Spiritual Science
On the Edge of the Abyss
Protection Mantra
Imagining a blue light in the shape of an egg all around us let us say:
May the outer sheath of my aura become denser.
May it surround me with an impermeable skin for all impure,
Unclean thoughts and feelings.
May it only open to God's wisdom.
We are living in an extraodinarily serious time of trial. We have to become increasingly conscious of this fact. All that is evil and all that is good are now coming to light, often in shocking ways. Those who are now still able to meditate will have great influence on everything that happens.
Only very few people have the ability to understand what is happening now, let alone the strength to fulfil the task we have been given. Therefore, it is of the greatest importance that those few who do really comprehend, apply all their strength to work with the greatest earnestness and deepest concentration. Yes, they must work with all the magic they can bring forth from the depth of their souls so that humanity does not completely lose the Holy Spirit, whose task it is to guide our future development.
Never before have we been so close to the edge of the abyss as at present.
from a letter to Rector Moritz Bartsch (1869-1944)
Source: Introduction to Bastiaan Baan's Ways into Christian Meditation
Evolution and Involution
Source: https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19041223p01.html
23 December 1904, Berlin
Before the end of our present cultural epoch (appx. 3573 AD) one will in fact have come so far that people will be able to penetrate into the atom itself (The atom was split for the first time on April 14, 1932.). When one is able to grasp the materiality between the thought and the atom, then one will soon be able to understand the penetration of the atom. And then nothing will be inaccessible to certain methods of working. A man standing here, let us say, will be able, by pressing a button concealed in his pocket, to [explode] some object at a great distance, let us say in Hamburg, just as wireless telegraphy is possible, by setting up a wave movement and causing it to take a particular form at some other place. This will be within man's power when the occult truth, that thought and atom consist of the same substance, is applied to practical life.
It is impossible to conceive what might happen in such circumstances if mankind has not by then reached selflessness. Only through the attainment of selflessness will it be possible to preserve mankind from the brink of destruction. The downfall of post-Atlantean culture will be caused by the lack of morality. The Lemurian race was destroyed by fire, the Atlantean by water; ours will be destroyed by the War of All against All, [by?] evil, through the struggle of men with one another. Humanity will destroy itself in mutual strife. And the despairing thing — more desperately tragic than other catastrophes — will be that the blame will lie with human beings themselves.
A tiny handful of men will save themselves and pass over into the sixth epoch. This tiny handful will have developed complete selflessness. The others will make use of every [imaginable] skill and subtlety in the penetration and conquest of the physical forces of Nature, but without attaining the essential degree of selflessness . They will start the War of All against All, and that will be the cause of the destruction of our civilisation.
In the seventh post-Atlantean cultural epoch, to be precise, this War of All against All will break out, in the most terrible way. Great and mighty forces will ensue from discoveries that will turn the entire globe into a kind of self-functioning electrical apparatus (There were around 7,500 satellites in Low Earth Orbit as of September 2021; the number increases exponentially.). The tiny handful will be protected in a way that cannot be discussed.
Now you will be able to picture more clearly than was possible when I spoke of these things last time, why the Good [and Proper] Form must be sought and in what sense Freemasonry became aware that it must build a building [dedicated to] selfless [ends]. It is easier to survive and pass over into the future, to the tiny handful of new humanity, with the good old forms, than in chaos.
It is easy to jeer at empty forms, but they have however a deep significance. They are adapted to the structure of our [period of] evolution. After all, they are connected with necessary stages in human nature and the development of the human soul. Just think of it: we are living in the fifth period of the fifth great post-Atlantean epoch (see diagram above); we have still to live through two more periods of this great epoch. Then the seven periods of the sixth great epoch will follow and then the seven periods of the seventh great epoch. This makes sixteen stages of evolution in the future. Humanity has still to pass through these sixteen stages. A man who can experience something of the conditions [of existence] that are possible there, is to a certain degree initiated. There is a certain correspondence between the degrees of initiation and the secrets of the epochs still to come.
