Rudolf Steiner

A course of 18 lectures and discussions given in Dornach, Switzerland in 1921. In this course, in which more than one hundred people interested in the questions of a renewal of religious life and work participated, Rudolf Steiner talks about the ways in which religious activity can be fertilized through spiritual knowledge and brought into new forms of worship. The "Documentary Supplements" included in the separate German edition containing reproductions of blackboard drawings and addresses, notebook entries, etc., is included in this English translation.

Goethes Weltanschauung ist ein unver nderter, hochwertiger Nachdruck der Originalausgabe. Hansebooks ist Herausgeber von Literatur zu unterschiedlichen Themengebieten wie Forschung und Wissenschaft, Reisen und Expeditionen, Kochen und Ern hrung, Medizin und weiteren Genres. Der Schwerpunkt des Verlages liegt auf dem Erhalt historischer Literatur. Viele Werke historischer Schriftsteller und Wissenschaftler sind heute nur noch als Antiquit ten erh ltlich. Hansebooks verlegt diese B cher neu und tr gt damit zum Erhalt selten gewordener Literatur und historischem Wissen auch f r die Zukunft bei.

Das soziale Leben der Gegenwart stellt ernste, umfassende Aufgaben. Forderungen nach Neueinrichtungen in diesem Leben treten auf und zeigen, da zur L sung dieser Aufgaben Wege gesucht werden m ssen, an die bisher nicht gedacht worden ist. Durch die Tatsachen der Gegenwart unterst tzt, findet vielleicht heute schon derjenige Geh r, der, aus den Erfahrungen des Lebens heraus, sich zu der Meinung bekennen mu , da dieses Nichtdenken an notwendig gewordene Wege in die soziale Verwirrung hineingetrieben hat. Auf der Grundlage einer solchen Meinung stehen die Ausf hrungen dieser Schrift. Sie m chten von dem sprechen, was geschehen sollte, um die Forderungen, die von einem gro en Teile der Menschheit gegenw rtig gestellt werden, auf den Weg eines zielbewu ten sozialen Wollens zu bringen.

Das soziale Leben der Gegenwart stellt ernste, umfassende Aufgaben. Forderungen nach Neueinrichtungen in diesem Leben treten auf und zeigen, da zur L sung dieser Aufgaben Wege gesucht werden m ssen, an die bisher nicht gedacht worden ist. Durch die Tatsachen der Gegenwart unterst tzt, findet vielleicht heute schon derjenige Geh r, der, aus den Erfahrungen des Lebens heraus, sich zu der Meinung bekennen mu , da dieses Nichtdenken an notwendig gewordene Wege in die soziale Verwirrung hineingetrieben hat. Auf der Grundlage einer solchen Meinung stehen die Ausf hrungen dieser Schrift. Sie m chten von dem sprechen, was geschehen sollte, um die Forderungen, die von einem gro en Teile der Mens...

'The present age needs to understand that human beings must hold the balance between the two extremes, between the ahrimanic and the luciferic poles. People always tend to go in one direction... The Christ stands in the middle, holding the balance.' - Rudolf Steiner These eleven lectures were given in post-war Stuttgart against a backdrop of struggle and uncertainty - not only within society at large but also within the anthroposophical movement. Rudolf Steiner and his supporters were working to introduce 'threefold' social ideas and - given Steiner's public profile - were coming under increasing personal and sometimes physical attack. Steiner responds to this turbulent situation by revealing the spiritual background to the forces of decline working in contemporary civilization. He speaks of retrogressive powers - spiritual beings referred to as luciferic or ahrimanic - that work directly into human culture, manifesting, for example, in what he refers to as the 'initiation streams' of Western secret societies, the Church-allied impulse of Jesuitism and the Bolshevik force of Leninism. The spiritual agents of adversity also encourage polarised thinking and false opposites such as East verses West, materialism and mysticism, or knowledge and belief. Only the threefold principle - represented by Christ - allows us to create a balance in the midst of these existential conflicts. This freshly-reworked translation is complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Matthew Barton.

