Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse
GA 104a
18 May 1909, Kristiania
Lecture II-IX
We have seen that in our age we can write into our souls what will later appear in the human being externally. Just as seven successive cultural epochs can be listed in our time, so too, the seven ages of human evolution that will follow the war of all against all are portrayed to the writer of the Apocalypse, who can see into the future. He sees these seven ages in the seven seals. But he distinguishes clearly the first four ages. Every time a seal is opened one of the four horses with its rider appears to him.
The Apocalypse presents a clairvoyant vision of seven future ages. They are astral pictures of what one day will be. Human beings who will have taken in something of spiritual culture will have overcome their lower nature. They will then rule over the human instinctive nature. What human beings have overcome is expressed in the seal in the form of a horse. They will be victors over their lower nature through what they will have made of their souls. They will master their lower natures just as a rider masters a horse.
Everything we have experienced since the time of ancient India will appear again after the war of all against all. As epochs are repeated, the ancient Indian age will reappear first. Back then everything in the physical world appeared to the human being as illusion, as maya. At that time the soul became mature enough to achieve victory over everything in the sensible world. The fruit of this Indian age appears to the writer of the Apocalypse in the picture of the white horse. It is characteristic of the soul of the ancient Indian that the external world, material culture, appears as yet untouched by human hands. The rider with a bow is as innocent as bright sunlight. Like a conqueror he has earned the right, after the war of all against all, to be conqueror over his lower nature. But the lower nature is still present. The human being has grown together with it. This is portrayed in the second seal as the red rider. Here the soul no longer appears in a white garment of innocence. Thus, the victorious rider cannot serve as a picture of the human being in this age. He appears to us as one bringing the fruits of egotism. After the war of all against all he no longer appears in a white garment. Once again he takes peace away from the earth; once again he shows himself with a sword in the battle for existence.
Then we are shown the fruit of the third age, the Egypto-Chaldean culture, during which humankind learned to count and to calculate. The human being continued to descend deeper and deeper into matter, into the darkness of the lower nature. This is seen in the black horse with a rider holding scales. Weighing, measuring, and counting are expressed to the writer of the Apocalypse as a black horse, and the human soul is the rider with the scales. State institutions for the allocation of property according to intelligent social laws did not exist among human beings in the Persian culture. There were no such institutions in ancient India or ancient Persia. In ancient India, people still had faith in their Atlantean incarnations. In ancient Indian times, people saw their position in life as the consequence of what they had prepared in ancient Atlantis. They told themselves that they were in a certain caste because of the karma of humankind; they looked up to the higher castes and considered this to be a just arrangement according to the karma of individuals. But this division into castes was made increasingly impossible by the evolution of the human I. Distribution of property and goods began to be calculated chiefly through the use of intelligence in the Egypto-Chaldean age. Therefore, the fruit of this third age appears as the black horse and the rider with the scales, with which all thinking and human intelligence are weighed. In this way, what will appear as the fruit of our seven cultures after the war of all against all appears symbolically to the writer of the Apocalypse.
In the Greco-Latin culture, the fourth age conquered the beauty of the physical world. The Greeks idealized nature in their art; they beautified existence. How beautiful Greek sculpture and architecture appear to us in comparison to Egyptian art, to the Sphinx, to the Pyramids. But the Greeks became so fond of physical-sensible existence that the spiritual world became dark for them. Only through the event of Golgotha did light again penetrate into what for them had become absolute shadows. The soul had been completely thrown into chains in this fourth age. But the lower nature experienced a beautification; it received, so to speak, a cover of beauty and art. That is quite properly what is characteristic for the souls of this most beautiful age of the kingdom of earth. But for the souls themselves the fruit of this age means the same thing as death. From this age, which has given them mastery over external physical nature, the souls of human beings will reap the fewest fruits.
Then we come to the fifth age, when the Yahweh-Christ principle also illuminates souls between death and a new birth. Here souls become more alive. What happens in this fifth age? Through what a soul can assimilate through the Christ impulse, the astral body becomes brighter and more filled with light. We can imagine how an astral body that is permeated by the light of the I, that is totally illuminated by the I, appears when seen clairvoyantly. It appears to the writer of the Apocalypse after the war of all against all as a white garment. In the fifth age after the war of all against all, the soul will appear with an aura that is already illuminated by the light of Christ. [Gap in manuscript]
Those who already took up the Christ principle in the first era of Christianity suffered a great deal in terms of external physical martyrdom. But things are coming to a head in this fifth age. Through the Rosicrucian-Theosophical spiritual stream, the Christ impulse will be taken into selves that are increasingly selfless—and taken in with increasing understanding. Its followers will achieve, through spiritual development, ever higher stages of spiritual life.
