Investigates the spiritual anatomy and evolution of animals. Where do the spirits of animals go after they die? Do animals have chakras or auras? Why were animals worshipped in ancient religions? Exploring these questions and more, David Barreto presents a deep investigation into the spiritual evolution of the animal kingdom, from ants and cockroaches to cats, dogs, owls, pigeons, dolphins, and whales. He examines the spiritual anatomy of animals, including their aura, etheric fields, chakras, and mental, astral, and buddhic bodies. Detailing how reincarnation works among various species, Barreto explores their experiences between physical lives, how they accrue karma, and how the way that animals die can have different effects on their spiritual bodies in the astral realms. Drawing on both modern physics and metaphysics, he reveals, for example, how dogs can love unconditionally because of their large electromagnetic field, which nourishes the etheric bodies of those around them, and how cats can detect subtle energy shifts and disharmonies and conduct etheric filtration while they sleep. Examining esoteric schools as well as ancient spiritual traditions around the world, the author explores how animals are viewed and worshipped in different religions and how animal adoration and animal-connected gods arose in ancient Egypt, India, and China. He looks at animal totems, animal archetypes, animals in alchemy, and the astral connections between animals and elementals. The author also examines the spiritual and energetic repercussions of meat consumption and animal sacrifice, revealing the astral and etheric components of slaughterhouses. Detailing the role of the animal kingdom in the Age of Aquarius, the author shows how, with the awakening of this new astrological era, animals will have their earthly lives elevated with lasting worth and dignity, equal to the love and respect they have been transmitting for millennia.

Beginning with the myth of Sophia, the Soul of the World, Sardello evokes a sense of the world as filled with her presence. He goes on to suggest that the soul's primary parts--its arts of concentration, meditation, imagination, contemplation--rather than belonging to individual consciousness, constitute a giving over of subjective, personal states to the consciousness that is the soul of the world. He shows how, practicing these arts, we can begin to approach daily life in a new way. The chapters that follow build up a psychology of the world--of architecture, money, the city, medicine, food and technology.

* Details the spiritual, healing, and energetic qualities of stones such as Moldavite, Nuummite, Circle Stones, Nirvana Quartz from the Himalayas, and high-vibrational Natrolite from the emerald mines of Russia * Features color photos of exceptional examples of each of the stones * Includes practices for deepening one's awareness of the stones' gifts--from expanding consciousness, to healing, to awakening the Light Body, to fulfilling one's personal and collective destiny In Stones of the New Consciousness Robert Simmons examines the 62 most important stones to help accelerate and enhance conscious evolution and spiritual awakening. Each entry is illustrated with color photos of exceptional examples. The stones include Moldavite, the extraterrestrial amorphous crystal; Nuummite, the oldest gemstone on Earth; and Circle Stones, the highly energetic Flint found in crop circle formations. Other featured rarities include Nirvana Quartz from the Himalayas and high-vibrational Natrolite from the emerald mines of Russia. Simmons begins with a new approach to meditation with stones and to the possibility of conscious relationship with the spiritual beings who express themselves in our world as crystals and minerals. He includes historical and mythological references for each stone, positing that the fabled Stone of the Holy Grail and the Philosopher's Stone of the alchemists may have physical counterparts among the minerals discussed. Simmons presents practices for deepening one's awareness of the stones' gifts--from expanding one's consciousness, to healing, to awakening the Light Body, to fulfilling one's personal and collective destiny. While emphasizing direct contact with stones, the book also explores crystal energy tools, energy environments, and applications such as stone elixirs and essences that can aid anyone on a spiritual path.

