Module 2:The Wisdom of God in the being and becoming Human: A consideration of Anthroposophy and Prayer
Cosmology and Meditation
Participants on this module
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The Christian Community Southern Africa Region Africa Seminary held a module over the weekend of 14 to 16 October on the theme of “The Wisdom of God in the being and becoming Human”. This theme considered Anthroposophy and prayer.
The second Module was specific in considering Cosmology and Meditation.
Seventeenteen people gathered from Botswana, Hillcrest in KZN, Morgan Bay in the Eastern Cape and Johannesburg. The seminary module was led by Rev, Michaël Merle and Rev. Reingard Knausenberger.
The second Module was specific in considering Cosmology and Meditation.
Seventeenteen people gathered from Botswana, Hillcrest in KZN, Morgan Bay in the Eastern Cape and Johannesburg. The seminary module was led by Rev, Michaël Merle and Rev. Reingard Knausenberger.
Contents on this page
- Cosmology and Meditation - a review by Elmarie Vuren
- Cosmology by Rev. Michaël Merle - reported by John-Peter Gernaat
- Photographs of the exercise under Cosmology of creating a world
Cosmology and Meditation
– a review by Elmarie Vuren
On Friday evening 14 October Rev. Michaël Merle presented an overview of the spiritual hierarchies, how they were involved with the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth at the beginning of time, and what role they played at each stage of the Earth’s evolution during the major epochs.
In exploring the concept of “beginning of time” he spoke about how the Hindu Rishis considered time to be cyclical, with no beginning and no end. 4320 million years is considered to be one day in God’s calendar. Scientists today estimate that this is when the “Big Bang” happened. The Rishis believed that God breathes creation in and then out again, and this forms the cycles of time. God has several levels of Spiritual Beings who assist with creation and the life of the Cosmos.
The Angels were created before all cycles of time. The first Angels were the Seraphim, called “the burning ones” with reference to fire in a spiritual context. These are the Angels described by the prophet Isaiah as having 6 wings and flying round God singing “Holy, Holy, Holy”.
The Cherubim are like living creatures in four parts having four faces: that of an eagle, ox, lion and human being, with four co-joined wings. The Angels are also referred to as “lamassu” or “sphynx”.
The Seraphim and Cherubim are fully evolved, having completed their development, and are now growing with the cosmos.
The Thrones who have wheels are the assistants to God who were involved with the first great cycle of time named “Old Saturn”, creating warmth and the first dimension, as they wanted to order space. They also began the course of time.
The Beings who were involved with growth and time are the Archai (also known as the Beings of time). However, there were not only Beings of Light, but also the opposing forces of Light. During the Old Saturn cycle these beings came in and are called the Azuras. The human being was present during this cycle of time as a being of warmth.
Then the whole of the Old Saturn cycle had to dissolve, followed by a cosmic pause, before the next cycle’s development could begin.
The next (2nd) cycle of time was known as the “Old Sun” cycle when the Kyriotetes were the Creator Beings, assisted by the Archangels. They added a new aspect to warmth, namely density. During this time the new aspects of light and air appear, and the human being is a being of warmth and air. The spiritual dimension is also activated at this time. The opposing forces that appears during this cycle are known as Ahriman.
The third cycle of time is known as “Old Moon” when the Creator Beings known as the Dynamis (agents of movement) are at the helm of creation, assisted by the Angels. The aspects of gravity (heaviness), sound and water are brought into existence. A second dimension is added so that we have length and breadth which forms a two-dimensional area. The opposing force of Lucifer enters into creation during this cycle of time and the human being is a war, airy, watery being.
The fourth cycle of time is known as the Earth cycle of time when the Elohim are the Creator Beings active in the unfolding of the Earth. The aspects of Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon continue to be present and a new aspect is added, namely that of form. During this cycle of time fragmentation also appears and new aspects of life and earth are added to those already in existence. The beings at the cutting edge of their development during this cycle are the human beings, who experience a fall into a physical sense. A third dimension appears, namely that of volume (consisting of length, breadth and height).
The Old Saturn cycle of time is represented by the planet Saturn (an outer planet)
Old Sun cycle became planet Jupiter (an outer planet)
Old Moon cycle became planet Mars (an outer planet)
Earth cycle (as a reality, a cycle) is not yet present as a planet but is in the process of becoming the planet Earth with an orbiting Moon and the Sun. Our Sun produces the qualities of the future: Venus and Mercury.
These planets are the inspiration for the names we call the days of the week, as follows:
Sunday = Sun
Monday = Moon
Tuesday = Mars
Wednesday = Mercury
Thursday = Jupiter
Friday = Venus
Saturday = Saturn
The cycle of time we are familiar with at present is related exclusively to the Earth cycle of time. Before this Earth cycle there were other cycles of time mentioned above.
Each cycle of time recapitulates the previous cycle therein that the aspects or qualities from the previous cycle remain present in the following cycle of time, and the Being(s) who created these aspects, continue to be present in future cycles of time.
Michaël mentioned that “Exusiai” (Spirits of Form) is another name used to refer to the “Elohim”, and “Kyriotetes” is another name used to refer to the “Dominiums” (Spirits of Movement).
The self-consciousness that we as humanity are developing now,
the Angels developed during Old Moon cycle,
the Archangels developed during the Old Saturn cycle,
the Archai developed during the Old Moon cycle
Each developed their self-consciousness in a different context according to the conditions present during that cycle of time.
The above description is our Cosmos, our spiritual family. However, there are other galaxies with different spiritual realities and qualities in existence.
