Download or read book The Formation of Destiny and Life After Death written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Steiner Books. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 6 lectures, Berlin, November 16-December 12, 1915 (CW 157a) This is a fully revised edition of the book previously published as The Forming of Destiny and Life after Death Rudolf Steiner delivered these lectures near the end of 1915 and the beginning of World War I, when the issue of death and destiny weighed on the minds of many in Europe. He describes, from a spiritual perspective, the process of crossing the threshold of death to life in the spiritual world; the soul's experience immediately after death; and the process of forming one's destiny, or karma, while we remain on Earth and later in the spirit world. Steiner also discusses the importance of our connection with those who have died and how love and reverence to the memory of the dead must be united with our love for the physical world, and how we can strengthen ourselves through meditation. In the final lecture, given on December 21, Steiner stresses the esoteric importance of the thirteen nights of Christmas and how we can consciously affect our future karma during that time. This edition includes "The Dream Song of Olaf steson," a Nordic poem (discussed in lecture 6) that describes in pictorial language the deep mysteries of the Christmas nights. CONTENTS: Spiritual Life Now and after Death "I"-consciousness is proof of immortality. Birth and death. Humility. What we forget of sleep is remembered in Kamaloka. Seven-year periods of life. Young people who die in war. The Formation of Destiny War. Similarity between classes. Our view after death. "I"-consciousness. Perceiving souls after death. Kamaloca. Those who die before 35. Early and late death. Spiritual decay and future spiritual flowering. The Subconscious Strata of the Soul Life Ancient Greeks and the mind soul. Sculpture as inner experience. Homer, color, and form. The etheric as prophet. Geometry, our unconscious, and the Greeks. The astral, the unconscious, and clairvoyance. Sudden and premature death. Perception of the spiritual world by our own activity. Idealists. A child who dies. Martyrs for the world. The Physical and Spiritual Worlds The dead, imagery, and inner activity. Perception after death. The dead and those who remember them. Unexpected answers to questions about the spiritual world. Art, memory, and the dead. All Souls Day. Memory of the dead and love for the physical world. "You are that." Expansion in the outer world. The Guardian Angel. Egoism and the spirit world. The mystery dramas. Consciousness and egoism. Difficulty of Steiner's books enables readers to overcome egoism. The etheric body and the aging physical body. Subconscious Impulses of the Soul Path to the spirit. The subconscious and life after death. "I"-consciousness and memory. Spiritual sight, memory, and the veil of memory. Reality and philosophical reflection. Meditation, revelation, and grace. Incarnation and spirit. Subconscious fear of spirit. Death and the hierarchies. Human will before birth. Today's Spiritual Darkness Thirteen nights of Christmas. Olaf steson. Knowledge and dogma. Kant. Vanity. Lucifer leads humankind to Ahriman. Spiritual Science and modern materialistic science. Authority and freedom. The Christ impulse. Physical proof and Ahriman. Finding Christ through the spirit. Presence of the Christ. "The Dream Song of Olaf steson" This book contains 6 of the 7 lectures originally published in German as Schicksalsbildung und Leben nach dem Tode (CW 157a) by Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe. Spiritual Life Now and after Death is a fully revised edition of The Forming of Destiny and Life after Death (Garber, 1989).

