Rudolf Steiner received The Fifth Gospel--unrecorded events from the so-called lost years of the life of Jesus, obtained by grace and by spiritual research into the akashic record--as a "sacred obligation" to which he experienced a deep sense of responsibility. However, he never finished the project of unveiling it. Had he done so, not only Anthroposophy but also Christianity would have received an enormous spiritual gift: a concrete, soul-filled description of the Mystery of Golgotha. His deeply moving and often startling lectures in 1913 are thus fragmentary, giving the near-tragic impression that, because those who heard or read them did not take them up with sufficient seriousness and inner dedication, humanity has suffered an inestimable loss. "Steiner traveled through various German cities to give personal summaries of the Fifth Gospel. But in each center, he encountered the same "sleepiness." The thorns were already starting to prick; he seemed to begin hiding the content rather than disclosing it. He was forced to see in all clarity that the Fifth Gospel was not being appropriately received" (Andrei Bely). In this dramatic book, Selg tells the story of those lectures. He recounts their background and many of the most important episodes. He illumines and gives context to the excerpts with a profound yet accessible commentary. Most important, he offers insights into their importance to both Steiner and the hearts of those who heard and understood--even those who felt inadequate to the task. Those who has read Steiner's lectures on the Fifth Gospel and wondered about their significance will find here an inspiring guide to further meditation, while those who have not yet read them will find many reasons for doing so and discover a new way of understanding Steiner and his mission. Those unfamiliar with Steiner but wish to fine a meaningful, heartfelt way to Jesus Christ and the Christian mystery will discover a new way of understanding a new path to Christ.

6 lectures, Berlin, March 24-June 7, 1905; 2 lectures, Nov. 7, 1905 & Oct. 22, 1908; Questions & Answers, 1904-1922 (CW 324) The point, line, plane and solid objects represent the first three dimensions, but a kind of reversal of space is involved in the ascent to a fourth dimension. Steiner leads us to the brink of this new perspective--as nearly as it can be done with words, diagrams, analogies, and examples of many kinds. In doing so, he continues his lifelong project of demonstrating that our objective, everyday thinking is the lowest rung of a ladder that reaches up to literally infinite heights. The talks in this series and the selections from the question-and-answer sessions on many mathematical topics over the years are translated into English for the first time in The Fourth Dimension. They bring us to tantalizing new horizons of awareness where Steiner hoped to lead his listeners: Topics include: ∞ The relationship between geometric studies and the development of direct spiritual perception ∞ How to construct a fourth-dimensional hypercube ∞ The six dimensions of the self-aware human being ∞ Problems with the theory of relativity ∞ The Trinity and angelic hierarchies and their relationship to physical space ∞ The dimensional aspect of the spiritual being encountered by Moses on Mt. Sinai This volume is a translation from German of Die vierte Dimension Mathematik und Wirklichkeit (GA 324a).

"The coming of a spiritual age must be preceded by the appearance of an increasing number of individuals who are no longer satisfied with the normal intellectual, vital, and physical existence of man, but perceive that a greater evolution is the real goal of humanity and attempt to effect it in themselves, to lead others to it, and to make it the recognized goal of the race. In proportion as they succeed, and to the degree to which they carry this evolution, the yet unrealized potentiality which they represent will become the actual possibility of the future." --Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle Sri Aurobindo stands out as one of the deepest and most profoundly relevant of contemporary Asian spiritual masters speaking to the West. His vision transcends the distinctive strengths and weaknesses of India and the West, and his discipline brings the yogas of the Gita to the task of world transformation. His collaborator, The Mother, offers a blueprint for the utopian community Auroville, giving sage advice on the ideal of a spiritually based approach to education. Robert McDermott's afterword in this revised edition recounts the increased significance of Aurobindo's message in the West--especially for America--since the book was first published in 1973. Here is an invaluable resource for understanding the underlying connections and common ground between Eastern and Western teachings and traditions for modern thinkers and spiritual seekers.

