Jehovah

From Anthroposophy

Jehovah is the name of one of the seven Spirits of Form, or Elohim as they are called in the Book of Genesis, that are the creators of current Earth. During this current Earth stage of evolution, it are the Spirits of Form that provide the sacrifice to allow mankind to develop the Human 'I' principle - see Development of the I.

In the middle of the Lemurian epoch, Jehovah went along at the time of separation of Moon to provide the first divine intervention in the evolution of mankind and the Earth stage of evolution.

This first divine intervention - see Schema FMC00.185 - brought the higher Self or monad down to Earth where it was connected with the lower Self of Man; it brought together the two streams of development, the lower physical and higher spiritual.

This provided the first consciousness for Man through a (subconscious) I-group soul (see also Group souls of humanity), and also was the origin of the warm blood and blood-based love.

Aspects

name

  • Jehovah is also called Jahve or Yahweh in Hebrew, or YHWH (called the Tetragrammaton or the unpronounceable name of God)
    • Moses could clairvoyantly see, in the burning bush and in the fire on Mount Sinai, the spirit who proclaimed himself as the ‘Ejeh asher ejeh’, ‘I am he that was, and is, and will be,’ Jahve or Jehovah (1909-06-24-GA112)

relationship

  • relationship Lucifer and Jehovah
  • relationship Christ and Jehovah - see Schema FMC00.469
    • as Elohim or Spirits of Form, and link Sun and Moon (1908-05-20-GA103)
    • symbolic image of Christ/sun/sunlight and Jehovah/moon/moonlight
      • the host and the monstrance or sanctissimum as symbol of transubstantiation and moon(light) and sun(light), see 1921-09-30-GA343A (below) and Schema FMC00.191 on Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension that provides further reference links that provide further explanation.
      • see also Schema FMC00.116 on Holy Grail (the image of the crescent moon: 'the spirit of the sun rests in the moon's vessel)
    • furthermore on Christ-Jehovah see also: GA046 p 797-802
    • seven Elohim awaken to a higher level of 'common' consciousness through the sacrifice and activity of creation, ai "the seventh actually thinks for the six' (1918-08-23-GA277 below, and Book of Genesis lectures re GA122). This reads as if one 'takes the lead' or is a focal or spearpoint for common action, see Schema FMC00.469.

influence

  • group souls of humanity, but only upto form, as creator of form (1905-12-28-GA090B)
    • Jehovah does not designate a single being, but a rank in the order of the hierarchies (1905-10-02-GA093A)
  • human bloodlines: origin of the warm blood and blood-based love
  • moon
  • forces of reproduction
  • coverage of the work of Elohim and Jehovah in the Bible - see further Book of Genesis and Schema FMC00.299 on that page.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.185 is a drawing by Rudolf Steiner in a letter to Marie von Sivers (GA262).

For the accompanying text, see Second Adam#1906-01-13-GA262


Schema FMC00.443 show a rare and actually exceptional description by Rudolf Steiner, in which he calls the lower bodily structure the 'hollow I' and Man's spiritual I (see Man's higher triad) the 'substantial I'. The descent in the Lemurian epoch is described. The use of the term 'hollow I' is remarkable because the recipient cavity for the I was first in the astral body, and hence the use of the term 'I' is peculiar.

Note for the Schema, the choice was made for a literal translation focusing on the correct technical meaning in the German original of the different Q&As, rather than the polished English translation in the translated volume GA284 which is also less complete.

See more on Development of the I

FMC00.443.jpg

Schema FMC00.469 symbolically represents the relationship of the Jehovah influence on mankind, and a positioning of this first seeding of the I-consciousness in Man as part of the Development of the I from the Lemurian epoch onwards.

This preceedes the further individuation of the Human 'I' and hence should be looked at together with Schema FMC00.377 or Schema FMC00.377A that show the consecutive preparations including the Three pre-MoG interventions of Christ (Schema FMC00.246), as well as the Krishna impulse, the Wotan Impulse, and the workings of The being of Elijah.

Note: the schema below was made on the basis of an original drawing from someone attending the lecture, and distilled from the three copies available on the original manuscripts and typoscripts from the lecture. Therefore it is different than the illustrations in (copies of the various editions of the) official Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA).

FMC00.469.jpg

Lecture coverage and references

1905-10-02-GA093A

The lowest rank of these Elohim is the Jehovah stage. Jehovah therefore is an actual Moon divinity, who on the Old Moon passed through physical development. … The name Jehovah does not designate a single being, but a rank in the order of the hierarchies

1908-03-24-GA102

So too those beings who “trickled” down wisdom from the periphery of the Moon became capable of a higher evolution when Old Moon became Earth; they ascended higher.

