Overview Golden Chain

For an introduction, see: Homer’s Golden Chain

This provides a temporary jump-page to the various aspects that will be developed:

• the Golden Chain overview schema of nature's kingdom and the main spiritual entities behind or involved
• cosmic breathing: there is a natural in and out breathing related to the various levels of spiritual beings, and this creates the rhythms we recognize in Man, on Earth, in our planetary system and cosmos
• relationships between the spiritual hierarchies then allows to link in
  • Man and the macrocosmos
  • Man and the spiritual hierarchies
• the descent of power as described using the Tree of Life (see Sephiroth topic page)
• if one makes abstraction of the spiritual beings that lie behind the workings of the elements and ethers, and just considers these concepts, then these concepts can be used to describe the macroscopic process of interaction between the elements called alchemy in nature

Aspects

• image of the spiritual waves that chrystalises and results in the physical, see also The two etheric streams#1911-12-30-GA314

Illustrations

The concept of down and up at the level of evolutionary stages

Schema FMC00.141 shows how, on the one hand (blue arrow down), the flow from the nirvana and budhi planes down to the three worlds below, sustains the emanation of thoughts created by the spiritual hierarchies in earlier stages of evolution. This is all we see around us, nature's kingdoms including ourselves. The spiritual hierarchies live in and evolve through this whole creation. On the other hand (blue arrow up), Man also creates through his thoughts, just as previous hierarchies did on previous planetary stages. Hence the human being becomes creator and contributor to future worlds. See Meaning of Free Man Creator and Seeds for future worlds.

For another angle on the ascending and descending forces, see also Schema FMC00.042A below.

The pencil drawing on the left - see Schema FMC00.141A below for the original - shows how living spiritual germs ripple down from the higher planes into the formless spirit world, get clothed into archetypes in lower spirit land, and embodied with astral clothing and physical substance as they ripple down. In the middle is shown how Man's actions are inscribed into the akashic records, see more on this in Clairvoyant research of akashic records. On the left is a paragraph with RSL quotes by Maximilian Rebholz (in his essay 'Durchgang'). Double click to enlarge.

The goal of this schema is to depict an idea, not to have a nice illustration. It brings together a number of perspectives and can be seen as a synthetic picture, or as a point of departure to study various aspects that come together.

Schema FMC00.141A shows the original pencil drawing (as basis for Schema FMC00.141)

Schema FMC00.170, taken from Force substance representation, sketches the polarity between 'center and periphery' and 'pralaya and mantavara', see Cosmic breathing and especially the Cosmic breath of Brahma which denotes the same, the highest level of in- and out-breathing that gives rise to all of creation.

Schema FMC00.042A shows the ascending and descending forces, see the lecture text of 1908-01-27-GA102 for more info.

The landscape with many players - influences from spiritual entities

Schema FMC00.260 illustrates the various influences around the earth, of elements and ethers, zodiacal streams and planetary influences.

Schema FMC00.142 in full version below (simpler versions do not contain the various dimensions shown here). The schema shows the four kingdoms of nature, including their consciousness (group souls for the others besides Man), against the Planes or worlds of consciousness (see Conditions of Consciousness). It also shows the three elementary kingdoms as the source of the formative forces, as well as the elementals below and how they are orchestrated by the third hierarchy of angels, archangels and archai. Furthermore it also shows the evolutionary dimension in overlay, the sacrifice of the higher hierarchies that gave rise to these new entities as an offspring during the previous planetary stages.

Schema FMC00.142E depicts the schema variants A to D (pictograms) are explained in various sections, for study of various perspectives that all hang together:

1. Aspect A is about The elementary kingdoms and their evolution
2. Aspect B is about the creation of the four kingdoms of nature in previous stages of evolution
3. Aspect C is about the arising of elementals of nature
4. Aspect D is the the rhythm of a year, that describes the alchemical process, consisting of and 'lived' bythe elementals of nature on earth that consititute or make up the living physical plant kingdom, and the archangels 'steering them'
   

Study process guidance

As we venture to cover and sketch and paint ‘the whole of creation’ around us, we will need to tread with patience and persistence, discipline and stamina. We will – necessarily - need many different angles of perspective to show how the various dimensions above hang together. The bar is set high: it is a challenge to try and convey this in a didactic manner. Meaning: the journey will be demanding, as only with sufficiently deep grasp of the above listed dimensions, and especially their interrelations, can we truly ‘see’.

