Rudolf Steiner – författare

In these lectures Steiner deals with the experiences of the human soul during and after death. On the basis of precise clairvoyant observations, he describes the events experienced during the millennium of the soul's journey within the vast realms of soul and spirit between death and rebirth. Steiner describes the states of consciousness experienced by our deceased loved ones and how we-by considering their new consciousness-can communicate with them and even help them. Reading these descriptions, it becomes clear that excarnated souls need the spiritual support of those presently incarnated, and that those still on earth, in turn, derive enlightenment and support from their former earthly companions.

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.

What convinces us of the truth of a point of view? Why do we find it difficult to understand or accept differing perspectives? What are the inner foundations of our knowledge? In these concentrated and aphoristic lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks of twelve main philosophical standpoints, and the importance of comprehending each one of them. Appreciating the variety of world-views not only sharpens our thinking and makes it more flexible, but helps us to overcome a narrow-minded one sidedness, promoting tolerance of other people and their opinions. The future of philosophy rests not upon defending one single perspective and refuting all others, but in learning to experience the validity of all points of view.Steiner goes on to explain how each philosophical standpoint is coloured by a particular ‘soul mood’, which influences the way we pursue knowledge as individuals. He characterizes the work of several thinkers in this way, throwing light on their unique contributions to human culture. Through such insights into the true nature of human thinking, we are led to understand the quality of cosmic thought, and how the human being is a ‘thought which is thought by the Hierarchies of the cosmos’.This revised translation is complemented with an introduction by Robert McDermott, editorial notes and appendices by Frederick Amrine and an index.

Själskalendern innehåller 52 veckomeditationer som följer årets gång. Texterna skrevs 1912 av Rudolf Steiner och kommer här i en ny finstämd översättning. De meditativa poetiska texterna blir till en väg hur vi kan utveckla förmågan att förnimma de fina förbindelsetrådar som väver mellan världen och oss själva. Bengt Aquilons eteriska målningar ger innehållet en ytterligare dimension.

Written in 1904 (CW 9)Theosophy is a key work for gaining a solid footing in spiritual reality as described by Rudolf Steiner. It is organized into four parts. First, Steiner builds a comprehensive understanding of human nature: physical bodily nature; soul qualities; spirit being, or I-being; and the higher spiritual aspects. This leads us to Steiner's description of the human being as sevenfold:

Material, physical bodyEther body, or body of life forcesSentient soul bodyMind soulSpirit-filled consciousness soulLife spiritSpirit body

In the next section, Steiner offers an extraordinary overview of the laws of reincarnation and the principles of karma, as we pass from one life to the next. This prepares us for the third section, in which he shows the various ways in which we live--during life on earth and after death and in the three worlds of body, soul, and spirit.Finally, we are given a succinct description of the path of knowledge, along which each person can begin to understand the marvelous and harmonious complexity of the psycho-spiritual worlds in their fullness.Contents:

 

Foreword by Michael HoldregePrefaces by Rudolf SteinerChapter 1: The Essential Nature of the Human Being: The Bodily Nature of the Human BeingThe Soul Nature of the Human BeingThe Spirit Nature of the Human BeingBody, Soul, and SpiritChapter 2: Destiny & the Reincarnation of the SpiritChapter 3: The Three Worlds: The Soul WorldThe Soul in the Soul World after DeathThe Country of Spirit BeingsThe Spirit in Spirit Country after DeathThe Physical World and Its Connection to the Worlds of Souls and SpiritsChapter 4: The Path to KnowledgeRelated ReadingIndex

This volume is a translation of Theosophie, Einfuhrung in ubersinnliche Welterkenntnis und Menschenbestimmung (GA 9)

 

