Table of Contents

• Editor's Preface

• Preface

• Introduction

Part I: Past & Future

1. Rudolf Steiner Incarnations – An Overview
2. The Beginnings: The Atlantean Cataclysms and the Ages Following
3. The Epic of Gilgamesh – He Who Saw the Deep
4. Heraclitus and Cratylus – From the Sixth to the Fifth Century Before Christ
5. Lives of Schionatulander and Saint Thomas Aquinas
6. The Future

Part II: Martha Keltz

7. Writings of the Heart
8. Rudolf Steiner Returns

• General Appendix

  1. Stigmata – or – the Judith von Halle Phenomenon
  2. Secret Societies — The Atom as Coagulated Electricity
  3. A Picture of Earth Evolution in the Future
  4. The Prophecy of Peter Deunov
  5. The Eternal Soul of Man From the Point of View of Anthroposophy

• Appendix Part I: Rudolf Steiner's Mission and Ita Wegman

• Download

Editor's Preface

The purpose of this publication is to preserve the work of the Brunnen von Christus Group, which, as best as I could conclude, is no longer active as of 2014.

Prior to my gathering and piecing together the work found on — and through — the BvC site I had not as yet read through the material in its entirety. However upon much contemplation of the material, I came to the conclusion that the material quite naturally divides itself — in my humble view anyway — into two primary categories. Once I came to that conclusion, I considered publishing each under its own "cover" but in the end felt it best to keep it together and arrange it here in two "parts".

The first part focuses on two sub-categories, namely the past and the future, with the 'present' being on a sort of 'sliding scale' as it were, depending on the particular year in which it is read. Regarding the past portion, or history, the focus is on the prior incarnations of Rudolf Steiner. The future portion then focuses on what he brought to humanity as Rudolf Steiner.

The second part is much more personal to one Martha Keltz who has (or had, I could not verify if she was still with us on earth at the time of this work) a quite personal encounter with the being we know as Rudolf Steiner beginning in the year 2005. Ms. Keltz was a part of the Anthroposophical Society and, as one might imagine, this experience of hers — as best I can ascertain at the moment — caused quite a stir within the Society, much the same as the stigmata appearing on the person of Judith von Halle (see General Appendix).

Admittedly, most of the material presented here from the BvC was authored by Martha Keltz. It is not my intention to exclude, nor in any way diminish, the work of others on the BvC but found Ms. Keltz to have authored the type of information that I strive to preserve on SSDL.

There is a lot of material here for one to digest, particularly since, where possible, I have included external material in the Appendices rather than leave links. In my work with creating the Spiritual Science Digital Library (SSDL) it has always been my aim to collect as much material as possible "under one roof" as one might say — except where, in certain lectures of RS, he makes reference either to other lecture cycles or books. In these cases I leave the external links, though in most cases the material linked to can be found on SSDL.

-Anthony, November 2023

Preface

Regarding the Name Brunnen von Christus

It was in the summer of 2005, during a period of intense "intuitive meetings" with RS - resulting in the book of the same title - that the thought/inspiration came, in two words: "June, 1913." These words had a mysterious connection with the inspiration "India," in response to the question about the karma from the past that had made the intuitive meetings possible. The words "June, 1913" were hence included in the book on page 15, although still cloaked in mystery as to their meaning. Some time later, in the winter of 2005/2006, preparations were underway for the dramatic trilogy Southwest Journey and three days were occupied in - at last - settling upon the name for the character of Joanna Matthews. Then it came time to decide upon a name for the character of Rudolf Steiner, and it seemed certain that this decision would take much longer. But the next morning there came at once the inspiration for this name: "My name is the German word for fountain." The word fountain was then looked-up in an online German-English dictionary and was discovered to be "Brunnen." The "von Christ" was then unhesitatingly added, and later "von Christus" was also used. Early in 2008 a lecture series was traced to June, 1913, "The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul," and this lecture series is quoted in the book The Writing of the Heart, regarding maya. However it was only in July of 2008 that another lecture series given in May/June 1913 was discovered, titled: "The Occult Significance of the Bhagavad Gita." In Lecture 7, the quotes were discovered that are now on the Home page of this site, and on the home page or the book cover for The Writing of the Heart. In this quotation Rudolf Steiner bestows the grace and the blessing of the word fountain on all of those truly treading the path of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition.

—Martha Keltz
https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/group/contributions.html

A Brief Summary: The Brunnen von Christus Group, November 2006 – November 2013

If the work of the Brunnen von Christus Group could be briefly summarized at all, it can be stated with a fair degree of confidence that a number of individuals stepped for a time out of their usual anthroposophical work in the world (while not leaving it entirely, of course) and came together to serve the purpose of determining the truth or not of conveyed spiritual experiences, experiences that, for the most part, represented and could only be expressed adequately within our immediate times. As part of this process the participants in this group found the courage to express, after critical self-examination, what they discovered as Imaginations, Inspirations and Intuitions within themselves, and then conveyed this to others, either through "the writing of the heart," which is a direct description of a spiritual experience as such, or through more indirect artistic, music-oriented or "star reading" Inspirational processes. Actually, this often involved a mixture of both processes. Along the way on this initial seven-year journey attention was drawn to the fact that the path of the "Three I's," the path of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition - the development of the new form of conscious clairvoyance, the next step in the evolution of consciousness - was a major part if not the most important part of Rudolf Steiner's lifework.

Certainly another essential aim of the "BvC" work has been to defend the name of Rudolf Steiner in the world against false claims - delusional or, more likely, deliberate - such as individuals claiming to be the reincarnation of Rudolf Steiner. It has become clear enough from several sources that Rudolf Steiner is spiritually active and accessible to many striving souls, striving either on the lonely path of inner development or working in the world for Anthroposophy. According to Wellesley Tudor Pole (in his book The Silent Road), names are not important in the spiritual world. But they are important in world history, and Rudolf Steiner's name and lifework have yet to reach their ultimate teaching and healing potential throughout this troubled globe we inhabit.

So I personally want to thank all of the friends who have made or continue to make contributions to the work of the Brunnen von Christus Group, whether such contributions were only brief (none were small) or of continuing duration. James Gillen, who emerged as mentor and spiritual leader in this group as well as in other groups and circles, crossed the threshold to the spiritual world on November 10, 2013, and he will be sorely missed. However, James left all of us treasures of sage advice and specific directions and resources for multiple spiritual endeavors and studies, and especially for ongoing conversations with the stars.

The work of Brunnen von Christus will be ongoing as Inspirational sources from the spiritual world continue to be very gradually revealed to us.

To quote Thomas Sharpe, who has formed a group in Pendle, England: "I think we are all definitely on a progressive wave of moving the inner outwards."

— Martha Keltz
https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/group/

2006 — 2013 Introduction

The Brunnen von Christus Group work began in the autumn of 2006. It is anthroposophical work in direct spiritual perception and the discernment or assessment of what has value and truth in revealed experience and what does not - processes referred to by Rudolf Steiner as The Thinking of the Heart. The work is primarily in Imagination and Imaginative knowledge, but spiritual scientific research is also part of the group work because the development of thinking and the deepening of anthroposophical knowledge never cease. The Brunnen von Christus Group work began shortly after the publication of the dramatic trilogy Southwest Journey and the article Rudolf Steiner Returns (see the Resources and Links page). Regarding the origin of the name Brunnen von Christus, this is described on The Three I's page. The name Brunnen von Christus serves to facilitate consciousness of the distinct difference between the historical Rudolf Steiner and the new activity of Rudolf Steiner and also refers to the source or fount within each individual. Thus, this site can serve as a vehicle for the sharing of

1. Spiritual Scientific Research, and
2. The "Three I's", Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, conveyed through writing.

Contributions are welcome...

There will be no group approval of contributions; there is no authority that oversees this work. Each person is fully responsible for his/her own sharing, in keeping with the spirit of the "Philosophy of Freedom," by Rudolf Steiner.

"The content of what is spiritually perceived can only be reproduced in pictures (imaginations) through which inspirations speak, which have origin in spiritual entity intuitively perceived." Rudolf Steiner, Outline of Occult Science.

"...I do regard it as my own personal task to say nothing that is given by the intellect as such but to take things in the way they are directly and immediately given to occult vision. Only afterward are they permeated with the power of understanding. ...We must learn to take a different attitude toward the great riddles and secrets of the cosmos, to approach them...with all the faculties of our soul. Then we shall ourselves become partakers in the whole of human evolution. It will be for us like a fountain of sublime all-human consciousness. We shall have fullness of soul." Rudolf Steiner, Occult Significance of the Bhagavad Gita.

https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/group/

Introduction

Brunnen von Christus Group Updates, March 2014

A Post from Mark Haberstroh, February 27, 2014 (The last update on the website ~A)

I read the publication regarding "Special Operations" functions, and must say that there is much in it that I believe true and have already concluded from my own researches and observations. Much I also do not believe as I think this publication something of a psychological operation ("psy-ops") directed to those who are more aware of these issues. The essential message is one of hopelessness, and the only solution offered to battle this technology is to fruitlessly resort to animal reactivity and anger, which at most is a temporary reprieve. I have long thought that current secret technology is far in advance of what we, the people, can normally conceive. However, these operations, even if mostly true, are already in advance of what is being presented to the public through Ray Kurzweil and the "Singularity," as far as I can tell, though I have not delved too deeply here. In other words he seems like the front man sent to tantalize and seduce humanity into the world view that the universe is essentially unintelligent from its inception, and that he brings in the new wave of spirituality, which is an indoctrination into a deformed definition of immortality. This world view not only bypasses the wisdom of God in all creation, but also bypasses biological life, except insofar as such life is necessary to piggyback the machine. So it seems to me. The hubris behind the Singularity is the ultimate "slap in the face" of the Creator, and it is clear to me how such a view leads to nihilism and has led to genocide in all its forms, to include the "final solution," which is to exterminate most of the earth's population, ultimately leading to a dead earth with human souls bound in darkness. "Chemtrails," which I have studied extensively by observing the skies and breathing in their poisons, are an integral part of this slow-kill agenda, among other things. Rudolf Steiner's prediction that one day the earth planet will become an "electronic mass" enveloped in evil with only a small group of people nurturing the seed of a transformed humanity will no doubt come to pass if people do not attain selflessness. He states this explicitly. Here he points to the great task of Freemasonry as vital to humanity's survival, if only human beings can renew the spiritual content and refill those majestic masonic forms awaiting them. See the lecture Secret Societies — The Atom as Coagulated Electricity (Also shared in the General Appendix).

The lecture that Martha Keltz quoted in an article, A Picture of Earth Evolution in the Future (see the General Appendix), clearly describes a polar opposite flow of spirituality from the spiritual world, of great beings descending from on high to bring the wisdom in the light if human beings open the door of their hearts and minds to welcome them. Rudolf Steiner names these beings the Vulcan beings, among others. He also describes the grim destiny that will occur on earth if mankind does not accept what is offered by the time the moon reunites with the earth (circa post 7000 AD). He mentions the earth covered with vast spider-like beings in similar manner to the air that now encircles the earth, and that there are, even now, men who are well-known in public life and who knowingly serve this agenda, those really planning for and bringing in the new world order as precursor to the appearance of the Anti-Christ and the incarnation of Ahriman. These men already serve the spider archetype, which can easily be observed through artistic observation of their physiognomies. Observe the form of their fingers and how they gesture with the hands. Observe how the arms are attached to the trunk and how the head sits and moves on top of the body. Each can be imagined as a different type of spider. It is quite creepy. And here we can glance back to an artistic preview of manifesting archetypes through the genius of Charles Williams, especially in his book, The Place of the Lion. Williams brought in his part of the spiritual wave as he wrote five of his seven spiritual novels in an intensive period of activity between 1930 to 1933 at the time of the initial reappearance of Christ in the etheric world. We also find a precursor to the current "transhumanism" artistically conveyed through C.S. Lewis's book That Hideous Strength, the third novel in his theological or Christian space trilogy, to a great extent inspired by his friend, Charles Williams. Here the great brain is thoroughly and graphically described, though not exponentialized as with the new Singularity. But the thoughts in the world view are fully present. It seems that with every advance in technology, old ideas become rehashed, revisited, changed, and enhanced. History then becomes revised. Hollywood redoes once again all the myths, all the legends, fairy tales (Grimm's) with the new special effects etc., and not without the horror twist as an added blow to the soul. Rudolf Steiner is indeed right when he states that the intellect is in demise. Another description of the new wave of spirituality approaching the earth can be found through Peter Deunov in his last prophecy. See The Prophecy of Peter Deunov.

The solution or, rather, the response to the transhumanist mind/machine interface as solution to imbuing the universe with intelligence (where the Singularity represents the pinnacle of the arrogance of ignorance - ignorance of the true nature of immortality) is to learn to think without the physical brain. Etheric thinking as described philosophically in the Philosophy of Freedom and developed through the "Three I's" of esotericism leads to direct perception of the vast wisdom embedded in the universe. Here I think the piece compiled by James Gillen, entitled Transformation of the Soul Forces Through Initiation is very important as part of this discussion and as a companion piece to The Eternal Soul of Man From the Point of View of Anthroposophy (see General Appendix). The Wisdom Lives in Light meditation takes one into the new experience of the etheric heart.

— Mark Haberstroh

https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/group/index.html

Ongoing Themes

Imagination and Inspiration

"...Spiritual science, as you are well aware, must be acquired with inner activity. We ourselves in our inner life must do something for it, we must be inwardly alert and quick. Even then, it will always happen that what we attain at first in spiritual Imagination is quickly lost. It is fleeting, it disappears quickly. It is not easily incorporated in our memory. After three days all that we have attained in this area - that is to say, only by the ordinary effort to bring it to Imagination - is certain to have disappeared. It is for the same reason that the memory in the etheric body after death disappears after three days. For it is the same activity after death, when we remember through the etheric body for about three days. The period varies; you can read about this in my Occult Science, but we remember for approximately three days... so long as we possess the etheric body. In the same manner he who has reached some discovery by etheric cognition knows that it will have flown away after about three days, if he does not make every effort to bring it down into ordinary concepts.

Formerly I always had recourse to the method of putting down at once, in writing or in little drawings, all that I attained in this way. For the head is called into play. It is not a question of mediumistic writing, nor does one write it down in order afterwards to read it. Indeed in my present way of life that would be immensely difficult. Recently when I was in Berlin I saw again what quantities of notebooks have accumulated there. If I wanted to read anything of it, I should not have it handy when I was in Stuttgart or in Dornach. No, it is not a question of reading it afterwards; the point is only to be engaged in this activity, which is an activity of the head. For then we unite the Imaginative thinking with the ordinary thinking. Then we can remember it, give lectures on it. If we did not make such efforts we could at most talk about it on the very next day. Afterwards it would have disappeared, just as the panorama of our life disappears three days after our death." - Rudolf Steiner, from Spiritual Relationships in the Human Organism - The Ear.

The Wall

When we first come to Anthroposophy there are many profound experiences attending the change. Books are read, the spiritual world opens enough to let us know that we are on the right path, the only path for us. The most solemn resolves are made about the most intimate feelings and thoughts concerning Christ, the hierarchies, karmic insights and more. We then read what is written below (#1) and, with understanding, grow obediently silent about inner, spiritual experience. A protective wall or bias is formed, right for its time, but which then tends to rigidify as time passes. After many maturing years the danger then presents that we are unable or afraid to communicate about such things, still obeying the rule automatically, not noticing that things and times have changed, that we have changed, that the time is now ripe for talking, writing and communicating... for learning how to communicate our spiritual experience to others willing to listen.

By heeding the seemingly contradictory indications from Rudolf Steiner in Macrocosm and Microcosm, Chapter 9 (#2 below), we then come to understand why the wall requires dismantling, that a time does come for open sharing, cautiously, yet with courage. This represents the dawn of a new era, and we, in the Brunnen von Christus Group, stand at the beginning, hoping that others, too, are finding and traversing the same path.

#1. Control of thoughts and feelings from Knowledge of the Higher Worlds:

"Much depends on treating such spiritual experiences with great delicacy. The best thing is not to speak to anyone about them except to your teacher, if you have one. Attempted descriptions of such experiences in inappropriate words usually only lead to gross self-deception. Ordinary terms are employed which are not intended for such things, and are therefore too gross and clumsy. The consequence is that in the attempt to clothe the experience in words we are misled into blending the actual experience with all kinds of fantastic delusions. Here again is another important rule for the student: know how to observe silence concerning your spiritual experiences. Yes, observe silence even toward yourself. Do not attempt to clothe in words what you contemplate in the spirit, or to pore over it with clumsy intellect. Lend yourself freely and without reservation to these spiritual impressions, and do not disturb them by reflecting and pondering over them too much. For you must remember that your reasoning faculties are, to begin with, by no means equal to your new experience. You have acquired these reasoning faculties in a life hitherto confined to the physical world of the senses; the faculties you are now acquiring transcend this world. Do not try, therefore, to apply to the new and higher perceptions the standard of the old. Only he who has gained some certainty and steadiness in the observation of inner experiences can speak of them, and thereby stimulate his fellow-men." - Rudolf Steiner

#2. "The Thinking of the Heart," Chapter 9, Macrocosm and Microcosm:

"That is where the thinking of the heart differs from subjective mysticism. Anyone may experience the latter for himself but it is not communicable to another, nor does it concern anyone else. True and genuine mysticism springs from the capacity to have Imaginations, to receive impressions from the higher worlds and then to coordinate these impressions by means of the thinking of the heart, just as the things of the physical world are coordinated by the intellect.... ...Whatever can be communicated to mankind from the thinking of the heart must be able to be cast into clearly formulated thoughts. If this is not possible it is not ready to be communicated. The touchstone is whether the experiences can be translated into lucid words and clearly defined thoughts. Thus even when we hear the deepest truths of the heart stated in words, we must accustom ourselves to perceive behind them the thought-forms and their content. The student of Spiritual Science must acquire this faculty if he desires to help in spreading through mankind whatever can be revealed from the Spirit. It would be sheer egoism if anyone wished to have it for himself alone; mystical experiences, like intellectual experiences, must become the common heritage of mankind. Only by realising this can we understand the mission of Spiritual Science for mankind - a mission which must become more and more effective as time goes on." - Rudolf Steiner. Contribution by Mark Haberstroh.

Imagination and Maya

Many times I have heard and read that the "world is Maya or Illusion." Often this phrase is simply thrown out into the conversation as if it is patently obvious and an irrefutable fact. It leaves unsaid the assumption that the problem of Maya has been solved and now we must "move on to other more important matters."

In reflection upon things material I am inevitably led to a state of wonder, and phrases like "miraculous derivative," "condensate light," or "radiant particulate manifestation" crowd in to attempt to describe my feelings for this stuff. And with every step taken toward a greater awareness of things spiritual, so increases the appreciation of things material. With deepening understanding I realize that, looking from below upwards, the fall into Maya derives from the loss of spiritual perspective, such perspective being able to value Maya in its true light. Being able to reach up and through matter into the archetypal forces (or even sense them oh-so-faintly) results in a reverential seeing-feeling regarding even the smallest part of matter's final manifestation or most dense condensation, connecting the high and the low with all that is between in a light-irradiated sweeping vortex of spiral descent and ascent. And I realize that matter is spiritual and is real and not an illusion at all. It depends upon the perspective, on ones vantage point. This can only result in deep love for all things. How could Love exist if matter is not understood or cognized as real? Maya is real from the perspective of the spirit. - Mark Haberstroh

A Communication from a Friend...

"...an expanded understanding of nature, an exercise in seeing, something which is truly and tragically missing in anthroposophical circles, despite Rudolf Steiner's constant exhortations!... The intellectual leaning towards a rarified, object free realm, which I think many anthroposophists are caught in, is actually a denial of the spiritual content/potential of Creation, and thus a denial of the Creator, a sad remnant of an over-intellectualized era, which is kept artificially alive through over-reliance upon the printed word and crystallized, formerly living thought. You go through, you don't skip over!" - Submitted by James Gillen

From The Writing of the Heart

"If I want to spring over that which is an affair of the human soul and to take at once the highest step into the divine, humility may very easily vanish from me, and, in its place, pride step in; vanity may easily install itself. May the Anthroposophical Society also be a starting point in this higher sphere; above all, may it avoid all that has so easily crept into [another movement], in the way of pride, vanity, ambition and want of earnestness in receiving that which is the highest Wisdom. May the Anthroposophical Society avoid all this because from its very starting point it has already considered that the settlement with Maya is an affair for the human soul itself." - Rudolf Steiner, The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul.

This is a very subtle and complex statement and touches upon deep problems within the Society, movement and individuals as a result of the unresolved tension between the soul and its personal elements and the direct work in the highest, most objective Michaelic Wisdom, a work that begins immediately, with ones first exposure to Anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner warns here that many who come at once to this Wisdom will be shrouded in a kind of arrogance and egotism if they have not first worked with and given breath to vital elements within their souls, elements that require what the higher Wisdom refers to as Maya, that require the material world. Self-knowledge surely means not only understanding of the microcosm in the human being ("Know thyself") but knowledge of ones own individual soul and its needs or what it desires to experience in the Maya, in the outer world of God's Creation. This then should find healthy expression within the higher striving, continuously comparing itself with the exemplars, the great teachers. - Martha Keltz

"Transformation, not imitation." - Gotthard Killian

https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/group/themes.html

1
Rudolf Steiner Incarnations – An Overview

Derived from chapter 3 of the book "The Battle for the Soul" by Bernard Lievegoed

1. Enkidu / Eabani - companion of Gilgamesh, @ 3000 years before Christ
2. Cratylus - teacher of a young Plato
3. Aristotle - teacher of Alexander (Ita Wegman), and the founder of Lyceum
4. Schionatulander - (Sigune = Ita Wegman) (Parzival)
5. Thomas Aquinas - Christianization of Aristotlian philosophy
6. Rudolf Steiner - with Kali Yuga ended, a new revelation becomes possible

There was a book written titled "Rudolf Steiner's Mission and Ita Wegman" by Margarete & Erich Kirchner-Bockholt, published in 1997. It covers the relationship over many incarnations between Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman. It can be purchased on the Rudolf Steiner Bookstore website.

Bobby Matherne wrote a review of the book in 2010. I have included that review below in Appendix: Part I.

Robert "Bobby" Matherne died in November of 2019. It is with great respect that I share his work here.

2
The Beginnings: The Atlantean Cataclysms and the Ages Following

Source: https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/articles/index.html

Article by Martha Keltz

It should be stated from the beginning that many sections of this article are freely-rendered narratives based on long and careful study of the works of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). These sections include some original contributions and ideas which, however, always remain within the flow of the thoughts and discoveries given by Rudolf Steiner throughout many different lectures and books. Thus the narratives are based on the foundations set down for Spiritual Science.

In accordance with the spiritual science or Anthroposophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, there are in true human evolution on earth seven Great Epochs and within each great epoch, beginning with the time of mid-Lemuria, seven Cultural Ages can be identified. In anthroposophical literature the cultural ages are sometimes referred to as cultural epochs, but for purposes of clarity they will be designated here as ages. Regarding modern chronological time measurement, the living, dynamic nature of the spiritual planets and universe along with the deep differences between the physical world and spiritual perceptions and manifestations, are all factors that resist rigid formulae and exact measurements in time and space. Mathematics cannot describe reality. It can only give an approximation of reality as it limits itself to, and even hypothetically extends beyond, the mechanics of visible, empirical, testable phenomena (see quotation below). Ultimately there can be no conflicts and serious discrepancies between the findings of physical and spiritual sciences because the physical contains and reflects the spiritual, that is, behind and within every physical phenomenon is the sustaining spiritual world. Thus, in the end, spiritual science and physical science (scientific materialism) will prove one another out.

It is essential to understand that there is no time or space in the higher spiritual worlds and that spiritual beings are working simultaneously in past, present and future, in the eternal now.

"It should not, however, be imagined that in that primeval epoch [Hyperborean] the earth's movement around the sun was at all like that of the present. The conditions were then quite different. It is, however, useful to realize here that the movements of the heavenly bodies arise as a result of the relationships the spiritual beings inhabiting them bear to one another. The heavenly bodies are brought into such positions and movements through soul and spirit causes that the spiritual states are enabled to unfold themselves in the physical world." - An Outline of Occult Science.

"It would lead too far if I were to describe to you how these successive periods are directed and regulated by what is called in modern astronomy the precession of the equinoxes. This is connected with the position of the earth's axis in relation to the axis of the ecliptic, with mighty processes in the constellation of neighboring celestial bodies; and there are definite times when, on account of the particular position of the earth's axis in relation to these other bodies of the cosmic system, the distribution of warmth and cold on our earth is radically changed. This position of the earth's axis in relationship to neighboring stars causes the climatic conditions to change. In the course of something over 25,000 years, the axis of the earth describes a kind of conical or spherical movement, so that conditions undergone by the earth at a certain time are undergone again, in a different form and indeed at a higher stage, after 25,000 to 26,000 years [the Platonic year]. But between these great periods of time there are always shorter periods... [The] process does not go forward in absolute, unvarying continuity... In the seventh millennium before Christ there was a very specially important astronomical epoch - important because, on account of the constellation brought about by the relative position of the earth's axis to the neighboring stars, the climatic conditions on earth culminated in the Atlantean cataclysm. This happened six to eight thousand years before our era [AD] and the effects of it continued for long ages... This was the greatest physical transformation of all, the most drastic action of the macrocosm upon the physical earth." - Occult History.

"By 'earth' is to be understood that condition of our planet when it can support men in their form of today." - Cosmic Memory.

"Life is today accelerating. On earth life becomes slower and slower to the point at which self-consciousness develops. Then the speed increases again. Today man has already passed the time of the greatest slowness of his development." - Cosmic Memory.

"The paths of the heavenly bodies must be traced ever anew, varying all the time. There is, in the solar or planetary system, a contrast between the tendency to become rigid and the tendency to be ever variable, ever escaping from its established form... The visible planet is only a specialized part of the whole, like the area of germination in the germinal vesicle of the human embryo... What is visible in the heavens is no more than a fragmentary manifestation of cosmic space, which in reality is ever filled with substance... The true form of movement of the earth in the year's course will be the lemniscate... The earth is following the sun as a lemniscate... If I managed to draw this lemniscatory system in a precise form... it would at most be true at the present time... the coming ice age [on the basis of 2,160 years, during the Scorpio age of the sixth great epoch] would require me to modify the system not a little... We must have a qualitative, not a quantitative mathematics... Mathematics can regulate my approach to reality; it does not constitute reality. Man cannot be excluded from the picture!..." - Astronomy in Relation to Other Sciences.

"It cannot be emphasized enough too strongly that spiritual research is nowhere in contradiction with the facts of natural science." - Cosmic Memory.

"Spiritual science leads us back to an earth which, indeed, at its starting point, was not only full of life, but also spiritualized, impregnated by spirit, so that we have to trace back earth evolution to an originally spiritualized earth being... The whole earth matter was, so to say, a living but still unformed substance, and spiritual science must imagine, aside from this unshaped substance, that which we call the formative principle, the transcendent formative principle as something purely spiritual at the starting point of earth evolution... This reciprocal effect between spirit and matter - natural science of the future will prove this." - The Origin of the Animal World in the Light of Spiritual Science.

Great Epochs and Their Cultural Ages

The length of each of the seven cultural ages is approximately 2,160 years, this length, as cited above, measured by the precessions of the equinoxes. 2,160 years is the time that the sun takes to pass through each of the 12 constellations of the classic Zodiac, which would make the age of at least our post-Atlantean great epoch 7 x 2,160 or approximately 15,120 years in length. Similar time passage to our day, while slower, may have begun after the middle point of the Lemurian epoch. "Twelve ages ago the sun was in the same position, so that towards the end of the Lemurian epoch there were conditions similar to ours." - Ancient Myths. Rudolf Steiner is here referring to the changes from Aries to Pisces. The change from astronomical "head," Ram, to "feet," Fish, is described by him as an extreme changeover. This occurred in our post-Atlantean epoch between the Greco-Roman and our present cultural age, the fifth.

The great epochs are as follows:

Polarean
Hyperborean
Lemurian
Atlantean
Post-Atlantean
Sixth Great Epoch
Seventh Great Epoch

Rudolf Steiner stated that the final event of the Atlantean cataclysm occurred in the "later ice age," and modern science dates the last ice age to approximately 10,000 years ago. "[The] Atlantean catastrophe occurred in the time commonly known as the later ice age... the last act in the downfall of the Atlantean continent... which continent forms today the floor of the Atlantic Ocean... These happenings lie much less far behind us than is generally believed. The cataclysms completely changed the face of the earth... Of the two earliest following cultural ages [see below] we have no trace in historical tradition. The Vedas are but an echo from those ancient times... During the 2160 years that followed the Atlantean catastrophe [the Indian age] mankind can be said to have been capable of development in a way quite different from what was possible later." - World History.

Therefore the final Atlantean cataclysm can be stated to have occurred sometime between 9387 and 7227 BC, when the sun was rising at the spring equinox in the constellation of Leo, which preceded Cancer. For a certain number of years - approximately 773 years until the beginning of the Indian age and to a lesser degree within the first two cultural ages - geologic upheavals would have gradually settled and the preceding periods of time would have been recapitulated. This recapitulation is in accordance with a law of evolution: preceding stages of development must be reviewed or recapitulated before forward progress or further development can begin. - see Occult Science.

The seven post-Atlantean cultural ages:

Indian Age - Crab, Cancer
7227 - 5067 BC

Persian Age - Twins, Gemini
5067 - 2907 BC

Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian Age - Bull, Taurus
2907 - 747 BC

Greco-Latin Age - Ram, Aries
747 BC - 1413 AD

Anglo-Saxon and Germanic Age - Fish, Pisces
1413 AD - 3573 AD

Russian/Slavic Age - Water, Aquarius
3573 AD - 5733 AD

American Age - Sea-Goat, Capricorn
5733 AD - 7893 AD

It should be noted here again that future ages may proceed at a faster rate of time than is the case today, just as epochs and ages in the primeval past proceeded at a slower rate. In the evolution of humanity, the Indian age is related to the American age, the Persian to the Russian/Slavic age, the Egypto-Chaldean to the Germanic age (our time), while the Greco-Latin age, during which occurred the Mystery of Golgotha, is unique and incomparable.

There were three prior planetary embodiments of Earth, called Saturn, Sun and Moon, and after Earth, in the future, there will be three further embodiments, called Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. - see Occult Science.

The Polarean, Hyperborean and early Lemurian epochs were closer to a purely spiritual existence and thus cannot be measured by physical science. The Polarean epoch recapitulated the prior Saturn embodiment of Earth; the Hyperborean the Sun embodiment and the Lemurian the Moon embodiment. Generally, the Polarean epoch developed the mineral kingdom, the Hyperborean the plant kingdom, the Lemurian the reptile and lower animal kingdoms, and the Atlantean the higher animals, mammals, and the stabilization of the present-day human form. The nature of life will surely point to many variations, exceptions and paradoxes in these developments, as is true for later periods of time.

How does geology, through radiometric age determination and radiocarbon dating, arrive at the figure of, i.e., 65.5 million years ago (mya) for the Cenozoic era (development of mammals)? This era is believed by Guenther Wachsmuth to equate to the Atlantean epoch, yet Rudolf Steiner places Atlantis much more recently in time, with the final cataclysm occurring approximately 10,000 years ago. Answers begin with: 1. the correct understanding of the relationship of the spiritual ethereal or etheric world - the world of formative forces - with the denser physical world. Can radial effects of spiritual etherisation be measured? Densification of matter is a process of contraction, but this is balanced with radiating or expanding force in equal measure. 2. Suspensions of time or small pralayas, during which the solar system may go into something like a suspended animation, thus enabling the macrocosm to make necessary adjustments; these pralayas are connected with the ice ages, smaller and larger, 3. the fact that there is no past, present and future in the higher spiritual worlds; all are contained within the eternal now. See the section below on Radiocarbon Dating.

At the beginning of the solar system all of the planets, including the Sun and Moon, were united for the coming evolution of Earth and humanity. To assist various Beings, all at different stages of their evolutions, as well as differing kinds of human beings, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars and other planetary bodies broke away from this union of spheres. The Sun departed between the middle and the end of the Hyperborean epoch, followed by Venus and Mercury. These later cosmic processes would have brought the Hyperborean epoch to a close. The causes for these later departures were the same as for the outer planets, as well as the fact that the Moon was bringing increasing solidification. "All human souls would have left Earth, had it not been for the severance of the Moon." However, some Beings remained within the sphere of the Moon for their purposes, including certain highly advanced Beings. - see Occult Science. From the early to the middle period of the Lemurian epoch the Moon was gradually extruded from Earth, from the area that is known today as the world's largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean. - see Cosmic Memory.

