Reporting another
lecture [1] by Scaligero, in form of questions and answers. Main topics:
- Nature of Mars
- Black magic
- The tradition of the Bodhisattva Maitreya
- The difficulty of living up to true love
- Liberating thinking from Lucifer
- The task of educating thinking at a young age
- Illness and healing
- Freedom and Love
Rome, March 18, 1978
“
Dear Massimo, do those American space probes on Mars possibly disprove what our Doctor says regarding the non solid nature of Mars? Thank you.”
Who says that they disprove it? They don’t, because our Doctor does not say that Mars is not mineral. Everything that shines as a heavenly body, shines because there is a mineral element, otherwise it would not be visible. So the Ahrimanic level is there, it’s fully there. It’s a physical state that simply has not yet reached full solid state. Seemingly, it is said that when our Earth was traversing such a state, that is during the Lemurian age, The Earth was inhabited by monstrous beings, who didn’t have solid bone structure. They had cartilage - not that they appeared less terrible for this reason. So it’s a liquid state - a state that can reach up to viscous density. So we can understand that the space probes land and get embroiled. If they were to send spaceships, they wouldn’t come back, they would get entangled. So our Doctor says that Mars now is in the state the Earth was in during the Lemurian epoch. So there is no contradiction, when we carefully read what he really says. I believe there is not much else to add to this.
Now let’s start with the strange questions: “
According to the law of the entities...” what entities? …social security entities? “
According to the law of entities, by opposing the flow of becoming, a vortex is created that ends up discharging onto someone. By following the exercises suggested by the Master of the new times, does one fall under the rule of this law, or does one overcome it?”
Yes, yes, I understand now what this question refers to. But this is a matter of… It’s about the law of entities discussed in "Ur" [
an Italian esoteric journal], I get it. So, the contention of this law is that whoever operates ritually or magically in a way that willfully impinges on the course of certain cosmic laws, and cosmic forces, will obtain certain results. However, he also disturbs those forces, he compels them to a halt with regards to his persona. As a consequence, the forces would discharge themselves violently onto beings who are connected to this operator. In this way, the operator is saved, he pushes away certain effects of certain occult forces, while the connected beings suffer from them, as the occult forces are released on the weakest ones among those who are connected with the operator.
There is some truth in this idea, however… It has to do with very egoistic forms of magic, spoken of by our Doctor in the Fifth Gospel, where he remarks that Christ, before His 33rd year of age, was learning the Middle-Eastern initiatic world, that is, the Essenes. The Essenes were strongly appealed by Jesus of Nazareth. Because of this admiration they felt, they wanted to have Him among them. But Jesus was independent, and more than once He discovered that the Essenes indeed were in good standing with their rituals and ceremonies, but they used to operate in such a way as to chase the demons away from them and those demons were so pushed onto others. In other words, they were not winning over the demons, dominating them, and making them abide by higher spiritual laws. They were simply getting rid of them, without concerning themselves with the consequences, that is, the demons were haunting the weakest. This can happen today as well, if one follows an egoistic spiritual path, if one has connected with certain currents that cultivate an illegitimate occultism, where one can achieve a certain mastery over certain entities. However it is a mastery of a dubious nature, since it corrupts the forces. Any form of self-affirmation can’t but be egoistic, and so the reactions of these entities hit the weakest connections of those operators. Our friend asks: “
Is the path of the Master of the new times, the path of Steiner?” Yes, of course, but following this path doesn't really protect us from anything. One needs to follow it for real, and it’s a brave path. It can be said that it represents a continuous challenge to the adversarial forces. If not a continuous rebellion, it puts a stop to the submission to spiritual entities who for millennia have been used to dominate man. Modern man, the self-conscious man, is starting to withdraw from that, as he develops self consciousness.
