True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation
GA 243
7. Knowledge of the World of Stars. Differentiation of the Historical Epochs of Mankind and their Spiritual Background
Torquay, 18 August, 1924
In the last lecture we saw how man learns to command his different life-periods and to review them with spiritual vision. He thus attains to Inspiration through which he can raise his consciousness step by step to full communion with the world of stars. This world must be understood, of course, as an expression, a revelation, of purely spiritual beings and purely spiritual facts.
In order to open the doors to the spiritual world and to undertake investigations into that world, strenuous efforts must be made to develop the necessary states of consciousness and the necessary psychic condition. We should not harbour the illusion that we can achieve spiritual insight through the instrument of normal consciousness.
A few specific examples will serve to illustrate my point. Before indicating the potential sources of error in spiritual investigations, I should like to make the following introductory remarks.
When a person undertakes serious spiritual training which unlocks the doors to the spiritual world and enables him to perceive—and if I may use the expression—to hold converse with the spiritual world, he realizes that the historical evolution of mankind shows wide differentiations, notable differences of spiritual background.
Our present epoch which we may call the Michael epoch for reasons which I shall indicate later, begins in the last third of the nineteenth century, in the eighteen-seventies approximately. This epoch was preceded by an epoch that lasted for three or four centuries. To those with spiritual knowledge this earlier epoch was totally different in character. This epoch, in its turn, was preceded by another, again of an entirely different nature. When, therefore, with Initiation-knowledge we look back into the past, we find that particular epochs evoke totally different impressions. I have no wish to describe these impressions in the abstract; I should like to illustrate them by concrete examples.
In the course of these lectures I have spoken of personalities who played their various rôles in the evolution of humanity. I have mentioned, for example, Brunetto Latini, the famous teacher of Dante, the teachers of the School of Chartres, Bernardus Silvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and Joachim of Fiore. And I could speak of hundreds of other personalities of the ninth to the twelfth centuries and even of the thirteenth century. Each of these personalities was characteristic of his epoch.
When a person who wishes to investigate the history of mankind from the standpoint of Spiritual Science studies, for example, the epoch of Dante or Giotto, i.e. the pre-Renaissance epoch, he feels that it is imperative to consort in the spiritual world with human beings, with discarnate human souls; he must meet face to face, metaphorically speaking, the human souls living between death and rebirth. In Initiation-knowledge we have a definite feeling that our spiritual relationship to an individuality such as Brunetto Latini must be as personal as our relationship to our fellowmen in the physical world. I have tried to suggest this in the descriptions I have already given. Therefore in speaking of Joachim of Fiore and Brunetto Latini I depicted this epoch in such a way that it was evident that I felt the need to give my characterization as far as possible a personal touch.
In the following epoch which extends to the last third of the nineteenth century, the situation is quite different. In this epoch there is much less need for the Initiate to enter personally or individually into relationship with the discarnate souls we wish to contact. We would prefer to see them in their total environment; we do not feel the need to approach them directly, but rather to make contact with them in some way through earthly knowledge, through ordinary consciousness.
You will forgive me if, at this point, I introduce something from direct personal experience. In this case, the personal experience is entirely objective. The epoch preceding our own was the age of Goethe and for decades I was engaged in the study of his works. I particularly wanted to approach Goethe in the first place through his scientific writings and through natural science in general. Only in later years did the need arise to have direct contact with him as a spiritual being in the spiritual world. But it was first necessary to experience him after his death in his total relationship to the Cosmos as a stellar being, so to speak, not as an individual personality. On the other hand, when we wish to make spiritual contact with a personality such as Brunetto Latini, or with those who were concerned with the study of nature in that epoch, we feel an immediate need to exchange ideas and opinions with them personally, in intimate spiritual communion.