Lemuria was located in what is today the Indian Ocean, between the Islands of Madagascar, in southeast Africa, and Sri Lanka, in southeast India. While this continent was turbulent, with dense air, thin crust and many volcanic fires, humanity could survive in certain areas that were free of volcanic activity. Highly developed spiritual leaders directed progress and isolated a small group of Lemurians to be the ancestors of the coming Atlantean race. Prior to the destruction of this continent in fiery volcanic eruptions, this chosen group was led northwestward to Atlantis. Other peoples may have survived on other parts of the globe, and also through additional migrations, such as to Africa and India. The advancements in human evolution which were worked into the Atlantean group would have been gradually transferred to other surviving peoples through their newborn.

The Atlantean Cataclysms

What is called the Fall of humanity, which means the descent into matter and the loss of direct guidance from the spiritual world, from God, should have occurred around the mid-point of the Atlantean epoch. However, on account of the interference of Lucifer, who brings freedom to humanity - as is the intent of the Father God - the fall occurred much earlier in time, at the mid-point of the Lemurian epoch. Humanity divided into two sexes and acquired knowledge of good and evil prematurely, ultimately leading to terrible errors during the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs and in certain dark periods of the ages following. The division of the sexes and the fall into materialism, however, was inevitable for the evolution of consciousness and could not be avoided. The Mystery of Golgotha, the death of the Savior God, Christ, on the cross, should have occurred at the mid-point of the Atlantean epoch, but of necessity occurred much later in time, during the Greco-Roman age. - see The Christ Impulse and the Development of the Ego-Consciousness.

During the time of Atlantis humanity was guided principally by leaders or Initiates functioning out of certain mystery centers that were named after the planetary spheres from which the leaders originated. These mystery centers were called Oracles (Latin oraculum, "a place where the intentions of spiritual Beings are perceived."- RS), i.e., there were the Venus and Mercury Oracles. The leaders were led by higher Beings who dwelt purely in the spiritual worlds. There was also an important Oracle called the Vulcan Oracle, led by a higher Being who still lives in the surrounding sphere of the Earth; thus the visions of this Oracle were directed towards the Earth. Sphere means that an invisible, planetary spiritual sphere of living Beings is co-mingling with the sphere of Earth, yet is also distinctly separate from the Earth. The physical planet that can be seen, such as Mars, is only a fragment of the planetary sphere itself. As quoted above, "The visible planet is only a specialized part of the whole, like the area of germination in the germinal vesicle of the human embryo..." Could "aliens" from other planets be the normally invisible lower spiritual beings from, i.e., the warring sphere of Mars, managing to do a great deal of mischief, even malice, in the sphere of Earth?

There was an important mystery center of the Atlantean or Sun Mysteries that was central to all of the other mystery schools, as the Sun is central in the solar system. These mysteries were led by the Christ Initiates.

Quite unlike today, the physical bodies of human beings in early and mid-Atlantean times were malleable or changeable and translucent. The air was very dense, the water thin. The watery or misty atmosphere allowed for the malleability of the bodies; inner thoughts and feelings could change the outer appearance. This is true of many marine animals today, whose physical forms can change continuously and rapidly depending on their intention or what they are experiencing. For example, the bodies of certain squid, Cephalopoda, can be greyish and opaque in appearance or change to become fiery-warm in color and translucent. This changeability can occur in a watery environment but is far less possible in the earthly environment of today, and not possible at all for higher animals and human beings, who essentially hardened or densified into their present forms near the end of the Atlantean epoch. Prior to this time of densification or solidification there can be found no physical traces whatsoever of Atlantis or Atlantean humanity. However there is abundant evidence from what has survived or been handed down, generation to generation, from very early cultures who were still influenced by the Atlantean heritage. It is a matter of listening to and understanding what the stones "speak."

"Toward the middle of the Atlantean period of evolution, a great calamity began gradually to overwhelm mankind. The secrets of the Initiates, laws whereby the higher Beings guided the forces of nature, were enlisted in the service of... mistaken needs and passions... Even Initiates succumbed. A widespread corruption of humanity ensued and the evil grew to greater and greater dimensions... Mighty and ominous powers of nature were let loose, catastrophes of air and water." - Occult Science. Most detrimental of all was the betrayal of the Vulcan secrets, which concentrated upon the things of the Earth. The Vulcan betrayal opened the gates to lower beings who managed to attain great influence and deprived man more and more of feelings for anything spiritual. Since the middle of the Atlantean epoch Ahriman and these ahrimanic beings have been invisibly active as opponents of the middle path, the Christ stream, the path between the extremes of Lucifer and Ahriman. During that time, fear was instilled into humanity by Ahriman (Satan). "Fear is a direct consequence of error." - see Atlantis, The Fate of a Lost Land.

As countermeasure to the enormous evil influences was the sanctuary of the Christ Oracle.

While humanity stood upright by the time of mid-Lemuria, after the extrusion of the Moon, Atlanteans were not strongly united with the physical body, but dwelled outside of the body or within the etheric or formative forces body. Thus they could control the life forces and the forces of reproduction; they could put the germinal energy of plants, living organisms and animals into the service of their technology and their warfare - but especially the forces of the plant (etheric) kingdom. Rudolf Steiner writes that they could not split a log in half with physical strength but could do so through the use of magical powers, powers over nature. The widespread selfish use of these powers resulted in the Atlantean cataclysms, which began with warnings enough, as vast numbers of survivors of storms, floods and earthquakes began migrating eastward to Europe, Africa and Asia and westward to the American continents. Some of these migrants had coarser physical bodies that had densified too early in Atlantean times and these distinct races of peoples did not survive, while the souls that occupied these bodies were able to reincarnate into other surviving races. Science has produced evidence of these extinct peoples, i.e., Neanderthal man. In these primeval times distinctions of race and racial qualities were important, and in the post-Atlantean Indian age these distinctions were reflected in the caste system. Nowadays race distinction, like the caste system, is grossly outdated, and such distinctions have meaning today only for the evil, and hence to evil or wrong purposes. In the distant future humanity will divide into two races, the good and the evil races. The horrendous acts against certain races and peoples in our time, including endless controversies surrounding issues of race, could be stemming from the stark fear and dread harbored, consciously or subconsciously, by the already-cast members of this future evil race, in regard to their being marked physically as evil, in regard to the inevitable fact that in future embodiments they will carry the "mark of the beast." To use terminology from the science of psychology, racism is a projection and a reaction-formation as conscious or subconscious response to this inevitability. However, while certain individuals are already markedly evil, most people today still have a choice.

"It was during the Atlantean epoch that, very slowly and gradually, the Earth began to wear an appearance more or less similar to that which we see around us today." - The East in Light of the West.

"There were giants in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." - Genesis 6:4. Two different kinds of giants can be identified at this point: the Atlantean giant whose huge size was inversely proportional to his mental capacities, and the giants or titans that resulted from the union of fallen angels and the daughters of men. The former did not survive beyond Atlantis; the latter seem to have survived well beyond Atlantis, and were both good and evil. But even today (while no reflection on mental capacities) there are human beings who are giants, 7' 4" and even taller in height. If one could journey back physically to the time of Atlantis and not long after its destruction, and could wander about the many different lands of earth, all sorts of human and semi-human creatures, appealing or grotesque - even monstrous - would be seen. What a stupendous travelogue could be written of such a journey. As well as giants, there would be very small human beings; there would be offspring of humans and animals; there would be satyrs, centaurs and other fantastic creatures as depicted in archaic sculpture, illustration and literature. Demons, such as are seen on gargoyles, would be visible, and there would still be Cyclops. Men would be engaged in battles against the evil giants, i.e., David and Goliath - Samuel 1:17, and good giants would be seen constructing the massive walls of certain ancient cities, walls that have survived to this day, such as at Sacsahuaman, Peru.

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is described as being two-thirds god and one-third man and was certainly one of the mighty men of old. However, this is the time of the third millennium BC and Gilgamesh is attractive in appearance and fully human. "When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Shamash the glorious sun endowed him with beauty, Adad the god of the storm endowed him with courage, the great gods made his beauty perfect, surpassing all others, terrifying like a great wild bull. Two thirds they made him god and one third man." Taurus or the bull is the astronomical sign of the Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian cultural age, the third cultural age. Rudolf Steiner stated that spiritual perception of Gilgamesh in the Akasha record revealed that he was a centaur in the lower half of his body, while this was not visible in his physical form. A most critical point in the completion of the creation of man in the "image of God" is the Mystery of Golgotha.

See the article, The Epic of Gilgamesh, on this site. (The next chapter here, below ~A)

The most important of the migrations occurred prior to the final cataclysms of Atlantis that led to universal flooding, when the great Atlantean Christ Initiate led a chosen group of people eastward to the area known today as Central Asia. These were the people of the "fifth root race" or of the fifth great epoch. The human leader of these people is also known as the biblical "Noah," but he in turn would have been guided by a superhuman Being in the spiritual world known as "Manu." Such cooperative working may be traced to the archetype of the great twins, Gemini, Akashagarbha and Ksitigharba, the heavenly divine and his human counterpart or twin, i.e., Manu and Mani. "Leaders who direct the evolution of mankind are called Manus. There was a Manu of our Fifth Great Epoch. He is not a man among men, but of superhuman beings who have attained to a very lofty stage. These superhuman beings are of two kinds: they are called 'Holy Spirits' and 'Sons of God.' " - Apocalyptic Writings.

Thus the divine leader who lead the migrations eastward from Atlantis was the Manu of our Fifth Great Epoch, working with the below-embodied Noah or Mani. During this time, in addition to a select group of human beings, animals representing the seven principal animal group souls were likewise saved, for there was to be continued work within the animal kingdom. It goes without saying that in various other areas of the world, isolated groups of human beings, plants and animals, would have survived the final cataclysms, but Manu's work was directed toward the appropriate forms for the future, toward the new epoch and the true evolution of earth and humanity.

Studying a map of Central Asia on Wikipedia today, from the Caucasus in the northwest to Mongolia in the northeast, the range of the Himalayan Mountains are seen southward, with Pakistan and India just below. Central Asia is within the scope of the wider Eurasian Continent. "[It] has historically been tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road. As a result, it has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe, Western Asia, South Asia and East Asia... Central Asia is an extremely large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains, vast deserts and especially treeless, grassy steppes... Since Central Asia is not buffered by a large body of water, temperature fluctuations are more severe." Central Asia also has the geographic extreme of "the world's shortest distance between non-frozen desert and permafrost."

Since the time of the migrations occurred during the last ice age, it seems likely from a description of the land features of Central Asia today that there would have been safe areas in this region. Either at this time or in later periods there was a withdrawal of the leaders into isolated regions of the Himalayas. However, what we know of Himalayan heritage today is only the faintest echo of those earliest spiritual heights. "In those days, five, six, seven millennia ago, the culture in Asia was the same as it was on the Atlantean continent. Over there in Asia they had a culture that has survived in the clefts and underground caves of Tibet... However, this culture was really only appropriate to those ancient times when people lived under very different conditions than they do today." Gradually this culture, to the time of the Dalai Lama, deteriorated morally. "[One can] discover great scientific secrets which people knew in the early days. These are engraved on the rocks, but Europeans have only been granted access on the rarest occasions. [It is necessary] to develop this knowledge in a new form... It can be deciphered using the science of the spirit, but there one discovers things for oneself, so the old things are not needed." - From Beetroot to Buddhism. By the time of the first century BC, the lofty guiding forces of the post-Atlantean epoch were concentrated within the Judeo-Christian stream, preparing for the Mystery of Golgotha. "At the same time in which the Jewish prophet [Jeschu ben Pandira] lived, in the century before Christ, we find here a reference to the great ancient Atlantean initiation of Wod-Wodha-Odin... In Asia, the W is a B, Wodha=Bodha=Buddha. Buddhism at that time in Asia appeared as a throwback to the Atlantean time... And where great things, great pillars appeared in Tibet, we have a modern, monumental expression of old Atlantean culture." - from Nachlass-Verwaltung.

Odin or Wotan was originally a god of the northern continental region of Atlantis, a region later known as Niflheim, meaning eternal ice, mist and darkness. This northern part of Atlantis was located west of Ireland and according to theosophy was the last region of Atlantis to sink beneath the ocean, while the inhabitants migrated to Ireland and the countries of Northern Europe. Odin had one eye, as did the Celtic god Lugus, and was a god of war. Myths and accounts have come down through the ages regarding a deadly war between the northern and southern continental regions of Atlantis. This war was especially instrumental in the downfall of Atlantis as there was immoral use of etheric forces as weapons of war. - see Wellesley Tudor Pole. The southern regions were west of Africa. The quote above suggests that migrations of these peoples likewise extended down from the north as far as Mongolia and the Himalayas and that their pagan beliefs may have gradually been altered through the good influences of Buddhism. The horse was especially important to the Asian peoples and this animal was developed in this area into its present form. A 2008 program about dogs on Nova, PBS, traced the origin of the dog to Central Asia. These histories tend to affirm that Central Asia, including Mongolia, was a safe area.

Odin was the god who established the nine regions of the underworld - which are also known as Niflheim - probably during the downfall of Atlantis and after the time of its submergence. Ice, mist and darkness are associated with Ahriman. Odin banished the giant and the goddess Hel to this underworld, and she became its ruler. Hel is associated with the opposite of ice: fire and Lucifer.

The Book of Enoch

The best ancient account of Manu/Noah may be The Book of Enoch. The book, in three Ethiopic copies, was brought out of Abyssinia by James Bruce in 1773. It was translated into German in 1835, and translated into English by R.H. Charles in 1896. It was written in the second century BC, but exactly describes and foretells the emergence of the Messiah in the section The Book of Parables. The anthroposophist will recognize this source of inspiration as similar to that of Revelation. The book is also validated from references to it in the Old Testament, such as Jude 14:15.

The book details the causes of the downfall of Atlantis and humanity, the Fall of the Angels, Sheol or the Underworld, the Tree of Life, the heavenly city, and much else. It was thrown out by the Council of Laodicea, a gathering of church clerics in 363-364 AD, who also wanted to omit Revelation from Christian teachings. Perhaps the words of John in Revelation 22:18 had their effect: "I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."

From Fragment of the Book of Noah: Enoch writes that his son Methuselah chose a wife for his son, Lamech, and that Lamech's wife "...bore a son and his body was white as snow and red as the blooming of a rose, and the hair of his head and his long locks were white as wool, and his eyes beautiful. And when he opened his eyes, he lighted up the whole house like a sun, and the whole house was very bright. And thereupon his arose in the hands of the midwife, opened his mouth, and conversed with the Lord of Righteousness." Lamech was afraid of him and went to his father, Methuselah, who went to Enoch, and Enoch said: "And this son who has been born unto you shall be left on earth [after the great destruction] and his three children shall be saved with him... call his name Noah."

According to the teachings of the Esoteric School, Lamech is a manifestation of Cain: Cain, Lamech, Hiram Abiff, Lazarus-John.

When the submergence of Atlantis and the flooding had passed by, and a lengthy amount of time for re-adjustment and re-settlement had also passed, the first post-Atlantean cultural age - the Indian age - arose, approximately 7227 BC. This age was led by seven men who had been chosen by Manu/Mani; they were known as the Seven Holy Rishis. They were sent from the Mystery Center of the Christ Oracle, in Central Asia, southward into India. As leaders of humanity, and in preparation for the later ages, Initiates and men were also directed by the Christ Oracle into Egypt, Africa, Mesopotamia and parts of Europe, including Ireland. Rather than detail the early cultural ages here, the lecture series by Rudolf Steiner, Ancient Myths: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution, especially Lecture IV, is recommended for further study. This lecture also discusses the astronomical signs in relation to the development of parts of the human body, i.e., the Indian age and the sign of Cancer, signifying the thorax. These lectures are fully available online through the Rudolf Steiner Archives. Also, see Occult Science for many further details regarding the cultural ages.

Recorded history began in the third cultural age. The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered the oldest surviving epic poem in world literature.

In Occult History Rudolf Steiner states that there is a connection between the Atlantean cataclysms and the year 1250 AD. Modern science has determined that there was a "little ice age" starting in the 13th century, and consider that 1250 was the year when pack ice began advancing southwards. From Wikipedia, "There was a little ice age... Starting in the 13th century North Atlantic pack ice began advancing southwards, as did glaciers in Greenland. The three years of torrential rains beginning in 1315 ushered in an era of unpredictable weather in Northern Europe which did not lift until the 19th century." "During the Atlantean cataclysm the Spirits of Form [of the hierarchy Exusiai or Elohim] worked so little into the souls of men... and that is not so readily noticed as the upheavals of the continents. The younger hierarchies held the field at that time... In the year 1250 there was an impetus and then an ebbing away." - World History. The impetus occurred in medieval scholasticism and in the rise of materialism, which was "dark," but these were contrasted with the rise of genuine Rosicrucianism. Kali Yuga or the great dark age lasted from approximately 3103 BC to 1899 AD.

How Old is Humanity?

According to spiritual science, the present-day physical body, in appearance, is not anywhere near as old as some scientists are asserting, whereas the age of humanity, in progressive non-physical evolutionary phases - "spiritualized earth beings" - dates to the beginning of the earth itself. From another perspective, the physical body, in development, dates from beyond the time of Earth; its development began during the Saturn evolution of earth. There are few physical remains of human bodies that can be dated prior to the end of Atlantean times and the beginning of the Indian cultural age in approximately 7227 BC. A mummy was discovered in 1940 in Nevada (U.S.) and is called the Spirit Cave Man. Radiocarbon dating reveals the mummy to be 9,400 years old, dating back to the year 7400 BC. "The mummy was wearing moccasins and shrouds of woven marsh plants. The weave of the shrouds indicates that it was made on a loom." This age estimation is probably accurate, as the mummy's clothing was available for the radiocarbon dating. "If we look into early post-Atlantean times, we would find that men built their dwelling places by methods very different from those used in modern life. In those days they made use of all kinds of growing things. Even when building palaces they summoned nature to their aid by utilizing plants with branches of trees and so on, whereas today men must build with broken fragments." - The Etherisation of the Blood. The crania of two adults and a child found in Ethiopia, considered to be modern humans, are believed by science to be from 160,000 to 195,000 years old. This age estimation is probably false because the skulls were dated based upon volcanic ash found with the fossils. Volcanos and glaciation are factors that seriously interfere with accurate radiocarbon dating.

Concerning the Cro-Magnon man, found in caves in southwest France and believed to be the earliest modern man, the figure of 10,000 years old given for the age of these remains would seem to be accurate according to spiritual science. The range of 35,000 years in the estimated age, from 45,000 to 10,000 years, is too wide a range and indicates a problem in radiocarbon dating.

Radiocarbon Dating

"And God prepareth the man in His image; in the image of God He prepared him..." - Genesis 1:27, Young's Literal Translation.

God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. - see Genesis 1:1-2:3. According to Rudolf Steiner, each "day" can be said to measure billions of years using modern time calculations. To this can be added the idea that God's rest on the seventh day is referring to the concept of pralaya.

Even a quick search on the subject of radiocarbon dating reveals serious problems, serious questions about accuracy raised by scientists themselves. Conclusions would appear to be that radiocarbon dating best measures younger objects, with myriad difficulties encountered beyond 24,000 years ago. The following articles have appeared in scientific magazines and journals: de Vries, H.L., "Variation in Concentration of Radiocarbon Dating with Time and Location on Earth," 1958; Kovar, Anton J., "Problems in Radiocarbon Dating at Teotihuacan," 1966; J.Warren Beck, et al: "Extremely Large Variations of Atmospheric 14-C Concentration During the Last Glacial Period," Science Magazine, June, 2001. In the last cited article J. Warren Beck writes that both volcanos and glaciation interfere with accurate radiocarbon dating, in addition to - simply stated - the countless, variable factors of life, or the living Earth. "[Scientists] believe that the ratio of stable and radioactive carbon in the atmosphere may have changed over the last 50 thousand years. This raises questions about the accuracy of dating for very old objects."

The scientist Willard Libby (1908-1980) and his colleagues at the University of Chicago, 1949, are credited with the discovery and development of radiocarbon dating. He accurately measured the age of wood from an ancient Egyptian royal barge whose age was known from historical documents; thus the barge was not very old. Willard Libby also worked on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University and was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. Not to discredit the value of radiocarbon dating, Libby may nevertheless be another of the 20th century scientists of death, most active during the dreadful 1940's and 1950's. These generally are the scientists who deny the spiritual basis of all creation; disregard the Bible and other sacred texts; teach youth that man evolved from apes, rather than the truth, which is that apes devolved from man; and believe only what can be seen with the eyes and/or is consistent or repeatable in scientific experiment, etc. If one-third or one-half of humanity is continuously, vehemently arguing against the scientific theory of evolution - pointing to accounts from sacred texts; denying that modern man is millions of years old; teaching that man is created in the image of God - then the scientists should admit that something is seriously wrong with their theories. It is a similar case with the unending abortion issue, on which humanity is divided. If something was not terribly, morally wrong about abortion, one-half or two-thirds of humanity would not be protesting against it. Such divisions mean that something is seriously wrong.

On an All About Archaeology internet site, a scientist wrote: "We must assume to know that the rate at which carbon-14 decays into nitrogen-14 hasn't somehow changed throughout the unobservable past. We must also assume to know what the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 was in the environment in which our specimen lived during its lifetime. And finally, we must assume that there hasn't been any contamination in the specimen we are attempting to date. Scientific research has called the first two assumptions into question... the use of dendrochronology [tree ring dating] to calibrate carbon dating is itself fraught with uncertainties."

From Physics World: "Carbon Clock Could Show the Wrong Time: Carbon dating is a mainstay of geology and archaeology - but an enormous peak discovered in the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere between 45,000 and 11,000 years ago casts doubt on the biological carbon cycle that underpins the technique."

Recently there was a program on Nova, PBS: Mystery of the Megaflood. From a Nova internet site: "About 15,000 years ago, in the waning millennia of the Ice Age, a vast lake known as Glacial Lake Missoula suddenly burst through the ice dam that plugged it at one end. In the space of just 48 hours, geologists believe, the collapse sent 500 cubic miles of water cascading across the Pacific Northwest, creating overnight such unusual landscapes as the scablands of eastern Washington."

Spiritual science and physical science will ultimately prove one another out; open minds, great tolerance, are needed on both sides. "...we shall have a rugged time of it, all of us, in keeping these gardens in our villages, in keeping open the manifold, intricate, casual paths, to keep these flourishing in a great, open, windy world; but this, as I see it, is the condition of man; and in this condition we can help, because we can love, one another." - J. Robert Oppenheimer (American theoretical physicist and director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often called the "father of the atomic bomb".)

Paintings and Illustration by Martha Keltz, Studio Editions.

References

All books and lectures are by Rudolf Steiner unless otherwise noted.

1. An Outline of Occult Science, 1910.
2. Occult History, Lectures, 1910.
3. Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man, 1904.
4. Astronomy in Relation to Other Sciences, Lectures, 1921.
5. The Christ Impulse and the Development of the Ego-Consciousness, Lectures, 1909.
6. The Origin of the Animal World in the Light of Spiritual Science, Lectures, 1912
7. Ancient Myths: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution, Lectures, 1918.
8. World History and the Mysteries in the Light of Anthroposophy, Lectures, 1910.
9. The Evolution of Mankind, by Guenther Wachsmuth, Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, 1961.
10. Atlantis: The Fate of a Lost Land and Its Secret Knowledge, Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007.
11. The East in Light of the West, Lectures, 1909.
12. The Book of Enoch, R.H. Charles Translation, Skylark Books, 2003.
13. The First Esoteric School, 1904 - 1914, Etheric Dimensions Press, 2005.
14. The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N.K. Sandars, Penguin Epics, 1972.
15. Apocalyptic Writings, Lectures, 1904.
16. From Beetroot to Buddhism, Answers to Questions, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999.
17. Fragment from Nachlass-Verwaltung, Book 93a, page 261, translated by Martha Keltz.
18. Writing on the Ground, by Wellesley Tudor Pole, Neville Spearman Limited, 1968.
19. The Etherisation of the Blood, Lecture, 1911.
20. Science Magazine, June, 2001.
21. The Open Mind, by J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1955.

3
The Epic of Gilgamesh – He Who Saw the Deep

Source: https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/articles/gilgamesh.html

By Martha Keltz

"The cultures of the ancient Indian, Persian and Egyptian ages represent a descent from clairvoyant vision to the purely human vision of the Greek age. What begins with our own age, and must be attained in ever-increasing measure during the coming centuries and millennia, should be conceived as a reascent, a reattainment of forms of culture imbued with clairvoyance. The Egypto-Babylonian-Chaldean age is therefore to be regarded as the last stage of preparation for the essentially human culture of Greece." - Rudolf Steiner, Occult History.

Cosmic and Earthly Origins, Language, Gods

According to the Sumerian King List, the origins of Mesopotamia, in the geographical area of modern Iraq, date back millennia before the flood. Thus it appears that these prehistoric civilizations existed parallel with the later ages of the Atlantean epoch. The enormous amount of contemporary scholastic and scientific work regarding all aspects of Mesopotamian life, from mythology to recorded history, should likewise begin to cast light on the mysteries of Atlantis. As one delves deeply into studies of Sumerian, Akkadian, Chaldean and Babylonian histories, genuine understanding requires recognition of the Atlantean great epoch as fundamental, as vast panoramic background, as original source and bearer of all significant ancient cultures, of all spiritual wisdom. From the Atlantean epoch onwards, long into recorded history, water was the source of all wisdom, and union with the cosmos, with the spiritual world, was sought within the fresh, pure waters, within the sweet waters. Nowadays wisdom must be sought through the Spirit of the Earth.

The Sumerian King List was recorded by a scribe during the reign of King Utukhegal of Uruk in 2125 BC, during the time of the later Akkadian Empire. By 2125 BC the reigns of the kings occurred within the span of a single lifetime. However, long before the flood and beginning with the first city of Eridu, each kingship lasted for generations, with the name of the original king carried by his sons or spiritual descendants. The lifespan of the human being may then have been longer than today. Also, prior to the emergence of self-consciousness, as noted in the Atlantean Cataclysms article, there was a far slower passing of time as well as a different kind of memory. The List reveals that a flood swept over everything after the kingship had passed to Ubara-Tutu, and the dynasty of Kish is recorded as the first after the flood. Around 2600 BC the king En-me-barage-si is listed. He is the earliest ruler confirmed from epigraphical evidence. His son was Aga of Kish, and Aga was a contemporary of Gilgamesh. Because En-me-barage-si and Aga are named in the Epic, Gilgamesh is considered to be an actual historical king, the fifth king of Uruk who ruled in 2600 BC, or according to Rudolf Steiner, around the middle of the third cultural age.

The Sumerian language is considered by linguists to be a language isolate, which is defined as a natural language with no relation to other languages. It is the oldest of written languages and its use is dated from around 3100 to 2000 BC, to the time of the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur. A characteristic feature of the language is the large number of homophones, words with the same sound structure but with different meanings. Hence the scholars and authorities of today, such as Andrew George, can list many variations of the name Gilgamesh, all with different sounds, spellings and nuances of meaning. Similarly, in Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, the Greek gods have many different phonetic variations in their names, depending upon the intent or deed of the god. For example, in The Odyssey Hermes (Mercury) is called "speedy-comer," "fortune-bringer" and "giver of good things." Gilgamesh is Akkadian, and the Sumerian version of the name is Bilgames. Variations as to the meaning of Gilgamesh are: 1. the Fire-god is a commander, 2. the old man is a young man (der Alte ist ein junger Mann), 3. Gilga the hero, 4. the forebear was a hero, 5. search for life, 6. he who saw the deep, also the original title of the epic, 7. the offspring is a hero, 8. offshoot of the mes tree, 9. offspring of Mash, 10. the axe of Mash. "The Fire-god is a commander" was the meaning given by Dr. Stephen Langdon (1876-1937), who was translating the Epic in 1908. However, this interpretation has not been wholly accepted by other scholars. (A certain professor thought that the name Bilga-Mash was West Semitic and preferred his own interpretation, "the axe of Mash.") Andrew George writes that Gibil (related to ga-mes) was the fire god and should not refer to Gilgamesh. However, Rudolf Steiner related this name to the fiery spiritual Being who stands behind Gilgamesh, Marduk or the Archangel Michael, which places Langdon's interpretation in a much different light.

According to George, one version of the name seeks to associate Gilgamesh with the god Papilsag. Papilsag is a centaur and is represented in the constellation Sagittarius. Rudolf Steiner stated that Gilgamesh, and modern man, could be spiritually perceived in the symbol of the centaur, a symbol which indicates the division of humanity into higher and lower or animal selves. - see Occult History.

"The language of the ancient Sumerians... was like a primal human language, although even then not in complete purity... A tone or a sound evoked a definite feeling... In the personal element, feeling for language ceases." - Occult History.

After the flood, the fertility of the valley situated between the two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris - which also allowed for irrigation during dry periods - gave rise to new civilizations and Sumer arose from around the fifth to the third millennium BC, the latter marking the beginning of the third cultural age, called the Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian age. According to archaeologists, a serious flood occurred in Shuruppak, not far from Uruk, around 2900 BC. This was not the Deluge but may have been related to it, as the "little ice age" that began in 1250 is related to the last great ice age of 10,000 years ago. Dark shadows from this horrific past would have resurfaced. Rudolf Steiner stated that many ancient peoples left historical records or legends referring to a 'Flood' that took place around 3000 BC, and he relates this to the Kali Yuga of 3101 BC, the beginning of the dark age. The darkness was felt to be spreading over the people like a flood; many went to sleep and did not awaken. - see The Signature of Human Evolution.

The Chaldean Initiates established the sciences of astronomy, mathematics and measurement. It was they who discovered and taught that the sun rose at the vernal equinox of a given constellation for 2,160 years. During the third cultural age, the sun rose in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull. It goes without saying that the bull was one of the most significant symbols in Mesopotamian civilization and this animal is referred to repeatedly and powerfully in the epic. The spiritual focus for physical development during the Indian age was on the thorax, during the Persian age the focus was on the intestines and digestive processes, and during the third age on the larynx and speech. - Ancient Myths. As the Individuality behind Eabani emerges powerfully during the third age, an overall mission in regard to the development of the larynx and speech can be ascertained.

In India it was the great Hindu Initiates who taught that the year 3101 BC marked the beginning of the dark age, Kali Yuga. "It was the mission of the Babylonians to lead the spiritual world down to the physical plane... The Indian, Persian and Egyptian [cultural] epochs were periods of descent... Underlying external Babylonian civilization was a Chaldean Mystery-culture. But all was to be applied to earth, not for ascent into the spiritual world." - Occult History. The astronomy and mathematical sexagesimal system, the laws of measure, were all given in order to meet the needs of outer, practical life. The worship of the bull continued on into early pre-Christian times, and beyond, in the cults of Mithraism.

Uanna, Ea, Sophia, Marduk-Micha-el, and Enuma Elish

An extraordinary and unique divine-human Being established the first city and culture of Eridu. His name was Adapa, U-an, Uanna or Uanna-Adapa. The Greek version of this name, given by Berossus (third century BC) is his Babyloniaca, is Oannes. Uanna, the "fish-man," strongly suggests John, Baptist, and was the first of the antediluvian Seven Sages, or seven apkullu, alluded to in the third tablet of the incantation series Bit Meseri. The seven apkallu became associated with laying the foundations of the seven ancient cities: Eridu, Ur, Nippur, Kullab (part of Uruk), Kesh, Lagash and Shuruppak. In the Epic of Gilgamesh the seven sages are called "counselors," and in the earlier Sumerian poems, Enkidu is also a counselor and a spiritual servant to Gilgamesh. The name Adapa is interpreted, in Sumerian, as meaning "recovered from the water," a reference to the recovery of the Atlantean antediluvian wisdom, found beneath the briny sea, below the earth, in the sweet and pure waters, fountain of youth and wisdom. The god of wisdom, of the sweet waters, is the Sumerian Enki or the Akkadian Ea. Uanna and Enkidu (Akkadian Eabani) are the spiritual sons of Enki. Enki is associated with the Egyptian god Thoth, the Greek god Hermes and the Roman god Mercury. Ea and Uanna may be represented in the constellation Capricorn.

