Bøger udgivet af Anthroposophic Press

Ever since nature and consciousness were separated in the late Middle Ages, giving rise to a science of matter alone, the spiritual beings who are the universe have felt abandoned and unable to complete their work, for this work depends for its success on human collaboration. At the same time, human beings have also felt abandoned, condemned to a speck of dust in an infinitely decaying universe. In these remarkable lectures, Rudolf Steiner reestablishes the human being as a participant in an evolving, dynamic universe of living spiritual beings: a living universe, whole and divine. And he does so in concrete images, capable of being grasped by human consciousness as if from within. How is this possible? Implicit in Rudolf Steiner's view is the fact that, fundamentally, the universe consists of consciousness. Everything else is illusion. Hence to understand the evolution of the cosmos and humanity in any terms other than consciousness is also illusion. Whenever we have to do with mighty cosmic facts, we have to do with states of consciousness. But states of consciousness never exist apart from the beings who embody them. Therefore, the only true realities are beings in different states of consciousness. In this sense, Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science is a science of states of consciousness and the beings who embody them. Indeed, rightly considered, all science-physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, geology, psychology, astronomy, etc.-is a science of beings. And the sensory perception, the physical trace, is but the outer vestment of the activity of beings in different states of consciousness. To describe these beings, Steiner uses the names made familiar by the wisdom tradition of the West. He speaks of the evolutionary states of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan; and the nine "choirs" of angels (Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; Principalities, Archangels, and Angels); as well as of elemental beings and nature spirits; and the elements of fire, earth, air, and water.

Beyond the Medical Meltdown demonstrates that there is enough quality health care and enough money to pay for it, that more drugs and surgery is not necessarily better, and that the present health care quandary does not need to be the way it is. But to see this and to change health care will require enough people to wake up, think outside the box, and take action. We are on a threshold. Health care as we have known it is dying. What we have come to see as "normal" medicine is not "healthy" medicine. To quote Dr. John Abramson of Harvard, we have an "overdo$ed America." Health care today is a manipulated market, not a free market. It is neither effective nor affordable for most people in the United States. In both the public sector and the private business world, it is a top-down, over-controlled system. This must change. Dr. Robert Zieve details how to create a bottom-up approach, which is necessary if health care is going to work for all of us.

"Despite the plethora of scholarship and commentary on Tolkien's fiction, I make the case that our felt experience of The Lord of the Rings has yet to be coherently understood and that such coherence is achieved through an exploration of the story's 'hidden pictures.' The real value of this story for our world has remained elusive, like how dreams can haunt us until we finally map the dream images onto our experience. When we take the feelings and associations of dream images seriously, they can guide us to the right understanding of the dream." -- Mark McGivernThose who know and love J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy know that it is not only an inexhaustible source of wonder, delight, and excitement, but also a profound tale relevant to our time and to the vital question: What does it mean to be a human being? Rediscovered by each new generation, this story has proved captivating ever since its publication in 1954. It's a good story, to be sure, but is there something more -- a profound aspect that we recognize or sense, speaking directly to something deeper and hidden within us?Many scholars and commentators have attempted to address this and similar questions. Tolkien scholarship has achieved remarkable insights into his unique use of language, his deep knowledge of storytelling aesthetics in our human heritage of myths, and his ability to weave together an exploration of myriad themes into one story. Nevertheless, few if any scholars have approached the profoundest aspects of Tolkien's work with the esoteric spiritual insights of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy as the basis for illuminating their studies. With Tolkien's Hidden Pictures, Mark McGivern does exactly this, while also building upon the work of scholars such as Verlyn Flieger, whose open-hearted and serious studies, born of love and appreciation for Tolkien's masterpiece, already suggest the depths, the "hidden pictures," and the lessons for life and human possibilities contained in The Lord of the Rings.Anyone interested in delving more deeply into the imagery, feelings, and forms of Tolkien's great work will find in this volume an illuminating and accessible resource in McGivern's concise, well-researched, and insightful study.