This is a very important distinction and is connected with the fact that the inner spiritual character of the two epochs is totally different. Today we are living in an age when man, indeed the whole of humanity, has a unique opportunity of apprehending spiritual truths directly, an age when Initiation Science becomes common property. This epoch which has only just begun must not be permitted to run its course without a spiritual recognition on the part of the cultured classes of the major facts which are accessible to them, not mundane, physico-sensible facts, but spiritual facts. From now on our epoch must energetically pursue a spiritual science that is directly associated with the spiritual world, otherwise mankind will not be able to fulfil its appointed task. We must enter more and more into a spiritual epoch.
In the preceding epoch other forces exercised a predominant influence in human evolution. And when we speak from the standpoint of genuine stellar knowledge we are able to say: in the epoch upon which we entered in the seventies of last century, it is above all the spiritual forces emanating from the Sun which must exercise a major influence in everything in the psychic and physical life, in science, religion and art. In our epoch the influence and activity of the Sun forces must become progressively more widespread.
For those with real knowledge the Sun is not the globe of gas described by modern physics, but an aggregate of spiritual beings. And the most important spiritual beings, who radiate the spiritual, as the sunlight radiates physically and etherically, are grouped round a Being who, in accordance with ancient Christian-Pagan or Christian-Judaic terminology, may be designated as the Michael being. Michael works from the Sun. The spiritual influences from the Sun can also be called the influences of Michael and his hosts.
In the epoch preceding our own it was not the Sun forces, but the Moon forces which were the driving forces behind man's life, activity and search for knowledge. The Moon forces were the driving forces behind the epoch which ended in the eighteen-seventies after lasting for three or four centuries.
In this epoch the leading beings who influenced the evolution of Earth and man were grouped round a Being called Gabriel, to adopt the ancient terminology. We could equally well choose another name—the terminology is of minor importance—but it would be best to keep to the name Gabriel, in accordance with the Christian-Judaic tradition.
Thus, in the way I have indicated, we are made aware of the spiritual activity in man that is derived from the world of stars. If, through Initiation-knowledge, we ascertain what works in man from birth to the change of teeth, we gain insight into the activities of the Moon in the Cosmos, in other words, through the inspired retrospective survey of the first years of childhood, we acquire knowledge of the Gabriel epoch when the Moon influences are particularly active.
On the other hand, in order to perceive the peculiar characteristics of an epoch such as our own, we must be more mature, have reached the forties and be able to look back upon the formative forces within us between our twentieth and fortieth years, or more precisely, between the ages of twenty-one and forty-two. Consequently, in the epoch preceding our own it was the very young children who played a decisive rôle in the cosmic direction of the world. The forces of the Gabriel epoch were already foreshadowed in the impulses operative in early childhood. In our epoch it is the men in their twenties or thirties who are destined to receive the impulses from the Sun forces; it is the adults who have a vitally important part to play in the cosmic guidance of the whole world.
These facts are the practical consequence of direct spiritual perception which I described to you the day before yesterday. They are not empty theories, but fruits of actual perception. You will realize, therefore, that for an understanding of the Gabriel epoch which preceded the present Michael age there was no particular need to encounter personally the discarnate souls of that epoch. One felt like a little child face to face with a grown-up, because one had to confront these souls with the inspired perception of the earliest years of childhood.
It is quite different when we are investigating the preceding epoch, the epoch of Alanus ab Insulis, Bernardus Silvestris, Joachim of Fiore, John of Hanville and Brunetto Latini. This age was dominated by forces which man acquires when he reviews in retrospect what is working within him in the period between the change of teeth and puberty. These are the Mercury forces. He experiences something of extraordinary significance when, starting from this life-period, he develops the corresponding organs for perception of the spiritual. Between the time of the change of teeth and puberty man is a child who is eager to learn, and when he perceives with the organ of this life-period, he experiences once again the child's enthusiasm. Hence he wishes to encounter personally those who belong to this epoch. And he does so with the knowledge born of Initiation. He would like to confront a personality such as Brunetto Latini just as a child of ten or twelve confronts his superior, his teacher or instructor.
