In the days leading up to Christmas, Mary and Joseph's path to Bethlehem is fraught with difficulties, but, as the stories in this book reveal, a small miracle happens each day. The story of each miracle brings us a little closer to Christmas, until we finally reach the stable in Bethlehem, where the light in the lantern awaits in anticipation of the Christ Child's birth. With twenty-eight stories, this book may be used as an "Advent calendar," with the first week's stories relating to the mineral world, the second to the plant world, followed by the animal kingdom, and finally human beings. This book helps enliven children's imaginations during the festival time of Christmas.

Building on the achievements of Goethe in his Theory of Colour, Rudolf Steiner shows how colour affects us in many areas of life, including our health, our sense of well-being, and our feelings. Distinguishing between 'image' and 'lustre' colours, he lays the foundation, based on his spiritual-scientific research, for a practical technique of working with colour that leads to a new direction in artistic creativity. His many penetrating remarks on some of the great painters of the past are supplemented by a deep concern to see a cultural, spiritual renewal emerge in the present time. 'If you realize', he states, 'that art always has a relation to the spirit, you will understand that both in creating and appreciating it, art is something through which one enters the spiritual world.' This volume is the most comprehensive compilation of Rudolf Steiner's insights into the nature of colour, painting and artistic creation. It is an invaluable source of reference and study not only for artists and therapists but for anyone interested in gaining an appreciation of art as a revelation of spiritual realities.

As with her previous work What the Angels Need to Tell Us Now, More Messages from the Angels is divided into two parts. In the first section, Irene Johanson gives valuable advice about the inner preparations necessary to receive angel messages in the proper way. She explains how to distinguish between the different kinds of spirits, and how to deal with information received from metaphysical entities--in particular knowing whether such information is genuine or not. She also gives advice about transforming our life of soul and the forces of thinking, feeling and will. In the second part, Johanson presents more messages and information received from angels through her friend Agnes, an individual who represents a new kind of clairvoyance. Unlike mediumism or channeling, Agnes's method does not entail a dimming of consciousness, but has the character of clarity and wakefulness. The messages received contain critical advice, guidance and insight from the angels to humanity. This time they speak on many contemporary issues, including organ transplants, genetic modification, cloning, "mad cow disease," nuclear energy, evil, catastrophes and disasters (including 9 / 11), abortion, population growth, sudden death, cyanide, AIDS, sexuality, difficult children, fear, psychological warfare, ecumenism, democracy, and human and angelic cooperation.

'While working on this book the following happened to me: As I checked in at the airport in Hamburg a young couple was in front of me, and the mother had a three-to-four-month old baby in her arms. All of a sudden the baby turned round, looked me straight in the eye, and I was deeply shaken; for that was not the look of a baby but of a very self-aware adult, a wise one, and he appeared to see right through me...' Who are the 'star children'? In recent years there has been much written about 'gifted' children with special abilities ('indigo children', 'crystal children', etc.). Such children, it is said, are coming to earth to help humanity in its development. Based on extensive research, Georg Kuhlewind confirms that this new generation has been incarnating among us for the past couple of decades. This event, he states, is one of the most important of our age. Unlike many other contributors to this debate, Kuhlewind gives us the necessary background with which to follow experientially what he has to say. He takes us consciously, scientifically, into the realm from which we all enter the world as babies, 'trailing clouds of glory...'. We all possess the tools he describes for taking this path: our thoughts, our heart forces and our willpower. By using these faculties with our full attention, by focusing our attentiveness and eliminating everything else, we can enter the realm of the spirit where laws differing from those on earth prevail. The author aids us on this path by closing each chapter with themes for contemplation and meditation. Star Children is a compelling addition to the literature on the theme of 'special' children, and offers a unique perspective based on spiritual-scientific discipline and research.

These five profound lectures look at the cosmic forces behind the four great festivals of the year, providing a wealth of material for fruitful thought and meditation. Steiner presents great imaginative pictures that unite the heavens and the Earth through a portrayal of the activities of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. In the course of the lectures, Rudolf Steiner offers spiritual insight into subjects that include the alchemical processes of sulfur, mercury, and salt in the cosmos; the realms of humankind and plants; spiritual combustion processes; crystals; clouds and meteors; the movements of elemental beings in nature; and the conflicting efforts of Lucifer and Ahriman the two great adversaries to divert Earth from its true purpose. The Four Seasons and the Archangels includes five color plates of Rudolf Steiner s blackboard drawings made during the lectures."

'The confrontation with evil manifests as a battle taking place on many levels, the outcome of which lies in the hands of each one of us alive today. The most important requisite is the creating of a space within us in which a new consciousness, the Imagination, will gradually be able to arise. Much in the future depends on whether a sufficient number of people succeed in reaching this level of experience...' - Maria Betti With the world in turmoil, the greatest challenge facing us today, says Mario Betti, is the inner transformation of our entire being. This rebirth from within heralds a new form of consciousness - a creative imaginative faculty - that is simultaneously a reawakening of the mysterious Sophia, the feminine aspect of the Divinity. Imagination allows us to behold the spiritual forces actively at work in the world, resulting in the possibility of a comprehensive rebirth and renewal of culture.

"The right ground in which we must lay today's Foundation Stone, the proper soil, this is our hearts in their harmonious cooperation, in their love-imbued good will to carry the will of anthroposophy through the world together with one another." --Rudolf Steiner This volume brings together for the first time two classic booklets: "The Foundation Stone" and "The Life, Nature, and Cultivation of Anthroposophy." The first contains Steiner's comments of "The Foundation Stone Meditation," made during the reestablishment of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference of 1923-24. "The Foundation Stone Meditation" is central in the meditative life of many students of spiritual science. Part two, "The Life, Nature, and Cultivation of Anthroposophy," contains letters that Steiner wrote to members of the Anthroposophical Society following the Christmas Conference. They contain thoughts and guidelines regarding the Anthroposophical Society and its members' conduct in the world. An excellent companion to this book is Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science: An Introductory Guide. CONTENTS Part One The Foundation Stone Introduction by Michael Wilson The Laying of the foundation Stone of the Anthroposophical Society Working With the Meditation The Right Entry into the Spiritual World The Original Printed German Version of the Verses Alternative Translations of the Printed Verses Part Two The Life, Nature, and Cultivation of Anthroposophy The Founding of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference of 1923 Letters to the Members

Rudolf Steiner spoke the Foundation Stone meditation at the Christmas Conference of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923, giving it to the Society's members for the strengthening of their forces. The meditation's words contain, to quote Sergei O. Prokofieff, 'the quintessence of the whole of anthroposophy'. Thus, Steiner was bestowing on the members the potential to deal resolutely with the specific tasks awaiting them. In this short but potent volume, Peter Selg suggests further that the Foundation Stone meditation represents the concerns of every individual of the modern age, allowing each of us to maintain our humanity in the face of the challenges and catastrophes of the present and future. Rudolf Steiner said that one could hear the words of the meditation 'sounding' in one's heart. This process of 'hearing' will acquire even more significance and reality in future, and can be of enormous help to anyone who opens themselves to it. It is against this background that Selg has written this introductory book: to promote awareness of the meditation, understanding of its historic place in the catastrophic twentieth century, and its critical but latent contribution to the future.