On Rudolf Steiner’s prediction of the Third World War and its Spiritual Background

‘‘Wherever love and compassion are active in life, we can perceive the magic breath of the spirit blowing through the sense world.” ~Rudolf Steiner

World History in its Making

What we are seeing now is going to change the world for all time. Materialism in the West is on the decline and the Czarism of the East is likewise going to disappear, and this last is what the current war is about. Between the East and West, we have Europe, and it has been split between these two paradigms, but now it has begun its fight for the independence of these two world views. Steiner describes the three in this way:

“The religious impulses of the particular ethnic groups will contribute in their different ways to an understanding of this tripartite division of man.

• The East and the Russian people to the understanding of the spirit;
• The West to an understanding of the body;
• Central Europe to an understanding of the soul.

But all these impulses are interwoven of course.” ~From GA 185

In the following, I will look at Steiner’s prediction of a potential WW between the USA on one side and Russia and China on the other, and on USA’s first Pluto return and its connection with the prediction, and Steiner’s description of the background on the polarity between Russia and America, and between Czarism and the Soul of the Slavs. Steiner on Czarism versus the Russian folk soul:

“Czarism and Russianism have always been strangers to each other, they never had anything in common. Those who understand the Russian nature, especially its piety, must have found the attitude to the elimination of Czarism as something self-evident when the time was ripe.” See From Symptom to Reality in Modern History.

I made a horoscope for 2020 in March that year, seen from an astrological, esoteric, and karmic historic view, and it was maybe the most impressive horoscope in 2000 years, it was about the end of American materialism. I predicted that Trump would lose, but still try to keep the power, but would fail in the attempt. Three times before the same happened in Rome, France and Germany, but this time without success: Horoscope for 2020.

I looked into the many texts on the Return of Christ and the resistance the opposition would present us with, and my conclusion was that 2020 was the crucial year where we would show if we had understood our curriculum, and we had.

Greatest Potential for Violence

As a result of the return of Christ I began looking at the three major cultures where people have difficulties becoming free on their own, where the potential for violence is greatest, and that is Russia, China, and the Islamic world, so I expected that we would see confrontations in one way or the other in the coming sunspot (See Steiner on Sunspots) period, but in a lesser scale than in the previous periods, as the potential for evil is weaker now than in many many years.

I have followed how Russia and China have increased their military involvement in recent times, especially China has increased the pressure on neighboring countries, such as India Nepal, and especially Taiwan, just as they torment their minorities, such as the Tibetans whose monasteries and shrines they destroy.

The Return of Christ

We are living under the return of Christ, it’s not just something abstract, the spiritual world is full of light. See: Steiner’s description on what happens now.

The coronavirus created a gap between the etheric and physical body, making people more perceptible to the spiritual and less inclined to act out of the physical, less inclined to create karma. Steiner has described it with Goethe and in connection with the smallpox vaccine, and I have written about it in more groups and in my 2020 astrological prediction. Many spiritual people have experienced this separation. Materialists are less motivated to manifest their will in the physical world, golf may be more interesting than winning an election. See Horoscope for 2020.

It seems that the Russian soldiers are disillusioned, that they even disobey orders when ordered to shoot at villages with civilians. Many soldiers thought it was an exercise other was told the Ukrainians welcomed them with roses, but they were stopped by civilians who stood in front of their vehicles or they were shot at in combat.

The world has become magical, it may mean that war becomes near impossible in the future when all are permeated by the etheric, with Christ. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I think we are out for some surprises. I expected some miracles in Ukraine, but the reality has surpassed my expectations, and I think everyone’s expectations.

Steiner’s Predictions

I had started looking at the horoscope for 2022 as there seemed to be something relevant for the tensions at the Ukrainian border. Under this work I was made aware that Steiner had warned about a new world war between USA On one side and Russia and China on the other side if we hadn’t solved the problem of materialism (Ahrimanic) through the twentieth century.

If the west hadn’t incorporated the spiritual in its thinking, so we could meet the east through the spiritual, we would end in a world war again. 2020 was the test, if materialism had won we would have had Trump as commander in chief for the American military forces today.

One of the biggest problems is that people react against the ruling classes, and this will be the trigger for the rulers to start the war, following Steiner, but because the underlying evil has been weakened through the twentieth century there is no will for war, humanity had learned of their pain.

Steiner on the War

“The Second World War [Third, see *1 below] which will be fought between Asia and America — along with what is between them — is absolutely necessary to happen and the reasons for this will be economic. You must be hearing the calls of the lower classes for a world revolution — the only way to obscure and hide this idea of a world revolution would be to ignite the catastrophe of another World War. It just has no alternative.” ~The Course for Speakers to Promote the Idea of Threefolding CW 338. Lecture 12, Jan 2, 1921

The main opponent will be China, even though it looks like it is Russia now. China is building silos for atomic missiles all over the country, and they create artificial islands in the Chinese Sea on other countries’ territory, where they place their military, and they move into the Indian Ocean too. They prepare for war.

Steiner on China:

“The real opposition (Gegensatz) is not between America and Russia — it is only apparently so. The real clash will be between China and America. And the question is whether it will be fought in Europe or in the Pacific. Europe can only hope that this will happen in the Pacific area.” Koberwitz in June 1924 Rudolf Steiner – I can’t find the original.

Steiner’s goal was to spread the spiritual way of thinking out to all of humanity so the world became one, as it would hinder the devastating World War, and he succeeded, he coined the phrase New Age and this is shared between all of humanity, making it possible for all of humanity to speak in a shared language. The old tribe or national cultures are destroyed everywhere through materialism, most visible in Mao’s cultural war, in the USA have Hollywood and it’s entertainment industry done the same on world scale.

Steiner on the Background and How not to End in a Devastating War:

“Let there be no mistake about it — so long as the dealings of Europeans and Americans with Asia are confined to purely economic and industrial interests, so long will there be distrust in the hearts of Asiatics. People may talk as much as they like about disarmament, about the desirability of ending wars. …A great war will break out between the East and the West, in spite of all disarmament conferences, if the people of Asia cannot perceive something that flows over to them from the Spirit of the West.

Western spirituality can spread over to Asia and if it does, Asia will be able to trust it, because with their own inherent, though somewhat decadent spirituality, the Asiatic peoples will be able to understand what it means. The peace of the world depends upon this, not upon the conversations and discussions now going on among the leaders of outer civilisation. …

Everything depends upon insight into the Spirit that is lying hidden in European and American culture — the Spirit from which men flee, which for the sake of ease they would fain avoid, but which alone can set the feet of humanity on the path of ascent.

People like to put their heads in the sand, saying that things will improve of themselves. No, they will not. The hour of a great decision has struck. Either men will resolve to bring forth the spirituality of which I have spoken, or the decline of the West is inevitable. Hopes and fatalistic longings for things to right themselves are of no avail.

Once and forever, man has passed into the epoch when he must manipulate his powers out of his own freewill. In other words: it is for men themselves to decide for or against spirituality. If the decision is positive, progress will be possible; if not, the doom of the West is sealed and in the wake of dire catastrophes the further evolution of humanity will take a course undreamed of today. Those who would strive for true insight into these matters should not, nay dare not, neglect the study of the life of soul in mankind at large, and in the different peoples, especially of East and West.” ~Cosmic Forces in Man, Lecture 1, Oslo, November 24, 1921 ga209, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19211124p01.html

Evil is Cyclic – or like a Pendulum

Steiner told also how the sunspots visualized the strength of evil, and all wars started at the spikes, and ended in the valleys, no exceptions in the twentieth century! See Sunspots and evil activity

In the twentieth century the amount of evil was immensely high, causing WW1 and 2 and especially the Vietnam war, but from the Vietnam War and forward evil began to dwindle, so the will to kill is little today, and our attention on war is more focused today. Humanity transformed evil to wisdom and pain to love.

Evil is cyclic, it’s like flood and ebb, and now it’s flood, but the maximal possible watermark isn’t very high. The activity of evil has been increasing toward a local maximum since 2020, so something is brewing, but it will be weaker than it was at the top at the previous maxima.

On April 12th Jupiter meets Neptune

On April 12th Jupiter meets Neptune in their home in Pisces, and the last time that took place was in 1856 when the Crimea peace was signed. It was of course at the bottom of a sunspot as wars end in valleys, and as evil is increasing now it may dampen evil or there may come a temporary peace agreement.

Added May 27: after April 12 the world began helping Ukraine with heavy weapons, and the EU began talking about starting the process for Ukraine to become a member.

I think we are at the first spike now, wars typically start at the second spike, five to eight years into the period, but we will see.

The USA out of Childhood

The other important astrological transit this year is when Pluto becomes conjunct with Pluto in the birth horoscope for the USA, and Pluto describes the ages for countries where Saturn does for humans.

This is the first time, the USA is coming out of childhood. Pluto is leaving the darkness in 2023, and although a short trip backward, the air becomes lighter when it moves into Aquarius. The USA becomes a teenager, it’s time for a love affair, and leaving the materialistic childishness behind.

On the first return on February 20-21, the problem presents itself, the annexation of the eastern territories of Ukraine was the first physical step in defining the problem.

