Seven Epistles

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Seven Epistles to the early Christian seven churches of Asia Minor, located in the then Roman province of Asia on the territory of present-day Turkey, are, according to the account of the Apocalypse of John, dictated to the Evangelist John by the Christ to encourage and admonish them. According to Rudolf Steiner, the seven churches represent the seven cultural epochs of the post-Atlantean period.

The seven Christian communities

Seven Epistles (Turkey)
Seven Epistles (Turkey)
Ephesos
Ephesos
Ephesos
Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna
Pergamon
Pergamon
Pergamon
Thyatira
Thyatira
Thyatira
Sardes
Sardes
Sardes
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Laodicea
Laodicea
Laodicea
Patmos
Patmos
Patmos
The seven Christian communities in Asia Minor

During the seven great cultural epochs of the post-Atlantean period, humanity continues to form its non-physical members. This development follows the great cosmic rhythms of the Platonic World Year. Each cultural epoch lasts about as long as it takes the sun to advance 1/12 of the zodiac, i.e. exactly one sign of the zodiac, in the course of this world year. Four cultural epochs are already behind us. At present we are in the first third of the fifth cultural epoch and two more will follow. A total of seven cultural epochs will thus follow one another before a completely new development cycle begins after a major break (the "war of all against all" in the sense of John's Apocalypse).

Communites Cultural epochs Members
Ephesus Ancient Indian culture (5067 - 2907 v. Chr.) etheric body
Smyrna Ancient Persian culture (5067 - 2907 v. Chr.) astral body
Pergamon Egyptian-Chaldean culture (2907 - 747 v. Chr.) sentient soul
Thyatira Greco-Latin culture (747 v.Chr. - 1413 n. Chr.) intellectual or mind soul
Sardes Anglo-German culture (1413 - 3573 n. Chr.) consciousness soul
Philadelphia Slavic culture (3573 - 5733 n. Chr.) spirit self
Laodicea American culture (5733 - 7893 n. Chr.) life spirit

„What develops from period to period in post-Atlantean culture, the apocalyptic imagines as expressing itself in smaller communities, and so these smaller communities, which are distributed in space on the outer earth, become for him representatives of these cultural epochs. When he speaks of the congregation or church at Ephesus, he means: I suppose that at Ephesus there lived such a community, which in a certain respect may well have adopted Christianity. But because everything develops gradually, there is always something left over from each cultural epoch. In Ephesus we have a school for initiates, but we have coloured the Christian teaching in such a way that one can still recognise the old Indian culture everywhere. - He wants to show us the first epoch in the post-Atlantean period. This first epoch in the post-Atlantean period is thus represented in the Ephesian congregation, and what is to be proclaimed is to be proclaimed in a letter to the congregation of Ephesus. We must think of it something like this: The character of that distant Indian cultural epoch remained natural, it continued in various cultural currents. In the church of Ephesus we still have something of this character. Christianity was grasped by this congregation in such a way that it was still determined by the typical character of ancient Indian culture.

So in each of these letters we have addressed a representative of one of the seven post-Atlantean cultural epochs. In each letter we say: You are like this and like that! This and that side of your being corresponds to what is in the spirit of Christianity, the other must become different. - Thus the apocalyptic says to each cultural epoch what can be retained and what is no longer true and must become different.“ (Lit.:GA 104, p. 77f)

Connection with the seven members of man

Rudolf Steiner also referred to the connection of the seven epistles with the seven members of the human being. This results in a different assignment than the one mentioned above:

„First of all, seven letters to seven churches are presented to us. If men are to find the way to that great time, they must have something to hold on to, by which they can ennoble their seven human members, so that they may be found ready when the great time comes. There are places on earth where, through religious exercises, consideration is mainly given to the formation of the physical body. In other places more consideration is given to the formation of the etheric body. In other places, more attention is paid to the formation of the astral body or the I. There will also be more and more places where special attention will be paid to the formation of the manas, or the budhi, or the atma. One would not believe in re-embodiment in the right sense if one did not say to oneself: If a man is born once in a place where chief consideration is given to the physical body, he will be born another time in a place where more consideration will be given to the other bodies, and so on.“ (Lit.:GA 104a, p. 39f)

The number relations or the sounds of the harmonies of the spheres, as the Pythagoreans had already studied them, also play an essential role.

„In the old Pythagorean schools, numbers played a major role. Let us remember that in the Devachan world, as elsewhere, everything is ordered according to measure and number. What would it mean to seek the laws of nature if they were not there? We weigh and measure the bodies of the world as we do with substances in miniature. We must put this fact together with another fact. We think of this space as filled with the sound formations of a high musical composition, for example, the tones of the Good Friday Charm. This is the soul's higher form for what the physicist would express to us in the numbers of air vibrations. Our souls are flooded with the spirit of these vibrations in music. Now think of the numbers heard by the ear of the spirit, then we have the music of the spheres. If a physicist were to record the vibrations of the air in numbers, he would no more record the Good Friday Charm for us than the mathematician would record the Pythagorean ideas in measure and number. In numbers only the harmonies were expressed. When the Pythagorean wants to express the four members of the human being, they sound together in the ratio of 1:3:7:12. This means that sound in which the four numbers sound together like the four parts of the human being. The 3 tones: I - tone from the Sun, II - tone from the Moon, III - tone from the Earth itself - sound into the astral body [...].

What emanates from the Earth, the Sun and the Moon sounds together in our astral body. But what goes out from the seven planets sounds into our etheric body. There is a sevenfold influence from the planets on the etheric body, as from the seven tones: prime, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh - Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. These seven planets sound into our etheric body. Twelve influences, emanating from the signs of the zodiac, sound into the physical body. The seer experiences twelve fundamental tones on the Devachan plan. They influence our physical body. Everything that is in the I, in the astral body, etheric body and in the physical body sounds in tones.“ (Lit.:GA 104a, p. 40f)

Communities Members Numbers
Ephesus physical body 12
Smyrna etheric body 7
Pergamon astral body 3
Thyatira I 1
Sardes spirit self
Philadelphia life spirit
Laodicea spirit man

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
Seven Christian Communities in Asia Minor

Ephesus | Smyrna | Pergamon | Thyatira | Sardes | Philadelphia | Laodicea

 
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