Universe Earth and Man in Their Relationship to Egyptian Myths and Modern Civilization, Steiner Rudolf

"Many who enter esoteric training are very disappointed and say that they had imagined the exercises to be much more energetic and the effects of the exercises to be far more drastic. Those who tell this to themselves should quickly consider the possibility that they are caught in a great error, and that they should make the greatest efforts to correct this error as soon as possible. It is not the exercises that lack enough energy, but rather the individual. It is not the exercises that are ineffective, but rather the person who is not making them effective. By living an esoteric life, the student should become an entirely different person. One must add something new to the old." --Rudolf Steiner

In this second of three volumes from Rudolf Steiner's early Esoteric School, we find a further deepening of spiritual practice and training. Steiner explains the requirements one must meet to become a serious student of esotericism. In addition, he gives directions--always emphasizing the increasing need for earnestness--for the transformation of the inner life, for the development of new spriritual forces and capacities, and for recognizing and overcoming the dangers that arise on a spiritual path. Moreover, he shows how one should approach specific meditations.

These lessons mark Rudolf Steiner's continued movement away from the Eastern path of the Theosophical Society at the time and his increasing focus on the Christian-Rosicrucian path, recognizing Christ as the leader of the path of his form of spiritual training.

This volume is the English translation of Aus den Inhalten der esoterischen Stunden, Ged chtnisaufzeichnungen von Teilnehmern. Band.2, 1910-1912 (GA 266/2).

Steiner tells us that Mark was especially able to reveal Christ as a cosmic being of his greatness and power, because, after having been a pupil of Peter, he moved to Alexandria during a time when Jewish philosophy and theology was at it's peak. There he absorbed the best aspects and views of pagan gnosis.

Mark was able to learn how humankind came arose from the spiritual world and how the luciferic and ahrimanic forces are taken into the human soul. Mark was able to accept everything that was told to him by pagan gnosis concerning our human origin out of the cosmos when our planet came into being. But he could also see, especially from his perspective in Egypt, the strong contrast between our original human destiny and what humankind had become during his time.

This lecture cycle, like the Gospel itself, is a work of art in its own right.

This book is a translation of the German edition Das Markus-Evangelium (GA 139).

In this course, designed for students and professionals in the stage arts, Rudolf Steiner begins with a fundamental and spiritually-rooted appreciation of human speech and what actually takes place during human communication. Speech is a spiritual activity as well as an art form, lending itself to real interaction with both higher spiritual worlds and the human world of social conversation.

Steiner shows that speech is a powerful tool for any serious dramatist in conveying the reality of worlds, whether visible or invisible, to the individual souls in the audience.

This is an essential book for anyone involved in speech work, communication arts, and many kinds of therapies.

C O N T E N T S

Foreword by Marie Steiner
Note by Translator

PART ONE: THE FORMING OF SPEECH
1. The Forming of Speech Is an Art
2. The Six Revelations of Speech
3. Speech as Formed Gesture
4. How to Attain Style in Speech and Drama
5. The Secret of the Art of the Master ...
6. Sensitive Perception for Sound and Word ...
7. Some Practical Illustrations of the Forming of Speech

PART TWO: THE MOLDING AND SCULPTING OF SPEECH
8. The Molding and sculpting of Speech
9. Style in gesture
10. The Mystery Character of Dramatic Art
11. The Relation of Gesture and Mime to the Forming of Speech
12. The Artistic Quality in Drama
13. Study of the Text from Two Aspects
14. Stage D cor: Its Stylization in Color and Light

PART THREE: THE STAGE AND THE REST OF MANKIND
15. The Esoteric Aspect of the Actor's Vocation
16. The Work of the Stage from Its More Inward Aspect
17. Further Study of the Sounds of Speech
18. The Speech Sounds as a Revelation of the Form of Man
19. The Formative Activity of the World

This volume is a translation from German of Sprachgestaltung und Dramatische Kunst (GA 282).

