August 2017
Consciousness developed over time through perception and memory.
In the past memory was a form of perception. On the Old Moon (Lemuria) stage of Earth evolution when the human being wanted to know what he experienced, he could look back in a dreamy way to the imprints he left by his thoughts and experiences much like footprints in the sand when one walks on the beach.
At this time in our past, experience was atavistic i.e. not conscious. This is because on Old Moon, before the human engaged in an action, the human being was inspired in a dreamy way by a higher being in side the soul to perform the action. THe human being was moved by a higher being who thought something in them and caused their body to perform an action of Will. When looking back on such actions performed, the human being could SEE not only the action but the thought that engendered the action.
Because this was a dreamy experience after the event, the human being was not free. He had not yet developed the capacity to think about the action performed, which was performed unconsciously through the inspiration of higher beings. All they could ascertain after the action was the imprint they had created on the world.
In Lemurian times, Lucifer insinuated himself into the Astral body of human beings. This created the organs of sense, which then made perceptions possible and also an inner sense life. From that point forward began inner feelings which created a division between the outer life and inner life. Human beings thus began to observe the world in a different way. By Atlantean times the human being could look inward to find the imprints they had made on the world through their actions. At this point Memory became an inward experience. The seed had been planted for human beings to become more and more focused on themselves, giving rise to selfishness in the human being.
The Memory possessed by human beings beginning in Atlantean times allowed everything they experienced outwardly remained within them and did not fade or die away. He could look inside and see the imprints made on the Etheric body in the outer world. With perception and memory higher and elemental beings entered into the soul.
Along with the acquisition of Perception and Memory Ahriman found his way into the human soul. His task was to use human memory to create thoughts that are independent of the things seen in the physical world. This caused the human being to become severed completely from a consciousness of elemental beings and higher beings and began to perceive and remember only the imprints they left behind from their thoughts and actions (Will) i.e. the world of nature and physical things.
On the other hand, the ability human beings possess to become one with higher beings in the Spiritual world and to recognize their activities is what engenders Love & Morality.
Our communion with the gods inside us (during sleep when our Astral body and I "visit" the Spiritual realm & between death and [re]birth) enable us to form community outside of ourselves with others and this unification with others is a high expression of what we call Love. A Memory of this truth when we wake up each day (and the seed of previous lives we carry with us into each new life) is Conscience. Conscience is the Morality we develop on Earth through a memory of living together with the gods.
Habit & Conscience = Memory of communion with the gods.
This being with the gods is what enables us to perform deeds with other (Good Will) in community with people who also remember the gods. We consciously perform deeds with others based on our Love & Morality.
This is how we overcome Lucifer's temptation to selfishness - through selflessness.
In the past we were able to hold on to the impressions made in us by higher beings, carrying them about within us, the impressions of the Spirit behind all things. Because these once created unconscious impulses to actions, these had to be forgotten for the sake of freedom. Evidence of this fading can be experienced when we stare at something red, then close our eyes. We see its shape in red's complimentary color - green - but that image fades quickly.
Here is an image of freedom. Imagine you are in a theater and a picture of a burger flashes on the screen.This makes an impression in the soul which leads to a compulsion to eat and this rises to our thinking "I'm hungry." Right at this point we are unfree - it is a compulsion. However because it has entered our thinking life we have the ability, a choice, to decide whether or not we want to get up and go buy a burger. Exercising this freedom of choice is only possible if we are conscious. In the past this was impossible. Such compulsions were brought on by beings within us who inspired actions that we "had" to perform, after which we could only look back and see the imprints left but without any thought - no forethought, no afterthought. In a sense, we could only "do what we were told." Mind you, though - the beings that did the inspiring did so on the basis of Love until, of course, Lucifer and Ahriman found their way into us.
Luciferic inspirations lead us to thoughts that inspire selfishness - an aberration of Memory in the soul. This works against Love and community because it leads the human being to think of himself as the most important being i.e. "every man for himself."
Ahriman injected into us (so to speak) the impulse to gather data and make comparisons and come to an understanding of the world around us, tearing us away from the inner self where Lucifer inspires. This is the ability to think. But this has led to error - human beings now tend to interpret only what the eyes behold outwardly as reality. This is the great lie that Ahriman brings. This type of thinking does not align with reality because the real reality is that there is a Spiritual counterpart to every physical thing (Everything is Spiritual).
Lies create death - they are a denial of the original Living Spirit behind all material things. The Intellect has created thoughts that may or may not align with the full reality. These are opinions. The final result of intellectualism is that everyone has his or her own opinion i.e. their own "version" of the truth.
To Summarize:
Lucifer became active in Lemurian times in the senses and memory, instilling in the human being selfishness.
Ahriman became active in Atlantean times in memory and thinking, creating the phenomenon of lies.
Today - in the 5th Post Atlantean Epoch, within the 5th Cultural Epoch, we are now challenged by the Asuras that are active in the Consciousness & Will, bringing immorality and the death of culture (culture in the larger sense being that of the Spritual life).
Who are the Asuras?
Lucifer is a fallen Archangel who fell behind on Old Moon (Lemurian times) and must now work as an Angel
Ahriman is a fallen Archai, who fell behind on Old Sun and must now work as an Archangel
An Asuras is a fallen Spirit of Form (Exusiai), who fell behind on Old Saturn and now work as Archais
The Asuras were once higher gods but have now become "non-gods." They have a dual connection between Archai and Exusiai which means they are connected to both the physical body and the Ego ("I"). Archai are connected to the Physical body of Human Beings; Exusiai were responsible for implanting the seed of the rudimentary Ego in the Human Being in Lemurian times. Simply put, the Asuras are particularly dangerous to Human Evolution.
