Rudolf Steiner spoke at various times of a period that encompasses the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the new millennium. He described it as a time of great spiritual struggle in which forces of destruction would wage war on benevolent forces, and how the future of culture and civilization would depend on the outcome. In his many statements on this matter, Steiner warned, in particular, members of the Anthroposophical Society and movement - that they would be called on to develop vital spiritual capacities that are becoming increasingly critical for human progress. In these eighteen essays, contributors offer their thoughts on the question of where anthroposophy in its earthly manifestation now stands and to what extent it is fulfilling its tasks. This commentary on the challenges ahead offers us all a chance to reassess, prepare, and wake up. This compilation features eighteen essays by Jesaiah ben-Aharon, Mario Betti, Terry Boardman, Peter Bridgmont, Gilbert Childs, Dor Deverell, Michaela Gl ckler, Sevak Gulbekian, Brien Masters, Thomas Meyer, Bernard Nesfield-Cookson, Sergei O. Prokofieff, Richard Seddon, Nick Thomas, Peter Tradowsky, Hans-peter van Manen, Edward Warren, and Olive Whicher.

The book is a speculation for a one-thousand-year future history period. It covers development in science and technology, such as energy and information storage as well as population trends on Earth, the solar system, the galaxy, and beyond. It also touches on spacecraft development and exploration both in space-time and other dimensions as well as communications.

Barely four months after the end of the First World War, with Europe in chaos and exhausted from years of conflict, Rudolf Steiner offered these lectures of hope and renewal. Despite continuing social troubles around the world, he knew that human beings had an opportunity to organize society in a new way. Steiner responded to this prospect by giving suggestions for creating innovative social structures that are in harmony with people's inner needs. Humanity as a whole is now facing a great challenge in that it is 'crossing the threshold' to the spiritual world, says Steiner. This means that an evolutionary separation is taking place within the human soul between thinking, feeling and will. For this to happen in a healthy way, the outer make-up of society should mirror and support our internal evolution. Steiner points to the urgent need for 'threefolding' – a separation between the workings of culture, economics and politics. This is a subconscious demand, he asserts – not for thinking up cranky ideas within a sect, but for shedding light on what is needed universally! These important lectures cover numerous themes, including the overcoming of class distinctions, the administration of money, technology and capitalism, the antisocial tendency of nationalism, and the future management of international relations. Twelve lectures, Dornach, Mar.–April 1919, GA 190

The “brilliant” and “daringly original” (The New York Times) critique of digital networks from the “David Foster Wallace of tech” (London Evening Standard)—asserting that to fix our economy, we must fix our information economy. Jaron Lanier is the father of virtual reality and one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers. Who Owns the Future? is his visionary reckoning with the most urgent economic and social trend of our age: the poisonous concentration of money and power in our digital networks. Lanier has predicted how technology will transform our humanity for decades, and his insight has never been more urgently needed. He shows how Siren Servers, which exploit big data and the free sharing of information, led our economy into recession, imperiled personal privacy, and hollowed out the middle class. The networks that define our world—including social media, financial institutions, and intelligence agencies—now threaten to destroy it. But there is an alternative. In this provocative, poetic, and deeply humane book, Lanier charts a path toward a brighter future: an information economy that rewards ordinary people for what they do and share on the web.

This unique work – the fruit of many decades’ research and experience – throws new light on the supersensible history and karma of the Michaelic movement since Rudolf Steiner’s death. It describes that movement’s evolution and transformation in the etheric world during the twentieth century, from the world-changing apocalypse of the 1930s and 40s through to the beginning of its incarnation on Earth at the end of last century. The book also focuses on developments in the practical and social work of building the community of the School of Spiritual Science, which embodies the new Michaelic movement in our time. As Ben-Aharon indicates, the Michaelic movement is searching for creative, courageous and enthusiastic souls to foster a strong community that develops – from one decade to the next – as a living organism. Based on the continuous resurrection of anthroposophy, this community strives to create a fully conscious meeting and communication with the school of Michael and Christ in the etheric world, in a form that is appropriate and demanded by the times. The transcripts of these lectures bring together the author’s experiences with anthroposophy over the last 42 years in the light of present communications from the spiritual world. It is based on contemporary spiritual investigation and individual, lived experience. From the Contents: ‘The Amfortas-Parsifal Duality of Modern Humanity’; ‘The Twilight of Humanity and its Resurrection’; ‘The Universal Language of Michael and the Being of Rudolf Steiner’; ‘The Anthroposophical Movement in the Present’; ‘The Etheric Form is Alive’; ‘The Resurrection of the Etheric Christ in the 21st Century’.

"And however paradoxical it may seem today, the 'Grail mood' is in the fullest sense to be found in Russia. And the future role that Russia will play in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch, a task of which I have so often had to speak, rests firmly upon this unconquerable 'Grail mood' in the Russian people." --Rudolf Steiner (Nov. 3, 1918) Although Eastern Europe has been part of Christian humanity for more than a thousand years, its task and spiritual identity remain a mystery, the answer to which cannot be found unless we look behind outer historical events to the spiritual, meta-historical dimensions of history. This momentous work, breathtaking in its scope and detail, represents just such a penetrating, esoteric study of Eastern Europe in the light of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research. Prokofieff shows how, from the earliest times, the future "conscience of humanity" flowed from hidden mystery centers in Hibernia to the eastern Slavic peoples. As a result, qualities of "compassion, patience, and willingness for sacrifice" developed in their souls, creating a truly Christian "Grail mood." Despite incalculable suffering--from the persecutions by the Mogul hordes of the thirteenth century to the Bolshevik experiment of the twentieth century--this quality has become an unconquerable force in the depths of their being. In illuminating the maya of outer history, Prokofieff reveals the forces that have been at work to hinder the progress and future intentions of humankind. Those adversarial forces have created a "karma of materialism" that the eastern Slavic peoples have taken upon themselves out of their exalted willingness for sacrifice. Will we be able to use the present opportunity granted by this sacrifice to fulfill the primary purposes of the present cultural epoch? Serious study of this book--intended for students of spiritual science--can lead to a profound awakening to the challenges that face humankind today.

Rosicrucianism is one of the most important, and least recognized, streams of Western spirituality. Forced underground in the maelstrom of the Thirty Years War, Rosicrucianism was passed down secretly by alchemists, hermetists, and Masons into the nineteenth century, when it inspired new spiritual movements, including theosophy, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science. This book collects from many different sources Steiner's discussions on Rosicrucianism: the Tao and the Rose Cross; the history and mission of Christian Rosenkreutz; the nature of Rosicrucian practice and experience; the meaning of The Chemical Wedding; Goethe's Rosicrucian poem "The Mysteries; " and how to meditate on the Rose Cross itself.

True Buddhism is neither a sect nor a religion. It is rather a moral and intellectual reform, which excludes no belief, but adopts none. Yet the Buddhism of today is less a rather dogmatic religion, split into many and heterogeneous sects. Like true Buddhism, Theosophy asserts and maintains the truth common to all religions, pure truth undefiled by the concretions of ages of human passions and needs, and unveils Its majesty to all thinking men.

Charting a major change in the nature of paid work in the United States.