y 15, 2009 - steiner.presswarehouse.com the mysteries of nature, ... all best wishes for a joyous...

2008 Ste i n e rBookS

Holiday Catalog

BOOKS ON ANTHROPOSOPHY & SP IR I T PLUS EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES AND EXTRACTS

s t e i n e r b o o k s . o r g z 7 0 3 . 6 6 1 . 1 5 9 4

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2009 Spiritual Research SeminarESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY & THE INNER LIFE OF THE EARTH

For more information visit steinerbooks.org z email [email protected] z phone 413 528 8233 ext. 203

Christopher Bamford is Editor in Chief for SteinerBooks and its imprints. He is the author and translator of numer-ous books, including The Voice of the Eagle: The Heart of Celtic Christianity and An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West.

David Mitchell has taught life sciences, Shakespeare, geometry, blacksmith-ing, wood-working, and stone sculp-ture in Waldorf high schools for thirty-six years. He is adjunct professor at Antioch College and a leader in the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America (AWSNA).

Paul V. O’Leary is a retired real estate appraiser and former attorney who spe-cialized in forensic appraisals and the appraisal of conservation properties. He has written, taught, and lectured extensively on real estate economics and appraisal.

Robert Powell, Ph.D., is a lecturer, author, eurythmist, and movement therapist. He is founder of the Choreocosmos School of Cosmic and Sacred Dance, and cofounder of the Sophia Foundation of North America.

Rachel C. Ross is an educator, artis-tic and pedagogical eurythmist, and author. She maintains a practice in therapeutic eurythmy and remedial movement therapy and is a traveling consultant to many Waldorf and pri-vate schools nationwide.

Exploring the Mysteries of Nature, Subnature & SupranatureMarch 13–14, 2009 :: Kimmel Center, New York University, NYC

Throughout human history, ancient wisdom and traditional myths have placed human beings between the heavens

and the underworld, describing the heavens as the light-filled realm of the gods and the source of goodness and character-izing the underworld as a demon-filled realm of darkness and the source of evil. Modern science denies the heavens as a spiritual realm and knows little of the Earth’s interior — even physically — beyond the first few miles, after which it simply resorts to conjecture based on the extrapolation of existing sensory data. In other words, natural science fails to take into account that the Earth is a living, spiritual being and ignores the presence of its soul-spiritual qualities and influences.

Rudolf Steiner researched the psychic, spiritual, and cos-mic nature of the Earth’s interior. He described how the dif-ferent layers of the inner Earth affect and interact with human beings on Earth and spoke of the layers of “Hell” through which Jesus Christ traveled between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, uniting and integrating himself with the Earth and human destiny.

The 2009 Spiritual Research Seminar will focus on the Earth’s interior. Five contributors to The Inner Life of the Earth (see page 7) will discuss this difficult topic from very different directions. They will speak of how the forces emanating from the interior of the Earth affect human beings and how human behavior in turn affects those forces, showing that earthly and human evolution are inexorably linked. Also important for this dis-cussion is the deep significance of Christ’s incarnation, by which he united with the Earth to become the Spirit of the Earth.

Join SteinerBooks and these five authors for inspiring talks, discussions, and eurythmy.

The cost is $200, which includes a wine and cheese recep-tion Friday evening and a continental breakfast and lunch on Saturday. Register before January 1st and receive a 10% dis-count. We hope to see you there!

Visit our website soon for more details.

Featured Speakers:

2008 SteinerBooks Holiday Catalog

Dear Friend,As we enter the season of celebration

for the Light of the World, we present many new books that offer fresh ideas, inspira-tion, and inner confidence in life. In this issue, we introduce dozens of new titles released this year. One exceptional book is a collection of writings on the “mysteries of nature, subnature, and suprana-ture,” compiled by Paul O’Leary—The Inner Life of the Earth (page 7). We also offer two new books by the late Georg Kühlewind: Wilt Thou Be Made Whole? and The Light of the “I” (pages 3 and 6). We have also just published the long-awaited Conversations about Painting with Rudolf Steiner (page 4). In it, Peter Stebbing has gathered accounts of Steiner’s views on art by several artists who knew and worked with him; an excerpt begins on page 35.

Another book, based on many years of meditation practice and teaching, is by longtime anthroposophist and physics professor Arthur Zajonc — Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry (page 3); see page 39 for a sample. In The Therapeutic Eye (page 6), Dr. Peter Selg discusses Steiner’s view of child development and how, through self-development, we can improve our own work and relationships with children. Also by Dr. Selg, A Grand Metamorphosis discusses adolescent education (page 6). The Spirit of the English Language by John Wulsin (page 5), shows how English has developed and how it reflects not only the consciousness of poets through the centuries, but also our own.

“The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner” (pages 10–13) continues to expand with, among others, a fresh translation of the seminal Goethe’s Theory of Knowledge, as well as Inner Reading and Inner Hearing and The Bhagavad Gita and the West.

We continue to feature articles and excerpts, includ-ing Christopher Bamford’s insightful introduction to Freedom of Thought & Societal Forces, a new volume in The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner.

Again, we are happy to offer readers our annual 15 % holiday discount on every book ordered from any catalog or online until January 15, 2009. You can order any time—day or night—on our secure website at www.steinerbooks.org.

All best wishes for a joyous holiday season and a wonder-filled 2009,

Gene Gol loglyPresident & CEO, SteinerBooks

Contents . . .

New Books for 2008 2 – 27

ARTICLES & EXCERPTS:

“Freedom of Thought & Societal Forces: Introduction”

by Christopher Bamford 30

“Indications Given by Rudolf Steiner to a Painter”

by Maria Strakosch-Giesler 35

“Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: Introduction”

by Arthur Zajonc 39

“Seth Jordan & Think OutWord”

by Winslow Eliot 43

Karin Jarman reviews

The Inner Nature of Color:

Studies on the Philosophy of the Four Elements

by J Leonard Benson 45

How to Order 48

From the Foundation Stone meditation

At the turning point of time,The Spirit Light of the World

Entered the Stream of Earthly Being.Darkness of Night had held sway.

Day radiant Light streamed into human souls:Light that gives warmth

To simple Shepherds’ Hearts,Light that enlightens

The wise Heads of Kings.

All prices Are subject to chAnge z copyright © 2008 steinerbooks /Anthroposophic press, inc. z cAtAlog design by WilliAm (jens) jensen

Henry Barnes, a leading light of Anthroposophy in America and the author of Into the Heart’s Land and A Life for the Spirit, crossed the thresh-old September 18, 2008. Those who were for-tunate enough to know and work with Henry were always touched by his generous warmth and contagious optimism in life and spirit.

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The Light of the “ I ”Guidelines for MeditationGeorg KühlewindIntroduction by Christopher Bamford

This remarkable short guide to meditation is the fruit of many years of meditative

experience as well as thirty years of teach-ing meditation. Through exercises and medi-tation sentences it delineates an accessible, systematic process of inner work by which a person can come to experience both the “I” and the miraculous nature of the Light that, as inner Light, we call attention.

Beginning with simple meditation sentences that illumi-nate the role of attention in perception, the person wishing to take this path is led gradually to the reality and experience of form-free attention.

The Light of the “I” offers step-by-step concentration exer-cises, sentence meditations, visualizations (image or symbol meditations), and perceptual meditations for guidance on the path. Kühlewind also provides helpful advice with the diffi-culties and problems that can arise.

Each stage of the path—in itself and in relation to the whole sequence—is presented in a way to be understood through meditative thinking. Deepened in this way, it becomes, as well, a work of philosophy—but philosophy understood as a trans-formative way of life, an inner path.

Georg Kühlewind (1924–2006) was a Hungarian philosopher, writer, lecturer, and meditation teacher who worked from the tradi-tion of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science. Setting aside his early interest in music and psychology, he pursued a successful professional career as a

physical chemist. Meanwhile, he continued to deepen his spiritual practice and insights. A prolific author (most of whose works are still only in German), Georg Kühlewind spent much time traveling the world, lecturing and leading workshops and seminars in meditation, psychology, epis-temology, child development, Anthroposophy, and esoteric Christianity. He was the author of numerous books, includ-ing the popular From Normal to Healthy: Paths to the Liberation of Consciousness (1988). Kühlewind died January 15, 2006, at the age of eighty-three.

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“This concise little book summarizes forty years of research on the nature and power of human attention. In a direct style, as though thinking out loud, Kühlewind shares a sequence of original exercises of his own devising and offers practical tips on technique, embedding it all in characteristically succinct epistemologi-cal remarks. I recommend this generous, instructive book to anyone who wants to begin meditating and also to those who want to refresh their existing practice.”

—Gertrude Reif Hughes, Professor Emerita of English and Women’s

Studies at Wesleyan University, author of Emerson’s Demanding Optimism,

a lifelong student of Anthroposophy, and a meditation teacher

“Georg Kühlewind was, and continues to be, a central formative being in the work of spiritual psychology and my own indi-vidual meditative practices, as well. The work of our school relies centrally on developing inner attentiveness. His prac-tices for developing capacities for doing so are, in my estimation, Kühlewind’s most important contribution. You can never go wrong with Kühlewind. The other major contribution that I utilize in all medita-tive work is his understanding and very helpful practices concerning the “soft will.” No one better, anywhere.”

—Robert Sardello, codirector of The School of Spiritual Psychology

and author of Love and the World and Silence

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Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?Healing in the GospelsGeorg KühlewindTranslated and introduced by Michael Lipson, Ph D

What is the power that Jesus calls to awaken in us? What

does it mean to be healthy and whole? How can we open ourselves so that the healing power can heal what is sick? How can we awaken this power in ourselves?

“Wilt thou be made whole?” is the question Jesus addressed to the para-lyzed man who had waited in vain for

years at the Pool of Bethesda. Not really answering, he says that he has no one to carry him down when the angel stirs the waters. “Take up your bed and walk,” Jesus tells him, and the man was made whole and walked.

What passed between them? What communion or communication took place in the interval between the paralyzed man’s “excuse” and Jesus’ injunction? What did the man receive through Jesus’ words? Georg Kühlewind shows how meditation can bring us closer to that event.

Beginning with a meditation-based account of the embodied psycho-spiritual human being, Georg Kühlewind describes the preconditions and possibilities of healing in the Gospels. He goes on to discuss in depth and detail, through meditations, Christ’s various psycho-logical and physical healings.

The unique quality of Wilt Thou Be Made Whole? is that the author utilizes the healings in the Gospels as themes for meditation—spiritual exercises that can bring us to a more intimate understanding of Christ’s healing power. In this way, Kühlewind shows us how to approach a deeper understanding of the healing process itself and begin to heal ourselves. In the process, we come to under-stand the Gospels and ourselves in a new way.

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Meditation as Contemplative InquiryWhen Knowing Becomes LoveArthur Zajonc

When we turn to meditation, we turn toward renewal, peace,

and insight. We may take up contem-plative practice as a means of tap-ping into the abundant resources of the mind and heart that bring seren-ity, but the meditative journey leads further—to the place where wisdom and love unite.

In Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry, Arthur Zajonc offers an overview of the meditative life, weaving practi-cal instruction together with the guidance and inspira-tion of the world’s great teachers, from Rudolf Steiner to Rumi, and from Goethe to the sages of Asia. Zajonc reminds us that an ethic of humility grounds all practice, and that care of the soul is the basis for sound spiritual reflection and understanding. He describes each stage of the path and includes many recommended practices.

This book is the fruit of many years of personal prac-tice and teaching. Arthur Zajonc developed his orienta-tion toward meditation through working with hundreds of university students and professors, as well as with con-templative groups in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D., is the Andrew Mellon professor of physics and inter-disciplinary studies at Amherst College and director of the Academic Program of the Center for Contemplative Mind. Dr. Zajonc is the former General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America,

a cofounder of the Kira Institute, past President of the Lindisfarne Association, and a senior program director at the Fetzer Institute. He has served as scientific coor-dinator and editor for several dialogues with the Dalai Lama, including The New Physics and Cosmology, published in 2004. He was also moderator for the 2003 MIT dia-logue, published as The Dalai Lama at MIT. Dr. Zajonc is also the author of Catching the Light and coauthor of The Quantum Challenge.

Read the introduction on page 39ISBN : 9781 584 20 0 628

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Conversations about Painting with Rudolf SteinerRecollections of Five Pioneers of the New Art ImpulseTranslated and arranged with a foreword and notes byPeter Stebbing

The purpose of this illustrated volume of first-hand recollections is to increase appreciation in the world for Rudolf Steiner’s artistic con-

tributions to modern culture. The authors represented in Conversations about Painting with Rudolf Steiner offer insights into Steiner’s intentions as he responded to artists’ questions about the deeper, spiritual aspects of painting, color, and the role of the arts as a whole in culture and society.

Peter Stebbing’s inspiration for translating these conversations was an early reading of Hilde Boos-Hamburger on Steiner’s “new art impulse” (included). Through the years, Stebbing also came to recog-nize the importance of other artists who were influenced by Steiner. Margarita Voloschin, for example, describes the inner transformation required of artists who wish to deepen their artistic sensibilities as described by Rudolf Steiner. Henni Geck, though she wrote little on art, is an important figure in this school of artistic renewal through having elicited numerous training sketches from Steiner. Assya Turgenieff was a pioneer artist who worked with stained glass. Her discussion of the artistic approach she used—which incorporated both color and sculpt-ing techniques—can be applied to other visual arts as well.

Conversations about Painting with Rudolf Steiner is an extraordinary contribution to a deeper understanding of the “anthroposophic” arts. Richly illustrated, this volume will warrant serious study and frequent rereading.

Peter Stebbing was born in Copenhagen in 1941 and attended Waldorf schools before studying art in Brighton and London. He moved to the U.S. and graduated from Cornell University with an M.F.A. in painting. Following his first teaching stint at the University of Kansas, Peter began teach-ing color courses at the City University of New York in 1970. Having begun investigations into Goethe’s color

theory, he visited the Gerard Wagner painting school in Dornach, Switzerland. There he began training with Wagner, who asked him to teach in the school. Peter later established a painting school at the Threefold Educational Foundation in Spring Valley, New York. For the past thirty years, he has taught introductory courses in Goethe’s color theory with experiments in England, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. Since 1992, Peter has been director of the Arteum Painting School in Dornach, Switzerland (www.arteum-malschule.de.vu), and has held a number of exhibitions of his work in Europe and North America.

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The Spirit of the English LanguageA Practical Guide for Poets, Teachers & Students

How Sound Works in English & American PoetryJohn H Wulsin, Jr

John Wulsin approaches the English language not as a conventional linguist, but as a poet interested in the

spirit and evolution of our language. To show “how sound works in English and American poetry,” the author traces the many changes, both subtle and radical, in how English has sounded over the past thirteen centuries, while also showing how those changes are related to the evolution of human consciousness in Western, English-speaking peoples.

The Spirit of the English Language is never dry but filled with the textures of the lives and works of the great English-language poets. Wulsin describes the evolving activity of poetry in the biography of each poet, begin-ning with the Old Anglo–Saxon in Beowulf and the later works of Chaucer, and following the spirit of the English language through to the nineteenth century’s “primal/mod-ern” language of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Dickinson’s diamond-distilled language. Along the way, we discover how the very sounds of English have changed the ways in which not only poets think and express themselves, but, more important, how sound works and changes our human consciousness. The author also discusses specifically how, in teaching Poetics, stages of the developing English lan-guage quicken corresponding stages of thinking in matur-ing adolescents.

Twelve years in the making, The Spirit of the English Language is the fruit of John Wulsin’s thirty years of teach-ing language and literature to adolescents. The book is fur-ther informed and fructified by the author’s fifteen years of teaching Poetics to adults, as well as decades of writing poetry and participating in numerous poetry workshops.

This practical guide will become a classic for all poets, teachers of poetry and language, and students. It is a truly valuable resource for anyone interested in English, its development, its effects on consciousness, and how sound works in poetry.

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John H. Wulsin Jr. grew up in Cincinnati, Japan, and Switzerland. He worked as an instructor with Outward Bound on Hurricane Island, Maine, and in the Austrian Alps before discover-ing Waldorf education. After completing his Waldorf training at Emerson College in England, he completed his B.A. in English at Harvard College before teach-ing in two non-Waldorf independent high schools. For twenty-seven years, John has been teaching English and Drama at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, New York, from which his children have graduated. With an M.A. in English and American Literature from Columbia University, he has also devoted many years to teaching Poetics to adults at the Eurythmy School of Spring Valley, New York, at the Threefold Educational Foundation. He also teaches high school pedagogy at Sunbridge College, New York, and frequently teaches at the Waldorf High School Training at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California. John Wulsin works on the editorial board of Renewal: A Journal for Waldorf Education and has pub-lished articles in Independent School, Towards, and Renewal. His books include Laws of the Living Language and Proverbs of Purgatory, and as editor, The Riddle of America, all published by the Association of Waldorf School of North America (AWSNA). He is also coeditor of Books for the Journey from Michaelmas Press.

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The The rapeut ic E yeHow Rudolf Steiner Observed ChildrenPeter Selg

Rudolf Steiner’s extraordinary ability to perceive the inner

nature and development of children provided insights at many levels and areas of the creative learning pro-cess. He spoke of this ability as a precondition for all forms of healthy childhood education—including special education—and suggested that teachers should develop such a

capacity within themselves.This process involves the recreation of the child

within oneself, based on what we are able to observe in the child’s physical appearance, temperament, ways of moving, and environment. In The Therapeutic Eye, Dr. Selg discusses the way that Rudolf Steiner saw child-hood development, how teachers can view children, and ways that these approaches can be used to develop les-sons and classroom activities to deal with behavioral extremes and learning challenges.

The Therapeutic Eye is a valuable resource for all con-scientious teachers and parents.

Peter Selg was born in 1963 in Stuttgart and studied medicine in Zurich and Berlin. Until 2000, he worked as the head physician of the juvenile psychiatry department of Herdecke hospital in Germany. He works as a youth psychiatrist at the Ita Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim, Switzerland, lectures extensively, and is the author of several book, includ-ing Seeing Christ in Sickness and Healing (2005) and Karl König’s Path to Anthroposophy (2008). He is married with three children.

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A Grand MetamorphosisContributions to the Spiritual-Scientific Anthropology and Education of AdolescentsPeter Selg

Puberty takes hold of one’s whole being, which turns outward to the

Earth and the forces of life and death. Steiner calls this profound inner transformation “a grand metamorpho-sis.” However, educators and parents too often shy away from it, unaware that the great changes in our chil-dren call for equally great changes in us. To remedy this, Dr. Selg proposes

“Rudolf Steiner’s work to highlight the fundamental structure of the crisis of adolescence and the pedagogi-cal challenges that emerge as a result.”

