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"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
-Napoleon Bonaparte
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"The rose should adorn itself only to adorn the garden.
That must be deeply engraved in the hearts of those who seek higher development.
In order to have a feeling for what is good, we must also have a feeling for what is bad.
The gods endowed us with enthusiasm for what is l we would have no feeling of self, no free choice of the good, no freedom.
The good could have become reality without Lucifer, but not freedom. In order to choose the good, we must also have the evil before us; it must exist within us as self-love. When the force of self-love has developed and widened to become love of all, evil will be overcome. Evil and freedom stem from the same original source.
Lucifer kindled human enthusiasm for the divine. He is the Light-bearer; the Elohim are the Light itself. Lucifer brought light into human beings by kindling in them the light of wisdom, albeit mingled with the black shadow of evil.
The wisdom Lucifer brings is shrunken and blemished, but it penetrates into mortals; he brings external science that serves egoism.
That is why selflessness in regard to knowledge is demanded of the esoteric student.
Lucifer['s] task [on this planet] is comparable to what the leaven of the old dough means for the new bread. Evil is a good removed from its proper place....
Evil is a necessary part of evolution.
One ought not to say that the world is imperfect or incomplete because it contains evil; rather it is complete for that very reason. When a painting depicts wonderful figures of light, together with dark devils, the picture would be spoiled if the devils were removed. The world creator needed evil in order that good could evolve.
A good is only good if it has stood the test of evil.
For love to reach its highest goal, the love of all, it must pass through the love of self. In Faust, Goethe rightly causes Mephistopheles to say:
'I am an aspect of the power
that always intends evil, and always creates good.' "
--R. Steiner, "The Origin of Evil" (GA55), 1906
That must be deeply engraved in the hearts of those who seek higher development.
In order to have a feeling for what is good, we must also have a feeling for what is bad.
The gods endowed us with enthusiasm for what is l we would have no feeling of self, no free choice of the good, no freedom.
The good could have become reality without Lucifer, but not freedom. In order to choose the good, we must also have the evil before us; it must exist within us as self-love. When the force of self-love has developed and widened to become love of all, evil will be overcome. Evil and freedom stem from the same original source.
Lucifer kindled human enthusiasm for the divine. He is the Light-bearer; the Elohim are the Light itself. Lucifer brought light into human beings by kindling in them the light of wisdom, albeit mingled with the black shadow of evil.
The wisdom Lucifer brings is shrunken and blemished, but it penetrates into mortals; he brings external science that serves egoism.
That is why selflessness in regard to knowledge is demanded of the esoteric student.
Lucifer['s] task [on this planet] is comparable to what the leaven of the old dough means for the new bread. Evil is a good removed from its proper place....
Evil is a necessary part of evolution.
One ought not to say that the world is imperfect or incomplete because it contains evil; rather it is complete for that very reason. When a painting depicts wonderful figures of light, together with dark devils, the picture would be spoiled if the devils were removed. The world creator needed evil in order that good could evolve.
A good is only good if it has stood the test of evil.
For love to reach its highest goal, the love of all, it must pass through the love of self. In Faust, Goethe rightly causes Mephistopheles to say:
'I am an aspect of the power
that always intends evil, and always creates good.' "
--R. Steiner, "The Origin of Evil" (GA55), 1906
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Gurdjieff was asked what a person should do when faced with a powerful internal "longing" or the denial of something that is a slavery.
He taught his students to write on a piece of paper, keep it on them always & say: "I wish the result of this my suffering be my own for being."
He taught his students to write on a piece of paper, keep it on them always & say: "I wish the result of this my suffering be my own for being."
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I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.
🇫🇷 Napoleon Bonaparte, in Miot de Melito, Memoirs (1797)
🇫🇷 Napoleon Bonaparte, in Miot de Melito, Memoirs (1797)
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I doubt not of our immortality, for nature cannot dispense with our continued activity. But we are not all, in like manner, immortal; and he who would manifest himself as a great Entelecheia to future ages, must begin now.
🇩🇪 Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann
🇩🇪 Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann
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God sells us all things at the price of labor.
🇮🇹 Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks
🇮🇹 Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks
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Rudolf Steiner on remembering dreams, and becoming more conscious with your will in your day-to-day life.
Rudolf Steiner's Review Exercises are an interesting method of strengthening cognition through deliberate self-observation and reflection.
Before bed, or in the afternoon transpired. You can mentally start retracing the events of the day in reverse order, from the final moments to the very first, one trains their attention to step outside ordinary perception and observe their experiences more objectively. Almost in a way from a higher self POV, rather than your normal personality. This is linked to your soul.
By becoming indepedent of ordinary sense-perception, you can view the world in a different light. You can use this technique on stories/plays reversing the acts/plot points to gain a better view through higher cognition.
Interestingly, this also has a connection to dreaming. Steiner suggests that the Review Exercise can sometimes lead one towards accidentally falling asleep, creating a bridge between waking thought and dream consciousness. This is because you are entering a state of mind, that is akin to dreams. I will expand more in a bit.
Through consistent practice, one may find themselves remembering dreams more vividly, developing greater awareness within dreams and potentially achieving a degree of continuity between waking and sleeping consciousness. (Aka, you will be able to start percieving your dreams, and figure out the meanings much more clearly through training this dream-cognition)
A fun fact, dreams are often in reverse and are flipped, an example is when you see in your dream an order of numbers like "1...2...3" they are actually "3...2...1" outside of the dream. When you learn that everything is flipped, and reversed it begins to make more sense, and through that - dream-cognition begins.
When ordinary consciousness falls away and you go autoilot, all that is left is darkness, without continuity you will be left confused. This applies to sleep, and waking life, if you don't start observing you will be left to things just happening to you, instead of doing anything.
Rudolf Steiner's Review Exercises are an interesting method of strengthening cognition through deliberate self-observation and reflection.
Before bed, or in the afternoon transpired. You can mentally start retracing the events of the day in reverse order, from the final moments to the very first, one trains their attention to step outside ordinary perception and observe their experiences more objectively. Almost in a way from a higher self POV, rather than your normal personality. This is linked to your soul.
By becoming indepedent of ordinary sense-perception, you can view the world in a different light. You can use this technique on stories/plays reversing the acts/plot points to gain a better view through higher cognition.
Interestingly, this also has a connection to dreaming. Steiner suggests that the Review Exercise can sometimes lead one towards accidentally falling asleep, creating a bridge between waking thought and dream consciousness. This is because you are entering a state of mind, that is akin to dreams. I will expand more in a bit.
Through consistent practice, one may find themselves remembering dreams more vividly, developing greater awareness within dreams and potentially achieving a degree of continuity between waking and sleeping consciousness. (Aka, you will be able to start percieving your dreams, and figure out the meanings much more clearly through training this dream-cognition)
A fun fact, dreams are often in reverse and are flipped, an example is when you see in your dream an order of numbers like "1...2...3" they are actually "3...2...1" outside of the dream. When you learn that everything is flipped, and reversed it begins to make more sense, and through that - dream-cognition begins.
When ordinary consciousness falls away and you go autoilot, all that is left is darkness, without continuity you will be left confused. This applies to sleep, and waking life, if you don't start observing you will be left to things just happening to you, instead of doing anything.
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Rudolf Steiner: The Dragon and Beast of the Book of Revelation
The Great dragon & the two-horned Beast
Steiner identifies the great dragon as Sorath, the Sun-Demon and adversary of Christ, the Lamb.
Michael, the countenance of the Sun-Genius, overcomes it and holds the oppohe seven-headed, ten-horned beast
This represents something different: those who reject the Christ-principle and fall back into their animal group-soul nature.
The seducer appears only when such people exist to prey upon.
The seducer’s method is the misuse of spiritual power in the service of the lower “I.”
Steiner calls this black magic.
Ordinary immorality does not require such a monster.
What this means for the student today
1. Test your motives.
If any insight or capacity you develop feeds your sense of being special, you are falling into the very pattern Steiner warns against.
2. Transform your instincts. Do not suppress them.
The beast imagery represents unredeemed animal nature. The dragon only has leverage where that nature is left untransformed.
3. Watch for hardening.
Steiner defines 666 as the principle leading to complete hardening in the physical. Be wary of cynicism, contempt, and the gradual closing of your heart.
4. Keep your thinking morally anchored.
In Lecture XII, Steiner says the number of the beast is the number of a man, because corrupted intellect darkens the Christ-principle.
Thought control and reverence are the countermeasures.
5. Guard your speech and breath.
Steiner’s example of how a “horn” would form involves breathing through the larynx, which can serve either the Christ-principle or the old animal forces.
This is not a reason for dread.
Steiner frames these events within long-term cosmic evolution.
In Lecture XII, he emphasizes that most people are nowhere near black magic and can still turn back.
The Great dragon & the two-horned Beast
Steiner identifies the great dragon as Sorath, the Sun-Demon and adversary of Christ, the Lamb.
Michael, the countenance of the Sun-Genius, overcomes it and holds the oppohe seven-headed, ten-horned beast
This represents something different: those who reject the Christ-principle and fall back into their animal group-soul nature.
The seducer appears only when such people exist to prey upon.
The seducer’s method is the misuse of spiritual power in the service of the lower “I.”
Steiner calls this black magic.
Ordinary immorality does not require such a monster.
What this means for the student today
1. Test your motives.
If any insight or capacity you develop feeds your sense of being special, you are falling into the very pattern Steiner warns against.
2. Transform your instincts. Do not suppress them.
The beast imagery represents unredeemed animal nature. The dragon only has leverage where that nature is left untransformed.
3. Watch for hardening.
Steiner defines 666 as the principle leading to complete hardening in the physical. Be wary of cynicism, contempt, and the gradual closing of your heart.
4. Keep your thinking morally anchored.
In Lecture XII, Steiner says the number of the beast is the number of a man, because corrupted intellect darkens the Christ-principle.
Thought control and reverence are the countermeasures.
5. Guard your speech and breath.
Steiner’s example of how a “horn” would form involves breathing through the larynx, which can serve either the Christ-principle or the old animal forces.
This is not a reason for dread.
Steiner frames these events within long-term cosmic evolution.
In Lecture XII, he emphasizes that most people are nowhere near black magic and can still turn back.
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Few people know how much these two actually overlap.
It’s not just their teachings. Both deeply admired the master Goethe, and both confronted what drives man without his knowing.
As someone once put it:
Jung - Soul Science
Steiner - Spirit Science
It’s not just their teachings. Both deeply admired the master Goethe, and both confronted what drives man without his knowing.
As someone once put it:
Jung - Soul Science
Steiner - Spirit Science
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Rudolf Steiner said three things must fall before humanity can meet the spirit.
1. Babylon: humans corrupted through weakness.
2. The Beast: bodies that become vessels for Ahriman.
3. Satan: the power trying to knock the cosmos off course.
—Lectures to Priests: The Apocalypse (GA 346)
1. Babylon: humans corrupted through weakness.
2. The Beast: bodies that become vessels for Ahriman.
3. Satan: the power trying to knock the cosmos off course.
—Lectures to Priests: The Apocalypse (GA 346)
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Most people don’t see the world. They see their thoughts about it.
Observe yourself first.
Observe yourself first.
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The imagination places the future world for us either above or below or in reincarnation. We dream of travels throughout the universe: is not the universe within us? We do not know the depths of our spirit. The mysterious path leads within. In us, or nowhere, lies eternity with d the future.
—Novalis, Pollen and Fragments
—Novalis, Pollen and Fragments
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For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character.
—Rudolf Steiner
—Rudolf Steiner
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He acquaints us that on the tenth of November 1619, laying himself down brimful of enthusiasm, and wholly possessed with the thought of having found that day the foundations of the wonderful science, he had three dreams one presently after another; yet so extraordinary, as to y were sent him from above; he supposed he discerned through their shadows the tracks of the path which God had chalked out for him, to perform his will in his choice of life.
🇫🇷 René Descartes, in Adrien Baillet, The Life of Monsieur Des Cartes
🇫🇷 René Descartes, in Adrien Baillet, The Life of Monsieur Des Cartes
Descartes, Bacon, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and the Revelation of Modern Rationalism
< French philosopher René Descartes, who had gone searching for the fratres RC, was himself accused in Catholic Paris of being a Rosicrucian, “how could this be?” responded the founder of the mecl the world knows they are invisible!” >
-Tobias Churton, The True History of the Rosicrucians (Documentary)
Dr. Steiner, in Riddles of Philosophy, places Descartes at the turning point of what he calls the age of self-consciousness.
The Greek still experienced thought as something perceived, as he perceived the world around him.
The philosophers at the turn of this age no longer do so. Descartes must bring forth thought from his own I, and justify it from within.
It is here that Dr. Steiner classifies the founders of modern thought:
“Contrary to Bacon of Verulam, who pointed toward the bricks of the building, Descartes (Cartesius) and Spinoza turned their attention toward its plan.”
