Anthroposophy and the Inner Life: An Esoteric Introduction: Nine Lectures Given to Members of the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, Dornach, Switzerland

9 lectures, Dornach, January 19 – February 10, 1924 (CW  234)

“The universe needs us because, through us, it ‘fulfills’ itself―fills itself again and again with its own content.... The universe gives its cosmic thoughts to our etheric body and receives them back again in a humanized condition. It receives them back when we die.... But it is something new that it receives, for we have experienced it all in a particular way.” ― Rudolf Steiner (Feb. 1, 1924)

Although these nine lectures were given to members of the Anthroposophical Society―people who had been studying Anthroposophic spiritual science for many years―this lecture course was nevertheless described by Rudolf Steiner as “introductory.”

Given shortly after the Christmas Foundation Meeting, whereby Rudolf Steiner reestablished and renewed the Society, these lectures reformulate the content of Anthroposophy from a condensed, personal, experiential point of view. What Steiner presented in a descriptive and systematic way in his foundational work Theosophy is complemented here with great intensity. Steiner challenges us to cultivate a living experience of the spiritual nature of the world and ourselves. This volume is therefore an invaluable companion to Steiner’s early written work, Theosophy.

This volume is a translation from German of Anthroposophie. Eine Zusammenfassung nach einundzwanzig Jahren (volume 234 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe, or Collected Works).

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.