A Grand Metamorphosis highlights the radical nature to Steiner’s approach, suggesting that teachers and parents change along with their children. Drawing on Steiner’s admonitions during lectures and teacher meetings, Selg reminds us that the ideal of Waldorf teachers is “to edu-cate by behaving in such a manner that, through their behavior, children can educate themselves.” This is espe-cially true once children reach sexual maturity, when teachers must welcome them as independent, equal indi-viduals, able to transform sympathies and antipathies into a new moral orientation out of their own essential nature. Teachers must speak directly and authentically about the world. Abstractions and generalities have no place in the dialog; young people want to know the real causes of things and to be addressed as equals. Selg also points out that teachers must be aware of the growing difference between the sexes and the way each carries a different secret life inwardly.

Steiner’s indications provide a timeless method of meeting students in the right way. The detailed spiritual-scientific indications in this book help parents and teach-ers to become well equipped with deeper understand-ing for the challenge of adolescence. “In a way, a teacher has to be a prophet . . . dealing with what will live in the future generation, not in the present.”

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The Inner Life of the EarthExploring the Mysteries of Nature, Subnature & SupranaturePaul V O’Leary, editor and contributorWith contributions from Christopher Bamford, Dennis Klocek, David Mitchell, Marko Pogacnik, Robert Powell & Rachel C Ross

Ancient wisdom and traditional myths have placed human beings between the heavens and the underworld, describing the heavens as

the light-filled realm of the gods and the source of goodness, and charac-terizing the underworld as a demon-filled realm of darkness and the source of evil. Modern science, however, denies the heavens and knows little of the Earth’s interior — even physically — beyond the first few miles, after which it simply resorts to conjecture based on the extrapolation of existing sensory data. In other words, natural science fails to take into account that the Earth is a living, spiritual being and ignores the presence of its soul-spiritual qualities and influences.

To remedy this, during the early twentieth century, Rudolf Steiner researched the psychic, spiritual, and cosmic nature of the Earth’s interior. He described how the different layers of the inner Earth affect and interact with human beings living on Earth. More theologically and cosmically, he spoke of the layers of “Hell,” through which Jesus Christ traveled in the period between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, uniting and inte-grating himself with the Earth and with human destiny.

The seven authors in The Inner Life of the Earth approach this difficult and little-discussed topic from different directions. They discuss how the forces emanating from the interior of the Earth affect the weather, our atmosphere, human beings, and how human behavior in turn affects them, showing that earthly and human evolution are a unity and should never be thought of as occurring separately. They also discuss the deep significance of Christ’s incarnation, by which he united with the Earth to become the Spirit of the Earth.

Without Christ’s deed, the Mystery of Golgotha, which reunites cos-mic and human evolution with the divine, human beings would be unable to work in freedom with Christ or with Sophia, divine feminine Wisdom, in her form as the Soul of the Earth, to overcome evil and help lift all cre-ation toward goodness and greater human, cosmic, and divine fellowship.

Paul V. O’Leary is a retired real estate appraiser and for-mer attorney who specialized in forensic appraisals and the appraisal of conservation properties. He has written, taught, and lectured extensively on real estate econom-ics and appraisal. He is also a special faculty member of the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Harvard University–associated think tank with an international portfolio, researching, publishing, and teaching about real estate planning and taxation issues.

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“Our very ‘I’ consciousness is pos-sible because the mineral earth—the first layer of the interior of the Earth—and the other chthonic regions exist. Our human nature is a reflection of the subearthly and supraearthly realms that comprise the macrocosm and the microcosm. ‘The true meaning of the microcosm–macrocosm anal-ogy is not that the human being is a little cosmos, but that the cos-mos is a big human being.’ From this perspective, it makes com-plete sense that the subterranean realms described by spiritual science live within the deepest realms of our human nature and subconscious life of darker feel-ings and will. Deep within the hu-man being, they radiate into the shadows of thought. This region is more familiarly known as Hell, Hades, or the Abyss. The sub-terranean spheres, then, are the Earth’s ‘dark side.’”

—Paul V. o’leary (from his introduction)

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An Unknown DestinyTerror, Psychotherapy, and Modern Initiation

Readings in Nietzsche, Heidegger, SteinerMichael GruberForeword by Robert Sardello

Gruber begins by considering Nietzsche’s critical and inflamma-

tory insight that the modern world is framed by the death of God. He then confronts our contemporary disen-chantment and its offspring, the uni-versalization of “terror.” Gruber shows that by making truth relative, negat-ing the value of beauty, and rendering goodness dubious, if not obsolete, “uni-

versal terror” and its threat of dehumanization permeates all aspects of today’s psychosocial existence.

As an antidote to this fundamental mood, the author advocates re-imagining destiny as a path of initiation—awakening to the spiritual world, while participating con-sciously in its earthly manifestation. Based on clinical expe-rience, Gruber offers readings and practices that promote the embodiment of “noble souls.” Weaving together the post-modern philosophies of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Steiner, An Unknown Destiny demonstrates how psychotherapy can move beyond ego-healing to transcendence of the ego. One comes to understand how opening the soul to medita-tive, intuitive thinking can lead to the development of new soul faculties of perception and moral freedom—and, most important, how the still-evolving “Mystery of Golgotha” can inspire the emergence of “Christ” consciousness: reverence, wisdom, peace, and love.

Michael Gruber is an existential analyst in private practice in New York City. His work focuses on the dynamics of the thera-peutic relationship and cultivates attention to how language, dreaming, and not-know-ing create possibilities for transformations in consciousness. He is a long time student of philosophy, mysticism, and Anthroposophy.

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“An Unknown Destiny is like a stream of fresh water in which all psychotherapeutic approaches would do well to immerse and possibly transform. Gruber’s reading of the works of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Steiner concerning the realm of terror that pervades our world is not only a tour de force of reflection upon the writings of these seminal figures, but a clear and highly accessible one. Michael Gruber has done psychotherapy a great service to. I learned a lot.”

—Nathan Schwartz-Salant, Ph.D. Jungian analyst, author of

The Mystery of Human Relationship and The Black Nightgown

“Michael Gruber brings together key points in Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Steiner to point out the connection between psychotherapy and the path of initiation appropriate to our time. In this way, he locates the essential spiritual challenges from our greatest thinkers. Gruber has an appreciation of the mythic that approaches, at times, that of A. K. Coomaraswamy. But he does more. He shows how living thinking, the fresh experience of being, and the awakening from technology’s hypnotic thrall can all become realities for us. In doing so, Gruber clears a path for the self-aware individual to become no longer a passive recipient of mass culture, but a point source of love and wisdom.”

—Michael Lipson, Ph.D, psychotherapist, author of Stairway of Surprise

“Michael Gruber has written a truly remarkable, courageous-beyond-belief book. He shows how modern psychology serves terrorist structures of consciousness. He further shows that only a truly spiritual psychology can break through these forms. His creative reading of Nietzsche opens the path of therapy as modern initiation. His work with Rudolf Steiner reveals the presence of pathologies of spirit that are still being approached as psychological difficulties; and how to approach them anew. Finally, his understanding of Heidegger shows the way to the imaginal reality of the unity of person–world. A truly breakthrough book!”

—Robert Sardello, Ph.D., author of Love and the World and Silence,cofounder and codirector of

The School of Spiritual Psychology

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Trav e l i n g L i g h tWalking the Cancer PathWilliam Ward

This generous, courageous, and wise book offers a selfless glimpse behind the curtain of a journey with cancer, from shock to inner rebirth and the

gradual discovery of light in the darkness.William Ward has written a personal account of his life following a

fateful diagnosis of a brain tumor: gliablastoma multiforme, phase IV, can-cer. With no trace of self-pity and rising above sentimentality, he describes the landscape of his outer path through hospitals, surgeons, pain, power-ful drugs, and the support of family, friends, and community. At the same time, with fearless honesty he invites the reader to accompany him on the inner path of inevitable regrets, self-examination, fears, and hopes in the face of a potentially terminal illness.

Until it happens to us, we can never know for sure how we would respond as individuals to a catastrophic event in our lives, but by telling the most personal of all stories, William Ward shows us a way forward that goes well beyond our personal differences. With compassion and humor, Ward bears witness to the presence of living light in the darkest of human experiences, demonstrating how, if we face it, the Dark Night of the Soul necessarily leads to awaking in the light of a new dawn.

Fierce hope shines through the final words of Traveling Light:

As we part, here at the edge of Death Valley, I feel like an old prospec-tor handing over a weather-stained chart. “You take this map, sonny. Where I’m goin’ I won’t be needin’ it no more. But while you’re here on the earthly plane, I want you to know there is water, the water of life, deep down, right here. Yonder, atop Solomon’s knob, is the Mother Lode—pay dirt, pure gold, the sun’s tears. The way up is steep. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Up on top you can see forever. Goodbye, God bless and good luck!”

William Ward is a native of Michigan. He majored in English literature as an undergraduate at Columbia University and then studied elementary education at the Waldorf Institute of Adelphi University, receiving a master’s degree there. For the past twenty-five years, he has been a class teacher at the Hawthorne Valley School in Harlemville, New York. A lover

of the theater, William has written many class plays and festival presenta-tions and collaborated in all-school musical productions.

ISBN : 9781 584 20 0 61 1Pa pe r back


2 40 page s

“Sixty to eighty percent of cancer pa-tients with William’s type of brain cancer die within a year. A sobering reality, from which he fully under-stood that life, each second of it, is truly precious—not in a delicate manner, but precious as in the life-blood that streams from our hearts to maintain life in all our cells. His many questions revolve around the following perspective. How can I learn from this tragic situation? What distinguishes William is his commonsensical spiritual ap-proach, his childlike wonder, and his boundless good humor. He has stared death in the face and has been scared and reborn.”

— neill reilly from his review of

Traveling Light

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Goethe’s Theory of KnowledgeAn Outline of the Epistemology of His WorldviewWritten 1886 (CW 2)

Rudolf SteinerTranlated by Peter Clemm

As the editor of Goethe’s scientific writings during the 1880s, Rudolf

Steiner became immersed in a world-view that paralleled and amplified his own views in relation to epistemol-ogy, the interface between science and philosophy, the theory of how we know the world and ourselves. At the time, like much of the thinking today and the foundation of modern natural science, the predominant theories held that individual knowledge is limited to thinking that reflects objective, sensory perception. Steiner’s view was eventually dis-tilled in his Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts in 1924:

“There are those who believe that, with the limits of knowledge derived from sensory perception, the limits of all insight are given. Yet if they would care-fully observe how they become conscious of these limits, they would find in the very consciousness of the limits the faculties to transcend them. “

In this concise volume, Steiner lays out his argu-ment for this view and, moreover, begins his explication of how one goes beyond thinking to the observation of thinking itself.

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) became a respected and well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar. He developed his earlier philosophical principles into an approach to methodical research of psychological and spiritual phenom-ena that has led to innovative and holis-tic approaches in medicine, philosophy, religion, education, science, agriculture, and the arts. He founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which has branches throughout the world.

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1 56 page s

Freedom of Thought and Societal ForcesImplementing the Demands of Modern SocietyRudolf SteinerIntroduction by Christopher BamfordTranslated by Catherine E Creeger6 lectures, various cities, May 26–Dec 30, 1919 (CW 333)

Rudolf Steiner provides a broad overview of his fresh thinking on

social “threefolding.” He acknowl-edged that the demand for social change derived, above all, from the working class, whom industrialization had forced into a kind of indentured life dominated by economics. From Steiner’s perspective, the underlying issue was not only economic, however, but also spiritual or cultural. Culture and the cultured classes had become estranged from “real life.” Society needed a “free” culture that would include all classes. It also needed to shift labor into the legal sphere of rights, the only place where workers could find real freedom in society. Capital, too, needed to be liberated from egotism and allowed, like goods, simply to circulate. Above all, Steiner understood that social realities could not be sep-arated from the spiritual realities of human existence.

From this point of view, we lack knowledge of our-selves as spiritual beings. Thinking has become abstract. To remedy this, we must first admit it and develop mod-esty and humility. Second, we must increase our capac-ity to love one another and the world. Approaching this reality from another side, we see that ordinary indi-vidual thinking also afflicts culture in general, which is also removed from reality. Culture, like thinking, must become alive and universally human. This is impossible, however, unless we develop what Steiner calls “freedom of thought.” Authentic freedom of thought is always ethical and overcomes egotism. Indeed, a more general exercise of freedom in thought, as Steiner conceives it, provides a way through the twin dangers of materialism and abstraction, which together threaten society both in the narrower sense of “national” life and in the more global, geopolitical sense.

Read the introduction on page 30ISBN : 978 0 88 01 0597 2

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Inner Reading and Inner HearingAchieving Being in the World of Ideas11 lectures in 2 courses, with 2 Christmas lectures, October-December, 1914 (CW 156)

Rudolf SteinerIntroduction by Christopher BamfordTranslated by Michael Miller

These two lecture courses, given just after the beginning of World War

I, are a kind of unexpected gift. A few months later, with the war a real-ity, the possibilities for esoteric work would change, and spiritual research would become more difficult. But in the short time before the horror of conflict unfolded, Steiner was able to give these lectures, which clearly outline the path of anthroposophic meditation and its assumptions, language, and consequences.

The first lectures expand on the idea of inner “read-ing” and “hearing” as the path to spiritual knowing. The spiritual world gives something and we, as spiri-tual researchers, receive and then read or interpret it. Spiritual knowledge is not a matter of will, desire, or intention on our part, but a gift from the spiritual world for which we must prepare ourselves by silencing our desires, emptying ourselves, and presenting ourselves in humility and devotion to the spiritual world.

The second lecture cycle, “How to Achieve Existence in the World of Ideas,” deepens the themes developed in the first cycle, so that the two together provide a use-ful guide to the processes underlying meditation or learning to know the spiritual world. At the same time, because work was just beginning on the building that would become the Goetheanum, Steiner connects the esoteric principles of its design with the overall theme of the suprasensory human being in relation to meditation and spiritual knowing.

Inner Reading and Inner Hearing closes with two lec-tures in celebration of Christmas. Here Steiner has a threefold emphasis: Christ, supraearthly, glorious, and divine, who is fully united with humanity and with the Earth, and born in each human heart. To celebrate Christmas truly means that we recognize these as one in the spiritual world, in the earthly world, and in ourselves.

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2 40 page s

The Bhagavad Gita and the WestThe Esoteric Meaning of the Bhagavad Gita and Its Relation to the Letters of St PaulRudolf SteinerIntroduction by Robert McDermottForeword by Christopher BamfordTranslation revised by Mado Spiegler,Bhagavad Gita translation by Eknath Easwaran5 lectures, Köln, Dec 28–Jan 1, 1913 (CW 142) 9 lectures, Helsinki, May 28–June 5, 1913 (CW 146)

In his masterly introduction, Robert McDermott, a longtime student of

Rudolf Steiner and of Hindu spiritu-ality, explores the complex ways in which the Bhagavad Gita has been understood in the 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 criti-cal role in the Western spiritual revival of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Bhagavad Gita and the West consists of two lec-ture courses: “The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of St. Paul” and “The Esoteric Meaning of the Bhagadvad Gita.” The first integrates the flower of Hindu spiritu-ality into Steiner’s view of the evolution of conscious-ness and the pivotal role played in it by the Mystery of Golgotha—the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the second lecture course, given 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 the understanding of both of these important cycles, this volume includes the com-plete text of the Bhagavad Gita, in Eknath Easwaran’s luminous translation.

In our age, when East and West are growing closer together and we live increasingly in a global, intercul-tural, religiously pluralistic world, The Bhagavad Gita and the West is required reading for all who are concerned with a truly spiritual approach to the new reality.

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Death as Metamorphosis of LifeIncluding “What Does the Angel Do in our Astral Body?” & “How Do I Find Christ?”Rudolf SteinerIntroduction by Christopher Bamford,Translated by Sabine Seiler7 Lectures, various cities, Nov 29, 1917–Oct 16, 1918 (CW 182)

This jewel of a book—consisting of seven lectures given in vari-

ous cities, mostly in 1918—mov-ingly and with great spiritual matu-rity and rare emotional intensity expresses Rudolf Steiner’s wisdom, insight, and compassion.

Several lectures deal primarily with aspects of life after death. The first describes the three realms after

earthly life: that of intense, surging sensation (sympathy and antipathy); that of the ebb and flow of will impulses that stream into the human sphere, affecting in increas-ingly wider circles human life on earth (karmic relation-ships, animal existence); and that of the spiritual hierar-chies. As Steiner says: “As I see it, my primary mission these days is to make people aware again, with the help of such ideas, that the dead are working and contribut-ing to human development.”

The following lectures amplify this mission in differ-ent ways, explicitly and implicitly. At stake is the need to understand that we are spiritual beings and live in perpetual interaction with the spiritual world—not only the dead, but also with Christ and angelic worlds. These realities, along with the presence of the dead, permeate this book. The final two lectures make this explicit with a clarion call to awake to the demands of human evolu-tion, which the entire spiritual world is working for—freedom and love, which in turn requires our work with the angels and with Christ to overcome egotism, the sole obstacle to the spirituality of the future.

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The Influence of the Dead on DestinyRudolf SteinerIntroduction by Christopher Bamford

8 lectures, Dornach, Dec 2–22, 1917 (CW 179)

“Naturally, the dead do not know the physical, mineral world. Theirs is, above all, a world filled with feel-ing. For them, the lowest world is the

‘animal’ world—the world of feeling, of joy and pain, of interpenetrating relationships, sympathy and antipa-thy, and compassion. For this reason, the dead play directly into the animal world of Earth, which for earthly hu-

mans is mostly destructive. But purifying themselves of destructive animal impulses, the dead transform this world and learn, above all, reverence for life—for all life. They learn to hold every living thing sacred and holy.”

(from the introduction)

S teiner introduces these extraordinary lectures by proposing that the boundary between the physi-

cal and spiritual worlds “lies right in the middle of the human being.” An indication of this boundary may be found in what science mistakenly differentiates as sen-sory and motor nerves, which, for Steiner, do not repre-sent two kinds of nerve functions but a “gap” through which spiritual reality enters and participates in the natural, physical world. This gap allows us to experi-ence and participate in both the outer and the spiritual worlds, including the reality of those who have died. It also functions as the boundary between the conscious and subconscious.

Steiner then speaks of the vast field of the dead and the spiritual worlds, and the many ways that these influ-ence and become involved in human and earthly life. Steiner shows how the living and the dead (along with the whole spiritual world) are intimately interrelated.

The reader’s understanding of the influence of those who have died on human destiny deepens with each lecture, as Steiner shows how this reality becomes existential—a matter of personal decision—through the Archangel Michael’s great action in 1979, when he assumed responsibility for the guidance of humankind.

