| The Advent
of Ahriman An Essay on the Deep Forces behind the World-Crisis "Head of Ahriman"
|
| The Advent
of Ahriman An Essay on the Deep Forces behind the World-Crisis "Head of Ahriman"
|
I wish to bring before the public, through the World Wide Web, some information about tremendous events approaching. I am aware that much talk in this vein is already on the Web, and that there is generally a sense "in the air" that something big is about to happen in the next few years: the turning of the Millennium. I believe that this sense of "something in the air" is a correct perception, albeit sometimes highly distorted. Most of the information in this essay is not new; it has been open to the public at least since the aftermath of the First World War. Yet it has not reached the wide public that needs to hear it. I hope that the advent of the World Wide Web and the search engines will make this important information available to many around the world who have not yet encountered it and who might put it to good use. I claim no special knowledge concerning these matters; I have merely drawn on published sources. I expect no one to take my word for anything. I do ask the readers to read and think through this information, to follow the leads that I give, and do their own investigations. Conscientious investigations might well cause some intellectual upheavals, and change the course of some lives; and this is exactly what is needed, many times over, around the world. Rudolf Steiner
I realize that many are not inclined to take seriously the possibility of such an event, or to believe that such matters are known, or can be known. Nevertheless, again I ask the reader to read this essay with an open mind, at least open enough to take in the thoughts and concepts. I will give a few epistemological considerations which support the notion that such matters can be known. And I will give some references which will help the readers to conduct their own epistemological researches, and thus to be able to make an informed estimation of this report. This is a matter of some importance; it is essential for the future of humanity and the earth that as many people as possible become wakeful and not be caught asleep by the impending events. A full explanation of the
nature of Ahriman and his incarnation is far beyond the scope of this
essay
(as well as beyond the understanding of this author). If I only give
enough
of an explanation so that the readers become conscious enough to see
the
necessity, and to have the means, of becoming more conscious
about
these matters, then I will have fulfilled my purpose. |
Since this essay speaks of "spiritual" matters, I would like to bring into focus the concept of "spirit", along with the concepts of "soul" and "body". (I follow Steiner's exposition in his Theosophy.) The "body", of course, is the physical form, perceptible by the outer senses, in the world that is usually perceived in common by people's outer senses. By "soul" I mean the inner world of subjective feelings and sensations of a human being (or animal). The sensation of an outer sense-perception (such as the green of grass), as well as feelings (such as pleasure or pain), are in the soul. Also, the inner being acts through the soul by the will, though the will is not usually conscious. We might say that the physical world acts on the soul through sensation; the soul lives in its own feelings, and acts upon the world through the will. We (generally) experience sensations in wakefulness, feelings as if in a dream, and will as if in deep, unconscious sleep. In addition to living in
the inner world of the soul, the human being can live in the world of
thought.
Through thinking, we make contact with the being of the things of the
world.
By "spirit" I mean the essence of thought. Contrary to common
misconception,
thought is not subjective, but objective, in that it belongs to the
whole
world, accessible to all. Many people can grasp the same thought and
through
that thought contact the same objective reality, though they do not
(usually)
experience each other's sensations and feelings. As the physical world
interacts with the soul, so also does the spirit; we can call forth
thoughts
by our acts of will, and the thoughts give us feelings. Much of the
confusion
about the supposed subjectivity of thinking arises from the
subjectivity
of feelings and sensations connected with thinking, as well as from the
fact that much of what usually passes for thinking is hardly thinking
at
all, but a kind of semi-conscious, automatic pseudo-thinking. (In
modern
times, people experience thinking as if it comes, usually
automatically,
out of themselves, yet, paradoxically, thinking in essence is objective
and universal [as we can best see in mathematics]. I will say more
about
this below.) Thus, through our experience of thinking, we can attach an
experiential, "empirical" meaning to the concept of "spirit". (All this
should, of course, be taken as only a bare introduction to a vast, deep
subject. For now, I am trying only to counter the widespread opinion
that
"soul" and "spirit" are nebulous, meaningless terms.) And while it is
usually
true that we hardly experience our thinking, thinking may be
intensified
so that it becomes conscious, and this development of consciousness may
lead to the perception of the world and beings of soul and spirit --
and
thus become the basis of "spiritual science ". |
In the present, fifth cultural epoch the Ahrimanic influence in human culture is reaching a climax. The modern scientific revolution, since the fifteenth century, has been inspired largely by Ahriman. He is the inspirer of amoral, atheistic, mechanistic materialism, and the kind of cleverness that goes with it. The regular Gods' intent for the present epoch (also called the "Consciousness Soul Epoch") is that humanity should develop increased consciousness, together with the individuality and spiritual freedom that go with that consciousness. Ahriman opposes this; he wants the human being to live from unconscious instincts as an unindividualized, impulsive animal -- clever, but an animal nonetheless. (Ahriman is the teacher of the lie that the human being is an animal: Darwinism and similar theories.) To the modern mind it might seem a contradiction to say Ahriman opposes increased consciousness but promotes intelligence and science. This is because the modern mind is so immured in what is generally considered to be "scientific thinking" that it has almost no conception of the true nature of conscious thinking. (Steiner, especially in his book Die Philosophie der Freiheit [1894], has been our teacher of real thinking, but the general intellectual culture has not learned the lesson.) The fact is that the "scientific" thinking normal in this epoch, no matter how clever, is hardly conscious at all (possibly with some relatively rare exceptions at moments of "insight" or mathematical discovery). In the kind of consciousness usual in our "scientific" culture, we become conscious only of the fixed results of the thinking, after it has been accomplished; we are not (usually) conscious of the thinking-process itself. And since it is unconscious, it is not our free action; it is automatic. When we think in the manner usual in our epoch, we are sentient automata, acting from instinct. (Formerly occult fact: this instinctive thinking in the wide culture had been inspired by Jehovah up to about 1840 AD. Since then it has been inspired by Ahriman, resulting in the Nineteenth-Century torrent of materialism, which, aided by the withdrawal of the German folk-spirit, drowned the life-positive Romanticism in culture.) And this is what Ahriman wants: he wants to stamp out all traces and all possibility of free, individualized human consciousness; he wants the human not to be an individual being, but only a member of a general species of pseudo-humanity -- to be a clever, earth-bound animal, an "homunculus". As indicated, Ahriman is
the inspirer of the most extreme kind of "scientific" materialism: the
doctrine that there is no spirit or soul in the world; that life itself
is not in fact alive, but is only a complex of mechanical processes;
that
reality is at base only quantitative, that there is no reality in the
qualitative
-- color, sound, etc. ; even that the human's inner being is a
confluence
of material forces. On the emotional level, he works in the human
subconscious
instincts, inspiring fear, hatred, lust for power, and destructive sex
impulses. On the mental level, he inspires rigid, automatic thinking:
(in
Steiner's phrase) thinking almost entirely without thoughts, but
tremendously
strongly in the language, in the literal words, which easily become
empty
words, which in turn easily become lies. -- This "abstract" thinking is
devoid of any conscious, inner activity and devoid of any real
connection
to living experience, and creates a darkened consciousness without
light,
color, or images. |
According to Steiner, it is characteristic of the present culture of Ahrimanic scientism and Anglo-American economic imperialism that language has lost its instinctive spiritual meaning; that is, the connection is lost between the literal word and the spiritual impulse that constitutes meaning. Without real, spiritual content, language consists only of "empty phrases", such as "rule by the will of the people", "the free world", "individual freedom", and so on. These phrases are largely devoid of reality in our socio-political structure; here the pervasive actuality is the power of money over human beings and over life. And where the empty phrase rules in language, mere conventions -- rather than living human contact -- rule in social life, and mere routine -- rather than lively human interest -- rules in economic life. And: "It is only a short step from the empty phrase to the lie." Again, this is especially true in politics and economics, for the prevalence of empty words makes possible the falsification of realities -- a potent weapon in the hands of those with occult, conscious intentions to manipulate people for devious ends. In our time, people en masse act as if they are possessed by evil forces, because, in a way, they are. The demons of materialism speak through empty words. A language in which the demons of materialism have taken the place of human spiritual impulses can lead only to destruction. Certainly Steiner was not the only one to notice this aspect of modern language. George Orwell was perhaps the most prominent writer to decry this trend. See, for instance, his classic essay "Politics and the English Language". He envisioned the dehumanization of language becoming deliberately intensified in the "newspeak" of the Ahrimanic nightmare 1984. Having no apparent knowledge of spiritual science, and working with only keen observation and a love of truth, he saw what was happening in the political discourse of Western Europe and carried to extremes in the totalitarian regimes. On the socio-political level,
the antidote for this poison of empty words is the liberation of
cultural
life, especially education, from political and financial power. (As
outlined
in Steiner's concept of the "threefold commonwealth": the separation of
the political-rights state, the spiritual-cultural sphere, and the
economic
sector -- along with the elimination of egotism and coercion from the
economy.)
