Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course at Koberwitz (now Kobierzyce), in the summer of 1924, was the gateway event that led to the development of biodynamic agriculture and, subsequently, organic agriculture. The present paper identifies for the first time the 111 attendees of that course. The list reveals that 'Koberwitzers', as they called themselves, were a well credentialed and capable group of individuals, some of whom went on to champion and develop Rudolf Steiner's ideas about agriculture and other fields. The present paper revises a prior analysis of the Koberwitzers. For each Koberwitzer, the list reveals, the name, hometown, occupation, and accommodation during the course. Thirty one percent of Koberwitzers were women. Thirty eight percent were associated directly with agriculture (including farmer, estate manager, and estate owner), 6% of attendees were creatives (including writer, author, artist and editor), and a further 6% were priests. These three occupational categories, viz. Agriculture, Creative and Priest, together account for 50% of Koberwitzer occupations (and 72% of the known occupations). There remains for further scholarship to populate gaps in the listing: the gender of one Koberwitzer remains unidentified; one hometown (and country) remains unidentified; 33 occupations remain unidentified; and 51 accommodations remain unidentified. At the time of the Koberwitz course, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was mortally ill. The course was never repeated,. It was up to the Koberwitzers to progress Rudolf Steiner's call for the development of a differentiated natural agriculture without synthetic chemicals. The Koberwitzers met the call. There are now 251,842 certified biodynamic hectares in 55 countries, included in the 71,514,583 certified organic hectares in 186 countries.

David W. Wood. Book Review of Rudolf Steiner, The Fourth Dimension. Sacred Geometry, Alchemy, and Mathematics (trans. Catherine E. Creeger, Anthroposophic Press, 2001).
Review originally published in the Newsletter of the Science Group of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, September 2002, pp. 2-3: https://sciencegroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sgnl902.pdf

‘Haus Hansi' was home to Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) in the incredibly productive final decade of his life. He lived in this quaint and comfortable house, known as ‘Haus Hansi’, from 1914 to 1924. The house is set high with good ‘street appeal’. It exudes the graciousness of a bygone era. Steiner’s decade of residence at Haus Hansi witnessed the transformation of the mostly bare hill overlooking Dornach into Anthroposophy headquarters. The Goetheanum, the Glass House (Glashaus), the Furnace (Heizhaus), the Electrical Transformer (Transformatorenhaus) and numerous other of Steiner’s innovative and distinctive organic architectural creations were built in this decade. It was also the decade in which Steiner founded Waldorf education and laid the foundations for biodynamic agriculture. The house that Rudolf Steiner occupied in Dornach (at Unterer Zielweg 36) is little changed from the time of his residence there - other than the decor. The plaque over the entrance states his time of residence there as 1914 to 1925. According to the Russian artist, Assya Turgeniev: “this house was called ‘Haus Hansi’ by Dr Steiner - with permission from the little Hansi Grossheintz”. (‘Hansi’ being a diminutive of ‘Hans’, a son of Dr Grossheintz). Haus Hansi occupies a convenient location half way up the hill from the town centre of Dornach and from the tram and train stations of Dornach, and it is a few minutes stroll down the hill from the Goetheanum.

This essay brings together two names that will perhaps surprise most readers. Bentham: the liberal Englishman who ‘spoke in sober sadness’, schooled in Hume and Locke, always at it with his intellect’s razor. Steiner: the wild and weird, if not downright nutty Austrian, schooled in mysticism, combining almost any philosophy with any other.  Yet both paved the road for both the Modern as well as the Post-Modern discipline of ‘the citizen’. They were looking for their own special kind of ‘transparent’ authority and considered architecture as an important part of the solution. That is what I shall argue in this essay. A discussion of the kind of social problem they wanted to cure, will lead up to an analysis of their thoughts.

