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In these talks Steiner describes in fascinating details the unconscious wisdom of the beehive, and how this relates to our human experience of health, civilization, and the cosmos.The elemental imagery and its relationship to human society so inspired the influential avante garde artist Joseph Beuys that he used it in his groundbreaking sculptures, drawings, installations, and performance art pieces.

As early as 1884, while tutoring a boy with special needs, Steiner began a lifelong interest in applying spiritual knowledge to the practical aspects of life. Steiner originally published the essay at the core of this book in 1907. It represents his earliest ideas on education, in which he lays out the soul spiritual processes of human development, describing the need to understand how the being of a child develops through successive "births," beginning with the physical body's entry into earthly life, and culminating in the emergence of the I-being with adulthood.

"Occult events that took place between the Christ and the community of his disciples form a significant part not only of the four Gospels but also of the Christ Mystery or Golgotha Mystery itself. Today, many human souls are still moved by this apostolic community, by how the disciples accompanied Christ Jesus, by their place in history (as an esoteric circle charged with an exoteric task), by their failures, and by the great new dawn that showed them the way after Pentecost...For three years, they were close to Christ, shared his life, and received a great deal of instruction from him, often in their own intimate circle away from public view. They were there when Christ performed healings and even when he prayed.... "Rudolf Steiner once said that we in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries must live with the 'etheric Christ' in the Earth's aura in the same way that 'the disciples once lived with Christ Jesus on the physical plane.' If this is so, it is essential for us to focus on the community of Christ's disciples. Rudolf Steiner himself made major contributions to illuminating the depths of the disciples' relationship and life with the Christ, both during the three years of his earthly life and after the Resurrection. An essential element of Steiner's life work was to apply 'anthroposophically oriented cognition' to events of the beginning of the Christian era in order to 'bring the Gospels' deeper content to the light of day.' He spoke in detail about the Christ's community of disciples in many lecture cycles, and, in his lectures on the Fifth Gospel, he shed light on this community from the perspective of the processes of human consciousness that were intimately involved in events at the beginning of the new era and inscribed in the chronicle of evolution.... "In his lectures on the Fifth Gospel and elsewhere, Rudolf Steiner opened up many perspectives that help us understand what took place between Christ and his disciples. This book's purpose is to make those perspectives available and accessible. Although all of Steiner's statements have been published, they are widely scattered among his lectures and remain unknown to many individuals deeply committed to the community of Christ's disciples and to anthroposophical Christology. In view of the challenges to consciousness we face in modern times-including those that deal with Christianity and the Christ Event itself-it seems urgently important to present details of the positive and often illuminating results of Rudolf Steiner's research." As is true of other works by Peter Selg, Christ and the Disciples is one of those books that sharpens the reader's mind to cut through the myriad of representation (and misrepresentations) of Rudolf Steiner's teachings, clarifying many otherwise-knotty issues.

". . . though it is often thought that spiritual paths like Anthroposophy bear no connection to practical life, this is a profound misconception. Practical life is indubitably the beginning of the way--as, in a certain sense, it is also the end. After all, the work of evolution is practical work--in and on the world. Besides this, as these lectures demonstrate, working out of a spiritual perspective can enhance our ability to deal creatively with the varied situations destiny brings us in life, while at the same time opening us to the presence of spiritual realities on our daily life." -- Christopher Bamford (from the introduction)Four of Rudolf Steiner's best-loved lectures are collected in this book. They are four of the most accessible presentations of the anthroposophic approach to life available in English. "Practical Training in Thought" (Karlsruhe, Jan. 18, 1909) concerns the fundamental human activity of thinking. Everything we do, we do through thinking. The first task, then, is to realize the reality of thinking. To help us do this, Steiner provides exercises that can allow us to experience the cognitive--even clairvoyant--power of thinking."Overcoming Nervousness" (Munich, Jan. 11, 1912) shows us how exercises in thinking also give us the calm, centered sense we need to lead a purposeful, healthy life."Facing Karma" (Vienna, Feb. 8, 1912) takes us to the heart of life, where we experience desire and aversion, suffering and happiness. The law of karma that determines life's experiences and encounters also helps us develop the self-knowledge required for self-transformation."The Four Temperaments" (Berlin, Mar. 4, 1909) show us how the union of hereditary factors and our own inner spiritual nature shape our psychology. The guide here is the ancient classifications of the four temperaments: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic. Renewed understanding of these qualities allows us to develop a truly modern spiritual psychology, which forms the basis of all real inner development.With its many practical exercises, mantras, and meditations, this book is a fundamental introduction and guide for anyone beginning or in need of encouragement on one's path of inner development.

