Marie-Laure Valandro, the author of Camino Walk and Letters from Florence and a long-time student of Anthroposophy, takes readers on yet another journey--this one more inward. Marie-Laure begins this journey with a Vipassana Buddhist retreat in southern Québec with the well-known meditation teacher, Goenka. The meditation retreat becomes the touchstone of the author's travels, while Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy serves as the ground. The author describes the spiritual dimensions of her travels in India and Europe, while always returning to her deep understanding of Steiner's spiritual science. As always in Marie-Laure's writing, in Deliverance of the Spellbound God we discover the sublime in the ordinary, and wisdom in even the most foolish of situations. In her descriptions of people and places, as well as in the details of her travels, she shows how we can look outward to know ourselves, and look inward to know the world. Deliverance of the Spellbound God offers gifts of wisdom from an extraordinary life lived.
Written 1902 (CW 8) "Because of his sense of the interconnectedness of the spiritual world with nature, art, medicine, and all the rest of life, Rudolf Steiner was a profound polymath. In his seminal study Christianity as Mystical Fact he turned his esoteric genius to interpreting the Christ event as the turning point in the world's spiritual history--an incarnation whose significance he saw transcending all religions." --Bishop Frederick H. Borsch, professor of New Testament and chair of Anglican Studies, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia "As simultaneously mysticism and fact, Christianity is a breakthrough in the historical development of humanity for which the mysteries, with the results that they brought about, form a prior evolutionary stage." --Rudolf Steiner During the fall and winter of 1901-1902, Steiner gave a series of lectures called "Christianity As Mystical Fact" to members of the Theosophical Society. The lectures were rewritten and issued as a book later that year. They mark a watershed in the development of Western esotericism. Steiner wrote of the idea behind his book: "The title Christianity As Mystical Fact was one I gave to this work eight years ago, when I gathered together the content of lectures given in 1902. It was meant to indicate the special approach adopted in the book. Its theme is not just the mystical side of Christianity in a historical presentation. It was meant to show, from the standpoint of a mystical awareness, how Christianity came into being. Behind this was the idea that spiritual happenings were factors in the emergence of Christianity, which could only be observed from such a point of view. It is for the book itself to demonstrate that, by "mystical," I do not in any way imply a vague intuition rather than strict scientific argument. In many circles, mysticism is understood as just that, and therefore it is distinguished from the concerns of all 'genuine' science. "In this book, however, I use the term to mean a 'presentation of spiritual reality'--a reality accessible only to a knowledge drawn from the sources of spiritual life itself. Anyone who denies the possibility of such knowledge in principle will find its contents hard to comprehend; any reader who accepts the idea that mysticism may coexist with the clarity of the natural sciences, may acknowledge that the mystical aspect of Christianity must be described mystically." This is a fundamental book, in Steiner's own development, in that of Western esotericism, and for our understanding of the Christ event. Readers will find the evolutionary development from the ancient Mysteries through the great Greek philosophers to the events portrayed in the Gospels. Included are an informative introduction and annotated notes by Andrew Welburn and an afterword by Michael Debus, a priest of the Christian Community, who summarizes the book and places it in context. Contents: Introduction by Christopher Bamford Translator's Preface by Andrew Welburn The Mysteries and Mysteriosophy The Mysteries and Pre-Socratic Philosophy Platonic Mysteries Myth and Mysteriosophy The Egyptian and Other Eastern Mysteries The Evidence of the Gospels The "Miracle" of Lazarus The Apocalypse of John Jesus in His Historical Setting The Essence of Christianity Christian and Pagan Wisdom Augustine and the Church Original Prefaces and Additional Materials Afterword by Michael Debus Translator's Notes This Collected Works edition contains a new introduction, a chronology of Rudolf Steiner's life, and an index. German edition: Das Christentum als mystische Tatsache und die Mysterien des Altertum
This book is an expos from Gods record in the Bible of what is happening in the spiritual realm that is causing families and nations to be torn apart. God states that he is against manipulation and oppression and calls it witchcraft. The book awakens ones awareness of the contrasts of darkness versus light. It addresses modern-day family dynamics and outlines my personal journey as a victim of manipulation and how I was able to overcome it when I accepted Jesus Christ, the light of the world, as my personal Savior. My Heavenly Father warned me through a series of dreams and visions about the devils plans to destroy my life and taught me through his precious Holy Spirit how to overcome it. This is my opportunity to expose the plans that the devil has for families nationwide and worldwide, thereby giving those who have lost their way an opportunity to receive healing, deliverance, and restoration.