The approach we propose is to sequentially approach our subject matter as follows:

1. - introduction of a simple framework that we will use as a logical mind map, it consists of:

• quick intro on the four above dimensions

• subtopic: four lawfulness – laws of nature
• a schematic in which we can graphically project the concepts we will consider
• sketching the flow downwards (re lecture in GA88-89-91?) .. start with the end in mind

2. - touring the stage and introducing main players

• we look around us: placing the kingdoms on the map to initialize our understanding (physical & consciousness, group souls)
• on earth: introducing elementals
• spiritual scientific study topic: appreciating The elementary kingdoms as a required cornerstone
• what happens in the higher regions of spirit world: looking up to get a glimpse
• later module: how this is linked to cosmic breath, three logoi, occult atom

3. - evolutionary perspective - in a second tour, going into more detail revisiting each .. now following the evolutionary sequence to view how the various kingdoms developed to their current form

• the appearance of current kingdoms through the planetary evolutionary cycles, with addition of principles
• how ‘offsprings’ appear, how elementals appear as part of this process
• the appearance of the Spectrum of elements and ethers through this process
• the continuous dynamic of all spiritual entities involved

Furthermore, the study of Man - the human being required special attention: the charts with 3 subsystems and H3-2-1

Were do the 3 subsystems come from?

• buckets interchanging, up and down: the cosmic lamb lecture + angels in astral body, food
• follow up study – later modules

• the redeeming of kingdoms (see lectures – 1904?-09-05-GA090a also 111/117
• what’s next: after descent - the ascent process

Discussion

Note 1 - The current cosmos and various categories of spirits

Introduction

The Cosmic fractal page lays out how the cosmos and kingdoms of nature we see are a physical mineral rendering front layer of an underlying spiritual reality consistint of spiritual beings. This sentence captures the essence of the spiritual scientific worldview.

Given humanity's stage of evolution and our current contemporary state of waking consciousness, our worldview is based on our sensory perception and the accompanying faculty of thinking. Senses and thinking are bound to the mineral physical, and represent a bandpass filter to the full reality, that is: we only perceive a small band of the full reality.

Initiation exercises such as meditation and concentration can expand this consciousness to use the etheric and astral bodies as reflectors for clairvoyant perception, hence widening that spectrum of perception, the width of the bandpass filter.

Various names and categories of spiritual entities

The spiritual scientific worldview has as foundational basis the spiritual hierarchies, all intertwined and interrelated and in a complex dynamic of continuous evolution. The spiritual hierarchies are thus the 'building block' to understand the make-up, nature, structure of the cosmos. The spiritual hierarchies themselves are the result of cycles of creations with at the center a breathing pulsating heart that is referred to as God, the Logos, or due to its threefold nature also the three Logoi or Trinity. How all this came to be is sketched in Schema FMC00.564, and for our current solar system Schema FMC00.077(and variants). The underlying principle of creation we called logoic principle is illustrated bySchema FMC00.067A and variants. For more see Creation by the three Logoi and Creation of solar system.

Now when studying the kingdoms of nature and the cosmos, spiritual science (such as the teachings by Rudolf Steiner) uses the language of the spiritual hierarchies, three triads for nine hierarchies , with humanity representing the tenth hierarchy 'under development'.

However, when studying the kingdoms of nature around us, what becomes even more important are other spiritual entities not directly part of these nine hierarchies. For example

• the spirits of the Elementary Kingdoms (separated of the Third Hierarchy H3, see Schema FMC00.175),
• the elementals of nature (as in gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders)

Up to here these are quite universal, but then we now zoom in to the terms Rudolf Steiner used in anthroposopical teachings, and that kind of complexify the matter for the student. The reason this is so, is that he introduces additional terms for spiritual entities, and they all are rightly connected to the whole of evolution, but their origin and cohesion is not always as clearly laid out, and hence they can confuse the student of spiritual science. Rudolf Steiner wanted to use more specific appropriate terms that relate or describe the role and function of subclasses of spirits (not dissimilar as he also proposed alternative naming for the nine hierarchies, see Schema FMC00.273).

