Understanding Rudolf Steiner´s conception of the four bodies; and of Lucifer and Ahriman; and concept of Christ and Abraham in the 20th and 21st century.

´See thou, my eye,

The Sun’s pure rays

In crystal forms of Earth.

See thou, my heart,

The Sun's spirit power

In Water’s surging waves.

See thou, my soul,

The Sun's cosmic will In quivering gleam of Air.

See thou, my spirit,

The Sun’s indwelling God

In Fire’s abounding love.´

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian spiritualist from the 19th century who came up with unique theories and understandings, of which the two I most believe worthwhile I discuss here. First, Rudolf Steiner held that humanity has passed through an astral and an etheric stage and has possessed intuitive and clairvoyant modes of consciousness. He believed the human body to be a vessel consisting of the ether-body (our life-body), the astral-body (our soul body), the physical body and the ego, I.

The four bodies.

The traditional way of looking at the different bodies and planes of experience is that whilst a stone has just a physical body, a plant has an etheric and a physical body - which is why a plant changes over time slowly and is adapted to its environment though it generally preserves the same structure. Whilst plants have etheric and physical bodies, animals have physical, etheric and astral bodies. This is why they don't just change gradually like a plant but also day to day, moment to moment, rapidly reacting to the environment and playing a role within the environment , changing it and adding quality to it.

It is said that when awake, the physical body, etheric body and astral body all work together in animals; however when asleep the astral body is released from the physical and etheric body and our dreaming consciousness is when it returns to the physical and etheric body.

The stages according to Rudolf Steiner

According to Steiner, the etheric heart carries the imprint of all the deeds of humanity, and therefore it must act almost akin to a collective unconscious influence on us during our lives. In our astral body we carry the condensed seed of all of our interpersonal interactions as well as all that happened in past lives, thereby forming our soul body.

Steiner notes how -´The physical body disintegrates when it is not held together by the etheric; the etheric body falls into unconsciousness when it is not irradiated by the astral body. In the like manner the astral body would forever have to let the past sink into oblivion if the I did not preserve the past and carry it over into the present. Forgetting is for the astral body what death is for the physical body and sleep for the etheric. Or, as we may also express it: life is proper to the etheric body, consciousness to the astral body, and memory to the Ego.´

In this sense, Steiner describes the etheric forces as the forces of growth and vitality (our life force) and the astral forces as that of consciousness and differentiation (our soul- force). Indeed, Steiner wrote - ´A spiritual researcher speaks of an ether body at the point where an organism discloses something that a lifeless object cannot´ and that ´the astral body is the bearer of feeling, of happiness and suffering, joy and pain, emotions and passions; wishes and desires too, are anchored in the astral body.´

According to Steiner, the fourth member of the human being, the ego or “I” organism, enters from above and lives in the inner warmth of man, particularly visible in young children who have a certain warmth and air vibration. Steiner believed we had to lose our awareness of the spiritual world in order to exchange it for ego-consciousness, and that in the future we shall possess both at the same time - full clairvoyance, meaning every man will able to look into the spiritual world (like in the past according to Steiner) and yet feel themselves as a human, as an ego (unlike in the past). Steiner believed the ego allowed man to acclimate to the physical plane, develop logical thinking as well as experience the sensation of being an individual being, focusing on the sensations of being an 'I' organism.

Anthroposophy

Steiner held his own opinions regarding spirituality, not being a follower of any religions but being influenced enormously by many, in particularly Christianity (although also Paganism, Hinduism, Buddhism etc.). His body of teachings are termed as Anthroposophy and there are even alternative schools, Waldorf schools, based upon his creation - Anthroposophy.

Despite, not being particularly enamored by his styles of lectures and books, I find his ideas fascinating, and the one that most struck me was the legend of the Asuras or Fallen Angels - Lucifer and Ahriman, which I will expand upon because I find them so prescient.

To clarify first though, Steiner did not believe that Lucifer represented the devil, but rather that a demon called Sorat (Hebraic) was (more-so) the equivalent of Satan. He viewed Christ as a pagan god (the Sun God). Nevertheless, it is his opinions on Luciferian and Ahrimanic forces that stand out as more original and frankly, very visible in society and even backed by the latest science.

Lucifer and Ahriman

According to Steiner, Lucifer incarnated in a human body during the third millennium before Christ in Asia and Christ was born in Palestine and saved humanity which was becoming too Luciferian. Now, Ahriman will likewise incarnate in the third millennium after Christ, the one we are currently entering, and he will be the greatest threat to our spirituality. Together they both form two Asuras who are polar opposites to each other and both with access to almost every part of our being, such as our etheric body, thus posing completely contrasting threats to humanity.