Download or read book The Path of the Soul After Death written by Peter Selg and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 14 lectures, Kassel, June 24 - July 7, 1909 (CW 112) Beginning at the turn of the century, Rudolf Steiner began to express a passionate interest in Christianity. For him, the event he called the "Mystery of Golgotha" is more than the central event of Christianity; it is, in fact, the turning point in time for all human and earthly evolution. In his Autobiography, Steiner clarified his views on Christianity: Some of what I said and wrote during that period [1890s] seems to contradict the way I described Christianity later on. This is because, when I wrote the word Christianity, I was referring to the teachings of a "world beyond" that was active in all Christian doctrines at the time. The whole meaning of religious experiences pointed to a world of spirit, one that was supposed to be unattainable by human intellect. Whatever religion might have to say and whatever precepts for moral life it might offer arise from what is revealed to human beings from outside. My own direct, inner perception of spirit objected to this; it wanted to experience the worlds of both spirit and the physical in perceptions of the human being and nature. And my ethical individualism objected to this. It rejected the external support of commandments for morality; such support came instead as the result of spiritual soul development within the human being, where divinity lives. That was a trying time for my soul as I looked at Christianity. This period lasted from the time I left the Weimar work until I wrote my book Christianity as Mystical Fact. These kinds of tests are obstacles, placed in one's path by destiny (or karma), and they must be overcome through spiritual development. In these talks, Rudolf Steiner offers his profound insights into the essential truths behind the Christ event, as well as the historic and prehistoric events--on Earth and in the spiritual worlds--leading up to the turning point in time. He shows that the ancient mysteries of the East, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the streams behind those impulses--going back to Atlantis and Lemuria--all lead to the event of Christ's incarnation and the Mystery of Golgotha, through which the Earth became the body of Christ. Further, Steiner talks about what those events mean for the future of humanity and the Earth. The Gospel of St. John and Its Relation to the Other Gospels is an essential document in the literature of Christology and for understanding the central place of esoteric Christianity in Anthroposophy. The Gospel of St. John and Its Relation to the Other Gospels is a translation of Das Johannes-Evangelium im Verhältnis zu den drei anderen Evangelien, besonders zu dem Lukas-Evangelium (GA 112).

Download or read book The Influence of the Dead on Destiny written by Rudolf Steiner and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2007-12 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 6 lectures, Stuttgart, Dec. 26, 1919 - Jan. 3, 1920 (CW 299) To one who understands the sense of speech The world unveils Its image form. To one who listens to the soul of speech The world unfolds Its true being. To one who lives in the spirit depths of speech The world gives freely Wisdom's strength. To one who lovingly can dwell on speech Speech will accord Its inner might. So I will turn my heart and mind Toward the soul And spirit of words. In love for them I will then feel myself Complete and whole. Rudolf Steiner (Translated by Hans and Ruth Pusch) During the first year of the first Waldorf school, Rudolf Steiner agreed to give a science course to the teachers, which was to be on the nature of light. At the last minute, he was asked to give an additional course on language, which he improvised. "The Genius of Language" is the result. Steiner demonstrates how history and psychology together form the different languages and how ideas, images, and vocabulary travel through time within various cultural streams. He describes how the power to form language has declined, but that we can still recover the seed of language, the penetration of sound by meaning. He also explains how consonants imitate outer phenomena, whereas vowels convey a more inner sense of events; he talks about the differentiation of language as it is influenced by geography; he speaks of the "folk soul" element and the possibility of "wordless thinking"; we hear about the capacity of language to transform us and of its importance to our spiritual lives. This is not just a course on language for those who love words but demonstrates ways to teach children. This little book will prove tremendously valuable to both educators and parents-in fact, to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of language and its significance for our lives. This volume is a translation from German of Geisteswissenschaftlische Sprachbetrachtungen (GA 299).

Download or read book The Mystery of Death written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2023-05-15 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. Trans. by S. Blaxland-de Lange; Intro. by U. Dietler (Fifteen lectures, various cities, Jan.–Jun. 1915, GA 159)

Download or read book Between Death and Rebirth written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an absorbing series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner discloses factors in a person’s life on Earth that will influence their experiences in the spiritual world after their death – and conversely, factors in the spiritual world that will affect their next life on Earth. Steiner focuses on the period in the afterlife when the individual has been through kamaloka – the purgatorial place where the soul is purified. Once the soul has been cleansed of its astral sheath, it becomes open to cosmic influences, expanding into the planetary sphere. Now it can begin preparation for reincarnation – for a new human life on Earth. Steiner addresses the vital relationship of the living to the dead – in particular, how those on Earth can influence the souls of the dead. He also speaks on themes of ‘Sleep and death’, ‘The seven-year life cycles of man’, and offers a ‘Christmas gift’ in the form of a lecture on Christian Rosenkreutz and Gautama Buddha. He ends with a mighty picture of the Mystery of Golgotha: Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was only seemingly a death; in reality it enabled the momentous birth of the Earth-Soul. Long out-of-print, the freshly-revised text of the ten lectures in this new edition is complemented with an introduction, notes and appendices by Professor Frederick Amrine, and also features an index.

