2nd lecture on the Apocalypse of John (documentation)

The letter to the 7 churches, shows the temporal development process, world development, Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon up to the New Jerusalem etc. also smaller cycles, like the 7 cultural epochs: 1) Urindian, 2) Urpersian, 3) Egyptian-Chaldean, 4) Greek-Roman, now the fifth post-Atlantean time, that's where we are right now, in the end a "war of all against all", a spiritual confrontation of individual egos that don't get along well with each other. Ahriman wants to find a solution for this by creating worldwide control, renouncing one's own spiritual development, worldwide possibilities of control, which are also followed, right now we are seeing a trial gallop of Ahriman, how quickly can humanity be switched, that is behind these time phenomena, after 9/11 the control mechanisms were upgraded, financial crisis, capital, new regulations, all this serves the purpose of control. Ahriman uses every opportunity where he can hook in, he wants to try to shape the "war of all against all" in such a way that not everything is destroyed, for this he needs obedient people, but the spiritual path of man would be destroyed by this. Hindrance: we need the physical body to maintain the I-consciousness, when the body is gone we sleep, what comes in in thinking, most concepts we have taken in from outside, in living thinking we are only when we form the concepts ourselves: e.g. Goethe's primordial plant. Real concepts are essential structures of the etheric forces. Steiner wanted to prepare us to enter into this kind of thinking, to train it, to be inside living thinking, a spiritual perception. Our normal everyday thinking with its normal concepts is dependent on the physical brain. Thinking itself takes place in the etheric, that is reflected in the physical, then we become aware of it, but it is dead to come so far in thinking that we think alive, then we no longer need a physical body in order to experience the concept of our own I. The apocalypse leads to getting away from brain thinking, Golgotha means "place of the skull", spiritual things threaten to die on the brain. Children experience when they grow up, in the first 3 years of life: "I am a me. I am something different from all the others who are around me". This is the moment when we no longer consciously experience our real I, when earthly consciousness awakens. 1) Uprightness: standing, walking, grasping with hands, moving the gaze, a palpation of the world with the eyes, everything we see, we palpate. This process must always be trained further. Standing on our own two feet. Listening consciously, language; before thinking comes language, the joy of forming shapes in the breath, we cannot remember the time before the third year of life, it is a sacred time, the first 3 years. Gestures, expressive movement, thinking develops from that, a spiritual movement, when that is prepared, the brain can become an instrument of reflection and create our earthly consciousness, then we have become from a son of God to a son of man. In the first 3 years of life, the Son of God = our higher I works, but this is mediated by the angel who accompanies us, who has consciousness for us. 3 years of the Christ, in the 30th year of life Christ began to incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth (baptism in the Jordan), then 3 years of development, on Golgotha on the cross he completed the incarnation with death. This is the first time a spiritual being goes through death. Why do spiritual beings know nothing about death?

What happens to us? When one dies, one has the great panorama of life for 3 days in which one can move freely, one sees it from a higher point of view. What was the meaning of life? It is a blissful experience, nothing painful, memory of the sensual experience on earth. When the panorama dissolves, the sensual images are gone, then one goes through purgatory and experiences one's life back to birth, but not sensually, one experiences what the other beings we have met, what they have experienced with us, joy, good words, deeply life-deciding, own higher I, consciousness we cannot grasp, the first 3 years of life in which the Son of God dwells with us, these are very decisive, out of this power lives the whole primal Indian time, the first congregation, reincarnations of Elijah, who was later reborn as Raphael, then as Novalis and in between as John the Baptist, at the turn of time there was a strong connection between Lazarus and John the Baptist. Lazarus was a human being of his time, at that time it was the 4th cultural period (747 B.C. - 1413 A.D.), the mind and spirit soul was just being formed (philosophy and logic came into being), he could not yet fully form the higher members of his being, but John the Baptist had in a certain way these higher members of his being from over there (consciousness soul, but also spirit soul, life spirit and spirit man), i. e. at the moment of initiation at the awakening of Lazarus, stands through the connection with John, a human being reaching from the physical body up to the spirit man, which represents the goal towards which humanity is heading, for the moment of awakening, now the typical word of the initiate should also fall, old initiation word: "This sickness is not for death but for the glory, for the glorification of God", when the disciple awoke from the initiatory sleep, he would say: "My God, how you have glorified me" D. i.e. how has all the spiritual fullness descended upon me? Christ word on the cross: 2 variants: Son of God and Son of Man, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?", the Son of Man is forsaken at the moment when earthly consciousness fully awakens on Golgotha; Son of Man and Son of God together, initiation of Lazarus, one man as a unity Son of Man and Son of God, Son of God is the one who is related to the higher members of the being, spirit man, life spirit, spirit self and the spiritual side of the consciousness soul. Spirit has descended upon me.

Consciousness soul has two aspects, we only orient ourselves towards the outer sensual consciousness, there we feel as an individual being facing the world, we have not yet developed the consciousness for the spiritual world, but that is the next step, the consciousness for the spiritual on the elementary level, where we pass from brain thinking into living thinking, no longer needing the physical brain to have consciousness, we need it to render it as language, in the midst of the consciousness soul the Son of God begins, we as human beings, when we are spiritually striving, we are on the verge of bringing God-consciousness into consciousness, of becoming conscious of this real I, now it is not yet the case. Anthroposophy is the harbinger of this, when the leap widens everything will change, also a certain polarisation, which will ultimately end in the spiritual "war of all against all". People who make it, people who don't, the part that runs great risk of straying into the realm of Ahriman and continuing there, then one no longer belongs to the human realm, then the real realm of death (the realm of Ahriman), spiritual beings do not know death, only Christ as man and as God, as both at the same time. The dark kingdom of death is completely inaccessible to the highest beings, that is in the plan of creation, from Old Saturn to the volcano, that the highest divine source has created a counter-kingdom for itself, which completely eludes insight, that was the only possibility for freedom, a kingdom into which the divine source cannot enter. Christ, however, has found access to this kingdom, all spiritual beings have the key to the kingdom of heaven, but Christ receives the key to the kingdom of death, however with the vow not to intervene in this kingdom in a changing way. He will help us when we wrestle with Ahriman, for Ahriman also suffers in his kingdom. Arhiman is cut off from the rest of the spiritual world, his kingdom is very powerful, but access to the Creator Source is denied to him, he can only find access through man, in man in whom the human I works, but also Christ, so we can contribute to Ahriman's redemption. John writes, on the day of the Lord:.... "7 golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands a figure like the Son of Man, ...clothed in a long flowing robe, with a white head, with eyes like flames of fire, holding in his right hand 7 stars, his face shining like the sun in all its power", that is the encounter with the Son of Man. What does he write to the individual communities?

The 1st community of Ephesus, an ancient mystery site, the sanctuary of Artemis, has to do with life forces, with Christ, the statue of Artemis, with many breasts on it, the image of the overflowing life force, the life-giving forces of Christ, also maternal forces, women have stronger life forces than men, men harden more, but today it is levelling out, it is beginning to equalise. In the 6th - 7th millennium we will enter the time of the 7th cultural epoch (5733 - 7893 A.D.), procreation in the normal way will then no longer be possible, we can already see it now in the offspring rate. Intellectual thinking promotes ego-consciousness, our little ego, with every thought we become aware of, something spiritual dies. John went to Ephesus, in the development of the spiritual self, no one helps us there, we have to do that ourselves, even our angel cannot help us there, because otherwise he interferes with our freedom to fill ourselves with life forces that lead to the life spirit, to create an etheric body out of nothing, we are then no longer dependent on whether etheric forces are in our environment, We can then remove bad etheric forces from the world and thus help the world, especially those life forces that we ourselves have corrupted, we must remove them ourselves so that we can bring in this life spirit, for this we need the help of the Christ, the initiation name John also points to this, for Christian initiates, to develop the spirit self out of their own strength and to receive the life spirit through grace, through the grace of the Christ. Where is the grace? Where is that which we must do ourselves? If the spirit self is not developed, the life force of the Christ cannot enter us either, an overabundance of life force, body shells of the Jesus Christ, if it works purely into it, it destroys us. At the time of Jesus' death, when in truth he had already exhausted the life forces, when the physical body was threatening to break, in the garden of Gethsemane, he said: "My God, let this cup pass me by!" Was there any hesitation? No, but: Let me yet pass this night, for only when death takes place there is it accomplished. To die on Maundy Thursday would not have been enough, by the strong Christ power the physical body was threatened, Christ sweating blood through the skin, a sign of approaching death, death throes, demands immense concentration to hold this body together, then arrest by the hint of Judas. Why does Judas have to say who the Jesus is? Brotherly kiss, crown of thorns = torture, still heavily burdening, dragging the cross, we must therefore prepare ourselves spiritually to endure the God forces, Christ comes to earth at this time because there was a physical body that endured this, the body vessel of the Nathanian Jesus, no karmic consequences, only through this could this highest body vessel come into being, only at this time, not earlier, not later. Fullness of the spirit of life, our physicality must already look different.

