An Outline of Esoteric Science

by Rudolf Steiner

An Outline of Esoteric Science by Rudolf Steiner is as vital and relevant as when it was first published in 1910. This masterpiece of esoteric Rosicrucian cosmology (on which Rudolf Steiner worked and then reworked for many years, making it ever more precise and accurate) remains the most effective presentation to date of the spiritual alternative to contemporary materialist cosmologies and the Darwinian view of human nature and evolution.

In this comprehensive work of spiritual science, readers learn how the creation and evolution of humanity is embedded in the heart of the vast, invisible web of interacting cosmic beings through whom the processes of cosmic evolution unfold. Within this context, Steiner includes descriptions of various aspects of the different bodies of the human being and how these arrived over long periods of time to their present state as well as their relation to sleep and death, to the animal vegetable and mineral kingdoms, etc. Included also is a detailed practical guide to the methods or exercises, including the “Rose Cross Meditation,” by which the means of perceiving and understanding the realms of soul and spirit that Steiner describes can be achieved.

Significant within his exposition of the whole spiritual evolutionary process, is the pivotal role that Steiner assigns to the Christ and to the entrance of Christ into earthly evolution through the Mystery of Golgotha (the 3-year Incarnation and especially the Crucifixion and Resurrection).

Along with his books, Theosophy and How to Know Higher Worlds, An Outline of Esoteric Science is considered to be fundamental to a proper understanding of much of his later works and to anthroposophy as a whole.

See also the ‘classic translation’ of this work under the title: Occult Science – An Outline.