Still, the situation is somewhat enmeshed. For man to be able to eschew that influence without negative consequences, he should be aware of the behind-the-scenes of this story, he should be aware of these adversarial forces. He should know the true story of the Buddha, the true story of the Bodhisattva. Because whoever knows the tradition of the Bodhisattva and is determined to go to the bottom of things, will not rest until he understands how the Bodhisattva Maitreya operates. The tradition is very precise and very clear: the Maitreya Bodhisattva is continually reincarnating - we can say he reincarnates in every century. So it’s important to understand how this happens. When the spiritual seeker understands that, he knows well that, in the times of the consciousness soul - our times - there is a Master whose function is to really offer the consciousness soul an opportunity to withdraw from the formerly rightful forces, that today have become wrongful, since man has acquired absolute independence from the angelic sphere, the etheric sphere. In the past, the etheric sphere which dominated human thinking did not allow for the free human being. Rather, man had the continuous opportunity to intuit the gods’ will.
This has continued until the Romans, who called the gods’ will
fatum.
Fatum, from
for, faris, which means “to say”. Therefore, fatum is the saying of the gods. The Romans were listening to it, and they were the last ones able to listen to it. So much so that whoever really knows Roman history can understand that the Romans defeated their enemies ‘mathematically’, because they prepared their rites
before the battle. There’s been a battle - now I don’t remember which one - when the enemies, probably Germanic, had already started to invade the battlefield with arrows, while the Romans hadn’t yet completed their rituals. The Romans let themselves get hit at first, everything not to interrupt the rite. Once the rite was finally completed, they attacked, and they defeated the enemy. They were really connected with the gods. However, this started to decline after the period of the Republic, with the beginning of the Roman Empire. But we can't digress too much on that. As we were saying, it’s necessary to know the behind-the-scenes. In any case, we can see a clear direction, and the tradition of the Bodhisattva is accessible to anyone. It’s not necessary to know spiritual science in order to find orientation, and tirelessly search until the Bodhisattva Maitreya is found. From that point, understanding becomes possible.
Here it is also possible to refer to the Michael-being, who is the only spiritual being, the only spiritual entity - hence the law of entities - who can have connection with the free human being, that is, man who has emancipated himself from the divine order. The problem is, where has man emancipated himself? He has done that only in a certain area of the head. Elsewhere in him, the old gods continue to operate. But they operate without taking into account this transmutation in man. So this flowing of the forces of the ancient gods has a negative issue, because higher forces becomes instinctive powers, because at this point the relationship can only be controlled by an independent man, if he can establish a relationship with the entity appointed with the divine task, the cosmic task of accompanying the free man, the liberated man, the atheist man, the materialistic man. So much so that the Michael entity is represented as an entity who does not impose any direction, but silently indicates the direction of the man of the new times, which is the way of thinking. Therefore, it depends on man whether the forces that used to flow to him from the Cosmos, will continue to flow without being spoiled, because the damage has already begun. Ignorance of the way of Paraclete-thinking - which means thinking of the new times - puts man in danger, despite the fact that there has been a Being who gave everything for man to understand this question.
Now let’s connect this with this new question: “
What dangers does one face by attending ceremonies of ritual magic, or rites of abjuration of the sacrament of baptism?”
You see, now we have reasoned in a way that seems to give a certain credit to these illegitimate currents, but the truth is, these people who practice ritual magic and so on… look… really, they are poor souls. Like the spiritists, they trade with forces they know nothing about. They believe they are performing rituals…. It’s a terribly naive and grotesque world. This does not mean that it’s not dangerous. They are like kids handling dynamite, without knowing it is dynamite. Now, it does happen that baptism is abjured through a ritual. But this is ridiculous, because the free human being does not need to abjure anything. He can have an inner stance of repugnance towards his baptism and he could say to himself “it’s as if I hadn’t had it”. That would be a slightly more courageous stance. Because whoever undergoes a ritual to abjure the sacrament of baptism really is a poor soul, if he thinks he can liberate himself from baptism - in which he didn’t participate - through an external ritual. There is really nothing enviable in such a naive attitude. That a young person is that naive, that a kid does ceremonies of that sort, in the spirit of experiment, I can forgive, if reason is restored at the 21 years of age. But when an adult does that, it really means the person is leaning towards… how can I say it… towards a somewhat psychopathological condition. In short, don't worry.