Michaël continued to name and describe seven evolutionary stages of consciousness of the Earth :
1st : Polarian stage of consciousness development
2nd : Hyperborean stage of consciousness development
3rd : Lemurian stage of consciousness development
4th : Atlantean stage of consciousness development
5th : Post-Atlantean stage of consciousness development
6th : Jupiter stage of consciousness development
7th : Venus stage of consciousness development
During the 3rd stage of consciousness development, the Lemurian stage, the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden happened, when humans were told not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The separation into two genders (male and female) evolved during this time, along with animals, plants, sound and water. The development of the ego was attributed to the Moon.
At present we are in the 5th stage of consciousness development and we can find documentation about historical events that occurred. It started with the ancient Indian civilization in 7200 B.C. when humans physically stood upright.
Within each stage of consciousness evolution there are 7 epochs. Within the Post-Atlantean stage of consciousness development there are thus 7 ages which are named below :
The oldest records humans can be found in the Cradle of Humankind area outside Johannesburg. From here humans moved to the Ngorogoro Rift valley area, and thereafter to the Indus Valley area where the Hindu age developed.
The 2nd age was the Ancient Persian age
The 3rd age was the Egyptian age (which includes Babylon, the Nile valley, etc.)
The 4th age was the Greek / Roman age
The 5th age is our present age (within the 5th Post-Atlantean epoch) which started with the Renaissance in the 1400s. We are currently unfolding the Consciousness Soul development where we are learning compassion of the “Christ-in-us”, and recognize and respect the “I” of the other person.
The future ages to follow our present age are the Russian age (6th), followed by the American age (7th). During the 6th age, the Russian age, the humanity of the other will be recognized such that we will not be able to live with inequality in commuities, and we will not be able to be at peace within ourselves until all people’s needs are met.
Earth evolution is about discernment (the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), and of taking responsibility for our mistakes and wrongdoings.
There are 3 levels in life :
- Consciousness – the drive of Consciousness is the Father God (Saturn Sun Moon)
- Life – the drive of Life is the Son God (Moon Earth Jupiter)
- Form – the drive of Form is the Spirit God (Jupiter Venus Vulcan)
- Physical - Tree of Existence – Old Saturn cycle of time
- Etheric – Tree of Growth – Old Sun cycle of time
- Astral – Tree of Relationship – Old Moon cycle of time
- “I” – Tree of Knowledge – Earth cycle of time
- Spirit Self – Tree of Life – Jupiter cycle of time
- Life Spirit – Tree of One Word (love) – Venus cycle of time
- Spirit Human – Tree of Harmony – Vulcan cycle of time
On Saturday we each received a candle and could choose from different colours of bees wax with which to decorate our candle. This exercise allowed us to experience within ourselves how the intentions, ideas and experience with which we decorated our candles remained within us even after the candle has burnt down completely.
Prayer and meditation
Thereafter Michaël spoke briefly about prayer (which was covered in the previous Africa Seminary module) saying that prayer is an orientation of holding the past in the present, whilst also allowing all future possibilities to be present.
Whilst meditation is the part of prayer where our thinking is concentrated on something (a spiritual thought or concept) that fills us. He quoted from the book “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds” : “Meditation is the life of the soul in thought which widens more and more into a life in the spiritual reality of being.” Meditation is us opening ourselves to the Cosmos as the means by which we gain knowledge of the Cosmos.
Michaël quoted from Fredrich Rittelmeyer’s book entitled “Meditation” (chapter 3) as follows : “The life of the soul of thought that becomes the gateway for us to hear, widens more and more into the spiritual world“. It is through meditation that help can come to us. If we take something spiritual into our soul through meditation, it leads to hearing and to receiving the Divine Will for our life. We should grow into the Divine Will through meditation so that we can become vessels for Divine fulfillment. So that we can ask to be present to what God wants to say to us, and so that Christ can live in us and work through us. When I pray or meditate to be present for the Spiritual World’s service, then I am serving more than myself.
Sunday morning started with a guided meditation led by Michaël in which all could experience within their own meditative space the echoes of sentences from the Epistles that related to the theme.
After the service the topic of mediation was deepened further with Michaël starting with the famous song “What a wonderful world” sung by Louis Armstrong “I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.” This a perfect reminder that at the essence of the world there is something God-like – a Light of the spiritual world.
There are different ways in which the spiritual world can stream into us :
Firstly, in Asia the holy mountain people would go up a mountain to meditate at high altitude. Secondly, in some cultures people visited temples that were built high up, or on top of, mountains and believed that the temple holds the spirit within it.
However, now we are in the consciousness soul era and the third way to meet spirit is to meet it inside ourselves, as our bodies become the new kind of temple. We can “maintain” this temple through meditation, and we can “scale the mountain” within ourselves by raising our knowledge and understanding through thought development.
The Christian Community, movement for religious renewal, is referred to as a “new confession and a new faith”, where the sacramental substance from the Last Supper is a gift to us. The Act of Consecration of Man is a physical expression of a spiritual reality.
In the Act of Consecration of Man the Epistles mention phrases such as “take this into your thinking”, “so thinks in us”, and the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ is a mystery we have to hold in us. It is about the life of soul in thought, so that our thinking can properly direct our feeling, and when our thinking aligns with our feeling, we can fathom deeper insights into, and gain wisdom from, the spiritual texts.
In Frederich Rittelmeyer’s book on meditation (chapter 3) he speaks about how meditation is related to prayer. During these times of prayer and meditation we look inwards and upwards, which is different to our everyday lives where we look outwards and downwards. The seed for this change was planted by the Holy Spirit. During the last 100 years or so we have become aware that the inward journey is the most relevant and appropriate in today’s world. The reality we live in is the spirituality of being, rather than the physical material. Hence, we need to order ourselves in our inner life, so that we are able to order and manage our outer reality.
