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Classics in Anthroposophy
Theosophy; An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man
Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1910. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III THE THREE WORLDS i. THE SOUL WORLD OUR study of man has shown that he belongs to three worlds. From the world of physical corporality are taken the materials and forces building up his body. He has knowledge of this world through the perceptions of his external physical senses. Anyone trusting to THESE senses ALONE, and developing his perceptive abilities alone, can gain for himself no enlightenment concerning the two other worlds, the SOUL and the SPIRITUAL. A man's ability to convince himself of the reality of a thing or a being depends on whether he has an organ of perception, a sense for it. It may, of course, easily lead to misunderstandings if one call the higher organs of perception spiritual SENSES, as is done here, for in speaking of "SENSES" one involuntarily connects with them the thought "physical." The physical world is in fact designated the "sensible," in contradistinction to the "spiritual." In order to avoid this misunderstanding, one must take into account that "higher senses" are spoken of here only in a comparative or metaphorical sense. As the physical senses perceive the physical world, the soul and spiritual senses perceive the soul and spiritual worlds. The expression "sense" will be used as meaning simply "organ of perception." Man would have no knowledge of light and color had he not an eye able to sense light; he would know nothing of sound had he not an ear able to sense sound. In this connection the German philosopher Lotze rightly says, "Without a light-sensing eye, and a sound-sensing ear, the whole world would be dark and silent. There would be in it just as little light or sound as there could be toothache without the painfeeling nerve of the tooth." In order to see what is said here in the right light, one need only think how entirely di...
44 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1904
326 people are currently reading
1945 people want to read
About the author
Rudolf Steiner
4,232 books1,061 followersAuthor also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
January 17, 2022
This book can be regarded as a primer in spiritual edification for the reader. In it, “Steiner builds up a comprehensive understanding of human nature, beginning with the physical bodily nature and moving up through the soul nature to our spiritual being: the ‘I’ and the higher spiritual aspects of our being. This then leads to the experience of the human being as a sevenfold interpenetrated being of body, soul, and spirit.
“Secondly, Steiner gives an extraordinary overview of the laws of reincarnation and the workings of karma as we pass from one life to the next.
“Thirdly, Steiner shows the different ways in which we live, during this life on earth and after death, in the three worlds of body, soul and spirit, as well as the ways in which these worlds” influence each of us.
“Fourthly, a succinct description is given of the path of knowledge by which each one of us can begin to understand the marvelous and harmonious complexity of the psycho-spiritual worlds.”
“Secondly, Steiner gives an extraordinary overview of the laws of reincarnation and the workings of karma as we pass from one life to the next.
“Thirdly, Steiner shows the different ways in which we live, during this life on earth and after death, in the three worlds of body, soul and spirit, as well as the ways in which these worlds” influence each of us.
“Fourthly, a succinct description is given of the path of knowledge by which each one of us can begin to understand the marvelous and harmonious complexity of the psycho-spiritual worlds.”
August 1, 2008
The man is a genius. But my advice to anyone who has never read Steiner? Try to stay awake! Black coffee and a bright reading lamp! (This was my first Steiner book and I slept more while reading it than I did at night!)
I believe his writings are all translated from lectures and such. It is hard to get used to the indepth style of writing, especially after reading writings of current authors.
Steiner was born in mid 1800. He didn't actually go public with his writings until late into the 1800's.
He was a true pioneer in how to find one's self. One of the lessons he taught was of karma and reincarnation and how the spirit world and the physical world come together and work together.
He created Anthroposophy which teaches a person how to tune their senses and find their inner spirit and nurture it, to evolve their consciousness.
I believe that everyone, at some point in their lives, should read this book, or Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man, also a great book!
A brillant philosopher and a very learned man!
I believe his writings are all translated from lectures and such. It is hard to get used to the indepth style of writing, especially after reading writings of current authors.
Steiner was born in mid 1800. He didn't actually go public with his writings until late into the 1800's.
He was a true pioneer in how to find one's self. One of the lessons he taught was of karma and reincarnation and how the spirit world and the physical world come together and work together.
He created Anthroposophy which teaches a person how to tune their senses and find their inner spirit and nurture it, to evolve their consciousness.
