Classics in Anthroposophy – serie

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)

 

This text, outlining a new methodology for the study of human nature, dates from 1910 and was found after Rudolf Steiner's death among his unpublished papers. Steiner had dealt with the same theme earlier in lectures. Asked for a written version, he tried to write down what he had said, but found himself unable to do so-the language would not completely relinquish the words. Nevertheless, what he was able to put down remains a major intellectual and spiritual accomplishment of the twentieth century. Steiner presents anthroposophy, which lies between anthropology and theosophy, as a way of studying the human being. Where anthropology studies the human being on the basis of the senses-i.e. by observation within the limits of the scientific method-theosophy recognizes the human as a spiritual being on the basis of inner experience and seeks to understand what it means to be human in a spiritual world. Between these two approaches-basically those of science and religion-lies anthroposophy, which seeks to study human beings as they present themselves to physical observation, while at the same time seeking to derive indications of the spiritual foundations of phenomena by a process of phenomenological intensification. The results of such phenomenological intensification, though fragmentary and incomplete, are of enormous importance. They constitute the first steps toward a truly cognitive psychology, one that demonstrates the richness of the phenomenological approach to the human being as a sensory organism. Starting from there, Steiner unfolds the seven life processes, the nature of I-experience, the meaning of the human form, and its complex relation to higher spiritual worlds. This is a key work, whose time has truly arrived.