Around July 12, Pluto goes retrograde, and as Pluto is about transformation there may come outer problems that will force inner transformation, where China may become tired of awaiting its chance. The last return will be on December 27 with a kind of result.

World History – Putin versus Ukraine

What we witness is world history, and the Ukrainian fight will stand as the most important in modern history, and their president will earn monuments. They defend Central Europe as they have done before.

The Ukrainians come from Scandinavia, then fighting with Thor now with Michael as a symbol of freedom. It is very symbolic that both Vladimir and Volodymyr come from the old Scandinavian Valdamarr, today Valdemar in Danish, meaning the Ruler of the World. I am impressed by the Ukrainian and I can recognize the Viking inheritance, although the Danes have been more spoiled by fate. I am also impressed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a Russian-speaking Jew whose family lost members to Holocaust. I think this is also telling about the Ukrainian people, that their trust is not dependent on language or genes. He has risen from a comedian to be the perfect world leader, this is so surprising that it should make esotericists think!

The question is what Ruling tradition do we want, czarism or a Goethean tradition of Central Europe?

Taiwan in the Chinese Sea corresponds to Ukraine, and the countries around China lie between China and USA in the same way as Europe lies between Russia and USA!

Rudolf Steiner on the Spiritual Background

The Slav Spiritual Stream versus Czarism

What we see now is a continuation of what happened many times before, that the Russian state has tried to bind the Slav Soul to the Russian state.

“The testament of Peter the Great appeared on the scene in 1813, or perhaps a little earlier, and was disseminated for good reason as though it stemmed from Peter the Great himself.

Peter the Great

This document is used to seize hold of a natural stream, such as the stream of the Slav soul, in order to guide and lead it by means of suggestion. Whither is it to be led? It is to be led into the orbit of Russianism in such a way that the ancient Slav stream should become, in a way, the bearer of the idea of a Russian state!

Because this is so, a clear distinction must be made between the spiritual Slav stream, the stream that exists as the bearer of the ancient Slav tradition, and that which strives to become an external vessel to encompass the whole of this Slav stream: Russianism. …

For Russianism wants to confine the Slav element within its own framework and use it as its tool. It wants to contain it within the confines of the testament of Peter the Great. …

Obviously, therefore, only those who understood the Slav element more deeply could understand what web was really being woven, and also that those who wanted to destroy the Slav element through Russianism had to work against more healthy endeavours.” From R. Steiner, “The Karma of Untruthfulness”, Vol. 1, GA 173, lecture 3.

Linguistic Divisions of the East Slavs

Putin have studied Peter the Great what the following article show: What Putin Learned from Peter the Great.

Russian Intelligentia and the Group Soul

Steiner says that the folk soul is revered by the Russian intelligentsia as something great and significant something they aspire toward, not understanding that they are holding the Russian people back in their development. Steiner from Preparing for the Sixth Epoch:

“What we call the group soul, out of which mankind has gradually emerged and in which the animal kingdom still lives, that is what is revered by the Russian intelligentsia as something great and significant among their people. They cannot rise to the thought that the community of the future must hover as a high ideal, an ideal that has yet to be realized.

Yes, but this life in the group soul does not in reality belong to the future at all, for it is the old form of group soul existence. If it continued it would be a Luciferic group soul, a form of life that has remained at an earlier stage, whereas the form of group soul life that is true and must be striven for, is what we try to find in spiritual science.

▪️What we should like to say to the East is this: It is our task to overcome entirely just what you are trying to preserve in an external form, namely, an old Luciferic-Ahrimanic form of community.

In a community of a Luciferic-Ahrimanic character there will be coercion of belief as rigid as that established by the Orthodox Catholic Church in Russia.

▪️Such community will not understand true freedom of thought; least of all will it be able to rise to the level where complete individuality is associated with a social life in which brotherhood prevails.”

This also explains the way they sacrifice their soldiers in war. It’s reminiscent of the Mongol horde, they send the soldiers against the enemy in endless numbers without any other strategy than spread fear and chaos and thereby tire the enemy. No other army in the world loses more soldiers than the Russian. They have in the short time of this war lost more soldiers than in their Afghanistan war, the war that crippled the USSR.

What the intelligentsia stands for is Czarism:
“Czarism and Russianism have always been strangers to each other, they never had anything in common. Those who understand the Russian nature, especially its piety, must have found the attitude to the elimination of Czarism as something self-evident when the time was ripe.” See Steiner: From Symptom to Reality in Modern History.

On Rudolf Steiner’s prediction of the Third World War and its Spiritual Background

The Goethean Central Europe as a pendulum between East and West

Europe is in the center between the Egoism symbolized by the rulers of Russia and the Heartlessness of the materialistic system of America, swaying from side to side, split in two over many years.

What we have experienced in connection with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is that Europe and even the world have shown compassion for the victim, usually, the world is separated into two equally large blocks. Humanity are now following an inner moral where they earlier followed an outer moral.

The Founding Fathers of the Central European Culture.

Rudolf Steiner in Central Europe between East and West:

“Our souls have to tend to that which was prepared in the Central European culture especially expressing that we are put pendulum-like between two powers permeating the world and that we must find the balance.

We have to realise that, on the one side, the world strives for ahrimanic hardening, strives to get solidified in the fire of the purely material; that it strives, on the other side, to ascend egotistically to an abstract spirituality. Following the one or other side would ruin the Central European human being.

Following only the science engaged in the external senses would persuade us to tear the roses from the cross and only to look at that which solidifies. We would gain a world view gradually which would completely deflect the human being from looking at the spiritual. It would allow to only looking at that which has solidified ahrimanically. …

Therefore, the cross wound around by roses was the symbol of Goethe who positioned himself in the spirituality of the Central European culture. It must be our symbol. …

It is expressed to us in our symbol, in the rose cross, what we want to take up more and more in our souls, in our feelings when we come together in a room dedicated to our attempts. Then we can be sure that the spirits who lead the earth development in good sense exist invisible among us; that our words, that all our thoughts and feelings, while we dedicate ourselves to the spiritual-scientific attempts that all this is really supported in such a room by the spiritual powers guiding our attempts.” GA 159

Europe becoming one again

The Origin of the Eastern and Western Poles

To develop an I without egotism Europe was placed between Egotism to the East and Heartless materialism to the West. Europe became a pendulum that moved between these extremes.

Today Europe is finding their Equilibrium and is beginning to stand on their own feet, and both Russia and USA is becoming free of their curses.

From Rudolf Steiner’s “Genghis Khan and the Discovery of America”:

The East Pole — The Luciferic powers of the Mongols

“It was actually the descendants of the old Atlantean teachers who were now working from a place in Asia. A priest there had been educated to behold — to have a belated vision, as it were, of what the Atlanteans called the “Great Spirit,” and to receive his commands.

These the priest communicated to a young man of remarkable energy and strength who, by virtue of this authority, received the name “The Great Ruler of the Earth” from his community. This was Genghis Khan (c. 1158–1162 – August 18, 1227). The Great Spirit, through his follower and through that priest, gave to Genghis Khan the command to summon all the powers of Asia to spread the influence that would lead the fifth post-Atlantean age back into a luciferic form. …

Genghis Khan’s generals

All the unrest and disturbance that came into the evolution of modern man through the Mongolian invasions, everything connected with them that has gone on working into the fifth post-Atlantean epoch — all this unrest, which was prepared long ago, is nothing more than the great attempt that is being made from Asia to bring about a visionary European culture.

It would cut it off from the conditions of its further evolution and lead it altogether away from the earth, just as the East has experienced again and again this feeling of being filled with vision and of wanting to be estranged from the earth. [Eighth Sphere.]

Something was needed to counterbalance this tendency. An opposite trend had to be created as a counterforce that moves in the direction of the normal evolution of mankind.

The influence of Genghis Khan’s priest was intended to bring about a kind of buoyancy and lightness in the human race that would draw man away from the earth.”

The West Pole — The Ahrimanic Powers of Taotl

“Over against this, a corresponding heaviness had to come to man from the weight of the earth; this was provided through the discovery of the western world. America, with all that it holds, was discovered and thereby earth heaviness, the desire to remain on earth, was given to man.

Europe discovers America in 1492

The discovery of America and everything connected with it, and the way man carried his life into the many new places of the earth, all this, when seen in wider connections, shows itself as a counterbalancing force to the activity of Genghis Khan.

America had to be discovered so that man might be brought to grow closer to the earth, to grow more and more materialistic. Man needed weight and heaviness to counterbalance the spiritualization that was the aim of the descendants of the “Great Spirit.” …

While it is comparatively easy to see how the luciferic [Egoistic] influence worked on Genghis Khan — we have exact knowledge of the fact that a priest was initiated by the follower of the “Great Spirit” — it is much more difficult to say how the ahrimanic spirit worked. This is because the ahrimanic [materialistic] influence is dispersed and scattered. [Materialism is a system not individuals.] …

Study the reaction of Europe to the gradual discovery and opening up of America and you will see what temptations came from that direction. Taken all in all, it is a history of temptation woven in with a history that runs a normal course.” ~GA171

It is interesting that Vladimir and Volodymyr both are of Viking heritage, Valdamarr in old Scandinavian, Valdemar in modern Danish, meaning Ruler of the World. This is the choice, the egoism of Djengis Khan or the freedom of Michael.

