Theosophy

Self-Transformation: Selected Lectures

by Rudolf Steiner

At the heart of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual philosophy is an esoteric path of inner development that can lead to true self-transformation. In these lectures, Steiner shows how it is possible to break out of the shadowy, brain-bound world of everyday consciousness by developing qualities such as clear thinking, inner tranquility, and positivity. He also offers practical, meditative exercises to help us transform ourselves inwardly.

Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press | More reviews: amazon.com

From Bethlehem to Calvary

by Alice A. Bailey

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*The books of Alice A. Bailey, written in cooperation with a Tibetan teacher between 1919-1949, constitute a continuation of the Ageless Wisdom--a body of esoteric teaching handed down from ancient times in a form which is always suitable to each period. Intended to precede and condition the coming era, the Alice A. Bailey writings offer an unparalleled spiritual approach to such subjects as the teaching on Shamballa and the Path of spiritual evolution; the spiritual Hierarchy; the new discipleship and training in meditation as a form of service; the teaching on the seven rays and the new psychology of the soul; the teaching on esoteric astrology; and the new world religion, which emphasizes the common thread of truth linking all the major world faiths. In her foreword to this book, the author remarks, "The conscious evocation of the Christ life in the human heart and our rapid integration into the Kingdom of God are the immediate tasks ahead, embodying our responsibility, opportunity and destiny". The five expansions of consciousness by which this integration and evocation proceed are clearly portrayed here as the correspondences of the five climaxing experiences of the Master Jesus during His life in Palestine. These are the five initiations known as the Birth, Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. Through these five stages on the Way, we follow the Master from Bethlehem to Calvary. While these initiations are popularly known by the Christian terminology, within the experience of the spiritual Hierarchy the fourth and fifth initiations are known as the initiation of Renunciation and the initiation of Revelation. The crucifixion experience of the Master Jesus involved Him in the great renunciation of His own soul, with a resulting revelation in the light of the Spiritual Triad. These experiences are both symbolic and actual, setting guideposts along the way of the disciple. Some understanding of these Mysteries revealed by the Christ and the Master Jesus, as They exemplified the experience of the human soul through the five stages of its spiritual journey, can be invaluable to individual man facing the vast span of the same five-fold experience. This is probably the factor of greatest value and service to the aspirant, setting his feet on the Path of Return; that the experience of the Master Jesus, including that of the Crucifixion, the Great Renunciation, reflects through the lives of all human beings. Through the divine life in us, and as the Christ principle unfolds in our heart and consciousness, the sons of men walk the Way of the Cross eventually to become soul-illumined Sons of God. Knowing something of these things, aware of the spiritual journey before all men from stage to stage on the Path of Initiation, an exact service opens before the aspirant. "Service must expand and express itself on broader and more inclusive lines, and we must learn to serve as Christ served, to love all men as He loved them and, by the potency of our spiritual vitality and the quality of our service, stimulate all we meet so that they too can serve and love and become members of the Kingdom ...the call is for sane and normal men and women who can comprehend the situation, face what must be done, and then give their lives to expressing for the world the qualities of the citizens of the Kingdom of Souls; love, wisdom, silence, non- separativeness and freedom."

Publisher: Lucis Publishing Company | More reviews: amazon.com

Guidance in Esoteric Training: From the Esoteric School

by Rudolf Steiner

This collection of exercises, meditations and spiritual practices for self-development is selected from material given by Rudolf Steiner to members of his Esoteric School. Here is explanatory material to deepen and enhance meditative work, including several articles on the path of inner development and the obstacles to be faced on the way. This new, enlarged edition contains further clarification of the exercises, descriptions of the future evolution of the world and humanity, plus later advice given by Steiner on the nature of breathing exercises and ancient and modern methods of initiation.

Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press | More reviews: amazon.com

Healing of Self/The Negative: Notebooks Volume 7 (Notebooks of Paul Brunton)

by Brunton

This seventh volume in The Notebooks of Paul Brunton is an in-depth presentation of the tenth and eleventh major categories in the personal notebooks Dr. Paul Brunton reserved for posthumous publication. Bost sections of this volume are immediately useful. Each deals with a topic currently receiving a great deal of attention on both the personal and the professional levels. Part 1 Healing of the Self, treats the mind-ody relationship and contrast conventional, psychic, and spiritual approcahes to healing. Recommnding a combination of conventional and alternative methods, it gives a variety of practical techniques in self-healing. Part 2, The Negatives, examines the nature and roots of evil and traces its activity in recent and impending world events.

