Metamorphoses of the Soul

Rudolf Steiner

Description

This vintage book contains a collection of fascinating lectures by Rudolf Steiner. They chiefly concern the goals of spiritual science and the concepts of truth, anger, and reverence. The lectures also deal with the exploration of the human condition, egoism, asceticism and illness, and Buddha and Christ. This volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in philosophy and the work of Rudolf Steiner. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (1861–1925) was an Austrian author, philosopher and esotericist. The lectures include: “The Mission of Spiritual Science”, “The Mission of Anger”, “The Mission of Truth”, “The Mission of Reverence”, “Human Character”, “Asceticism and Illness”, “Human Egoism”, “Buddha and Christ”, and “Something about the Moon in the Light of Spiritual Science”. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 14 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528769617
• Langue: English

Extrait

METAMORPHOSES OF THE SOUL
METAMORPHOSES OF THE SOUL
BY
RUDOLF STEINER
Rendered into English by G. Metaxa from a text unrevised by the Author
Edited by H. COLLISON
THE RUDOLF STEINER PUBLISHING CO. 54, BLOOMSBURY STREET, W.C.I
AND
ANTHROPOSOPHIC PRESS NEW YORK
This Translation has been made by permission, from the German of Rudolf Steiner, by Harry Collison, M.A., Oxon, by whom all rights are reserved.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY MACKAYS LIMITED, CHATHAM
These lectures are taken from the Lecture Cycle held in the Architektenhaus, Berlin, in the winter of 1909 and the spring of 1910.
Their particular message is a special orientation to the field of Art. A further volume will follow dealing with more special phenomena of the human soul. Another volume will shortly appear dealing with the life of the soul in its religious and ethical aspect, and entitled The conscious development of soul life.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
R UDOLF S TEINER S W ORK AT B ERLIN A P REFACE BY M ARIE S TEINER
I T HE M ISSION OF A NGER .-21 ST O CTOBER , 1909
II T HE M ISSION OF T RUTH .-22 ND O CTOBER , 1909
III T HE M ISSION OF R ELIGIOUS D EVOTION .-28 TH O CTOBER , 1909
IV H UMAN C HARACTER .-29 TH O CTOBER , 1909
V T HE N ATURE OF E GOISM .-25 TH N OVEMBER , 1909
VI H UMAN C ONSCIENCE .-5 TH M AY , 1910
VII T HE M ISSION OF A RT .-12 TH M AY , 1910
PREFACE
RUDOLF STEINER S WORK AT BERLIN
M ARIE S TEINER
THE following are new contributions from the unlimited treasure of Rudolf Steiner s Berlin lectures. To extract them thus from their organic whole is like boring with a sharp instrument into a noble substance and breaking off fragments of glistening marble. Life flows in its veins and its whiteness betokens the purity of its origin. The store of wisdom is given into our hands and we must learn with its help to form an active, living entity in the soul, to create works of art, to develop strength of ego-consciousness which, fired by the living spark, becomes a flame of life. We can become wise through handling this immaculate store. These lectures, which will delight the lover of beauty in his inmost soul, were given by Rudolf Steiner in the grey city of Berlin. What can have made Berlin a centre radiating the fire of life which, when received, raises humanity to a higher stage of existence? Was it the heart-beat of his untiring power of work and his life of unresting labour, which in spite of dust, hard pavements and driving haste could harbour souls capable of receiving still higher benefits than those smilingly bestowed by a friendlier environment? Was it the comparative freedom left to the individual by the hurry and rush in which each is indifferent for his neighbour? Or would it have been possible and was the opportunity lost of hearing the word, in the right moment, and acquiring the knowledge which might have saved Berlin, Germany and Europe?
The word remained unspoken and unheard, relinquishing its power to the future and abandoning the present to its destiny. Its utterance, even in Berlin, was confined behind walls raised on high by the silence of public opinion. And when the silence apparently failed in its purpose there was always cheap ridicule and blasphemy at hand. Public burnings do not take place nowadays but there are cheaper and more efficient means of killing without making martyrs; there is the official authority of those who tell us what we have to believe, and the Press, and the Fraternities who spread both openly and secretly anything they choose. Should all these prove insufficient there was still the holocaust 1 left, and it was this which placed the crown upon Rudolf Steiner s life s work.
