"This biography does not aim for completeness, but focuses on Rudolf Steiner's being, intentions, and journey-aspects that must not be obliterated by the many events, foundations, and people involved with Anthroposophy.... It wants to convey (to quote Emil Leinhas) 'the immense greatness and unique significance of this individuality who radiates out over the centuries.'" -Peter Selg (from the introduction) To acknowledge and understand Rudolf Steiner's unique achievement and life's work, one must be able to accept that the founder and spiritual researcher of Anthroposophy was "a citizen of two worlds" the spiritual and the physical. Anthroposophy teaches that this duality, rather than being a quality reserved for special individualities, is inherent to human nature. According to Rudolf Steiner, it is a central aspect of being human, even in times when the suprasensory aspect of humanity is eclipsed (for ordinary day consciousness) and almost eliminated by certain civilizations. The interest in Rudolf Steiner's person and essence, in his attitude toward life and work, will continue to grow in the decades and centuries that lie ahead, both within and outside the anthroposophical movement. It will take hold of entirely different groups of people, including those who come with spiritual questions or discover them in times of need. Rudolf Steiner's work grew to be "one unique effort of bringing courage to human beings" (Michael Bauer). This is the first of seven comprehensive volumes on Rudolf Steiner's "being, intentions, and journey." It presents Rudolf Steiner from childhood and youth through his doctorate degree and up to the time of his work for the Goethe Archives as editor of Goethe's scientific writings. By considering his formative years in depth, we come to understand better the roots and development of Rudolf Steiner's later spiritual research and teachings.

Karl Koenig, the founder of Camphill, was a prolific lecturer and writer on a wide range of subjects from anthroposophy and Christology through social questions and curative education to science and history. The Karl Koenig Archive are working on a programme of publishing these works over the coming years. This is the fourth book to be published in the series. In this remarkable collection of Karl Koenig's letters and essays, Koenig considers and discusses the fundamentals of special needs education. He shows that there are three core aspects to a successful holistic education and healing approach: firstly, a positive social environment, which in the context of Camphill is achieved through small family units of carers and children; secondly, that carers' work is based on an insightful understanding of the nature and potential of each individual child and disability; and thirdly that medical treatment is imbued with courage to keep believing that the impossible is possible.

Edith Maryon (1872-1924) was a trained sculptor who worked alongside Rudolf Steiner to create the unique sculpture of Christ (the 'Representative of Humanity') at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. One of Steiner's closest collaborators, she was a highly-valued colleague and esoteric pupil. As one of his dearest friends, Maryon kept a busy and detailed correspondence with Rudolf Steiner, in which he confided freely about his personal situation, his lack of true colleagues, difficulties with lecture tours, and the embattled public standing of anthroposophy. Almost invariably, these letters emphasized Steiner's longing for the Dornach studio and their shared work on the Christ statue. Maryon's early death, aged 52 - following fifteen months of illness - shook Rudolf Steiner to the core. He was to die himself less than a year later. With this book, the author's central aim is to illuminate the spiritual signature of Edith Maryon's relationship with Rudolf Steiner and their mutual work in anthroposophy and on the sculpture of Christ. Building on Rex Raab's (1993) biography, Peter Selg's moving study features dozens of photos and facsimiles of letters, utilizing previously unpublished sources from Edith Maryon's and Ita Wegman's literary estates and the Rudolf Steiner Archive in Dornach. -- The most essential and intrinsic quality of her soul ... was not a particular branch of human endeavour, not even art; the most salient of her soul tendencies, her soul intentions, was the striving for spirituality...' - Rudolf Steiner

The relationship between The Christian Community and the Anthroposophical Society is complex and often misunderstood. Christian Community priests work out of an understanding of anthroposophy, and it was undoubtedly Steiner's theological lecture courses which led to the formation of the movement. Nonetheless questions remain, which Peter Selg examines closely in this unique book. -- Steiner's work emphasises the importance of finding the spiritual in everyday life. So why did he help found a 'Sunday church'? -- In his lectures, Steiner spoke about a 'spiritual communion' without physical matter. So why is there any need for a sacramental communion with real bread and wine, as practiced in The Christian Community? -- In a much-quoted lecture after the founding of The Christian Community, Steiner said that anthroposophists should have no need of the new religious movement. But on another occasion he said he wished greatly that the movement should succeed. How can these be understood and reconciled? This long-overdue book is a significant exploration of Steiner's legacy which should have far-reaching implications for mutual understanding and cooperation between The Christian Community and the wider anthroposophical world.

