3rd lecture on the Apocalypse of John (documentation)

The path after the death of the human being begins with the 3-day life review, then everything sensual falls away and the life body dissolves. The kamaloka (purification) is a lower astral sphere, the lunar sphere.  Then we ascend step by step to the highest astral realm, the solar sphere.  From there we enter the spiritual world proper. At world midnight, the decision is made to descend again. We take the "karma packs" with us, those that we could not take with us via the Kamaloka sphere. Everything unbalanced is waiting for us and we collect it. Our destiny leads us into situations where we can dissolve the parcels. It is one of our tasks on earth to seek out these dark realms.

 2. municipalityto whom John's letter is addressed, corresponds to the 2nd cultural epoch, the Urpersian period: Smyrna

 Zarathustra lived here, who had already had many experiences with the darkness and no longer needed to incarnate. His disciples were Moses and Hermes.

 Our earthly destiny also consists of working up karma by resolving suffering we have caused through suffering, which is not entirely without danger, "for the Adversary is preparing to put some of you in fetters - this is for your trial ......" and "he who overcomes shall suffer no harm by the 2nd death."

 The 1st death is when we go through physical death for the last time in our last incarnation. By then our karma will have been worked up and we can maintain our ego consciousness without the physical body.

 The 2nd death is the etheric death, i.e. when the etheric body is transformed into the life spirit, for which we need the help of the Christ.

 In the earth's core is absolute evil, the realm of the sun demon, who is more evil than Ahriman.

 From the surface of the earth upwards there are 7 planetary spheres, zodiacal sphere, crystal heaven as the 9th sphere and then the Divine realm, the actual spiritual (according to Dante the "Epyreum"). The 9 spheres are reflected in the earth, the earth's core is reflected in the Epyreum. In the human being there is a centre of destruction and this is connected with the centre of the earth.

Topic Apocalypse: Letters to 7 churches in the west of Asia Minor: 1. Ephesus, mystery site, Artemis, which has risen to great spiritual heights, has to do with life forces, behind it is the Christ, at the time of the mysteries people had no problem receiving the Christ impulse, in Gnosis. From the second century onwards, this was basically all eradicated by the Christians, who became the state church, with Constantine, when the eradication of the Gnostics began, because there was too much spirituality in it, partly a spirituality that came from the old times, which could do little with the death of Christ. At that time, the Eastern cultures were still working strongly with Luciferic forces in a positive sense. The adversaries have a task for the development of humanity and for the earth, but they are there to make freedom possible for human beings. Freedom is only possible if there is a spiritual kingdom which is not accessible to the higher spiritual hierarchies, the adversaries were appointed to rule over these kingdoms, Lucifer still over a somewhat lighter kingdom, Ahriman over the dark kingdom, because if higher spiritual beings look into the kingdom, then the kingdom is changed in the direction of light, we would then all be good by nature, but unfree. How about the kingdom of death, the path after death, passing through the spiritual world, the kingdom after the Kamaloka (purgatory) lasts about a third of earth life, we purify ourselves, then we ascend to higher spheres, up to the earthly paradise, Garden of Eden, this lies about at the end of the lunar sphere. In Dante a new stage, then there is an angel who watches at the threshold and leads on, that is not the world of death. It is then an arduous world when one does something for the sake of enjoyment. Eating, drinking, that's hard to give up over there during the time of kamaloka. Three days after death, when the review of life is over, everything sensual is gone, mental experiences remain, but colours, smells, tastes fall away. Kamaloka is no longer sensual, only psychic, a soul world, astral world. Kamaloka is not the world of death, where is this realm of death, as described by Dante and by the Greeks as the underworld (Hades = not being able to see, Gr.: videin = to see). The Egyptians also spoke of underworld, dark spiritual world, in truth the lowest part of the astral world, but that part which lies under the earth, there is an astral world which leads beyond the sensual and there is an astral world which leads into the lower. Hell is a translation, it is a purely mental experience, a world in which no spiritual light shines. The light of Lucifer shines into the Kamaloka, the higher hierarchies cannot see into it. The account is that one goes into the realm after death, but the strong experience of the lower astral world does not happen immediately after death. How does the path go? The first 3 days of recollection, there is the panorama, then the Kamaloka, lower astral sphere, a supersensory sphere (moon) > then Venus > Mercury > Sun, everything still astral, then only into the spiritual world, lower and higher Devachan, then comes a world midnight hour, then one descends again into a new incarnation. Descent through the planetary spheres, has to do with the spiritual beings, with the other people who move in this sphere > lunar sphere, then take care to find a concrete body, one must prepare, select a physical body, in addition etheric body, astral body, then ME.