On the individual-personal level, the antidote is the infusion of
active,
creative thought into language, thus creating a language in which the
words
point to the thoughts, evoking living thinking in the listeners. If we
do not put our wills into creating our original thoughts, then
ready-made
pseudo-thoughts, trite words and phrases, come automatically to mind
and
carry us along with them, resulting in "thinking almost entirely
without
thoughts". We can at least make the effort to resist these ready-made
phrases
and generalizations that effortlessly come to mind, and to form mental
pictures of particular people, things, and events -- and further, to
make
original word-formations describing these things and pictures from
varying
points of view. The essential point is that we not let our speaking and
writing be determined by unconscious influences, but that we call forth
through
our own efforts new, original thought-creations and convey them
with
original, fluid, artistic word-formations. We will not always fully
succeed;
we are not all poets all the time; but if we consciously make this
effort,
then we will go far toward recovering the lost human-spirituality of
language,
and consequently, toward the humanization of culture. (I will say more
on this subject in another context.) -- And, not incidentally, we will
thus progress toward living consciously in the
thinking-free-of-literal-words
that is the "language" of the spirit-soul world in which we will live
after
death. -- "Men must learn to see through words; they will have to
acquire
the capacity to grasp the gesture in langusge." [From Symptom to
Reality
in Modern History, p. 124] |
In the social-cultural sphere, Ahriman's influence is apparent everywhere, especially strong and growing stronger throughout the Twentieth Century. Chief among the Ahrimanic trends are:
Back to Table of Contents |
To sum up this description of the triad of spiritual streams: The conflicts of human and spiritual life do not derive from a simple, two-sided war between good and evil. It was one of the great insights of Steiner to renew the ancient teaching of the "Golden Mean", of good as the middle way between opposing extremes. -- Lucifer is too warm, too flighty, too unstable; he inspires human fanaticism, false mysticism, hot-bloodedness, and the tendency to flee earthly reality for hallucinatory pleasures. Ahriman is too cold, too hard, too rigid; he tries to make people dry, prosaic, philistine, materialistic in thought and in deed -- and hardens what would be healthily mobile, supple thoughts, feelings, and even bodies. Christ, as the Exemplar of the regular Gods, represents the middle way between the too-much and the too-little, holding the opposites in balance -- and leading humanity to find the healthy middle way. Seen this way, Lucifer and Ahriman are not purely evil; they both bring to human and earthly evolution forces that are needed for good, healthy development and the fulfillment of the Gods' plans. Evil results only when events get out of balance and run to extremes. -- However, neither do Lucifer and Ahriman simply oppose each other; in a sense, they work together in opposition to the Gods' intent for evolution; they both work to prevent humanity and the earth from progressing together to the New Jupiter. Lucifer draws human spirits away from earthly embodiment toward his own psychic-spiritual "planet" of light; Ahriman pushes the individual human spirit out of the human organism and away from the earth, so that only a hardened, mechanized, ghostly human organism, devoid of free individuality and living an instinctive-but-clever animalistic species-life remains on the hardened "cosmic slag" of the earth (surrounded with Old Moon forces). Humanity's rightful task for the present is to lead lives of healthy, progressive alternation between the earthly and the cosmic (life, death, and rebirth), so as to lead the earth over to New Jupiter. -- The profound mystery of evil is that in a higher sense, in the long run, it serves the good. Not to imply that we would be justified in doing evil with the rationalization that good would result. "...it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" [Matthew 18;vii] Note: This is a deep subject, and I am not altogether sure of my grasp of it. My impression is that Steiner was developing and expanding his insights during his career, so that reading just one of his treatments of the subject will not give the whole picture. The picture I have drawn so far is this:  The true picture of the workings of evil might be even more complex than outlined above. Steiner did make some statements which might be interpreted as indicating a third stream of spirits of opposition: the "Asuras" (a borrowed Eastern term), which are retarded Archai who work to destroy the human "I", the Ego itself. The Asuras might be agents of the actual Antichrist, the Sun-Demon, known to occultism as "Sorat" (or "Sorath"). In some passages Steiner does identify the Apocalyptic Beast 666 as Sorat, not clearly differentiating the Ahrimanic and Soratic principals. While it seems true that the numerological interpretation of the Hebrew spelling of "Sorat" gives the number 666, still the position of Sorat in relation to Lucifer and Ahriman is not altogether clear (to this writer). A possible solution to this question might follow from the imagery of the Apocalypse: Michael casts the Dragon out of heaven; immediately afterwards arise the two "beasts" -- the first from the sea (Lucifer) and the second from the land (Ahriman). Thus Lucifer and Ahriman appear on earth as two beings or principles, but they are the progeny of the one spirit of opposition -- the Dragon -- in Heaven. If we identify the Dragon, the Antichrist, as Sorat, we can picture Lucifer and Ahriman as the left and right hands of Sorat. Christ strives to hold Lucifer and Ahriman in balance so that they serve the good, while Sorat strives to keep them out of balance, so that they work for destruction. While Lucifer seeks to draw the human "I", the Ego to his own planet, and Ahriman seeks to harden the earth and the human organism so that no Ego can live in a human on earth, Sorat -- through the Asuras -- seeks to destroy the Ego itself, along with the earth. Sorat uses Lucifer and Ahriman as spirits of seduction to mask his own true intention of pure destruction. And Sorat manifests in social evoution as pure destruction, especially in the wars and mass murders of our century. (Some suggest that he manifests in the human organism as the destroyer of the immune system -- the so-called "AIDS".) Thus, the true picture might look something like this: 
|
Steiner says that the Ahrimanic incarnation will happen the West in the Third Millennium. In his nomenclature "West" means primarily Britain and English-speaking America. There is ample reason to suspect that the destined place for this event is America, for the effect of the American natural environment on the human body and soul especially favors Ahrimanic tendencies. According to Steiner's insights, each of the various regions of the earth has its unique effect upon the human organism. In America the Ahrimanic influence is strong, rising from the center of the earth, carried by electromagnetism. This strengthens the entity known to occultism as the human "double" or "Doppelgänger". The Doppelgänger is an Ahrimanic soul-being with intelligence and will, but with no individual, spiritual ego, and tends to bind the human soul to the body, hardening human thinking, feeling, and willing. All human beings have a Doppelgänger living in their nerve- electricity, infusing into their souls all sorts of degrading, depressing impulses, as well as instigating internal illnesses. (Electricity is the "sub-natural", rigidifying shadow of soul forces.) -- The Ahrimanic tendencies in America are well-known even to those whose perception is unenlivened by occult knowledge; American culture has long been famous for its violence and "hard-boiled" materialism, and, more recently, for its degeneracy and decadence. As to exactly when Ahriman's
incarnation will happen, Steiner (as far as I am aware) does not give a
precise time. In at least one passage he seems to indicate the end of
the
Third Millennium; in other places he indicates the early part of that
millennium.
In many places he points to a great crisis at the end of this century,
even a "War of All against All", when humanity might well "stand at the
grave of civilization". In any case, it seems highly likely that a
major
Ahrimanic onslaught -- either the incarnation of Ahriman himself, or
the
advent of the "false prophet" of the Apocalypse, or some other attack
--
will break upon us around 1998 AD. To see why this is so, we need to do
a few simple calculations, based on the occult principle of meaningful
rhythms in history. (Let the sceptical reader be a true sceptic and
suspend
judgment, and take in the following discussion with a mind open to
possibilities
unsuspected by the materialistic mind.) |
It is a fact, unknown to history but revealed by Steiner's spiritual research, that while the Incarnation of Christ was happening in Palestine another stupendous drama played out in Mexico. A high initiate of the negative Mysteries, the most advanced "black magician" in the world, had reached, by repeated ritual murders of an especially horrible kind, the threshold of knowledge of certain deep, cosmic secrets. This knowledge would have given him the ability, as was his intention, of achieving the Ahrimanic goals of completely rigidifying the earth, so as to draw it out of the progressive development toward the New Jupiter, and of binding human organisms as automata in that "slag" of the earth. He was thwarted in this intention by the incarnate high Sun-being "Vitzliputzli", who caused the black magician to be crucified at the same time as the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ -- a shattering reflection in the American continent of the Events in Palestine. (Since then the soul of this black magician has been held in a kind of "prison".) Recall that the Greco-Roman Epoch ran approximately 2160 years, from 747 BC to 1413 AD. The midpoint of this epoch was 1413 AD minus 2160/2 = 333 AD. Consider (as an hypothesis) the occult teaching that events in history occur at times that, as it were, reflect and balance the events equidistant in time from a midpoint. Taking 333 AD as the midpoint, the fulcrum of the balance, and on one side the Birth in Palestine, on the other side of the scales would be 333 AD + 333 = 666 AD. The big event , known to history, of the Seventh Century was the rise of Islam. Another event, not so famous but still known to history, was the transfer of ancient Greek philosophy (especially Aristotle's works, probably including the lost work on alchemy) to the Academy of Jundi Sabur (near present-day Baghdad). Following the expulsion of the philosophers from Syrian Edessa in 489 AD and from Athens in 529 AD, the philosophers had found refuge in what was then the Persian Empire, and at that Academy they pursued their calling. Then this knowledge passed to the Islamic Arabs, and science of a particular bent reached a high development under them, while Europe was in the "Dark Ages". Only gradually, over many centuries, did this science pass over to Europe, where it developed into the modern scientific revolution. Again, the trend of modern science, as it has in fact developed, is Ahrimanic. The direct ancestor of scientific materialism was this Arabian science, which was itself derived from the Academy of Jundi Sabur. Thus, on the other side of the 333 AD midpoint from the Birth in Palestine was the rise of an active materialistic, anti-Christian world view in Jundi Sabur. Occult history (as given
by Steiner) reveals how this came about: Sorat intended to come near to
physical manifestation in 666 AD at Jundi Sabur, and to bestow upon the
philosophers there a super-human knowledge. This knowledge was to
consist
of everything that humanity, under the plan of the regular Gods, was to
learn through its own efforts by the height of the present,
Consciousness
Soul Epoch. This epoch began in 1413 AD, so its midpoint will be 2493
AD.
In other words, Sorat wanted to give to humanity, prematurely and
without
the requisite human effort and experience, the knowledge that would be
right and healthy for humanity to achieve through work and evolution by
the middle of the Third Millennium. The regular Gods' plan for the
Consciousness
Soul Epoch is for humanity to acquire, through self-education and
self-discipline,
the free, conscious, individualized human personality. If the humanity
of the Seventh Century had been given this advanced knowledge at that
immature
stage of development, when people could not think in full
consciousness,
the result would have been disastrous. Just consider how much evil
humanity
has done with the science we have acquired up to now, at our present
stage
of maturity (or immaturity), and then try to imagine what the
relatively
primitive people of the Seventh Century would have done with the
science
of 2493 AD. -- This picture is bad enough, but we need to recall
Steiner's
occult insights to begin to get the whole picture. If Sorat had
succeeded,
we humans would have lost the possibility of developing our true
nature,
and would have become egotistic, animalistic automata, with no
possibility
of further development. We would have become earth-bound, and the earth
could never then pass over to the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan stages.
The
normal Gods' plan would have been thwarted and humanity could not
become
the Spirits of Freedom and Love. -- However, the rise of Islam thwarted
this plan of Sorat. It is a deep, mysterious paradox that Islam, which
was, and is, opposed to Christianity in many ways, also worked in
concert
with the Christ-impulse in history, by blanketing, by "skimming the
cream
off', this Sorat-science, and by watering it down. Still, this science
survived, and has worked on into the present day, but the worst was
averted,
for those times. The weakened Jundi Sabur impulse, as a distorted
quasi-Aristotelianism,
passed to the Arabs, over Africa and Spain, to France, England, and
through
the monasteries (e.g. Roger Bacon) back over to the Continent.
