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The talks presented on the mornings of the Holy Nights by Rev. Michaël Merle covered three twelve-fold fruits of our labour: 26 and 27 December: The focus was on the twelve precious foundation stones of the New Jerusalem – their link to the constellations of the Zodiac (months of the year) and the soul practices and spiritual virtues of these constellational realities. 29 and 30 December: The focus was on the festival themes through the twelve months of the year and their effect on our development. 1 and 2 January: The focus was on the twelve-fold structure of the Christmas Foundation Stone Meditation Verse and its connection to the Twelve Senses in terms of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac. Saturday, 4 January: A comprehensive discussion of the six sessions in relation to a picture of the future human being. Four separate reports by John-Peter Gernaat are presented below. The twelvefold fruit of our labour – How we work through the twelve months of the year in developing the future human being - the twelve precious foundation stones of the New Jerusalem – their link to the constellations of the Zodiac (months of the year) and the soul practices and spiritual virtues of these constellational realitiesThis first talk is a review of the precious stones that make up the foundations of the New Jerusalem and how they relate to the Constellations of the Zodiac. Then, in relation to the period that each sign of the zodiac holds in the year, we will look at the soul practices that become spiritual virtues in the future. This last aspect will be taken from the book “The Virtue Contemplations” by Herbert Witzenmann. Through the programme of the three areas of focus during these Holy Nights we hope to begin to realise the picture of the future human being which is presented in scripture as the Son of the Human Being, the child to which we will give birth in the future: the Son of Man. We begin with the story of Abraham (Abram, when he was called by YHWH – Yahweh of the Elohim). YHWH speaks to Abram in sleep – sleep is to be understood as a process of initiation – and tells him about his descendants. Abram has no children at this stage. YHWH says to Abram, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that” in Genesis chapter 15. In chapter 22, when Isaac is spared YHWH makes the promise that he will “make your descendants as numerous as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore”. This promise is not two metaphors but one, because the ancient Sumerians understood that the stars of the Zodiac gifted the earth with the silicates, the rocks that make up the crust of the earth that weather to form the sand on the seashore and the sands of the deserts. We have the twelve stones that were placed on the Breastplate of the High Priest. They were placed on the breastplate of the High Priest because the garments of the High Priest are an expression of dressing the priest as a representative of the earth. The final layer of this clothing is the representation of the crust which contains the silicates – the gift of the stars to the earth. John experienced the heavens in the Book of Revelation where he is taken to a lofty mountain and experiences the New Jerusalem descending from the heavens. It is quite extraordinary that it is a city that descends. The heavens have learnt from the human being what it is to be an engineer; we construct our world through the process of designing and planning. The New Jerusalem is not made from nature but from the results of human endeavour, but with a foundation constructed from the cosmic gift of the silicates. The stones that formed the breastplate of the High Priest are transformed into the foundation of the future being of the human being. Michaël has spoken before on the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem and especially the second stone which is described as ‘sapphiros’, which translates from the Greek as ‘blue stone’. It is not sapphire as we know it today, but most likely the blue stone that was familiar to the ancient world and highly prized, especially by the Ancient Egyptians. It was mined in what is today Afghanistan and today bears the name lapis lazuli. Much later, when the Europeans first discovered the precious blue stone that was then unknown to them, they called it by the description that would be given it in Greek and named it sapphire. Sapphire is not a silicate and was named long after the time of the Breastplate of the High Priest. Therefore, it is most reasonable to consider the second stone as a silicate, as lapis lazuli. Rudolf Steiner gave lectures on the connection between the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem and began with March and Pisces, and moved in the direction of the precession of the Earth's axis through the zodiac. This is in reverse to the movement of the sun through the zodiac. Michaël brought some examples from his collection of silicate stones for this talk. The first stone, connected with Pisces, is iaspis or jasper. The true colour of iaspis, meaning spotted stone in Greek, is green with spots of red, also known as heliotrope or bloodstone. The red is haematite (Fe2O3) which exists as a separate mineral in the heliotrope. (Heliotrope is formed in low to medium grade metamorphic environments. The green is made up of iron-rich minerals such as chlorite or epidote [Ca2(Al2,Fe)(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH)] and the red is haematite. Iron that cannot be contained in the silicates will form haematite. Other minerals are also contained in these rocks.) Heliotrope is connected with Pisces. The imagination connected with Pisces is the Zarathustran imagination of two Kar fish that protect the roots of the Tree of Life, that is planted in the Waters of Life, from a poisonous toad (an Ahrimanic dragon). These two Kar fish swim around the Tree of Life in opposite spin and pass each other