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The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical WorldZodiac, Planets & CosmosRudolf SteinerIntroduction by Christopher Bamford Translated by René M Querido

10 lectures, Dusseldorf, April 13–22, 1909 (CW 110)

Ever since nature and conscious-ness were separated in the late

Middle Ages, giving rise to a science of matter alone—in which mind was considered only 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 these remarkable lectures, Steiner reestablishes humankind as participant in an evolving, dynamic uni-verse of living spiritual beings—a living universe, whole and divine. He does so in concrete images, capable of being grasped by human consciousness as if from within. How is this possible? Implicit in Steiner’s view is the fact that the universe is made up of consciousness; every-thing else is illusion. Thus, to view cosmic and human evolution in terms other than consciousness is also an illusion.

However, states of consciousness never exist apart from beings who embody them; the only true realties are therefore beings in various states of consciousness. In this sense, Steiner’s spiritual science is a science of states of consciousness and the beings who embody them. Indeed, any science is a science of beings, and sen-sory perception, the physical trace, is simply an outer vestment of the activity of beings in various states of consciousness.

To describe these beings, Steiner uses the names made familiar by the wisdom traditions of the West. He speaks of the evolutionary states of Saturn, Sun, Moon, and so on; the nine choirs of angels; elemental beings and nature spirits; and the elements of fire, earth, air, and water.

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256 page s

From the History and Contents of the First Section of the Esoteric School, 1904–1914Letters, Documents, and LecturesRudolf SteinerEdited & introduced by Hella WiesbergerTranslated by John Wood

(CW 264)

“[Rudolf Steiner] adhered to the rule of absolute truthfulness, in that he taught only the things he knew to be true through his own investigations. He followed the rule of continuity by not simply putting something quite new and more perfect in the place of the less perfect, but by linking in every case to an already existing situation and seeking to transform it into something more perfect.”

—Hella Wiesberger

This is an important text for those interested in the development of Rudolf Steiner’s teaching and for

exploring the advice and admonitions offered by Steiner to his early students. This collection of letters, circulars, and lectures offers a glimpse of the birth of the anthro-posophic movement out of the theosophical movement of the late nineteenth century. We gain a clear picture of why Steiner could no longer work within the theosoph-ical framework, and of the events that led to the split between the Theosophical Society under the leadership of Annie Besant and the Esoteric School under Steiner’s leadership.

Primarily in the form of letters are the specific exer-cises and advice that Steiner gave to pupils who wished to further their spiritual capacities. Also included are his early lectures and teachings concerning the “Masters” and their relationship to human evolution.

From the History and Contents of the First Section of the Esoteric School, 1904–1914 includes introductory remarks by the book’s original editor, Hella Wiesberger.

This important volume provides readers with a deeper understanding of the early development of Rudolf Steiner’s thinking and sheds light on the genesis of Anthroposophy.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 043 40Pa pe r back


464 page s


Available in December


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Sacred GeographyGeomancy: Co-creating the Earth CosmosMarko Pogačnik

Marko Pogacnik has written sev-eral books based on the results

of his research into and practice of what he terms geomancy. In Sacred Geography, he presents the fundamen-tal research and principles behind this new science of the spirit. As the author writes:

Geomancy is an ancient word denoting knowledge of the invisible and visible dimensions of the Earth and its landscapes. I see it as an essential complement to modern geography, which is interested exclusively in one level of reality, the material level of existence. To convey the idea that geomantic knowledge in a very specific way complements the material point of view of geography, I refer to geomancy as “sacred geography.” By “sacred” I mean that the task of geo-mancy in our present day is not simply to foster pub-lic interest in etheric, emotional and spiritual lev-els of places and landscapes, but also to promote a deeper, more loving, and more responsible relation-ship toward the Earth, the Cosmos, and all beings, visible and invisible.

Marko Pogacnik was born in 1944 in Kranj, Slovenia, and graduated in 1967 as sculptor from the Academy of fine Arts in Ljubljana. He and his wife Marika have three daugh-ters and five grandchildren. From 1965 until 1971, Marko worked with conceptual and

land art and has had numerous exhibitions. In 1971, with his family and friends, Marko founded a rural artistic community and spiritual center in Šempas, Slovenia. Since 1979 he has been engaged in geoman-tic and Earth healing work. In the mid-1980s, Marko developed a method of Earth healing—lithopuncture—using stone pillars positioned on acupuncture points of the landscape. His website is www.markopogacnik.com. He is also the author of Turned Upside Down: A Workbook on Earth Changes and Personal Transformation (2004) and coauthor with Ana Pogacnik of How Wide the Heart: The Roots of Peace in Palestine and Israel (2006).

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V e n i c eDiscovering a Hidden PathwayMarko Pogačnik

“Given the rapidity with which rational thought has developed during the last two centuries, I can under-stand why, today, we find ourselves in a world in which we analyze everything in the minutest detail. On the other hand, we have largely lost the ability to recognize the unity of all things within the universe and the intimate place each one of us occupies in it. In this unbalanced situation it is not surprising that I feel drawn to the very opposite of the rational, to the intuitive realm. Here, the sepa-ration of subject from object ceases to exist; the struc-ture of space, which constantly separates the per-sonal psychic world from the worlds of other beings and other dimensions, tends to be transcended; the boundaries of time are lifted, and the message of the past becomes relevant for the present.”

—Marko Pogcnik (from his introduction)

Pogacnik researched the inner meaning of patterns in Venice. His tools for this inner work—the science

of intuition—included the classic four elements of earth, water, air and fire; the Chinese polarity of yin and yang; and the alchemical concept of creation as the wedding of feminine and masculine.

In the process, Pogacnik found that nothing in Venice is happenstance, including its shape, which suggests a giant fish; its general layout, architecture, and location; the locations of palaces and places of worship; and even Venetian works of art. The hidden path is revealed when the author brings the results of his intuitive research together with rational modes of perception.

Venice: Discovering a Hidden Pathway offers not only a new way to see Venice, but also new insights and ways to go beyond the surface of any cultivated cityscape.

ISBN : 9781 584 20 0550Pa pe r back


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The Mystery, Biography & Destiny of Mary MagdaleneSister of Lazarus John & Spiritual Sister of JesusRobert Powell

In the last forty years, but especially with Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, interest in the life and identity of the mysterious figure Mary

Magdalene has reached an all-time high. In New Testament scholar-ship, she is often conflated and confused with other Mary figures, to the point of being unknowable. Traditionally, she has been identified by a rigid, male-dominated Church hierarchy as the Sinner from whom seven demons were cast out. With the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, from which Dan Brown drew much of his inspiration, the Magdalene is seen as carrying Jesus’ bloodline to Provence, France. The musical Jesus Christ Superstar dramatizes yet other variations on this theme, while still others speculate that she was an Egyptian priestess or was black and from sub-Saharan Africa.

Who is Mary Magdalene? What are we to believe about her? What are we to know? What was her mission? As the Beloved Disciple, what is her relationship to Jesus? Where do we turn for answers?

In this lean, accessible, and cogent book, Robert Powell sifts through the rubble of fads and distortions, through the shadows of misunder-standing and doubt, to reveal the true Mary Magdalene. He finds her in the work and visions of the German nun and mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824). A contemporary of Beethoven and Goethe, as well as the poet Clemens Brentano, who had a close relationship with her and was her scribe, Sister Emmerich received the stigmata at the age of thirty-eight and lived for another twelve years without eating solid food, except for taking daily communion. For the most part illiterate, Sr. Emmerich dictated remarkably accurate accounts, within the bounds of scholarship, of Jesus’ ministry.

The visions include the life of Mary Magdalene and the remarkable relationship she had with her siblings Lazarus and Martha. Although Lazarus and Martha lived the spiritual life and recognized Jesus as the Messiah, Mary lived the high life. All three grew up in a castle northeast of Jerusalem. Eventually, Mary found herself riveted by the powerful words of Jesus. He first cast out one demon, then the Seven Demons of the Bible. Joining the circle of women around the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene was prepared for the great event of discovering the empty tomb on the morning of Jesus’ Resurrection.

An especially stunning insight of Sr. Emmerich—covered here in an entire chapter that includes other sources, including Rudolf Steiner—centers on the mystery of “the disciple whom the Lord loved.” This insight is related to Steiner’s identification of the resurrected Lazarus with the author of the Gospel of John.

ISBN : 9781 584 20 0581Pa pe r back


1 28 page s

N e w i n 2 0 0 8

Robert Powell, Ph.D., is an internationally known lecturer, author, euryth-mist, and movement ther-apist. He is founder of the Choreocosmos School of Cosmic and Sacred Dance,

and cofounder of the Sophia Founda-tion of North America. He received his doctorate for his thesis The His-tory of the Zodiac, available as a book from Sophia Academic Press. His many published works include The Most Holy Trinosophia and the New Rev-elation of the Divine Feminine; Chronicle of the Living Christ; Christian Hermetic Astrology; and the yearly Christian Star Calendar. He translated the spiritual classic Meditations on the Tarot and helped translate Valentin Tomberg’s Lazarus, Come Forth! Robert teaches a gentle form of healing movement: the sacred dance of eurythmy, as well as the cosmic dances of the planets and signs of the zodiac. Through the So-phia Grail Circle he facilitates sacred celebrations dedicated to the Divine Feminine. Robert offers workshops in Europe and North America and, with Karen Rivers, cofounder of the Sophia Foundation, leads pilgrim-ages to the world’s sacred sites. Visit www.sophiafoundation.org.


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The Dark Light of the Soul Kathryn Wood Madden

“In an age focused increasingly upon a cultural, politi-cal, and social understanding of otherness as diversity, while preferring to ponder God, if at all, mostly in terms of immanence, depth psychology is in danger of becom-ing breadth psychology. The search for transcendence has become more and more the province of New Age week-end workshops. On the other hand, depth psychology that seeks only the transpersonal without the incarnate spirit in the flesh of everyday relationships in history may like-wise prove to be a failed enterprise.”

—Kathryn Wood Madden (from the preface)

The author explores the inner jour-neys of Jacob Boehme, the sev-

enteenth-century Protestant mystic, and C. G. Jung, the twentieth-cen-tury depth psychologist. Each was concerned with the immediacy of experience, yet comprehended the importance of spirit as a transform-ing presence in human life.

Dark Light of the Soul connects the experiences of these two pioneers, focusing on a “ground of being that contains all opposites in potentiality.” The author examines those experiences from the perspective of depth psychology and religion, offering meaningful insights for anyone on a path of inner development, as well as for professionals in clinical settings.

Dr. Kathryn Wood Madden is President and CEO of the Blanton-Peale Institute in New York; coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion (Springer, 2009); editor of Quadrant: Journal of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology;

Executive Editor of the Journal of Religion and Health: Psychology, Spirituality and Medicine; and a licensed psy-choanalyst of Jungian orientation in private practice. Kathryn teaches courses in Spiritual Dimensions of Clinical Practice and the Symbolic Nature of the Psyche. She is an international conference speaker and serves as a trustee for the American Board for the Accreditation of Psychoanalysis.

ISBN : 978584 20 0 659Pa pe r back


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T h e Lo r d ’s P ra ye rAn Eastern PerspectiveKwan-Yuk Claire Sit

“This book opens the door to Eastern religious and cultural

practices in an attempt to shed light on the teachings implicit in The Lord’s Prayer. It uses simple analo-gies and inspiring anecdotes to unveil seemingly subtle and obscure Eastern concepts. It paves a path for self-realization along the trail of The Lord’s Prayer, merging the precious teachings of Eastern and Western masters from the Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Mother Teresa, The Dalai Lama, and others. It is written for people who seek inspiration to enrich their lives, who desire greater mastery of Eastern philosophy, and who value information on practical spirituality.” (from the preface)

“Our Father, our Mother, and our Great Tao, You are pure Consciousness in a state of infinite com-passion and eternal bliss. As above so below, we can also attain such a state. We only have to seek the ‘I Am’ within and bring out our highest ideals. All our activities are subject to the ‘More Use Easier Use’ principle. We know that ‘practice makes perfect,’ but we need to be careful so as to not be entrapped by our undesirable habits.” (from chapter 9)

Kwan-Yuk Claire Sit grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the U.S. to attend graduate school. She holds a Ph.D. in pure mathematics from the City University of New York and is Professor Emerita at La Guardia Community College. She is deeply

interested in Eastern philosophy and Anthroposophy, and her hobbies include knitting, Chinese calligraphy, and Tang and Sung poems.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 059 65Pa pe r back


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Mani & ServiceClassics from the Journal for Anthroposophy: Classic Edition #4Robert Sardello, editorSeries Editor, Robert McDermott

Service in the world through spiritual science arose from the generous gifts of Rudolf Steiner. He was deeply aware and inwardly present to the real-

ity of the spiritual tradition that inspires active service. The individual known as Mani, a third-century Persian mystic, and the spiritual streams that flowed from his teachings—including the Cathars and Templars—had the special pur-pose of “spiritualizing service,” in that the spiritual worlds become the conscious wholeness through which we help others. Without the capacity to comprehend the nature of this wholeness and to develop it, all of our attempts to serve can fall into mere functionality.

The articles in Mani & Service (previously published in the Journal for Anthroposophy) present a picture of Manicheism, which Steiner held in high esteem. The authors are Rudolf Steiner, Robert Sardello, Déodat Roché, Hilmar Moore, Andrew Welburn, David A. Pellegrino, Thomas Popalowski, Albert Steffen, and Cornelius Pietzner. Their articles discuss the long-forgotten cosmology and prac-tices of Mani, which hold important seeds for the future. The inner capacities inspired by Manicheism relate to serving others; caring for the wounded soul; being able to help others in the most selfless ways; and working through the heart.

Mani & Service presents these articles together for the first time.

Robert Sardello, Ph.D., cofounded The School of Spiritual Psychology, based in North Carolina. An independent teacher and scholar, Robert is the author of numerous books, including Silence (Goldenstone Press, 2006) and Love and the World: A Guide to Conscious Soul Practice (Lindisfarne Books, 2001).

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Give a G i f t Ce r t i f ica te th i s hol ida y season . . .This year, give a gift certificate from SteinerBooks—a gift is always a welcome surprise! If you don’t know which book to give, our gift certificates may be the answer.

Call and ask about a gift certificate: (703) 661-1594—it’s a convenient way to give any book that we publish or distribute.

ISBN : 978 0 9 674562 49Pa pe r back

A n t h ro poso ph i ca l Socie t y i n A me r i ca

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An Esoteric CosmologyEvolution, Christ & Modern SpiritualityRudolf SteinerNotes and foreword by Edouard Schuré Preface by Bernard GarberNotes from1 18 lectures in Paris, May – June 1906 (CW 94)

“These priceless lectures mark a significant phase of Rudolf Steiner’s thought—that of the spontaneous burst of his ge-nius and its first crystallization.” —Edouard Schuré

In May 1906, a congress of the Federation of European Sections of

the Theosophical Society was held in Paris. Rudolf Steiner attended with a number of students and presented a series of lectures to a small circle of friends, mostly society members. Edouard Schuré was present and made succinct notes of those talks, the result of which is An Esoteric

Cosmology. Indeed, his notes probably record the first general outline and summary of what would become his worldview called Anthroposophy.

Steiner here outlines his Christ-centered spiritual science, in contrast to the more Eastern orientation of Theosophy at the time. He connects the essence of spiri-tual science to the role of the Christ in human evolu-tion, as well as to the Rosicrucian and Christian mys-tery traditions as the primary carriers of the esoteric Christian stream. To do this, Steiner presented the roots of Christianity in the ancient mysteries and in cosmic evolution itself.

Perhaps the miracle is that Steiner was able to con-dense such a grand cosmology into eighteen lectures, and that Schuré was able to capture their essence in his relatively brief notes, which constitute this book. A few years later, the substance of these lectures were expanded and presented in Rudolf Steiner’s Outline of Esoteric Science.

These lecture notes will prove invaluable for all those who wish to better understand that book, as well as Rudolf Steiner’s Christian cosmology and his perspective on esoteric Christianity and the Christian mysteries.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 0593 4Pa pe r back


132 page s

Now iN PaPerback

A Measure of EnduranceThe Unlikely Triumph of Steven SharpWilliam Mishler

S teven Sharp was a hardworking, energetic sixteen-year-old, grow-

ing up happily in a tiny farming community in the eastern Oregon high desert. His family was his har-bor. Nothing pleased him more than the outdoor life, fending for himself in the nearby mountains. In the last hour of the last day of a summer job on a local ranch, his life was changed forever when a huge baler suddenly and mysteriously turned itself on and severed both his arms. Slipping in and out of consciousness and stumbling through a field, he followed a fence to a nearby house. Soon he was on an airplane and hoping time was on his side.

Steven was always convinced that the machine had malfunctioned, and with the help of a brilliant and ideal-istic trial lawyer named Bill Manning—whose commit-ment to Steven seemed something of a completion of his own spiritual journey—Steven took on the multinational, multibillion-dollar company, withstood their counterat-tack, and emerged triumphant.

William Mishler grew up on a small farm on the outskirts of Cleveland. In 2002, he retired from the University of Minnesota, where he taught Scandinavian languages, literature, film, and culture. He wrote extensively on these subjects for journals

and anthologies. In 1989, he was the co-recipient of the Richard Wilbur Award for the year’s best volume of translated poetry. His own poems appeared in The Mudfish, Denver Quarterly, and Chicago Review. He died December 2002.

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Weekly MeditationsRudolf Steiner’s “Calendar of the Soul”

with Accompanying ReflectionsRudolf Steiner & Patsy Scala

When asked how one might find a way into Christianity, the

Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast advised, “Meditate the sacred year.” When asked what a life-long study of Anthroposophy had yielded, the philosopher Owen Barfield replied, “I now have some idea of the reality of the living year.” For readers who like to chew meditatively on poetry, Weekly Meditations will put them firmly on the path to realizing both of these great realities.

Rudolf Steiner’s weekly verses allow attentive read-ers to follow the course of the year in body, soul, and spirit. In addition, from the perspective of one who has sought to live inwardly with the sacred, living year, Patsy Scala’s poetic reflections, which arose from her deep practice of the verses, provide an accessible and complementary guide to one’s daily practice.

Weekly Meditations is a book to keep handy and reread throughout the seasons of the year.

