Steiner begins this work by pointing to our awareness of a second self that guides us through life. It guides us as infants and children as we attain vertical balance in space, learn to communicate in community, and begin to think in the world. Through this initial wisdom (which is still connected to the spiritual hierarchies) we enter the physical realm and then, as we grow, we exchange it for self-awareness and memory.

What--or who--is this wisdom? Steiner suggests that it is connected with the "higher self" of humankind that lived in Jesus between his baptism and the...

This is the classic account of the modern Western esoteric path of initiation made public by Steiner in 1904. He begins with the premise that "the capacities by which we can gain insights into the higher worlds lie dormant within each one of us." Steiner carefully and precisely leads the reader from the cultivation of the fundamental soul attitudes of reverence and inner tranquility to the development of inner life through the stages of preparation, illumination, and initiation.

Steiner provides practical exercises of inner and outer observation and moral development. By patiently and...

Written in 1909 (CW 13)

"Esoteric science is the science of what takes place esoterically, in the sense that it is perceived not outside in nature but where one's soul turns when it directs its inner being toward the spirit. Esoteric science is the opposite and counterpart of natural science."
--Rudolf Steiner

This masterwork of esotericism places humankind at the very heart of the vast, invisible processes of cosmic evolution. When we use the term "natural science," don't we mean that we are dealing with human knowledge of nature?

Written in 1909 (CW 13)

"Esoteric science is the science of what takes place esoterically, in the sense that it is perceived not outside in...