Also, by participating inwardly in the Act of Consecration of Man in our thinking, it enables our souls to participate in the spiritual aspect of the service, more so than just attending as a member of the audience, but being an active spiritual participant.
Christ is present in the Act of Consecration of Man in five ways :
- In The Word
- In the Transubstantiation of bread and wine
- In the action and person of the Priest
- In the presence of the congregation - the Servers speak for the whole congregation
- In our inner activity of soul as we participate inwardly during the Act of Consecration of Man
There is a well process to be followed for effective meditation :
We need to prepare for meditation by stilling ourselves, and thereafter take a spiritual thought or concept into our minds (like putting a pot on the stove to boil), and then engage with the life of the Holy Spirit in our feeling and willing.
More specifically, our meditation is part of “the ordering of space and time” since stilling our mind (clearing away distractions), is similar to when we clear our house of clutter before inviting guests over. The next step in preparing for meditation is taking a spiritual thought or concept into our minds to concentrate on – similar to preparing a meal for guests in advance of their arrival. The next step is to look upwards so that the Holy Spirit can come down to meet us in our inner meditative space.
Something that is similar to meditation but in a group context is Gregorian chanting where a number of people join in the same spiritual space in their thoughts, intentions and singing.
Cosmology has a lot to do with questions such as “Who am I ?”, “How am I constituted ?”, “Why am I here ?”. It is proposed that the answer to these questions is that we are here to create order in our inner world so that we can create resonance with the outer world. We are here on Earth to learn the lesson of love and to order our inner world so that we can “be” love, so as to meet the outer world with love. For example, hunger is not just physical but also spiritual. We have a need to help others which is a new sense of being human, and of caring for one another.
Before the “Ancient Indian” era we lost our natural, innate, clear connection to the spiritual world and now we have to work on establishing our own direct spiritual connection. It is no longer simply given to us. So why are we here ? To order our inner world through prayer and meditation so that we can know ourselves as is intended by the words “Human (Man) know thyself”, refine our inner attitude and then serve others through our connection to Christ-in-me.
It was a full and fulfilling weekend of learning, exploring and being together in a sacred space, and I have no doubt that all of us participants left the weekend’s Africa Seminary gathering as I did, feeling privileged for the generous teaching received, and thereby enriched and better equipped on our individual spiritual journeys. Thank you Michaël and Reingard !
Cosmology by Rev Michaël Merle
Reported by John-Peter Gernaat
The whole Cosmos is a wonderful act of creation and creation and creation and creation … This talk will try to present a complex subject as simply as possible to create a picture that everyone can understand.
The first three words of Genesis chapter 1 are: ‘Bereshit bara Elohim’ (בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים). If we take them seriously they are very significant and lead to important questions, one of which leads into the rest of this presentation. These words are often translated as: “In the beginning God created…” The first thing to notice is that the word Elohim would be directly translated as: ‘the mighty strong ones of God’ or ‘the strong forming ones of God’, El-O-Him, not El, which was the ancient Canaanite word for the Divine. El is a reference to God whenever it appears, e.g. the angels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael. The Elohim are the mighty forming ones of God, they are form-creators, they are beings. This word does not describe an aspect of God. If these formative strong ones of God are being referenced, they must have been created before the beginning that is described here. This is the first question: Where do these mighty, forming force beings of God come from? Then there is something that has puzzled Hebrew scholars for centuries: bereshit is a genitive (this means it is a person or thing that possesses someone or something else or the source from which someone or something comes – Reference: Miriam-Webster). This mean that this word is not ‘In the beginning God created …’ but rather this word means: ‘In the beginning of, God created’. What beginning is referenced? Therefore it implies that there is something that is needed to complete this thought. The sentence does not end at ‘In the beginning God created’ but rather ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’. [This is a merism which means that heaven (or sky) and earth is a phrase that encompasses everything, all of creation, everything one can see, the universe (the ‘one verse’, the one picture).] If we take the full sentence, we can understand it as ‘In the beginning of the heavens and the earth the formative mighty ones of God created’. The genitive in English has an implication and the sentence should be translated as: ‘In the beginning of this heaven and earth the mighty formative ones of God created’. ‘In the beginning of the creation of THIS cosmos…’
We can therefore imagine that there were things created before the heavens and the earth. If one reads all of Genesis chapter one and two there is no mention of the creation of angels and yet they appear in scripture quite early on as messengers of God. When were they created and how do they fit into the picture. Therefore, there is an understanding that before this beginning there was other activity. This was not the very beginning of all things, it was the beginning of this chapter. This talk will reveal what existed before.
If we go into the ancient philosophy of the Indus valley (the origins of Hinduism), we discover the idea that time is cyclical, patterns in great cycles. For the wise authors – the Rishis – of the first scriptures, the Vedas, there was no beginning nor was there an end, only cycles that go backward in time and cycles that go forward in time – the cycles of time. Yet, it is also possible for us to imagine activity before time – creative, energetic activity where there was no time. The Rishis could see the cycles of time in a small scale, the repeating of the seasons, and this led them to imagine the huge cycles of time. They had such a sense of time and suggested that one day for the Divine is like 4,320 million years for the earth. We recognise this as the number associated with the creation of earth at 4,530 million years ago and the Big Bang at 13,787 million years ago. Since the Big Bang, Brahman has experienced one day and one night to the creation of earth and is nearing the end of the second day of daylight. All cycles of time for the Rishis was a process of breathing out and breathing in: the Divine breathes out creation and breathes creation in again; everything dissolves back into the Divine.
This presentation will present the great cycles of time and also, in relation to these cycles of time, the hierarchies of the angels.