Oannes is described by Berossus as a man "whose whole body was that of a fish, that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail... He taught letters, sciences and arts of every kind; he taught the construction of cities, law, geometry [and] agriculture. After the sun had set he retired again into the sea and passed night there, for he was amphibious... After Oannes there appeared [others] like him. His voice and language were articulated and a human representation of him is preserved to this day. "

The illustration is after a relief in the temple of the god Ninurta at Kalhu (Biblical Calah), 883-859 BC. However, a perfectly-formed human being is depicted under the garment of the fish. Enkidu is associated with the fish-men or fish-apkallu, who are apparently depicted in the constellation Pisces Austrinus, with the same open mouth as is illustrated on the relief. The brightest star in Pisces Austrinus is Fomalhaut, associated in ancient Persia with Ahriman. The open mouth may indicate an ahrimanized or materialistic form of speech, for speech descended, became dispersed into many languages, and began to be used personally and profanely during the third cultural age (Tower of Babel). According to Rudolf Steiner, speech is to be redeemed and will again be sacred in the future, thus Pisces Austrinus continues to receive sweet water from the jug of Aquarius, sign of the Sixth Age. Enkidu is also associated with the god Ninurta, the war god and of the planet Saturn. The name Ninurta was "...The later form of Ningursu, a warrior and god of war, a herald, the south wind, and god of wells and irrigation. According to one poem Ninurta once dammed up the bitter waters of the underworld and conquered various monsters." - N.K. Sandars.

"Oannes is an emblem of priestly, esoteric wisdom; he comes out from the sea, because the 'great deep,' the water, typifies the secret doctrine." - Helena P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled.

Fomalhaut is one of the stars of the Cosmic Cross, or four cardinal points, associated with the four Archangels: Fomalhaut, Gabriel, South; Aldebaran, Michael, East; Regulus, Raphael, West; Antares, Uriel, North. "The tropical position of Fomalhaut (3 degrees Pis 52) is exactly conjunct with the Descendant of the Crucifixion of Christ." - T. Maiwald, J. Gillen.

Rudolf Steiner apparently preferred the name Eabani over Enkidu because of the significance of the sounds E A. In the lecture Michael, Sophia and Marduk, he stated that human beings at that time - from the beginning to about the middle of the third cultural age - experienced reality in sleep far more vividly than in waking life. This state of sleep was called Tiamat, while waking life was called Apsu. In Tiamat "Human beings were closer to truth and reality than when they lived their conscious life among minerals, plants and animals. Tiamat was nearer to the Ground of the world, more closely related to the human world than Apsu. Apsu was more remote. But in the course of time Tiamat underwent changes... demoniacal forms emerged, equine shapes with human heads, leonine forms with the heads of angels. These demoniacal forms that became hostile to human beings arose out of the warf and woof of Tiamat. Then there appeared in the world a powerful Being, Ea. Anyone today who has an ear for sounds can feel how the conjunction of these two vowels (E and A) points to that powerful Being who, according to those old Mystery teachings, stood at a person's side to help when the demons of Tiamat grew strong. Ea or Ia later became - if one anticipates the prefix 'Soph' - 'Soph-Ea.' - Sophia. Ea means, approximately, abstract wisdom, wisdom that permeates all things. 'Soph' is a particle that suggests (approximately) a state of being. Sophia, Sophea, Sopheia, the all-pervading, omnipresent wisdom sent to humanity her son, then known as Marduk, the son of Ea, wisdom: Marduk-Micha-el.

"...All these surging, mobile, demoniacal forms, conjoined as the mighty Tiamat, were arrayed against Marduk... All these demons together were envisaged as the adversary - a powerful Dragon embodying all the demoniacal powers born of Tiamat, the night. And this Dragon-Being, breathing fire and fury, advanced upon Marduk. Marduk-Micha-el first smote it with various weapons and then drove the whole force of his storm-wind into the Dragon's entrails, so that Tiamat burst asunder and was scattered abroad. 'The North Wind bore it to places undisclosed' [from Enuma Elish]. And so Marduk-Micha-el was able to create out of the civilization."

Most interpretive sources describe Ea as god of the freshwater subterranean ocean, while Tiamat, a female monster, is god of the salt water. "The waters of Apsu were thought of as held immobile underground by the 'spell' of Ea, in a death-like sleep." - N.K. Sandars. This could be an unintended allusion to the center of the Earth, where the Mother dwells within the realm of the golden Sun, Shamballa. The freshwater subterranean ocean, the underground, could be alluding to this Sun sphere as the source of day-consciousness. Then it was watery, now it is earthly. To enter consciously into this sphere it is first necessary to traverse the ever-deepening levels of the underworld. Dante's Inferno describes nine levels of the underworld in medieval times, but by Dante's time there is also Purgatory and Paradise.

Rudolf Steiner was certainly familiar with the Enuma Elish, which means "When on high heaven..." It is believed to have been written later in Mesopotamian history, around the 18th century BC. It was first published in English by George Smith in 1876. The Enuma Elish consists of seven tablets about Babylonian cosmology that were recovered from the library of Ashurbanipal. They reveal aspects of the Creation Myth or Genesis and record Marduk's battle with Tiamat. By Tablet V, Marduk is victorious and establishes the foundations for the new civilization. In Tablet VII, Marduk is given fifty names or spiritual dominions - "Let us then proclaim his fifty names!" - and each name is listed. The last given is Ea.

A temple built for Marduk in accordance with his exact specifications is described. From Babylonian Topographical Texts: "The temple itself is divided into four parts arranged around the four sides of a roofed court, each served by its own gateway. The rooms described in the text are six cellae or chapels and two other chambers: off the east side of the courtyard are the cellae of Marduk, Nabu and Tasmetum; to the north lie the chapels of Ea and Nuska, to the south that of Anu and Enlil. Behind the courtyard's west front are the tu'um and the staircase; the tu'um comprises two parts, an inner and an outer chamber..."

In addition to Ea (Mercury), other Mesopotamian gods include Anu, Father; Antu, Mother; Utu or Shamash, Sun; Nanna, Moon; Inanna or Ishtar, Venus; Gugalanna or Nergel, Mars; Enlil, Jupiter; Ningirsu or Ninurta, Saturn. There is a wealth of information about the Mesopotamian civilizations on the internet, revealing the tremendous amount of interest in this time period. There appears to be even more interest in ancient Egypt, one reason being that both of these civilizations have a deep occult connection with our fifth cultural age. - see Atlantean Cataclysms. However, one should be wary of certain "new age" informational sources that base a modern religious or belief system on, i.e., the gods of Mesopotamia, such as Ishtar. According to Rudolf Steiner, as noted above, an opposite direction is now occurring in human spiritual evolution, a reascent. Imagine a graph: the level of the rising curve (today) is exactly opposite the descending curve of the third millinneum BC. At the lowest point of the graph, between these two curves, is the Mystery of Golgotha.

About The Epic

The standard Epic of Gilgamesh is taken from the translation of Sumerian, and several contemporary languages, into Akkadian cuneiform by the scribe Sin-Liqe-Unninni, whose name means "Moon god, accept my plea," or "Sin [the Moon god] is the one who accepts a prayer." This translation is believed to have been done between 1300 and 1000 BC, and Sin-Liqe probably added some contributions of his own. In the nineteenth century tens of thousands of clay cuneiform tablets were excavated from what had been the library of the last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668-627 BC). Cuneiform was first deciphered in 1857, and German and English translations of the standard version, Tablets I through XI, became available not long thereafter. Tablet XII, Bilgames and the Netherworld, is generally not included in standard editions because many scholars do not understand how Gilgamesh could be communicating with Eabani after Eabani's death. As will be detailed below, Rudolf Steiner casts considerable light on these after-death communications and their deep significance for Gilgamesh. The initial public interest in the epic was due to its story of the Great Flood, which affirmed the account in the Bible. Another older Sumerian poem normally not included in the standard version is titled Bilgames and Akka (Aga). This will be touched upon below.

Upon reading the epic, it is best to work with a translation that reveals how much has been lost or damaged. It may be that some passages on the tablets were deliberately mutilated, such as the exact wording of Eabani's curse on Humbaba, or a certain detail about a god. A more "literal" translation will also reveal the numerous rhythmically repeated phrases. These repetitions of phrases were an aid to memory, for in the third cultural age people did not have the kind of memory that takes the consciousness back in time. Therefore orally transmitted rhythmic repetitions of sounds and meanings were essential and many of these were retained in the cuneiform. The Atlanteans also had no chronological memory of the past, but a vivid consciousness of the present moment, the "eternal now," far superior to our own consciousness of the present moment. This is one reason why prehistoric and ancient peoples left monuments, as these monuments served to function as localized memory. - see World History.

The translations of The Epic of Gilagmesh studied for this article are those of Nancy K. Sandars and Andrew R. George. The work of N.K. Sandars is poetically sensitive and intuitive. This slim Penguin Epics edition, first published in 1960, can be read as a first introduction to the material because the narrative flow is not interrupted. This can then be followed with Andrew George's translation, which draws together all the more recent discoveries that have been made toward the reconstruction and revivification of this ancient literary work. George's translation is thorough, clear and expert in all respects. It marks, in brackets, italics, ellipses, and asterisks, all that is lost, damaged, uncertain, and interpretive or freely rendered. He also brings in segments from a later or separate discovery in order to make the narration flow better. For example, "What happens next is best preserved in the Old Babylonian tablet reportedly from Sippar," "The text of Tablet X resumes." With the inclusion of the Dramatis personae of the epic at the beginning, his translation sets the proper tone for a literary work.

Regarding Bilgames and the Netherworld, the netherworld or underworld is accepted as reality in all of ancient literature and mythology. Like the reality of the gods, the underworld does not stem from imagination, fantasy or primitive naivete, although it may be described in poetic or imaginative form. Prior to the Mystery of Golgotha, all human beings after death could only descend to the underworld; the life after death was experienced in darkness. But on the Saturday after the Crucifixion, Christ descended to the underworld and brought Divine Light and release to the souls there. Since the time of that Sacrifice, ascent to the heavenly spiritual worlds after death has been possible.

A passage from "The Land of the Dead," in Homer's The Odyssey is revealing. Odysseus says: "So when with prayers and vows I had implored the peoples of the dead, I took the sheep and cut their throats over the pit, and forth the dark blood ran. Then gathered there spirits from out of Erebus of those now dead and gone - brides, and unwedded youths, and worn old men, delicate maids with hearts but new to sorrow, and many pierced with brazen spears, men slain in fight, wearing their blood-stained armor. In crowds around the pit they flocked from every side, with awful wail." In one passage from the misunderstood Tablet XII Gilgamesh implores the spirit of Eabani to tell him of those departed souls he had known, to tell him of their fate, including offspring who had been stillborn. Eabani replies that the stillborn "play amid syrup and ghee at tables of silver and gold." This indicates that the souls of the stillborn did not descend to the underworld, for they were entirely innocent and were cared for in the spiritual spheres of the Sun, gold, and the Moon, silver.

In style and purpose, the epic is complex: it is exoteric, intended for the people in the story form of myth, which can evolve through minor variations and additions and lends itself to endless interpretations; esoteric, containing, i.e., planetary references and deep spiritual symbolism, including the journeys and trials of Gilgamesh in his quest for immortality; historic, as a record of the achievements of Gilgamesh and Eabani. This record was essential, especially for future ages, for Gilgamesh and Eabani were instruments of the Spirit, and of Marduk-Micha-el, for the establishment of the outer culture of the third post-Atlantean age. "The exchange of knowledge possessed by these two is the root of the Chaldean-Babylonian culture." - Occult History.

Spiritual Scientific Interpretations of the Epic

"Moon god, accept my plea." - Sin-Liqe-Unninni

Eabani appears at a watering hole as a wild man who lives in harmony with nature and the animals. His appearance brings to mind another man of the wilderness, John, Baptist, in a garment of camel's hair, living on locusts and wild honey. Rudolf Steiner states that Eabani is "still covered with hair like men of primeval times," and is likely referring to the appearance of men from the late Atlantean epoch through the beginnings of the first cultural age. Eabani's ability to experience and describe the underworld, in Tablet VII, indicates an Initiate and he may have been, in a prior life, initiated into the Hibernian Mysteries or the Mysteries of the West. These mysteries originated from a center on the island that later became known as Ireland, and this establishment was a direct continuation of the great Atlantean Sun Oracle, that is, these mysteries were not established via the route from Central Asia but came directly from the northern regions of Atlantis. - see Mystery Streams in Europe. This possible earlier life of Eabani is not entirely speculative because Rudolf Steiner tells us that, after Eabani's death, Gilgamesh journeyed to a Hibernian mystery center. This is described in the epic in the meeting with Uta-Napishti. See the section below, "Gilgamesh and the Mysteries of the West."

The slaying of the "Bull of Heaven" that is described in the epic connects with the principal symbol of Mithraism, the youth slaying the bull. Mithra, the Persian Sun god, has been compared to Shamash, Varuna (India) and Ra (Egypt). This of course leads back to the Indian and Persian cultural ages and to the civilization of ancient Egypt.

Eabani goes through or recapitulates his own fall or descent from a paradisiacal-like existence, through a seven-day, seven-night initiation in the Moon-Mercury-Venus mysteries, connected with the temple of Ishtar (Venus). Moon, Mercury and Venus are the inner planets that also function spiritually in sustaining the lower body of man, including the reproductive forces, related to speech. The forces of the moon, the animal forces, bring humanity into incarnation, as well as back to conscious life every morning. At night "Plants carry [man] up and out, the moon leads him back to the animal aspect of his nature." - Planetary Spheres. The moon also "endows us with individuality, the past... What comes from the moon has the character of immutable necessity. That which comes from the sun has something in which our will, our freedom can operate." - The Gate of the Moon and the Gate of the Sun. Eabani's fate is also soon sealed with the consumption of a "full seven goblets of ale," for, in the past, alcohol served to facilitate the descent of man. "It is a law that the human being is closed off from the higher spiritual world through the use of alcohol." - The Christian Mystery.

Gilgamesh foresees the emergence of his great friend Eabani in two precognitive dreams. In the first dream he sees a meteor fall down from the sky, "a rock from the sky," and this becomes a large boulder on earth. "I tried to lift it but it proved too heavy," he tells his mother, Ninsun. In the second dream, "In the streets of strong-walled Uruk there lay an axe; the shape of it was strange... I bent down, deeply drawn towards it." The first dream alludes to Eabani's descent from the cosmos and cosmic consciousness, like a meteor, yet destined to connect firmly and solidly with the earth, like a boulder. Meteoric iron is the metal of Michael. In the second dream, the axe signifies the work that the two friends will undertake together, including the battle with Humbaba, who is wielding dark power over the forces of the tree of life in the Cedar Forest.

Eabani is soon established in the epic as a "counselor" and spiritual servant of Gilgamesh, with his natural and powerful clairvoyance enabling the accurate interpretation of dreams and the correct counsel and spiritual guidance for kingly behavior, decisions and deeds. From the point of view of spiritual science, both Gilgamesh and Eabani were unquestionably historic figures and lived in Uruk (Biblical Erech), but, again, the people of those times should not be understood as having the same consciousness as present-day humanity. "When we go back before the thousand years preceding the Christian era we must reckon with the fact that wherever we have to do with historical personalities, higher Individualities, higher Hierarchies stand behind and take possession of these personalities - in the best sense of the word, of course." Individuality or the personal ego did not begin to emerge until the Greco-Roman age. "Plato, Socrates... had some resemblance to ourselves, but not further back. We must look behind the single personalities for the spiritual powers which represent the super-personal and work through the personalities as their instruments." - Occult History. In this same lecture series Rudolf Steiner states that Gilgamesh was an "old soul" who had been reincarnating since the time of Lemuria. Eabani was a "young soul" who returned relatively late in earth evolution. Before the separation of the moon from the earth, human souls went to other planetary spheres to avoid the dangers of the hardening forces of the moon. - see Atlantean Cataclysms. After the extrusion of the moon, some souls returned early to earth, some returned late. Prior to the life in Uruk, Eabani had had "few incarnations, very few." As a young soul who reincarnated late, descending to earth like a meteor from the sky, from cosmic existence, he was able to retain his great clairvoyant powers, and as a young soul he complemented Gilgamesh.

Humbaba, the Giant

Humbaba is depicted on one bas relief with markings on his face and a mouth that resemble coiled intestines. He was an ogre, a giant, and a holdover from Atlantis. The intestines indicate a certain influence within the lower body of man, and within the brain, and Humbaba's powers may have been hindering human evolution, hence the need to destroy him. During their combat with the ogre, Gilgamesh says to Eabani: "My friend, Humbaba's features have changed!" This would have been possible for a latter-day Atlantean giant. Also, Eabani had warned Gilgamesh: "Humbaba - his roaring is the Deluge" which connects Humbaba with that Atlantean time period. Eabani had known Humbaba "...in the uplands, when I roamed here and there with the herd." And Humbaba, sounding like Ahriman, says to Eabani: "You are experienced in the ways of my forest...Also you know all the arts of speech. I should have picked you up and hanged you from a sapling at the way into the forest, I should have fed your flesh to the locust bird, ravening eagle and vulture." Humbaba had been assigned by Enlil (Jupiter) to be the guardian of the Cedar Forest to protect the trees. The sacred cedar tree symbolizes the tree of life. The fact that Gilgamesh and Eabani act against the will of Enlil is very significant; it indicates their roles in a time of transition, as preparation for the future.

The descriptions of the intestines in Humbaba's appearance have been connected, by scholars, with the oracular reading of intestines and other inner organs of lambs as a means of divination or perceiving an omen, and Humbaba probably practised this kind of post-Atlantean magic, which involved as well the creation of seven "dread auras" or "roars" about him.

Prior to the journey of the two friends to the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh's mother, Ninsun, makes a special plea through a prayer to Shamash, the Sun god, to assist the two in the battle. During the long journey to the Cedar Forest Eabani interprets one of Gilgamesh's dreams: "Shamash the Protector; in our moment of peril he will take our hands." The two are likely given assistance through "Atlantean white magic," through the power of Shamash, Ninurta (god of war) and the four Archangels of the cardinal points. As noted, Marduk is one of the four Archangels and is signified by the star Aldebaran. Is the forest and the journey fictional or mythical? In this time period, the actual geographical location was necessary on a spiritual quest or journey; thus the mountain of the Cedar Forest must be a real location. Later discovered fragments placed the Cedar Forest in Lebanon. "Journeys were required then to different regions of earth. Not so now; man sinks deeply into his inner being... By learning of these different regions, man gained insight into the spiritual world. That is why people [then] wandered far and wide." - World History.

Gilgamesh and Eabani destroy Humbaba with the assistance of Shamash, Ninurta, the strong winds of the four cardinal points and other winds: "South Wind, North Wind, East Wind and West Wind, Blast, Counterblast, Typhoon, Hurricane and Tempest, Devil-Wind, Frost-Wind, Gale and Tornado." The winds are summoned by Marduk. See above: "Marduk-Micha-el first smote [Tiamat] with various weapons and then drove the whole force of his storm-wind into the Dragon's entrails." Enlil, who receives Humbaba's head from Eabani, is displeased but retains Humbaba's seven exalted roars or auras and attaches them to qualities, such as barbarity; to objects in nature, a river and a mountain; and to Nungal, goddess of prisoners, stewardess of Enlil, daughter of Ereshkigal (Queen of the Underworld). These resounding "dread auras" are very significant and will be further discussed below, in the section "Bilgames and Akka."

An earlier Sumerian version of this battle, titled Bilgames and Humwawa, describes matters differently. Fifty men, sons of the city, accompany Bilgames and Eabani to the Cedar Forest, carrying various kinds of trees that had been felled for them: ebony, willow, apricot and box. They fulfill ritual roles in the confiscation of Humbaba's auras. These fifty warriors can be compared with the fifty Greek Argonauts and also with the fifty spiritual names or dominions of Marduk.

Another god associated with the tree of life is Ningizzida or Gizzida. N.K Sandars defines this "Lord of the Tree of Life" as a fertility god and "sometimes he is a serpent with a human head, but later he was a god of healing and magic." The Ojibwe (Native American) name for cedar trees is giizhik or giizhag, and the red cedar is considered sacred. Rudolf Steiner pointed out, in the First Esoteric School, that the sound of the Z which can be heard in the name Boaz, tree of life, is meaningful. It suggests the serpent.

After Gilgamesh's return to Uruk he is approached by Ishtar, but he rejects her advances, pointing out, among other reasons, her treatment of the gardener Ishullanu after she had tired of him. She had changed him into a "blind mole," according to the Sandars translation. George interprets Ishullanu as meaning "shorty," or dwarf. Rudolf Steiner's explanation of this passage is that "...Through Eabani's influence, Gilgamesh saw his past lives... and did not like what he saw, unusual friendships and human connections he would as Gilgamesh regard as shameful. He began to upbraid and reproach his own soul. He reproaches the goddess for this reason because of the goddess's previous relationship with Ishullanu... this signifies that his own friendship with a certain person who had been his master's gardener in the preceding incarnation was not pleasing to him." - Occult History.

In her anger with Gilgamesh, Ishtar sets the Bull of Heaven upon Uruk, but Gilgamesh and Eabani engage in battle with the Bull and defeat it. Eabani's "taking the bull by the horns" resembles the later cults of Mithraism (noted above) and the Christian stories of St. George and the Dragon. In Uruk, the Bull of Heaven was believed to be the cause of serious droughts and scholars generally consider this Bull to be a symbol of drought. However, Rudolf Steiner stated that the "winged bull," described by the Chaldean, Ezekiel (Eze 1:8-10), was Lucifer. Lucifer "cannot descend altogether onto the earth: for this, his power does not suffice... He is represented as the winged form of the dragon. Ezekiel describes him as the winged bull." - Foundations of Esotericism. Drought may also be interpreted as spiritual and mental infertility or unfruitfulness, which can be caused by Lucifer. Not long after this time Eabani became ill, so the two may have upset a certain balance, causing the earthly forces of Ahriman to become strengthened, despite the victory over Humbaba. "Something that is really a higher spiritual force is working in [Uruk] as an animal power, as a terrible spectral animal power. Troubles of all kinds befell the inhabitants, physical illnesses and, more especially, diseases and disturbances of the soul. Eabani died as a consequence. But he remained spiritually with this personality of Gilgamesh, even after his death. In later years of Gilgamesh's life, he receives Intuitions and enlightenment from Eabani and acts out of the will of both, from the flowing together of the will of both. [This was] fully possible in those olden times. As a result Gilgamesh saw at what point he himself stood in the history of mankind. He realized, through Eabani's influence, the problems of immortality." - World History.

Gilgamesh and the Mysteries of the West

Genesis 11:9 - "Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth." But the Lord also sent Eabani, as the seed for the future redemption of speech and language.

Now Eabani counsels Gilgamesh regarding his sexual misconduct - divine consent notwithstanding - which is also sourced in the power and influence of Lucifer. The great Beings of the Sun Oracle, and all who come under their aegis, strive to turn Luciferian effects into good, effects that will otherwise be detrimental. - see Occult Science. In the very distant future, sexuality will also be redeemed. The Word became flesh; the flesh will again become the Word. Speech will be the reproductive force of the future; the Sound and the Word will create, as it is with the Creator. Thinking and thought processes will also be metamorphosed. Man will then become a co-creator with God. Thus the epic reveals how Eabani "slips into the skin of the dragon" and "takes the bull by the horns," perhaps for the first time, apparently for the first time known to history.

Gilgamesh is inconsolable in his grief over the loss of his great friend, nor can he come to an acceptance of his own inevitable death. He longs for immortality. Thus he sets out on a journey towards the west, in search of Uta-Napishti ("I found life"), who is the successor of the Atlantean Sun Oracle, while the Atlantean wisdom is by this time in changed form. "...This journey to the west is nothing else than the search for the secrets of ancient Atlantis, for happenings prior to the great Atlantean catastrophe." - Occult History. Rather than Uta-Napishti, Rudolf Steiner prefers the name Xisuthros for this Atlantean Initiate, a name which is similar to the Sumerian Ziasudra. However, Xisuthros is the same as the Uta-Napishti of the epic, the Babylonian Noah. According to Rudolf Steiner, in order to meet Xisuthros, Gilgamesh traveled westward to the nearest center of the Hibernian mysteries, then located in the "neighborhood of the modern Burgenland," in southeast Austria. He would have been guided there by Eabani in Spirit, which leads to the probability that Eabani had been involved with these mysteries prior to his life in Uruk, or perhaps even during the time of his paradisiacal-like existence, before uniting with Uruk and Gilgamesh. Was Gilgamesh a disciple of the Initiate, Eabani, in the Hibernian mysteries? Whereas in the epic, Eabani seems to be an inferior of Gilgamesh - and Humbaba calls Eabani a "mere hireling" - the very opposite may have been the case. He may have been the spiritual servant of Gilgamesh, in the sense, later, of Christ's washing the disciple's feet. "Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him." - John 13:16.

In addition, Eabani does not seem to have been imprisoned in the underworld after his death to the extent that is Gilgamesh's fate: "Bilgames, in the form of his ghost, dead in the underworld, shall [be the governor of the Netherworld], chief of the shades! [He will pass judgement], he will render verdicts. [What he says will be weighty as the word of] Ningishzida and Dumuzzi." Ningishzida or Ningizzida: Lord of the tree of life; Dumuzzi or Tammuz: dying god of vegetation - N.K. Sandars. The element of death indicates Dumuzzi would be the Lord of the tree of knowledge.

Christ is now the Lord of the two pillars, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.

On his long and difficult journey, Gilgamesh confronts and battles lions in the night, an essential encounter for accurate spiritual perception, then arrives at the mountains of Mashu, twin peaks that reach as high as heaven with bases that extend deeply into the underworld. A Mount Meru is connected with Maitreya Bodhisattva, and Maitreya is said to have his head in heaven and his feet in hell. Twin peaks can signify a cooperative working together of two Beings, one in the heavenly world and one alive on earth. Either two men or a man and a woman, half human and half scorpion, guard the gate of the mountain. The scorpion figures allude to the power of the gate of the threshold, the power that draws man into life and keeps him incarnate, related to the moon and the four-petalled lotus-chakra at the base of the spine. Because Gilgamesh is "two-thirds god and one-third man," the figures allow him to pass. He then journeys through "twelve leagues of darkness," through nine levels of the underworld and three transitional levels. The darkest level is the ninth; at ten the end is near; at eleven the dawn light appears; at twelve the sun streams out: this could be Shamballa, center of the Earth, garden of the gods. Here Gilgamesh encounters Shamash, who tells him he will never find the life, the immortality that he is seeking. A veiled figure, Shiduri, woman of the vine and maker of wine, sits in a garden by the edge of the sea, and she also tells Gilgamesh he will not succeed in his quest. Gilgamesh responds with anger: "I shall smash down the door, I shall [shatter the bolts!]" Shiduri may be a form of Ishtar. The wine serves to connect the soul with earthly life, serves in the descent. Shiduri advises Gilgamesh to learn to enjoy his life on earth, but refers him to Ur-Shanabi, the ferryman, for a crossing of the waters of death toward the home of Xisuthros.

It is as though Gilgamesh is destined to fail from the beginning, as though it were the intent of God, for he lacks the soul strength and spiritual maturity to overcome his arrogance, aggression and anger. He smashes the mysterious stone men who aid Ur-Shanabi in crossing the waters, although Ur-Shanabi is able to propose another means. The figures of the half-scorpion, half-human man and woman and the destroyed stone men allude to the Hibernian mysteries. Making their way across the waters, Ur-Shanabi and Gilgamesh at last reach the sun-filled home of Xisuthros, who tells him the story of the Great Flood and of his predecessor Noah. A famous passage from this story occurs after the rain has stopped and the ship has found its way to a mountaintop: "I heaped up wood and cane and cedar and myrtle," says Xisuthros, "When the gods smelled the sweet savour, they gathered like flies over the sacrifice." This points strongly to the fact that the gods have need of humanity, for they suffered deprivations when the flood turned all of the human beings into clay. In response to Gilgamesh's quest for immortality, Xisuthros decides upon an exercise that would make his soul capable of penetrating into spiritual regions, and he tells Gilgamesh that he must stay awake for six days and seven nights. This would not be possible for most mortals, much less a weary traveler, and Gilgamesh soon falls asleep. His failures cause him to remain "...at the portal of Initiation and gave the culture [of Babylon] no more than a glimpse into the secrets of Initiation. Hermes gazed into the very depths of the holiest secrets and became the great inaugurator of ancient Egypt, but because of Gilgamesh's failure to go through the Initiation successfully, Babylon had the external culture and the esoteric culture running parallel to one another... Enshrined within this culture were the sacred, most hidden mysteries of the Chaldeans, but these were only able to flow through the external culture as a tiny stream." Yet Beings of the rank of the Fire-Spirits - the Archangels - particularly Marduk, were able to work through Gilgamesh.

When Gilgamesh is ready for his return journey, Xisuthros, at the suggestion of his wife, bestows a gift upon Gilgamesh for his efforts, and tells him of the location of a certain plant that grows in the sweet waters. It has a prickle like a thorn, like a rose. If Gilgamesh can succeed in finding this plant, it will restore his lost youth. Joyfully, Gilgamesh does find the plant, but later, while he is bathing, a serpent slithers up from the deep and steals it. The plant signifies the tree of life, which is the life-elixir, the fountain of youth. To eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, however, causes the death forces of consciousness, and ultimately the death of the physical body.

"When Gilgamesh returned home he had received a high spiritual insight. He traveled along the Danube on its northern bank toward home. However, he fell into a fit of anger over the first temptation that assailed him. Thus his enlightenment was darkened and he arrived home without it. However, he still had his deceased friend [for assistance] in looking into the spiritual world..." - World History.

In a lecture about the Mysteries of Hibernia, Rudolf Steiner stated that these initiations focused on the intensification of everyday consciousness. "The pupils had to go through all that we experience as difficulties if we have really gained knowledge and then wish to put it into words... It is one thing to have attained a truth and quite another thing to express it, to formulate it." After considerable preparation the pupils were led to two colossal statues, one male, symbolizing, from a certain aspect, science, and the other female, symbolizing art. Through musical harmonics and the songs and recited verses of the initiating priests, who were seen slowly rising above the statues, the pupils gradually began to understand the distinctions and differences between truth and untruth, the illusory and the real, and to overcome all doubt in processes of acquiring spiritual knowledge within the visible, material world. Through these ceremonies the pupils experienced the approach of the Cosmic Word. "The statues were the external letters by means of which they must begin to decipher the Cosmic Secret placed before men." True science and true art can only be attained through Christ, can only be received from Christ.

The Hibernian mysteries were also concerned with fertility and agriculture.

Bilgames and Akka

"The goddess Ishtar was stolen by a neighboring city [Kish] and Gilgamesh and Eabani together waged war against this city, vanquished its king and brought the goddess back... The temple-sanctuary served as a dwelling place for the city-ego or group soul." - Occult History.

The above quote serves to explain the mysterious lament that Gilgamesh repeats: "To empty the wells, to empty the wells of the land, to empty the shallow wells of the land, to empty the deep wells furnished with hoisting ropes: let us not submit to the house of Kish, let us wage war!" The wells signify both spiritual wisdom and physical health and are essential for the well-being of the city and the people. Wells were held sacred in ancient times. Without the sustaining goddess in her temple, all replenishing resources will dry up and become emptied of life. Gilgamesh cannot persuade the elders to defend the city against Akka, but the young warriors eagerly give their support. This again points to a time of transition. Gilgamesh's mood brightens and he speaks to Eabani: "Now make ready the equipment and arms of battle, let weapons of war return to your grasp! Let them create terror and a dread aura, so when he arrives fear of me overwhelms him, so his good sense is confounded and his judgement undone!" The dread aura is a surrounding protective aura created through magical means, and it can permeate or surround a person or an object. The means of summoning the aura occurs through the use of sound, which is why it is also referred to in the epic as a roar; it can be heard as a roaring sound. Recall that Gilgamesh and Eabani came up against the seven dread auras of Humbaba and that after Humbaba's death, Enlil dispensed the seven auras elsewhere.

Eabani has the ability to create the dread aura through and around the weapons by means of speech and sound, but he does this in the service of Marduk and through the guiding hierarchies of the pre-Christian course. Humbaba had said to Eabani: "...You know the arts of speech."

Other Transitional Times

The Individualities of Eabani and Gilgamesh incarnated together again in Greece, as contemporaries of Heraclitus, c. 535-475 BC. Eabani was the priest Cratylus and Gilgamesh was a woman (by the name of Mysa or Artemusia). At this time they were both initiated into the Mysteries of Ephesus, which are connected with the age of India, the first post-Atlantean cultural age. Not long thereafter they appeared together for a third time, reincarnating in Macedonia as Aristotle and Alexander. - Occult History; World History.

