Understanding Our Time (1)

by Terry Boardman

This essay first appeared as an article in New View magazine  Issue 51 April,-June 2009

 Bewilderment is widespread today. It is commonly recognised that modern society is experiencing a major crisis that is economic, ecological, political and cultural. We seem to be facing one of those major nodes of significant shift in history that have occurred in former times such as at the end of the Roman Empire c.300, the end of the Middle Ages c.1500, the emergence of the national and ‘natural scientific’ state c.1650, the revolutionary epoch c.1800, or the First World War. Confusion is commonplace at such times, and solutions seem hard to find. How can we make sense of what is going on? The question could also be posed as: how can we find our bearings by understanding where we are in our story?

Conventional views of history do not help us much; embedded within a mainstream natural scientific worldview, they condemn us to a random position in both space and time: our Earth is a beautiful but insignificant speck in the Universe and is bound merely for an ultimate ‘heat death’. Compared to the astronomical wonders revealed to us by technological marvels like the Hubble telescope, all our cultural achievements and our human relationships have little or no significance. Our lives are equally random happenings that occur only once. After death there is nothing except the return of our ashes or corpses to the material Earth. Philosophically then, all is an absurdity, ultimately quite meaningless; existence is a comedy show, and all we can do is ‘have a laugh’, as the English might put it. Certainly, there is no sense in our western culture’s religion and the calendar based on it. The second millennium that we celebrated just 9 years ago is seen as a convenient fiction, nothing more. 2009 is held to be but a number.

From such a bleak philosophical perspective, which its adherents like to think of as existentially ‘heroic’, it is indeed hard to make sense of what is going on at present. We move on merely one step at a time into the darkness of the future out of a dimly lit past with only the little candle of our  intellect, which was lit by the beginning of natural science just 400 years ago, to illuminate the vast darkness. The position of those who adhere to the conventional, western secular humanist outlook on life as represented by our mainstream media is akin to that of the British soldiers in the Great War who sang: “we’re ‘ere because we’re ‘ere because we’re ‘ere because we’re ‘ere….”, and cosmologists just add “and because there was a Big Bang.” There would certainly seem to be more to the present crisis than just: “the bankers were too greedy, the politicians too lax, our industry too exploitative of Nature, and the terrorists too resentful of our freedoms”, but in essence, that is all too often what conventional analysis boils down to.

By contrast to this tragi-comic bleakness, which reminds one rather of the dour weltanschauung of the pagan Anglo-saxons, the spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) offered a number of approaches by which we can understand the past in a way that helps us to make sense both of the present and also of intuitions about what may be coming towards us from the future. Some of these approaches Steiner was presenting anew, or recasting, for modern times; they belonged to the esoteric knowledge of previous eras. Other indications were his own contribution. Steiner made innumerable contributions that help us make sense of historical events, but seven major ones can be noted:

1)     the Christ Balance in History

2)     the Zodiacal Ages

3)     the archangelic Regencies

4)     Axial years (the ‘mirror’ principle)

5)     humanity’s crossing of the spiritual threshold in 1899/1900

6)     the activities of spiritual counterforces in modern times

7)     the ‘Etheric Christ Event’ & the 33.33 year Rhythm

This article will  address the first three of these, as a presentation of all seven would be too long. I shall turn to remaining four in the next issue of New View. One other major factor that should be mentioned, and which was one of Steiner’s major  The contributions, especially in his later years, is that of human reincarnations, both of leading individualities and of groups, indeed, of all of us, but these occur within the contexts of 2) and 3) above, and will be mentioned in those contexts. (1)

We breathe in, we breathe out, and between these two there is a lacuna, a pause. We sleep at night and in unconsciousness, refresh our bodies and spirits. We are wakefully active by day and in consciousness, exhaust our forces; and in between there is dreaming. We exist in the spiritual world and we exist in earthly life. In between, there is dying and gestation. In other words, in human breathing, in our sleeping and waking, and in our existence as a whole, there are three stages  – two phases and a third, a balance, between them. These three stages  can be compared to the three parts of the musical octave: the three lower notes (do-re-mi) the three higher (so-la-ti) and the one between them (fa), or one can see it in terms of corresponding pairs of musical intervals: the first and seventh, the second and sixth, the third and fifth, and the interval of the fourth in the middle of the three pairs, which is the axis or fulcrum of all of them. One can also think of of the 7-branched menora candlestick used in Jewish ceremonies.