every half rotation. When we place these two arcs made by the Kar fish differently, they form the fish symbol that represents Christ  The soul process connected with Pisces is magnanimity – a capacity to grow our heart forces. This soul process transforms into the spiritual virtue that grows in us, of love. The soul process is what we can develop now on our way to becoming the future human being. The future human being will be endowed with the transformed soul process as a spiritual virtue. Here is a carefully crafted summary of the description of the spiritual virtue from the book by Herbert Witzenmann for the period of Pisces: 21 February to 21 March: In silence, the voice of the Spirit is perceived as the voice of one’s own true self. This perception is the sense for individuality. This sense is magnanimity. Magnanimity is the great sense which, full of interest and respect gives space in itself to each different manifestation of being. Therefore, magnanimity can do no other than ally itself in free affection with each individual who lives truly as such, even though he or she does so in an unaccustomed way. Thus, it becomes love. There is a lovely idea that Witzenmann brings that magnanimity is having a sense of my own individuality and then I have to be magnanimous in accepting the individuality of the other. I have to be able to open myself in a generous-hearted way. In the acceptance of my full individuality, I am obliged to accept the individuality of the other. It means that if we really want to accept and celebrate our individuality, it cannot be done otherwise than be accepting the individuality of others. If we cannot accept the individuality of others, we have not truly accepted our own individuality. When we do not act as an individual we act as part of a crowd. Then we act with less than our true self. Pisces is a constellation of protection, in the original spiritual sense. This is carried by the two Kar fish that protect the Tree of Life and in Greek mythology by Aphros and Bythos that offer their protection to Aphrodite as they bear her onto the land with love and concern. The second stone is lapis lazuli connected with Aquarius. This is a feldspar. Aquarius is the Great Lord of Life who bears in him the Water of Life. The Waters of Life flow into him through his left palm and out of him through his right palm. These are the Waters of Life that are also connected with Pisces. The aquarian spiritual steam of experience inspired John the Baptist – baptism through water. We are working between 21 January and 21 February, and we are working with a soul process that must flow through us: the soul quality of discretion. Herbert Witzenmann describes discretion in terms of metanoia, which is a change of soul disposition, of thinking, feeling and acting. Whoever has experience through faith in destiny the immortality of his own true essence becomes discrete. True discretion is the biblical metanoia, the reversal of the way of thinking, also called repentance. Discretion is the force through which the soul takes hold of itself and experiences itself, not as an inhabitant of the sense world but of the spiritual world. Thus, it becomes meditative force. A better translation might be meditative power – the power to meditate that our discrete thinking becomes meditative thinking. Discretion is to hold everything in its place. That gives us the power then to meditate on what it is, for we now have it standing for what it is. The third stone is chalcedony and is connected with Capricorn. Chalcedony came from one place only in the ancient world: Chalcedon in modern Turkey. This is a pale blue, white stone. It is similar to what we find in South Africa as blue-lace agate. Chalcedony was used to carve out the profiles of prominent people. From this Roman tradition cameos originate. Capricorn is the goat-fish. He is an important god: Enki (Ea in Arkadian): the god of wisdom and water as well as intelligence. He created aspects of the human physiology especially the inner ear. The cochlea is inspired by the shape of his tail. The soul process connected with Capricorn (21 December (solstice) to 21 January) and is the time of Christmas and now in our modern times with the beginning of the calendar year: 1 January – it is courage from which we gain the spiritual virtue of redemptive power. No beginning without courage, no courage without truth. The source of true courage is an experience which brings together past and future, for truth is not bound with time. In the encounter with people with whom one is connected by destiny this courage becomes the awakener of the consciousness of immortality. It becomes power of redemption. Rudolf Steiner speaks to the teachers and says: “have courage for the truth”. That is where we need to have courage. The fourth stone is emerald connected with Sagittarius. Emerald derives its green from chromium (chromium derives from the Greek chroma meaning colour). Rudolf Steiner, in a lecture in Helsinki in 1912, said that chromium gives us a purity of green that is connected with the quality of morality. He said: “in this colour pure cosmic force of thought takes on life for super-sensory vision”. This is where the control of our speech, the control of our thinking that we express in speech, transforms into a feeling for truth. In Sagittarius, the archer, we have the idea of being able to accurately send our arrow. The Hebrew word that we translate as sin, is to miss the mark and therefore not share in the prize, is connected with Sagittarius. We must have the intention to take the arrow to the target. This is important for our speech and the ability to hit the mark. Rudolf Steiner says “pure cosmic force of thought takes on life for super-sensory vision”. ‘Now I understand what I experience. The essence of things becomes, within the activity of thinking in the human being, the organ of perception. In so far as a human being exercises cognition, he experiences himself as