During the brief window between the two World Wars, the Rev. Prof. Hermann Beckh led research at The Christian Community Seminary in Stuttgart. In those precious years he published on music, the gospels and the ancient Mysteries. By 1930, in his Contributions to the Priests' Newsletter, he had produced the most far-reaching account of the cosmic order ever written. The typescript of this great work was destined to gather dust in the Berlin Archiv, however, until it was discovered in recent years. Published here for the first time, it is the crowning masterpiece to Beckh's Collected Works. The translated and annotated text is accompanied by Rudolf Frieling's in-depth application of Beckh's principles of the cosmic starry order to the Creed of The Christian Community, and by a number of appreciations and relevant book reviews. Through ever-deepening meditation guided by Rudolf Steiner, and his vast knowledge of Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Avestan sacred texts - scarcely to be equalled in Europe at the time - Beckh came to the first-hand realization that human and cosmic life was ordered. He perceived directly that this cosmic order was: good, as originating from the World-Will; true, as from World-Thinking; and beautiful, as from World-Feeling. All three could be personally experienced in disciplined consciousness that could enter dream, sleep and pre-natal life. This, then, was Beckh's method and inspiration, as shown in this extraordinary work.

Today some six million Freemasons around the world continue to perform their rituals regularly - an enormous legacy of spiritual endeavour, kept largely in secret. In Britain alone there are over 7,000 Lodges, with a quarter of a million members. What is this wealth, this appeal, and how did the philosopher and spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner reinterpret or reconstruct Freemasonry's time-worn legacy? Unless one is a Freemason, the masonic world, with its arcane conventions and language, remains largely unknown: an obscurity that is almost impossible to fathom. Yet understanding its traditions and style are invaluable when approaching Goethe, Mozart, Herder, Lessing and Novalis - as well as Rudolf Steiner. Steiner himself renewed the 'Royal Art' of Freemasonry from 1906 to 1914 through his ritual work known as Mystica AEterna. When Steiner invigorated education, medicine, the social order and religion, he fully intended that committed and professional individuals should assume responsibility for the new initiatives. But this was not the case with the Masonic Order he founded, whose leadership he took upon himself. Even the celebration of his passing in 1925, led by Marie Steiner, was entirely Masonic in character. In the context of continuing resistance and misrepresentation, N.V.P. Franklin uncovers the living heart of Freemasonry and reveals why it was - and still is - immensely relevant to anthroposophy. With profound research into its older rituals and teachings, this detailed and conscientious study is a unique contribution to comprehending freemasonry and anthroposophy - both historically and in the present day.

This collection of exercises, meditations and spiritual practices for self-development is selected from material given by Rudolf Steiner to members of his Esoteric School. Here is explanatory material to deepen and enhance meditative work, including several articles on the path of inner development and the obstacles to be faced on the way.

This new, enlarged edition contains further clarification of the exercises, descriptions of the future evolution of the world and humanity, plus later advice given by Steiner on the nature of breathing exercises and ancient and modern methods of initiation.

'Concern for the world today provides the impetus to ask of ourselves a profound question... how can our way of knowing, the very style of our thinking which informs our research and our teaching, come to express care, to reveal itself to be a deed and duty of care?' Basing this practical study on the human quality of care for the world around us, Nigel Hoffmann takes us to a threshold beyond which lies a true science of living form. Care, he says, springs from the whole human being - the thinking, heart and will - and is implicit in the scientific method of conscious inner participation in nature that derives from the work of the poet and scientist Goethe. The Goethean approach - a living form that unites science and art - is not an alternative to contemporary science but complements it. Artistic practice, says Hoffmann, is a guide across the threshold and into the sphere of the living whole. But artistic sensibility can be raised to a higher possibility of itself, allowing us to discover the faculties of cognitive feeling and cognitive will. The author calls for a grounding in Goethean science for all students as a preliminary to their specialist and professional studies. He introduces us to the concept of the metamorphosis of the university - from the doctoral ideal to the ideal of the whole human being - and concludes with a case study of the economic sphere and capital using Goethean methodology. This profound book indicates a transformative path for human culture and civilization in the 21st century. NIGEL HOFFMANN PhD has for eighteen years been a high school teacher, in Australian and Swiss Rudolf Steiner schools. He is the author of Goethe's Science of Living Form: The Artistic Stages (Adonis Press) and is a director of the Education for Social Renewal Foundation.

Based on direct communications with his eight spirit guides, Dr Bob Woodward confirms that we have all lived in spirit worlds before our birth - and that we will enter these same realms again after our material deaths. In a very real sense, these higher spirit worlds are actually our true home, he says, rather than our present physical existence, which is only a temporary abode. In consultation with his spirit guides - including a Tibetan Lama, a Jewish Rabbi, a Native American and his personal guardian angel - Bob Woodward gives a detailed survey of our lives in spirit worlds before birth and after death, our relationships there with friends, family and even pets, and our connections with both good and evil spiritual beings. He also gives a commentary on a range of subjects such as reincarnation and climate change. In a final extensive and moving interview, Woodward finds and speaks with the soul of his deceased father, who offers enlightening glimpses of life after death. Whilst the author's knowledge is grounded in decades of study of the work of Rudolf Steiner - with which he compares the results of his own extrasensory perceptions - Knowledge of Spirit Worlds is not intended as a dry philosophical study. Rather, it has a warm, experiential quality - based as it is on personal interaction with spirit entities - and emphasizes the love that connects all worlds and beings together.

