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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Color Theory and Light
GA 91

This volume contains sixty-three early lectures given by Rudolf Steiner between 1903–1905.

The first seven lectures are scientific in nature with an emphasis on light and color theory.

The remaining lectures cover a vast array of subjects and have been characterised as primarily pertaining to cosmology and human evolution.

These lectures were translated by Steiner Online Library in collaboration with scientific advisor, Gopi Krishna Vijaya, PhD.

Lecture One 2 August 1903
The emergence of colors through the interaction of white and black. Subjective and objective colors.
TLecture Two 3 August 1903
The three types of ether in the solar spectrum: thermal, light and chemical ethers. The subjective organization of the eye as a part of the objective external world.
Lecture Three 4 August 1903
Perception of the astral ancestors of man and the present man.
Lecture Four 6 August 1903
Fresnel's proof that light is not matter but a wave. The aether as a vibrating substance.
Lecture Five 8 August 1903
The correspondence of the oscillations of colors and musical intervals. The discovery of the speed of light. Light as oscillating ether propagating through space. Continuous and discontinuous spectrums. Color as the inner expression of a substance's character. Polarized light. Color as incarnated light.
Lecture Six 9 August 1903
Our aesthetic perception of color as a result of previous mental experiences.
Lecture Seven 10 August 1903
Matter has a life of its own; this is shown by its different effects on light. Light in interaction with matter produces colors. The properties of matter in interaction with light as the effect of ether on matter.