Esoteric Lessons, 1904-1909: From the Esoteric School (vol. 1)

Notes written from memory by the participants and meditation verses by Rudolf Steiner (CW 266/1)

To read this book is to be part of Rudolf Steiner’s Esoteric School, to experience the growth and development of Anthroposophy from within. First and most essential here is the primacy of practice. Steiner stresses attention and concentration. We waste much of our time and energy on thoughts and feelings that to nowhere. Meditation―concentration on a living thought, an idea of higher origin―begins the process of self-gathering. Controlling our thoughts, we begin to form our “mental” (etheric) body; ordering our memories, we begin to work on our astral body. These two tasks are our preliminary goal. “We must make our life into a school for learning.” Humility is the key―when the world becomes our teacher, we must become humble.

With the beginning of these esoteric lessons, the path is deepened. We witness Rudolf Steiner the spiritual teacher in action. Throughout the lessons, Steiner moves between the so-called Christian-Gnostic path and the theosophical framework of the Masters. As the years unfold, however, the lessons move from the framework given by H. P. Blavatsky toward a deeper, more universal and, at the same time, more contemporary focus. Steiner reveals that behind what Blavatsky brought is the wisdom of Atlantis, which today must come to life again. Here, Christian Rosenkreutz, the Rosicrucians, and the “old philosophers” (alchemists) become important, for it was their task to bring this wisdom, now “enchristed,” into the West.

This volume is the English translation of «Aus den Inhalten der esoterischen Stunden, Gedächtnisaufzeichnungen von Teilnehmern. Band.1, 1904-1909» (GA 266/1).

• Esoteric Lessons 1910–1912 (The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner) (vol. 2)
• Esoteric Lessons 1913-1923: From the Esoteric School, Vol. 3 (The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner)
• Soul Exercises: Word and Symbol Meditations (CW 267) (The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner)
• Mantric Sayings: Meditations (The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner)
• The Sun Mystery & The Mystery of Death and Resurrection: Exoteric and Esoteric Christianity
• Freemasonry and Ritual Work: The Misraim Service
• Initiation Science: And the Development of the Human Mind (The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner)
• The Eternal Ethers: A Theory of Everything
• The First Class Lessons and Mantras: The Michael School Meditative Path in Nineteen Steps
• The Night as a Wellspring of Strength: Sleep, Spiritual Encounters, and the Starry Firmament