Luciferic beings and their influences

From Anthroposophy

This topic page covers the Luciferic principle in general terms and with a broad overall positioning: its evolutionary origin within the solar system evolution, positioning in the development of the spiritual hierarchies, the being of Lucifer and the various luciferic hosts.

For the specific influences on the human being in the current Earth stage, the gifts, downsides and redemption of Lucifer by Man, see Luciferic influence on Man and related pages.

Luciferic beings are a class of spiritual beings at every level of these spiritual hierarchies, 'lagging' versus the normal development. Their host or leader is the being of Lucifer.

The Luciferic principle originated during the Old Sun planetary stage at the level of the Cherubim (see Schema FMC00.019), but this principle cascaded down to the lower hierarchies.

During the During the contraction of Old Sun to Old Moon, the 'War in heaven' happened between two classes of the Spirits of Motion, the more advanced and the ones who had remained behind. This War in heaven points to the origin of the mystery of evil, that Divine Providence allowed or ordered the impact of the Luciferic beings to trigger or cause the freedom of Man, freedom as a basis for Love. This is the cause why, during the Old Moon stage, some SoM became the seducers of the angels who were then going through the human stage (CoC4).

This development during Old Moon later influenced Mankind during Earth whilst the human 'I' was being established in the Lemurian epoch (See also: Lucifer and Jehovah, and the Book of Genesis). This event is known as the Fall, see also Fall and redemption - original sin and grace

Lucifer represents the bringer of freedom and own identity, as well as the bringer of light. With Light is meant physical light, whereas Christus brings spiritual light. Hence "Lucifer is the 'bearer of the Light', Christ is the Light" and "Christus Verus Luciferus".

Aspects

evolutionary perspective

  • origin of the Luciferic principle on Old Sun (1911-11-14-GA132)
  • War in heaven between the Old Sun and Old Moon stage ( see quote 1909-04-18-GA110 on War in heaven)
  • Luciferic beings on Old Moon (1912-01-09-GA130)

The being of Lucifer

  • Lucifer is (description by CG Harrison, 1893)
    • prince of this world, Harrison calls him Satan ‘whom it is a mistake to confound with the Devil’
    • of the order of archai
      • and ‘he is not .. as is generally supposed, a fallen archangel, like Beelzebub, Mammon, ..’
      • note that 'the Archangel Michael recognized his superior dignity’ (re S. Jude)
    • the light-bearer, to him Man owes the faculty of intellectual discrimination, or the knowledge of good and evil under illusory conditions .. his period is the evolution of human reason.
    • the manifestation, in time, of the fifth, or intellectual, principle of the cosmos, and in virtue of this limitation, is incapable of conceiving any higher good than wisdom. However Lucifer is not the fifth cosmic principle itself, but its efflorescence in time .. as one must distinguish between the seven cosmic principles and their microcosmic manifestations. Note: the Powers of Darkness manifest in the person of the light-bearer because they manifest on the plane of illusion.
    • not only a rational being, but an intelligence of a far higher order than our own. To suppose, therefore, that his chief characteristic is insensate ferocity is surely absurd.
    • a fully-developed septenary being, representing the fifth principle of the Universe or cosmic ideation, and striving to attain to omnipotence through control of the fourth
  • as a 'brother of Christ' on Old Sun (1912-06-11-GA137 and 1912-06-12-GA137)
  • Lucifer as the ruler of Venus
  • as the Holy Spirit, and the statement "Lucifer is the 'bearer of the Light', Christ is the Light" and (1909-03-22-GA107)
  • the saying "Christus Verus Luciferus"
  • as the Winged Bull (Ezekiel) or the Winged Form of the Dragon (1905-10-25-GA093A)
  • names: Lucifer is also known as Eblis (or Iblis, in the Quran) and Loki (in Germanic and Norse/Scandinavian mythology, see GA121).
  • incarnation in the third millenium BC in east Asia [China] (1919-11-04-GA193, tbc also in GA191 and GA195)
    • "this being became a teacher for the pre-Christian, pagan culture which still survived in the gnosis of the earliest Christian centuries" and "through Lucifer, human beings have acquired the faculty of using the organs of their intellect, of their power of intellectual discernment." Lucifer lies at the basis of bringing spiritual cosmic wisdom to the Earthly human intellect through revelation. (1919-11-04-GA193)
    • note for perspective: timing-wise this was around the time of the Krishna impulse and the start of the age of the sentient soul, see also link with Wotan impulse and Buddha at the start of the age intellectual soul. Differentiate between initiate wisdom of the mysteries (pagan, upto gnostic) and the overall developmental stage for humanity in the Two streams of development.

categories of beings

  • seven classes of Luciferic beings, or sevenfold Luciferic beings ('1911-06-10-GA124)
  • Luciferic beings mainly H3, but also exist along the whole rank of all spiritual hierarchies so also H2 and H1 (1912-04-08-GA136)
  • Luciferic beings are irregular beings of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn that live in the warm and air elements, and the warmth and light ether (1922-12-03-GA219 and -06 and 1922-03-08, see also FMC00.297)

blinders of the luciferic infection

  • The Luciferic influence also blocked access to the tree re two higher ethers. The MoG then came to infuse buddhi into this configuration and gave Man access to the two higher ethers again.

other

  • Luciferic influence on Man
  • redemption of luciferic beings (1909-03-22-GA107)
  • 'Lucifer's secret' is the intervention of the spirits who free the human being
  • the astral world reflected in the sub-physical world is the province of Lucifer

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.270 illustrates in [2] how Luciferic principles closed themselves off and kept inside what normally rays forth and through as the workings of the higher spiritual hierarchies [1].

Regarding [3] versus [1], the following extract of 1907-05-21-GA284 can also be read together with this schema:

.. it then transforms itself into the downward-turned pure chalice or cup. The plant "cup" is chaste today and is turned openly upward. With the human being it is reversed. In the future the human cup will become chaste and will turn itself downward; hence is the Grail shown here as a chalice turned downward.

The extract is from an explanation of the seventh apocalyptic seal, see Book of Revelation.

Schema FMC00.019 (click to enlarge) below depicts schematically how during the Old Sun stage, certain Cherubim did not accept the sacrifice of the Thrones and this way wrestled themselves free and became more independant.

It illustrates how the Luciferic 'class' of the hierarchies are a totally naturally part of, or spawning off from, the overall evolutionary process .. like a kind of side-effect.

FMC00.019.jpg

Lecture coverage and references

Helena Blavatsky

in 'The esoteric character of the gospels.'

The rebellion of the lower dhyani was the work of Lucifer, the intervention of the spirits who free the human being is known as `Lucifer's secret'. In all esoteric schools, Lucifer was venerated as much as all the other dhyanic spirits. Lucifer was called on whenever people needed guidance to find the way to the spirit in full clarity of perceptive understanding. In the early Christian mystery centres, Lucifer's Mystery was still understood and also put down in writing in those early days. This book is most carefully guarded in the Roman Catholic Church, for good reason, for the Church has declared Lucifer to be the enemy of humanity, though the truth is that he made the automated human being into a free spirit. The book is kept at the Vatican; the Count of St Germain has a copy.

1893 - C.G. Harrison

lectures published in 'The Transcendental Universe' (1896)

see also: Christ Module 14 – the counterforces: Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat#1893 - C.G. Harrison

in lecture 6:

Accordingly, the solidarity of the human race found its natural expression in that community of feeling in which we recognize our essential brotherhood, and also in the law of inherited tendencies by which the equilibrium of the double vortex is preserved.

Against this law the principalities [archai] of Darkness, under the guidance of Lucifer (prince of this world), have opposed their most powerful forces, but, as we shall see, with only partial success.

It is generally supposed that Satan is the enemy of spirituality in Man; that he delights in his degradation, and views with diabolical (?) satisfaction the development of his lower nature and all its evil consequences. The wide, and almost universal, prevalence of this mediaeval superstition only makes it all the more necessary to protest against it as a grotesque error.

As well might we say that the object at which Napoleon aimed was the slaughter of as many French soldiers as possible. It is related of Napoleon that he wept bitterly when, on the night succeeding the battle of Austerlitz, he rode over the field and viewed the dead and dying,—and it would probably be much nearer the truth to say that the degradation and suffering of mankind, for which the adversary of God is responsible, so far from affording him any satisfaction, afflicts him with a sense of failure and deepens his despair of ultimate victory.

Let us examine this "diabolical" delusion in the light of revelation and common sense.

How can any rational being delight in evil for its own sake ?

Such delight is the negation of rationality, and the nearest approach to such a conception is the homicidal maniac. It is admitted that Satan is not only a rational being, but an intelligence of a far higher order than our own. To suppose, therefore, that his chief characteristic is insensate ferocity is surely absurd.

Without, of course, pressing the analogy, if we were compelled to choose between Napoleon the Great and the Whitechapel murderer as a representative of the usurping Prince of this world, nobody who reflects for a moment would hesitate, not even those who call the latter a " fiend in human shape."

If we turn to revelation what do we find ? S. Peter, it is true, compares him to a " roaring lion seeking whom he may devour," or in other words, whose nature he may assimilate to his own. He is also called the " father of lies," or illusions, for it was through his instrumentality that Man's personality came under the dominion of maya. Everywhere else he is the symbol of pure cold intellect. In the book of Job, the oldest extant dramatic allegory, he is represented as the author of the cynical assertion that love is only a form of self-interest, and we are left to imagine his astonishment at the words of Job—" Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." In the genetic allegory he is symbolised as the serpent, - everywhere the emblem of wisdom, - and enlightenment was the immediate consequence of eating the forbidden fruit.

