Viewing the Dawn

The viewing of the dawn can promote......considerate patience. You cannot hurry the dawn yourself – it is obvious just what you have with an unripe dawn – you have but predawn gloom. If you hurry too much you can miss its occurrence in its most real sense – you can actually miss experiencing the arraignment of this paradise. The tension and anticipation, the melody, the mood, the airs … the expanding forthwith day. 

For the unripe personality they will say “Oh, there will always be another dawn tomorrow I can see” … but for the mature they realise that not one is ever alike unto another. The unripe personality very rarely will catch this daily event. Yet the mature individual will take in many. The unripe individual will probably busy himself or chatter the moments away, whilst the mature nature might be held in great fulfilment within just a moment of a moment of its glory. 

We can actually work over our personalities during this morning episode for the better in this regard. The unripe individual who is determined to curb his immature aspects within his worldly and inner behaviors will benefit fantastically by learning to take in the morning’s awakening with peaceful and solemn consideration.

-B.Hive 

Dedication to Love & Humility - Rudolf Steiner

There is no worse phrase than this: ‘look deep into yourself'. There one finds, however, only the lower self. One must seek lovingly outside oneself, and then one will find what one is seeking. I have known people who said: "what do I need? I don’t need anything at all, because I’m Atma (soul)" – and even though they constantly say “Atma, I’m Atma”, they do not become conscious of Atma, all they know about it is that it is a word with four letters. It leads to closing oneself off when gazing into yourself. 

For we are part of the whole. The finger is only finger because it is part of the body. If we separate it from the organism, then it is no longer a finger. The finger does not separate itself from the organism; but the human being is so “clever” that he believes that he could detach himself from the earth, although if he is just a few kilometers above the surface of the earth, he perishes. 

[…] It is the worst possible mistake to want to find the god within yourself. Losing oneself through entering into all the details of the world, that is the right path. He who dedicates him or herself to love and humility will find godliness, while he who seeks God in himself, hardens.

- Rudolf Steiner – GA 98 – Natur- und Geistwesen – ihr Wirken in unserer sichtbaren Welt – Vienna, November 7, 1907 (page 38-39)

Rudolf Steiner's Birth Date

Rudolfus Josephus Laurentius could not have been born on the Wednesday the 27th and be baptised in the church at Draskovec on the same day, as it was 11:07 pm at night.
[Copy of Baptismal Record, stating the 27th as the date of the Baptism]
The 25th makes more sense, as witnessed in his own handwriting, and the testimony of Eugenie von Bredow (who says "hitherto we celebrated on the 27th"- she knew of both dates). By 1921 he was celebrating his birthday on the 25th.

He was born late Monday night on the 25th. Mother and baby were exhausted, they had the Tuesday to recover and arrange a baptism on the Wednesday. That makes for a sensible timeline- even though the baptism still seems rushed.

How can we be sure if even Dr. Steiner wasn't sure. Here he was at the advanced age of sixty, considering that his birth date was wrong. He wouldn't have done that lightly.

Sergei Prokovieff goes into the reasons why he (Steiner) may have wanted to hide the date. He does cite the avoidance of occult attack: See pages 29 and 30 https://books.google.com.au/books?id=SfZymMqqDJ0C&pg

http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Steiner,_Rudolf

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=955186131206993&set=p.955186131206993&type=3&theater

“At the beginning we note the following unusual circumstances: Rudolf Steiner was born shortly before midnight on February 25, 1861, in the tiny village of Kraljevec. (see Note 1) Owing to negligence of the midwife the child was bleeding almost to death. It was questionable how long it would survive. If this birth had been normal the child would have been baptized a few days later in the church of Kraljevec, but now an emergency baptism was called for. However, the schedule of the church of Kraljevec could not accommodate this emergency. So the child was carried two miles through wintry February cold and snow to the church of Draskovec, a neighboring village. There it was baptized on February 27, and named:

Rudolfus Josephus Laurentius Steiner

or, as we would say:
Rudolf Joseph Laurence Steiner.

It is significant that the church of Draskovec was dedicated to St. Michael. It was a St. Michael Church! [the church is in fact dedicated to St. Roch, not Michael]. Apparently destiny had arranged circumstances so that St. Michael would stand guard, as it were, like a god-parent, at this human being's entry into the physical life on earth.”

