Tomberg and Anthroposophy

[Rodriel Gabrez]

I can't say that I have any exact knowledge of what "the plan" is supposed to be. However, I imagine the entire operation as a quiet one. At no point do I expect priests to give homilies about reincarnation or old Saturn. At all stages of the process there will be souls in need of the exoteric guardrails. But at the end of the process, the esoteric layer will be collectively understood within the exoteric outer container. The exoteric language will be spoken, but the depth axis will be perceived. That's more of less how I envision it. Now, I certainly foresee there being major bumps along the way. The invisible order producing better fruit will illicit the ire of certain contingents within the old guard, and there will be clashes. St. Joan will be burned at the stake again, many times over, most likely.

OK, I think we are getting to the crux of things. Two distinct visions take shape, each of which sees the immediate future of humanity in different ways.

What I'm saying now shouldn't be taken as throwing around esoterically sounding words, and trying to patch together some 'explanation' from them. Everything below can be experienced in full exactness in our spiritual perception. And it is in fact a quite proximate experience.

The Church has the potential to lead the souls toward the pinhole. In more exoteric life, this means to always seek the deep conscience inspired by the Christ, in every act, feeling, and thought. Through a little additional guidance and effort (for ex. MoT), it is possible to develop a truly vivid intuitive experience of the I-pinhole. In all reality, we can feel how our being flows into the Earthly matrix through it and becomes infused in the World-all as thoughts, feelings, and actions. In a sense, our higher conscientious being, hidden behind the pinhole, manifests itself. Our job is to transform all the hindrances that can block or divert this flow. This is the symbol of the lower cone. Its apex is the pinhole, and it opens down into the manifoldness of the sensory world.

So far, so good. But now we are at a point where we need clarity about what the longer term trajectory is. Here things begin to differentiate into alternative wordlines.

If we understand the nature of spiritual science in its true essence, we are fully aware that it draws its concepts from everything that can be experienced beyond the pinhole. This is generally acknowledged, but at the same time, we can form the view that the vast majority of this knowledge is not directly relevant to our pressing tasks at hand. As such, this knowledge can be considered largely a matter of personal concern. Those who feel up to the task are welcome to go deeper through the pinhole, but as far as the Earthly developments go, it's better for one to remain silent about their experiences.

Through this inner stance, it is now perfectly understandable how we can see the role of the Church in a completely positive light. Indeed, even if not too many reformations take place, even if the doctrine of one life, of man being body and soul only, etc., were to remain intact, this is not a problem, because the pressing evolutionary service is still performed – souls are guided and helped to manifest their hidden being of conscience through the pinhole. As such, the role of the consciousness soul is to become a kind of waiting room, where souls gather (individually) one by one. Of course, as said, there's no law against exploring where the further journey takes, yet this is a matter of strictly personal pursuit. The pressing task is to lead the souls to the pinhole waiting room. Then, the train is expected to leave, which corresponds to nothing else but the Second Coming. Only then the life beyond the pinhole becomes fully relevant – simply because it is expected to become our immediate shared reality, just like we take the sensory world to be our immediate shared reality. Yet, this event is something that, for the time being, lies in the indefinite future. It could be close, it could be far.

The mission of John is to keep the life and soul of the Church alive until the Second Coming of the Lord. This is why John has never claimed and never will claim the office of directing the body of the Church. He vivifies this body, but he does not direct its actions.

John is the future life in the depths of spiritual reality, however, until the Second Coming, his mission is to help the external guiderails process and also the individual souls in reaching the crisp existence at the pinhole, such as virtuous conscientious impulses can fill the lower cone.

What does it mean that John does not intervene in the work of the Church? Nothing else than the fact that at this time, deeper spiritual knowledge has now direct application to Worldly affairs. For the latter, the intellect guided by Christ-inspired conscience is fully adequate.

Now we can contrast this with another worldline. I beg everyone to do that not merely as a juxtaposition of concepts but as an actual meditative experience. The John streams that broke into the outer world at the beginning of the twentieth century developed a different vision.

Christ cannot be crucified a second time.

This Christ is coming now to visit the minds and hearts of men. He will demolish all prisons; He will obliterate all false teachings - everything that destroys man's mind and heart, that brings confusion and anarchy, that paralyzes human life. He is the living Christ who brings life, light and freedom to all souls, who uplifts and awakens in them love toward all.

When I say that Christ is coming now, some might think that He will come outwardly. Christ will not come outwardly, He will come neither in the form of a man, nor in any other form.

When the rays of the sun enter into your homes, does that mean that the sun itself has visited you?

Remember, Christ is e manifestation of divine Love. And He will come as an inner light in the minds and hearts of men. This light will draw all toward Christ as around a great center.

The opening of men's minds and hearts, and the inner acceptance of Christ - this will be the second coming of Christ to the earth.

If they do not accept Him in this way, people will continue to live without love, in suffering and misery, in outer beliefs, superstitions, and delusions.

Captives of those outer beliefs, many religious people today err when they say, "Christ brought good tidings two thousand years ago. He said all that He had to say, and now He has gone to heaven, where He will remain until the Day of Judgment, when He will come again to judge the living and the dead."

But I say to you: Christ did not preach the good tidings in time and space!

We do not consider Christ and His teaching as something that is past.