He is, in fact, Lucifer the light-bearer, and to him Man owes the faculty of intellectual discrimination, or the knowledge of good and evil under illusory conditions.* He is the manifestation, in time, of the fifth, or intellectual, principle of the cosmos, and in virtue of this limitation, is incapable of conceiving any higher good than wisdom. We must be careful, however, to distinguish between the seven cosmic principles and their microcosmic manifestations, each of which is a complete sub-series.

  • The definition of good as the "greatest happiness of the greatest number" is purely Satanic in its implied assumption that evil is the happiness of the fewer, and, consequently, that evil and happiness are capable of being connoted. That such a definition should pass muster in a "Christian" nation shews how immeasurably inferior, as a philosophical system, is modern Christianity to the "heathen"philosophy of Plato. It must be apparent to every reader of the Protagoras that good and pleasure, evil and pain, are not interchangeable values, and must be weighed, so to speak in different scales. The perception of harmony and discord, which has its foundation in the eternal principle of number, or infinity manifesting through progress, is alone capable of furnishing a standard of value to which good and evil may be referred. For the spiritual degradation which hinders man from disconnecting good with pleasure and evil with pain, Lucifer is responsible, but this is the result of his opposition and not the motive which induced him to traverse the Divine Purpose.

Thus, Lucifer is a fully-developed septenary being, representing the fifth principle of the Universe, or cosmic ideation, and striving to attain to omnipotence through control of the fourth (maha maya). Now this is not spiritual evolution, or life, as, at first sight, it might appear, but involution, or the spiritual principle of death.

This is exceedingly difficult to explain, but it must be remembered that evolution is progress in time, and is the reflexion in maya of a spiritual reality which is not so conditioned. Lucifer is not the fifth cosmic principle itself, but its efflorescence in time. He is the seed of the fifth human principle, and germination is an involutionary process as regards the seed itself, (except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it bringeth forth no fruit) though evolutionary as regards the nascent plant. This view is quite in accordance with our original position that evil has no real (i.e., eternal) existence, but is an imperfect, or lower, goodness.

What, then, was the design which the author of evil on this planet set himself to accomplish ?

1904-09-03-GA091

And now you will understand the difference between Man who stands at the fourth stage of evolution and Man who stood at the third evolutionary stage: that which formerly worked on him from outside, now emerges from inside. Now everything must be properly prepared. Let us think of the lunar period as having passed. Now everything had to be repeated briefly, and previous stages were necessary for this to happen. During the first ages of Lemurian epoch things were sufficiently developed, so that Manas could undertake the transformations. The Lemurian epoch also had seven sub-ages. In the fourth Lemurian age, Manas emerges from within the human being.

1904-10-17-GA089

This aspect of Lucifer is also the one which represented Christianity in the early centuries. Two documents relating to this exist-one in the Vatican, and a copy of it in the possession of the most initiated Christian in the West, the Count of St Germain. This Lucifer-nature had also represented Christianity in the early centuries. Then Lucifer had gradually changed into a kind of adversary in the Christian tradition. Originally his position had been that of the human being’s friend.

Evolution thus means that the different streams in the universe do not develop at the same rate. Part has to go ahead, something else needs to catch up later. This lagging behind of evolutionary streams leads to opposing interests in the world. This is an important occult law. Certain evolutions have been shown as ascending and descending in theosophical books. We have 7 planets with 7 rounds each and always 7 form states, a total of 343 states. These were at about their halfway point by the middle of the Atlantean age.

The ascent thus began with an intervention from the luciferic principle. In the descent, evolution became delayed, and in its ascent it came to be faster and faster. This accelerated development did not, however, address itself to the whole of the physical plane but only to individual spirits.

  • The lords of wisdom had initially been in ascending evolution. They had reached a peak by the middle of Atlantean evolution. Where love is concerned they are at a beginning; they carved love into the macrocosm, but they are in the descending line and in delay.
  • The lords of the luciferic principle, on the other hand, are in the ascending line of development.

Because of this, intellectuality is increasing rapidly, whilst ennoblement through love is very slow.

Example: piano maker working with loving care would be out of place in a concert hall; there you have to have the perfect virtuoso pianist. Disharmony would result if the former wanted to go on to do his hammering with the same loving devotion in the concert hall.

Two streams must therefore always come together. Relative evil arises when two streams, perfect in themselves, interact.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God only.’ Nothing in the world is good, only the principle of the beginning, which is the Father. So this is how the godlike atman and budhi qualities develop macrocosmically in the hosts of the world’s disposers.

1904-11-02-GA089

also describes the fact that the Catholic Church - injustly - made Lucifer into Satan, the symbol of evil and enemy of mankind. For more on this fact and more such practices, see eg Helena Blavatsky in The esoteric character of the gospels (quote above)

1905-10-25-GA093A

The principle that leads the Earth towards spirituality is Lucifer. In order to live in accordance with this principle one must first love the Earth, one must descend on to the Earth. Lucifer is the Prince who reigns in the kingdom of science and art, but he cannot descend altogether on to the Earth: for this, his power does not suffice. Quite alone, it would be impossible for Lucifer to lead upwards what is on the Earth. For this, not only is the power of a Moon Adept necessary, but of a Sun Adept, who embraces the universality of human life, not manifesting only in science and art.

Lucifer is represented as the Winged Form of the Dragon; Ezekiel describes him as the Winged Bull.

  • Now there came a Sun Hero, similar to those who appeared in the Hyperborean Epoch, represented by Ezekiel as the Winged Lion. This Hero, Who gave the second impulse, is the Christ, the Lion out of the tribe of Judah. Christ is a Solar Hero, a Lion-Nature, a Sun Pitri.
  • The representative of the Eagle will come only later; he represents the Father Principle. The third impulse will be represented by an Adept who was already an adept on Old Saturn. Such a one cannot as yet incarnate on the Earth. When man is not only able to develop his higher nature upwards, but working creatively is able to renounce completely his lower nature, then will this highest adept, the Saturn adept, the Father Principle, the Hidden God, be able to incarnate.

The above statement is depicted in Rudolf Steiner's drawing in a letter, see FMC00.185 on Epochs in Earth physical round.

Note: The Book of Ezekiel is the third prophetic book of the Bible after the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Ezekiel (approx. 622 to ca 570 BC) was active in the exiled community of Judahites in Babylonia. The relevant section (Ezek. 1:5-10) describes a vision of four living creatures with wings, corresponding to the four Group souls of humanity, Man, Lion, Bull and Eagle

more specifically:

I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, 9 and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved. 10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. 12 Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 13 The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. 14 The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.

1905-10-25-GA093A

is further commented

The Bull is a symbol of fertility; previously came the Lion, the symbol of courage, and before this the Eagle. In the vision of Ezekiel, referring to those earlier times, the animals have wings because they could raise themselves above the Earth. Man only appeared later.

1906-11-09-GA068A

is titled 'Lucifer'

1909-03-22-GA107

contains the statement where Lucifer himself, as the spirit of independent wisdom in his transformation by the Christ impulse, is described as the “Holy Spirit” (SWCC)

Christ is verily the Light which leads out of error and sin, the Light which enables man to find the way upwards. And now let us ask ourselves: What was it that was lost to man in that he descended from the spiritual world, was ensnared in desires and passions under the influence of Lucifer, and then, under Ahriman's influence, in error, illusion and lying in the earthly world?

He lost direct vision of the spiritual world, he lost understanding of the spiritual world.

What, then, must he regain? He must regain full understanding of the spiritual world.

As a self-conscious being, man can grasp the import of Christ's Deed only by realizing with full clarity of understanding, the significance of Christ. The Christ-Power is there in very truth — not brought by man, for the Christ-Power was brought to the earth by none other than Christ Himself. Karma has come into humanity through Christ. But now, with self-consciousness, man must learn to know Christ in His real nature and His connection with the whole universe. Only so can man work in the true sense as an ‘I’. What then, does he actually achieve when, after Christ's appearance, he does not merely rest satisfied with letting Christ's power work upon him unconsciously, with saying: I am content with the knowledge that Christ came to the earth; He will redeem me and ensure my progress! — but when he says: I am resolved to know what Christ is in all reality, how He descended; I am resolved to participate through my own spirit in Christ's Deed! — what does man achieve thereby?

.. because the Luciferic spirits slipped into his astral body, Man has come down into the world of sense, thereby falling prey to the evil but also acquiring the possibility of self-conscious freedom. Lucifer is in very truth present in the being of Man, has drawn him down to the earth, has ensnared him in earthly existence; inasmuch as the passions and desires contained in the astral body had first been led by Lucifer into the earthly realm, Ahriman too was able to invade the astral body, in the intellectual soul.

[redemption of luciferic beings]

Christ appeared, and with him the force which can bear Man upwards again into the spiritual world. But now, if he so wills, Man can come to know Christ, he can gather all wisdom to this end. What does he achieve thereby? .. When a Man knows Christ, when he absorbs the wisdom which begets insight into what Christ truly is, then he redeems himself and the Luciferic beings through this knowledge of Christ.

Were Man merely to say: 'I am content with the fact that Christ appeared and to allow myself to be redeemed by him unconsciously', then he would contribute nothing to the redemption of the Luciferic Beings. These Luciferic Beings who have brought Man freedom, also make it possible for him, if he so wills, to turn it to account in order to understand Christ. Then the Luciferic Spirits are cleansed and purified in the fire of Christianity and the wrong done to the earth by them is changed into blessing.

