The Coronavirus Pandemic II

The Psychical-Spiritual Path of Schooling and Its Effects

Man has been freed to freedom, and this has a price. It can lead to uncomfortable consequences if one doesn't want to “go to school,” but thinks that he is already mature enough with what he has. A critical point in human evolution has been reached. A great chance exists for us, which, if we use it, will determine the whole course of the world's development and can lead us, together with the created world, back to unification with the Logos at the end of our own development. The chance exists today to take the first steps toward “deification,” through the I becoming conscious in the physical body, that is, during the incarnation, and it is precisely for this reason that at the same time the frontal attack on this chance is undertaken against the I becoming conscious, by spirits that do not want to enter into union with the Logos, but instead to realize their selfhood in eternity at the expense of the forces of other beings, such as those of humanity. They try to manipulate man in such a way that he does not realize that he is excluded — that in the end he only serves for the realization of alien, inscrutable will impulses — by that “organ” in him being affected with which he would be able to notice this and prevent it: his I, his component which is in the actual sense godlike. It is an attempt to make God's creatures ungodly and torpedo the possibility of those creatures becoming creators (in the sense of their Creator, the divine spirit of selflessness, love, truth and life).

The fact that on the one hand the great chance exists for man, through his godlike component, to develop in his total being to a god, and that on the other hand it is just this development that certain elements want to prevent by any means, is something that man must learn to recognize. And above all, he must learn to see it today and want to learn to see it if he wants to be an anthroposophical spiritual student. For otherwise he risks that spiritual science itself or, more accurately, fragments of spiritual science, are misunderstood or misused and become through him the destructive instrument that is at the service of that frontal attack on man's chance for higher consciousness. This can happen if anthroposophical spiritual-science is misunderstood at its core. And it is this core which must be apprehended by whoever wants to be a spiritual student of Anthroposophy. In doing so, he would first have to realize, would have to freely and openly admit, that by means of the repeatedly mentioned “method,” with which in the anthroposophical movement one so often proceeds today to judge certain events, what is correct may be recognized and repeated, but that the conclusions drawn do not necessarily lead to correct results when earthly logic alone is used. This method may even lead to the opposite of what is revealed to be true in the light of spiritual reality. Here, therefore, caution should be exercised.

For one should, or must, as an anthroposophical spiritual student, reflect on what is the core of anthroposophical spiritual research: It is what is called the training path of the soul.

If one admits that in reality he does not have the means to super-sensibly investigate the still unknown phenomena in the world, such as the Coronavirus (which is why the abovementioned “method” is resorted to), one should by no means throw in the towel, for he knows that a remedy is available!

The basis for solving almost all the problems that are currently dominant in humanity is the consistent education of one's own soul. A person is truly an anthroposophist or, expressed differently, an anthroposophical spiritual student, only if he engages in the training of the soul for which Rudolf Steiner gave specific details, and doesn't stand still at the beginning but wants to advance, that is, if he learns to identify the mistakes he has made and then to correct them, and if he is willing to learn new things and, if necessary, to say goodbye to old ideas if they turn out to be imperfect; if he also really practices with seriousness, dedication and diligence.

If by his psychical actions (by thinking, feeling and willing impulses) the human being can undertake changes in the world, including physical conditions as is the case now not only with the coronavirus, as a result of his materialistic thinking practiced for decades, he must seek the means to purify these psychical actions and to channel them constructively!

A constructive shaping of the world can succeed by mastering the still largely subconscious soul. And this mastery in turn occurs (gradually and depending on the individual's condition and possibilities) by working through the corresponding soul exercises; by giving these exercises a central place in everyday life, and by defending this place against the storms of the everyday sensory world, because one knows that he will only be able to persevere in such storms by not stopping the exercises, but by continuing them steadfastly. There is something very special about these exercises of the soul, about the self-education of one's own soul, which (unlike when the child enters a conventional school) can only come from the conscious will of the mature individual: If one practices to purify one's own soul in its various activities of thinking, feeling and willing, if one practices purposefully and constantly to become a “better person,” so to speak, at some point effects occur in a completely different domain than the one in which the exercises were performed and to which the exercises applied, namely the domain of the soul. As a result of the soul's self-education an innovation in the domain of the spirit occurs! An awakening of consciousness of the world of higher truth and reality results. By means of the exercises on the soul the capacity for super-sensory knowledge, for unimagined spiritual powers develop! (For this reason Rudolf Steiner named his exercise guide for psychical self-education: “Knowledge of Higher Worlds and its Attainment.”