-From: Dr. Ernst Katz, ‘The Mission of Rudolf Steiner’
Guenther Aschoff:

This is Rudolf Steiner’s newly made, baptism certificate from 1879: the first photograph from Max Benzinger (from the 1^st of February, 1914 (above) and the second photo from Max Benzinger (?) from 1918/1920 (underneath), kept in the Rudolf Steiner Archives – (almost completely deciphered): a copy of the newly prepared baptism certificate from 1879, by Guenther Aschoff.

"Newly made" where is the photo of the original which shows the name "Adolf" instead of "Rudolf"?
Guenther Aschoff:

Rudolf Steiner’s certificate of baptism had to be obtained from the parish of Draskovec, which was appropriate for Kraljevec. One can understand how irritating it may have been for his parents having received the document in Neudoerfl, only to discover the incorrect first name written, as well as the incorrect birthplace. There it was written ‘Kraljevec 24’ instead of ‘the railroad station’ as well as the office and the name of ‘Gabriel Mestritz’. The parents then went to the priest Johann Widder in Neudoerfll and pleaded with him to prepare a new copy of the baptism certificate; and that Record of Baptism was received and has remained.

At the birth, those present were the mother and father, also the stationmaster, Laurentius Diem and his wife Frau Josefa Jakl, the godmother, as well as a midwife. The midwife applied bandaging to the navel after the birth. For some reason, perhaps a poorly bound bandage, there was a great loss of blood; so the parents decided to call for an emergency baptism. To carry this out, a baptised Catholic must speak, ‘I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ It was already midnight or shortly thereafter, and those present didn’t want the newly born infant to die without being baptised.

  On the next day, or the day thereafter, the baptism was repeated at a church in Draskovec.  The priest on duty, Gabriel Mestritz, registered the birth and baptism as taking place on the 27^th of February, 1861, under the name ‘Adolphus Laurentius Josephus Steiner’. As the place of residence he gave ‘Kraljevec 24’. At the end he wrote ‘Gabriel Mestritz’ for the name of the authorised priest attending to the baptism.

Where on the "newly created" baptism does it say "birth". It just states the baptism day of 27th.

Being born a Catholic, it is not hard to imagine that the young Rudolfus celebrated his baptismal day, as it was a Catholic tradition to do so:

"Melkite Catholics encourage families to celebrate the baptismal day rather than the actual birthday." http://www.resourcemelb.catholic.edu.au/object.cfm?o=205&pid=1476&showrm=true&uptam=false

Birthdays were not generally celebrated in the early 17th century. Some people marked the anniversary of their baptism, as the day of their birth as a Christian. It was a day of retrospection, of prayer and meditation, rather than a public celebration. https://www.plimoth.org/sites/default/files/media/pdf/edmaterials_celebrations.pdf

Baptism anniversaries are joyous occasions that can be celebrated by the entire family. If parents, grandparents, and baptismal sponsors pay attention to these “birthdays”, children will come to regard these anniversaries as significant. We help our children value the remembrance of their “birth” into the family of God. http://www.neiasynod.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Baptismalb-daybrochure.pdf

More important than our real birthday, the anniversary of the moment when our mother gave us our physical life, is the anniversary of the moment when we received the life of our soul as children of God. https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=407

Jesus & the Archangel

The higher we go we find that Christ is of the Trinity and then condescends through the Seraphim, Cherubim and so on to become an Archangel and then man.

Now, my reading of Rudolf Steiner says that Michael is that Archangel.

From The Pre Earthly Deeds of Christ:"He who was later the Nathan-Jesus had been present in the three earlier events, but not incarnated as physical man; he lived in the spiritual worlds as a spiritual Being of the nature of the Archangels; and in the spiritual worlds, in the preparatory stages of the Mystery of Golgotha, in the Lemurian age and twice in Atlantis, he was permeated by the Christ-Being."

Notice he lived as one who had "the nature of the Archangels", but he was of an Angelic nature:

"It may be said, therefore, that there were three Archangel-lives in the spiritual world, and that the Being who lived those lives was the same as he who was later incarnated as man and is described in the Gospel of St. Luke as the Jesus-child. Three times had this Angelic being, who later sacrificed himself as Man, offered himself for permeation by the Christ-Impulse. As in Christ Jesus we have a Man permeated with the Christ-Impulse, so it may be said that three times previously we have an Angel permeated with that Impulse. "​

Dr. Steiner's teaching is that the Nathan child was a pure soul who was not involved in the Fall. He had also been Krishna. I hadn't consider him as an Archangel nature. This is a new thought- and quite convoluted too.

The fact that the "Christ Impulse" incarnated in an Angelic being as stated above, is contradicted by Steiner here:

"I admit that it may seem strange when I say that this great Being was ensouled three times in an archangelic form, and then incarnated in a human being. It would seem a more orderly progression if between His ensoulment as an archangel and His human incarnation He had taken an angelic form. So it may seem to us. Yet, even though it is claimed that the statements of spiritual science are fictitious, truly it is not so. You may gather this from corroborative evidence. If you ask me how it happens that Christ did not descend from hierarchy to hierarchy and only afterward to man - if you were to ask me that, I could only answer that I do not know, for I never make theoretical combinations. The facts adduced by spiritual research are that Christ chose three times an archangelic form, leaving out the angelic form, and then made use of a human body. I leave it to future research to determine the reason, which I do not yet know, though I do know that it is true. "

Was he making a correction, because the Pre Earthly Deeds of Christ lecture was given in March and the Four Sacrifices in June 1914?

From the Four Sacrifices of Christ:

"This danger to humanity was averted in the Lemurian age by a Being Who later, through the Mystery of Golgotha, incarnated in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. In this earlier age, however, He ensouled Himself - I cannot say incarnated - in one of the archangels.

"While the earth was working through the Lemurian age, a Being living in spiritual heights became manifest - one might say, as a sort of prophecy of John's baptism - in an archangel who offered up his soul powers, and was thus permeated by the Christ."

So in this lecture we are again talking about the Nathan Jesus (though he is not mentioned by name).

Then we find the Nathan Jesus being talked about as though he had been ensouled with the Archangel Michael:

"Once more the Christ Being ensouled Himself in an archangel, and the power thus generated in the spiritual world made possible the harmonization of thinking, feeling and willing........

"Mankind has preserved some memory of how human passion and human thinking were harmonized at this period by forces that descended from supramundane worlds, but the sign of this memory is not rightly understood. St. George who conquers the dragon, or Michael who conquers the dragon, are symbols of the third Christ event, when Christ ensouled Himself in an archangel. It is the dragon, trodden under foot, that has brought thinking, feeling and willing into disorder. All who turn their gaze upon St. George or Michael with the dragon, or some similar episode, perceive, in reality, the third Christ event. The Greeks who in their wonderful mythology made copies of what happened in the spiritual world at the end of the Atlantean age, revered the Sun Spirit as the harmonizer of man's thinking, feeling and willing."

Now the Nathan Jesus is forgotten:

"Then came the fourth, the earthly mystery, that of Golgotha. The same Christ Being Who had ensouled Himself three times in archangelic form incarnated through what we call the Baptism by John in the Jordan in the body of Jesus of Nazareth."

I'm not too clear on all this. Just what is the connection of the Archangel Michael to the Nathan Jesus?

Seven Occult Seals

The first modern appearance of Seven Seals in occult form was in Eliphas Levi's "Rituel De La Haute Magie", 1860. Rudolf Steiner's versions are similar to Levi's.

Copy by Stephen Hawks 

Albrecht Durer's woodcuts of the seven seals were published in 1498.

The Second Seal of Durer:

And, behold, a Throne was set in Heaven, and One sat on the Throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a Jasper and a Sardine-stone: and there was a rainbow round about the Throne, in sight like unto an Emerald. And round about the Throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty Elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on the their heads crowns of Gold ... And round about the Throne were four Beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first Beast was like a Lion, and the second Beast like a Calf, and the third Beast had a face as a Man, and the fourth Beast was life a flying Eagle.

On His knees lies the Book with seven seals; the Lamb, who alone is worthy to open the seals thereof, standing upon it.

It's hard to see the beasts here, so prominent in the Arild Rosenkrantz version.

"Four of the trumpets have already sounded, and the plagues that follow their sounding have stricken the earth. The rain of fire, mingled with blood, falls on the grass and the trees; the mountain of fire is cast into the sea ; the star named Wormwood is about to fall into a well of water; and the third part of everything is smitten and destroyed.

"In Dürer's representation of this vision, God the Father sits on a throne at the top of the cut, dealing out the trumpets to the angels, who have received all but two, which He is in the act of handing to the two angels nearest the throne. The angel with the censer, containing the prayers of the saints, stands at the altar immediately in front of the Father. The two principal angels, with their long trumpets at their mouths, occupy the central space of the picture, together with the darkened visages of sun and moon.

