During these challenging times, I have been reflecting on what an anthroposophical approach to this Covid-19 pandemic might be. There are so many theories, anthroposophical and otherwise, that we are being invited to take in and consider. Perhaps you, like me, receive links to more pandemic-related videos and websites than it is possible to view – that is, if you wish to have any time at all away from the screen and maintain some semblance of a normal life.
All I personally feel able to do is to watch and observe and try to reach some conclusions about what is going on. One of these conclusions is that nearly all of us, including most doctors, scientists, politicians, academics and pundits of all kinds, know next to nothing about Covid-19. All the information coming to us from official channels is confusing, constantly changing and often contradictory. This is a very disconcerting experience for those of us who would like something solid to hang onto. The writer Paul Kingsnorth has expressed this dilemma very well:
“I would like to say that I know what to do about all this, or what to learn. I would like to teach it to you so that you may learn too. I would like to be a prophet in a time when prophets are so sorely needed.
Unfortunately, I am not qualified for this role. I don’t know anything at all, and I am learning, painfully, that this was my lesson all along.
I don’t know anything at all.
My society does not know anything at all.
All the things I was brought up to label as learning: my A-levels, my Oxford University degrees, all the books I have read and written, all the arguments I learned how to formulate, all the ideas I learned how to frame, the concepts I learned how to enunciate. All this head-work, all these modern European ways of seeing, understanding, controlling, managing, directing the world:
Nope.
None of that was it.”
So what has this pandemic got to teach our globalised Western civilisation? What can we learn from all of this? Nothing, because we are not equipped to learn the actual lesson that is being taught.
We cannot learn the lesson, because our head-centred, materialist culture does not believe in the existence of the realm from where it is coming, which is the non-material world.
During a previous piece about coronavirus, I gave quite a bit of emphasis to the positive sides of lockdown – the improvement in air quality, the reduced road and air traffic noise, the benefits for nature and wildlife, the enhanced sense of a community caring for its weaker members and a hope that, as there were so many of us who did not want to return to ‘normal’, that governments might take notice and stop talking about economic growth as if nothing else mattered. These hopes have not endured, of course.
I also raised the possibility that I was being naïve and that all of us were being played by forces very far from benign towards human beings, citing the speed with which our civil liberties have been removed, the many restrictions being placed on social and family life and the damage being done to our economic circumstances. With each month that passes, it becomes clearer that this more pessimistic view is increasingly valid and that humanity has entered a very dark period.
One answer to Paul Kingsnorth’s call for real knowledge about the virus is to be found in The Coronavirus Pandemic – Anthroposophical Perspectives by Judith von Halle. Translated from the German original by Frank Thomas Smith and published by Temple Lodge, this is one of the few commentaries from an anthroposophical point of view that I have found to be really useful. Despite von Halle’s disclaimer of scientific knowledge or her modest description of her writings as “motivating fragments for free consideration”, what she writes has, for me at least, a flavour of genuine anthroposophical spiritual research. She wrote this for an anthroposophical audience, in response to questions earlier this year from members of the Lazarus-John Branch of the Free Association for Anthroposophy, so at times it uses language and ideas with which general readers may not be familiar. I have tried therefore to include hyperlinks to sources of further information wherever this could be helpful, or else have provided short explanations in italics.
In such a brief post I cannot do justice to the full range of her insights but will only mention here what are for me some of the most important points she makes. Apart from all the human anguish and inconvenience triggered by coronavirus, the spiritual causes behind it are extremely disturbing. If the present pandemic is not to be the first in a series of catastrophes, humanity is called upon to make some big changes to the way we conduct our lives. Von Halle suggests that because Covid-19 is a pandemic, it means that we are in the grip of a situation where the karma of humanity as a whole applies – and this has happened in such a way that planned individual karma is thwarted. In such cases, she says, after the death of an affected person whose individual karmic threads have been severed by the karma of humanity, it is not easy for the hierarchies of angels to weave these threads back together again. This is therefore a full-frontal attack on the I-hood of the individual (the Self, the bearer of the Christ principle or the indwelling divinity in the human being, which we take with us from incarnation to incarnation) and from this she concludes that the spiritual power active in the pandemic is Sorat, the Anti-Christ, “the mightiest spiritual enemy which humanity must face on its path to development” and that the “virus is only a rippling wave compared to what humanity must still undergo in the near future”.
In connection with this last point, von Halle says that:
“Today we experience the attack – caused by us as the organism of humanity (ie humanity as a whole) – on the air-element and the physical organ associated with it, the lungs, through our corrupted, not life-giving thinking (this is a reference to the concept of ‘living thinking’, which you can read more about in Chapter 8 of Steiner’s ‘Philosophy of Freedom’). But if in the future, in the age of the consciousness soul, humanity has sunk so low that it is just as degenerate in its feeling as in its thinking, an attack on the heart will follow. Then it will be a case of absence of compassion, which is connected, among other things, with the suffering of animals.”
Von Halle also says that “it is not only the individual due to his personal biography, but also humanity as such that has developed a disposition for illness by this virus in that it has promoted and cherished materialism in its thinking for the past 150 years”.
This is where human beings are called upon to transform their thinking:
“The greatest difficulty facing human beings is that they do not want to acknowledge the I, that is, the reality of their spiritual origin and purpose – the reality of their selves as a community of entities of purely spiritual nature, who at the present time have taken on materially physical sheaths. Only when this insight exists will life on earth for humanity – an existence that can truly be called life – be able to continue”.
Unless we can come to a clear awareness and understanding that the invisible spheres of life are as important as the physical in making us fully human, then the result will be estrangement from spiritual life, both on Earth and after death. The consequence of this estrangement and isolation is that an element which should remain in the spiritual life degenerates, is driven out and begins to manifest in the physical world as pathogens and illnesses which appear in a living organism and multiply parasitically within it. Von Halle then says:
“A different world, which is not included in the divine development plan for humanity, arises through this parasitical isolation. If human beings recognise their I and its importance, its tasks and possibilities, moral individualisation begins – the self-desired maturity from a creature to a new god (Von Halle is here referring to Rudolf Steiner’s statement that human beings are destined through their evolution over aeons to become the next order of angels, the Tenth Hierarchy). If human beings do not recognise their I and its importance, its tasks and possibilities, an amoral special existence begins, a self-degeneration from divine creature to a new – never before existing and also not in a higher sense envisaged – sub-sensory creature. Then human beings consummate this splitting from the whole and suck out all that they can of the living world that had been bestowed upon them, thus furthering their degeneration”.
This is a truly alarming insight: that humankind, through its thoughtless denial of its true nature and its embrace of atheistic materialism, is in danger of being driven by malign spiritual forces into a sub-human state of existence.
Judith von Halle also has some very interesting things to say about viruses:
“As viruses are not made up of cells and have no metabolism of their own, but only a blueprint of their reproduction, which they can actualise within the cell of a so-called ‘host’, they are not living beings like bacteria (many of which, by the way, play an indispensable role in the human digestion process, which is not the case with viruses). Moreover, viruses maintain themselves by the principle of errors that occur during their copying process and which often result in optimal situations – for them. Thereby they stand in diametric opposition to the basic divine order, namely the principles of truth, beauty and goodness, which are fundamental to humanity’s creative power. The cause of cell death in the human body is what optimises viral existence (Programmed cell death is an integral part of host defence against invading intracellular pathogens). This alone directs our attention to the spiritual nature of a virus.
(…) An infection with the virus steers the I-slumbering person’s attention back to the purely material-physical processes, and it reaffirms his or her already biased materialistic worldview. It impacts a spiritual (sub-sensory-spiritual) impulse on the physical in the human soul. (…) The spiritual intention of viruses, as spirit bearers (or non-spirit bearers) (…) is to cause maximum harm in that they come into contact with the spirit of the human being at the level of devachan – albeit at its amoral mirror-image plane – but with the spirit not used by that person. (Here the author is referring to parts of the human spirit which are taken over by the Asuras and are thus not available to the individual human being.) Thus they are a plague of the consciousness soul age. Virus epidemics affect the karma of humanity insofar as the individual spirit is not brought to bear within an individual human being, and as a result, in what is meant to be the age of spiritual awakening, the person relapses into group-soul attitudes, which increase the physical potency of viruses.”
Will the new Covid-19 vaccines help?
“That vaccination cannot offer lasting protection is indicated by the impulse to mutate that was induced by vaccination. Spiritually considered, vaccination campaigns, however beneficial they may be at first, cannot remedy humanity’s karmic adjustment caused by a viral epidemic. At best, a postponement of humanity’s karmic adjustment takes place. If the spiritual causes of the plague are not remedied but instead comprehensive vaccinations are administered, a more drastic consequence or compensation must be reckoned with in future. This is not an appeal against vaccinations. It is only meant to indicate that vaccination campaigns alone are not a solution, but at most a stop-gap, because without the removal of the spiritual causes for the infectious illnesses, they contribute to the eruption of other more powerful epidemics.”
It’s now clear to me that Covid-19 is just one aspect of a multi-faceted attack on human beings and all life on Earth that we are living through. Climate change, war, the sixth great extinction of species, genocide, materialism, racism, human degradation, pollution, terrorism, the polarisation of society, the undermining of democracy, fake news and ‘post-truth’ – these are all facets of attacks from the same enemy. The aim of Sorat and his helpers, the Asuras, has always been to destroy the human I (the Self, the bearer of the Christ principle or the indwelling divinity in the human being) and to destroy the earth itself, which the I needs for the future development of the human soul. This is the true scale of the battle in which humanity is now engaged.
Foreseeing all of this, Rudolf Steiner said:
“Mankind will begin to recover when, through work in the life of the spirit, people come to know and to see in its true light the fact that the fifth post-Atlantean epoch (ie the age we are currently living in, which runs from 15th Century CE to 4th Millennium CE) is intended to create a materialistic state of being out of the general stream of human evolution. But all the more, then, must a spiritual state of being be set in opposition to this materialism. What people in our epoch must learn is the need to wage a fully conscious fight against the evil that is making its way into human evolution. Just as in the fourth epoch (ie the Graeco-Roman age) the struggle was to come to terms with birth and death, so now we have to come to terms with evil.”
What help is available to us in this great struggle? Von Halle suggests several things:
- “Reducing one’s exposure to news about the coronavirus pandemic to the minimum that is necessary to avoid ignorance of what is going on in the world. (Rudolf Steiner, alongside his spiritual research, always made sure that he was thoroughly informed about outer events and opinions.)”
- “The consistent psychical-spiritual work of an individual, or of a few individuals, can have an enormous influence on the physical and spiritual conditions of the world! When someone asks: What can I as one person do to influence world events? – the answer is: everything! If people could only see with physical eyes the effect on the macrocosmic context that the decision and its implementation to consistently practise only one meditation by a single person, then probably no one would hesitate to undertake such an exercise themselves. For the possibilities are enormous! Allow me to give you this as the greatest consolation, as the strongest ray of hope in the present situation. The individual person holds the world’s fate in his hands. This is the gift of the Christ, who sees the individual I as a deity, who treats it as a deity. (…) Spiritual life must become a reality in our hearts and therefore in our higher consciousness. We must develop a feeling in our souls for the true, the beautiful and the good that resides in this spiritual life.”
- Speaking the Foundation Stone verse in nature. “Speaking the truth, this truth of cosmic wisdom is today (one could say, unfortunately) a shattering relief – for oneself, for one’s fellow humans, the divine spiritual world and, above all, for the physical world.”
Von Halle also recommends the Michael verse ‘Victorious Spirit’, “which shows us the essence of the true spirit of our time and, through its character, not only makes us aware of our contemporary tasks in everyday practical life, but can also give us the necessary will to fulfil them.”
Victorious spirit
Flame away the impotence
Of timid souls.
Burn up self-interest
Kindle compassion,
So that selflessness,
As the life-stream of humanity,
Reigns as source
Of spiritual rebirth.1
(1 From Rudolf Steiner, Mantric Sayings, Meditations 1903-25, GA 268)
After having read this book, I am left with several thoughts and questions. First, how can one not be totally overwhelmed and horrified by the scale of the assault on human beings, especially when most of us are completely unaware of what is going on and have not even the basic concepts to begin to understand what is happening? Does it matter that there are so many people who will greet with derision what is written here, or have no comprehension of and no interest in what has been described? I take comfort from what von Halle says above about the massive difference one or two people can make when they work with prayer or meditation. And I also take comfort from the fact that there are so many good people doing good things for one another at this time, all of which I believe will weigh in the balance on the side of humanity.
Second, what can one do against such apparently insuperable odds? All that I personally can do is to write my blog; to look after people with learning disabilities at the care home where I work; to care for those close to me; to cherish my garden as a meditative space; to be part of my local community – for as I’ve noted before, it is human solidarity and caring for one another that will bring us through this crisis. Sorat is beyond all comparison the greatest enemy that humanity has ever had; but it is also true that having an enemy helps one to define oneself (and indeed, one’s Self). And Sorat and the Asuras have no response, no possible counterattack, that can defeat the love of Christ as expressed through simple human caring and selflessness.
Third, why is this happening? Here, I believe, we touch upon a great mystery of human evolution, ie the role of evil in human development. I have written more about this elsewhere on this blog, in case anyone is interested to take a look.
anthropopper 
Thank you for this, it is one of the best things I have read coming out of the Anthroposophical way of thinking. (I am an Anthroposophist).
