Spiritual Science is Practical

Upon the Subject of the Saturation of the Earth through to the Inner Core

2012-02-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

THERE is a picture of our Christ supporting a massive rock ledge, with all of his might and intent that one by one folk may issue forth from their captivity and out into freedom. That were it not for this solitary being, those souls would be still held within those dark and unloving recesses.

There are three points to be made here:

The souls and the beings which are transformed and thereby freed by the Christ are not as overcome, but released. There is a slight but grave distinction in perspective here. As He makes His way throughout the lower spheres He does so overcoming only those trace elements of decadent residue, of which the beings are made free of.
The process, if you will, takes time because Christ meets every soul and being who inhabits the realm naturally - He is before each and every one individually and completely. As you can begin to imagine this actually takes more than a considerable time; much more, and is in point of fact, largely accomplished outside of our time for the greater part. Our time period does not relate accordingly to what needs to take place and is 'doing' in those altered regions.
There is little said, and for good reasons, about those parts of a man which are intimately associated to him, which abide in the nether-regions of the lower spheres. Each layer in is as an actual sphere - picture spheres within spheres. The outer Earth is this too, whilst a greater one extends also out from that. However, every soul of Man has a part/portion/parcel of self actually held within each sphere, higher and lower, relative to him. This is not even taking into account those beings too, which are primarily connected with him in time, to his actions past and to the fulfilling of their future design. No, this is moreover relating to Man's earthly warranty, his 'toes' which extend into the very depths; and for Christ to save the whole Man, these 'toes', these lower limbs of Man's being, must be loosened from the mud and rock and brought up as each sphere amalgamates within another.

[The above remarks relate to questions arising from Robert Powell's Christian Hermetic Astrology.]

Secret Matthew Gospel

2011-11-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

In SOD - SON OF MAN, page 46, Samuel F. Dunlap, quotes Jerome:

Writing to the Bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, he complains [Jerome] that "a difficult work is enjoined, since this translation has been commanded me by your Felicities, which St. Matthew himself, the Apostle and Evangelist, DID NOT WISH TO BE OPENLY WRITTEN. For if it had not been SECRET, he (Matthew) would have added to the evangel that which he gave forth was his; but he made up this book sealed up in the Hebrew characters, which he put forth even in such a way that the book, written in Hebrew letters and by the hand of himself, might be possessed by the men most religious, who also, in the course of time, received it from those who preceded them. But this very book they never gave to any one to be transcribed, and its text they related some one way and some another.

This in turn is quoted in Isis Unveiled by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 2, chapter 4.

From this quote it is difficult to believe that Jerome was not in possession of the authentic Matthew - Chaldee language, Hebrew letters:

I did track down the original source of the above quote.

It comes from the preface to a "Pseudo-Matthew". Now whether or not the the Gospel is "pseudo" or not may be a matter of opinion; and whether Jerome's letter is real or not might also be a matter of conjecture. By the same token, we might question whether certain documents have been deemed spurious purely because they don't fit in with the status quo.

So what proof do we have that Jerome didn't write this letter?

The Gospel of the Pseudo Matthew.

The Wiki on the Gospel of the Nazarenes:

Jerome's assessment, in which he stated, "Matthew, also called Levi, apostle and aforetime publican, composed a gospel of Christ at first published in Judea in Hebrew for the sake of those of the circumcision who believed, but this was afterwards translated into Greek, though by what author is uncertain."(Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men, Chapter 3)

The quote (from Sod- Son of Man) is on the same webpage at the top of the Gospel. It is a different translation however:

Quote:

An arduous task is enjoined upon me, since what your Blessedness has commanded me, the holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew himself did not write for the purpose of publishing. For if he had not done it somewhat secretly, he would have added it also to his Gospel which he published. But he composed this book in Hebrew; and so little did he publish it, that at this day the book written in Hebrew by his own hand is in the possession of very religious men, to whom in successive periods of time it has been handed down by those that were before them. And this book they never at any time gave to any one to translate.

More about this Gospel:

"A narrative of the flight into Egypt is adorned with poetic wonders. The dragons, lions, and other wild beasts of the desert adore the infant Jesus. At His word the palm-trees bow their heads that the Holy Family may pluck their fruit. The idols of Egypt are shattered when the Divine Child enters the land. The "Gospel of the Nativity of Mary" is a recast of the Pseudo-Matthew, but reaches only to the birth of Jesus. It is extant in a Latin manuscript of the tenth century."

The Genealogy in Luke

2011-11-01T23:43:00.000-07:00

And when he began his ministry, Jesus himself was about thirty years of age, being supposedly the son of Joseph, the son of Eli (Heli),
Luke 3:23

The argument for Luke's genealogy being that of Mary is very weak.

In the extant MSS Mary is not mentioned.

Now here are the three possibilities:

Joseph was her father
He was her brother
Joseph, the son of Eli, was her father and just happened to have the name as the man to whom she was betrothed

If Luke gives the genealogy of Mary, why does he tie it to Joseph, as he says “the son of Joseph, who was of Heli (Eli)”? Extra-biblical tradition holds that Mary was the daughter of Joachim.

The most reasonable interpretation is that Luke had no intention of tracing Mary's genealogy. Whereas he traces Joseph from David's son Nathan.

Both the Matthew and Luke genealogies state they are for Joseph, both consistently give biological fathers rather than legal fathers, where they are known to vary; the two go through Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel while disagreeing about Shealtiel's parents, and the two are radically different in the time interval between the Babylonian captivity and the birth of Jesus.

And to Jacob was born Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Matthew 1:16

Why does Matthew tell us that Joseph's Dad is Jacob- not Heli?
Why is the genealogy of Joseph relevant at all, if Joseph had nothing to do with the generation of Jesus?

Swan Initiation

2011-11-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

There is an expression "swan song" which means death or dying. This expression comes from the thought (Middle Ages) that swans sung before they died. It is a clue to the Swan level of initiation.

In the writings of Basil Valentinus, the Swan represents the third level of initiation - Raven and Peacock being first and second. In this level Inspiration as the Divine Word, the harmony of the Spheres, sounds forth.

"In the third degree he meets death and must sing the Swan's song. He then dies to everything earthly."

- Notes from Walter Stein's The Ninth Century

More on the Swan as the Aum, taken from:

The Voice of the Silence by H. P. Blavatsky

I found this interesting, that the parts of the bird were "parts" of the AUM. I wonder if this was pictured in meditation?:

"Kala Hamsa, the "Bird" or Swan. Says the Nada-Bindu Upanishad (Rig Veda) -

"The syllable A is considered to be its (the bird Hamsa's) right wing, U, its left, M, its tail, and the Ardha-matra (half metre) is said to be its head."

"Some Sanskrit mystics locate seven planes of being, the seven spiritual lokas or worlds within the body of Kala Hamsa, the Swan out of Time and Space, convertible into the Swan in Time, when it becomes Brahma instead of Brahma (neuter).

A Yogi who bestrides the Hamsa [Swan] (thus contemplates on Aum) is not affected by Karmic influences or crores of sins."

Through contemplation on the AUM the student passes from the world of images to the world of God - the Archetypes.

Kundalini & the Ego

2011-10-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

You know, Steiner did give Kundalini exercises to some of his pupils- see the History of the Esoteric Section. This was only after a thorough preparation of course. I'm not denying that a working with Kundalini is part of initiation, it's just that the Western path is a top-down approach (this being the only way true freedom is assured.)

H.P.B. was of course, firmly against any dabbling in Kundalini exercises- as she was against any "sitting for yoga".

Meher Baba and Goethe are given by Tomberg as examples of the two paths. We do not admire Goethe because he was the ideal human being but because of the inner power of his striving after the realization of the gods' (Christ's) ideal. Inner striving after repeated failure is the real test of a man; the success of entering Nirvana is not.

We strive towards the temple which Rudolf Steiner speaks of, only by working through our many imperfections.

I don't think Meher Baba was just someone who did a few yoga exercises and became "enlightened". Folk did undoubtedly experience divinity whilst in his presence. There was a spiritual purity around the man- he was a God-man. Considering he took a vow of silence, he must have had more going for him than just spiritual instructions.

His gift I would say, was oneness with Father God, rather than union with Christ. Though the Gospel says no one comes to the Father but by Christ, there are paths which bypass Christ. This freedom is also a gift of Christ- they use Him "passively".

Tomberg goes into detail about this as well. It is only on Vulcan that the human being will reach its highest ideal of standing only before Father God. So that is a long way off, and by bypassing all that development we miss out on that great ideal which has been the Divine Plan all along.

Of course who choose the Luciferic "lifestyle" will not be obliterated, and that is their free choice. But some extremists will have suicided out from humanity and become less than human. Steiner talks about them having dragonlike forms with animal heads.

The trouble with all of this is, that right now humanity is not strong enough to resist the temptation of that blissful existence in favor of the work to be done here on earth. That is why we have to be shielded from it in the after death state.

The Christian initiate enters into Nirvana because of need, not because of want. It is a process of activity and rest which is consistent throughout the Cosmos. All activity or all rest are extremes which both lead to decline.

Interestingly, the original purpose of hairshirts was to keep the mystics from disincarnating while they were experiencing times of great bliss.

Most definitely, the ancient Indian philosophy is extremely complex- and not all are in agreement I might add.

Not all the Eastern paths are of the "egoless" way. Of course we know the dangers of egotism. We all know cases of the spiritual student who has become overcome with egotism- which is really the result of a weak selfhood. An extreme of this is when we think that we are totally independent. This is the temptation of turning stones into bread. Normally our need for food tells us that we are not so independent, that the world is not a construction of ourselves.

Rudolf Steiner elaborates on this in his Gospel of Matthew lectures:

A stubborn factor arising in one who is striving for esoteric development is the tendency to occupy himself solely with his own personality. It is precisely in those who want to find their way into the spiritual world that the habit is so often found of loving to talk about their own cherished personality, concerning themselves with it every moment of the day. Whereas in other circumstances people may deliberately refrain from adopting this attitude when they make efforts to develop or perhaps when they first become anthroposophists, they now begin to pay great attention to their own Ego; and then illusions arise on all hands, illusions from which they were formerly diverted by the ordinary demands of life.

Why does this happen? It is because such people are incapable of coping with what rises up from their own inner nature. They are utterly at a loss to know how to deal with what is happening in themselves. Formerly they were alert and readily attracted by the external world; now they are diverted to their own inner world and all sorts of feelings and emotions that were within them begin to rise up.

Why is this? What such a person really wants is to be an 'I', an Ego, entirely independent of the external world. But then he often falls into the error of wanting to be treated like a child who is told clearly what he must do. He wants to be anything rather than a man who sets his own direction and aim in accordance with what esoteric life teaches him. He has not yet begun to reflect about it, but he has the feeling that dependence upon the external world is a disturbing factor, especially when he wants to be absolutely untrammelled and give all his attention to the dictates of his own egoism.

But there is one fact, trivial though it may seem, that prevents him from detaching his bodily life at least from the surrounding world; this fact is that human beings are obliged to eat. It is a trivial fact but it is fatally true. We can learn from it how powerless we are without the world around us. It is a trenchant example of our dependence upon the surrounding world without which we could not live; we are really like a finger on our hand: if we cut it off it withers. A quite trivial consideration can therefore show us the extent to which we are dependent upon the surrounding world.

Egoism at its highest pitch may take the form of the wish: If only I could become independent of the surrounding world; if only I were myself capable of conjuring into existence by magic that which as an ordinary human being I need in physical life but which causes me to be so strongly aware of my dependence upon the world around! Such a wish may actually arise in those who are seeking to attain Initiation. Even hatred may be aroused by the realization that one is dependent on the environment and incapable of conjuring the means of nourishment into existence by magic. It seems strange to say this, but although wishes that soon arise on a small scale when a person is striving to develop appear paradoxical, in their extreme form they become downright absurdity. A man is usually quite unaware that he has such wishes. In point of fact no human being has them so strongly that he is deluded into claiming the power to create food by magic, to sustain life, by something not derived from the external world, from Malkhut. But in an extreme case someone might believe: If only I were able to live so entirely in my astral body and Ego that I could rely for my needs entirely on my own wishes, I should no longer be dependent on the surrounding world!

This form of temptation does arise. And in the case of the One who was to undergo it in its greatest intensity, it is characterized by the saying that the Tempter confronting Christ Jesus bade Him turn stones into bread. This is temptation in its extreme form. The descent into a man's own inner being is described most wonderfully in St. Matthew's story of the Temptation.

The second stage comes after the aspirant for Initiation has penetrated into his astral body and is confronted by all the emotions and passions that could have made him into an utter egoist.

Perceiving all this, instead of resisting and overcoming it, a man would like to cast himself down into the etheric body and physical body. This is a situation that may well be described as hurling oneself into the abyss. And this is how it is actually described in St. Matthew's Gospel: man casts himself down into what he has not hitherto been able to spoil to any considerable extent, namely, the etheric and physical bodies. But the passions and emotions must first have been overcome. The Christ Being knows this and facing theTempter, having overcome the forces by His own power, declares: Thou shalt not tempt the Being to whom thou shoulds't surrender thyself!

end of quote

The Goals of the Student of Yoga

2011-10-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

The below is really the best article by Valentin Tomberg I have found on the differences between Indian Yoga and the Christian paths:

Just as it was necessary within the social order of India to build a bridge by means of the caste system between material man and spiritual man, and as it was necessary in Indian thought-life to bridge through theory the polarity of the abovementioned principles (Purusha and Prakriti), so in Yoga it was a question of actually treading the path which leads from the realm of matter to that of spirit. And that pathway is certainly taken, and many take it even today in those parts of the world.

Regarding Yoga now from this point of view - that it is not just a theoretical world of ideas, but a practical ordering of the relation between spirit and matter - there arises the question as to the manner in which this relationship is governed. We are faced with the question: What does the student of Yoga actually want to achieve ? What aim does his soul have in view ?

The goal of the Yoga student is to be freed from the bonds of the body, and essentially Yoga technique employs methods for breaking these bonds. These consist of a system of exercises along with a certain way of life which call forth changes in the human being, taking him further in the direction of this goal. The transformations striven for by repeated exercises and the definite life style of Yoga result in the formation of a kind of stream of forces which come from below and move upwards in the human organism; from the lower body up into the head.

This stream of forces moving from below upward (the so-called "Kundalini Fire") reaches the brain and crown of the skull and penetrates through them, causing consciousness to be loosened from the body and the experience of the desired state of freedom from earthly bonds. In this way through Indian Yoga, experiences are sought which arise in connection with a freeing from the body. This striving is a striving after freedom but in the sense of a freedom from the earth.

The practical aim of Yoga actually stands in polar opposition to the ideals of the representatives of Christian European culture. These representatives of the profound Christian spiritual life revealing itself in the past in the form of Rosicrucianism, strove also toward a practical goal, yet their goal is entirely different from that of Indian Yoga. For them the important thing is not to be freed from the earthly element, but to redeem everything earthly from evil.

The idea which forms the basis for this striving is not the opposition between spirit and matter, but rather the opposition between good and evil.

Christianity, not as a philosophical or theological teaching, but as a active spiritual force in the world, proceeds from the idea that evil has penetrated into the world and that error, sickness, and death are its results. Therefore it cannot be Christianity's task to retreat from that realm, but rather to conquer the evil which has given cause for error, suffering and death.

Before Christianity stands the lofty and distant goal of conquering death itself, not in the sense of fleeing into that realm where death no longer exists, but of conquering it in that place where it unfolds its greatest power. The victory over death in the realm of earthly life itself that is the goal of true Christianity. However, this goal must be reached through victory over evil. It is not a question of fighting against matter, for matter and nature are not in themselves evil. Rather they can be seen as victims of evil. The task of man, therefore, is not to wrestle with nature in order to free himself from her, but to struggle to purify her and set her free.

This goal of true Christianity finds expression in the image of the Washing of the Feet from the sublime Gospel of St. John. There Christ bends down to the lowly and even to the lowest of the low, the feet of which He washes. In this image, the idea is expressed that the Christ impulse has the task of enabling the 'low' to be purified: by going down oneself into the lowest regions of being in order to ennoble them.

Now there is nothing, either in man or nature, which cannot be transformed. Among the ways that this striving came to expression was in the misunderstood and misused Alchemy, widespread in Europe in the Middle Ages. The alchemists were wholly filled with the wish to transform the 'lower into a higher', and were convinced that this was just as possible in the case of metals and other substances as with the human soul forces.

Their efforts to transform base metals into precious ones were actually expression of a deeply inward permeation with the reality of the Christ Impulse. They strove to apply the great principle of Washing of the Feet, even in material processes in their laboratories ; and they did this - the original, true alchemists - because they had the actual experience: it is possible to transform the 'lower into the higher'. They expanded their inner experience into the outer realm of physical substances and forces.

The Alchemy of the Middle Ages is merely one especially conspicuous example of the working of the Christ impulse in man. There are many such examples. In all of them the main thing is that they give expression in various ways to the principle of the Washing of the Feet. This principle is actually the spiritual-moral foundation for any true Christianity. It is especially the basis of Christian Rosicrucianism.

While the objective of Indian Yoga is to create a stream of 'fire power' from below upward in the human organism with the purpose to experience the liberation of one's own soul, so in Christian Occultism the MAIN OBJECTIVE IS TO CREATE A STREAM OF 'LIGHT POWER' WHICH WORKS ABOVE DOWNWARDS. Meditation and other spiritual exercises of Christian Occultism have the task to allow the light which is kindled in the head to stream downward so that the unconscious life of human urges and instincts may be illuminated and ennobled. And the purification of human nature is the beginning of the purification of all Nature: that is, the beginning of the conquest of evil in the world.

Today, when many writings on occult themes bring much knowledge to men, it is necessary that every European who has an interest for true spiritual life should carefully consider the choice between the ideals of Indian Yoga and the ideals of the more deeply penetrating Christian spiritual direction - between "self-liberation"and "Washing of the Feet".

end of article

(My Caps)

Valentin Tomberg elaborates further - from his book Inner Development:

This slumbering force is to be awakened.[Why is it slumbering to begin with?]

If awakened it is channelled upward into consiousness and superconciousness, thereby creating a current that, rising out of the region of the abdomen, ascends as far as the top of the skull, whence it escapes into the outer world. This is a condition of ecstasy in which the soul rises to the greatest heights of the Divine and becomes a Mahatma....

If the slumbering power of fire would be awakened, it would ascend in serpentine movements and then leave the body. It is what the Indians designate as the thousand-petalled lotus flower, the crown center of the head, that is here brought into movement, producing a multitude of upward-flowing streams leaving the body....

But in fact what really happens is as follows. The higher expelled soul life ascends upward, the lower it falls later on - like rain - into the sphere of the Ahrimanic. The physical natural phenomenon of rain has this process as its spiritual archetype. If an individual ascends, like a cloud, to dwell in the heights, then there occurs after a certain time a fall into the region of Ahriman. Thus Ahriman captures the Luciferic. That is karma. But the impulse lying hidden in this Yoga is not simple that one can merely say: human beings wish only to be freed from life's vale of tears. We do wish it, but this is not the essential thing.

Let us try to understand what inner motives really lie behind the pursuit of Yoga.

When in the life after death one has passed through the cosmic midnight hour, the midpoint in the soul's path after death, then one stands before the possibility of a definite temptation. One says to oneself: "I live in the spiritual; spiritual light surrounds me. It would be possible for me to incorporate into this spiritual light everything that I bear within myself, to unite with it so that everything in me that is imperfect would be transformed into perfection."

This is the Luciferic temptation. It means inwardly to break away from, and refuse, the whole further development of humanity. In the cycle of lectures Rudolf Steiner gave in Vienna in 1914, The Inner Being of Man and Life between Death and a New Birth, you will find a description of these matters. The point is that a temptation can be so great that a human soul cannot withstand it. Such a temptation is therefore concealed by the gods, but nevertheless it is effectively present in the world. The element of temptation here does not consist in one's being offered the possibility of, say, dominion, or of realizing evil intentions, or the temptation of egoism in the worldly sense; no, the possibility offered is that of remaining pure and holy in the spiritual world. But in that case what is imperfect- and yet, as potential perfection, is still present in human nature-will not be developed, even if what is already developed in human nature were to remain forever in the light of purity and holiness. The temptation, then, is to renounce the great ideal of the future. In return, one can attain to a high degree of beauty and light in one's being, insofar as this is now developed.

Thus every human soul stands at one time before the choice of becoming wonderfully holy or else at some time in the future-by working through many, many imperfections - of attaining a far-off ideal, wherein all undeveloped faculties implanted in human nature by the by the gods will come to fruition.

Rudolf Steiner speaks of the "temple" of humanity's future as the image of the ideal human being. In the state after death, the soul sees this temple and is so inspired by the temple's light that it enthusiastically makes decisions that lead it to return to Earth- in order to attain perfection in a far distant future.

- Bruce

The Needy and the Worthy

2011-09-20T06:27:00.001-07:00

A YOUNG monk went to the coffers of his monastery and stole away all that was there to be had. He had a conscience which provoked him and spoke to him that the wealth might be served better - and so departed the in holy calling, taking from the community all of their treasured savings.

No sooner had he left the confines of the monastery was he beset by a group of thieves, who asked of him to display that which he bore, straddled in bags, a weight on his horse.

Honesty was most valued in righteousness, and therefore the monk did speak truthfully when replying, "I have a parcel of much treasure, which I intend to distribute to the needy".

The thieves were suspicious of this, but took the monk to be a fool - "Well my friend, you have come to find the most needy! We are they, hand it over!"

"I believe you to be in need of counselling" the monk replied, "but how am I to know if you are in need of finance. You appear to have much fat around the girth, and much vigour in your step. I had not you in mind, when I did rob and plunder that from my brother monks."

"From one robber to another, let us eat together and discuss this a little further?" They asked. And so the monk was shuffled amongst them and made to take food, on this, his day of fast.

The twilight came and many a speech was bandied, until the black of night could mask their treacherous intent. The thieves fell upon the monk all at once and stifled him to his death. They then grabbed upon his bags and tore them to pieces to empty the contents- scythes and tongs, wheat-seed and millet, axe heads and nails, and texts about the mysteries of good farming.

They disgustedly hurled the monk's 'treasure' to the ground, stripping the baggage to pieces in vain attempt to uncover some jewels or some gold.

"Useless!" they cried, as they kicked the corpse; and then departed.

Oft times charity is so rebuked, even when it is offering that which is most needed. One must discern wisely, no matter how good the intent, as to who is best fitted to receive those treasures and make good use of them. The monk met with dishonesty unto himself and then with the thieves - the men who would not choose an honest living, and required of him so much more than he could offer. Even honesty may be turned corrupt, when so taken to be the very opposite. It is better to give of oneself, in word or in deed, sparingly, and withhold much initially, lest it be all lost to those who are unworthy, and shall by their evil, defeat the good intention that it may not find its way to those who would gracefully and gratefully receive it.

The Unknown Passage

2011-09-18T03:46:00.000-07:00

THERE was an old man who was loathsome to behold. For his teeth had moved in the jaw and did not fit properly; his hair was unkempt, his eyes with milk-blindness; his features were sunken and gave no hint whatsoever of his former portrait in youth.

One day there came by him a distraught soldier who was on his way to his first commission. The young man had been weeping and the old crow of a man went to his assistance.

"Come, come, my young fellow", he croaked, "Why do you cry so mournfully?"

"What would you know, old man?" The young soldier protested. "You have been given more than your fill of life, and I, at such an early age will be deprived of mine!"

"Then perhaps I should go in place of you, and in return you may live that life which I have endured? Would this be your will?"

