'it was something the higher powers organised together with the luciferic powers'... (In footnote 1): very abstract indeed... We seem to be at the one hand betrayed, than rescued and yet we seem to have had this desire for freedom? I know that to comprehend this, as well as the 'rescuing' by the Christ, is something to live with, have it simmer and slowcooking in me, and then it may clarify on a yet unknown moment. This very process feels quite fulfilling though, which is kind of astonishing.
My problem with it is that I have understood God to be Almighty and Lucifer/Satan/devil as his servant. As in the book of Job the servant needs approval from the master. My idiosyncratic view now (at the age of 73): I see the Earth as the compassion-generator of the cosmos. Pain, tragedy, trauma is lavishly distributed among us, children and adults alike, and the rest of our lives we have a chance to use the pain: to let our hearts be broken (open) which turns pain into compassion. The Crucifixion is the ultimate vision of this process: extreme pain delivered to an innocent and holy man, who feels it to the core and asks God to forgive his killers.
Reflecting a little more on the interesting, yet intensely abstract meditation X, vs meditations XI and XII that we looked at last week as well as my own linguistic interests the following thought arises in me.
Steiner often refers to dead abstract thinking vs living thinking and how we need to cultivate the latter. (interestingly Heidegger and the italian "futuristi" inspired by Nietzsche, Stirner etc were also trying to achieve the same goal through radically different means).
Playing with just a tiny bit of your text it might look like this:
The result was an attachment to matter and a distance from the spiritual divine, too large to be bridged by humans alone. Lucifer's [that essence within language and experience that allows us to live entirely in our own being, excluding outer influences that in some way are counter to personal desires and understanding......... that essence without which freedom would have had to come about in a different way or perhaps even wouldn't have been possible] intervention had to be counterpoised by another non-human intervention, otherwise we would have never been able to find the way back to the spiritual. This counterpoise was the Christ [that essence within language and experience that allows us to live into the reality of other beingness, yet not losing oneself completely within that experience so that it becomes a mental prison, that essence or mode of being that enriches and broadens our vision of what life is so that it lives in us as its own reality.........] event, and only because of this event the mission of humanity may be at least partially successful and not completely doomed.
and something similar when we invoke the name Ahriman. Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman are often used as shorthand for a complex of ideas that can regain living agency in us the more often we try to describe for ourselves and experience within ourselves what these beings mean to us.
I like the "slowcooking" that Rose B describes, it feels analogous to what I am describing.
We can talk about this more next time we chat as the Heidegger/Nietzsche angle is very fruitful if we look at how language has developed from pre-historical times to now.
'it was something the higher powers organised together with the luciferic powers'... (In footnote 1): very abstract indeed... We seem to be at the one hand betrayed, than rescued and yet we seem to have had this desire for freedom? I know that to comprehend this, as well as the 'rescuing' by the Christ, is something to live with, have it simmer and slowcooking in me, and then it may clarify on a yet unknown moment. This very process feels quite fulfilling though, which is kind of astonishing.
My problem with it is that I have understood God to be Almighty and Lucifer/Satan/devil as his servant. As in the book of Job the servant needs approval from the master. My idiosyncratic view now (at the age of 73): I see the Earth as the compassion-generator of the cosmos. Pain, tragedy, trauma is lavishly distributed among us, children and adults alike, and the rest of our lives we have a chance to use the pain: to let our hearts be broken (open) which turns pain into compassion. The Crucifixion is the ultimate vision of this process: extreme pain delivered to an innocent and holy man, who feels it to the core and asks God to forgive his killers.
Lovely use of images to convey your ideas Rick!
Reflecting a little more on the interesting, yet intensely abstract meditation X, vs meditations XI and XII that we looked at last week as well as my own linguistic interests the following thought arises in me.
Steiner often refers to dead abstract thinking vs living thinking and how we need to cultivate the latter. (interestingly Heidegger and the italian "futuristi" inspired by Nietzsche, Stirner etc were also trying to achieve the same goal through radically different means).
Playing with just a tiny bit of your text it might look like this:
The result was an attachment to matter and a distance from the spiritual divine, too large to be bridged by humans alone. Lucifer's [that essence within language and experience that allows us to live entirely in our own being, excluding outer influences that in some way are counter to personal desires and understanding......... that essence without which freedom would have had to come about in a different way or perhaps even wouldn't have been possible] intervention had to be counterpoised by another non-human intervention, otherwise we would have never been able to find the way back to the spiritual. This counterpoise was the Christ [that essence within language and experience that allows us to live into the reality of other beingness, yet not losing oneself completely within that experience so that it becomes a mental prison, that essence or mode of being that enriches and broadens our vision of what life is so that it lives in us as its own reality.........] event, and only because of this event the mission of humanity may be at least partially successful and not completely doomed.
and something similar when we invoke the name Ahriman. Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman are often used as shorthand for a complex of ideas that can regain living agency in us the more often we try to describe for ourselves and experience within ourselves what these beings mean to us.
I like the "slowcooking" that Rose B describes, it feels analogous to what I am describing.
We can talk about this more next time we chat as the Heidegger/Nietzsche angle is very fruitful if we look at how language has developed from pre-historical times to now.