But another stream sharply opposed to this is working, through a certain cultivation of the I, to drive the I constantly deeper into materialism. Its goal is that materialism should finally conquer the human personality. A result of this impulse is that all external, practical life is detached from the individual, becomes materialized. This happens, for example, through the activity of capital in joint stock companies, which is increasingly detached from any individual human personality. The personal diligence and hard work of individual human beings will become increasingly unimportant. Stocks or shares in companies are the path to materialization in this branch of practical human life.
We see materialism increasingly getting the upper hand. More and more the tendency will be that the spiritualized human personality will have to contradict the prevailing materialism. At the end of our age, this sharp opposition to materialism will appear as a humanity that has been outwardly vanquished. The people who will be put to death for the sake of the Word will have to suffer much. But they will be the most important cultural force after the war of all against all.
With the community at Philadelphia the sixth age will begin. Except for these spiritual human beings the rest of humankind will be entirely wrapped up in the social life, submerged in the materialism that will be constantly growing stronger. People will master the forces of nature to a high degree, as we have seen with wireless telegraphy and aeronautics. It is not without consequences whether the air is filled with spiritual thoughts or with thoughts of material needs. This will engulf our entire planet. We are looking into an age when humanity will intrude in large measure into air and light-filled space. What will be the fruits of this age? Seen in their true form it can be said that these electromagnetic waves will work back into the forces of the earth during a certain age. Then, according to good and evil, earthquakes and earth tremors will appear as the effects of human deeds. “When he opened the sixth seal I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth ...” (Rev. 6:12) When the feelings of human beings are carried into the air, they change all of nature and something like a meteor shower appears. In this way human beings unleash the forces of nature, but their achievements do not go unpunished. When we see this, it appears at the same time that humanity finds its own destruction within these unleashed forces of nature. But those who unite themselves with the spirit appear as the sealed human beings. Such people must take into themselves the teachings that concern the spirit and can reach humanity.
What human beings take into themselves as spiritual substance and teaching will be their soul and spiritual life blood in the future. It will be the light that will ray forth from them as spirit. The human being stands firmly as on two feet—one foot on the Atlantean, the other on the post-Atlantean culture, as it were: on water and on earth. But humankind must take in wisdom, like swallowing a book. This figure points toward the spiritual world, he gives the book to the writer of the Apocalypse. He is supposed to swallow it. It will be indigestible for the lower human being but like honey for the higher, when it is not read but swallowed. Human beings equipped with modern logical thinking who have also become clairvoyant through occult training can also experience what the writer of the Apocalypse described. They can see the visions of the writer of the Apocalypse in the Rosicrucian seals. The seal with the two pillars is portrayed in the tenth chapter of the Apocalypse.
Neunter Vortrag
Wir haben gesehen, wie in unserer Zeitperiode in die Seelen geschrieben werden kann, was später einmal im Äußeren des Menschen hervortreten wird. Geradeso wie in unserer Zeit sieben aufeinanderfolgende Kulturepochen zu verzeichnen sind, so stellen sich die sieben Zeiträume der Menschheitsentwickelung nach dem Kriege aller gegen alle dem Apokalyptiker dar, der in die Zukunft schaut; er sieht diese sieben Zeiträume in den sieben Siegeln. Er unterscheidet aber scharf die Zeiträume, die er als die ersten vier verzeichnet. Jedesmal, wenn er eines der Siegel auftut, erscheint ihm eines der vier Pferde mit einem Reiter darauf.
Der Apokalyptiker hat es also zu tun mit der hellseherischen Anschauung der sieben zukünftigen Zeiträume. Das sind astrale Bilder dessen, was einst sein wird. Die Menschen, welche etwas aufgenommen haben werden von der spirituellen Kultur, werden die niedere Natur überwunden haben; sie werden die menschliche instinktive Natur dann beherrschen. Das, was der Mensch überwunden hat, drückt sich im Siegel in der Pferdegestalt aus. Mit dem, was er aus seiner Seele gemacht haben wird, wird er Sieger sein über seine niedere Natur; er wird sie beherrschen, gleich dem Reiter, der der Herrscher ist über das Pferd.
