Mosquitos & Sin

THAT the mosquito bites you is a sin against you; her desire is a blight, and she then carries away a small portion of your soul-self unknowingly. Sin is like the mosquito, for it persists and would feed upon the man, taking a little from him, of him. 

Relative to his true nature, the size of the insect as opposed to the man is quite so; and every now and then same insect injects along with her desire, a poison which may provoke death - the same is with sin in each jab, sting and itch. Most are a nuisance; collectively (if they seized upon you all at once) they should surely take all of your life from you; but singly they are minor, unless they bring poison - a poison to kill us could be made to materialize and be supported.

-B.Hive

Demiurgos

In times when the Old Testament became the authoritative record, it was proper to regard the creation of man by Jahve or Jehovah as the dawn of world-evolution.

But in still earlier times the intervention of Jehovah was regarded not as the incipient but as a much later episode in the evolutionary process. It was said that another, more purely spiritual phase of evolution had preceded the creation of the world by Jehovah as it is described in the Bible and as it is ordinarily understood. In other words, it was held that the intervention of Jehovah had been preceded by that of other Beings, that the creation of man had occurred after the passage of an earlier phase of the evolutionary process.

Those men in Greece who meditated upon the earliest stages of world-evolution spoke of a primordial Being for the understanding of whose nature a much more highly spiritual mode of knowledge is required than for an understanding of the events described in the Old Testament. These men spoke of the Being whom they held to be the actual Creator of the world — the Demiurgos.

The Demiurgos was a Being dwelling in spheres of lofty spirituality, in a world devoid of every element of that material existence with which in the Bible story the humanity created by Jehovah is naturally associated.

We must therefore think of the Demiurgos as a sublime Being, as the Creator of the world who sends forth other Beings from Himself. The Beings sent forth by the Demiurgos were ranked in successive stages, each stage being lower than the last. (Such expressions are, of course, quite inadequate, but no other words are available.) The life of these Beings, however, was held to be entirely free from the conditions of earthly birth and earthly death.

In Greece they were known as Aeons — of the first rank, the second rank and so on. The Aeons were Beings who had issued from the Demiurgos. Among these Aeons, Jahve or Jehovah was a Being of a relatively subordinate rank. And this brings us to a consideration of the teachings of the Gnostics, as they were called, in the early centuries of Christendom. It was said that Jehovah united with matter and that from this union man came into existence.

Demiurgos
|
Æons 1.
|
Æons 2.
|
Jehovah Matter
Man

According to this Gnostic conception, therefore, Jehovah was a somewhat lower descendant of the more lofty Aeons who had proceeded from the Demiurgos, and as the outcome of Jehovah's union with matter, man was created.

-Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner on the Gnostics

https://sites.google.com/view/waldorfwatchwing/gnosis

Trust Meditation- origins

This "trust meditation" is one of several translations of several versions that are in circulation. The editors at the Rudolf Steiner Archive, however, have pointed out that none of these versions were ever given as such by Rudolf Steiner. They were created by unknown persons by patching together and modifying various passages from Steiner's lectures (or possibly from elsewhere). The first six lines in the above version, for example, are an abbreviated passage from Steiner's lecture "Cognition and Immortality" (Bremen, Nov. 27, 1910), which has been published only in the Archive newsletter (Beitrahygfrge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe, #98, p. 10). The remaining lines come from the end of Emanuel Zeylmans' biography

of his father, "Willem Zeylmans van Emmichoven. Ein Pionier der Anthroposophie" (Arlesheim 1979, p. 358). The son relates that at his father's death he found a slip of paper in his father's wallet with these lines, which supposedly came from Rudolf Steiner. Although this is entirely possible (Willem was a friend of Steiner's and became the General Secretary of the Dutch Anthroposophical Society), the editors at the Rudolf
Steiner Archive have not been able to independently verify the source of these words.

The foregoing facts do not necessarily affect the truth of the whole "verse," but readers should be aware that it was not given as such by Rudolf Steiner and that it therefore probably does not have the occult power inherent in Steiner's other meditative verses.

