Widow's Son, Page 2

But we cannot stop with such relatively simplistic examination. Gen 2,18-24 tells of the time in ancient Lemuria (see I-1) when the division of the sexes occurred, as a part of which the Fall described in Gen 3 takes place and the “tree of life” is removed from humanity’s cognition. We then enter into the Atlantean period of evolution when Cain, the male principle, kills Abel, the female principle, as described in Gen 4. The male principle applies itself to the outer world and can only receive its spiritual inspiration from without. The female principle, by contrast, remains in contact internally with the spiritual world, but as a result, in the physical world, the female element can no longer reproduce itself as it once did before the division of the sexes; it must be fertilized from without by the male element. Only gradually, in the course of evolution, has the killing of the female element been accomplished, but it was set in motion in the account in Gen 4. Still, the ancient clairvoyance remained to a great extent throughout the Atlantean period until, progressively, with Noah (Gen 6-10) we have the transition to the present post-Atlantean, or Fifth Evolutionary, Epoch (see I-1) with its seven Cultural Eras, of which we are in the fifth. Even in our own Epoch’s earlier Eras, clairvoyance was still much more prevalent than it is in humanity’s present spiritually darkened condition. But what took place had to occur, namely, the killing of the female element as humanity settled into its complete preoccupation with, and domination of, the outer, mineral-physical world. The Mystery of Golgotha had to occur at just the “Right Time” to prevent humanity’s hardening beyond “the point of no return.” The necessity to reestablish the female principle is absolute if humanity is to avoid beasthood (Rev 13) and the Pit. However, the return should not be to the precise condition that existed before the Fall, but rather to one that embodies the fruits of having taken dominion over the outer world and reascended therefrom. The metaphor for this is the marriage of the Bride, the renewed female element, and the Bridegroom, the Christ or eternal “I Am” (see “Bride/Bridegroom”). One does not have to strain so hard to see that the female of our species has been subjugated during the post-Atlantean Epoch down to our present time. But while the germ was planted by the Christ Event and the Mystery of Golgotha, the stirrings, as though in the first pangs of labor, of a return to that female element have really only manifested themselves during the twentieth century with the end of the Kali Yuga in 1899 (see I-46).

To this very day, great hostility exists between the Roman Catholic Church and Freemasonry.³ The hostility was prefigured into the spiritual transitions of our post-Atlantean Epoch, but it must come to an end with humanity’s increased anthroposophical insight into its nature. The origin of the hostility is ancient, deriving from the conflict between the male Wisdom of Cain (Freemasonry) and the female Wisdom of Abel (the ancient Priesthood, now represented by the Roman Catholic Church), further represented in the division between King (male element) and Priest (female element). Solomon, the last king before the division, was nevertheless the strongest representative of the priestly Abelites. The thread of the conflict between Cain and Abel resurfaces in the Biblical account of Solomon’s building of the temple, for which he sends for Hiram-Abiff. We are told in 1 K 7,13-14, “And King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill, for making any work in bronze” (my emphasis). Steiner tells us that Hiram was a descendant of Tubal-cain, the first forger of bronze and a descendant of Cain (Gen 4,22). Because of the Abel-nature of Solomon and the Cain-nature of Hiram, difficulties arose between them which involve the Queen of Sheba (hidden, it would seem, in such passages as 1 K 10,4,11, et al.). (Even the division of the kingdom that then occurred might be viewed as a sort of division between the northern male, kingly element⁴ and the southern female, priestly element; see “As Above, So Below.”) The basis for the above comments is to be found in Steiner’s twenty-lecture cycle (May 23,1904-January 2, 1906) The Temple Legend (TL), subtitled “Freemasonry and Related Occult Movements.” The “legend” itself, though inherent in the cycle’s entirety, is given in capsule form in Lect. 5 (pp. 50-53, incl. fn 3), and variously reiterated and elaborated in Lects. 7 (pp. 73-77), 11 (pp. 141-143), 17 (pp. 237-246) and 18 (pp. 253-263); it is also summarized in the Appendix to “Three Bodies” below.