869

From Anthroposophy

The year 869 is an important milestone for the contemporary worldview, because it made official - by decree - the abolition of the spirit on Earth by the fourth council of the Catholic Church, held in Constantinople. Trichotomy, the definition of man as body, soul and Spirit, was then declared heretical.

The impact was incisive and profound, given the predominant influence of the Roman catholic church in Europe and across the world for over more than 1100 years, this has influenced and changed the contemporary worldview and prepared the ground for the materialistic culture and worldview based on mineral science. The reason why so little inclination to spirituality is to be discerned in Christian civilisation is that acknowledgment of the Spirit was declared heretical by the 8th Ecumenical Council in the year 869.

This has had a major influence on how Man sees himself a physical being in a body on the planet Earth which is just a 'speck' in the huge universe, rather than Man as a spirit and the crown of creation and the central goal for the solar system evolution and Man's development into the Tenth spiritual hierarchy. See also worldview wars.

However, Rudolf Steiner describes that this time around 869 also represents the period of the merging of the Two streams of development, see Schema FMC00.113 below, and Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams). And this happened in Europe, where a cradle was being developed for the central european culture of the next millenia, see more on Folk souls#Note 1 - Preparation of the central European culture (I)

From an epoch view, one can see storylines coming together:

Aspects

  • 869 - abolishing the spirit
  • Christian teaching conflicted with the fundamental principles of the Roman empire (see 1917-04-17-GA175 below)
  • in the Karmic Relationship lectures is also described the developments in the spiritual world during those events on Earth.
    • "precisely when here on Earth in the year 869 A.D. the Spirit was done away with, there took place in the spiritual world above the meeting between the souls of Haroun al Rashid and his counsellor and the souls of Alexander the Great and Aristotle" which was "an exchange of thought and ideas in the spiritual world, of immense, far-reaching significance". (1924-08-14-GA240)
  • abolishing the soul (see also Worldview wars and Contemporary worldview war)
    • after abolishing the spirit in the 9th century .. in the 20th century "there is now a growing tendency to abolish the soul in its turn .. today the time is ripe for the abolition of the soul .. powerful .. impulses are at work .. preparing to abolish the soul. There will be no need to summon Councils as in the ninth century .. things are done differently today. (1917-03-27-GA175)
  • relevant schemas for different perspectives:
    • Schema FMC00.113 is an illustration by Rudolf Steiner with description from a lecture of 1924-08-27-GA240
    • Schema FMC00.441 gives a high level epoch view on the two streams and their meeting in the fourth cultural age
    • Schema FMC00.438 provides a navigational aid with links to topic pages for the two streams
    • related: see Schema FMC00.167 on Transition between 4th and 14th century
  • around the same timeframe in Europe, a cradle was being developed for the central european culture of the next millenia: Folk souls#Note 1 - Preparation of the central European culture (I)
  • see also (to be developed further):

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.113 depicts the meeting of two streams of Christ experience: the old 'outer' pagan christianity seeing the spiritual sun in nature's elements, and the new 'inner' christianity living in the hearts of Man. This leads to the struggle and change symbolized by the Parsifal story. Parsifal does not have to search or find the grail externally but in his own heart, symbolized by the 'asking questions'. See also: Christ Module 6 - principle in image and story.

For background on the two streams, see e Two streams of development, as well as Germanic mythology, and compare with Schema FMC00.432 and Current Postatlantean epoch.

FMC00.113.jpg


Schema FMC00.441 is a navigational aid schema: the green boxes represent topic pages on this wiki, related as represented graphically.

The schema shows that Ancient history of myths and legends is a representation of ancient Mystery School tradition in cultures, incl. initiatory processes and a previous more primeval form of spiritual science. Whereas the Southern is most well known, the Northern stream is much less known and understood. The latter needs to be approached in a different way, see the topic pages on the lower right. This background is required in order to see how the encompassing importance picture of the two streams emerges, and how it relates to Christianity (see middle: shepards/magi and Christmas/Eastern affinity).

See also: The Michaelic stream#Substream polarities where this is framed broader, as one can zoom out and link back to the descent of human spirits to Earth and the evolution of the main Human races.

FMC00.441.jpg

Schema FMC00.438 illustrates the essential agenda for humanity in the Current Postatlantean epoch to develop the first spiritual principle of Man's higher triad, the spirit-self (or manas) - see Schema FMC00.130. This will be achieved for a large part of humanity in the sixth cultural age (light yellow) as the fruits of the fructification of the consciousness soul by the Christ Impulse (see text in red, and the two mini infographics - see also Schema FMC00.428A).