...
The fifth cultural epoch is a purely intellectual one, an epoch of egoism. We are now at the high point of egoism. The intellect is egoistical in the highest degree, and it is the hallmark of our time. And so we must make our way upwards through intellect to spirituality, which was once there ...[Gap]
The secret of secrets is this, therefore: the human being must learn how to keep silence about the paths along which his ego unfolds, and to regard his deeds, not his ego, as the criterion. The real heart of the secret lies in his deeds and the overcoming of the ego through action. The ego must remain concealed within the deed. Elimination of the interests of the ego from the onstreaming flow of karma — this belongs to the first degree. Whatever karma the ego incurs is thereby wiped out from karma. Nation, race, sex, position, religion — all these work upon human egoism. Only when mankind has overcome all these things will it be freed from egoism.
...
Bringing this levelling-out about will actually entail bloody war, and through such things as economic strife among nations, wars of exploitation, financial and industrial enterprises, conquests, etc., and through the adoption of certain measures, it will be more and more possible to set masses of people in motion and simply to compel them. The individual will acquire more and more power over certain masses of people. For the drift of this development is not that we will become democratic, but that we will become brutally oligarchic, in that the individual will gain more and more power. If the ennobling of morals is not achieved, then the most brutal forces will lead. This will happen, just as catastrophe by water happened to the Atlanteans.
The Future of Man
Source: https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA099/English/RSP1966/19070605p01.html
5 June 1907, Munich
What the materialistic mode of thought brings about has not yet been completed. We have two streams today,
- a great materialistic one which fills the earth,
- and the small spiritual stream which is restricted to but few human beings.
Distinguish between soul-evolution and race-evolution. Do not think that if races pass over to a grotesque form that the soul too does the same.
- All materialistically thinking souls work on the production of evil race-formations,
- and what is done of a spiritual nature causes the bringing forth of a good race.
Just as mankind has brought forth that which has retrogressed in the animals, plants and minerals, so will a portion split off and represent the evil part of humanity.
And in the body, which meanwhile will have grown soft, the inner badness of the soul will express itself externally. Just as older conditions which have degenerated to the ape species seem grotesque to us today, so do materialistic races remain at the standpoint of evil, and will people the Earth as evil races. It will lie entirely with humanity as to whether a soul will remain in the bad race or will ascend by spiritual culture to a good race.
These are things that we must know, if we would live into the future with real knowledge. Otherwise we go through the world with our eyes bound, for forces are working in humanity which we must recognise and to which we must pay attention. A Man would neglect his duty to mankind if he did not wish to become acquainted with the forces which work in the direction of right evolution or against it. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge would be egotism. He who wants to know in order to look into higher worlds acts egotistically. But one who tries to carry this knowledge into the direct practice of everyday life, furthers the advance of the coming evolution of humanity. It is extremely important for us to learn more and more to put into practice what exists as the conception of spiritual science.
So you see, the spiritual movement has a quite definite goal, namely, to mould future humanity in advance. And the goal can be reached in no other way than through the acceptance of spiritual wisdom. This is the thought that lives in the mind of one who conceives spiritual science as the great task of mankind. He thinks of it as inseparable from evolution and he regards it not as an object of desire but as a task and duty that is laid upon him. And the more we acknowledge this, the more rapidly do we approach the future form of humanity in the sixth epoch.
As at that time in ancient Atlantis, in the neighbourhood of modern Ireland, the advanced human beings were drawn to the East in order to found the new civilisations, so have we now the task of working towards the great moment in the sixth epoch, when humanity will undertake a great spiritual ascent.
We must endeavour to come out of materialism again, and societies with a spiritual aim must undertake to guide humanity, not from motives of arrogance and pride, but as a task and duty.
So a certain group of people must join together in order to prepare the future. But this union is not to be conceived of geographically. All ideas of locality have then lost their meaning because it is no longer a question of racial relationships. The point will be for people over the whole Earth to find each other spiritually, in order to fashion the future in, a positive way. For this reason, 400 years ago, when our epoch plunged the deepest into matter, the Rosicrucian Brotherhood emphasised that practical spiritual science which contains an answer to all problems of everyday life.
