Freedom

Background

The spiritual hierarchies in creation make up part of a complex cosmic fractal with cascading interdependencies as the cosmic breath of brahma (the evolutionary of cycle of seven planetary stages) pushes up and down like the cylinders in an engine. Each hierarchy is structurally interconnected and channels through the energy of the Logos (the basic principle underlying the ever-evolving creation), thereby giving expression of characteristics at that level. This spiritual reality is such a complex multidimensional process that it is beyond comprehension for contemporary mainstream human waking consciousness.

Humanity is the first level in creation that has been set free from this pattern. Through a divine intervention on Old Sun a Luciferic influence was created in the spiritual hierarchies that cascaded down (see war in heaven, and the origin of evil in the lower planes of creation) to finally cause, in the current planetary Earth stage of evolution, and due to the influence of backward Luciferic beings, the fact that Man was wrested free from the guidance of the spiritual hierarchies. For more information, see Transition between 4th and 14th century.

This was a gradual process starting in the Lemurian epoch with the Development of the I, as it is the Luciferic influence that triggers freedom in the Human I. This event corresponds to the seduction by the snake in the Fall described in the Bible in the Book of Genesis. Though it caused 'side-effects' as human karma, evil in the world, and the start of reincarnation, this Luciferic infection did contribute in a unique way to the divine plan of creation, and these things are the price to pay for the unique fact or capability of true freedom: Man is the first spiritual being that has freedom of choice, without being completely guided by higher hierarchies.

The reason and wisdom in this development is that Freedom is required for Love, as Love is about giving rather than receiving, and selflessness rather than selfishness, ultimately the selfless sacrifice of one's self for another. This requires consciousness to be able to choose freely for the one or the other, which is exactly the mission of the planet Earth and the Human 'I'.

This was achieved through a stepwise approach with divine impulses of Jehovah and Christ that combined and countered the Luciferic influences. Schema FMC00.428A below depicts how this relates to Freedom and Love.

A spiritual hierarchy which has Freedom as a pathway to becoming the creative spirits of Love, represents a breakthrough in the evolution of the cosmos, which is why humanity is the 'crown of creation' and the exciting plan of the Gods who are developing mankind into becoming Gods.

In this development, the human 'I' is thereby a 'sharp two edged sword' and will lead both to the highest and the lowest in Man.

The 'price to pay' for this freedom will require a major 'cleanup' in facing evil, not just in the current Postatlantean epoch but out into future planetary stages of evolution, a stepwise redemption with multiple phases. This is represented in an overview in Schema FMC00.427A shown below. Mankind will be split into good and evil subraces, whereby the greater good will face and redeem the greatest evil.

Current situation and future outlook

In current times, humanity as a whole is only mature enough to become free and independent in relation to the consciousness soul, an evolution that was initiated in the 15th century. In the future, the spiritual and moral influx will further permeate the intellectual soul and sentient soul, so people will find the impulses for the good flowing from their own soul and have a firm direction in actions and work.

Various Aspects of Freedom

• Spiritual Beings of the Higher Hierarchies

  Spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies (such as angels, archangels, archai, etc.) have greater wisdom and power than Man, but their will is always the Divine Will – they have no free will. Only beings who learn from original sin (the Luciferic infection caused by the Fall) can attain freedom (1921-10-06-GA343).

  Note: In the future there is a possibility (not probability) that conditions might occur that angels and archangels could stray from their inner soul necessity. (1921-10-06-GA343)

• The Start of True Freedom for Humanity

  The start of true freedom for humanity came with the development of the I and the withdrawal of the spiritual hierarchies in the 15th century. Below is a key extract from (1921-10-06-GA343).

  The fact is that we as the human race have been living in the development of freedom since the 15th century. This life in freedom is only possible under the influence, the inner influence of mere intellectuality, which actually has no content. ... Intellectual concepts are actually empty in the face of reality; they are holes in the universe, and this is necessary for the development of freedom. ... this state of consciousness, which brings about freedom, could not be there if Man were inwardly filled with a content, for this content would have to be a divine one; and this divine content, which was to a certain extent the strongest in the beginning, had to decrease and reach its zero point here (a diagram is drawn – see below), and now the intellectual development occurs. This gives Man freedom and in the further course of time, we will consciously give our soul content again.

  

• The Gradual Evolution of True Freedom

  There is a gradual evolution of true freedom in the Threefold Human Soul.

