Moral preaching cannot establish morality. Only by delving into the hidden secrets of life can we find its moral sources. Humanity has always manifested moral life. In ancient India, for instance, morality lay in devotion to the spirit: in Europe, the cardinal virtue was courage. To understand the relationship between these, however, the evolution of consciousness must be taken into account. Originally, morality was a gift of the gods, a part of human nature, but errors, deviations, a falling away have occurred in the course of evolution. Nevertheless, something divine still underlies human nature. In this short, much-loved cycle of three lectures, Rudolf Steiner, using the example of St. Francis of Assisi, indicates the sources for the recovery of a living morality. In ancient times, some version of the caste system ruled. Then the Buddha came with his teaching of equality and compassion. This teaching was particularly suited to Europe. And thus, "some centuries into the Christian era," on the shores of the Black Sea, an esoteric school was established where Buddha's teaching was interpenetrated with the Christian impulse. Two streams flowed out of this school: a more Buddhist stream of equality and brotherhood, and a stream of Christic morality. St. Francis came from this school, permeated by outer Christ forces. Rudolf Steiner explains how the spiritual world was connected with his coming. St. Francis exemplifies morality as the middle path. We see a warrior nature transformed into the expression of mercy, compassion, and love. Rudolf Steiner shows the transformation of the virtues through the evolution of consciousness and, above all, through the incarnation of Christ in the Mystery of Golgotha. Since then, morality - if it is true morality - works to build up Christ's being. Therefore Francis sought to live a Christ-like life, seeking an intense personal relationship to Christ and the Cross.

The two contradicting genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels have long puzzled biblical scholars. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research led him to the controversial theological conclusion that historically there existed two Jesus boys, born of two holy families. These two boys, he said, were necessary as part of the spiritual preparation of forming a suitable human body for the incarnation of Christ into the earthly realm. Both apocryphal texts and the writings of the Essenes - as discovered at Qumran by the Dead Sea - now appear to support this conception, with references to Messianic figures from both royal and priestly lines. Various authors have developed Rudolf Steiner's observations - first presented in the early twentieth century - although much of this literature has lacked the rigour of accurate and broad scholarship. The Two Jesus Boys is not simply a derivative rehash of these previous publications. Rather, it offers a fresh investigation of primary sources, coupled with an objective determination to allow the facts to speak for themselves. Christoph Rau thus comes to the unavoidable conclusion that Steiner's presentation of the chronology of the two births needs revision; furthermore, the most recent discoveries and interpretations of Essene scrolls reveal that the Jewish sect expected not one but three Messiahs. Rau quotes from and analyses numerous documents from the landscape of early Christianity and Judaism. His findings provide a secure foundation for the historical existence of two Jesus boys in the prelude to Christ's incarnation on earth, as well as a revelation of the Essenes' long expectation of three Messiahs.

Are you ready to begin the process of making yourself a new etheric body and individuality? In the last century, Rudolf Steiner issued a challenge for practitioners of western spiritual science. Would it be possible to develop a new form of cognitive, or Michaelic, yoga? In contrast to the eastern yogis of old - who practiced the spiritualization of inhalation and exhalation - such contemporary yogic practice would involve a spiritualization of thinking as well as a transformation of perceptions and sensations. In Cognitive Yoga, Dr Ben-Aharon responds to that call, developing the entire modern yogic process and describing it in remarkable detail. Through the methods presented, committed practitioners of anthroposophy can create a living framework for spiritual research through a fully spiritualized thinking accompanied by a complete renewal of the experiences of perception and sensation as well as of the human body itself.Included in the contents of this extraordinary book is a comprehensive guide to the spiritualization of the senses and how this leads to a transmutation of the deepest and most unconscious bodily processes and functions. Cognitive Yoga culminates in a pioneering description of a completely individualized meeting with the etheric Christ in the etheric world - the most important spiritual and human experience that people can have in our time and over the millennia to come. This seminal work, built on decades of first-hand research, provides tangible evidence that western spiritual schooling is not only alive and well, but also full of potential for future development. Ben-Aharon offers a fully formulated and practical guide to a knowledge of the present revelations of the spiritual world.

`Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying: "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him."' These words begin a story that will be familiar to many, whether from images on Christmas cards or school nativity plays, or more directly from Christian teaching. As often with images associated with Christmas, they have the power to evoke all kinds of feelings, from joy and hope to sorrow and doubt. But what do we really know of the birth of Jesus, and who were the mysterious wise men that are reported to have visited him? In this freshly-collated anthology of Rudolf Steiner's lectures, complemented with illuminating commentary by editor Margaret Jonas, we are offered solutions to the riddles surrounding Jesus's birth and the seemingly conflicting accounts within Christian scripture. Could there have been two different births - in other words, two infants, both named Jesus, born to two sets of parents? From the mystery of the birth, we are led to a study of the three wise men - who are mentioned in only one of the four Gospel accounts. Who were they, what was their teaching, and what was the meaning of the star they followed? And, why did they offer gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus? The Three Wise Men offers solutions to the enigma of the identity and spiritual backgrounds of these magisterial figures and also provides suggestions as to their possible future roles in the drama of human development. Featuring colour images, this original, thought-provoking book is a wonderful gift for anyone seeking to understand the birth of Jesus and the wise men from the East.

"Occult events that took place between the Christ and the community of his disciples form a significant part not only of the four Gospels but also of the Christ Mystery or Golgotha Mystery itself. Today, many human souls are still moved by this apostolic community, by how the disciples accompanied Christ Jesus, by their place in history (as an esoteric circle charged with an exoteric task), by their failures, and by the great new dawn that showed them the way after Pentecost...For three years, they were close to Christ, shared his life, and received a great deal of instruction from him, often in their own intimate circle away from public view. They were there when Christ performed healings and even when he prayed.... "Rudolf Steiner once said that we in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries must live with the 'etheric Christ' in the Earth's aura in the same way that 'the disciples once lived with Christ Jesus on the physical plane.' If this is so, it is essential for us to focus on the community of Christ's disciples. Rudolf Steiner himself made major contributions to illuminating the depths of the disciples' relationship and life with the Christ, both during the three years of his earthly life and after the Resurrection. An essential element of Steiner's life work was to apply 'anthroposophically oriented cognition' to events of the beginning of the Christian era in order to 'bring the Gospels' deeper content to the light of day.' He spoke in detail about the Christ's community of disciples in many lecture cycles, and, in his lectures on the Fifth Gospel, he shed light on this community from the perspective of the processes of human consciousness that were intimately involved in events at the beginning of the new era and inscribed in the chronicle of evolution.... "In his lectures on the Fifth Gospel and elsewhere, Rudolf Steiner opened up many perspectives that help us understand what took place between Christ and his disciples. This book's purpose is to make those perspectives available and accessible. Although all of Steiner's statements have been published, they are widely scattered among his lectures and remain unknown to many individuals deeply committed to the community of Christ's disciples and to anthroposophical Christology. In view of the challenges to consciousness we face in modern times-including those that deal with Christianity and the Christ Event itself-it seems urgently important to present details of the positive and often illuminating results of Rudolf Steiner's research." As is true of other works by Peter Selg, Christ and the Disciples is one of those books that sharpens the reader's mind to cut through the myriad of representation (and misrepresentations) of Rudolf Steiner's teachings, clarifying many otherwise-knotty issues.

Written in the form of question and answer, "The Key to Theosophy" is an excellent introduction for the inquirer. After the publication of "Isis Unveiled" and "The Secret Doctrine", the author was deluged with questions about the human constitution, spiritual and psychological; the mysteries of periodic rebirths; and, the difference between fate, destiny, free will, and karma. These and many other questions on the basic theosophical concepts are answered simply and directly. The work is enhanced by a 60-page glossary of philosophical terms drawn from Sanskrit, Hebrew, and classical literature.

