Rudolf Steiner

[Korpo]

Rudolf Steiner was the founder of anthroposophy, a spiritual philosophy influenced by theosophy and esoteric Christianity. I don't know enough about him or it to comment much yet, but I have found that his writings are largely available online, so for anyone knowing German this can prove interesting esoteric literature:

http://wiki.anthroposophie.net/Rudolf_Steiner_Gesamtausgabe

The works are numbered GAxyz (GA being an acronym of "Gesamtausgabe" = "Complete works"). I'm for example currently reading GA 103, "Das Johannes-Evangelium." about the Steiner's esoteric interpretation of the apostle John. I see English translations are available, too, so for example here the contents of GA103:


Gospel of John: Lecture I: The Doctrine of the Logos
Gospel of John: Lecture II: Esoteric Christianity
Gospel of John: Lecture III: The Mission of the Earth
Gospel of John: Lecture IV: The Raising of Lazarus
Gospel of John: Lecture V: The Seven Degrees of Initiation
Gospel of John: Lecture VI: The "I AM"
Gospel of John: Lecture VII: The Mystery of Golgotha
Gospel of John: Lecture VIII: Human Evolution in its Relation to the Christ Principle
Gospel of John: Lecture IX: The Prophetical Documents and the Origin of Christianity
Gospel of John: Lecture X: The Effect of the Christ Impulse Within Mankind
Gospel of John: Lecture XI: Christian Initiation
Gospel of John: Lecture XII: The Nature of the Virgin Sophia and of the Holy Spirit(from: http://www.rsarchive.org/GA/index.php?ga=GA0103)

There's a huge body of writings available, that's for sure. AFAIK Steiner and the anthroposophic branch of the theosophic movement were known for being steeped in esoteric Christianity, and this was part of the schism with theosophy at large that in the opinion of some had a too strong slant towards Eastern teachings. (Though I have to admit that I know not enough about the matter to explain it any better than this.)

[CFTraveler]

I read one of his books and it was incredibly boring. However, after talking to someone who is a student of his teachers, I found out that this was probably the worst book he ever wrote.

[Optic]

CFTraveller: Do you remember the title of the book that you read?

I haven't read many of his books, but the one that I have read and found quite interesting, although slightly confusing and difficult (before getting used to his style of writing), is this book right here:


318


The book discusses our connection with the ancient civilizations before the Egyptian era such as Lemurian, Atlantis, and as the title states; Rudolph attempts to explain some of the Egyptian mysteries. The book covers some other interesting topics connected to these civilizations, some macro-cosmic aspects, I found this part quite interesting:

"Now, for once, let us look at the earth itself. When it still had sun and moon within itself, the earth was only a sort of etheric mist of vast extent, within which the human germs were active, while the germs of the other beings — animals, plants, and minerals — slumbered. Since only human germs were present, there were no eyes to behold these events externally, hence the description given here is visible only for the clairvoyant vision in retrospect. It is given on the hypothesis that it is what one would have seen had one been able at that time to observe from a point in universal space." -Rudolph Steiner

[CFTraveler]

Thanks for the pic of the book- I don't remember the title but it was about education and youngsters.
I will put Egyptian Myths and Mysteries on my to-read list, as I've long wanted to read something I'd enjoy, and I think this one may be it.

[Sinera]

btw, one can read almost all books online (English and German), e.g. here
http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/

[Minyan]

(Deleted. Goodness that was a long and low-quality post)