This book follows Karl Koenig's spiritual journey from his early years to the end of his life. Through the words of his diaries, in which his battles with health and his impatient temperament are recorded with merciless honesty, we can follow his inner path that led to profound insights into the nature of children with special needs. His personal wrestlings and innate spirituality laid the foundation for his work in the Camphill Schools and Villages. Includes facsimile reproductions of some of Koenig's original diary pages. About the Karl Koenig Archive: Karl Koenig, the founder of Camphill, was a prolific lecturer and writer on a wide range of subjects from anthroposophy and Christology through social questions and curative education to science and history. The Karl Koenig Archive are working on a programme of publishing these works over the coming years.

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.

'Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.' Rudolf Steiner once called the Lord's Prayer the 'greatest initiation prayer', and he spoke about it many times, also referring to it as the central prayer of Christian experience. This book is, however, the first time that all of Steiner's comments, accounts and perspectives have been brought together in one place, presenting the full scope and depth of his ideas. Along the way, Peter Selg reveals some surprising insights into the spiritual history and mission of Christianity.

Unlike other Christian creeds, the creed of The Christian Community is not a statement of belief, but rather a series of assertions that act as a path to a deeper understanding of Christianity. Peter Selg offers an insightful and informative overview of how, in the time leading up to the founding of The Christian Community nearly one hundred years ago, Rudolf Steiner formulated both the creed itself and its founding principles. He also examines the history of Christian creeds including the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed and compares them to each other. Finally, he explores the ongoing significance of the creed for The Christian Community today.

Since 2006, specialists, doctors, psychologists, and therapists of Parzival-Zentrum Karlsruhe have taken part in emergency education crisis interventions, carried out by the organization Friends of Friends of Waldorf Education. They work with psychologically traumatized children and young people in war zones and disaster areas, including Lebanon, China, the Gaza Strip, Indonesia, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, and most recently in Japan following the tsunami there and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Bernd Ruf, who heads these operations, describes in his book in various ways the basics of anthroposophically extended "emergency education," including the anthroposophic understanding of trauma itself. In addition, he describes processes and experiences, focusing on recent experiences in Japan at the center of his descriptions. Educating Traumatized Children offers much-needed insight into this little-known area of education and healing for traumatized children and young people. This book will be valuable not only for those working in areas of disaster and armed conflict, but also for any teacher or parent who is teaching or caring for a traumatized child.

Biodynamic agriculture, which has consistently increased in popularity over the years, was born from a single course of eight lectures delivered by Rudolf Steiner in Koberwitz (now in Poland) in June 1924. In The Agriculture Course Peter Selg presents an unprecedented study of the context within which the lectures took place, conveying a tangible sense of the celebratory mood and atmosphere of those Whitsun events. He highlights Steiner's intentions for the course - as well as the parallel lectures he gave in Breslau - by drawing widely on the available literature and numerous archive materials. Recognizing that chemical manipulation of agriculture was neither desirable nor sustainable, Rudolf Steiner helped launch an agricultural movement with a truly pioneering outlook. As Selg describes, Steiner saw that '...what was needed instead was new, conscious insight into life forces and laws, into the nature of organisms, into the diverse realms of nature, and the determining factors of both earth and cosmos that influence them.' The vivid picture painted here reveals the importance Rudolf Steiner placed on launching this work, and the extent to which his initiative offered an answer to the emerging forces of cultural and political destruction that would lead to the Second World War.