We do not consider Christ and His teaching as something that will come in the future.

For us, Christ and His teaching are an everlasting present!

…

Humankind is presently passing through a new phase of its development. A new form of Love is coming. We ask, “When will God come and reveal His Love to us?” This Day is coming. For some, this Day has already come. Have you ever raised silkworms? Do all form their cocoon in a single day? No, some do it sooner, some do it later. For some of the “silkworms,” this Day has already come.

But even more importantly, there’s a radically different vision about what human life on Earth will turn into. In this vision, the consciousness soul is not kept as a narrow waiting room but begins to grow. Alas, this is not merely a second kind of downward cone. Our whole sense of existence inverts. If I may say so, we begin to awaken within conscience space which is woven out of the activity of the hierarchies. Thus, the awakening of clear consciousness within this soul is like the second cone, touching at the pinhole but open upwards.

All that in our ordinary consciousness we experience as our pure conscientious manifestation of the “I” is by no means something monolithic and individually ours. It is the collective expression of the whole Intelligent Cosmos. Our human being, so to speak, only adds the final touches before this Cosmic flow is funneled through the pinhole, and then expands into World, feeling as if it manifests as an expression of our “I”.

The radically different vision is that it is time the reality of this hidden Cosmic life to flow into the Earthly matrix. In other words, the Cosmic life is not kept silent until the Second Coming happens en masse, but actively profuses into the World and has to gradually become the driving force of all World affairs. Peter’s mind becomes servant of the Cosmic Heart, which together make the the thinking of the heart – a higher form of conscious life that actively weaves within the flow of the hierarchies, and funnels the thinking, feeling and willing manifestations according to this higher cognition of the Cosmic flow.

We need to get that right – we’re not talking about having certain insights in spiritual rapture and then building our social structures as reflections, in the way we always have. No, the social structures now grow as living organs for the hierarchies! There’s consciousness that in this or that organization, concrete beings of the hierarchies have their outlet. All of this consciousness can only be attained if the consciousness or spiritual soul is developed. As long as the latter is reduced to a narrow waiting room, the life of the hierarchies remains behind the veil (or at most as a strictly private insight), while we continue to struggle to find the ultimate socio-politico-religious government, with its intellectually grasped structures, laws, and regulations.

I hope that in this way we have finally elucidated this mystery. We can never have the clarity and exactitude of consciousness if we try to muddle things and say “Well, they all worked for the flourishing of the consciousness soul, but in slightly different ways. One way is adapted to one kind of souls, the other to others.” However, things are not so simple.

The hierarchies continuously move Time. Our I-pinhole is like the bottleneck of an hourglass, through which the sands of Time flow. The Cosmos continuously turns inside-out through that pinhole. The kinds of Time waves that are to pass through the pinhole are largely established through their Cosmic rhythms. As such, when the hierarchies push the Time waves in such a way that they expect that the human being will take their conscious responsibility within the upper cone of conscience space, but this responsibility is not taken, and instead souls clump at the waiting room at the bottleneck, a kind of ‘vacuum’ forms above. Then, other beings say, “If humans are unwilling to take hold of what is lawfully theirs, then we’ll gladly fill that void.”

What are the consequences of this? That while souls are clumping at the pinhole and await the en masse Event, and in the meantime they try to perfect the manifestations of their conscience, they remain completely blind about the Cosmic processes behind the pinhole. And for reasons that will be completely mysterious, even with the best of efforts, souls will be seen to manifest disturbing activity. It will be really strange. Even though on the surface one wants to be a conductor of the good, the noble, the Divine, somehow these manifestations would come out through the “I” in alien forms. We must realize how terrifying that is. And all of this results from convincing ourselves that the deeper knowledge of the human being (which at the same time means true knowledge of the Cosmos and the hierarchies) is a task for some future time, after the Coming, while in the meantime we stay at the waiting room and oversee the entirely Earthly happenings, understood and organized through the intellect.

The image of souls clumping at the pinhole, awaiting the en masse Event is different from what I'm describing. A quiet emergence of the Consciousness Soul doesn't imply that activity waits until everyone has gotten on board. The quietness or "silence" simply refers to the manner of communication used in the activity of sculpting our social institutions into organs for the hierarchies. Tomberg demonstrates quite effectively how certain facts can be conveyed very strongly without stating them directly. For instance, nowhere in his entire Catholic period does he mention the idea that Lazarus becomes John. Yet this is the very backbone of his entire project. Those who see this and other such veiled facts can then base their activity upon this communication and structure their communications accordingly. To demonstrate this, we need only run a thought experiment among the small group of people here in this forum. Knowing what we collectively know of spiritual science, however meager or great it might be, we could have an entire conversation about the 6th cultural age using only Biblical images. Insofar as this conversation contains suggestions for action, these could then be carried out and produce real social effects.

