Earth and humanity are involved in a fragile interplay of physical and spiritual relationships, the full spectrum of which can only be discerned by higher, finer senses. Based on actual, living discernment rather than dogmatic ideas, Karsten Massei reveals how we can unite with nature, supporting our inner development and everyday lives. We ourselves comprise the path leading to the mysteries of the earth. Through delving into nature's secrets, paradoxically we are brought back to our own being - our soul-gold, our luminosity, but also to our shadow, lower nature. Deep encounters with the earth are thus self-encounters. --- In a series of concise and accessible chapters, Massei illumines human characteristics - our senses, the quality of our listening, our soul wounds and the possibility for transformation. Likewise, he lights up the natural world - plants and animals, but also elemental beings, spirits of trees, and the great being of the earth, Christ. Amongst a wealth of interrelated themes, the author portrays death as the doorway to a new existence, describing the relationship of the dead with the earth and humanity and speaking movingly of the healing social deed of forgiveness. Founded on first-hand research, this book is full of reverence for the hidden aspects of life and their significance for personal growth.

The Theosophical Society (est. 1875 in New York by H. P. Blavatsky, H. S. Olcott and others) is increasingly becoming recognized for its influential role in shaping the alternative new religious and cultural landscape of the late nineteenth and the twentieth century, especially as an early promoter of interest in Indian and Tibetan religions and philosophies. Despite this increasing awareness, many of the central questions relating to the early Theosophical Society and the East remain largely unexplored. This book is the first scholarly anthology dedicated to this topic. It offers many new details about the study of Theosophy in the history of modern religions and Western esotericism. The essays in Imagining the East explore how Theosophists during the formative period understood the East and those of its people with whom they came into contact. The authors examine the relationship of the theosophical approach with orientalism and aspects of the history of ideas, politics, and culture at large and discuss how these esoteric or theosophical representations mirrored conditions and values current in nineteenth-century mainstream intellectual culture. The essays also look at how the early Theosophical Society's imagining of the East differed from mainstream 'orientalism' and how the Theosophical Society's mission in India was distinct from that of British colonialism and Christian missionaries.

Reassessing human history in relation to the cosmic-earthly events of Christ's incarnation, Rudolf Steiner stresses the significance of both Gnostic spirituality and the legends of the Holy Grail. The 'Christ-Impulse', he tells us, is not a one-time event but a continuous process, beginning well before Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth. This mighty impulse is a force that gives impetus to human development, such as with the extraordinary blossoming of free thinking of the last two millennia. Surveying this pattern of evolving human thought, Steiner explains the roles of contrasting historical figures, for example the great teacher Zarathustra, Joan of Arc and Johannes Keplar. We are shown the widespread influence of the clairvoyant prophetesses, the sibyls, who formed a backdrop to the Greco-Roman world. Steiner contrasts their revelations to those of the Hebrew prophets. The lectures culminate in the secret background to the Parzival narrative. Steiner illustrates how it is possible to experience the Holy Grail by reading the stellar script in the sky at Easter. Here, he provides a rare personal account of the processes he utilized to conduct esoteric research. The new edition of these much-loved lectures features a revised translation and an introduction, appendices and notes by Frederick Amrine.

Edith Maryon (1872-1924) was a trained sculptor who worked alongside Rudolf Steiner to create the unique sculpture of Christ (the 'Representative of Humanity') at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. One of Steiner's closest collaborators, she was a highly-valued colleague and esoteric pupil. As one of his dearest friends, Maryon kept a busy and detailed correspondence with Rudolf Steiner, in which he confided freely about his personal situation, his lack of true colleagues, difficulties with lecture tours, and the embattled public standing of anthroposophy. Almost invariably, these letters emphasized Steiner's longing for the Dornach studio and their shared work on the Christ statue. Maryon's early death, aged 52 - following fifteen months of illness - shook Rudolf Steiner to the core. He was to die himself less than a year later. With this book, the author's central aim is to illuminate the spiritual signature of Edith Maryon's relationship with Rudolf Steiner and their mutual work in anthroposophy and on the sculpture of Christ. Building on Rex Raab's (1993) biography, Peter Selg's moving study features dozens of photos and facsimiles of letters, utilizing previously unpublished sources from Edith Maryon's and Ita Wegman's literary estates and the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach. -- The most essential and intrinsic quality of her soul ... was not a particular branch of human endeavour, not even art; the most salient of her soul tendencies, her soul intentions, was the striving for spirituality...' - Rudolf Steiner