Kaspar Hauser was a young man who appeared on the streets of Nuremberg in Germany in the early nineteenth century. His innocence and mysterious background captured the hearts of many at the time. 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of Kaspar Hauser's birth. This timely book draws together Karl Koenig's thoughts on the enigma of Kaspar Hauser, as well as exploring Koenig's deep connection to the young man. The book includes Koenig's essay 'The Story of Kaspar Hauser', as well as essays from Peter Selg on 'Koenig, Wegman and Kaspar Hauser' and Richard Steel on how Koenig spoke of Kaspar Hauser in his diaries, notes and letters.

Ita Wegman spent the last three years of her life in Tessin, in the Casa Andrea Cristoforo. In this secluded province, largely protected from the destructive events of those years and imbued with certain forces, she developed a great work for the future, gathering, leading, and nurturing people both therapeutically and spiritually, preparing for the war's end with the full intensity of her being. Her last three years were a period of devotion to Rudolf Steiner and his work, as well as to esoteric Christianity-to the forces of the Archangel Michael and to Christ for the present and future. She continued to take a great interest in the difficulties of her time and never ceased to participate in events-taking in refugee children and the homeless, keeping up extensive correspondences with others, struggling with aid organizations and various agencies, caring daily for the afflicted and for patients and colleagues. On March 4, 1943, Ita Wegman passed into the spiritual worlds, well prepared and with all of the spiritual intentions of a Christian initiate. This book contributes to documenting the final phase of Ita Wegman's life, focusing on the forces of the future that emerged in her. It draws on her notebooks from her time in Ascona, as well as from her extensive correspondence and memories of those who lived and worked at Casa Andrea Cristoforo. She remained upstanding, free, and positive with an esoteric Christian orientation and felt that she was obligated only to her conscience and to the spiritual world for which Rudolf Steiner stood and that she served. This book was originally published in German as Die letzten drei Jahre. Ita Wegman in Ascona 1940-1943 (Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 2004).

"Every moral deed and every physical action in human life is connected in the human heart. Only when we truly learn to understand the configuration of he human heart will we find the true fusion of these two parallel and independent phenomena: moral events and physical events." -Rudolf Steiner Today we know very little about the true nature of the human heart. Our knowledge arises only from a materialistic or an emotional standpoint. However, the human heart, as Rudolf Steiner knew and taught, is both spiritual and physical-the place where body and soul come together. It is the place of their unity. We have lost this knowledge, yet it is integral to the Western understanding of what gives humanity its vocation-our spiritual/physical, our earthly/heavenly nature. In this astonishing and inspiring book, Peter Selg focuses on the evolution of the spiritual understanding of the heart as transmitted through Aristotle, the Gospels, and Hebrew Scriptures to the Middle Ages, when, in the light of the Mystery of Golgotha and its sacramental life, it was synthesized and transformed by Thomas Aquinas, after whom, with the rise of modern science it, was lost until Goethe began a process of recovery and development that led to its complete renewal and transformation in Rudolf Steiner. The Mystery of the Heart tells this story in three parts. Part one, "The Anthropology of the Heart in the Gospels," examines the spiritual anthropology of the heart in the Gospels in the light of Ezekiel's prophetic saying: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a living heart of flesh." Part two, "De Essentia et Motu Cordis," describes Aristotle's understanding of the heart and its transformation and deepening in Aquinas. Part three, "The Heart and the Fate of Humanity," examines the spiritual-scientific view of the heart as developed in Rudolf Steiner's teachings. Also included is an appendix containing selected meditative verses and therapeutic meditations for the heart.