Alles, was in unserem Zeitraum seit der altindischen Zeit durchgemacht wird, erscheint wieder nach dem Krieg aller gegen alle. So erscheint in der Wiederholung zuerst der altindische Zeitraum wieder. Damals war den Menschen alles in der physischen Welt Illusion, Maja; damals ist die Seele dazu reif geworden, Sieger zu sein über alles in der sinnlichen Welt. Die Frucht dieser indischen Zeit erscheint dem Apokalyptiker im Bilde als das weiße Pferd. Das ist die Charakteristik dieser Menschenseele, daß das Äußere, die materielle Kultur noch nicht von Händen berührt erscheint; unschuldig wie das helle Sonnenlicht ist der Reiter mit dem Bogen. Wie ein Sieger hat er sich das Recht erworben, nach dem Krieg aller gegen alle Sieger zu sein über die niedere Natur. Aber noch ist sie da, diese niedere Natur; mit ihr ist der Mensch so zusammengewachsen, wie sich das darstellt im zweiten Siegel als rotes Pferd. Da ist die Seele nicht mehr im weißen Unschuldskleide. Dadurch kann der Mensch in diesem Zeitraum nicht als der sieghafte Reiter erscheinen; er erscheint uns so, daß er die Früchte des Egoismus mitbringt. Er erscheint nach dem Kriege aller gegen alle nun nicht mehr im weißen Kleide, sondern noch einmal nimmt er den Frieden von der Erde, noch einmal zeigt er sich im Kampf ums Dasein mit dem Schwerte.
Nun zeigt sich uns die Frucht des dritten Zeitraums, der ägyptischchaldäischen Kultur, in der die Menschheit das Rechnen und Zählen gelernt hat. Immer tiefer und tiefer ist der Mensch hinuntergestiegen in die Materie, in die Finsternis der niederen Natur; das zeigt sich im schwarzen Pferd und in dem Reiter mit der Waage. Abwägen, Messen und Zählen, das drückt sich dem Apokalyptiker aus als ein schwarzes Pferd und die Menschenseele als der Reiter mit der Waage. In der persischen Kultur finden sich noch nicht solche sozialen Einrichtungen, durch welche der Mensch sich nach intelligenten, nach staatlich-sozialen Ordnungen den Besitz zumißt; so etwas gab es weder im alten Indien, noch im alten Persien. Im alten Indien hatten die Menschen noch den Glauben an ihre atlantischen Verkörperungen. Der Mensch sah in der alten indischen Zeit seine Lebensstellung an als Folge von dem, was er in der alten Atlantis sich zubereitet hatte. Er sagte sich, daß er in einer bestimmten Kaste sei infolge des Menschheitskarmas; er sah auf zu den höheren Kasten als zu einer gerechten Einteilung nach dem Individualkarma. Diese Einteilung in Kasten wurde aber immer unmöglicher gemacht durch die Entwickelung des menschlichen Ichs. Die Zeit, in der vorzugsweise die Teilung von Besitz und Gut von der Intelligenz nachgerechnet zu werden anfing, war der ägyptisch-chaldäische Zeitraum. Die Frucht dieses dritten Zeitraumes erscheint also als der auf dem schwarzen Pferd sitzende Reiter mit der Waage, mit der alles Denken und die menschliche Intelligenz gewogen werden. So erscheint dem Apokalyptiker sinnbildlich, was als Früchte unserer sieben Kulturen erscheinen wird nach dem Kriege aller gegen alle.
Der vierte Zeitraum hat sich als griechisch-lateinische Kultur die Schönheit der physischen Welt erobert. Der Grieche idealisiert die Natur in seiner Kunst, er verschönert das Dasein. Wie schön erscheint uns die griechische plastische Kunst und Baukunst im Gegensatz zur ägyptischen Kunst, zur Sphinx, zur Pyramide. Aber so lieb hatte der Grieche das physisch-sinnliche Dasein gewonnen, daß ihm die geistige Welt dunkel geworden war, und das Licht drang erst wieder in das, was für ihn vollkommener Schatten war, durch das Ereignis von Golgatha. Die Seele war ganz in Fesseln geschlagen worden in diesem vierten Zeitraum. Die niedere Natur aber hat in diesem Zeitraum eine Verschönerung erlebt, hat gewissermaßen eine Decke von Schönheit und Kunst erhalten. Das ist so recht das Charakteristische der Seele in diesem für das Erdenreich schönsten Zeitraum; aber für die Seele selbst ist die Frucht dieses Zeitraums gleichbedeutend mit Tod. Die Seelen werden aus diesem Zeitraum, der ihnen die Herrschaft über die äußere physische Natur gegeben hat, am wenigsten Früchte ziehen.