I believe that everyone, at some point in their lives, should read this book, or Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man, also a great book!
A brillant philosopher and a very learned man!
November 5, 2023
This book speaks with vigor and authority about things that most of us spend our lives studiously trying to ignore.
Sometime in late adolescence I became aware that my life had a spiritual dimension and even a spiritual purpose. I might not have put it that way at the time, but I had developed a seasick feeling that all of my notions of about life and its aims were inadequate and wrong. I had no idea what to replace them with, so I embarked on a search that in time got me looking at the great religions of the world. While I did hear of a thing called the perennial philosophy, which taught that all the spiritual traditions share fundamental beliefs, I couldn't help noticing that the religions were also very different from each other and made conflicting claims about many things.
In my late 20s I joined a Vajrayana Buddhist congregation and felt that I had found my spiritual home. But a thought that also occurred to me was that all these various issues addressed by religions, things such as what happens when we die, what are the fundamental aspects of reality, is there an unseen world, and are there sentient beings beyond what we can cognize with our senses, are fundamentally questions of fact, just as questions about the natural world are questions of fact. The world religions have different things to say about these various questions, but my thought was that these thing shouldn't be articles of faith, but matters that could, in principle, be decided objectively one way or the other, somehow or another. I thought that it should be possible to bring a scientific attitude to matters of the spirit.
I didn't realize it, but I had reinvented the impulse behind theosophy, the spiritual movement that took shape in the 19th century, popularized by Helena Blavatsky. Knowing nothing about it, I'd always assumed it was just flaky New Age mumbo jumbo. Having arrived at the Buddhist path, my need to look into other things died down, so I gave it no more thought for the next couple of decades.
In recent years, though, my interest has flared up again. Not that I'm dissatisfied with the Buddhist teachings--I just find myself interested to hear what other traditions have to say. I'm a Western Buddhist, which means that I am practicing these teachings in a melting pot of other spiritual ideas, some of which may be quite valuable. And then there is still the question of what are the facts.
I searched for books on theosophy, and this one by Rudolf Steiner appeared to be a promising introduction. And I was not disappointed. In this primer, first published in English in 1910, Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and Goethe scholar, lays out the fundamental principles of theosophy, the science of the spirit. Both Steiner himself and Michael Holdrege, the author of the foreword to this edition, warn that the material is difficult and cannot simply be absorbed in a casual reading. An active intellectual effort is required of the reader to reach out and take hold of what Steiner is presenting. And here I must agree, for, even though I'm used to reading challenging texts, I found that this one made unaccustomed demands on my attention and my imagination.
This is largely because the subject matter is the unseen realms of reality, and these are being discussed with language that was invented to help us communicate about the sensory world. But there is also the issue of the inherent subtlety of the ideas themselves, and even their surprising complexity at times. One of the most mind-stretching teachings in the book is that the human being has 7 different "bodies" or components, of which our physical body is but one. For now I can only say that I've been introduced to that idea; it will take time for me to reflect on what it means.
However, for most purposes, it's convenient to look at the human being as composed of 3 more familiar elements: body, soul, and spirit. Steiner clearly explains what these things mean, and how we need to orient ourselves to them in order to live full, worthwhile, human lives. In brief, body is the realm of sensations; soul is the realm of urges and feelings; spirit is the realm of thought. In these 3 realms, which we all occupy simultaneously, we seek to move toward beauty, goodness, and truth, respectively.
There are things here which conflict with the Buddhist teachings as I understand them. Steiner talks about our immortal or eternal aspects, including the "I," while Buddhism denies the existence of any lasting soul. But I'm at a stage of life where I don't feel I need to go either/or with these ideas; I feel that they can be in dialogue with each other, and that the truth can be found this way. Certainly I do feel, deep down, a desire to move toward beauty, goodness, and truth.
Why are we here? What are we doing with our human lives? These are important questions, and this book is a portal to the road of discovering the answers for ourselves.
Sometime in late adolescence I became aware that my life had a spiritual dimension and even a spiritual purpose. I might not have put it that way at the time, but I had developed a seasick feeling that all of my notions of about life and its aims were inadequate and wrong. I had no idea what to replace them with, so I embarked on a search that in time got me looking at the great religions of the world. While I did hear of a thing called the perennial philosophy, which taught that all the spiritual traditions share fundamental beliefs, I couldn't help noticing that the religions were also very different from each other and made conflicting claims about many things.