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 Gita, has been understood in East and West. He shows how Krishna's revelation to Arjuna--a foundation of spirituality in India for more than two and a half millennia--assumed a similarly critical role in the Western spiritual revival of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the West, for instance, leading up to Steiner's engagement, McDermott describes the various approaches manifested by Emerson, Thoreau, H.P. Blavatsky, and William James. In the East, he engages with interpretations of historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, relating them to Steiner's unique perspective. In addition, and most important, he illumines the various technical terms and assumptions implicit in the worldview expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. The main body of The Bhagavad Gita and the West consists of two lecture courses by Rudolf Steiner: "The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul" and "The Esoteric Significance of the Bhagavad Gita." In the first course, his main purpose is to integrate the flower of Hindu spirituality into his view of the evolution of consciousness and the pivotal role played in it by the Mystery of Golgotha--the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Steiner views Krishna as a great spiritual teacher and the Bhagavad Gita as a preparation, though still abstract, for the coming of Christ and the Christ impulse as the living embodiment of the World, Law, and Devotion, represented by the three Hindu streams of Veda, Sankhya, and Yoga. For Steiner, the epic poem of the Bhagavad Gita represents the "fully ripened fruit" of Hinduism, whereas Paul is related but represents "the seed of something entirely new." In the last lecture of part one, Steiner reveals Krishna as the sister soul of Adam, incarnated as Jesus, and claims Krisha's Yoga teachings streamed from Christ into Paul. In the second lecture course, five months later, Steiner engages the text of the Bhagavad Gita--on its own terms--as signaling the beginning of a new soul consciousness. To aid in understanding both of these important cycles, this book includes the complete text of the Bhagavad Gita in Eknath Easwaran's luminous translation. In our age, when East and West are growing closer and we live increasingly in a global, intercultural and religiously pluralistic world, this remarkable book is required reading. The Bhagavad Gita and the West is a translation of two volumes in German: Die Bhagavad Gita und die Paulusbriefe (CW 142) and Die okkulten Grundlagen der Bhagavad Gita (CW 146). The lecture in the appendix is translated from Das Markus-Evangelium (CW 139) and was published in The Gospel of St. Mark (Anthroposophic Press, 1986).

How much practical time do we usually devote to the general art of being human? This practical guide to self-healing consciousness--it is both a spiritual psychology and a contemporary manual of the inner life--begins by laying out clearly the unhealthy, unfree nature of today's consciousness. Methodical, self-observation leads to discovering the key to liberating consciousness from its habitual blind spots and automatisms--realization of the universal primacy of cognition and the universal availability of its ground, the free attention. Through the use of attention, a person practicing the exercise given here begins to expand the range of one's possibilities to understand and act. The exercises--based on the Eightfold Path of the Buddha and the cognitive spiritual path of Rudolf Steiner--lead to a new life in which superconscious intuitions gradually replace superconscious formations. This new life is a universal human life of improvising, living thinking--a life of presence and pure joy, which is health for a human being. "I believe that our central problem is that we do not know what or who a human being really is. We lack this knowledge because we have no valid picture of the human WORD, no image of human language, of words in general. This is why we have such trouble with words, why we hit upon the right word so rarely. Everything we do to, for, and against each other is speech of some kind, or ought to be. Yet we are interested in anything but words, these very words by means of which we do everything else. Because we don't know what words are we don't know what humans are" (from the foreword).

"We need changes in our attitudes, our understanding of illness, our acceptance of non-allopathic practitioners, the economics of how we pay for health care, and our entire professional medical-legal system in which medical boards often act within the law to protect and defend the guild of conventional medicine under the guise of 'scientific proof.'... I present a template that combines economics, psychology, medicine, physiology, and mythology. It can serve as support and guidance for making the changes necessary for a new model of medicine in the twenty-first century." --Dr. Robert J. Zieve Dr. Zieve presents a new paradigm for health care that shows us how to go beyond the limitations and severe deficiencies of our current sickness care system. It embraces and synthesizes the emerging models of integrative medicine, energy medicine, and energy psychology into an effective and affordable approach to healing for everyone. This guide is for both those wish to provide a more complete form of health care for their patients and also for those individuals who are prepared to make the necessary changes in daily life in order to initiate or maintain a movement toward healing. This includes understanding the daily disciplines of a healing process, the deeper psychological processes of illness, and the creative arts in their therapeutic roles.