• Rudolf Steiner throughout his teachings uses the terms Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirits to denote - in the language of the four elements - the combinations of air+warmth (like a hot air balloon, lifting up, Luciferic) and earth+water (like gravity or an anchor, pulling down, Ahrimanic). For illustrations, see - for a start - ao Schema FMC00.297, Schema FMC00.308, Schema FMC00.343 on Christ Module 14 – the counterforces: Lucifer, Ahriman and Sorat. With air+warmth or earth+water, one has to read this across all the different planes or worlds of consciousness, so it relates to both the astral and spirit worlds and not just the elements but also the etheric formative forces (see spectrum of elements and ethers).
  • Side note:
    • Now in the teachings of all the ages, the four elements are a fundamental pillar because they are intrinsically related to creation in our solar system - it is essential to understand how encompassing this is and all the implications for the worldview, hence the importance of Schema FMC00.225 and the GA132 lectures it summarizes.
    • Steiner uses Luciferic and Ahrimanic because these terms connect to spiritual beings related to the spiritual scientific evolutionary framework. However, is most spiritual teachings the four elements are regarded 'as such' without this polarity Luciferic-Ahrimanic. An excellent 20th century example is Franz Bardon: in IIH one works on character transformation based on a self-assessment of one's elemental balance, and this is done both at the astral and mental level. This maps to the characteristic descriptions of Luciferic and Ahrimanic, but it's more universal in the sense it does not confuse people that try to grasp what Ahrimanic really is now, or where it sits in terms of nature. In Rudolf Steiner's teachings it appears everywhere and poses a threath to humanity, but it remains like an invisible force. It's clear from internet forums that the teachings themselves have caused emergence of elementals related to these counterforces based out of a sort of respectfull recognition or fear without a true grasp of the true spiritual nature of the concepts.
• Spirits of rotation of time (SoRT) are an SoRT are an offspring of the First Hierarchy (H1)
• Folk spirits or folk souls are at the archangelic level, and Time spirits or Spirits of the Age are terms used for spirits at the archai level. See more Schema FMC00.472B and on Third Hierarchy

Study process opportunity

Now the 'offspring' affair, the fact certain spirits were spinned off of the regular hierarchies in their stages of evolution, is the essential part and subject of this note, as it is not covered so explicitly by Rudolf Steiner but has to be studied between the lines of all the descriptions given.

As such however, it represents an excellent opportunity for the student to deepen understanding and check the cohesion of what he/she truly understands. The goal of this note is therefore to present this subject as an exercise and practice area for this.

Place to start

The following Schemas can provide some pictures to take at hand at the start of this journey:

• Schema FMC00.069 on Spirits of rotation of time
• Schema FMC00.142 on this page

What becomes immediately apparent is that each of the triads and each of the nine hierarchies spinned off and left behind some residues, that Rudolf Steiner calls the 'offspring'.

To understand the Golden Chain and evolution in depth, it is essential to build a good understanding of how the process of evolution causes this to happen, because these offsprings then play a crucial role in our worldview, they are underlying the cosmic fractal.

So, whereas the regular spiritual hierarchies are the central backbone of evolution, there also:

• non-regular spiritual entities, with this is meant those that are ahead or behind of the regular development. Imagining a Gaussian clock curve for a normal distribution of a class of entities, we mean the population cohorts corresponding to the outskirts left and right of that clock curve.
  • Note: this image is used ao on Schema FMC00.018 and

The best illustration is the fact that all we see as light is luciferic, that the mineral matter is ahrimanic .. that hence even our mineral physical bodies are due to these non-regular or by products of evolution.

Notes WIP - work section

Very old draft notes from very start of the wiki, not updated

Unfortunately this has to be divided up, and after all is said and done and you have done the whole tour to your own satisfaction .. you will be able to ‘see’ in one integrated imagination how it all hangs together. Not limited by the fragmentation and boundaries of thinking and languages.

That being said, it is normal that this can only be a process of gradual study, deepening, and building a new understanding. Only when you are driven to know, and you have an inner fire, will you remain motivated in your quest to dig deeper and build your own grasp on this matter. The nature of the aim is such it can not be passed on a piece of paper or in a single simple lecture. Not simple because it is not: reality is vastly complex. And not a single or a few lectures, because we need to build up a new framework for our thinking in this new spiritual scientific worldview. We can not take this in ‘as is’, because we are not ready and equipped for it, we cannot just fit this in into the physical-materialistic worldview we are taught and grow up in. In fact, we need to change ourselves.

The FMC areas, taken together, make up a foundation for a spiritual scientific worldview. However, rather than approaching it through the many logical chapters and building it up that way, this prototype website is presented as a nicer way to build one’s understanding. We will tap from these FMC areas, and at any point one can branch out of the Golden Chain storyline and connect into the FMC repository for more a more in depth coverage.

Related pages

• Overview influences of the spiritual hierarchies
• The two etheric streams
• The elementary kingdoms

References and further reading

• Maximilian Rebholz: three essays on 'Elementary Kingdoms' (1936 and 1950, all three translated to EN by Free Man Creator initiative)
• Ernst Hagemann: 'World ether, elemental beings, kingdoms of nature' (in EN 1993, 2008; partial extract from original in DE in 1963 as 'Von Wesen des Lebendigen')
• Oskar Kürten: 'Symphonies of Creation' (2018 in EN, original DE in 1990 as 'Über die Elementarreiche in der Darstellung Rudolf Steiners')