Apocalyptic seals

The images and descriptions in the Book of Revelation have long been a source of inspiration for artistic representation. Well-known are the fifteen woodcuts published by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) in 1498, depicting various scenes from the Book of Revelation.

The seven apocalyptic seals of 'Revelation':

• were designed by Clara von Rettich (1860-1916) for the 1907 theosophical congress in Munich on the basis of earlier drawings by Eliphas Levi (1810-1875) and sketches and indications by Rudolf Steiner. Two versions exist of von Rettich's paintings, one from 1907 and another from 1911.
• Arild Rosenkrantz (1870-1964) painted the seals for the first time in 1923 under the personal guidance of Rudolf Steiner. They were published in 1924 in black and white in an English portfolio edition 'Occult Seals and Columns'.
• Rudolf Steiner's own interpretation of the seals from 1907 can be found in John Fletcher's 'Art inspired by Rudolf Steiner” (1987), see also volume GA284 'Rosicrucianism Renewed: The Unity of Art, Science and Religion. The Theosophical Congress of Whitsun 1907'

The seven apocalyptic seals were made by esoteric and rosecrucian schools, and depict images of the Book of Revelation and stages of Man's development and the purpose of evolution, hence they also appear on the overview Schema FMC00.486.

• 1st seal: Man as a future creative God - see explanation below and Schema FMC00.367 on The human heart#human heart as a future organ
• 2nd seal: past group souls and Christ as future group soul of humanity - see Schema FMC00.348 on Group souls of humanity and Second Adam for explanation, as well as on Mystical Lamb. Compare also with Schema FMC00.215A
• 3th seal: Man back to the spirit world - see Schema FMC00.350 and explanations below on this page
• 4th seal: the Trees of Knowledge and Life - see Schema FMC00.228 on Golden legend for explanation
• 5th seal: 'woman dressed in the sun' - the reunion of Sun and Earth - see Schema FMC00.374 and variants on Reunion of Sun
• 6th seal: the purified human being in 'Michael and the dragon' (to be done)
• 7th seal: the 'Mystery of the Holy Grail' - see Schema FMC00.259 and explanations below on this page

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.368 provides an overview of the seven apocalyptic seals.

Left: from Eliphas Levi (1810-1875), in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1854-1856)

Right: the version painted by Clara von Rettich (1860-1916) for the 1907 theosophical congress in Munich, based on sketches by Rudolf Steiner (clearly inspired on Levi).

Observe the main themes correspond in broad outline for the first six, the seventh of the Mystery of the Holy Grail (see Schema FMC00.259) is however completely different.

Schema FMC00.350 depicts the third of the seven apocalyptic seals, left a sketches provided by Rudolf Steiner, the two on the right are paintings by Clara Rettich of 1907 and 1911. It is probably the most well known seal when considering the Book of Revelation, showing the trumpets and the four horsemen.

Schema FMC00.259: depicts the seventh apocalyptic seal from the Book of Revelation, representing the Mystery of the Holy Grail and the future state of the human being

• The cube represents a transparent diamond cube made of pure carbon. Man will create the cube when he has progressed to the point where he uses carbon itself to build his body. This cube of crystallized pure carbon is the best indication of the future state of man.
  • See Christ Module 6 - Principle in image and story#Philosopher's stone - plant metaphor - teachings of carbon.
  • Man will have progressed so far that he will rise above the physical dimensions of space but also recognize the oncoming contra-dimensions of the etheric formative forces. See also: mathematics of the etheric
• The serpents signify the upward development to the higher. The luminous coils and serpent symbolizes the devoted nature of knowledge, required to grasp the world spiral in the Caduceus, which will then be fiery, which winds itself out of pure knowledge, and then transforms into the downward-pointing pure chalice.
• The grail cup is represented with the chalice turned downward. The chalice of the plant or 'cup' is today directed openly upwards, pure and chaste. With the human being it is reversed. In the future the human cup will become chaste and will turn itself downward; hence is the Grail shown here as a chalice turned downward. Ssee Schema FMC00.270 and variants on on Christ Module 6 - Principle in image and story.
• The dove represents the human being who has become purely spiritual and innocent
• The rainbow indicates the sevenfold creative Man that becomes rules over spiritual cosmic forces.
• The characters around the seal refer to the Rosicrucian 'Ex Deo Nascimur (EDN) • In Christo Morimur (ICM) • Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus (PSSR)'. See: EDN - ICM - PSSR.

Schema FMC00.486: is an integrative poster that brings together a multitude of aspects of the development of Mankind through the epochs of the current physical-mineral condition on Earth.

Central are the evolutionary spirals, a characteristic of the dynamic of the spiritual hierarchies across the periods of evolution, whereby the fruits of one period are carried over as the seeds of the next (FMC00.169). This is the frame on which are shown the developmental goals for humanity, and also already the 'next thing' seed that is developed for the next period. For example: humanity is currently in the development of spirit-self (manas), but in the next sixth cultural age of this epoch a small group will already develop the life-spirit (buddhi or Christos) as a basis for the next great Sixth epoch. In the sixth epoch humanity will be developing the life-spirit, but a group will already be developing ahead to spirit-man (atma) and know an ascent of spiritualization.

