Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr offer the first comprehensive examination of one of the twentieth century's most distinctive occult iconoclasts. Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a study in contradictions. He was born into a Fundamentalist Christian family, then educated at Cambridge where he experienced both an intellectual liberation from his religious upbringing and a psychic awakening that led him into the study of magic. He was a stock figure in the tabloid press of his day, vilified during his life as a traitor, drug addict and debaucher; yet he became known as the perhaps most influential thinker in contemporary esotericism. The practice of the occult arts was understood in the light of contemporary developments in psychology, and its advocates, such as William Butler Yeats, were among the intellectual avant-garde of the modernist project. Crowley took a more drastic step and declared himself the revelator of a new age of individualism. Crowley's occult bricolage, Magick, was a thoroughly eclectic combination of spiritual exercises drawing from Western European ceremonial magical traditions as practiced in the nineteenth-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Crowley also pioneered in his inclusion of Indic sources for the parallel disciplines of meditation and yoga. The summa of this journey of self-liberation was harnessing the power of sexuality as a magical discipline, an instance of the "sacrilization of the self " as practiced in his co-masonic magical group, the Ordo Templi Orientis. The religion Crowley created, Thelema, legitimated his role as a charismatic revelator and herald of a new age of freedom under the law of ''Do what thou wilt.'' The influence of Aleister Crowley is not only to be found in contemporary esotericism-he was, for instance, a major influence on Gerald Gardner and the modern witchcraft movement-but can also be seen in the counter-culture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in many forms of alternative spirituality and popular culture. This anthology, which features essays by leading scholars of Western esotericism across a wide array of disciplines, provides much-needed insight into Crowley's critical role in the study of western esotericism, new religious movements, and sexuality.

"The New Essential Steiner" is an illuminating, completely new introduction to the philosophy and essential writings of Rudolf Steiner, introduced and edited by Robert McDermott, who also edited the now-classic "Essential Steiner." This new volume offers selections from a wide variety of Steiner's published works, presenting a broad, accessible overview of Anthroposophy. In his introduction, McDermott recounts Steiner's life and work, from his childhood and education to his work as a natural scientist, philosopher, scholar, educator, artist, interpreter of culture, and seer. He places Steiner in relation to major traditions of thought and explores the genesis and development of Anthroposophy. Although Rudolf Steiner is considered by many to be the greatest spiritual seer and philosophical thinker of the twentieth century and is credited with major cultural contributions such as the worldwide Waldorf school movement and the ever-growing biodynamic agricultural movement, he nevertheless remains relatively unknown to both academics and the public. The purpose of this volume is to redress that situation by introducing Steiner's work to a broader audience and making his name more universally recognized. "The New Essential Steiner" includes selections from Steiner's writings, which are grouped into chapters that demonstrate the breadth of his thinking and spiritual accomplishments.

'The great importance of these plays is not that we are given many thoughts to further our understanding of anthroposophy, but that we are shown the transforming power of spiritual striving in individual lives, and especially the development in human relationships through an awareness of the forces of destiny. In this respect the Mystery Plays are unique.' - from the Foreword In writing and producing his Mystery Plays, Rudolf Steiner offered his spiritual observations and concepts from a fresh, artistic perspective. The dramas appeared in the context of the movement of 'Theatrical Realism' - during a period when only a handful of dramatists attempted representations of a spiritual world, and these mostly under the guise of fantasy. In introducing spiritual beings to the stage, and showing their connections with human beings, Steiner was pioneering a drama for the future. Eileen Hutchins' classic work on Steiner's Mystery Plays provides a thoughtful commentary that helps us enter the minds and souls of the characters. Through gaining insights into their relationships and inner lives, and the problems and situations with which they are faced, the characters are brought to life. Gradually, we begin to see possible solutions to the complex web of their difficulties.