When man possesses true Initiation-knowledge he is not unconscious of things of the phenomenal world. He is both an adult and a child eager for knowledge. He confronts Brunetto Latini on a footing of equality, yet with an intense eagerness to learn from him.
The Initiation-knowledge of the age back from the fifteenth to the eleventh century takes its particular colouring from this relationship. It is an age in which the main impulses for the Earth and humanity are given by Mercury.
The Being round whom everything revolved, the Being of special significance in this age, was known under the ancient name of Raphael. Raphael is Mercury in the age that preceded the Renaissance, the age of Dante and Giotto. We feel we would like to know personally precisely those who are little known to history, those whose names are not recorded.
When we are familiar with the teachings of Spiritual Science this epoch evokes in us a strange response. First, we are annoyed that the text-books have so little to say about Brunetto Latini or men such as Alanus ab Insulis; we should like to be given more historical facts. Then, as we extend our horizon, we are glad and thankful that orthodox history is silent. For the documentation of external history is only fragmentary. Imagine how our epoch would appear in the eyes of posterity if newspaper articles on the subsidiary branches of historical knowledge were held to be the sole valid testimony. We can only be thankful that we are not disturbed by the limited information given in encyclopaedias about these personalities. And with all the means at the disposal of the Anthroposophical Society today, we try to make spiritual contact with these men and report all that can be ascertained about them from the standpoint of Spiritual Science.
In this context it is most important to be in touch with those personalities who were associated with nature knowledge in the Raphael epoch. A deeper knowledge of nature, a deeper understanding of medicine can be communicated through many a personality who, to clairvoyant perception, emerges out of the spiritual twilight of this age (from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries) and can inform us of the current conceptions of matter and of the current ideas of man's relationship to the whole Cosmos. When we look into this age with spiritual vision, we meet with many personalities who are unknown because their names have not been handed down to posterity, yet these personalities exist in reality. Many of these personalities appear before us and we say: there stands “Paracelsus major,” but we have no record of his name, whilst “Paracelsus minor” lived in a later age, in the Gabriel epoch, and had reminiscences of the nature wisdom of Paracelsus major, though no longer in the pure, sublime and spiritual form of Paracelsus major.
Then “Jacob Boehme minor” appears before us in the later Gabriel epoch. And again we say: This personality proclaimed sublime truths which he learned from various traditional teachings and which gave stimulus to his inspiration. When “Jacob Boehme major” who is not known to posterity and whose name is only mentioned occasionally, like those of Alanus ab Insulis and Brunetto Latini, appears before us, then for the first time we really understand “Jacob Boehme minor.” The Pre-Renaissance epoch, at the close of which the famous figures of Dante and Brunetto Latini, and the School of Chartres, stand out like solitary luminaries, whilst Scotus Erigena appears like some erratic boulder in their midst—this epoch contains something that can provide powerful spiritual stimulus. External, medieval history is shrouded in darkness, but this darkness conceals the presence of powerful personalities who can illumine the epoch of which I have just spoken.
When we enter into the Raphael epoch, from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, [See note, below] then the figures of a Dante, a Giotto and especially those whose names are unknown to posterity, as well as the others I have mentioned, appear to stand out in bold relief. They make an immediate human impression upon us. Raphael himself, who was never incarnated in a physical body, remains more in the background, and other spiritual beings who permanently inhabit the spiritual world are less sharply defined in this epoch. It is the human beings, the deceased in particular, who stand out in bold relief.
