Contemplations
The Call of Advent for a New Birth
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
We are continuously involved in different movements. For our perception the sun rises, the fixed stars seemingly remain stable while the earth moves. In sport a group moves towards a goal, but the goal itself is static; people in a train don’t move, yet all move together. There is also inner movement, in the body, in our emotions, in our thoughts. Everything is in movement and changing, even if very slowly. Even stones, mountains, continents are in movement, for our perception more minutely. For instance, Africa and America are moving apart by 20mm per year and have done so for 80 million years. This means that the Atlantic Ocean grows by 20mm each year through new oceanic crust being added at the mid-oceanic ridge.
The only being in this whole universe that can decide out of itself to stop, pause, and not move at will is the human being. The human being has the possibility to decide – out of another independent source – if a thought, feeling or action moves in a specific direction, to determine if it moves in a productive or destructive direction.
This possibility to choose, the ability to initiate a movement has a source. We call that source the I am. The I AM is the source of freedom. Only the individual can birth it within itself.
This birthing can be the movement of intent. Then every perception changes and shifts into the source of inner freedom, no matter what restrictions give resistance.
We are continuously involved in different movements. For our perception the sun rises, the fixed stars seemingly remain stable while the earth moves. In sport a group moves towards a goal, but the goal itself is static; people in a train don’t move, yet all move together. There is also inner movement, in the body, in our emotions, in our thoughts. Everything is in movement and changing, even if very slowly. Even stones, mountains, continents are in movement, for our perception more minutely. For instance, Africa and America are moving apart by 20mm per year and have done so for 80 million years. This means that the Atlantic Ocean grows by 20mm each year through new oceanic crust being added at the mid-oceanic ridge.
The only being in this whole universe that can decide out of itself to stop, pause, and not move at will is the human being. The human being has the possibility to decide – out of another independent source – if a thought, feeling or action moves in a specific direction, to determine if it moves in a productive or destructive direction.
This possibility to choose, the ability to initiate a movement has a source. We call that source the I am. The I AM is the source of freedom. Only the individual can birth it within itself.
This birthing can be the movement of intent. Then every perception changes and shifts into the source of inner freedom, no matter what restrictions give resistance.
Staying Connected
The Helper of the Souls of the Dead by Ninetta Sombart
by Rev. Michaël Merle
An expression that has become common place in our lives in 2020 is: “social distancing”. This very poorly (in fact inaccurately) describes what is intended by health authorities to reduce viral transmission. What we are being asked to do is “physically distance”. As human beings we are social beings, even when physically distant, as is the case for families and friends who find themselves in different cities or countries. We are very used to referring to “social media” (even when we are sceptical of the true nature of that media) to provide genuine social contact. For centuries we have sent letters, parcels, notes, telegrams and the like in order to maintain contact and connection. So, in truth, we have become accustomed to keeping contact even when physical distance is a reality. Physical distance is not a hindrance to a sense of belonging to a wider society.
A compilation of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures and writings on the relationship of the living and the dead, reminds us, according to its title, to stay connected: “Staying Connected: How to continue your relationships with those who have died. Selected Talks and Meditations”. This book has accompanied many a group that gathers on a monthly basis to remember those who have died. It is currently accompanying the group from our Community who meet on the last Saturday of each month to remember those who have died and been buried from our church. How do we maintain a true contact (establishing a sense of a wider society) when we are physically distant from our loved ones as a consequence of death?
The book reminds us in Chapter Five that as much as we are blessed by remembering the dead, they (those who have died) are blessed by our remembering. They rely on us in their way, as we rely on them in our way. This helps us to live consciously in a wider community of care and connection. Do we feel ourselves connected to those who have died? Do we feel their sheltering power streaming towards us? Do we feel that we are connected to them in our conscious thought, in the act of pure thinking, the act of meditation?
The month of November has traditionally been set aside to remember the dead, starting with the traditional days of All Saints (1st November) and All Souls (2nd November). The night before All Saints (All Hallows) is known as all hallows’ eve (Halloween). From the night of the 31st of October our attention turns particularly to that which should be a reality throughout the year: our relationship to those who have died and how to stay connected. The Act of Consecration is the daily/weekly Sacrament that enables us to feel ourselves in this wider community of the living and the dead – this wider society that is not separated by a physical separation. Here we have an opportunity to feel ourselves part of this wider community and think deeply on the reality of our connection. Do our thoughts steam to those across the threshold? Do we see ourselves in our sacramental participation as part of this fuller community of being? The month of November provides us with this particular focus as a last resolution before beginning our liturgical cycle once more with Advent. In this month may we feel ourselves strongly connected and ready to start again the unfolding mystery of the seasons of faith as a community that spans the generations and decades of time.
An expression that has become common place in our lives in 2020 is: “social distancing”. This very poorly (in fact inaccurately) describes what is intended by health authorities to reduce viral transmission. What we are being asked to do is “physically distance”. As human beings we are social beings, even when physically distant, as is the case for families and friends who find themselves in different cities or countries. We are very used to referring to “social media” (even when we are sceptical of the true nature of that media) to provide genuine social contact. For centuries we have sent letters, parcels, notes, telegrams and the like in order to maintain contact and connection. So, in truth, we have become accustomed to keeping contact even when physical distance is a reality. Physical distance is not a hindrance to a sense of belonging to a wider society.
A compilation of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures and writings on the relationship of the living and the dead, reminds us, according to its title, to stay connected: “Staying Connected: How to continue your relationships with those who have died. Selected Talks and Meditations”. This book has accompanied many a group that gathers on a monthly basis to remember those who have died. It is currently accompanying the group from our Community who meet on the last Saturday of each month to remember those who have died and been buried from our church. How do we maintain a true contact (establishing a sense of a wider society) when we are physically distant from our loved ones as a consequence of death?
The book reminds us in Chapter Five that as much as we are blessed by remembering the dead, they (those who have died) are blessed by our remembering. They rely on us in their way, as we rely on them in our way. This helps us to live consciously in a wider community of care and connection. Do we feel ourselves connected to those who have died? Do we feel their sheltering power streaming towards us? Do we feel that we are connected to them in our conscious thought, in the act of pure thinking, the act of meditation?
