Rudolf Steiner - Guardian Angels : Connecting with Our Spiritual Guides and Helpers.

RUDOLF STEINER (18611925) called his spiritual philosophy anthroposophy, meaning wisdom of the human being. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal science of spirit, accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking.

From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

GUARDIAN ANGELS

Connecting with our spiritual guides and helpers

Rudolf Steiner

Compiled by Margaret Jonas

Translated by Pauline Wehrle

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Rudolf Steiner Press
Hillside House, The Square
Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2012

Earlier English publications: Lectures Two and Three in Cosmosophy, Vol. Two, Completion Press, Gympie, Australia 1997; Lecture Four in The Problems of Our Time, Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., London, no date; Lecture Five in Anthroposophical Movement, Vol. VIII, No. 25; Lecture Six in Anthroposophie News Sheet 1936, No 21

Originally published in German in various volumes of the GA (Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach: Lecture One in GA 350; Lectures Two and Three in GA 208; Lecture Four in GA 193; Lecture Five in GA 205; Lecture Six in GA 98. This authorized translation is published by kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach. All lectures are reproduced in complete versions with the exception of Lecture 4 which has been edited for incidental remarks

Translation Rudolf Steiner Press 2000

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 272 4

Cover by Andrew Morgan Design
Typeset by DP Photosetting, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Contents

Lecture One
Guardian angels
Dornach, 13 June 1923

Lecture Two
The human form and cosmic activity
Dornach, 22 October 1921

Lecture Three
Lucifer and Ahriman
Dornach, 23 October 1921

Lecture Four
Reconnecting with the hierarchies
Berlin, 13 September 1919

Lecture Five
The human being and the hierarchies
Dornach, 17 July 1921

Lecture Six
How worlds and beings relate
Munich, 29 April 1908

Introduction

Belief in a guardian angel appointed to guide and watch over each human being is part of most religious systems and is gaining ground again with newer spiritual teachings. It is, however, often dismissed as mere fancy or figurative speech although many stories abound of the miraculous intervention of these beings in the lives of peopleespecially children when threatened with danger. According to esoteric teachings the angels are the spiritual beings closest to the human being, whom they guard, guide and lead from one incarnation to the next, bearing the higher self; but the ranks of the others (9 in all), often called choirs of angels or gods, which were known to spiritual teachers such as St Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite and Thomas Aquinas, have become less familiar names in more recent centuries.

Due to his spiritual capacities and insights, Rudolf Steiner was very conscious that human beings today, whilst needing to develop their own independence of thought, or ego-consciousness, have become more and more sundered from their spiritual counterparts, which few now have the clair-voyance to perceiveor, if they do, they lack the discriminatory knowledge with which to discern the nature of the being in question. One of his aims was to enable people to connect again with these spiritual beings, not just for their own benefit but for the whole destiny of the earths evolution and the other kingdoms of nature. His intention was to lead people from belief to recognition, knowledge and understanding of them, through the development of the often dormant higher human faculties. But first we have to be furnished with the necessary description of those whom we may encounter.

In addition to three important cycles of lectures on these nine ranks, he gave a number of others most of which have been published. There are, however, some which until now have lain hidden in very early publications or journals, and which throw more light on our relationship to these angelic kingdoms. Each of the chosen lectures has something specific to say about the angelsthe guardian spirits, and also in some cases, about the other ranks and their interrelationships.

The first lecture was given to the workers at the Goetheanum, the centre for anthroposophy in Switzerland, in response to a dramatic account of a young boys life being saved. Steiner takes pains to show here how a guardian angel is able to intervene in everyday life, throwing much light on the interpenetration of the world around us with the spiritual.

Lectures Two and Three deal with the guardian angels relationship to the other members of the spiritual hierarchies, and how these beings live in our dreams and life of imagination. There is something else very important for us to knowdifferent kinds of angels exist and some would hinder the evolutionary development of mankind. If we can recognize these other beings we are less likely to be misled by them. Steiner does not speak of the popularity of channelling, but we would do well to remember this when faced with such experiences.

Lecture Four gives us the remarkable fact that each night in sleep we plan the day ahead with our angel. People should be filled with the conviction that in the course of the day they should help to bring about what they prepared with their angel the previous night. And how easy it is to forget it. This lecture is especially potent as it was given against the background of the suffering of the 1914-18 war. It also contains some important comments on languageespecially English.

The fifth lecture continues with connections to the other ranks of the hierarchies and to our own subtle bodies, and how the guardian angels stand back somewhat with respect to adults and their protective watch over us becomes less automatic. As adults we now have to raise our consciousness to a spiritual level, befitting an angel, and are no longer protected in the same way as in childhood. There are those adversary beings, too, who would sever the connection altogether and imprison us in a web of untruths. These are the beings who inspire materialistic thoughts, to whom Steiner gave the name Ahrimanic after Ahriman,the Persian name for the opponent of the light.

The last lecture should interest those who want to understand the properties of minerals and crystals, especially in relation to healing, for we learn of the angels connection to these, and how the higher beings are alive in all the kingdoms of nature around us. The lecture concludes with some unexpected astronomical ideas on the spiralling movement of sun and earth, which Steiner was to refer to again in later astronomical lectures, but is rarely taken up and understood.