Over 1600 quotes from the work of the great visionary, thinker and reformer Rudolf Steiner
Every form of life is spiritual. Even as ice is condensed water, so matter is condensed spirit. Mineral, plant, animal, or man—each is a condensed form of the spirit.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 100 – Theosophie and Rosicrucianism – Kassel, 16 June 1907
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA100/English/ANS1942/19070616p01.html
If we immerse ourselves in the development of human souls, we shall find in the course of these lectures, that human souls have already lived many times upon the physical plane, and that they gradually developed, until they reached the present stage, At first, this may sound strange, yet during past lives our souls have frequently heard the deep truths which will be explained in today’s lecture.
The teaching of reincarnation will, for instance, be advanced; but your souls have listened, as they are listening to me now, to the Druids who lived and taught particularly in this region (Kassel-Germany). These druidic teachers of ancient times (The earliest sources that speak of Druids date from the 3rd century BC. – Wikipedia) already taught the truth of reincarnation to a smaller circle; they cultivated this primordial wisdom concerning the riddles of life. They went out to those whose souls thirsted for a deeper knowledge. But if these teachers of ancient times had spoken as I am speaking to you now, your souls could not then have understood them, for at that time the human spirit had not yet reached the present stage of development. Logical thought did not as yet exist in the human spirit. Man possessed instead the possibility of grasping truths in the form of images. These teachers therefore spoke in the form of images, and these images are known to us to-day in the form of legends and myths. If in the past our souls had not heard these teachings, we could not understand the spiritual truths to-day, when they are taught to us in a new form.
The soul thus makes enormous progresses through thousands of years; it continually takes on a new shape and therefore truth must be presented in a constantly new form; it must ever again be proclaimed anew.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 100 – Theosophie and Rosicrucianism – Kassel, 16 June 1907
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA100/English/ANS1942/19070616p01.html
Kassel – Germany
We must develop our intelligence. Some people have the intelligence of an eight year old who can only do their jobs if everything is dictated from above. Otherwise they collapse.
Another danger is that if an esoteric has had some special experiences he may think that he’s very devoted and selfless, when in fact there’s a fine egotism behind this that’s hard to detect. This also has to go if one really wants the Christ to be born in one. And one can only overcome it through pure thinking. If one has seen something astral or the like, one should be clear about what it is, and not imagine that it’s of great importance or that it proves that one is already far advanced. One should confront everything clearly and impersonally and purify one’s thinking, feeling and willing in order to let the spirit work through one.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 266-1 – Esoteric Lessons/Number 48 – Berlin, 21 March 1909
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA266/English/UNK1998/19090321e01.html
Art of Carol Herzer
Today, when a materialistic astronomer contemplates the heavenly bodies, he only sees in them physical bodies, and nothing besides. Even the earth is to him a physical body in the world’s spaces, and man crawls about upon it, like the gnat upon our hand.
But it was otherwise among the ancient Egyptian astronomers. When the ancient Egyptian astrologer looked upon a star, he did not think of a purely physical body, for the star meant to him something quite different than it does to modern men. When he pronounced, for instance, the name of Mercury, he uttered it with veneration. [….]
Everything which the eye perceived was at that time the expression of something spiritual. For the ancient astronomer, the physical star Mercury was therefore the expression of the Spirit of Mercury. You must not grasp this intellectually, but with your feeling, for otherwise you cannot understand what lived in the soul of such an astronomer. Everything in the world was to him the expression of something spiritual. He said: Everything is Spirit, and I, as a spirit, am a part of this Spirit.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 100 – Theosophie and Rosicrucianism – Kassel, 16 June 1907
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA100/English/ANS1942/19070616p01.html
Planet Mercury
Every person can become a student of the spirit, for in every soul lies the capacity to discover the truth. The words of the spiritual seer should be accessible to even the most ignorant; to him who is presently incapable of understanding even a hundredth of the truth, the seer will offer a thousandth of it. The student will take in a thousandth today but a hundredth tomorrow.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 34 – LUCIFER- GNOSIS – 1903 (page 35)
https://odysseetheater.org/GA/Buecher/GA_034.pdf#view=Fit
Anonymous translator
Previously posted on 27 January 2016
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