LECTURE SIX
September 10, 1924
View the blackboard drawing from the German edition for this lecture
When someone became initiated in the ancient mysteries, one of
the first things he experienced there was that his thoughts and
his whole human soul mood were directed towards the
significance of the cycles of world civilization which are
based on the number seven. And we see a clear reflection of
what arises from this initiation principle in the Apocalypse.
The number seven is present in the construction, composition
and content of the Apocalypse in a great variety of ways.
Now
of course what is connected with this number seven was not
connected with it in the external way that one usually imagines
today, but one initiated the person concerned into the working
and weaving of numbers in general. Now I would like to draw
your attention to something which I explained over there in a
quite different course on speech formation.
There I had to explain how an experience of speech sounds is
possible, and that mankind has lost its ability to experience
them. Just place the way elements of the creative word are
given through these experiences of speech sounds and the way
that the most manifold and wonderful content and even a whole
world content can be given through combinations of about 32
sound elements before your souls. Now try to imagine what
things were like at such a time — and there were times
when something like this was a reality for mankind — a
time that lived with these 32 elements in a very active way and
which felt how wonderful it was to be able to shape a world out
of this experience of 32 speech sounds. One really felt that
something spiritual was weaving in speech formation and in the
pictorial shaping of words when one spoke; one experienced that
gods were living in the speech sounds.
If
you take our 32 speech sounds, it will be easy for you to see
that about 24 of them are consonants and that about 7 of them
are vowels. Of course these things are always approximate, but
you can now let some light from the beginning of John's gospel
“In the beginning was the word” fall on that
Apocalyptic Imagination of an Alpha and Omega surrounded by
seven angels or vowels, and by 24 elders or consonants. One
felt that the secret of the universe weaved and lived in what
one intoned in holy cultic language in the way that I already
explained to you. And when one celebrated a religious rite one
felt the presence of the world's content which lived powerfully
in this symbolic picture.
Mankind must again get a feeling for where the gods were
located from the viewpoint of mystery wisdom. They weren't
sought in the remote transcendental places one thinks of today.
One sought their bodies in things like speech sounds; and when
people spoke about the cosmic, word, they were speaking about
the things which really weave through the world and which men
participate in with their speech.
The
same applies to numbers. Our present idea about numbers is very
abstract, by comparison with the kind of thinking which still
holds sway in the Apocalypse. Now you see, if one goes back to
the first Christian centuries one finds that a few people have
a certain understanding for something like the Apocalypse,
because they still felt what the secret of numbers is and
because they still experienced the peculiar proportions which
are connected with a division into a series of numbers.
People definitely did not look upon a series of numbers as a
kind of joining of one more unit to the previous number, but
one experienced what is present in three and in four, namely,
the closed nature of three, the open nature of four, and the
five which is related to the human being. One felt something
divine in numbers, just as one found something divine in speech
sounds and letters.
When someone in the ancient mysteries had reached the point
where he was initiated into this secret of numbers, it was his
duty to think, feel and sense in accordance with this secret of
numbers. Just think what this means. In music we have an octave
of seven tones — for the eighth is the same as the first,
in the rainbow 7 colors, and the number 7 is also present in
other things in nature. Just suppose that it would occur to
Nature to have a different arrangement in the rainbow, —
the whole universe would be thrown into confusion; or suppose
one would divide up the musical scale in a different way,
— the music would become unbearable, and so on.
However, since this secret of numbers is also in man's soul
being — there where the lawfulness is right —, just
as the course of nature is in it, the candidate for initiation
was told that he shouldn't toss his thoughts back and forth
arbitrarily anymore after his initiation, but that it was his
duty to think inwardly in numbers, just as Nature thinks in
numbers; he was told to experience how the mystery of numbers
weaves and lives in all beings and processes.