"Steiner does not talk about soul; he speaks from soul. That is the entire method. There is, however, an entrance fee for doing psychology. The fee is that you need to leave behind your well-known-to-you self-identity. You must suffer the experience of leaving behind not only what you know, but also what you think you know of yourself. This requirement qualifies psychology as integral to the work of initiation. -Robert Sardello, from his introduction "Essentially, the correct meaning of theosophy is the allowing of the god within us to speak; what it tells you about the world is theosophy. Anthroposophy, for its part, may be characterized as the wisdom spoken by us as human beings when we are between God and nature, and allow the human being in us to speak of what is shining into us from above and of what is projecting into us from below. Anthroposophy is the wisdom that human beings speak. -Rudolf Steiner In 1904, Steiner publicly described this classic account of the Western path of initiation. Beginning with the assumption that "the capacities by which we can gain insights into the higher worlds lie dormant within each one of us," Steiner carefully and precisely leads us through the stages of preparation, illumination, and initiation, from cultivating fundamental soul moods of reverence and tranquility to esoteric self-development. He also provides practical exercises for inner and outer observation and moral development. By patiently and persistently following his suggestions, new capacities of soul and spirit begin to form, revealing the contours of the higher worlds previously concealed from us. Robert Sardello's in-depth introduction places Steiner's lectures within the context of modern life and psychology and provides insights into how to read and use this text for inner development and a deeper understanding of spiritual science. The challenges we face in modern life require ever-deeper levels of wisdom and insight. In this important book, Rudolf Steiner becomes a teacher, counselor, and friend through advice that is practical, clear, and powerful. The text shows us how to cultivate the capacities for such insights and places them at the service of humanity.

From the Introduction by Robert Sardello: 'Spiritual psychology is an active practice. It develops embodied, conscious soul life to make that life open and receptive to the spiritual realms. This is done as an act of loving ourselves, others, and the world. 'Psychology, I want to claim, is more than the study of the human soul. It is not possible to make such a study without the student undergoing inner changes in the process. Psychology, since it is we who study it, necessarily requires that the psyche be utilized to study the psyche. It therefore belongs inherently to the realm of practice. It is not a theory wandering around seeking application. We must do our psychology rather than theorize about the soul. And the doing of psychology is the doing of love-consciously, actively, and for the sake of others and the world. If you enter into the interior of these words, your soul will awaken, and begin to move in this direction. It follows, too, that this is not only a book about psychology, it is also the very speech of psyche itself.'

With its beautifully rich prose, Robert Sardello's newest book invites us to experience silence as a companion presence, a creative heart-felt experience that renews, restores, and deepens the body's response to the internal and external world. Drawing on images and ideas from the Trials of St. Anthony, Anthroposophy, Depth Psychology, and Phenomenology, the book delves deeply into the subtleties of silence, exploring the phenomenon as a source of wholeness and revitalization.
Sharing his own insights from years of experience in spiritual psychology, Sardello takes us on an inner journey beyond the chaotic noise of the ego to a place of inner communion and self-healing. "Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness" opens our eyes to the importance of cultivating the nurturing aspects of silence in our personal relationships and enables us to awaken the inner currents of spirituality that ultimately lead to a path of universal compassion, service, and healing.

It is now part of our culture to imagine dreams as messages from the "unconscious." The prevailing notion is that dreams must be interpreted- that is, put into our present ways of understanding. What is rarely noticed is that this move toward interpretation takes dreams out of their own way of presenting themselves. In Icons of a Dreaming Heart, Renee Coleman explodes the very notion of dream interpretation. Dreaming, she convincingly shows, presents the action of imaginally real companions. The manner in which Dr. Coleman lets the worlds of dreaming reveal themselves constitutes the essence of this writing. There is no theory here. We are taken into a new kind of attentiveness, available to everyone. We come to experience the dream presences as quite autonomous from us-visitors, not from "elsewhere," but ever-present visitors asking to be noticed. The great secret, now revealed in this remarkable book, is that in saying "yes" to the beckoning of dream presences, we are changed, down to the very core of our being.

In these introductions, Robert Sardello introduces us to many people we may not otherwise have met and introduces us to many ways of being and thinking that we didn't know before. The range of those we meet in these pages is staggering. At the same time, there is a sweet harmony and ever-unfolding deepening of a single theme. Miraculously, it pervades and shapes the entire sequence of those whom he presents, even though he often wrote in response to a request, and not initially on his own initiative. He writes of matters with which he has made a deep friendship, and out of that friendship he has received and participated in a communion of ideas. He is able to do this because he has entered the aspiration of those he is introducing at the deepest level, making their insights his own, and deepening them in his own way. An introduction conveys a particular soul capacity. For Robert Sardello, "soul capacities" are of the essence of what he calls Spiritual Psychology. Together with the worlds and beings to which they correspond, it is such capacities that make us human and enable us to fulfill our human tasks. Reading these introductions is an astonishing experience. Within their short, individual compasses, they allow us to participate in Robert's own journey: to catch, as it were, the bird in flight and fly with it.