being spread over the totality of the manifest world. In the control of the tongue, it is not the division between world and self that is experienced but their cross-over and interchange are felt as truth. Control of the tongue is the fruitfulness of human cognition; thus, this control becomes feeling for truth. This is Sagittarius and the colour of emerald, the beautiful colour of morality. When we have a feeling for truth we have a feeling for that which is moral. Now we move to two stones that some people think are the same thing, yet the Ancient World drew a distinction. They are two separate stones on the breastplate of the High Priest and they are two separate stones in the foundation of the New Jerusalem. The fifth stone is sardonyx, and it is connected with Scorpio. Scorpio was originally a constellation that was seen as an eagle. This sign of the zodiac has a connection, Rudolf Steiner indicates, to the ear and larynx – hearing and speaking. This is a speaking that comes from listening. It also represents the metamorphosis of the one into the other. If one wishes to understand the metamorphosis of the ear and the larynx, these are a metamorphosis of the uterus. Thus, in the future our capacity to generate life will come from our capacity to speak. This is all connected with sardonyx which is a deep red and white. It may be described as the stone of flesh and blood. Sardonyx is connected with the soul quality of developing patience. This soul quality transforms into the spiritual virtue of discernment. Discernment is the quality of our future capacity to judge. The concept of discernment is human insight impregnated by the spirit. This is the quality of the scorpion and the eagle together. Scorpio runs from 21 October to 21 November. Patience is the wisdom which unites itself with strength, the strength that unites itself with wisdom. The balance of patience determines the weight of the personality. Patience permits our knowledge to mature in active intercourse with world phenomena. The one who acts out of spiritual cognition, submitting their action ever anew to their spirituality, active judgement possesses true patience. This becomes insight. The word ‘insight’ may be replaced with ‘discernment’ – human insight impregnated with spirit. The sixth stone is sard (carnelian) connected with the constellation of Libra. Libra represents the scales, which are the scales of Michael, the scales of justice held by Themis (the Greek personification of divine law and custom), and other traditions. Sard is the red part of sardonyx. Here we are dealing with the soul quality of contentment, a state of fulfilment and satisfaction. We must achieve contentment. This transforms into the spiritual virtue of composure, harmony, equanimity. Another concept for equanimity is self-possession. Composure is a state of being calm and of being in control. Libra runs from 21 September to 21 October. Contentment is ever and again threatened by the contemplation of social and political conditions. Only after the downfall of past forms of social life can this receive its adequate form. From desperate need vision is born, but only when fear and horror in the face of events which press in from the future are overcome through faith in the fulfilment of daily demands, can the eye open itself to this vision. So, contentment becomes equanimity. The foundation stones of the New Jerusalem and the spirit virtues of the future human being are not separate from each other. When we look at the metaphors of the New Jerusalem these are the virtues of our future self, that are displayed as foundation stones in the New Jerusalem. This is why we take the stones to the virtues. The second talk began with a listing of the spiritual virtues.
Why silicates? Silicon is, after oxygen, the most abundant element on the surface of the earth – in mineral form. Silica is the most abundant ‘earth’ mineral on the crust of the earth. Silicon is presented in the Periodic Table directly under Carbon because it is said that silicon mimics carbon. But it is possibly more true that carbon mimics silicon because silicon establishes a certain mineral reality and carbon establishes the same patterning for living forms. They mimic each other in the way they bond and in the way they allow transmission to take place. All computers are based on silicon, which allows for the transmission of data. Carbon makes this transmission possible in life forms. We also need silicon to absorb certain essential minerals into our bodies. For the Ancient Mesopotamians silicon or rather silica, was the gift of the fixed stars. They understood that silica had a relationship to the grains of sand on the seashore. These grains of sand are mostly quartz which is pure silica, which we form into glass. The seventh stone is chrysolite connected with the constellation of Virgo. Chrysolite – chrysos lithos, means golden yellow stone. All golden silicates are free of iron which permits the golden yellow to show. Iron-free forsterite is usually presented as chrysolite. It is the presence of aluminium in this stone that gives it the golden colour. Aluminium is the one element that the human being cannot hold in the body, it is toxic. Aluminium is connected to balance. Balance is a quality we need to develop in our souls, and this is why it is lacking in our physical body. We cannot rely on balance of the body to bring about balance of the soul. Balance of the soul is required to maintain physical balance despite the balance we have from our ears. Balance comes from Virgo, the Virgin, pure, iron-free (free of will, one could say – iron is selfish). The soul capacity is courtesy. This involves another person. It may be translated as consideration. This transforms into the spiritual virtue of heart’s tact or heart’s touch. One might say that what we achieve is a virginal heart. Nowadays courtesy has become mere outward form as it is not considered utterly dispensable and only recognised