WONKA tells the wondrous story of how the world's greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker becomes the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.

An intoxicating mix of magic and music, mayhem and emotion, all told with fabulous heart and humour - WONKA introduces readers to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to change the world one delectable bite at a time . . . proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you're lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.

Reflections is a collection of my writings through the years in defense of and support for Affirmative Action in the construction industry. It documents a struggle for economic justice that began on July 23, 1969 when Chicago community groups assembled to demand equal participation in local federal construction projects. As these programs became successful, resistance rose at a rapid clip. Who would have thought that our quest for economic justice would eventually reach the Supreme Court as a battle against "reverse discrimination?" Who would have believed that the "affirmative action" programs that integrated an exclusive white workforce, and provided new opportunities for Black firms would be challenged so vigorously that the term would not even be used by the 2008 presidential candidates? We share our experiences for others seeking change by providing examples of how Black businesses can address community problems, including educating elected officials and holding them accountable. It was though my membership in Parren Mitchell's (Maryland's first Black congressman-1971), Black Business Braintrust, that the first national legislation requiring mandatory Minority Business Enterprise MBE] utilization was forged. This book emphasizes four main areas of concern: Affirmative Action as a tool to break the pattern of exclusion by construction trade unions and apprenticeship programs. To demonstrate that local organizations with dedicated leaders can combat discrimination and create positive change that reverberates nationally. To expand the Black tradesmen workforce as a vehicle for increasing Black subcontractor numbers and developing substantial Black general contractors. The development of viable black construction firms: UBM, Inc., which I co-founded in 1974, was by 2004, the largest Black general contractor in the state of Illinois. My firm accomplished everything I sought to prove as a black business by creating the capacity to apply positive solutions to problems besieging our community.

British comedy. Stephen Turnbull (Edward Hogg) has not left the house for months. When an infestation of mice wreaks havoc on his precious daily routine, he starts to relive a road trip around Europe with his best mate Bunny (Simon Farnaby). The story of their debauched and chronically underfunded trip is played out in flashback, chronicling a series of bizarre and disastrous encounters including a demented dog-loving tramp (Julian Barratt), an alcoholic ex-matador (Noel Fielding) and the dullest tour guide that ever lived (Richard Ayoade). But it is superstitious waitress Eloisa (Veronica Echegui) who steals their hearts, prompting an unlikely love triangle that takes them from the industrial wastelands of Poland to the bull fields of Spain.

'That in our times a kind of supernumerary person is appearing who is egoless, who in reality is not a human being, is a terrible truth.' - Rudolf Steiner -- Are there people on earth today who do not have a self - a human ego or 'I'? The phenomenon of 'egolessness' - the absence of a human being's core - was discussed by the spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner in lectures and personal conversations. An egoless individual, he intimated, is an empty sheath through which other spiritual entities could operate. Erdmuth J. Grosse brings together many little-known quotations from Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research and supports them with a wealth of disquieting reports, testimonies and examples from literature and politics. He places these insights within the broader context of the riddle of the human self, throwing light on the spiritual development of the individual and humanity as a whole. In this thought-provoking study, Grosse goes on to discuss the role of comets, the effects of cyanide on the human constitution - especially in the light of the Holocaust - and the hidden effects of ceremonial magic, occult lodges, cults and sects. In conclusion, he offers positive solutions to humanity's present predicament by describing the healing impulses of social threefolding, the invisible spiritual beings seeking to help humanity, the role of the gods, the Christ impulse and the true goals of human evolution.

Who is the Christ? What is the ‘Sun-spirit’? How should we understand the person of Jesus in relation to the Cosmic Christ, or even to the Holy Trinity? --- In a majestic overview of Rudolf Steiner’s extensive references to Christ and Jesus, originally dispersed throughout his many writings and lectures, Oskar Kürten creates a mutually reconcilable and coherent text. We are invited to accompany the author as he attempts to comprehend the unimaginably vast enigma of Christ’s appearance on Earth. The results of his work can sometimes be overwhelming, but as Kürten points out: ‘humanity is always advancing in its intellectual and spiritual culture, and each step poses higher demands on our capacity to understand’. --- In a volume comprising three previously-untranslated booklets, composed originally as study material for people conversant with the fundamentals of anthroposophy, Mystery of the Christ gives numerous pointers to great mysteries, inviting readers to penetrate ever more deeply into the inexhaustible subject-matter. As Kürten states, this approach enables us ‘again and again to find surprisingly new insights into the mysterious interconnections in which Christ’s entry into earth-existence and the Mystery of Golgotha are placed’.