Now
the Apocalypse was written at a time when such an insertion of
man into the cosmic secret of a 7 or 12 or 24 or 3 was
absolutely valid. Since the beginning of our consciousness soul
age, that is, since the first third of the 15th century, we are
running into things which are similar to those which took place
before the time in which the number 7 was strictly valid, so
that displacements in the number 7 are gradually appearing. We
are no longer in the fortunate position of experiencing an
evolution which occurs exactly according to the number 7 We are
already in that evolutionary stage of the earth where
irregularities are beginning with respect to the secret of
numbers, so that the secret of numbers has acquired a new
significance for us. If we enlighten ourselves through the
secret of numbers which exists in documents like the
Apocalypse, we find that we gradually become able to grasp what
is increasingly occurring outside the secret of numbers with
our senses. And so in a certain sense, we're living our way out
of the secret of numbers. But we have to find out what it is,
so that we can use it in the forms which are suitable for the
earthly human events which are to be guided by the priesthood
in the religious sphere.
Although I'm assuming this, I can nevertheless speak about
certain phenomena as if they were occurring in accordance with
the secret of numbers, because world events will probably only
emerge from the secret of numbers slowly, as they move into a
mode which is not in accordance with numbers. In any case, in
the ancient mysteries people thought in terms of larger,
smaller and very, small cycles of seven.
Thus we have seen the continuation of old cultures and the
beginning of new cultural periods in the 7 communities or
churches, which were also real, concrete formations on earth.
On the other hand, we have a smaller cycle, and the Apocalypse
helps us to understand this in a certain way. Just consider
what this smaller cycle consists of.
If
we look back to the time in which the Mystery of Golgotha took
place upon earth, we see that Oriphiel, the archangel who gets
most of his impulses from Saturn, was ruling human spiritual
development. Then we come into an age where Anael is the ruling
archangel, then to the age of Zachariel, then we come to the
age of Raphael, then of Samael, of Gabriel and into the present
Michael age; we have the first, second, third, fourth, fifth,
sixth and seventh ages; so that we're in the seventh age of
this smaller cycle within our fifth larger cycle.
If
we wanted to write what they wrote in ancient times in a modern
form, we would have to say that we are living in the 5/7 age,
that is, we're in a larger, fifth cycle, and we're also in a
seventh cycle which intersects this. A seventh cycle signifies
an end condition. It was preceded by the sixth Gabriel cycle. A
great deal is always decided in a sixth cycle; the end is
prepared, and the previous age still works into this sixth
cycle. The Michael cycle begins about 1879, the Gabriel cycle
begins about 1471. Before that was the fifth Samael cycle, and
this archangel gets his impulses from Mars.
The
archangel of the fifth smaller cycle was reigning when the
fifth post Atlantean epoch began. However, he had already been
reigning for 3 to 4 centuries in this fifth archangel cycle
when he ushered in the fifth post Atlantean cycle. Thus the
small cycle overleaps the beginning of the large cycle.
However, this means that the large cycles are brought about by
spirits in the middle hierarchies; the third hierarchy, which
includes the archangels, are the servants of the higher
hierarchies. But the law of numbers works in such a way that
the fifth archangel's main activity coincides with that of a
being from a higher hierarchy who is also connected with the
number five at the beginning of the fifth cycle.
It's been a relatively long time since anyone has spoken about
these things, but they were discussed over a period which is
longer than most people think. These secrets were discussed in
places like the School of Chartres in the 12th century. They
still had an apocalyptic language then, for the latter is
always one which looks upon the universe from the perspective
or point of view of numbers, and also from other
viewpoints.
When Plato says that God geometrizes and mathematizes he
doesn't mean our rather abstract geometry or mathematics, but
that deep experience which people in ancient times had in
connection with forms and numbers. And although it is ridiculed
by materialism, one can see everywhere that the law of seven
also applies to organic life. One will find that the law of
seven is at work in the time it takes for larvae and
butterflies to develop and crawl out, and in the development of
certain diseases, and in many other things. These initiates
were told that numbers are something which arise out of the
nature of things, and this helped them to see the way things
really are.
For
one really becomes attentive to things if one has to tell
oneself that the archangel who stands in the number five spot
helps to begin the fifth post Atlantean age with Mars forces.
Everyone knows that there is something warlike about Mars. If
we look at the successive cultural periods, we see that they
are separated by important events.
If
we look back at the last big event which separates the
Atlantean age from the present age which is now in its fifth
cultural period, we have what is known as the ice age or flood
between the two the sinking of Atlantis and the rising of new
continents.