[Cleric]

The image of souls clumping at the pinhole, awaiting the en masse Event is different from what I'm describing. A quiet emergence of the Consciousness Soul doesn't imply that activity waits until everyone has gotten on board. The quietness or "silence" simply refers to the manner of communication used in the activity of sculpting our social institutions into organs for the hierarchies. Tomberg demonstrates quite effectively how certain facts can be conveyed very strongly without stating them directly. For instance, nowhere in his entire Catholic period does he mention the idea that Lazarus becomes John. Yet this is the very backbone of his entire project. Those who see this and other such veiled facts can then base their activity upon this communication and structure their communications accordingly. To demonstrate this, we need only run a thought experiment among the small group of people here in this forum. Knowing what we collectively know of spiritual science, however meager or great it might be, we could have an entire conversation about the 6th cultural age using only Biblical images. Insofar as this conversation contains suggestions for action, these could then be carried out and produce real social effects.

That's OK, but it still shifts the focus from the issue at hand. The whole point is that in X's vision, until the Second Coming, there should still be a clear 'separation of concerns' between the outer flow of affairs and the inner life. John doesn't give directions to Peter. The Hermetic initiate doesn't intervene in science, art, religion. Groups of Hermeticists may be inspired through the hierarchies and act as their organs, but the organs of outer life are independent. They follow the rules of the fifth cultural epoch, the intellectual soul working on the sensory spectrum.

This is different from what the other streams of Living Christianity portray as the future of human civilization. It is precisely these three archetypal outer expressions of human life that need to receive new life directly from the spirit. Steiner, more than anyone else, has tried to give examples of how all aspects of outer human life must in time begin to draw their life impulses directly from the spiritual world, from the upper cone where our being belongs to the hierarchies. This holds even for the threefold social being. I hope everyone here is aware that the latter is not merely an ideology, like communism or capitalism, that can be implemented by organizing human agents into governing structures and following cleverly designed rules. It can only emerge in the true way precisely if it becomes the body of the Macrocosmic being of humanity, the Cosmic Man. And this is impossible without deepened comprehension of man and the Cosmos, because this manifestation flows through the free I-activity of human individualities. Nothing can ever come about if this comprehension is kept a private concern of a few.

In other words, these streams proclaim that we already live in the time where the following is due:

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

As such, Steiner hasn't simply sent a loud blast from the housetop, such that others can then once again turn back to secrecy. He was simply doing his duty before Christ, who spoke to him in darkness.

I hope I'm able to express this point of bifurcation clearly. We are indeed speaking of two different visions of the immediate future of humanity, and we're not making things easier for ourselves if we simply close our eyes and hope to think of them as two sides of the same coin. In one vision, outer life remains basically materialistic, as it has been in the last millennia. This life is balanced through religion, bringing back to focus that the I-pinhole has to be an outlet for the life of Christ (not I but Christ in me). This Earth-bound life is expected to transform through the Second Coming, which is awaited as a future event. Only then will the Church be left in the past because we'll be entering the age where "... I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

In the other view, there's an influx of the spiritual which brings about higher consciousness within the upper cone, and as such, the Earthly arena becomes a place where the Worlds intermingle in full consciousness. As such, all outer forms now need to receive more and more consciously their impulses from the spiritual world. We should feel how this forces us to conceive of a quite new kind of human culture, a completely different way in which we feel we're placed into reality. This feeling is uncomfortable for the materialistic Earthly dream (even if guided through religious guardrails). It asks for radically new understanding, new skills, new duties, and so on. But most crucially - we are not waiting for something to happen. This should have become a red alarm by now. Everyone waits for something to happen. Some wait for the Pleiadeans to evacuate them from Terra, others wait for the president who will finally put things right. Meanwhile, we're in the waiting room and contemplate the dream of the material Earth passing before our eyes. The new culture is called upon to transform the three aspects of life - science/economics, art, religion - such that they become expressions of the spirit. This in itself means that the transfigured religion, Peter, will have to be directed by the Light pulses of John.

[Cleric]

Could you elaborate a bit on how you see this process of the Church body 'running its course' and Christ spirit 'growing a new body'? Practically, what happens to the EOC and RCC in this scenario, what is 'the plan' from this perspective? Do they remain as 'holding pens' for lagging souls, who can perhaps be reached by more advanced souls on an individual case-by-case basis, but then it truly becomes a case of rescuing such souls from the dying Church body and setting ourselves in opposition to the latter? I have a hard time imagining any way this could play out without esoteric 'communities' declaring war on the Church (almost like an even more intense Protestant reformation), so to speak, if indeed there is no leeway for renewal and adaptation at the institutional level.

I think all of these questions find their answer if we focus on what the new life should be. Does a prospering university need to seek out its students and 'save' them from other schools? It is enough that it is out in the open and its fruits are seen. The candidate students will seek it out on their own. We should not forget that we're dealing with reasonable souls. If they feel the thirst for a new life, they'll go for it if they see it.

This also holds true in our personal cases. If we are a deplorable display of this 'new life', there isn't even need to try to convince others to seek it out.

[Rodriel Gabrez]

The image of souls clumping at the pinhole, awaiting the en masse Event is different from what I'm describing. A quiet emergence of the Consciousness Soul doesn't imply that activity waits until everyone has gotten on board. The quietness or "silence" simply refers to the manner of communication used in the activity of sculpting our social institutions into organs for the hierarchies. Tomberg demonstrates quite effectively how certain facts can be conveyed very strongly without stating them directly. For instance, nowhere in his entire Catholic period does he mention the idea that Lazarus becomes John. Yet this is the very backbone of his entire project. Those who see this and other such veiled facts can then base their activity upon this communication and structure their communications accordingly. To demonstrate this, we need only run a thought experiment among the small group of people here in this forum. Knowing what we collectively know of spiritual science, however meager or great it might be, we could have an entire conversation about the 6th cultural age using only Biblical images. Insofar as this conversation contains suggestions for action, these could then be carried out and produce real social effects.