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Thank you, Astrid!
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Yes, thank you Jeremy for expanding my awareness to think on the bigger picture of what’s happening. I’m part of a study group in Canada that tends to downplay the virus, while simultaneously pointing to certain “conspiracy theories”. This may be the catalyst we need to start discussing the spiritual battle we’re involved in.
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That makes me feel very happy! Thank you.
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Thank you again, Jeremy, for giving me a source for study and consideration. I have already looked back at your ‘evil’ essays, which deserve another thank you.
I am also boiling with “Yes Buts”. I will give myself time to digest your ‘gift’ rather than dump my stuff on the page. Paul Kingsnorth is a good example.
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Thank you – I hope you will share your “Yes Buts” in due course!
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Yes But. While taking JvH thoughts very seriously and that Covid-19 could be symptom I am not sure how Covid -19 is more to do with Sorat than say the 1918- 1920 flu pandemic that killed 17 million, or possibly 100million , whereas Covid-19 has , so far, only managed slightly over one million deaths.
OK so the Black Death that killed 200 million , a third of Europe’s population in mid 14th century does not count because Plague is a BACTERIAL, no a VIRAL disease.
But what about the estimated 500million deaths from Smallpox (VIRAL) in the 20th Century? With the last natural case seen in 1977? Did Sorat go on holiday or were there more spiritually active individuals about? JvH suggests that vaccination is just a stop gap if there is no spiritual awareness.
The flu pandemic of 1889-1890 caused a million deaths in a world population of 1.5 billion.
So far Covid-19 has been linked to deaths of one million out of 7.8billion.
OK , as Josef Stalin said : ‘a single death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic’. And statistically Covid – 19 does not seem to pose a threat to the human race.
20 minutes on Wikipaedia and other Pandemic websites also provides food for thought. Where did Sorat start his attack?
Personally I was surprised to survive the first wave and still have a cupboard full of ‘quarantine emergency rations’.
Just saying. I don’t KNOW nuffink.
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https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/
This website gives instant view of pandemics.
Oh and Where does Irish Famine in 19thC with up to 3 million victims fit in?
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Thank you very much for this fascinating link! It’s interesting that we’ve moved from assuming that spirits and gods are punishing erring humans to assuming that this is an unscientific and ridiculous approach. I suppose that what JvH is saying is that humans have indeed erred and through their mistakes over many years have now brought about the karma to re-balance the situation.
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I want to state that I am and have been concerned about Sorat and the Asuras. I am not rejecting that, I just try not to panic.
The way that World Karma disturbs Personal Karma is important but as already mentioned SO FAR Covid has disturbed statistically few individual Karmas. Far less than HIV/AIDS in recent decades. Never mind WW2 +Holocaust, famines, WW1 and Spanish Flu. Say 100+ million broken Individual Karmas in the past 100 years.
The angels who have to sort out all the karmic threads have one advantage in that they operate in Eternity and not in Time. They probably manage better than UK ‘Track and Trace’.
A Steiner Hearsay , without chapter and verse. In answer to question about the disrupted karma of all the young people being killed in WW 1. R.S suggested that they would have to be rapidly reborn to pick up threads. This is apocryphal and I do not know when or where I came by the story.
However, (OK so it is my hobby horse) if all karma disrupted individuals popped back down quickly they would still be only a tiny fraction of the increased world population.
If Covid-19 killed off 5 billion in the next couple of years there would still be more people alive than there were when Steiner died.
A bit Ahrimanic to keep counting and counting but there it is.
Jeremy, this contribution of yours has stirred me out of apathy and opened whole ‘ new world’. Not just Judith von Halle ( multiple aspects) but also to Frank T. Smith and Southern Cross Review. They will keep me busy for a few days.
And thank your for the ‘Victorious Spirit’ .
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Having read again and further I am starting to get the picture.
Thanks again to Frank Thomas Smith
JvH suggests that Sorat attacks occurred at 666, 1332 and 1998. Looking at the ‘Infographic’ linked above, those dates could connect with the Plague of Justinian, The Black Death (Bacterial ???) and the HIV/AIDS pandemics.
But that does not fit with Smallpox, the 19th C. Plague or the Spanish flu.
Is Sorat getting help in between.
I think I had better shut up and cool off.
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In connection to your comment about the people who died being rapidly reborn, JvH says that this is happening. I won’t quote the whole passage from pages 51-52 of the book, but just the beginning: “Due to the ahrimanic acceleration of all earthly-sensory processes – which with a powerful impulse of will, forces the earthly-sensory elements and thereby the world’s development ever more quickly into rigid degeneration (…) – the time between incarnations has dramatically shortened.”
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Thank you for reference to shortening reincarnation period. That fits , at least partly, with population question and of course the question? How many human soul/spirits are there?? Are we ALL here?
The interrupted Karma thoughts seems to be marginal with Covid. The response to confirmed infection varies for asymptomatic to death. This is very selective so could well be Karmic. Unlike, say, an atom bomb or a plane crash, Covid picks and chooses. In some cases it seems that ‘the devil looks after his own’ whereas in others victims are a loss to society.
AS with all such considerations one can observe but not necessarily understand the supersensible background.
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Hi Jeremy,
I’d like to re-print this in the next issue of http://www.SouthernCrossReview.org with your permission. OK?
Warm regards,
Frank
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Hi Frank, I’m flattered and of course delighted! Thank you so much for your excellent work in translating JvH’s book and for making her thoughts available to the English-speaking world.
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Thank you Jeremy. I have been waiting for just such an article from you. My wife and I try to educate others (who know nothing of Anthroposophy) on the falseness of this pandemic in several corners of the world. It is not an easy task to continue day in and day out. It leaves one with the struggle to stop. But we value the Truth over seemingly little success in helping others to simply THINK for themselves. It has from time to time left us exhausted and wondering if it is worth continuing. This post is both encouraging and energizing in it’s clarity on what is going on above as so below. I believe I have read somewhere in Steiner’s lectures that one person striving in Spiritual Science is stronger than a multitude of the opposition. Thanks again.
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Thanks Kenneth! Your message warms my heart.
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Thank you, this is helping me to pull quite a few threads together!
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Thanks Sandrine!
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Extremely valuable blog. JVH should be listened to. Her words obviously spoke to you as they did to me, via yourself. Thank you Jeremy.
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Thanks, Jonathan!
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Thanks for these thoughts Jeremy. Receiving the publish notification I found very useful. I just read the first half of your post before getting distracted 🙂 but it got me far enough to order von Halle’s book which is going to be a treat I think. I’ll make sure I finish the post too. Thanks again.
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Thank you, Tom. I’m sure you will find the book a really worthwhile read.
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You words and thoughts are a great relief and help to me today, thank you.
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Thank you, Antonio.
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Thank you Jeremy this gives me inner peace at a time when my life is surrounded by utter turmoil…..Love and Peace to all X…………………..P/S May l be bold enough to say that Rudolph Steiner was the Greatest Prophet whoever walked this earth..💖l humbly say it was my privilege to have been a classroom assistant in Kindergarten at Kings Langley School…
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Thank you, Janet – I agree with your assessment of Steiner, too!
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Jeremy, thank you for such an important article at such a relevant time.
I experience the tone of your article as an example of a weapon at our disposal that often eludes humanity (and, sadly, too many anthroposophsts).
It is a weapon but it is also a kind of medicine and it sits within the realm of Love.
It also exists within the quality of warmth.
And we all have it available to us in every moment.
Those forces attacking fundamental humanity do not deal with it very well or easily.
It is of course gentleness.
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Thank you for your moving words, Paul.
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Thank you very much, Jeremy. I appreciated your sincere message regarding the need for human strength and courage against the powerful adversarial forces at work at this time.
With all good wishes, Sally
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Thank you, Sally and very best wishes to you and Angus!
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The power of the individual doing good work, spiritual work, such as working with the developmentally challenged, fructified by inner work leads to an understanding of the evil that lives within. When we come to terms with this in our meditative life through the Christ our perspective on these attacks becomes clear and the means of dealing with them becomes part of our being. Not an easy path but a sure way to come to grips and be a part of the solution to this epoch defining moment. Thank you for this stimulating post.
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Thank you, Bevan!
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HelIo Jeremy, indeed, in an anthroposophical sense, the pandemic seems to be a viral attack on the middle (lungs, blood and circulation), an attack on the ‘I’. It disturbs the labile human equilibrium. The virus effects our whole body and our whole immune system. The necessary social measures threaten our spiritual freedom and self-determination. So, the pandemic sets up a joined material and spiritual test. It equally stirs our fear and our pride: ‘Throw yourself down from here’ (Luke 4). A balanced reaction should address this double assault.
Apropos, von Halle also “states that her book is not based on strict spiritual-scientific research, but rather in response to informal questions” (southerncrossreview.org/133/harris-jvh-final.html)
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Hello Ton,
Thanks for your comments. I’m not sure I quite agree that there is no “strict spiritual-scientific research” in JvH’s book. She is very modest about her contribution but in the book itself, which I recommend everyone to read, there is a great deal of information which seems to come out real spiritual-scientific research.
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I very much appreciated this article of yours, dear Jeremy.
I agree on many points that Judith von Halle brings forth, that Corona is a serious matter indeed and not a hoax, just another flu, a hysteria created by the fake media etc. Believe it or not, 99% of all anthroposophical oriented persons I know personally or on the net are in one way or another Corona skeptics. The medical section of the Goetheanum advises enough sleep and walks in the fresh air as a means to prevent to catch covid. Michaela Glöckler refuses to endorse masks as a practical means in certain situations. Read what Peter Selg and other „big names“ in Dornach and Stuttgart say about fake news etc. This arrogance of pretending to know better makes me sick and does a horrible blow to the reputation anthroposophical initiatives had gained in decades.
Judith von Halle is very cautious in her approach to the matter and I give her great credit for it.
There are some points however where I cant agree with her although I must admit that it is not from first hand occult knowledge. Yes, Corona is a worldwide pandemic and it is not (only) a matter of personal or group karma but of mankind. And yes, thus the individual karma is thwarted, but this happened as well in WWI and WWII. I cant see that it is an attack of Sorath, but rather of Ahriman. Sorath devours the „I“, Ahriman draws the „I“ into his own cosmos.
Corona is a reaction to the materialistic way of thinking and way of life, like a warning sign saying: Don t continue that path. As far as I can see, the largest part of mankind (>90%?) only wants to „come back to the old normal“, with no change of mind. Some even get deeper into ahriman s hands by hardening their etheric body, making it more mineralized, letting more electricity and electronic ways into their lives without a balance which must come from meditation and other ways of spiritual strengthening the „I“. For some, however, it is the chance to reach out to the etheric Christ which has become much easier this year, as some have experienced.
By the way, Steiner had a very practical approach to vaccination. He advised that the children and the kindergarden nurses should be vaccinated and he himself got vaccinated at that time in WWI.
„You just have to vaccinate. Nothing else remains to be done. Because the fanatical stand against these things is the one thing I would not recommend at all, not for medical reasons but for general anthroposophical reasons […] It is completely absurd to proceed fanatically in this way in detail.“ For the context read GA 314, April 22, 1924
(Hi Jeremy, here is the complete text on vaccination and Rudolf Steiner in English. If you think that s too long you can shorten it or give the link down at the end. I dont think that these memoires have been published in English before.)
Can vaccination opponents refer to Rudolf Steiner?
With addendum to Hedda Hummel (at the end)
wgv-tdz. – Many vaccination refusers refer to Rudolf Steiner, who predicted the development of a vaccine for a distant future in order to drive out people’s inclination towards the spiritual. They refer this statement to childhood diseases, to the current vaccination obligation and to possible vaccinations of the population in view of pandemics. As is often the case with quotes from Steiner, however, these statements are sometimes taken out of context and then serve fanatical esotericists as an “argument” against vaccinations. Thus anthroposophists unintentionally maneuver themselves into the corner of the so-called conspiracy theorists. They could know better. After all, Rudolf Steiner never thought much of fanaticism, but was rather a pragmatist. So it is little known that in certain cases he even ordered vaccinations and had himself vaccinated.
In 1924 Steiner was asked by practicing physicians what anthroposophy had to say about vaccination. Steiner reports, among other things, how, during his time as a tutor, he was not infected by the black smallpox that infected the mother of his students. One could minimize the risk of infection through psychological attitude (fearlessness). In areas where the population is afraid of infection, however, such “educational measures” would be pointless:
Hedda Hummel, one of Steiner’s most important stenographers, tells us:
“As is well known, the [Anthroposophical] Society had set up a day nursery at that time. In Berlin smallpox had broken out on one corner. As far as I remember, children were vaccinated in the schools and day nurseries.
Dr. Steiner ordered that the children in our nursery should also be vaccinated, as well as the people who went in and out of the nursery. Dr. Steiner himself was also vaccinated, as was Dr. Steiner and all or almost all of us who went in and out of the house. Dr. Steiner himself got a bad arm, the smallpox hit, as they say. The joke went around at that time that Dr. Steiner joined the women’s movement – which consisted of all of us, mostly women, rubbing our sick arm a lot”.