In my late 20s I joined a Vajrayana Buddhist congregation and felt that I had found my spiritual home. But a thought that also occurred to me was that all these various issues addressed by religions, things such as what happens when we die, what are the fundamental aspects of reality, is there an unseen world, and are there sentient beings beyond what we can cognize with our senses, are fundamentally questions of fact, just as questions about the natural world are questions of fact. The world religions have different things to say about these various questions, but my thought was that these thing shouldn't be articles of faith, but matters that could, in principle, be decided objectively one way or the other, somehow or another. I thought that it should be possible to bring a scientific attitude to matters of the spirit.
I didn't realize it, but I had reinvented the impulse behind theosophy, the spiritual movement that took shape in the 19th century, popularized by Helena Blavatsky. Knowing nothing about it, I'd always assumed it was just flaky New Age mumbo jumbo. Having arrived at the Buddhist path, my need to look into other things died down, so I gave it no more thought for the next couple of decades.
In recent years, though, my interest has flared up again. Not that I'm dissatisfied with the Buddhist teachings--I just find myself interested to hear what other traditions have to say. I'm a Western Buddhist, which means that I am practicing these teachings in a melting pot of other spiritual ideas, some of which may be quite valuable. And then there is still the question of what are the facts.
I searched for books on theosophy, and this one by Rudolf Steiner appeared to be a promising introduction. And I was not disappointed. In this primer, first published in English in 1910, Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and Goethe scholar, lays out the fundamental principles of theosophy, the science of the spirit. Both Steiner himself and Michael Holdrege, the author of the foreword to this edition, warn that the material is difficult and cannot simply be absorbed in a casual reading. An active intellectual effort is required of the reader to reach out and take hold of what Steiner is presenting. And here I must agree, for, even though I'm used to reading challenging texts, I found that this one made unaccustomed demands on my attention and my imagination.
This is largely because the subject matter is the unseen realms of reality, and these are being discussed with language that was invented to help us communicate about the sensory world. But there is also the issue of the inherent subtlety of the ideas themselves, and even their surprising complexity at times. One of the most mind-stretching teachings in the book is that the human being has 7 different "bodies" or components, of which our physical body is but one. For now I can only say that I've been introduced to that idea; it will take time for me to reflect on what it means.
However, for most purposes, it's convenient to look at the human being as composed of 3 more familiar elements: body, soul, and spirit. Steiner clearly explains what these things mean, and how we need to orient ourselves to them in order to live full, worthwhile, human lives. In brief, body is the realm of sensations; soul is the realm of urges and feelings; spirit is the realm of thought. In these 3 realms, which we all occupy simultaneously, we seek to move toward beauty, goodness, and truth, respectively.
There are things here which conflict with the Buddhist teachings as I understand them. Steiner talks about our immortal or eternal aspects, including the "I," while Buddhism denies the existence of any lasting soul. But I'm at a stage of life where I don't feel I need to go either/or with these ideas; I feel that they can be in dialogue with each other, and that the truth can be found this way. Certainly I do feel, deep down, a desire to move toward beauty, goodness, and truth.
Why are we here? What are we doing with our human lives? These are important questions, and this book is a portal to the road of discovering the answers for ourselves.
August 7, 2008
This is one of the two key foundation texts for Rudolph Steiner's new religious movement Anthroposophy. It is a mish-mash of Neoplatonism and Vedanta expressed in 19th century scientific jargon. Steiner is a key figure in early 20th century spiritualism and his writings are important background in the study of the New Age movement.
March 2, 2014
Easier to read than Philosophy of Freedom.
February 8, 2021
Si può leggere e Leggere
March 11, 2020
Spiritual Development
This book provides good thought food that one can take in and digest to grow in spiritual sight. This volume of Steiner as a first Steiner read serves well in my experience.
This book provides good thought food that one can take in and digest to grow in spiritual sight. This volume of Steiner as a first Steiner read serves well in my experience.
January 23, 2018
I tried but not for me.