The ability that one would like to possess in order to to make serious statements about the nature of the coronavirus and the phenomenon's related effects and developments, the ability which would replace the questionable method of “logically” compiling the results of research by third parties which do not refer to the present situation and throwing them together with statistical surveys and all kinds of other assertions not drawn from anthroposophical spiritual knowledge into a questionable potpourri, that ability is to be acquired by the serious, devoted and constant performance of modest-seeming soul exercises. Certainly the more spiritual the view which is able to illuminate knowledge of the phenomena, the more conscientiously and courageously must be practiced. This also means that one must not let oneself be upset by failure and that one must above all be ready to sincerely face oneself again and again.

Unfortunately these two conditions are often not fulfilled, which results in one “realizing” that the path of practicing self-education of the soul is correct and necessary, but prefers to walk the path in theory, which in reality means not at all. For yes: one cannot avoid having quite unpleasant experiences on this path of practice with the depth of one's own soul and sometimes also arriving at disappointing insights about one's own nature — insights which, however, only disappoint the ego, which is extremely salutary and the most important step towards the acquisition of spirit-knowledge. The anthroposophist knows that this path exists and that it truly leads to new and marvelous qualities of consciousness and abilities (among other things). And because he knows about it and therefore can also see what possibilities are opened to humanity by the fact that individuals begin to open sources from which great benefits can flow for many, he is, in a way, obliged to use this path. It is of course in a person's karma if he or she feels attracted to Anthroposophy. It is no coincidence if his destiny leads him to be fascinated by spiritual-scientific knowledge of the world and humanity. His higher I has set the track in prenatal existence for him to enjoy the privilege in earthly life of becoming acquainted now with fundamental truths that may come to humanity more extensively in the future. But this does not come to him purely for pleasure. To become acquainted with super-sensory knowledge is not the same as with earthly knowledge. This “privilege” of destiny comes to a person only because of his great interest in the super-sensory insights which have been achieved by another before him, and have now become clear to him, which tap with their truth into the truth in his own interior and open up perspectives for him (which for others have not yet opened) to use his own will to walk the training path of the soul, which leads to the ability to independently recognize spiritual realities, and never to deviate from it, even if this sometimes means deprivation and suffering for the lower self. For a person whose path of destiny has led him to anthroposophy, this path of practice must be by far the most important compared to other anthroposophical activities. For he knows that in this way he can “prove” himself to the divine-spiritual world which speaks to him through anthroposophical messages and which he admires and reveres with all his soul for the trust it has placed in him. The path of practice is also the means to prove himself a useful helper of the good, the good spirit, and to be equipped for such a contribution. He knows that in reality he can only serve the development of the world as a whole by the ennoblement of his soul.

And it is because such a person knows this fact that he understands Christ's words are meant for him: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” (Luke 12:48)

If, therefore, the present disaster is caused by the burdening of the general thoughts-ether with untrue thoughts, namely with thoughts of a purely material world, then it is the task of humanity, but above all of that individual who rightly wants to call himself an anthroposophist, to suffuse this thoughts-ether with true thoughts.

What are these true thoughts?

They are the thoughts about the origin and context of the world with that being who is called the Logos in the prologue to the Gospel of John; the thoughts about that Logos, the creator ”Word,” from whom everything came forth and who became the “life,” then the “Light” for humanity, before He finally became “Flesh,” in order to remove the sting of death by His sacrifice — passing through fleshly, material death — thus giving man the ability to reach full consciousness of the factual immortality of his spiritual being. And, from this consciousness, to rise out of free will to complete immortality, to the immortality of his whole being by the interspersion of his component-members with the moral principles of the Logos. These principles, which have been revealed to humanity through the life and deeds of the Logos on earth in the form of the Christ Jesus, are: impartiality (the strength of devotion to the eternal and the good in the individual), love and conscience. If these true thoughts stir in his soul, the person is drawn to the principles of the Logos. He purifies his soul through the application of the moral principles of the Logos, for which he has many opportunities in everyday life. It becomes light in him. The “moralizing” of his thoughts, however, is also the beginning of the moralization of the general thoughts-ether, in which all human beings are related to each other.

The human being treading the path of soul-exercise “revives” this thoughts-ether, which today must seem almost dead to super-sensory consciousness. In this way he lets a healing serum flow into the world, from which all people benefit. Through this, however, nothing less happens than that man takes the same path — only in reverse — that the Logos once took to him. The human being rises from his mere “carnal being” to the “light,” which is the enlightenment of his consciousness, the enlivening of the thought-ether by those very exercises, by practicing to think true thoughts of the Logos, of the Christ. Thereby the “Light” itself, the “Holy Spirit” comes to him.

He becomes a light-source through this Light, which is kindled in his individual inner self and which radiates out into the world, through which he illuminates the general thought-ether with the light of truth. It is the only permanently effective means against the various spawns of “evil,” the only possibility above all to prevent the mass appearance of new spawns of this counter-spirit impulse.