In the formation of the astral body there is a crucial point, when we go through the Kamaloka, through the area of purification, then we can purify some things, but there are enormous chunks that we cannot take with us, our karma, what we cannot take with us through the Kamaloka when we ascend, These are our karmic transgressions, which we cannot purify in the Kamaloka. The karmic parcels are waiting for us there, we have to pick up these parcels again, this is connected with strong experiences. At conception and fertilisation, that's when the most important things come together, that's when we go through the underworld, then the dark world accompanies us throughout life, only it's below the threshold of consciousness, when that breaks through, it becomes dangerous if we can't prepare ourselves. In the earthly we then do a deed that dissolves the karma, these are the most important deeds we can do on earth, because only we can dissolve it. The deeds we did then, we have to dissolve them ourselves, we have this task during our earthly life, these powers are used and administered by Ahriman, for it is his kingdom; it is the dark world that we experience shortly before birth. The spiritual path begins with reading anthroposophical books and doing exercises, when one's own spiritual power is strong enough, then one must reckon with it, the dark forces come and invite us to dissolve the soul-astral karma that has been corrupted by us, consciously, then we develop spirit-self. Spiritual self is the partially transformed astral body, the most important thing we have to transform is our karma, with that we acquire spirit self, all karma dissolved, i.e. his spiritual self developed, then he has risen a level higher, then he would no longer have to incarnate, then one has attained Buddhahood. Buddha succeeded in transforming his astral body into the spirit self, that's what's behind the Buddhist teaching, how do I dissolve karma and how do I prevent the charging of new karma. There were Buddhas before Buddha, others have already ascended. The teachings of the historical Buddha are typical of the Greek-Latin period (800 BC, foundation of Rome), the Buddha falls into this period, it is exactly the time when the lower astral realm was at its darkest, the maximum darkness was around the turn of time, this is when a spiritual being, Christ, decided to go through death. Christ can accompany man, support him, if we ourselves take on this work. Will we succeed in dissolving the dark kingdom? That is our task at present, because otherwise a separate ahrimanic world would form and draw people into it, the question is: do people go with us into the dark kingdom? Ascension is the overcoming of the kingdom of the dead. The 40 days already existed with fakirs. Passage through the underworld immediately after death rather asleep, but more consciously shortly before birth. Materialistic people find it very difficult in the beginning. They don't like to look at the karma packs so much. State dark and icy. When we have passed through the spiritual world, we take with us certain powers that help us to accept the karma packs. We have usually been through many incarnations and we have been very bad creatures. The Apocalypse is the book of the priests because they help people on their way. The imagination cannot be reproduced sensually, it is a supersensible perception that cannot be fully reproduced conceptually. There is a fullness, of which I can only bring in a tiny section.

