Steiner Online Library Spiritual Science for Human Evolution

Pastoral Medicine
GA 318

Publisher's Foreword

This volume contains material which for many years was circulated in manuscript form among priests and doctors. The audience to whom the lectures were given was restricted to priests and doctors as they really were intended to serve the esoteric needs of these two professions. In this respect it gives insights into how Steiner went about laying the foundations for an esoteric path connected with a particular vocation. It is reasonable to assume that had he lived longer he would have delivered similar courses to other professional groups. Of particular significance is the giving of a mantric verse for the support of the vocational activity (see last lecture), a verse specific to the vocation. The receiving and working with such a verse would presumably be connected with the task and responsibilities an individual would assume when he or she worked out of one of the Sections of the School for Spiritual Science in the realm of a particular vocation.

Needless to say, the material assumes a certain maturity in anthroposophy which at a minimum means a familiarity with the basic books. Anyone attempting this cycle without such a background is advised to do the necessary studies before trying to read this volume.

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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