869

From Free Man Creator

The year 869 in the fourth Greco-Latin cultural age 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 civilization 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.

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. This happened in Europe, where a cradle was being developed for the central european culture of the consciousness soul in the next millenia, see Central European cultural basin.

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

Aspects

Eighth Council of 869

  • 869 - abolishing the spirit
    • the college for destruction of initiation, gnosis, spirit (see Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams#1922-07-23-GA214).
    • the spirit cannot be completely eradicated – but only a few will carry it into the future (1925-03-03-GA265)
    • Christian teaching conflicted with the fundamental principles of the Roman empire (see 1917-04-17-GA175 below)
    • the Karmic Relationship lectures also describe 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 spirit and soul

  • about forces against the spirit
    • The development of the consciousness soul demands liberty of thought; and this can flourish only in a certain atmosphere. In the future this will become increasingly challenging due to pressures of dogmatic authority striving for power. (1916-10-10-GA168, see 869#1916-10-10-GA168)
    • the (Roman) state authority and Jesuits battle against the spirit .. taking religiosity, piety from the human being (1925-03-03-GA265)
    • the principle of Jesuitism and the battle against the spirit
      • note: one has to distinguish between the 'principle of Jesuitism', the Jesuit order part of the Catholic church, and individuals.
      • 'the principle of Jesuitism' is an expression of Ahrimanic influences: dogmatic authority, manipulation for purposes of worldy power
      • the Jesuit order is characterized by such attributes as:
        • educational principles and esoteric exercises influencing and controlling the free will of others (1911-10-05-GA131) and organized systematic manipulation of spiritual truths for purposes of earthly power using authoritarian religious dogma, thereby fostering materialism cloaked in religious forms
        • Jesus vs Christ, the worldly vs the spiritual: positioning Jesus as king of the world, which is exactly opposing the essence of Christ-Jesus' temptation in the desert by Ahriman (have the Earth as main sphere of kingly activity), and the statement "My kingdom is not of this world"
      • individuals, a.i. founder or the order, Ignatius of Loyola
        • the impulse for the will which was given by Ignatius of Loyola was wonderful .. it has become Ahrimanically hardened today. People ascribe the present development of the Jesuits to Ignatius of Loyola. But it no longer has anything to do with him. Ignatius of Loyola reincarnated a long time ago, and ... separated himself from the movement completely ... the Jesuitic movement has become completely Ahrimanic since then. It is no longer connected with Ignatius and it is active in an Ahrimanic way. (1924-09-09-GA346)
  • 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)

various

Inspirational quotes

1917-04-24-GA175

see 325#1917-04-24-GA175

History proper begins with the Council of Constantinople in 869 ... As I have said, history is represented as an unbroken chain, a continuous process. But if a radical gap is anywhere to be found in an apparently continuous process, then it is here.

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

see also: Gnosis and gnostic teachings#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.

1924-08-27-GA240 see also: Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams#1924-08-27-GA240

At the time when Charlemagne, in his own way, was establishing a certain form of Christian culture in Europe, Haroun al Raschid was living over yonder in Asia Minor. All the oriental wisdom and spirituality to be found at that time in architecture, in art, in science, in religion, in literature, in poetry – it was all gathered at the Court of Haroun al Raschid. And at his side there was a Counsellor, a man who was not initiated in all these arts and sciences at that time, but who had been an Initiate in earlier times, in a former life. Around these two men, Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor, we find that all the wisdom which had been carried by Alexander into Asia, all the teachings which had been drawn from the old nature - wisdom and were imparted by Aristotle to those he was able to instruct  — all this was changed. Alexandrianism and Aristotelianism were permeated and impregnated at the Court of Haroun al Raschid with Arabism, with Mohammedanism.

And then, all the learning thus permeated with Arabism was carried over into the stream of Christianity by way of Greece, but especially by way of North Africa, Italy and Spain. It was carried over, inculcated as it were into the world of Christendom.

But before this, Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor had passed through the gate of death, and from that life which leads from death to a new birth they looked down on what was taking place on earth in the expeditions of the Muhammedan Moors to Spain. From the spiritual world they watched the form of culture which they themselves had promoted and which had been spread by their successors. Haroun al Raschid concentrated his attention from the spiritual world more on the regions of Greece, Italy and Spain: his Counsellor more on the stream going out from the East across the regions to the North of the Black Sea, through Russia and into Central Europe.