In the Middle Ages, Astronomia - one of the Seven Liberal Arts - was as much about astrology as astronomy. In fact the two disciplines only parted company in the seventeenth century, as the materialistic world-view gained greater prominence. Where once human destiny was connected to stars and planets, and spiritual or soul qualities were associated with the natural world, now the cosmos was seen as consisting of gases, fire and dead rock. Rudolf Steiner brings a new spiritual perspective to our study of the heavens. Humanity, he says, is intimately connected to cosmic beings, who in turn are related to planets and stars. There is meaning in the cosmos. Although Steiner rejects the simplistic notion of the planets determining our lives and behaviour, he makes a clear connection between the heavenly bodies and human beings. Whilst criticizing the superficial nature of much astrology, Steiner shows that as individuals, and with the guidance of spiritual beings, we choose an appropriate time of birth to match the destiny we are to live. This enlightening anthology, expertly collated by Margaret Jonas, features excerpts of Steiner's work on the spiritual individualities of the planets, the determination of human characteristics by the constellation at birth, the cultural epochs and the passage of the equinox, cosmic influences on the individual and humanity, life in the planetary spheres between death and rebirth, solar and lunar eclipses, comets, and much more.

According to the initiate-research of Rudolf Steiner, humanity is in a continual process of transformation and evolution. Modern-day consciousness, based as it is on sense perception and abstract logic, differs considerably from the consciousness of ancient humanity. At that time, says Steiner, the human being was seen to be a microcosm, a concentration of the laws and activities of the cosmos. The loss of such knowledge today has led to the existential quest for meaning, and even the cul-de-sac of atheism. In these comprehensive lectures, delivered to an English audience, Rudolf Steiner indicates how it is possible for people to rediscover their connection to the cosmos. He describes how one develops higher faculties of consciousness - what he calls Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition - and gives a vivid description of life after death and the individual's progress through the planetary spheres. It is in these spheres, he explains, where tasks and goals for future incarnations are prepared in cooperation with the spiritual beings of the heavenly hierarchies.The lectures culminate in a call for mankind to take its own destiny in hand through conscious and free development of spiritual capacities. The new edition of this fundamental work features a revised translation as well as previously-unavailable addresses and question-and-answer sessions.

What are the essential teachings of Qabbalah, the Jewish esoteric wisdom passed on for millennia from teacher to pupil? This clear presentation concentrates on principal themes: the emanation of the universe, the Sefirothal Tree of Life and its cosmic and human symbology, the Four Worlds of creation, the Four Adams or Heavenly Archetypes, and the composite structure of our being and its bearing on sleep, death, and initiation. To elucidate their meaning, the author compares Qabbalistic concepts and symbols with equivalents in modern theosophy, particularly in the works of HP Blavatsky and G de Purucker, revealing Qabbalah as one stream of the universal wisdom tradition of mankind.

This collection of 14 articles, condensed and edited from theosophical publications, is an invitation to inquirers to explore and enjoy the depth and beauty of theosophy. The Theosophical Society is dedicated to making universal brotherhood better understood and more deeply felt in human hearts. Its philosophy, drawn from the universal wisdom tradition of mankind, offers timeless principles that stimulate intuitive knowing and cast light on any question. These principles provide tools that can help students discover truth within themselves and unlock the mysteries of nature, fostering altruism and compassion for all beings.

The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ is an alternate telling of the Jesus story with strong Theosophical and Spiritualist influences. In it Jesus' encounters with the masters, seers, and wise men that he visited while traveling in Tibet, Egypt, India, Persia, and Greece, during the missing eighteen years of the Gospel, are recounted. Here you will learn what the Gospels meant when they stated that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature.