The
"Realism" of the Medieval scholastics (especially the revived
Aristotelianism
of Thomas Aquinas) opposed this Arabian influence, somewhat correctly
seeing
it as inimical to Christianity; but with the decline and decadence of
Medieval
Aristotelianism, and with the dawn of modern, anti-Aristotelian
"empiricism"
(e.g. Francis Bacon), the diluted, but still powerful,
Sorat-science
came to dominate world-culture. |
The true spirit of this kind of scientism can be illustrated by a telling metaphor coined by its seminal spokesman early in this epoch, Francis Bacon. He said, propounding scientific experimentalism, that we must put Nature on the rack and force Her to answer the questions we put to Her. -- This figure will speak volumes to those who meditate upon it: We, seeking information for whatever motives, are to torture the Goddess who gave us birth and nurture, so as to cause Her, through unbearable pain and injury, to blurt out secrets which She, in her wisdom, conceals from the impure and self-seeking. -- In much of so-called "physiological research" and "medical training" this is hardly even a metaphor; the torture unto death is quite literal. The usual victims are animals, but all too many "researchers" are not above using human "subjects" when they can get enough power over them. And even a slight whiff of occult knowledge shows us a deeper meaning: The central rite of "Satanism" or "black magic" -- sometimes crude, sometimes sophisticated -- is the deliberate, ritual torture and killing of animals and, at a more advanced level, of humans. When done in a precise way, this practice confers knowledge and power upon the practitioner; also, it affects the whole earth, hardening and rigidifying it, to the characteristic Ahrimanic purpose. Thus we can see the hordes of "researchers" and medical students -- who hurt, injure, and "sacrifice" animals -- as undergoing an unconscious, Ahrimanic black magic initiation, which hardens, brutalizes, and Ahrimanizes their souls, and through them also the culture, and even the earth itself. ("Sacrifice" is the actual word they commonly use, not thinking which "god" they sacrifice unto.) Vivisection is truly the archetypal act of modern science as it is generally understood and practiced. In contrast to our Baconian
science, there does exist a little-known scientific trend, inaugurated
by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In the general culture
he
is known primarily as the author of Faust; but he was also a
scientist,
known for (if known at all) the prediction of the discovery of the
intermaxillary
bone in humans, or, less often, for his anti-Newtonian theory of color.
His mode of scientific thinking was quite different form the
Baconian-Ahrimanic
mode, and likewise he illustrated it with a telling metaphor. He said
(in
paraphrase) that we must approach Nature as a reverent lover, and,
perhaps,
She will whisper to us Her intimate secrets. -- The contrast to Bacon's
metaphor could hardly be more stark. Also, the Goethean method of
scientific
investigation, in contrast to amoral experimentalism, is a method of
self-improvement
and self-development -- a reverent meditating upon the facts of
experience,
in the hope that they will speak. This scientific method has, of
course,
been all but buried under the Baconian-Ahrimanic avalanche, even in
Goethe's
own country. And it was no mere accident that Steiner's first
professional
appointment was to edit Goethe's scientific writings, in the
Goethe-Schiller
Archive in Weimar. Steiner and his followers have developed and
expanded
the Goethean method to an amazing extent, giving us a reasonable hope
for
renewed life in our deadened, death-dealing scientific culture. Steiner
too has been almost totally ignored by scientists in the West, slightly
less so in Central Europe. Also, the practice of Goethean-Steinerean
science
has vast implications for the soul of the practitioner, as well as for
the whole earth. Spiritual science sees soul and spirit in Nature, in a
real, practical way, completely consistent with the "empirical" facts.
It reverently approaches the scientific laboratory as a holy place, and
the experiment as a sacrament, as a revelation of the Creator-Spirits
through
the sacred symbols of Nature. This is consistent only with the moral
development
of the scientist, and with the furtherance of the Gods' plan of human
and
cosmic evolution. |
The 666-year rhythm continued further; another period ended in 1332 AD. Around this time (circa 1312) the cruel suppression of the Knights Templar began. Little is known to history of the true nature of the Templars, because of their secretive nature and the distortions passed to history by their triumphant enemies. But these Knights did cultivate an esoteric Christianity that, although somewhat flawed, had the potential of bringing about a more humane civilization in Europe. This possibility was thwarted by the power of the French King, Philip the Fair, and his allies in the Church. Philip, through the torture and killing of the Templars, and through the material inspiration from their looted gold, attained a kind of Ahrimanic initiation-knowledge, but he died soon thereafter. The Templars were either killed or driven underground, and Medieval culture declined until the Renaissance and Reformation. The Templar-impulse did continue underground, to pass over to the "Lodges", especially York and Scottish Rite Freemasonry. These Lodges worked in opposition to Roman Catholicism (at least until the end of the Eighteenth Century, when they united in opposition to Napoleon), but the esoteric content became decadent and Ahrimanized. Nevertheless, many of the modern institutions of "liberal republican democracy" (such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press) are very largely due to the influence of Freemasonry, especially in the USA. -- This is a huge and interesting story, but it is beyond the scope of this essay (as well as the knowledge of this author). And, of course, another 666-year cycle ends around 1998 AD. As stated already, it is apparent that the Ahrimanic influence in culture is building to some kind of climax. Indeed, as is obvious to all with eyes to see, that civilization in the USA, despite (or because of) the triumphant march of technology, human culture and civilization are decaying (regardless of "rising economic indicators"). It is an easy guess that the times around 1998 AD are a propitious period for a major Ahrimanic manifestation: perhaps the incarnation of Ahriman himself; or since 1998 = 3x666 years since the Birth of the body for the incarnation of Christ, perhaps the body will be born which is to be the vehicle for Ahriman, possibly 30 years later; or perhaps some other major event, such as the advent of the "false prophet" of the Apocalypse. (These are approximate times only; the outer effects of occult (="hidden") events may manifest only gradually. In 1998 we did not see newspaper headlines announcing a spectacular, "supernatural" event. But if we had been alive in 666 AD or 1332 AD neither phere of this planet, even a little. Surely, as "thoughts are things", even a slight change in consciousness can influence physical eventwould we have likely been informed by the contemporary analogues of headlines that any major, "supernatural" events had occurred. Those manifestations of evil did not fully succeed according to the "plan"; other influences intervened and moderated the outcomes. The occult machinations were hardly known to the public. Such may also be true in the present: the actual course of events depends on many contending forces, and upon the consciousness and will of human beings; and the crux of the struggle will likely be hidden (="occult") to the wide public. We will live and/or die in the outer effects of the occult causes, as uncomprehending (most of us, probably) as is usual in social cataclysms. This essay is my faint attempt to lessen the incomprehension, and to lighten the mental atmoss in the right direction.) Steiner repeatedly pointed to the turn of the Century/Millennium as a time of crisis. (As is the turn of every millennium: every 1000 years Lucifer and Ahriman work together with special power.) -- Also, the Dutch Anthroposophist Bernard Lievegoed, in his deathbed testament, made the following remarks: "From indications by Rudolf Steiner, we have to assume that in the year 1998 Ahriman will play an important role....it is a part of the development of the earth and of humanity that Ahriman will at one time be on earth in a physical body. In lectures, Rudolf Steiner has mentioned a time in the third millennium: 'before even a part of the third millennium after Christ has passed'. However, he said at a meeting of young people in Breslau, that Ahriman will do everything in his power to advance this moment as much as he can. Steiner then mentions the year 1998. It will depend on all of humanity together whether Ahriman will succeed in this or not.... Whether he will succeed in this will depend on the question whether there will be enough people who see through his designs....In 1916 Rudold Steiner said that at the beginning of the twenty-first century, evil will appear in a form which at that time [1916] could not yet be described....My estimate is that the nadir of this battle will fall around the years 2020 to 2040. Then the abyss of the demons will open. National Socialism and Bolshevism will pale in comparison with this. Million of people will perish." [The Battle for the Soul; pp. 98-113] A cynic might say that these predictions allow for plenty of "wiggle room" for the incarnation of Ahriman: 1998 to the first part of the next millennium, or even the end of that millennium. -- I will concede that the predicted time is not very precise, but I believe nevertheless that it is highly likely that this incarnation will happen in the next few years to half-century or century. And even without occult insight, one who observes the present social/cultural decline can hardly avoid seeing some kind of wrenching changes approaching. Again, it is not certain
that Ahriman's incarnation will be immediately known to the public:
Steiner
warns that Ahriman wants humanity to be unconscious of his true nature
and to see his advent as progressive and good for human welfare. Says
Steiner: "If
Ahriman were able to slink into a humanity unaware of his coming, that
would gladden him most of all. It is for this reason that the
occurrences
and trends in which Ahriman is working for his future incarnation must
be brought to light." Ahriman will establish a (possibly secret)
school
for powerful "magic" arts and clairvoyance. The technical applications
of this highly intelligent spirit will indeed look like "magic" to us,
even as advanced as we might consider our science to be -- for
"Ahriman's
understanding is not limited by the crude materialism he foists upon
humanity.
And the clairvoyance bestowed upon Ahriman's pupils will be effortless
(not won through the long preparation of soul-purification and
self-discipline
of legitimate occultism). It will give spirit-vision, but the visions
will
be subjective and deceptive; people will see differing, conflicting
visions
of the soul/spirit worlds, and will fall into confusion and conflict.
Ahriman-in-the-flesh
will be an overwhelmingly powerful and impressive figure, when he
reveals
himself. And it seems probable that, as the Father of Lies, he will
present
himself as that which he is most certainly not: Christ, in His Second
Coming.
