Ultima doença e verso de Rudolf Steiner

Amigos, tomei o cuidado de manter o texto original do Jeremy Smith entremeado com minhas traduções. 

 Tradução de Sonia von Homrich, 29 de Setembro de 2024

 Rudolf Steiner’s last illness and last verse ? Rudolf Steiner, última doença e último verso

 Jeremy Smith

Fonte:

https://anthropopper.com/tag/rudolf-steiners-last-verse/

 As far as I’m aware, the exact nature of Rudolf Steiner’s last illness has never been established. He took to his sick bed on September 28^th 1924, straight after having had to cut short a lecture in Dornach because of exhaustion and physical weakness. Rather than go to his apartment in Haus Hansi, Steiner opted to be cared for in the primitively equipped studio – not much more than a wooden barracks – where he had worked with Edith Maryon on carving the statue of the Representative of Man. It was here that he had all his working papers, and his library was close at hand; but there was not much else to recommend it as a sick room. The studio had no windows, only a skylight; there was no kitchen and the boards of the wooden walls were thin and the cold of winter came through them – and he was often disturbed by the construction noise from the work on the second Goetheanum nearby. Here he was attended, mainly by Dr. Ita Wegman who stayed in a small side-room off the studio, and on occasions by Dr Ludwig Noll and others.

Rudolf Steiner, 1924

Tanto quanto eu esteja consciente, a natureza exata da última doença de Rudolf Steiner nunca foi estabelecida. Ela o levou para a cama de enfermo em 28 de setembro de 1924, logo após ter tido que interromper uma palestra em Dornach por causa da exaustão e fraqueza física. Em vez de ir ao seu apartamento em Haus Hansi, Steiner optou por ser cuidado no seu estúdio primitivamente equipado - não muito mais do que um barraco de madeira - onde trabalhava com Edith Maryon na escultura da estátua do Representante do Ser Humano. Era alí que ele tinha todos os seus papéis de trabalho e sua biblioteca estava à mão; mas não existia muito mais para recomendá-lo como uma sala para enfermo.  O estúdio não tinha janelas, apenas uma clarabóia.  Não havia cozinha e as tábuas das paredes de madeira eram finas e o frio do inverno entrava através delas - e ele era frequentemente perturbado pelo barulho da construção do II Goetheanum,  nas proximidades. Alí ele foi atendido, principalmente pela Dr. Ita Wegman, que ficou em uma pequena sala lateral ao estúdio e, em algumas ocasiões, pelo Dr. Ludwig Noll e outros.

Dra. Ita Wegman

We know that his digestion was extremely delicate and had been so for some years before this. In the last months of his life, he seems to have been unable to take in anything except the smallest quantities of food. I think we can safely discount the rumour that he had been poisoned at a tea party on January 1^st 1924, not least because Steiner himself tried to quash this on three occasions and the physicians attending him all said that this was not the case. I’m also inclined to discount the idea, which Marie Steiner put forward and Sergei Prokofieff subsequently developed, that Steiner had taken on the karma of the members of the Anthroposophical Society but that they had failed to respond to the opportunity given them at the Christmas Foundation Conference and had therefore somehow through the operation of an occult law brought Steiner to a premature end.

Edith Maryon, who had stood with Steiner and watched the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922, died in 1924 after a long and painful illness. Speaking in May 1924 after her death, Steiner said this:

Sabemos que a digestão dele era extremamente delicada e se encontrava assim por alguns anos antes disso. Nos últimos meses de sua vida, ele parece ter sido incapaz de absorver qualquer coisa, exceto menores quantidades de comida. Acho que podemos desconsiderar com segurança o rumor, que ele foi envenenado em uma reunião de chá em 1º de janeiro de 1924, não apenas porque o próprio Steiner tentou anular isso em três ocasiões e os médicos que o atenderam, disseram a todos que esse não era o caso. Também estou inclinado a descontar a ideia, que Marie Steiner apresentou e Sergej O. Prokofieff desenvolveu posteriormente, que Steiner havia assumido o karma dos membros da sociedade antroposófica, que eles não responderam à oportunidade dada na Fundação da Conferência de Natal, e que de alguma forma, através desta operação da lei oculta, isto levou Steiner para um fim prematuro.

Edith Maryon

Edith Maryon, que esteve com Steiner e assistiu a queima do primeiro Goetheanum na Véspera de Ano Novo de 1922, morreu em 1924 após uma doença longa e dolorosa. Falando em maio de 1924 após a morte dela, Steiner disse o seguinte:

The seed of Miss Maryon’s illness was planted in her during the night in which the Goetheanum burned down. And from what was started with that seed during the night when the Goetheanum burned she could not be healed, not even with the most attentive and skilled care.

A semente da doença de Miss Maryon foi nela plantada durante a noite em que o Goetheanum ardeu totalmente. E pelo que foi iniciado com aquela semente durante a noite, quando o Goetheanum queimava, ela não podia ser curada, nem mesmo com os cuidados mais atenciosos e qualificados.

Goetheanum I queimado

Did this also apply to Steiner himself? It seems likely. The signs of his illness had appeared some years previously and were seen by those who worked closely with him but weren’t noticed by more casual observers until the beginning of 1924, that annus mirabilis in which he achieved superhuman feats of work, despite being so ill. Many eye-witnesses attested to the phenomenon of Steiner, who looked ill and exhausted before a lecture, gaining strength and vitality as soon as he began to speak, so much so that people thought he had recovered from whatever was ailing him. Actors who have been ill before a performance often experience this phenomenon of suddenly gaining new life and energy when they go on stage – they call it “Dr Theatre”.

Isso também se aplicava ao próprio Steiner? Parece provável. Os sinais de sua doença apareceram alguns anos antes e foram vistos por aqueles que trabalhavam em estrita colaboração com ele, mas não foram notados por observadores mais casuais até o início de 1924, annus mirabilis (ano admirável), no qual ele alcançou feitos supra-humanos no trabalho, apesar de estar tão doente. Muitas testemunhas oculares atestaram o fenômeno de Steiner parecer doente e exausto antes de uma palestra, ganhando força e vitalidade assim que começava a falar, tanto a ponto das pessoas pensarem que ele havia se recuperado de tudo o que o adoecia. Atores que ficam doentes antes de uma performance geralmente experimentam esse fenômeno,  de ganhar repentinamente nova vida e energia quando sobem no palco - eles chamam isto de "Doutor Teatro".

What we do know is that by the last six months of his life, Steiner had lost a lot of weight, did not have the least appetite, his physical strength was so reduced that he had to be supported when he stood up and he suffered from very painful haemorrhoids. An enlarged prostate had caused a urinary tract blockage, which must also have been very painful – particularly as I suspect he did not allow Dr Wegman to catheterise him, and so this had to wait until Dr Noll was able to visit.

O que nós sabemos é que pelos seus últimos seis meses de vida, Steiner havia perdido muito peso, não tinha o menor apetite, sua força física era tão reduzida que ele tinha que ser apoiado quando se levantava e sofria de hemorróidas extremamente dolorosas. Uma próstata aumentada causou um bloqueio do trato urinário, o que também deve ter sido muito doloroso – principalmente,  como eu suspeito,  que ele não permitia que a Dra. Wegman as cateterizasse, e isso devia que esperar até que o Dr. Noll pudesse visitá-lo.

But even after he had taken to his sickbed, Steiner worked incessantly. He was writing his biography, The Course of My Life, writing the Letters to Members and the Leading Thoughts, reading the daily newspapers, studying the latest scientific and literary articles, and speed-reading piles of books which his secretary, Guenther Wachsmuth, brought in for him every day. He also dealt with masses of correspondence and all the details of the construction of the second Goetheanum, as well as holding regular conferences with Albert Steffen about editorial matters for two weekly periodicals.

