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Author's
Preface
I wish to bring before the public, through the World Wide Web, some
information about tremendous events approaching. I am aware that
much talk in this vein is already on the Web, and that there is
generally a sense "in the air" that something big is happening, with
the turning of the Millennium, the end of the Mayan calendar, etc. I
believe that this sense of "something in the air" is a correct
perception, albeit sometimes highly distorted.
Most of the information in this essay is
not new; it has been open to the public at least since the aftermath
of the First World War. Yet it has not reached the wide public that
needs to hear it. I hope that the advent of the World Wide Web and
the search engines will make this important information available to
many around the world who have not yet encountered it and who might
put it to good use. I claim no special knowledge concerning these
matters; I have merely drawn on published sources.
I expect no one to take my word for
anything. I do ask the readers to read and think through this
information, to follow the leads that I give, and do their own
investigations. Conscientious investigations might well cause some
intellectual upheavals, and change the course of some lives; and
this is exactly what is needed, many times over, around the world.
Rudolf Steiner
1861-1925
This essay is based, directly or indirectly, on the "spiritual
science", or "Anthroposophy", promulgated by Rudolf Steiner in the
first quarter of the Twentieth Century. I say "based on" because
this exposition can only be grossly oversimplified, and
 must contain
whatever misunderstandings that derive from my own (more or less)
weak grasp of the subject-matter.
The reader must assume that this
essay is almost wholly derivative; it contains scarcely any original
ideas of my own. In the interest of readability (and to give my
strained resources a break), I do not provide full citations in the
text. If I did, almost every sentence would be footnoted. I do
provide below some bibliographic remarks, which I hope will be
useful to the conscientious reader. It is probable that hundreds, or
thousands, of people in this world are better qualified than I to
write this notice. I wrote it because:
I was not aware that anyone else was writing it, and
it needed to be written, and published.
The events of which I speak are the approaching incarnation of a
powerful super-human spiritual being, following the concomitant
political, social, economic, and cultural events. Preparations for
this incarnation have been building to a climax over the past four
centuries or more, and the climax is approaching soon.
This being is
called "Ahriman" (from the ancient Persian name Angra Mainyu, given
by the prehistoric Zarathustra). We might consider Ahriman to be the
same being usually called "Satan", except that the concept of
"Satan" is much confused and misunderstood. Therefore, in this essay
I will use the name "Ahriman", and will attempt to give a clearer
understanding of his nature and aims than generally obtains.
Plaque Depicting the
Birth of Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman,
from Luristan,
Western Iran, 799-600 BC
I realize that many are not inclined to take seriously the
possibility of such an event, or to believe that such matters are
known, or can be known. Nevertheless, again I ask the reader to read
this essay with an open mind, at least open enough to take in the
thoughts and concepts. I will give a few epistemological
considerations which support the notion that such matters can be
known.
And I will give some references which will help the readers
to conduct their own epistemological researches, and thus to be able
to make an informed estimation of this report. This is a matter of
some importance; it is essential for the future of mankind and the
earth that as many people as possible become wakeful and not be
caught sleeping by the impending events.
A full explanation of the nature of Ahriman and his incarnation is
far beyond the scope of this essay (as well as beyond the
understanding of this author). If I only give enough of an
explanation so that the readers become conscious enough to see the
necessity, and to have the means, of becoming more conscious about
these matters, then I will have fulfilled my purpose.
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Spirit and Soul
Since this essay speaks of "spiritual" matters, I would like to
bring into focus the concept of spirit, along with the concepts of
soul and body. (I follow Steiner's exposition in his Theosophy.) The
"body", of course, is the physical form, perceptible by the outer
senses, in the world that is usually perceived in common by people's
outer senses. By soul I mean the inner world of subjective feelings
and sensations of a Man (or animal).
The sensation of an outer
sense-perception (such as the green of grass), as well as feelings
(such as pleasure or pain), are in the soul. Also, the inner being
acts through the soul by the will, though the will is not usually
conscious. We might say that the physical world acts on the soul
through sensation; the soul lives in its own feelings, and acts upon
the world through the will. We (generally) experience sensations in
wakefulness, feelings as if in a dream, and will as if in deep,
unconscious sleep.