The month of November has traditionally been set aside to remember the dead, starting with the traditional days of All Saints (1st November) and All Souls (2nd November). The night before All Saints (All Hallows) is known as all hallows’ eve (Halloween). From the night of the 31st of October our attention turns particularly to that which should be a reality throughout the year: our relationship to those who have died and how to stay connected. The Act of Consecration is the daily/weekly Sacrament that enables us to feel ourselves in this wider community of the living and the dead – this wider society that is not separated by a physical separation. Here we have an opportunity to feel ourselves part of this wider community and think deeply on the reality of our connection. Do our thoughts steam to those across the threshold? Do we see ourselves in our sacramental participation as part of this fuller community of being? The month of November provides us with this particular focus as a last resolution before beginning our liturgical cycle once more with Advent. In this month may we feel ourselves strongly connected and ready to start again the unfolding mystery of the seasons of faith as a community that spans the generations and decades of time.
The Image and Nature of Michael in our Time
by Rev. Michaël Merle
We are living in challenging times. This is made all the clearer to us in 2020 with the many challenges that we are facing on a global scale, not least of which is the world response to Covid-19.
How do we school our thinking so that we can experience being free with Christ, thinking with Christ, in the development of the connection to our true “I”? Our earthly work and activity, bound to our practical thinking and our living concepts, needs to encounter a qualitative revelation that can take us from doing to being. This revelation comes to us in what we may call Michaelic Freedom.
In a world beset by restrictions and distancing, fear and anxiety, isolation and depression, how do we connect again to the new Michaelic revelation? The Epistle at Michaelmas provides us with a new picture of Michael. We have moved from the medieval picture and we are encountering a new aspect of Michael. He functions now as both Time Spirit and leader of humanity. He invites us (beckons us) to follow him as he leads us to the higher divining of the great mystery of the deed of life and death (the mystery of Golgotha). Michael reveals for us a deeper and conscious-filled understanding of the being of Christ in us. All our efforts need to be based on our own freedom, and not just in our thinking but also deeply in our feeling and in an initial way even in our willing. Do we feel ourselves free and connected despite the restrictions? Are we able to experience the presence of Christ such that fear and anxiety no longer take hold of us, and we are able to feel ourselves part of the community and uplifted by that connection? This is the spiritual thinking to which Michael invites us.
The Michael path of the new mysteries leads us to Christ in a way that is true for our time. This may be well contemplated in Steiner’s Michael-Imagination (28th September 1924):
Sun-Powers enquickened,
Lightfilled World’s blessing
Spirit-Mights; For Michael’s radiant garb
You are predestined by thoughts of gods.
He, the Christ-Herald directs in you
Human-Upholding, holy Will of Worlds;
You, shining beings of Ether-Worlds
Carry the Christ-Word to humans.
So appears the Christ-proclaimer
To the waiting, thirsting souls;
To them beams your Light-radiant Word
In World-Time of Spirit Man.
You, pupils of Spirit-cognition
Take Michael’s wise beckoning,
Take the World-Will’s Love-Word
Into the souls’ high goals, effectively.
(Translation by Anthony Higgins and Ludmilla King)
We are living in challenging times. This is made all the clearer to us in 2020 with the many challenges that we are facing on a global scale, not least of which is the world response to Covid-19.
How do we school our thinking so that we can experience being free with Christ, thinking with Christ, in the development of the connection to our true “I”? Our earthly work and activity, bound to our practical thinking and our living concepts, needs to encounter a qualitative revelation that can take us from doing to being. This revelation comes to us in what we may call Michaelic Freedom.
In a world beset by restrictions and distancing, fear and anxiety, isolation and depression, how do we connect again to the new Michaelic revelation? The Epistle at Michaelmas provides us with a new picture of Michael. We have moved from the medieval picture and we are encountering a new aspect of Michael. He functions now as both Time Spirit and leader of humanity. He invites us (beckons us) to follow him as he leads us to the higher divining of the great mystery of the deed of life and death (the mystery of Golgotha). Michael reveals for us a deeper and conscious-filled understanding of the being of Christ in us. All our efforts need to be based on our own freedom, and not just in our thinking but also deeply in our feeling and in an initial way even in our willing. Do we feel ourselves free and connected despite the restrictions? Are we able to experience the presence of Christ such that fear and anxiety no longer take hold of us, and we are able to feel ourselves part of the community and uplifted by that connection? This is the spiritual thinking to which Michael invites us.
The Michael path of the new mysteries leads us to Christ in a way that is true for our time. This may be well contemplated in Steiner’s Michael-Imagination (28th September 1924):
Sun-Powers enquickened,
Lightfilled World’s blessing
Spirit-Mights; For Michael’s radiant garb
You are predestined by thoughts of gods.
He, the Christ-Herald directs in you
Human-Upholding, holy Will of Worlds;
You, shining beings of Ether-Worlds
Carry the Christ-Word to humans.
So appears the Christ-proclaimer
To the waiting, thirsting souls;
To them beams your Light-radiant Word
In World-Time of Spirit Man.
You, pupils of Spirit-cognition
Take Michael’s wise beckoning,
Take the World-Will’s Love-Word
Into the souls’ high goals, effectively.
(Translation by Anthony Higgins and Ludmilla King)
Underway to Michaelmas
The Archangel Michael from Tobias and the three Archangels by Francesco Botticini
by Rev. Christine Voigts, Windhoek
When Christ casts his loving gaze over those, who feel themselves to be ‘walking with him’, what does he behold? We speak these words together every time in The Act of Consecration of Man, namely,… this Offering be brought for the redemption of souls, for walking with Christ…
What might Christ, who is present in The Act of Consecration of Man, behold as these words resound?
We: his creation, his followers, his apostles, his partners, his ‘comrades-in-arms’?
As his creation we can be filled with immense gratitude and feel deeply blessed by his grace.
As his followers we take our cross upon us, sometimes more so, sometimes less.
As his sent-out apostles, we can experience time and again, how little we actually need (‘no staff, no purse, no shoes, no second coat…’).
As his partners: that it will also depend on us how the future will turn out to be.
As his comrades-in-arms: that a fight is needed and cannot be excluded anymore.