These development goals are enabled through three major divine interventions or impulses that 'fructify' humanity to make this possible. These are shown with the arrows in yellow, green, and blue (with reference to Schema FMC00.185). On top of the diagram is symbolized the changing configuration of the solar system to support this evolutionary pathway through accomodating the right conditions for all beings involved in this development. The current balance of the Earth held in a cradle of balancing Moon and Sun forces is a temporary stage, and will be followed by the reunion of Moon and later reunion of Sun. This will make the Sixth epoch transformative for humanity, just as the Lemurian epoch was before.

Embedded artwork illustrations symbolize major events as depicted in the apocalyptic seals (referring the Book of Revelation). Also shown is the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci with the symbolism of the apostles for the development from late Atlantean to early Sixth epoch, with Christ in the middle (FMC00.021A, see also FMC00.438). Below is also added an illustration of the concept of the Second Adam, with the Christ as convergence point of unification as future group soul of humanity (FMC00.189).

Lecture coverage and references

The seals and their symbolic meaning

1907-05-21-GA284

The seven pictures that decorate the hall are symbolic expressions for quite specific ancient truths. They represent the so-called seven seals of ancient, and ever new, wisdom. This is spoken of in the Apocalypse of John, and this Apocalypse is a kind of interpretation of an esoteric symbol language. Whoever studies the seals will recognise the images in the visions of the writer of the Apocalypse. Every letter, every colour of the seals means something. When we look at them together in the right way and sense the connection, quite specific feelings are released, which can engender an inner strength.

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is also in GA284 and provides an overview

First seal

Illustration: see Schema FMC00.367 on The human heart#human heart as a future organ

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(SWCC)

The first seal is the man with the sword of fire in his mouth. This sword - and this feature is what matters - is connected with a secret of evolution. Speech has always been compared with the sword. It is however not merely a poetic picture. In esotericism everything is to be taken literally, we must only understand it correctly. There is a certain mysterious connection between that which lives in our speech - what is said in words through our larynx - and the lower human reproductive drives of today. The human form is in the process of transforming. Some can already see on the astral plane what will be present physically in the future. The seer sees in such a picture as this first of the seven seals a condition that the human being will someday attain. This is an astral picture today. It expresses the evolutionary condition of the human physical body in the future.

When we want to imagine this condition, we must think of it in such a way that we say that through their present-day lower power of repro-duction, human beings reproduce instinctively and unconsciously. Through the reproductive drive, they can bring forth forms filled with matter. There is another force in human beings, which does not yet enable us to bring forth forms that linger, that remain. That is the force of our speech. In that I speak here, I produce something. If you observe what happens in this room while I speak, you can follow oscillating waves of air. These are nothing other than words converted into movement. Such words translated into movement were, in the primordial past, that which expresses itself today in the life of reproduction. What is condensed today was, when it was still Spirit, word converted into movement. What human beings today can achieve out of the word, only in the form of movement, will later be a true power of reproduction.

Imagine that you could solidify my words for a moment so that the solidified waves of air would fall down: you would find a different form for every word. The word and would have a different form from the word god; a mussel form, as far as I am concerned. If I were to say "god," there would be a different form generated than if I were to say "and."

Spiritual science shows us that all the physical objects around us arose in this way. The spirit of the Logos rang through space, and matter formed itself; the rest is a process of solidification. What is present around us today is formed word, the condensed words of the gods. The forces in us are condensed divine forces. What was created earlier through the word is now converted into natural form.

In the course of evolution, the human larynx will become a reproductive organ. We will be able to produce not just movement; the larynx will become the true organ of reproduction. What our speech is today will be the producer of our own kind. The larynx is the future reproductive organ elevated spiritually - hence, the parallel in the development of sexuality and the development of the larynx within the human. The change of voice at sexual maturity points toward the creative power that will develop out of the voice of the human being one day. Out of speech will arise the true power of reproduction, the conscious bringing forth of the human being. As you know, in that we give those spirits that were our ancestors the name 'fire spirits', because they were connected with fire as we are connected with air, so we will once more develop ourselves from air spirits to fire spirits in our ascent. From the larynx will flow not only the air force but also the fire-spirit force.

What you see in the first seal expressed as the fiery sword is that which represents the being of the human that passes through all incarnations. This eternal element in the human being is at the same time the divine creating element. It is true that the element within us that goes through all the incarnations as wisdom is of the same nature as that which created the sevenfold planetary succession. That is the reason the man pictured in the first seal holds the symbols of the seven planets in his right hand.

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(SWCC)

The first seal presents a person clad in white, his feet of molten metal, and a fiery sword projecting from the mouth. His right hand is surrounded by the signs of our planets — Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. Those familiar with the Apocalypse of St. John will remember that there is to be found in it a description that closely corresponds to this picture, for St. John was an initiate.

.. this seal represents the idea of total humanity. When we go back in human evolution, we come to a time when men were at an imperfect stage. Thus, for example, they did not have heads like the ones you carry on your shoulders today. It would sound grotesque, indeed, were you to hear a description of the men of that time. Only gradually was the head developed, and it will continue developing. Men also have organs today that have come to the end of their development and in the future they will no longer form part of the human body. There are others that will transform themselves. An example is the larynx, which has a great future connection with the heart. At present the larynx is at the beginning of its development, but in times to come it will be transformed into a spiritualized organ of reproduction. You will get an idea of this mystery if you make clear to yourselves just what it is that a man achieves with his larynx today.

