In March 2020, Are Thoresen contracted Covid-19. Whilst convalescing from the disease and suffering great exhaustion, he experienced a breakthrough in his daily meditation. Although he has always been able to ‘see’ into the spiritual world, now deeper, unknown realms appeared to his inner vision. In the soapstone surround of the fireplace in his Norwegian home, he perceived the elemental beings and forces that make up the mineral at an atomic level. A few days later, an even deeper dimension revealed itself, in the form of a void or vacuum. Here, astonishingly, was an open portal to the entire cosmos… In Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation, Thoresen shares the results of his latest spiritual investigations, including a moving, life-changing encounter with ‘the Light of the World’. He details the teachings he receives from the beings Vidar and Balder – who stand as guardians to the threshold of the outer etheric world – and characterizes the Northern way of initiation, which is based on merging, or ‘fading’, into nature. Thoresen documents Rudolf Steiner’s descriptions of this path and shows how it is reflected in the Old Norse Poetic Edda, the Kalevala and von Eschenbach’s Parzival. Based on painstaking research, he describes the individual qualities of the three elemental realms, and how the adversarial forces – seeking to corrupt human senses – hinder spiritual observation of them. Thoresen’s book is a powerful personal testimony to the human potential for spiritual knowledge and experience in our time.

Pioneer study of the need for an inner female authority in a masculine-oriented society. Interprets the journey into the underworld of Inanna-Ishtar, Goddess of Heaven and Earth, to see Ereshkigal, her dark sister. So must modern women descend into the depths of themselves. Rich in insights.

Initiation is one of the most mysterious and documented traditional practices of Witchcraft. What is not well known is that behind the scripted initiations are the symbols of transformation encapsulated in the twenty-two tarot trumps of the Major Arcana. Initiations follow the literary cycle of the hero and the heroine and, combined with the trumps, produce a system of magic used to trigger and wield the powers of psychic transformation. Additionally, this book analyzes the traditional scripted initiations of Witchcraft, their relationship to Masonic initiations, and produces new practices like the periodic dedication rite, the third-degree ordeal, self-initiation of the four elements, the rumored fourth and fifth degrees, and the initiation mysteries of a Witchcraft inner order. Most importantly, this book gives the reader the ability to direct and shape their own inner cycles of transformation so that they might master the art of inner change for themselves and their students. The purpose of directing and shaping inner change is to assist in achieving a sustainable mind-state of conscious ascension. The rituals and practices in this book give the reader, for the first time, the ability to design, write, perform, and realize the powers of psychic transformation and initiation.

The Inner Dimensions of Life is a compressed yet exhaustive educational presentation of the esoteric teachings in three volumes, subtitled Esoteric Philosophy, Esoteric Psychology, and Esoteric Sociology. With a background in many years of work as a teacher in his Esoteric School, the author has gathered and edited a comprehensive and thoroughly tested curriculum, including illustrations and copious source references. Thus, the work appeals to readers who will be content with a general view, as well as those who wish to delve deeper into the subject. The first volume, Esoteric Philosophy, offers an introduction to all the basic concepts of the esoteric teaching, beginning with the esoteric "Genesis" or Creation Account, The 7 Planes, and further on to the Constitution of Man, Death and New Birth, Evolution - Reincarnation and Karma, the Path of Initiation, the Path of Discipleship, the 7 Rays, the Evolution of Consciousness, Cosmology, the Esoteric World History, the Inner World Government, the New Evolutionary Impulse, and the Deva Kingdom.

In a concise study, Rudolf Steiner presents an inspirational sketch of the evolution of the Mysteries – from ancient Persia through Egypt and Greece, to the Christian era and the present day. He traces the line of initiates from Egyptian divinities Isis and Osiris to Moses, King Arthur’s Round Table and the Holy Grail in the twelfth century. Steiner focuses on the process of initiation as a historical topic: how initiation worked in ancient Egypt and in the late Middle Ages. But his presentation is also inspirational, leading to the question: How can we advance to initiation now? He underscores the potential for achieving enlightenment today without a teacher in the flesh, and explains the four stages of the process towards initiation. He also highlights the need for strenuous efforts to overcome the subtle power of evil – in the form of Lucifer and Ahriman – through selfless work. The four lectures collected here form an important landmark in Rudolf Steiner’s biography: the first being delivered on 3 February 1913 – the very day that the Anthroposophical Society was founded. First published in English under the title The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity and unavailable for many years, this edition has been re-edited by Professor Frederick Amrine and features appendices, an index as well as an introduction by Robert McDermott.