That's OK, but it still shifts the focus from the issue at hand. The whole point is that in X's vision, until the Second Coming, there should still be a clear 'separation of concerns' between the outer flow of affairs and the inner life. John doesn't give directions to Peter. The Hermetic initiate doesn't intervene in science, art, religion. Groups of Hermeticists may be inspired through the hierarchies and act as their organs, but the organs of outer life are independent. They follow the rules of the fifth cultural epoch, the intellectual soul working on the sensory spectrum.

This is different from what the other streams of Living Christianity portray as the future of human civilization. It is precisely these three archetypal outer expressions of human life that need to receive new life directly from the spirit. Steiner, more than anyone else, has tried to give examples of how all aspects of outer human life must in time begin to draw their life impulses directly from the spiritual world, from the upper cone where our being belongs to the hierarchies. This holds even for the threefold social being. I hope everyone here is aware that the latter is not merely an ideology, like communism or capitalism, that can be implemented by organizing human agents into governing structures and following cleverly designed rules. It can only emerge in the true way precisely if it becomes the body of the Macrocosmic being of humanity, the Cosmic Man. And this is impossible without deepened comprehension of man and the Cosmos, because this manifestation flows through the free I-activity of human individualities. Nothing can ever come about if this comprehension is kept a private concern of a few.

In other words, these streams proclaim that we already live in the time where the following is due:

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

As such, Steiner hasn't simply sent a loud blast from the housetop, such that others can then once again turn back to secrecy. He was simply doing his duty before Christ, who spoke to him in darkness.

I hope I'm able to express this point of bifurcation clearly. We are indeed speaking of two different visions of the immediate future of humanity, and we're not making things easier for ourselves if we simply close our eyes and hope to think of them as two sides of the same coin. In one vision, outer life remains basically materialistic, as it has been in the last millennia. This life is balanced through religion, bringing back to focus that the I-pinhole has to be an outlet for the life of Christ (not I but Christ in me). This Earth-bound life is expected to transform through the Second Coming, which is awaited as a future event. Only then will the Church be left in the past because we'll be entering the age where "... I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

In the other view, there's an influx of the spiritual which brings about higher consciousness within the upper cone, and as such, the Earthly arena becomes a place where the Worlds intermingle in full consciousness. As such, all outer forms now need to receive more and more consciously their impulses from the spiritual world. We should feel how this forces us to conceive of a quite new kind of human culture, a completely different way in which we feel we're placed into reality. This feeling is uncomfortable for the materialistic Earthly dream (even if guided through religious guardrails). It asks for radically new understanding, new skills, new duties, and so on. But most crucially - we are not waiting for something to happen. This should have become a red alarm by now. Everyone waits for something to happen. Some wait for the Pleiadeans to evacuate them from Terra, others wait for the president who will finally put things right. Meanwhile, we're in the waiting room and contemplate the dream of the material Earth passing before our eyes. The new culture is called upon to transform the three aspects of life - science/economics, art, religion - such that they become expressions of the spirit. This in itself means that the transfigured religion, Peter, will have to be directed by the Light pulses of John.

You see, this is where Tomberg's work really must be grasped within the very mystery that his words convey. By doing this, we live into the mystery such that we see all the same things being done that you describe but which in their outward expression seem to be denied. This method of communication is the very means by which what you are arguing for is to be accomplished. "John doesn't give directions to Peter" simply means that Peter's full entry into the spiritual world is won through his becoming a John, and once this has occurred it will have been Peter at the visible helm the entire time. You argue continually that spiritual science must be shouted from the rooftops. I argue that the silence Tomberg describes is that very shouting from the rooftops shifted into a completely different dimension of hearing. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). There is no literal waiting until the Second Coming. There is no literal "separation of concerns" between Peter and John. The statements which gesture toward such waiting and separation are rhetorical devices meant to lead to the understanding, from a higher vantage point, of the very opposite.

I know that one can easily arrive at the sense that this method of working is deceptive or duplicitous. But it is actually the way that vouchsafes the attainment of the goal we all strive for in full freedom. If you tell someone exactly how to achieve a certain goal, then its attainment is not entirely free. However, if you clearly see the goal but build into the directions the requirement for people to arrive at the path themselves, now free attainment is possible.

[Cleric]

You see, this is where Tomberg's work really must be grasped within the very mystery that his words convey. By doing this, we live into the mystery such that we see all the same things being done that you describe but which in their outward expression seem to be denied. This method of communication is the very means by which what you are arguing for is to be accomplished. "John doesn't give directions to Peter" simply means that Peter's full entry into the spiritual world is won through his becoming a John, and once this has occurred it will have been Peter at the visible helm the entire time. You argue continually that spiritual science must be shouted from the rooftops. I argue that the silence Tomberg describes is that very shouting from the rooftops shifted into a completely different dimension of hearing. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). There is no literal waiting until the Second Coming. There is no literal "separation of concerns" between Peter and John. The statements which gesture toward such waiting and separation are rhetorical devices meant to lead to the understanding, from a higher vantage point, of the very opposite.