In the draft she prepared for a lecture about Steiner in 1931, Dr Ita Wegman, Steiner’s main physician, said the following:

Mas mesmo depois de ser levado para o leito de enfermo, Steiner trabalhou incessantemente. Ele estava escrevendo sua biografia, O Curso da Minha Vida, escrevendo as Cartas para os Membros e os Pensamentos Principais, lendo os jornais diários, estudando os mais recentes artigos científicos e literários e lendo pilhas de livros que seu secretário, Guenther Wachsmuth, trazia para ele diariamente. Ele também lidou com massas de correspondência e com todos os detalhes da construção do II Goetheanum, além de realizar conferências regulares com Albert Steffen sobre questões editoriais para dois periódicos semanais.

No rascunho que a Dra. Ita Wegman,  principal médica de Steiner preparou para uma palestra sobre Steiner em 1931, disse ela o seguinte:

Through the burning of the Goetheanum, which shattered his physical body – there was a powerful loosening of the etheric body, even a separation of the etheric from the physical – his health became ever more delicate. “In comparison to other people, I have really already died on earth,” was something he often said. “My ego and astral body direct the physical body and supplement the etheric.…”

The question that arises again and again: what are we to understand by illness of an initiate, why speak of an illness in the case of Rudolf Steiner? That is what I want to try to answer here.

Well, why did he get sick? The delicate physical body was left behind too much and for too long by the soul-spiritual which was working in its very own homeland. The physical body was left to its own weight and physical laws, so that it became weaker and the digestion failed.

Através da queima do Goetheanum I, que aniquilou seu corpo físico - havia um poderoso soltar do corpo etérico, até mesmo uma separação do etérico do físico - sua saúde se tornou cada vez mais delicada. "Em comparação com outras pessoas, eu realmente já morri na Terra", era algo que ele costumava dizer. “Meu EU (espírito) e corpo astral direcionam o corpo físico e suplementam o etérico.…”

A pergunta que surge repetidamente: o que devemos entender por doença de um iniciado, por que falar de doença no caso de Rudolf Steiner? É isso que eu quero tentar responder aqui.

Bem, por que ele ficou doente? O delicado corpo físico foi deixado para trás em excesso e por muito tempo pela alma-espiritual que estava trabalhando em sua própria terra natal. O corpo físico foi largado ao seu próprio peso e leis físicas, então isto o tornou mais fraco e a digestão falhou.

Steiner seems to have believed (or at least told others) up until very close to the end, that he would prevail over the illness. He died on the morning of March 30^th 1925 without having been able to resume any of the lectures or overseas visits he had planned. Two weeks or so before his death, he wrote the following verse:

Parece que Steiner acreditava (ou pelo menos contou aos outros) que até muito perto do fim, que ele poderia prevalecer sobre a doença. Ele faleceu na manhã de 30 de março de 1925 sem ter sido capaz de retomar nenhuma das palestras ou visitas ao exterior que ele planejou. Duas semanas antes de sua morte, ele escreveu o seguinte verso:

(Ich möchte jeden Menschen

Aus des Kosmos Geist entzünden

Daß er Flamme werde

Und feurig seines Wesens Wesen

Entfalte.

Die Anderen, sie möchten

Aus des Kosmos Wasser nehmen

Was die Flammen verlöscht,

Und wässrig alles Wesen

Im Innern lähmt.

O Freude, wenn die Menschenflamme

Lodert, auch da wo sie ruht.

O Bitternis, wenn das Menschending

Gebunden wird, da wo es regsam sein möchte.)

 I want with cosmic spirit

To enthuse each human being

That a flame they may become

And fiery will unfold

The essence of their being.

Eu desejo com espírito cósmico

Entusiasmar cada ser humano

Que eles podem se transformar numa chama

Que ardente vai desenrolar

A essência de seu ser.

 

The other ones, they strive

To take from cosmic waters

What will extinguish flames

And pour paralysis

Into all inner being.

 

Outros, lutam

Para tomar das águas cósmicas

O que extingue as chamas

E vertem paralisia

Em todo ser interior.

 

O joy, when human being’s flame

Is blazing, even when at rest.

O bitter pain, when the human thing

Is put in bonds, when it wants to stir.

 

Oh alegria, quando a chama humana

Está ardente, mesmo quando em descanso.

Oh dor amarga, quando o humano

É represada, quando deseja se agitar.

 

I find it intensely moving that Steiner’s last year of life was spent in working harder and harder, despite all his physical ailments, to get across to people the magnificence of what it is to be a human being and to help each person to find that spiritual flame of the true self. For those of us who love Steiner, one way we can express that is to try to help others to see the choice they have between unfolding the essence of their true being or becoming the “human thing” chained down by materialistic illusions.

Christian Morgenstern expressed it beautifully:

Acredito ser intensamente emocionante que  em seu último ano de vida,  Steiner dispendeu  no trabalho com muito esforço, apesar de todas as suas doenças físicas, para comunicar claramente às pessoas a magnificência do que é ser,  um ser humano e tentar ajudar cada pessoa a encontrar aquela Chama Espiritual do verdadeiro Self. Para aqueles de nós que amam Steiner, uma maneira de expressar isso é tentar ajudar os outros a ver a escolha que têm entre desdobrar a essência de seu verdadeiro ser ou se tornar a "coisa humana" acorrentada por ilusões materialistas.

Christian Morgenstern expressou isto lindamente:

I have seen THE HUMAN BEING in his deepest aspect,

I know the world, down to its foundation stones.

 

Its meaning, I have learned is love alone,

And I am here to love, and ever love again.

 

I spread out my arms, as HE spread HIS,

To embrace the whole wide world as HE has done.

 

Eu tenho visto o SER HUMANO em seu profundo aspecto

Eu conheço o mundo, profundamente em suas pedras fundamentais.

 

Seus significados, Eu aprendí é somente o amor

E eu estou aqui para amar, e amar novamente.

 

Eu abro meus braços como ELE abriu os SEUS,

Para abraçar o amplo e largo mundo como ELE o fez.

Primeiro Goetheanum Dornarch, Suíça

O retorno, Rudolf Steiner.

 O retorno para Rudolf Steiner. The Return according Rudolf Steiner

Eu tenho indicado como que aqueles indivíduos que estão completamente engajados no movimento antroposófico irão retornar no final do século (século 20), e que outros se unirão a eles, porque será decidido naquele tempo se a civilização da terra será redimida ou perderá.

“I have indicated how those individuals who are fully engaged in the anthroposophical movement will return at the end of the century, and that others will join them, because it will be decided at that time whether earth civilisation will be redeemed, or lost.”

 Rudolf Steiner. GA 238. A Individualidade de Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis. A última fala/palestra.   https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19240928p01.html

Sexto Selo - Apocalipse

Se num futuro próximo, em quatro vezes doze seres humanos, o "Pensar de Michael" tornar-se totalmente vivo - quatro vezes doze seres humanos, sim assim, os quais são reconhecidos, não por si mesmos mas pela liderança do Goetheanum em Dornach - se em quatro vezes doze destes seres humanos, líderes que surgem tendo o humor de alma que pertence ao Festival de Michael, então poderemos olhar para a luz que através da corrente de Michael e da atividade de Michael será derramada no futuro,  entre os seres humanos.

“If, in the near future, in four times twelve human beings, the Michael Thought becomes fully alive — four times twelve human beings, that is, who are recognised not by themselves but by the Leadership of the Goetheanum in Dornach — if in four times twelve such human beings, leaders arise having the mood of soul that belongs to the Michael festival, then we can look up to the light that through the Michael stream and the Michael activity will be shed abroad in the future among mankind.”

 Rudolf Steiner. GA 237. Karmic Relationship III.  https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA237/

O sexto anjo começou a soprar sua trombeta no início dos quarenta e continuará a soar até que os eventos dos quais eu falei ontem começarem no final do século 20, quando a ´stima trombeta começará a soar. 

"The sixth angel began to blow his trumpet at the beginning of the forties and he will continue to sound until the events of which I spoke yesterday will begin at the end of the 20th century, when the seventh trumpet will begin to sound."