To the next community: the first community was from pre-Indian times: 2) Smyrna = 2nd cultural epoch, world of Ahriman, time of the great initiate Zarathustra, luminous spirit Ahura Mazdaomeans "powerful aura", which is connected with the sun, the aura of the Christ, who lives in the sun, a higher being than a sun being, he worked through the community of the 7 Elohim, this is how Zarathustra experienced it, through imaginative seeing, the powerful radiance of the Christ, he also saw the earth on which we stand, in primal Indian times, where there was still little awareness of the outer sensual world, trees, animals, people, stones, the experience at that time is like that of a small child. The first three years of life the child does not yet say I, the old Indian did not yet say I either, the leaders of the primal Indian time, the 7 holy Rishis, when they were gathered together, they could bring in the spiritual light and translate it into powerful images that had an effect in Indian mythology, Greek mythology is bland in comparison, eons pile up on eons, the Risis were able to bring in a very rich world, but the outer world was still very foreign to them. Animals also have sharp eyes, but in his consciousness he doesn't see it so sharply, he experiences something completely different, something spiritual. The sensual world of the earth is something dark, only at the top is it bright, the first thing one saw sensually were the stars, instead of plants one had an imagination, but now in the Persian time one begins to see the world of the earth sensually, it is there and a new world is to be discovered, there is a task waiting for us, but there are also dangers waiting, the dark spirit, the spirit of darkness, the adversary of the Ahura MazdaoThe sun-astral in contrast to ahrimanic forces below, now the consciousness awakens, Persian mythology, statements of Zarathustra, they are laid 1000 - 2000 years before Christ. And in 600 BC there was another incarnation of Zarathustra, he lived very many incarnations, the I is a little spark and falls prey to the temptations that are there, even initiates are subject to that, Zarathustra has already worked through his karma at the latest in the Greco-Latin period and has not created a new one, that means he is on the same level as Buddha and would not have to incarnate on earth. This Zarathustra already had many experiences with the dark world, his special kind of initiation. Moses was his pupil and Hermeswho initiated the Egyptian culture. So Zarathustra has already prepared his karma, which he had charged in the Atlantean and perhaps also Lemurian times, he has already gone his way, which is still ahead of many of us, therefore he could give this his teaching of light and darkness. 2. congregation of Smyrna: "And to the angels of the church of Smyrna write: I know and see the severity of your fate and your impoverishment, behold the adversary is preparing to strike some of you in fetters, this is for your trial, 10 days of severe fate are ahead of you, do not be afraid of the sufferings that are ahead of you, whoever has ears let him hear what the Spirit speaks to the churches, whoever hears shall not be harmed by the second death". Heavy fate = dark world of karma bags, one sees the spiritual impoverishment, in the spiritual sense, one has too little spiritual self-light to stand against this darkness, many in Smyrna call themselves Jews in this community but wrongly, have practised spirit mockery, who do not walk the light path, who don't walk the spiritual path, spirit denial, they can't get at the spiritual, the Ahrimanic crowd feels the pain, we feel it too when we go through the underworld, especially before birth when we come in, fortunately we usually forget because many times we are not strong enough to bear it. As far as that is concerned, our little ego is far too weak, it is thanks to our moral cultural development that these dark forces largely stay down, but the karma packs can come to life at any time, get a grip on the astral body and we then make the same mistakes as in the past, during the Nazi era: quite normal people suddenly committed atrocities, the powers lie dormant, but woe betide them when they are released, seduced by Ahriman, he does it to point out to us, you dear friend, you still have something lying down there, look at it, it's time, then something emerges, the forces, they are soul forces that are there, that we have to get to know, oh this is my evil, oh this is my task, I deal with it now, I take this to me, I take it into me, and I transform it. That is also a goal of Manichaeism, to connect with evil and to redeem it in oneself, that concerns above all one's own karma forces. Experiencing them consciously in the imagination and in inspiration, then taking them in and transforming/dissolving them. This is what we will face in the next cultural epoch. The next 6th cultural epoch after our present one, the Slavic epoch (although it is worldwide), is the time of the Urpersian period, where it will be our task to consciously bring up and consciously look at the parcels (corrupted astral things). "Do not be afraid of the suffering that awaits you!" The point is: how can we dissolve these dark forces? This is toxic corrupted astral, we have to learn to absorb it, to suffer all this evil consciously and willingly, that is the process of dissolution, we dissolve by living through it, that sounds frightening, we are talking about the Apocalypse, the last book of the New Testament, it's getting down to business, but there's no other way, it contains the bad we've created through our misdeeds and the good we've destroyed through them, we can only dissolve it ourselves by consciously experiencing it, as a spiritual experience, not as a physical one, the suffering that someone else has experienced through us. We have to dissolve the suffering that we have created, that has damaged the spiritual world. There is no way around it.

You are only led there when you have the strength to bear it. It requires great spiritual strength, you have to prepare yourself through many incarnations, but in each incarnation only what you can cope with comes. Despite the fact that the adversaries have brought a certain disorder into karma. The Christ is the Lord of karma, the Christ is the macrocosmic I-power. In the primal Indian cultural epoch, one foresaw the Christ, one spoke of the mundane, Vishva-Karman (Karma). The Christ helps us with this and supervises that we only tackle the big chunks of karma with our little I when we are ready and not at a time when perhaps even more damage would occur. We bring the mighty forces out of hiding again, and then they are free, if we do not manage to transform them, then they can take possession of us (Nazi time, already earlier at the time of the 30-year war). Then we can bring in even more mischief. The Christ cannot prevent us from making a mistake, because man is destined for freedom. John describes our tasks in the future. The worst comes towards the end of the Apocalypse. The divine wrath that is poured out then is an expression of divine love. "Ten hard days of destiny lie ahead of you!" Days of Destiny (Bible translation by Emil Bock). "Be strong unto death!" "Then I will give you the crown of life!" Then when you have climbed down there.

We can/must transform our astral body, thus also karma pouches, by our own power, so that the karma is dissolved and from our astral body we can become our own. Spirit Self becomes. The spirit self is the astral body consciously transformed by us, i.e. we can freely form our astral body out of nothing. Whereas now we are dependent on the astral, which we receive during embodiment. But this astral is burdened. We have to draw our astral body from these forces. From the earthly realm, from the subterranean realm. "Be strong unto death!"

But we cannot by our own power transform our etheric body so that it becomes the Spirit of life We are not that far gone, we are given that through the grace of Christ. We are not spared karma, but the life forces that we cannot draw ourselves are made available to us through Christ. That is given to us. It will be very important that we do not suffer damage through the second death. "He that overcometh shall not be harmed by the second death." The second death: What is the first death? The first death is dying? No. The death that we die here on earth, that is not what is meant by the first death. The first death is the moment when we go through death for the last time, when we die in our last incarnation, i.e. finally discard the physical body forever. Then it is completed. Then all our karma would have to be dissolved. If not, our earthly task would not be completed. That would be bitter. And we must be able to maintain our I-consciousness without a physical body. In dreamless sleep we know nothing of ourselves. What is the Second death? The same happens with the etheric body. Because out of our own power we have completely transformed it into life-spirit. Then we could produce an etheric body out of nothing. That depends on the grace of the Christ. The Christ protects us. The spirit of life is what can create an etheric body. The Christ protects us from the second death. There is no indication of mystery places of Smyrna where light and darkness confront each other. The adversaries are detached and are actually not to blame themselves, but there is a danger that they will go astray. Only through us can the world of the adversaries be redeemed. The redemption of Ahriman. We redeem him by dissolving our karma. Ahriman always does magic with old hats, a creative process is not possible for him, therefore no future.

The representative of humanity between Lucifer and Ahriman. Earth centre = the great Ahriman. Asuras. From the surface of the earth rises the whole upper spiritual realm, lunar sphere (angels), then 7 planetary spheres, then zodiac (star world), then the crystal sky = 9 spheres, 9 angelic hierarchies, then it goes into a realm, the actual divine realm, the spiritual fire, there is the actual reality of the highest spiritual, without space and time, the world of eternity. The infinite circumference is reflected in the centre of the earth.