I know that one can easily arrive at the sense that this method of working is deceptive or duplicitous. But it is actually the way that vouchsafes the attainment of the goal we all strive for in full freedom. If you tell someone exactly how to achieve a certain goal, then its attainment is not entirely free. However, if you clearly see the goal but build into the directions the requirement for people to arrive at the path themselves, now free attainment is possible.

I get what you say, but this also makes the whole communication very slippery. If VT has spoken in half-words, and then we add the other halves from ourselves, then what we're discussing here is primarily the part that we add and insist that this is what VT implied but never said. That's why I suggested that it's even better if we do not focus so much on him but on what our individual vision is.

And in that case, we still circle back to the idea of the RCC as the future World-governing power, which however might as well still be stuck in its dogma. What I said is that we can only accept that if we consider that the deeper truths of man's Cosmic nature are optional for the time being (that is, as long as the pinhole is brought to focus, it's enough). But if we consider the example I gave, we should know that the higher truths are and will be increasingly more vitally important if man is not to fall into degeneration. In this way, it shouldn't be possible to be equanimous before the fact that a World-governing institution is teaching untruths that fuel the degeneration (because, as an example, the one-life doctrine can be accepted as a pedagogical method up to some point, but from thence on, it becomes actual teaching of an untruth)

We really need to make up our minds about this. Let me be clear once again that I have nothing against the RCC. If it becomes the home of true Johnian initiates, who are willing to give new spiritual life of its structures directly from the spiritual world - so much the better. But in my view, we completely reverse the situation if we place the cart before the horse and subscribe to the eternal rule of the RCC for whatever reasons, while we care not about what it will teach, how many will be burnt at the stake, and so on.

To me things are so plain and simple as long as we understand the inner priority of things. If an organization, RCC or whatever, can do its job and bring into the Earthly matrix the spiritual impulses that are needed for healthy development of mankind - so much the better. But to insist that a certain husk has to be pushed into power, even if it turns out completely inadequate for the evolutionary tasks, is scary. I understand completely if someone has sympathy and hope that the RCC will be able to transform and become the continuation of John, that is, it will have John initates at the core who do everything possible to manifest the Cosmic intents of the hierarchies down the gradient. But if one is willing to put up with a structure which turns out more and more inadequate to meet the evolving needs of mankind, just because of sympathy to its brand name, this is completely upside-down. We need to be not where the Church is but where the Living Christ is.

[Federica]

You see, this is where Tomberg's work really must be grasped within the very mystery that his words convey. By doing this, we live into the mystery such that we see all the same things being done that you describe but which in their outward expression seem to be denied. This method of communication is the very means by which what you are arguing for is to be accomplished. "John doesn't give directions to Peter" simply means that Peter's full entry into the spiritual world is won through his becoming a John, and once this has occurred it will have been Peter at the visible helm the entire time. You argue continually that spiritual science must be shouted from the rooftops. I argue that the silence Tomberg describes is that very shouting from the rooftops shifted into a completely different dimension of hearing. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). There is no literal waiting until the Second Coming. There is no literal "separation of concerns" between Peter and John. The statements which gesture toward such waiting and separation are rhetorical devices meant to lead to the understanding, from a higher vantage point, of the very opposite.

I know that one can easily arrive at the sense that this method of working is deceptive or duplicitous. But it is actually the way that vouchsafes the attainment of the goal we all strive for in full freedom. If you tell someone exactly how to achieve a certain goal, then its attainment is not entirely free. However, if you clearly see the goal but build into the directions the requirement for people to arrive at the path themselves, now free attainment is possible.

Rodriel, in your biographical notes - thank you for sharing them - you have described the duality in your path in these terms: "The task was to expose certain elements of spiritual reality to the extent that a person was open to and ready to hear them, going deeper than what is comfortable but leaving certain things that would otherwise lead to a total rejection mysterious". Today you make it clear that this duality is not just a secondary or consequential aspect, but the core lying at the foundation of this veiled path that you have crafted for yourself. In this path, the jubilation of consistent deciphering of every message within the secretly luminous plan, in a way that remains impenetrable to the many, becomes the token for the achievement of freedom. But free human attainment can't consist of passing a special test, quietly dispensed by Valentin Tomberg. Freedom is not about deciphering for oneself a new Hermetic code, ascending to rethorical vantage points where conceptual lead is transformed into living gold, and discursive meanings into their very opposite.

Freedom isn't a matter of deciphering, but of working out the divine essence in oneself so that the personality can be disciplined and reorganized. Your idea of freedom within Valentin Tomberg's secret circle of friends is incompatible with the pursuit of the virtues, and Divine will. You say: "If you tell someone exactly how to achieve a certain goal, then its attainment is not entirely free" and you are entirely wrong in that. You would be right if the task were intellectual. Then indeed, having someone telling you the keys would deprive you from freely finding the solution for yourself. But there are no keys to guarantee the development of the consciouness soul. Only I can do it for myself, and only you can do it for yourself, and the clear indications we may receive, and need to receive, detract nothing, not even an ounce, from our freedom if we do it. Instead, they add to the virtue of everyone involved, while realizing the Divine will.