This paper undertakes a critical analysis of approaches to education that claim to foster for their students "ideas and predispositions toward global citizenship". International education forms the ground and broad context for this discussion , while a specific focus is given to the question of how global citizenship might be understood and realized in the context of Waldorf education. Waldorf education has not received a significant degree of critical attention to date-either in relation to the field of international education or that of education for global citizenship. A typology developed by Oxley & Morris (2013), which clusters attributes and types of global citizenship into two main categories, is employed in this paper in order to undertake an initial analysis of how global citizenship might be theorized in the context of Waldorf education. Existing studies and research literature about Waldorf education provide the main sources for this analysis. An emphasis is given in this analysis to articulations of Waldorf education and a distinction is made between educational aims, approaches and experiences (as reported in the literature) and Waldorf schools. Waldorf education continues to grow and expand its international presence. The fact that many Waldorf schools indicate that they have the development of global citizenship as one of their educational aims invites a critical consideration – such as this – of how these aims relate to the wider global citizenship
education discourse.

Keywords: Waldorf education, Waldorf schools, pedagogy, Rudolf Steiner, global citizenship, international education

Now we are in a position to also unveil one of the most hidden ‘open secrets’ of Anthroposophy since the end of the last century. It is about the most unspoken, yet also the most important contemporary spiritual fact, mentioned above, which has the greatest significance for those who want to gain a true understanding of the development of Anthroposophy in the present age of Michael. Therefore, I would ask you to contemplate it seriously in your individual meditations and share it with one another, in the appropriate Stimmung and feeling, in your intimate school meetings. Also, kindly remember that it is an organic continuation of the previous lectures and that it can be understood as a whole only after we shall give our fifth lecture tomorrow...

The purpose of this analysis is to examine enduring creative approaches of educational philosophers alongside key emerging digital resources that inform inclusive art education.  Froebelian education theory, like that of Montessori, Malaguzzi, and Steiner is very arts-rich in that Froebel defined learning itself as a learner-centered, exploratory creative process (Mullineaux, 1996). Teaching with a foundational knowledge of the influence of each of these philosophers on learning in visual art often empowers us to reclaim the diverse roles of the educator and artist in contemporary art rooms.  This chapter introduces selected mobile learning applications and digital resources related to these philosophies, with an analysis of their potential for students with disabilities and exceptionalities. The selected examples of Froebel’s Gifts and artifacts of pedagogy from Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia practices is followed by discussion of practical uses of materials and approaches from these enduring philosophies in learning explorations emphasizing craft, nature, and play. Suggestions will be offered for future practice that mindfully utilizes such digital resources and communities alongside physical and haptic resources. Concerns about screen time and media saturation will also be addressed.

This dissertation talks about the philosophical overview and the problems related to the notion of Freedom. I have discussed the basic and the very general definition of freedom, along with what other notable philosophers think about what kind of freedom is really true and a genuine idea of freedom. Later I have discussed the difference between positive and the negative freedom and also Berdyaev's notion of freedom followed by the famous work called "The Philosophy of Freedom" by Rudolf Steiner. Lastly I have tried to consider all the philosophers and opinionated my own thinking about the idea of freedom.

"Our heart has changed; we no longer bear the same heart in our chest. Our physical heart has grown harder, and our etheric heart, more mobile. We must find access to our supersensible hearts". (Rudolf Steiner, Lecture to young people, 20.7. 1924, GA 217a)

В специална книга, която носи заглавие „Загадките на философията“, Рудолф Щайнер разглежда последователно и систематично философските школи от древността до съвременността, като целта му е да изложи хода на развитие на философските проблеми, а не просто да покаже различни мнения по дадените въпроси. Той различава четири отделни периода в развитието на философията, като казва, че ако разгледаме безпристрастно това развитие, ще можем да различим как тези периоди са се обособили исторически и носят свои характерни черти и особености.

In theological research of The Christian Community and in anthroposophical circles, there is a tendency to follow the chronology of John rather than the synoptics. Questioning this tendency initially, this paper follows research by Andrew Welburn, Emil Bock, Rudolf Steiner and others on Essenism and Gnosticism to understand the re-emergence of mystery initiations in Palestine before the christian era and the significance of initiation, death and resurrection for christianity, tracing the independent mystery traditions of each of the four gospels and ending cautiously in favour of the historical accuracy of the second half of John's gospel.

