Rudolf Steiner

Christopher Bamford

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. Also included here are several early lectures on education (1906 1911). Contents: The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science, essay Teaching from a Foundation of Spiritual Insight, Berlin, May 14, 1906 Education in the Light of Spiritual Science, Cologne, December 1, 1906 Education and Spiritual Science, Berlin, January 24, 1907 Interests, Talent, and Educating Children, Nuremberg, November 14, 1910 Interests, Talent, and Education, Berlin, January 12, 1911 "

The Education of the Child

Nikolai Berdyaev

In this powerful, moving book first published in 1946, Berdyaev is not so interested in the empirical details of Russian history as he is in "the thought of the Creator about Russia." The "Russian idea" is thus a mystical one. Religion and philosophy, not economics or politics, determine history and society. Berdyaev takes up the story in the nineteenth century. He traces the lineage of such powerful artists and thinkers as Chaadev, Khomyakov, Kireevksy, Leontyev, Aksakov, Hertzen, Bakunin, all of whom struggled to integrate the polarities of East and West, spirit and matter, and male and female in the Russian soul. This soul, however, is so immense, boundless, and vague that it is incapable of settling for "the halfway kingdom of culture." Demanding all or nothing, alternatively apocalyptic and nihilistic, Russians strove to justify culture and discover Russia's mystical mission. Impatient with the slow processes of history, distrusting all authority and yet haunted by a vision of unity, thinkers such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Federov, and Solovyov created an original and vital religious philosophy that culminated in the Russian Renaissance at the beginning of the twentieth century. The fruit of these great figures, of whom Berdyaev was one (others included Florensky, Bulgakov, Rozanov, Merezhkovsky, Blok, and Bely), was cut short by the 1917 Revolution. In recent years, however, their works have been available in self-published (Samizdat) editions. Underground, a great philosophical and spiritual rebirth was occuring. Now they are available again, and the next installment of the Russian idea is being prepared. This book is therefore essential reading for an understanding of the new Russia.

The Russian Idea

Green Hermeticism

This rich volume traces the esoteric work in the decade leading up to the reestablishment of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference (1923/19241 and the subsequent creation of the First Class, which replaced the Esoteric Section. Part One contains thirty-nine lessons in just nineteen months, beginning in January 1913, five days after the Anthroposophical Society was founded, which allow us to sense the subtle though seismic shift of Anthroposophy as it becomes an autonomous earthly, spiritual reality outside the context of Theosophy. The task is meditation, with the initial focus to deepen the Rosicrucian path, and the emphasis is practical rather than theoretical; consequently, advice and many instructions arc given. Part Two covers the period from 1920 to 1923, and clearly shows that the times demanded a different approach to the spiritual world. With the outbreak of World Wu- I, the esoteric lessons had ceased altogether (except for one totally private lesson given in the summer of 19181. From 1920 to 1923 only five esoteric lessons were given, but they include important meditations that indicate a new direction. Part Three contains the two esoteric lessons given to the esoteric youth circleùmembers of the Youth Movementùin which there is something quite new and future-oriented: a new way of undertaking spiritual work in the service of the Archangel Michael. This section includes a moving account of the history and development of the esoteric Youth Movement. The volume closes with the Threefold Mantra that foreshadowed a new approach for the First Class and was used by those in the Esoteric Section between 1920 and 1923.

