Sonnenkreuz und Lebensbaum

By Markus Osterrieder

Book Description

In a world increasingly divided by cultural and religious boundaries, this profound exploration reveals how ancient spiritual currents once converged to create the foundation for a unified European consciousness. Markus Osterrieder traces the remarkable encounter that occurred in ninth-century Europe when two distinct Christian streams met in the Vienna Basin: the Celtic-Irish tradition brought by missionaries to Germanic peoples, and the Greek-Persian influenced Christianity carried by the brothers Cyril and Methodius to the Slavic nations.

Rather than viewing these traditions as competing forces, Osterrieder demonstrates how they were meant to complement and enrich each other, creating the spiritual groundwork for a higher form of humanity. This convergence of Eastern and Western spiritual impulses gave birth to something entirely new: a middle path that could reconcile and elevate both worldviews while nurturing the development of individual human consciousness.

Drawing from extensive historical sources, the author presents a sweeping panorama of consciousness evolution that spans from Ireland to Russia, from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus. This rich tapestry illustrates how religions and cultures serve as different expressions of humanity's unified spiritual development. Yet Osterrieder also reveals the darker forces that have consistently opposed this spiritual integration, tracing how the suppression of these unifying impulses has contributed to centuries of conflict between Germanic and Slavic peoples, ultimately culminating in the catastrophic events of the twentieth century.

This work offers essential insights for understanding how ancient spiritual polarities continue to shape contemporary geopolitical tensions and cultural divisions.