Human Encounters and Karma

Book excerpt: This marvelous book begins to unfold a path of community--an interhuman spiritual path--and shows how we can begin to regain the sacred in our everyday lives through an awareness of past and future karma--our full humanity--in our relationships with those around us. Beginning with the moment before the encounter, the author shows how, from that moment on, we can enter a process that parallels the Mass: annunciation, sacrifice, transubstantiation, and communion. Drawing on Rudolf Steiner's many insights, Floride shows us this social ritual as a profoundly spiritual path, one perhaps closer to us than any other. The second half of the book deals with this process of by encountering a poet through his work. Taking Victor Hugo as his example, Floride shows how profound such a meeting can be.