Books published by Anthroposophic Press Inc

Though Rudolf Steiner is best known for his cultural influence in fields such as education, agriculture, and medicine, it is often forgotten that he made his contribution as a spiritual teacher. What he taught was, above all, a way of spiritual knowledge - a path of inner development to reconnect the spirit in us with the spirit in the universe. This book brings together for the first time a series of fundamental lectures on beginning a path of practice. Since it is by one of the great spiritual masters of the twentieth century, its wisdom and practicality are outstanding. Here readers will find descriptions of various practical exercises to develop the necessary moral qualities and states of consciousness that inner development requires. More advanced practices and techniques are also discussed. This is not just a book for beginners. Wherever you are on the path - whatever path you are on - this book can be a helpful companion.

"A simple, down-to-earth introduction to the method of biodynamic gardening especially written for the backyard gardener." Long out of print, this classic introduction to biodynamic gardening introduces the gardener to an obvious, often forgotten principle: gardening is about living things, life forces, and life as such. In his introduction, John Philbrick talks of how each morning he was in the habit of meditating and communing in his garden at sunrise, until he gradually realized that the important things at work were "the forces of life"-"life is the key to existence on this planet." He also realized that most gardeners were more concerned with death, with getting rid of things -bugs, weeds, fungi -than with life. Biodynamics is based on the interrelatedness, or the dynamics, of life forces. As Philbrick says: When you become aware of biodynamics, you become aware that everything that is alive is dependent upon everything else that's alive, and it's all a marvelous network of living things which are constantly changing. This book provides a simple and practical guide for the beginning gardener. It deals with planning a vegetable garden: how, when, and where to plant seeds and tools and compost making raised beds crop rotation, mulching, and companion plants harvesting, cooking, and preserving There are also sections on flowers, lawns, and home orchards. GARDENING FOR HEALTH & NUTRITION concludes with a useful chapter on "most frequently asked questions." If you are planning a garden-or need a few tips for the one you have, this is the book for you.

Heaven on Earth balances theoretical understanding of child development with practical ideas, resources, and tips that can transform family life. Readers will learn how to establish the life rhythms that lay the foundation for all learning; how to design indoor play environments that allow children the broadest skills development; and how to create backyard play spaces that encourage vigorous movement and a wide sensory palette. Through art, storytelling, and the festival celebrations, this book is a guide to build a ?family culture? based on the guiding principle of love. Such a culture supports children and allows the free development of each unique soul.

5 lectures, Dornach and Bern, November 1-15, 1919 (CW 191, 193)"Human beings are dwellers in two worlds. Our uniqueness amongst the creatures of earth lies in this role that we have as half beast half angel. A dynamic tension exists because of the contrary demands which living in each of these realms places on us. We experience this on a daily basis, an internal tug-of-war, pulling first in one direction, then to the opposite pole. Whenever we are called upon to make a choice, a decision, the earthly and the heavenly draw us one way or the other and often both at once!" --Rudolf SteinerIn these lectures, Steiner focuses on the vital task of developing the proper orientation toward a free spiritual life. With great compassion and understanding, he offers telling examples of how humanity must walk a conscious middle way between the two tempting powers of Lucifer and Ahriman. He describes the incarnation of Lucifer in the third millennium before the Christ event, out of which flowed not just the wisdom of paganism, but also the conscious intellect we enjoy today. Ahriman, on the other hand, is shown approaching human beings through such phenomena as materialism, nationalism, and literalism, all in preparation for his incarnation in the third millennium.Keep in mind, however, that these two powers do not work separately; rather, they are working increasingly together. Our task as human beings is to hold them in balance, continually permeating one with the other. Steiner tells us, "Lucifer and Ahriman must be regarded as two scales of a balance, and it is we who must hold the beam in equipoise. How can we train ourselves to do this? By permeating what takes ahrimanic form within us with a strongly luciferic element."To accomplish this task we need a new, more conscious inner life.Lectures 1, 2, 4, and 5 are translations of lectures 11, 12, 15, and 13 in Soziales Verstandnis aus geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkentnis Die Geistige Hintergründe der Sozialen Frage - Band III (GA 191). Lecture 3 is translated from lecture 10 of Der innere Aspekt des sozialen Rätsels. Luziferische Vergangenheit und ahrimanische Zukunft (GA 193)

A practicing psychotherapist lays the foundation for a truly spiritual psychology and examines the principles of Freud and Jung. Steiner claims that because Freud did not recognize the spirit, the human soul experience was reduced to subjective personal history.

Practical, clear, and powerful advice from a spiritual master.