 Rudolf Steiner. GA 346. Lectures do the Priests The Apocalypse. https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA346/

Sétimo Selo - Apocalipse

Sétimo Selo - Graal

 

Se permitirmos as coisas a tomarem seu curso, na maneira na qual elas devem tomar seu curso sob a influência da concepção de mundo que surgiu no século dezenove e na forma na qual nós a entendemos, se nós permitimos as coisas a tomarem seu curso, nós enfrentaremos a guerra de todos contra todos, no final do século vinte. Não importa quão belos sejam os discursos, não importa quanto a ciência progredirá, nós inevitavelmente estaremos face a face com esta guerra de todos contra todos.

"If we allow things to take their course, in the manner in which they have taken their course under the influence of the world-conception which has arisen in the nineteenth century and in the form in which we can understand it, if we allow things to take this course, we shall face the war of all against all, at the end of the twentieth century. No matter what beautiful speeches may be held, no matter how much science may progress, we would inevitably have to face this war of all against all. "

 Rudolf Steiner. GA 206. Man as a Being of Sense and Perception.   https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA206/

 Diante dessas palavras proféticas, eu descubro nelas não meramente a escolha, mas a necessidade de falar, criar e alcançar aqueles que sentem a agitação sob a superfície do mundo moderno. Estamos diante do precipício, diante de um ponto espiritual de virada crítico, onde as forças do materialismo e da renovação espiritual colidem com a intensidade que Rudolf Steiner previu. Seus avisos falam a nós ao longo do tempo, ecoando mais alto agora, enquanto o mundo se arremessa em direção a uma crise do espírito e da civilização.

In the face of these prophetic words, I find it not merely a choice but a necessity to speak out, to create, and to reach those who sense the stirring beneath the surface of the modern world. We stand on the precipice of a critical spiritual turning point, where the forces of materialism and spiritual renewal collide with an intensity that Rudolf Steiner foresaw. His warnings speak to us across time, echoing louder now as the world hurtles toward a crisis of spirit and civilization.

 Quando Steiner falou do retorno daqueles profundamente engajados no movimento antroposófico no final do século, eles não estava meramente predizendo um evento mas chamando a todos nós - você e eu. Ele sabia que neste decisivo momento da História, no qual a humanidade ascende à luz espiritual ou cai na escuridão dependerá de um pequeno número essencial de indivíduos acordados, entre eles,  no Pensar de Michael. Somente 48 almas e espíritos, são necessárias para manter a flama da tarefa de Michael e liderar a humanidade através de crescentes sombras. Não se trata de forma alguma de uma grandiosidade, mas se trata de um reconhecimento quieto da responsabilidade que transcende a ambição pessoal.

When Steiner spoke of the return of those deeply engaged in the anthroposophical movement at the end of the century, he was not merely predicting an event but calling out to us—to you and me. He knew that at this decisive moment in history, whether humanity rises into spiritual light or falls into darkness will depend on whether a small but essential number of individuals awaken the Michael Thought within themselves. Only 48 souls,  are needed to hold the flame of Michael’s task and lead humanity through the growing shadows. It is not about grandeur, but about the quiet recognition of a responsibility that transcends personal ambition.

 A trombeta do sexto anjo, que começou a soar em 1840, continua a reverberar através dos eventos de hoje, como no materialismo,  na tecnologia e nas forças de Ahriman que agarram nosso mundo com mais força do que nunca. Estamos nos aproximando da sétima trombeta - uma era de intensa luta espiritual onde o futuro da humanidade, seja ela resgatada ou perdida, será determinada pelas ações de poucos que ouvirem o chamado. Se continuarmos no mesmo caminho decrescente - um progresso desmarcado desprovido de alma, do desenvolvimento científico e intelectual separado da sabedoria espiritual - enfrentaremos a profética "guerra de todos contra todos".

The sixth angel’s trumpet, which began to sound in the 1840s, continues to reverberate through the events of today, as materialism, technology, and the forces of Ahriman grip our world more tightly than ever. We are nearing the seventh trumpet—an era of intense spiritual struggle where the future of humanity, whether it will be redeemed or lost, will be determined by the actions of a few who hear the call. If we continue down the same path—one of unchecked progress devoid of soul, of scientific and intellectual development cut off from spiritual wisdom—we face the prophetic “war of all against all.”

 Esta não é uma metáfora abstrata, mas uma possibilidade bem real - a desintegração da civilização onde seres humanos se voltam uns contra os outros, dirijidos por forças que eles não mais compreendem, tendo perdido sua conexão com o espiritual. Nenhuma quantidade de progresso tecnológico ou discursos racionais terão a capacidade de prevenir isto a não ser que nós inflamemos as forças espirituais em nós.

This is not an abstract metaphor but a very real possibility—a disintegration of civilization where human beings turn against each other, driven by forces they no longer understand, having lost their connection to the spiritual. No amount of technological progress or rational speeches will prevent this unless we ignite the spiritual forces within us.

Sete Selos - Apocalipse

 Assim, videos, mensagens produzidas por Lawrence são vitais. Não são para entretenimento ou contemplação idílica - são chamados urgentes para que acordemos. Cada um de nós que sente o enfraquecido pulsar da corrente de Michael fluindo através de nossos corações deve agir.  Agora é o momento de acordar, de realizar que a tempestade já começou realmente e que o trabalho requerido de nós é nada mais do que assegurar a sobrevivência da alma da humanidade.

That is why these videos, these messages, are vital. They are not for entertainment or idle contemplation—they are urgent calls to awaken. We must look beyond the hollow promises of material progress and recognize the spiritual forces at work in our time. Each of us who feels the faint pulse of the Michaelic stream flowing through our hearts must act. Now is the moment to wake up, to realize that the storm has already begun and the work required of us is nothing less than to ensure the survival of the soul of humanity.

Steiner não falou de um futuro distante. Ele falos dos tempos de hoje. E neste momento, você e eu somos chamados para fazer parte dester pequemno número - os quatro vezes doze que irão carregar adiante o Pensar de Michael no mundo,  dando a luz no maior escuridãos dos tempos. Fazemos isto não porque desejamos ser reconhecidos, mas porque é nossa tarefa sagrada. É tempo de ascender, de tornar-se um participante vivo no drama espiritual que se desdobra diante de nós, e se preparar para o que está vindo.

Steiner did not speak for a distant future. He spoke for now. And in this moment, you and I are called to be part of that small number—the “four times twelve” who will carry forward the Michael Thought into the world, bearing light in the darkest of times. We do this not because we desire recognition, but because it is our sacred duty. It is time to rise, to become living participants in the spiritual drama unfolding before us, and to prepare for what is to come.

 Lawrence faz os videos porque a hora da decisão está sobre nós, e nossas acões determinarão se a humanidade poderá dar um passo na luz ou se descerá ao caos. O tempo urge, e a sétima trombeta está posicionada para soar. Agora, mais do que nunca, devemos permanecer firmes no conhecimento que o espírito triunfará sobre a matéria - se nós tivermos a coragem de vivê-lo. 

We make these videos because the hour of decision is upon us, and our actions will determine whether humanity can step into the light or descend into chaos. Time is short, and the seventh trumpet is poised to sound. Now, more than ever, we must stand firm in the knowledge that spirit triumphs over matter—if we have the courage to live it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/2cc3OYRpq8E?si=w2RGb7kXlcODc02Z

Lawrence Stone, https://www.facebook.com/RvdolfSteiner

https://www.youtube.com/@Anthroposophy

Evolução Contínua

 Assim como existem estágios definidos na evolução do ser humano individual, assim como a natureza de seus poderes e faculdades difere na infância, na meia-idade e na velhice, também os poderes e faculdades possuídos pela humanidade em geral,  constantemente mudam no curso da evolução. Não levar em conta que o caráter da humanidade é diferente no século 20 comparado ao que era no século 15, sem mencionar anteriormente e à época do Mistério do Gólgotha, é dormir através do processo da evolução do mundo.

