Dear Group:

 

The following was being distributed throughout other Anthroposophic e-groups. The material may be disturbing and quite controversial due to the recent developments in the last couple of years. It is compilation of various points that Steiner had given to the CC priests in September of 1924. The translation/edition is not exactly what I have in my edition at some points. I looked through my copy and found that the following is actually from two lectures and that these are points from Steiner's lectures that the individual had selected.

 

The lecture cycle is titled, "The Book of Revelation and the Work of the Priest." (18 lectures). The two cited lectures are: 11 & 12 September,1924; Dornach, Switzerland.

 

 

rick distasi

 

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From one basic way of considering this matter, there are two
realms: the realm of NATURE – which is the realm of the Father
(the source of the created world both spiritually and physically) –
and the realm of the SPIRIT.
The Mohammedan teachings do not know the structure of the
world I have just been speaking about. They know – and can
ONLY know – the Father.
They know only the rigid doctrine: "There is one God, Allah, and
none beside him, and Mohammed is his Prophet."
From this angle, the teachings of Mohammed are the strongest
polarity to Christianity.
Indeed, resident in a hidden manner within the Islamic
worldview is the will to do away with all freedom forever, the will
to bring about a purely deterministic spiritual and social order
that would dominate every aspect of human life, for nothing else
is possible if you imagine the world solely in the sense of a
Father God alone.
A foreboding of this gave the apocalypse-writer (John) the
feeling: The human being cannot be found, or find himself, in
this. The human being cannot become filled through and
through with Christ if he remains connected with the doctrine of
the Father (alone).
Restricted to this, the human being cannot take hold of his own
humanness. He fails to become fully human if he is only able to
conceive the Father God.
In the end, the human being only becomes human by making
Christ alive within himself and thereby gaining protection from
the material conviction that spiritual realities are illusionary and
vaporous epi-phenomena of purely material causes.
Entertainment of the doctrine of the Father (alone) inescapably
arrives at a conceptual materialism such as represented, for
example, by Darwinism, the view that the human being arises
from purely material causes.
And if we regard Christianity primarily as that which accords with
the Sun forces spiritually speaking, and such as is reflected /
mirrored / mediated / manifested by the nine ranks of angelic
Hierarchies, then we may identify that which OPPOSES these
spiritual/sun forces as "anti-sun" forces or as  "sun demon."
This "sun demon" works COUNTER to the Christian principle in
such a way that – if a human being were to succumb to the lures
of the sun demon and his inspiration, then that same human
being would – by his own free choice – surrender all inward
connection to the divinity of Christ for an inward connection with
the sub-human spiritual realms.
The apocalyptist saw this. – He felt and saw the mighty (future)
counter-principle of Arabism bursting in on Christianity.
It was clear to him that, from this Arabism, everything arises that
brings the human being close to the purely animal nature, first of
all in his views, but gradually also in his combined impulses of
will and action.
And what the apocalyptist saw BEHIND the future scenes of the
looming Mohammdan historical impulse was the sun demon at
work, working against the sun forces, against the spiritual
sun-intelligence.
If asked, the apocalyptist would have called the representatives
of Arabism in Europe "human beings who have willingly
dedicated themselves to the sun demon in their souls' nature."
Dear friends, the number 666 represented both the NAME and
the TIME when Arabism would flow into Christianity in order to
impress the seal of materialism upon western culture.
The apocalyptist portrays everything that works as a
counter-principle to Christianity – such as Arabism and its
deterministic conceptual constructs – as direct outflow from the
counter-spirituality represented by the sun-demon Surat.
And, in the final analysis, everything flowing from Arabism was
directed ultimately against a spiritual Christian understanding of
transubstantiation. External facts certainly do not look as if this
were the case but – by allotting validity only to the Father principle
– to the natural world-order, the sun demon forces indeed
intended to sweep away from human view an immediate feeling
for that which is active in the very deepest way in a sacrament
such as transubstantiation.
(The great revolutions that came about in Europe as a result of
the Crusades belong under the sign of the SECOND occurrence
of the number 666….)
During the first 666, dear friends, Surat was still hidden but
actively at work within the external process of outward events; he
was not seen in clear outward manifestation.
Now before us [in 1924] lies the time of the third number 666:
1998 A.D.
At the end of this (the twentieth) century, the time will come when
Surat will ONCE AGAIN raise his head most strongly out of the
waves of history.
Only two-thirds of the 20th century will have still to run before
Surat/Sorat once again raises his head most mightily.
Before this (twentieth) century is out, he will show himself
through his appearance in many human beings as the one by
whom many are "possessed."
Human beings will appear of whom it will be impossible to
believe that they are really human beings.
These Surat-inspired human beings will be recognizable by their
external appearance; in a terrible way they will not only scoff at
everything, but will also oppose, and want to destroy, and to
push into the abyss anything that is spiritual.
Outwardly, they will have intense and strong dispositions, with
savage countenances, and with furious destructiveness in their
emotions.
The intention to sweep-away anything spiritual will be
deep-seated in large numbers of earthly souls, just as the
apocalyptist has foreseen in the beast-like countenance, and the
beast-like strength, that will underlie the deeds of the adversary
over against the spiritual.
Even today, hidden rage against spiritual things is already
immense, yet it is still in its very early infancy in contrast to what
is to come....