The Mystery name of Rudolf Steiner

THE MYSTERY NAME OF RUDOLF STEINER 

  ~Sergei O Prokofieff ( Part 3 )

...There is a particular connection between the Grail mysteries and the sixth cultural epoch as that of the Spirit-Self. In order to understand that relationship it is necessary to focus upon a particular mystery of esoteric Christianity to which Rudolf Steiner referred on only one occasion in the lecture of 27th August 1924. There he described in detail how, in the course of His descent to the Earth, Christ left His cosmic Spirit-Man on the Sun and His Life-Spirit ( which subsequently inspired the Arthurian knights ) in the spiritual surroundings of the Earth and Himself entered into earthly evolution with His Ego and His Spirit-Self, out of whose forces He then worked within the Grail mysteries ( GA 240:"Karmic Relationships Vol 6" ). 

In the Grail imagination this comes to manifestation in that the substance of the cosmic Ego contained within the holy chalice is over-lighted from above by His Spirit-Self, through which the Holy Spirit appears on Earth in the form of a dove

( Hence at the Christmas Conference Rudolf Steiner spoke not only about the Foundation Stone but also about the Spirit that appeared in its spiritual surroundings: see 'May Human Beings Hear It" ). 

This can also shed light on the sense in which Rudolf Steiner refers to the "new...present-day mysteries" as being "the consequence of the Grail mysteries"

( GA 144 : Lecture of 7th February 1913: "The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity" ). Foe what was achieved by Parsifal in terms of preparing mankind's current or impending transition from the intellectual or mind soul to the consciousness soul has been continued by Rudolf Steiner at the following stage, as a preparation for mankind's transition from the consciousness soul to the Spirit-Self in anthroposophy.

As a result he was able to receive into his ego an imprint of Christ's Ego, which in the 8th century was still unattainable even for such a high initiate as Parsifal. In this way Rudolf Steiner was able to make manifest to humanity an archetypal picture of the new Grail initiation in the form in which it will be assigned until the end of the sixth cultural epoch. This means that, just as in the name of Parsifal — the fruit of his initiation in the fourth epoch — can be discerned today on the sickle of the Moon that bears the forces of the spiritual Sun, so in the sixth epoch a new name will be inscribed on the sickle of the Moon, the name of him who became the Grail guardian of our fifth epoch — the mystery name of Rudolf Steiner. 

This is reflected in a remarkable way in the "Book of Revelation of St.John". In the message to the Angel of the church in Pergamum, which relates to the third post-Atlantean epoch, after some words which characterise this church there is an indication of what will arise from it once it has achieved the purpose of its development. We know from spiritual science that out fifth epoch, which bears within itself all the fruits of the third is a repetition of the third epoch at a higher level. Thus the following words which characterise the spiritual fruits of the third epoch refer at the same time to the spiritual essence of the fifth epoch: "To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it" ( 2:17 ).

In Christian esotericism, the manna descending from heaven is called the substance of the Spirit-Self, which will come down from the spiritual world in the sixth cultural epoch, whereas in the fifth epoch it will be present and active amongst mankind in a "hidden" way, that is, it will be attainable not through a general development but only on the path of modern initiation. The white stone is the lunar stone — of which the Moon is the cosmic correspondence — on whose sickle is written the new name of the "Grail guardian", which in the fifth epoch no one knows except the guardian himself. For Rudolf Steiner's name will become visible on the sickle of the Moon ( the white stone ) only in the sixth cultural epoch ).

Signs of heavenly script: ( See diagram ) 

This development will continue, so that in the sixth epoch the next Master of esoteric Christianity will become the Grail guardian in his service of Christ. This is how they are working together in the historical evolution of mankind. 

The focal point and at the same time the highest culmination of this whole evolution of the Grail impulse within anthroposophy is Christmas Conference, when Rudolf Steiner himself attained the stage of Master of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings. In its inner essence it is the result of his absolutely free deed wrought out of the highest moral Intuition. Thus what he himself described in his book "The Philosophy of Freedom" found in the Christmas Conference its highest archetypal realisation. 

As the central Grail event of modern times, it was at the same time a deed that derived from purely human forces of a high initiate. Herein lies the fundamental distinction between the Christimas Conference and whole previous development of anthroposophy on Earth.

As we have seen, its esoteric source goes back to the high Lodge of the bodhisattvas, whose wisdom was — in accordance with the decision of the council in the 4th century — to flow into humanity through the Rosicrucian stream founded for this purpose in the 13th century. By uniting it within anthroposophy with the impulse of Michael, Rudolf Steiner was able to imbue the wisdom from the sphere of the bodhisattvas ( formerly accessible only to initiates ) with the cosmic intelligence and, through this, to elevate this wisdom to the consciousness soul and thereby make it accessible to the individual consciousness of every modern human being. 

The deed of Rudolf Steiner can also be characterised as one of translating an exalted, super-human wisdom deriving from the sphere of the bodhisattvas into an earthly wisdom that is, like the content of the natural sciences, accessible to any person of the present time. All the Masters of esoteric Christianity enumerated in the present book helped Rudolf Steiner from the higher worlds in the fulfilment of this task. For this reason he repeatedly referred to them in his lectures and especially in esoteric Lessons as the spiritual guides and inspirers of the anthroposophical movement  

 [ the super-human nature of this wisdom is already apparent from the fact that its source lies in the world of Providence or Buddhi residing above higher Devachan, to which human evolution extends in the present period of earthly evolution ].