We
are living in the fifth post Atlantean period, a sixth one will
follow and a seventh one will follow. The catastrophe which
then separates us from the next large period which will come
the fifth from the sixth period will not just be an external
event in nature like the ice age or flood was. This separation
of the fifth from the sixth period will become manifest in a
more moral way. As I have often mentioned, a war of all against
all or a moral catastrophe will separate the fifth from the
large sixth earth period.
Of
course, this will also be connected with events in nature, but
the latter will be less important. It is introduced by what
comes from Mars through Samael, the spirit of conflict, when
warlike elements for initiation were brought from the spiritual
world. At the beginning of our fifth, smaller consciousness
soul age we have a preview of the way our larger age will end
after our fifth cultural epoch has been followed by the sixth
and seventh ones.
If
we listen to what people who still knew something about the
secret events which stand behind the public ones said around
the beginning of the 15th century when Samael was reigning
under the influence of Mars we will get an inkling of the way
our large epoch will end. One finds one's way into apocalyptic
thinking if one connects numbers with events. If one learns to
look at the world in an apocalyptic way, one will, as it were,
be able to read the apocalyptic universe, and one will find
that countless secrets are revealed to one.
Now
consider the fact that the small Michael cycle is in our fifth
post Atlantean cultural epoch and in the larger fifth earth
period. Let's take a look at what this means.
We
are living in the post Atlantean epoch or in the fifth large
earth period. This fifth epoch has in a way strongly separated
men from the world of the gods. Atlantean men still felt that
they were permeated by God; they felt that they were like a
covering for the godhead, and not like individual human beings.
Atlantean men felt that the godhead existed, but not individual
human beings.
The
main thing that our epoch is for is to make men independent and
to separate him from the godhead, and this has been happening
slowly and gradually for four cultural periods. It was
happening slowly in the ancient Indian cultural epoch, and one
could still see the after effects of this in the Ephesian
mysteries. During, the ancient Indian cultural age men felt
that they were still almost entirely embedded in the godhead.
They separated themselves from it considerably during the
ancient Persian period. They were relatively independent in the
third, so that they already felt death approaching from a
distance. Death was felt to such an extent during the
Græco-Roman cultural period that it gave rise to that well
known saying, “It's better to be a beggar in the upper
world than a king in the realm of the shades.”
Now
that we're gradually supposed to have death beside us as a
companion in the fifth post Atlantean cultural age, as I said
yesterday, we will need moral strength in order to bear this
continual presence of death. In the immediate present and in
the age where the consciousness soul and the accompaniment by
death are beginning for us, it is important that this coincides
with the time of Michael's reign — a reign that signifies
an end in a certain sense and a kind of an attainment of
perfection; or decadence and perfection at the same time.
At
the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, Michael, who lived in the
sun and who was the most important servant of the Christ spirit
in the sun, experienced this event from the other side.
Humanity on earth experienced the Mystery of Golgotha in such a
way that it saw the Christ approaching, whereas Michael and his
hosts, who were still in the sun at that time experienced it in
such a way that they had to say farewell to the Christ.
One
must let the two poles of this event which surpassed everything
else which was happening in the cosmos work upon one's soul,
— the hosanna on earth when Christ arrived there, and his
departure from Michael's hosts up above, for they belong
together.
But
Michael has undergone a great metamorphosis in our age, and the
beginning of his reign signifies a following of Christ down to
the earth, and in the future it will signify a walking before
Christ's deeds upon earth. And then one will begin to
understand again what “Michael walks before the
Lord” means.
In
the Old Testament the initiates of Asia said that Michael went
before Jehova, just as a man's face precedes him as his
foremost part; for there was a Michael reign before Oriphiel's.
They spoke of Michael as the countenance of Jehova. We must
learn to speak of Michael as the countenance of Christ, but
we're in a different age now. Certain things must attain the
greatest perfection; we must, as it were, learn to make things
productive which couldn't be productive before.
Let's take the seven churches. If we assign one of them which
we can do to the period which went parallel with the Christ
event and the beginnings of Christianity, which was still
underway when the Apocalypse was being written — if we
take this first time period, it is represented by the church in
Ephesus. And then we see that the people in this Ephesian
community were the ones whose first love united them with
Christianity around the time the Apocalypse was written and
also afterwards. All of this should be understood out of the
secret of numbers.