The bewildered young man was confused with fear, and now with such uncommon speculation. He bethought this to be a mocking jest, and answered so: "Oh yes, old man, I shall trade you my destiny which is doomed, for a piece of those years and your destiny's past."

"So be it." The elderly one sighed, and instantly the two were transfigured.

During the next sixty years or so the youth became as old, and with many a struggle and a battle of kind, he had come to the end of his days to find experience was behind him and poverty a’front. His limbs were beginning to fail; he was still much tormented by those dreams that were as yet unfulfilled.

He now spent his days at the roadside watching the traffic go to and fro. He had felt cheated when thought that his life lived was not of his own - that he should never come to know, what might have been were it under his directive and not just the mere reproduction of another's.

He had pondered as to what had become of his perpetual partner, until one day when a young soldier came by. He recognised his face all at once, for this was his face, his very own he had long ago worn!

"Do you not know me?" he croaked, to the youth there before him.

"No old man, I do not know you. Should I?" replied the soldier, as he flung a few copper coins at his feet.

"I am Fate.,” the old man murmured as he gazed with great intent.

"Pleased to meet you, and fare you well! For I am the Conscious Will and must now go my way", and so saying departed with a laugh and a wave, cheerio.

We may all assume the life of destiny, or live the life of one with free will. There is a marriage of both in a man, who throughout the course of life is offered both limitations and possibilities, concurrently. We are wise to discern which is which and one from another, and be content with both, for they are brothers… brothers out of time.

Sweet and Sinister

2011-09-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

Sweet and Sinister

IN the market there was a candy-seller, a woman of large and cumbersome proportions. She beamed with every trade encountered; she had such a sickly-sweet smile. Old and young would come and eye over her table, where there laid out was a rich display. So colorful, so sweet, so enticing were these pieces crafted and fashioned in so many shapes. There were animals delicately sculptured from the sugar, there were miniature houses spun with fretwork laced with crystalline fruits and ginger hue, there were carts that had wheels made of fancy chocolate that moved, and held within small trifling of peppermint and rose bon bons.

Many admired her trolley, and had to part with their money for this extravagance. You might have heard of this woman before in the latter part of her life for which she is notorious. However, she had found the one weakness of men which made for great barter, and was forever successful in that market.

Oddly enough the woman cared not for the sweets herself. It was with much distaste that she watched the eager hand reach and choose from her colorful array. For her passion in extravagance was particular to human flesh - instead of bearing children, as most women are wont to do, she would consume them. But no one guessed this secret; they were so unsuspecting of this "sweet lady" of the marketplace.

The orphans who did approach the stall, were invited home to survey her goods. They would wait all day until she had sold all pieces, and would ride the trolley back, never to return to that market again. It was odd that she was thought of as kindly and as such a Good Samaritan. But then, not always are things as they seem.

How often we surrender to the witch of lascivious gratification. We pay quite happily without care for the orphans of the world. Were that those monies imparted had gone to good purpose - and if in excess, to be given over for a real meal for one who has not. We are persuaded all too easily by that which appears delightfully enchanting but has little or no nourishment to sustain the body or mind. This witch deceived the innocents, and also those who cared not to know, for she was the rogue of Lust's Submission.

The Obliging Servant

2011-09-13T03:32:00.000-07:00

"I ASKED you to send me more life, and you return with a mere youth who will not now give over the elixir!" he bellowed in rage.

"It is because it would be death for him to hand it over" explained the servant.

"Then take it from him!" came the desperate cry.

"I cannot Sir," replied the servant, "for it is not mine to take".

"Then I shall have to do it myself", thus saying, he swiftly snatched the vial from the young man's hand.

The youth did wither before their eyes, the flesh shrivelled back from the bone, the eyes from the sockets, and he collapsed in unspeakable mess of remains.

And as the devil-tyrant took tonic to lips, he enquired, "And what did you promise this time to this youth, that he might journey with you?"

The servant with eyes cast down upon the formless form, replied, "I promised that he should see one who is far greater than he. That he might be amazed at the power and grace of my Master, and he was eager to be received".

"Then you have fulfilled your promise" came the haughty reply, "you have done well by me. You may take rest for the moment, for come tomorrow I shall need you once again. Only this time, bring me more, for I am still not quite refreshed.”

Such it is with the devil of Conceit and his manservant False Pride, who with false promise does come to men to cajole the very life from them, if they but follow and give over their precious life to these two rogues.

Corrected Quote on Waldorf Education

2011-05-21T01:34:00.000-07:00

A quote describing Waldorf Education goes like this: "Receive the child in reverence, educate the child in love, let the child go forth in freedom." This is attributed to Rudolf Steiner, but the reference is never cited.

The sentiments have been lifted from Dr. Steiner's lecture

Spiritual Ground of Education, and it goes like this:

If we have received the child in religious reverence, if we have educated him in love up to the time of puberty, then our proper course after this will be to leave the youth's spirit free, and to hold intercourse with him on terms of equality. We aim, — that is not to touch the spirit but to let it be awakened. When the child reaches puberty we shall best attain our aim of giving the child over to free use of his intellectual and spiritual powers if we respect the spirit and say to ourselves: you can remove hindrances from the spirit, physical hindrances and also, up to a point, hindrances of the soul. What the spirit has to learn it learns because you have removed the impediments. If we remove impediments the spirit will develop in contact with life itself even in very early youth. Our rightful place as educators is to be removers of hindrances.

-Lecture IV: 19th August, 1922

Hymn of the Incarnation

2010-12-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

In the midnight of the Ages,
In the midnight dark and lone,
When the heroes and the sages
In life’s battle faint had grown;
When the world’s great heart was lying
Like a corpse upon its bier,
Then, through heaven, a voice went crying
“God is near!”

In the midnight of the nations,
When the Morning Land was dead,
And to woes and lamentations
Earth in agony was wed;
Rose a cry of fearful wailing
From the stormy nether sphere,
“Lo! the pagan orb is paling,
God is near!”

In the midnight of Earth’s errors,
When the serpent’s monstrous head,
From its eyes shot lurid terrors
While upon her breasts it fed,
When the faith in the Hereafter
Had no prophet, bard, or seer
Rang a voice, through sin’s wild laughter -
“God is near!”

Where a virgin, pure, adoring,
Worshiped God who reigns above,
Came a glorious outburst, pouring
From Jehovah’s heart of love;
And an angel spake, “Hail Maiden;
In thy inmost bosom sphere
Thou with child from Heaven art laden -
God is near!”

Through the seraph universes
Shone a flame of circling light;
While dark Hades rang with curses
It unfolded form and might.
Then a Child to earth was given,
And He stood beside Earth’s bier
Crying loud, “Arise forgiven,
God is here!”

As a meteor star that falleth
Sank the world from out its place;
Or a ravished bride that calleth
From a serpent’s loathed embrace;
Lo! through storms of lava ashes
Came a voice, her heart to cheer,
Thundering through the lightning flashes,
“God is here!”

Who shall tell the solemn story
Of the Form that God possessed?
Of the temples pierced and gory
And the wounds in feet and breast?
All the angels worshipped round Him
When the bloody cross was near,
Crying to the men who bound Him,
“God is here!”

In His Love’s transfiguration,
When He rose, the world to free,
Seen by every angel nation
In DIVINE HUMANITY,
All the universe adoring
Saw the end of evil near,
Crying loud, in one outpouring,
“God is here!”

-T.L. Harris

From Paracelsus to Goethe 2

2010-12-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

More from Dr. Rudolf Steiner (Anthroposophy):

But he wished to learn, not only how every one, every metal, springs from its environment directly in accordance with the configuration of the mountain-ranges, always according to its habitat, thus forming for himself a picture of how Nature lives in creating; he wished to learn, not only how the plants assumed different forms according to climate and environment; something else hovered also before him.

He said to himself: The whole human organism is dependent upon its environment. What man is in body and soul cannot be regarded as of the same nature everywhere; at least one cannot know Man, by studying him in one place only. Therefore Paracelsus wandered through the most varied regions of the earth accessible to him, in order to perceive everywhere - with a gaze which penetrated deeply into the spiritual - how Man is related to Nature, according as he is affected by the influences of very different conditions in climate and the lay of the land; and only by taking account of these differences everywhere, can one arrive at enlightenment concerning the healthy and the sick, in the sense of Paracelsus. Hence he was never satisfied to know any form of sickness in one place only.

He said to himself: The delicate substances which make up the human organism, differ, according as a man lives in Hungary, for instance, in Spain or in Italy, and no-one knows a man unless he can trace the finer substances with a gaze which pierces into the depths of these things. And when he was reproached with what he called his "academy" and others called his "vagrancy", he pleaded that the Deity does not come to those who merely "sit behind the stove". He was clear that a man must go where the divine Spirit weaves and works in most diverse forms in the creations of Nature. Thus he cultivated a knowledge, which may be called, in the highest and finest sense a truly individual clairvoyance, which he alone could possess through being brought up with Nature.

He felt too, that this knowledge had grown up closely with what his own inmost soul took for granted, so that he became ever more and more conscious that what he had learnt directly in the "academy of Nature", could actually only be made clear by an intimate mode of expression. He called Nature his "book", and the different regions of the earth, the "separate pages" of this book, which men read when they pass through them.

And by degrees he acquired a deep contempt for those who only studied old Galen, Avicenna, etc. and, through the books of these men, were alienated from the book of Nature, which lay before them with its pages outspread. He felt, too, that what he had learnt in this academy of his, could only be clad in intimate words, and so he realised the necessity of expressing himself, not in a language which had become alien to his inner life, the Latin language, in which everything of this kind was still carried on at the Universities, as we have already indicated. He saw no necessity to express himself in a language as strange to the human soul as, on the other hand, the scholarship which made use of it, was strange to direct Nature. For he did not believe that he could succeed in so bending and formulating the words that they would directly express what poured forth from all creation.

Hence he felt a deep necessity to express in his mother-tongue whatever he had to express. This involved two consequences. In the first place, he had - not from arrogance or to win a reputation - a high consciousness of the value of what he was able to know; for he was essentially modest with regard to what great Nature awoke in his soul.

So it came about that he said - because what he spoke concerning Nature appeared in his soul as in a mirror: One can actually learn nothing of Medical Science from any other study; for the renewal of Medical Science Nature must again be directly approached. Hence his haughty words:

"Whoever will follow truth, must enter my monarchy. After me; not I after you. After me, Avicenna, Galen, Rhasis, Montagnana, Mesue, etc. ye of Swabia, ye of Meissen, ye of Cologne, ye of Vienna and the towns on the Danube and Rhine, ye islands of the sea: thou Italy, thou Dalmatia, thou Sarmatia, thou Athens; thou Greek, thou Arab, thou Israelite; after me, not I after you. I shall be monarch, and mine will the monarchy be; I lead the monarchy and encircle your lands."

Not from arrogance or pride, but from the consciousness of how Nature spoke through him, he said: "Mine is the monarchy". He meant the monarchy of Natural Science and Medical knowledge of his day - and the second consequence was that such knowledge and such a way of thinking placed him in opposition to the official representatives of his profession. To begin with, they could not endure his expressing in the German language what, they considered, could only possibly be expressed in Latin. He was a complete innovator in this matter. Again, they could not understand his wishing to learn by wandering through the countries. One thing, above all, they could not grasp, namely, that he who grew up with the whole warp and woof of Nature, should have such a lively feeling for the way that Man - wherever he may be - is, everywhere, both in the evolution of his soul and in the culmination of his physical development, a flower, a fruit, natural to the region he inhabits, and one must not only see how the plants grow how the animals thrive, but how there is expressed in the soul of men who are directly interwoven and grown into Nature, all that plays into them from the whole rest of Nature.

From Paracelsus to Goethe

2010-12-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here is the beginning of a lecture given in Berlin on the 16th of November 1911. In it are some of Dr. Rudolf Steiner's (Anthroposophy) impressions of the home town of Paracelsus- such an important figure who lived about five hundred years ago.

-Bruce

It was on a beautiful September day of this year (1911) that my vocation led me through Zurich. And as this was a free day between days of work, I went with some friends to the village of Einsiedeln, close to Zurich. Here is a Benedictine monastery, founded in the early Middle Ages, which has attained a certain celebrity through various circumstances.

Precisely on that September day, what is called in Catholic countries a Pilgrimage-festival was in progress. Einsiedeln was made ready to receive a great number of pilgrims, and expected a lively day, just such a day as periodically occurs in Catholic places of pilgrimage. I myself wished to make a kind of pilgrimage on that occasion, not indeed exactly to Einsiedeln, but from there to a neighbouring place.

A carriage was hired, and we drove to what they call there the "Devil's Bridge". By a pretty rough road, up and down hill, we arrived there at last, after a good long stretch, and found a fairly modern guesthouse, not modern in luxury, but built only a comparatively short time ago. On this guest-house there was a tablet:

"Birthplace of the physician and naturalist Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus, 1493-1541".

That was, in short, the goal of my pilgrimage: this birthplace of the famous - in some connections one might say, notorious - Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus von Hohenheim. To begin with, we saw a remarkable place, where many roads crossed, everywhere a really luxuriant cultivation, rich growth of flowers, and, at the moment we were there, the immense herds of cattle, so frequently to be seen in Switzerland particularly. The natural character of the Alpine regions gives rise to a very special feeling, hardly to be found anywhere else in Europe: there is something about Nature, as if the plants there spoke a language of their own, as if they wished to say something to us, as if they could become quite talkative.

There is also in that place a spot well adapted to combine with what the Spirit of Nature may say. And there rose before my mind the picture of a boy who, in the first nine years of his life, grew up with that Nature, whose birthplace was actually a house which had once stood on that site, but had been replaced by the above-mentioned new one. For, in the 15th century, there lived in that place the old physician, Bombast von Hohenheim, whose little son was the future Paracelsus. And anyone who knew the boy, could realise how closely, from his earliest childhood, he had grown up with Nature. One could realise the boy in these natural surroundings, could picture him carrying on intimate, child-like conversations with the plants.

If the exterior of the houses had altered, in a certain respect the external configuration of the landscape was, quite certainly, still that with which the boy Paracelsus had talked innumerable times, from early morning till late evening - except those times when he accompanied his father on his rounds among the adjacent villages. And it may be accepted as certain that even with this little boy, in the midst of that natural scenery, the father could exchange many interesting thoughts concerning the doubtless intelligent questions which that child was already able to ask about what Nature showed in his immediate experience. And much which we can discern in the life of Paracelsus, was ripening then in that child. It confronts us in childlike form when we have before us the picture of the good old man - but very learned licentiate - the old Bombast von Hohenheim, who leads by the hand the Nature-intoxicated boy, so eager for knowledge.

While this picture rose in my mind, I had to remember another which I saw - many years ago, it is true - when I stood before a house in Salzburg, which bore a tablet announcing that in this humble house died Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus von Hohenheim, at the age of 48 years. These two pictures enclosed for me this eventful, quite unique life. If we look a little more closely into the life of Paracelsus, we find rising in his soul - certainly still with the character of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries - a deep knowledge of Nature, which then became Medical Science Philosophy and then became Theosophy. A deep understanding of Nature, not comparable with what is given us today of external Nature-knowledge through experiment and intellect, but derived from deeper soul-forces, clairvoyant soul-forces, of whose true form we have already been able to give indications in former lectures of this cycle. But what had awakened in Paracelsus these deeper forces, and made it possible for him to see in Nature that which is behind what external sense and external intellect discerns, was actually brought about through his intimate converse with Nature, the kinship which grew up between all his soul-forces and that which buds and blooms and grows in Nature.

Even when the nine-year-old boy moved with his father to Carinthia, he was transplanted into an equally prolific landscape, and could feel akin to all that dwells as Spirit in Nature. And as Paracelsus grew up, his conception of Nature became even more and more individual and quite uniquely personal.

How could it be otherwise! All that was fixed in his mind was closely dependent on his own particular forces and abilities, on his attitude towards things, on the way in which they spoke to him. Hence, throughout his life he attached a special value to having grown up so intimately with Nature. And when he wished to impress those who became his enemies, with the kinship between his innermost being and Nature, he would point to his early upbringing; for instance, in his words:

"Pay heed to my defence: By nature I am not subtly woven, nor is it the way of my country to achieve anything by silk-spinning, we were not reared on figs or mead or wheaten bread, but on cheese, milk and oatmeal; that does not make finical fellows. Therefore he may well be considered rough and rude, who believes himself to be quite courteous and kindly. Thus it happens to me too; what I take for silk, others call ticking and drill."

He is constructed, he considers, like those who have not severed their whole being from the matrix of natural existence, but remain closely connected with it; and from this connection he draws his strength and his wisdom.

Hence his motto throughout his life could be: "None shall be another's slave, who can for himself remain alone". This permeated his whole manner of life, and shows us the stamp of this man's soul. Hence we can understand that, when later, he came to the University, he could not at all adapt himself to the scholarly way in which he must pursue what he knew by nature, stimulated merely by converse with Nature and talks with his father about medical science. At first he simply could not digest the University methods.

To gain insight into what he had to endure there, we must glance at the way in which Medicine was studied at that time. The old traditions and documents of antiquated medical men, such as Galen and Avicenna, were authoritative above anything else; and the lecturers mainly busied themselves with explaining and commenting upon what was written in those books. This was deeply repugnant to the soul of young Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim; and he found, above all, that there is a very wide distance between the spiritual efforts and endeavors intuitively recognizable as proceeding directly from Nature, and what has deviated from it so far, as the scholarly approach, as merely intellectual conceptions and ideas. Hence he wished to go through a different school. And through this different school he had already radically gone!

We see Paracelsus having soon forsaken all collegiate teaching; we see him wandering through all the countries of Europe; not only through all the German and Austrian lands, Transylvania, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Portugal, but also through France, England, Holland, Prussia and Lithuania, as far as Denmark, Norway and Sweden, with the intention - to quote Goethe - of learning everywhere to know "how Nature lives in creating". For what actually hovered before him was the thought: The whole of Nature is indeed a unity, but she speaks many different languages; and precisely as a man learns to recognize how one and the same thing changes its form and is differently shaped in different regions and altered environments, so does he penetrate to the essence of the inner unity to that which, in contrast to all mere sense-perceptions, is the spiritual foundation.

Catholicism & Waldorf Education

2010-11-27T20:15:00.000-08:00

Question:
Can a Catholic take elements from Waldorf, Steiner, Anthroposophy, into a Christian home? And can Catholic Homeschoolers use the Waldorf education method with confidence?

Reply:
On further study you'll find that Anthroposophy is profoundly Christian in its essence - in fact Rudolf Steiner said that the whole purpose of Anthroposophy was to elaborate the Christian Mystery. It is entirely consistent with the prologue of the Gospel of St. John, and its description of the condescension of the Creative Word.

Now even though there are some Christian/Judaic elements in the Waldorf curriculum, you'll find that Anthroposophical doctrines are not taught.

There are many Catholic anthroposophists, Pietro Archiati being a quite well known one (he was expelled by the Society). He studied philosophy and theology and worked for many years as a Catholic priest.

Another famous anthroposophist who became a Catholic is Valentin Tomberg. His book Meditations on the Tarot, was foreworded by Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar. In the National Catholic Reporter. Richard Knopf said: The book begs not only to be studied cover to cover, but also to be savored, meditated upon and assimilated into one's life.

The Fr. Thomas Keating, American Cistercian monk and popularizer of a practice named 'centering prayer' called for it to be a fundamental Christian text.

But the most famous Catholic to study Rudolf Steiner was none other than the young Karol Józef Wojtyła who later became Pope John Paul II. He was once part of an Anthroposophical group in Poland that was working with the art of speech and Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Dramas.

-Br. Bruce

Pope with Meditations on the Tarot on his desk:

Note: Photo is reversed- see watch on right hand.

Pope with Hans Urs von Balthasar- a big fan of the anthroposophicly influenced Catholic, Valentin Tomberg

Tomatoes & Cancer- Rudolf Steiner

2010-09-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

Now there is one thing of importance I should like to point out, and I beg you to make exact experiments on this — experiments which could well be extended to an observation of human beings, at any rate of those who incline towards the food question. You know that in modern time (relatively speaking, it is only a short time since) the tomato has been introduced as a kind of staple food. Many people are fond of it. Now the tomato is one of the most interesting subjects of study. Much can be learned from the production and consumption of tomatoes. Those who concern themselves a little with these things — and there are such men to-day — rightly consider that the consumption of the tomato by man is of great significance. (And it can well be extended to the animal; it would be quite possible to accustom animals to tomatoes). It is, in fact, of great significance for all that in the body, which — while within the organism — tends to fall out of the organism, i.e. for that which assumes — once more, within the organism — an organization of its own.

Two things follow from this. First, it confirms the statement of an American to the effect that a diet of tomatoes will, under given conditions, have a most beneficial effect on a morbid inclination of the liver. In effect, the liver of all Organs works with the greatest relative independence in the human body. Therefore, quite generally speaking, liver diseases — those that are rather diseases of the animal liver — can be combated by means of the tomato.

At this point we can begin to look right into the connection between plant and animal. I may say, in parenthesis, suppose a person is suffering from carcinoma. Carcinoma, from the very outset, makes a certain region independent within the human or animal organism. Hence a carcinoma patient should at once be forbidden to eat tomatoes. Now let us ask ourselves: What is it due to? Why does the tomato work especially on that which is independent within the organism — that which specializes itself out of the organic totality? This is connected with what the tomato needs for its own origin and growth.

The tomato feels happiest if it receives manure as far as possible in the original form in which it was excreted or otherwise separated out of the animal or other organism — manure which has not had much time to get assimilated in Nature — wild manure, so to speak. Take any kind of refuse and throw it together as a disorderly manure- or compost-heap, containing as much as possible in the form in which it just arose — nohow prepared or worked upon. Plant them there, and you will soon see that you get the finest tomatoes. Nay, more, if you use a heap of compost made of the tomato-plant itself — stem, foliage and all — if you let the tomato grow on its own dung, so to speak, it will develop splendidly.

The tomato does not want to go out of itself; it does not want to depart from the realm of strong vitality. It wants to remain therein. It is the most uncompanionable creature in the whole plant-kingdom. It does not want to get anything from outside. Above all, it rejects any manure that has already undergone an inner process. It will not have it. The tomato's power to influence any independent organization within the human or animal organism is connected with this, its property.

To some extent, in this respect, the potato is akin to the tomato. The potato, too, works in a highly independent way, and in this sense: it passes easily right through the digestive process, penetrates into the brain, and makes the brain independent — independent even of the influence of the remaining Organs of the body. Indeed, the exaggerated use of potatoes is one of the factors that have made men and animals materialistic since the introduction of potato cultivation into Europe. We should only eat just enough potatoes to stimulate our brain and head-nature. The eating of potatoes, above all, should not be overdone.

Agriculture , Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 8

Even This Shall Pass Away

2010-07-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Once in Persia reigned a King
Who upon his signet ring
Graved a maxim true and wise,
Which, if held before the eyes,
Gave him counsel at a glance,
Fit for every change and chance.
Solemn words, and these are they:
"Even this shall pass away."

Trains of camels through the sand
Brought his gems from Samarkand;
Fleets of galleys through the seas
Brought him pearls to match with these.
But he counted not his gain
Treasures of the mine or main;
"What is wealth?" the king would say;
"Even this shall pass away."

’Mid the revels of his court
At the zenith of the sport,
When the palms of all his guests
Burned with clapping at his jests;
He amid his figs and wine,
Cried: "Oh loving friends of mine!"
"Pleasure comes but not to stay;"
"Even this shall pass away."