"The deep aim, or intention, of an introduction (understood esoterically) is a 'living understanding,' or, as the poet William Blake put it, the ability 'to catch the bird in flight and fly with it.' If successful, this makes it possible for any reader to hear or translate, into his or her own understanding, what Rudolf Steiner is offering, within and beyond his words, in these texts of The Collected Works." --Christopher Bamford Rudolf Steiner's writings and lectures comprise a collection of more than 350 volumes, which can overwhelm anyone hoping to gain an understanding of the vast range of their content. Beginning in the 1990s, as editor in chief of Anthroposophic Press (SteinerBooks), Christopher Bamford wrote introductions to more than fifty books in the English translations, each one offering readers significant context and keys to open up many areas of Steiner's works. This volume presents fifteen of those introductions to some of Steiner's most essential books and lectures on anthroposophic practices, Western esoteric streams, religious renewal, and inner development, as well as practical applications of anthroposophic principles for a threefold society and contributions to modern holistic medicine. Taken together, these introductions provide one of the best possible means of encountering Rudolf Steiner by revealing the background, significance, and relevance of his philosophy and insights for humanity today and in the future. This book is for anyone seeking a way into Steiner's worldview, as well as for those who are already familiar with the work of Rudolf Steiner and wish to delve more deeply into the many aspects of the anthroposophic path of knowledge.

Hermeticism, or alchemy, is the ancient, primordial mystery science of nature through which people in all times and places have, for the sake of world evolution, sought to unite Heaven and Earth--divinity, cosmos, earth, and humanity, as a single whole. Selfless, intimate, dedicated to healing and harmony, Hermeticism has accompanied and sustained every religious epoch and revelation. It may be found in all historical cultures, from the traditions of India and China in the East to the Judeo-Christian West. It could even be said that Hermeticism is the primal cosmological revelation and the common ground of all spiritual traditions. Nevertheless, in the great revival of mystical, esoteric traditions and practices during the last century, Hermetic tradition--in fact, Nature herself--has been largely ignored. Today, when the Earth seems most under attack, Green Hermeticism is especially appropriate. The book explores not only the ancient Masters' inner science, but also their science of Nature. During spring and summer 2006, Pir Zia Khan convened a series of gatherings to begin to unfold the contemporary meaning of ancient, sacred science for our time. Green Hermeticism is a partial record of that meeting. Peter Lamborn Wilson, explores the many ramifications of the alternative worldview offered by Hermeticism; Christopher Bamford provides a broad historical overview of the tradition from the Ancient Mysteries to contemporary manifestations of the alchemical tradition; while Kevin Townley brings a practical dimension to the gathering teaching the preparation of herbal elixirs and demonstrating that cosmology and philosophy can become a truly healing path for the Earth. Green Hermeticism is necessary reading for anyone seeking a spiritual and cultural path for the healing of the current ecological and cultural crisis. "In Alchemy, there is an injunction to quicken, or revive, the dead, which is illustrated by a dead tree growing verdant again. That is exactly what this wonderful and rare work does in awakening human consciousness to its Divine potential and Ultimate Destiny. Art thus helps Nature to achieve its ideal Perfection. The authors must be congratulated for their insightful words. I wholeheartedly recommend reading it again and again, and again." --Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, author Alchemy: The Secret Art and The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century "Environmental solutions today are largely technical, but the planetary crisis is also a crisis of soul--or better yet, of the Imagination. Too tricky for religion, too poetic for reductionist science, Green Hermeticism reheats a prophetic imagination still in love with the material world--a new alchemy of ancient nature." --Erik Davis, author, The Visionary State: A Journey through California's Spiritual Landscape "Just when you felt numb and disenfranchised, thinking the world had become bleak and dead, along comes this rare, much needed book to remind us that there is still some sanity, depth, and creative energy percolating up from the heart of Reality. Thank God (and the Goddess Nature) for this smart and inspiring breath of fresh air! Green Hermeticism is where the wasteland ends--and where the world becomes re-enchanted with genuine living thought that goes beyond superficialities. It's a rare pleasure to be in the presence of living minds who actually know something wonderful and have not been deadened by the opiates of capital or the tenure track. Very highly recommended." --David Fideler, publisher (Phanes Press) editor (Alexandria), author of Jesus Christ, Sun of God and translator of Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition (with Sabrineh Fideler) "The publication of Green Hermeticism has the sense we so rarely get, of a genuine moment in cultural history. It is not just the eloquence of its authors' knowledge and arguments or that they are showing us, once again, the depth and range and beauty of alchemy, and the Hermetic tradition, and what Peter Lamborn Wilson calls Romantic Science. Nor is it even the links they establish between the Hermetic tradition and ecology, and the value of a science that perceives the world as alive rather than a machine. What makes this work significant is the sense that it shows us how we can use these ideas and knowledge to create a genuine counter to destruction and despair, an alchemy of our politics as well as of our spirit." --Rachel Pollack, author of 78 Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot "Green Hermeticism reminds us that the art of the Great Work is to enter more deeply into the dynamic and practical wisdom of the universe, which is our laboratory, where work and prayer combine. When we engage with the All, we know ourselves to be one kindred with all in the viriditas--God's greening power--where body, soul, and spirit honor each other." --Caitlín & John Matthews, authors of Walkers Between the Worlds: The Western Mysteries from Shaman to Magus

