63rd Lecture on the Apocalypse of John (Documentation)

The 13th verse of the week gives a quiet hint to find oneself again, to connect consciously and awake with the spiritual.

The focus of this lecture is the sound-symbolic poem by the Austrian poet Josef Weinheber (1892-1945):

 Light - Not - Poem
L-ich-t: With L-life it lifts,
and the - I- remains beautiful in the middle,
And the T-at was done at the end.

N-ich-t: Already the N-ach-t shows its nature:
Turns the I into ach. At the end
the T for death can be read.

If you now give space to the thought-ich-t,
the thought is at the head,
and the T after -ich- becomes dream.

This poem takes up the central theme of the Apocalypse and places it at the centre: - The I -, the unveiling of the essence of Jesus Christ and thus that of man.

J. Weinheber was able to empathise with the essence of the individual sounds.  He felt a kinship with the old forms and harmonies of Greek verse; he took this up and created something new.

The ancient Greeks had achieved a perfection in art and language that could not be surpassed, and they were able to create an ethereal ideal according to their inner empathy, because they saw the ideal form sensually and supersensually. For them, the human being was very much at the centre of art. With the beginning of the modern age, the Renaissance, naturalism took over and every little thing was depicted. New impulses were added: using the alert outer senses to grasp the outer essential, the sensual and to reproduce every detail, e.g. Dürrer with his drawing of the hare. This is also the beginning of the development of the consciousness-soul and the beginning of materialism. To immerse oneself with the outer senses in the sensory world and thus in the spiritual and to grasp the essential. Goethe achieved this to the highest degree with his sensuous-supersensuous looking and sensuous-moral experiencing. The sensual-moral experience of colours, for example, is very important in order to distinguish between a vision, a dream image and a real imagination.

The vision appears like an external image, the perception takes place through the physical body. The perception is through the physical body (sounds, colours), it is a sensual experience.

Imagination, e.g. in the perception of colours, is accompanied by a moral experience, a spiritual touch. In order to come into the experience of pure imagination, the sensual experience must be stripped away. If the imagination is to be communicated to someone, then this experience must be translated back into a sensual conception. Today we are already in the transitional phase from sensual to imaginative experience of the world.

For an imaginative perception, one's own soul must be experienced more consciously, by freeing it from all sensual qualities, such as flooding irritability, flood of desires, egoisms.  But when we become "seeing" from our own desires, we first see our own desires and urges, which can clothe themselves in a sensual vision and show themselves as a double experience: Doppelgänger, i.e. the sum of our soul's naughtinesses that need to be corrected in the future, which we still need to work on. A strong doppelganger encounter can happen in awake consciousness and one can have the experience of meeting oneself.

These are forces in the subconscious that strongly influence our lives. They confront us so that we can become aware of them.

There are transitions to the "little guardian of the threshold", a very frightening figure who will not let us cross over into a purely mental, spiritual experience until we have seen the guardian who shows us what we still have to change. In our time of consciousness-soul, such experiences and encounters can occur spontaneously. This experience creates an incredible fear, but we are supposed to face it with a calmness. The figure appears behind us, one does not see it, but feels it and there is a real feeling connected with it: When you turn around, you die, but not in the physical, but in the spiritual, because it is the step over the threshold to the spiritual.

Ahriman is connected with the double. He draws a distorted picture of us and shows everything negative. At the beginning of our life, this Ahrimanic doppelganger figure connects with us and accompanies us until the end, until shortly before death. We should not be afraid, but be aware that this figure accompanies us, that it is an unsparing self-knowledge and that death enables me to become conscious.

In extreme situations and emergencies we get to know our real self and discover unknown powers. That is why the encounter with the double and the Little Guardian of the Threshold is so important, because then we can assess ourselves safely and clearly, overcome our weaknesses and recognise tasks. The task of re-creating ourselves, not only purifying the forces in the astral body, but re-creating them. An annihilation, leading into the NOT and into the LIGHT, going through the NIGHT. As described in the Weinheber poem.

To kindle one's own light in order to recognise the spiritual light. Not to be enlightened, but we illuminate the spiritual and at the same time we create. Through creating (creative thinking) I become one with the beings. A poem is something that is shaped, a thought that is shaped. A shaped word, every sound is something different from a habitually pronounced word.  In the way one speaks consciously lies the power of the heart, one gives an impulse for self-help and thus for healing.

In comparison, pharmaceuticals that are artificially produced cannot heal, only repair or supply what is missing and thus tend to create dependency. Through natural immunisation, etheric forces are generated that have an immunising and formative effect, just like language. Our formative power lies in how we speak and experience language. In daily life, consciously shape language and our actions artistically.

The contribution of each individual is important, which is why people must be made aware of the power they have within themselves. This power must be given to the outside world, otherwise it cannot work.  The I develops by creating in the world. The community of humanity builds on the astral of the earth and the astral body of the Christ with the powers of congestion, wonder, attention and freedom from prejudice in the encounter with people and nature.

The astral and etheric body of the Christ is not yet finished after the resurrection; it must attain spiritual perfection in a new way, which is our work. We build on the etheric body by bringing our etheric body into such lively activity through love and compassion that it becomes a life-giving force. Then healing etheric forces flow in the encounter with others. The prerequisite, however, is a strongly developed etheric body of our own. R. St. speaks of hygienic occultism.  Love means: to donate life forces of mine to the other.

The life forces have a further significance in social life, in the social tripartite organism. The social is something alive, nothing schematic with central control, as it was in the old times, but the social organism must be shaped individually, anew and alive by the contribution of each individual out of freedom. Today we are at the beginning and a transitional phase is needed in which free spiritual life is the main force. For this, it is necessary to break up the old forms and create new impulses.

The consciousness must be awakened that every human being has the highest creative power in his or her I, but this also requires courage. In the I is the infinite power to master every problem and Christ is our comforter and inner support. Comfort cannot be given from outside, but must be created from within oneself.

The problem with all religion is that it excludes people and creates division. The Christian denominations should actually build on the astral body of Christ, but they disregard freedom and prevent the development of the power of Christ. Almost all denominations are formed according to the old pattern and the Christian institutions are run very centrally. But they all still have their task.

The Apocalypse describes the reality to be created, so we have to deal with what has to change in the future in order to reach a good goal. This requires each individual to find out for themselves what truth is. Truth cannot be given from outside, but can only be attained by each one himself, through wonder and amazement.