Steiner Online Library Spiritual Science for Human Evolution

Life Between Death and Rebirth
GA 140

Editor's Note

The Lectures compiled in this volume were given by Rudolf Steiner in different European cities throughout the years 1912 and 1913. they deal with the experiences of the human soul after death and describe in detail how the living can relate themselves to the dead. Reading them, it becomes abundantly clear that excarnated souls need the spiritual support of those presently incarnated, and that those still on earth derive in turn enlightenment and support from their former earthly companions.

Today, with our mental capacities geared to dealing only with the sense perceptible world, any relationship to the dead becomes a difficult concept to grasp. Here in these lectures, however, the problem is presented like a theme with many variations. They continually bring back the same basic content and by allowing us to view it from every different angle our understanding is awakened and direct spiritual intercourse with the dead gradually established.

Thus, in spite of what may appear on the surface to be mere repetition, the publication of this volume in its virtual entirety as it appeared in the German edition, is justified. Four lectures that were previously published in English translation are not included. They are Links Between the Living and the Dead, two lectures, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1960 and Occult Research into Life Between Death and a New Birth, two lectures, Anthroposophic Press, 1949.

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Quotes

"You can see from this, my dear friends, what mischief will be set on foot if the truths of Spiritual Science are withheld. For man will be exposed to the forces of evil, and he will only be protected from it by giving himself up to the spiritual life of the good. To withhold the spiritual life of goodness from men is to be no friend to humanity. Whoever does this, be he Freemason or Jesuit, is no friend to humanity. For it means handing men over to the forces of evil. And there may be a purpose in doing so. This purpose may be to confine goodness to a small circle, in order by the help of this goodness to dominate the helpless humanity who are thus led by evil into the follies of life."

—Rudolf Steiner,
Spiritual Science Notes On Goethe's Faust, Vol. II, No. 273-8.

Spiritual Exercises

Calendar of the Soul

In 1912 Rudolf Steiner offered a “calendar of the soul” with weekly verses that express how the changing seasons in both the outer natural world and our inner lives help humanity evolve. Download and read the verses in four translations with commentary by Eloise Krivosheia of the Los Angeles Branch of the Anthroposophical Society.

Download

2022-2023 Calendar Dates