Patsy Scala is the vice president and a director of the Center for Spiritual and Cultural Unity in Syracuse, NY, a not-for-profit organization and resource for those in search of a complete life in body, soul, and spirit. A former vice president at Merrill

Lynch, Patsy retired in February 2007, after twenty-seven years with the firm. Her first book, Seven Steps to Everyday Mysticism, was published in 2002, and she has spoken extensively in Unity churches on creating pros-perity in life. A student of Anthroposophy, Patsy is a member of the Anthroposophical Society in America, as well as the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science. She lives on Mystic Mountain in New Woodstock, New York, with her husband Joseph and their dog Muffin. Her daughter Laura lives in Buffalo. Patsy enjoys hik-ing, boating, gardening, long walks in nature, snow shoeing, and, of course, writing.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 058 97Pa pe r back


1 28 page s

Vladimir SolovievRussian MysticPaul M Allen

V ladimir Solovyov (1853–1900), one of the greatest philosophers

of the nineteenth century, was the founder of a tradition of Russian spirituality that brought together philosophy, mysticism, and theology with a powerful social message. A Platonist and a gnostic visionary, as well as a close friend of Dostoevsky, Soloviev was also a prophet who was granted three visions of Sophia, Divine Wisdom. A poet and a profoundly Christian metaphysicist, his works include The Justification of the Good; War, Progress, and the End of History; and The Meaning of Love.

This unique, timely book—the first in-depth, full-length portrait of Soloviev as a mystic to appear in English—is the rich fruit of Dr. Allen’s lifelong interest in the cultural and spiritual achievements, the mysti-cism, and the esoteric work of the Russian people during Tsarist times leading up to the twentieth century.

Paul Marshall Allen (1913–1998) was an authority on the life and work of Rudolf Steiner and, as the “first American-born anthroposophic lecturer,” was a leading pioneer of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science across North America. He edited and wrote

introductions for numerous books on Anthroposophy and spiritual wisdom, including his classic work, A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology. With his wife Joan deRis Allen, Paul coauthored Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures (1996); Fingal’s Cave, the Poems of Ossian, and Celtic Christianity (1999); and The Time Is at Hand! The Rosicrucian Nature of Goethe’s Fairy Tale of “The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” and the Mystery Dramas of Rudolf Steiner (1995).

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Secrets of the Stations of the Cross and the Grail BloodThe Mystery of Transformation

Judith von HalleTranlated by Matthew Barton

Judith von Halle applies a spiritual-

scientific mode of observation—a form of research based on one’s true being—the human

“I”—crossing the spiri-tual threshold while fully conscious. She describes, in her most powerful book to date, secrets connected to various events of Christ’s Passion.

Von Halle discusses the Mystery of Golgotha in its relationship to the formation of the Resurrection Body; the Mystery of the Spear Wound in Christ’s side and the Grail Blood; and how Christ’s Seven Words on the Cross relate to the Stations of the Cross.

Judith von Halle was born in Berlin in 1972. She attended school in Germany and the U.S. and stud-ied architecture, graduating in 1998. She encountered Anthroposophy in 1997 and began working as a staff member at Rudolf Steiner House in Berlin, where she also lectured from 2001, while maintaining an archi-tectural practice. In 2004, her life was transformed when she received the stigmata. She works principally as a lecturer and author. Her other books include And If He Had Not Been Raised...: The Stations of Christ’s Path to Spirit Man (2007) and The Lord’s Prayer: The Living Word of God (2007). She lives in Berlin with her husband.

ISBN : 9781 9 026368 94H a rd cove r

Te m p le Lodge$2 4 0 0

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Relating to Rudolf SteinerAnd the Mystery of the Laying of the Foundation Stone

Sergei O Prokofieff

According to the author of this book,

in the Anthroposophical Society, people’s rela-tionship to Steiner is dissipating. He states that the future of the society and spiritual science depends on people aspiring to and realizing a true spiritual connection with the founder of Anthroposophy. Prokofieff asks: Can one be an anthroposophist without being a student of Rudolf Steiner?

He also discusses the laying of the spiritual Foundation Stone at the Christmas Meeting in 1923. That event, he asserts, ensured that a personal relationship with Steiner

“would become a real inner deed.” In Prokofieff’s words, “The will to take the foundation of the new mysteries seriously leads to a real, inner con-nection with Rudolf Steiner.”

Sergei O. Prokofieff was born in Moscow in 1954, where he studied fine arts and painting at the Moscow School of Art. He encountered the work of Rudolf Steiner early in life and realized that he would dedicate himself to the Christian path of esoteric knowledge. After the fall of Communism, he helped establish the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. He is now a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society and the author of numer-ous books.

ISBN : 9781 9 02636955Pa pe r back

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Thinkers, Saints, HereticsSpiritual Paths of the Middle Ages

Virginia Sease & Manfred Schmidt-Brabant

The authors suggest that our sense of self

depends on creating a true relationship to our present age. To do this, we must understand the spiritual roots of our time, which are in the Middle Ages. The impulses from that time flow into the present, influencing our thinking, feeling, and actions. Even the history of Europe is deter-mined largely by the thinking of the Middle Ages, which has endured as beliefs.

Thinkers, Saints, Heretics offers a historical survey of the culture and history—exoteric and eso-teric—of the Middle Ages. The journey includes King Arthur and the Celtic mysteries; Francis of Assisi, the School of Chartres; Thomas Aquinas, Averroes, and the Dominicans; Cabbala; the Cathars; Templars; alchemy; Gothic architec-ture; the mysteries of America; the consciousness soul; and Faust.

Virginia Sease is a member of the Executive Council of the Goetheanum and directs the English language Anthroposophical Studies Program at the Goetheanum.

Manfred Schmidt-Brabant was a member of the Executive Council at the Goetheanum and served as Chair of the Council from 1984 until his death in 2001.

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Touching the HorizonA Woman’s Pilgrimage across Europe to the Castle by the Golden City

Karin Jarman

Entertaining many doubts, Karin

Jarman set aside work and family and began a pilgrimage to the four-teenth-century Gothic castle of Karlstein, built by Charles IV near Prague in the Czech republic. Unlike many pil-grims today, she made the journey on foot while gratefully accepting the hospitality of strangers. Her purpose was not feats of endurance or athletic prowess; rather, she was trying to create a mood of true pil-grimage—to encounter the sacred through outer travels and inner transformation.

Karin’s eventful travels cov-ered more than 1,200 miles, taking around twenty-two weeks, during which time she stayed with more than a hundred hosts. Having con-fronted many issues of her biography, she returned home a changed person with fresh resolve and initiative.

Karin Jarman, born in Baden-Baden, Germany, studied Waldorf educa-tion and moved to Great

Britain, where she worked in a Camphill center for adults with special needs. She works as an art therapist and leads courses in England and elsewhere.

ISBN : 9781 9 02636948Pa pe r back


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In Search of ThinkingReflective Encounters in Experiencing the World

Richard Bunzl

What are our memo-ries and feelings?

What are ideas? What is the nature of time? How do our thoughts connect with the outer world? Is freedom of thought an illusion—or a possibility worthy of real inner effort?

Basing his discussion on every-day examples, Richard Bunzl addresses some of the oldest and most fundamental philosophical ques-tions. Using language that is simul-taneously vivid, down-to-earth, and poetic, the author presents thought-provoking, bite-sized chapters, each ending in helpful summaries.

In Search of Thinking is a highly readable and practical philosophy of life, invoking and illuminating uni-versal human experiences.

Richard Bunzl was educated at Michael Hall Rudolf Steiner School, Sussex, UK, before studying music at university. Since completing his Ph.D. thesis on the idea of imma-teriality in music, he has remained active as a musician and a writer of fiction and nonfiction. His writ-ings include numerous articles on themes as diverse as the Industrial Revolution, angels, and evolution. He lives in West Yorkshire with his wife and two children.

ISBN : 9781 85584 201 4Pa pe r back

R u dol f S te i ne r Pre s s$22 0 0

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AnthroposophyA Concise Introduction to Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Philosophy

Henk van Oort

In this concise presen-tation, based on years

of teaching introductory courses on the subject, van Oort presents an overview of key aspects of Steiner’s thought. He deals with concepts such as body, soul, and spirit; the relationship between humankind and the animal kingdom; and the evolution of con-sciousness, a topic that opens pan-oramic vistas of human development in the form of successive cultural periods extending over thousands of years.

Henk van Oort, born in 1943, trained as a primary teacher before earning a Masters degree in English

at the Amsterdam University. He has taught for forty years in primary and secondary education, including class teaching in a Waldorf school, teaching English, and leading edu-cational courses and seminars for teachers and parents. His interest in literature and poetry has led to his appearance at storytelling and poetry seminars, and his introduc-tory courses to Anthroposophy have been highly successful. Based in Bergen N.H. in the Netherlands, Henk van Oort is married and the father of three.

ISBN : 9781 9 026369 2 4Pa pe r back

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The Dream Song of Olaf ÅstesonAn Ancient Norwegian Folksong of the Holy Nights

Illustrated by Janet JordanPreface by Jonathan StedallIntroduction by Andrew Welburn

This legendary folk-song came to light in

1850, when a member of the clergy named Landstad first heard it in a lonely valley of Telemark, Norway. The epic narrative—whose origin is lost to time—tells of a young man who slept for twelve nights during the deep winter days and nights. When he finally awoke, he shared the wondrous sights he had seen.

This edition of The Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson is illuminated by Janet Jordan’s striking paintings, which give new life to this timeless legend and help modern readers connect more intimately with its profound meaning.

Janet Jordan is a painter and print-maker and spends much of her time creating original and eye-catching etchings. Her work ranges from illustrative to abstract, and her inspi-rations come from many sources, including poetry and the natural world. She obtained a B.A. in Fine Art at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1975. She has an interest in tex-tile art and wrote her thesis on tap-estry. Ms. Jordan lives and works in Somerset, England.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56205H a rd cove r

F l o r i s B o o k s$30 0 0

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The North American Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar 2009Maria Thun & Matthias K Thun

The 2009 special edi-tion of the annual

Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar is adapted for gardeners and farmers in North America. All dates and times have been adjusted and are valid for Eastern Standard Time.

The original biodynamic calen-dar, now in its forty-seventh year, is the trusted, useful guide that shows the optimum days for sowing, prun-ing, and harvesting various plant crops, as well as working with bees. The guide is in color and includes clear symbols and explanations.

As it did last year, this year’s cal-endar includes a pullout wall chart that the reader can post in a barn, shed, or greenhouse for a handy, quick reference.

This is the essential guide—no biodynamic gardener or farmer should be without The North American Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar 2009.

Maria Thun has gar-dened all her working life and is an authority on biodynamics. Her annual sowing and planting calendar is published in 18 languages. Maria Thun is also the author of Results from the Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56557Pa pe r back

F l o r i s B o o k s$13 95

64 page s

Biodynamic Wine DemystifiedNicholas Joly,Forewords by Mike Benziger & Joshua Greene

Joly shares the core philosophy behind

biodynamic viticulture and why such prac-tices result in wines of regional distinction. This process treats the vineyard as a self-perpetuating, eco-logical whole, influenced by forces of the Earth, Sun, Moon, and cosmos. He explains why the use of foreign substances such as pesticides and fertilizers in the vineyard, aromatic yeasts and enzymes in the cellar, and mechanisms such as electric motors and pumps disrupt the required synergy and are ultimately counter-productive to a wine’s best and most consistent expression.

Biodynamic viticulture has become today’s most visible appli-cation of Rudolf Steiner’s ideas in agriculture. The higher quality of biodynamic wines offers some of the strongest evidence yet that biody-namic methods are not only safer for growers and the Earth, but also lead to noticeably better results.

Nicholas Joly has been working with biody-namic methods for more than two decades and is widely acclaimed as one

of France’s foremost winemakers. His biodynamic vineyards produce some of the rarest and most highly esteemed wines in Europe. Nicholas Joly is also the author of Wine, from Sky to Earth: Growing & Appreciating Biodynamic Wine.

ISBN : 9781 93 4 259 023Pa pe r back

Wi ne A p pre ci a t i on G u i l d$2 4 95

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Healing the SkinHolistic Approaches to Treating Skin Conditions: A Practical Guide Based on Anthroposophic Medicine

Lueder Jachens

The increasing preva-lence of various skin

conditions is an indica-tion that toxic influences are on the increase. A dermatologist, allergist, and physician, Lueder Jachens offers wise advice in Healing the Skin, a helpful “owner’s handbook.” His concern is to offer insights into individual conditions, their causes, and how to treat them. He also presents a holistic under-standing of the skin itself.

Dr. Jachens begins with an anatomy of the skin and its relation-ship to the physical and spiritual levels of existence. He then dis-cusses specific conditions and their treatment, including psoriasis, der-matitis, acne, boils, hay fever, hair loss, melanoma, abscesses, impetigo, fungal infections, herpes, scabies, head lice, sunburn, and much more.

Lueder Jachens, m.d., born in Bremen in 1951, participated in anthroposophic medical student groups while studying medicine in Göttingen and Kiel, Germany. He specialized in dermatology and allergology before working in medi-cal departments at an anthroposoph-ically oriented hospital. Since 1992, he has practiced as a skin specialist in Germany. He also developed the Christophorus Medical Center in Stiefenhofen.

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How to Eat like a Vegetarian Even If You Never Want to Be OneMore than 250 Shortcuts, Strategies, and Simple Solutions

Carol J Adams & Patti Breitman

Don’t have time to cook? Don’t

like to follow reci-pes? Cutting back on meat but don’t know what to serve? Want an easy way to eat healthfully? This is the book for you. The lists, charts, and hints in this book will reward you with meals, snacks, and surprises that are as easy to make as they are delicious.

Topics include 200+ ways to eat like a vegetarian; cooking vegetar-ian; cooking without recipes; sea-sonal eating; thinking and feeling like a vegetarian; plus resources.

Carol J. Adams is also the author of the land-mark book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory.

Patti Breitman is a literary agent and public speaker. She is a former food columnist for VegNews maga-zine and teaches cooking classes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives.

ISBN : 9781 59 0561379Pa pe r back

La n te rn B o o k s$20 0 0

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Cancer Recovery Guide15 Alternative and Complementary Strategies for Restoring Health

Jonathan Chamberlain

The author watched his wife suffer and even-

tually die—both from her cancer and from the direct effects of the orthodox treatments she had undergone. His experience led to a journey in search of other methods of over-coming cancer. What he discovered stunned him. There are cures out there—dozens of them—many offer-ing very good chances of recovery.

Cancer Recovery Guide presents fifteen practical strategies, in three groups: mind and the emotions; health of the whole body; and meth-ods for attacking tumors directly.

The personal stories cited testify to the therapeutic possibilities of the strategies presented.

Jonathan Chamberlain grew up in Ireland and Hong Kong, where he lived and worked for many

years as a teacher and writer. His books include Cancer: The Complete Recovery Guide; Chinese Gods: An Introduction to Chinese Folk Religion; and King Hui: The Man Who Owned All the Opium in Hong Kong. His website on cancer-related issues is at www.fightingcancer.com. Jonathan is the founder of two charities: The Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association and Mental Handicap Network China.

ISBN : 9781 9 055701 40Pa pe r back

Cl a i rv ie w B o o k s$25 0 0

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Living Among Meat EatersThe Vegetarian’s Survival Handbook

Carol J Adams

In this bold and origi-nal book, Adams

offers real-life advice that vegetarians can use to defuse any situ-ation in which their dietary choices may be

under attack. She suggests viewing meat eaters as blocked vegetarians. Always insightful, this practical guide is full of self-tests, strategies, meditations on vegetarianism, and tips for dining out and entertaining at home when meat eaters are on the invite list.

Includes more than fifty vegetar-ian recipes.

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336 page s

Infertility to FertilityThe Journey of the Psyche

Dr Patricia Sherwood

B ased on the holis-tic anthroposophic

model, Dr. Sherwood offers a path of heal-ing, incorporating the artistic therapies of sound, color, move-

ment, gesture, and clay to transform destructive energetic patterns into life-renewing patterns.

Dr. Patricia Sherwood is adjunct researcher at Edith Cowan University in Australia, where she has lectured for twenty years in social work, psychology, social sci-ence, and special education.

ISBN : 978 0 9 8 0404 401Pa pe r back

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An Unchanged MindThe Problem of Immaturity in Adolescence

Dr John A McKinnon

Why are American teena gers fa i l -

ing to develop normally through adolescence? Dr. McKinnon presents case studies from a ther-apeutic boarding school

for troubled teenagers. All new stu-dents had been deemed “failures” fol-lowing conventional psychiatric care. All were bright, full of promise, and not obviously “ill.” Yet they found themselves unprepared for the chal-lenges of modern adolescence and inevitably failed—at school, at home, and among peers.

An Unchanged Mind discovers the essence of this problem: disrupted maturation and resulting immatu-rity. The book briefly reviews nor-mal development and examines the delays teenagers are suffering, the causes of those delays, and how they lead to a flawed approach to living. There is a solution. With a sustained push to help troubled kids catch up, symptoms abate, academic and interpersonal functioning improve, and parents pronounce their teens miraculously recovered. The remedy is not pharmacology but to grow up.

John A. McKinnon, m.d., taught at UC, San Francisco, and directed psychiatry hospital programs in Texas and Montana. He left tradi-tional medical centers to cofound Montana Academy, a therapeutic school for troubled teenagers.

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368 page s

Look Two Ways on a One-Way StreetFood for Thought from the Founder of Candle Café and Candle 79

Bart Potenza

Every day for two decades,

e n t r e p r e n e u r and bon vivant Bart Potenza has been cook-ing up aphorisms,

which he has posted in Candle Café and Candle 79, the two New York City organic, vegan restaurants he cofounded with his partner Joy Pierson. Now the best of his piquant and savory maxims about health, wealth, happiness, and life’s ongoing lottery have been harvested for Look Two Ways on a One-Way Street. Dished out with wit and humor, Bart’s mus-ings will give you food for thought and something to chew on, whether you’re vegan or omnivorous, a regu-lar or an out-of-towner. Enjoy!

Bart Potenza has been in the health food res-taurant business for amost three decades and has written and lectured on diet and

health since the mid-1970s, includ-ing The Candle Cafe Cookbook. Bart has become a major spokesperson for the health food industry, and his two restaurants have grown into desti-nations for discerning diners. Bart works hard to put his best into the world, and his commitments to Feng Shui, luck, and karma have resulted in two beautiful eateries, two books, and an impressive life.

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N e w & R e c e n t B o o k s fo r C h i l d re n & Fa m i l y

Snow White and Rose RedA Grimms’ Fairy Tale

Denise Marshall, illustrator

Devoted sisters and forever

friends, Snow White and Rose Red are as lovely and sweet as the delicate flowers that inspired their

names. One winter morning, they hear a knock at their cottage door. A bear! Snow-covered and half frozen, he begs for a warm place to rest, and they oblige. The story of this strange guest soon unfolds. Will the girls agree to help the bear find a way out of his sad existence? Will they help, even if it means risk-ing the wrath of the wicked dwarf? This imaginative tale by the Grimm brothers is filled with rich imagery, surprise and adventure.