Und nun kommen wir zum fünften Zeitraum, wo das JahveChristus-Prinzip den Seelen leuchtet auch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Da werden die Seelen immer lebendiger. Was geschieht in diesem fünften Zeitraum? Der Astralleib wird immer lichtvoller und heller durch das, was die Seele aufnimmt vom Christus-Impuls. Wir stellen uns vor, hellseherisch angesehen, den vom Ich durchstrahlten Astralleib; der erscheint dem Apokalyptiker nach dem Kriege aller gegen alle als weißes Kleid. So wird in dem fünften Zeitraum nach diesem Kriege die Seele durchdrungen erscheinen mit der Aura, die schon vom Christus-Licht durchleuchtet ist... [Lücke]
Diejenigen aber, die schon in den ersten Zeiten des Christentums das Christus-Prinzip aufgenommen haben, haben schwer zu leiden gehabt in bezug auf äußerlich physisches Märtyrertum. Aber es spitzen sich die Dinge sehr zu in diesem fünften Zeitraum. Durch die rosenkreuzerische theosophische Geistesströmung wird der Christus-Impuls im immer selbstloseren Selbst und mit lebendigem Verständnis aufgenommen werden, und ihre Anhänger werden sich entwickeln zu immer höherem spirituellen Leben.
Aber eine andere Strömung arbeitet als scharf oppositionelle Strömung auf eine gewisse Pflege des Ichs hin, um dieses Ich immer tiefer in den Materialismus hineinzutreiben, so daß der Materialismus schließlich den Sieg über die Persönlichkeit erringt. Alles äußere praktische Leben löst sich los vom Individuellen, vermaterialisiert sich, zum Beispiel durch die Maßnahmen des mehr und mehr von der Persönlichkeit sich loslösenden Aktiengesellschaftskapitals. Immer mehr wird der Mensch in seiner persönlichen Tüchtigkeit überwunden werden. Die Aktie ist der Weg zur Materialisierung dieses Zweiges der praktischen Menschheitsbeteiligung.
So sehen wir den Materialismus immer mehr überhandnehmen; immer mehr wird die Tendenz dahin gehen, daß die Spiritualisierung der menschlichen Persönlichkeit den Gegensatz bilden muß zum immer mehr überhandnehmenden Materialismus. Das, was da scharf oppositionell ist, wird am Ende unseres Zeitraumes als äußerlich überwundene Menschheit erscheinen. Und die Menschen, die erwürgt wurden um des Wortes willen, werden viel zu leiden haben; aber sie werden eben die wichtigsten Kulturträger sein über den Krieg aller gegen alle hinüber.
Und ein sechster Zeitraum bricht an mit der Gemeinde von Philadelphia. Außer diesen spirituellen Menschen ist die übrige Menschheit ganz eingesponnen in das soziale Leben, untergegangen in dem immer mehr sich verstärkenden Materialismus. Aber diese Menschen werden in hohem Grade die Naturkräfte beherrschen, wie wir das schon jetzt in der drahtlosen Telegraphie und der Luftschiffahrt sehen. Es ist nicht gleichgültig, ob der Luftraum angefüllt wird mit spirituellen Gedanken oder mit den Gedanken materieller Bedürfnisse. Das wird unseren ganzen Erdball erfassen. Da sehen wir hinein in einen Zeitraum, wo der Mensch in hohem Maße in den Luft- und Lichtraum eingreifen wird.
Was werden die Früchte dieses Zeitraumes sein? In der wahren Gestalt erscheint es für einen gewissen Zeitraum so, daß diese elektrischen Wellen zurückwirken werden auf die Erdenkräfte, und je nach dem Guten und Schlechten werden Erdbeben, Erderschütterungen auftreten als Wirkung der Menschheitstaten. «Und ich sahe, da es das sechste Siegel öffnete, da geschah ein großes Erdbeben, und die Sonne ward schwarz wie ein härener Trauersack.» (Apk. 6, 12) Indem der Mensch seine Empfindungen der Luft mitteilt, ändert er die ganze Natur, und es tritt etwas auf wie ein Meteorregen. So entfesselt der Mensch die Kräfte der Natur, aber nicht ungestraft trifft er seine Verrichtungen.