because it facilitates intercourse or because it has become a habit. True courtesy recognises simultaneously the higher human ‘I’ and the spiritual union of the higher ego-beings in a free community. Through understanding, courtesy completes and transforms continuously the imperfect. Furthermore, it leads one to create the opportunities which permit each person encountered to reveal themselves. So, it becomes tact of the heart. Virgo runs from 21 August to 21 September. Courtesy means that I recognise through my higher self your higher self and I can consider it in my interaction. Then we have a free community, and my heart can be tactful to yours. The eighth stone is connected with Leo with which Rudolf Steiner associates the colour blue. This stone is blue and is beryl. Beryl means precious blue-green colour of seawater, translated from the Greek. Beryl gives the element beryllium its name. Beryllium is the fourth element on the periodic table. (Only three elements were formed in the ‘big bang’ of creation. Hydrogen that makes up 76% of the elemental composition of the universe. Two hydrogens fuse to form helium that makes up 23% of matter. The remaining 1% is everything else. Lithium, formed from a helium and a hydrogen atom fusing and also formed during the ‘big bang’. Every other element was created after the ‘big bang’. Beryllium is formed in supernova explosions.) The chemical composition of beryl is silica, beryllium, aluminium and other traces. It is not dissimilar from chrysolite but the elements that are incorporated give it the blue colour. Beryl was the first product used to make very thin slices for optical lenses to help people see better. This gives the name to spectacles in some languages (bril or brille in Dutch, Afrikaans and German). Rudolf Steiner said that beryl developed on the earth at the time when the human sense of thought was developing. True human thought is heart-thinking. The soul process is compassion, warmth, tenderness, concern for the suffering of others. This transforms into the spiritual virtue of freedom. True compassion experiences every suffering as it is won without losing independence of balanced judgement. Independence rather can have its origin only in compassion, for compassion is spiritual union. Everything, however, which remains exterior exercises influence or compulsion upon us. In the consciousness of a person who is not connected with us through interweaving compassion we do not live as free individuals. True compassion liberates not only ourselves but also those whom it embraces. Thus, it becomes freedom. One can feel the connection with Leo: heart forces, feeling what the other experiences with heart forces. The ninth stone is topazios. Topaz is mostly sold today as a golden stone and is connected with the sign of Cancer. Topaz was named because it was found on the tiny island of Topazios in the Red Sea, now Zabargad Island, or St. John’s Island. The word means ‘hard (difficult) to find’. It is actually a peridot olivine. Olivine is an iron, magnesium silicate (Fe, Mg)2 SiO4 with the pure magnesium form being forsterite and the pure iron form being fayalite. The precious form of olivine is peridot and is somewhere between but tending towards the magnesium end of the spectrum. Cancer is the constellation furthest from the earth and is connected with finding a boundary. Cancer was seen by the Ancient Sumerians as the gateway to earth incarnation and contained within it the cluster of stars known as ‘The Manger’. Great souls would lie in The Manger before coming to the earth. Thus, it is also seen as the constellation of beginnings. In the description that Rudolf Steiner gives of the formation of life forms, plant and animal, the development starts under the sign of Cancer with the first formation of a boundary that forms a unicellular organism. The sign of Cancer was firstly associated with the turtle and later the crab. The turtles would be seen emerging from the soft clay of the banks of the Euphrates River. Out of the clay from which life is formed these turtles would emerge once they came out of their eggs which had been laid in the soft clay. The soul process is unselfishness, not putting oneself first: selflessness. This becomes the spiritual virtue of catharsis. Catharsis may be described as purified piety, pure devotion – the making whole that is without blemish. True selflessness is equally far from rigidity and from dissolution. True selflessness defends neither the narrowness of the subjective personality nor does it lose itself in other people and objects. It is rather the middle between these two aberrations and temptations. Being selfless does not mean losing yourself. Selflessness as the path to the mediating human centre becomes catharsis. The tenth stone is chrysoprase from the Greek chrysos prason meaning ‘golden leak’. It is connected with the constellation of Gemini. Chrysoprase gets its colour from the element nickel. This is a stone of low specific gravity, i.e. not heavy. Gemini runs from 21 May to 21 June. One of the pictures of Gemini is the Greek picture of the twins, Castor and Pollux, twin half-brothers. The father of Castor was Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, and Zeus was the father of Pollux. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini. The soul process we engage with is perseverance. Perseverance in the creation of a human community is our task in relationship to this soul process. It involves accommodation the other. Read the quality of Gemini as it is connected with the Foundation Stone Verse. Gemini is the constellation of the twin meaning that one is never alone in one’s pursuits, the other is always with one – community. This soul process transforms into the spiritual virtue of faithfulness. It is faithfulness to the idea of being a human community. In perseverance we are true to the mandate towards self-development placed on us, but only such faithfulness enables us to be truly faithful to the task and to a person. For he is faithful who in the unceasing work which he accomplishes upon himself fulfils what he owes to the world and to those human beings allied to him by destiny. So, perseverance becomes faithfulness. My self-development has to do not only with myself but also with others. The eleventh stone is jacinthos, jacinth which is connected with the constellation of Taurus that runs from 21 April to 21 May. Jacinth is the old name for zircon (the name zircon is derived from Arabic meaning ‘gold coloured’). Zircon contains the element zirconium and comes in a variety of colours. Golden red is often the colour associated with zircon. Clear zircon is sold as an alternative to diamonds. It is a hard silicate compared to quartz. Taurus is connected with the larynx and with speech. There is a quality of speaking that appears in the soul process. The soul process is balance that transforms into the spiritual virtue of progress. In the process of thought through our own spirit, we find the spirit which resides in world phenomena, thus in each true cognitive act reality arises from an experience which it at first conceals. It has its source in the experience of balance in the encounter of spirit with spirit. The cognition of identity through identity which presents itself as the evolving of an independent individuality out of the spiritually penetrated world phenomena is the true balance. Thus, it becomes progress. Balance comes in our speech; we must balance what we say. The twelfth stone is amethyst which is connected with the constellation of Aries that runs from 21 March to 21 April. Aries is the ram with curled horns that looks back. We end with a look back over everything that has taken us to where we are now. Amethyst means ‘not intoxicated’ – ‘a’ means the negative, ‘methyst’ is to be intoxicated. It is the stone of sobriety. Sobriety of heart and mind is necessary for devotion. The soul process connected with Aries is devotion (reverence). This begins our Act of Consecration of the Human Being. Devotion transforms into the spiritual virtue of the power of sacrifice. Sacrifice is built into the development of all. The Father Ground sacrificed substance for creation to come about. Every hierarchy of the angelic world has sacrificed for the development of the next hierarchies to continue. We devotedly look back so that we can freely take the step into our new selves. In devotion is experienced the being of living thinking, of the spirit that lives in us as individuality. In living thinking we do not develop our own subjective thoughts, rather, the spirit thinks through the thoughts which indwell our being. The spirit does not do this as our master, but in that we unite with it in free action which at the same time is perception. In reverence for the spirit in us and in all beings, we rise towards ethical individualism. In this way freedom turns into community for devotion. Thus, it becomes force (power) of sacrifice. These are the virtues of our future self at hand of the stones that become the metaphorical symbol of these future spirit virtues of the future human being. The twelvefold fruit of our labour – How we work through the twelve months of the year in developing the future human being - the festival themes through the twelve months of the year and their effect on our developmentThe twelve months of the year are the span of space. The months are connected with the twelve signs of the Zodiac that fill the complete space through which the sun travels in the span of a year. Each month of the year holds a certain idea. Rudolf Steiner, in his meditative work, was able to give the first priests of The Christian Community the essence of each month as a meditative prayer that is included in the breviary used by the priest circle. Adam Bittleston, who was ordained as a priest in The Christian Community in 1935, took the core idea of the prayers given to the priests and wrote a set of meditative prayers for the seasons and months of the year as well as for some of life’s challenges and stages. Rev. Michaël Merle has selected twelve of these prayers that most closely connect to the core idea of each month as presented in the priests’ breviary as a suggestion of what may be used to meditate on the twelve months of the year as festivals. These prayers are universal because they find their inspiration in the Christian Year, which is universal. Thus, references to nature and seasonal changes are still applicable in places where the seasons differ. The journey through the months is an archetypal journey that has been imprinted into the aura of the earth. We can find soul aspects that resonate with the seasonal references to make these prayers equally applicable in the southern hemisphere. Each of the months may be thought to begin around the time of the sun passing into the corresponding sign of the Zodiac. This cycle begins where the liturgical year begins, with Advent. Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas which may fall between 27 November and 3 December. The first meditative prayer can therefore be prayed from any time between the beginning of Sagittarius, 21 November and 27 November through the rest of the sign of Sagittarius. The prayers cannot be reproduced here for reasons of copyright and the book may be purchased online and from the publisher's press. The name of the prayer will be given here as reference.  