“And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman garbed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a chaplet of twelve stars, And she was pregnant, and she cries out, enduring birth-pangs, and in an agony to give birth. And another sign was seen in heaven, and look: a great flame-hued dragon who had seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven diadems, And his tail drags along one third of the stars of heaven, and he cast them onto the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that, when she should give birth, he might devour her child. And she bore a son, a male child, who is about to shepherd all the gentiles with a rod of iron, and her child was seized away to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, there where she has a place prepared by God, so that they might nourish her for twelve hundred and sixty days. And war broke out in heaven: that of Michael and his angels waging a war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, And did not prevail, nor was any place still found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent, the one that is called Slanderer and Accuser, the one that leads the whole inhabited world astray—it was cast down into the earth and its angels were cast down with it. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now has come about the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Anointed, because the persecutor of our brothers, the one prosecuting them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they conquered him by the blood of the suckling lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their own soul all the way to death. For this reason be glad, O heavens and those tabernacling therein; alas for the earth and sea, because the Slanderer has descended into you with a great rage, knowing that he has little time.” And, when the dragon saw that he had been cast down into the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so that she might fly to the wilderness, to her place, there where she is nourished—for a season, and for seasons, and for half a season—away from the serpent’s face.”

A great deal of history is condensed—and foreseen—in these first fourteen verses of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, if only we know how to read the images that are written there.

First of all, who is the woman crowned with stars, clothed with the sun, standing on the moon? She is Sophia, yes, but in what role specifically? She is Sophia as the Soul of Europe, the Divine Ideal of Europe. Her threefold garment of stars, sun and moon are the threefold social organism of Europe: Liberty for the individual, Equality under the law, and Fraternity in our work. She is Columbia, the guiding light of the revolutions of the late 18th/early 19th centuries. We could say that she is intimately bound up with the Goethean enlightenment that flourished during this time period in the Germanic/Austro-Hungarian region of Europe.

This woman is in labor, bearing a son who is to “shepherd all the Gentiles with a rod of iron.” And this is no mere image or symbol, but quite literally this child existed. For who was the “Child of Europe”? None other than Kaspar Hauser; and as we pointed out in the previous section:

“South Germany should have become the new Grail-Castle of the new Knights of the Grail and the cradle of future events. The spiritual ground had been well prepared by all those personalities whom we know of as Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Herder and others. Kaspar Hauser was to have gathered around him, as it were, all that existed in this spiritual ground thus prepared.” (Rudolf Steiner, communicated to Count Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, November 1916).

And so this Goethean culture that developed during the late 18th/early 19th century was the earthly expression of this Sophia-Europa, as the vessel for a new Knights of the Grail led by Kaspar Hauser, the Child of Europe. But just as it is written in Revelation, the dragon waited by the lady’s feet in order to consume this child. Let’s look at the full quotation of Rudolf Steiner’s from November 1916, of which only a portion is quoted above:

“Those circles which conceal everything and today still try to conceal what happened in connection with Kaspar Hauser’s destiny, are those members of western Lodges and Jesuits who have worked together in their leading organizations for more than 150 years, but demonstrably since January 1802. The latter, therefore, do not want to have exposed what they have staged as an experiment, as an elaborate attempt to separate the individual in question from his mission and to hold him in a twilight zone, not completely spirit and not altogether a man on earth, but diverted from his mission and kept as though in spiritual exile; that is to say, to build a body, but not be able to take hold of it as an individual ego. This experiment, however, did not succeed and that is the reason why Kaspar Hauser had to die. The people concerned were forced to experience that their experiment achieved just that which they had tried to avoid: the awakening of the individuality, yes, even that he became conscious of reincarnation and karma. But that was just what should not have been. South Germany should have become the new Grail-Castle of the new Knights of the Grail and the cradle of future events. The spiritual ground had been well prepared by all those personalities whom we know of as Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Herder and others. Kaspar Hauser was to have gathered around him, as it were, all that existed in this spiritual ground thus prepared. But that was not wanted by those circles (the western Lodges and the Jesuits). They could not tolerate a centre that was awakening to consciousness if they were not to relinquish their power and designs for power. A spirit such as Goethe’s frightened them. Napoleon forced them to unite and form a league for the aspired-to world domination in the sphere of ideology and commerce. Napoleon had already thwarted their effort; it was he who fundamentally forced the two currents into union. From that time onwards the tasks allotted to each were clearly circumscribed. But for that their clearly defined goal of world domination became all the more effective. The ideological and spiritual affairs were given exclusively into the hands of the Jesuits; the commercial ones into the hands of the Anglo-American Lodges of the West. These plans, however, will lead to ever more tragic catastrophes, because none of them take human development into account. What was intended to happen through Kaspar Hauser was overthrown by mankind. On these “planned” ruins the black-and white principle gained ascendancy. The black-and-white principle, however, is something constructed, something exclusive. This is also the tragedy of Bismarck himself, who was quite well able to construct the model for a Federal State, the constructive idea of a true Central Federation, but could not supply the supporting idea, that which would have made a state construction of this kind appear necessary and justified. It was that which Bismarck was seeking in Frankfurt, too, the Goethean spirit, that which could have developed in the region of southern Germany through Kaspar Hauser but did not come about. It was in Frankfurt, actually, where Bismarck encountered the principle of black-and-white and all that then bound him to the King of Prussia. It was from then on that the era of the lawyer began, but politics is not a legal problem.”