Likewise, we can think of our entire journey through Time on this planet as two vortices or spirals, mirroring each other around a centrepoint, rather like an hourglass, which is a three-dimensional representation of this movement as a lemniscate is the two-dimensional. We can harmonise the eastern cyclical and western linear progressive concepts of history in the spiral form, which unites both. The menora gives a hint as to the central point, the balancing fulcrum of the whole, for just as Palestine is in a central location on the world map in space, so is it in history, in that civilisation has, for the last 10,000 years, broadly moved from East to West, from China and India to California. And why is Palestine in this central location between E.Asia and the west coast of America? Why are the descendants of Abraham, of Isaac and Ishmael, even today in dispute with one another? Why is the Middle East so much at the centre of world affairs? Why have Israel and the Jewish people been the focus of so much controversy for the last 2000 years? The answer is complex but in essence, it revolves around Jesus Christ. For Steiner, the one physical appearance on Earth for three years in Jesus of Nazareth by the divine Logos, the Creative Word, the Being known to us as Christ, signified  the very balance and turning point of the entire story of  mankind and the planet. At the heart of Steiner’s message was that Jesus Christ was no mere great teacher of morality but the Being or Consciousness that literally brought our world and solar system into existence. Steiner repeatedly drew attention to the point that  it was not so much what Christ said or taught but what He did that was of world-historical significance, and what He did, through His death and Resurrection, was to reverse the very course of evolution on this planet and begin the process of the ultimate transfiguration of the Earth, which will happen as human beings increasingly unite themselves in consciousness with the Christ Being. Steiner points out that despite an awesome process of preparation, which actually involved the entire history of the Israelite people, Jesus was only able to bear the Christ Power for just three years, so It is clearly inappropriate to think of a Being of this nature as ‘wholly contained’ within the frame and brain of Jesus of Nazareth. Rather, one can imagine a vast inverted vortex, the mere tip of which filled the human being of Jesus at the Baptism in the Jordan. If the first half of Man’s time on this planet can be compared to a single inhalation, then the 33 years of the life of Jesus are the interval before the outbreath; they are, in fact, what makes the outbreath possible.

In accord with this idea of the 33 year life of Christ as the pivot of human history,  we can think of the period 2009 years before the birth of Jesus as having a relationship with 2009 years after the Resurrection.  The year 1000 BC will thus approximately be mirrored by 1033 AD. When we come to our own times, 1933 AD thus corresponds to 1900 BC,  so 1939 BC, the probable date of the birth of Abraham (2) relates to 1972 AD. In the 21st century AD, some fascinating observations result, for we realise that the corresponding 21st century BC is before the time of Abraham and the beginning of the story of the Hebrew people, in fact of both peoples – Jews and Arabs, who descended from Isaac and Ishmael, the sons of Abraham. We also realise that the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews (587 BC), their subsequent release by the Persian King Cyrus (538 BC) and the rebuilding of the Temple corresponds to the period which saw the birth of Mohammed (570) and the beginnings of Islam (620). The life of Abraham is usually dated to anywhere between 1750 and 2000 BC, and in 587 BC the Jews lost their independence as a people when they went into the Babylonian Captivity. From then on, with a short exception (164 – 63 BC) they were ruled by foreigners. The period from c.2000 BC to 587 BC thus corresponds, around the axis of the life of Jesus, to the period c.620-2033 AD, in which Islam has developed.

2) the Zodiacal Ages

The second  approach to interpreting history is that which relates to the precession of the equinoxes; I shall call it ‘the Zodiacal approach’ to distinguish it from the ‘planetary approach’, which I shall consider later; the ‘Zodiacal approach’ was not Steiner’s phrase. In physical terms, this has to do with our planet’s great ‘wobble’ around the celestial north pole, a wobble which takes approx. 26,000 years to complete and is known, more elegantly, as the Great, or Platonic, Year. During this long period the vernal point (spring equinox, when day and night are in balance), where the rising Sun is observed against the constellation ‘behind’ it, is observed to shift, or precess backwards through the Zodiac of the fixed stars at a rate of 1° every 72 years.(3) This gives rise to a ‘Platonic month’ of 30 x 72 = 2160 years to precess through one sign of the Zodiac. This 2160 year period is the key here. Steiner described at great length that all such astronomical phenomena are caused not by the intrinsic qualities of material bodies or abtract ‘fields’ and ‘forces’ but by the actions of spiritual beings, higher dimensional consciousnesses. Indeed, Time itself, according to Steiner, consists of spiritual beings – beings whose ‘bodies’ are made of Time as our bodies are made of matter.