Indem wir dieses sehen, erscheint es uns zugleich, daß der Mensch innerhalb dieser entfesselten Naturkräfte seinen Untergang findet. Die aber, die sich mit dem Geist verbinden, die erscheinen als die versiegelten Menschen. Solche Menschen müssen das, was als Geisteslehre an die Menschheit herandringen kann, in sich aufnehmen.
Das, was die Menschen als Geistiges in sich aufnehmen, wird in Zukunft ihr geistig-seelisches Herzblut sein; es wird das Licht sein, das als Geist aus ihnen strahlen wird. Auf der atlantischen und der nachatlantischen Kultur steht der Mensch fest wie auf zwei Füßen, auf dem Wasser und auf der Erde. Aber er muß die Weisheit in sich aufnehmen, wie ein Buch, das man verschlingt. Diese Figur weist hinauf in die geistige Welt, sie gibt dem Apokalyptiker das Buch; das soll er verschlingen, das soll für die niedere menschliche Natur unverdaulich sein, aber für die höhere süß wie Honig, indem man das Buch nicht liest, sondern es verschlingt. Der Mensch, der, mit heutigem, modernem logischen Denken und durch okkulte Schulung hellseherisch geworden, nacherleben kann, was der Apokalyptiker aufgezeichnet hat, der sieht die Visionen des Apokalyptikers in den rosenkreuzerischen Siegeln. Das Siegel mit den beiden Säulen, das stellt das zehnte Kapitel der Apokalypse dar.
Ninth Lecture
We have seen how, in our time, what will later emerge in the outer life of human beings can be written into their souls. Just as there are seven successive cultural epochs in our time, so the seven periods of human development after the war of all against all appear to the apocalypticist who looks into the future; he sees these seven periods in the seven seals. However, he makes a sharp distinction between the periods he records as the first four. Each time he opens one of the seals, one of the four horses appears to him with a rider on it.
The apocalyptic visionary is thus dealing with the clairvoyant perception of the seven future periods. These are astral images of what will once be. Those human beings who have absorbed something of the spiritual culture will have overcome their lower nature; they will then control their instinctive human nature. What man has overcome is expressed in the seal in the form of horses. With what he will have made of his soul, he will be victorious over his lower nature; he will master it, like the rider who is the master of the horse.
Everything that has been experienced in our period since ancient Indian times will reappear after the war of all against all. Thus, in the repetition, the ancient Indian period appears first. At that time, everything in the physical world was illusion, Maya, to human beings; at that time, the soul had become ripe to be victorious over everything in the sensual world. The fruit of this Indian period appears to the apocalypticist in the image of the white horse. It is characteristic of this human soul that the outer, material culture does not yet appear to have been touched by human hands; the rider with his bow is as innocent as the bright sunlight. Like a victor, he has earned the right to be victorious over lower nature after the war of all against all. But this lower nature is still there; man has grown together with it, as depicted in the second seal as a red horse. The soul is no longer clothed in white innocence. As a result, man cannot appear as the victorious rider during this period; he appears to us as bringing with him the fruits of egoism. After the war of all against all, he no longer appears in white robes, but once again takes peace from the earth, once again showing himself in the struggle for existence with the sword.
Now we see the fruit of the third period, the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, in which humanity learned to calculate and count. Man has descended deeper and deeper into matter, into the darkness of lower nature; this is symbolized by the black horse and the rider with the scales. Weighing, measuring, and counting are expressed to the apocalypticist as a black horse and the human soul as the rider with the scales. In Persian culture, there are not yet such social institutions through which man allocates property according to intelligent, state-social orders; there was no such thing in ancient India or ancient Persia. In ancient India, people still believed in their Atlantean incarnations. In ancient Indian times, people saw their position in life as a consequence of what they had prepared for themselves in ancient Atlantis. They told themselves that they belonged to a certain caste as a result of human karma; they looked up to the higher castes as a just division according to individual karma. However, this division into castes became increasingly impossible due to the development of the human ego. The period in which the division of property and goods began to be calculated primarily on the basis of intelligence was the Egyptian-Chaldean period. The fruit of this third period thus appears as the rider sitting on the black horse with the scales, with which all thinking and human intelligence are weighed. Thus, to the apocalyptic, what will appear as the fruits of our seven cultures after the war of all against all appears symbolically.
