By Leif Garbisch

What is life? And why on earth does it matter?

Life remains an ongoing mystery. It is the mystery from which everything has come to exist. Because of its secretive nature, life echoes as a question. It ripples across the entire universe, as if the universe is a body of water. And lucky for us, the echoes and ripples of life take place very specifically here, on earth. They take shape as spirit and matter. They take shape as all we can know in the living universe. In this sense even electrons, clouds, and dust are as much to do with the living universe as are plants, animals, and people. Everything that happens in the universe is a process of life itself that becomes an ongoing, living experience. And luckier still, this living experience leads both fundamental life and each one of us towards love. The earth is where the mystery of life becomes something we actually take part in. This is where the mystery becomes less of a secret and more of a responsibility. Moment by moment. Word by word. Each of us is becoming love, whether we know it or not. Better to know it.

Life living love. This is the framework of our existence. It is the path we are on – from life through the vastness of living to love. The Well of Understanding explores our human experience on earth. The book speaks to the meaningfulness of each person and to the countless connections each of us has with all of life. We each begin with life, a gift of being. Days then years and, yes, even lifetimes are spent living on earth. All for the sake of love, if we can get there. Life living love. These three words of never-ending content and infinite reach guide us on earth when we are willing to enter their depth. And it is up to each of us whether we do this or not. It is up to you, and it is up to me. And if the earth had a voice, which it does, you and I would hear in our souls the world’s patient encouragement. And if love had a truth, which it does, you and I would begin to know in our hearts what we each must now do with our unique and necessary lives.

By Eric G. Müller

Questions, more than anything, have fueled this book: What is music? How far back can we trace its history? Why does music affect us so profoundly? Who are the people who have shaped the course of music through the ages? Müller pursues these questions and those that have remained unanswered in musicology but demand a response in our probing times. The results reveal diverse and riveting aspects to music and its imponderable essence. This far-reaching book tracks the tonal path through the ages right up to the multifaceted present and beyond, all the while considering the contributions of indigenous music, assessing the scope of Western music’s emergence, or gaging the impact of popular music—always with an eye on contextualizing the various eras and styles. The sweeping evolutionary journey of human consciousness, as portrayed through music, explores humanity’s profound embeddedness in the spirit, followed by its gradual disconnection and loss over time. Yet, in its place, the inexorable development of the individuality allows for the possibility to reconnect to the spirit out of freedom, as can be observed in the works of an ever-growing array of composers and interpreters. The author provides esoteric perspectives that add to contemporary positions. Musical, cultural, and sacred elements are woven together in an accessible, yet thought provoking manner, to meet the lay person as much as those well-versed in music. In History Through Music a vast panorama unfolds for the reader, buoyed by Müller’s decades long experience as an educator and musician.

By Daniel Stokes and Summer He

When the golden rings of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth are stolen from their village, siblings Jewel and Gem know they can’t sit idly by. Braving shadowed forests, treacherous mountains, and whispers of ancient magic, they set out on a journey that will test their courage, wits, and the bond between them. Along the way, they face creatures and challenges that seem impossible—but the greatest challenge may lie in understanding the heart of the dragon who guards the treasure. Will the siblings succeed in their quest, or will the adventure change them in ways they never imagined?

By Massimo Scaligero

We do not know how we think, and even less do we know the organ by means of which we think. And yet, with this insufficient thinking, we place ourselves before the nervous system, and at the physiological and psychological level, we presume to interpret its function, seeing it in relation to what we cannot perceive.... Therefore, no physiology or psychology penetrates the mystery of illness, of anguish, of pain, of longing or of fear: because it is, in any case, an investigation that is itself subjected to the conditions that render illness, anguish, pain, longing and fear, necessary. In truth, the lance that injures Amfortas is still embedded in the wound. The wound bleeds all the time and no hand can keep it from bleeding, except the hand that knows how to grasp the magic weapon and make of what wounds and kills, what heals and resurrects.