Written in 1894 (CW 4)"The realms of life are many. For each, specific sciences develop. But life itself is a unity, and the more the sciences busily immerse themselves in separate realms, the farther they move away from seeing the living wholeness of the world. There must be a kind of knowing that seeks, in the separate sciences, the elements that lead human beings back to full life again. A scientific specialist wants to become aware of the world and how it works through his or her insights. In this book, the goal is philosophical: science itself is to become organically alive. The separate sciences are preludes to the science attempted here." -- Rudolf Steiner (preface to the 1st edition)Of all of his works, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path (Die Philosophie der Freiheit) is the one that Steiner himself believed would have the longest life and the greatest spiritual and cultural consequences. It was written as a phenomenological account of the "results of observing the human soul according to the methods of natural science.This seminal work asserts that free spiritual activity--understood as the human ability to think and act independently of physical nature--is the suitable path for human beings today to gain true knowledge of themselves and of the universe. This is not merely a philosophical volume, but rather a warm, heart-oriented guide to the practice and experience of living thinking.Readers will not find abstract philosophy here, but a step-by-step account of how a person may come to experience living, intuitive thinking--"the conscious experience of a purely spiritual content."During the past hundred years since it was written, many have tried to discover this "new thinking" that could help us understand the various spiritual, ecological, social, political, and philosophical issues facing us. But only Rudolf Steiner laid out a path that leads from ordinary thinking to the level of pure spiritual activity--intuitive thinking--in which we become co-creators and co-redeemers of the world."When, with the help of Steiner's book, we recognize that thinking is an essentially spiritual activity, we discover that it can school us. In that sense--Steiner's sense--thinking is a spiritual path." -- Gertrude Reif HughesThis volume is arguably the most essential of Steiner's works. The thoughts in this book establish the foundation for all of Anthroposophy.Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path is a translation from German of Die Philosophie der Freiheit (GA 4).

2 written works, 1912 & 1913 (CW 16/17)Part one, "A Way of Self-Knowledge" Eight meditations that take the reader on a journey through human experience. Beginning with ordinary experience, Steiner offers ways to imagine and understand the physical body, the elemental (or etheric) body, the elemental world, the Guardian of the Threshold, the astral body, the "I"-body (or thought body), the nature of experience in suprasensory worlds, and ways of perceiving previous earthly lives. Part two, "The Threshold of the Spiritual World" Sixteen short chapters in which Steiner provides aphoristic thoughts on trusting one's thinking, cognition of the spiritual world, karma and reincarnation, the astral body and luciferic beings, how to recognize suprasensory consciousness, the true nature of love, and more. These two complete books together represent Steiner's most personal statements about his own spiritual path. He speaks directly from experiences of cognitive research and explorations. Each of the meditations and aphorisms arises from his spiritual research and demonstrates how such spiritual research is to be undertaken. The "content" is Steiner's own, but readers can discover their own "content." Steiner's method of awareness--his path of attention to one's own experience--is universal and truly human. A Way of Self-Knowledge is a true sequel and complement to the classic of inner development, How to Know Higher Worlds. It lays out in a way that is accessible to anyone the road to self-knowledge and to the world of spirit. A Way of Self-Knowledge: And the Threshold of the Spiritual Worldis a translation of «Ein Weg zur Selbsterkenntnis des Menschen: In acht Meditationen» (GA 16) and «Die Schwelle dre geistigen Welt: Aphoristische Ausführungen» (GA 17).