After this we find the age of Anael, who draws his forces from
Venus. We find the great deeds of love which spread
Christianity during this age, countless deeds of love, namely
those deeds of love which live in the footsteps of the Irish
monks as they spread Christianity in Europe. And we find that
love is also the predominant thing in the rest of Christian
life during this reign of Anael.
The
reign of Zachariel follows; he draws his forces from Jupiter,
mainly forces of wisdom, but forces which could be but little
understood during this age. Instead of a real Jupiter reign,
the reign of the archangels began to retire more into the
background at this time. In a way humanity no longer reached up
to the region of Jupiter, and they denied the Jupiter spirit.
The significant eighth Council of Constantinople, which took
away a great deal from the evolution of humanity and which
eliminated the trichotomy, took place during this period.
Then comes the age in which events occur that are more or less
ignored in outer history. After the age of Zachariel is over,
humanity's soul is basically sick. Humanity is very sick, and
pathogenic substances spread from east to west. Terrible
pathogenic substances exist which are dangerous to
Christianity, because the period of Jupiter wisdom has ended.
These pathogenic substances came from materialism, for it was
this which pressed into Christianity, and it thereby took hold
of the whole Christian culture.
However, something strange stands behind all of what is only
present on earth as a projection. The age of Raphael, the
doctor among the archangels, stands behind the sick things
which were left behind from the age of Zachariel. This was the
age which began in the 10th and 11th centuries, where things
were healed behind the scenes not in an outwardly manifest way
but mostly within. Namely, much was healed in connection with
the rescue of certain moral qualities which were on the verge
of being ruined; a great deal was healed in this way. But in
contrast to the pathological substances which were brought to
Europe by Mohammedanism, something was summoned which was
permeated by the Christian principle and which had to come from
the Orient in a different form. One must become aware of the
great will impulse which was behind the crusades. One of the
causes of the crusades was the principle to heal mankind, to
cure it of the materialism which was threatening it from both
Mohammedanism and Roman Catholicism. And Raphael, the doctor
among the archangels, is basically the inspirer of those who
prepared mankind, to look for the part of the Orient towards
which the crusades were directed. However, the crusades are in
the fourth small cycle in the fourth post Atlantean age which
was almost over. Here we are in the fourth smaller cycle in the
fourth larger one which is the fourth Græco-Roman age. But
this fourth, larger period was the one which was chosen to
include the Mystery of Golgotha. The fourth, smaller cycle or
Raphael cycle is closely connected with the basic structure, of
the fourth, larger one. For we see how Raphael the archangel
implements Christ's impulses as he inspires people to go on the
crusades and to look fervently towards the Orient in order to
find Christ's mystery there, and we see that a kind of
spiritual atmosphere floats above the ground and above all the
events. The people who could look behind the scenes at all at
the time were really only separated by a thin spider's web from
a directly adjacent world, just as we were only separated from
it by a spider's web in the last third of the 19th century,
when Michael became visibly active on earth.
Joachim of Floris, Alanus ab Insulis and other outstanding
spirits in the Raphael age could see this activity of Raphael
and this healing of humanity which was going on behind the
scenes. This was the background for the age of pathogenic
spiritual materials, which is confirmed by the fact that people
began to really understand Luke's gospel of healing in this
age. Thus if one looks at periods from a numerical point of
view, one finds important things which can help one to
interpret events.
This was followed by the Samael age, which gets its main
impulses from Mars. Quarrelsome forces arise and mankind is
inoculated with them. Five becomes opposed to four. This is the
strange thing in transitions from four to five, that the five
always becomes opposed to the four. If we go back to the
ancient mysteries, where pupils or adepts were initiated into
the secrets of numbers for a long time, we find that after a
while pupils left their classes with a deep conviction which
they formulated as follows: Now I know that five is the number
which represents evil.
According to the secret of numbers, wherever five is at work in
the universe, one has to do with the evil sphere; it opposes
four and this gives rise to great decisions which enable one to
go up to six in either a good or an evil way. Tomorrow we will
dis cuss the extent to which this leads to concrete things,
such as to the wisdom of the heart and of the human soul. I
wanted to show you how one becomes able to describe events if
one lets one's thoughts be guided by the thread of numbers.
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