Rudolf Steiner gives a penetrating description - from his spiritual research into the evolution and history of the human being, earth and cosmos - of the experiences people gained through the ancient mysteries. With an Introduction by Dr A. Welburn

Around this collection of extracts from Steiner's books and lectures, the author examines the Mystery schools of the ancient world, and their revevance to Christianity and the world today.

Carlo Pietzner speaks, out of his own ego-directed, inner experiences, about several motifs inherent to inner striving: the problem of self in relationship to the world, the disintegration of the three soul forces, the transition from sense perception to spiritual perception, the reality of evil, the condition of loneliness, and more.

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.

‘Did Rudolf Steiner dream these things? Did he dream them as they once occurred, at the beginning of all time? They are, for sure, far more astonishing than the demiurges and serpents and bulls found in other cosmogonies.’ – Jorge Luis Borges Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, recorded his view of the world in many books, but also in over 5,000 lectures. Through the latter medium particularly, he explained his ideas on a wide range of subjects, including education, science, the social question, art, architecture, medicine and agriculture. Steiner spoke freely, using only minimal notes. But when explaining conceptually difficult subject matter, he frequently resorted to illustrating what he was saying with coloured chalks on a large blackboard. After the lecture the drawings were rubbed out and thus irretrievably lost – but not in every case. From the autumn of 1919, thick black paper was used to cover the blackboards, so that the drawings could be rolled up and stored. The trustees of Rudolf Steiner’s estate in Dornach, Switzerland, possess over 1,000 of these drawings, which visually document Steiner’s view of the world and his creative way of thinking. A selection of the drawings was first shown to a wider public in 1992. Since then, numerous exhibitions in Europe, America and Japan have generated great interest in Rudolf Steiner’s work. WALTER KUGLER, born in 1948, began working in the Archive of the Trustees of Rudolf Steiner’s Estate in 1982 as one of the editors of the Complete Works.

D.N. Dunlop (1868-1935) combined remarkable practical and organizational abilities in industry and commerce with gifted spiritual and esoteric capacities. A personal friend of W.B. Yeats and Rudolf Steiner, Dunlop was responsible for founding the World Power Conference (today the World Energy Council), and played leading roles in the Theosophical Society and later the Anthroposophical Society. In his business life he pioneered a cooperative approach towards the emerging global economy. Meyer’s compelling narrative of Dunlop’s life begins on the Isle of Arran, where the motherless boy is brought up by his grandfather. In a landscape rich with prehistoric standing stones, the young Dunlop has formative spiritual experiences. When his grandfather dies, he struggles for material survival, but devotedly studies occult literature. The scene moves to Dublin, where Dunlop becomes a friend of W.B. Yeats and the poet-seer A.E., and develops an active interest in Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophy. Arriving in London via New York, Dunlop is now a lecturer, writer and the editor of a monthly journal – but alongside his esoteric interests he rises to a foremost position in the British electrical industry, masterminding the first World Power Conference. Dunlop’s life is to change forever through his meeting with Rudolf Steiner, which ‘...brought instant recognition’. He was immediately convinced that Steiner was ‘...the Knower, the Initiate, the bearer of the Spirit to his age’. Dunlop’s close involvement with anthroposophy, leading to his eventual position as Chair of the British Society, is described in detail: from the momentous conferences in Penmaenmawr and Torquay to his transformative relationships with Eleanor Merry, W.J. Stein, Ita Wegman and Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz. Meyer features important material on the Anthroposophical Society’s tragic split, that allows for a true evaluation of this difficult period in the organization’s history. This second, enlarged edition features substantial additions of new material and an Afterword by Owen Barfield.