By Leif Garbisch

Oliver Birch, almost 14, rides his bike to deliver a birthday pound cake to his Uncle Theo. It is a Friday in April, Good Friday on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Oliver arrives in the late afternoon to a seemingly empty house. When Oliver can’t find his uncle, he climbs the stairs and discovers Theo hanging dead from an oak beam, his feet bare and a pile of clothes neatly folded on the bed.

This is a threshold moment for Oliver, an instance when he stands at the edge between unknowing and knowing. It is the first difficult step he takes towards a greater understanding of what it means to be a human being on earth. In chapters that take us through the years, Move is the story of this and other significant experiences in the lives of Oliver, his sister, Cricket, and his parents, April-Mei and Mika. Cricket continues to struggle with the very real presence of death. April-Mei is learning to accept the ebb and flow of daily life. Mika looks for answers in the natural world. And Oliver holds his family, including Theo, through life and death as everyone pushes step by step closer to love.

By Massimo Scaligero

“…The Mystery of Androgyny can be contemplated as a moment of our formative power as human beings, which arose from our ability to gather forces more elevated and, therefore, deeper, relative to the lunar element strengthened on the physical plane by the Sun’s separation from the Earth. The currents capable of ruling the lower lunar element, would be recognizable in the aforementioned symbol of the Virgin that corresponds to the aspect of the Isis-Sophia. We will see during the course of the present study how the path toward restoring Androgyny’s radical force is the undertaking alluded to in the saga of the Grail and likewise corresponds to the symbol of Isis Sophia. This (Isis-Sophia), in fact, takes on and redeems within itself the tenebrous Hecate. We will see, in any case, why woman holds the keys to the reintegration of man (so that the Virgin would be called Janua Coeli) and how the present civilization can risk permanently losing the sense of such a reintegration, by reducing woman to man’s erotic companion, or to a mere begetter of children…”

Massimo Scaligero (born Antonio Sgabelloni: 1906-1980), was an Italian spiritual teacher who fathomed the depths of both Eastern and Western esoteric streams (particularly, yoga and Anthroposophy) through direct experience. He was an independent spiritual researcher, who emphasized the path of living thinking (La Via del Pensiero), epistemologically aligned with Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom. He is the author of a number of works including The Light (La Luce), The Secrets of Space and Time, A Treatise on Living Thinking, A Practical Manual of Meditation, The Logic Against Humanity, The Logos and the New Mysteries, as well as his autobiography, From Yoga to the Rose Cross, all published by

Lindisfarne Books.

La Clase Principal en la escuela Waldorf

‘The Waldorf Main Lesson’ Spanish edition

Eric G. Müller

Alkion Press, 2024

La llamada "Clase Principal", con la que comienzan todos y cada uno de los días en las Escuelas Waldorf de todo el mundo es la innovación más duradera y consistente de la pedagogía Waldorf y es su firma que la distingue de otros sistemas educa- tivos. Desde los inicios del movimiento en 1919, en Stuttgart, Alemania, esta larga clase matutina, centrada en una asignatu- ra durante varias semanas, es la base sobre la que se asienta el resto de la pedagogía. ¿Cuáles son sus cualidades duraderas? ¿Cómo está estructurada? ¿Por qué ocupa un lugar tan central en la pedagogía Waldorf? ¿Cómo aprovechan los maestros el tiempo del que disponen? ¿Cuáles son sus beneficios? ¿Cuándo y cómo cambia la estructura en función de las necesidades de los alumnos de primer, segundo y tercer ciclo? ¿Quién deter- mina la estructura? ¿Cómo puede aplicarse de forma óptima el don pedagógico único de Rudolf Steiner? Estas y muchas otras preguntas son abordadas en La Clase Principal Waldorf. Eric G. Müller examina múltiples facetas de este pilar de la peda- gogía Waldorf, con la esperanza de que anime y estimule a los lectores, especialmente a los maestros Waldorf, para llegar a sus propios conocimientos más profundos y perspectivas sobre la Clase Principal y su trascendental significado.

