Save as PDFThe Lords Prayer and the Beatitudes
Let us begin with the Lord’s prayer. How can one do this? The way I should like to do this is to take the indication that Rudolf Steiner gave about the Prayer, which is that it grew out of the Turanian impulse. The Prayer is to be found in the Luke Gospel. Contrast this with the Cycle on Matthew where Rudolf Steiner comes to address the Beatitudes and the role of the Iranian (Persian – editor) impulse brought by Zarathustra. The Beatitudes belong to the Matthew Gospel, I see a marked duality and I should like to take this up. In order to do so, it is necessary to go back in time close to 20,000 years. That is I should like to go back in time to Atlantis, the time before the flood, before the cooling of the atmosphere, the coming of water and ice so that a whole continent was lost.
The time of Atlantis Rudolf Steiner places as the time when the sun rose in the sign of cancer, the sign of an end and a beginning. The continent from numerous historians of ancient times and from Rudolf Steiner’s researches existed where the Atlantic Ocean now exists. It was inhabited by human beings, but they began for the first time to resemble the man of our day. Let me try to speak to the coming into being of the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans then lived out their evolution with seven sub-races, or seven racial impulses.
A way to think on Atlantis is to image that the continent itself gradually came about out of the cosmic evolutions of Saturn, Sun, Moon and then earth. The first stages of this Earth evolution recapitulates the cosmic evolutions and are called Polaria, Hyperborea, Lemuria and Atlantis. It is only with the coming of Atlantean times that the celestial sphere became what it is today, that is the stars, the planets, and the relation of sun, moon and earth as we know it today.
If we look to the coming of the human being, one can say that the human being with his present form is told in the Old Testament by the building of the Ark, the coming of the flood and the settling of the Ark on earth by the Great Initiate Manu-Noah. The building of the Ark by Jehova, by God and Noah is the building of the human organism with its present dimensions as it is today. The outer form and configuration we can think was given by the starry world, by the Zodiac. The twelve constellations are actually the domains of the cosmic space where astral formative forces are working which when working together can mold the form and configuration of the human being. The constellations are the Star Homes of Spiritual Beings. Their servants work to mold the human form. The gradual descent of form can be thought of as taking place out of cosmic evolutions.
From the outer form of the human being we have to step to the organs within the form. The major organs are actually molded by the working of spiritual beings from the domain of the planets. The work of the planets can be thought of as descending out of the planetary cosmic domain, so that the human being was slightly differently constituted depending upon which planet predominated in the human organism. Each planet gave a slightly different make up to the human being. Here is a list of the different human beings on the Atlantean continent who are predominantly influenced by and determined by a particular planet and thereby bring about particular structures.
Saturn men, have the glands and senses, with liver particularly developed—they migrate west to America.
Jupiter men have the senses and head with brain particularly developed—they migrate north to Europe.
Mars men have the blood and later the gall particularly developed—they migrate to Mongolia.
Sun men, have the heart particularly developed and is the basis for the future of all humanity.
Moon men have the circulation and later brain particularly developed and migrate to the middle east as Semites.
Venus men have the nervous system and later the kidneys particularly developed and migrate to Malaysia later.
Mercury men have the endocrine organs particularly developed and later migrate to Ethiopia.
This we can say is an unfolding from above, so that the starry domain and the planetary can be seen as the origin of what is human. However what is truly human is that there is a metabolism which comes from the earth, and not from the cosmos. This metabolism is such that it gives the coloring to human beings and as such becomes important as an earthly expression of the human being. Here is an outline of the earth as it becomes differentiated to bring about the varied colors in people and not just the celestial planetary human beings. This earthly dimension can be considered to belong to the incarnation of the human being on earth as with Adam, the first earth man. This is an unfolding from below up, and not from above down. Here are the colors of humanity and with this the earthly expression in the human being of earth determinative substances. Here is the outline:
Saturn earth men take up the substances which give red color to the skin.