East, West and the Double

Man consists of body, soul and spirit, but besides that there is a foreign element called the double, containing elemental beings we fight with through our life. The double is the animal part in us, what we developed through the old Moon, together with the added karma and trauma developed on earth. This double is like a nature power influenced from the earth depending on where the person lives. In America the double is influenced by Ahrimanic powers and in Asia by Luciferic powers.

From Rudolf Steiner’s “Individual Spirit Beings and the Undivided Foundation of the World”:

“The strange thing is that this subconscious that we carry within us is taken hold of by another being under all circumstances. This means that we are not only a fusion of body, soul, and spirit, carrying within us through the world our soul, which is independent of our body; shortly before birth another being takes possession of the subconscious portions of the human being. This being is there, this subconscious being that accompanies man the entire way between birth and death. Somewhat before birth it enters man and accompanies him.

One can also characterize this being as one that permeates man in those parts that do not come into his ordinary consciousness: it is a very intelligent being and possessed of a will that is akin to the forces of nature; in its will it is much more closely related to the forces of nature than is man. …

This earth, however, not only consists of skeleton but is a living organism, and this earth sends from its center to every point on the surface, to every territory, special forces. Picture for yourself the surface of the earth (see drawing):

Ahriman, the heartless, to the West, Lucifer, egotism, to the East.

Here is the Eastern region, there the Western region, to take it only on a large scale. The forces that are transmitted from the earth are something that belong to the life organism of the earth. Depending on whether a human being lives on this or that spot on earth, his soul, this immortal soul, does not come directly in contact with these forces but only indirectly — the immortal soul of man is relatively independent of earthly conditions. The soul is only artificially dependent upon earthly conditions, as was shown today. …

It is thus this “double,” which man bears within him, upon whom the geographic and other differentiations particularly exert their influences.”

The Three Mother Letters

The Hebrew letters, their form and how they are created, how they are put together to extend its meaning or create new letters, is simply so beautiful and ingenious that it’s nearly unbelievable. The Hebrew letters is an artificial alphabet just as sanskrit is an artificial language. It reminds in it’s construction of a sublimation of Chinese signs.

The letters and words are archetypal signs, giving a unique strength to describe the esoteric wisdom that only can be understood through the archetypes and not through abstractions.

But we don’t need to understand the Hebrew letters, the archetypal informations is found everywhere. The reason I describe the Three Mother Letters is that they tell the same story as the Gnostic creation story around Sophia, the Christian and the Indian creation stories, and the Mayans, and many others, with a very simple but clear symbology.

The three mother letters is not only the three letters the other letters of the alphabet is formed, but also the primordial powers of the universe who created everything in existence.

The First Logos א Aleph

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet or Aleph-bet, here starts the creation at the Beginning of Time. As א Aleph is the first letter it has the numerical value of 1. It is associated with air, with the wind.

This letter is central in many esoteric names connected to the Beginnings, like אלוהים Elohim, which is the word for the primordial gods or hierarchies. The word for God is ‘El,’ written with א Aleph and ל Lamed. The Beginnings is also known as Chronos or the angelic hierarchy called the Archai, the Spirits of Time and Personality, or Sophia.

Created in the Beginning, Saturn or Kronos

This is the first creation, the Father, Adam, אדם, the material foundation for all later creation, in a form much like hot air. At the end of creation it will be transformed into Atma. Aleph, means “bull, ox, cattle, cow” and represent the physical body.

It’s also the A in AUM

The development takes place through seven æons, cosmic days, and the I AM of the creator, Atman, permeates the new creation in each step. It permeates the physical in the first period, and ends in Atma in the last period.

The Seven Cosmic Days of Creation

Adam is the Father, Lilith the physical expression of the Father. Eve is the Mother, Cain is the Etheric expression of Eve, the Son of God. Abel is the Son of Man, the Holy Spirit. See Sophia, Created in the Beginning.

The Sound of AUM (ॐ) and א

AUM is a matrix of all sounds. These three sounds can be said without the tongue, all other sounds can be said with these three sounds modified by the tongue. Much as the Three Mother Letters create all other letters.

Linguistically, all audible sounds are produced beginning at the root of the tongue and ending at the lips.

• A is the throat sound, symbolized through the lower lip, sitting on the lower jaw, not connected to the rest of our skeleton. It represent the powers from the spirit.

• The U sound starts at the root of the tongue, continuing until it ends in the lips. Symbolized through the line between the lips, the Word. The tongue is free of the skeleton, represents the soul between body and spirit, creating the reality by using the powers from body and spirit.

• M is the lip sound, symbolized through the upper lip, connected to the whole skeleton, representing the powers from the body.

א Aleph can also be seen as the mound. The left and lower wing is the upper lip, the Third Logos, the Holy Spirit. The middle line is the line between the lips, the Second Logos, the Word. The right and upper wing is the lower lip, the First Logos, the Father.

The Second Logos מ Mem

Mem is the thirteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Mem exists in two shapes shown in the spelling of the word מם Mem. On the right, the first shape is open at the bottom. This opening symbolizes the flowing wave made by the י Iod through the ray of creation, the ו Vav. The closed shape on the left represents potential creation.

י Iod ו Vav and the final ם Mem spell the word יום yom, which means “day”. We find the word יום yom in the Book of Genesis for the days of creation. The closed Mem is the Cosmic Day, the male principle in the creation, like Yaldabaoth or Vishnu.

The י Iod and the final Mem spells the word, ים yam, a word similar to יום yom. ים Yam means sea, ocean. Letters םמ Mem together with the letter י Iod in the middle, spell the word מים mayim, water. Water symbolizes wisdom in it’s lower aspect, as Memory in the Etheric world, and wisdom in its higher aspect, Buddhi. The Iod in between is the transforming principle, the soul, the I AM, that transforms the etheric to buddhi, karma to wisdom.

So in the shape of both open Mem and final Mem, we see that the letter Iod is like a wave at the top left, which expresses that the Iod, the beginning of יהוה Iod-Hei-Vav-Hei, as a wave of water, causes the flowing of the Logos, the word. The female Mem works through the masculine Mem in the form of the creator Yahweh, Christ, Krishna or Adam Kadmon.

This is the second Day in the Creation

The letter ם final Mem is related with the second aspect, Ain Soph.The word soph means end or final. It relates to the Unmanifested Mother.

The letter Mem symbolizes the womb, the unknowable. The מ open Mem, which has a gap in the bottom, is the womb that is ready for parturition; it is that womb from which all the days of Genesis emerge, except the first, the Father. The Father is also a creator, but the Father only gives the י Iod, the seed. The Mother shapes it for nine months. The מ open Mem is the U in AUM.

The daughter coming from the Father, is the first visible feminine aspect, Eve. That feminine aspect is the Divine Mother, Sophia, always hidden in the three primary forces, represented in the letter א Aleph.

The name for the Divine Mother is מרים Miriam – which begins with the open Mem and ends with the final Mem, also known as Shechinah. מרים Miriam appears as a sister of משה Moses, whose name also begins with Mem. Miriam is translated in English to Mary and otherwhere also to Maria.

We are the letter מ Mem, physically speaking, but we can’t see it. The shape of the letter מ Mem itself is the central nervous system, the the very womb where the Divine Mother works, the womb shown in the letter מ Mem.

The letter כ Kaf relates to the head of God, and the letter ו Vav represents the spinal column, and together they form the central nervous system, the throne of God. So Mem is the throne of God.

“Let there be light!” Yet, that light emerges because of א Aleph, the Spirit, that as a single י Iod is floating above the מ Mem.

We can awaken the שכינה Shechinah inside of ourselves by the action of the two מם Mems – the Mem of the man and the Mem of the woman. It’s called the unification of the feminine and masculine, of soul and body, the Alchemical Wedding of the Rosicrucians.

The superior waters are the מ Mem above, Eve, that are pouring into the ם Mem below, Cain, the Son of God. The מ Mem above is the Heavens, the Mother, Sophia, Wisdom, Buddhi. The ם Mem below is the earth, the Son of God, the Creating Power.

The Third Logos ש Shin

Shin is the 21’st letter of the alphabet with a value of 300, and added together giving the hidden number 3, and the Third Logos has everything to do with three. From the right the letter Shin is formed by the letters נ Nun, ז Zain and ו Vav, resting upon the base of נ Nun.

Shin symbolize three flames, so ש symbolizes fire, astral fire. Fire in Hebrew is written with two letters: א Aleph and ש Shin. The apostles are shown with the fire of the Holy Spirit above their heads, this is Shin

This shape is known in many traditions by the trident of Neptune/Poseidon/Lucifer, and the spear or trishula of Shiva, and through M in the AUM. This is the weapon of the Gods. The word Shin שין means tooth or fork. They represent the three Gunas, Tamas, Rajas and Sattva, also known as Modalities in Astrology, Fixed, Cardinal and Mutable.

Third Day in Creation

The symbols for the Third Logos are the most numerous on Earth as it was the gift of Lucifer, the gift of word thinking, where we as animals previously had visual thinking.