Um dos grandes defeitos, uma das principais fontes de aberração e confusão em nosso tempo, é falhar em estar atento a isto, assim como a noção prevalente que é possível se falar do ser humano ou da humanidade em termos da abstratas generalizações, que inexistem necessidades em relação à humanidade como estar envolvido num continuo processo de evolução.

Fonte:  Rudolf Steiner. GA 182. O trabalho dos Anjos no Corpo astral do Ser Humano. The Work of the Angels In Man’s Astral Body. Zurich, 9 de Outubro de 1918. Zurich, 9th October, 1918

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA182/English/Singles/19181009p01.html

Translated from German to English by/Traduzido do alemão para o Inglês, Dorothy S. Osmond & Owen Barfield

Traduzido do Inglês para o Português, Sonia von Homrich.

https://rudolfsteinerquotes.wordpress.com/2024/09/28/one-of-the-greatest-defects-one-of-the-principal-sources-of-aberration-and-confusion-in-our-time-4/

 Just as there are definite stages in the evolution of the individual human being, just as the nature of his powers and faculties differs in childhood, middle life and old age, so too are the powers and faculties possessed by humanity in general constantly changing in the course of evolution.  Not to take account of the fact that the character of humanity is different in the 20th century from what it was in the 15th century, let alone before and at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, is to sleep through the process of world-evolution.

 One of the greatest defects, one of the principal sources of aberration and confusion in our time, is its failure to pay heed to this, as well as the prevalent notion that it is possible to speak of man or of humanity in terms of abstract generalisations, that there is no need to regard humanity as being involved in a continuous process of evolution.

Atualizações Diárias Senadores e Vereadores

Acompanhe os votos dos Senadores

 www.votossenadores.com.br 

Atualizações Diárias

https://vereadordobolsonaro.com.br/

Book of Revelation work 3_18

Rudolf Steiner. The Book of Revelation and the Work of the Priest. 3/18. GA 346. The Apocalypse. Dornach, 7 September 1924

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA346/English/UNK1995/19240907v02.html

Yesterday we referred to the important turning point in human evolution at the beginning of the third mystery epoch, when man's participation in the cosmic things in transubstantiation and in the act of consecration of man began to occur in the astral body. This is that member of the human being which leaves the physical body as far as ordinary consciousness is concerned, and which is unreceptive for percepts from the environment during the time of the separation.

Let's try to get a clear idea of how this astral body functions in present-day man. It is the member which transmits the thoughts which enable us to understand the world. For thoughts about one's environment disappear as soon as one's astral body leaves the physical and etheric bodies.

We can round out this idea if we realize that the ego-organization—the actual ego in man as he is today—is the receiver of sense impressions. However, the latter are obliterated when the ego-organization leaves the physical and etheric bodies.

So that we can say: here are the physical and etheric bodies of the human being, and during sleep the astral body and ego-organization are outside. The ego-organization gives us our sense percepts and sensations when we are awake. There is no sense perception during sleep, because the ego-organization is not in the physical and etheric bodies and because the ego is not receptive for impressions from the environment during that time. Likewise, the astral body gives us thoughts when it is in the physical and etheric bodies, but when it is outside it is not sensitive to things in the world and it gives us no impressions.

However, it was this astral body which became receptive for what I described to you, during the third mystery epoch when man was to connect himself with divine, spiritual beings through cultic words and through everything the priest did in the way of preparatory exercises. It became receptive for the elaboration of the transubstantiation in itself during communion, and after the transubstantiation was elaborated it became receptive for apocalyptic things.

The same kind of thing has to happen in the ego-organizations of people from the present epoch on. Even though this ego-organization can only experience sense impressions in ordinary consciousness, it must be constituted in such a way that it experiences transubstantiations and in such a way that it can participate in apocalyptic things through the latter.

People can really become receptive for these things today, that is, someone can really become a priest if he takes in ideas which are true spiritual copies of the supersensible world. Therewith we have described the esoteric or inner connection between the esotericism which rightfully exists today and what must live in a priest's soul. We have described what can make the Christian Community a bearer of an important part of the new mysteries. We must only consider how the Anthroposophy which is approaching human beings today is really constituted.

I have often used an analogy. I said that people are inclined to accept things which are supported by outer perceptions and experiments today, but they don't want to accept things which are not supported in this way. However, anyone who has this attitude is like a person who says: every rock on earth must be supported so that it won't fall down and therefore the planets in the universe must also be supported so that they won't fall down. Of course, since it's taught in a traditional and authoritative way, people believe that the planets in the universe mutually carry each other without supports. However, many people doubt that Anthroposophical truths support and carry each other, and that they don't have to be supported by outer observations and experiments.

As soon as one sees that Anthroposophical truths are valid because they all support each other, so that the truths mutually support each other, in that moment one will stop saying: I can't see anything in the spiritual world yet and therefore I can't understand the content of Anthroposophy. Instead one will begin to understand Anthroposophy through the fact that its truths mutually support each other, and one will then work one's way further into it.

The main thing which can and must put this body of priests on its inner path today is the task of penetrating what is given about the spiritual world. If it does tread this path, we should make it clear to ourselves that the attitude of soul which someone gets into if he takes possession of Anthroposophy in an honest way enables him to approach the Apocalypse. It enables one to approach it in such a way that one can say: It's true that the Apocalypse exists, but if I let it work upon me, each one of its images or Imaginations becomes united with my own ego. And then comes the moment where this Apocalypse can be a creation of the human ego and not just a personal experience. However, we must try to approach the Apocalypse in an Anthroposophical way. There's no other context which leads to it today.

We will now try to grasp a few of the main points in the Apocalypse in a spiritual way, if I may put it that way. “I am Alpha and Omega.” Expressed in an ancient form: one only understands alpha or A if one knows that a sound or letter as a component of a word was not the abstract, separate and meaningless thing back then, that we experience today. A sound was something which deserved to have a name. Mankind has treated The sounds of language which really enclose a great mystery in a peculiar way.

Mankind has treated the sounds of language in the way that a policeman treats a criminal. A long time ago it numbered the letters in the way that we give numbers to criminals when they are put into their cells, so that they lose their names and get numbers. Sounds have lost their identity through the numbering process. This is a pictorial way of putting it, but a true one nevertheless.

For if we go back before the late Hebraic period when they first gave numbers to the sounds, we find that mankind was fully aware that it is quite right for a sound to have a name, and that one can say alpha to it because it is a divine, supersensible being. If we want to find out what this first letter alpha of the so-called alphabet really is, we will have to go through a kind of spiritual development or conceptual development.

You know that Anthroposophy goes back in earth evolution through Moon, Sun to Saturn. It tries to dig up things in the world which are connected with the evolution of man. We find the first cosmic human germ on Saturn, which became the present human body after manifold transformations during Sun, Moon and earth. Man was present on Saturn in his first, germinal form.

For anyone who honestly and seriously wants to see the true state of affairs in this area, it's no doubt quite important to ask what men really experienced on old Saturn. Man experienced successive conditions of warmth. Man absorbed various states of warmth and cold. He existed in states which really only told him something about warmth conditions in the cosmos, for although they also told him many spiritual things, they only disclosed a limited region of the spirit through differentiated warmth and cold.

If we go on from Saturn to Sun, we find that man's organism has become differentiated. During Sun existence man lives in a physical body which is differentiated into warmth ether and air. Differentiation also occurs within as man becomes filled with a richer content. He not only perceives the differentiated warmth like on old Saturn, but something like an inner life emerges. Man perceives the warmth on the Sun with his old perception and he also perceives an inner breathing rhythm in himself which in turn is an expression and a reflection of cosmic secrets.

Just look at how the human being becomes richer as he evolves from Saturn to Sun. He also gets richer as he evolves from Sun to Moon and from Moon to Earth. And he will continue to get richer as he develops on Jupiter and up to Vulcan.