Although trained as a scientist and a philosopher, Rudolf Steiner always placed a high value on the practice of art and always worked artistically: whatever he did was done with great artistry. Furthermore, as a spiritual teacher, Steiner's ideal was the reunion of science, religion, and art in a new, human sacramental culture. The eleven lectures collected here reveal the many-facetted perspectives Steiner offered regarding the vital role of the visual arts in human affairs. For Steiner, art is above all a way of building a bridge between the spiritual and the physical realms. His views are not abstract theories or utopian ideals, but a constant striving through the inherent qualities of color and form to realize concrete artistic projects in architecture, sculpture, and painting.On first meeting Steiner's radical ideas, many people -- artists as well as non-artists -- wonder what sense they can make of such an approach to art. The introduction by Michael Howard introduces these ideas by recounting one artist's experience of struggling to make Steiner's views and way of doing art his own. Ultimately, however each person must make their own relationship to Steiner's approach, buth the story of how one artist took up the challenge may stimulate others to do the same. The book includes numerous photographs.

"The deep aim, or intention, of an introduction (understood esoterically) is a 'living understanding, ' or, as the poet William Blake put it, the ability 'to catch the bird in flight and fly with it.' If successful, this makes it possible for any reader to hear or translate, into his or her own understanding, what Rudolf Steiner is offering, within and beyond his words, in these texts of The Collected Works." --Christopher BamfordRudolf Steiner's writings and lectures comprise a collection of more than 350 volumes, which can overwhelm anyone hoping to gain an understanding of the vast range of their content. Beginning in the 1990s, as editor in chief of Anthroposophic Press (SteinerBooks), Christopher Bamford wrote introductions to more than fifty books in the English translations, each one offering readers significant context and keys to open up many areas of Steiner's works.This volume presents fifteen of those introductions to some of Steiner's most essential books and lectures on anthroposophic practices, Western esoteric streams, religious renewal, and inner development, as well as practical applications of anthroposophic principles for a threefold society and contributions to modern holistic medicine.Taken together, these introductions provide one of the best possible means of encountering Rudolf Steiner by revealing the background, significance, and relevance of his philosophy and insights for humanity today and in the future.This book is for anyone seeking a way into Steiner's worldview, as well as for those who are already familiar with the work of Rudolf Steiner and wish to delve more deeply into the many aspects of the anthroposophic path of knowledge.

"History does not repeat, but it does instruct."-- Timothy Snyder (On Tyranny)Since 2009, Peter Selg, along with Polish historians, has led seminars on medical ethics at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial for students at Witten / Herdecke University, Germany. This book was created following a public event in 2019 that investigated the "lessons of Auschwitz" for the practice of medicine in society today and in the future.As well as commemorating the individual victims, the Auschwitz event focused on the role of German physicians in the Nazi regime. In this book, Dr. Selg's discussions go far beyond the historical events of the 1930s and '40s. Countering the legacy of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the inhumane medical practices of that time, he presents us with ways to advance forms of medicine today that encourage the most compassionate treatment of one another as human beings."Today, as always in times of crisis, there are symptoms of a return, if not to Nazism, then to a right-wing regime that is strong, with a firm, streamlined order." -- Primo LeviOriginally published in German as Nach Auschwitz. Auseinandersetzungen um die Zukunft der Medizin by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, Stuttgart, 2020.

An Author's Summary, 1888Four Essays Written between 1890 and 1898Eight 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).

"Originally published in German as Form, Leben und Bewusstsein: Einfèuhrung in die Menschenkunde der Anthroposophischen Medizin (Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart, 2015)"-- title page verso.

12 lectures, Dornach, November 26 - December 31, 1922 (CW 219)"Think of the earth with the air around it; farther outward is the cosmic ether, gradually passing over into the spiritual sphere. Here on Earth, we inhale and exhale the air. This is the rhythm of breathing. But out yonder, we pour our being into the cosmos, receiving into ourselves the Logos and the cosmic thoughts. There, we let the world, the universe, speak to us. This, too, takes place in rhythm--in a rhythm determined by the world of the stars.... Out in the universe we live in a cosmic rhythm, in that we breathe in, as it were, the moral-ethereal world; we are then within ourselves. And when we breathe it out again, we are united with the beings of the higher hierarchies." -- Rudolf Steiner (Nov. 26, 1922)The actions of spiritual beings in relation to the rhythm of the course of the year are brought to light in these inspiring lectures, showing how we are challenged to consciously integrate these rhythms into our earthly life. Steiner reveals that the concepts of spiritual science serve as our eyes in the spiritual world after death. He shows that we change the world when we communicate with it out of our spiritual nature, which is the true spiritual communion of humanity.This volume is a translation of Das Verhältnis der Sternwelt zum Menschen und des Menschen zur Sternwelt. Die geistige Kommunion der Menschheit (GA 219).