I invite you to reconsider this entire trajectory, Rodriel. See the elation of secret deciphering for what it is, resume the spiritual exercises instead of diving into more rethorical readings to fuel more elation, free yourself from these impediments on the veiled path, and unveil your destiny.

This is the picture we must have before us if we desire to realise not only intellectually but also in our feeling, what the communication of this Fifth Gospel means. It means that together with the truth known to us we must be alive to how and where we stand in the world today, realising how impossible it is to make the new tidings of the Spirit comprehensible to the thought-life of the past. And so when we have again to take leave of one another, reference may be made to words from the Gospel. With the way of thinking now prevailing in humanity, no progress is possible in the coming phase of spiritual evolution. Therefore this way of thinking must be changed, must be given another direction! Those who like to compromise and are unwilling to form a clear picture of things as they are and must be in the future, will not be able to contribute much to the spiritual teachings and spiritual service necessary for mankind.

It was my duty to speak of the Fifth Gospel which is very sacred to me. And I take leave of your hearts and souls with the wish that the bond created between us by many other things, may have been strengthened through this spiritual investigation of the Fifth Gospel—for this investigation is precious to me. Your hearts may perhaps be warmed by the thought that even if we are physically separated in space and in time, nevertheless we will remain together and feel together what we must inwardly assimilate and what is demanded by the duty laid upon the souls of men to-day by the Spirit. May the labours of every individual soul further our aims in the right way.

[Rodriel Gabrez]

I get what you say, but this also makes the whole communication very slippery. If VT has spoken in half-words, and then we add the other halves from ourselves, then what we're discussing here is primarily the part that we add and insist that this is what VT implied but never said. That's why I suggested that it's even better if we do not focus so much on him but on what our individual vision is.

And in that case, we still circle back to the idea of the RCC as the future World-governing power, which however might as well still be stuck in its dogma. What I said is that we can only accept that if we consider that the deeper truths of man's Cosmic nature are optional for the time being (that is, as long as the pinhole is brought to focus, it's enough). But if we consider the example I gave, we should know that the higher truths are and will be increasingly more vitally important if man is not to fall into degeneration. In this way, it shouldn't be possible to be equanimous before the fact that a World-governing institution is teaching untruths that fuel the degeneration (because, as an example, the one-life doctrine can be accepted as a pedagogical method up to some point, but from thence on, it becomes actual teaching of an untruth)

We really need to make up our minds about this. Let me be clear once again that I have nothing against the RCC. If it becomes the home of true Johnian initiates, who are willing to give new spiritual life of its structures directly from the spiritual world - so much the better. But in my view, we completely reverse the situation if we place the cart before the horse and subscribe to the eternal rule of the RCC for whatever reasons, while we care not about what it will teach, how many will be burnt at the stake, and so on.

To me things are so plain and simple as long as we understand the inner priority of things. If an organization, RCC or whatever, can do its job and bring into the Earthly matrix the spiritual impulses that are needed for healthy development of mankind - so much the better. But to insist that a certain husk has to be pushed into power, even if it turns out completely inadequate for the evolutionary tasks, is scary. I understand completely if someone has sympathy and hope that the RCC will be able to transform and become the continuation of John, that is, it will have John initates at the core who do everything possible to manifest the Cosmic intents of the hierarchies down the gradient. But if one is willing to put up with a structure which turns out more and more inadequate to meet the evolving needs of mankind, just because of sympathy to its brand name, this is completely upside-down. We need to be not where the Church is but where the Living Christ is.

"All visible things need a cross, that is, a capacity which holds back the participation in what is active in them according to sense." -St. Maximus the Confessor

Hark ye yet again—the little lower layer. The Catholic Church is the Cross upon which the entire sensibly-derived (mineral) world holds back our participation in that which is of that world. It itself is the enduring physical manifestation of I-pervaded thinking writ large. Peter, the bestower of the flesh and blood of Christ (the Spirit of the world, in its sensible form) to the those who will become Transubstantiated into his spiritual body, is crucified upside-down, with feet pointing to the sky. In his thinking, he will dive down to the center of the Earth, while his will rises into heaven. Thus, Peter's spiritual influence extends into the physical effect we call gravity and connects this pole of cosmic reality to the moral light of the Sun. The world of sense crosses over into the spirit on Peter's sacrificial bridge, built from the wood of the Cross, and balanced upon the mighty pillars of the Sacrifice of the Thrones.

And John - having already died and been raised himself and thus been offered a foretaste of the coming glory of the Son of Man - kneels by the foot of this Cross, watching his Lord being crucified. He looks to his mother, the queen of the Spiritual Soul, the representative of the Holy Spirt in the individual, whom the Lord instructed him to "take into his home." John must protect her in his home. The Lord has, after all, entrusted him and only him with her care. She will ultimately become the Bride of the Church, but Peter must yearn for her until she - having been Assumed into the spiritual world - reaches down from heaven to receive him. John has allowed Peter to enter the Tomb first and find nothing there he could comprehend, in order for him to enter inter this yearning, chastening relationship of the chivalric knight. When Peter reaches the shoreline whereupon he again sees the Lord, he inquires about the one following behind what he thought was their private walk, whereupon the Lord tells him pay this man no mind. This man is, however, the man to whom Christ Jesus revealed the secrets of evil (the identity of Judas) -- this man is to remain until the Lord's etheric return, operating in the background as the only non-martyred Apostle (not martyred of course because he has already died and been raised), who incarnates through the centuries, spiraling around the stream of Peter until the two streams merge in the event that constitutes the morphological transition into the next aeon. Lazarus-John indeed saw these things, describing them in profound images, on the island of Patmos when he was delivered the Revelation of the coming of future Jupiter.