Let's ask ourselves what the relation of man to the world is on ancient Saturn. On old Saturn man's relation to the world is such that he perceives a very large number of different warmths, but qualitatively he perceives very little. Not much of the world is in man. Man is present as man and he is just a man, as it were; not much of the world is in him yet. As he moves forward through Sun, Moon, earth and on to Jupiter his inner life becomes filled with the world more and more, and therefore it is richer. We already have a large part of the world in us here on earth. And when the earth gets to the stage where it will pass away again, man will have elaborated a large part of the macrocosm and he will bear it in him as earthly copies.

We bear it within us already, but people are not usually aware of this. When a human being moves upwards through Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition to a knowledge of the spirit, his inner soul life becomes ever more magnificent. Look at how little man knows about the human eye in his ordinary consciousness. But this eye is a whole cosmos, and like the macrocosm all of its details are marvelous and great. Every single organ in man becomes unveiled in a wonderful way in his physical body already. So that when an initiate looks around him he sees a world with the elements down below and its sun, moon and stars up above. If he looks into himself he sees that the eye, ear, lung, liver and every other organ is a world in itself, and that man's physical body is a marvelous interaction of worlds. Some of these worlds are finished, others are just beginning, some are sensory, others are half supersensible or entirely supersensible. Man really bears ever more worlds in himself as he works his way through one evolution after another.

Thus we can distinguish man at the start of old Saturn evolution, where he is just beginning, where he is man, although he doesn't bear the world in himself yet. The first thing which man acquired during old Saturn evolution was a perception of the circumference of the warmth body which he felt that he was. So that in a schematic way we can say that man feels that he is warmth on old Saturn, but after he has felt that he is a warmth mollusk he gradually feels something like an accumulation of warmth, like an outer skin, a warmth skin, a somewhat cooler sheath than the warmth which is in him. He feels manifold degrees or intensities of warmth within him, and the warmth skin is the coolest.

We express this in our present language, but this language is abstract and it doesn't conjure up the greatness of such a mental image before our soul, if we look into the course of time and we want to go back to old Saturn. However, people who are moved by a perception of these things at all are also moved by the awe with which such things were looked upon in the ancient mysteries. In the ancient Greek chthonic mysteries, they still spoke of Saturn men who didn't have a warmth skin yet, and then of men who had taken the first part of the world into their warmth skins; for the latter had a certain structure and form which imitated the world. This was the first thing from the world.

What do man's experiences which he had while he was still a warmth man look like from a subjective, psychic viewpoint? They are like absolute amazement about the world. If one wants to describe them, one has to call them complete amazement. For one cannot grasp warmth in any other way than as sheer amazement. Outwardly it is warmth and inwardly it is complete astonishment. It's only because people have become as blockheaded as old Kant was, that they speak of a thing in itself which can't be explained. The thing in itself of warmth is astonishment;' and Saturn man is astonishment just as much as he is warmth. He lived in amazement or astonishment about his own existence, for he was just entering into this existence. This is alpha; the Saturn warmth man who is living in amazement. And the first thing which man experiences as the housing of the world, namely his skin, is beta,—building, this building or house. Man was a man in his house, and the house or temple or skin was the first thing from the world: beta.

If we go through the alphabet like this, we go through the whole world. When man gradually absorbs everything which the world was and unites it with his being, until by Vulcan he will become united with the whole wide world to which he belongs, he will be the one he was at the beginning of Saturn evolution plus the whole world. He will be alpha and everything else too. But everything else amounts to the whole world. This is omega—man and everything in him which is the world. The “I am alpha and omega” describes what man will be at the end of the Vulcan period. At the end of Vulcan evolution, man will be able to say: I am alpha and omega. Let's look at the Mystery of Golgotha from the vantage point of what we have placed before ourselves as the beginning, middle and end of human evolution. At the Mystery of Golgotha or approximately the halfway point in world evolution, we have the being who dwelt in Jesus' body at the stage of development that man will be in at the end of Vulcan evolution. We have a being as god which man will be at the end of Vulcan evolution.

What is the difference between God's existence and man's existence? The difference between a god's existence and a man's existence is that the god already is what the human being will be later on in time. Don't say that this brings the god down to the human level and makes him into a human being. It doesn't. Because for supersensible perception, time is a simultaneous reality, if you'll permit me to use this paradoxical expression. The difference between man and God is the one which existed at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. One shouldn't relate different times or beings from different times when one looks at these things.

A great deal of what is in writings like the Apocalypse is expressed in the language which was used in the mysteries, and it can only be understood if it is deciphered. On the other hand, one shouldn't blame the author of the Apocalypse for speaking in mystery language, for it was customary for people to do this at that time. People still knew that sounds are supersensible beings and that alpha is the supersensible human being when he was first created, and that when one goes from alpha to beta one is turning away from man and towards the world, including the divine world, and that if one goes through all the sounds to omega one has the entire divine world in omega.

It's rather shocking that we're surrounded by experiences today which we consider to be trivialities. For instance, all the sounds are basically trivialities for us. Someone who only knows the alphabet doesn't know very much. The ABCs are trivialities. However, these trivialities point to divine, spiritual beings at the starting point, and our trivial letters are the descendents of what were once divine, spiritual beings for mankind. The whole alphabet was a number of such divine spiritual beings. Sounds were gods who assailed men from all sides with their din. The sounds AB were man in his house, and so on. Man with the whole world was alpha to omega. When someone uttered a sound he felt that it permeated him with spirituality.

A last remnant of this life of a divine, spiritual element in sounds still existed in the intonation of cultic language during the third mystery epoch. They still understood this completely in very ancient times. When someone successively intoned what has now become our abstract, traditional alphabet, he was intoning the cosmic word. He intoned everything which exists and he connected himself with all the gods: In the beginning was the word. And when Christ says “I am alpha and omega,” he could say “I am the word” and mean the same thing.

You can see that the Apocalypse is written in a mystery language, and it uses terms which remind us of the long period during which man felt that the macrocosm was a speaking universe. We have obscured the sounds of our language and made them trivial, whereas men used to know that they were something very spiritual. We must be able to feel what happened there. What happened? The sounds exist, but the gods are no longer in them as far as men are concerned. The gods have left the sounds. Our sounds contain Ahrimanic beings in a demonic way. The popular idea that the fixed sounds of our language are connected with black magic is not entirely unfounded. This idea of the people is a healthy one. For our sounds are now Ahrimanic gods. The gods who were once in them left, and Ahrimanic beings moved in. People will permeate language with more and more Ahrimanic powers if they don't find their way back to the gods in this sphere.

We must approach the Apocalypse with such feelings about, language. This is the only way that the real greatness and power of what is placed, before our souls in the Apocalypse can become manifest to us. For what does the author of the Apocalypse want to do? He wants to do the same thing that all those who speak out of a true knowledge of the Christ want to do. He wants to place the Christ before mankind. He draws attention to the fact that he is there. He begins by saying that he exists. For if one takes the first words of the Apocalypse and translates them into our language in accordance with their real meaning, they read: Look at the manifestation of Christ Jesus: Look over there; I want to show you the vision of Jesus Christ which God has given.

Thus the first thing which is pointed out is that the author of the Apocalypse wants to let Christ appear to humanity in an apocalyptic way. But he also points out that he doesn't just want to report about the appearance or the Imagination of Jesus Christ, which presupposes vision, but he also wants to indicate that the divine world power which placed this phenomenon into the world and made it visible also expressed it in words.

God has sent these words by his angel unto his servant John, and they are like an interpretation of the vision of Jesus Christ. This is how we must read the beginning of the Apocalypse.

Two things are really being said here. An Imaginative element in Christ is mentioned, and something is said about what Christ's tidings are. And what John affirms and testifies to in his second sentence is the vision of Christ and the interpretation of this vision. The Christ in a picture and the Christ in words. The author of the Apocalypse wants to place the Christ before human beings in a picture and in words.

Therewith we are also made aware of something which was quite obvious to people at that time, although most people today have lost sight of it completely. Our impoverished psychologists speak of sense percepts and ideas. To make the thing as poor as possible, people let the sense percepts arise through the senses and they say that ideas are created within. Everything is subjective and there is nothing cosmic there at all; they make a Kantian world out of a rich one, and they completely forget that man is standing in the whole world.