Denise Marshall earned her Associate of Arts degree in fine arts from the College of Marin in Kentfield, California. She worked in the studio of Judie Bomberger for ten years as lead artist in color design and creation of whimsical three-dimensional sculptures, including sculptures for Cirque du Soleil and the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. Ms. Marshall now creates watercolor designs for Enchantmints, a com-pany dedicated to the wholesome development and production of play products for children. In this capac-ity, she is able to capture and pro-vide children with images that will spark their imagination. She resides in Cotati, California, near her three grown sons.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 059 1 0H a rd cove r

S te i ne r B o o k s$17 95

8 ¾ x 1 0 ¾ i nc he s28 page s

ThumbelinaHans Christian AndersenHsin-Shih Lai, illustrator

Thumbelina is so tiny, she can ride

on the wings of a butterfly. Her world is one of flower pet-als, wild berries, and ladybugs. She is no

larger than your thumb. So great is her beauty, she captivates all who encounter her.

Nevertheless, her life is in peril. Kidnapped by a frog and stranded on a lily pad, she doesn’t know who will save her. Will it be the fish, the butterfly, or the beetle? If she escapes, will she be doomed to marry the mole and spend the rest of her life in the cold, dark ground below?

Hsin-Shih Lai was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Her mother loved all the arts and sent Hsin-Shih to a paint-ing and drawing teacher when she was 4 years old. Since then, Hsin-Shih has not stopped painting. She went on to study painting and indus-trial design at the National Taiwan Academy of Art. After working for a while as a freelance illustra-tor, she met Anthroposophy and, in 1999, moved to the U.S., where she completed her eurythmy training in 2004. Hsin-Shih now lives in Spring Valley, New York, and works as an illustrator and performs with the Eurythmy Spring Valley touring group.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 059 27H a rd cove r


8 ¾ x 1 0 ¾ i nc he s56 page s

I l l u st ra te d i n Col o r

The Bremen Town MusiciansA Grimm’s Fairy Tale

Hsin-Shih Lai, illustrator

Here is the classic Grimm’s tale of

a run-away donkey, a down-and-out dog, a cast-off cat, and a rooster about to be cooked. They set off

together to Bremen to become the town musicians. This story is made especially delightful by the lively illustrations of Hsin-Shih Lai.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 05835H a rd cove r

B e l l Pond B o o k s$17 95

9 x 1 1 i nc he s32 page s

Peter and Anneli’s Journey to the MoonGerdt Bernhard von BassewitzIllustrated by Hans Baluschek,

This classic German chi ldren’s stor y

tells how Peter and A n n e l i h e l p M r. Zoomzeman, a June Bug, bring his leg back from the moon. Long ago, a thief—stealing

wood in the forest—accidentally cut off Mr. Zoomzeman’s great-great grandfather’s leg and was banished to the Moon. Unfortunately, he took the leg with him and, ever since, the Zoomzemans have all had only five legs. Only “two good children” can get the leg back, so Mr. Zoomzeman, in search of goodness, finds Peter and Anneli. The three set off on a marvelous journey to the Moon and must challenge the ferocious Moon Man to restore the missing leg to Mr. Zoomzeman.

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 0584 2H a rd cove r

B e l l Pond B o o k s$17 95

1 20 page s


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Baking Bread with ChildrenWarren Lee CohenForeword by Tom Herbert

Cohen provides everything you

need to share the magic of baking with children of all ages. Recipes and techniques are sea-soned with stories, songs (with music), and poems that make the whole process truly enjoy-able for everyone.

Includes instructions for build-ing and using a bread oven, baking projects for kindergarten and school, and useful information on nutrition.

Warren Lee Cohen has more than two decades of experience bak-ing bread with children, building bread ovens, and teaching work-shops. He is also the author of Dragon Baked Bread.

ISBN : 9781 9 03 4586 0 0Pa pe r back

H aw t ho rn Pre s s$30 0 0

7 ¾ x 9 ¾ i nc he s1 28 page s

A Waldorf Doll NativityPetra and Tom Rosenberg

The authors help bring the tradi-

tional Christmas story gently to life through a beauti-fully rendered tab-leaux of Waldorf dolls made of felt and wool, set in colorful backgrounds. Young chil-dren will love the various patterns and textures in the pictures, and parents will enjoy an alternative depiction of the well-known story.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56649H a rd cove r


8 x 9 I nc he s2 4 page s

Col o r t h rou ghou t

Pancakes for FindusSven Nordqvist

Here is the first story in the

adventures of farmer Pettson and his cat Findus. Pettson wants to bake a birthday cake for Findus, who has three birthdays a year. But how will they get the eggs with the bull in the way?

Pancakes for Findus was the London Sunday Times “Children’s Book of the Week” in December 2007. (Ages 4–8)

ISBN : 9781 9 03 45879 2B o o k ( H a rd cove r)


8¼ x 1 1 ¾ i nc he s28 page s

The Miracle in BethlehemA Storyteller’s Tale

Sarah BurtonIllustrated by Katriona Chapman

The storyteller’s tale is one we all think

we know—the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of a very spe-cial baby. However, do we really know it? The Miracle in Bethlehem offers a unique retelling that weaves largely forgot-ten, ancient nativity legends into today’s more familiar narrative.

The short chapters make it ideal for nightly Advent readings or bed-time stories. Children will redis-cover the wonder and sparkle of this great story by hearing it anew from some less familiar perspectives.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56632Pa pe r back

F l o r i s B o o k s$1 1 95

5 ¼ x 7 ¾ i nc he s64 page s

When Findus Was Little and DisappearedSven Nordqvist

Findus and Pettson live in a red farm-

house, with a henhouse, workshop, and toolshed set among the forests, fields, and meadows of rural Sweden. Every picture tells a story, with a fascinating, magical world of tiny creatures. (Ages 4–8)

Sven Nordqvist is a leading chil-dren’s illustrator and writer in Sweden. Born in Helsingborg and raised in Halmstad, Sweden, Nordqvist draws inspiration from his playful adventures with his two young sons.

ISBN : 9781 9 03 458839H a rd cove r


8 ¼ x 1 1 ¾ i nc he s28 page s

Finger StringsA Book of Cat’s Cradles & String Figures

Michael Taylor

F inger string games provide a great

opportunity for children to practice movement, explore space, interact with others, and exercise their creative spirits. String games can be especially useful to children who struggle at school or are dys-lexic, and for those who are learning the concepts of “left and right” and

“up and down.” Ringbound to lie flat, String

Games includes more than six hun-dred illustrations and two brightly colored strings to get you started.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56656R i ng bou ndPa pe r back

F l o r i s B o o k s$25 0 0

8 ¼ x 9 i nc he s1 4 4 page s


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The Nature CornerCelebrating the Year’s Cycle with Seasonal Tableaux

2nd Edition

M van Leeuwen & J Moeskops

W ith simple materials, and

basic skills in knit-ting and crocheting, a series of colorful and effective tab-leaux can be made in the home or at school to depict the seasons and major festivals.

Instructions and diagrams are provided for making the figures and objects, along with basic tips for set-ting up the table and involving chil-dren. Each of the eleven tableaux is illustrated in full color.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56465Pa pe r back

F l o r i s B o o k s$20 0 0

8 ¼ x 9 i nc he s88 page s

Making Flower Children2nd Edition

Sybille Adolphi

M aking Flower Children offers

detailed, step-by-step instructions and illustrations for making a range of lively and creative flower figures. Many are recognizable from Elsa Beskow’s popular picture books, and from Sybille von Olfers’s Story of the Root Children.

Activities are organized by sea-son, making the book ideal for dec-orating a nature corner or seasonal table in the home or classroom.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56502Pa pe r back

F l o r i s B o o k s$20 0 0

8¼ x 9 i nc he s8 0 page s

35 col o r i l l u st ra t i on s

The Christmas AngelsElse Wenz-Viëtor

I t’s Christmas Eve, and most

people are safely tucked in their beds. However, the Christmas angels know who needs help on this holy night, and they are ready to fly down to help those who are lost, lonely, and weary.

Small children will love the row of cutout angel heads reveal-ing the features of each little angel. The Christmas Angels beautifully heralds the Christmas message of loving kindness with every page. (Ages 3–6)

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56625H a rd cove r


1 0 ½ x 8 ¼ i nc he s32 page s

Col o r t h rou ghou t

GoodnightA Concertina Board Book

Marjan van Zeyl

G oodnight is a “concert ina”

board book, with five sections that fold out to about four feet long—all in beautiful color. The soft water-color pictures by Marjan van Zeyl follow the child’s journey into sleep, through the night, and to waking in the morning. (Ages 3–6)

Marjan van Zeyl, a prolific artist, has illustrated numerous books for children, including The Apple Cake; Dora Duck and the Juicy Pears; The Tree That Grew Through the Roof; and Little Red Riding-Hood.

ISBN : 978 0 94620 661 2Pa pe r back

W yn stone s Pre s s$1 9 95

1 0 ½ x 8 i nc he s1 0 page s

The Power of StoriesNurturing Children’s Imagination and Consciousness

Horst Kornberger

A writer, artist, and Waldorf teacher

explores the power of stories such as Odysseus, Parsifal, Oedipus, Bible stories, and fairy tales. He explains how to apply that power to help children develop, heal, and transform. He also discusses the art and practi-calities of creating new stories to help children with particular needs, showing that storytelling is a uni-versal gift that we can use to benefit those around us.

ISBN : 978 0 8631 56595Pa pe r back

F l o r i s B o o k s$20 0 0

9 ¼ x 6¼ i nc he s20 8 page s

Healing Stories for Challenging BehaviourSusan Perrow

The author offers a creative approach to

helping children facing trauma or other diffi-culties in life. This col-lection of modern and traditional folk tales includes stories for behavior dif-ficulties, such as dishonesty, steal-ing, bullying, and fighting. Also included are stories to help with challenging situations such as mov-ing to a new house, a new baby in the family, nightmares, illness, and grieving.

ISBN : 9781 9 03 458785Pa pe r back


320 page s

1 5 % d i s c o u n t u n t i l J a n u a r y 1 5 , 2 0 0 828

•

The award winning Waldorf School Calendar, featuring art from Waldorf schools across North America, is a wonderful way to showcase Waldorf education. Calendars make great holiday gifts! New this year – a checkbook size daily planner. Blank note card sets in two sizes are also available. Six holiday card designs are a festive way to send season’s greetings. Discounts for bulk orders.

To view the selection, visit www.chicagowaldorf.org

To order, contact The Four Seasons Shop 773-828-8800

A great way to mark the year, generate funds for your school, and showcase Waldorf education!

The Waldorf School Calendar 2009

The 2009 Waldorf School Calendar CALENDARS

DAILY PLANNERS

HOLIDAY CARDS

BLANK

NOTECARDS

featuring art from

Waldorf students

Winner of the 2007 Moonbeam Award

Trillium Forest Press proudly presents

“Told in the Waldorf tradition with great love and care, and fi lled with

beautiful illustrations, this book is destined to touch the hearts of

children and parents alike.” Susan Howard,

Coordinator of WECAN

“Every child should experience this book.”

Marietta Yeager, Occupational Art Therapist

www.LittleAngelsJourney.com

S t e i n e r B o o k s . o r g — 7 0 3 - 6 6 1 - 1 5 9 4 29


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Freedom of Thought & Societal Forces

Rudolf SteinerIntroduction by Christopher Bamford

On February 27, 1919, a couple of months before these public lectures were given between May and

December, Rudolf Steiner celebrated his fifty-eighth birthday. Three months before that, on November 11, 1918, World War I—with its unimagina-ble, senseless suffering and bloodshed, almost ten million dying, six thousand a day, for fifteen hundred days—finally limped to its unhappy conclusion. The armistice and the subsequent Peace Treaty deceitfully finagled at Versailles, would humiliate Germany with devas-tating demands for reparations. Central Europe was left in tatters. Confidence in its culture and itself had evaporated. What had been apparent bourgeois solidity was revealed to be a house of cards. Deep, widespread social, eco-nomic, and political confusion was per-vasive. From all sides and at every level the state—since Hegel and Bismarck a bulwark against barbarianism—found itself threatened. Now the barbarians were at the gates. Revolutionaries, thugs, as well as intellectuals from both right and left fomented an end-less stream of social conflicts. Among its many other consequences, the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917 had empowered and radicalized socialist and Marxists of all persuasions. Whatever their differences, they were united in calling for an end to the socioeco-nomic divide between owners and workers, rich and poor, which, they believed, with some justification, had sustained the untenable conditions that led to the War in the first place. At the same time, from the right, trauma-tized by the shame of defeat, disaffected patriots, lovers of “old Germany, and alienated forerunners of National Socialism were blindly striking out, reacting to every turn in the political situation with random street vio-lence and already hatching unrealizable dreams of a German return to power—a “ Third Reich.” It cannot have been an easy time.

Nevertheless, for Rudolf Steiner and his near-mirac-ulous shepherding of Anthroposophy into being, 1919 was an extraordinary year of transformation and the

initiation of new cultural impulses that, over the few years that remained to him until his death in 1925, would give the world new forms of social thinking, pedagogy, medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, art, and religion—initiatives that still have the possibility of transforming human life and earthly evolution. Much of that program still lay ahead. But a start was being made on three fronts. First, the year was dedicated to the promotion—the social and political work—of a radically new way of organizing society and social, economic, juridical, and cultural relations. He called it “threefolding the social

organism.” Always responsive to the needs of his time, to the precise point or fulcrum where, as the instrument of the spiritual world, he was able to make the greatest contribution to humanity’s development. In addition to “threefold-ing,” and perhaps more important—at least in terms of its immediate and con-tinuing success—1919 also saw the cre-ation of Waldorf education and the first Waldorf School, under the auspices of Emil Molt’s Waldorf Astoria Cigarette factory in Stuttgart. Moreover, Eurythmy—developed over the pre-ceding seven years—was unveiled dur-ing this period as a new art form, with public performances in eight cities.

The seeds of this “springtime” for Anthroposophy were sown in 1917, the

year in which the new geopolitical map of the twentieth century was being redrawn. In Russia, the Bolshevik revolution marked the beginning of Soviet power in the East, while, from the West, the entry of the United States into war announced its presence as a new world power. As a result, between Vladimir Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, central Europe found itself trapped in a new kind of meta-war—one of extreme propaganda. Meanwhile, as the ideological drama developed, the inevitable material outcome of the War was becoming increasingly clear. Only the timing remained unknown,

Such was the context when Rudolf Steiner was asked for counsel—essentially, what should be done when the peace finally came? This from Otto von Lerchenfeld, a highly placed German career diplomat, who was soon joined in the discussions by an Austrian counterpart (and Anthroposophist), Ludwig von Poltzer-Hoditz. Working with these two partners—at great speed and with a deep sense of responsibility—Steiner formulated what he saw as a solution to the social contradictions and fundamental misapprehension of reality that had led

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Europe to the civilizational cul-de-sac of the Great War. Recognizing the inherent flaw in the unitary state, he proposed the separation—“threefolding”—of society into three independent, autonomous, but interrelated areas, each with its own organizing principle: 1) an autono-mous cultural life, arising from the freedom of individu-als; 2) equality and justice in the sphere of legal rights, arising from the juridical equality of all human beings; and 3) an understanding of economics that is coopera-tive and associative—brotherly and sisterly—rather than competitive, as in the free market system of capitalism. These ideas were then presented in a “memorandum” as a path to social and cultural renewal, appro-priate to the historical moment in which cen-tral Europe found itself. The memorandum was then distributed to leading politicians in Germany and Austria. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with such initiatives, at the time nothing came of the proposal. Yet it was not something Steiner proposed idly. On the contrary, he believed fervently in its rightness and necessity for our time. Therefore, he con-tinued to work on it. In 1919, with the termi-nation of hostilities, it became a central focus of his endeavors.

Here it must be remembered that Steiner’s social activism was not new. While it had never before been his primary concern in such a direct way, he came to it fully prepared. To begin with, he was a working-class child, a scholarship boy, who’d had to support himself all his life. As such, he had a “common touch” and always felt at ease with ordinary people. At the same time, his phil-osophical path—while it certainly led him to the epis-temological, as well as ethical Monism and Christian Realism (“Not I, but the Christ in me”) of The Philosophy of Freedom, and ultimately to the mystical moment of witnessing the Mystery of Golgotha in a “festival of insight”—took important detours through the radically free terrain opened up by Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner. From this period of his life he inherited a deep distaste for what he considered the pernicious material-ism and hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. Indeed, it might be said that Steiner was always a radical and always concerned with social questions. Before the turn of the turn of the century and extending into his first years as a spiritual teacher (1897 to 1904, at least), we see him not only passing through an “anarchist” period and par-ticipating in many radical cultural societies, but most important, also enjoying a seven-year teaching position at the Worker’s College founded by Wilhelm Liebknecht. The depth of his commitment to social issues is indicated

by the fact that in 1902, just before founding the German Section of the Theosophical Society, Steiner shared the stage with Rosa Luxemburg. Much later, in 1919, he said of this occasion:

I once stood in Spandau, on the same lecture plat-form as Rosa Luxemburg, who has just met so tragic an end [she had just been assassinated]. We were both speakers at a gathering of the proletariat, where the theme was science and the workers. From Rosa Luxemburg’s words, one could see how inspiration-ally she could work into the souls of these working-class people, who had come on a Sunday afternoon

with their wives and children. It was a heart-warming gathering. (CW 329, not translated)

Social concerns were clearly not new to Rudolf Steiner. In fact, even in 1905, in an article in Luzifer-Gnosis entitled “Spiritual Science and the Social Question” (not trans-lated, CW 34), he had already intimated a

“threefold” solution.Social threefolding, however, was not

the only seed planted in 1917. Related and equally important—especially for what in its turn would become the anthropological basis

of Waldorf pedagogy—was Steiner, in the autumn of 1919, finally being able to articulate the threefold nature of the human being. He had been working at this idea since about 1882, when he was only twenty-one; but it was not until 1917, in a lecture and in an appendix to Riddles of the Soul (CW 21), that he was first able to artic-ulate it to his satisfaction, completely and fully. Without this profound insight into the threefold constitution of the human being, as Steiner related at a public lecture in Bern two years later (March 11, 1919), he would not have come to the idea of the importance of social threefolding:

I do not believe that I would have come to a true un-derstanding of the idea of the threefold nature of the social organism or body if I had not previously un-dertaken research into the human organism itself—research on which I reported, at least in outline, in my book Riddles of the Soul. In it, I showed that the ordinary, natural human organism is of a threefold nature—namely, that this natural human organism is threefold in its differentiation into a sensory and nerve organism, a rhythmic (circulatory) organism, and a metabolic organism. To recognize these three members of the natural human organism is vitally important for contemporary human thinking. For it is by means of the kind of thinking and insight that we can exercise in connection with this view that we

F re e d o m o f T h o u g h t & S o c i e tal Fo rc e s : I n tro d u c t i o n


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come to true insight into the social organism itself in its threefold nature.