The spelling of the name of the letter ש Shin contains the three letters שין Shin, Iod, and final Nun. The letter Iod is the top flame that when prolonged descends into the Earth as a final Nun. The letter Nun in its normal shape relates to Malkuth, the earth.

This descending Iod is the Third Logos, the withold brother of Cain, Abel, the Son of Man. Abel is the Holy Spirit awaiting that man are ready to accept his gift, the astral body, to enter the Earth at Golgotha.

Nun is ”fish” in Aramaic; it is the seed, the salt, the sperm that creates life in the physical world, Earth. These three represent the first and second logoi in the third. The gods walking the earth have often been depicted as fish-men.

The Three Logoi

Steiner have described the role of the Three Logoi and how they relate to each other. This text is simple and ingenious, but not easy to understand for western thinking. I have tried to understand it through many years, but first recently did I unravel the mystery.

His text describes the archetypal pattern behind the reality, but to understand it, we need to have a good understanding of archetypes, and not the superficial archetypes of psychoanalysis, but more like the archetypal ideas of Goethe.

All spiritual literature and religious and esoteric symbols in the world, as in I Ching, Tarot or Astrology, or in Chinese signs or dream language, build on such archetypal symbols.

These symbols are not abstractions, but represents something existing. This understanding is necessary to understand the underlying so-called hidden knowledge, that are freely accessible for everybody, but to read it we need to understand the language and it’s semantics.

Most people who interpret dreams see the dreams as american novels, with a large gallery of central characters and intricate plots, but it’s a gross misunderstanding, and the results are often long beautiful interpretations without meaning, but satisfying the ego’s wishful thinking.

Dreams are like texts written with Chinese symbols, where the person gallery is secondary, only necessary to create the picture, seldom the object of the dream.

A simple example: “a person jumps on a trampoline.” The picture shows the use of much energy without changing anything, the person in the picture is irrelevant.

Understanding the context is necessary to understand the meaning of the picture. In the case with the trampoline the dreamer had used enormous energy the day before discussing with persons who attacked her belief. It was wasted energies on something that didn’t change anything.

This is one of the difficulties translating Chinese texts to Western languages, as much knowledge of the context is necessary to understand the written. The shorter the author can make the text, leaving as much of the supposed known context out, the more beautiful it’s seen.

A short extract of Steiner’s text on the Three Logoi:

Here we have three definitions of Beings who bring about, who underlie a planetary chain [An incarnation of the Earth, an earth æon.] They are called the three Logoi.

• The Third Logos produces by means of combining.
• When out of one substance something else having new life comes into being, this is brought forth by the Second Logos.
• Everywhere, however, where we have to do with a coming forth out of nothing, we have the First Logos.

This is why the First Logos is also often called the One who is immanent in things, the Second Logos the One who in the quiescent substance in things creates life out of the living, the Third Logos the One who combines everything existing, who puts the world together out of things.

These three Logoi always manifest in the world in and through one another.
… 
In contemplating the world one continually sees the interaction of the three Logoi.

It’s a short extract from The Logos Walks the Earth with Steiners text and my description on how it relates to to other traditions.

Tarot

In Tarot we have the Fool א as the first creation, the start of humanity’s long path. The Hanged Man מ symbolizes the middle of the path, where man is as deeply in the physical as possible. In the Æon ש humankind have reached the end of the path where we show we have reached the goal.

The Fool

The Hanged Man

The Æon

Horus through the Cosmic Day

We also know Horus under the name of Vishnu, the Second Logos. He starts the development process by developing the physical world with all living plants, animals and humans. In the next step he incorporates the soul in the bodies, and the human souls are aspects of Horus himself.

In the end the body, soul and spirit are in equilibrium and works flawlessly together, as the I AM or Atman permeates all three fully. It means that our consciousness that before only were awake in the soul now are awake in both body, soul and spirit and that they can act in parallel and in agreement without internal fights.

When all three are in equilibrium we will no longer die anymore, we will have our memory from life to life. We will leave the outer physical shell behind but keep the physical form behind it and takes a new physical layer on when returning to the Earth again.

This is the goal for all of mankind but already now the oldest souls who incarnated on earth are ready to go through this process.

Litterature

See Sophia, Created in the Beginning, The Logos Walks the Earth, The Three Logoi in the Theosophical tradition, The Taoist Triad and the Three Logoi, The Symbology and Meaning of AUM, The Three Logoi and the Mayan tradition

Sophia, Created in the Beginning

Sophia exists in all creation myths of Earth, directly or indirectly. The terminology or gender may vary, but the story is the same. Even within the Gnostic traditions the terminology vary wildly, and they are colored from the various religious traditions they come from.

I have here tried to show the story of Sophia in connection with other creation stories, and I have been surprised how much they are alike and how sophisticated they are.

In the Beginning

Sophia existed in the beginning, from before Chaos. When the Beginning is mentioned in religious or esoteric texts it’s always about beings known as the Beginnings, Æons, or Spirits of Time and Personality.

With Sophia started time and and a new creation. All new creation starts with the First Logos, Adam or Brahma/Atma is created within time. Through the seven æons Atma is developed to become Atman.

The dominion of Sophia is what we call soul, the soul contain our personality and understanding of time.

She came out of Pistis (faith) in the form of primeval light. Immediately her will manifested itself as a likeness of heaven, with an unimaginable magnitude.

Together with Pistis, she brought a great power into being in the first æon, who we know as the Father, Adam, Osiris or Brahma, which became like a veil between the immortals and those who came into being after them.

It means that we are Fathers too, we and the Father is one, we know everything that are within him, what there was before we don’t experience within us.

Here the same description but with Osiris as the Father:

This is our universe as it looks in the first æon:

A shadow arose out of the Father, Achamod [Achamōs, Achamōth], that gave birth to envy and wrath, and became like dark waters of immeasurable deepness. This is also symbolized through Adam being created out of the earth.

We know this darkness as the minerals of our physical world. We also know it as Lilith, Tiamat or the Asuras. Pistis appeared over it, and was disturbed at what had come into being.

In the second æon, Sophia creates the Living-Eve, Zoë, the Mother and Instructors of Life, by letting a droplet of her own light flow onto the water, onto the etheric, creating the first seed of Buddhi. It became an androgynous human, which Sophia molded as a female body who bore another androgynous being. Eva proclaims her identity with Sophia and assumes the title of Isis.

Sophia sent her emanation Eve, to awaken Adam in whom there was no soul,” so that his offspring would become vessels of the light.

Then Pistis Sophia caused a lion-like spirit to come into being out of the waters, to rule over the world of matter. She called him Yaldabaoth, Aramaic for “child of chaos”, the etheric gave life to matter. He had power, but did not know how he came to be, and was “ignorant of the power of Pistis.”

He is in reality her masculine side who we later will know as Vishnu or the Son, the I AM who enter chaos where he creates order out of chaos, this chaos is also known as the Ahrimanic, Yin.

Alexander the Great, Faraoh and a Son of Zeus, is the emanation of the transformed Yaldabaoth, the Second Logos creating order out of chaos. He is also the same as Marduk who we later will know as the Archangel Michael or Mahakal. Marduk created the solar system out of Tiamat.

The Platonic philosophy used the name Demiurge instead of Yaldabaoth. Demiurge meant originally “craftsman” or “artisan” (Cain,) then became “producer” and lastly “creator”. The Demiurge is the ‘incarnated’ God, he who forms the physical out of chaos.

Chaos was his karma, so when he incarnated he took his karma on him, and although he was good, when he took the garment of karma on him he became weighted down under its weight, and had to work with the karma as any human soul must when incarnating on Earth.

Another place Adam’s creation is described in this way: The seven archons, the elemental beings of the seven planetary hierarchies, molded a man corresponding to man’s seven layers or bodies. But he had no spirit, no I AM, so they left him. Sophia sent her breath into Adam, gave him life, gave him his I AM.

Yaldabaoth and his archons were disturbed, but rejoiced when they found that Adam was not able to rise.

They are the untransformed human layers, and the I AM couldn’t permeate these wild powers. Yaldabaoth is her not yet developed masculine side.

Sophia “withdrew up to her light.”, to Buddhi, where she is known as Eve.

The godling Yaldabaoth, who is also known as Cain or Horus, the Son of God, or as Vishnu, believed that he alone existed, unaware of the goddess who brought him into being.

The thoughts of Yaldabaoth becomes the Word and moves over the waters as a spirit, and he separates the waters and land, making heaven and earth, the etheric and the physical.

Pistis says, “You are wrong, Samael, there is an immortal light man that exists before you.” He later realizes the truth of her words when he glimpses her image on the water, sees the image of buddhi in the etheric, when he had developed buddhi himself.

Sophia creates Sabaoth in the third æon, the Third Logos, who we also know as Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, the Son of Man. But he enters first the Earth in the form of Seth, as the etheric body wasn’t ready to receive the astral body in the start, why Abel has to await his time, await Golgotha.