1913 and 1914, 1920-1923

Esoteric Lessons

Homage to Pythagoras collects essential documents by people at the leading edge of the sacred sciences today. These articles--both scholarly and sympathetic to the Pythagorean perspective--are proof of the contemporary interest in Pythagoras' philosophy as a living reality and provide a major addition to the field of Pythagorean studies and traditional mathematics. Contents: Introduction by Christopher Bamford "Ancient Temple Architecture" by Robert Lawlor "The Platonic Tradition on the Nature of Proportion" by Keith Critchlow "What is Sacred Architecture? by Keith Critchlow "Twelve Criteria for Sacred Architecture" by Keith Critchlow "Pythagorean Number as Form, Color, and Light" by Robert Lawlor "The Two Lights" by Arthur Zajonc "Apollo: The Pythagorean Definition of God" by Anne Macaulay "Blake, Yeats, and Pythagoras" by Kathleen Raine About the Authors ROBERT LAWLOR is the author of Sacred Geometry; Earth Honoring; and Voices of the First Day. After training as a painter and a sculptor, he became a yoga student of Sri Aurobindo and lived for many years in Pondicherry, India, where he was a founding member of Auroville. In India, he discovered the works of the French Egyptologist and esotericist, R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, which led him to explore the principles and practices of ancient sacred science. KEITH CRITCHLOW is the author of Order in Space; and Time Stands Still. A painter, Critchlow discovered geometry intuitively. A period of intensive geometric practice and work with Buckminster Fuller led him to recognize that the universal principles of geometry are revealed and confirmed both by the area of design where art and mathematics meet and in the study of nature and ancient and medieval sacred cosmological architecture of temples, cathedrals, and mosques. He has been a senior lecturer at the Architectural Association in London and taught Islamic Art at the Royal College of Art. He has also participated as geometer in various sacred architectural projects, and is a cofounder of Temenos, a journal devoted to the arts and imagination, and Kairos, a society that investigates, studies, and promotes traditional values of art and science. ARTHUR ZAJONC is Professor of Physics at Amherst College, where his research has concerned the nature of light and the experimental foundations of quantum mechanics. He has also taught and written extensively on interdisciplinary aspects of science, the history of science, culture, and spirituality, especially the works of Goethe and Rudolf Steiner. He is the author Catching the Light and The New Physics and Cosmology, featuring dialogues with the Dalai Lama. He has been a visiting scientist at many laboratories and was a Fulbright professor. ANNE MACAULAY lives in Scotland where she has, for many years, studied the origins of the alphabet, the history of the guitar, the figure of Apollo, and other mysteries surrounding Pythagorean thought. She has lectured at Research into Lost Knowledge Organization (RILKO) and was a trustee of the Salisbury Center in Edinburgh. KATHLEEN RAINE was a British poet with an international reputation as a scholar of the imagination. A renowned student of William Blake, a penetrating critic, and a profound autobiographer, she wrote numerous books and articles. Kathleen Raine was a cofounder and the editor of Temenos.

Rediscovering Sacred Science

Homage to Pythagoras

In the architecture of Rudolf Steiner's great cosmological temple, this extraordinary course of lectures on spiritual beings forms the central pillar with other important texts such as the fourth chapter of An Outline of Esoteric Science, The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World, and Inner Experiences of Evolution. These works, outlining a revolutionary angelological cosmology, lie at the heart of Steiner's mission to transform our understanding of the world by laying down a new, non-dual, phenomenological path to a contemporary divine-spiritual-physical cosmology that is angelological and theophanic. For Steiner, what constitutes the world are "beings"-including the ground of the world itself, the "Father being." Steiner's cosmology or angelology is personal, and it is known in relationship; therefore, he presents it in terms of states and deeds of conscious, and of the divine-spiritual beings whose states and deeds they are. The spiritual world is thus always a world of beings. The twin realizations-that "I am an 'I'" and that "reality is constituted of other "I-beings"-go together. Cosmology is angelology. Spiritual beings define experience of the nature of reality. In these lectures, the reader is led through a series of meditations to recognize these spiritual beings and come to know their deeds. Steiner's approach is "contemporary" in that, while continuous with the most ancient understanding of the cosmos, he discovers it for himself, out of his own experience and consciousness, and expresses it in his own words with a logic and language appropriate to our time. Thus he teaches us, his readers, to do the same.

Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature

In the architecture of Rudolf Steiner’s great cosmological temple, this extraordinary course of lectures on spiritual beings forms the central pillar, taking its place with other important texts such as the fourth chapter of An Outline of Esoteric Science (CW 13); The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World (CW 136); and Inner Experiences of Evolution (CW 132). These works outline a revolutionary angelological cosmology and lie at the heart of Steiner’s mission to transform our understanding of the world by offering a new, non-dual, phenomenological path to a contemporary divine-spiritual-physical cosmology that is angelological and theophanic. Steiner’s approach is “contemporary” in that, being continuous with the most ancient understanding of the cosmos, he also discovers it for himself, through his own experience and consciousness, and expresses it in his own words with a logic and language appropriate to our time. Thus, he teaches us, his readers, to do the same. According to Rudolf Steiner, the world is made up of “beings.” This includes the very ground of the world itself, the “Father being.” His cosmology or angelology is personal, and it is known in relationship. Therefore, he presents it in terms of conditions and acts of consciousness and in relation to the divine spiritual beings whose conditions and activities they are. The spiritual world is always a world of beings. The twin realizations go together—that “I am an ‘I’” and that “reality is comprised of other “I” beings. Cosmology is angelology. Spiritual beings define all experience of reality.

Christopher Bamford

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