10 lectures in Dusseldorf, April 12-18, 1909; notes by participants from question-and-answer sessions (CW 110)

April 21 - 22, 1909

Ever since nature and consciousness were separated during the late Middle Ages--giving rise to scientific thinking that considers only the physical world and views the mind as merely an epiphenomenon of neural chemistry--the spiritual beings who are the universe have felt abandoned and unable to complete their work, which depends on human collaboration for its suc-cess. Human beings have likewise felt aban-doned and alienated.

In...

5 lectures in Berlin, October 31, 1911-December 5, 1911 (CW 132)

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...

12 lectures in various cities, 1922 (CW 211)


"We must understand that if we relate only to dead matter, we ourselves become dead and ahrimanic, but if we have sufficient courage and love for all the beings around us to relate to them directly (not to our dead ideas about them), we discover the Christ in everything and victorious spirit everywhere. When this happens, we may need to speak in ways that seem paradoxical to our contemporaries. We may need to speak about the individual spiritual beings that live in the solid and fluid elements and so forth. As long as we avoid...

13 lectures, Stuttgart, October 3-15, 1922 (CW 217)

"This cycle of lectures 'to the younger generation' speaks of a pathway to a Michaelic harvest for ears that have the goodwill to hear." --Carlo Pietzner

Rudolf Steiner presented these lectures to about a hundred German young people who hoped to bring Waldorf education into the culture of their time and for the future. Steiner stressed upon his listeners the great importance of "self-education" as a prerequisite to all other education. His was an attempt to guide the youth toward understanding themselves within...

Notes written from memory by the participants and meditation verses by Rudolf Steiner (CW 266/1)

To read this book is to be part of Rudolf Steiner's Esoteric School, to experience the growth and development of Anthroposophy from within. First and most essential here is the primacy of practice. Steiner stresses attention and concentration. We waste much of our time and energy on thoughts and feelings that to nowhere. Meditation--concentration on a living thought, an idea of higher origin--begins the process of self-gathering. Controlling our thoughts, we begin to form our "mental"...

13 lectures in Munich, Stuttgart, Berlin, Masch, and Penmaenmawr, 1907-1923 (CW 284)

Unnoticed by most people at the time, a significant moment in spiritual history took place at Whitsun (Pentecost) in Munich in 1907. Known as "the Congress of the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society," this event witnessed Rudolf Steiner's emergence onto the public stage as an independent esoteric Christian spiritual teacher with a world mission to transform planetary culture through what would come to be called "Anthroposophy."

The event (and hence...

Letters, Documents, Ritual Texts, and Lectures from the Cognitive-Ritual Section of the Esoteric School: 1904-1919
Documents of a New Beginning after the First World War: 1921-1924 (CW 265)

To ground his project of founding the new mysteries of Anthroposophy in spiritual history, Rudolf Steiner always sought to unite with and transform where possible the older initiatory streams such as Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism.

In November 1905, both Steiner, who was General Secretary of the German Section of the Theosophical Society and Arch Warden of its Esoteric...

8 lectures, Dornach, December 2-22, 1917 (CW 179)

With a single observation, Rudolf Steiner can sometimes outline a radically new reality that changes everything. Here, he introduces these extraordinary lectures by proposing that the boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds "lies right in the middle of the human being."

One indication of this boundary may be found in what science mistakenly differentiates as the sensory and motor nerves, which for Steiner, do not represent two kinds of nerve functions, but rather a gap, or interruption, through which soul, spiritual...

5 lectures, Cologne, Dec. 28, 1912 - Jan. 1, 1913 (CW 142)
9 lectures, Helsinki, May 28 - June 5, 1913 (CW 146)
1 lecture, Basel, Sept. 19, 1912 (CW 139)

This combination of two volumes in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works presents Steiner's profound engagement with Hindu thought and, above all, the Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as they illuminate Western Christian esotericism. In his masterly introduction, Robert McDermott, a longtime student of Rudolf Steiner, as well as Hindu spirituality, explores the complex ways in which the "Song of the Lord," or Bhagavad...

7 Lectures, various cities, Nov. 29, 1917-Oct. 16, 1918 (CW 182)

"In our reflections on spiritual science, we come across much that we apparently cannot apply directly in our daily life, much that seems far removed from our everyday life. In reality, however, what we learn about the mysteries of the spiritual world is always, in every hour and every moment, deeply significant for our soul. What seems to us far removed from our personal concerns is at times very close to what our soul in its innermost core needs. As far as the physical-sensory world in concerned, it is...