Today 26 June 363 the Deathday (Murder) of Julian the Apostate

JULIAN THE APOSTATE / HERZELEIDE/ TYCHO DE BRAHE    ~ Rudolf Steiner

“In tracing the thread of evolution which enters into the spiritual life of the present time, and we left off with the individuality of Julian the Apostate. I told you that this individuality was next incarnated in one who is only known by legendary accounts, whose secret is contained in the Parsifal legend, in the name of Herzeleide.

In this life as Herzeleide, the soul of Julian the Apostate entered into a far deeper inner life. The soul – life of the individuality was deepened, as was indeed necessary after the many storms and inner moods of opposition which he had undergone in his life as Julian the Apostate.

This later life as Herzeleide – spread itself out over the former life as Julian the Apostate like a warm embalming cloud. Thus the soul grew more intense and deep and inward, and grew richer, too, in manifold impulses of the inner life.

Now this soul was among those who had carried over something of the ancient Mysteries. Julian had lived within the substance of the ancient Mysteries at a time when their light was still radiant in many ways. Thus he had received into himself much spirituality of the cosmos. All this had been as it were pressed back during the incarnation as Herzeleide; but it was none the less pressing forth in the soul, and thus arising in him once more, in a Christianised form, which he had undergone as Julian the Apostate.

For the same individuality reappears in the 16th century as Tycho de Brahe and stands face to face with the Copernican world – conception which emerges within Western civilisation at that time.

The Copernican world – conception pictures the universe in a way, which if followed to its logical conclusions would tend to drive all spirituality out of the cosmos in man’s conception of it. The Copernican world – picture leads at length to a mechanical, machine – like conception of the universe in space. It was after all in view of this Copernican picture of the world that the famous astronomer said to Napoleon: he had searched through all the universe and he could find no God. It is, indeed, an entire elimination of spirituality.

The individuality of whom I am now speaking, who had now returned as Tycho de Brahe, could not submit to this. Thus we see Tycho de Brahe accepting in his world – conception what is useful of Copernicanism, but rejecting the absolute movement of the earth ascribed to it according to the Copernican world – picture. In Tycho de Brahe we see things united with true spirituality.

When we consider the course of his life, it is indeed evident how a karma from ancient time is pressing its way forth with might and main into this life as Tycho de Brahe, seeking to enter the substance if his consciousness. Such is his spirituality. We remember how his Danish relatives sought to hold him fast at all costs in the profession of a lawyer, and we see how, living as a tutor, he steals the hours by night in which to commune with the gods. And here an extraordinary thing appears. All this is contained in his biography.

We shall see presently how deeply significant it is for a true estimate of this individuality of Tycho de Brahe — Julian – Herzeleide. With the most primitive instruments contrived and manufactured by himself, he discovers considerable errors in calculation which had entered into the determination of the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter. We have this remarkable scene in the life of Tycho de Brahe. As a young man with the most primitive instruments with which other people would not dream of trying to accomplish anything, he feels impelled one day to seek the exact places of Saturn and Jupiter in the heavens.

In his case all these things are strongly permeated with spiritual content. And this spiritual content leads him to a conception of the universe such as we must have if we are striving once again to the modern science of Initiation, when at length we come to speak of spiritual beings as we speak of physical men on earth. For in reality we can ever meet them, and there is in fact only a difference in quality of being as between those Individualities who are now on the physical plane and those who are discarnate, living between death and a new birth.

These things kindled in Tycho de Brahe an extraordinarily deep and penetrating vision of spiritual connections. I mean the connections which appear when we no longer regard everything on earth as though it was caused by earthly impulses alone, and on the other hand consider the stars only in mathematical calculations, but when we perceive the interplay of impulses from the stars with the historic impulses within mankind.

In Tycho de Brahe’s soul there lived instinctively what he had brought with him from his life as Julian the Apostate. In that former life it had not been permeated with rationalism or intellectualism. It had been Intuitive, imaginative – for such was the inner life of Julian the Apostate. With all this he succeeded in doing something that made a great sensation.

He could make little impression on his contempories with his astronomic opinions, differing as they did from Copernicus, or with his other astronomical achievements. He observed countless stars and made a map of the heavens which alone made it possible for Kepler afterwards to reach his great results. For it was on the basis of Tycho de Brahe’s mapping of the stars that Kepler discovered his famous laws.

But none of these things could have made so great an impression on his contempories as a discovery relatively unimportant in itself, but very striking. He foretold almost to the day the death of the Sultan Soliman, which afterwards occurred as he had foretold it. Here we see ancient perceptions working into a later time in a spiritual intellectuality. Perceptions which Julian the Apostate had received light up again in modern time in Tycho de Brahe.

Tycho de Brahe is indeed one of the most interesting of human souls. In the 17th century he passed on through the gate of death and entered the spiritual world. Now in the spiritual currents which I have described as those of Michael, this being, Tycho de Brahe — Julian the Apostate – Herzeleide, constantly emerges. In one or another of the supersensible functions he is in fact always there. Hence too we find him in those great events in the supersensible world at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century which are connected with the stream of Michael.

I told you already of the great supersensible School of instruction in the 15th, 16th centuries which stood under the aegis of Michael himself. Then there began for those who had been within this School a life which took its course in such a way that activities and forces unfolded in the spiritual world worked down into the physical, worked in connection with the physical world. For example, in the time that immediately followed the period of the supersensible School of Michael, an important task was allotted to an individuality of whose continued life I have often spoken — I mean the individuality of Alexander the Great.

