Biographæa is a series of finely crafted books, designed with loving care to open up manifold ways for working systematically, creatively and purposefully with biographical development.

The first three volumes, presented briefly in the adjacent golden box, introduce, mediate and advance work with biographical development, so as to promote deeper understanding and facilitate personal transformation.

The wide range of tools, instruments and applications will enable your own work in a direct and practical way; whilst also promoting professional research and practise.

In each volume the main narrative is presented in a sequential, modular format comprising twenty chapters; each being designed as a ‘Tableau’ ¹³, i.e. a composition with a golden box, words and pictures.

The pictures project Imaginations which complement those presented in the narrative. The synergy of texts and images mediates Inspirations through word, colour and form; promoting a search for questions which touch the core Intuitions of biographical development.

The purpose of this volume is to introduce Biographæa and mediate comprehensive references and links for the three books in a practical format.

Edition Biographæa is inspired by a longstanding commitment to promoting professional interaction between experienced colleagues, who seek ways and means to support each other, in the service of their clients and communities.

Biographæa is especially dedicated to serving you in the development of your ‘I’ as a human being; which is happening all the time, from the moment you are born to the moment you die.

Biographical development is the unique way by which each human being evolves into an individual, who is ...

... serving the Higher Self ¹⁴

Biographæa embraces an artistic tradition which uses the ‘book’ as a creative metaphor. “Artists’ Books” are works of art realised in the form of a book.15 You are invited to get to know the interconnected layout, designed to serve your playful exploration, creative research and maturing awareness.

Each book is a finely tuned composition of:

• interweaving words, images and graphics,
• commentaries and information,
• archetypes, ideas and categories,
• quotations and declarations,
• questions, exercises and guidelines.

Structure, Colour and Sequence are used to augment the meaning and inter-relationship of word categories in the context of the narrative.¹⁶

All of this is complemented by the links and references and golden boxes which mediate i.a. synopses and further stimulating contributions. Further indispensable content is situated in the appendices.

The links facilitate orientation within and between volumes in the series; they also refer to digital media resources which can help align knowledge and understanding to the cultural and intellectual commons worldwide.

The references, identified by number and page, are used extensively to:

• annotate contextual use of terminology, concepts and principles;
• broaden understanding in relation to frequent use of metaphors;
• facilitate practical comprehension and fulfilment of exercises;
• recommend literature and links to online media resources.

The golden boxes are generously filled with ‘treasures’; laid out so you can freely choose what seems really useful during the ongoing adventure of working with your own biography or when you are accompanying others professionally. Nurturing a culture of individual, creative, playfulness is essential to getting the most out of working with the content of Biographæa.

The ‘tools’, ‘instruments’ and ‘applications’ presented in these books promote:

• meaningful articulation of structural archetypes for human development;
• practical guidelines for implementating transformative exercises;
• a commitment to personal and professional responsibility.

The content of these books will serve most advantageously when you are first able to work through each volume systematically and sequentially
 

Since time out of mind human beings created new and original ways to document and work creatively with transformation of their lives on Earth. Biographæa contributes to the emerging spiritual scientific research into the evolutionary potential of the biographical development of Humanity.

Biographæa 1 invites you to research and document biography, especially by using graphic layouts 17. Becoming entirely familiar with your own biographical experiences is an essential foundation for working with freedom.

Biographæa 2 encourages you to explore biography through numerous creative artistic exercises, so that you become more aware when working with processes of change, metamorphosis and transformation.

Biographæa 3 challenges you to engage with your biography when you make, take and fulfil decisions, which can emancipate you from past consequences and initiate resonance through creating your future destiny.

Narrative in Biographæa is purposely condensed into an essence so as to stimulate development of consciousness in the soul. Please read between paragraphs as well as between lines.

Apprehend meaning as it unfolds inside your mind like a ‘pop-up book’ ¹⁸. Embrace wonder as it blossoms in your soul like Chinese ‘flowering tea’ ¹⁹. Above all else “hold the vision and trust the process” (anon.).

Biographæa is a guided experiential journey into the ensouled spirit being of human biographical development; during which intellectual rigor is catered for mindfully. Undertaking this adventure involves willingness on your part, to plunge occasionally into your own unconscious, as also to

open up your mind into an heightened awareness of Self ¹⁴.

When you read these books, you may find it helpful sometimes to do so as though you are in a wakeful conversation with your Higher Self ¹⁴ or any facet of your being whose development deserves your attention.

In connection with this, the last paragraph of each chapter is phrased in the personal ‘I’ form. When you read such lines, you are invited to do so as if engaging with a meditation, or with a contemplation, or with a prayer.

By getting to know my Self through observing my biographical development, and by learning how to bear responsibility for exercising my own free will, in alignment with the evolving destinies of those I love, in deed I am ...

... serving Humanity

Biographæa is designed to serve those who are working with biographical development for the first time, as well as those who have experience, particularly colleagues who are engaged with the application of instruments of biographical development in their professional work.

Whilst writing chapters, in such a way as to keep their texts essential, the references have become an important part of the whole Edition. What follows is intended to help you understand their structure and the way in which you can access all you need for validating, evaluating and expanding individual research in an era of emerging ‘open-source intelligence’ ²⁰.