Lady fairest ever seen,
Was the woman he crowned his queen,
Pillowed on his marriage bed,
Softly to his soul he said:
”Though no bridegroom ever pressed,
Fairer bosom to his breast,
Mortal flesh must come to clay,
Even this shall pass away!”

Fighting on a furious field,
Once a javelin pierced his shield;
Soldiers with a loud lament
Bore him bleeding to his tent;
Groaning from his tortured side,
"Pain is hard to bear," he cried,
"But with patience, day by day,
Even this shall pass away."

Towering in the public square,
Twenty cubits in the air,
Rose his statue, carved in stone,
Then, the king, disguised, unknown,
Stood before his sculptured name
Musing meekly, "What is fame?
Fame is but a slow decay
Even this shall pass away."

Struck with palsy, sere and old,
Waiting at the Gates of Gold,
Said he with his dying breath;
"Life is done, but what is Death?"
Then, in answer to the King,
Fell a sunbeam on his ring,
Showing by a heavenly ray,
"Even this shall pass away."

- Theodore Tilton 1835-1907

Water & the Sacraments

2010-05-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

"Foot washing or washing of feet is a religious rite observed as an ordinance by several Christian denominations. The name, and even the spelling, of this practice is not consistently established, being variously known as foot washing, washing the saints' feet, pedilavium, and mandatum.
The rite of foot washing finds its roots in scripture. After the death of the apostles, the practice was gradually lost. Nevertheless, it appears to have been practiced in the early centuries of post-apostolic Christianity, though the evidence is scant. For example, Tertullian (145-220) mentions the practice in his De Corona, but gives no details as to who practiced it or how it was practiced. It was practiced by the church at Milan (ca. A.D. 380), is mentioned by the Council of Elvira (A.D. 300), and is even referenced by Augustine (ca. A.D. 400). Observance of foot washing at the time of baptism was maintained in Africa, Gaul, Germany, Milan, northern Italy, and Ireland.
According to the Mennonite Encyclopedia "St. Benedict's Rule (A.D. 529) for the Benedictine Order prescribed hospitality feet washing in addition to a communal feet washing for humility"; a statement confirmed by the Catholic Encyclopedia. It apparently was established in the Roman church, though not in connection with baptism, by the 8th century. The Albigenses observed feet washing in connection with Communion, and the Waldenses' custom was to wash the feet of visiting ministers. There is some evidence that it was observed by the early Hussites. The practice was a meaningful part of the 16th century radical reformation. Foot washing was often "rediscovered" or "restored" in revivals of religion in which the participants tried to recreate the faith and practice of the apostolic era.”

"In the third century there are traces of a custom of washing the hands as a preparation for prayer on the part of all Christians; and from the fourth century onwards it appears to have been usual for the ministers at the Communion Service ceremonially to wash their hands before the more solemn part of the service as a symbol of inward purity."
-Report of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline (Church of England) 1906

The Lavabo

“A lavabo is a device used to provide water. In ecclesiastical usage it is the basin in which the priest washes his hands after preparing the Altar before saying Mass. The room in which it is kept is the lavatory. The word can also refer to a specific ritual in the Mass.

"The name Lavabo ("I shall wash") is derived from the words of the 26th Psalm, which the celebrant is directed in the Missal to recite during the ceremony; "I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord, and so will I go to Thine altar." As he says this, he ritually rinses his hands in water, usually assisted by an altar server. This part of the Mass is referred to as the Lavabo.”

In the Communion
Water was the sacramental substance of choice in the ancient mysteries, as it continued to be with Mithraism and the Manichaeans. The early Christian Ebionite sect also used water. The groups that performed the water Communion were referred to as the Aquarii. Even a Catholic saint, St. Pionius was present at a water Communion.

"The Encratites, who opposed the use of all intoxicating drinks, consistently communed with water. In the fourth century the users of water in the Communion were called "Aquarii" or "Hydroparastatae" and, under the Code of Theodosius, were liable to death for their practice."

"Others known as having substituted water for wine are: Tatian, a pupil of Justin Martyr; Galatia, the confessor of Alcibiades of Lyons; Pionius, the Catholic martyr of Smyrna; the Marcionites; the Ebionites; the Montanists; and the Therapeutae of Philo."

Masaru Emoto, a creative and visionary Japanese researcher, has published an important book, Miraculous Messages from Water.
Quote:
"From Mr. Emoto's work we are provided with factual evidence, that human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water…"

The Great Shaking- Muditch Boongurang

2010-05-18T01:38:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting Aboriginal story from Western Australia:

Long long ago before the tribes were formed, the shape of the land was completely changed by a terrific upheaval known as the Great Shaking. There were fearful rushes of wind accompanied by smoke and dust. For days and weeks and months it continued until suddenly it ceased and everything grew strangely quiet and still. For a day or more there was not a breath of wind, and there seemed to be no air to breathe. Those who had survived went about gasping for breath, and many died. At length came a welcome wind which revived the few who remained alive. But this was followed by another shaking and terrible claps of thunder, and great waves came rushing all over the land.

When the Big Water came, the surviving people and the animals were on a high hill, which saved them from being drowned. After a little while this strange Big Water rushed back back to the places from which it had come, and in its wake left huge quantities of fish, such as men had never seen before. The people could see all these fish leaping about on the plain below. They descended, gathered up the fish, and cooked and ate them, for they were in need of food, which had been difficult to get since the Great Shaking.

The people were puzzled at the strange changes that had taken place on account of the Great Shaking and the Big Water. Where there had been hills there were now plains, and where there had been plains there were now hills. But the most extraordinary thing was that the Sun did not rise or set in the same direction as before. Instead of rising on the north and setting in the south, it now rose in the east and set in the west.

-Taken from An attempt to eat the Moon, and other stories, recounted from the Aborigines in the Margaret River region of Western Australia, by Deborah Buller-Murphy, 1958.

Whalebones in the desert?- yes they still can be found today.

-Bruce

Occult Development & Breathing Exercises

2010-05-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

A close friend of Rudolf Steiner explained:

The Western way of occult development is not to seek enlightenment by regulating the breathing (yoga), but just the reverse: to bring about a change in the rhythm of breathing by engendering the right thoughts. The breathing is slowed down or halted when the mind is engrossed in contemplation of something that inspires it with admiration!

Or, as Rudolf Steiner himself expressed it in An Outline of Occult Science:

The ultimate ideal is that no exercises of any kind should be done with the physical body as such, not even breathing exercises, so that whatevever happens in the physical will occur simply and solely as an outcome of the exercises for Intution.*

It is certainly not my task to tell people what to do, particularly in this Consciousness Soul age where freedom is paramount. It would not be like Steiner to tell you not to smoke, for instance, but rather just present facts, and then let you make your own decision. All occult exercises can lead to ill health, Dr. Steiner warns, and then gives certain exercises to overcome these problems. Above all one doesn't sacrifice their health for the sake of spiritual development.

-Bruce

* An Outline of Occult Science, Chapter 5, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
(Concerning Initiation)
Part 7

The Deeper Side to Water

2010-04-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

Water has memory.

First Causes & Principles

2010-03-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

"In the beginning, my dear, the world was just Being (sat), one only, without a second. To be sure, some people say: 'In the beginning this world was just Non-being (a-sat), one only, without a second; from that Non-being was produced."

-Chandogya Upanishad, i. 9.1.

The speaker then goes on to contest the idea that Being could arise from Non-being. Thus the debate continues.

These kind of things are not discussed within the Christian Church but it is something Christian initiates have looked at.

In the opening verse of Genesis the Hebrew word BERAESHITH is translated as "in the beginning". If you were to asked a Rabbi he would tell you that the word means "in the principle" or "at-first-in-principle" or "archetypal." For a start, Water is already in existence.

Here are the first verses of Genesis translated by Fabre d'Olivet:

"1. At-first-in-principle, he-created, Elohim,
the-selfsameness-of-heavens, and-the-selfsameness-of-earth.

2. And-the-earth was contingent-potentiality in-a-potentiality-of-being;
and-darkness-was-on-the-face of-the-deep and-the-breath of-HIM-the-Gods
was-pregnantly-moving upon-the-face-of-the-waters.

3. And-he-said HE-the-Being-of-beings: there-shall-be light;
and-there-became-light.

4. And-he-did-ken, HE-the-Gods that-light as good;
and-he-made-a-division HE-the-Gods, betwixt the-light-and-betwixt
the-darkness."

In the first chapter the name of God is Elohim, from the fourth verse onwards, it is Yahweh-IHOAH-Jehovah Elohim.

A book that is a very good primer is Edouard Shure's "From Sphinx to Christ". In it he makes the comment:

"Esoteric tradition holds that, at the same period [the Moon condition of Earth], a certain number of Elohim, who did not wish to take part in the creation of the Earth and of other worlds subject to the laws of condensed matter, left the Sun in order to create Uranus, Neptune and other planets beyond the Saturnine region.....Therefore is Saturn the oldest of the gods, and the one with whom Time began."

Comments by Rudolf Steiner:

"There are still deeper forces which can be active in men, the forces of the outerrmost planet of our solar system. Modern astronomy does not regard it as the outermost since it has added two more- though even orthodox astronomers are worried because the movement of the moons does not properly fit,* but since it is the spatial arrangement with which they are concerned, they have added Uranus and Neptune. These, however, cause trouble because their moons are a little crazy compared with the ordered moons of Jupiter and other planets. In reality one must say that, for a living, concrete grasp of the planetary system, Saturn is
the outermost planet.

* The moons of Neptune and Uranus move in the opposite direction to the satellites of other planets."

This was the argument of the gods which still goes on to this day:

."...It was partly due to this end that the Luciferian supporters maintained that the Earth was born out from a laggard evil; and enough too to calm the purists in their discontent against the notion of evolution and development - given the double distinction against perfection that the two seem to imply. "

But our business on Earth has a great purpose:

"as men we can bring in the holy powers through to our earth element nature as manifested. As men, through Christ, we nurture both the spiritual and the physical realms, when we transmute the Earth sphere with His goodness.

"the physical matter which comprises the world is an immature compound (although quite sophisticated in its own reasonings) - however, one only has to observe in the lesser example an individual who is dull and unobliged by the spiritual worlds to see that it is possible for
materialism to co-exist regardless of a conscious co-operation with Father God and that furthermore this detachment is obviously dangerous to the man, and dangerous on the whole."

"Lucifer contended that Paradise be kept for all time. He had refused the new futures to come, believing that the beauty of the past offered all of Man's requirements for his subsequent being. However, nothing may keep outwardly without decaying in such preserve. The souls themselves of Man would stultify if withheld in a perpetual paradise that held no
inner reality or hard-won substance to it."

-Bruce
In pluribus Unum et Unum in pluribus
One in many and in many One.

The Soul & Cognition

2010-03-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

It can be said that "faith precedes all knowledge." Here are a couple of papers on the gleaning of knowledge.

As opposed to the Descartian " I think therefore I am":

"I am what I am firstly because I am the soul, not because of the faculty which does recognize such, without which I would still be and still are - in slumber, in wakefulness, I, my soul, endures.

"The sense of I, id - individuality in relation to the worlds - becomes distinct because I have a soul; without which I should not come to know that I know, but should gravitate to and around that which I am most sympathetic to."

- the Brothers

You might find these lectures by Rudolf Steiner helpful:

"a thinking that has risen to the conditions of soul we described before a thinking, that is, which has become possessed of wonder, and has then learned what we called reverent devotion to the world of reality and finally what we called knowing oneself to be in wisdom-filled harmony with the phenomena of the world if such a thinking be not able then to rise still further and enter the region we have described as a condition of surrender, it cannot come to reality. Now this surrender is only to be attained by making the resolute endeavor again and again to face for ourselves the inadequacy of mere thought. We have to take pains to stimulate and strengthen within us a mood that may be expressed as follows. It must be as though we were constantly saying to ourselves: I ought not to expect that my thinking can give me knowledge of the truth, I ought rather solely to expect of my thinking that it shall educate me. It is of the utmost importance that we should develop in us this idea, namely, that our thinking educates us. If you will really take this point of view as a practical rule of life you will find that there are many occasions when you are led to quite different conclusions from those that seem at first sight to be inevitable."
- Dr. Steiner

Here's a bit of advice we were given:

"We have discussed this many times of course - that the ego of a man may incorporate accordingly as the being of a man ventures out to that 'common' ground, common space, before returning with the experience gained. We are well to be reminded constantly of this process, as the complexities of actual thinking and the narrowing down therewith, are impartial to the success or failure of a man and his ability to protract out from himself sufficiently, to enable greater knowledge. For the thinking that a man entertains may have little or nothing to do with true knowledge.
Thinking of itself requires containment, thought by thought, and each clings to a man once drawn. The thoughts, like molluscs, attach and congregate in the respective communities and are stubborn to actually make way for the adoption of new and varied thoughts to be brought in.
So a man may labor under the very pressure of those which have amassed and grown as prevalent as weeds. Very simply, one may alleviate this compression by the conscious recognition of this being so, and desire for otherwise knowing that wanton thoughts shall and will be ejected - with time. They are empowered by our vitality we do give to them by our concentration and use thereof. They are given importance by our employment and are loathe to dissipate, without correction. These thoughts (or more correctly thought-forms) are the eager servants to men and never intentionally injurious. How a man prefers to think directs the nature of those provoked to him; and it is by the essential quality and nature of the man himself that shall direct his thoughts accordingly.
However, there becomes a great blessing should a man come to inquire, to call for such thoughts which are distinctly enlivened by soul-qualities, pertaining to the divine aspects. For then it happens that the benefits are twofold: one being that the former thoughts are loosened, having been disassociated from self as the vitality is directed elsewhere; and the other beneficial aspect is that the more refined and higher a thought the greater its gifts are to Man. In other words, there will be an accentuation from the practice of this thinking, as opposed to the mundane contemplations only bringing more of the same to a man."

The Use of Bodily Forces in Spiritual Development

2010-03-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

FOR information on why this is now decadent I always suggest Moses by Emil Bock. In ancient times the link between sex and religion was par for the course, but there came a time when its use in this way could only lead to error and illness -mental and bodily.

Rudolf Steiner always suggested working with the upper chakras only- the root of the nose, throat and heart. This is referred to as seizing the the snake by the head rather than the tail; and leads to a free development. It is not asceticism however, it is just that one doesn't access the spiritual by the use of bodily forces such as sex, breathing and narcotics. It is true that in the early days Rudolf Steiner did recommend breathing exercises to some of his pupils, but he preferred that breathing altered itself naturally.

Blavatsky also denounced these practices. It is rumored that the learned Hindu theosophist Subba Row died as a result of tantric practices.

"Just as we cannot feed our physical existence purely by targeting spiritual causality, we can neither invoke the spiritual forces to coincide with us purely by physical means."
-the Brothers

-Bruce

Edward Bulwer-Lytton & Charles Dickens

2010-03-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Bulwer-Lytton influenced Dickens, even to the point of suggesting a new ending for "Great Expectations".

"Percy Fitzgerald recalled his first visit to 'Grand Old Knebworth' and his meeting with Bulwer-Lytton in this very room; he was introduced by Charles Dickens who took him upstairs to 'a sort of repaired chamber, where we saw an Eastern potentate sitting on luxurious cushions, with dreamy eyes and reposeful manner, smoking a chibouk'."

A list of links

-Bruce

"A good heart is better than all the heads in the world."

- Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Our Feminine Yahweh/Jehovah

2010-02-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

Helena Blavatsky calls Jehovah a Moon God. She also says that the meaning of the name is "male-female". Eliphas Levi says that we are dealing with a class of beings.

For the [Church] "Fathers" - such as Origen or Clemens Alexandrinus - the Moon was Jehovah's living symbol: the giver of Life and the giver of Death, the disposer of being -- in our World.

From C.G. Harrison's groundbreaking work "The Transcendental Universe", we get the following:

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not know her/him by the name (Yahweh) Exodus 5:3.

"In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth . . . " (Genesis 1:1-2)

The Elohim of the first chapter of Genesis are hierarchical beings of the second triad - the Powers (Authorities), Exousiai in Greek which denotes objectivity. "They are the only ones who, in any human sense can be said to exist objectively..."

-The Transcendental Universe

The Elohim are to be distinguished from El-Yon - the Supreme or Most High. (Deuteronomy 32)

The seven Elohim of Genesis are the seven spirits (or breaths) of God, mentioned in the Apocalypse. “The creator of the material world was Yahveh the Lord of Form."

- The Transcendental Universe

Jehovah is not the First Person of the Trinity. "... The Father- the fount of Deity, and the Son - His express Image - The ONE HOLY and UNDIVIDED TRINITY, is alone due the supreme worship of every creature."

-The Transcendental Universe

Now I turn to Edward R. Smith's monumental work:

"However, when the Moon separated from the Earth, the most exalted one of the Elohim sacrificed its higher state and went to THE MOON (the Moon sphere, compressed more closely to Earth than any other) in order from that vantage point to work more closely with human development on the Earth.

"Though it occupied the Moon sphere along with beings lower than earthly humans, it was itself too high to descend into the Earth sphere itself, nor could it have carried out its mission by doing so. This particular Eloha is the one called Yahweh. Yahweh became the “one God” of the Hebrew people, the source of its Shema. In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy we thus read, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” And the Hebrew people thus took for themselves a calendar based upon the MOON rather than the Sun."

"But from the Moon, Yahweh truly reflected the light of Christ who had by now descended (condensed) into the Sun sphere. Christ could now speak to human souls through Yahweh, and so he did."

".....That Eloha, then being itself only of male characteristic, conjugated with Eve to produce the etheric male offspring called Cain.
The being who was eventually to materialize into the hardened human being called Adam already existed in the spiritual world as the remnant of the “man” from whom Eve was created. But in order for that male element to move into the etheric Earth, it was necessary for another ELOHA TO SACRIFICE ITS MALE ELEMENT, THUS BECOMING PREDOMINANTLY FEMALE. THAT ELOHA WAS YAHWEH, who then went to the Moon.

"Then the Fall of the human astral body occurred as described in Gen 3. Yahweh by NOW BORE PRIMARILY A FEMALE CHARACTERISTIC, Moon-like. The female menstrual and human birth cycles take their characteristic from that aspect. Moreover, the characteristic and desire of Yahweh was that the human being should not descend into a hardened state, but merely touch the Earth existence to recognize its “I Am” nature. This is more fully explored under “Blood” in Vol. 2. UNITY, TRIBE, FAMILY, WERE ALL FEMALE CHARACTERISTICS, as was the lunar calendar of the “chosen” Hebrew people."

End of quotes

So there you have it, IOVAH/Jahveh/Yahveh/Jehovah is working from the sphere of the Moon.

Perhaps we can picture Jehovah as a Madonna cradling and protecting the Earth from the Moon sphere as it abuts our Earth. This is quite separate to Mary the Mother of Jesus of course.

I was pleased to see that Jehovah was indeed depicted as feminine by many authors, as it is in the Jewish tradition. Jehovah is shown in the Zohar as the third Sephiroth (moreover a feminine passive potency) Binah.

From Wynn W. Westcott:

”The Kabalah, indeed, is full of Jehovah, IHVH, the Divine Four-Lettered Name, the Tetragrammaton, but it is as the Name of a group of Divine Conceptions, of Emanations from a central Spiritual Light whose presence alone is postulated; from Absolute God there is a series of Emanations extending downward to reach Jehovah, Who is the Divine One of Binah, the Supernal Mother;.....

Blavatsky:

"Now "Tetragrammaton" is Father-Mother and the "Son" in one. It is Jehovah, whose name is written IHVH, ...... It is composed of two masculine letters (IV) and two feminine characters (two H, he); or the "superior" and the "inferior" H. The first is the "supernal mother" or "the female Jehovah, as Binah"; the other is the inferior H," or the 10th Sephiroth, Malkuth, the foundation of matter."

"Jehovah," in its best aspect is Binah, "the Upper mediating Mother, the Great Sea or Holy Spirit;" therefore rather a synonym of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, than of his Father; that "Mother, being the Latin Mare" the Sea is here also, Venus, the Stella del Mare, or "Star of the Sea."

Maybe we should take a look at the Black Madonnas with all this in mind. Could the Black Madonna be a Moon aspect?

Anyway, I've presented some discussion starters on the nature of the Celestial Madonna....