• While I speak to you, you hear my words. Through the fact that this sound fills the air and that certain vibrations are produced in it, my words are transported to your ears and to your souls. When I say a word, for example, “world,” the air vibrates in an embodiment of that word. What we produce in this way today is called “creation in the mineral kingdom.” The movements of the air are mineral movements, so to speak, and thus through the larynx we have a mineral effect on our environment.
• But men will progress and will also become effective in the plant kingdom. Then they will call forth not only mineral, but also plant-like vibrations. They will speak 'plants'.
• The next step will be that men will be able to speak 'feeling beings'.
• On the highest stage of their development, they will generate their like through the larynx. A man now can only express the contents of his soul through his larynx, but then Man will express himself. As men in the future will be able to call people into being through their speaking, so it was that the forerunners of mankind, the gods, were gifted with an organ with which they expressed all things that are around us today. It is they who have made all men, animals and everything else that is manifest. In the literal sense of the word, all of you are words uttered by divine beings.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and a God was the Word!” This does not mean a philosophical word in the speculative sense. St. John set down a primal fact that is to be taken quite literally.

At the end there will be the Word. Creation is a realization of the Word, and men in the future will bring forth a realizations of what today is the Word. Then men will no longer have the physical forms they have today; they will have progressed to the form that existed on Old Saturn, to fire matter.

That being who spoke forth all that is in the world today is the great prototype of Man. He spoke forth Old Saturn into the universe, Old Sun, Old Moon, Earth, Mercury, Future Jupiter and Future Venus. The seven planets in the seal point to this. They are the sign that indicates the height to which a man will be able to develop himself. His planet then will consist of fiery matter, and he will be able to speak creatively into this fiery matter.

The fiery sword that projects from the mouth of the figure in the seal represents this.

All will be fiery, hence the feet of flowing metal.

Note: a way to appreciate what is sketched here can already be seen in FMC00.298 on Earth rounds perspective, whereby the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds or Conditions of Life are forebodes of what is to be developed 'in full' during the future planetary stages.

Third seal - Man back to the spirit world

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The third seal shows an open book with a semicircle of chalices and angels blowing trumpets above it, all encircled by flooding light and colors.

The trumpet-blowing angels express the harmony of the spheres. When we rise from the astral plane to the spirit world, we have the experience that the harmony of the spheres pervades the flooding light and color worlds of the astral plane. That which one can see within the astral plane as flowing light and color begins to sound, and it proves to be the expression of the essence of the spirit world.

The Pythagorean School called this harmony the "music of the spheres."

Goethe also speaks of it when he says, "The Sun intones in ancient tourney" and "Intoning, the new day is born for Spirit ears!" evolving upward to a higher level, which is indicated in the violet-blue winding, curved lines of the seal.

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If we follow human evolution far, far back many millions of years, we are confronted by something quite different. The human being is a physical being on the Earth, but there was a time when the being that wandered on the Earth could not yet have taken up a human soul. This soul was on the astral plane. Still further back, we come to a time when it was on the spiritual plane. In the future it will again climb up to this high level, when it has purified itself on the Earth. From the spirit through the astral to the physical and upward again to the spirit: this is the long evolution of the human being. And yet it seems like a short period when we compare it with the time involved in the evolution of the human being on Old Saturn and on the other planets. There the human being went through not only a physical transformation but spiritual and astral transformations also.

If one wishes to follow these transformations, one must go up into the spiritual worlds. There one perceives the music of the spheres, tones that flow through space in this spiritual world. When human beings live into the spirit world again, the harmony of the spheres will sound toward them. In esotericism it is called the trumpet tones of the angels; hence, the trumpets in the third seal. Revelations coming out of the spiritual world are revealed only when the human being progresses ever further.

At that point the book with seven seals will be revealed to us. These seals are precisely those we are examining here. They will give up their secrets. For this reason, the book is placed in the middle of the seal, and below it are the four phases of humanity. The four horses are nothing other than the evolutionary stages of humanity through the ages.

For the signs on the right:

• the five and six pointed stars, see Schema FMC00.010A on Three dimensions of evolution,
• for the seven pointed star see Schema FMC00.068 on the Mystical Lamb

Seventh seal - Holy Grail

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short extract, see more below

.. the image of the serpent denotes the devotional nature of knowledge. Only this selfless, devotional attitude can grasp the cosmic spiral in the Mercury staff, which then becomes fiery and winds out of pure knowledge.

It then transforms itself into the downward-turned pure chalice or cup. The plant "cup" is chaste today and is turned openly upward. With the human being it is reversed. In the future the human cup will become chaste and will turn itself downward; hence is the Grail shown here as a chalice turned downward.

The pure human being, the human being who has become guiltless, is portrayed in the dove. The rainbow points to the sevenfold creative human being.

