The publication of this book appeared to be a risk

In 1909 the publication of this book (An Outline of Occult Science) appeared to be a risk. For I knew indeed that professional scientists are unable to call up in themselves the necessary impartiality, nor are the numerous personalities able to do so who are dependent on them for their judgment.
But, before my soul there stood the very fact that at the time when the consciousness of mankind was furthest removed from the world of spirit, the communications from that world would answer a most urgent necessity.

I counted upon the fact that there are human beings who feel, more or less desperately, the remoteness from all spirituality as a grave obstacle to life that causes them to seize upon the communications of the spiritual world with inner longing.
During the subsequent years this has been completely confirmed. Theosophy and Occult Science, books that presume the goodwill of the reader in coping with a difficult style of writing, have been widely read.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 13 – An Outline of Occult Science – Preface, sixteenth to twentieth edition – January 10, 1925 – Goetheanum Dornach, Switzerland

Translated by Maud and Henry B. Monges and revised for this edition by Lisa D. Monges.

Previously posted on March 21, 2017

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Higher knowledge is neither speculation, nor a system of thought, it is a beholding

It is neither speculation, nor a system of thought that has led us to a knowledge of the higher worlds; it is a beholding. Even as the development of the body, from the embryonic stage onwards, gives us a conception of the external physical world, so the steps described to you in principle (details can be found in the books I have mentioned) lead us to a knowledge of soul-processes and enable us to live in a spiritual world in which we existed before birth and into which we enter when we pass through the portal of death. Objective vision leads to a knowledge of the higher worlds.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 79 – Paths to Knowledge of Higher Worlds – Christiania (Oslo), November 26, 1921

Previously posted on March 8, 2017