Under the Shadow of Your Wings Jehovah,

Bruce

Life of the Earth in Past & Future- 17th February 1923

2010-02-02T00:40:00.000-08:00

Answers to questions about Colors and Rocks

I will deal first with the question concerning rocks, for that can well be treated in connection with the matters we have been studying hitherto.
You know, of course, that when anything is built on earth it is necessary to take into consideration the laws of gravity, weight, and many other things, for instance, (we shall be speaking of this later) elasticity.
Now, let us suppose a tower is to be built, a tower like that of Cologne Cathedral, or like the Eiffel Tower. Of course, one must be certain to build in such a way that the thing in question does not fall down; and if the laws of gravity are exactly known, it can be built so that it will not fall. But the highest towers on earth are not built without a base; and if the height is about ten times the base - 1 to 10, that is - the highest towers can be erected.
Thus a tower of 1 to 10 is the highest that can be built, otherwise, at any shock - which may always be given by a movement of the earth, a gust of wind, etc. - the tower would fall.
But besides this, care must be taken that such a tower has something elastic in itself. The tip of it always swings a little; so that what is called elastic force must be taken into consideration. The tower will always swing, but as soon as it swings too much, it will come to grief.
The Eiffel Tower swings quite considerably at the top; but care must always be taken that it does not swing beyond its base.
Now, gentlemen, when you look - let us say - at a wheat-stalk, you will find that these laws are disregarded. A wheat-stalk has a small base. It is in reality nothing else than a tower; yet a wheat-stalk, with so small a base, grows very tall, and if you work it out, the proportion is by no means that which must be maintained in mechanical building - approximately 1 to 10; it may be, for instance, 1 to 400, in some stems 1 to 500.
And so, gentlemen, according to the laws which we, as mechanicians, apply on earth, such a tower must unconditionally fall. For when the wind shakes it, its elastic forces are not such as you can understand according to the laws which mechanicians must observe.
Then, if you wanted to put something especially heavy at the top of the Eiffel Tower, you would see that it was impossible. But this tower which is a stalk, has the ear fixed to the top of it, and rocking in the wind. You see, this contradicts all architectural laws.
Now, if we examine the material of which the corn-stalk is made, we get, first, wood, that is to say, a woody material; then that which you know as bast. You see that in trees. And what is within this, is now the real building material: silica, quartz, true silicic acid. And it is hard quartz, such as is found in the Alps, and, for example, in granite or gneiss. Thus this quartz forms a complete framework.
And besides these, the fourth material is water. This mortar then, made of wood, bast, water and flint, defies all earthly laws. So a blade of grass is also a tower, built entirely out of these materials; it can be rocked in the wind, does not break, rights itself when the wind ceases,
calmly regains its position when the weather is favourable. All this you know.
But gentlemen, such forces - forces with which such things can be built out of the earth, are non-existent on the earth, completely non-existent. And if you ask: Well, then, where do these forces come from? the answer must simply be: The Eiffel Tower is dead, the wheat-stalk is alive. But it does not receive its life from the earth; it receives it from the whole cosmic surrounding. Just as gravity only draws the Eiffel Tower downwards, so the stalk grows in such a way that it is not supported from below. - When we build the Eiffel Tower, we must lay one material upon another, and thus the lower does indeed always support the upper. With the wheat-stalk this is not the case; the wheat-stalk is, indeed, drawn out into cosmic space.
If you picture the earth thus (he draws it), and the stalks there, they will all be drawn out into cosmic space, because the latter is completely filled with a fine substance called ether, a substance which also lives in the plants. But this life does not come from the earth; it
comes from cosmic space. So we can say: Life comes simply out of cosmic space.
And that is how it is that when the ovum develops in the body of the mother, the mother's body gives only the substance. What works upon the ovum is the whole cosmic space. It is that which gives life to it. So, you see, cosmic space works into all that lives.
Now look at plants; they grow, first of all, under the earth. If this is the earth (he draws it), the plants grow within it. But this earth is not an indifferent mass; it is actually something quite wonderful.
In this earth there are all sorts of substances; but in ancient days three substances were quite especially important in it. One was a substance called mica. Very little of it is found in plants
today, but though there is so little of it; it is extraordinarily important. You may perhaps remember having seen flakes of mica - mica is in the form of flakes or scales, little flakes which are often transparent. The earth was at one time interspersed with these flakes of mica. They lay in this direction (he draws). Then the earth was still soft, there were forces of this kind. And there were other forces opposite to them, running in this direction (again he draws), so that there was an actual network in the earth. These other forces are contained today in silica, in quartz.
And between them there is still another main substance: that is clay. And this clay unites the other two, filling as it were in the network. As a rock it is called feldspar.
Thus at one time the earth was composed mainly of three kinds of rock. But it was all soft and pulpy. There was the mica, which was endeavoring to make the earth scaly, so that the earth would have become scaly in a horizontal direction. Then there was the quartz, which radiated in this way; (vertical line) and finally the feldspar, which cemented the two together.
We find these constituents today, if we take the clay found anywhere in the field. These three materials were at one time mixed in the earth; and today they are to be found out in the mountains. If we take a piece of granite, we find that it is quite granular, there are splinters in it. These splinters are split up mica-flakes. Then there are quite hard grains; those are quartz. Then there is the uniting grit, which is feldspar. These three substances have been softened and granulated; and they are to be found today out in the mountains. They form the foundation of the hardest mountain ranges.
Thus, ever since the Earth was soft, they have been pounded, ground down and mixed by all the various forces which are at work in the earth; and today they are disintegrated in the mountains. But the remains of these ancient substances, and especially the forces of these ancient substances, are still found everywhere in the earth. And out of these remains the plants are built up from the Cosmos.
So we may say: Well, if these cosmic forces do still work out there in the mountains, they can do no more. These rocks are crumbled, disintegrated, granulated; and they are too hard to become plants. But with that which is within the earth, they can still be used to build up the plants in cosmic space, especially because a plant always gives its most important substances and forces to the germ.
You see, gentlemen, a study of this kind which takes into consideration how the whole Cosmos collaborates with all that is alive, has no place in modern Science. Lately, as you have perhaps read, a lecture was given in Basle, in which the speaker explained how life must have originated on earth. He said: One can hardly imagine that through a mere mingling, or chemical compounding, of substances on earth, life can have arisen.
Then it must have cone out of cosmic space. But how? - Now it is interesting to see how a modern scientist imagines that life can come out of cosmic space. He says to himself: Well now, if it is not on the earth, it must come from other stars. Now, the nearest star, which might perhaps at one time have shot forth material which then flew to the Earth - the nearest star is so far from the Earth that the material which was thus split off, would have needed forty thousand years to fly to the Earth.
So one must imagine - people say - that the Earth was once a fiery fluid body, a fiery body. Then there can have been no life on it, otherwise it would, of course, have been burnt up. But the Earth gradually cooled. When it had cooled off, it was in a condition to receive life, if it had flown to it from the nearest star, as it was thought to have done, (taking 40,000 years to do it).
Now, said the lecturer, one cannot imagine that a germ of life, a tiny life-germ, wandered for 40,000 years through cosmic space, which, besides, had a temperature of minus 220 degrees Celsius of cold, not heat! And that then, when it reached the Earth, life would arise. Before, however sufficient germs had flown to the Earth, they would have been burnt up.
It is further supposed that when the Earth had cooled enough, they would thrive, said the speaker but that simply could not be. So we do not know whence life comes.
But we do see that it comes out of cosmic space. We clearly see that, in all that lives, it is not merely the forces of the Earth that are at work. For we only make use of the forces of the Earth for the Eiffel Tower, for instance. And in such a tower as the grass-stalk, it is not merely the forces of the Earth, but the forces of the whole Cosmos, which are at work. And when the Earth was still soft, gentlemen, when mica, feldspar and silica were liquefied together, then the whole Earth was under the influence of the cosmos, and was a gigantic plant.
Therefore if you go out into the mountains today, and find granite there, or gneiss, which is distinct from granite because the mica is more plentiful in it , more apparent - if you go out today into the mountains, and look at the granite or the gneiss, you are looking at the remains of those old plant-formations. The whole Earth was a plant. And precisely as, when a plant withers today, it gives up its mineral constituents to the earth, so, when it was still a plant, the whole terrestrial globe gave up, later, its mineral constituents to the Earth. And so we have today the mountain-ranges.
Thus we may say: The hardest mountain-ranges that exist, had their origin in plant-beings, and the whole Earth was a kind of plant.

-Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner on Brotherhood

2010-01-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

We will only fully comprehend Theosophy—the idea of brotherhood—when we can sit together amiably in a group where there is the greatest variety of thoughts....That is just the strong point of theosophists—to remain on a basis of fellowship, even when they hold different opinions.
—Lecture, The Original Impulse Behind the Theosophical Movement: the Brotherhood Idea, Berlin, January 29, 1906, H &C, p. 355

Theosophy should not be a dogma, but an expression of love. People should help each other—that is, put love before opinions—and that will introduce a common spirit into human evolution. That is a practical side of what must be developed in the theosophical movement.
—Lecture, Why is There a Theosophical Movement Today?, Leipzig, April 25, 1906, History and Contents, p. 270

Zarathustra

2010-01-28T12:51:00.000-08:00

As known in Anthroposophy, the great leader of the Persian Cultural Epoch was Zarathustra. There were many Zarathustras which followed the original in disciplic succesion, so confusion can arise over this.
He who was Zarathustra, is still to be highly regarded in our current Western spirituality. Together with Master CR, they are the two great Teachers of this time.
Of course the religion still exists in the fire worshiping Parsis (Arabic for "Persia"). They still carry on the beautiful traditions, like carrying a candle around the house as a blessing and purification every day. It was one of the first religions to understand that "cleanliness is next to Godliness".
It had to be Zarathustra, who long before witnessed the descending Christ Spirit, who then took such a crucial role in the Incarnation.

"Second Coming" Prophecies

2010-01-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
Here are some of the "Second Coming" prophecies made by Valentin Tomberg in 1933, quoted by Robert Powell in his Hermetic Astrology.

It was such a surprise when communism collapsed in Russia, though things haven't by any means reached a stage of calm.

"shame - in an elemental and powerful form - will take hold of human beings. The human being will become conscious of all his shortcomings, and no one else will be able to comfort him. Human beings will then go out to seek comfort from nature. One will be able to see someone going up to a tree and embracing it - seeking comfort from it - and, standing thus, how he will weep bitterly.

"And people will then be right in seeking comfort from dumb creatures, for creatures (the beings of nature) will become transformed through the presence of Christ. At present nature has lost all hope of beingredeemed, but will be filled anew with hope through the breath of the presence of Christ. Nature will become good, and will again radiate trust and kindness towards man, instead of fear and mistrust as is the
case now. Wonderful changes will take place in nature. Springtimes will come which will be different from all other springtimes - with goodness which will be felt in the air and in the breath, in the breathing of the ground, in the buds and green leaves. These springtimes will be filled with a blessing that nature has never experienced before.

"Towards autumn nature will bestow her fruits in generous abundance- the sap will be life-giving and seeds will be ripe and full. For Christ will be there for nature. His presence will work in such a way that- even if it takes place only for a moment - all struggle, hate and fear will withdraw from nature.

"Extraordinary changes will become noticeable in the atmosphere. There will be regions where the air will be such that many people will be cured -cured of their illnesses through the air they breath in.. Changes in the behavior of children will manifest themselves in surprising and mysterious ways. Thus, it will happen that a circle of children playing will become quite still and will stand there motionless and in deep silence for a while... Even if communism still exists in Russia, remarkable occurrences in the school-life of communist Russia will take place. There large groups of children will suddenly experience something, concerning which they won't know what to say, but which will place them in a reverent and devout mood.

"Christ will move from the West to the East in wave-like lines. He will begin in America and will continue through Europe to the north-east of Europe. From there he will continue eastwards as far as China, where the resistance is strongest. His coming is not for all regions of the Earth simultaneously, but progresses step by step. Thereby each further step of his movement will signify a stronger force, a growth in the transmission of the Christ-Power. Only after traversing the whole of the Earth in this way will he appear to individuals in different parts of the world. Clairvoyant occultists will see him earlier, where he will be present only in the kingdoms of nature, but for many others the first experience of him will be in the human kingdom, after his expansion throughout nature is accomplished."

-Bruce

Rudolf Steiner's Estrangement from His Body

2010-01-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

Rudolf Steiner's failing health must be viewed in the context of the increasing alienation of his physical body to the spiritual parts of his being. This led to various health problems and pain.

There was the apparent poisoning (or was it really just a reaction to the food he was ingesting at the time, going by his comments given in a lecture soon after "all food can become poisonous") on January 1st 1924.
From a couple of letters to Marie Steiner:

"And I have to avoid everything 'destructive'. I can see how easily I can be set
back when something disruptive occurs, particularly with regard to the gastric
system. "

"As you know, I have become very estranged from my physical body since January
1923. That is why an increasing amount of nursing is necessary."
- 26th October 1924

"Wegman and Noll are kept pretty busy with my 'treatment'. I have to suffer a
lot with the pain of the treatment and feel how much I am unsuited to spending
time on my own care in this way."

"M.d.M., I told you some time ago how, since January 1923, the link between the
higher parts of my being and my physical body was no longer complete; living in
the spirit I lost, as it were, the immediate connection with my physical
organization. Not with the physical world. On the contrary: my ability to make a
healthy assessment of the latter grew stronger and also more comprehensive. But
precisely because everything in the spiritual realm continued unhindered, also
as regards the physical world, the hostile forces are making an assault on my
physical body."
- 15th October 1924
-Bruce

Earlier Uses of the Word "Anthroposophy"

2010-01-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

The term was used in a Latin book which appeared appeared in Basle, Switzerland in 1575: Arbatel. I haven't heard of an earlier reference than that.
Thomas Vaughan, the twin brother of Henry Vaughan, used the term in his Anthroposophia Theomagica in the 17th century.

"The brothers were born at Newton in Breconshire in 1621, In his years in London Vaughan devoted himself to alchemical experiment and theory. He published a series of treatises, the first three of which appeared in 1650. These were Anthroposophia Theomagica: or a Discourse of the Nature of Man and his State after Death; Grounded on his Creator's Proto-Chemistry and verifi'd by a practicall Examination of Principles in the Great World, Anima Magica Abscondita: or a Discourse of the universall Spirit of Nature and Magia Adamica: or the Antiquitie of Magic. All three were published under the name of Eugenius Philalethes, as were Lumen de Lumine: or a New Magical Light, which appeared in 1651, and Euphrates: or the Waters of the East, published in 1655. In 1652 there had been published Aula Lucis: or The House of Light, attributed to one S.N., but identified by Henry Vaughan as one of his brother's works (S and N being the final letters of Thomas Vaughan's Christian name and surname)."

Rudolf Steiner used the term in 1902-3 in a lecture cycle From Zarathustra to Nietzsche. History of Human Evolution Based on the World conception of the Orient up to the Present or Anthroposophy- no manuscript of these lectures is available.

-Bruce

THE TWELVE GEMSTONES OF THE APOCALYPSE

2010-01-22T11:50:00.000-08:00

The great vision in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation where the woman appears clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head, is a prelude of a coming event: the celestial Jerusalem descending from heaven. The New Jerusalem consists of gold (“clothed with the sun”), each of its entrances is made out of one pearl (“the moon under her feet”), its surrounding wall rest on twelve foundation stones adorned with the twelve gemstones (“a crown of twelve stars upon her head”).

The correlation between stars and gemstones is an indication of the high spiritual level we are confronted with when dealing with gemstones. It is the level which may appear before our inner eye when we look at the essential differences between human beings, animals, plants and rocks. The human being has its ego on earth. In animals we may observe a wisdom far greater than ours, but there is a complete lack of personal responsibility: the ego of the animals, their wise group soul, is in the astral world. In the plants we have before us pure life forces, gently touched by astrality in the flowering processes. The astral body of the plants is in the astral world. The plants’ ego is in a still higher world, the lower Devachan. Finally, in the crystal we may have the feeling that a shade of life processes is around it at the moment of crystallization. The etheric part of the crystals is in the astral word, the astral “body” in the lower Devachan, the ego in the higher Devachan.

The feeling that the physical appearance of crystals is connected with spiritual beings of a very high level, may account for the magical attraction which gemstones have had throughout human history. Modern spiritual approach should bear this in mind.

Jasper, the first of the twelve gemstones, consists mainly of silicic acid. In fact, the whole circle of apocalyptic gemstones is, chemically, composed either of silicic acid or silicates, i.e. combinations of silicic acid. What is the character of silicic acid? It is the main component (60%) of the earth’s rocks, especially of the continents. That means that it provides, unselfishly, the foundation on which we stand, walk and live. On the other hand the purest form of silicic acid, rock-crystal, is of such a high transparency that even ultraviolet rays pass through. In the technical sense, mankind has learnt to use this unselfish transparency of silicic acid to produce glass from quartz sands. It is significant that unselfishness is the basic feature of the twelve gemstones. In jasper the pure silicic acid is colored by extremely fine grained particles of iron oxide. Iron is the bearer of the ego force in human blood, oxygen is the life substance. It might be concluded that in jasper we have that kind of unselfishness which is permeated with and borne by ego-force, the kind of unselfishness which is found in the life and work of the greatest artists. It is the unwavering condition of creative work. Strikingly, jasper is one of the two gemstones which characterize the highest divine being in chapter four of the apocalypse: “A throne stood there in heaven and one who sat on the throne. His appearance blazed like jasper and carnelian. And a rainbow shining like emerald encircled the throne.”

Jasper is totally opaque. In the circle of the twelve gemstones there are six opaque, or nearly untransparent, and six totally translucent rocks, the opaque always facing a translucent one. The translucent gemstones are, in a sense are more connected with thinking, the opaque with the forces of the will. Each two opposite gemstones are, in a sense, complementary in their qualities. Between the two may arise for our inner eye a congenial quality which is connected with realm of feeling.

Chrysolite, opposite to jasper, is the seventh gemstone of the apocalyptic circle. Jewelers call it peridot. It has a high transparency and a beautiful golden green color. According to a jeweler’s book on gems (Mab Wilson) “ there is no blue in the green, even in the darkest version of itself. Place it in the shade and it still remains sun-touched”.

Chemically it is an iron magnesium silicate. Where do we find the combination of iron and magnesium playing a major role in nature? In chlorophyll, the green substance of the leaves in which the sun produces oxygen out of carbon dioxide.
Evidently, this gemstone has a close relation to sun, to light in general.

Magnesium fact is an element with an enormous light potential. We experience the relation, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner, between chrysolite and the sense of sight.

The qualities of jasper and chrysolite are clearly complementary. Unbiased sensorial obversation is in urgent need of ego-conscious unselfishness, the result in between the two poles being the way to truth.

Lapis Lazuli takes the second place in the ring of gemstones. In the text of the Apocalypse it is called sapphire, but there are some good reasons to surmise that in the old days lapis lazuli was called sapphire whereas the gemstone to which now the name of sapphire is applied, was still relatively unknown in the Mediterranean area of that time. The first reason in fact is that Roman and Greek authors of the first centuries A.D. describe sapphire as heavenly blue with gold specks. That is an exact characterization of lapis lazuli and has nothing to do with what we now call sapphire. The second reason is that sapphire in the present sense would be the only gemstone in the ring which is not a silicate or a form of silicic acid. Finally, if we introduce normal sapphire in the circle, it would present an exception to the general order in which there is always a totally transparent gemstone facing an opaque or hardly translucent one.

The most conspicuous property of lapis lazuli indeed is the heavenly blue color with the golden specks of very small pyrite crystals, often compared with the blue sky and golden stars. It is the kind of blue which expresses devotion, that form of reverence which goes deep into the will forces. True and pure devotion should be rooted in firm ground and should be borne by ego force. Both these aspects appear in lapis lazuli. In its very complicated chemical composition normal salt plays a part, and on the other hand we find in the golden pyrite an expression of the ego force of iron which has conquered the sulfur process, a true Michaelic impulse.

Beryl, facing lapis lazuli in the ring, is really in many ways is opposite. It is a very hard (harder than quartz), totally transparent, hexagonal columnar crystal with often a greenish hue which however disappears when the crystal is heated. Chemically it is a beryllium aluminium silicate. Beryllium is one of the most resistant elements. It plays a major role in nuclear power plants.

Beryl’s hardness and transparency, its upright columnar form (in North America crystals of more than eight meters have been found), its sunlike hexagonal symmetry, give a beautiful image of high intelligence. In the story of the Holy Grail (the ancestor of the Grail family is called Beryllus) we are told that devil cannot stay for even a moment if this stone is present: there is nothing adversary forces fear more than being seen through.

The very diverse qualities of lapis lazuli and beryl are highly in need of each other in human life. Devotion in the will forces should be guided by clear, high intelligence. On the other hand, intelligence badly needs devotion. And what is between the two extremes? It is the right way, that way which is called righteousness in the Bible. In fact, it is the way of inner development as described in Rudolf Steiner’s book “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds”: starting with the path of devotion and reverence and leading to the highest levels of knowledge.

Chalcedony, the third stone of the circle, is essentially pure silicic acid. Typical for chalcedony is its structure. It is an extremely fine structure consisting of fiber-like crystals with in between some disseminated opal-silica. The total aspect of this often bluish gemstone is of an embracing gesture. This, in fact, is the essence of chalcedony: it represents the embracing power of the soul, an embracing power which is unselfish (silic acid), which is filled with soul power (opal is the gemstone of the soul) and which is not exclusive on the will side (chalcedony is not totally opaque like jasper).

Topaz, the opposite of chalcedony, has a high transparency, is hard and appears in a great variety of colors. “So rich and warm is its golden tone one hesitates to call it a pastel” ( Mab Wilson). Topaz is a fluor aluminium silicate. Fluor is one of the fiercest elements, aluminium is next to silicon, the most common element in the Earth’s crust. It is the essential component of clays and clayey material.

In topaz we may recognize the colorful, immensely variable world of mankind’s ideas. There is a connection between idea and taste. There are as many diverse and divergent tastes as there are ideas. Certainly, one cannot act tastefully in life, if one has no ideas. Rudolf Steiner indicates that there is a connection between topaz and the sense of taste.

The relationship between topaz and chalcedony is, again, quite obvious. What are ideas more in need of than being furthered and protected by the enveloping qualities of our soul forces? It is only by these forces that they can grow and develop. And in the human breast, the realm of our feeling capacities, peace may arise, that kind of peace which is an active and productive force and not only the absence of conflict.

Emerald, the fourth gemstone, is essentially beryl. Why does it take such an outstanding place among the gemstones if it is in fact only a beryl? Because of its color! Emerald green is a color in itself, and emerald will not change its color even by considerable heating. This color is due to the presence of extremely fine disseminated chromium. Chromium, the highest superlative of iron.

If we think of the high intelligence represented by beryl and the highest ego force represented by chromium, we easily see why emerald may be called the gemstone of the Christ.

In the already quoted passage (see jasper) of Apocalypse chapter 4 the throne is encircled by a rainbow of emerald. Seemingly a contradiction in itself because a rainbow contains all colors whereas the green of the emerald is one unique color. From a spiritual point of view this is not a contradiction: The highest ego which of course is unique, comprehends the total number of human egos in all their individual colors.

Chrysoprase, opposite, but really very much opposite emerald, is a totally opaque gemstone, in fact a chalcedony beautifully green colored by finely disseminated nickel oxide. It has a green color in which blue is clearly present, the kind of green which arises from the dark and is underway to the light. Nickel is the metal which makes iron tough. Both the color and the peculiar character of nickel characterize man’s endeavor to go the way of inner development.

It is interesting to note that chrysoprase in a gemstone quality was, until recently only found in Saxony, in the middle of Europe (together with bright red jasper and amethyst it is found in the gemstone clad chapels which Charles IV of Bohemia had built in Prague and in his castle Karlstein in the middle of the fourteenth century). In the last decades however chrysoprase of high quality has been found and successfully mined in Queensland.

The relation between chrysoprase and emerald is obvious. The way to higher development is necessarily the way to the higher ego, that is to Christ. On this way arises the true faith, that means the faith in ourselves, in our higher ego, in Christ.

Sardonyx, the fifth gemstone, consists of very fine-banded layers of white chalcedony and red carnelian. Already from Roman times, both sardonyx and the quite similar agate-jasper were the famous material from which cameos were cut using the red layer as foundation and sculpturing the portrait in the white chalcedony layer, or vice versa. In really typical sardonyx there is such an extremely fine-banded sequence that we are reminded of the phenomenon of sound vibration made visible in stone.

In fact, our listening is a sequence of lively attention and silent concentration in our soul. It becomes clear why Rudolf Steiner indicated that sardonyx is related with the sense of hearing, and is at the same time the gemstone of inspiration.

Hyacinth, facing sardonyx in the ring of the twelve gemstones, is a marvellous fiery red, totally transparent stone. In chemical terms it is zirconium silicate. Zirconium is an element with an enormous light capacity. In the previous century zirconium light was used in the same way as magnesium light. At the same time, zirconium is an element with great resistance (it is used in nuclear plants) and a good transparency: it is the raw material for production of enamel.

Evidently hyacinth has a relation to light, but in a totally different way than chrysolite. The latter is more connected with sun-processes, the former has the light in itself, even to the extent to produce some radioactive radiation.
The capacity to produce light from inner sources may in a way be considered as an image of the capacity of imagination.

The relation between sardonyx as the gemstone of inspiration and hyacinth as the gemstone of imagination is of course clear, also in the sense that imagination (the transparent hyacinth) has a closer connection to our thinking, and inspiration (the practically untransparent sardony) is distinctly linked to the forces of the will. The way which leads to imagination and from imagination to inspiration is the way which makes our one-sided view of the world whole again. Between hyacinth and sardonyx there is the way of wholesomeness. The Bible uses the word “soteria”, translated by salvation.

Carnelian, also called cornelian or sard, is the sixth gemstone. It is a chalcedony coloured by iron hydroxide. The name carnelian stems from the wonderful red color, a real incardanine. It is indeed a gemstone related to the process of incarnation. Max Stibbe, one of the first Waldorf teachers in Holland, considered the sequence of gemstones on the high-priest's breastplate as a reflection of the spiritual way of the old Jewish history. These twelve gemstones begin with carnelian, the gemstone of consanguinity, and is finally leading to jasper, the gemstone of unselfishness. That means: the blood had to be kept pure in such a way that it would provide unselfishly the body and the substance in which the incarnation of Christ could take place. The twelve gemstones of the apocalypse represent the way of Christendom, beginning with the ego endowed unselfishness of jasper and completing its way in amethyst, the gemstone of the love of one's neighbor. Stibbe's problem was, what is the role of carnelian in the Apocalyptic sequence? Here we should look at the ultimate goal of incarnation: that is resurrection, the "Geistesmensch".

