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Relating to Rudolf Steiner

And the Mystery of the Laying of the Foundation Stone

Paperback
May 2008
9781902636955
More details
  • Publisher
    Temple Lodge Publishing
  • Published
    6th May 2008
  • ISBN 9781902636955
  • Language English
  • Pages 144 pp.
$22.00

“It is my personal conviction that the question of our relationship to Rudolf Steiner is fundamental to the life of Anthroposophy itself.” — Sergei O. Prokofieff

Even within the Anthroposophical Society and the anthroposophic movement, people's relationship to Rudolf Steiner is weakening and dissipating. This is problematic, says Prokofieff, as the future of both the Society and movement depends on a sufficient number of people aspiring to and realizing a true spiritual connection with the founder of Anthroposophy. Prokofieff deals in detail with this issue and asks, “Can one be an anthroposophist without being Rudolf Steiner’s pupil?”

In the second part of this book, Prokofieff elaborates on the mysteries surrounding the laying of the spiritual Foundation Stone at the Society's Christmas Meeting that began 1923. That event, he asserts, ensured that a personal relationship with Rudolf Steiner “would not remain within the realm of the generally abstract or intellectual, but would become a real inner deed.” Thus, Steiner gave each anthroposophist the possibility of connecting with him through free inner work on the Foundation Stone.

Both parts of this book are linked, in the sense that once a relationship with Steiner is established, an inner longing to work with the “new mysteries” will follow. In Prokofieff’s words, “The will to take the foundation of the new mysteries seriously leads to a real, inner connection with Rudolf Steiner.”

Relating to Rudolf Steiner includes an essay on the “problem” of digitally publishing Steiner's most important esoteric texts and the esoteric background of the internet and electronic media in general. In response to readers’ questions about how to counteract the harmful consequences of these developments, Prokofieff has expanded and developed his original essay on this subject.

C O N T E N T S:

Foreword

PART I: RELATING TO RUDOLF STEINER

1. Trust Born of Freedom
2. Three Paths to Anthroposophy
3. The Mystery Surrounding Rudolf Steiner’s Birthplace
4. A Path to Rudolf Steiner
5. Rudolf Steiner and the Founding Executive Council

PART II: THE MYSTERY OF THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE

1. Laying the foundation Stone in 1923 as a Mystery Event
2. The New Community
3. The Spirit of the Goetheanum
4. Working with the New Group Souls
5. The Christmas Foundation Meeting and the Mystery of the Resurrection

APPENDIX

1. The Esoteric Background to Electronic Media
2. Rudolf Steiner on the Youth of the Future

Sergei O. Prokofieff

Sergei O. Prokofieff (1954-2014) was born in Moscow, where he studied fine arts and painting at the Moscow School of Art. At an early age he encountered the work of Rudolf Steiner and quickly realized that his life would be dedicated to the Christian path of esoteric knowledge. He wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, while living in Soviet Russia, and it was published in English in 1994. After the fall of Communism, he helped establish the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. In 2001, he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. More than 30 of his books have been translated into English. Sergei Prokofieff passed away in Dornach, Switzerland.