The intuitive element in our words has shriveled into impoverished ideas: the second thing or so-called supersensible percept which John affirms, testifies to and tells us about is what the Apocalypticer places there as the manifestation of Christ. So that we have to say “Behold the manifestation of Jesus Christ which is given by God, for this is how God must be shown to you (I will interpret this later). He has put it into words and has sent it to his servant John via his angel. John has affirmed God's words and the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the way that he saw it. He wants to give mankind what he has seen and a letter he received from God.”

We must approach Christian writings in this concrete way again. If you really want to become priests out of the deepest and most honest impulses in your heart you will have to see to it that these writings become concrete. For the fact is that people are basically dishonest when they say they understand the gospels the way they are translated today. The Apocalypse begins in the way that I said. One translation of the beginning of the Apocalypse reads, “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show his servants, and he has interpreted it and sent it to his servant John by his angel;” this is how it reads. And then the whole world is told that this is what the Apocalypse says. But no one can really make any sense out of these words. The same goes for most of the gospels, because one wants to explain things to people with wording which doesn't tell one what's really there anymore. This is why the idea gradually arose that one shouldn't penetrate very deeply into the gospels. For how can one really do that? No matter what modern language one reads the gospels in, one can't really read them if one is honest about it. For the modern versions tell one nothing.

One has to go back to what is really there, just as we did this for the first two sentences and as we will continue to do it. Or some people might say that one has to go back to the Greek for certain parts of the gospels. Now, with all due respect to our contemporaries, who take great pains to understand Greek, the fact is that no one understands Greek any more today, because we don't have the same things in us which the Greeks had when they spoke or listened.

We're basically like sacks of flour when we listen to someone or when we speak ourselves. We remain just as quiet inwardly as flour in a sack should, if it is packed properly. This was not the case with the Greeks. The consciousness of a Greek vibrated when he listened to someone. He became alive inwardly and he spoke out of this vitality. The words which he heard and spoke were alive; they were still living bodies. Not to speak of oriental people. The latter are decadent today but unlike European people they can still perceive and understand things inwardly in a vital way when they speak or hear.

Just listen to an ordinary oriental like Rabindranath Tagore and watch how he presents the inner weaving and life which can exist in language.

Today one has language in such a way that one even thinks one has it if one takes a dictionary and a German word stands on one side and the English word on the other. People very calmly place the English words where the German words are. They are blissfully unaware that one steps over an abyss here and that one comes into an entirely different world, and that one really has to treat what lives in language as something which is divine.

People have to become aware of this again. Then they will decide to go back to what vibrates out of writings like the Apocalypse, which conjures up a vision of Jesus Christ before our soul. If we can see this mighty vision it's as if the clouds, which could give us wonderful things, suddenly became concentrated and took on human and angelic forms, and the past, present and future welled out of the clouds' substances as they go past and revealed the world's content of spiritual substances, which includes human beings. This is how the manifestation of Jesus Christ is presented.

The vision is there and we fall silent before it, so that we become united with the world and are no longer conscious of ourselves, and so that we confront the vision until nothing but the vision remains, while we become insignificant.

Then when we perceive the Father God who has given the vision we find that he holds back the inspiring words behind the vision. The words are the interpretation of the vision and they are his secret; but the time is at hand and God gives the secret to an angel, and he brings it down to men as an epistolary message from God on the path on which Inspirations from God generally come down.

As soon as a man becomes quiet and disappears and becomes immersed in the vision and begins to be not in himself, and he takes in God's letter, which he first has to open, which is sealed with seven seals, which he takes in as a letter with seven seals which has been sent to him by the godhead—as soon as he does this he becomes the letter, because he gets to the point where he looks upon the contents of the letter as his own ego-being. Then he stands before the vision with God's ideas and concepts and with spiritual mental images.

If you imagine John the priest in this way, with the vision of Jesus Christ before him, disappearing selflessly, if you see him receiving the letter of God that is sealed with seven seals from the angels there, and if you see the resolve arising in him to unseal God's letter and to communicate its contents to mankind—you have the picture or Imagination which stands at the beginning of the Apocalypse. For we must interpret the words which stand there in what we receive in such a way that it is like the Imagination I described. This is what the author of the Apocalypse wants to say. That is why he says, “Blessed is he that reads and hears the words in the macrocosm and who takes in and preserves what is written in the book, when he understands it. For the time for this has come.”

It has come. It is not just chance that we're discussing the Apocalypse in this context; it lies in the karma of the community for Christian renewal.

Book of Revelation work 2_18

 Rudolf Steiner. The Book of Revelation and the Work of the Priest. 2/18. GA 346. The Apocalypse. Dornach, 6 September 1924

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA346/English/UNK1995/19240906v02.html

We will now take a closer look at the connection between the act of consecration of man and apocalyptic things, so that we will then be able to approach the Apocalypse and to see its significance for the present and future activities of priests.

Yesterday we had to point to three past epochs of the mysteries, in so far as these mysteries tried to give each priest experiences which put him into an apocalyptic mood. We pointed out that there was a very ancient mystery period during which the gods descended into the mystery centers in order to work with human beings, and a semi-ancient mystery period when the gods sent down their forces, so that the men who lived in this sphere of forces were able to work with the gods in the cosmos.

One could say that the path was completely reversed during the third epoch when the mysteries were partly renovated. At that time man shaped and developed forces so that they could lead him up to the gods. We saw that man looked for a way up to the world's divine, spiritual forces through the intonation of magical words in cultic ceremonies. These words either worked directly upon the auditor's whole soul mood, so that he became aware of the spiritual activities of the gods in the words, or else magical words were spoken into the smoke in the way which was indicated yesterday, and the smoke drew Imaginations out of the words.

This development of a certain religious feeling, which one can really only describe separately, always went parallel with a certain condition or a certain kind of transubstantiation which was the center of the holy act of consecration of man. Priests are now being called upon to experience this transubstantiation and everything else that is connected with their activities in a new way. They will not be able to do this very well without an understanding of what transubstantiations and apocalypses were really like in each of these four successive periods of human evolution.

One thing we have already seen is that the act of consecration of man and its transubstantiation process involves a working together of human beings and the gods in the spiritual world. Priests cannot really work properly unless they're aware that men and the gods can work together.

If we take another look at the oldest form of transubstantiations and acts of consecration of man we find that the gods found the way to men at certain times that are really differences between what one can calculate in the course of time and what the cosmos does. The gods descended during such blank or holy times when men must add something to the times they calculated because their calculations are incorrect. In these times men had to expose themselves to cosmic influences directly in order to carry our transubstantiations, and they saved what had occurred in the substances during such times in order to carry out transubstantiations with the preserved things that had been transformed by forces from the cosmos.

The right place for priests and lay brothers to be in for these transubstantiations at that time was a cave or a grotto. And in fact, wherever people were fully aware of the presence of the gods and of the significance of transubstantiations in the ancient mysteries, we see that they tried to carry out the sacred rites in subterranean rock temples or caves.

The fact that they tried to do this is connected with the experiences which priests had during the transubstantiations. A transubstantiation consists of a transformation of the given earthly materials. If one wants to understand the process completely one should add the communion or the ingestion of the transformed substances by the human being to it, so that actually the two last parts of the act of consecration of man, transubstantiation and communion, constitute a unity, whereas the gospel reading and the offering are a preparation for them. Taking transubstantiation and communion as a unified priestly or cultic act, let's look at a view which the initiates we call fathers had in the oldest mysteries.

The “fathers” refers to the father grade of initiation, and this name is still given to priests in many confessions today,—pater. Now when a priest carried out a transubstantiation in his earth or rock temple, he experienced the union of his physical organism with the whole earth. This is why they had the temple underground or in a rock. Today we can also feel united with the surrounding cosmos in our ordinary earthly consciousness as we live between birth and death, and this has been the case during the whole time that mankind has been evolving on earth.