In addition to living in the inner world of the soul, the Man can
live in the world of thought. Through thinking, we make contact with
the being of the things of the world. By spirit I mean the essence
of thought. Contrary to common misconception, thought is not
subjective, but objective, in that it belongs to the whole world,
accessible to all.
Many people can grasp the same thought and
through that thought contact the same objective reality, though they
do not (usually) experience each other's sensations and feelings. As
the physical world interacts with the soul, so also does the spirit;
we can call forth thoughts by our acts of will, and the thoughts
give us feelings.
Much of the confusion about the supposed
subjectivity of thinking arises from the subjectivity of feelings
and sensations connected with thinking, as well as from the fact
that much of what usually passes for thinking is hardly thinking at
all, but a kind of semi-conscious, automatic pseudo-thinking.
(In
modern times, people experience thinking as if it comes, usually
automatically, out of themselves, yet, paradoxically, thinking in
essence is objective and universal [as we can best see in
mathematics]. I will say more about this below.)
Thus, through our
experience of thinking, we can attach an experiential, "empirical"
meaning to the concept of spirit. (All this should, of course, be
taken as only a bare introduction to a vast, deep subject. For now,
I am trying only to counter the widespread opinion that soul and
spirit are nebulous, meaningless terms.)
And while it is usually
true that we hardly experience our thinking, thinking may be
intensified so that it becomes conscious, and this development of
consciousness may lead to the perception of the world and beings of
soul and spirit -- and thus become the basis of "spiritual science".
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Spiritual Beings and Earthly Evolution
Following the communications of this spiritual science, I will posit
that spiritual beings, known as "angels", live invisibly (to us,
usually) and involve themselves in earthly affairs. (This idea has
been gaining acceptance in the general culture in recent years, with
a surge of interest in angels.) I will also posit the existence of
other spiritual beings, higher and more advanced than the angels,
called the "archangels" in theology or angelology.
Modern spiritual
research (by Steiner), as well as ancient tradition (from Dionysius
the Areopagate, pupil of St. Paul) speaks of at least nine orders of
angels and supra-angelic beings -- which, taken together, are called
the "hierarchies", sometimes the "choirs of angels", or sometimes
the "Gods". (Other, still higher Beings are not discussed here.)
Some of the names given to the nine hierarchies, in ascending order,
are:
-
Angels (Angeloi, Sons of Twilight, Sons of Life; all Men have
individual angels as guardians and carriers of their eternal Selves)
-
Archangels (Archangeloi, Spirits of Fire; the "folk-spirits" are of
this rank) -
Archai (singular "Arche"; Spirits of Personality, Primal Beginnings,
Principalities; the "Time Spirit" or "Zeitgeist" is of this rank)
-
Exusiai (Spirits of Form, Powers, Authorities; the "Elohim" and
"Jehovah" are of this rank) -
Dynamis (Spirits of Motion, Mights, Virtues)
-
Kyriotetes (Spirits of Wisdom, Dominions)
-
Thrones (Spirits of Will)
-
Cherubim (Spirits of Harmony)
-
Seraphim (Spirits of Love).
Although the doctrines of Dionysius were long considered to be
heretical, the existence of these Hierarchical beings is mentioned
in the Bible. Angels, of course, are mentioned in many places.
Some
other examples:
-
Archangels -- Jude v.9; I Thes. 4: 16
-
Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers -- Rom. 8: 38; Col. 1:
16, 2: 15; Eph. 1: 21, 3: 10 -
Cherubim -- Gen. 3: 24; Ex. 25: 18-20,22; Num. 7: 89; Ezk. 9: 3, ch.
10; Ps. 18: 10 -
Seraphim -- Isa. 6: 21
These spirits are not all "angelic", in the sense of "good and
holy". Some, sometimes, oppose the regular, good world-order.
Ahriman ("the Unjust Prince of this World") is a "retarded" Spirit
of Form, working as an Arche, opposing (in a sense) the good world
order. (Yet, this opposition is not purely "evil", as I will discuss
below.)
Since Ahriman is a spirit of opposition, we might begin to
understand his nature by understanding what he opposes: the Gods'
plan of earthly and human development. But the situation is not as
simple as a two-sided contest; basic to competent understanding of
the world-process is the recognition of at least three kinds of
spiritual influence upon the evolution of mankind and the cosmos.
