The following lectures were given by Rudolf Steiner to an audience
familiar with the general background of his anthroposophical
teachings. He constantly emphasised the distinction between his
written works on the one hand, and, on the other, reports of lectures
which were given as oral communications and were not originally
intended for print. It should also be remembered that certain premises
were taken for granted when the words were spoken. “These
premises,” Rudolf Steiner writes in his autobiography,
“include at the very least the anthroposophical knowledge of Man
and of the Cosmos in its spiritual essence; also of what may be called
‘anthroposophical history’, told as an outcome of research
into the spiritual world.”
A list of publications in English translation suggested for study in
connection with the following lectures, and a summarised plan of the
Complete Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works in the original German will
be found at the end of this volume.