[Lucifer and the Holy Spirit]

Freedom has been attained; but it will also be carried into the spiritual sphere as a blessing. That Man is capable of this, that he is capable of understanding Christ, that Lucifer, resurrected in a new form, can unite with Christ as the good Spirit - this, as prophecy still, was told by Christ himself to those around him, when He said:

“Ye shall be illumined by the new Spirit, by the Holy Spirit!”

This 'Holy Spirit' is none other than the spirit through whom Man can apprehend what Christ has wrought. Christ desired not merely to work, but also to be apprehended, to be understood. Therefore the sending of the spirit by whom men are inspired, the sending of the 'Holy spirit', is implicit in Christianity.

In the spiritual sense, Whitsuntide belongs inseparably to Easter. This 'Holy Spirit' is none other than the Lucifer-Spirit, resurrected now in higher, purer glory - the spirit of independent understanding, wisdom-inwoven. Christ himself foretold that this spirit would come to men after him, and in the light of this spirit their labors must proceed.

What is it that works onward in the light of this spirit? The world-stream of spiritual science, if rightly conceived!

What is this spiritual science? It is the wisdom of the spirit, the wisdom that lifts into the full light of consciousness that in Christianity which would otherwise remain in the unconscious.

The torch of the resurrected Lucifer, of the Lucifer now transformed into the good, blazons the way for Christ.

Lucifer is the bearer of the Light - Christ is the Light!

As the word itself denotes, Lucifer is the “Bearer of the Light”. That is what the spiritual scientific movement should be, that is implicit in it. Those who know that the progress of mankind depends upon living apprehension of the Mystery of Golgotha are they who as the “Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings” are united in the great Guiding Lodge of mankind [White Lodge].

And as once the 'tongues of fire' hovered down as a living symbol upon the company of the apostles, so does the 'Holy Spirit' announced by Christ himself reign as the Light over the Lodge of the Twelve. The Thirteenth is the Leader of the Lodge of the Twelve. The “Holy Spirit” is the mighty Teacher of those we name the “Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings”. It is through them that his voice and his wisdom flow down to mankind in this or that stream upon the earth. The treasures of wisdom gathered together by the spiritual scientific movement in order to understand the universe and the spirits therein, how through the “Holy Spirit” into the Lodge of the Twelve; and that is what will ultimately lead mankind step by step to free, self-conscious understanding of Christ and of the Mystery of Golgotha. Thus to ‘cultivate’ spiritual science means to understand that the spirit has been sent into the world by Christ; the pursuit of spiritual science is implicit in true Christianity.

1909-08-GA113

the lectures of 27, 28, 29 and 30 August cover:

  • The Children of Lucifer and the Brothers of Christ
  • Lucifer and Christ
  • The Luciferic Influence in History
  • The Nature of the Luciferic Influence in History
1911-06-10-GA124

we speak of .. seven classes of Luciferic beings whose development was retarded during the Old Moon stage evolution and who set about bringing their influence to bear upon Man's astral body.[…].

...

We know that if our evolution does not proceed in the right way it will be corrupted by the forces of the sevenfold Luciferic beings.

In another passage, it says that in each of the seven rounds of every planetary development, beings are left behind. Each of these categories will especially develop a different aspect of the Luciferic nature.

1911-11-14-GA132

quote A

We have repeatedly drawn attention to occurrences in evolution which must be traced back to those beings who have in the course of evolution 'remained behind'. We know that the Luciferic beings have invaded the domain of our earth humanity. It has repeatedly been necessary to draw attention to the fact that these beings are able to enter our astral body during the development of our earth because they did not, during Old Moon, reach the stage they ought to have attained. A commonplace comparison has often been used, that as in our schools some pupils remain behind, so even in the great cosmic evolution there are cosmic beings who, remaining behind in the stages of their own evolution, subsequently interfere with the evolutionary stages of other beings, with a result similar to that produced by the Luciferic beings, who lingered behind on the Old Moon. We might easily suppose these to be faulty beings actually injurious to the evolution of the world; for why did they linger behind? The thought, however, which we should entertain is this: that man would never have attained his freedom, or the capacity for individual initiative action had not the Lucifer beings remained behind on the Moon.

  • So that on the one hand man owes to the Lucifer beings the fact that he has in his astral body passions, emotions, and desires driving him constantly down from a certain height into lower pats of his nature.
  • But, on the other hand, if man were incapable of wickedness, unable to err from good through the forces of the Lucifer beings in his astral body he could not act freely, or possess what we call freewill, freedom of choice. We must therefore admit that to the Luciferic beings we owe our freedom.

The deduction to be drawn from this is that the one-sided view is not valid that claims that they only lead man astray; their remaining behind must be regarded as something beneficial, as something without which he could never have acquired his human dignity, in the true sense of the word.

Now what we call the 'remaining behind' of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings is based on something much deeper, something already to be encountered in connection with Old Saturn, although it is there so difficult to perceive that words could hardly be found in any language to describe it. But when we advance to the Old Sun stage, we are able to describe it quite distinctly if we bear in mind the idea of resignation or renunciation which we have today described. For what lies beneath all such remaining behind and all its influence is renunciation, resignation by higher Beings.

So now, on Old Sun we can see the following taking place. We have said that the Thrones offer sacrifice to the Cherubim; and this they do, as we have seen in the last lecture, not only during the Saturn period, but they continue their sacrifice through that of the Sun, so that there too we have the idea of the Thrones sacrificing to the Cherubim. In this sacrifice is to be found the actual essence of all the conditions of heat or fire present in the world. Now, if we look back into the Akashic Record of the Sun-age we can quite distinctly remark the following. The Thrones offer and continue their sacrificial activity; so that we have there the sacrificing Thrones and a host of Cherubim to whom, as we see, the sacrifice rises, while they take into themselves the heat which flows forth from it. However, another host of Cherubim accomplish something else; these renounce the sacrifice, they do not accept what is offered them. We must therefore complete the picture we called up before our minds in the last lecture.

In this picture we have the sacrificing Thrones and those Cherubim who accept their sacrifice, and we also have the Cherubim who do not accept it — but give back that which was offered up to them. It is extraordinarily interesting to follow this in the Akashic Record. For by reason of the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom now flowing into the sacrificial heat we are able during the ancient Sun-period to see ascending something like sacrificial smoke of which we have said, that it is reflected back by the Archangels from the outermost periphery of the Sun, in the form of light. But now besides this, something altogether different seems to appear in the space of ancient Sun; not merely the sacrificial smoke thrown back by the Archangels in the form of light, but also that smoke which was not accepted by the Cherubim and which as it were flows back again, as though dammed back. So that we have permanent clouds of sacrifice in space; Sacrifice that ascends, Sacrifice that descends, Sacrifice accepted and Sacrifice rejected. The encounter of these intrinsically Spiritual cloud-formations is seen to take place between what in the last lecture we called the “outer” and the “inner,” until the separation occurs. Thus in the centre we have the sacrificing Thrones, then in the heights above the Cherubim accepting the sacrifice, and beside these, those other Cherubim who did not accept the proffered sacrifice, but diverted its course back again. Through this diversion arises, as it were, an encircling cloud, and right outside we have the cast-back masses of light. Let us try to form a picture of this in our minds. We must think of this ancient Sun-space, the ancient Sun-mass as a cosmic globe beyond which we conceive of nothing, so that we only imagine space extending as far as the Archangels. Let us further picture in the centre of this globular formation the meeting of the accepted and the rejected sacrifices. From these two, the accepted and rejected sacrifices, there comes into being in the ancient Sun something that we may call a division of the whole Sun-substance, a divergence. If we wish to compare the Sun in that bygone age with any external image, we can only compare it with the form of our present Saturn which is a globe encircled by rings; for that which is in the centre is thrown inwards by volumes of sacrifice and that which was outside is arranged as an encircling mass. Thus we have the Sun's substance divided into two parts by the force of the arrested and dammed up powers of the sacrifice.

What then is brought about by this renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of certain of the Cherubim?

We are now coming to an extremely difficult chapter indeed, and we shall only be able gradually to grasp, by means of meditation, what is comprised in the conceptions about to be set forth. Only after long and profound reflection upon the conceptions about to be given can we discern what the realities are that underlie them.

That resignation of which mention has already been made, must be brought into connection with the origin of Time — the scene of which we have laid in Old Saturn. Time, as we have seen, actually originated on Old Saturn, with the Archai, and there is no sense in referring to Time previous to Old Saturn. Now at the risk of repeating ourselves, we may say that Time continues. Continuity or Duration is a conception which contains Time within itself. Thus when we say that Time is continuous it means that when we observe Saturn and Sun in the Akashic records, on Old Saturn we find the origin of Time — and on the Old Sun we still find Time present.

Now if all conditions remained as they were, as we described them in the last two lectures when speaking of Old Saturn and Old Sun, Time would then form an element in everything that happens in evolution. We could not in thought eliminate Time from any occurrence in evolution. We have seen that the Spirits of Time came into being on Old Saturn, and that Time is implanted into everything. All that we have hitherto thought whether in pictures or in imagination concerning evolution we must bring into connection with Time. All that has taken place — sacrifice and the virtue of bestowal, which we have mentioned — would be subject to Time, nothing would not be subject to Time, which means that all arising and passing away which indeed pertains to Time, must be subject to it.

Now those Cherubim who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice and of that which was, as it were, contained in the smoke of the sacrifice, did so because in so doing, they withdraw from the properties of this sacrificial smoke. And to these properties belongs, above all, Time, which includes “arising” and “passing away.” The whole renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of these Cherubim signifies that they had grown beyond the conditions of Time. These Cherubim extended beyond Time and withdrew from subjection to it. The combination of circumstances during the evolution of Old Sun was such, that

  • the sacrificing and the virtue of bestowal, which conditions continued in a direct line from Old Saturn, remain subject to Time;
  • whilst others, brought about by the other Cherubim who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice wrested themselves free, and chose Eternity, duration, permanence, the non-subjection to arising and passing away.