Addendum: Vaccination / Day care center Berlin
The memory of Hedda Hummel refers to the First World War. Marie Steiner reports: “The World War brought changes to this company as well. The large art room in Motzstrasse with its adjoining rooms was converted into a day nursery, in which Miss Samweber [Anna Samweber, 1884-1969], who had fled Bolshevik Russia, developed a dedicated activity, supported by the ladies of the Anthroposophical Society in the donation-based provision of food and care for children. They had light, air and joy in the beautiful rooms of the front building; Dr. Steiner was content with the much more modest rooms of the back building. This is secondary, but symptomatic for him. [3]
See https://www.themen-der-zeit.de/rudolf-steiner-ein-impfgegner/https://www.themen-der-zeit.de/rudolf-steiner-ein-impfgegner/ It s in German, deepL will help you to translate this short text
https://www.deepl.com/translator
Ottmar
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Hello Ottmar,
Many thanks for the fascinating information about Rudolf Steiner and vaccinations!
It is not easy to distinguish between the attacks of Ahriman and the assaults of Sorat and the Asuras. All one can say is that they are working together at this time, which is in preparation for the incarnation of Ahriman. These incarnations are prepared for centuries in advance and the effects of Ahriman’s future coming are already all around us. But my view is that the sheer intensity and multiplicity of what has faced humanity from the beginning of the 20th century, the range of horrors visited on us over the last 120 years, is evidence of the involvement of Sorat as well as Ahriman.
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Anthroposophically speaking, Sorat/Ahriman, the apocalyptic two-horned beast or Sun demon (Rev.13), originates from the Old Sun; however, the third adversary power ‘Satan’ (Rev. 20) and the Asuras originate from Old Saturn (GA0266/19061101).
“The second thing is that human beings will walk around — one will be able to see this — of whom one will have to say that Ahrimanic power’s, are living in them. Here Ahriman is acting directly; this is the beast; the fall of the beast and of the false prophet of the beast, who is a superhuman being and not a man. The third thing is that one will notice that something about the laws of nature is becoming unexplainable.” GA0346/19240915
According to Steiner (1918), the time of the incarnation of Sorat/Ahriman in a human being was in 1998 (Sorat, GA 184) or ‘before even a part of the 3rd millennium of the Christian era will have run its course’ (Ahriman, GA 191), cf. van Manen in: http://threeman.org/?p=2905
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Hi Ton,
This is not entirely correct. According to Steiner in GA 184, 1998 was the year in which the third incarnation of Sorat occurred as the necessary multiple of 666 – 1332 – 1998. Yet, in this course, he was much more concerned to tell about what Sorat wanted to do in 666, which was to instigate a kind of premature consciousness soul in the midst of the intellectual soul development. This would have had the effect of defeating what we have today in terms of a completely developed intellectual soul as the ground (foundation) for what the consciousness soul stands to attain in terms of the future: spirit self, life spirit, and spirit man.
666 as Sorat’s first evolutionary incarnation would go on to instigate the Eighth Ecumenical Council of 869 AD, which denounced the element of Spirit as existing on earth, and thus created the demise of the trinity in favor of the dualism of mind-body, or body-soul alone. This came through the Roman Catholic church, of course, and has persisted right up to our own time now. Steiner makes this fact a keen perception.
It would be nice to have Terry Boardman write here again. He has keen perception for these matters. He got treated rudely here two years ago by a current writer on this blog, who wants the same answers we all do; which is truth.
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True, Steiner does not mention the year 1998 in GA 184, nor bodily incarnations of the being Sorat in the years 1332 and 1998 in GA 346, the Priest’s Apocalypse. As I read it, the significance of the ahrimanic ‘Sorat’ was overrated by von Halle, Prokofieff and Boardman, compared with the asuric ‘Satan’ in Rev. 20 and GA 346.
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There are very interesting steps and bounds between GA 104 and GA 346. Also, the fact that 16 years transpired between them, in which 1914-1918 stood in the middle, and wherein Rudolf Steiner had to make further distinctions concerning the progression of ‘the beast’. GA 184 stands in this 1918 range, and gives a very important perspective concerning the aim of Sorath in 666.
Now, the only place that describes a kind of historical account of the evolution of Sorath is contained here in lecture eight of GA 346:
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA346/English/UNK1995/19240912v02.html
The brutality imposed upon the Knights Templar in the 14th century is of particular note. Then, in 1337, Philip VI of France, declared war on England. It lasted for over a hundred years. And so it goes, year by year.
Who cares who Ahriman will incarnate as, or if it has already occurred. It is Sorath who has to be defeated by us limp noodles.
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Wise, informed and helpful. Ottmar DOES know something.
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There are 2 groups or institutes in Germany (that I know of) that focus on Rudolf Steiner s idea of social threefolding, The Institut für Soziale Dreigliederung https://www.threefolding.org/ and Initiative Netzwerk Dreigliederung https://www.threefolding.net/ or https://www.sozialimpulse.de/ . The first is very much into conspiracy theories when it comes to corona, denouncing the press etc. The second group is the only anthroposophical institution, that I know of, which is clearly against all these ideas of denouncing the German state as a corona dictatorship, corona just a flu, a pretext for the government, for Bill Gates to gain unlimited power etc. See this English article http://www.nna-news.org/news/article/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=2836&cHash=909f0796389b43824383e24041a4a7e9 .
Here s a short chapter from it:
„The Institute says it was approached by corona sceptics to act for them in an advisory capacity, including in a “constitutional convention”, but “in view of the current situation” had sharply rejected any such requests. Some corona sceptics have called into question the legality of the German constitution and government. The Institute considers such a proposal to have “no legitimacy”. And further down in the article:
„Wishful thinking
The Institute für soziale Gegenwartsfragen currently sees “wishful thinking” at work within the anthroposophical movement. Participation in the corona protests neither supported social renewal in the sense of threefolding nor did it help anthroposophy gain public recognition. On the contrary, the opposite would be the case.
If the Institute were to become involved in the corona protests, there would be a risk that “the entire approach to social renewal associated with Rudolf Steiner’s life’s work would be increasingly associated in the public perception with right-wing esoteric ideas”. That would be an “extremely heavy burden for this important impulse of renewal to take into the future”, Bleicher, Hermannstorfer, Padberg and Strawe said in the statement.“
They applied social hygiene and did not name the names that wanted to harness the institute for their ideas. But for those who know the anthroposophical biotop in Germany can guess who it was.
Ottmar
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Thank you, Ottmar – I’ve just re-tweeted that link and sent it ti Facebook, too.
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Thank you so much, Jeremy! This is the most real, thoroughly honest and true article I’ve read – ever! – about our current situation; thank you, also, for giving us permission to share it! I also appreciate the insightful comments and your responses. Would you ever consider traveling to California to give a talk? If so, please let me know! Best to you! Kristin
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Thank you for your very kind remarks, Kristin! As for coming to California to give a talk, although I would love to visit, I’m afraid I would be a sore disappointment to your audience – just like Paul Kingsnorth and Socrates, “I know one thing – that I know nothing”.
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An excellent article Jeremy!
Too bad Judith von Halle’s book is not available on Kindle as it is the only way I can get books in rural Peru at the moment.
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Hello Martin,
I will forward your message to the Temple Lodge publisher in case he has any suggestions for getting the book to you.
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Hello Martin,
Sevak Gulbekian of Temple Lodge Publishers has responded as follows:
“We are planning to publish an ebook edition of Judith von Halle’s book. However, it won’t be published for a few weeks yet. In the meantime, the Book Depository are offering free delivery around the world as well as a discounted retail price (see link below). Would they not be able to deliver to rural Peru?
https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Coronavirus-Pandemic/9781912230549”
Hope this helps,
Jeremy
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Thanks for contacting Sevak Jeremy!
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Thanks Jeremy, I do look forward to reading it.
BTW I completely understand the stance of knowing nothing – much of the time I feel that way myself. But on further reflection you do in fact know a lot. Understanding that Sorath, Ahriman and dark angels are finally behind the pandemic and that the cultivation of love in the human heart is the antidote as is a connection to the cosmic Christ and all benificent beings is a huge stride beyond ignorance.
Don’t be bashful. Own your level! (I’m talking to myself).
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That is really kind of you, Martin. When I say that I know nothing, I’ve two thoughts in mind. The first is remembering that Socrates said the realisation that you know nothing is the beginning of wisdom! The second is that, although I read a lot of Steiner and can usually find an appropriate quotation, I don’t “know” in the sense that he and Judith von Halle know, because I haven’t managed to develop the organs of perception that allow for true spiritual research. I use a good deal of intuition in sensing what to write about in these blog posts, which is as far as I’ve got in this lifetime…
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Thank you Jeremy, a thought provoking article as usual. From my understanding, the COVID pandemic is also a distraction from the Etheric Christ event .
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Thank you Laura, that is the most important point of all, which I should have mentioned in the post, as JvH covers this in her book.
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Hi Jeremy,
I see a lot of the name-faces appearing again on this blog post. Having been diverted for certain reasons from considering it until now I can say that we as a world culture are in the grip of a phenomenal appearance designed to see if we can withstand forces which would bring us to a new world low in subscribing to a voluntary solution to a very suspicious occurrence.
You offer a look-back to prior posts on the element of evil working in the world which you have written, and indeed, this is the element that is working in the world today. Sorath is indeed the agent of evil, and you once swore you would not invoke the name of the ‘sun demon’, as if it was an anthroposophical epipthet. Indeed, this fact is so, and therefore if such a renowned figure as Judith von Halle proclaims that coronavirus equates to Sorath’s working in the world since 1998, then she is likely correct. You see, the distance between 1998 and 2020 is just a mere 22 years. We, as a world culture, can easily see what has transpired since then.
Yet, Anthroposophy generally makes a weak response to everything on the horizon, and this has become rather symptomatic of its general condition since the death of Rudolf Steiner. In other words, there has been no true leadership of the GAS since the death of its founder. And yet, there is no good reason for that except collusion coming from the occult movement that was fundamentally opposed to spiritual science from the beginning of its inception. In other words, there is an occult movement that Steiner carefully revealed its aims in a course from October 1915, ref. GA 254.
So, leaving that aside for now because we have our pressing issues of today, let’s look at this latest offering from the Goetheanum in the November issue wherein they see only the oppressing Covid-19 pandemic, and how communications will still have to mandate the current situation of close quarters.
And yet, what if it can be shown that this whole pandemic is a fraud? We all have received input of this kind, and yet the Goetheanum is subscribing to the pandemic as if it were real. This is very suspicious, and especially when JVH writes a book in which she correlates the pandemic to Sorath.
She takes a next step forward from her previous book on dementia, and its causes, which we discussed here in April 2018. Very well worth looking at this case because it garnered an appropriate commentary. Hopefully, we can do the same with this because Sorath has been the intermediary working in earth evolution for a long time. 666-1332-1998. Those are the parameters of the ascent of evil into the world. In just 22 years, look at what turmoil has been wrought on the world.
Indeed, Anthroposophy has a mission, and yet who will listen to its causes? It has no leader today. It is merely a corporation, like any other. So, go figure what this whole exercise means. It means hope, of course, but what then next?
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Thank you, Steve, for your comment and also for raising the topic of the underwhelming response from the Goetheanum to the pandemic. I do not personally believe that the pandemic is a fraud, although the way in which governments have instituted lockdowns does not seem to me to be a rational response. I much prefer the approach suggested by Dr Sunetra Gupta and her colleagues: https://thebiomedicalscientist.net/science/one-one-covid-response-controvery
I think what JvH has shown is that there are very few anthroposophists capable of true spiritual-scientific research – or else the leadership at the Goetheanum is extremely wary of coming out with such results, or calling for the recognition of the Christ, in case it makes anthroposophy even more of a laughing stock than it is already in the eyes of the media.
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Okay, Jeremy, I called the pandemic a fraud, which you took objection to for obvious reasons. The reasons are that a viral contagion has entered the world and needs to be combatted, which means taking all precautionary measures to diminish and defeat. Yet, there is evidence that the so-called virus is not contagious, and we are wearing masks for nothing. In other words, when someone now has a cold, the flu, sniffles, or a fever, and goes and gets tested, it is called covid-19 positive. Before, it was called “seasonal ailments”. Now, today, it becomes a part of the covid register. So, you see how in the multitude of counting what was not previously counted because it was of the order of ordinary illness has created this pandemic. The fraud is really the existence of normal illness, as usual, with instructions to get rest, take two aspirins, or an antibiotic for infection. There is no actual Covid-19 virus working in the world with life-threatening consequences. It is merely the human being human, which makes us all vulnerable to disease, which is largely a karmic consequence. Thus, Covid-19 is a fraud in the making, and largely because it wants us to take a nasty vaccine in the arm. Early indications coming from the USA are that it will be ready soon for injection. The downside is that it will have negative side effects.
Steve
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‘Fraid I can’t agree with you on this, Steve. The virus is contagious and for some people can be very much more serious than “seasonal ailments”. Yes, some people may be dying from other causes and also have Covid-19 and that may be what appears on the death certificate; but there is no doubt that Covid-19 can be deadly for some people and is not “ordinary illness.” Big Pharma will seek to make a profit from it, but then that’s what Big Pharma always does – as JvH has pointed out elsewhere, “Humanity’s way of thinking has become so corrupt that it can no longer even realise how absurd it is that production of medicines is subject to financial interests.”
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I understand, but there is this book by Dr. Thomas Cowan, who we have heard from lately, and his colleague, Sally Fallon Morell, which looks at viruses and the evidence of contagion.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Contagion-Myth/Thomas-S-Cowan/9781510764620
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Thank you, yes, I know Dr Cowan’s work and have been impressed by what he has written on heart disease. He has been inspired by aspects of anthroposophy. But on Covid-19, I think that, like many anthroposophists, he’s barking up the wrong tree. It’s in a situation like the pandemic where the spiritual-scientific research of someone like JvH is so valuable, because there are so few other people who are capable of really doing this work.
