These lectures, given just after the first performance of The Souls' Awakening, give details of the experience of spiritual development and the crossing of the threshold of the spiritual world. Steiner says that humanity now stands at this threshold and the keys to crossing are self-knowledge, self-control and a clear recognition of the working of Lucifer and Ahriman. These lectures contain some of Steiner's most significant insights into the path to higher knowledge.

The eight lectures presented here were given between August 24 and August 31 of 1913 in Munich. In the Collected Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works in German, the volume containing the German texts is entitled Die Geheimnisse der Schwelle (Vol. 147 in the Bibliographic Survey). They were translated from the German by Ruth Pusch.

This lecture series is presented here with the kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland. From Bn 147, GA 147.