Creation and Apocalypse, Page Seven

Steiner opened his APOC cycle by saying, "In common with every great religion Christianity has had its secret doctrine. . . . The Christian secret doctrine is none other than the Apocalypse." We have already seen, particularly in regard to karma and reincarnation, how it was necessary that for two millennia Christianity develop within the capacity of humanity of that age (cf. Jn 16,12).⁵¹ Consequently, the exoteric teaching denied reincarnation, while the few initiates who had the esoteric teaching understood it. Those who sought, however feebly, to bring forward the knowledge of the mysteries were disposed of by the Church as heretics, as in the case of Julian the Apostate.⁵² In the long run, these things had to come about. But we are in the age now where new Michaelic understanding (divine intelligence) must be engendered.

Just as critical biblical analysis in recent centuries has had its limitations in comprehending the creation account, so also has its comprehension been limited for Revelation. However, the last part of the twentieth century has seen a few rays of encouraging light, summarized in 5 ABD 704 under the caption "Relation to Other Ancient Literature" under the broader "Book of Revelation." These new approaches are said to be "a major breakthrough in the scholarly study" of the book, and not "primarily allegories invented to comment on current affairs." The referenced works date primarily in the 1970s, the earliest being in 1966, but seem to feed off of and relate to a much earlier work by one Gunkel (see 5 Brit 570) in 1895, further stimulated by the twentieth-century discoveries at Ugarit. Gunkel had shown that important aspects of Revelation should "be understood in comparison with ancient Mesopotamian mythic literature." While embryonic and recognized as helping give rise to "form criticism," this particular aspect of Gunkel's work notably appeared in the midst of the critically important spiritual time that gave rise to anthroposophy itself.

On the matter of authorship, Steiner is unequivocal: Lazarus/John is the one who experienced and (presumably also) wrote the Apocalypse. There is something mystically providential about this. Only two persons were explicitly initiated by Christ, namely, Lazarus/John (Jn 11) and Paul (Acts 9,1-9; Gal 1,12). The divine authority of the New Testament seems marvelously enhanced when it can be seen that the vast majority of its contents, all but the first two Gospels and the letters of James, Peter and Jude, were written by or under the influence of these two.⁵³

Steiner's most important contribution on the content and structure of the Revelation may well be the schematic in chart I-1, drawn by him during the lectures and reproduced in the back of the fourth edition of ASJ (1977, and perhaps also earlier editions). For not until Revelation as a whole is seen as expressing primarily the ascending part of the parabola of the Prodigal Son's journey from the Garden to the Holy City can its deeper message be even remotely comprehended. Parenthetically, it should be noted that Steiner's chart contained the explanatory statement, quoted from lecture ten therein, that the scheme "related to the full reality not even like the inner framework of a house to the complete building, but only like the outer scaffolding . . . that has to be taken down when the building is complete." In a sense, perhaps this expresses the spiritual reality that all we know as "time," expressed by the chart, will be collapsed into "timelessness" when its goal is accomplished. It is like the stages of a rose's cycle, or the lives of an Individuality (cf. Jas 3,6)⁵⁴: any given part or life has no significance other than as a part of a more comprehensive whole. But to get there, one has to progress from Alpha all the way to Omega, over a vast individual and collective evolutionary expanse.

In REVP, Steiner says that to the ancients the sound "Alpha" was expressive of awe or surprise at the creation of spiritual fire on Old Saturn, while "Omega" expressed what would not be reached until Vulcan (see the first tier, Conditions of Consciousness, in I-1). We have seen that Genesis 1 commences long after Old Saturn, and we shall see that Revelation essentially ends at the Jupiter Condition of Consciousness. Thus, the Christ, the "Alpha and Omega," which we are to take into ourselves as our own higher "I AM" (see "I AM," especially as it incorporates Rev 2,17; 3,12 and 19,12), actually reaches out beyond both ends of our biblical story. But it is only during the middle part of the biblical span that anything like the written word of the Bible is required. At each extreme, there is a direct perception of the spiritual world which superannuates the written word's function.

In ASJ, Lect. 3, Steiner tells us how Lazarus/John's spiritual perceptions in the Apocalypse rose progressively from the fruits of one stage of initiation to another. We are pointed to four different levels in the evolution of human souls, each represented by the divine creative number of seven stages (Prov 9,1), successively represented by the letters, seals, "The Trumpets" and bowls. These four levels are identical to the levels experienced by the human Individuality (entelechy) in its long journey between lives, (see I-33):

Etheric World—where it experiences the Seven Letters

Astral World—where it experiences the Seven Seals

Lower Devachan—where it experiences the Seven "The Trumpets"

Higher Devachan—where it experiences the Seven Bowls of Wrath

In his seminal pronouncement (Is 6,9-13), Isaiah obediently reveals humanity's loss in ancient clairvoyance and laments the great duration of the deprivation (vss 11-13). His announcement corresponds to the three stages of initiation that progressively have been lost and must be regained (vss 9-10). It is the progressive manifestation in human evolution of the "fading splendor" of which Paul spoke in regard to Moses' condition half a millennium before Isaiah (2 Cor 3). Steiner refers to these stages in ascending order as Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition (touched upon in I-31 and I-27), which correspond with Isaiah (6,9-10) as follows:

And this corresponds with the successive Apocalyptic perceptions as follows:

The "letters" to the Angels of the seven churches are perceptions from the spiritual elevation where the etheric world borders on the higher astral world. Immediately after the etheric perceptions expressed in the "letters," Lazarus/John is told to "Come up hither and I will show you . . ." (Rev 4,1). At that first level of initiation he "sees" what is covered by the seven "seals." Then at the next level he "hears" what is revealed by the seven "The Trumpets," and finally he experiences so as to "understand with the heart"⁵⁵ (intuit) the seven "bowls." Eventually, after all the sevens are thus perceived, he is carried "away to a great, high mountain" (Rev 21,10) from which he can observe the "holy city" with its zodiacal "twelves."

In the course of the ASJ cycle we see the evolutionary development of humanity through these various spiritual levels. The seven "letters" to the seven respective Asian churches (Rev 2-3) express characteristics in them that are expressive of the seven Cultural Ages, from Ancient Indian to the seventh Cultural Age of the fifth, or post-Atlantean, Evolutionary Epoch (see I-1). The seven "seals" (Rev 5,1-8,1) then express what is to be unsealed in the succeeding sixth Evolutionary Epoch, and the "The "The Trumpets" (Rev 8,2-11,15) what is to be experienced in the seventh Evolutionary Epoch of the Physical Condition of Form of the Mineral Kingdom of the Earth Condition of Consciousness. As chart I-1 shows, at the sounding of the "last trumpet" humanity moves out of the "Physical" Condition of Form and into the "More Perfect Astral." It is this time to which Paul refers in 1 Cor 15,52 (also 1 Th 4,16-17).