For an illustration of the above quote, see Schema FMC00.270 and variants on Christ Module 6 - Principle in image and story

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full lecture added below to place in context

I would like to say a few words about the color in which we have held our meetings here. There is good reason for this being red. When we see red on the outside, it forms its counter-image on the inside, because the eye has the tendency to create the greenish-blue from within when it sees red in front of it: this is the inner activity of the eye. With children, a great deal depends on how the body responds to external impressions. I refer here to what I said about the color red when we were discussing education. The eye responds to a red environment with a tendency towards green-blue activity, and this inner work is calming. Therefore, the color red in the environment has a calming effect on excited children. If you remember that later stages of human development always lead back to the childhood stage at a higher level, you will understand why the color was chosen for a place – which, even if it is not a place of initiation, should remind us of it through its symbols – that triggers the color in the child's body that is directed towards the sacred. It is not without reason that the Bible says: Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Our inner being must become as pure as the ether of the cosmos, which meets us in blue. The education for this is expressed in the red color of our environment. If red surrounds us externally, the contrary color lives within us. This explains the red in all esoteric cult sites, while exoteric sites, where the secret teachings are spoken of externally and in symbols, are blue. The Rosicrucian worldview expresses the esoteric in the color red. If the room is fully furnished in the sense of the Rosicrucian worldview, then blue arches should still rise above.

What do the two columns mean to the Rosicrucians?

If one wants to explain these two columns standing here before us, one must start from the so-called Golden Legend. This says:

[see: Golden legend]

When Seth, the son of Adam – who had taken the place of Abel – was ready, he was allowed to gain an insight into Paradise, allowed to pass the angel with the sword whirling in the fire, into the place from which man had been expelled. There Seth saw something very special. He saw how the two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge, entwined each other. Seth got three seeds from these two entwined trees, took them with him and put them in the mouth of his father Adam when he had died. A mighty tree then grew out of Adam's grave. This tree appeared to some who had psychic senses, as if it were glowing with fire, and this fire coiled itself for him who could see into the letters B, the first letters of two words that I am not authorized to pronounce here, but the meaning of which is: “I am who was, I am who is, I am who will be.” This tree divided into three limbs. Seth took wood from it, and it was used in many ways in the evolution of the world. A staff was made from it; the magic wand of Moses, legend says. It was the same wood that was used to form the beams of Solomon's Temple. They remained there as long as people understood the ancient secrets. Then the wood was thrown into a pond in which the lame and the blind were healed at certain times. After it had been taken out again, it formed the bridge over which the Redeemer passed as he made his way to the cross. And finally, so the legend goes, the cross itself, on which the Redeemer hung, was made from the wood of this tree, which had grown out of Adam's mouth after the seeds of the entwined trees of life and knowledge had been placed in his mouth.

This legend has a deep symbolic meaning. Remember the process, the transformation that the disciple must think of when he goes through the fourth stage of the Rosicrucian training: the production of the philosopher's stone. We remember that it has to do with a certain treatment of our red blood. Let us think of the significance of this red blood, not only because Goethe's saying, “Blood is a very special fluid,” points us to it, but because occultism has taught it at all times. The way this red blood appears is a result of breathing oxygen. We can only touch on this briefly. When we are now referred to such an important moment in the legend and in the Bible, to the re-entry of Seth into Paradise, we must remember what caused man to be driven out of Paradise. He was driven out of Paradise, man's ancient state in the bosom of the higher spiritual world, by the following, which is already hinted at in the Bible as the physical process that goes hand in hand with the descent. Those who want to understand the Bible must learn to take it literally. It says: “God breathed into the man the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” This breathing in of the breath was a process that is here expressed figuratively and that extended over millions of years. What does it mean?

In the development of mankind, in the formation of the physical body, there were times when there were no lungs in the human body, so that oxygen could not yet be inhaled. There were times when man more or less floated in liquid elements, when he had an organ, a kind of swim bladder, from which the lungs later developed. This swim bladder of the past has been transformed into the lungs, and we can follow the process of transformation. When we do this, it shows itself as the process that the Bible expresses with the image: “And God breathed into the man the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” It was only with this breathing of the breath that the production of red blood became possible. Thus the descent of man is connected with the production of the red blood tree in his inner being.

Imagine that the human being stands before you and you can only follow the trickling of the red blood: you would have before you a living red tree. Of this the Christian esoteric says: It is the tree of knowledge. Man has usurped it, he has enjoyed the red blood tree. The erection of the red blood tree, which is the true tree of knowledge: that is sin. And God drove man out of paradise so that he would not also enjoy the tree of life. We have another tree in us, which you can imagine in the same way as the other. But it has red-blue blood. This blood is the stuff of death. The red-blue tree was implanted in man at the same time as the other. When man rested in the bosom of the Godhead, the Godhead in him was able to interweave what his life and his knowledge meant. And in the future lies the point in time when man, through his expanded consciousness will be able to transform the blue blood into the red blood; then he will have within himself the source for the blue blood tree to be a tree of life. Today it is a tree of death. In this image, there is both a retrospective and a prospective view! You see that in man a red blood tree and a red-blue blood tree are entwined. The red blood is the expression of the I, it is the lower part of the knowledge of the I. The blue blood is the expression of death. As a punishment, the blue blood tree was added to the red tree of knowledge as the tree of death. In the distant future, this tree of death will be transformed into the tree of life, just as it was originally a tree of life. When you imagine man as he stands before you, his whole life is based on the interaction of these two trees.