In a private conversation on his deathbed, Rudolf Steiner informed his friend Count Polzer-Hoditz of three spiritual problems that would need to be resolved in the coming years: 'Firstly, the question of the two Johns [John the Baptist and John the Evangelist]. Secondly: Who was Dmitri? Thirdly: Where did Caspar Hauser come from?' Tackling these issues, said Steiner, would be of critical importance for humanity's future. He added: 'In all three problems it is important that one's gaze is directed not towards death but towards birth. Where did they come from and with what tasks?' In Dmitri's case, Steiner emphasized that the most important thing was to discover what was to have been achieved through him. --- Utilizing the significant clues left by Rudolf Steiner, Sergei O. Prokofieff takes on the second of these tasks, the great unsolved mystery of Russian history. Tsarevich Dmitri, the son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, was tragically murdered as a young boy. Later, he was impersonated by a series of rogues and pretenders. Prokofieff's wide-ranging study integrates historical, psychological and spiritual-scientific perspectives to work towards the truth behind Dmitri's brief life, his mission and the distortions created by the 'false Dmitris'. He also examines the significance of Friedrich Schiller's unfinished play, Demetrius.

'The mission of our age is not to reproduce an ancient wisdom, but to engender a new one - a wisdom that points not only to the past but that works prophetically into the future.' - Rudolf Steiner Beginning with ancient Egypt, the pyramids and sphinxes - and a comparison of that epoch with our own - Rudolf Steiner surveys a vast spiritual landscape of human development. In symphonic style, he describes the conquest of the physical plane in post-Atlantean civilizations, the relationships between the various cultural epochs, the human being's connections with the kingdoms of nature and the different planetary bodies, and the relationship of animal forms to 'the physiognomy of human passions'. Through this panoramic vision, we discover how the changed conditions of human consciousness call for a new spiritual understanding today. In her Introduction, Marie Steiner relates the special experience of being a member of Rudolf Steiner's audience for this timeless series of lectures: 'Enormous cosmic pictures were unfolded before the spiritual gaze of the listeners; insights were of such depths of ancient wisdom, views of distant futures of human and world development, that deepest devotion flowed through their hearts...' This new edition features a revised translation, introduction, notes and an index.

At the threshold that divides the elemental and etheric worlds, Are Thoresen encounters two spiritual entities - Vidar and Balder, 'guardians of the threshold' - whose task is to protect the spiritual border from uninitiated intruders. Building on previous reports, Encounters with Vidar offers startling new esoteric teachings, gleaned - through processes of spiritual knowledge - from these enigmatic gods. Here, Vidar and Balder emphasize the importance of clairaudience as opposed to clairvoyance (the latter particularly being open to attack from adversary beings). Through the process of working with the communications, the author begins to experience a transformation of his head chakras, leading to an awakening of 'spiritual ears'. Whilst clairvoyance is like reading the holy script, clairaudience is akin to hearing the holy script, he learns. --- Amongst the wealth of fresh insights revealed here are the 'fourth aspect of the soul' (or 'time-karma-Christ'); the task of eurythmy today; the whereabouts of the contents of the School of Spiritual Science; and the work of 'Vulcan beings' and other planetary entities. Thoresen offers reflections on his travels to western England (with its connections to Troy) and southern Spain (with its legacy of Moorish occupation). His intention is not to create new dogmas or beliefs, but to testify to the living reality of metaphysical dimensions of reality - and humanity's latent ability to access them.

'If we can bring nothing up out of ourselves except fear of the illnesses which surround us at the seat of an epidemic, and if we go to sleep at night filled with nothing but thoughts of this fear, then we create unconscious replicas, imaginations, which are drenched in fear. And this is an excellent method for nurturing bacteria...' - Rudolf Steiner Based on brief, pithy quotations from Rudolf Steiner's collected works, the 'spiritual perspectives' in this volume present core concepts on the subject of epidemics. These brief extracts do not claim to provide exhaustive treatment of the subject, but open up approaches to the complexity of Steiner's extraordinary world of ideas. Some readers will find these fragments sufficient stimulus in themselves, whilst others will use the source references as signposts towards deeper study and understanding.

What spiritual or esoteric practices took place within the mysterious and often controversial Knights Templar? Whilst little is known about this aspect of the Order's history, speculation and wild rumours continue to persist. Having taken the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the members of the Templar Order were required to live the life of other monastic orders. However, their remarkable rise to a successful elite community - followed by the insidious machinations and slander that led to their spectacular fall and destruction - suggests that they were involved in something more significant than straightforward medieval religious practices. There have been many theories as to whether their 'secret' involved material wealth and special treasure. But could it have been connected to a science of initiation - the knowledge, experience and understanding of spiritual dimensions that can enlighten the pupil on an esoteric path? In The Templar Spirit Margaret Jonas penetrates these questions, examining some of the various claims and revealing something of the esoteric practices and beliefs of the Order, including influences from other religious traditions. She presents her own research into the meaning of the mysterious 'head' that the Templars were accused of worshipping, and examines the historical figures that lent their wisdom and guidance to the founding of the Order.

'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.

Near the end of his life, Rudolf Steiner took up the task that was his special destiny to bring knowledge of reincarnation and karma to the West. Consequently, he gave more than eighty lectures in 1924 to explicitly reveal the destinies of various individuals from one life to the next. He explained how the general laws of karma work in individual cases and revealed many details of the karmic streams of the members of the Anthroposophical Society. These volumes constitute an immeasurable contribution to the understanding of reincarnation and karma and the tasks of the Anthroposophical Society in connection with the Archangel Michael. In volume five, Steiner discusses the difference between moon karma and sun karma, the influences of Christian and Islamic thinking, the transformation of inner human qualities from one life to the next, and much more.

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.

"Rudolf Steiner's model of a spiritualized medicine could hold the key for the next growth phase in Western medicine, if it is to survive, flourish, and become consistently and deeply therapeutic instead of merely palliative." -Richard Leviton, author of Imagination of Pentecost: Rudolf Steiner & Contemporary SpiritualityRudolf Steiner, a scientist by training, lectured and wrote, at different times on medical subjects and advised physicians on their work. His view of medicine was both unconventional and precise. He could describe-based on his highly developed powers of observation and his spiritual research-processes of health and disease that escape conventional methods of medical observation. In all his lectures to doctors and in his explanations of anthroposophic medicine, Steiner emphasized that his medical concepts are not intended to replace conventional Western medicine, but to extend it; diagnosis and healing methods are expanded to include our soul and spirit. In these broadly ranging talks, Steiner introduces fundamental principles of anthroposophically extended medicine. Some of the most remarkable insights that anthroposophy brings to medicine are contained in this volume. For example, Steiner points out that the heart is not a pump and that its motion is a consequence, not the cause, of rhythmic movements in human beings. Topics include: Health problems, such as hay fever, migraine, sclerosis, cancer, tuberculosis, typhoid, and childhood diseasesThe polarity between nerve and liver cellsThe functions of the spleen and the gallbladderThe three basic processes of sensory-nervous system, rhythmic system, and metabolic-limb systemRegenerative and degenerative processesThe true nature of the nervous systemPlus many suggestions for the use of minerals, plants, and artistic therapies in healing.This Collected Works edition contains a new introduction, a chronology of Rudolf Steiner's life, and an index.

