Böcker utgivna av Rudolf Steiner Press

In the first full translation of this lecture course, Rudolf Steiner implores his audience to recognize the connections between the material and spiritual worlds. Eclipses of the sun and moon, for example, are 'forces at work in the universe, just like those we study today in the clinic or in the chemistry or physics laboratory'.

One hundred years after Rudolf Steiner presented his lectures on agriculture in 1924, the impact of his words are self-evident. Around the world, biodynamic principles are practised in thousands of thriving farms, vineyards and gardens, and Demeter certification for biodynamic produce is recognized internationally as a mark of quality.

For this new edition - freshly translated by Matthew Barton and introduced by Coralee Frederickson - the original shorthand transcripts have been compared exhaustively with typed records and the notes of course participants. These notes included numerous sketches, many of which have been reproduced here to complement the text.

Rudolf Steiner demonstrates that there are twelve main philosophical standpoints, and that the future of philosophy rests not upon defending one and refuting the others, but in learning to experience the validity of them all.What convinces us of the truth of a certain point of view? Why do we find it difficult to comprehend viewpoints that differ from our own? What are the inner foundations of our knowledge? In these concentrated and aphoristic lectures, Steiner speaks of twelve main philosophical standpoints, and the importance of understanding each of them. An appreciation of the variety of possible world views not only sharpens and makes more flexible our own powers of thinking, but helps us to overcome a narrow-minded one-sidedness, promoting tolerance of other people and their opinions.Steiner goes on to explain how each standpoint is also coloured by a particular 'soul mood', which influences the way we actively pursue knowledge. Several philosophers and their works are characterised in this manner, throwing light on their contributions to human culture. Through such insight into the true nature of human thinking, we are led to understand the quality of cosmic thought and how, in Rudolf Steiner's words, the human being can be seen as a 'thought which is thought by the Hierarchies of the cosmos'.

With rituals or cultic forms as his central motif, Steiner refers extensively to Indian, Persian and in particular Egyptian initiation rites, and how these enabled people of antiquity to connect with specific spiritual beings. He explains the practical purpose of mummification for the religious life of ancient Egypt.

In a broad-ranging series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner shines new light on the spiritual background to the outbreak of the Great War in Europe. Spiritual entities stand behind the various peoples of the world, he says. He describes how these beings - Folk Souls - relate to the cultural diversity of Europe, America and the East.

With the unprecedented global conflict of the First World War as an overarching theme, Rudolf Steiner addresses timeless issues such as the search for harmony between peoples and nations, the development of the human capacity for love, the contemporary presence of Christ, and the questions of reincarnation and life after death.

Samples of Steiner's work are to be found in this book of edited texts, which brings together excerpts from his many talks and writings on the subject of the Druids. This volume also features an editorial introduction, commentary and notes by Dr Andrew Welburn.

A collection of eight lectures by architect Rudolf Steiner, this text is aimed at students of architectu re, the arts, social sciences, and those whishing to find a deeper spiritual understanding. '

Rudolf Steiner's four modern mystery dramas are powerful portrayals of the complex laws of reincarnation and karma, transporting us to landscapes of soul and spirit where supra-sensory beings are visible, active and influential.

This thoroughly revised edition of Background to the Gospel of St Mark by Rudolf Steiner, includes notes and appendices by Frederick Amrine and an extensive introduction by Robert McDermott.

Barely four months after the end of the First World War, with Europe in chaos and exhausted from years of conflict, Rudolf Steiner offered these lectures of hope and renewal. Despite continuing social troubles around the world, he knew that human beings had an opportunity to organize society in a new way.

Speaking during the early stages of the First World War - with the Western Front just miles away and thousands of young men dying - Rudolf Steiner focuses on the subject of death. These extraordinary lectures, previously unpublished in English, are presented here with an introduction, notes and an index.

Steiner divides these absorbing, previously-untranslated lectures into three sections, opening with 'The Value of Thinking'. He discusses the quality of thinking itself, contrasting 'dead physical cognition', 'living imaginative cognition', 'inspired cognition', and the latter's connection with previous periods of human and planetary development.

Replete with fresh immediacy, rich spiritual content, innovation and occasional humour, these talks were given at a time when Rudolf Steiner was preparing for independence from the Theosophical Society. The lectures are complemented with an introduction by Margaret Jonas, detailed notes and an index.