There are angelic beings not directly connected with great cycles of time, who were created and came to full consciousness before there was time, when time was now and always at once. The first to appear were the Seraphim. Their name means ‘the burning ones’, there is a sense of them being on fire. This is interesting because before time fire may not have existed, therefore burning would be a spiritual concept, not a physical fire that would manifest. It represents an intensity of being. They are described by the prophet Isiah as having six wings and flying around the throne of God crying “Holy, holy, holy”.
After the seraphim came the Cherubim which means ‘living creature’. They are a living being made of four parts that present like the face of an eagle, the face of an ox, the face of a lion and the face of a human being. Their body is covered by the four wings that they have that may be covered in eyes. We have depicted them as a combination of the four beings. which is the presentation of the lamassu: body of lion or bull, wings of eagle and face and breast of a human being. These two groups of angelic beings are not connected with the cycles of time and it is possible that their evolving, within themselves is complete. Their evolution is now only linked to the evolving of all of creation in which their understanding will grow.
The sources for this information comes from the Middle Ages and from before Christ, including the great prophets who described their experiences of the angelic world.
The next angels are known as Thrones. Their name means elevated seat (as in the seat of a certain sovereignty or power) but they are described as wheeling beings (moving in wheels within wheels). These angels were involved in the first great cycle of time. We refer to this cycle as Old Saturn (we will see later how this name related to the planet in our solar system called Saturn). The Thrones were the agents for God in the creation of Old Saturn, they were the creative agents of Old Saturn, they poured their substance into Old Saturn to make it possible for God to create. They created warmth. This warmth is the condition for human life on this earth. We speak about it in our everyday language: we feel warmly greeted, or we experience someone as being cold towards us. The Thrones had the task of creating order in space. They create and it has dimension. At this time it was a single dimension of space. They also began the course of time. The beings who were at the forefront of creative activity towards their development in this Cycle of Time were the Archai. The Archai are those beings who are connected with time and it was their destiny to become the Beings of Time in our great cycle. The Archai were known as the Azuras until it was understood that a certain group of these being felt that their gift to the Thrones was not recognised and they turned in opposition to the creative plan of the Divine. This group who were and still are in opposition retained the name of the Azuras and those who continued on the course of evolution then became known and referenced as the Archai. The human being was already present in Old Saturn and the evolutionary experience was to create the seed body for our current physical body. We existed in a physical expression of warmth. Then Old Saturn completely dissolved into spirituality and there was a pause. We know that all rhythms have a pause, the beat of the heart has a pause between each beat and the breath has a pause between each inhalation and each exhalation. This pause is an expression of the Divine nature of things.
A new Cycle of Time began and the Kyriotetes (the Lords, the Dominions) poured their substance into this creative space. The Kyriotetes were the creative agents of this Cycle known as Old Sun. The Kyriotetes were adding a new dimension to warmth, which re-establishes itself, which was density. A new physical dimension appeared. Density manifested as light and air. The spiritual beings at the forefront of creative unfolding in their evolution were the Archangels. Human beings were also present in Old Sun as beings of warmth and air. This establishes the seed for the etheric body and adds a new dimension to the development of a physical body. One being fell out of the evolutionary development of the Archangels and opposed the development; he becomes known as Ahriman. He seduced others to follow his opposition. Again, the creation dissolved into spirit and there is a pause.
A new Cycle of Time began and the Dynamis, the Beings of Movement, poured their substance into this creative space. They added movement into the organisation and order. They were the creative agents of this, the Old Moon Cycle of Time. The beings at the forefront of creative unfolding in their evolution were the angels. The Dynamis added gravity to warmth and density. Gravity was expressed as sound and water. The experience was that of two dimensions, there was area on Old Moon. There was one angel, often referred to as the greatest of the angels, who rebelled against the evolution and wished the development to be arrested and to remain forever as it was. He is Lucifer. He too, seduced other angels to follow his lead and align with his cause. The human being experiences existence on Old Moon as a warm, airy, watery being. The physical expression evolved further and began to experience a heaviness akin to gravity. The etheric body also evolves and into this living physical being the seeds of an astral body began to be present.
After a pause a new Cycle of Time began in which the Elohim (the Exusiai) are the creative agents who pour their substance into the new creation of Earth. The Elohim are the great Beings of Form and add a third dimension to the physical experience. Aspects of Old Moon, Old Sun and Old Saturn appear to us as cast-offs of the previous Great Cycles. The Elohim add fragmentation (or atomisation) to warmth, density and gravity. This allows for a multiplicity of the same thing to appear. They add life and earth to the physical experience. Now there is a breath of life and movement is a form of life. The beings known as human-being are now the beings experiencing the forefront of creative unfolding in their evolution. We have a physical dimension of earth, water, air and fire. All the old elements are in us: solid, liquid, gas and plasma.
When the earth is formed we hear in Genesis how the Elohim have the elements of warmth, air and water that emerge before they begin their creation. They add earth, physical densification that appears as a three-dimensional reality. At the beginning of each Great Cycle of Time there is a recapitulation of the previous Great Cycles. Something must remain that exists as a reminder of the previous cycles. The planet Saturn is the remnant that exists still of the Great Old Saturn Cycle. The ancients perceived Saturn and it spoke to them as a reminder of what had been the first Great Cycle of Time. The experience of incarnation onto the earth when entering through the Saturn Sphere is that this was our first experience of a physical reality as beings on Old Saturn. An atavistic clairvoyance therefore clearly reminded the ancients that Saturn was the bearer of the memory of Old Saturn, of the most ancient past. Old Sun appeared in the night sky as the planet Jupiter (large, bright, strong). Old Moon was experienced in the planet Mars. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are the outer planets, the planets beyond the Sun.