This is the personal prologue and introduction to a book of essays, integrating contemporary philosophy, alternative science, esoteric and popular culture. This prologue introduces the themes and ideas central to humanity's struggle with the emerging possibilities and dangers of civilization, and its process of becoming coherent, for good or ill.

Steiner early childhood centres and schools span the globe and are attended by thousands of children in contexts and settings far removed from that of the first school in Southern Germany. This article attempts to assess how the education has spread into new locations and cultures, and the degree to which it has, or has not, adapted to different geographical and social environments. Reporting on a small study undertaken with Māori in New Zealand, all former students who had specialised in Steiner education, I explore some of the issues identified and gauge if they have wider relevance to the school movement. Lastly, I take the concept of audits introduced by Aengus Gordon and suggest how audits of time, of place and of community may serve to gain an informed understanding of how the curriculum, both acknowledged and hidden, manifests in different contexts and settings.

On the luciferic side, powerful spiritual streams are working everywhere to create astral immortality by training people very effectively, where people learn how to exit rapidly their bodies and live consciously in the astral world, developing lucid astral imaginations, travel and projections. Like the aharimanic immortality discussed before, also this luciferic practice is using the released etheric body from the heart, connecting it with luciferic beings in the lower astral world, that fill the empty etheric body with their astral-desire forces and give you strongest astral imaginations and experiences outside of the body. 

Nach fast 100-Jahren Waldorf Pädagogik, gehören Rudolf Steiner Schulen zu den weltweit meist verbreiteten Reform- oder Alternativschulen. Wohl auch deshalb ist die Waldorfpädagogik in den Fokus mannigfaltiger Forschung gerückt. Ihre Resultate zeigen, dass die Waldorfpädagogik die Inhalte für eine gute und zeitgemässe Schule in sich trägt und wie diese erfolgreich in der Schulpraxis wirken. Der Artikel zieht eine Zwischenbilanz und beschreibt ein paar Forschungsprojekte aus den Themenkreisen: Spiritualität, Absolventenbiographien, Praxisforschung und Teacher Learning. Daraus ergeben sich Entwicklungsfelder für die Wandlung der Waldorfpädagogik.

Observations and interview transcript from Kamaroi Rudolph Steiner School in Sydney, Australia, focusing on how the arts are integrated into all learning in the curriculum, as well as how the school as avoided the use of technology.

This paper is an enhanced transcription of two lectures given as part of the University of Sydney Massively Open Online Course (MOOC), The Place of Music in 21st Century Education, published on Coursera (Humberstone, 2016) that has been edited in order to provide the clearest possible communication to the course participants. Additional context from the original scripts that was omitted from the video and/or occasional clarifying screenshots may have been added for greater understanding. Each of the 36 short content lectures in this series either presents the author’s synthesis of the literature on a particular topic with his own research and practice; or is an observation or interview to further explore the topic beyond the confines of published literature. In most cases the intention is not to present new data (although many of the interviews published in this series become, in their own right, primary source material) or findings, nor to publish a “position” on a particular topic, but to illustrate that taking a position is incredibly difficult when the literature is in a state of contradiction and flux; the intention, instead, is to provoke critical thinking in the course participant. The lectures are best understood in their original format: video.

Die verschiedenen Dimensionen des Selbst und deren Verhältnis zum Ich betrifft jeden Menschen: Es geht um sein Selbst, seine individuelle Identität, seine Selbstbestimmung und Selbstgestaltung. In der Begegnung mit der Welt, insbesondere mit seinen Mitmenschen bewahrt der Mensch seine Individualität, seine Unverwechselbarkeit – und erarbeitet sich zugleich neue Fähigkeiten und Ausdrucksformen, kurz: er wird immer wieder zu einem Anderen, er entwickelt sich.
Die Spannung zwischen Identität und Selbstentwicklung ist zentrales Thema dieses Buches. Sie wird an-hand einer Auseinandersetzung mit dem philosophisch-anthroposophischen Hauptwerk Rudolf Steiners, Die Philosophie der Freiheit, aufgebaut, vertieft und fruchtbar gemacht. Zwei Themen der Menschwer-dung stehen im Vordergrund: das Bewegen, das heisst das Öffnen von individuellen Erkenntnisgrenzen und das fortwährende Ringen um Freiheit, kurz, um Erkenntnis- und Freiheitsentwicklung.
Das Buch ist ein Beitrag zu einer differenzierten philosophisch-anthroposophischen Anthropologie des sich zur Freiheit entwickelnden Menschen

Are you ready to begin the process of making yourself a new etheric body and individuality?
In the last century, Rudolf Steiner issued a challenge for practitioners of western spiritual science. Would it be possible to develop a new form of cognitive, or Michaelic, yoga? In contrast to the eastern yogis of old – who practiced the spiritualization of inhalation and exhalation – such contemporary yogic practice would involve a spiritualization of thinking as well as a transformation of perceptions and sensations.
In Cognitive Yoga, Dr Ben-Aharon responds to that call, developing the entire modern yogic process and describing it in remarkable detail. Through the methods presented, committed practitioners of anthroposophy can create a living framework for spiritual research through a fully spiritualized thinking accompanied by a complete renewal of the experiences of perception and sensation as well as the human body itself.
Amongst the extraordinary content of this book is a comprehensive guide to the spiritualization of the senses and how this leads to a transmutation of the deepest and most unconscious bodily processes and functions. Cognitive Yoga culminates in a pioneering description of a completely individualized meeting with the etheric Christ in the etheric world – the most important spiritual and human experience that people can have in our time and over the millennia to come.
This seminal work, built on decades of first-hand research, provides tangible evidence that western spiritual schooling is not only alive and well, but also full of potential for future development. Ben-Aharon offers a fully formulated and practical guide to a knowledge of the present revelations of the spiritual world.

Visual experiences occurring during meditation are central to many different religious, contemplative, and esoteric traditions. This is also true for anthroposophy. In Rudolf Steiner's work, meditative visual experiences, or 'imaginations' as they are often called, are understood as potential perceptions of a concrete spiritual reality. Hence imaginations form the bedrock of the anthroposophic project of cultural renewal based on spiritual perception. The imaginative consciousness is, however, many-faceted, and sometimes Steiner's descriptions of it can be confusing and contradictory. This article gives an outline of a systematic account of the phenomenology of the imaginative consciousness in Steiner. It traces the development of the term, presents its different aspects, and tries to resolve some conflicting statements by introducing three different areas of imagination: sensory imagination , imagination in the in-between area, and supersensible imagination. This introduction lays the ground for a further systematic treatment of the concept of imagination in Steiner.

In dit artikel wordt een duiding voorgesteld van de drie eerste hoofdstukken van het Johannesevangelie, in het licht van de NLJ-lezing van de tekst. Volgens deze lezing zijn Natanaël (Jh.1:45;21:2) en Lazarus (Jh.11:1;12:1) dezelfde individualiteit, namelijk 'de leerling van wie Jezus hield' die tevens de auteur is van het Johannesevangelie (Jh.21:20-24). Deze NLJ-lezing bouwt verder op de door Rudolf Steiner voorgestelde lezing volgens dewelke achter Lazarus, 'de leerling van wie Jezus hield' en de auteur van het vierde evangelie éénzelfde individualiteit schuilgaat.

"I propose that the alchemical cycle of the four elements Earth, Water, Air and Fire provides a useful and exact analogue for the processes of transformation of a wide variety of types, and as such can be considered an archetype.  The elemental cycle is a potent symbol for a transformative, qualitative language (logos) which has the potential to guide human consciousness towards lawful, holistic engagement with essentially any phenomenon.  When worked consistently, the elemental cycle leads us beyond ‘everyday’ modes of cognition to what could be called Imaginative, Inspirative, and Intuitive modes cognition.  In these modes, thinking no longer takes place ‘about’ a phenomenon, but ‘with’, ‘through’, and ‘within’ phenomena.  The elemental cycle provides a content, a method, and self-regulating feedback mechanisms for working with transformation, and can help engender a consciousness that can fruitfully dialogue with the interiority of the world by making it explicit.  Its power lies in its ability to act as a template and guide for the structuring of human consciousness; it is a tool which makes available a coherent, archetypal patterning which can help guide and transform a human consciousness in healthy and practical ways.  By making available new modes of consciousness, it helps us learn to see ourselves and the world in ways that allow for greater creativity and flexibility when faced with difficult or problematic situations. At the same time it illuminates and connects us with phenomena – both outer and inner – that might otherwise pass our notice.

This essay comprises a detailed study of the nature of the elements and the elemental cycle, through which it is hoped the reader may gain a solid enough foundation to work experimentally with the elemental cycle independently if desired.  Therefore, the cycle is introduced via a brief phenomenology of the individual elements, which are then connected, compared, and brought together to form a complete picture of the cycle.  The breadth of applicability of the cycle is then explored through a series of specific instances that also serve to illuminate the qualities of the cycle itself.  A report on third-party work with the elemental cycle provides complementary and contrasting experiences, while an in-depth review and application of the cycle to the nature of images opens up the complexities and demonstrates the recursive, self-generating quality of the cycle.  Lastly, an introductory series of practical steps and specific exercises, advice, and questions for each elemental stage is provided to help the reader use the cycle independently."

Der folgende Artikel ist eine Fortsetzung von David W. Woods Forschungsarbeit zu historischen Persönlichkeiten, die den Charakteren in Rudolf Steiners Mysteriendramen zugrunde liegen. Diesmal wird der Autor versuchen, den realen Menschen hinter der Seherin Theodora aufzudecken, die wiederum eine Metamorphose der Figur des Habichts in Goethes Märchen ist.
https://diedrei.org/lesen/theodoras-prophetische-offenbarung

Ernesto Genoni (1885-1975) was the pioneer of Biodynamic agriculture  in Australia. He studied art at Brera Academy of Fine Art in Milan, Italy. He visited his older brothers and sisters who had earlier migrated to Australia and had farms at Broome Hill in Western Australia. On one visit WW1 broke out. Although he was a pacifist, Ernesto volunteered in the AIF and served on the Western Front as a stretcher bearer. before being conscripted off the battlefield into the Italian Army. After the war he joined the Anthroposophy Society. He spent time with Rudolf Steiner in Dornach, Switzerland in 1923 and 1924. Back in Australia he established Melbourne's Anthroposophy Michael Group with Anne Macky. He was the first Australian to join the Experimental Circle of Anthroposophical Farmers and Gardeners. He was Australia's first biodynamic farmer. This is his story in his own words.

Dr. Elisabeth Vreede war am Goetheanum in Dornach Leiterin der Astronomischen Sektion. Ihr Nachlass in Den Haag enthält eine Fülle von Nachschriften der freimaurerischen Arbeiten Rudolf Steiners, Vreedes Schurz und anderen FM-Utensilien, sowie ein Bijoux, das sie auf Anweisung von cr.ros. empfangen hat.

Rudolf Steiner, The Riddles of Philosophy, Presented in an Outline of Their History. 2 vols., 792 pp.

https://steinerbooks.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9781732461345/The-Riddles-of-Philosophy

English translation based on the 1924 German edition (“Ausgabe letzter Hand”) of Rudolf Steiner’s Die Rätsel der Philosophie, in ihrer Geschichte als Umriss dargestellt (Dornach/Switzerland: Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum, 1924). Originally translated by Fritz C. A. Koelln in 1973; translation substantially revised and corrected by David W. Wood for this new edition (Great Barrington MA: Chadwick Library Edition, 2018).

Chadwick Library Press:
https://chadwicklibrarypress.org/products/vol-4-the-riddles-of-philosophy-part-i-ii

Rudolf Steiner published the fairy tale “Der Ring” (The Ring) in August 1884, when he was twenty-three years old. Forgotten for almost 130 years, the tale was never reprinted or included in any subsequent German edition of Steiner’s writings, only becoming rediscovered in a Budapest library archive in 2011. It has now been translated and made publicly available for the first time since 1884.