(We must be clear that this "evolution" is something very different
from the random, meaningless, material process conceived by the
neo-Darwinists and suchlike theorists. I mean by "evolution" a
thoroughly purposeful, thought-filled process of development
initiated and guided by spiritual beings.)
The normal Gods (the regular hierarchies) create and nurture the
evolvement of the world and mankind, so as to bring about the
possibility of Men attaining the status of divinity as "Spirits of
Freedom and Love" -- the tenth hierarchy. (At the present stage of
evolution, the Man progresses through alternating periods of
earth-lives and purely spiritual lives: birth, death, and
reincarnation.)
As the name implies, essential to the fulfillment of
mankind's task is the realization of "freedom", meaning not so much
political freedom as spiritual freedom -- that Men should become
independent, unique individuals acting consciously as the
originators of their own deeds. Occult wisdom, independently
rediscovered and made public by Steiner (and greatly simplified
here, to put it mildly), explains this evolution as being created
and guided through seven great cosmic ages. We are now in the fourth
great age, called the "Earth" Age. (All ages' names here are given
in order of succession.)
The previous three ages are called
"Saturn", "Sun", and "Moon". Again, these are past ages of cosmic
development, not to be confused with the present-day heavenly bodies
of the same names. The same holds for the three future ages:
"Jupiter", "Venus", and "Vulcan". The great Earth Age comprises
seven lesser ages, of which we are in the fifth. These five are
called "Polarian", "Hyperborean", "Lemurian", "Atlantean", and
"Post-Atlantean". And the Post-Atlantean Age comprises seven
cultural epochs, of which, again, we are in the fifth.
The previous
four are called "Indian", "Persian", "Egypto-Chaldean", and
"Greco-Roman". Recorded history begins only with the Egypto-Chaldean
Epoch; what is generally known of ancient Indian and Persian culture
derives from records made in the third epoch. -- These names of
epochs do not imply that nothing important was happening in other
regions of the earth, but that the archetypal evolutionary impulses
of the times were centered in the regions designated.
The epochs
last approximately 2160 years; and the present, fifth post-Atlantean
epoch began about 1413 AD. Neither are these epochs considered to be
sharply differentiated; transitions happen gradually, future
developments being prepared in advance, and past influences
lingering after.
Note: This account is ridiculously simplified, for the purpose of
providing a bare conceptual framework for this essay. To get a faint
idea of how simplified, consider that on Old Saturn "space" did not
exist; "time", paradoxically, "began" only during that age; and the
only quasi-sensory phenomenon was a kind of heat-substance.
Conditions on Old Saturn were so vastly different from earthly
conditions that we can imagine them only faintly. Indeed, perhaps
better than trying merely to picture Old Saturn as a physical
existence, would be to conceive of this "heat" as only an outer
appearance of the "soul-warmth" of the Creator-Gods. The basic
reality is spirit-beings and their deeds. The "beginning" might be
pictured thus: the Thrones offered sacrifice of part of their own
being to the Cherubim; the warmth of this devotional sacrifice rose
as smoke, and from this fiery smoke was born the Archai -- the
Time-Spirits.
Thus: a sacramental, creative act of holy Beings,
viewed "externally" as "heat" and the "beginning of time". -- We can
properly approach these sacred Mysteries (made public only in our
time) with reverent inner activity, calling forth inner pictures
imbued with devotional feeling of respect for even our physical
existence as a gift of the Gods' own being-substance.
And again,
this is only to give the dimmest conception of these tremendous
facts, and of their remoteness from our usual, materialistic
imagining. Conditions only very gradually, over inconceivable aeons,
approached those of the present. For example, a kind of "space" came
into existence only on the Old Sun, and so on. Always, the reality
"behind" the "outer appearances" is: beings and their deeds.
The central event of the Earth Age occurred during the Greco-Roman
Epoch, in Palestine. It was the incarnation of a very high spiritual
Being, a God of the normal current, called the "Christ" --
culminating in the events surrounding the Crucifixion: the "Mystery
of Golgatha".
This Event was the turning-point of Earth-evolution
from descent from spirit into matter, toward ascent back to the
spirit, with the fruits gained from the sojourn into matter.