Less significant in the short term, perhaps (yet not, one hopes, in the long term), 1917 also saw Steiner turning to the need for Anthroposophy to participate in the renewal of higher education. The mission of Anthroposophy to transform academic sciences would in fact become a dominant theme of Steiner’s lectures to the so-called youth movement during the last few years of his life (1922–1924). The ripe fruit of that aspiration still lies ahead of us.

Though the seeds were planted, the soil still needed work. Thus, in preparation for the end of the War, when cultural-spiritual renewal and transformation would become possible again, Steiner reissued—with additions and modifications—his foundational written works: Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path (The Philosophy of Freedom, CW 4); Goethe’s Worldview (CW 6); Theosophy (CW 9); How to Know Higher Worlds (CW 10); Goethe’s Spiritual Path as Revealed in Faust and the Fairy Tale of “The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” (CW 22); A Way of Self-Knowledge and The Threshold of the Spiritual World (CW 16/17); and Riddles of Philosophy (CW 18). This task, by itself, must have taken an almost unimaginable amount of work and concentration. However, that was not all. In addi-tion, Steiner also worked on a new edition of An Outline of Esoteric Science (which would not appear until 1920), wrote an introduction to The Mission of Folk-Souls (CW 121), and gave the lectures, “Historical Symptomology” (CW 185) and “The Developmental Foundations for the Development of Social Judgment” (CW 185a). In this way, indefatigably, Steiner prepared the ground for the following year—1919, the year of threefolding, the cre-ation of Waldorf education, and the public appearance of eurythmy.

Until April, Steiner remained in Switzerland, lectur-ing on the idea of threefolding in Zurich, Basel, Berne, and Winterthur. Based on these lectures, in order to introduce threefolding to a wider public he then wrote the short book Social Renewal (CW23). Following this, he traveled to Germany, where things were naturally much more unsettled. Earlier, in February, in collabo-ration with his coworkers, he had issued “A Call to the German People and the Cultural World,” which was underwritten by several well-known personalities of the time and appeared in many leading newspapers. In it, Steiner spoke of the history that had led to the

present moment and called “for a broader understand-ing of life” that would strive “with strong thinking to understand the evolutionary forces of modern human-ity . . . and devote itself with courageous determination to the unfolding of three forces.” In Germany, he sought, above all, to address businesses (workers, management, and owners), to inspire on all sides a collegial, associa-tive approach to their enterprises. He spoke of creat-ing “business councils” and creating “cultural councils.” Despite throwing his whole being into it and lecturing tirelessly, the response, though not completely negligible, was too small to effect real change. As for members of the bourgeoisie or middle class, they remained unim-pressed and passive. By midsummer, therefore, Steiner turned his attention to the new (first) Waldorf School.

Later in the year, he returned to the threefold theme, writing articles and giving a public lecture cycle, The Social Future (CW 332a).

This book, Freedom of Thought and Societal Forces, contains six pub-lic lectures given between May and December 1917. It provides a broad, accessible overview of—or a kind of general introduction or background to—Steiner’s social thinking during this first period of his social activ-

ism. Readers may be surprised at his radical ability to meet social reality without prejudice or preconception and fearlessly describe what he sees. He understood that any such description—at least in his time—must acknowledge that, although perhaps only symptomatic in a larger sense, the demands for changes in the social order derived, above all, from ordinary members of the working class; for it was they who, then (and probably still today) experienced most directly the inequities and hypocrisies of the system. In other words, Steiner could sympathize with the reality that, as a result of industri-alization and “soul-destroying capitalism,” the working class was forced into a life almost exclusively dominated by economic activity—living only to work for the pit-tance that enabled them to survive. Their labor—the labor of many—supported the few; no question of that. Hence they thought the solution to their problem was purely economic. From Steiner’s point of view, however, reality is not so simple; the underlying issue is spiritual or cultural.

In truth, it is not just the poor who demand some sort of economic and social equity; the demand is human; it is an evolutionary and societal call that the upper classes failed to answer, though they could have. Indeed, culture


Ordinary people

look at culture and

education and see that it

only reinforces the status

quo It is not for them

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as a whole has failed to respond. It is Steiner’s point that both culture and the cultured classes have become pro-gressively estranged from “real life” and from the lives of ordinary people. Ordinary people look at culture and education and see that it only reinforces the status quo. It is not for them, and it is by no means an agent of change. Thus, the issue is not simply a more equitable distribu-tion of wealth. Rather, it has to do with the creation of a culture that will bring people together in creative, har-monious ways rather than segmenting them economically and promoting only the financial and cultural interests of the elite (corporate or intellectual). One of the great illusions, Steiner says, is “that we can convey the cul-ture of an exclusive minority to the masses.” On the contrary, our time demands a culture that includes all social classes. Thus, “the first prerequi-site for a healthy social life is a cultural and intellectual life that is allowed to develop on the basis of its own intrinsic values”—a free cultural life.

While the general evolution of social consciousness—through its natural democratic tendency—is now beginning to make legal individual and human rights for all universal, the economic question still remains mud-died, mostly, as Steiner sees it, because it subsumes two things—labor and capital—that do not belong to it. For Steiner, the circulation of goods alone constitutes what we call the “economy,” and not what is usually subsumed under it: labor and capital. In the modern economy, labor has become a commodity, which condemns workers to a life reduced to work. But labor cannot be priced like a commodity; it needs to be extri-cated from the economic process, which must become autonomous and self-governing and concerned only with the circulation and value of goods. For Steiner, the only way to accomplish the shift would be to establish the independence of labor from the economy. Labor should be shifted to the sphere of rights, the only place where we find the freedom that workers seek. Similarly, capital must be liberated from egotistic ownership and allowed—like goods—simply to circulate. It should be simply a placeholder for goods and, like goods, should be allowed to circulate, gradually wear out, and then disappear. All these are radical proposals, but in these lectures Steiner makes a convincing case for their feasi-bility and relevance.

He is clear, however, that economic and social reali-ties cannot be separated from the spiritual realities of human existence. From Steiner’s point of view, humanity

today suffers primarily from a lack of self-knowledge, of the human as a spiritual being. Thinking has become use-less—abstract and automatic—because everything related to the human being as a whole has been eliminated from it. To remedy this, the first step is to acknowledge it and develop an inner attitude of modesty and humility that accepts the inadequacy of ordinary thinking to approach such questions. Second, we must increase our capacity to love—one another and the world. This, though often overlooked, is fundamental. Without an enhanced and growing love, any other capacities we might gain will remain arid and unprofitable. But on the basis of these two prerequisites—modesty and love—we can begin a path of inner work that will allow us truly to understand reality differently and more deeply. The second lecture

thus describes in some detail, with fascinating commentary, various soul and spirit meditative practices that anyone can do. It makes clear that, without such inner work, and so with-out spiritual self-knowledge, no real social progress is possible.

Approaching the same reality from another side, we can easily see that what ails our individual ordinary thinking is the same thing that ails our culture in general. It, too, has become

increasingly abstract, automatic, elitist, and removed from reality. Culture, like thinking, must become alive and universally human. Here, Steiner speaks from his own experience at the Worker’s College. He could speak to them about anything if he spoke in a living way about what he had as his own. But when he had to “do the fashionable thing” and take them to museums and other places where “bourgeois culture” was on display, the gap between their intellectual and spiritual longings and what was presented to them was nearly unbridgeable. As Steiner says, “We understand art, science, and religion only when they are based on the shared perceptions of our peers—not when there is a rift between those who are supposed to enjoy culture and those who actually can. We experienced this discrepancy as a profound cultural lie.” Education and culture must become free expres-sions through free individuals of the universal whole, to which all have equal access, not the product of “sur-plus” privilege that some members of society enjoy at the expense of others. Here, above all, we see the importance of education, and we are given a different kind of lens through which to view the Waldorf movement, which is an attempt to develop pedagogy out of the human being itself—the universal human.


I n the modern economy,

labor has become

a commodity, which

condemns workers to a

life reduced to work


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None of what Steiner speaks of, however, is pos-sible if people do not develop what he calls “freedom of thought.” To develop such freedom is one purpose of spiritual science. The gift of humanity’s present evolu-tionary moment, which Steiner calls “the consciousness soul,” freedom of thought means thinking, feeling, and acting out of one’s own direct connection to the spirit. It is the fruit of both living, non-dualistic meditative thinking beyond all determination and habit, whether psychological, physical, or logical, and “true, devoted love for the object of one’s actions.” Overcoming ego-tism, authentic freedom of thought is always ethical. Directed toward the world, out of the spirit, it acts solely out of love of the deed: just so. We may call it intuition, but intuition becomes real only when acted upon or embodied. Furthermore, freedom, intuition of this kind, becomes possible only through the recognition of our immortality, just as Dostoevsky when he asserted that, without the conviction of the immortality of the soul, the love of one’s neighbor—loving one another as Christ loved us, which is the new commandment—is impossi-ble. Therefore, as Steiner says, “social forces, freedom of thought, and spiritual science are all related.”

Were it to become more general, such exercise of free-dom of thought, as Steiner conceives of it, would provide a safe way out of the twinned dangers of the materialism and abstraction, which threaten social life both in the narrower sense of “national” life, but also in the broader, more global, geopolitical sense. In place of materialistic, egotistic thinking, one consequence of which is clearly modern warfare and the material use of force gener-ally, freedom of thought opens a way to act and know—lovingly—out of the spirit; instead of abstraction, which only exacerbates materialism and materialistic action divorced from reality, freedom of thought promotes con-crete, realistic, context-specific responsibility.

As the fifth lecture in this book makes clear, this path is none other than that made possible for all humanity by Christ’s deed on Golgotha, but embodied in a new way. Steiner’s mission is to hasten the new embodiment:

We will derive truly socially responsible views only from sources that also feed our modern suprasen-sory activity. Viewpoints derived from a merely mechanistic view of nature are liabilities, as are lifeless copies of centuries-old religious denomina-tions that have lost their vitality. Now, more than at any other time, humankind needs the power of the Christ, but we need a new way to find him. All of the old ways, whether obvious or disguised, be-long in the liability column. . . . What we really need, however, is spiritual deepening that can truly make

inroads into our material life and accompany it ev-ery step of the way. My ongoing mission is to de-scribe a spiritual view of life, complete with ideas that can shape actions and soul forces that can gen-erate morality and religious reverence.

In other words, as Steiner puts it in the final lecture: “Without spirit cognition, our ethical impulses on behalf of Western culture are totally unfounded.” Caught between virtually empty religious views, disconnected from individual spiritual perception, and prescriptions cobbled together from half-understood or misunderstood opinions based in the natural sciences, we are called to make the world new out of spiritual insight, “warmed and enthused,” in Steiner’s words, “by a soul-spiritual element.” This is the real spiritual need of our time, to which Anthroposophy seeks to respond. Thus Steiner concludes these lectures with these inspiring words filled with great courage and determination:

In the face of all resistance and to the best of its abil-ity, anthroposophic spiritual science must continue to stand for knowledge that supports our actions, our ethical and social endeavors, and the finest hu-man hopes. Our opponents may succeed in muzzling spiritual science, but as soon as it regains even the slightest freedom, it will resume speaking out about the truth it recognizes as necessary for humanity. When the tide began turning in favor of the Allies, the Goetheanum was there for the whole world to see, as testimony to an international culture unapologeti-cally based on further development of a Goethean approach rooted in Germanic culture. Similarly, in spite of all obstacles, anthroposophic spiritual sci-ence will continue to fight for the perceptions and knowledge that shape its convictions. This content, although rooted in Central Europe, belongs to the whole world.

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Christopher Bamford is Editor in Chief for SteinerBooks and its imprints. A Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association, he has lectured, taught, and written widely on Western spiritual and esoteric traditions. He is the author of The Voice of the Eagle: The Heart of Celtic Christianity (2000) and An Endless Trace:

The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West (2003). He has also translated and edited numerous books, including Celtic Christianity, Homage to Pythagoras, and The Noble Traveller (all from Lindisfarne Books). HarperSanFrancisco included an essay by Mr. Bamford in its anthology Best Spiritual Writing 2000.


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Indications Given by Rudolf Steiner to a Painter

Maria Strakosch-GieslerConversations about Painting

with Rudolf Steiner

In darkness I find the existence of GodIn rose-red I feel the source of lifeIn ether-blue reposes the spirit’s longingIn life’s green breathes the breath of all lifeIn gold’s yellow shines the clarity of thinkingIn fire’s red the strength of will is rootedIn sun-white my being’s kernel manifests itself

—rudolF Steiner, a meditation on color, 1908

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Maria StrakoSch-GieSler (1877–1970) was born in North Rhine Westphalia. She left home at seventeen to study classi-cal painting in Berlin. Within three years, she won first prize in a competition for fairytale illustrations. In 1902, she heard Wassily Kandinsky and decided to study with him. Their friend-ship was long-lived, and she also became acquainted with Alexej Jawlensky, Marianne Werefkin, and Paul Klee, and other paint-ers in Kandinsky’s Blue Rider movement. Maria first came into contact with Rudolf Steiner in 1908. After moving to Vienna in 1912, she became involved in the artist’s group Free Movement and showed her paintings in several exhibitions there. In 1914, she joined the work of carving the capitals and architraves in the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. In 1920, Maria and her husband, Alexander Strakosch moved to Stuttgart, where they became teachers in the Waldorf school. In 1937, however, they had to leave Germany, owing to Alexander’s Jewish heritage, returning to Germany after the War. In 1955, Maria wrote The Sphinx Redeemed as well as articles for anthroposophic peri-odicals. She died in Dornach at the age of ninety-three.

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On the occasion of the Theosophical Congress in Budapest in 1909, I was able to show Rudolf

Steiner my paintings for the first time. Before that, I had been a pupil of Kandinsky and had already searched, to the best of my ability, for a means of expression, a lan-guage arising out of color—but in vain.

In April 1908, we1 first met Rudolf Steiner in Berlin after a lecture he gave in the Architektenhaus. A few days later, I received meditations from him concerning colors, which gave me the possibility of experiencing a completely

1. Maria Strakosch-Giesler and her husband Alexander Strakosch (1879–1958).

different aspect of painting than I had known hitherto. Previously I had not progressed beyond studying nature. At that time, Impressionism was prevalent, and Kandinsky himself struggled for a way to surpass it. I still remember quite well how impossible it seemed to me to get beyond what the senses perceive. However, at the time I diligently practiced the meditations given to me, without having any notion as to what would come of it.

In the spring of 1909, I had been in southern Tirol in a small village with a church situated high above Meran. The cemetery on the mountainside surrounded the picturesque little white church. The snowy peaks towered into the silent blue-gray of the sky. I sat toward evening and painted the church, which stood amid its white crosses. I could hear the muffled gurgling of a nearby spring. A shiver ran down my spine. I had to lay my study to one side, since the picture had transformed itself completely in front of my eyes; the previously white church loomed a deathly green into the sky; the tower window had acquired an eerie expression, and a cold, mysterious violet looked out from it. The sky had changed to a dark blood-red, into which the snow peaks now towered in a pallid bone-white tone. Behind and above the cemetery lay a strange wan, violet and yellow-ochre “something.” Later I painted the impres-sion at home and now knew how colors can begin to take on a life of their own.

Maria Strakosch-Giesler and Alexander Strakosch

In Budapest, I was thus able to show these and many other studies to Dr. Steiner. He encouraged me to con-tinue painting and made me aware that I should now pay attention to the shapes of the mountains and how they had certain characteristic forms.

Later, when we were with him in Veldes in Krain, he said of the Schlossberg, a mountain on Lake Veldes,

“Have you noticed that it evokes the imagi-nation of a lion?” I then returned from Budapest to Trieste, where we lived at the time. The whole world now had a different appearance; colors wanted to say mean-ingful things.

I liked best of all to observe the twilight. When shadows covered the ground, the colors acquired an eerie life. Reflections from the lights on the shore darted on the waves and gave the play of colors the semblance of will-o’-the-wisps. If one’s glance passed over the houses, with their grotesquely shaped chimneys or over the arched contours of the mountains to the sky above, little shining golden-yellow clouds swam there like blessed spirits amid the most peaceful cyan-blue.

I painted all this splendor only at home as a compo-sition. What emerged was so completely different from the prevailing Impressionism that no one could make anything of these paintings. They were tempera pictures in quite strong colors.

I did feel somewhat like a godforsaken sinner for painting like that. It then turned out that I was able to travel to Munich in 1910 for the performance of the mys-tery plays and a lecture cycle. I took a bundle of paint-ings with me and was able to show them to Dr. Steiner and Fräulein von Sivers [Frau Dr. Steiner]. Anxiously I unpacked them. Fräulein von Sivers said, “Those are fairytales!” In response to my question, Herr Dr. Steiner spoke of how one could properly integrate the form of the human being into a landscape: “Start from the plant kingdom and tell yourself: Plants are light. Include water and clouds in this kingdom. Regarding the min-eral kingdom, tell yourself: It has remained behind the light in evolution. Regarding the animal kingdom, as well as the human kingdom, tell yourself: They have hurried ahead of the light. In this way you can let them flit through the landscape.”

In 1911, it happened that Herr Dr. Steiner went for a while to Portorose in the vicinity of Trieste. During this time, when we were able to see Dr. Steiner fre-quently, the sea and its shoreline became for me ever more splendid, and the colors appeared increasingly

as though imbued with being. Something elemental came to life in them.

I attempted to paint it, and when I showed these attempts to Dr. Steiner, he understood the stammer-ing of my intentions. From the many pieces of work, he selected seven pictures and said, “We will show these to the Theosophists in Munich.” This actually

took place at the time of the 1911 lec-ture cycle in Munich. Dr. Steiner him-self determined how the pictures were to be framed, indicating a somewhat dark-blue frame, quite wide, raised toward the outside and becoming flat-ter toward the picture inside. He said the color of the frame would always have to repeat a color in the picture.

I was astonished to see how the pic-tures now looked—how harmoniously the strong colors, placed next to one another without many in-between tones, were held together by means of the blue.

Then Dr. Steiner had golden-yellow burlap stretched over the wall and the pictures hung in a particular sequence. One picture was hung quite high up in the middle of the wall, with three pictures to the left inclined in stages toward the central one, while the remaining three on the other side inclined in stages down again from the middle.

