Category Archives: Rudolf Steiner
reading esoteric lessons
I continue to read Frank Smith’s translations of the esoteric lessons for the first class. I’ve come to lessons 7 and 8. Here’s a snippet from lesson 7: If on seeing the head from the other side of the threshold one recognizes how will goes through the head and how the senses represent will, then […]
steiner anecdotes
A while ago, I read the collection of anecdotes about Steiner, edited by Wolfgang Vögele. (Sie Mensch von einem Menschen: Rudolf Steiner in Anekdoten.) It’s highly amusing. I can recommend it for that reason, which is certainly reason enough. However, I’d like to share one of the anectodes in the book. It’s about smallpox immunisation. […]
‘nature leaves man alone with himself’
(fire spouting dragons like these colours, I imagine) Some people know, some people don’t; some people don’t really care, but who cares about that? Today is michaelmas. Which is supposed to be important, and I suppose it was. It may still be. I’m not going to write about michaelmas, or how it’s celebrated (for children: […]
meteor-like air-spirits?
I was looking for some place where Steiner says that nature is spiritually waking up during autumn to be most alive during winter (under the surface, you see, nature’s ways are very occult), whereas spring is for dying and summer… dead. I didn’t find it. But I found this instead. And it somehow fit very […]
spun out of the astral plane
‘Certain kinds of animals also have a consciousness on the astral plane, which is likewise the plane of idiot consciousness. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky mentions especially certain Indian night insects, nocturnal moths. Spiders also have an astral consciousness; [...] the delicate spider webs are actually spun out of the astral plane. The spiders are merely the instruments […]
sixth esoteric lesson
I have continued reading the english translation, so here’s another one of the important lessons, the 6th esoteric lesson for the first class, published by Southern Cross Review (sporting a naked lady on the front page as usual): ‘And when we feel our relationship with the world’s water, with the water elements, then we realize: […]
‘man is as great as the universe’ (esoteric lesson five)
I’m behind in reading the english translation of the first class esoteric lessons. Here’s a nugget. ‘For the person who really stands before the Guardian of the Threshold this is not speculation, but experience. And this is what constitutes spiritual progress, that man integrates with the surrounding world. It is of little use to speak […]
‘a jack-the-ripper masquerading as a saint’
yesterday night, I was reading some cheap old collection of Henry Miller’s work. Excerpts and aphorisms and stuff. One thing that hit me was: if Rudi had possessed a greater talent for expressing himself in a modern way, and a greater talent for poetry too… there were similarities. Anyway, I won’t go into that. But […]
life on mars
Evidently, some gadget — called Curiosity — has landed on Mars and is supposed to discover the planet and send the information collected back to earth. We are to learn more about that red planet in the sky, sometimes visible from my window, a little more orange than the stars. Don’t imagine, however, that Curiosity […]
birds
‘It certainly cannot escape us that the birds which live in the air, creating the conditions of their existence out of the air, are formed differently from the animals which live either on the actual surface of the earth, or below it. When we consider the kingdom of the birds, we shall naturally find, in […]
hermann hesse on steiner
Hesse wrote that the individual ‘has as well in the deeper recesses of his being the need to see meaning attached to all that he does and strives for, to his existence, his life, and the inevitability of death. This religious or metaphysical need, as old and as important as the need for food, love, […]
water
In water, as you know, there are the water spirits. I don’t need to tell you, of course; you know all these things. But perhaps you need to be reminded? You must hear what Rudi says — quite poetically — about the beings that are connected with this element, water: ‘Once the plant has grown […]
fourth esoteric lesson