In the aspect of gemstone of resurrection carnelian is one of the two gemstones representing the highest divine being in the vision of Apocalypse chapter four.

Amethyst is the final gemstone of the Apocalyptic ring. Since 610 A.D. it has been the gemstone of the bishop's ring in the Roman Catholic church. It mainly appears in pyramidal hexagonal violet crystals. The color stems from iron together with titanium and manganese, two of the higher congenial elements of iron. So, we have before us a scale of higher ego aspects together with the violet color which involves the blue of devotion and the red of the blood forces. Add to these the sun-like hexagonal symmetry and we have the basic features of what in the Gospels is called love of one's neighbor. The Greek word amethustos means: sober, not inebriated. How true it is that love of one's neighbor should be free from any intoxication.

By the way, amethyst is the third gemstone with hexagonal crystals. The three: amethyst, emerald and beryl form a triangle within the circle. The Greek author Lucian, in the second century A.D., describes in his Vera Historia the city of the Islands of the Blessed. The walls of this city are of emerald, the temples of beryl, and the altars therein of single amethysts.

Complementary qualities appear in amethyst and carnelian, love of one's neighbor is both conditional to and as a result of the way which leads to resurrection. They are the response (German: Antwort) on the Word of God.
Bringing now together the qualities which arise between the pairs of gemstones we recognize the "armor of God" St.Paul describes in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians:

"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

- Dr. Simon van der Heide, Haarlem, Holland- past Secretary-General of the International Union of Geological Sciences.

His Image in Refulgent Helios Burns

2010-01-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Greater or lesser he appears by turns,
As men are great or small;
His Image in refulgent Helios burns,
And in the dewdrop’s ball;
The tide-waves of the constellations toss
About His great white Throne;
Yet as a Child He met the Planet’s loss,
And bore its griefs alone.

-:T.L. Harris:-

We are the Voice of God

2010-01-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

I bent unto the ground
And I heard the quiet sound
Which the grasses make when they
Come up laughing from the clay.

“We are the Voice of God,” they said:
Thereupon I bent my head
Down again that I might see
If they truly spoke to me.

But around me everywhere
Grass and tree and mountain were
Thundering in a mighty glee,
“We are the voice of deity.”

And I leapt from where I lay,
I danced upon the laughing clay,
And to the rock that sang beside,
“We are the Voice of God,” I cried.

- JAMES STEPHENS -

About the Elder Brothers of Humanity

2010-01-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

In his poem Paracelsus, Robert Browning gives the Elder Brothers a mention:
Such men are even now upon the earth,
Serene among the half-formed creatures round
Who should be saved by them and joined to them.

An early reference describing these adepts is in the works of Paracelsus:

There are persons who have been exalted (verzueckt) to God, and who have remained in that state of exaltation, and have not died...

In the writing of the German mystic C.von Eckharthausen we find:

These sages, whose number is small, are children of light, and are opposed to darkness. They dislike mystification and secrecy; they are open and frank, have nothing to do with secret societies and with external ceremonies.

They possess a spiritual temple, in which God is presiding. They live in various parts of the earth, and do not meddle with politics; their business is to do as much good to humanity as in their power, and to drink wisdom from the eternal fountain of truth. They never quarrel about opinions, because they know the truth. Their number is small. Some live in Europe, others in Africa, but they are bound together by the harmony of their souls, and they are therefore as one. They are joined together, although they may be thousands of miles apart from each other. They understand each other, although they speak in different tongues, because the language of the sages is spiritual perception.

- Disclosures of Magic (1790)

An historical example is Saint Germain. He was never seen to eat. (They do take liquids however.)
We see also at the end of the Gospel of St. John that John, the Beloved "tarried" - John 21:22-23.

And whoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this?
- John 11:25

Christ was not talking of life beyond the grave. He was not talking of the resurrection. He was talking to Martha concerning Lazarus, who was already buried.

The bodies of the Elder Brothers, though appearing normal, are differently constructed to that of the bulk of humanity. There has to be a pattern set in place for the future and it is this they bear.
Some quotes from the Brothers:

"Such men do not cease to be human. There are glamorous misconceptions which pronounce a Master to be so divine he is as separate to you or I; or so far removed that he is above the comprehension of the daily contests. However this is not the case, they have not the angelic withdrawal, and are sensitive to the individual stirrings and affectations of any man.
"Secrecy is a great protector. It has been in the past, that the respect is issued as is warranted, and details of movements and even heritage are uncalled-for.”

"Just as the royal family goes about with consorts to guard, it is the veiling attendants which move about the Masters, shielding them from undue arrest. Even we have regarded much of their business to be their business.

"It is as this also: The work of one Master is uniquely different in his approach and conduct to that of another - and this is of necessity we might add. But the two specific tasks are dependent upon the success of the other, and are in no way confused by the extreme distinctions."
"The true test of the teaching is of the teaching itself. No Master may claim infallibility. For this would negate all possibility of change.
“'Master' is a relative term - and implies also, one who has trod the boards at an earlier period - and therefore is relative only to time, and not to quality of super-character, or pompous title. Duty performed is different to duty inherited.

From Rudolf Steiner:

"When in the world outside the modern leaders of men go about in human garb, they are unrecognised in the world. When from the standpoint of Spiritual Science we talk about 'The Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings' people would often be surprised to in what simple, unassuming human form these Masters are to be found in all countries. They are present on the physical plane."

page 128, Wonders of the World, Ordeals of the Soul, Revelations of the Spirit - Rudolf Steiner.

"The Philosopher's Stone has a specific purpose, which was stated by Cagliostro; it is meant to prolong human life to a span of 5,527 years....In fact, however, it is possible, by means of special training, to prolong life indefinitely by learning to live outside the physical body."
"Physical death is only an apparent occurrence for him who has understood the Philosopher's Stone for himself, and has learnt to separate it."
"He lays aside the physical body in the same way that one takes of a raincoat, and he puts on a new body just as one puts a new raincoat on."

pages 103-104, The Temple Legend, Rudolf Steiner.

Dr. Steiner teaches that as we refine the astral body (establish peace) it "gradually approaches immortality", "an astral form arises which survives, remains living."

"When someone has become a Chela he begins to establish peace in the etheric body. Then the etheric body too survives.
The Masters establish peace in the physical body; thus in their case the physical body also survives."
Foundations of Esotericism, page 171.

"Of a Master it is said: He is born in the same body; he uses it for hundreds, even thousands of years. This is the case with the vast majority of leading Individualities. An exception is formed by certain Masters who have their own special mission; with them the physical body remains, so that death does not occur for them at all. These are the Masters whose task it is to watch over and bring about the transition from one race to another."

-Theosophy of the Rosicrucian, page 54: There is more on page 53

"In the same way that a higher animal excels a worm, do the rishis, the
Masters, excel humanity... What is highly esteemed in the West - knowing for
the sake of knowing - is not what the adepts, the great Masters, of the East
strive after. They aspire to knowledge which can help humanity, which can
conduct it to the point where the destiny of humanity and the harmony of the
world are in agreement with each other."
Rudolf S.

Dr. Steiner's "channeling" is mentioned in The History and Contents of the
Esoteric Section:
He also wrote through inspiration, a couple of the Mystery Plays- durch (meaning through Rudolf Steiner. By rights, this should also apply to Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.)

"Now the Master Morya will speak.
We may regard the Master as an ideal; they have already attained what we
still have before us. Therefore we can ask them questions about our further
development. There lie within us, but as yet in the form of a germ, the
forces which have reached perfection in a Master."
R.Steiner
"Morya- real name is communicated only to the more advanced pupils." RS

Finally, a message from our Teachers:
"Dear souls, we all must share those crude awakenings that make known to us
a measure of our ignorance. Truly, we do not know all of that we do not
know - we cannot - and discovery of certain ignorances becomes an
illuminating surprise; eventually.

"We are taught to question, to search, and be also moderately patient for
outcome.

"The point here being, there must be a place where we can meet, in minds,
as fellow student to lesser pupil; and there are two ways in: devotion and
pure reasoning.

"Is it possible for you to 'know' something distinct to your comprehension
as found by experience? Can the subject know the life of his King, or only
of those similarities so shared between them? The mother-lark may not
appreciate the concerns of the mother-wren; nor even (to stretch a point)
those of a mother-fox. How best can we then inform you upon idiosyncrasies
which may not translate and therefore be understood as are, in truth, in
relation to ourselves?"

Christ at the Baptism

2009-12-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

THE Nestorians were quite correct when they stated Christ entered into the Body of Jesus at the time of the Baptism.

"Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11)

some manuscripts add:

"Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee" (Psalms 2:7)

This is one of those cases were the Bible was changed to fit in with preconceived ideas.

Another proof is that of Augustine’s (circa A.D. 400): Book XI, ch. xiii, 16 Confessions

Quote:
Therefore, thou didst generate the Coeternal, to whom thou didst say, "This day I have begotten thee."

Obviously this was how it read in C 400.
Quote: CHAPTER XIV. The Mysteries of Christ's Mediatorial Work (48-49) and Justification (50-55)
.

This is the reason for the Voice of the Father spoken over him at his baptism, "Today have I begotten thee," which pointed not to that particular day on which he was baptized, but to that "day" of changeless eternity, in order to show us thatthis Man belonged to the personal Unity of the Only Begotten. For a day that neither begins with the close of yesterday nor ends with the beginning of tomorrow is indeed an eternal "today."

Faustus
Anti-Manichaean Writings Book XXIII. Point 2

“when about thirty years old, according to Luke, when also the voice was heard saying to Him, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee."

Again the correct verse is quoted from the Gospel as it stood at that time.
Please note that Augustine did not attempt to correct this.

Further proof:
The author of Hebrews made it clear:
"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee." Hebrews 5:5

The Author quotes it that way!

For to which of the angels did He ever say, "YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU"?
-Hebrews 1:5

Where else in the Gospels does God say this? Ipso facto....

And another thing:

v10: The writer of Mark uses the Greek preposition eis (into) while Matthew and Luke use epi (upon) to describe how the Spirit comes to Jesus. Robert Fowler (1996) pointing out that the understanding of the later writers is often read back in Mark, observes:

"...Mark is portraying for us a person being invaded and possessed by a spirit. In Mark, Jesus becomes spirit-possessed."(p16)

Fowler also points out that in Mark the Spirit is not specified as Holy, though Matthew and Luke are careful to make that clear.

Quote:
Jerome:
In the Gospel written in the Hebrew script that the Nazarenes read, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descends upon Him, for God is Spirit and where the Spirit resides, there is freedom. Further in the Gospel which we have just mentioned we find the following written: “When the Lord came up out of the water the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and rested on Him saying, ‘My Son, in all the prophets was I waiting for You that You should come and I might rest in You. For You are My rest. You are My first begotten Son that prevails forever.’ ” (Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 4)

-Authentic Matthew (Gospel of the Hebrews)

Justin (b. 100 C.E.):
When Jesus went down into the water, fire was kindled in the Jordan, and when he came up from the water, the Holy Spirit came upon Him. The apostles of our Christ wrote this. (Justin, Dialogue, 88)

Justin:
The voice spoke to him, saying, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”. This is recorded in the Gospel of the Apostles. (Justin, Dialogue, 103)

Epiphanius:
After saying many things, this Gospel continues: “After the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John. And as Jesus came up from the water, Heaven was opened, and He saw the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove and enter into Him. And a voice from Heaven said, ‘You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.’ And again, ‘Today I have begotten You.’ “Immediately a great light shone around the place; and John, seeing it, said to Him, ‘Who are you, Lord? And again a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ Then John, falling down before Him, said, ‘I beseech You, Lord, baptize me!’ But He forbade him saying, ‘Let it be so; for thus it is fitting that all things be fulfilled.’” (Epiphanius, Panarion 30.13.7)

http://www.upto11.net/generic_wiki.php?q=authentic_matthew

Blavatsky the "Hermes Brother"

2009-11-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

Dr. Steiner comments on a prophecy by Nostradamus:

In these 'Centuries' by Nostradamus (Centuries 10,75) the following prophecy can be found. At the close of the nineteenth century a Hermes Brother will come from Asia and bring unity to mankind. The Theosophical Society is nothing less than the fulfillment of this prophecy of Nostradamus. The annulment of the Rakshasas and the re-establishment of the primal Mysteries is an aim of the Theosophical Society.

-Rudolf Steiner

Different standpoints in Occultism?

2009-11-19T21:59:00.000-08:00

Occultism is in its results one and the same for all mankind. In reality there is no such thing as a difference of standpoint in occultism — any more than there are different mathematics. It is only necessary in regard to any particular question to have the means actually at hand to acquire knowledge on that question, and the knowledge will be the same as is reached by everyone who has the right means at his disposal.
Thus, speaking in the ideal sense, we can just as little admit the existence of different standpoints in occultism as we can imagine there might be different standpoints in mathematics. Consequently occultism, wherever it has made its appearance, has always been recognized as single and universal. It is true that in the various theosophies that have existed from time to time and have supplied the outer cloak, so to speak, of occult truths, differences show themselves; but that is because the truths have had to be clothed differently for one folk or one epoch, than for another folk or another epoch. In other words, the differences between the theosophies that exist on the Earth lie in the manner of thought used to clothe the occult truths. The foundations of occultism are always and everywhere one and the same....
-Rudolf Steiner

Anthroposophy- not a Dogmatic Religion.

2007-11-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, Anthroposophy is not a dogmatic religion. These days any old thing can be registered as a religion. It doesn't even have to do with any God or gods. It may be the work of a Black Magician.

Rudolf Steiner said once that if he returned and found that the Anthroposophical Society had become a dogmatic religion he would be its "bitterest enemy". I think the word "dogmatic" is the properly pejorative one, not religion.

So if others characterize anthroposophy as a religion it can hardly be argued against, because these days anything even vaguely spiritual (or not) can be registered as such. But it should never become a dogmatic religion. There must always be a freedom of thought- this is what can be emphasized to any critics. There is no "official line" from the Anthroposophical Society which speaks for all members or non-members. There is no thought police and thought control.

There is one major difference between anthroposophy and religion, and that is one has to be prepared in one's Budhi/Manas capabilities in order for it to be understood properly. Therefore proselytizing is out of the question - same with theosophy.

Of course, our brothers and sisters will hold to their various dogmas; and this is not much of a problem as long as we uphold a spirit of brotherhood and tolerance. That and the knowledge that our individual dogmas are only "place holders" on our journey towards ever more
clarity.

Bruce

"Cymatics" video

2007-11-04T13:37:00.001-08:00

Watch a "Cymatics" video on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/v/6sonpvUxGL8

"…swiss scientist and anthroposophist Hans Jenny (1904-1972), sudied
the phenomena and named the field `Cymatics'. Using crystal
oscillators (which allow precise frequencies and amplitudes to be
used), he vibrated various powders, pastes, and liquids, and succeeded
in making visible the three-dimensional effects of sound. He produced
an astonishing variety of awe-inspiring geometrical and harmonic
shapes, including life-like flowing patterns, which he documented in
photographs and films."

-Bruce

Plagiarised 'Rosicrucian Theosophy.'

2007-11-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

This is the most comprehensive research I have found on the matter:

http://members.shaw.ca/rosecross713/HS-PART3.htm

Written by a member of the Rosicrucian Fellowship (Charles Weber). It seems to have got him into a lot of hot water too!

Here is the quote from the Fifth Gospel:
http://www.uncletaz.com/at/novdec03/newagestr.html

"A man from America, who spent weeks and months getting to know our
teachings, transcribed and carried them off in a watered-down form to
America, where he has given out a plagiarised 'Rosicrucian Theosophy.'
True, he says he learnt a good deal from us over here, but that he was
summoned to the Masters and learnt more from them. He says nothing,
however, about having learnt from us the deeper things which he had
drawn from the then unpublished lecture-courses."

Heinde/Steiner Controversy

Poor old Charles suffered the fate of many a whistleblower:

http://mount_ecclesia.tripod.com/

Here is a reply he wrote to one of his detractors:
http://mount_ecclesia.tripod.com/wc_dt.htm

Bruce

Max Heindel

2007-11-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

Count Carl Grasshoff (a Dane), a student of Dr. Steiner's, collected the typescripts of some his lectures before they had been published and took them to America. There he added some of his own touches and
published the lot under the title of "The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception", using the pen name of "Max Heindel". The first edition of this work was dedicated to Rudolf Steiner.

So the Cosmo Conception has some of the elements of Steiner's teaching but it is not purely Steiner. There is a different teaching on the nature of Christ for instance, and I don't think it talks about Ahriman.

Dr. Steiner talks about a group in California stealing his teachings in the Fifth Gospel, if my memory serves me correctly.

Bruce

Age of Michael

2007-11-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

Dr. Steiner did not teach in a dogmatic manner; and also, he always tried to examine clairvoyantly for
himself, any information he gave out to the public. As for the Rosicrucian path, he said any occult subject can be viewed from many sides- twelve in fact. So it is important to ask questions and not be stuck on just one point of view. (I believe you can find more on this in his "Theosophy of the Rosicrucians".)

As for Rudolf Steiner's teaching that Michael is the Archangel of this age, he was not alone or the first with this. (Dr. Steiner told us not to slur the "el" and pronounce it "Micha-el".)

Abbot Trithemius, teacher of Paracelsus, also taught this and also described the date of 1879 as being the start of his regency.

From Stephen's page:
http://www.vermontel.net/~vtsophia/zodtrop1.htm

"Now, there is a third subordinate cycle within the decans of the
Archangels, which is difficult to reconcile as a septenary within the
twelvefold zodiac. In 1508 there was written a "little book on
mystical chronology mystical chronology" by a certain Johannes
Trithemius (1462-1516), Abbott of Sponheim. His sources had been a
similar manuscript written by Peter of Abano (1215-1313) who was a
learned scholar and translator of the Kabbalistic and astrological
books of Rabbi ibn Ezra. According to the researches of Christopher
Bamford, the first English translation of the little book was by the
English magician, William Lilly. Later it surfaces in the occult
writings of the Frenchman, Eliphas Levi (1855) and passed on by him to
Anna B. Kingsford and Edward Maitland, two more English, but Christian
occultists. From Maitland, the book passed on the W. Wynn Wescott, all
of whom were members of the T.S. and close friends of the good Madame
H.P.B. Indeed, there is a small footnote to Trithemius in volume I of
the SECRET DOCTRINE, although not another word of it is mentioned.
Wescott published it in 1896, presumably as a magic ritual for the
members of the Golden Dawn."

These archangelic periods are of 354 years and 4 months in length.

Raphael doesn't precede or follow Michael in this system.

Now there are some anthroposophical endeavours which place themselves under Raphael- I know there is a "Raphael college" for instance. So that is not extraordinary.

I have some more points to cover, but that will do for now.

Bruce

T.L.Harris & Swedenborg

2007-10-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Thomas Harris studied Swedenborg - from a young age I believe.

I was first turned on to the Oliphant story when I heard a lecture by Paul M. Allen many years ago. Oliphant appears in the Karmic Relationships lectures, and you can see that Swedenborg is discussed just prior to this.

While incarnated as Ignatious of Loyola, he (Swedenborg) was under the influence of a "Mars Genius". As a balance to this it appears he was more under the inspiration of a Venusian influence during his stint as Swedenborg. Swedenborg, says Steiner, had a deeply intense love for knowledge, his clairvoyance however was not attained by means of exercises as recommended in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.
Swedenborg attained his higher knowledge by means of what Steiner calls erotic forces. Of course we don't have to take Steiner's word on this because Swedenborg tells us this himself:

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/Blake.html

That article explains how Blake also was a follower of Swedenborg.

"Also attending the Fetter Lane services was Emanuel Swedenborg, who periodically lived in London while working as a secret intelligence agent for the pro-French, pro-Jacobite party in Sweden (called the "Hats") [27]. Since his student days, Swedenborg had access to rare instruction in heterodox Jewish mysticism, which included the more erotic and visionary theories of the Sabbatians, secret disiciples of the seventeenth-century "false messiah," Sabbatai Zevi
[28]. In his diaries, Swedenborg recorded many of the lurid sexual ceremonies of the Moravians, which initially attracted but later repelled him. Like Zinzendorf, Swedenborg sought out Jewish
Kabbalists in the East End, and he soon came under the spell of Dr. Samuel Jacob Falk, known as the "Baal Shem" of London (master of the magical names of God). Verendum."

Dr. Steiner spoke of Sabbatai Zevi as a "False Christ".

From the above webpage:

"through the sublimation of his sexual energy into visionary energy. By meditating on the male and female potencies concealed in the vessels of Hebrew letters, by visualizing these letters in the forms of human bodies, by regulating the inhalation and exhalation of breath,"

Swedenborg progressed along the above lines.

Thomas Lake Harris was able to develop extraordinary abilities in respiration, so much so that a doctor declared that he had never encountered the like of before.

Swedenborg:

"Journal of Dreams (1744-45)

...the will [male sephira] influences the understanding [female sephira] most in inspiration [breathing in]. The thoughts then fly out of the body inward, and in expiration are as it were driven out, or carried straight forth; showing that the very thoughts have their alternate play like the respiration... therefore when evil thoughts entered, the only thing to do was to draw to oneself the breath; so the evil thoughts vanished.
Hence one may also see the reason that during strong thought the lungs are held in equilibrium...and at this time the inspirations go quicker than the expirations... Also, of the fact that in ecstasy or trance, the man holds his breath "

-Bruce

Socialism Now and in the Future

2007-10-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

From the Anthroposophical viewpoint, 20th century socialism and communism were both "in a hurry", because they are both impulses supplanted from the future and forced on societies in an unhealthy way.

In the Christian socialism of the future, every human being who can say "not I but Christ in me" has not the desire to guard his own little stack at the expense of others. Need not greed, becomes the the overriding principle. The carrot and stick approach of individual greed, will be replaced by an impulse of love.

In fact, it won't be just material goods that are shared, Dr. Steiner also speaks of the possibility of us taking on the karma of others.

This is really Rudolf Steiner's teaching on the matter, but there are those who want to extend past impulses into the future where they do not belong. These folk are just as bad as the Marxists and others who wanted to force future impulses on an unprepared humanity.

We are making those decisions in the here and now which will bear fruit in the future. Whether we incarnate amongst the "good" humanity or "evil" humanity of the future, depends on our intentions and actions today. And Rudolf says that the site for the "evil" humanity has already been pegged out in the American continent.

The Communism of the past was quite anti spiritual, anti- religious. The arid society that was Albania, is an example of what you get with a completely atheistic/secular government.

Marx had a big chip on his shoulder remaining from his previous incarnation. His argument with unfairness seemed to extend from man up to God as well. An understanding of karma may have
been a big help to him.

Our true position now lies between strength in our selfhood and understanding our place in the collective. If we confine ourselves to self we become raving egotists/meglomaniacs. If we deny our I Am, and dissolve into group mind, we commit a crime against ourselves, and Christ.

-Br.Bruce

Heart Thinking & the Consciousness Soul

2007-10-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

What living "in the consciousness soul" mean?

You could start by reading chapter one of "Theosophy" part four. You still might be in the dark, though.

http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Books/GA009/English/GA009_c01_4.html

There is another aspect to the Consciousness (or Spiritual) soul, and that is the importance of individuals making free decisions, being "true to oneself". This is a theme in Steiner's "Philosophy of Spiritual Activity", but really a theme for the whole of anthroposophy.

Dr. Steiner defined anthroposophy itself as a living out of the Consciousness Soul. (See definition in Awakening to Community.)
Steiner was careful when giving advice to present facts and let people decide for themselves.

