Rudolf Steiner - Mystery Centers (rudolfsteineraudio.com)

Mystery Centers
14 lectures, Dornach, Nov. 23 - Dec. 23, 1923 (CW 232)
Rudolf Steiner
ISBN: 0833420100

Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold (http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/)

As an introduction to these fourteen lectures, we quote the following extract from Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth's book, The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner (pp. 517: 520–521, Spiritual Science Library, Blauvelt NY):

"In Dornach he then gave the second of the three cycles of lectures preparing for the Christmas Conference. The first, between October 5 and 12, had set forth the work of the four Archangels in the course of the year. The second, between October 19 and November 11, dealt with the theme Man as Symphony of the Cosmic Word; the third, between November 23 and December 23, bore the title Mystery Formations. These three cycles led spiritual-scientific knowledge systematically from an insight into the work of the spiritual Guiding Powers, the Hierarchical Beings, to man as the earthly being who is to receive the creative action of the Cosmic Word and bring it to realization on earth; and they gave the foundation for the new impulse to be initiated during this year, a survey of the nature of the Mysteries in the history of humanity, the work of which is now to be observed in the further stages of evolution and continued in a manner in keeping with the times.

"The time from the end of November until Christmas was devoted to the preparations for the coming decisive events. Rudolf Steiner did this through the third of the lecture cycles mentioned above dealing with Mystery Formations. By way of introduction, he explained the path that a human being must follow in his soul life in order to penetrate to an insight into the spiritual foundations of the world. He set forth that the spiritual in the course of evolution has worked each time upon the soul element of man, and molded the physiological element, even into the metamorphosing of the activity of thinking, of the forces of memory, of hereditary impulses, but also into the individual imprint in gesture, physiognomy, and structure of body. He gave also a detailed description of the early stages in the evolution of the earth and the relations of the human being to the Beings, substances, and forces of the earth planet. And he now developed in the lectures of December 2–23 a magnificent picture of the history of the ancient Mysteries out of which we can still read how in early epochs this knowledge was achieved, protected, nurtured in the Mystery places of the earth, and developed in the Mysteries of the North and the South as the most sacred treasure of humanity, unfolded from stage to stage.

"This description of a previously almost completely unknown chapter of spiritual history and the history of the Mysteries is so comprehensive, and so important in its details, lays open such an abundance of knowledge about the methods and stages of the spiritual guidance of humanity through the centuries that we can only allude here to the most important main divisions: "The Ephesus Mysteries of Artemis. The Mystery places of Hybernia. The Great Mysteries of Hybernia. The Chthonic and the Eleusinian Mysteries. The transition from Plato to Aristotle. The mystery of the nature of the plant, the metal, and the human being. The mysteries of the Cabire of Samothrace. The transition from the spirit of the ancient Mysteries to those of the Middle Ages. The soul striving of the human being during the Middle Ages. The Rosicrucian Mysteries."

Contents:

Lecture 1:
* Concerning the Soul-Life of Man, and the Perception of the Spiritual Foundations of the World
* The Experience of Thinking
* The Experience of Feeling
* The Experience of Gesture.

Lecture 2:
* The Activity of the Soul-Nature in Physical Man
* The Influence of the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic Beings on Man and in Nature
* Heredity and Adaptation to Environment.

Lecture 3:
* Identification with the Inner Life of Nature, through Imagination and Will
* The Life of Memory
* The Being of Gesture and of Physiognomy
* Experience of Day and Year
* Summer-Will and Winter-Will.

Lecture 4:
* THE EPHESIAN MYSTERIES OF ARTEMIS
* The Connection of Man with the Earth-Planet
* The Crystal Covering of the Earth
* The Speech of the Metals
* The backward-raying Forces of the Metals, and the Connection between Earth-lives.

Lecture 5:
* Mineral and Plant-Animal Creation
* The previous Earth-atmosphere
* Plants as Gifts of Heaven
* Animals as Earth-forms
* The Cosmic Memory of the Metals.

Lecture 6:
* The Ephesian Mysteries of Artemis.

Lecture 7:
* THE MYSTERIES OF HIBERNIA
* The Mystery Centres of Hibernia.

Lecture 8:
* The Being of the Hibernian Mysteries.

Lecture 9:
* The Great Mysteries of Hibernia.

Lecture 10:
* THE CHTHONIC AND THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
* The Transition from Plato to Aristotle.

Lecture 11:
* The Secret of Plants, of Metals, and of Men.

Lecture 12:
* The Mysteries of the Samothracian Kabiri.

Lecture 13:
* Transition from the Spirit of the Ancient Mysteries to the Spirit of the Mysteries of the Middle Ages.

Lecture 14:
* Human Soul-Strivings During the Middle Ages
* The Rosicrucian Mysteries.

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This is a new reading from the Rudolf Steiner Audio Archive (http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/). Other parts of the archive are available to download at:

* http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=27198&hit=1
* http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=23751&hit=1
* http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=24744&hit=1
* http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=26471&hit=1
* http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=27121&hit=1