And now the question arises: What was the destiny of Alexander and Aristotle themselves? They were deeply bound up with the Rulership of Michael but they were not incarnated on the earth at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha.

We must try to get a clear conception of the two contrasting pictures.

  • On the Earth are those who were contempories of the Mystery of Golgotha. Christ comes down through the Mystery of Golgotha, becomes Man, and from then on lives in the earth - sphere.
  • And what is happening on the Sun? On the Sun there are the souls who at that time belonged to Michael, who were living in his sphere. These souls witnessed, from the Sun, the departure of Christ from the Sun and His descent to earth. On the earth there were those who witnessed His arrival. That is the difference.

The experience of those who were on earth during the Michael Rulership at the time of Alexander, was that they saw as it were the other direction of the Christ from the Sun. They live on – I will not now mention unimportant incarnations — and they experience, in the spiritual world, that significant point of time in the 9th century, about the year 869, when there took place the meeting of the Christ with His own Image, with His own Life - Spirit brought over from pagan, pre - Christian Christianity.

Another meeting also took place in the spiritual world, a meeting of the individualities living in Alexander the Great and Aristotle with the individualities who had lived as Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor. The wisdom from Asia, in a Muhammedanised form, living in Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor after his death, came into contact in the spiritual world, with Alexander and Aristotle. On the one side Aristotelianism and Alexandrianism, but impregnated with Mohahammedanism and on the other, the real Aristotle and the real Alexander — not a weakened form of their teachings. Alexander and Aristotle had witnessed the Mystery of Golgotha from the Sun.

Then a great spiritual exchange, a great heavenly Council, if one may call it so, took place in the spiritual world between Mohahammedanised Aristotelianism and Christanised Aristotelianism which had, however, been imbued in the spiritual world with the Christ Impulse.

In the spiritual world which borders on our physical earth – it was here that Alexander and Aristotle met with Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor and consulted together as to the further progress of Christianity in Europe, with an eye to what should come at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century, when Michael would again have the rulership on Earth. This all took place in the light raying from that other event, namely, the meeting of Christ with His own Image. That heavenly Council was permeated by the influence of this meeting. And the lines, the threads of the spiritual life of humanity were projected with great intensity in the spiritual world which borders on  the physical earth.

Below here on the Earth itself, the Church Fathers gathered together in Constantinople at the Eight Ecumenical Council, where they formulated the dogma that man does not consist of body, soul and Spirit, but only of body and soul, the soul possessing certain spiritual attributes. Trichotomy — the definition of man as body, soul and Spirit – was done away with and anyone who persisted in believing it was declared to be a heretic. The Christian Fathers in Europe never spoke of body, soul and Spirit, but only of body and soul.

The decisive event which took place in the year 869 in the supersensible worlds as I have described it, cast its shadows down into the earthly world. The Dark Age, the Kali Yuga, received a special impetus, while what I have just described was taking place above, in the spiritual world.

[continued ..]

About forces against the spirit

1887-01 - Helena Blavatsky

letter by H.P. Blavatsky in a January 1887 addressed to Alfred Sinnett and marked with the words 'private and confidential'

source: 'The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett' (1973, Letter CVI p. 230)

It would be well perhaps, if the Jesuits contented themselves with making dupes of Freemasons and opposing the Theosophists and Occultists using for it the Protestant clergy as ‘cat’s paw’. But their plottings have a much wider scope, and embrace a minuteness of detail and care of which the world in general has no idea. Everything is done by them to bring the mass of mankind again to the state of passive ignorance which they well know is the only one which can help them to the consummation of their purpose of Universal Despotism.

1911-11-05-GA131

about jesuit training

In reaction against many other spiritual streams in Europe, the opposite way was taken by those who are usually called Jesuits. The radical, fundamental difference between what we justifiably call the Christian way of the Spirit and the Jesuit way of the Spirit, which gives a one-sided exaggeration to the Jesus-Principle, is that the intention of the Jesuit way is to work directly, at all times, upon the Will. The difference is clearly shown in the method by which the pupil of Jesuitism is educated. Jesuitism is not to be taken lightly, or merely exoterically, but also esoterically, for it is rooted in esotericism. It is not, however, rooted in the spiritual life that is poured out through the symbol of Pentecost, but it seeks to root itself directly in the Jesus-element of the Son, which means in the Will; and thereby it exaggerates the Jesus-element of the Will.