Ernst Katz was one of the foremost teachers of Anthroposophy in America during the second half of the twentieth century. He was professor of physics at the University of Michigan and, quite likely, the only professor in the country who taught courses in both natural science and "spiritual" science at the university level. He also led anthroposophic study groups, which attracted people from all around southern Michigan and, ultimately, enriched the spiritual lives of people from coast to coast. In the early 1960s, Dr. Katz began writing his "teaching essays," his response to the many questions through the years intended to help students comprehend the profound wisdom contained in the major works of Anthroposophy. Dr. Katz's strength was his ability to explain complex esoteric ideas in terms of clear analogies, taking examples from everyday life. He became a master at writing explanatory guides for some of the most important spiritual-scientific concepts. Core Anthroposophy makes available Dr. Katz's carefully constructed teaching essays. It offers present and future students of Anthroposophy with a valuable and accessible resource for better understanding the esoteric teachings of Rudolf Steiner.

"Rudolf Steiner's Riddles of Philosophy: Presented in an Outline of Its History is not a history of philosophy in the usual sense of the word. It does not give a history of the philosophical systems, nor does it present a number of philosophical problems historically. Its real concern touches on something deeper than this, on riddles rather than problems. Philosophical concepts, systems and problems are, to be sure, to be dealt with in this book. But it is not their history that is to be described here. Where they are discussed they become symptoms rather than the objects of the search. The search itself wants to reveal a process that is overlooked in the usual history of philosophy. It is the mysterious process in which philosophical thinking appears in human history. Philosophical thinking as it is here meant is known only in Western civilization. Oriental philosophy has its origin in a different kind of consciousness, and it is not to be considered in this book. "What is new here is the treatment of the history of philosophic thinking as a manifestation of the evolution of human consciousness. Such a treatment requires a fine sense of observation. Not merely the thoughts must be observed, but behind them the thinking in which they appear. "To follow Steiner in his subtle description of the process of the metamorphosis of this thinking in the history of philosophy we should remember he sees the human consciousness in an evolution. It has not always been what it is now, and what it is now it will not be in the future. This is a fundamental conception of anthroposophy." --From the introduction by Fritz C. A. Koelln:

Dr. Zieve presents a model for health care that shows us how to go beyond the limitations of the present model and develop a new approach to health care that embraces and synthesizes the emerging models of integrative medicine, energy medicine, and energy psychology. This guide is for both those wish to provide a more complete form of health care for their patients and those individuals who are prepared to make the necessary changes in daily life in order to initiate or maintain a movement toward healing. This includes understanding the daily disciplines of a healing process, the deeper psychological processes of illness, and the creative arts in their therapeutic roles.

'The spiritual-scientific investigator has...to transform the soul itself into an instrument; then - when his soul is awakened and he can see into a spiritual world - he experiences, on a higher level, a similar great moment as blind people do when, having been operated upon, they look at a world they have not seen before.' In a key series of lectures on personal development, Rudolf Steiner explains that the central mission of spiritual science is to enable people to ascend, in full consciousness, to a knowledge of spiritual realities. But given that the means to achieve spiritual perception are now widely available, there is the danger that some individuals will gain access to the spiritual world whilst harbouring impure motives. This can lead to a distorted understanding and vision of that world. Steiner's emphasis, therefore, is on the preparatory steps - the metamorphosis and purification of the human soul - required for achieving true spiritual enlightenment. Life itself teaches and prepares us for progress, and anthroposophy explains and brings this to consciousness. In some of his most lucid lectures, Steiner describes the missions of anger, truth and reverence, the significance of human character, the meaning of asceticism and illness, and the phenomenon of egoism. He also clarifies the differences between Buddhism and Christianity, describes the goal of spiritual science, and makes some esoteric observations about the moon. Throughout the talks, Steiner refers to many significant historical figures, including St Augustine, Coleridge, Leonardo da Vinci, Madame Blavatsky, Goethe, Homer, and Shakespeare.

In the aftermath of the devastating First World War, Rudolf Steiner gained a reputation as a leading social thinker. One mainstream reviewer of his book Towards Social Renewal referred to it as `... perhaps the most widely read of all books on politics appearing since the war'. Steiner's proposals for the reconstruction of Europe and the rebuilding of society's crumbling social structure were thus publicly discussed as a serious alternative to both Communism and Capitalism. Steiner's `threefold' ideas involved the progressive independence of society's economic, political and cultural institutions. This would be realised through the promotion of human rights and equality in political life, freedom in the cultural realm and associative cooperation in economics or business. In this carefully assembled anthology of Steiner's lectures and writing, Stephen E. Usher gathers key concepts and insights to form a coherent picture of social threefolding. Apart from fundamental lectures on the theme, the volume also features the full content of Steiner's unique Memoranda of 1917. The original texts are complemented with the Editor's introduction, commentary and notes.

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.

In two related studies, Peter Selg tracks the groundbreaking of first Goetheanum from September 20, 1913, in the context of the so-called Michael movement, the primary active pulse brought by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 that explicitly indicates the anthroposophic movement and its formal society. The author shows the fundamental importance of this beginning in Dornach. He illuminates the fateful goal of the "School of Spiritual Science" with Rudolf Steiner's karma lectures, not only providentially in sense that it involved individualities, but also with regard to the future progress of human civilization. This monograph builds on Peter Selg's book Rudolf Steiner's Foundation Stone Meditation: And the Destruction of the Twentieth Century and Sergei O. Prokofieff's Rudolf Steiner's Sculptural Group: A Revelation of the Spiritual Purpose of Humanity and the Earth. Originally published in German as Grundstein zur Zukunft. Vom Schicksal der Michael-Gemeinschaft by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, 2013.

'Those who observe human nature with regard to the smallest things will find that everyday experiences can also lead to an understanding of the greatest actualities...' In a refreshingly practical series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks about the nature of the human soul and how it can be metamorphosed and raised to a higher consciousness. He studies the spiritual significance of various expressions of human nature, including laughing and weeping, sickness and health, error and mental disorder, positivity and negativity, and conscience. Steiner also discusses the nature of prayer, mysticism, the mission of art, and the significance of language. Throughout the talks he refers to many key historical figures, including Zarathustra, Socrates, Plato, Homer, Wagner, Goethe, Hegel and Angelus Silesius. These inspiring lectures form the conclusion to "Transforming the Soul, Volume 1", but can also be read independently.

The focus of this book is the spiritual work in the "school"-the community-of Michael. What does this mean? At the end of the eighteenth century, the Archangel Michael revealed the new mystery that has manifested on Earth as spiritual science, or anthroposophy. Its essence involves the renewal of our knowledge of the mysteries of karma and human destiny. Those who are drawn to this school have a special relationship to the human faculty of thinking-their inner feeling for truth has the strength of iron. This feeling for truth helps them to become companions of Michael at the threshold of the spiritual world. These talks deal with the spiritual path of anthroposophy in its Christian Rosicrudian aspect. Tomberg speaks openly and honestly about meditation, the various stages of consciousness (imagination, inspiration, and intuition), the "guardian of the threshold," and the esoteric trials one encounters along the way. He concludes by describing the life of Rudolf Steiner as the life of a Christian initiate.

Why is it so difficult actually to understand and implement the "intentions of the Christmas Conference" (in Rudolf Steiner's words), which represent a very concrete answer to the Anthroposophical Society's identity crisis'? - Peter Selg More than 100 years after its founding, the Anthroposophical Society faces serious questions - some of an existential nature - regarding its purpose and tasks in the present day. On 30 March 2012, in the course of the Society's Annual General Meeting in Dornach, both Sergei Prokofieff and Peter Selg gave lectures in which they addressed difficult issues relating to the General Anthroposophical Society and its global headquarters, the Goetheanum in Switzerland. These lectures were met with a mixture of enthusiastic support and stern disapproval. They are reproduced here in full - together with supplementary material that helps broaden and deepen their themes - in order for each and every interested individual to have access to them. 'The intention of my lecture was to draw attention to the fact that the recent development of the Goetheanum is no longer heading in the right direction; rather, it is heading in a direction that can be considered neither in the spirit intended by Rudolf Steiner, nor of service to anthroposophy. Before it is too late, this direction must be altered...Otherwise, the Goetheanum is in danger of being degraded to spiritual "insignificance", and of becoming a mere combination of museum and conference centre.' - Sergei O. Prokofieff

'We must eradicate root and branch any fear and dread in our soul concerning the future that is coming towards us...We must develop composure with regard to all the feelings and sensations we have about the future; we must anticipate with absolute equanimity whatever may be coming towards us, thinking only that whatever it may be will be brought to us by the wisdom-filled guidance of the universe.' - 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 fear. 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.