Earth, as a Great Cycle of Time, had to become the planet earth and had to give rise to the moon, which separated out of the earth. The centre point of each creative cycle is a sun-quality. The sun quality produces all the potential of the future. This sun-quality in the Earth Cycle of Time produces the Sun, and the qualities of the future which are the inner planets, those nearest the Sun: Venus (in its esoteric name nearest the Sun), and Mercury (in its esoteric name nearest Earth). The Earth therefore has Mercury and Mars as nearest neighbours and the Earth Cycle of Time has something connected with these two planets, past and future.
The whole Cosmos is a wonderful act of creation and creation and creation and creation … This talk will try to present a complex subject as simply as possible to create a picture that everyone can understand.
The first three words of Genesis chapter 1 are: ‘Bereshit bara Elohim’ (בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים). If we take them seriously they are very significant and lead to important questions, one of which leads into the rest of this presentation. These words are often translated as: “In the beginning God created…” The first thing to notice is that the word Elohim would be directly translated as: ‘the mighty strong ones of God’ or ‘the strong forming ones of God’, El-O-Him, not El, which was the ancient Canaanite word for the Divine. El is a reference to God whenever it appears, e.g. the angels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael. The Elohim are the mighty forming ones of God, they are form-creators, they are beings. This word does not describe an aspect of God. If these formative strong ones of God are being referenced, they must have been created before the beginning that is described here. This is the first question: Where do these mighty, forming force beings of God come from? Then there is something that has puzzled Hebrew scholars for centuries: bereshit is a genitive (this means it is a person or thing that possesses someone or something else or the source from which someone or something comes – Reference: Miriam-Webster). This mean that this word is not ‘In the beginning God created …’ but rather this word means: ‘In the beginning of, God created’. What beginning is referenced? Therefore it implies that there is something that is needed to complete this thought. The sentence does not end at ‘In the beginning God created’ but rather ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’. [This is a merism which means that heaven (or sky) and earth is a phrase that encompasses everything, all of creation, everything one can see, the universe (the ‘one verse’, the one picture).] If we take the full sentence, we can understand it as ‘In the beginning of the heavens and the earth the formative mighty ones of God created’. The genitive in English has an implication and the sentence should be translated as: ‘In the beginning of this heaven and earth the mighty formative ones of God created’. ‘In the beginning of the creation of THIS cosmos…’
We can therefore imagine that there were things created before the heavens and the earth. If one reads all of Genesis chapter one and two there is no mention of the creation of angels and yet they appear in scripture quite early on as messengers of God. When were they created and how do they fit into the picture. Therefore, there is an understanding that before this beginning there was other activity. This was not the very beginning of all things, it was the beginning of this chapter. This talk will reveal what existed before.
If we go into the ancient philosophy of the Indus valley (the origins of Hinduism), we discover the idea that time is cyclical, patterns in great cycles. For the wise authors – the Rishis – of the first scriptures, the Vedas, there was no beginning nor was there an end, only cycles that go backward in time and cycles that go forward in time – the cycles of time. Yet, it is also possible for us to imagine activity before time – creative, energetic activity where there was no time. The Rishis could see the cycles of time in a small scale, the repeating of the seasons, and this led them to imagine the huge cycles of time. They had such a sense of time and suggested that one day for the Divine is like 4,320 million years for the earth. We recognise this as the number associated with the creation of earth at 4,530 million years ago and the Big Bang at 13,787 million years ago. Since the Big Bang, Brahman has experienced one day and one night to the creation of earth and is nearing the end of the second day of daylight. All cycles of time for the Rishis was a process of breathing out and breathing in: the Divine breathes out creation and breathes creation in again; everything dissolves back into the Divine.
This presentation will present the great cycles of time and also, in relation to these cycles of time, the hierarchies of the angels.
There are angelic beings not directly connected with great cycles of time, who were created and came to full consciousness before there was time, when time was now and always at once. The first to appear were the Seraphim. Their name means ‘the burning ones’, there is a sense of them being on fire. This is interesting because before time fire may not have existed, therefore burning would be a spiritual concept, not a physical fire that would manifest. It represents an intensity of being. They are described by the prophet Isiah as having six wings and flying around the throne of God crying “Holy, holy, holy”.
After the seraphim came the Cherubim which means ‘living creature’. They are a living being made of four parts that present like the face of an eagle, the face of an ox, the face of a lion and the face of a human being. Their body is covered by the four wings that they have that may be covered in eyes. We have depicted them as a combination of the four beings. which is the presentation of the lamassu: body of lion or bull, wings of eagle and face and breast of a human being. These two groups of angelic beings are not connected with the cycles of time and it is possible that their evolving, within themselves is complete. Their evolution is now only linked to the evolving of all of creation in which their understanding will grow.
The sources for this information comes from the Middle Ages and from before Christ, including the great prophets who described their experiences of the angelic world.