Here you have the ascending evolution following the descending. Just as old knowledge acts as a disintegrating force, as is shown in Mauthner's Criticism of Language, so the spiritual current of thought seeks the unifying bond of spiritual wisdom. Hence arises the new school of initiation which is directly concerned with leading humanity over into a new cycle of time.
Thus with the principle of human evolution is connected the concept of Initiation
For the Reader
This page is is dedicated to the loneliness that a human being may experience, the scorn from others because of the above differences.
You are not alone, many people worldwide are in this situation, but just in a minority and very dispersed and scattered, amongst the millions and billions of people driven less consciously by the materialistic worldview and certain powers, driving our world into another direction.
Source: https://anthroposophy.eu/Spiritual_minority_in_a_materialistic_world
Atonement
The only way in which man may truly atone, when indeed the will is there, is for him to raise himself upward from his present conscious-state and existing Ego, to a higher plane of personality — a more exalted 'I'. Those words of St. Paul, — 'Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' could then be characterized as follows, — 'Yet not I, but a higher consciousness liveth in me.' The Christian conception can be expressed in these words: — 'I have fallen from a higher spiritual state, and have entered upon a different condition from that which was previously ordained; but I must rise again; and this I must do, not through that quality of Ego which is mine, but in virtue of a power that can enter into my very being, uplifting me far above that "I”, which I now possess. Such a change can alone come to pass when the Christ-influence is once more active within, leading me onward until the world has lost all power of illusion, and I can apprehend it in its true reality. Ever upward until those baneful forces which have brought sickness and death upon the earth may be vanquished, — conquered by that higher spiritual power which Christ has quickened within my being.'
Wisdom & the Shadow Self
From the elucidation of the book The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, A Commentary on a Christian Path of Initiation by Bastiaan Baan pg. 142
The Sixth Day Commentary
"You are free to make a choice of one of them, or to cast lots about it."
We replied, "We will choose."
"No," he said, "let it rather go by lot."
Is that life wisdom? At first sight it rather looks like an imposition of authority. Maybe it is a test: Have you come to the point in your [spiritual] development that everything you encounter can also become your own will? Can you leave everything to destiny, not as a fatalist or fanatic, but as a human being who complies with the heart and soul — as in "Just say yes to life!" Novalis put it in the enigmatic words: "All that happens is my will." It takes a lot in the maelstrom of daily life, in all the heights and depths of life, to be able to say: All that happens, I have willed. There are people who understandably rebel when they hear these words.
...
Our double — Jung calls it our shadow [self] — has everything to do with the ego [ 'I' ] and its qualities. All the egoistic, negative characteristics a person has, acknowledged or not, are in a certain sense nourishment for the double [our shadow self]. They give him the chance to make himself great so that, in the end, you sometimes can no longer recognize the human being behind the double. Just as the Rosicrucians handle the earth [material, physical] with respect, they also treat this lowest part of the human being with respect. For it is precious "raw material." As ore can be smelted into metals, so can this raw material be transformed into the most noble nature of the human being, from a temptation into a force.
Seventh day commentary
This search for the middle between two extremes can also be recognized in the historical context in which the Rosicrucians appeared. It is no coincidence that the work of the Rosicrucians appeared in a time when the outer world was being explored as never before [1]. The Rosicrucians created this necessary connection with the physical world without, however, breaking the bond with the spiritual world. Only if humans remain true to both worlds can they fulfil their destiny.
...
In his work De Incarnatione Verbi (The Incarnation of the Word), Jakob Böhme, who more than once uses alchemical expressions in his writings, addresses the alchemists of his time as follows: "Let this be clear to you, seekers of the tincture: If you want to find the Philosopher's Stone, then bring yourself to birth anew in Christ."