Now, remember that it was only until after the death and raising of Lazarus that the Crucifixion became imminent. This transformation of Lazarus into John was the very catalyst to the event. Yet the transformation remains unspoken (silent) in the Holy Gospel. Rudolf Steiner, a knight of the order of John -- whose individuality itself has seeded the very apparatus of the Intellecual Soul into the Church through his former incarnations as the exalted Doctor and Honorary Doctor of the Church and thus has led Peter to the Tomb of his thinking -- is the emissary and active follower of John, who speeds forward the etheric Crucifixion of the entire world of sense. Anthroposophy's sickness was, like Lazarus's not unto death but to the glory of God. But now, when after this catalyzing event has taken place, those who preach the 5th Gospel (another reason why 5th Tarot Card is the Pope) will not refer to themselves as who they know themselves to be - namely, "Johns". For, not referring to oneself is at once a Christian sacrifice, the only way of spreading the Good News, and the only way for the flock to hear the Shepherd's voice. Valentin Tomberg-Unknown has shown this to us.

[Federica]

What do you understand "tradition" to mean in this context, Federica, and do you disagree that it does not live thanks to organizations?

What VT intends by "tradition" emerges directly from what he wrote immediately before the mentioned quote. Here's the entire passage:

Before Fabre d’Olivet the mystical aspect—the great alchemical work, the inner work of the new man and that of sacred magic—for a long time played the principal role in Hermeticism. It is thanks to him that a current of esoteric history was set in motion, which was represented by Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, H. P. Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner—to name only the most well-known names. But since the time of Fabre d’Olivet esoteric historicism has undergone an unparalleled development: grandiose works have seen the light of day—for example, From the Akasha Chronicle (Aus der Akasha-Chronik) and chapters on cosmic history in Occult Science (Geheimwissenschaft in Umriss) by Rudolf Steiner. What we said above concerning the work of Fabre d’Olivet is equally applicable to his successors in the domain of esoteric historicism based on the Akasha chronicle. For whatever the extent of their experience of the Akasha chronicle may be, however imposing the results of their efforts to do justice to this experience may be, it remains nonetheless fragmentary—and it is to the intellectual effort of the authors, more or less crowned with success, that we owe the logical or artistic sequence of their pretended account from the Akasha chronicle. Each of these authors of esoteric history has gaps in his experience of its source—the Akasha chronicle—and has filled them by taking recourse to his own means, to his intelligence and erudition. Thus, the situation of esoteric historicism is at present such that one cannot swear by any particular work; here, also, collective work is necessary from generation to generation—i.e. a living tradition, where each continues the work of his predecessors, by confirming the truth, filling in the gaps, and correcting errors of interpretation or vision.

Today no one should begin any more “from zero” out of his own initiative in the domain of esoteric historicism, even if he is the most profound seer and greatest thinker. From now on, it will be a matter not of isolated flashes of genius, but rather of a continuous collective endeavour of the tradition—which means to say of a slow but continuous growth of the light whose dawn was Fabre d’Olivet’s work. Dear Unknown Friend—you who are reading these lines written in 1965, after nearly fifty years of endeavour and experience in the domain of Hermeticism—I beg you not to regard what is written here as a simple wish made for the progression of Hermetic historicism, but as a testament making you who read these lines a trustee of such a task— if you accept. Therefore, please do all that you judge appropriate, but one thing I implore you not to do: to found an organisation, an association, a society or an order which would take charge of that. For the tradition lives not thanks to organisations, but in spite of them. One should content oneself purely and simply with friendship in order to preserve the life of a tradition; it should not be entrusted to the care of the embalmers and mummifiers par excellence that organisations are, save for the one founded by Jesus Christ.

En clair, VT says: “Fabre d’Oliver is the initiator of esoteric historicism. Before him, hermeticism consisted of the great inner works of the new man, with no connection to the history of the world. With him - the "angel" of tradition - begins the reading of the Akashic records, when hermeticism has finally entered its historical dimension. But nobody should do like Steiner, starting everything from zero and founding a deadly organization, a mill of death. Steiner, and everyone else in this tradition brought forth by reading the records, should have built on the work of their predecessors, take them further, correct their mistakes. Because everyone in this tradition, including Steiner, has done intellectual patching, connecting the visions using their intelligence and erudition. From now on [that is, beginning with me] no more isolated bursts of genius, à la Steiner, and no more of their deadly organizations, but only a collective effort among unknown friends to continue the tradition, through esoteric historicism. So please, friends who are listening, you don’t follow in Steiner’s path, and no more organizations, please, other than the RCC. Instead, simply be my unknown friends, and let's continue the tradition into the future.”