Jupiter earth men take up the substances which give a pink color to the skin.
Mars earth men take up substances which give yellow color to the skin.
Sun earth men take up substances which give what has not yet been seen, which I think would be a kind of blue pink to the skin.
Venus earth men take up substances which give brown color to the skin.
Mercury earth men take up substances which give black color to the skin.
Thus there are two major impulses to the unfolding of the human being, The first working from above gives form and organs to the human make up. The second gives the metabolic substances and processes from below up, bring about a truly earthly human being.
A third unfolding can be pointed to, and that is not forms, organs or metabolism, but more the birthing of race out of more what can be called life processes. Now it is much more the etheric, not the astral or the physical, but the etheric which is quite determinative. This gives rise to what is called the sub-races which evolved on Atlantis itself. The sub-races are seven in number, somewhat corresponding to the seven domains of earth and the seven major organ systems, but remaining independent to a certain degree so that the human being can eventually unfold true ego impulses. This means that the form, the organs, and the metabolism have to be altered by life, by the etheric in order that an independent ego can eventually come to dwell within a human body. The seven sub-races of Atlantis which unfold with the progression of time are:
Rhamoahles ————–who master speech.
Tlavatli———————who master memory for the sake of personality.
Toltecs ——————– who master memory for the sake of common experience.
Primal Turanians ——– who master instinct.
Primal Semites ———–who master thinking.
Akaddians —————–who master lawful thinking.
Mongols ——————-who master faith.
All of these seven attributes of human unfolding belong to the domain of the human ether body. If one moves from speech, to memory to instinct one has moved from a more pure etheric domain to one that is progressively physical, with thinking as a very physical activity. Lawful thinking once more brings the domain of the spiritual to meet thinking, and faith is an activity of the heart where the heart brings the spiritual to the soul as it were.
Between instinct and thinking, particularly mathematical thinking and instinct lie two worlds that are very different. Thinking is related to the ego in the domain of conscious activity. Instinct is related to the ego in a much less conscious way – it lies in the domain of sleep as it were. Thus there can be a struggle in the soul between the unconscious impulses of will, and the conscious activity of thinking which comes out of a disciplined activity. We can also say that the thinker is very much determined by the brain, but as well the senses and the outer form of the human being. On the other hand the person governed by instinct has the earth, the metabolism and the endocrine-reproductory processes to contend with. The endocrine reproductory processes at a very primitive level can reduce the human being to a kind of animal, and subject him to actions which are not of moral background. The struggle between thinking and instinct can then be traced to these two root races, and the latter wars between the Iranians (Persians – editor) and the Turanians.
From an indication by Rudolf Steiner on the Lord’s Prayer, I have it that the Prayer grew out of the Turanian impulse. From this indication, and from the fact that the Lord’s Prayer is in the Luke Gospel, I am inclined to see that the etheric is very important in the whole of the Turanian impulse On the other hand, the Iranian (Persian – editor) impulse is very closely linked with Zarathustra and what is needed to deal with the astral. Here it is Matthew who brings the human, but in the form of the transformation of the astral, so that a human body can be prepared for the sake of the incarnation of the Christ.
If we follow out the two streams, we find that the Turanian stream is the one where black magic and an immoral impulse in the use of the etheric came about. The Fall of Atlantis can be attributed to the Turanians who used the etheric in a fashion which led to the destruction of the continent. There lived in this stream the potential for black magic in the Shamanistic line, while bringing about an inner hierarchy of spiritual beings which came to serve Ahriman. I take it that there was a decided Ahrimanic quality to the Turanian impulse. The more southern Turanian stream belongs to this line of unfolding. The question comes, how can one help that the etheric which is drawn downward into the purely physical, as with gravity, magnetism, and electricity can be saved from total removal from the creative spirits of our existence. What is the evidence of this fall in what Rudolf Steiner has given. I would think that the reverse Lord’s Prayer is a product.
