Week 5
Within the light that out of spirit depths
Weaves germinating power into space
And manifests the gods' creative work:
Within its shine, the soul's true being
Is widened into worldwide life
And resurrected
From narrow selfhood's inner power.
Week 31
The light from spirit depths
Strives to ray outwards, sun-imbued;
Transformed to forceful will of life
It shines into the senses' dullness
To bring to birth the powers
Whereby creative forces, soul-impelled,
Shall ripen into human deeds.
—Translation by Ruth and Hans Pusch
This book originated in lectures Steiner gave to a small circle of theosophists and constitutes the earliest public exposition of his spiritual scientific research. In it Steiner deals with the impact of modern scientific thinking on our spiritual experiences and the conflict between reason and revelation. He looks at how eleven European mystics resolved the dichotomy between their inner spiritual perceptions and individual freedom and the age of invention and discovery then coming to birth. It was originally published in German as, Die Mystik Im Aufgange des Neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens und Ihr Verhaeltnis zur Modernen Weltanschauung.
This book is the fruit of Steiner's lecturing activity. The substance of it was contained in a series of lectures he gave in Berlin beginning just after Michaelmas in 1900, when he was thirty-nine. Steiner later wrote, “By means of the ideas of the mystics from Meister Eckhart to Jacob Boehme, I found expression for the spiritual perceptions which, in reality, I decided to set forth. I then summarized the series of lectures in the book, Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age.”
Ein Überblick über die wesentlichen Erscheinungsformen der abendändischen Mystik von Meister Eckhart bis Angelus Silesius. Die Besonderheit der in diesem Band vorgestellten Betrachtungsweise liegt vor allem darin, dass Rudolf Steiner einen inneren Zusammenhang zwischen den mystischen Strömungen gegen Ende des Mittelalters und der Entwicklung der modernen Naturwissenschaft aufzuzeigen vermag.
We are a small nonprofit with the expenses of a large website. Your generous financial gifts make this venture possible. If you can't contribute now, please visit our Help Out page for additional ways to support our work in the future. Thank you!