Download or read book Life of the Human Soul written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are we connected to the world around us? This question, says Rudolf Steiner, is one that lives subliminally, drawing us into the depths of the psyche. There, our candle of consciousness tends to flicker and go out. But spiritual schooling can relight it, so that we learn to perceive realms of our being beyond the restricted self. Whilst Steiner was undertaking major lecture tours of Germany and England, he took time to address his followers at the world centre of anthroposophy in Dornach, Switzerland. He speaks here on three major topics: ‘The Life of the Human Soul’, ‘Spiritual Striving in Relation to Earth’s Evolution’ and ‘The Contrast Between East and West’. The common theme, however, is our mutual responsibility for what the human being and the world will eventually become – which, according to Steiner, is far from a foregone conclusion. Even the way we think can change and affect the future: the degree, for example, to which we concentrate our picturing in meditation, infusing head thinking with warmth of heart. Rudolf Steiner reveals a hugely complex picture of interrelationships between humanity and the cosmos. Our head, heart, lungs and limbs all reveal subtly different qualities of connection with the invisible realities that continue to sustain us. Our eyes, for instance, only gradually evolved into organs of sight and were once vital organs, as our lungs are now. The lungs, in turn, will similarly evolve to provide us with another form of perception. As is usually the case, Steiner addresses a wide variety of topics in addition to those above. Included in this volume are thoughts on the significance of the cinema; the nature of the halo; technology as the ‘true foundation’ of the modern worldview; asceticism in the Middle Ages; the world of machines and the world of rite and worship; yoga and modern meditation exercises; pain as an awakener of knowledge; the emergence of the belief in ghosts; and the connection between stomach acid and soul qualities.

Download or read book The Gospel of John written by Rudolf Steiner and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 12 lectures, Hamburg, May 18-31, 1908 (CW 103) "It was Steiner's intention in these lectures to establish the ways in which this Gospel and its author, Lazarus-John, the one Christ called the beloved disciple, provided one of the surest paths to an understanding of the profound relationship of Christ to each human person and to Earth.... He leads his audience, and us readers, to an understanding of Lazarus-John unknown even to the other three primary evangelists --Matthew, Mark, and Luke --who wrote their Gospels several decades before Lazarus-John." -- Robert McDermott (from the introduction) In these twelve profound lectures, Rudolf Steiner uncovers and reclaims the essential truths of Christianity, illuminating the Gospel of John in all its majesty, power, and far-reaching significance. Foremost among the revelations to be found here is the identity of the writer of John's Gospel --the risen Lazarus, the disciple whom the Lord loved. Lazarus-John, the first to be initiated by Christ Himself, wrote his Gospel out of the deepest wellsprings of knowledge, implanting within it vital spiritual forces. As Steiner states in the final lecture of this volume, "This Gospel is not a textbook but a force that can work within our souls." It is this force living in the words and rhythms of John's Gospel that purifies the soul, transforming it --in the language of esoteric Christianity --into the Virgin Sophia, receptive to the Holy Spirit. Along this path, we come to recognize that Christianity, far from being a codified system of beliefs, is a living power within the evolution of humanity, a power that is only at the beginning of its activity. What Steiner calls the Mystery of Golgotha --the death and resurrection of Christ --stands as the turning point of time, the event through which the Earth receives its meaning. The effects of this event, and the further activity of Christ as the Spirit of the Earth, will continue to evolve from year to year, century to century, until one day in the distant future, Christianity will fulfill its mission. This cannot happen, however, until Christianity is understood "in its true, spiritual form." This lecture cycle is an essential guide to understanding the true mission of Christianity, a guide to spiritualizing the Earth, transforming the Cosmos of Wisdom into the Cosmos of Love. As with all great books, The Gospel of John not only imparts knowledge --it can also change you. "Our lectures on the Gospel of John will have a double purpose. One will be the deepening of the concepts of anthroposophy themselves and their expansion in many directions, and the other will be to make this great document itself comprehensible by means of the thoughts that will arise in our souls in consequence of these deepened and expanded concepts. I beg you to hold clearly in mind that it is the intention of these lectures to proceed in these two directions. It should not be simply a question of arguments about this Gospel, but rather that by means of the latter we shall penetrate into the deep mysteries of existence. We should hold very clearly in mind how the perspective of anthroposophy must be developed when we are dealing with any of the great historical records handed down to us by the different religions of the world. -- Rudolf Steiner (lecture 1) This volume is a translation from German of Das Johannes-Evangelium (GA 103). Cover image: The Raising of Lazarus, by William Blake (1757-1827). Pencil, pen, ink, and watercolor on paper, 11.6" x 16". Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland.