The fact that Seth was allowed to enter Paradise again means that he was an initiate and was allowed to look back on the divine-spiritual state where the two trees were intertwined. And he put three seeds of the entwined trees into Adam's mouth, from which a tree divided into three arose. This means: the tree that grows out of man, Manas, Buddhi, Atma, these three parts that make up the upper part of man, are found in him by nature. The legend thus indicates how the trinity of the divine is already present in the human disposition, even in Adam, how it grows out of him and how it is initially seen only by the initiate. Man must go his course of development. All the things that have taken place in the development of mankind and that lead to initiation are further expressed to us by the legend.

From the realization that the threefold tree rests within us, the tree of the eternal, which expresses itself in the words: “I am that was - I am that is - I am that will be!” we gain the power that moves us forward and gives us the magic wand. Hence Moses' wand. Hence the wood of the tree growing out of the seed is taken to build the temple of wisdom. Hence the cross is hewn out of it, that sign of initiation which signifies the overcoming of the lower limbs in man by the three higher ones.

Thus this legend shows how the initiate looks forward to a future state where the tree of knowledge - the red blood tree - and the tree of life - the blue-red blood tree - will be entwined, where they will intertwine in man himself. Now, the one who wants to develop inscribes in his heart what the two columns – the red column on the one hand, suggesting the red blood column; the blue-red, suggesting the blue blood column – want to tell us. Today, both are separate. Therefore, in the hall, the red column stands on the left and the blue-red column on the right. They want to challenge us to overcome the present state of humanity, to direct our path to the point where, through our expanded consciousness, they will intertwine in a way that is called: J-B. The red column is designated J, the blue-red column B.

The sayings on the pillars will help you to visualize the connection between the individual pillars. The words on the red pillar are:

In pure thought you will find

The Self that can sustain itself.

Transform your thoughts into images,

And you will experience creative wisdom.

Those who meditate on this will, through the power of their thoughts, instill in their red blood column the power that leads to the goal: the wisdom column. The power needed for the life column is instilled when one devotes oneself to the thought that stands on the other, the blue column:

When you condense feeling into light,

You reveal the forming power.

You objectify the will into being,

Thus you create in the world's being.

Some words relate to knowledge, others to life. The formative power first “reveals” itself in the sense of the first saying; it only becomes “magical” in the sense of the second saying. The transition from mere cognitive power to magical action lies in the transition from the power of the saying on the first column to that of the saying on the second.

Thus you see how what these symbols, the two pillars, mean, is directly related to the ideals and goals of the Rosicrucian student. In some esoteric societies, these two pillars are also erected. The esotericist will always associate the meaning that has been attached to them.

The seven images that adorn the hall are symbolic expressions of very specific ancient wisdoms. They represent the so-called seven seals of ancient and ever-new wisdom. The Apocalypse of John also talks about it, and this apocalypse is also a kind of interpretation of an occult sign language. Those who study it will recognize these very seals in the visions of the writer of the Apocalypse.

Every letter, every color of the images means something. If we look at things in the right way and sense the context, then very specific feelings are triggered that can become the creators of inner strength. The point is that we are not dealing here with leather allegories, but with a living expression of what anyone [initiate] can experience as real facts on the astral plane.

The first picture is the man with the fire sword in his mouth. This sword – and this one move is crucial – is connected with a secret of development. Speech has always been compared to the sword. But this is not just a poetic image. In occultism, everything is to be taken literally. One must only understand it.

There is a certain mysterious connection between what lives in our language, what expresses itself through our larynx in our words, and today's lower human drives of reproduction. The human form is undergoing transformation. Some can already see on the astral plane today what will be physically available in the future. In such a picture, the seer sees a state that man will one day reach, as in the first of the seven. This picture is an astral one today. It expresses a state of evolution of the physical human body in the future.

If we want to imagine this state, we have to think of it in this way: through his present, lower reproductive power, man exercises a production in the involuntary and unconscious. Through the reproductive instinct he can bring forth forms filled with matter. Now there is another power in man that does not yet enable him to produce lasting forms: that is the power of his speech. By speaking here, I also produce something. If you follow what is happening in this room while I speak, you can follow oscillating air waves. These are nothing other than words set in motion: movement. In the distant past, such words set in motion were also what is expressed today in the reproductive life. What is condensed today was, when it was still spirit, a word set in motion. What man today can only do out of his word as movement will later become truly reproductive power. Imagine you were able to freeze my words in a moment, so that the solidified air waves would fall down. You would find a special form for each word: a different one for “and” than for “God” ; a shell shape, for all I care. When I say “God”, other forms would be there than when I say “and”. Occultism shows us that everything around us in the form of physical objects has really come into being in this way. The spirit of the Logos resounded into space and matter took shape; the rest is a process of solidification. What is around us today are formed words, condensed divine word. The forces within us are condensed divine forces. What was once created through the word is now being transformed into natural forms. Thus, in the course of evolution, the human larynx will become a reptile-reproducing organ. We will not only be able to create movements, but the larynx will become the true reproductive organ. What is language today will become the creator of its own kind. The larynx is the future organ of reproduction, elevated to spirituality; hence, in man, the parallel in sexual development and laryngeal development can already be seen. The transformation of the voice at sexual maturity points to the creative power that will one day develop from the human voice. The true power of reproduction will arise from speech, the conscious power of human beings to bring forth. And just as you know that we give the name fire spirits to the spirits who were our ancestors because they were related to fire as we are to air, so we will develop from an air spirit to a fire spirit again as we ascend. Not only will the one power flow from the larynx, but also the power of the fire spirits.