The twelve disciples are like an archetypal image of the whole of humankind. Within them every human being will be able to recognise themselves. They begin their path as creations of this light- and love-creating God and they end as his partners and comrades-in-arms. The last words which he addresses to them can be found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. They ring out into the night as they leave the upper room of the Last Supper, before his descent to the Garden of Gethsemane, from where he will then be taken into captivity.
‘Now each one take up, what he has!’ (Everything will be needed!) ‘And if he has nothing, then sell your coat and buy yourself a sword!’
Is it the time now for Christ to see sword-bearers when he looks upon his people, his creation? This is a question which everyone must ponder in their soul and decide for themselves. The freedom to decide what is valid for oneself is something he will always grant. On the other hand, it is also clear in the times we live in now, that the sword must be taken ahold of—at some point—by each of his disciples. There is not much time anymore and it is not possible to continue on in a harmless way.
This is the reality of the stations of the Gospel-readings as we ‘walk with Christ’ on our inner journey from St. John’s Tide to Michaelmas.
(translation Rev. Reingard Knausenberger)
When Christ casts his loving gaze over those, who feel themselves to be ‘walking with him’, what does he behold? We speak these words together every time in The Act of Consecration of Man, namely,… this Offering be brought for the redemption of souls, for walking with Christ…
What might Christ, who is present in The Act of Consecration of Man, behold as these words resound?
We: his creation, his followers, his apostles, his partners, his ‘comrades-in-arms’?
As his creation we can be filled with immense gratitude and feel deeply blessed by his grace.
As his followers we take our cross upon us, sometimes more so, sometimes less.
As his sent-out apostles, we can experience time and again, how little we actually need (‘no staff, no purse, no shoes, no second coat…’).
As his partners: that it will also depend on us how the future will turn out to be.
As his comrades-in-arms: that a fight is needed and cannot be excluded anymore.
The twelve disciples are like an archetypal image of the whole of humankind. Within them every human being will be able to recognise themselves. They begin their path as creations of this light- and love-creating God and they end as his partners and comrades-in-arms. The last words which he addresses to them can be found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. They ring out into the night as they leave the upper room of the Last Supper, before his descent to the Garden of Gethsemane, from where he will then be taken into captivity.
‘Now each one take up, what he has!’ (Everything will be needed!) ‘And if he has nothing, then sell your coat and buy yourself a sword!’
Is it the time now for Christ to see sword-bearers when he looks upon his people, his creation? This is a question which everyone must ponder in their soul and decide for themselves. The freedom to decide what is valid for oneself is something he will always grant. On the other hand, it is also clear in the times we live in now, that the sword must be taken ahold of—at some point—by each of his disciples. There is not much time anymore and it is not possible to continue on in a harmless way.
This is the reality of the stations of the Gospel-readings as we ‘walk with Christ’ on our inner journey from St. John’s Tide to Michaelmas.
(translation Rev. Reingard Knausenberger)
‘Devoted and Heart-warm Thanks’: A Journey
by Rev. R. Knausenberger
As we now embark on this ten week journey from the Festival of St Johnstide through Trinity to Michaelmas, this clarion call from the St. John’s Epistle could be a staff with which to travel. It is when I feel that I am underway that I notice changes, evermore subtly.
But, to be devoted to one’s life path, no matter at whatever point I am at the moment?
It took me a while to really practice gratitude,…before I noticed what that required of me and released in me. It is a challenge to feel gratitude in every situation. Eventually, though, something tangible-intangible begins to flow which turns out to be a true healing medicine available at any moment.
It was also a discovery to experience the difference between silently feeling gratitude and actually saying ‘Thank You’. To extend this to everything without exception, total acceptance, okay, but then also to say ‘thank you’!? That required courage and creativity and inner activity to embrace especially difficult and confusing incidents or even stretches of time, to feel and say that and still experience it as authentic. Thank you for the opportunity to rise up and move on, to change something, to explore more deeply and create boundaries or to protect myself. Thank you that I can learn; for the depths and heights of existence that have opened up for me, for the new perspectives and deeper connection to life.
I become devoted to life as it streams, evolving, meandering, rushing and yet serenely flowing, unwaveringly. Penetrating depths, falling heavily, and again rising up creating more and more inner levity and expansiveness. Thank you for the failures, for the successes, for all the times when the death experience becomes the precursor for new life, and darkness the search for original light. Gratitude, Thank You! becomes the foundation of everything, the ground from which everything grows and is nourished, the basic component and building block for Life: for an attitude of soul which just says yes to life, right now, here where I am.
It is a sudden deep realisation in a given moment, though, which suddenly fills my heart involuntarily with warmth, spreading out through the whole body and then beyond, further and further, flowing unhindered and unencumbered with a special kind of light: light permeated warmth, warmth infused light. And then the realisation: it is not the situation or circumstance or incident for which I am saying Thank You, but because of ‘Someone who carries and orders’ this life that I call mine. At last, gratitude can flow freely. It takes on a very special ‘refined aroma’, ‘the aroma of pure love’. It is as if the ‘eye of the soul’ blinked for a moment and saw – the holy consecrated human being. How appropriate that Michaelmas comes clothed in the transparent peach-blossom and spring-green. This journey has a goal, not to ‘arrive at’, but to fulfil in journeying. All the while, ‘…shall stream our devoted and heart-warm THANKS.’
As we now embark on this ten week journey from the Festival of St Johnstide through Trinity to Michaelmas, this clarion call from the St. John’s Epistle could be a staff with which to travel. It is when I feel that I am underway that I notice changes, evermore subtly.
But, to be devoted to one’s life path, no matter at whatever point I am at the moment?
It took me a while to really practice gratitude,…before I noticed what that required of me and released in me. It is a challenge to feel gratitude in every situation. Eventually, though, something tangible-intangible begins to flow which turns out to be a true healing medicine available at any moment.
It was also a discovery to experience the difference between silently feeling gratitude and actually saying ‘Thank You’. To extend this to everything without exception, total acceptance, okay, but then also to say ‘thank you’!? That required courage and creativity and inner activity to embrace especially difficult and confusing incidents or even stretches of time, to feel and say that and still experience it as authentic. Thank you for the opportunity to rise up and move on, to change something, to explore more deeply and create boundaries or to protect myself. Thank you that I can learn; for the depths and heights of existence that have opened up for me, for the new perspectives and deeper connection to life.