February 3, 2023
This is a really good book to read for understanding Steiner's framework operates. What is the constitution of the human being across several bodies, how does reincarnation work, etc. It is interesting as a contrast to Blavatsky's theosophical work, and a good rewrite that incorporates them as the building blocks of lego to build religious frameworks out of. The books appears to be some type of instructional-manual type documentation for how the mechanisms of an eastern religion would work - but then in his later works he uses this to build an adoptionalist christological framework where he syncretizes together Ebionite and Manichean Christianity with theosophical "eastern" workings under the hood. Without grasping the concepts laid out in Theosophy you will have great difficulty deciphering Steiner's other works, because Steiner often has a habit of being long and over-explaining while simultaneously trickling the complete picture of what he is describing in a process of moving through a lot of literature. I cannot recall all of the bodies and their properties from mind without having a reference to the book, but having those full images in your mind will give a very different context to any future Steiner book that you read.
June 26, 2022
Forse non sono riuscita a capire profondamente l’insegnamento di Steiner, ma è scritto in modo talmente prolisso che, come ha anche recensito un altro lettore, induce al sonno. Inoltre, non riesco proprio ad accettare le sue categorizzazioni del mondo animico e spirituale. Divide in modo minuziosamente schematico una sfera, che per sua stessa ammissione, è sovrasensibile. Per cui mi chiedo come sia giunto a certe convinzioni. Interessandomi di buddhismo, mi è sembrato di leggere una sofisticazione di alcune idee delle filosofie orientali. Penso che sia un autore sopravvalutato e se c’è qualcuno che è in grado di farmi riconoscere l’utilità di quest’opera, lo invito ad illuminarmi.
August 11, 2024
The essence of what Steiner has to say is incredibly useful. Even if one doesn't necessarily agree with his vision, it still stimulates the necessary thoughts to aid development. The text can be a tad repetitive and difficult to follow though, and I do wish Steiner didn't employ terms that sound so whimsical and fluffy (even though he does explain why he uses such words and how they can be understood, the associations conjured take away from the seriousness of what he wishes to convey). That being said, Steiner was clearly an innovative thinker and there is much to appreciate in his contribution.
July 14, 2025
ONE OF STEINER'S "KEY" WORKS
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian religious philosopher and esotericist, who was once a leader in the German section of the Theosophical Society, but broke with them after refusing to acknowledge Jiddu Krishnamurti as the coming "World Teacher." Steiner then founded the Anthroposophical Society, and began an influential system of schools ("Waldorf Schools") based on his educational ideas. He wrote many other books, such as 'An Outline of Occult Science,' 'Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment: An Esoteric Spiritualism Initiation,' etc. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 221-page 1994 paperback edition.]
He wrote in the Preface to the Third Edition, "Since the purpose of this book is to depict some portions of the supersensible world, anyone believing only in the validity of the sense-perceptible world will take it as a meaningless figment of the imagination. However, those interested in finding pathways leading out of the sense-perceptible world will soon realize that human life acquires value and meaning only through insight into another world... This book cannot be read the way people ordinarily read books... its readers will have to work their way through each page and even every single sentence the hard way. This was done deliberately; it is the only way this book can become what it is intended to be for the reader. Simply reading it through is as good as not reading it at all. The spiritual scientific truths it contains must be experienced; that is the only way they can be of value." (Pg. 7-8)
He states in the first chapter, "higher knowledge can come about only if a DEVELOPMENT of human cognitive powers precedes it. What lies outside the limits of human knowledge prior to this development lies well within them once the faculties that lie dormant in each individual have been awakened." (Pg. 16)
He explains, "By BODY is meant the means by which the things in our environment... reveal themselves to us. The word SOUL designates the means by which we link these things to our own personal existence... By SPIRIT is meant ... when, as 'quasi-divine beings'... we look at the things of the world. In this sense, each person consists of body, soul and spirit." (Pg. 24) Later, he adds, "this soul existence is the basis for the spiritual, just as bodily existence is the basis for soul existence." (Pg. 30)
He states, "Through intuition, the 'I,' awakening in our soul, receives messages from above, from the spiritual world, just as it receives messages from the physical world through sensations. In this way, the 'I' makes the spiritual world part of its personal soul life, just as it does with the physical world by means of the senses." (Pg. 53)