This critical period of the fourth to the sixth cultural ages was prepared in the first four cultural ages (see Recapitulation - Schema FMC00.168), in parallel in a Southeastern and Northwestern stream. Both streams relate to the Atlantean migrations and the development of body and soul in the different populations (see also Human races). The Northwestern stream was in a preparatory waiting mode for four ages, see what is discussed on the topic pages available from both Germanic mythology and Mystery School tradition, a.o. but not limited to Ragnarok, Nibelungen, Druidic and Trotten Mysteries, Wotan Impulse, etc). The two streams met in the fourth cultural age, see Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams.

The spiral below (see also Schema FMC00.169) illustrates how evolution proceeds in discrete jumps, and the whole Schema is a concrete example of that in more detail. The central node of the spiral happens between the fourth to sixth cultural ages, of which the fifth is pivotal or central.

This positions the truly pivotal nature and importance of the current times, as the Christ Impulse is to fructify the consciousness soul so as to get the fruits required for this whole epoch in the next cultural age (Schema FMC00.169A). See also Schema FMC00.052: the next three millenia are crucial, and the current (and next) incarnation(s) is and are therefore pivotal.

Additional schemas that complement this schema: Schema FMC00.432, Schema FMC00.205B and Schema FMC00.441 below

Last, the Mystery of Golgatha in the center of the spiral is not just central to the current epoch, but to the whole Earth cycle and the evolution of the solar system cosmos: it is the start of a new creation, see Schema FMC00.400 on Cosmic breath of Brahma. For perspective, see also the PDF file The great journey of humanity.

FMC00.438.jpg

Lecture coverage and references

Wikipedia

The fourth council of Constantinople or the eighth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, was held in Constantinople from October 5, 869, to February 28, 870.

It was poorly attended, the first session by only 12 bishops and even the final one by only 103. In contrast the pro-Photian council of 879-80 was attended by 383 bishops.

The Council met in ten sessions from October 869 to February 870 and issued 27 canons. The council was called by Emperor Basil I the Macedonian, with the support of Pope Hadrian II.

1917-03-27-GA175

Now you know that the doctrine which is outmoded today but which in the early centuries sought to preserve the threefold division of man and the cosmos was Gnosticism. In later centuries Gnosticism was proscribed and finally suppressed so that it disappeared completely. I do not say that it ought to have survived; I simply wish to register the historical fact that Gnosticism held promise of a spiritual conception of a Mystery of Golgotha and was ultimately suppressed. Events now took a strange turn. Roman traditionalism was increasingly influenced by Christianity and the further this influence penetrated the less Rome understood its relationship to the 'spiritual man', and certain gnostic Christians gave increasing offence by continuing to speak of body, soul and spirit. In circles where Catholic Christianity had become the official religion there were repeated attempts to suppress the idea of the spirit. They felt that all reference co the spirit should be ignored, otherwise the old ideas of the tripartite division of man might revive again. So matters pursued their course. When we make a careful study of the early Christian centuries we find that many problems that are usually accounted for in other ways are seen in their true light when we realize that, as Christianity fell increasingly under the influence of Rome, the avowed object of Rome was progressively to eliminate the idea of the spirit. When we recognize that Western Christianity had of necessity to dethrone the spirit, innumerable questions of conscience and of epistomology are resolved.

And this development ultimately led to the eighth Ecumenical Council of 869. This Council laid down a dogma according to which it was contrary to Christianity to speak of body, soul and spirit, but truly Christian to speak of man as consisting of body and soul alone.

The actual wording may not have been quite so explicit, but was later interpreted in this way. At first the Council simply stated that man possessed an intellectual soul and a spiritual soul. This formula was coined to avoid any reference to the spirit as a special entity, for the avowed object of the Council was to suppress all knowledge of the spirit.

This decree had unforeseen consequences. Contemporary philosophers begin their investigations by studying body and soul as if they were independent entities. If you were to ask, for example, a man like Wundt, on what grounds he accepted only the dichotomy of man, he would reply in good faith that it was on factual grounds since, from the evidence of direct observation, there was no sense in speaking of body, soul and spirit, but only of the body which looks outward and of the soul which looks inward. This is self-evident, he would reply. He had no idea that this was the consequence of the decree of the eighth Ecumenical Council. Even today philosophers do not mention the spirit. They follow the dogma laid down by the eighth Ecumenical Council. Precisely why they deny the spirit, though not openly, they do not know, any more than the Roman Cardinals knew what they were swearing to when they took an oath to preserve intact the fund which no longer existed. The real creative forces of history are all too seldom taken into consideration. Today anyone who rejects the conclusion of “unprejudiced science”, as it is called, which maintains that man consists of body and soul alone, is decried as an ignoramus, simply because the scientists themselves are unaware that their assumptions are based on the decrees of the Council of 869. And so it is with many other things. This Council is important because it sheds considerable light upon the evolution of Western thought.