Download or read book The Bhagavad Gita and the West written by Rudolf Steiner and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2006-12 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 5 lectures, Cologne, Dec. 28, 1912 - Jan. 1, 1913 (CW 142) 9 lectures, Helsinki, May 28 - June 5, 1913 (CW 146) 1 lecture, Basel, Sept. 19, 1912 (CW 139) This combination of two volumes in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works presents Steiner's profound engagement with Hindu thought and, above all, the Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as they illuminate Western Christian esotericism. In his masterly introduction, Robert McDermott, a longtime student of Rudolf Steiner, as well as Hindu spirituality, explores the complex ways in which the "Song of the Lord," or Bhagavad Gita, has been understood in East and West. He shows how Krishna's revelation to Arjuna --a foundation of spirituality in India for more than two and a half millennia --assumed a similarly critical role in the Western spiritual revival of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the West, for instance, leading up to Steiner's engagement, McDermott describes the various approaches manifested by Emerson, Thoreau, H.P. Blavatsky, and William James. In the East, he engages with interpretations of historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, relating them to Steiner's unique perspective. In addition, and most important, he illumines the various technical terms and assumptions implicit in the worldview expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. The main body of The Bhagavad Gita and the West consists of two lecture courses by Rudolf Steiner: "The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul" and "The Esoteric Significance of the Bhagavad Gita." In the first course, his main purpose is to integrate the flower of Hindu spirituality into his view of the evolution of consciousness and the pivotal role played in it by the Mystery of Golgotha --the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Steiner views Krishna as a great spiritual teacher and the Bhagavad Gita as a preparation, though still abstract, for the coming of Christ and the Christ impulse as the living embodiment of the World, Law, and Devotion, represented by the three Hindu streams of Veda, Sankhya, and Yoga. For Steiner, the epic poem of the Bhagavad Gita represents the "fully ripened fruit" of Hinduism, whereas Paul is related but represents "the seed of something entirely new." In the last lecture of part one, Steiner reveals Krishna as the sister soul of Adam, incarnated as Jesus, and claims Krisha's Yoga teachings streamed from Christ into Paul. In the second lecture course, five months later, Steiner engages the text of the Bhagavad Gita --on its own terms --as signaling the beginning of a new soul consciousness. To aid in understanding both of these important cycles, this book includes the complete text of the Bhagavad Gita in Eknath Easwaran's luminous translation. In our age, when East and West are growing closer and we live increasingly in a global, intercultural and religiously pluralistic world, this remarkable book is required reading. The Bhagavad Gita and the West is a translation of two volumes in German: Die Bhagavad Gita und die Paulusbriefe (CW 142) and Die okkulten Grundlagen der Bhagavad Gita (CW 146). The lecture in the appendix is translated from Das Markus-Evangelium (CW 139) and was published in The Gospel of St. Mark (Anthroposophic Press, 1986).

Download or read book Paths and Goals of the Spiritual Human Being written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2015-08-19 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Speaking to audiences in Denmark, Germany and France, Rudolf Steiner discusses a wide range of topics: from positive and negative human soul capacities, true self-knowledge and karma, to changes in human consciousness, from ancient times to the modern era – all in the context of the incarnation of Christ on earth.The lectures illustrate the diversity of Steiner's approach when speaking to different audiences. Reflecting on the polymath Novalis, for example, he is urgent about the responsibility of spiritual science to help humanity awaken to the new age. A few months later, talking of Hegel and deploring the fact that an interest in spiritual matters often fails to be accompanied by an equal interest in logical thought, Steiner uses a dispassionate, philosophical tone. But throughout the lectures he is consistent in his view that spiritual science does not reject conventional science. Trained philosophical thinking leads to different conclusions than materialism, he says, but there is nothing in the field of spiritual science that need be rejected by rigorous scientific thought.Although the lectures were given to a variety of audiences, ideas recur from different perspectives and in different contexts, with strong thematic links binding them together. These include the relationship between philosophy and science; the nature of clairvoyance; Christ's presence in the etheric realm; reincarnation and karma; the mystery drama The Portal of Initiation; Christmas and its symbols; and the transformation of consciousness that occurred when Christ incarnated physically on earth.In the final lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks inspiringly about the Christmas festival, contrasting the feeling of inwardness that people used to experience with the hectic cultural environment of modern cities. However, this does not lead Steiner to be nostalgic about the past. Rather, he states, we should seek to recreate a mood of inwardness in a new way, appropriate to our modern age and consciousness. These lectures give us the tools to bring such a contemporary spiritual approach to our lives.