9 lectures, Dornach, December 24, 1922 - January 6, 1923 (CW 326)"Modern science, and the scientism based on it, so far from being the only possible 'reality principle, ' is merely one way of conceiving the nature of reality; a way moreover that has arisen only recently and that there is no reason to suppose will last forever." -- Owen Barfield (from the introduction) These talks outline the subtle changes in our ideas and feelings in relation to the development of natural science. Through this, Steiner shows the significance of scientific research and the mode of thinking that goes with it. As we look at what technology has brought us, we may have a feeling like the pain we feel over the death of a loved one. According to Steiner, this feeling of loss will eventually become our most important stimulation to seek the spirit. This book is a translation from German of Der Entstehungsmoment der Naturwissenschaft in der Weltgeschichte und ihre seitherige Entwicklung (GA 326).

For more than three centuries, scientists have studied the world as detached observers. In doing so, science has achieved marvelous results, but it has also lost the sense of the whole that earlier cultures possessed. By concentrating on the "text" of the physical world, science has lost the context--the etheric world of life forces.Goethean phenomenology (so named for Goethe's observations) is a scientific method capable of bringing the clarity of natural science to this context of phenomena. Unconsciously, scientific observers have always been using the context to read the text. The phenomenological method involves training observers to look at the activity of thinking itself as it perceives intentionally. It then uses this activity itself as a means of perception. The observer thus becomes conscious that physical nature is indeed a text, and that its meaning derives from the etheric context.Unlike the more common hypothetical and deductive methods--which presupose a detached observer--the phenomenological method is based on active participation by the observer. This eliminates the need to construct speculative hypotheses; the observer's awareness of his or her own intentionality ensures the veracity of the observations. The etheric world is not a new hypothesis; it is, however, a new domain of observation.The authors--Jochen Bockemühl, Christof Lindenau, Georg Maier, Ernst-August Müller, Hermann Poppelbaum, Dietrich Rapp, and Wolfgang Schad--have all written extensively on "participatory" science and related matters. In this ground-breaking collection, they each explore an aspect of the etheric world and its relationship to human thinking. They systematically lead the reader into the "formative movements" of nature and offer genuine insight into the far-reaching mystery of life.

T he year 1921 was a time of intense activity for Rudolf Steiner. Three years after World War 1, with social ideals and democracy trying to make their way in the Weimar Republic and the disastrous financial collapse just around the corner, he concentrated his efforts on cultural renewal in economics, education, the arts, medicine, theology, and the sciences. Two clinics were opened, two publications appeared. He lectured in Germany and Switzerland, Amsterdam, The Hague, and Oslo, often giving two, sometime three, and occasionally four lectures a day. Anthroposophy was becoming more known with all this activity, but opposition was also growing stronger. "The modern materialistic world conception is a product of fear and anxiety," Steiner said. "This fear lives on in the outer actions of human beings, in the social structure, in the course of history.... Why did people become materialists, why would they admit only the outer, that which is given in material existence? Because they were afraid to descend into the depths of the human being." The mind-body split is the result of this fear to penetrate the inner human being; and our lack of courage rebounds on society, producing the terrible conditions of modern civilization. Healing will only come when we summon the courage to penetrate the hidden mysteries of the inner human being. In the Society itself, Steiner sought to awaken the local groups from their comfortable complacency. Cosmosophy, Vol. 1 is the first part of two lecture courses that he gave in Dornach in the fall of 1921 to members of the Anthroposophical Society on anthroposophy as cosmosophy, the wisdom of the human being as the wisdom of the cosmos, The eleven lectures, which are also part of a wider course of lectures that he gave throughout the years 1920-1921 (GA 201-GA 209 in German), reveal deep mysteries of the human being in relationship with the cosmos, including topics such as the origin of fear in Western civilization; the mystery of evil; sleeping and waking in higher cognition; the Jupiter existence of the earth; past and future karma; the relationship of the human being to the hierarchies in Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition; foundations of an occult psychology; metamorphosis of the worlds of thought and will in the life after death; preparation of the future from the nature of the will; the conscience; reversal of sense experience in the life after death; the appearance of the senses as a prequisite for freedom; the Mystery of Golgotha as the sense-giving center to historical events, and much more.

16 talks preceding eurythmy performances (CW 277 / 277a)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 on eurythmy are presented here as an introduction to the aesthetic, pedagogical, and therapeutic secrets of this developing art.This volume contains translations of 1st lecture in Die Entstehung und Entwickelung der Eurythmie (GA 277a); and 15 lectures in Eurythmie als Impuls für künstlerisches Betätigen und Betrachten (current edition: Eurythmie. Die Offenbarung der sprechenden Seele, GA 277).

