Replete with fresh immediacy, rich spiritual content, innovation and occasional humour, these talks were given at a time when Rudolf Steiner was preparing for independence from the Theosophical Society. Alongside the much-loved lectures ‘Nervousness and Ego Development’ – in which Steiner shares practical exercises for coping with contemporary life’s challenges – and ‘Love and Its Significance in the World’, the collection finds a focal point in descriptions of the ‘Three Soul Paths to Christ’. The first of these is via the Gospels, the second through ‘Inner Experience’ and the third ‘Initiation’, which Steiner characterizes as a path transcending religion. He further elaborates these themes in a lecture entitled, ‘Mysteries of the Kingdoms of Heaven in Parables and in Real Form’. Elijah, John the Baptist, Raphael and Novalis form a golden thread throughout, appearing as a fourfold herald of a true Christianity of the future. A moving yet astringent tribute to the founder of Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky, on the tenth anniversary of her death, adds the Christian verities not embraced by Blavatsky during her lifetime, and two stirring talks that set the mood for Christmastide – via St Matthew, Eudocia and St Luke – round off the volume with paeans to Novalis. The lectures are complemented with an introduction by Margaret Jonas, detailed notes and an index.

The Doorway of Initiation – The Trial of the Soul – The Guardian of the Threshold – The Souls Awaken Rudolf Steiner’s four modern mystery dramas are powerful portrayals of the complex laws of reincarnation and karma, transporting us to landscapes of soul and spirit where supra-sensory beings are visible, active and influential. Through perception of these hidden worlds, we are given tools to comprehend the background to the struggles we face in everyday life – both in human relationships and in our attempts to practise spiritual development. Written between the years 1910 and 1913, during periods of intense inner and outer work, the dramas are powerful testimonies to Steiner’s artistic creativity. By manifesting soul and spirit forms on stage, they foreshadow a dramatic art of the future. Rudolf Steiner planned for all four mystery dramas to be performed in August 1923, but this was no longer possible because of the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve, 1922. They were eventually performed together for the first time in 1930 and since then have been staged regularly, in many languages, throughout the world. This fresh rendering into English by Richard Ramsbotham also features an extensive introduction by him.

8 lectures, Koberwitz, June 7-20, 1924 (CW 327) The audio book, complete and unabridged (10 CD set), is read by respected actor and speech teacher Peter Bridgmont, author of Liberation of the Actor When Rudolf Steiner gave these lectures eighty years ago, industrial farming was on the rise and organic methods were being replaced in the name of science, efficiency, and technology. With the widespread alarm over food quality in recent years, and with the growth of the organic movement and its mainstream acceptance, perceptions are changing. The qualitative aspect of food is on the agenda again, and in this context Steiner's only course of lectures on agriculture is critical to the current debate. With these talks, Steiner created and launched "biodynamic" farming--a form of agriculture that has come to be regarded as the best organically produced food. However, the agriculture Steiner speaks of here is much more than organic--it involves working with the cosmos, with the earth, and with spiritual beings. To facilitate this, Steiner prescribes specific "preparations" for the soil, as well as other distinct methods born from his profound understanding of the material and spiritual worlds. He presents a comprehensive picture of the complex dynamic relationships at work in nature and gives basic indications of the practical measures needed to bring them into full play. These lectures are reprinted here in the "classic" translation made by Rudolf Steiner's English interpreter, George Adams. This edition also features a preface by Steiner's colleague the medical doctor Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, as well as eight color plates. This is the course that began the biodynamic movement. Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course is the essential work for anyone wanting to understand and use Steiner's methods of food production. This book is a translation from German of Geisteswissenschaftliche Grundlagen zum Gedeihen der Landwirtschaft. Landwirtschaftlicher Kursus (GA 327).

Austrian philosopher, playwright, and artist Rudolf Steiner (1861 1925) is perhaps best known as an educational philosopher and reformer, the founder of Steiner (or Waldorf) schools located around the world. These schools' philosophy represents the priorities Steiner discusses in Theosophy: the development of body, soul, and spirit. Goethe was an important influence on Steiner, and he edited the poet's scientific works (1889 1896). Steiner was an active member and leader of the German branch of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, eventually broke away from theosophy, as he developed his own spiritual philosophy termed 'anthroposophy'; this philosophical movement asserted the potential of realizing a spiritual reality through cognition. This 1910 translation by Elizabeth Douglas Shields is of the book's third German edition; it was first published in 1904. This work will be of particular interest to historians of philosophy, of spiritual movements and of education.

