Books published by Anthroposophic Press Inc

n this collection of essays John Fentress Gardner illuminates many challenging aspects of modern life that concern him-and concern most of us, as well. From poverty and environmental degradation to sexuality, parental discipline, and the pressures of modern life; from the further paths of knowledge to war and peace-he reveals how all these faces of life speak, and he points clearly to what they themselves ask for. In this sense, he looks directly to the future, not as a prophet, or even guide, but as one filled with wonder and hope. He looks often to Emerson; to Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher and seer; and to others. But the weight of his regard falls upon the future, particularly upon the bearers of the future: today's youth. Gardner has been a teacher of youth for many years in the Waldorf private school system. He has a deep feeling for young people-not only for their masks and attitudes of the moment, but also for their deep (generally unconscious) longings, and for what happens when these are thwarted, as they often are. In one of the most impressive essays of this book, Gardner makes it startlingly clear that peace is not a true goal or attainment if it is viewed in opposition to war and conflict. For in this opposition, conflict remains. It is the third - transcending and holding the tension between conflict and quiescent peace - in which the redeeming force is found. In climbing through the heart into the Heart of hearts, is found the spiritual, true secret of Peace. There, the longing to know finds answers.

Zanoni, first published in 1842, was inspired by a dream. Sir Edward, a Rosicrucian, wrote this engaging, well-researched, novel about the eternal conflict between head and heart, between wisdom and love, played out by the Rosicrucians before the dramatic background of the French Revolution. He described his book Zanoni as "a truth for those who can comprehend it, and an extravagance for those who cannot." Following his introduction, the novel is divided into seven parts, whose titles indicate the sevenfold path of spiritual development. The fourth section, "The Dweller of the Threshold," is the book's centerpiece, revealing significant esoteric facts and experiences. A novelist, a dramatist, a scholar, an editor, and an active member of Parliament, Sir Edward was an extremely successful author whose writings were widely read throughout England and Europe. He poured into this esoteric work all of the ancient esoteric wisdom that he felt he could reveal to the public during an age buried deeply in materialism. This work remains one of the great, pioneering landmarks of esoteric writing.

3 lectures, Dornach, December 17-19, 1920 (CW 202) Rudolf Steiner addresses the following topics in these lectures: Soul-and-Spirit in Man's Physical Constitution: The physical organism of man is considered today to consist of more or less solid-fluid substances; but as well as his solid, physical body, man has within him as definite organisms, a fluid body, an air-body and a warmth-body. -- The connections of these organisms with the members of man's whole being and with the different Ethers. -- Thought and Tone; Ego and circulating Blood. -- Man in the sleeping state. -- Man's relation to the universal Spirituality. -- Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition. -- The circumscribed view of the human organism prevailing today is unable to build any bridge between the physical body and the soul-and-spirit. The Moral as the Source of World-Creative Power: Recapitulation of previous lecture. -- Connection of the moral world-order with the physical world-order. -- The moral world-order has no place in the natural scientific thinking of today. -- The positive effect of moral ideals and ideas and the negative effect of theoretical ideas on the four organisms in man. -- The materialistic conception of the imperishability of matter and energy. -- Matter and energy die away to nullity; but man's moral thinking imbues life into substance and will. -- The natural world dies away in man; in the realm of the moral a new natural world comes into being; thus are the moral order and the natural order connected. -- Absence of spirituality in the modern picture of the world which is based on the Copernican system. -- Kepler and Newton. -- We need a spiritual view of the universe. -- The sun is not a globe of burning gas but the reflection of a spiritual reality revealed in the physical. -- The moral power developed by man rays out and is reflected as the spiritual Sun. -- Julian the Apostate. -- The connection of the spiritual Sun with the physical sun is the Christ-Secret. The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World-Events: Man as a being of Thinking, Action and Feeling. -- The connection of the life of thought with the will. -- Pure thinking: irradiation of the life of thought by will. -- This leads to Freedom. -- Irradiation of the life of will by thoughts leads to Love. -- The meaning of the ancient expressions: Semblance, Power, Wisdom. -- To speak of the imperishability of matter and energy annuls Love. -- The significance of Freedom and Love in world-happenings.

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.

"Originally published in German by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts 2011 as Ich bin anders als du. Vom Selbst- und Welterleben des Kindes in der Mitte der Kindheit"--T.p. verso.

Translation of: Anthroposophische Grundlagen f'ur ein erneueretes christlich-religi'oses Wirken.

On the one hand, New Testament scholarship has been preoccupied with a search for the "historical Jesus." On the other, twists and turns occurring after the first century brought about "an enforced orthodoxy" that views modern visionaries as heretics. The inconclusive nature of theology pits those who are reluctant to support the miraculous against the witness of the original oral tradition. One result of the confusion over the New Testament record is that contemporary fiction such as The Da Vinci Code has emerged to fill the void. It has been so popular because there is hunger for a better understanding of those events. The author of this book aims to fill the gap. Drawing on the visionary reports of Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) and Judith von Halle (b. 1973), as well as the spiritual research of Rudolf Steiner and Robert Powell, Charles Tidball traces the events of two thousand years ago in Palistine, including scenes in the life of John the Baptizer, Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, healings, the Transfiguration, the raising of Lazarus, the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ, and much more. The author's purpose is to "present these relatively unknown facets of the life of Jesus Christ as stories [so] they can achieve the broader recognition they deserve." The result is that this book breathes new life and meaning into familiar stories, offering the reader a fresh beginning in understanding the profound wisdom contained in the New Testament.

On February 3, 1913, the first general meeting of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society was convened in Berlin. Six weeks later in Holland, Rudolf Steiner spoke for the first time as an anthroposophist in a detailed, intimate way of the esoteric schooling of the individual human being in earthly life -- hence the fundamental importance of these lectures on anthroposophical inner development. Steiner deals here with the subtle effects of spiritual development at every level of the human being. Beginning with straightforward questions relating to the body's experience of food -- meat, coffee, alcohol, and so forth -- he unfolds the universe of spiritual striving until it includes direct perception of Paradise and the Holy Grail, and the role of the human being evolving between the forces of Lucifer and Ahriman. Included as a prologue is Steiner's crucial lecture on "The Being of Anthroposophy, " which has never before appeared in English. This edition also includes Steiner's "introductory words, " previousl available only in German typescript.

An Outline of Esoteric Science is Rudolf Steiner's most complete and methodical presentation of the results of his own spiritual research. Written in 1909, when he was forty-eight years old, it represents his mature thinking, yet also has the careful structure and development characteristic of the work of young authors. The title points out that the subject of the book is just those realities and beings which are, at least initially, hidden from most of us. But at the same time, it makes explicit that this is not collection of "tales of the supernatural," but a clear, conceptual, thoroughly scientific account of these matters. The book is terse, concise, and demands the reader's utmost attention, as well as the energy to visualize inwardly the pictures presented. It is not a book to be skimmed. Nor is it to be sampled here and there-though one man who tried to do so hit a passage that changed his life. - Clopper Almon, from the introduction With the commentary in the Study Companion keyed by paragraph number to the text of An Outline of Esoteric Science, Clopper Almon takes the reader step-by-step through one of Rudolf Steiner's most difficult texts. Each chapter is considered for themes, or brief summaries of the main points, review questions, discussion questions, and Almon's own observations of the text. This study companion will be a great help to readers of every level, vastly enriching their reading of one of Steiner's most important written works.

Modern science tells us that we are an insignificant accident in a vast, indifferent universe. Rudolf Steiner maintains instead that we are intimately enmeshed with the whole cosmos, right down to the physical structure of our bodies. In these talks, he explores our relationship as individuals to the spiritual cosmos, in which we will all become cosmonauts, eventually. The key to being at home in the universe is to understand the significance of our individual, physical lives on earth and what happens when we leave our physical bodies behind.Steiner encapsulates his view of our journey after death and our return to earth and a new life. He describes the "planetary" spheres through which we each pass and their effects on our future. He shows us how our character and actions on earth affect us after we die and how those experiences shape our next physical life.This is not merely information to be added to our already over-abundant store of abstract concepts: Steiner gives us imaginative exercises that help us explore our suprasensory, or spiritual, human nature. We can begin now to act more consciously by recognizing the concrete nature of morality and the real consequences of our present lives.The introduction and comprehensive afterword by Paul Margulies explain and contextualize Steiner's text, revealing a message that is more vital and relevant than ever in our frenzied, materialistic times. This book can help us experience more meaning in life and become more at home as spiritual citizens of the universe.

Rudolf Steiner's achievement in these lectures--it has been said by Valentin Tomberg--"cannot be compared with the accomplishment of any contemporary seer or thinker, or with any of the Middle Ages or antiquity. It towers over them."