Through links and references you can open up content of Biographæa further. In chapters you can follow links directly to pages (e.g.: link 16.3) or chapters (e.g.: link 17.1-3) in the same volume.

The first column of references contains one or more chapter and page numbers where a reference appears. The second column contains the reference number which appears as a superscript on the selfsame page/s. The third column contains the contents of a reference, i.e. clarification of terminology and contextual meaning, supplementary commentary and guidelines for exercises, complimentary references (e.g.: see ref. 23), sources of literature, as also links to online resources or chapters and pages in other volumes, e.g.: link Biographæa 1 Life Lines 13.1-2, 17.2

Most publications and authors referred to can be sourced new or second-hand and sometimes as documents to download online.

In references to works by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) the original German publication title is quoted in English, e.g.: The Study of Man, with its original archive code (e.g., GA293:), chapter (e.g., ch.2) or date of lectures (e.g., 21/25.08.19). Page numbers hardly ever quoted; these vary between editions and language versions. Also it is advantageous to experience how the theme being referred to is embedded in the overall context of what are primarily transcripts of lectures held during the first two decades of the 20th c.

All of the above will assist a search for your preferred language versions; whose extracts, compilations and quality of translation may, though, differ appreciably from the original German archive publications. Many works by Rudolf Steiner and erudite commentaries about these can be located and downloaded online from English and German language databases dedicated to enabling such access; some primary examples are:

DE / EN : https://rudolf-steiner.com 
EN : https://rsarchive.org 
DE : https://anthrowiki.at 
 

Access to, and application of, internet facilities and their resources are now fundamental to all fields of academic, educational, training and personal development.

Modern spiritual scientific research requires that you assure yourself that what you read and work with is permeated by principles and values which are aligned with your own epistemological, ethical and moral development.Think of this as practising 'due diligence'.

You can manually type quoted internet links (e.g.: biographaea.com) directly into any browser address field. When you register with the website www.biographaea.com you will be notified about possible future access to references with active internet links.

After extensive experimentation and deliberation during many years of online research, this author opted, whenever possible, to quote links to the database platform WikipediA (est. 2001), which is a free content, multilingual online encyclopaedia written and maintained by a community of volunteer contributors through a model of open collaboration. There is a higher probability that links to WikipediA will remain stable, even as its entries are continuously being edited:

link en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Please be aware that in general the contents of internet links are neither perfect nor comprehensive; they can mislead, get neglected and easily become outdated. You will also notice that the quality and quantity of content in multiple language versions of any one database platform are

not necessarily equivalent. Only a disciplined, unprejudiced, proactive approach to locating, selecting and comparing different online sources will serve your independence, balance and freedom.

The resources of Biographæa will serve you best, when you recreate their meaning in the context of the flow of your own practical research and relationship to knowledge which you apprehend and apply in the process.

Whether it is text and pictures in Biographæa itself, or supplementary text and commentary in the references, or text and images in lectures, books and digital media, you are solely responsible for how you work with the content of Biographæa and the external sources to which

you are referred. Interacting with digital media is a foremost challenge of the times and, in the face of substantial adversity, also a potential field of practical exercise in the development of ‘consciousness (in the) soul’ ⁵.
 

The purpose of researching biographical development is to gain knowing of both past and future in the context of serving in the present moment.

In the course of studying these books it will become evident that the research origins of Biographæa are broad spectrum; i.e. ranging across cultural and esoteric wisdom of ages, embracing multiple fields of interpersonal and intrapersonal consciousness, exploring comparative holistic and integral perspectives of work of biographical development.

Provision of a comprehensive list of secondary literature based on spiritual science would need to be complemented equally by secondary literature across a vast spectrum of philosophical, psychological, therapeutic and and sociological streams of research and practise. Such a task is entirely beyond the scope of Biographæa.

Great care is exercised in collating the primary sources of reference for the origins of the complex weaving of spiritual scientific methodologies, the social-artistic instruments and the salutogenic promotion of creative applications presented in Biographæa. The intention being to enable you to build a foundation of trust in your own creative potential, so that you can truly become the owner of what is being offered in good ‘faith’.²¹ These days acquiring knowledge and practical experience is often a ‘portfolio’ undertaking.²²

Biographæa claims no exclusivity of alignment with any particular school or stream of work with biographical development. Obviously both author and artist would dearly love to list all colleagues, met and unmet, who contributed to their personal and professional biographical development. Including those with whom they sometimes wrestled or even parted ways.

Being practitioners of many years’ experience in work with biographical development, professional training and international participation in the organisational coordination of collegial intervision and networking, both author and artist acknowledge with gratitude that their contributions are nourished by colleagues known and unknown. Biographæa is nourished by ‘trust’ which looks at what is becoming and is grounded in the future.²¹

In a present strewn with the dismembered ‘kith’ ²³ of past communality and the resulting inequality of material possession, may all work with biographical development become a seedbed of loving gratitude for cultivating communality of a free economy of spiritual sharing ...

... so may ‘Trust’ uphold ‘Commons’ for the Future ²⁴