The beings who at that time were able to let wisdom trickle into the Moon-beings were in fact those who were so advanced at the time when the sun withdrew from the Earth that they went out with the sun and made it their scene of action. The beings who on Old Moon were spirits of wisdom — the wisdom that trickled down — were not the Spirits of Wisdom which have been so named in connection with Saturn — these spirits, or at any rate a great number of them, chose the sun as their theatre.

Only the being whom one designates Yahve or Jehovah, who had reached full maturity on Old Moon, became the Lord of Form on the Earth, the Regent of the Moon forces.

...

In order that love might develop on Earth the body had first to be developed at a primitive stage. Love had to be inaugurated in the lowest form as sex-love .. all lower love is schooling for the higher love

Notes: [in evo Ch 5, see also evo XL010-03 Old Moon]

1908-05-20-GA103

This lecture

  • describes the Christ being as the Logos as (being, or rather working through) the six sun beings or Elohim.
  • provides a schema on the relationship with the Jehovah moon influence.

[Seven Sun beings – Jehovah’s preparation]

When the Old Moon had completed its evolution, there were seven great beings of this kind who had progressed far enough to pour forth love. Here we touch upon a deep mystery which Spiritual Science reveals. In the beginning of the Earth-evolution, there was on the one side the childlike humanity which was to receive love and become ready for the reception of the ego — and on the other side there was the sun which separated from the Earth and rose to a more exalted existence.

  • Seven principle Spirits of Light (editor: SoF), who at the same time were the dispensing Spirits of Love, were able to evolve upon this sun.
  • Only six of them, however, made the sun their dwelling-place and what streams down to us in the physical light of the sun contains within it the spiritual force of love from these six Spirits of Light or, as they are called in the Bible, the six Elohim.
  • One separated from the others and took a different path for the salvation of humanity. He did not choose the sun but the moon for his abode. And this Spirit of Light, who voluntarily renounced life upon the sun and chose the moon instead, is none other than the one whom the Old Testament calls “Jahve” or “Jehova.” This Spirit of Light who chose the moon as a dwelling-place is the one who from there pours ripened wisdom down upon the earth, thus preparing the way for love.

Now, let us consider for a moment this mystery which lies behind the outer facts.

The night belongs to the moon and it belonged to the moon to a much greater degree in that ancient time when the human being was not yet able to receive the force of love in the direct rays of the sun. At that time he received the reflected force of ripened wisdom from the moonlight. This ripened wisdom streamed down upon him from the moonlight during the time of night-consciousness. Therefore, Jahve is called the Ruler of the Night who prepared humanity for the love that was later to manifest during full waking-consciousness. Thus we can look back to that ancient past in human evolution when spiritually that event occurred which is merely symbolized by the heavenly bodies, the sun on the one side, the moon on the other. (See drawing). During the night, at certain times, the moon sends down to us the reflected force of the sun, but it is the same light which also shines upon us directly from the sun. Thus in ancient times, Jahve or Jehova reflected the force of matured wisdom, the force of the six Elohim, and sent this force down into human beings while they slept, preparing them to become capable later, by degrees, of receiving the power of love during waking-day consciousness.

[Schema]

The above drawing attempts in a symbolic manner to show the waking-day human being when his physical and etheric bodies are dependent upon the Divine and his ego and astral body are within the physical and ether bodies upon the physical plane. Here the whole human organism is shone upon by the sun from without. We now know that for the humanity of primeval ages, night was much longer and much more filled with activity than it is at present. The astral body and ego were then outside of the physical and ether bodies, the ego existing wholly within the astral world, and the astral body sinking into the physical body from without, having, however, its entire inner being still embedded in the divine-spiritual world. Therefore, the sun could not shine directly upon the human astral body and enkindle in it the force of love. Hence, the moon, which reflects the sunlight, was active through Jahve or Jehova. The moon is the symbol of Jahve or Jehova and the sun is none other than the symbol for the Logos, which is the sum of the other six Elohim.

This drawing, which you should study, and upon which you should meditate, tries to indicate this in a symbolic way and if you reflect upon it, you will discern what deep, mystery-truths are presented in it, namely: that during long periods of time, in sleep-consciousness, the force of love was being implanted in human beings by Jehova, in a manner of which they were themselves unconscious. In this way they were being made capable of experiencing the Logos, of feeling the force of Its love.

One can ask: How was this possible, how could that take place?

We come now to the other side of the mystery.