The air which is in your body now was outside it a moment ago, and it will soon be outside again. The air which is outside your body and the air inside your body constitute a whole. The real state of affairs is that there is an aery ocean, and when man inhales, one part of this aery ocean becomes transformed in the human being. The air is absorbed, and it penetrates and fills man and thereby assumes a human form. Then this form immediately dissolves again in the ocean of air. An aeriform man is continually being created and destroyed, although one is usually unaware of it.

However, Indian yogis knew about it whenever they did their conscious breathing exercises. They didn't feel separate from the earth's ocean of air; they felt that they were united with it, and they felt this creation and destruction at each systole and diastole. One can easily experience this by doing these breathing exercises, although they are no longer appropriate for men today.

However, man is not just a man in connection with physical, earthly things. Although he is an earthly man where the so-called physical, body is mainly active, he is also a fluidic man. The whole human being is filled with circulating fluids which work upon each other. This fluidic man is mainly dependent upon the ethers. For the forces in the etheric body work more upon fluids and not so much upon solids.

We also bear an aery man and a warmth man in us. This aery man, which takes care of respiration, is controlled by the forces of the astral body. And the warmth man: you need only recall that if you measure some place on the surface of your body or inside it with a thermometer, you get different temperatures. This crude procedure already shows one that man is a differentiated warmth organism. The latter is mainly under the influence of the ego—organization or ego.

Thus, we find four elements in man. Earth is under the influence of the physical body, water is influenced by the etheric body, air is under the influence of the astral body, and warmth or fire is under the influence of the ego.

The transubstantiations and communions which the ancient fathers carried out made them feel that their physical body was connected with the earth, when they had gone into their rock temple or earth temple, in order to unite themselves with these earthly developments. What actually happened here? Alan's supposedly scientific view of himself today is really wrong; it is really complete nonsense. We must rethink all of our ideas about human beings. The ancient fathers received the right ideas about man through direct perception when they carried out transubstantiations during sacrificial rites which consecrate human beings.

They knew that we don't just breathe air in through our respiratory organs, but that we are continually taking in all kinds of substances from the cosmos through our sense organs. All kinds of substances are continuously being taken in through our hair and skin. Just as someone who is watching his breathing feels that air is entering his respiratory organs, so the ancient priest felt that substances passed over from the siliceous environment of the consecrated subterranean temple and penetrated his nerve-senses system just as aery man feels the air which is going through him, for when he breathes in a conscious way he can feel that these substances permeate his entire organism. The priests knew that none of the substances in the metabolic-limb man come from what we eat. Nothing of what one eats becomes part of the metabolic-limb man. One takes in substances from the cosmos. The whole modern nutritional theory is really wrong. The celebrating father felt that what is eaten and then transformed by the digestive system passes over from the metabolic man to the nerve-senses man and especially to the head. He knew that what you eat is transformed into the substances of your head and what is connected with it. But the substances which become the organs that take care of your metabolic functions are taken in from the cosmos by a finer breathing. Thus he felt that his metabolic-limb man consisted of cosmic substances which are taken in from all sides through the senses and nerves. And he felt that the food that one eats and transforms goes the opposite way and becomes the upper man.

When a father carried out a transubstantiation he had a current in him which flowed upwards and another one which flowed downwards. Then when he took communion he knew that he was connected with the cosmos, because he had become aware of his physical body by means of these streams. He had become united with the earth and he united what he had prepared at the altar with his body, with currents that belong to both the earth and his body, and with divine things on the earth which are a reflection of the universe.

He knew that he was united with the outside universe. He knew that the meal which he had taken in in this way was a meal which his cosmic man had completed. He felt that his divine man arose through what streamed into the current which went upwards and the one which went downwards, and that it could be a companion of the gods who had descended. He felt that the gods had transformed him into a divine human being in his physical body, that is, he felt that he had been transubstantiated. And at this moment he could say from the depths of his heart: Now I am not the one who walks around in the physical world; I am he in whom the descended god lives; I am he whose name includes all sounds and who was at the beginning, is in the middle and will be at the end. I am alpha and omega.

The extent to which he could really participate in the secrets of the cosmos, in the divine working and creating in the cosmos, and in the manifestation of forces, substances and beings there while divine, spiritual work was being done, depended on the way his inner life was shaped by this feeling. This is the way priests worked in the ancient mysteries.

If we go on to the semi-ancient mysteries we find that holy water and washing and sacrificial actions which are connected with water had become very important, and also that the temples had been moved aboveground. They were no longer put into subterranean caves out of the same longings as before, or if they were placed there it occurred through tradition and it was no longer understood in a living way, and it was precisely for this reason that the tradition lived on, even though it had lost its living content.

Such traditions also remained with regard to the dipping of people into the dew, as it were. What the priest did at baptisms was less dependent upon the actual watery element than upon the Inner force which he applied during the sacrificial action in order to unite the fluidic man in whom the forces of the etheric body were active with the universe.

When a transubstantiation was being carried out and one observed things which involved the fluidic element before or after it in the act of consecration, one felt that the etheric organization was working in a temporal way. While the transubstantiation was being carried out one felt that one's growth since childhood had occurred under the influence of the fluidic element in one, and that the etheric body was active in this streaming from the past through the present and into the future.

In ancient times priests felt that their physical body was connected with the earthly element, and during the less ancient mysteries the one who performed transubstantiations felt united with the watery element which exists in the whole universe. He felt the growth forces of all creatures sprouting, germinating, growing and unfolding in him into fully developed organisms and then contracting into seeds again. He felt this sprouting, shooting living and dying activity whenever he carried out a transubstantiation.

At every moment he could say to himself: Now I know how creatures come into being in the world and how they die. For both ascending and descending etheric forces were active in him. He could, as it were, feel eternity in the sacred transubstantiation.

The priest who was performing a communion in conjunction with a sacred act of transubstantiation knew that the substances which were transformed in the way we described yesterday were absorbed by his etheric, fluidic man. He felt that he was united with everything which preserves immortality in the universe and with everything which is created and born or is killed and destroyed. Birth and death wafted over the altar and from there into the faithful who were assembled. The priest became permeated with feelings of eternity. This permeation with feelings of eternity had replaced the previous feeling of being united with the whole cosmos through the earth.

Then when the third epoch of holy acts of consecration arose, man was to experience his union with the aery element and thereby with the cosmos. Oriental yogis could become aware of the streaming of divine, supersensible world forces in inhalation and exhalation in a different way and for their own personal development. They took hold of breathing in a direct way.

People intoned magical words into their breath in Europe, and to a lesser extent in Asia Minor, but they didn't take hold of the undifferentiated breath directly. Thereby the breath or the air streaming in and out of them was taken hold of by magical, cultic words. The striving up of magical forces towards divine ones became manifest indirectly in what was spoken into the sacrificial smoke, or directly in what was experienced in the intonation of the magical, cultic words. Whenever someone prays, he is basically trying to ascend to divine, spiritual regions with his forces, and these people felt that when they intoned magical, cultic or prayerful words they were ascending to a region where they met the gods. When someone intones things, the godhead becomes manifest and speaks in the cultic words, so that it's not he who is speaking anymore. The godhead was now revealing itself in the aery element. Man felt that he was in something which controls the forces in the air from his own astral body.

The transition from the second, semi-ancient mystery epoch to the third, partly new mystery epoch was a large one. In ancient times fathers experienced things in their physical body. This involved an intensification of its activities. The sun priests of the second epoch experienced an enhancement of their etheric or fluidic body. When a priest intoned cultic words in the third epoch he experienced the streaming of divine spiritual forces in his astral body. The astral body of the average person was only a mediator of consciousness to a very slight extent. At the beginning of the third epoch a priest could still say: when I speak magical cultic words, a god is speaking in me. However later on this awareness diminished. The new consciousness which arose was unaware of the astral body's activities. Today, ordinary consciousness is completely oblivious to the latter. The verbal content of the ritual gradually became something which made qualified people aware of the gods' presence, whereas unqualified people were unaware of what was connected with the intoned words. The latter was increasingly the case for a large number of priests who were active in Catholicism.