References

1. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, Volume I, Andrew R. George, Oxford University Press, 2003.
2. The Epic of Gilgamesh, A.R. George, Penguin Books, 1999.
3. Occult History, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
4. The Signature of Human Evolution: The Advancing Individuality, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1912.
5. Babyloniaca, by Berossus, c. 290-278 BC.
6. Ancient Myths: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1918.
7. The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N.K. Sandars, Penguin Books, 1960.
8. Private Communication from T. Maiwald and J. Gillen, 2008.
9. Isis Unveiled, H.P. Blavatsky, 1892.
10. Michael, Sophia, Marduk, Lecture by Rudolf Steiner in True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation, 1924.
11. Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Myth, Article by Dennis Bratcher, The CRI Voice Institute, Online, 2006.
12. The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, c. 1314.
13. Babylonian Topographical Texts, A.R. George, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, Leuven: Peeters, 1992.
14. World History in the Light of Anthroposophy, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
15. The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer, c. 800 BC.
16. Mystery Streams in Europe and the New Mysteries, B.C.J. Lievegoed, SteinerBooks, 1982.
17. Planetary Spheres and Their Influence on Man's Life on Earth and in Spiritual Worlds, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1922.
18. The Gate of the Moon and the Gate of the Sun, Lecture by Rudolf Steiner, 1924.
19. The Christian Mystery, Early Lectures of Rudolf Steiner, 1905-1908, SteinerBooks, 1998.
20. The First Esoteric School, Rudolf Steiner, 1904-1914, Etheric Dimensions Press, 2005.
21. Foundations of Esotericism, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1905.
22. Outline of Occult Science, Book by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
23. The Mysteries of Hibernia, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1923.

4
Heraclitus and Cratylus –
From the Sixth to the Fifth Century Before Christ

Source: https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/articles/cratylus-aristotle.html

Article by Martha Keltz

"The name of John is connected with the city of Ephesus, and equipped with Imaginative insight into world history, he is continually referred back along an inner path to the ancient temple of Diana of Ephesus, and confronts these significant words: 'In the primal Beginning was the Logos. And the Logos was with God. And the Logos was a God.'

" ...When the evangelist could read about Ephesus in the Akasha Record, could read that for which his heart thirsted, [he found] the right form in which to clothe what he wanted to say to humanity concerning the mystery of the beginning of the world." - Rudolf Steiner, Mystery Centers.

"Thus we show how Eabani [from The Epic of Gilgamesh], in the incarnation between the life as Eabani and the life as Aristotle, was able under the influence of the ancient Mystery teachings, into which forces streamed from the supersensible worlds, to imbibe the principles which in certain Mystery schools were essential to the further development of the human soul... In such Mystery schools the feelings and impulses paramountly awakened were those capable of eradicating every trace of egoism from the soul... In the Mysteries to which I am here referring, the soul had to learn to feel pity and compassion for everything human, for everything cosmic – compassion born from the overcoming of the physical plane." - Occult History.

The life between Eabani and Aristotle was that of Cratylus. Gilgamesh, prior to the life as Alexander, returned as a woman whose name was Artemusia or Mysa. Rudolf Steiner revealed this in a written note to Ita Wegman not long before his death. - see Note 1. It is clear in Plato's dialogue, titled Cratylus, that this enigmatic figure is a Heraclitean philosopher, and this fact is also pointed out by Aristotle in Metaphysics, Section 4: "...it was this belief that blossomed into the most extreme of the views mentioned, that of the professed Heracliteans, such as was held by Cratylus, who finally did not think it right to say anything but only moved his finger, and criticized Heraclitus for saying that it is impossible to step twice into the same river, for he thought one could not do it even once." Enormous changes in the evolution of human consciousness had taken place in the course of one hundred years, from the time of Cratylus to that of Aristotle, and thus Aristotle states that the philosophy and the way of life of Cratylus and the Heracliteans are extreme, as Plato also points out in his dialogue. "...Many of the ancient, holy secrets which proclaimed the connection of the human soul with the divine-spiritual worlds were preserved in the Mysteries of Diana of Ephesus and in the Ephesian temple. A great deal in these Mysteries were no longer comprehensible in an age when human personality had come into prominence." - Occult History.

Certain activities and aims within this Mystery school, and others in Greece, were also kept strictly secret, withheld from the uninitiated and the common people, and this gave rise to misunderstandings, resentments, jealousies and hostilities. Plato gives voice to these growing problems in Cratylus, through the person of Hermogenes, and also in his Theaetetus, through the person of Theodorus.

Very little is known of Cratylus historically, and nothing is known of Mysa. She may have been a priestess of Artemis. The temple of Artemis and one of its predecessors, the temple of Cybele, were known to have involved women to a greater extent than was customary, and priesthoods were held by women. According to the book The Sacred Bee, the existence of the Essenes at Ephesus is undisputed, and if indeed the priestesses of Artemis were called Melissae, which means bees, they could be paralleled with the Essene priests, Essene meaning king bee. The source given in The Sacred Bee for the definition of Essene as king bee is from Pausanias (c. 150 AD), 8.13.1. As to the origins of the Essenes, at least three sources from the first centuries after Christ, Flavius Josephus, Philo of Alexandria and Pliny the Elder, state that the Essenes date back to remote ages, to far earlier ages than the sixth century BC. Philo connects the Essene movement with the teachings of Moses: "Our lawgiver encouraged the multitude of his disciples to live in community: these are called the Essenes." Pliny the Elder said "...For thousands of centuries a people has existed that is eternal, unbelievable though this may seem." Josephus, who lived briefly in an Essene community, wrote that the three philosophies of Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees were "from the most ancient times of the father's traditions."

According to The Secret Doctrine the Essenes drew from the Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Chaldean philosophies and believed in reincarnation. This statement, the ancient origins of the Essenes, and what is known of Heraclitus and Cratylus, point strongly to the probability that Heraclitus and Cratylus were Essenes.

The name Artemusia or Mysa suggests a life of virtue and purity, development of character, and cleansing and healing of the soul. Rudolf Steiner most often refers to Artemis as Diana, perhaps due to a preference, in the German language, for the sounds of the vowels. Similarly, he preferred to use the later Akkadian name for the Sumerian Enkidu: Eabani. Diana or De-ana refers to the goddess Anna. Nanna was the Babylonian name for the Moon, and Inanna was Venus.

The principal historic source regarding Heraclitus is Diogenes Laertius, who wrote biographies of the Greek philosophers, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, in the first half of the third century AD. However, this was almost eight centuries after the time period of Heraclitus. Rudolf Steiner certainly read Diogenes and is generally in agreement with him, as can be ascertained from his comments on Heraclitus in Christianity as Mystical Fact, quoted below.

The dates most often given for Heraclitus' life, and given by Rudolf Steiner in the above book, are 535-475 BC. Diogenes wrote that Heraclitus "flourished in the sixty-ninth Olympiad," which means that he was in the prime of life at that time, around 504-501 BC. He was born into a noble or aristocratic family in Ephesus, and the family, according to Strabo, was descended from Androclus, the founder and first king of Ephesus. Ephesus was then part of Ionia or the "Ionian League" of cities on the west coast of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) near the Aegean Sea. Regarding the fact that "Heraclitus yielded to his brother the title and privileges of royalty," Diogenes gives his source as Successions, written by Antisthenes. The area of Ephesus had a warm and pleasant climate, with hills, mountains, sea, and fertile valleys. The fresh mountain waters of the Cayster River flowed into the Aegean Sea and mixed with its salt water. In light of ancient beliefs regarding the significance of fresh or "sweet" water and salt water, the placement of the temple by the Cayster River is meaningful. Ephesus was a prosperous city with a busy harbor and there would have been ships or caravans arriving regularly from distant ports and lands, including Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia and faraway India.

Diogenes wrote that King Darius I of Persia (c. 522-486 BC) once sent a letter to Heraclitus, inviting him to the royal palace for discourse, and offering him every kind of distinction and honor, but Heraclitus wrote back to the king that he would not go to Persia since he was quite content with a little.

"There is a book of his extant, which is about nature generally, and it is divided into three discourses; one on the Universe; one on Politics; and one on Theology. And he deposited this book in the temple of Diana, as some authors report; having written it intentionally in an obscure style in order that only those who were able men might comprehend it, that it might not be exposed to ridicule at the hands of the common people." But Diogenes also writes that Heraclitus was at times brilliant and clear, and that his conciseness and dignity were incomparable.

Of the space that surrounds us, wrote Diogenes, Heraclitus does not say, but states that "there are vessels in it, turned with their hollow part towards us; in which all the bright evaporations are collected, and form flames, which are the stars; and that the brightest of these flames, and the hottest, is the light of the sun; for that all the other stars are farther off from the earth..." This passage, and Heraclitus' quotations on the element of fire, are suggestive of the much later alchemical teachings, and of Rosicrucianism, which began in the thirteenth century. What could be given from the teachings of actual inner, spiritual, transformative processes had to be as guarded and secretive in the thirteenth century as in the time of Heraclitus, and was as badly misunderstood. In fact many of these teachings were not made public through spiritual science and Anthroposophy until the end of the dark age or Kali Yuga, in 1899. The new reign of the Archangel Michael as Time Spirit began in 1879.

While Heraclitus lived in a hut in the country, he could not have been a hermit or a misanthrope, but probably stood out as a solitary, enigmatic figure and may have been generally disagreeable and aloof. As a teacher, initiate, and one of the sages of the time, he would have participated fully in the life and affairs of Ephesus. The account of his death in Diogenes' Lives, which Diogenes drew from Hermippus, may have some elements of truth, but has certainly been misunderstood. The cleansing and purification of the body with cow dung is a very ancient Hindu ritual, the cow a living symbol of Mother Earth.

Rudolf Steiner, quoted below, refers to the role of the sages in the Greco-Persian wars.

The Greco-Persian Wars and the New Age of Aries

At the turn of the sixth to the fifth century BC the Persians began to invade the Greek mainlands. The Greco-Persian wars were instigated when the Ionians, revolting against Persian rule, engaged in the Battle of Ephesus in 498 BC. From Rudolf Steiner: "...In the age of the Persian wars we can clearly perceive the effects of what the Greek character had received from the old temple-wisdom. For in these Persian wars we see how the heroes of Greece, aflame with enthusiasm for the heritage received from their forefathers, fling themselves against the stream which, as an ebbing stream from the East, is surging towards them. The significance of their violent resistance, when the treasures of the temple-wisdom, when the teachers of the ancient Greek Mysteries were fighting in the souls of the Greek heroes in the battles against the Persians, against the waning culture of the East... what the Greeks achieved then contained the seed of all later developments in European civilization up to our own times."- Occult History. What was this "waning culture of the East" from which the best qualities and most appropriate teachings were extracted for the new age of Aries, the Greco-Roman age? The dates given by spiritual science for this fourth age are from 747 BC to 1413 AD.

The Persians had become a scattered group of Indo-European tribes, but rose to power during the reign of Cyrus the Great (c. 559-530 BC), and also Darius I, when the Persian Empire became one of the largest and most powerful in world history. Having defeated the Babylonians in 539 BC, they controlled all of Mesopotamia and parts of Thrace, Macedon and Egypt, as well as Lydia, Media, and Bactria (present-day Afghanistan), to the border of northwestern India (present-day Pakistan) at the Indus River.

Darius I followed Zoroastrianism but was tolerant of non-Persian faiths and recognized various pantheons of gods. The majority of the empire's inhabitants were polytheists. The best-known symbol of Zoroastrianism is the winged disc or sun, known as faravahar. Prior to the reign of Darius I, the symbol did not have a human form above the wings, and in very early depictions of this human form the face is thought to be that of Darius. The Zoroastrianism of this time would have been an "ebbing stream" of a waning culture, a corrupted form of what had been appropriate for the second cultural age, called the Persian age, dating from 5067 to 2907 BC. The Greek sages wanted to retain the eternal truths of these beliefs, as well as the content of the Chaldean and other Mysteries (i.e., Cybele and Attis), yet discard what was inappropriate for the new age of Aries, for the "weaving of the ego in the ego," and the preparation for the Descent of Christ.

The Hindu Vedas, called sruti, or "what is heard," would have been retained and taught in the Ephesian Mysteries, for these are related to the Word. In John's Revelation 2, the Angel of the church in Ephesus is a reference to the first cultural age, the Indian age. - see Emil Bock, The Apocalypse of Saint John.

The Persians were defeated in the Battle of Marathon of 490 BC, although they greatly outnumbered the Greek forces. The Athenians had on their side the general Miltiades, who had first-hand experience of Persian military tactics. During this battle, 6400 men of the Persian infantry were killed at a cost of 192 Athenian dead. However, the conflicts and wars continued despite this victory. The last significant Athenian victory was the Battle of Plataea of 479 BC.

"The Roman civilization which followed the Greek, and everything else that contributed to the further development of the European peoples, would not have come about if the Greeks had not cleared the way for the further development of eastern culture and beaten back the Persians and what was associated with them. In this way beating back the Asians was a means of purifying what had been created in Asia." - Manifestations of Karma.

The Seven Sages

As alluded to, the culture for the new Greco-Roman age was established by the Seven Sages of Greece. The age of Aries, the zodiacal Ram, signifying the head, had replaced Taurus, the Bull. Aries was the age of the development of reason and thinking and the emergence of the "intellectual soul," of personality and individuality. The Seven Sages were Thales of Miletus, Solon of Athens, Pitticus of Mytilene, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus of Lindus, Myson of Chen, and Chilon of Sparta. Like Heraclitus later, the sages were fully involved in the life of the "state" and with every aspect of human life. According to Aristotle in The Athenian Constitution, Solon became a mediator between two hostile parties in Athens, drew up a democratic constitution, enacted new laws, cancelled debts, arranged elections to various offices, etc. Finally, beset by people and their problems, he went to Egypt, not planning to return to Athens for ten years.

Thales is considered the originator of the scientific approach to nature and to natural phenomena, the process of acquiring knowledge from personal observation rather than from traditional myths. Aristotle called those who discoursed on nature physiologoi. It may have been Thales who first said "Know thyself."

In the pre-Grecian age the spiritual leaders and guides of human evolution were called "Sons of God," indicating the divine origins of their creation and birth. The Greeks called these guides "sages," and in the post-Grecian age they were called "saints."

"The Greeks spoke of their supreme leaders as the Seven Sages, thus indicating that the nature of those who were once Sons of the Gods had now become purely and essentially human." – Reference 3.

According to legend, the Seven Sages passed a golden tripod among themselves, until one of them dedicated it to Apollo, held to be the wisest of all. The golden tripod, sometimes set on a bronze serpent or three entwined or spiraling serpents, became the oracular seat of Apollo Pythias. Could this golden tripod bear a resemblance to the "Golden Triangle" from "The Temple Legend?" The three sides of the triangle signify the Holy Trinity, the three future embodiments of planet Earth, named Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan, and the three higher bodies of humanity: Manas or Spirit Self, Buddhi or Life Spirit, and Atma or Spirit Man.

In one of the quotations below, Heraclitus refers to the constellation of Ursa Major, the greater "She-Bear." He sees it as the boundary line of evening and morning, or as situated between night and day. - see Note 2. "Opposite the Bear is the boundary of the bright Zeus." This constellation is circumpolar and can be viewed all year long. The Warder or Guardian opposite the Bear or arktos (signifying fertility and reproduction) is Arcturus, whose name may have been rendered later as Arthur. King Arthur is in fact associated with the Bear. In India, the seven stars of this constellation signified the seven Holy Rishis, and Heraclitus would have perceived in them the Seven Sages.

The Philosophy of Heraclitus

Of the teachings of Heraclitus only fragments have remained, and his book, titled On Nature, has not survived. "Strangely many of the cited fragments come from Christian sources, bent on disproving or ridiculing Heraclitus' words, a bad effort which has the good effect of giving us a few more of Heraclitus' precious insights." - William Harris, Translator. Unfortunately, the early Christians may have succeeded in destroying all remaining copies of On Nature.

Below are translations of some of Heraclitus' fragments. From the second quotation, and a few others, it is apparent that Heraclitus was not at ease with the emergence of individual personality and the ego. In The Riddles of Philosophy, Rudolf Steiner wrote that Heraclitus was opposed to democracy.

"Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are unable to understand it – not only before hearing it, but even after they have heard it for the first time. That is to say, although all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos, men seem to be quite without any experience of it – at least if they are judged in the light of such words and deeds as I am here setting forth."

"We should let ourselves be guided by what is common to all. Yet although the Logos is common to all, most men live as if each of them had a private intelligence of their own."

"It pertains to all men to know themselves and to be temperate."

"I have searched myself."

"Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed."

"You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters and yet others go ever flowing on."

"It is in changing that things find repose."

"The universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be – an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures."

"There is exchange of all things for fire and of fire for all things, as of wares for gold and of gold for wares."

"The phases of fire are craving and satiety."

"Fire in its advance will catch all things by surprise and judge them."

"Although intimately connected with the Logos, men keep setting themselves against it."

"Immortals become mortals, mortals become immortals; they live in each others death and die in each others life."

"It is by disease that health is present, by hunger satiety, by weariness rest."

"The way up and the way down are one and the same."

"The name of the bow is life, but its work is death."

"Let us not make arbitrary conjectures about the greatest matters."

"The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals but gives signs."

"The boundary line of evening and morning is the Bear; and opposite the Bear is the boundary of the bright Zeus."

"Listening not to me but to the Logos, it is wise to acknowledge that all things are one."

In his book, Christianity as Mystical Fact, Rudolf Steiner writes about Heraclitus in the section titled "Greek Sages Before Plato in the Light of Mystery Wisdom." "What is said of his book [On Nature], that he placed it in the temple of Artemis, this means that he could be understood only by initiates." "Heraclitus was called 'The obscure' because only the light of the Mysteries provided the key to his conceptions."

Regarding a few of the quotes above, Rudolf Steiner interprets them as follows:

Of "the living and the dead are the same," Rudolf Steiner writes: "Full cognition of the illusory character of the lower personality is expressed in this sentence."

"Everything is in a state of flux" "...may be trotted out a thousand times, but if it is not spoken with a feeling for the content it is void of meaning. Cognition of eternal creation is valueless if it does not cancel out our dependence upon earthly creation."

"With the saying, 'How shall we say of our daily life: we are, when we know that from the standpoint of the eternal we are and we are not,' Heraclitus means to repudiate the lust for life which presses after transitory things."

"The harmony of the world is of opposite tensions, as is that of the lyre or bow." "How much is contained in this pictured Unity is attained by the striving of forces in opposite directions and harmonization of these diverging forces. One tone contradicts another, yet together they achieve harmony... To cling to the transitory with his cognition is the original fault of man. Thereby he turns away from the eternal. Through this, life becomes a danger to him. What happens to him comes to pass through life. But it loses its sting when he no longer values life as absolute."

"The world conception of Heraclitus will, in an unbiased contemplation, be felt directly as a manifestation of his choleric inner life. The feeling that is expressed in such a choleric temperament finds itself akin to the consuming activity of fire. It does not live in the restful calm of 'being,' it feels itself as one with eternal 'becoming.' Such a soul feels stationary existence to be an absurdity." - The Riddles of Philosophy.

On the Meaning of Names

The meaning of the name Heraclitus or Herakleitos is "Glory (kleitos) of Hera." Hera means mistress to Heros, the Master, and is likely related to the Bull of the third cultural age, as Hera was sometimes depicted as a young cow or heifer and was called the cow-eyed or the "ox-eyed Queen of Heaven." She was the wife and sister of Zeus, and was the goddess of marriage and childbirth. Her fruit and symbol is the pomegranate. She bears some resemblance to Hathor, the ancient Egyptian maternal goddess who is associated with cattle. The cow, a docile and entirely giving creature, signifies fertility within the feminine element and within the earth.

Petros Doumos has offered the following interpretation of the name Cratylus: "Kratylos seems to be composed of a main word, Kratt, with possibly the two t's contracting into one. The verb 'kratein' means to rule or hold, and 'kratos' indicates power, as in a state or country. So kratos could indicate the possession of some type of power. 'Tylos' as suffix means a lump or a knot, as on a stick for example." Since ancient times Hindu and Buddhist priests have worn knots on a belt or carried a staff with knots by way of indicating their rank. These knots on a belt or rope belt can still be seen today, for example, as worn by certain orders of monks. In some ancient Hindu sects, they may also have indicated certain of the principal Nadis or chakras of the spine.

Petros Doumos adds: "It is interesting that the word dactylos means finger, as Kratylos was known to have communicated only with his finger."

The meaning of the name Socrates – Sokrates – is derived from sos, which means whole, unwounded and safe, and kratos, which means power.

The name Hermogenes - the third person in Plato's dialogue – means "son of Hermes." Cratylus, ever bent on eternal veracity, says to Hermogenes: "If all the world were to call you Hermogenes, that would not be your name."

The Temple of Artemis

The construction of the Temple of Artemis, one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World," occurred during the Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia (c. 550-330 BC). An earlier temple on the site had been destroyed by a flood in the seventh century BC, the century that marked the beginning of the fourth cultural age; thus the Temple of Artemis that was rebuilt in 550 BC was certainly in accordance with the requirements of the new age. Some historians believe that King Croesus of Lydia (595-547? BC), noted for his great wealth, was instrumental in the rebuilding of the temple. According to the historian Herodotus, King Croesus had a discourse with Solon on the definition of happiness, a purely human subject that would be of great interest to Aristotle some two hundred years later. Since Solon counseled King Croesus personally, warning him of the fickleness of good fortune, he may also have given him guidance for the design of the temple. The temple would have been built by slaves and workmen under the authority of the chief priests, but the true architects would have been the sages.

The original temple on the site by the Cayster River was that of the Meter Theon, the Mother of the Gods, and was established by the first initiate-king of Ephesus, Andoclus, ancestor of Heraclitus, perhaps as early as the tenth century BC. Here it is helpful to again point to the fact that, prior to the time of Christ, "the temple-sanctuary served as a dwelling place for the city-ego or group soul." - see "Bilgames and Akka," The Epic of Gilgamesh.

At some point during the third cultural age, the age of the development of the "sentient soul," the Mother goddess worship centered upon Cybele through the Phrygian people, a dominant people then occupying Anatolia. The sensual, ecstatic and frenzied forms of worship of this earth goddess would have been appropriate during the third cultural age, but certainly were part of the "ebbing stream from the East" by the time of Greece. The sculpted throne of Cybele depicted her attendant lions, and she held a tympanum or tambourine. Cybele has been compared with other goddesses, including Rhea, Demeter, the Babylonian Ishtar (Venus), and the Egyptian Isis. The myths associated with her offspring, Attis or Atys, bear a resemblance to the story of the dismemberment of Osiris. Attis has also been compared with the later Hellenistic Adonis, the god of vegetation who signifies the arising of life in spring, autumnal waning, winter death, and the rebirth or resurrection of the following spring. Thus Attis and Adonis are also connected with the Babylonian Tammuz, god of the tree of knowledge.

According to spiritual science, through the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ, in His Life of three years in the sheaths of Jesus, re-enacted these ancient pagan rites of birth, death and rebirth, not within the secret mysteries and initiation processes, but openly, in actual physical life, for all to witness. The raising of Lazarus from the dead was in fact the old temple initiation performed publicly. Through the Sacrifice of Christ, the long centuries of preparation in the true Mystery schools of the Christ stream, related to the Sun Oracles, found their fulfillment historically, in the physical world. Christ, the Sun Spirit, gradually faded as the Life and Light of the ancient Mysteries, and descended and entered into darkness, into humanity, becoming the new group soul of humanity which is signified by the Lamb. " I am the I am, Who was, and is, and will be... gradually became lost to the candidate for initiation... The candidate felt the Creative Word disappearing, sinking down into the Earth region and becoming lost to spiritual sight... This reappeared in such a way that it became visible in the Holy Vessel which is spoken of as the Holy Grail." – Reference 1. The stories and legends of the Holy Grail revolve around the search for and the redemption of the Mysteries of the East.

Perhaps this is why Heraclitus, in the first century AD, was described as "the weeping philosopher," for he was aware of the Descent of Christ into humanity and the loss of the source and power of the Creative Word from the ancient temples. As late as the seventeenth century, Heraclitus was still portrayed as "the weeping philosopher" by the Dutch painter Johannes Moreelse. Such a picture of Heraclitus may still be living and perceptible in the Akasha Record.

"...What confronts us in Greek philosophy clearly shows that its higher achievements were in truth ancient Mystery wisdom translated into terms of intellect and reason. There is a symbolic indication of this when we are told that Heraclitus offered up his work, On Nature, as a sacrificial act in the temple of Diana at Ephesus. This means that what the weaving of the ego in the ego enabled him to say was offered to the spiritual powers of the preceding epoch, with whom he knew himself to be connected." – Reference 3.

When the Ionians settled into Ephesus they gradually introduced the worship of Artemis alongside that of Cybele, and eventually the virtues, diligence, productivity and emphasis on nature (i.e., the honey bee) associated with Artemis or Diana displaced the licentious activities surrounding Cybele, at least in Ephesus. The Cybele cult continued long into Roman times and the Roman form of Mithraism may have sought to redeem this cult.

Diana was depicted as a chaste and virtuous young girl, a patron of the hunt, with bow and arrow, accompanied by deer; she was associated with the moon, and her companions were water nymphs and woodland gods. The metal silver is connected with both Cybele and Artemis, and during the lifetime of Heraclitus the reigning Archangel was Gabriel. Gabriel, whose special colors are silver and white, is connected with the moon, with the Old Moon development of Earth, and with processes and forces of reproduction, particularly animal reproduction, signified by Ursa Major and her Little Bear.

The statue of the Ephesian Artemis in the Archaeological Museum of Naples dates to the second century AD but is probably an accurate copy of the original, of which many variations exist. The statue is of black and white marble; the head, neck and hands are black. This signifies that the essence of Artemis is dual, both cosmic and earthly. The black stone can also be associated with cosmic origins through its identification with the meteorite, and can signify a mixture of earthly and cosmic matter, as a higher form of matter. Above the many breasts - signifying the mothering, nourishing and giving capacities of nature - can be seen a kind of garland consisting of what might be plant leaves and seeds or pods. Her crown appears to be a grain measure; her robe reveals her as the "Lady of the Animals," decorated as it is with lions, leopards, deer, bulls, and numerous other animals. Near the bottom of her robe can be seen bees. If an outline of the outer edges of the statue is drawn, the shape revealed is that of a bee as though seen from above; turned horizontally the drawing appears somewhat like a fish, with the two feet resembling the tail fins.

Thus in Artemis an evolutionary path is revealed; the lion is still evident as strength, courage and true royalty, but the lion or animal nature, out of which the female body emerged, will give way to the virtuous, independent Diana, and human procreation and social order will, over long ages of evolution, begin to resemble the selfless activity of the bee hive. As noted in the book The Writing of the Heart, in Revelation 5:5, Jesus is identified as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," but in 5:6 the Lion turns into the Lamb, symbol of the new group soul of humanity. "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain..."

"The physical body of the woman has proceeded from the lion nature. The physical bull is the ancestor of the male body... Those who shared nothing of spirituality formed the modern lion, whereas those who did so developed the modern female body." - The Four Group Human Souls.

Cratylus

Heraclitus and Cratylus were contemporaries of Gautama Buddha (c. 563-483? BC), and the renunciation of existence is evident, like trace minerals, in the philosophy of Heraclitus, in what is stated about Cratylus by Aristotle, and in Plato's portrayal of Cratylus in the dialogue. Rudolf Steiner describes aspects of the philosophy of Heraclitus in The Temple Legend lectures: "If, in escaping from the earthly, you ascend to the free ether, with faith in immortality, you become an immortal spirit, free of death and of the physical." Yet also evident from the few historic sources is social responsibility and a preparation for the future evolution of humanity. The Hibernian Mysteries had by this time dimmed, but across the Aegean Sea from Ephesus was Greece, Athens, the school of the Eleusinian Mysteries (with emphasis on nature and the interior of the earth), the Temple of Apollo and the Delphic Oracle. These were surely part of the life experiences of young Cratylus, who was influenced, for example, by the Lord whose oracle was at Delphi, who "neither speaks nor conceals but gives signs [gestures]." Plato captured certain characteristics of Cratylus: willing to speak cryptically in response to the queries of Socrates; unrelenting in regard to his standpoint on language; lips sealed firmly against revealing any of the Mysteries, much to the misunderstanding and annoyance of his friend Hermogenes.

In the dialogue, Socrates asks Cratylus whether he is at least willing to "allow for the occasional substitution of a wrong letter." Cratylus responds by saying: "I quite acknowledge, Socrates, what you say to be very reasonable," but then adds, "There would be no use, Socrates, in my quarreling with you, since I cannot be satisfied that a name which is incorrectly given is a name at all." Socrates, who had resorted earlier to falling back on his age ("Your argument, friend, is too subtle for a man my age."), gives up momentarily at the end of the dialogue: "Then, another day, my friend, when you come back, you shall give me a lesson; but at present, go into the country, as you are intending, and Hermogenes shall set you on your way." "Into the country" suggests that Cratylus may have been planning to visit Heraclitus.

What did Cratylus experience through the Ephesian Mysteries? Cratylus, who insisted that all names should have meaning? He experienced the mysteries of the Sacred Word. "Let us look back into a time six or seven centuries or even earlier before the Christian era, in order to see what was done in this sanctuary so sacred to the ancients. We find that the instruction given in the Mysteries of Ephesus centered in the first place in that which sounds forth in human speech. ...The pupil was directed by the teacher to concentrate on human speech. Again and again the pupil was urged as follows: 'Learn to feel in your own instrument of speech what really takes place in it when you speak.' ...Again and again the pupil was directed to drive the greatest possible range of speaking through his throat, and at the same time to observe the surging up and sinking down which is to be perceived in the word which presses forth from the throat. He had to make a positive and negative assertion: 'I am – I am not.' This he had to force through his throat in the most articulate way possible, and then observe how, in the words 'I am,' the feeling of that which rises is predominant, while in the words 'I am not' the feeling of that which descends prevails.

"At Ephesus when the pupil went in at the door of the Mysteries he was always exhorted with these words:

'Speak, oh Man! and thou revealest through thyself the evolution of the world.'

"When he went out again, he heard:

'The evolution of the world is revealed through thee, oh Man! when thou speakest.'

"...Man uses air to speak, but in speaking, the air transforms itself into the next element, into fire, into heat, and draws down the thought from the heights of the head and envelopes it." – Reference 1.

"...In these Mysteries, in order to equip itself to banish all the feelings of fear, anxiety, terror and horror known to man, the soul must first experience them to their very depths." – Reference 3.

"The soul of the pupil of these Mysteries had to be so trained as to acquire an all-embracing, universal feeling of compassion and of fearlessness. This was the ordeal to be endured by every soul in these ancient Mysteries in which Eabani participated when he appeared again in the incarnation lying between his lives as Eabani and as Aristotle. This too he experienced. And it arose again in Aristotle like a memory of earlier incarnations. He was able to define the essence of tragedy precisely because out of such memories there arose in him at the spectacle of Greek tragedy the realization that here was an echo, a reproduction carried outwards to the physical plane, of that Mystery training wherein the soul is purified through experiencing compassion and fear... And when what Aristotle had learned in earlier incarnations rose up in his personal consciousness, he was the one able to give the unique definition of tragedy which has become classic... Aristotle was communicating an ancient secret of the Mysteries when he said: 'A tragedy is a weaving together round a hero of successive actions, which are able to arouse in the spectator the emotions of fear and compassion in order that a catharsis may take place in his soul.' " – Reference 3.

From The Epic of Gilgamesh article, Humbaba the Giant, through whom Ahriman speaks, says threateningly to Eabani: "...You know all the arts of speech."

Pherecydes, Lao Tzu, Confucius and Gautama Buddha

Pherecydes of Syros lived in the sixth century BC, and is described by Rudolf Steiner as an individual who made the transition from the "imagination that penetrates through the picture, through the myth, to a form of reflection that wants to pierce the problems of man's existence and of his position in the world by means of thoughts..." "Pherecydes arrives at his world picture in a different way from that of his predecessors. The significant fact is that he feels man to be a living soul in a way different from earlier times. For the earlier world view, the word 'soul' did not yet have the meaning that it acquired in later conceptions of life, nor did Pherecydes have the idea of the soul in the sense of later thinkers. He simply feels the soul element of man, where the later thinkers want to speak clearly about it (in the form of thought) and they attempt to characterize it in intellectual terms." – Reference 11.

According to Aristotle in Metaphysics, Book 14, Pherecydes is a philosopher who, in his world view, combines the mythical with the non-mythical.

Two great spiritual individualities incarnated in China in the sixth and fifth centuries BC: Lao Tzu (c. 500 BC), originator of the Tao Te Ching, and Confucius (551-479 BC). Both of these great teachers taught social responsibility and offered practical advice to the people. Through his verse and very likely as a counselor, Lao Tzu (who is believed to be an incarnation or manifestation of Mani - see Note 3) gave political advice to rulers. Confucius taught the importance of moral practice in government, justice, harmonious social relationships and the disciplined study of the outer world. Two well-known verses of Lao Tzu touch upon subjects now familiar from a study of Heraclitus and Cratylus:

Ineffability or Genesis

The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying way,
The names that can be named are not unvarying names.
It was from the nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang,
The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind.

The Mysterious Female

The Valley Spirit never dies;
It is named the Mysterious Female.
And the doorway of the Mysterious Female
Is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang.
It is there within us all the while;
Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry.