The head of Lucifer (Steiner) The head of Ahriman (Steiner)

Ahriman is a modern cosmic deity and his forces promote an atheist, technology-dominated and heartless systematic yet hedonistic age; consigning humans to be parts in a machine that owns them rather than anything spiritually poignant, and tricking humans into not believing in a mysterious reality but instead in more of a computerised reality. Lucifer on the other hand is an older cosmic being who ungrounds us from the earth, and makes us into bloated, self-serving and vain destructive individuals who undermine society due to their deluded notions of grandeur. Where Ahriman forces are overly-rationally intelligent, Lucifierian forces are greedily spiritual and turn us into victims of our own imagination and self-deceit. However, what is crucial is that whilst these forces are dangerous they are also positive. Neither Asura needs to be destroyed, as both serve humanity when they are understood and accepted. Lucifer helps keep us awake to our freedom and encourages expansiveness and passion. Ahrimanic forces vitally keeps us structured, aiding our thoughts and speech, and encourage contraction and being grounded. We are not gods as Lucifer would have us believe but nor are we merely physical beings as Ahriman would have us believe, we are somewhere in between according to Steiner and his mythology.

Christ sand Abraham, and the purpose of Clairvoyance and Etheric vision in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Steiner predicted that the central 20th century spiritual event would be the second coming of Jesus Christ, appearing to human beings in the etheric world, as opposed to returning in a physical body. Steiner believed that Christ wasn't famous at the time he came down as a human being, that 'it was quite possible to live at that time and know nothing of the appearance of Christ Jesus on the physical plane...(even though it was) the most significant event into one's consciousness'. Likewise, Steiner would say Christ's second appearance needn't be necessarily famous, and yet he believed 'Christ will reappear by reason of the fact that in etheric vision men will be raising themselves toward Him...with those who are especially blessed able to perceive Him always in this spiritual-etheric world.'

Steiner thought that 'man will be capable of seeing etheric bodies, and among these etheric bodies will be able to also see the etheric body of the Christ; that is, Christ will be visible to his newly awakened faculties.'. However, he feared 'there might be so much wickedness, so much materialism on earth that the majority of mankind would not show the slightest understanding but would consider the people who had this clairvoyance as fools, and would clap them into insane asylums along with others whose souls develop in a muddled fashion'. Moreover, the feared the 'period may bring us false messiahs' and that as 'the materialistic mind corrupts everything, so it will come about that this sort of mind will be unable to imagine that the souls of men must advance to etheric vision and it to Christ in the etheric body.' The goal of Christ's reappearance was for humanity 'to unite anew with the Christ'

Steiner believed in the prophets of Solomon, Moses and Abraham. He prophesized further that 'even as Abraham preceded Christ, preparing His way, he has also assumed the task of helping later with the work of Christ. Thus the human being who does not sleep through the greatest event of the near future, gradually enters into association with all those who, as patriarchs, preceded the Christ event; he unites with them.' Steiner believed that there was a Kali Yuga age, which began 'approximately in the year 3101 BC (the 5000 year lasting Dark Age) and that this age had finished now Christ had reappeared in the Etheric Realm - the 20th century marked a new age. Steiner believed the first part of Kali Yuga was 'primarily the period of Abraham - that period in which man loses the direct outlook into the higher spiritual worlds, but in which something like a consciousness of God arises in him, which gradually grows more and more into his ego, so that he increasingly conceives this God as being related to the ego consciousness, the human ego-consciousness.' Following, there was a time most influenced by Moses and then by Solomon. Steiner believed 'a repetition occurred,... but in reverse order. The repetition occurs in such a way that the essential feature of the Solomonic age is repeated in the first millennium after Christ... followed by the age of Moses in the second millennium after Christ' and now in the third millennium by Abraham.

What does this mean according to Steiner? Well, 'in the case of Abraham, consciousness of God was led into the brain' and now 'he must perform this deed twice - once as though doing the opposite of the other time'. Steiner predicts that Abraham 'having led humanity into a consciousness of God within the sense-world, may now lead humanity out of this;... What Abraham brought down for humanity into physical consciousness, so to speak, he will carry up again for humanity into the spiritual world' this millennium.

References:

The event of the appearance of Christ in the etheric World, lecture by Rudolf Steiner January 25th 1910

The reappearance of Christ in the Etheric, lecture by Rudolf Steiner March 6 1910.