Download or read book Building Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2015-08-19 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'If one is unable to conceive of the Christ mystery as a true reality, one also cannot develop any ideas and concepts relating to the rest of world existence that are imbued with reality, which really penetrate to the truth '. – Rudolf SteinerIn a series of 17 lectures, Rudolf Steiner throws new light on the historical background and esoteric meaning of what he refers to as the central event of human and earthly history: the Christ mystery or 'the Mystery of Golgotha'. Basing his commentaries on personal spiritual research, Steiner emphasizes the key nature of the Mystery of Golgotha, through which '...something was accomplished which has to do not with the moral order alone but with the whole world-order in its entirety'. This relates to a transformation of the spiritual environment of the earth and a potentially radical change in human consciousness.Building on the core themes of this course, Steiner presents a variety of fascinating topics, including: original sin and the idea of resurrection; faith and knowledge; the nature of sleep and the riddle of fatigue; the violation of the mysteries by the Roman Emperors; the teachings of Mani and Augustine; our relationship to the dead in spiritualistic séances; and the correspondence between the Platonic year, a day in a person's life and a human life-time.Although first delivered to audiences a century ago, these lectures have lost none of their resonance; indeed, their essential message is perhaps more relevant than ever. They are published here in a new translation and for the first time in a complete English edition.'So let us endeavour to make spiritual science our own not merely as a teaching but as a language, and then wait until we find the questions in this language that we may address to Christ. He will answer, yes He will answer!'

Download or read book Art and Theory of Art written by Rudolf Steiner and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Author's Summary, 1888 Four Essays Written between 1890 and 1898 Eight Lectures between 1909 and 1921 (CW 271) "The challenge of saying something about art was personal for Rudolf Steiner. He experienced it as deeply connected with his biography. It is not for nothing that, in the last lecture of this volume, he points to his repeated attempts to develop a new approach and new forms of expression for speaking about art. We find at least three forms of this attempted approach in this book." --Zvi Szir (from the introduction) The subject, practice, and vital importance of art was a thread that ran through Rudolf Steiner's life, from his early work as a scholar of Goethe, through his time as an editor of a literary and arts journal in Berlin in the 1890s, and to his two and a half decades as a spiritual researcher and teacher. Understanding and articulating the significance of art was a perennial challenge for Rudolf Steiner. This volume of Steiner's Collected Works is unique in that it showcases a survey of both early written works and later lectures to anthroposophic audiences, and in doing so presents a picture of a lifetime of intensive effort to convey something essential about the arts. Beginning with his early philosophical work and literary criticism at the end of the nineteenth century and on into his later lectures, this volume follows Steiner's endeavor to reveal in words the mystery obscured by the vague concept of what "art" is. Viewed as a whole, this volume forms one of the most provocative collections of the twentieth century on the subject of art. It offers a unique analysis of the origin, foundation, and method of the creative process. This book is a translation of Kunst und Kunsterkenntnis: Grundlagen einer neuen Ästhetik, 3rd edition, published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 2010 (GA 271).