Two ancient illustrations of Lao Tzu show him riding a bull.

According to spiritual science, for example in The Gospel of St. John and Ancient Mysteries, there would have been, among these individualities, awareness of the existence of the brother, however distant from one another physically, and communications would have occurred among them spiritually, or "by night." The expression "by night" in this sense is used in the Bible, in John 3:1-21, regarding the visit of Nicodemus to Christ Jesus. Thus it seems reasonable to infer from this that Heraclitus and Cratylus would have been powerfully moved by the Spirit of Gautama Buddha, in India, and the teaching of the rejection of life; the escape from an existence filled with sorrow; the escape from the "wheel of rebirth." Considering the fact that the death dates of Gautama Buddha, Heraclitus and Cratylus are unknown, might Cratylus's death have just preceded or occurred at the same time as the death of Gautama Buddha, in 483 BC? Would Cratylus have witnessed and experienced this great spiritual event, the Ascent of the Buddha, both on earth and from the spiritual world? And did his teacher, Heraclitus, witness this death while still in earthly life, through spiritual communion with Cratylus? If Cratylus died around 483 BC, that is approximately one hundred years before the birth of Aristotle in 384 BC. And between death and rebirth Cratylus would also have experienced the great break in evolution that occurred at this time as a result of the working of the Sun Spirit who was preparing to descend into earthly life as the Christ. The individuality who was Cratylus would have undergone a metamorphosis from the Buddhist and Indian rejection of life, reflected in Cratylus's gestures of avoidance and contraction, to the eventual great expansion within Aristotle's soul and spirit that brought about his loving embrace of the animal world, the natural world and, first and foremost, of everything human. Aristotle undoubtedly prepared the way for Christianity, the way described by the historian and biographer of Aristotle, Werner Jaeger, as the Paideia, which roughly translates to education.

"Buddha died in 483 surrounded by silver rays on a wonderful moonlit night, radiating peace and compassion. That was his last earthly hour. And then he was active again in the way described." – Life Between Death and Rebirth.

"We can think of no greater contrast than that between the Buddha and Socrates. The Buddha was to live on in the souls of his pupils, whereas in the souls of the pupils of Socrates nothing more was to live on than what the midwife has given to the child who comes into the world. Thus the spiritual element in the pupils of Socrates was to be drawn forth by the spiritual midwifery of Socrates when he left each person on his own, drawing forth from each one what was already there within them." - The Gospel of Saint Mark.

"Buddhism is a religion of liberation from existence; while Christianity is the opposite, a religion of rebirth upon a more spiritual level... Christianity sets before us as the mighty impulse for the forward evolution of the earth, the Christ, who pointed, in the strongest possible way, to the inner being of man... Not to bring the course of his incarnations to a close and enter Nirvana, but to use all he can of them to work further upon their results, so that he spiritually experiences resurrection." - Buddha and Christ.

As for the fire... According to Heraclitus the universe always has been and will be an ever-living fire:

"It is Christ who appears to Moses in the burning bramble bush and in the fire appearing under lightning and thunder at Sinai, when the pronouncement was received: I am the I am. He is in the fiery element. Fire is the element in which Christ lives. The corresponding inner process is the fire that pulsates through our blood in the form of body temperature. His warmth is in the lightning, His nerves in the air, His thoughts in the rolling thunder... The blood must be infused by a strong impulse toward the spiritual." - The Principle of Spiritual Economy.

Very little is known of Cratylus, but the books and publications about Hellenistic Greece and Aristotle and his contemporaries and collaborators would fill a library, so this portion of the article will avoid repetition, aim for conciseness, focus on what is new and lesser known, and continue to clarify the perspectives of spiritual science.

The illustration of Aristotle is based on a Roman copy of an original Greek sculpture by Lysippos (c. 330 BC), located in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Lysippos was Alexander's court sculptor. The Roman copy manages to capture a certain quality of the original, the quality of having been quickly, perhaps even spontaneously sculpted, an approach through which the portrait artist can often capture expressions and deeper aspects of character.

In the fifth lecture of the series titled Aspects of Human Evolution, Rudolf Steiner stated: "Considering that everywhere in Aristotle one finds a distinct flaring up of the ancient knowledge so often described by us as having its origin in atavistic clairvoyance, it is rather odd that people who profess to read Aristotle today should ignore spiritual science so completely." In these lectures it is also stated that Aristotle could not perceive the spiritual aspect of the stars, but instead founded a philosophy of the world of stars, interpreting what he saw physically.

"In Aristotle everything appears as though in forms of logic - indeed, here one must say that the ancient wisdom has become abstraction, living worlds have been reduced to concepts. But in spite of this - because Aristotle stands at the terminal point of the ancient stream - something of the old wisdom still breathes through his works. In his concepts, in his ideas, however abstract, an echo can still be heard of the harmonies which resounded from the temple sanctuaries and were in truth the inspiration not only of Greek wisdom but also of Greek art, of the whole folk-character." – Reference 3.

And such abstraction, or the overlay of reason on ancient or atavistic clairvoyance, was the intent of the sages and founders of a science based in nature, which began in the period from the sixth to the fourth centuries BC, and for which Aristotle remains the best-known representative: that human beings should observe and study themselves and the surrounding natural world, including unseen qualities such as the origin of motion or the cause of happiness. In the fourth post-Atlantean cultural age, myths, oracles, omens, superstitions and the luciferic interference of the gods must gradually pale in the beautiful, supremely physical, sunlit existence of the Grecian natural environment and in the intellectual ideals for human behavior and the state.

Although Aristotle had not been initiated, and the mysteries were at that time in decline, both he and Alexander participated in the still viable mysteries of the Samothracian Kabiri of northern Greece. This is detailed briefly in the section The Samothracian Kabiri and The Categories. In addition, Aristotle had been initiated in at least two of his prior lives: in the Hibernian mysteries connected with the life of Eabani, and in the Ephesian and other mysteries in the life of Cratylus. These experiences served his full descent into the human existence of Macedon and Greece, his complete embrace of physical existence. "When one reads Aristotle out of a certain inner meditative preparation, one has the feeling that he works directly in the physical human being. It is through Aristotle that the physical human being progresses one step further." – World History.

Aristotle became fully aware of the importance of Grecian culture for world evolution and the necessity of spreading this cultural influence to the boundaries of the known world. He granted that even barbarians could be Grecian if in step with the demands of the age. Alexander's conquests were motivated in large measure by awareness of the mission of the cultural age, awareness that had been imparted to him by his teacher Aristotle. – see Note 4. In this pre-Christian age, war, conquest and the development of courage was the way of life; the younger culture must conquer and absorb the forces of the older, declining cultures. The Iliad, by Homer (ninth century BC), the great poet so admired by both Aristotle and Alexander, graphically depicts, after all, one battle slaughter after another, with the victors hailed as the greatest heroes, as demigods. "Homer makes men better than they are." – Poetics.

War characterizes the first half of Earth evolution, ruled by Mars, but healing characterizes the second half, ruled by Mercury. In the Samothracian Kabiri mysteries the pupil knew "that the form assumed by the first of the Kabiri [gods] through the mantric word and its power represented the reality behind Mercury; in the form assumed by the second Kabiri he learned the reality of Mars; and in that of the third Kabiri he learned the reality of Apollo, the Sun." – Reference 1.

Mars is also the source of the power of speech.

Aristotle was a realist; he perceived that the majority of the human beings around him were still predominantly of an animal nature in their souls. While individuality or the ego was emerging in the privileged classes, the vast majority of human beings were, at best, still but part of a group soul or caste. A slave could only be a slave for life, a workman could only be a workman, not a philosopher. Women were inferior because they lacked physical strength and courage and could not go to war. If Homer depicted men as better than they were, Euripides ("Medea") depicted women as they were.

"It is beyond the power of ordinary people to make distinctions." – Nicomachean Ethics. "On this subject of reasoning we found positively nothing said before us, but had to work it out by long and laborious research." – Organon.

Thus Aristotle founded his school, the Lyceum, for the scientific understanding and development of reason, for the study of animals, plants and the entire natural world; for the study of human behavior, individual, social and political, and for stressing the consequences of the failure to exhibit control and to develop morally. Deeper, esoteric reasons for the founding of this school are detailed in the section A Conversation Between Plato and Aristotle.

Might Aristotle ever have come across or read any portion of The Epic of Gilgamesh? He compares the epic medium with that of the tragedy in Poetics: "[In the epic] the wonderful is pleasing, as may be inferred from the fact that everyone tells a story with some addition of his own, knowing that his hearers like it... Tragedy is the higher art, as attaining its end more perfectly."

"And when what Aristotle had learned in earlier incarnations rose up in his personal consciousness, he was the one able to give the unique definition of tragedy which has become classic." – Reference 3.

In 356 BC, at the very hour of Alexander's birth, the temple of Ephesus was burning, torched by Herostratus. Aristotle was then around 28 years old. According to one historic source, Valerius Maximus, "A man was found to plan the burning of the Ephesian Diana so that through [this] destruction... his name might be spread through the whole world."

As noted in the Heraclitus and Cratylus portion of this article, Herostratus may also have harbored resentment and finally hatred for the fact that the esoteric mystery teachings were only for a select group and were forbidden to the general populace, including himself. Such problems can be seen stirring in Plato's Cratylus and Theaetetus.

Some Aspects of Aristotle's Biography

By Aristotle's time the bestowal of names was no longer given through spiritual awareness, yet his own name would seem to indicate what has proven true of him: aristos meaning "best," and telos meaning "purpose or aim." His parents may have seen in their son the one who was best for a certain purpose, while unaware that Aristotle would fulfill such an essential role in establishing the direction for the entire western civilization.

There are very few primary and secondary sources for information on the life of Aristotle (384-322 BC). One of the primary sources, subsequently lost, is Hermippus, who lived about one-hundred years after Aristotle. Diogenes Laertius (third century AD), in his biography of Aristotle in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, drew from Hermippus: "Aristotle was the son of Nicomachus and Phaestias, a citizen of Stagira; and Nicomachus was descended from Nicomachus, the son of Machaon, the son of Aesculapius, as Hermippus tells us in his treatise on Aristotle." Dionysius of Haricarnassus (first century BC) seems also to have drawn his information from Hermippus, in a letter in which he writes that Aristotle's father, Nicomachus, "traced his lineage and his profession back to Machaon, the son of Asclepius." – see S. Stenudd. What is important here from the point of view of spiritual science, and that has apparently been overlooked by scholars and historians, is that Aristotle's lineage identifies him as a "Son of God," which means divine descent. Asclepius was the Greek god of medicine and healing and his symbol was a staff with a single winding serpent. Again, "In the pre-Grecian age the spiritual leaders and guides of human evolution were called 'Sons of God,' indicating the divine origins of their creation and birth. The Greeks called these guides 'sages,' and in the post-Grecian age they were called 'saints'... thus indicating that the nature of those who were once Sons of the Gods had now become purely and essentially human." – Reference 3. As well, Aristotle's birth into such a line of physicians and surgeons certainly contributed to his gifts and capacities for natural and experimental science.

Homer writes of Aristotle's ancestor Machaon in the Iliad, IV: "Then Agamemnon said: God send you're right, dear Menelaus! But the wound – we'll have a surgeon clean the wound and dress it with medicines to relieve the pain. He turned and spoke out to Talthybius, the crier: Go quickly as you can and call Machaon, son of Asclepius, the great healer, call him here to examine Menelaus."

A second important primary source of Aristotle's life is Ptolemy el-Garib, el-Garib meaning "the unknown" or "the stranger." Ptolemy el-Garib (fourth century AD) was a Neo-Platonist and a disciple of Porphyry and Iamblichus (c. 250-325 AD). His work, Vita Aristotelis, is extant in copies preserved by Arabic scholars. In addition to the biography of Aristotle, Ptolemy's work contains numerous aphorisms and anecdotes by and about Aristotle, the text of Aristotle's Will, and a catalogue of Aristotle's writings. According to John B. Morrall, in Aristotle, Volume 7, the Lives of Aristotle "divide broadly into two groups – those deriving from the biography of Hermippus and those derivative from the later biography of Ptolemy... Ptolemy's attitude to Aristotle is almost hagiographical in its partiality... By contrast the Lives deriving from the tradition of Hermippus includes a large degree of material critical and even abusive of Aristotle."

Regarding Ptolemy's biography, Raul Corazzon, from Theory and History of Ontology, A Resource Guide for Philosophers, offers: "Ptolemy's biography has a clear tendency: it is a glorification of Aristotle based on some typically Neoplatonic conceptions. Aristotle is dios Aristoteles. He was entrusted to Plato in compliance with an oracle of the God in Delphi. He made an extraordinary impression on Plato, and when Plato went on his second visit to Sicily, he deputized him as head of the school. He was held in great honor by Philip and Alexander and was very influential in political affairs, 'using philosophy as an instrument.' He dissuaded Alexander from attacking Persia, telling him that the omens were unfavorable. He was great as a benefactor, both towards individuals and cities. The inhabitants of Stagira honored him in many ways after his death. They believed that 'their coming to the place where Aristotle's remains were buried would purify their minds.' It is said that a swarm of bees was found around the urn containing his ashes. And so forth."

The sentence "He dissuaded Alexander from attacking Persia, telling him that the omens were unfavorable," probably refers to the best timing for the attack on Persia, as counseled by Aristotle.

This article will reasonably favor the side of Ptolemy based on what spiritual science reveals.

The description from Diogenes of Aristotle's physical appearance is unfortunately derived from Hermippus, and on this matter the frequently-cited Catholic Encyclopedia is most likely accurate: "Very little is known about Aristotle's personal appearance except from sources manifestly hostile. There is no reason, however, to doubt the faithfulness of the statues and busts coming down to us, possibly from the first years of the Peripatetic School, which represent him as sharp and keen of countenance, and somewhat below the average height. His character as revealed by his writings, his Will (which is undoubtedly genuine), fragments of his letters and the allusions of his unprejudiced contemporaries, was that of a high-minded, kindhearted man, devoted to his family and his friends, kind to his slaves, fair to his enemies and rivals, grateful towards his benefactors - in a word, an embodiment of those moral ideals which he outlined in his ethical treatises."

From Cratylus to Aristotle

In closely examining the connection between Cratylus and Aristotle as revealed by Rudolf Steiner, it is reasonable to seek for evidence of the life of Cratylus in Aristotle. Approximately one-hundred years separates these two lifetimes, a very short span as measured in time and space, yet marked by the immeasurable spiritual and evolutionary break between Gautama Buddha and Socrates. It will be discovered that a considerable amount of scholastic work has been done in the twentieth century regarding a possible youthful work of Aristotle, the Protrepticus, which means "exhortation," or argument. Young philosophers were evidently required to prepare a protrepticus to be presented orally to listeners, perhaps in the form of a Platonic dialogue. Aristotle's Protrepticus was first compiled by Iamblichus from various sources. Iamblichus's work was reconstructed by Ingemar Düring in the late 1950's, and what Düring refers to as his attempt at reconstruction of Aristotle's youthful dialogue was published in 1961. Continued provisional work on the Protrepticus has been done recently by D.S. Hutchinson and Monte Johnson and is available online. The dialogue has three persons: Isocrates, Heraclides and Aristotle.

There are points of controversy among scholars regarding this dialogue, some involving evidence of knowledge of initiation or mystery wisdom with its view of human life as punishment for sin. These passages reveal a certain awareness, a certain dark view of life in the young Aristotle. Quoting both the editors and the dialogue of the Protrepticus: "Here Iamblichus stops citing or paraphrasing Aristotle's text; when he resumes the speaker is still 'Heraclides,' who reaches a tremendous conclusion to his speech, that in this world everything other than intelligence is nonsense and foolishness. For one will discover that all the things that seem great to people are an optical illusion. This makes it also right to say that the human creature is nothing and that nothing is secure in human affairs... For the ancients have an inspired saying that says that the soul 'pays penalties,' and we live for the atonement of certain great failings. For the conjunction of the soul with the body looks very much like a thing of this sort; for as the Tyrrhenians are said to torture their captives often by chaining corpses right onto the living, fitting limb to limb, similarly the soul seems to be extended through and stuck onto all the sensitive members of the body. So nothing divine or happy belongs to humans apart from just that one thing worth taking seriously, as much insight and intelligence as is in us, for, of what's ours, this alone seems to be immortal, and this alone divine... One ought, therefore, either to do philosophy or say goodbye to life and depart hither, since all of the other things anyway seem to be a lot of nonsense and foolishness."

The above passage can be said to reflect the mystery teachings, the Heraclitean influence, Cratylus's withdrawal from life and Aristotle's embrace of the new way of insight, of philosophy.

The next passage from the Protrepticus touches upon the existence of the soul prior to and after life, and upon the concept of karma and reincarnation: "The 'divine' Aristotle also tells the reason why the soul on coming hither from yonder forgets the spectacles it saw there, but on leaving hither remembers yonder the things it suffered here; and we must accept the argument. Indeed, he himself says that traveling the road from health to disease forces some people to forget even the letters they had learned, but when going from disease to health no one ever suffers this... For yonder they lived according to nature, but down here contrary to nature. Hence the likely consequence is that souls that go from yonder forget the things there, while those that go yonder from this world carry on having a memory of the things here."

And the last passage here cited may be an allusion to the great flood and the cultural ages that followed: "Now admittedly precision about the truth is the most recent of the occupations. For after the destruction and the inundations they were first compelled to be intelligent about their food and staying alive, but when they became more prosperous they worked out the skills that are for pleasure such as music and so on, and when they had more than the necessities, that's how they undertook to do philosophy. And the progress that has now been made from small impulses in a short time by those whose research is about geometry and speeches and the other educational subjects is so great that no other race has made such progress in any of the skills."

Some scholars may argue that the Neoplatonists paraphrased and added their own beliefs to the Protrepticus, in keeping with their concept of the "divine" Aristotle. However, the Neoplatonists' reconstruction would have been as honest and truthful as possible, for they were enlightened men and may even have been initiated in the mystery teachings.

Aristotle and Spiritual Science

In his 1965 biography, Aristotle, Founder of Scientific Philosophy, Benjamin Farrington errs on the side of modern materialistic thinking in his analysis of certain aspects of Aristotle's philosophy, and fails to understand its content of eternal wisdom. Farrington writes that Aristotle made a "major error" in his geocentric view of the universe, but does not recognize that this concept of the universe is spiritual, not physical, and that the concept is moreover influenced by the mystery teachings of the third cultural age, the Egyptian, Babylonian and Chaldean cosmologies. In the spiritual understanding of the universe the earth and humanity are perceived as central, as seeds for the future, as seeds of a new universe. "Prior to reading Steiner, I would not have noticed the curious anomaly in the arrangement of the astronomical bodies: Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Stars. As a physical scientist I'd have been inclined to scoff at this diagram as an artifact of the foolish, pre-Copernican, Earth-centered view of the Universe. But to Steiner this is an accurate map of the passage of the human spirit during the time between death and rebirth." – Bobby Matherne, Book Review.

Farrington writes of Aristotle's "overeagerness as a systemizer – a disease of speculative thought which showed itself most strongly in his cosmology and his theory of the elements... particularly disastrous is his intuition of the fifth element, Ether, as a substance of the eternal heavens." With the use of such words as "overeager," "disease," "speculative thought" and "disastrous," the author writes from the illusory standpoint of the supposed superiority of modern thinking and discovery over and above ancient knowledge. While the spiritual scientific concepts of the etheric world do not compare perfectly with Aristotle's "aether" or "quintessence," they are close enough to what Aristotle perceived as a fifth spiritual or divine element beyond the four elements of earth, water, air and fire.

Farrington explains away the mystery of Aristotle's divine ancestry with what seems to be a medieval interpretation: "Aristotle's father Nicomachus was in the guild of Asclepius, and these were the 'sons of Asclepius.'"

In his Introduction to a 1954 publication of Rhetoric and Poetics, Professor Friedrich Solmsen wrote: "The tone of finality in which Aristotle speaks sounds like a bid for authority which centuries earlier than ours were too willing to grant..."

It would go too far afield to continue to point out examples of the failures of modern educators and authors to truly understand those aspects of Aristotle's philosophy that are based in ancient knowledge, in eternal wisdom, and are therefore valid for all time. "Wisdom is a union of science and intuitive reason in the fields of loftiest thought and purpose." – Nicomachean Ethics.

The following sections will delineate selected areas of Aristotle's philosophy and his times and compare or elucidate them with spiritual science. However, Rudolf Steiner pointed out that there had been no attempt in his work to prove any concord between spiritual science and old philosophies: "You will have recognized that in my Occult Science an attempt has been made to produce the things out of themselves [supersensible perception]. Nowhere can one who really understands what is said find in any assertion about Saturn, Sun and Moon, that things are related from historical sources; they are simply drawn forth from the matter itself. Yet, strange to say, that which bears the stamp of our time corresponds in striking places with what resounds down to us out of the old ages." – The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul.

Atlantis

In addition to the possible reference to Atlantis in the Protrepticus, is Aristotle known to have said anything else about Atlantis? There is no evidence that he denied the existence of Atlantis, but there is some evidence that he was critical of Plato's concept of it, in Plato's Timaeus and Critias. According to Strabo in his Geography, Aristotle compared Plato's Atlantis to Homer's Achaean wall, and said, "Its inventor caused it to disappear, just as did the poet the wall of the Achaeans." Another version of this quote: "Plato alone made Atlantis emerge from the waves, and then he submerged it again." Even today the strangest fantasies far outweigh the truth of what is surely a collective memory within humanity of the horrendous end of the great Atlantean epoch, a memory comparable to the expulsion from Paradise that occurred during the Lemurian great epoch. – see Atlantean Cataclysms.

In Cosmic Memory Rudolf Steiner wrote, "The life mastering power of the Atlanteans first appeared among the members of our race under the mask of mythology... The great inventors among us are the incarnations of 'seers' of the Atlanteans... The aesthetic sense of the Greeks is built up on the basis of directly acting forces which among the Atlanteans were manifested in a magnificent breeding of plant and animal forms." – see Note 5.

"The fourth sub-race, the bearer of the Greco-Roman culture, was no longer directly influenced by Manu, but came under the influence of other cultures. It had a different mission... Art, the charming of spirit into matter, was the task reserved for the Greco-Roman race." – At the Gates of Initiation Knowledge.

"...In the Grecian age memories of the earthly experiences on Atlantis arose within the souls of the people." – Universe, Earth and Man.

Echoes of Three Streams

"Aristotle still has something to say which is like a surviving echo of the three conditions." – The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul. The confluence of the three spiritual conditions or streams, the Vedas, the Sankhya philosophy, and Patanjali Yoga, are discussed in the Bhagavad Gita lectures. The Vedas concern unity and the evolution of the world, Sankhya concerns plurality, the human constitution and the dual nature of humanity, and Yoga the human soul and human evolution. Additionally, Vedas are the Word, Sankhya the Law and Patanjali Yoga the way of Devotion.

If the complete works of Aristotle were available there would perhaps be found a balance of all three streams within them, while there might be a certain expansion and elaboration of the middle stream, Sankhya or the Law. The best way to organize Aristotle's surviving works may be in accordance with the three streams. The various subject headings will be predominantly in one of the three streams with the other two streams also evidenced throughout the chapters or sections.

The Word as directed sound that has a miraculous moral effect on the hearer remains deeply hidden, from prehistoric time to the present. However the Vedas can be recognized in the following quotations. From On the Heavens: "Heaven is One, and, exempt from decay and generation, is eternal." "For the perfect is naturally prior to the imperfect, and the circle is a perfect thing." "God and nature create nothing that has not its use." From On the Soul: "Voice is the impact of the inbreathed air against the 'windpipe,' and the agent that produces the impact is the soul resident in these parts of the body."

From Lecture Two in the Bhagavad Gita series: "In the color teaching of Aristotle we have an echo of the old Sankhya philosophy." For Aristotle "a color is green or greenish-yellow when light and darkness counterbalance each other, and reddish when light overrules dark." From Meteorology: "In the inner rainbow the first and largest band is red; in the outer rainbow the band that is nearest to this one and smallest is of the same color. The other bands correspond on the same principle. They are almost the only colors which painters cannot manufacture, for there are colors which they create by mixing, but no mixing will give red, green or purple. These are the colors of the rainbow, though between the red and the green an orange color is often seen." Ancient Grecian perception of color appears to be different from that of today.

The Sankhya philosophy is also reflected in the following quotations. On the Soul: "The soul must be separated from the body, but must fall within the science of nature." "Both sleeping and waking presuppose the existence of the soul and of these, waking corresponds to actual knowing, sleeping to knowledge possessed but not employed." Politics: "Hence it is evident that when seeking for justice men seek for a mean or a neutral, and the law is the mean."

Echoes of the third stream, Patanjali Yoga, can be recognized in all of Aristotle's teachings on the qualities of the soul. Politics: "The quality of courage, for example, is not intended to make money, but to inspire confidence." Nicomachean Ethics: "Happiness is a divine gift, a gift of the gods... For happiness demands, as we said, a complete virtue and a complete life." "Virtues are not emotions; they are real faculties." Rhetoric: "So all acts of concentration, strong effort and strain are necessarily painful."

While there is very little of a personal nature in Aristotle's work, an underlying mood or feeling of humility and reverence for the Creator and the wonders of nature and the soul are always evident, even when he is describing the darkest sides of human nature. The mood of Devotion is also apparent in the eulogy to his great friend Hermias, in passages of poetry, and, in his Will, in the request that statues should be raised in honor of the gods Minerva and Jupiter.

Human Evolution, A Conversation, The Categories

In Lecture Five of Aspects of Human Evolution, Rudolf Steiner speaks of the philosopher Franz Brentano (1838-1917) who had recently died. "Those who knew him, even if only through his work, saw him as representing modern man, struggling with the riddle of the universe... He was not the kind of philosopher one usually meets nowadays; unlike modern philosophers he was first and foremost a thinker, a thinker who did not allow his thinking to wander at random. He sought to establish it on the firm foundation of the evolution of thought itself. This led to his first publication, a book dealing with Aristotle's psychology, the so-called nus poetikos. This book by Brentano, which is long out of print, is a magnificent achievement in detailed inquiry...

"Many of the expressions used by Aristotle are no longer understood. However, they are reminders that there was a time when the individual members of man's soul being were known; not until Aristotle did they become abstractions. Franz Brentano made great efforts to understand these members of man's soul precisely through that thinker of antiquity, Aristotle. It must be said, however, that it was just through Aristotle that their meaning began to fade from mankind's historical evolution. Aristotle distinguishes in man the vegetative soul, by which he means approximately what we call ether body, then the aesthetikon or sensitive soul, which we call the sentient or astral body. Next, he speaks of orektikon which corresponds to the sentient soul, then comes kinetikon corresponding to the intellectual soul, and he uses the term dianoetikon for the consciousness soul. Aristotle was fully aware of the meaning of these concepts, but he lacked direct perception of the reality. This caused a certain unclarity and abstraction in his works, and that applies also to the book I mentioned by Franz Brentano...

"I have already drawn your attention to the fact that Franz Brentano himself estimated that his work on psychology would fill five volumes, but only the first volume was published. It is fully understandable to someone who knew him well why no subsequent volumes appeared. The deeper reason lies in the fact that Brentano would not – indeed according to his whole disposition, he could not – turn to spiritual science. Yet in order to find answers to the questions facing him after the completion of the first volume of his Psychology he needed spiritual knowledge. But spiritual science he could not accept and, as he was above all an honest man, he abandoned writing the subsequent volumes. The venture came to a full stop and thus remains a fragment."

"The necessity for spiritual science is an objective fact of human evolution."

A Conversation Between Plato and Aristotle

"Now there came a very important turning-point, which is expressed very clearly and even historically in the transition from Plato to Aristotle... The following scene took place between Plato and Aristotle, at a time when Plato was very old, and really at the end of his earthly career. I must of course clothe in words what naturally occurred in a much more complicated way. Plato said to Aristotle somewhat as follows: 'Many things I have told you and my other pupils may not have seemed correct to you, but what I have told you is really an extract of the most ancient holy Mystery wisdom. Human beings will, however, in the course of their evolution acquire such a form and such an inner organization, which will gradually lead them to something certainly higher than we now possess, but this will at the same time make it impossible for them to accept natural science in the way it is presented to the Greeks.' Plato made this clear to Aristotle. 'Therefore, I will withdraw myself for a time,' said Plato, 'and I will leave you to yourself. In the world of thought, for which you are so especially endowed, and which will become the thought-world of humanity for many centuries, try to build up in thoughts what you have learned here in my school.' So Plato and Aristotle separated, and Plato therewith fulfilled, as commanded, a high spiritual mission through Aristotle.

"I am obliged to describe this scene in this way; but if you look in the history books... it is there described: 'Aristotle was always a headstrong pupil of Plato's; so that Plato once said that though Aristotle was a gifted pupil yet he was like a horse that was trained by someone and then kicked its trainer with its hoof...' That is the account given in the history books." – Reference 1.

The Samothracian Kabiri and The Categories

"And there came the moment when through the influence of the Mysteries of the Kabiri there arose for Alexander and Aristotle something like a memory of the old Ephesian time which both of them had lived through during a certain century... But in this remembrance, in this historic remembrance of an ancient time, there lay a certain power to create something new. And from that moment there went forth the power to create a new thing, yet a strange new thing which has been little noticed by mankind. You must come to understand what was the real character of the new creation that went forth from the working together of Alexander and Aristotle... Now when the cosmic sounding in the Moon was there again and Aristotle and Alexander recognized what the fire at Ephesus had signified, when they saw how this fire had carried forth into the far ether of the world the content of the Mysteries of Ephesus, then it was that there arose in these two the inspiration to found the Cosmic Script. Only the cosmic script is not founded on abcdef. As our book writing is founded on letters, so is the Cosmic Writing founded on thoughts. Now there arose the letters of the Cosmic Writing.

"If I now write them down before you they are as abstract as abcd: Quantity, Quality, Relation, Space, Time, Position, Activity (or Action), Passivity (or Suffering). There you have so many concepts. Take these concepts which Aristotle first expounded to Alexander and learn to do the same with them as you have learned to do with abcd. Then with [them] you will learn to read in the Cosmos." – The Mysteries of Ephesus, The Aristotelian Categories. – see Note 6.

Into the Future

After their deaths, Aristotle and Alexander, as before them Eabani and Gilgamesh and Cratylus and Artemusia, lived on and continued to be active in the spiritual world for a long period of time, possibly not fully incarnating again until the eighth and ninth centuries AD. This time period, under the rulership of the Archangel Raphael, who is connected with Mercury, brought to light the emergence of the Quest for the Holy Grail and some of the first new manifestations of Christ, now descended into the earth, now the Spirit of the Earth. From the Karmic Relationships lectures, Aristotle and Alexander had centuries earlier witnessed, from the spiritual world, the departure of Christ from the sphere of the Sun towards Golgotha. This called forth in their souls "the challenge to set a new beginning – not to continue what was already on the earth but to begin completely anew."

The question arises, Would they not have incarnated in Alexandria, Egypt, when that city was at its zenith? "Once only they paid, as it were, a fleeting visit to the earth in the first centuries in a district not without interest for the anthroposophical movement. Then they returned again to the spiritual world..."

In 869 AD the entelechies of Aristotle and Alexander met, in the spiritual world, with Haroun al-Raschid (c. 768-814 AD) and his counselor. This coincided with the Council of Constantinople (Istanbul) during which the concept, the truth of spirit was eliminated from the threefold teaching of the composition of the human being, body, soul and spirit, and was replaced with the twofold and dual concept of the body and soul. This meeting was actually a spiritual confrontation or battle that in earthly life was reflected in the Quest for the Holy Grail and the union of early European Christianity and the far more splendid Arabic cultures, cultures that had preserved Aristotle's works. "For the natural science that Aristotle was able to pass on to Alexander needed for its comprehension souls that were still touched with the spirit of the Ephesian age, the time that preceded the burning of Ephesus. Such souls could only be found over in Asia or in Egypt, and it was into these parts that this knowledge of nature and insight into the Being of Nature were brought, by means of the expeditions of Alexander. Only later in a diluted form did they come over into Europe by many and diverse ways – especially by way of Asia Minor, Africa and Spain – but always in a very diluted or, as we might say, sifted form. The writings of Aristotle that came over into Europe directly were his writings on logic and philosophy. These lived on, and found fresh life again in medieval scholasticism."

"...For we can see how the expeditions of Alexander and the teachings of Aristotle had this end in view: to keep unbroken the threads that unite man with the ancient spirituality, to weave them as it were into the material civilization that was to come, so they might endure until such time as new spiritual revelations should be given... Both streams [Aristotle and Alexander] have lasted up to the very moment when it is possible to begin a renewed life of spirit." – Reference 20.