"In spiritual science we divide the human being into 'I'-being, astral body, etheric body, and physical body. In an ideal human being, the harmony predestined by the cosmic plan would naturally predominate among these four human principles. But in reality, this is not so with any individual. Thus, it can be seen that the human being, when given over to the physical plane, is not yet really complete; education and teaching, however, should serve to make the human being complete. One of the four elements rules in each child, and education and teaching must harmonize these four principles" (Rudolf Steiner).

For two weeks, prior to the opening of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Rudolf Steiner intensively prepared the individuals he had chosen to become the first Waldorf teachers. At 9:00 a.m. each day, he gave the course now translated as Foundations of Human Experience; at 11:00 a.m., Practical Advice to Teachers; and then, after lunch, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., he held the informal "discussions" published in this book.

The tone is spontaneous and relaxed. Steiner does not prescribe specific methods but introduces topics and situations, offering guidelines and allocating practical assignments that are taken up and discussed in the next session. The discussions are filled with insights and suggestions in many different areas of teaching--history, geography, botany, zoology, form drawing, mathematics, and more.

Speech exercises are included. This edition also includes, for the first time in English, three important lectures on the curriculum, given the day just before the school opened.

These fifteen discussions constitute an essential part of the basic training material for Waldorf teachers.

Discussions with Teachers is a translation from German of Erziehungskunst. Seminarbesprechungen und Lehrplanvortr ge (vol. 295 in the Bibliographical Survey, published by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1961).

These dazzling, radical lectures were given one month before the opening of the first Waldorf School--following two years of intense preoccupation with the social situation in Germany as World War I ended and society sought to rebuild itself.

Well aware of the dangerous tendencies present in modern culture that undermine a true social life--such as psychic torpor and boredom, universal mechanization, and a growing cynicism--Steiner recognized that any solution must address not only economic and legal issues but also that of a free spiritual life.

Steiner also saw the need to properly nurture in children the virtues of imitation, reverence, and love at the appropriate stages of development in order to create mature adults who are inwardly prepared to fulfill the demands of a truly healthy society--adults who are able to assume the responsibilities of freedom, equality, and brotherhood.

Relating these themes to an understanding of the human as a threefold being of thought, feeling, and volition, and against the background of historical forces at work in human consciousness, Steiner lays the ground for a profound revolution in the ways we think about education.

Also included here are three lectures on the social basis of education, a lecture to public school teachers, and a lecture to the workers of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company, after which they asked him to form a school for their children.

German sources: Die Erziehungsfrage als soziale Frage (GA 296); lectures 4, 5, and 6, the "Volksp dagogik" lectures in Geisteswissenschaftliche Behandlung sozialer und p dagogischer Fragen (GA 192); lectures 2 and 11, Neugestaltung des sozialen Organismus (GA 330-331).

1. Soul-and-Spirit in Man's Physical Constitution: The physical organism of man is considered today to consist of more or less solid-fluid substances; but as well as his solid, physical body, man has within him as definite organisms, a fluid body, an air-body and a warmth-body. -- The connections of these organisms with the members of man's whole being and with the different Ethers. -- Thought and Tone; Ego and circulating Blood. -- Man in the sleeping state. -- Man's relation to the universal Spirituality. -- Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition. -- The circumscribed view of the human organism prevailing today is unable to build any bridge between the physical body and the soul-and-spirit.

2. The Moral as the Source of World-Creative Power: Recapitulation of previous lecture. -- Connection of the moral world-order with the physical world-order. -- The moral world-order has no place in the natural scientific thinking of today. -- The positive effect of moral ideals and ideas and the negative effect of theoretical ideas on the four organisms in man. -- The materialistic conception of the imperishability of matter and energy. -- Matter and energy die away to nullity; but man's moral thinking imbues life into substance and will. -- The natural world dies away in man; in the realm of the moral a new natural world comes into being; thus are the moral order and the natural order connected. -- Absence of spirituality in the modern picture of the world which is based on the Copernican system. -- Kepler and Newton. -- We need a spiritual view of the universe. -- The sun is not a globe of burning gas but the reflection of a spiritual reality revealed in the physical. -- The moral power developed by man rays out and is reflected as the spiritual Sun. -- Julian the Apostate. -- The connection of the spiritual Sun with the physical sun is the Christ-Secret.