I become devoted to life as it streams, evolving, meandering, rushing and yet serenely flowing, unwaveringly. Penetrating depths, falling heavily, and again rising up creating more and more inner levity and expansiveness. Thank you for the failures, for the successes, for all the times when the death experience becomes the precursor for new life, and darkness the search for original light. Gratitude, Thank You! becomes the foundation of everything, the ground from which everything grows and is nourished, the basic component and building block for Life: for an attitude of soul which just says yes to life, right now, here where I am.
It is a sudden deep realisation in a given moment, though, which suddenly fills my heart involuntarily with warmth, spreading out through the whole body and then beyond, further and further, flowing unhindered and unencumbered with a special kind of light: light permeated warmth, warmth infused light. And then the realisation: it is not the situation or circumstance or incident for which I am saying Thank You, but because of ‘Someone who carries and orders’ this life that I call mine. At last, gratitude can flow freely. It takes on a very special ‘refined aroma’, ‘the aroma of pure love’. It is as if the ‘eye of the soul’ blinked for a moment and saw – the holy consecrated human being. How appropriate that Michaelmas comes clothed in the transparent peach-blossom and spring-green. This journey has a goal, not to ‘arrive at’, but to fulfil in journeying. All the while, ‘…shall stream our devoted and heart-warm THANKS.’
“The Sphere around his Body”
by Rev. R. Knausenberger
'Baptism' by Ninetta Sombart
The St. John’s epistle speaks of John the Baptist and the ‘sphere around his body’, what does that actually refer to? We can easily imagine a sphere as an abstract geometric form: complete, perfect, harmonious, but does that image move the soul? In nature the most perfect sphere is found in the dandelion gone into seed: the seeds just touch the centre base with a fine tip and spread a parachute-like filament out to catch the wind, like a delicate starry sphere turned outward. This image might convey a feeling for the quality of John’s being, but we can go deeper. A very young child just ‘finding its feet’ and conquering inner balance and freedom of movement, by the very tangible energetic radiance bursting through every pore, demonstrates that their body seems embedded in a magical sphere of fresh life energy. What is the source of this infectious power? What lives in the sphere around every human being?
With John the Baptist we may ask this, humbly, through information available: maybe it is the result of many past lives, the slowly accumulated fruits of every effort, deed, thought and striving. He seems to possess a personal knowing of the very beginning of our earthly human journey, of the great Fall into separation from the source of existence and its consequence, the trials and suffering and tragic straying’s; of learning through pain, bonding, searching, making courageous decisions. He knows all this is preparation, we cannot remain as children, we cannot develop awareness without sin, this experience of isolation and separateness. The sphere is not a void. It is filled with life gone into seed. There is weight and lightness, earnestness and vision. He has travelled the full journey from the garden of paradise to the stark barrenness of the desert. Therefore he can guide others to their own individual sobering soul-awakening, to understand why and how they are called to turn around the trajectory of descent humanity is on. He also knew, something essential is still missing, there is still longing, for what?
How did people find him, alone in the desert? The disciples of Jesus are later sent out to be ‘fishers of human beings’. John didn’t go fishing, he received people into his sphere, or were they maybe already ‘in’ his sphere? Like the fixed starry sphere around the earth, embracing our whole solar system. We each one are always a centre inside this sphere, together influencing each other. Maybe in the course of many incarnations we actually do make contact in some way with every human soul on this journey to Resurrection. That we have to separate to re-connect knowingly and uniquely.
And yet, John recognises something was missing which is needed to give substantial purpose and meaning to this journey. It was only in the Baptism of Jesus that he experienced what had been missing: a quality, a life-creating power that ignites the heart, permeates the whole human organisation with light and warmth, always now, new and fresh.
The sphere around his body, woven by a myriad of concrete life events from origin into the present moment, received through one single act a total new focus, content and meaning. Now his heart understood. This was the purpose of the journey: to learn Love. Not ‘to’ love, but Love, a power that manifests in the present as a happening. It lights up what is obscure, warms abstract coldness, cools over-heatedness, it creates new energy. What else can it do? We are on a journey of discovery, learning the skill of building a new uniquely human sense organ, an indestructible spiritual organisation of creator power. John is our best companion to guide us to the source of this power of grace now streaming in from the future, to not be distracted by its often first appearance as deficit. We are meant to be creators in those moments where it is missing, manifestors where ‘two or three are…’.
Fear is the absence of Love. Love has a human face.
With John the Baptist we may ask this, humbly, through information available: maybe it is the result of many past lives, the slowly accumulated fruits of every effort, deed, thought and striving. He seems to possess a personal knowing of the very beginning of our earthly human journey, of the great Fall into separation from the source of existence and its consequence, the trials and suffering and tragic straying’s; of learning through pain, bonding, searching, making courageous decisions. He knows all this is preparation, we cannot remain as children, we cannot develop awareness without sin, this experience of isolation and separateness. The sphere is not a void. It is filled with life gone into seed. There is weight and lightness, earnestness and vision. He has travelled the full journey from the garden of paradise to the stark barrenness of the desert. Therefore he can guide others to their own individual sobering soul-awakening, to understand why and how they are called to turn around the trajectory of descent humanity is on. He also knew, something essential is still missing, there is still longing, for what?
How did people find him, alone in the desert? The disciples of Jesus are later sent out to be ‘fishers of human beings’. John didn’t go fishing, he received people into his sphere, or were they maybe already ‘in’ his sphere? Like the fixed starry sphere around the earth, embracing our whole solar system. We each one are always a centre inside this sphere, together influencing each other. Maybe in the course of many incarnations we actually do make contact in some way with every human soul on this journey to Resurrection. That we have to separate to re-connect knowingly and uniquely.
And yet, John recognises something was missing which is needed to give substantial purpose and meaning to this journey. It was only in the Baptism of Jesus that he experienced what had been missing: a quality, a life-creating power that ignites the heart, permeates the whole human organisation with light and warmth, always now, new and fresh.
The sphere around his body, woven by a myriad of concrete life events from origin into the present moment, received through one single act a total new focus, content and meaning. Now his heart understood. This was the purpose of the journey: to learn Love. Not ‘to’ love, but Love, a power that manifests in the present as a happening. It lights up what is obscure, warms abstract coldness, cools over-heatedness, it creates new energy. What else can it do? We are on a journey of discovery, learning the skill of building a new uniquely human sense organ, an indestructible spiritual organisation of creator power. John is our best companion to guide us to the source of this power of grace now streaming in from the future, to not be distracted by its often first appearance as deficit. We are meant to be creators in those moments where it is missing, manifestors where ‘two or three are…’.