[excerpt two]

I think the reference everyone is looking for is 27th November 1919. [Steiner did not say this on Nov. 27, 1919] 

Where Steiner allegedly said: (in an amalgam of out of context passages.)
"....First, however, everything that remains of the old will have to be reduced to nothingness. The clouds will have to gather round the human being, and he will have to find his freedom - find his own power, his own strength out of this nothingness. Outer material need will change into soul need, and out of this deep need of the soul will vision be born.
We must tear up by the roots every trace of fear and shrinking in face of what the future threatens to bring to human beings. All our feeling about the future must be permeated with calm and confidence. Absolute equanimity in face of whatever the future may bring - that is what man has to acquire, knowing as he does that everything that happens, happens under an all-wise cosmic guidance.
Our part is to do what is right in each moment as it comes - and to leave the rest to the future, That indeed is the lesson we have to learn in our time, to base our lives on simple trust. without any security of existence, to have trust in the ever-present help of the spiritual world. That is the only way for us if our courage is not to fail. Let us then set to work to discipline our will....."

(based on a translation by Mary Adams)

[exerpt three]

Steiner did not say this on Nov. 27, 1919; this is another amalgam of out of context passages. In this amalgam the first paragraph is extracted from the end of Steiner's lecture of Oct. 30, 1920 (GA 200, p. 120), which is published in English as lecture 6 of "The New Spirituality". The second paragraph is a different translation of the first paragraph of the "trust meditation" that I commented on earlier (the date is Nov. 27, 1910, not 1919). I don't know where the first sentence of the third paragraph comes from. The remainder of the last paragraph is a different (and incomplete) translation of the material from Emmichoven.

Daniel Hindes:

A little note about the following verse, which is very popular lately. It is attributed to Steiner, but it is not one of his verses. According to the editors at Steiner's archive in Dornach It appears to have originated among Dutch anthroposophists during WWII (this information is contained in GA40a). The first part is a versification of a paragraph from a 1911 lecture. The second part is demonstrably pseudoepigraphical (more on that below).

From the Steiner Lecture:
ATTRIBUTED TO RUDOLF STEINER:
We must eradicate from the soul
all fear and terror of what
comes towards man
out of the future.
We must acquire serenity
in all feelings and sensations
about the future.
We must look forward
with absolute equanimity
to everything that may come.
And we must think only that
whatever comes is given to us
by a world-directive
full of wisdom.

The part that is pseudoepigraphical:
It is part of what we
must learn in this age,
namely, to live out of pure
trust, without any security
in existence.
Trust in the ever present
help of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do
if our courage is not to fail us.
And let us seek the awakening
from within ourselves,
every morning
and every evening.

Some basic hermaneutics can establish that the second half is not from Steiner. While the theme of the first four verses re-occurs repeatedly in slightly different formulations in lectures from the period 1910-1911 -especially in lectures where he is explaining anthroposophy to the public - the second half does not match in phrasing or in theme to anything in the Complete Works. For instance, you will not find a single instance of the phrase "pure trust" anywhere in Steiner's work. Nor any references to failing courage. Living in trust is not a concept you'll find in Steiner's work, and is arguably antithetical to much of Steiner's western path. And even seeking awakening from within is a novel formulation. Arguably this is the anthroposophical path, but you won't find Steiner describing it in those terms anywhere.

This is not to say that the verse has not given much comfort to many in times of uncertainty. But I feel compelled to point out its murky origins.

https://www.mail-archive.com/bdnow@envirolink.org/msg04857.html

Sophia, Philosophia, & Anthroposophia

In truth, it was from a specifically human personal relationship, as of a man to a woman, that the relationship of human beings to philosophy arose during the age when philosophy directly took hold of the whole spiritual life of human evolution. This relationship - if you are not to take these words lightly, but take a little time to find the meaning behind them - has grown cold, truly cold. It has even become ice-cold. When we pick up most books on philosophy today - even those by philosophers who struggled and attained the finest possible relation to philosophy - we must really say that the relationship, so ardent when people viewed philosophy as a personal being, has grown very cold. 