I have already spoken, here at Dornach too, of Lord Bacon of Verulam as the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid. We know how intense and determining an influence Bacon’s conceptions had on the whole succeeding evolution of the spiritual life, notably in its finer impulses and movements. Now the remarkable thing is this, that in Lord Bacon himself something took place which we may describe as a morbid elimination of old spirituality. For such spirituality he had after all possessed when he was Haroun al Raschid.

And thus we see, proceeding from the impulse of Lord Bacon, a whole world of daemonic beings. The world was literally filled supersensibly and sensibly with daemonic beings. (When I say “sensibly” I mean not of course, visibly, but within the world of sense.)

Now it chiefly fell to the individuality of Alexander to wage war against these daemonic idols of Lord Bacon, Francis Bacon of Verulam. And similar activities, exceedingly important ones, were taking place on earth below. For otherwise the materialism of the 19th century would have broken in upon the world in a far more devastating way even than it did. Similar activities, taking place in the spiritual and in the physical world together, were allotted to the stream of Michael, until at length at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century there took place in supersensible regions what I have already described as the enactment of a great and sublime supersensible ritual and ceremony.

In the supersensible world at that time a cult was instituted and enacted in real imaginations of a spiritual kind. Thus we may say: At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century there hovers in the immediate neighbourhood of the physical world of sense a great supersensible event, consisting in supersensible acts of ritual, an unfolding of mighty pictures of the spiritual life of beings of the universe, the Beings of the Hierarchies in connection with the great ether – workings of the universe and the human workings upon the earth.

I say “in the immediate neighbourhood”, meaning of course, adjoining this physical world in a qualitative, not in a spatial sense. It is interesting to see how at a most favourable moment a little miniature picture of this supersensible cult and action flowed into Goethe’s spirit. Transformed and changed and in miniature we have this picture set down by Goethe in his fairy story of the ‘Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’…

There was, then, a great supersensible action in which those above all took part who had partaken in the stream of Michael, in all the revelations supersensible and sensibly of which I have told you. Now here again and again the individuality who was last present upon earth in Tycho de Brahe, plays a very great part. And it was his constant striving to preserve the great and lasting impulses of what we call paganism, of the old life of the Mysteries. It was his striving to preserve it in effect towards a better understanding of Christianity.

He had entered Christianity when he lived as the soul of Herzeleide. Now it was his striving to introduce into the Christian conception all that he had received through his Initiation as Julian the Apostate. For it was this especially which seemed so important to the souls of whom I have spoken. The many souls who are now to be found in the Anthroposophical Movement or strive towards this  Movement with sincerity are united with all these spiritual streams.

By its very essence and nature they feel themselves attracted by the School of Michael, and Tyche de Brahe had a great influence in this.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, especially at the end of the 19th century, these souls have descended to the earth, prepared not only to feel the Christ as He is felt in the various Confessions, but to feel Him and behold Him as the Cosmic Christ in His universal majesty and glory. The souls were prepared for this even supersensibly, between death and a new birth. They were prepared by such influences as that of Tycho de Brahe, of the soul who was last incarnated in Tycho de Brahe.”

      ~Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships Volume 4, Dornach, 16th September, 1924

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHN’S TIDE
At the Altar of the Senses
v12
The world’s light-glancing beauty
compels me from the depths of soul
to free the god-enwoven powers of my life
in cosmic flight, forsake myself
and trusting, seek my Higher Self
in worldwide cosmic warmth and light.

The mirror verse:
EPIPHANY II
At the Altar of the Heart
v41
The soul’s creative power
from depths of heart aspires
to fire the forces of the gods
to right activity in human life
and form itself in human love
and human deeds.

Deepening the Grail: Our Parzival Quest and Question

Workshop & Annual Meeting with The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America

Saturday 16 July 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner House in
Ann Arbor & on Zoom

Join anytime between 2 pm ET – 5 pm

& then for the AGm from 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm ET

NO COST for attendees 

The Parzival Quest, is calling to humanity at this time of the Consciousness Soul. Explore aspects of this Quest through art, and movement, via embodiment processes and sensing gestures in the tangible and intangible sheaths of being human. Inspired by devout anthroposophist, artist Michael Chekhov, and guided by CRC member, Chekhov master teacher Lisa Dalton.

Then stay for supper and for the Central Region’s ‘Annual Meeting’—we haven’t had one since 2019, so it’s about time to fill you in on what’s happening!

Alberto Loya is stepping down from the CRC. He’s been with the Council since 2009—thank you for your many contributions, Alberto! We look forward to sharing memories and tributes during the meeting.

And Mary Mertz who has been working with the CRC for the last year will be offically inducted onto the Council.

2:00 pm ET– Welcome, singing, Chekhov movement, biography work
3:30 – 3:45 pm ET– Break
3:45 – 5:00 pm ET – Our Parzival Quest and Question
5:00 pm ET – Be our guest for dinner
6:30 – 7:30 pm ET – AGM – We will be bidding farewell to Alberto Loya & welcoming Mary Mertz, as well as giving reports on 2020 and 2021.
 
The CRC: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Lisa Dalton, Alberto Loya,
working with Mary Mertz 

 Please RSVP  to Mary Mertz mary.mcginnis@juno.com

If you can’t attend the workshop, we hope you can join in the
Annual Meeting.

Let us know whether you’ll be attending in person or via Zoom.
  
To inquire about accommodations at the Rudolf Steiner House,
contact Cynthia Chelius cynthia@anthroposophy.org

Zoom meeting info (please note — passcode required)
Jul 16, 2022

The zoom can be accessed from 2 pm. You are welcome to attend all or part of the workshop. The main event will be the Parzival Quest from 3:45 pm – 5 pm Eastern Time & the AGM 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm ET

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86449905249
Meeting ID: 864 4990 5249
Passcode: 923117