For decades, Western seekers have looked East — to Buddhism and  yoga — and South to indigenous shamanism — to find spiritual knowledge. But few have engaged with Rudolf Steiner—one of the most original and precise spiritual thinkers of the last thousand years. Steiner (1861 - 1925) was an Austrian philosopher who, as a young man, researched Goethe’s scientific writing, and wrote a refutation of Kantian dualism. He joined the Theosophical Society (under Annie Besant in 1902), but gradually formed his own movement, Anthroposophy, based on further development of the clairvoyant capacities he had possessed since childhood. He was expelled from the Theosophical Society in 1912.

Steiner was not a guru. He was a philosopher and scientist who founded a comprehensive esoteric system rooted in monistic idealism—the view that consciousness, not matter, is primary. Long dismissed by mainstream culture, this view is now gaining traction among leading scientists and philosophers as a sensible approach to the nature of mind and reality. Steiner placed great value on the clear thinking and exact methods of modern science, and brought them in modified form to the realities of the spiritual or supersensible worlds.

Steiner’s work has shaped far more of our culture than most realize. He strongly influenced Wassily Kandinsky and directly inspired the mystical painter Hilma af Klint, whose diagrammatic abstractions anticipated much of modern spiritual art. The radical artist and activist Joseph Beuys declared that his entire project—“every human being is an artist”—was an extension of Steiner’s insight into the evolving human spirit. Waldorf education, founded by Steiner in 1919, remains the largest independent school movement in the Western world, with over a thousand schools globally—committed to nurturing free, creative, morally grounded individuals. And his Biodynamic Agriculture, a crucial factor in the re-emergence of organic farming, is now worldwide and increasingly admired for the outstanding quality of its produce, wine and coffee. Its early practitioners helped inspire the environmental movement and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

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This four-week series, held live at Anthroposophy NYC, the branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America at 138 W15th St in NYC, and streamed globally, offers a rare chance to explore Steiner’s essential insights in a clear and accessible way through presentations and conversations.

Each event features teaching sessions with Walter Alexander, a prominent NYC anthroposophist, Ralph White, Open Center founder and long-time lover of Anthroposophia, as well as author and cultural philosopher Daniel Pinchbeck (2012, Breaking Open the Head), who brings a contemporary lens to Steiner’s currently urgent relevance (please see bios below). The first session will include Mary Stewart Adams, the Anthroposophical Society’s General Secretary, and subsequent sessions will include other expert guests. Beyond opening presentations, each event will include conversations among the presenters on the session’s themes. Weekly online Q&As offer space to ask further questions, share reflections, and explore personal applications of Steiner's ideas, including spiritual  exercises.

This is much more than a history of ideas. It’s a practical path to see your life, your mind, your relationships—and your role in the world—through a clearer lens. Understanding the deeper purpose of human evolution helps give us the strength we will need for what’s ahead. Steiner foresaw, at the end of the Great War, that a second world war was inevitable, along with terrible weapons, dehumanizing mechanization, and the fanning of nationalistic and tribal hatreds. He also noted the undermining, through purely materialistic thinking, of any sense of human purpose in connection with the earth and cosmos. In 1921, Steiner actually predicted an automatic, interlocking spider-like web covering the earth with super-natural intellect, but devoid of inspiration or new imagination.

The ideas explored in these sessions will be those Steiner brought specifically to support and strengthen our lives in these challenging times.

What You’ll Gain:

– A deeper understanding of your purpose and spiritual biography

– Insight into the forces shaping your inner life and outer challenges

– A living framework for developing intuition, presence, and moral clarity

– Tools for working with karma, destiny, and conscious evolution

– A renewed connection to the Western tradition— without dogma or abstraction