The western esoteric tradition speaks of 9 distinct levels of spiritual consciousness above the human consciousness. Beings of the third level above the human are these Time Beings, who were created in the far distant condition called by Steiner Old Saturn, a period in which there was no Time or Space as we know it. There were already states of consciousnesses, sometimes referred to as spirital beings, and the sacrifice offered by one of these kinds of consciousness to the spiritual beings above it  gave birth to the beings of Time. Steiner gives a picture of such a sacrifice as the giving up of a part of one’s being so that a new possibility can emerge.   Every manifestation of heat, fire and warmth has ‘sacrifice’ at its root. These Time beings that were created on Old Saturn Steiner called ‘Spirits of Personality’ (traditionally they are known as Archai, Primal Beginnings) because with them began the very first seeds of human personality. In the present stage of the evolution of the Earth, it is their task to facilitate the rebirths of those human souls who need to be reborn in a particular astrological era. The concern of the Archai Time Spirits is with global humanity in a particular epoch, not the individual or group, as with the two lower ranks or consciousnesses of spiritual beings (traditionally, angels and archangels). Spirits of Personality bring it about that certain human individualities are born at certain times for the benefit of the whole of humanity. Other Spirits of Personality, whom Steiner calls ‘Time Spirits’, have the task of influencing physical conditions on the earth in such a way that human evolution can progress; this is often done, for example, through such means as the (to human eyes) ‘fortuitous coincidences’ that lead to new discoveries and inventions. We can think of the activity, or ‘office’ of a Time Spirit, a vast consciousness encompassing the globe for 2160 years, which is  the period Steiner attributes to the activity or office of successive Time Spirits. It is like the weather and the seasons; it does not compromise our individual freedom but it is there nonetheless. We simply have to operate within it, as we are actually living within it.

During each one of these 2160 year periods a different element of the ninefold human organism. (4) is elaborated. Through three such periods, from 2907 BC until 3573 AD, the three human soul forces are being elaborated, and having developed the Sentient (feeling) and Intellectual-Mind (thinking) Soul elements in the two previous ages (2907 BC – 1413 AD) and under our Time Spirit, since the 15th century, humanity has been developing what is called the Consciousness, or Spiritual, Soul, which relates to our sense of self and our will.

This epoch has a number of characteristics which, if we understand them, help us greatly to make sense of much of what is happening around us today. First, the epoch is one of emerging individuality, in which more and more  people are coming to know themselves as spiritual beings with their own spiritual biographies and destinies, who, while belonging to a family, tribe or other collectivity, realise that in truth they as individual spiritual beings belong to no collectivity save humanity itself. However, this requires a new relationship with older, group associations, and this process often breeds antipathy. Indeed, our age cannot but be of ever growing antipathy and self-assertion, for the process of becoming a self is necessarily long and painful. These antipathies, often radically expressed, give rise to great evils in society and culture e.g. the world wars of the 20th century. It might seem counterintuitive to say that; were not the world wars caused by societies that sought to return to some form of collectivism, objectors might argue? No, a more convincing argument can be made that they were the result of reactions by those societies to other societies which were pursuing more modern agendas (free market capitalism, colonialism, imperialism) that had freed the individual to indulge his selfishness. Wilhelmine Germany sought to imitate imperialist Britain; Russia’s Bolsheviks gained support through claiming they wanted to give the masses land, bread and peace – a respite from the self-indulgent westernisation of Russia’s capitalist class. Italian Fascists and Japanese militarists alike railed at western selfishness and individualism and called for a more noble vision of society that looked back to ancient social forms. These were revolts against what was perceived to be the modern selfish individualism of the West. All traditional supports, the old unconscious forms of society and community gradually wither and fall away in our age, so that we must now work consciously at finding new forms of cooperation and community.