  Humanity can only mature gradually: As humanity is now, human souls are only mature enough to become free and independent in relation to the consciousness soul ... but people are not yet ripe to become free in relation to the intellectual soul and sentient soul. However spiritual wisdom gradually leads to the intellectual and sentient soul also being freed, so that people no longer have to look to tradition and habit to find the good, but that the impulse for good flows from their own soul .. a time will come when Man will thus have a firm direction in his actions and work. (1911-01-08-GA127)

  See also what flows from right to left on Schema FMC00.431 below: The spiritual flows in through the consciousness soul first, and then to the intellectual and sentient souls, so it will penetrate the whole of the human soul in due time.

  

  • The consciousness soul is that part of the soul through which the soul comes to a consciousness of the spiritual world.

  • The intellectual soul possesses the capacity to clothe in concepts what is felt in the sentient soul.

  • The sentient soul is a sort of instrument of the astral body where passions, desires and drives are felt.

• Freedom and Love

  Freedom and love as arise from a balance between, and mutual permeation of, thought and will (1920-12-19-GA202).

  We attain freedom by irradiating the life of thought with will: pure thinking happens when our thinking attains such maturity that it is entirely irradiated by will; it no longer takes anything in from outside, but its very life is of the nature of our will (iow our thoughts are controlled by our power of the will and not thrown too and fro by outward circumstances). Our inner life is constantly deepened when we permeate our thinking with will. We bring will into thinking and thereby attain freedom. Freedom dawns when we enable the will to become an ever mightier and mightier force in our thinking.This leads to 'moral imagination'.

  We attain love by permeating the life of will with thoughts (i.e. we think before we act): When we develop in ourselves the force of devotion to the outer world. Devotion to the outer world, which pervades our actions with thoughts, is nothing else than love.

• Necessity and Freedom

  Freedom and necessity are among the most important human concepts, and you have to realize time and again that we have to gather a great number of ideas to arrive at a more or less correct understanding of the concepts of freedom and necessity. Where would it lead if present-day humanity were to follow nothing but natural necessity? People would obviously dream more and more, until they had nothing left but a dreary grey in grey, and they would become less and less able to use their will, until they: reached actual paralysis of the will. That is necessity. Out of the freedom of spiritual science people must obviously work to counteract this; for the time is now dawning when we will have to acquire our essential freedom out of an inner necessity which we ourselves acknowledge. Of course we might all say, "We are not going to concern ourselves with what is supposed to happen." In that case things would come about as described. Yet that things can be different is a necessity, a necessity, however, that can only be taken hold of through understanding. We might call it a free necessity, a genuine and absolute necessity. (1916-02-08-GA166)

  ... the consciousness of freedom absolutely exists. And, when you read my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, you will see that we cannot understand the human being at all, if we are not clear about the fact that his whole soul life tends, is directed, is oriented toward freedom, but a freedom which we have to understand correctly.

  Now, it is precisely in my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity that you will find an idea of freedom which it is very important to grasp correctly. The point is that we have developed freedom, to begin with, in thought. The fountainhead of freedom is in thought. Man has an immediate consciousness of the fact that he is a free being in his thought. You may rejoin: "But there are many people today who doubt the fact of freedom." Yes, but this only proves that the theoretical fanaticism of people today is often stronger than their direct experience in reality. Because he is so crammed full of theoretical concepts the human being no longer believes in his own experiences. Out of his observations of the processes of nature, he arrives at the idea that everything is conditioned by necessity, every effect has a cause, all that exists has its cause; thus, if I conceive a thought, this has also a cause. He does not at once think of repeated earth lives in this connection, but he imagines that what wells forth from human thinking is caused in the same way as that which comes out of a machine.

  As a result of this theory of universal causation, as it is called, the human being blinds himself frequently to the fact that he bears very clearly within himself the consciousness of freedom. Freedom is a fact which we experience, as soon as we really reflect upon ourselves. (1924-02-23-GA235)

• Freedom of Thought and Speech

  We are on the cusp of times where everything will be forbidden that is not fully aligned, stamped and certified by the (materialistic) powers that be. (1916-01-02-GA165)

  What people call freedom in the age of materialism is the very opposite of all freedom; but things are so arranged that people hardly notice it. Those who have some insight into how things are do no more than combat this bondage by that which must be forbidden, others again cast sheep's eyes at those in power and seize in their grasp everything that ought to be as free as the flowers that grow in the fields.

  ...

