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Spiritual Science Digital Library

This site brings together a subset of the books and lectures of Rudolf Steiner and a collection of articles written on specific topics of Spiritual Science / Anthroposophy and related esoteric knowledge. Its intended purpose is to present this knowledge in a readable and organized manner. Every book, lecture, article, etc. is downloadable in PDF format.

This material presents a drastic "new view" of life and the world around us. One for whom this material (information / knowledge) is entirely new, the initial tendency is often to recoil from such teachings. This is "normal". However, there is one prerequisite for approaching this material in order to (begin to) understand what it teaches. That prerequisite is desire, a thirst that becomes, over time, unquenchable. It becomes unquenchable because this journey is life-long, even many-lives-long. Studying what is here follows the maxim, 'the more I learn, the less I know'. This is because there is so much to learn. This knowledge does not fit in a box that can be carried around. One should not expect simple answers to questions regarding the secrets of either the macrocosm (the universe) or the microcosm (human beings).

To paraphrase Richard Smoley in his introduction to the book containing Rudolf Steiner's cycle of lectures (given in 1910) The Gospel of Matthew [SteinerBooks; Revised edition (February 1, 2002)]:

How, in the end, are we to deal with Steiner's vision? Are we to accept it on blind faith, repudiate it because the "experts" disagree, or launch our own independent spiritual-scientific investigations (via personal clairvoyance)? However, all three approaches are beset with problems and challenges. But there is another way of looking at Steiner's teachings that offer an alternative.

The conventional mind is trapped in dualities. Everything must be yes/no, good/bad, either/or. Although this form of intellect can accomplish a great deal, it is not particularly high or sophisticated: a computer, which operates entirely with dualistic sequences of zeros and ones, "thinks" in much the same way. Esoteric texts like Steiner's call for another approach. It is quite simply this: to read his ideas, not as so many theories and opinions to be agreed with or rejected, but as possibilites to be contemplated and meditated upon. If we are able to step back from the critical, evaluative mind — which serves us so well in some respects while causing us such misery in others — we may find we are able to enjoy and appreciate what Steiner has brought to our time in a new and beneficial way. Liberated from the necessity to take all of Steiner's words at face value (a perspective Steiner himself warned against), we become more able to see the truth in what he is trying to convey to today's humanity.

In an exercise in one of his most important books, How to Know Higher Worlds, Steiner suggests contemplating a seed and cultivating a vivid awareness of its different life stages, so that one eventually senses, "Within the seed already lies concealed what — as the force of the whole plant — later grows out of it." The cultivation of the vision of spiritual science is to see clearly and distinctly not only what is to come, but what already lies in an object as its past and its origin. It is this vision Rudolf Steiner sought to share. He did so with utter humility and a desire for mankind to [finally] "know thyself."

It is through spiritual science that human knowledge becomes serious, and people shy away from it. They also want spiritual science only as something that ripples on the surface of existence. That it goes to the core and essence of the human being, that is what people fear. That is why they do not want to accept spiritual science. If they were to accept spiritual science, then many things in social life, in historical life, would have to change in the very near future, then people would have to think differently in their most everyday life. And that is what matters.

That is why it is possible to take up other sciences, but one remains the same throughout life, one only becomes richer in knowledge. Spiritual science should not be absorbed without transforming you, and it cannot be absorbed without transforming you. It slowly and gradually makes you a different person. You have to be patient, but it makes you a different person, because it appeals to quite different human tasks, and it appeals to quite different things in human nature.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 182 – Der Tod als Lebenswandlung – Heidenheim, 29 April 1918 (page 58)

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Practical Spiritual Alchemy

Your spiritual (higher) self is held within a cage. To gain true freedom, and, therefore, serenity, the spiritual self must be freed; freed from wounds - whether external or core; freed from core beliefs ingrained over years of material indoctrination causing a loss of soul; freed from other self-destructive personality traits that keep our true Self caged and un-free.

The goal of spiritual alchemy is the transmutation of the lead of the lower self - base qualities such as selfishness, arrogance, vanity (the conditioned self) - into the gold of the higher self - such as kindness, tolerance, humility and an acceptance of our destiny/karma (the awakened self). It is a process that seeks to restructure one's personality and the various levels of attachment, avoidance, and identification that have long shaped who we are and how we relate to the world around us.

This site is not yet complete pending final editing.

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Anthroposophical Lexicon

This Anthroposophy Lexicon was translated from the work of Urs Schwanderner (1939–2010).

The [full] lexicon is massive – over 14,000 entries; 14 volumes, together around 7000 pages with over 100 illustrations (Schwanderner's TOC). Included here is a subset of just over 600 specific key topics selected by the author.

The source German was translated to English using DeepL (free version) though small portions of the material were translated using Google Translate.

The source data (e.g. the GA reference) is provided for each lexicon entry. To track down the corresponding lecture of the GA, use the corresponding 'Source' reference for the GA. The author suggests using the RS Archive for English versions of the lectures. However, not all referenced material may have been translated to English at the time of reading.

The parent/main topics shared are in (English) alphabetical order; the sub-topics are in the order they appear in the German edition.

In addition to Schwanderner's work, supplemental material has been added where it was felt it was of value to do so. Sources of this added material range from passages of Rudolf Steiner's lectures (sourced from the RS Archive), and from the Free Man Creator website.

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J Anthony Rose

My passion is writing stories that reflect not only the outward life, but seeks to spark something spiritual within the reader. The Bible offers one of the most prolific and fruitful sources of material for stories that strive to bring people together, with each other and with the spiritual world that exists behind our physical world.

I find no better place in which to explore what it means to be human than the many stories and events recorded in the Bible. Through the stories I write, based on those in the Bible, I hope to offer a means for the reader to experience a sense of "being there", within the stories rather than reading something that feels distant. There exist deep truths in the words of the Bible that have been shrouded in mystery for a long time, truths that humanity now must begin to face. Inasmuch as humanity has developed and evolved greatly over the millennia, it has a very long future ahead of it — some of it wonderful, some of it frightful. However, far from having to live in fear, the future is ripe with hope as the deeper truths of the Bible become less and less shrouded in mystery.

J Anthony Rose is the nom de plume of A.K.M.D.

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A·I

Artificial Intelligence is the latest technology to continue its sidewinding into the greatest depths of our lives – our thought lives. The previous (Fourth) age was the age of Intellectual Soul (747 BC to 1413 AD), when Mankind developed his intellect (thinking) and philosophy . Our current (Fifth) age is that of the Consciousness Soul. It a time characterized by the end of the dark age (or Kali Yuga age) around 1899. It is the cultural age where the consciousness soul develops and matures to be (slowly) fructified by the Christ Impulse.

What all of that means specifically I leave to the reader to investigate (you can find a few inroads on a few of my sites shared here). My point here is that I find it interesting that, as we weave our way into higher consciousness we seem to be throwing aside our intellect ('intellect' is the power of knowing). People seem to have forgotten how to actually think. Especially how to think for themselves. Our thoughts determine our lives. If we, therefore, are not thinking for ourselves, then exactly who, or what, is doing our thinking for us?

This blog, then, is me combatting in my own way this loss of individualized thinking. It seeks to force the reader to actually think. You may not agree with the subject matter of my posts - that is fine, and good if you are actually engaging your own thought processes toward that disagreement. But if all you are doing is parroting someone else, then my point above is proven.

https://kennethmdouglass.com/