A hardcover catalogue of the first showing in the United States of the full eight painting-series known as the Tree of Knowledge, as well as Hilma af Klint’s Sketchbook Flowers, Mosses and Lichen at Lightforms Art Center in Hudson, NY in 2020. Essays accompany the Tree of Knowledge series and the Sketchbook, written by former Senior Artistic Director Martina Angela Müller, which explore the visual language as well as the spiritual and anthroposophical underpinnings of the works on view. Additionally, art historian David Adams PhD presents an incisive biographical and work overview on Hilma af Klint. Over one hundred botanical illustrations by twelve female artists complement the abstract Sketchbook by Hilma af Klint, preceded by an introductory essay by former Artistic Director Helena Sophia Zay, making the book into an unparalleled artistic study compendium.  

Why Parzival?
An Epic of Our Age with Global Reach
And Its Secret Connections to Waldorf Education

By Eric G. Müller

Why Parzival? endeavors to explore and uncover the overarching cultural, educational, and spiritual significance of Parzival from an anthroposophical perspective. The growing call of the elusive Grail in the age of the consciousness soul—in which we find ourselves irrevocably embedded—speaks directly to the evident needs of our fast-changing times and to the evolving future. Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Grail saga addresses the challenges of the contemporary individual, while awakening and reconnecting those inner destiny forces to the respective local and global communities through a series of grand imaginations. Studying this step-by-step journey of initiation has been a staple in Waldorf High Schools from the very beginning, and periodically it makes sense to remember why it was chosen and what it has to offer to the young person and our increasingly complex contemporary global society.  

By Eric G. Müller

It comes as a surprise when Carnuckelby, the Pebble Man, informs Swannie that she has to return to Amarvin Island to attend her own Dream-Day Ceremony, where a specific Task awaits her. The wellbeing of the island and the world will depend on the successful completion of this challenging mission. She realizes that without the help of her friends from school she might never succeed. However, she runs the risk of exposing her true mermaid self in the process. But help comes in many forms. Apart from Feliciana and the boys, there’s Matmaka, the dolphin, who advises her, and Whooshyminne, Fitzeepire, and Lak-Nasheem from the realms of nature, who are always ready to support her. Furthermore, Swannie makes the acquaintance of a mysterious new little girl at school. What role will she play? But will all this help be enough to overcome the trials they face?

Sequel to The Mermaid of Amarvin Island

7 More Sleeps Till DumpTruck Land

Written and Illustrated by Gwendolyn Sherman

Publication date: August 12, 2024

Waiting for something you’re excited about can be hard, but staying busy can help the time pass more quickly. And sometimes things can go wrong and plans have to change. Follow along as one boy fills his days and counts down the sleeps till DumpTruck Land! Will he get to go?

Gwendolyn Sherman grew up in the beautiful countryside of upstate New York. She attended Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School where her love of art was valued and encouraged. She later studied fine arts in Paros, Greece, though most of her development as an artist has been through mentorships and self-led exploration. She enjoys nature, time with her family, Irish breakfast tea, and the occasional precious moment of solitude. She is currently working as a teacher and illustrator in Ghent, New York where she lives with her husband and four children.

Rudolf Steiner’s Laying of the Foundation Stone on September 20, 1913:
In the Presence of the Stars

Edited by Erika von Baravalle

For many years, Erika von Baravalle worked on the documents about the building history of the first and second Goetheanum and opened up the artistic legacy of Albert von Baravalle, who worked closely with Rudolf Steiner as an architect. Additionally, she also carried out a large number of her own studies that had to do with the spiritual and artistic motifs of both buildings (and their precursors). To mark the centenary of the laying of the foundation stone of the Johannesbau, as the Goetheanum was initially called, she presented various of her essays in an anthology, rich with visual material—as well as eyewitness reports of the first laying of the foundation stone: studies by Fritz Götte, Elisabeth Vreede, Walter Bühler, and Ernst Bindel, as well as Rudolf Steiner's speeches leading up to and from the event of September 20, 1913—accounts which have never appeared or been available in such a compilation before.