This arrangement rather surprised me; but then all at once I understood something. And Rudolf Steiner then told me that, in painting out of the color, it can be a matter of a series of pictures and that I should try paint-ing the same motif out of the color seven times. Thus, I now stood once again before a great riddle.

Rudolf Steiner held a morning lecture on those seven pictures, in which he referred for the first time to the need to use a medium other than commercially available tubes of colors.

From then on, I made many technical experiments: woodcuts, wood engravings, and so on until the plant colors were developed and brought out.

Gradually, my attempts at painting a series of pic-tures took on more definite form. The colors of the rain-bow, as something capable of metamorphosing, acquired life for me. One day I grasped it!

A motif transforms its shape according to whether it appears in black, rose-red, blue, green, yellow, red, or sun-white.

I stood as though before a tremendous process, at the end of which, as the completion of a long path, the seven Apocalyptic Seals shined forth. I worked on a series of

I n d i cat i o n s G i v e n by R u d o l f S te i n e r to a Pa i n te r

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seven small woodcuts in the form of landscapes with human figures, and then on seven wood engravings with a stronger figurative emphasis. They were only small motifs that my soul could apprehend, and yet I experi-enced incredible things in doing them—death and resur-rection, extending almost to the physical.

When the wood engravings were finished after some time, I was able to show them to Dr. Steiner. He said kindly, “With these pieces of work, one can penetrate perhaps two centimeters below the surface. Take a look at my mystery dramas; I wrote them in such a way that one can never get to the bottom. You must also try to work like that—so that one does not quickly get to the bottom of it.”

Later, when I once became very despondent as a result of difficult circumstances, he said, “One does not need to lose heart if one has done work like that.” And to this day, this kind word has given me courage.

In 1918, Herr Dr. Steiner came to Vienna and, at the request of some friends, held a lecture to which mainly Viennese artists were invited: “The Sensory-Suprasensory: Spiritual Knowledge and Artistic Creation.”2

At the time, it was possible for me to show Rudolf Steiner some sketches for larger pictures. They arose from a process of coming in touch with the world of col-ors, deepened by occupation with his mystery dramas. The basis was particularly the Egyptian scene (fourth mystery drama), in which the representatives of the several elements speak. What is contained in the words of this scene can bring powerfully before the soul the heavy weight of earth, the lightness of air, the sacrificial strength of fire, and the awakening cosmic sounding of

2. Contained in Geisteswissenschaftliche Erläuterungen zu Goethes ‘Faust’, in 2 Bdn., Bd.1, Faust, der strebende Mensch (CW 272).

water. In this way, what had been felt dully as the life of the elements in color was brought to clarity: earth, air, fire, water worked together. In the sketch dealing with the element of fire, I had shown fire as red. Dr. Steiner said, “A flame cannot be painted. Make the red flatter [more two-dimensional] and let it take on forms.” As far as I remember, he also said on this occasion, “Blue is the form-giving element; with red, one cannot give form. If one attempts it and lays the red on in superimposed lay-ers, it is as though one had painted veins.”

As a result of the mystery drama performances, it came about that some of us were permitted to help in one way or another with the sets. The world of color was then sometimes wonderfully revealed to us. The costumes in particular made a deep impression on me when their colors and forms appeared in the lighting Rudolf Steiner indicated—with its harmonizing and expressive qualities.

Later on, we were led further into the activity of color with the lectures, “Ways to a New Style in Architecture,”3 which were held in the carpentry workshop as prepara-tion for the work on the Goetheanum building. Frau Dr. Steiner later published those lectures in a book. How amazed we were by the studies on large plywood panels carried out by a number of artists, based on sketches by Dr. Steiner, as preparatory work for painting the two cupolas of the Goetheanum. The painting was done from paint dishes using plant colors on a specially pre-pared ground. The colors that emerged from this seemed miraculous to us. A painter told me that Dr. Steiner had said to him that, in painting, he should let the colors, as it were, weave themselves together in the light.

I saw only these preparations, then I had to leave Dornach and came back there only in 1920, when the Goetheanum was opened with a color- and light-flooded eurythmy performance of “The Twelve Moods.” Above the stage arched the cupola painted by Rudolf Steiner himself. Repeatedly, I was able to immerse myself in these figures that formed themselves out of the colors. When I showed him a series of seven pic-tures I had painted, Dr. Steiner once said to me, “Now paint that all in one picture.” I had not managed to do it. Now, however, I saw it here in front of me in the paintings of the small cupola. Below lay Ahriman in black, gray-brown, and dark violet tones. Above him, fettering him in rays of light, stood the Christ figure in sun-white radiance. On each side were two angels, one blue and one yellow-orange. Red flamed from his heart, and his left hand pointed to the red of Lucifer,

3. These lectures constitute part two of Rudolf Steiner, Architecture as a Synthesis of the Arts (London, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999).


Wassily Kandinsky and Maria Giesler (c.1902)


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who was enclosed by a beautiful, bluish-green tone above and seemed to incline toward the moon.

At the time, by repeatedly contemplating this cupola painting, a great feeling of peace came over me. As long as this painting is there for us to see, I thought, with its healing effect, everything would have to turn again and again toward the good and noble. Now it has been destroyed by fire [in the first Goetheanum]. We can only carry it in our hearts, knowing that the way the spiritual world works into our earthly world had been there for us to see with physical eyes.

Often, as I sat absorbed in front of the painting of the small cupola, people asked that I point out to them how to enter it more fully. The thought occurred to me that I could best do so if I was able to show such people how to paint. Later, I asked Dr. Steiner whether he could show me a way (as he had done with eurythmy) by which one could introduce oth-ers to painting. He said,

“Paint a self-portrait, the whole figure, and make everything you see dark—for example, hands, arms, feet, legs; and everything that you do not see, you can leave white. What you barely see, you can make yel-low—for example, the tip of your nose. What you can see still more of, you can make green, and so on. But you must do it twenty times. By this means, you can come to the consciousness preceding birth.”

Leaving everything else aside, and as though mak-ing a new beginning, I went to work on this task—so new and unique did this indication seem to me. Peculiar figures emerged. While working, I felt a definite restor-ative effect. A new relationship to the body entered, and yet I was very uncertain as to whether I had understood Dr. Steiner correctly. However, when I showed him the work I had done, he told me new things, leading fur-ther on the basis of the previous attempts—namely, how I should now also include the background to the figures.

Since then I have made many studies on the basis of this indication, as well as other studies.

If one looks back into the cultures of the past, it becomes increasingly clear that only by achieving a new artistic concept of the human form can we reach a new way of painting today. By occupying myself with the human form, as Dr. Steiner had indicated with these few words, something arose for me that I can describe

only as “standing with one’s own self within the color.”

In the background, the forces can become effective by means of color that form the human being. In the limbs below are the dark colors belonging to the Earth’s depths, above in connec-tion with the head are the light, floating ones. They strive from above down-ward, and from below upward—darkness from below, light from above. The actual colored world lives, however, in the rhythmic system, and transforms itself in gra-dations as in the rainbow, surging from light to dark and from dark to light.

The one who disclosed these sacred worlds to us

and who conjured an archetype of painting before us in the small cupola, which should have been for the salva-tion and consolation of past and future generations—his hand now rests.

Yet in our souls, what we saw there in the cupola must ever and again rise from the ashes: Christ the vic-torious helper.

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Translated from Die erlöste Sphinx (The Sphinx Redeemed) by Maria Strakosch-Giesler. Novalis-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1955.

See page 4 of this catalog for more about Conversations about Painting with Rudolf Steiner.


Village Church above Meran by Maria Strakosch-Giesler 1909Tempera on pasteboard. 57.5 x 53.5 cm. Goetheanum Art Collection

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Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry

Introductionby Arthur Zajonc

“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.”

—henry daVid thoreau

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Being Awake, Fostering Peace

In his remarkable record of two years at Walden Pond, Thoreau wrote of the morning: “Little is to be expected

of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and aspirations from within, instead of factory bells ….The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intel-lectual exertion, only one in a hundred mil-lions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?”1

Yes, to be awake is to be truly alive. Yet how, in the face of fear, doubt, and deaden-ing routine, can we awaken ourselves to a “poetic and divine life”? If not by “factory bells” or other external means, then by what? Thoreau pointed to our genius, that high principle in each of us, as the force that can awaken. Our genius lives in expectation of the unknown as we expect the new day. It prompts us to be awake to the subtle dimensions of experience, to meet the suffer-ings and joys of life with equanimity, and to sense the unknown that continually invites us after her. How can we come into more regular and sustained contact with our genius?

Upon meeting someone more awake than I, I have felt the conflicting emotions of hesitation and eager-ness, of resentment, excitement, and longing to become more like them, more present and more alive. The time-less story of the Buddha captures the feeling of such an encounter.2 It is said that soon after his enlightenment, the Buddha passed a man on the road who was struck by his extraordinary presence. The man stopped and

asked, “My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god?”

“No,” said the Buddha.“Well, then, are you some kind of magician or

wizard?”Again the Buddha answered, “No.”“Are you a man?”“No.”“Well, my friend, what then are you?”The Buddha replied, “I am awake.” The name Buddha means “one who is awake.”Together with wakefulness, the Buddha is said

to have radiated peacefulness. Wakefulness requires peace as its complement. In other words, if one is to be more fully awake, then the burdens of such wakefulness require a steadiness of mind, a largeness of heart, and a deep equanimity in the face of new and significant experiences. I think of Nelson Mandela or Rigoberta

Menchu Tum confronting the suffering of their friends and people with open eyes and open hearts, not turning away from the suffering but turning toward it. They were awake to the suffering not only of themselves but of their entire communi-ties. Both have become exemplars because they met suffering with compassion, and because together with truth they sought reconciliation instead of revenge.

To see is to suffer sorrow as well as to experience joy, and the more fully we see the greater must be our peace of heart in order to carry what is lived. I sometimes imagine to myself that, like the metal-

worker who pours molten metal into a crucible, life pours its experience into the pliant, refractory vessel of the wakeful heart. The heat of truth softens and molds us according to its own laws, if we have the patience and strength to endure it. Simone Weil put it well when she wrote, “To love truth means to endure the void and, as a result, to accept death. Truth is on the side of death.”3 Something dies in us every time we change. To make space for the true, familiar well-worn habits must give way.

Personal Practice and Finding FellowshipOne well-established way of cultivating wakeful-

ness and peace is contemplative practice. I began my own practice of meditation over thirty-five years ago, at about the same time I started my serious study of physics. Since that time, contemplative practice has been a necessary part of my life, including my work as


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a scientist. Yet for many years I felt alone in my stub-born conjunction of the scientific and the contemplative. Occasionally I would find a colleague and companion who also combined contemplative striving with a vigor-ous scholarly life, most commonly a humanist or artist. But this situation is changing.

By now it has become clear that contemplative practice works. The hundreds of scientific studies of its efficacy have shown the value of meditation in many health contexts. A high point for me in this regard was a large conference at MIT in 2003 that I co-facilitated, called “Investigating the Mind.”4 A distinguished group of Buddhist scholars and monks, including the Dalai Lama, were on stage with an equally distinguished group of cognitive scientists and psychologists. Richard Davidson from the University of Wisconsin in Madison was presenting data from his extensive studies of eight expert Buddhist contemplatives during long periods of meditation.5 His research was meticulous, with every control one could imagine to eliminate experimental artifacts. The data were compelling. Even at the level of neurophysiology, dramatic changes were evident, and these went far beyond what one could expect from any normal variations.

As powerful as Davidson’s presentation was, it only confirmed what thousands of years of personal experi-ence all over the world had already affirmed. Meditation matters. It matters not only to monks but also to patients at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and 250 similar centers around the world. It matters to hundreds of thousands of students in colleges and universities who each semester are benefiting from a pedagogy that has been enriched by the inclusion of contemplative practices.6 The health, educational, business, and personal benefits of medita-tion are now well documented and widely appreciated by millions of Americans and uncounted others around the world.

This was brought home to me when I was a program director for the Fetzer Institute, and the president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Charles Halpern, sug-gested to me and others that perhaps it was time to inau-gurate a “contemplative practice fellowship” program. I was certain no one would apply, beyond at most a hand-ful of students or professors from religious or alterna-tive colleges. Charlie persisted and even convinced the revered American Council of Learned Societies to administer the fellowships. The response to that first year’s program in 1997 was tremendously positive; as I read the proposals I was delighted by their thoughtful-ness and variety. Between 1997 and 2007 more than 120

contemplative practice fellowships were awarded to a remarkable range of scholars each of whom has in some manner integrated contemplative practice into his or her university teaching. They come from distinguished col-leges and universities throughout North America. In the first year alone they taught at places like Bryn Mawr (English), City University of New York (English), Suffolk University (law), University of Massachusetts (American studies), Colgate University (religion), Haverford College (philosophy), Clark University (English), Columbia University (education), University of Colorado (sociology), University of Michigan (music), University of Colorado, Denver (architecture), and University of California, Irvine (psychiatry).

Since 1997, there have been regional and national conferences on the theme of contemplation in higher education by many groups such as the Association of American Colleges and Universities, as well as at Columbia University, Amherst College, and the University of Michigan. The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA has launched a Spirituality in Higher Education survey project. In my own Five College area we have had an official Five College Faculty Seminar on New Epistemologies and Contemplation for sev-eral years with over seventy participants, and among the Five Colleges some thirty-five courses are offered that include meditation in some form. The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society has been a crucial orga-nization, helping to foster contemplative practice among not only among academics but also social justice activ-ists, lawyers, youth, environmental leaders, and other groups. I don’t feel alone any more, but I do feel that we are still at the very beginning. The invaluable contribu-tion that meditation can make to all aspects of our lives, including learning and research, has only begun to be developed and appreciated.

Contemporary Contemplative InquiryI agree with those who have maintained that the

true goal of contemplative practice, indeed of life, is the joining of insight and compassion, wisdom and love. To accomplish this requires that we find deep peace within and learn to be ever more awake, and thereby be of greater benefit in all we undertake. Our time is beset by problems: environmental problems, social justice issues, homelessness, health disasters, inequities in education, hunger, and poverty. These all require real-world solutions. Yet together with our tireless outer efforts, a comparable effort is needed to change who we are, to become, as Gandhi said, the solutions we envision for the world. We will need to

M e d i tat i o n a s C o n te m p l at i v e I n q u i r y : I n tro d u c t i o n

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find the means to engage in an inner work commensu-rate with our outer work.

The medieval European worldview recognized two orientations to life. One was termed vita activa and the other vita contemplativa, the active life and the contempla-tive life. Most of medieval society was given to the life of production, whether agriculture, handcrafts, the arts of war, or governance. In the monasteries, by contrast, the few were given to a life of prayer and contemplation, to vita contemplativa. While the monks did labor in the mon-astery gardens and kitchens to provide for themselves, the monastery walls protected them from the turmoil of the active life. Even work itself became a form of prayer for the medieval monk. Laborare est orare, they said: “to work is to pray.”

The times are different now, in that those who wish to live the contempla-tive life must simultaneously live the active life. No monastery walls pro-tect us. We are all fully in the world, and the complexity of the world has grown exponentially. Instead, we are cut off from the world in other ways, like solitary hermits who wander the world carrying our caves on our backs. Although embedded in the world of action, we also can feel the depths of loneliness while surrounded by many others. To surmount these barriers, we are called to be both deeply reflective and active outwardly. As Dag Hammarskjöld wrote, “In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.”7 If this feels contradictory, it is. A new paradoxical geometry of life has gradually established itself at the core of modern existence. It is right and proper that we lead our active lives, fully engaged in the world, but amid the rush of the outer world, we must keep in mind the words of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton: “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is itself to succumb to the violence of our times.”8 We need to complement our outer work with a comparable commit-ment to inner work, but for most this will occur with-out retreating to monastic communities. We therefore require a form of practice that reflects the changed times in which we live, and the particular form of conscious-ness we carry.

The method of contemplative inquiry that I will unfold in this book attempts to answer this call by incorporat-ing the contemplative life into the active life. Good inten-tions and technical skills, essential though they are, will

not be sufficient to make us into the educators, doctors, statesmen, scientists, and artists needed in the future. In this I agree with the assessment of the ecologist John Milton, who maintains that political, legal, and economic approaches to progress simply do not go deep enough.

“By themselves they won’t bring about the penetrating changes in human culture that we need for people to live in true harmony and balance with one another and the earth. The next great opening of an ecological worldview will have to be an internal one.”9

This opening to the internal can build on the sound foundations of methods such as mindfulness-based

stress reduction (MBSR), which have proved skillful vehicles for universal-izing the profoundly transformative and healing practices, insights, and realizations at the heart of the medita-tive tradition. Such systematic medi-tative practice and inquiry have now entered and benefited a wide range of mainstream institutions and fields, including medicine and health care, business, the law, and education, by

introducing deep insights that reach beyond the reduc-tionist, materialist conception of our world and “reality” that is so prevalent today. That some eminent scientists assert that all of nature and humanity are purely material does not make it true. Such metaphysical suppositions have nothing to do with the success of their scientific theories. We require new and more embracing methods of inquiry that can accommodate the great advances of science but not be limited by the dogmatic perspective of materialism and its associated economics. These views of humanity and our cosmos are simply too narrow and impoverished to succeed. I agree with those who have maintained that the true goal of contemplative practice, indeed of life, is the joining of insight and compassion, wisdom and love. In creating the internal opening Milton advocates, contemplative inquiry can, I believe, cultivate these qualities and give rise to the kinds of insights that are needed in all domains of life.

The relation between knowledge and contemplative striving has a long history. Buddhism views the root source of suffering as ignorance concerning the true nature of the world and ourselves. Insight or vipassana is, therefore, considered essential to enlightenment or liberation. On a personal level, each of us carries con-cerns begging for clarity. They may be prompted by the illness of a child, a social crisis, or our deep concern for the environment. We are occupied with issues at home, at work, and in our community. How can we cultivate


D ag Hammarskjöld

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the road to holiness

necessarily passes through

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genuine insight and so find better ways of addressing them? In my life as an educator, scientist, activist, father, and writer, I have come to rely on contemplative inquiry as a trusted means of moving beyond brooding and intel-lectual analysis to what I experience as insights that bear with them the feel of truth, and which also have proven fruitful in life. Most of the good I have done has its roots in contemplative reflection of this kind.

As a scientist who delights in the clarity of physics and in the profound philosophical puzzles it poses, I do not seek a diminishment of science but rather a transfor-mation and extension of its methods. The same values of clarity, integrity and collegiality can infuse contem-plative exploration as have supported natural scientific exploration. Once we appreciate the full multidimen-sional nature of the human being and of our universe, we will be better equipped to deal with its problems.