[Reading a question] “
Love for another person has to mean a commitment to love everything in them, transforming the heart into a power station of love - It’s a difficult endeavor, so difficult that one is tempted to give up.”
Well, we follow the way of freedom. It means that we are free, including free to give up. In certain situations one is more free in surrender. Nonetheless, if one really is free, surrender is short-lived. One comes back to love, because freedom and love are the same impulse. Freedom is the act of the
I. The
I is a radiant force who does not need to refer to love in order to radiate onto itself, therefore the question is very simple: it’s necessary to be free. If one becomes liberated from all sorts of emotional or instinctual strangleholds, then the question of loving another being becomes clearer. With that new limpid vision, one can get back to the task of true love, not the parody of love. The love that we speak of, with reference to the theme of the Grail, is not yet in existence. But those who are capable of the supersensible experience of thinking can walk in that direction.
I have many questions here, and I am not sure we can make it. Those of you who are awaiting their answer, please don’t take offense if your question is not treated during the course of the hour. [Reading] “
Now that the I descends into the human level, it is necessary to bring back to sleep that part or the astral body prematurely [------]ed by Lucifer, so that the crucial order can be brought to the etheric realm. How to find the strength for that?”
Here we have to remember that originally Lucifer was the active one. The sentient soul of man appeared in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, while Ahriman appeared in much later times. However, we need to understand that Christ incarnated in the physical sphere exactly because the biggest evil at that time was active in the physical sphere, thus it was necessary to defeat it on that level. So, first came Lucifer. From the viewpoint of spiritual culture, Lucifer is at the foundation of all ancient mysteries. With the exception of the Solar Mysteries of the Christ that have passed through India and Egypt, and have all a Christic character, all the other mysteries have a lunar, Luciferic character. Not that they were following Lucifer, but the Masters themselves were Luciferic. Let’s remember that the Luciferic entities appeared as superhumans. Those beings were superior to man and they helped humanity. Then the sphere of Ahriman appeared much later, to gain considerable strength during the Greco-Roman epoch.
We have also mentioned that, in the Eastern world, those who knew the secrets of human evolution, were dreading the upcoming Ahrimanic times and did all they could to escape them, to make things happen before the advent of Ahriman, who was clearly expected. The Kali-Yuga is indeed described in incredibly realistic form, in alignment with what later really happened, in the Ahrimanic epoch. Knowing this terrible phase to come in the history of humanity, they had been preparing the incarnation of the solar Logos for millennia - the force that destroys Ahriman. This is the reason why this force had to manifest within the sensory sphere, so as to ground the victory over Ahriman all the way down into the physical. Then there was a time when the two became allies. This alliance is actually still current. They are adversaries, but one needs the other. Ahriman operated during the day and Lucifer during the night. But a time will come when the Ahrimanic forces will be left with very little power on humanity. Then, a new Luciferic cycle will begin, in which Lucifer will acquire the operative power of an external deity. But this too has been anticipated. In the same way that Christ incarnated in the physical plane to defeat Ahriman, He operates on the etheric plane, as etheric Christ, in order to defeat Lucifer. This too is currently happening. Lucifer will fight, he will soon start to attack, and the victory over him is gained through the liberation of thinking and the recovery of the etheric realm. This means either an encounter with the etheric Christ - for the most evolved beings - or the victory over Lucifer through the higher ether of thinking.
