When Frances Thames discovers she is terminally ill, it prompts her to divulge the secrets of her life. She begins a journal, intending to set right the wrongs of her past. Beginning in her childhood, she takes us on a heart-wrenching journey. All the while, she struggles to come to terms with her illness and continues to hide the truth from her daughter and two grandsons, who know nothing of her past. The horrific abuses of her parents set the stage for a tale of survival, destruction, and fate. We meet young Frances and her five siblings as they struggle through their cruel existence on the stale setting of their run-down family farm in 1950's Aberdeen. The siblings plan their escape but will it be in time to stop them becoming the very things they are running from?

Religious and spiritual writings have always made reference to beings from the spiritual hierarchies, especially those known in Christian tradition as Angels. These spirits are the closest to human beings and act as our invisible guides and companions. They influence the life of the individual as well as the evolution of humanity and the cosmos.From his own clairvoyant vision Rudolf Steiner confirmed the existence of such spiritual beings, and showed how modern minds could gain access to their world. As he explains in these inspiring lectures, it is important for us to understand and cooperate with the work of the Angels today as this is crucial for the further development of humanity.

Based on knowledge attained through his highly-trained clairvoyance, Rudolf Steiner contends that folk traditions regarding nature spirits are based on spiritual reality. He describes how people possessed a natural spiritual vision in ancient times, enabling them to commune with nature spirits. These entities - which are also referred to as elemental beings - became immortalised as fairies and gnomes in myth, legend and children's stories. Today, says Steiner, the instinctive understanding that humanity once had for these elemental beings should be transformed into clear scientific knowledge. He even asserts that humanity will not be able to reconnect with the spiritual world if it cannot develop a new relationship to the elementals. The nature spirits themselves want to be of great assistance to us, acting as 'emissaries of higher divine spiritual beings'.

"You should not have any mystical ideas about meditation, nor should you think it is easy. Meditation must be completely clear, in the modern sense. Patience and inner soul energy are needed, and, above all, it depends on an act that no one else can do for you: it requires an inner resolve that you stick to. When you begin to meditate, you are performing the only completely free activity there is in human life" (Rudolf Steiner). This completely revised edition provides an ordered sequence of statements by Steiner on the development of higher, suprasensory knowing --Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition. Nine chapters take the reader from the idea of inner development, through the cultural and evolutionary need for higher knowing, and then to examples of the practices and inner gestures required by this work. Steiner describes the necessary steps and stages, always insisting on the free, individual, and cognitive character of anthroposophic spiritual research. This essential inner guide is for anyone on a path of true spiritual development.

In these four remarkable lectures, Rudolf Steiner contends that Christ has been working on humanity's behalf since the very beginnings of its existence, long before the inception of the Christian religion. Steiner indicates how - in both the ancient Mystery schools and in the miraculous events depicted in the Old Testament - the guiding hand of Christ shaped and developed peoples' cognition. The ultimate divine intervention took place in the incarnation of Christ in human form - God in man - which culminated in the Mystery of Golgotha. Through this mighty event, opportunity is given for every soul to develop immortal individuality and consciousness of self. Steiner clarifies the difficult concepts of sin, guilt and karma, and explains the meaning of 'forgiveness of sins' and 'resurrection of the body'. Looking forward to future great periods of evolution, he speaks of the separation of humanity into two races of good and evil, and describes how Christ will continue to work in this critical time of human development./

In this major collection, Rudolf Steiner affirms the reality of esoteric Christianity and unveils many of its secret teachings. His lectures are on the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha and of the Blood that flowed on the Cross; the relationship of Christ and Lucifer (or Love and Knowledge); the various paths of initiation, including the Christian-Gnostic and Rosicrucian Paths; and Steiner's early interpretations of St. John's gospel and the sermon on the mount. All of Steiner's lectures on the Lord's Prayer are also included, as well as the version of the prayer that Steiner himself prayed throughout his life. This is an excellent book for all those who want to deepen their understanding of the Western stream of Christian esotericism and Rudolf Steiner's approach to Christianity as a spiritual practice.