(Steiner himself did not begin with a Christian world-view. He
independently, and unexpectedly, rediscovered the "mystical fact" of
Christianity during the course of his consciously clairvoyant
experiences.)
Besides the normal Gods, a host of abnormal spiritual beings, called
"Luciferic", also influences earthly evolution. In a sense, these
oppose the normal Gods' plans for evolution. The Luciferic beings
try to draw mankind away from the normal earth-evolution to their
own abnormal psychic-spiritual cosmos of light. In the human soul
they inspire pride, egotism, disinterest in one's fellow Men, fiery
emotionalism, subjectivity, fantasy, and hallucination.
In the human
intellect they inspire generalization, unification, hypothesizing,
and the building of imaginative pictures beyond reality. Human
speech and thought are Luciferic in origin; so are human
self-consciousness and the capacity for independence and rebellion
against the normal Gods' world-order. Also, the susceptibility to
disease originated from Luciferic influence. A high spiritual
being, in a sense the leader of the Luciferic host, "Lucifer"
himself, incarnated in a human body, in the region of China, in the
Third Millennium BC. This event brought about a revolution in human
consciousness. Before then, Men could not use the organs of
intellect and lived by a kind of instinct.
Lucifer was the first to
grasp by the intellect the wisdom of the Mysteries theretofore
revealed by the Gods to mankind in other forms of consciousness. The
effects of this incarnation inspired the wisdom of Pagan culture, up
through the Gnosis of the early centuries AD, and lingered even into
the early Nineteenth Century.
This wisdom should not be
considered to be false in itself; it is good or evil depending on
who holds it, and for what purposes it is used. The great Pagan
initiates took it upon themselves to enter into the Luciferic
influence and turn it to the good of mankind. Only through the
Luciferic influence has mankind risen above the status of
childishness. (Apart from the Pagan culture of Nature-wisdom was the
Hebraic culture, which [in a sense] separated the Man from Nature,
and which prepared an hereditary current to provide a body for the
incarnation of Christ.
In Pagan culture the Man felt membered into
the starry cosmos, without what we now know as moral impulses. Moral
impulses in the human soul were prepared by Hebrewism and furthered
by Christianity. Christianity is also a culmination and fulfillment
of Pagan wisdom. Here "Christianity" means not so much "organized
religion" as the deeds and continuing influence of the Christ-Being
and His hosts, not necessarily confined to formal-religious
organizations.)
A third spiritual influence working into human and earthly evolution
is the Ahrimanic. The intention of Ahriman, and his hosts, is to
freeze the earth into complete rigidity, so that it will not pass
over to the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan ages, and to make the Man
into an entirely earthly being -- unindividualized, unfree, and
divorced from the normal Gods' cosmos.
The essential Ahrimanic
tendency is to materialize; to crystallize; to darken; to silence;
to bring living, mobile forces into fixed form -- in other words, to
kill that which is living. This tendency in itself, within proper
bounds, is not evil; the dead, material world is necessary for the
regular Gods' plan of human and cosmic development.
The Ahrimanic
tendency is evil only when it exceeds proper bounds, when it reaches
into what should be alive -- and Ahriman does try to exceed proper
bounds. Again, the basic reality of the world is spiritual beings
together with their deeds, but Ahriman promotes the illusion, the
lie, that matter is the basic reality, or the only reality.
In fact, Ahrimanic spirits, not "atoms" or "ultimate particles", are the
reality behind the apparently material world. Ahriman lives upon
lies; he is a spirit of untruth, the "Father of Lies".
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Ahriman in Modern Times
In the present, fifth cultural epoch the Ahrimanic influence in
human culture is reaching a climax. The modern scientific
revolution, since the fifteenth century, has been inspired largely
by Ahriman. He is the inspirer of amoral, atheistic, mechanistic
materialism, and the kind of cleverness that goes with it.
The
regular Gods' intent for the present epoch (also called the
"Consciousness Soul Epoch") is that mankind should develop increased
consciousness, together with the individuality and spiritual freedom
that go with that consciousness. Ahriman opposes this; he wants the
Man to live from unconscious instincts as an unindividualized,
impulsive animal -- clever, but an animal nonetheless. (Ahriman is
the teacher of the lie that the Man is an animal: neo-Darwinism and
similar theories.)