"Every moral deed and every physical action in human life is connected in the human heart. Only when we truly learn to understand the configuration of he human heart will we find the true fusion of these two parallel and independent phenomena: moral events and physical events." -Rudolf Steiner Today we know very little about the true nature of the human heart. Our knowledge arises only from a materialistic or an emotional standpoint. However, the human heart, as Rudolf Steiner knew and taught, is both spiritual and physical-the place where body and soul come together. It is the place of their unity. We have lost this knowledge, yet it is integral to the Western understanding of what gives humanity its vocation-our spiritual/physical, our earthly/heavenly nature. In this astonishing and inspiring book, Peter Selg focuses on the evolution of the spiritual understanding of the heart as transmitted through Aristotle, the Gospels, and Hebrew Scriptures to the Middle Ages, when, in the light of the Mystery of Golgotha and its sacramental life, it was synthesized and transformed by Thomas Aquinas, after whom, with the rise of modern science it, was lost until Goethe began a process of recovery and development that led to its complete renewal and transformation in Rudolf Steiner. The Mystery of the Heart tells this story in three parts. Part one, "The Anthropology of the Heart in the Gospels," examines the spiritual anthropology of the heart in the Gospels in the light of Ezekiel's prophetic saying: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a living heart of flesh." Part two, "De Essentia et Motu Cordis," describes Aristotle's understanding of the heart and its transformation and deepening in Aquinas. Part three, "The Heart and the Fate of Humanity," examines the spiritual-scientific view of the heart as developed in Rudolf Steiner's teachings. Also included is an appendix containing selected meditative verses and therapeutic meditations for the heart.

'Rudolf Steiner presents the human soul dilemma, split into male and female attributes...but offers a path of development which will eventually lead to overcoming these - what Jung called 'individuation', a merging with the true self or true ego of the human being.' - from the Introduction We live in a sexualised society, surrounded by sexual imagery and content in almost every area of life. This presents us with many challenges, including an increasing blurring and confusion between love and sex; strife between men and women over their roles in society; and a consistent assault on the innocence of childhood. Despite the sensibilities of his time, Rudolf Steiner made a huge contribution to our understanding of the complex theme of sexuality. In this freshly-compiled anthology, Steiner describes the point in evolution at which human beings split from being androgynous and single-sexed to becoming male or female. He traces the changing roles of the sexes in society, from the matriarchal past to today's patriarchal dominance. The division of the sexes brings suffering, but also the possibility of achieving higher stages of love. In the distant future, humanity can evolve sexuality into a new form, with even the possibility of reproduction being metamorphosed. Refreshingly, Steiner is not judgmental and does not preach asceticism. He recognises the 'all-too-human' frailty people confront in their personal lives, even in the case of great individuals such as Goethe. Sex is a necessary stage of human evolution, and the split nature of the human being is a fact of our age. Its healing will be gradual but, like Amfortas in the Grail story - whose wounded groin was a metaphor for amorous misadventure - we can all be healed through love and compassion.

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 of reincarnation and karma, and explore in detail the incarnations of certain named 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 second volume of the series. Rudolf Steiner considers individual karmic relationships in history - for example Marx and Engels - as well as surveying karma in human life, the shaping of karma after death, and the "cosmic form" of karma.

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 colour, 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. Having studied `The World of the Ethers' in Vol. 1, here Dr Marti explores the `The World of Formative (or Morphogenic) Forces'. Beginning with the sense qualities of the visible world, he studies the nature of sense perception, the origin of morphogenic forces and their phenomenology. In three key sections he examines the formative forces of shape or form (including the growth movements in plants and how they relate to eurythmy and the forces of colour); the formative forces of life (the planetary origin of the morphogenic forces of life and the seven life processes and their relation to rhythm; and the formative forces of substance (the zodiac and the planets and the formative forces of metals). In this concluding volume of his seminal work, Marti also offers pertinent comments on the nature of potentization in medicine.

