Autobiography: Chapters in the Course of My Life, 1861-1907 (Cw 28)

by Rudolf Steiner, Christopher Bamford (Introduction), Rita Stebbing (Translator), Steinerbooks (Revised by)

Overview

"Because I entered this world with defined soul predispositions, and because the course of my life, as expressed in my biogra­phy, is determined by those predispositions, as a spiritual human being I must have existed before my birth. As a being of spirit, I must be the repetition of someone through whose biography mine can be explained. In each life the human spirit appears as a repetition of itself with the fruits of experi­ences during previous lives.
-Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner seldom spoke of himself in a personal way, but in his Autobiography we are offered a rare glimpse into some of the most intimate aspects of his inner life, his personal relationships, and significant events that helped to shape the philosopher, seer, and teacher he became.

This edition restores the original format of seventy chapters, just as they were written for the Goetheanum weekly newsletter. This autobiography is not merely a narrative of Rudolf Steiner's successes and failures, but the story of a soul possessed of a precise, probing scientific mind and a natural clairvoyant ability to see into the spiritual world. Although naturally clairvoyant, Steiner always recognized the integrity and importance of modern scientific methods, and thus he developed a modern discipline he named Anthroposophy, or spiritual science.

During the century that followed the events recorded in this autobiography, Rudolf Steiner's insights have touched and enriched numerous areas of life in ways that continue to transform people's lives in the twenty-first century.

This illustrated, revised, updated, and expanded edition was the first volume to be released in The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner. This series will eventually collect all of the English translations of Rudolf Steiner's works-including many never before in English-into an attractive and uniform set of his written and spoken words.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780880106009
Publisher:	Steiner Books
Publication date:	01/01/2000
Series:	Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner , #28
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.

Christopher Bamford (1943-2022) was born in Cardiff, South Wales, and lived for a while in Hungary and then in Scotland. He studied as an undergraduate at Trinity University in Dublin and earned his master's degree at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. For nearly thirty years, he was Editor in Chief at SteinerBooks (Anthroposophic Press) and its imprints. A Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association, he lectured, taught, and wrote widely on Western spiritual and esoteric traditions. His books include a selection of his numerous introductions, Encountering Rudolf Steiner: Introductions to Essential Works (2022); Healing Madonnas: Exploring the Sequence of Madonna Images Created by Rudolf Steiner and Felix Peipers for Use in Therapy and Meditation (2017); An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West (2003); and The Voice of the Eagle: The Heart of Celtic Christianity (1990). He also translated and edited numerous books, including Homage to Pythagoras: Rediscovering Sacred Science (2001); The Noble Traveller: The Life and Writings of O. V. de L. Milosz (1984); and Celtic Christianity: Ecology and Holiness (1982). Essays by Mr. Bamford are included in The Best Spiritual Writing 2000 ("In the Presence of Death") and The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 ("The Gift of the Call"). Christopher passed over the threshold on May 13, 2022, at his Mt. Washington, Massachusetts home.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	vi
	Introduction	vii
	Significant Events in the Life of Rudolf Steiner	xvi
	A Note on This Edition	xxx
Part 1	Seeds of Awakening Wiener-Neustadt to Vienna, 1861-1890	1
Part 2	Fertile Ground Weimar, 1890-1897	83
Part 3	Must I Remain Unable to Speak? Berlin, 1897-1907	175
	Editorial and Reference Notes	243
	Annotated Bibliography	345
	Index	351