However, Haroun al-Raschid and the opposing forces that he represented did not want Christianized Aristotelianism, only the teaching of natural science that has gradually assumed the form of today's scientific materialism, devoid of any true concept, any reverence for divinity and the Creation; devoid of spiritual science.

"Henceforth, Aristotle must work – Aristotle who already in antiquity was equal to the concepts and ideas of the fifth post-Atlantean age." – Karmic Relationships, 1924.

Notes

1. In the book Rudolf Steiner's Mission and Ita Wegman (Die Menschheitsaufgabe Rudolf Steiners und Ita Wegman), by Erich and Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt, it is revealed that, shortly before his death, Rudolf Steiner gave to Ita Wegman a written note listing five of his past lives: Eabani, Cratylus, Aristotle, Schionatulander, and Thomas Aquinas. Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt discovered the note in a book. The note also revealed that Ita Wegman had been Gilgamesh, "Mysa," and Alexander the Great. The Brunnen von Christus series of articles will offer a concise anthroposophical study of these individuals and the times in which they lived.

2. A contribution from James Gillen: "I was thinking earlier today of a Luke source variant of the Lord's Prayer in a footnote to the Oxford English Bible which reads: "May the Holy Spirit descend upon us and cleanse us." I assumed that this was specifically rejected due to its association with all the other Gnostic influences redacted in the Constantine official Church – but then it came to me that this was really related to the Essenes. When I read that the "Essenian roots are very ancient," I immediately thought of John Baptist and Jesus together in Essene communities – connecting with what was still vital and pure in the core of what could be experienced there. And specifically in relationship to the Holy Spirit verse – which I had always felt was meant as a secret teaching/experience of the transition from the first section of the Lord's Prayer (three petitions) and the second section (four petitions) – this is about bringing the night (first section) into the day (second section). Therefore this also links to the "communications by night" thread as well, for which, of course, the conversation with Nicodemus is a sterling example of the archetype of a process, for which we can assume Nicodemus, addressed by Christ Jesus as a Teacher of Israel, was prepared by the Essenes.

   "We have to remember that the night/day split is a consequence of the Fall, that humanity would have had more of a twilight consciousness in our unfallen state, that Lucifer draws us up into the night and Ahriman yanks us into the day. Hovering into the transition as we have discussed before is a source of Inspiration that is a reminder and promise of our unfallen dwelling-state. Another reading of the Gate of the Essene community – which Rudolf Steiner in The Fifth Gospel lectures describes as a portal through which Lucifer and Ahriman could not enter – is that the Essenes practiced this "dwelling in the unfallen state."

3. The connection of Lao Tzu with Mani was noted in the fourth century AD by a Taoist priest named Wang Fu, who composed a work titled Scripture of the Conversion of the Barbarians. The book was controversial, especially among Buddhists, and more was added to it over time. From a post ninth-century edition "...we find the story of Lao Tzu forecasting at the assembly of P'i-mo in 1028 BC his many future manifestations, one of which will take him to the country of Su-lin where he will become Mani." - Notes are taken from the book Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China, a Historical Survey, by Samuel N.C. Lieu, published by the Manchester University Press, 1985. Certain contemporary Manichean sects of Gnostic Christianity, i.e., the Nazorean Essenes, regard Lao Tzu as an incarnation or manifestation of Mani.

4. Very much in tune with far later times, the young scientist and explorer, Stephan A. Schwartz, set out in 1979 to find the tomb of Alexander in Alexandria, Egypt, using the combined abilities of several gifted psychics. Just prior to this group exploratory work, which he called The Mobius Group, Schwartz visited a historian at Oxford, Peter Fraser, author of the three-volume book, Ptolemaic Alexandria. He asked Fraser what he thought of the idea of Alexander as a man driven by a mystic vision. Fraser responded, "I think the great achievement is military... The visionary aspect, the cultural aspect, in which he had enormous significance – because of what he achieved in a military sense – is secondary, in my opinion, to his own personality. What Alexander achieved in a military sense altered the face of the world, but whether this is what he intended..." Fraser shook his head. "I believe he did not intend a great cultural revolution. What he sought was what he achieved – the destruction of the Persian ruling house, and the Persian army. Up to that point of the destruction of the Persian army it seems to me a mistake to see anything beyond a military purpose." "But why," I asked, "did he continue after he had succeeded, after he had seen Darius dead?" "Ah, the great enigma: Why? Why, when he had conquered the Persian army in 331 did he not then retrace his steps and go back to Macedonia? Why did he go on in a series of long and difficult operations that took him across the Indus... performing no very significant military operations. Ultimately, it's a question we cannot answer with assurance." - From The Alexandria Project, Stephen A. Schwartz, Delacorte Press, 1983.

5. Rudolf Steiner's use of the word "race" refers to the people or representative humanity of the present fifth post-Atlantean cultural age, whom he has traced from primeval and prehistoric origins, in Cosmic Memory. In the fifth post-Atlantean age, the age of the consciousness soul, the bearers of the progressive stream can be of any race, religion or nation. From Lecture Seven of The Book of Revelation and the Work of the Priest, 1924: "The impulses of the Son, however, do not enter into the forces of heredity. They have to be absorbed by the soul and worked on by the soul; they must expand the soul to such an extent that it becomes free of bodily forces, free of the forces of heredity."

6. James Gillen placed ten of Aristotle's Categories on the ten branches of the Tree of Life, or Tree of Sephirot. This chart is available online as James Gillen has included it as a contribution to the book, The Writing of the Heart. See Brunnenvchr.org.

7. The translation of Plato's Cratylus is by Benjamin Jowett. From the Classics Online at Classics.mit.edu/Aristotle: On the Heavens, translated by J.L. Stocks; Meteorology, trans by E.W. Webster; On the Soul, trans by J.A. Smith, and The Athenian Constitution, trans by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon.

   Politics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, and Organon are quoted from Aristotle: On Man and the Universe, Classics Club Edition, edited by Louise R. Loomis, 1943.

8. Special thanks are extended to Mark Haberstroh, Robert S. Mason and James Gillen for reading and offering comments and suggestions for this article.

References

1. Mystery Centers, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1923.
2. Rudolf Steiner's Mission and Ita Wegman, Erich and Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt, Rudolf Steiner Press, United Kingdom, 1997.
3. Occult History, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
4. The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore, Hilda M. Ransome, Dover Books, 2004.
5. The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Volume II, 1888.
6. Christianity as Mystical Fact, Book by Rudolf Steiner, Rudolf Steiner Publications, New York, 1961. Available on the internet on the Rudolf Steiner Archives.
7. Manifestations of Karma, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
8. The Apocalypse of Saint John, by Emil Bock, Floris Books, 2006.
9. The Temple Legend and the Golden Triangle, from The First Esoteric School, Rudolf Steiner, 1904-1914, Etheric Dimensions Press, 2005.
10. The Temple Legend, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1918.
11. The Riddles of Philosophy, Book by Rudolf Steiner, The Anthroposophic Press, 1972. Available on the Rudolf Steiner Archives.
12. The Writing of the Heart, Brunnen von Christus Group, 2008. Available on the internet.
13. The Four Group Human Souls, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1908.
14. Early Christianity and Greek Paideia, by Werner Jaeger, Harvard University Press, 1961.
15. The Gospel of Saint Mark, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910, 1911.
16. Buddha and Christ, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1909.
17. The Gospel of Saint John and Ancient Mysteries, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1906.
18. The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1909.
19. Aspects of Human Evolution, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1917.
20. World History and the Mysteries in the Light of Anthroposophy, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
21. Dionysius of Haricarnassus Letter from Stefan Stenudd, Online at Stenudd.com, 2009.
22. Aristotle, Volume 7 (Classical Political Thinkers Series), by John B. Morrall, Routlidge Publishers, 2004.
23. Theory and History of Ontology, A Resource Guide for Philosophers, by Raul Corazzon, Online at Formalontology.it, 2009.
24. Aristotle, Protrepticus, Provisional Reconstruction, by D.S. Hutchinson and Monte Johnson, PDF File Online, January, 2009.
25. Aristotle, Founder of Scientific Philosophy, by Benjamin Farrington, F.A. Praeger Publisher, 1969.
26. A Reader's Journal, Book Review of Life Between Death and Rebirth, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1913, by Bobby Matherne, Online at Doyletics.com, 2009.
27. Aristotle, Rhetoric and Poetics, Introduction by the Editor, Friedrich Solmsen, The Modern Library, Random House, 1954.
28. Cosmic Memory, Prehistory of Earth and Man, Book by Rudolf Steiner, 1904.
29. At the Gates of Initiation Knowledge, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1906.
30. Universe, Earth and Man, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1908.
31. An Outline of Occult Science, Book by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
32. The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of Paul, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1912.
33. The Mysteries of Ephesus, The Aristotelian Categories, Lecture Four of The Easter Festival in Relation to the Mysteries, 1924.
34. Karmic Relationships, Volumes III, VIII, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1924.

Many of the lectures cited, as well as the books by Rudolf Steiner, are available Online on the Rudolf Steiner Archives. The Archives are at rsarchive.org.

From Cratylus to Aristotle, copyright © 2009 by Martha Keltz

Illustrations by Martha Keltz

5
Lives of Schionatulander and Saint Thomas Aquinas

Source: https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/articles/schionatulander-and-aquinas.html

"For now we see in a glass dimly, but then face to face." – Paul, Corinthians 1, 13:12

Article by Martha Keltz

Part One: Schionatulander and the Grail

Opening Quotations, From Rudolf Steiner

"All the legends connected with King Arthur and the Round Table represent the repetition of the experiences of earlier ages in the Sentient Soul [third cultural age]; all the legends and narratives which are directly connected with the Holy Grail, apart from Parzival, represent what the Intellectual Soul had to go through; and all that finds expression in the figure of Parzival, this ideal of the later Initiation insofar as this later Initiation is dependent on the Consciousness Soul, represents the forces which must especially be made our own through the Consciousness Soul [the present fifth cultural age]. So the interaction of the three soul-principles in modern man is presented in a threefold legendary form. And just as we can discern deep secrets of the human soul in old legends, so can we now also sense in them deep secrets of the mysteries of the modern age." – The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity.

"...You must not think that words which are used in occult works, be it in the form of prose or poetry, arise in the same way as do words in other works. Such spiritual or occult works – which really spring from truth, truth about the world and its mysteries – come into existence when the soul allows world-thoughts to speak through it, lets world-feelings inflame it. Then, what has been created are those thoughts and feelings from Beings of cosmic or universal will." – On the Meaning of Life.

"The Knights of King Arthur's Round Table represented the young nature forces, which then underwent a change in the Knighthood of the Grail to gain conscious spiritual power. Through that we have the connection of the old occult knowledge to the new Christian knowledge." – First Esoteric School.

Schionatulander in Legend and History

As with Cratylus, the life of Schionatulander may also be seen as a life connecting the past with the future, a life known from legend and literature. A recent translator of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, Cyril Edwards, has offered an analysis of the name Schionatulander, noting that it is probably anagrammatic in origin. Schion is compared to the Old French juene, which means young, and atulander is a loose anagram of tavulander, which means table round. Thus the name can be said to mean "Young Knight of the Round Table." The name of the childhood love of Schionatulander, Sigune, is an anagrammatic formation of the Old French cosine; she is the cousin of Parzival.

Taking into consideration the fact that the legends connected with King Arthur represent the recapitulation of the third cultural age, a link can be seen between the life of Schionatulander and that of Eabani. And similar to the transition from Cratylus to Aristotle, a great world teacher, Thomas Aquinas, steps into the public arena or onto the world stage following the largely unknown life of Schionatulander. Overall, as well as the development from the old occult and pagan knowledge to the new Christian knowledge, and from the physical to the spiritual warrior, a third evolutionary development can be recognized as occurring within the blood. The personalities of the Grail sagas are almost all related by blood and are landholders, whereas Thomas is born into an aristocratic family – from which he has received an unwieldy body – and comes into great conflict with them in childhood and youth. Shocking for his day, he rejects his noble lineage and family role to become a mendicant friar. It would seem that the individuality incarnated in Thomas is already released to a great extent from the forces of heredity. – see Note 5, From Cratylus to Aristotle. Might such a spiritual advancement have been made possible through the life and sacrifice of Schionatulander?

As Gilgamesh grieved over the lifeless body of his counselor Eabani, Sigune grieves over the body of Schionatulander, which lies in her arms. In this picture yet another transition and transformation is evident, in the expression of love, for Schionatulander has sacrificed his life for Parzival. All that Aristotle so laboriously worked through in abstract thought about the different kinds of friendship and love, from selfish forms of love to the highest possible selfless love, is actualized in the life of Schionatulander.

In the depiction of Sigune with the dead warrior, the image of Mary the Mother grieving over the body of her son Christ-Jesus also arises in consciousness, and Schionatulander's sacrifice may be compensating in some measure for Parzival's abandonment of his mother, Herzeloyde.

The death of Schionatulander also achieves resolution in development and a sundering from the past, in the sense of casting off what would hold one back from the past. "The inspiration which came from the spiritual forces of the Sun and Moon were represented by King Arthur and his wife Guinevere. Thus in King Arthur's Round Table we have the humanized Cosmos. What we may call the pedagogical high school for the Sentient Soul of the West proceeded from King Arthur's Round Table. Hence we are told – and the legend here refers, in pictures of external facts, to inner mysteries which were taking place in the dawn of that epoch in the human soul – how the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table journeyed far and wide and slew monsters and giants. These external pictures point to the endeavors of human souls who were to make progress in refining and purifying those forces of the astral body, which expressed themselves for the seer in pictures of monsters, giants and the like. Everything that the Sentient Soul was to experience through the later Mysteries is bound up with the pictorial concepts of King Arthur's Round Table." – Reference 1. Here one recalls the physical battle of Eabani against the giant Humbaba, and the North Wind's dispersal of Tiamat to places undisclosed (The Epic of Gilgamesh).

Chretien de Troyes, who wrote his Perceval around 1190, describes Schionatulander's death as a beheading. From the translation of Perceval by Burton Raffel: "And so she grieved, mourning a knight who lay in her arms dead, his head cut off." The beheading symbolizes the sundering from the past. However, Wolfram, who completed Chretien's unfinished work from 1198 to 1208, tells us that Schionatulander's death occurred in a joust with Duke Orilus, out of whose shield and whose helmet sprang many live, combative dragons. This is referring to the use of black magic, although Orilus is later defeated in a joust with Parzival. Orilus also personifies the abuse of women through jealousy, control and physical cruelty. It is the black magic or evil issuing from Chastel Merveille, Castle of Marvels, that Rudolf Steiner is referring to in the following passages (Reference 1): "Everything that was undertaken by a power hostile to the Grail, and whereby also Amfortas was wounded, is finally to be traced back to the alliance which Klingsor had contracted with the stronghold of Iblis... In the middle of the Middle Ages, Calot bobot in Sicily was the seat of the goddess called Iblis, the daughter of Eblis [Lucifer]... and with her the evil magician Klingsor united his own evil arts, through which in the Middle Ages he worked against the Grail."

In history, Klingsor was the Duke of Terra de Labur, a district of what is now Southern Calabria.

In contrast with Chretien's poetic simplicity, Wolfram richly and profusely imposes the culture and values of his day on the earlier time period – from the turn of the eighth to the ninth century – when the events described in the Grail sagas actually took place in history. There were no romantic or chivalric jousts in the ninth century; pre-European civilization underwent a dark and bloody development that was controlled by Charles the Great (742-814), or Charlemagne as he is known in legend.

Schionatulander, whose actual name has apparently not survived in history, was a young nobleman who first served as a page or scribe and would then have become a vassal of King Charles. As designated in Wolfram's time, his lands were located northeast of Grenoble, in the area of Provence, near Burgundy. On the other side of the Alps was Lombardy (Italy), ruled by Pepin, one of Charles's sons.

Wolfram tells us that Schionatulander went with Gahmuret and a small group to Spain in a clandestine expedition against the Arabs, and that Gahmuret, Parzival's father, was killed at that time, before Parzival was born to Herzeloyde. According to history Charles began his wars against the Arabs with the campaign of 778, and after failing to take Sargossa in northern Spain he discontinued the campaign due to the far greater threat of new Saxon rebellions in the north. Historians generally believe that the Arabs did not pose a serious threat to the Frankish kingdom in the eighth and ninth centuries.

If Parzival was 12 years old in 800, his birth date, the year of his father's death and the clandestine expedition would have occurred around 788, when Schionatulander was 14 or 15 years old, possibly younger.

Schionatulander probably met Haroun al-Raschid (Caliph of Baghdad, 786-809) when al-Raschid visited Charles in Aachen (present-day Aix-la-Chapelle) in 801. The Caliph was hopeful that Charles as the new Roman Emperor would diminish the Byzantine Empire in the East. It was in 801 that al-Raschid brought Charles the gift of the elephant, which Charles named Abul-Abbas or Abu-el-Abbas.

As for the time of Schionatulander's death, according to Chretien five years had elapsed between Perceval's first visit to the Grail castle (Munsalvaesche or Mount Salvation) and his meeting with the Hermit. The events of the Grail saga occurred from 800 to 815, a time of relative peace in the warring life of Charles. So Schionatulander probably died around 805 or 806. Orilus, whom Chretien called the "Haughty Knight," became known as the Burgundian when he took over Schionatulander's lands. Not long after Schionatulander's death, Charles lost two of his sons. Pepin, king of Italy died in 810, and Charles II (who would have inherited the entire kingdom after Charles's death) died in 811. The entire Frankish kingdom was consequently left to the third son, Louis the Pious.

In Charlemagne, Father of a Continent, author Alessandro Barbero writes: "Since 806 there had been a sudden increase in the number of eclipses of the sun and moon, and on one occasion a dark spot had obscured the brightness of the sun for an entire week." Barbero, by way of dismissing astronomical significance, notes that Charles survived these and many other omens by several years.

The illustration of Louis the Pious is taken from a ninth-century illuminated manuscript reproduced in the 2009 publication, The Inheritance of Rome, A History of Europe from 400 to 1000, by Chris Wickham, although the bodily proportions have here been corrected. There is nothing romantic about this personality in his Roman military costume. From the above book, Louis was "famous for not smiling." The times afforded very little cause for joy.

How much can the sagas be depended upon for the actual facts of history? Far more than scholars and historians are willing to admit if the sagas are interpreted correctly. Wolfram had a friend, teacher and valuable source in "Kyot." In Book IX of Parzival, he says that Kyot, known as la schantiure (Old French for ‘the singer'), was a respected scholar. Kyot had found a "heathen script" lying neglected in Toledo, written by "Flegetanis," who had been renowned for his skills. Wolfram states that Kyot and Flegetanis had provided for him the secure foundation for his Parzival. He reveals that Flegetanis was a visionary, "born of Solomon's line, begotten of age-old Israelite stock... He was a heathen on his father's side, and knew well how to impart to each of us each star's departure and its return arrival. Flegetanis saw, with his own eyes – modestly though he spoke of this – occult mysteries in the constellations. He said there was a thing called the Grail, whose name he read immediately in the constellation – what it is called: A host abandoned it upon the earth, flying up, high above the stars."

Flegetanis was a soul still touched with the spirit of the Ephesian age. He surely knew of Schionatulander's connection with the third cultural age, and of his spiritual significance. Kyot, the Provencal, must also have understood Schionatulander as a fellow countryman.

Less than 200 years after the death of Mohammed (570?-632), the Spain of Flegetanis's day had a highly advanced civilization, especially in Cordoba. "The early centuries of Arab rule in Spain were splendid. Scholarship was promoted, including the science of agriculture. By the ninth century the Andalusian capital of Cordoba was dotted with gardens [al-Andalus is Arabic for Spain]. Architecture displayed aesthetic genius, the Mosque of Cordoba was built in 786. Arabic numerals had replaced the Roman ones. The writings of the ancient Greeks, eclipsed for hundreds of years, were reborn; the scientific and philosophical treatises of Aristotle, the geometry of Euclid, Plato's writings..." – from The End of Days.

Saint Odile

Many anthroposophists refer to the importance of Odile (c. 662-720), whose name Rudolf Steiner also gave to Ita Wegman in connection with Schionatulander and Sigune. – see Note 1, From Cratylus to Aristotle. Odile had been born into a noble family of the Alsace region. According to a tenth-century Vita, she was blind at birth. Her father rejected her, but her mother took steps to save her. At Odile's baptism at the age of 12 (near the time of the emergence of the astral body) her sight was miraculously restored. Her father was deeply moved by this and founded a convent in her honor, Hohenburg Abbey, in the Vosges Mountains. Charlemagne granted immunity to Hohenburg, and this was confirmed by Louis the Pious in 837. In historic tradition, Odile is represented with a book that has an illustration of two eyes on the cover.

Schionatulander, like the other knights of his time, traveled constantly and extensively. "Spiritual wisdom can be carried anywhere today, because we have reached a transition stage leading towards the sixth [cultural] age and these things are no longer tied to particular localities, but in the Middle Ages it had to be sought in certain definite places." – Reference 1. Schionatulander would have visited Hohenburg Abbey, perhaps with Sigune, as well as the areas of Basle and Arlesheim. These areas were not far from his own lands. The life of Odile and her physical environment may have spoken to him of the future restoration of spiritual sight or clairvoyance through the gradual advent of the Grail as increasing presence of Christ working within the earth and within humanity. As the loss of ancient, atavistic clairvoyance leads to the necessary descent into dark matter, into the material world, the renewal of fully conscious spiritual perception was not possible for the people during the Middle Ages; it could only begin to arise at the completion of Kali Yuga (3103 BC-1899 AD).

The Coming Age of Pisces

Hohenburg Abbey was built on the site of an ancient Celtic settlement, as could be said of many fortresses and towns in the Frankish kingdom and surrounding countries, including Britain and Ireland. The Franks originated from Germanic tribes who migrated from East to West, predominantly in the fourth and fifth centuries. A ruling dynasty was established by the Merovingians, descendants of the warrior-king Meroveus or Merovech. This dynasty was overturned by the Carolingian dynasty, founded by Charlemagne's paternal grandfather, Charles Martel, in 737.

The western Roman Empire fell in 476, sacked by the Lombards, another Germanic tribe who dominated much of Italy. However, the eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, remained powerful in the eighth and ninth centuries. It had been founded by Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, in 330.

The pre-existing peoples of the country once called "Gaul" (France), whether Celts or Romans, were looked down upon by the Franks and were called "Welsche" (A. Barbero). In the sagas, when Parzival is determined to be a knight, his mother Herzeloyde dresses him in the peasant clothes of the Welsh. As instructed by his mother, he tells everyone that he is from Wales.

It becomes increasingly clear from both historic and literary sources that in the eighth and ninth centuries a spiritual preparation of unprecedented depth and complexity was underway toward the evolutionary direction for the coming fifth cultural age, the age of the consciousness soul, the age of Pisces, signified by the zodiacal Fishes. This age began in the year 1413 and will continue until approximately 3573 AD. The development of the consciousness soul must stand on the firm foundation of reason, on the intellectual soul and on correct thinking, for this development involves increasing awareness and the deepening and expansion of consciousness, which means a more mature and hence more difficult confrontation with some age-old challenges of humanity and of individuals: uncontrolled passions and desires, evil, illness and death. As the Ram signifies the head, the sign of Pisces refers to the feet and to the generative organs.

Alessandro Barbero and other historians pass harsh judgments on Charlemagne as a Christian, for his constant aggressive warfare, his forced conversions, the massacre of the pagan Saxons at Verden in 782, and his numerous wives and concubines. Barbero posits the massacre at Verden as a causative factor in twentieth-century Nazism. – see Note 1. But Charlemagne cannot be judged by the standards of modern consciousness; the consciousness of his time period was distinctly different from that of today.

Both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas wrote of the necessity of the "just war" (bellum justum), which was applicable up until the time of Joan of Arc (1412-31), but not beyond that time, not beyond the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean age. In ancient times the power of mass-suggestion "was exercised in such a way that the workers [and soldiers] assembled through their own free will. It would not be right to make use of such a force today, but at that time men were not so individualized, and when temples were to be built to serve mankind's needs, priests were justified in using these methods to achieve their ends. The Crusades and the Army of Joan of Arc are other examples of such mass-suggestion. Sometimes fanatics who are rather unbalanced tend very much in this direction." – Reference 3.

Even owing to the differences in consciousness, however, many events in physical life, and consequently in spiritual life went seriously awry during the reign of King Charles. The sagas inform us of this.

The Grail Sagas and Their History: Spiritual Scientific Interpretations

A new post-Golgotha Mystery School of Christ on Earth, within the Earth and within receptive human hearts, is described in the Grail sagas, when the great Leader-Initiate, whom Wolfram calls Titurel, together with Charlemagne laid the foundations for the future Christian Europe. The path of Christ was East to West and He was to be the spiritual leader of western civilization. "Charlemagne was the reincarnation of a high East Indian adept and an instrument of the spiritual individuality that is symbolized by the name Titurel." – Esoteric Lessons. In Parzival, Titurel does not appear to be fully incarnate, nor does the realm of the Grail itself. Parzival has a glimpse of Titurel in a chamber, and Wolfram describes him as "even greyer than the mists," obviously a very old soul, and later described, in the fragment Titurel, as a warrior. Thoughts linger on immortality, on Atlantis and the time before Atlantis, on the first cultural age – the age of India – and on the time period of Heraclitus and Cratylus. Notably, Wolfram reveals that Titurel suffers from a disease of the foot and is crippled. Ancient accounts have described Mani (founder of Manicheanism) as having a deformed foot.

King Arthur

In order to begin to understand the individuality known as "King Arthur," it is necessary to again delve into the mysteries of divine descent or the divine origins of humanity. Heraclitus knew the "King Arthur" who was associated with the star Arcturus, the "Watcher" or "Guardian" of the Bears, Ursa Major and Minor. Arktos is a word of Greek origin for bear, and Arktouros means bear keeper. From an internet site, The Celtic Bear: "The Celts had two goddesses that took the form of the Bear: Andarta (‘powerful bear') and Artio. In other cultures there is the bear god Artaois, Ardeche, or Artho. The names are from ‘Art,' which means bear, stone or god. The constellation of the Great Bear was known as Arthur's Wain, Arthur's Plow. Midwinter is the time of Alban Arthuan/The Light of Arthur and the Winter Solstice..." The bear hibernates and gives birth in winter; symbolically it is associated with reproductive processes that are unconscious or instinctual. It becomes the mission of "Arthur," who serves Michael, to protect reproductive forces and the higher soul qualities and creative capacities of humanity from the adversary, from the dragon. Saint George is depicted as destroying the dragon with his lance, and in the background of such pictures can often be seen a girl kneeling in prayer. It was the division of the sexes during the Lemurian Epoch that brought forth knowledge (conscious perception, the sentient soul) of which death is an essential ingredient.

"And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold a great red dragon..." – Revelation 12: 1-3.

The innocent girl also signifies the qualities of truth, beauty and goodness within the human soul, as the white lily. – see Note 2.

As both the Arthurian and the Grail legends have their origins in Celtic myth, Arthur may at one time have been the great king of these people, or the "Folk-Soul," and led them on their vast migrations throughout all of Europe. Eventually the culture of these people, that had originated first in Asia Minor and then in the Hibernian mysteries of the third age, died out, and the Celts were absorbed into the Roman civilization. – see Note 3.

The Arthurian legends point to the fact of Arthur's divine powers in the work of the transformation of the elemental kingdoms and the nature forces through the reception of the new healing Spirit of the Earth, the Christ. In this work Arthur was assisted by the "white magic" of Merlin. From pre-Christian times to the ninth century, Arthur would have become fully human, would have become a worldly warrior-king in the sense of following the Christ from the divine to the human experience. Yet his individuality would also have been manifest in others, as the great Oriental Master, Mani, was manifest in Parzival and in the events of the time.

Even historians who do not factor in spiritual science indicate the manifestation of Arthur in Charlemagne: "According to legend, Charles surrounded himself with the twelve bravest and brightest men in his kingdom, who became known as his paladins or chosen knights. Although the term paladin and their exact number appear to be embellishments, we know from Einhard's biography that Charles did take a number of his closest advisors with him [to wars]... Roland or Hroudland was probably a paladin..." – The Importance of Charlemagne.

It does not contradict the power of divine manifestation when Wolfram tells us that Arthur was incarnate in the ninth century, and during the time period of the events of the Grail (800-815) he evidently traveled from his home in Britain to dwell temporarily in the Frankish kingdom – perhaps in Brittany – until the crises had passed. He may have been present at the death of Charlemagne.

Despite all the flurry, writes Brian M. Fagan, "nothing has been found which is explicitly identified with an historical Arthur." The Once and Future King will be "dug up and debated over by each generation." – The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World.

However, through spiritual science, solutions to many great mysteries can be discovered. "The necessity for spiritual science is an objective fact of human evolution." – Aspects of Human Evolution.

Amfortas

In his meeting with the Fisher King, Amfortas, Parzival arrives at the gate of the age of Pisces. The Grail castle to which Amfortas directs him exists primarily in the spiritual world, although a certain physical castle, full of significant individualities, most strongly represents it.

"If you were to draw something like a circle, so that the towns of Detmold and Paderborn were to lie within it, you would then arrive at that neighborhood from whence poured forth the mission of the most exalted Spirits who extended their mission to northern and western Europe. There, in the distant past, was that great center of inspiration, which later on transferred its chief activity to the center of the Holy Grail." – The Mission of Folk-Souls. – see Note 4. "Whereas it has been said that the Castle of the Grail is situated in the West of Europe..." – Reference 1. These areas are very near Aachen, court of Charlemagne.

Chretien tells us that Perceval, on his first approach to the castle, is required to do a bit of consciousness-soul work on himself:

"The boy rode quickly down,
Swearing, now, that the man
Who'd sent him had guided him well.
He was full of praise for the fisherman,
No longer calling him cheater
And trickster, disloyal, a liar,
Since he'd found his lodgings."

The Apostles of Christ were "fishers of men," and this may indicate the spiritual level of the Fisher King, the King of the Grail, in the ninth century. His wounds ("a spear struck him right between the legs") had not been caused by sexuality itself, which originates from the highest divinity (Ancient Myths), but by uncontrolled passions. "We know that Amfortas had indeed been marked out as the Guardian of the Grail, but he succumbed to the lower forces in human nature. And how he had succumbed is connected with the guardianship of the Grail: he had killed his adversary out of lust and jealousy."

The time when Parzival first meets Amfortas – "the saga itself tells us – was a Saturn time. Saturn and Sun stood together in Cancer, approaching culmination. So we see how in the most intimate effects a connection between the Earth and the stars is established." Cancer is the sign of the first cultural age, the Indian age, ruled predominantly by the forces of the Moon, and which also developed the physical thorax wherein is the heart (Sun). Saturn is the planet and spiritual force that serves in the development of the physical body, giving it strength and power; it is also the planet of cosmic memory. The metal that represents Saturn in the Earth is lead, occultly connected to the top of the skull; gold represents the Sun and the heart. "So it was that Parzival, in whom the Christ impulse was still working unconsciously in the depths of his soul, comes with the power of Saturn and the [Amfortas] wound burns as it had never burnt before." – Christ and the Spiritual World: The Search for the Holy Grail.

Evidently Charlemagne, like many others in this violent time period, likewise lost self-control on a number of occasions. Consequently Titurel himself is sickened. After many journeys and trials, Parzival, who finally is able to give expression to the pure forces of his soul out of life's severe lessons and out of genuine compassion for Amfortas, is appointed as the new Guardian of the Grail. Amfortas is fully healed, as is Titurel.

"Titurel attracted pupils who were all called Parzival... All pupils of western esotericism are called Parzivals." – Reference 9. And such pupils are seekers after knowledge and truth; they never cease searching and questioning, never cease morally improving or working on themselves, and hence all share in the guardianship of the Grail. Their names are written on the Chalice, written in the heavens, and written on the Moon, between the light and the darkness. The Divine Mother will continue to be the Host for long ages into the future.

The Grail

Chretien describes the Grail simply as a cup, chalice or dish, after the Old French word graal. Made of the purest gold and studded with jewels of every kind, it is carried by a girl. Another girl follows her, bearing a silver platter. Sun, Moon and cosmos are alluded to, borne by the feminine elements.

