The long light
The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story ;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying,
dying.
O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying,
dying.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from “The Princess”
Featured Titles
Plato, Prehistorian
Myth, Religion, Archeology
Mary Settegast
In his Timaeus and Critias dialogues, Plato wrote of two ancient civilizations that flourished more than 9,000 years before his time. Socrates accepted the account as true, and modern archaeological techniques may yet prove him right. Mary Settegast takes us from the cave paintings of Lascaux to the shrines of Çatalhöyük, demonstrating correspondences both to Plato’s tale and to the mystery religions of antiquity. She then traces the mid-seventh millennium impulse that revitalized the spiritual life of Çatalhöyük and spread agriculture from Iran to the Greek Peninsula—at precisely the time given by Aristotle for the legendary Persian prophet Zarathustra, for whom the cultivation of the earth was a religious imperative.
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The Language of Color in the First Goetheanum
A Study of Rudolf Steiner’s Art
Hilde Raske
Rudolf Steiner’s architectural masterpiece, the double-domed building, the first Goetheanum, featured decorated ceilings designed and partly painted by Steiner himself, using vegetable colors and a new layering technique. The cupolas depicted the creation and ages of the world, the initiators of the various cultural epochs, and the figure of Christ. Tragically, the first Goetheanum—the “complete work of art”—was destroyed by fire on New Year’s Eve 1922. In this lavish volume, Hilde Raske provides a detailed examination of the artistic work on the two cupolas, including Steiner’s draft sketches and his written and verbal statements. Featuring 30 color and more than 100 black-and-white illustrations, this edition presents a high-quality facsimile of the long out-of-print original edition of 1983.
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Architecture as a Synthesis of the Arts
Rudolf Steiner
This collection of lectures introduces Rudolf Steiner’s unique vision of architecture as a culmination of the arts, uniting sculpture, painting, and engraving, as well as drama, music, and dance—a vital synthesis with the goal of awakening human beings to their task in life. Relevant to students of architecture, the arts, social science, or anyone seeking deeper spiritual understanding, this volume is illustrated throughout with photos, diagrams, and color plates.
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Books for Advent and Christmas
And this is how Christmas came…
Stories for Advent and Christmas
Georg Dreissig
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Advent and Christmas Stories
A Treasury of Stories, Verses, and Songs
Estelle Bryer and Janni Nicol
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Mary’s Little Donkey
and the Flight to Egypt
Gunhild Sehlin
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Nativity Stories
Alan Howard
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From the Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner
Autobiography
Chapters in the Course of My Life, 1861–1907 (CW 28)
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Friedrich Eckstein believed that one who is “initiated” into ancient knowledge should invest what is said publicly with the power gained from such “initiation.” Esoteric knowledge itself, however, should be kept strictly apart from exoteric knowledge—that is, esoteric knowledge should be reserved for a limited circle of people who are able to fully understand its value.
In order to become active publicly on behalf of spiritual knowledge, I had to make the decision to break with this tradition. I was faced with the conditions of modern spiritual life. In light of these, there was no longer any possibility of keeping matters secret as they had been as a matter of course in ancient times. The age we live in demands that what is known be made available publicly. The view that such matters must be kept secret is anach- ronistic. The way for today is to introduce a person to spiritual knowledge in stages, admitting no one to a stage where higher knowledge is imparted before the lower stages are understood. This, in fact, corresponds to the arrangement of higher and lower schools.Furthermore, I was not under any obligation to preserve any secrets. I had taken nothing from the ancient wisdom; my knowledge of the spirit is entirely the result of my own research. But when I have gained some item of knowledge, I relate it to what is already known publicly about ancient knowledge, from one source or another, in order to show that they agree, and to show the progress that is possible for investigation today.
Thus, after a certain moment, it was absolutely clear to me that it was right for me to present spiritual knowledge publicly.
—Rudolf Steiner, Autobiography (CW 28), pp 200-201