallen Cain, but there is also a path by which we can ascend to the condition of Cain before his fratricide - through the stages of higher knowledge. Only the descendants of Cain, coming to full and real 'I' development, can sustain themselves in the face of earthly forces. In the context of this primeval Cain, or the 'new' Cain, the ritual ceremonies enacted by Steiner between 1905 and 1914 acquire their true meaning: as a way to incorporate previously developed spirit knowledge into the human soul and into physical reality. Here the practical occultist increasingly identifies with Hiram, the central figure of the Temple Legend, in order to realize the new Cain within him.Meyer demonstrates the direct line from Rudolf Steiner's early 'rites of knowledge' to the Class lessons of 1924, which Steiner had intended to reinvest with a ritual element. Besides reflections by Rudolf Steiner and editor Thomas Meyer's commentary, this volume includes important thoughts by Marie Steiner, W.J. Stein, Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz and Rudolf Geering-Christ. The final chapter is a lecture by D.N. Dunlop - perhaps Steiner's most important pupil in the West - that reveals the universally human core of the rituals we encounter both in traditional freemasonry and in Steiner's own rites.

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'.

The honey bee has lived in close association with human beings for millennia. Tragically, however, humanity's once intimate connection with this unique creature has been harmed by our increasingly utilitarian and exploitative dealings with the natural world. We are now in urgent need of re-establishing a deeper relationship, not just for the sake of the bees themselves but for the whole of nature - and of course for ourselves.Lorenzen - a true master beekeeper - provides numerous insights to enable a more fruitful engagement with the living world. Offering an enrichment of the knowledge and practice of beekeeping, he discusses the origins of the honey bee, its relationship to the floral kingdom, the digestion of the bee, the treatment of bee diseases as well as appropriate beekeeping techniques. He also develops subtle spiritual concepts such as the idea of the bee colony as an 'individuality' and 'group-soul', providing new depth and wisdom to our understanding of how bees live and work.This small book, a hidden gem that has never before appeared in English, is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of the honey bee and the future of humanity.

The heart of this volume comprises Rudolf Steiner's commentary on the elemental forces that are responsible for our earthly nature as human beings - forces that influence us through our membership of a national or geographical group. When such elemental forces are not recognised and understood, he states, they cause conflict and chaos. However, Steiner indicates an important accompanying task that calls upon each human being to develop individuality, emancipating ourselves from the earthly influences underlying national and racial groups.These great themes are framed by Rudolf Steiner's pioneering research into the two major Northern folk-poems, the Kalevala and The Dream Song of Olaf Asteson. The former tells of the elemental spirits who created the conditions for our earthly incarnation, whereas the Dream Song has to do with the drama of excarnation - the journey of the human soul after death. Linking these vast motifs is Steiner's unique description of the mission and tasks of the Russian people and the contrast of their destiny to the North American people (who, he says, are 'dominating the Earth for a brief period of increasing splendour'). Steiner explains how elemental beings, responsible for the balance of land and sea, have created conditions where various peoples are enabled to develop their gifts and fulfil their destinies. Thus he speaks of Finland as the ancient conscience of Europe, Russia as the future bearer of the Christ-imbued Spirit Self, and the differing but complementary environments of Germany and Britain. Strikingly, he states that, 'no souls on Earth love one another more than those living in Central Europe and those living in the British Isles'. Rudolf Steiner also speaks of the necessary work of luciferic and ahrimanic beings that collaborate to enable the solid spatial forms of our physical bodies. Likewise, they influence our etheric and astral bodies, facilitating thinking, feeling and will to be imbued with life and consciousness.