It is fascinating to realise that in 1832—the year before the assassination of Kaspar Hauser—the Rothschilds (western brotherhoods) made a donation the equivalent of $70,000,000 in modern value to the Holy See (Jesuits):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_loans_to_the_Holy_See

And so, indeed, the Child was “seized up to God and his throne.” After this, there is the War in Heaven between Michael and the Dragon. We might wonder if Kaspar Hauser himself was a part of this war in the spiritual world? We know from Rudolf Steiner that this war took place during the years 1841-1879, after which the Slanderer (Satan in Hebrew, Ahriman in Persian) was thrown down to Earth. This corresponds almost exactly with the birth of Joseph Stalin in December 1878, who in his subsequent incarnation would be the vessel for in the incarnation of Ahriman (this is alluded to in Chapter 13 of Revelation, with the Beast who rises from the sea as Joseph Stalin, and the Image of the Beast as his reincarnation, the vessel for Ahriman).

The Slanderer pursues Sophia-Europa, and she is given the wings of an eagle to go into the wilderness for 1260 days (or, “a season, seasons, and half a season”). We can understand this to indicate that sometime after 1879—and throughout the 20th century—the Soul of Europe disappeared. More precisely, she entered the “wilderness” in order to be protected from the destructive forces of the Slanderer, the dragon, until the allotted time period has passed.

In the Lord’s Prayer Course, Valentin Tomberg describes the seven archetypal countries of Europe in relation to the seven lotuses. He gives brief descriptions of the spiritual tasks of each of these countries, and the nature of their guiding archangel or folk spirit. These countries are:

Saturn—Crown—Poland

Jupiter—Brow—Germany

Mars—Larynx—France

Sun—Heart—Italy

Mercury—Solar Plexus—(Spain/Portugal, according to Robert Powell)

Venus—Sacral—Netherlands

Moon—Root—England

Now, in this section, Valentin Tomberg makes an interesting statement regarding Germany and America:

“GERMANY – JUPITER. Germany – here the Archangel works through the element of warmth, both inner and outer warmth.

Warmth is bound up with two sources:

digestion and the blood (one warms oneself at the fire or through eating); and 

through the ideals which the human being has.

The mission of Germany was to make the self (the source of ideals) so strong that it masters the digestive system.

However, the contrary took place.

Digestion and the blood rose up and created their own ideals, which had the consequence of driving the Archangel away.

This refers to Nazi Germany, where the ideal of pure, Aryan blood was promulgated, and the Archangel of Germany was obliged to withdraw its field of activity to America.

The highest warmth from the human being is in the Word from the Cross:

My god, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Human beings must develop a warmth from within in order to seek the highest: God. Then, through the initiative of the 2-petalled lotus flower, all the other lotus flowers also come into vibration by way of resonance.

The most lonely warmth is bound up with the mission of the self.”

And so we see, due to the consequences of the rise of the Dragon (Nazism), the archangel of Germany—which is meant to be the leading culture of the Age of the Consciousness Soul in Europe—fled to America. The “woman fled into the wilderness” indicates the Germanic archangel fleeing to America (the wilderness indeed!).

Now the Nazism that drove Sophia-Europa into America was not an isolated being, but rather the external, militant branch of the cooperation between the western brotherhoods and the Jesuits (dark powers of commerce and ideology). The true source for both the Nazi and Bolshevist disruptions in the 20th century come from the “mastermind” of England, where the western brotherhoods have operated for centuries. Indeed, they left their signature, as the Nazis chose the swastika (traditionally related to the root chakra) as their icon—and England is the “root chakra” of Europe.

