Not 1 without the other

Light in a Dark place - Ahayah Purpose - Paintings & Prints, Abstract,  Other Abstract - ArtPal
Lete Ahaya

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The truth
Of what we call our knowing
Is both light & dark…
Humans are always dying & waking…
The rhythm between, we call life…
Some miracle is about
To happen…

~hag

***

Here is today’s ‘I Think Speech‘ Podcast an important quote from Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, LECTURE 8

***

Ablutions: A priest purifies the hands of another one, on an altar. A daily  ritual. Ancient Egyptian tomb. | Antike ägyptische kunst, Ägyptische kunst,  Alte kunst

“…the Egyptian-Chaldean period is repeated in our own…We may go back to the epoch of the Egyptian evolution, and there we find certain ritualistic ordinances and commands which appeared as given by the gods. And this they actually were. These ordinances related to certain ablutions which the Egyptians had to perform. This was a command of the gods, that found expression in a certain cult of cleanliness

COVID-19 Return to Work Hygiene: Wash Your Hands

We now again, in our own period, encounter hygienic measures such as are given to humanity but in our time, for materialistic reasons. Here we see a repetition of what was lost at a corresponding period in Egypt. The fulfilment of what happened earlier is represented in the general karma in a most remarkable manner. In ancient Egypt the laws of cleanliness were laws of Divine revelation. The Egyptian believed that he was fulfilling his duty to humanity by caring for his particular cleanliness at every opportunity. This preoccupation for cleanliness comes to the fore again today, but under the influence of a mentality which is entirely materialistic. Modern man does not think that he is serving the gods when he is obeying such rules, but that he is serving himself. It is nevertheless a reappearance of what went before.

Mumbai Artist Dhruvi Acharya is creating coronavirus-themed watercolour  paintings
Dhruvi Acharya

Thus all things are in a certain way cyclically fulfilled. If at a certain period people were not able to conceive certain measures against epidemics, these were times at which men could not do so because, according to the general wise world plan, the epidemics had to take effect in order to give human souls an opportunity of balancing what had been effected through the ahrimanic influence and certain earlier luciferic influences. If other conditions are now being brought about, these too are subject to certain great karmic laws. So we see that these matters cannot be regarded superficially.

How does this agree with our statement that if someone seeks an opportunity of being infected in an epidemic, this is the result of the necessary reaction against an earlier karmic cause. Have we the right now to take hygienic or other measures?

This is a profound question, and we must begin by collecting the necessary material for replying to it. We must understand that where the luciferic and ahrimanic principles are co-operating, whether concurrently or over longer periods, or where they are working against each other, there are manifested certain complications in human life. These complications appear under forms so diverse that we never see two identical cases. If we study human life, however, we shall find our way in the following manner: if in a particular case we try to discover the combined activity of Lucifer and Ahriman, we shall always find a thread by which this connection will become clear. We must discriminate clearly between internal and external man. We must examine the continuity in which karma is accomplished, and we must at the same time understand that we have still the possibility of influencing our inner being by means of certain karmic influences, so that in future a new karmic compensation may be prepared by the inner being.

Dhruvi Acharya, Painting in the Time of Corona, 26 April 2020, lockdown day  33, 2020 | Chemould Prescott Road
Dhruvi Acharya

It may well happen that we, following for a time a downward grade, beget evil. We at first descend in order to develop the contrary impetus that will cause us to re-ascend. Let us suppose that a being, by yielding to certain influences, tends towards uncharitableness. This uncharitableness will in a later life appear as karmic result, and will develop inner forces in his organism.

We can then act in two ways — consciously, or else unconsciously. In our epoch we have not progressed so far as to do it consciously. With such a person we can take precautions by which these characteristics in his organism, derived from uncharitableness, will be driven out and we may act in such a way that the effect that is expressed in the external organism as a lack of charity will be counteracted. By these means, however, the soul will not be cleansed of all uncharitableness, but only the external organ of uncharitableness will have been expelled. For if we do nothing further, we shall have accomplished only half of our task, perhaps even nothing at all, or we may even do harm. We may perhaps have helped this person physically, externally, but we shall not have given succour to his soul. Now that the physical expression of uncharitableness has been removed he will not be able to give expression to this uncharitableness, but he will have to retain it within his inner organism until a future incarnation.