Cain’s murder of Abel simply symbolizes that Abel can’t enter the world development yet, the etheric body (Cain) are not developed enough to connect to the astral body (Abel). Cain can’t connect to God, God can’t see his sacrifice, but God can see the sacrifice of Abel, can communicate with Abel. When Abel enters the Earth in the form of Seth he becomes the channel between God and Cain, he brings the smaller light to humanity.

Sabaoth helped Yaldabaoth up of the darkness, also known through the legend where Shiva stopped Vishnu running wild as the Lion avatar. We also know the story in the form of Enkido incarnating to help King Gilgamesh or the incarnation of Lucifer or Seth, giving humanity the astral body, the animal body, and teaching them how to live in a civilization.

Sophia, daughter of Pistis, instructs Sabaoth about all the things that exist. He becomes the first teacher of man, Lucifer, Shiva or Seth, the first Lightbringer, the bringer of civilization. Later we know him as the Holy Spirit. The true light-bringer is the Son of God, her masculine side.

Eve worked through the Snake, Lucifer. She promised the couple that they would be able to tell good from evil.

The creation told around the Three Logoi, see The Logos Walks the Earth.

 

Kronos – Æon – Zervan

Sophia exist both in a masculine form and a feminine form, but the feminine form is the main gender. We know her masculine form as the Son or Vishnu, but also as Kronos or Chronos. The masculine form are transforming chaos to order, to Manas, Buddhi and Atma. Sophia or Kronos introduced time. 

Isis – Sophia

From Rudolf Steiner, Isis and Madonna:

“… Therefore in the true sense of spiritual science we do not speak only of one Mother but of the Mothers, realizing that what we have today as the physical Mother is the last development of the soul-spiritual figure out of the spiritual realm.

There are in fact images of Isis representing not one Mother but Mothers, three Mothers.

In front we have a figure, Isis with the Horus child at her breast, resembling the oldest representations of the Madonna.

But behind this figure in certain Egyptian representations we have another figure, an Isis, bearing on her head the two familiar cow horns and the wings of the hawk, offering the “Crux Ansata”☥ (Ankh) to the child.

We see that what is physical, human, in the foremost figure is here more spiritualized. 

Behind there is yet a third figure, bearing a lion’s head and representing the third stage of the human soul. This is how these three Isis figures appear, one behind the other. It is an actual fact that our human soul bears in it three natures — a will nature, found in the inmost depths of the being, a feeling nature and a wisdom nature. These are the three soul Mothers; we meet them in the three figures of the Egyptian Isis.”

See Esoteric Aspects of the Isis Figure.

The universe as seen in old Egypt:

The I AM of Sophia/Yaldabaoth moves through the seven bodies in seven consecutive æons.

Horus is Cain/Yaldabaoth, the Second Logos, and he is the beginning, and the middle, and the end. 

In the first part of Earth he is going through the lower three bodies, mineral, etheric and astral body, creating our body. Also called the three pre-earthly deeds of Michael or Christ.

In the middle of Earth he is in the soul of humankind, developing the three soul bodies, sentient soul, intellectual soul and consciousness soul.

In the last part of Earth he develop the three spirit bodies together with humankind, and when the Earth have become old he raises with humanity to become spirit.

Goethe and the Mothers

Rudolf Steiner on Faust and the Mothers:

“Now what does this journey to the Mothers signify for Faust? …

Mephistopheles himself cannot enter the realm where the Mothers are enthroned although he gives Faust the key. Mephistopheles is the spirit of materialism, the spirit contained in the forces and powers of man’s material existence. To him the realm of the Mothers is the realm of nothingness.

Faust, the spiritual human being, with his bent towards the spirit is able to answer: “In thy nothingness I hope to find the All.”

Then follows the highly remarkable and significant description of the realm of the Mothers, and we are told how they weave and live in a sphere out of which the forms of the visible world are fashioned; how man, if he would penetrate to the Mothers, must rise above all that lives in space and time.

Formation, transformation, this is the essence of their realm. They are mysterious Goddesses holding sway in a spiritual realm behind the reality of the senses.

Faust must penetrate to them if he is to obtain knowledge of all that transcends the sensory and physical. Only by widening his soul to this realm of the Mothers can Faust worthily unite in Helen the eternal with the temporal.

… Goethe fully understood how in this realm of the Mothers one has to do with a sphere into which man is able to penetrate when he awakens slumbering spiritual forces in his soul.

This is for him the great moment in which are revealed to him the spiritual beings and facts which are always around us, but which with the eyes of the senses we see as little as the blind man sees color and light. It is the moment when the spiritual eyes and ears are opened to a world lying behind the physical world. Entrance into this realm is portrayed by the journey to the Mothers.”

More here on Faust and the Mothers.

The Three Fates

The three aspects of Isis-Sophia is a mystery, hidden in plain sight. Who does the gods bow for, the Three Fates. They lay the plan for everything in existence, for gods and man.

The Moirai

The three are called  Clotho (spinner), Lachesis (allotter) and Atropos (unturnable). The string of fate is a concrete experience for many who can see clairvoyantly, as a string with markings of old and new karma, what we have or had to handle. When zooming in on the thread it is seen as the Akashic Chronicles.

The Norns

The Norns was the absolute powers of destiny. They took the one eye of Odin and gave him the language instead, here we have the start of Kali Yuga or End of Dreamtime, we lost the spiritual communication, dream-language and got the spoken language in its stead. This we also know from India, where Vac or Saraswati was the giver of language.

From Wikipedia:

In Norse mythology the Norns are female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men, twining the thread of life. They set up the laws and decided on the lives of the children of men. Their names were Urðr (that which became or happened) related with Wyrd, weird (fate), Verðandi (that which is happening) and Skuld (that which should become, debt, guilt).

From “Myths of the Norsemen“:

As soon as the Golden Age [dreamtime] was ended, and sin began to steal even into the heavenly homes of Asgard, the Norns made their appearance under the great ash Yggdrasil, and took up their abode near the Urdar fountain. …

These three sisters, whose names were Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, were personifications of the past, present, and future.

Their principal occupations were to weave the web of fate; to sprinkle daily the sacred tree with water from the Urdar fountain, and to put fresh clay around its roots, that it might remain fresh and ever green.

Thence come the maids Who much do know;
Three from the hall
Beneath the tree;
One they named Was,
And Being next,
The third Shall be.
~The Voluspa (Henderson’s tr.)

Some authorities further state that the Norns kept watch over the golden apples which hung on the branches of the tree of life, experience [Buddhi], and knowledge [Etheric body], allowing none but Idun to pick the fruit, which was that with which the gods renewed their youth.

From Wikipedia:

“In Snorri Sturluson’s interpretation of the Völuspá, Urðr (Wyrd), Verðandi and Skuld, the three most important of the Norns, come out from a hall standing at the Well of Urðr or Well of Fate.

They draw water from the well and take sand that lies around it, which they pour over Yggdrasill so that its branches will not rot.

These three Norns are described as powerful maiden giantesses (Jotuns) whose arrival from Jötunheimr ended the golden age of the gods.”

Here’s two things that are especially interesting, the Norns keep Yggdrasill alive, the Tree of Life, they keep our microcosmos alive, they are Sophia.

The other thing are that they ended the Golden Age of the gods, meaning that they ended what the Australian Aboriginals calls Dreamtime, what the Indians calls Kali Yuga and connects to the death of Krishna, and the old testament connects to the Tower of Babel. Now the gods, our archetypes, where tamed.

The Ariadne Thread

The hero Theseus handled six Chtlonic demons at six gates to the underworld and the Marathonian Bull, corresponding to the seven chakras, before he was send to Crete to slay the Minotaur. He was send to Crete together with six men and seven women as sacrifices to the Minotaur, but his goal was to slay the Minotaur.

Ariadne was the Mistress of the Labyrinth, and she falls in love with him, she spins a thread he should use in the labyrint to find his way out again, and she gave him a sword to kill the Minotaur.

The Labyrinth is the physical world. The Ariadne thread is the Thread of Life, the Akashic Record, the wisdom of his life, dharma, he builds while descending into the physical world.

Theseus uses the Thread of Life to ascend from the depth again. The Minotaur is Karma, Chaos, called Sin or Ahriman by some traditions, and the Sword is the ‘I’ used to fight Karma.

Theseus was god working on Earth and Ariadne god working from the spiritual world.

See also The Strings of Fate.

Sophia in Hindu Mythology

Vāc – The Word

Vāc (eng: Vāk) is the Sanskrit word for “speech” and a Vedic goddess. In the early Rigveda vāc refers to cosmic sound, the earliest sounds, envisioned as feminine. She said the OM of creation.

She is called the “mother of the Vedas”, and she gave mankind speech, which connects her to the Norns, who gave Odin and humankind language, replacing the dream-language.

She is identified with goddess Saraswati in later Vedic literature and post-Vedic texts of Hindu traditions.

The Tantric vision of Vāk displaying her omniform manifestation (viratsvarupa)
19th century. Rajasthan. The same form as Arjuna’s cosmic vision of Krishna.

Saraswati – Goddess of wisdom

Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge and wisdom and matches Sophia nicely.

The creation myth of India are many and complicated, but they are all inspired describing what happened with different words.