The occultism of England suffers an identity crisis, a kind of Cain-like jealousy for the “Abel” of true European (Germanic, Goethean) culture. You see, Rudolf Steiner makes the following relationships clear throughout his lectures in the 1910s:

Italy is a recapitulation of the sentient soul culture of Ancient Egypt

France is a recapitulation of the intellectual soul culture of Ancient Greece/Rome

England is the first experience proper of the consciousness soul culture

The Germanic/Austro-Hungarian nations are the Ego of Europe

Finland as the conscience of Europe

And the Slavic/Russian countries are the still gestating spirit-self

The occultists of England have understood this role as consciousness soul for centuries, and therefore from the very beginning of the Age of the Consciousness Soul (see for example the events surrounding Joan of Arc) have attempted to rule Europe and determine her destiny. At first they did this more overtly through the British Empire, but through blackmail and subterfuge (i.e. primarily through intelligence agencies) they have maintained a stranglehold on world culture. The United States of America may seem as though they are the primary culture of modern times, but ever since the end of World War II, they have been playing a very similar role to Nazi Germany before them: the attack dog, the external arm of the western brotherhoods originating in England.

But this is all a great misunderstanding. For England, in another sense, is not properly part of Europe at all, at least not the current mission of Europe. For her mission will not come about for thousands of years, during the Anglo-American epoch from 5734 – 7894. England and America are meant to work together, and be the primary culture in the world—but not for a long time. We can even see this astrogeographically, as the projection of Taurus covers virtually the entirety of Europe except for the U.K. (and Spain), which are under the projection of Aries.

In mis-perceiving themselves as the cultural leader of the current time period, British occultists have facilitated to a great degree the incarnation of Ahriman, as they have attempted to arrest the development of both the 5th and 6th cultural epochs (European and Russian respectively) and are wittingly or unwittingly attempting to bring about the Anglo-American cultural era 4000 years too soon. And this era is the time period when “mechanical occultism” will face off against “transhumanism”; when the moon reunites with the Earth and sexual reproduction  will become impossible; when the “white magic” of those who have cultivated the resurrection body (and therefore only incarnate physically, not materially) will attempt to rescue those who will become increasingly enmeshed in matter and sub-matter. This time period culminates with the “War of All Against All,” a war fought primarily in the elements of the air (just as Lemuria was destroyed by fire, and Atlantis submerged in water, our age is destroyed by the polluting, poisoning and weaponising of the air). Do we not see all of these future events attempting to rear their heads too soon, in our own age?

This fleeing of Sophia-Europa to the wilderness of America was also expressed in the gesture of the guiding light true occultism throughout the 20th century. It began in the Germanic countries with the Anthroposophical Society; Valentin Tomberg (as well as Walter Johannes Stein, Willi Sucher, and Karl Koenig, among many others) transferred this activity to the U.K. over the course of the 1930’s-40’s. Then individuals like Willi Sucher and Karl Koenig made the leap to the USA (following in the footsteps of individuals like Ehrenfried Pfeiffer) in the 1960’s.

So this middle period of the 20th century was a transition, a migration west. This reached its apotheosis in the 1990’s, when a British anthroposophist—Robert Powell—founded the Sophia Foundation with Karen Rivers in California. The true spirit of Goethean culture could and still can be found in the Sophia Grail celebrations cultivated there for the past twenty-five years. More than anywhere else, it was the American Camphills and the Sophia Foundation who protected the seed of true European culture, the Sophia-Europa, from the encroachment and attacks of the Slanderer.

Can we still see in our time a Napoleonic force that is driving the Jesuits and western brotherhoods to work together, to an ever great fusion? Do we begin to see  cracks in the armour? As unsavoury as the modern conservative populist movement may be, represented as it is by figures such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, what we are seeing is Europe released from the clutches of the UK. And if Europe is released from the clutches of the UK, she can begin to relate more equitably with Russia. The future of Russia—and of humanity—depends on this healthy interaction. If the UK leaves Europe alone, then the USA and the UK can begin to relate to each other equitably. The future of Anglo-America—and of humanity—depends on this healthy relationship developing. And a healthy separation of USA/UK from Europe/Russia will lead to, if not friendship, then at least a respectful cooperation between USA and Russia. (Anyone who claims that Russia is actively attempting to disrupt the USA or Europe is either delusional or deliberately spreading (MI6/CIA/Mossad) disinformation. Beware who you trust.)

Now, it is indicated that Sophia-Europa enters the wilderness only for a transitional time (as pointed out by Friedrich Weinreb in his excellent Roots of the Bible, “three-and-a-half” is a number used in the Bible consistently to indicate a transition, specifically through the Sabbath to the “eighth day” the Promised Land). We can trust in the spiritual world that at some point, perhaps quite gradually, it will be the right time for Sophia-Europa to return to her homeland—to leave the United States. But when she returns, it will not be to the same regions. We can think of the seven archetypal countries of Europe laid out above by Valentin Tomberg as prototypes, in a way, of the true Europe to come.