We are capable of making our own good decisions out of the Consciousness Soul, because through it we attain to the Eternal Spirit, the True and the Good - see "Theosophy". That gives us the power to make our own "moral imaginations".

This ability is a fairly new one bestowed upon Man, and still, as they say on a lot of websites, "under construction".

The other aspect is the direct spiritual intuitions a student may have, which are not just a result of intellectualising or study. Here one must talk of Manas or Spirit Self as well as Consciousness Soul:(Quotes from "Theosophy".)
"The "I" lives in the soul. Although the highest manifestation of the "I" belongs to the Consciousness Soul, one must, nevertheless, say that this "I" raying out from it fills the whole soul, and through it exerts its action upon the body."

The "I" is the highest expression of Consciousness Soul- it could be called an "over-ego".(BTW my old copy of "Theosophy" refers to the Intellectual Soul as "Kama Manas".)

Continuing:

"The spirit forming and living as "I" will be called spirit self
because it manifests as the "I," or ego, or self of man. The
difference between the spirit self and the consciousness soul can be
made clear in the following way. The consciousness soul is in touch
with the self-existent truth that is independent of all antipathy and
sympathy. The spirit self bears within it the same truth, but taken
up into and enclosed by the "I," individualized by it, and absorbed
into the independent being of the individual. It is through the
eternal truth becoming thus individualized and bound up into one
being with the "I" that the "I" itself attains to the eternal."

"The spirit self is a revelation of the spiritual world within
the "I," just as from the other side sensations are a revelation of
the physical world within the "I." In what is red, green, light,
dark, hard, soft, warm, cold one recognizes the revelations of the
corporeal world. In what is true and good are to be found the
revelations of the spiritual world. In the same sense in which the
revelation of the corporeal world is called sensation, let the
revelation of the spiritual be called intuition."

In order to understand anything of an esoteric character it is essential to be adept in both intellect and imagination. Reasoning alone, will not bring to life the spiritual realities in the soul. Not everyone is so gifted as to be able to imagine and reason well at the same time, but numbers will grow in time.I suppose you could call it "heart
thinking."

Bruce

Thinking & the Human Being

2007-10-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

Divisions of the human being are made for the purposes of scientific study. We pull apart the butterfly to see how it works. There are always flaws in this approach to study, in that each part works in with the other as an organic whole.

When do we ever purely think, purely feel or purely will? It is always a matter of cooperation between faculties.

I do believe that viewing the human being as a lot of fragmented parts is fundamentally wrong to begin with- an unhealthy soul conception. We are (or should be) after all, a functioning whole.
Steiner uses the work "thinking" in a specific way. What is spoken of colloquially as "thinking" is not thinking but a
parade of ideas.

The statement by Dr. Steiner that animals don't think is considered controversial by some. Steiner did admit that animals deliberate. Even a wasp deliberates or a beetle which really doesn't have much that you could call a brain, deliberates. The great wisdom that a beaver displays in constructing dams, lodges and canals to transport
logs, is something that the beast "sucks in" from outside of itself- from the Cosmos according to Steiner. But still this must also require some deliberation by the animal itself.

The difference between the animal and the human being is that the human reasons in full waking consciousness. The human being is not stuck in one area of reasoned thought that goes around and around- like a beaver building dams season after season. Of course, some are stuck on this merry-go-round. It really is just a matter of
semantics though, and I quite understand if most people want to believe that animals think.

So the conditions of driving a manual car and "automatically" changing gears, or "automatically" touch typing as you read a text don't really come under the heading of "thinking". In fact if you become conscious of your fingers moving to each key one by one you slow right down- so thinking about the process doesn't help.

Yes there are other ways of knowing besides thinking. In fact human beings in the ancient past had an instinctual knowing that enabled them to build civilisations that rivalled own in technological marvels.

In the realm of thinking we can become conscious, in the feeling life we live in a dream and in willing we are in a deep sleep. That is why we have the capacity for freedom in thinking. We are also vunerable to attack as well, something we are protected from in the feeling realm. This attack comes from Satan/Ahriman and its result is
intellectuallism- divorced from real life.

-Bruce

Michael & the 'I'

2007-10-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

Rudolf Steiner GA 180, 1918 Jan 5:

"...chauvinism is the remnant of an impulse that once was
lived in a very different way......what does the national feeling
full of passion show, from which powers does it spring? - From
sexuality, only in a different form.

Anything that compels us from the sphere of the unconscious makes us unfree. Michael is doing his darnedest to disabuse us of these outdated notions of race and nation, and as agents of Michael we should be doing everything we can to help him out. When it comes down to it there are the "beast men" and the men and women who wish only to work freely out of the forces of their own "I".
You still wear the Mark of the Beast whilst you are compelled by forces other than that which flows unhindered from your "I". So any prejudice of race, blood, nationalism, sex, religion or politic bears a "beast mark".

The true Christian soldier follows their own conscience uncompelled by outside forces. Military trainers know very well that the first thing you have to do with a trainee when they enter boot
camp is to break down their individual "I". They uniformise the trainee soldier and do all they can to remove individual resolve and freedom. Individualism is not encouraged in the soldier. The soldier follows orders and routine, they have no idea what war they are going to fight in or whether it's just or unjust. Speaking plainly, what the military does to the human "I" is unchristian, and in fact pure evil. This is not a healthy kind of selflessness at all, but a breakdown of the true self determination. True selflessness is motivated freely by love. Selflessness is not always a good thing at all, especially when it's used to enslave others to your will and wants.

In Freedom of the "I",
-Bruce

Matthew's Tomb

2007-10-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

In 1999 there were reports that that tomb of St. Matthew had been hit by bombs:
"The British government on Monday said it is investigating reports that air attacks on Iraq military positions damaged the burial site of St. Matthew the Evangelist."

There is a monastery in Iraq associated with the tomb of Matthew:(20 miles north-east of Mosul.)
http://sor.cua.edu/ChMon/MosulDMattay/index.html

"Dair Mar Mattai is considered to be the most important Assyrian monastery in Iraq due to its religious, historical, and geographical significance. Located at the top of the famous 'Maqloub' Mountain, the monastery overlooks the magnificent fields of the Nineveh plains."

We find plenty of exhortations towards pacificism in St. Matthew's Gospel- I suppose that makes him the Apostle of Peace. There are such verses as:

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called
the children of God.
(There are more of course.)

Rudolf Steiner tells us that Matthew's teaching belongs to the Zoroastrian stream (and there was a line of Matthews as there was a line of Zarathustras). Matthew's Gospel was not written in Greek like the others. It was written in the Chaldean language using Hebrew letters (this is told to us by Jerome who translated it.)
The Chaldean Church is still active in Iraq.

Dr. Steiner also indicated that sayings from the Persian Mysteries are to be found in Matthew's Gospel. It was by the Wisdom in the Persian Mysteries that Mani was able to bring to Christianity an understanding the mystery of Evil and its overcoming by the Good. Dr. Steiner spoke of a Persian legend about Christ passing a dead dog while his Disciples recoiled in horror at the putrified flesh; our Lord remarked on the beauty of the animal's teeth. It seems that the
Persian mysteries were full of this kind of wisdom- a true understanding of the working of good and evil.

Iraq is brimful of wonderful history- Garden of Eden, Nineveh, where Jonah is reputed to be buried, and it is the site of Babylon, home to the Tower of Babel, whose Hanging Gardens were one of the World's Seven Wonders. It is also the site of the city of Ur, hometown of Abraham, which dates back 6,000 years.

Bruce

Thinking & Soul Life

2007-10-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

These things are explained in "Knowledge of the Higher Worlds":
http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Books/GA010/English/GA010_c01.html

In 1911 and 1912, Dr. Steiner gave the lecture series "World of the Senses and World of the Spirit". There as I have quoted, he says the basis of good thinking is grounded in :
(a) Wonder
(b) Veneration/reverence
(c) Feeling oneself in wisdom-filled harmony with the laws of the
world
(d) Devotion/self-surrender

"But now a man who has attained to a certain feeling of reverence, and then, having experienced this feeling of reverence, wanted to press forward with mere thought -such a man would again come to a nothingness. He would not be able to go any further. He would, it is true, make some discoveries that were quite correct, and because he had gone through these first two stages, he would with this correct knowledge have also acquired many clearly and firmly established
points of view. But he would inevitably, for all that, soon fall into uncertainty. For a third condition must take hold in the soul after we have experienced wonder and reverence; and this third mood we may describe as -feeling oneself in wisdom-filled harmony with the laws of the world. And this feeling can be attained in no other way than by having insight in the worthlessness of mere thinking..."

From KOTHW:
"It is not easy, at first, to believe that feelings like reverence and respect have anything to do with cognition. This is due to the fact that we are inclined to set cognition aside as a faculty by
itself — one that stands in no relation to what otherwise occurs in the soul. In so thinking we do not bear in mind that it is the soul which exercises the faculty of cognition; and feelings are for the soul what food is for the body. If we give the body stones in place of bread, its activity will cease. It is the same with the soul."

Living thinking is dependent on a living soul firstly. Thinking is not cognition but a tool of cognition.

-Bruce

Dogma in Anthroposophy

2007-10-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Anthroposophy has no dogma or creed - the Statutes of the Anthroposophical Society specifically forbid dogma. There are definite doctrines though- and there are plenty of very dogmatic anthroposophists.

We may strive to "forbid dogma" but dogma will always be there until everybody has their own
direct experiences- and then, don't expect everyone to agree! I think that we should be honest about dogma and not pretend it doesn't exist at all. A healthy attitude to dogma is to view it as a "resting post" along the way.

The attitude that there is only one way, one view, is very dogmatic. The attitude that Rudolf Steiner never made a mistake and is right about everything, is very dogmatic. The forbidding of teachings by other initiates is dogmatic- Tomberg etc.

The Adyar Theosophical Society is much less dogmatic than the AS.

I suppose that if there are going to be some set forms then there are going to be some dogmas. Study groups, meditations and exercises constitute "religious practices".

The Anthroposophical Society prescribes no religious practices, but it still accepts "canons of conduct".

There are practices prescribed as we know - such as the Calendar of the Soul - people dont have to take them up but they are definitely accepted.

Anthroposophy is concerned with understanding relationship of the human being to the
spiritual world. Is it not a path that leads to "salvation" away from "damnation". It is not just concerned with "an understanding"- anthroposophists must be actively developing one way
or another.

Athroposophy may not be a system of beliefs, but before one knows "all about everything" there will be beliefs.

I haven't seen any arguments that would not make the Anthroposophical Society a religion under current Australian law.

-Bruce

Definition of Religion

2007-10-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

The definitons of words can change over time- sometimes very quickly.

Take "gay" for instance; or today, "wicked" means something desirable.

Secondly, according the legal definition of religion current in

Australia

, Anthroposophy or Theosophy is a religion.

A religion is a "belief in a supernatural Being, Thing or Principle".

"Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which would lead the spiritual in man to the spiritual in the Universe."

Believing that there is something spiritual in the universe, is then, a religious belief- you don't even have to call it God.
"Observance of canons of conduct" could be meditation, study groups etc.

There is nothing about forms of ritual and worship in the current definition.

-Bruce

Is Anthroposophy a Religion?

2007-10-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

What is in a word?...everything and nothing!

I read once that Dr. Steiner wouldn't have minded if the name of the society changed every week or two. The name is not so important- it's the substance behind that name.

Now there has been quite a bit of argument over whether Anthroposophy is a religion, and in modern defintions of the word (legal definitions) it most definitely could be dubbed a religion. In older definitions that wasn't the case.

What did Dr. Steiner mean when he said he that Anthroposophy was not a religion? He was, I think, talking about about dogmatic religion.
In anthroposophy there are a series of doctrines but no one is forced to believe in them. They are also set exercises, meditations prayers etc., but again one can take them or leave them. One could call the latter 'religious observances' and the former 'religious beliefs'.
Rudolf Steiner's cosmogony could be called a "religious world view". There will be the objection "Oh no, that is based on his spiritual investigation and should be reproducible by others." But what does that matter? I'm sure other religions could say the same- Buddhism for instance.

So if one is to say "Anthroposophy is not a religion" one has to go on and define "religion" (and what I'm saying is that that definition will then be out of date.)

He is the Australian definition of religion:
(based on the principles established in the Scientology case) namely:

- belief in a supernatural Being, Thing or Principle; and

- acceptance and observance of canons of conduct in order to give effect to that belief.

The Anthroposophical Society could be registered under that definition.

And what are the benefits of this:
No rates on land taxes on properties.
No General Services tax, or payroll tax.
No fringe benefit tax on employee mortgages or cars.
The AS could run businesses and would not have to show the books or pay tax.

It is assumed that religions channel funds back into charitable causes but they don't have to show proof. In

Australia

the Seventh Day Adventist Sanatarium Health Food Company is a 300 million dollar a year business. It does not pay tax, it does not show the books. Scientology collects millions and does not have to pay tax.

In the

U.S.

, I have read that Scientologists also get tax deductions on money they spend on courses!

The COS in the

U.S.

have separated their Delphi Schools off so they can be non Church Schools- they still have to pay for Hubbard material they use.

The Waldorf Schools have always been separate to the AS so there is not a problem there.

-Bruce

Appearance of the Anti-Christ

2007-10-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

A tale we shouldn't forget:
http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=435

From "Three Conversations"

by Vladimir Soloviev

Pan-Mongolism! The name is wild,
Yet it pleases my ear greatly,
As if it were full of forebodings
Of the glorious providence of God.

"At that time, there was among the few believing spiritualists a
remarkable person -- many called him a superman -- who was equally
far from both, intellect and childlike heart. He was still young, but
owing to his great genius, by the age of thirty-three he had already
become famous as a great thinker, writer, and public figure.
Conscious of the great power of spirit in himself, he was always a
confirmed spiritualist, and his clear intellect always showed him the
truth of what one should believe in: the good, God, and the Messiah.

"In these he believed, but he loved only himself. He believed in God,
but in the depths of his soul he involuntarily and unconsciously
preferred himself. He believed in Good, but the All Seeing Eye of the
Eternal knew that this man would bow down before the power of Evil as
soon as it would offer him a bribe -- not by deception of the senses
and the lower passions, not even by the superior bait of power, but
only by his own immeasurable self-love."

"Thinking thus, the superman of the twenty-first century applied to
himself everything that was said in the Gospels about the second
coming, explaining the latter not as a return of the same Christ, but
as a replacing of the preliminary Christ by the final one -- that is,
by himself.

"At this stage, the coming man presented few original characteristics
or features. His attitude toward Christ resembled, for instance, that
of Mohammed, a truthful man, against whom no charge of harboring evil
designs can be brought.

"This man justified his selfish preference of himself before Christ
in yet another way. 'Christ,' he said, "who preached and practiced
moral good in life, was a reformer of humanity, whereas I am called
to be the benefactor of that same humanity, partly reformed and
partly incapable of being reformed. I will give everyone what they
require. As a moralist, Christ divided humanity by the notion of good
and evil. I shall unite it by benefits which are as much needed by
good as by evil people. I shall be the true representative of that
God who makes his sun to shine upon the good and the evil alike, and
who makes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. Christ
brought the sword; I shall bring peace. Christ threatened the earth
with the Day of Judgment. But I shall be the last judge, and my
judgment will be not only that of justice but also that of mercy. The
justice that will be meted out in my sentences will not be a
retributive justice but a distributive one. I shall judge each person
according to his deserts, and shall give everybody what he needs."

-Bruce

What is an Anthroposophist?

2007-10-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

One thing's for sure, it's not a person who says "I believe everything Rudolf Steiner said". That is the kind of Guru-worshiping complex he wanted to avoid. His desire would be that students think for themselves.
To define an anthroposophist you'd have to define anthroposophy- it's not the kind of word a marketer would choose is it?
There are many definitions of anthroposophy I've seen over the years- things like "Christian yoga after the coming of Michael", "the Wisdom in Man". But perhaps the best one is to be found in the Awakening to Community lectures.
In Dr. Steiner's own words:

The term "Anthroposophy" really be understood as synonymous with "Sophia", meaning the content of consciousness, the soul-attitude and experience that makes a man a fully fledged human being. The right interpretation of "Anthroposophy" is not "the wisdom of man" but rather "the consciousness of one's humanity". In other words,the reversing of the will, the experiencing of knowledge, and one's participation in the time's destiny, should all aim at giving the soul a certain direction of consciousness, a "Sophia".

Anthroposophy is a path of cognition from the spiritual in man to the Spiritual in the Cosmos

Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which would lead the spiritual in man to the spiritual in the Universe. It appears in men as a need of the heart and feeling. It must find its justification in that it can afford satisfaction to this need. Only he can acknowledge Anthroposophy who finds in it what he must seek out of his Gemut [a mind warmed by the heart].
Hence only those men can be called Anthroposophists who feel certain questions as to the nature of man and the world as life necessities in the same way as one feels hunger and thirst.

- Alfred Meebold's translation of Dr. Steiner's Leading Thoughts

-Bruce

Theosophy: a Reflection of Occultism

2007-10-21T17:15:00.001-07:00

"A theosophist has always before him the ideal of a universal single occultism, free of all religious prejudice."

Here Rudolf Steiner explains the ideals of theosophy, not as Eastern or Western but as a universal movement.

http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Lectures/ManOccult/19120602p01.html

God is no respecter of personalities and neither is occultism.

"Occultism strips itself entirely of the personal element. Systems of philosophy arise directly out of the personal in man; occultism arises out of the impersonal and is on this account capable of general comprehension. And when it is a question of expressing occultism in terms of theosophy, the endeavour is always made to speak to every human heart and every human soul, and in large measure this can be done....

Occultism- the same for all mankind:

"Occultism is in its results one and the same for all mankind. In reality there is no such thing as a difference of standpoint in occultism, — any more than there are different mathematics. It is
only necessary in regard to any particular question to have the means actually at hand to acquire knowledge on on that question, and the knowledge will be the same as is reached by everyone who has the right means at his disposal. Thus, speaking in the ideal sense, we can just as little admit the existence of different standpoints in occultism as we can imagine there might be different standpoints in mathematics. Consequently occultism, wherever it has made its
appearance, has always been recognised as single and universal. It is true that in the various theosophies that have existed from time to time and have supplied the outer cloak, so to speak, of occult truths, differences show themselves; but that is because the truths have had to be clothed differently for one folk or one epoch, than for another folk or another epoch. In other words, the differences between the theosophies that exist on the Earth lie in the manner of
thought used to clothe the occult truths. The foundations of occultism are always and everywhere one and the same...."
"Occultism knows no such differentiations, it knows nothing that might stir up opposition between man and man. No cause for opposition exists, since occultism is the single undivided property of all mankind. And inasmuch as theosophy should in our time concern itself
with the provision of a right and proper expression for occultism, it too must take care to absorb as little as possible of the differentiations that have manifested themselves in mankind. It must
set itself the aim of being a faithful expression of occult truth and occult connections in so doing, it will inevitably also work for the overthrow of all specialised world-conceptions and help to break down religious differentiations."

There is no Eastern, Western, Christian, Buddhist Theosophy:

"We must learn completely to overcome the inclination to a theosophy of a definite stamp and coloring. It has gradually come about in the history of evolution that theosophies have tended to receive a certain nuance and coloring in accordance — I will not say with religious prejudices, but with religious preconceived feelings and opinions. Theosophy needs to keep constantly in view its ideal, — to be a reflection of occultism. There can therefore be no such thing as a Buddhist theosophy or a Hindu theosophy, or a Zoroastrian or a Christian. Naturally, regard must be had to the characteristic ideas and thoughts with which particular people will approach theosophy.
Nevertheless it must never let go its ideal of being a pure expression for occult truth. It was, for example, a repudiation of the fundamental principle of occultists all the world over, when a
theosophy made its appearance among certain societies in Central Europe, calling itself a "Christian" theosophy. As a matter of fact, you can just as little have a Christian theosophy as a Buddhist theosophy or a Zoroastrian."

"The relation theosophy has to assume to religion is that of an expounder of its truths. For theosophy is in a position to understand the truths of religion....."

"A great work for peace on earth would be accomplished if unity and harmony could be established in regard to the higher realms of occult knowledge. Let that stand before us as an ideal. It is hard of attainment. When one reflects how intimately men are bound up with their religious prejudices and with the whole way in which they have been educated, one will readily perceive the difficulty of presenting them with something that is not coloured with any religious prejudice but is as faithful a picture as possible of occult knowledge.

"Within certain limits we must be prepared to recognise that as long as the Buddhist takes the standpoint of the Buddhist faith, he rejects the standpoint of the Christian. And if theosophy takes on a Buddhist coloring, then that Buddhist theosophy will quite naturally show itself inimical, or at any rate unsympathetic, to occultism. We shall also understand how difficult it is, in a realm where Christian forms prevail, to come to an objective knowledge, let us say, of those aspects of occultism which find expression in Buddhism Our ideal, however, must always be to meet the one point of view with just as much understanding as the other and to establish over the whole earth a harmonious and peaceful relationship based on mutual comprehension.

"The Buddhist and the Christian who have become theosophists will understand one another, they will be sure to discover a standpoint where they are in harmonious agreement. A theosophist has always before him the ideal of a universal single occultism, free of all religious prejudice. The Christian who has become a theosophist will understand the Buddhist when he says: "It is not possible that a Bodhisattva who has passed from incarnation to incarnation and has at length become Buddha (as happened in the particular case with the death of Suddhodana) should afterwards return again into a human body. For in becoming Buddha he has attained to such a lofty stage of human evolution that he does not need ever to pass again into a human
body." The Christian will reply to the Buddhist: "Christianity has not up to the present given me any revelation concerning Beings like Bodhisattvas, but as I strive after theosophy I learn to recognise not only that you know this truth out of your knowledge, but that I too must receive it as truth." For as theosophist, the Christian will say to himself: "I understand what a Bodhisattva is, I know that the Buddhist speaks absolute truth about these Beings, he utters a truth which could be spoken in lands where Buddhism prevailed. I understand it when the Buddhist says that a Buddha does not return again into a fleshly organism." The Christian who has become a theosophist understands the Buddhist who has become a theosophist. And if the Christian were now in his turn to address the Buddhist, he could say: "When one studies the Christian faith in its true occult content, as it is studied in occult schools, then one finds that the Being who is designated by the name of Christ" — the name of Christ may be quite unknown to the other — "is a Being who was never on earth before the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. He is a Being who can never come again in a physical body; for that would contradict the whole nature of the Christ."

"When the Buddhist who has become a theosophist hears this from the Christian, he will answer him in the following way: "Just as you understand how impossible it is for me to admit that a Buddha, after he has once become Buddha, can come again in a fleshly body, — just as you understand me, recognising what has been imparted to me as truth, so am I ready to recognise the share of truth that has been communicated to you. I try to recognise what you receive from your faith, namely, that at the beginning of Christianity stands, not so much a Teacher, but a Deed, an Act." For the occultist places at the beginning of Christianity not Jesus of Nazareth, but the Christ, and he sets the actual moment of its beginning in the Mystery of Golgotha.

"Buddhism differs from Christianity in that it has a personal teacher as its starting-point, whereas Christianity has a deed, the deed of salvation and release, the deed accomplished by the death on the Cross on Golgotha. Not a doctrine but a deed stands at the foundation of Christian evolution. This the Buddhist theosophist understands, and he receives what is given as the occult foundation of Christianity and in doing so helps to establish harmony among mankind. He would be breaking the harmony if he were to apply to Christianity his Buddhist ideas. It is the part of the Christian, when he becomes theosophist, to understand Buddhism out of Buddhism
itself, not to re-mould in some way of his own the ideas about Bodhisattva and Buddha, but rather to understand them as they are contained in Buddhism. Similarly it is the part of the Buddhist to receive the Christian ideas as they are, for they form the occult foundations of Christianity. Just as it is impossible to bring together the Being Who is named with the name of Christ with Beings of a lower kind, namely with Bodhisattvas, so also is it impossible, if we would remain loyal to the ideal of theosophy, to allow theosophy to be anything else than a faithful reflection of the single undivided occultism....."