In the catharsis, development and transformations which the alchemist went through, the physical body became the Philosopher's Stone, Christ's dwelling place. The decisive questions for the Rosicrucians was: How does Christianity become flesh and blood?
How can we imagine the Risen Christ makes His home in the physical body? If we intensively practice Christian meditation and prayer for a time, we may notice that our breathing changes. Unwittingly, a person who meditates intensively breathes more deeply. And the blood also changes. We may often be swept along in furious rage or icy hatred. This changes when we begin to lead a meditative life: What turns our blood hot and cold disappears, and allows the real human middle to open up. We can experience this even in physical warmth.
The body of individuals who intensively school themselves in spiritual practice is transformed even in its physiognomy (facial features formed by temperament and character). It is possible to recognize in their countenance whether they live with meditation or prayer. In the portrait of the poet Novalis (above), for instance, one can see how the eyes and the exceptional complexion are expressions of the spiritualization of the body. A Christian — and this is especially true for the Christianity of Christian Rosenkreutz — in whom Christ begins to "incarnate," in such a way that it becomes visible even in the body. Something of the future human being becomes visible, the new Adam which, in the words of St. Paul, one "puts on" as one puts on a garment. [2]
Five Rules
In the Chymical Wedding, the Knights of the Golden Stone (Rosicrucians) are given the following five rules:
- Everything Rosicrucians do is soli Deo Gloria, only to the honor of God and his nature.
- "You will abominate all whoredom, incontinency (lack of self-restraint) and uncleanness, and not defile your order with such vices."
- "Through your talents be ready to assist all that are worthy, and have need of them."
- "You desire to not to employ this honor to worldly pride and high authority."
- "You shall not be willing to live longer than God will have you do." ( "Not my will but Thine be done." Luke 22:42 )
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Our Adversaries
It would be incorrect to think that the work on our shadow self is without offense set against our efforts. With our descent into the material we are "infected" with the presence of adversaries within — who wage a battle for our soul. At certain points in the evolution of the human being these adversaries were once Exusiai, Archangels and Angels who fell behind as evolution took its intended Divine course down into matter. In their "fall," they became a part of our internal constitution as we continued our descent into the physical plane.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
It would also be incorrect to think that these fallen beings are outside of the Divine Plan for humanity. Though they work against us from within, they serve the Divine Plan in the development of our Free Will, which is necessary for our becoming what is intended by God - free moral beings. As free moral beings, we are meant by Divine Will to rise to become the 10th Hierarchy in the Spiritual Realms. In other words, these beings, though adversaries, serve the purposes of God.
Additionally, it would be incorrect to think that we are alone in this battle for our soul. This is the secret behind the Mystery of Golgotha, the coming of the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth. To state simply a complex and sometimes difficult subject to absorb into one's consciousness — Christ's death on Golgotha (the "Mystery of Golgotha" or "MoG") resulted (among many other deeds) in His Impulse becoming fully present (also) within each of us. It is there, much like a seed, that we, of our own free will, must choose to "water" so that it may grow and become fully active in our daily inner — and outer — life.
In short, Christ is with us, and within us, even to the end of all things.
One other thing that is important to understand: There is no need to fear these adversaries. Fear is their nourishment, which increases their strength. A good metaphor by which we can think of this inner struggle between Christ and our adversaries is this: We have within us two wolves, one light (and good), one dark (and evil). From day to day, moment to moment, the one that has a greater influence over us — in our Thoughts, Feelings and Actions — is that one which we feed the most. If we live in fear and practice hatred (hate is simply manifested fear and is the stuff of children) toward others and life in general, we will feed our adversaries, the dark wolf. However, if we strive to accept what comes to us — in our encounters with others and our daily circumstances, both within and beyond, our control — with faith and trust in the Divine Plan for each of our lives, we will feed the light wolf and learn the true meaning of St. Paul's words:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
~ Anthony
Our adversaries are Lucifer, Ahriman, and (the) Asuras. Collectively they are referred to as "the Devil." In the Bible, Ahriman also has the names "Satan" and "Mammon."