Parallel to this growing experience of ourselves as individual essences, in which we both separate ourselves from unconscious affiliation to groups while paradoxically realising our sense of belonging to the greater whole, has been our exploration of the mineral realm of material being since the 17th century and the consequent growth of natural science. We can grasp this mineral realm through calculation and fixed concepts because it is essentially dead and fragmentary. These fixed concepts and precise calculations, however, fail us when it comes to advancing to attempts to understand the dynamics of the biological and human realms, which call for very different forms of cognitive approach. The mineral realm is essentially the individualised aspect of the physical world in that it is non-dynamic. Metals and ores were once in flow, and can become so again when heated but in their natural state they are as frozen and can be broken up by a suitable application of technical force.

Indeed, a central leitmotif of our Age (1413-3573, the astrological Age of Pisces) is one of humanity’s struggle with power and will – human will and the will of Nature, which, from a spiritual scientific viewpoint, is the will of higher beings present in Nature in frozen or dynamic forms. Since the 17th century, and the rise of natural science and technology, we have had to struggle with will in a way that challenges us to put our thinking at the service of the Good, as distinct from at the service only of beauty or of truth, which were the leading values of the two previous eras (2907-747 BC, 747BC-1413). Paradoxically, the mineral realm, says Steiner, the lowest level of material being, represents the created work, the frozen willpower, of the highest forms of spiritual consciousness, the highest spiritual beings, just as our will life within our metabolism is far older and wiser than our immature thinking life connected to our nervous system. The technology that results from the exploitation of the mineral realm thus presents mankind with problems of literally world-shattering dimension, as we were shocked into realising on 16th July 1945, when the first A-bomb was exploded at Alamogordo in the ‘Trinity Project’. In the social realm, according to Steiner, the leading theme of our age is the rise to predominance of the economic life, following the ascendancy of the religious and then political/military life in the previous two epochs,  for here too in economics, in the transformation of the fruits of Nature into human products, we have to do with humanity’s interaction with power, the product of the greatest work of higher  beings. Indeed, in contemporary events such as the so-called global ‘economic crisis’, can we not see the efforts of those active at the highest level of the economic life to supplant politicians as the effective rulers of our global culture? Is this indeed really a genuine ‘crisis’, or is it in fact rather, an engineered event through which financiers and corporate leaders can assert their claim to global leadership? How do we understand it? Here is the theme of the age : the application of thinking in a moral struggle for the Good in relation to economics and our power over Nature and over our fellow human beings. Since the 17th century our economic life has been based on antipathy, self-assertion and personal profit. These self-centred motivations were the inevitable first stage of what Steiner termed the Age of the Consciousness Soul (the Age of Pisces) in which individuals emancipate themselves from traditional socio-cultural bonds on their way to realising themselves as spiritual beings. But the time has come now to move on beyond this necessarily ‘adolescent’ first stage. To carry on essentially with the self-centred economic behaviour of the past two centuries will lead inexorably to the destruction both of society and the planetary eco-system.

The self-assertive power dimension of the age of the Consciousness Soul considered above relates to another essential theme of our time: the awakening to spiritual knowledge and life through the confrontation with what is called ‘evil’. According to Steiner, evil exists in our world not for its own sake but actually for the purpose of enabling us to awaken to spiritual freedom through inner struggle against evils which exist both within our own souls and in the outer world. Unfortunately, our age has, since the 15th century, become so spiritually ignorant, so enmeshed in materialism, that all too often we only awaken after the most terrible inner or outer blows.

     “Evil will be openly present in a large number of people as an attitude, a way of thinking, not any more covered up or hidden. The evil ones will praise the evil as something especially valuable. A certain sensual pleasure in this evil, this demony …  can already be seen in many people … Nietzsche’s ‘blond beast’ is for example only a spectral premonition, pointing to it.”  (5)

This fascination with evil can be observed in many aspects of modern culture, from T-shirts and computer games to opera and the genre of ‘death metal’ rock music. The two movie trilogies The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, which both appeared round the millennium nine years ago, portray with great directness and clarity and from two very different perspectives this awesome  process of global suffering, confrontation with evil and awakening to the spirit. This confrontation will continue on until the end of this age of Piscses in the fourth millennium yet we are steadily awakening new forces of spiritual imagination and social sympathy and empathy to overcome the evils that beset us.(6)