We have said that the human being was destined for self-conscious love upon the earth. He must, therefore, have a leader, a teacher, during his clear day-consciousness, a leader who stands before him so that he can be perceived by him. Now it was only during the night, in dim consciousness, that love could be implanted within the human being. But little by little something happened, something happened in full actuality which made it possible for him to see outwardly, physically, the Being of Love itself. But how could that occur? It could only take place, because the Being of Divine Love, the Being of the Logos, became a man of flesh, whom men by means of their physical senses could perceive upon the earth. It was because mankind had developed to a condition of perceiving by means of outer senses that God, the Logos, had Himself to become a sense-being. He had to appear in a physical body. This was fulfilled in Christ-Jesus, and the historical appearance of Christ Jesus means that the forces of the six Elohim, or of the Logos, were incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth at the beginning of our Christian era and were actually present in Him in the visible world. That is the important thing. The inner force of the sun, the force of the Logos-Love assumed a physical human form in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. For, like an external object, like an outer being, God had to appear to the earthly, human sense-consciousness in a bodily form.

[What being is Christ?]

You will ask what was that Being Who appears at the beginning of our era as Christ-Jesus?

It was the incarnation of the Logos, of the six other Elohim, whose advent had been prepared by Jahve-God who preceded them. This figure of Jesus of Nazareth, in whom the Christ or the Logos was incarnated, brought into human life, into human history itself, what previously streamed down upon the earth from the sun, what was present only in the sunlight. “The Logos became flesh.”

1908-05-23-GA103

In order to make this clear, let us call to mind what the human being really is. We have said that he is a different creature by day than by night. During the day his four human members, physical body, ether body, astral body, and ego are bound closely together. They react upon each other. We may say that when the human being is awake during the day, in a certain way his physical and etheric bodily parts are permeated and cared for by his astral and ego spiritual parts. But we have also shown that something else must be active within the etheric and physical bodily parts in order that the human being be able to exist at all in his present phase of evolution. For we have called attention to the fact that every night he draws out those members which care for this physical and ether body, namely, the astral body and ego, thus leaving his physical and ether bodies to their own fate. You all, as astral body and ego, faithlessly desert your physical and ether bodies every night. Hence you will see that Spiritual Science points out with a certain correctness that divine-spiritual powers and forces stream through the physical and ether bodies during the night so that they are, as it were, invested by these divine-spiritual forces and beings.

We have also pointed out that when the astral body and ego were outside the physical and ether bodies in those periods which we call the Jahve or Jehova epochs, that Jehova was active as an inspirer.

But it was the true Light, the Fullness of the Godhead or of the Elohim, the Pleroma, that was also constantly radiating through the physical and ether bodies.

However, the human being, not having yet received the necessary impulse from the Christ-principle before the appearance of this Principle upon the Earth, was not able to recognize it. Those principles which are to come to expression in the physical body, dwell in the higher regions of the spirit world.

The spiritual beings and powers which work upon the physical body are at home in the higher heavenly spheres, in higher Devachan, and those powers which work upon the ether body are in their own sphere in the lower heavenly realms. So we may say that in this physical body there are constantly active, beings from the highest regions of Devachan and in the ether body, beings from the lower devachanic regions are active. Men can recognize them only after having received the Impulse of the Christ into themselves. “If you truly understand the Son of Man, you will perceive how the spiritual forces descending from and ascending to the heavenly spheres work upon mankind. This you will know through the impulse which the Christ gives to the Earth.”

1909-06-24-GA112

Moses, Zarathustra's successor, could see, with clairvoyant eye, in the burning bush and in the fire on Mount Sinai, that Spirit who proclaimed Himself as the ‘Ejeh asher ejeh’, ‘I am he that was, and is, and will be,’ Jahve or Jehovah.

1911-08-25-GA129

From the time of the Sun evolution this Being waited for the right moment to introduce the forces He had developed into the Earth itself. It was Zarathustra's great merit to recognise ‘In the sun in the heavens above us something remains from the old Sun evolution. For the present this Being is in the sun. But the moment is drawing near when He will also bring down to Earth his form that is suited to the earthly elements.’

Then came the time when humanity, though still not mature enough to recognise this being who had become part of the etheric world in himself, was nevertheless able to recognise him in reflection; that was a stage on the way.

Thus in course of evolution, for reasons which we shall speak of tomorrow, this Being showed Himself to humanity to begin with not directly, but in a reflected form, which we can describe as related to reality as moonlight, which is reflected sunlight, is related to the direct light of the sun. That Being who began to prepare himself for his great deed on Golgotha during the Old Sun evolution, was first shown to humanity in mirrored form. And this reflected form was called by the ancient Hebrew people, Jahve. Jahve or Jehovah is the reflection of Christ; he is really the same as Christ, only seen in a mirror, so to say, seen aforetime, prophetically — prefigured until the time was ripe for Him to show Himself not merely in reflection, but in his own, his pristine form.