This is in the highest degree remarkable: during the evolution of Old Sun we come to a severance between Time and Eternity. Through the resignation made by the Cherubim during the Old Sun-evolution, Eternity was gained, as a property of certain conditions which then came about. Just as we saw, on looking into our soul, that in it certain effects were produced through the acquisition by man of the qualities of renunciation and resignation — so we see, speaking now of Old Sun alone, that eternity and immortality were acquired by certain divine spiritual beings, that they resigned the sacrifice and all that might have come to them from the virtue of bestowal and all its diffused gifts.

Whereas we have seen Time coming into being on Old Saturn, we have also seen certain conditions wresting themselves free from it during Old Sun development. But we must take special care to note that this was prepared even during Old Saturn-age; so that Eternity does not actually begin during the Old Sun stage. This can however, only be sufficiently clearly and distinctly observed so that it can be expressed in concepts, in the Old Sun stage: on Old Saturn the division between Time and Eternity is so faintly perceptible that our ideas and words do not prove precise enough to define anything of the sort for Old Saturn and its evolution.

We have now learnt the significance of resignation, the renunciation made by the gods during the time of Old Sun, and the attainment of immortality. What was the further consequence of this?

quote B

[The elements and their meaning]

From the study of the book OES which must in certain respects still be veiled in maya, we learn that the evolution of Old Moon followed that of Old Sun, that at the close of the Old Sun srage all the existing conditions were immersed in a kind of twilight, in a sort of cosmic chaos, and emerged again as Old Moon. And we see the sacrifice reissuing in the form of heat. All that remained as heat on Old Sun reappears as heat on Old Moon; we see the virtue of bestowal reappearing as gas, or air. And the resignation also continues, the renunciation of the sacrifice; all that we have called 'resignation' is within whatever takes place on Old Moon. It is actually the case, that what we can ourselves experience as resignation we must think of in everything on Old Moon, carried over from Old Sun, and as we think of everything else in the external world.

That which had been sacrifice reappears in maya as warmth; and that which was bestowing virtue appears in maya as gas or air. Resignation as it has now become appears in external maya as fluidity, as 'water. Water is maya and would not be in the world at all were it not that its spiritual foundation is renunciation, or resignation. Wherever water is to be found in the world there is divine-renunciation.

Just as warmth is an illusion behind which is sacrifice, and gas or air an illusion behind which is the virtue of bestowal, so is water as a substance, as an external reality, nothing but an illusion of the senses, a reflection; the only reality existing in it, is resignation by certain beings of that which they receive from other beings. It might be said, water could only flow in the world because resignation underlies it. Now, we know that while OId Sun progressed to Old Moon, airy conditions condensed to watery conditions. Water first appeared on the Old Moon; on Old Sun there was as yet no water. What we see gathering like clouds during the Old Sun development coagulated as they interpenetrated each other, to denser substance, to “water,” and this appears on Old Moon as the Old Moon-ocean.

[Consequence of resignation = evil]

If we bear this in mind it will at any rate be possible to grasp a question that may be raised.

From resignation comes forth water; water is in literal truth resignation. We thus acquire a peculiar kind of spiritual insight into the actual nature of water. But now the question may be raised.

Is there after all a certain difference between the condition which would have arisen if the Cherubim had not made this resignation, and that which has actually come about through their having done so? Is this difference in any way conveyed?

Yes, it is. It is conveyed in the fact that the consequences of that resignation appeared clearly during the Old Sun stage.

  • If it had never been made, if the Cherubim had accepted the proffered sacrifice, they would (speaking figuratively) have had the sacrificial smoke as part of their own inner substance; what they themselves had done would have found expression in the smoke of the sacrifice. Suppose these Cherubim had accomplished this or that; this would have been apparent, it would have been outwardly expressed by the changing clouds of the air; that is to say: In the outer form of the air would have been expressed what the Cherubim who made no resignation did with the substance of the sacrifice.
  • But they did reject it, and in so doing they passed from mortality to immortality, from a transitory state into a state of duration. However, the substance of the sacrifice is there to begin with; it is released from the forces, so to speak, which would otherwise have absorbed it, and is now not obliged to follow the inclinations and impulses of the Cherubim; for they gave it up, they renounced it. What then happens to this substance of sacrifice? The following occurs: Other beings, because the sacrificial substance is not with the Cherubim, take possession of it, become independent of the Cherubim, self-reliant beings; whereas they would otherwise have been directed from the sacrificial substance within the Cherubim, if the latter had accepted it. Thus it became possible for the opposite of resignation to arise; in that certain beings attract to themselves the substance of the sacrifice that had been poured forth and become active within it. These beings are 'they who remained behind'; 'remaining behind' was therefore a consequence of the resignation made by the Cherubim. Through the very substance which they refused to accept, the Cherubim themselves first furnished backward beings with the possibility of staying behind. Through the rejection of a sacrifice, other beings who did not resign it, but give way to their wishes and desires and bring them to expression, were enabled to take possession of the object of the sacrifice, of the sacrificial substance, thereby attaining the possibility of taking their place as independent beings side by side with those who here were offering.

Thus, when evolution passed from Old Sun to Old Moon, with the immortality of the Cherubim, the possibility was given for other beings to separate in their own substance from the progressive evolution of the Cherubim, generally speaking from the immortal beings.

So now, when we learn the deeper reasons of the remaining behind, we see that the original fault — if we may venture to speak of such an original fault — did not lie with those who remained behind. This is the important point, which we must realise: If the Cherubim had accepted the proffered sacrifice, the Luciferic beings could not have remained behind; they would have had no opportunity of embodying themselves in that substance. To make it possible for beings to become thus independent, renunciation previously took place. Thus, in cosmic evolution it is the case that the gods themselves have called their opponents into being.

If the gods had not renounced the sacrifice, beings would not have been able to oppose them. Put into simple words we may suppose the gods had foreseen as follows:

“we merely go on creating as we have done from Old Saturn to Old Sun there would never be any free beings, capable of acting from their own initiative. In order that beings of this nature might come into existence, the possibility must be given for opponents to arise against us in the universe, so that we should meet with resistance in that which is subject to time. If we ourselves ordain everything we shall meet with no such resistance. We could make everything very easy for ourselves by accepting the sacrifice offered to us; then would the whole of evolution be subject unto us. But this will not do, we want beings able to resist us. We will therefore not accept the sacrifice; so that through our resignation and because they accept the sacrifice, they become our opponents!”

So we see that we must not look for the origin of evil in the so-called 'evil' beings, but in the good beings, who, through their resignation first brought evil about through those beings who were able to bring it into the world.

[Why no freedom (of choice) without evil]

But now the following objection may easily be made (and I want you to let these thoughts work profoundly upon your souls): I have till now thought more highly of the gods! I have always believed them able to give freedom to man without creating the possibility of evil.

How is it that all these good gods could not produce something like human freedom without bringing evil into the world?

In this connection I should like to remind you of that Spanish King who considered the world dreadfully complicated, and who said on one occasion that if God had allowed him to create it he would have made it much simpler. Man in his weakness may think that the world might have been made simpler than it is, but the gods knew better and therefore they did not leave it to man to create the world.

From the standpoint of scientific perception, we might describe these circumstances more accurately. Suppose something required supporting, and the suggestion were made that a column might be erected and the weight rested on that. This person in question might say: “There must be some other way of doing it!” Why, indeed, should it not be done in some other way? Or again, when a triangle is made use of in building, it might be said: Why should a triangle have only three angles? Perhaps a god might make a triangle not having three angles? There would be just as little sense in thinking of a triangle without three angles, as in supposing that the gods might have created freedom without the possibility of evil and suffering. Just as three angles are necessary to a triangle, so the possibility of evil, given by the resignation of divine beings, is necessary to freedom.

[Lead evil back to good]

It all forms part of the divine resignation, for the gods created evolution out of immortality, after they had through their renunciation or sacrifice, ascended to immortality, in order to lead back evil again to good. The gods did not shrink from the evil, which alone could give the possibility of freedom. Had the gods avoided evil, the world would be poor, without variety. For the sake of freedom the gods had to allow evil to enter the world, and for this reason they had to acquire the power enabling them to lead evil back again to good. This power is such as can only be acquired as a consequence of renunciation, resignation.

[Renunciation in the Bible]

Religions always exist for the purpose of showing us the great cosmic mysteries in symbols, in imaginations. In this lecture we have alluded to primordial phases of evolution, and by adding the conception of resignation to those of sacrifice and of the bestowing virtue we have come a step further from Maya and illusion into the realities. Conceptions such as these were presented to man in religions. And in that of the Bible there is something whereby man can acquire a conception of resignation, of the rejection of the sacrifice.

That is the story of the sacrifice about to be made by Abraham who was ready to offer his own son to God, and of the renouncing by God of the sacrifice offered by the patriarch.

If we take into our souls this conception of sacrifice, then intuitive visions such as those described may come to us. On one occasion I suggested that we should suppose that the sacrifice of Abraham had been accepted, that Isaac had been sacrificed. As all the ancient Hebrew people are descended from him, God would then by accepting the sacrifice have taken this whole nation from the Earth. Everything derived from Abraham was a gift of God through the renunciation of a sphere which is outside Himself; if He had accepted the sacrifice He would have taken into Himself the whole sphere which played its part within the ancient Hebrew people; for the sacrificed Isaac would have been with God. But He renounced this and therewith He gave over that whole line of evolution to the earth. Thus in the significant picture of the offering made by the old patriarch, the conception of renunciation and of sacrifice can arise within us.