Fear is the absence of Love. Love has a human face.
The Journey of Loss, Renunciation and Joy through Whitsun into the Future
by Rev. R. Knausenberger
A painting by Roland Frey (b. 1927 Munich) of a sketch by Leobrand
‘I saw a light manifestation of Holy Spirit, like a firey dove hovering in heaven’
It is part of life’s journey that we go through deprivation and loss. Sometimes it is temporary and restoration with new insight and experience follows at some point. Then it was either a time ‘to get through and bear out’, or it was taken up as a possibility for renewal.
Quite different is the irrevocable loss that comes with the pain of ‘never again’, e.g. as it is when a loved one dies. This is the kind of void which the disciples entered into at the Crucifixion and Easter. Each one had to deal with their own individual wound and pain.–
"Why are your hearts so hardened and doubting?" They had no concepts to help orientate themselves when the Risen One came into their midst. Their alarm and fear was the natural human response to something which is completely new and without a reference to the known. When they opened their hearts, listened with heart and soul, embraced the void not as a definitive end, but as a possibility, the spark of a deep recognition of a known in a new, hitherto unknown appearance, lit the flame of understanding in their hearts. Throughout the 40 days of Easter they each learned to live into and embrace this new fluid spiritual dimension. Together their discipleship transformed them and brought about a profound change of heart and mind in each one. They felt blessed and uplifted in the presence of the Risen One. And then suddenly, everything changed again. At Ascension a new aspect of loss confronted them; there was pain, deprivation, the void. But now there was a choice: to fall back into the state of Good Friday or to actively decide to embrace this moment of loss and make a sacrifice. In an act of free will, the individual could renounce the own neediness and embrace the loss as an opportunity to ‘follow his course’ and confess to him and his deed. In doing this their hearts were filled with joy (Lk 24: 50-53). In unity of community they gathered thereafter in gratitude, drawing from this deep well-spring of joy. Where did the joy come from? They each experienced in a new way what Thomas had: a light experience of enlightenment and comprehension, a One-ness, without touching or seeing with the outer eyes, that the invisible is the actual full reality. Fifty days after Easter, at Whitsun, they individually-together entered into a new dimension of human expression. Out of the free sacrifice of ‘self-giving-up’ as an act of love, the universal language was born which touches and unites every heart and mind. This we too can achieve by our endeavours in community.
Quite different is the irrevocable loss that comes with the pain of ‘never again’, e.g. as it is when a loved one dies. This is the kind of void which the disciples entered into at the Crucifixion and Easter. Each one had to deal with their own individual wound and pain.–
"Why are your hearts so hardened and doubting?" They had no concepts to help orientate themselves when the Risen One came into their midst. Their alarm and fear was the natural human response to something which is completely new and without a reference to the known. When they opened their hearts, listened with heart and soul, embraced the void not as a definitive end, but as a possibility, the spark of a deep recognition of a known in a new, hitherto unknown appearance, lit the flame of understanding in their hearts. Throughout the 40 days of Easter they each learned to live into and embrace this new fluid spiritual dimension. Together their discipleship transformed them and brought about a profound change of heart and mind in each one. They felt blessed and uplifted in the presence of the Risen One. And then suddenly, everything changed again. At Ascension a new aspect of loss confronted them; there was pain, deprivation, the void. But now there was a choice: to fall back into the state of Good Friday or to actively decide to embrace this moment of loss and make a sacrifice. In an act of free will, the individual could renounce the own neediness and embrace the loss as an opportunity to ‘follow his course’ and confess to him and his deed. In doing this their hearts were filled with joy (Lk 24: 50-53). In unity of community they gathered thereafter in gratitude, drawing from this deep well-spring of joy. Where did the joy come from? They each experienced in a new way what Thomas had: a light experience of enlightenment and comprehension, a One-ness, without touching or seeing with the outer eyes, that the invisible is the actual full reality. Fifty days after Easter, at Whitsun, they individually-together entered into a new dimension of human expression. Out of the free sacrifice of ‘self-giving-up’ as an act of love, the universal language was born which touches and unites every heart and mind. This we too can achieve by our endeavours in community.
|
From a lecture of Rudolf Steiner, Berlin 23.11.1905 (GA54)
Unity means the possibility for a higher being to express itself through the unified members. This is a general principle in life. Five people who are thinking and feeling harmoniously together are more than 1+1+1+1+1. They are not just the sum of the five individuals, no more than our body is the sum of the five senses. Rather, the working together, the interconnectedness of the people is very similar to the working together, the conjugation, of cells within the human body. A new, higher being is in the midst of the five, yes, it is already among two or three. “Where two or three are united in my name, I am in their midst.” It is not about the one and the other and the third, but rather about something completely new which comes about through a gathering in unity. But it only comes about when the individual lives in the other, when the individual doesn’t draw its strength solely out of itself, but lives from out of the others as well. This can only happen when one lives selflessly in the other. In this way, human assemblies are mysterious places into which higher spiritual beings can descend in order to work through individuals, like the soul works through the members of the body…. The spiritual scientist does not speak of abstract things when he speaks about the spirit of a community. You will not see this spirit which works in a unified gathering, yet it is there. It is present through the love active within the personalities of this community. Just like the body has a soul, so also does the community, a brotherly/sisterly association, have a soul. I must repeat it again, that it is not only an allegorical comparison I am describing. I am speaking of something which must be taken as an actual full reality. Magicians are the people who are working together in community, because they draw in higher beings into their circle. When we connect wholeheartedly with the community (brotherhood), then this giving ‘up’ of ourselves, this merging, is a strong reinforcing and energising of our organs. So that when we act or speak as a member of such a community, it is not only our individual soul which is speaking or acting in us, but the spirit of the community. This is the secret of advancing humankind into the future: to act and work out of communities. |
‘The Peace be with you…’
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
Fear is a quality that seems to grip the soul easily in a sudden jolt by bypassing the rational mind. We expect and assume one thing and are suddenly confronted with something totally unexpected, even unfathomable. Once it has entered us, it seems to spread like an infection, difficult to cleanse oneself of. It seems fear is the actual ‘virus’ we are exposed to through this pandemic world-wide. What can protect us?