"Did Rudolf Steiner dream these things? Did he dream them as they once occurred, at the beginning of all time? They are, for sure, far more astonishing than the demiurges and serpents and bulls found in other cosmogonies.' -- Jorge Luis BorgesRudolf Steiner recorded his view of the world in numerous books. He also gave more than 5,000 lectures, in which he explained his ideas, using only minimal notes. When describing especially difficult subjects, Steiner frequently resorted to illustrating what he was saying with colored chalk on a large blackboard. After his earlier lectures, the drawings were erased and irretrievably lost. After the autumn of 1919, however, thick black paper was used to cover the blackboards so that the drawings could be rolled up and saved.The Trustees of Rudolf Steiner's Estate in Dornach, Switzerland, possess more than a thousand such drawings. A selection of these drawings was first shown to the general public in 1992, and since then, exhibitions in Europe, America, and Japan have generated much interest in Steiner's works.

‘As soon as you start thinking about the living sphere, you have to make the thought itself mobile. The thought must begin to gain inner mobility through your own power.’ – Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Steiner divides these absorbing, previously-untranslated lectures into three sections, opening with ‘The Value of Thinking’. Here, he discusses the quality of thinking itself, contrasting ‘dead physical cognition’, ‘living imaginative cognition’, ‘inspired cognition’, and the latter’s connection with previous periods of human and planetary development. He clarifies how ‘visionary clairvoyance’ can relate to individual intelligence, and also speaks of the submergence of ideas – the effects of sad or joyful experiences and feelings – into the unconscious. These can be ‘life-promoting’ or ‘life-inhibiting’. In the second section he speaks about ‘The Relationship between Spiritual Science and Natural Science’, using a contemporary publication as a case study for how texts can be fruitfully analysed. He characterizes the spiritual-scientific method as allowing facts or personalities to speak for themselves, rather than making personal judgements. Finally, he deliberates on ‘Episodic Observations about Space, Time, Movement’ – kinetic formula and concepts such as the speed of light – introducing, directly from his spiritual observations, notions such as ‘light ether’. The lectures are supplemented with an introduction, comprehensive notes, line drawings and an index.

This collection introduces Rudolf Steiner's vision of architecture as a culmination of the arts. Such an architecture unites sculpture, painting, and engraving as well as drama, music and dance -- a vital synthesis of all the arts working in cooperation out of a common ideal to awaken each human being to his or her unique self and task in life.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, Steiner's ideas did not remain abstract. Within his lifetime he was able to design and construct a number of buildings, including his architectural masterpiece, the Goetheanum -- a center for culture and arts near Basle, Switzerland. In these lectures Steiner describes, with reference to the Goetheanum, the importance of an architecturally coherent and integrated community, and how this in turn affects social unity and harmony.

Includes eight color plates and 30 black & white illustrations. A valuable collection for students of architecture, the arts, social science, or anybody seeking deeper spiritual understanding.

‘Christianity was bound at first to be a matter of faith and is only now beginning, very gradually, to be a matter of knowledge.’ – Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Steiner gave 70 lectures on the four canonical Gospels, characterizing the distinctive contribution of each of the evangelists. The Gospel of Mark is a ‘cosmic’ text that calls for an astronomical as well as a human reading. It is also critical for understanding the evolution of Christianity, which depends on knowledge of ‘the Mystery of Golgotha’ (Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection and ascension). ‘We are only at the beginning of Christian evolution’, Steiner states, reiterating that its further development will depend on spiritual knowledge. In order to develop such cognition, ‘most important of all is reverence for the great truths and the feeling that we can approach them only with awe and veneration’. Many profound spiritual truths are indeed revealed in these lectures. Among the panoply of topics covered are: ‘Mystery Teachings in St Mark’s Gospel’; ‘The Son of God and the Son of Man’; ‘The Symbolic Language of the Macrocosm’; ‘The Moon-religion of Yahweh’ and ‘The Penetration of the Buddha-Mercury Stream into Rosicrucianism’. This thoroughly revised edition includes notes and appendices by Frederick Amrine and an extensive introduction by Robert McDermott.