During 1924, before his last address in September, Rudolf Steiner gave over eighty lectures on the subject of karma to members of the Anthroposophical Society. These profoundly esoteric lectures examine the underlying laws inherent in reincarnation and karma, and explore in detail the incarnations of specific historical figures. In Rudolf Steiner's words, the study of karma is "...a matter of penetrating into the most profound mysteries of existence, for within the sphere of karma and the course it takes lie those processes which are the basis of the other phenomena of world existence..." In this volume, Steiner discusses the karmic relationships within the anthroposophical movement, including the predispositions which lead souls to anthroposophy, the two streams within the movement, plus Rosicrucianism, Arabism, Aristotelianism, the Platonists and the School of Michael.

These two lecture courses, given just after the beginning of World War I, stand as a kind of unexpected gift. A few months later, once the war became a reality, the possibilities for esoteric work would change and it would become more difficult to do spiritual research. But in the short interval before the true horror of the conflict unfolded, Rudolf Steiner was able to give these lectures, which lay out in the clearest fashion the path of anthroposophic meditation, and its assumptions, language, and consequences.

Our instinctive knowledge of which foods are helpful and which are harmful appears increasingly to be fading. We are bombarded with advice, information and prescriptions as to what we should eat and drink, but the issues surrounding nutrition - questions of health, diet, taste, even ecology and sustainability - remain largely unresolved. Unlike most commentators on this subject, Rudolf Steiner tackles the theme of nutrition in a refreshingly open way. At no point does he try to tell us what we should or should not be putting into our bodies - whether with regard to an omnivorous or vegetarian diet, smoking, drinking alcohol, and so on. The job of the scientist, he says, is to explain how things act and what effect they have; what people do with that information is up to them. However, he emphasizes that our diet not only determines our physical wellbeing, but can also promote or hinder our inner spiritual development. In this carefully collated anthology, with an introduction, commentary and notes by Christian von Arnim, Rudolf Steiner considers nutrition in the light of his spiritual-scientific research. He explains the impact of raw food, vegetarian and meat diets, the effects of protein, fats, carbohydrates and salts, individual foodstuffs such as potatoes, beetroots and radishes, as well as the impact of alcohol and nicotine. His insights are vital to anybody with a serious interest in health, diet and spiritual development.

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)

In his final lectures to the general public, Rudolf Steiner speaks with great clarity and purpose about the inner and outer necessity of the anthroposophical impulse in modern times. Following the fire that destroyed the first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland, Steiner had focused his efforts on rebuilding and reorganizing the Anthroposophical Society. But he also continued to travel and speak to the public - in Prague, Vienna and Basel - to explain the purpose of the Goetheanum and to elucidate the broader aims of his spiritual work. These lectures, including a semi-public series in Dornach, are gathered here and published in English for the first time, together with an introduction, notes and index. The volume features the following lectures: 'The Purpose of the Goetheanum and the Aims of Anthroposophy'; 'Enhancing Human Powers of Perception to Develop Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition'; 'Human Soul Life and the Development of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition'; 'Experience and Perception of the Activities of Thinking and Speech'; 'The Physical World and Moral-Spiritual Impulses': 'Four Stages of Inner Experience'; 'Perceiving the Etheric World'; 'Soul's Eternity in the Light of Anthroposophy'; 'Human Development and Education in the Light of Anthroposophy'; 'Supersensible Perception, Anthroposophy as a Contemporary Need'; 'Anthroposophy and the Ethical and Religious Life'; 'How Do We Gain Knowledge of the Supersensible World?'

What is the meaning of memory in the information age? When all knowledge is seemingly digitised and available for reference at any time, do we actually need human memory? One consequence of the proliferation of digitization is the deterioration of our capacity to remember - a symptom that is apparent in a steady increase in dementia within contemporary society. Rudolf Steiner indicates that memory is the determining factor in awareness of oneself. Even a partial loss of memory leads to loss of self-consciousness and the sense of our 'I'. Thus, memory is crucial for the development of I-consciousness - not only for the individual, but for humanity as a whole. Rudolf Steiner's research on memory, recollection and forgetting has many implications for the way we learn, for inner development and spiritual growth. This unique selection of passages from his works offers insights into how consciousness can remain autonomous and creative in a digital environment. It also provides ideas for improving education and emphasizes the importance of life-long learning. Chapters include: 'The Development of Memory Throughout Human History'; 'The Formation of Memory, Remembering and Forgetting in the Human Individual'; 'Remembering and Forgetting in Connection with Education'; 'How Remembering and Forgetting are Transformed by the Schooling Path - Imagination and Inspiration'; 'Remembering Backwards (Ruckschau) and Memory Exercises'; 'Subconscious Memories of the Pre-birth Period and of Life Between Death and a New Birth'; 'Memory and Remembering after Death'; 'The Development of Memory in the Future'.