"Occultism has always had the character of universality and is independent of every Buddhist as well as of every Christian shade of colouring. Hence it can understand objectively the Mussulman or the Zoroastrian or the Buddhist, even as it can also the Christian. What I have said will help you to see how it is that occultism, which is universal, has come to assume in theosophy so many different forms in the course of human evolution. And you will be able also to see why
in our time it is so important to hold up as the ideal, not that one form of religion should gain the victory over the rest, but that all the different forms of expression of religion should mutually
understand one another. The first condition for this, however, is that men should come to an understanding of the occult foundations that are the same for all religions."
- Rudolf Steiner

Rosicrucian Theosophy

2007-10-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

As Rudolf Steiner said, the TS was not an occult movement but a place where occultism was discussed. It was, as he saw it, a place for discussion, where each and every member was as important as another.
See lecture, Occultism and Theosophy, in The Temple Legend.

Dr. Steiner was happy to call his book "Theosophy". He didn't consider it an Eastern term.

He, or his followers to be precise, broke away when the original aims and objects of the Society were threatened with change by the Order of the Star of the East. No longer was the Society going to be a place for discussion, no, it was being turned into a religion.

Now, as far as I've seen, the Adyar TS is still a place for discussion. The TS bookshops sell a wide variety of spiritual literature which includes anthroposophy. There are many red hot students of Steiner who are members of the TS.

When lecturing at the TS, Dr. Steiner would start his lecture with "My dear Rocrucian friends". He discusses in one of his lectures, that there were protests from some that he would say this. He replied that it was possible/allowable for one to be a Rosicrucian and a theosophist at the same time.

Rudolf Steiner was a Rosicrucian, according to his own statement.

-Bruce

The Theosophists

2007-10-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

Who or what are theosophists?

"Theosophy" is a book by Rudolf Steiner. The word means "Divine Wisdom" or the "wisdom of God". It is not specifically Eastern, Western, Northern or Southern. Some of the famous theosophists of history are Paracelsus, Oetinger and Jacob Boehme; all of whom were Western or Christian theosophists.

The original impulse behind the modern Theosophical Society was a Rosicrucian one, according to Dr. Steiner- who was himself a member of that said society (along with his wife Marie). During the long period in which he was a member, he was also the leader of the German section.

Now the question is, if the Theosophical society taught Eastern doctrines why was Dr. Steiner allowed to teach his Western Rosicrucian teachings and be a leader of the section? Why was this allowed to happen?

The reason is that the stated aim of the TS was to avoid dogma. It was a truly open forum with members making up their own minds on whether they wanted follow Eastern or Western paths.
Theosophy is not a religion. In London during the time when H.P. Blavatsky was alive, Dr. Kingsford was the leader of the Lodge and she taught her own brand of Christian teachings.

HPB moved away from the Rosicrucian to a more Eastern approach- first Indian Hindu and then Tibetan Buddhist. But her teachings were never meant to be dogma.

These are the aims of one of the Theosophical Societies:

"To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in Man."

There is nothing there about it being a path or having dogmas (Eastern or otherwise) and forcing people to believe one thing or another. You often find anthroposophists speaking at theosophical
societies around the world.

As I said, theosophy is not a path. Blavatsky (who is not easy reading) never taught meditation or occult exercises. If someone wants to talk about anthroposophy at the Theosophical Society they can- this goes for the Adyar society. If Annie Besant had accepted Steiner instead of
Leadbeater as her guide, there may never have been an anthroposophical society. Dr. Steiner was in no hurry to leave but things became unbearable with the Krishnamurti issue.

Warm Regards,
Bruce

Personal Ego Eclipsed

2007-10-16T00:22:00.000-07:00

In the 12th lecture of St. John he says that when a person is illuminated with the Holy Spirit according to esoteric Christianity, "he speaks forthwith in a different manner."

"How does he speak? When he speaks about Saturn, Sun and Moon, about the different members of the human being, about the processes of cosmic evolution, HE IS NOT EXPRESSING HIS OWN OPINION. His views do not at all come into consideration. When such a person speaks about Saturn, it is Saturn which is speaking through him. When he speaks of
the Sun, the Spiritual Being of the Sun speaks through him."

[So far all these anonymous beings speak through him.]

"HE IS THE INSTRUMENT. His personal ego has become eclipsed, which means that at such moments it has become impersonal and it is the Cosmic Universal Ego that is using his ego as its instrument through which to speak."
-Gospel of John lectures- Steiner

So isn't Dr. Steiner speaking of himself here?
His personal ego had "become eclipsed". This is not to be confused
with a surrendering of the ego as in trance mediumism.

-Bruce

Cosmopolitanism

2007-10-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

Only this year, I read a line from a lecture where Dr. Steiner hints that Knowledge of the Higher Worlds was written by the Masters- unfortunately I didn't mark it. It goes something like "If we said KotHW was written by the Masters they would be shocked."

Also we know that the first Mystery plays were written "through" Rudolf Steiner, not "by".

Spiritual beings who are the direct followers of the Archangels wanted to spread uniformity over the whole of mankind. If this were given free rein mankind would have been one "indistinguishable species". Other beings had the task of spreading differentiation among mankind so that this wouldn't occur. With the coming of Michael in the nineteeth century, this period of differentiation came to an end.

"These spiritual beings who had to be fought by the Archangel Michael being a time spirit have always affected the life and evolution of mankind; during the past millenia, prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, their task in the spiritual world was to create differentiation among human beings. ...."

"These spiritual beings, however, against whom the Michaelic principle had to fight had the task of spreading differentiation among mankind, to split humanity into races and peoples; to bring
about all those differences that are connected with the blood and with the nerve temperament. This had to happen. They may be called Ahrimanic beings, and we must realize that the Ahrimanic principle was a neccessity in the course of mankind's evolution.

"Now a time of great significance arrived in the evolution of manikind, beginning with the forties of the nineteenth century. The time arrived WHEN THE DIVIDED HUMAN RACE HAD TO BE FORMED INTO A UNITY.

"You see, the cosmopolitan views which, to be sure, sometimes turned into cosmopolitan slogans in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century, are simply a reflection of what occurred in the spiritual world. The tendency exists in mankind to wipe out the various differences which were fostered by the blood and nerve temperament. It is not a tendency of the spiritual worlds to create further differences among mankind, but it is a tendency of the spiritual worlds to pour a cosmopolitan element over mankind."

Signs of the times, Michael's Battle and its Reflection on Earth,

Lecture 2, Rudolf Steiner. [my caps]

-Bruce

Dr.Felkin & Edith Maryon

2007-10-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

Dr. Felkin, an original member of the Golden Dawn - later to form the Stella Matutina offshoot - was a student of Dr. Steiner. He worked in a different way from Steiner, but some of his students became anthroposophists. According to statements I've read online by Pat Zalewski, Steiner had given written instuctions to Felkin regarding his Rosicrucian ritual work. Pat is an expert on the Golden Dawn and particularly Stella Matutina.

A famous member of the Stella Matutina is one Edith Maryon, a very talented
sculptress, who at one time saved Steiner's life when he fell from some scaffolding. The anthroposophical work in Havelock North, New Zealand was seeded from Dr. Felkin's group (who arrived there first and set up a temple- the "first in the Southern Hemisphere".)

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Hermeticism/Felkin.html

"Ara ben Shemesh. This was a discarnate Arab who claimed affiliation with the desert-temple visited by Father Christian Rosenkreutz on his Middle Eastern pilgrimage. Felkin, realising a magical sodality's need for contact with the inner planes, accepted Ara ben Shemesh as
his teacher and the latter's 'Sun-Masters' as his Secret Chiefs. [Ben shemesh encouraged Felkin to keep learning under Steiner.]
"He and his wife undertook several journeys on the Continent with this end in view and their contacts with Rudolf Steiner there coloured henceforward the égégore of all Ste/la Matutina Lodges in varying degrees. A cognate quest also undertaken by them was the search for Christian Rosenkreutz's tomb described in the Fama Fraternitatis; but this proved a wild goose chase"

"On yonder hill you will pitch your tent' prophesied the daughter of Golden Dawn founder Robert Felkin to Herbert Sutcliffe, as she pointed out towards Te Mata Peak. It was about 1940 and he was staying at her home, Whare-Ra [Matutina Temple], in Havelock North..... "Peloha's grounds with its large citrus orchards and organic gardens made the property almost self-sufficient. By the late 1980s, after the deaths of Dr Sutcliffe and his wife, Peloha was no longer economic to run and was sold to Weleda, makers of herbal and homeopathic medicines in the Steiner tradition."

Maryon was a very talented sculptress- more talented than Dr. Steiner (much to the chagrin of some anthroposophists). I once heard John Wilkes talk on this. He had prepared an exhibition at the Goetheanum, placing the marquettes for the "Representative of Man" sculpture with
Edith Maryon's being the first. Some misguided enthusiast changed them around to make Steiner's models the first in line!

Greetings,
Bruce

Rudolf Steiner was a Rosicrucian

2007-10-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

Rudolf Steiner was a Rosicrucian- this he admitted when asked. Also, in the TS days he titled his teachings "Rosicrucian Spiritual Science" and greeted the audience "My Dear Rosicrucian Freinds".

I have a description by M. Robert Kuentz of Steiner's "Initiation to the Grade of Rosicrucian Apprentice."
A few highlights: You are told to dress in white. You are blindfolded and all metal taken off you.

You enter the Temple and circumnambulate the room three times. After a spoken formulae the bandage is removed, you see Steiner in front of you holding a skull under your nose. Steiner has two servers bearing candles.

Steiner is completely clothed in red with red cap. He is before an altar in the form of a cube, on which are a cup, crucifix and candle.
There are three altars in all.

At this point you are wearing the masonic apron. You place your hand on the Gospel of John and are told the password. With two extended swords curious signs are made in front of you.

Then a sermon from Steiner on Hiram and Solomon... then the repast. Second address from Steiner now wearing an alb of lace; he speaks on the Triangle and the eye of God.
Closing of ceremony which has lasted four hours. Ritualistic knocks with mallets on the three cubes, black draperies removed. You are surrounded with ruby red... You are Initiated!

Steiner gave lectures on Masonry in 1905. He made it clear then, that he was speaking as a non-Mason, but in November of that year, he and Marie von Sivers, received a warrant, a diploma, to practice the higher degrees of Masonry:

http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/prkoenig/mm1.htm

"[On the 24th of November 1905 Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and Marie von Sivers (1867-1948), became members of MM, and received a warrant
to work the 30°, 67°, and 89° from Reuss on the 3rd of January 1906.
[Yarker disagreed with Reuss and Encausse's activities in France, and
nominated George Lagrèze in their place on the 9th of September 1909
[15]]."

MM stands Memphis Misraim- Misraim being the ancient name for Egypt. It is an occult fact that the new is grafted on to the old, and this is what Steiner was looking to do. "The new moss grows at the foot of the ancient tree."

Now how do we know that the above is correct?- because Steiner says
so in his autobiography:

http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Books/GA028/TSoML/GA028_c36.html:

"Some years after the beginning of the activity in the Theosophical Society, Marie von Sievers and I were entrusted by certain persons with the leadership of a society similar to others which have been maintained in preservation of the ancient symbolism and cultural ceremonies that embody the "ancient wisdom." I never thought in the remotest degree of working in the spirit of such a society. Everything anthroposophic should and must spring from its own sources
of knowledge and truth.....

"And so wherever possible I also favoured the linking of the newly given to the historically existent. I therefore took the diploma of the society referred to, which belonged to the stream represented by Yarker. It had the forms of Free Masonry of the so-called high degrees; but I took nothing else – absolutely nothing – from this society except the merely formal authorization, in historic succession, to direct a symbolic-cultural activity.

"Everything set forth in content in the "ceremonies" which were employed in the institution were without historic dependence upon any tradition whatever. In the formal granting of the diploma only that was fostered which resulted in the symbolizing of anthroposophic knowledge.

"And our purpose in this matter was to meet the needs of the members.
In elaborating the ideas in which the knowledge of spirit is given in
a veiled form, the effort is made to arrive at something which speaks
directly to perception, to the heart; and such purposes I wished to
serve. If the invitation from the society in question had not come to
me, I should have undertaken the direction of a symbolic-cultural
activity without any historic connection.

"But this did not create a "secret society." Whoever entered into
this practice was told in the clearest possible manner that he was
not dealing with any "order," but that as participant in ceremonial
forms he would experience a sort of visualization, demonstration of
spiritual knowledge."

end of quote

Dr. Steiner mentions John Yarker in his autobiography as well- a "respected mason" I think he calls him. John Yarker was indeed a powerful learned man- you can find some of his articles online.

Br.Bruce

Christian Brotherhood

2007-10-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

Rudolf Steiner repeatably told us that the coming race was one of Christian
Brotherhood:

"But from a small colony in the East [in foot note: The Slavonic
peoples] there will be developed, as though from a seed, new life for
the future. The economic needs of existence will then be separated
from work: there will be no more personal possession, everything will
be owned in common. One will no longer work for one's personal
existence, but will do everything as absolute offering for humanity."

Rudolf Steiner, Foundations of Esotericism, lecture 8, Rudolf Steiner
Press, London, 1983, p. 232.

Christian Socialism is the keynote of the Sixth Epoch- all the quotes point to it, anything else "river in

Egypt

" stuff.

The problem we have in understanding each other is the confusion of Ahrimanic Socialism with Christian Socialism as outlined by Rudolf:

"An impulse in life can be harmful by itself, but can be beneficial in co-operation with other impulses..."

[A diagram is drawn of three converging streams Ahrimanic socialism,
Luciferic freedom of thought, Mankind's Representative (Christ)
Spiritual Science.]

"One direction is to symbolise for us the socialism to which modern mankind is striving - not just current Lenin socialism. The second line is to symbolise what I have often characterised as to you as freedom of thought, and the third direction is Spiritual Science.
THESE THREE THINGS BELONG TO ONE ANOTHER; THEY MUST WORK TOGETHER IN LIFE.

"If socialism, in the crude materialistic form in which it appears today, attempts to force itself upon mankind, it will bring the greatest unhappiness upon humanity. It is symbolised by Ahriman...."

"If the false freedom of thought, which wants to stop short at every thought and make it valid, seeks to force itself, then harm is again brought to mankind. This is symbolised in our Group by Lucifer. But you cannot exclude neither Lucifer or Ahriman from the present day, they must be balanced through Pneumatology, through Spiritual Science, which is represented by the Representative of Mankind...."

Ancient Myths their Meaning & Connection with Evolution, Lect 5, 11th
Jan 1918.

In light-hearted freedom,
Bruce

Learning from the Babes

2007-10-16T00:02:00.000-07:00

"How can we look understandingly into somebody's being? We should not
condemn but understand the criminal's personality, understand the
criminal and the saint equally well. Empathy for each and everyone is
required and this is what is meant with higher, occult "listening."
Thus, if a person brings himself with strict self-control to the
point of not evaluating his fellowman, or the rest of the world for
that matter, according to his personal judgment, opinion and
prejudice and instead lets both work on him in silence, he has the
chance to gain occult powers. Every moment during which a person
becomes determined to refrain from thinking an evil thought about his
fellowman is a moment gained.

"A wise man can learn from a child. A simple-minded person can
consider a wise man's utterances in like manner as a child's
babblings, convinced that he is superior to a child and unaware of
the practicality of wisdom. Only when he has learned to listen to the
stammering of a babe as if it were a revelation, has he created
within him power that wells forth from his soul."
-Rudolf Steiner
http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Lectures/InnDev_index.html

Origins in Cosmic Space

2007-10-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

"A beautiful saying in this Gospel is usually quite wrongly translated. In its true form the saying is: 'I have not come to send peace away from this Earth but to send away the sword!' The most beautiful message of peace has in the course of time been distorted into its very opposite!"
- the Gospel of Matthew Lecture 12

And more:
"If we investigate the different civilizations as we have tried to do
and the significance of the inspiring spirits of the various
religions and of the bearers of Wisdom to humanity, we shall cease to
strive on earth as followers of individual systems. We shall not
depend on names, nor on the creeds of the several groups of men on
the earth. When men seek their knowledge there where the vision of
all the humanity of the earth can he directed, and where the
knowledge common to all can be obtained — knowledge which unites and
does not separate — when men actually reach that heavenly language
which expresses the significance of the various religious Founders
and Inspirers of humanity, then will the Anthroposophical ideal of a
tolerant and unbiased consideration of all religions and cosmic
conceptions be really able to appear. Men will no longer quarrel when
they no longer claim for their own group a particular bearer of
religion or stream of civilisation, but seek for the origin of these
bearers outside in cosmic space. In this sense such a contemplation
may acquire great moral importance if in much which formerly brought
divisions and disharmonies upon earth, peace and harmony are
established.
http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Lectures/19120413p01.html

Faithfully,
Bruce

The Prince of Peace

2007-10-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her
mother in law.And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

Not exactly happy families.

Contrary to this, Matthew later states:

"Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Matthew 26:52

Moreso than any of the other Gospels, Matthew's is one of non- violence:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Matthew 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have
ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Matthew 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more
than others? do not even the publicans so?

So the line about the "Prince of Peace" bringing a sword seems out of place in Matthew.

Uncharacteristically, Dr. Steiner agrees and tells us that this scriptural verse has been completely misquoted; implying the reverse of what was meant.
"I have not come to send peace away from this Earth but to send away
the sword" is Dr. Steiner's rendering of the verse. He then continues:

"Christ entered into the spiritual sphere of Earth-existence in order
gradually to rescue it from elements that bring about discord and
disharmony in mankind. Spiritual Science will establish peace when it
is truly Christian, in the sense of bringing about the unity of
religions. It can unite not only those in regions immediately around
us but can establish peace over the whole Earth, because it
understands the nature of the deed wrought by the greatest Bringer of
peace."

See: The Gospel of Matthew, Rudolf Steiner

Matthew 10:34b should read “I came not to send peace, but the sword”. However rather than “gladius” which means “sword”, Kells has “gaudium” meaning “joy”. Rendering the verse: “I came not [only] to send peace, but [also] joy”.^[2]

-Bruce

Celestial Hierarchy

2007-10-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

I know that the Elohim in Genesis are a plurality and this is what it literally says- also "We" and "They" are used.
Honorific? - a flimsy argument based on nothing.... There are no Jehovahim or Adonais. Nowhere in the Bible is a plural used as an honorific. Jesus didn't refer to His "Fathers". Sure Queen Victoria said things like "We are not amused." but we never refer to the Queen as "Queens"- unless you're in New York. When God speaks from the burning bush He says "I Am that I Am". That is specific. But it is not the "Elohim".

All other lesser beings stream from Father God. Steiner, along with the other Christian esotericists sees in the Elohim the working of Christ the Creative Word.

The "gods many, and lords many" "including Thrones, angelic Lords, celestial Powers and Rulers;" that Paul of Tarsus speaks of, are the hierarchical beings. Paul's disciple Dionysius the Areopagite, Bishop of Athens, carried
on this secret teaching and his later disciple, who took on his name, wrote of these Celestial Hierarchies. This book became, probably, the most influential in all Christendom. It was presented to Charlemagne as a
coronation gift for instance.

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/CelestialHierarchy.html

So revelation continues on.

The Anthroposophical Christology is there for those who are ready for the "strong meat" as the writer of Hebrews tells it:

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Hebrews 5:13-14

In Christ,
The Living Christ,

Assassins

2007-10-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

THE name "assassin" comes from "hashisheen". Because the Koran forbids alcohol, many Moslems took to hashish. An Egyptian friend of mine told me that the name "hashisheen" was also applied to professors in the universities. Most probably the cannabis plant was formed at a time when Luciferic forces predominated and has since played a crucial part in Luciferic sects.

The training of the Assassins included useless exercises like fetching water with a bucket with a hole in it. Normally the will depends on an end result to motivate it, but these kind of exercises build will for will's sake. R. Steiner mentions an individual, a simpleton, who was once made wiser by these kind of exercises, but they are now well past their use-by date.

The training of the assassins also involved lashings of hashish. One particular propaganda tool used went like this: A man was beheaded in front of the drugged trainees and then his bloody head was placed on a dish from where it began to tell of all the wonders of Paradise which awaited them.

This was cleverly done of course, with a stand-in taking the place of the dead man. It is significant that Dr. Steiner calls the picture of the severed head on the dish as symbol of Black magic and an antitheses of the Mass.

This Arabian Black magic was studied by Klingsor:

"All this is closely connected with a figure who glimmers across from the Middle Ages as a legendary being, but is well know to anyone acquainted with the nature of the Mysteries: a personality who was quite real in the middle of the Middle Ages, Klingsor, the Duke of Terra de Labur, a district we have to look for in what is now Southern Calabria. From there were carried out the incursions of the enemy of the Grail, especially over to Sicily. Even as today, if we tread Sicilian soil and have occult sight, we are aware of the Akashic after-effects of the great Empedocles still present in the atmosphere, so we can still perceive there the evil after-effects of Klingsor, who allied himself from his Duchy of Terra de Labur, across the Straits of Messina, with those enemies of the Grail who occupied the fastness known in occultism and in legend as Calot bobot."
-Steiner

"Calot bobot" or "Kalot Enbolot" is an Arabic word meaning "Castle of the Oaks". From there, African Mohammedan enemies of the Grail worked. The symbol of the Grail is the Sun host held by the crescent Moon. The Moon forces will be redeemed by the Sun. It is opposed by the crescent with the star (the false Venus?).

So today we have the old battle of the Sons of the Sun with the Sons of the Moon. Walter Stein predicted the confrontation between East and West.
Working with the time cycles of Trithemius of Sponheim he saw a replay of the battle of Salamis of 480 BC, where the Persians were beaten back by the Greeks. He predicted that two old enemies would have to cooperate if the battle were to be won.

"In the middle of the Middle Ages, Calot bobot in Sicily was the seat of the goddess called Iblis, the daughter of Eblis; and among all evil unions which have taken place within the Earth's evolution between beings in whose souls there were occult forces, the one known to occultists as the worst of all was between Klingsor and Iblis, the daughter of Eblis. Iblis, by her very name, is characterized as being related to Eblis, and in Mohammedan tradition Eblis is the figure we call Lucifer. Iblis is a kind of feminine aspect of Eblis, the Mohammedan Lucifer, and with her the evil magician Klingsor united his own evil arts, through which in the Middle Ages he worked against the Grail. These things must needs find expression in pictures, but in pictures that correspond to realities; they cannot be expressed in abstract ideas. And the whole of the hostility to the Grail was enacted in that fastness of Iblis, Calot bobot whither the remarkable Queen
Sibilla had fled with her son William, in 1194, under the ruler-ship of the Emperor Henry V1."

-Rudolf Steiner

-Bruce

Raksasha Beings

2007-10-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

The Kali demon worshipped by the Thugs was more of an actual gorgonic being that fed off the astral entrails of their murdered victims, prompting more of the same - similar to what occurred in the Mexican Mysteries. These vampiristic Raksasha/Nephilim beings do appear as Kali with astral human skulls "decorating" their beings.

It is interesting that Dr. Steiner talked of the task of Theosophical Society as being one of overcoming these beings.

There is no choice. The protection from the influence of Ahriman by the "Christ Mystery" "will steadily diminish."

