Following his lecture-course Eurythmy as Visible Singing, these fundamental lectures on speech eurythmy – offered in response to specific requests – gave Rudolf Steiner the opportunity to complete the foundations of the new art of movement. Speaking to eurythmists and invited artists, Steiner connects to the centuries-old esoteric and exoteric Western traditions of ‘the Word’ – the creative power in the sounds of the divine-human alphabet – giving it concrete form and expression in the performing arts, education and therapy. In addition to the fifteen lectures in the course, this special edition features supporting lectures and reports by Rudolf Steiner, dozens of photographs and line drawings, as well as introductions, commentary, notes and supplementary essays compiled by editor Alan Stott, including ‘Eurythmy and the English Language’ by Annelies Davidson. Although aimed primarily at the professional concerns of eurythmists who perform, teach or work as therapists, the lectures offer a wealth of suggestions and insights to those with artistic questions and concerns. ‘Only someone who creatively unfolds a sense for art from an inner calling, an inner enthusiasm, can work as an artist in eurythmy. To manifest those possibilities of form and movement inherent in the human organisation, the soul must inwardly be completely occupied with art. This all-embracing character of eurythmy was the foundation for all that was presented.’ – Rudolf Steiner ‘For the poet, for the thinker, and for the movement artist who thinks with his/her whole body, the highest mental act is done with all their heart and with all their mind and with all their soul.’ – Alan Stott

‘The study of music is the study of the human being. The two are inseparable, and eurythmy is the art which brings this most clearly to expression. In these lectures, Rudolf Steiner guides us along a path toward an understanding of the human form as music comes to rest – the movements of eurythmy bringing this music back to life.’ – Dorothea Mier ‘Fundamentally speaking, music is the human being, and indeed it is from music that we rightly learn how to free ourselves from matter.’ – Rudolf Steiner The focus of these eight lectures is the source of movement and gesture in the human being. The movement in musical experience is thus traced back to its origin in the human instrument itself. Like the degrees of the musical scale, Rudolf Steiner leads his select audience of young artists through eight stages, focusing on the living principles of discovery and renewal. Eurythmy was born in the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century. From an individual question as to whether it was possible to create an art based on meaningful movement, Rudolf Steiner responded with fresh creative possibilities for a renewal of the arts in their totality. The new art of eurythmy was an unexpected gift. Today, music eurythmy, along with its counterpart based on speech, is practiced as an art, taught as a subject in schools, enjoyed as a social activity and applied as a therapy. This definitive translation of Steiner’s original lecture course on eurythmy includes a facsimile, transcription and translation of the lecturer’s notes, together with an introduction and index. The volume is supplemented with an extensive ‘companion’, featuring full commentary and notes compiled by Alan Stott, as well as a translation of Josef Matthias Hauer’s Interpreting Melos.

With these fundamental lectures on speech eurythmy – given just months after his course entitled ‘Eurythmy as Visible Singing’ – Rudolf Steiner completed the foundations of the new art of movement. In connecting to the centuries-old esoteric and exoteric Western traditions of ‘the Word’ – the creative power in the sounds of the divine-human alphabet – he gave it concrete form and expression in the performing arts, education and therapy. Although aimed primarily at the professional concerns of eurythmists who perform, teach or work as therapists, the lectures offer a wealth of suggestions and insights to anyone interested in the arts. For this new edition – freshly translated by Matthew Barton and introduced by Coralee Frederickson – the original shorthand transcripts have been compared exhaustively with typed records and the notes of course participants. These notes included numerous sketches of movements, gestures and choreographies, many of which have been reproduced here to complement the text. Also featured is an appendix comprising facsimiles and transcripts of Rudolf Steiner’s preparatory notes, programmes of the eurythmy performances given during the course, and accounts by Steiner published in the Society Newsletter. Finally, there are recollections by course participants, additional sketches of forms and movements, Marie Steiner’s original foreword, and 30 pages of colour plates featuring blackboard drawings and eurythmy forms. New revised and expanded edition; Trans. by M. Barton; Intro. by C. Frederickson (Fifteen lectures, Dornach, Jun.-July 1924, GA 279); 512pp + 32pp colour plates; 23.5 x 15.5 cm

