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Classics in Anthroposophy
An Outline of Esoteric Science: (CW 13)
Outline of the processes of cosmic evolution, including detailed exercises for attaining higher conscious states.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1910
46 people are currently reading
711 people want to read
About the author
Rudolf Steiner
4,345 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 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 30, 2022
Honestly, what can I say? this is the clearest and most comprehensive esoteric cosmology I have come into contact with throughout my time digging into these topics. I have no way of proving the statements in this book absolutely for myself or to anyone else (at least until I try developing supersensible consciousness and doing spiritual research myself), but that's not the point. This is the results of Steiner's own spiritual research, put out with the intent of familiarizing others with what he feels they will need to effectively expand their own consciousnesses. He does not expect you to accept his outline of spiritual and cosmic evolution as blind dogma, but rather to use the methods he outlines (in this work and especially in others like "How To Know Higher Worlds") To find and experience the truth for yourself. He provides information on his perceptions of the spiritual realms to give you a solid foundation to start with working your way back into the world of spirit and understanding the grand processes at play. Along with that, after my own reading and research into spirituality and esoterica, I have to say that Steiner's cosmology ties together everything I have learned, from many different sources, both ancient and contemporary, into one system that just makes an unbelievable amount of sense. I mean this both in terms of spiritual principles, and in terms of satisfyingly explaining the holes and mysteries that exist within our modern scientific-materialist view of the world, evolution, and history. When it comes to getting into cosmology and esoterica, outside of just the inner work (though the inner work is what matters most), this is one of the first books I'd recommend, even with how dense it is, and even with the fact that the overview style of the book skips alot of the nuances that are revealed when Steiner goes more in depth on one particular topic, as I think that was a necessary choice to provide an effective and efficient overview
October 19, 2024
Steiner was a total weirdo and I am here for it.
I have had so many odd experiences and revelations since childhood and reading this made me feel a lot less alone, some of it really made sense to me.
In this work you find Steiner's outline of human spirituaity; how it came to exist and its purpose.
It's accessible to everyone, I'd say,but will resonate with few. C.G. Jung said it is important to develop our own mythologies and Steiner has really done just that. I'm sure as a "scientific" contribution this book could irritate many. Barring the exceptionally tedious and long section on the Sun, Moon,Saturn phases of earthly existence this is an interesting work on creating/informing a science around the supersensible world. If you are a sci-fi writer, I imagine you could get a lot of material from Steiner's work. At the least it is a creative exploration of the possible nature, creation and aspects of our spiritual selves and if you can accept that as the premise, it is then also an introduction to his other work "How to Know Higher Worlds" where after having learned the lay-out of the spiritual land, you may then learn how to navigate through it unencumbered by many deceptions and false interpretations.
I have had so many odd experiences and revelations since childhood and reading this made me feel a lot less alone, some of it really made sense to me.
In this work you find Steiner's outline of human spirituaity; how it came to exist and its purpose.
It's accessible to everyone, I'd say,but will resonate with few. C.G. Jung said it is important to develop our own mythologies and Steiner has really done just that. I'm sure as a "scientific" contribution this book could irritate many. Barring the exceptionally tedious and long section on the Sun, Moon,Saturn phases of earthly existence this is an interesting work on creating/informing a science around the supersensible world. If you are a sci-fi writer, I imagine you could get a lot of material from Steiner's work. At the least it is a creative exploration of the possible nature, creation and aspects of our spiritual selves and if you can accept that as the premise, it is then also an introduction to his other work "How to Know Higher Worlds" where after having learned the lay-out of the spiritual land, you may then learn how to navigate through it unencumbered by many deceptions and false interpretations.
May 22, 2008
One of the key books in the study of anthroposophy. Translated from the original German, this is a tough book to read. Part of the problem I beleive is that Steiner was writing at a very high level (a genius he was) but also the translated version that I read was an older translation and not frankly well done. I would be interested in a newer version... well, someday.
November 19, 2020
Incredibly hard to read but worth it. The concepts discussed are incredible and Steiner explains things in a very relateable and understandable way. Although translated from German, Steiner has stated that he made the writing hard to understand on purpose so that it encaptures the readers full attention.