Three other aspects of the Zodiacal periods can briefly be mentioned. If we recall the menora mentioned earlier, or the parallel notes of the octave, we can understand that each period of 2160 years on either side of the historical fulcrum, the Incarnation of Christ, has a corresponding period on the other side of the fulcrum. If we see the Incarnation of Christ falling in the central 4th period (7), then our 5th period will reflect the 3rd (2907 – 747 BC) in some way. This means that we should expect to see in this 5th age various ‘resonances’ with the 3rd age. That  was an epoch in which the most advanced cultures were those of the Near East: Sumer, Egypt, Chaldea and Babylon.  We do indeed see these resonances in such varied phenomena as the symbology and teachings of freemasonic or hermetic esotericism, in the overpowering massiveness of modernist architecture, in the social forms and rituals of totalitarian fascism, the resurgence of astrology and cryogenics (‘mummifying’ bodies or heads for future reanimation), not to mention the return of expert priesthoods such as we now have in our scientific establishments. All these phenomena have emerged since our 5th age began in the 15th century. This is not a matter of value judgments. Resonances with the 3rd epoch will occur in any case; we just need to be aware of them and realise that they stem from the past and not from the actual present or from the future. Steiner indicated that the Time Spirit of the 3rd Age (Egypt) rose in its evolution thereafter to the higher rank of the Spirits of Form, and those beings, concerned with form principles in general, tend to represent stasis in human and natural life.

Eye in Pyramid on US dollar billar since 1935

It is their appointed role to bring movement to quietude and relative fixity. Without them, there would be no physical or mineral matter; all would be in constant flow – no rocks, stones, metals, crystals or ice. This means that there is a continuous dissonance in our 5th epoch between the Consciousness Soul impulse to move beyond a physically-oriented, more static kind of thinking based on logic and mineral realm-based calculations towards a more imaginative and mobile thinking that is comfortable with dynamic processes and metamophosis.  While Time itself may consist of the consciousness of higher beings, within which human beings move, Time in the form of human history also consists of the consciousness of beings, namely, human beings. While secular and humanist intellectuals, from Karl Marx to Richard Dawkins, have asserted that history consists of abstractions unrelated to human individuality, such as class struggle and dialectical materialism (8) or the efforts of genes to replicate themselves, Steiner described history as the interaction between the consciousness of spiritual beings, who themselves undergo a spiritual evolution, and those of human beings, who evolve spiritually by reincarnating in different ages. Normally, he said, human beings reincarnate twice in each of the successive Zodiacal ages (2160 years), once as a man and once as a woman, to share in and contribute to the emergence of the new developing human faculties in each Age, for example, the development of the Consciousness Soul. To this end, in the life in the spiritual world between death and rebirth, each individual selects his future family, race, country and place to be born, an awesomely complex process. Steiner gave many examples of how reincarnation works, especially in the eight volumes of lectures titled Karmic Relationships (1924), but owing no doubt to its complexity, karma and reincarnation has been one of the least developed fields of research work in anthroposophical circles since his death in 1925. He insisted, however, that unless we come to understand ever more clearly how individuals carry over impulses from their previous lives into present times, then our knowledge of the truth of history will always be missing a major causative element.

At the time of writing, Josef Fritzl has just been sentenced in Austria to life imprisonment for one of the most appalling crimes of recent times – the enslavement and imprisonment in an underground cellar, of his own daughter, his repeated incestuous rape of her over a period of 24 years, which resulted in the birth of seven children, one of whom he murdered by neglect. The media are already speculating that such dreadful crimes are the result of his own loneliness and ill treatment by his own mother when he was a child yet many other human beings today experience similar childhood conditions without becoming like Josef Fritzl. A Freudian perspective might push the cause back to conditions in infancy. We have even become used to the idea today of pushing things even further back to a consideration of  prenatal conditions, for example what the mother was eating or experiencing in pregnancy. But this is still trying to find the cause of events within the boundaries of the single physical life, rather like the churches used to insist that our destination for heaven or hell would depend on our behaviour in this  one life, and when it was asked: “how can God take the lives of innocent children?” people were told: “The Lord moves in mysterious ways”, or “He does such things to test our faith”. It was the early mediaeval Church that, for its own reasons, restricted western humanity’s view of existence to just one life.(9) This doctrine of only one human life was something that the Protestants did not reform, and so westerners whose thinking is informed by natural science continue to hold this view -  one life: nothing before, nothing after – and so they believe that all illness, suffering and wickedness as well as great talents and positive characteristics are to be explained either by environmental factors in the present life or by physical genetic factors, which when traced, ultimately disappear into a genealogical ‘mist-ery’.

