Eklektiske og esoteriske religioner og trossystemer

Translation of: Die geschichte und die bedingungen der anthroposophischen bewegung im Verhèaltnis zur anthroposophischen gesellschaft. Eine anregung zur selbstbesinnung.

Reassessing human history in relation to the cosmic-earthly events of Christ's incarnation, Rudolf Steiner stresses the significance of both Gnostic spirituality and the legends of the Holy Grail. The 'Christ-Impulse', he tells us, is not a one-time event but a continuous process, beginning well before Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth. This mighty impulse is a force that gives impetus to human development, such as with the extraordinary blossoming of free thinking of the last two millennia. Surveying this pattern of evolving human thought, Steiner explains the roles of contrasting historical figures, for example the great teacher Zarathustra, Joan of Arc and Johannes Keplar. We are shown the widespread influence of the clairvoyant prophetesses, the sibyls, who formed a backdrop to the Greco-Roman world. Steiner contrasts their revelations to those of the Hebrew prophets.The lectures culminate in the secret background to the Parzival narrative. Steiner illustrates how it is possible to experience the Holy Grail by reading the stellar script in the sky at Easter. Here, he provides a rare personal account of the processes he utilized to conduct esoteric research. The new edition of these much-loved lectures features a revised translation and an introduction, appendices and notes by Frederick Amrine.

An initiatory and practical guide to creative alchemy

Book Four of the Law of One is the last of the books in the Law of One series. Book Four explores in great detail the archetypical mind which is the framework provided by our Logos or sun body to aid each of us in the evolution of mind, body, and spirit. Tarot, astrology, and ritual magic are three paths offering the study of the archetypical mind, and in Book Four a study of that rich resource is undertaken using the tarot, also uncovered on the nature and purpose of the veil that we experience between the conscious and the unconscious minds and the process of "forgetting" that occurs during each incarnation in our third-density experience. In Book Four the path of the adept becomes more clear as Ra elucidates the adept's use of experience to balance its energy centers and penetrate the veil of forgetting.

Book Five of The Law of One is comprised of the 56 fragments of personal material that were originally omitted from the first four books of this series. Both Jim, the scribe, and Carla, the instrument for the Ra contact, have added their comments to these fragments to give the reader an idea of what it was like to be part of this contact and to show how every person's experience can be used for personal growth and service to others. A wide variety of topics is covered, from Eisenhower's meeting with extraterrestrials in 1954 to UFO/government conspiracies, Wanderers, sexual energy transfers, anger, balancing, Aleister Crowley, the Tunguska crater in Russia, pre-incarnative choices, psychic greetings, alternate and orthodox healing modalities, the ball lightning phenomenon, and the many facets of the spiritual journey in general.

In Book Two of The Law of One, the nature of each of the densities or dimensions of this octave of creation is explored in detail with special emphasis given to how evolution for our third density to the fourth density is accomplished. The relationship between the densities of creation and the energy centers of the body is investigated so that each experience can be used as catalyst for growth to balance and crystallize the energy centers of chakras of the student of evolution. Wanderers, sexual energy transfers, the physics of Dewey B. Larson, Polarization in consciousness, ritual magic, and the nature and function of the Higher Self are all explored as they are related to the Law of One. Book Two contains Sessions #27 through #50.

Much has been written about the law as it affects new and minority religions, but relatively little has been written about how such religions react to the law. This book presents a wide variety of responses by minority religions to the legal environments within which they find themselves.An international panel of experts offer examples from North America, Europe and Asia demonstrating how religions with relatively little status may resort to violence or passive acceptance of the law; how they may change their beliefs or practices in order to be in compliance with the law; or how they may resort to the law itself in order to change their legal standing, sometimes by forging alliances with those with more power or authority to achieve their goals. The volume concludes by applying theoretical insights from sociological studies of law, religion and social movements to the variety of responses.The first systematic collection focussing on how minority religions respond to efforts at social control by various governmental agents, this book provides a vital reference for scholars of religion and the law, new religious movements, minority religions and the sociology of religion.

This book reveals how, when, where and why vitalism and its relationship to new scientific theories, philosophies and concepts of energy became seminal from the fin de siècle until the Second World War.