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Yet, let us consider this angle in relation to what you have just previously said about taking the course of so-called “herd immunity”. Your article would have it be a much less severe pandemic if it was simply allowed to take place within the milieu of life. I refer:
https://thebiomedicalscientist.net/science/one-one-covid-response-controvery
Now, let us consider this response from a theoretical epidemiologist, wherein theory is the upholding card. Can we actually take this kind of risk, which obviously has not taken place? No, what has taken place instead is the fear of covid infection, and why we wear masks and practice social distancing and other protocols. As such, we wait for a vaccine to solve the dilemma.
Yet, what if the vaccination is just a lot of junk stuck into the arm and goes into the blood stream and makes us miserable and confused? Personally, I like the idea of just seeing how ‘herd immunity’ evolves in seeing what takes place next. Having been diagnosed with covid-19, helps make one confident that we simply need to allow it to run its course. I think you said you had this experience. We are all subject to it, like any disease. And so it goes.
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Dear Jeremy, a most wonderful, uplifting but equally heart -breaking article. It is wonderful that you have ‘brought’ the work of Judith V.H. to those of us who have never heard of her. Most beautiful, a model of hope for us all. I am a believer in the work St. Pio, so it is very wonderful to hear of a stigmatic in the anthroposophical society. During these times of isoIation from public life I continue my reading of Steiner daily, especially the ‘Michael and St. John lectures’ they are so empowering. Steiner warned us of the ‘spiritual revenge’ we can expect if we refuse to recognise our spiritual destiny, and not work to develop it, I suppose Covid is one of the physical manifestations of this, as equally, a warning. I am so grateful to Rudolph Steiner and the fact that I came across his work, and it has changed my life since. I am grateful for your work Jeremy as I am living abroad and I painfully realized how unwelcome Steiner’s work is here, where I live. But I have not given up in my heart and try to find in-roads where I can connect with Steiner’s anthroposophical community. Thank you so much for your moving, humble and very practical posts. Best wishes to you and your family and all in your care.
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Thank you very much, Judith! How to bring the insights of Rudolf Steiner and JvH into the wider consciousness of the world is a living question for me, when as we know many people will be hostile and scathing when the spiritual aspect of the pandemic is mentioned. Is it necessary for large numbers of people to have access to this kind of awareness, or is there a kind of homeopathic effect from just a few individuals who can connect with it?
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This is indeed a difficult question, some people are ready to receive Steiner’s message and they then begin to search the answers they seek as the knowledge is available for those serious enough to search. Making that knowledge available and active is vital. Steiner knew the risks but did it anyway, he accepted the suffering for the greater good. And we are all truly grateful to him, but it can’t end there. If one is invited to talk out through trusted associations then by all means do this, make it available on line for those unable to attend to view etc. I really believe there is a defintite thirst for truth but of course deniers, sceptics, hostile enemies will also be part of the action. But does that mean that one should not go ahead? I also think there are a lot of people unable to receive the message, I have experienced both types, some simply don’t feel it. They have no real desire to know these ideas or read Steiner’s work. Can this be changed or is it a matter of personal destiny and karma? We should not force them of course, but I think the doorway in should always be available. I am ignited with fervour and amazement every time I read a lecture of Steiner’s, it’s all so vivid and vital and so when I then meet someone who prefers to engage in materialism I am equally amazed that they don’t wish to learn more. Are they really satisfied with the materialistic answers availble these days? Steiner has given us all the answers and exercises that we need for the present, but how many wish to truly engage? I think an active (on-line or otherwise) community is really helpful and I look forward to following your future activities and posts. Thank you once again Jeremy for all your hard work and effort.
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To know that people such as you and the others who comment here are engaged with these issues makes it all very worthwhile – thank you!
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Thank you Jeremy, yet again another fascinating read, and I am so grateful to always get another picture from you to many situations which we are grappling with in these times. The comments section is equally fascinating. All your blogs I find challenging, give food for thought and contemplation, and I have to say, all are somewhat uplifting and enlightening too. I appreciate you, and thank you.
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Dear Janni, I have known you for many years now and very much appreciate who you are and your wonderful work for Early Years children on behalf of the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship – so these comments coming from you mean a very great deal to me! Thank you.
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Thank you all for your deep dive into COVID among us. And thank you, Jeremy for your excellent article. There are probably many reasons that so many are running from/denying this pandemic among us, but one thing that profoundly strikes me is the mask as a metaphor. I see it unconsciously perceived as a forced admission that most of us mask ourselves from one another and ourselves most of the time. How else can we function as individuals in Oneness, unique waves in the cosmic ocean? How do we reconcile our uniqueness with the fact that there is not one drop in the wave that is not ocean? I regard the Lesser Guardian as our instructor in mask removal.
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Thank you, Kathy!
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Hi Jeremy,
I think it is important for the folks here reading to know or remember that you had two comprehensive postings on Coronavirus earlier this year which garnered much attention. I refer to their respective threads:
https://anthropopper.com/2020/03/
https://anthropopper.com/2020/05/18/
Now, with the present consideration of Judith von Halle’s slim volume on the corona pandemic from an anthroposophical perspective, I feel and think it is necessary to take a certain issue with what you encapsulate here:
“Von Halle suggests that because Covid-19 is a pandemic, it means that we are in the grip of a situation where the karma of humanity as a whole applies – and this has happened in such a way that planned individual karma is thwarted. In such cases, she says, after the death of an affected person whose individual karmic threads have been severed by the karma of humanity, it is not easy for the hierarchies of angels to weave these threads back together again. This is therefore a full-frontal attack on the I-hood of the individual (the Self, the bearer of the Christ principle or the indwelling divinity in the human being, which we take with us from incarnation to incarnation) and from this she concludes that the spiritual power active in the pandemic is Sorat, the Anti-Christ, “the mightiest spiritual enemy which humanity must face on its path to development” and that the “virus is only a rippling wave compared to what humanity must still undergo in the near future”.”
Now, for my money, and I don’t mean to offend or disappoint anyone, Judith von Halle is what you could term, “an anthroposophical mystic”, based on factors associated with her quick reincarnation a second time in the 20th century. As such, and as her stigmata experience seems to prove, c. 2004, she experiences certain floods of mystical insight which she proclaims without possessing the exact thinking skills which leads eventually to exact clairvoyance.
For example, her other book from two years ago on dementia came way short of portraying what is the real situation in cases of senile dementia, and especially the evidence of Alois Alzheimer concerning brain atrophy. This was discussed in the second part of “Old Age and Anthroposophy” here in April 2018.
I find her particular assessment that is contained in your quotation more a matter of “mystical eccentricity” than spiritual-scientific insight, and it reminds me more of her tussles with Sergei Prokofieff, who also had his questionable insights while they dueled for dominant favor with the anthroposophical audience in recent years.
It will prove important to inquire further into her assessment of the response of the Hierarchical Spirits who she seems to imply are dismayed at what is now taking place with the unfounded deaths owing to Covid-19. I am reminded of a saying somewhere, “God will not be mocked”, and I think it applies here.
I humbly make these comments and look for more. We do live in dire times, and that has never been doubted. Is it the time of test and tribulation we knew was coming? Some of us are very old, and considered emergency cases needing the first injection of the approved covid vaccination for our safety. I expect a letter of invitation any day now.
Steve
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‘Some of us are very old—–‘ I fall into that category of ’emergency case’ with pre- existing condition. I am smiling as I type. In recent days I have felt slightly guilty about enjoying retirement when a man just 6 months younger is about to take on an extremely tough job as POTUS.
I have followed some of Dr. Tom Cowan’s contributions, though I have not read the recent book. My feeling, and it is based on limited precise knowledge, is that T-C. is stuck in a groove as he tries to discredit virologists. He may of course be right, but he loses on the democratic vote of the majority. An interesting consideration just now.
In an earlier contribution you mention Herd Immunity- but that would only be an option if the virus was REAL and hence antigenic, whereas an exosome might not be. And if an exosome is not contagious it cannot spread and lead to herd immunity.
So I reserve judgement. I see the reports from Sweden where they did not do Lockdown but where infections (if they are infections) are increasing as are deaths of positive tested persons.
In the USA The DEATHS are increasing in parallel with ‘apparent infections’.
China seems to have less infections /cases after draconian lockdowns. And the situation in India is pretty bad despite efforts to reduce contacts.
I fail to see a connection between illness in India with US determination to rule the world.
The 1918-20 flu pandemic killed many millions, of a much smaller world population , and then ceased to be a massive threat. At the time viruses had not been invented (?discovered?) and there was no vaccine.
If I live long enough I will be interested to observe whether Covid-19 fades away or is reduced by the vaccines, which work in mysterious ways far beyond my 50 years out of date knowledge.
I reserve judgement and wait for “The Recount”.
In the meantime I will follow some of your links to the RS lectures. Your knowledge of ‘chapter and verse’ , the fruit of faithful study, is very much appreciated.
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Hi Jaromer (John),
I just now saw this response after eight days. I apparently don’t get notified of new comments because I would have been on it immediately out of respect. Maybe Jeremy has a button to push that indicates “please notify me of kind thoughts written in response”. What always seems to happen here is that we (commentors) kind of overlap each other with our comments which gets into a jag, of sorts, and wherein the threads get out of synch. This is because only so many replies are allowed unless Jeremy manually installs further reply’s. Yet, it is all talk, anyway, and they say that talk is cheap. Personally, I don’t believe that, when the astute mind is involved, especially in critical times.
Yes, the new POTUS has been effectively installed, prior to confirmation, and he is, indeed, already showing certain signs of dilemma seen in the aging process. Hopefully, he can pull it together because he did a marvelous job at the last debate of 10/22/20. This is what cinched it for him. Age is definitely the criterion of covid fatalities, and hospitals are at maximum capacity because of it. So, whether the virus is contagious or not, it is still killing people, and making them sick. Wearing a mask gets you into the public outlets, so why not? Nobody is going to refuse the essentials in this day and age.
I have heard from a few sources that even the pandemic of 1918-1920 has yet to be proven to be contagious, and yet it killed 40-50 million people during its reign of terror. I suppose that cosmic rhythms can call the terms, as RS indicates with his curiously enigmatic remark from GA 185, lecture 3.
I think this is the parallel we face today; a cosmic constellation rhythm similar to Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars from a hundred years ago, in which a mass influenza attack occurred, as WWI was coming to an end, ref. GA 312, April 7, 1920, which helps answer Steiner’s mysterious comment from GA 185, and our own pandemic, which Steiner is possibly prophesying to take place at some point in the near future involving Venus, Mercury, and Moon, ref. GA 312, April 8, 1920.
Yes, I intend for my chapter and verse to be influential for the simple reason that what lives on the vine dies on the vine if it is not picked.
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One other thing I like is where you sum up your experience of the JvH book on Corona in the light of Anthroposophy. Your thirdly says:
“Third, why is this happening? Here, I believe, we touch upon a great mystery of human evolution, i.e., the role of evil in human development. I have written more about this elsewhere on this blog, in case anyone is interested to take a look.”
Yes, this installment of your blog was an excellent indictment of the existence of evil working in the world, and why it is that it has to exist. I refer to:
https://anthropopper.com/2016/09/11/how-should-we-deal-w
Now, here is what makes me wonder. What if JvH was presented with this essay of yours given some four years before her book on Coronavirus? What would she say, and especially in consideration of the 65 comments that stood in honor of it? I think she would say that a very astute student of spiritual science is offering thoughts and concerns from the heart, and allowing a loving space for commentary. In looking at the commentary, she would likely acknowledge that it was the work of a school of spiritual science. And this would be the right interpretation. And yet, what is a school of spiritual science doing in a blog? I suspect that she would also wonder about that. Personally, Jeremy, I think and feel that we take a lot forward in our efforts, and why we can also feel disappointed in the present aims of the GAS, which Judith in her way seemingly must subscribe to. Yet, she gets to say her say, and get a certain published following. Hopefully, she appreciates those in the outer periphery.
Steve
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Dr Tom Cowan comes across as a sincere guy with something important to communicate but try as I might I just can’t get my head around his position.
I’d be grateful if someone could shine some more light on this with a really clear explanation.
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I like Kathy’s explanation very much, and it is worth exploring further because it is largely the aged and infirm that are dying today because their defense mechanisms are simply not up for one more assault. Dr. Cowan’s theory, which is advocated further by Jon Rappoport’s investigations over time, is that science has yet to isolate the virus in order to learn its properties and behavior. Even the CDC admitted to this back in June. Thus, we can’t even trust a test for Covid-19 because of this lack of precise identity. It leads to the potential for the “false positive” diagnosis, which is why the case counts are so high. So, in the attempt to be objective, looking at Cowan’s book, and also the work of Jon Rappoport came my way by accident almost, or maybe it was karma. I thought to pass it along.
If it provokes a discussion, well that is good. Just look at what Jeremy had to say in response. Here in America, something called “The Great Barrington Declaration” was signed by a number of prominent scientists in October. I think it aligns with Jeremy’s similar idea, as he indicates, that the virus should simply be unleashed on society because through viral infections we build our immune system. Of course, the elderly suffer, as has been shown in so many heart-breaking incidents because of the lack of defenses within the aged body. Kathy, who I see as a front-line worker here, knows what it means to see the suffering, and the choice. I found that very memorable.
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Ininsoi, as I understanding Cowan’s position, he grounds his thinking in Steiner’s concept that cells secrete viruses as a defense against poisons/assaults in the environment. Climatologists are connecting man’s assaults on the environment with the movement of viruses from animals to man, which started with HIV, then Ebola, Swine flu, Avian flu, now Corona/Covid. In the field of psychology/psychiatry it is well-accepted that it is not the many assaults (often horrific) against the psyche that cause our most debilitating symptoms – but our defenses against those assaults. It is our defense mechanisms that debilitate and kill.
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‘Steiner’s concept that cells secrete viruses as a defense against poisons/assaults in the environment’.
Kathy, that is Cowan’s own theory of exosomes (cf. Engelbert and Köhnlein, Virus Mania 2007).
According to Steiner (1920), the environment triggered the flu via cosmic constellations (e.g. sun spots, not 5G or pollution):
“… a winter season, in which there is a powerful influence on the solar activity — and note please, not the operation of light, but the solar action — through the outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn” GA0312/19200407
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So, influenza is supposed to be connected with ‘cosmic rhytms’ and ‘the periodic appearance of sun spots’ (GA0185/19181020) especially via the circadian rhythm of the pineal gland (GA0351/19231031).
By the way: “Seven different ‘disease forms’ identified in mild COVID-19”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201102110019.htm
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Ton, I don’t think the cosmic form of the teaching conflicts with the lived/behavioral form – nor with the karmic. Whether it is a bacterial infection, a virus or a neurochemical imbalance leading to behavioral extremes, we are likely experiencing a variety of responses (with similar properties) to a central “stressor”. Steiner said what we “dump” into the astral shows up as tomorrow’s affliction. He refers to the “karma of materialism”. A hundred years ago he said that materialism would be sending us into a a profound darkness. And I think he was saying it would be darker still than the middle ages when masses of people were tortured and killed and a plague wiped out a third of Europe. We’re right on the brink of the Artificial Intelligence Age now. Mankind may be just getting a glimpse of how superfluous to this (material) world we really are. I think it is expressing itself in the “epidemic diseases of the nervous system” he wrote about – as evidenced in suicidality, violence, conspiracy contagion. We have overwhelmed ourselves with materiality, and COVID kills by clotting! And could it be related to the cosmic rhythms you mentioned? We have a Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto conjunction for the first time in – how many hundreds of years?
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Hi Kathy,
I like very much your style of seeing the present predicament as a matter of the overwhelming materialism that afflicts the world. Steiner warned in GA 204, lecture 14, that the Gods were getting pretty fed up with their efforts to come down into the earthly domain in order to effect spiritual communion, and yet we humans were ignoring them. They do not want to be ignored, and yet, it persists to this very day. Ton is an extraordinary researcher, and he seems to be able to extract important references like this one from GA 185, lecture 3, in which Steiner ponders on a very important matter. You will like this:
“Just as modern history fails to penetrate to spiritual realities, so modern medicine, modern hygiene and medical health services fail to penetrate to the symptoms which are of cosmic provenance. I have often emphasized the fact that the individual cannot help his neighbour, however deep his insight into current problems, because today they are in the hands of those who are looking for the wrong solution. They must become the responsibility of those who are moving in the right direction. Clearly, just as the external facts are true that the outward aspect of James I was such and such, as I pointed out earlier, so, from the external point of view it is also true that a certain kind of bacillus is connected with the present influenza epidemic. But if it is true, for example, that rats are carriers of the bubonic plague, one cannot say that rats are responsible for the plague. People have always imagined that the bubonic plague was spread by rats. But bacilli, as such, are of course in no way connected with disease. In phenomena of this kind we must realize that just as behind the symptoms of history we are dealing with psychic and spiritual experiences, so too behind somatic symptoms we are dealing with experiences of a cosmological order. In other cases the situation of course will be different! What is especially important here is the rhythmic course of cosmic events, and it is this that we must study. We must ask ourselves: In what constellation were we living when, in the nineties, the present influenza epidemic appeared in its benign form? In what cosmic constellation are we living at the present time? By virtue of what cosmic rhythm does the influenza epidemic of the nineties appear in a more acute form today? Just as we must look for a rhythm behind a series of historical symptoms, so we must look for a rhythm behind the appearance of certain epidemics.”
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‘COVID kills by clotting’. And related: “Oral melatonin reduces blood coagulation activity” (Wirtz 2008).
Compare this with the ‘asuric’ activity: “Asuras are spirits of the very greatest egoism who remained behind during Saturn evolution. They want to condense matter and compress it ever more so that it can’t be spiritualized and brought back to its original condition. Etc.” GA0266/19070129
For Steiner (1924) the ‘asuric’ powers (evil Archai, Saturn) seem to be represented by ‘Satan’ (Apoc. 20:7), the ‘ahrimanic’ powers by ‘Sorat’ (the Sun demon, the two-horned beast, the false prophet, Apoc. 13:11 and 19:20). See GA0346/19240915 and 19240912
Cf. Nesfield-Cookson (1998, p.299 ff., google mQv4y_TNTUoC)
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Wow! It never stops amazing me how metaphor plays into what we experience as physical reality. Question: does matter actually exist outside of illusion? If it can be spiritualized and brought back to its “original condition”, what is matter outside of both spirit and matter as we know it in the illusory world?
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Hi Ton,
Here is something I found about blot clotting which would seem to indicate that covid-19 has a vast array of symptoms from simple to complex.
abblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-report/new-cause-of-covid-19-blood-clots-identified
Now, in further consideration of what was said before about the blood being the agent of the Christ, it only follows that blood clotting must be the agent of the anti-Christ. Maybe that is what Jeremy wanted to hear. Is that what you wanted to hear, Jeremy? I liked my first remark, which I felt made it more plain. Anyway, hoping you will post this. It is merely a remark from what was said before with a lot more conviction. We need to consider what the incarnation of Christ really means, and what the blood flowing from the wounds into the cup really means. It was a blood-letting, and not a blood clotting. So, we should see the difference. Does that make sense?
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https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-report/new-cause-of-covid-19-blood-clots-identified
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Yes, Covid could be based upon ‘antimonial forces’ (the co-operation of Mercury, Venus and the Moon) which are operative in the coagulation of the blood (GA312/19200408, cf. GA027_c16.), Influenza on a disturbed ‘respiratory rhythm’ through the outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (GA312/19200407).
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“Let us then look for those forces which act counter to the antimonial forces. They reveal themselves if we are able to detect that the antimonial forces act on man at the moment in which something presses outwards which is regulated while within him. It is these antimonial forces which are operative in the coagulation of the blood. Wherever the consistency of the bloodstream shows a tendency to coagulate the antimonising force is active. Wherever the blood tends to withdraw from coagulation the counteracting forces are at work. So that hæmophiliacs manifest the forces antagonistic to antimony curiously enough. And these anti-antimonising forces are identical with those for which I should like to coin the term “albuminising forces,” the albumen forming forces, which work in such a health-giving way — that they promote the formation of albumen. For, let us emphasise once more: the forces that hinder coagulation are the albuminising forces.” GA312/19200408
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Hi Kathy,
I know your dilemma. You see metaphor playing into physical reality, and yet Steiner’s quote is only a little snippet of a much larger concern. Now, take my much larger excerpt from just before, when Steiner wonders what constellation we were in when the pandemic of 1918 was in its benign form? How are we to make anything from that?
Nor did he ever explain the real source of the pandemic of 1918. In 1920, when the pandemic of 1918 had finally come into control, he gave the lectures on “Spiritual Science and Medicine”.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA312/English/RSP1948/SpiSci_index.html
Yet, nowhere will you find any reference to the pandemic of 1918, and its solution. There is a reason for this, and it is much for the same reason as today in 2020. The virus has supersensible connotations.
In other words, the pandemic of 1918 stands in relation to America entering the War in 1917, and the pandemic of 2020 is owing to the further threat of same in its quest to rule the world. Yet, the Trump regime of the last four years has been defeated, which should have the effect of staving off the Covid-19 virus. Let’s see if it happens. I know Europe is raising the banner, if that makes any difference.
Yet, I agree with you. This virus is very strange, and because it has not been isolated into a definite form in order to determine its properties and length of life, it stands as an anomalous virus which can threaten any organism of the human body. The goal, of course as we speak, is for a universal vaccine in order to combat its effects.
Yet, what if Judith von Halle has finally made her mark? What if this is the warning sign of Rudolf Steiner’s own previous prediction from 1918. Yet, JvH is much more forthright than our own very dear doctor was from a century ago. She demonstrates the courage that he wanted. Yet, many others have done it over the years without a book; just a care.
Now, we need to consider the vaccine, and what it means. It is nearly here as a world resolve. Does that mean anything in this day and age?
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Steve I don’t see metaphor as just “playing into” physical reality. I think of physical reality, itself, as an illusion – a metaphor of spiritual reality – providing us with the images to guide us in developing ourselves into God Individualized. Further, I see this virus, especially in ts global reach, as an opportunity to wake up – collectively? – to what’s going on behind stage. We’re not sleep-walking actors trapped in our roles. We’re the script writers, the directors, the lighting and music men and all the other stage hands. And like the waves in the ocean, there’s not one drop of us that’s not BIG PRODUCER, too…”heirs to the kingdom”…but we’re nowhere near ready to take over yet!
The puzzle I was referring to is there seems o be a third component along with illusion and reality. I’m starting to think this is one of those God-the-Father, God-the-Son and God-the-Holy-Spirit things. You think? .
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Hi Kathy. Your mention of the third component intrigues me. From my limited understanding, I wonder if the third component is a result of two methods of seeing the illusion? The first component being reality, or could be termed first cause. Receiving the illusion could happen in two ways, hence making it seem like two components – one, seeing the illusion for what it is exactly, as an illusion, or shadow. The other possibility is misunderstanding the illusion, being deceived into believing the illusion to be reality. In that case, humanity “thinks” the illusion is a result of his own forces, and is under the delusion that he/she can control it themselves, without going to the source, the reality?
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I’d say that the third component is Evil itself, which has an important part in human spiritual evolution. The goal, it seems, is to experience evil in its increasing manifestations in order to transform it for the greater good that becomes our true freedom over all obstacles. Rudolf Steiner treats of the necessity of evil working in the world here, and wherein the final victory will be won.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA104/English/APC1958/19080625p01.html
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I’d agree with you Steve, though I think of the misunderstanding of the illusion as Evil, which needs to be set aright through the example of those who see the illusion for what it is. Don’t know about experiencing evil – I wish I never had. It’s taken many years to overcome/transform the “evil” that I was taught was the norm for humanity. Having overcome MOST of my own evil ways, my prayers and service go out to those still struggling through the deception.
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The goal is to understand why illusion has been factored into earth evolution; the fourth sphere. Saturn, Sun, and Moon spheres proceeded from beginning to end without any kind of illusory value of any kind. Even Earth was originally conceived as taking place from beginning to end as an entirely spiritual enterprise with no separation from divinity. Yet, apparency at some point was deemed necessary for the achievements of all that has been required to take place here on earth. The key word here is making reality into an apparent entity, or phenomenal presentation.
Rudolf Steiner gave a very important lecture of singular value in describing just this occurrence and why. We went from being the Lord of the Earth, according to God the Father, ref. Genesis 1:26-31, to something more complex, beginning with Genesis 2: 4, “in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.” You see, nothing had actually been made, in terms of a material manifestation, until Jahve came on the scene. When Jahve (the Lord God) forms man from the dust of the ground and breathes life into his nostrils in order to making him a living soul, then we know that the earth has been first transformed from an etheric sphere into a mineral world. All the rules change from this inception point.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA233a/English/RSP1965/19240111p01.html
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‘… from this she concludes that the spiritual power active in the pandemic is Sorat, the Anti-Christ, “the mightiest spiritual enemy which humanity must face on its path to development”’
Von Halle already discussed the three adversary forces in her book ‘Descent Into the Depths of the Earth’ (2011, google Vhx4bj9wb0EC), but she seems to confuse ‘Sorath’ (sun demon,) with ‘Satan’ (evil Archai, Asuras) as ‘this darkest of all beings’ (p.90) and ‘I-destroyer’, cf. Steiner (GA0102/19080420 and GA0346/19240915).
Revelation 13:12-18 (on ‘Sorat’, the sun demon) sums up all the advance preparations for the expected ahrimanic incarnation in the third millennium (GA 191, 193 and 195). Also, according to Steiner (GA 346), ‘Sorat’ (the two-horned beast or false prophet in Rev.13) would be part of the future second ‘fall’ (the fall of the beast and his companion the false prophet, Rev. 19) not of the final third stage in Rev. 20 (Asuras/Archai/’Satan’).
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I think what JvH might not have recognized in the distinction between Sorat and Ahriman is that Sorat is a sixfold Asuras in the same way that Christ is a sixfold Elohim. Christ is from the Sun whilst Sorat dwells in the lowest region of the sub-earth. Steiner’s lecture on “The Mission of the Earth”
is indispensable here.