[In a note book of Rudolf Steiner, under the date of 18th August, 1924 (“Morning lecture, Torquay”) the following entry was made in connection with the Archangel epochs:
]
1879 - 1510 Gabriel Moon 1510 - 1190 Samael Mars 1190 - 850 Raphael Mercury 850 - 500 Zachariel Jupiter 500 - 150 Anael Venus 150 - 200 Oriphiel Saturn
In the following Gabriel epoch we have the impression that even figures such as Goethe, Spencer, Lord Byron and Voltaire are leading a shadowy existence in the spiritual world. Through spiritual perception, on the other hand, we become aware of beings of signal grandeur who leave an impression of the superhuman, rather than the human. They exist today and the Moon sphere is their permanent abode, as the Earth is ours between birth and death. These impressive figures attract our attention, whilst the human souls recede more into the background. We learn from these figures that they were once united to the Earth as we human beings are today. Whilst human beings live in their physical bodies, these Moon beings formerly lived on Earth in subtle, ethereal bodies. And we realize that we are in the presence of beings who, in primordial times, were associated with humanity and were the spiritual Teachers of mankind on Earth. When their tasks on Earth were fulfilled, they withdrew to the Moon sphere and are no longer associated with the Earth today.
You know from my book Occult Science, that the Moon was once a cosmic body united with the Earth and later split off from the Earth. These beings accompanied the Moon after its separation and later became inhabitants of the Moon sphere. At the stage of knowledge, therefore, which enables us to be in touch with the dead immediately after their death, we enter a world where, because we still retain the earlier knowledge of normal consciousness, we are surrounded by the men whom we recognize today in normal waking consciousness to have been physical men on Earth; then, when we enter into this other consciousness, we learn to realize more and more that we are in the presence of spiritual beings who belong to the Moon sphere even as we belong to the Earth. They are omnipresent and take an interest in human affairs, but not from the physical point of view of men today.
Among these beings who were once the great Teachers of mankind and who no longer dwell on Earth, but—if we may use the expression—are inhabitants of the Moon sphere, are to be found beings of surpassing grandeur and of the highest spiritual development, filled with inner, spiritual majesty. Very much can be learnt from them concerning the mysteries of the Cosmos. Their knowledge far transcends the knowledge within reach of ordinary consciousness. But they cannot express this knowledge in abstract thoughts. When we draw near to them, we are met with the full tide of song; they express everything through poetry and artistic images. In their own way they delight and enchant us with sublime harmonies unknown to Homer and the ancient Indian epics. But deep wisdom lies in all that these beings conjure up before us.
There are however less perfect beings amongst them. Just as on Earth there are pleasant or unpleasant characters, so amongst these other beings can be found those who have not attained the majesty and perfection of their companions. None the less, they have reached a certain stage of perfection because they became their pupils and disciples and so were able to leave the Earth sphere to live and continue working in the Moon sphere. When, to use a trivial expression, we contact these beings, we are immediately aware that they have a burning interest in earthly affairs, but their interest is of a wholly different kind.
You must not imagine these beings to be unsympathetic, rather uninviting figures. Although, compared with their companions, they are imperfect, they far transcend the level of distinction, cleverness and insight that contemporary man can attain with normal consciousness. At all times they share the habits of their companions; but they have different habits and tendencies from those of the ordinary man today.
I should now like to enter into the details of a matter of some importance. When we enter into relationship with such beings, we naturally feel the need to exchange opinions, to confer with them about one thing or another—these expressions are, of necessity, somewhat trivial. Let us assume, to take a concrete example, we are conferring with these beings about writing, the written works of men. One man, we will suppose, has simply written down his name, the other has written his signature or monogram.
When we discuss these questions with these beings, they reply: you men are interested in what is of least importance—in the primary meaning of a word, in what “blacksmith” or “coiffeur,” for example, signify. It is far more interesting to observe the particular movements of the writer as these words are written down, how everyone writes differently—rapidly or laboriously, skilfully or clumsily, mechanically or artistically.—These beings pay close attention to man's particular behaviour-pattern when he is writing. This is what interests them.
And in the spiritual world of which I am now speaking, these beings also have their adherents—various kinds of spiritual entities who no longer live on Earth, and who rank sometimes below, sometimes above man. They give us no guidance on terminology or nomenclature, but advise on the pattern and form of writing which mankind has developed since these beings were on Earth. Writing, in our sense of the term, did not exist when these beings were on Earth.