Some say that Saraswati, as part of Vishnu, created Brahma, but Saraswati became unconscious after the creation, first when Brahma had created the physical did Saraswati become conscious again, and Brahma gave Birth to her into his new creation, bound Buddhi together with Atma and the etheric to the physical.

Until then, Brahma’s creation was full of chaos, but with the help of Saraswati the creation got form, the etheric formed the physical.

Brahma is Atma and the physical, Saraswati is Buddhi and the etheric world, but also the spiritual side of Vishnu.

When the creation continues, she also emanates down into Lakshmi and Parvati, the feminine side of the Trimurti, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Though Krishna recited the Gita, the credit goes to Saraswati as she resided in Vishnu’s tongue, was the wisdom of Vishnu, was Buddhi. Together they created the Gita. Thus Saraswati, who is called the mother of the Vedas, also becomes the mother of the Gita.

Brahma, the Supreme Being of Light

The first living being within the world of matter is Brahma, the highest Light being within the universe, in the topmost seventh heaven, Atma.

Brahma, is the first created being in countless universes with countless Brahmas but in each universe there is only one Brahma.

The universes themselves emanate from the absolute Individual, in Sanskrit called Vishnu, ‘the omnipresent One’, God as Creator. The emanation and dissolution of the countless universes is described as the exhaling and inhaling of Vishnu, as bubbles of space and time within the Causal Ocean of Vishnu.

Within this primordial universe Brahma appears as a ray, or ‘son’, of Vishnu. Through Brahma, hierarchical dimensions of existence are materialized, basically seven in number. It is Brahma who creates in ‘seven days’, starting with the channelling of light into the dark universe: ‘Let light come to be.’

Vishnu

“The world rests as the lotus in the palm of my hand, the cosmos revolves around my finger like a discus. I blow the music of life through my conch and wield my mace to protect all creatures.” – Krishna Upanishad

I can’t separate Sophia from Vishnu, they are one. It’s as if Sophia is the inner wisdom where Vishnu is the active wisdom, forming the universe.

Vishnu is Atman, and Atman is the soul, the developing agent of the universe.

Brahma emerges at the moment when time and universe is born, inside a lotus rooted in the navel of Hari, Vishnu. The Lotus could symbolize Sophia, wisdom, order in chaos. The beings with resurrection body, rainbow body, are said to be born out of the Lotus.

For Brahma and Shiva it seems to be opposite, it’s as if their feminine part is the physical and the astral world.

From Vishnu Sustains the Universe.

Vishnu is the All-Pervading One, derived from “vis’ in Sanskrit which means both ‘to spread’ and ‘to be present everywhere’. Even when there was Nothing, there was Vishnu, present as a nameless, formless, dormant energy. In this un-manifested (nirguna) state, even Vishnu was not aware of his own being. He just was.

In this Nothingness, when the first ripple of awareness stirred , spontaneously and of its own will, the formless energy became Vishnu, the Supreme Being, Parabrahman.

When Brahma begins the process of Creation, it is Vishnu who expands into everything and becomes part of everything. Now he is Brahman, the Cosmic Consciousness.

As if he is seeing a dream, Vishnu watches Brahma create the Universe. By the act of watching his dream, Vishnu sustains the Universe. When Vishnu wakes from his dream one cycle of Creation ends.

Vishnu who dreams up the Universe must also now protect it. To maintain the order of Creation, Vishnu becomes The Protector. He takes the form of Ishwara or God.

At times, when world descends into total chaos, Lord Vishnu comes to its rescue in the form of an Avatar, or incarnation.

The wisdom of Sophia or Saraswati was what formed the universe.

See The Symbology and Meaning of AUM.

Viśvákarma – The divine architect of the Universe

God as Creator is also known as Viśvákarma.

From The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature, lecture 9, April 13, 1912:

“Then came the civilisation of Zarathustra; and Zarathustra pointed again to the same being whom the Holy Rishis had called Vishvakarma, only he alluded to him in his own way as Ahura Mazdao. The Holy Rishis knew, as also did Zarathustra, that what is meant by Vishvakarma represents the Spirit of Wisdom who streams down upon the earth and encompasses wider spheres than do the individual Spirits of Motion. Zarathustra too knew that Ahura Mazdao has wider spheres than the Spirits of Motion.”

He is the Principal Universal Architect who fabricated and designed the divine architecture of the Universe, the Lord of Creation. Brahma emerges at the moment when time and universe is born, inside a lotus rooted in the navel of Hari, Vishnu. In Rig veda Viswakarma is seen as the Ultimate reality, from whose navel all the visible comes. Same imagery is seen in Yajurveda purusha sukta, where the divine smith Tvastar originating from Viswakarma. As he is Aja the unborn he is the primordial personification of the upanishadic Parabrahman.

Vishwakarma was the universal father, creator and an all seeing god who has faces, eyes and feet on every side; and who produced and gave name to all the Heavenly, Earthly and other Celestial realms and preserves them through the exercise of his arms and wings. He sacrificed himself to himself for the evolution of this visible world, thus he is Purusha, in Christian tradition, the Mystical Lamb.

Shakti

Shakti is another description of Sophia, she is both wisdom and the chaos order is created from. She is the karma that teaches the gods.

In Shrimad Devi Bhagwat Puranas 1st book and 4th chapter. Devi addressed the Trimurti as follows:

“I am Adi Parashakti. I am the owner of this universe. I am the Absolute Reality. I am dynamic in feminine form and static in masculine form. You have appeared to govern the universe through my energy. You are the masculine form of Absolute Reality, while I am the feminine form of that Reality. I am beyond form, beyond everything, and all the powers of God are contained within me. You must know that I am the Eternal limitless energy.

She then said: Brahma! You will be generator of the universe; the Goddess Sharada (Saraswati) is your consort, she will be recognized as the goddess of wisdom and the primeval sound. Lord Brahma, this goddess will be with you when you create the universe.

She continued: Lord Narayana (Krishna)! You are formless, yet you take form. I assign you to be the preserver of the universe. You will take a different incarnations in order to save this universe’s inhabitants. Oh Narayana! You have created Lord Brahma, and Brahma will further create thirty three kind of gods and goddesses. My third shakthi, goddess Mahakali, has been born from your mystic sleep. Your consort will be goddess Lakshmi. Lord Vishnu, this goddess will be with you when you rule/maintain the universe. When life evolves, you will take the form of Vishnu, the one who will perform the task of observing and preserving this universe.

At Last she instructed: “Oh Lord Rudra, the Great God, you are the personification of time, which is above all. You will perform the task of destroying and regenerating this universe. When you are formless, time stands still. It is due to my power that you become dynamic and are capable of bringing about the destruction and regeneration of this universe. Your consort is goddess Mahakali, Mahakali is myself , my full form , where Laxmi and Saraswati is just my clone, partial form but due to meditation, you will surpass all my forms. It is then that I will incarnate from your left half in my manifested form. This form will be my truest manifested form. Lord Shiva, I will perform the task of destroying evil and will incarnate as your consort”.

It is interesting that she will be the consort of Shiva (Lucifer) in the form of Mahakali, the feminine form of Mahakal, who we know as Michael. Mahakali was part of Vishnu, but when she left his body, he became conscious.

More on Krishna here: Krishna and the Holy Spirit and Krishna as Teacher of Love.

Atman

The Aitareya Upanishad mentions that only the “Atman” (the Self) existed in the beginning. The Self created the universe we know, the physical, the etheric (breath of life) and the astral (fire). He also created the speech. He then formed the Purusha from the etheric.

The beginning points to Sophia, she was a spirit of time and personality, time started with her. Creating the speech, language, also points to Sophia.

In the beginning Atman, the I AM, pointed at the physical, and was nearly unconscious. This is the same that are said about Sophia, that she was unconscious in the first period where Adam was created.

In the next period or æon, the old Sun, Atman points to and develops the etheric. In the following period, the old Moon, Atman points to and develops the astral. In our current period Atman points at and develops the soul, our soul.

Atman will in this way develop all the seven layers of the human body ending with Atma!

In Taoism

In Taoism the creation is shown through the Trigrams. The trigrams are build from below, where the lowest line represents the First Logos, the middle line the Second Logos and the top line the Third Logos. Here another representation of the development of the trigrams, and related to western symbolism.

Here’s  how the children was created (from the Book of Change). 

The Creative (☰ Qian) is Heaven, therefore, it is called the Father.
The Receptive (☷ Kun) is the Earth, therefore, it is called the Mother.

• In the Trigram of the Arousing (☳ Zhen,) she seeks for the first time the power of the male and receives a son. Therefore, the Arousing is called the Eldest Son. [The highest spiritual principle in man, Atma.]
• In the Trigram of the Gentle (☴ Xun) the male seeks for the first time the power of the female and receives a daughter. Therefore, the Gentle is called the Eldest Daughter. [The lowest principle in man, the physical.]
• In the Trigram of the Abysmal (☵ Kan) she seeks for a second time and receives a son. Therefore, it is called the Middle Son. [The second lowest principle, the etheric.]
• In the Trigram of the Clinging (☲ Li) he seeks for a second time and receives a daughter. Therefore, it is called the Middle Daughter. [The second highest principle, Buddhi.]
• In the Trigram of Keeping (☶ Gen) Still she seeks for a third time and receives a son. Therefore, it is called the Youngest Son. [The third highest principle, Manas.]
• In the Trigram of the Joyous (☱ Dui) he seeks for a third time and receives a daughter. Therefore, it is called the Youngest Daughter. [The third lowest principle, the Astral.]