“We have said that the human being was destined for self-conscious love upon the earth. He must, therefore, have a leader, a teacher, during his clear day-consciousness, a leader who stands before him so that he can be perceived by him. Now it was only during the night, in dim consciousness, that love could be implanted within the human being. But little by little something happened, something happened in full actuality which made it possible for him to see outwardly, physically, the Being of Love itself. But how could that occur? It could only take place, because the Being of Divine Love, the Being of the Logos, became a man of flesh, whom men by means of their physical senses could perceive upon the earth. It was because mankind had developed to a condition of perceiving by means of outer senses that God, the Logos, had Himself to become a sense-being. He had to appear in a physical body. This was fulfilled in Christ-Jesus, and the historical appearance of Christ Jesus means that the forces of the six Elohim, or of the Logos, were incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth at the beginning of our Christian era and were actually present in Him in the visible world. That is the important thing. The inner force of the sun, the force of the Logos-Love assumed a physical human form in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. For, like an external object, like an outer being, God had to appear to the earthly, human sense-consciousness in a bodily form.”
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA103/English/AP1962/19080520p01.html
This excerpt explains why we live in illusion as a necessary consequence of gaining sense perception of the outer-external world. Originally, it was to be entirely different; divine perception-cognition from beginning to end.
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Yes Steve, excellent thought. And this excerpt you’ve quoted touches on the new initiation, the Christian initiation, that enables us to gain the correct perception of the illusion. The ancient initiation process is no longer needed; the leader we follow is the Christ Pattern. Sadly there is great antagonism towards this, resulting in only a few finding the path to life. Broad is the way to destruction. I find it surprising that even among the ones whose heredity is of those called the Chosen People, there is such antagonism. Paul, one of their own, poured himself out trying to explain it to his people, but they were among the greatest persecutors of the Way. I’m in the middle of Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse in which Steiner explained the symbols and signs of this new initiation process. John, in his Gospel, says in the first few verses that the darkness could not comprehend the Light, the Logos. Later on in his Gospel (3:19), John expands on certain individuals who “loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.” It’s these ones who can’t comprehend, or who perhaps can comprehend but who prefer the darkness, who are being deceived in regards to the illusion. Those who’ve had the new initiation have the opportunity to be the Light in the world.
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Hi, Maverick: I think you’re really on to something in defining the threefold field: the “real”, the “illusion-as-illusion”, and “illusion-as-falsely-interpreted”. And it strikes me we are in an age where we are reaping the consequence of hiding so thoroughly from the possibility of distinguishing the “real” from genuine illusion, that we actors on this stage are increasingly unable to work from the same script. We’re making it up as we go along. Is this madness what Steiner called “the war of all against all”?
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Exactly Kathy. We’re facing quite a challenge. My use of the phrase “misunderstanding the illusion”, I realize now, was being overly gracious, as there are those who are downright rebellious in promoting the deception. This may be attributable to the forces for destruction that Steve mentioned regarding Saturn (Satan?). There’s more than a simple misunderstanding taking place; there’s a deception being orchestrated by an evil force. Part of that strategy is to confuse those you refer to as “actors” on the stage, by sending into their midst false teachers and prophets. This strategy isn’t new;
just another form of attack from within the ranks. We’re in a spiritual battle in which only the courageous should lead. By courageous I mean those willing to risk it all, even their reputation. Individually, our obligation is to ensure we have “ears to hear, and eyes that see”, so that we’re not “captured” and returned to an intermingling with those being deceived. Steve also mentioned Sun and Moon, and I’m wondering if the Biblical admonition of the end times that the Sun would be darkened and the Moon turn to blood is a manifestation of what’s occurring on a deeper level, that is mentally and spiritually, where our collective karma is becoming darkened. As to the question about “the war of all against all”, this is a topic deserving some consideration.
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Regarding this war of “all against all”, I’d like to ask of someone who has done some study of this, to please fill me in, since I’m presently fully occupied with a couple of other studies, so don’t have time to do the research. Is it all of the forces for good against all the forces of evil?
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Good question. It is all covered here and would take less time than for someone to explain it. Plus, it leads to the next question, which is alive and new.
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Thank you Steve – this is most helpful.
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You mentioned being in the middle of “Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse”, and so this is very timely. Lecture 8 of GA 104 is a keynote of the rationale of why evil exists in the world.
Rudolf Steiner then went on to revise certain considerations from GA 104 with his last lecture-course to the Priests in September 1924, GA 346. He makes major changes, in fact, which cannot be dismissed from the former course. For example, chapter twelve of the Book of Revelation describes Michael’s battle with the dragon, and this can be corresponded to the Event of 1879. Then, the fifth occult seal picture is presented, and you can read what it contains. Chapter 13 is especially important because it shows the aftermath of Michael’s victory in terms of two beasts: 1) the seven-headed beast with ten horns from out of the sea, and 2) the two-horned beast from out of the earth who worships the first beast.
These signs are earmarks of the 20th century, and the two world wars. Thus, the Book of Revelation is, indeed, a book of initiation, and why Rudolf Steiner proffered it to the Priests of the Christian Community in order to make a fourth mystery epoch of our time.
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The seriousness of what us occuring is addressed well here – https://www.privatelaw.law.cam.ac.uk/events/CambridgeFreshfieldsLecture
(options for pdf or video of the speech)
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This is written in response to Steiner’s prediction of the coming war if all against all: This Earth Stage of existence began with spiritual beings holding our “stage” together for us, providing us with a script and stage directions. They maintain the laws of nature (gravity. etc.) while we learn we are not physical beings – rather, we are spiritual beings in physical bodies acting out a drama of self-revelation. At the turning point of time, they have begun to withdraw. This is leaving it to us to recognize what we really are and to engage in the creative process directly and take responsibility for it. Meanwhile, due to Ahrimanic influence, we have been seduced into increased identification with materialism. At this point, through dependence on materialism, social media, etc., what we have learned throughout history is becoming increasingly disjointed. The end of the Middle Ages marked the start of the age of science and reason. Now we’re moving on. We have lost our primitive feel for the spiritual world – beings behind stage (directors, script writers, etc.) – as well as respect for the lessons of history and science. We are relying on social media platforms to define reality. We are operating from disparate scripts. And we are panicking – every man for himself – nobody tells me to…, nobody can convince me of that…I KNOW WHO THE ENEMY REALLY IS! This, I think, describes how the War of All against All has begun. I really never thought I’d live to see it. .
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Enjoyed reading your post Kathy. I just finished reading the Lecture that Steve mentioned regarding the War of All against All – so inspiring and informative. Reminds me of how and why I became involved with Anthroposophy. He closes the lecture by mentioning the little book that John must eat. We may think differing thoughts on what that book represents – I like to think that it’s the Gospel of Love that Steiner refers to. Steiner mentions that Love is the whole reason for this Earth existence in our evolution; that with the power of Love we will be able to dissolve matter, and that those who don’t learn this power will become hardened in materiality. The thing about the little book is that it tastes sweet like honey, but is bitter in the stomach. Steiner explains how this refers to our life in two dimensions – we’re being spiritualized, but at the same time we’re still living in our bodies. Still not clear on this War of All against All, but I have a hunch we’re seeing, even if only in dreams and visions, the changing of what Steiner calls the fifth epoch, into the sixth. Right after the scene of John being given the little book, the two witnesses appear. Interesting that they have “the power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all PLAGUES, as often as they desire.” (Rev. 11:6) Still trying to process this; if this is what we’re living through now, it points to the spiritual element behind the physical manifestation we’re seeing.
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I am really so glad that Kathy encapsulated it for you. I would have everybody read it, which you did in order to receive it in order to make it real for you. Yet, we have a solution to all this madness that we are experiencing. Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture-course in 1919, right now, in which he tells of how we human beings are as supersensible as the beings of the higher hierarchies. The only difference is that we are arrayed with the particles of the mineral kingdom, which gives us our physical appearance. Otherwise, we are simply uniquely placed within the present scheme of evolution. And, as Steiner indicates, we get to have the challenges to face. He covers it from womb to tomb here.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/MissMich/MisMic_index.html
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Thanks again Steve for the pertinent references. You’re obviously a gifted teacher, as you’re able to keep an aspiring student quite busy studying the resources you mention. They’re all excellent resources that could lead to going into more in-depth studies on various subjects. I enjoyed your thought of the fruit on the vine – better to be picked than die on the vine. You’ve given us plenty to research; should keep us busy for a while. Cheers.
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Thanks for these remarks, which seem to come from a true Parsifal student, which is rare indeed in this day and age for some reason. You see, people today are so invested in their dogma that they find it hard to reach out beyond it. It is largely a matter of the present-day education system, which is entirely materialistic in orientation. Thus, we can’t help being who we are. Even those invested in spiritual science will find a way to contend with the one who teaches, as if they somehow miss the rough spots. They don’t.
For example, let’s take the current Covid-19 pandemic. What is it really all about in terms of lockdown? It is all about the Economic Order of the threefold equation. And who rules that? This is a very important question. In 1918, when America entered the first world war in order to end it, it was really all about the same thing, i.e., economic supremacy. Go back to 1898 and the Spanish-American War; what is it all about except for America’s rise to economic supremacy. The trend is clear. Hopefully, Terry Boardman will write here again because he has the pulse-beat on these matters. He wrote here some two years ago and got treated rudely and left, to our dismay.
Hoping for all this to continue on, dear Parsifal.
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Thank you Steve, I hope it continues as well. I hope we can convince Terry Boardman to participate as well – he sounds like an integral link on the pursuit of the truth. But an offense can go deep, as this proverb puts it: “A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle.” (Proverbs 18:19). Words spoken without thought of their intended consequence are powerful. Let’s hope the power of Love can win him back, for the good of all.
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Steve, I understand that you find comfort in our unique placement within the “present scheme of evolution”. I think of you as having the temperament of a scholar. I like to think of myself as a warrior, but fear I am more often a whiner. I’ve sparred with God my whole life over what I think of as design flaws in this whole drama. For years I tried to convince myself that we humans need to struggle with evil for the same reason we need to push against gravity: that, without it, we can’t develop and function in physical bodies. I’ve thought (and Steiner has said) that maintaining balance among “evil” forces is a requirement of the development of the consciousness soul. But S. also tells us that the hierarchies have set their faith in the awakening of the ego, and that if we have not sufficiently turned to the spiritual life, they will need to withdraw their work from our human astral bodies and sink it into our etheric bodies and work on us as we sleep. Apparently this is supposed to be bad news leaving us at the end of the 20th century in a “soul sleep” – a dullness that prevents us from asking the real questions and allows our will to sink down into our metabolic processes, engaging in ego defense mechanisms and precipitating increases in aggression, conflict, violence.
I agree with Maverik. I think we are experiencing the transition into the sixth epoch. Steiner speaks of greater and greater numbers of people falling away as we advance through these ages. I abhor this claim. The collateral damage feels overwhelming. I didn’t know what I was in for when I agreed to this – but then how could I? – I didn’t have an ego yet, I didn’t have free will yet. Twice in my life the etheric Christ has come to me. He didn’t tell me what I (thought) I wanted to hear (that the polar bears wouldn’t drown and the earth would live)…He/She/It said: “You are not alone”. And now there’s COVID and I see its most horrific symptom – in both the infected and the non-infected – the threat of utter existential aloneness. And as I write this, that aloneness feels belied – Thank you all. .
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I think you’re a very interesting “warrior” soul Kathy, and it makes it easy to understand where you’re coming from with your clear writing. Allow me to share the thoughts that came from reading your post, and then I’ll anxiously await Steve’s reply as well.
I don’t see the “working on us as we sleep” as a bad thing personally. I see it as an advanced state in the initiation process that Steiner calls the Continuity of Consciousness, in How to Know Higher Worlds. One of the perks of being an initiate of the Christ is referred to as the Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis 1, as if in contemplation of the darkness and void it encountered. I like to think of that Spirit now as our twelfth chakra (energy center), that hovers over me 24/7 – think of it also like the dove that hovered over Jesus at His baptism, or as the force that gave the shine to Moses’ face, such that he had to veil himself. (Regarding the 12 chakras, we have 7 in our body, and 5 in our periphery, something like our aura?) Whoever wrote Psalm 139 had an understanding of this force as well. In the 7th verse they say “Where can I go from Your Spirit?”, and in verses 11,12 says that “the night shines as the day, the darkness and the light both being alike to Spirit.” Some of what I’m saying is my personal perception, but I liken Spirit to the Divine Feminine (Sophia) who watches over us with a Mother’s Love. In our battle with the evil forces, we’re guaranteed success in spiritualizing these mortal “temples” if we call on Love’s powers. If you can perceive that 12th chakra thought, it’ll make it much easier to keep in step with the Spirit – “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).
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Thank you so much for your validation and your thoughts, Maverick. I think… I hope you are right. And maybe, in the larger picture, you are identifying the best way to conceptualize our condition. But the problem for me is more that I read Steiner to be saying we’ve missed a critical window in development. As I understand his teaching, he said that if Sorath succeeds in preventing man from consciously taking hold of his “I” as a spiritual being in a spiritual world – by the end of the 20th century – we will be left with the War of all against all and have to work out our development in the social sphere. This involves Angels withdrawing their work on human astral bodies and begin working on our etheric bodies as we sleep. The problem (as I only feebly grasp it) is that we humans will not be consciously present in the work and will be in a state of “soul sleep”. And the danger/problem with that condition is that the human will is unable to work actively in the spirit, and when the will is not engaged in the spirit it sinks down into metabolic processes to satisfy its unfulfilled urges. Therefore the best of forces cannot be protected from changing into the worst of forces.