ISBN: 1782504672 ISBN13: 9781782504672 The prayer for festival period under Sagittarius is called ADVENT. Christmas falls under the sign of Capricorn. The Christmas prayer may be prayed from between 21 December and 24 December until the sun passes into Aquarius. The prayer for festival period under Capricorn is called CHRISTMAS I. The month of February under the sign of Aquarius, therefore from about 21 January, may be described as ‘Walking the Way of Jesus’. The prayer for festival period under Aquarius is called FEBRUARY. Pisces begins before the festival of Passiontide that we celebrate and aligns more closely with the traditional period of Lent. This month of prayer may begin around 21 February till the equinox. The prayer for festival period under Pisces is called LENT. The festival of Easter is connected with the equinox as it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox. The Easter prayer may be prayed from the equinox. This is the period of Aries. (The first stanza of this prayer has been altered from the rendition offered by Adam Bittleston in order to make it easier to understand.) The prayer for festival period under Aries is called EASTER. The latter part of the festival of Easter and the festivals of Ascension and Whitsun fall within the period of the year where the sun is in Taurus. This period may be described as ‘The path of the Earth’. Thus, the payer for the Earth has been selected as most appropriate for the month of May beginning around 21 April. The prayer for festival period under Taurus is called EARTH. The month of June or the period when the sun is in Gemini is the time of Whitsun. In the cycle of twelve we may recognise a turning point at the end of the first six periods. This would be the event of St John’s that heralds in the next period of six festival months. The change can be appreciated in the prayer of Whitsun where for the first time the concept of a path is encountered – “In certainty on paths of active thought”. This prayer may be prayed from around 21 May until 23 June. The prayer for festival period under Gemini is called WHITSUN. June is the month of Cancer, the constellation furthest from the earth, and the constellation identified by the Ancient Sumerians as the gateway of birth. All souls pass through this gateway on their way to birth on the earth. The image of birth is one of coming out of the Waters of Life, the uterine waters of earthly birth. This connects strongly with the baptism of John the Baptist. However, it is not the baptism of John that is the most important aspect of his mission, but rather his teaching of metanoia, the need to turn around in heart and mind. This prayer begins on 24 June and continues to 21 July. The prayer for festival period under Cancer is called ST JOHN THE BAPTIST. August is connected with the sign of Leo and begins around 21 July. The prayer is the one for August that begins with the ripening of fields and orchards. The theme is the ripening and the gifts that result from the ripening. This is a process of soul connected with the path from St John’s to Advent. If we take into ourselves John’s message of metanoia something can begin to ripen in us. Therefore, the mention of nature can be held in thought as the process of the soul. The prayer for festival period under Leo is called AUGUST. Virgo is the sign connected with the month of September and begins around 21 August. The image of Virgo is of a maiden carrying a sheaf of grain. This may be wheat, barley or rye. These are grasses that have been created by human intervention, they are not naturally occurring. We have again the gifts that arise from the process of ripening. The prayer for festival period under Virgo is called SEPTEMBER. October is the month of Michaelmas which begins on 29 September. Therefore, this festive month may begin with Michaelmas although it is possible to begin it already around 21 September. The theme of this month is The Harvest of the World. The prayer for festival period under Libra is called MICHAELMAS. The name of Michaël is three syllables, which mean ‘Who is like God?’ The final month in this cycle is the month connected with death, November. This connection existed well before Christian times. From about 21 October to the start of Advent we contemplate these forces of death and their counterpart in the souls approaching earth for a new birth. The Book of Revelation, which is the pericope readings for November, begins with the picture of the future human being realised in Jesus the Christ, who appears as the offspring of the human being, the Son of Man, realised as the full, true image of the original concept of the human being as the true image of the Divine, standing among the seven golden stands bearing light. The prayer for festival period under Scorpio is called NOVEMBER. Here we have twelve festival experiences of soul that develop the soul through the course of the year. Christianity is a cycle of festivals one after another that are created by the human being and are not directed by nature. The twelvefold fruit of our labour – How we work through the twelve months of the year in developing the future human being – the twelve-fold structure of the Christmas Foundation Stone Meditation Verse and its connection to the Twelve Senses in terms of the twelve constellations of the ZodiacRudolf Steiner presents the human being as having twelve senses. These twelve senses may be divided in several ways. There are four lower or foundational senses, four middle senses and four upper senses. The foundational senses develop in the foundational years, the middle senses during childhood and upper senses during the teen years. All twelve senses are present at birth but they must develop and eventually reach a level of independence. All twelve senses are engaged in the growing and developing body of the child and in the management of the soul through the middle senses and the management of the spirit through the upper senses. Around the age of three we see how the first sense, the sense of touch, develops to become independent of the child. The child can recognise what is external to it and what is itself in terms of this sense of touch. By the age of three a child can tell its parents when it is not feeling well. This feeling is also related to the sense of touch. Some of the higher senses are still developing to full independence. We struggle to hear the other person fully; we often hear only our own interpretation of what the other is saying.