Publisher: Larson Publications | More reviews: amazon.com

Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality)

by Marguerite T. Harris

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In one series, the original writings of the universally acknowledged teachers of the Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish and Islamic traditions have been critically selected, translated and introduced by internationally recognized scholars and spiritual leaders. Birgitta of Sweden-Life and Selected Revelations edited, with a preface by Marguerite Tjader Harris translation and notes by Albert Ryle Kezel introduction by Tore Nyberg I am a sinner unworthy to say such things; nevertheless, know that Jesus Christ appeared to me at prayer. Birgitta of Sweden (c. 1303-1373) The Catholic history of Scandinavia is rich in its legacy of saints and blesseds: Canute, Eric, Hallvard, Henry, Olaf, Sigfrid, Thorlac and many others. One Swedish saint has achieved worldwide fame: Birgitta Birgersdotter, born into wealth and aristocracy, a happily married mother, a religious foundress, a mystical visionary and the fines Scandinavian writer of the Middle Ages. Like Joan of Arc, Birgitta experienced a repeated and insistent visionary call to public action. Her task was to reawaken the Church's attention to the essential things of God; and, in her vividly colorful writings, she has left to the world an exemplary record of her own perseverance in prayer. Knut Westman, a major authority on St. Birgitta, says of her: "Birgitta is of another kind of religion: personal, vocational, mystical, recognized by its strong ethical attitude, its visions of God's work through history, and the consciousness of being called to task…Such a life cannot be explained as a product of known factors." Contained in this volume are four key documents of Birgittine literature: the eyewitness Life of Blessed Birgitta, the complete Fifth and Seventh books of her Revelations, and her Four Prayers. Of the present volume, Birger Bergh, prominent Birgittine textual critic, writes: "This translation, done by a translator with a sensitivity of style and with genuine understanding of the Birgittine world, gives a perfect picture of the Latin original and its fluent diction."

Publisher: Paulist Press | More reviews: amazon.com

The Seven Rays A Theosophical Handbook

by Ernest Wood

1928. From Occult Aphorisms, quoted in The Secret Doctrine: There are seven Forces in Man and in all Nature. The real substance of the Concealed (Sun) is a nucleus of Mother-Substance. It is the Heart and Matrix of all the living and existing Forces in our Solar Universe. It is the Kernel from which proceed to spread on their cyclic journeys all the Powers that set in action the Atoms, in their functional duties, and the Focus within which they again meet in their Seventh Essence every eleventh year. He who tells thee he has seen the Sun, laugh at him, as if he had said that the Sun moves really onward in his diurnal path....It is on account of this septenary nature that the Sun is spoken of by the ancients as one who is driven by seven horses equal to the metres of the Vedas; or, again, that, though he is identified with the seven Gana (Classes of Being) in his orb, he is distinct from them, as he is, indeed; as also that he has Seven Rays, as indeed he has....The Seven Beings in the Sun are the Seven Holy Ones, self-born from the inherent power in the Matrix of Mother-Substance. It is they who send the seven principal Forces, called Rays, which, at the beginning of Pralaya, will center into seven new Suns for the next Manvantara. The energy from which they spring into conscious existence in every Sun is what some people call Vishnu, which is the Breath of the Absoluteness. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC | More reviews: amazon.com

All Your Waves Swept over Me: Looking for God in Natural Disasters

Publisher: Paulist Press | More reviews: amazon.com

The Chela and the Path

by El Morya

The Chela and the Path contains personal instruction from El Morya for all spiritual seekers and chelas (students of a spiritual teacher). With the incomparable skill of a Zen master, El Morya teaches us to become who we are, to see beneath the surface of daily life. He teaches of the divine light above and the divine light below and the many layers of awareness that surround the soul. This book is foundational for those who would not only know their true potential, but fulfill it.

Publisher: Summit University Press | More reviews: amazon.com

The Gospel of St. John

by Rudolf Steiner

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During Whitsun 1908, seven years after he had given the world the first intimation of the consequences of his turn-of-the-century Christ-experience in Christianity as Mystical Fact, Rudolf Steiner began his great task of renewing humanity's understanding of the true meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha. Accordingly, he turned to the deepest, most spiritual Gospel: that of the Initiate, St. John. In this lecture cycle, readers will find that the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Divine Word or Logos reveals the mission of the earth to be Love. We learn the secret of the raising of Lazarus, of the Seven Degrees of Initiation, of the I AM sayings. Listening to Rudolf Steiner, we come to understand that the Gospel of St. John is a continuing spiritual presence - to be recalled, meditated, and permeated with one's life. Doing so, we realize that our task - the task of human beings - is to become ourselves Virgin Sophias, receptive to the Holy Spirit. All of Steiner's work, as Marie Steiner writes in her introduction, was to "pave the way to Christ." Indeed, at the conclusion of these lectures Rudolf Steiner said: "It will come to be understood that Christianity is only beginning its influence, and will fulfill its real mission only when it is understood in its true, spiritual form." And he added: "The more these lectures are understood in this sense, the better they will be understood as they were intended."

Publisher: Anthroposophic Press | More reviews: amazon.com

If Christ Came to the Olympics (New College Lectures)

by William J. Baker

Baker opens by musing on the idea of Christ turning up unexpectedly at any time after his own lifetime, and the body of work this idea has spawned. He examines the meaning of the Olympic Games in modern society and how they depend on and have consequences for modern religion.

Publisher: University of New South Wales Press | More reviews: amazon.com