Photo via R.Ian Lloyd/Masterfile/Corbis
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
These famous lines are from ‘The New Colossus’, a sonnet that American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) wrote in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level. The poem has inspired generations of Americans with a sense of their moral and ethical virtues and their land as a beacon of freedom in the world.
In 2018, it’s clear that President Donald Trump, another new colossus of a very different type, has given up on any idea of America as a place that welcomes the huddled masses of immigrants yearning to breathe free. Many of us know Americans to be a generous, welcoming and hospitable people but Trump decided that the best strategy for winning the mid-term elections was to appeal to the lowest instincts of US voters by attacking would-be migrants from Honduras.
According to President Trump, the “caravan” of migrants trudging north towards the United States represented “an assault on our country”. He added that among the thousands of Central American pedestrians were criminals, gangsters and Middle Eastern terrorists. He hinted that the entire spectacle was funded by Democrats or George Soros. When he sent 15,000 troops to the border to keep the migrants out, his supporters cheered.
The migrants in the caravan are mostly ordinary Hondurans who, unsurprisingly, would rather live somewhere peaceful and rich than poor and violent. There is no evidence of Middle Easterners among them, or an unusual number of criminals. It’s just that life is much better in the United States than in Honduras. And the journey, overland through Guatemala and Mexico, is dangerous. Migrants have often been robbed or beaten up along the way. Travelling in a large group makes that less likely. Small wonder that so many Hondurans, on hearing that the caravan was passing, decided to join it.
Needless to say, there is not a shred of evidence that Democrats had anything to do with organising the exodus, or that George Soros has been funding it. Trump is a prodigious liar, of course, and he lies routinely, without shame. According to the Fact Checker in the Washington Post, by the 601st day of his presidency, Trump had told more than 5000 bare-faced lies – an average of over eight lies per day.
How have things come to such a pass that the President of the United States tells lies as a matter of routine and with these lies deliberately seeks to stir up the lowest impulses of the American people for his electoral advantage? Rudolf Steiner has some fascinating things to say about the only way in which human motivations can be truly moral:
“There exists only one true source of the moral-spiritual in mankind, and this is what we may call human understanding, mutual human understanding, and, based upon this human understanding, human love. Wheresoever we may look for the arising of moral-spiritual impulses in mankind, in so far as these play a role in social life, it will invariably prove to be the case that, whenever such impulses spring forth with elemental power, they arise from human understanding based upon human love.”
Steiner then asks a very interesting question:
“If human understanding and human love are the real impulses upon which communal life depends, how does it come about that the very reverse of human understanding and human love appears in our social order?”
Now this is where what Steiner has to say starts to become very surprising and unexpected:
“When one crosses the threshold into the spiritual world, the first thing one becomes aware of is something terrible, something which at first it is by no means easy to sustain. Most people wish to be pleasantly affected by what seems to them worthy of attainment. But the fact remains that only by passing through the experience of horror can one learn to know spiritual reality, that is to say true reality. For in regard to the human form, as this is placed before us by anatomy and physiology, one can only perceive that it is built up out of two elements from the spiritual world: moral coldness and hatred.
In our souls we actually possess the predisposition to human love, and to that warmth which understands the other man. In the solid components of our organism, however, we bear moral cold. This is the force which, from the spiritual worlds, welds, as it were, our physical organism together. Thus we bear in ourselves the impulse of hatred. This it is which, from the spiritual world, brings about the circulation of the blood. And whereas we may perhaps go through the world with a very loving soul, with a soul which thirsts for human understanding, we must nevertheless be aware that below in the unconsciousness, there where the soul streams down, sends its impulses down into the bodily nature, for the very purpose that we may be clothed in a body — coldness has its seat. Though I shall always speak just of coldness, what I mean is moral coldness, though this can certainly pass over into physical coldness, traversing the warmth-ether on its way. There below, in the unconsciousness within us, moral coldness and hatred are entrenched, and it is easy for man to bring into his soul what is present in his body, so that his soul can, as it were, be infected with the lack of human understanding. This is, however, the result of moral coldness and human hatred. Because this is so, man must gradually cultivate in himself moral warmth, that is to say human understanding and love, for these must vanquish what comes from the bodily nature.
(…) In the way things are put forward today — I mean in the whole manner and form of people’s speech — there lies very little understanding of the other man. People bellow out their ideas about what man should be like, but this usually means: Everyone should be like me. If someone different comes along, then, even if this is not consciously realised, he is immediately regarded as an enemy, an object for antipathy. This is lack of human moral understanding, lack of love. And to the degree in which these qualities are lacking, moral coldness and human hatred go with man through the gate of death, obstructing his path.”
According to Steiner, in the first period after we die, the angels, archangels and archai take from us and reserve for later use the coldness that comes from lack of human understanding. The remains of human hatred have to stay with us until we reach the region of the Exusiai, Kyriotetes and Dynamis, where they remove all that we bring with us of human hatred. Then we arrive about midway in the region between death and a new birth, which Steiner calls the midnight hour of existence, where we meet the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones:
“Man would be quite unable to pass through this region of the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones without being inwardly annihilated, utterly destroyed, had not the beings of the second and third hierarchies already taken from him in their mercy human misunderstanding, that is to say moral coldness, and human hatred. And so we see how man, in order that he may find access to those impulses which can contribute to his further development, must at first burden the beings of the higher hierarchies with what he carries up into the spiritual world from his physical and etheric bodies, where it really belongs.”
It is at this midnight hour of existence where we take the first steps towards returning to the earth for our next incarnation. Steiner tells us:
“Thus, when one follows man between death and a new birth, one at first still sees him hovering, as it were, while he gradually loses his form from above downwards. But while the last vestige of him is vanishing away below, something else has taken shape, a wonderful spirit-form, which is in itself an image of the whole world-sphere and at the same time a model of the future head which man will bear on his shoulders. Here the human being is woven into an activity wherein not only the beings of the lower hierarchies participate, but also the beings of the highest hierarchy, the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones.