Download or read book Becoming Fully Human written by Rudolf Steiner and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 2022-05-20 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 6 lectures at The Hague, April 7-12, 1922; A written report by Rudolf Steiner on the course (CW 82) "There is no contradiction, if you look into the matter correctly, between destiny and freedom. However, in order to be able to present the concept of destiny to the world later on, it was first necessary that the concept of freedom be presented in the book The Philosophy of Freedom." -- Rudolf Steiner (lect. 6) Published here for the first time in English, these six public lectures are among Rudolf Steiner's most inspired --and inspiring --explorations of Anthroposophy as a true science of the spirit. Our age provides abundant explanations of the universe, its nature and evolution. But underlying most scientific modalities is a passive engagement with self and world, a taking-for-granted of the faculty of thinking, and, as a result, an indifferent arranging of phenomena through logical inference. But the question remains: What is thinking? A product of chemical processes in the brain, or a spiritual activity through which we become participants in a spiritual cosmos? This is Steiner's starting point in all his work. He aims to cast off the unnecessary limits imposed on knowledge by a science that fails to examine its most fundamental epistemological premises. The lectures here are a remarkable contribution to this lifelong project --a compelling, eloquent, insightful study and affirmation of our very humanness. Speaking to a youthful academic audience, Steiner does not confine himself to the arbitrary delineations of codified academic disciplines; on the contrary, he breaks down barriers, builds bridges, envisions a future academy in which the paths of knowledge are broadened through a genuine science of initiation to encompass our role as members and, ultimately, co-creators of the physical, soul, and spiritual universe. "Those who seek to prove something show, through the very fact that they seek to prove it, that for them what must be proved is not readily perceptible. We actually seek to prove something whenever we have no direct perception of it.... When in older, instinctive cognition people had a perception of what they called the divine being, they did not need proofs. Historically, the proofs for the existence of God began only when the perception was lost. Evidence is required wherever there is no perception." -- Rudolf Steiner (lect. 6) This volume is a translation from German of Damit der Mensch ganz Mensch werde. Die Bedeutung der Anthroposophieim Geistesleben der Gegenwart (GA 82), 2nd ed., Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1994. Cover image: The Golden Cell by Odilon Redon, 1892. Oil and colored chalks with gold, 30.1 cm x 24.7 cm. The British Museum, London.

Download or read book Understanding Healing written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2013-12-10 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rudolf Steiner's third great lecture course to physicians has a completely different character to his previous presentations. Delivered in response to a group of young doctors – who approached Steiner with the specific request for a course that would be 'quite intimate', but should not contain anything '...which appealed only to knowledge and the intellect' – it offers unique, ground-breaking insights into the practice and art of healing. Steiner speaks about the influence of cosmic and earthly forces – the periphery and centre – on the human being. Proper understanding of these processes enables the physician to comprehend the actions of plants and minerals used in anthroposophic medicines, and thus to prescribe appropriate and individually specific remedies. Steiner paints a picture of the human being as a complex confluence of the forces of heredity, forces from the cosmos, and an individual's unique spiritual nature. The physician has to understand these relationships in order to be able to help effectively when they are out of balance. Steiner stresses the importance of personal development for physicians, and offers plentiful instructions for a meditative practice intrinsic to their work. Among a wealth of other topics, Steiner addresses inflammation and excessive growth; the nature of scarlet fever and measles; the importance of a child's food and breast milk; the functions of the liver, heart, head and skeleton; the incarnation process; karma as a guide for the physician; morality as a force streaming in from the cosmos; the cosmic trinity of Saturn, Sun and Moon in the healthy and sick human being; and the involvement of the heart in thinking. Included here are Rudolf Steiner's answers to questions, and the first newsletter from the Medical Section, with a key meditation for physicians. This volume also features 18 full colour plates of Rudolf Steiner's blackboard drawings, a comprehensive introduction, index and notes.

Download or read book The Aims of Anthroposophy written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2020-06-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his final lectures to the general public, Rudolf Steiner speaks with great clarity and purpose about the inner and outer necessity of the anthroposophical impulse in modern times. Following the fire that destroyed the first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland, Steiner had focused his efforts on rebuilding and reorganizing the Anthroposophical Society. But he also continued to travel and speak to the public – in Prague, Vienna and Basel – to explain the purpose of the Goetheanum and to elucidate the broader aims of his spiritual work. These lectures, including a semi-public series in Dornach, are gathered here and published in English for the first time, together with an introduction, notes and index. The volume features the following lectures: ‘The Purpose of the Goetheanum and the Aims of Anthroposophy’; ‘Enhancing Human Powers of Perception to Develop Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition’; ‘Human Soul Life and the Development of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition’; ‘Experience and Perception of the Activities of Thinking and Speech’; ‘The Physical World and Moral-Spiritual Impulses’: ‘Four Stages of Inner Experience’; ‘Perceiving the Etheric World’; ‘Soul’s Eternity in the Light of Anthroposophy’; ‘Human Development and Education in the Light of Anthroposophy’; ‘Supersensible Perception, Anthroposophy as a Contemporary Need’; ‘Anthroposophy and the Ethical and Religious Life’; ‘How Do We Gain Knowledge of the Supersensible World?’