Many spiritual traditions speak of a 'guardian' or 'dweller' who protects the threshold to the spiritual world, warning the unprepared to pause in their quest for access to higher knowledge. The Guardian reveals the consequences of our negative actions and points to the full reality of our untransformed nature. This experience is said to be one of the deepest and most harrowing on the inner path, but is an essential precondition to any form of true initiation. The words 'Know thyself' were inscribed at the forecourt of the ancient Greek Temple of Apollo. Those who sought initiation in 'the mysteries' were thus instructed first to look within themselves. Likewise today, as spiritual seekers we need true self-knowledge, to distinguish between what belongs to our consciousness and what is objectively part of the spiritual environment. Rudolf Steiner taught that as long as we draw back from such knowledge, our spiritual quest will be unsuccessful. When we begin engaging with anthroposophy, it becomes clear that Steiner's teachings are not a doctrine or set of dogmas, but a path towards deeper insights. In this essential handbook, the editor has drawn together many of Rudolf Steiner's statements on the intricate and arduous path of self-knowledge, offering ongoing support and guidance. Chapters include: The Importance of Self-Knowledge for Acquiring Higher Knowledge; Seeking to Form an Idea of the 'Guardian of the Threshold'; The Guardian of the Threshold and Some Characteristics of Supersensible Consciousness; Morality on the Path of Knowledge; Self-Knowledge and Nearness to Christ; The Powers of Christ in Our Own Life; Knowing Ourselves in the Other; Self-Knowledge - World-Knowledge.

`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.

Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.

This book provides a comparative analysis of cosmopolitan (esoteric) religious movements, such as Theosophy, Groupe Independent des Etudes Esoteriques, Anthroposophy, and Monism, in England, France, Germany, and India during the late nineteenth-century to the interwar years. Despite their diversity, these factions manifested a set of common features-anti-materialism, embrace of Darwinian evolution, and a belief in universal spirituality-that coalesced in a transnational field of analogous cosmopolitan spiritual affinities. Yet, in each of their geopolitical locations these groups developed vastly different interpretations and applications of their common spiritual tenets. This book explores how such religious innovation intersected with the social (labor and economic renewal), cultural (education and religious innovation) and political (Empire and anti-colonial) dynamics in these vastly different national domains. Ultimately, it illustrates how an innovative religious discourse converged with the secular world and became applied to envision a new social order-to spiritually re-engineer the world.

'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.

The Art of Speech presents a dynamic path of practice leading to an experience of the Word as a living, healing and creative power. Helping to deliver Western intellectual speech from what Artaud described as 'shrivelled throats' and 'monstrous talking abstractions', Langman brings to life the spiritual realities out of which a true Art of Speech arises. Inspired by Rudolf Steiner and pioneered initially in the German language by Marie Steiner, this artform is illuminated here through the genius of the English language. Langman builds a bridge between mainstream research into the intrinsic nature of Speech, and the levels of spiritual cognition that led to Rudolf Steiner's insights. Speech and language can no longer be reduced to an arbitrary collection of abstract symbols, she asserts. This book will inspire those working with these disciplines as practitioners (both artistic and therapeutic) as well as those who wish to understand their significance in human evolution, both past and future. Following her first book The Art of Acting, this volume completes a foundation of understanding for an exploration - in the conclusion of Langman's trilogy - of an integrated art of speech and acting. Grounded in the spiritual reality of the human being, Langman presents a systematic methodology with which to explore Rudolf Steiner's Speech and Drama Course.

What is the historical and evolutionary relationship between man and animal? In this classic text, based on the anthroposophical science founded by Rudolf Steiner, Poppelbaum, trained in Biology, compares the outer forms of man and animal, revealing their essential differences and contrasting inner experiences. Drawing a bold and clear delineation between the fundamental nature of man and that of the animal, Poppelbaum argues that human beings are not the accidental outcome of animal development, but the hidden source of evolution itself. He goes on to discuss the true relationship of both man and animal to their environment, and develops a critique of contemporary theories regarding human and animal evolution. He argues that, rather than a simple reflex of the nervous system, the human spirit is a microcosmic reflection of the spiritual macrocosm, and our individual consciousness is a crucial seed for future evolution. 'To be man is to know the animals and all the creatures of the earth; it is to recognize our responsibility towards these beings, once of the same order as ourselves, but now obliged to live beside us in an incompleteness that never ceases its appeal to human beings - warning us to make ourselves worthy of the trust invested in us.' - Hermann Poppelbaum