What actually takes place? It is the most wonderful thing which, as man, one can possibly conceive. For all that was lower man here in life now passes over into the formation of the future head. As we go about here on earth we only make use of our poverty-stricken head as the organ of our mental images and our thoughts. But thoughts also accompany our breast, thoughts also accompany our limb-system. And in the moment that we cease to think only with the head, but begin to think with our limb-system, in that moment the whole reality of Karma is opened up to us…” (…)
Steiner then tells us how the angelic forces prepare the form of our next physical body through creating a new spirit-form or etheric body:
“This spirit-form first connects itself with physical life when it meets the given embryo. But in the spiritual world feet and legs are transformed into the jaw bones, while arms and hands are transformed into the cheek-bones. There the whole lower man is transformed into the spiritual prototype of what will later become the head. The way in which this metamorphosis is accomplished is, I do assure you, of everything that the world offers to conscious experience the most wonderful. We see at first how an image of the whole cosmos is created, and how this is then differentiated into the structure which is the seat of the whole moral element — but only after all that I have mentioned has been taken from it. We see how what was, transforms itself into what will be. Now one sees the human being as spirit-form journeying back once more to the region of the second hierarchy and then to that of the third hierarchy. Here this reversed spirit-form — it is in fact only the basis for the future head — must, as it were, be welded to what will become the future breast-organism, to what will become the future limb-organization and the metabolic system. These must be added. Whence come the spiritual impulses to add them?
It is by grace of the beings of the second and third hierarchies, who gathered these impulses together when the man was on the first half of his journey. These beings took them from his moral nature; now they bring them back again and form from them the basis of the rhythmic system and metabolic-limb-system. In this later period between death and a new birth man receives the ingredients, the spiritual ingredients, for his physical organism. This spiritual form finds its way into the embryonic life and bears within it what will now become physical forces and etheric forces. These are, however, only the physical image of what we bear in us from our previous life as lack of human understanding and human hatred, from which our limb-organization is spiritually formed.” (…)
The whole process seems to be a wonderful transformation of some of the lowest elements we take over with us at death into the spiritual world, into something with new potential:
“When man’s life between death and a new birth — his life in the spiritual world — is beheld in this way, one can describe his experiences in that world in just as much detail as his biography here on earth. So we may live in the hope that when we pass through the gate of death, everything of misunderstanding and hatred between man and man will be carried up into the spiritual world, so that it may be given anew to us, and that from its ennobled state human forms may be created.”
It’s an extraordinary thought that the moral coldness and human hatred we take with us after death are transformed by the angelic hierarchies into what becomes our physical form in our next lifetime. The whole of this lecture is very well worth reading. It is the last lecture in a series that Steiner gave in Dornach in November 1923 and subsequently published in the book known as ‘Man as Symphony of the Creative Word’.
The result of the 2018 mid-term elections in the US – the House of Representatives now with a Democrat majority, the Senate with a strengthened Republican majority – has done nothing to heal the widening divisions in American society. Moral coldness and human hatred still hold sway in the USA and across much of the rest of the world and will await their transformation by the angelic hierarchies after our deaths.
Image via EAWorldview
anthropopper 
“Trump is a prodigious liar, of course, and he lies routinely, without shame. According to the Fact Checker in the Washington Post, by the 601st day of his presidency, Trump had told more than 5000 bare-faced lies – an average of over eight lies per day.”
I would encourage everyone to watch this press conference in order to get a sense of the man who is now POTUS. I thought the makeup was way too heavy, but everything else speaks for itself 🙂
Please choose to fast-forward at your own discretion. All points will give the same indication that worries millions of Americans today.
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Well, have you watched the press conference, actually?
What’s exactly to worry about?
Here we see 70 year old men with more than 2 hours of intense, energetic interactions, not losing the thread and focus for a split of a second.
He quite clearly explains his positions, often adjust them to level appropriate to understanding of public. He tries to take as many questions as possible and tries to discipline and even plays a pedagogical role to the press, as they should show proper behavior and *respect* , but he makes it perfectly clear that it means respect to th e *institution* of presidency.
Also, he analises openly and fairly bi-partisan situation they are all facing with latest results. He tells quite honestly and straight-forward on so many points: how he will act in terms of deadlock if happens, how he sees environmental issue, how he sees North Koran issue… it goes on and on and on, enormously wide range of issues.
Anyone who tries to be objective can only be impressed with the amount of energy, focus, speed and scale of topics covered, not to mention pedagogical element.
So, if see a different conference than above, you are simply biased and totally unaware of the mental filters that hold on you. That is very low level of awareness.
For instance, he clearly says he would like to be boring and monotone – but he cannot cause he must fight against misrepresentations in media.
That is bare truth told in front of you, and you don’t see it. But there are many who see it.
You show exactly same type of arrogance which cause people to dismiss Steiner for whatever reason they find to dismiss his credibility.
You dismiss Trump’s credibility and you believe you have all the reasons in the world to do so.
Think twice.
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The bare truth? Trump cares for nothing but his image. Trump is morally bankrupt: just today he refused to go the long planned, somber,and important Armistice Remembrance with other leaders. He said it was raining so he must have been worried about his hair. It didn’t rain. He also attacked the leaders of the Baltic countries, mistaking them for Balkans. He accused them of causing the Yugoslav war in the 90’s. I am so horrified that he is the president ..every single day he does something awful. Yesterday he attacked 2 female journalist, who are black, as stupid because they asked hard questions. He still does not understand how government works or that the free press is crucial. He does not understand the balance of powers as written in our Constitution. Look at his Cabinet–look at the guilty pleas of so many, and think how scared that straw man must be when he thinks of a real patriot, a brilliant and dedicated public servant, Bob Mueller, who is all that Trump is not. Trump is not misrepresented in the media. He is what he appears…a reckless, careless , pussy grabbing , philanderer and thrice -married, cruel racist who is about to meet justice. I know there are some anthroposophists who like Putin and Trump but I can not understand why. But I accept that this all had to happen so we can face , in USA, what we are. We have karmic debts that we would not have faced had Hillary won. So be it. Now we have to find the middle , find the love, follow God. That will mean leaving the fear and division that brought T to the White House behind. And we will.
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Come on, Mary, I love this defense, and I do wonder if Hillary Clinton could have brought on a different regime, and yet I also see her as having the same kind of initiative as Trump, who won the presidency. So, could her slim margin of victory have really made the difference? You wrote a prescient message here which only acclaims how it works either way, and why it becomes important that modern-day anthroposophy assesses the matter.
“We have karmic debts that we would not have faced had Hillary won. So be it. Now we have to find the middle , find the love, follow God. That will mean leaving the fear and division that brought T to the White House behind. And we will.”
Well, let’s hope that is so, but there are also other extenuating circumstances which prevail, and duly wonder about this current “potency”, and how he can persist in our day and age.
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“So, if see a different conference than above, you are simply biased and totally unaware of the mental filters that hold on you. That is very low level of awareness.” — wow
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America is 23 trillion in debt. We are broke. No money no mission, my friend. How much can we keep giving to the rest of the world being that far in debt? Please curb your self-righteousness about our coldness and loss of morality until you can tell me why an adult should keep bringing people into his home and feeding them when he has more debt than he can ever repay and each year spends more than he makes. Do you know how much money 23 trillion is? Why aren’t you lecturing leaders from England, Europe, Saudia Arabia, China, Russia, Australia, etc. about opening their arms and pocketbooks? How cold are they? It is not a government that gives money. Governments have no money not given to them by the taxpayer. How much more do you want from us? How much are you giving? Kill the goose and no one gets golden eggs. Trump is trying to protect me, the taxpayer and he is trying to encourage other countries to grow up, quit their corruption, build a healthy economies and pay their part. And I appreciate him doing this, inelegant though he may be. Pay your part, my friend, then come back and we’ll talk. And yes, I have studied Anthroposophy for 30 years, if you feel that is some kind of requirement to respond to your remarks.
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So, it is clear you do not believe in the rule of law, or in following the legal conditions of citizenship. You believe we should defy the constitution. Do you believe, according to your fanciful interpretation of the next life that there are no “rules” there? Do you believe that you will just make up your own rules? Or for that matter, do you want your neighbors to also ignore the laws of your neighborhood association, and the neighborhood substance abusers to fee free to sleep in your living room? I assume you do not lock your doors, right? After all, that is what peace and love demand, is it not?
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Spiritual Science is the science of the spirit, and so it deserves to dissect the books of the OT, as well as the NT. As such, it does not have to listen to the little refuse of your remarks about it, as if it has no cornerstone of its own. It does.
Now, in considering Steiner’s ‘fanciful’ remarks about how human lives pass between earthly lives, and lives lived in the higher worlds between death and rebirth, it is worth remarking about how much is revealed over the course in the life between death and rebirth. One of these, that passes between, concerns how moral coldness and hatred is a matter that has to be assuaged in order to bring a warmth factor into the next earth life, or even the present life for some. Rudolf Steiner’s mission was to identify this situation, which he did, ref. GA230.
One of the issues that Trump was against was transgenders serving in the military, and he tried to ban them in the recent past from serving in the various military services. He was overruled by the SCOTUS, which held that every person has a right to identify with who they think and want to be in life. Trump would have abandoned them without jobs, and without a life even. So, he was opposed by the forces that see a more loving and kind way to deal with human relations.
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Welcome to the blog, EC1!
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on what Rudolf Steiner had to say about the true basis of human morality, i.e. “There exists only one true source of the moral-spiritual in mankind, and this is what we may call human understanding, mutual human understanding, and, based upon this human understanding, human love.”
If this is true, and I believe it is, then President Trump’s hostility towards the American tradition of welcoming immigrants is unlikely to yield the best results for the nation. If your country is now moving away from its tradition of taking in the tired, the poor etc, that is a significant change. Shouldn’t that now be debated? If “America is full – go away” is genuinely the case, then what should the government do about those who still wish to come to live among you?
Let’s assume that America is full and that it can’t take in any more poor migrants. Doesn’t it then have a moral duty to try to improve the situation in Honduras so that those people can then stay in their own homes and within their own culture in safety, security and in material comfort? If the USA government were acting out of human love and human understanding it would try to remove the factors that create migrants in the first place.
Instead, what the USA has done over many years is quite different. Here is a good account of it: http://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935
In other words, the USA has created its own karma that has brought this situation about and I would contend that Trump’s response to the “caravan” will worsen rather than improve matters.
A great President of the USA would act out of human understanding and human love for all life and would set a similar tone for the nation, leading from the front – but that’s not what you have.
Best wishes,
Jeremy
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“A great President of the USA would act out of human understanding and human love for all life and would set a similar tone for the nation, leading from the front – but that’s not what you have.”
No indeed, we do not have this today. I commiserate with the present situation, as the press conference concerning the mid-term elections indicates. Now, concerning a great President, we did have this in the man John F. Kennedy. He seemed to act fully out of love and understanding, and I remember as an adolescent during his tenure that he was imbued with a kind of higher spirit and moral force. Of course, years later now I can see that the he had the Michael force within him.
He is known for saying: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”, and this was a call for dynamic action on a personal level, which would lead to the Peace Core initiative. Thus, Kennedy was an action president who wanted to motivate human beings to excel to their full potential, and this can easily be contrasted with our present POTUS, who is a mere reactionary who sees USA as deserving top-spot just because it is. Yet, and this is important, he had nothing to do with achieving such a situation.
Now, Kennedy during his short tenure as POTUS, c. 1961-1963, saw the importance of achieving an alliance with the Central American and South American nations, and this he called, “The Alliance for Progress”. Therein, he supported every objective and opportunity to achieve the advancement of nations into the modern world, and this would have been realized if he had lived.
Yet, he was assassinated rather than allowing it to happen, which helps create the current dilemma. Peace was in the offing with Kennedy, including economic support for Honduras. Now, today, we have the bigger beast to deal with in terms of chaos and catastrophe.
Personally, I remember simpler times when a man held the highest office of the United States, and said, ‘follow me in my initiative to root out evil and make for a better world’. As a young boy, this remains a fixture in my psyche, and I feel it was true. JFK even once landed at Cheney Field in Tacoma, WA, and greeted his audience. I remember that. He was a true human in the Michaelic formation that we have come to know as the Ideal today.
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Very interesting article!
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It is a huge mistake, showing “lack of understanding”, to assume that one political option, such as today’s left or “liberal” are closer to ideals of spiritualized vision of humans etc.than the other e.g. more “conservative” option.
Outward and declarative high ideals as a rule hide much darker, though well hidden, side or shadow. All antropoppers should at least be familiar with living currents in today’s public life. These days it means to get familiar with what is generally enfolding in the form of “cultural wars”, for now waged mostly on social media.
Once it is explored, one would see why those high loving idealists on the left are sometimes called “angry mob”, and then one would see much more clearly where anger and hatred can be found in truly astonishing shapes and forms (e.g. SJW phenomena). Falling for smooth and sweet speech should really be already left behind in “political kindergarden” of any true anthroposophist.
So, truly, lack of understanding is mostly on the side of those who call for the very high ideals. It is a clear sign of the lack of clear thinking assuming abolishing of the borders, of any sorts, and propelling of what is today called “identity politics” is in any sense progressive. How can anyone claiming serious thinking compare situations from 200 years ago with today’s world? Things are dynamic at least and need to be taken in the proper context to be relevant and serious.
So we always need to ask ourselves what is the true meritum of the things?
There is of course differences in various situations: e.g. someone helps someone out of the free will, or if someone *demands* and claims certain rights on help, support etc.
Also, it is important if someone tries to throw *blame* and *guilt* while claiming moral superiority of the *victim-hood*.
All these are relevant factors that Jeremy completely leaves out of consideration.
Of course almost each nation today shows great empathy and willingness to help – all the time humanitarian corridors, caravans etc. are organised with food, supplies etc. to distressed peoples and areas.
But allowing millions of people (e.g. in Europe) to simply enter and settle in different part of the world, nation, country, and claiming that they have *right* to do so – is completely another matter.
Connecting spiritual insight from Steiner lectures *directly* with daily politics is true disease that threatens anthro people with inclination to new-age style of thinking.
If we can learn anything from Steiner lectures it is that things are usually not what they seem on the surface and on the first sight.
Careful observation from many angles can bring completely different conclusions than what seems “obvious”.
All Steiner forums are now full of quotes about nationalism, Ahriman, lying in politics etc, as like everyone should agree that it points to only one “obvious” direction – POTUS.
But is all that so obvious? Should not the proper loving understanding for fellow human being require questioning why hundreds of millions of people like that orange racist, pathological liar, sexist, homofob and whatever other label they manage to attach? Does not such view than imply that all those hundred million people are then also racists, liars etc.? How lovingly hypocritical to assume that about millions your fellow human being!
Have we at least inform ourselves how lives of the USA citizens are *really* affected by those coming across south, and what they bring? Is it hatred when someone says – “well, you know, they dont really send us their best…”
What tha tmeans in *practical* sense, not some abstract idealism.
If something is not in the mainstream media does not mean it does not exist.
So, all that is too naive, all that abstract idealism about Steiner warned **much more than any sort of nationalism**.
Of course someone will say I offer only judgement without supporting arguments. But there are enough indications. Any honest thinker can follow those clues.
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“It is a huge mistake, showing “lack of understanding”, to assume that one political option, such as today’s left or “liberal” are closer to ideals of spiritualized vision of humans etc.than the other e.g. more “conservative” option.”
Nobody said that here even from the beginning. So, now with this in mind, mount your statement. Of course, it is political, and yet, anthroposophy is not, nor ever has been political in nature. It would rather explain the science of the spirit, which has many amplifications, and wherein some of it has to do with the workings of evil.
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I think it is going to be important that this blog stands on its own two feet in the future, or dissipate to the demands of the rationalistic west. It has existed for over four years, and has produced some of the most remarkable material that furthers the cause of Anthroposophy that I have ever seen. Recently, I was reading Rudolf Steiner’s short but profound lecture-course on “Michaelmas and the Soul Forces of Man” here:
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA223/English/AP1946/MiSoul_index.html
Now, these lectures strike at the very soul of what is needed today in communicating what is more from the heart than the head, and yet needs the words to convey it to the listening audience. In other words, we all need the strength and power of Michael in order to make our various appeals, and this requires the courage of conviction.
Jeremy wrote a very important essay back in May, in which he was suitably outraged by the rhetoric of the American ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, concerning Israel’s supposed [rightful] power to confine the Palestinians to their little patch of West Bank territory. The essay garnered no less than 131 comments here:
https://anthropopper.wordpress.com/2018/05/
This was a huge education for me, and demonstrated how anthroposophists can engage in their own kind of ‘think-tank’ activity. The exchanges proved very fruitful for the understanding.
So, while I very much appreciate comments from visitorX, I still have to wonder if possibly a kind of stereotype is being applied to anthropoppers/anthroposophists, and wherein a kind of nationalist interest is being appealed for by us. While this may be so, and within the European theater it is certainly warranted with the rather over-arching “americanism” of Trump, it is also important that our various leaders of Europe stand up with Michael force to this kind of western facade with makeup and hair-do.
It is NOT the real America. So, I would hope that visitorX might say more from a personal position, and we can even leave spiritual science completely out of account. That might even be refreshing at this point.
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“I think it is going to be important that this blog stands on its own two feet in the future, or dissipate to the demands of the rationalistic west. It has existed for over four years, and has produced some of the most remarkable material that furthers the cause of Anthroposophy that I have ever seen.”
Indeed this blog is great contribution and I of course appreciate many useful info shared here.
On such divisive topics such with current political affairs or same with Israel etc., there is no possibility of consensus among Anthro community. Division is inevitable, for instance, on any topic about POTUS and left/right differences – common ground is not possible.
It seems as cca 20% or so will understand this what I am saying here, and the majority will fall somewhere in the usual liberal spectrum- the pattern is obvious even in this 10 or so comments.
The workings of the human nature are such that it is not possible to break the soul/mental filters already deeply rooted.
World wars don’t come for nothing.
So, this what I write is just for the purpose of registering, and so that similar minded people can register. To those who understand already, it’s all quite obvious, those who are still in the woods of usual agit- prop influence – they will not understand it at all.
It’s a unique time in history, it’s literally two worlds splitting and for those who can see it – the workings of the collective mind become quite visible.
It’s just a scenery for those who can see- but nothing can be done about it.
No amount of argumentation can shake those hypnotized by liberal agendas.
Let’s just remember what Steiner wrote about Trotsky 100 years ago. Liberty and equal right for the deprived and exploited masses of proletariat in the whole world. What could have possibly gone wrong with such noble agenda?
At that time it was about liberating one target group – working class. Today’s liberal left “progressed” so now they would like to equalize so many other groups that are deprived and underprivileged.
But the main logic is same – there are oppressors and the oppressed.
So, we know what happened to Trotsky’s revolution, now let’s sit and watch what happens with the present one.
After all, these are not called communists, they are called progressives – so, what could possibly go wrong?
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Are you saying that liberals are communists? How silly can you get? I am not and who would even want to be besides Kim J- U of Korea, a great personal friend of Trump, as of course is Putin. You seem to think that you have the answers ; I bet you get them from Q, the famous non person who is giving scared right wingers all the answers…that Trump has 43,000 indictments to present to us all and that he is really pretending to be so awful. He is really good and will save us. All that greedy and pathetic man wants is for the A list celebs to like him.
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Dear Visitor X: (oo! it feels like I’m addressing someone from another planet!) I think you are looking at the world around you as if it exists outside you! But, on this planet, we are all expressions of each other – and in the case of very prominent persons, expressions of the larger “Shadow” – (Double?) – of our surroundings. We, in America, are privileged in this time of the development of the Consciousness Soul to have the opportunity to recognize and begin to “own” (take responsibility for) our Shadow before we, individually, meet the Lesser Guardian (again). I do not demonize Trump. I gird my loins and look at him as an opportunity for me and America to recognize our self-centeredness – and the lengths to which we go, the lies and the suffering we cause ourselves and our world. And, I hope when Trump is removed from office, America will continue to be stripped of its former undeserved status as “Leader of the Free World”. I hope we remain more aware of the pain we have supported from the comfort of our recliners. Of course, my comments include “Me Too!”… .
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Well said…we in USA have a chance to face our guardian of the threshold.
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“The result of the 2018 mid-term elections in the US – the House of Representatives now with a Democrat majority, the Senate with a strengthened Republican majority – has done nothing to heal the widening divisions in American society.”
Jeremy, the healing for me personally of the election was its decisive reaffirmation of the 2016 popular vote that it is only a minority of the country that recognizes Trump as speaking to their vision of America. That repudiation was all the clearer for happening while the economy is doing so well.
Next year there will be an unprecedented number of women in Congress, the overwhelming majority of them Democrats. One of those new women is a hijab-wearing American born in Somalia who spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp, and two others are Native Americans, another first. Trump’s misogyny and his unceasing efforts to stir up fear and hatred of anyone who doesn’t fit in his narrow comfort zone have played a large role in accelerating something long overdue.
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Yes, Wooffles, Thank you. Bringing misogyny and white male supremacy out into the light of day seems fundamental to what is happening here. Also, (I think, I hope, please God!) we will see a growing awareness of the connection between the way women have been exploited, abused, raped, discounted etc. – and what we do to Mother Earth. In Anthroposophical terms, we may be witnessing – in action – disequilibrium among the Thinking, Feeling and Willing functions. Top-heavy Thinking may disable our ability to distinguish lies from facts and enable manipulation. As women stand up and say “no more”, men may find the courage to stand up and act like a woman! – that is move out of abstractions and into the heart – and into the willingness and courage to act.
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Kathy, I would rather suggest that it is not about misogyny at all. Rather, it is about what pertains to what we have been talking about on this blog for some four years now. So, this might placate the heart to the final denouement in which people of the serving spirit speak to each other. In other words, please look at this lecture in which the disequalibrium of your equation has already been assuaged;, i.e., Ego to its own.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Psych/English/AP1946/19171111p01.html
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Hi,
The lecture is great thank you. At Aim4truth a born clairvoyant, ex Jesuit, ex NSA, retired steiner teacher and trainer has a completely different view of Trump to you ..strange isn’t! He has another site titled neoanthroposophy. He praises Trump for his stance against those who want to create a one world tyranny and reveals all the things he has done in that light, things that mainstream media, which he points out is controlled by globalists, are not reporting….one wonders…cheers Peter
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Hi again.
Here is an interview with George Soros. At 1.30 he openly admits that his aim is to make money and that he is not concerned about the social consequences of his investment decisions! Isn’t that moral coldness. cheers Peter
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Hi Jeremy,
Should it interest, here is the latest offering from Douglas Gabriel author of neoanthroposophy discussing the Jesuits and their quest for world power, includes motives behind mass immigration….cheers Peter
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Hello Peter,
I find myself feeling sorry for the prefix “neo”. It has had a rather unhappy usage over the past few years: e.g. “neoliberal”, “neocon”, “neo-fascist”, “neo Nazi” and now “neoanthroposophy”.
Stay well away from it, would be my advice – it has nothing to do with Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy.
Best wishes,
Jeremy
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Neoanthroposophy is linked to the conspiracy site Cosmic Convergence:
“The bottom line is that Putin is protected by forces far more powerful than the NWO globalists who seek his removal. The same goes for Trump—he was installed by a Higher Power and he will not be overthrown, though the Deep State traitors will not relent. But neither will Putin and Trump abandon their respective and righteous causes.”
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=24418
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For context for regular visitors to this blog, I visited Cosmic Convergence last spring after a stretch of comments by Douglas Gabriel that started with a long, heated back and forth with Frank Smith about Smith publicizing the contents of the First Class lessons. Back then, Gabriel’s involvement with the site was more up front than it is now, although that might just be because the site is being worked on. You can learn there how in last week’s American voting “deep state Democrats stole every election in sight.”
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Yes, Peter, “one wonders”…how calling out misogyny and white male supremacy has inspired your contributions about “one world tyranny”, “control-by-globalists”, and…oh yes, Georgie Soros! One also wonders why we so often go off into clicheland and seldom explore Steiner’s teachings – such as how screwy we get when we don’t balance our thinking, feeling and willing functions. But, as for me – here’s to the deep state Democrats who stole every election in sight…Cheers!
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Kathy, it hadn’t occured to me to make the connections you did in your comment– my bad– a minute of word search on Cosmic Convergence produced this:
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=27939
excerpt:
“A Feminist Agenda is being peddled under the guise of “equality,” but in reality it is a sinister operation carried out by nefarious individuals masquereding as “reporters,” “editors,” and “columnists,” meant to polarize groups and to foster a sense of “blame” or “guilt” with every action.”
and this:
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=22791
excerpt:
“The purple revolutionaries are starting to get weak. AntiFa has been labeled a domestic terrorist organization. Black Lives Matter has been AWOL since they were outed as a George Soros proxy group set up to trigger a race war that would lead to a civil war. . . . Harvey Weinstein was taken down as a warning to every agent of Deep State — both covert and overt — not to abandon the Purple Revolution. And should they disobey, they will be HARVEYed . . .No one of any serious stature will be permitted to leave the clandestine PR movement formed to overthrow the Trump administration.”
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What are the cosmic convergence people ( men) afraid of? Feminists are not after domination- that was men’s provenance after all. It’s odd that they are now against one sex being dominant but it’s a crazy old world.
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Mary, it sounds like the same kind of conversation that could have come up, if it was allowed. Silly nonsense, indeed, and largely opposed by the male persona existing today. I was working toward that track, and then found myself in the space of political/social correctness. Thus, I found myself in no space, and was rebuked. So, you see, when the ” cosmic convergence people” are invoked, then we are looking at a kind of common prejudice, which of course, diminishes us all.
In other words, rhetoric can’t be refuted, but honesty still exists.