Nevertheless, until the point was reached when the building he had erected, the Goetheanum, attracted the notice and provoked the hatred of the world, Rudolf Steiner worked on with never-failing sense of duty at establishing the foundations upon which his faultless edifice of thought rested. Never a word he spoke with an eye to success or without full responsibility before the spiritual world. This feeling of responsibility and this respect for the conditions of growth underlying the powers of human understanding never deserted Rudolf Steiner, whether he stood before children and teachers, himself as a teacher, or whether, as a speaker he paid regards to the capacities and possibilities of his listeners. He always counted upon the best and highest in the human being, supporting, guiding and raising it. His personal mildness of manner, his respect for the freedom of the individual and his joy at every talent shown, were so great that very often a pupil would lose his sense of proportion and take what he had received and was now merely reflecting, to be his own power, thus giving rise to antagonistic inner forms which could not but grieve and disappoint the teacher. Yet it was the teacher s duty always to believe in the pupil s better self, while the spiritual investigator kept his thoughts free from every negative element. The tragic failure of a pupil in his environment always redounded upon the teacher; for the pupil, however, it meant maturity in the course of his career, and then wisdom. And this was Rudolf Steiner s task and mission; spiritually to enliven human consciousness as it lies deadened by modern intellectualism, and to develop in the Ego, through pangs of birth, the organ for free spiritual activity.
It was in the great, prosaic, strange city Berlin that Rudolf Steiner spoke as follows on transformations of the human soul, these lectures being taken from the whole series held in the winter and spring months of 1909 and 1910. They release us from our imperfections, for we are shown how to consider these as preliminary stages to later perfections if we are but willing to become transformed. This is work of the Ego in the Cosmos within the sphere of lawful transformation to ever higher stages; work of the Ego in itself, supported by the necessity of cosmic law. In the macrologos the micrologos which creates its own word in free spiritual activity and, with will to knowledge, embodies its word in the connected cosmic whole. Wonder-struck we measure the expanse and depth of the cosmic word which Rudolf Steiner speaks to us. Ever it grows to the height of a cathedral and spans the horizon. This speech has power which can stun and destroy a weak race, power which weakness would fain shun. But out of this process of seering and this pulverization of dross, there rises, if it is only recognized, the will to re-birth. The stifling mantle of materialism lay heavily upon humanity as Rudolf Steiner spoke his life-renewing word in Berlin.
The general weakness of soul proved a barrier which none pierced. The distant flashes of the approaching storm were indeed visible and the heavy clouds of national and class hatred were gathering ever more threateningly but, through the authority of the powers that be, dull unresponsiveness remained engrained in the souls of men who had not yet learnt what freedom is and where to look for it.
We do not need freedom; we only need reasonable compulsion. . . . Such was the motto of those labour leaders in the educational institutions where Rudolf Steiner spoke to workers. The will of the workers could not retain him there, for the will of the leaders to unfreedom was stronger. On all sides the representatives of heavy materialism were on the defensive, bitterly resentful.
The disaster overtook humanity before men could awaken and learn to perceive-disaster the effect of which must apparently reach the utmost limit, as in Eastern Europe and now in China. The dragon is firmly coiled round our unfortunate world; the dragon-slayer is the object of deadly hatred.
The time in which we live is so great and tremendous that it escapes us; we cannot survey what ranges above us,-or we overlook it. Thus we did not see him who was greater than his time. But now that he is no longer among us, we are precisely offered the possibility of gaining perspective, of appreciating historical values, of distinguishing between relative greatness and of estimating the distance between his mind and ours. Compare those who were raised in triumph because they were a danger to none, with this greatest one who provoked the hatred of the times because he spoke the truth.
Rudolf Steiner, his work and mission, can be understood only within the great connected scheme of history, in which the march of civilization unfolds, between each rise and fall, in an ever ascending spiral. At each turning point of spiritual life the leader appears who has comprised the future in himself and therefore remains incomprehensible to the present. The leader of to-day had to inform humanity that the means of salvation were now to a large extent given into the hands of men; men must find in themselves the will to effect their own rescue, for the moment of freedom from instinct, thrust and compulsion was at hand; freedom bought by the fall into the greatest ignominy, the slavery of matter which, however, can bring us knowledge and consciousness united with will.
These are quiet and upward paths, followed by the spirit of these lectures; paths of beauty and purity by which humanity ascends to sacred sanctuaries. Prometheus, Pandora, Titans and Gods rise before us. It is as though we tread the sacred ways of Greek temples,-upward to the summits of art and beyond these into the spirit. The pioneer of these ways on our behalf chose for himself the martyr s path and pursued it to the end. We now keep on our way so strongly supported by the stream of his power that we may perhaps experience something like a shudder of that awe and reverence which such uplifting and upbuilding power of love should arouse in us.
These lectures show us the transf