Why must Judas betray Christ? So that the guards would know, that's who it is. The incarnation of the Christ is a long process that begins with the baptism of the Jordan and ends on Golgotha on the cross at the hour of death. On Holy Thursday, this Christ still rises far above the body vessel, and in truth, he could also work through other body vessels, it was one of the apostles who did the deeds of the Christ. Christ could work through the apostles and perform miracles, for outsiders it was not perceptible which one was the Christ, because he worked in all 12 apostles and in the 13th apostle. If he had only been in one body vessel, he would not have been able to keep it up, so on Holy Thursday it was not yet possible to say who the Christ really was, at the very last minute he moves into the Nathanian vessel. This secret of these life forces, which can only work in the human body for 3 years, these are the forces that work in childhood. Behind our etheric body there is the spirit of life, but we cannot be aware of it, it flows in during the first 3 years. The mysteries of Ephesus have a great deal to do with these forces, forces that shape life, the living Word of Christ, power to form, also in language, power to shape. Christ is in truth the great world builder, Father God is the substance in the background, the ancient Indians knew this, they also waited for the Christ. Vishna (= all-embracing) Karman (the all-embracing active one), who determines the whole of creation, that comes from Christ. Elohim? Who created everything? Spirit of God = Elohim, "Ruach", cosmic mind soul, but they do not bring anything new into the world, only what was there from previous planetary states, then comes the word, it was said by the Elohim: "Let there be!" (this or that). This means Christ who works through the community of the Elohim, Christ is thereby, even if he is not mentioned by name, secret of the formative life forces with the Word, this is what the site of Ephesus was concerned with. The high spiritual things that come in through Christ. The philosopher Heraclitus was initiated: called "Heraclitus the Dark" because his statements are difficult to understand, origin of the world from the world fire. Ancient Saturn was a pure fire world, he knows about the secret of the word, the logos, as a spiritual creative power, and he knows that the human I is connected with it, he suspects, he knows what power is in there. Interesting phrase: "Man's daimon (demon) is his destiny!" Demon not as devil, but at that time means Daimon = one's own higher I, through clairvoyant one knew, it hovers as a spiritual entity above me, but does not yet come in, the I leads to the fulfilment of destiny, what the I needs for its own development. It is wrong to see destiny as God's punishment, it is always one's own ME. Corona is not a punishment of God. God does not punish, that was contemporary in pre-Christian times, but not today. Now we need the help of the angel and the Christ, Christ has become the master of karma, the higher I shines behind it, elimination of the lesser I, that of course does not want to run towards fate, especially if it is unpleasant, but with the help of the angel it succeeds, the word of Heraclitus is very wise, more comes into one's own I, previously only through higher entities. It was about these mysteries, that's the same thing the ancient Indians dealt with, primal Indian culture, spirituality was there in ancient India, but not yet so conscious, very dreamy, one hardly woke up to the outer world, the object consciousness was not yet so strong. I am there and from here I look at the world, that was not yet so pronounced, one felt more dependent and connected, one did not feel so much like an individual being, in the beginning people felt connected with the people of their surroundings and with nature, the veil of the Maja was drawn over the spiritual, with the Indians the spiritual light, spiritual brightness, that is now being darkened. But there is a task connected with it, before not so much sensual images but spiritual experience, an animal not seen externally but having had an inkling that a danger is present, as with a sleepwalker, he sleeps but orients himself in space, the I is not involved in it, that has stepped away. In Atlantean times people were in this sleep consciousness, dreamlike things come in, a veil comes in that makes this spiritual perception unclear, then the sensual images emerge, the colours, sensual qualities, in former times rather spiritual experiences, but no colours, tones, high tones, low tones, soul-spiritual forces live in there that are sealed off by our sense organs. The eye functions like a camera, the ears like a string instrument, sound is something spiritual, but what we experience is the shadowing of it, hearing in