  Perhaps as yet we can do nothing in our age to stem the course of the unfree materialistic tone of the day. But at least we must learn to feel it a bondage. Here it is that a beginning must be made. We must not be taken by illusion.

  For, if the world proceeds in its evolution according to the wishes of this materialistic impulse we shall gradually enter an evolution in which

  • not only will anyone be forbidden to do anything for the health of humanity unless he is certificated, but
  • no one will be allowed to say a word regarding science of any kind, except one who has taken a vow to speak only of such things as are patented with the stamp of the materialistic order of thought.

  At present the constraint of the things forbidden is not much felt. But a time is coming when, just as every effort for the healing of mankind that is not stamped and certificated will be forbidden, so every word will be forbidden that is said otherwise than in the form patented and guaranteed by the materialistic powers.

  If people do not perceive the whole course of what is coming about, they will enter full-sail into this future 'freedom.' This will consist in promulgated laws forbidding people to teach differently from what is taught in a recognized school. Everything will be forbidden that recalls in the most distant way what, for instance, is taking place amongst us here.

  Because people do not see how the course of evolution is tending, they do not realize this. (1916-01-02-GA165)

  There is a rapidly changing, and future further limitation, of freedom of opinion and speech in line with the authorized dominant materialistic worldview. (1916-01-07-GA165)

  There has begun a suppression of individual thinking.

  The majority of humanity will be influenced by America, by the West, and that influence is heading toward a different kind of development. It is heading toward a development that today is only beginning to show itself in idealistic traces–as sympathetic beginnings in contrast to what is yet to come. One could say: The present is still in a fairly good position compared to what is to come, once Western development continues to bear fruit more and more. It won't be long before the year 2000 is upon us; at that time, a kind of ban–not a direct one, but a ban of sorts–on all thinking will emanate from America, a law intended to suppress all individual thought. On the one hand, the first signs of this are already evident in what purely materialistic medicine does today–where the soul is no longer allowed to play a role, and where human beings are treated like machines based solely on external experimentation.

  ...

  One of the other beginnings: We already have machines today for adding and subtracting–don't we? That's very convenient; you don't have to do the math anymore. And that's how it'll be with everything. It won't take long–a few centuries–and then it'll all be done; then you won't need to think anymore, or ponder, but you'll just push things around. For example, it says here: "330 bales of cotton, Liverpool"–today you still have to think about that a bit, don't you? But then you'll just press a button, and that's the end of it. And to ensure that the solid structure of the future's social fabric isn't disrupted, laws will be enacted that won't explicitly state, "Thinking is forbidden," but which will have the effect of eliminating all individual thought. That is the other extreme we're working toward. In contrast, life today isn't all that unpleasant, after all. For as long as one doesn't cross a certain line, one is still allowed to think today, isn't that right? Of course, one mustn't cross a certain line, but at least, within certain limits, one is still allowed to think. But what I have described is inherent in the development of the West, and it will come about through the development of the West. (1916-04-04-GA167)

  For more on this topic regarding current times and the future, see the page Contemporary worldview war.

  The events of current times and those projected for the future regarding freedom is not a new phenomena.

  In the previous fourth Greco-Latin cultural age (747 BC to 1413), the the greek culture was followed by the huge power of the Roman empire. After the fall of the Roman empire, the position of power was taken up by the Roman Catholic church that became the largest power structure in Europe and the world (certainly between the 4th and 14th century).

  Abuses of the Roman Catholic Church at that time are well known:

  • The establishment of colleges for the destruction of initiation, gnosis, spirit
  • The effect of 869 on abolishing of the soul, and spirit
  • The Inquisition (imprisonment, put under house arrest, burned to death)
  • Creation of an index of forbidden literature and banned books, called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or 'Index' for short.
  • More examples can be found on: worldview wars

• Potential Future Scenario of Evolution

  Only under certain conditions which have not yet occurred but which may still come during the evolution of the Earth ... the possibility will arise for angels and archangels, to stray from their inner soul necessity, not in probability, but they would have the possibility to do so. (1921-10-06-GA343)

Lecture Excerpt: Original Sin and Freedom

This lecture includes a question on whether humanity could have reached freedom without original sin.

It is in this lecture where the start of true freedom is described in the 15th century. This is related to the withdrawal of the spiritual hierarchies and the advent of the consciousness soul. See also Transition between 4th and 14th century.

A participant: I would like to ask

whether original sin was a necessity for the development of humanity, or whether humanity could also develop freedom without original sin.

Another question is: whether there are beings, prehistoric men, who did not fall into this original sin?