To the modern mind it might seem a contradiction to say Ahriman
opposes increased consciousness but promotes intelligence and
science. This is because the modern mind is so immured in what is
generally considered to be "scientific thinking" that it has almost
no conception of the true nature of conscious thinking.
(Steiner,
especially in his book Die Philosophie der Freiheit [1894], has been
our teacher of real thinking, but the general intellectual culture
has not learned the lesson.)
The fact is that the "scientific"
thinking normal in this epoch, no matter how clever, is hardly
conscious at all (possibly with some relatively rare exceptions at
moments of "insight" or mathematical discovery). In the kind of
consciousness usual in our "scientific" culture, we become conscious
only of the fixed results of the thinking, after it has been
accomplished; we are not (usually) conscious of the thinking-process
itself.
And since it is unconscious, it is not our free action; it
is automatic. When we think in the manner usual in our epoch, we are
sentient automata, acting from instinct. (Formerly occult fact: this
instinctive thinking in the wide culture had been inspired by
Jehovah up to about 1840 AD. Since then it has been inspired by
Ahriman, resulting in the Nineteenth-Century torrent of materialism,
which, aided by the withdrawal of the German folk-spirit, drowned
the life-positive Romanticism in culture.)
And this is what Ahriman
wants: he wants to stamp out all traces and all possibility of free,
individualized human consciousness; he wants the Man not to be an
individual, but only a member of a general species of pseudo-mankind
-- to be a clever, earth-bound animal, an "homunculus".
As indicated, Ahriman is the inspirer of the most extreme kind of
"scientific" materialism: the doctrine that there is no spirit or
soul in the world; that life itself is not in fact alive, but is
only a complex of mechanical processes; that reality is at base only
quantitative, that there is no reality in the qualitative -- color,
sound, etc.; even that the human's inner being is a confluence of
material forces.
On the emotional level, he works in the human
subconscious instincts, inspiring fear, hatred, lust for power, and
destructive sex impulses. On the mental level, he inspires rigid,
automatic thinking: (in Steiner's phrase) thinking almost entirely
without thoughts, but thinking tremendously strongly in the
language, in the literal words, which easily become empty words,
which in turn easily become lies.
This "abstract" thinking is
devoid of any conscious, inner activity and devoid of any real
connection to living experience, and creates a darkened
consciousness without light, color, or images.
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The Degradation of Language
According to Steiner, it is characteristic of the present culture of Ahrimanic scientism and Anglo-American economic imperialism that
language has lost its instinctive spiritual meaning; that is, the
connection is lost between the literal word and the spiritual
impulse that constitutes meaning.
Without real, spiritual content, language consists only of "empty
phrases", such as rule by the will of the people, the free world,
individual freedom, and so on. These phrases are largely devoid of
reality in our socio-political structure; here the pervasive
actuality is the power of money over Men and over life. And where
the empty phrase rules in language, mere conventions -- rather than
living human contact -- rule in social life, and mere routine --
rather than lively human interest -- rules in economic life.
And:
"It is only a short step from the empty phrase to the lie." Again,
this is especially true in politics and economics, for the
prevalence of empty words makes possible the falsification of
realities -- a potent weapon in the hands of those with occult,
conscious intentions to manipulate people for devious ends. In our
time, people en masse act as if they are possessed by evil forces,
because, in a way, they are.
The demons of materialism speak through
empty words. A language in which the demons of materialism have
taken the place of human spiritual impulses can lead only to
destruction.
Certainly Steiner was not the only one to notice this aspect of
modern language. George Orwell was perhaps the most prominent writer
to decry this trend. See, for instance, his classic essay "Politics
and the English Language". He envisioned the dehumanization of
language becoming deliberately intensified in the "newspeak" of the Ahrimanic nightmare
1984. Having no apparent knowledge of spiritual
science, and working with only keen observation and a love of truth,
he saw what was happening in the political discourse of Western
Europe and carried to extremes in the totalitarian regimes.
On the socio-political level, the antidote for this poison of empty
words is the liberation of cultural life, especially education, from
political and financial power. (As outlined in Steiner's concept of
the "threefold commonwealth": the separation of the political-rights
state, the spiritual-cultural sphere, and the economic sector --
along with the elimination of egotism and coercion from the
economy.)