When it comes to leading personalities who are to make major contributions to human development in a Zodiacal age, these are guided to do so, says Steiner, by the Spirits of Personality, the Time Spirits (Archai), whose ‘bodies’ are the successive ages. They do this by guiding those incarnating souls into a particular culture, and for this, they need the cooperation of the next lower consciousness, that of the archangels, who are the guiding beings of communities, great and small. This brings us to the third element under consideration in this article.

3) The archangelic Time Regencies

It was said above that the Spirits of Personality (Archai), beings who are three dimensions higher than the human, bring it about that certain human individualities, who are born at particular times for the benefit of the whole of humanity, have to be born into specific cultures or nations. The task of the Archai is furthered by the lower rank of spiritual beings, traditionally known as Archangels, who function as the guardians, so to speak, of groups of human beings, whether large ones, such as nations, or smaller ones such as ethnic minorities or associations. The archangels bring it about that during shorter periods of history (approx. 350-600 years) a particular people hold the cultural ‘baton’ so to speak, and play a special role. Thus we see the Age of the archangelic being traditionally known as Gabriel (c.1510-1879)(10) almost exactly encompassed England’s rise to, and enjoyment of, preeminent power in material terms (military, finance, industry, science). Henry VIII, who separated England from Catholic Europe, became King in 1509, and it was precisely in the 1880s that England’s material power began to decline markedly vis-à-vis economic rivals such as America and Germany. Just as there are seven days of the week, so there are seven archangelic Time Regents who consecutively ‘reign’ for periods of 350-600 years. They are related to specific planetary spheres. Traditionally, the two archangels Gabriel (Moon) and Michael (Sun) stood at the gates of birth and death. Gabriel always increases Man’s interest in the material world and all that is particular and local (e.g. natural science, nationalism), while Michael who, according to Steiner, is now rising to Archai-level consciousness, directs Man’s attention to the spiritual world (e.g. spiritualisation of thinking, cosmopolitanism).

Michael (l.), Raphael with Tobit (Nb the fish), Gabriel (r.),
                    by  Francesco Botticini 1470

In 1979 we entered the second century of the Michael epoch that is due to continue until about 2300, so the Michaelic impulses of spirituality, idealism and cosmopolitanism will gradually be growing in strength, while the nationalist and materialist wave that carried all before it in the Gabriel era will fade by comparison. This is not to say materialism will fade entirely. On the contrary, Steiner held it be strong throughout the Age of the Consciousness Soul, and necessarily so, to provide the resistance that the self-liberating individual spirit requires. What is meant is that during this Michael era within the 2160-year period of the Age of Pisces, materialism will be weaker for several centuries; it will doubtless grow again thereafter. It is critical therefore that mankind make the most of the next two or three centuries of the Michael era to sow good seeds for the future. The successive archangelic regencies do not start and stop like clockwork. Their impulses  fade in gradually and build inexorably up to a peak towards the end of the era like a great wave and then crash and subside. The Gabrielic impulses that gave rise to nationalism therefore (attachment to an earthly locality or country) were at their peak from 1879-1979: at the very end of the Gabrielic era and in the first century of the Michaelic era. Those forces which work against human progress not only work directly against the impulse of the new archangelic Regency by seeking to keep the impulses of the former era dominant but can also work with the grain of the new era by twisting it, distorting it and leading it into a perverse direction. This can be seen in the efforts of Anglo-American imperialist forces to exploit internationalist bodies such as the UN or by proclaiming the benefits of ‘globalisation’ so as to increase the dominance of western-based transnational corporations.

