Wars

This topic page provides pointers to wars of various natures across epochs and ages, their origin and meaning, not limited to modern history but rather from an evolutionary perspective as part of the development of mankind.

Wars are conflicts between people, and represent the physical emanation of underlying conflicts - see Schema FMC00.059.

This can be compared to how in the human being, illness is the outcome of spiritual influences that work their way down through the Human I and affect the astral and etheric bodies before flowing in and becoming noticeable as physical or mental illness.

Contemporary history studies mainly the physical wars between peoples from a worldview perspective with cause-effect mechanism and mainly political, economical, sociological and religious reasons for wars.

Spiritual science looks for the patterns giving rise to the wars that are ultimately - by necessity - the outcome of what has to happen on the physical plane as a result of the waves that have been rising below and and ultimately have to collide (re: Schema FMC00.059).

Rudolf Steiner described 'spiritual wars' between various classes of spiritual beings, and used examples to link these to physical historical wars.

Aspects

• depending on worldview and belief, the outcome of a war can be seen as divine judgement as corresponding with historical necessity (what needs to happen). This view changed throughout centuries and millenia, but is currently also very different in the West versus the East. (1916-12-25-GA173B)

Spiritual wars

• War in heaven as a general term for spiritual wars, but also for the origin of evil as a result of what happened in previous planetary stage of evolution, between Old Sun to Old Moon.
• for the fight of 'Michael and the dragon' and the so-called 'fall of the spirits of darkness' in the 19th century, see topic page: 1840 and 1879

Indirect wars

• the opium war (between England and China, between 1770-1840 and 1860) and its impact on a timescale of centuries, affecting patterns of reincarnation between peoples and geographies, see Sixteen paths of perdition#Note .5B3.5D - The opium war. More in general, see also Model for hereditary physical body#Alchohol and drugs
• see also: worldview wars, and Contemporary worldview war

Physical wars

• Atlantean epoch
• Current Postatlantean epoch
  • second ancient Persian cultural age
    • the great war between Iran and Turan (which "lasted not decades but centuries"!) as an expression of duality, the antithesis between the North and the South (1910-09-01-GA123) - see more on Turanian stream
  • Current fifth cultural age
    • the 30 years war between 1618-1648
      • Jacob Boehme#Note 1 - Historical perspective - waves and counterwaves
    • the 20th century 30 years world war consisting of WWI and WWII
      • see oa Schema FMC00.489 on History
    • future war between East and West
      • Stages of clairvoyance#Irlmaier on WWIII
      • Nostradamus#2.1 - War between the West and Asia and World catastrophy
  • Seventh cultural age
    • War of all against all

Various notes

• besides the 'war of all against all' at the end of the current fifth Postatlantean epoch, Rudolf Steiner also uses the term for a much more short term projection at the end of the 20th century (1921-08-06-GA206) - see War of all against all#1921-08-06-GA206
• wars and world karma between peoples

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.059 positions history 'as we are told' to what can be read clairvoyantly as objective truth in the akashic records, and how true history is an emanation and expression of spiritual impulses that are carried by waves of reincarnating human souls.

Lecture coverage and references

1899 - James Morgan Pryse - translation of Bible extract

in 'The Sermon on the Mount'

from the preface

The following- translation of a few passages from the New Testament writings is not a paraphrase but an attempt at a more literal rendering than the received version done from the Latin Vulgate and ''diligently compared with the original Greek." Waiving the fact that the oldest Greek manuscripts of the New Testament can not be assigned to an earlier date than the third and fourth centuries, the originals having been lost, the diligence of the learned translators and revisers failed to compensate for their absolute ignorance of all psychic things, not to speak of things spiritual and magical. They have made woeful havoc of the mystical terms employed; all their work is vitiated, even to the extent of suppressio veri, by their pious desire to dissociate what they believed to be the unique literary productions of Deity from all pagan sources.

from Chapter 'The coming of the Christos'

Matthex 24 1-21

And Iesous, answering, said to them:

"Beware lest any one lead you in wandering ways: for many shall come in my Name, saying, lI am the Anointed,' and shall lead many in wandering ways. And yon shall be about to hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you are not alarmed, for all [things] must come into being; but the Perfecting-period 1 is not yet. For class shall rise up against class, and realm against realm; and there shall be privations of food, 2 and epidemics, and earthquakes, according to places. 3 Now, all these [things are] the first of birth-pangs.

4 Then they shall deliver you up to a hemming-in, 5 and make you wretched; 1 and you shall be hated by all classes because of my Name. And then many shall be tripped up, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another.

And many false seers shall rise up, and shall lead many in wandering ways. And because sorcery shall be prevalent, the love of the masses 2 shall become cold; but he who stands firm until the Perfecting-period, that [man] shall be saved.

...