The fourth period, as Greek-Latin culture, conquered the beauty of the physical world. The Greeks idealized nature in their art and beautified existence. How beautiful Greek sculpture and architecture appear to us in contrast to Egyptian art, the Sphinx, and the pyramids. But the Greeks had become so attached to physical, sensual existence that the spiritual world had become dark to them, and light only penetrated what was for them complete shadow through the event of Golgotha. The soul had been completely shackled in this fourth period. But during this period, the lower nature underwent a beautification, receiving, as it were, a covering of beauty and art. This is truly characteristic of the soul in this most beautiful period for the earthly realm; but for the soul itself, the fruit of this period is synonymous with death. The souls will reap the least fruit from this period, which has given them dominion over the outer physical nature.
And now we come to the fifth period, where the Yahweh-Christ principle shines upon the souls even between death and a new birth. There the souls become ever more alive. What happens in this fifth period? The astral body becomes increasingly luminous and brighter through what the soul absorbs from the Christ impulse. We imagine, as if looking with clairvoyant eyes, the astral body radiating from the ego; to the apocalyptic visionary after the war of all against all, it appears as a white garment. Thus, in the fifth period after this war, the soul will appear permeated with the aura that is already illuminated by the light of Christ... [gap]
But those who already accepted the Christ principle in the early days of Christianity had to suffer greatly in terms of outward physical martyrdom. But things are coming to a head in this fifth period. Through the Rosicrucian theosophical spiritual current, the Christ impulse will be taken up in an increasingly selfless self and with living understanding, and its followers will develop toward an ever higher spiritual life.
But another current is working as a sharply opposing current toward a certain cultivation of the ego, in order to drive this ego ever deeper into materialism, so that materialism ultimately wins the victory over the personality. All external practical life detaches itself from the individual and becomes materialized, for example through the measures of joint-stock capital, which is increasingly detaching itself from the personality. Human beings will increasingly be overcome in their personal abilities. The share is the path to the materialization of this branch of practical human participation.
Thus we see materialism gaining more and more the upper hand; the tendency will increasingly be for the spiritualization of the human personality to form the opposite pole to the ever more dominant materialism. What is sharply opposed will appear at the end of our period as humanity that has been overcome externally. And the people who were strangled for the sake of the word will have much to suffer; but they will be the most important bearers of culture beyond the war of all against all.
And a sixth period dawns with the community of Philadelphia. Apart from these spiritual people, the rest of humanity is completely entangled in social life, lost in ever-increasing materialism. But these people will master the forces of nature to a high degree, as we already see in wireless telegraphy and air travel. It is not irrelevant whether the airspace is filled with spiritual thoughts or with thoughts of material needs. This will affect our entire globe. We are looking into a period in which human beings will intervene to a high degree in the air and light space.
What will be the fruits of this period? In its true form, it appears that for a certain period of time these electrical waves will have a retroactive effect on the forces of the earth, and depending on the good and evil, earthquakes and earth tremors will occur as a result of human actions. “And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the sun's brightness was taken from it.” (Rev. 6:12) By communicating his feelings to the air, man changes the whole of nature, and something like a meteor shower occurs. In this way, man unleashes the forces of nature, but he does not go unpunished for his actions.
Seeing this, it seems to us at the same time that man will find his downfall within these unleashed forces of nature. But those who connect themselves with the spirit appear as sealed people. Such people must take into themselves what can come to humanity as spiritual teaching.
What people take into themselves as spiritual will be their spiritual and soulful heart's blood in the future; it will be the light that will shine out of them as spirit. In the Atlantean and post-Atlantean cultures, human beings stand firmly on two feet, on water and on earth. But they must take wisdom into themselves like a book that is devoured. This figure points upward to the spiritual world; he gives the book to the apocalyptic figure, who is to devour it. It is to be indigestible to the lower human nature, but sweet as honey to the higher nature, because one does not read the book but devours it. The person who, with today's modern logical thinking and through occult training has become clairvoyant, can relive what the apocalyptic writer has recorded, sees the visions of the apocalyptic writer in the Rosicrucian seals. The seal with the two pillars represents the tenth chapter of the Apocalypse.