Gertrude Reif Hughes, an anthroposophist of many years, offers her insights for practicing important exercises, verses, and meditations given by Rudolf Steiner to his esoteric students.

Now what kind of approach by the reader did THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY count on? It had to assume a special way of reading. It expected the reader, as he read, to undergo the sort of inner experience that, in an external sense, is really just waking up out of sleep in the morning. The feeling one should have about it is such as to make one say, "My relationship to the world in passive thoughts was, on a higher level, that of a person who lies asleep. Now I am waking up." It is like knowing, at the moment of awakening, that one has been lying passively in bed, letting nature have her way with one's body. But then one begins to be inwardly active. One relates one's senses actively to what is going on in the color permeated, sounding world about one. One links one's own bodily activity to one's intentions. The reader of The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity should experience something very like this waking moment of transition from passivity to activity, though of course on a higher level. He should be able to say, "Yes, I have certainly thought thoughts before. But my thinking took the form of just letting thoughts flow and carry me along. Now, little by little, I am beginning to be inwardly active in them." - from Rudolf Steiner's AWAKENING TO COMMUNITY

The first volume of a projected four-volume series explores the body's relationship to soul and spirit on the basis of Rudolf Steiner's insights into the workings of the spiritual world. An extensive discussion of developmental disorders and childhood diseases is followed by an in-depth exploration of the polarity of inflammation and sclerosis and the biochemistry and pathology of nutrition and metabolic disorders.

11 lectures, various cities, January-May, 1909 (CW 109)These talks reveal a particular aspect of how humankind have been guided spiritually throughout history--by the life forces and astral bodies of the great initiates and avatars that were preserved, duplicated, and interwoven with the leading personalities of history. Steiner gives numerous examples of this process, but he says that such inspired people are rare today. Nevertheless, we have the possibility of elevating ourselves in the future to the point where we can receive into ourselves the "I-being" of the Christ, which is indeed our greatest goal--"not I but Christ in me." Contents: * The Principle of Spiritual Economy in Connection with Questions of Reincarnation * Christianity in Human Evolution, Leading Individualities, and Avatar Beings * More Intimate Aspects of Reincarnation * Results of Spiritual Scientific Investigations of the Evolution of Humanity * On the Occasion of the Dedication of the Francis of Assisi Branch * The Macrocosmic and Microcosmic Fire: The Spiritualization of Breath and Blood * The Event of Golgotha -- The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail * Ancient Revelations and Learning: How to Ask Modern Questions * The God of the Alpha and the God of the Omega * From Buddha to Christ