Download or read book The Christ Impulse written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2014-12-15 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rudolf Steiner's teachings of Christ are unique. Christ, he says, is an objective universal force, existing independently of Christian churches and confessions, and working for the whole of humanity. The impulse that Christ brought to earth acts for the advancement of all people, irrespective of religion, creed or race. Among the myriad other themes that emerge here are the introduction of the 'I' (or self) in human development and its connection to Christ and the meaning of the Ten.

Download or read book Good and Evil Spirits written by Rudolf Steiner and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2014-09-04 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'We learn gradually to raise our eyes not only to material existence; instead we discover spiritual entities and their actions wherever we look in the universe... We get to know the deeds of these spirits. We are alive and active and we are within the spiritual entities and their activities.' – Rudolf Steiner. >This classic series of lectures presents systematic knowledge on many different spiritual entities, ranging from the higher hierarchies of angels down to hindering demons. Basing his presentation on spiritual-scientific research, Rudolf Steiner intends to awaken us to the existence of these beings and how they interact with all aspects of our lives. Steiner describes how animals, plants and minerals have group souls – with even an inert stone having a spiritual counterpart in the invisible world. The various planets in the cosmos are connected to great spiritual beings and hierarchies too, as is the zodiac, which is not a static band of fixed stars but is also evolving. Steiner gives a remarkable picture of how Christ relates to the zodiacal constellations and to our own higher aspects. Spiritual entities are associated with the evolution of earth and the previous stages of its existence – and here Steiner elaborates relevant chapters of his book Occult Science, An Outline, explaining how our task on earth is ultimately to develop love rather than wisdom (which was the goal of earth's previous stage). From cosmic considerations, Steiner leads to the spirits of the kingdoms of nature – the elemental beings, with their four classes connecting to the four elements – gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders, or earth, water, air and fire spirits. He describes how elemental beings are created by human activities – with coercion of the views of others leading to 'demons', lying leading to 'phantoms', and bad social systems to 'spectres'. Spirits are also created in the association of humans and animals, whilst other spiritual entities connect us with the arts. Steiner emphasises the importance of developing and appreciating the arts – such as music, sculpture, architecture, painting and poetry – for the sake of humanity's future evolution.

Download or read book MICHAEL S MISSION written by RUDOLF STEINER and published by Rudolf Steiner Press. This book was released on 2015-11-18 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘...This will generate a struggle covering the face of the whole earth. The one and only remedy for this nonsense being made of human evolution will be the path that can lead humanity to the spirit – the path of Michael, which finds its continuation in the path of Christ.’ – Rudolf Steiner Speaking in the aftermath of the Great War, Rudolf Steiner presents a series of extraordinary lectures on the power and mission of the Archangel Michael. He paints on a broad canvas – in the context of cosmic and human evolution – revealing Michael’s tasks in the past, present and future. Originally the countenance of Yahweh, Michael has metamorphosed from a ‘night spirit’ to a ‘day spirit’. As ‘the Countenance of Christ’, Michael helps us find a balance between ‘luciferic’ and ‘ahrimanic’ tendencies. The old ‘dualism’ (such as good versus evil), says Steiner, needs to be replaced by the trinity of Lucifer-Christ-Ahriman. Filling our heart with the Christ Impulse creates an equilibrium between the luciferic influence that imbues our head and the ahrimanic influence at work in our limbs. Rudolf Steiner describes how humanity faces three dangers in the social sphere: spiritual life could flow into the ‘pit of mendacity’ ruled by Ahriman, individual rights might descend into the ‘pit of selfishness’ (Lucifer), and economics into cultural sickness and death (Asuras). In order to prevent European-American culture from perishing, it will be necessary to turn towards contemporary ‘threefold’ social ideas. Steiner also speaks about the principle of metamorphosis in connection with evolution and devolution, as evident in the design of the pillars in the newly-built Goetheanum. Architectural styles are an expression of human evolution, as can be seen in Greek temples, gothic Cathedrals, the Grail temple and the building at Dornach. Amidst many other themes, Rudolf Steiner addresses the problem of natural necessity and freedom, and the abolition of the trichotomy of body, soul and spirit at the Council of Constantinople in AD 869.