The next angels are known as Thrones. Their name means elevated seat (as in the seat of a certain sovereignty or power) but they are described as wheeling beings (moving in wheels within wheels). These angels were involved in the first great cycle of time. We refer to this cycle as Old Saturn (we will see later how this name related to the planet in our solar system called Saturn). The Thrones were the agents for God in the creation of Old Saturn, they were the creative agents of Old Saturn, they poured their substance into Old Saturn to make it possible for God to create. They created warmth. This warmth is the condition for human life on this earth. We speak about it in our everyday language: we feel warmly greeted, or we experience someone as being cold towards us. The Thrones had the task of creating order in space. They create and it has dimension. At this time it was a single dimension of space. They also began the course of time. The beings who were at the forefront of creative activity towards their development in this Cycle of Time were the Archai. The Archai are those beings who are connected with time and it was their destiny to become the Beings of Time in our great cycle. The Archai were known as the Azuras until it was understood that a certain group of these being felt that their gift to the Thrones was not recognised and they turned in opposition to the creative plan of the Divine. This group who were and still are in opposition retained the name of the Azuras and those who continued on the course of evolution then became known and referenced as the Archai. The human being was already present in Old Saturn and the evolutionary experience was to create the seed body for our current physical body. We existed in a physical expression of warmth. Then Old Saturn completely dissolved into spirituality and there was a pause. We know that all rhythms have a pause, the beat of the heart has a pause between each beat and the breath has a pause between each inhalation and each exhalation. This pause is an expression of the Divine nature of things.
A new Cycle of Time began and the Kyriotetes (the Lords, the Dominions) poured their substance into this creative space. The Kyriotetes were the creative agents of this Cycle known as Old Sun. The Kyriotetes were adding a new dimension to warmth, which re-establishes itself, which was density. A new physical dimension appeared. Density manifested as light and air. The spiritual beings at the forefront of creative unfolding in their evolution were the Archangels. Human beings were also present in Old Sun as beings of warmth and air. This establishes the seed for the etheric body and adds a new dimension to the development of a physical body. One being fell out of the evolutionary development of the Archangels and opposed the development; he becomes known as Ahriman. He seduced others to follow his opposition. Again, the creation dissolved into spirit and there is a pause.
A new Cycle of Time began and the Dynamis, the Beings of Movement, poured their substance into this creative space. They added movement into the organisation and order. They were the creative agents of this, the Old Moon Cycle of Time. The beings at the forefront of creative unfolding in their evolution were the angels. The Dynamis added gravity to warmth and density. Gravity was expressed as sound and water. The experience was that of two dimensions, there was area on Old Moon. There was one angel, often referred to as the greatest of the angels, who rebelled against the evolution and wished the development to be arrested and to remain forever as it was. He is Lucifer. He too, seduced other angels to follow his lead and align with his cause. The human being experiences existence on Old Moon as a warm, airy, watery being. The physical expression evolved further and began to experience a heaviness akin to gravity. The etheric body also evolves and into this living physical being the seeds of an astral body began to be present.
After a pause a new Cycle of Time began in which the Elohim (the Exusiai) are the creative agents who pour their substance into the new creation of Earth. The Elohim are the great Beings of Form and add a third dimension to the physical experience. Aspects of Old Moon, Old Sun and Old Saturn appear to us as cast-offs of the previous Great Cycles. The Elohim add fragmentation (or atomisation) to warmth, density and gravity. This allows for a multiplicity of the same thing to appear. They add life and earth to the physical experience. Now there is a breath of life and movement is a form of life. The beings known as human-being are now the beings experiencing the forefront of creative unfolding in their evolution. We have a physical dimension of earth, water, air and fire. All the old elements are in us: solid, liquid, gas and plasma.
When the earth is formed we hear in Genesis how the Elohim have the elements of warmth, air and water that emerge before they begin their creation. They add earth, physical densification that appears as a three-dimensional reality. At the beginning of each Great Cycle of Time there is a recapitulation of the previous Great Cycles. Something must remain that exists as a reminder of the previous cycles. The planet Saturn is the remnant that exists still of the Great Old Saturn Cycle. The ancients perceived Saturn and it spoke to them as a reminder of what had been the first Great Cycle of Time. The experience of incarnation onto the earth when entering through the Saturn Sphere is that this was our first experience of a physical reality as beings on Old Saturn. An atavistic clairvoyance therefore clearly reminded the ancients that Saturn was the bearer of the memory of Old Saturn, of the most ancient past. Old Sun appeared in the night sky as the planet Jupiter (large, bright, strong). Old Moon was experienced in the planet Mars. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are the outer planets, the planets beyond the Sun.
Earth, as a Great Cycle of Time, had to become the planet earth and had to give rise to the moon, which separated out of the earth. The centre point of each creative cycle is a sun-quality. The sun quality produces all the potential of the future. This sun-quality in the Earth Cycle of Time produces the Sun, and the qualities of the future which are the inner planets, those nearest the Sun: Venus (in its esoteric name nearest the Sun), and Mercury (in its esoteric name nearest Earth). The Earth therefore has Mercury and Mars as nearest neighbours and the Earth Cycle of Time has something connected with these two planets, past and future.
When the ancients looked up into the night sky they named the days of the week according to this understanding. The last day of the week had to be furthest back in time that we could go, which is Old Saturn. The days of the week had to be a rhythm and a cycle they could understand. The ancients, when looking at Saturn as it moved as a “moving star” across the sky had a sense of what it was and what it represented of realities before time on earth. There was a sense of connection. The ancient Hindu culture understood it clearly, and their writings are older than those of the Sumerian and Akkadian cultures. Their written texts date back to an oral tradition some 8 000 or 9 000 years ago, and there was a wisdom that existed that fed these texts that is at least 15 000 years old, possibly 20 000 years ago. The week ends with a reminder of Old Saturn, then starts with Old Sun, Old Moon, Mars and Mercury represent the two parts of the Earth Cycle and this cycle will the followed by a Jupiter Cycle and a Venus Cycle and then there will be a cycle for which the planet must still appear.
There are these extraordinary Great Cycles of Time and we find ourselves in the Earth Cycle. What we find in the Earth Cycle is a time when we recapitulated Old Saturn and a time when we recapitulated Old Sun and a time when we recapitulated Old Moon and we are now living in the creative time of Earth during which we are establishing new relationships to the Divine and the Cosmos, beyond what has been before, creating something that is wholly new.