Hence it gradually came about that the act of consecration of man or mass became something that the priest celebrated, although he himself was not present in it. However, one cannot celebrate with words or intone words which have aery beings incorporated in them in such a way that there is no spirituality there. Spiritual things immediately appear whenever something material is being shaped. And so if an act of consecration is celebrated with real cultic words by even the most unworthy priest, his soul, may be absent but something spiritual is present. So the fact is that if the liturgy is correct, the believers who are listening to it are participating in a spiritual event under all circumstances.

While things were developing like this at the end of the third epoch, some of the Protestant confessions which were working in a more rationalistic way thought that they could throw the mass out altogether. They were no longer aware of the significance of cultic rites or of a real collaboration between gods and men.

This inner circumstance then led to the time in which we are living. There was less and less understanding for the act of consecration of man which brings the divine, spiritual life right down to earth. People no longer understood the apocalyptic things which the rites were supposed to take one experience. This is basically the experience you had when you came one day and said: A Christian renewal must occur. You felt that the religious life of all the confessions and other things that exist in our civilization had become separated from real spiritual things in the real spiritual world. You were looking for the path to the real spiritual world again. This impulse can show us the way and can lead us into the depths of the mysteries, which are connected with apocalyptic things.

So we saw that in the first epoch transubstantiation was connected with experiences with the physical body, in the second epoch the connection was through experiences with the etheric body and in the third epoch through experiences with the astral body. The grasping of apocalyptic things and of the act of consecration by the ego of mankind depends upon you and your inner experience of the working and weaving of spirituality in the world. Therewith we only have a right view of what should be done by this movement for religious renewal if we look upon what is to be done as the carrying out of a task which has been given us by the supersensible world and as a task which places what one does at the service of supersensible powers. For if you don't take your task seriously enough, what you do will come to nothing in the present evolution of the world, and it will only have been a kind of disturbance. Or else you will see how deep and profound your task is and you will Immediately feel that this task is connected with the activity of the gods throughout earth evolution, and not just with human activities. In that case you can say: we are called upon to help with the shaping of the fourth mystery epoch in human earth evolution. This task will only be placed in the service of the powers in the spiritual world from whom the content of the ritual flowed two years ago when we were assembled here, if you have the courage, strength, seriousness and perseverance to find your way into your task in this way. Only then will what you took upon yourselves through the content of this ritual, which is a revelation from the spiritual world and which radiated down upon you as such, become real.

Then you will increasingly sense and feel: it's really the case that Christ came into earth life in a real cosmic and tellurian ritual. The Mystery of Golgotha is present as a real ritual. In our time man must first unite this ritual with his ego; for the first commemorations of the Lord's Supper were still immersed in the third mystery epoch, when the astral body took in and controlled the cultic activities which occurred in the aery element. But now it's a question of connecting one's innermost core with the Christ so that each human being can begin to understand apocalyptic things in a new way.

How did one look upon apocalyptic things in the first mystery epoch? One experienced them as the presence of the gods, which are the beginning, the middle and the end, alpha and omega.

How did one look upon the presence of divine forces in the second mystery epoch? One experienced them as something which resounds through the world as the music of the spheres, and which lives in the cosmic word that created everything and that creates in everything, and which streams from the heavens to the earth. One experienced what is at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of time simultaneously, as it were. One experienced the alpha and the omega in the cosmic, world word. Whenever the subject of the Greek alpha and omega, the first and the last, came up in this or that epoch, people always tried to find out what the first and last letters of various alphabets really contain.

And how did one understand apocalyptic things during the third mystery epoch? One understood apocalyptic things in such a way that people were developing cultic words which were still half conscious. Apocalyptic things were perceived during the third epoch when these half-conscious cultic words transubstantiated themselves as they were being intoned and when things were as follows. Most of you have probably heard some music on a day when your soul and senses could be entirely receptive to the impressions of the outer world, and then you fell asleep and woke up in the middle of your sleep. It was as if you lived in a surging back and forth, but in a transformed surging of the symphony you heard during the day. This is the way it was for priests in the third mystery epoch.

What happened to them is comparable to the trivial thing I just mentioned. They celebrated the act of consecration with cultic words, and they experienced that the godhead appeared in them. They had sent the cultic words up and the godhead had streamed into them. Then they left the sacred ritual in an appropriate mood. They not only experienced the presence of divine spirituality in human, cultic words during the act of consecration of man, but afterwards, they experienced a supersensible echo of what they had spoken in the liturgy of the mass. These transubstantiated, transformed words streamed towards them and revealed apocalyptic things.

The god revealed apocalyptic things as a counter present for an appropriately celebrated sacrificial rite. This is how one experienced apocalyptic things during the third mystery epoch.

The one who felt that he had been made into a priest, by Christ Jesus himself, namely, the author of the book which we want to study, the Apocalypse, was more or less the first to feel that an apocalyptic content merged with his ego,—and only very few people have experienced this since. For it was the astral body which received the echo that. I mentioned, where the god gave apocalyptic things as a counter present for words. However, the one who wrote John's Apocalypse felt that his fully conscious ego was united with the content which he had given the Apocalypse.

The priest who wrote the Apocalypse and who felt that he had been anointed by Christ Jesus himself, was inspired by the afterglow of ancient Ephesian rituals, and he felt as if he were continuing frequent celebrations of this ancient act of consecration up to an advanced age. One day he felt that the ego which had been completely filled with the significance of the sacred ritual was now also completely filled with an apocalyptic content.

Hence John expressed his Apocalypse in the same way that one says the single word “I” in one's ordinary consciousness. When a human being says “I” he is expressing his inner nature with a single sound. The only thing which can be meant by this is what the individual human being is. But this one thing has a large content. This large content is the content of apocalyptic things.

If everything which religious feeling can give a meditating soul and if all the enlightenment which is gained by energetic effort and by a striving towards an understanding of the supersensible can work in men's spirits,—if all of this is oriented in the way it can be oriented and if we let ourselves be stimulated by everything that can stimulate us through a contemplation of the three past mystery epochs which can become the inspirer of the fourth one, and if we let ourselves be stimulated by what was outlined in an introductory way yesterday and today, that is, by what lived in the first, second and third mystery epoch which was the living inspirer of the fourth, and if we let the power of the Spirit God—which is possible again today work in our souls—we will be able to experience that there is not just one Apocalypse but that there are numerically just as many apocalypses as there are human, God-fearing, priest's egos in the priest-renewal who speak to the Christ who is to be found again through this Christian renewal.

There is only one apocalypse from a qualitative point of view, but from a numerical viewpoint it can become the content of the soul of each individual priest. Conversely, every single soul that undergoes the act of consecration of man, so that it prepares the ego to become identified with the content of the apocalypse, can become a proper priestly soul. We are egos as human beings. We become priests in the modern sense of the word if the ego becomes aware that it is creating a copy of the Apocalypse at every moment in life, so that it isn't just something which is finished and printed in the bible, and it isn't just memorized by heart. Take the following analogy. Someone gives the content of a book. It is sent to the printers. This might seem like a pedantic, philistine analogy, but it's useful nevertheless. The book is printed and a large number of copies go through the world which are different, although they all have the same content. What you are referred to right at the beginning of the Apocalypse is a single thing and what Christ revealed to John is a single thing. For this is “The revelation of Jesus Christ” which was received by “his servant John.” There is only one content, but it is multiplied by those who recreate this content in themselves after they have been prepared through the wisdom of supersensible worlds.

This is an understanding of John's apocalyptic things. In the deeper sense of the word, this also amounts to an understanding of the words: Christ has ordained us to be priests. You have felt how the Apocalypticer says that Christ Jesus anointed him to be a priest; one becomes anointed as soon as one feels how the content of the Apocalypse arose in John and as soon as one feels that people want to become priests today by creating the Apocalypse in themselves so that they experience that their ego is in the Apocalypse. If the ego becomes apocalyptic, the ego is priestly. We will take this up again tomorrow.