Here, with reference to other questions I have noticed, we have to say: the path of thinking has to be understood as the way of the future. We are now preparing the future structure of the human brain. We can say that thinking, when it is true thinking, sort of bores channels, or ways, inside the cerebral organ, in which it prepares its manifestation. I've said “when it is true thinking” because usually this is not the case. Through these channels, or excavations, through this preparation of the brain, the essential force, the Logos force of thinking prepares its own manifestation. This, however, does not happen by itself. Man has to decide it. But the force is there, it’s at our disposal. We continually think, and the force is ready. But we have to understand that, we have to activate this power and open those channels. But, once this operation is initiated, it can’t be paused. If this intense work is suspended, even shortly, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic currents immediately take advantage of the opened channels and enter the head. This explains the betrayals. Not the betrayal of Judas, but the one of Cagliostro, and the betrayal of the one who caused our Doctor’s plans to fail. All possible betrayals today, among those who follow the true path of the Spirit, can be understood as realization of what I have often pointed to, interpreting the word of Christ about demons. As He says, there are demons who, chased away from a being through divine help, start rambling, unable to find a new dwelling place. Then they realize that the being has purified himself, has cleaned up the space very well, and so they are eager to come back and occupy the newly refreshed space. So at the least opportunity they enter it, and dominate the person more than ever before. In this way, the one who had been exorcized and liberated is indemonised three times stronger. The serious seekers on the path sense this risk very well, because there is nothing worse than an awakened inner substance that is later recaptured by instincts. Through the adversarial forces, those instincts become incredibly powerful. Yes, the path is difficult, nevertheless it is the true path. Not like the path of... the law of entities... Those are good people but, well, they really have a lot to learn.
So… thinking is the key, because the Logos-forces of thinking start their action already in childhood. During the first three years of life, the forces must be allowed to work. They know how to operate, independent of the child. Therefore it is critical that the parents, or the educators, allow for this process to orderly take place without perturbations, troubles or damages. It’s a very critical task. Later, as conscious thinking progressively emerges, this formative work of the cerebral organ goes on. Then the period between 14 and 21 years of age is a dangerous one, because the young person is defenseless in the face of impressions, sensations he might receive, and when instincts are triggered. One can say that these impulses affect the formative forces of the brain, and the brain can be damaged. So the organ that will later reflect our thinking - because the thinking by which we think is the reflection created by our physical brain - is damaged. Therefore the education of thinking for young people is of paramount importance. It has to allow for the cerebral organ to develop according to the laws of Spirit. Despite any possibly adverse karmic forces, this work will be a fantastic help from the 21st year on, because there will always be adversarial elements in the external world to challenge that educational work. That's why it’s so important to take care of our youth, and help them, until the 21st year of age. After the age of 21, let them do as they please.
Usually it happens that thinking does not take that course, unfortunately. The normal course of development would be that the forces of thinking are activated in a way that progressively opens that arc within the brain, so that, one day, the brain will naturally and effortlessly respond to the continuous darkening attempts on thinking. Unfortunately it’s very common that the opposite happens, that the world of instincts expresses itself through thinking, which blocks the influx of the Logos-forces of thinking. Whenever this force does not find those opened channels, it ends up in the instinctual sphere. Hence the damage we have earlier discussed, in terms of magic. These instinctual forces can indeed be terrible, but they don’t belong to the
I of the one who is operating.
So we are in trouble if knowledge is missing, if we don’t understand that true knowledge comes from an honest line of conduct. Whoever poses as master, but cuts the quotes, manipulates the texts and the students, is dishonest. When we have discovered that, we have started to say no to these people. The mark of the true spiritual teacher is the most absolute honesty and fairness, an intention not to influence anyone, not to enter the sacred sphere of someone else’s freedom, but to support the birth of the free human being, offering them the opportunity to know that freedom and act in freedom from within that sphere. Speaking of democracy, we really need to pursue this impulse, because democracy can only arise from this superior freedom of the
I. We can’t dream of a democracy born out of political processes. It’s impossible. What takes form on the political plane has to be first gained spiritually, by those who have the presumption and the big responsibility to follow the way of the Spirit. The poor politicians are admirable, because they are able to invest everything, their whole selves, in their plans, in which they do believe. They are convinced they are realizing something of value. In fact, what is realized is the true ethical content of a nation, that which becomes the destiny of a people. Last time we treated this topic well enough, let’s not go back to it today.
