The human being’s life alternates between the great outer macrocosm and the hidden inner microcosm. Steiner discusses the different paths of development that lead to crossing these two thresholds and the transformation of different soul-forces into spiritual organs of perception.

Why do people have such differing events and circumstances to deal with in their lives? What are the meanings of diseases, illness, accidents and natural disasters? Rudolf Steiner speaks of karma as a dynamic and formative reality which must be understood if we are to understand and fruitfully navigate the course of our lives.

Materialism has had an important role to play in the evolution of human consciousness and it has fulfilled its task. Since the 4th century A.D. we have been living in an increasingly spiritual world on a disintegrating, dying earth. However, people have been asleep to this spiritual reality around them. Steiner here points the way out of blind materialism to a new spiritual perception through a conscientious study of spiritual science (Anthroposophy).