The review exercises bring the experiences of our daily lives to full awareness. By directing our attentive gaze to what has happened - whether in a single day or in whole phases of life - we kindle light in our will. Undertaking such a review backwards, in reverse sequence, or from an 'external perspective', requires a huge inner effort as we establish distance between ourselves and our daily experiences. In this essential handbook the editor has drawn together virtually all Rudolf Steiner's statements on the review exercises, supporting them with commentary and notes. Described from different perspectives and approaches, there are a surprising range of suggestions for carrying them out. Individual chapters focus on reviewing the day (transforming the power of memory); reviewing events in your life (awakening the higher self); reviewing the other's perspective (awakening social impulses); exercises in thinking backwards (illuminating the will); and more.

'An external view of states of health and sickness must be augmented by what we can also know about the inner, spiritual reality within the human being.' - Rudolf Steiner In a series of nine lectures to doctors, pharmacists and students, Rudolf Steiner presents a wealth of medical ideas with numerous therapeutic and diagnostic insights. As with his first series of lectures on medicine held a year previously (Introducing Anthroposophical Medicine), the range, depth and scope of Steiner's subject-matter is breathtaking. Speaking at the international centre of anthroposophy, the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, Rudolf Steiner begins by describing the interplay of physical and metaphysical aspects of the human being, presenting a paradigm in which the four bodies - physical, etheric, astral and ego or 'I' - interrelate in contrasting ways with the threefold human organism of head, thorax and metabolism, and with our capacities for thinking, feeling and will. These challenging but enlightening concepts unlock a wonderful diagnostic tool for the appraisal and understanding of patients. Steiner considers the medicinal actions of various substances - including silica, phosphorus, sulphur, arsenic, antimony and mercury. Among numerous other subjects, Rudolf Steiner discusses the methodology of medical examination; the treatment of developmental irregularities; the four types of ether; raw food diets; the I and assimilation of food; metal therapy and the actions of lead, magnesium, tin, iron, copper, gold, mercury and silver; the use of root and herbaceous parts and flowers in medicine; the rhythmic balancing process between the action of salutogenic and pathological forces; and the nature of death. This volume also features Rudolf Steiner's answers to questions, an introductory lecture to eurythmy therapy, a comprehensive introduction, notes and index, colour plates of Steiner's blackboard drawings, and facsimiles and translations of his notes for the lectures.

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 commentaries examine the underlying laws of 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 eighth and final volume of the series, Rudolf Steiner offers insights on a variety of subjects, including Cosmic Christianity, the Michael impulse, the Arthur and Grail streams of wisdom, as well as the individualities of Gregory VII, Haeckel, Swedenborg, Loyola, Haroun al Raschid, Byron, Voltaire and others.

"The Foundation Stone Meditation" holds a central place in the inner life of many students of Rudolf Steiner's work. First presented during the refounding of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference of 1923/24, it is a powerful and penetrating meditative text, which many consider to be a key to the spiritual mysteries of our time. This budget-priced pocket version features three alternative translations (by George Adams, Pauline Wehrle and Richard Seddon), together with the original German verses and an introduction by Michael Wilson.

Based on the author's own experience of the supersensible being who stands behind the science of the spirit known as Anthroposophy, "The Heavenly Sophia" is the culmination of 25 years of work by Sergei Prokofieff on Rudolf Steiner's spiritual impulse. The being Anthroposophia, he shows, is not a poetic image or an abstract concept, but is an actual spiritual entity who works in the higher worlds for the good of earthly evolution, bringing to humanity '...the new revelation of the heavenly Sophia, the divine wisdom'. In the first part of the book, the author describes the path which led him to experience the being Anthroposophia - a path which is clearly related and can be followed by the reader. In the second part, using the few statements Rudolf Steiner made on the subject as his starting point, Prokofieff studies the question of the position of the living being Anthroposophia in the hierarchic cosmos, namely her relationship to Christ, the heavenly Sophia and the Archangel Michael. Finally available in paperback, this book will be of interest to anybody with a close connection to Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy.