Cherubim

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The four evangelist symbols bull , lion, eagle and man united to form a tetramorph represent the four leading cherubim (Fresco, Meteora, 16th century)

The Cherubim (Hebrew: כְּרוּב cherub; plural כרובים, cherubim "fullness of knowledge", "outpouring of wisdom"[1], also called Spirits of Harmonies, are exalted spiritual beings who, like all beings of the first hierarchy, have the direct sight of the Godhead and directly execute its will. They are at the same time the actual zodiacal beings. They are usually depicted as four-winged animal beings. This distinguishes them from the Seraphim, who are depicted with a human body.

The four leading Cherubim are also depicted as tetramorphs with three animal heads (bull, lion, eagle) and a human face, comparable to the Sphinx. Their dominion extends far beyond the borders of our solar system and together with the Thrones and Seraphim they belong to that region whose outward expression is the zodiac. The Cherubim have the mission of expanding in wisdom the developmental goals of a planetary system, which they receive from the Deity. This is a completely supra-personal wisdom, which they gather in the millions of years of the becoming of the world and then radiate in sublime power.

The Nature of the Cherubim

„We gain at most a comparison for the qualities of those beings to which we then ascend as the beings of the second category of the first Hierarchy, we gain a possibility of characterising them if we so rightly allow to work upon our minds that to which serious, worthy people have attained who have used many steps of their lives to accumulate wisdom in themselves, who after many years of rich experience have accumulated so much wisdom that we say to ourselves: When such people pronounce a judgement, it is not a personal will that speaks to us, but the life that has accumulated in these people through years, through decades, and through which they have become impersonal in a certain way, speaks to us. People who make such an impression on us that their wisdom seems impersonal, that their wisdom appears like the blossom and fruit of a mature life, evoke in us a feeling, even if only a foreboding one, of what affects us from our mental, from our spiritual surroundings, when we move up to this level of clairvoyance of which we must now speak. In occidental esotericism this category is called the Cherubim.“ (Lit.:GA 136, p. 80)

„Such wisdom, which is not gathered in decades, like the wisdom of outstanding men, but such wisdom, which is gathered in millennia, in millions of years of the becoming of the world, flows towards us in sublime power from the beings which we call Cherubim.“ (S. 81)

The Cherubim as Creators of Eternity

As Rudolf Steiner described in detail in his lectures on "The Evolution from the Viewpoint of Truth", the Cherubim are also the actual creators of eternity. After the Thrones had sacrificed a part of their being on the Old Saturn and the Cherubim had accepted this sacrifice, the heat substance and at the same time also the essential time in the form of the Archai had come into being

„132“ (Lit.:GA 9ff)

. However, the whole world was thereby also torn into transience, into temporality. Then a part of the Cherubim developed the spiritual virtue of creative resignation and renounced accepting the sacrifice of the will of the Thrones. Thereby they snatched themselves from temporality and founded the region of duration, eternity. Beginnings of this renunciation can already be found on the Old Saturn, but it only becomes clearly noticeable in the transition from the Old Sun to the Old Moon. Another consequence of this resignation, however, was that the rejected sacrificial substance of the Thrones was grasped by the adversary powers, which finally led to the Fight in Heaven, in which the primordial mystery of evil is founded (Lit.:GA 132, p. 41ff).

The Cherubim as Zodiacal Beings

The Cherubim were significantly involved in the formation of the first beginnig of the animal kingdom on the Old Sun. First of all, during the evolution of the Old Sun, the air element came into being through the giving virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom. At the same time, the Archangels emerged, who passed through their humanity stage on the Old Sun, i.e. developed their I. They received what the spirits had given them. They received what the Spirits of Wisdom gave away from their being, but they did not simply keep it for themselves, they radiated it back as an image, but not immediately, but with a time delay at a later point in time - and thus the light came into being. The light is the wisdom of the Kyriotetes radiated back by the Archangeloi with a time delay (Lit.: GA 132, p. 33). At the same time, space came into being, although not yet in the three dimensions we are accustomed to, but two-dimensionally as "inner" and "outer", in that the inner being of the Kyriotetes was radiated back to them from outside.

„This produces something very special, which you can only imagine correctly if you think of the image of an internally closed sphere, where something is radiated from the centre, which is given; this radiates to the periphery and from there radiates back to the centre. On the surface, inside the sphere, are the Archangels, who radiate it back. You don't need to imagine anything on the outside. - So we have to think of what comes from the Spirits of Wisdom starting from a centre: it is radiated out on all sides, is caught by the Archangels and radiated back. What is that which radiates back into space, this radiated gift of the Spirits of Wisdom? What is the wisdom radiated back into itself? - That is the light. And thus the Archangels are at the same time the creators of light.“ (Lit.:GA 132, p. 33)

Now, as the Archangels strove towards the cosmic circumference in order to reflect their wisdom being back to the Kyriotetes as light, the Cherubim came to meet them from the zodiacal region.

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.

References

  1. ↑ Dionysius Areopagita: Himmlische Hierarchie. Aus dem Griechischen übersetzt von Josef Stiglmayr. (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, 1. Reihe, Band 2) München 1911, S. 32)
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