...

[vizualization exercises with the imagination of Jesus]

...

What then follows is this. In the further exercises Christ Jesus — and now we may no longer say Christ but exclusively Jesus — is represented as the universal King of the Worlds, and thereby the Jesus element is exaggerated. Because Christ had to be incarnated in a human body, the purely spiritual took part in the physical world; but over against this participation stand the monumental and most significant words: ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ We can exaggerate the Jesus element by making Jesus into a king of this world, by making Him that which He would have become if He had not resisted the tempter who wished to give Him ‘all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof’. Then Jesus of Nazareth would have been a king who, unlike other kings who possess only a portion of the Earth, would have had the whole earth under his sway. If we think of this king portrayed in this guise, his kingly power so increased that the whole earth is his domain, then we should have the very picture that followed the other exercises through which the personal will of each Jesuit pupil had been sufficiently strengthened.

To prepare for this picture of ‘King Jesus’, this Ruler over all the kingdoms of the Earth, ...

...

Thus we see how in recent centuries we encounter these two movements, among many others:

  • one has exaggerated the Jesus-element and sees in ‘King Jesus’ the sole ideal of Christianity,
  • while the other looks solely at the Christ-element and carefully sets aside anything that could go beyond it. This second outlook has been much calumniated because it maintains that Christ has sent the Spirit, so that, indirectly through the Spirit, Christ can enter into the hearts and minds of men.

In the development of civilisation during the last few centuries there is hardly a greater contrast than that between Jesuitism and Rosicrucianism, for Jesuitism contains nothing of what Rosicrucianism regards as the highest ideal concerning human worth and human dignity, while Rosicrucianism has always sought to guard itself from any influence which could in the remotest sense be called Jesuitical.

In this lecture I wished to show how even so lofty an element as the Jesus-principle can be exaggerated and then becomes dangerous, and how necessary it is to sink oneself into the depths of the Christ-Being if we wish to understand how the strength of Christianity must reside in esteeming, to the very highest degree, human dignity and human worth, and in strictly refraining from groping our clumsy way into man's inmost sanctuary. Rosicrucianism, even more than Christian mysticism, is attacked by the Jesuit element, because the Jesuits feel that true Christianity is being sought elsewhere than in the setting which offers merely ‘King Jesus’ in the leading role.

But the Imaginations here indicated, together with the prescribed exercises, have made the Will so strong that even protests brought against it in the name of the Spirit can be defeated.

1916-10-10-GA168

In medicine, in law and in every other sphere people declare themselves from the outset incompetent to judge, and accept what science tells them. The complications of modern life make this understandable. But under the pressure of authority we shall become more and more helpless. And systematically to build up this force of authority, this habit of authority, is actually the principle of Jesuitism.

And Jesuitism in the Catholic religion is only a special instance of other less noticeable performances in other directions.

It begins in the sphere of ecclesiastical dogma with the tendency to uphold papal authority projected over from the fourth post-Atlantean age into the fifth where it can do no good. But the same Jesuitical principle will gradually transfer itself to other spheres of life.

In a form hardly differing from the Jesuitism of dogmatic religion, we already find it in medical circles where a certain dogmatism strives after more power for the medical profession. This is typical of Jesuitical aspiration everywhere; and it will grow stronger and stronger.

People will find themselves more and more tied down by what authority imposes upon them.

And in face of this ahrimanic opposition—for such it is—salvation for the fifth post-Atlantean age will be found in asserting the rights of the consciousness soul which is wishing to develop. But as the gift of reason is no longer bestowed upon us like our two arms by Nature, as was still to some extent the case in the fourth post-Atlantean age, this can only come about through our good will to develop the faculties of understanding and sound judgment.

The development of the consciousness soul demands liberty of thought; and this can flourish only in a particular aura, in a certain atmosphere.

1918-11-02-GA185

For reasons I have already mentioned, the life and aspirations of men at the beginning of the fifteenth century are characterized by a spirit of Opposition to the uniformity of the Roman Church which operated through suggestionism.

This assault of personality again provokes a reaction—the counter-thrust of Jesuitism which comes to the support of the Romanism of the Church. Jesuitism in its original sense (though everything today, if you will forgive the brutal expression, is reduced to idle gossip and Jesuitism is on everyone's lips) is only possible within the Roman Catholic Church.