-- And again, it is America, where many religious people are expecting
the Second Coming in a physical body, that will be especially
susceptible
to Ahriman's deceptions. It is entirely possible that those who cling
to
the Gospels, with a superficially literalistic interpretation closed to
occult insights, will be the very people who will be the false Christ's
followers. (For us, occult insight is needed to understand what the
Scriptures
do literally say, for they were written in occult terminology, out of
higher
consciousness.) |
Another tremendous revelation from Steiner's spiritual science concerns the true nature of the Second Coming of Christ. Steiner was adamant that the physical incarnation of Christ can happen once and only once. "Just as a pair of scales can have only one balancing-point, so in Earth evolution the event of Golgotha can take place only once". The amazing fact is that the Second Coming is happening now, but that most of humanity is unaware of it. (Actually, the term "second coming" is not in the New Testament; the Greek word is parousia, meaning roughly "active presence". It was this "presence" that Saul/Paul experienced on the road to Damascus; Paul being humanity's "premature birth" of the coming new experience of Christ. Parousia was translated into Latin as adventus, which means "arrival", thus helping to give rise to the expectation of a physical arrival of Christ. The original Greek term seems in consonance with Steiner's explanation. See Emil Bock's St. Paul.) In fact, it is the driving force behind the "apocalyptic" convulsions and struggles of our time. For, as the picture is given in the Apocalypse of John, the bottomless pit is opened, Michael casts the dragon and his hosts onto the earth, the vials of wrath are poured out, and Babylon is overthrown in preparation for Christ's triumph that brings the New Heaven and New Earth. Most of us are unaware of this present Second Coming because it is not happening in the visible, material world, but in the "ethereal" region of the earth. "Ethereal" means the system of "formative forces", bordering on the physical, that raise inert matter to the realm of the living. Plants, animals, and humans all have ethereal, formative-force "bodies", and when the ethereal body forsakes the physical body, the physical body becomes ordinary matter; in other words, it dies. The earth, being the body of a living Being, also has a formative-force body, the "ethereal earth". These ethereal forces manifest especially in weather phenomena, such as cloud formation. (It is a false, Ahrimanic science that sees cloud formation as a merely material process of evaporation and condensation of "water molecules"; this is rather a process of de-materialization and re-materialization through the workings of the ethers.) With these concepts, we can see new meaning in the Bible verses concerning the Ascension and Return of Christ. "...a cloud received him out of their sight" (Acts I;9) seems to be saying that Christ ascended into the ethereal, formative-force region of the earth. And the statement that He "...so shall come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts I;11) seems to say that He shall return from the ethereal regions: "Behold he cometh with clouds...." (Rev. I;7) Steiner's assertion that Christ shall not come again in the flesh seems to be in consonance with the Bible: "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not....Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth; behold he is in the secret chambers; believe it not." (Matt. XXIV;23,26) On the contrary, the Second Coming shall be a tremendous event, not limited to a particular location: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. XXIV;27) The ethereal is super-physical, not bound by the laws of material space; Christ's appearance in the ethereal earth is everywhere-at-once. And since the ethereal is super-physical, some degree of super-physical vision, or "clairvoyance", is needed to see into it. Few people at the present stage of evolution have that kind of clairvoyance, and some may have it only sporadically. But the Second Coming is only at its beginning; true clairvoyance (as opposed to the deceptive Ahrimanic clairvoyance) will consciously encounter the ethereal Christ in the centuries to come. -- Ahriman dreads human consciousness of the ethereal Christ, and fights against it. It is essential for us to grasp the fact that he who shall come in the flesh is not Christ, but Ahriman: "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders...." (Matt. XXIV;24) Steiner revealed the occult
fact that, since the beginning of the present reign of the
Sun-Archangel
Michael as the Time Spirit in 1879 AD, the human ethereal body is
becoming
less closely bound to the physical body, thus opening the possibility
of
new clairvoyance. 1933 AD (two 950-year cycles of the precession of the
nodes of Saturn since the Crucifixion and Resurrection in 33 AD) would
have been an especially propitious time for the beginning of widespread
perception of the ethereal Christ. But this was hindered by the rise to
power of Hitler -- an expression of Sorat himself "rising from the
Abyss"
-- and by the convulsions and distractions that followed. What was
hindered
in 1933 might again become propitious around 2000-2100 AD (a reflection
of the calling of Abraham around 2000-2100 BC). We may speculate that
Ahriman,
and Sorat, will oppose this new Christ-consciousness by even more
horrendous
hindrances. |
The incarnation of high spiritual beings in human bodies has the special significance that new possibilities for human development are opened up, because, as it were, the way is cleared by these high-spiritual-beings-in-the-flesh being the first to accomplish these developments. Lucifer was the first to use the organs of intellect. Christ was the first to redeem the "fallen" death-prone human body with the Resurrection Body. (This was but one of the tremendous deeds of Christ. Even a minimal exposition of the scope of the accomplishments of this Incarnation is far, far beyond the limits of this essay. Suffice it to say, for now, that Steiner, out of his clairvoyant initiation-knowledge, revealed that the Incarnation of Christ was the turning-point of the evolution of the earth, and of humanity, from descent into the physical toward ascent into the spiritual. Not that this evolution "turned on a dime"; the downward momentum is obviously still very great; but the seed for the upward growth was planted. The true "stigmatists" have participated somewhat in the Redeemed Body, as harbingers of future evolution.) Likewise, Ahriman-in-the-flesh will try to inaugurate a new human capacity, for his own ends: he wishes to bring the shadowy, brain-bound, semi-conscious, clever Ahrimanic "thinking" into the human ethereal body. This would be an especially evil development if it is carried into the average human organism. It is normal and healthy, at the present stage of human evolution, for the human ethereal body to dissolve into the wide cosmos in the days immediately following death (after "one's whole life passes before one's eyes"). Afterwards the human soul-and-spirit entity rises to higher regions, where it is purified and prepared for a new earth-life. But materialism in the earth-life hardens the ethereal body so that it does not dissolve, but remains near the earth for a longer time, while the dead human entity serves Ahriman. Only slowly and in unconsciousness do such dead spirits enter the spirit-worlds to prepare for a new incarnation. Ahriman wishes to be the first to so harden the ethereal body so that it becomes the vehicle of automatic, intellectual thinking-devoid-of-will, and thus to make it possible to keep human ethereal bodies permanently in the region of the earth. Then the earth would become so hardened that it would not pass over to the Jupiter Age, and humans would become clever, animalistic, ghostly, earth-bound creatures. The Gods' plan for human and earthly evolution would be thwarted. Steiner put it this way: "Ahriman works against the word `Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away'. He wills that the words shall be thrown away, that heaven and earth shall continue on." (Here we can get a glimpse into the motives of the sophisticated "Satanists" or "black magicians". Ahriman's acolytes seek a kind of "immortality" in the slag-earth-surrounded-with-Old-Moon-forces, but an immortality with egotistic, earthly consciousness instead of the cosmic consciousness of the individualized spiritual Ego.) The regular Gods intend
that in the present epoch people should indeed think free of the
physical
brain, but with free, conscious, self-created thinking. This
development
would gradually open the possibility of the reintegration of humanity
into
the spiritual cosmos, and further the passing of the earth over to the
New Jupiter. Humanity could eventually rise to the rank of Spirits of
Freedom
and Love, and not sink to the level of earth-bound, animalistic, clever
automata. -- To put it mildly: a lot is at stake here.
|
But Ahriman's incarnation need not be an evil event, as he wishes it to be. This incarnation is necessary in human and earthly evolution, and it can be turned toward the good, if humanity meets it in the right way: On the mundane level, we can remedy Ahrimanic tedium in the work-life and the intellectual life, by filling them with warm, Luciferic enthusiasm, by finding what is interesting in them, by getting ourselves interested in objective, impersonal facts and processes. On the psychological level, we can remedy Luciferic subjectivity and fiery emotionalism by observing ourselves coolly, as we would an external natural process. (Indeed, we can personally experience how the Ahrimanic principle can be a blessing if applied in the right way, through cold, objective self-contemplation in impersonal thinking. If we can find satisfaction in dry, but correct, evaluation of our own wants, fears, and vicissitudes, as we could, say, in a mathematical proposition, we will gain thereby a wonderful liberation. And we can truly understand and feel how Ahriman's influence need not be evil, but can be quite decidedly good, if we bring to it the right consciousness. -- And so it will be with Ahriman's incarnation: everything depends on the consciousness with which humanity meets him. He wants us to be unconscious; it is our responsibility to strive to be more and more conscious, and to inculcate consciousness in as many people as we can. Such are the motives behind this essay.) On a higher level, we can
become more aware of the meaning of our own lives, and of the
world-process,
by studying and filling ourselves with the modern form of cosmic
wisdom,
given by spiritual science (mainly from Steiner, but from others also).
This is a renewal of wisdom that was formerly kept hidden, or "occult",
in the Mysteries. Today it is essential that more of this wisdom
becomes
generally known, if human culture is not to succumb to Ahriman. Just as
the ancient Initiates entered into the Luciferic wisdom and rescued it
for the good of humanity, now must humanity, with the consciousness
gained
from spiritual science and from the Ethereal Christ, enter into the
coming
Ahrimanic knowledge and turn it to good purpose. -- The Ahrimanic
knowledge
will show what cleverness can, and cannot, produce from earthly forces.
If we meet Ahriman consciously, we can acquire through him the
realization
that the earth is becoming old and must decline physically, eventually
to die and enter the spiritual worlds, to be reborn as the New Jupiter.
And through this decline, humanity is to be lifted above the earthly,
as
the seed survives the dying plant in winter, to sprout and grow in the
spring. |