12 lectures, Berne, September 1-12, 1910 (CW 123)"If we read [Steiner's] lectures with an open and attentive inner eye, we may be able to see the Christ mystery, not as a collection of dogmas or facts, but as a spiritual impulse that stretches far beyond the limits of Christ's own time and even of the lifespan of Christianity itself. We may even catch a glimpse of the high powers that govern the life of civilizations and of the great entity known as the human race." -- Richard Smoley (from the introduction)For centuries people have been baffled by the varying accounts of Christ's life as presented in the four Gospels and have struggled to reconcile them. In these profound and stimulating lectures, Steiner addresses this conundrum. He shows how each of the Gospels presents a different lens onto Christ's life and message.Here Steiner reveals the Gospel of Matthew as the one that emphasizes Christ's humanity. But he does not stop there; his visionary perspective traces Christ's life and message to spiritual impulses that go back centuries, even millennia, to the legendary civilization of Atlantis, to the mysterious Zarathustra, and to the Jewish sect known as the Essenes.An introduction by Richard Smoley, author of Inner Christianity, puts Steiner's vision into perspective for modern readers. Once you have experienced Steiner's powerful exploration of Matthew, you will never see the Gospels in the same way again.According to Matthew is a translation from German of Das Matthaeus-evangelium. A previous translation was titled The Gospel of St. Matthew (GA 123).

Moral teaching and moral preaching cannot establish morality. It is only by delving into the hidden secrets of life that we can advance not just to moral doctrines but to the moral sources of life -- true moral impulses. At different times, humanity has manifested moral life in different ways. To understand these differences, the evolution of consciousness must be taken into account. Originally morality was a part of human nature, for in their essence human beings are good. But through evolution, there have come errors, deviations, fallings-away. In this small, much-loved cycle of three lectures, Rudolf Steiner indicates the sources for the recovery of a living morality for our time.Rudolf Steiner shows the transformation of the virtues through the evolution of consciousness, and, above all, through the incarnation of the Christ in the Mystery of Golgotha.

14 lectures, Stuttgart, August 21-September 5, 1919 (CW 294) How do Waldorf teachers put their educational ideals into practice in the classroom? How does a teacher connect geography and art and language in a way that enlivens the souls of children? What does a child's respect for the teacher mean for later life? These are only a few practical aspects of this initial course for Waldorf teachers.During an intensive two weeks, Rudolf Steiner gave three simultaneous educational courses to those who would be the first teachers of the original Waldorf school. One course provided the foundational ideas behind Waldorf education (The Foundations of Human Experience); another provided a forum for questions and lively discussions on specific issues in the classroom (Discussions with Teachers). In this course, Steiner takes the middle-path by integrating theory and practice.Here, Steiner spoke of new ways to teach reading, writing, geography, geometry, language, and much more. His approach is tailored to the spiritual and physical needs of the children themselves, not to an arbitrary curriculum based solely on external results.At a time when public education is in a state of crisis, this book describes how children around the world are being guided into adulthood with a fuller sense of themselves and with a creative approach to life and the world around them.German source: Erziehungskunst. Methodisch-Didaktisches (GA 294).