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Thanks, Wooffles. I guess conspiracy theorists think they have the corner on the market, but I doubt they know their own history. The “feminist agenda” has been regarded as a “sinister operation” for a long time. In the Middle Ages, with the advent of Catholicism, women needed to be suppressed – in order to justify patriarchal power. Estimates vary, but hundreds of thousands of women were tortured and executed as witches. The majority were older and widowed with no men to control and protect them. And their beloved cat companions were executed, too. For decades, both women and cats were regarded as instruments of the devil. And over the years, as the number of cats diminished, the number of rats grew. And along with the rats, the fleas they carried. And the disease carried by the fleas. And one-third of Europe was wiped out by plague. So I figure Mother Earth rose up in those years in response to man’s manipulation, greed, misogyny – and gave us a taste of “Me Too!”. And today I see Her rising up in furious fires and copious hurricane tears. I trust she will not leave the earth to the men who have exploited, raped, tortured her for their power and profit – no matter what conspiracy theory they think will make them safe.
Now, more importantly: I think about what is the larger motive behind man’s fear of women? I remember Steiner saying something like – men come into this world fully earth creatures, but women come in with a memory of where we came from and where we’re going – though it be largely unconscious. If so, it may be that men are motivated by more than to justify their desire for pleasure and power. They may be acting out of the compulsion to obliterate the Spiritual world. What do you think?…Kathy
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Hi Kathy,
I have written a couple of posts here which Jeremy seems to be censoring for some reason, and yet, they relate to you and your discourse with Wooffles. As such, and entirely indicative of your comment here, I think it would be good to reiterate what it means to have a softer brain when one is born a female, rather than a male, who is so utterly expected in content by the female persuasion 🙂
You motivate a remark about how the female brain is softer than the male brain, and this is how it becomes possible to hear words that soften the normal male response. Herein, we have a good example from lecture 10 of the Gospel of St. Mark lectures:
“At this point I should like to remind you of something I have often pointed out with regard to the difference between male and female, pointing out the fact that to some extent the female element — not the single individual woman but rather “womanhood” — has not entirely descended to the physical plane, whereas the man — again not a single individuality, not man in a particular incarnation but “manhood” — has crossed the line and descended lower. As a result true humanity lies between man and woman; and it is for this reason that a human being also changes sex in different incarnations. But it is already the case that the woman, as such, because of the different formation of her brain and the different way in which she can use it, is able to grasp spiritual ideas with greater facility. By contrast the man because of his external physical corporeality is much better adapted to think himself into materialism, because, if we wish to express the matter crudely, his brain is harder. The female brain is softer, not so stubborn, that is to say in general — I am not referring to individual personalities. In the case of individual personalities there is no need to flatter oneself, for many truly obstinate heads sit on many a female body — to say nothing of the reverse! But on the whole it is true that it is easier to make use of a female brain if one is to understand something exceptional, as long as the will to do so is also present. It is for this reason that the evangelist after the Mystery of Golgotha allows women to appear first.”
“And now, as the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, brought spices, so that they could go and anoint him. (Mark 16:1.)
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Steve, the first sentence of the comment from you which I’ve held back is as follows: “As far as I am concerned this is the typical kind of crap one can expect when two females try to discourse on the science of the spirit.”
I was trying to protect you from yourself; and I am also unwilling to have that apparent lack of respect for others or misogynistic attitude on this blog.
Jeremy
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Well, Jeremy, if you had allowed that post to come through immediately in order that I could be duly attacked by the offended parties then something could have been explained. Yet, you choose to censor, rather than let the chips fall where they may. I don’t need to be protected from my comments. They have a basis in rhyme, reason, and rationale. Yet, now you’ve made me look pretty shallow. As such, I am reduced to giving an apology for what had an originally larger purpose.
Steve
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Kathy,
In response to your musing about men and fear of women, I’ve read some psychoanalysts who make sweeping claims about the effects of a “male wound” grounded in the separation from the mother that boys experience and girls don’t. But I’m not sure how universally applicable it is, and I’m not sure how you can disentangle a fear of women in, for example, that excerpt from Cosmic Convergence from a more general fear of losing control.
The rest of your comment brought to mind a poem by Daisy Alden that I like a lot which perhaps you haven’t come across. She won enough awards, the story goes, that Dornach formally recognized her as an exception to the general rule about women discoursing on the science of the spirit (sorry, the temptation to indulge in third party snark was irresistible) .
The Earth is a Being Who Deserves to be Loved
Wounded with bombs and highways, the Earth coughs, bleeds,
and warns, and is not heard nor heeded.
And still she loves, her tremendous heart
expanding, contracting in awesome measure.
After the magical thrust through root and bark
of blood-streams of seas and thunderous rivers,
magnificently various, she offers
the sacrifice of elegance, in flowers.
Multiple is she in anger and reverence,
passion and prayer. Even in catastrophe
and tempest, confounding harmonies enlighten.
She is haloed with many balancing haloes,
each day crowned with a corona of caroling
as bird-note meets bird-note at dawn moving westward.
Warmed, made fertile and lucent by her Sun,
laved by her rains, loved by her delicate snows,
I see her sleeping dreaming, waking,
streaming rays from glorious eyes, of blue light;
measuring the secret of us all in a mighty
splendid montage, she is hermaphrodite.
Let the palm of our love caress the line
of her multiform breasts; the hips of her hills;
embrace her tree barks, mightier than books;
lie in her arms. She will give us golden bread, and wine.
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Wooffles,
Thank you for the introduction to Daisy Alden. The poem really speaks heart to heart!
I had forgotten about the “male wound” theory. I think it fits here. It might go something like this: physiologically, the fear-of-falling is the primal reflex and one approach to physiology (Feldenchris) views all anxiety as conditioned upon the unconditioned fear-of-falling. As the developing little person begins to experience the world outside the warmth and protection of the mothers arms, he/she experiences a primal angst. The flexor muscles tighten and the body contracts into a defense posture: the fight-or-flight condition. (Oh, I just thought that eurythmy probably undoes this posture and guides the body into extension – so it can become a true individual and will itself out into the world!) Could it be that the male reacts with fear (and definitely with rage) when he feels blocked from, or deprived of endless nourishment, protection, safety – but women have more of a sense that protection and nourishment comes from INSIDE them? That is, they ARE the Mother.