In their intercourse with mankind they observed how writing gradually evolved. They were interested in the dexterous movements of the fingers and noted how the dexterity of the fingers was supplemented later on by the addition of a quill pen and later a fountain pen. They had little interest in what was committed to paper; they were wholly engrossed in the movements entailed.
An additional factor must now be taken into account—existing emanations still surviving from the Earth have been largely overlooked by mankind. They assume many forms: first of all, if I include amongst them what I have just described, the movements emanating from men. It is the movements emanating from the human being which can be discussed with these beings.
Now in the first place, this is something that does not lead to the real sphere of these beings, for at the time they lived on Earth writing did not yet exist. These beings are wildly ironical when they comment on the limited capacity of man today to understand his fluid emanations. These entities were very much aware of them, whilst modern man ignores them. Thus, m the epoch when these beings were on Earth the fluid emanations, the fluid emanations from the skin, were of vital importance. One learned to recognize one's fellow-man through his exhalations; this was later ignored.
The third thing to which these beings are specially receptive, is skin expiration, the aeriform element that emanates from man. All these emanations, as we shall learn later, may assume a semi-spiritual character. These beings are particularly receptive to these emanations that proceed from man—the solid element in writing, the watery element in skin evaporation, the aeriform element in skin expiration. One must remember that man breathes perpetually through his skin.
Fourthly, these beings are receptive to warmth emanations. All these things in so far as they exist on Earth have special significance for these Moon beings. Man is judged by the configuration of his movements in writing and by the particular nature of his emanations.
The next emanation is the ever-present light emanation. In every individual, not only the aura, but also the physical and etheric bodies radiate light. Under ordinary conditions these radiations are so dim as to be invisible, but their existence has recently been demonstrated by Moriz Benedikt in a specially constructed dark room. He showed that the physical body is surrounded by a subtle aura of red, yellow and blue light emanations which vary at different places round the body. Moriz Benedikt tells us how he demonstrated the coloured aura. He showed the left side of the body under normal conditions of light and the other side under conditions that revealed the aura. Everything depends upon establishing the proper experimental conditions.
The sixth emanation is the emanation of the chemical forces and is found only in rare and exceptional cases on Earth today. It is of course always present, but operates only in the rare cases when black magic is practised. When men become conscious of their chemical emanations and exploit them; black magic is being practised on Earth.
The seventh kind of emanation is the direct spiritual life emanation or vital radiation. The use of chemical emanations today invariably degenerates into black magic which is odious and evil. Whilst black magic is a force to be reckoned with, the life emanations are no less important. These Moon beings of whom I am speaking, can, for their part, always rely upon and work with the life emanations and use them for good. They are not black magicians, for black magicians are those who under certain conditions succumb to evil and perpetrate evil on Earth. But the Moon beings can only rely upon the life emanations at Full Moon, when they can dwell in the Sun's reflected light and are subject to its influences. We must learn to make creative use of what we receive from the spiritual world. The task of our age is to find living ideas, to develop living concepts, perceptions and feelings and not to invoke dead theories. And these are directly inspired by the beings who are united with the Being whom we call Michael.
In the previous Gabriel epoch mankind was more attracted to the material world. Men were unwilling to seek contact with the beings who, under certain circumstances, are closely related to man, because these beings were concerned with something rather alien to that epoch, namely, the occult emanations that proceed from human beings.
Adjoining the physical world that we inhabit between birth and death is a spiritual world, where we are in touch with the dead in the manner already described. But this world has many other aspects, amongst them the virtue of those forces that live in the emanations of man. In a certain sense this is a highly dangerous region of the Cosmos, and as I have often mentioned in these lectures, we must have psychic and spiritual balance and control in order to ensure that all that proceeds from these Moon beings may become a force for good and not for evil.