On the individual-personal level, the antidote is the
infusion of active, creative thought into language, thus creating a
language in which the words point to the thoughts, evoking living
thinking in the listeners. If we do not put effort into creating our
original thoughts, then ready-made pseudo-thoughts, trite words and
phrases, come automatically to mind and carry us along with them,
resulting in "thinking almost entirely without thoughts".
We can at
least make the effort to resist these ready-made phrases and
generalizations that effortlessly come to mind, and to form mental
pictures of particular people, things, and events -- and further, to
make original word-formations describing these things and pictures
from varying points of view. The essential point is that we not let
our speaking and writing be determined by unconscious influences,
but that we call forth through our own efforts new, original
thought-creations and convey them with original, fluid, artistic
word-formations.
We will not always fully succeed; we are not all
poets all the time; but if we consciously make this effort, then we
will go far toward recovering the lost human-spirituality of
language, and consequently, toward the humanization of culture. (I
will say more on this subject in another context.)
And, not
incidentally, we will thus progress toward living consciously in the
thinking-free-of-literal-words that is the "language" of the
spirit-soul world in which we will live after death.
"Men must
learn to see through words; they will have to acquire the capacity
to grasp the gesture in language."
[From Symptom to Reality in
Modern History, p. 124]
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The Ahrimanization of Culture
In the social-cultural sphere, Ahriman's influence is apparent
everywhere, especially strong and growing stronger throughout the
Twentieth Century.
Chief among the Ahrimanic trends are:
-
Antagonistic nationalism based on ethnicity. (Moderate
folk-nationalism was a progressive principle in the past, but ethnic
nationalism is retrogressive and destructive today.)
-
Dogmatic party politics, engendering hatred and bitterness arising
from the refusal to see other, equally valid (or invalid) points of
view
The subjugation of cultural life (e.g. medicine, education,
research, criminal jurisprudence) to political and economic power
The mechanization of the political state, bound by rigid laws
everywhere, with little place for free human initiative
In everyday life: Philistinism, tedium, and alienation, lack of
interest in one's work, even in intellectual work
(Ahriman wants
knowledge to be devoid of warm human interest and connection, to be
stored in libraries and not to live in human souls.)
-
In medicine: materialistic, mechanistic (and atrocious)
experimentalism and treatment, without understanding of the living
human individual (The related practice of embalming corpses tends to
bind the human entity to earth; this is an Ahrimanic reflection of
ancient Egyptian mummification.)
-
In social science: blind acceptance of statistics, and the belief
that the satisfaction of economic needs by itself will secure human
welfare
-
In economics: the subjugation of all living and human interests to
the inhuman, impersonal mechanism of profit-seeking, to the
"artificial person" of the corporation.
(In the USA this has reached
such a state that the humanizing influence of the labor movement is
being obliterated, and the exigencies of "making a living", along
with other destructive Ahrimanic trends, are destroying the human
family -- this in the so-called "richest country in the world". (A
perspicacious American folk-wisdom has coined the phrase "the
Almighty Dollar".)
The Ahrimanic "Mammon" is archetypally the god of
"filthy lucre" and of the power of money over life, as well as of
all low and dark forces; his hosts also attack the human body and
soul to corrupt and destroy them.)
-
In the Christian religion: narrow, simplistic interpretation of the
Gospels, without appreciation for the occult wisdom needed for an
approach to the deep mysteries of the Christ Being
-
In literature: books inspired directly by Ahriman, works of great
intelligence that further Ahriman's goals (e.g. some parts of
Nietzsche's Antichrist and Ecce Homo)
-
In techniques: very refined developments, but directed only at
satisfying animal needs, promoting human immersion in the
sense-world to the exclusion of the supersensible
-
In world-view: Men as animals, animals (and all living things) as
mechanisms, the non-existence of soul and spirit, and the
non-existence of moral reality: amoralism.
Obviously, these impulses are running amok in this world, more so
all the time. They are, in fact, approaching a climax; they are
preparations for the incarnation of Ahriman himself in a human body.