After presenting several subdivisions of the human constitution, he admits, "It may seem that the subdivisions of the human constitution presented in this book are based on purely arbitrary distinctions between parts within a monolithic soul life. To counter this objection, it must be emphasized that the significance of this phenomenon is similar to that of the appearance of the seven colors of the rainbow when a light passes through a prism... The soul's seven members are not abstract intellectual distinctions any more than are the light's seven colors." (Pg. 61)
He suggests, "Through its actions, each human spirit has truly prepared its own destiny. It finds itself linked in each new lifetime to what it did in the previous one. We may wonder how that could possibly be, since the reincarnating spirit finds itself in a world totally different from the one it left behind... when we ask such a question, [it] clings to quite external and superficial aspects of life... In each case, my former life determines my surroundings; it extracts from the entire surrounding world those things that are related to it, so to speak. It is the same with the spirit self. In a new life, it is obliged to surround itself with things it is related to from its previous life." (Pg. 87)
Later, he states, "it is certainly correct to say that souls who belonged together during physical life meet again in the spiritual world and continue their lives together under the circumstances of that world." (Pg. 137)
He contends, "sciences based on physical sense perception do not apply to the destiny of the soul and spirit after death. At this point a higher form of knowledge appears, a knowledge based on the observation of processes taking place in the soul and spirit worlds." (Pg. 111)
He says, "Human auras differ greatly according to individual differences in temperament, personality, personality and degree of spiritual development... In addition, all of a person's changing moods, inclinations, pleasures and pains are expressed in his or her aura." (Pg. 163)
He points out, "people who ask how to acquire direct higher spiritual scientific knowledge should be told to begin by familiarizing themselves with what others have to say about it. If they insist that they only want to see for themselves, that they do not want to know about what other people have seen, they must be told that learning what others have to say on the subject is the first step toward acquiring knowledge for themselves." (Pg. 176)
Steiner's frequent revising of this book when releasing new editions points to its ongoing significance in his thought; it is "must reading" for anyone studying Steiner and his doctrines.
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian religious philosopher and esotericist, who was once a leader in the German section of the Theosophical Society, but broke with them after refusing to acknowledge Jiddu Krishnamurti as the coming "World Teacher." Steiner then founded the Anthroposophical Society, and began an influential system of schools ("Waldorf Schools") based on his educational ideas. He wrote many other books, such as 'An Outline of Occult Science,' 'Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment: An Esoteric Spiritualism Initiation,' etc. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 221-page 1994 paperback edition.]
He wrote in the Preface to the Third Edition, "Since the purpose of this book is to depict some portions of the supersensible world, anyone believing only in the validity of the sense-perceptible world will take it as a meaningless figment of the imagination. However, those interested in finding pathways leading out of the sense-perceptible world will soon realize that human life acquires value and meaning only through insight into another world... This book cannot be read the way people ordinarily read books... its readers will have to work their way through each page and even every single sentence the hard way. This was done deliberately; it is the only way this book can become what it is intended to be for the reader. Simply reading it through is as good as not reading it at all. The spiritual scientific truths it contains must be experienced; that is the only way they can be of value." (Pg. 7-8)
He states in the first chapter, "higher knowledge can come about only if a DEVELOPMENT of human cognitive powers precedes it. What lies outside the limits of human knowledge prior to this development lies well within them once the faculties that lie dormant in each individual have been awakened." (Pg. 16)
He explains, "By BODY is meant the means by which the things in our environment... reveal themselves to us. The word SOUL designates the means by which we link these things to our own personal existence... By SPIRIT is meant ... when, as 'quasi-divine beings'... we look at the things of the world. In this sense, each person consists of body, soul and spirit." (Pg. 24) Later, he adds, "this soul existence is the basis for the spiritual, just as bodily existence is the basis for soul existence." (Pg. 30)
He states, "Through intuition, the 'I,' awakening in our soul, receives messages from above, from the spiritual world, just as it receives messages from the physical world through sensations. In this way, the 'I' makes the spiritual world part of its personal soul life, just as it does with the physical world by means of the senses." (Pg. 53)