In 1919 Rudolf Steiner spoke about the future physical incarnation of the being of Ahriman. This would take place before 'a part' of the third millennium had passed, and was inevitable - but it was also necessary that people were aware of this event and recognized it, for earthly culture would be destroyed if the world were to fall completely to Ahriman. The situation we find ourselves in today shows Ahriman's unmistakable signature: the rapid destruction of nature, zoonotic diseases and pandemics, huge social inequalities, and the overall dominance of high finance. In this short book Peter Selg presents a timely overview of the challenges we face, beginning with a pithy and concise survey of Steiner's commentary on Ahriman's incarnation and the conditions that would characterize it. This is followed by a study of Ahriman's depiction in the mystery drama The Souls' Awakening. Steiner's remarkable personification of Ahriman on stage - portraying his strategies and activities - provides vital instruction for humanity. Selg concludes with an evaluation of 'the Battle for Human Intelligence' taking place in contemporary culture through materialistic ideas such as transhumanism. In their recent book Covid-19: The Great Reset, for example, Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret propose wholesale economic, geopolitical, environmental and technological revisions to society - ideas that need to be understood and confronted in human thought and consciousness. The Future of Ahriman is a crucial aid to comprehending our times.

In these much-valued lectures, Rudolf Steiner begins by positing the question, 'Why investigate the spiritual worlds at all?' He goes on to explore the contemporary need for spiritual knowledge and the authentic paths that can lead to it. Speaking in Torquay, England, at the International Summer School organized by his friend and colleague D.N. Dunlop, Steiner surveys the differences in various types of consciousness - from ancient to modern times, in waking and dreaming, from space into time - and the changes that have taken place in relation to knowledge and science in the course of history. He goes on to discuss the Mystery nature of crystallized minerals and metals such as copper and silver, and their relationship to the planets. He also describes how the ages of life can become organs of perception. In a dramatic conclusion Steiner explains the role of moon beings, ahrimanic elemental beings, and the true nature of mediumship, ectoplasm and spiritual possession. Presented here in a fresh translation that corrects many errors in previous editions, the text is complemented with notes, an introduction by Paul King and an index. Lectures include: 'Nature is the Great Illusion. "Know Thyself"'; 'The Three Worlds and their Reflected Images'; 'Form and Substantiality of the Mineral Kingdom in relation to Human Levels of Consciousness'; 'The Secret of Research into other Realms through the Metamorphosis of Consciousness'; 'The Inner Enlivening of the Soul through the Qualities of Metals'; 'Initiation Science'; 'Star Knowledge'; 'Possible Aberrations in Spiritual Research'. (Eleven lectures, 11-22 Aug. 1924, GA 243)

In an extraordinary exposition, Lorenzen - an expert beekeeper and student of contemporary spiritual science - describes the `Logos mysteries', based at the ancient temple of Artemis in Ephesus, where priestesses were known as `Melissas' (`honeybees') and the sacrificial priests were called `Essenes' (or `bee-kings'). These cultic mysteries, he says, bore remarkable parallels to the workings of a bee colony - specifically in the relationship between the queen and worker bees to the spiritual `group-soul' of the bees. Lorenzen commences his unique study with a discussion of flowers and insects, exploring their common origins. He then describes the beginnings of the honeybee, its connection with the fig wasp, and the subsequent controlled transformation of the latter that took place in pre-historic mystery-centres. Breeding the honeybee from the fig wasp - a sacred deed performed at consecrated sanctuaries - was part of the `Fig-tree mysteries'. The initiates behind this task developed the ability to commune with the bees' group-soul and to work consciously on the mutual development of the hive and humanity. This concise but rich work features an illuminating foreword by Heidi Herrmann of the Natural Beekeeping Trust as well as a lucid introduction by translator Paul King that explains the anthroposophical concepts employed by Lorenzen in his text.

