I’ll tell you how the Sun rose –
A Ribbon at a time –
The Steeples swam in Amethyst –
The news, like Squirrels, ran –
The Hills untied their Bonnets –
The Bobolinks – begun –
Then I said softly to myself –
‘That must have been the Sun!’
—Emily Dickinson, from “I’ll tell you how the Sun rose”
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Blessed Easter Greetings from all of us at Steinerbooks!
With gratitude for your support and care, and warmest of wishes,
—JSL
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From The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner
What is Necessary in These Urgent Times
18 lectures, January 9—February 22, 1920 (CW 196)
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Unless we arrive at a spiritual understanding of the connection between Earth and the more-than-earthly world, the Mystery of Golgotha cannot continue to live in the world. . .
In order to participate in establishing everything that can be established for humankind down to the most specific conditions one finds oneself in, we must have insight into the larger relationships of life.
Do not say to yourself: “There is not time.” You will sometimes hear it said: “A person has so much to do these days, so very much to do, that there is no time to glimpse spiritual truths.” I would like to tally up with you the amount spent chitchatting at “five o’clock teas” and “snacks” and “afternoon teas” and “morning drinks” and, in certain areas, “evening drinks” (there are such things) and also just in “shooting the breeze” and things of the sort, and you will see that there is a considerable amount of time in which people would have the opportunity (if they wanted to) of familiarizing themselves with things of tremendous import to the future of human evolution. It has nothing to do with time; it has to do with people’s nonchalance, with their dormancy. . .in the end, what really matters is having the will to actuate one’s spiritual forces. . . It is possible to be very active in your outer life and fast asleep in your soul. But this must cease to be in human evolution. Stopping this is an absolute and profound necessity. . .
The old systems of thought will provide us with bread for a little while yet. But the day after tomorrow—metaphorically speaking, of course—we will find ourselves with no bread if we do not drive our earthly institutions out of the directives of a new spirituality.
Think about these things, for they are matters of great importance.
—Rudolf Steiner, “Transforming Social Life through a New Understanding of Christianity, lecture of February 8, 1920, in What is Necessary in These Urgent Times (CW 196)