Rudolf Steiner: Well, the question must actually be answered like this: You see,

supersensible knowledge can never actually be pure teleology, but it is observational, and therefore in supersensible knowledge the questions actually fall away, for what purpose or for what something is.

That is something that was in your question: Could people also come to freedom without original sin, or have human beings incurred original sin in order to attain freedom?

The fact is that we as the human race have been living in the development of freedom since the 15th century. This life in freedom is only possible under the influence, the inner influence of mere intellectuality, which actually has no content. Descartes's maxim 'Cogito, ergosum' is actually wrong. The sentence should actually read: Cogito,ergo non sum, I think, therefore I am not, because thinking never illuminates a reality, but on the contrary, it is the destruction of reality.

Only when one approaches the I through imagination, inspiration and intuition, does the real certainty of the I exist.

When we have become accustomed to applying the criteria of being to our surroundings, we must say: I think, therefore I am not. It is precisely in this non-being that the possibility of receiving something new lies. This is what lies in intellectuality. Intellectual concepts are actually empty in the face of reality; they are holes in the universe, and this is necessary for the development of freedom.

You can see the rise of intellectualism. It comes up through such thinkers who were still contemporaries of Nicholas of Cusa. Then it goes further, but especially Galileo, Copernicus, Newton are the real intellectualists.

Now, this state of consciousness, which brings about freedom, could not be there if Man were inwardly filled with a content, for this content would have to be a divine one, and this divine content, which was to a certain extent the strongest in the beginning, had to decrease and reach its zero point here (a diagram is drawn), and now the intellectual development occurs.

This gives Man freedom and in the further course of time, we will consciously give our soul content again.

So passing through [the zero point], being thrown down into matter, which certain occultists, for example, call the 'fall into procreation', was absolutely necessary for freedom.

One can only say it afterwards: because human beings fell into original sin, they attained freedom. It would be quite wrong if I were to hold back these things from you here, even if they are slightly shocking for a present-day consciousness.

Beings who know nothing about original sin, who do not learn about it, do not attain freedom either. Such beings are, for example, those who belong to the stages immediately above Man. These beings have a greater wisdom than men, and also have a stronger power, but they do not come to freedom, their will is always actually the Divine Will. Only under certain conditions, which in the evolution of the world have not yet occurred, but which during the evolution of the Earth may still come - they lie in a certain future – there the possibility will arise for these beings, which Catholicism calls angels and archangels, to stray from their inner soul necessity, not in probability, but they would have the possibility to do so. But nothing can be said about this, because it will depend on what the whole world constellation is like. So we have beings who have nothing to do with original sin.

Even those entities, which were now the actual tempters of men in the course of Earth development, which are represented by the snake in paradise, also these entities have nothing to do with original sin but with a sin freely committed by them. Only in Man does it become original sin. It is that which is called original sin .. and then again called freedom, that which is actually specific to Man.

One finds in general that the establishment of every level of existence in the entire universe has its good meaning, so that nothing is repeated in a vertical direction. So what is with the animals is not with the humans, and what is with the humans is not with the angels, and so on.

(1921-10-06-GA343)

Lecture Excerpt: Indwelling Spirits and Freedom

Could human beings be free, so long as spirits were indwelling them?

No, they could not. For spirits directed them in everything; everything was due to them.

We could only become free when spiritual beings no longer directed us – when we had mere pictures, mere images, in our thoughts.

In the age when intellectuality puts only thoughts into our heads, freedom can arise because thoughts have no power to compel. If we allow our moral impulses to be only pure thoughts – as described in my book, The Philosophy of Freedom – then we can achieve true freedom in our age. The intellectual age, therefore, had to arise.

Yet strange as it may sound, in essence the time is already past in which it was right for us to develop mere intellectuality, mere thinking in pictures. Along with the nineteenth century, that has become a thing of the past.

If we now continue to develop mere thoughts as images then our thoughts will fall prey to Ahrimanic powers. The Ahrimanic powers will then find access to us and, having just reached our freedom, we will lose it – lose it to Ahrimanic powers.

Humanity is confronted with this danger right now.

Human beings today are faced with the choice: either to comprehend the spiritual life – to understand that the kinds of things I have described to you today are realities – or to deny this.

But if we deny the spiritual today we will no longer be able to think freely. Rather Ahriman, Ahrimanic powers, will then begin to think in mankind. And then all humanity will undergo a downhill evolution.

(1922-08-22-GA214)

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