Of course, I deeply disagree with this view. The being of Anthroposophy (which is not the same as the Anthroposophical Society) is an essential element of the development of the new man, through the virtues. This development is what counts, not the tradition of esoteric or hermetic historicism. Without this realization, one is forced onto the dual path, which is incompatible with the virtues, and at odds with Divine will.

Interestingly, Rudolf Steiner Press Audio has just published "Anthroposophical Community Building":





From the Rudolf Steiner Archive transcript: Awakening to Community - GA 257 Lecture VI

A real community spirit is similarly attracted by our common experiencing when we study anthroposophy together, though it is obviously not a group soul active in the bloodstream. If we are able to sense this, we can form true communities.
We must make anthroposophy real by learning to be aware in anthroposophical community life that, when people join in anthroposophical tasks together, there they experience their first awakening in the encounter with the soul-spiritual element in their fellows. Human beings wake up in the mutual encounter with other human beings. As each one has new experiences between his encounters with these others, and has grown a little, these awakenings take place in an ever new way as people go on meeting. The awakenings undergo a burgeoning development.

When you have discovered the possibility that human souls wake up in the encounter with human souls, and human spirits wake up in the encounter with human spirits, and go to anthroposophical groups with a living awareness that only now have you come awake and only now begin to grow together into an understanding of anthroposophy, and on the basis of that understanding take anthroposophical ideas into an awakened soul rather than into an everyday soul asleep to higher things, then the true spirit of community descends upon the place where you are working.



PS: While I don't always align with everything she writes, Cognitive Ritual on Substack has also posted about Steiner's community building this week, in particular about the Youth Circle. I couldn't retrace all the quotes, yet the overall treatment of the question still provides an additional perspective on how Steiner intended the role of community in the future of man.
https://open.substack.com/pub/hazelarch ... medium=web

[AshvinP]

En clair, VT says: “Fabre d’Oliver is the initiator of esoteric historicism. Before him, hermeticism consisted of the great inner works of the new man, with no connection to the history of the world. With him - the "angel" of tradition - begins the reading of the Akashic records, when hermeticism has finally entered its historical dimension. But nobody should do like Steiner, starting everything from zero and founding a deadly organization, a mill of death. Steiner, and everyone else in this tradition brought forth by reading the records, should have built on the work of their predecessors, take them further, correct their mistakes. Because everyone in this tradition, including Steiner, has done intellectual patching, connecting the visions using their intelligence and erudition. From now on [that is, beginning with me] no more isolated bursts of genius, à la Steiner, and no more of their deadly organizations, but only a collective effort among unknown friends to continue the tradition, through esoteric historicism. So please, friends who are listening, you don’t follow in Steiner’s path, and no more organizations, please, other than the RCC. Instead, simply be my unknown friends, and let's continue the tradition into the future.”

Of course, I deeply disagree with this view. The being of Anthroposophy (which is not the same as the Anthroposophical Society) is an essential element of the development of the new man, through the virtues. This development is what counts, not the tradition of esoteric or hermetic historicism. Without this realization, one is forced onto the dual path, which is incompatible with the virtues, and at odds with Divine will.

Ok, and of course, I don't think the above is a great way to interpret what he is saying, but even so, I don't think it answers the question. The being of Anthroposophy, which we could say is closely related to Michael-Sophia, is obviously not an organization. As you say, it is not the same as the Anthroposophical Society. It is not the manifested form of any organization and its structure, and neither is 'the Tradition' in VT's sense. The Akashic record is the superposition of the imploded World state, the invisible movements that were 'layered over' one another in the course of involution, and which we retrace in evolution. Even our ordinary memory faculty is 'accessing the Akashic record' in a narrowed sense. These inner movements do not live thanks to the organizations that embodied them over the epochs. We gain a better sense of this dynamic if we consider Cleric's recent hermit crab analogy - "we need to distinguish the vibrant spiritual life from the husks it leaves behind." The Tradition is the former, the organizations are the latter. If we consider VT's indications impartially, without layering on our own commentary, we cannot help but see that he is speaking of these core phenomenological foundations.

[AshvinP]

But now, when after this catalyzing event has taken place, those who preach the 5th Gospel (another reason why 5th Tarot Card is the Pope) will not refer to themselves as who they know themselves to be - namely, "Johns". For, not referring to oneself is at once a Christian sacrifice, the only way of spreading the Good News, and the only way for the flock to hear the Shepherd's voice. Valentin Tomberg-Unknown has shown this to us.

Rodriel,

I wonder if it might be helpful for all involved if we simulated a scenario in this respect. We can take it out of the domain of religion and instead place it in the domain of current scientific institutions. For example, let's say we cross paths with a soul like Michael Levin, who is heavily interested and invested in exploring the Platonic space of cognitive agents and their invisible patterns, which can be leveraged for technological aims and practical ideals. I keep using him as an example because I think we all probably agree that he, more than most other public intellectuals, is attempting to bring into focus the pinhole of the consciousness soul from quite a different direction than the esoteric path. He may be quite primed to receive some helpful indications from unknown friends, if given the opportunity. We all probably also agree that it would do no good to initially hit him with lectures from Steiner or a bunch of esoteric jargon, even if we already perceive the great overlap between their intuitions. So, what would it look like, from your perspective, to act as an unknown friend and spread the Good News to him, if you had the opportunity? Would an institution like the Church have any helpful sway in a scenario like this one?