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.

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