"Be a person of initiative and beware, lest through hindrances of your own body or hindrances that otherwise come in your way, you do not find the center of your being, within which lies the source of your initiative. Observe that, in your life, all joy and sorrow, all happiness and pain, will depend on finding or not finding your own individual initiative. This should appear, as if written in golden letters, constantly before the soul of anthroposophists. Initiative lies in their karma, and much of what meets them in this life will depend on the extent to which they can become willingly, actively conscious of it." --Rudolf Steiner, Aug. 4, 1924 Torin Finser takes on some of our contemporary challenges and proposes new solutions. Rather than simply "kicking the can down the road," as often happens with issues such as sovereign debts, Middle East conflicts, and environmental issues, Finser calls for individual initiative. Drawing on a variety of rich cultural and spiritual traditions, he makes the case for social change that begins within. To do so, one must first access resources that support initiative and innovation. Key questions discussed in this book include: How is it possible to live a spiritual life in our materialistic age? Can an individual person still make a difference? How can we use a whole-systems approach to innovation? How can planetary wisdom help us find appropriate leadership styles? What are the inner conditions needed to work with the transcendent Self? In the swirl of multi-tasking, how can we find moments of solitude and reflection? We need new, a ethical individualism that is fully transformative. As quoted from the Peace Pilgrim in chapter 2: This is the way of peace--overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. Today's world needs people of initiative--those willing to become the change that is so desperately needed. This book offers a wakeup call for inspired leadership.

10 Lectures in Copenhagen and Norrköping, May 23-30, 1912, July 12-16, 1914 (CW 155) "Spiritual science does not want to replace Christianity; rather, it aims to be the instrument through which the meaning of Christianity can be grasped. And one thing that will become particularly clear through spiritual science is that the being whom we call Christ must be recognized as the center of life on earth, and that what we call the Christian faith is the ultimate religion, the eternal religion for the future of the earth." -- Rudolf Steiner (July 13, 1914) This collection of lectures from 1912 and 1914 offers a deepened understanding of the being of Christ, the divine Logos, in his connection with individual human souls. From religious figures such as John the Baptist and Saint Francis to the twentieth-century poet Christian Morgenstern, these lectures reveal how Christ works with and through all who seek him. The Pauline statement, "Not I, but Christ in me," becomes an inner guide by which each human soul can find a way to intimate union with the Christ being. It is he who has the power to make our ideals and goals in life--if they are worthy--into true seeds of future reality. The time of faith has come and gone. Christ needs our conscious striving, our effort to understand, within the heart's deep core, his ongoing presence and activity in the further evolution of our spiritual Earth and in our journey toward humanness. These lectures are a comfort and a signpost for the soul to walk the inner path of communion with Christ for the healing and redemption of the earth. We may be able, in the end, to redeem the karma accrued by our own individual souls, but for our spiritual work to be fruitful for all humanity it must be brought into connection with Christ. "What we take into ourselves in such a way that it is done from the perspective of 'Not I'-- this is what Christ makes into a common possession for all humanity" (July 14, 1914). "To know Christ means to undergo the school of selflessness.... Under the influence of materialism, the selflessness of humanity was lost in a way, as will be understood in future ages of humanity. However, through absorption in the Mystery of Golgotha, the penetration of the knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha with our whole feeling and soul being, we can once again acquire a culture of selflessness. We can come to understand that what Christ did for the development of the Earth is contained in the fundamental impulse of selflessness, and that what he can become for the conscious development of the human soul is the school of selflessness!" -- Rudolf Steiner (June 1, 1914) To read these lectures is to strike out on the heart's path of fellowship with the living Christ. This book is a translation from German of Christus und die Menschliche Seele. Über den Sinn des Lebens - Theosophische Moral - Anthroposophie und Christentum (GA 155, 3rd ed.), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1994. Cover image: Salvator Mundi (1499-1510) by Leonardo da Vinci.