Barely four months after the end of the First World War, with Europe in chaos and exhausted from years of conflict, Rudolf Steiner offered these lectures of hope and renewal. Despite continuing social troubles around the world, he knew that human beings had an opportunity to organize society in a new way. Steiner responded to this prospect by giving suggestions for creating innovative social structures that are in harmony with people’s inner needs. Humanity as a whole is now facing a great challenge in that it is ‘crossing the threshold’ to the spiritual world, says Steiner. This means that an evolutionary separation is taking place within the human soul between thinking, feeling and will. For this to happen in a healthy way, the outer make-up of society should mirror and support our internal evolution. Steiner points to the urgent need for ‘threefolding’ – a separation between the workings of culture, economics and politics. This is a subconscious demand, he asserts – not for thinking up cranky ideas within a sect, but for shedding light on what is needed universally! These important lectures cover numerous themes, including the overcoming of class distinctions, the administration of money, technology and capitalism, the antisocial tendency of nationalism, and the future management of international relations.

Published in 1904 (CW 10) Rudolf Steiner's foundational handbook for spiritual and personal development has grown more modern with time, though his methods remain clearly distinguishable from many current paths of inner work. First, Steiner's method is based on the clarity of thought normally associated with scientific research. Instead of denying clear thinking, his aim is to extend it beyond its present limitations. Second, Steiner recognizes--as do all genuine paths--that the way to spiritual experience is arduous and dangerous and calls for self-control in thought, word, and action. The human being comprises a unity, and we cannot develop knowledge without a corresponding development of feeling and will. Steiner predicted that humanity would begin to experience a longing for forms of experience that transcended intellectual, materialistic thinking. More than a hundred years after the first publication of this book, countless means are offered for achieving transcendental experience, including Eastern meditation practices, channeling, remote viewing, and astral projection. Moreover, there has been a huge increase in the number of people who report various suprasensory perceptions, such as near-death experiences and meetings with angels. In this context, Steiner's key spiritual guidebook is needed more than ever, given its unique, precise instructions for inner training, its protective exercises, and its indications for staying grounded and centered. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds begins with the preconditions for personal development and guides the reader through the stages of initiation, its practical aspects, and its effects. This volume is a translation from German of the written work Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der hoeheren Welten? (GA 10).

Speaking towards the end of the catastrophic Great War, Rudolf Steiner reveals the spiritual roots of the crises of our times. Since 1879, he says, human minds have been influenced by backward angels, 'spirits of darkness', who - following their defeat in battle with Archangel Michael - were forced out of the heavens and 'fell' to the earth. This war in the spiritual worlds had consequences, and it is essential that people today are sufficiently awake to the retrogressive influences around them. In a positive sense, we can choose freely to engage with the spirits of light, who seek to emancipate human beings from bonds of race, nation and blood. In this extraordinary series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner throws light on hidden aspects of world affairs. With the Bolshevik Revolution having just taken place, he discusses events in Russia and humanity's attempts to build theoretically perfect social orders. Steiner also speaks about the roles and spiritual backgrounds of significant individuals, such as the mystics Johann Valentin Andreae, Vladimir Soloviev and Saint-Martin, the American and British politicians Woodrow Wilson and Lloyd George, and world-historic figures including Charles Darwin and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The new edition of this classic work features a revised translation, notes and extensive appendices by editor Frederick Amrine, plus a new introduction by Christopher Schaefer.

'Suppose you have seen an event, have formed an idea about it, and you say something that is not true - in other words, something that is a lie. Then what flows from the object is correct and what flows from you is false and this collision is a terrible explosion; and each time you do this, you attach a gruesome being to your karma which you cannot get rid of again until you have made good what you lied about.' - Rudolf Steiner In a previously-untranslated volume of lectures, Rudolf Steiner presents shattering insights regarding the interaction of human and spiritual beings. He speaks, for example, about how perfumes can give certain spirits access to people on earth, or how phantoms, spectres and demons can be created through human deficiencies - or even how the arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and music allow 'good' or 'hideous' entities to enter our world. As he states: 'Learning about the effects of spiritual beings is of much greater help than moral preaching. A future humanity will know what it is creating through lies, hypocrisy and slander.' The lectures are divided into two broad thematic groups: the first relating to the inner path of knowledge and its relation to the yearly festivals, and the second focusing on the work of elemental beings in our everyday world. The 18 lectures are complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Christian von Arnim.