inspiration has nothing to do with sensual hearing, the sensual experience is the shadowing. In the primal Indian time a change took place, people are pushed into the sensual world, what has to do with the Fall now comes out properly. In Lemurian times, they opened their eyes, but they still saw the world very differently, only preliminary stages, to the church of Ephesus, the Son of Man speaks, weakness in the face of evil, through the darkening of the spiritual comes the sensual seduction through evil, when someone lives in the sensual, even those who strive spiritually do not manage to carry the others along at the time of the mysteries of Ephesus, in early Christian times people had no problem connecting to the mysteries, the separation only began in the 2nd and 3rd century. - The mysteries became Christian, the initiates sought the Christ impulse and could easily connect with it, but did not have enough strength to take the others with them, lying spirit is of Ahrimanic origin, Ahriman = darkening, pure Luciferic is another experience, a lower soul experience, the senses opened for the first time in Lemurian times, we as human beings are the ones who need the dark realm to develop our freedom. Lucifer's kingdom is also darkened, but you can still look into it a little, in the spirit there is no error, only with darkness comes error, deception. The forces are connected with the adversaries, they operate with the treasures they have taken with them, they are limited entities, their field is limited, they have lost access to the source. In Ephesus there are people who have this lying spirit, who are ahrimanically seized, the Christians recognise this, man has the task to connect with the earth without falling prey to the dark forces. We have become human beings for this purpose, to deal with the earth, this was not yet wanted in ancient Indian times (7227 - 5067 BC), the 7 holy Risis, simple people, people lived in caves and tents, ancient Indian, there was still little culture, Indus cultures fall into the 2nd to 3rd millennium BC. Pre-Christian millennium, that's the ancient Egyptian time, there was little culture, nurture the remembering consciousness that you came down from, you have to bring down these spiritual forces, if you do the sense transformation, then I knock your candelabra over, transformation to sensual perception, we are tiny spiritual beings, but we can dive into the sensual. The spiritual world is waiting for what we see in the sensual, the spiritual beings cannot look into the dark world, we are the harbingers, we can look in and we can tell the angelic beings something about the dark realm, with that we have a task, if the primal initiates do that too little, then they miss their tasks, make a sense transformation, a transformation to the sensual, the path from the primal Indian time onwards goes towards getting to know the sensual world. Spiritual currents that want to get away from this are mistaken, with the awakening of Lazarus was the transition from the old initiation to the new initiation. Lazarus lapses into a death-like state and we are awakened by the power of the I AM. With the classical Egyptian initiate the I was kept out, with Lazarus it is so that he quite consciously leads out of the initiation sleep, the modern initiation (Rosicrucian), the awakening must happen through one's own higher I. This must take the place of the guru; that has to take the place of the guru, the theosophical society still used a guru, but it is only more a question of a human being being being there who can give advice, Steiner himself met his master, the awakening does not happen through the master one meets, but through one's own I. Nicolaitans: were the other extreme, they were known for wanting more into the sensual than is good, enjoying the sensual pleasures, there was already something spiritual behind it, but they overdid the sensual and fell into the trap of the adversaries, fell into the luciferic forces, the really striving ones did not fall into this error. "He that hath ears, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," you receive the powers of the Christ which were taken from us by the Fall. He gives the powers from the tree of life, which are the powers we have developed in thought. That is where the revolution will have to take place, external intellectual thinking is brain thinking, thinking that is reflected in the brain, this thinking must be overcome. The real source, the living thinking, must be grasped more, we can only reach these powers if he gives them to us, i.e. establish consciousness soul, mind soul, consciousness soul are our concepts and delimitations, in truth these are spiritual activities in which the I is more or less consciously involved. The real I is something completely different from our little I.