1911-11-28-GA130

for context see also: Future Venus#1911-11-10-GA130 and Schema FMC00.022 that is referenced below

Let us now consider from this scheme the counteraction of the Luciferic spirits. The Luciferic spirits come from a higher hierarchy than man: the hierarchy of the angels, who, however, have not finished their total development on Old Moon, where they passed through their stage of humanity. Therefore they remain incapable to find the connection to the fourth macrocosmic principle in their further development.

On the other hand, the Luciferic spirits on Old Moon have already developed their fourth and fifth principle and so on, so to speak, anticipating it, but still without the macrocosmic fourth principle, without the Christ-impulse, which was not there yet.

Let us now take the development of such Luciferic spirits, who have made it to the fifth principle on Old Moon. They know nothing beyond the fourth macrocosmic principle, so they know nothing of the Christ. It is difficult to express this in our language. One could say something like this: They turn as if scornfully against the upper gods, who strive for the development of the Christ principle in mankind, and call out to them: You can give man only the fourth principle; but we can give him the fifth principle.

This is indeed something higher, which they, just as we do now in the fifth root race, have brought with them as if in advance. But it lacks the macrocosmic fourth principle, the Christ, of which they know nothing at all. So they are already in a certain way like precocious, anticipating something, but not in harmony with the cosmos.

The normal development therefore presents to the Luciferic spirits something "simpler," above which they think themselves exalted. And times will come when, through the power of the higher principles, the fifth or even the sixth principle, the Luciferic spirits will have great influence on mankind, which is decaying to them.

1912-01-09-GA130

talks about Luciferic beings on Old Moon

also quote on the antichrist

Thus will the Christ Spirit and the spirit of this being face one another — the Christ Spirit, from whom humanity may hope to receive the mighty macrocosmic impulse of its fourth principle, and the Luciferic Spirit, who will wish in a certain way to lead humanity beyond this.

If people would agree that we must acquire from the Luciferic spirits only that to which we can look up in the same way that we look down to our lower nature ... then they would be doing right. But if people should come to say: You see the Christ gives only the fourth principle, while these spirits give the sixth and seventh ... people who think thus concerning Christ will worship and extol ... the Antichrist.

Thus will the position of the Antichrist towards the Christ make itself felt in the future. And with the outer intellect, with the outer wisdom, one will not be able to challenge such things; for it will be possible to produce much which from the point of view of the intellect and talent will be more clever in the Antichrist than that which will more and more flow into the soul from the Christ, as the highest human principle.

Because Christ brings to Man the fourth macrocosmic principle — since it is macrocosmic, it is infinitely more important than all microcosmic principles; it is stronger than they, even though it is related to the human I, stronger than all others which can be gained during Earth evolution — still, because it is only the fourth principle, it will be thought of as lower than the fifth, sixth and seventh, which come from the Luciferic spirits; and especially lower than that which comes from Antichrist.

1912-04-08-GA136

(SWCC)

In the first section, (a) the luciferic spirits are introduced as H3, then (b) the visible physical planets are explained due to the workings of luciferic SoF

quote A

Their action arose from their wish to develop an inner life, an inner activity; but the result, the consequence was, that they at the same time became Spirits of Untruth.

Now all the spiritual beings which in this way, through betraying their own nature, arose as a second category beside the spirits of the third hierarchy (H3), are called in spiritual science, Luciferic spirits.

The concept of the Luciferic spirits consists essentially in the fact that these beings wish to develop an inner life.

What have these spirits to do, to attain their goal?

We have already seen what they had to develop as a result; and we shall now inquire further what they had to do in order to attain this goal of an inner independent life.

What did these spirits wish to surmount?

They wished to prevent themselves from being filled wholly with the substance of the higher hierarchies; they wished to be filled, not only with the beings of the higher hierarchies, but with their own being. They could only accomplish this in the following way: Instead of filling themselves with the spirit of the higher hierarchies, and, as it were, leaving themselves open to the free outlook towards the higher hierarchies, they cut themselves off, detached themselves from them, in order in this way to create substance of their own from the substance of the higher hierarchies.

...

Those spiritual beings of the third hierarchy of which we have just spoken did not wish to be filled with the spirit nor to be connected with the spiritual substance of the hierarchies. They wanted an independent spiritual life, they therefore cut themselves off, they detached themselves, so that the being of the higher hierarchies was above them; they cut the connection and detached themselves as independent beings, retaining the actual light in their inner being.

Thus they, as it were, stole what should only have filled them, and then returned to the higher hierarchies. They stole it for themselves, filled their own inner being with it, and by that means developed an independent side to their nature.

[editor: this 'closing off' is illustrated with [2] on Schema FMC00.270 above, an illustration made in a 1904-GA091 lecture, see explanation to Schema on this page]

This concept can provide an explanation of events in the cosmos, without which we should be quite unable to grasp a stellar system, the constitution of the stars in general as we know them with our human physical consciousness. Without these concepts one cannot possibly grasp the life of the stars, the life of the heavenly bodies.

I have now tried to indicate to you how certain beings of the third hierarchy have become quite different beings: Luciferic spirits. That which took place in these beings of the third hierarchy cannot, of course, take place in the same way in the beings of the other hierarchies but something similar takes place even with these.

...

[Luciferic SoF]

Thus the physical planets would not be in existence if these Spirits of Form alone were to work, but there would be globe-shaped, accumulated masses bounded by what the physical astronomy of today calls the orbits of the planets. But within the cosmos there are certain spiritual beings corresponding to the Spirits of Form, but who, as it were, are rebels against those of their own class.

Just as we find Luciferic spirits among the beings of the Third Hierarchy, which in order to set up their own independent life, cut themselves off from the spiritual substance of the higher hierarchies, so do we also find within the category of the Spirits of Form that some separated and would not go through the usual development of a Spirit of Form, but went through an evolution of their own. These oppose the normal Spirits of Form, are in opposition to them.

What then happens is as follows. Let us suppose that we had at point S the centre-point of the spiritual Council of the Spirits of Form; the Spirit of Form working upon Saturn would call forth this etheric globe, so that by the agency of this Spirit of Form a flattened globe would arise, as in the diagram. At an outermost point of this etheric globe, in opposition to the Spirit of Form working from the centre of the Sun works the rebel, the Luciferic Spirit of Form. He works from without inwards; opposingly.

then the statement below positions that this takes place also in H2 and H1.

.

quote B

.. above the Spirits of Form stand the Spirits of Motion, above these the Spirits of Wisdom, above these the Spirits of Will or Thrones, above them the Cherubim, the Seraphim. In all ranks of these spiritual beings there are those who can be likened to what we have described as Luciferic Spirits

quote C

describes the luciferic beings of the third hierarchy

We have said that characteristic of the beings of the third hierarchy is the fact that

  • what is perception in Man is in them manifestation, and
  • that what is inner life in Man is in them being filled with spirit.

Even in those beings who start immediately above man in the cosmic order, the angels, we already find this peculiarity, that they are actually conscious of that which they manifest from out of themselves.

When they return to their inner being, they have nothing independent, nothing self-enclosed, like the inner life of man; but they then feel shining and springing forth in their inner being, the forces and beings of the higher hierarchies above them. In short they feel themselves filled and inspired by the spirit and its beings, immediately above them.

Thus what we men call our independent inner life, really does not exist in them. If they wish to develop their own being, if they wish to feel, think and will somewhat as a Man does, all that is immediately manifested externally; not as in Man, who can shut up within himself his thoughts and feelings, and allow the impulses of his will to remain unfulfilled. What lives as thought in these beings, in so far as they themselves bring forth these thoughts, is at the same time also externally revealed. If they do not wish to manifest externally they have no other means of returning into their inner being, but by once again filling themselves with the world above them. Thus, in the inner life of these beings dwells the world above them, and when they live a life of their own, they project themselves externally, objectively.

Thus, as we have seen, these beings could hide nothing within them as the product of their own thought and feeling, for whatever they bring about in their inner being must show itself externally. As we mentioned in one of the former lectures, they cannot lie, they cannot be untrue to their nature so that their thoughts and feelings did not harmonize with the external world; they cannot have an idea within them which does not agree with the external world; for any ideas which they have in their inner being, are perceived by them in their manifestation.

But now let us just suppose that these beings had a desire to be untrue to their own nature, what would be the result?

Well, in the beings we have designated as angels, archangels, and archai, we find throughout that everything which reveals itself to them, everything which they can perceive is, so to speak, their own being. If they were to wish to be untrue, they would be obliged to develop something in their inner being which would not be consistent with their own nature. Every untruth would be a denial of their nature. That would mean nothing less than a deadening, a damping-down of their own being. Now suppose that nevertheless these beings had the desire to experience something in their inner nature which they did not manifest externally; to do so they would have to take on another nature.

What I have just described as the denial of their own nature by beings of the third hierarchy, the taking on of another nature, did actually take place; it did occur in the course of the ages. We shall see, as these lectures go on, why this had to happen; but to begin with we will confine our attention to the fact that it did happen that, among the beings of the third hierarchy there were some possessed with this desire to have experiences in their inner nature which they need not manifest externally. That is, they had the wish to deny their own nature.

What did this bring about in these beings?

Something entered, which the other beings, those of the Third Hierarchy which retained their own nature, cannot have. The beings of the Third Hierarchy can have no inner independence such as man has. If they wish to live in their inner being, they must immediately be filled with the spirit-world above them. A certain number of the beings of the Third Hierarchy had the desire to develop something within their inner being which they would not immediately encounter in the external world as perception, or revelation of their own being. Hence the necessity arose of denying their own nature and taking on another nature. To develop an inner life of their own, to attain inner independence, a number of beings of the Third Hierarchy had to give up their own nature, to deny it. They had, so to speak, to bring about in themselves the power not to manifest certain inner experiences externally.

What then were the reasons which moved these beings of the Third Hierarchy to develop such a desire within them?

If we fix our attention upon the nature of the beings of the third hierarchy, with their manifestation and enfilling with spirit, we see that these beings are in reality wholly at the service of the beings of the higher hierarchies. Angels have no life of their own; their own life is manifestation, which is for the whole world; as soon as they do not manifest themselves there radiates into their inner being the life of the higher hierarchies. That which induced a number of them to deny their nature was a feeling of power, of independence and freedom.

[the rebels of H3]

At a certain time a number of beings of the third hierarchy had an impulse, an urge, not merely to be dependent upon the beings of the higher hierarchies, but to develop within themselves an inner life of their own. The result of this was very far-reaching for the whole evolution of the planetary system to which we belong; for these beings whom we may call the rebels of the third hierarchy, brought about nothing less than the actual independence of Man — making it possible for him to develop an independent life of his own, which does not immediately manifest externally, but can be independent of external manifestation.

I am intentionally using many words to describe this circumstance, because it is extremely important to grasp accurately what is here in question, namely, that an impulse arose in a number of the third hierarchy to develop an inner life of their own. Everything else was simply the result, the consequence of this impulse.

What then was this result?

It was in fact a terrible one, namely, the betrayal of their own nature; untruth, falsehood. You see, it is important that you should understand that the spirits of the third hierarchy which had this impulse, did not do what they did for the sake of lying, but in order to develop an independent life of their own; but in so doing they had to take the consequence, they had to become Spirits of Untruth — spirits which betrayed their own being — in other words, Spirits of Lies.

It is as though someone were to take a journey on foot, and he meets with a wet day; he must of necessity make the best of it and put up with getting wet, which he did not at all intend: in the same way the spirits of which we are speaking, had no intention of doing something in order to sink into untruth. Their action arose from their wish to develop an inner life, an inner activity; but the result, the consequence was, that they at the same time became Spirits of Untruth.

Now all the spiritual beings which in this way, through betraying their own nature, arose as a second category beside the spirits of the third hierarchy, are called in spiritual science: Luciferic Spirits. The concept of the Luciferic Spirits consists essentially in the fact that these beings wish to develop an inner life.

What have these spirits to do, to attain their goal? We have already seen what they had to develop as a result; and we shall now inquire further what they had to do in order to attain this goal of an inner independent life. What did these spirits wish to surmount?

They wished to prevent themselves from being filled wholly with the substance of the higher hierarchies; they wished to be filled, not only with the beings of the higher hierarchies, but with their own being. They could only accomplish this in the following way: Instead of filling themselves with the spirit of the higher hierarchies, and, as it were, leaving themselves open to the free outlook towards the higher hierarchies, they cut themselves off, detached themselves from them, in order in this way to create substance of their own from the substance of the higher hierarchies.

We can gain a correct idea of what is here in question if we think of the beings of the Third Hierarchy in the following way. We think of them represented symbolically, graphically, in such a way that they manifest their own being outwardly, as it were, as though it were their skin; so that each time they developed inner thought or feeling, a manifestation arises, like a shining-forth of their own being. The moment they do not manifest themselves, they take up the light of the higher hierarchies which flows into them; they fill themselves with the spirit of the higher hierarchies and, as it were, open their whole being to them.

Those spiritual beings of the third hierarchy of which we have just spoken did not wish to be filled with the spirit nor to be connected with the spiritual substance of the hierarchies. They wanted an independent spiritual life, they therefore cut themselves off, they detached themselves, so that the being of the higher hierarchies was above them; they cut the connection and detached themselves as independent beings, retaining the actual light in their inner being.

Thus they, as it were, stole what should only have filled them, and then returned to the higher hierarchies. They stole it for themselves, filled their own inner being with it, and by that means developed an independent side to their nature.

This concept can provide an explanation of events in the cosmos, without which we should be quite unable to grasp a stellar system, the constitution of the stars in general as we know them with our human physical consciousness. Without these concepts one cannot possibly grasp the life of the stars, the life of the heavenly bodies.

I have now tried to indicate to you how certain beings of the Third Hierarchy have become quite different beings: Luciferic Spirits. That which took place in these beings of the Third Hierarchy cannot, of course, take place in the same way in the beings of the other hierarchies but something similar takes place even with these. If we apply that which takes place in the beings of the other hierarchies to a consideration of the Spirits of Form, it will give us an idea of how a planetary system is actually formed.

[continues to explain that the normal spirits of the hierarchies are invisible in the planetary spheres, whereas the visible physical planets are due to the luciferic spirits]

1919-11-04-GA193

Translating into terms of our present language how the priests of the Mysteries spoke of this matter, we must say: In this man, Lucifer himself was incarnated — no more and no less than that! It is a significant, momentous fact that in the third millennium before Christ an incarnation of Lucifer in the flesh actually took place in the east of Asia. And from this incarnation of Lucifer in the flesh — for this being became a teacher — there went forth what is described as the pre-Christian, pagan culture which still survived in the gnosis of the earliest Christian centuries.

It would be wrong to pass derogatory judgment on this Lucifer culture. For all the beauty produced by Greek civilization, even the insight that is still alive in ancient Greek philosophy and in the tragedies of Aeschylus would have been impossible without this Lucifer incarnation.

The influence of the Lucifer incarnation was still powerful in the south of Europe, in the north of Africa, and in Asia Minor during the first centuries of Christendom. And when the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place on earth, it was essentially the luciferic wisdom through which it could be understood. The gnosis, which set about the task of grasping the import of the Mystery of Golgotha, was impregnated through and through with luciferic wisdom. It must therefore be emphasized, firstly, that at the beginning of the third millennium B.C. there was a Chinese incarnation of Lucifer; at the beginning of our own era the incarnation of Christ took place. And to begin with, the significance of the incarnation of Christ was grasped because the power of the old Lucifer incarnation still survived. This power did not actually fade from the human faculty of comprehension until the fourth century A.D.; and even then, it had its aftermath, its ramifications.

To these two incarnations, the Lucifer incarnation in ancient times and the incarnation of the Christ which gives the earth its meaning, a third incarnation will be added in a future not so very far distant. And the events of the present time are already moving in such a way as to prepare for it.

Of the incarnation of Lucifer at the beginning of the third millennium B.C., we must say: through Lucifer, human beings have acquired the faculty of using the organs of their intellect, of their power of intellectual discernment. It was Lucifer himself, in a human body, who was the first to grasp through the power of intellect what formerly could be imparted to humanity only through revelation, namely, the content of the Mysteries.

What is now in preparation and will quite definitely come to pass on earth in a none-too-distant future is an actual incarnation of Ahriman.

As you know, since the middle of the fifteenth century we have been living in an era in which it behooves humankind to come more and more into possession of the full power of consciousness. It is of the very greatest importance that people should approach the coming incarnation of Ahriman with full consciousness of this event. The incarnation of Lucifer could be recognized only by the prophetic insight of the priests of the Mysteries. People were also very unconscious of what the incarnation of Christ and the event of Golgotha really signified. But they must live on toward the incarnation of Ahriman with full consciousness amid the shattering events which will occur on the physical plane. Amid the perpetual stresses of war and other tribulations of the immediate future, the human mind will become very inventive in the domain of physical life. And through this very growth of inventiveness in physical life — which cannot be averted in any way or by any means — the bodily existence of a human individuality in whom Ahriman can incarnate will become possible and inevitable.

Luciferic principle on Earth

1906-01-06/07-GA262

(letters in correspondence) gives an excellent description of the luciferic principle

also here: Development of the I#1906-01-06-GA262

[Luciferian principle linked to Mars influences lunar pitris]

As the beings from Venus establish the separate sexes, similarly they cause the intellect to become fruitful. It receives half the productive faculties saved from the sexual powers.

For this reason the monads — their manas element in the first instance — which developed during the Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon stages, can descend into the organ of the intellect.

The work of the monads would have remained cold and dry, however, if the astral body had not received an element which resulted in the human being using his intellect with a certain higher passion. This element was given to the human being from Mars.

And the beings who transmitted it are the luciferic beings. Although they progressed beyond the stage of later human Earth existence, they did not reach the stage of concluding their Old Moon development with the manvantara of the Old Moon, as the Lunar-Pitris were able to do.

As initiates they now carry the astral forces from Mars into the astral body of the human being and thus fan within him the passion for using his intellect. In this way they vitalise the knowledge of human beings; they arouse them to independence. This is the aid to human development given by the luciferic principle.

During the Earth development of the human being it is the 'Spirits of Form' who are in this position. They are therefore the creators of earthly human beings. And insofar as they are in this position, 'Jehovah' is their representative. So since the mid-point of Earth development the human being deals with:

  • 1. His creators, the Spirits of Form, who lent him his earthly form.
  • 2. The archangels, who gave his astral body its sensual emotions.
  • 3. The Lunar-Pitris, who gave to this astral body its earthly knowledge. And lastly,
  • 4. himself, living as 'I' in the consciousness soul.

The action of the archangels takes place in the second half of the Lemurian epoch, along with the work of the Lunar-Pitris.

Then during the 5th sub-race of the Atlantean epoch the human being begins to develop into an independent 'I'.

Within this progression the Lunar-Pitris who have not completed their development (b) work differently from those who have (a).

  • The latter (a) imbue the astral body perfectly with the Mercury element from without, but
  • the former (b) still have to perfect themselves with the things which are developing in Man. Their own being is therefore within the human being. In this way they are the luciferic principle.

Christus Verus Luciferus

references GA104, GA109, GA136 (physical light vs spiritual light), and GA227 ('Christus verus phosophorus' .. countering the saltening of humanity)

Discussion

Note 1 - Luciferic beings and the various hierarchies

  • Schema FMC00.019 on this page 'Luciferic beings and their influence' (reference 1911-11-14-GA132) depicts schematically how during the Old Sun stage, certain Cherubim did not accept the sacrifice of the Thrones and this way wrestled themselves free and became more independant. It illustrates how the Luciferic 'class' of the hierarchies are a totally naturally part of, or spawning off from, the overall evolutionary process .. like a kind of side-effect.
  • War in heaven (reference 1909-04-GA110) sketches what took places between the two classes of SoM, the more advanced and the ones who had remained behind, during the contraction of Old Sun to Old Moon, causing a split in two spheres and the formation of the planetoid belt between the outer limits of the Old Sun sphere (Jupiter) and the limits of the Old Sun sphere (Mars), whereby some SoM seduced angels going through the human stages and thus creating Luciferic beings that united to the human astral bodies during the Earth evolution and gave to men the possibility of evil, and also the possibility of freedom.
Exercise
DRAFT

lucifer brother of Christ at human stage on Sun

archangel on sun -> SoF on Earth, but 'fall' behind -> archai

Note 2 - Napoleon

Napoleon is a mysterious figure in recent history, and Rudolf Steiner is known to have said "I have been at great pains to follow the destiny of Napoleon's soul in its journey after his death. I have been unable to find it and do not think I shall ever be able to find it, for it is probably not to be found." (1918-10-19-GA185)

Now in a lecture of 1893 we find a rather baffling sentence, see below. Baffling because the level of knowledge and wisdom in the six lectures held in 1893

1893 - C.G. Harrison

in lecture 6 (short quote, for long extract see higher on this page) .. in context of a description of Lucifer/Satan

As well might we say that the object at which Napoleon aimed was the slaughter of as many French soldiers as possible. It is related of Napoleon that he wept bitterly when, on the night succeeding the battle of Austerlitz, he rode over the field and viewed the dead and dying,—and it would probably be much nearer the truth to say that the degradation and suffering of mankind, for which the adversary of God is responsible, so far from affording him any satisfaction, afflicts him with a sense of failure and deepens his despair of ultimate victory.

Searching for hints in Rudolf Steiner's lectures, we find that

  • he describes Napoleon as the carrier of an ahrimanic impulse of nationalism (1915-07-18-GA162, also 1924-09-18-GA346)
  • the German idealists clearly oppose Napoleon, for example Fichte (1915-12-16-GA065) Schlegel (1918-01-11-GA180)
  • and Steiner qualified the following piece of self-revelation by Napoleon as carrying great weight:
    • At St. Helena, after his downfall, Napoleon expressed himself as follows: “Everything would have gone all right. I should not have fallen before all the Powers which ranged themselves against me. With one factor only did I fail to reckon, and it is this that really brought about my downfall, namely—the German philosophers!”

The key is given in 1918-10-19-GA185

  • One has the impression that a soul wanted to incarnate in the world, appeared without a body .. was unable to find a body ... and that only externally a body offered itself, a body which for its part could not find a soul, i.e. Napoleon.
  • also: 'In this strange juxtaposition of the Revolution and Napoleon lies one of the greatest enigmas of contemporary evolution' and describes the important impulses of historical development as symptoms

.

Note: in other lectures, Steiner also describes other important historical figures as carriers of such impulse, eg Ghenghis Khan (see a.o. Contemporary worldview war#1916-09-17-GA171)

Note: not to resolve the dichotomy between Napoleon being carrier of a Luciferic or Ahrimanic impulse, but just to convey a general observation: when reading Harrison and comparing with Steiner, Harrison seems to put Lucifer as the main adversary at level of archai with Ahriman a level below as archangel and servant.

1899-GA029

from 'Collected Essays on Drama 1889–1900' 122. “Josephine”

Magazin für Litertur 1899, Volume 68, 51 regarding: Play in four acts by Hermann Bahr, Performance at the Lessing Theater, Berlin

internet translation

But it is also a good idea for him to acquire "decent manners". So he calls in the actor Talma to teach him. This is how the infatuated little Bonaparte became the great Napoleon.

...

It's funny how the world is reflected in this poet's head. The man who wants to be free to make love to Josephine, but whom fate makes unfree, a man who shakes up the peoples of Europe from West to East because he must "serve, obey", and who finally becomes "free" when he spends his last days imprisoned on a lonely little island!!!! The valet's attitude must turn grotesque somersaults if it is to become philosophy. It is a pity that Hermann Bahr did not become a natural historian. I imagine a natural history written by him according to the recipe of his Napoleon-Fate-Wisdom would be quite nice. It could read, for example:

"The lion is the most good-natured animal. When he is ravenously hungry and encounters a wanderer in the desert, he lies down and begs the Man to "eat me up so that I may be relieved of my hunger"...

And in another passage you could read:

"The odeur producers have long searched for a plant that is particularly fragrant - they finally found it in the devil's filth."

note: mentions François Joseph Talma (1763-1826), actor and intimate friend of Napoleon

1915-07-18-GA162

Earth-evolution continued its course, and speaking figuratively, the following may be said. Suppose thick snow is lying on a railway line. A train comes and ploughs through the snow up to a certain point; but at that point the pile of snow is so high that the progress of the train is checked.

Something similar happened in the case of the Christ-Impulse. It entered with tremendous power, strove to lay hold of the Earth, but Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces were there and they reared up like the snow in front of the train. For a time they were overcome—and, of course, will be further overcome if a sufficient number of men allow themselves to be moved by the Christ-Impulse—but for all that the snow-pile was there. And the consequence has been that—precisely in the age of intellectualism—the delusion of the uniformity of knowledge has asserted itself with particular strength. There is clear evidence of something which simply was not there in earlier times. Those conversant with the history of spiritual evolution are well aware that from the eighth or ninth century of the Christian era onwards, this delusion that a single form of truth must be made valid all over the Earth came strongly to the fore. The Luciferic angeloi reared up once again. They were intent upon victory, intent upon misleading men into believing the delusion that one uniform truth should be held to prevail all over the Earth. And again and again there comes over men this terrible delusion of the monistic nature of dogma.

Later on, when the age of intellectualism had already dawned, came the great resistance emanating from the Ahrimanic archangeloi —those beings who have brought the delusion of nationalism—a delusion that has now become accomplished fact. This Ahrimanic principle took essential effect in the 19th century, just as the Luciferic principle had done in the 8th/9th century.

The earthly bearer of this Ahrimanic principle was Napoleon. Napoleon is the one from whom proceeded that corruption of Europe which led to the idea that the principle of nationalism is all-important, that men must be divided into groups on the basis of the nationalistic principle. Napoleon worked in the service of Ahriman, and that was the starting-point of the state of things that has persisted to this day: the grouping of men according to regions of the Earth strictly enclosed within national boundaries.

This delusion—it is now accomplished fact—is everywhere in evidence today. It is Ahriman on his rounds, it is the influence which strives to evoke the seductive cry that men must shut themselves off in accordance with the principle of nationality, while they clothe their delusion in the slogan: "Freedom of the nations—freedom and equality of the nations!"

This is a trend deeply and intimately bound up with cosmic evolution and it is taking effect in a terrible way at the present time. The spiritual beings who set out to bring falsification into Earth-evolution naturally make use of ideas and concepts which seem to men not to be reprehensible but, on the contrary, particularly noble; Ahrimanic intentions are adorned in the mask of great and powerful ideals, just as the Luciferic spirit has been masked by the delusion of the uniformity of knowledge, expressed in words which everyone understands because they sound so idealistic: "One truth for all men." But with this slogan, Lucifer creeps into the hearts of men; Ahriman creeps in when the cry goes forth: The peoples must shut themselves off as nationalities living in particular regions on the Earth—and only those groups of men who represent nationalities are of any account.

Just as the first is a seductive call of Lucifer which appears in the guise of an ideal, the second is a seductive call of Ahriman which again appears as an ideal—but a terribly perverted ideal. Spiritual science is called upon to see through the seductive falsity of such calls and to work to the end that mankind shall take the rightful path, the path which after it had been laid down less forcefully through the Jahve-impulse, is now the path of the greater Impulse which came into Earth-evolution: the Christ-Impulse which sweeps away all the Luciferic and Ahrimanic delusions that have crept into the souls and hearts of men.

1915-12-16-GA065

This was not a unique instance. Often and often did Fichte give similar proofs of his integral loyalty to the world of the spirit. For example, it was at this period at Berlin that he delivered public lectures which were intended as a criticism and a severe indictment of his age. He passed in review one by one the various epochs of history. But it was, he said, the age in which he lived, which had brought selfishness to the extreme limit. And in that age of selfishness he found himself confronting the personality of Napoleon, in whom, in his view, this selfishness was incarnate.

During all this period when the Napoleonic chaos was enveloping north and central Germany, Fichte never in his heart viewed himself otherwise than as Napoleon's spiritual antagonist. And so we get his character study of Napoleon, of which it may be said that an image of the Emperor, profoundly German in its approach and in its vigour and based on the loftiest philosophical standpoint, had shaped itself in the mind of this German thinker who had grown out of that peasant boy in a blue smock of whom earlier we had a glimpse.

We have come now to a state of human existence at the present time, said Fichte, in which people have lost their consciousness of the spiritual influence which pulsates through the world and also through human existence and evolution, and which, in the form of the moral impulses, carries mankind forward from epoch to epoch; of the truth that in the march of history man is only of value in so far as he is sustained by what is permanent from age to age in the moral impulses and the moral order of the world. Of all this people no longer know anything. We have arrived at an epoch in which we see one generation succeed another like links in a chain. Even the best minds, said Fichte, have forgotten the moral principles which must pervade these links.

And in such a world we encounter the personality of Napoleon, an inexhaustible source of energy indeed, but a man who, though he may have had in his soul occasional glimpses of freedom, has never formed any true notion of the real all-embracing ideal of freedom as it works from age to age in men's moral aspirations and in the moral framework of the world. And from this fundamental deficiency that a personality which is only a shell, without any true spiritual core, can yet wield such immense force, from this phenomenon Fichte traced the personality, the whole “catastrophe” as he expressed it—Napoleon.

In mentioning this and in placing side by side these two personalities—Fichte, the most forceful exponent of the German outlook with his view of Napoleon, and on the other side Napoleon himself—reference should be made to an observation attributed to Napoleon at St. Helena, after his downfall; for it is only in this light that the whole situation can be clearly grasped.

At St. Helena, after his downfall, Napoleon expressed himself as follows: “Everything would have gone all right. I should not have fallen before all the Powers which ranged themselves against me. With one factor only did I fail to reckon, and it is this that really brought about my downfall, namely—the German philosophers!”

Let narrow minds say what they will about the value of philosophy; this piece of self-revelation from Napoleon's own lips has more weight, I think, than all the objections that might be raised against Fichte's idealism, which indeed had a thoroughly practical aspect.

1918-01-11-GA180

Friedrich Schlegel, as I have said, looked on the Revolution as an explosion of the so-called Enlightenment, the atheistic Enlightenment of the 18th Century. And side by side with this event to which he turned his attention he set another: the appearance of that man who took the place of the Revolution, who contributed so enormously to the later shaping of Europe—Napoleon. Friedrich Schlegel from the lofty standpoint from which he viewed world-history, pointed out that when such a personality enters with such a force into world-evolution he must really be considered from a different standpoint from the one that is generally taken.

He makes a very fine observation where he speaks of Napoleon. He says: ‘One should not forget that Napoleon had seven years in which to grow familiar with what he later looked on as his task; for twice seven years the tumult lasted that he carried through Europe, and then for seven years more the life-time lasted that was granted him after his fall. Four times seven years is the career of this man.’ In a very fine way this is pointed out by Friedrich Schlegel.

I have indicated on various occasions what a role is played by this inner law in the case of men who are really representative in the historical evolution of humanity. I have pointed out to you how remarkable it is that Raphael always makes an important painting after a definite number of years. I have pointed out how a flaring-up of Goethe's poetic power always takes place in seven-year periods, whereas between these periods there is a dying down. And one could bring forward many, many such examples. Friedrich Schlegel did not look on Napoleon exactly as an impulse of blessing for European humanity!

Now in these lectures Friedrich Schlegel showed what, in his view, the salvation of Europe demanded after the confusion brought by the Revolution and the Napoleonic age. And he finds that the deeper reason of the disorder lies in the fact that men cannot lift themselves to a more all-embracing standpoint in their world conception, which indeed can only come from an understanding of the spiritual world. Hence, thinks Friedrich Schlegel, instead of a common human world-conception, we have everywhere party-standpoints in which everyone looks on his point of view as something absolute, something which must bring salvation to all. According to Friedrich Schlegel the only salvation of mankind would be for each Man to be aware that he takes a certain standpoint and others take others, and an agreement must come about through life itself. No one stand point should gain a footing as the absolute. Now Friedrich Schlegel considers that true Christianity is the one and only thing that can show man how to realize the tolerance that he means—a tolerance not inclining to indifference, but to strong and active life. And therefore he draws the conclusion (I must emphasize it is in 1828) from what he has put before his audience: the whole life of Europe, above all, however, the life of science and life of the State, must be Christianized. And he sees the great evil to be that science has become unchristian, States have become unchristian, and that nowhere has what is meant by the actual Christ-Impulse penetrated in modern times into scientific thought or the life of the State. Now he demands that the Christ-Impulse should once more permeate the scientific and State-life.

1918-10-19-GA185

When that which is to be realized in the course of the coming epoch manifests itself almost violently at first, we are far removed from that state of equilibrium which man needs for his development, far removed from those forces which are innate in men through their connection with their own particular hierarchies. The beam of the balance dips sharply to one side. In the interplay between the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences it dips sharply to the side of Lucifer as a result of the French Revolution. This provokes a reaction. I am here speaking more than figuratively, I am speaking imaginatively. You must not read too much into the words; above all you must not take them literally. In what appeared in the French Revolution we see, to some extent, the soul of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch without social embodiment, without corporeal existence. It is abstract, purely emotional, a soul in search of embodiment ... and this can only be realized in the course of millennia, or at least in the course of centuries. But because in the course of evolution the balance inclines to one side, it provokes a reaction and swings to the other pole. In the French Revolution everything is in a state of ferment, everything runs counter to the rhythm of human evolution. Because the balance inclines to the opposite pole a situation now arises where everything (no longer in a state of equilibrium, but alternating between the Luciferic and Ahrimanic poles) is once again fully in accordance with the human rhythm, with the impersonal claims of the personality. In Napoleon there appears subsequently a figure who is fashioned entirely in conformity with the rhythm of the personality, but with a tendency to the opposite pole. Seven years of sovereignty, fourteen years of imperial splendour and harassment of Europe, the years of his ascent to power, then seven years of decline, the first years of which he spent once again in disrupting the peace of Europe—all in accordance with a strict rhythm: seven years, then twice seven years and then again seven years, a rhythm of septennia.

I have been at great pains (and I have alluded to this on various occasions) to trace the soul of Napoleon. It is possible, as you know, to undertake these studies of the human soul in divers ways by means of spiritual scientific investigation. And you will recall no doubt how investigations were undertaken to discover the previous incarnations of Novalis.2

I have been at great pains to follow the destiny of Napoleon's soul in its journey after his death. I have been unable to find it and do not think I shall ever be able to find it, for it is probably not to be found. And this no doubt accounts for the enigma of Napoleon's life that unfolds with clockwork precision in seven-year rhythms. We can best understand this soul if we regard it as the complete antithesis of a soul such as that of James I, or again as the antithesis of the abstraction of the French Revolution: the Revolution all soul without body, Napoleon all body without soul, but a body compounded of all the contradictions of the age.

In this strange juxtaposition of the Revolution and Napoleon lies one of the greatest enigmas of contemporary evolution. One has the impression that a soul wanted to incarnate in the world, appeared without a body, clamoured for incarnation amongst the revolutionaries of the eighteenth century, but was unable to find a body ... and that only externally a body offered itself, a body which for its part could not find a soul, i.e. Napoleon.

In these things there are more than merely ingenious allusions or characterizations, they harbour important impulses of historical development. They must of course be regarded as symptoms. Here, amongst ourselves, I use the terminology of spiritual science. But what I have just said could equally well be said anywhere if clothed in slightly different terminology.

1924-09-18-GA346

If we take racial developments into account, one could say that something like a picture of the figure which we encounter here in the Apocalypticer is spread out over the Earth, if one looks at it, spiritually from outside. One can't do this in a balloon or airplane, but if one would raise oneself up spiritually into the heights from a point in Westphalen and would look down at the Earth,

  • Asia would have a kind of a cloud form face with solar shapes, and
  • one would see rainbow colors spread out over Europe, and
  • further over would be the fiery feet, with one planted on the Andes in South America and the other in the Pacific Ocean.

And then one has the Earth underneath this image.

This is one of the most incisive prophecies that the Apocalypticer has for our time. This is something that is very important for priestly activities, for the great riddle of our time that developed with Napoleon consists of this. This striving of men into races and nations that has come to expression so incomprehensibly throúgh Wilsonianism today really only arose in a distinct way under the influence of Napoleonism, of the first Napoleon. The way that men are striving towards races and nations and the way that they basically want to bury all cosmopolitanism today is really quite terrible. But the reason for this is that this passage through the threshold, place is occurring.

Just as a human being splits up in the spiritual world when he develops further, so men on Earth split up into regions that individual human beings remain unaware of, namely, into cloud men, rainbow men and fiery footed men. This splitting of men into three parts—which I described for individuals in How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?, has occurred for humanity on Earth; it's here. The powerful sign which the Apocalypticer sketches is there in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. People cannot find the harmony between the three parts at first, and so they look for things in the split rather than in the union; which sometimes leads to rather strange results.


Various other

  • When the great French astronomer Laplace (1749–1827) faced Napoleon I and explained the Copernican picture of the world and the view of the sun and the planets to him, Napoleon said: "but in such a world view I find nothing of God." Napoleon could not understand how God was to be found by looking at the stars through a telescope. It is, indeed, an entire elimination of spirituality. (1904-09-29-GA053, 1923-06-17-GA258, 1924-09-16-GA238)
  • Certain choleric types remained so small because they are stunted in their physical growth as the I holds back the other members of his being, examples are Napoleon, Fichte. (1909-01-19-GA068D, 1922-01-04-GA303)

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Jostein Saether: 'The Mystery of Lucifer' [About the incarnation of Lucifer in ancient China and karmic views of some participants] (2012)


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