Of great significance for the theme of the Age of the Consciousness Soul in the eras of Gabriel and Michael is the relation between the English and German-speaking peoples, who since the 17th century ought to have been cooperating in developing natural (England) and spiritual (Germany) science but who have been unable to do so sufficiently in such a way that would allow a spiritual science to parallel natural science.  While England dominated in the age of Gabriel, as indicated above, Germany should have come to the fore in the age of Michael (since 1879) with spiritual culture and indeed she did ‘rise up’, but not in the way she should have done, for the Germans opted to copy the English material will to power, and failed to take up with sufficient energy what Rudolf Steiner offered in anthroposophy. The English, meanwhile, not wishing to relinquish their imperial will to power, sought to prolong it ‘illegitimately’ 120 years ago by inveigling the United States into taking up ‘the Anglo-saxon burden’ of global domination. German ambition for material power and Britain’s arrogant possessiveness and desire for a false spiritual power  – the British Empire as ‘the Light of the World’ -   led directly to the tragedies of the two world wars, which were in effect a single 30 year conflict. As Britain and America attempt to lead Europe and especially Germany into waging war in Central Asia, we can see that we are still very much suffering the consequences today of decisions made over a century ago. As the generations that experienced the two world wars directly and their children’s generation pass on in the course of the second Michael century, it is to be hoped that English and German speakers can find ways to overcome the wounds of the past and work together for the benefit of humanity in this crucial era.

It is hoped that this brief overview of the first three of Rudolf Steiner’s seven  major contributions to understanding history from a modern spiritual perspective will serve to stimulate readers to explore further themselves by study of Steiner’s works and with reference to their own experience. (11)


(1) See especially  From Symptom to Reality in Modern History (Rudolf Steiner Press) ; The Driving Force of Spiritual Powers in World History (Steiner Book Centre); The Karma of Untruthfulness Vols. 1 & 2 (Rudolf Steiner Press); Karmic Relationships Vols. 1-8 (Rudolf Steiner Press); The Archangel Michael – His Mission and Ours (Anthroposophic Press); The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric (Anthroposophic Press)

(2) Abraham is said in Genesis to have lived to the age of 175. According to Matthew 1:17 there were 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ, and 14 generations from the carrying away into Babylon, which occurred in 587 BC. A ‘generation’ is therefore reckoned as 42 years. 42 x 42 = 1764. If 1764 BC is assumed to be the death of Abraham, 1764 + 175 gives a date of  1939 BC for his birth, which relates to 1972  – remarkable in itself, given the experiences of Jews and Arabs in the 20th century. Traditional rabbinic dating based on the Seder Olam Rabbah chronicle (2nd cent. AD) puts Abraham’s life at 1976-1801 BC.

(3) More accurately, 71.6°.

(4) There are 3 bodily elements, three soul elements, three spiritual  elements. See Steiner’s book, Theosophy.

(5) Rudolf Steiner: The Temple Legend  (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1985), a lecture of 11 Nov 1904.

(6) See Steiner , The Inner Aspect of the Social Question, lecs. of Feb-Mar 1919; Spiritual Science as a Foiundation for Social Forms, lecs of 1920; and Steiner’s many lectures and books on the threefolding of society, such as Towards Social Renewal.

(7) Actually just before the exact centre of the 4th age, which was in 333 AD, midway between 747 BC and 1413 AD

(8) “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. Communist Manifesto, 1848

(9) Steiner indicated that the West had to be cut off for a time from the knowledge of reincarnation. Otherwise a culture of materialism and natural science would not have developed. But that time, he said,  ended in 1900. Western humanity now needs to regain an understanding that human individuality transcends both death and birth. This knowledge has indeed steadily been growing in the West, especially since the 1960s.

A signficant date in the West’s attitude towards the issue of one or more lives was 553 AD, the 5th Ecumenical Council of the Church, at Constantinople, when the teachings of the early Christian Father Origen (185-254 AD), who subscribed to the idea of the pre-existence of souls, were anathematised.

(10) 1525 in the more rigid system of exactly 354 years and 4 months for each age according to Abbot Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim (1462-1516) in his treatise On the Seven Secondary Causes i.e. Intelligences or Spirits who move the Spheres according to God (1508, publ. 1515)

(11) The online English-language library of Steiner’s works at http://www.rsarchive.org/ is a great help.

© Terry Boardman

This page was created 27th April 2009 Last updated 16.7.2012