Now, immediately after the hemming-in of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the Sky and the Forces of the Skies shall be vibrated. 1 And then shall be manifested in the Sky the Sign of the Son of the Man ; and then shall all the tribes of the Earth 2 lament, and they shall see the Son of the Man coming in the clouds of the Sky with great Force and Radiance; and he shall send his Messengers with the loud sound of a trumpet-call, 3 and they shall gather together his chosen ones from the four Winds, 1 from the one end of the Skies to the other."

for comparison the New King James Version:

Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple

24 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ² And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age

³ Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for ^[a]all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, ^[b]pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹ “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ¹² And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But he who endures to the end shall be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The Great Tribulation

¹⁵ “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), ¹⁶ “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. ¹⁸ And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁹ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ²⁰ And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

1915-05-09-GA159

lecture with title: The War as an Illness Process - Central Europe and the Slavic East - The Dead as Helpers of Human Progress

short extract

Thus you understand when I return to that which I said just now: our time had many reluctant forces, and if we call the war an illness - we can do this, this is an illness which was caused by something that took place long ago, and it is there to the recovery, so that something is eradicated that had to lead to the damage of the life of the whole culture gradually.

If we call it illness in this sense, if we look at the illness as a defence, we understand this war and the destiny-burdened events of the present, understand it also in its significant hints and admonitions.

We then experience it with all internal forces of our souls, so that we can surely take notice of those who have gone through the gate of death and look at the next future and really have learnt what they can inspire in the souls which they want to hear. That spiritual deepening which is necessary for the human welfare and progress in the next future must come into them.

If your souls can rightly take up that which I would like to say with these words, you are supporters of our spiritual-scientific world view in the right sense only now. If your souls can make the decision to become such souls which turn their attention to that which is murmured down from those who have gone through the gate of death because of the destiny-burdened events.

A connecting bridge between the living and the dead should be built by spiritual science just for the next future, a connecting line by which the inspiring elemental forces of those who have made the big sacrifices in our time are able to find their way to us.

1916-12-25-GA173B

Consider the following: We have gradually built up a picture for ourselves of the evolution of mankind and we now know how to assess the fact that, during a certain period in this evolution, wars came upon the scene, that wars were what fired mankind. But it was a time when mankind believed in war.

What do I mean when I say that it was a time when mankind believed in wars? What does it mean: to believe in wars?

Well, a belief in wars is very similar to a belief in the duel, in the fight between two. But when does a duel have a real meaning? It has a meaning only when the two concerned are inwardly fully convinced that, not chance, but the gods will decide the outcome. If the two who take up their positions in order to fight a duel fully believe that the one who is killed or wounded will receive his death or wound because a god has sided against him, then there is truth in the duel. There is no truth in the duel if this conviction is lacking; then, obviously, the duel is a genuine lie. It is the same in the case of war. If the individuals who constitute the warring peoples are convinced that the outcome of the war is divine, that the gods govern what is to happen, then there is truth in the actions of war. But then the participants must understand the meaning of the words: A divine judgement will come about.

Ask yourselves whether there is any truth in such words today! You need only ask:

Do people believe that actions of war express divine judgements? Do people believe this?

Ask yourselves how many people believe that the outcome is divine! How many people truly believe this, how many honestly believe this?

For among the many lies buzzing about in the world today are the prayers to the gods, or to God, offered up — naturally — by all sides. Obviously, in this materialistic age there cannot be a real belief that a divine judgement is going to take place. So it is necessary to look seriously and soberly at this matter, and admit that one is doing something without believing in its inner reality. One does not believe in this inner reality, and one believes all the less in this inner reality the further westwards one goes in Europe — quite rightly, because the further westwards one goes, the more does one enter western Europe, which has the task for the fifth post-Atlantean period of bringing about materialism.

Things are different going eastwards, however. I am not in the habit of constructing theories about such things or of saying such things lightheartedly. When I say something of this kind it is based on actual facts. It is nowadays already possible to make a remarkable discovery. Coming from the West to Central Europe you discover that here there exists a sporadic belief in divine judgement. In the West this is impossible unless it has been imported from Central Europe. But in Central Europe there are isolated individuals who have a kind of belief in destiny and who use the word ‘divine judgement’. And if you go right to the East where the future is being prepared, you will, of course, find numerous people who regard the approaching outcome as a divine judgement. For Russian people are not averse — as are the people of the West — to seeing a divine judgement in what takes place.

1916 - Beinsa Douno

from 'The Mercy' (1916)

[translation by Annael]

There are [spiritual] Laws that regulate [all] things. Wars happen for reasons.

What are the causes when [for instance], there is a storm and dust is raised in the air? Scientists say that somewhere the air has warmed more, somewhere less and currents have formed. Why must the air be heated up and why must it be cooled down, is this not possible, that these things do not happen? No, it is not possible. You will say that this is evil, because some storms destroy houses. Yes, but at the same time storms will bring moisture, will purify the air, and so on, that is, they will do more good than harm to the vegetable kingdom.

What causes a war [to break through]? The war is a storm in the spiritual world which [has the task to] refresh people. After this storm, nations will become very clever, writers will appear who will reason very cleverly. Now we see only the evils, but in fifty years we shall come and see the effects.

In the divine world, all things are used, nothing is accidental. Whoever was slain on the battlefield should have been slain; whose house is set on fire, it should have been set on fire; the one whose foot is cut off, it should have been cut off. There are statistics that prove the great regularity in events.