July 18, 2014
Abstract but good for what it is
July 17, 2012
My favorite......
April 27, 2020
This edition is the 'easier' of the two between the earlier English translation "Occult Science". When you eventually get stuck in "This is Complete-Nonsense Land", I'd suggest speed-reading until the subject begins to feel familiar again. For this essential work from Dr Steiner, the last several chapters bring clarity to the soft abstract descriptions of Old Moon through the first Epoch of Earth (middle chapters).
Having the support of teachers, classmates or a fellow Anthroposophist will be extremely beneficial with wading through the many seas of nuances in Esoteric Science.
Having the support of teachers, classmates or a fellow Anthroposophist will be extremely beneficial with wading through the many seas of nuances in Esoteric Science.
January 13, 2025
Far out!
Definitely preferable to and seemingly at least as plausible (really, when you think about it, because these three options are all pretty much equally absurd) as the major alternative (exoteric) narratives of Darwinian "physicalism", mythic "creationism", and "theistic evolution". Is there some other view that transcends this one and makes more sense?
I wish we had at least been exposed to the existence of these ideas in public school and/or Sunday school (I probably still at the time would have turned out to be programmed to dismiss them). But I guess that wasn't my karma?
Definitely preferable to and seemingly at least as plausible (really, when you think about it, because these three options are all pretty much equally absurd) as the major alternative (exoteric) narratives of Darwinian "physicalism", mythic "creationism", and "theistic evolution". Is there some other view that transcends this one and makes more sense?
I wish we had at least been exposed to the existence of these ideas in public school and/or Sunday school (I probably still at the time would have turned out to be programmed to dismiss them). But I guess that wasn't my karma?
May 6, 2018
A very interesting account of the world and it’s facets, though due to that Steiner never speaks directly and clearly, in addition to the fact that it’s translated from German, it was a very difficult read.
October 28, 2025
It does spark the imagination. But I don't recommend the author or his books. It blasphemes the ancients, namely the Egyptians, and disorients the reader. Rudolf Steiner does a deliberate job in confusing the spiritual aspirants and leading them astray.
October 12, 2016
Interesting views on our planet and planetary bodies of our galaxy, with a deeply woven creation story. I enjoyed reading this, however, I would love to see a breakdown of his references for a deeper support of his concepts.
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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 ...
June 27, 2016
This book wasn't exactly my style. I prefer reading fiction, but even when I read non-fiction, I don't typically read things like this. It was a book outside my comfort zone, but I read it because my dad gave it to me. Now that I'm done with that disclaimer ...
There are a lot of interesting ideas in this book, but I never fully got on board. I thought a lot of the book made assumptions without a lot of evidence and simply said one needs supersensible knowledge to understand. Perhaps it's because I lack supersensible knowledge, but I wasn't convinced. It's definitely not a light read, and it's a subject that one should already be interested in. This is my second Rudolf Steiner book. Although I do like some of his ideas, I just can't fully get behind them. Nevertheless, they were interesting to read about and ponder.
There are a lot of interesting ideas in this book, but I never fully got on board. I thought a lot of the book made assumptions without a lot of evidence and simply said one needs supersensible knowledge to understand. Perhaps it's because I lack supersensible knowledge, but I wasn't convinced. It's definitely not a light read, and it's a subject that one should already be interested in. This is my second Rudolf Steiner book. Although I do like some of his ideas, I just can't fully get behind them. Nevertheless, they were interesting to read about and ponder.
September 3, 2022
Steiner's true Opus, this is the great cosmogony that is only rivaled by Whitehead. Much of the planetary portion reads like a German metaphysician rewriting the Silmarillion, its wonderful but daunting, having something of an effect that borders synesthesia(mirroring the primordial souls experience). The introductions can be briefly skimmed through, they aren't of much help in assuaging the concerns of materialists. The intros can be summed up as Steiner try to qualify his work to an audience obsessed with the natural sciences, endlessly faithful to the spectre of a universe fully enframed in rationality. Whether you come to this book as an initiate or philosopher you will likely be inspired by this book devoted to curiosity and the desire to evolve.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews