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The Spiritual Revolution of the twentieth century -- the "New Age" -- is unimaginable without the spiritualist movement and the formidable personality of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the creator of the Theosophical Society. Without these two, the work of Rudolf Steiner, G. I. Gurdjieff, Hazrat Inayat Khan, Sri Aurobindo, and C. G. Jung, and could not have been what it was.In this fascinating volume on the Theosophical movement, Rudolf Steiner, one of its leading participants, tells his own story in his own words about the origins of the theosophical movement in spiritualism and somnambulism, as well as his own version of Anthroposophy's relation to Theosophy. Steiner also relates Theosophy to its historical ground in Western esotericism, above all Rosicrucianism. He reveals events from the seventeenth century that led to the emergence of Freemasonry and other secret societies, the hidden history of the creation of Theosophy itself in the nineteenth century, and conflicts that are still reverberating between Anglo-Saxon and Germanic occult streams today.

"Rudolf Steiner's Riddles of Philosophy: Presented in an Outline of Its History is not a history of philosophy in the usual sense of the word. It does not give a history of the philosophical systems, nor does it present a number of philosophical problems historically. Its real concern touches on something deeper than this, on riddles rather than problems. Philosophical concepts, systems and problems are, to be sure, to be dealt with in this book. But it is not their history that is to be described here. Where they are discussed they become symptoms rather than the objects of the search. The search itself wants to reveal a process that is overlooked in the usual history of philosophy. It is the mysterious process in which philosophical thinking appears in human history. Philosophical thinking as it is here meant is known only in Western civilization. Oriental philosophy has its origin in a different kind of consciousness, and it is not to be considered in this book. "What is new here is the treatment of the history of philosophic thinking as a manifestation of the evolution of human consciousness. Such a treatment requires a fine sense of observation. Not merely the thoughts must be observed, but behind them the thinking in which they appear. "To follow Steiner in his subtle description of the process of the metamorphosis of this thinking in the history of philosophy we should remember he sees the human consciousness in an evolution. It has not always been what it is now, and what it is now it will not be in the future. This is a fundamental conception of anthroposophy." --From the introduction by Fritz C. A. Koelln:

Mary Goral explores ways that Waldorf principles can be applied in public schools to educate children for life rather than simply to meet the demands of rigid, one-size-fits-all programs such as "No Child Left Behind." She points out ways that Waldorf methods require teachers and parents to engage more fully with students, to practice ways of self-development, and to build a greater sense of community. Using the concrete example of the "Waldorf-inspired Cadre"a group of "public-school teachers who have agreed to go on such a journey, take risks, and learn new skills along with their students"Dr. Goral shows how teachers can bring many of the benefits of Waldorf education into the public setting, with remarkable results.

In this most remarkable and in many ways unique course of lectures, Rudolf Steiner describes the inner experience of the states of consciousness known as the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth stages of evolution. Lecture by lecture, Steiner details the experiences of these states available to one who practices the spiritual scientific path of meditation. By this means, these stages and states gain an unexpected and existential reality: suddenly, we recognize what Steiner is talking about. Most remarkable of all, perhaps, is the description of the Earth state with its experience of death, which Christ knew on the Cross at Golgotha, transforming earthly and human evolution. Inner Experiences of Evolution is a translation from German of «Die Evolution vom Gesichtspunkte des Wahrhaftigen» (GA 132). These lectures were previously included as part of The Spiritual Hierarchies & the Physical World: Reality and Illusion (1996). A previous translation also appeared as Evolution in the Aspect of Realities (Garber).

Society debates, legislates, and regulates education more than it does any other profession. It has become popular to think that democracy gives everyone an equal say in educational matters, while those in other professions are relatively free to work according to standards set by their professional organizations. It would be unthinkable to mandate that a dentist give patients a certain number of fillings per week, with anything less being labeled a "failure." Yet we allow politicians to set specific standards and test scores for our children, forcing teachers to endure countless commission reports and endless political debates about what should happen in our schools. What if the voices of our teachers were heard equally in today's public discourse? Teachers work with children everyday and have always understood intuitively the materials and curriculum needed. Teacher research, however, allows teachers to go beyond intuitive understanding to a level of documented inquiry that can stand the light public scrutiny in publications, news media, workshops, and town meetings. In Silence Is Complicity, Dr. Finser offers teachers the tools needed to speak out and be heard, empowering their advocacy for educational change. With first-hand experience and earned knowledge, teachers have the real authority to mandate the needs of their students. It's time to give teachers the necessary tools for a greater voice in educational matters. Teacher research, as outlined in this book, can support a dynamic counter-movement that empowers teachers, parents, and communities to say, "Politicians, back off!"