"In my book How to Know Higher Worlds, the path to higher knowledge has been traced up to the meeting with the two Guardians of the Threshold. The relation in which the soul stands to the different worlds as it passes through the successive stages of knowledge will now be described. What will be given may be called 'the teachings of esoteric science.'" -- Rudolf Steiner (chapter 1)In 1904, in the magazine Lucifer-Gnosis, Rudolf Steiner published some of his earliest articles on self-development, which became his classic How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation. Steiner continued his articles as "The Stages of Higher Development." He wrote of his intention in 1914: "A second part [of How to Know Higher Worlds] is to be added to this first part, bringing further explanations of the frame of mind that can lead to the experience of higher worlds." Though Steiner never found time to publish those articles as a book, they are collected in this volume.The Stages of Higher Knowledge records some of Steiner's early esoteric instructions, revealing how he became a pioneer of modern inner development and spiritual activity. He carefully guides the reader from an ordinary, sensory-based "material mode of cognition" through the higher levels of knowing he calls Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition."Most difficult was the awakening of a sense for inner freedom, self-reliance, fully answerable to itself. With scrupulous regard for this goal, Rudolf Steiner desired no other role among humanity than that of instructor and, when so requested, advisor, awakener to spiritual goals of humankind. He was able to present spiritual facts because his thinking and seeing were permeated with life and unfolded, step by step, with the power of an organism of nature. His spiritual work stands before us--the restored unity of science, art, and religion." -- Marie Steiner (from the preface)This small handbook will help anyone who wishes to take a serious approach to Anthroposophy as a path of knowledge, especially those who have already studied and worked with How to Know Higher Worlds.Translated from Die Stufen der hoeheren Erkenntnis (1931) by Lisa Monges and Floyd McKnight. Originally Published in Lucifer-Gnosis 1905-1908. First published in book form as The Gates of Knowledge.

17 lectures, Dornach, April 4-June 5, 1921 (CW 204)In this history of human consciousness, Steiner explains that the world ended in AD 300, when it became impossible to find spirit in nature. Since then, we have been living in an increasingly spiritual world on a disintegrating, dying Earth. Although people have been asleep to the spiritual reality that surrounds us, Steiner shows a way out of today's blind materialism that takes us toward a new spiritual perception and knowledge, which is the only way that we will find the Christ in our time. In these exciting lectures, Steiner also talks about the true nature of numbers, they Mystery of the Grail, and the development of materialism. We need to let go of materialism now that it has fulfilled its task of making us true citizens of Earth. Through spiritual science, we must now be come citizens of the spiritual world.This volume is a translation from German of Der Mensch in Zusammenhang mit dem Kosmos 4: Perspektiven der Menschheitsentwickelung. Der materialistische Erkenntnisimpuls und die Aufgaben der Anthroposophie. (GA 204).

10 lectures, Stuttgart and Dornach, January 23 - March 4, 1923 (CW 257)"We are firmly in our understanding of things of the spirit only when we do not rest content with abstract spiritual concepts and a capacity to express them theoretically, but instead grow into a sure belief that higher beings are present with us in a community of spirit when we engage in spiritual study. No external measures can bring about anthroposophical community-building. You have to call it forth from the profoundest depths of human consciousness."-- Rudolf SteinerSteiner presented these lectures right after the fire that destroyed the first Goetheanum. Given during the year before the Anthroposophical Society was reestablished, they form an important part of the history of the anthroposophic movement.Steiner calls for a "searching of conscience." He explains that in anthroposophic communities we can experience our first awakening to the spirit in our encounters with others, and he describes how the reversed cultus" forms the foundation for a new community life.

Written works by Rudolf SteinerCONTENTS: Foreword From Wahrspruchworte, Truth-Wrought-Words Verses for Children Verses for the Dead The Foundation Stone (two renderings) From the Mystery Dramas: Verse Passages from "The Portal of Initiation"; The Soul's Probation"; and "The Guardian of the Threshold" Prose Passages: Concerning and Including "The Dream Song of Olaf Åsterson" (From the Ancient Norwegian) and concerning Beauty, Truth, Goodness, Love, and Freedom References Index

8 lectures, Oslo, November 25 - December 2, 1921 (CW 79)The lectures in this book remain valid today for a world situation ever more desperate and in need of change based on spiritual-scientific knowledge. The need for developing "consciousness of the self as the spiritual essence of the free, individualistic, single-personality human being" is one of Steiner's unique contributions to the evolving history of humankind. This book marks a real milestone on that path.Self-consciousness is a translation from German of Die Wirklichkeit der höhren Welten (GA 79).