As much as I abhor this I can’t deny it is what I see happening. A number of times I’ve rejected things Steiner has said, but ended up eating crow in the end. Prokofiev wrote (I think specifically in regard to the 5th post-atlantian epoch where we have reached our full descent into matter) that an abyss approaches mankind from within, invading the world through the souls of humans. The Kristiania lectures from May 1909 speak of the Apocalypse as the outline of evolution and describes it as man rushing toward the War of all against all. I don’t know how long – possibly hundreds of years – this will play out – but I think I’ll go kicking and screaming into that dark night – “Are you happy now, playing Gods up there?…What a fuck-up.” – while the arms of the Mother/Christ tell me I am eternally loved and I am not alone.
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Kathy, I’d love to be in a class with you, and Steve Hale, and other like-minded individuals on the quest for truth. Only problem is that we wouldn’t get much else done, as the discussions would lead to so many interesting topics!
I notice your concern about the will force, and it’s justifiable. According to Steiner’s Division Into the Sexes, and if you identify as a female, you have a masculine soul indwelling, which is all about the will. I, on the other hand, identify as a male, so I have a female soul, and I’m more about the imagination. All of that becomes moot however, if we’re more advanced in becoming spiritualized, and our souls have become both masculine and feminine, which Steiner also talks about in that same lecture. You don’t strike me as being one who will have any concerns personally – your will force seems to be on the right path, the path to knowledge. But I appreciate that you have a concern for others, and your concern is well-founded. There are many who are being hardened in materiality, and it’ll only become worse if they accept the vaccines being proffered. Read this quote today of Steiner’s: “Spirits of darkness are going to inspire their human hosts to find a vaccine that will drive all inclination towards spirituality out of people’s souls.”
There are only so many sources I trust for a proper understanding, and those sources have been able to access the “akashic records”. Steiner happens to be one; Edgar Cayce is another. There have been others, but these are the two I’ve spent most time with. Others would include notaries such as Enoch, Melchizedek, Moses and definitely Jesus. The akashic records, if you’re not familiar, are a film-like impression of energy that’s been left in the ether, somewhere between time and space. Cayce was given his ability as a gift – Steiner refers to those who’ve been given such ability in KOHW. Steiner came about his ability in a very different manner, as a result of much hard work, dedication and study. Their understanding is mostly accurate, but as can happen with viewing an illusion that’s projected through a film-like substance, there can be distortions. Then, there are those who interpret what people like Steiner and Cayce have seen, to the best of their ability. This can lead to more distortion, in spite of their best intentions. They may also have incorrect intentions – there are many today who claim to be able to teach people how to view the akashic records, but their intentions are to make a profit for themselves.
I guess what I’m saying is that we need to be very careful about the “treasures” we store in our house of wisdom, in our minds. Look for similarities, and leave the differences for others to sort out. For example, everyone getting a proper perspective of those records will affirm that the purpose of our earthly existence is to learn the power of Love, that 4th dimension that we’re supposed to learn of in this 3-dimensional sphere we’re living on. I’ve been thrilled to learn recently of Dr. David Bohm’s discovery of the plasma in metals, where he discovered a fourth dimension which he called plasma – plasma has been described as a “charged gas”. The other 3 dimensions have been known by physicists for eons – solid, liquid, gas, but he found that this 4th dimension is what enabled electrons to move freely, without colliding with other electrons. Sound familiar? We humans need to discover this 4th dimension if we’re ever to find true freedom; it’s the only way to avoid the collisions that inevitably occur with our human natures, and it’s where we can discover our true potential as individual “electrons”.
Well, I could go on and on, but I’d never get anything else accomplished.
Cheers, Maverick
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I told you how if JvH had occasion to look in on this blog and its essays and comments that she would immediately recognize that school work was being conducted. Yet, on a blog?? she might ask. Well, it can happen, and has happened on many other occasions when opportunities like this are provided. I, too, am reminded of the fellow who once said, in relation to my encouragement of his study of Bondarev’s “Sevenfold Dialectic of Thought”, and its ramifications. He would write page after page on how his soul struggled in manifold ways in order to come to grips with Bondy’s ‘sevenfold dialectic’, which is based on a book of 1,000 pages concerning Rudolf Steiner’s philosophical magnum opus, The Philosophy of Freedom.
Well, after much encouragement to keep it up, and possibly look into other areas of pertinent association in his quest, he said: “Steve, if I followed all your leads I wouldn’t get anything done”. Then, I knew he was mortal.
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Hi Kathy, I know what you are referring to here, and it is very important to consider. Yes, the threat of angels having to transfer the normal work in the astral body of the sleeping human being into the etheric body. Rudolf Steiner could only reveal small clues about what this means and how it is tied to evil inclinations that can come to grip the human soul; pernicious tendencies which make the astral body unsuitable for the normal work of the angels while we sleep, which is to bring forth the moral imaginations in picture-form for the future sixth cultural epoch. Thus, they must work into the etheric body, and by doing so, become “fallen angels”. They are now beholding to Sorath who builds a domain known as the “fallen etheric realm”. Scientology is very much invested in this taking place. Their aim is to become what they term, ‘Thetans’, which is to steal the former power of the Angels, now having fallen. What Steiner could reveal he said would be much more serious by 1998.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/WrkAng_index.html
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Hi, Maverick and Steve: I don’t know why I am connecting the following, but I am. First: Steve you write that angels having to transfer their “normal” work into the etheric is central to their being “fallen”. This implies that it is we humans, failing to do our work, who bring about their fall…OUR fall? This only makes sense if WE are the fallen angels which I think was one of the beliefs of the Cathars. Second: Maverick, you write that our becoming hardened into materiality will only become worse if we are vaccinated. But on another octave, isn’t that also true of eating bread?…or on any form of dependency on materiality? This, too, (I think) was a Cathar thought and was connected with the Perfecti refusing to eat meat, wearing simple robes, etc. Ah!: this must be why I’m connecting your thoughts.
Now, the new post is a paranoia trigger…see you there!
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Hi Kathy. You mention some points that go quite deep, which reminds me of how complicated people can be. Why does everything involved with us have to be so complicated, one might ask? To that I’d reply that it’s because we’re the offspring of that One Force, the Majestic Beauty that we call Creator.
Regarding what I said about becoming more hardened – one only needs to follow the progression of our evolution as souls to see this trend. From our origins as thought-beings floating in some sort of spiritual “heaven”, to becoming watery-type creatures (Lemuria, or Mu), to pushing ourselves into the fleshly bodies we’re familiar with on Earth, we can follow the hardening process. Most, not all (very important distinction) of humanity today are playing at being “gods” – not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s our God-given inclination – but the difficulty lies in their misusing the “forces” that are the illusion of the One Force, or First Cause. If we trace what we’re seeing playing out on our world scene back to their origins, it always goes back to thought. When I look at the vaccine solution, I see its origin in faulty thoughts – thoughts such as “we have this under control”; “we don’t need to look into the spiritual realm for answers – after all, there is no such thing as spirit”; “how much money can we make from this, money which will buy us material things?”. We just need to trace it back to the thought at its origin.
Keeping that in mind, I still hold fast to the belief that Love has the power to dissolve matter. This is what Jesus meant when saying that His kingdom, which was not of this world but was a kingdom based on Love, had overcome the world. In practical terms, I believe that it’s possible for a person whose thoughts are vibrating at a very high level, confident in the power of Love, to overcome the lower vibrational thoughts that are behind this vaccine. This would be necessary for a person whose focus is on serving others, and needs to receive the vaccine in order to carry on with their purpose. In that case, I don’t think the dangers of the vaccine can harden them. In fact, because of their high vibrations, they wouldn’t even need a vaccine, but try telling that to people vibrating at a lower level. Keep your faith and hope in Love, Kathy, and not in the misguided abilities of fallen mankind. Oh, and regarding partaking of bread, meat or other material substances, all the above applies. Keep your thoughts at a high level, and there’s no worries in enjoying any of the gifts Earth provides. “Nothing is unclean in itself” (Romans 14:14).
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Kathy, the Angeloi can either remain in the sphere of Michael, or choose to sacrifice themselves and come down into the realm of fallen humanity. This has occurred because Michael at a certain point in time saw the need to separate the general collective consciousness, which is supersensible, and place it in the hands of humanity; thus creating the personal-individual intelligence, which progressively leads us to the egoic consciousness we have today. There are three higher stages for this, if we succeed.
These guardian guides remain close, one-to-one, and do the work of planting the pictures for the upcoming Sixth Cultural Epoch, wherein morality of a higher order will exist. We carry a remnant everyday into our waking day consciousness of these moral imaginations, which evoke the incentive to do goodness to others, and be selfless and feel good about it. Just as dreaming enables us to wake up and experience beauty, dreamless sleep is communing with the Music of the Higher Spheres, and it is conducted in our astral body through our Angel. The Angel has sacrificed itself to be with us, and serving Michael this way.
The threat of the fall of the Angel is in the matter of evil inclinations owing to the fact that a retrogressive evolution now exists in the head formation. Michael cast Lucifer down into the head and this is where certain instinctive impulses have gradually formed and wherein the astral body can be compromised. The presence of these influences can be insidious and pernicious, and powerful enough to compel the angel to bypass the astral body and work in the etheric body instead. This creates a whole new set of problems because the etheric body is not fitted for experiencing the Angel directly.
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Hi Maverick, What you say about the power of love is the solution ideally to all those health problems. There is an instance in history where it was demonstrated that love is a life singing force a healing protecting balm. Look at the example of St-Francis of Assisi when he overcame his fear of lepers and the power of love started to seize him so that he found the courage and faith (that moves mountains) to go to them and take care of them. It was a very contagious disease and they were living far from anyone to protect people. He never used to go nearer than 2 miles from them. But after his transformation he was drawn to them and he never got the disease himself. The real vaccine was love and more love. But then again we live in a different world now, love could not be so powerful now, surely not… Or could it?
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Very interesting example, and Steiner could have had this in mind when he wrote that: “Beings become capable of dissolving matter through taking love into their souls.” (The Apocalypse of St. John, Lecture VIII, GA 104). St. Francis may have been following the example of the Christ, who also mingled with, and touched, the lepers. There’s much we can learn by taking love into our own souls, much to discover for sure.
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Maverick, you write that Love can dissolve matter. Only Love sees through the illusory form? Love IS seeing through the form?! A very old friend once told me (I don’t know if the thought originated in him): “Pray as though everything depends on God, but act as though everything depends on you”
Steve, you write the Angeloi chose to sacrifice themselves and come down into the realm of fallen humanity. I’m beginning to see that their “sacrifice” IS the fall, itself. God’s experiment with physicality? My recurrent problem is suspecting the experiment has failed. But the warrior never deserts the field until the very end.
This idea is expressed as something I read on a T-shirt: (And the Devil looked me in the eye and whispered: “You’ll never weather the storm,” I pulled myself together, looked him in the eye and said: “I am the storm.”)
This is all of my making? I wrote the scripts, fashioned the dialog and act out the message?…and must pray as though it all depends on God, while action all depends on me, while the Devil tries to make me think it can’t be done – while Christ already did it: “It is finished.”
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Hi Kathy. It wasn’t me who said that Love can dissolve matter; that was RS and I was only saying that I believed what he said. I’m just learning about Love myself. I, like many of us, was raised in a society that educated me thoroughly in the world of the senses, in a material world. I’ve had to unlearn much of that when I awakened and was introduced to the spiritual realm. I’m learning that there’s a fine line between these two worlds, the material and the spiritual, and that a great part of the distinction lies in my own mind, my own conscious “awareness”.
To put it another way, Paul, in his talk to the Athenians, said that “we live and move and have our being in Him”. If Him is God, and God is Love, as the Bible teaches, we are surrounded by this energy of Love, but how many of us are aware, or conscious of this? It reminds me of what Dr. David Schrum, our Canadian quantum theorist says, about there being more energy in one square centimeter of what he called this “plenum” in which we live, than in the entire solar system we view. Incredible as this sounds, this is what this realm of Love is that we’re living and moving in, and in which so many of us are unawares. But as we spiritualize ourselves (or should I say allow ourselves to become more spiritualized), we will start to become more aware of this dimension.
As I said, there’s a fine line, but the fruits are quite different, and one can for certain “feel” the difference. This feeling becomes ever more sensitive, I believe, as we become more aware of this 4th dimension. We can certainly feel the difference between love and kindness, and it’s inverse of hate, contention, strife and fault-finding. At least that’s been my experience as I’m becoming more aware of Love. As I said before, this kingdom of Love has overcome the world, and as you’ve mentioned, the work, the sacrifice that was necessary to complete that “work” has been finished. It’s only a matter of time now that humanity becomes more aware of it, and makes its choice of direction.
So it’s actually your conscious awareness, my conscious awareness, that sees through the illusion, or the form. Just how Love influences that is probably worthy of research and study. Perhaps this is what your friend implied when saying that while your prayers are placing a dependence on God, it’s your activities, your practical application of what’s happening in your mind – this becomes the arena where “everything” as you and the world see it, comes into manifestation. Hence the saying “our actions speak louder than our words.” So what people see, and what you see when you do your self-examination, your backwards review as Steiner proposes, is the “fruit” of whether or not you or I are living in a conscious awareness of Love, and, whether aware or not, which kingdom we’ve chosen to live in. Hope this is of help; sometimes words only muddy the clear waters of truth, but I’m hoping this isn’t the case. If I’m only confusing you, let me know and I’ll examine my own understanding – there may be some things I need clarification on.