The so-called 'supplementary exercises' - to be carried out alongside the 'review exercises' and meditation - are integral to the path of personal development presented by Rudolf Steiner. Together they form a means of experiencing the spiritual realm in full consciousness. Meditation enlivens thinking, the review exercises cultivate the will, whilst the supplementary exercises educate and balance feeling. Conscientiously practised, this path of self-knowledge and development has the effect of opening a source of inner strength and psychological health that soon make themselves felt in daily life. In six stages these exercises enable the practise of qualities that can be summarized as: control of thoughts, initiative of will, equanimity, positivity, open-mindedness and equilibrium of soul. When carried out regularly, they balance possible harmful effects of meditative practice and bring inner certainty and security to the soul. They are also of inestimable value in their own right due to their beneficial and wholesome effect on daily life. In this invaluable small book, the editor has drawn together virtually all Rudolf Steiner's statements on the supplementary exercises, supporting them with commentary and notes. With a chapter devoted to each exercise, they are described in detail and from different perspectives.

"A milestone in modern research on the the harmony of the spheres." - Novalis magazine "This book reignites the debate on the harmony of the spheres." - Das Goetheanum Is the solar system ordered, or is it simply the result of random and chaotic accidents? This book takes us on a powerful and compelling journey of discovery, revealing the celestial spheres' astonishingly complex patterns. The movements of the planets are found to correspond accurately with simple geometric figures and musical intervals, pointing to an exciting new perspective on the ancient idea of a "harmony of the spheres". Hartmut Warm's detailed presentation incorporates the distances, velocities and periods of conjunction of the planets, as well as the rotations of the Sun, Moon and Venus. Numerous graphics - including colour plates - illustrate the extraordinary beauty of the geometrical forms that result when the movements of several planets are viewed in relation to one another. In addition, the author describes and analyses the concepts of the "music of the spheres", with special consideration given to Johannes Kepler's revolutionary ideas. Current scientific beliefs about the origin of the universe and the solar system are explained, enabling the reader to understand fully how Warm's remarkable research supplements contemporary materialistic views of the cosmos. An appendix includes his mathematical and astronomical methods of calculation as well as detailed discussion of their accuracy and validity based on modern astronomical algorithms.

'The present age needs to understand that human beings must hold the balance between the two extremes, between the ahrimanic and the luciferic poles. People always tend to go in one direction... The Christ stands in the middle, holding the balance.' - Rudolf Steiner These eleven lectures were given in post-war Stuttgart against a backdrop of struggle and uncertainty - not only within society at large but also within the anthroposophical movement. Rudolf Steiner and his supporters were working to introduce 'threefold' social ideas and - given Steiner's public profile - were coming under increasing personal and sometimes physical attack. Steiner responds to this turbulent situation by revealing the spiritual background to the forces of decline working in contemporary civilization. He speaks of retrogressive powers - spiritual beings referred to as luciferic or ahrimanic - that work directly into human culture, manifesting, for example, in what he refers to as the 'initiation streams' of Western secret societies, the Church-allied impulse of Jesuitism and the Bolshevik force of Leninism. The spiritual agents of adversity also encourage polarised thinking and false opposites such as East verses West, materialism and mysticism, or knowledge and belief. Only the threefold principle - represented by Christ - allows us to create a balance in the midst of these existential conflicts. This freshly-reworked translation is complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Matthew Barton.

Within the Mystery cultures of ancient history, art, science and religion formed a unity that offered direction and spiritual nourishment to the broader society. Today, art, science and religion can again be reunited. However, as Marie Steiner indicates in her introduction to these lectures, these aspects of our culture need rejuvenation through fresh spiritual understanding and knowledge. Art cannot be renewed through compromise, but only by returning to the spiritual foundations of life. As she says: "The remedy lies in unlocking the wisdom of the Mysteries and presenting it to humanity in a form adapted to contemporary needs." In these wide-ranging lectures, Rudolf Steiner offers spiritual insight for the modern day into a revitalised world of the arts. His themes include: the relation of art to technology, the moral experience of the worlds of colour and music, the legendary Norwegian Dream Song of Olaf Asteson, and the relationship between the various arts of architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry, eurythmy and the human being.

The philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner was also a radical dramatist who wrote four lengthy and complex plays. The first of these, The Portal of Initiation, is rich in content and artistically presented, but leaves us with questions: Why is the first scene so long and many speeches so lengthy? Why are our usual expectations of drama not met? Was Steiner really a competent dramatist? In this essential guide, Trevor Dance suggests that the first step to appreciating The Portal of Initiation is to understand Steiner's methods. The play belongs to the tradition of Mystery Dramas from ancient times - artistic works intended as vehicles for inner development. Steiner thus combines aspects of Goethe's alchemical fable The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily with the spiritual growth of contemporary individuals - all in the broader context of reincarnation and karma. With accessibility in mind, the author provides a clear synopsis of each scene and introduces us to the characters - a collection of rustics, sophisticates, hierophants and spiritual entities. Their dilemmas and challenges take place on many layers of reality: from a room in Sophia's house to the exalted Sun Temple. Revealing the enigmas behind the creation and content of The Portal of Initiation, Dance enables us not only to enjoy the play, but also to love it. His lucid guide - the first of its kind - is an ideal introduction for both individual readers and study groups.

The unique scholarship and artistic sensitivity of Prof. Dr Hermann Beckh (1875-1937) is in the process of being rediscovered. The great linguist, Orientalist and Christian priest - an active music-lover who also composed - penned pioneer works on our musical system that are respected by musicians and musicologists. This volume brings together two revised versions of his best-loved books. The Essence of Tonality is written '...for musicians and music-lovers who, because of their particular musicality experience something spiritual - and for spiritual seekers and sensitive people who, because of their particular spirituality, have experienced a connection with music.' Beckh believed a spiritual view of tonality would ensure music's, and humanity's, future. The author elucidates the correspondence of the circle of fifths (the keys) to the zodiac. Research should be directed towards the twelve vital, spiritual key-centres, as expressing the cosmic rhythms in which we all live, rather than the abstract twelve chromatic notes of atonality. In The Parsifal Christ-Experience, Beckh's original insights throw new and powerful light on the search for meaning in our age, for a knowledge of the heart. In the poetic libretto and remarkable music of his final creation, Wagner - acknowledged by Bruckner as 'the Master' - presents the Grail legend and its imagery. The psychological drama and its ultimate solution provide insights to anyone who is prepared to reflect on inner experience. Through Beckh's references to Wagner's own letters, as well as a remarkable letter from Nietzsche, the reader gains knowledge of the true nature of Wagner and his work.

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.

'How can our souls unite with the etheric Christ, experienced in the etheric world since the end of the last century? What steps should we take, in the second century of the age of Michael, to unite with Him?' At the centre of humanity's evolution stands the Mystery of Golgotha, through which the Christ impulse entered the earth. Anthroposophy, said Rudolf Steiner, was given at the beginning of the last century to prepare for the second major Christ event - the etheric Second Coming - beginning in 1933. This Event is the portal that leads to the mighty and transformative happenings taking place in the etheric world right now, enabling us to meet the etheric Christ, Michael and Anthroposophia. At the heart of this book is an existential question. Early in his anthroposophical work, Ben-Aharon came to realize that without the light of spiritual science, the meeting with the etheric Christ remained simply a personal experience. Likewise, without the new life forces streaming from the etheric Christ, anthroposophy was merely a body of knowledge, frozen in time. Both needed each other. But how was that mutually-enlivening bridge to be built? Speaking candidly of his personal spiritual path and inner struggles of consciousness, Ben-Aharon tackles this fundamental dilemma as a prelude to the forthcoming, second edition of his book The New Experience of the Supersensible. Contents include: The Ur-Phenomena of the Modern Christ Experience, Paul's Christ Experience and the Birth of Christian Platonism; The Michaelic Yoga; The Platonic-Aristotelian Essence Exchange at the End of the Twentieth Century; The Meeting with the Etheric Christ; The Abyss and the Event of the Threshold; The Knowledge Drama of the Second Coming; The Meeting with Michael; The Meeting with Anthroposophia.