Wolfram elaborates, reveling in the necessary obscurantism that characterized the later Rosicrucianism. After the squire with the bloody lance exits (the lance signifies the transformation of the old to the new, Christed blood) a sacred procession begins. A duchess and her playmate are included in the procession and this may be a reference to Schionatulander and Sigune in childhood. Lastly in the procession, Repanse de Schoye, the queen, enters carrying the Grail. The Grail is described as "the perfection of Paradise, both root and branch." This is an unmistakable reference to the reunited Tree of Knowledge and Tree of Life. Preceding the entrance of the queen are "four who carry a precious stone," a garnet hyacinth "through which by day the sun shone brightly." This stone, doubly refracting, may be said to signify the restoration in full consciousness of spiritual perception, for the garnet signifies pictorial ideation or Imagination (from Precious Stones and Minerals). The hyacinth or jacinth was sacred to the ancients. From Exodus 28:19, jacinth was the first stone on the third row of the High Priest's breastplate. The High Priest wore 12 gemstones on his breastplate and these represented the 12 constellations. Wolfram is learned in the occult knowledge of gemstones, probably taught to him and others by Kyot, out of the Chaldean mysteries of the third age.

The stone that precedes the Grail may also signify the Philosopher's Stone, which is the work in the transformation of the blood. – Reference 3.

All of the figures and objects have multiple meanings, above all the Grail itself. Sixty definitions of the Grail could be written down from different sources and all would be equally correct. But the deep rich symbolism of the sagas permitted of soul and intellectual development for sincere aspirants at various levels of preparedness or maturity, while protecting the spiritual content from obtrusive, destructive forces, forces of darkness. Darkness and cold, often to degrees equivalent to light and warmth, are ever-present factors. Evil denigrates good.

The passages quoted below serve to emphasize the importance of the development of conscious spiritual perception in our time. They reveal the powers and the great dangers of the opposing forces, the adversary, by elucidating the evil arts of Klingsor in the ninth century. Yet this individuality, the effects and the dangers, continue on. "Once in ancient times men's souls possessed a certain faculty of clairvoyance, and in the latter part of the Egyptian-Chaldaic civilization this clairvoyance still existed to such a degree that a man, when gazing into the starry heavens, saw not merely the physical stars but also the spiritual beings united with them... But our souls have lost remembrance of it! For modern consciousness it is no longer present in the souls of men... Thus there is something in man that is withdrawn from the sovereignty of the soul.... Something that is dead in contrast with the life of the organism that surrounds it...

"When the Initiate of the Middle Ages wanted to present in picture form what he had to learn in order to permeate with the new wisdom the part of his soul that had remained living, he spoke of the Castle of the Holy Grail and of the new wisdom – which is in fact the Grail – that flows out from it. And when he wanted to indicate that which is hostile to this new wisdom, he pointed to another domain... the domain which was the most vicious and hostile to the Grail was Castle Merveil, the gathering-place of all the forces which attack man in this [dead] part of his body and soul..."

Apart from its association with the Blood of Christ, the most comprehensive definition of the Grail may be: "The Holy Grail was and is nothing else than that which can so nurture the living portion of the soul that it can become master of the dead part." – Reference 1.

Schionatulander and Sigune

In Wolfram's saga, Parzival meets Sigune with the dead warrior three times. In the first meeting Sigune laments the fact that she had asked knightly deeds of Schionatulander in exchange for her love. Thus at the beginning of both sagas, from Herzeloyde's collapse and Sigune's grief, the dark realities of knighthood are painted as contrasted with Parzival's youthful enthusiasm. "A bercelet's leash brought this grief upon him," adds Sigune mysteriously, and Wolfram will tell the story of the bercelet (a small hound) in his later poem of Titurel. Parzival says he will avenge the death and gladly settle the score, but Sigune points him in the wrong direction, away from Orilus, which probably saves his life.

In the second meeting, Parzival sees Sigune sitting up in a lime (linden) tree with the embalmed knight leaning between her arms. It is at this second meeting that Sigune recognizes her cousin Parzival and learns that he has visited the Grail castle but has failed to ask questions or to have compassion for Amfortas. She then refuses to converse further with Parzival, calling him a "dishonored, accursed man." Despite the frailties imposed by her grief, a commanding personality is apparent in Sigune.

The third meeting occurs after Parzival has "traversed many lands on horseback, and in ships upon the waves," over a period of five years according to Chretien. Parzival happens upon a hermit's cell in a forest and here finds the still-grieving Doschesse Sigune, bent over the tomb of the warrior. Parzival converses with her through a window and notices that she wears a ring with a garnet: "its gleam shone out of the darkness just like a little fiery spark." In response to Parzival's question about the ring, Sigune says it is a bethrothal ring. "He is my husband before God... this ring of true wedlock must be my escort into God's presence. It is a seal upon my loyalty, my eyes' flood from my heart. There are two of us inside here, Schionatulander is the one, I the other." Here Wolfram touches upon a mystery in regard to the deep spiritual experiences of Intuition. Until a very distant time in the future, the deepest experiences of Intuition, which includes the union of the living and the dead, are only possible with sensory mediation. "Contemporary man attains such Intuition [without sensory response] only at a later stage of his development; this Intuition [will then make] it possible for him to enter into contact with the spirit without sensory mediation. He must [presently] make a detour through the world of sensory substance. This detour is called the descent of the human soul into matter, or the fall of man." – Cosmic Memory.

Chretien's Perceval meets the grieving girl but once, although they recognize one another in this meeting, and the girl realizes that her cousin has failed to ask questions at the Grail castle.

Wolfram's Titurel

The poetic work Titurel is in two parts and was intended to be a complete account of the lives of Schionatulander and Sigune, however, it was not completed. The first fragment describes the childhoods of Schionatulander and Sigune, beginning with a brief description of Titurel, who is clearly an individual of eminent spiritual importance in their lives. Titurel says: "When I received the Grail by the message which the exalted angel sent me by his high authority, there I found written all my order. That gift had never before been given, before me, to human hand." The second fragment gives the account of Schionatulander's pursuit of the runaway bercelet.

Regarding the work of Albrecht von Scharffenberg, written in the latter half of the thirteenth century and titled Der juengere Titurel – The Younger Titurel – ("Younger" meaning written later in time), see Note 5.

Wolfram writes that the two children love one another devotedly and in innocence, yet later this love becomes a source of great distress to both, of "heart's distress," "inward torment," and "languishing sorrow," capable of destroying all happiness. Schionatulander says that such love inflicts, "never missing – all that walks, creeps, flies or floats." Significantly, the translator notes that Schionatulander has described "the four kinds of beasts; the whole of creation." Sigune says that Schionatulander must earn her love through force of arms, and he agrees, telling her that he in turn will need her help. The two are eventually able to find solace through the counsel of their elders, who give approval to their union.

Laments Sigune: "...it is as if I lay in a sparkling fire, Schionatulander so beglows me! His love gives me heat, as Agremuntin does the serpent salamander." The translator notes that Mount Agremuntin is probably a reference to Acremonte in Sicily, near Mount Etna. In Book XV of Parzival, Wolfram tells us that Parzival met a wealthy stranger, a heathen who wore many precious stones on his surcoat; the surcoat gave off a dazzling sheen. "In the mountain of Agremuntin the salamander worms had woven it together in the hot fire."

In Fragment II, Schionatulander and Sigune are encamped in a forest. Suddenly there is a resounding clamor; a bercelet is barking "in red-hued pursuit of a wounded beast." Schionatulander, known since childhood to be a swift runner, goes after the bercelet, who is discovered to be dragging a leash. Its collar "was of Arabian braid, very tightly woven by the loom; on it could be seen precious and bright gems, which glittered through the forest like the sun." "The bercelet's leash was truly a source of joy-losing time for Schionatulander," who carries the hound to Sigune. When the leash, twelve fathoms long, "was unfolded from between its rings, script could be perceived on it... The letters were of emerald, mingled with rubies. There were diamonds, chrysolites, and garnets." The hound's name is Gardeviaz, which means "Guard the way," or "Keep on the trail." The translator writes that this is either from the old Provencal garda vias or from the Latin garde vias, and is probably a hunting term.

Combining the nearly infinite content of the literature of spiritual science with an in-depth study of the past lives of Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman, one can only marvel at the occult content of the above passage with the bercelet, of which Wolfram himself, allowing world-thoughts and world-feelings to flow through his soul, may not have been fully aware.

The gems on the collar of Gardeviaz signify cosmic forces within the earth, and cosmic knowledge. The Arabian braid is tight, constricted. The unfolding leash suggests the sign of Cancer. The letters on the leash are cosmic signs, and the combinations of the letters are the cosmic script which can be read if the "alphabet" is understood. This is an allusion to the memory of Ephesus that arose within the soul of Aristotle through the mysteries of the Samothracian Kabiri, and which led him to create the Categories.

Why does the leash bring the loss of joy to Schionatulander? The imparting of cosmic knowledge, the regaining of spiritual perception, will not be possible for a long time; for the people the spirit can only be seen "through a glass dimly." Not so for Schionatulander, who may also glean in the events his early death. The dog, with its message "Guard the way," is as though divided into two parts, the past and the future. The Dog Star Sirius in Canis Major may be the cosmic home of the Essenes, from the past; and the dog may signify the emergence of the Master who will be canonized in 1234 as Saint Dominic. Dominic (1170-1221) was a contemporary of Wolfram; he was born in Calaruega, Kingdom of Castile, Spain. His name has been interpreted to mean Domini canis, the Lord's hound. This was the Master who was to have such a powerful influence on Thomas Aquinas. It is not difficult to visualize a spiritual union of Kyot, Dominic, Wolfram, and – from the spiritual world – Schionatulander and Sigune, who have again assumed the identities of Aristotle and Alexander. Alexander will be reborn as Reginald of Piperno (c. 1230-1290), companion or socius of Thomas Aquinas. "Guard the way" is a message for the present time.

Sirius is also the star of Isis. Isis is the ancient Egyptian depiction of Sophia, or Divine Wisdom or the Mother.

Sigune would rather possess the writing on the leash than all her wealth and lands, and urges Schionatulander to bring forth this cosmic teaching, of which she knows he is capable. She makes this a condition for her love, but later realizes in her grief that the time is not right.

Thus, writes Wolfram, "they had recompensed one another with words, and with good will. The beginning of many troubles – how was it ended?"

After Parzival has become Lord of the Grail, he returns with companions to the cell of Sigune. There they find her dead at her genuflection; there she saw grief's extremity. The tombstone of Schionatulander is raised, and his body is found to be perfectly preserved. The body of Sigune is laid next to his and the tomb is closed.

Part Two: Friar Thomas

"The pursuit of wisdom especially joins man to God in friendship." – Summa contra Gentiles.

And Friar Thomas aspires with unending devotion and love to be the friend of man. Schionatulander had laid down his life for Parzival, and who but the greatest friend directs the seeker to the living Truth, even at the loss of his own life? During the course of Thomas's teaching the question arose: "Was the Incarnation of God necessary?" His answer: "Augustine says: In order that man might journey more trustfully toward the truth, the Truth itself, the Son of God, having assumed human nature, established and founded faith." – Summa Theologica.

Regarding faith, another question arose: "Whether those things that are of faith can be an object of science?"

"I answer that, all science is derived from principles self-evident and therefore seen; and therefore all objects of science must be, in a fashion, seen... It may happen, however, that a thing which is an object of vision or science for one, is believed by another, for we hope to see some day what we now believe about the Trinity, according to 1 Corinthians 13:12: ‘We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face.' This vision the angels possess already, so that what we believe, they see. In like manner it may happen that what is an object of vision or scientific knowledge for one man, even in the state of a wayfarer, is for another man an object of faith, because he does not know it by demonstration."

"Should new articles/creeds of faith be drawn up to the Sovereign Pontiff?"

"Now this pertains to the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff, to whom the more important and more difficult questions that arise in the Church are referred, as stated in the Decretals (Gregory). Hence Our Lord said to Peter whom He made Sovereign Pontiff (Luke 22:32): ‘I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not, and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.' The reason for this is that there should be one faith of the whole Church, according to 1 Corinthians 1:10: ‘That all of you speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you.' "

By the early thirteenth century, the Church had already been convulsed and corrupted, and the Popeship questioned and disrespected. There had been the investiture controversy, the serious problems of concubinage, simony, the crusades, and disputes between ecclesiastical and secular authorities. However, between the years 1050 and 1250 there had also been something of a renaissance, with "renewed interest in the sophistication of Latin poetry and prose, an interest that harked back to a still earlier revival in the Carolingian period of the eighth and ninth centuries." – Europe in the High Middle Ages.

Dominic de Guzman, Francis of Assisi, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas and many other great individualities incarnated during these dark times and firmly set down the models for behavior for men and women of the Church: scholasticism (schola is the Latin word for school), monastic community, formal disputation, self-denial and conscious poverty. Even near death, Dominic refused a bed and lay down upon sacking. – see Note 7.

Were the religious bound to manual labor? – Thomas was asked. If one could live without eating, he replied, one would not be bound to work with ones hands. And, he added, one should avoid the discreditable pursuits whereby some seek a livelihood.

Aristotle also discouraged morally ambiguous vocations, while he would have been appalled at the notion of the upper classes or philosophers working at manual labor. Despite some deep differences in consciousness in the pre-Christian and post-Christian cultural periods, Thomas and others succeeded in the mission of carrying over the natural philosophy, logic and ethical treatises of Aristotle into the Christian teachings of the thirteenth century. At the same time, battle lines were repeatedly drawn against certain erroneous and harmful beliefs, such as those of the Aristotelian philosopher Averroes (Arabic Ibn Rushd), who taught that the scriptures should be interpreted allegorically. "Some Muslims worked hard to remake Aristotle's philosophy into a body of beliefs compatible with orthodox Islam." – Reference 21. They also rejected and ridiculed the teachings of the Trinity and the Resurrection.

"And if in what the philosophers have said we come upon something that is contrary to faith, this does not belong to philosophy but is rather an abuse of philosophy arising from a defect in reason." – Reference 19.

In Summa contra Gentiles, Thomas minces no words in fierce opposition to Mohammedanism, with its "promise of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us."

In his travels in southern France and through the Pyrenees, Dominic encountered the Albigensians or Cathari (purists), adherents of Manichean or dualistic ways of thinking. Although he recognized the value of some of the ideas of the educated preachers, he advocated measures for the elimination of the heresy and the conversion to Christianity through peaceful methods. Pope Innocent III, however, initiated a crusade resulting in the indiscriminate massacre of thousands of unarmed Albigensians.

Surprisingly, regarding the subject of deeper moral and character development, Thomas reveals influences from the East: Was it lawful for the religious to live on alms? – Yes, "...if the religious be in need they can lawfully live on alms." As for begging, "proneness to pride is most efficaciously healed by those things which savor most of abasement." – Reference 20.

The new Temple of God on Earth, however, the universal Church of Christ, was not to be poor and humble, but beautiful, majestic and lofty beyond compare, so as to uplift to awareness of the Presence of God the souls of all who would enter its portals. The Gothic architectural style for cathedrals arose in the twelfth century, although the blueprint for the new House of God seems to have originated with Charlemagne, who gave the gift of the tunic (Sancta Camisia) of the Blessed Mother to an early church, a church that eventually became the Cathedral of Chartres, France.

The illustration of Thomas is based on a portrait by Carlo Crivelli that was painted around the year 1476. It was originally part of the Demidoff Altarpiece of the San Domenico Church in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. In deep humility, Thomas's gaze is directed upwards, to heaven and to God. The symbol of the radiating sun in the heart can be interpreted as a reference to the Christ Initiate of the Sun Sphere. Biographer G.K. Chesterton favored the portrait of Thomas by Domenico Ghirlandaio (c. 1485), and noted a strangeness in the depiction of the sun at the heart "...blazoned upon his breast, a rather curious emblem, as if it were some third symbolic and cyclopean eye. At least it is no normal Christian sign; but something more like the disc of the sun such as held the face of a heathen god, but the face itself is dark and occult, and only the rays breaking from it are a ring of fire. I do not know whether any traditional meaning has been attached to this; but its imaginative meaning is strangely apt..." – Saint Thomas, "The Dumb Ox." In the Crivelli portrait Thomas's hands, his strong will, grasp the two most visible means of Christian spiritual guidance for earthly life: the House of God and the Book of the Scriptures.

Raphael has given us a portrait of Thomas (similar to the Ghirlandaio portrait) in La Disputa or The Disputation over the Sacrament, painted in 1508-1509 for the Vatican. Thomas, with the halo of a saint, stands amidst other doctors of the Church, including Augustine, Gregory and Bonaventure. Thomas is portrayed as large and heavy and his thinning hair is light golden-brown in color. He wears a black robe over a white inner garment, the habit of the Dominicans.

This magnificent painting, of which the largest figure at the center is the Resurrected Christ, with the Father above and the Holy Spirit and Host below, truly reveals the triumph of the promulgation and reception of the world teaching of the Trinity.

From an early biography of Thomas by Peter Calo (c. 1300) comes this physical description: "He was of lofty stature and of heavy build; but straight and well-proportioned. His complexion was like the color of new wheat; his head was large and well-shaped, and he was slightly bald. All portraits represent him as noble, meditative, gentle yet strong." – Dominic Prummer.

Born early in the year 1225 in the castle at Roccasecca, near Naples, Italy, Thomas was "the seventh and last son of Count Landulf of Aquino and Theodora of Theate... His father belonged to the Lombard nobility; his paternal grandmother, Francesca di Suabia, was a sister of Frederick Barbarossa; his mother was descended from Norman nobility. The complementary gifts of the North and the South, transmitted through a double lineage of nobility, met in this infant..." – Jacques Maritain.

As noted, Thomas rejected the advantages of his aristocratic family to become a beggar. This destiny and decision brings to mind not only the influences of the East, but also the life of Gautama Buddha.

"Something in this heavy, quiet, cultivated rather academic gentleman would not be satisfied till he was, by fixed authoritative proclamation and official pronouncement, established and appointed to be a beggar... Something in the courage and consistency of Dominic and Francis had challenged his deep sense of justice, and while remaining a very reasonable person, and even a diplomatic one, he never let anything shake the iron immobility of this one decision of his youth, nor was he to be turned from his tall and towering ambition to take the lowest place." – Reference 22.

In a publication titled Sizilien, Insel des Kain (Sicily, Island of Cain), author Hans Gsanger traced Thomas's genealogy further back than Maritain's account, discovering that one of Thomas's more distant ancestors had been the Count of Capua, or the Duke of Terra de Labur, Landulf II (829-879). – see Note 8. Although the dates of Landulf II's life do not coincide with the time period of Charlemagne, generations of dark events had occurred in the Lombard duchy of Benevento, a province of Italy not far from Naples. This province had been called Malowent or Malventum by the Romans, meaning "the site of bad events." From this vicinity certain activities were extended to Sicily. Erchempert (c. 889), a Benedictine monk at Monte Cassino, wrote a history of the Lombards of Benevento that included the Carolingian conquest of the kingdom in 774, and descriptions of the civil war and splitting of the principality into three autonomous rulerships of Benevento, Salerno and Capua. – Joan R. Ferry.

Far from the encyclopedia descriptions of Landulf II as a "dabbler in black magic" and a "sorcerer," Rudolf Steiner stated that this historic personality brought about a universal condition of humanity that is esoterically referred to as the "Amfortas wound," a double or lower nature that each individual carries through life as contrasted with the Parzival nature. As described in Part One of this article, Landulf II ("Klingsor") achieved this by attacking and using that part of the soul that had become dead due to the loss of ancient clairvoyance. – Reference 1. Wolfram included these later occurrences in time in his Parzival saga, but Mani, Titurel and Charlemagne would have been aware of the anti-Grail forces emanating from the "site of bad events."

Regarding Thomas's imprisonment by his family at Roccasecca in an attempt to turn him away from the Dominican Order of Preachers, there are many tales of his rescue, but "...Actually, it seems likely that his liberation had been decided upon by his family, whose political fortune was in danger, and against whom the Master General John the Teuton had filed a complaint before Innocent IV." – Reference 24. – see Note 8.

From Naples, Thomas was sent to Paris, where he met his teacher, Albert the Great. When Albert was directed to Cologne, Germany in 1248, Thomas went with him. In Cologne, Albert established a new studium generale, a college for members of the Dominican Order, and it is likely that Thomas was here ordained a priest. In 1252 Thomas returned to Paris to teach at the University, and in 1256 he became a magister in sacra pagina, a master of scripture equivalent to a professor of theology. – Nicholas M. Healy.

Thomas Aquinas and Spiritual Science

It now becomes necessary to make a transition from the largely known facts of Thomas's life to the lesser-known facts by bringing to light some esoteric streams that were running parallel with the exoteric teachings and outer events of his time. Although both Augustine and Thomas worked primarily under the aegis of the guiding spirit of exoteric Christianity, Thomas, as is known from his life as Schionatulander, was also intimately connected with the Archangel who had become the inspirer of esoteric Christianity. – see Note 4.

"...When there was some question of his having seen Saint Paul in a vision, he was in agony of alarm lest it should be discussed; and the story remains somewhat uncertain in consequence... His followers and admirers were as eager to collect these strictly miraculous stories as he was eager to conceal them; and one or two seem to be preserved with a fairly solid setting of evidence." – Reference 22.

The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church became the earthly organization and means for the continued development of the intellectual soul. Thomas actually uses the term "intellectual soul" in his "Treatise on the Incarnation of the Knowledge Imprinted or Infused in the Soul of Christ": "In the state before His Passion, Christ was at the same time a wayfarer and a comprehensor, as will be more clearly shown. Especially had He the condition of a wayfarer on the part of the body, which was passable, but the condition of a comprehensor He had chiefly on the part of the intellectual soul." – Reference 20.

The following quotations are from lectures given by Rudolf Steiner in Dornach in 1920, titled Roman Catholicism:

"It can be well authenticated in all detail that the Roman Catholic Church represents the last remnant of what was the right civilization for the fourth post-Atlantean age, what was justified right up to the middle of the fifteenth century, but what has now become a shadow... Spiritual Science, however, as we understand it, has to further the needs of the fifth post-Atlantean civilization."

"Aristotle vehemently defended the theory that every time a human being is born on the earth, a quite new soul unites with his physical body... Unless one can speak of a prenatal existence, one has no justification for believing otherwise than that after his death man remains forever in a spiritual world... So that according to Aristotle's view, when the man dies, he has to look back eternally on the one earth life for which he has to pay... This doctrine of Aristotle was taken over in its entirety by the Catholic Church, and when in the Middle Ages the Church sought for a philosophy which could carry its theology, it took over, as regards the life of the soul, this Aristotelian doctrine, and one can still today recognize its echo in the idea of eternal punishment in hell. Now, after having for thousands of years had this doctrine of the origin of the soul with the body impressed upon them, how is it conceivable that people can free themselves from it again and arrive at the truth [karma and reincarnation]? They can only do so by receiving a new spiritual science."

It took thousands of years through the evolution of consciousness for the soul to have, as part of its own being, a natural awareness of the divine potential of the single life.

"Now, my dear friends, I have plunged into a theme into which I would certainly not have entered had it not been for recent events here, of which we shall see further developments. You know that on Saturday I am to give a public lecture on "The Truth About Anthroposophy and Its Defense Against Untruth." But in any case I must contrive next Sunday to continue the comments which I cannot complete today. So next Sunday at half-past seven we will meet here once more, although we have to start on a journey next Monday. In these troubled times one cannot do otherwise, and so on Saturday, despite the burning of our posters, the public lecture also will take place here."

The Mystery of the Transubstantiation

The deepest esoteric mysteries are contained within the teachings, and enactment upon the altar, of the Sacrament of the Transubstantiation, during which occurs the change of the substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. How can such a mystery and a miracle be taught exoterically? How can the intellect understand such a process? "This does raise many difficulties for human reason. How can Christ be on so many altars and in innumerable tabernacles at the same time?" – L'Osservatore Romano. Thomas struggled at length and painfully with these teachings, and drew back upon Faith: "Do not doubt that this is true, but receive the Savior's Word with faith, for He is the Truth, He does not lie." – Reference 20. G.K. Chesterton informs us that Thomas was very worried about his interpretations of the change in the elements of the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Communion, and at one point in his frustration threw down his thesis at the foot of the crucifix on the altar and left it lying there. He returned there and buried himself in prayer on the altar steps. Other friars watched as Christ came down from the Cross before their mortal eyes and stood upon Thomas's scroll, saying, "Thomas, thou hast written well concerning the Sacrament of my Body."

How has the teaching of the Transubstantiation changed and progressed over a period of six centuries, from the lifetime of Thomas Aquinas to that of Rudolf Steiner?

From Jesus to Christ

"What, from the event of Damascus onwards, was the Being of Christ for Paul? The Being of Christ was for him the ‘Second Adam'; and he immediately differentiates between the first Adam and the second Adam, the Christ... All men have inherited from Adam the corruptible body, the physical body of man that decays in death. With this body men are ‘clothed.' The second Adam, Christ, is regarded by Paul as possessing, in contrast to the first, the incorruptible, the immortal body... Every Christian can say ‘Because I am descended from Adam, I have a corruptible body as Adam had; but in that I set myself in the right relationship to Christ, I receive from Him the second Adam, an incorruptible body.' For Paul, this view shines out directly from the experience of Damascus..."

"But the more clairvoyance is developed in our time, the clearer it will be that the physical forces and substance laid aside [at death] are not the whole physical body, for its complete configuration could never derive from them alone. To these substances and forms there belongs something else, best called the ‘Phantom' of the man. This Phantom is the Form-shape which as a spiritual texture works up the physical substances and forces so that they fill out the Form which we encounter as the man on the physical plane... The Phantom belongs to the physical body as its enduring part, a more important part than the external substances..."

Through the Mystery of Golgotha "It came to pass that one man, who was the bearer of Christ [Jesus], had gone through such a death that after three days the specifically mortal part of the physical body had to disappear, and out of the grave there rose the body which is the force-bearer of the physical, material parts... the pure Phantom of the physical body with all the attributes of the physical body – this it was that rose out of the grave. So was given the possibility of that spiritual genealogy of which we have spoken... And it is possible for man to receive into his organism those forces which then rose from the grave, just as through his physical organism at the beginning of the earth evolution, as a consequence of the Luciferic forces, he received the organism of Adam. It is this that Paul wishes to say.

"Somewhat as the human cells of the physical body are connected with the original cell... we must think of the Phantom as multiplying itself, as does the cell which gives rise to the physical body..."

Through establishing a relationship to Christ, a man "will become more and more clearly aware of his Ego-consciousness, and of that part of his nature which journeys on from one incarnation to another."

In the pre-Christian ages, Osiris and Moses had judged men directly after their deaths; today Christ is the Lord of Karma.

The Holy Communion

"With Christ there rose out of the grave a kind of seed-kernel for the reconstruction of our human Phantom. And it is possible for this seed-kernel to incorporate itself in those individuals who find a connection with the Christ-Impulse. That is the objective side of the relationship of the individual to the Christ-Impulse...

"What relationship to the Christ can be found by an individual who takes no esoteric path, but remains entirely in the field of the exoteric?" The nineteenth century is far different from the thirteenth century; it brings the age of materialism, machinery, invention, and a godless atomistic, mathematical, mechanistic view of humanity, earth and the universe. Yet the Holy Communion still remains, even in the twenty-first century, a way to Christ. "Certainly, just as it is true in regard to the spiritual life that a quite new age is dawning, so it is true that the way to Christ which for centuries was the right one for many people, will remain for centuries more the right one for many. Things pass over gradually into one another, and what was formerly right will gradually pass over into something else when people are ready for it."

"How could it be shown that it is untrue to say that everywhere in space where matter appears, only matter is present. How could this come about? In no other way than by something being given to man which is at one and the same time spirit and matter, something which he knows in spirit and yet sees to be matter. Therefore the transformation, the eternally valid transformation of spirit into matter, of matter into spirit, had to continue as a vital fact. And this came to pass because the Holy Communion has been celebrated, has been maintained through the centuries as a Christian ritual..." – Reference 30.

Contra Faustum and the Manicheans

Thomas wrote: "We should not... immediately reject as false, following the opinion of the Manicheans and many unbelievers, everything that is said about God even though it cannot be investigated by reason... There exists a twofold truth concerning the divine being, one to which the inquiry of the reason can reach, the other which surpasses the whole ability of human reason." – Reference 19. The age of faith was not the time to apply the faculty of reason to questions for which reason alone could not possibly find the answers. Hence Thomas draws upon Augustine's Contra Faustum in response to the tendencies towards Manicheanism in his day. In the latter half of the fourth century, Augustine had become involved in public debates with Faustus, whom he described as an African by race, a citizen of Mileum. Faustus was "eloquent and clever, but had adopted the shocking tenets of the Manichean heresy." Faustus could not reasonably believe that God could be born of woman, for example, and pointed out the discrepancies in the genealogies of Luke and Matthew.

While these and other very serious Faustian questions were not to be addressed by the Church Fathers in the thirteenth century, they most certainly could be asked by the early twentieth century and are in fact answered in the literature of spiritual science, particularly Rudolf Steiner's series of lectures on the four gospels. He repeatedly makes it clear, however, that access to deeper truths is dependent upon the correct development of clairvoyance or direct spiritual perception. Here we arrive at a crossroads of difficult decision for many present-day anthroposophists, who may choose to remain purely within the intellectual realm of spiritual science – which best meets the needs of the public – and avoid the work of direct perception, which is the path of the development of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. However, in the twenty-first century, the latter path becomes increasingly necessary for the resolution of serious conflicts and as a balance between extremes in contemporary expression of clairvoyant capacities, not to mention the necessity for the overriding of corrupted authority and the establishment of true community and caring.

Yet, even though the evolution of consciousness is moving at a much faster rate today (see Atlantean Cataclysms), Mani and Manicheanism are still far in advance of the twenty-first century.

As Aristotle, in consciousness, was already in the fifth cultural age, the story of Schionatulander and Sigune, which is in part about the freeing of the soul from the dominance of the physical body, is pointing to the sixth cultural age, called Philadelphia in Revelation 3:7. This begins preparation for the future time in which Mani will truly come into his mission, in the Sixth Great Epoch. "What does Mani mean in uttering that he is the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the Son of the Widow? This means that he will prepare for that age in which the men of the sixth root race [Sixth Great Epoch] will be led by themselves, by the light of their own souls. Mani will create an overlapping stream which goes further than the stream of the Rosicrucians. Christianity will appear in its perfected form in the sixth root race." It is Mani who will oversee the complete independence of the soul, which will then be designated the "Divine Fructifier." From Mani will come the "call to the Divine Spiritual Light of the soul, a rebellion of the soul against everything which has not come out of the soul itself. Mani: ‘You must strip off everything that external authority has transmitted to you. Then you must become ripe to behold your own soul.' " – The Manicheans.

When Chretien de Troyes refers to Perceval as "the Son of the Widow," he also reveals that Perceval is a follower of Mani, or has been a follower of Mani in a previous life, and that the experiences and trials of his present life reflect not only his past in connection with the Orient, but also point to a distant future, to a distant age when the Grail will be able to be fully realized through the work in the transformation of the three lower bodies, physical, etheric and astral, by the fourth body, the Ego, or "I am."

What is the Name of God? – the students asked Thomas. Thomas replied that the Name of God was "I Am the I Am." Quoting Exodus 3:13,14, Thomas explained that the Lord, by his answer to Moses "showed that his own proper name is He Who Is. Now, names have been devised to signify the natures or essences of things. It remains then, that the divine being is God's essence or nature." – Reference 19. Echoes of Cratylus.

The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz

The darkest period of the Middle Ages, around the year 1250 (see Atlantean Cataclysms), also brought about the renewal of esoteric Christianity through the founding of the Rosicrucian stream, which may be defined in part as the occult path to Christ. In the lecture series cited below, Rudolf Steiner revealed that a unique Initiation took place after the short period of darkness had run its course. Twelve outstanding individuals – called the "Council of Twelve" – united together to help the progress of humanity. Seven of them could look back into the seven streams of the ancient Atlantean cultural ages and the further course of these ages. Four others could look back to the occult wisdom mankind had acquired in the four post-Atlantean ages: the Indian, Persian, Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian and Greco-Roman. "A twelfth had the fewest memories as it were, however he was the most intellectual among them, and it was his task to foster external science in particular." – Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz. "In a place in Europe that cannot be named yet," the twelve united in a lodge in order to initiate the thirteenth, a young man of about twenty years of age. In the course of this initiation they imparted to the young man all of the wisdom that could be known up to their own time. The young man "experienced a great transformation of soul. Within it there now existed something that was like a completely new birth of the twelve streams of wisdom, so that the twelve wise men could also learn something entirely new from the youth."

The youth did not live long thereafter but reincarnated about one-hundred years later, around the middle of the fourteenth century. He then lived for over a hundred years and was the individuality known as Christian Rosenkreutz.

"A remarkable reference to this can be found in Goethe's poem The Mysteries (Die Geheimnisse)."

The question arises for the student of spiritual science: Could Thomas Aquinas and certain of his collaborators have participated in this initiation event as members of the Council of Twelve? As noted in the biographical section on Thomas, when Albert was directed to Cologne in 1248 to establish a new studium generale for the Dominican Order, Thomas accompanied him. Thomas was probably ordained a priest while in Cologne, and returned to Paris to teach at the University in 1252. Since Rudolf Steiner has described himself as a brother of Christian Rosenkreutz, as someone who stands shoulder to shoulder with him, the answer to the above question would be "yes," more likely than not. Rudolf Steiner revealed to Ita Wegman that he had had four lives in the fourth cultural age, and that she had shared these lives with him. The four lives: Cratylus, Aristotle, Schionatulander and Thomas Aquinas. Therefore it is highly likely that Thomas would have been the representative of the fourth cultural age on the Council of Twelve. Humanity then had not yet entered the fifth cultural age, but who might have been the twelfth participant? – "a man who attained the intellectual wisdom of his time in the highest degree. He possessed intellectually all the knowledge of his time, while the others, to whom direct spiritual wisdom was also denied at that time, acquired their knowledge by returning in memory to their earlier incarnations." This may have been Albert. – see Note 9.

The Death of Thomas

The following account is always included in the biographies of Thomas, although there is little agreement as to its interpretation: In late 1273, while at Mass, Thomas "seems to have had some kind of experience, whether spiritual, psychological or physical, or some combination thereof, which made it impossible for him to continue working." – Reference 27.

"He had returned victorious from his last combat with Siger of Brabant; returned and retired. This particular quarrel was the one point, as we may say, in which his outer and his inner life had crossed and coincided; he realized how he had longed from childhood to call up all allies in the battle for Christ; how he had only long afterwards called up Aristotle as an ally; and now in the last nightmare, he had for the first time truly realized that some might really wish for Christ to go down before Aristotle. He never recovered from the shock. He won his battle, because he was the best brain of his time, but he could not forget such an inversion of the whole idea and purpose of his life." His friend Reginald asked him to return to his regular habits, but he replied that he could write no more. "There seems to have been a silence, after which Reginald again ventured to approach the subject; and Thomas answered him with even greater vigor: ‘I can write no more; I have seen things which make all my writings seem like straw.' " – Reference 22.

Early in 1274, while traveling in response to Pope Gregory's summons to attend a council, Thomas became ill. He recovered somewhat at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, and set out again on his journey. However, he was unable to continue on and was taken to the Cistercian monastery at Fossa Nuova, where he died.

Before his death he asked the Cistercian brothers to read to him, from beginning to end, the great love song of the Old Testament, the Song of Solomon. Echoes of Schionatulander.

Thomas was revered immediately upon his death because one of the Cistercian monks was apparently cured of an eye disease by pressing his eyes against those of the corpse (Reference 27). Echoes of the Protrepticus (see From Cratylus to Aristotle) and of Saint Odile.

Dante's Paradiso

There can be no doubt that in the Paradiso, in the Ascent to the Sun, to the Fourth Sphere, Dante Alighieri, with Beatrice, actually encounters the Spirit or Individuality of Thomas Aquinas, and that the great teacher communicates clearly with him and instructs him. Just as in the posthumous words of Thomas, so may glimmerings of the future teachings be perceived, and this gives Thomas and friends great joy, because humanity too will have advanced. In the Paradiso Cantos, Dante describes three circles or spiraling spheres, one above the other as he ascends. In the first two spheres there are 12 souls in each, or 24, but Dante does not give a number for the third circle. Thomas is the spokesman for the first sphere, which is the sphere of the Father, probably a contracting sphere. Bonaventure is the spokesman for the second sphere, which may be expanding or radiating; this is the sphere of the Son. The third sphere is that of the Holy Spirit, at the center of which Dante perceives Christ on the Cross.

"I was a lamb among the holy flock," says Thomas of himself, "Dominic leads to where all plenty is, unless the lamb itself stray to bare rock. This spirit on my right, once of Cologne, was my teacher and brother. Albert was his name, and Thomas, of Aquinas, was my own." Also in this Garland of Souls is Boethius, Gratian, Peter Lombard, and "the fifth light" which "shines forth from so magnificent a love that men hunger for any news of it on earth; Within it is that mind to which were shown such depths of wisdom that, if truth be true, no mortal ever rose to equal this one." The translator, John Ciardi, identifies this spirit as that of Solomon. Later, perceiving that Dante has many questions about the fifth light, Thomas refers to the third circle, which is a circle of archetypes that sends forth rays that, with varying degrees of perfection, imprint, like an "Ideal Seal," the spirits below.

"The wax of these things, and the power that press and shape it, vary:
Thus the Ideal Seal shines through them sometimes more and sometimes less.

So trees of the same species may bring forth fruit that is better or worse;
So men are born different in native talent and native worth.

Were the wax most ready and free of every dross, and were the heavens in their
Supreme conjunction, the light of the seal would shine through without loss:

But nature scants that light in all it makes, working in much the manner of a painter
Who knows the true art, but whose brush hand shakes.

But if the Fervent Love move the Pure Ray of the First Power to wield the seal directly,
The thing so stamped is perfect in every way.

So once a quickening of the dust of earth issued the form of the animal perfection;
So once the Virgin Womb quickened toward birth.

Therefore I say that I am one with you in the opinion that mankind was never,
Nor will be, what it once was in those two."

Notes

1. According to author Alessandro Barbero and other historians, in a single day Charles had 4,500 men, women and children decapitated, at Verden on the Aller, after the Saxon leader, Duke Widukind, failed to appear for a meeting there. The Franks – Count Theuderic's forces – had suffered a humiliating and tragic defeat by the Saxons. "To this day," writes historian Timothy Levi Biel (Lucent Books), "the hill on which the [defeat] took place is known as Dachtelfeld, or Slap-in-the-face Hill." However, the sources regarding the events at Verden have been seriously questioned by many, and the histories and encyclopedias studied for this article can provide no definitive source for the figure of 4,500. The science of archaeology has not uncovered evidence of remains at Verden. There is evidence that Christians of the time massacred, through beheadings, those who would not relinquish pagan practices.

2. The concept and pictorial image of the white lily is suggestive of the spiritual presence of the individuality of John Baptist, who is closely associated with John Evangelist (Christian Rosenkreutz). In the statement from the Esoteric Lessons that Floris and Blanchefleur are called Charlemagne's spiritual parents, Rudolf Steiner connects John Evangelist and John Baptist with the spiritual events of the ninth century. Although the saga of Floris and Blanchefleur was not published until around 1160, it apparently predates its publication by several hundred years. Hella Wiesberger (Reference 3) writes of Rudolf Steiner's interpretation of this saga: "Floris signifies the flower with the red petals, or the rose; Blanchefleur is the flower with the white petals, or the lily... Rose has self-awareness completely within it; lily has it outside itself. But the merging of the soul which is within and the soul which works from without and enlivens the world as the World-Spirit was present. The story of Floris and Blanchefleur expresses the discovery of the World-Soul, the World-Ego, by the human soul, the human ego..." Charlemagne would have struggled in his role as instrument of World-Soul or World-Ego. Regarding the above statement that Floris and Blanchefleur are called Charlemagne's spiritual parents, Wolfram also mysteriously suggests something other than physical lineage for the Grail personalities, stating that the Arthur and the Grail streams originated "from the union of Mazadan with Terdelaschoye, a fairy in the fairyland of Famorgan." – from Cyril Edwards' genealogy chart. Mazadan may be an anagram for Ahura Mazda, and terda an anagram for the Latin terra; la schoye is "the joy." This might then be interpreted as the union of Ahura Mazda (as divine creative power) with the Joy of Earth.

3. "The objects Perceval encounters during his visit to the Grail castle recall the talismans of the Tuatha De Danaan, the people of the goddess Danu, divine figures central to Irish myth. The talismans are the spear of the god Lug that made its holder unconquerable, the sword of the god Nodeus that pursued the enemy relentlessly once it was drawn, and the cauldron of the Dagda (the good god) from which no company went unsatisfied." – Perceval, Afterword by Joseph J. Duggan. "A new knowledge of Celtic myths and legends, recorded mainly by medieval Irish monks, added to the classical stereotype an otherworldly aura, eventually to be characterized as the Celtic twilight. Two hundred years on, this highly attractive view of the Celts as heroic, poetic and spiritual – the antithesis of modern industrial society – is still accepted uncritically by people as diverse as Celts nationalists and New Age travelers... But this says more about modern society. The Celt's reverence for natural places, such as groves, springs and rivers, was shared with the Greeks, Romans and Germans." – Reference 12.

4. "As a result of all the development which the Archangel of the Greeks had formerly gone through, he could pass comparatively quickly through that which enabled him to take an especially prominent position as Spirit of the Age. Hence, however, something of the greatest significance occurred in the fourth age of post-Atlantean civilization... the Greek Spirit of the Age renounced for this our present period his ascent into the region of the Spirits of Form... He became the representative quiding Spirit of exoteric Christianity... Another such renunciation occurred on another occasion... The people belonging to the Celtic Spirit were also spread far up towards the northeast of Europe. They were guided by an important Archangel who, soon after the Christian impulse had been given to humanity, had renounced becoming an Archai, a Spirit of Personality, and decided to remain at the stage of an Archangel... Hence also the Celtic peoples as one combined people dwindled away, because their Archangel had practiced a special resignation... He became the inspiring Spirit of esoteric Christianity..." – Reference 14.

5. From Gotthard Killian on the concept of Minne in the poetic work Der juengere Titurel (The Younger Titurel) by Albrecht von Scharffenberg: The concept of Minne is vast within the context of the time and transformation of consciousness in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The eighth and ninth centuries did not have a word for Minne, but the word was used in Wolfram's time, originating from troubadours who influenced German poets called Minnesingers and Mastersingers. The concept of Minne was an ideal: to be aware of the lower love of necessity as contrasted with the development of a higher love, to have a sense for the higher being within mankind. This served to tame the strong masculine warring forces with the inner power of feminine tenderness. Minne as an ideal was independent of the religious teachings of virtue in the Middle Ages; it was perceived as an inner mental picture in the striving for a disciplined inner life. The love of necessity, physical love, does not preclude freedom of choice when reason has the power to distinguish the various ways of love, developing such virtues as fidelity and charity. Schionatulander and Sigune, grown out of their innocent childhood love, pledge the ideal of Minne to one another. Regarding Der juengere Titurel: Written before 1272, this poem in seven-lined stanzas and in prolix style has apparently never been fully translated into English (as of 2010). The complete work online contains approximately 600 pages. The poem may have originally been intended as a continuation of Wolfram's Titurel and has often been regarded as such, but Scharffenberg's style and story differ from Wolfram's. German scholars and commentators do not perceive the same origins – or perhaps literary value – in the two works. Scharffenberg wrote another work titled Der Tempel des heiligen Gral (The Temple of the Holy Grail), and the content offers a lengthy description of Titurel's Grail castle as a magical temple in a hidden forest, full of natural wonders, built with sacred minerals and gleaming gems. Like Wolfram, Scharffenberg is learned in the occult knowledge of gems and minerals.

6. Thanks are extended to Dan Mateescu for the reference from Esoteric Lessons: "Charlemagne was the reincarnation of a high East Indian adept and an instrument of the spiritual individuality that is symbolized by the name Titurel. Floris and Blanchefleur are called Charlemagne's spiritual parents." And thanks to Thomas Sharples for suggesting so many references on the subject of the Grail, to Gotthard Killian for his assistance with Albrecht von Scharffenberg's work, and to Josiane Simonin for referring to the work of Hans Gsanger.

7. From a Wikipedia site: "In the earliest narrative source, by Jordan of Saxony (Libellus de principiis), Dominic's parents are not named. The story is told that before his birth his mother dreamed that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth, and seemed to set the world on fire." This, together with other biographical accounts of Dominic's life, including his powerful influence on Thomas, points to the probability of Heraclitus as manifest in Dominic. Dominic is associated with the white lily, symbol of the soul which works from without and enlivens the world as the World-Spirit (Note 2). "He was named after Saint Dominic of Silos, who is said to be the patron saint of hopeful mothers." The name Heraclitus or Herakleitos means "Glory of Hera," and Hera was the goddess of marriage and childbirth. Dominic is also the patron saint of astronomers.

8. A deep mystery becomes apparent through the probability of Landulf II as one of Thomas's ancestors. Perhaps connected with this mystery is the frequently repeated story of how Thomas, while imprisoned by his family, drove the woman - who had been sent by his brothers - out of his chamber by threatening her with a firebrand, and then prayed to God that he might be granted integrity of mind and body. As conveyed by Reginald of Piperno in the language and understanding of his day, Thomas's prayer was answered. This story, as well as accounts of Thomas's ability to levitate, allude strongly to the Hindu and Buddhist influences of the Eastern path, to the Eastern mastery of the life forces. A number of spiritual causes originating from the Individuality may be considered by way of beginning to approach such mysteries: the sacrifice of Schionatulander for the mission of love; Thomas's probable Manichean deed of entering into evil in order to transform it through love; his taking on of a slowness and heaviness of body as contrasted with Schionatulander's extraordinary swiftness (he might otherwise have been too far in advance of his time); his drawing toward himself the "Second Adam," the new spiritual ancestor (Reference 30); the mission of the healing of the Amfortas wound; the return of clairvoyance to be experienced in full consciousness; and the mission of the reunion of Cain and Abel (Reference 3). This mastery of the life forces, of ancient Eastern origin, is hardly possible at all for the contemporary human being as a result of centuries of Western civilization; the full impact of the deterioration of the Form body of the first ancestor of mankind, Adam, is being experienced, including by those in the East.

9. Richard Distasi writes: "On this matter, I can only conjecture... The author of the article offers the suggestion of Albertus von Bollstaedt (Albert the Great) as the representative of the fifth age [the twelfth member of the Council]. He was a man of science as well as philosophy and theology. He was the teacher of Thomas Aquinas while within the Dominican Order. He was a student of the Philosophy of Aristotle, which Thomas Aquinas adopted as well, according to one biography of Albertus Magnus. Thereby I would agree as well as to Thomas being the possible representative of the fourth cultural age. Aristotle appeared only a few centuries into the fourth age, while Aquinas appeared a couple of centuries before the end of the fourth age, such that the fourth age is thoroughly embodied in his soul."

References

1. The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1913.
2. On the Meaning of Life, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1912.
3. The First Esoteric School, 1904-1914, The Etheric Dimensions Press, 2005.
4. Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival and Titurel, A New Translation by Cyril Edwards, Oxford University Press, 2006.
5. Perceval, The Story of the Grail, Chretien de Troyes, translated by Burton Raffel, Yale University Press, 1999.
6. Charlemagne, Father of a Continent, by Alessandro Barbero, University of California Press, 2004.
7. The Inheritance of Rome, A History of Europe from 400 to 1000, by Chris Wickham, Penguin Group, New York, 2009.
8. The End of Days, by Erna Paris, Prometheus Books, New York, 1995.
9. Esoteric Lessons, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1909.
10. The Celtic Bear, by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, The British Isles, Their Genealogy, History and Heraldry, Online, angelfire.com, 2010.
11. The Importance of Charlemagne, by Timothy Levi Biel, Lucent Books, San Diego, California, 1997.
12. The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World, by Brian M. Fagan, Thames and Hudson, London, 2001.
13. Aspects of Human Evolution, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1917.
14. The Mission of Folk-Souls, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
15. Ancient Myths: Their Meaning and Connection with Evolution, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1910.
16. Christ and the Spiritual World: The Search for the Holy Grail, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1913.
17. Precious Stones and Minerals, Lecture by Rudolf Steiner, 1906.
18. Cosmic Memory, Prehistory of Earth and Man, Book by Rudolf Steiner, 1904.
19. Summa contra Gentiles, Book One, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, London, 1975.
20. Summa Theologica, Volumes I, II, William Benton Publisher, University of Chicago, Great Books Series, 1952.
21. Europe in the High Middle Ages, by William Chester Jordan, Penguin History of Europe, Viking, Penguin Group, 2001.
22. Saint Thomas, "The Dumb Ox," by G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), Doubleday Image Book, 1933, 1956.
23. St. Thomas Aquinas, Confessor Doctor of the Church, Fontes Vitae S. Thomas Aquinatis, by Dominic Prummer, from Peter Calo, Online at ETWN's Saints and Other Holy People. 2010.
24. St. Thomas Aquinas, by Jacques Maritain, Online at Maritain.nd.edu, 2010.
25. Sizilien, Insel des Kain (Sicily, Island of Cain), by Hans Gsanger, Safari-Verlag Publication, 1958.
26. Erchempert's History of the Lombards of Benevento, by Joan Rowe Ferry, Ph.D Thesis, Online at scholarship.rice.edu, 2010.
27. Thomas Aquinas, Theologian of the Christian Life, by Nicholas M. Healy, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England, 2003.
28. Roman Catholicism, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1920.
29. St. Thomas and Transubstantiation, article in L'Osservatore Romano, Online at ETWN's Saints and Other Holy People, 2010.
30. From Jesus to Christ, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1911.
31. The Manicheans, Lecture by Rudolf Steiner, 1904.
32. Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, 1911.
33. The Divine Comedy: Paradiso, by Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi, New American Library, 1954, 2003.

Article and Illustrations Copyright © 2010 by Martha Keltz

6
The Future

Source: https://tcpubs.com/brunnen/articles/apoc.pdf

This is an article written by Martha Keltz titled "Rudolf Steiner: Into the Future". It covers his work while in this incarnation, including summaries of the future of humanity and the Earth. It is a wonderful overview of RS's teachings. I have downloaded a copy of the pdf to ensure its preservation.

7
Writings of the Heart

Source: https://www.tcpubs.com/brunnen/steiner_returns/heart2.html

The following has been excerpted from the above page. Below that I have a link to the "Book II" in PDF. I have requested a PDF copy of "Book I" via a provided email for just such a request. If indeed I do receive a copy, I will add a link to that document as well. ~Anthony

"If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.' " John 7:37-38

The Writing of the Heart, II

From the opening of Book I:

In view of the increase of natural clairvoyance or spiritual perception in our time a need has arisen for greater awareness and knowledge of the "Path of the Three I's, Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition," described by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) throughout his teaching life. This is a safe middle path between the distorted extremes of 'new age' phenomena and the ever-increasing technological subculture. Yet this path is known to very few. Related to this path is "the thinking of the heart," which is the capacity to distinguish between what is true and what is false in the exchange of spiritual content. The Writing of the Heart delves deeply into definitions of the Three I's, and their recognition in experience, through offering carefully written communications that convey supersensible perception as well as the responses to these perceptions by the participants of the Brunnen von Christus group. Also included in the book are other subjects discussed on the forum as well as literary contributions.

"...I do regard it as my own personal task to say nothing that is given by the intellect as such but to take things in the way they are directly and immediately given to occult vision. Only afterward are they permeated with the power of understanding. ...We must learn to take a different attitude toward the great riddles and secrets of the cosmos, to approach them... with all the faculties of our soul. Then we shall ourselves become partakers in the whole of human evolution. It will be for us like a fountain of sublime, all-human consciousness. We shall have fullness of soul." - Rudolf Steiner

"...In the apocalyptic animals, lion, eagle, cow and man, we are shown an evolutionary stage of mankind. There is, and always will be as long as the earth shall exist, a group soul for the higher manifestation of men, which is represented by the Lamb in the center of the seal, the mystical Lamb, the sign of the Redeemer." - Rudolf Steiner, Occult Signs and Symbols.

8
Rudolf Steiner Returns

Source: https://www.tcpubs.com/brunnen/steiner_returns/steiner-returns-2005-2011.html

The following serves, in my humble view, as introductory to the 2020 publication of Intuitive Meetings Within Anthroposophy. ~Anthony

Spring, 2011

This update, with additional information, is offered approximately six years from the date of July, 2005. The original article, below, is otherwise the same; it has not been changed, and it is again affirmed: the Individuality who was known as Rudolf Steiner in his most recent past life appeared in my home, near midday of July 7, 2005, as a powerful Presence in every sense of the word, except that he was not physically visible. This would have been very difficult to have endured, it may have caused imbalances, had there not been extensive preparations in the past. The earlier events, extending from 1972 to 1979, and then from 1981 to 1988, made the appearance of RS in 2005 endurable. Anyone who supposes that contact with RS occurred only in 2005 and was then immediately "made public" has not read Intuitive Meetings, Books I and II, referenced below. The long preparations for the 2005 events, extending over a 33-year period of time, are carefully described in these two books.

In addition, four years of research and writing in completing five articles - that also include studies of the past lives of Rudolf Steiner - have brought some of the Maitreya mysteries to light. All five articles will be available online by April, 2011. The four now available can be reached from the "Brunnen Main Page" at --

http://www.tcpubs.com/brunnen

The section titled "Maitreya" in the article Rudolf Steiner: Into the Future, is especially recommended for reading.

From the same article, further information for this page may be of interest in relation to the Rudolf Steiner lecture and quotations referenced from A Picture of Earth Evolution in the Future. I had been living in Roswell, New Mexico, for three years prior to the July, 2005 events. Anyone who might care to research the continuing yearly events and other activities in Roswell and compare them with Rudolf Steiner's call for awakened consciousness in such matters, may derive insights about the particular nature of, and the necessity for, the July, 2005 appearance. What I witnessed in Roswell, the parades, the activities at the UFO Museum; what was in the news about certain meetings of experts and their topics - many of these subjects found their way into one of the opening scenes of the drama The Occult Southwest, in the trilogy Southwest Journey.

January, 2009

The author of this article, Martha Keltz, has a unique and very deep relationship with the Being who was known as Rudolf Steiner, and has a sacred duty to tell you about it, to reveal as much about this relationship as is possible in accordance with her understanding. She has previously written a short autobiographical book about this relationship, Intuitive Meetings, Book I, and a dramatic trilogy, Southwest Journey. These are readily available (see the Links page); the book is inexpensive and can be obtained easily; the drama is fully available on line for reading or downloading. Intuitive Meetings, Book II, Intuition, Inspiration, Imagination, a January 2009 Studio Editions publication, is now available online. See Intuitive Meetings, Book II. The link leads to the Introduction page and it will be necessary to request the user name and password by email in order to read the book.

(The above link leads now to a 404 page. I have included a link to a PDF of Ms. Keltz's autobiographical work at the end of this chapter. ~Anthony)

The Significance of "Naming"

Not long after the time that this work began, during the first week of July, 2005, the Spiritual Being who was Rudolf Steiner "asked" or communicated the need for consciousness of the fact that Rudolf Steiner was no longer his name, for this was the name from the last physical life, for the physical body in the past. It was then indicated that, in however small a measure, such as the use of the initials RS instead of the full name, this consciousness would be beneficial for the Spiritual Being. Thus the initials RS were used instead of the full name, Rudolf Steiner. Beginning in November, 2006, however, the name Brunnen von Christus proved to be most beneficial. Regarding the origin of this name, please see the book The Writing of the Heart, referenced below, which is fully available on line.

It is very important to note here that from another essential point of view the name and lifework of Rudolf Steiner are immortal.

Insofar as is understood, the entelechy of RS, referred to as Brunnen von Christus (BvC), has a special dispensation from God, from Christ, Who is now the Lord of Karma, to traverse, in full consciousness, many levels and spheres of the Spiritual World, including Earth and its sub-natural spheres, in order to accomplish his work. He crossed over into the Spiritual World at the end of his last life utterly shattered in body and soul, and after a lengthy period for rest and healing went through the normal after-death evolution of the expansion of consciousness. He reunited with the cosmos. He returned to involvement with humanity and earth life in the 1970's, and has steadily increased the degree of his involvement since then. The early 1980's marked a turning point, as did the opening years of the 21st century and the year 2005, signifying the century mark of significant work in his life as Rudolf Steiner. The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception was published in 1886, and the Esoteric School was established in Berlin in 1905. He has been especially involved with North America, and with the author of this article to an unusual degree. Nevertheless the author is normal, in normal development, and has no special access to BvC. The unique relationship is gifted or initiated from above, from the Spiritual World, and nothing can be initiated by the author except through her limitations and imperfections. Whatever is revealed in this article, and in the autobiographical book and the drama, has gradually evolved from a cooperative work with BvC, freely undertaken by the author, and the far greater Light and Love, the "mastery," descends from above. 

Responding to Questions

Every human being has an Archetype in the Spiritual World, in the region that is described as Spiritland in Rudolf Steiner's book Theosophy. In the case of the Bodhisattva especially, the Archetype does not fully incarnate, but retains some rays or radiant aspects of its Being above, sending other rays or aspects fully down into earthly life. In the life of Rudolf Steiner, the Archetype sent down in connection with the Western series of incarnations such rays as were in keeping with that mission of RS. In addition, the author believes that RS has had Eastern lives, in India and Asia, especially prior to, or at the time of, the Greco-Roman cultural epoch (see the Past Lives page, Aristotle). How else could he have united Christianity with teachings of karma and reincarnation? The Eastern lives bear strongly on the work that is now being done in America. The only time the Bodhisattva fully incarnates, RS taught, is in the last life on Earth. That will assuredly be the case with the Bodhisattva who was known as Rudolf Steiner in his Twentieth Century incarnation.

Now the question has arisen, what about RS's karmic commitment to the Anthroposophical Society and World Movement: the solemn Initiate's commitment made at the Christmas Conference of 1923 in Dornach, Switzerland? Is there a return to life, a reincarnation, at the end of the 20th century, or early in the 21st century? Will there be new undertakings on behalf of the Movement and Society? Will leadership again be offered by RS?

Offered answers to the above three questions are in the negative. However, BvC is spiritually accessible to many, to individuals, for help and assistance, in etheric embodiment (as the author believes), "wiederverkoerpern." No insights or inspirations regarding institutions or organizations - or the Society - have ever been imparted by BvC, with the exception of an admonition for individuals or organizations to refrain from any act or deed that will harm the Society or Movement, or that will cause more harm than good.

Surely his spiritual nearness is strongly sensed by many Anthroposophists, and others within the broader Michael movement? Perhaps even by many who have only read one line of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment. (Likewise in response to a question: this book has its very own Angel who is able to follow the reader's thoughts. This Angel then communes with RS's Angel. Of course, the matter is also of great importance to the Angel of the reader. These facts partially answer the question as to how RS would be able to commit himself to a person - through all future lives - who has only read one line of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.)

It is better for a triad of mature Anthroposophists or Michael students to seek BvC's help than for an individual alone to seek his help. The degree to which he can help or assist an individual is determined in the Spiritual World, determined by the nature of the individual's work, by his karma, by whether he has ever known RS, and by many other factors. The likelihood of the fourth being able to spiritually assist the striving three is far greater. This kind of help also asks of the three, or the individual, that they advance themselves spiritually, that they cross the Threshold consciously in order to meet BvC, halfway as it were. 

Lastly, BvC is not known by the author to be in pain and suffering due to the karma of the Anthroposophical Society or Movement. However, the relatively rapid return from cosmic to earthly involvement may be in the nature of renunciation or sacrifice. This type of renunciation is in the nature of the Bodhisattva. He has complete awareness of what has occurred and what continues to occur in the Society and Movement, but appears to the author to be sheathed in a heavenly Light and Love that are protective. This radiance comes both from within his own Being, and from without, as though upon him. Perhaps this is the meaning of dwelling in the "New Jerusalem," in the New Heaven on Earth during the Second Coming of Christ in the mid-Twentieth Century and beyond.

Rudolf Steiner Returns – A Seven-Year Review

Saint John's Tide, June 24 - July 7, 2012

The first "Rudolf Steiner Returns" page, which covers the time period from 2005 to 2011, is still fully available at the link that follows this review, below. The original brief article, published online in the spring of 2006 at the request of a friend, developed into something of a chronological account, as years of study and retrospective analysis, writing projects, interaction with other anthroposophists, and the emergence and work of the Brunnen von Christus Group all brought - and continue to bring - increased understanding and development. This seven-year review will provide retrospective commentary on the content of the original article, in the reverse order of the presentation of that content.

"By dying to the outer world, we become assured that the treasure acquired in connection with the Christ-Impulse is carried into every other life. Through Christ's victory, death appears to us as a bridge that leads to the spiritual world, and we learn to understand the meaning of death for this spiritual world through this Christ-Impulse." - The Principle of Spiritual Economy: In Connection With Questions of Reincarnation, Lecture VI, by Rudolf Steiner, 1909.

The publications Intuitive Meetings, Books I and II describe four seven-year time periods of development related to the return of Rudolf Steiner. The four time periods are: 1972 - 1979; (December 4) 1981 - 1989; 1992 - 1999 (Studio Editions/TC Pubs); and (July 7) 2005 - 2012. This indicates, from knowledge of these particular circumstances only, that his new spiritual activities began in the early 1970s.

Commentaries

1. In the spring of 2011, the return of Rudolf Steiner in 2005 became associated with his 1921 lecture, A Picture of Earth Evolution in the Future, and with the Being of Vulcan. What led to this realization, as well as to a further degree of understanding of the spiritual activities of Maitreya, was the completion of a four-year project, from 2007 to 2011, that produced five articles, three of which were studies of "The Past Lives of Rudolf Steiner." These five articles are available online. See the tab at the bottom of this page titled "Articles."
2. January, 2009 brought to the page the announcement of the publication Intuitive Meetings, Book II, available as a book in print and online.
3. Regarding "The Significance of Naming" there have been no changes. The name Brunnen von Christus has been widely accepted. Some believe that "Der Christus Brunnen" actually is the spiritual name of the individuality of Rudolf Steiner.
4. To the paragraph that begins "Insofar as is understood, the entelechy of RS..." can be added a reference to The Writing of the Heart, Book I. This online 2008 publication, as well as The Writing of the Heart, Book II, published online in September of 2011, came about through the combined efforts of the members of the Brunnen von Christus Group. For a list of these hardworking, dedicated members, please see the introductory pages of each book. Book I especially describes how the individuality of Rudolf Steiner penetrated into my life of feeling and of will (in both 1981 and in 2005), and "insofar as is understood" this can only be initiated from the spiritual world in harmony with karma, thus taking karmic forms. However, everyone who acquires maturity in the development of direct spiritual perception in accordance with the "Path of the Three I's - Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition," which likewise demands development of the moral character, should be able to have an Imaginative experience of the individuality of Rudolf Steiner. This has become especially possible since the beginning of the twenty-first century, and certainly must be connected with the return of Christ in the etheric world, which began in the 1930s of the twentieth century.
5. Regarding the section "Responding to Questions": The individuality of Rudolf Steiner works very closely with the Maitreya Bodhisattva, particularly in the spiritual world in-between death and rebirth. Increased knowledge of the connection of Rudolf Steiner with the Maitreya Bodhisattva is possible from a study of the past lives of Rudolf Steiner - especially in the transition "From Cratylus to Aristotle," and in the life of Thomas Aquinas. In the intense and demanding time periods following December 1981 and July 2005, no distinction was made between Rudolf Steiner and the Maitreya, only later in time, and through the past life studies, could the two spiritual forces be accepted as distinct. To say the least, my ability to accurately perceive the activity of the Maitreya Bodhisattva, who is of the Holy Spirit, is limited.
6. Devastating disappointment in the worldwide Anthroposophical Society, and serious disagreement with its policies and procedures had resulted in activist movements as a means of strong opposition to its Dornach, Switzerland leadership and Dornach's official worldwide affiliated groups - this was very evident on the internet in 2005 - 2006. After 15 years as a member of the Society, from 1982 until 1997 (and as a member of the "First Class" or "School of Spiritual Science" from 1986) I withdrew from the Society in 1997 for personal reasons. By July 2005, when Rudolf Steiner again manifested as an intense Presence, I had lost all contact with members of the Society. Questions about the Society, both in the United States and worldwide, arose following the publication of "Rudolf Steiner Returns" in the spring of 2006. My feelings about these issues - and they are only feelings or opinions - are the same now as then: Rudolf Steiner works more with individuals than with organizations, and to some organizations or groups insofar as sincerely striving and honest individuals are connected with them. The more that personal advancement and profit become the motives for active work through the Society or outside of it - rather than purely out of love for the work itself - the less likely are the Spirits of Anthroposophy to support the initiative. To my understanding a law exists whereby Initiates, upon their return to activity in the world, must make every effort to renew organizations that had been established earlier in time, established either by themselves or by their spiritual brothers and sisters, before such organizations or initiatives can be altered or abandoned.
7. Other public announcements of experiences of the individuality of Rudolf Steiner can still be judged in large measure by the claimant's connection or not with the Anthroposophical Society or Movement, and whether valid group support - whose members have been long attached to the Society or Movement - is soon forthcoming or not.
8. Whether there will be future Brunnen von Christus conferences is unknown. I am not personally able to initiate, organize and lead such conferences, and the current members of the Brunnen von Christus Group live long distances away from one another. I was very pleased to learn that the Brunnen von Christus movement has been well-received among members of the Society in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Intuitive Meetings Within Anthroposophy, 2020
(Source: https://issuu.com/martha_keltz/docs/intuitive_meetings)

Download PDF

Read & Write

kennethmdouglass.com