3 selected lectures by Rudolf SteinerThis is one of those books that can change your life. Radical, thought-provoking, and indeed mind-boggling, it leads to a completely new way of looking at what it means to be human--a spiritual being in a universe that itself is not just physical, but psychic and spiritual as well.These three previously untranslated lectures are a masterly introduction to what Rudolf Steiner means by "Anthroposophy." They explain why Steiner describes this path--which means literally "the wisdom of the human being"--as one that "unites what is spiritual in the human being with what is spiritual in the universe." Steiner begins by describing what happens when we die. He shows the relationship between our physical life on Earth and the etheric, astral, and spiritual life of the cosmos. He also explains how physical lives are completely interwoven with cosmic existence, and how the "miss-ing links" in evolution are spiritual in nature. Steiner then demonstrates what he calls the "dilettantism" and "soullessness" of mainstream psychology. He points out that, since the second half of the nineteenth century, the idea of the soul has been lost and that, consequently, understanding of our inner lives is without a sure foundation. A very different view emerges, however, from a truly spiritual perspective. In the third lec-ture, Steiner takes as his guide our three states of being--waking, dreaming, and sleeping. He describes in detail what happens in these three states and how each is bound up with our lives as physical, psychic, and spiritual beings. With the profound insights in this book, the world becomes a much larger, richer, and more exciting place to live.

Rudolf Steiner's course on light, which includes explorations of color, sound, mass, electricity and magnetism, presages the dawn of a new world view in the natural sciences that will stand our notion of the physical world on its head.This "first course" in natural science, given to the teachers of the new Stuttgart Waldorf School as an inspiration for developing the physics curriculum, is based on Goethe's approach to the study of nature. Acknowledging that modern physicists had come to regard Goethe's ideas on physics as a "kind of nonsense", Steiner contrasts the traditional scientific approach, which treats phenomena as evidence of "natural laws", with Goethean science, which rejects the idea of an abstract law behind natural phenomena and instead seeks to be a "rational description of nature". Steiner then corrects the mechanistic reductionism practiced by scientific positivists, emphasizing instead the validity of human experience and pointing toward a revolution in scientific paradigms that would reclaim ground for the subject -- the human being -- in the study of nature.

Highly recommended account by a class teacher of what actually goes on inside the classroom of a Waldorf school.

Outline of the processes of cosmic evolution, including detailed exercises for attaining higher conscious states.

This edition brings together an ordered sequence of statements by Steiner on the development of higher, suprasensory knowing -- imagination, inspiration, and intuition. Ten chapters take the reader from the idea of inner development, through the cultural and evolutioary need for higher knowing, to examples of the practices and inner gestures this work requires. Steiner unfolds the necessary steps and stages, always insisting on the free, individual, and cognitive character of anthroposophic spiritual research.

15 discussions with teachers of the Stuttgart Waldorf School, Aug. 21 - Sept. 6, 1919; 3 lectures on the curriculum, Sept. 6, 1919 (CW 295)"In spiritual science we divide the human being into 'I'-being, astral body, etheric body, and physical body. In an ideal human being, the harmony predestined by the cosmic plan would naturally predominate among these four human principles. But in reality, this is not so with any individual. Thus, it can be seen that the human being, when given over to the physical plane, is not yet really complete; education and teaching, however, should serve to make the human being complete. One of the four elements rules in each child, and education and teaching must harmonize these four principles." -- Rudolf SteinerFor two weeks, prior to the opening of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Rudolf Steiner intensively prepared the individuals he had chosen to become the first Waldorf teachers. At 9:00 a.m. each day, he gave the course now translated as Foundations of Human Experience; at 11:00 a.m., Practical Advice to Teachers; and then, after lunch, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., he held the informal "discussions" published in this book.The tone is spontaneous and relaxed. Steiner does not prescribe specific methods but introduces topics and situations, offering guidelines and allocating practical assignments that are taken up and discussed in the next session. The discussions are filled with insights and suggestions in many different areas of teaching--history, geography, botany, zoology, form drawing, mathematics, and more.Speech exercises are included. This edition also includes, for the first time in English, three important lectures on the curriculum, given the day just before the school opened.These fifteen discussions constitute an essential part of the basic training material for Waldorf teachers.Discussions with Teachers is a translation from German of Erziehungskunst. Seminarbesprechungen und Lehrplanvorträge (vol. 295 in the Bibliographical Survey, published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1961).