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 colours, 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.The Etheric explores the fourfold realm of the ethers. Giving an overview of their cosmic origins in the evolution of the earth, Dr Marti shows how the ethers work in phenomena of warmth, light, sound and organic life. He brings a contemporary understanding and insight to the classical elements - fire, air, water and earth - as the media through which ethericity manifests and works in the world. Four physical forces are also explored which, as opposites to the ethers, have a constant tendency to break down and annul what life-giving ether creates.Dr Marti then studies the shadow aspects of the ethers connected to what he terms the 'sub-natural' forces of electricity, magnetism and nuclear force. Given that the author was unable to complete this book in his lifetime, his pupil and colleague Irmgard Rossmann edited the final version in the spirit of her teacher. It is published here in two volumes, with this first focusing on 'The World of the Ethers' and the forthcoming volume on 'The World of Formative Forces'.

The honey bee has lived in close association with human beings for millennia. Tragically, however, humanity's once intimate connection with this unique creature has been harmed by our increasingly utilitarian and exploitative dealings with the natural world. We are now in urgent need of re-establishing a deeper relationship, not just for the sake of the bees themselves but for the whole of nature - and of course for ourselves.Lorenzen - a true master beekeeper - provides numerous insights to enable a more fruitful engagement with the living world. Offering an enrichment of the knowledge and practice of beekeeping, he discusses the origins of the honey bee, its relationship to the floral kingdom, the digestion of the bee, the treatment of bee diseases as well as appropriate beekeeping techniques. He also develops subtle spiritual concepts such as the idea of the bee colony as an 'individuality' and 'group-soul', providing new depth and wisdom to our understanding of how bees live and work.This small book, a hidden gem that has never before appeared in English, is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of the honey bee and the future of humanity.

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.

In this revised and expanded edition of his classic debut, Sergei O. Prokofieff investigates the deepest mysteries of Rudolf Steiner's life and individuality, from 'the years of apprenticeship' and 'the great Sun period' to 'the path of the Teacher of Humanity' and 'the birth of the New Mysteries'. He discusses the earthly and supersensible aspects of the first Goetheanum, the implications of the Christmas Conference of 1923-24, and the Foundation Stone meditation that Steiner left as a legacy to members of the Anthroposophical Society.In his very personal Introduction, Prokofieff describes, in moving detail, the events in his life which led to his discovery of anthroposophy whilst living in Communist Russia, and how eventually he came to write this extraordinary study of Rudolf Steiner. The resulting volume - a work of secondary anthroposophical literature unprecedented in its depth and significance - was first published in Germany in 1982, meeting with equal amounts of acclaim, astonishment and controversy. It is published in this paperback edition to mark the 35th anniversary of the original publication.

`No true understanding of the world is possible without an understanding of the elementary kingdoms.' - Oskar Kurten A hidden gem for students of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual-scientific research, Symphonies of Creation offers a breathtaking overview of the physical and metaphysical development of the world and humanity. In describing the elementary kingdoms, Kurten elucidates the exalted spiritual realms out of which all creation has arisen. These are the formative forces that provide successive life-waves of being with the subtle and physical forms through which their evolution becomes possible. He traces the beginnings of creation - an unformed `thought seed' in the elementary kingdoms that is elaborated by hierarchical beings at all levels, through the planes of the spiritual, soul and physical worlds - to the manifold and evolving aspects of the human being. What emerges is a picture of astonishing complexity and beauty in which all spiritual beings connected with the earth, from the highest to the lowest, work together in symphonic harmony. Rudolf Steiner spoke on many occasions and in different places of these elementary kingdoms and the multiple processes that take place within them. Kurten has sought out these references, meditated on their content and re-presents it here in an inwardly coherent synthesis. Even for those who have been studying anthroposophy for decades, this book can offer startlingly fresh insights. Symphonies of Creation is the life's work of a man who, due to severe deafness, led a retiring existence. His inner work, however, was full of life - the results of which are presented in this inspiring study.