In this lecture from 1914 (and the preceding lectures in this series), Rudolf Steiner describes the relationship between the forms on the columnss of the Goetheanum and the different European cultures: https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA287/English/UNK1958/19141024p01.html. He indicates here that the second column relates to southwestern Europe (Spain/Portugal), the third column is related to France, the fourth to England, and the fifth to the Germanic countries. But he goes on to address the question: what about the northern countries, like Norway, Denmark, Sweden?

He then makes the interesting claim that the more southerly/westerly European cultures are simpler vs those of the northern/eastern nations. He points out that Norway is like England transformed by Germany; Denmark like France transformed by Germany; and Sweden like Spain/Portugal transformed by Germany. We might think of the original seven (Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, England) as all more-or-less still under the strong influence of the Roman system from the prior Greco-Roman cultural era, like cultures in-between. A new group of seven will begin to arise, centered around the Baltic Sea: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. These nations will be “in-between” in the opposite sense: they will build the bridge to the sixth cultural epoch of the Slavic-Russian peoples. They are the seven archetypal European nations transformed by the Germanic spirit—by Sophia-Europa.

In my own astrogeographical research, which will appear in As Above, So Below: Star Wisdom, vol 3 (available Nov 2020), I elaborate on the following map of stellar projections onto Europe (a larger and clearer version will be available in the article “Finding Future Grail Sites”):

We can imagine Europe like someone (perhaps Martialis, the youth of Nain?) being raised from the dead. We can imagine the regions along line A (totally horizontal) to be of particular importance during the Greco-Roman era (747 BC – 1414 AD); those along line B to be of particular significance during the Age of Pisces (215 – 2375 AD); and those along line C to be of particular importance during the European-Germanic era (1414 – 3574 AD).

Then line D is of particular significance during the Age of Aquarius, from 2375 – 4535 AD. It will be in between lines C and D—in northern Germany, Poland, Norway, and Denmark—that the “Neo-Goethean” culture will arise, as Sophia-Europa returns to her homeland, over the course of the 3rd millennium. Line E becomes of significance at the start of the Slavic-Russian era, from 3574 – 5734 AD. We can imagine this totally vertical line as the youth of Nain risen from the dead, ready to walk—heading east, through the Russian nation. Here we see that it will be in the nations between lines D and E that the “Neo-Anthroposophy” will arise—Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Sweden—in the 4th millennium, transitioning into the Slavic-Russian culture.

It is interesting that in the midst of the global panic in response to covid-19, most of the world went into severe economic depressions due to unjustified lockdowns. But there is one part of the world that seems to be doing ok, because by and large they did not engage in such extreme, hysterical measures:

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/corona-depression-southern-europe-will-never-recover

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/deep-european-recession-forecast-2020

The northeastern region of Europe—the nations surrounding the Baltic Sea—seem to have weathered this final showdown with Ahriman with their heads on their shoulders. In terms of biological, social, and economic health, these countries are going to be in much better shape than the rest of the continent, and perhaps the rest of the world. Perhaps we can see the rising of the new sun, of the New Age of the Etheric Christ, in the area around the Baltic Sea?

And so these are the regions that requires “christening” through the Footwashing ritual in order to prepare them for their future missions over the course of the next 2000 years (the Age of Aquarius), leading up to the appearance of Christ in the astral realm (the sixth sacrifice of Jesus and Christ)—just as Joseph of Arimathea prepared the southern and western regions of Europe for the Age of Pisces in preparation for this very moment in human history.

We can also consider the fact that there are three key individualities now and into the future—each of them raised from the dead by Christ. Salome, the daughter of Jairus, will be the guiding individuality for the Age of Capricorn, bridging the Slavic-Russian cultural epoch with that of the Anglo-American. We can imagine Salome to be in close relationship with the Skythianos individuality and impulse—the protector of the Atlantean mysteries of “mechanical occultism,” of working with nature forces. Lazarus will be the guiding individuality of the Age of Aquarius—he is in close relationship with the Maitreya Boddhisatva, bridging the Germanic-European culture with the Slavic-Russian through the Rosicrucian impulse. And in our time, in the Age of Pisces, it is the Youth of Nain, Martialis, who is the guiding individuality, building the bridge from the Greco-Roman to the Germanic-European culture through the Manichaean impulse.

This individuality’s incarnation stream, according to there research of Robert Powell, was 1) Mani in the 3rd century AD; 2) Parzival in the 8th-9th century AD; and Kaspar Hauser in the 19th century AD—the “Child of Europe” we spoke of earlier! Rudolf Steiner indicated that this individuality would incarnate in our time. Considering that we are approaching the threshold of the Age of Pisces, heading into the Age of Aquarius (2375), perhaps the time is at hand for this individuality to realise that which could not be achieved in the 19th century—to found a new Knighthood of the Holy Grail, not in southern Germany, but in the region of the Baltic Sea…

…(to be concluded?)

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