But how does this relate to men wanting to obliterate the Spiritual world?…They definitely have the penchant for destroying whatever they can’t control – even if they destroy themselves in the process. Is it that simple? Do men rise in fury against the futility of trying to have absolute power? My inner male does. I rage against the pain and waste in this world: “If you call yourself GOD then why didn’t you do a better job than this? If you want me to do A, B, C – why didn’t you warn me about D, E..etc? Why didn’t you prepare me by telling me the whole story from the start? Why do you tempt me with little nibbles and deny me the whole cake? And so I waste time raging against an outer God, and ignore the inner Mother – which makes the Spiritual world inaccessible to me.
Enough – but one more thing: why didn’t I know that anthroposophists are as threatened by women as the everyday male? Did they really, from the start, think women had no business discoursing on the spirit? I always thought, since so many of Steiner’s choice students and associates were women, that the association was wiser. Thank God for snark! It’s a remedy – something like taking a probiotic, don’t you think?
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We had a nice long conversation on Daisy Aldan about two years ago, and it would be worth the wile to review it, and especially its commentary.
https://anthropopper.wordpress.com/category/daisy-aldan/
Wooffles wrote:
“(sorry, the temptation to indulge in third party snark was irresistible).”
I can imagine that to be true because of how I appeared in my posting, which got neglected when it was supposed to be a challenge to face the real issue. Well, I can only apologize now for something that didn’t happen when it should have. Rather, it was censored instead of allowing a discussion of the situation which was unfolding. I simply forgot that Jeremy approves all postings, and much of my experience has taken place in real-time settings, wherein discussions/debates can take place all night long, and especially with the Waldorf/Anthroposophy critics, which was fun to engage in.
So, here we are. I am as untarnished as ever, and only hoping for the discussion that truly means something. One of these recently was the entry on “Old Age and Anthroposophy: Part 2”. Remember that one?
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Furious fires is right! We just had a terrible hurricane here and it was not normal. Women do know where we are going…and slowly but surely the Divine Feminine is coming. The bestial men that Steiner describes are already here…shooting strangers, and one is even being the 45th president of USA.
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Hi, Steve,
Thank you for the quote from The Gospel of Saint Mark. Women’s capacity to make connections not obvious to more brittle brains is likely related to the fact that the corpus callosum between the right and left hemispheres is more extensive in females – making us more capable of integration.
But more importantly: what do you make of man’s compulsion to obliterate the Spiritual world? And, will you respond, please, in a less abstract and a more personal way? That is, having (as a man) crossed the line and “descended lower”, how do you, personally, resist man’s temptation (as Steiner put it) to think yourself into materialism?
PS: I would advise you – in the “Me Too!” Age – to lose the “soft brain” metaphor.
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Excuse me, Kathy, but the brain metaphor comes from Steiner. Personally, I would have never thought of it to use at all, in any context. But, I do consider it very much in the light of what you say about a larger capacity for integration, which expresses itself as empathy.
“The female brain is softer, not so stubborn, that is to say in general — I am not referring to individual personalities. In the case of individual personalities there is no need to flatter oneself, for many truly obstinate heads sit on many a female body — to say nothing of the reverse!”
I had written this specifically to you three days ago, and it was intended to be kind and caring. Now, it has finally been approved. Yea!
https://anthropopper.wordpress.com/2018/11/07/the-surprising-origins-of-moral-coldness-and-hatred/#comment-5678
What this lecture depicts, and especially with the diagram of how Thinking, Feeling, and Willing interrelate as the ladder below a healthy “I Am” seems especially relevant.
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Excuse me, Steve: I know the metaphor comes from Steiner: I read your post. I was referring to how people of today are apt to respond to the female “soft” brain wording. But if you are a Steiner words purist, I can accommodate and call you “hard-head”.
Again, in regard to the lecture you posted, I am interested to know what you make of it on a personal level: how do you, a man, having “descended lower”, resist the temptation to “think” yourself “into materialism”?
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Well, personally, I don’t feel that I think myself into materialism, but rather the householder role in life. I was married for 37 years, and helped bring three children into the world. I knew about Ahriman’s ruling power, and fought against it everyday for some 40 years. I’d like to think today that I won in my fight, which was a very lonely fight. I gave everything to my family. Now, I have occasion to write on anthropopper blogs and forums as an old man.
“You will find this described in my book ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds’. That these three activities, which before passing the threshold border upon each other but work separately, interact in the right way and do not come into confusion is due to the fact that the threshold has, so to speak, a certain breadth in which our ego itself lives. If our ego acts normally, has perfect soul health, then the interaction of thinking, feeling, and willing is so regulated that they do not collide with one another, but mutually influence each other. It is the essential secret of our ego that it holds thinking, feeling, and willing beside each other, so that they can affect each other in the right way, but do not mix in any accidental fashion. Once across the threshold into the spiritual world there is no danger of this since the three faculties then separate.”
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Steve, I, too, sometimes find the fight – both with myself and with Ahriman and this painful world – to be a “very lonely fight.” But now and then – when I’m emotionally at the end of my rope – I’ve found myself in some wondrous spiritual arms and can feel I’ve NEVER been alone. I long for that consciousness to become permanent.
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Hi, Kathy. I, too, always look for the evidence of salvation in this seemingless dismal world, and yet have found it again in these three lectures on the balance of power in the world. We, as humans, hold the slim balance between opposites when we simply love and give. I hope you see why the extension is given in this respect. Of course, we are not alone, unless one is neglected. So, you should never let that happen.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA158/English/RSPC1948/BalWld_index.html
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Dear Jeremy,
It has taken me a long time to overcome the feeling of pessimism and dissent that took hold of me while reading this thought provoking post on moral coldness and hatred located in our bones and blood. I could not accept the duality between soul and body as described by Steiner in this dark lecture. Once I had time to read the full lecture I felt devastated to hear the description of the cancerous residues polluting the Earth’s astrality, even though I recognise it as a overwhelming dimension of reality surrounding us; and though Steiner speaks about love and understanding. I had one disturbing thought which I only now dare to contribute to your blog which I admire as a precious platform for research as we are open and tolerant, even towards analysis which may be wrong. I felt, maybe completely inappropriately, in this lecture Rudolf Steiner anticipates the disease that led to the undermining of his lifeforces and his ultimate demise. It penetrated this particular lecture, maybe for the first time, and I don’t know where else it can be found.
I discovered that this lecture was the last one in a series held in Dornach, November 1923, before he apparently traveled to The Hague and gave a series of six lectures on ‘Supersensible Man’. There his tone is light and positive again. And, before I quote from his last lecture held in The Hague, it should be stated that back in Dornach, he started and completed an masterly cycle towards the Christmas conference and the celebration of New Year in light of the commemoration of the tragic fire that burned the first Goetheanum one year earlier, transformed into enormous moral courage.