Thus we see the most important event for the Earth was prepared in the Old Sun, we see humanity prepared for the Christ through the ancient Hebrew civilisation. We see the being who once separated himself from the Earth and went to the Sun return to the Earth again; but we see too that he first revealed himself to Man in a mirrored image, so to say in a representation. Jahve or Jehovah is related to the real Christ just as the upper gods are related to the lower ones, he is the representation of the real Christ, and to those who see through things, resembles Him completely. Hence in a certain way we can speak of Jehovah-Christ, and in doing so light upon the true sense of the Gospels, which relate that the Christ Himself said:

‘If you would come to know Me, then you must know how Moses and the Prophets have spoken of Me.’

Christ knew well that when, of old, people spoke of Jehovah or Jahve, they were speaking of Him, and that all that was said of Jahve applied to Himself, as the mirror-image is related to its archetype.

1918-08-23-GA277

is an extract from a lecture of the Kabiri Gods in the Samothracian mysteries, but it includes an interesting phrase about the relationship of one spiritual being and the manifold it is part of.

for longer extract and contextual info, see Greek mysteries#1918-08-23-GA277

This can already be said of the three, of the three main gods who are the gods of generation: Axieros, Axiokersos and Axiokersa. Of them it can already be said that they do not know what they are. But as little as these three together know what they are, so well does the fourth know for the three.

So, if you think that Man consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body and an I, and that the I 'performs consciousness', you must think that these Kabiri are four. Whereas in Man these four members hold together, these Kabiri are four separate beings.

And Axieros is the physical body, Axiokersos is the etheric body, Axiokersa is the astral body; so they have no consciousness. Kadmilos, on the other hand, who corresponds to the I, thinks for all three.

So that is the peculiarity of these [editor: four Kabiri] gods, that the fourth is actually their consciousness at the same time.

If you take the cycle where I spoke of the Elohim, it is also similar in that the seventh actually thinks for the six.

1921-09-30-GA343A

internet translation of paragraph on monstrance because of the contextualization in language of moonlight and sunlight.

As unprepared people, we initially have no idea what lives in the sunlight that floods us. We see the sunlight thrown back on individual objects, we see it reflected in colors at first, but whether this element of the sun through the colors arouses and enlivens something special in us human beings, as it flows through us, we have no idea at first. We are simply in the light from waking up to falling asleep, and then on a moonlit night we turn to the moon, look at it with open human hearts, surrounded by the stars that accompany it, and go on to the first sensation we have there, to the feeling that when I look into the sun, just when the sun is flooding me with its light at its liveliest, my eyes are blinded. The sun's light is too intense in intensity for the eye to turn to the sun without further ado. If I look at the moon, I can, the moon gives me back the light of the sun, it sends the light to me in such a way that I can absorb it. The blinding to the sunlight is a taking away of prudence. This prudence stays with me when I look up at the moonlight. The sun's rays are of too majestic an intensity not to discourage my composure as I face them. I may turn against them when they are brought back to me from the moon.

How do I make this my own inner experience?

As a human being, I may and can unite with the light that the moon gives me back; if I put it before me as a symbol, I can have in it that with which I can unite. I can form a picture of what comes towards me in the moonlight that I can unite with myself. In other words, I am allowed to form an image of the sun, which is presented to me through the moonlight, and that is there in the host that I am allowed to consume.

But there is something in it that is too intense, too majestically large for me to expose myself directly to it. If I represent this to myself in a picture, I must represent it in a different way. I have to create a relationship that is only similar when looking at it, and I create it by surrounding what may become the viaticum [the Host] with what may only be looked at, the monstrance [see Schema FMC00.191], and I have out of my relationship with [ #Table 4] born out of the world a dualistic simile, the two-fold way in which I make something into a picture with the inclusion of the monstrance.

  • In the Viaticum, in the Host, I have what I can unite with myself.
  • In that which surrounds the host I have what are the rays of the sun weakened into an image.

Communion must stimulate within me that which appears weakened when I feel the moonlight, but which I must no longer feel in its immediate effect of the sun, otherwise I will be blinded. In between the two lies the Communion: I place myself in the context of the world.

That which sun and moon have to speak to one another in the cosmos meets in the human being, the human being stands in the midst and brings it to life through communion.

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Daniel Völter: Jahwe und Mose im Licht aegyptischer Parallelen (1918)
  • J. Beck: 'Die Lehrtafel der Prinzessin Antonia von Württemberg in der Dreifaltigkeitskirche zu Teinach : eine Auslegung des Namens Jehova' (1929)