Anthroposophy and the Inner Life

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).