So, I feel the lecture you selected is a kind of one-time depression which is not typical for Steiner, but indeed pre-casts a shadow of his gradual exhaustion, starting from the beginning of 1924.
So, here is a more optimistic, healing, message I suggest we should read in order to bring back the string of thoughts locating the “origin of moral coldness and hatred in our bones and blood” in a bearable balance.
“We climb up on to a high mountain, and behold, the silicious rock appears to us with the transparency of glass. We feel moreover that something is streaming out from our own being and uniting with it. Here, at the outermost surface of the Earth, by a kind of natural surrender of our consciousness we become one with the whole Earth’s surface. It is as though our eyes were sending out rays that enter right into the silicious rock; and in that moment we begin to feel ourselves one with the whole Earth. When we have this experience, beginning at the same time to feel ourselves one with the whole World, with the Cosmos, then, if we are to attain, not to a dream, nor to any abstract thought, but to a first actual realisation of oneness with the Cosmos, we must carry the experience further. An inner consciousness can light up within us which I may perhaps express in the following words. “Thou, O Earth, art not alone in the World-All! Thou, O Earth, together with me and all the other beings upon thee, art verily one with the great World-All!” Living in this experience of oneness with the silicious rock, we no longer see the Earth separated from the rest of the Universe. We see the Earth as an ether-sphere, emerging from the sphere of the cosmic ether.”
Supersensible Man, Lecture V, The Hague, 18th November 1923.
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Hans, you may or may not be correct in your assumption that, when he gave this lecture, Steiner was affected by a foreshadowing of the disease that would kill him – but one thing I will say is that I’m grateful to you for directing your comment to the lecture by Steiner rather than to the side issue of Donald Trump.
Best wishes,
Jeremy
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Come on, Jeremy. Trump was no side issue at all; he was full frontal, as with many of your other posts in which you correctly assuage that America rules the world. So, what you got here was a very fair and somewhat partial account of where we all sit, with the ledger definitely balanced in favor of the science of the spirit and its particular nuance.
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Dear Hans,
I think you found something of importance in this last lecture from GA230. You wrote: “… in this lecture Rudolf Steiner anticipates the disease that led to the undermining of his lifeforces and his ultimate demise. It penetrated this particular lecture, maybe for the first time, and I don’t know where else it can be found.”
RS described on other occasions the inevitable consequences of bodily destructive baccilli, e.g., GA177, lectures 2 & 9, and GA185, lecture 2. This is all due to the earth-evolutionary condition in which the physical body is destined to come directly into the mineral element of the earth, and become “mineralized through and through.” As a result, both bodily destructive plagues carried by astral parasites have occurred over recent time, but also the coming into being of individual ego consciousness, which began in the last third of the 19th century, and finalized with Michael’s victory in the War in Heaven, and the Event of 1879.
So, indeed, Rudolf Steiner’s position appeared glum on 11 November 1923, and this can be explained. You see, the actual beginning of the effects of the loss of lifeforce can be attributed to the fire that had burned down the Goethenaum on the morning of 1 January of that year. In Thomas Meyer’s book, “Milestones in the Life of Rudolf Steiner”, you can read here of how the fire affected him throughout the night while he struggled to hold his etheric body together. As well, on page 139, in the chapter entitled: “The New Foundation Stone”, is described what occurred on 17 November 1923, when Steiner, intending to retire after the course on “Supersensible Man”, at the Hague, is rather encouraged to continue on and refound the society at the suggestion of Ita Wegman.
Of course, he couldn’t say ‘no’ to any kind of positive indication coming from anybody, and so, that was all he needed in order to proceed. Yet, when he finally collapsed due to exhaustion in late September 1924, it was to his wife, Marie, that he wrote about how his illness and loss of etheric power began with the fire. He never wrote about what occurred on 1 January 1924, as if it was just anther day.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Milestones.html?id=TE6rCgAAQBAJ
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Dear Hans,
Despair/pessimism is heavy. What makes it just bearable for me is to accept the “rightness” of it. The Earth Mother raped and poisoned, the children chained to looms in the orient to make cloth for Walmart, the pharmaceutical drug dealers and tobacco dealers, and all those sick and dying from the destruction of the 3D world. I know I’ve read in Steiner that this stage of our evolution – unlike previous stages – will not be recapitulated. Ahriman wants it to be perpetuated throughout eternity. but guess what? – The joke’s on him!
Once, when I was mired down with despair and berating God for creating such a flawed world, I asked why, why, why – and something said “I need witness”. I got it – but was still angry. I like anger better than despair – but I can recognize the Shadow at work in it.
Regarding Trump – I think the important thing to grasp is that Trump is not about Trump – he is about US. ME – and I need to admit it. We all, to one depth or another, embody the same “Shadow”. Much of the world fell for “America rules the world”. Who has purged malignant narcissism and greed from his soul? We are Trump. I hope I can endure looking that in the eye before his crash and burn.
Finally, I remember reading something in Steiner about the U.S. being Ahriman’s particular playground – something to do with the configuration of the Appalachian mountain chain I think…Whew!
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I wish as much attention as devoted to Trump (within us) we would include Nigel Farage and all he stands for in our analyses. This type of politician lacking courage and substance but with excellent communication skills is as dangerous for our future as the gangster (in us) named Trump.
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Yes, Hans – I think you are right. And I think we are more vulnerable to the charisma of excellent communication skills (etc.) when we are “on automatic” – which , to me, means when our Shadow runs the show – when our choices are made for us on unconscious levels – when we neglect working from our “I”. What exhausts me is to know how many times I’ve fallen. Becoming more conscious seems the only answer – yet simply paying attention feels like our hardest work. I remember the quote from Faust where God explains to Mephistopholis (sp) why He (God) lets devils seduce us: “Man is too fond, too soon, of unconditional rest.”
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I would suggest that both of you, Hans and Kathy, read a very perceptive lecture from Steiner in which he assesses how evil works in the thoughts of man, and it has its identity in how these conflicts between Trump and Farage are nothing more than a kind of phantasmagoria of what it is today. Back then, it was Steiner defending himself against the rather quaint and colloquial notions of Edward Bulwer-Lytton of the 19th century, and how it was when a very peculiar character appeared who wanted people to listen to a different voice. He even offered a harp player for his interludes.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/EviPow_index.html
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