For fundamentally Jesuitism is based on the following: whilst in the true People of the Christ the revelation of the Christ impulse remains in the super-sensible world and does not descend into the physical world (Solovieff wishes to spiritualize the material world, not to materialize the spiritual world), the aim of Jesuitism is to drag down the Kingdom of God into the temporal world and to awaken impulses in the souls of men so that the Kingdom of God operates on the physical plane in the same way as the laws of the physical world.

Jesuitism, therefore, aspires to establish a temporal sovereignty in the form of a temporal kingdom of the Christ. It wishes to achieve this by training the members of the Jesuit order after the fashion of an army. The individual Jesuit feels himself to be a spiritual soldier.

He feels Christ, not as the spiritual Christ who acts upon the world through the medium of the Spirit, but he feels Him—and to this end he must direct his thoughts and feelings—as a temporal sovereign whom he serves as one serves an earthly King, or as a soldier serves his generalissimo. The ecclesiastical administration, since it is concerned with spiritual matters, will, of course, be different from that of a secular military regime; but the spiritual order must be subject to strict military discipline. Everything must be so ordained that the true Christian becomes a soldier of the generalissimo Jesus. In essence this is the purpose of those exercises which every Jesuit practises in order to develop in himself that vast power which the Jesuit order has long possessed and which will still be felt in its decadent forms in the chaotic times that lie ahead. The purpose of the meditations prescribed by Ignatius Loyola and which are faithfully observed by Jesuits is to make the Jesuit first and foremost a soldier of the generalissimo Jesus Christ.

...

Where the continuous influence which the Christ impulse had exercised within the People of the Christ had been blunted, it is clear that Jesuitism had to assume this extreme form. And the question arises: is there not another form of Christianity diametrically opposed to that of Jesuitism? In that event a force would have to emerge in the territory occupied by the People of the Church. From the different reactions of Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, Calvinism, Schwenkfeldism and the Anabaptists, from this chaos and fragmentation, a force would have to emerge which not only follows the line of Jesuit thought (for Jesuitism is only an extreme expression of Catholic dogma)—but which is diametrically opposed to Jesuitism, something which seeks to break away from this community of the People of the Church, whilst Jesuitism seeks to be ever more deeply involved in it. Jesuitism wishes to transform the Christ impulse into a purely temporal sovereignty, to found a terrestrial state which is at the same time a Jesuit state, and which is governed in accordance with the principles of those who have volunteered to become soldiers of the generalissimo Christ. What could be the force which is the antithesis of Jesuitism?

1924-09-09-GA346

We already have people today who are being trained in an apocalyptic way; but they are being apocalyptically trained so that they receive their training of the will in a way which is oriented specifically towards the Roman catholic church; these are the Jesuits. There is something very apocalyptic about the Jesuits' training and exercises. The Jesuits' exercises involve a training of the will, which always underlies the perception of apocalyptic things. Hence anyone who takes a real priesthood in the sense of a Christian renewal seriously today has to keep this training of the Jesuits in mind.

He must understand the Apocalypse so that he can find the right impulse for his will in it, whereas although the impulse for the will which was given by Ignatius of Loyola was wonderful, it was very one-sided, and it has become Ahrimanically hardened today. For Ignatius of Loyola is a good example of how wrongly we can look at the world if we don't gain knowledge of it in a spiritual scientific way.

People ascribe the present development of the Jesuits to Ignatius of Loyola. But it no longer has anything to do with him. Ignatius of Loyola reincarnated a long time ago, and of course he has separated himself from the movement completely, for he lived as Emanuel Swedenborg; and so the Jesuitic movement has become completely Ahrimanic since then. It is no longer connected with Ignatius and it is active in an Ahrimanic way. Here you have a kind of shadowy counter image of what you must train yourself to do, when you take apocalyptic things into your ego in the way I mentioned, so that your ego becomes' a sum of active forces which are also apocalyptic.

1925-03-03-GA265

only three weeks before his death, Rudolf Steiner to Ludwig Polzer- Hoditz

Bear it continually in your consciousness: the Jesuits have taken religiosity, piety from the human being; they are identical with the Roman state authority. The battle against the spirit, i.e., the sin against the spirit, is the instrument of their authority, the only sin that Scripture says will not be forgiven. And yet the spirit cannot be completely eradicated – but only a few will carry it into the future.

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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