Dhruvi Acharya paints the fear of pandemic
Dhruvi Acharya

Let us suppose that a great number of people, because of uncharitableness, had been impelled to absorb certain infectious germs, so that they succumbed to an epidemic. Let us further suppose we were in a position to protect them from this epidemic. We should in such a case preserve the physical body from the effects of uncharitableness, but by doing this we have not removed the inner tendency towards uncharitableness.

Nature Morte – Dhruvi Acharya
Dhruvi Acharya

If we want to bring a true healing, we must also undertake the duty of influencing the soul in such a way as to remove from it the tendency towards a lack of charity, or the disease will go deeper into the soul.

The organic expression of uncharitableness is killed in the external bodily sense for instance by vaccination against smallpox, but the soul continues to be sick. In one period of civilisation, when there prevailed a general tendency to develop a higher degree of egotism, and uncharitableness, an epidemic made its appearance. Such is the fact investigated by Spiritual Science. In anthroposophy it is our bounded duty to give expression to the truth.

A Postcard from Delhi - Contemporary Art Society
Dhruvi Acharya

Now it will be clear why in our time the desire for the protection of vaccination appeared. We also understand why, among the best minds of our time, there also exists a kind of aversion to vaccination. This aversion corresponds to something within, and is the external expression of an inner reality, that seeks to karmicly rid itself of the cause of the disease.

So if on the one hand we destroy the physical expression of a previous fault, we should, on the other hand, undertake the duty of transforming the materialistic character of such a person by means of a corresponding spiritual education. This would constitute the indispensable counterpart without which we are performing only half our task. We are merely accomplishing something to which the person in question will himself have to produce a counterpart in a later incarnation. If we destroy the susceptibility to smallpox, for instance, we are concentrating only on the external side of karmic activity.

Now Showing > Dhruvi Acharya | INDIAN BY DESIGN
Dhruvi Acharya

If on the one side we go in for hygiene, it is necessary that on the other we should feel it our duty to contribute to the person whose organism has been so transformed, something also for the good of his soul. Vaccination will not be harmful if, subsequent to vaccination, the person receives a spiritual education. But if we concentrate upon one side only and lay no emphasis upon the other, we weigh down the balance unevenly. We see how essential it is that we should not undertake one task without the other.

Here we approach an important law of human evolution which acts so that the external and the internal must always be counter-balanced, and that it is not permissible to act with regard to the one only, leaving the other out of consideration. We here get a glimpse of an important relationship, and yet we have not even arrived at the significance of the question: ‘What is the relationship between hygiene and karma?’ As we shall see, the answer to this question will lead us still further into the depths of karma, and we shall further see that there exist karmic relationships between man’s birth and death. In addition, other personalities influence a human life, and man’s free will and karma must be in harmony. ~ Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, LECTURE 8

***

14 January 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: In bright twilight, look low in the southwest for the thin crescent Moon aiming her curve lower right toward Mercury & disappearing Jupiter.

Above Orion shines orange Aldebaran with the large, loose Hyades cluster in its background. The Pleiades higher above.

15 thoughts on “Not 1 without the other

  1. Hazel, you wrote:

    “I see it as the chaff being removed from the wheat so that the bread of life will rise.”

    Yes, of course, but what if it can be shown that the intellectual soul has a vulnerable spot, which Steiner characterized in the depiction of the so-called “three Marys” below the Cross when Christ was being crucified? The Mother of Jesus, who signifies the Consciousness Soul, is standing next to her sister-soul, Mary, the wife of Cleophas. She represents the Intellectual Soul, and next to her is Mary Magdalene, who represents the Sentient Soul.

    We know from the Fifth Gospel about how Jesus, when he was approaching thirty years of age, felt so defeated in life that he just had to pour his heart and soul out to someone, and this was his stepmother, who had given birth to the Solomon Jesus child, and then went on to give birth to six more children, who became the brothers and sisters of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, Jesus saw a kindly soul in this stepmother, who his father, Joseph had married when the Mother of Jesus died suddenly when he was twelve.