"The landscape on earth is partly river or sea, and partly shore. Two great cities doomed to destruction lie on either side of the broad water, in which numerous vessels of all descriptions are suffering shipwreck. An eagle flying over the earth utters the cry of ' Woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels which are yet to sound !'

- Mrs Charles W Heaton (The History of the Life of Albrecht Durer of Nurenberg with a Translation of His Letters and Journal and Some Accounts of His Work: Seeley, Jackson and Halliday, London; 1881)

A keen observer has noted:

"But the clearest clue hidden in plain sight is the eagle-which is NOT an eagle. First of all, the eagle, according to the storyline, is supposed to be swooping upwards in the sky, Dürer has the bird swoop down.

"Secondly, it’s not an eagle, and we know this by the shape of the tail feathers. Bird tail feathers are used for giving signals or messages to other birds and Dürer ’s bird gives us a message. An eagle’s tail is not forked like the bird Dürer depicts as we can see in this picture.

http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new/ehow/images/a05/k9/3h/purpose-bird_s-tail-feathers-800×800.jpg

"So what kind of bird is this with a forked tail? It’s what’s known as a European kite or goshawk. And in Hungary, the land of Dürer ’s ancestry, the goshawk was known as the Turul, a very important mythic image. It was the great bird resembling a falcon that was sent forth by Isten to guide the creation and destiny of the Magyar people. The first Hungarian kings after St Stephen I were the hereditary of the Turul (“Turul nemzetség”)

For more on the Hungarian Turul, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turul


You can read more about the fourth seal (and the others)
here:

http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Lectures/OccSigns/19070916p01.html

The above is Rudolf Steiner's lecture Occult Signs & Symbols.

The following are versions by Clara Rettich (1911):

The mystery of the holy grail. It is that astral experience which renders the universal meaning of human evolution. The cube represents the world of space, not yet mingled with any physical being or event. Out of the three space dimensions grow first of all the lower human powers, illustrated by the two serpents; these again bring out of themselves the purified higher spiritual nature, represented in the world spirals. The upward growth of these higher powers makes it possible for mankind to become the recipient, or chalice, of purely spiritual cosmic being, expressed in the dove. The motto and truth of spiritual science is inscribed here: I am born out of the Godhead; I die in Christ; I am born again through the holy Spirit.

***********

Arild Rosenkrantz painted the Apocalyptic Seals for the first time in 1923 under the personal guidance of Rudolf Steiner. They were published in 1924 in black and white in an English portfolio edition: “Occult Seals and Columns”.





The mystery of the creative word represents comprehensively the entire earthly evolution of man. The images in this and the other seals can be found in “The Revelation of St. John” or the Apocalypse. “And I turned to hear the sounds which reached me; then I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the lamps one like unto the Son of Man, in a long garment… with eyes as a flame…and feet of living fire… and a voice like the sound of many waters. And in his right hand were seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”

“Here,” Steiner writes, “in general images, most far-reaching mysteries of human evolution are indicated… Every sign and form in the seals is significant… This continous development from the beginning to the end of the earth reveals itself to the seer, when he sees on the astral plane the archetype of evolving man, as it is reproduced in the first seal.”

"The group soul represents one of the first evolutionary states of earthly humanity, with all that belongs to it. In the remote past humans had no individual soul but were part of a group-soul. On the astral plane this may be reduced to four fundamental types: the lion, ox, eagle and that form, which as a group soul comes closest to the individual soul of human beings today. But as yet, as Emil Bock writes in his “Apocalypse of St. John”, everything is filled with divine calm and solemnity. Creation still rests in the sphere of perpetuity; the wheel of time is not yet revolving. The hierarchical realm which contains the creatures is full of wonder and worship, absorbed in contemplation of the creative cosmic centre. In the centre Rosenkrantz has placed the lamb – the only one worthy of opening the seals."

"The four riders represent the mysteries of the so-called harmony of the spheres. You experience these mysteries, Steiner says, in the interval between death and a new birth. The angel blowing the horns represents the spiritual primordial essences of world-phenomena.The apocalyptic riders represent the main points of development, through which a human individuality passes in the course of many incarnations and which are represented on the astral plane in the four riders on horses: a shining white horse expressing a very early stage of soul development; a flamecoloured horse indicating the warrior stage of the soul's development; a black (or blue) horse corresponding to the stage when only the soul's outer physical perception is developed, and a gleaming green horse, the picture of the ripe soul, which has gained mastery over the body."