Nature and Spirit Beings

‘Suppose you have seen an event, have formed an idea about it, and yousay something that is not true – in other words, something that is a lie.Then what flows from the object is correct and what flows from you is falseand this collision is a terrible explosion; and each time you do this, youattach a gruesome being to your karma which you cannot get rid of againuntil you have made good what you lied about.’ – Rudolf SteinerIn a previously-untranslated volume of lectures, Rudolf Steinerpresents shattering insights regarding the interaction of human andspiritual beings. He speaks, for example, about how perfumes cangive certain spirits access to people on earth, or how phantoms,spectres and demons can be created through human deficiencies –or even how the arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and musicallow ‘good’ or ‘hideous’ entities to enter our world. As he states:‘Learning about the effects of spiritual beings is of much greaterhelp than moral preaching. A future humanity will know what it iscreating through lies, hypocrisy and slander.’The lectures are divided into two broad thematic groups: the firstrelating to the inner path of knowledge and its relation to the yearlyfestivals, and the second focusing on the work of elemental beingsin our everyday world. The 18 lectures are complemented withnotes, an index and an introduction by Christian von Arnim.