The Asuras want to condense matter and compress it (the physical body) so that it can no longer become Spiritualized (this means the soul's "I" is cut off from physical existence). Since we were destined to be "cut" from higher Spiritual Beings in order to acquire Freedom/Consciousness, we are now in a position (or stage) where we begin our ascent back to a purely Spiritual state, carrying with us Independent Consciousness. It is THIS that the Asuras strive to prevent. Lucifer would have us to have never left our dependency on higher Spiritual Beings; Ahriman would have us never return to our Spiritual roots. You can see how Ahriman especially works in tandem with the Asuras against Human Beings.
How do we defeat these foes?
Spirit Recollection:
Instead of merely remembering physical things perceived in images, we can begin to take notice of their Spiritual counterparts and to bring them together again i.e. to "re-collect" what has become divided in our inner life.
We can do this by practicing a new form of memory that his a higher form of the memory we had in Atlantean times - not dreamy atavism but clear consciousness. To perceive how the deeds of the gods are lighting up in the soul is a communing with higher beings - a higher form of Love (something that we now do while we sleep but that we need to do while awake). This is only achieved through the exercise of Free Will - by actively choosing to do it.
Consciousness achieved through thinking and making a decision to unite once again with what was separated off for the sake of Freedom raises thinking perception to a new form, it becomes a perception of what enters and lives in the Will. This is the only way we will be able to "hold on to" what has been achieved in Human Evolution by the efforts and sacrifices of higher beings. We must now do our part on behalf of Human Evolution.
We must be conscious of the fact that the world (other beings) is always performing deeds inside us, thus learning to know and identify what inspires good deeds and what inspires evil deeds consciously. For example, crime is nothing more than a form of unconsciousness - a lack of conscience.
Where can we find help to do this?
In the elemental beings - the beings of Will. The elemental beings will into us the origins of all things - the Spiritual behind the physical. They are the servants of higher beings. The world was created through thought and when we think it is the gods (higher beings) who think in us.
Essentially what this means in a practical sense is that we trace the Will action in us back to the thought behind it! As we once looked outside us to see thought imprints left by the actions we performed which were earlier willed into us by the thoughts of higher beings. Now the thoughts of higher beings living in our Will are experienced but if we are to become conscious of them we have to elaborate the consciousness soul - the consciousness of the entire soul - a consciousness fo the thoughts that live behind our actions - the good or evil will of beings.
This brings us to habits. We must become conscious of what is influencing us in our Will, what is entering into us with every perception and making us perform actions, and what has entered into us in previous lives through thought that now continues to work on us so that we are not performing actions unconsciously (as long ago) but (now) through an automatic Will like buying that burger - without thinking.
We must strive to do nothing automatically, but thoughtfully and consciously. All our movements and all our actions must become more and more imbued with thought and a consciousness of the gods and Morality.
The Asuras, having the ability to access both the physical body and the Ego, they wish to sever our consciousness from our Will so that we perform deeds unconsciously through the old form of memory and automatic habits that are immoral. In this way they seek to (forever) sever us from the Spirit.
Rudolf Steiner refers to the Asuras as the spirits of Egoism - because on the one hand they have a desire to bring the human soul into close connection with the physical body so the human soul becomes materialized and more physical and they desire to sever the lower Ego from the warmth of the higher Spirit (within us).
The human soul then becomes an automata, a being who acts through a form of automatic reasoning that is not "human" because it is divorced from a consciousness of the Spirit (within).
What makes a human truly human is a soul that is connected to the warmth of the Spirit - such a human being has a conscience. With the Spirit and conscience, a soul reverts back to the animal but with higher, cold, reasoning powers. In the nomenclature of occultism these beings are called "soulless." Meaning they are worse than animals (who have a group soul). They are Beasts - they are the human beings who have become possessed by the Asuras. These human souls form the Beast of the Apocalypse with seven heads, which rise up from the sea - the sea meaning that aspect that lives below human consciousness.
From the Father Life is born, from the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones comes the seed of our physical body, which enables memory and habit - Ex Deo Nascimur. And through the Father or the forces of Will which is guided by the Archai, is born new memory and habit - memory as an inner perception of Spiritual Will through thought and habit as an outer performance of a thoughtful action that is Will freely by the human being.
This new faculty of memory / habit transforms our sensual attraction to matter into Sacrificial Love. Every time we resurrect the Spirit inside us and connect with it through thought we are performing a sacrificial offering as important as those on an alter, when priests observed elementals and higher beings in the shapes of incense and smoke.
Sacrificial Love is the way to counteract Asuras.
We may better understand now what Rudolf Steiner gave as a protection against these beings before he gave it in a higher way in the Foundation Stone Meditation.
He said the AUM wards off bad influences when one says it in the right way because it connects man with the creating Godhead, the three Logoi. Evil beings who want to tear men away from the Godhead can't stand the AUM.
A = Primal Self from which everything came — Ex Deo Nascimur — Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. FATHER
U = Primal Self to which everything returns — In Christo Morimur — Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai. SON
M = Primal Self that lives in me — Per Spiritum Sanctum Revivisimus — Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. HOLY SPIRIT
Towards you I strive - Light Divine, Sun of Christ - AUM. CHRIST Peace-peace-peace = AUM.
A is atma, U is buddhi, M is the wisdom that directs the higher self to AUM.