As I attempted to digest stories of spiritual cannibalism, of curses that could cost a student her eyesight or ignite the pages of the books she read, I knew I was not alone in my skepticism. And yet, when I caught sight of the waving arms of an industrious scarecrow, the hair on the back of my neck would stand on end. It was most palpable at night, this creepy feeling, when the moon stayed low to the horizon and the dust kicked up in the breeze, reaching out and pulling back with ghostly fingers. There was something to this place that could be felt but not seen. With these words, Karen Palmer takes us inside one of West Africa’s witch camps, where hundreds of banished women struggle to survive under the watchful eye of a powerful wizard. Palmer arrived at the Gambaga witch camp with an outsider’s sense of outrage, believing it was little more than a dumping ground for difficult women. Soon, however, she encountered stories she could not explain: a woman who confessed she’d attacked a girl given to her as a sacrifice; another one desperately trying to rid herself of the witchcraft she believed helped her kill dozens of people. In Spellbound, Palmer brilliantly recounts the kaleidoscope of experiences that greeted her in the remote witch camps of northern Ghana, where more than 3,000 exiled women and men live in extreme poverty, many sentenced in a ceremony hinging on the death throes of a sacrificed chicken. As she ventured deeper into Ghana’s grasslands, Palmer found herself swinging between belief and disbelief. She was shown books that caught on fire for no reason and met diviners who accurately predicted the future. From the schoolteacher who believed Africa should use the power of its witches to gain wealth and prestige to the social worker who championed the rights of accused witches but also took his wife to a witch doctor, Palmer takes readers deep inside a shadowy layer of rural African society. As the sheen of the exotic wore off, Palmer saw the camp for what it was: a hidden colony of women forced to rely on food scraps from the weekly market. She witnessed the way witchcraft preyed on people’s fears and resentments. Witchcraft could be a comfort in times of distress, a way of explaining a crippling drought or the inexplicable loss of a child. It was a means of predicting the unpredictable and controlling the uncontrollable. But witchcraft was also a tool for social control. In this vivid, startling work of first-person reportage, Palmer sheds light on the plight of women in a rarely seen corner of the world.
Journal for Star Wisdom 2015 includes articles of interest concerning star wisdom (Astrosophy), as well as a guide to the correspondences between stellar configurations during the life of Christ and those of today. This guide comprises a complete sidereal ephemeris and aspectarian, geocentric and heliocentric, for each day throughout the year. Published yearly, new editions are available beginning in October or November for the coming new year. According to Rudolf Steiner, every step taken by Christ during his ministry between the baptism in the Jordan and the resurrection was in harmony with--and an expression of--the cosmos. The Journal for Star Wisdom is concerned with these heavenly correspondences during the life of Christ. It is intended to help provide a foundation for cosmic Christianity, the cosmic dimension of Christianity. It is this dimension that has been missing from Christianity in its two-thousand-year history. Readers can begin on this path by contemplating the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets against the background of the zodiacal constellations (sidereal signs) today in relation to corresponding stellar events during the life of Christ. In this way, the possibility is opened for attuning, in a living way, to the life of Christ in the etheric cosmos. This journal begins with an article on the relationship between the zodiacal ages and the cultural epochs by Robert Powell, followed by Estelle Isaacson's article about the early stages of Christ's Ascension into cosmic dimensions. Claudia McLaren Lainson's article relates events of our time against the background of St. Paul's experience of Christ at the gates of Damascus. Richard Tarnas's article, "The Evolving Tradition," offers important perspectives on the development of astrology in our time. Also included is an article by Kevin Dann, which considers the universal significance of the vortex, following up on an indication by Rudolf Steiner. Nicholas Kollerstrom contributed the article "Power of the Sun," discussing research into a new understanding of our Sun. There are also two articles by Brian Keats that contribute to research into aspects of biodynamic farming in connection with cosmic rhythms. The monthly commentaries for 2015 are by Claudia McLaren Lainson, supported by monthly astronomical previews provided by Sally Nurney that offer opportunities to observe and experi-ence the stellar conÿ gurations physically during 2015. This direct interaction between human beings on Earth and the heavenly beings of the stars develops our capacity to receive their wisdom-filled teachings.
In Nutrition for Enlightened Parenting, Marie-Laure Valandro draws on her deep study of Rudolf Steiner and Spiritual Science, as well as on the works of Rudolf Hauschka and Karl König, attempting to bring greater consciousness to one of life’s most common and vital activities—eating. Food can be the object of instinct, desire, obsession, and even fear. We all want to be healthy in body and soul, and gaining increased awareness of what we prepare and put into our body can become a powerful path toward heightened consciousness. It is one key to taking charge of our life and determining our destiny. Through such an initiation, we can gain the power to read the great Book of Nature through the foods we eat, discovering what stands behind those substances—the spiritual within the material. Marie-Laure Valandro uses personal stories, words of wisdom from modern spiritual teachers, and observations while traveling the world. She presents an organic picture of how we can take charge of our day-to-day nutrition and become more aware of ourselves and the world around us.
In a kind of sequel to her book Camino Walk: Where Inner & Outer Paths Meet, the following year, Marie-Laure Valandro walked and wrote about her experiences on the French section of the Via Podiensis, or the Le Puy Route, one of four routes through France on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain and the tomb of St. James. She again encountered a steadfast though fleeting international community on the route through southern France, while connecting her personal experiences with the many significant historical events of that area, especially those of the ninth century in connection with key political and spiritual figures, the Grail mysteries, and the struggles of women of that time and region. The book brings to life words of Rudolf Steiner and other writers, as well as the memoirs of historical personalities. In this day-by-day, step-by-step account, the author reveals her struggles along the way and considers the true purpose of such a journey—or, indeed, any journey—which is self-transformation. As with her book Camino Walk, the reader is inspired—if not to walk the physical Camino, to find one’s own path to the inner challenge of change.
In this captivating collection of stories, Marie-Laure Valandro shares her adventures and insights from her life and work on a sixty-acre biodynamic farm and garden in a small rural town in eastern Wisconsin. Readers get a rare and intimate glimpse into the realities of modern farm life, replete with its beauty and magic, challenges and demands.