Ahriman has been cast into fetters but only for those who "endeavor unceasingly to fathom the Christ Mystery."

-Bruce
see Mephistopheles and Earthquakes 1909 1st Jan.

Klingsor

2007-10-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

As the story goes, Klingsor was found in bed with the king of Sicily's wife, Iblis. For this indiscretion Klingsor had "yield his manhood to the king in satisfaction".
-Stein the Ninth Century

Occultly we can understand a union between man and demon "among all evil unions which have taken place within the Earth's evolution between beings in whose souls there were occult forces, the one known to occultists as the worst of all was between Klingsor and Iblis."

As a result Klingsor was made a "capon" a "castrated cock."

Bruce

Yama

2007-10-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

It is interesting that Pantanjali makes this distinction between wealth and theft:

"When abstinence from theft, in mind and act, is complete in the Yogee, he has the power to obtain all material wealth."

Rudolf Steiner gives the broader definition of stealing in his summing up of Yama:

"Yama includes everything which has to be given up by one who wishes to go through a yoga training, and its precepts we find more fully expressed in the commandments: Non-lying, non-killing, non-stealing, non-extravagance, and non-desiring. The commandment 'non-killing' is a very strict one, and holds good for all beings. No living being may be killed, or even injured, and the more strictly this is kept, the further the student is brought. It is beside the question to ask if this can be carried out in our civilization.

'Non-lying' is easier to understand when it is kept in mind that every lie is a murder on the astral plane.

'Non-stealing': That must also be carried out in its strictest sense. A European may say he is not stealing, but in the eyes of the oriental yogi the matter is not so lightly disposed of. In the countries where these precepts were first divulged by the great teachers of humanity, the conditions of life were much simpler, and the principle of theft could easily be fixed. But a yoga teacher would not agree that a European does not steal. If, for example, I appropriate in an unlawful way the working power of another person, if I procure a profit for myself, a profit that is permitted by law but that means the exploitation of another person, the yoga teacher will call that 'stealing.' Our ways of life are complicated. Many transgress this commandment without being in any way aware of having done so.

'Non-extravagance' is just as complicated. A person whose money is invested in distilleries without his knowing it, is just as much guilty as the manufacturer who distils liquors. The fact of not knowing does not change the Karma. But if you are rich your possibility of hurting others is lessened in the proportion in which you strive after frugality.

'Non-desiring' is very difficult. It implies striving to be without any wants whatever; approaching the world without a single desire, and merely doing what is demanded of us by the outer world. Even the feeling of satisfaction in bestowing benefits must be suppressed. In the yoga teachings Yama is enforced with the utmost severity, and cannot, as it is now taught, be transplanted to Europe."

-Bruce

Circling Around it

2007-10-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of years back, when I was at a "Steiner" get-together, some folk were annoyed when others performed a circle dance. These critics thought this was just not "Steiner."

The people at this school were of the New Age/"native peoples" type - which is pretty standard I believe. I guess parents like this see Waldorf as the closest thing to their views.

Anyways, a lot of what has become "Waldorf" is not derived from Dr. Steiner teachings.

I was able to point out a lecture where RS talked about the attraction of the circle and dancing in circles.

Talking of circles and things, there is the expression "widdershins" to describe a circle which is formed against anti-clockwise against the Sun. Thus it was common custom to stir a Christmas cake "sunwise" for instance.
As you know, water whirlpools in a different direction down here (or up here depending on how you look at it). So things are quite back to front "over" here.

Our clocks move clockwise only because that is how the old sundials "moved". The shadow of a
sundial in my part of the world moves anticlockwise- it dances in a different direction. Perhaps we should use anticlockwise clocks in honour of this.

-Bruce

Luke's genealogy

2007-10-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

The argument for Luke's genealogy being that of Mary is very weak.
According to Luke 3:23 And when he began his ministry, Jesus himself was
about thirty years of age, being supposedly the son of Joseph, the son
of Eli, Aside from the fact that Mary is not mentioned, there are two
possible interpretations: either Joseph was her father or he was her
brother. Clearly this is not acceptable. A third would be that Joseph,
the son of Eli, was her Father and just happened to have the name as the
man to whom she was betrothed. But that would seem to be grasping at
straws. The most straightforward interpretation is that Luke had no
intention of tracing Mary's genealogy (in which case he would have named
her) but that he traces her husband's, from David's son Nathan. The
Matthew descendant list most definitely traces down from David's son,
Solomon, to Joseph. Matthew 1:16 reads: And to Jacob was born Joseph,
the husband of Mary, by whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. There
are two apparent problems. The first is, how to reconcile the two
paternal genealogies - which diverge with the sons of David, Solomon and
Nathan. The second is, why is any genealogy of Joseph relavent at all,
if Joseph had nothing to do with it. If Joseph was not Jesus's physical
father, then the original poster is quite correct, that claims for
Jesus's messianic heritage are not based on truth but only on
appearances, whatever Jesus's divine nature was. The second problem is
easy, in my mind. We assume that Joseph was not involved in the
conception of Jesus in any way. However, a Holy Spirit capable of
working a physical conception in Mary is also capable of employing the
physical agency of Joseph's seed in this work. In our materialistic
times we interpret viginity and its loss solely in terms of a physical
act, whereas it is really a matter of purity on a much higher level as
well. The important thing is that neither Mary nor Joseph was conscious
of any union between them (they had not "known"each other). Thus the
first gospel's dedication of half its opening chapter to the genealogy
of Joseph is quite relevant to Jesus, the Virgin birth not-
withstanding. To the first question there is an answer that creates, to
begin with, more problems than it resolves. It is that the two
evangelists are relating the births of two entirely different children
of two entirely different sets of parents. Except for the names of the
parents and the child, and the birthplace in Bethlehem there is no point
in common between the two stories. Matthew and Luke converge in their
accounts only thirty years later with the Baptism of Jesus in Jordan.
Rudolf Steiner offered his explanation of how these accounts begin with
two children and then converge with their accounts of the one Jesus of
Nazareth. He did not derive his resolution from biblical study or
speculation, or from other external documents, and the discussion of
"how this could be" might bring us beyond the limits of appropriateness
for this newsgroup. In any case, the details are described in Steiner's
"The Spiritual Guidance of the Human Being and of Humanity", "The Gospel
of St. Luke", and "The Gospel of St. Matthew". Whether or not Rudolf
Steiner's methods and explanation are accepted as valid, at least this
interpretation resolves the apparent contradictions of the two
genealogies while leaving the text intact. As for the passing of one's
Jewishness through the mother, this was never an issue with Jesus. No
one ever questioned his or Mary's Jewishness. The issue of the
genealogies has to do with his paternal line of descent from David, the
king.

-Gerry Palo

-Bruce

The Future of Self

2007-10-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
The development of Man up to this point has been to enhance the separateness of the individuality, and selfishness is part of this. The mission of alcohol played its part too.

In ancient times we experienced our "I" most naturally in all that was around us- the spiritual world as well. The mystic sought to regain some of this consciousness - "I am this world". This was the old tribal consciousness which still persists in some of our Australian Aboriginals.

This sense of individuality has left us with a loneliness, which is very apparent today.

The development of this separate "I" will not end here, but in a voluntary co-operative society in the future- known as the Sixth Race, or Philadelphia in Revelations. (The Six Sub Race will be the seed of the Sixth Root Race.)

"For selfless deeds are the real foundations of immortality: this is the reflex of selfless deeds in the outer world."

R. Steiner

Another paradox- we only get to keep what we give away.

"To do something for the higher self is not selfish because it is not done only for the self. The higher self will be united with all other higher selves, so that is done for all at the same time."
RS
"A tiny handful of men will save themselves and pass over to the sixth epoch. This tiny handful will have developed complete selflessness."
RS

Compassion for self is a caring for oneself, it is not egotism. So many times today we hear of people hating themselves and sometimes suiciding because of that hate. Compassion for self is right and correct, so is a strong I AM or ego-identity. Conceit is a different matter.

Vanity gives us a false view of ourselves in our relationship to the world.
We may tempted to lie to ourselves about self, because we are pained by some of our faults. Marcus Aurelius has some wonderful things to say in his Meditations about a healthy view
of self- all the more important considering his status as the most powerful man in the world
of his time.

Our true enduring self is our higher self. Our personality will perish at the end of this life.

-Bruce

The Masters of Harmony of Feelings

2007-10-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a few bits and pieces I've gathered:

"In the same way that a higher animal excels a worm, do the rishis, the Masters, excel humanity... What is highly esteemed in the West - knowing for the sake of knowing - is not what the adepts, the great Masters, of the East strive after. They aspire to knowledge which can help humanity, which can conduct it to the point where the destiny of humanity and the harmony of the world are in agreement with each other."

-Rudolf Steiner

Remember, the Masters are incarnate and speaking to mankind continually; it's just that most aren't listening.

"Now the Master Morya will speak.- [Through Dr.Steiner]

"We may regard the Master as an ideal; they have already attained what we still have before us. Therefore we can ask them questions about our further development. There lie within us, but as yet in the form of a germ, the forces which have reached perfection in a Master."
Rudolf Steiner

"Morya- real name is communicated only to the more advanced pupils." - Rudolf Steiner

"When in the world outside the modern leaders of men go about in human garb, they are unrecognized in the world. When from the standpoint of Spiritual Science we talk about 'The Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings' people would often be surprised to in what simple, unassuming human form these Masters are to be found in all countries. They are present on the
physical plane."

- page 128, Wonders of the World, Ordeals of the Soul, Revelations of the
Spirit Rudolf Steiner.

"The Philosopher's Stone has a specific purpose, which was stated by Cagliostro; it is meant to prolong human life to a span of 5,527 years....In fact, however, it is possible, by means of special training, to prolong life indefinitely by learning to live outside the physical body."

"Physical death is only an apparent occurrence for him who has
understood the Philosopher's Stone for himself, and has learnt to separate it."
"He lays aside the physical body in the same way that one takes of a
raincoat, and he puts on a new body just as one puts a new raincoat on."

103-104 Temple Legend, Rudolf Steiner

Dr. Steiner teaches that as we refine the astral body (establish peace) it "gradually approaches immortality", "an astral form arises which survives, remains living."

"When someone has become a Chela he begins to establish peace in the etheric body. Then the etheric body too survives. The Masters establish peace in the physical body; thus in their case the physical body also survives."

- Foundations of Esotericism, pge 171.

-Bruce

Abraham Lincoln the Occultist

2007-10-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

Lincoln had a connection to the Brotherhood of Eulis or the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.
These are the claims of the German historian, Frick.

It is very clear Randolph knew Lincoln well. I have some more notes in a short Randolph bio.
Interestingly, Lincoln studied Euclid's Geometry- perhaps with the same intentions as a young Rudolf Steiner.

-Bruce

Underwater City

2007-10-06T15:35:00.001-07:00

Dear All,
This has been dubbed the world's oldest building.
http://www.lauralee.com/japan/japan2.htm

-Bruce

Rudolf Steiner on Alcohol

2007-10-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Further comments on the mystery of alcohol:
Apart from the direction alcohol guided us - downwards - there is also the fascinating connection it has with the Self.
Here's the quote from the Gospel of John Lectures 23 May 1908:

In future, people will be able to say in the most literal sense that it was the task of alcohol to pull man down into the material world so far that he would become selfish, and that alcohol would lead him to demand the use of his self for his own purpose, so that it would no longer serve the whole nation... Alcohol has removed man's capacity to feel at one with the universe in the higher worlds.

It is interesting that a people such as the Australian Aboriginal still had this feeling of at oneness with the land and cosmos. They of course did not have the use of alcohol 'til the arrival of the white man.

After the Incarnation the use of alcohol became decadent. It was Christ who was to bring the gift of the independent Self:

His mission consisted of bringing man the full power of the Self, the inner independence of soul.
-St John Lectures

Alcohol prepared the way for the independent Self but now it creates a separate self of its own.

The Self manifests itself on Earth by the agency of the ethereal warmth:

The effect of ethereal heat permeates the total organism...it is the medium through which man's spiritual self can come into contact with the living, physical body.
-Lievegoed

Alcohol acts like an interior imitation of sunshine. Through this separate warmth organization, it now interferes with the Self - the Self is disrupted:

We may therefore say that to take alcohol is to produce a counter-ego in oneself. For it has the effect of influencing action that should spring freely from the resolution of the ego: alcohol thinks, feels and acts in the ego's place. A person in this situation lets a purely external, material ego dictate to him. Alcohol prevents his own ego from acting, thus making him its slave.

This is "Big Al's" game and purpose now - slave-driver. Rudolf Steiner from The Problems of Nutrition

It would take too long to explain the spiritual scientific reason
showing that alcohol produces physically and in an external way out of
the plant, just what a man should develop physically within himself
through his ego being centered within him. It is a fact inwardly
perceived through Spiritual Science that when a person drinks alcohol,
it takes over the specific activity that otherwise belongs wholly to the
person's ego. A person who drinks much alcohol needs less food and his
body will require less nourishment than is normally required in the
process of combustion.

It calls forth forces that otherwise would be called forth by the ego's
inner penetration. Thus, a person can externalize the activity of his
ego by infusing his body with alcohol. Consequently, alcohol imitates
and copies the activity of the ego, and you can understand why it is
that people turn to it. To the extent, however, that a man replaces his
inner self with such a substitute, to that extent does he become its
slave. If otherwise qualified, a man will be better able to unfold the
best forces of his ego when he abstains from alcohol altogether. By
drinking alcohol an inner hindrance is created behind which something
takes place that actually should and would be accomplished through the
activity of the ego itself if the hindrance had not been produced.

Memory of past lives blocked:
"In the ages when there was no drinking of alcohol, the idea of previous existences and of many lives was universally held; nobody doubted its truth. As soon as man began to drink wine, however, the knowledge of re-incarnation rapidly faded away, ultimately to disappear entirely from the consciousness of man. It existed only among the Initiates who took no alcohol. Alcohol has a peculiarly potent effect on the human organism, especially on the etheric body which is the seat of memory. Alcohol obscures the intimate depths of memory. 'Wine induces forgetfulness' — so the saying goes. The forgetfulness is not only superficial or momentary, but deep and permanent and there is a deadening of the power of memory in the etheric body. That is why, little by little, men lost their instinctive knowledge of reincarnation when they began to drink wine.
-An Esoteric Cosmology, Dr. Steiner

"He who seeks initiation must achieve the utmost calm. This includes the avoidance of all stimulants, especially alcohol."
The Gospel of St. John, Second Lecture, 26 February, 1906

There is a lot more in From Comets to Cocaine: Answers to Questions:

Some lectures in the above describe alcohol’s effects in relation to human reproduction:
"By harming the offspring, all the descendants are thus harmed. "
See from page 180.

-Bruce

Effects of Alcohol

2007-10-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

From some notes on the "Origin and Meaning of Wine" by Rudolf Steiner:

In the Persian Race we get the description of the beginning of the vine culture. But still wine was something quite wordly. Gradually it was applied to the Dionysian cult.

During the 4th subrace wine began to be treated as a holy thing. In the past water was considered holy and used in the mysteries. Note that for women of childbearing age, wine was still forbidden except during the Bacchanalia.

Back to the Doctor:

Wine was that which separated man from everything spiritual. He who takes wine cannot arrive at the spiritual. He can know nothing of Manas, Buddhi, Atma. The whole course of humanity is one of descent and ascent.
Man had to go own once to the lowest point. That he might thus go down to the lowest point, there arose the Dionysian cult.

Formerly there was a strict rule for priests, forbidding wine. They could experience Atma, Buddhi, Manas. There had to be a religion which could come quite down to the physical plane, one that changed water into
wine. Later on the wine will be changed into water. If water had not been changed into wine, man could not have taken with him all that is below in the Vale of Earth.

You can read more about this in the Gospel lectures.

Alcohol was intimately connected with the incarnation of the human ego- I'll develop this later.
-Bruce

Parsis & Electricity

2007-10-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

http://tenets.zoroastrianism.com/ignor33.html

It is interesting that Zarathustrians recognise the nature of
electricity.
From the above page:
"First of all, installing electric wires inside this talismatic
structure will break this Karsh and Kat (veil between earth and air
atmosphere) by wires. Besides, electricity (which carries outside
Drujih-filled thoughts) passes through these wires cause "collusion"
with Kat and Pavi, which results in creation of numerous exits in Kat
and weakening of Pavi's talism."
There is more on the page.

-Bruce

Rudolf Steiner's Indications on Electricity

2007-10-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

In 1954 Mr. Schiller lectured in New York on Rudolf Steiner's
indications on electricity:
"Today people use electricity without knowing what it is. Only a
knowledge of its real nature can protect man against the destructive
forces which assume as Ahrimanic Exusiai, the garment of light gone
astray.
Electricity entered the evolution of mankind in Lemuria and entered
cosmic evolution upon the Sun with Ahriman. Galvani discovered it, but
today we must see through it much more sharply.

"Natural heat and natural light redeems matter, electricity and
magnetism imprison it. In regard to electricity and magnetism we need a
moral judgment. Modern science explains the whole world as a product of
electricity, i.e. sub-physical forces.

"Our thoughts concerning nature are in themselves creative forces and
upon Jupiter and Venus they will take on real shape. Even as nature
slides down into the sub-sensible, so man must rise to the
supersensible. He does it by learning to grasp the nature of the etheric
forces in a concrete and specific manner."

-Bruce

Etheric Forces

2007-10-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

Some notes of the lectures of a Mr.Schiller given in 1959 on the etheric forces.
He says there that "other kinds of power than the etheric will in time become unnecessary".

From the notes Mr. Schiller's lectures: [They are a little disjointed
but some points come through.]

"All engines must be a prolongation of the human body. The general idea even extends to your car."
Man is using more and more a realm in which he is unconscious. Live with beauty and wonder of nature.

Not without influence how I walk through a landscape. If I only look at a plant and see red flowers, green leaves I exhile elemental beings still more. Understanding plants will redeem elemental beings. The same with Day, Night, Moon etc.

(The following appears to be references to lectures by Rudolf Steiner.)

How does a being of the 1st Hierarchy look at the creation of engines by
Man?
answer May 7 1922 Human Soul and the Evolution of the World Dornach last of 5 lectures.

"The gods hate the engine Ahriman has made on earth and made it more
coarse."

19th Jan 1915 With every engine, with every mechanical device we create a starting point for demonical beings. With the understanding of dead nature we make complicated engines. We don't understand the life of spirit.

Aeroplane uses the deadest part of the air not what we breathe in and out.
8th October 1923 We would build gliders (in Dornach if funds permitted) which fly in living air. Butterflies- as if wings move and carry the body with them. Build aircraft & use air as if air and not dead part.
28th Dec 1914 Man takes what is in nature and pulls it apart and puts it together again. Tears apart nature and puts it together again as he sees fit. What does this mean for elemental beings? We dispel the normal servants of the Hierarchies and put servants of Ahriman into it. We build body for Ahrimanic beings.
We take wonderful iron ore where stars are shining in it & tear it apart.
Man with his ships, radar, engines, telephones etc. is making a new geological layer round our Earth (like a net.) [Prediction!]
Benedictus in last Mystery Play will not be inspired unless he knows who inspires him.
We are inspired by countless beings.

Modern Engineering
The early research of the steam engine 1715 Newcomb, 1763 Watt.
The entire possibility of making the steam engines rests upon the establishment of space without air or occupied by very thin air and the application of this to some use.
Yahveh breathed into man the living breath, the air, and he became thereby a living soul.
Yahveh streams into the human being through the warmth. The human being drives him out when he creates a space containing rarefied air.
Ahriman gains the possibility of establishing himself as a demon even in the very physical, as the steam engine is created in this way. In constructing steam engines, the possibility is given for the incarnation of demons.
Electricity when used has far more demon magic.
Opposing forces which bring about a balance can be created only if humanity again comes to understand the Christ Impulse, if humanity finds the way to Christ.
An understanding for the spiritual World, which can prepare for a finding of the way to Christ.
12th Nov 1916 Karma of Vocation

Can use engines if we realise that there has been a sacrifice.

Bruce

Hosea 8:7

2007-10-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

"He who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind."

Hosea 8:7

It is not well known that this is an occult saying which has appeared in various ages and is connected with the Rosicrucian stream.

The Count of St.Germaine used these words in a conversation with the Countess d'Adhemar, a lady in waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette at the court of Louis the16th. The Count of St.Germaine foretold the French Revolution. When the Count spoke those words from Hosea he said that they were words which had been spoken be Jesus also.

St. Germaine foretold that the monarchy and ruling personalities of France would all be destroyed in a very short time and it was too late to save them. His earlier warnings had all been disregarded as he was considered to be a sensational scaremonger.

We know from Rudolf Steiner that the individuality who became St. Germaine was Christian Rosenkreutz.

We can read details about the Rosicrucian Brotherhood in the "Fame and Confessions of the Rosicrucians" which along with "The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" was written by Johann Valentin Andreas who was inspired by Christian Rosenkreutz himself.

It was a secret Brotherhood consisting at first of only four members who were later joined by four others. They were physicians and bachelors who were not permitted to accept payment for their services which were to be given to those who needed them.

-Bruce

Glastonbury Zodiac

2007-10-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

Those who've been to Glastonbury, might know that one of the most interesting things
about the place is the people there. Just sitting in a coffee shop, you can listen in to
the customers talking on a myriad spiritual subjects.

I had a friend whose school teacher (K.E. Maltwood) had been the one who had discovered the Glastonbury Zodiac. I have always been in awe of how these marvellous craftsmen etched that huge design into the landscape. I have Maltwood's books on the Glastonbury Temple of the Stars (1937). On an intuition she had hired a 'plane and confirmed her thoughts, and made
the discovery.

The Zodiac has been etched into the landscape - eleven mile diameter I think. Something like the Nazca lines, but there's more to it here, because we have street and place names that pertain to it.

Unfortunately you have to see the aerial photos to really get an idea of what it's all about.

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/anceur/my-lydee.htm

I see that the University of Victoria, Canada has a K. E. Maltwood Collection at the McPherson Library.

-Br.Bruce

The New Esoteric Section Rules

2007-09-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

As I said, we can see how Dr.Steiner "softened" the rules as time went on. You will have noted that meat eating was not forbidden, even from the early days- HPB loved her meat! Smoking wasn't even mentioned- H.P. Blavatsky a chain smoker, who was known to have indulged in hashish. And there were advanced pupils of Rudolf's that loved a drag on a fag- Albert Steffen
for one.

Alcohol was another matter, as those who've read the original rules would know.

So here we go:
First Rules given by Rudolf Steiner in 1904

"6. The partaking of any kind of alcoholic drink is forbidden to the
Shravakas ['hearers'-members of the school], because this would be harmful to the
brain, especially the organ connected with spiritual insight. The
contravention of this rule would render all the efforts of both teacher
and pupil ineffective. The only exception to this rule is when the
taking of alcohol is prescribed by a doctor.

7. Abstention from the eating of meat is not compulsory, but it is
pointed out that a vegetarian diet will help in the struggle against
one's lower nature. Changes of diet must be undertaken with the greatest
caution."

Now notice how these rules, 1905, (June 5), become very unrule-like:

"6. The partaking of alcohol is incompatible with the aims of
meditation.

7. The abstention from eating meat is not statutory but is recommended,
because it works beneficially toward furthering the aims of the Esoteric
School."

The full list of rules is in "From the History and Contents of the Esoteric Section."

On another occasion R.Steiner stated that alcohol was to be avoided even in sweets.

Milk was recommended as a transition food for those giving up meat.

-Bruce