You can see this expressed in the first picture, in the fiery sword of the one who represents the eternal essence of man that continues through all incarnations. This eternal element in man is at the same time the divine creator. It is true that what passes through our incarnations as our eternal essence is of the same nature as that which created the sevenfold planetary series. Therefore, the man in his right hand holds the symbols of the seven planets.

The second picture shows the so-called apocalyptic animals: the lion, eagle, bull and human. We get an idea of them when we remember that the animal today does not have an ego soul like we do. The animal does not have its ego soul on the physical plane; the individual animal relates to the ego of a group like a limb of the human being relates to the whole ego. Therefore, we speak of group souls in animals, and if you investigate these group souls, you will find them on the astral plane. Now everyone will realize that man, in his evolution, has also gone through conditions where that which was on the physical plane did not yet have the I-soul. Man also went through conditions where he had a group soul. At the same time — which is called the Lemurian Age — that the soul descended into physical corporeality, the group soul transformed into the individual soul. In the distant future, man will again rise to the state of the group soul, only consciously, in a higher sense. The symbol for that higher group soul is the second picture. The unity in the distant future is represented by the outer forms of those group souls that humanity had in the past. These group souls, from which the human individual soul has emerged and to which it will return, are divided into four typical groups. These are four real astral groups. One is characterized by the group soul as it is still embodied today in rudiments of the soul of Taurus; the other as it develops in the soul of Leo; the third as in the soul of the bird; but the soul that elevated man, allowed him to enter into individuality, is called the human being. Man emerged from these four group souls and into them he will return. The group soul that is the most advanced, which is already individualized on the astral plane as a human soul, we see in the middle of the symbol. It is the Christ-soul, symbolized by the lamb. It complements the four other group souls.

Then you see here in the rainbow, which surrounds the whole in the seven colors, the creative world principle in a second form. It is the sevenfold creative principle that effectively underlay the inner, human path of evolution when man was still at that stage. And regarding the numbers I to XII, which can be read like the numbers on a clock on the colors of the rainbow, we must remember that the earth, moon and sun were once one body.

This unity is connected with conditions as shown here. This form of cosmic order was necessary for man to be a group soul. Our present time division is connected with the position of the world bodies. In that very distant past, when there was not yet an earth revolving around the sun, all time relationships must have been different. In those days there was no day and hour. The sun itself made its way, and there was a great cosmic clock face. This represented the places the sun passed through. The hour hand on our clocks passes the clock twice a day; so in that ancient cosmic calendar, the sun did not pass through the zodiac once, but twice, through a period of brightness and darkness. This double passage, this double passing through these stations, is called passing by the elder brothers of the cosmic order. They are the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse. Hence a kind of world clock is arranged.

If we look at the distant future, you will see cosmic, future states expressed in the sixth picture, where man will have risen again in his outer form; we see that the earth and sun will be united and what is eliminated will be eliminated as a moon body. Remember that Goethe calls the highest thing the soul can strive for the eternal feminine. What overcomes the unusable substances in human nature is called feminine. When the earth has united with the sun, then man himself will be the sun-woman; man will have created the union. The unusable substance is represented as the moon, which is trampled underfoot. What must come out when the earth becomes the sun again is represented by the dragon. It will be overcome when the earth becomes the sun again.

The third image shows an open book, surrounded by bowls and angels blowing trumpets, surrounded by flowing light and colors.

The trumpeting angels express the harmony of the spheres. When one ascends from the astral plane to the devachan plane, one experiences the floating world of light and color of the astral plane being permeated by the harmony of the spheres. That which can be seen within the astral plane as floating light and color begins to resound, revealing itself as an expression of the essence of the mental plane. The Pythagorean school called this harmony the music of the spheres. Goethe also speaks of it when he says: “The sun sounds according to ancient ways...” and “The new day is already born sounding for spiritual ears!”

The bowls signify the so-called bowls of wrath, that is to say that the human being will have attained the spirit when he has overcome and transformed what is called wrath. All that is wrathful must be cast out; therefore the bowls of wrath are poured out.

The book is not intended to imply anything other than that man himself, in his development, if we know how to solve his secrets correctly, represents an image of the eternal evolution of the world. When he recognizes this, that man is an image of the evolution of the world, then he can read himself, he has become a book to himself. Then the moment will arrive of which it says in the Apocalypse that John must devour the book. This is explained in more detail in the next seal.

The two columns of the fourth picture represent the devouring red and blue blood tree. The cloud is the present-day air, which the larynx only controls. From this, the productive power of man, which creates into the solid, will arise in the future. Above the two blood columns, the initiated human being who has devoured the book will emerge. And man generates within himself the power that will transform the earth into the sun. This power is characterized in the face that is born out of the sun. When man has reached this stage, his vision is a vision into the astral world. This is indicated to you in the rainbow above the face of the sun. This rainbow indicates the power that man will have acquired when he himself becomes a cosmic creator being.

