First published just before the new millennium, van Manen's seminal study remains a unique and important source for understanding the spiritual and karmic background to the anthroposophic movement and the society based on the work of the twentieth-century seer and spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner.

In his lectures on karma, given in 1924, Steiner spoke of the principal Aristotelian and Platonic traditions and the movements based on their thinking. Van Manen studies the streams of destiny connected to those streams and elaborates on Steiner's presentations, while tackling the...