"Originally published in German 2009 by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts as Der geistige Kern der Waldorfschule"--Title page verso.

The author describes the context in which Rudolf Steiner expressed his idea of "the fundamental social law" and how much it meant to him, and how, when his ideas fell on barren ground, he selflessly laid them aside, while holding them in his heart in hope of a more opportune moment. He goes on to show how this moment came after World War I, when Steiner dedicated himself tirelessly to his proposed idea of the Threefold Social Organism, lecturing extensively on economics and social policy. Finally, in the final, extraordinarily moving chapter, Selg shows the essential Christ- (and Gospel-) inspired nature of Steiners ideas.

20 lectures in Dornach, Switzerland, March 21- April 9, 1920 (CW 312)"Our task is to discover the real difference between those processes in the human organism that we call disease processes--which are basically quite normal, natural processes, even though specific causes must precipitate them--and the everyday processes that we call healthy. We must discover this radical distinction, but we shall not be able to do so if we cannot take up a way of looking at human beings that really leads to their essential nature." -- Rudolf SteinerIn these twenty lectures, given to medical doctors and students, Steiner presents a new approach to the art of healing, based on the insights of spiritual science.Considering modern medical knowledge and practice and deeply versed in alchemical, Paracelsian, and naturopathic approaches, as well as homeopathy, aroma therapy, and other "alternative" therapies, Rudolf Steiner demonstrates, based on his own research, how a truly integrated whole-person form of medicine is possible--one that accepts the human as a being of body, soul, and spirit, a microcosm in the macrocosm, a mirror of the earth and of the heavens.Steiner's enthusiasm and familiarity with his subject are in evidence everywhere in this volume. The wealth of insights and the range of topics are staggering--from the meaning of sickness, polarities in the human organism, and the relation of therapy and pathology, to the nature of plant, mineral, and animal in relation to the human being. Specific organs (heart, lungs, bladder, kidney, liver, and nervous system) and specific diseases (including cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes, and meningitis) are brought into extraordinary new relationships and interconnections. The whole question of diagnosis, health, and treatment is repeatedly viewed from various points of view. The result is an astounding new vision of medicine--one that is practical, spiritual, psychological, and fully human. This is no abstract view of medicine; much of the material arose in direct response to the questions of practicing physicians.This work is required reading for anyone interested in the possibility of a non-reductionistic, non-mechanistic, Western-based holistic medicine.Introducing Anthroposophical Medicine is a translation of Geisteswissenschaft und Medicin (GA 312)

"Only in our time has it become possible once again to unlock the sources of Rosicrucian wisdom and allow them to flow into the whole of culture... Christian Rosenkreutz has always lived among us and he is with us today too as the guide of spiritual life.... "The spiritual stream related to Christian Rosenkreutz offers the most potent assistance to those who strive to understand the Christ impulse." --Rudolf SteinerRudolf Steiner spoke often of the relationship of Anthroposophy or Spiritual Science to Rosicrucianism, but he spoke less of the being of Christian Rosenkreutz himself. As he said, "To speak of Christian Rosenkreutz presumes a profound trust in the mysteries of the life of the spirit--a trust or faith not in the person of Christian Rosenkreutz, but in the mysteries of spiritual life."For Steiner, Christian Rosenkreutz was active in at least three ways. First, as one of the "great leaders of humanity," he worked to bring esoteric spirituality into the modern world and to lead it into the future. Second, as "the greatest teacher of Christianity" he worked to bring to humanity true "heart knowledge" of Christ through the continued unveiling of the Mystery of Golgotha in the etheric. Third, as a concrete, particular individual being, Steiner had a living, actual, personal relationship with him. As such, because of our failure to understand, Steiner called him "a noble martyr...who, through his way of working, endured, and will in future endure, more than any other person. I say 'person, ' for the suffering of Christ was the suffering of a god."In the first part of this inspiring book--a work of devotion both to Rudolf Steiner and to Christian Rosenkreutz--Peter Selg, as "The Great Servant of Christ Jesus," gives a detailed, chronological, and fascinating account of Steiner's portrayal and, as much as possible, experiences of Christian Rosenkreutz. He shows how Steiner had essentially two teachers: the Master Jesus (Zoroaster) and Christian Rosenkreutz. Moreover, Selg shows how these two, with Rudolf Steiner, unfolded spiritual science for our time. In the second part, he shows how all this culminates, astonishingly and miraculously, in the Michael School as it manifested in the First Class. Rudolf Steiner and Christian Rosenkreutz concludes with an appendix containing the text of the original (1614) Fama, or "Announcement of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood."All those interested in the esoteric foundations of Anthroposophy or in the true meaning of Rosicrucianism will be find this book of great value.

