Books by Rudolf Steiner - The Four Most Important Ones

There are many, many books by Rudolf Steiner. The man wrote 40 books himself, published hundreds of articles in magazines and gave 6000 lectures - each unique - of which most were published too. Steiner wrote and lectured in German only, but many of his books have been translated in a dozen languages. All in all the collected works of Rudolf Steiner in German encompass some 400 books, allegedly making it the largest collected works in the history of non-fiction book publishing.

Where to start? This depends largely on your personal interests and goals. But below I list what I consider to be the four most important books by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner is not easy to read. It is not necessarily difficult in an intellectual sense, but more because Steiner wrote in such a manner that reading his work require real effort – you really have to strain yourself often to follow what he is writing. However, this effort already brings you in direct contact with the spiritual realm as you read. That is what makes reading books by Rudolf Steiner a spiritual experience.

So, without further ado, here are what are generally considered to be the most important books by Rudolf Steiner (the year in brackets is the year of the original German publication):

The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (1894)

Rudolf Steiner only began to speak openly about his spiritual and esoteric (clairvoyant) views after 1900, roughly at age 40. Before that, he wrote a number of philosophical books and articles which do not mention anthroposophical insights but which nevertheless form the philosophical basis for everything he published and lectured later. The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (the original title in German would translate literally as “The Philosophy of Freedom”) is the most important of these, and in fact, Steiner later repeatedly referred to this book as the one that - from all of his many works - would be the most important in the long run.

In this book, Steiner works out his view how a truly free person is someone who is grounded in himself, determined only by himself, without (necessarily) following examples by others, cultural conventions or religious dogma as an end-goal. The starting point for him is human thought, because only in thought is he really free – feelings and will arise in him just like external observations come to him all by themselves. First he needs to understand himself and the world before he can determine what really drives him, what his place in the world is and what his unique contribution could be.

That is why the whole first part of the book is devoted entirely to epistemology, meaning ‘theory of knowledge’, the branch of philosophy which asks the question what we can know, if there are limits to our knowledge, etcetera. Steiner shows that the realm of the spirit is not closed but can be penetrated by human thought. Even more, we actually CREATE truth and reality for ourselves through this process, because observation alone only delivers half of our reality and must be penetrated and worked through by thought to create a full truth and separate this from illusion. In the second half of the book, Steiner shows how we can gradually get a firm grip on ourselves and walk in the path on which we re-create ourselves as free human beings.

It is considered to be one of Steiner’s most difficult works but it is extremely worthwhile to work through even if you don’t understand everything at first. Because the effort it requires from you as the reader will awaken forces inside of you that help you find yourself and open you up to the spiritual realm.

Theosophy (1904)

Theosophy is the first book in which Steiner systematically describes the anthroposophical view of man and the (spiritual) world.

In the first part, the book concentrates on the spiritual view of man as consisting of body, soul and spirit. Through the body we are part of the physical world. The soul is our subjective part, which tells us about ourselves and our feelings, desires, sympathies and antipathies. In the spirit, we can find the objective laws of the world which are by themselves spiritual in nature. I see a rose at first through my physical senses and I discover the objective laws by which it grows through the spirit. In the soul, I experience the joy (or other feelings) that the rose gives me. The soul is the mediator between body and spirit.

The second part is devoted to processes reincarnation and karma through which we all go through. Steiner works out his view how everything we do, think or say, comes back to us in this life or a next.

The third part contains the anthroposophical view on the three worlds: the mineral (physical) world, the soul world and the spirit world. Steiner shows how we live in them and how we move through them through the cycles of life, death and rebirth. A final subpart is about the human aura, which emanates from the soul and is visible for a clairvoyant researcher.

The fourth part is a first description of the path of spiritual knowledge that any person can enter himself, which is worked out in the following book:

How to Know Higher Worlds (1904)

This is the first book by Rudolf Steiner in which he systematically describes how each and every person has higher faculties that slumber in himself through which he can perceive the spiritual world. Mother nature has given us the physical senses, but the spiritual senses have to be consciously developed by man himself in order for them to function properly. Through this, he can learn to perceive a world of the soul and the spirit that is just as real to him as the physical chairs and tables in his room.

Steiner gives concrete exercises that anyone can do to bring his spiritual senses to life. He begins with the stages of preparation, such as inner peace and the control of your own thoughts and feelings. He describes the stages of inner development that, among others, lead to the beginnings of clairvoyance. Other topics that the book covers are:

The spiritual ‘tests’ that the initiate has to pass: the trials by fire, water and air
The transformation of dream life
The continuity of consciousness which can be achieved by the initiate
The splitting of the human personality during spiritual training
The Smaller Guardian of the Threshold (of the spiritual world)
Life and Death: The Greater Guardian of the Threshold

The book has also been published under other titles in English, namely Knowledge of Higher Worlds and its Attainment and The Way of Initiation,

Occult Science: an Outline (1910)

Sometimes also published in English as “An Outline of Occult Science”, this book is the biggest (around 500 pages) and single most comprehensive overview of Steiner’s occult philosophy. Partly it elaborates on and expands themes already covered in the earlier works Theosophy and How to Know Higher Worlds from 1904. All key anthroposophical concepts, such as the etheric body, astral body, and self, reincarnation and karma, enlightenment, and initiation, are explained step by step. In detailed chapters, Steiner describes the reality of sleep and death, the path of initiation, and the present and future of human development.

The largest part of book, however, is uniquely devoted to a systematic description of the historical development of our world and cosmos. Our Earth is depicted as an ‘incarnation’ of three previous planetary phases, starting with the Saturn phase (in which the beginnings of the physical world and human body were formed), the Old Sun phase in which the etherical world and human body began to emerge, the Old Moon phase in which the astral world and human astral body was developed. In our current Earth phase, we humans have to develop our “I” which makes us free, conscious creators. The physical, etheric and astral realities can today be seen in the world of minerals (physical), plants (which additionally have an etheric body), animals (who additionally to the previous two also have an astral body) and humans (who are the only ones who additionally have – or are – an “I”). After this, Steiner briefly describes three coming planetary ‘incarnations’ (Venus, Jupiter and Vulcanus) in which our earth and we humans are transformed into ever higher evolved beings. As they are gradually being developed right now on higher planes into which a highly developed clairvoyant can perceive, it was possible for Steiner to describe their contours already now- with the caveat that how they will exactly look, is determined by the free actions of free human beings in the future.

For me personally, it is hard to follow all these extensive and lengthy descriptions of occult development history without becoming dizzy and I find it amazing, sometimes hard to believe that anyone could perceive and describe this. But it does make sense to me, and I cannot believe that a man as serious, fruitful and highly ethical as Rudolf Steiner would just make this shit up! (Truth be told, Steiner himself said he did not claim to be able to describe these higher worlds truly properly as he confessed to having great difficulties to research them and formulate his results into words.)

Summing it up

As my late grandfather and many others have remarked after reading any book by Rudolf Steiner: “This man is either mad or he is a genius”. That is how I feel still feel after my 30 years of studying anthroposophy. Steiner is either mad or a genius, but each and every time I ponder this question I still reach the conclusion that he isn’t mad, so he must be…. a genius. Sorry!

Where to buy books by Rudolf Steiner?

Here are the main anthroposophical publishing houses that sell books by Rudolf Steiner. You can browse their online catalogues and you'll support their work if you order directly from their websites!

Also, on this Rudolf Steiner Archive page you can find many English language book entirely online, for free!