The Foundation Stone Meditation holds a central place in the inner life of many students of Rudolf Steiner's work. First presented during the refounding of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference of 1923/24, it is a powerful and penetrating meditative text which many consider to be a key to the spiritual mysteries of our time. This version features three alternative translations (by George Adams, Pauline Wehrle and Richard Seddon), together with the original German verses and an introduction by Michael Wilson.

During the Christmas Conference of 192324 when the Anthroposophical Society was refounded, Rudolf Steiner presented to its members for the first time the Foundation Stone Meditation. On consecutive days during that week, Steiner showed how elements of the Meditation could be rebuilt into new meditations (sometimes referred to as rhythms), which could be inwardly practiced. Zeylmans van Emmichoven was present at that formative meeting and lived intensively with these rhythms for more than 30 years. Initially in the Netherlands, and later during his many journeys around the world, Zeylmans began to make people aware of the germinating forces contained within the Meditation. This volume remains a seminal book that has inspired generations of students of anthroposophy.

"People who practice esoteric exercises grow spiritually into the future; they experience in themselves what will one day come about, and what they experience in this way is what we know as the higher worlds. These represent future conditions of humankind" (Rudolf Steiner, Munich 1907). Rudolf Steiner spoke the Foundation Stone meditation at the Christmas Conference of the General Anthroposophical Society in 1923, giving it to the Society members for strengthening their forces. The meditation's words contain, as Sergei O. Prokofieff states, "the quintessence of the whole of Anthroposophy." Thus, Rudolf Steiner was bestowing on the members the possibility of dealing resolutely with the specific tasks that awaited them. In this short, potent volume, the author suggests further that "The Foundation Stone Meditation" represents the concerns of every individual of our time, allowing each of us to maintain our humanity in the face of the challenges and catastrophes of both the present and the future. Steiner said that one could hear the words of the meditation "sounding" in one's heart. This process of "hearing" will acquire even more significance and reality in future, and can be of enormous help to anyone who opens themselves to it. It is against this background that Selg has written this introductory book: to promote awareness of the meditation, understanding of its historic place in the catastrophic twentieth century, and its critical but latent contribution to the future.

This volume - which brings together two classic booklets for the first time - features Steiner's valuable thoughts and guidelines regarding the Foundation Stone Meditation and the new character of the Anthroposophical Society, given during and after the Christmas Conference of 1923/24.

In the unfolding of a true spiritual mission upon the Earth, the great teachers of humanity work together. An example of this working together to fulfill a spiritual mission for humanity is presented to us in this book. It is a matter in this work of a collaboration between two great spiritual teachers of humanity in the twentieth century: Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and Valentin Tomberg (1900-1973). Rudolf Steiner's life work culminated in the 'baptismal event' for the Second Coming of Christ expressed in the Foundation Stone of Love and clothed in the words of the Foundation Stone meditation. Valentin Tomberg, after his spiritual awakening in 1932, entered into the Mystery of Christ's Second Coming. His Studies on the Foundation Stone Meditation, published in critical years of world history (1936-1939), were written just a few years after his spiritual awakening. They penetrate into the Mystery of Christ's Second Coming by offering the reader access from within to the Foundation Stone meditation given to humanity by Christ through Rudolf Steiner. Every sentence of these studies - born of living experience undergone by Valentin Tomberg - leads the reader into the sublime mystery of the spirit awakening of humanity through Christ in our time. Understood as a manual for enlightenment, to be worked with meditatively over and over again, this work is one of the great treasures of humanity's spiritual literature - a priceless jewel for every spiritual seeker in our time.

"Leading thoughts" and letters for members of the Anthroposophical Society (CW 26) "The leading thoughts here given are meant to open up subjects for study and discussion. Points of contact with them will be found in countless places in the anthroposophic books and lecture courses, so that the subjects thus opened up can be enlarged upon and the discussions in the groups centered around them." -- Rudolf Steiner This key volume contains Rudolf Steiner's "leading thoughts," or guiding principles, and related letters to members of the Anthroposophical Society. Using brief, aphoristic statements, Steiner succinctly presents his spiritual science as a modern path of knowledge, accompanied by "letters" that expand and contextualize the guiding thought. These 185 thoughts constitute invaluable, clear summaries of Steiner's fundamental ideas--indeed, they contain the whole of Anthroposophy. They are intended not as doctrine, but to stimulate and focus one's study and discussion of spiritual science. "Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe.... Anthroposophy communicates knowledge that is gained in a spiritual way.... There are those who believe that with the limits of knowledge derived from sense perception the limits of all insight are given. Yet if they would carefully observe howthey become conscious of these limits, they would find in the very consciousness of the limits the faculties to transcend them." -- Rudolf Steiner This volume is a translation of Anthroposophische Leitsätze, Der Erkenntnisweg der Anthroposophie--Das Michael-Mysterium (GA 26).

In this selection of thirty of Rudolf Steiner's most important lectures on the Festivals, he identifies and illumines the true meaning behind Christmas, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, and Michaelmas, emphasizing both their inner-spiritual and outer-cosmic aspects. He shows that the Festivals are not merely the commemoration of mighty historical events or truths within the Christian tradition, but are in themselves - each year - spiritual events, manifesting in seasonal and natural rhythms, which carry a significance that grows and deepens with the developing of human evolution.

Religious ritual is often seen as a way of bringing divine influences down into the material world. In this profound and stimulating work, Rudolf Steiner and Friedrich Benesch introduce the idea of "reverse ritual"--a way that each of us can raise our souls to the spiritual realm. In this process, the everyday world becomes a portal through which we can enter the dimension of the sacred. Here, each of us can be a "priest," and each of our actions can be a cosmic, ritual act. This stimulating collection of writings on spiritual communion of humanity includes two further lectures by Steiner that show how this process can engage our social lives. Also included are two additional essays as appendices: "Sacramental and Spiritual Communion" by Dietrich Asten and "Human Encounters and Karma" by Athys Floride. The introduction by Christopher Schaefer brings these ideas into focus for modern seekers. Contents: Part One: "The Spiritual Communion of Humanity" (5 lectures from GA 219) Part Two: "Preparing for the Sixth Epoch" Part Three: Commentaries by Friedrich Benesch Appendices: Selections from Dietrich Asten: "Spiritual and Sacramental Communion" & Athys Floride: "Human Encounters and Karma."