An Esoteric Cosmology: Evolution, Christ & Modern Spirituality

by Rudolf Steiner, Edouard Shure (Foreword by), Bernard Garber (Preface by)

18 lectures in Paris, May 25 – June 14, 1906 (CW 94) “This cycle of eighteen lectures...presented a survey of the evolution of cosmos, Earth, and humanity, to the extent attained by Dr. Steiner in the maturing process of his research. In his Autobiography, when looking back to the earlier years, he says of the stage that his knowledge had then ‘The whole world outside of human beings is a riddle, the real-world riddle; and humanity itself is the answer.’ Through the years, we worked continuously at the solution of the riddle. These lectures of 1906 were also devoted to this theme, and three years later he was able to present the knowledge gained in a comprehensive form as his book An Outline of Esoteric Science.” ― Guenther Wachsmuth ( The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner ) A congress of the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society was held in Paris in May 1906. Rudolf Steiner attended with a number of students and presented a series of lectures to a small circle of friends, mostly society members. Édouard Schuré was present and made succinct notes of those talks, the result of which is An Esoteric Evolution, Christ, and Modern Spirituality. In is foreword, Schuré describes his initial impressions of Rudolf Steiner and the force of his “These priceless lectures mark a significant phase of Rudolf Steiner’s thought―that of the spontaneous burst of his genius and its first crystallization.” Indeed, his notes record perhaps the first general outline and summary of what would become Anthroposophy, or spiritual science. At the time of these lectures, most members viewed Theosophy as a kind of Europeanized Indian philosophy. Thus, one purpose of these lectures was to outline Steiner’s Christ-centered spiritual science in contrast to the more Eastern orientation of Theosophy. He carefully connected the essence of spiritual science to the role of the Christ in human evolution, as well as to the Rosicrucian and Christian mystery traditions, the primary carriers of the esoteric Christian stream. To accomplish this, Steiner presented the roots of Christianity in the ancient mysteries and in the evolution of the whole universe itself. The miracle of these lectures, perhaps, is that Steiner was able to condense such a grand cosmology into these eighteen lectures, and that Édouard Schuré was able to capture their essence in the relatively brief notes that constitute this book. “I took no notes of the first lecture, but it made such a vivid impression upon me that, once I reached home, I felt a need to write it down without forgetting a single link in the chain of these illuminating thoughts. I had absorbed the lecture so completely that I found no difficulty at all. By a process of involuntary and instantaneous transmutation, the German words, which had ingrained themselves in my memory, changed into French. The same thing, repeated after each of the eighteen lectures, gradually grew into a dossier that I keep as a rich and rare store of treasure.” ― Édouard Schuré (from his foreword) These lecture notes will prove invaluable for all those who wish to better understand Rudolf Steiner’s book An Outline of Esoteric Science, as well as his Christian cosmology and perspectives on esoteric Christianity and the Christian mysteries. An Esoteric Cosmology is a translation of notes in French by Édouard Schuré, including 18 of 43 lectures in Paris, Leipzig, and Munich, published in German as Kosmogonie. Populäre Okkultismus. Das Johannes-Evangelium. Die Theosophie an Hand des Johannes-Evangelium (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, GA 94).

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction

132 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1986

About the author

Author 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.

Reviews

[Ruud · Rating 4 out of 5]

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...

[David Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Daniel Behn · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Phillip Fitzsimmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Lukas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but I felt some were creative reachings stated as fact. I'll likely reread this book in the future.

[Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Wendy 'windmill']

Excellent

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