Hilde Raske, an artist and eurythmist, worked and experimented for many years to understand Rudolf Steiner's art and use of color. Raske grew so familiar with his unique works that she could vividly and clearly describe every detail. She referred to Steiner's artworks as 'events' in color and light-and-dark, with living colors that 'spoke' to her.

14 lectures, Dornach, September 29 - October 28, 1917 (CW 177) Speaking toward the end of the catastrophic World War I, Rudolf Steiner reveals the spiritual roots of the crises of today. Since 1879, human minds have been influenced by backward angels, he says, "spirits of darkness," who--following their defeat in battle with Archangel Michael--were forced out of the heavens and "fell" to earth. That war in the spiritual worlds has had consequences, and it is essential for us today to become sufficiently awake to the retrogressive influences surrounding us. In a positive sense, we can choose freely to engage with the spirits of light, who seek to emancipate humankind from bonds of race, nation, and blood. In this extraordinary series of lectures, Steiner sheds light on hidden aspects of world affairs. The Bolshevik Revolution was a recent event when he discussed events in Russia and humanity's attempts to build a theoretically ideal social order. Steiner also speaks in these lectures about the roles and spiritual backgrounds of significant individuals, including Johann Valentin Andreae, Vladimir Solovyov, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, and American and British politicians Woodrow Wilson and Lloyd George, as well as world-renown figures such as Charles Darwin and Goethe."In earlier times, the elemental spirits of birth and death essentially served the divine spirits who guided the world; since our day--and this has been going on for some time now--the elemental spirits of birth and death are serving technology, industry, and human commerce. It is important to let this disturbing truth enter our souls with all its power and intensity." -- Rudolf Steiner (lecture 4)This new edition of features a revised translation, notes, and extensive appendices by Frederick Amrine and a new introduction by Christopher Schaefer.This volume is a translation from German of Die spirituellen Hintergründe der äußeren Welt. Der Sturz der Geister der Finsternis. Geistige Wesen und Ihre Wirkung, Band I, Dornach, 1999 (GA 177). Cover image San Michele sconfigge gli angeli ribelli (ca.1666), by Luca Giordano (1660-1665), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

"Sixteen lectures given in Berlin, Cologne and Nuremberg in 1904, 1905 and 1907 (from audience notes)" -- title page.

'The mission of our age is not to reproduce an ancient wisdom, but to engender a new one - a wisdom that points not only to the past but that works prophetically into the future.' - Rudolf SteinerBeginning with ancient Egypt, the pyramids and sphinxes - and a comparison of that epoch with our own - Rudolf Steiner surveys a vast spiritual landscape of human development. In symphonic style, he describes the conquest of the physical plane in post-Atlantean civilizations, the relationships between the various cultural epochs, the human being's connections with the kingdoms of nature and the different planetary bodies, and the relationship of animal forms to 'the physiognomy of human passions'. Through this panoramic vision, we discover how the changed conditions of human consciousness call for a new spiritual understanding today.In her Introduction, Marie Steiner relates the special experience of being a member of Rudolf Steiner's audience for this timeless series of lectures: 'Enormous cosmic pictures were unfolded before the spiritual gaze of the listeners; insights were of such depths of ancient wisdom, views of distant futures of human and world development, that deepest devotion flowed through their hearts...' This new edition features a revised translation, introduction, notes and an index.

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

'The present age needs to understand that human beings must hold the balance between the two extremes, between the ahrimanic and the luciferic poles. People always tend to go in one direction... The Christ stands in the middle, holding the balance.'- Rudolf SteinerThese eleven lectures were given in post-war Stuttgart against a backdrop of struggle and uncertainty - not only within society at large but also within the anthroposophical movement. Rudolf Steiner and his supporters were working to introduce 'threefold' social ideas and - given Steiner's public profile - were coming under increasing personal and sometimes physical attack.Steiner responds to this turbulent situation by revealing the spiritual background to the forces of decline working in contemporary civilization. He speaks of retrogressive powers - spiritual beings referred to as luciferic or ahrimanic - that work directly into human culture, manifesting, for example, in what he refers to as the 'initiation streams' of Western secret societies, the Church-allied impulse of Jesuitism and the Bolshevik force of Leninism. The spiritual agents of adversity also encourage polarised thinking and false opposites such as East verses West, materialism and mysticism, or knowledge and belief. Only the threefold principle - represented by Christ - allows us to create a balance in the midst of these existential conflicts.This freshly-reworked translation is complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Matthew Barton.

'Suppose you have seen an event, have formed an idea about it, and you say something that is not true - in other words, something that is a lie. Then what flows from the object is correct and what flows from you is false and this collision is a terrible explosion; and each time you do this, you attach a gruesome being to your karma which you cannot get rid of again until you have made good what you lied about.' - Rudolf SteinerIn a previously-untranslated volume of lectures, Rudolf Steiner presents shattering insights regarding the interaction of human and spiritual beings. He speaks, for example, about how perfumes can give certain spirits access to people on earth, or how phantoms, spectres and demons can be created through human deficiencies - or even how the arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and music allow 'good' or 'hideous' entities to enter our world. As he states: 'Learning about the effects of spiritual beings is of much greater help than moral preaching. A future humanity willknowwhat it is creating through lies, hypocrisy and slander.'The lectures are divided into two broad thematic groups: the first relating to the inner path of knowledge and its relation to the yearly festivals, and the second focusing on the work of elemental beings in our everyday world. The 18 lectures are complemented with notes, an index and an introduction by Christian von Arnim.

In a previously-unavailable series of talks to the general public, Rudolf Steiner builds systematically, lecture by lecture, on the fundamentals of spiritual science - from the nature of spiritual knowledge and its relationship to conventional science, the path of personal development and the task of metaphysical research, to specific questions on the mystery of death, the meaning of fairy-tales, the significance of morality and the roles of individual figures in human evolution, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Jacob Boehme.At the time of these presentations, Steiner had already worked in Berlin for many years, and thus, 'could reckon with a regularly returning audience to whom what mattered was to enter ever more deeply into the areas of knowledge that were newly opening up to them' (Marie Steiner). As a consequence - and through 'a series of inter-connecting lectures whose themes are entwined with one another' - he was able to communicate a coherent and challenging spiritual perception of reality, based on his personal research. Presented here with notes, an index and an introduction by Simon Blaxland-de Lange, the 14 lectures include: 'How is Spiritual Science Refuted?'; 'On What Foundation is Spiritual Science Based'; 'The Tasks of Spiritual Research for both Present and Future'; 'Errors of Spiritual Research'; 'Results of Spiritual Research for Vital Questions and the Riddle of Death'; The World-Conception of a Cultural Researcher of the Present, Herman Grimm' and 'The Legacy of the Nineteenth Century'.

How might we improve the way we organize society, so that human beings can live in greater peace, dignity and justice?Against a background of chronic discontent and social conflict around the globe, Richard Masters presents a comprehensive survey of Rudolf Steiner's work on societal reform, sifting through and summarizing the content of dozens of books, lectures and discussions. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) is not known today for his social thinking, but he wrote and spoke at length on such issues during and after WWI, engaging with audiences ranging from royalty, politicians and business owners to illiterate, dispossessed factory workers. Central to his ideas was his 'threefold' approach to politics, economics and culture, arguing that their roles should be clarified and the three spheres allowed to thrive independently.Drawing on the full range of source material - including much not yet available in English - the author reveals the continuing relevance of Steiner's work to our contemporary situation. With an emphasis on accessibility, he builds up the subject methodically, studying the main ideas from differing perspectives. He also provides candid reflections on the degree to which Steiner's proposals are still applicable to current policy and practice. Authoritative and yet jargon-free,Rudolf Steiner and Social Reformoffers innovative and stimulating ideas for anyone concerned with the state of our world.

The philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner was also a radical dramatist who wrote four lengthy and complex plays. The first of these, The Portal of Initiation, is rich in content and artistically presented, but leaves us with questions: Why is the first scene so long and many speeches so lengthy? Why are our usual expectations of drama not met? Was Steiner really a competent dramatist?In this essential guide, Trevor Dance suggests that the first step to appreciatingThe Portal of Initiationis to understand Steiner's methods. The play belongs to the tradition of Mystery Dramas from ancient times - artistic works intended as vehicles for inner development. Steiner thus combines aspects of Goethe's alchemical fableThe Green Snake and the Beautiful Lilywith the spiritual growth of contemporary individuals - all in the broader context of reincarnation and karma. With accessibility in mind, the author provides a clear synopsis of each scene and introduces us to the characters - a collection of rustics, sophisticates, hierophants and spiritual entities. Their dilemmas and challenges take place on many layers of reality: from a room in Sophia's house to the exalted Sun Temple.Revealing the enigmas behind the creation and content ofThe Portal of Initiation, Dance enables us not only toenjoythe play, but also toloveit. His lucid guide - the first of its kind - is an ideal introduction for both individual readers and study groups.