There is no doubt that Rudolf Steiner’s 1884 fairy tale “The Ring” is a highly enigmatic piece of writing, and could even be called an esoteric tale, as it seems to depict in a veiled artistic, but still open manner, Steiner's early inner enlightenment experiences.
 
Steiner's text is followed by an Afterword: "Rudolf Steiner's Early Enigmatic Tale", by David W. Wood.

Publication in the Southern Cross Review, vol. 113, July-August 2017: https://southerncrossreview.org/113/steiner-the-ring.htm

At the beginning of the twentieth century two masters, Rudolf Steiner and Michael Chekhov, dedicated themselves to the actor’s pedagogy and to the work on the character, with particular attention to the development of the imagination through meditation and concentration exercises. The recovery of images in the unconscious memory and their elaboration - together with the study of the correspondence between sensations, moods and movements - gave life to the so called Gestures of the soul Steiner’s method and to the Psychological Gesture in the Technique of the actor of Michael Chekhov: two methods hinged upon on the functioning of the cognitive system for creative work on the character. The essay illustrates the fundamental principles on which the actor’s creative work is based and how some of these are relevant to the anthroposophical vision of Rudolf Steiner. Key words: Subconscio - Rudolf Steiner - Michael Chekhov - Attore

Karl Julius Schröer. "The Natural Scientific Writings of Goethe" (1884), translated by David W. Wood.
The following text is Schröer's Foreword to volume one of Rudolf Steiner's edition of Goethe's Natural Scientific Writings. The text is historically notable among others insofar as Schröer introduces  in it the young Steiner to the scholarly world. The German version was published in Kürschner’s Deutsche National-Litteratur = Goethes Werke, Volume 33, 1884, pp. I – XIV.
The following translation is a revised version of a text that originally appeared in Archetype, the journal of the Science Group of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain (ed. Dr. David J. Heaf), in September 1999, pp. 35-46.
https://sciencegroup.org.uk/journal/

The Agriculture Course of Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) is the seminal text of biodynamic farming and the organic agriculture movement. It has appeared in 16 languages. The Austrian New Age philosopher, Dr Rudolf Steiner, presented his Agriculture Course in the village of Koberwitz, Germany (now Kobierzyce, Poland) in the summer of 1924. The course of eight lectures laid the foundations for the emergence, over the following two decades, of biodynamic farming and organic agriculture. There were 111 attendees at the course at Koberwitz, many were farmers, all were Anthroposophists. The Agriculture Course was presented in German. It was one of the final lecture series that Rudolf Steiner conducted in his lifetime. It was a course of what Rudolf Steiner called “hints”, to be put to the test, not prescriptions nor dogmas. The Agriculture Course appeared in print in German in 1926. It was initially available only to members of the Experimental Circle of Anthroposophic Farmers and Gardeners (until some time after WW2). Members of the Experimental Circle agreed to test Rudolf Steiner’s ideas and to report the results back to Anthroposophy headquarters at Dornach (on the outskirts of Basel), Switzerland, with the view to the publication of the results. The first translation of the Agriculture Course appeared in English in 1929. That translation was by George Kaufmann (later known as George Adams) who brought to the task his years of masterfully and extemporaneously rendering into English Rudolf Steiner’s lectures in German for audiences. There have been at least two other translations into English (in 1938 and 1993). The Agriculture Course has been translated into a further 14 (at least) other languages: French (1943); Swedish (1966); Italian (1973); Danish (1976); Dutch (1977); Spanish (1988); Hebrew (1989); Norwegian (1992); Romanian (1997); Russian (1997); Serbian (2004); Portuguese (2005); Polish (2007); and Esperanto (2009). As organic agriculture continues to increasingly attract consumers, advocates, practitioners, and scholars, interest endures in the seminal text of biodynamics and the organics movement.