The first six senses transform into the spiritual higher senses:
The first sense is the sense of touch and relates to what we can touch in the external world as well as a sense for our own inner self. The second sense is the sense of appreciation of life where life refers to wellbeing. The third sense is the sense of movement which we learn to coordinate. It is around the age of six that the child learns a level of coordination in its movement that can be sustained further. The fourth sense is the sense of balance. The fifth sense is the sense of smell where we take in the world around us. In time we will lose this sense and Rudolf Steiner lets us know that it will be replaced by a sense of the moral. The sixth sense is the sense of taste which is more personal. It is what we choose to taste. This sense that allows us to incorporate the outer world through our digestion and will develop into a sense of incorporation. The latter two senses are soul qualities that allow us to read our environment. The seventh sense is the sense of sight that develops independence as the ability for insight. This happens around the age of twelve where the child learns that it can gain insight through observation. Rudolf Steiner told the Waldorf teachers that at this age the only subject where analysis of the insight should be undertaken is music because music is a subject that is experienced through the other senses. The eighth sense is the sense of warmth. This is not a sense for temperature; we are meant to be warm as human beings. Our internal body temperature is very warm; if we experience the same temperature as an external temperature we would experience it as very warm. Warmth is also a characteristic of being human in the form of warm-heartedness and warmly welcoming others. We live between 36,5˚C and 37,5˚C. A child can endure greater fluctuations of body temperature without suffering harm. At the age of twelve or thirteen it is necessary to engage with a child with warmth of soul or enthusiasm (a word that in Greek means to be filled with the gods). The child at this age is filled with self-warmth. Rudolf Steiner in his notebooks has made various different links between the senses and the signs of the zodiac. For this understanding of the Foundation Stone Verse one of these associations has been selected. The selection will make sense as we proceed. In this case we begin with the sign of Cancer and move forward with the sun as it migrates through the zodiac in the course of a year.
We can connect the senses with the Foundation Stone Verse that Rudolf Steiner gave at the re-founding of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Meeting in December 2023. Please refer to a copy of the Foundation Stone Verse to understand the connection made here (a copy of the translation done by Michaël Merle was used for this talk and it was annotated with line numbering.). Firstly, we look at the connection in the first three verses:
In the fourth verse the connections are:
As human beings we have managed the lower and middle senses. We still have work to do on the higher senses. We can see how the senses gain independence in the human being through the development to adulthood.
Rudolf Steiner postulates the senses out of an observation of human development. The senses serve us. When we analyse the senses, it becomes clear that the first nine senses have a biological expression in the human body while the higher three senses are social senses. However, it is clear that all twelve senses require a body in order to manifest. They are not soul senses that can exist without incarnation into a body. The senses are not fixed or stuck, they are in process. Just as the sense of sight develops into insight and the capacity for observation develops into comprehension which develops into conceptualisation, so
The higher senses go beyond the four elements of earth, water, air and fire and have to do with the quality of light which is the realm of the soul-spirit. – It should be noted here that the sermons during the Holy Nights of 2024 into 2025 were all on the theme of light, Divine light. – The ninth sense is the sense of hearing that becomes free around the age of fifteen. Hearing is not listening, but the ability to understand what is being listened to; taking in what one is listening to and making it one’s own requires the ability to observe. Hearing is connected with the constellation of Pisces, and Pisces with tone. Pisces is also one of two constellations connected with Christ, as the symbol of the fish. As stated above, purified hearing will develop into inspiration. The tenth sense is the sense of speech which is connected with the constellation of Aries. Aries is connected with the larynx. Aries which developed from the Hired Man through the Ram to the Lamb has become the New-born Lamb. It is the New-born Lamb that will be the lamp of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21). Speech develops after hearing. Speech is a response to hearing. We come to notice that AI-generated speaking is not speech, it is the intonement of word sounds but lacks that quality that arises from listening. Hearing and speech are connected with the Christ-Light. The enthusiasm that arises from warmth leads us into hearing and speech. The eleventh sense is the sense of thinking which has to do with light and once purified will develop into intuition. Thinking is connected with the constellation of Taurus. The twelfth sense is the sense of the ego of the other. This is connected with the constellation of Gemini, the twins: the one who is like me but is not me. This takes us into community; where two or more are gathered there is community. There is a transformation in the lower senses to form the higher senses:
We can connect these higher senses with the Foundation Stone Verse in the second stanza of the four verses. First we look at the first three verses:
When we look at the fourth verse:
The twelvefold fruit of our labour – How we work through the twelve months of the year in developing the future human being – the incorporation of twelvefold fruit of our labour into the picture of the future human being in the concluding chapters of the Book of RevelationThe theme of these Holy Nights has been the development of the future human being through the fruit of our labour. This development relies on the human being incarnating onto the earth and working on this process of development. It will not be graced to humanity. The term that appears in scripture as “the Son of Man” has been interpreted, whenever it has been present, in recent months, as “the descendent of the full, true picture of the human being (Spirit Human)”. The term “the Son of Man” may easily be interpreted as being Jesus, as the Son of Man. We are going to become a ‘Son of Man’, a true image of the fulness of the Divine in the human being. ‘Son of Man’ has been born in Jesus, but it is being born and becoming a reality in us. As the ‘son’ it is the progeny of ourselves that will be born in the future. We may see ourselves as being father to this progeny. This is not a present reality but a word that comes to us from the future and asks us to become in the future. This idea is born for us in the Christmas season. It is a time to appreciate the twelve labours, the twelve fruits of our labours, the twelve realities. In chapters 21 and 22 of the Book of Revelation we have the picture of the future human being. The future human being is described in interesting metaphorical terms. The future human being is described as the city of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is not where we will live, it is who we are to be. What is presented to us is the picture, not of a place, but of a body, the human body and what it means to have a human body. In the New Jerusalem there is no temple within, because the Father, the Son and Spirit live within the human being, the fullness of the Trinity is manifest in the future human being. The New Jerusalem is the seed of our future existence. When the angelic-being measures the city, it is the measure of the human being and also the measure of an angel. This suggests that the human being will be an angelic being when we achieve this seed form of the New Jerusalem, we will be the tenth hierarchy. We read that the city has within it the Tree of Life. We are to become the Tree of Life. We are already the Tree of Knowledge of All Things. We arrived at this when Christ incarnated. His incarnation overcame the results of the human being adopting the false idea that they were already the Tree of Knowledge at the inception of the Earth cycle – the fall from paradise. There are seven esoteric Trees and the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life and the fourth and fifth of these Trees. We still have two more Trees to become after we are the Tree of Life. The great Earth cycle was for us to become the Tree of Knowledge. At the end of the Earth cycle we will have arrived at the place where we can become the Tree of Life, this is why it is in the New Jerusalem. The Book of Revelation does not describe the end of everything, only the end of the Earth cycle. Anthroposophy understands that the Earth cycle is followed by the Jupiter cycle, the Venus cycle and the Vulcan cycle (https://www.christiancommunityjohannesburg.org.za/news-2021/ages-of-the-earth-to-come-and-further-cycles-of-time-by-rev-michael-merle and https://www.christiancommunityjohannesburg.org.za/news-2021/planetary-cycles-of-time-and-the-solar-system-for-the-earth-cycle-by-rev-michael-merle). Book of Revelation
The twelve gateways may be considered the twelve senses through which we receive the world and through which we express ourselves in the world – the going in and going out. Each gateway has an angel which is the sense that will have been transformed, e.g. the sense of smell that will have been transformed into the sense of morality, etc. The names that are inscribed are of the twelve sons of Israel, which indicates that our senses form a family for that aspect of the human being that we can describe as the true intention of our physicality. Abram was chosen by YHWH (Yahweh of the Elohim) in order to perfect an aspect of being physical. This physical development enables all of humanity to bear the Christ in us. Our scriptures, the Gospel – the New Testament – begins with the genealogy that brought about this capacity. We are all inheritors of the capacity carried through Judah (the son of Jacob - Israel) to Jesus (the one who can bear the Christ).
In Revelation 21 we read “All spiritual treasures of the peoples and all achievements of soul shall be brought into the city”. In these talks we spoke about soul achievements and how they transform into spiritual virtues. It is therefore possible to expound on these and add them into the reading as given above. The months in which the Tree of Life fruit will become a full reality in the future and will be experienced somewhat as described in the reading above. We have the twelve-month accompanying of the year in the prayers. These are the labour we must undertake, and the fruits of these labours will form the future human being which is the New Jerusalem in which stands the Tree of Life. The fruits that we bear are the transformations of our senses into the things that we need, also for our future physical development. The Spirit Human Being will still have a physical form, even if it is not material. The Divine is described in our Creed as spiritual-physical and we too, as an image of the Divine, will remain spiritual-physical. The foundation stones were recognised in early Hebraic tradition stemming from the insights of ancient Mesopotamian civilisations as the foundation on which we walk, the crust of the earth, the foundation of the Father-Ground of the world. These stones formed the breastplate of the High Priestly vestments – as a living metaphor of the earth. These are the foundations of our going forward. The foundation of the New Jerusalem is named for those who were seekers and who were sent. The disciples were seeking for their mission in life. We know this because, as an example, Nathanael was recognised by Jesus as one under a fig tree, a society of esoteric seeking. The disciples were sent by Jesus to spread the good news, this is the meaning of the word Apostle (one who is sent). These are qualities we must develop as foundational to our future. In this talk the aim was to clarify the spiritual treasures mentioned in Revelation, the soul achievements that are mentioned, the gateways and the months and the fruits mentioned. They are presented because this is the picture of us – the human being – in the future. This is who we are becoming. We are seeking to know this in order to recognise it and to labour to manifest it. We do not manifest it out of ourselves but through the grace of the Divine. The grace of the Divine, however, is bestowed only through our own labour, without our participation the grace of the Divine is withheld. The grace of God is never imposed but makes an impression so that we can do something for our own development.
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