Containing a wealth of material on a variety of subjects, Light for the New Millennium tells the story of the meeting of two great men and their continuing relationship beyond the threshold of death: Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) - the seer, scientist of the spirit, and cultural innovator - and Helmuth von Moltke (1848-1916) - a renowned military man, Chief of the General Staff of the German army during the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914, following disagreements with the Kaiser, Moltke was dismissed from his post. This led to a great inner crisis in the General, that in turn drew him closer to Steiner. When Moltke died two years later, Steiner maintained contact with his excarnated soul, receiving communications that he passed on to Moltke's wife, Eliza. These remarkable and unique messages are reproduced here in full, together with relevant letters from the General to his wife.
The various additional commentaries, essays and documents give insights to themes of continuing significance for our time, including the workings of evil; karma and reincarnation; life after death; the new millennium and the end of the last century; the hidden causes of the First World War; the destiny of Europe, and the future of Rudolf Steiner's science of the spirit. Also included are Moltke's private reflections on the causes of the Great War ('the document that could have changed world history'), a key interview with Steiner for Le Matin, an introduction and notes by T. H. Meyer, and studies by Jurgen von Grone, Jens Heisterkamp and Johannes Tautz.
Author Biography:
Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland. Helmuth Johannes Ludwig Gra von Moltke (1848-1916), also known as Moltke the Younger, was a German general who served as the Chief of the German General Staff from 1906 to 1914. General von Moltke was also a follower of Theosophy. T. H. Meyer was born in Switzerland in 1950. He is the founder of Perseus Verlag, Basel, and is editor of the monthly journal Der Europ�er. He has written numerous articles and is the author of several books, including Reality, Truth, and Evil (2005) and major biographies of D.N. Dunlop and Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz. He also edited Light for the New Millennium (1997) describing Rudolf Steiner's association with Helmuth and Eliza von Moltke. Johannes Tautz (1914-2008), born in Dortmund, Germany, was a historian, religious scholar, anthroposophist, author, and Waldorf teacher. He concerned himself with a better understanding of National Socialism and with matters of education in the twentieth century. Tautz took up Eastern studies, religion, and the history of philosophy when "the National Socialist demon had not taken these over yet." He studied ancient spiritual texts in their originalHebrew, ancient Greek, and Sanskrit. At the start of World War II, Tautz was called for military duty but was dismissed on account his incompleted studies. His was occupied with the later philosophy of Schelling and submitted his dissertation, "Schelling's Philosophical Anthropology," in which he used two citations of Rudolf Steiner that led to the official prohibition of Anthroposophic work in Germany at the time. Together with a young friend, Thomas Meyer, he visited the daughter of Walter Johannes Stein, Clarissa Muller, in Ireland, where she was assessing her father's literary estate. They found a copy of Stein's dissertation annotated by Rudolf Steiner, letters and meditations from Steiner for Stein, his mother and for his brother, who fell in a mysterious way in World War I. Letters and notes of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Eliza von Moltke, Ita Wegman, D.N Dunlop and many other personalities were discovered and formed the basis of Tautz's biography of Stein in 1989.