The following is excerpted from Learning Through the Foundation Stone Meditation.
Lucifer insinuated himself into the Astral body of human beings. Ahriman uses human memory to create thoughts that are independent of the things seen in the physical world. This causes the human being to become severed completely from a consciousness of elemental beings and higher beings i.e. the Spiritual Realms.
...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 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.
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.
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. They're the dregs of the planetary evolution that goes form Saturn to Vulcan. They work on the men whom they want to drag down into the eighth sphere and thereby tear away from progressive evolution and its goal — the Christ. All those who strive towards the eighth sphere will eventually live on a moon (the eighth sphere).
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.
Steiner 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.
One who wants to become a real esoteric should realize that he attains something now that all men will attain later. And he must be clearly aware that great tasks will be given him someday, that he'll be used for the further development of mankind in the future. This thought, this goal must live in him entirely, otherwise he's not an esoteric in the true sense. And if he develops himself into the future like this his eyes will also be opened about the past, and then the present becomes understandable out of the future and past. Thereby past, present and future become harmoniously united. The great masters put this into the sacred syllable AUM. That's one of many interpretations that can be given to this syllable. When we speak this syllable the great masters are here with us and the air resounds with the spiritual power of these sounds: AUM
* AUM I acknowledge myself or I am: A. I acknowledge mankind or man is: U. I acknowledge the Godhead or God is: M. (Or I acknowledge life: M)
Feel responsible for every thought, feeling and action. Every moment that we experience in this way brings us forward a little. What would I be without other human beings? Helpless. Streets are paved by others. When I get up in the morning people have already worked for me. My karma is connected with that of other men. I may have been an accomplice to a murderer because I didn't improve him in a previous life. One man's gain is someone else's loss. Teachers taught me. People worked for me from the moment I was born. So do good for all mankind.
My Comments
No longer are we able to be pulled up as by a rope. We must now rise by our own forces.
The author (Baan) makes the statment in the sixth day chapter, "Do not accept the world as it is, but bring the creation to perfection."
As applied to the human being, do not accept yourself as is, but bring God's highest creation (the human being – you) to perfection ("Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:48). In the current fifth post-Atlanean epoch mankind has never been more free than it is now, in our time. The difficult side of this is that we are also at the lowest point in our descent into the material realm and, hence, into matter & materialism.
For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character.
Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Higher Worlds
Elsewhere Baan states, "...the highest wisdom is to know nothing. The highest form of spiritual wisdom is no longer to know with the earthly intellect but with another capacity."
Our intellect, although its development is necessary, can become a dangerous roadblock to spiritual development. This can be realized in the fact that "science" began within the spiritual realm of man and is now so far removed from it that, in general, science is seen as being in competition with (pure) religion. The need here is for humanity to once again unite physical science with spiritual science. This goal can only be obtained by our personal efforts (i.e. the execution of our [free] will) to enliven the spiritual seed that exists within each one of us such that our intellect comes under the dominion of that which is higher in us - our Spiritual Self.
We must not become intoxicated by religious fervor or blinded by the shadow words of natural science. The "reality" that pervades current consciousness today is only the shadow of ideas that have no real reality — being devoid of the spiritual — and amounts to the worship of idols because they are not based on a spiritual concept of the world, of life.
Where, then, does one find this wisdom? It is found between earthly intellect and spiritual knowledge. It is found in the middle way, the way of inner balance and equanimity.
In our times the main damage is done by people who tend towards untruth. This widespread tendency of people to falsehood is at the base of almost all the problems of our times.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 255b – Die Anthroposophie und ihre Gegner – Dornach, December 3, 1919 (page 66)
Exploratory Question for Contemplation and Meditation
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
6 "And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!' 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' 9 But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
11 "Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' 12 But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'
13 "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."
Q: could the wise virgins be a symbol of those who have "awakened" and purified themselves and have "stayed the course" — as opposed to those virgins who had an intellectual understanding but failed to commit themselves i.e. remained attached to the material?
∴Read & Write
kennethmdouglass.com