We are living in times of formidable momentum. We are living through a fateful juncture in the history of humanity. Our responsibility is extensive, because everything that happens externally can be traced back to either something we got wrong or something we earned with determination. The difficulties are there, every day. Every day there are reasons to feel sorrow and frustration, but we have to continually oppose this thought. It’s extremely important that we endure every burden, and that we overcome them. The salvation of the collective we belong to depends on that. At this point, I can't refrain from reading out the warning: “Watch over and meditate, because the Spirit is strong, even if the flesh is weak”. This is very true. Our flesh will be strong in a few millennia, but for now we have to ground everything in the Spirit, and gain autonomy with regard to everything physical. This autonomy, as we know, comes from the liberation of thinking. The path of thinking offers the highest level of autonomy from the physical sphere, regardless of the situation we have to face.
“
Dear Massimo, could you speak of the use of magical plants by the disciple, and …”
The ink, dear friend, is a bit faded, anyway, I get the question. You refer to the magical plants, but all plants are magical. There is no plant whose etheric current is not necessary to the human body, because man’s etheric body is the synthesis of all etheric currents active in the plant realm. Whenever it becomes possible to identify the etheric deficiency associated with a certain illness, one can intuit what the corresponding plant is also. Etheric deficiencies can have multiple origins: etheric deficiency may depend on excess of the physical element, or excess of the astral element over the etheric, and it’s all about understanding the existing relationships. There are various types of illness according to these relationships. Because the decisive phases of an illness, as well as of the healing process, happen at the etheric level, the choice of a specific plant is crucial. Moreover one has to determine whether to use the root, the bark, the leafs, or the flowers, depending on the illnesses and on the body parts concerned. In some cases it’s also about knowing the relevance of the plant growth, and the time when the sprouts appear. All this is possible to discern. Anyway, dear Massimiliano, we are in the early days of a new science. I know that some individuals are working at it, but it requires time, patience, and also righteousness. While these people are working, we have to take our protection in our own hands. Whoever follows a really orderly path of inner development, in the way we speak of it, has the possibility to receive an intuition about illness, from the higher self. It is possible to have an intuition of what medicine to take, an intuition of what plant is related to the illness, and what substance could help, as we wait for the advent of a systematic science of the healing power of plants and mineral elements. Mineral substances are also important, for example, iodine. Who knows what iodine really is? We never see that iodine is used, nonetheless, it is a substance of crucial importance. Various points would need to be made here, but we are about to close now.
And so we can't conclude otherwise than with a positive, optimistic thought - a thought that assigns a task: “To maintain contact with Logos in our impulse towards a beloved being”. We are ending on the most important and most difficult task. As we have mentioned, it’s the
I who loves. The
I needs to be there. Usually what happens is that the astral comes in. The astral calls, but doesn’t love. The astral has to be infused by the
I, it has to be reawakened by the
I so that it can provide original, powerful impulses. If the
I is not there, the astral gives out Lucifer. It can be a rosy Lucifer, a benign Lucifer. It will still be against the free human being. Lucifer does not want the
I who loves. This is why Love and Freedom cannot be separated. Out of love for the other being one has to be autonomous from the other person. This autonomy has to transform into an ability to immerse oneself in the other being - it’s the presence of Logos. And this is all. This is the secret of everything. But the point is, it’s all about making sure that this presence can operate, because the presence is there. We have said that: the presence of Logos is realized. It is realized on the physical plane, it’s realized in the etheric plane. It’s up to man whether to open the door to it or to close it, and man continually closes that door, without knowing it. And when the door has to be opened, man says “...but it’s difficult”. Come on, this is the most important task for humanity. That’s why it’s difficult. Therefore, one needs to have the courage to overcome the difficult moments, keeping in mind that those moments may appear as fearful processes, as deadly processes, with a sense of coming to the end of one’s life. Here one needs to develop courage. Courage
is the true force of Love.
***
[1] Thanks to Piero Cammerinesi for making this recording freely available to the public at
Libero Pensare.
.
To the extent that I am aware of the problem, I would not be able to feel that the thing is settled, or could have been settled. It rather feels like an open account that is pending, out of balance.