After presenting several subdivisions of the human constitution, he admits, "It may seem that the subdivisions of the human constitution presented in this book are based on purely arbitrary distinctions between parts within a monolithic soul life. To counter this objection, it must be emphasized that the significance of this phenomenon is similar to that of the appearance of the seven colors of the rainbow when a light passes through a prism... The soul's seven members are not abstract intellectual distinctions any more than are the light's seven colors." (Pg. 61)
He suggests, "Through its actions, each human spirit has truly prepared its own destiny. It finds itself linked in each new lifetime to what it did in the previous one. We may wonder how that could possibly be, since the reincarnating spirit finds itself in a world totally different from the one it left behind... when we ask such a question, [it] clings to quite external and superficial aspects of life... In each case, my former life determines my surroundings; it extracts from the entire surrounding world those things that are related to it, so to speak. It is the same with the spirit self. In a new life, it is obliged to surround itself with things it is related to from its previous life." (Pg. 87)
Later, he states, "it is certainly correct to say that souls who belonged together during physical life meet again in the spiritual world and continue their lives together under the circumstances of that world." (Pg. 137)
He contends, "sciences based on physical sense perception do not apply to the destiny of the soul and spirit after death. At this point a higher form of knowledge appears, a knowledge based on the observation of processes taking place in the soul and spirit worlds." (Pg. 111)
He says, "Human auras differ greatly according to individual differences in temperament, personality, personality and degree of spiritual development... In addition, all of a person's changing moods, inclinations, pleasures and pains are expressed in his or her aura." (Pg. 163)
He points out, "people who ask how to acquire direct higher spiritual scientific knowledge should be told to begin by familiarizing themselves with what others have to say about it. If they insist that they only want to see for themselves, that they do not want to know about what other people have seen, they must be told that learning what others have to say on the subject is the first step toward acquiring knowledge for themselves." (Pg. 176)
Steiner's frequent revising of this book when releasing new editions points to its ongoing significance in his thought; it is "must reading" for anyone studying Steiner and his doctrines.
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October 3, 2021Anthroposophie, an off-shoot from Theosophie.
It would be condescending to review these ideas and philosophy actually.
A lot of new perspectives but best of all - the language!
It inspired me to write 11 poems!
It would be condescending to review these ideas and philosophy actually.
A lot of new perspectives but best of all - the language!
It inspired me to write 11 poems!
June 7, 2020
A wealth of information can be gained from this book. Steiner's 'Theosophy' provides a concise introduction to those students that are new to the concepts behind Theosophy and Anthroposophy.
June 10, 2020
Theosofhy, is a nice book, important to understand the spiritual realm as something where we are embedded. A human being whose spirit inhabits a body.
September 1, 2021
Interesting read, even if difficult to follow at times.
October 13, 2021
Onestamente, comprendo l'importanza dei temi, e del tentativo di strapparci da una esistenza solamente terrena, ma non è sicuramente un testo semplice.
Ma lascia la voglia di rileggerlo
Ma lascia la voglia di rileggerlo
October 20, 2021
"Theosophy" sets the facts straight about karma, reincarnation, and what a seer experiences. And how you too can be a seer. A must read.
December 20, 2021
Um encontro do corpo, alma e espírito.
September 18, 2022
There are for sure many unseen realms. This book is difficult to comprehend if you have no deeper background in theosophy. Interesting read with also usefull instructions for observing the Self.
September 29, 2023
Only the last (#4) chapter was valuable and inspiring. The rest of the book was mostly tedious, German intellectual hyper categorization of the soul world, the spirit world, etc.
April 7, 2009
The title of this book can be mischevious and it is very unfortunate that Rudolf Steiner is by many people viewed as a "mere theosoph". There was indeed a stage in his life when he joined the theosophical society but because of the unsurmountable differences of opinions he was forced to leave and founded the Anthroposophical society. So the title of this book should really be "Anthroposophy" but the word "theosophy" stays in his books and written lectures for the historical faithfulness.
As for the book itself, this is one of the five essential books that provide the view of anthroposophy as a spiritual science. It provides essential truth that can satisfy people searching for it and help them on their spiritual path.
