Lecture One, Dornach, 10th October, 1915
Seership and Thinking. Symbolism of the schools of
Initiation. The opposition between esotericists and
exotericists about the publicising of esoteric knowledge.
Compromise achieved through the introduction of mediumship
and spiritualism. Failure of the attempt. Spiritual Science
and the principle followed by the exotericists from the
middle of the nineteenth century.
Lecture Two, 11th October, 1915
Mediumistic methods of investigation in the Theosophical
Society. The path of knowledge in Spiritual Science. Aims
of certain secret Orders. The fiasco of Spiritualism. The
unique personality of H. P. Blavatsky. The founding of the
Theosophical Society. Antecedents of the founding of the
German Section of the Theosophical Society and the
development of the spiritual-scientific Movement.
Lecture Three, 16th October, 1915
Materialism of the nineteenth century. Reflexion about
thinking indispensable for recognition of the barrenness of
the materialistic picture of the world. The true origin of
atomism.
Lecture Four, 17th October, 1915
The attempt made by the occultists to avert the lapse into
materialism. Materialism in the world of thought during the
nineteenth century. The fallacies of mediumship. Distortion
of the teaching concerning the Eighth Sphere through
Sinnett and Blavatsky and the backgrounds of this
distortion.
Lecture Five, 18th October, 1915
The Eighth Sphere. The influence of the Spirits of Form and
the battle waged by Lucifer and Ahriman. The activity of
esotericists connected with the High Church party in
Christianity. On the "mineralisation" of the Moon.
Complexity of the subject of the Eighth Sphere.
Lecture Six, 19th October, 1915
The dangers of aberration along the path into the spiritual
worlds. Clairvoyance in ancient and modern times. The
revitalisation of the etheric body in connection with the
new revelation of Christ. Ancient knowledge still present
in the era of emergent materialism, for example in Heinroth
and Goethe (Makaria in Wilhelm Meister).
Lecture Seven, 22nd October, 1915
Investigation of the life between death and a new birth.
The transformation of unused physical forces into spiritual
forces after death. In the Kamaloka period after death man
lives through in backward order the experiences undergone
during sleep. The boundaries set up by science and religion
in order to hinder penetration into the spiritual worlds.
Lecture Eight, 23rd October, 1915
The purpose of the use of symbols in the so-called secret
Societies or Orders. The problem of the publicising of
knowledge hitherto kept secret. The transformation of
forces in world-history, exemplified by Dante's Divine
Comedy and the story of Father Antonius. Forces inimical to
nature and to man behind natural phenomena and the
experiences of souls.
Lecture Nine, 24th October, 1915
Investigation of the mineral world is important for man's
earthly evolution. Duality in the world of sense;
threefoldness in the super-sensible world. Ahrimanic
intelligence and Luciferic will. The dangers of objective
Occultism (Scylla) and subjective Mysticism (Charybdis) can
be avoided through the study of Spiritual Science.
Lecture Ten, 25th October, 1915
Human consciousness between objective and subjective
reality, between the Ahrimanic and Luciferic world.
Aberrations of consciousness and their correction. The
Tantalus myth. The guiding principles of Spiritual Science.
List of relevant publications
Summarised plan of the Complete Edition
of Rudolf Steiner's works in the original German