Inserted into the figure of the Alchemist Mountain:

The trigrams have names from their position in the family, and the oldest son and daughter corresponds to the First Logos, the middle son and daughter corresponds to the two personalities of the Second Logos and the youngest son and daughter corresponds to the Third Logos.

See also The Taoist Triad and the Three Logoi

More on the periods, æons: Esoteric History of Man.

Anima Sola – The Lonely Soul – From an Esoteric View

Anima Sola – From an Esoteric View

In the following I have some texts describing Anima Sola or Lonely Soul from Catholic lore, and Steiners description of the Homeless Souls and in relation to his description of Goethe’s distinctiveness.
From www.luckymojo.com/animasola.html

The Anima Sola or Lonely Soul is a Catholic depiction of a suffering person — almost always a woman — in chains amidst the barred prison doors and flames of Purgatory, the place where sinners go while awaiting final judgement.

It is said that those who die while wearing a blessed brown scapular, as directed by Our Lady of Mount Carmel, will not suffer long in Purgatory, but on the Saturday following their death, the Virgin of Mount Carmel will arrive bearing the Infant Jesus in her arms, accompanied by a group of angels, and at her direction, the angels will pull from the flames all those who died while wearing her scapular. Thus the Anima Sola, whose purgatorial chains are broken, is closely identified with the Carmelite devotion to Mary.

The Blessed brown scapular is the Etheric Mantle, the result of Illumination or Initiation, the background for the meeting with Christ in the Etheric. The releasing of Anima Sola of purgatory means that the person don’t die as a person, but continues living in the Etheric body. The first person known to wear the etheric mantle was Saint John, the Evangelist, and it’s reasonably to believe that it also were the case with Mary Magdalene.

From www.silvercrowcreations.com/MoreInfo.htm

The Anima Sola (Lonely Soul or Solitary Soul) has its roots in the Latin folk religions…

The woman appears penitent and reverent, and her chains have been released, so this sends quite an ambiguous message to the believer: she suffers and at the same time is released from suffering – perfectly representing Purgatory itself – a way-station for on the way to redemption to clear or burn away past sins.
…
Anima Sola is celebrated in folk religions much as a saint – and she hears the prayers of the living. She may bless and intercede on the prayer’s behalf to accelerate the conclusion of a purgatorial penance of a loved one who died in sin.
She might also be called up on to create a living purgatory for someone who has hurt the person praying to her.

The Lonely Souls becomes God’s helper. Even though some woman want to take all virtues in under the female brand, this is quite democratic, it’s distributed in pairs, one man one woman, Dual’s – Twin Spirits.

Homeless Souls

From The Homeless Souls

In contrast, there are a number of souls, particularly at present, whose interest is concentrated less on
worldly happenings as they approach a new life on earth than on the question of how they can develop maturity in the spiritual world. Their interest lies in the spiritual world right up to the moment before they find their way to earth. As a consequence, when they incarnate they arrive with a consciousness which has its origins in spiritual impulses. With their spiritual ambitions they outgrow their environment, and are thus predestined and prepared to go their own way.

Thus the souls who descend from pre-earthly to earthly existence can be divided into two groups. One group, to which the majority of people today still belong, comprises those souls who can make themselves remarkably at home on earth; who feel thoroughly comfortable in their warm nest, which so fascinated them long before they came down to earth, even if it does occasionally appear unpleasant — but that is only appearance, maya.

Other souls, who may pass patiently through childhood — appearance is not always the decisive thing — are less able to make themselves at home, are homeless souls, and grow beyond the warmth of the nest much more than they grow into it. …

The things which are being sought by these souls on the byways of life, away from the major highways, manifest themselves in many ways. If the others did not find it so agreeable to take the well-trodden paths and did not put such obstacles in the way of homeless souls, the numbers of the latter would be much more obvious to their contemporaries. But it is widely apparent today how many souls have a hint of such homelessness about them.

The tendency to such homelessness could be anticipated: the rapidly growing evidence of a longing in homeless souls for an attitude to life which was not laid out in advance; a longing for the spirit in the chaos of contemporary spiritual life.

The Sign of the Rosicrucian

A chock, an accident, or a sickness can loosen the etheric body from the physical, making it possible for the person to look at the world and himself as spectator, that he is not as immersed into the physical world as is usual. This is the sign of the Rosicrucian. It is symbolized with Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel, one who is too absorbed in the physical don’t fight with his angel, the physical world is too fascinating. Jacob is marked physically after the ‘fight’ with his angel, who symbolizes the spiritual world or his higher I, himself; he is becoming less physical.

From “The Karma of Vocation” – On Goethe

With Goethe, this force of soul became even stronger, and yet he lived to an advanced age. What enabled him to live so long? You will recall that I reminded you yesterday of a fact that intervened significantly in Goethe’s life. After he had spent some years in Leipzig as a student, he became seriously ill and stood face to face with death. He virtually looked death in the face. This illness is, to be sure, a natural phenomenon in the organism. However, we never learn to understand a man who creates out of the elemental forces of the world — indeed, we never learn really to understand any man — unless we take into consideration such events in the course of his karma. What really happened to Goethe when he became ill in Leipzig? We may describe it as a complete loosening of the etheric body in which the life forces of the soul had been active until then. It was loosened to such an extent that, after this illness, he no longer had that closely knit connection between the etheric and the physical bodies that he had formerly possessed.
The etheric body, however, is the supersensible member in us that really makes it possible to form concepts, to think. Abstract concepts such as we have in ordinary life, the only concepts that are approved by most persons who are materialistically disposed, come about through the fact that the etheric body is, as it were, closely united with the physical by a strong magnetic union. It is also through this fact that we possess a strong impulse to project our will into the physical world, that is, provided the astral body is strongly developed. In the case of Robespierre, Mirabeau and Danton, we have an etheric body strongly united with the physical but also a powerfully developed astral body. This works, in turn, upon the etheric body, which establishes these human individualities strongly in the physical world. Goethe was also organized like this, but another force now worked in him and brought about a complication. The result was that the etheric body was loosened and remained so through the illness that had brought him to the point of death. When the etheric body is no longer so intimately united with the physical body, however, it no longer thrusts its forces into the physical but retains them. This explains the transformation Goethe passed through when he returned to Frankfurt. There, during his acquaintance with Fräulein von Klettenberg, the mystic, and with various medical friends who were devoted to studies in alchemy, and through the writings of Swedenborg, he really developed a systematic spiritual world conception. It was still somewhat chaotic, but nevertheless a systematic spiritual world conception, and he was profoundly inclined to occupy himself with supersensible things.
…
Here we see how a natural event seems to enter with immense significance into the life of a human being. Undoubtedly, it points to a deeper interrelationship than the one the biographers generally wish to reveal. The significance of an illness to a man cannot be explained on the basis of hereditary tendencies but rather points to the connection between a man and the world in such a way that this relationship must be conceived spiritually. You will note also how Goethe’s life was thus complicated; such experiences determine how we take things in and what we are ourselves.
…
This event of near death appeared in Goethe at the end of the sixties in Leipzig, but its force had been prepared long before that….In anyone possessing a compact connection between the physical and etheric bodies, the external world exerts its influence and, as it makes impressions on the physical body, they pass over immediately into the etheric body; this is one and the same thing. Such a person simply lives in direct contact with the impressions of the external world. In Goethe’s case, the impressions are, of course, made upon the physical body, but the etheric body does not immediately respond because it is loosened. As a result, such a person can be more isolated, in a sense, from his environment, and a more complicated process takes place when an impression is made on his physical body. If you establish a connection between this organic structure of Goethe and the fact that, as we learn from his biography, he lays himself open even to historic events without forcing them, you have then arrived at an understanding of the peculiar functioning of his nature. I told you that he took the autobiography of Gottfried of Berlichingen and, influenced only by the dramatic impulses received from Shakespeare, did not really alter much in it. So he did not call it a drama but The History of the Iron-handed Gottfried of Berlichingen, Dramatized. You see, this soft and almost timid handling of things, as I might call it, without taking hold of them forcefully is due to his quite unusual connection between the etheric and physical bodies.
…
Through what I have explained, a sort of chasm had been created between his unusual inner nature and the external world. Just as he does not alter by force what is living in the external world but only delicately modifies its form, he also does not carry his feelings and sensations, which he can experience only in his etheric body, through the physical body to such a firm contact with the external world — something that, in others, would have led to quite definite events in life.
…
There is really a tremendous difference between Goethe’s mood up to 1775 and that after 1775, a difference that may be compared with a mighty wakefulness followed by a subdued life. The word “Dumpfheit,” an inner feeling of numbness, comes into his mind when he describes his life in Weimar, where he engages himself so much in events but responds to them more than at an earlier age, when he had rebelled against them. It is peculiar that after this dampening down for ten years there followed a period when events confronted him in a more gentle way. Just as the life of sleep is by no means a direct effect of the preceding daytime life, so also this sleep life of Goethe was not at all the result of what had gone before.
If, however, as in the special case of Goethe, the astral body is brought into a more vivid relationship with the spinal cord system and the ego with the ganglionic, because the ether body has withdrawn from the head, then far more vivid intercourse occurs with what is going on in our surroundings. But it is concealed from us in normal life because it is only while we are asleep at night that we enter into relationship with our spiritual environment.
…
He was able to sense this because what lived mysteriously in his fellow men made an impression on him such as is made by one person on another only when an especially intimate relationship, indeed when love, develops between them. In such a case of ordinary life, the connection of the ego with the ganglionic system, and of the astral body with the spinal cord system is highly active, although this is not consciously perceived as such. Something very special is activated. But what is otherwise active only in a love relationship came about in Goethe vis à vis a far larger number of people, so that he experienced a tremendous, more or less subconscious, compassion for the poor fellows — excuse the expression — who did not know what their inner natures were going through as they were driven from class to class and from examination to examination.
…
They were nothing but actual experiences that he gained from the most extensive environment because his ganglionic and spinal cord life was stimulated to more than normal wakefulness. This was the opposite from the subdued head life, but it was a potentiality in him even in his boyhood. We can see this from his description of what became active in him: not only what ordinarily engages people, say in piano lessons, became active in him but also the entire being. Goethe partook much more in the happenings of real life as a whole person than others, and we must say, therefore, that he was more wide-awake during the day than they. During the time in his youth when he was working on Faust, he was more awake during the day, and because of this he also needed what I described yesterday as the time of sleep — the ten years in Weimar. This dampening was necessary.
…
The world must be protected, so to speak, from standing still. It seems trivial to say this, but it is nevertheless a profound mystery-truth: not all people can dream in this way. The forces with which they dream must first be applied in the external world to something different so that through it a foundation may be created for a further evolution of the earth. It would come to a standstill were all men to dream as I have indicated.