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Good and Evil
To sum up this description of the triad of spiritual streams: The
conflicts of human and spiritual life do not derive from a simple,
two-sided war between good and evil. It was one of the great
insights of Steiner to renew the ancient teaching of the "Golden
Mean", of good as the middle way between opposing extremes.
Lucifer is too warm, too flighty, too unstable; he inspires human
fanaticism, false mysticism, hot-bloodedness, and the tendency to
flee earthly reality for hallucinatory pleasures. Ahriman is too
cold, too hard, too rigid; he tries to make people dry, prosaic,
philistine, materialistic in thought and in deed -- and hardens what
would be healthily mobile, supple thoughts, feelings, and even
bodies.
Christ, as the Exemplar of the regular Gods, represents the
middle way between the too-much and the too-little, holding the
opposites in balance -- and leading mankind to find the healthy
middle way. Seen this way, Lucifer and Ahriman are not purely evil;
they both bring to human and earthly evolution forces that are
needed for good, healthy development and the fulfillment of the
Gods' plans. Evil results only when events get out of balance and
run to extremes.
However, neither do Lucifer and Ahriman simply
oppose each other; in a sense, they work together in opposition to
the Gods' intent for evolution; they both work to prevent mankind
and the earth from progressing together to the New Jupiter. Lucifer
draws human spirits away from earthly embodiment toward his own
psychic-spiritual "planet" of light; Ahriman pushes the individual
human spirit out of the human organism and away from the earth, so
that only a hardened, mechanized, ghostly human organism, devoid of
free individuality and living an instinctive-but-clever animalistic
species-life remains on the hardened "cosmic slag" of the earth
(surrounded with Old Moon forces).
Mankind's rightful task for the
present is to lead lives of healthy, progressive alternation between
the earthly and the cosmic (life, death, and rebirth), so as to lead
the earth over to New Jupiter. -- The profound mystery of evil is
that in a higher sense, in the long run, it serves the good. Not to
imply that we would be justified in doing evil with the
rationalization that good would result. "...it must needs be that
offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"
[Matthew 18;vii]
Note: This is a deep subject, and I am not altogether sure of my
grasp of it. My impression is that Steiner was developing and
expanding his insights during his career, so that reading just one
of his treatments of the subject will not give the whole picture.
The picture I have drawn so far is this:
The true picture of the workings of evil might be even more complex
than outlined above. Steiner did make some statements which might be
interpreted as indicating a third stream of spirits of opposition:
the "Asuras" (a borrowed Eastern term), which are retarded Archai
who work to destroy the human "I", the Ego itself.
The Asuras might
be agents of the actual Antichrist, the Sun-Demon, known to
occultism as "Sorat" (or "Sorath"). In some passages
Steiner does
identify the Apocalyptic Beast 666 as Sorat, not clearly
differentiating the Ahrimanic and Soratic principals. While it seems
true that the numerological interpretation of the Hebrew spelling of
"Sorat" gives the number 666, still the position of Sorat in
relation to Lucifer and Ahriman is not altogether clear (to this
writer).
A possible solution to this question might follow from the
imagery of the Apocalypse: Michael casts the Dragon out of heaven;
immediately afterwards arise the two "beasts" -- the first from the
sea (Lucifer) and the second from the land (Ahriman). Thus Lucifer
and Ahriman appear on earth as two beings or principles, but they
are the progeny of the one spirit of opposition -- the Dragon -- in
Heaven.
If we identify the Dragon, the Antichrist, as Sorat, we can
picture Lucifer and Ahriman as the left and right hands of Sorat.
Christ strives to hold Lucifer and Ahriman in balance so that they
serve the good, while Sorat strives to keep them out of balance, so
that they work for destruction. While Lucifer seeks to draw the
human "I", the Ego to his own planet, and Ahriman seeks to harden
the earth and the human organism so that no Ego can live in a human
on earth, Sorat -- through the Asuras -- seeks to destroy the Ego
itself, along with the earth.
Sorat uses Lucifer and Ahriman as
spirits of seduction to mask his own true intention of pure
destruction. And Sorat manifests in social evolution as pure
destruction, especially in the wars and mass murders of our century.
(Some suggest that he manifests in the human organism as the
destroyer of the immune system -- the so-called "AIDS".)
Thus, the
true picture might look something like this:
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