Spirituality

Thursday 29 August 2024

Leo Heirman - Pictures of initiation in Greek mythology




Leo Heirman - Pictures of initiation in Greek mythology


LEO HEIRMAN, Ph.D.
(1914-1983)

Leo Heirman was born in Hillegom in the Netherlands. He was a student in classics at Leiden University when World War II began. It was while he was in the Dutch army that he discovered anthroposophy. During the German occupation he worked with severely handicapped children at the Sonnehuis in Zeist, and later spent two years in Poland as ‘a prisoner of war. After the war, he completed his studies at Leiden.

He began his career as a Waldorf class teacher at Vrye Waldorf School in The Hague. He moved to the United States in 1962 and taught in California at Waldorf Schools in North Hollywood and Sacramento. He eventually relocated in the Midwest, where he taught classics at Northern Illinois University at DeKalb. It is from his very popular lectures at Northern Illinois, given over a period of ten years, that the material for this book derives. Leo Heirman was also active in helping to establish the Chicago and Milwaukee Waldorf Schools and was cofounder of the Rudolf Steiner Institute on the East Coast. He continued teaching at the Institute in the summer, even after his retirement in Holland. He was widely known to anthroposophists for his lectures on education and on Greek and Norse mythology.

This book is a voyage to the roots of Western man, time travel backward several thousand years to the childhood of Western civilization. Leo Heirman masterfully unfolds the stories thereby enabling us to see the parallels between tie development of Western man and ourindividual selves towards the ideals of individual freedom and the overcoming of materialism.


Mythology - PDF

Wednesday 28 August 2024

Geoffrey Ashe - King Arthur's Avalon




Geoffrey Ashe - King Arthur's Avalon
The story of Glastonbury


Glastonbury is a place of strong magic, which one day will revive... In King Arthur’s Avalon, leading Arthurian scholar Geoffrey Ashe explores the idea that King Arthur and his wife Guinevere are buried at Glastonbury, a town which also has legendary links to Camelot and the iconic Holy Grail.
Ashe suggests that the Somerset town, which is also linked to Joseph of Arimathea, was in fact Avalon, the legendary island at the heart of Arthurian legend where the sword Excalibur was forged.
In this detailed historical and literary discussion of Britain’s ‘New Jerusalem’ Ashe moves from Malory to Blake to Tennyson to show that Glastonbury’s magic is at the heart of British history, as well as British legend.
King Arthur’s Avalon has sold more than 100,000 copies in over sixty years and has been widely credited with reviving interest in both Glastonbury and the Arthurian legends.
'Crisp, imaginative and contemporary... a book that will madden the academic historian and delight the common reader' - Sunday Times'It attacks all the problems which have gathered around Arthur and the Grail legend, and makes what is perhaps the first coherent and cogent narrative out of the whole tangle' - ObserverBorn in London in 1923, Geoffrey Ashe spent several years in Canada. He graduated from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, before continuing at Cambridge. He has written numerous books, many focused on the Arthurian legend. In 1963 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and he was awarded an MBE in 2012. He is recognised as a leading cultural historian and author, and lives in Glastonbury, where he is an Honorary Freeman “in recognition of his eminent services to the place”, with his wife Patricia.


Geoffrey Ashe - PDF
Graal - PDF

Monday 19 August 2024

John Arnott MacCulloch - Celtic Mythology



John Arnott MacCulloch - Celtic Mythology


This classic study by a distinguished scholar recounts the ancient tales of Ireland and Wales. Written in a highly readable style, it will delight neophytes as well as those well versed in Celtic folklore with its lively tales of romance and love, of war and carnage, and of deeds both noble and villainous.
Illustrations from rare sources enhance this treasury of lore and its stories of the strife and mythic powers of the gods, their loves and aid to mortals, and of famous heroes, pagans, and Christians of antiquity. John Arnott MacCulloch, a former canon of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and author of several books relating to the Celtic culture, discusses the coexistence of paganism and Christianity and their influences on each other, particularly in regard to the heroic cycles of Cuchulainn, Fionn, and Arthur.


John Arnott MacCulloch - PDF
Celtes - PDF

Wednesday 19 June 2024

Edmond Paris - La historia secreta de los jesuitas




Edmond Paris - La historia secreta de los jesuitas


Edmond Paris expone la existencia de un paralelismo entre el sector religioso y el político. La intervención del Vaticano en la política y en las intrigas mundiales, mediante la penetración e infiltración de los jesuitas en los gobiernos y en las naciones del mundo, además de fomentar guerras, ha manipulado el curso de la historia estableciendo dictaduras y debilitando democracias y abriendo el camino para la anarquía social, política, moral, militar, educativa y religiosa.


Edmond Paris - Histoire secrète des Jésuites
Edmond Paris - PDF

Society of Jesus - PDF


Wednesday 22 May 2024

Rudolf Steiner - Propos sur le karma




Rudolf Steiner - Propos sur le karma
Extraits choisis par Hans Stauffer - Titre original : Karma


À propos de…
Rudolf Steiner n’a jamais cherché à édifier des systèmes. Son action consistait beaucoup plus à donner des impulsions pour une vie digne de l’être humain, ici et maintenant.
Dans cette optique, il s’efforçait d’attirer l’attention sur le fait que notre existence ne se limite pas au temps qui va de la naissance à la mort. Infatigablement, il rappelait que nous sommes des êtres spirituels, de même que la terre et le cosmos dont nous faisons partie.
Par ses écrits et conférences, il encourageait à prendre au sérieux cette réalité cachée. Face à l’immensité de son oeuvre, qui peut paraître écrasante, on peut facilement oublier que ses nombreuses indications visaient d’abord à développer la présence d’esprit qui, dans l’instant, comprend ce qui est juste, et l’accomplit.
La série « À propos de » rassemble autour d’un thème des idées-clés tirées des livres et des conférences de Steiner, qui invitent le lecteur à mettre en mouvement sa pensée et à approfondir ses facultés de connaissance et d’action.
Les brefs passages choisis ne prétendent pas faire le tour du sujet, mais tentent simplement d’ouvrir un accès à l’oeuvre complexe de Rudolf Steiner. Les indications de sources données à la fin de l’ouvrage permettent de replacer ces extraits dans leur contexte. Et ceux qui se contenteront de lire les fragments réunis ici trouveront déjà un précieux fil conducteur pour s’orienter.


Rudolf Steiner - PDF
Karma - PDF
Anthroposophie - PDF