 LUCKY SEVENTH The Epoch of Trumpets “This epoch completes the physical condition of form [sic] of the earth [i.e., the physical existence of the Earth], which must then be entirely transmuted into astral form [i.e., poof]. But only in human beings is matter annihilated. So it must all be absorbed by us — we must not despise matter, but unite with it. Lemuria, when matter first solidified, is thus redeemed.” [1] The seventh Epoch entails a sort of gradual shutting down of physical reality. We humans will basically eat all things physical, thereby annihilating it. Matter, or the material universe, or reality, is a hindrance, according to Steiner. So ingesting it all will be a virtuous act. “Astral,” for Steiner, is higher a highly soul/spirit realm than “etheric.” Lemuria, as we have learned, was a really, really ancient continent — a sort of proto-Atlantis. But note that Seddon speaks of Lemuria as a period of time, by which he means the years when Lemuria was up and running. We humans existed then, but in very different bodies (recollect the jelly-like bodies we once had). In Steinerspeak, the physical, the temporal, the imperishable, and the spiritual interweave, with the spiritual being the real goods. The stars, for instance, which are associated with our astral bodies, are not lifeless balls of flaming gases. Rather, they are the manifestations of various “gods” or at least very high spiritual beings. Steiner was big on astrology. The stars hold Great Britain and other islands in their places, for instance (islands and even continents float — they are not attached to the seabed). The stars are places where the gods reveal their intentions. Christ, the Sun God, came to Earth from the star we call the Sun. Three planets proceed the Sun as it travels through the heavens; three other planets follow the Sun. That's six planets, which with Vulcan gets us to the lucky number Steiner stressed so often: 7.  As for Vulcan, sadly, it does not exist. But this did not deter Steiner: “The last planet which can still be counted among the series of earthly transformations, and hence follows Venus, is Vulcan ... On this planet the provisional goal of the development of humanity is obtained.” [2] But this is far, far in the future, mind. Vulcan is a planet, but not in the normal sense. No planets are planets in the normal sense, according to Steiner. The ones we see are sort of evolutionary remnants of the mega versions of these planets, which encompassed the entire solar system of their time, and were/are/will be big-time evolutionary stages. We've learned some of this previously; other components of these teachings will emerge as we proceed. For the nonce: “What we see in the heavens as Saturn today stands in relation to our earth as a child to an old man. One day Saturn will become an earth. Just as unlikely as it is that the old man developed himself from the boy who stands next to him, so unlikely is it that the earth has developed itself from the Saturn that stands in the heavens today. It is the same with the other heavenly bodies. The sun is such a body as the earth once was; it has, however, advanced. Just as the boy stands near the old man, so the various planets stand in the heavens. They are at various steps of evolution, which our earth, now in its fourth embodiment, has partly undergone already, and will partly undergo in the future. The planets, however, stand in a certain relationship to each other, and the occultist expresses this relationship differently from the way the astronomer does today.” [3] That's for sure. Steiner got a little vague about the Ages of the seventh Epoch. But various Ages will be manifestations of Spiritland. “Steiner does not describe the seven ages separately, but he does indicate that this epoch must be regarded as the earthly expression of Spiritland [emphasis by Seddon], which now descends to earthly manifestation.” [4] As we will see later, archetypes in Higher Spiritland control the existence of everything that forms. Seddon sketches this thus: “The fifth region marks the transition to the influences of Higher Spiritland, the descended realm of intentions and aims which form the archetypes for all lower regions.” [5] There is also a Lower Spiritland as well as a recapitulated Higher and a recapitulated Lower. Steiner did like to keep things clear. Spiritual states, periods of time, and vaguely defined locations tend to be one and the same, in Anthroposophy. Perhaps confusingly, Seddon depends on Steiner’s book THEOSOPHY for some of these forecasts. THEOSOPHY is an early work. The religion called Theosophy contains errors, by Steiner's own account. Steiner broke away from the Theosophical movement in order to set up his own new, improved religion: Anthroposophy. Seddon apparently does not distinguish between Steiner’s early, Theosophical teachings, and his later, “mature” Anthroposophical remarks (which are fully as nutso). Steiner did update his early stuff, and he never repudiated much of it, so Seddon may be more or less on solid ground — if anything Steiner ever said may be considered solid, which is cannot.  The flowing together of space and time is noteworthy. Einsteinian physics also entails an interconnection between space and time, sort of like what we find in Anthroposophy, but not really: These concepts remain distinct for Einstein. Steiner blurs distinctions, “sees” what cannot be seen, and predicts what cannot be known. Science leads to truth; “spiritual science” leads to blurred vision. Despite the advances humanity has made in the sixth and seventh Epochs, the Apocalypse is still unwinding. Seddon tells of a layer of the Earth that opens straight to Hell, as it were. “[T]his Fruit Earth [the layer]is connected by a sort of channel to a hollow space in the uppermost layer, through which work its forces and those from below it — a real 'shaft' of the Abyss. Here the Apocalypse depicts a cloud of locusts (which can breed with great rapidity and destroy all vegetation, as excessive life destroys consciousness). Their king, named the Destroyer, is the Angel of the Abyss." [6] So humanity's trials are not yet finished — consciousness is still imperiled . Seddon says that the Ages or Regions of the seventh Epoch are “sense-free thinking” (I remember being nudged in this direction, perhaps a bit ahead of schedule, at the Waldorf school I attended), “moral feeling” (I remember this, too), “sacrificial will” (not so much), “end of karma and physical body” (finally!), “purification” (ok), “sealing of ordeal” (this needs some explaining), and “silence” (good deal). Silence would be nice. (Seddon actually diagrams all this, and a great deal more, in his Appendix 2.) [7] Now, as to the Trumpets: The trumps of doom. Steiner says: “Viewing the last epoch, that of the sounding trumpets, with spiritual