Librarian Fred Paddock of the Rudolf Steiner Library initiated this book, because he had long felt the need to make available some of the cutting-edge writings of European anthroposophists. Judaism and Anthroposophy examines the relationship between anthroposophy and religion, between Christian and Jewish esotericism, and between Kabbalah and anthroposophy. It also focuses on Jewish lives in anthroposophy, including those of Martin Buber, Hugo Bergman, Shimon Levy, and Ernst Müller. Also, three leading anthroposophic thinkers explore the question of anti-Semitism. This is an important contribution to the understanding of anthroposophy and its historical and contemporary interface with Judaism. THE CONTRIBUTORS: Johannes Schneider: "Christianity and Other Religions" Günther Röschert: "On Judaism" Ruth Windolf: "The Hebrew Experience of Reality as Contrasted with the Greek" Schmuel Hugo Bergman: "The Blessing" Shimon Levy: "What Is the Contribution of Judaism to the Life of Anthroposophy?" Rolf Umbach: "The Kabbalah, an Esoteric Bridge to Christianity?" David Schweitzer: "Spiritual Background: The Cosmic Christ in Judaism" Hans Jürgen Bracker: "The Individual and Unity of Humankind-An Account of the Zionist and Anthroposophist Ernst Müller" Gerhard Wehr: "Between Martin Buber and Rudolf Steiner: Hugo Bergman in Martin Buber's Biography" Rudi Lissau: "Chosen Destiny" Samuel Ichmann: "What God Is-or Isn't: A Jewish Waldorf Teacher's View" Ralf Sonnenberg: "The Dark Side of the Enlightenment-The Eighteenth Century, changing Perception of the World, and Anti-Semitism in the Early Modern Age János Darvas: "François Joseph Molitor's Philosophy of History-Judaism As the Miniature Reflection of Humanity" Dirk Lorenz: "Against a Return to Normality-Accusations of Anti-Semitism As an Occasion for Self-Examination"

Based on a talk at the New York Open Center in 1999, this book on the identity of John speaks of Christian initiation in a new way--one whose time has come. What Smith has to say is both extraordinarily suggestive and remarkably conclusive. Covering a lot of ground in a way that is accessible, the author masterfully supplies us with a range of collateral materials that is always interesting and illuminates the larger picture. Because this small book began its life as a talk to a general audience, it is blessedly jargon-free and reader friendly. It contains both sophistication or bite while working a quiet but profound revolution in the field of study that it addresses.New Testament scholars as well as those concerned in any way with the future of Christianity ought to sit up and take note. Anyone seeking to understand the mystery of Jesus Christ and his "beloved disciple" will find true food for the mind and heart.

Who were the three wise men and what was "the Star of the Magi" that led them to Bethlehem? Using the dialogue form, Christian Hermetic Astrology explores these questions and the basis for the inauguration of "Star Wisdom." Set in the Temple of the Sun, where Hermes, the Egyptian sage, gathers with his three pupils, Tat, Asclepius, and King Ammon, these discourses focus upon the path of Christ, culminating in the Mystery of Golgotha. With Rudolf Steiner and Anne Catherine Emmerich pointing the way, Robert Powell has produced a book, through independent research and careful study, intended as a contribution to a modern "path of the magi" leading to a Christian wisdom of the stars.

"Truths cannot be transmitted simply as stable dogmas. Truths are always of a given moment and, at each moment, must be grasped anew. This demands at each moment a renewed activity in relation to the human gift of understanding." -- Jörgen Smit (from the foreword) The goal of this study is to cultivate the experience of living, intuitive thinking, such as we experience with every new understanding. As Kühlewind puts it, this unique contribution to practice of anthroposophy has a twofold purpose: "to stimulate working with spiritual science through exercises, and to stimulate independent new formulations of its content on the basis of experience." Working with Anthroposophy will help guide beginning students and inspire longtime students of the path opened up by Rudolf Steiner. As with all of Kühlewind's works, this book opens new insights with each reading.

"Truth and striving for truth must taste good to you; and lies, once you are conscious of them, must taste bitter and poisonous. You must not only know that human judgments have color, but also that printer's ink nowadays is mostly deadly nightshade juice. You must be able to experience this in all honesty and rectitude, and once you can do so, you will be in a state of spiritual transformation." -Rudolf Steiner In response to these questions, Rudolf Steiner delivered the informal lectures in this book to the workers at the Goetheanum: * What is the relationship between coming to see the secrets of the universe and one's own view of the world? * How far must one go before finding the higher worlds on the path of natural science? * Do cosmic forces influence all of humanity? * What connection do plants have with the human being and the human body? In answering these questions, Steiner covers a wide range of topics, from the development of independent thinking and the ability to think backward to the uses of what seems boring and the reversal of thinking between the physical and spiritual worlds, and from the "physiology" of dreams to living into nature and the spiritual dimension of various foods. As always in his lectures to the workers, Steiner's style is clear, direct, and accessible.

"Every page contains thought at a high level." -British Weekly Rudolf Steiner begins these three lectures by depicting the background of early Christian thought, from which scholastic philosophers arose. He focuses on the "unanswered question" of the scholastic movement: How can human thinking be made Christlike and develop toward a vision of the spiritual world? A study of subsequent European thought, especially that of Kant, leads to the possibility of deepening into spiritual perception the scientific thinking that arose from scholasticism. Steiner explains that, since the beginning of the twentieth century, this is true Christianity.

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.

Rudolf Steiner shows the need to "expand the horizon of life into the breadth of the world" in order to overcome today's hermitlike existence. He shows that the path to becoming true citizens of the cosmos is through the forces of the Archangel Michael, who is always present and prepared to help us.

Written both in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Rudolf Steiners birth and in the context of the long-standing, episodically erupting, and ongoing confusion surrounding the mission and task of the Anthroposophical Society, Peter Selg seeks to recover what has perhaps been forgotten or overlooked in Rudolf Steiners own words and life. He does so by describing, clearly and objectively, the historical background of Steiners vision of the civilizational task of Anthroposophy and how he had hoped it might be accomplished.

The book points to the historic importance of the first Goetheanum. Steiners lecture on October 25, 1914, and his lecture on the paintings of the small cupola on January 25, 1920, appear in English here for the first, along with color photographs from 1922. Also included are the little-known colored etchings of the Goetheanum window motifs made by Assya Turgenieff with Rudolf Steiner, as well as other centrally important contributions to an understanding of this new direction in art.