Indeed, all the forces and impulses of the present epoch must hasten to turn to account the life emanations on Earth. But it is so fatally easy to fall victim to that which lies between this life emanation and all the other emanations we should be only too happy to possess—to fall victim to black magic. Men would so much like to make visible what is expressed in movements—I shall speak of this later—what is present in the fluid emanation, in the light emanation. All this is related to a certain extent to the forces for good and can only make for goodness, because the Michael age is dawning amongst men. Between all this lies black magic that must be resisted if we are to pursue the right methods of spiritual investigation.
- Movements emanating from men.
- Skin emanations of the fluid element.
- Skin emanations of the air element.
- Warmth emanation.
- Light emanation.
- Emanation of chemical forces (black magic).
- Life emanation.
Now when this intercourse takes place in the spiritual world between human beings on Earth and the Moon beings—and it is continually taking place in the realm of the subconscious—then the interest which certain Moon beings develop in the movements of writing and drawing, and which is revealed clairvoyantly, may also find an echo in certain elementary beings of the spiritual world. Elementary beings are of a lower order than Moon beings. They never incarnate on Earth, but live in the adjacent world as spiritual-etheric beings. Their interest in the world of man may have the following consequence.—From observation we are aware that the thoughts which a human being communicates through writing react upon his whole being. They first present in his Ego, are then transmitted to the astral body which executes its movements exactly as the Ego determines. Next they work into the etheric body and down into the physical body. Certain elementary beings observe these effects and long to react in the same way. This is not possible, because the laws obtaining in their world are different from those of the world in which writing is practised. Writing is the prerogative of the physical world of man on Earth.
But the following situation can arise. Certain types of people, when they write or think or even feel, are firmly anchored in their etheric body; the whole etheric body is involved in the process, which then impresses itself strongly in the physical body. In the case of these types of people the Ego is suppressed and their astral, etheric and physical bodies produce a facsimile of writing and drawing. These types are mediums.
Because their Ego is suppressed such mediums take up into themselves these malleable elementary beings of the spiritual world who have learned the movements of writing from the Moon beings. Then these mediums proceed to execute the movements of writing, not in full Ego-consciousness, but under the influence of the elementary beings that control them. Mediumistic writing and drawing and the usual mediumistic phenomena are brought about through the emanations of the medium in a state of diminished consciousness. These emanations are utilized by the control.
The second kind of emanation can be used by certain beings who, under the influence of the Moon beings, readily assimilate the artistic talents of man. These beings also enter into those human beings who have damped down their surface consciousness and who have a certain artistic impetus in their etheric and astral bodies which can be canalized into the emanations. Under certain conditions it is highly interesting to observe how this type of human being can become possessed by elementary-spiritual beings and how these emanations are invaded by seemingly phantom forms that are in part a composite of man's perception of his life experiences which has slipped down into his etheric and astral bodies and which appears in the emanations; and in part, communications from the world inhabited solely by the elementary beings who have entered into him.
Now similar results were obtained from the experiments of Schrenk-Notzing. The subjects of his experiments were certain mediumistic types, negative psychics, who, in a state of diminished consciousness, when the Ego had been suppressed, were ideal material for elementary beings by virtue of their fluid skin emanations. There is an interesting book on the subject by Schrenk-Notzing. Some condemned it as fraudulent, others gave it high praise. It is not surprising that the latter regarded his findings as extraordinary; for it is extraordinary that, when experiments are made with a medium, ectoplasm issues from a certain part of the body, a form that embodies a spiritual element not to be found on Earth. In many cases there is found associated with the form a picture which the medium recently saw in an illustrated paper. Something streams out of the medium. It is the skin emanation. And into this there streams something wholly spiritual; but associated with this was something that the medium recently saw in an illustrated paper or comic journal, for example, a portrait of Poincaré.
It need not surprise us that people are amazed at such things. But we are indeed most surprised that fashionable people, people of good taste, and even ladies, who would be most unwilling to speak about skin exudations or to discuss psychic materialisations, nevertheless feel an inordinate desire to watch the medium who materializes these ectoplasmic forms out of nothing but ordinary sweat.
The phenomena in Schrenk-Notzing's experiments are simply exudations which materialize through the skin emanations an ectoplasmic form that is activated by the elementary beings.
In the same way the skin emanations, i.e. the air formations issuing from the medium, can be stimulated by certain elementary beings. But these skin emanations are so closely associated with the particular human form and man impresses his own human form so strongly upon them, that for the most part these beings cannot do much more than create a phantom of the man himself. We then witness those phenomena where the phantom issues from the medium.
It is not so easy to produce warmth and light emanations from the human being so that the medium manifests something, i.e. the visible phantom, that can be acted upon by these elementary beings under the influence of Moon beings. Certain preliminary steps must first be undertaken.
As I have already indicated, natural science has recently developed a technique which can demonstrate in a dark room certain light radiations and warmth emanations. In this respect the experiments of Moriz Benedikt are most illuminating. But it has always been the case, and it is still true today, that only those can utilize effectively warmth and light emanations who undertake the preliminary steps which not only involve manipulating the physical world through black magic, but also include the production of hallucinogenic effects by means of special incense-burning and aromas, and the preparation of specific concoctions, and so forth. This is the origin of all those magical practices which are fully described in the old books of magic.
The purpose of these magical ceremonies is to evoke the forces inherent in the light and warmth emanations of man. In the writings of Eliphas Levi and also in those of Encausse who wrote under the name of Papus you can find highly questionable and dangerous instructions on this subject but we cannot afford to ignore them since we must speak about the objective aspect, the true nature, of these things.
All these things lead directly to black magic which makes use of the spiritual concealed within the earthly element. What is this spiritual element? You will find in my book Occult Science—an Outline that at one time the Moon was united with the Earth. Many forces belonging to the Moon were left behind on Earth and are now diffused through minerals, plants and animals. And these Moon forces are still to be found there. When therefore, we, as terrestrial beings, make use of Moon forces which do not normally belong to minerals, plants, animals and man, we trespass into the realm where we meet with elementary beings who have learned much from the Moon beings, but in a way that is foreign to our world. The black magician, therefore, employs Moon forces that still exist on Earth. But because he works in this way he contacts elementary beings who, as it were, watch—as one watches a game of halma or chess—the right and proper relationships between human beings and Moon beings and so learn to draw very near to the physical world, to peer into the physical world or even to set foot in it. But the normal human being in whom all this remains in the subconscious has no contact with these beings. The black magician, however, who works with the Moon forces, who has captured them in his retorts and crucibles is caught in a vortex of those elementary beings.
Even an honest and upright man can learn from these black magicians. In Faust, Part I, Goethe portrayed a condition where man is the centre of whirling forces, a condition that is dangerously near to black magic. By exploiting these forces man enters into the region where entities in the service of the Moon beings are ready to associate with human beings. Thus centres of black magic arise where Moon forces cooperate with spirits who have entered directly into their service, a service that makes for evil. And because many activities of this kind have been practised in recent centuries, a dangerous atmosphere has been created in the Earth. This dangerous atmosphere is undeniably there and is transfused with multitudinous forces that are born of a union of human activities with Moon elements and of dynamic Moon forces with elementary beings in the service of illicit Moon forces. It is this region that is actively opposed to all that is destined to proceed from the Sun region in the Michael age. And this must be taken into special consideration in relation to the life emanation in the sphere of the soul and spirit.
From this point we will pursue our enquiries further tomorrow.
- Emanations from human beings-mediumistic power
- Skin emanations of the fluid element-materialization
- Skin emanation-manifestation of the phantom
- Warmth emanation
- Light emanation
- Emanation of chemical forces (black magic)
- Life emanation
Michael—Sun
Gabriel—Moon
Raphael—Mercury