| The Fifth Cultural Epoch - 1414 A.D.
to 3574 A.D. |
| 1414 A.D. Beginning
of the Cultural Age of Pisces 1493 Paracelsus born. Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von Hohenheim, immortalized as "Paracelsus," was born in 1493. He was the son of a well known physician who was described a Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, and it was from him that Paracelsus took his first instruction in medicine. At the age of sixteen, Paracelsus entered the University at Basle where he applied himself to the study of alchemy, surgery, and medicine. With the science of alchemy he was already acquainted, having previously studied the works of Isaac Hollandus. Hollandus' writing roused in him the ambition to cure disease by medicine superior to those available at that time to use, for apart from his incursions into alchemy, Paracelsus is credited with the introduction of opium and mercury into the arsenal of medicine. His works also indicate an advanced knowledge of the science and principles of magnetism. These are just some of the achievements that seem to justify the praise that has been handed him in the last century. 1483 November 10, Martin Luther born at Eisleben Germany. Martin Luther grew up to become the leader of the great religious revolt of the sixteenth century that led to the Reformation. Martin Luther dealt the symbolic blow that began the Reformation when he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. That document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials. But Luther himself saw the Reformation as something far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. He believed it was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only the Pope had affirmed the gospel. And at the heart of the gospel, in Luther's estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith--the teaching that Christ's own righteousness is imputed to those who believe, and on that ground alone, they are accepted by God. 1509 July 10, John Calvin born. This man, undoubtedly the greatest of Protestant divines, and perhaps, after St. Augustine, the most perseveringly followed by his disciples of any Western writer on theology. A generation divided him from Luther, whom he never met. By birth, education, and temper these two protagonists of the reforming movement were strongly contrasted. Luther was a Saxon peasant, his father a miner; Calvin sprang from the French middle-class, and his father, an attorney, had purchased the freedom of the City of Noyon, where he practised civil and canon law.1510 A.D. Beginning of the Moon Regency of the Archangel Gabriel (until 1879 A.D.) 1541 Paracelsus dies, after a short sickness, in a small room at the White Horse Inn, and his body was buried in the graveyard of St. Sebastian. At least one writer has suggested that his death may have been hastened by a scuffle with assassins in the pay of the orthodox medical faculty, but there is no actual foundation for this story. 1545 December 13, Council of Trent The nineteenth ecumenical council opened at Trent on 13 December, 1545, and closed there on 4 December, 1563. Its main object was the definitive determination of the doctrines of the Church in answer to the heresies of the Protestants; a further object was the execution of a thorough reform of the inner life of the Church by removing the numerous abuses that had developed in it. 1546 February 18, Martin Luther dies at Eisleben 1564 May 27, John Calvin dies in Geneva. 1575 April 22-24 Jacob Boehme was born in Altseidenberg, near Görlitz in eastern Germany. Following apprenticeship, he set up his own shop as a shoemaker in Görlitz, where he resided (except for a period of exile in Dresden) until his death on November 17, 1624. After a profound mystical experience at the age of twenty five (1600), while remaining active as a shoemaker and later a merchant, he embarked on a remarkable career of independent scholarship and writing. Though censured for heresy and silenced for seven years by his town council, he eventually produced some twenty nine books and tracts on philosophical theology, and gained a growing following among the nobility and professional classes of the day. 1624 Nov 17, Jacob Boehme dies. 1772 May 2, Novalis - Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenberg is born on his father’s estate of Ober-Wiederstäd (near Eisleben), Germany. German poet who influenced later Romantic thought, sometimes called 'the prophet of Romanticism'. Novalis took his pseudonym from "de Novali", a name his family had formerly used. The central image of Novalis' visions, a blue flower, became later a symbol of longing among Romantics. The 'blue flower' in unattainable and is to remain unattainable. Romantics expressed a longing for home and a longing for what is far off; Schiller called the romantics 'exiles pining for a homeland'. 1801 Mar 25, Novalis dies at his parents’ home in Weissenfels, Germany. 1853 Vladimir Soloviev born in Moscow. His father, Sergej Mikhailovich, a professor at Moscow University, is universally recognized as one of Russia's greatest historians. After attending secondary school in Moscow, Vladimir enrolled at the university and began his studies there in the natural sciences in 1869, his particular interest at this time being biology. Already at the age of 13 he had renounced his Orthodox faith to his friends, accepting the banner of materialism perhaps best illustrated by the fictional character of Bazarov in Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons and the actual historical figure of Pisarev. 1861 Rudolf Steiner was born in Kraljevic Austria, in an area now forming part of Croatia. As a young man he was concerned with the question of how spiritual cognition, vision and experience can be achieved by the same rigorous scientific method that has brought about our extensive knowledge of the physical world acquired through the senses. How can our perception of the phenomena beyond the senses become equally reliable and quicken every aspect of daily life so as to restore the dignity of the human being and lead to a renewal of human life and culture? 1879 A.D. Beginning of the Sun Regency of the Archangel Michael (until 2233 A.D.) 1900 Vladimir Soloviev dies. For the remainder of the 1880s, despite his prolificacy, Solovyov concerned himself with themes of little interest to contemporary Western philosophy. He returned, however, to traditional philosophical issues in the 1890s, working in particular on ethics and epistemology. His studies on the latter, however, were left quite incomplete owing to his premature death in 1900 at the age of 47. At the end Solovyov, together with his younger brother, was also preparing a new Russian translation of Plato's works. 1900 Feb 27, Valentin Tomberg born in St. Petersburg, Russia. As an adolescent, he was drawn to Theosophy and the mystical practices of Eastern Orthodoxy. Tomberg's mother was shot by looters during the Russian Revolution, and Tomberg and his father fled to Tallinn in Estonia. Tomberg studied languages and comparative religion at the University of Tartu in Estonia. In 1925, Tomberg joined Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophical Society, in which he rose until he became its Secretary-General. During World War II, Tomberg converted to Roman Catholicism, and left Anthroposophy. He moved to England in 1948, where he became a translator for the BBC, where he monitored Soviet Union broadcasts during the Cold War. He retired to Majorca in 1960, where he died. 1925 Mar 30 Rudolf Steiner dies in Dornach Switzerland. 1973 Feb 24, Valentin Tomberg dies in Majorca. 2233 A.D. Beginning of the Saturn Regency of the Archangel Oriphiel (until 2587 A.D.) 2375 A.D. End of the Astronomical Age of Pisces 2375 A.D. Beginning of the Astronomical Age of Aquarius 2587 A.D. Beginning of the Venus Regency of the Archangel Aneal |