In the fifth picture we have a being that conquers the dragon. This is the future human being who will have completely subdued what is called the lower self. This is connected with cosmic conditions that arise when what is called Kama is trampled underfoot.

The state that will occur when this has happened is symbolized in the Holy Grail of the narrated image.

The transparent cube below represents a transparent diamond cube made of pure carbon. When man has progressed to the point where he uses carbon itself to build his body - without the help of plants - he will create the cube.

[see Christ Module 6 - Principle in image and story#Philosopher's stone - plant metaphor - teachings of carbon]

This cube of crystallized pure carbon is the best indication of the future state of man. Man will have progressed so far that he will not only recognize the three dimensions, but also the oncoming contra-dimensions: hence the three other dimensions meet the three in the mirror image. These counter-dimensions represent what man will one day achieve when he has overcome the physical in spirit.

[see mathematics of the etheric]

The serpents signify the upward development to the higher. This is indicated in the seal in violet-bluish coils as a luminous image. This luminous image of the serpent signifies the devoted nature of knowledge. Only this devoted nature can grasp the world spiral in the Caduceus, which will then be fiery, which winds itself out of pure knowledge. Then it transforms into the downward-pointing pure chalice. The chalice of the plant is today directed upwards, pure and chaste; in man it is the other way round.

But the human chalice will again be chaste and will turn downwards - that is why the Grail is represented here as a chalice turned downwards.

[see Schema FMC00.270 and variants]

[Dove and rainbow]

The pure man, the man who has become innocent, is represented by the dove. The rainbow indicates the sevenfold creative man.

Thus the entire evolution of humanity is indicated in the seven seals. Contemplation of such images is intended to evoke the feelings that we must gain and that themselves represent effective evolutionary moments.

The program book is inscribed with the signature of the Rosicrucian school: E.D.N. I.C.M. P.S.S.R. This means:

Ex deo nascimur

In Christo morimur

Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.

The seven seals express the secrets of initiation; in the seven pillars, they are expressed in planetary terms. These pillars support the heavens, that is to say, all evolution. The capitals have their own specific meaning in all their individual features. If you feel vividly how the upper part slopes towards the lower, feelings are triggered in you that give an account of the currents in the respective states of these world bodies. The motifs of the first column have simple inclinations and curvatures. Contemplation of them evokes a feeling of the currents that permeated the Earth when it was embodied in its first state, which is called the Saturn state. That is why this is the Saturn pillar.

When you feel the progression of the motifs when looking at the second column – the lower part is structured like the ovary of a plant, and from above it is structured in such a way that it can become a calyx – feelings are triggered in you that correspond to the currents that flowed through the earth when it was in the sun state. That is why we speak here of the sun column. And so it is with the consideration of the third, fourth and further pillars. When one passes from one to the other, different currents of feeling develop again and again.

The first half of the evolution of the earth has its special peculiarity from the influence of Mars. Now, in the second half, it is under the influence of the power that the occultist sees emanating from Mercury. The evolution of the earth is therefore divided into the two halves of Mars and Mercury. If we now omit the volcanic state as a kind of octave of the Saturn state, the following series of states in the evolution of the earth emerges: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus.

In the Mercury column, the Saturn motif is interwoven with the Mercury motif. The snake staff emerges organically from what has gone before. It develops further. And as we delve into the motifs of the other capitals, we sense the earth currents that arise from further development. In the last one, we have the goblet shape again.

The secret of the seven planetary states of our earth has been incorporated into the names of the seven days of the week. They are: Saturday, Samedi, Samstag; Sunday; Monday, Monday; Martian Day: Mardi or Ziu, Tuesday; Mercury Day: Mercredi (Wednesday is a profane name); Jupiter Day: Jeudi, Thor, Donar, Thursday; Venus Day: Vendredi, Freya, Friday. The names of the days of the week are deeply symbolic. In their succession, we see something by which the initiates wanted to say: Remember that you have been placed in the living evolution of time. This is how the highest teaches us to understand the very nearest, that which is in our immediate surroundings.

The idea of the evolution of humanity was to be hinted at in the pillars. It is expressed as it has always been expressed in occult symbolism. The sites of occultism were symbolically structured and designed. One should see what lives in the soul in form, in image, in color. What lives in the soul should shine out to us from the outside, then one has worked in the sense of world evolution. Above all, it is our task to think selflessly about this great evolution. It will be fulfilled when we allow the inner life to flow into the outer life completely.

1907-09-16-GA101

[Space and counterspace]

• The occultist who has acquainted himself with our world knows that space in the physical world is not simple emptiness, but something quite different. Space is the source from which all beings have, so to speak, physically crystallized. Imagine a cube-shaped, transparent glass vessel filled with water. Now imagine that certain cooling streams are led through this water so that it congeals in the most manifold forms into ice. This will give you an idea of the world's creation, of space, and of the divine creative word spoken into it. The occultist presents this space into which the divine creative Word has been spoken as the water-clear cube. Within this space various beings develop. The ones standing nearest to us can be characterized as follows. The cube has three perpendicular directions, three axes, length, height and breadth. It thus represents the three dimensions in space.
• Now imagine the counter-dimensions to these three outside dimensions of the physical world. You may visualize this by imagining someone moving in one direction and colliding with someone else coming from another direction. Similarly, there is a counter-dimension to every dimension of space, so that in all we have six counter-rays.