The fundamental principle in this, the Consciousness Soul Epoch, is the emergence in the human being of conscious, individualized, independent thinking. Concurrent with the emergence of this soul-force (as a by-product, as it were) are wider possibilities for the workings of the forces of Death and Evil. But these workings are (as is characteristic of Ahriman) so falsified that, for example, the cultural institutions that are generally regarded as most beneficial -- education and medicine -- are in fact among the worst carriers of evil. (Not to imply that these institutions should be shunned of destroyed, but purified and renewed -- in part by their liberation from money and politics.) When this epoch has run its course (if it will have fulfilled its potentials), human culture will be vastly changed. For example, the distinction between "civilized" and "primitive" peoples will have been erased, and a kind of moral "socialism" will have become instinctive. Our specific task for the Consciousness Soul Epoch is to acquire three great truths, the same truths that Sorat wished to foist upon humanity in the Seventh Century, with his own slant. We might presume that Ahriman-in-the-flesh will likewise try to insert them into our culture and distort them to his own ends. It is the task of an alert and conscious humanity, schooled in spiritual science and led by the Christ, to gain these three truths through our own striving and to use them for the good development of the earthly creation. The first truth concerns the Mystery of Birth and Death: that the human soul in the physical world has but the semblance of the true soul-life that it had before conception and will have again after death. The life in the sense-world interrupts the supersensible soul-life in the world-between-death-and-rebirth, so that we can gain, for the spirit, that which can be gained only in the sense-world. To see this truth, we must "look Lucifer in the eye", and thus see through the distortions and illusions he spreads over the human soul. The destiny of the "East" (meaning the Slavic regions and eastwards) is to give rise to an "eugenic occultism": the knowledge of how, through astrological regulation of conception, to bring the right human entities to birth at the right time and place for forward evolution, or conversely, to bring in the wrong entities, for the hindrance of right evolution. Thus, this eugenic occultism can cause great good or great harm, depending on how it is used. The second truth concerns the Mystery of the Body: that the human body is not a lump of matter, but a form, which is spiritual in origin, and through which interchanging substances are constantly in flux. This knowledge will lead to a true medical art, the essence of which is to keep intact the natural healing forces of the body. The destiny of the "Middle" (meaning Central Europe) is to give rise to this "hygienic occultism" -- which, of course, can lead to great good, but can also cause great harm if it is used without strict conscientiousness. The third truth concerns the Mystery of Matter: that the reality behind "material substance" is not "atoms", "molecules", or "ultimate particles", but is spirit -- to be exact: Ahrimanic spirits, in rhythmic inter-relations. The true picture of "solid matter" is not a machine, but a rainbow: a ghostly appearance, an outcome of spiritual processes. Modern physics, in some advanced theorizing, may have made some halting moves toward this truth, but the dead, mechanistic world-conception still holds sway over the scientism which dominates world-culture. This scientism is the Ahrimanic lie, the descendant of the Jundi Sabur influence, which, even though weakened, banished soul and spirit from the scientific world-view. To see through this lie, we must "look Ahriman in the eye" -- a dangerous undertaking if we are not prepared by spiritual science. The destiny of the West (meaning primarily the English-speaking world) is to give rise to a "mechanistic occultism", which will bring about fantastic machine forces, based on rhythm and resonance. (The lost, fabled "Keely motor" was a start in this direction.) But the introduction of such machine forces would cause harm to society if the political, cultural, and economic spheres are not made mutually independent, and if egotism is not banished from the economy. (Steiner laid down the basis for this healthy social re-ordering, in his concept of the "threefold commonwealth".) Ahriman seeks to divert and pervert these three destined developments of the Consciousness Soul Epoch, through the activity of angels who rejected the Christ influence during the Egypto-Chaldean Epoch. In the present times, the "Christian" angels pour pictures of spirit-realities into the deep regions of the human soul-organism. If the human being does not take up these pictures consciously, they sink down into the ethereal body and act as unconscious instincts through the influence of the Ahrimanic angels. These unconscious instincts work against the three progressive evolutionary trends in the following ways:
Back to Table of Contents |
Some powerful, Ahrimanic secret societies, linked to the Lodges, in Britain and the USA strive to keep their version of this third truth (of the spirituality of matter) as their own secret and to ensure that the wider public knows only a crude atheistic-mechanistic scientism, in which spirit and soul have no place. They also strive to guide political and economic trends over the world so that the budding potentialities of the Middle and Eastern peoples come under their domination. The history of modern times has very largely been the story of the outworkings of this struggle. (The crimes of the secret Anglo-American power groups include the instigation of the First World War and the consequent establishment of the Bolshevik regime in the East. These power groups believe that the English-speaking peoples are destined to justifiedly dominate the East-Slavs in this, the fifth cultural epoch, for the purpose of guiding their nascent potentialities, which will blossom to lead the world-culture in the sixth epoch -- just as the Romans, during the fourth epoch, dominated and educated Britain for her future leadership in the fifth epoch. Some truth does lie behind this concept: this is the epoch of the consciousness soul, and the English-speaking peoples are gifted to develop the consciousness soul in an instinctive way, and it is true that the Slavs are destined to lead world-culture in the sixth epoch. But these power groups seek, through illegitimate means, to guide toward illegitimate, Ahrimanic ends these inherent potentialities, which are loosely "written into" destiny.) Many historians and "paranoid right-wing conspiracy nuts" have, solely through common sense and open-eyed observation of external events, discerned some of the outworkings of the influence of these secret societies through their semi-secret instruments: the Council on Foreign Relation, the Order of Skull and Bones (whose members included George Bush, Averell Harriman, and an amazing number of powerful Americans), the Rhodes Scholarships, the Round Table, etc. But these observers, lacking occult knowledge, can only guess at the true aims of the secret power groups. The "Anglophile" societies may disagree among themselves about means and details, but essentially they aim to gain world-domination for themselves (though certainly not for the good of the masses of the English-speaking peoples) and to influence all cultural trends in an Ahrimanic direction. Now, in "post-Cold War" Europe, the Anglo-Americans and the Jesuit-Catholic power groups are working together to make the basic arrangements of this part of the "New World Order": Central Europe, from France to Poland, is to be dominated by the Jesuit interests, while the "East" (meaning roughly the regions historically Orthodox Christian) is to dominated by the Anglo-American "West". This arrangement furthers the aims of the Anglo-Americans by preventing cultural collaboration between Central Europe and the Eastern Slavs, thus preventing the rise of a strong, healthy, and independent Central European culture that could mediate and balance the East and the West. Thus, the present push toward the "New World Order" in Europe is a continuation of the long-standing Anglo-American policy of obliterating Central Europe (especially Germany) as a political/cultural force and of controlling the future-seeds being prepared in East-Europe -- the same policy that led to First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution. The deeper, Ahrimanic aim of the Anglo-Americans is to defeat the Gods' plan for Earth-evolution, by turning the earth into a heap of dark, frozen, cosmic slag, haunted by an earth-bound humanity of ghostly homunculi -- and to secure for themselves a privileged place in this Ahrimanic world-order: an Ahrimanic immortality, with earthly consciousness and with power over the uninitiated. (The late Professor Carroll Quigley, mentor of the young Wm. Jefferson Clinton, wrote the fairly well-known tome Tragedy and Hope, and the lesser-known work The Anglo-American Establishment, in which he described, from a sympathetic point of view, some of the machinations of semi-secret "Anglophile" [his word] power groups. Prominent among these "Anglophile" groups was the secret society organized by Cecil Rhodes around 1891. Its members included Wm. T. Stead [a spiritualist known to Annie Besant of the Theosophical Society], Lord Esher [an advisor to Queen Victoria], the Earl of Rosebury, Nathan Rothschild, Alfred Milner [whose posts included Colonial Secretary, and War Minister during the First World War], H.A.L. Fisher [sometime Education Minister], and A.J. Balfour. I do not imply that Quigley, or Clinton [or all those working for the goals of these power groups] were, or are, fully aware of the deeper aims behind the "Anglophiles", but that they are more or less knowingly, or unknowingly, under the influence of the occultists and will usually act in the way desired by these occultists. Altogether, of those who work in accordance with the aims of what may be loosely called the "Anglo-American power groups" [e.g. the Freemasons (or at least some factions of them), C.F.R., Round Table, Rhodes Scholarships, Skull and Bones, and their associated political and economic instruments] -- or of the Jesuits -- very few are aware of the true, occult aims. This is true even of most of the "initiated", for the ceremonial magic of the initiation-rituals works on the ethereal bodies of the acolytes so as to make those lower initiates into receptive, unsuspecting instruments for the wishes of the few who are more aware. This process might loosely be likened to a sophisticated kind of "post-hypnotic suggestion". In general, we should hold suspect any secret society that practices ceremonial magic and is administered by higher "grades". -- Nor do I wish to imply that one super-secret power group on earth "controls everything"; various occult power groups, arrayed in various and shifting alliances and antagonisms, vie for their various aims. The centers of the conspiracies do not lie on the physical plane, and no matter how great their power, they are not omnipotent. Again, the primal force behind present-day turmoil is the Coming of the Ethereal Christ. As an old saying goes: "Where there is bright light, there are deep shadows.") But much depends on us,
on humanity. We need to become conscious of these power groups, as well
as their deeper aims and the aims of Ahriman himself. If we do not
acquire
this alert consciousness, Ahriman might have his way, and the future of
the earth, and of humanity, will be dark and bleak. The earth's future,
as well as our own, is our responsibility. -- Any real progress toward
a healthy social order depends on humanity's development of a new kind
of thinking. The present, Ahrimanic, brain-bound pseudo-thinking is
inherently
anti-social; it (subconsciously) tries to dominate other people and put
them to sleep. Most present anti-social aspects of society proceed from
anti-social consciousness; the brain-bound pseudo-thinking is
determined
by subjective, unconscious instincts, not by concurrence with the
objective
truth, not by the meaning-process of the thinking itself. An
anti-social
society is a physical picture of the anti-social human consciousness.
If
human consciousness becomes harmonious with objective reality, then a
truly
social society will be possible. Again, it all depends on human
consciousness
-- and will. |
The "Maitreya" In 1977 "Maitreya" left his "ancient retreat in the Himalayas" to reside incognito in London. Allegedly he has created his own physical body -- a "mayavirupa" -- which can appear in many places at once, according to his intention. Nevertheless, he supposedly rode an airliner from Pakistan to London, "coming in the clouds". He also appears in dreams to many people around the world. The "Maitreya" is a highly advanced human being, not a god. He has been working behind the scenes to inspire many recent events, such as the "environmental" movement, the end of Communism in the Soviet Union, the end of apartheid in South Africa, and the end of the East-West confrontation. Since 1988 he has "miraculously" appeared to speak before religious groups worldwide, causing miraculous healings and "charging" water with healing power. Other miraculous phenomena around the world are said to emanate from him: Marian appearances and weeping Madonna statues, "crop circles", holographic "crosses of light", and mysterious hitchhikers who announce the Return of Christ and then vanish. These phenomena are leading to a fast-approaching "Day of Declaration" when "Maitreya" will announce his "true identity" over world-wide radio and television, and listeners (and even those not listening) will hear him telepathically in their own languages -- and, simultaneously, spontaneous healings will occur around the world. Thereafter, "Masters" (advanced initiates who have reached the stage that they no longer need to incarnate, but return to earth voluntarily) of "Maitreya's" "Vanguard" will reveal themselves to support his efforts. One of these "Masters" will be the "Jesus" whom the supposed Christ-Maitreya "overshadowed" from the Baptism to the Crucifixion. -- The social teachings of "Maitreya" oppose unfettered market forces and support the easing of the vast disparity between the rich and the poor by "the principle of sharing". Governments will be forced to institute sharing after the coming collapse of the stock markets (beginning in Japan) and the resulting upheavals. Under the leading of "Maitreya" and the "Masters" a new world-wide civilization will emerge, based on the principles of: lessened regulation, liberty, freedom, environmental equilibrium, solar energy -- and the guarantee to all of enough food, clothing, housing, health care, and education. "What's wrong with all that?" -- It is true enough that runaway "market forces", aided by their agents in government, are grievously oppressing humanity; the gap between rich and poor is cruel and dangerous; the natural environment is being degraded; and so on and on. We can begin to see "what's wrong" when we consider, as explained above, that Christ appears once and only once in the flesh, and that His Second Coming is now taking place in the supra-physical, ethereal earth. Clearly this is inconsistent with the supposed Christ-Maitreya coming down from the Himalayas to live in London and appear around the world to the physical senses. Furthermore, the "Maitreya's" supporters teach that the "anti-Christ energy" will not be manifested through individuals on earth, until 3000 years will have passed since the defeat of Hitler. Again, this is the reverse of the truth, as explained above: this is the time of climaxing activity of the Antichrist, through Ahrimanic influence, leading to the physical incarnation of Ahriman. Evidently, this supposed Maitreya-Christ is an impostor who tries to falsify the tremendous events breaking upon us. We get a strong clue to the true nature of the "Maitreya" from this statement of his supporters: "For the last 100 years, the Ageless Wisdom teachings have been released through individuals such as Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, and later by Alice A. Bailey and Helena Roerich. In 1948, the imminent return of Christ was revealed in Alice Bailey's book, The Reappearance of the Christ." [Emergence Quarterly, No. 9] Steiner and, following his researches, Sergei O. Prokofieff (grandson of the composer) have uncovered the occult influences behind Blavatsky, Bailey, and Roerich. This story, much abridged, goes as follows: Around 1875 Blavatsky gave voice to some true Western (Rosicrucian) wisdom, much garbled, in her Isis Unveiled. She later came under the influence of a particular group of Eastern, Tibeto-Indian occultists, who inspired her Secret Doctrine, with its strongly anti-Christian bent. These inspirers were the "mahatmas", the supposed "Morya" and "Kut Humi". (The true identity of these "mahatmas" is problematic.) Under her influence, and that of A. P. Sinnet (whose Esoteric Buddhism was inspired by the same "mahatmas"), the Theosophical Society took a decidedly Eastern turn, even moving its headquarters from New York to Madras. The teachings of the "mahatmas" derived from a pre-Christian occult wisdom and held Lucifer higher than Christ, but also had a strongly materialistic and atheistic tinge. This "occult materialism" did not deny the existence of higher beings (up to a point), or the human afterlife and reincarnation under the law of karma (indeed, the concept of karma entered Western culture mostly through the Theosophical Society), but it did deny the existence of a theistic God and held that the higher realms consist only of refined, subtle matter. Blavatsky traveled to India and a secret location in Tibet to be initiated into these teachings. The "mahatmas" aimed to get a kind of revenge on the Western world for having overwhelmed the East and suppressed Eastern occultism. We have Blavatsky's (hearsay) testimony that at least one of her "mahatmas" even hated and despised the white race. On a deeper level, the aim was to work with Lucifer and Ahriman to draw humanity into the illegitimate realm known to occultism as the "Eighth Sphere". This realm lies outside of the normal seven great ages of the Saturn-Vulcan series. It arose through Lucifer's introduction, into the Earth Age, of the supersensible Old Moon forces, containing reflected images of higher worlds. Ahriman tries to take earthly, dense matter and join it to these images to create "densified imaginations" or "spectres". Materialistic thoughts in human brains, especially the "occult materialism" taught by the "mahatmas", greatly furthers this process. If human evolution could be diverted into this Eighth Sphere, the Gods' plan for earthly and human evolution would be defeated. Later, after Madam Blavatsky's death, the Theosophical Society, under Annie Besant, tried to put forth the young Krishnamurti as the Christ, or Maitreya, or both. Krishnamurti was prepared over a number of years, going through some "initiations", but later lost faith in his putative mission, at least in part because his ailing brother died despite the assurances of the "Masters" that he would recover. As is well known, Krishnamurti later disavowed his nomination, and the whole undertaking collapsed. (This affair also led to the departure of Steiner from the Theosophical Society -- wherein he had been the Secretary of the German Section -- and subsequently to the founding of the Anthroposophical Society.) Helena Roerich (and her husband, the painter Nicholas Roerich) came into the picture in the 1920's. Helena Roerich started receiving telepathic dictations from a "mahatma", and she began to write these inspirations in her multi-volume work Agni Yoga. Then began a series of journeys, the most amazing of which (1925-28) was an expedition which, under the American flag, crossed India, Tibet, Mongolia, and the new Soviet Union. Incredibly, they traveled to Moscow -- with aid of the OGPU (later called the "KGB") -- to meet with high Bolshevik commissars, and to deliver a letter from the "mahatmas", along with some Tibetan soil for the grave of "our brother Mahatma Lenin". For the "mahatmas" were indeed cooperating with Anglo-American secret societies in promoting the "socialist experiment" in Russia. Emissaries of the "mahatmas" had even met with Marx in London and with Lenin in Switzerland. Though the Anglo-Americans and Indo-Tibetans oppose each other in some ways (the Indo-Tibetans opposed British rule in India), they were united, for somewhat differing motives, in supporting the Bolshevist war against the Russian people and culture. For the destiny of the Slavic East is to create an humane, Christ-inspired society in the Sixth Cultural Epoch; both these occult groups wish to divert this destiny into other paths -- even by the destruction of human civilization, which would have been the result of Bolshevism, had it succeeded. (Today, after the "fall of communism", Russia, and much of Eastern Europe, lie prostrate, both physically and morally. Russia is grievously wounded, but not yet dead; she might yet rise to her destiny, if "free market reforms" and other destructive Western influences don't kill her first.) It even turns out that the Indo-Tibetans were behind the depredations of the "Mongol Hordes" of Genghis Khan and his successors, who devastated and enslaved almost all of Russia. -- And even today the supporters of "Agni Yoga" are active in Russia; Mikhail Gorbachev is among them. -- The hidden Tibetan "mahatmas'" headquarters visited by the Roerich expedition was the same as was visited by H. Blavatsky. This is the "earthly Shamballa", whose high ruler, according to H. Roerich, is the "Maitreya". (In its true meaning "Shamballa" is an Eastern term for the soul-spirit world which was lost to ordinary human perception with the decline of atavistic clairvoyance. The "return of Shamballa" refers to the coming recovery of this perception with the new, higher clairvoyance.) And it is this same "earthly Shamballa" and these same "mahatmas" who inspired Alice Bailey, and her organizations, the "Servants of the World" and the "Secret School" (Schola Arcana). Creme's group uses the same prayer, now called the "Transmission Meditation", given in Bailey's The Reappearance of Christ. And, of course, Bailey's "Christ" who will "reappear" is none other that this so-called "Maitreya". The truth, as given by Steiner, about the real Maitreya is roughly this: There are twelve exalted beings, called "Bodhisattvas", who serve the Christ Spirit in the guidance of humanity. One of these Bodhisattvas was incarnated in the Sixth Century BC as Gautama, who rose to rank of "Buddha". The excarnate Gautama Buddha closely cooperated with the mission of Christ-Jesus in Palestine, and later took on a mission of redemption on Mars. His successor was "appointed", so to speak, to take his place in the Lodge of Bodhisattvas, and this Bodhisattva is destined to become the Maitreya Buddha, "the Bringer of the Good", approximately two and a half millennia from now. Meanwhile, he repeatedly incarnates, at least partially, on earth, in the service of the Christ. One of these incarnations (or "incorporations" -- not quite incarnations in the usual sense) was as Jeshu ben Pandira, the Essene teacher and martyr (circa 105 BC). Today this Maitreya-Bodhisattva works to proclaim and further the coming of the Ethereal Christ. When this Bodhisattva becomes the Maitreya Buddha the earth and the human organism will be constituted very differently than now: thinking, speaking, and actions will be morally consistent. Thus it is evident that
the so-called "Maitreya" presently "emerging" is not only a false
Christ,
but also a false Maitreya. The "mahatmas" of "Shamballa" have deep
knowledge
and far-reaching influence and abilities, but they are severely limited
and falsified by their blindness, or opposition, to the Christ. Their
occult
vision extends only to this "solar system", and backwards only to the
Old
Moon. They do not comprehend the Cosmic Christ, Who descended from the
starry realms to the sun, and thence to the earth. They are basically
Luciferic,
with strong Ahrimanic tendencies. It is not clear (to this writer)
exactly
what role the pseudo-Maitreya will play in the incarnation of Ahriman:
perhaps he will be the bodily vehicle for Ahriman; perhaps he will work
in that uneasy, problematic of alliance that sometimes holds between
Lucifer
and Ahriman. But this much is clear: if humanity accepts him as he
presents
himself to be, much evil will follow. Again: The consciousness of human
beings is essential. If the stated aims of the pseudo-Maitreya seem
benign,
remember that, not very long ago, many otherwise intelligent people
believed
Bolshevism to be the inauguration of a just civilization. The
"mahatmas"
of "Shamballa" inspired Genghis Khan, Marx, and Lenin; they are not to
be taken lightly. |
Bibliographic Remarks and Links For a quick overview of Rudolf Steiner's lifework see A. P. Shepherd's Scientist of the Invisible [Inner Traditions; New York; 1983]. This work provides only the barest introduction; the serious investigator will need to probe deeper. Steiner left a stupendous, vast body of work In German; not all of it is available in English. Most of the publications bearing his name are not his writings, but his lectures, preserved in stenographic records and published without his review and corrections. Most of these lectures were given to audiences who were familiar with his basic teachings, and he spoke directly to the particular needs of his listeners. He only reluctantly allowed the stenographic records to published, with the disclaimer that they might contain errors and could be rightly judged only by those who already had a thorough understanding of the basics of spiritual science. Thus the investigator might best begin by studying Steiner's basic writings, which he intended for the general public, and which systematically set forth his fundamental concepts. Chief among these basic works are Theosophy [1904] and Occult Science, an Outline [1910]. These are indispensable for an understanding of Steiner's spiritual anthropology and cosmology, and give condensed expositions of the "path of knowledge". The chapter by that name in Theosophy should almost be memorized by the serious truth-seeker. An extended exposition of this Path is given in Knowledge of Higher Worlds [1904-5], also in a new translation: How to Know Higher Worlds. Steiner's basic work on the enlivenment of thinking itself is The Philosophy of Freedom [1894]. (Other translations: The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path.) This book can be hard reading; we can get some help from Otto Palmer's compilation: Rudolf Steiner on his Book The Philosophy of Freedom [Anthroposophic Press; 1979] and from Georg Kühlewind's Stages of Consciousness, "Chapter One" [Lindesfarne Press; 1984]. Steiner gave many lecture cycles expounding his clairvoyant insights into Christology, but his basic written treatment of that subject is the early work Christianity as Mystical Fact (another translation: Christianity and the Occult Mysteries of Antiquity). For a reading guide to Steiner's works, see Robert McDermott's The Essential Steiner, which also contains introductory essays by McDermott and selections form Steiner's works. The primary sources for the foregoing essay are Steiner's lectures published as The Ahrimanic Deception, The Influences of Lucifer And Ahriman, Three Streams in Evolution , and Innner Realities of Evolution. Another source, which I have used almost to the point of plagiarism, is Carl Stegmann's great work The Other America (two volumes, typescript; 1975), a deep study of Americanism in the light of Anthroposophy. Stegmann lived almost 99 years, dying early in 1996. His efforts, stemming from his feeling for America's true spiritual destiny as the battleground in the war to turn Ahriman's influence to the good, culminated in 1976 in the founding of Rudolf Steiner College near Sacramento, California. The Other America has just been published, at long last, by the Rudolf Steiner College Press. [Bookstore: 9200 Fair Oaks Blvd., Fair Oaks CA 95628; (916)961-8729; FAX (916)961-3032] If people will meet their responsibility for wakefulness, this book should have a press run in the millions. Some other sources relevant to this essay include: (Here mention of a source should not necessarily be taken as an endorsement of everything therein.)
