What is Necessary in These Urgent Times: Eighteen Lectures Held in Dornach, January 9 to February 22, 1920

In the vast range of Steiner's lectures, jewels of all kinds lie hidden in plain sight, awaiting only our discovery of them. Such lectures contain a kind of wisdom not found elsewhere. Sometimes, as in What Is Necessary in These Urgent Times, they also have a transformational translucency and conviction.

In early 1920, political, economic, social, and spiritual chaos was everywhere in Europe. The old world had fallen apart and needed to be rebuilt. Anthroposophy, too, had to be remade. Recognizing the situation, Steiner tirelessly worked for his concept of a threefold social order, led the way to establishing the first Waldorf school, created businesses, and addressed the talented, educated, idealistic young people who were turning to Anthroposophy as never before.

In these lectures, Steiner speaks in the new and direct Michaelic way, seeking a bridge to a new means of practicing Anthroposophy. The situation was critical, but he never lost his sense of humor, compassion, or equilibrium. His tone here is warm, relaxed, and intimate. Rather than following a strict, predetermined path, he speaks directly from the heart and about his concerns.

Steiner emphasizes that the task of spiritual science is to awaken people to reality and a true understanding of life that sees through illusions and understands the ever-present potential for evil. Speaking both esoterically and exoterically, he returns repeatedly to the importance of community, meeting one another as individuals, face-to-face and heart-to-heart. In place of power and control, we are called to cultivate trust and receptivity. This requires a spiritual transformation and learning to live life in the context of our greater spiritual life--extending from long before conception, through earthly life and into life after death, and beyond our next birth. Meanwhile, we must come to know the Christ, whom we can meet only within community. Selfishness and egotism have no roles in this new path:

"When someone is alone Christ is not there. You cannot find Christ without first feeling a connection to humanity as a whole. You must seek Christ on the path that connects you with all humankind.... To be connected only with your own inner experiences leads you away from Christ."

Steiner deals with many other important themes, as well, with lectures on "imperialism" and the initiate behind Shakespeare, Bacon, and James I, as well as fascinating, initiatory remarks on reincarnation, esoteric physiology, and psychology.

Running throughout the talks is an earnest admonition to be true to the spirit and a call to presence and the avoidance of self-pity. Now, as then, the world needs us to awake spiritually, for which we in turn need the world. There is nowhere to hide.