vision, you would see that people consist of delicate spiritualized bodies [humans change their forms throughout the past and future as laid down by Steiner]; and that those who have hardened and compacted the material principle have preserved within themselves the most substantial constituents of matter; and that this will fall as husks to compose the material globe which will remain after the epoch represented by the sounding of the trumpets.” [8] Couldn’t have put it better myself. Seddon acknowledges that Steiner's doctrines become more and more difficult to digest as they project farther and farther into the future. The best way for me to summarize the final achievement of the seventh Great Epoch may be, for starters, simply to stand back and let Seddon have a crack: “All those who express what is good, beautiful and noble, and who bear an expression of Christ on their countenance, whose words ring out as resounding thoughts that manifest him, are completely spiritualized in the astral cosmic sphere ... The earth too is completely transformed through Wisdom (science), Beauty (art) and inner Strength, and attains the astral condition ... It's [sic] matter will be dissolved into cosmic space ... The period until this takes place — of the order of 40,000 years — is very short compared to the millions or milliards of years reached by the correct but unreal calculations of natural science ... Earth evolution has taken place according to a spiritual plan, the inner structure of which is reformed within humanity under the direction of the Masters of the White Lodge (such as Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Christian Rosenkreutz). This is compressed into an ever smaller kernel, so that a small copy of the whole physical evolution is carried through the subsequent stage of form, multiplied in Spiritland, and becomes the atoms of the next Condition of Life." [9] That's a mouthful. We should note that science is wrong, as usual (despite getting a passing pat on the head under the heading of Wisdom). The masters of the White Lodge might have spared everybody a lot of trouble is they'd just made things right to begin with, but they couldn't, things had to evolve — except that our "evolution" was a plan they arranged, so it wasn't really evolution. But we aren't supposed to think this way (or think at all, perhaps — remember the automata of intellect). The White Lodge, as you may have inferred, is an inner council of good (white) spiritual forces. It got going as a group intervening in the battle between Jehovah and Lucifer [10] and ultimately it will become a sort of ego (or "I") for everything. [11] Rosicrucians were messengers of the Lodge. [12] Christian Rosenkreutz was the founder of the Rosicrucians [13] — at least, Steiner accepted this fiction. Scholars now conclude Rosenkreutz (rose and cross, symbol of the Rosicrucians) never existed. [14] As for Stages of Form (including various spiritlands) and Conditions of Life — we'll be getting to them, along with, as they say on TV, much, much more. — Roger Rawlings
 Steiner divided most phenomena into arbitrary "spiritual" groupings. He was extremely big on the number seven, which he called the number of perfection. He divided human evolution, past and future, into seven stages, and he accepted the ancient concept of seven "sacred" planets. He imposed this seven-part scheme on almost everything: “Light appears in seven colours, and sound appears in seven tones, the undivided nature of Man appears in seven limbs.” [Rudolf Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE (Leipzing, 1920).] Seven limbs? This foolishness attracted justified ridicule. One example: The idea that there are seven colors: “What prevarication! From the innumerable colours that can be perceived by the eye, human language has perhaps given especially simple names to a random seven (and these are only approximately defined), and if Steiner is ignorant of the names of any other colours we recommend that he asks any good dressmaker.” [Nobel laureate, physicist Max von Laue.] Vulcan? No. [NASA.] The abyss? No. [R.R.]  Diagram of the celestial sphere, showing the positions of the twelve astrological constellations. (Seven is perfection, but Steiner found occult meaning in other numbers, too.) Gemini is in the 12 o'clock position; the others, clockwise, are Cancer, Leo, Virgo (at 3 o'clock), Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius (at 6 o'clock), Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces (at 9 o'clock), Aries, and Taurus. "This is what will be good: to discover how from two directions of the cosmos morning and evening forces can be placed in the service of humanity, those coming from the directions of Pisces [9 o'clock] and those coming from the direction of Virgo [3 o'clock] ... The spiritual secrets that on earth can cause the spirit to stream from the cosmos — with the help of the dual forces of positive and negative magnetism — these spiritual forces derive from the direction of Gemini [12 o'clock]. They are the forces of midday ... Here again we have the duality of forces that certain egoistic brotherhoods ... will use to lead also the Eastern part of Europe astray, the part of Europe which has the task of preparing for the sixth post-Atlantean period. This dualism makes use of the forces coming from Sagittarius [6 o'clock]." [Rudolf Steiner, SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), pp. 189-191. Colored sketch by R.R., 2009, based on b&w sketch on p. 190.] Perhaps I should have told you about this earlier, but I didn't think you were ready. I don't want to spoil your karma. ◊◊◊◊ We will continue the story at "Past and Future" http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/past-and-future
 Detail, Rudolf Steiner portrait [Kessinger]. ◊◊◊◊
ENDNOTES
[1] THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER (TFOHATEAFBRS), p. 83. [2] Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY: Prehistory of Earth and Man (SteinerBooks, 1986), p. 163. [3] Rudolf Steiner, OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (Anthroposophic Press, 1972), pp. 9-10. [4] TFOHATEAFBRS, p. 83. [5] Ibid., p. 87. [6] Ibid., p. 88. [7] Ibid., pp. 132-133. [8] Rudolf Steiner, EVIL (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 200. [9] TFOHATEAFBRS, pp. 91-92. [10] See Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATION OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), Lecture 26. [11] Ibid., Lecture 25. [12] Ibid., Lecture 15. [13] See, e.g., Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1950). [14] "...Christian Rosenkreuz, the putative founder of the group, who is now generally regarded as a fictional character rather than a real person." ["Rosicrucian." ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 18 Jul. 2009.] |