Every age, every culture, perhaps every person, have different answers. We can at least agree on one thing, however: dreams are other. Their presence in our lives demonstrates that we are not limited to a single mode of consciousness. The world of sleep is largely a blank for us, an abyss of non-consciousness, yawning between one day and the next, but the very fact that we can dream announces our potential for awareness within that abyss.We spend a third of our life asleep-a fact that dream theorists rarely consider. This startling collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, selected and introduced by the psychologist Michael Lipson, provides a truly unique way of approaching dreams, based on an understanding of the spiritual nature of human beings. A radically new view of dreams "as the threshold to spiritual reality" arises, once we acknowledge that physical existence is only the tip of an iceberg hidden largely in the spiritual world. Sleep, death, and meditation are the three realms in which consciousness has the opportunity to deepen its immersion in the divine flow of existence. In principle, we can become infinitely more self-aware in each of them, since human consciousness is not fixed-neither in contents nor in terms of alertness. All day long, the contents of our consciousness change, and during the night, the level changes. These lectures permit readers to glimpse the fantastic depths of experience we normally "sleep through" and to contemplate Steiner's astounding program: to maintain self-aware consciousness through sleep, through death, through all being.

Our instinctive knowledge of which foods are helpful and which are harmful appears increasingly to be fading. We are bombarded with advice, information and prescriptions as to what we should eat and drink, but the issues surrounding nutrition - questions of health, diet, taste, even ecology and sustainability - remain largely unresolved. Unlike most commentators on this subject, Rudolf Steiner tackles the theme of nutrition in a refreshingly open way. At no point does he try to tell us what we should or should not be putting into our bodies - whether with regard to an omnivorous or vegetarian diet, smoking, drinking alcohol, and so on. The job of the scientist, he says, is to explain how things act and what effect they have; what people do with that information is up to them. However, he emphasizes that our diet not only determines our physical wellbeing, but can also promote or hinder our inner spiritual development. In this carefully collated anthology, with an introduction, commentary and notes by Christian von Arnim, Rudolf Steiner considers nutrition in the light of his spiritual-scientific research.He explains the impact of raw food, vegetarian and meat diets, the effects of protein, fats, carbohydrates and salts, individual foodstuffs such as potatoes, beetroots and radishes, as well as the impact of alcohol and nicotine. His insights are vital to anybody with a serious interest in health, diet and spiritual development.

Are we free, whether we know it or not? Or is our sense of freedom merely an illusion? Rudolf Steiner tackles this age-old problem in a new way. He shows that by taking account of our own activity of thinking, we can know the reasons for our actions. And if these reasons are taken from our world of ideals, then our actions are free, because we alone determine them. But this freedom cannot be settled for us by philosophical argument. It is not simply granted to us. If we want to become free, we have to strive through our own inner activity to overcome our unconscious urges and habits of thought. In order to do this we must reach a point of view that recognises no limits to knowledge, sees through all illusions, and opens the door to an experience of the reality of the spiritual world. Then we can achieve the highest level of evolution. We can recognise ourselves as free spirits. This special reprint, featuring the acclaimed translation by Michael Wilson, is being made available in response to public demand.

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.

This volume is an investigation into secret groups with hidden agendas.

'Our contemporaries - who wish to keep to a narrow-minded and superficial outlook, are annoyed to find that spiritual science continually seeks the whole picture - that it has to create a bridge between the body and the soul, and truly explores how the psyche becomes corporeal and the body becomes psychological.' How do the soul and the spirit live in human physical bodies? In our materialistic age, in which the very existence of the metaphysical is widely rejected, such questions are rarely posed let alone addressed. In this exceptional series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks in scientific detail about the connection of the subtle aspects of human nature - our soul and spirit - to our physical constitution. At the heart of this course are the well-loved 'Bridge' lectures, which appear in English for the first time in their wider context. Steiner discusses the solid, fluid, air and warmth bodies, and how these are connected with the various ethers, the 'I' and human blood.He goes on to describe how ideals and ideas impact the various aspects of the human constitution - how morality is a source of 'world creativity' - with moral thinking imbuing life into substance and will. Moral ideas have a positive effect, he says, whereas theoretical ones have a negative impact. In the realm of the moral, a new natural world comes into being, and thus the moral order and the natural order are intertwined. This volume also features Steiner's classic lecture on the Isis legend and its renewal today as divine wisdom - Sophia. Other themes include the mystery of Christ as the connection between the spiritual and physical sun; the permeation of the life of thought with will (love) and permeation of the life of will with thoughts (wisdom); the path to freedom and love and their importance in the universe; the metamorphosis of head and limbs through successive lives on earth; the threefold nature of the human form (head, thorax, limbs), the threefold nature of the soul (thinking, feeling, will) and the threefold nature of the spirit (waking, dreaming, sleeping).