Your favourite occupation? Pondering and musing. Your idea of happiness? Pondering and musing. Your most extreme aversion? Pedantry and a sense of order. Of what are you afraid? Punctuality. The above quotations are extracted from a questionnaire filled in by a young man in his late twenties. That person, Rudolf Steiner, was later to found the spiritual science of anthroposophy and the many practical disciplines that arose from it. Eventually, he would write his Autobiography, although its composition would be interrupted by his unexpected death. This little volume is an essential complement to Steiner's unfinished autobiography. It gathers a wealth of personal testimonies - including lectures, resumes, notebook entries, a questionnaire, as well as biographical notes written for Edouard Schure - much of which has not been previously published in English. The various materials, together with rare photographs, have been expertly collated and introduced by Walter Kugler.

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.

This course of lectures was given at a pivotal point in the development of the anthroposophic movement. Just months before, an act of arson had caused the destruction of the first Goetheanum, and its darkened ruins appeared to reflect the fragmentations within the Anthroposophical Society. Divisions were appearing amongst members and friends, with individual energies increasingly routed to external initiatives and practical projects. It became apparent that a new impetus was needed. In this turbulent context, Steiner delivers these lectures in a calm, lively and informal style. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, he says, a yearning for spiritual nourishment arose within Western culture, and organizations such as the Theosophical Society gained in popularity. Despite his direct involvement in these events, Steiner describes in dispassionate tones how the spiritual movements behind theosophy and anthroposophy were able to work together harmoniously, before an unavoidable separation took place. Steiner's expansive review of the anthroposophic movement is an important narrative account of the developing Western spiritual tradition and the history of the Mysteries. These lectures also offer rare perceptions of the life and philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. Those who identify with the movement he founded will discover revelatory insights to its background and possibilities for its future development within the broader evolution of humankind.

In this series of previously-untranslated lectures, Rudolf Steiner describes how myths and legends portray humanity's most ancient evolutionary and spiritual history. Folklore presents ancient mystical wisdom in the form of stories - clothed in pictures by initiates - that enable individuals to understand their content in a more intellectual form at a later time. Focusing on Greek and Germanic mythology, the lectures in the first part of this volume cover the chronicles of Prometheus, Daedalus and Icarus, Parzival and Lohengrin, the Argonauts and the Odyssey, and the heroic dragon-slayer Siegfried. From these focal points, Rudolf Steiner discusses a variety of themes - from the mysteries of the Druids and the founding of Rome to the esoteric background of Wolfram von Eschenbach; from good and evil and the unjust death sentence on Socrates to the significance of marriage. The second part of this book features lectures on the nature and significance of the musical dramas of Richard Wagner. Wagner's works, from his earliest attempts to his most mature opera Parsifal, are discussed from spiritual viewpoints. Although Wagner did not have a fully conscious awareness of the deeper meanings of his compositions, Steiner suggests that his shaping of Germanic legends was driven by an instinctive, creative and artistic certainty that accords with deep occult truths.

Speaking during the early stages of the First World War – with the Western Front just miles away and thousands of young men dying – Rudolf Steiner focuses on the subject of death. In particular, he addresses the difficult question of why some people die prematurely, particularly in youth. Steiner also speaks of the deaths of three of his acquaintances, having made contact with their living souls in the afterlife. He voices their own words and describes the first stages of their journeys after death. Rudolf Steiner strikes a second chord with the description of the task of Central Europe in the context of the various ‘Folk-souls’. The influences of these spiritual entities are reflected in the culture and life of various peoples, but do not promote nationalism. In fact, nationalism can only be transcended when we understand and recognize our differences. This approach is based on phenomenology rather than value-judgements. The third main theme running through these lectures relates to understanding the impulses and connections active in history. Reaching beyond simple notions of ‘fate’, are we able to allow for the workings of the impulse of Christ? These extraordinary lectures, previously unpublished in English, are presented here with an introduction, notes and an index.

While we know of Ahriman from Persian mythology, Rudolf Steiner spoke of him as an actual, living spiritual entity. This being, he said, works to embed people firmly into physicality, encouraging dull, materialistic attitudes and a philistine, dry intellect. In these extraordinary lectures Steiner, in rare prophetic mode, talks about an actual incarnation of Ahriman on the earth and the potential consequences. Just as Christ incarnated in a physical body, so would Ahriman incarnate in the Western world - before 'a part' of the third millennium had passed. Steiner places this incarnation in the context of a 'cosmic triad' - Lucifer, Christ and Ahriman. Ahriman will incarnate as a counterpoint to the physical incarnation of Lucifer in the East in the third millennium BC, with the incarnation of Jesus Christ in Palestine as the balancing point between the two. Over the period during which Steiner developed anthroposophy - a speaking career that spanned two decades and more than six thousand lectures - he referred to the idea of Ahriman's incarnation only six times. These six lectures, together with an additional supporting excerpt, are reproduced in their entirety, and under one cover, for the first time.