You know that Western Christendom was deeply divided by the schism between the Eastern Church and the Church of Rome on doctrinal questions which still divide them today. The dogmatic ground of dissension — for which, of course, there are other, deep-seated motives — stemmed from the famous question of filioque. In a later Council (the Orthodox Church recognized only the first seven Councils) the Latin Church recognized the double Procession, namely, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. This was declared to be heretical by the Eastern Church which maintained that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father. The great confusion over this dogma could only arise because the conception of the spirit had become blurred. All understanding of the spirit had been gradually lost. This is undoubtedly connected with the fact that, from the beginning of the Fifth postAtlantean epoch onwards, man had to be denied for a time all perception of the spirit. In face of this truth, the events described above are only, so to speak, the tip of the iceberg. We must probe beneath the surface if we are to arrive at a valid point of view which is rooted in reality.

Now the period of evolution which played an important part in the establishment of this dogma of the dichotomy of Man has not yet ended. The Christian theologians of the Middle Ages who still subscribed to the existing traditions — for it was only orthodox Church doctrine that maintained that man consisted of body and soul, whilst the alchemists and others who were still familiar with the old traditions knew of course that he was a trichotomy — these theologians knew how difficult it was to hold orthodox opinions whilst at the same time they had to admit that the heretical doctrine of man's trichotomy contained a kernel of truth. We see the frantic attempts of these theologians to evade this issue. If we do not recognize this dilemma we shall fail altogether to understand mediaeval theology.

Now this evolutionary period is far from concluded for it coincides with an important impulse in the development of Western civilization. And because, in the course of the twentieth century, many changes will be wrought which we must be aware of if we wish to understand our present epoch, I must refer to this period once again.

  • Originally (if such a word may be used of something that has arisen in comparatively recent times) the being of Man was divided into body, soul and spirit.
  • The course of evolution was such that by the ninth century it had become possible to abolish the spirit.
  • But matters did not rest there. These important changes are simply overlooked today. The complete transformation of thinking by Saint-Martin, for example, has been completely ignored hitherto. Having abolished the spirit, matters did not end there. There is now a growing tendency to abolish the soul in its turn. As yet only the first steps in this direction have been taken; but today the time is ripe for the abolition of the soul. But man fails to recognize contemporary tendencies which are of decisive importance. Already powerful evolutionary impulses are at work which are preparing to abolish the soul. There will be no need to summon Councils as in the ninth century. Things are done differently today. I must repeat that I have no wish to criticize, I merely place the facts before you.
1917-04-17-GA175

provides background positioning, the synopsis reads:

Events of today a continuation of events in the early years of Christianity. The Roman emperors, initiated by Imperial decree, gained limited knowledge of cosmic events. They had a presentiment that the advent of Christ was a turning-point in human evolution. The policy of Tiberius to merge pagan Mystery teachings with the Mystery cult of the Roman Empire, failed; also the policy of Hadrian.

Quotation from Philo - the need “to give heed to the ancestry of the soul and to ignore temporal things”. Barrès quoted again.

Christian teaching conflicted with the fundamental principles of the Roman empire. Licinius’ decision to challenge Christianity. Organized a public festival at Heliopolis to ridicule baptism. Result - the actor, Gelasinus, becomes a convinced Christian.

The Sibylline Oracles predict the downfall of Rome. Nero sets fire to Rome. Constantine the Great, aware of the prophecy of the Sibylline Oracle, wished to combine his brand of Christianity with the ancient Mysteries and thus deny Christianity to the public. The mission of Christianity was to unveil the Mysteries. Survival of the spirit of Rome in jurisprudence, etc; Constantine knew of the existence of a primordial wisdom which had been preserved in Troy by initiate-priests. His decision to transfer the capital to Byzantium. Constantinople founded A.D. 326. Pallas Athene as the symbol of ancient wisdom. The legend of the Palladium. The spiritual impulses in Constantine and early Christianity have influenced the cultural development of the West.

1924-08-14-GA240

It is by these same paths that we are able to follow the further destinies of individuals such as Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor. In order to understand later developments in European civilisation it is of the greatest importance to take account of these two individuals, above all of the bond between them in their thought and principles of action. Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor also bore with them through the gate of death a deep and strong affinity with the individualities of Alexander and Aristotle — who had, of course, preceded them in earthly existence by many centuries — and an intense longing to come into direct contact with them again. Moreover a meeting actually took place, with consequences of far-reaching significance.

For a while, Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor journeyed onwards together in the super-sensible world, looking down from thence upon happenings in the civilised world further to the West, in Greece, in certain regions North of the Black Sea, and so forth. They looked down upon it all and among the events upon which their gaze fell was one of which much has been said in anthroposophical lectures, namely the 8th General Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in the year 869 A.D.