(Another work by Tradowsky, Kaspar Hauser, The Struggle for the Spirit [Temple Lodge], has a deep discussion of the spiritual destiny of Central Europe and some more indications pointing to the year 1998. Well worth reading. -- Also by Tradowsky, first published in English in 1998: Christ and Antichrist, Understanding the events at the end of the century and recognizing our tasks [Temple Lodge.] -- Also in the same vein as Reuveni's work, with emphasis on the machinations surrounding the First World War: Mapping the Millennium, Behind the Plans of the New World Order by Terry M. Boardman [Temple Lodge]. http://www.c4systm.com/Boards/annboard/messages/132.html My opinion is that, while many of the details of Ravenscroft's narrative may be dubious, the book is still well worth reading, for it provokes many questions that need to be asked about many aspects of European and world history. In writing the book, he was apparently fulfilling a task that fell to him because of the sudden death of the man [Walter Johannes Stein] who was best suited to write it, and he was working under the disadvantage of not having the best information at hand. Still, he has brought before a fairly wide public some knowledge of many previously unknown forces in the world, and to me that seems a considerable accomplishment. Hopefully, whatever deficiencies that may be contained in his writings will be corrected by further research. -- The critical essay linked above may be a start in that direction. Another [in its English language version] was recently published by the Rudolf Steiner Press: Light for the new Millennium [ed. T.H. Meyer]. This is a meticulously documented account of some of the deep forces involved in the beginning of the First World War and in further European destiny -- centering on the individuality of Helmuth von Moltke/Pope Nicholas I.) "Rudolf Steiner died in 1925. The revelation of Christ's need to come back to the physical world occurred only in 1945. the decision to come back took place indeed earlier, but the way in which He was to appear was still undecided at the time. Actually there were certain initiates in the world...who had been prepared as possible vehicles for the Christ. Altogether there were four, one of them [Krishnamurti] is known to all of us. Then, however, the plan to make use of that vehicle was abandoned." (From The Reappearance of Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, quoted in The Bodhisattva Question) Creme's remarks seem to ignore the deep, profound cosmological reasons for the uniqueness of the Incarnation, and seem to imply that these could be superseded "on the spur of the moment", and further, to completely ignore the appearance of the Ethereal Christ. But beyond this comment, I will leave it the readers to investigate Steiner's cosmology and Christology, and to evaluate Creme's statement for themselves. In the interest of fairness, I give a link to Creme's organization: Share International
One could go on and on referring to important topics in Anthroposophical literature; at this point I will refer the reader to some resources available for independent investigation. Steiner's work touches almost all aspects of culture, and would, if it were seriously and widely assimilated, bring life-giving renewal to civilization. It is the wonder, or the crime, of the Twentieth Century that this has not happened. (The power of the Adversaries has been that strong, even though they were working from the non-physical world. Of course they were working with their incarnated human accomplices, and with human indolence and just-plain-cussedness. Again, it is far beyond the scope of this essay to provide an overview of Steiner's work and its ramifications. Many of his (and his collaborators') works are available, and a number of independent organizations worldwide are applying and developing his teachings in practical ways. Chief among them is the international headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society; contact: Anthroposophische Gesellschaft, Goethaneum, CH-4143, Dornach, Schweiz. There are many national branches around the world. The Society in the USA can be reached at: The Anthroposophical Society in America, 1923 Geddes Ave., Ann Arbor MI 48104-1797; (313) 662-9355, (888) 757-2742, FAX (313) 662-1727. The lending library of the Society in the USA is: The Rudolf Steiner Library; 65 Fern Hill Road; Ghent, NY 12075 -- (518) 672-7690; FAX (518) 672-5827. They have available many, many of Steiner's (and other Anthroposophists') works in both English and German, as well as catalog and research assistance. Books can be loaned by mail, and services are also available to non-members of the Society, for a reasonable fee. A good online Anthroposophical resource is The Rudolf Steiner Archive and e.Lib. (That's where I lifted the background color for this page. No inference should be made that the views presented in this essay are necessarily those of the Archive, or of any of the links and references listed here.) This site has the texts of a number of Steiner's books and lectures, in English, ready for downloading. Some more Anthroposophical
links: The Web has at least two
Anthroposophical mailing lists in English: There is an Anthroposophical bulletin board at: http://www.c4systm.com/Boards/eliboard/eliboard.html. The main publisher of Anthroposophical works in the USA is: The Anthroposophic Press; 3390 Rte. 9; Hudson, NY 12534 -- (518) 851-2054; FAX (518) 851-2047 or (800) 925-1795 -- E-mail: anthropres@aol.com. An annotated catalog is available. The Press also distributes books from other Anthroposophical publishers, including an important publisher in England: Temple Lodge Publishing; 51 Queen Caroline Street; London W6 9 QL; UK. (Phone) 0181-748 0571; (FAX) 0181-748 5451. Many of the books listed above have bibliographies which can lead the reader to many more, relevant works. The books by Prokofieff, Reuveni, Tradowsky, Stegmann, and Meyer have especially informative citations and bibliographies. And of course, many of the Web sites will lead to other links, which will lead to still more links, and so on. Steiner produced over 40
books and 6000 lectures. The complete edition is (still) in preparation
(in German) by the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Schweiz.
The total number of volumes is well over 300, and growing. A full and
detailed
Bibliographic Survey is available from the Nachlassverwaltung.
|
To recapitulate some history, from a slightly different, panoramic viewpoint, using Steiner's insights into the interplay of individual and world karma: The ruling Time Spirit, since 1879 AD, is now the Sun-Archangel Michael (the "Countenance of Christ"). His previous rulership encompassed the time of Aristotle and Alexander. Michael is the administrator of Cosmic Intelligence, and a promoter of cosmopolitanism. Ideas to Plato had been living spiritual beings, attainable in higher vision. His pupil Aristotle put this pictorial wisdom into conceptual thoughts, suitable for the age of lost clairvoyance; Alexander carried this Greek thought-culture into the wider world -- both in the service of Michael. But this ancient Greek thinking was not experienced as coming from within the human being; it was rather experienced as coming, like perceptions, from the outside, a cosmic Pan-Intelligence. Later, this Aristotelianism was carried over to Jundi Sabur, and thence into Arabian/Muslim culture. Perhaps the most brilliant and influential proponent of this Arabian culture was the Caliph Haroun al Rashid, and his associates, in the Eighth Century AD. This culture was, as indicated above, brilliant in a way, but was also anti-evolutionary in that it failed to appreciate the Christ- Impulse and was infected with the Sorat/Ahriman influence from Jundi Sabur. Around this time the cosmic Intelligence began to "fall to earth", out of the rule of Michael and in the "heads" of human beings; the Pan-Intelligence becoming individualized, personal intelligence. This process was a preparation for what was to culminate after the dawn of the Consciousness Soul Epoch in the Fifteenth Century: that human beings were to experience their thoughts as coming from out of themselves, as a personal intelligence in individual freedom. In 869 AD the fateful Eighth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople declared to be heretical the doctrine of "trichotomy": that the human being is body, soul and spirit -- thus effectively "outlawing the spirit" in Western Christendom, and plunging West-European humanity ever more deeply into material experience. While this Council was happening on earth, in the soul/spirit world Haroun al Rashid and his associates, who had recently died, conferred with the individuality of Aristotle and associates: Alexander and the "Aristotelians", together with the "Platonists" and the Knights of Arthur's Round Table. In this meeting Aristotle and his associates resolved to bring to earth a renewed and Christianized wisdom suitable for the epoch of individualized intelligence of the Consciousness Soul, but al Rashid and his party remained opposed to this Christianization. Subsequently, on earth, the Arabian impulse was carried forward by philosophers such as Avicenna and Averroës, who upheld a decadent and retrogressive form of Aristotelianism, which denied human-spiritual individuality surviving death. And the Platonists descended to earthly incarnation, up through the Twelfth Century, as teachers of the Christianized Nature-Wisdom of the School of Chartes. (This wisdom later inspired Bruno Latini, and consequently his pupil Dante.) In the Thirteenth Century the Aristotelians incarnated into the Dominican Order, wherein, with the help of the Platonists then in the spirit- world, they upheld the doctrine of human-individual intelligence and immortality, in the subtle conceptual thinking of the Scholastic "Realists", as against the Arabian philosophers. The greatest of the Scholastics was Aristotle himself, incarnated as Thomas Aquinas, the proponent of the reality of Pan- Intelligence in the form of concepts -- the "universals" -- and of the reality of human-individual experience of intelligence. -- After the end of Medieval culture and the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Epoch, al Rashid himself incarnated as none other than Francis Bacon, the fountainhead of modern, Ahrimanic scientism. (Paradoxically, Bacon was inspired by a high Initiate, who also inspired Shakespeare, Jacob Boehme, and Jacob Balde. [Karmic Relationships, Vol. II] Again: evolution is not a simple, two-sided conflict between "good" and "evil" -- in a way, an "empirical" science "had to" enter cultural development.) Ahriman intends to make the now-earthly human intelligence entirely, overly individualized and personal, so that it degenerates into mere cleverness, driven by lower instincts and divorced from universal reality. But while Baconian science gained ground on earth, in the spirit/soul world the Platonists and Aristotelians convened in a "school" under the leadership of Michael. This school prepared the impulses which were to appear later on earth as the renewing and enlivening of culture in the coming Michael Age. (Meanwhile, in the Fifteenth to Eighteenth centuries, Ahriman had convened a "school" of his own, for the purpose, among others, of preparing his human acolytes for their coming incarnations, especially those in our time. This school was "sub-earthly" in the sense that it was beneath the earth's surface, and in the sense that it was "sub-sensible" -- the opposite of supersensible.) This heavenly gathering, around the turning of the Eighteenth/Nineteenth centuries, culminated in a mighty Ritual, while on earth the Romantic Movement brought life into culture, before the deep descent into the materialism of the later Nineteenth century. (Goethe in a previous incarnation had been a sculptor associated closely with Plato.) -- After 1879 the Aristotelians were in incarnation (led, as Prokofieff and Lievegoed maintain, by Aristotle/Thomas himself as Rudolf Steiner) and brought to earth the content of the Michael School as Anthroposophy ("spiritual science"). (Plato himself had been incarnated toward the end of the Nineteenth century as the Goethean scholar Karl Julius Schröer, teacher of Rudolf Steiner at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna.) And, shortly before his death, Steiner prophesied that the Aristotelians, together with the Platonists, would again be on earth for the battle against Ahriman at the end of the Twentieth Century. "...those who stand with full intensity within the Anthroposophical Movement will return at the end of the century, and others will then unite with them, for by this means the salvation of the earth and earthly civilization from destruction must eventually be settled. This is the mission of the Anthroposophical Movement...." [Karmic Relationships, Vol. IV] -- The troops are mustering; the armies are forming up for battle: The hosts of Ahriman against the hosts of Michael. Note: This struggle is
further complicated by the fact that, besides the coming physical
incarnation
of Ahriman, a non-physical, ethereal manifestation of Ahriman will
occur,
with the aim of obscuring the appearance of the Ethereal Christ. This
aim
is being furthered by the supra-Masonic, occult "power groups" (or
"brotherhoods")
mentioned earlier. Steiner says: "These brotherhoods of which I
have
just spoken, whose aim is to banish the souls of men into materialistic
spheres, are also making it their aim to ensure that the coming of
Christ
should pass by unnoticed in the twentieth century, that His coming as
an
etheric Being should not be noticed by humanity. This aim is developing
under the influence of a very definite idea, a very definite impulse of
will, to win the sphere of influence which should come to us through
Christ
in the twentieth and later centuries, for another being -- to conquer
that
sphere for another being....These brotherhoods of the West do exist.