On the Easter morning, when the women went to the grave and found it empty and instead were facing an angel, it made them flee full of fear and terrified.
When the disciples, locked up together in a room and already in a shaken and uncertain state, experienced the sudden appearance of the Risen One, they were gripped by fear and terror. (Lk 24:27) It was only in re-cognising him, in other instances, by re-membering words he had spoken, that they could break through their fear. Only then another experience could enter in. The Peace. HIS presence, emanating peace, permeating their whole being.
How do we establish this kind of connection to the source of true deep peace?
Christ alerts the disciples again and again in the time before his death, that fear is a quality which belongs to earthly existence. This is highlighted in the Easter experiences. We experience fear in the face of an unknown. The greatest ‘unknown’ is beyond the world as we know it, when we sense a threshold and beyond it a void: it meets as masked as uncertainty, confusion, and fear. Fear, which carries a mask! We have deep unconscious processes at work in us. In acknowledging this, we allow fear to become the Awakener. To look at what is, see in concrete detail what is actually in front of us and confronting us. Then to be able to remember, recognise qualities, call up in us forces which break through to the essence. To do this, we can prepare ourselves. Bring on board good practices which build up spiritual ‘muscle’ which can be flexed when we need them most.
Some practices that have proven to be effective in centring and calming the soul when it is already in upheaval, are:
Like the earth has a protective atmosphere around it, so does the human being: feel it surrounding you like a shield. Have the image of Ephesians 6:10 available to connect with.
Rudolf Steiner gives exercises to eliminate fear from the soul. Two of them follow:
The Gospel of John accompanies us every year through the Easter, Ascension and Whitsun festivals. The last monumental words which Christ speaks to his circle of disciples – and therefore to all of us – “I have spoken these words to you, so that in me you may find peace. In the world you have fear and tribulation; but take courage! I have overcome the world.”
Before his path to the Deed on the cross he says: I have overcome, not I will overcome—the decision to carry out the deed is already connecting to the reality of its result.
Fear is a quality that seems to grip the soul easily in a sudden jolt by bypassing the rational mind. We expect and assume one thing and are suddenly confronted with something totally unexpected, even unfathomable. Once it has entered us, it seems to spread like an infection, difficult to cleanse oneself of. It seems fear is the actual ‘virus’ we are exposed to through this pandemic world-wide. What can protect us?
On the Easter morning, when the women went to the grave and found it empty and instead were facing an angel, it made them flee full of fear and terrified.
When the disciples, locked up together in a room and already in a shaken and uncertain state, experienced the sudden appearance of the Risen One, they were gripped by fear and terror. (Lk 24:27) It was only in re-cognising him, in other instances, by re-membering words he had spoken, that they could break through their fear. Only then another experience could enter in. The Peace. HIS presence, emanating peace, permeating their whole being.
How do we establish this kind of connection to the source of true deep peace?
Christ alerts the disciples again and again in the time before his death, that fear is a quality which belongs to earthly existence. This is highlighted in the Easter experiences. We experience fear in the face of an unknown. The greatest ‘unknown’ is beyond the world as we know it, when we sense a threshold and beyond it a void: it meets as masked as uncertainty, confusion, and fear. Fear, which carries a mask! We have deep unconscious processes at work in us. In acknowledging this, we allow fear to become the Awakener. To look at what is, see in concrete detail what is actually in front of us and confronting us. Then to be able to remember, recognise qualities, call up in us forces which break through to the essence. To do this, we can prepare ourselves. Bring on board good practices which build up spiritual ‘muscle’ which can be flexed when we need them most.
Some practices that have proven to be effective in centring and calming the soul when it is already in upheaval, are:
- Speaking the Lord’s Prayer slowly and with focus, as many times as it takes to feel calm enter in.
- Reading the Gospel of John, chapters 14 to 17, best aloud. Listening, including oneself in the circle of disciples receiving these words.
Like the earth has a protective atmosphere around it, so does the human being: feel it surrounding you like a shield. Have the image of Ephesians 6:10 available to connect with.
Rudolf Steiner gives exercises to eliminate fear from the soul. Two of them follow:
- In the morning, think of an action to execute at a specific time in the afternoon. Think it through in detail. Do this every day for four to eight weeks. Pause. Do again.
- Another exercise is built up in the rhythm of 1 : 4 : 7 Decide on an action the first day, think and feel it through in detail on the fourth day, execute on the seventh day.
The Gospel of John accompanies us every year through the Easter, Ascension and Whitsun festivals. The last monumental words which Christ speaks to his circle of disciples – and therefore to all of us – “I have spoken these words to you, so that in me you may find peace. In the world you have fear and tribulation; but take courage! I have overcome the world.”
Before his path to the Deed on the cross he says: I have overcome, not I will overcome—the decision to carry out the deed is already connecting to the reality of its result.
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” (Leonard Cohen)
collage by Maren Glockmann
‘Yes, I tell you: Unless a grain of wheat dies when it falls into the earth, it remains as it is. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his own soul will lose it; but whoever hates that in his soul which belongs to the transient world will save it for true, deathless life. Whoever would serve me, must follow me on my way.’ (John 12; 24)
Before the farmer can lay the seed into the earth, he must rip open the earth deeply with the plow. In this way she becomes receptive.
When Christ was laid into the grave of the earth on the first World-Good-Friday, the earth was torn open and took in his body – like a seed. The earth was the first to receive his body as true Communion.
Before we human beings receive Communion, the host, after being raised up at the altar, is broken, torn open. Thus it becomes receptive for the body of Christ, who connects with it in the sacrament at the altar.
In life we are torn open ever anew. Maybe by outer circumstances that suddenly change. Sometimes, though, something tears open in us, in our soul – then it is vulnerable and exposed like a wound. Fear can take hold of us, or despair, even paralysis.
Yet it might be possible then to also be mindful towards what happens now. Wherever the earth is broken open, the first thing that enters in is light. Light, which shows what we could not see before. And maybe did not even want to see.
In life these openings happen more often than we think. ‘There is a crack in everything’. Maybe it is just as true that ‘everyone has a crack’ – so that the light can come in.