    So, the stepmother, in hearing about what Jesus has experienced over the years since his own mother died, experiences a kind of piercing in her heart, and this causes the return to earth of Jesus’ own mother, who becomes the sister-soul of the stepmother. This is so that the Mother of Jesus can have those experiences with Christ as indicated in the Gospel of John, chapters 2 and 19. As well, as we know, Mary Magdalene has received redemption from earlier sins, and become a loving follower of Jesus for three years, and this has now deemed her as the bearer of the sentient soul.

    Thus, below the Cross on Golgotha, we have these three. The Mother shows the future because she represents the Consciousness Soul. Mary Magdalene shows the future because she loves Jesus to the end. This leaves the stepmother, Mary, to suffer with the consequences of hearing from the son. The vulnerability of the Intellectual Soul is what stands today as the soft spot, which can be compromised, and has been.

    Hazel, I am only writing this as a kind of interlude, because there is much more going on today than just separating the chaff from the wheat. People are going down today from both Alzheimer’s and Covid-19. Now, in 1998, just 22 years ago, Sorath launched his third incarnation against everything truly human. This fact needs to be the focal point today.

    1. Ok, in the interlude you show how these 3 levels of human evolution can be going on at the same time, which is always how it is, folks have to be where they are in terms of their own karmic path.
      And I agree we need to name the adversarial forces working in the world today. And work to fortify ourselves with the Christ forces to go forward…

  2. Here is something interesting about cosmic cycles based on a generation being 33 years in length.

    “Can the starry constellations be perceived in human affairs? My dear friends, this perception is now demanded of us, the ability to read what is revealed through the wonderful key that is given us in the mysteries of the Christian year, which are the epitome of all the mysteries of the year of other peoples and times. The time interval between Christmas and Easter is to be understood as consisting of thirty-three years. This is the key. What does this mean? That the Christmas festival celebrated this year belongs to the Easter festival that follows thirty-three years later, while the Easter festival we celebrate this year belongs to the Christmas of 1884. In 1884 humanity celebrated a Christmas festival that really belongs to the Easter of this year (1917), and the Christmas festival we celebrate this year belongs, not to the Easter of next spring but to the one thirty-three years hence (1950). According to our reckoning, this period — thirty-three years — is the period of a human generation, thus a complete generation of humanity must elapse between Christmas festivals and the Easter festivals that are connected with them. This is the key, my dear friends, for reading the new astrology, in which attention is directed to the stars that shine within the historical evolution of humanity itself.”

    […]

    “When, at the beginning of the 1880’s, the insurrection of the Mohammedan prophet, the Mahdi, resulted in the extension of English rule in Egypt, when at about the same time a war arose through French influence between greater India and China over European spheres of control, when the Congo Conference was being held, and other events of a like nature were taking place — study everything, my dear friends, that has now reached its thirty-three years fulfillment. It was then that the seeds were sown that have ripened into the events of today. At that time the question should have been asked: what do the Christmas events of this year promise for the Easter fulfillment thirty-three years hence? For, my dear friends, all things in historic evolution arise transfigured after thirty-three years, as from a grave, by virtue of a power connected with the holiest of all redemptions: the Mystery of Golgotha.”

    https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA/GA0180/19171223p01.html

      1. It is predicted that by 2053, Alzheimer’s Disease will be at epidemic levels. Comments in this April 2018 essay from Jeremy’s blog describe the evidence, and Rudolf Steiner’s own predictions about the vulnerability of the Intellectual Soul if humans resist the culture of the Consciousness Soul. This is what we can expect in 33 years.

        https://anthropopper.com/2018/04/12/old-age-anthroposophy-part-2/#comments

        Covid-19 can be traced back to 1987 as its generational source because people refused to take seriously the great Harmonic Convergence predicted then, which only required faith, conviction, courage, and effort on behalf of the Science of the Spirit. Instead, people loved their materialism more than anything , and the initiative died.