They
aim to thwart the impulse of the Christ and put in his place another
individuality
that has never appeared in the flesh -- an etheric being of a strongly
Ahrimanic nature." [lecture of 18 Nov., 1917; quoted in Tradowsky's Kaspar
Hauser, pp. 198-9] Steiner sums up the nature of the struggle between Michael and Ahriman for the formerly-cosmic and now-earthly Intelligence: "...in Ahriman there stands before us a cosmic Being of the highest imaginable Intelligence, a cosmic Being who has already taken the Intelligence entirely into the individual, personal element. In every conceivable direction Ahriman is in the highest degree intelligent, over-intelligent. He has at his command a dazzling Intelligence, proceeding from the whole human being, with the single exception of the part of the human being which in the human forehead takes on human form.
"When we have Ahriman before us in this way, then too we shall feel the great contrast between Ahriman and Michael. For Michael is not in the least concerned with the personal quality of Intelligence. It is only for man that the temptation is ever-present to make his Intelligence personal after the pattern of Ahriman. Truth to tell, Ahriman has a most contemptuous judgment of Michael. He thinks Michael foolish and stupid -- stupid, needless to say, in relation to himself. For Michael does not wish to seize Intelligence and make it personally his own. Michael only wills, and has willed through the thousands of years, nay through the aeons, to administer the Pan-Intelligence. And now once more that men have the Intelligence, it should again be administered by Michael as something belonging to all mankind -- as the common and universal Intelligence that benefits all men alike. [new paragraph] "We human beings shall indeed do rightly...if we say to ourselves: the idea that we can have cleverness for ourselves alone is foolish. Certainly we cannot be clever for ourselves alone. For if we want to prove anything to another person logically, the first thing we must presume if that the same logic holds good for him as for ourselves. And for a third party it is again the same logic. If anyone were to have a logic of his own, it would be absurd for us to want to prove anything to him by our logic." [Karmic Relationships, Vol. III] And, Steiner makes this concept of "Intelligence" more concrete: "What is Intelligence? These abstract generalisations do not of course exist in reality. `Intelligence' means the mutual relationships of conduct among the higher Hierarchies. What they do, how they relate themselves to one another, what they are to one another -- this is Cosmic Intelligence. And since as human beings we must first consider the Kingdom that is nearest to us, concretely speaking the Cosmic Intelligence will be for us the sum-total of the Beings of the Hierarchy of Angeloi. If we are speaking concretely we cannot say `so much Intelligence', but rather `so many Angeloi'. This is the reality." -- Around that fateful year of 869 AD there was a split in the world of angels: the other six "Planetery Archangels", which until then had been led by Michael, "rebelled" against the Sun-rulership, taking with them their associated angels. Since the angels are the carriers of the reincarnating human individualities, this split brought human karma into "disorder"; much of the chaos in recent history is the result of this schism. And those human beings whose angels fell away from Michael "...receive their personal Intelligence as a complete matter of course. This means that it works in them automatically, through their bodily nature. It works in such a way that they think, think cleverly, but are not fully and deeply and humanly concerned in what they think." [Karmic Relationships, Vol. IV] -- These now-earthly angels can "incorporate" themselves into human beings, the cleverest ones who deny the spirit, when human consciousness becomes impaired or dull: a very real kind of Ahrimanic "possession": "Ahriman's perpetual endeavor is to appropriate the intelligence of human beings and not allow them to realise what they can achieve through their own intelligence....Men must strive as time goes on to keep their intelligence under their own individual control, to keep unceasing watch over it.....Ahriman takes full advantage of moments when, in full waking life, a man falls into a state of vertigo or dizziness, into a kind of twilight consciousness, when he feels not quite securely anchored in the physical world and begins to yield himself to the whirl of the universe, when he does not stand firmly and steadily on his own feet as an an individuality....The best way we can protect ourselves is to develop clear, exact thinking, not simply skimming over things in thought as is the general custom today. We should go even farther and try to avoid colloquialisms and current catchwords, for directly we use such words which come, not from thoughts but from habits of speech, we are not exercising thinking -- even if only for a very short time. These are particularly dangerous moments because they are not heeded. We should really be careful to avoid using words behind which there is not sufficient reflection." [The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century pp. 170f.] It really does matter how we use language! [What is now happening in humanity is nothing less than a further Incarnation of logic (the Logos, "Word"), which is Cosmic Intelligence. The "Word" is "becoming flesh" in the individualities of human bings on earth. The Christ (Logos/logic) is indwelling individual human beings. Ahriman -- the Spirit of Lies -- seeks to falsify this intellligence by severing it from the Cosmos and making it, and humanity, entire earthly. But just as logic (Logos) is universally true for all human beings, an entirely individual, subjective logic/intelligence is false -- a lie, an unreality. To think truly, as an individual being with universal Intelligence, is a deed important for the whole earth, for all humanity. It is an act in the battle for the future of the earth, for Michael against Ahriman, for the Cosmic Christ Who descended to become the Spirit of the Earth.] Again, Steiner says that the time of decision is the end of the Twentieth Century. We "will either stand at the grave of civilization" or we will turn toward a spiritualized culture. We may face a scaled-down "War of All against All". (This War is known to occultism as the catastrophe that will end the Post-Atlantean Age, as the Flood ended the Atlantean Age.) We are given help through the present Second Resurrection of Christ -- in the consciousness of human beings -- following the Second Crucifixion of Christ by the materialism in the souls of the dead from the Nineteenth Century onward. We can now think angel-thoughts, have Christ-thoughts and Christ-feelings on earth. This ability prepares, but is not to be confused with the perception of the Ethereal Christ. This natural clairvoyance, which was hindered in 1933 may again become possible from 2000 AD onward, as a reflection of the Deed of Abraham around 2000 BC. He was the first human being to transform the old clairvoyance into brain-thinking: the reflection of this event will be the freeing of thought from the brain and transformation into free, conscious clairvoyance. [The date of 2000 BC for Abraham derives from Stegmann. Prokofieff puts the calling of Abraham around 2100 BC.] There will be no real social healing unless human beings allow the Christ into their souls. To outward appearances, the Christ-influence might seem so weak, and the Ahrimanic influence so strong, that we might lose heart. But we can take heart by ever recalling that the greatest, most powerful event of our times is the coming of the Ethereal Christ. It is the unseen driving force behind the visible depredations of the Adversaries. A new clairvoyance is coming as a natural development; Ahriman seeks to divert into the earthbound, intellectual pseudo-thinking of the hardened ethereal body, so that the Ethereal Christ passes by humanity unnoticed and another (Ahriman) is substituted in His place. But cosmic wisdom in the human mind has power: human beings permeated by this wisdom -- spiritual science -- instill horror into the Ahrimanic spirits. If we meet the Ethereal Christ and the earthly Ahriman consciously, with spirit-will, both events will serve the good of humanity and the world. The battle against Ahriman
in the West will require greater inner force than elsewhere (as
indicated,
because the "spiritual geography" of the American continent favors the
Doppelgänger and Ahrimanic spirits generally), therefore the gain
from the eventual victory can be all the greater. Ahriman can be
defeated
in America, just as the Mexican black magician was defeated by the
Sun-being
Vitzliputzli almost 2000 years ago. And we have the prophecy from
Steiner
that, while the present American materialism is strong, it is youthful
and childlike; it is destined to be outgrown, into a spiritualized
culture
-- during the sixth (Slavic) epoch. The power Ahriman is great,
especially
in America, but the power of Christ is greater. Yet the Christ and His
hosts (with Michael in the forefront) respect and wait upon human
freedom;
and with freedom comes responsibility. If human beings will consciously
take up the Christ-power, the earth can be won for the good.
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Posted May 1997 by Robert S.
Mason
Last revised June, 1999. E-mail to: robertsmason@hotmail.com I welcome questions and comments, but I might be slow to respond, due mainly to my limited computer access. This page was at "www.trailerpark.com"
from May 1997 to Nov. 1998 Thanks to geocities.com for the free Web-server space. Thanks to many readers for
their encouragement and help: I encourage the reader to
freely copy and disseminate |
ABSTRACT: A powerful
spiritual being, called "Ahriman" (or "Satan"), will
incarnate in a human body. The terms "soul" and "spirit" have clear
meanings.
Earthly/cosmic evolution is an outcome of the deeds of the Gods. The
central
event of earth-evolution was the Incarnation of Christ. Spiritual
powers
of opposition are active: Lucifer, Ahriman, Sorat. Ahriman is the
inspirer
of materialistic science and commercialism, and permeates modern
culture
with deadening forces. Ordinary scientific thinking is only
semi-conscious;
we can, however, make thinking conscious. The spirits of opposition are
necessary in the Gods' evolutionary design. Ahriman manifests
especially
at 666-year intervals; the contemporary is 1998 AD = 3x666. Goethean
science
is a life-positive alternative to Ahrimanic science.
Ahriman-in-the-flesh
will likely present himself as the Christ. The Christ does not reappear
in a physical body, but in a super-physical, ethereal form. Ahriman may
incarnate "macrocosmically" in our computers. Humanity will acquire new
faculties of thinking-consciousness and clairvoyance. Ahriman seeks to
pervert these faculties, and to divert humanity and the earth from
their
destined paths in the Gods' evolutionary plan. Ahrimanic secret
societies
influence politics, finance, and culture. A false "Maitreya" is
"emerging"
as a false Christ. An epistemology of conscious thinking supports the
expansion
of consciousness to the perception of spiritual truths. Bibliography. 
This essay is based,
directly or indirectly, on the "spiritual science",
or "Anthroposophy", promulgated by Rudolf Steiner in the first quarter
of the Twentieth Century. I say "based on" because this exposition can
only be grossly oversimplified, and must contain whatever
misunderstandings
that derive from my own (more or less) weak grasp of the
subject-matter.
The reader must assume that this essay is almost wholly derivative; it
contains scarcely any original ideas of my own. In the interest of
readability
(and to give my strained resources a break), I do not provide full
citations
in the text. If I did, almost every sentence would be footnoted. I do
provide
below some bibliographic remarks, which I hope will be useful to the
conscientious
reader. It is probable that hundreds, or thousands, of people in this
world
are better qualified than I to write this notice. I write it because:
The foregoing discussion
can help us understand a presently unfolding event:
the "emergence" of the so-called "Maitreya", now being promoted by
Benjamin
Creme and others. Allegedly this "Maitreya" is not only the Christ but
also the Messiah, Krishna, and the Imam Mahdi. The story goes like
this: