The articles on the topic of the 7 Miracles of the Etheric Christ were meant to give a guiding image as to the nature of the activity of those of us working under the aegis of the Kalki Avatar, as that activity unfolds itself over the course of the next 25 or so years. Specifically, this guiding image was that of the 4th Miracle, The Feeding of the 5000. The purpose of these articles on the Great Teachers is to expand this set of guiding images from one to four, to have a more nuanced and balanced picture to motivate us as modern-day Templists (Grail Knights).

In the first place, if we are to be working in the name of Kalki Avatar, the Maitreya Boddhisatva, what must the nature of our inner life consist of? Following on from the Magician (Mysticism, Sun) of Rudolf Steiner, to the High Priestess (Gnosis, Saturn) of Valentin Tomberg, to the Empress (Sacred Magic, Moon) of Robert Powell, we come to the Emperor. The Emperor is Hermeticism, and the representative among the Major Arcana of Jupiter.

To begin with, we must take this as an indication that our inner life must be imbued with Hermeticism; that is, the act of synthesis, of finding correspondence via analogy, must be our guiding light, rather than analysis and discursive logic. We can make this indication even more specific by looking to the life of Rudolf Steiner. Here we see that the effect and legacy of Rudolf Steiner was to awaken and heal the Brow Chakra, the Jupiter Chakra. Our inner life, then, must become completely saturated and transformed by the being of Anthroposophia. This is something above and beyond merely filling ourselves with the content of Rudolf Steiner’s teaching, but of actually following the path laid out by him which leads to a synthetic, living form of thinking. It is a matter of uniting ourselves inwardly not just with his teaching, but with all the initiatives that sprang up due to this teaching:  Waldorf schools, biodynamic farming, Camphill, the Society itself.

Here we have another example of the principle of inversion:  what was the most external aspect of Rudolf Steiner must become the most internal aspect for those of us acting on the behalf of the Maitreya Boddhisatva.

Next we come to the mode and content of our teaching. Following on from Saturn (The High Priestess), Sun (The Magician), and the Moon (The Empress), we come to Mars:  The Chariot. This is the Arcanum of Self-Mastery.

In his Letter-Meditation on The Chariot, Valentin Tomberg describes the successive Temptations in the Wilderness:  how on the 37th day, Christ was tempted to Power; on the 38th day, he was tempted to Instinct; and on the 39th day, he was tempted to Materialism. On the 40th day, having overcome the three temptations, he was then ministered to by three Angels, who bestowed on him the seven-fold Glory which carried the seeds of the seven Healing Miracles.

However, this last day of temptation, this victory over evil, bears within it the seed of a combined temptation, of meeting all three temptations simultaneously in the form of megalomania. As we enter into the 40th Cosmic Day of Temptation (according to Robert Powell, from 2018-2047), the teaching of how to overcome megalomania and achieve self-mastery via humility is the key teaching of our time. It is the path to receiving the seven-fold Glory of the ministering Angels.

Combined with the comprehensive knowledge that is borne by an inner life under the sign of The Emperor, a mode of speaking under the sign of The Chariot can potentially be overwhelming for the person or people to which one is speaking. One must be careful to keep hold of the reigns of one’s tongue, and practice balancing both the Michaelic/Rosicrucian mode of speaking (which can be too severe) with the Franciscan/Buddhistic mode of speaking (which can be too gentle). Again we have the principle of inversion at play:  that which operated at the outermost level (effect and legacy) for Valentin Tomberg must become internalized to the level of teaching.

We have looked quite specifically at the third aspect, that of the expression of will, at length in the articles on the 7 Miracles of the Etheric Christ, as alluded to above. Following on from the Moon (Changing of Water into Wine, Empress) of Steiner, to Venus (Healing of the Nobleman’s Son, The Lover) of Tomberg, to Mercury (Healing of the Paralyzed Man, The Pope) of Robert Powell, we come to the Sun. The Sun is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It is The Magician—Mysticism.

In addition to the quality of “spiritualizing the senses” discussed in the prior set of articles, we can once again look to the artistic realms related to the different chakras in order to get a picture of how the act of Feeding of the Five Thousand might express itself through those of us acting on behalf of Kalki Avatar. Whereas the Root Chakra is related to Drama, the Sacral to Poetry, and the Solar Plexus to Dance, the Heart Chakra is related to Music. Whether implicitly or explicitly, there will be a musical quality to the mystical deeds we undertake in order to accomplish this 4th miracle.

Again an inversion has taken place. Whereas the effect of Rudolf Steiner on the Brow Chakra must work all the way down into our inner life, and the effect of Valentin Tomberg on the Larynx Chakra must work down to our mode and content of teaching, the effect of Novalis (via Robert Powell) on the Heart Chakra must have gone far enough to effect the quality of our deeds in the world. The three streams preceding us must unite:  the legacies of Steiner, of Tomberg, and of Robert Powell must all come together in the thoughts we think, the words we speaks, and the deeds we perform on the behalf of Kalki Avatar.

Finally, we come to the effect and legacy we are trying to extend out into the world and into each other. Following on from the Brow Chakra (Jupiter, The Emperor), to the Larynx Chakra (Mars, The Chariot), to the Heart Chakra (Sun, The Magician), we come to the Solar Plexus Chakra. This is the chakra of Mercury and of The Pope. This is the Stage of Crucifixion in Christ’s Passion.

The Solar Plexus Chakra is the realm in which subconsciousness has the potential to meet and be taken up by consciousness. It is the region in which we can confront our Karmic Double, the Lesser Guardian of the Threshold—the cumulative result of all of our deeds over the course of many lives. The effect that Kalki Avatar ought to have on us in the present day (whether through another person or directly) is the awakening of this chakra. The result of this awakening is a strong sense of contrition and shame to begin with, and subsequently an increasing feeling of responsibility and vigilance over our lower self, our doppleganger. Taking ownership of our double is an act that contributes to the overcoming of Ahriman; to the redemption of Lucifer; and to the awakening of karmic clairvoyance, the gift bestowed on us by the Etheric Christ increasingly in the time to come. Humanity as a whole is crossing the threshold; it is our task to awaken in it the strength and capacity to accomplish this.

Once again we have come to an inversion:  that which was operating at the level of the will for the third Teacher must extend out to become the effect and lasting legacy of the Great Teacher of our time.

We come to an arrangement of Arcana that is in a way as harmonious as that of Rudolf Steiner’s (which spelt the Divine Name, YHVH). Here we have:

The Emperor—Jupiter

The Chariot—Mars

The Magician—Sun

The Pope—Mercury

The sequence Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Mercury takes us from the Brow Chakra, down to the Larynx Chakra, to the Heart Chakra, and then into the Solar Plexus Chakra. While Rudolf Steiner’s “Name” spelt out the path of the inner life (that of the first four Major Arcana), the “Name” of Kalki in our time spells out the path of outer effect (the path downward through the chakras). It is this path that consists of the closing part of the Morning Meditation of Rudolf Steiner:

“…during the first abstention from breathing the pupil concentrates on the point lying between and a little behind the eyebrows, at the root of the nose, inside the forepart of the brain, while he fills his consciousness exclusively with the words:

I am.

During the second abstention from breathing he concentrates on a point inside the larynx, while he fills his consciousness exclusively with the image:

It thinks.

During the third abstention from breathing he concentrates on the two arms and hands. The hands are either held folded, or the right is laid over the left. At the same time he fills his consciousness exclusively with the image:

She feels.

During the fourth abstention from breathing he concentrates on the whole surface of the body; that is, he pictures his bodily self with the utmost possible clarity and fills his consciousness with the image:

                                                                         He wills.”

– from Guidance in Esoteric Training

It was Valentin Tomberg who later explicitly connected these four stages to the four chakras mentioned above. This progression can be experienced on another level through working with the exercises in Robert Powell’s Cultivating Inner Radiance, bringing them together with the Foundation Stone Meditation, cosmic evolution, and levels of transformed consciousness (see page 217). We might think of the path laid out in Cultivating Inner Radiance as the ideal path for developing in ourselves the four qualities required of us to unfold the spiritual task of our time. Yes, the effect on the pupil of the Kalki Avatar should be to experience the Stage of Crucifixion:  crucified to the four points of the internal compass, thus creating the possibility for the 5th wound, the spear wound, to open up a fount of creative transformation.

Next article: https://treehouse.live/2018/11/15/moving-beyond-aristotle-and-plato/

Previous section: https://treehouse.live/2017/10/13/the-four-fold-teachers-pt-4-robert-powell/

The title above may seem a bold statement to some, as possibly even Robert Powell himself would disagree with the characterization of himself as the successor to Valentin Tomberg. However, as the true successor to Valentin Tomberg, the Novalis individuality, is an individual completely out of the public eye, and performing her work primarily in the night life of her disciples (in the Night School of Sophia), then we must look towards the public teacher who is, more than anyone else, consciously her spokesperson.  The gesture of Robert Powell’s entire biography has been to bear tasks and burdens for others:  carrying on the unfolding of Astrosophy for Willi Sucher; translating the massive Meditations on the Tarot (and subsequently being ostracized from Anthroposophy to some degree); and accomplishing the (yet to be fully published) extensive research into karma and reincarnation at the behest of Rudolf Steiner. Robert Powell states that the Novalis individuality reincarnated sometime close to 1970; this means she would have experienced her transformative Christ years around the year 2000. We might see the impulse brought to manifestation through Robert of both the Sophia Foundation as well as the School of Choreocosmos as a deed performed on behalf of the Novalis individuality, as the outer expression of a transformation experienced by her leading up to and during her Christ years.

In fact, this entire characterization of Robert Powell as the bearer of the burdens (or Crosses) of others leads us directly to the first quality of the Great Teachers, the inner life of the Teacher. Following the sequence of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, we move from The Magician as the image of the inner life of Rudolf Steiner (Mysticism/Intuition), to The High Priestess as the image of the inner life of Valentin Tomberg (Gnosis/Inspiration), to The Empress as the image of the inner life of Robert Powell. The Empress is the representative of Sacred Magic and Imagination, Imagination in the sense of the Foundation Stone Meditation’s third stanza:

“Practice Spirit-vision

In stillness of Thought,

Where the Eternal Aims Divine

Cosmic Spirit Light

To thine own I

For thy free willing

Grant thee.”

This form of Imagination is the union of two wills, the higher Will of the Spirit bestowed on the Teacher through Phantasy or Spirit-vision, which can then freely be taken up by the will of the Teacher in the spirit of “Not my will, but Thy will be done.”

The Empress is also related to the Moon, just as The Magician is to the Sun, and the High Priestess is to Saturn. The Moon is the dwelling place of Yahweh Elohim; Valentin Tomberg has characterized the reason for Yahweh Elohim separating himself from the rest of the Elohim to dwell on the Moon in order to become the Cross-Bearer of all humanity. He is the filter; he maintains the normal progress of spiritual evolution by bearing that which cannot be borne by humanity or the spiritual world. This is akin to the inner character of Robert Powell:  he bears within himself the tasks that have been bestowed on him both by the spiritual world as well as by other Teachers; he bears within himself a living, mobile image of the starry heavens; he bears within himself knowledge of the karmic history and destiny of many individualities; and he bears within himself truths pertaining to the world situation which few others are prepared to bear.

Following on from the first level of manifestation, the inner life of the Teacher, we come to the mode and content of expression, of teaching of Robert Powell, the representative of the Third Great Teacher, Novalis. Following the sequence of Cosmic Evolution, which began with Saturn (High Priestess/Gnosis) for Rudolf Steiner, and the Sun (The Magician/Mysticism) for Valentin Tomberg, we come once again to the Moon (The Empress/Sacred Magic). It is very interesting that in the case of Robert Powell, we have a concordance between the inner life and the outer expression:  both are related to the Moon and the third Arcanum, The Empress.

In the case of the quality of Robert Powell’s outer mode of expression, both the lunar quality as well as the concordance with his inner life manifest themselves in the clarity and directness with which Robert speaks. Certainly in his written works, but even more so when one sees him speak in person, there is a refreshing, gentle, yet enlivening quality about his way of communicating. There is also an extremely scientific and intellectual quality to his work, that paired with a quite thorough, step by step explanation of his ideas, makes it possible for him to express with relative simplicity very complex concepts and discoveries.

In terms of the content brought forth by Robert, it is almost entirely encapsulated under the heading of “Sacred Magic,” particularly if we think of the archetypal Magi, the Three Kings who came to visit the Solomon Jesus child. Star Wisdom as the teaching of Sacred Magic is the content of most of his teaching. In addition to this, his teaching concerning new forms of eurythmy and sacred practice are concerned in a more practical way with instructing people in Sacred Magic that, being deeply related to the Etheric Christ and Divine Sophia, are healthy Magical practices to take up, with none of the potential hazards associated with the ceremonial magic of, for example, the Golden Dawn. Not surprisingly, many of his most basic meditation/eurythmy exercises have to do with deepening our relationship with the cycles of the Moon, as the boundary demarcated by the orbit of the Moon is the realm of the Etheric, in which Christ is currently manifesting.

At the third level of manifestation of the Great Teachers, we come to the sequence of the healing miracles of Christ: after The Moon/Empress for Steiner, and Venus/The Lover for Tomberg, we come to Mercury/The Pope for Robert Powell. I have already written to some extent about the unfolding of this Third Miracle between 1992-2004 in my previous articles on these miracles, and that these deeds were particularly centered around the establishment of the Sophia Foundation as well as the School of Chorecosmos. The fifth Arcanum, The Pope, is related to Love of God; we can see in the various liturgies and sacraments of the Second Coming that have come through Robert’s work with the Sophia Foundation a new expression of Love of God via The Pope, a miracle for our time.

Additionally, the Mercury Chakra is related, according to Valentin Tomberg, to the art of Dance. This barely needs any elaboration on my part. It is clear from Robert’s nearly 40 year relationship to the practice of eurythmy that the art of Dance, particularly Cosmic and Sacred Dance, is central to the expression of his will.

Finally, we come to the fourth level of manifestation of the Great Teacher:  the effect on his followers, and the legacy he has left.  As Robert has pointed out in his work on the Great Teachers (primarily found in The Most Holy Trinosophia), while Rudolf Steiner came to awaken the Brow Chakra to Truth, and Valentin Tomberg came to awaken the Larynx Chakra to Goodness or Morality, the Novalis being (via Robert Powell, implicitly) has come to awaken the Heart Chakra to Beauty. The Heart Chakra is related to the Sun, and hence to The Magician/Mysticism.

Hence, it is a Mystical experience of Beauty that is to be awoken in the student of Robert Powell. Again, anyone who has ever attended a workshop facilitated by Robert Powell can feel this Mystical mood permeating them through and through. In terms of the Stages of the Passion, again we are brought to the Bearing of the Cross, the Stage associated with the Heart Chakra. We can see that another effect that Robert has (again, with the utmost gentleness and tact) is to awaken in those around him the same quality that is developed so strongly in himself – the capacity and willingness to bear burdens, to take up tasks. It is wonderful to witness how, over the course of the last year or two in particular, various initiatives that have been largely spearheaded by Robert have been passed on into quite capable hands. This was something that Rudolf Steiner (for a variety of karmic reasons; here is not the place to point a finger of blame) could not accomplish during his lifetime; the ultimate responsibility for the General Anthroposophical Society and its various initiatives, up until the day of his death, always lay at his feet.

And once again, we see an inversion take place. For Valentin Tomberg, the inner life of Rudolf Steiner (Magician) became his teaching, while the teaching of Rudolf Steiner (High Priestess) became his inner life. In his deeds (Lover) and legacy (Chariot), he brought something new. For Robert Powell, the deeds of Rudolf Steiner (Empress) have inverted and formed the content of both Robert’s inner life and teaching, while the inner life of Steiner, and the teaching of Tomberg (Magician) have moved outward to Robert’s legacy and effect on his students. In his deeds (Pope), he has brought something new. Indeed, the simple phrase of Tomberg’s, “Let the will of the predecessor be the thought of the successor, and let the thought of the predecessor be the will of the successor,” conceals a great deal of weaving from one Teacher to the next!

In the next and final section, we will look at how the four levels of manifestation might display themselves in the time ahead of us:  Jupiter/Mars/Sun/Mercury

Next section: https://treehouse.live/2017/10/24/the-fourfold-teachers-pt-5-what-next/

Previous section: https://treehouse.live/2017/09/30/the-four-fold-teachers-pt-3-valentin-tomberg/