Rudolf Steiner referred to the wooden 'group' sculpture of the figure of Christ surrounded by adversary spiritual beings as the centre of the first Goetheanum. Steiner even told the architect of the second Goetheanum that the sculpture he made with Edith Maryon should occupy the same central position 'as in the first building'. What was Rudolf Steiner's essential aim for the sculptural group within the Mystery building he conceived, and why did he regard it as the crown of the building? What were Steiner's intentions - and, specifically, what were the spiritual aims behind this remarkable depiction of Christ? Rudolf Steiner described the core task of anthroposophical spiritual science as preparing for Christ's reappearance in the etheric realm. The Christ he sculpted was not the possession of a specific community with a religious world view, but rather a being active throughout humanity, and thus 'a figure of the future'. In this focused and powerful short book, Peter Selg engages with these highly-contemporary issues, providing thoughtful insights and answers that point to mysteries of the future involving humanity's further development and the transforming of evil.

"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.

"It is a simple but essential principle: education aims at the future, at a time that we as educators do not yet know and cannot foresee. The challenges that will confront the children in the future are not those of the past-of our past, of our life story and our horizon. Times change, so do the realities of life, and in our times they change quickly and dramatically. Education aims at the future and that puts us as educators in a difficult situation: this future is not-or is only to an extent-identical with our past, with our life experiences. My youth, your youth: they are not identical with the adolescent constitution and life reality toward which we currently have to direct our educational efforts. Yet educate we must, and educating means preparing for a future." -Peter Selg (from the book) Schools reflect the state of society. If society is materialistic, competitive, egoistic, technological, and without concern for human values and long-term thinking, our schools will tend to reflect those values. However, what if education were about something else? What if education were about the future? What if education were a about nurturing a new generation of human beings, integrated in body, soul, and spirit and able to think for themselves and have the capacity to love? Perhaps the world would change. The Waldorf school, initiated and guided in 1919 by Rudolf Steiner, was conceived with precisely such an end in view. In this passionate, inspiring, and moving book, Peter Selg, speaks from a deep knowledge of Anthroposophy and from his extensive experience as a child psychiatrist. He returns to the original impulses behind the first Waldorf school to show their continuing validity and how they still respond to what we need. From this view, Waldorf education is future-oriented, based on a holistic worldview and cosmology that is humanistic, scientific, and spiritual, and develops through a curriculum and a teacher-student relationship based on love. Its focus is the miracle of the developing human being. Recognizing the equal importance of thinking, feeling, and willing, Waldorf education works through bodily movement and art, as well as through intellect and mind. Waldorf Education is not a theory but a living reality, and Selg brings this reality to life before us through the biography of the first Waldorf school. Thus, we learn to see it in a new way-in its essence, as a healing model of what education might become if the primary relationship, the inner core of a school, is the free relationship between teacher and student. As Steiner wrote: "It is our task as teachers and educators to stand in awe of the individuality of the student and offer our help so that it can follow the laws of its own development. We are merely called upon to remove any obstacles in body or soul that might hinder the individuality from realizing its potential freely." A verse given at the dedication of a building at the Waldorf School in Stuttgart expresses the essence of Waldorf Education in poetic form: May there reign here spirit-strength in love; May there work here spirit-light in goodness; Born from certainty of heart, And from steadfastness of soul, So that we may bring to young human beings Bodily strength for work, inwardness of soul, and clarity of spirit.

From 2009 to 2010, Sergei Prokofiev and Peter Selg-two leading authorities and spiritual researchers into the life and work of Rudolf Steiner-gave a series of conferences on the Christological foundations of Anthroposophy. Their aim was to show the power of anthroposophic Christology. Consequently, they focused on key turning points in Rudolf Steiner's exposition: his major work, An Outline of Esoteric Science; the first Goetheanum; the Reappearance of Christ in the etheric realm and the relationship of this event to Rudolf Steiner's lectures on the Fifth Gospel; and the Christmas Conference (1923-24) and the founding of the New Mysteries. The lectures from the conferences (published as four booklets in German) are collected here in a single volume. The Creative Power of Anthroposophical Christology is essential reading for all those who are interested in the true meaning and depth of Rudolf Steiner's experience and understanding of Christ's deed on Golgotha and his continuing presence among us and within Anthroposophy.

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