3. The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World-Events: Man as a being of Thinking, Action and Feeling. -- The connection of the life of thought with the will. -- Pure thinking: irradiation of the life of thought by will. -- This leads to Freedom. -- Irradiation of the life of will by thoughts leads to Love. -- The meaning of the ancient expressions: Semblance, Power, Wisdom. -- To speak of the imperishability of matter and energy annuls Love. -- The significance of Freedom and Love in world-happenings.

This book contains translations of three lectures from Der Mensch in Zusammenhang mit dem Kosmos 2: Die Br cke zwischen der Weltgeistigkeit und dem Physischen des Menschen. Die Suche nach der neuen Isis, der g ttlichen Sophia (GA 202).

This series of lectures provides the basis for an entirely new psychology. The first four lectures give a precise, dynamic understanding of the human soul in relation to the activity of the senses and to the subtle processes that make up the human being on Earth. The next four lectures focus on what we can know of the human soul based on direct observation alone. No theorizing takes place. To show what we can know of soul life through the immediacy of engaged observation of oneself and others, Rudolf Steiner refrains from using his own higher capacities of clairvoyance to form a picture of our soul life. The concluding lectures portray the relationship of soul life to spirit life, showing us how to awaken individual spirit life and how to distinguish between illusory and genuine spiritual experiences.

Presented more than a century ago, we might be tempted to think that, insofar as psychology is concerned, the content of these lectures are outdated. It is also tempting to think that, because Steiner is not usually associated with the founders of modern psychology, his efforts must be considered, at best, an interesting aside. On the contrary, these lectures are actually a wellspring for the true stream of psychology, as the term itself means "soul study."

A Psychology of Body, Soul, and Spirit should be read by anyone interested in psychology as well as by those interested in inner development. Whether we are involved in education, medicine, art, drama, economics, or business, the perspectives contained in this book have the potential to restore the frequently missing element of soul in psychology today.

Robert Sardello's in-depth introduction places Steiner's lectures in the context of modern life and psychology and provides insights into how to read and use this text for inner development and a deeper understanding of spiritual science.

Contents:

• Introduction by Robert Sardello
• Part 1 -- "Anthroposophy"
• The Human being and the Senses
• Supersensible Processes in the Human Senses
• The Higher Senses, inner Forces, and Creative Principles in the Human Organism
• Supersensible Currents, Group Soul, and the I in Human Beings and Animals
• Part 2 -- "Psychosophy"
• Aspects of Soul Life
• The Activities of Human Soul Forces
• The Senses, Feeling, and Aesthetic Judging
• Consciousness and Soul Life
• Part 3 -- "Pneumatosophy"
• Franz Brentano and Aristotle's Doctrine of the Spirit
• Truth and Error in Light of the Spiritual World
• Imagination-Imagination; Inspiration-Self-Fulfillment; Intuition-Conscience
• Nature, the Evolution of Consciousness, and Reincarnation

"Steiner does not talk about soul; he speaks from soul. That is the entire method. There is, however, an entrance fee for doing psychology. The fee is that you need to leave behind your well-known-to-you self-identity. You must suffer the experience of leaving behind not only what you know, but also what you think you know of yourself. This requirement qualifies psychology as integral to the work of initiation. --Robert Sardello, from his introduction

A previous translation of these lectures were published as Anthroposophy, Psychosophy, Pneumatosophy and as Wisdom of Man, of the Soul, and of the Spirit. This volume is a translation from German of Anthroposophie, Psychosophie, Pneumatosophie (GA 115)