And when what was torn open closes again? Wounds want to heal. Then it will matter if the moment of openness had a response of receptiveness. That a seed was laid into it. So that something will become of it.
by Rev. Dietlinde Romanitan, German
Before the farmer can lay the seed into the earth, he must rip open the earth deeply with the plow. In this way she becomes receptive.
When Christ was laid into the grave of the earth on the first World-Good-Friday, the earth was torn open and took in his body – like a seed. The earth was the first to receive his body as true Communion.
Before we human beings receive Communion, the host, after being raised up at the altar, is broken, torn open. Thus it becomes receptive for the body of Christ, who connects with it in the sacrament at the altar.
In life we are torn open ever anew. Maybe by outer circumstances that suddenly change. Sometimes, though, something tears open in us, in our soul – then it is vulnerable and exposed like a wound. Fear can take hold of us, or despair, even paralysis.
Yet it might be possible then to also be mindful towards what happens now. Wherever the earth is broken open, the first thing that enters in is light. Light, which shows what we could not see before. And maybe did not even want to see.
In life these openings happen more often than we think. ‘There is a crack in everything’. Maybe it is just as true that ‘everyone has a crack’ – so that the light can come in.
And when what was torn open closes again? Wounds want to heal. Then it will matter if the moment of openness had a response of receptiveness. That a seed was laid into it. So that something will become of it.
by Rev. Dietlinde Romanitan, German
Evolution Continues
by Rev. Frimut Husemann
The rain that comes down from the huge clouds above is water which has been condensed. It becomes heavy and falls down to earth. This water is not yet full of life. It is more mineral-like. It is only when the water is taken up into the plants that it becomes a life-bearing liquid as the sap of the plants. In the course of a long evolutionary process, animals that eat plants could transform water into blood, into the life-bearing warm blood of the higher animals. In the warmth of this blood, which comes about through this evolution in nature, the human spiritual ‘I’ can live. This ‘I’ does not come out of nature; it originates in the spiritual world and can be carried by the warm blood of the natural body.
When Christ transformed water into wine, as he did in the wedding of Cana, he did what plants do when they lift water into the sphere of life (John 2). Christ had this power already in the beginning of his life on earth as a natural visible human being. This first sign took place in Galilee in the region of Palestine, where life forces are abundant and strong, much like the strong etheric forces in South Africa.
One of his last deeds took place in Judea, in a part of Palestine where the desert and the Dead Sea are nearby. No fish, no life can exist in the Dead Sea which is surrounded by desert. In this environment of death forces, Christ transformed (transubstantiated), in the Last Supper. the wine into his blood in which the warmth of the ‘I Am’ can live. This corresponds to the wedding of Cana, where he transformed the water into wine. While doing this he spoke the words that the power of God is given again to human beings. Through this his deeds and signs continue in our deeds, in our destiny. The evolution goes on in us and through us.
The rain that comes down from the huge clouds above is water which has been condensed. It becomes heavy and falls down to earth. This water is not yet full of life. It is more mineral-like. It is only when the water is taken up into the plants that it becomes a life-bearing liquid as the sap of the plants. In the course of a long evolutionary process, animals that eat plants could transform water into blood, into the life-bearing warm blood of the higher animals. In the warmth of this blood, which comes about through this evolution in nature, the human spiritual ‘I’ can live. This ‘I’ does not come out of nature; it originates in the spiritual world and can be carried by the warm blood of the natural body.
When Christ transformed water into wine, as he did in the wedding of Cana, he did what plants do when they lift water into the sphere of life (John 2). Christ had this power already in the beginning of his life on earth as a natural visible human being. This first sign took place in Galilee in the region of Palestine, where life forces are abundant and strong, much like the strong etheric forces in South Africa.
One of his last deeds took place in Judea, in a part of Palestine where the desert and the Dead Sea are nearby. No fish, no life can exist in the Dead Sea which is surrounded by desert. In this environment of death forces, Christ transformed (transubstantiated), in the Last Supper. the wine into his blood in which the warmth of the ‘I Am’ can live. This corresponds to the wedding of Cana, where he transformed the water into wine. While doing this he spoke the words that the power of God is given again to human beings. Through this his deeds and signs continue in our deeds, in our destiny. The evolution goes on in us and through us.
Perception, Perspective and Reality: Finding the right way in a world of fake news
by Rev. Michaël Merle
A common expression in life today is that perception is reality. Of course, for the person who has perceived things in a particular way and feels convinced of their perception, the matter is as they see it and does form their reality. But, is this reality in an objective way? Can we even speak of an objective reality, a truth that stands no matter how it is perceived?
It may be helpful to consider perspective as opposed to perception. A perception can mean the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses, and also means the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. It is the combination of the two meanings that leads us to say that a person’s perception becomes their reality. What then is perspective? Perspective (not in the sense of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface) means holding a particular attitude towards something or a way of regarding something, a point of view. This takes into account that this point of view is one of many and although it may be considered advantageous is not exclusive to other points of view of the same thing. The perspective may highlight a certain feature or provide a clearer view of a certain aspect. What is essential is that a perspective is not a perception. The former sees what is as it is (even if from one viewpoint) while the latter interprets something in a way that may be false, misguided or simply wrong. In a world in which fake news has become an everyday term and we seem beset by opposing views that are in conflict we could do well to wonder at what is perception (and how true it is) and how we might develop perspective on the reality of things.
When the Creed of the Christian Community was composed it took a very particular perspective on the spiritual realities of which it spoke. No longer, was this a set of statements of faith – subject to belief and therefore to perception, but rather it was written as statements of fact (reality) which can be grasped from one’s current perspective and grow for one as the perspective changes while remaining an objective reality.
What is our current perspective of the spiritual world and of our reality here on earth? How might we develop the art of perspective and learn to let go of our perceptions?
A common expression in life today is that perception is reality. Of course, for the person who has perceived things in a particular way and feels convinced of their perception, the matter is as they see it and does form their reality. But, is this reality in an objective way? Can we even speak of an objective reality, a truth that stands no matter how it is perceived?
