Cosmic New Year

5 lectures, Stuttgart, Dec. 18, 1919–Jan. 1, 1920 (CW 195)

During Christmastime of 1919 to 1920, Rudolf Steiner was in Stuttgart to celebrate the end of the first semester of the first Waldorf school and participate in its Christmas festivities. During his visit, he gave not only two courses for teachers (The Light Course and The Genius of Language), but also the five lectures for Anthroposophical Society members collected in this book.

As with all of Steiner’s lectures given around the Holy Nights, these jewel-like lectures are both inspiring and sobering. The Archangel Michael is once again the “world regent.” He shows us a new path to Christ and to the spirit world, calling on us to create new relationships to spiritual realities. Yet, inertia or lack of will, materialism, and powerful opposing forces make his and our task more difficult. World War I had ended, but peace was still a distant hope. Prescient to our own moment, these stirring lectures are more relevant than ever, still inspiring a call to arms. 

Cosmic New Year is a translation from the German book Weltsilvester und Neujahrsgedanken (GA 195). A previous translation was published in 1932 under the same title.