Cosmos is creation and dissolution, creation anew with what was before and in a new way and dissolution, creation anew with what was before and before and in a new way and dissolution, creation anew with what was before and before and before but in a new way and dissolution and here we are: in the beginning of this sky and earth the Elohim create. Then we have the words in Genesis: “and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep”. This can also be translated very differently: “and the Elohim rayed forth warmth (this is what they could do, as warmth already existed as a reality) and moved (breathed – air) over the waters of the deep”. Now the Elohim could create with their powerful word solid substance, earth.
We have cycles of manifesting, dissolving, manifesting, dissolving and the scriptures support this concept. The scriptures support the idea of cycles if we can read the prophets of old. They understood the Great Cycles. They inherited this wisdom from the ancient civilisations and expressed them quite differently. Over time vocabulary changes and the way in which the wisdom is expressed changes, but the reality and our connection to it remains.
Questions at the end of the lecture.
The recapitulation that occurs within the Cycles of Time occurs much more quickly than when they were originally created because the ideas and experiences still live within the creative beings and thus they can recreate them relatively rapidly.
In the present time elements of the future Great Cycles are already beginning to emerge.
In each Great Cycle of time the beings whose evolving was the focus were developing self-consciousness. The Angels developed self-consciousness in Old Moon, the Archangels developed self-consciousness in Old Sun and the Archai developed self-consciousness in Old Saturn and the human being is developing self-consciousness in the Earth Cycle of Time. The development of self-consciousness creates the conditions to oppose, and to make a separation. In each Great Cycle of Time this development of self-consciousness occurs in conditions that also evolve and therefore our evolution to self-consciousness is unique to the human being and not comparable to the development of self-consciousness in the other hierarchies. We are the first beings to experience a complete separation from the Divine in our evolution to self-consciousness.
This is our Cosmos, our cosmic canvas. There are others in different cycles with other beings in their evolution. This is our Cosmos aligned to the same development we are in. The other galaxies we see out there are another Cosmos and another reality. The hierarchies we know are our spiritual family who have developed consciousness in the previous Cycles of Time where we too were present.
If we follow the order we will realise that the Creative Beings in the next Great Cycle will be the Archai, then the Archangels, and then the Angels. And then the Great Cycles of Time come to an end and new Cycles begin and humanity emerges in a new way.
The following morning, when the delegates of the Africa Seminary Module gathered again to work more intensively with the information of the talk described above, the question: “What are the Great Cycles of Time and how do they work?” was contemplated:
Seven Great Cycles. The intuition that there are seven Great Cycles is the same intuition that led to the week having seven days. We have already considered how the visible planets relate to the seven days of the week.
The seven Great Cycles are seven conditions of consciousness. In each Cycle there are seven conditions in life and form. The Earth Cycle is the cycle with the greatest degree of form. In the seven conditions of consciousness within the Earth Cycles are seven evolutionary stages. The seven evolutionary consciousness stages of the Earth Consciousness are:
There are these extraordinary Great Cycles of Time and we find ourselves in the Earth Cycle. What we find in the Earth Cycle is a time when we recapitulated Old Saturn and a time when we recapitulated Old Sun and a time when we recapitulated Old Moon and we are now living in the creative time of Earth during which we are establishing new relationships to the Divine and the Cosmos, beyond what has been before, creating something that is wholly new.
Cosmos is creation and dissolution, creation anew with what was before and in a new way and dissolution, creation anew with what was before and before and in a new way and dissolution, creation anew with what was before and before and before but in a new way and dissolution and here we are: in the beginning of this sky and earth the Elohim create. Then we have the words in Genesis: “and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep”. This can also be translated very differently: “and the Elohim rayed forth warmth (this is what they could do, as warmth already existed as a reality) and moved (breathed – air) over the waters of the deep”. Now the Elohim could create with their powerful word solid substance, earth.
We have cycles of manifesting, dissolving, manifesting, dissolving and the scriptures support this concept. The scriptures support the idea of cycles if we can read the prophets of old. They understood the Great Cycles. They inherited this wisdom from the ancient civilisations and expressed them quite differently. Over time vocabulary changes and the way in which the wisdom is expressed changes, but the reality and our connection to it remains.
Questions at the end of the lecture.
The recapitulation that occurs within the Cycles of Time occurs much more quickly than when they were originally created because the ideas and experiences still live within the creative beings and thus they can recreate them relatively rapidly.
In the present time elements of the future Great Cycles are already beginning to emerge.
In each Great Cycle of time the beings whose evolving was the focus were developing self-consciousness. The Angels developed self-consciousness in Old Moon, the Archangels developed self-consciousness in Old Sun and the Archai developed self-consciousness in Old Saturn and the human being is developing self-consciousness in the Earth Cycle of Time. The development of self-consciousness creates the conditions to oppose, and to make a separation. In each Great Cycle of Time this development of self-consciousness occurs in conditions that also evolve and therefore our evolution to self-consciousness is unique to the human being and not comparable to the development of self-consciousness in the other hierarchies. We are the first beings to experience a complete separation from the Divine in our evolution to self-consciousness.
This is our Cosmos, our cosmic canvas. There are others in different cycles with other beings in their evolution. This is our Cosmos aligned to the same development we are in. The other galaxies we see out there are another Cosmos and another reality. The hierarchies we know are our spiritual family who have developed consciousness in the previous Cycles of Time where we too were present.
If we follow the order we will realise that the Creative Beings in the next Great Cycle will be the Archai, then the Archangels, and then the Angels. And then the Great Cycles of Time come to an end and new Cycles begin and humanity emerges in a new way.