As for the book itself, this is one of the five essential books that provide the view of anthroposophy as a spiritual science. It provides essential truth that can satisfy people searching for it and help them on their spiritual path.
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July 13, 2014For reasons indicated here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2011/... ...
I do not even want to rate this book. My views on Steiner are so complex and so likely to be misunderstood that I would rather not reduce them to soundbites.
I simply want to say I have read this book and that whilst Steiner served to free me from Eastern Theosophy and the New Age scene I found at Findhorn, Valentin Tomberg, in turn, provided me with a very different hermeneutic with which to engage Steiner.
I hope the above link however can contribute a little to the tangled issues involving Steiner and Tomberg - and why I believe this "very different hermeneutic" is necessary for a world plunging into a cold-as-steel mechanised society ...
I do not even want to rate this book. My views on Steiner are so complex and so likely to be misunderstood that I would rather not reduce them to soundbites.
I simply want to say I have read this book and that whilst Steiner served to free me from Eastern Theosophy and the New Age scene I found at Findhorn, Valentin Tomberg, in turn, provided me with a very different hermeneutic with which to engage Steiner.
I hope the above link however can contribute a little to the tangled issues involving Steiner and Tomberg - and why I believe this "very different hermeneutic" is necessary for a world plunging into a cold-as-steel mechanised society ...
February 7, 2025
Språkligt: repeterande.
Innehållsvis: En del intressanta tankar som väcker en vidare kontemplerande om spirituella frågor. Men otroligt abstrakt och verkar stundtals reducera den spirituella världen till en ”tankevärld.” Framstår som en bok som vill lägga fram saker författaren inte klarar att sätta ord på och som han inte heller har argument för förutom ”den som vet den vet.” Så då blir det mycket bladder. Men som sagt inte helt utan att man kan ta med sig något.
Innehållsvis: En del intressanta tankar som väcker en vidare kontemplerande om spirituella frågor. Men otroligt abstrakt och verkar stundtals reducera den spirituella världen till en ”tankevärld.” Framstår som en bok som vill lägga fram saker författaren inte klarar att sätta ord på och som han inte heller har argument för förutom ”den som vet den vet.” Så då blir det mycket bladder. Men som sagt inte helt utan att man kan ta med sig något.
August 12, 2016
Un fantastico viaggio tra corpo, anima e spirito. Le parole di Steiner svegliano quella parte sopita dentro di noi, che aspira ad una nuova evoluzione.
Bellissimo l'ultimo capitolo, in cui vengono fornite alcune pratiche linee guida (di assai difficile messa in pratica) per intraprendere il cammino verso la conoscenza dei mondi superiori.
Bellissimo l'ultimo capitolo, in cui vengono fornite alcune pratiche linee guida (di assai difficile messa in pratica) per intraprendere il cammino verso la conoscenza dei mondi superiori.
April 5, 2021
Es un libro filosófico-espiritual, exigente. Pero aún así me parece un buen libro para iniciarse en la antroposofía (en ello estoy, no soy ninguna experta).
Los conceptos que maneja son recurrentes en este mundo, así que me parece importante su lectura para entender cosas de la esencia de la pedagogía Waldorf.
Los conceptos que maneja son recurrentes en este mundo, así que me parece importante su lectura para entender cosas de la esencia de la pedagogía Waldorf.
February 27, 2010
This was the first book required in my Waldorf Teacher training. Great Steiner in a nutshell. Helped me develop my spiritual organs (and give them a name). Fundamental to understanding Steiner and Waldorf.
November 17, 2014
If you are keen on cults and drivel then
Rudolph is your man. He does have a big following so It may be me who can't penetrate his doublespeak. I suspect that there is a lot of people looking for something to believe in. This is not the guy, though the cult does seem basically harmless.
Rudolph is your man. He does have a big following so It may be me who can't penetrate his doublespeak. I suspect that there is a lot of people looking for something to believe in. This is not the guy, though the cult does seem basically harmless.
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December 7, 2007My kids are in Waldorf School. I need a basic to understand the pedagogical framework of Steiner's teaching approach.
November 12, 2008
Incredible read. Had to repeat many sections many times to digest the thoughts. Thoroughly breaks down our relation to the cosmos. Spirit, soul, and body.
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