Ordinarily we live under the tyranny of the past. All that we call thinking is the habitual association of finished, dead thoughts. But these thoughts were alive once and every new moment of understanding is a breath from the level of the living present. Stages of Consciousness proposes that we train ourselves in the stage of consciousness that we occasionally glimpse as intuition. Beginning with the intuition of the true self in the living thinking--"the fundamental experience of the spirit"--the author goes on to describe practical exercise in concentration and contemplation. Georg Kühlewind describes his purpose in his foreword: "Modern humanity's most difficult task is to become aware of, to see and to overcome the threshold of mirrored consciousness. The first essay attempts to show how Rudolf Steiner proposes reaching this goal in his Philosophy of Freedom. Consideration of the threshold lying between thinking and what has been thought leads the one making this experiment to 'the fundamental experience of the spirit.' The third essay attempts to develop a methodology for the first steps in the realm of concentration and contemplation. The last essays set forth the outcome: how, in the observation of the soul's boundaries, these boundaries become transparent and permeable. The form of the communication is such that the reader, tracing the lines of the movements of thinking, steps into its fabric." Contents: Introduction by Christopher Bamford Author's Foreword The Two Stages of Consciousness The Fundamental Experience of the Spirit Concentration and Contemplation The Boundaries of the Soul The Secret of Perceiving The Spiritual Communion of Modern Humanity The Sense of Being The Light of the Earth

18 lectures in Dornach, January 9 - February 22, 1920 (CW 196) In the vast range of Rudolf Steiner's lectures, jewels of all kinds lie hidden in plain sight, awaiting only our discovery of them. Such lectures contain a kind of wisdom not found anywhere else. And sometimes, as in What Is Necessary in These Urgent Times, they also have a translucency and conviction that makes them transformational. In early 1920, political, economic, social, and spiritual chaos was everywhere. The old world had fallen apart and would need to be rebuilt. Anthroposophy, too, had to be remade. Recognizing this, Rudolf Steiner tirelessly working for the "threefold social order," establishing the first Waldorf school, helping to create businesses, and addressing the talented, educated, and idealistic young people who were beginning to turn toward Anthroposophy for answers. In these lectures, Steiner speaks in the new, direct "Michaelic" way, seeking the path to a new way of doing Anthroposophy. Throughout the critical situation of the time, he never lost his sense of humor or his compassion and equilibrium. His tone is warm, relaxed, and intimate. Rather than following a strictly predetermined path, he speaks directly from the heart about what concerned him. He stresses that the task of spiritual science is to awaken us to reality and to a true understanding of life that sees through illusions and understands the ever-present potential of evil. Speaking both esoterically and exoterically, he returns repeatedly to the importance of community, of meeting one another face-to-face, heart-to-heart, as individuals. Thus, rather than seeking power and control, we are called to cultivate trust and receptivity. This takes a spiritual transformation. We must learn to live this present life in the context of our greater spiritual life, which extends from before birth through earthly life and into the life after death that precedes our next birth. At the same time, we must come to know the Christ, who is to be met only in community. Selfishness, egotism, has no part in the new way: "When someone is alone Christ is not there. You cannot find Christ without first feeling a connection to humanity as a whole. You must seek Christ on the path that connects you with all humankind.... To be connected only with your own inner experiences leads you away from Christ." Steiner deals with many other important themes, as well, including "imperialism," the initiate behind Shakespeare, Bacon, and James I--makers of our modern age--and well as fascinating, initiatory remarks on reincarnation, esoteric physiology, and psychology. Running throughout the talks is the earnest admonition to be true to the spirit and the call to come to our senses and not fall prey to self-pity. Now, as it was then, the world needs us to be awake spiritually, and we need the world to be awake spiritually. There is nowhere to hide. What Is Necessary in These Urgent Times is a translation from German of Geisitige und soziale Wandlungen in der Menschheitsentwikelung (GA 196).