Secrets of the Threshold

by Rudolf Steiner

Overview

8 lectures in Munich, August 24-31, 1913 (CW 147)

Rudolf Steiner gave these lectures just after the first performance of his mystery drama The Souls' Awakening in Munich. He offers details of one's experience of spiritual development and crossing the threshold of the spiritual world. Steiner explains that humanity stands today at this threshold, and that the keys to crossing it include self-knowledge, self-control, and a clear recognition of the activities of Lucifer and Ahriman.

These lectures contain some of Steiner's most profound insights into the path to higher knowledge. He gave the lectures twice each day, mornings and evenings, in the "Princes' Hall" of the Café Luitpold in Munich. Performances of The Guardian of the Threshold: Soul Events in Dramatic Scenes and The Souls' Awakening: Soul and Spirit Events in Dramatic Scenes at the Volkstheaters, also given twice. The drama receiving its first performance was named in the program announcements as "The Awakening of Maria and Thomasius (or The Other Side of the Threshold)."

A fifth mystery drama had been planned for summer 1914, and a lecture course titled "Occult Hearing and Occult Reading" would have been given August 18 to 27, but the beginning of World War I prevented further festivals in Munich.

Secrets of the Threshold is a translation from German of Die Geheimnisse der Schwelle (GA 147).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621510291
Publisher:	SteinerBooks
Publication date:	01/01/1987
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	438 KB

About the Author

Rudolf 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.
Ruth Pusch, born Ruth Barnett, was raised in New Haven,
Connecticut. After a period of time spent in Dornach, Switzerland, as a
student of spiritual science, she married the actor Hans Pusch in 1932
while in the U.S. Together, they returned to Dornach, where Ruth studied
eurythmy with some of the pioneers of that new art form. She later
taught eurythmy in New York City and was an early teacher at the Waldorf
School New York City. She and her husband were also active in bringing
the anthroposophic impulse to the dramatic arts in North America. Along
with Hans, Ruth Pusch also helped translate Rudolf Steiner's four
mystery plays.