'Suppose you have seen an event, have formed an idea about it, and you say something that is not true - in other words, something that is a lie. Then what flows from the object is correct and what flows from you is false and this collision is a terrible explosion; and each time you do this, you attach a gruesome being to your karma which you cannot get rid of again until you have made good what you lied about.' - Rudolf Steiner In a previously-untranslated volume of lectures, Rudolf Steiner presents shattering insights regarding the interaction of human and spiritual beings. He speaks, for example, about how perfumes can give certain spirits access to people on earth, or how phantoms, spectres and demons can be created through human deficiencies - or even how the arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and music allow 'good' or 'hideous' entities to enter our world. As he states: 'Learning about the effects of spiritual beings is of much greater help than moral preaching. A future humanity will know what it is creating through lies, hypocrisy and slander.' The lectures are divided into two broad thematic groups: the first relating to the inner path of knowledge and its relation to the yearly festivals, and the second focusing on the work of elemental beings in our everyday world. The 18 lectures are complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Christian von Arnim.

During the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society at Christmas1923, Rudolf Steiner also reconstituted the "Esoteric School" which had originally functioned in Germany from 1904 until 1914, when the outset of the First World War made it's continuance impossible. However, the original school was only for a relatively few selected individuals, whereas the new school was incorporated into the Free School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. Rudolf Steiner was only able to give nineteen lessons - plus seven "recapitulation" lessons - for the First Class before his illness and death. His intention had been to develop three classes. The lessons were recorded by a stenographer, then typed in clear text without having been reviewed by Rudolf Steiner. They had not been publicly accessible until recently. This is Volume Two.

Ce livre classique a t initialement publi il y a des d cennies sous le titre " An Outline of Occult Science ". Il a maintenant t traduit par Writat en langue fran aise pour leurs lecteurs francophones. Chez Writat, nous sommes passionn s par la pr servation du patrimoine litt raire du pass . Nous avons traduit ce livre en fran ais afin que les g n rations pr sentes et futures puissent le lire et le conserver.

During the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society at Christmas1923, Rudolf Steiner also reconstituted the "Esoteric School" which had originally functioned in Germany from 1904 until 1914, when the outset of the First World War made it's continuance impossible. However, the original school was only for a relatively few selected individuals, whereas the new school was incorporated into the Free School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. Rudolf Steiner was only able to give nineteen lessons - plus seven "recapitulation" lessons - for the First Class before his illness and death. His intention had been to develop three classes. The lessons were recorded by a stenographer, then typed in clear text without having been reviewed by Rudolf Steiner. They had not been publicly accessible until recently. This is Volume Three.

During the re-founding of the Anthroposophical Society at Christmas1923, Rudolf Steiner also reconstituted the "Esoteric School" which had originally functioned in Germany from 1904 until 1914, when the outset of the First World War made it's continuance impossible. However, the original school was only for a relatively few selected individuals, whereas the new school was incorporated into the Free School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. Rudolf Steiner was only able to give nineteen lessons - plus seven "recapitulation" lessons - for the First Class before his illness and death. His intention had been to develop three classes. The lessons were recorded by a stenographer, then typed in clear text without having been reviewed by Rudolf Steiner. They had not been publicly accessible until recently. This is Volume Three.

Dieses klassische Buch wurde urspr nglich vor Jahrzehnten ver ffentlicht als " An Outline of Occult Science ". Es wurde jetzt von Writat f r seine deutschsprachigen Leser ins Deutsche bersetzt. Bei Writat liegt uns die Bewahrung des literarischen Erbes der Vergangenheit sehr am Herzen. Wir haben dieses Buch ins Deutsche bersetzt, damit es heutige und zuk nftige Generationen lesen und bewahren k nnen.

In a previously-unavailable series of talks to the general public, Rudolf Steiner builds systematically, lecture by lecture, on the fundamentals of spiritual science - from the nature of spiritual knowledge and its relationship to conventional science, the path of personal development and the task of metaphysical research, to specific questions on the mystery of death, the meaning of fairy-tales, the significance of morality and the roles of individual figures in human evolution, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Jacob Boehme. At the time of these presentations, Steiner had already worked in Berlin for many years, and thus, '...could reckon with a regularly returning audience to whom what mattered was to enter ever more deeply into the areas of knowledge that were newly opening up to them' (Marie Steiner). As a consequence - and through 'a series of inter-connecting lectures whose themes are entwined with one another' - he was able to communicate a coherent and challenging spiritual perception of reality, based on his personal research. Presented here with notes, an index and an introduction by Simon Blaxland-de Lange, the 14 lectures include: 'How is Spiritual Science Refuted?'; 'On What Foundation is Spiritual Science Based'; 'The Tasks of Spiritual Research for both Present and Future'; 'Errors of Spiritual Research'; 'Results of Spiritual Research for Vital Questions and the Riddle of Death'; The World-Conception of a Cultural Researcher of the Present, Herman Grimm' and 'The Legacy of the Nineteenth Century'.