.".. volume 267 in the Collected Works (CW) of Rudolf Steiner ... translation of Seelenèubungen I, èUbungen mit Wort- und Sinnbild-Meditationen zur methodischen Entwicklung hèoherer Erkenntniskrèafter, 1904-1924, published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1997"--Title-page verso.

"A bold undertaking! Smith aims at a broad synthesis of the teachings of the early twentieth-century esoteric philosopher Rudolf Steiner with the ancient mysteries, certain religio-philosophical texts in the Nag Hammadi Library, pre-Constantinian esoteric Christianity, and the Secret Gospel of Mark.... The brief excerpts from the Secret Gospel, quoted in the Letter of Clement to Theodore, fit well the esoteric fabric out of which Christianity emerged in its earliest days. In his excellent legal analysis of the failed "proofs" offered by Stephen Carlson and Peter Jeffery that the Secret Gospel is a modern forgery, Smith reveals his thorough grasp of the literature and a keen sense of what should qualify as proof. A provocative study!" -Charles W. Hedrick, Missouri State University "Few scholars have dared to put the insights of historical critical biblical scholarship into dialogue with the esoteric wisdom of Rudolf Steiner. Ed Smith has done so again and again. Smith's latest contribution is a treasure trove of information on the controversy surrounding Morton Smith's discovery of a Secret Gospel of Mark, on Rudolf Steiner's understanding of the ancient mysteries, and on anthroposophy's revitalization of allegorical exegesis. All of this points to the possibility that John the evangelist, Lazarus, and the rich young ruler of Mark 10:17 to 22 are one and the same. Those who are not convinced by Smith's analysis will surely be stimulated and challenged to contemplate what disparate exegetical traditions might learn from one another." -Dan McKanan, Harvard Divinity School Who wrote the Gospel of John? The author identifies himself only as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and Christian tradition tells us that this disciple was the apostle John. However, during the past century, scholars have increasingly come to doubt that attribution. In 1902, Rudolf Steiner wrote that the author of the Gospel of John was in fact Lazarus. Steiner's position stemmed from his insight that Lazarus's encounter with death involved far more than people realized-an initiation into higher spiritual realities that uniquely qualified him to write this gospel. Edward Smith takes up this argument and shows that subsequent research has tended to favor Lazarus for reasons grounded in John's Gospel itself. More important, Smith shows that subsequent discoveries at Nag Hammadi and Mar Saba corroborate Steiner's reasoning about the nature of the raising of Lazarus, pointing to Lazarus as "the rich young ruler" of Mark's Gospel.

11 lectures, Aug. 28, 1923-Aug. 29, 1924 (CW 319)"The anthroposophical approach to medicine and healing has been waiting in the wings of conventional Western medicine for more than seventy-five years. Now with the burgeoning acceptance of alternative, natural medicine in North America, anthroposophical medicine may finally take its rightful place at center stage. Why? Because it offers something that both alternative and conventional models lack: a spiritual model of the human, encompassing states of health and illness." (from the foreword)Rudolf Steiner, a scientist by training, lectured and wrote, at different times on medical subjects and advised physicians on their work. His view of medicine was both unconventional and precise. He could describe--based on his highly developed powers of observation and his spiritual research--processes of health and disease that escape conventional methods of medical observation.In all his lectures to doctors and in his explanations of anthroposophic medicine, Steiner emphasized that his medical concepts are not intended to replace conventional Western medicine, but to extend it; diagnosis and healing methods are expanded to include our soul and spirit.In these broadly ranging talks, Steiner introduces fundamental principles of anthroposophically extended medicine. Some of the most remarkable insights that anthroposophy brings to medicine are contained in this volume. For example, Steiner points out that the heart is not a pump and that its motion is a consequence, not the cause, of rhythmic movements in human beings."[Rudolf Steiner's] model of a spiritualized medicine could hold the key for the next growth phase in Western medicine, if it is to survive, flourish, and become consistently and deeply therapeutic instead of merely palliative." (from the foreword)Topics include - Health problems, such as hay fever, migraine, sclerosis, cancer, and childhood diseases- The polarity between nerve and liver cells- The functions of the spleen and the gallbladder- The three basic systems: sensory-nervous, rhythmic, and metabolic-limb- Regenerative and degenerative processes- The true nature of the nervous system- Suggestions for the use of minerals, plants, and artistic therapiesThe Healing Process is a translation of Anthroposophische Menschenerkenntnis und Medizin (GA 319).