This Prayer is as follows:
AUM, amen
The evils hold sway,
Witness of Egoity becoming free
Selfhood-Guilt through others incurred,
Experienced in the Daily Bread,
Wherein the Will of the Heavens does not rule,
In that Man severed himself from Your Kingdom
And forgot Your Names,
Ye Fathers in the Heavens.
This is the prayer which was spoken to Zarathustra as he made his way to the Baptismal giving over of his body to the Christ. This Prayer was given to him by Bath-Kol who is to be identified as the being of the Nathanic Jesus, that is Adam Cadman who had departed the body of the Nathanic Jesus at twelve years of age. I would say it is the Prayer which identifies the individual ego who comes to indwell the body of Jesus and can thereby experience how the etheric is fallen. What is needed is the work of the Nathanic Being to overcome this Fall of the ether, so that the Being of Zarathustra can give over a body with an ether make up where the Christ can bring the impulses of the human being before, during and after the Fall. This comes about, this change in the etheric comes about by the Nathanic Being, the incarnation of Zarathustra and then the incarnation of the Christ. The etheric of the human being is saved, is brought to mankind as given into the hands of Raphael, by these three Spiritual Beings—Nathanic Jesus, Zarathustra and the Christ. Now the human being can once more come to the Father for the sake of a life in relation to the spiritual world of the past, present and the future.
Here is the Prayer which reflects the ether which can be the basis for the free ego or individual in relation to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This prayer is given in the name of what is needed for each, and is a reconstituting of the make up of the human being so that the spiritual world can be a part of the life of the human being who walks the earth. It is Raphael, with the initiate Luke who can reveal this Prayer. It is as follows, along with the reconstituted human God-like make up.
Our Father—————————— states the aim of the prayer
Hallowed be thy name—————- addresses Spirit-self
Thy Kingdom come——————- addresses Life-spirit
Thy will be done———————–addresses Spirit-man
Give us the daily bread————— addresses the physical body
Forgive us our debtors—————- addresses the etheric body
Lead us not into temptation———- addresses the astral body
But deliver us from evil————— addresses the ego itself
Kingdom, Power and Glory
Now if we turn to the Iranian impulse brought by the Primal Semites, we can find that there is an astral element which can lead in the opposite direction, to the Luciferic of the Mongolian and the Akkadian trend. Here it is the hierarchy of spiritual beings which govern all existence. Here it is the human soul which is tempted; tempted to over come food, and turn stone into bread, tempted to overcome gravity and live purely in the etheric, and then finally be tempted to rule the world, the kingdoms as it were. These are the three Luciferic temptations which play into Ahrimans hands. This trend led to the incarnation of Lucifer in the Kahn stream, 3000 BC. Already this trend, in a rising spirituality that would throw the world in Ahrimans hands, had been anticipated by Zarathustra who brought the Iranian impulse to take the Ahura impulse to earth. The Iranian (Persian – editor) impulse was not only to take up the earth, but to take up the spirituality which would make a spiritual automaton of the human being. This trend is Luciferic. This means that the astral of the human being has to be taken in hand very carefully.
It is in the astral that the temptations take place. In the etheric it is the black magic, the influence of the etheric that is significant. Black magic uses the etheric which directs the physical for egotistical purposes, and does not provide for true egoism, which is that the ego can be a vessel for higher spiritual life.
The astral that wants to go its own way, not the way of god, becomes the astral that lives in the lower elemental world and takes the lower spiritual world and makes it subservient to animal impulses. Worship of idols, elemental beings and animal elements is typical of the astral, the soul working. The Ahrimanic black magic makes all into a mechanical process.
If I am not all wrong in my surmise it is the Occultism of the Hebrew that took this up more consciously with the names of spiritual beingness which then became identified as the ten names of the Sephoreth Tree. If these names could be mastered, then a path was paved so that the generations could be raised, the ether of heredity could be raised for the inflow from the tree of life, the heavenly hierarchies.