Through both science and meditation I have sought insight into our world and the means to be of service. What follows is a guide to contemplative practice and inquiry for those who, like me, have a longing to know and, at the same time, to be of help. I have found Rudolf Steiner’s work to be a prime example of contemplation as a path of knowledge, and one that has led to many applications in education, agriculture and medicine. My personal meditative practice has been guided by his advice at every step, and much of what I present here is based on his writings and on my attempt over many years to practice according to his recommendations. The following pages contain a selection of the contem-plative exercises that I have personally found useful, many of which I have come to include in my teaching at Amherst College. The students I have taught have told me how helpful these exercises have been to them personally as well as in deepening their engagement with the material we have covered. Encouraged by my experience with them, as well as in my own life, I would like to share with you my view of meditation and what it offers us.

I have organized this book in a way the first gives the reader an overview of the contemplative path, as I see it. Following this overview I return to the beginning and offer more detailed instruction for the full range of practices familiar to me. The latter chapters will journey far into the work of contemplative inquiry. They will ask much of the reader, but the gains for ourselves and our world are large and, in my opinion, essential to the “great opening” that will be necessary for our future.

In writing this book I have continually struggled to find a language that is at once accessible and authentic. Much of the language of meditation has been co-opted,

commercialized or otherwise distorted, and religious or spiritual terminology has also become an obstacle for many. As a consequence, while I may use spiritual language where it seems necessary, I attempt to stay close to the practices themselves and the experiences that arise through them. Readers who would like to situate these practices and experiences within the reli-gious and spiritual literature will be pointed to the rel-evant resources.

I present these exercises and commentary as a sim-ple practitioner, not as a guru in a particular sect. While we can certainly admire those who demonstrate great learning and compassion, the time for unquestioning devotion and obedience to a teacher is past. The reader, therefore, should treat all that is said here as the sug-gestions of someone who has practiced meditation as a complement to the scientific and practical life. What has proven helpful to me may not be helpful to others; each reader will have to test the methods and practices I present to determine what is appropriate. In this sense, while we receive advice, we are our own teachers. We are each able to assess the extent to which practices are supportive of our lives. While I take responsibility for writing down the words within these pages, you the reader must take responsibility as well. I hope you will find the journey rewarding.

Notes:1 Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Civil Disobedience, edited by Owen Thomas, (NY: Norton Critical Edition, 1966) pp. 60-61.

2 Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom (Boston: Shambhala, 2001), p. 3.

3 Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, [in the section on the void]

4 Anne Harrington and Arthur Zajonc, The Dalai Lama at MIT, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006)

5 Antoine Lutz, Lawrence L. Greischar, Nancy B. Rawlings, Matthieu Ricard, and Richard Davidson, Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 101, (Nov. 16, 2004), pp. 16369-16373.

6 Teachers College Record, Special Issue: “Contemplative Practices and Education,” vol. 108 (September 2006), and www.contempla-tivemind.org, Academic Program of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

7 Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings, transl. W. H. Auden, Leif Sjoberg (NY: Vintage Books, 2006).

8 Quoted in Yoga Journal http://www.yogajournal.com/wis-dom/443.cfm.

9 Quoted in Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers, Presence, (Cambridge, MA: SoL, 2004), p. 66.

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See page 6 for more about this book and its author.


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Seth Jordan & Think OutWordby Winslow Eliot

“Whether I can help, I know not; an individual helps not, but one who combines with many at the proper hour. We will postpone the evil and keep hoping. Hold thy circle fast.”

—Goethe, “The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily”

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In an effort to shape society in a way that they hope will be healing, Seth Jordan and a group of friends

recently founded an inspiring new organization called “Think OutWord.” Loosely based around Rudolf Steiner’s ideas on the threefold social order, Think OutWord is a peer-led training in social threefolding.

Until he went to college, Seth believed that education was a search for Truth. He’d graduated from the Green Meadow Waldorf School with high ideals, and was hoping to create a life that in some way implemented at least some of these. In college, he took some courses on Marxism and the history of political thought, but most of what he read concerning the structure of society seemed threadbare.

“I’ve never been to a rally or protested anything,” he explains. “So in that way I’m not an activist. I was a phi-losophy major and I stayed with the humanities. I didn’t see a way of getting engaged in business or government. I had no idea what healthy social forms looked like and whether they were even possible. After going through Waldorf education I had strong pictures of Michael and the dragon and all those stories of the hero’s jour-ney, but they were never really directed at society and transforming the world in concrete ways. In college, I was looking for Truth with a capital, but quickly found the educational system dead and oppressive. Afterward, like many of my peers, I decided to go into manual labor. I wanted to do ‘honest work,’ meet real needs, and knew I wanted to stay away from what I saw as “dishonest work”: business and government. I feel like this is the plight of a number of my anthroposophically-inspired peers, we don’t think about engaging the world at the societal level because we don’t have many examples of people working in this realm in meaningful and really healthy ways.”

Seth might have spent the rest of his life in manual labor, but his continued interest in social change led him to attend a workshop at the Rudolf Steiner Institute led by Nicanor Perlas. Nicanor introduced him to some of

Rudolf Steiner’s social thinking, and this revealed to him entirely new possibilities of both making a living and living a purposeful life.

“I think of Nicanor Perlas as ‘the little Buddha of Anthroposophy,’” says Seth. “I read his book, and he opened my mind to Civil Society, and the developments of the last twenty years. Activism is not really what it’s about. It’s more about working with social forms that strive to integrate economic, political, and cultural ele-ments in a healthy way.”

The premise of the growing civil society is that it is a third cultural sector of society, distinct from government and business. It refers essentially to professional associ-

ations, religious groups, labor unions, citi-zen advocacy organizations, education, and the arts. The Institute for Social Renewal is another organization that has inspired Seth and his friends and made them wonder whether they could create a place to train people in social entrepreneurships.

“Are we doing what we came here to do?” Seth asks. Even for him, it’s a difficult question to answer. He explains: “Working with the thought that ‘what we need is here,’ and that what we are meant to do in the world can be understood as what is in need of doing, then we can begin to get an answer. And right now that answer is no: we’re not really doing what we came here to do.” Simply put, for Seth that means work-ing to change society so that it is premised on the ideal of human goodness.

“My understanding is that young people bring with them the spiritual impulses that are needed on the Earth today, and everyone needs to live their destiny, to draw that out of themselves. I imagine that means working for good. There’s a lot of powerful and innovative ideas out there, but not enough people know about them.”

Initially, Think OutWord was formed as a way to meet like-minded people who still have a bit of youth-ful idealism and want to bring that as fully as possible through their vocation. “It’s opening the door for neces-sary social networking. Our group is studying Rudolf Steiner’s social thinking, and we give each other sup-port; bring some ideas to each other, encourage, and learn from each other. It’s really for people like me, who weren’t given much of an education in social thinking. We’re trying to figure out how to positively engage soci-ety in meaningful ways.”

Geared toward younger (at least at heart) people, the organization offers training in social entrepreneur-ship. It is loosely situated in the northeastern United States, and is grounded in, though not limited to, an


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understanding of the threefold nature of the human being and of society, primarily as it was articulated by Rudolf Steiner.

Seth explains: “We start with self-education, or ‘coed-ucation’; the group designs a curriculum for itself, gets together, individuals give peer presentations, go home, create independent projects and small focus groups, find mentors, write papers, etc. Somewhere along the way all this mastering of ideas, all this thinking, melds into doing. That happens pretty quickly. They’re heady ideas but young people feel a sense of urgency (which these times demand), so if they can’t be applied in practice, if they don’t fructify our work, then we need different ones.”

The group leaders hope that, through the training, participants will gain deeper insight into contemporary social phenomena and explore different methods by which they can become increasingly engaged in socially transformative work.

Think OutWord offers a public introductory train-ing session at the beginning of every year. There is one longer session for full-time participants during the sum-mer. The in-between time is filled with independent proj-ects with partners and mentors, as well as small group work and small intensive weekends. “The sessions are about going deeply into the study and mastery of ideas and then how to bring these ideas into our work and action. It’s geared toward young people, but it’s open to anyone with the longing to learn about and work out of a new view of social entrepreneurship.”

In twenty-five years, how does this group hope our society might be different? “What we’re looking to see happen is not to spread Anthroposophy but to strengthen people,” explains Seth. “Richard Dancy once said, at one of our conferences, that he wasn’t asking people to become Christian Community priests, but that, what-ever we feel called to do, we do it radically.

“By ‘radically’ he means getting to the roots of what you’re doing and really doing what you’re called to do. We’d like to create a sort of organic revolution; no coer-cion; we’re just trying to get people to be more socially and economically aware. We’re trying to figure out ways of living and working in society that are penetrated with consciousness.

“I look around in my community of striving and well-intentioned people and I see a lot of educators, art-ists, and farmers. That work is essential and it’s the des-tiny of many of our peers to do it. But what I’m won-dering is, where are all the politicians, social activists, and CEOs? I do see some isolated individuals outside our communities who are fighting valiantly on their lonely fronts. But how are we, as the young generation of a socially and spiritually striving movement, in a con-certed way, helping resolve national and international troubles – helping to meet global needs today? When we open a newspaper, we shouldn’t be content to witness the world’s problems and not do anything about them. Those are our problems.”

You can learn more about the programs and activi-ties of Think OutWord by going to www.thinkoutword.org.

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Winslow Eliot grew up in various countries, and graduated from Michael Hall School in Sussex, England. She attended college in the United States and later received her Waldorf High School Teacher Certification from the Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton, NH. She has taught humanities at the Great Barrington Waldorf High School and the Honolulu Waldorf School. Her novels have

been translated into eleven languages and published in twenty countries. She is the author of The Bright Face of Danger (St. Martin’s Press 1993). Under the pseudonym Ellie Winslow, she wrote The Wine-Dark Sea; Painted Secrets; Red Sky At Night; A Distant Light; and Roman Candles (Signet/NAL). The Wine-Dark Sea was bought by ITC in Hollywood, and made into a screenplay. Also the author of numerous articles, Winslow has been a contributing author for many years to Area, a magazine on Oriental rugs, and was a reader for the Independent Film Project in New York City. She cofounded the celebrated Saturn Series Weekly Poetry Readings in New York City, now in its thirteenth year.

T h i n k O u t Wo r d

The Think OutWord group in April 2008

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Karin Jarman reviews

The Inner Nature of ColorStudies on the Philosophy of the Four Elements

by J Leonard Benson

I was reading this book on a long train journey after deliberating whether or not to follow “duty” (reading

material for further professional development) or “plea-sure” (reading a novel that I otherwise rarely have time for). I had spotted this book on someone’s bookshelf, who then promptly offered to lend it to me; so I felt I should at least look at it. Soon I found myself immersed in it, as if it was an exciting novel that I could not put down!

In his preface, Benson states, “The inspiration for this volume arose in the course of a career devoted to the understanding of visual arts—with no particular consideration of color—in the conventional academic way.” Later on, he informs us that almost at the begin-ning of his career, he had come into contact with Rudolf Steiner’s teaching and felt that he had to live in two dif-ferent spheres, at first. As the findings of spiritual science flowed into his own research work and was noted by his students, he increasingly found the working together of the two streams invaluable and enriching. Being a scholar of ancient art and archeology who specialized in ancient Greek civilization, he found, through his studies of ancient Greek vases, evidence of the four elements theory (earth, air, water, and fire), and compared it to Steiner’s applica-tions. Furthermore, he became intrigued by the four-color grouping of black, white, red, and yellow as the dominant colors, not only of Greek vases, but also present in all early cultures.

He now began to equate the four elements with these four colors and found himself on a path to formulating a philosophy of color. Subsequently, this book provides very rich pickings for anyone even vaguely familiar with Goethe’s and Steiner’s color theories, as he embarks on research that takes you on a roller coaster of previously dearly held convictions. For artists and therapist, it opens up a totally new area of questions and possibili-ties to find ways to be a whole lot more specific about the effect of single colors on the human being. Taken together with Steiner’s fourfold image of the human being as the mainstay of therapeutic diagnosis, seen in the context of human development over time, Benson

The Inner Nature of ColorStudies on the Philosophy of the Four ElementsJ Leonard Benson

In this fascinating work, J. Leonard Benson describes

the spiritual and esoteric nature of color in relation to the four elements—fire, earth, air and water. Based on insights provided by Rudolf Steiner and a deep knowledge of classical cos-mology and color theory, this book shows how an understanding of the inner nature of color leads to a completely different view of the world and evolu-tion than is current in our present civilization—one completely at odds with the ruling neo-Darwinian paradigm.

The Inner Nature of Color will be of interest to art-ists, art historians, spiritual seekers, and anyone who has ever been struck by the remarkable beauty of our colored world and wondered what it means.

J. Leonard Benson, Professor Emeritus of Ancient Art and Archaeology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is a distinguished scholar whose spe-cialty is Greek vase painting. His interests also include European deco-rative arts and nineteenth-century

American painting. Since 1953, he has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and more than a dozen books, including Horse, Bird and Man: The Origins of Greek Painting (1970); Bamboula at Kourion: The Bronze Age Settlement (1972); Earlier Corinthian Workshops (1989); and Greek Color Theory and the Four Elements (2000).

ISBN : 978 0 88 01 051 49Pa pe r back


22 4 page sI l l u st ra te d


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offers a workable tool with which to formulate specific therapeutic processes.

Rather than simply equating each element with each of these four colors, he groups them together in many dif-ferent variations, depending on the point of view taken at any particular moment. The whole concept has to be moved and adjusted in much the same way that Steiner demands of his teaching anyway, but is rarely put into practice. I found myself truly exercising my “brain wind-ings,” so I could almost feel them juggling different juxta-positions. While honoring Goethe in his achievement of challenging the basic starting point of Newton as regards the origins of color, Benson also gives a new context to Newton’s scientific contributions in the light of contem-porary color research. What particularly excited me as I continued reading was that I could see a new vista open-ing up from which to formulate a study of the human being in terms of color.

Benson tackles the very difficult subject of the two concepts of image and luster colors, which Steiner intro-duces as a further development of Goethe’s color research. Steiner states, “In Goetheanism, we find a way of knowl-edge that embraces the realm of soul and spirit, but that needs to be developed further. Goethe, for example, was not able to reach the distinction between image and lus-ter colors. We must follow Goethe’s approach in a living way in our thinking, so that we can go continuously fur-ther. This can be done only through spiritual science.”

Steiner names the colors black, white, green, and peach blossom “image colors,” in that he refers to them as the colors that live most comfortably in the two-dimensional space, not demanding attention or drawing the viewer out of oneself, but carrying a certain objec-tivity in comparison to blue, red, and yellow, for which he uses the term “luster colors.” These have the ability to create the illusion of a three-dimensional space, also referred to as color perspective. No one, before or since, has worked with this terminology, let alone developed it further.

It is Benson’s most interesting achievement to be able to integrate the idea of image and luster colors into the contemporary understanding of colors that spans both Goethe’s and Newton’s ideas. He points out that Steiner’s color circle can be understood only in a dynamic and still evolving mode of thinking. “Thus, we are confronted with a concept so dynamic that it melts down the contour of the traditional two-dimensional color circle, with its fixed pigmentary relationships, requiring us to imagine a circle on a three-dimensional level—not merely with gradated colors shading into one another, but also with colors pulsing and combin-

ing with, and also against, a background of white and black.” Nowhere else in my color studies have I come across an attempt so bold and convincing, to create a bridge between a spiritual research into color with the new findings made possible by modern technology.

The book, which is a collection of various essays, offers a great deal more with a look-in on modern artists such as Piet Mondrian and his attempt to return to sim-ple color groupings of the ancient world. Benson asks the question: Even great artists such as Edward Hopper followed life rather than leading it into the future. Will the tender strivings of truly spiritualized art that began with Rudolf Steiner (apart from the efforts of Josef Beuys) ever break into public consciousness?”

Having established a starting point toward a new philosophy of color in the first part of the book, in part two we find a philosophical treatise of Darwinism and how this affects our present-day thinking. In his after-word, he returns to “the permanence of the philosophy of the four elements,” with which he challenges the present dogma of science. We learn about the gradual transition of “alchemy” into “chemistry” via the reduction of the four elements from non-physical principals to material manifestation.

My train journey ended, but I had not yet come to the end of the book, as I had to pause frequently to let my own thinking absorb what I had just read. I did find it hard to put down—I was captivated throughout— and now I feel, as I am about to purchase my own copy, that it will become a dearly loved workbook to accompany me on my never-ending search to deepen the mystery of color, which holds within it the secret of earthly incar-nation itself.

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Karin Jarman, born in 1953 in Baden-Baden, studied Waldorf education at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. She moved to Great Britain, where she worked in a Camphill center for adults with special needs. In 1985, with her husband and three children, she moved to Gloucestershire and

studied art therapy. Since 1990, she has worked as an art thera-pist at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Stroud. Karin helped estab-lish the Hibernia College of Art Therapy and has led courses in England and elsewhere. Through Oasis, an organization that she helped establish, Karin facilitates spiritual support groups for people with chronic health issues and life crises. She is the author of Touching the Horizon: A Woman’s Pilgrimage across Europe to the Castle by the Golden City (see page 21 of this catalog).

R e v i e w : T h e I n n e r N at u re o f C o l o r

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It is easy to support our mission of making Anthroposophy more widely •know in the world. Go to the Support SteinerBooks page and click on the button. You will have an opportunity to choose a secure and con-venient way to give whatever amount you like by using a credit card or PayPal. It’s that simple. The generous support of readers like you is greatly appreciated and, of course, always tax-deductible.

If you wish to send a donation in the mail, you may send a check to SteinerBooks, 610 Main Street, Ste. 1, Gt. Barrington, MA, 01230. You may also call (413) 854-1135 or send email to [email protected] to learn more about ways to help.

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SteinerBooks Statement of

Purpose$

S teinerBooks (Anthroposophic

Press) is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-

profit organization, incorporated

in New York State since 1928 to

promote the progress and welfare

of humanity and to increase pub-

lic awareness of Rudolf Steiner

(1861–1925), the Austrian-born

polymath writer, lecturer, spiritual

scientist, philosopher, cosmologist,

educator, psychologist, alchemist,

ecologist, Christian mystic, com-

parative religionist, and evolu-

tionary theorist, who was the cre-

ator of Anthroposophy (“human

wisdom”) as a path uniting the

spiritual in the human being with

the spiritual in the universe; and

to this end publish and distrib-

ute books for adults and children,

utilize the electronic media, hold

conferences, and engage in simi-

lar activities making available his

works and exploring themes aris-

ing from, and related to, them and

the movement that he founded.

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