In Hindu tradition, the concept of kundalini refers to a form of primal energy located at the base of the spine. Through traditional Eastern methods, efforts were made to `awaken’ the kundalini in order to achieve transformed consciousness. Rudolf Steiner offers an entirely new perspective, integrating the kundalini idea into his spiritual philosophy. This anthology contains all relevant comments and notes by Steiner on the theme, highlighting how his thinking evolved. At the same time, it accentuates the differences – and similarities – between Western and Eastern spiritual paths, and in the process reveals what is new and original about Steiner’s esoteric teachings.In contrast to most yoga traditions – which cultivate the energy rising from the lower life centre – the Western path of esoteric schooling starts in our upper centre of consciousness, in thinking and the `I’. From there, the centre of experience is shifted downward, from the head to the heart. After development of the `new heart centre’, as Rudolf Steiner describes it, forces can be guided consciously and, through specific exercises, the `kundalini snake’ can be fully awoken. In his detailed introduction, editor Andreas Meyer distils the perspectives and instructions from Steiner’s complete works, presenting a valuable synopsis for our understanding and practice of meditation today.Chapters include: `The Meaning of Meditation, and the Six Exercises’; `Developing and Cleansing the Lotus Flowers’; `The Snake Symbol’; `The Kundalini Fire’; `The Kundalini Light’; `Developing the New Heart Organ’; `The Reversal in Thinking and Will’; `Specific Aspects of Kundalini Schooling’; `Transforming Physical Love and the Division of the Sexes’; `Breathing, the Light-Soul Process, and the New Yoga Will’; `The Polarity of Light and Love’ and `Transforming the Kundalini Fire into Fraternity’.

The art of eurythmy strives to make the invisible visible in a harmonious and disciplined play of color, form, sound, and motion.During the early years of the twentieth century when eurythmy was young and little known, Rudolf Steiner's introductory talks prepared nearly 300 audiences for their encounters with this wholly new way of presenting drama, poetry, and music through human movement.Full of life and creativity, these talks illuminate the richness underlying the spiritual laws of this new art form.Sixteen of Steiner's talks have been carefully selected and are presented here as an introduction to the aesthetic, pedagogical, and therapeutic secrets of this developing art.

'All existence is spirit. Just as ice is water, so matter is also spirit. Mineral, vegetable, animal or human - all are a condensed form of spirit.' - Rudolf Steiner In the two lecture courses featured in this volume, Rudolf Steiner presents a radical new paradigm. Tackling the central dilemma of modern civilization - the polarisation of science and spirituality - he seeks to broaden natural science through a comprehensive spiritual science. Rather than harking back to old spiritual forms or religions, Steiner's approach is based on a conscious and systematic intensification of thinking and perception. Rudolf Steiner approaches this spiritual-scientific task from two perspectives. In Kassel, Germany, he deepens insight into theosophy and Rosicrucianism, showing their relationship to science and religion. Although presented as an 'introduction', Steiner was never interested in simply providing information - not even in the form of new revelations - and his insights are from fresh angles and with new illustrative examples. These lectures deepen and develop key elements found in his fundamental works Occult Science, An Outline and Theosophy.Also featured are the fascinating question-and-answer sessions from the Kassel lectures. In Basel, Switzerland, Rudolf Steiner discusses that most esoteric of the accounts of the life of Christ: the Gospel of John. Whilst the focus is on the gospel, basic tenets of spiritual science, human existence and world evolution are considered, as is the concept of karma and the true nature of Christianity. In both sets of lectures Steiner dwells on the Prologue to the Gospel of John (given in his own translation), which offers a meditative approach to gaining insight into both the gospel and Christianity as a whole. Rather than distancing us from life, each of the lectures in this volume brings us closer to reality. As Rudolf Steiner states: 'Rosicrucian theosophy...does not make us into eccentrics, outsiders, but into friends of existence, for it doesn't look down on everyday life, alienating us from our mission on earth; it brings us closer.'