The fourfold make up of the human being is given by the ten names of the Sephoreth:
Phyiscal Binah Chokmath Keter
Etheric Geborah Tipheret Gedulah
Astral Nezach Jesod Hod
Ego Machut Kingdom “I”
A similar path but based on philosophy and not theosophy evolved in Greece as time progressed, about 600 BC, and culminated in the incarnation of Aristotle with his ten categories. Here with the categories, there is an effort to understand the world with very apparent abstract ideas.
The categories are as follows:
Being Time
Quantity Position
Quality Having
Space Doing
Suffering
These nine categories were used for centuries to train the soul in the western and then the western Christian world to understand the works of God. One can say that the works of Plato were there to come to some grasp of the soul in the cosmic ether world. Aristotle more tries to let the world stand as a fact in human experience so that it is possible to take the world in a purely physical way. In order to do this, it is necessary to be able to have the soul under one’s own control. The practice of soul control, ego directed activity in the soul, this comes about by the mastery of quite abstract ideas.
Now we turn to Matthew, who was very much interested in the evolution of the soul vis-a-vie the heredity of the human being. He also had to give a training for the soul to be able to maintain itself in the face of this heredity which on the one hand could be Luciferically tinged or Ahrimanically as well. The Luciferic trend was that of the kings and the Magi. The Ahrimanic could be more that of the shepherd, or those who tended the given world as purely physical, the outcome of those who worked at first in devotion to Jehova, the God of the World.
I take it that it is possible to place the Beatitudes along side the Categories as a basis for the training of the soul, as an effort to master the astral. The Luciferic has to be mastered here. Now the tone is that of the human being who is earthly but at the same time a spiritual striver as in the case of the Occultist Hebrew. Here then comes the Christic formulation of the soul activities needed to train the astral for the sake of the individual, and the source of the activity is the individual himself. This makes then for the Beatitudes with an orientation towards the soul. Here is how Rudolf Steiner has laid it out.
1. Phyiscal ————————– Blessed are the beggars in spirit
2. Etheric ————————— Blessed are sufferers
3. Astral —————————- Blessed are the meek
4. Soul – sentient-soul ———— Blessed are those who thirst for spirit
5. Soul – intellectual-soul ——– Blessed are the merciful
6. Soul – consciousness-soul —– Blessed are the pure of heart
7. Spirit – spirit-self ————— Blessed are the children of God
8. Spirit – life-spirit ————— Blessed are the righteous
9. Spirit – spirit-man ————– Blessed are the persecuted
A little refection will find that the moral qualities here are not abstract but totally human. These are the beauties of the human soul which are needed to go a Christian path, one that is observant of the two extremes. These two extremes have to be observed always when the individual himself takes a spiritual path. The path of the Lord’s Prayer or the Reverse Lords Prayer allay themselves more to formal associations where the spiritual is sought. In the case of the Lord’s prayer it quite rightfully is associated with the initiate who tended the ill and healed. This process though individual relates itself to the peculiarity that with each illness a different spiritual association is made, depending on the Being of an illness.
I would like to think that the path of the Beatitudes and the path of the Lord’s prayer are quite different. The first is one more of thoughtfulness and bringing the thinking soul to the spirit. The latter, the Lord’s Prayer, helps that the instinctual can become human. The two paths address what began in the time of Atlantis. Today this is now being struggled out with the distinction between the one who is trying to master thought and the one who is trying to master instinct. Today it would appear that both paths are needed, even if each bears a correction for the extremes. It is particularly the Beatitudes which lend themselves to the thoughtful person who wants to go a spiritual path and needs then to meet the two extremes in Lucifer and Ahriman in between which stands the Christ. In the case of the Prayer it is a path through Christ that one can find one’s way to the Father. The path of the Christic ego of the individual, and the path to the Father stand next to one another, each in a different Gospel.