The effect of this 8th Ecumenical Council upon the development of Western civilisation was incisive and profound, for Trichotomy, the definition of man as body, soul and Spirit, was then declared heretical. It was decreed that true Christians must speak of man as a twofold being, consisting of body and soul only, the soul possessing certain spiritual qualities and forces. The reason why so little inclination to spirituality is to be discerned in Christian civilisation is that acknowledgment of the Spirit was declared heretical by the 8th Ecumenical Council in the year 869.

It was a momentous event, the effects of which have been far too little heeded. The Spirit was done away with: man was to be regarded as consisting only of body and soul. But the shattering experience for one who can observe the spiritual life and above all for one who truly participates in it is that precisely when here on earth in the year 869 A.D. the Spirit was done away with, there took place in the spiritual world above the meeting between the souls of Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor and the souls of Alexander the Great and Aristotle.

In thinking about what follows, you must accustom yourselves to the fact that super-sensible happenings will now be spoken of in Anthroposophy as naturally as we speak of happenings in the physical world. The lives of Alexander the Great and of Aristotle in those particular incarnations marked the culmination of a certain epoch. The impulse which had been given by ancient cultures and had come to expression in Greece was formulated by Aristotle into concepts which in the form of ideas dominated the West and human civilisation in general for long ages of time.

Alexander the Great, the pupil and friend of Aristotle, had with stupendous forcefulness spread the impulses given by Aristotle over wide areas of the then known world. This impulse was still working in Asia in the days of Haroun al Raschid. It had long possessed a centre of brilliant and illustrious learning in Alexandria but at the same time, working through many hidden channels, it had a profound effect upon the whole of oriental culture.

All this had reached a certain culmination. The impulses of ancient spirituality in their manifold forms had converged in Alexandrianism and Aristotelianism. Christianity was born. The Mystery of Golgotha took place — in an age when the individualities of Alexander and Aristotle were not incarnated on the earth but were in the spiritual world, in intimate communion with what we call the dominion of Michael whose earthly rule had also come to its close, for Oriphiel had then succeeded Michael as the ruling Time-Spirit. Centuries had passed since the Mystery of Golgotha. What Alexander and Aristotle had established on earth, the aims to which they had dedicated all their powers, the one in the field of thought, the other giving effect to a great genius for rulership — all this had been at work on the earth below. And from the spiritual world these two souls beheld it flowing on through the centuries, during one of which the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place. They turned their gaze upon all that was being done to spread a knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha. They saw their work spreading abroad on the earth beneath, spreading too through the activities of individuals like Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor.

But in the souls of Alexander and Aristotle themselves there was an urge for something completely new, for a new beginning — not a mere continuation of what was already on the earth, but veritably a new beginning. In a certain respect, of course, there would be continuation, for it was not a question of sweeping away the old. But a new and mighty impulse whereby a particular form of Christianity would be instilled into earthly civilisation — it was to the inauguration of this impulse that Alexander and Aristotle dedicated themselves. When their karma led them down again to incarnation on the earth ( it was before the meeting had taken place with Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor) they lived, unknown and unheeded, in a corner of Europe not without importance for anthroposophy, dying at an early age, but gazing for a brief moment as it were through a window into the civilisation of the West, receiving impressions and impulses but giving none of any significance themselves. That was to come later.

They had returned again into the spiritual world and were in the spiritual world when in the year 869 the 8th Ecumenical Council was held at Constantinople. It was then that the meeting took place in the spiritual world between Aristotle and Alexander on the one side and Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor on the other. It was an exchange of thought and ideas in the super-sensible world, of immense, far-reaching significance. We must realise that exchanges or conferences of this nature in the super-sensible world are of infinitely greater moment than mere discussions in words. When people on the earth sit together in discussion, when words shoot hither and thither without having much effect one way or the other, this is not even a shadowy image of what transpires when great decisions affecting the spiritual life .. are taken in super-sensible worlds.

Alexander and Aristotle affirmed at that time that what had been established in earlier days must now be guided undeviatingly into the dominion of Michael. For it was known that Michael would again assume his Regency in the 19th century.

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Heinz Herbert Schöffler (editor, various contributors): 'Der Kampf um das Menschenbild : das achte ökumenische Konzil von 869/870 und seine Folgen' (1986)
  • Markus Osterrieder: Verschweigen des Geistes (Einige Anmerkungen zur geistesgeschichtlichen Bedeutung des Konzils von 869/70)
  • Terry Boardman: 'The ‘Abolition’ of the Spirit: The Enigma of Canon XI – The Year 869 & Its Significance in the Destiny of Europe (2008)
    • article in New View magazine Spring 2008, online here: http://threeman.org/?p=1092
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