These counter-rays represent the primal beginnings of the highest human members. The physical body, crystallized from out of space, is the lowest. The spiritual, the highest, is the opposite counter-dimension. In their development, these counter-dimensions first form themselves in a being that is best described when we let them flow together into the world of passions, sensual appetites and instincts. This it is at first. Later, it becomes something else. It becomes ever more purified .. but it issued from the lower impulses, which are here symbolized by the snake. The process of purification is symbolized by the counter-dimensions converging in two snakes standing opposite each other. As mankind purifies itself, it rises through what is called the world spiral. The purified body of the snake, this world spiral, has deep significance. The following example will give you an idea of it.

Modern astronomy is supported by two postulates of Copernicus, but a third has not been taken into account. Copernicus said that the sun also moves. It advances in a spiral so that the earth, following the sun, moves in a complicated curve. The same is true for the moon that revolves around the earth. These movements are far more complicated than is assumed in elementary astronomy. You see here how the spiral has significance for celestial bodies, and these describe a form with which men will one day identify themselves. At that time, a man's generative power will be cleansed and purified, and his larynx will become his generative organ.

What the human being will have developed as purified snake body will no longer work upwards, but from above downwards. The transformed larynx will become the chalice known as the Holy Grail. Even as one is purified, so also the other, which unites with this generative organ. It will be an essence of world force and of great cosmic essence. This world spirit in its essence is represented by the dove facing the Holy Grail. Here it symbolizes the spiritualized fructification that will be active out of the cosmos when men will have identified themselves with the cosmos. The complete creativity of this process is represented by the rainbow. This is the all-embracing seal of the Holy Grail. The whole gives the sense of the connection between world and men in a wonderful way, as a summation of the meaning of the other seals.

The world secret is found here as a circular inscription on the seal's outer edge.

• It shows how men in the beginning are born out of the primal forces of the world. Everyone, when he looks back, sees that he has gone through the process in the beginning of time that he goes through spiritually today when he is born anew out of the forces of consciousness. This is expressed in the Rose Cross by E. D. N., Ex Deo Nascimur, out of God I am born.
• We have seen that within the manifest world a second is added to life, that is, death. That he find life again in this death, a man must find the death of the senses in the primal source of all that lives. This is the center of all cosmic development because we have had to experience death in order to gain consciousness. We will be able to overcome death when we find its meaning in the mystery of the Redeemer. Just as we are born out of God, so, in the sense of esoteric wisdom, we die in Christ — I. C. M., In Christo Morimur.
• Because a duality is disclosed wherever something reveals itself, with which a third member must unite, the man who has overcome death will identify himself with the spirit that permeates the world, symbolized by the dove. He will rise from death and again live in the spirit — P. S. S. R., Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus.

See further also: EDN - ICM - PSSR

Discussion

The Discussion area will be used to link each apocalyptic seal to the topic pages relevant for that seal.

First seal: Man as a future creative God

refer to:

• Schema FMC00.179 on The human heart#human heart as a future organ
• the characteristics in Schema FMC00.298 on Earth rounds perspective

How to relate to Man as a creative being?

1 - The best impressions we get by 'peeking ahead' to what Man can and will become in the future, by considering what capabilities develop as part of self-initiation. One approach is what is described with information on this site from Rawn Clark. As a start consider this extract from Rawn Clark#2021-06-12 - Offerings: 03 - Walking in the Footsteps of Hermes:

I work with the ketheric brilliance and the adonai light most especially and ..

• it took me so long and so much effort to be able to accumulate just a handful of ketheric brilliance .. and now I can accumulate a room full in a moment with just a thought ..
• I can accumulate the adonia light which originally was just such a a meager flicker of the adonai light that grew bit by bit into larger quantities .. now I can spread it out for miles, get a dense enough charge of adonai light that it will affect a radius of many miles

2 - Now we can hold next to this to a very different view and perspective, what Rudolf Steiner describes as part of Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension. In that module is covered how the Christ Impulse infused the chemical and life ethers, those higher formative forces, back to be available for Earth and humanity from within. Steiner describes how the Earth's aura began to shine at the Mystery of Golgotha, and how with this “a new focal point has been created” ... that “provided the first impetus for the Earth to become a sun” ... and “suffused the earth with an astral light that will gradually become an etheric and then a physical light” (1909-07-06-GA112 and 1909-07-07-GA112).

What is described here is that there are stages, from astral light to physical ... those correspond to the higher ethers and the forces that Man will appropriate (but that are currently held with the Elementary Kingdoms), as we develop Man's higher triad as part of the process of individuation and spiritualization, so we kind of emancipate ourselves from the spiritual hierarchies and now develop these intrinsic capabilities.

Related pages

• Book of Revelation
• Evolution

References and further reading

• Adrian Anderson: 'The Seven Apocalyptic Seals' (2020)