          1. Yes, and that is why you have a very keen Consciousness Soul today!

            Here are two excerpts wherein Steiner tells of how and why the present intellect of humanity has no future, but will die unless the Consciousness Soul is made its imperative FOR the future. And he gave these warnings back in 1910/1911:

            “Whereas in the present fifth epoch, intellectuality can remain unimpaired even if no pleasure is taken in moral actions, in the sixth epoch, it will be quite different. In the sixth epoch, that is, from about the third millennium onwards, immorality will have a paralysing effect upon intellectuality. The mental powers of a man who is intellectual and at the same time immoral will definitely deteriorate and this condition will become more and more pronounced in the future evolution of humanity. A man who has no morals will therefore have no intellectual power for this will depend entirely upon moral actions; and in the seventh epoch, cleverness without morality will be non-existent.”
            GA130, 21 September 1911, Milan, Italy

            “In every human soul there are present faculties and powers which have been acquired through long periods of time and have been brought to a certain stage of perfection. One of these faculties is, of course, the intellect, but Spiritual Science knows that it has no future. Other faculties, however, such as the thinking of the heart, will evolve together with the transformation of man’s soul in times to come; new, as yet undreamed of faculties will develop. The intellect has reached a zenith and will be incorporated into the future development of the human soul as a fruit of the present stage of evolution, but intellect as such can reach no higher level.”
            GA119, 31 March 1910, Vienna, Austria

            Are not these death signs here already? To become completely senile and dependent like an infant in old age instead of remaining free and independent is an injustice which has a very evil source behind its aims.

    1. May at this time reflect the contractions found around Saturn tendencies of contraction and maintaining controls. In our contemporary society often predominated by the mind. Key boards and contractions at the back of the neck . Coming to a physical plumb that allows full harmonics of the breathing to be expressed. Many strive to make the expansion of the Jupiter forces a healthy thing. The constructive malaise will
      Pinch and pull in numbing or painful ways. This may give us cues to the Karma that gets attached but won’t show you rhythmically how to realign to healthier narratives and graceful connections.

        1. Hi Hazel,

          I think “what will” stands in relation to the fact that with the work of Rudolf Steiner, we have mystery speech given in a form designed to be made comprehensible to the human intellectual soul. Thus, we have it now, and made available through difficult material, like the Manifestations of Karma lecture that you cite. In lecture 8 specifically, a relation between the third and the fifth cultural epoch is made for the very reasons indicated. What can be shown to be healthy in the third epoch advances in order to become disease in the fifth. It forms the matter of materialism, and the loss of clairvoyance in favor of abstract thinking.

          Now, here is a good example of Steiner telling some eight years later how the pandemic of 1918 is a consequence of cosmic rhythms which have not been met with spiritual understanding.

          “Just as modern history fails to penetrate to spiritual realities, so modern medicine, modern hygiene and medical health services fail to penetrate to the symptoms which are of cosmic provenance. I have often emphasized the fact that the individual cannot help his neighbour, however deep his insight into current problems, because today they are in the hands of those who are looking for the wrong solution. They must become the responsibility of those who are moving in the right direction. Clearly, just as the external facts are true that the outward aspect of James I was such and such, as I pointed out earlier, so, from the external point of view it is also true that a certain kind of bacillus is connected with the present influenza epidemic. But if it is true, for example, that rats are carriers of the bubonic plague, one cannot say that rats are responsible for the plague. People have always imagined that the bubonic plague was spread by rats. But bacilli, as such, are of course in no way connected with disease. In phenomena of this kind we must realize that just as behind the symptoms of history we are dealing with psychic and spiritual experiences, so too behind somatic symptoms we are dealing with experiences of a cosmological order. In other cases the situation of course will be different! What is especially important here is the rhythmic course of cosmic events, and it is this that we must study. We must ask ourselves: In what constellation were we living when, in the nineties, the present influenza epidemic appeared in its benign form? In what cosmic constellation are we living at the present time? By virtue of what cosmic rhythm does the influenza epidemic of the nineties appear in a more acute form today? Just as we must look for a rhythm behind a series of historical symptoms, so we must look for a rhythm behind the appearance of certain epidemics.”

          https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA185/English/RSP1976/19181020p01.html

          And now, what does this lecture from Manifestations of Karma implore us to do? Answer: Gain the wisdom of knowledge that is being imparted now, in our time!!

          1. And to ask in what cosmic constellation we are living in today?
            What is the rhythm showing us? 1918 was right after WW1.

Leave a Reply to Steve Hale Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.