For this reason, because the person who has come to Anthroposophy knows about these contexts, because he knows how he can take precautions against such manifestations of evil in the world and how he can instead lead himself and his world to moral ennoblement, to truth and to life, makes such a person ultimately guiltier if he does not seize the means known to him for the preservation and evolution of the world with all seriousness, than a person who adheres to the materialistic worldview and behaves accordingly, but who has never heard anything about all this. The anthroposophical spiritual student, the disciple of Christ, must tell himself again and again that he is not yet of service to the world through the knowledge of certain elements alone. Only when these elements of knowledge are impressed on his soul in such a way that he becomes an “other” person in whom these elements of truth are awoken to life, namely by unsparing honesty toward the “shallowness” of his own soul and the relentless effort to rectify it, will he do justice to the gift of his incarnation and his karmic mission. Not by knowing alone, but by the transformation of his inner self to the good. The counter-spiritual forces also impart knowledge! (Although it then becomes a weapon against the person himself.)

How consistently one can and should go on this path and what means he can use is made clear by the parable of Jesus Christ “about the unjust steward” in the Gospel of Luke. (A short interpretation of this parable is included in the Appendix.)

The person who seeks the path to betterment of the world reaches real knowledge, that is knowledge of the causes and contexts of the circumstances and phenomena surrounding him, through exercises of the soul that are based on the moral principles of the Logos-Christ. In this way he can also gain real insight into the “nature” of the coronavirus and the complexity and challenges created by it, without having to settle for mere belief and clever combinations of circumstantial evidence.

One will then realize that to believe in love and in the immeasurable healing powers in the human being alone, to which people like to refer today (also within the anthroposophical movement), nothing is done, and that the belief in the free, autonomous human being does mean doing or not doing within the social context, the social organism, whatever makes sense to you at the moment, but that it's rather a matter of “love of inner freedom,” that is, freedom from one's own particular point of view. (GA 10, GA 25) Then one will be in a position to discover the actual danger posed by this virus.

For the spiritual-scientist, infection with the coronavirus means a serious danger for humanity at this point in its psychical-spiritual development. When we look at the nexus of the pandemic emergence with spiritual insight, we clearly recognize that what the human being takes in with the Sars-CoV-2 virus itself is not something which he should take in, because it actually should not be there and for this reason he cannot favorably process it in the usual way that has been possible until recently. The spiritual scientist considers an infection with the coronavirus dangerous for a different reason than does the conventional natural scientist (Although he also cannot overlook the suffering of those fallen ill and the tragic, interrupted karmic destiny of the dead who the virus has claimed and will continue to claim. He cannot accept this tragic development with the attitude that is displayed by so many contemporaries today, that beyond the — doubtless justified — pointing to the psychological, social and economic consequences of the political measures taken to contain the pandemic, the fate of the sick and the dead fades into the background with the erroneous and, moreover, downright cynical argument that there are much worse diseases or events in the world and that it is, after all, the karma of the individual if he falls ill or dies. If the sick and the dead are not enough for some to speak of a “pandemic,” then let them bear in mind that the Being who has usurped the coronavirus phenomenon has intelligence par excellence, and that everything, really everything, is considered and finely worked out by that entity. This includes, of course, the fact that the Sars-Cov-2 virus, compared to what was already there and even more so to what is yet to come, outwardly appears “harmless.” It is the vanguard of something quite different. But it already carries the same spiritual signature).

Whoever is able to see all this, however, cannot avoid recognizing that humanity has reached the limits of its possibilities by the appearance of such a counter-spiritual bearer as the Sars-Cov-2-virus. For if it is only possible to acquire the means to fortify oneself against such attacks through spiritual maturity, that is, through consistent and untiring treading the path of spiritual training, then one must realize that he has not yet developed these means at all, and that in addition to the will to develop them, one needs above all one other thing to be able to do so: Time.

A characteristic phenomenon of these times is an activity of the so-called Ahrimanic spirits — aphoristically spoken: the distortion of time, namely the acceleration of the development processes of all physical-sensory (or “sub-sensory”) things and events. Here the hierarchy of the Ahrimanic spirits is preparing the groundwork for the counter-I impulse. Because time is running out for us in every conceivable way, for the conditions in which spiritual-soul education must take place are becoming more and more precarious. And now this development is also at risk by the primary physical and soul-spiritual attack referred to here. The karmic path of life can be shortened, so to speak, by the Covid-19 infection.

So what can you do to give yourself the time necessary to bring your spiritual development to where it must be in order to acquire the spiritual instruments for super-sensory knowledge, with which you can be taught about the reality of present and future events and through which you can also acquire the tools to successfully meet the challenges of the present and next cultural epoch without serious harm to spirit, soul and body? What can one do to gain the strength during the present turmoil, which not only strongly challenges the soul, but severely impedes the soul's progress on the moral path of purification leading to spirit-realization, to develop the instruments needed to resist such attacks leading to impairment of the spiritual and psychical organism or the physical body as a result of a Covid-19 infection?