...

Therefore, there is a [spiritual] Law that regulates [certain] things [in life]; it is a new science, [spiritual science] that has deep and wise foundations.

...

So, we must live wisely. There are many books written on the question of what wise Life [in reality] is. This is your task—you must live the way you understand things, for a student who has no understanding of his own, he will never understand what the teacher teaches him. Now, we find ourselves in the following contradiction. There is a legend that God originally created two people on Earth, but they could not understand each other, they began hating each other, and therefore God decided to put them in two places which were very far from each other in space, so that they could not see each other. But these two people became so sad and missing each other, they started to [feel] love for each other and wished to unite [again]; then they made a bridge and this bridge is [now] the Milky Way. So, there is a path, a way people can understand each other - this is the Milky Way of Harmony, of Love. Through this Milky Way of Harmony Christ descended.

...

When a Divine Messenger comes from Heaven to us, he wants to tell us that without [inner] purity we will never see God, without holiness we will not understand Him, without kindness and love, without mercy and without justice we will not feel Him. We need to understand what kind of thing [the Divine] Love is. Some say: "We understand love". Some of you, I believe, understand it, but you need to understand it deeper. Love always brings after itself the hatred: if you love good, you will hate evil; if you love evil, you will hate good. Therefore, love alone cannot solve the question and bring salvation to people if it is not accompanied by constant avoidance of its opposite.

Powell - The Solar system

describes how violence and war were key characteristics in the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs, ao describing the warlike nature of Toltec, Turanean and Primal Semites sub-races.

Illustrative extract from Ch 38 (XXXVIII)

Although earlier races had begun to fight with one another, it was the Atlanteans who first developed organised warfare. In fact the principle of strife was the fundamental characteristic of the fourth root race, and all through the Atlantean epoch war on land and sea was the order of the day.

So deeply rooted in Man's nature did the principle of strife become, that even now the most intellectually developed of the Aryan (fifth) root-race are ready to war upon each other. The fact that kings and emperors consider it necessary or appropriate, on state occasions, to appear in the uniform of one of the fighting services, is a significant indication of the apotheosis reached by the combative qualities in Man.

...

In the later days of war and strife they constructed giant air-ships, which superseded battleships for the sea, and which contained 50, or even 100 fighting men.

1943-01-01-BD - Beinsa Douno

The excerpt below is from the lecture "New Foundation", Sofia, January 1, 1943 (translated by Annael) and talks about why war has to exist.

also on: Meaning of life#1943-01-01-BD - Beinsa Douno

War is a contradiction, the reasons for which lie in the distant past.

Because God transforms evil into good, the war will bring some good to humanity. For humans war brings misery and death, but for the Great Beings it is a [kind] of show. Just as actors die on the stage and are "resurrected" behind the scenes, the same way the participants in the war will be resurrected. God will give them new bodies, healthier ones and more beautiful, with new and healthier legs, arms, eyes, and heads.

People go through great sufferings and will go through great suffering, but after [that], they will rejoice. Suffering is the material for building future human bodies.

Today's people live more for themselves than for their neighbors. They close themselves in their shells and think only for themselves.

The war will force them to open their coffers, to open their minds and hearts, to take out everything they have hidden in them. It will make them give up their selfishness. Selfishness is coming to an end.

The end of the caterpillars' life is coming. Until now, humans have been caterpillars, gnawing leaves and thinking only for themselves. This life is over. In four or five years they should hatch, they should become butterflies.

.."We want to indulge in life." ..

How do you want to indulge in life? As caterpillars, or as butterflies?

You can no longer live like caterpillars - the life of the caterpillars is over!

Related pages

• Worldview wars
• History
• Impulses from waves of reincarnating souls

References and further reading

• Friedrich Rittelmeyer: 'Christ und Krieg : Predigten aus der Kriegszeit' (1916)
• Theodor Fuchs: 'Vom Götterstreit zum Kampf der Ideologien : Menschheitsgeschichte im Spiegel des Krieges' (1987)
• Peter Tradowsky: 'Frieden durch Krieg? : Die Geisteswissenschaft als Friedensbewegung' (2005)

20th century

some authors offering perspectives on and underlying reasons for the thirty years war between 1914-1945

• Francis Delaisi (1873-1947)
  • La Démocratie et les financiers (1910 - also 1911, 1936)
  • La Guerre qui vient (1911)
  • La Banque de France aux mains des deux cents familles (1936)
• Helmuth von Moltke: 'Erinnerungen, Briefe, Dokumente 1877-1916 : ein Bild von Kriegsausbruch, erster Kriegsführung und Persönlichkeit des ersten militärischen Führers des Krieges' (1921)

• Carroll Quigley
  • Tragedy and Hope: a history of the world in our time (1966)
• Anthony C. Sutton
• Dieter Rüggeberg: Secret Politics (in DE as 'Geheimpolitik')
• Stephen Mitford Goodson: A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind

Drugs

• Walther Bühler, Leendert F.C. Mees, Wolfgang Schimpeler: 'Rauschgift : Krieg gegen das Ich' (1980)