8 lectures, Dornach & Oslo, May 18 - June 9, 1923 (CW 276)"Art, always a daughter of the Divine, has become estranged from her parent.... We should not mock scientific materialism and naturalistic art. These have their place in human culture. But the starting point for a new life of art can come only through direct stimulation from the spiritual realm. We must become artists, not by developing symbolism or allegory, but by rising, through spiritual knowledge, more and more nto the spiritual world. --Rudolf Steiner In these lectures, Rudolf Steiner offers insights into architecture, sculpture, painting, drama, costuming, music, poetry, and eurythmy.The Arts and Their Mission is a translation from German of Das Künstlerische in seiner Weltmission. Der Genius der Sprache. Die Welt des sich offenbarenden strahlenden Scheins - Anthroposophie und Kunst. Anthroposophie und Dichtung (GA 276).

"Originally published in German by Verlag am Goetheanum 2003 as Mysterium cordis: Von der Mysterienst'atte des Menschenherzens Studien zur sakramentalen Physiologie des Herzorgans, Aristoleles, Thomas von Aquin, Rudolf Steiner. Second edition in German, Verlag am Goetheanum 2006, Dornach, Switzerland"--T.p verso.

Memorial, funeral, and cremation addresses, 1906-19242 lectures, Kassel, Germany May 9 and 10, 1914 (CW 261)Our Dead collects Steiner's memorial, funeral, and cremation addresses, as well as a sampling of prayers and meditations for the dead. The context, intimate and sober with grief, means that his intent is quite other than if he had been speaking in a lecture hall. His primary concerns--while based on spiritual-scientific research and, in some cases, the actual living expression of it in real time--are ethical and existential and, at the same time, ceremonial and communal.Rudolf Steiner stands as speaker before and for the living--relations, friends, and community members--and for the one who has died, even, in a way, for the greater "cloud" of all the dead. With his feet planted firmly on the Earth, Steiner moves seamlessly between the sensory-physical, embodied world and the invisible, suprasensory, discarnate one. Speaking in an intimate, personal manner to both worlds, he unites the living and the dead with words that are both practical and healing.We meet Rudolf Steiner in this book in a different way. Here, the substance of what he communicates is less what he says than how he says it; he emphasizes, above all, the tenderness and compassion with which he unites with both the souls of the departed in the spiritual world and those grieving on Earth. Through his words, Heaven and Earth, the spiritual and earthly worlds, are brought closer together. Through his example, embodied in his words filled with feeling, a bridge is revealed on which we, too, may cross.Shining through this book is Rudolf Steiner's love for humanity--how he loved his students and those with whom he worked, seeing the best in them as he lovingly crafted their biographies; how behind all of this stands his love for every human being and the whole of humanity as a single being; how, indeed, his interest in and care for each human being as a unique individual--in this case, members of the Anthroposophical Society--seems boundless.Those who love Rudolf Steiner, as well as those who are simply interested in him; those who seek comfort and guidance when grieving loved ones who have died; those who seek ways of entering a real relationship with the dead, who wish to understand how the dead might influence our lives--these will find in this volume irreplaceable substance for meditation, thought, and practice.This volume is a translation from the German of «Unsere Toten. Ansprachen, Gedenkworte und Meditationssprüche 1906-1924» (GA 261).

From 2009 to 2010, Sergei Prokofiev and Peter Selg-two leading authorities and spiritual researchers into the life and work of Rudolf Steiner-gave a series of conferences on the Christological foundations of Anthroposophy. Their aim was to show the power of anthroposophic Christology. Consequently, they focused on key turning points in Rudolf Steiner's exposition: his major work, An Outline of Esoteric Science; the first Goetheanum; the Reappearance of Christ in the etheric realm and the relationship of this event to Rudolf Steiner's lectures on the Fifth Gospel; and the Christmas Conference (1923-24) and the founding of the New Mysteries. The lectures from the conferences (published as four booklets in German) are collected here in a single volume. The Creative Power of Anthroposophical Christology is essential reading for all those who are interested in the true meaning and depth of Rudolf Steiner's experience and understanding of Christ's deed on Golgotha and his continuing presence among us and within Anthroposophy.