An astrological session exemplifying some of the above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8VwNle15I

These homeless souls don’t have as massively an impact on the physical world as those with strong physical connections, but they may have a much more subtle influence on other people, may be changing other peoples destiny by putting inspirations into words. In this way they don’t create new karma, but resolves old karma.

From “The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz” on The Mark of Christian Rosenkreutz

Christian Rosenkreutz has always made use of the short intervals of time between his incarnations to call into his particular stream of spiritual life those souls whom he knows to be ripe; between his deaths and births he has concerned himself, as it were, with choosing out those who are ready to enter his stream. But human beings themselves, by learning to be attentive, must be able to recognise by what means Christian Rosenkreutz gives them a sign that they may count themselves among his chosen. This sign has been given in the lives of very many human beings of the present time, but they pay no heed to it. Yet among the apparently “chance” happenings in a man’s life there may be such a sign — it is to be regarded as an indication that between death and a new birth Christian Rosenkreutz has found him mature and ready; the sign is, however, given by Christian Rosenkreutz on the physical plane. This event may be called the mark of Christian Rosenkreutz. Let us suppose that a man is lying in bed … in other places I have mentioned different forms of such a happening but all of them have occurred … for some unaccountable reason he suddenly wakes up and as though guided by instinct looks at a wall otherwise quite dark; in the half-light of the room. He sees, written on the wall: “Get up now, this minute!” It all seems very strange, but he gets up and goes out of the house; hardly has he done so than the ceiling over his bed collapses; although nobody else would have been in danger of injury, he himself must inevitably have been killed. The most thorough investigation proves that no single being on the physical plane warned him to get up from the bed! If he had remained lying there, he would certainly be dead. — Such an experience may be thought to be hallucination, or something of the kind; but deeper investigation will reveal that these particular experiences — and they come to hundreds of people — are not accidental. A beckoning call has come from Christian Rosenkreutz. The karma of the one called in this way always indicates that Christian Rosenkreutz bestows the life he may claim. I say explicitly: such experiences occur in the lives of many people at the present time, and it is only a question of being alert. The occurrence does not always take such a graphic form as the example quoted, but numbers of human beings nowadays have had such experiences.

From Building Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, lecture 3:

What did John the Baptist do? We are told — and this is clear from the context — that he baptized with water [the etheric,] as he himself said because the Kingdom of Heaven was nigh. He baptized with water for the remission of sins, saying “There cometh one mightier than I … I have indeed baptized you with water, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost” (Mark I, 7 and 5). What is the difference between the baptism of John and the baptism with the Holy Ghost [the astral]?

What was the significance of baptism with water? … We know that the candidates for baptism suffered total immersion. During the immersion they experienced a kind of loosening of the etheric body, which bestowed on them a temporary clairvoyance. This is the real significance of the baptism by John and of similar baptisms.

But when John spoke of baptism with water he was referring not only to this form of baptism, but more especially to the passage in the Old Testament which says: “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” What was the purpose of the baptism with water in Jordan?

It was intended that through the loosening of their etheric bodies and the experiences they underwent the candidates for baptism should feel themselves transposed into the condition of consciousness of the time before the “Fall”.

Everything that had occurred since the Fall was to be erased from their consciousness. They were to be restored to their pre-lapsarian state in order that they might experience the condition of man before the Fall.

They were made aware that through the Fall man had entered upon a wrong path and that to continue on this path would be to court disaster. He had to return to his original state of innocence, to cleanse his soul of the evil which this aberration had brought. ~Rudolf Steiner

From “From the Contents of Esoteric Classes”

Many people think that they’re working for the good of mankind from morn till eve, but this is questionable. A clairvoyant can see that efforts coming from materialistic thinking have the wrong effect, and it may lie in some people’s karma that they should wait until they can do certain things. Then a higher being can whisper such a task in his ear, so that it’s not induced by outer circumstances. Life is a destructive process for someone who only devotes himself to outer sense impressions. A meditating esoteric doesn’t let his life be determined by outer circumstances as much.

The Snake and the Heel in Mythos

The motif in the birth of Krishna, where his mothers brother wished to take his life, and his wounded feet as a result of his fight with the snake, are known in different myths, within the same time frame, for Zarathustra, Oedipus, Dan, and Isak. I am not making a deep interpretation, which Steiner does better than I, but I just want to emphasize the motif:

Hence the legend relates how the child Krishna, even at his birth, was surrounded by miracles, and that Kansa, the brother of his mother, wished to take the life of the child. In the uncle of the child Krishna we see the continuance of the old, and Krishna has to defend himself against him; for Krishna had to bring in the new, that which kills the third epoch and does away with the old conditions for the external evolution of mankind.

That was the twofold deed of Krishna, He acted as a world-historical hero, in that he crushed the head of the serpent of the old knowledge and compelled man to re-enter the physical body, in which alone the ego could be won as free and independent ego, whereas formerly all that made man an ego streamed in from outside.

I am wounded in the feet, but with my own body I tread under foot the head of the serpent,” that is to say, the serpent with its head ceases to be the instrument of thought. The physical body and especially the physical brain, kills the serpent, and the serpent revenges itself by taking away from one the feeling of belonging to the earth. It bites one in the heel.

Steiner

There may also be a relation to Orpheus [Orphan] and Eurydice. Orpheus could charm animals by his music, as Zarathustra could charm the animals when people would kill him as child, and also Eurydice was bitten in the heel like Krishna. Both Zarathustra and Orpheus was killed at the Holy place of Apollo/Ahura Mazdao.

Poets like Simonides of Ceos said that, with his music and singing, he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance.

While fleeing from Aristaeus (son of Apollo), Eurydice ran into a nest of snakes which bit her fatally on her heel.

He uses the word agurteuonta (αγυρτεύοντα), a term used by Sophocles in Oedipus Tyrannus to characterize Teiresias as a trickster with an excessive desire for possessions.

Zoroaster appears as “Sarastro” in Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte, which has been noted for its Masonic elements, where he represents moral order (cf. Asha) in opposition to the “Queen of the Night.“

Oedipus was set out in the wood to die, with his feet mutilated. He was found by shepherds after an attempt to get rid of him. Teiresias was a blind prophet, as in the story about Krishna. Oedipus goes through life with clubbed feet. Steiner relates the story of Oedipus and the Sphinx with Faust and the clubfooted Mephistopheles of Goethe (Steiner).

In Apocalypse of Moses chapter 26 states:

1 But he turned to the serpent [in great wrath] and said: “Since thou hast done this, and become a thankless vessel until thou hast deceived the innocent hearts, accursed art thou among all beasts.

2 Thou shalt be deprived of the victual of which thou didst eat and shalt feed on dust all the days of

3 thy life: on thy breast and thy belly shalt thou walk and be robbed of hands and feet. There shall not be left thee ear nor wing, nor one limb of all that with which thou didst ensnare them in

4 thy malice and causedst them to be cast out of paradise; and I will put enmity between thee and his seed: he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel until the day of Judgement.”

 Jacob says the following words about his son Dan:

“Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.”

Literature

Wikipedia have a good reference article on the symbolism of serpents:

Wikipedia – Serpent(symbolism)