It may be helpful to consider perspective as opposed to perception. A perception can mean the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses, and also means the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. It is the combination of the two meanings that leads us to say that a person’s perception becomes their reality. What then is perspective? Perspective (not in the sense of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface) means holding a particular attitude towards something or a way of regarding something, a point of view. This takes into account that this point of view is one of many and although it may be considered advantageous is not exclusive to other points of view of the same thing. The perspective may highlight a certain feature or provide a clearer view of a certain aspect. What is essential is that a perspective is not a perception. The former sees what is as it is (even if from one viewpoint) while the latter interprets something in a way that may be false, misguided or simply wrong. In a world in which fake news has become an everyday term and we seem beset by opposing views that are in conflict we could do well to wonder at what is perception (and how true it is) and how we might develop perspective on the reality of things.
When the Creed of the Christian Community was composed it took a very particular perspective on the spiritual realities of which it spoke. No longer, was this a set of statements of faith – subject to belief and therefore to perception, but rather it was written as statements of fact (reality) which can be grasped from one’s current perspective and grow for one as the perspective changes while remaining an objective reality.
What is our current perspective of the spiritual world and of our reality here on earth? How might we develop the art of perspective and learn to let go of our perceptions?
The Epiphany of the Three Priest-Kings
The Three Magi in front of Herod by Sebastiano Conca
by Rev. Reingard Knausenberger
When anyone on this planet earth wishes to see a sunrise, they will be looking east. Regardless of belief, language, race, age or continent, every person on earth will know to look in a specific direction to experience the rising sun. This is a universal fact. The experience of the rising sun is very different to the experience of the setting sun in the west. In between these opposite poles lies the dynamic experience we call ‘life’: our individual life, our collective life, every day.
The three Priest-Kings travel from the east toward the west. It is a journey by night, guided by starlight. Their capacity was, to be able to interpret and be motivated by light rising into night darkness. It was a star which guided them in a certain direction, but it was their interpretation which ultimately led them into the darkness in which no light shone, where it was pitch black and all orientation vanished. A very distinct and new experience. Yet here, in that place, they found in themselves the question: Where? How? They had to go into themselves. Facing evil, in Herod’s presence, they searched within themselves, possibly even having to overcome doubt, re-affirming and anchoring in their heart what had become irrevocable knowing during the long journey.
This shift, which the Priest-Kings had to do from an outer to an inner orientation, is archetypal. Everyone is called upon, at some point in their life, to do this. It seems to be the adverse situation, the painful, bad and even evil situations which wake us up and mobilise an autonomous resource we didn’t know we had within us. The power that covers up, lies and deceives ironically has answers to the question Where? How? When? It has access to ‘the archives’, to the truth of the past, to what was. Its task seems to be to awaken and to connect to the exact detail of the earthly situation. Once the kings heard what Herod had to say, they could verify its truth with their heart and connect it with the present to act accordingly. They could find the light of the star again and could follow it, but now from within. Every human being has a guiding star, an angelic being, which guides their personal path. What is an outer reality for a child must become an inner reality for an adult.
Once the Priest-Kings had found the noble child they were seeking and could offer up their gifts to him, acknowledging therewith their deep connection with this individual from a long-shared past, they experienced another shift of awakening. After this deed of real-time connecting, they woke up out of a kind of sleep to a new dramatic revelation: a new star was rising in humanity through this child, our collective star, promising a new sunrise. Through this child comes the possibility to connect heavenly and earthly intent within the own ‘I am’, it will be possible to unite outer and inner reality. And this changes our ‘ways’: the way we do, see, think, the way we comprehend and the way we connect and yet remain autonomous. The star we each follow is the light which shines in the individual heart. But to grasp this as a universal fact which unites all humankind, is a journey in a specific inner direction. What is individual is also potentially the most universal. ‘Life’ unfolds in this tension. We are all underway from different points of departure toward the same sunrise.
(Refer to Matthew 2)
When anyone on this planet earth wishes to see a sunrise, they will be looking east. Regardless of belief, language, race, age or continent, every person on earth will know to look in a specific direction to experience the rising sun. This is a universal fact. The experience of the rising sun is very different to the experience of the setting sun in the west. In between these opposite poles lies the dynamic experience we call ‘life’: our individual life, our collective life, every day.
The three Priest-Kings travel from the east toward the west. It is a journey by night, guided by starlight. Their capacity was, to be able to interpret and be motivated by light rising into night darkness. It was a star which guided them in a certain direction, but it was their interpretation which ultimately led them into the darkness in which no light shone, where it was pitch black and all orientation vanished. A very distinct and new experience. Yet here, in that place, they found in themselves the question: Where? How? They had to go into themselves. Facing evil, in Herod’s presence, they searched within themselves, possibly even having to overcome doubt, re-affirming and anchoring in their heart what had become irrevocable knowing during the long journey.
This shift, which the Priest-Kings had to do from an outer to an inner orientation, is archetypal. Everyone is called upon, at some point in their life, to do this. It seems to be the adverse situation, the painful, bad and even evil situations which wake us up and mobilise an autonomous resource we didn’t know we had within us. The power that covers up, lies and deceives ironically has answers to the question Where? How? When? It has access to ‘the archives’, to the truth of the past, to what was. Its task seems to be to awaken and to connect to the exact detail of the earthly situation. Once the kings heard what Herod had to say, they could verify its truth with their heart and connect it with the present to act accordingly. They could find the light of the star again and could follow it, but now from within. Every human being has a guiding star, an angelic being, which guides their personal path. What is an outer reality for a child must become an inner reality for an adult.
Once the Priest-Kings had found the noble child they were seeking and could offer up their gifts to him, acknowledging therewith their deep connection with this individual from a long-shared past, they experienced another shift of awakening. After this deed of real-time connecting, they woke up out of a kind of sleep to a new dramatic revelation: a new star was rising in humanity through this child, our collective star, promising a new sunrise. Through this child comes the possibility to connect heavenly and earthly intent within the own ‘I am’, it will be possible to unite outer and inner reality. And this changes our ‘ways’: the way we do, see, think, the way we comprehend and the way we connect and yet remain autonomous. The star we each follow is the light which shines in the individual heart. But to grasp this as a universal fact which unites all humankind, is a journey in a specific inner direction. What is individual is also potentially the most universal. ‘Life’ unfolds in this tension. We are all underway from different points of departure toward the same sunrise.
(Refer to Matthew 2)