This state of affairs radically changed with the Christmas Conference. Now Rudolf Steiner had to accomplish a deed not out of the sources of super-human wisdom but solely out of his own, purely human wisdom and, moreover, without any help not only from the exalted Masters who had hitherto stood behind him from the spiritual world itself. At the end of 1923 Rudolf Steiner had to carry out the most important deed of his life completely alone, bereft of any support from Gods, initiates or the fellow human beings who were his pupils, guided by nothing other than his own cognitive insight, imbued with the forces of freedom and love. 

We have a macrocosmic archetypal picture of this deed in the Mystery of Golgotha, which Christ accomplished not out of divine but out of purely human forces: "The pre-Christian saviours redeemed mankind with the help of divine forces. Christ redeemed mankind with human forces. These human forces were then made manifest in all their original, pristine power" ( GA 109: Lecture of 11th April 1909: 'The Principle of Spiritual Economy" ). 

Thus Rudolf Steiner did not himself know and could not know beforehand the consequences of his own deed ( Rudolf Steiner referred on more than one occasion to the risk that was associated with it, in that the spiritual powers guiding the anthroposophical movement in the higher worlds might have ceased their involvement ). For when a person acts out of a higher impulse of moral Intuition, something completely new is always brought into being in the world of which no one, either in heaven or on Earth, has any knowledge: and it is only when this new element has arisen, when an act of "creating out of nothing" has occurred, that it can be either accepted or rejected by the spiritual world. 

It is possible to suggest that the acceptance by the spiritual world of the Christmas Conference as a "mystical fact" was in this sense associated with Rudolf Steiner's most significant experiences. He himself informed the members of the Anthroposophical Society of this in a whole series of lectures in the following year of 1924. However, he only spoke once about the spiritual background of this event exactly twelve days after the end of the Christmas Conference, on the day when the Foundation Stone Meditation was published for the first time in a "News Sheet'. 

 

Thus in the lecture of 13th January 1924 Rudolf Steiner gave what is perhaps one of his most important characterisations of Michael as a Time Spirit and also referred — as always — in a completely objective form to the fact of the acceptance by Michael of his deed at the Christmas Conference. According to what he says in this lecture, the most essential quality of Michael in the modern epoch is his total acknowledgement of human freedom. 

It follows from this, that, in contrast to the other Archangels, he appears in our time as a "silent spirit" who does not give earthly human beings any promptings for their actions but awaits what out of their freedom they accomplish on the Earth: 

"Michael concerns himself most of all with what human beings creat out of the spiritual domain...He lets people act, and then takes what arise out of human deeds, receives it and carries it on and out into the cosmos, to continue in the cosmos what they themselves cannot do with it...Thus Michael carries that earthly human deed out into his cosmos, where it becomes a cosmic deed' ( GA 233a: Lecture of 21st April 1924: "The Easter Festival in relation to the Mysteries"). 

In these words we have a precise description of what from an esoteric point of view happened at the Christmas Conference between Rudolf Steiner himself and Michael. Rudolf Steiner's free creative deed, which he accomplished out of moral intuition, was received by Michael, as the Time Spirit, and borne by him out into the spiritual cosmos, where it became not only a human deed but a cosmic event. And it was not with words but with a stern look that Michael expressed his acceptance by the spiritual world of this deed: "That is right, that is the harmony with the cosmic guidance" ( ibid ) .

Thus the Christmas Conference, for the first time in the Michael age which had begun in 1879, a purely human deed was received by the Time Spirit ( Michael ) himself in order to work further in the spiritual world as the first deed of man as the tenth hierarchy ( see diagram: The Christmas Conference ). 

Rudolf Steiner himself referred to this "mystical fact" in a conversation with Ernst Lehrs and Günther Wachsmuth during a car journey by night from Dornach to Stuttgart ( in the night of 26/27 March 1924 ). Ernst Lehrs continued to recall these deeply striking words throughout his whole life: — 

"With the Christmas Conference, anthroposophy — which had until then been a human deed — became a cosmic deed".

Henceforth all anthposophists can partake in this "cosmic deed" if — following their teacher's indications — out of their individual freedom and their understanding of what actually took place, not only for the world of human beings but for the world of the Gods, they have the will to lay in their hearts the Foundation Stone of the Christmas Conference as its spiritual and social focus ( see further Sergei O Prokofieff: "May Human Beings Hear It! The Mystery of the Christmas Conference" ). 

In the twofold nature — at once cosmic and human — of the Foundation Stone, we have that connecting link which can help human beings to enter that supersensible world where the most important spiritual event of our time — Christ's appearance in an etheric form — is taking place today. 

In the first chapter of part 3 of this book consists the republication of an article ( originally published in in Germany in a collection of articles entitled: "The Paths to an Experience of Christ" ), which refers to the further supersensible inspirers of anthroposophy. Among these are, in addition to the Masters of esoteric Christianity whom we have already considered, also the hierarchic beings who are directly involved now in the Second Coming. Their connection with the Foundation Stone, and the Foundation Stone with the Second Coming, can shed new light not only upon the Christmas Conference but upon the whole earthly mission of Rudolf Steiner as the present guardian of the Grail. 

From the further content of this book ( "Rudolf Steiner and the Masters of esoteric Christianity" ) it will become clear in what way Rudolf Steiner, despite not being the Maitreya bodhisattva ( that is, a bodhisattva as traditionally understood ), is nevertheless the leading bodhisattva of our time, though in a completely new sense, and also the most important herald of the Second Coming in the 20th century. 

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