An increasing number of enthusiasts are attracted by the rich variety of rocks and minerals around us, and new ways of looking at them. In The Living Origin of Rocks and Minerals, Walther Cloos views the Earth as a living organism, with different kingdoms of nature – mineral, plant and animal – as stages left behind as the earth developed. He argues that everything currently inert and static was once dynamic and living. The author considers many different aspects of geology, including chapters on oil, sedimentary rocks, radioactivity, volcanoes and metals. Written over fifty years ago, The Living Origin of Rocks and Minerals is a classic, pioneering a scientific, geological understanding of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual insights into the evolution of the earth. The previous edition of The Living Origin of Rocks and Minerals was published as The Living Earth.
Walther Cloos (1900-1985) was a pioneer of anthroposophical pharmacy. He also studied mineralogy and geology and at the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Stuttgart, Germany, he developed a method of metal distillation for use in medicine. He later worked for Weleda and taught at the Goetheanum.