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I had occasion recently on another blog to bring up a point concerning Eternal Time. You seem to indicate Love in relation to the Fourth Dimension. Here is what I wrote:
“Christ is the Being of Time Who comes to the earth in order to begin to transform it. Christ brings Time into Space. Mankind was an entirely spatial being until Christ came into earth evolution. The only notion of time was primordial duration. Thus, Christ can be considered to be the founder of the fourth dimension, so coveted by modern-day physicists.” Ref. GA236, June 4, 1924 lecture.
In considering David Schrum, the quantum theorist, I am immediately reminded in hearing the word, “plenum”, of the word, “pleroma”, which is identified with Christ as the ‘fullness’ of the sixfold Elohim of the Sun.
John bear witness about Him and proclaimed clearly, “He it was of whom I said would come after me who was before me, for He is my forerunner, and out of his Fullness (Pleroma) have we all received grace upon grace. The Law was given through Moses, but Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ. Hitherto hath no one seen God with his eyes; the once-born Son, who was in the bosom of the Universal Father is the leader in this beholding.”
John 1: 15-18. Also, GA 103, lecture 4: The Raising of Lazarus.
So, I am wondering greatly about Christ and the three ensouling processes of: Light, Life, and Love, at the great turning point of Time.
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Thank you Steve for again providing some insightful thoughts that open up more windows of possibilities to look into (or out of?). I had heard of the 4th dimension – Edgar Cayce mentioned it in one of his trance readings (Reading 311-2, Par.6, where he gives the dimensions of various spheres as follows (moving away from the sun): Mercury (7), Venus (4 – the planet that represents Love and Beauty), Earth (3), Mars (1), Jupiter (5), Saturn (0). So this reference you give of Steiner’s 1924 lecture is most interesting. I’d read in Esoteric Science of the mention by Steiner of the Venus stage, when he says “The Earth will assume this form when the effects of the Earth and Jupiter processes have flowed into the forms of this world.” (An Outline of Esoteric Science, Ch. 6). But it all really gelled for me when I saw the movie “Infinite Potential”, and David Bohm’s work on the plasma in metals. To see their graphic display of this 4th dimension he called plasma helped my mind to visualize it – to see how the electrons became “free” and no longer wasted energy colliding with other electrons. I “saw” how this illustrated what our world could become, will become when Love is universally valued for its redeeming value over fallen mankind. In the resurrection, matter became dissolved – all that remained in the tomb was the garments. The body had vanished, yet Mary Magdalene became first to see the spiritualized body, which she was told not to touch. A body which the risen Lord was able to occupy, but that had no material limitations as we know of them – it was able to pass through locked doors, and to astrally travel wherever it pleased.
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Maverick, you will find this lecture illuminating on what Rudolf Steiner had to say about Atoms, and by extension, Electrons. What if they don’t exist at all in Reality? What if they only exist in the mind of the scientist working with mathematical precision out of a kind of “spectral” world conception?
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA254/English/RSP1973/19151016p01.html
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Interesting talk for sure, but I confess I must take a back seat when it comes to discussing physics. I don’t know if there are any physicists who will be following this blog, but I’m sure that over the past hundred years, there have been some developments, and so I can only hope someone competent will bring me/us up to speed, and explain what Steiner was getting at. Thanks for the reference though, Steve. P.S. I can’t even get a measurement correct. I said that Dr. Schrum said a square centimeter, when I should have said a cubic centimeter, in reference to the energy in the plenum we live in. The scientists among us probably said “idiot” when they saw that – lol.
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Hi Mav, I guess I knew that about your understanding of physics. Steiner’s approach is, indeed, radical. I wasn’t trying to demean you, but rather to attempt to enlighten you to read the lecture, right to left and down the page. You see, this is the secret of the spiritual worker today. Get the other guy or gal to do the work for themselves, and they get the results for themselves. That is why I cite the lectures, and give the invite to say something next. Very existential.
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For Steiner (1920), primary qualities are our 3D-projections, but on the other hand secondary qualities exist outside ourselves, not only as subjective qualities:
“For that, you see, is one of the basic differences between the so-called subjective qualities of tone, color, warmth, as well as the different qualities of touch, and that which confronts us in the mechanical-mathematical view of the world. That is the basic difference: tone and color leave us outside of ourselves; we must first take them in; we must first perceive them. As human beings we stand outside tone, color, warmth, etc. … These qualities leave us initially outside ourselves, and we must perceive them. In formal, spatial, and temporal relationships and regarding weight this is not the case. We perceive objects in space but stand ourselves within the same space and the same lawfulness as the objects external to us. We stand within time just as do the external objects.” GA0322/19200928 (also GA 326)
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Here’s the rub, Ton. Whereas Steiner has all of these excellent explanations for why sense-perception and subject-object distinctions need to take place, and why we need to alternate between sleeping periods and waking periods, and life between birth and death, and death and rebirth, he never really explains what it all means in terms of the larger picture of why it is taking place this way. This is what is causing people to suffer from the angst of the existentialist world-picture. In other words, what is the point of all of these carefully drawn explanations when they are seen as just so many words. People today need more. Now, I know that Steiner’s explanations are real enough, but as mere words they mean nothing. Something more needs to take place, and thankfully they come from the living human soul itself. We have to live right into these words and explanations. The senses are negligible, and so we must go to the next level for confirmation, i.e., the Silence.
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I would say, the experience of the secondary sense qualities is among the first initiation-steps:
“One of the first experiences [eine erste Erfahrung] that follows the attainment of this new spiritual life is a true insight into the nature of the ordinary mental life. This is actually not produced by the body but proceeds outside the body. When I see a color, when I hear a sound, I experience the color and the sound not as a result of my body, but I am connected with the color, with the sound, as a self-conscious ego, outside my body.”
(A Brief Outline of an Approach to Anthroposophy, GA018_p02c08)
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I like this reference very much. Ton, we have talked about this so-called “intermediate path” to objective knowledge in the recent past. You mentioned again GA 322, at the outset of the first School of Anthroposophy, and now, here in GA 18. Let me give what Rudolf Steiner wrote in 1910, in his book, Outline of Occult Science, in describing just how close we are in assessing the truths of spiritual science for ourselves:
“By continuously apprising ourselves of what spiritual science tells, we grow accustomed to a thinking that does not take its start from outer observation by the senses. We learn now, within our mind how thought weaves on thought, thought seeks out thought, even when the connections have not been suggested by sensory observation. We make the significant discovery that the world of thought is inherently alive, and that when we are really and truly thinking, we are already in the realm of a supersensible and living world. We say to ourselves: There is something in me that is developing a living organism of thought; moreover I myself am at one with it. As we continue to devote ourselves to sense-free thinking, we actually come to feel that there is something of real being — real inner substance — flowing into our inner life, even as when we observe with the senses there flow into us by way of our physical organs the properties of the things of sense.”
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA013/English/RSP1963/GA013_c05-03.html
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Also, the phenomenological counterpart, ‘thought-free sensing’ (pure sense perception, GA0322/19201003), is expressed in the last sentence and in the previous paragraph:
“even as when we observe with the senses there flow into us by way of our physical organs the properties of the things of sense.”
“no less justified than when on seeing the rose color and perceiving its scent, we say: A rose is there making an impression on me.”
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Ton, I like what you’re saying here. Since my background in spirituality, before I was introduced to Anthroposophy, was Biblical, I tend to see things in Biblical terms. Your comment about the 3-D projections reminds me of the Biblical teaching that those who create idols, idols that have eyes but they cannot see and ears but can’t hear, become like them. A common admonition for the prophets was that their audience had fallen into that trap, and they were advised to ask for ears to hear and eyes that see. My first experience with moving beyond 3-D happened in the Silence that Steve mentions; in meditation. I wonder if that’s what enabled me to adopt so readily the Steiner material? his teachings on spiritual science?
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When Steiner (Apocalypse 1907) described the initiation stages of ‘seals’ (imagination) and ‘trumpets’ (inspiration), he skipped the element of silence or empty consciousness mentioned in Rev. 8:1:
“When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
cf. ‘the resounding of the trumpets when the sixth [seventh] seal is opened.’ GA0104a/19070501
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Oh, and forgot to include, in Galatians 4:4 we read of the “Pleroma” of time: “But when the fullness (pleroma) of time came, God sent forth His Son, born to a woman, born under the law.”
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I saw this also, and cited Steiner’s lectures on the “Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of St. Paul”, GA 142. Worth a read.
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Hi, Maverick: You said to let you know if you’re confusing me and you’ll examine your own “understanding”. What a generous concept! Thank you. Your offer does a lot to relieve that existential aloneness that’s such a big part of experience in this world. Living really is, as Steiner has described, like performing as a fulcrum. We are here to to grapple with supersensible experiences/meaning in a sensible 3D setting. And I guess, according to our varied temperaments, we perform that balancing act differently. I think Winny the Poo (sp) would handle it best. But I vary between Tiger and Ehore temperaments – frantically treating that fulcrum point like a gigantic ball I have to keep moving (frantic fun) and groaning that this whole 3D thing is one funky failed experiment (despair). But then, which character is the angry one? He’s there too. Steve – I bet you know. How do we tie our animal temperaments into Steiner?
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By drawing the senses away from their objects of attention, and going into the pure thought world wherein braninless thinking takes place. By eliminating the 3D, the ball becomes as light as a feather. Steiner described this path of what to do with our knowledge to make it secure in OOS (Outline of Occult Science).
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I don’t see how the coronavirus “pandemic” is anything but Ahriman upping the game a bit more. Terry Boardman wrote a great article about the time that “he” incarnates.
http://threeman.org/?p=2905
If he is correct, Ahriman’s “vehicle” is already here, and will manifest in 2030. I predict this being will be in the form of a human/cyborg hybrid, probably a Google backed project or something. Those Silcon Valley tech companies spell ‘Ahriman’ all over.
In regards to evil: If I’m summarising Steiner accurately, the evolution of Man entailed various stages of externalisation to the material, sense percept world.
“When a man looks at the animal world, they said, he should tell himself: “I carried all that within myself and cast it out from my own being.” GA95
From this point, he talks specifically about the externalisation of evil, which I gather is where we are now:
“Thus man once had within himself a great deal that was later externalised. And today he still has within him something that later on will be outside — his karma, both the good and the evil. Just as he has separated the animals from himself, so will he thrust good and evil out into the world. The good will result in a race of men who are naturally good; the evil in a separate evil race. You will find this stated in the Apocalypse, but it must not be misunderstood. We must distinguish between the development of the soul and that of races. A soul may be incarnated in a race on the down grade, but if it does not itself commit evil, it need not incarnate a second time in such a race; it may incarnate in one that is ascending. There are quite enough souls streaming in from other directions to incarnate in these declining races.” GA95
It may be like watching paint drying at this point, but I believe what is happening is exactly this process. There is a definitive rift happening with humanity, and it is quite clear who will be exalted and who will decline to sub-human tendencies. I gather, however, this isn’t a permanent fate but just a set back. Is there anything written about ALL of humanity ascending to the rank of Angels at the same time? I’m guessing not. So that means, some of us will have to ascend to angel form to help those that were stuck in the declining race. This evil is necessary for us to become exalted, for us to come into our Holiness. It really has come to the point where our lives depend on it.
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Hi Kyle,
I hadn’t seen this until now. I usually respond to well-considered posts like this, but for some reason I never seem to get comments from previous posts. I do hope that the most recent remarks coming now will help in this discussion. All you have to do is take in the earlier, if you are catching up, and just respond to the latest. Time is speeding on; don’t waste time on previous postings from November. I liked your most current remark, and please have confidence in yourself. Steiner advocated patience in achieving something that could prove to be eternal, such as GA 95, which you cite hear for the first time (likely). Keep it up.
Steve
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Dear Jeremy,
Reading this superb post now, four full months after it was published, it still appears that Paul Kingsnorth’s wonderfully candid admission of ignorance holds true. Despite the avalanche of both propaganda and anti-propaganda, we remain largely ignorant of the full dimensions of the Coronavirus crisis. Some recognition of it as part of a wider Ahrimanic assault is by now a commonplace among anthroposophists, but there is more speculation than exactitude. Judith’s spiritual scientific research is surely the most faithful thinking yet to come from anthroposophy, and your summary does her and us both a great service; it seems almost like a kind of homeopathic remedy in itself!
Here in the comments there is much discussion of Ahriman, Sorath, and the Asuras. Your answers to these comments are truly helpful. I can suggest another source of spiritual scientific research that has gone unattended by anthroposophists, in large part due to the sustained attack by Sergei Prokofieff upon him and Valentin Tomberg, as well as against Judith.
For over 25 years, the spiritual research and publications of Robert Powell have addressed the issue of Ahriman’s incarnation. I have worked with Robert for over 10 years on this mystery, and though even now we struggle to make sense of events on a daily basis, I feel quite sure that his insights, along with Judith’s, represent the most helpful spiritual perspective on what clearly is the manifestation of what St. John experienced through Christ’s etheric body on Patmos 2000 years ago – and recorded as the images in Chapter 13 of Revelation.
Anyone interested can find a rich source of Robert’s insights here:
https://www.sophiaschoolofmovement.org/
Bravo Jeremy for your noble and unique efforts here!
Yours,
Kevin
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