Mental and emotional disorders have reached epidemic levels in Western societies. Self-doubt, panic-attacks, anxiety disorders and personal fears of all kinds present major challenges to contemporary medical science. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research offers a startlingly original and complementary contribution to the problem. True insight into psychological issues requires knowledge of the influences of spiritual beings, he suggests. In everyday life we are all confronted with metaphysical entities that can hinder or progress our development. Many forms of anxiety and self-doubt derive from such meetings on the border - or threshold - of our consciousness. Further, these `threshold experiences' are exacerbated today by a general loosening of the subtle bodies and components of the human soul. As these constitutional changes persist, says Rudolf Steiner, a condition of `dissociation' becomes increasingly common. A healthy emotional life will only be possible if individuals engage in a conscious practice of personal growth, strengthening their constitution through the action of the `I' or self. The expertly selected and collated texts in Self-Doubt offer numerous cognitive and practical ideas for the improvement of everyday mental and emotional health. Chapters include: The origin of error, fear, and nervousness; Crossing the threshold in the development of humanity and the individual; The polarity of shame and fear; The polarity of doubt and terrifying disorientation; The polarity of scepticism and claustrophobia, astraphobia, and agoraphobia; The origin of panic; Anxiety; The multilayered nature of terrifying disorientation; Healing aspects of the anthroposophical path of training; The spiritual-scientific qualities of fear compared with standardized diagnostic terms and as a basis for therapy.

'The two streams in the human being combine to produce what is commonly known as a person's temperament. Our inner self and our inherited traits co-mingle in it. Temperament is an intermediary between what connects us to an ancestral line and what we bring with us...Temperament strikes a balance between the eternal and the ephemeral...' From personal spiritual insight, Rudolf Steiner renews and broadens the ancient teaching of the four temperaments. He explains how each person's combination of temperaments - with one usually uppermost - is shaped. Steiner gives lively descriptions of the passive, comfort-seeking phlegmatic, the fickle, flitting sanguine, the pained, gloomy melancholic and the fiery, assertive choleric. He also offers practical suggestions aimed at teachers and parents for addressing the various manifestations of the temperaments in children, as well as advice intended for adults' personal development. This audio edition, complete and unabridged, is read by respected actor and speech teacher Peter Bridgmont, author of Liberation of the Actor.

In a previously-unavailable series of talks to the general public, Rudolf Steiner builds systematically, lecture by lecture, on the fundamentals of spiritual science - from the nature of spiritual knowledge and its relationship to conventional science, the path of personal development and the task of metaphysical research, to specific questions on the mystery of death, the meaning of fairy-tales, the significance of morality and the roles of individual figures in human evolution, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Jacob Boehme. At the time of these presentations, Steiner had already worked in Berlin for many years, and thus, '...could reckon with a regularly returning audience to whom what mattered was to enter ever more deeply into the areas of knowledge that were newly opening up to them' (Marie Steiner). As a consequence - and through 'a series of inter-connecting lectures whose themes are entwined with one another' - he was able to communicate a coherent and challenging spiritual perception of reality, based on his personal research. Presented here with notes, an index and an introduction by Simon Blaxland-de Lange, the 14 lectures include: 'How is Spiritual Science Refuted?'; 'On What Foundation is Spiritual Science Based'; 'The Tasks of Spiritual Research for both Present and Future'; 'Errors of Spiritual Research'; 'Results of Spiritual Research for Vital Questions and the Riddle of Death'; The World-Conception of a Cultural Researcher of the Present, Herman Grimm' and 'The Legacy of the Nineteenth Century'.

'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.

Subjects include: Rediscovering the Goddess Natura Retracing our Steps - Mediaeval Thought and the School of Chartres The Goddess Natura in the Ancient Mysteries The Goddess in the Beginning - the Birth of the Word Esoteric Christianity - the Virgin Sophia The Search for the New Isis The Renewal of the Mysteries The Modern Isis, the Divine Sophia