That is, Bacon works with the bricks that he sees, while Descartes struggles to bring forth the plan from within.
In German: Bausteine and Bauplan, “Bausteine” meaning “Building Stones.”
The use of the word “Building Stones” in context with Francis Bacon is particularly interesting.
If you have researched Freemasonry, you should know that there are many Baconian legends surrounding the fraternity, such as the notion that Speculative Masonry was established by Bacon.
Dr. Steiner’s wording might have been intended to remind the reader of Freemasonry.
There is not enough space to go into the history of the fraternity here, but if you research carefully, you should find many curious relations between Masonry and the ushering in of the “Age of Enlightenment”.
And of Descartes in particular Dr. Steiner writes:
“The ego in him conquers the right to recognize its own being through the radical doubt directed against the entire world.”
The German is “erkämpft”, meaning “fought for” and won, through struggle.
In Germany, during the winter of 1619, while Descartes was still searching for the Fratres R.C., he had three dreams in one night, through which he believed the Spirit of Truth had descended upon him.
In his notebook he wrote that on this day, “full of enthusiasm”, he had found “the foundations of a wonderful science”.
The father of Modern Rationalism received the basis of his system not through doubt, but revelation.
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George Gurdjieff’s Final Exercise Before His Death
Known as the “I AM” Exercise.
The practice is simple: internally or externally, affirm “I” with all feeling centered in the solar plexus, followed by “am” with all sensation centered in the spine.
And that was all.
The o be performed contemplatively, although it could be. It was incorporated into several other exercises, particularly the Four Ideals Exercise and the Preparation.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that both of these “final” exercises were so simple.
At the end, Gurdjieff brought the rich and diverse content of his system back to its most fundamental principles, relating the inner life to the outer life.
This accords with recollections of Gurdjieff during his final years. Hands recalls that Gurdjieff gave an “I Am” exercise several times. The following is perhaps the most striking example:
“One night Mr. Gurdjieff was talking about self-awareness-how, in whatever we were doing, we should pause from time to time to say “I,” to say “I” not with the head alone but with one’s whole mass. He lifted up his hand and said, “It is like this, even my thumbnail say “I”. The extraordinary thing was that you could almost hear it doing so.”
Known as the “I AM” Exercise.
The practice is simple: internally or externally, affirm “I” with all feeling centered in the solar plexus, followed by “am” with all sensation centered in the spine.
And that was all.
The o be performed contemplatively, although it could be. It was incorporated into several other exercises, particularly the Four Ideals Exercise and the Preparation.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that both of these “final” exercises were so simple.
At the end, Gurdjieff brought the rich and diverse content of his system back to its most fundamental principles, relating the inner life to the outer life.
This accords with recollections of Gurdjieff during his final years. Hands recalls that Gurdjieff gave an “I Am” exercise several times. The following is perhaps the most striking example:
“One night Mr. Gurdjieff was talking about self-awareness-how, in whatever we were doing, we should pause from time to time to say “I,” to say “I” not with the head alone but with one’s whole mass. He lifted up his hand and said, “It is like this, even my thumbnail say “I”. The extraordinary thing was that you could almost hear it doing so.”
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The Secret of Genius Is How a Child Plays
“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it" (Mark 10, 15).
The little child does not "work"; he plays. But how serious he is, in other words concentrated, when he plays! His lete and undivided, whereas with him who approaches the kingdom of God it becomes again entire and undivided.
And this is the Arcanum of intellectual geniality: the vision of the unity of beings and things through the immediate perception of their correspondences, through consciousness concentrated without effort.
The Master did not want us to become puerile. What he wanted is that we attain the geniality of intelligence and heart which is analogous, not identical, to the attitude of the child, who carries only easy burdens and renders all his yokes light.
"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light"
Matthew 11:30
“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it" (Mark 10, 15).
The little child does not "work"; he plays. But how serious he is, in other words concentrated, when he plays! His lete and undivided, whereas with him who approaches the kingdom of God it becomes again entire and undivided.
And this is the Arcanum of intellectual geniality: the vision of the unity of beings and things through the immediate perception of their correspondences, through consciousness concentrated without effort.
The Master did not want us to become puerile. What he wanted is that we attain the geniality of intelligence and heart which is analogous, not identical, to the attitude of the child, who carries only easy burdens and renders all his yokes light.
"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light"
Matthew 11:30
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