The following morning, when the delegates of the Africa Seminary Module gathered again to work more intensively with the information of the talk described above, the question: “What are the Great Cycles of Time and how do they work?” was contemplated:
- Saturn Cycle
- Sun Cycle
- Moon Cycle
- Earth Cycle
- Jupiter Cycle
- Venus Cycle
- Vulcan Cycle
Seven Great Cycles. The intuition that there are seven Great Cycles is the same intuition that led to the week having seven days. We have already considered how the visible planets relate to the seven days of the week.
The seven Great Cycles are seven conditions of consciousness. In each Cycle there are seven conditions in life and form. The Earth Cycle is the cycle with the greatest degree of form. In the seven conditions of consciousness within the Earth Cycles are seven evolutionary stages. The seven evolutionary consciousness stages of the Earth Consciousness are:
- The Polarian Stage. The name is derived from the north star. It points to a navigation through this evolution that is the recapitulation of Old Saturn and was thus a period of warmth or plasma. It is also connected with the end of the week, Saturday.
- The Hyperborian Stage. The name means ‘beyond the north’ and is named after the god of wind, Boriolus. This stage was the recapitulation of Old Sun. It is during this stage that the physical sun separated out from the cosmic cloud of the solar system. Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon become evident as the building blocks for life. This stage is the stage where air becomes evident and is connected with the first day of the week, Sunday.
- The Lemurian Stage. The name means ‘spirits of those who have died’. This stage is the recapitulation of Old Moon and it is during this stage that the physical moon separates out from the planet that is the earth. The human being is present in this stage of earth evolution as fiery beings and we experience, for the first time, the possibility of discernment. This is described as the Garden of Eden. Humanity, however, was tempted by the possibility of discernment too early and as a result the consequences of our action arrived earlier than God had planned. The impulse for this came through Lucifer who appeared to humanity with the temptation to avoid the whole process of evolving by taking on the capacity of discernment immediately. Humanity also becomes a plurality separating into two genders. All of life forms become gendered. Some life forms have the genders in separate entities while others carry both genders in each entity. This stage is connected with Monday.
- The Atlantean Stage. The name means the waters beyond the Atlas Mountains. In this stage the earth must become flooded with water. This stage is connected with Tuesday.
- The Post-Atlantean Stage. This stage is connected with Wednesday and Mercury. It is a time of movement. In addition to warmth, air and water, earth is now a reality. In this Post-Atlantean stage there emerge seven cultural ages. These seven ages are named after the civilisation that best captured the written records of the age. In the early part of this stage before the first recorded cultural age humanity arose in Africa, in the Cradle of Humankind and settled in the Ngorongoro Basin. Humanity left this area and slowly migrated along the coast northward and eastward until a civilisation (with written records) arose in the Indus Valley.
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In the period before the Ancient Indian Civilisation humanity developed uprightness. We are innately upright beings and were never a simian species that evolved into a human being. We were always human beings that evolved into modern humans.
There are three levels developing in the Great Cycle:
Consciousness – driven by the Father God
Life – driven by the Son God
Form – driven by the Spirit God
There are three levels developing in the Great Cycle:
Consciousness – driven by the Father God
Life – driven by the Son God
Form – driven by the Spirit God
The Earth Cycle of Time is about the development of Discernment which is the Tree of the Knowledge of All Things.
The experience of the Creative Beings of each Earth Cycle was imagined in an exercise. Each participant was given a candle and was asked to create a world on this candle using coloured bees wax. After the creation of the world everyone was able to admire the creation of everyone else. However, each Great Cycle of Time dissolves back into spirit and therefore after admiring the creation that each person had developed a love for in the creating, the candle was set alight and over next 24 hours the candles burned to a small mound of wax with only a small pool of colour as a reminder of the world that was created.
The process of creation occurs between two poles. In Genesis chapter 1 we can read how the Elohim imagined the creation. In Genesis chapter 2 one of the Elohim is tasked with bringing the imagination to a physical reality. There is a tension between the conception and the material execution.
God is not finished and nor are we.
The process of creation is an ongoing process.
God is in process.
The potential for evolution must live in God for evolution to exist in creation.
The experience of the Creative Beings of each Earth Cycle was imagined in an exercise. Each participant was given a candle and was asked to create a world on this candle using coloured bees wax. After the creation of the world everyone was able to admire the creation of everyone else. However, each Great Cycle of Time dissolves back into spirit and therefore after admiring the creation that each person had developed a love for in the creating, the candle was set alight and over next 24 hours the candles burned to a small mound of wax with only a small pool of colour as a reminder of the world that was created.
The process of creation occurs between two poles. In Genesis chapter 1 we can read how the Elohim imagined the creation. In Genesis chapter 2 one of the Elohim is tasked with bringing the imagination to a physical reality. There is a tension between the conception and the material execution.
God is not finished and nor are we.
The process of creation is an ongoing process.
God is in process.
The potential for evolution must live in God for evolution to exist in creation.
Creating a world
The experience of the Creative Beings of each Earth Cycle was imagined in an exercise. Each participant was given a candle and was asked to create a world on this candle using coloured bees wax. After the creation of the world everyone was able to admire the creation of everyone else. However, each Great Cycle of Time dissolves back into spirit and therefore after admiring the creation that each person had developed a love for in the creating, the candle was set alight and over next 24 hours the candles burned to a small mound of wax with only a small pool of colour as a reminder of the world that was created.
Below are the worlds that each delegate created.
Below are the worlds that each delegate created.
But creation is not static, it needs to be alive. So we enlivened our worlds ...
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What remains as the ashes from which the next creation will arise like a phoenix?
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