The Inner Rainbow

This is an unusual book by way of an illustrated history of human consciousness from ancient India to the present day. It is based broadly on the evolutionary understanding of Rudolf Steiner where the argues that humans lost contact with their divine nature in the course of evolution but are now recovering it at another level. The illustrations include photographs, texts and paintings and as are some interesting stages along the way with quite long sections on Egypt and Greece. Moving into the Middle Ages we have Chartres then the invention of perspective. The 16th century is represented by Copernicus and Holbein and the 17th by Rembrandt, Isaac Newton and still life painting. The 18th-century features Blake and Robinson Crusoe while modern times herald the advent of the World Wide Web and Google. It is a bit of a whirlwind tour and greatly enriched by the selection of paintings as a representation of the development of consciousness.