Philosophy is no longer the "woman" she was to Dante and others who lived in his time. Philosophy meets us today in a shape we may speak of by saying, "The very form of philosophy that confronts us in the nineteenth century, in its highest development - as German idealism, the philosophy of concepts, the philosophy of Objects - shows us that its role in the spiritual development of humanity has been played out." 

It is really very symbolic when we take up Hegel's philosophy, especially The Encyclopedia, and find that the last thing presented in this nineteenth-century volume is about how philosophy understands itself. It has comprehended everything else; finally, it grasps itself. What is left for it to understand? This is a symptom of philosophy's end, even though - since Hegel's death - many questions remain unanswered. 

The radical thinker Richard Wahle has followed this thought through in his book The Whole of Philosophy and its End and he has ably worked through the thesis that everything achieved by philosophy may be divided among the various departments of physiology, biology, aesthetics, and so forth, and that when this has been done, nothing remains of philosophy. Of course, such books go too far, but they contain a deep truth - that spiritual movements have their time and day, and that, just as a day has its morning and its evening, spiritual movements, too, have their morning and evening in the history of humanity's development.

We know we are living in the age that is preparing the spirit-self. Thus, we know that, though we live in the age of the Spiritual Soul, the Spirit-Self is being prepared. Just as the Greeks lived in the age of the Intellectual Soul, and looked toward the dawn of the Spiritual Soul, so we live in the age of the Spiritual Soul and seek to prepare the age of the Spirit-Self. 

The Greeks established philosophy, which, despite Paul Deussen and others, did first exist in Greece during the unfolding of the Intellectual Soul when human beings still directly experienced the lingering influence of the objective Sophia; and Philosophy then came into being, and Dante could view her as a real, concrete being who brought him consolation when Beatrice was torn from him by death; in the same way, we now live in the age of the Spiritual Soul and look toward the dawn of the age of the Spirit-Self, and we know in this way that something is again becoming objective to human beings - something that looks forward to the coming times that will be gained by what we have won through the time of the Spiritual Soul.

What, therefore, must be developed? It must unfold that, once again, as a matter of course, a "Sophia" becomes present. But we must learn to relate this Sophia to the Spiritual Soul, bring her down directly to human beings. This is happening during the age of the Spiritual Soul. And thereby Sophia becomes the being who directly enlightens human beings. After Sophia has entered human beings, she must take their being with her and present it to them outwardly, objectively. Thus, Sophia will be drawn into the human soul and arrive at the point of being so inwardly connected with it that a love poem as beautiful as Dante wrote may be written about her.

Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia – as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.

Such is the progression of human evolutionary history in relation to the spiritual questions we have been considering. Here I must leave the matter to all those who wish to examine in even greater detail, following the destiny of Sophia, Philosophia, and Anthroposophia, how we may show how humanity develops progressively through those parts of the soul we call the Intellectual Soul, the Spiritual Soul, and the Spirit-Self. People will learn how profoundly what anthroposophy gives us is based in our whole being. What we receive through anthroposophy is our very own being.

This once floated toward us in the form of a celestial goddess with whom we were able to enter into relationship. This divine being lived on as Sophia and Philosophia, and now we can once again bring her out of ourselves and place her before us as the fruit of true anthroposophical self-knowledge. We can wait patiently until the world is willing to test the depth of the foundations of what we have to say, right down to the smallest details. It is the essence of anthroposophy that its own being consists of the being of the human, and its effectiveness, its reality, consists in that we receive from anthroposophy what we ourselves are and what we must place before ourselves, because we must practice self-knowledge. 

-Rudolf Steiner's lecture on "The Being of Anthroposophy" (1913), given on February 3, 1913. Berlin, during the First General Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society at Berlin: http://www.southerncrossreview.org/39/steiner-sophia.htm

Dante's treatise Il Convivio, on how to read esoterically, can be found here: https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/library/the-convivio/