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Esoteric Cosmology
A collection of 18 of Steiner's lectures, here the student will find concise expositions which comprise the spectrum of esoteric wisdom. Topics include astral sight, higher dimensions, involution and evolution, yoga in East and West, the Logos, cosmic evolution, the apocalypse, and more. This text has been custom formatted for Kindle and checked for typos. It includes an interactive table of contents.
- GenresSpiritualityNonfiction
127 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 1986
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236 people want to read
About the author
Rudolf Steiner
4,339 books1,100 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 26, 2022
A short but very good book. It only does not get 5 stars as I am pretty sure it is not "original": I highly suspect this book to be a summary of: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception Mystic Christianity https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
January 30, 2021
Genius or Madman?
I've read this and "Knowledge of the Higher Worlds" as background for reading Valentin Tomberg. On first reading of both books I question the sanity of the author, and that of my own for persisting to read them. Perhaps my respect for Tomberg helped me through.
For "Esoteric Cosmology" reading immersively instead of merely listening to the audiobook helped alleviate the narrator's poor pronounciation of foreign (German) and fairly unusual words (e.g. travail).
I've given the book two stars only because I'm still struggling with the idea that I've just read the ravings of a lunatic. Enough highly intelligent people have sung the praises of Steiner to give me pause. Or, maybe, the content is just yet another example of the emperors new clothes.
I've read this and "Knowledge of the Higher Worlds" as background for reading Valentin Tomberg. On first reading of both books I question the sanity of the author, and that of my own for persisting to read them. Perhaps my respect for Tomberg helped me through.
For "Esoteric Cosmology" reading immersively instead of merely listening to the audiobook helped alleviate the narrator's poor pronounciation of foreign (German) and fairly unusual words (e.g. travail).
I've given the book two stars only because I'm still struggling with the idea that I've just read the ravings of a lunatic. Enough highly intelligent people have sung the praises of Steiner to give me pause. Or, maybe, the content is just yet another example of the emperors new clothes.
August 30, 2020
Es mi primer acercamiento a la Antroposofía, y al tomarlo literal choca contra la razón, pero a la vez tiene mucho sentido de una manera romántica e intuitiva.
Algunas ideas claves:
La ciencia espiritual o el camino de autoaprendizaje.
La iniciación como alineación de la voluntad con el corazón y la mente.
Desarrollo paralelo entre virtudes y habilidades perceptivas.
Cristo nos vino a enseñar que todos podemos accesar a la divinidad.
El arte y la iluminación es sutil, abstracto, escondido, no se puede abarcar de manera exacta, literal.
Algunas ideas claves:
La ciencia espiritual o el camino de autoaprendizaje.
La iniciación como alineación de la voluntad con el corazón y la mente.
Desarrollo paralelo entre virtudes y habilidades perceptivas.
Cristo nos vino a enseñar que todos podemos accesar a la divinidad.
El arte y la iluminación es sutil, abstracto, escondido, no se puede abarcar de manera exacta, literal.
April 30, 2024
This is pretty cool. I think it is going to be one of my favorite Rudolf Steiner books. This one is particularly useful if a reader is looking for the belief system of his student Owen Barfield. Barfield's work focuses on the evolution of human consciousness. This set of lectures by Steiner provides the listener with a great introduction to that topic.
September 26, 2021
Interesting but I felt some were creative reachings stated as fact. I'll likely reread this book in the future.
November 19, 2008
One of the earlier collection of lectures on Esoteric Cosmology by the great teacher of mankind - Rudolf Steiner. Essential information about the evolution of Man. A must for anyone who wants to open his eyes to the truth.
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June 29, 2018Excellent
A brilliant aside for the esoteric study I am doing. Love Steiners work. Such an interesting mind. Short lectures, but filled with lots of information
A brilliant aside for the esoteric study I am doing. Love Steiners work. Such an interesting mind. Short lectures, but filled with lots of information
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews