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  THE WAY OF INITIATION


  BY THE SAME AUTHOR

  INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS

  a sequel to the

  "WAY OF INITIATION"

  By
  RUDOLF STEINER, Ph.D.

  Translated from the German by Clifford Bax


CONTENTS


     A FOREWORD

  I. THE ASTRAL CENTERS (CHAKRAS)

 II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ETHERIC BODY

III. DREAM LIFE

 IV. THE THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

  V. THE DISSOCIATION OF HUMAN PERSONALITY DURING INITIATION

 VI. THE FIRST GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD

VII. THE SECOND GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD

     SELECTED LIST OF OCCULT WORKS

In same clear print and rich binding as this book

PRICE $1.00 PREPAID




  THE WAY OF INITIATION

  OR

  HOW TO ATTAIN KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS

  BY RUDOLF STEINER, Ph.D.

  FROM THE GERMAN
  BY
  ~MAX GYSI~

  WITH SOME BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES OF THE AUTHOR BY
  ~EDOUARD SCHURE~

  FIRST AMERICANIZED EDITION

  MACOY PUBLISHING AND MASONIC SUPPLY CO.
  NEW YORK, U.S.A.


  Copyright 1910
  BY
  MACOY PUBLISHING
  AND
  MASONIC SUPPLY CO.

  45-47-49 JOHN ST.
  New York, U.S.A.




CONTENTS.


                                                           PAGE

The Personality of Rudolf Steiner and His Development         7

   I. The Superphysical World and Its Gnosis                 33

  II. How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds           50

 III. The Path of Discipleship                               65

  IV. Probation                                              81

   V. Enlightenment                                          93

  VI. Initiation                                            117

 VII. The Higher Education of the Soul                      135

VIII. The Conditions of Discipleship                        149

List of Occult and Kindred Books                            165




Transcriber's Note: Words printed in bold are noted with tildes;
~bold~. There is no corresponding anchor for footnote number 5.




TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

(FOR THE ENGLISH EDITION.)


Being deeply interested in Dr. Steiner's work and teachings, and
desirous of sharing with my English-speaking friends the many
invaluable glimpses of Truth which are to be found therein, I decided
upon the translation of the present volume. It is due to the kind
co-operation of several friends who prefer to be anonymous that this
task has been accomplished, and I wish to express my hearty thanks for
the literary assistance rendered by them--also to thank Dr. Peipers of
Munich for permission to reproduce his excellent photograph of the
author.

The special value of this volume consists, I think, in the fact that
no advice is given and no statement made which is not based on the
personal experience of the author, who is, in the truest sense, both
a mystic and an occultist.

If the present volume should meet with a reception justifying a further
venture, we propose translating and issuing during the coming year a
further series of articles by Dr. Steiner in continuation of the same
subject, and a third volume will consist of the articles now appearing
in the pages of The Theosophist, entitled "The Education of Children."

MAX GYSI.




PUBLISHER'S NOTE.


While the pleasant German vernacular is still discernable in the text
of this work, we wish to state that it has been Americanized in
spelling, phraseology, and definition, to make plainer to the Western
mind the wonderful truths experienced by its distinguished author.

The readers, especially Occult, Theosophic, Masonic, and New Thought
students, we believe, will appreciate the clearness with which his
teachings lead to the simple rich Harmony of Life.

MACOY PUB. & MASONIC SUP. CO.




THE PERSONALITY OF RUDOLF STEINER AND HIS DEVELOPMENT

BY EDOUARD SCHURE[1]


Many of even the most cultivated men of our time have a very mistaken
idea of what is a true mystic and a true occultist. They know these two
forms of human mentality only by their imperfect or degenerate types,
of which recent times have afforded but too many examples. To the
intellectual man of the day, the mystic is a kind of fool and visionary
who takes his fancies for facts; the occultist is a dreamer or a
charlatan who abuses public credulity in order to boast of an imaginary
science and of pretended powers. Be it remarked, to begin with, that
this definition of mysticism, though deserved by some, would be as
unjust as erroneous if one sought to apply it to such personalities as
Joachim del Fiore of the thirteenth century, Jacob Boehme of the
sixteenth, or St. Martin, who is called "the unknown philosopher," of
the eighteenth century. No less unjust and false would be the current
definition of the occultist if one saw in it the slightest connection
with such earnest seekers as Paracelsus, Mesmer, or Fabre d'Olivet in
the past, as William Crookes, de Rochat, or Camille Flammarion in the
present. Think what we may of these bold investigators, it is
undeniable that they have opened out regions unknown to science, and
furnished the mind with new ideas.

          [1] Translated by kind permission of the author from the
          introduction to _Le Mystere Chretien et les Mysteres
          Antiques_. Traduit de l'allemand par Edouard Schure,
          Librairie academique, Perrin & Co., 1908, Paris.

No, these fanciful definitions can at most satisfy that scientific
dilettantism which hides its feebleness under a supercilious mask to
screen its indolence, or the worldly scepticism which ridicules all
that threatens to upset its indifference. But enough of these
superficial opinions. Let us study history, the sacred and profane
books of all nations, and the last results of experimental science; let
us subject all these facts to impartial criticism, inferring similar
effects from identical causes, and we shall be forced to give quite
another definition of the mystic and the occultist.

The true mystic is a man who enters into full possession of his inner
life, and who, having become cognizant of his sub-consciousness, finds
in it, through concentrated meditation and steady discipline,