It’s a bit late, but I’ve finally read the english translation of the fourth first class esoteric lesson. (I say sorry, before I even begin, to my reader in Minnesota! I’m throwing pearls for swine again, or perhaps roses for donkeys, which is another expression I recently came across in a similar context — that […]
reading esoteric lessons
Since my last post, Frank Thomas Smith has continued to publish two more of the esoteric lessons in his own translation. For anyone new to this: the esoteric lessons for the first class are very serious stuff, indeed, it is advanced anthroposophy! But don’t be shy. In the second lecture, Steiner speaks about lies, thoughts that […]
english translation of the first class esoteric lessons
Hitherto unavailable to non-class members in English, the lectures of GA270 are now published by Frank Thomas Smith online in his own translation, thus not the exact text used in class lessons in the UK or the US. Still, it might be the best alternative for those who don’t read German or who find Steiner’s […]
jewellery
This is anthroposophical jewellery. Or so I think. Does anyone have an explanation for these items? One of them looks like a skull with red eyes and another one like the face of a blue-eyed alien (or is it grey? purple?). Anyway, this (below) is parts of the Sloterdijk talk; the screenshot above is from […]
ett citat för alla tillfällen
Dixikons Margareta Flygt om Steiner och negrerna (det finns ett flertal sådana citat) och Peter Sloterdijk. Gammal favorit i repris i alla fall. Om man tänker på saken så finns det alltid ett Steiner-citat för varje tillfälle och varje syfte. Margareta Flygt undrar Är detta 2011? Och det kan man ju fråga sig. Men Steiner […]
articles
I’ve read some articles. Perhaps some of you would like to read them too, so here they are. Walter Kugler betonte, Steiner habe auf der Horizontalen der verschiedenen Lebensreformbewegungen gleichsam eine Höhen und Tiefen verbindende Vertikale errichtet. Der Aufschwung ins Spirituelle sei bei Steiner nie ohne Berücksichtigung des Materiellen geschehen. Ihm sei das Profane ebenso […]
sloterdijk on steiner
Sloterdijk (a German philosopher who wrote a book called something like ‘Du muss dein Leben ändern’) spoke about Steiner at an event. Info3 reports. ‘Die Lebensreform dagegen, die eine Erneuerung von Innen anstrebte, hätte sich als der richtige Weg erwiesen. Außerdem sei der Blick der Öffentlichkeit auf Steiner, den Sloterdijk als „größten mündlichen Philosophen des […]
steiner och negerromanen
Jag vill ge lite uppmärksamhet åt — och tipsa eventuella bloggläsare om — detta då det ju är viktigt, tror jag, att detta ämne ändå berörs. I all synnerhet från antroposofiskt håll. Det handlar om ett stycke som ströks ur en svensk utgåva av GA 348, publicerad för 20 år sedan. GA 348 hör hemma […]
interview with zander (sternstunde philosophie)
This is an interesting interview with Helmut Zander. I had not seen it before. He talks also about one kind of connection between Steiner’s early (more or less failed) career in philosophy and his later esoteric teachings. (I say this because a similar topic has been discussed at some length on the critics list recently […]
prelude
From the prelude to Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Drama The Portal of Inititation, the words of Estella: ‘[Y]ou always claim that your view is the more profound. I can readily understand that people whose conceptions differ radically may still meet in sympathy of feeling. But the nature of your ideas actually forces upon you an inner […]
a wave
a wave, but not an ocean ‘Imagine we are looking at a wide ocean. The waves rise and fall. There is a wave here, a wave there; there are waves everywhere, due to the heaving water. One particular wave, however, holds our attention, for we see that something is living in it, that it is […]
steiner’s change of mind
There was a discussion on critics on Steiner’s pre-theosophical phase and his theosophical, later anthroposophical, phase. I’m not sure my reply would add anything to the topic as such and, besides, the dicussion has evolved to other things (surreal and Monty Python-esque things), so I’ll post this comment here. Diana: Steve asked for examples of […]
colours
Steiner: ‘We have to compare the auras of various soul-experiences with each other in order to learn to understand the meaning of the color shades. To begin with, take soul-experiences shot through with strongly marked emotions. They may be divided into two kinds — those in which the soul is impelled to these emotions chiefly […]
